Altered art!

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
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Exciting times!

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!

 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!

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
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Just a quick post!

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!

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!

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
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