May Fest weekend!

Well here in Sheffield we have been celebrating with a May festival in Western Park.  It was the greatest of fun and the weather was actually vaguely warm!  As well as the usual helter skelter and other rides

there were more unusual bungee trampolines which Alex loved

and some circus style entertainers

who even let Alex have a go with the tricks.

He was especially pleased to meet the Stormtroopers

as well as the very tall Sergant Majors!

To finish it off he had his first 'brain freeze' courtesy of a Hawaian ice (I had to help him finish it otherwise we would never have got home!).

This weekend it is time for another Quirky Crafts challenge set by Lyn.  She chose spots, dots, stripes and ribbon.  I was given this extremely cute 'an elephant never forgets' stamp by our sponsor (Robyn's fetish) to use. I actually followed the sketch from Stampin for the weekend for this card, which also fits with Delightful challenges 'ribbon' and Crazy4challenges 'birthday card'.

I also made a card for this weeks Less is More challenge which is to make a card for a baby or child.  I have only just made a new baby card so chose to make a card for a child who is really into Disney.  I used the stamp and brayer technique to generate a reflection.  This is the first time I have done this with non-silhouette and on see through stamps...it was a real challenge...I am not sure how well I have succeeded, but you can at least see what I am attempting to do with it! I am entering this into Crafty Creations 'male birthday card' and Simon says stamp 'clean and simple'. That is all from me for now...I need to go and get everything ready for an extremely early start tomorrow as I am off to London for press day at the Chelsea Flowershow...I am uber excited!  More on Wednesday with photos from Chelsea I hope!  Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Midweek rush! (WOYWW)

I am in a real rush this week as I am somewhat behind with preparing my post for WOYWW.  My excuse is I have had a stinking cold all week, have a hacking cough and no voice which seems to have somewhat slowed me down in all ways for some reason.  I did manage to craft with Alex yesterday so he could make this card for his girlfriend though!

This is the state of my desk as it was yesterday (Tuesday) evening in the midst of making a new baby card for one of my oldest friends.  As you can see there are promarkers, flowers and distress inks everywhere and I have to confess it doesn't look much better now. Notable by its absence is my large mug of tea...for some reason I forgot to get a top up - I must be ill!  The situation is rectified as I type this though...there is a large mug sat near me (but not too near the laptop in case of accidents!).

Here is the finished card which followed the sketch from CCCB, and used an image from Stitchy Bear digital stamps which I coloured with promarkers. I cut the central panel with a nestie and distressed round the edge with teabag and worn lipstick distress inks (I did the same round the edge of the card).  I am entering this card into SSSS 'anything goes', Pollycraft 'pink, white, cream and red', DYSU 'use a flower', Delightful challenges 'distressing', Flourishes Timeless Tuesday 'alphabet challenge ' (D: distressing, doily and die) and OLL 'ribbon'.  That is all from me for now.  Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Discovering Clifton Park!

Alex and I have had a fantastic weekend, having discovered Clifton Park in Rotherham for the first time.  There is a great mixture of things to do there, from the climbing frames and slides,

to the sandpit and paddling pool,

alongside the fantastic fountains

and great little rides including the jumping jack

dodgem cars (he was a lousy driver!)

the boat ride, and of course the rollercoaster (I had to go on with him, hence no photos). 

We went there both days to enjoy the sunshine patches inbetween the clouds and had a wonderful time.

Crafting wise I had time to make this card for Less is Mores 'use only 3 stamps' challenge.  My three stamps were the compass (Darkroom door), train (StampsAway) and greetings (from a mixed bag of unknown origin!). I masked the central area and used teabag distress inks to colour it, and used teabag and vintage photo distress inks for the stamps.  I am also entering this card into Stampavie 'monochrome' (all shades of brown), Delightful challenges 'distressing' (I hope this counts!), All sorts 'card for man' and Pixie Dust 'for the boys'.

I also made this scrapbook layout of my birthday...as I don't usually feature in my layouts, this was a challenge!  I followed Nuts about Sketches #212, and this also fits with Crafty Creations 'frame it', Simon Says Stamp 'sweet tooth', CCT 'food or drink', and SCSC 'I love you Mum' (as my son really does love me!). I'm sorry that I can't remember where the papers came from as they were scraps left over from a previous project. That is all from me for now.  Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Alex crafts (WOYWW)

Firstly, a thank you for all your kind wishes for my work event last week...it went very well which was a huge relief I can tell you!  So onto this weeks news... Well, Bank holiday Monday wasn't up to much was it - the weather was much nicer yesterday when I was stuck at work and Alex was back in school - typical!  We spent most of Monday inside playing knights and castles, crafting or at an indoor playarea where Alex could work of some steam!  Yesterday morning before school Alex made his Grandma (my mum) a birthday card using a cuttlebug embossing folder (he loves turning the handle), my promarkers, and some stamps. 

This is the card he made...don't you love the way kids draw the sky as a blue line at the top of the picture!

This is the state he left my desk in when he went to school yesterday morning, so I am showing you this for a change as part of WOYWW.  The open drawer at the back contains my promarker pens, of which the ones he used are scattered across the desk.  The stamps you can see are a Hero Arts set, and towards the back there is a tapestry stamp.  The punch is there because he loves punching, although in the end he didn't use the leaves he punched.  You can also see the cuttlebug plates and embossing folder, my phone and a lovely fresh mug of tea...this photo was taken after I got back from dropping him off at school.  I then had to tidy everything away so that I could work on my desk for the rest of the day! It is looking depressingly empty at the moment which is why I am showing this picture.

This is the birthday card that I made for my mother, which used two shades of Adirondack ink (butterscotch and sunshine yellow) brayered across the masked background to create a gradient, and two of my favourite stamps, poppies and birds from Lavinia stamps.  I am entering this card into Less is More 'yellow' (I know I said that yellow wasn't my favourite colour, but I was a bit embarassed by my last attempted entry!), Simon Says Stamp and Show 'favourite stamp' (probably the one I have used most is the bird one), Kaboodle Doodles 'Honoring Mothers' (This is my mother's birthday card, with her name stamped on it using JustRite stamps), Tuesday Throwdown 'Motherly love'.

I have also made a scrapbook layout following this weeks sketch from Creative Scrapper. The layout features the very first time that my entire family (with the exception of Gran), came to visit us in Sheffield, so it was a very special occassion.  The patterned papers used are scraps from K&Co and BasicGrey papers, with prima flowers and leaves.  I am also entering this into Lasting Memories 'metal' (the little plaque 'live...love...laugh' is made of metal), CCCB 'photo booth' (this uses 5 photos), Pixie Dust 'flowers', Crazy4Challenges 'gardening or outdoors' (most of these photos are outdoors, with some in my garden!). Well that is all from me for now.  Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Bang goes the weekend!

We have had a great weekend! Yesterday we went into the centre of Sheffield where the BBC were holding a Bang Goes the Theory Road show. Alex is a bit too young for the main event, but he loved the interactive bits where he labelled a skeleton,

Blew bubbles onto dry ice and watched them freeze, had his hand hit really hard with a hammer (the rubber protected it),

Jumped a long way and proved that he has the loudest shout of any 5 year old that had been tested.  I have to say that I wasn’t really surprised to hear that, but I was amazed that his shout reached 120 decibels – the same level as a sandblaster and a very loud rock concert!!

Today we went over to my in-laws for a family get together where for once the weather was nice enough to be out in the garden, so there were games of football,

Tag and general fun!

It was my turn to set the challenge over at Quirky Crafts so I chose ‘Masculine with blue and brown’.  We are sponsored this week by paper pretties and so I chose ‘A Beary Good Book’ and made a book mark for Alex with it, as we have started reading longer stories including Roald Dahl, and Horrid Henry.

The sentiments on back and front were also from the same Paper Pretties set, and I used distress inks (tea dye, broken china, faded jeans & vintage photo) for the background, with inkadinkado swirl stamps.  I am also entering this into CCT ‘One for the boys’, and Aud Sentiments ‘Anything goes’.

I also made a card for this weeks Less is More, the theme of which was ‘yellow’…sadly not my favourite colour and so I found this quite difficult.  In the end I settled on a Crafty Individuals stamp which I used three times and coloured yellow with promarkers.  I then stamped the Penny Black ‘Happy Birthday’ sentiment.  I am also entering this card into Penny’s Challenge ‘Happy Birthday’, Simon SaysStamp ‘Happy Birthday’ and Speedy Fox ‘Three of something’ challenges. 
That is all from me for now everyone, enjoy your bank holiday!
Love,
Caro

Nervous (WOYWW)

I am super nervous today as I am organising and chairing a University wide event at Mappin Hall in Sheffield.  The event is for all parents and parents-to-be in Academia, and as such is not related to my main area of work (Cancer Research) at all!  I think that is probably why I am nervous about it. The event hopes to raise awareness of the issues faced by parents who are academics and to try and improve policies and implementation of the policies in the University.  I hope that it will be good...wish me luck!

Here is my workdesk as part of WOYWW.  This is all the papers ready for a scrapbooking session.  As you can see I will be using a mixture of brightly coloured papers most of which are scraps left over from previous scrapbook projects.  At the back of my desk there is a series of brightly coloured dragon cards which use a digi stamp from a fellow WOYWWer, Spyder.  These are just waiting for Alex's signature before they can be sent.  The two stamps beside the cards are left over from Alex's crafting session yesterday morning, and the mug of tea is sadly empty and in need of a refill.

This is the finished layout, about 1 hour from the time the last photo was taken.  It was made following sketch #206 from Creative Scrappers, and features Alex hiding in a ball pit!  For me he is my greatest treasure, hence the title of the layout 'this boy...hidden treasure'.  I didn't feel that this page needed much in the way of embellishment as the photo is quite strong and so I just used some die cuts (large circle and flourish) and punches (small circles), ribbon and two brads. This layout also fits with Lasting memories 'Something you Treasure', Crafty Cardmakers 'for the boys', SSSS 'a kaliedascope of colour', CCC 'Ribbon', PTW 'Anything goes', and Fussy & Fancy 'Punches & dies'.
That is all from me for now.  Think of me between 9.30 and 12.30 today (Wednesday) as I run this event!
Love,
Caro
x

Hair cut!

This has been a busy weekend, but for the most part has been a lot of fun! Yesterday morning Tim gave Alex a much needed haircut, we did the shopping, washing, cleaning etc and then in the afternoon we went round to the house of one of Alex's friends from nursery.  Since the boys are at different schools they don't meet up much, but they have a great time when they do!  Today we went to church in the morning where the service was lovely; a mixture of traditional and modern worship music, a good message and some nice chats.  This afternoon we went to friends where Alex pretended to put on a kickboxing/karate show for us and had fun wrestling with me.

Crafting wise I have made this card following the sketch from this weeks Less is More. The main image is a stamp which came free with Crafty Stamper ages ago and I have actually paper pieced it.  Not sure how well that shows up on this photo though.  I stamped the image on yellow, pale orange (the centre) and darker orange (some of the rays), cut them out and put them all together.  Tim found it highly amusing and said it would have been quicker just to colour it in that way - he was right, it probably would have been LOL! I am also entering this into Delightful challenges 'paper piecing', and Crazy4Challenges 'Paper piecing' challenges.

I also made this scrapbook following last weekends sketch from Creative Scrappers.  The layout features my son and his best friend from nursery having fun in the park and in the garden. The papers were all scraps from Basic Grey sets. This also fits with paperplay 'monochrome + ribbon', Simon says stamp 'anything goes', Aud sentiment 'anything goes', and Speedy Fox 'blues' challenges.

Finally I made a series of simple thank you cards to send to Alex's friends. I used a digital stamp designed by the very talented Spyder and coloured them using promarkers. No two dragons have been coloured the same and I used the photo inspiration from Freshly Brewed to make them. That is all from me for now.  Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x