School induction!

Alex had his first induction day at school today and we had to go along and meet his teacher and be given some information by the head of his school. It was a good afternoon and he behaved really well settling in OK.  I can't believe that my little boy is old enough to be going to school in September! (Apologies about the quality of the photo...my well used camera has finally given up on me and this was taken in a rush on my mobile!)

Crafting wise I have broken one of my personal rules and made a Christmas card before October!  I was given a new set of tapestry stamps and couldn't resist playing. This card follows this weeks Unscripted sketch and fits with their 'Christmas in July' theme, which is this weeks theme for Tuesday Throwdown and OCC.  I am also entering this into TioT 'flower power', and Spoon Full of Sugar and Simon says stamp who both have 'sewing/stitching' for their themes.
That is all from me for now. If all goes according to plan this weekend I will be down in Somerset so wont be uploading a new blog post until Wednesday.  Have a nice weekend and start of the week.
Love,
Caro
x

Sticky and hot!

Although the sun hasn't been shining as much it is still very sticky and hot here. We could do with the promised rain to cool things down a little and to help my poor flowers survive!  Alex is wilting a little too, although I don't think that is from the heat...he has a nasty cough which is keeping him awake at night.

For my desk this week, as part of WOYWW you can see I am in the middle of a one layer card which I am making in shades of blue with various lavinia stamps.  This has proved a challenge so there are a number of failed attempts on the desk as well as the stamps, ink pads, scraps of paper etc.  You may notice an absence of tea...don't worry, it isn't missing, I have just moved it off the desk so it doesn't get knocked over. It is to the right of me and is lovely and fresh!

I cannot take full credit for the idea behind this card as I saw something very similar on inkybitz which gave me the inspiration for this. I am entering this card into Cupcake craft challenges 'single layer cards', crafty cardmakers spotlight 'masking' (I masked the moon, the bridge and the edge of the stamped panel), Fluorishes timeless Tuesday 'friends' and CCCB 'birds of a feather' challenges.

I have also made a new baby card for friends who have just given birth to their first child, a little girl, hence the colour scheme!  I am entering this into the celebrations challenges for both Kaboodle Doodles and Pollycraft, and to the anything goes for Papertake weekly.  Sorry about the photos...I have run out of time to sort them out! That is all from me for now. Have a great rest of the week.
Love,
Caro
x

Summer's weekend!

Well this weekend it has truly felt like summer!  The sun is shining, there is a light breeze, there are the sounds of children playing outside and the smell of fresh mown grass.  Yesterday Alex and I went for an adventurous drive over Strines Moore to the village of Bolsterstone where they were holding their annual Village Fayre.  It was great fun with lots of traditional stalls (white elephant, second hand toys, clothes, cakes, sweets, pick the right dandelion, rolling penny's. skittles etc) and fun games to be had.  Alex tried his hand at fishing for ducks, scoring a total of 5 in his net.

He also got to have a go on the little traction engine, the bouncy castle and the merrygoround. It was a perfect traditional Summer's fayre and a lovely afternoon out.

Today we went to the permanent paddling pools at Rivelin Valley where we spent a happy hour or so shooting each other with water pistols while splashing through the pools.

I can't believe it is already two weeks since the last Quirky Crafts challenge and this week it was my turn to set the challenge.  We have a great sponsor Stitchy Bear stamps so do pop over and join in.  The challenge is to NOT use any patterned papers, with the idea being that you make your own. You can use embossing, inks, stamps, paints or anything else you think of.  This was my first attempt at using colour wash inks and glimmer mist to create the background. I then added Lavinia stamps (stars, grass and dragon) stamped in black and then kept the digital stamp (from Stitchy Bear stamps) in black and white to add contrast. I am entering this into Stamp somethings 'digital' challenge.

I also made a bookmark using distress inks (antique linen, walnut stain and tea dye), using Crafty individuals and dark room door stamps and the quill and ink pot from Stitchy Bear stamps. This fits with the Simon says stamp and show 'a word' and CTT 'technology' challenges.

As it is the weekend it is time for another Less is More challenge. This time the challenge was shades of blue. My first thought was to use my Adirondack dye pads and brayer to make a brayered background and to put this inside my new embossing folder (a frame).  I used three shades of blue for the brayered background and then stamped the iris and butterfly on top. As a result of the butterfly I am also entering this into the Flutterby Wednesday challenge. 

Now, I wasn't too happy with the previous card so decided to have another go at the less is more challenge using the same frame, but this time using distress inks. I have two shades of blue distress inks and used those to ink the background. I then used inkadinkado flourish stamps round the edge, added the Kanban sentiment, stamped the blue butterflies and finally added the gems.  This card therefore also fits with crafty cardmakers spotlight challenge 'focus on the sentiment',  and Delicious Doodles 'flourishes and bling' challenges. 

Finally I made this scrapbook layout following this weeks Sketchy Thursday design. I took the righthand side of the double page layout, which also fits with the 'cut your embellishments from patterned paper' challenge from Scrap Fit. The scarves, hat, gloves and boots are cut from American Traditional Designs papers and the snowflakes from Sandylion papers. That is all from me for now after a wonderful weekend.  Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Friday!

Woo Hoo! It is Friday and I am SO ready for the weekend!  Today has been so frantically busy that I have felt like I was chasing my tail all day. It was such a nice feeling to get home and to unwind by playing with Alex. He has been a good boy at nursery today and came home filthy as a result of playing in the mud! I don't mind mucky boys...it is perfectly natural as far as I am concerned!

Crafting wise I have made a couple of scrapbook pages over the past few days. This first one follows an older pencil lines sketch #241 and is of Alex and one of his friends sat on the top of a slide together in the park.  It is entitled Summer Fun so follows the Scrap and Stamp 'summer fun' theme. There are at least 4 layers on this layout so I am also entering it for the Stampavie 'more than three layers' challenge, as well as crafty cardmakers 'spots and stripes', My time to craft 'here comes summer', and stamptacular 'stars and stripes' challenges.

The second layout follows this weeks Nuts about sketches layout and also fits with Do you stack up 'squares' challenge, Lasting memories 'recycle' challenge (the image of the lifeboat in the top left square is recycled from the advertising leaflet), and Paperplay's 'anything but a card' challenge. That is all from me for now. Have a great weekend everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Conference week!

I was one of the invited guest speakers at an important conference in my field this week and I am relieved and glad to say that my talk went reasonably well. The conference itself was fantastic and fascinating, and I have loads of new ideas as to how to take my research forward which is very exciting. Although I am sharing my desk as part of WOYWW, having arrived back home this afternoon my desk is how I left it on Sunday evening! Yes, there is the all important cup of tea (I think I run on tea the way a car runs on petrol!), and lots of photos which I am sorting into groups for scrapbooking projects. Underneath the photos are my crafting notepad and the latest edition of craft stamper magazine.

Obviously I haven't been at home to craft but I did make this before I left following the sketch which is this weeks Less is More challenge (haven't had time to show it to you until now!). I was desparate to use some of my new crafting goodies for this sketch and the filmstrip seemed to fit...the only challenge was to find a stamp to fit!  In the end I went for the Lavinia stamps poppy coloured with promarkers.I then mounted the filmstrip on red, and added a punched butterfly with gems. This card also fits with OCC 'show us your style' challenge...my style has always been clean and simple. That is all from me for now...I hope to get back to crafting tomorrow! Have a great rest of the week.
Love,
Caro
x

Weekend fun!

Yesterday the weather wasn't exactly what you would call summery, although there were hints of sun at some intervals. Mostly it was windy and wet so Alex and I played indoors with a mixture of lego (I built cars, trucks and tractors until we ran out of wheels and then had to build a robot!), castles, monsters and a trip to the indoor play area to let him burn off some energy. Today the weather is completely different...brilliant sunshine with very little breeze so we have been playing out in the sun and been swimming this afternoon.

Crafting wise I made this little card following this weeks CCT sketch. I went with the colour scheme of red, white and blue (the pale blue paper is striped) and used ribbons and star shaped brads so this card also fits with Meljen's 'stripes', Paper Play's 'stars and stripes', Aud sentiments 'food or drink' and Penny's challenge 'red, white and blue' themes.

I also made a scrapbook layout following this weeks Sketchy Thursday Sketch. This used Sandylion white and silver 'ice' paper as the background, shimery dark blue paper as highlights and die cut for the title (using a Sizzix alphabet), Silver peel off snowflakes, dry embossed snowflakes on pale blue card and a Whiff of Joy stamp coloured in with promarkers.  The journalling reads 'Alex was very clear about how a proper snowman should be built. It should be made from three big balls of snow and have a carrot for a nose. It also needed eyes (we used fir cones), a smile and bow tie! Frosty became Alex's new friend and he was very sad when Frosty melted 7 days after construction'. This layout therefore fits with Daring cardmakers 'Something old and something new' theme - The old thing is the sizzix alphabet which I have had for years and not used for at least 18 months, the new thing was the whiff of joy stamp which I used for the first time...the layout also has blue on it (sorry, I couldn't managed the borrowed!). The layout also fits with sew many cards 'dry embossing', SCSC 'embossing', and the pixie cottage 'outdoor fun' challenge. That is all from me for now. I am off to a conference in Birmingham tomorrow and wont be back until Wednesday so will update then as usual.
Have a great rest of the week,
Love,
Caro
x

Incredibly blessed!

I feel so incredibly blessed!  Tim and I celebrated our wedding anniversary this week and just look at this amazing pile of presents that he gave me.  A mixture of wonderful crafting goodies including Tim Holtz paper stacks and cutting dies, Lavinia and Darkroom Door stamps, nestabilities and cuttlebug embossing folders

and my main presents; a beautiful pair of earings and a pandora bracelet containing charms chosen specially to mean things to me: A pram (Motherhood), an elephant (I had an imaginary friend who was an elephant when I was a child), a pencil (crafting), a dramatic face (musicals and theatre), dog (I love them!), a teapot (I drink at least 8 mugs of tea a day!), a bible (my faith) and numerous hearts (our love).  A truly special present representing 10 wonderful years together. 

Alongside these presents we celebrated by going for a romantic steam train ride

complete with champagne in proper glasses and posh nibbles

Followed by lunch at a lovely restaurant in the peak district, The Chequers Inn at Froggat. We also went to the cinema to see X-men: First class - a truly amazing film - and had time to play with our new toys. A wonderful way to celebrate our anniversary.

This project is my first ever venture into the wierd and wonderful land of Steampunk and was made almost entirely with my new toys. The background paper and map was from a Tim Holtz paper stack, the filmstrip and cogs were Tim Holtz dies and the stamps were all from the DarkRoom Door Steampunk set. I am entering this 6x6 piece of artwork into the following challenges: Simon says stamp and show 'metal', City Crafter challenge blog 'number 1', Tuesday Throwdown 'masculine', Just for fun 'Steampunk' and Pixie Dust 'number or gears'.

I have also been continuing with my scrapbooking. This layout entitled 'Train Fun' follows the left hand page of this weeks Nuts about Sketches double page sketch and fits with Pollycraft's 'travel/holidays' challenge. I used entirely Basic grey papers and added the original train tickets and a xela train stamp.

The final page is the first of this years Christmas layouts (I know I am way behind!) and includes photos of absolutely everyone who was there (all 13 of us!).  I added the sparkly Christmas trees cut from scraps of paper and kept the layout simple to keep the focus on the photos.  The title is 'Christmas Fun (I love it!)' because I absolutely adore the fun of a houseful at Christmas.  I am entering this into this weeks Scrap it with a song as I took the phrase 'I love it' from the Lady Gaga song for this week, and into Crafty Creations 'let it shine' challenge. That is all from me for now.  Have a great weekend everyone.
Love,
Caro
x