Monday 29 June 2009





It's taken me a while to post this item, as the recipient's birthday was the week before last, but for a variety of reasons, I didn't give her the gift until the weekend. As usual I was originally stuck with the problem of what to buy for the woman who has everything and is celebrating a landmark birthday? I dithered about a quilt (and this is a reserve option for future birthdays and Christmas). However, I remembered that I often end up taking photos when we are out (as this is often with our respective loved ones and dogs). So, the idea of a personalised little scrapbook was born.

The little minibook was a set from K& Co that I bought way back just after Christmas - for just such an occasion. It's very attractive, in vintage colours of olive, dusty khaki and purple with a green buckled ribbon round it. The hardest part was selecting the photos to go in - I found I had lots of nice ones and it was difficult to narrow down the choice. Anyway, I eventually got my shortlist and then it was just a case of making up the pages with little labels and mounts - a lot of fun, and doing it brought back happy memories attached to each picture.

When it was finished, I photographed it, and then gift-wrapped it using some lovely paper from Ikea, some pretty purple ribbons, and a tag from K & Co that just seemed to work really well. Fortunately, when she opened it on Saturday, she really loved it, and I am very happy about that - it means a lot when a handmade gift is appreciated. Some photos attached.

Thursday 18 June 2009





A nice assortment of projects in this post.
First up, another colour swap on the Do crafts ATC forum. The theme was amber/tangerine/orange. For the first card, I covered it in a pretty orange floral print paper that was a part of my goody bag from the recent ATC day in Barry. Then I added a strip of yellow self adhesive ribbons covered in orange flowers, and then added some orange toned die cut flower shapes. Finally, I finished off with a couple of orange butterfly gems that I carefully glued on. For the other two, I took two ATC base cards, that I coloured using shaving foam at the Barry ATC event, in shades of yellow, orange and red. Thed edges were coloured with a red ink pad, then I stamped both with an Anna Griffin paisley stamp in red ink. Finally I added some pretty K & Co adhesive butterfly and bird stickers - in gorgeous rich colours. And off they went! Will be receiving my swapped cards early next week.
Secondly, a 30th birthday card for my friend Rebecca in Cardiff. I took two pieces of card from a DCWV box, one scalloped and turquoise, the other plain yellow and layered them up. On the card, I added a piece of Laura Ashley printed paper, with lots of bright turquoise and yellow in the mix. I then put a yellow ribbon across the card, and used my pokey tool to punch a hole, allowing me to add a yellow flower with blue brad. Finally, I used a bright blue ink to stamp Happy Birthday on a piece of yellow card and added that with 3d foam pads to the front of the card. It was Rebecca's birthday yesterday and she loved the card. We are going out with her to celebrate on Saturday night - about 25 friends all going for pizza.
Finally, a cross-stitched design for Father's Day, for my FIL. This is a Joan Elliott design, and is great. It came with a CD of designs that was a giveaway about two years ago with a copy of Cross Stitcher magazine, and is a reliable source of attractive designs for all sorts of occasions. I liked this cockerel - something so cheerful about the colours. It was a pleasure to stitch, the design coming together very nicely and with only a few fractional stitches. It was mounted in the card tonight and will be hitting the post first thing tomorrow morning.

Tuesday 2 June 2009


In 1984, George Orwell referred to a characteristic called Doublethink - where a person could hold two contradictory ideas but not object. I feel rather like this about Christmas. Don't get me wrong - I absolutely adore the festive season. My already tenuous hold on taste is abandoned gleefully and I enjoy going wild with decorations, gifts, crafts, cooking, entertaining and general merrymaking. However, and this is the sticker, I loathe going into shops in August and finding the shelves filling up with Christmas puddings and cards. To me Christmas should be celebrated and anticipated at the end of the year - shopping and posting should be in darkness and cold, not sunshine. Now here's the doublethink - as a crafter, you simply cannot start too early. All that merrymaking means that it is without doubt the busiest time of the year yet it is also the time when you need to create things like cards and gifts. So to sum up, I am happy to start early for my own crafting but throw a major hissy fit if I so much as sniff something festive in a shop before the end of October.
In this Orwellian spirit, I illustrate the point with two little cross-stitched designs, just completed that will be mounted into cards. They are both by Margaret Sherry who designs frequently for magazines. For the little robin, I used a blending filament along with the dark thread for the backstitch - this gives it a nice twinkle. For the hedgehog, I used a rayon thread for the star - this gives a luxurious finish. On both, I used Thread Heaven for the first time. I have often seen it advertised in magazines as an aid to using metallics, rayons and so on. Having bought some, I tried it out on these small projects and I was completely blown away. It makes using these threads a breeze - normally the air would be blue as they got knotted, tangled, wouldn't thread and so on. Instead, I glided smoothly through - if you haven't tried it, I can recommend it.
I am hoping to build up a small stash of these little Christmas designs for mounting into cards throughout the year, thus avoiding too much late panic by the end of November! Well, that's the plan, anyway. I'll keep this updated as more are added.