Caro - crafts and life

Preparations!

2012-02-01T08:38:00.000Z

We are going down to Somerset this weekend to celebrate my parents Ruby Wedding anniversary so Alex and I have been preparing for it by making cards for them. This is Alex's Anniversary card featuring Grandad (on the left) and Grandma (on the right) inside a heart and surrounded by hearts and kisses. He even wrote a message inside for them. His writing is really improving when he concentrates on it.

As it is Wednesday here is my desk as of yesterday early evening for WOYWW. I was working from home yesterday so my desk had to be cleared for that, although it doesn't look like it in this picture. The pile on the lefthand side, hidden under the craft mat, is my work ready to be packed away. As usual you can see my lovely large mug of tea, the card I am working on (see below for the finished version), some stamps that need putting away, my fried brick distress ink, some random pieces of ribbon and some die cuts ready to use on the card.

Here is the finished card which loosely follows the PTW sketch. I used an image of my parents from their wedding day printed on card and then mounted it on red card. The main card was red, with a layer of white card with Crafty Individuals corner stamps in fried brick distress ink and highlighted with red gems. On top of that there are two doilies (recycled from a Christmas party!), some ribbon (from a chocolate box) and then embellished with gold die cut hearts, a red prima flower and a pearl. I am entering this card into CCC 'recycle', Pollycraft 'favourite things' (gems & my parents!), The Crazy challenge 'flowers', All sorts 'one of more hearts', Crazy4challenges 'lots and lots of layers and embellishments' and Speedy Fox and friends 'at least 4 layers'. That is all from me for now. I wont be blogging again until Monday after all the celebrations. Have a great rest of the week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Weekend at home!

2012-01-29T18:00:00.003Z

As we were in Coventry last weekend, and we are away next weekend, we thought it would be nice to have a gentle weekend at home! Yesterday, as well as the usual round of cleaning, tidying, washing, shopping etc, Alex and I went to the park where he practiced riding his bike. The good thing about this was that I was running along side him so it helped to keep me fit as well! Today we went to church in the morning, where Alex was learning about God's gifts, which lead to a few challenging questions including 'If God heals people why hasn't He healed Daddy?' Rather a hard question to answer really, especially in a way that a 4 year old can understand. This afternoon Alex and I went swimming where we played games of 'Mummy Monster' with me chasing him across the pool...all good fun!

Crafting wise it is time for another Quirky Crafts challenge. This week we have two sponsors, so double prizes up for grabs! The challenge this time is to 'Create a scene' i.e. use two or more different stamps/elements to build up a scene on your card/artwork. I was given some digital stamps from Limited Runs to work with for this (Tree 1, mushroom house, Mouse and big cupcake, Cuddles, Butterfly 3, dragonfly 1 and Little bird) and created a picture for Alex. I didn't use any fancy art packages, but cut the images out by hand...a real labour of love for me as I hate cutting things out! To finish the picture I added glitter glue on the cake, the butterfly and dragonfly wings and a seed bead on top of the cake! I am also entering this picture into Ooh La La 'same image twice' (2 birds), crafty cardmakers 'beads', Gingersnap 'glorious greens' (the greens in the tree, grass, dragonfly and flowers predominate in this composition), and SSDS 'Anything goes'.

I also had time to make this card following the sketch for this weeks Less Is More challenge. I printed the words first and then built up the card using free Kate Knight paper, some ribbon and an embossed cuttlebug butterfly to which I added glitter glue and pearls. Therefore, I am also entering this into SCSC 'ribbons', Stampin for the weekend 'embossing', Do You Stack Up 'ribbons', CCT 'you are a gem' (I hope pearls count!).
That is all for now from me. I hope you all have a great week.
Love,
Caro
x

Brain boggled!

2012-01-27T18:41:00.000Z

I spent today trying to sort out far too many data sheets and merge them into one master document, whilst checking the accuracy of the information, so needless to say I am completely brain boggled! I have had a lovely gentle evening so far watching Scooby Doo and Tom & Jerry with Alex and then settled down to a bit of crafting. This card was made for a friend of mine who loves butterflies so it should hopefully do the trick! I made it using a cuttlebug edging embossing folder,a free butterfly stamp from Crafty Stampers magazine, and inkadinkado spotty swirls stamp. I stamped in faded jeans distressed inks and added blue gems to the butterfly and swirls. I am entering this card into Stampavie 'blue and white', Flutterby Wednesday 'embossing', Simon says stamp 'Anything goes', CCT 'Gems', Fussy & Fancy 'dots' and Stamping for the weekend 'embossing'. That is all from me for now. Have a great weekend everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Pink and girly!

2012-01-25T08:34:00.002Z

Well for a change my desk has pink and girly things on it! I am sharing the contents of my desk as part of Julia's WOYWW, which gives us a chance to be nosey into each others crafting space. On my desk you can see my trusty mug of tea (lovely and warm), some pink and green patterned paper from the Nana Kids range (Dovecraft, I think!), a cupcake image cut out with a nestability and coloured in with promarkers and the glitz it glues you can see at the back of the desk. You can also see a fine pen, tweezers, scissors, craft knife, ruler and craft mat.

Here is the finished card which is for a little girl who turns 5 next week. I followed the CCCB sketch for this, and am entering it into Crafty Cardmakers 'beads' (the little pink beads are on the icing of the cupcake), The crazy challenge 'Tic, Tac, Toe' (pink, image, die cut), PTW 'happy highlights' (there are glittery highlights in both papers used and on the cupcake icing), colour create 'pink & green', Paperplay 'ribbon', Crazy4challenges 'child's birthday card', and Speedy Fox and friends 'Happy Birthday' challenges. That is all from me for now. Have a great rest of the week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Day trip to Coventry!

2012-01-22T18:06:00.002Z

We have had a lovely weekend! Yesterday was the usual round of shopping, washing, cleaning etc and then a trip out to the largest indoor play area I have ever been to, which was great fun! Today we went to Coventry to see one of my best friends and her family. The kids had a great time dressing up, playing Gormiti monsters and then had a great trip to the park, whilst Jules and I put the world to rights! It was a great day.

As a result I haven't had a lot of time for crafting this weekend, but did manage to join in with the Less is More challenge in the little amount of time I had yesterday. The challenge was to have some sort of aperture on your card, so I cut out the heart shapes by hand (as I don't have a punch or die cut of the right size) and then coloured inside the card using distress ink (fired brick) and stamped the Crafty individuals music stamp over the top and finally added the red gems. I had to hold the card shut to photograph it, as it didn't photograph well otherwise! As red is the only colour on this card I am entering it into Creative Card Crew 'seeing red', CCCB 'pretty inside and out' (most of the stamping is on the inside), Delightful challenge 'distressed/vintage' and Crafty Creations 'Valentine'. That is all from me for now. Have a great week everyone.
Love
Caro
x

Stickman goes Golden!

2012-01-20T19:01:00.000Z

Alex went to school as Stickman today for his school Book Day. We even put face paint on him for the first time! Not only has he been good all week, but he also got the Golden Certificate for the first time ever, so I am a very proud Mummy. The golden certificate is given to the child in each class who has worked hardest in that week, so for my little boy this is a major achievement.

As I had a rare evening out last night, I have done very little crafting except making this card, which is for my nephew's Birthday next week. I followed the sketch from Simon says stamp, used three different papers from the Nana's kids pack, with the digi image 'Presley the Pirate' from Digital Delights by Louby Lou (coloured in with promarkers) and numerous stickers to finish it off. This card therefore fits with Cards for men 'Boys and their toys', Ginger snap 'use your favourite papers' (these are my favourites for kids cards), CCT 'Music and/or dance', DYSU 'patterned paper', Pixie Dust 'dots', and Sew Many Cards 'Anything goes'. That's all from me for now. Have a great weekend.

Love,
Caro
x

WOYWW

2012-01-18T08:29:00.000Z

Well it is Wednesday, so its time for Whats on Your Workdesk Wednesday (WOYWW). As I am at work every Wednesday my photos are invariably taken on a Tuesday, but I assure you that things haven't changed much since this photo was taken! My desk has slightly unusual things on it for me...namely my rather chaotic sewing kit! I hate sewing with a passion...somehow I always seem to get the thread tangled, prick my fingers and get generally fed up with the whole thing...so the project on my desk is a bit of a labour of love. Alex has to go to school on Friday dressed up as a character from his favourite book, and he chose 'Stickman'. I have to say I was actually quite relieved...a brown pair of trousers, a brownish top with wood grain drawn on it and three green felt leaves sewn on, and a brown hat with woodgrain and leaves, and the costume is complete. I will post a picture of him wearing it on Friday!

Last week I promised you photos of my finished printers tray, so here is the final product - I just need to hang it on the wall now. If you want to see close ups of the various compartments then please click here.

Crafting wise, apart from making Stickman, I made this card for a friend who is currently having a tough time. I inked the background first in distress inks (mustard seed, spiced marmalade and fried brick), then stamped the Crafty Individuals stamp over the top and coloured the birds and borders with promarkers. I finished it off with the Crafty Individuals sentiment. I am entering this into less is more 'birds; one layer', Let's Ink it up 'Anything goes', Stampin for the weekend 'out with the old' (nothing on this card is less than 12 months old) and Stamp scrap and Doodles 'winter birds' (for me birds lining up on a branch against the sunset is a winter scene).

I also made a scrapbook layout following this weeks Pencil lines sketch featuring photos from my 10th Wedding anniversary. I have had the background paper from My Minds Eye for about 3 years, but never had the courage to use it before. I used a provocraft die to cut out the various hearts on the page, my Martha Stewart lace border punch, a doily, some lace, some paper roses, a letraset rub on (celebration), and Doodlebug Designs Alphabet stickers. This layout also fits with Simon says stamp & show 'Anything but a card', Flourishes Timeless Tuesday 'Anything but a card', MTTC 'your favourite embellishment' (paper flowers), Pixie Dust 'hearts' and Speedy Fox & friend's 'border punch'. That is all from me for now. Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Fun & Busy weekend!

2012-01-15T17:47:00.001Z

We have had a busy but fun weekend with a combination of washing, tidying, cleaning, doing the weekly shop and going to an indoor play area with friends yesterday, followed by church and a trip to a friends house today. So much fun, especially when we all (adults included) had a go on scooters in the near dark!

I have also had time for some crafting this weekend. It was my turn to set the challenge over at Quirky crafts this week, and I chose 'Silhouette' as the challenge, because at this time of year I always see such stunning silhouettes against the sunrise on my way to work. We have Stitchy Bear stamps as our sponsor this week and so the next two cards used their digital stamps. In order to create them both, I inked the backgrounds before putting the card through the printer, which meant a lot of careful measuring, especially in this first one, as the whole card is one layer. To finish this off, I just added hologram glitter glue to the wings. I am also entering this card into CCCB 'back to black', Flutterby Wednesday 'bright colours' MTTC 'Hugs & Kisses' challenge as I made this card for a friend who is going through a tough time and needs some love.

The second card was made by layering up onto black, brown and then finally blue card. I finished it off with some textured, non shiney ribbon, some real shells and a shrink plastic shell. This card followed The Pixie Cottage sketch for this week and I am entering it into Crafty cardmakers 'no floral embellishments', Gingersnap Creations GC134 'ribbon' and SCSC 'Anything goes with blue' challenges.

Finally I made a simple card for this weeks Less is More challenge, which is 'birds'. I actually have a lot of bird stamps I discovered, but thought I would use this one which is new and part of a 7Gypsies set (Conservatory). I have to confess I was a little disappointed with the stamp as the image showed more definition than the stamp gave me. The background was made by colouring with a Whispers pen in a nestability die! I am also entering this into the DYSU 'Pink' challenge. That is all from me. I hope you have a good week.
Love,
Caro
x

Finished Printers Tray!

2012-01-13T19:20:00.006Z

Well I have done it! I have completed my first ever printers tray, which was a Christmas present from my parents-in-law. I decorated it using a mixture of old papers (K&Co) and a new 7Gypsies paper pad (Conservatory), the pressed flower is old (I pressed it myself about 4 years ago), as are the number plaques (been sitting in my stash for about 7 years), the two fish images came from a book I rescued from the charity shop bin (it was too badly damaged for them to sell), the shells and stones I found on various beaches over the years, most of the charms were new (Tim Holtz & random beading sites), but the smallest bird was an old one, as were the flowers, and I picked the feather up from the road about a week ago! I used a few stamps on this layout as well, all old ones I have had for years from Hero Arts, Crafty individuals and an unknown wave stamp (about 15 years old). So there you have it, a mixture of recycling, using natural objects I have found over the years, using old scraps and new stash.

Here is a close up of the top left of the tray complete with pressed flower, decoupaged eggs, a real feather, and charms.

This is the top & centre with the main title panel.

This is the top right with charms, flowers and decoupaged butterflies

This is the bottom right with shells, real sand in the bottles, an interesting stone from the beach and a fish charm.

And finally the bottom left with shells, and recycled images from a book.
I am entering this project into CFM 'recycling', CCC 'something new', OLL 'New beginnings' (well eggs are new beginnings aren't they?!), Pollycraft 'Anything but a card', Crafty Creations 'Something New', Freshly Brewed monthly challenge 'Use something new', Penny's challenge 'Birds', Delicious Doodles 'All things new', and Stampin for the weekend 'Out with the old' (well I used a mixture of new and old, but all of it was given to me last year or before so I hope it counts!). That's all from me for now. I hope you all have a very happy weekend.
Love,
Caro
x

Crisis averted!

2012-01-11T10:00:00.001Z

I am running late with this as we had a family crisis last night: Alex's favourite teddy was missing i.e the one he needs to go to sleep with. I turned the house upside down trying to find this bear, which I KNEW had not left the house. An hour and a half later, when we were all beginning to despair and Alex was in tears, I finally found him. Where? In my crafting bin under my desk in the study, hidden under various sheets of paper. He must have been dropped in by accident when Alex and I were crafting yesterday morning. What a nightmare! One traumatised small boy needed a lot of cuddles and comforting after that, but at least the crisis did come to a happy end. Anyhow, here is my desk as my contribution to the great desk blog hop that is WOYWW. As you can see I am still working on my printers tray which dominates my desk. My craft mat is half hidden underneith it, you can see some new charms which I bought to complete the project, my lovely hot mug of tea at the back of the desk, along with the paper pad I have mostly used on this project.

Compared to last week, every compartment now has something in it...I am now in the process of starting to stick things down which is where it gets exciting. I promise I will show you the complete version next week.

Other crafting projects this week have been scrapbook pages...I am simply MILES behind and really need to catch up. This first page followed this weeks Creative Scrappers sketch and the Lasting Memories challenge of doing something about me! When I was a teenager, I did a few modelling gigs and so when my father-in-law gave me his leather jacket, Tim decided I should strike an 80s style pose across the car and pretend I was modelling again, hence this photo and subsequent layout. All very silly, but good fun! I am entering this into The Crazy challenge 'Lace or pearls' challenge as I used a lace punch for one of the borders on this.

The other layout that I made followed this weeks Pencil Lines sketch, which I adapted into this gorgeous Fancy Pants patterned paper by drawing the frames around the patterns. Instead of the triangles shown in the sketch I added little tags, and peel off orange stars to go with the patterned paper. I was quite pleased with how this turned out. I am also entering this into Pollycraft's 'anything but a card' and Simon says stamp 'spots or stripes' challenges. That is all from me for now. Have a great rest of the week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Tired weekend!

2012-01-08T17:28:00.000Z

I know this week was only a 4 day week for us all, but it seems to have left us exhausted. Alex is extremely tired as a result of another bad cough, and I haven't been sleeping at all well, so we decided to have a very gentle weekend. Yesterday we went out to friends in the afternoon,which Alex loved, but we spent today playing at home, mostly with the quarry set and lego.

He is getting better at building lego and with some help on how to interpret the instructions, built his first model by himself; this little speedboat. We went out to the park this afternoon and got completely blown to bits!

As a result of the gentle weekend, I have had time to craft including this very purple card for the Less is More 'mostly purple' challenge....I have to say, my heart sank when I read this challenge as I am NOT a purple girl! However, I did not want to wimp out so here is my attempt... a card for a friend who has recently lost her Mum. The card was made using purple co-redinations card, purple distress ink for the panel, imperial purple and olympia green versafine ink on the Penny Black iris stamp, and the sentiment was printed using word. I am also entering this into The Pixie Cottage 'monochrome', Flutterby Wednesday 'open' and Pixie Dust 'monochrome' challenges.

I am determined to catch up a bit with my scrapbooking and so made this layout of my extremely cute nephew following this weeks Sketchy Thursday sketch. This layout mostly used scraps of various papers (sorry i don't know which ones), my new buttons, new prima flowers and new little monster. I am therefore entering this into Crazy4challenges, Delicious Doodles, CCT, Simon says stamp, and Fresh Brewed 'use something new' challenges.

Finally I made another layout using entirely scraps of papers (Dovecraft and Doodlebug I think!) and so am entering this into Aud Sentiments 'use scraps' challenge. That is all from me for now. I hope that you all have a nice week ahead.
Love,
Caro
x

Little Rock Star!

2012-01-03T19:28:00.000Z

Bank holiday Monday was great fun as Alex treated me to a rock concert! He has the attitude, the loud raucous singing, the mad bouncing, crazy hair and silly words down pat. I only wish I had managed to record his made up song; it was simply hillarious and had me almost helpless with laughter. A wonderful end to what has been a fantastic holiday; it was very hard to go back to work yesterday.

This photo of my desk, full of my new goodies, was taken last night for my entry to WOYWW. I failed last week to join in as I was away in Somerset spending time with my family (see my previous post for Christmas photos), but as I am back now I will join in again! I was given this printers tray for Christmas and as you can see I am part way through planning the contents I will add to turn it into a wall hanging for our study. Also on my desk are various patterned papers for use in the printers tray, craft knife, cutting mat and metal ruler for cutting the papers exactly to size to fit in the box.

This close up shows exactly how far I have got with the project; some boxes are nearly completed with all their contents whereas others are still empty and awaiting time and inspiration. Nothing has been stuck down yet as I don't dare until I am convinced that the whole thing will work together but you get the idea. It is mostly based on my new 7gygpsies papers and Tim Holtz bits and pieces, combined with sea shells and feathers I have collected over the years.

This detailed picture shows 4 of the little compartments; the main 'title' compartment and three others, showing that the theme is nature. In the end it will contain images of sea shells, fish, birds, butterflies, dragonflies, flowers, eggs and anything else that inspires me. It is taking ages, but I am having great fun doing it.

I also made this card for my father-in-law as he loves birds. I used my new 7gypsies papers combined with old K&Co scraps I have had for years (left over from scrapbook projects), and recycled ribbon from a cracker (2 actually, joined under the image) to make this clean and simple card following this weeks CPS sketch. This cards therefore fits with SSSS 'something old & something new', cards for men 'recycling', Kaboodle Doodles 'Let's celebrate', PTW 'anything goes', and Simon says stamp 'new something' (I used new stash!). That is all from me. Wishing you all a very Happy New Year.
Love,
Caro
x

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T18:22:00.002Z

I hope that 2012 brings you all that you wish for. Pull up and chair and make yourself a cup of tea as I am going to take a brief step back and re-cap on Christmas which was wonderful. We spent Christmas Day with my in-laws starting with nibbles in the sitting room at 11ish

followed by a walk through the woods

including lots of mud

then Christmas lunch including crackers (lots of silly cheeky faces were pulled by all)

and finally presents.

Needless to say Alex was very happy and excited by everything,

especially as on Boxing Day we had a little Christmas celebration with just the three of us and he got another present!

Our walk to the park in the afternoon was accompanied by very dodgy monster truck driving and a lot of laughter.

Then on 27th it was down to my parents in Somerset for another family celebration with more presents,

including the extremely successful Dagedar set

extremely yummy food

treasure hunts in the garden

rides on Grandad's tractor and visits from old family friends; Perfect! We arrived back home yesterday, tired but having had a wonderful time. Tim and I celebrated New Years Eve very quietly with a nice home cooked meal and a movie followed by watching the fireworks on the television at midnight. London did us proud!

As you can imagine with being away so much comparatively little has been achieved in terms of crafting but I did make my DT entry for Quirky Crafts this week. We were given images from Bugaboo to use on a theme of Food Glorious food, so I decided to make a series of three ATCs. I coloured the images in using promarkers, cut round them with scissors, and mounted them on the Dovecraft card background to which I added a distressed ink edging (blue and pink). The sentiments are also from Bugaboo and I added gems where appropriate. I am also entering this into Pollycraft 'punch it' (circle punches), CCCB 'cutting', Pile it on 'Bling it up' and Stampavie 'hearts'.

I am miles behind with my scrapbooking so one of my New Year resolutions is to catch up and to scrap a little more regularly. So I am starting as I mean to go on! This layout is based on this weeks Sketchy Thursday sketch and uses mostly Tim Holtz papers and images. The butterfly stamps are from 7gypsies. This layout also fits with Stampin' for the weekend 'Anything goes', Delicious Doodles 'anything goes', Simon says stamp 'anything goes' and SCSC 'Anything goes'.

Finally I made a quick thank you card, which I am entering into Less is More 'one word' challenge, using 7Gypsies papers, distress inks and a Penny Black stamp. That is all from me for now. Wishing you all a very Happy and prosperous 2012, filled with love, laughter, health and happiness.
Love,
Caro
x

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T17:31:00.000Z

Merry Christmas to all of you! I hope you have a wonderful time with family and loved ones. The presents are all wrapped, the food is just about squeezed into the fridge and I had a happy time yesterday spent making fudge while listening to Christmas carols. Today we have had a gentle family time at home which ended with the Christmas carol service and Alex dressed as a king. The service was great fun with all the kids joining in with a nativity that involved 10 Mary's, 3 Josephs, 2 donkeys, lots of Shepherds, angels and kings, 3 baby Jesus dolls, 3 wrapped presents and one snow globe...Alex decided that he wanted to give baby Jesus his snow globe! It was a lovely family service followed by mince pies and mulled wine. The perfect start to Christmas.

I even had time to do a little crafting which was nice. I had a 60th birthday card to make so that was the first thing I did. I don't know the man very well so I kept the card fairly generic and it gave me an excuse to use this lovely old car stamp (Xela stamps). I used distress inks, brads and layering to create the effect. I am entering this into Delicious Doodles 'Anything goes', stampin for the weekend 'Anything goes', and SCSC 'Anything goes' challenges.

The next card was made to fit with Less is More 'one word only' theme; the word in my case being 'Thanks'. I liked the design of my last LIM card so much that I decided to adapt it for a flower and add the word and three gems to it. The stamps are Penny Black and Crafty Individuals. I am also entering this into TioT 'Anything goes', Crafty Creations 'Thank you card', and Aud Sentiments 'Anything goes' challenges.

Finally I made a Tim Holtz inspired Tag for Christmas. This is based on his tag number 10, but I didn't have any of the official things that he used. My version was made by distress inking the tag in Tea dye, then stamping Stamps Away music in Vintage photo distress ink. I then used vintage photo all round the edge. I then stamped the pine branch from Just Rite stampers and heat embossed it in green. I had been given some Tim Holtz fragments by Anne, so used those on some Crafty Individuals santa images, then added red embroidery thread to the back and joined them to the brads at the top. The banner was made by cutting out a piece of paper by hand, gold embossing bits of it, then folding it. The letters were black peel offs which I then added gold ink to. Finally I finished it off with two pearl beads and some Christmassy looking ribbon. I was quite pleased with how this turned out considering I had very little of the official Tim Holtz things to work with. I am entering this into Simon Says stamp & show 'A Tim Holtz inspired tag', Simon says stamp 'Bingo: Ribbon, No DP, Brads', Paperplay 'Christmas' and Speedy the cat's friends 'Anything goes'. That is all from me for now. We are off to my in-laws for Christmas day tomorrow, so stay safe everyone, Have a wonderful time.
With love & God Bless,
Caro
x

Its the Wednesday before Christmas...

2011-12-20T19:29:00.002Z

...and all through the house parcels are appearing and excitement is increasing! It is time for WOYWW and on my desk you can see the all important mug of tea which is keeping me going while I make the lsat minute tags for the presents I still have to wrap. The tags are being made by using a small square cuttlebug embossing folder as the outline, and then a free stamp coloured with promarkers for the centre, hence the open drawer of promarkers with those in use on the desk.At the back of the desk, almost hiding behind the mug are the completed tags, with my craft mat and green and red card underneith on the left, all of which are under my Christmas stamp box.

Here are the 6 most recent completed tags which are basically 2x2 inch cards that get attached to presents with double sided tape. The two tree tags are being entered into Kaboodle Doodles 'Christmas tree' challenge, the holly tags are being entered into Cupcake inspirations challenge, and the Christmas puddings are being entered into One Stop Craft 'Christmas sparkle' challenge. They are all also being entered into TioT 'Anything goes' challenge.

I also had a few last minute Christmas cards to make for work colleagues. This santa one is being entered into Crazy4challenges 'santa', Speedy the cat's friends 'Christmas card', PTW 'Christmas card' and Pile it on 'bling' challenges.

This one used JustRite stamps and a cuttlebug embossing folder and is being entered into PaperPlay 'Christmas' challenge.

This one also used JustRite stamps with two different distress inks, as well as the embossing folder and I am entering it into the card Makin Mama's 'Christmas' challenge.
That is all from me for now. I hope all your preparations go smoothly and you have a great rest of the week.
Love,
Caro
x

Santa is here!

2011-12-18T18:31:00.001Z

We have had a gentle weekend as most of us are nursing fluey like colds and feeling generally under the weather. Alex is exhausted having finished his first term at school and so we have had a few little treats, including going to see Santa in the museum. Alex loves seeing Santa and drew him a little picture and had a lovely natter with him before being given a present. He was particularly fascinated with Santas beard and stroked it, much to Santa's amusement!

Today I had a visit from one of my best friends, although sadly due to car troubles she couldn't bring the kids with her. It was lovely to sit and have a good chat and catch up. I do miss her since she moved away. This afternoon as the sun was shining brightly, Alex and I headed out to the park to play only to discover that the ground was covered in ice making for an interesting experience. The ducks were happy to see us though, and the giggles from the swing and see-saw made the precariousness of the trip worth it.

Crafting wise it is time for another challenge at Quirky Crafts. It was Cazzy's turn to set the challenge and she chose Steampunk Christmas. I love Steampunk, but hadn't thought of combining it with Christmas! I decided to alter a CD into a Christmas decoration. Our sponsor this week is Stitchy Bear stamps and they provided me with the Steampunk corner (I gold embossed parts and added gems for that extra Christmas sparkle) and the Robin, which I coloured in with promarkers, and added gold highlights (with a sparkly gold pen), a gold cog using embossing powder, a key and a top hat. I made the background using distress inks and stamped music and cogs on it.To finish the look off I heat embossed two cogs in green, hand drew some chain links and added gems to make them look like steampunk Christmas baubles and then gold embossed around the edge. I am also entering this into Ooh La La 'Anything but a card', MTTC 'Vintage Christmas', Paperplay 'Christmas' and Delicious Doodles 'X-travagent X-mas'.

I also had to make an emergency entry to this weeks Quirky crafts as one of the images we were given to use hadn't been used; the very cute 3 Christmas trees. However, it was a challenge to make them 'steampunk' so I added clear embossed cogs in the background, the steampunk style writing for 'Christmas' adn then added lots of glitter and silver to finish off the look. I am also entering this into TioT 'tags' and Crafty creations 'embossing and glitter'

This weeks Less is More challenge is 'music' and as one of my best friends is an Opera singer, it was the perfect challenge for me to make her birthday card. The stamps used are from Crafty Individuals and the sentiment is a Penny Black one. I stamped the woman first and then masked her before stamping the music. I coloured her using Promarkers and then added a pearl to her hat. I am also entering this into SCSC 'celebration' (well you do celebrate birthdays!), Delightful challenges 'Anything goes' and Colour create 'blue silver and white' (the silver is used as highlights on the hat and bag...I don't think it shows up well in this photo).

Finally I altered a note book for Tim. He is always nicking my note pads so I thought I would make him one of his own. He loves green hence the colour scheme. I used Tim Holtz backing paper, a Stamps Away corner stamp, Tim Holtz label holder and crafty individuals 'notes' stamp. I kept it simple and masculine and was quite pleased with how it turned out. I am entering this into CCCB 'get booked', Tuesday Throwdown 'for someone special' (this is for my husband after all!) and Pixie Dust 'stitching'. That is all from me for now. Have a great week everyone. Not long until Christmas now!
Love,
Caro
x

Christmas concert!

2011-12-13T19:26:00.001Z

Alex has performed his first school Christmas concert this week. He was an angel and 'Narrator One' in the nativity play that the Reception class put on. He sang beautifully and said his words nice and clearly and I was very proud of him. This photo was taken part way through one of the songs (taken from a distance and heavily cropped to make sure I don't show any other children).

And this one was taken at the end of the concert when he was bored and waiting for the head teacher to stop talking so he could get off stage. He very much enjoyed the concert and we were impressed with how well behaved he was on stage.

This is my desk as part of WOYWW. As you can see I am part way through making another Christmas card. All the others have been posted, I just need a few more for work. You can see fresh clean white card, a failed attempt at a card on the left (the stamping went wrong!), and various Christmas rubber stamps as well as my trusty mug of tea at the back of the desk. The sellotape is there in the hopes that it will inspire me to actually start wrapping presents!

This is the final card which is for entry into Less is More one layer snowflake challenge. The snowflakes are a mixture of free (the largest), Crafty Individuals (the middle sized) and Hero Arts (the two smallest). I heat embossed the largest one in silver and added silvery gems to the middle of most of them. The sentiment is from Just Rite. I am also adding this into CCC 'don't look at the light' (use lots of sparkle...silver embossing, silver gems), PTW 'I'm dreaming of a black and silver Christmas' (when we were teenagers there was a black and silver ball held at this time of the year!), Stamptacular Sunday Challenge 'Christmas Glitz', and The Pixie cottage 'Anything goes Christmas' challenges. That is all from me for now. I hope you have a great rest of the week.
Love,
Caro
x

Christmas starts here!

2011-12-11T11:59:00.001Z

Well, with having my works Christmas dinner and dance on Thursday and putting up our Christmas tree, it really does feel like the Christmas season has started. We all dressed up in 'posh frocks' for the dinner, and I even put nail varnish on for the first time in years, much to Tim's dismay (he objected to the smell!).

The dinner was lovely with fantastic food, great company and a good dance. The DJ wasn't great, but that didn't stop us all having a great time as you can see.

This weekend we had fun putting up our Christmas trees, yes, I do mean two trees! They are both fibre optic trees, one of which we have had since Tim and I moved into our first tiny house and needed a little tree. That one now sits on our dining room table as shown!

We bought a bigger one a two years ago and that one is now in our sitting room. I much prefer traditional trees, but Tim doesn't like them so we compromised with this which actually looks quite pretty. As well as putting the trees up Alex had a party this weekend and for the first time I was able to leave him there and come back and get on with things. I don't think he ate much other than crisps and biscuits, but once in a while I guess it doesn't matter!

This morning we had a 'Toy service' at church and then this afternoon we went into town in the rain to see the Christmas lights. Alex was most impressed with the ball tree

and then had a brief romance with a little girl on the merry go round - they held hands for a lot of the time whilst going round, despite having never met before. It brings a whole new meaning to the phrase 'whirlwind romance'!

Crafting wise I have been busy making Christmas tags. These first two give a nod to Tim Holtz 12 tags of Christmas (loosely), and are vintage in feel. I used distress inks for both of them. For the lefthand one I used Crafty Individuals santa image and background words stamp, hand cut, folded and sandpapered the holly leaves, used stickers and gold embossing to finish it off. The righthand one used entirely Just Rite stamps. I am entering the lefthand one into MTTC 'vintage Christmas', Simon says stamp 'vintage photo collage inspiration', Crazy4Challenges 'santa' DYSU 'something old' and the righthand one into CCT 'anything goes'.

This next one used distress inks, silver embossing and free stamps coloured in with promarkers. This one fits with Pollycraft 'Christmas fun', Crafty cardmakers 'Heat embossing', and Delightful challenges 'blue Christmas'.

The next tags are all simple present tags made by stamping, colouring and embossing white squares of card and layering them onto folded green or red card. Very quick and easy! The top two cards I am entering into DCM 'Nordic Christmas' (red, white and reindeer) and All sorts 'white and 2 colours' (red & black). The next two I am entering into Colour Create 'red, white and green' & Meljen's 'use green', and the bottom two into cards for men '2 of something' (they are a pair).

The next set I am entering into Fussy & Fancy 'photo inspiration' challenge and Tuesday Throwdown 'Celebrate the season'.

The next set I am entering into Paperplay 'snowman', Creative Card Crew 'Tis the season', SCSC 'all creatures great and small' and PTW 'anything goes'

The final set will be entered into Fresh Brewed 'Christmas', Aud Sentiments 'Winter Holiday sentiment' and Penny's challenge 'Merry Christmas'. That is all from me for now...I guess I now need to go and wrap the presents that these tags are going on! Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Winter has arrived!

2011-12-07T08:42:00.001Z

We woke up to snow on Monday morning, albeit less than an inch, but it was a bit of a shock! Alex thought it was great and happily scraped the car for us! It mostly melted during the day, but there was another flurry in the early hours of Tuesday which meant that the walk to school was a mini snowball fight! By this morning the snow was gone to be replaced by a heavy hail storm. Hmmm....I would quite like this weather to stop now!

This is my workdesk as part of WOYWW. As you can see I am in the process of sorting my Christmas cards. There is a pile of envelopes waiting to be written in the centre of the desk, a pile of written envelopes and cards waiting to be written and my Christmas letters on the left. My trusty mug of hot tea is there to keep me going!

Crafting wise I haven't really done much this week as I have been working on the Christmas cards and letters, getting them ready to send. I don't have a lot of time outside work and this seems to have taken up most of it! I did however manage to make this little present tag using JustRite stamps pine branch, and HeroArts Christmas sentiment. I used distress inks for the background and the stamping, then heat embossed in gold round the edges, and added peel off stars and red baubles, and gold packing ribbon. I am entering this into Kaboodle Doodles 'colours of Christmas', The crazy challenge 'Anything goes', Creative card crew 'Tis the season', MTTC 'vintage Christmas' (to me this tag has a vintage feel), Papertake weekly 'anything goes', Tuesday Throwdown 'celebrate the season', Gingersnap 'stars' and Let's ink it up 'Christmas projects'. That is all from me for now. Have a great rest of the week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Wet weekend!

2011-12-04T12:43:00.001Z

Yet again I must apologise for not updating on Friday; trying to catch up with Christmas preparations seems to be getting in the way of blogging. I have, however, managed to finish our Christmas letter, although the printer is nearly out of ink so they may not get printed for a while. We have had a lovely weekend despite the pouring rain. Yesterday we went out to Kelham Island for their Victorian Christmas Fayre, where we met up with friends. Alex loved the fair, especially the merry go round, the helter skelter and the swing boats. He and Katie managed to go really high in them which pleased him no end!

Today we had a lovely church service and then as it was still cold and wet, I took him to our local indoor play area to work off some steam. He had a great time playing with the other children and whizzing down the slide.

Crafting wise it is time for another Quirky Crafts challenge, which this week was set by Lyn and is nice and easy; 'SNOW'. We have two sponsors this week so do pop over and join in the fun. This card used 'Sophia Snow Angel' from Paper Pretties, which I coloured using promarkers. I then cut the image out using a nestability and mounted it on cuttlebug embossed snowflake background. The card was finished off with silver peel offs. I am also entering this cardinto The Crazy Challenge 'snowflakes', SSDS 'holiday card' and Simon Says stamp 'anything goes',

My second DT entry for Quirky crafts was a little tag made using nestabilities, and the 'little tree' stamp from Limited Runs coloured with promarkers and glitter glue. I am also entering this into The Pixie Cottage 'holiday decor' (I hope a present tag counts), Colour create 'red white and green' and Delightful challenges 'let it snow'.

For this weeks Less is More the girls have challenged us to use 'green' as the main colour on our card. I used a new Just Rite pine branch stamp in Versafine Olympia Green to make the wreath, and then heat embossed little gold stars and added gems and a gold ribbon to complete the look. I am also entering this card into All sorts 'going round in circles', Simon says stamp & show 'stars', Crafty cardmakers 'heat embossing', and SCSC 'photo inspiration'.

Finally I made a 50th birthday card for my boss; an extremely elegant lady, hence the idea behind the card. I printed out the 50 and fabulous using Word, and then embossed round the edges and stamped the Crafty Individuals lady in the middle. I finished it off with pearls and pearly stars. I am therefore entering this into CCT 'it's just a number' and Speedy the cat's friends 'favourite embellishments' (pearls). That is all from me for now. Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Streaming!

2011-11-30T08:27:00.001Z

Well I still haven't got rid of my cold and my nose is permanently streaming. I thought the cold was on the mend over the weekend, but it seems to have come back with a vengance over the past couple of days. Sitting in a freezing cold office (17oC) at work probably doesn't help - I have brought a heater in with me today to try and get the room temperature up to something approaching normal. Anyway, enough about colds, it is Wednesday and time to show you my crafting desk as part of WOYWW. This photo was taken yesterday evening when I had a fresh mug of tea and had just finished making two Christmas cards. The stamp set you can see are a Just Rite Christmas sentiment set, and were a present from Tim to replace a stamp which had been lost. The toilet roll is substituting for tissues for my streaming nose; not quite a soft as tissues, but anything will do in an emergency! The piece of paper with random writing on is a list of books that both Tim and I want to read. The other things on my desk are glitter glue, sakura stardust pen, and ink pads.

This is the first of the Christmas cards which both use free stamps from magazines and cuttlebug embossing folders. I have added glitter glue to the hats, stocking and corners of this card and so am entering it into Ooh La La 'lots of sparkle' as well as Kaboodle Doodles 'bundle up for winter', Delightful challenges 'red and green' and Stamptacular Sunday's 'anything Christmas' challenges.

The second card has glitter glue on the snow flakes in the main image and I have stamped HeroArts snow flakes in the corner of the card. As a result I am entering this card into The crazy challenge 'stars or snowflakes', Crazy4challenges 'snow', Delicious doodles 'hairy legs' (last time I looked cats had hairy legs!), and Pollycraft 'Christmas fun' challenges. That is all from me for now. I am off to see if I can get my office warmed up to a sensible temperature. Have a great week.
Love,
Caro
x

Advent starts here!

2011-11-27T12:25:00.001Z

Firstly an apology for not updating on Friday, with us all being ill this week and a trip to Bristol for work, I just couldn't manage it. This weekend has been somewhat mixed as we were supposed to go to friends but they were too poorly so we have had a weekend at home instead. Yesterday we joined friends at Sheffield Ski village where there is a good indoor play area including air cannons which Alex thought were wonderful.

Today we celebrated the first day of Advent at our new church and then this afternoon we headed over to Kelham island museum where Alex was fascinated by all the different machines and the WWII bombs.

He also had a great time in the small kids play area there. The weather was just too cold to let him be outside for long with his cough hence our indoor activities this weekend.

I have been cracking on with my Christmas cards and this first one followed this weeks Less is More challenge of 'bling'. This entire card was made with the free papers from a magazine, including the bird which was cut out of one sheet. I then added Crystals to the centre of the stars. I am also entering this into Aud sentiments 'Any winter holiday's sentiment'.

For the next card I used a cuttlebug embossing folder and the free stamps from last month CM&PC magazine. I coloured the image with promarker pens and added a bit of holographic glitter glue to the star. This card therefore fits with Crazy4challenges 'snow' and Stamptacular 'anything Christmas' challenges.

These next 4 cards were really simple using images from a Crafty Individuals image book layered onto gold and red card and then put onto an embossed cream card. These fit with Speedy the cat's friends 'make it masculine'.

Finally I had a bit of fun making a tag for this weeks Simon says stamp challenge. The background was made using a Tim Holtz mask, then stamping the music in red, then replacing the mask and using teabag distress ink over the rest of the tag. The images were cut out of a Crafty Individuals images book and then I embossed in gold round the edge before using twine instead of ribbon for a more rustic feel. I am entering this tag into Flutterby Wednesday 'open', Meljen's 'twine or string', DCM 'moustaches/facial hair' (Santa has a beard and moustache), and sew many cards 'twine' challenges. That is all from me for now. Have a great week.
Love,
Caro
x

Poorly Wednesday!

2011-11-22T19:14:00.001Z

Well we are all poorly today, but poor Alex is the worst. We all have bad colds, but Alex has an awful cough as well and yesterday his teacher sent him home at the end of the day with a note suggesting that he have a day at home to rest, as although he was very good, he had been struggling. Added to that, the poor boy coughed so much in the evening that he threw up. Needless to say we booked an emergency appointment at the doctors for him today to make sure that he hasn't got a chest infection (fortunately he hasn't) and we have kept him off school for the day. A day of gentle TV and crafting is required I think.

As it is Wednesday here is my desk for WOYWW, complete with the usual cup of tea (lovely and warm on this freezing cold day!). Also on my desk are my Christmas stamps (in the left of the picture), two blue distress inks, the stamps I am going to use on this current card, the card with a paper mask on it, and random bits and pieces left over from yesterdays crafting session.

Here is the completed card which I have made as my second entry into Less is More's silhouette challenge. This is actually my second attempt (the first one ended up in the bin!). As there is clearly snow on the ground I am entering this card into Kaboodle Doodles 'Baby its cold outside', as well as Pollycraft 'Christmas' challenges.

This next card followed the same technique, but had the two shades of blue blended across the entire circle shape. The stamps used were Crafty individuals and I used a white sakura glaze pen for the stars. This also fits with the LIM challenge, Creative card crew's 'monochromatic', and All sorts 'one layer' challenges.

Finally I made a congratulations card for a couple who have just got engaged. They are an unusual couple in their 50s who are not into ultra fussy things so I thought this would be sufficiently elegant without being too girly! I am entering this into SSDS 'embossing', DYSU 'splash of blue' and Ooh La La 'Bingo' (Flower, die cut, gems) challenges. That is all from me for now. I am off to look after my poorly boy.
Love,
Caro
x

Weekend at home!

2011-11-20T17:23:00.001Z

Well we have been enjoying a weekend at home ready for a busy week next week. As well as the usualy round of cooking, cleaning, shopping etc, we went to our new church this morning where Alex had a great time in Sunday school and this afternoon we went to the park where Alex had a fantastic time on the various slides. Our main adventure was yesterday however, when Alex and I went scrambling out through the woods and up and down steep hills and cliffs,

exploring off the beaten path, jumping across streams and scrambling along beside a waterfall.

It was the greatest of fun, epecially as we were playing that we were being chased by T-Rex and other dinosaurs and monsters from Alex's imagination. Who says you need to spend money to have a good time.

It is challenge time again at Quirky Crafts and it was my turn to set the challenge which this time round is Clean & Simple (my favourite style!). I was given two images and two sentiments by our sponsor, Digital Delights, to work with. For the first of my entries I made a scrapbook layout. I love using CAS for scrapbook pages as it really makes the photos stand out. I used the Sketchy Thursdays sketch for this one and instead of using any patterned paper, I used a paint brush to stipple blue distress ink (broken china and faded jeans) onto parts of the card. I then used a wave stamp (I don't know the make as I got it when I was 12!), some Pirate stickers, Presley the pirate (by Digital Delights) and You're a treasure (Digital Delights) coloured using promarkers to add a little bit of interest. I finished it off with Alphabet stickers, and the dotted line to 'X' marks the spot. The wavy line is to symbolise the dodgy steering of my 4 year old pirate! I am entering this LO into DCM 'water' and DYSU 'a splash of blue'.

For my second entry into the Quirky Crafts challenge I was given Bongo the Dog and the Sentiment from Digital Delights. I chose to make this very clean and simple card using nestabilities, embossed round the edges and a bit of doodling in the corners. I am entering this one into stamp, scrap & doodle 'embossing', and CCCB '4 legged friend' challenges.

Finally I made my entry for the Less is More challenge, which this week is a favourite of mine - silhouettes! I used the free silhuoette stamp from a past edition of Craft Stamper magazine and layered it on yellow and black card. I wish I had a scalloped rectangle or square nestability or similar, but don't so had to use my scalloped scissors (not quite as neat in the corners sadly!). I will be sending this card to my very elegant 92 year old Great Aunt. I am also entering this card into Crazy4Challenges 'Black, white + one other', OCC 'photo challenge' and Speedy the cat's friends 'black, white + one other' challenges. That is all from me for now. I hope you all have a great week.
Love,
Caro
x

Show your spots!

2011-11-18T18:40:00.001Z

In order to raise money for children in need Alex’s schoolhad a non-uniform day with the emphasis on wearing something spotty. Well, weturned the house upside down and the only spotty thing we could find was abright red handkerchief that had been given to Tim in a stocking about 9 yearsago and he has never used. In the absence of anything else, I ironed it andturned it into a neckerchief with a Pudsey bear pin to hold it in place. Alex was very happy with it as you can tellfrom this cheeky photo. WARNING: Proud parent alert! Alex has been so good this week that he got a star prize from school. For a little boy that struggles with sitting still for any length of time, this is a major achievement and I am so proud of him.

I have made a couple more Christmas cards over the past fewdays by recycling cards I was sent last year. I cut out elements from those cards and re-mounted them in my ownway. This first card uses the Mother andbaby image from a card mounted on gold card and then onto cream card which hadbeen embossed with a cuttlebug frame. I then printed out the sentiment 'Give thanks unto the Lord' on creamcard on my computer and mounted it onto red card taken from the same originalChristmas card, followed by gold card and then finally onto thebackground. I am entering this card intoFresh brewed ‘I am thankful’, Penny’s challenge ‘Give thanks’, Simon says stamp‘thanks giving’ and crafty cardmakers ‘recycle’ challenges.

The second card was made using some of the left over redpatterned card from the previous recycled Christmas card and three images taken fromanother Christmas card mounted onto embossed cream card. Can you tell I am fond of this Cuttlebugembossing folder?! I am entering thiscard into Aud Sentiments ‘give thanks’, crafty creations ‘recycle’, creativecard crew ‘thankful’ and pile it on ‘traditional Christmas’. That is all from me for now. I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Love,
Caro
x

Wednesday again!

2011-11-16T08:41:00.001Z

Well it is Wednesday again. I simply don't know where the weeks are going at the moment. Yesterday morning we were a little more organised that usual and so had a few minutes to kill before walking to school so Alex decided that he wanted to sit on my lap, at my desk in the study, and craft. He used my circle cutter and tapestry stamps to make himself a badge which he was very pleased with.

It is time for WOYWW, the brain child of Julia (click on the link to see what I am talking about!) and so here is my desk. This photo was taken last night as I will now be at work (this is on a timer, if I can get the timer to work!). On my desk you can see my trusty large mug of tea, my cuttlebug and some embossing folders, and various Christmas papers, a rubber and pencil and hiding half behind the cuttlebug, some ink pads left over from Alex's stamping!

Needless to say I have been working on some Christmas cards. This first one used a scrap of paper from Crafty Individuals as the main image. I just love these two cute little angels together. I used an embossed frame as the background and added fake stitching in pale blue pen to match the image, and then two mistletoe images. This card therefore fits with CCC 'two's company', Pollycraft 'friends' (they look like friends to me!), Simon says stamp & show 'women only' (I hope these two young ladies count) and MTTC 'take two'

This next card was made using the same cuttlebug embossed frame and a free stamp from one of last years magazines (possibly CM&PC) coloured in with promarkers. I am entering this into CCCB 'four legged friend' (who could resist that cute cat!).

This card was made using tapestry stamps and I am entering it for PIO 'traditional Christmas' as it is a traditional Christmas wreath. I am also entering it for cards for men 'Christmas' and LIM 'leaves' challenge although it does contain a few flowers as well as the leaves!

The final card was made using free papers, a cuttlebug embossing folder and a free stamp. Not bad going really! I am entering this one into the SCSC 'spots and stripes' challenge. That is all for now folks. I hope you have a great rest of the week.
Love,
Caro
x

Fireman Alex!

2011-11-13T17:31:00.001Z

We have had a lovely weekend with Alex's good behaviour and good mood continuing enabling us to have a lot of fun. Yesterday we went to my in-laws where we were joined by all Tim's family. Alex and his cousins were taken out to the park by my Father-in-law (Grandpa Pete) leaving the rest of us to chat in peace. When they came back, the boys spent much of the time building dens with various cushions, cloths, clothes horses and tables. Adults weren't really allowed hence the dodgy photo. As you can see it was utter chaos, but really good fun!

Today Alex and I went to the Fire and Police museum here in Sheffield, where Alex had a great time pretending to be a fireman, and was given a ride in a fire engine, complete with the sirens on...he loved it!

He also enjoyed being put in the stocks although he said it was a bit uncomfortable!

I haven't had a lot of time for crafting this weekend, but the first thing I did was my entry for Less is More; this weeks challenge is a one layer card with leaves on it. I used the cuttlebug and a labels nestablity (no. 4 I think) to emboss the centre (it doesn't show very well in the photo unfortunately)and then used the free stamp from Crafty Stampers, and a masking technique to stamp the corners (stamping and masking are my favourite techniques so I am entering this for Speedy the Cat's friends favourite techniques challenge as well). I used pine needles distressed ink and then a lighter colour promarker to colour them in. I am also entering this into Penny's challenge 'give thanks', Aud Sentiments 'Thank you' and Stamp scrap and Doodle 'Thank you' challenges.

I also made a start on catching up on my scrapbooking as I have now established that I have over 50 layouts to do in order to get up to date! I used this weeks Sketchy Thursday sketch to make this layout, which also involves stamping and so fits with the WWU #18 from ScrapFIT. The colours also mean that it fits with this weeks Cupcake Inspirations, and the theme of friendship (along with the little butterfly stamps) mean that it fits this weeks Flutterby Wednesday challenge. That is all from me for now. I hope you all have a really good weekend.
Love,
Caro
x

Good Week!

2011-11-11T18:37:00.001Z

Alex has had a good week this week, behaving nicely everyday much to my relief! Today saw his first school performance which was a sign language version of Percy the Park Keeper, and The Enormous Turnip. He enjoys performing but always looks faintly worried by it, or is that just a look of concentration?!

He joined in with most of it, with only the occassional lapse in concentration! The photos aren't great because they were taken on maximum zoom with no flash and have had to be cropped to show only Alex. As well as performing the children had made turnip soup and bread for us all to have. It was a lovely occasion.

Crafting wise I have been busy with Christmas cards this week, all along the clean and simple lines. This first one uses cream card, a cuttlebug embossing folder, images from Crafty individuals and some tapestry stamps. This fits with The Crazy challenge 'Something with wings' challenge.

The next card is similar, using the same components, but now has stitching on it and so fits with Ooh La La 'stitching challenge'

For these two cards I fought a long and hard battle with my Cuttlebug. After 6 failed attempts I finally managed to master the double emboss technique and so can enter these for Fluorishes Timeless Tuesdays 'Double emboss' challenge. I am also entering these into Delightful challenges 'snowflake' challenge.

The final set of Christmas cards use the new stamps I got free with Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine, which I have coloured with my promarkers. I am entering these into Papertake weekly 'Christmas cards' and DYSU 'inspired by a song' challenge (Winter wonderland).

And finally as a break from Christmas cards I also made this, which fits with Simon says stamp 'Poppy fields', Delicious Doodles 'Remembrance' and CCT 'reds for Remembrance' challenges. That is all from me for now. Have a great weekend everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Misty weather!

2011-11-09T08:37:00.000Z

I have enjoyed having a few days off work and being able to walk Alex to school through the mist which has been ever present since the weekend! The reason for my few days off is to celebrate Tim's Birthday, hence the home-made orange and lemon cake. I am not an icing guru as you can tell, but the cake tastes yummy! The birthday boy refuses to let me put a photo on here sadly!

The advantage of being off work is that I have had more time than usual to do things for me, rather than for everyone else. As a result I have actually managed to sort out all the photos I have printed ready for scrapbooking. Here is my desk for WOYWW with various snapfish folders containing photos ready for scrapbooking, as well as my trusty book detailing all the photos, how many of each size for each occassion, which folder they are in etc to make the process of scrapbooking easier. You can also see my trusty mug of tea, some stamps that need cleaning off and a fiskars circle cutter that was used on a recent scrapbook page.

Ok, now time for a confession! This weeks Less is More was a colour challenge, to use red and orange on your card. I duly came up with a design and added brick red and marmalade orange distress inks to my Lavinia leaf stamp and stamped two images, only to discover that I hadn't clean the stamp properly from the last time I used it, and instead of the images just being red and orange, there was a hint of green on some of the leaves (unintentionally)...I am still entering this card into LIM in the hopes that Chrissie and Mandy will forgive me this once! I am also entering this card into Kaboodle Doodles 'colours of fall', CCCB 'Thanks', Creative card crew 'Thankful' and Fussy and Fancy 'be thankful' challenges.

I have also made a Christmas card using a page from an old book I rescued from the Charity shop bin. I am using the rest of the book to make an altered book, but have needed to remove various pages during the process so recycled one here. I coloured the page using distress ink 'shabby shutters' and tore the edges of the page and the green card mat for a vintage feel. I used my favourite techniques of stamping and masking to make the central panel. The santa stamp was free with a magazine last year, and the music stamp is from Stamps Away. I finished the card off with four brads and a couple of flowers...the cream flower came from a fake flower stem I was given years ago and was looking rather tatty so I took it apart to use for crafting instead. This card therefore fits with CCC 'textalicious', Simon says stamp & show 'recycle/upcycle', Tuesday Throwdown 'your favourite colour combo' (green & red), Delightful challenges 'sparkly Christmas' (the white fur on santa's hat is sparkly), Let's ink it up 'favourite technique' and Speedy the cat's friend 'Winter theme' challenges.

This is the Birthday card that I made for Tim, which is vintage in feel as he is really into Leonardo Da Vinci at the moment. This card fits with OCC 'masculine card' and Meljen's 'use brads' challenges.

Finally I made a start on the backlog of scrapbook layouts with this Easter layout based on this weeks Nuts about Sketches sketch. This also fits with SCSC 'flowers, ribbon and lace' challenge as all are used on this layout. That is all from me for now. I am off to continue sorting my photos for scrapbooking. Have a great rest of the week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Fun Firework weekend!

2011-11-06T18:20:00.003Z

Well we have had a lovely weekend which included Alex enjoying his first ever sparklers in our back garden. He was very good with them and really enjoyed every minute of it. We didn't go out to a big fireworks display because they are mostly too late for Alex, but we didn't need to. By sitting at his bedroom window sill we got the best view of about 4 local displays and several more that were further away...perfect!

Today as part of Tim's birthday celebrations (his birthday is later this week), we went 10 pin bowling for the first time in about 9 years. We all really enjoyed every minute of it, although poor Tim was exhausted afterwards (having beaten Alex and me rather spectacularly!). Alex thought this was a great way to spend time with us both and wanted to go back again this afternoon!

Instead we made the most of the nice weather and went to the park before coming back to bake and ice Tim's birthday cake!

Crafting wise I haven't had time to do much having been so busy with organising birthday things and entertaining Alex. I did manage to make my design team entry for Quirky Crafts though. The challenge this week was set by Cazzy and was 'Attitude'. We were given images from the Stamping Boutique (this weeks sponsor) to work with and I used Art Doll. I thought she looked a bit like a teenage fairy with an attitude to match so coloured her accordingly! I decided to make a fatbook page with her, using Hot off the press papers, an inkadinkado swirls stamp, buttons, bling, and ribbon. I used sakura stardust for sparkle on her wings, and silver on her crown. I am also entering this into stamp with fun 'buttons', Fresh Brewed 'anything goes', Simon says stamp 'buttons', Stampavie 'Anything goes', Aud sentiments 'make us laugh' and Paperplay 'buttons'. That is all from me for now. Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

In trouble

2011-11-04T18:02:00.002Z

Well sadly this week hasn’t been a very good week for Alex. My little man has been in trouble at schoolquite a lot. I am not sure why he is suddenly acting up, but it maybe to dowith being over tired since the clocks changed last weekend. However, that said he has been much better today and so I hope that this is an end to the naughty behaviour and we can just have fun again.

Crafting wise I attempted to make a thank you card using anoval mask into which I stamped leaves in autumnal colours using tapestrystamps. I then stamped a CraftyIndividuals tree of centre so that it came slightly out of the frame and addeda Hero Arts bird, also flying out of the frame. This card therefore fits with the CCC ‘leaf’, Fluorishes ‘out of the box’,Tuesday Throwdown ‘thanks’ and Fussy and Fancy ‘be thankful with a sentiment’.That is all from me for now. Have agreat weekend everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Emergency surgery!

2011-11-02T08:29:00.000Z

Well it is Wednesday and therefore time for WOYWW. Most unusually for me this week my desk is full of sewing things..this is because Alex's teddy is in need of some emergency surgery. His teddy is his favourite toy and he needs to cuddle it in order to get to sleep at night. Teddy was knitted by one of my Gran's friends, who was 100 at the time and has now passed on so we cannot get another one. He has had a lot of love and abuse since Alex was born and now looks more like roadkill than anything else having lost a lot of stuffing and been patched up more times than I care to remember. Today's surgery involves sewing around his arm and shoulder before his arm falls off! Also on my desk you can see my Christmas stamps, my trusty mug of tea (essential for keeping me calm while sewing...I hate sewing a LOT), and my two most recent Christmas cards.

This is the first of the cards which I am entering into this weeks Less is More 'stars' challenge. This card uses the free stamp from this months Crafty Stamper and free papers from Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine as well as silver pen and some bling. As a result I am also entering this into PTW 'anything goes with sparkle and bling' and Fussy and Fancy 'black, border punch and bling' (I used black ink for the stamping and a border punch for the scalloped edge).

The other Christmas card uses a cuttlebug embossing folder and Crafty individuals stamp which I have coloured using promarkers. Very quick and simple! I am entering this one into Stamptacular's 'borders and frames', and Pollycrafts 'anything goes' challenges. That is all from me for now. Have a great rest of the week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Gentle weekend at home

2011-10-30T17:43:00.001Z

We have had a gentle weekend catching up of jobs etc. Yesterday Alex and I went into town on the tram to get him some new clothes. While we were there he also wanted to explore the cathedral so we spent a happy 30 minutes going into every nook and cranny. I was surprised by how much he enjoyed it. The old gentlemen were collecting for the poppy appeal and allowed Alex to sit in their 1944 army jeep much to his delight.

Today we went back to our new church (Alex loved the Sunday school) and this afternoon we headed out to Alex's school 'Pumpkin party' with Alex dressed as a viking! It wasn't what you would call a great success...Alex didn't really like the party because the music was too loud. We survived for a little while with him alternating between being grumpy and manic and then went to the park with some of his class mates instead which was much more fun.

Crafting wise I have had a busy few days making Birthday cards for family and friends, some Christmas cards and a scrapbook layout. Here is the layout which follows this weeks Sketchy Thursday sketch and gave me an excuse to use up some pink scraps from a previous project. Having only boys in my family I don't get to use pink often! I am therefore also entering this layout into Speedy the cat's friends 'use your scraps' challenge as only the doily and background card are not scraps.

What is the first thing that I do on a saturday morning? Check out the LIM site of course! This time the challenge was stars so I made this Christmas card. First I used Adirondack colour wash inks (butterscotch, terracota and eggplant) and gold shimmer mist to make the central panel. Once it had dried I stamped the three wise men in black and then hand drew a star in versamark ink and heat embossed it with sparkly gold embossing powder. I then mounted this panel onto a dark red mat and then added this to the cream card.

The next card used some of the same orangey, shiny hand made background paper and a craft individuals image mounted onto cream card which had been embossed with a cuttlebug embossing folder. I am entering this one into Delicious Doodles 'good vs evil' (I chose good with these cute angels', SCSC 'spooky or whimsical' (definitely whimsical!) and Flutterby Wednesday 'halloween colours' (orange and black).

The first of the birthday cards is for my Gran who will be 87 next week. I used tapestry stamps for the stamped oval and a crafty individuals stamp for the centre as one of her joys is watching the birds flying past the windows of her flat. I am entering this into Paper Cutz 'fall leaves, no green or blue', the autumn leaves spiralling round the cake in this weeks Cupcake Inspirations and Crafty Creations 'leaves and fall'.

Finally I made a birthday card for a little girl who turns 4 this week. She is into all things pink and fairies. For this card I followed the sketch from The pixie cottage; the cupcake is cut out of wrapping paper and the fairy is from Lavinia stamps. That is all from me for now. Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Sunny Friday!

2011-10-28T18:00:00.001+01:00

This birthday card, with its bright yellow and blue reminds me of the sunny day we have had today with brilliant blue skies, and I couldn't resist using this very cute Whiff of Joy dragon stamp. It makes a great little boy card. This card therefore fits with cards for men 'animals' (OK, so a dragon is a mythical animal but surely it still counts!), CCC 'denim and lace', Pile it on 'Be happy' (this dragon looks happy to me), sew many cards '2 different background papers' and Simon says stamp 'anything goes'.

I have also made a one layer, clean and simple Christmas card using masking, crafty individual stamps and distress inks. This card therefore fits with Meljen's 'Christmas'. Crazy4challenges 'one layer CAS', Simon says stamp and show 'one colour' (in my case blue). That is all from me for now. Have a great weekend everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Wonderful autumn family weekend!

2011-10-26T08:41:00.001+01:00

What a wonderful way to start the autumn half-term. My parents rented a holiday cottage for a few days near us (we don't have any spare rooms in our house) and arrived on Friday evening joining us for a lovely dinner. As this was the first time they had been to Sheffield in 2 years, this was a really special evening. My brother and his family arrived on Saturday lunchtime and we joined them at the holiday cottage for lunch followed by a lovely walk in the nearby woods. It is the first time that they have been up here, with the exception of Andy, in 4 years, so it was very exciting all round. On the way back from the walk the boys were fascinated by the well in the village of Midhopestones.

On returning to the cottage the boys asked if they could play with the cars outside and made good use of the sun and the patio before getting too cold and coming in for the evening meal.

On Sunday morning Mother and Andy took Juno (the big black dog) for a long walk (about 6 miles) while the rest of us headed up the lanes to meet them from the other way, the boys armed with their scooters to help them walk further.

After a lovely lunch at the cottage we headed out for yet another walk, this time through the woods where the boys pretended to be aeroplanes, armed with sticks that had pine cones attached to them for jet engines.

We discovered a 'troll' bridge where the boys decided that Juno must have scared the trolls away by bouncing into the water,

and a marvellous pretend 'shop' where we could buy anything we wanted! The boys were pretty exhausted after the walk and played quietly back at the holiday cottage until teatime, after which it was time for an early night.

On Monday everyone came round to our house so that Daniel could see where Alex lives and play with Alex's toys. There was a request to go to the local park so we headed off there to let everyone run around and play, whilst Mother and Dad took Juno to stretch her legs across the hills.

The park was great fun, until Daniel spent too long on the roundabout and went decidedly green!

Then it was back to our house where we squeezed everyone round the dining room table for lunch

followed by coffee

and games in the garden

before heading out to the woods nearer us for another walk!

During this walk the boys learnt how to scramble up and down banks, using roots for support, and really enjoyed going off the beaten path.

The best part however, was probably the stepping stones, which fascinated both boys so much so that they had to go across several times!

All in all it was a wonderful few days and we were very sad when everyone had to go back and life was back to normal again. Alex was not impressed at having to go to holiday club for the rest of this week...he wanted to go to school instead! I guess it shows he is enjoying school which is a good thing.

So after all that excitement here we are again and it is Wednesday so time for WOYWW. My desk this week is in the midst of making a Christmas card so there are scraps of Christmas scrapbooking paper that I am cutting up for the card, my craft mat, knife and trusty mug of tea. The little wooden box sitting there is my sewing kit...I had to do an emergency repair on some of my trousers!

I am VERY late with showing you all my DT entry for Quirky crafts this week, although my entry was on time on their challenge site, I am relieved to say! The challenge this week is Autumn/Fall leaves and colours. I used two images from our sponsor, stitchy bear digital stamps, the woodland and Brr...its cold, coloured with promarkers to make this ATC. This ATC also fits with Flourishes Timeless Tuesday 'Trees and leaves', Kaboodle Doodles 'halloween or fall', DYSU 'Trees', OCC 'faces' and SCSC 'wrap up warm' challenges.

I have also made a card for this weeks Less is More challenge which this week is Polka dots (all of these trees have polka dots on them!). This card also fits with colour create 'burgandy, gold, green and cream' colour scheme (that large circle in the background is burgandy in real life I promise!), MTTC 'quite white' (lots of white space on this card, albeit cream coloured!), and Meljen's 'red and gold' challenges. That is all from me. It is now time to catch up with work, which is sad after such a wonderful weekend. Have a great week everyone!
Love,
Caro
x

Getting ready!

2011-10-19T08:35:00.000+01:00

Well it is Wednesday today and I am mega excited! My family is coming up to see us in Sheffield for the first time in simply ages. My brother's family hasn't been up here for 4 years and my parents for 2. Needless to say I am getting the house ready, but more to the point I am using it as an excuse to do all those jobs that I have wanted to do for ages. On that note I now have new curtains up in our study, both in the alcove (hiding the filing cabinet and various storage boxes etc) as shown above.

And in the window behind my desk, replacing the awful patterned ones that were there before. Doesn't it look so much better!

Here is my desk (not looking quite so neat) as part of WOYWW. This time has caught me in the midst of Christmas card making so there is a pile of Christmas papers, images, peel offs and stamps on my desk as well as my trusty mug of hot tea and the latest card I have just finished making.

Here is the Christmas card which fits with Kaboodle Doodles 'squares or inchies' challenge, Ooh La La 'Let it snow', Aud sentiments 'Winter theme' and Crazy4Challenges 'Holiday' challenges.

I also made an almost duplicate of the card I made at the weekend, this time including pearls for a friend who has just passed her PhD viva. I am entering this into Stamptacular 'You choose' and Lets ink it up 'think pink' challenges. That is all from me for now. Not sure when I will next be able to update...probably after the visitors have gone! In the meantime, have a great week.
Love,
Caro
x

Sunny October weekend!

2011-10-16T17:45:00.000+01:00

I can't believe how nice the weather has been this weekend after the winds and rain of last week. I hope it is like this next weekend when my family are with us in Sheffield. Alex had a wonderful time yesterday following a treasure map and digging for treasure in the garden. He was most disappointed that he didn't find the treasure box first though!

Today he went to a party where he had the greatest of fun diving into the enormous ball pit and sliding down the very fast tunnel slide. I enjoyed the opportunity to meet some of the other mum's from school and to put faces to some of the names I have been hearing from Alex.

This afternoon we went to the park with Alex scooting round as batman. Did Batman ever wear a bicycle helmet? My little batman did!

He also had fun on the slide, climbing frame and climbing his first ever tree. All in all we had a wonderful weekend enjoying the beautiful autumn sunshine.

The girls at Less is More have challenged us this week to make cards based on cocktails. Here is my attempt which uses an inkadinlado swirls stamp (twice) and a Katie and Co 'celebrate' stamp (my only drink stamp!). I coloured the drink in pink to resemble a cocktail I had at University all those years ago (I can't remember what it was called, only the vibrant pink colour!). I added clear glitter glue to the bubbles and circles in the swirl stamp for the final touch. I am also entering this into Speedy the cat's friends 'seeing double' and SCSC 'white plus one other colour'.

They also introduced us to an on-line site (HERE) where you can find out what your personality is in terms of a cocktail. Mine was 3 parts understanding, 2 parts beauty, 1 part bravery and a splash of fascination.

Sadly I had to make a sympathy card this weekend as well, as one of my on-line crafting friends died on 7th October. Many of you will have known Kath, also known as Lazy Kay. She was incredibly supportive and generous with her time and talents. Although we never met in person we had a lively e-mail and snail mail correspondence and I will miss her a lot. I am entering this card into Ooh La La 'sympathy', and Daring cardmakers 'bird' challenges.

Finally I had to make a birthday card for one of Alex's classmates (this mornings party boy). I took this as an opportunity to use up some scraps, so this fits with DYSU challenge. It also fits with PTW 'three different shapes' and Papercutz 'stars, circles or diamonds'. That is all from me for now. Have a great week everyone. I will be spending some time getting the house ready for an influx of visitors next weekend so there may not be much crafting going on!
Love,
Caro
x

First parents evening!

2011-10-12T09:03:00.001+01:00

We had the first school parents evening today for Alex. It was basically just to let us know how he is settling in and anything that he is struggling with. Apparently he is very popular and is making friends, always smiling and happy, never mardy, and is a live wire who is very enthusiastic about everything BUT and it is a fairly big BUT...he struggles to sit still and concentrate in class and is always fiddling with something so that his teacher feels like she is constantly on at him. I am not surprised really, because he is like that at home, so it is something that we are going to have to work at with him. On the plus side he does like doing his reading with me at bed-time and is getting better at concentrating on that.

It is time for WOYWW and you will be pleased to hear that I have my new laptop and have almost finished setting it up...just a few things to sort out, such as printer drivers, and I will be there. It is such a relief to be working on a responsive machine again and to have everything to hand. Anyway, I digress! On my desk you can see a lot of tapestry stamps and ink pads, including a Kaleidacolor Creola Spice ink pad which I was given years ago and is perfect for autumnal colours. You can also see my trusty mug of lovely warm tea, some scraps of card and the card I am actually working on.

And here is the finished card, which is a one layer card for this weeks Less is More (hearts). This time I drew a heart shape, then stamped the birds and masked over them, before using the tapestry leaf stamps to make up the heart shape for an Autumnal take on the theme. As a result this card is also being entered into Kaboodle Doodles 'Lets see those leaves', Simon says stamp and show 'things with wings', Sew many cards 'colour challenge: burnt orange, yellow and brown' and, Fussy and Fancy 'Fall or halloween'.
That is all from me for now. Have a great rest of the week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Busy weekend!

2011-10-09T17:28:00.001+01:00

Yesterday, despite the wind and rain, we decided to go out on a family trip to celebrate my birthday. As we were all tired we decided to go to Magna, which is indoors and not too far away from home. Unfortunately, my favourite exhibit wasn't working, but the indoors tornado was very cool.

Alex had a great time; spinning wheels, pushing buttons, lifting levers, operating a full size digger arm, blasting us with air cannons and shooting the water pistols.

The best bit however, was probably being a miner, wearing a hard hat and blasting the rocks out, then wheeling them to a grader which he could operate.

Today we went to the harvest service at our local church, which was lovely; 300 people there including Beavers, guides and scouts who joined in with the service. Alex found sitting in for the whole service quite hard, but did say that he likes church and wants to go back again so I am pleased about that. This afternoon we went to see friends where we did crafting with the kids which was fun.

I can't believe it is a fortnight since our last challenge at Quirky Crafts. This time it is Lyn who has set the challenge of spooky/Halloween or a recipe of black, gold and glitter. Now, I am not a Halloween fan, but I was given some 'spooky' images to work with and was given a free spooky looking stamp with my last order from Crafty Individuals so decided to combine the two to make this tag. The bats and poison symbols come from our sponsor, Limited Runs and I coloured the tag using distress inks and promarkers. As this tag does have a Halloween feel I am entering it into Stamp with fun, Tuesday throwdown, and Meljen's, all of which have Halloween as their themes this week.

As usual I had to check out Less is More this weekend. Their new challenge is a one layer card featuring at least one heart. My first attempt was a disaster so I took inspiration from Mandi's card and cut out a heart to use as a mask and then stamped autumn leaves into the mask and added red gems for berries and a few sakura stardust sparkly highlights (sadly they don't show up in this photo). To me this feels like a pile of leaves, or a hand full of leaves thrown in the air by a child! I am entering this into Simon says stamp 'sparkle and bling', Stampin for the weekend 'Autumn colours', Speedy the cats friends 'no designer papers' and SCSC 'Anything goes plus sparkles'.

Finally, I made a scrapbook layout following this weeks Sketchy Thursday sketch. This features Alex's 4th Birthday trip to The Deep in Hull. I am entering this into sew many cards 'anything goes' challenge. That is all from me for now. Have a great week everyone...I am hoping that my new laptop will have arrived and been set up by the time I post next.
Love,
Caro
x

Celebrating!

2011-10-07T18:06:00.000+01:00

Well I had to laugh when I looked out of the window on my birthday...despite all the lovely sunshine we have had recently there was a howling gale and torrential rain! No surprises for October really, especially as this is usual birthday weather for me, but it was a shame. Mind you, I did manage to have lunch outside in the sun the day before so I am not really complaining.

I have had a lovely few days celebrating with a gorgeous bunch of flowers including these orchids, new crafting goodies to play with including a Tim Holtz 'A compendium of curiosities', various Idea-ology embellishments, distress inks, acrylic paint dabbers, crafty individual stamps, charms and some lovely paper chase boxes and files. We have had a yummy take out curry and went to the cinema to see 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' - an excellent movie.

With the new goodies I made this altered printers tray. It is small, at only 6x6 inches, but was my first ever attempt. I loved it so much that I now want a bigger one! I used distress inks, Lavinia, Hero Arts, Tanda and crafty individuals stamps, crafty individuals nature images, Tim Holtz Ideology frame and glass bottle, shells, a conker, a pressed leaf, and a bird cage charm...more detailed photos follow. I am entering this into the Simon Says Stamp and show challenge for this week, as some of the techniques used were demonstrated by Wendi Vecchi, although I don't own any of her stuff so I hope that this counts. This also fits with the sew many cards challenge to use the colours burnt orange, yellow and brown, all of which can be seen throughout this piece.

I had so much fun incorporating all the different things, playing with inks, paints etc, that I want to get hold of a full size one to alter for our study wall. I am going to enter this into the Pixie Dust 'Anything but a card', and crafty creations 'crafty decoration' (this is a wall hanging).

As I used autumnal colours for this and a small conker and real, pressed autumnal coloured leaf I am also entering this into Stampavie's 'autumn', Fussy and Fancy 'fall' and Paper play and stampin' for the weekend 'autumnal colours'.

The largest panel is shades of brown and has real shells, a glass vial full of sand (from Cleethorpes beach!) and so fits with the DYSU 'brown', CCCB '3D' and Delightful challenges 'make it dimensional' challenges.

Parts of this piece also have the same colours as the inspirational photo from this weeks Flourishes Timeless Tuesday challenge and the butterflies (there are 2 of them), mean that it also fits with the Flutterby Wednesdays 'open' challenge.

I apologise for the photos..all will be improved once my new computer arrives on Monday! Have a nice weekend everyone,
Love,
Caro
x

Wednesday!

2011-10-05T09:06:00.003+01:00

It is time for another WOYWW, but before I start I just wanted to update you on my laptop. It is officially dead, but I have rescued all my files from it and a new laptop has been ordered. Once it is up and running then I will be back to producing better quality photos. I can't wait as the keyboard on this thing is a nightmare; half the keys don't work first time so I am constantly having to re-type things. Anyway, I digress...here is my desk as part of this weeks WOYWW...actually this was taken late last night hence the lack of tea as I was on my way to bed. On it you can see my Christmas stamps, a cuttlebug embossing folder, and the plates, various ink pads and card.

Here is a Christmas card I made as part of this weeks Less is More challenge to use your eye colour (in my case blue) as the main colour on your card. Both picture stamps are from Crafty Individuals. I am also entering this into Crafty cardmakers 'Anything goes' challenge for this week.

This is a black and white Christmas card made using a Cuttlebug embossing folder and two Hobby Art stamps; clean, quick, simple and effective (I hope!). I am entering this into CCC 'black and white Christmas', TioT 'make it minimal' and PTW 'Anything goes' challenges. That is all from me for now. Have a great rest of the week.
Love,
Caro
x

Sunny October weekend!

2011-10-02T17:23:00.000+01:00

Well I have to say, along with everyone else, that I simply cannot believe the weather we are having at the moment. The last few days have been boiling hot and we have been back in shorts and T-shirt which makes such a pleasant change. This has meant that yesterday Alex and I were able to meet up with friends in the park and have a great time charging round.

Alex had so much fun he did not want to come home!

Today Alex and I tried a new church, actually the one that is nearest to us, and it was wonderful! We both enjoyed it so I think it is safe to say that we will try and make it a regular occurrence. The weather has been slightly cooler again today, but it is safe to say that we enjoyed getting out to Abbeydale Industrial hamlet where they were holding a steam fayre. Alex really enjoyed having a go at the wood turning and going into every building looking at the different machinery, especially the huge water driven bellows which were working

I think his favourite part was being allowed to sit on the traction engine seat. For me, well I am happy anywhere near steam so I had a great time too!

Crafting wise the Less Is More challenge for this week is 'make the colour of your eyes prominent on your card'. My eyes are blue (ranging from a vibrant bright blue in sunlight to a paler blue indoors) so we have all shades of blue on this card.

My other card is a Christmas card which is scraplifted from Sandi's card as part of this weeks CCCB challenge. It also fits with Ooh La La 'punches and dies' and Meljen's 'squares and circles' challenges.

Finally I have made a scrapbook layout using inspiration from SIWAS challenge of Brian Adams 'Heaven'. The line I chose was 'Young and wild and free' so the title of my page is 'Bounce wild & Free'. The journalling reads ' Alex had a wonderful time on the bungee trying to bounce as high as birds fly and pretending he was spiderman' hence the images I chose to use on this layout. This layout also fits with Pixie Dust 'book or movie' (Spiderman), and stamp, scrap and doodle 'Anything but a card'. Once again my apologies for the quality of the photos...I am hoping that my new computer will arrive this week, but that remains to be seen! Have a good week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Dead computer!

2011-09-30T18:45:00.000+01:00

It is official, my laptop is dead. The computer guys at work are not sure if it is a problem with the screen or the graphics card but whichever, it is not worth repairing and so a new one has been ordered. Fortunately all my work has been rescued from the hard-drive, which is working properly, however, it means that I am stuck on an ancient laptop with minimal software or capabilities until the new one arrives and is set up, hence the dodgy photos! Thanks to the computer problems I only have one card to show you today, a clean and simple Christmas card made with two inkadinkado swirl stamps (stamped using green and red distress ink) and a Hobby Art sentiment stamp. I then added pearls to some of the dots. As a result I am entering this card into this weeks Crafty Creations 'CAS', Delightful Challenges 'Pearls and swirls', Do you stack up 'swirls', Penny's Challenge 'Anything goes' and Simon says stamp 'anything goes'. That is all from me for now. Have a nice weekend and enjoy the unexpected sun!
Love,
Caro
x

Continued computer problems

2011-09-28T08:48:00.000+01:00

Well my laptop screen is definitely defunct and we are not yet sure if it is fixable - I hope I will find out today. At least the guys at work should be able to rescue my data from the hard drive (I hope). Yesterday I spent the day in Leicester doing a student viva and got the opportunity to meet with my uncle and Great Aunt for lunch as an added bonus! Meanwhile Alex came home last night with his first ever reading book from school. He was so proud to be a big boy and to try reading. The only trouble is that he knew the first few pages by heart. We think at the end of his reading session he could recognise and read the word 'The' but we will find out for sure when we try again tonight! The other words were recognised by the pictures they were associated with not the words themselves unsurprisingly.

This is my desk as part of WOYWW for this week. Those observant ones among you who have seen my desk over the weeks will realise that there is something missing...my mug of tea. Don't worry I am not ill! The kettle is boiling as I type this. On my desk you will see a strange looking card covered with post-it notes as I was masking out most of the card ready to stamp in the top left corner. You can also see a pile of Christmas stamps in the background, some scrap pieces of card, distress ink pads and some scrap paper on which I was stamping my background image before stamping onto the main card.

And here is the finished card (I do now have tea!) which follows this weeks Less is More sketch. It also fits with MTTC 'musical medley' thanks to the music background stamp, and Speedy the cat's friends 'things with wings' challenges. That is all from me for today. Once again I apologise about the picture quality...I want my computer back!! Have a great rest of the week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Very mixed weekend

2011-09-25T18:28:00.003+01:00

Well both life and the weather have been very mixed this weekend. Driving back from the shops with Alex yesterday the car engine cut out while we were on the main road and refused to start again. The AA came and rescued us and said that it was a battery problem, but that wouldn't normally cause an engine to cut out while we were driving along. Fortunately we have been able to borrow a car from our garage to tide us over so we were able to get about. Yesterday afternoon we met one of Alex's friends in the park which was good fun and made up for the difficulties.

Today we went down to visit my in laws in Kennilworth which was lovely. The boys went to the park where Alex was very happy on the swings and then they played reasonably well together after lunch. Sadly when we got back home this evening my laptop refused to work...it is obviously booting up as the hard drive is working and the lights are on but I have no computer screen so can't see or do anything. I will have to take it into the guys at work tomorrow and ask them to look at it, although I suspect a new computer may be necessary.

Crafting wise I have made my DT entry for Quirky Crafts this week. The theme, which was chosen by Cazzy, was In the Jungle and we had to use jungle images on our creations. For this layout I followed the sketchy Thursdays sketch for this week.

I went with a scrapbook layout of Alex in my parents garden as he likes to pretend it is a jungle. I am also entering this into MTTC 'L is for lion', and PTW 'creature comforts' challenges.

I also managed to find a little time between the chaos to make a card for this weeks Less is More challenge which was a sketch. This card also fits with Stampin for the weekend 'What a cutie' as I think this little elf is very cute, and All sorts 'keep it simple'challenge. My apologies about the quality of the photos...there is no photo software on Tim's computer so I can't crop them. That is all from me. Wish me luck with getting my computer fixed.
Love,
Caro
x

LIM card #15

2011-09-23T15:59:00.000+01:00

This is my 15th card for this weeks Less is More challenge and this is probably going to be my last, unless I can sneak in a quick one before the challenge deadline tonight! This time I used a Hobby Art sentiment and then tapestry stamps in an oval around the edge. Super quick and very effective. I am also entering this one into Sew Many cards 'Ovals' challenge. If I don't manaage to post any more, have a great weekend everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

LIM card #14

2011-09-23T15:55:00.000+01:00

Well I am onto my 14th card for this weeks Less is More challenge (Anything CAS) so I have definitely made more than I thought I would manage! This one uses Hobby Art stamps, with distress inks sponged onto it and an oval nestability to create the embossed frame. Can you tell I love this technique?!!
More soon,
Caro
x

LIM card #13

2011-09-23T15:51:00.000+01:00

My 13th entry to this weeks Less is More challenge (Anything CAS) used an oval nestability for the embossing, and crafting individual stamps with distress inks and some gold glitter glue.
More soon!
Caro
x

LIM card #12

2011-09-23T15:48:00.000+01:00

Here is my 12th entry for this weeks Anything CAS goes at Less is More. With only a 6.5 hours to go I am not sure they will make the 1000 target, but you never know! This time I have used a free stamp coloured with promarkers and sakura stardust and a nestability die as an embossed image.
More soon,
Love,
Caro
x

LIM card #11

2011-09-23T11:43:00.000+01:00

Yes, you read it right...I have made 11 cards for Less is More this week! Here is the latest offering using Crafty Individual stamps, promarker pens and a nestability. I got the stamping slightly lopsided on this one LOL! Can you see a theme to my Christmas cards this year?! One layer cards, most of which use embossing, often with nestabilities, and a nice stamp or two. Clean and Simple is definitely the brief. More later all being well.
Love,
Caro
x

LIM card #10

2011-09-23T11:29:00.000+01:00

Woo Hoo! I made my goal of making 10 cards for Chrissie and Mandi's attempt at getting 1000 entries to their anything clean and simple goes challenge over at Less is More. I wonder if I can make more - watch this space and we will see! This card using a frame layed over the background card and then I stamped the trees using three impressions from the same stamp, I then added the deer in the foreground and some sakura sparkle for the snow, finally edging the picture in a cool grey Promarker...I don't think I like that bit as much...next time I will use a thin black pen for the frame. All the stamps were from Crafty Individuals. I am also entering this card into the DYSU 'Duo' challenge for the two little deer.
Love,
Caro
x

LIM card #9

2011-09-23T11:23:00.000+01:00

For my 9th entry to this weeks Less is More 'Anything clean and simple goes' challenge I used a Crafty Individuals central stamp and tapestry stamps round the edge for a change. If anyone has a little time today to make a clean and simple card then please go ahead and help Chrissie and Mandi achieve their goal of 1000 entries this week, you have until this evening. I am hoping to make quite a few today!
Love,
Caro
x

LIM card #8

2011-09-23T11:20:00.000+01:00

Well I am still trying to help out Chrissie and Mandi over at Less is More with their ambition of achieveing over 1000 entries to their Anything goes provided it is clean and simple. This is my 8th card for them which uses the embossing technique with a scalloped circle nestability and some stamps from Crafty Individuals coloured with promarkers. Hope you like it...more soon!
Caro
x

LIM card#7

2011-09-22T18:54:00.000+01:00

Another Christmas card for Less is More's attempt at getting 1000 clean and simple cards for this weeks 'Anything goes' challenge. I used a nestability die as an embossed shape on this card, then stamped the image and coloured using sponges with distress inks. Simple and effective. I am also entering this card into Fresh Brewed 'Keep it simple' and Simon says Stamp 'Dies to die for'. Have a nice evening.
Love
Caro
x

LIM card #6

2011-09-22T18:16:00.000+01:00

Another quick, CAS card for the Less is More 1000 card attempt. I love how easy it is to create a good effect with tapestry stamps. This time I made a Christmas wreath on the card so it also fits with the Pixie Dust challenge of 'circles' I hope you like it.
Love,
Caro
x

P.S. I have just had someone put an extremely abusive and upsetting comment on my blog. What made it worse was the fact that the person in question didn't bother to find out the facts before being abusive or even have the courage to admit who they were. Please note that such comments will never be published. On a more positive note, thank you to all those lovely people who take the time to leave encouraging comments. You really make my day.

LIM card #5

2011-09-21T19:11:00.000+01:00

Well here is another quick card for LIM's attempt at 1000 entries this week. I was hoping to do more than one tonight but have spent the evening in A&E with Alex who put a sharp piece of plastic in his ear. Fortunately they managed to get it out with out too much damage, only a little inflammation that should go down overnight. The stamps used on this card were free with a magazine last year, sorry, I can't remember which one. Have a good day.
Love,
Caro
x

WOYWW and LIM card #4

2011-09-21T08:50:00.000+01:00

Hello there! It is Wednesday and time for another WOYWW. Last week I showed you my nearly cleared garage with all those toilet rolls...well I can inform you that I have completed clearing the garage and found over 200 toilet rolls! What amazes me is that this is from over 2 years ago when my husband used to do the shopping...since I took over I haven't bought a single toilet roll so there must have been at least double that LOL! My clearing is continuing well as we now have a tidy entryway. I am no longer tripping over bikes, scooters, the recycling box etc...there is space! So now I have moved onto the study alcove. This is the most frustrating of all as Tim wont let me throw anything away from in there which is making it hard to improve it. I think that even though it is the smallest space to tidy it will take the longest. Anyway, enough of my ramblings about the rest of the house, what you are interested in is my desk. Here it is in the process of making a CAS Christmas card. My trusty mug of tea is there full of lovely hot tea, my box of versacolour ink pads, the tapestry stamps I am using, an adirondack ink pad, some nestabilities and a few other random stamps and punches.

Here is my 4th entry into the Less is More 'Anything CAS goes'. Mandi and Chrissie are trying to get 1000 entries this week so do please enter and help them achieve that goal. Seriously, anything CAS will work. They are currently at 368 so without a lot more help it is looking less likely. I used a cuttlebug embossing folder and some tapestry stamps for this card. That is all from me. Have a great rest of the week everyone,
Love,
Caro
x

Less is More entry 3!

2011-09-20T18:55:00.000+01:00

I am trying to do one entry a day to less is more this week for their 1000 entries challenge. It is a bit tricky with working full time, looking after a tired 4 year old and an ill husband, but I will do my best! The only stipulation is that your card has to be CAS, other than that anything goes! This is a Birthday card for my brother-in-law who is into music and wine. I used an image I had saved on my computer ages ago and then masked over the bottle and stamped a Stamps Away music stamp over the top. I then layered this image three times, drew in brown around the edge and stamped the sentiment in Walnut stain underneith. I will also be entering this card into The Crazy Challenge 'men only', CCCB 'Let's face the music', MTTC 'L is for...layers' and Stamp Scrap and Doodles 'birthday' challenges. That is all from me today, Check back tomorrow for another LIM entry!
Love,
Caro
x

Less is More entry number 2!

2011-09-19T18:36:00.000+01:00

I know that I don't usually post on a Monday, but the girls at Less is More, Chrissie and Mandi, are attempting to get 1000 entrys into their challenge this week. The challenge is 'Anything clean and simple' goes, so here is my second entry to it, another Christmas card using the embossing with nestabilities technique, and my Noel tapestry stamps. I was pleased with how this one came out so will probably make some more of these! I am also entering this into Stamp with Fun 'anything goes', CCT 'anything goes', and Stamptacular's 'Just sayin' challenges. Have a great evening everyone and I will try and be back with another card tomorrow!
Love,
Caro
x

Gentle fun

2011-09-18T17:28:00.000+01:00

We have had a lovely weekend at home this weekend. Yesterday I finished tidying the garage and sorted most of the entryway. Which means we now have room to move some of the things out of the study to make that tidier which will be a huge relief. In the afternoon Alex and I went to Crookesmoore Park where he had a great time scooting, climbing and swinging.

Today I had the bizarre experience of shopping with a very hyper excited Batman! It was a shame I didn't get a photo, but he had a great time going round the supermarket in his cape and mask. He remained like that for the whole day including our trip to Whirlow Farm Fayre this afternoon; a great time was had by all despite the intense rain shower that absolutely soaked me!

Sadly the rainbow was too faint for the camera to pick up, but this was the amazing contrast of dark looming sky, with the sun shining on the tree, wall and grass as the rain stopped....if I hadn't taken the photo myself I wouldn't have believed the colour contrasts...amazing!

This weekend Less is More are holding their first ever 'Anything goes' challange where they are trying to reach 1000 entries in a week! As a result I decided to make a few more Christmas cards. For the first time I experimented with using a nestability to make an embossed shape rather than cutting. I was really pleased with it - Quick, easy and effective, just what I like. This first one I am also entering into SCSC and Speedy the Cat's Friends 'one layer card' challenges.

I also made this one which I am entering into Meljen's 'Paper Piercing' and DYSU 'silver' challenges.

Finally I made a scrapbook layout to fit with this weeks Sketchy Thursdays and ScrapFits double challenge 'Sketch and Friendship'. I used various scraps of paper for this layout and added appropriate words round the main photo. Sorry about the lighting on this one. That is it from me for now. Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Total exhaustion!

2011-09-16T19:06:00.000+01:00

I don't know about you, but I am absolutely dead this evening! Having somewhat over done it on Tuesday evening whilst clearing the garage, I was so uncomfortable I couldn't sleep on Tuesday night managing only about 2.5 hours, hence for the rest of the week it has felt like I have been trying to think and work through treacle. Needless to say I haven't done a great deal more on the garage as I have been letting my shoulders and back recover. It is not far off being finished now, so I can move onto clearing the entry way followed by the study! I have three weeks in which to get it all done. Alex has also survived his first full week of school. He is tired but seems to enjoy it, and although his teacher says he isn't very good at sitting in one spot (I could have told her that!!), I am sure he will soon learn.

Crafting wise I made this scrapbook layout based on the Sketch from Pencil Lines for this week. I couldn't resist scrapping these photos of Alex playing with my old digital camera. He loves photography and is really getting quite good these days. As a result I am also entering this layout into the SCSC and Simon Says Stamp 'inspired by a song' challenge for this week with the song being Lady GaGa's Paparazzi! This layout also fits with Simon Says Stamp and show 'steampunk' challenge, CCT 'Anything goes' and Paperplay 'punches and dies'. That is all from me for now. I am determined that I will make some more forward progress on the garage over the weekend so don't know how much crafting I will do! Have a great weekend everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Mid-week chaos!

2011-09-14T08:36:00.000+01:00

Well the garage clearance/skip filling is going well. Not only that but we have had a load of things taken away by a recycling firm and another load by a charity shop. The garage is definitely improving (see my previous post for the bomb site it was) as we can see the floor in some places, although there is still a long way to go, hence the title of chaos! I am determined to get the house fully organised by my birthday so I have a few weeks to go.

Alex seems to be enjoying school and going off happily in the mornings. He came back yesterday all excited about having done PE and showing us what that involved, including taking his shoes and socks off and doing a move called the Curly Whirly (waving his arms round in big circles) and star jumps with clapping over his head. His antibiotics finish today so hopefully he has finally shifted the chest infection, although he was still coughing this evening...I guess we will find out tomorrow at the doctors. At least the night-time Ventilin has been helping him to sleep.

Here is my desk for this weeks WOYWW. I haven't been crafting as much as usual due to skip filling, but you can see my trusty mug of tea, some distress inks, my craft notepad in which I write down all the challenges each week, some foam for spreading the distress inks and the card I was working on.

Here is the finished card which I am entering into this weeks Less is More 'one layer card - seeing double' challenge. My double is the footballers which were taken from an old set of silhouette digital stamps I have had for years (sorry can't remember who they are by, although i think they were free at the time). I masked around the edge and coloured grass and sky with distress inks, then stamped the birthday sentiment. This is for a work colleague who is football mad! I am also entering this into The Crazy Challenge 'birthdays', TioT 'dig out the old', cards for men 'anything but a square', and Meljen's 'sporty' challenges. That is all from me for today. Have a great rest of the week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Skipping!

2011-09-11T17:41:00.000+01:00

Firstly, an apology for not updating on Friday yet again. This picture shows you the reason why! Our skip (which I have wanted for over 4 years now) finally arrived on Thursday and so I have spent the past few days fighting my way through the garage and beginning to empty it of the accumulated rubbish that comes with 10 years of marriage!

This is what the garage looked like when I started so you can see why I was desparate to do it LOL! So far I have taken one huge box of things to the charity shop and have some more that will go on Tuesday, and the skip is half full. The funny part has been that both Alex and Tim have been hovering by the skip at different times to make sure I don't throw anything away that they still want - they are both such hoarders!

Despite the weather being changeable, Alex and I have also been out to the park a few times where he has been scooting really fast, bicycling, and having fun on the bouncy slide (going too fast for decent photos!).

Crafting wise I had to get my DT entry for this weekends Quirky Crafts challenge finished; not least because it is my challenge this week! The challenge is quite simple this time round; to make anything but a card and it is sponsored by Robyn's Fetish who provided the digital images I used on my layout. I just had to scrapbook the photos I took of Alex on his first day at school this week. I used the sketch from this weeks Sketchy Thursday and am also entering this into CCT 'something you would find in an office', Delicious Doodles 'fresh start' (first day at school), Fussy and Fancy 'back to school' challenges.

The only other crafting I have done has been this weeks Less is More challenge, which was to make a one layer card 'seeing double'. I have used two fairies on this card,and the stars consist of two imprints of the same stamp (with part of it masked so that the wording round the candle could be seen). I added sakura stardust to the wings and glitter glue to the stars. This card also fits with PaperPlay 'use 2 or more stamped images', Aud Sentiments 'a card for a girl' and Stampin' for the weekend 'pink' and Stamp something's final 'anything goes' challenges. That is all from me for now...I am off down to the garage to continue filling the skip! Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

First day at school!

2011-09-07T10:00:00.000+01:00

Alex had his first half day at school yesterday and he was so excited. We were ready really early and he was impatient to be out of the house and getting there.

By all accounts he enjoyed it and loved wearing his school uniform and has bounced out of the house happy to be going full day today.

It was quite emotional for me seeing him in his school uniform looking so grown up; don't worry, I didn't disgrace myself by crying!

As it is Wednesday it is time for WOYWW. Well truth to tell this is my home crafting desk late last night...I am currently sat at a completely empty desk at work because my office is due to be moving at somepoint this morning, although judging by the massively long list I am not going to move until this afternoon at the earliest! On my desk you can see various things that I was playing with while trying to plan out a diamond wedding card. These include some cuttlebug dies and embossing folders, flowers, doilies and a photograph of the couple.

Here is the completed card. It is for the Diamond Wedding of my work colleagues parents and I used shiney ribbon, Bazzil Bling cardstock (for the shimmer), doilies, white flowers and little diamonds. I am entering this card into Kaboodle Doodles 'Lace, fabric or ric rac' (well a doily has a lace edge and a ribbon is fabric!), Ooh La La 'anniversary', Creative card crew 'anything goes', papertake weekly 'anything goes' and TioT 'monochrome' (I assume white on white with a black and white image counts as monochrome!).

As promised I also made another card for this weeks Less is More metallic challenge. This time I stamped inkadinkado swirls in silver on my card, then embossed the butterfly with silver embossing powder, then punched some silver flowers, edged the card with silver ink and added lots of little diamond gems, which also look silvery. I am also entering this card into Speedy the Cat's friends 'bling' challenge (well there are 15 little gems!). That is all from me for now. Have a great rest of the week everyone,
Love,
Caro
x

Crazy weekend!

2011-09-04T17:48:00.000+01:00

Well, my attempts to give Alex a special 'Big Boy nearly going to school' treat were a complete disaster! I took him to the cinema to see Cars2 and all went fine until the adverts started very loudy making him jump, the trailers were apparently too scary as was the beginning scene so after screams of 'I want to go home!' we gave up and went a played arcade games instead which he did enjoy. The afternoon's trip out was much more successful as we met up with my Maid of Honor at the park where Alex also met two of his friends. Today he had a hair cut for school and then went to a birthday party at Planet Pot. Considering that he had to sit still for 1.5 hours he did really well and he did actually make a good effort at painting his bowl. Don't you love the look of concentration on his face!

Crafting wise I haven't had a lot of time this weekend, but I did make a birthday card for a friend who has given birth to a baby boy. As I used a metal ribbon charm on this card it fits with this weeks Less is More 'metallic' theme. I will definitely have to have another go at this theme as I am sure I can do better! This card also fits with All sorts 'green and blue', Meljen's 'no patterned paper' and Delicious Doodles 'fresh start' (well isn't a baby a fresh/new start!).

I have also made a card for Alex to give to his nursery teachers to thank them for looking after him for the last 3.5 years. I used all images from Robyn's fetish which I put together to make the background paper, coloured in with promarkers and then colour washed over with pale blue watercolour paint. I then put the bookworm image and the text on top. As Alex is now starting school (first day on Tuesday) I feel that this card fits with Fresh Brewed 'School ABC=123', The Pixie Cottage 'back to school', Pixie Dust 'school is cool', Stamp something 'digi day' (this card uses 5 different digi images!), and Crazy4challenges 'back to school' challenges. That is all from me for now. Have a great week everyone and please pray that Alex settles in well to school...his first day is Tuesday (I am probably more nervous than he is!).
Love,
Caro
x

Altered art!

2011-09-02T18:18:00.000+01:00

I decided that it had been ages since I had tried to do any altered art so found this little box which I am using to store buttons and thought I would make it prettier. You never know, I may even give it to someone as a present with some suitable contents.

I covered it with pink patterned paper, then stamped the corners with a crafty individuals stamp, distressed the edging, added pearl flowers, a lace ribbon, pearls and some prima flowers. Finally I stamped the crafty individuals elegant lady onto another pale pink piece of paper, layered it on brown then loaded it up. I am entering this into TioT 'alter anything', CCC 'alter it', Speedy the cat's friends 'use lace', Stamptacular 'Diva', CCCB 'all dressed up', Pile it on 'girls just want to have fun', Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Bingo (Prima flowers, pearls and distressing from one of the diagonals), and Simon Says stamp (and show) 'anything goes' challenges. That is all from me for now. Have a great weekend everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Exciting times!

2011-08-31T08:52:00.000+01:00

Alex is hyper excited as yesterday and today he went to a 'Big Boy' holiday club instead of nursery. He absolutely loved it and was so happy to be going back again today. He also moved from his old car seat into a 'Big Boy' car seat which he is really proud about. He so can't wait to start school next week...I don't know where those past years have gone. My little boy is all ready for school, that is for sure! I hope he likes it as much as he thinks he will!

He is still missing his cousin Daniel at the moment so he drew him this picture. It is the best picture he has ever drawn so it is a shame that I am not allowed to keep it LOL! He attempted to draw the relevant letters above each person and then drew birds in the sky (the brown lines) as well as the sun.

For my workdesk today (as part of WOYWW), you can see my trusty craft mat, craft knife and DST as well as the card I have just finished, one of my peel off boxes, various bits of patterned paper and a punch hiding in the background. The noticeable absentee is my trusty mug of tea...that is because my darling husband has gone down to the kitchen to get me a refill!

This is the card, which was made following this weeks CCT sketch, and used my first ever Meljen;s image (that book worm is so cute!) so fits with Meljens challenge. It also fits with the cards for men 'G is for....green', The Crazy Challenge 'New' (in this case, a new school), Creative Card Crew 'anything goes' and stamp something 'back to school' challenges.

I also made another entry for this weeks Less is More challenge which was to combine 3 past challenges. This time an all white congratulations card for my distant cousin who is getting married this weekend. The 3 past challenges I chose were 13: Congratulations, 14:White on white, 15: embossing, & 25: Ribbon. This card also fits with MTTC 'flowers' challenge. Unfortunately my camera struggled with the white on white so I hope you can make it out. That is all from me for today. Have a great rest of the week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Having a busy time!

2011-08-28T17:42:00.000+01:00

Firstly an apology for not posting on Friday. I have been very busy at work trying to finish a grant application and so haven't had time for crafting. This weekend has also been busy as Alex went to a nursery friend's birthday party yesterday morning.

We went to the park with friends in the afternoon

and today we went to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park where we got to stroke this Wallaby

Admire the tigers,

lions

and cappybara

and got up close and personal with the lemurs.

Alex also had fun on the tree fort and the climbing frame.

Despite having a busy weekend I did manage to make a couple of cards, both of which are being used as my DT entries for Quirky Crafts. The challenge this time is fluorishes and embossing. I couldn't resist this image from our sponsor, Stitchy Bear, for a First Day at school card for Alex (I still can't believe he is starting school in just over a week's time!). I went with primary colours for the card to make it appropriate for him, and added gold stars because when I was at school I always wanted to earn a gold star for my work! I am also entering this card into Fresh Brewed 'embossing', Ginergersnap 'primary colours', Penny's challenge 'back to school', DYSU 'card for a boy or man', Paper play 'back to school', All sorts 'back to school', Stamp something 'back to school', PaperCutz 'wish upon a star', Sew Many Cards 'edge punch' challenges and the card follows Simon Says Stamp's sketch.

This second one also fits with Less is More, where the challenge was to use 3 (or more past challenges) to make your CAS card. Mine is a one layer card, which combines challenges 6 (off the edge), 15 (embossing - the wings are heat embossed with hologram super sparkle embossing powder), 23 (something with legs), 28 (use ink), 29 (somthing that moves) and 1 (pink, black and white - the wings are a purply pink, the colour has just changed slightly with the embossing). This card is for one of Alex's friends, who apparently is into fairies! I am also entering this into Crafty Creations 'animal' challenge. That is all from me. Have a great bank holiday everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Social Somerset weekend!

2011-08-24T09:00:00.000+01:00

I have had a lovely long weekend at my parents in Somerset. The weather was a little mixed; mostly sunny with the occassional shower, but despite that we were able to eat most of our meals outside in the garden. My brother and his family were also down so Alex and his cousins played on the bike and tractor for a lot of the weekend. The tractor proved good exercise for the adults as we had to push the boys round the drive!

Blackberrying was another favourite trip out, with walking through the long grass,

(helped by Grandad and Mummy where needed)

hiding in the corn

picking

and of course eating the blackberries.

To top it all off we had a little boat ride on mill stream, which made Alex's day.

For the rainy session my mother unearthed all our old lego so Andy and I ended up building numerous small castles and cars which the boys then adapted. Even little Nicholas, who is not yet 2, was getting quite good at putting bits of lego together!

Alex also discovered Andy's euphonium and spent a happy time playing it...we were quite impressed that he managed to make some decent notes on it....who knows, maybe he will become a brass player!

As well as all the fun things to do at home, we had a stream of visitors including my Great Aunt Elizabeth, my godfather and his wife and of course Gran and Uncle Geoff.

We celebrated Uncle Geoff's **th birthday with cake and a barbeque in the garden. All in all it was a wonderful weekend and I really did not want to return to work.

Since coming back I decided that I really had to clear my side of the study as it was starting to look like a paper bomb had gone off. Of course, no sooner had I tidied, then I made it messy again by actually crafting! Here is my desk for WOYWW, partway through making a scrapbook layout. You can see my trusty mug of tea, my marker pen for doodling/grafiting (is that a word!) on my layout, various paper scraps, a craft knife, DST and various sundries shoved to the back of the desk!

What was the first site I checked out after coming back from Somerset? Less is More of course! This time the challenge was to make a card featuring something that moves..in my case I chose a dragon as I needed to make a birthday card for a little boy. I stamped the dragon so that he is peeping onto the card, coloured him with promarkers and then added the sentiment and drew steam/smoke puffs to finish it off. The colours I chose for the dragon are autumnal so this card also fits with Pollycrafts 'autumn colours', Ooh La La 'no backing paper' and cards for men 'anything goes' challenges.

I have also made a scrapbook layout of Alex attempting to play the drums. This one followed this weeks creative scrappers sketch and as I added some grafitti elements in the 'Banksy' style to the bottom left hand corner it also fits with this weeks Daring Cardmakers (thanks for the challenge...it really stretched me!). As the colours used on this layout are blue, green, white, red and brown the layout also fits the Colour Create challenge. Apologies for the flash glare! That is all from me for now. Have a great rest of the week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Just a quick post!

2011-08-18T18:44:00.001+01:00

I know that I said I wouldn't have time to post before I went to Somerset, but I did actually manage to complete this scrapbook layout so thought I would share it with you before I went. The journalling on this layout was inspired by this weeks song from SIWAS, The Beach Boys 'Fun, Fun, Fun', and reads 'One small boy throwing a ball + one large dog jumping in a river = Fun, Fun, Fun'. This layout is also being entered into MTTC 'G is for...'challenge (in my case Green), Lasting memories 'try something new' (I used a large prima flower for the first time, and used digital journalling for the first time) and Stamp somethings 'dog days of summer' (for obvious reasons!). That is all from me as I must go and pack. Have a great weekend everyone.
Love,
Caro
x
P.S. Thanks to a suggestion from Kathy I am also entering this layout into the For Fun challenge which this week is to make a scrapbook layout!

Feeling blue!

2011-08-17T10:48:00.000+01:00

Firstly an apology that there isn't so much to see on my blog post today. I had to go to a family funeral in London yesterday and am at work today (typing this in my coffee break). The funeral was a wonderful celebration of Aunt Didi's life. She died aged 95 and all the music and readings in the funeral were chosen by her, so the day really reflected her personality. As it is Wednesday, here is my crafting desk at home as my submission to WOYWW. I have to confess that the photo was taken on Monday night when I was in the midst of chaos while trying a new ink technique, hence the ink pads, stamps, water spritzer, kitchen roll etc everywhere, and my trusty mug of tea hiding in the background. Truth to tell my desk looks identical to this photo this morning, except that the mug is no longer there.

Here is the card I made with the inking technique. I learnt the technique from the Less is More site, adapted from Mandi and others descriptions. In brief, I swiped my distress ink pads onto an acrylic block, then liberally spritzed with water and placed the block onto my card. With enough water all the inks run together to create a pale washed background. Although you can't really tell from the final result, I actually used 4 different distress inks (2 blue and 2 green). I then stamped the tree, birds and sentiment on the top, so that this card fits with this weeks Less is More and TioT 'anything goes' challenges. That is all from me for now. I am off to Somerset this weekend so probably wont be around until next week. Have a great time everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Sheffield Seaside!

2011-08-14T17:34:00.000+01:00

OK, so the city of Sheffield is in the middle of the country, miles away from the sea, so how can we have a Sheffield seaside? Well the council decided to turn the city centre into a seaside resort with trampolines, mini golf, a helter skelter, bumper cars, bumper boats, hook the duck and other seaside rides and amusements, as well as a massive sandpit next to the fountains which were kept low for the kids to play in. It has been great to take Alex there and he loved every aspect of it, especially the freshly cooked donuts!

Today we went to Endcliffe park where they now have some paddle boats in a huge paddling pool. Alex was in his element, raming the sides and paddling really fast.

Crafting wise I have made my design team entry into Quirky Crafts this week. The challenge for the next fortnight is 'Red Hats' and is sponsored by Robyn's Fetish who also provided me with the 'Me bloomers' stamp. I decided it looked as though the girl had just finished making them so my creating became sewing based with Tim Holtz designer papers all to do with sewing (needle book, safety pins, thread), buttons and a home made flower made using distress inks and 5 punched out flower shapes (the first time I have ever tried this technique - thanks Anne for the instructions!). This tag therefore also fits with PTW 'grow your own', stampin for the weekend 'spots and dots' (I stamped some spotted swirls in the background), Fussy and Fancy 'use a lot of your favourite embellishment' (4 tiny buttons) and Speedy the Cat's friend 'distressing' challenges.

I also made this card for the Less is More challenge which this week is a one layer card using ink in a way you have not done before. Well although I have used my brayer to layer sunsets, I have never used it with multiple masks to create mountains etc. I have always admired the effects people get with this (see Lavinia Stamps galleries for examples) so decided to have a go. I have to confess that this was my 6th attempt at the card, the rest ended up in the bin (too much white space between the layers; colours not working togeher; too many lines from the brayer etc), but for what it is worth. Here it is!

Finally I have made a scrapbook layout following this weeks 'Sketchy Thursday' sketch. I kept the design fairly clean and simple to allow the photos to speak for themselves, as the kids had such fun dressing up and putting on a show for the adults. As Robin, Chloe and Alex are great friends I am also entering this layout into Scrap and Stamps 'Friendship', All sorts 'anything but a card' and Sew many card's 'use at least 3 brads' challenges.That is all from me for now. Have a great week everyone.

Love,
Caro
x

Rainbow!

2011-08-12T18:28:00.000+01:00

Well, I am glad that it is the weekend as I am exhausted. We have nothing planned, although I hope the weather cheers up a bit as it has been damp and horrid these past few days. The only advantage of the wet weather this week was this beautiful rainbow that I saw on my way to work yesterday. Shame I didn’t have my proper camera with me, this was taken using the digital zoom on my phone camera.

I have been busy crafting wise these past couple of days including scrapbooking the fun we had in the snow at Christmas, hence the ‘White Christmas’ title of the layout which I am entering in for Ooh La La’s ‘Christmas’ challenge. Part of the journaling was inspired by a line from this weeks song from the SIWAS challenge site ‘run and hide’. The journaling reads ‘It was such a treat to have deep snow at Christmas; it made the traditional Christmas Day walk much more fun as we all went sledging on the bridge. Games in the garden were also fun with us all running and hiding from Andy who could throw snowballs further, harder and more accurately than anyone else’. For decoration I used a snowman stamp, a pair of boots cut out of another designer paper and an embossed snowflake so this layout also fits with Creative card crews ‘best foot forward’ and DYSU ‘emboss it’ challenges.

I couldn’t resist this weeks challenge on Stamptacular’s site, which was to use a photograph as inspiration. The moment I saw the photo I knew which stamp I wanted to use, the chandelier that came free with Crafty Stamper. I stamped and then heat embossed that onto pale lemony creamy coloured card which I layered onto white and then black card. I kept the design of this card clean and simple so it also fits with CCT ‘CAS’ , with Delightful challenge ‘things with wings’, Meljen’s ‘use black’ and with Tuesday Throwdown and Spoon full of sugar ‘birthday’ challenges. That is all from me for now. Have a great weekend everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Junk modelling!

2011-08-10T09:57:00.000+01:00

Alex has been loving the past few days at nursery as they have been doing 'junk modelling'. So far he has made a police station and now these two police cars which he is very proud of.

It is time for WOYWW again! My desk this week is in the midst of scrapbooking so there are scraps of papers, my cutting mat, craft knife, ruler, double sided tape and my trusty mug of tea all present on my desk. The rest of the scraps of paper, the ones I have decided not to use, have been swept into a pile and dumped on the floor until I finish the layout!

This card was made to fit with the Less is More challenge for this week, which is to use colours of your flag (red, white and blue). My original entry had a little bit of green on so I decided to enter again with a true red, white and blue card! This also fits the DCM 'poppies' and Kaboodle Doodles 'primary colours' challenges.

And finally, here is the finished scrapbook layout which followed this weeks Creative Scrappers sketch. For the background I used a sizzix die to cut out the leaf shape which I used as a mask for the distress ink shabby shutters, I then used the inverse to make a stencil which I used twice with pine needles distress ink. For the leaf in the corner I used the stamp from this months crafty stamper, stamped using pine needles and embossed with clear embossing powder and then used a paintbrush to pain shabby shutters over the top. I hand drew stitches round the letters and the central panel. This layout is therefore being entered into CCC 'sew mad', crafty cardmakers spotlight 'stencils', Simon says stamp and show 'Tim Holtz technique' and The crazy challenge 'embossing' challenges. That is all from me...now it is time to clear up that pile of papers! Have a nice rest of the week.
Love,
Caro
x

Summer wedding!

2011-08-07T17:51:00.000+01:00

Well we have had a lovely weekend which started with going to a wedding in Sheffield Registry Office. Alex wasn't too impressed at being made to dress up smart, but we struck a deal. If he behaved himself and was smart for the wedding he would be allowed to play in the fountains in the peace gardens afterwards!

The service was lovely and the bride and groom looked so happy and proud. They had their official photos taken in front of the fountains in the peace gardens which proved far too much of a temptation for Alex...

...within minutes he was soaked and very very happy, running through the fountains and generally having a great time. Yes, I was prepared and had a towel and change of clothes in my bag!

It has become a Saturday tradition for me to make a card for the Less is More challenge blog. This time the challenge was to use the colours of your national flag, in my case I am British so I used red, white and blue. I also couldn't resist the idea of doing a 'time for tea' card as that is so quintessentially British! I hope that Mandi and Chrissie will forgive the little bit of pale green on the leaves as I couldn't bring myself to have blue leaves on the flowers! Everything else is coloured in shades of blue and red including the writing. The tea pot image is a digi stamp from Stitchy Bear and so this card also fits with Stamp somethings 'digi' and Fresh Brewed 'hot' (well tea is usually served hot!) challenges as well.

I have also made a scrapbook layout following this weeks Sketchy Thursday sketch. I used photos of Alex at the nativity service and church and titled it 'The nativity, an alternate story'...the journalling reads 'Mary looked somewhat startled when an unknown shepher clutching a grubby white teddy came and carefully tucked Baby Jesus in the straw and arranged his presents. She graciously allowed him to share her chair - maybe she thought he would make a more caring father than Joseph who looked bored by the whole proceedings!'. As the theme of this layout is Christmas I am also entering this into the Simon Says Stamp and Paper Play 'Christmas in August' challenges. That is all from me for now. Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Busy crafting!

2011-08-05T18:38:00.000+01:00

Well I have had a busy few days at work writing a grant application and busy evenings spent crafting! I have to confess that I have been finding both hard, not least because I got a splinter under the nail of one of my fingers which makes typing and crafting rather painful. I did manage to complete my crafting order though which was good. I was asked to make a birthday card for a little girl who turns 11 tomorrow, so this is what I came up with (she likes pink and cute animals apparently). For this card I followed the sketch from this week's Pollycraft challenge. The card also fits with the Ooh La La 'circles', CCC 'birthdays including a number', and Delightful challenges 'stitching' challenges.

Sadly I was also asked to make a sympathy card for a colleague at work who lost her sister under tragic circumstances. As a result I kept it simple and elegant and am entering this card into Fluorishes Timeless tuesday 'favourite flowers' and PTW 'anything goes' challenges.

Finally I made a wedding card for a couple who are getting married tomorrow morning. This card fits with the CTT 'no designer papers' and Sew Many cards 'foil' challenges. That is all from me for now. Have a great weekend everyone.
Caro
x

Wednesday!

2011-08-03T09:05:00.000+01:00

So what is on your workdesk this fine Wednesday (WOYWW)? This is mine today which I actually had to tidy yesterday as it was so much of a tip that I couldn’t actually see the desk! When I tried to make a card I had to give up and tidy instead…can you tell?! At this moment in time I am so hot having just drunk a lovely large mug of tea that I have had to resort to water to cool myself down. I am in the process of colouring in a ‘Henry the Mouse’ image from the Whiff of Joy range for a little girls birthday card, hence the large number of promarkers everywhere. To the left you can see my phone in its case, the original rubber stamp, some pens, pencils, rubber and craft mat hiding underneath it all.

Crafting wise I don’t seem to have achieved as much as I would have liked over the past few days, not least because I have been asked to make 4 cards before Friday. I did manage to make one of them; only 3 left to do! The lady asked for a handbag card for her daughter who is into pink so this is what I came up with. I am entering this card into Crafty cardmakers ‘butterflies’, Kaboodle Doodles ‘in the garden’ (well butterflies and flowers are found in the garden), Colour Create ‘pink, green and white’ and Papertake Weekly ‘anything goes’ challenges. Sadly the photo hasn’t come out very well as the two butterflies are actually sparkly with Sakura stardust. That is all from me for now. Have a great rest of the week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

A weekend outside!

2011-07-31T17:24:00.000+01:00

The weather has been so great this weekend that we have spent most of the time outside. We have played in our garden with water pistols, painting with water on the patio and with the sand and water table.

Yesterday we went to friends for the afternoon where the kids set up camp in the enormous garden with the tent and tarpaulin, and played in the paddling pool and on the trampoline,

And today I managed to get Tim out of the house for a little while as well, so we went as a family to Magna's adventure playground, where Alex had a wonderful time in the sand (we buried his legs),

and playing in the water park area. Picnics and ice-cream have generally added to the holiday feeling of the weekend. It makes having to work through the summer so much nicer when you have really nice weekends!

I have even managed to do some crafting. It is time for another Quirky Crafts challenge...this time a really easy one set by Lyn. The challenge is NUMBERs, so I couldn't resist the opportunity to scrapbook Alex's birthday party. We have a sponsor this week (Digital Delights) so I used one of their circle sentiments and Birthday Ridley Raccoon coloured in with promarkers as embellishments on the page. This layout also follows this weeks Sketchy Thursday sketch.

As per normal, I checked out the Less is More site first thing on Saturday. I have to confess that my heart sank when I saw the theme 'fruit' as I didn't think that I had anything with fruit on it. After a bit of searching however, I did manage to find this digital stamp stored on my hard drive, so used that coupled with text written in word to make a one layer card, which I coloured in using promarkers. As strawberries are a summer fruit I am also entering this into Stampavie 'summer', Delightful Challenges 'summer', Paperplay 'in the garden' and Fussy and Fancy's 'summer' challenges.

As I had a little time left (10 minutes) I decided to make a quick and simple Christmas card using my cuttlebug scrolls embossing folder and the Noel tapestry stamp set. I am entering this card into Pollycraft, Flourishes Timeless Tuesday, Fussy and Fancy, and Crafty Creations 'Christmas in July' challenges. That is all from me for now. Have a great week everyone,
Love,
Caro
x

Tired Friday!

2011-07-29T18:43:00.000+01:00

I think that we are all tired as a family today and ready for the weekend, as for some reason none of us has been sleeping well. That hasn't stopped Alex having a lot of fun at nursery though...he has come back filthy every day from having spent most of the day playing in the garden with his friends!

Crafting wise I don't seem to have achieved much over the past couple of days. I did manage to make this birthday card for my brother though. I used a leather effect embossing folder over the mottled leather brown card to create the background layer which I used as a frame around the main image. I used brass brown metal sheet with my Tim Holtz cogs die and an iron brad to create the cog in the corner, and the main image was from Darkroom Door. This card therefore fits with Gingersnaps 'leather, brass and iron', Fresh Brewed and Simon says stamp 'shaped card', The Pixie cottage 'embossed', Meljen's 'frame it' and sew many cards 'anything goes' challenges. That is all from me for now. Have a great weekend everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Late Wednesday!

2011-07-27T18:18:00.000+01:00

Well my post is going up late today as I simply ran out of time! Life is very busy at the moment as I have a lot on at work and so there is less time for blogging and crafting sadly. For WOYWW here is my desk which today is in the process of making a scrapbook layout. You can see some ribbons and lace I am working with and the layout part way through. My large wonderful mug of tea is there, nice and hot and comforting.

And here is the finished layout! It follows this weeks Nuts about sketches sketch, and fits with the CCC 'shabby sparkle' (I distressed the edges, stippled ink on the background and through sequin waster, used lace and added sparkly gold ribbon, and gems), Kaboodle Doodles 'stitching' (there is fake stitching on the two layers of the central panel), Pollycrafts 'Christmas in July', The crazy challenge 'ribbons', Paper play 'ribbon, lace and buttons', Lasting Memories 'Titles' (mine uses stamping and three different types of letters), and Simon Says stamp and show 'Anything goes'. That is all from me for today. Have a great rest of the week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Sunny Kennilworth!

2011-07-24T18:06:00.000+01:00

Well after the dull weather earlier this week it was a relief to have a lovely sunny weekend in which we could play outside. Today we have been down to my parents-in-law's house in Kennilworth where all of Tim's immediate family congregated for a family meal and playtime. We had a great time playing out in the garden with various sized balls,

and watching the kids run round.

Alex insisted on throwing the ball whilst Sam and Tom were playing football.

It was all the greatest of fun and was made even funnier by the fact that I was given a leather jacket, which Tim decided made me look like a 'biker chick' and he insisted that I pose in an 80s magazine style pose over the bonnet of the car...too funny for words!

I have to confess though, that the first thing I did on Saturday morning, before cleaning, washing, shopping and cooking, was to check out the Less is More challenge for the week. I am a little bit obsessed! I have to say that I loved Chrissie's tutorial on how to make a good bow on a card...I have tried before and never succeeded so I was determined this time I would give it a go. Believe me I know this bow isn't perfect but it is 100% improved from previous efforts, so thanks Chrissie for showing me how to make a half decent bow! I used my new tapestry stamps for this card and completed the effect with the red button for the 'O'. I am therefore entering this card into the Delightful Challenges 'Christmas in July', stamp something 'embellished' (ribbon, bow and button), Paper Cutz 'anything goes' and All sorts 'free and easy' challenges.

I also couldn't resist having a play with my distress inks and this cute puppy digital stamp so made another card which also fits with the Less is More challenge thanks to the tiny and cute buttons. This card is also being entered into creative card crews 'animal antics', Fresh brewed 'animal', stampin for the weekend 'paws for thought' and Simon says stamp 'use newspaper' challenges. That is all from me. Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Ready for the weekend!

2011-07-22T19:20:00.001+01:00

My cold is gradually improving but both Alex and I are exhausted so we are ready for a weekend at home. Alex had an exciting day today as it was a 'dress up' day at nursery. He wanted to go in the Batman outfit I had made him a few months ago so that was easy to accomodate. He was so excited that he was charging round the house holding his cape out and generally having fun...he was still wearing the cape and mask this afternoon when I collected him.

Crafting wise I have been playing with inks and stamps again to create this ATC. I used a clear emboss resist technique and distress inks on the background and then ironed the ATC to remove the clear embossing so I could stamp over the top. I made the gold cog by triple embossing in gold embossing powder and then stamping the cog image into it while it was still hot. I am entering this into craftycardmakers spotlight 'ATC', Simon Says Stamp and Show 'embossing', Kaboodle Doodles 'embossing', and TioT 'Steampunk' challenges.

I have also made a scrapbook layout following this weeks Sketchy Thursday sketch. As I tore the edges of the paper strips and the background also looks distressed I am entering this into Lasting Memories 'distressing' challenge. This also fits with CCC 'stars', Papertake weekly 'cute' and Paper Cutz 'Anything goes' challenges. The journalling read 'Alex has only recently discovered the joys of dressing up and likes pretending to be a doctor, a sailor, a knight and his current favourite, Batman. He has even invented his own character 'Mr Pull Up Head'!'. That is all from me for now. Have a great weekend everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Yukky!

2011-07-20T08:42:00.000+01:00

Well this photo should give you some idea of what is happening with me at the moment. I now have a completely streaming cold and am not getting any sleep as a result of the irritating cough and the non-stop dripping tap in my nose. YUK! Hence my lovely hubby going out to get some supplies!

Here is my workdesk for this week’s WOYWW. I have a few images on there that I have been colouring in and cutting out for a scrapbook layout that I am working on, and you can see the stamp and ink I used. You can also see some of my promarker pens, which live in the bottom drawer of the wooden cabinet. My lovely warm mug of tea which is helping me stop coughing and the essential toilet roll (I ran out of tissues!). You can also see my camera, this is because it has actually finally given up the ghost, refusing to focus on anything and so my lovely husband has bought me a new one which I am currently playing with.

The images are so much sharper and clearer on my new camera and the macro is fantastic…check out this flower photo

And this gorgeous stalk of lavender taken in the wind, my old camera would never have coped and would have focused on the background not the flower!

Here is the finished scrapbook layout which was made following last weeks sketch on Nuts about Sketches (169). I took inspiration for the layout from the photos, from this weeks cupcake inspirations (for the whole fairytale theme) and from a ‘pin’ of a fairytale castle on ‘pinterest’, so I am also entering this layout into the DCM ‘pinterest’ challenge. As I used something metallic on this (the brad) I am entering this into Tuesday Throwdown’s challenge, and as I took the words ‘Those special times’ from Michael Jackson’s ‘Remember the time’ this page also fits with this weeks Scrap it with a song challenge. The journaling on the page reads ‘This was one of those special times when everyone playing with the same things in different ways led to gentle, peaceful fun. Grandma put the knights on the wall, Daniel played with the drawbridge and put the horses in the stables, whilst Alex made his dragon attack the castle and played with the dungeon’. Apologies for the yellowish cast to this photo, it was taken in artificial light with the light source to the right.
That is all from me for now. Have a great rest of the week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Wet and windy July weekend!

2011-07-17T17:39:00.000+01:00

Well the weather is hardly summery this weekend which is a real shame. Alex and I have got used to spending our days outside in the sun and we have missed it this weekend. Instead we have done all the shopping, cleaning, washing, tidying and cooking together - he enjoyed the cooking most of all - especially when we made flapjacks! To get us out of the house and to stop us both going stirr crazy we went swimming yesterday afternoon, although I don't think it did either of our colds much good, and today I took him to the local indoor play area to work off some steam.

I have also had time to craft which has been fun. It is time for another Quirky Challenge, which was set this week by Cazzy. She titled this challenge 'Very puzzling' and the aim is that we had to do something to do with puzzles, real jigsaw puzzle pieces, or punched or die cut ones, or even inchie puzzles. I didn't have any puzzle pieces or anything to make some so went to the local charity shop where I bought a 500 piece puzzle for 49p! I then set about altering a couple of the pieces. I started with painting using acrylic paint and then stamped over the top of the paint.

I used images from our sponsor this week (the stamping boutique), printed out really small and coloured in with promarkers, cut them out and stuck them on and then added writing, gems and sparkle (using a sakura stardust pen).

I must apologise for the quality of the photos...my poor camera is on its last legs and really struggled with how small these pieces are: The 5p piece in this photo is to give you an idea of scale! I am entering these into Paperplay 'things with wings', Pixie dust 'girlie' (well to me fairies are a girlie image), Paper Cutz 'things found in the sky', and Sew many card 'glitter/sparkle' challenges.

As is usual for me I checked out the Less Is More challenge first thing yesterday morning. Now I don't have any circle stamps or punches so this was a challenge for me... in the end I used three different sized pen lids to stamp with! I used versacolour inks (rose red, burgandy, green and evergreen) and stamped down a masked off strip on the left hand side of my card, added red and green gems and then a sentiment on the other side to create the final effect. I have to confess that this was my third attempt at a circle card...the others ended up in the bin! I am also entering this card into the CTT 'circles' and stamp something 'Christmas in July' challenges.

Finally I made a scrapbook layout following this weeks Sketchy Thursday sketch. This layout didn't need any journalling as the title 'Tell a story please Great Gran' says it all! This also fits with Scrap and Stamp 'buttons', Scrapfit 'birds' and SIWAS 'every little thing she does is magic' (I used the phrase 'tell a story' from the song). That is all from me for now. Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

School again!

2011-07-15T18:55:00.000+01:00

Alex is ultra excited about having spent another half day at school today. He really does like it and he is very fond of his new teacher and class room assistant and can't wait to start school properly. As far as he is concerned September can't come soon enough!

Crafting wise I have continued with my Christmas scrapbook by documenting an event that was a tradition from my own childhood...opening stockings in my parents bed, only this year it was my son and his cousin who were opening their stockings in the same bed! I used a subtle vintage colour scheme as it fits with the colours of my Mum and Dad's room and followed this weeks Pencil Lines sketch. This also fits with the Simon says stamp and show 'stitching', DYSU 'sew', Kaboodle Doodles 'scissors' (I used them to cut round the stamped stocking image), Fresh Brewed 'three of a kind' (3 gems), The pixie cottage 'ribbon', Stamp, scrap and doodle 'cream, brown and one other' (blue in my case).

I have also made a birthday card for my uncle who turns 60 next month. I used my recent steampunk images for this so it fits with Gingersnaps 'cogs, gears and watch parts', Penny's challenge 'Happy Birthday' and Stampavie 'birthday' challenges. That is all from me for now. Have a great weekend everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Stamping Wednesday!

2011-07-13T08:37:00.000+01:00

Well I have finally caught up with all the washing, cleaning, tidying and e-mails since returning from Somerset, but unfortunately I seem to be catching Alex's cold. The poor little thing still has a nasty cough and if anything it has got worse not better. He is quite happy despite it, but rather tired as he is unable to sleep well at night.

For this weeks WOYWW I am showing you my desk in the midst of making a card which is using nestability cut shapes and torn scraps for masking and various inks to make a background on which I intend to stamp some silhouettes. You can see the scraps of paper, ink pads and sponges I am using to make the background, the start of the card (hills are there), a couple of nestabilities hiding under the ink pads, my old broken camera (it really needs to be thrown away), and my lovely warm mug of tea.

This is the completed card on which I stamped Lavinia stamps. I am entering this card into the Less is More 'one layer card that has anything with legs on it', Crafty cardmakers 'one layer card', Pollycrafts 'the great outdoors', CCCB 'sun' and MTTC 'bird watcher' challenges. That is all from me for today. Have a great rest of the week everyone,
Love,
Caro
x

Sunny Somerset!

2011-07-11T18:05:00.000+01:00

Alex and I have spent the weekend at my parents house in Somerset where we were joined by my brother and his family. We had nothing particularly special planned, just fun in the enormous garden, letting the boys invent their own entertainment. Alex came up with this weekends 'special' which he and Daniel called 'Clowns'; attempting to walk and run in Grandma and Grandad's wellie boots!

Needless to say it involved a lot of falling over with huge amounts of laughter while Nicholas (aged 18 months) looked on in bewilderment

and decided that chasing Juno and climbing on the stone lion was more fun!

We then had birthday cake on the lawn to celebrate Nel's birthday which was earlier this week.

On Sunday my Gran came over to see us all which was extremely special

and we went to the village playground so that the boys could work off some steam. When Andy and the family went Alex and I had water fight in the garden and we came home this morning via one of my closest friends, Hilary.

Since getting back Tim and Alex have played together giving me a change to unpack, put the washing on and check out the Less is More site. I even managed to come up with a quick card for the challenge which is a one layer card with something that has legs. I masked the panel and sun with Nestabilities shapes, and used mustard seed, spiced marmalade and fired brick distress inks for the sunset sky and stamped with Lavinia stamps as silhuoettes. I am also entering this into the Pile it on 'favourite techique' challenge (Stamping and masking), CCC 'favourite challenge' (#149: single layer card), stamping for the weekend 'wings and things', and Meljen's 'no more than two layers' challenges. That is all from me.
Have a great week,
Love,
Caro
x