Hi All.  Wow, it's been a busy old time recently.  Work's been mad, and it's been pretty busy at home.  I did find time to make a couple of anniversary cards using the fab Mixed Bunch stamp set and matching punch from Stampin' Up.  I love these so much and will be using them lots (as soon as I get a bit more free time).  I stamped one of the images in Pumpkin Pie, Tangerine Tango and Real Red, then punched them out.  I then punched them in matching card stock.  I gave the stamped flowers a little but of a curl before I stuck them to the matching punched flowers.  I stuck a thin piece of ribbon around the middle of the card before I attached the flowers.  I couldn't decide which order to have the flowers, so I did one of each.  The centres of the flowers are Candi coloured with matching markers.  The sentiment is from a set by Paula Pascual.

One of these cards is for an old college friend who has been married 20 years.  I was a bridesmaid at her wedding and I had only just started going out with Mark.  It doesn't seem possible that so much time has gone by.

Talking of time passing quickly, my little boy was 13 on Thursday.  It doesn't seem 5 minutes ago that he looked like this.

And now he looks like this (complete with a bruised nose, from being bashed in the face by a tennis racquet!).  He had a lovely birthday, and was very happy with his Nintendo 3DS and a huge pile of books.  We went out for a lovely meal, and then had a big family party yesterday.

I made him a mini album instead of a card, which I will share with you soon, just haven't got round to photographing it yet.

We've also had to help him choose his options in readiness for Year 9 in September.  His school start their options courses a year earlier than most schools.  That was also hard to believe, he seems too young to be making these choices, although I am impressed by his mature approach to choosing his subjects.

We were blessed yesterday, for Edward's party, with the weather.  I know we shouldn't complain, but does it have to be this hot?!  My poor little Chloe, she doesn't know what to do with herself in the heat.  She has even gone off her food, which is virtually unheard of!!

Well, that's me for tonight.  Thanks for dropping by and I really do appreciate your kind comments.  Look after yourselves in this heat, and take care.

Michelle x

Snow Fun

My babies having fun in the snow yesterday!  Emily was there too and had a go on Edward's sledge, only I'm not allowed to post any photos of her.  Trust me, she had a great time too.

It's lovely to see Chloe having such a great time.  She can be quite a timid dog at times and is very wary of new experiences - especially those that involve her getting cold and wet!  But she LOVED the snow so much.

Take care in this weather. Thanks for dropping by.

Michelle x

Four Frames

Hi everyone.  Hope all is well with you.  Today I am sharing with you two cards that I made last weekend with the Four Frames stamps and coordinating punch from Stampin' Up.  I loves these stamps, particularly the dotty one (love all things dotty!).  The stamps are so versatile as you can put any sentiment you like in them.

The card blanks were ones I cut myself from a sale pack of A5 card from Craftwork Cards.  They measure 10cm x 10xm - perfect for notecards or thank you cards.

Ingredients

Purple card : Craftwork Cards

Paper : The Bloomsbury Collection - Kanban

Stamp and Punch : Four Frames - Stampin' Up

Ribbon : Grosgrain from collection

Sentiment : Find Joy Every Day - Marion Emberson

Inks : Rich Razzlebery, Old Olive - Stampin' Up

Ingredients

Cream card : Craftwork Cards

Paper : The Canterbury Collection - Kanban

Stamp and Punch : Four Frames - Stampin' Up

Ribbon : Grosgrain from collection

Sentiment : Find Joy Every Day - Marion Emberson

Ink : Tempting Turquoise - Stampin' Up

I'm not generally a fan of Kanban, but I really like these papers.  They are very good quality and the designs are so elegant.

I've planned my next Stampin' Up order and have managed to persuade Mark to buy me something for Mothers Day (I've promised he can keep it until the day and wrap it up!!).  I love the Ink Spots and can't wait to get another set - I think I am going to go for the Subtles this time.  I definitely need to expand my range.

I hope you have managed to sneak in some crafting time today.  I spent the whole morning cleaning up after the dog - there was more mud on the floor than in the garden!  I have managed to spend a couple of hours making cards this afternoon though, so that made up for it.

Chloe seems to have calmed down at night.  She is still howling pathetically, but it's each night it's gets less and less.  I think she has finally got the message (famous last words!!).

Take care and thanks for dropping by.

Michelle x

Candi Stamps

Two posts in two days!  Don't get used to it, it wont last!

Here are the two cards that I made yesterday with my new Craftwork Cards Candi Stamps.  I love this flower and have been looking for a stamp like this for a while.  I stamped it in three colours on digi-smooth card stock and cut each one out (a bit of a faff!!), then stuck them on in a wavy fashion.  The centres have Candi in them.  The ink pads I have used are my new Stampin' Up ink spots.  They are divine!  The colours are lush and they have such gorgeous names.

 Stampin' Up ink spots - Rich Razzleberry, Tangerine Tango and Melon Mamba

SU ink spots - Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie and Regal Rose

Hope you like them.  I'm really pleased with how they turned out and I'm looking forward to having more of a play (less than 3 weeks until half term!!).

Off to bed now to make up some sleep that I lost out on last night.  Chloe decided to keep us up until the early hours, howling for no reason.  In the end I caved in and let her come upstairs.  Wish me luck for tonight!

Michelle x

A Touch of Greenery

Here's another card from my recent bout of creativity.  Again, a very simple card, and one I think would suit both male and female.

Ingredients

Stamps : All by Marion Emberson

Ink : Brilliance

Card stock from stock

I've got another card that I want to show you, that I made this week.  It fits the bill perfectly for the Less is More challenge blog - the subject being Polka Dots.  The only problem is that the card is for my Mum and Dad's wedding anniversary on Monday, and the final submission for the challenge is tomorrow, and my parents do read my blog - so what to do?  Ban them from reading the blog until Monday or not submit?

This week has been half term and a bit of a funny old week.  I've had very little motivation for anything, which is a bit worrying.  My dog is going through her first season (it's a bit of an eye-opener!!), and my kids are bickering.  It almost (not quite though) makes me wish I was back at work!!

Hope you are having a more productive week.

M x

What a week!

Boy, am I glad this week is over!  It's been such a long, busy week and I feel absolutely wrecked.  Mark has been on a four day jolly - oops!  I mean business trip - to Spain and only got back last night.  He did bring me some chocolate, a bottle of gin and a bottle of perfume, so he is forgiven, but I am so tired with being virtually a single parent.  It was a big help that my lovely mum came to stay for four days (thank you Mum!) and she took care of Emily during the day, as well as Chloe, and kept my house clean and tidy - she's a star!  I haven't even had the energy to pick up my crochet in the evenings, not that there has been that much time, what with dog walking, school meetings and dog training.  Anyway, it's the weekend now, time to recharge the batteries.

So now I have the time, I'd like to share a couple more cards with you.  These were a bit experimental but I am so happy with how they turned out.  I bought a bag of mixed flowers in the sale from Craftwork Cards and these matched up with some blank cards that I already had in my stock.  I teamed them with a bit of ribbon and a sentiment, and added Candi to the centres - couldn't be simpler.  Hope you like them.

Have a great weekend.  I plan to make a few more cards, do a bit to my blanket and generally chill out a bit.  I'm off to have a rather large G&T.  Cheers!

M x

Good morning!  Well, this is the last day of my summer holiday, so regular postings will now go out of the window!  Here are three more cards to share with you, all for birthdays in September.

 Ingredients

Card, embossed frame and sentiment : Craftwork Cards

Ink : Versamagic Spring Pansy

Ribbon : Craft Fairy

Glitter Glue : Stardust

Ingredients

Card blank, sentiment, Candi : Craftwork Cards

Flowers : Prima

Paper : Sugar and Spice by Dovecraft

Ingredients

Card blank, Candi, Digi Smooth cardstock : Craftwork Cards

Cardstock : From stash

Stamp : Time for Tea by Beth Gunnell (free with Quick Cards Made Easy)

Nestabilites : Large Classic Oval and Large Scalloped Oval

Promarkers : Duck Egg, Walnut, Lime Zest, Sky Blue, Meadow Green, Canary, Peach, Rose Pink

Sakura Glitter Gel Pen

I think it will be unlikely that I will get any more cards made today which is a pity.  My day will be spent getting myself and the children ready for tomorrow - checking bags, pencil cases, PE kits etc.  Making sure shoes are polished and phones are charged and locker keys are found.  I'm trying to eliminate the panic tomorrow - would like the morning to be calm, particularly for Emily - so no dramas would be good!  I'm off to chivvy Edward to get dressed (how is he going to get ready on time tomorrow??!!) so that we can walk the dog.

Have a fun day.

M x

Sunday at the Beach

On Sunday we took Chloe for her first trip to the beach.  Emily has been champing at the bit to do this for weeks.  It was quite tricky to find a suitable beach that allowed dogs off the lead, one that wasn't too far from where we live.  In the end we had to go to the Suffolk coast where dogs are allowed on the beaches all year round.  The beach was actually 100 miles from home, a two hour journey.  I was very anxious because Chloe doesn't really like going in the car!  She wasn't too bad in the end, maybe she resigned herself to it.

The beach was at Sizewell, famous for its rather ugly power station right by the beach.  But the actual beach was really nice.  There was a very reasonably priced car park close by, a little beach cafe and toilets - perfect!  We took a picnic and our camping chairs and we were all set.

Chloe loved the beach and had great fun tearing up and down.  She didn't like the water however, and nothing could persuade her to dip a paw in the water.

It was a long way to go, but we had a lovely relaxed family day out.  Even the journey home wasn't too bad, as Chloe was exhausted and slept for a lot of it.

It looks like she had fun doesn't it.

M x

Flowers

Inspiration came from an article in Papercraft Inspirations (issue 87, June), a magazine I bought by mistake! The article featured the Four Flowers stamps by Hero Arts and was written by Angela Poole. I based my card on one of her designs, tweaking it here and there.

I used a cream scalloped base card and stamped on cream card stock, using raspberry pink to accent. The inks were Marvy Matchable dye inks and I used accent beads in the centre of the flowers (stuck on with Glossy Accents). The stems of the flowers were coloured with a Promarker, highlighted with a black Sakura gel pen. The pink flowers are raised up with 3D foam pads. I inked the scalloped edge with the pink dye ink for a bit of added interest.

I really love this card, even though it took me ages to make it. I wasn't sure exactly how it was going to end up, but am pleased with the effect. I will definitely be making another one, but will vary it and use a different colour combination. The stamps are versatile and I think they will feature in a lot of cards to come.

I have five more working days left until the end of term and I am already planning what I am going to do with my time. I have signed up to an online journalling class with Kirsty Wiseman here and am itching to make a start. I also have plans to make lots of new cards, and I may even give Christmas some thought. I don't generally mention the "C" word so soon, but if I don't make the cards over the summer holidays, I will not have the time once I am back at work.

The main focus of the summer holidays is to slow down. Life has been pretty tricky over the past nine months and stress levels have risen quite high. I am looking forward to a slower pace of life, maybe sorting out some menus for family eating (that has gone to pot too), reorganizing my craft area and taking the dog for a lot of walks, and generally to have a nicer time.

Hope everyone has had a jolly weekend, despite the appalling weather.

Take care

M x

Time is Flying

I meant to post this on Sunday, but I don't know where the time has gone. We had a busy day on Saturday when we spent the afternoon at Stowe Landscape Gardens, a National Trust property in Buckinghamshire. We generally meet friends and go there for a picnic every year. This year we weren't able to leave home until lunch time and didn't get there until 2.40pm. We got stuck in loads of traffic around Knebworth (Sonisphere concert) and had to stop a couple of times for Chloe. She doesn't travel well and whinges and fidgets a lot in the car, but she's still a baby.

Anyway, we had a nice relaxing time until the heavens opened and we had to take shelter under some trees! It was a long way to go for us for a couple of hours. My two sets of friends live a lot closer, and neither of them have children or a dog. I'm thinking next time we need to find somewhere suitable in our neck of the woods and they can travel to us for a change.

I'm itching to make cards and to have a play with all my new bits and pieces and the only thing that is stopping me is time - I just don't have any. I haven't even been able to take photos of my new things. It's been a busy week work wise, and I've been out a fair bit this week. My mum and I went to our local theatre/cinema to see Water for Elephants on Monday (missed it when it came out). It was a lovely film, a bit brutal in places, but Robert Pattinson was gorgeous. We had our Open Evening at school on Tuesday, then dog training tonight, and then off to the cinema tomorrow to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 - I am SO excited!!!!! So, busy busy.

Today has been a funny day at work. All our Year 6 children went off to their secondary schools for a transition day, so I made a yellow brick road for their Wizard of Oz production on Monday. It was great fun and I really enjoyed doing it.

Counting down now - 6 more working days until the summer holidays - woohoo!

M x

And another finished blanket :)

So pleased that I finished Emily's blanket yesterday. This one didn't take very long at all, I started it in February and have done it in small bursts of energy.

Emily's room looking unusually tidy (I think all the rubbish and dirty clothes are out of shot!!).

The blanket consists of 10 colours and bands of 10 rows of each. I think I started off with a chain 180 stitches long, but to be honest, I can't actually remember! Each colour is repeated twice. After my epic Granny Stripe, this one was so quick to make, and a lot less ends to sew in! The wool is the usual Stylecraft's Special DK from here

Someone else has taken a shine to it too! Chloe always curled up on it when I was working on it, so it didn't come as a surprise that she was the first one to try it out when it was on the bed.

Chloe's such a cutie. We've had her for 12 weeks now and it feels like we have always had her. She's a good girl (most of the time), and has taken to her training very well. She's also my early morning wake-up call - when Mark goes down to her around 6.30am, she comes bounding up the stairs and onto the bed to say good morning, usually landing on my head!

Hope your Monday was trouble free. I've had quite a good day, nothing out of the ordinary, but no stress. I am busy making props for our Year 6 production of The Wizard of Oz - it's amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it!

M x

Blossom

How has your Sunday been? The weather has been appalling today and we have been rather housebound. Poor Chloe doesn't like the rain, so we have to physically evict her out into the garden at regular intervals.

I have a rather poorly teenager on my hands - Emily. She went to the doctors with a raging earache on Monday and has been on antibiotics and pain killers since then, but neither of these are making any difference. So after a miserable night where she couldn't sleep at all and was crying with pain I took her to the Out of Hours Doctors' Service early Saturday morning. She is now on heavy duty antibiotics and painkillers and if there is no improvement on Monday, she may have to go on IV antibiotics!! Well, today she has done nothing but sleep, which really is the best thing for her, and I'm hoping there will be some improvement tomorrow. Earaches are miserable things aren't they, and Emily has been prone to them since she was tiny.

Well, because I have been housebound I took the opportunity to make a few cards, two of which I want to share with you. I am trying to use up kits that I have had for a while, in a desperate attempt to make more space. So the kit I am using up at the moment is called Blossom and it's from Craftwork Cards (no surprises there I guess, as you know they are my favourite company). I really like the pink and brown combination, Mark commented that the brown paper would make lovely wallpaper for a feature wall.

The cards are a large square, measuring 145mm x 145mm, they came with the kit, as did everything I used on the cards.

Hope tomorrow is a better day.

Take care

M x

Sculpture Trail

Last Saturday we took Chloe for a walk in the woods near to where we live. It's a lovely place with plenty of different length walks available. We decided on the shortest walk along the Sculpture Trail. All the figures have been carved from wood, and are positioned in quite an unstructured way at various points along the pathway.

We had a lovely time, just a long enough walk for our little puppy.

Just in case you are wondering, yes Emily was with us but she hates her photo being taken and I had to promise her that I wouldn't post any photos of her!

The weather has not been too great this week for long dog walks en famille, so it's been down to Mark and myself - who could have predicted that!!

M x