Hijacked! (WOYWW)

Well it is Wednesday again, so time for WOYWW, and this is what my desk looked like yesterday morning.  Alex hijacked it so that he could stamp and colour in a card for his girlfriend!

This time he chose to use a Whiff of Joy and a tapestry flower stamp for his design.  He ran out of time for colouring in so decided to leave the dress white with pink highlights (Ella likes pink) and to colour in the hair only.

This is my desk as it was last night, with me having a chance to craft. It is somewhat messier when I craft- LOL!  As you can see I was midway through making a scrapbook layout so there are papers, stamps (mostly left over from Alex’s crafting), my craft mat and DST. To the back of my desk is my lovely hot mug of tea and to the left is my new kindle (a wedding anniversary present) in its bright red case (so I don’t lose it!). I had to force myself to put down the Kindle and actually craft yesterday as my bookworm nature has taken over this week – I have read 3.5 novels since getting the Kindle last Friday!

This is the finished layout which follows this weeks sketch from Lasting Memories.  It also fits with DYSU ‘Inspired by a movie’ (How to tame a dragon) and Fussy and Fancy ‘Boy attitude’.  The papers are Basic Gray and Cosmo Cricket and the embellishments are printed images from the film How to Tame a Dragon, and a making memories hammer (I didn't have an axe!).  That is all from me for now.  Have a great week everyone,

Love,

Caro

x 

Kindle time!

I have had a lovely few days off work to celebrate my wedding anniversary.  We celebrated with a trip to the cinema to see the Avengers (excellent movie with some truly hillarious one liners), a traditional exchange of presents and hand made cards (yes, Tim made me one although he is shy and wont let me show it to you), and lots of yummy food.  My present from Tim was a Kindle Touch as he knows that I am a complete bookworm, and am inclined to turn to books whenever I have a spare 5 minutes. He also knows that I am clumsy and lose things easily, so he also gave me a bright red case to keep it in - I love my husband!

We have had fun with Alex this weekend as well, taking him swimming today, and to the park where we were dodging the showers yesterday.  This tree provided much needed shelter and entertainment combined at one point, with Alex learning to climb and to hang and drop from some of the branches.

I did manage a little crafting this weekend, despite the distraction of the Kindle and a seemingly endless supply of books!  For Less is More's 'Paper piecing' challenge I made this card in which both butterflies and the pram are paper pieced with two different types of paper. I am also entering this into Stampavie 'Anything with wings', Stampin for the weekend 'show your style' (CAS), CCC '1-2-3' and Delicious Doodles '1-2-3' (one pram, two butterflies, three gems) challenges. That is all from me for now.  I hope to be a bit more disciplined with my Kindle over the coming week and get on with some more crafting!  Have a great week,
Love,
Caro
x

Be like a swan! (WOYWW)

I have decided that the only way to survive is to be like a swan - all calm and serene on top and paddling like mad underneath!  That is what I am having to do both at work and at home this week, and it really isn't helped by having some sort of infection that is giving me permanently aching limbs and head.  Never mind, I am tough and I will survive!

This is a photo of Alex sat on my lap at my desk crafting with some stamps...he seems to love the time spent there, and thinks of it as a special treat on a Tuesday morning before school.

So for WOYWW here is my desk after he left it yesterday morning...I am showing it like this as at the moment it is completely empty after a day spent working at it, and not crafting.  This is just before I tidied everything away for work.  My fresh mug of tea was there to sustain me, and the stamps, inks and pens were the ones that Alex used. He also left me a toy soldier hiding behind them - can you see him?  The water spritzer was left over from an earlier project of mine, and the note pad has a list of things I need to do this week.

Here is one of Alex's creations...don't you just love the cheeky clown face!

This is my crafting effort for this week - not time to do anything more than this.  This fits with Less is More 'shiny' (gems), All sorts 'paper piecing' (on the pram), OLL 'Baby Baby' and SSSS 'a bit of brown' (the pram is stamped in brown).That is all from me for now.  Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Wet Lego weekend!

Well the weather has been miserable most of the weekend so we have spent the time cleaning, cooking, shopping, going to church and indoor play areas and playing with lego!  Alex has built some wonderfully strange and fantastic vehicles and had a great time doing it...I remember spending hours with lego as a child so it is nice to see him doing the same.

Crafting wise it is time for another Quirky Crafts challenge...this time it was Diane's turn to set the challenge and she chose handmade flowers and ribbons.  Punches and die cuts are OK, but no shop bought flowers.  I made a tag using the 1960s image from Paper Pretties (this week's sponsor), coloured with distress inks and promarkers, and punched loads of little flowers from basic gray paper.  The flower at the bottom was made from punching 5 sheets of paper, colouring them with distress inks, spritzing them with water, scrunching them up and then fixing them together with a brad.  Finally I finished it off with pearls, and a ribbon attached using a brad.  I am also entering this into Speedy Fox's 'vintage', CCT 'punch drunk', Fresh brewed 'anything goes' and MTTC 'hats or handbags' (the image contains both!).

My wedding anniversary is also coming up so I made this card for my husband.  I used an Anita's stamp, cut out the heart image at the centre and layered the Tim Holtz metal wings and heart, which I coloured with alcohol ink. Behind the hole at the centre I layered a blue heart on the underlying card.  I am entering this into Less is more 'shiny', crafty creations 'how charming', Stampavie 'something with wings'

and here is the close up of the hole in the front of the card as I am also entering it into DCM 'a hole in one'. That is all from me for now. Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Feeling the stress!

I know, I know!  I have only been back to work 2 days (today is the third) and I am already feeling stressed!  This is because I have so much to do (grant application, student thesis marking, manuscript submission etc etc) and not enough time to do it all over the next few weeks.  Anyway, enough about work...you are here to see my desk as part of WOYWW or my crafting and not to hear me whining on about work issues. Here is my desk as it was very late last night having just managed to finish my Father-in-law's Father's Day card. As you can see it is a complete tip with my phone hiding amidst the distress ink pads, scissors, steampunk stamps, PVA glue (yes that is a cotton bud in it - I find it the easiest way to spread the glue), a box of embellishments, craft mat, random pieces of card and the finished Father's Day card. My mug of tea is missing because it is ridiculously late at night and even I don't drink tea that late!

Here it is close up.  I used a Tim Holtz cog die, a digitial steampunk bird stamp (stitchy, I think) coloured with promarkers and gold pen, and Darkroom Door steam punk stamps for the edges.  I am entering this into Cards for Men 'Father's Day', SSSS 'Anything goes', Tuesday Throwdown 'critters' (I hope a steampunk bird counts!), and SCSC 'Happy Father's Day'.

This is the card I made for my Dad who is very British, and into the game of Bridge (hence the playing cards).  I am entering this card into CCC 'Red, white and blue', PTW '3, 2, 1'  (3 layers, 2 queens (or 2 stars) and 1 crown), Creative Card Crew 'Song inspired' (Rule Britania), and Fluorishes Timeless Tuesday 'Father's Day'.  That is all from me...I really must get on with some work.
Have a great week,
Love,
Caro
x

Daniel's birthday!

I can't believe that half-term is over. We have had such a lovely time, and especially over the past few days which we spent in London for my nephew, Daniel's, birthday.  The journey down was pretty hellish, but despite the pouring rain, the boys had a great time at the Rec before Daniel's birthday tea.

The cake was simply amazing, a very rich and yummy chocolate cake, which was eaten before the children played in the den leaving us adults to sit around in a very civilised fashion!

The next day we took the two 5 year olds to the Natural History museum, and Alex loved going on the underground for the first time ever - peering out of the window to make sure he didn't miss anything!

The T-Rex was definitely the star attraction,

although the skeletons and fossils were deemed 'pretty cool',

and the blue whale was 'awesome!'

The following day one of my University friends came over to see me...it is the first time we have met up in years, so it was wonderful.  The children played happily in the garden on the climbing frame, and at the end the three cousins decided that a blanket on the slide turned it into a roller coaster.  All great fun, and such a shame that it was over so soon.

Today we went to Endcliffe park where Alex practiced on his bike and had a great time on the bouncy slide.

Crafting wise I made this card for Less is Mores 'one layer card with swirls/flourishes' challenge.  My inspiration came from Chrissie's card which I adapted and added extra flourishes as a trail.  I am also entering this into SSS 'crown and/or gems' (I went for gems), Stampin for the weekend 'bugs and/or butterflies', All sorts 'ice cream colours', and OCC 'Tim Holtz techniques' (masking and distress inking).

I have also made this layout following week 216 sketch from Nuts about sketches.  As this page features the men in my life I am also entering this into Delicious Doodles 'for the fellas', Pixie Dust ' patterned papers' (there are 4 on this layout) and Kaboodle Doodles 'manly men'. That is all from me for now...I have had a wonderful holiday despite the rain and am not really looking forward to going back to work tomorrow.  Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Windy bank holiday! (WOYWW)

Well at last the rain stopped so we were actually dry on both bank holiday days and on Monday we even saw some sun, albeit briefly, so Alex and I went to Millhouses park to play.  Alex was especially chuffed when he learnt how to negotiate the mini track on his scooter...it had taken him most of the afternoon to get the courage up to go down the slopes on it.

Yesterday we braved the wind and met up with one of my best friends and her boys at Arbor Low Stone Circle.

It was a fascinating place and the boys had great fun running up and down the earthworks

and clambering on the various stones

whilst Abby and I caught up on our various news in the freezing wind; it was so special to see her, as we don't get to meet up anywhere near often enough.

Here is my desk as part of WOYWW, as it is set up right now and about to make a tag.  There is a lovely hot mug of tea 3/4 full, ready to sustain me, a number of distress inks and various Tim Holtz ephemera (if that is the right word) to add to the tag when I am done.  I particularly like the masks that he has made (you can see one on the tag below, which I made on Monday). In the background are a number of stamps that need cleaning and putting away, some blank tags ready for playing with, and to the left my trusty loo roll...used both for nose blowing and for cleaning the edges of stamps so I don't get unsightly lines or smudges on my cards. 

As many of you will be aware last Wednesday marked the 3rd Anniversary of WOYWW, and there was a great ATC swap. These were the somewhat patriotic ATCs I made for the swap (I couldn't resist combining the Jubilee with the WOYWW celebration!) and I actually have two similar ones available if any WOYWWer would like them.  Just let me know in the comment section below and e-mail me.

These are the two amazing WOYWW ATCs I received as part of the great swap.  The felt one was made by the amazingly talented Twiglet, and the hand doodled one was made by AliPeeps.  Thank you both so much once again.

Finally this is the tag I made on Monday which I am entering into Crafty cardmakers 'distress it' (entirely made from distress inks), CCC 'tag', SSSS 'texture' (embossing, ribbon, gems, buttons, heat embossing), Colour create 'green, brown, white with a hint of lavendar/purple', Fussy & Fancy 'swirls and flourishes', crazy4challenges 'butterflies', speedy fox 'use buttons', Lets ink it up 'use favourite embellishment' (gems), and Try it on Tuesday 'anything goes'.  That is all from me...I am off to London tomorrow for a few days so will post again on Sunday.  Have a great rest of the week.
Love,
Caro
x

Diamond Jubilee celebrations!

Congratulations to Her Majesty the Queen as she celebrates her Diamond Jubilee.  She has continuously served us well, with dignity, faithfulness to God, and dedication duty and it is only right that we should honour her and remember her on this day. 

Alex had a Jubilee party at school where the children were asked to dress in red, white and blue or as Kings/Queens. Alex went for both the colour scheme and pretending to be a Prince with this outfit.  He came back from school really chuffed as he had had his photo taken alongside a cardboard cut out of the Queen, and had won a Golden certificate for good behaviour and hard work.  I took him along to ToysRUs to choose  a special toy as a reward much to his delight.

This morning I painted his face with the Union Jack in preparation for the party.

Our Jubilee Street Party didn't go quite according to plan due to the shear amount of rain,

but as it was a church based party we were able to set up and move inside.

into the sports Hall,

the lounge

and even the worship area.

It was a lovely celebration with friends

and the children had a fantastic time after the food, playing parachute games in an upstairs room while the adults had a quiz.

To continue with the Jubilee theme, my crafting this weekend all featured a Union Jack flag which I made using distress inks sponged through these three templates. 

Here are the first ATCs which were made for my DT entry to Quirky Crafts 'Up, Up and Away' using elements from our sponsor, Cutting Cafe's Up, Up and Away digital stamp set, which I coloured with promarkers.  I am also entering this into PaperPlay 'double up' (2 gold corners on each ATC), SCSC 'anything goes' and Penny's challenge 'Anything goes'.

I then made this card for Less is Mores 'red, white and blue' theme, featuring a Tim Holtz crown which I masked before sponging the Union Jack with distress inks. Finally finishing it off by adding the red and blue peel offs, mounting on dark blue card and then stamping the sentiment (part of a Katie & Co stamp).  I am entering this into CCC 'Royalty', Delightful challenges 'red, white and blue', Daring Cardmakers 'red, white and blue', and Simon Says stamp 'anything goes'. That is all from me for now.  Enjoy the rest of the Jubilee celebrations and holiday.
Love,
Caro
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