Leica Likey

It is my Mother-in-law's birthday next week and Neil really liked the card I shared with you a couple of days ago, so he asked me to make a similar design for his mum, this is what I came up with. I used my new Marianne birdcage die which I bought whilst I was out with my friends Anita and Nicki last sunday.

I used Basic Grey papers, punches by EK Success and Martha Stewart, I inked all edges with Sahara Sand ink by Versamagic and the sentiment is a stamp by Stampin' Up

These next couple of photos are of some of the new shelves housing some of the new cardstock we have introduced to the shop during the refurbishment, these are mainly for you Chanelle, there will be more to follow next week.

Today was spent completing the usual weekend tasks, washing ironing housework etc, I also enjoyed a few hours weeding and tidying the garden, the lawn needed mowing and there was a few areas in dire need of a little attention. After which I managed to squeeze in a little baking before the sunday roast needed seeing to.

I was delighted with how the brownies turned out. It is at this point I have a secret to reveal - shhhhhhhhhhhhhh don't tell anyone, but I have magic powers. You see the photos, they are evidence that I did indeed bake a large batch of brownies, but they vanished - into thin air - never to be seen again !!! See, told you I was magic, there is not even a crumb left now to suggest they ever existed !

Finally ( if you are still here with me lol). My last few photos are from my newly tidy garden. Neil has bought me a fab new camera so all the photos on this blog post were experiments with my new toy. I am now the proud owner of a Leica D Lux 3. I am still trying to figure most of it out and to be honest all these photos were taken in auto mode but I am determined to learn a lot more about aperture and shutter speed etc, so if any of you have some tips I would be really grateful.

Hope you have all had a happy and restful weekend xxx

Mr Mojo re-enters the building

This is the very first time in over 6 years of daily crafting that I have ever experienced a spell of not playing with my supplies, for almost 2 weeks I have been wondering if my mojo had left for good.


Luckily ( for my sanity and for my business) it turns out my mojo was simply enjoying a brief holiday and has come back refreshed and bursting with the need to delve deep within my stash.


Arriving home from work this afternoon I felt the desire to unleash my new found inspiration to create a soft and feminine card.





I used papers from the Je T'adore range by Making Memories and a lovely sparkled bloom from Prima, all available in my shop. The punches are a variety from Martha Stewart and EK Success, Stampin' Up products were used for the sentiment and for the floral detailing around the perimeter of the tag.





As I attached each decorated border, I added some small 3D foam squares to give the bottom edge of each strip just a teensy lift. All edges have been inked with Malted Mauve Versamagic.


I have also been busy finishing my ATC's for this months Stampman ATC swap, the theme for which was friendship. I seriously toyed with the idea of adding a little photo of each of my closest crafting friends who also play along in the swap, but the look of horror on Anita's face persuaded me otherwise.





The papers are Graphic 45 which I purchased a little while ago in Tilly's, I couldn't resist a little fussy cutting and added some cute bunnies, which were stickled for a little glitz. The monogram stamp is one by Stampin' Up, as is the friendship text background.





In keeping with the ATC theme, I will leave you with a friendship poem by Elizabeth Jennings

Such love I cannot analyse;

It does not rest in lips or eyes,

neither in kisses nor caress.

Partly, I know, it's gentleness.

And understanding in one word

or in brief letters. It's preserved

by trust and by respect and awe.

These are the words I'm feeling for.

Two people, yes, two lasting friends.

The giving comes, the taking ends.

There is no measure for such things.

For this all nature slows and sings.

Lake District - 2011

A narrow girdle of rough stones and crags,
A rude and natural causeway, interposed
Between the water and a winding slope
Of copse and thicket, leaves the eastern shore
Of Grasmere safe in its own privacy

William Wordsworth

Our very first outing with our new tent, sited at Grange-Over-Sands, Lake District.

An unseasonably beautiful and balmy April, idyllic ice-cream moments.

On top of the world.

Another fine mess ! Lauren and Hardy at the Coronation Hall - Ulverston

Also appearing at the Coronation Hall Ulverston - The SawDoctors

A well earned rest.

It was a holiday of firsts, the first time any of our little family had ever ventured to the Lake District, the first time any of us had enjoyed a walking holiday and the first time our tent had been used.

There were so many opportunities for the holiday to be dampened by inexperience, circumstances or indeed the infamous Lake District rain.

But dampened it was not, in fact we enjoyed the most glorious sunshine, more befitting of a summer on the south coast rather than an Easter in the West. The tent went up like a dream (and more importantly stayed up !)

The children were fantastic, no moaning or dramas, in fact they were perfect, they loved the area and the walking and they even all got on with one another and were happy to help around camp( still trying to work out how that happened so we can achieve it again next time)

I have never been so relaxed and forgot all the concerns I had at home with the shop refit etc. We didn't do any planning as such, we acted on our whim and fancy, took whichever direction captured our interest, enjoyed the picture postcard scenery as we breathed deeply the fresh air, in essence we stopped and smelled the roses ( well more often than not it was sheep poo - but you get the drift !)

I took a little notebook with me on this trip and at the end of each day, snuggled under canvas beneath the glow of a lantern, wrote a few words by which to remember the days and the moments that all too easily escape memory when it comes to journalling in my scrapbook.

The photos have all been loaded to my Mac and I will be creating an album over the coming weeks, I look forward to reading my notes and leafing through my photos as I create another family keepsake.

I will be back later in the week with crafty endeavours to share with you and news of the shop too ( and maybe a few photos of the progress there also !)

Please note, the shop is open for business as of tuesday, classes will NOT be resuming for a couple of weeks as some of the work is still in progress ( I will be back with class details and dates very soon) but we are open for you to stock up on your essentials, new stock is being added on a daily basis and there are lots of bargains as we are making room for all the new papers and embellishments.

Copics have been restocked and we have all the new colours, all at the offer price of £1.99, this is a limited time offer, so now is a good time to add to your collection.

Flowers, friends and a new floor

Oh what a beautiful day today has been, I hope you are all enjoying the warming rays of the sun as much as I am. I arrived at the shop today to begin the refit and was welcomed by this gorgeous bunch of lush tulips - what a beautiful start to the day. Thankyou June, they are so pretty and cheering up my fireplace at home as I type this.

The tulips make me want to paint,

Something about the way they drop

Their petals on the tabletop

And do not wilt so much as faint.

A E Stallings

First up today I have my mum's mothers day 'card'

Anita came round on one of our recent craft days and gave me these shaped chipboards to make something with, and this is what I created. ( Thanks Anita)

The flower is one I made from a multitude of layers of tissue paper.

Within the covers I created six little pockets to house my tags

I kept the tags simple with some quotes about mums, writing my own mothers day greeting on the back of the first one. And as the finished creation was an odd shape I made a co-ordinating box to present it in.

This next card is one I made for my dear friend Margaret. I used the same range of papers I had used for mums card. The card was for a special birthday (21 + VAT). Margaret has become know as my other mum, she keeps her eye on me and looks out for me when my own mum is not there to keep me on the straight and narrow. In fact since having the shop I have inherited three extra 'mums', Margaret, Bonnie and Rose who have all taken me under their wing.

There are two extra pages, meaning additional space for some special words.

The final page, the friends Stamp is one by Stampin' Up. As is the flourish around all the edges of the nesties, I used Weathered Wood Distress ink for all the inking and stamping.

And the gang at yesterdays celebration, we all met for lunch and laughs, the photo shows ( left to right ) Margaret and her lovely friend Janet, My mum and Dad, Nicki and Anita. Chrissie was there also but had to leave a little earlier than the rest of us. It really was a lovely day, we all laughed so much we went home with aching ribs , there was lots of fun and frivolity and the usual amount of banter and teasing.

Brian turned up at tea time to whisk Margaret off to the second part of her days celebrations, I managed to snap this photo just before we left for home, I love the way they are both looking at each other.

Finally a little shop update, this was the lovely supersmooth and level floor after the screed went down at the end of last week. The floor covering started going down today, gorgeous Camaro tiling, it is looking fantastic already - can't wait to see it finished. We began preparation for the painting and refit of the shop fittings so hopefully with a bit of hard work we should be open again in about a weeks time (fingers crossed) Class dates will be announced as soon as I have all the new stock in place.

Happy Mothers Day

Warning - very long photo heavy post

Once again I am playing catch up, just can't seem to get into the old blogging routine I used to have and a week has sped by without any posts

I made this little plaque earlier in the week, you can see how it started out a couple of photos down

I covered it in white card, sanded and inked and then threw a mass of flowers onto it, added liquid pearls for the centres, added some punched hearts round the back to create a fancy frame and finished with a computer generated sentiment. As the shape was bought for me by my friend Margaret and the ribbon was a gift from Anita, it seemed fitting to use a friendship quote to finish the piece off.

Here it is in unaltered form.

I also challenged myself to use the free scrapbooking papers in this months Scrapbook magazine.

I made my own background for the first one, using distress inks and a dotty stamp and then aging the edges with ink.

The photo is 10 years old and was taken at a zoo in Southport, Amy was doing a lions roar which turned out really cute and funny hence the title 'rarrrrr'.

I didn't have a digital copy of the photo and it had been cut down to fit an old album ( pre scrapbooking mistake !!!!!!!)

The background before adding the free papers, I used Victorian Velvet and Bundled Sage Distress inks for the spots and Frayed Burlap for the edges.

This second page is again using old photos that had been taken without much care and attention and had been cropped just as sloppily, so I used three on one page as one looked a little lost all by itself.

The photos were quite garish ( all the fun of the fair !!!!) so I didn't add too much in the way of clutter, I added stitching instead and kept plenty of white in the page to balance it all out. Second layout in a week that hasn't contained flowers !!!!!! That must be a record for me.

And these are the A4 freebie papers I was working with, not bad two pages that only cost me two sheets of cardstock and some bits and bobs from my stash !

Anita came for the day on friday, we didn't really have a crafting agenda, so we kind of drifted into making flowers.

These were made from tissue paper, we used the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die to cut them out and then layered lots and lots together - attaching all the layers with a brad.

Lots of lovely dimension and each one turned out slightly different.

And a different kind of flower following a tutorial on you tube

Pansies using the Stampin' Up butterfly punch

Finally, it has been the best and worst Mothers Day ever, for reasons that are far too long and involved to write here. The important thing is that all turned out well in the end. Quite fittingly one of my gifts this year from the children ( helped of course by daddy)was a gorgeous gemmed heart for my new Thomas Sabo charm bracelet, so I carry my childrens heart on my wrist as well as in my own heart.

Thankyou Neil, Amy, Robbie and AJ, love you all so much xxx

Also thankyou to every single person who was by my side last night, in spirit if not in person and for those also who gave up their night to help. Especially Neil and mum and dad also Amy who showed an amazing amount of maturity and composure. And to the Police, who often get bad press and a lot of stick but last night proved they are worth their weight in gold.

Happy Mothers Day to all you mums ( especially my own special one), do me a favour and hug your babies extra tight tonight, no matter how big or small they may be - I will be !