Away so long...

Wow, I didn't realise I had been gone quite so long. A two week camping trip, the busyness of returning from a 2 week break and then a horrible cold/flu/something or other that I am still trying to shake off two weeks later. Suddenly it is almost halloween and so I have settled down to making some christmas decorations, obviously.

A trip to Hobbycraft for some foam pads and DST and I found myself coming home with one polystyrene cone, one polystyrene ring and a pack of 30 Fab Foam snowflakes. And without the DST - doh!

So far I have a tree covered in punched circles of DCWV papers from the Christmas Wishes stack and decorated with Papermania Sparkling Trims held on with sequins and pins. I just need to paint the aerosol cap trunk which I'll do as soon as I find where I put my gold paint!

An almost completed wreath made from curled strips from an ancient Papemania Paper Pack inspired by this one on the Bo Bunny blog by Juliana Michaels (oh to be able to justify making a wreath from such scrummy papers).

Right now, because my brain is feeling fuzzy and I can't manage anything more taxing, I am adding glitter glue to the Fab Foam snowflakes. Hopefully they'll look pretty hanging in my windows come Christmas time.

Finally, a bit of cuteness from our camping trip...

Gawsworth Hall

A little while back we had a trip to Gawsworth Hall to see Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles. The performances are in an open air theatre with the beautiful hall as a back drop. It was so much fun and I can't wait to go again, if you live around the Macclesfield / Congleton area I would definitely reccomend it. There is also a craft fair there this bank holiday weekend which I might check out if I get chance.

Red Panda Love

Inspired by Shimelle's sketch I finally got around to scrapping these photos from a trip to Chester Zoo almost six months ago. I really love red pandas, they are one of my "must see" animals whenever I go to the zoo (along with otters, tapirs, monkeys...). This sketch was perfect for a multi photo layout and the digi template Shimelle is giving away made it really easy to do.

Well, it was easy apart from the stitching, that took ages. I had been planning to just zip round the edges with my machine but it has finally decided to give up the ghost. I have taken it to pieces and attempted to doctor it with some super duper super glue and am currently giving it 48 hours to set before I try it out. In the end I resorted to a Papermania stitch template which has been lurking amongst my tools (unused) for ages. I love the end result, especially as the thread is sparkly, but boy did it take a long time (and more patience than I thought I had!)

Check out the Scrap Like You Mean It section on UKS for loads more inspiration from Shimelle.

I am having a happy day today. My shift at work finished yesterday so I am at the start of four days off. My guy finishes work at 1 today and is coming round to see me. I just got a box of yumminess delivered from Sarah's Cards (AC Blue Skies if you're interested).

Wishing everyone a happy day too :)

Pants?

I seem to have a thing for pants at the moment...

I just had to have these cool pants from Topshop. The little monsters glow in the dark which makes me smile. I especially love the little guy with the tooth, I think he may be the inspiration for some halloween embroidery.

Also my guy brought me this book home from the museum shop the other day, he knows me so well :)

Beautiful Things for Free

I love, love , love this site. I can't remeber how I arrived at it while blog hopping but if it was your blog that pointed me in the right direction then thank you so much (xoxo)

"Feed Your Soul is a free art project. Each month artists are invited to participate and to contribute a print which is totally free and available for download"

I am in love with this print by Naoko Stoop

Which one do you love?

Finally....

a real, bona fide scrapbook layout at last. No idea where my mojo had slinked off to but seems it has decided to make a reappearance. Hurrah!

I now have 4 days off work and plan to make the most of them. Expect more layouts real soon and the mini books I have been working on thanks to the Summer Minibook event on UKS.

How sweet is my guy?

After a recent camping trip to the Lake District with my lovely boyfriend I made him a mini book with some of the photos we had taken. He was really please with it, which made me happy cos its the fiorst time I've given him anything like that. Well anyway, when he came round to see me on wednesday afternoon I was in a creating kind of a mood. I couldn't think what to do about this as it seemed rude to start crafting when he had come over just to spend time with me. I explained this to him and he said "you make something and I'll make something too". He told me that he wanted me to have a book full of photos of our holiday too. So first of all he set about wading through my stash of patterned papers to pick out his favourites. I have to say he has really good taste, he picked out lots of my favourite ones.

Choosing the papers took him about 2 hours which gave me plenty of crafting time. The only problem was he said that looking at all the patterns made him feel travel sick!

This Wednesday he is planning to choose the photos...

Fat book swap

I am in a fat book swap on uks at the moment and have just completed one page (out of 8). I have another almost complete, it just needs a little something more. A couple more are waiting for their backgrounds to dry before I can carry on with them. There are a couple which are ideas I am trying to work out how to realise and a couple for which I am still waiting and hoping for inspiration to strike.

This one was on the theme of "purple" and is a piece of aluminium foil embossed with the shape of a grungeboard swirl. I attatched it to some mount board then painted it with acrylic paint and some perfect pearls before sanding it to reveal the silver swirl. Sadly the photo does not show the pearlecent finish very well, in real life it has a lovely shimmer.

Back in the creative groove...

Or nearly there anyway!

I've had so little time to be creative over the past few weeks that what little I have done has been for swaps and things with definite deadlines.

I am hosting an eco themed circle journal which has just started but of course being my usual disorganised self, I forgot to take photos before I posted my journal off. I guess that means it will be a nice suprise when I get it back though as I'll have forgotton what it looks like in 10 months time. I am in the middle of a repurposing themed layout for the next book in the circle right now.

Another CJ I am in, I just did an entry on the theme "Words of Wisdom". I am really enjoying playing with my stamps at the moment and although this page is pretty simple I had fun with it.

Recently I sent off a set of stamped twinchies for a swap. I really enjoy the size of these so I think I'll be on the lookout for another swap.

Long awaited cushion photo!

Finally, the cushion I was working on (rather later than promised but I kept forgetting to take a photo in the daylight). It is made from brown corduroy with the bark pattern backstitched in white embroidery thread. The leaf is made from two layers of felt backstitched with green embroidery thread.

Bubble tea?

While in town on friday indulging in some crafty shopping I treated myself to a bubble tea/hot choc drink and a custard bun, oh how I love custard buns.But ever since a question has been puzzling me. What do you call bubble tea when it is actually hot chocolate?? On the menu in Ho's this delightful drink is called "pearl bubble tea - chocolate flavour (hot)" but that seems a bit too much of a mouthful. I also bought some of the coolest fabric I have seen in ages, I will try and get a photo as soon as I am at home in the daytime. Working shifts really does not help my photography, I need daylight.

How cute is the image on the cup lid?? I have kept it and plan to use it for something, no idea what but I couldn't throw it away!

The cushion mentioned in my previous post is now finished and just waiting for a chance for a photo to upload here. I love it so much and have already cut out the pieces to make another for a special person who seems to love my cushion almost as much as I do :)

L x

Crafty daydreams

Work is very quiet today so I have been daydreaming about the cushion I want to make when I get home. I have also been naughty and have been blog hopping when no one is looking, there is so much lovely inspiration out there. The blogs of my RVA classmates are especially pretty...

L x

Project number 3

"What happened to number 2?" the more observant among you are asking. Let's just say it's not a come home at 11pm and start playing with the sewing machine kind of project (or at least not for me and my limited sewing skills - I need all my wits about me for that one!)

Anyway, this project was much more up my street so I got home from work and got stuck in. How cute are these felt teepees? If I can find the space to display them, I think I might end up with a teepee village. Now I just need to find someone who looks more at home by a teepee than Stitch does!

L x

Project number 1

Well I finally got around to starting on the first project from Rachel and Elsie's class. I have the cover finished and the pages are ready to decorate. I am going to fill it with things that I am in love with right now, I just need to get some photos printed off and I'll be ready to go. Sadly I'm at work today so not much time for play now until monday, can't wait to see the next project though!

L x

It must be love...

How fabulous is this skirt? I fell in love with it at first sight, the print was just too cute to ignore. Knowing full well that it was far too short for my taste (and my thighs), I went ahead and bought it anyway. When it arrived I fell even more in love, it is made of the softest sweatshirt material and feels devine.

Happily (well not happily at the time, at the time I was heart broken) I had a top made from a gorgeous print fabric that had shrunk in the wash (I must remember to buy everything from primark at least a couple of sizes too big). With a bit of cutting and the use of my much neglected sewing machine I had the skirt of my dreams.

I feel much more customising is on the way...

(Check out the AD LOVE etsy store, her hoodies and tops are fabulous too)

L x

Cybercrop creations

Having not felt very much in the mood for scrapping recently I have done a few mini books and CJs but not much else. The UKS cybercrop was just the kick start I needed to rediscover my missing mojo. There were some really inspiring classes on offer and I am now itching to scrap some more.

Some of my creations from the weekend...

L x

Bad, bad blogger

Well, I'm back. Not that I really went anywhere. I've just been crazily busy the last few months and to find enough time in my days to sleep and eat a few things had to go. Unfortunately, one of those things was my blogging time :(

New year, new start and a resolution to get my blog up and functioning again. I have a bunch of stuff I created over the last few months that I want to share. And there are loads of ideas buzzing around in my head as well as some half finished projects I want to show you.

I have signed up to Elsie and Rachel's new class which I soooo can't wait to get started on. So much cute inspiration - eeeep!

I'll be back later to share my lovely new skirt with you

Hugs,

L x