My weekend...

This weekend I received a gift voucher from a friend with the cutest spring birds.

It shocked me a little at first as I couldn't understand what I had bought but thankfully it wasn't anything I accidently bought. I also received a gift code for a free graze box and since I've been thinking of buying one for ages I finally got around to getting it and it should be here Wednesday. I hope I enjoy them all.

My niece has chicken pox at the moment so what better card to make her then one with spots. I ended up doodling on some of the spots and I was wondering if I should stick some buttons on too as my niece loves them but I'll have to do that quickly as she will be well before then.

I bought a couple of washi tapes because I really wanted a musical one but as they were on offer for 2 I got the spotty one too. I'll probably soon use them as I've been making little samples to share too.

I'm giving away some washi tape pegs at the moment on make my day, why not pop on over to try and get them!

Snoopy Card...

Last week a friend e-mailed me some sad news. I wanted to surprise her with a little cheer me up even though I know it would have made only a small dent in lifting her spirit but its the only sad thing about having letter/e-mail communication with friends abroad as you can't just pop around and be there for them.

 

Luckily that day my niece had gone home early so I sat down and crafted this card for her as she's one of the many people that loves Charlie Brown Characters especially Woodstock.

I used my A-Z again as part of the background. The page I've used is of a village called Haworth which is part of Bradford but known as a place in its own right. It is the home of the Bronte sisters and their family and you can visit the areas they walked in etc... as well as their home but also it has one of the only active steam trains which you can take a ride in.

Oxenhope is also a village featured on this page and the only thing I can tell you about it is that it no longer has a Post Office with in the village. I can not imagine living in a place with no Post Office! I've grown so used to having one almost on my doorstep that to have to go in to Haworth/Keighley to post my letters would be so weird as they are some distances apart. They did have one once but it was forced to close when Royal Mail made many of its cut backs.



I had to put woodstock somewhere and it seemed right to put him on the back like you find with manufactured cards. It adds a little something to the card I think. I just didn't find the right place for him on the envelope...

but I do love how it turned out also. I used washi tape that I received from the Lovely Letters swap and I can't wait to find other ways of using it too.

 

Did you enjoy watching Charlie Brown as a child?

Christmas Crafting Part 2

I was busy creating the last of my Christmas cards on Saturday when my niece called me down by saying 'I'm here Khala, come down!'. So I had no choice but to... she handed me a piece of paper, 'I've made you a picture Khala' before I got the chance to question her about it, her mum piped up... its a picture of her dad sleeping... erm ok... I actually asked her why I needed a picture of her dad sleeping but got no response.

To me though it looks like dads dreaming of spring or summer as he's got a flower above his head but best of all 3 sunshines even though the yellow one isn't visible. I think I know how dad's feeling there as we're all nearly dreaming of some warmer weather.

 

I couldn't help laughing on my way to drop my niece off to school on Friday as we turned the corner and were hit by a blast of cold air.... she went 'oh its cold. It's freezing!' she sounded like such an old lady. Her dad got a phone call later saying she wasn't well and can they give her some medication, my mum went after a hospital appointment to get her but they refused to let her go home saying she was fine now. Well when I went to get her, I got a lecture on having dropped her off at school poorly when she had been perfectly fine for the hour and a bit she was with me... I'm guessing she caught a chill from that blast despite being wrapped up in tonnes of layers, gloves, hat and scarf.

Anyway back to Saturday after she gave me this picture, it was like someone pressed a repeat button on her as she kept continuously asking to make Christmas cards as we hadn't finished the few she had left. I decided to share another type of card I made with her in case you'd like to do something like it yourself with a little person. Its so easy and one you can more or less leave them to do.

You'll have to excuse the photos as I took them about 8pm on Saturday night as my sister had mentioned she was going to write them to give on Monday. They are a peach and beige colour but they both look exactly the same. I have a tub of glitter glue from my days of making FBs and Decos which I hardly use anymore and weirdly still work. Before she had even started she told me she was going to make lots of spots so I told her to go for it even though I knew they would flatten out. They remind me of fireworks, baubles or fairy lights.... her mum has some Christmas foam stickers at home and I said if she wanted she could get her to stick some on top but she liked them as they are.

I've since told her not to write the cards as I saw a post on GypsyofJaspers blog about Salt Dough ornaments that I thought it would be so much fun to make with my niece as she's been begging for me to bake with her for ages only this will have a different twist of course as she can paint them. I've decided to make circles (baubles) and stars and she can give one each to the adults that work with her which in reality I don't actually know how many there are so I'll make about 20 if I can. Its one of the things my niece has always found hard is not knowing who would be there on the days she went.

I've only seen salt dough used once at work and it was a nasty experience as the children used it like play dough to make something in pieces so they were differently thicknesses. It ended up taking a whole day to cook it so the thin bits snapped and the fatter bits were still squidgy... so you can imagine where that project ended up! We had no choice as it was just crumbs so I hope the same doesn't happen here.

Hopefully I'll leave work straight away at 4pm tomorrow (I'm getting home about 4.30pm due to parents not collecting their children on time) so that I can do this with her as on Tuesday I'll be viewing a house which has probably sold by now as we had to wait a week to view it at the time we wanted! Its been put on the market for the 3rd time! Then I'll work until 4pm on Wednesday too.... I hardly do anything with my niece anymore and feel so guilty... I can't even remember the last time we went to the library.

I'll blog about our salt dough adventure soon though as I will give this a try.

Paper Muses.....

My sister is currently making Good Luck cards for the children she has worked with that are leaving this year after their exams. She was complaining that my niece will be happily playing and the minute she would take her things out she'd tell her she has finished and wanders over to investigate what she's doing. So I guess to keep her entertained she encouraged her to make a card for me which I got on Monday morning with a lovely message on the back. The little bunnies remind me of her as she gallops, skips and glides around where ever we are walking and people stop to look at her.

The wreck this journal finally arrived and I was surprised by the size at first as I imagined it to be a little bit bigger then it was but also some of the things in it were quite childish. I'd bought it as a gift and was in 2 minds in giving it as that person might wonder if I was insane or something. In the end I decided I'll ask her to have a look at it and decide whether she wanted it. I'm so glad I did as the reaction was exactly what I'd hoped it would be. I had the card at home just in case she didn't want the book so I'll give that tomorrow.

From what I'd seen on the Internet I created this insane, wrecked card.... use one word continuously (I know that's 2....), make holes in your page, fill a page with circles, colour outside the lines, rip this page..... I kind of forgot the card needed to stand up when getting over excited ripping it, it would have been better doing it along the sides.

I would still like one for the silliness of it.

I also bought a little present for me too....

I mentioned a while back that I wanted some collage pieces for my next project and I really struggled to find what I wanted until I came across the pack thats in the 3rd image. I had it in my basket for a week as I wasn't sure what exactly it contained but I'm glad I did buy it as I love it. The thing that I don't understand is that these images are on the inside of the card and not one seller took a photograph of it to make it easir to shop. I definately wouldn't have bought the 5th photographed one as I'm not into words but it would have meant that I'd have bought something else. I've ended up with a flower overload when I wanted something neutral but its ok as I really like everything and can't wait to use them in some way. I'd really recommended these K&Co packs. I've already created something using the old fashioned bicycle.

What kind of styles are you into?

As you will have noticed mine is more ecentric/vintage with the odd floral and cutesy things.

Today was the Day....

I don't normally find greeting cards very inspiring but today when I went to the supermarket with my sister I saw these and really liked the idea behind them. They were un-usual and quite fun from the usual rectangle flat shaped ones.

I only went along as my mums friend had organised a table top event at a centre so for some support we went along but it was actually really tacky with a hint of elegant.... there were those stalls that didn't have enough items and what they had was so badly organised so it looked really ugly but then there were 3 stalls that were so nicely done up but were lost in the ugliness of the event. It truely was disappointing as our eyes just swept over the whole thing and we ended up back outside to enjoy the sun instead. I really was looking forward to finding some usual and fun items. My mum's friends stall was really nice but it was the wrong time of year for it as she had lots of really cute knitted baby items and shawls but with a heatwave going on its the last thing people were going to think about. I saw a quilt that I loved but for some reason I had a brain freeze when it came to my card pin number and I couldn't remember it to take my money out... after 2 attempts I decided not to carry on as it would have blocked my card. I'm going to ask her about it later as I've always wanted a patchwork quilt.... still I've also told myself that I'm not allowed to buy anymore household items until I actually get a house and so far I've been really good.

Its been a really nice week with having a heatwave, being able to spend more time outdoor but even better is that I haven't had to cook once as my mum has been doing it. I feel so spoilt as my mum very very rarely cooks. I hope it lasts!

It was my younger brothers birthday on Thursday but we didn't celebrate it until today with a cake, Pizza and my niece continuely singing happy birthday to him... it was so cute! I've told him he'll have to pretend its his birthday everyday.

This cake really annoyed me not being in the centre. My family keep laughing at me taking photos but my younger brother asked me to take this one for him to post on his facebook!

Hypercrite :)!

Did you have a nice day today?

The clocks ticking.....

All that colouring with my niece has come in handy as I coloured these plain sheets into something bright and pastel coloured. I had originally planned to do a decoupage style as I got 2 of each sheet but once I coloured these sheets in, I wanted to leave them as they were.

I've had a really relaxing weekend crafting and it was so nice since I haven't done any in a while. Of course I'm still creating my journal but it isn't the same as seeing something come alive with paper. The first card I coloured all the writing in where possible and the second one I coloured in the images only.

With both of these cards I added a little bit of my own rubber stamp clocks and on one a key which I thought fitted in so well. Now I just have to hope that the person I send it to will really like them.

Has spring arrived at your neck of the wood?