Gentle fun!

We have had a lovely few days at home as a family, enjoying the holiday season with all of us in the house together.  Alex has been great fun inventing loads of great games to play...we have played castles and monsters (no surprises there as these were his Christmas presents), golf (with a brush and ball), cleaning (with a jay cloth stuffed into a cardboard tube as a mop), camping (sheet over the old play pen), shopping and cooking (with his new shopping basket and play food), robots, cars and many others.  It has been wonderful to get him really playing and not watching too much television (one of the dangers of being at home all day).

In the afternoons we have been to various parks, although he gets cold quite easily, and yesterday I took him shopping on the tram to buy some new slippers and socks. There was a Merry-go-round in front of the City Hall so we had a lovely ride on that as well.

I have also had time to do some crafting, making a couple of much needed thank you cards, a birthday card and a scrapbook layout.  This thank you card used my new stamps and K&Co papers.  I coloured the images in with distress inks and put the two larger birds onto foam pads.  The layout follows this weeks Unscripted sketch and the card fits with the flourishes theme of pearls.

The next thank you card used a brayered background and a crafty individuals stamp and I am entering it for the theme of thank you from Phindy's place.  All the cards in this post also fit with the theme of using stamps (not digi) from City Crafter Challenge.

This final card follows sketch #155 from CPS and the creative card crew theme of Birthdays, and SSS theme of celebrate.  I used some tree stamps from crafty Individuals (a birthday present), the birthday sentiment from penny black and the bird from Hero Arts (a Christmas present).  This also fits with the Crazy Challenge of 'punch it' and with the lots to do 'favourite card' as this is my current favourite card.  I always struggle with cards for men and this is for my father in law who loves bird watching.  I tried to keep it nice and masculine with the colour scheme and would love to know what you think.

Finally I have made a scrapbook layout following a sketch from a site that is new to me called the Scrappiest Sketch.  This layout features myself and a colleague from work and our two children bouncing around on her trampoline.  It was  fun afternoon and one to capture despite the rather strange photo of me!

That is all from me for now other than to wish you all a very Happy New Year.  We are off to celebrate New Years Day with family tomorrow.  Have a wonderful time and stay safe.
Love,
Caro
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