Tired!

Well it is Wednesday and I still haven’t recovered from the clocks going forward. It wasn’t helped by having to get up early on Sunday and then being out late last night at a Gilbert and Sullivan show (Gondoliers – the greatest of fun!). All that said, it is time to show you my desk as part of WOYWW. My desk is looking relatively neat with only the things I am currently using out and about. A pile of peel offs, stickers and rub-ons are sat on my craft mat, and you can see my craft knife and scissors which I used to cut out the little cup, and the card I am working on with the embossing folder I intend to use on it. Most importantly in this picture the sun is shining in through the window and there is a lovely hot mug of tea (nearly finished) that I am enjoying.

Not only is my desk tidy, but my craft shelves are looking pretty good at the moment.

However, Tim says I am cheating by only showing you my desk and shelves and that I ought to show you the rest of the room. And he is right! This room is a complete tip with my little crafting corner the only neat part of it! I daren't show you Tim's half of the room, but I can show you the rest. The book shelves are a mess and need sorting and there is a pile of assorted rubbish/essential items/things that one of us wants to throw away but the other one wont etc in front of them.   I have to say that the majority of this is NOT stash (sadly - I wish it was), but it is our joint book collection and other assorted junk!  The stash is the only organised and tidy part of the room!

I have to step over the mess on the floor, including an old Phase8 bag, old jiffy bag and some wrapping paper to get to my desk...yes, the tidy up of this room is long overdue and is on the agenda, but will have to be done on a day when Alex is at nursery and I am at home. Those days don’t happen very often, but I promise to show a before and after photo when I finally manage it!

Anyway, enough about the mess...here is the finished birthday card (made for my mother-in-law who loves tea and cupcakes) which followed the sketch on less is more. This card also fits with the embossing challenge from Rubber Cafe, pastels and ribbon from Delightful challenges and for a special lady from All sorts.

I couldn’t resist having another go at the Less is More sketch for a Mother’s Day card for my Mum. This used a rose rub-on which had been in the back of my sticker drawer for at least 2 years...I remembered why when I came to use it...it was a complete nightmare to get it to stick to the paper, although I got there in the end! This card also fits with the ‘flowers for Mum’ challenge from CCC, ‘Mum’s the word’ challenge from MTTC, ‘Mother’s Day’ from Stampin for the weekend, ‘florals’ from Tuesday Throwdown, and I took inspiration from the beautiful rose in the photograph on Stamp, Scrap and Doodles challenge blog. That is all from me for now. Have a great rest of the week everyone.
Love,
Caro
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Lovely time!

Well we have had a wonderful time this weekend. Yesterday we did the weekly shop with Alex helping me to push the trolley and then in the afternoon went round to play at a friends house where Alex and Katie had a lovely time leaving the adults to chat nicely. Today we met up with my brother, Andy, and his family for the first time since Christmas. It was so special and lovely to see them all.

We went to an indoor play area in Milton Keynes called 360. It had a great mixture of a soft climbing, slide type area (Alex absolutely loved the very fast, very big slide)

bumper/dodgem type cars which the boys had a go at steering (not Nicholas although he might have been better at steering than Andy!!)

a carousel which they all enjoyed

and an upstairs area with lots of different play shops including a vets with lots of stuffed toys, a supermarket, a clothes shop with lots of dressing up clothes, and best of all as far as the boys were concerned was the mechanics with this car which they had a great time playing in, pretending to fix

and filling the boot with everything from the other shops! All in all it was a fantastic day.

Crafting wise I have made a card and decorated a candle as my contribution to this fortnight's Quirky Crafts challenge. The challenge was set by Diane who challenged us to make a twisted easel card or make a Mother's day present.  Well I had never made a twisted easel card before but I have to say they are really simple to make and very effective.  I decided to make mine for Alex as his 4th birthday is coming up soon (can you believe it!). I am entering this for the Crafty cardmakers 'special birthday' challenge as my son is very special to me so I hope it counts! I am also entering it for the Cazy challenge 'no square cards', Stampavie 'for a boy' and Daring cardmakers 'inspiration from books' (Alex's favourite books are the Octonauts which we have to read EVERY night!) challenges.

The candle is a Mother's Day gift and uses a digital stamp from The stamping Boutique (our sponsor at Quirky crafts this week), which I have coloured in using promarker pens and sakura stardust to give it some sparkle. I then finished it off with ribbon and gems. I am therefore entering this candle into Spoonful of sugar's 'ribbon, rhinestones and flowers' challenge, Tuesday throwdowns 'anything but a card', The pixie cottages 'sparkle', Simon says stamp 'Mother's Day' and Do you stack up 'shine, sparkle and bling' challenges. That is all from me. have a nice week everyone.
Love,
Caro
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Glorious weather!

We have been having wonderful sunny spring weather here this week and I am loving it. It certainly cheered me up from the various niggling frustrations of earlier in the week.  The flowers are out in the garden and I have pruned everything and mown the lawn, only one flower bed to weed now!  It is so nice to be able to get outside and enjoy the sun in the evening.

Crafting wise I have made a scrapbook layout following this weeks Pencil lines sketch, and the Lasting memories challenge of 1 die cut, 2 brads (mine are stars) and 3 layers. This also fits with the Crafty creations 'stitches' challenge as I have hand drawn little stitches down the joining lines of the background patterned papers. This also fits with the 'Have a nice day' song from SIWAS as the journalling reads 'We all had such a nice day at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. Alex was especially happy that his dream of going on a big diesel train was realised - going in the cab was the icing on the cake!' That is all from me for now.  Have a great weekend everyone.
Love,
Caro
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Midweek frustrations

Have you ever had one of those days where little annoying things constantly go wrong and wind you up?  Well I am definitely having one of those weeks so far..no major problems you understand, just those little annoying things that make life that little bit more complicated, or waste what precious time I have...I spent an hour yesterday trying to get Outlook to send an e-mail when it had been working perfectly for days before...see what I mean?!  Anyway, enough moaning, at least Alex is being good fun and cheers me up.  Here he is doing an impression of a cat lying on top of the sofa!

As it is Wednesday it is time for our weekly blog hop around each others work space as part of WOYWW.  As you can see mine is a bit of a tip with a mixture of ink pads, cuttlebug plates & embossing  folders, spellbinders dies, stamps, promarkers and pretty much everything you can think of, except my tea which is hiding out of sight and spill range (I am having a clumsy week too!). In this photo I am working on one of the Mother's Day cards.

This is the completed card with cuttlebug embossing, pearls and Lavinia stamps highlighted with whispers and sakura stardust pens.  As a result this card fits with the Pollycraft 'swirls and pearls', Stamp with fun 'spring', Ooh La La and Stampin for the weekend 'Mother's day' and pile it on 'sparkle and shine' challenges.

I also made a new baby card for Tim's cousin who has just given birth to a baby boy.  This card therefore fits with the monochrome challenge from CCC (I hope there is enough blue to count), the dots theme from Meljen's challenge and the babies, buttons and bows theme from CCCB. That is all from me for now.  Have a great rest of the week.
Love,
Caro
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Mixed weekend

Well it has been a somewhat mixed weekend, with lots of shopping trips, including an extremely frustrating one to B&Q, where despite promises made on the website they only had shelving that was 30cm in depth and we need at least 40cm, preferably more. I think that sorting out the storage for Alex's toys is going to be a little more complex than I hoped, although you can see from this photo why we need something! I am on a mission to sort out the house, not my favourite job but so far I have taken 2 bin bags full of clothes and things to a charity shop so I am making a start in the right direction. I am going to tackle one room at a time doing a complete spring clean, emptying out cupboards etc. It will take me ages as I have to work full-time, look after my family and want to craft at least a little each day to keep me from going insane, but it will get done!

Today we had a much more fun day with Alex and I heading to the swimming pool where he proceeded to jump in and out, splash and actually managed to swim (albeit with armbands) and started trying to dive!...one happy little boy!

Crafting wise I have made a masculine card for this weeks Less is More challenge. Like most people I struggle with this style of card, but found this lovely vintage car stamp which I stamped using versafine ink onto a distress ink (teabag) background. I then mounted the image onto brown and black card stock scraps and used a scrap of K&Co stripey paper. The happy birthday sentiment is the only one I possess, which is from Penny Black. I am also entering this card for the Tuesday taggers 'chocolate' challenge (needless to say I went for the colour!), Simon says stamp 'birthday' challenge, Ooh La La 'its a man thing' and Kaboodle Doodle 'birthday' challenge.

One of my colleagues is getting married next month, and the theme of her wedding is blue and she will be wearing pearls, hence the idea behind this wedding card. I don't have a large hearts die-cut so I used my fiskars cutter for the heart and then drew another one on the blue and cut it out with scalloped scissors - I was quite pleased with how it turned out considering! I am entering this card for the stamp something 'sweet' (that couple look so sweet and the corners are stamped) and the Paper cutz 'your choice' challenge. That is all from me for now. Thank you for looking and commenting.  Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Caro
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Knight in shining armour!

As it is comic relief day today Alex went to nursery in fancy dress, in his case wearing a knight’s outfit. He was very excited about the whole thing until he realised that he would have to wear the shiny trousers only...this caused him a small amount of stress for a while, until I said he could wear his normal trousers, at which point he cheered up. About 1 minute from leaving the house he changed his mind and decided to wear the proper trousers and even let me take this photo. By all accounts he had a very exciting and happy day, my little knight in shining armour (well shiny material!).

Crafting wise I have been catching up on trading cards I have needed to make for several swaps. This one is for an animal swap and is a digital stamp coloured in with promarkers and then mounted on black and brown card. I am entering this one for the Paper Cutz ‘your choice’ challenge.

This one was made for an anything goes ATC swap, using my only daffodil rubber stamp, which I coloured with my promarkers, cut out and mounted onto two different shades of green card. Therefore this card fits with the ‘green’ challenges by creative card crew, pixie dust and Delightful challenges, the spring challenge by Stampavie. the two or more G items challenge (gems and green) by stamp n doodle.

These next two cards were made using distress inks and Crafty Individual stamps for the background paper so they both fit with the ‘make your own designer paper’ challenge from Crafty cardmakers spot light challenge and the pink and white colours from this weeks Cupcake inspiration. They also fit with the lace challenges by Tuesday Throwdown and Creative craft and one of them fits with the three items the same challenge (gems) by PTW, and the other fits with the eyelets/brads challenge from The Crazy challenge. That is all from me for now. Have a great weekend everyone.
Love,
Caro
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Cameras!

For those of you who regularly read my blog you will know that Alex has been fascinated with cameras since he was about 2...probably because I follow him round with one most of the time.  He has now become very good at framing a shot and loves to be allowed to play, so I let him have my old camera when the mood takes him, which results in a lot of big grins all round!

As it is Wednesday (where did that week go!) it is time for me to show you my desk as part of WOYWW. My desk is currently in the midst of an ATC making session. On my desk you can see promarkers, some distress ink pads, my craft knife and ruler, Crafty Individual stamps, the ATC I am currently working on and in the background one of Alex's Gormiti monsters (in for emergency surgery as his head and wings had come off!), and the PVA glue I used to stick him.

This is the final ATC which was made using a digital stamp of the wolf pack (I can't remember where I got this one, but it was a freebie), which I masked and then stamped over with green leaves and finished with a sparkling orange butterfly. As a result this ATC fits with the orange and green challenge from Pile it on, the up in the air with green challenge from CCC, and the butterfly challenge from Delightful challenges and flourishes timeless tuesday.

I also made a few thank you cards for Alex as his birthday party is coming up...he will be 4, can you believe it!  Where has that time flown.  For these cards I used a one layer design with Robbie the Robot from Spyders Other corner, and digital words and I coloured them in using promarkers. This card therefore fits with Speedy the cats friends 'green and grey one layer', creative card crews 'no flowers' and Oh La La 'its a man thing' challenges. Have a great rest of the week,
Love,
Caro
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Wonderful to catch up!

I have had a lovely weekend. Alex seems to be sleeping better so he has been happier and well behaved all weekend and a lot of fun to spend time with.  We went to the park yesterday where he played very nicely with some other boys, and enjoyed taking this flower down the slide (he didn't pick it, it had been picked by someone else and then dropped), and then today I went to Coventry to see one of my best friends, Abby.  While Alex played with Owain, and enjoyed every minute of it, Abby and I sat and talked and talked and talked, putting the world to rights.  It was so wonderful and we were so busy chatting that I completely forgot to get the camera out until we were about to go, by which stage it was too late!  

Crafting wise I managed to make my DT challenge for Quirky Crafts.  This week it was Lyn's turn to set the challenge and it was a lovely sketch. As the whole idea of the Quirky Crafts challenge site is that we accept any form of artwork, not just cards, I decided to make a scrapbook layout.  I was given an image of a tea pot from our sponsor, Stitchy Bear digital stamps, so based my design around that, deciding to make a scrapbook page of my addiction to tea!  The journalling reads 'Definition: one who consumes 8-10 large mugs of tea a day i.e. ME!'. The layout also fits with the Flourishes Timeless Tuesday 'stitching', the DCM 'create your own embellishment' 

- in my case a shrink plastic teacup hanging by its handle on the ribbon, and the Scrap and Stamp 'about you' challenge (this really is who I am and a typical photo of what I am up to a lot of the day so I think it counts!).

I am also loving the challenges over at less is more as they really take me outside my comfort zone and I am learning loads.  It isn't always easy to receive negative feedback on my cards, but provided it is done gently I will learn from it.  That said, sometimes I am limited by my supplies.  Take this card for example...the challenge this week is 'over the edge'. It has to be a single layer card, with the image going off the edge of the card.  Well I used  a mixture of stamps and inks I had available but I think that the fern fronds should be a brighter green (which means a new ink pad) and/or with a thicker leaf pattern to match with the thicker writing and butterfly stamps (which means a new stamp!)...see what I mean!  That said I am still entering this card into the Less is More challenge, knowing full well I will get some criticism of it.  I am also entering it into the Delightful challenge 'butterflies' challenge.

This is another attempt at the Less is More theme which is more masculine in feel using Crafty individuals tree and bird stamps and Penny Black sentiment.  This also fits with the 'tree' theme from crazy 4 challenges. That is all from me for now.  I hope you all have a great week.
Love,
Caro
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Its the weekend!

Are you one of those people who looks forward to the weekend? Well I certainly am, and especially this weekend as I am going to see one of my best friends for the first time in far too long! I am so excited and can’t wait! Alex also gets enthusiastic about the weekend calling the days ‘Mummy and Daddy at home days’ and he loves the fact that we get to do different things, always asking us where are we going today, what are we going to do? Needless to say I am very happy that it is Friday evening!

Crafting wise I have only managed to make one card over the past couple of days. This is a leaving card for a girl at work and for the card I combined the Whiff of Joy stamp of the girl sitting down with her mug of tea and a Penny Black stamp of a mouse looking like he is about to give her a flower (she really likes animals, especially mice!). I used Hot off the Press papers which were scraps from some of my scrapbook layouts, and followed this weeks sketch from The Pixie Cottage challenge. This card also fits with the lovely ladies theme from the Crazy challenge, the jewels theme from MTTC, the baby blue challenge from Crafty Creations, the three or more patterned papers challenge from Fresh Brewed (the third patterned paper is under the ribbon- it is subtle but the pattern is there!), Simon says stamp 'anything goes' challenge and DYSU 'layers' challenge. That is all from me for now. Have a great weekend everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

My workdesk!

I am chuffed to bits at the moment because some of the new bulbs I planted in my garden last year have started to flower...I just love spring flowers!

It is Wednesday and that means it is time for another WOYWW. If you don't know what I am talking about then click the link and pop over and see all the fun.  My desk today is mid scrapbooking.  You can see the various elements of the scrapbook page that I am putting together, the cropped photos, the scraps of patterned paper, the background white card with green stippled distress ink already on it, my craft mat, double sided tape, pencils, pens, craft knife, and most importantly my lovely mug full of steaming hot tea. Perfect!

Having shown you the page in pieces I thought I would show you the final creation! It loosely followed the Sketchy Thursdays sketch for the week, and fits with the Tuesday Throwdown challenge of using scraps (all the papers, with the exception of the background card are scraps from earlier projects), the lasting memories challenge to show case your own style (lots of white space), crafty cardmakers challenge to use fabric (ribbon and felt), and Kaboodle Doodles and Do you stack up challenges to use green (photos are matted on green, green distress ink stippled round the background panel, green papers and embellishments). That is all from me for now. Have a great rest of the week,
Love,
Caro
x

Busy and fun!

Although we are all tired we have had a fairly busy weekend.  One of Alex's closest friends from nursery had his 4th birthday party yesterday at an indoor play area near us.  The boys had a wonderful time climbing round the indoor play area before sliding down the party slide to the special party room where the food was followed by a mini disco. 

Alex loved every minute (apart from one very hard bump to his head) and was so excited and over tired that he found it hard to sleep last night!

Today we went to see my in laws down in Kennilworth.  As the sun was shining we let the boys run off some steam in the garden where they sat in the hedges,

and clambered through the trees to their little den, while we sat happily inside drinking tea and chatting. It was lovely to spend some time with the family and to hear everyones news. 

Needless to say I haven't had a lot of time for crafting this weekend, although I did make a couple of clean and simple cards. This first one is for the less is more 'pastel colours' challenge and used a Lavinia flower stamp, which I stamped using versacolour inks, and a Penny Black sentiment stamp.  The strip of background paper was free from a magazine.  This card also fits with the Crafty Creations 'feminine birthday in blue and green', Aud sentiments 'birthday', 'blue and green flowers' from Cupcake inspirations and Stampin' for the weekend 'spring' challenges.

I also made a little notelet using a computer based sentiment for the first time...this took me ages to position right, and then I realised that I had been looking at the wrong side of the stamp, so it didn't turn out quite how I planned!  I added highlights to the flower and leaves with my sakura stardust pen (not sure how well it shows up in the picture!) and so this fits with this weeks One Layer Wednesday challenge. That is all from me for now. Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Glad its Friday

Well it is the end of another busy week and we are all tired and a little fractious. Alex has turned into a mini zombie, too tired to even eat so I really hope that he manages to sleep tonight, not that it stopped him from giving me a big cheesy grin when I had the camera out!

I have managed to complete one scrapbook layout over the past couple of days. This layout follows the sketch from Lasting Memories and the word ‘breakdown’ from the song 4 minutes to save the world as part of this weeks Scrap it with a song challenge (the boys were breaking down the cushion wall in the photos). The page is entitled ‘the Break Out game’ and uses basic grey papers and stickers.

I also made this little card using a Penny Black stamp coloured in with my promarkers, some Doodlebug paper (dotted spring colours), free ribbons (from various magazines ages ago) and prima flowers. This card fits with the colour scheme from CCCB, the flowers and colours from Cupcake inspirations, the Spring theme from CCT, Delightful challenges, the pixie cottage, and the crazy challenge, use an animal from Meljen’s designs, and seeing polka dots from Pixie Dust. Thats all from me for now. Have a great weekend everyone.
Love,
Caro
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