Hand Crafted Memories

I have had a weeks holiday form work this week and I planned to spend some of it crafting. I really should learn not to plan at all because it never happens. The weather has been absolutely beautiful so the garden has taken a lot of my attention. It was looking very tired, so I have had a good tidy up and washed all the furniture down, then planted some lupins and hollyhocks ready for the summer. I have even eaten my meals out in the sun it has been so glorious. Now I have mentioned it we will probably be knee deep in snow next week. For some time I have been planning to paint my bedroom furniture. I bought it 12 years ago and bought the best quality I could afford knowing that it would last. Oh boy is it lasting, but I hate it, I no longer like pine and it has dated really badly. Truthfully I have been looking round and really like the antique french style but it would cost me a fortune to replace good quality furniture. I decided to have a go at painting the existing furniture, ...

A couple of weeks ago I went to another fabulous Molly Blooms class at the Craft Box . Boy was it a mammoth class, I like classes that are packed  and always finish them off when I get home. We used the fabulous new stamps that have just been released, they really are lovely.      

It looks like I am fast becoming a weekend blogger, eaxh time I Blog I proise I'll add more frequent posts and then the next time I sit to blog another week has passed. I hope to post a little more this week as I have a whole 9 days off work. I am praying for lovely weather so that I can spend some time in the garden tidying away the winter. I would also like to make a dent in some the crafting ideas going on in my head and maybe just maybe I can tidy the craft room up a bit.  I did make a start last night on the tidying and like many crafters I ended up crafting, I made this little card, at one time I used to make a lot of this style. I loved how it came together so quickly and love the colours.  My lovely new Project of the Month from Craftwork Cards arrived yesterday, so that will definatly get some attention. I loooove the chevron Cand i so I need to make sure that is used.

I have just got back from a fabulous class at the Craft Box where we used the lovely new stamps from Molly Bloom s. I haven't laughed so much in ages, they were such a good crowd. I didn't finish the project but have  it all laid out in my craft room and I am sitting ready to watch Dancing on Ice and continue crafting. I haven't posted in a while, I made this card a couple of weeks ago and never posted it. I'm really liking the red, white and blue theme that is popping up everywhere at the moment, I'm sure once the Jubilee and Olympics are here I'll be fed up with it again. It is great for men's cards and so is this gorgeous stamp from Penny Black. I have my eye on a couple more stamps from this range and it goes so well with the Portobello Road papers from Papermania.

I love Websters Pages, I've got a pizza box full but I end up stroking them more than using them. Tonight they gave away a fantastic prize of $500 to spend on anything you wanted from their products, can you imagine? I would have loved this prize and I'm happy to say a Brit won!  This video has wetted my appetite for some of the new range, I especially love Palm Beach. I so wish I could find a stockist here in the UK where everything form a range is stocked and not just the odd sheet of paper. I have a weekend of lovely crafting planned and on Sunday I'll be playing with the latest Molly Bloom stamps at the Craft Box with my best friend, I can't think of a nicer way to spend a day.Here is a card that I made and haven't posted, I think this is probably one of my favourite Molly stamps and sooo fits in with my current love of baking.  

Over the last few weeks I have been awarded the Liebster Blog award twice. Now I'm not really one for awards and don't really pass them on but I was awarded this by Caroline and Kate , so I feel its only right that I link back to them. you then have to put a link to five other blogs with under 200 hundred followers, well there lies the problem, most of my favourite bloggers seem to be the same as others and so are very popular but I thought I'd give it a go. I start off with Emma  a fellow design Team member for Craftwork Cards. Lesley Anita Lynn Becky All of these ladies have left a comment on my blog at some time and I have visited theirs in return.  Yesterday I made orange cupcakes and kept the theme going today with this

A few weeks ago I  went to a Stampin Up party and ordered a motorbike stamp. I thought it would be a good 'go to' stamp when I needed a mans card. Well it arrived and I love it! It doesn't need much doing to it for it to look great on a card. I love that Stampin Up have some single stamps for sale, you don't always need 6 stamps on a theme, cos you will always get one or two that you don't use.   I've also made these today orange cupcakes with orange frosting, yummy. I'm just waiting for my friend to come over so we can eat them.

Another card from the lovely Moorish collection from Craftwork Cards . Its only 10 days to the show at Harrogate where they are launching their brand new Privilege club,also have you seen the Pocketful of Papers CD rom ? 300 lush papers all at your finger tips, ready to print when you need them. Do you need anymore of a reason to take a trip to Harrogate?

Woo Hoo look at me 2 posts in as many days, its not that I've been busy making stuff, I came across a bunch of photos of cards and pages I've made and not posted. Last months project of the month from Craftwork Cards was the Moorish collection, and I had settled down to make a few cards. Here is the second of my finished ideas.

its been a while since I made a page for my brothers album, he gave me these photos ages ago. He had taken his boys out for a day it involved a trip to the cinema, Burger King and finished with  watching the wrestling. As usual I was struggling with the idea of getting multiple photos onto the page. then bingo I had a flash of inspiration and included a fold out booklet  the two photos on the right page are on a flap, that reveals more photos  on a concertina fold out booklet and their tickets in the back. The white panel on the left page is for the jornaling. He is very bad at writing onto the pages, he is now on his third album and hasn't written on a single page. I used the sketch from  December on Scrapbook and Cards Today 's blog.