Cards at last!

I finally seem to have got some enthusiasm back for cardmaking-it feels like its been months since I made a card, but I've had alot of sewing to do for christmas and needed a break from it for a while


Its my mum's birthday on christmas day-and as usual I've left it to the last minute! Kathy's sketch to the rescue!

and one simple one for Claudie to give to Nanny

I did make family christmas cards this year too but the photos were far from great so you'll just have to take my word for it!!

I'm hoping now we have a lovely newly decorated study to work in I will feel like cardmaking more often now-and I do have quite a few birthdays next month-I'd better get cracking

A little sewing

My first ever Ottobre sewing pattern- I love the way they turned out-but its very hard to getClaudie to model anything so excuse the trying to escape from the camera shots!

I made this dress a while ago but only finished it off recently

A quilt for my sister's baby-due this month!

Thanks for looking

Craft by carolyns challenge weekend

Don't faint-I've actually made some cards!!

Sue is holding a great challenge weekend over on Carolyn's forum so these first 2 are for challenges -this one has 3 things beginning with S- staples, sentiment and slideholdersThis one is all done in shades of silver-the sentiment square has a bmw logo on-its from a baseball cap we bought for my father in law for christmas, it does pay to hoard!These were fun to do and used up lots of odds and ends!

Thanks for stopping by!

Polkadoodles

Si is away for a couple of nights so I'm playing with my new Back to Nature cd from Polkadoodles. Its silly, I can craft just as easily when he's home-but I don't I just sit in front of the tv with him instead!

Our wedding anniversary is on Valentine's day-so we just do anniversary cards. The tree with the owl on it is the card flap-wopuld have looked better photographed but I only ever seem to be home when its dark lately. I made this one for the Cute card thursday challenge- spots and dots

This one is using the cd too-and the sketch from 2sketches4u I like the colours on this one Thanks for stopping by

snowed in day 2!

Still its a chance to finish off some projects and plan some new ones. I made this with a pattern I found on sew mama sew. This is the second I've made, its a lovely easy pattern and its actually bwing kept for me-so much of what I make is for presents, but this will come in useful when I'm sewing CJ's quilt in the evenings.
We are going to try to walk out of the road lunchtime-we are due more snow again this afternoon so it might be are only chance to get milk etc for a while. I thought I'd bore you with some scenes from snowy Alton

These were both taken from our house-being a cul de sac we don't get any through traffic to help clear the snow.

Just realised I have another birthday this month- I used the crafty creations challenge of black and white and a hint of a colour. I normally go for red or pink to go with black and white so thought I'd try something different

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Snowed in

Luckily we had some warning this time so I left work early and got home just before the snow started-a friend I work with wasn't so lucky and managed to get as far as her son's home by 11 last night!
We have about 9 inches of snow and its still falling, I have a feeling we are going to be stuck in the house a few days yet-its going to be a struggle to find things to keep Claudie occupied.

Talking of Claudie-this is her 1st birthday card-yes I just kept going till there was no room left on the card-if you can't go OTT with pink and girly on your daughter's first birthday then when can you? hehehe

I used the template from Cute card thursday although I stretched it to fit my card, and it also fitsd A spoonful of sugar's challenge to use hearts on a card.

I think this afternoons naptime will be used to finally learn how to use the buttonhole setting on the sewing machine so I can finish off a dressing gown and denim pinafore dress for madam-wish me luck!

Thanks for stopping by

Happy New Year

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas? Ours was lovely-but there seemed a very long gap between christmas and new year this time. It will be nice to get back into a routine again next week-but for now I'm sneaking a few minutes while Claudie naps to make a start on January's cards

This one uses the new Caardvarks template (I hope I'm spelling it right!) I really wanted to use my new stamps but I couldn't make them work with the template

so I made this card too so I could play with them! No they weren't a christmas present, I treated myself just before christmas instead.

Have you made any resolutions? I'm trying not to-just the usual plans to lose weight, be calmer and more patient and find a little more "me" time (can anyone fix it so I have 30hr days please?) But I am trying to do some more sewing now too.
I had a lovely batch of fabric for christmas to make Claudie a quilt, and some clothes. I've nearly finished the first outfit so will photograph it soon.

Thanks for stopping by

To Russia with Love

I used the 2sketches4you templates last night to make these cards, what did we do before sketches for inspiration? This is using the bonus sketch

This one is going to a little girl in Russia- I met her mum on our ante natal group but they now work in Moscow, I miss them and wish they were closer

All the christmas cards are made now so I just have a few birthday cards left to make-including my Mum's birthday on christmas day

Thanks for stopping by

Christmas presents

I've cut down on the cards I'm making for christmas this year so I have time to make a few presents too.
This was CJ's favourite coat-she just loved the dotty fabric so when she outgrew it I made this rather psychadelic bear for her christmas stocking!

I also made her these blocks spelling out her full name-probably the only time we've ever used her whole name LOL!

I have made about 20 christmas cards now though, I'm trying to do them in batches using the same colours/papers but varying the layout etc. These fit the Spoonful of sugar challenge for non traditional coulours on christmas cards-I love purple and wouldn'r have put it with the begie background but the santa embellishment worked so well in those colours.

The santas were downloads from Cardmaking world I think-they had a special offer on the other day

Thanks for looking-off to put together a card making box for in front of the tv this evening!

I have a few more birthday cards to finish before I can start on christmas-but first for Jackie who asked how CJ was- she's 9 months now and very very cute hehehe

This card uses the Papertake challenge this week-I love this template and will be using it for alot of Christmas cards

For my aunt I used the Sketch and Stash challenge-the stash was the butterfly sticker, a freebie when I bought a load of scrapbook papers back in March (I managed a whole 1 layout!! since then)

Forgive the dodgy photos-my scanner died this evening :-(

3 more cards to go then I can unpack the dreaded christmas papers!

Thanks for stopping by

Thanks to a couple of challenges I've started to catch up on my card list this week. First was this lovely template from Papertake

This one was from the Friday sketchers-but I'm a day late hehehe

I've also got a couple of 1st birthday cards ready too-forward planning for a change!

Have you seen the gorgeous blog candy Jackie is giving away? Pop over and have a look at her lovely cards!

Thanks for stopping by!

Papertake challenge

Yes I still make the occasional card!! Papertake's challenge this week was black& white +1-I hope this fits the bill. I've done a couple of others but they are for forum members so won't post them here yet. Next on the list is a coffee inspired card for a starbucks mad friend.

I've finished up a few sewing projects too-a doorstop for my sis and a couple of peg aprons. I've just got a new sewing book-making children's clothes so I've started on a pinafore for CJ

Have you seen the lovely blog candy on Craft Fairy's blog?

She has some great ideas for little seasonal gifts there too!

Thanks for looking

I treated myself this week to a bumper craft pack from the craftsuperstore.co.uk- it arrived today and as soon as mum saw it she ordered one too!

I've had quite a crafty aquisition week- I also treated myself to a couple more copics when I was in the art shop and a friend of my mum's gave me a craft cd and a pile of patterned card blanks...

this first card uses a stamp from the bumper pack-its to thank the lovely lady who gave me the craft bits and it fits the sketch and stash challenge

This card is for my lovely sister who treated me to a top and CJ to a sleeping bag this week- a couple of challenges covered here- Cute card Thursday is pink and green and The secret crafter's was Hearts and Flowers-the heart is on the patterned card background

I'm going to try this weekend to finish the peg apron I promised her and to make her a doorstop for her front door

Hope you have a lovely weekend!

2 in 1

The challenge for DCM this week was to use 5 inchies, but my card also covers the Saturday challenge on secret crafter which is Flights of Fancy

I wasn't sure how much I was going to be able to use this stamp set so I put off buying it for quite a while but I'm very glad I did now, I've used it alot already

The card at the top of the post should be down here-but Blogger isn't obliging today!! We had a textile challenge on Crafts by carolyn- I made this one with a square from one of CJ's old t-shirts and an assortment of old buttons

Thanks for looking

wow-3 cards in one day!

This hasn't happened since before I had CJ-she seems to be finally getting the idea evenings are for sleep, and for mummy to make cards again!

So a very simple thank you card for some presents CJ was given at the weekend-these baby papers are going on forever!!

The theme for cute card thursday was red and teal-the same colours as my kitchen!

Off to bed-thanks for looking!

DCM challenge

The challenge on DCM this week (well technically last week) was Bejewelled Blitz-I now have Lythan to thank for a fast growing addiction to this game!

I know I'm tempting fate but Claudie has started sleeping better in the evenings so I may finally get some card making time back!

I have managed a bit of hand sewing-its easier to do in the living room when she's playing

A noughts and crosses set for my niece's 7th birthday-I made a linen bag to store it in too but was up against a deadline and didn't get to photograph it

and a hat for CJ from a sewing mag pattern-it did annoy me they only gave this one size for it-after all you had to enlarge the pattern by 115% to begin with, how hard would it have been to work out how much more you needed to enlarge it for bigger sizes?

Still she likes it and its the only hat she doesn't immediately try to pull of her head

Thanks for stopping by!

copics challenge

Finally I got some time today to catch up a little with my cards list! I made this for my niece using the copics challenge which this week was a template for a change. The shiny paper is actually more pink than the purple it looks here.

I treated myself to the Threading water punch last week so you can bet alot of my cards will feature it for a while!

These two were very quick to make, handy when CJ will only sleep for 1/2hr at a time now

I'm really enjoying sewing again-especially hand sewn little projects I can do in front of the tv, I made a sunhat for Claudie at the weekend which she loves, I'll put a photo here later, and I'm working out a plan to make a noughts and crosses set on a little patchwork quilt for my niece

Thanks for stopping by!