Fathers Day Cards...

Tomorrow I am going away for the weekend to the Lake District. A 'Hen' weekend from work, 35 girls all wearing cowboy hats. If you see us I would move rapidly in the opposite direction. We are not known for being quiet! Anyway, I won't be blogging for a couple of days so I thought I would share the Fathers Day cards that I made for my Dad and posted on the Creative World blog this morning.. There are two - one from me, one from my brother.

I took these photographs (really poor as it is pouring with rain and very dark so I had to take them indoors and the artificial light in here is terrible) to show the corner punch I use to make a scalloped edge. Mine are EK Success punches and I bought mine from Artbase. They have a frame that you use to line up the corners of your paper but it comes off so that you can punch along a straight edge. They are so useful and I've used them on nearly everything I've made since buying them.

edited to add: Jackie - I have the large (purple) and medium (green) punches

A Busy Night...

I really wanted to make owls with my new pattern but I had cards that I needed to make so have been busy all night making them - so I can play owls tomorrow!! (Poor photographs as they were taken indoors as it is pouring with rain here)

Postie's been ...

... and he delivered my pattern from Buttonberry for the Melly & Me owls - Hooty & Tweet. Watch out for an influx of owls in the coming weeks!

Have to dash, I've been asked to make two Fathers Day cards and a wedding anniversary card.

A Garden Trail...

Had a busy weekend here - crafting, crafting and more crafting. Most of which can't be shown yet. I did make two cards for a friends twin sisters who will be fifty. As they are identical twins she wanted identical cards which is easy as you just cut the same pieces out twice!

Yesterday we went on a garden trail in Hexhamshire. We had a lovely day, the weather was warm but cloudy to start with but the sun broke through in the afternoon and was reallt just perfect. As always I took my little camera and found some lovely flowers which we really must have in our own garden. I had to take the photograph of the lupins in front of the turquoise door as I loved the colour of it so much but the owners did give me a few funny looks when I went o inspect it closer (I really wanted to take a photograph of the door but thought I would gets quite a few funny looks!)

Happy Saturday...

I love Saturdays. We're going to the theatre this evening to see Beauty and the Beast, I've heard brilliant reviews so I am really looking forward to it. I was up early as the postman delivered a parcel and I've spent the whole day crafting, computing and listening to music. Don't tell anyone but I still have my pyjamas on!!

I'm really pleased that I have managed to complete this weeks dare from the Daring Cardmakers. The theme was 'space' and I used Shabby Princess papers and a space rocket and spaceman doodle from the Lily Pad. I drew and coloured the planet myself with felt pens and printed the happy birthday sentiment on the computer.

Next weekend I am going to the Lake District for a weekend with the girls from work. There are about 35 of us getting a bus straight from school on the Friday afternoon and returning on the Sunday afternoon. It is one of the girls' Hen Weekend and on the Saturday she wants a theme of cowboys and cowgirls - I'm stretching myself and wearing a sparkly cowboy hat. Again Shabby Princess has worked her magic as just when I was thinking of the whole cowboy theme she released these papers. Perfect for a card for the 'Hen' hoping she has a lovely weekend.

So, job number 3 was to make ten birthday cards for a swap with friends. I've made all 10 the same and I'm really pleased with how they came out. I used Basic Grey paper for the flowers, some little diamonds and machine stitching. I fed my card blanks through the printer before I started and printed the Happy Birthday directly to the card.

There are other items too but I can't share those yet, you'll have to keep checking on the It's A Creative World blog to see them soon. Talking of It's A Creative World, all the comments from this weekend will be put into a draw to win a fabulous kit from Scrapbook Central.

Hello Friend...

This is my latest offering on the Creative World Blog, there are step by step instructions over there for todays post. I love making really quick cards and if you make several at a time then you create a kind of mini production line and can make a batch of cards in quite a short time. Just as well really as I need to make 10 birthday cards this week for a swap with friends!

Through my letter box...

I've been stalking A Colourful House for a while now, really liking her buttons but whenever I see that she has uploaded new buttons to her shop they have already sold. Last week I was lucky in that I was browsing as she was uploading and I managed to snaffle a pile of beauties - and they arrived today!! Expect to see them in a project soon.

A few pictures from our recent walks. We try to walk every day, sometimes just around the village where we live but sometimes we go off to the woods and the park and we always take the camera. I had to lie on the bridge and lean under the fence to get some photographs of the swan family on Sunday afternoon - I did get some odd looks!

Have you been over to A Creative World today, Maria has shown some photographs of her daughters' play house. I am now dreaming of a craft-house in the back garden. I wonder if you can make them spider proof?

Back to the day job...

So, half term is over and I had to go back to work today. It was difficult getting into gear this morning and being up, dressed, fed and in my car to trundle off to school by 8 o'clock. I'll be used to it by Friday I'm sure - just in time for the weekend!!

The batteries in my camera had run down so I couldn't take any photographs of yesterdays creations so here they are.

First up is Clara, the sweetest little bunny dressed in spring colours. She went off in search of a new home yesterday to my cousin's little girl, Gemma. She saw Bella when she visited last week and decided that her life wouldn't be complete if it didn't include a bunny!

This card is for the latest Daring Cardmakers Challenge, to use something see through. I made a card for my Dad's pal's wife who is going into hospital this week to have a mastectomy, just something to show we are thinking of her I made this cute little tag with acetate, my sizzix and my sewing machine. The prima flowers are trapped inside the pocket and I stamped the word 'hello' directly on the acetate
Now that I seem to have re-discovered my scrapping skills I thought I should 'make hay whilst the sun shines' and I did another layout of our trip to Harrogate. By necessity it's a simple layout, just the photographs, title stamped with Making Memories foam stamps and my pixie alphabet stamps.

Working with yesterdays photographs...

I had such a lovely time yesterday when we had our great day out and I think this is my favourite photograph from the day. I like that little honey bee sitting peeping over the top of the flower! I painted the chipboard letters with a tester pot of paint that I bought in B&Q and it's a shimmery, sparkly one. You can't really see the sparkly-ness so I've taken a bit of a close up. I can't really photograph glitter and sparkle very well - anyone have any sure fire ways to take good pictures?

Bitty Bags...

The response to our new adventure It's A Creative World has been so positive, we are all literally stunned, thank you to everyone who visited when we launched it yesterday. Hopefully you'll return today as I have put step by step instructions to make my felt bitty bags on. They are very easy to make and I've now made quite a few to keep in my cupboard for gift bags for special people. The first few I made are lovely and bright, very summery colours. The one I made this week and featured over there was made with wool felt as opposed to acrylic felt and is in lovely shades of pink. I bought my wool felt from The Fat Quarters, my local quilting and fabric shop run by my 'beginning to be a' friend, Kim. If you get a chance to pop over to It's A Creative World I would love to see your versions of my bitty bags so please leave a comment with a link over there.

Altered watering can...

If you've been to visit our new blog It's A Creative World then you'll have seen my altered watering can. I bought it in IKEA a couple of weeks ago not really being very sure what I would do with it. I made some sweet little hanging hearts with felt and fabric so the colours were determined by these and I raided my ribbon drawers and jars for colours that would go with the hearts. Then of course I couldn't find any papers that I liked enough to use so started looking in my old stuff and found some ancient K&Co paper that I must have had for at least 4 years. I used my favourite tool at the moment, EK Success retro flower punch to make the flowers, added a bit of doodling around the edge and some prima flowers and buttons for the middles. The flowers are attached using foam pads to give them some dimension and voila ... an altered watering can. I'll be using this as a gift container for a gardener with perhaps some packets of seeds for her garden, gloves, a trowel etc.

A Great Day Out...

Today we've been down to Harrogate to spend the day at the Royal Horticultural Society garden Harlow Carr. The weather was glorious and the rain that was forecast never arrived so we had a fantastic day. I took a zillion photographs that all need to be looked at but I picked these out to share tonight.

It's A Creative World...

Have you seen our new inspiration blog, It's A Creative World? We are so excited to launch it today and everyone who leaves a comment there today will go into a draw to win a voucher for A Trip down Memory Lane. Don't forget to check back there tomorrow as I'll be posting some inspiration for using felt.

I'm off now to Harrogate for an adventure at RHS Harlow Carr Gardens, my little red mini is packed with my camera and picnic and also some pennies as I love shopping in their gift shop too!