Hand Crafted Memories

Yes that's me, I've no idea why I haven't posted recently I just haven't. I have been a little busy making Christmas cakes and all the flowers and leaves I need for them. I've also made a vat of mincemeat ready to make all the mince pies I give out. Although I like Christmas my friends and family have agreed with me for the last few years not to do the present thing.  It means that the pressure is off for everybody having to spend money they don't have on things that I dint need. I would rather have time with them than a cupboard full of chocolates that end up going to work for my colleagues to eat. I have made four Christmas cakes, three to give to friends and family and a mini one for a charity raffle. I just need to bake mince pies and make three chocolate logs also for presents. So although I've not been blogging I have been creative. I was looking through my photographs and noticed that I hadn't posted about the lovely workshop that I attended at ...

This has been a fabulous week for me, I only worked three days. I like the idea of three day working weeks and 4 day weekends. Unfortunately I have a very heavy crafting habit that does not allow me to work part time.  I had great news on Thursday, a while ago I entered a facebook competition with this card , and I was so surprised that it won! Wowweee, I have £150 worth of Molly Bloom stamps coming my way. I can't tell you how thrilled I am, I already have quite a large collection but I'm sure I can make room for more. On Friday my friend and I went to the cake International show at the NEC , OMG some of those cakes were just incredible, absolute engineering masterpieces. I learnt loads watching some of the fantastic demonstrations. Today I was at The Craft Box and we made this lovely gift ensemble, Christmas is an expensive time of year for everybody so we made this lovely set that anybody would be happy to receive. The highlight of the day was everybody realising how eas...

I'm now hooked on the 3D pop up boxes, that my friend told me about and I have now made three. This is the one I started off with, I used the Molly Blooms circus themed stamps, I'm embarrassed to say I have had them ages and this was the first time I used them, but they were perfect for one of these cards.    

Well I'm  back from a veeeerryy looooong week. I have been working in Devon for a couple of days but the travelling by train has taken a full day to get there and another full day to get home. Its amazing how tiring it can be to just sit on a train. I was dying to just get home and have a cuppa and get into my craft room. The up side of all this is that it will only be a quick flick round with a duster as the house is tidy exactly as I left it. It was my friends birthday at the beginning of the week and as she is a card maker I had to make something a little bit different. Its a swing card with one of my favourite Molly Bloom stamps, I was really please with how this came out and the good news was that she loved it.  

Last Sunday was another of my favourite classes. Claire of Molly Blooms fame was at the Craft Box , I haven't attended a class for ages so it was time to go and play with the lovely stamps again. We made apocket card and a lovely treat box, I loved the colours and was really happy with my finished goodies.    

I am going through my photographs and trying to choose some Christmas pictures from a number of years in the hope that I can complete my Christmas journal. Its hard going but has to be done. While I was sifting through the pictures I cam across the pictures of a Molly Blooms class I took recently at the Craft Box , I have no idea why I missed them, but as it is 12th night and Christmas officially ends to day I thought I had better post them. The first one is a cone with candy in them, I'm afraid the candy is long gone  The next one was a card with an opening element on the front, it opened out to show Santa with Molly and George delivering presents  Then another card that opens to show Molly and George carol singing.

A few weeks ago I did another workshop taught by the fabulous Clare , I took photos and have just realised I never posted them. Clare always comes up with the most fabulous classes and I love spending the day at the Craft Box making them. This class was the launch of this year's Christmas Molly Bloom stamps and they are just delicious.We all created a lovely lantern and now all I need it to find an battery run candle to put in it. Could you imagine this going up in flames? I would be heart broken.

I often find when I make a card that I am critical of it and think there's something not right. But sometimes I make a card and its just right, there's nothing I want to change. This week was a very stressful week for a number of reasons, so I thought a little card making would help it out. This card cam together perfectly and I'm so pleased with it I don't want to give it away now. Perhaps stress around me is the missing element from my cards and projects.

Its time for another challenge over on the Winter Wonderland blog, this week the card should feature a character walking in the snow. So my trusty collection of Molly Bloom stamps has this cute little Molly warmly wrapped in her jumper and scarf. The perfect image for this challenge.

I just want a few days of sunshine, not just because I'm fed up with the dark rainy days but because its ruining my garden. I love my garden and a few weeks about it was blooming, today it just looks beaten. I have a weeks leave coming up and so I'm placing a special order for a week of sunshine. The other side of not being able to spend time on the garden is that I get to spend it in my craft room. Tomorrow I'm going to the Craft Box for another Molly Bloom workshop. It is well documented here on my blog how much I love these stamps so I am really looking forward to a great class. To get me in the mood. I've been tidying up my photos on my computer and come across a few cards that have not been posted, so in an attempt to encourage some summer here is one of them.    

OOps its over a week since I posted but to be truthful with the fabulous weather we've been having I think Blogland itself has become very quiet. I imagine everybody has been spending time in the garden like me. After all the rain and murky weather we've had since the end of March my garden was an absolute mess, so Saturday found me covered in sunscreen and tackling the jungle. At the end of the day I ached liked I'd run seven successive marathons. I made a quick trip to B&Q for some plants for my hanging baskets, they had a great offer on of buy one get one free. I loaded up my trolley with everything I needed and £20 later I had the plant for 4 baskets, then I spied that hanging baskets were in the offer. I still had to buy the basket liners and soil, I bagged myself 4 already planted baskets for £16, why spend the time and effort making them up and paying more money. I was delighted and turned them into jubilee baskets by putting some Union Jack flags in. I'l...

Each week I make my friend her dinner on a Wednesday night, and recently she has become interested in colouring in some images to make up into cards. I'm sort of self taught with Copics and Promarkers but I do like the effect i get when I use them. I've shown her what I know and she has bought herself a few pens. So now when she comes for her dinner I usually set her some homework or a challenge,I stamp out some images for each of us and we then colour them in and make a card up. The following Wednesday we admire each others handy work and then she goes home with some more images. Last week I stamped Molly Bloom with a watering can and some sunflowers, this was the card I came up with.   It took ages to cut out all those plant posts and sunflowers but I think it was worth it.  This morning I made some chocolate cupcakes with ganache centres ans vanilla frosting decorated with mini eggs. They were a trade with my brother and his girlfriend for a roast dinner. It was a brillian...

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.      

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.  

I had a fabulous day yesterday at the Craft Box , another of my favourite Molly Blooms classes. I had such a laugh with those ladies that I'm still smiling today. Clare comes up with the most inspirational cards and projects, I would love to live just an hour in her creative mind. Yesterday we made a piano hinge book, filled with lots of lovely images. I haven't finished mine yet, this was a mammoth stamping and colouring in session and I'm still enjoying colouring them all in. I will photograph and post it when it is finished. In the mean time here are photos of the project we made at the workshop just before Christmas, this class included some gingerbread men to put in the boxes and give as a present. No chance! I'm not giving these little beauties away, I have them in my living room to look at every day. If I do want to give somebody a special gift box I'll make them another one.                    oh and I ate the gingerbread men ...