Scrapbooking – Just Us

Hello there, happy Sunday to you all, I hope the sun is shining for you as much as it is here.

Just a quick post from me today as I’m powering through my to do list, I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel now.

This is a scrapbook page with one of my favourite photos….

The three of us together at a friends wedding in 2009. The page came together really quickly, I used black cardstock as the background & trimmed the patterned paper down to leave a black border. I inked a paper doily with Tea Dye Distress ink, rubbing it in carefully with some Cut ‘n’ Dry foam to avoid ripping the doily. I matted the photo onto the spotty paper & used strips of patterned paper behind that, some alpha sticker tiles, Thicker & a couple of stickers later it was finished. All of the papers are from a Quirky Kit.

I’m considering altering a shadow box frame for it so I can display it in the hallway. What do you think?

Well that’s all from me for today. Thanks for stopping by & taking the time to leave lovely comments, it’s always much appreciated. Take care & hope to see you soon.

C xx

Technorati Tags: Scrapbooking,Family Photo,Wedding,Tim Holtz Distress Ink,Tea Dye,Quirky Kits,Stickers,Doily

Scrapbooking – Fruity Smiles

Hello there, how’s it going? Nice to see you, come on in & make yourself at home.

I don’t seem to have had much crafting time lately as I’m working very hard on something behind the scenes & I’m hoping to reveal all very soon. I’ve also got a craft fair on Saturday so I’m just making up a few more kits for the fair & my Etsy shop too.

Happily, I haven’t had as much time to blog either so although I’ve not done much crafting in the last 4 weeks I still have quite a few projects to share with you all – there’s always a silver lining :)

Here’s a layout I made using one of the Quirky Kits currently in my possession (I have another 2 that are unbroken yet so I’m hoping to make a good dent in those before the next one arrives….)

I feel I’m very fortunate, not only to have a such lovely daughter but to have a child who is not a fussy eater, she’ll try anything once, loves to eat fruit & seems to have quite a sophisticated palette for a 7 year old – she refuses to eat fish fingers unless they have had lemon juice squirted on them lol. At this particular snack time she was munching away on a melon slice & giggling away to herself, when I asked what she was doing she showed me this big fruity smile & started giggling again, so naturally I had to take a photo for future scrapbooking.

I was using up left over bits of paper again on this one, so I ripped all the edges to ruffle them up a bit & inked all of the edges in Black Soot Distress ink & I love the little piece of skull fabric that came with the kit & figured that this was the perfect opportunity to use it – rather than putting it in with my stash & forgetting all about it.

The journaling reads: I couldn’t resist taking this photo of you grinning at me from behind a slice of melon.

Well that’s all from me for today, thanks for stopping by, it’s been lovely to see you. Take care & hope to see you again soon.

C xx

Technorati Tags: Scrapbooking,Quirky Kits,The Crafty Alchemist Shop,Craft Fair Preparation,Tim Holtz Distress Ink,Black Soot Distress Ink,Ripped Edges,Fabric

Happy Birthday Blog Hop

Hello there!

It’s the lovely Sarah Hurley’s birthday today so we’re having a blog hop to celebrate. Unfortunately I’m totally late to the party & I missed the hop. If I’d been on time you would have come to me from Lydia’s blog so I’m just adding myself on to the end :D

Happy Birthday Sarah!!

Here’s the card I made for Sarah…

Hope you had a lovely day Sarah.

C xx

Technorati Tags: Sarah Hurley Blog Hop,Birthday card

Product Review – Chocolate Hearts

Sometimes the best emails drop into my inbox & this was one of those occasions. The lovely folk at Hobbycraft emailed to ask if DD & I would review one of their children’s craft kits, well, with half term around the corner we just couldn’t refuse.

DD has never been so excited waiting for the postman to arrive & when he did he brought us this…

A Chocolate heart making kit, lovely!

The box says the kit is suitable for children aged 7 years upwards & although DD is 7 I did have concerns about how much of this DD was going to be able to do by herself without my help, mainly the melting of the chocolate, a hot pan, boiling water & small children are not a good combination, but when we opened the kit, I was really surprised & relieved to discover that you can melt the chocolate in the bags that came in the kit in warm water in a jug… no pan of boiling water required, Brilliant! So the Little Miss melted the chocolate all by herself. When the chocolate has melted you snip the corner of the bag you melted it in & you have an instant piping bag. DD has never used a piping bag before & needed a little bit of help to get her started & then she was off, she put some of the candy hearts into the chocolate mould tray that came with the kit, piped her white chocolate where she wanted it then added the milk chocolate to the moulds. 10 minutes later the chocolates were in the fridge setting & I had no washing up to do as nothing else was required… none whatsoever, now how often does that happen when a seven year old is let loose in the kitchen?

In fact the only issue I had with the whole process was DD asking me every 5 minutes if the chocolates were set yet, after half an hour I set a kitchen timer for the last 30 minutes so she could check how much longer they needed to set herself.

Eventually (in the eyes of a small child) the timer “pinged” & she raced to the fridge to check her chocolates….

She managed to snaffle 2 when I went to get the camera lol. I was really pleased that she was able to make these all by herself & I think she did a great job too.

The only bit of washing up I did was to clean out the mould as it can be re-used so I have a feeling she’ll be making more chocolates for us all (especially as DD & her Nana often make them as gifts for Christmas & Birthdays) Who knows she may want to become a Master Chocolatier when she’s grown up (I can dream can’t I?)

DD really enjoyed herself in the kitchen making the chocolates, she even let me & Nana have one too. She’s now got her eye on the Cookie Cutters too, I think I’m going to need a bigger kitchen, I seem to have a mini chef on my hands.

Both myself & DD would like to thank the lovely folks at Hobbycraft for sending us this kit, DD had a blast being a Mini Chocolatier.

Well that’s all from me for today, thanks for stopping by, it’s been lovely to see you & thanks for taking the time to leave lovely comments, it’s always much appreciated.

Take care & hope to see you soon.

C xx

Technorati Tags: Product Review,Chocolate Making Kit,Hobbycraft,Cookie Cutters,Chocolate,Childrens Craft Kits

All Crafts Challenge Blog Hop

Well, hello there. Welcome to my post for the All Crafts Challenge Blog Hop hosted by Elaine of the Craft My Life Blog.

If you’re hopping along with us you should start at Elaine’s blog & you should have arrived here from Lydia’s blog, if you’re new to my blog, Hi, nice to meet you, come on in & put your feet up,  if you’re a regular reader whose just popped in to say hi, then hi right back at you, feel free to pull up a comfy chair & join the hop, the kettle is already on :D

Basically the All Crafts Challenge is all about making anything except a card & this time the challenge is being sponsored by the lovely Sarah Hurley quite a few of us Hurley Girlys (aka Sarah’s DT) are joining in with Elaine (she’s a Hurley Girly too!)…

Here’s what I made….

I love altering stuff  & have lots of little things that need putting in safe places so I don’t lose them which is why I’m an avid tin collector & alterer, so to those that know my blog well, this will come as no surprise….

Yep, it’s an altered tin. I used one of Sarah’s papers from the My Favourite Things Monthly Kit Club as the background, then I went to town with Sarah’s Doodle Home stamps…. Oh I love these stamps, I stamped some clouds in the sky  & grass on the bottom of the paper which I then coloured with Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils (I didn’t add water on this occasion as I wanted it to look coloured in) Then I stamped the house, heart, trees & sentiment onto little leftover scraps of Sarah’s papers then I did something I never do…. Decoupage… I know shocking isn’t it? I stamped the house onto the vanilla coloured paper, then again onto the pink paper & cut them both out, I just cut the roof & chimney from the pink paper & attached it to vanilla house with 3d foam pads, I did the same with the trees, stamping them first onto woodgrain, then again onto the green paper & attaching the green tree tops to the woodgrain trees with foam pads, the heart & sentiment are also attached using foam pads. I also added one stick on gem for the door handle. Finally as it’s something I created for a challenge set by Elaine I also added one of Sarah’s Acrylic Butterflies as Elaine loves butterflies (just in case you didn’t know that :D)

I used some adhesive ribbon around the edge of the tin, that stuff is fab for finishing projects like this & I just happened to have enough of this colour which perfectly co-ordinated with Sarah’s papers… brilliant!

I’ve already filled it with lots of little Sarah Hurley embellishments, to keep them safe from harm (aka the puppy who will eat anything & everything).

So that’s my project for the hop, I hope you enjoyed your visit & I hope to see you again real soon.

It’s time for me to wave goodbye & send you on your way to Jessica’s Blog where she will have another lovely creation waiting for you.

Thanks for hopping by, hope to see you soon, take care.

C xx

Technorati Tags: Craft My Life Blog,All Crafts Challenge Blog Hop,Sarah Hurley,Sarah Hurley DT,Altered Tin,Adhesive Ribbon,Stamping,Doodle Houses,My Favourite Things Kit Club,Derwent Inktense Pencils