New layouts completed at last

These are once again for my friends' album order but I PROMISE I will get some of my personal scrapping done soon - my snapfish order was delivered this morning so I have some of my own photos to play with at last!

Loretta's Monday Challenge Card

Loretta over on the DoCrafts Cardmaking Forum is running a challenge each Monday so here is my attempt at it.





I used the new Dottie At Work collection for the image, with the desk decoupaged to give an extra dimension. I used Papermania brads which I got from Crumbleycat as a birthday present and textured papers from Readicut.

More Dotties on the way!

Dottie has already become a firm favourite but it now appears that she is singlehandedly running the economy as she has a variety of jobs in her new DOTTIE AT WORK collection available from Charmed Cards and Crafts.

I'm just fiddling with an idea for a good luck card for hubby so I'll post a picture when it's done.

Susie's Blog Candy

Susie http://whiteribboncards.blogspot.com/ has some lovely blog candy up for grabs at the moment.

To be in with a chance of winning it, pop along and follow the instructions. It's worth having a look over there anyway coz she has some lovely ideas on there.

Craft free weekend :(

My darling daughter decided to throw up all over my lovely leather couches on Thursday and I ended up feeling just as ill yesterday so despite having hubby at home I did absolutely no crafting whatsoever coz I couldn't bring myself to get out of my pyjamas or off the settee!

Fortunately after a day of eating nothing but two mint humbugs and a piece of toast plus having an afternoon nap and an early night I am feeling altogether more human today :) I have managed to sort out a full weekly online food shop this morning - thanks to Mr Asda I won't have to brave Tesco on Wednesday YIPPEE!! - watch the Grand Prix, do some housework and cook a roast chicken! Hardly fun and games but at least I'm no longer feeling sorry for myself.

All the progress about Hubby's new business venture has continued at a pace. We have ordered a nice looking summerhouse to serve as an office so he can work without the kids harrassing him. The theory is that he will not be bothered by the unending clutter that we seem to have around the house ...... it will be his domain and his alone so any mess will be his own as well! One more week left at work and then he's joining the ranks of the self employed so fingers crossed it will all run smoothly.

Oh heck I've been tagged twice ........

Once by Me and Lil G http://meandlilg.blogspot.com/ and once by Crafty Wanderings http://craftywanderings.blogspot.com/! Guess there's no escaping from it and it's my turn to get personal!

1. The first concert I went to was Billy Joel, the last one was Journey.

2. I can blow up a double airbed without a pump!

3. I used to have hair long enough to sit on.

4. I know the whole script to Grease II.

5. I only started papercrafting because I couldn't have all my needlecraft out when my eldest son started crawling.

6. I've got a law degree but I'd love to have done history or archaeology as I'm a history and genealogy nut!

7. I went to the same school as Kenny Dalgleish's kids.

Now I'm going to pass the tag on to Country Crafter http://cannycrafter.blogspot.com/ Gilly Flower http://gillyflowersexpression.blogspot.com/ Shari G http://shari-anne-happycrafter.blogspot.com/ Joanne http://www.takelifebythehand.blogspot.com/ and Enfys http://going-buggy.blogspot.com/

I've been a busy bunny today! 900 gallery items in DoCrafts

I got the new Elephant Walk zip kit from Cuddly Buddly last night so I had a play this morning and in doing so reached the 900 gallery items mark over at DoCrafts. If anyone wants to look at my full gallery my member name is Foxcraft.

Here are just 3 of the 8 cards that I made with the kit.

I also had a card to make for my friend's little boy - another In The Night Garden fanatic! - so I used a printable card from CBeebies, adapted it to a robo file and turned it into a paper pieced card.

Yo Ho Ho and a Barrel of Fun

It's my friend's little boys third birthday next week so I made him this cute pirate card to match the pirate wrapping paper on his present.

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The image is from Cuddly Buddly and I printed it out 3 times to allow me to decoupage it and then highlighted the pirate's hat with a little Sakura Stardust to add a bit of fun although it hasn't really come out too well in the photo.

Basically I needed to do something to stop moaning about the fiasco of the Liverpool v Chelsea match last night. After almost a whole match of listening to commentators criticising Liverpool when they had played better than Chelsea in my opinion I then could have screamed when Riise scored an own goal 4 minutes into extra time! ARGH!!! I don't think I'll watch the return leg at Stamford Bridge - I don't think I could stand the strain lol!

If you want to get ahead get a

Hat and Hat box!

One of my crafty friends sent me a load of printed sheets as a birthday present and this is what they made! I'm really pleased with the result - the hat is a gift box as well as the hat box if you know what I mean so I'm going to use it for a end of term teacher's present for the boys. I'm planning on making some handmade jewellry to go in it.


Oh and you'd better make mine a LARGE hat coz my head will be all swollen - Emmi, the lady who got the horsey bookatrix for her birthday came and thanked me personally this morning and told me I was selling myself short and not charging enough for them! Now that's the type of feedback I like - now I just need HER to order cards from me as well once the website is up and running LOL!

Found the card, lost the inspiration - back on the diet wagon!

Here is the picture of the sympathy card I made over the weekend - the picture doesn't do it justice because as the lady who ordered it is blind I tried to make it as textural as possible. The With Sympathy and Floral panels are 3D decoupaged, the base card has slightly raised calligraphy on it and the brown panel is made with textured paper.

Unfortunately that card seems to signal the end of my inspiration at the moment - I'm having one of those "get up and go has got up and gone" spells. I think I'm coming down with the bug hubby has had for the past 3 weeks and all I want to do is snuggle up in bed with chocolate and coffee but I don't think the kids will agree to that and it would be no good for my diet! Now that the birthday and anniversary week is over and done with I'm going back to more restrained eating - Slimming World Food Optimising worked for me a couple of years ago, now I just need to get on with it again ......... someone hide the munchies!

A whole day of luxury!

I managed to stay in bed til after 10 am yesterday, then had an hour long soak in a lovely deep bubble bath - bubbles courtesy of Virgin Vie Honey and Orange Blossom brulee! HEAVENLY and smells good enough to eat!

I had an order for another sympathy card which I made using bits from the Papermania Vintage collection - photo to follow when I find where I saved it!

Yesterday evening we left the kids with my mum and went off for a meal in the local Indian Restaurant. I came home suitably stuffed full of bhajis, poppadoms, biryani and nan bread and then relaxed with hubby and a bottle of White Zinfandel in front of the telly! I probably should have gone to bed at least an hour before I did but I'm a bit of a closet Family Guy fan so I ended up needing matchsticks to keep my eyes open! - Definitely a Naughty but Nice day from start to finish ;) LOL!

Luckily the kids were happy to have a "picnic" breakfast in their room this morning so I didn't have to surface too early today either - BONUS! What a lazy lump I've been this weekend ....... shame it had to end really but now it's back to reality with a mound of washing to get the uniform and work clothes ready for tomorrow. Only two more weeks and hubby'll be working for himself so the workload'll change again then.


P.S. Hope you don't object to the playlist I've added to my blog - I can't help being a bit of a 70s and 80s rock fan ....... if I'd been ten years older I bet I'd've had a dodgy mullet shaggy perm and skin tight jeans!

10 years on and he can still surprise me!

Hubby had forgotten what day it was today until we went to bed last night! I was absolutely gutted (especially after the birthday anti-climax) but this morning he got the boys up and gave them their breakfast and when I got up he asked me to make him a cup of tea ....... hidden with the tea bags was a box of Thornton's finest luxury chocs and a card! Guess who cried for the second time in less than 12 hours! *BLUSH*

As promised here is the recipe for my birthday cake. I can't take the credit, it came from a Pampered Chef recipe collection but it still made a scrummy addition to my birthday.

8oz softened butter

8oz light soft brown sugar

6tablespoons hazelnut chocolate spread

1 teaspoon vanilla extract or rum

4 eggs

12oz self raising flour

1/4 pint of coffee cooled completely


Preheat oven to 180C 350F Gas4, grease a deep 8 inch cake tin.

Beat butter, sugar, chocolate spread and rum/vanilla extract until creamy.

Add eggs one at a time and beat after each addition, add 1/3 flour and 1/3 coffee and combine, then add the remaining flour and coffee and beat until combined.

Spoon into the cake tin, spread evenly.

Bake for 45-60 minutes until cooked through, transfer to cooling rack.

Once cold, slice through the middle, spread the bottom half with strawberry jam and then add whipped cream before replacing the top half of the cake

Thought for the day!

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away." -- Henry David Thoreau, From "Walden."


Drumcloggirl from the Scrapbooking forum at DoCrafts posted this lovely quotation as April is Autism awareness month and I thought it deserved to be shared. Although none of my kids are autistic, the treatment we have recieved for my eldest made the words seem very apt.

Another Pink Petticoat card

I've been married 10 years tomorrow so I made hubby a Pink Petticoat card just for a bit of fun.

I used papers from the readicut bundle and made a woven mat with them and then added the pink petticoat image which had been coloured with pencils and sakura pens.

Especially for Liz @ Pink Petticoat

I was lucky enough to get the Lola Rose Buddly zip download from http://www.pinkpetticoat.co.uk for my birthday (cheers hun!) and here is the first card that I have made with it. I used Sakura pens with a water pen to shade the bath and then added Ice Stickles over the top to highlight the bubbles.

3L Scrapbook Adhesive EZ Runner Product Review

As regular readers will already know I have been working with an EZ Runner adhesive lately to compile a product review for DoCrafts Creativity. I have already posted pictures of myself and my kids using the product as well as lots of craft projects which have been made using the Runner and now it's time for the formal review. The questions have been provided by DoCrafts.

1. How often do you use adhesive?
I use adhesive in one form or another daily as I craft every day.

2. What is the main type of adhesive you use?
I use a combination of PVA glue, repositionable photo tabs, Two way glue and Double sided sticky tape.

3. What do you look for in an adhesive?
Major factors are strength, reliability, being acid free because of the amount of scrapbooking I do and preferably being mess free.

4. How easy is the product to remove from its packaging?
The EZ Runner was very easy to remove from the packaging and was ready to use within a few moments.

5. Does the product appeal to you - ie does it look good?
I found the EZ Runner quite appealing to look at, it is bright, compact and easily distinguishable from my other crafting stash - always useful when you are working with a large pile of paper and my trademark organised chaos.

6. How easy is the product to use?
As you can see from my photographs, the runner is simple enough for supervised children to use although it does take a bit of getting used to how much pressure you need to apply and what angle you have to hold it at to apply the adhesive.

7. How well does the product perform?
The runner seems very user friendly and effective once you get used to how to apply the adhesive accurately.

8. Do you like this product?
Yes, I was impressed with it.

9. Do you consider it good value for money?
The value for money depends on how long the Runner would last in normal usage. It would be better value if the Runner were refillable.

10. Would you consider buying this product in the future?
Yes.

11. What would make you more likely to buy this product in the future?
Price offers or multi-buys would be a factor, maybe having a combined set of permanent and repositionable adhesive runners in the same pack for a reduced price or developing a refillable system.

12. What would make you less likely to buy this product in the future?
I think making the Runner any more expensive would stop me from buying it as I could get alternative adhesives for a lower price.

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Thanks for taking the time to read my review, you never know, DoCrafts might ask me to review other items in the future so I would appreciate any comments you have.

Charmed Cards and Crafts Challenge

This is my entry to the first half of the current challenge on Charmed Cards and Craft. It is a star shaped exploding box with a metallic silver fimo heart paperweight in the middle.

---------------------------------------The rules are:

I would like you to make an exploding box (again). But this time it doesn’t have to be a simple square box. If you are feeling more adventurous perhaps you would like to have a go at a cuboid or pyramid box. ? - I haven’t been able to find any templates for those but instructions for squares are available on the internet or in an earlier thread here and they don’t look that hard to work out. (Shell may be able to help here with it’s location.) On top of that I want you to make a centrepiece with a difference for it. I would like you to create something out of FIMO to sit in the box. This could be a flower or ornament of some kind a piece of jewellery or anything else that takes your fancy. The box itself can be decorated ready for use or contain photos. That’s up to you.For the 2nd part of the challenge I’d like you to create a card that again uses Fimo on it in some way. Maybe a card topper or a piece of removable jewellery / charm that can be used by the recipient on a necklace

Happy birthday to me, Happy birthday to me

Well I need to sing it to myself because my lovely hubby didn't bother getting me a card or a present and didn't even get up before me this morning so I still ended up doing everyone's breakfast as usual etc.

Having said that I did get loads of lovely handmade cards from my online friends, some gift vouchers from one friend, a cake and chocolate from another friend and a big bunch of flowers from another oh and a handmade mini book of yumminess from another online friend.

I had a PTA meeting to attend this lunchtime and we've got nothing planned for this evening so I'm feeling a little deflated about my birthday to be honest. Never mind, at this age I should be ignoring the day not getting stressed about it shouldn't I?

Pink Petticoat and a bun in the oven! (well cake really)

I got the Lola Rose Namaste download from http://www.pinkpetticoat.co.uk/namaste/namaste.php yesterday and had a little play with the pregnant images last night.

I used my Sakura pens to colour the images, softened with a bit of Whispers blending pen. I've never used these products like this before so I was a bit tentative but they are growing on me the more I look at them.




I used a variety of papers from the Readicut 1lb of paper pack for the matting and layering and tried to match the papers to my colouring. NOTE TO SELF - easier to choose papers first and then colour in accordingly D'oh!








I'm out at a school fundraiser tonight so there's no chance of more playing with my goodies - Hmph! Still, I do have a huge chocolate cake with my name on it so I shouldn't grumble (one of the benefits of cooking for the family, you get to choose your own birthday cake recipes AND make trial runs!)

Happy Nappy News

I've got a friend who is a 1st year student midwife and she was involved in her first delivery last night so I wanted to make her a special card (she's waited years to get the chance to do the course so she's understandably VERY emotional about it)

Anyway, I wrote a poem which hasn't come out too clearly on the photo but it says:
How amazing it must be

Being there to give

A baby their first helping hand

As they start to live

To know you have a special role

In their first few minutes

Taking their first breaths of life

With you a big part in it!

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We had a student doing her first hospital delivery when I was in labour the first time and she was great. She even refused to go off duty at the end of her shift because she wanted to stay til the end!

The card's a bit different for me because I printed the image onto Safmat and then stuck it onto textured coloured paper to give it a softer, more arty feel - well that was the plan anyway.

Wow, my first blog award!

A HUGE thanks to Crafty Wanderings http://craftywanderings.blogspot.com/ for presenting me with an Arte y Pico award

The 'Arte y Pico' (Art and More) is awarded by bloggers to other bloggers who share their art and creativity with the blogger world. I never thought that I would receive an award like this, so I am really, really happy!With this award comes some rules and here they are:
1) You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

3) Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
4) Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte y Pico" blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5) To show these rules!

I haven't recieved a You Make My Day award yet but if I had one I'd pass it on to you hunny!

I would like to pass my award on to Country Crafter http://cannycrafter.blogspot.com/ Lou http://craftsbylouly.blogspot.com/ Shari G http://shari-anne-happycrafter.blogspot.com/ Scottish Rock Chick http://poursomesugaronme-rockchick.blogspot.com/ and Mellie http://melliescraftycorner.blogspot.com/ I've not been blogging long but I love trawling through all of your ideas for inspiration!

The scrapbooking drought is broken

I made these three layouts for the latest scrapbook order I have. 3 down 17 to go! eek!

I made them using the EZ runner and it is absolutely great for mess free photo sticking (but because it's permanent I had to be sure where I was sticking them!)

I'm really pleased because I think all three layouts are similar in so far as they have a single picture of the same girl and a large title with no detailed journalling yet at the same time they all appear very different.

Dippy about Dottie Challenge

I have just this morning made a card for the Dottie challenge on http://www.charmedcardsandcrafts.co.uk/ but when I have uploaded it to their gallery it came out as teeny tiny so I said I'd put it on here as well!

Product review part 2

Just to prove how simple it is to use the EZ Runner here are a couple of pictures of my boys using it on their cards for Crumbleycat.

All of the cards were made using some of my baby doodles.

Product review part 1

I was asked by DoCrafts http://www.docrafts.co.uk/ to review a product for their new Creativity Life magazine. I recieved a Scrapbook Adhesives Permanent EZ Runner to review so I thought I'd try it in as many projects as possible.


First part of the test was me making a couple more cards,

First of all I made a Dottie thank you card which I would love to send to Lou to thank her for passing such nice comments on my cards and making my little girls day by featuring her on her blog.

Secondly was a baby card for a special new granny - aka Crumbleycat who had an amazing day yesterday. Not only was it one daughter's birthday, she also got invited to go shopping with a certain Ms Brenda Pinnick and then to top it off her other daughter gave birth to a beautiful (I know I've seen the photo) baby girl! Now that's what I call a day to remember!

Should've kept it quiet now she's more famous than me!

Just a quickie to say a huge thank you to Louise for including my little lady and her crafting on her blog with all the official Dottie news http://craftsbylouly.blogspot.com/

How to make a little girl very happy in one easy step - only problem is now her brothers are jealous! I guess I'll have to add their artwork to here soon to keep them happy.

It's not Dottie's ...... It's mine

I thought it was about time I put some of my own designs up on here as well so here goes nothing.

from the floral collection

from the baby doodles collection

from the new home collection

I've also been sent some pictures from people who have got the images from ebay. As the first person to send me some of her creations, JulieI gets a special mention!

Thanks Julie, hope you like using them on lots of different cards.

More Dottie cards with a little 'helper'

After checking with Louise I can confirm that Dottie isn't shy and wants to be seen on as many blogs as possible so here are another few cards featuring the funky female!

My little helper has also been busy with her Dottie work - she wanted to "make a tard all by mineself" so here she is with her "hard work mummy"

I think Louise's idea of making her a Dottie colouring book might be the way to go or I could end up with serious stash competition!

Order completed with bookatrix #2 and a new obsession

I finished the order for my friend with a pale green bookatrix using a Papernation decoupaged design for the horsey element. I hope it is well received when I deliver the cards on Friday.

I always worry a little when I make cards for other people when they haven't been specific about their requirements. One of these days I'll start believing in myself I hope.

I have also discovered a new card making topper series that really appeals to me. The DOTTIE series from Charmed Cards and Crafts is just really fun and adorable. So far I've made cards with the FUNTIME selection but I can see more coming soon at this rate.

I have spoken to the designer online and I have more cards on the horizon so watch this space! I took great pleasure in being told that mine was the first Champion Multitasker card that Louise had seen.

I wish my doodles could be taken on by fellow crafters like Louise's have been - not that my artwork is as good as hers yet but I can keep practising and hoping can't I?

My little girl has taken to the Dottie pictures as well and I have had to wrestle at least three from her grubby little mitts in the hope of being able to salvage them! Note to self - only print and colour the pictures as I am about to stick them onto cards ------ coloured in images are as tempting to two year olds as sweeties!