A busy few days

The past few days have been quite busy as we have been catching up on shopping (not crafty stuff sadly!), cleaning, washing, unpacking and general organising. Alex also had the trauma of his 16 week injections yesterday...he was an absolute star and only cried a bit (Tim took him in as I hate it so much). We also got him weighed and he has put on a pound since he was last weighed...he now weighs 14lb8oz and although he has slipped below the 50th percentile the health visitor is very pleased with his progress. He has been entertaining us hugely with his giggles which come more frequently now and he has also learnt the new trick of blowing bubbles and very dribbly raspberry noises often accompanied by a sort of humming. We went on a walk by the river this morning (at Forge Dam where Tim and I had delicious icecreams) and he blew wet dribbly raspberries most of the way round. This afternoon he almost managed to roll himself over for the first time...he is practising this trick as I type! He is almost able to roll from his back to his front and I don't think it will be long before this becomes a regular part of his repertoire.

I also received some fun toys in the form of some new stamps from the Stamp Away range from http://www.clevercuts.co.uk/. These are unmounted stamps that you use on acrylic blocks and are excellent value for money. One of the stamps was a country scene with a river/stream and trees. I have attempted to use this stamp twice. The first attempt was using the Whispers brush pens directly onto the stamp and then stamping the image on paper and slightly smudging the image using the blender pen. The second one was using StazOn black ink and the colouring in the image with the brush pens. I have to say that I do like both these effects and will probably use them both for different things.

This ATC was made using two stamps from the Stamp Away range, the lion and the fern. I am really pleased with this effect as I stamped the lion first and then covered it up with another copy of it, then stamped the ferns over the top and peeled away the rough lion to reveal the one underneith which I then coloured in.

Isn't it great when you receive nice things through the post? I have received three ATCs in the past few days. This first one is from Joanne Browne (Bubbles) and is a really sweet present.

This second one was from Kerry Knowles (Angelswings_2) and is entitled 'Meow?' I love cats so this is really appropriate and I like the use of the little bells.

The third and final one was a real surprise as it was not in response to a swap but an act of kindness from Barbara Williams. I had been asking about the paperartsy range of stamps so she made me this ATC to show how effective they can be. I just love it. She also kindly told me how she generated the effect and I know that I just NEED(!) to invest in some more crafting things. Isn't it great to have an excuse!

Love,
Caro

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