An amazing find!

 
Wow! I couldn't believe this!  My big summer project this year has been to give my boys' playhouse a makeover.  It's not finished yet, but they insisted I give it a name and after much discussion we came up with "The Shabby Tea Room".  This came about one sunny afternoon after I'd baked yet another batch of scones and we decided the playhouse would be a great room to sit in and have cream teas!

Anyway, today, after I'd made my loooooong overdue post, I decided to go hunting for a challenge blog to fire me up (I was meant to be doing Christmas!!!) but amazingly I stumbled upon one called "The Shabby Tea Room"  Wow!!  I couldn't believe it!  And as far away from Christmas as you can get, their challenge this week is "The Sweet Days of Summer" and you have to make your own flowers and use Pink, Peach, Green and Neutral colours on your card or project!  So I went away and I made this which I'm submitting to the challenge:

I cut the heart from wood, painted it and distressed it by sanding the edges and across the face.  I then inked the edges using Tea Dye then stamped directly onto it using Versafine.  The flowers were punched using a MS Hydrangea punch and coloured using Promarkers.  It was then finished off with some pearls and bling and a hand-written Welcome!

And here it is hanging on the new den - this is just a sneak peak - I'll post before and after photo's once it's completed!

Well I feel a bit like a bus - nothing for ages then two come along at once! LOL!! 

Have a great day - there definitely won't be any more pics today!!! :o) xx

It's feeling like Autumn already!

Hello blogland!  It's been a long time since I was last here but I have been keeping busy!  Such a lot has happened since the Spring and there hasn't been a lot of time for blogging.  Both hubby and I have new jobs.  I am going to be working in KS1 again from September and really looking forward to it.  Like everyone else in the country money is tight so new stash is a big 'NoNo' these days and I've been turning my talents other crafts.  I've dabbled with e-Bay (yuk!) and cleared out a lot of stuff that I no longer use, and I've even sold some of my home made stuff which cheered me up no end.  Let me show you some of the things I have been playing about with since I last blogged.

A couple of my wooden plaques.  I made loads of these earlier in the year and managed to sell every one of them.  Many of them were made to order and they were going out quicker than I could make them so I didn't manage to photograph every one of them.

This was something that I saw out there in blogland and I just absolutely fell madly in love with and really had to have one.  The tut is here and although is in French, it was really easy to follow.  It was very time-consuming though and although I would love to do another, I can't imagine I'm going to find time between now and Christmas. 

These are some apples I made using the pattern in Tone Finnegar's Sew Easy Christmas Homestyle - I have rediscovered a love of sewing!

Technically not stitched, but using up fabric bits anyway.  We spent last week camping in Devon and I visited a gorgeous giftshop in Brixham called Hob Nobs.  There were just so many beautiful things in there, and I saw some gorgeous padded frames on the wall and was immediately inspired so I came home and made this.

These are my felt version of 'doodling'! LOL!  I sat with my bag of felt and some cotton wool balls and just played, and I came up with these little cupcakes which I then stringed together with some beads

Finally these mini cushions were made using tiny bits of fabric that are really no good for anything but the bin.  They are 4 x 4 in size and were chopped from odd scraps.  I stamped on the white cushion and was really pleased with how clean the image came out.  I used Versafine ink and wasn't sure if it would bleed or not, but as you can see, it stamps beautifully on cotton!  I really don't know what these would be used for but a friend has since advised I should have put lavender in them - duh! Why didn't I think of that!!

It might not look much but I have been doing a lot of decorating - my dining room and en-suite have been given a makeover (which took longer than I wanted it to!!)  I have also been painting furniture - I was very enthusiastic about that...... till I started! Groan..... it takes FOREVER!!!  Definitely a job only to be embarked upon when you have absolutely nothing else to do! Pah! as if!  And my current project is also nearing completion - this was a biggie!  My boys' playhouse has been undergoing major refurbishment over the summer.  Pics of that to follow, as soon as I've done!

Well that's my lot for the moment.  I hope you like!  Today I am going to put my fabrics and sewing machine away and make a start on Christmas!  Term starts again soon and I have a very busy year ahead so I want to make a dent in my cards now if I can. 

Thanks for stopping by! :o) xx

Ahem..!!!

Can I still get in here???  OMG, when was the last time I used this thing?

Hoping to have some new stuff to show soon - as long as blogger will let me! LOL!!

Bearly Mine, Happy Birthday!

Good morning bloggers.  Oooh, it's been a bit nippy in these parts for the last couple of days - fingers crossed for a bit of warmer weather now that March is here!

And if you're feeling like getting in the mood for Springtime, look no further than Donna's latest fantabulous creations all with a Spring theme.    Oh my goodness, they are just DIVINE!!  And best of all, she's having a sale for just one week (ends 8th March) where you can buy all 3 sets for just £12!  I promise you will be drooling for evermore over these gorgeous papers.

And if you're feeling like you need to be challenged a little, what better place to begin with than the Bearly Mine Challenges blog where the theme this week is "Happy Birthday".  Nothing too difficult, but there are loads of fab goodies offered by our very generous sponsors to be won by some lucky ladies (and gents if you fancy playing along!!!).    The sponsors this week are:

Bearly Mine Designs  (2 sets of papers, winners choice)

Wild Orchid Crafts (selection of flowers and lace)

Tickled Pink Stamps (2 digis or 1 rubber stamp of winners choice)

Go Kreate (3 gorgeous rectangular dies worth £13.99 each)

Please go and check out our sponsors and see what other delish goodies they have to offer.

The uber-talented team have put together a bunch of scrummy samples to inspire you, but don't take my word for it, you need to see them for yourself!  This is the card I put together using a selection of the Gingham papers.  The beauty of these papers is that you can resize them before printing them out and I wanted 4 squares of  small gorgeous pastel colours to use as my background so was able to do this using my Word software.  The stamps are freebies from the cover of the new Simply Handmade mag - have you seen this?  OMG, it's brilliant.

Well that's my lot for today.  Hope you are having a nice relaxing time wherever you are and may March bring you lots of happiness and (hopefully!) sunshine!  See you soon.  :o) xx

Happy 2011 and Free Copics!!!

I'm Back!!  Happy 2011 to all who pass by!  Blimey, it's been a long time but I shan't bore you with the details as to why I've been MIA for so long.  The long and short of it is that both my beloved pooter and I have been in very poor health but we're both fighting fit again and rarin' to go again.  My printer on the other hand is still on catch-up! Grrr....

Right then, let's crack on.  Cult Pens have very kindly given our love Donna at Bearly Mine Designs the chance to offer one lucky winner the chance to win the Brand New set of 36 Copic Ciao markers. Although these colors are available as sketch markers already, they have just been released as Copic Ciao's, which is great for all of us who can't afford the sketch markers, You can see the new set of Ciao's HERE and while you're there, you might want to check out their 10% off sale that's on till the end of Jan.

Please would you help to spread the word by taking this banner and placing it in your sidebar with the headline of Free Brand New Copic Ciao's and a link back to the Bearly Mine Designs blog.  Once you've done that, add your name to Inlinkz.

This fabulous prize of 36 Copic Ciao's blog candy ends on Feb 17th.  Good Luck to everyone......remember to spread the word, and PLEASE make sure you follow the rules to be certain of being in with a chance for this fab prize!

In the meantime, I'm heading back to my craft space to get busying myself again.  Having not created a single thing since the beginning of December last year I feel a bit rusty, so bear with me!  Have a great weekend and hope to see you again soon! :o) xx

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...!

21 days to go and I haven't bought a single Christmas pressie!!!  OMG!  I'm not the most organised person at the best of times but this year I seem to be particularly bad.  I don't even want to rely on online shopping because I've heard so many tales of stuff not getting delivered because of the snow!  I call it snow, but it's more like frozen flurry round here - enough to make it look like a winter wonderland but not enough to build a snowman :o(

Anyway, here is a card I made 'for the love of it' using Donna's gorgeous Christmas Sparkle papers.

These are just so pretty and girly, and best of all, they have inserts in the kit too!  Here's one I used on the inside of this card.

 And if you're feeling tempted, now is a fabulous time to go and bag yourself a kit or two because Donna is offering the entire Christmas Inserts kit FREE if you buy 3 or more of her digi kits.  An absolute bargain, trust me!  They start at around 4.00 a kit and you get sooooo many papers and other elements in some of the kits, and they are just so versatile.  Can you tell I'm hooked? LOL!

Well that's my lot for the time being.  There is 'work in progress' and I can't wait to show it off!  Thanks for passing through.  Have a great weekend and I hope it's a bit warmer where you are! :o) xx

Blog Hop Winner

Happy (freeeeeeeezing!!!) Friday all!  Just quickly popping in here to let you know that I did the Random Number Generator thingy this morning once all the comments had been posted, but unfortunately I don't know how to post the picture of it on the blog.  However, I put in numbers 1 to 44 and it threw up the number 8, so the winner of the Partridge in a Pear Tree image is

Vicky

Well done Vicky.  If you email me I'll let you know how to claim your image!  Huge thanks to everyone who joined in and left such lovely comments - they were all greatly appreciated! :o) xx