Cre8tive Kate

Lots of exciting news!

2012-01-27T20:41:00.001Z

You might want to put the kettle on and settle down for a read as I have LOADS of exciting news to share! I will try and be as brief as possible!

Page of the Month (POTM)

We have finally received the information from Basic Grey regarding their Page of the Month programme for 2012 and it looks like it is going to be better than ever. The kits will still contain the latest releases, they will still have full colour instructions with a sketch. So what’s different this year? Well the theme this year is Past, Present and Future but as always you can customize it to fit your needs. This year they have brought back the end of year incentive (yay!) and this year it is going to be an EXCLUSIVE designer tote bag. This year there are also going to be bonus projects to use up leftovers from the kits and if that wasn’t enough each month there is going to be an EXCLUSIVE digital element which can be downloaded and used on the layout or in the bonus project. Sounds good doesn’t it? Here is an example of one of the first months pages….

So how does it work? Well… every two months you will receive two kits cram packed with the latest products from Basic Grey with full instructions to complete a lovely double page layout. Places are limited so if you are interested please get your deposit in as soon as possible. If you can let me know by 2nd Feb at the latest that would be brilliant as Basic Grey haven’t given us much time to get our orders in. You will receive an e-mail to let you know if you have been successful (we have to get the kits in multiples of 12 so if you are the 13^th person for a group then we may not be able to include you).

The small print:

* You need to sign up for the complete year which will mean 2 kits sent every 2 months.

* The kits cost £18.99 each plus £2.99 shipping (for 2 kits) so you will be charged £40.97 every two months or pay for the whole year up front and save £1 per kit.

* Payments can be by BACS (internet banking), PayPal or credit or debit card.

* A £15 deposit is required to confirm your place. This will be deducted off the final kit of the year or carried over to the following year if you carry on. If you default during the year the deposit is non-refundable.

If you want to sign up for the year then you can pay your deposit online here by card or PayPal or if you do internet banking e-mail to show your interest and we will give you our bank details or if you prefer you can call us on 01329 313633 and pay by card over the phone.

Kit of the Month (KOTM)

In addition to the POTM programme Basic Grey have introduced a new monthly programme called Kit of the Month this year. So what is it? Well it’s a monthly kit programme but instead of scrapbook pages each month you will complete an ‘Off-The-Page’ project. Some examples of the projects include a paper wreath, a canvas sampler, a daily inspiration frame, a desktop accessory / magnet set plus lots more Here is a paper wreath similar to the one you will make…

At the end of the year you will receive a FREE EXCLUSIVE designer desk organiser to say thank you for completing the year. Now this is where it gets a bit complicated… because of the differing nature of the projects the price of the kits will vary from month to month. The price will be between £15 and £25 per kit and the kits will ship in pairs as with the POTM. Shipping will be £3.99 for the two months. If you sign up for these kits it is on the understanding that the price will vary depending on the project. The KOTM runs from April 2012 to March 2013. If you sign up for the POTM and the KOTM programme the kits can be shipped together for just £3.99 shipping (we will hold on to your POTM until the KOTM comes in).

The small print:

* You need to sign up for the complete year which will mean 2 kits sent every 2 months.

* The kits cost between £15.00 and £25.00 each plus £3.99 shipping (for 2 kits).

* Payments can be by Standing Order, BACS (internet banking), PayPal or credit or debit card.

Basic Grey Class Kits

Do you fancy buying a one off kit? If so we might have just the thing for you. We have four basic Grey class kits available (sold on a first come first served basis – see below for availability dates). Plus, buy two class kits and save 10%, buy all four and save 20%! To order your kit we will need a £5 deposit for each one ordered, normal P&P rates will apply £1.99 or free over £30. If the ladies who attend my crops would like to do any of these as classes please let me know and we will see what we can do.

Kit 1 – Konnichiwa Mini Album Kit Includes:- 6x6 Konnichiwa Paper Pad Jovial Mini Monograms Lotus Album in Milk (brown) Konnichiwa Mixed Brads Konnichiwa Die Cut Shapes Available:- End March 2012 Cost:- £17.99	Kit 2 – Plumeria Frame Kit Kit Includes:- Two Plumeria 12”x12” papers 7”x7” Brown Frame Plumeria Chipboard Stickers Available:- End March 2012 Cost:- £19.99
PB&J Card Kit Kit Includes:- Three PB&J 12”x12” Papers PB&J 6”x6” Paper Pad PB&J Pieces Hopscotch Mini Monograms Wander Painted Brads Available:- End May 2012 Cost:- £14.99	What’s Up Sampler Kit Includes:- Laurel Sampler What’s Up 6”x6” Paper Pad What’s Up Layered Stickers What’s Up Mixed Brads Available:- End May 2012 Cost:- £21.99

I hope you can join us in 2012 for one or more of these exciting initiatives and if you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.

What a pear!

2012-01-26T14:02:00.001Z

I have been sorting out all the stuff in the loft.... and trying to be ruthless and get rid of some of the crap. It is looking really good under the eaves but I have stuff all over my bedroom to sort and get rid of or organise and put back. Anyway I decided to have a night off on Tuesday and spent the evening making cards. I like to make a series of cards that are the same but different. As you can see from the cards above I changed each one slightly. It's a good compromise between making a batch of identical cards which can be boring and having to create something new each time which can be time consuming. Can you see my Camellia out in flower already in the background of the photo! Here are some individual shots of the cards...

Suppplies used:-

Artemio Clear Stamps Decorated Pear £1.99

Woodware 1" circle punch £3.99

Vintage Photo Distress Ink £4.99

Sepia Archival Ink £4.99

Sunset Orange Adirondack Pigment Ink £4.99

Finger Dauber £2.37 (3pack) £4.99 (10 pack)

Self Adhesive Pearls £1.99

American Crafts Cardstock - White & Chocolate £0.50 per sheet

Marmalade Bazzill Cardstock £0.50 per sheet

Ball ornament

2012-01-19T11:40:00.000Z

In my trawlings of the net I have come across some brilliant things that I want to have a go at so I thought I would from time to time list some of them here with the link to where they came from and then if I ever do try it I will post how it went! If anyone else beats me to it please do let me know how you get on and if there is any advice you would give.

The first thing I thought I would share is this amazing ball ornament. As with lots of things when you look at the instructions it looks easier than you would expect. Famous last words!! I think this punch would work. If you want to see how to do it the original post is here.

Christmas Creations!

2012-01-18T10:28:00.000Z

At our crop Tamsyn was finishing off some cute Christmas creations. She had made several in time for Christmas and rather than storing the unfinished ones for next year (and then probably not ever getting round to completing them!) she was finishing them off. The Christmas pudding and robin are designed to hang on the tree and they have a little pocket where you can hide a nice chocolate treat too :)

Cre8tive crop class

2012-01-16T13:36:00.000Z

As promised here is the full image of the layout for the crop class on Saturday plus images of a couple of the ladies finished pages. I can't take the credit for the lovely design as it came from a page I saw on Pinterest. It is quite different to my usual style but I really liked it and what's more not a single stamp or ink pad in sight

(now that is unusual!)

Crop Class Sneak Peek

2012-01-11T10:34:00.000Z

It is the first Cre8tive crop of 2012 this Saturday and for those of you who are taking the class in the morning here are some sneak peeks for the class page. They will hopefully give you an idea of the colours.

As well as the usual tools and adhesives you will need:-
one 6"x4" photo (landscape - that's the longest side along the bottom)
tweezers or a quilling tool
paper piercer
needle
if you have a glue gun that would be helpful

January & February Page of the Month Kits

2012-01-09T11:06:00.000Z

The last two Basic Grey kits for the current year are in and have started shipping click on the images below for a nice close up of the pages. We will be taking bookings for next year later in the month so if you are interested in getting the details let me know your e-mail address and I'll send the info through. The kits will run from March 2012 to Feb 2013. If you get the kits already you will get the e-mail before I send out to newcomers :)

Do you recognise this?

2012-01-06T11:51:00.000Z

Does anyone know if this is a punch or a die? I have a friend asking after it but I can't find it so I thought I would see if anyone else recognises it!

Where the hell is Matt?

2011-12-09T11:36:00.001Z

This is completely non craft related but loads of fun. My husband told me to search the above phrase up on YouTube and there are loads of possible videos. I clicked on the first one and this is what it was....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY

How cool is that.... and what a lucky guy to have been able to visit all those places and danced with all those people. I am going to check out some more of his videos :)

12 Tags of Christmas

2011-12-02T14:15:00.000Z

Well for another year Tim Holtz is doing his brilliant 12 Tags of Christmas. Full of great ideas and inspiration. I can't believe he makes the tags the night before he posts them, such a lot of work but with 55,000 views on the first day it shows how popular they are. Here are images of his first two tags.

His blog can be found at www.timholtz.typepad.com for full step by step instructions.

Something to get those grey cells working!

2011-11-23T10:50:00.000Z

I have a friend who sends me lots of e-mails with funny pictures, stories and jokes in. Some are very rude but every so often I get ones which I really like. I enjoy word puzzles so this was right up my street. I didn't get the answer to this one I had to cheat and look but like so many things once I knew it was obvious! See if you can work it out....

See if you can figure out what these seven words all have in common?

1. Banana
2. Dresser
3. Grammar
4. Potato
5. Revive
6. Uneven
7. Assess

If you want to know the answer scroll down...

Answer:
In all of the words listed, if you take the first letter, place it at the end of the word, and then spell the word backwards, it will be the same word.

Christmas Decoration

2011-11-18T14:41:00.000Z

Each year I like to make a Christmas Decoration to add to our collection. This year I came across instructions for the bauble below. It is really easy to make although a little time consuming. The first one I made I used double sided tape to hold it together and it didn't. This second one uses the BRILLIANT Art Institute glue which holds it no problem. I am going to have a go at making some more with more contrasting colours to see how that looks (on to the to do list!)

Christmas Card Time!

2011-11-17T14:42:00.000Z

As Christmas draws closer we are starting to get ready here at Cre8tive. Our November card class was completely Christmas but with a slightly different colour scheme. For Christmas I pretty much always stick to green and red with either white or gold or silver. Somehow these colours are Christmas to me. However I wanted to try something a bit different this month so the colour scheme was the ever popular kraft, red and then white. I really like the combination, what do you think?

Products used:

Kraft Card Bazzill

Kraft Corrugated Card

Traditional Messages Wood Mounted Stamps

EK Success Snowflake Punch

Two Tone Red Ribbon

Merry Christmas Clear Stamp Set

Stickles Glitter Glue

1" Circle Punch

White Pen

Paper Piercer

Basic Grey November & December POTM kits

2011-11-07T20:05:00.000Z

The latest Basic Grey kits are in and contain some seriously scrummy stash. I am absolutely loving the flowers in the Black Tie kit (I have looked at them closely and I can't quite work out how they are made, they are layers of papery loveliness!) and the metal flowers in the Picadilly kit are rather lovely too. If you have subscribed to the kits I will be sending out an e-mail tomorrow or Wednesday asking for payment. If you don't want to know what the pages look like then look away now!!

UKScrappers Blog Hop

2011-11-01T07:54:00.000Z

Welcome to the Cre8tive blog and our first ever Blog Hop...if you are participating in the UKS blog hop, you probably came here from Crafty Templates , welcome to our little corner of the web.

Please comment at the end using your UKS username for a chance to win a UKS prize and if you like what you see we would love it if you followed our blog. Don't forget to check out UKS to see the full list of links and info on the prizes! In addition we are offering a 10% discount for today only so enter the code UKS-HOP at the checkout on our site www.cre8tiveonline.co.uk to get the discount on your order.

Right so on to our project... At the moment my recipes are stored in an old exercise book that is splattered with cake mix and is looking decidedly dog eared! I have been looking for a box to turn into a recipe box and when I came across this pine chest I knew it would be perfect. I like pretty but I also like practical so because it is going to be in a kitchen I wanted to make it wipe-downable so I have kept the decoration flat and the surface will be sealed and the recipe cards themselves will be laminated so they to will be protected too. I have also organised a recipe swap for our next crop on 26th November so please check back to see what lovely recipes people come up with.

The first step is to choose the papers you want to cover your box. I used this picture as inspiration for my colours.

Cut strips from your papers in random thickness's. Lay the strips of paper in the order that you like ready to stick to your box.

To stick the strips on your box you need to use an adhesive like decoupage glue or the Ranger glue and seal. Using a foam brush to apply the glue you need to make sure that the strip is covered in glue right to the edges so that when you stick the strips down they are not going to peel up at the edges. For the first strip cover in glue and then use the catch as a guide for the angle to stick as in the picture.

Trim off the pieces that are hanging off the edge of the lid and keep the bottom one as you will need this to stick to the front of your box shortly. (the part with the white on in the image above).

My second strip is cut to 3cm wide which fitted perfectly over the catch. Using the piece you have saved from the step above use it as a guide to cut the angle for where your 3cm strip will meet the bottom of the lid. Keep the section cut off the 3cm strip as you will need this later as well.

Stick your strip down trimming off the bottom corner to go to the left of your catch as in the image below.

The fiddly bit is cutting around the catch but the glue actually makes this easier. Because the paper becomes more pliable when the glue is applied you can use a pokey tool to gently 'draw' around the catch (see the image below). This indicates where you will need to cut and you can then peel the strip back just enough to cut the marked area with your scissors and then re-stick the trimmed piece around the catch.

Shut your box and stick the two strips you saved earlier to continue on the line of the strips on the front of the box. Again you will need to trim around the catch.

Continue adding your strips in the same way all across your box (I left the ends of the box blank but you could decorate these as well if you wanted to). Once you have used one of each of the strips you laid out earlier you can repeat the pattern.You will need to do the same over the hinges at the back as you did with the catch at the front.

To finish the outside of the box cut a scalloped circle from white card using the Woodware 3 1/2" punch. Cut a strip of black card 4cm wide and then trim off a triangle from each end to make a banner. Die cut 'Recipes' and stick to the banner. Your box is now ready to seal.

For the inserts for your box you will need to cut black card to 18cm x 11cm for each of your main dividers and then white card 23cm x 18cm for your sub-dividers. So I did ...
Starters (black)
-Soups (white)
Mains (black)
-Fish (white)
-Meat (white)
-Vegetarian (white)
-Pasta (white)
-International (white)
Puddings (black)
-Hot (white)
-Cold (white)
Baking (black)
-Cakes (white)
-Biscuits (white)

I decided to add a little decoration to my main dividers to tie in with the box so each one had the top corners rounded and 2 strips of paper going the other way to the box. I stuck them in random places on the front but used the first one to line up the angle of the strips as below. They then had a banner with a die cut title stuck to them as on the lid of the box.

The white card is going to be made into pockets to hold your recipes so you need to score at 11cm, 11.5cm and 12cm. I used the brilliant Hougie Board.

Once scored fold as in the image below and corder round the corners. Add a banner with a title for each pocket.

Again to line up the banners place them next to each other as below. Note the banners are near the top of the dividers so they can be seen more easily when looking in the box.

I hope you like our project and that some of you will give it a go, let us know if you do. I have left links in the instructions above for the products used. Don't forget to take advantage of the 10% discount and please do follow us if you can.

And finally your directions onwards...the next blog to hop on to after ours is Creative Craft World. Bon voyage!

October Cre8tive Cards

2011-10-26T15:00:00.000+01:00

I've been meaning to post images from the last Cre8tive Cards class for a while but I have been caught up with my new improved office, come craft room. In fact I have been sanding and filling so much that I have given myself tendonitis! The room is completed I just have to sort all the stuff now (the fun bit)!

So here are the cards from a couple of weeks ago. Firstly we made a star card. It was a bit time consuming to decorate but well worth the effort for the finished effect. I think it would look amazing hung by ribbon.

I have wanted to make a pinwheel card for ages so I decided to make one for the class. The greeting was printed from the computer which I like to do if I want a greeting that I haven't got a stamp for. It would be fun to make a card where the pinwheel actually spins too!

The third card was a card for using up all those scraps of paper. We used neutral creams and browns but the card looks great with a mix of all sorts of colours too :)

And finally, our first Christmas card of the year. I saw the template for this Christmas card on the Internet and thought it was great so we used it in the class. I think Christmas cards need to be quick but effective and I definitely think this card falls into that category!

Retreat Weekend

2011-10-12T13:20:00.000+01:00

I had a lovely time at the Littlegreen retreat last weekend despite having a bad arm which meant unloading the boxes was slower going than normal. I always love going to retreats with the shop as once I am set up I can relax and get some scrapping done myself. I was sitting next to Sarah who managed to do 6 layouts I think it was on Saturday alone and I only did 2 over the whole weekend. I do have excuses though!! The shop was very busy :) and I had to pack up on Sunday morning as I had to get back to look after the kids as Dave is away :( I know talking a lot had a little to do with me not getting much done too :) Here are the two pages I did complete.

This page is all about how my eldest son pointed with his middle finger when he was tiny just like his Grandad Colin. I wonder what else the boys have inherited from the family? I know both Jez and Dave twiddle their hair!

This second page is my youngest playing the snare drum at his school show in 2010. The whole class performed the John Barnes rap as part of the World Cup Fever show and Alex drummed along which he was very proud of.

A Cheeky Card or two!

2011-10-07T13:10:00.000+01:00

At the July card class I was a little concerned that some of the ladies might have taken offence at this first card, but thankfully they all took it in good humour. After the class I thought of a different greeting to go on the front.... I rearly love you! You can use the template to cut the bottom cheeks part of the card in patterned paper instead to make a bikini but I really couldn't think of a greeting for a bikini card! If you think of one let me know!

For our special fold card we made a clutch purse card which looks really cute and is great for giving gift cards as you can make a little pocket inside like a real clutch purse! Not only did we make the card but we also made the flower from scratch! You can see a close up of the flower here. It is a little time consuming to make and takes a while to dry but it does look so good that I think it's worth it.

We made two cards following our sketch and this is definitely my favourite. We made the butterflies using alcohol inks and acetate and had a nifty little technique to enable the underneath wings to show. The butterfly antenna are made from flower stamen too.

Here is our second card from the sketch. Nice and quick and easy.

This next card was to go with our occasions cards and is of course to celebrate the birth of a little boy. Change the colours for an easy baby girl card. Can you work out how we made the foot? It's not a stamp!

I hope you like the sneak peak of the cards. If you like any of these or any previous months cards you can purchase the instructions for individual cards for £2 each. Just let me know which one(s) you want and once payment is sorted I'll e-mail through the instructions.

Leaving Gift

2011-10-06T11:52:00.000+01:00

At the end of last term the deputy head left my sons school. She had been there for 10 years so all the time I have been there. I was asked by one of the teachers if I could make her a book that the children could all leave a message in for her. So I got my thinking cap on and came up with a tag book to hold nearly 200 tags! Two of the other mums from school spent a morning with me secreted in one of the classrooms making the pages ready for the tags (thank you so much Clare and Jeanette). I then borrowed my mother in laws sewing machine and stitched all the pockets down for added strength. Added some stamping and the class names, made a cover and put it all together. Simples! I was really pleased with the rainbow effect to tie in with the theme of fair seas and following winds with each class having a different colour fibre to tie their tags. I was also really pleased with the stab binding and the ribbon closure which went all down the right hand side to make sure the tags didn't fall out. Unfortunately I can't show pictures of the inside because it contains pictures of the children but here are some images of the outside.

Kanzashi Flowers

2011-09-29T11:33:00.000+01:00

For our class at the crop on Saturday we used a paper that did most of the work for us when it came to making a lovely page, the paper had a title for us as well as a cute banner and some lovely glitter for an added touch of glamour. So the main technique for our class was something a little bit different. We used ribbon to make Kanzashi Flowers. If you want to have a go you can find a video on YouTube showing how to make them here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaVb1-CoKUk) although we made 8 petals rather than 5. The ribbon has a gold side and a silver side both of which went beautifully with the paper. Here are some of the lovely layouts the ladies made (I just love the fact that they have made the layouts their own).

Here is my layout with a photo of my middle son celebrating his 11th birthday (sorry the photograph of him didn't come out too well!)

This is Bobby's page and as you can see she used an oval cutter to shape her photo. Don't the wedding photos go really well on the page?

Here is Carols page. She cut a scalloped circle with her Nestabilities which addes a lovely effect to the edge of the photo.

Here is Glendas page and another oval to emphasise her granddaughter on her 18th birthday.

Joy has made her own little red roses and used a red photo mount to go with her photo and has left a much larger section of the ribbon showing under her photo which really helps balance her page as she had a much smaller photo to use.

Sue has grouped 3 photos together to tell the story of her father-in-laws 70th birthday

If any of the other ladies who did the class want to e-mail through photos of their pages I will happily add them to the blog :)

Funcrops

2011-06-16T11:34:00.000+01:00

On Saturday I went to West Sussex for Sue's Littlegreen crop. We had a lovely day catching up and doing a bit of crafting too. I worked on an old Basic Grey page of the month kit which is very nearly finished, just need to add some stars! I'll hopefully finish it tonight, children willing! On Sunday I went to the Funcrops in Abingdon (near Oxford). This did mean a manic weekend but also meant I didn't have to unpack and repack the car, I just left it all packed ready to go Sunday morning. Sunday morning it was wet, wet, wet... I had a lovely day scrapping and meeting up with the ladies again. Here are some of the projects they were working on during the day.

And breathe!!

2011-06-13T13:46:00.000+01:00

I have had a cram packed 3 days... card classes Friday, crop in West Sussex Saturday and the a crop in Oxfordshire on Sunday! I was ready to drop Sunday night! So I have a lot of lovely creations to share with you. Today I'll show you the cards we made at the Cre8tive Cards class and then later in the week I'll share some of the lovely creations from over the weekend.

Our first card was this banner card using some lovely Hero Arts stamps

Our second card followed our sketch for the day and our colours for the day too. After playing with some ribbon I came up with the ruffled ribbon technique on it too which I really like.

It's Fathers Day this Sunday so we made a nice masculine card for all our dads (or we changed the greeting if we didn't have a dad to send to).

For our Cre8tive Fold we made a stepper card using layers of white on white and a contrasting die cut ballerina in black.

And last but not least we did some piercing to make a border for this clever birthday candle greeting stamp.

Party Number 3!

2011-06-07T13:23:00.000+01:00

Alex had his third party on Sunday and what a cool party it was. The kids went zip wiring and a couple of us brave adults had a go too. Alex was a bit unsure at first but soon got into the swing of things (excuse the pun!). Here is the card he sent to his friend...

And here we are on the zipwire!

June Cre8tive Cards

2011-06-02T16:19:00.000+01:00

The next Cre8tive cards is fast approaching so if you are local why not join us for a fun afternoon or evening of crafting. You will make at least 5 cards, learn new techniques, have full instructions to take home so you can replicate the cards and get a free gift too. All the materials you require are included, you just need to bring along basic tools (trimmer, ruler, pencil, adhesive, scissors) and the rest is all included in the cost of the class.

So what is in store for June's class? Well there is a great masculine card suitable for Fathers Day or a male birthday, a white on white stepper card, a great summery colour inspiration and more...

The details are...

10 June 2011

Fareham North West Community Centre, PO15 6TL

Afternoon session 12:30 – 3pm OR Evening session 7-9:30pm

Cost £10 which includes all materials required (please bring basic tools & adhesive)

Full instructions included to take home

Free gift with each class

You will need to book as places are limited especially in the evening session

Call Katie on 01329 313633 or e-mail katie@cre8tiveonline.co.uk for more details and to book your place

2011-06-01T11:39:00.000+01:00

Today I thought I'd show you another series of cards that I made as thank you notes for my sons friends who came to his birthday party. These cards were made using scraps from my scraps box, I have a drawer in which I put all my scraps from my scrapbooking and these usually are used on cards although I never seem to make a dent in the pile.

The common theme for this series was the little ant that appears somewhere on each card. Again these were some stickers that I have had sitting there forever and I wanted to use some of them up. I still have lots more to use as well as lots of little ladybirds so I expect they will feature at some point in the future.

I hope you like the cards and are inspired a little to use up some scraps or some stickers that you have had hanging around for a while!

Party Number 2

2011-05-31T21:21:00.000+01:00

Alex had another party at the weekend... he chose a card from a set that I made a while ago. The cards are the same but different. They all have the same stamp used on them and they all have the same colours but there are little differences on each one. First there are three with a flag which says thank you...

The rest all say True Blue Friend, these two have a dark blue matt behind the greeting...

and these three just have a light blue matt. Notice the slightly different embellishments on each one. I really enjoyed making this set.

And here they all are together.

Birthday Party

2011-05-27T13:17:00.000+01:00

My youngest was invited to a football party last weekend for two of his friends. He had some puffy football stickers so I made two identical cards for his friends. It's obviously party season for him as he has another party for the next three weekends!

Cre8tive Crop Class May 2011

2011-05-26T11:06:00.000+01:00

We had a lovely crop last Saturday. Lots of chatting, laughter and a bit of scrapping too! The class was a layout page which featured lots of blue! Here are the ladies finished or nearly finished pages. Firstly here is my page, I just love the Prima studs which started out as a frame but we cut them up to make a border for our circle, I also love the ribbon crosses.

Next here is Debbies page of her Nephew... she did a page of her niece at our last crop and brothers being what they are Lee was teasing her so it's payback time for Sophie!! Debbie still has to add her journalling and her acetate frame but the page looks great.

Next up Glenda's page with a really lovely smiley photo of one of her grandsons... cute!

Joy scrapped photos of her son from 9 years ago... apparently he is a lot bigger than this now! She inked the circle with a brighter blue to match her sons top - great idea!

Lesley put her photo on the other side of the circle as it fitted better and her grandson was then looking into the page rather than looking out of it.

Sue added some pink to her page to tie in with the tops the girls were wearing. You can see the acetate frame better on Sue's page because she used a cranberry paint dabber rather than the cloudy blue which everyone else used. She also used the dabber to colour her alphabet to tie in perfectly.

Last but by no means least Vivien did this page of her grandson. I love how the pattern on the cushion ties in with the studs around the edge. Again Vivien is going to finish her page at home.

Cre8tive Cards 5 - May 2011

2011-05-25T10:55:00.000+01:00

Here are the cards from the latest card class.

We did two inky technique cards, firstly one made using a block of colour made by blending the Distress Inks together. The top card just had two colours of inks (blue and yellow) but where they overlapped green was created and the lower card had three colours of inks (blue, yellow and pink) and where they overlapped green and purple were also made. We then stamped a bold image in black for a great contrast.

Our second technique used ink blending again but this time the ink was resisted over an embossed area on the card.

Our third card was a simple stamped card, quick but effective with an added touch of Adirondack Dimensional Pearls in the centre of some of the flowers.

Next was a ribbon flower technique which is great for using up those longer scraps of ribbon. Depending on how tight you twist the ribbon gives you different looks.

And last but not least a folding technique to make a stepper card. Great because it folds flat to post so can go as a normal letter (rather than large letter) as long as you don't embellish it too heavily!

Cre8tive Cards 5 May 2011

2011-05-24T10:52:00.000+01:00

We had a great card class the second Friday in May and I was most impressed that a lot of the ladies had done their homework! At the end of the previous card class we made a shadow box which we left plain and undecorated. For homework the ladies could if they wanted decorate the card and bring to show this time. Well 2 of the ladies decorated their cards and gave them away, some didn't get chance to do their cards but below you will find some of the lovely completed projects. I love how with the same starting point they all turned out so different.

Above is Carole's card. She used the recess in the shadowbox to great effect with some lovely handmade flowers. She has given me a little tutorial on how to make the flowers so I am sure they will feature on a card or a layout soon!

Next we have Carolyn's card with some really pretty stamped flowers and butterflies.

Marie made this bright flower from scratch. Isn't the combination of pink and orange a great contrast to the black?

And last but not least Sue (number 2 Sue... I have 3 who come to the card classes!) remade the shadowbox in white and made this beautiful anniversary card. She did a beautiful job of decorating the inside too... what lovely handwriting!

Cre8tive Cards 4 - March 2011

2011-05-23T13:26:00.000+01:00

I have so many photos to upload onto the blog from various events so I will make a real effort to get up to date. So today here are the cards from our March card class. (I said I was behind!) If you want to join us the classes are on the second Friday of each month. There is an afternoon and an evening session so you can choose the one that suits you best. The class is held in Fareham Hampshire. If you want more information please get in touch.

Ok to the cards... Three of the five cards followed our sketch, I wonder if you can work out what the sketch was from the cards? Answers on a postcard!

For our first card there was a choice of colour-ways and the technique was using multiple colours on one stamped image.

Our second card used our colours for the day, hot pink with black and white. I am sure you will agree they make a stunning combination! I won't tell you how we made the pink flowery strip... that would give all our secrets away!

Next a Mother's Day card... April 3rd 2011 if you didn't know.

I taught the ladies the cool ribbon folding technique that I have put instructions for on the blog here

And finally we made a shadow box. We didn't decorate it but the ladies can do that for homework if they want to and bring to show and tell next time! Only if they want to of course... no pressure!

Mothering Sunday Creations

2011-04-07T13:03:00.000+01:00

At the Littlegreen crop last Sunday Jo was making a beautiful framed piece of artwork for her mum for Mothering Sunday. It is absolutely lovely and I am sure her mum loved it.

For my mum I made a purple card as it is her favourite colour. A very simple card with a stamped image and watercolour pencils but hopefully she liked it.

For my mother in law a nice pink girly card.

My boys spoilt me on Mothering Sunday which was lovely. They also bought me an apple tree for the garden which I am looking forward to choosing a spot for (although I am going to wait until after my youngest's party on Monday as we will have lots of children running around in the garden!) I hope all you mums out there had a great day too?

Crop Layouts

2011-04-05T11:50:00.000+01:00

I didn't manage to get photos of many layouts from our crop as the camera batteries died on me and the spare set were flat too (I wonder who put a flat pack back in the bag?!?). The few photos I did get were great though. Here are a few photos of pages from the class.

Debs is sure that her neice won't like this photo but I can't see what's not to like? She is beautiful and the photo goes so well with the page, the colours are amazing with the papers and notice the flower on her top which ties in with the flowers on the page. Brilliant!

Next we have Su's take on the page which again the colours go amazingly! Su is going to add her title later so I look forwards to seeing what she adds. I love the journalling around the edge of the page. Nice to see someone with a lot to say!!

Next we have Viv's take on the page and again the photos go brilliantly... she didn't know there was circles on the page, but they compliment her hula hoops brilliantly.

Sneak Peak

2011-03-22T12:17:00.000Z

I thought that those of you who are coming to the crop on Saturday might like a sneak peak of the layout we are doing. If you want to do the class please let me know or if you are a blog reader who would like a class kit sent to you please let me know and I'll give you more details.

The class is a single page layout using 1 landscape photo or 1 or 2 portrait photos. I have used 2 portrait photos but the layout is flexible as regards the photos you use. You will need 6”x4” photos if you are using 2, if you are using one you could probably use 7”x5”. The class will teach you two great techniques, a paper folding technique and a ribbon flower technique. The colours are kraft, brown and orange. And my photos have clear blue skies in them too which go really well.

As well as the usual tools you will need to bring…

If you have a score board or trimmer that scores please bring it along (if you aren’t doing the class but have a score board someone could borrow that would be really helpful)

Bone folder (or similar for scoring)

Double sided tape

3mm redline tape (the really sticky stuff) or another strong glue

3D foam squares (or the 3D foam tape if you have it)

A pair of compasses with a pencil

If you want to let me know what your title is in advance I will sort out the letters for you into your kit. Titles will need to be short (mine is ‘roar’!)

Cre8tive Cards 3

2011-03-15T14:28:00.000Z

These are the photos from the February Cre8tive Cards class. I hope you like :)

Firstly a paper weave heart for Valentines Day with a beautiful stamped background (the image unfortunately doesn't do it justice)

Secondly an origami flower in a choice of two colours

Next our technique 'Kissing'... well it had to be seeing as it was nearly Valentine's Day! The four corners of the card were all created with the same stamp and an ace stamping technique.

And finally our Cre8tive Fold card which didn't have a single fold in it!

A cool shaped slider card... pull the point at the bottom and a secret section pops up at the top. Cool!

Sneak Peak

2011-02-14T21:18:00.000Z

For those of you who are joining us for the Basic Grey Page of the Month Programme this year here is an image of the first two kits. I hope you like them :)

Editing Photos

2011-02-09T14:13:00.000Z

I got into a discussion with some of the ladies at the crop on Saturday about how I make my photos lighter. It all started because the lady opposite me had snowy pictures and her snow looked somewhat grey. Anyway I said to her that I use Microsoft Office Picture Manager to lighten my photos. It is really easy and seems to work on most photos. I usually use it when I am photographing cards or layouts to make the colour more true. I thought I would share how I do it here in case it can help anyone else. The software was on my pc so I would think most people have it. So here is what I do...

In Windows Explorer click on the file you want to open (only click once)
Right click and you should have a drop down menu
About half way down it says 'Open With'
If you move the mouse over this it will then open another drop down menu
On my menu the second item down is Microsoft Office Picture Manager
Select this and it will open the photo you have selected.
From the menus at the top left click 'picture' and then 'colour' from the menu that drops down
On the right there is now a box which says enhance colour. Click on this box and then click on anything in your photo that is white
Your computer will work out how all the other colours should look adjusting the colour that should be white back to white.
See below for a before and after shot. Note the piece of paper on the left. If I don't have anything white in my photo I will put a piece of paper in shot for my white and then crop it out when I edit my photo. The paper goes from grey to white and the rest of the photo is brightened up too.

I hope this can help some of you. Let me know if it does and also if you don't understand anything!

Free Ribbon!

2011-02-01T14:22:00.000Z

I thought it was about time we did another prize draw so if you place an order for £30 or more online during February you will be entered in our prize draw to win over £30 worth of ribbons. I will make sure the winner gets a really good selection. All you have to do is place your order and you will automatically be entered in the prize draw (and of course you will get free P&P too!) Happy Shopping!

Cre8tive Crop

2011-01-24T11:35:00.000Z

We had a lovely day on Saturday and I even managed to come round and have a chat with everyone which was lovely as I don't usually get the time. I always love seeing what everyone is working on and hearing the stories behind the projects. I didn't get the camera out this time so no photos of everyone else's work I'm afraid but here is a photo of the class I taught which was a celebration of 2010. The next Cre8tive Crop is 26th March so if you are free and in the area why not join us?

January Cre8tive Cards

2011-01-19T10:47:00.000Z

I have just finished my class for the crop on Saturday so I will give you a little sneak peak tomorrow, but for now here are the cards from the second Cre8tive Cards class last Friday.

First for the Cre8tive Fold we did a Neverending Card. I love these as they are actually quite easy to make and yet they look really complicated. In the class the hardest bit was cutting the greeting the correct way!

Secondly we learnt a brilliant way of making carnation flowers for your cards. A little time consuming but the effect is worth it. Some of the ladies found this very therapeutic.

For our technique we did stamping into UTEE. It gives a lovely 3D textural effect. We also did the great way of adding the ribbon to your card which is again really easy.

Next we did 3 different cards from our sketch. This was the basic card from the sketch... I love these colours from the New Basic Grey Hopscotch range.

Our next card used the sketch but also we used the flower technique we had learned earlier and our Cre8tive Colours for the evening taken from the necklace in the photo.

Our final card using the sketch switched the shape for the sketch to the great Journal Plate punch from EK Success (we used this last class too).

Cre8tive Cards

2011-01-18T14:48:00.000Z

I have thoroughly enjoyed the two Cre8tive Card classes we have done so far and thought I would share the things we have made. The first class was in December so we made lots of Christmas goodies.

Firstly with our FREE stamp set we made these two cards. Nice and simple but stylish in cool blues.

Then we did a bit of recycling of old Christmas cards and made this layered card. What a great way of recycling!

We also made this stunning Christmas decoration, a Finnish Star (thanks Sue for the instructions).

And this yummy Chocolate snowman.

We have certain themes each time and one theme is Cre8tive Folds where we make cards which are a bit different to the norm. Here are the ones we made in December.I have since discovered this is called an easel fold.

Another theme we have each time is the Cre8tive Sketch and this is the card we made with our first sketch.

If you want to join us for the card classes they are the second Friday of the month and there is an afternoon and an evening session. If you aren't local to us you can still join in the fun. I can send you a great kit with all the instructions, papers, embellishments etc you need. You would have to use your own ink pads and stamps (you would still get the FREE stamp stocks depending). If you are interested just let me know and I'll send you more details.

Share the love!

2010-11-04T11:09:00.000Z

I am sorry for my absence for a while... my eldest broke his arm the week before half term, the next day I was ill along with my middle son and when we had to take our eldest back in to hospital it was my husband who stayed with him overnight. Thankfully the next day I felt fine again and was able to stay with my son for 2 more days and another night in hospital. Then I passed the illness to... wait for it... my husband, my mother and father in law, my brother and sister in law and three of their 4 children... oops! Then it was half term so I was busy with the kids.

It was funny, when I started this blog I was worried that I wouldn't have enough to share but actually I have loads of projects to upload... it's just finding the time. So here are a couple of cards I have made recently and a pen pot made for a gift. If you drink Asda Hot Chocolate save the pot and I'll do a tutorial on how to make these pen pots... they make great gifts. I am sure other brands will be fine too but the Asda one fits 12" paper perfectly so it's even easier!

If Opportunity Doesn't Knock...

2010-11-03T10:59:00.000Z

Build a door!

I saw this quote on another blog and thought it was great. It speaks to me about being pro-active and making your own opportunities. It also speaks to me about getting off my backside and taking action! What opportunities will you make today?

Reuse, Recycle!

2010-10-18T10:47:00.000+01:00

Zoe's bag containing al her crochet goodies caught my eye at the Isle of Wight crop. I was seriously impressed when I found out that she had not only made the bag herself but she had made it from a jumper that she had felted!

Here is a close up of the flower!

All you have to do to make your own felted bag (or other goodies!) is find wool jumpers that are 100% wool. Why not pay a visit to your local charity shop or raid the Christmas jumper pile! Once you have found your jumper you need to boil wash it between 3 and 5 times!! Once you have felted your jumper you just follow these instructions to make your own bag... it really does look very straightforward! I'll add it to my to try list!! They would make great Christmas presents so who knows I might get my butt into gear this side of Noel!

http://sweetgrace.typepad.com/the_inadvertent_farmer/2010/03/make-alpaca-wool-sweater-into-felted-handmade-bag-tutorial.html

Feeling Christmassy

2010-10-14T10:44:00.000+01:00

How do you spell Christmassy anyway? Not how I have! I have just loaded some new ribbons onto the site including a lovely Christmas red and an Olive green which will be perfect for all those Christmas cards. Really looking forward to setting too and making some more cards (yes I have done some already!). Would anyone be interested in a card class? I was thinking of a couple of hours in the day and then repeated in the evening for those who aren't available in the day, perhaps once a fortnight. I am thinking of including a technique, a colour inspiration and a card sketch for each class... I've got loads of ideas so let me know if you would be interested (just at the planning stages at the moment... need to sort venues and costs out). Here are pics of the Christmas ribbons... you can buy them here. (last one on the page and first on the next page!)

Crop Number 4!

2010-10-13T10:50:00.000+01:00

I had a great time at the Littlegreen Crop on Saturday and it was lovely to see some new faces (including one lady I had met 5 years ago!) as well as the usual suspects! Had a lovely, if not manic day. I had expected 6 for my class and ended up with 9 which was great but meant I had a quick scrabble to make up the extra kits. It was lovely as 4 of the ladies in the class completed their first layout ever. They were all very pleased with themselves and pleased with the finished page. We did laugh as the experienced scrappers stuck to the instructions exactly and the beginners all tinkered and played with their pages! Here are the photos of the pages I managed to get... sorry LuLu, Lindsey, Vivien and Melly for not getting yours.

This was Karen's first page ever. What a great start!

This was Franchesca's page. She is only 12! What an amazing page. She came up with the changes to the original idea all by herself.

Kay's page, another first ever layout.

Linda is scrapping an album of the homes they have lived in. This is her hubby in one of them.

Sara had some amazing photos of her cat, my photo of her layout doesn't do it justice at all.

And finally I didn't manage to get photos of everyone else's work Sue ran a little layout competition which she won with this layout!

Just a few pictures!!

2010-10-06T12:02:00.000+01:00

Well the ladies were so prolific with their layouts over the weekend. Paige did 13 layouts and others weren't far behind. Unfortunately I photographed a lot of the layouts late at night so the photos aren't at all good but hopefully you will be able to get some inspiration anyway. Here are just a few of the pages and cards...

Debbie made over 40 Christmas cards over the weekend. This was my favourate design with the massive snowflake in the middle.

A great picture of Anna and I LOVE the big punch used on the right border. I have it on order if anyone is interested :)

The crochet doily on this page is so scrummy.

Love the hand stitching around the edge and the hand stitched swirl on this page.

Julia made cards all weekend too. I love the snowman stamp on this card... stamped with Faded Jeans Distress Ink.

Julia also did some great brayering using the Big and Juicy pads and the Adirondack Dye Pads. A definite for my to try list.

I love the simplicity of this layout.

Julia Dunnit did this layout. See the close up of the punched out circles to match the patterned paper. Cute but very messy! Again another punch on order, it's just under an inch so would look great in 1" punched out circles.

Love the corrugated alphabet used on the title for this page. This is one of my fave pages of the weekend... not sure who did it though!

One of my favourite pages of the weekend by Julia Dunnit.

I love the colours on this Lost and Found page by Sam.

Lynda did this stunning page using the brand new Prima papers (note to self load them on the website as soon as you have done blog post!) They look so cool on the black background and she has used the rub-ons too for an added touch of elegance.

Another of Lynda's pages.

And another!

Paige's 10 things you are page. Love the colour combo!

Christmas Stars by Paige... great collection.

10 things by Sam

Another page by Sam

Paige's superhero husband!

Teresa's Granny doing what she does best.

10 things by Teresa... see a common theme here!

Teresa's new granddaughter

Love the lacing on this page and the hanging baby frame.

The title of this page says it all... Remission.

Another of Debbie's cards... aren't the fake brads cool!

Locked out...

2010-10-05T10:12:00.000+01:00

I have some great photos of the ladies work from the weekend which I will post tomorrow. Today just a quick photo of the car loaded to the gunnels! If you run a crop and would like the Cre8tive shop to attend get in touch. I intended to post yesterday but the lock went on the office / stock room door. I spend most of the day ringing round locksmiths trying to work out if I could get the part needed to fix it. £55 later and the door is all fixed and I can lock up all the goodies again. Phew!

Crop number 3

2010-10-02T07:14:00.000+01:00

I am currently sitting on the ferry on the way to the Isle of Wight. The ferry left at 7am so you can imagine the unearthly hour I had to get up. The roads were lovely and clear as all 'normal' people were still snuggled up in their beds. I am going to a weekend retreat which actually started yesterday but I am just staying tonight. I have just brought some Basic Grey kits to do so am travelling extremely light (the car is stuffed full of shop stuff so not much room for my own goodies!) As always I will try and get some shots of the ladies pages so you can get some inspiration. Have a great weekend whatever you are doing.

Make & Takes and my layouts

2010-09-23T13:45:00.000+01:00

Val did a lovely Make & Take at Runways End. Everyone always admires her lovely cards so she showed us all how she does it. She had prepared a brilliant little pack for everyone with all the bits needed and everything pre-cut to size so it was just a case of assembling and voila! Apparently the secret is lots of layering.

I also did a make and take during the weekend teaching how to make cute accordion flowers. We incorporated ours into this card but they look great on layouts too (see Jackie's layout posted yesterday).

There was a layout class during the weekend. There were 4 examples to inspire us. This was my take on the class. Thanks to Caz for the chipboard Beaver and Hayley for the tissue paper ribbon stuff!

I was really pleased to win the stamping challenge (there was only one other entry so I had good odds!) The page turned out just how I wanted it to. I took inspiration from a paper in a stack. I used a paper with an edge as a template to make my photo mat, stamped around it with a border stamp set (like this one). Stamped different colours of Distress inks to match the photo at the bottom starting with the lightest colours first and working up to the darkest. The heart was acetate stamped with brown Stazon (left over from the class page) and then cut into a heart shape and layered over card to match the photo mat.

This was the page I took the inspiration from...

I did a simple a page of one of our holiday snaps!This was our windscreen after it went caravan in tow on the M25 on the way to the ferry and France!

A close up of the windscreen... would you believe Autoglass said we should still go on holiday with it like this!!

My final page was a double page of Alex's 7th birthday. I had soooooo many photos of him blowing out his candles because he had trouble doing it. In the end Dave blew them out which made Alex cry so we lit them again and he had another go!

More Layouts

2010-09-22T11:40:00.000+01:00

Here are some more of the layouts from Runways End. Another of the challenges was to use patterned paper as the main element of your page and if possible to use it in a slightly different way. Here are some of the finished pages...

Jackie won the challenge with this scrummy pink and blue page. She used the accordion flowers that I taught in the make and take and she also did ink blending to colour her card for the base of her page which I taught her a while ago too. Nice to see things I have taught in use!

Caz scrapped her other half in purple... not sure Dave would approve if I did that!

Cathy also used something I had taught her too. At a previous Runways End we had done a class cutting up your photos and this was one of the photos she had done at the time but not scrapped.

Another layout from Caz

And another from Jackie

More photos to come tomorrow!!!!!!!

Crop Number 2!

2010-09-21T20:22:00.000+01:00

I had a wonderful weekend at Runways End Crop in Farnborough. It was a bit scary trying to get there when the satnav tried to take me down a gravel track... I had the trailer in tow so I wasn't impressed! Anyway after driving round for a bit I called Dave who worked out exactly where I was and where I needed to be! Phew!

We had a lovely relaxing weekend of scrapping with a couple of Make and Takes, a crop class and challenges to keep us on our toes. Here are a few of the layouts from the weekend from various people...

Firstly here are some of the layouts from the colour challenge... unfortunately I didn't photograph the winning entry.

This was the most popular colour inspiration...

I'm not sure who did this layout but it followed the colours really well.

Cathy's layout

Another that I'm not sure who did it... I love the fibers wrapped around the blocks

Another colour inspiration

Louise's Interpretation

Another layout by Louise

And another... isn't that an amazing photo! I love the blink and butterflies added to the hair!

Helen's layout of her In-Law's 50th wedding anniversary... congratulations!

I'll post some more of the layouts from the patterned paper challenge tomorrow, the class and the make & takes as well. If anyone wants to e-mail through any layouts I missed or better photos please do and I'll add them in.

Crop Class layouts

2010-09-15T11:02:00.000+01:00

I have a manic five weeks with crops every weekend bar one, including two residential weekends. Will keep me on my toes and hopefully I will get lots of scrapping done as well as running the shop. The first event was our crop last weekend which went really well and everyone remembered to bring their own lunch too which was a relief as we have provided lunch for the last 4 years I was sure someone would forget!

Below are some of the great layouts from the class which was based on a Basic Grey class and used Basic Grey and Crate papers. As always I have some spares so if you want to order a kit with full instructions please let me know.

Elizabeth's Layout

Bobby's Layout

Vivien's Layout

Mandie's Layout

Sue's Layout

Mel's layout

Nicki's layout

I couldn't believe that there were two doggy photos considering I hadn't told the ladies the title I had used. I love all the little variations too like Elizabeth's multicoloured title, Sue's paw instead of a heart and I love the two double page layouts... Nicki despite all the hassle i think yours turned out brilliantly. I hope you all had as much fun as I did!

Ribbon Storage Idea

2010-08-19T13:44:00.001+01:00

If you are anything like me you enjoy organising and sorting your stash. My husband assures me that it is a female trait... the love of boxes, tins and organising. Anyway when I saw these ribbon boxes I knew they were going to be a hit. They are designed to hold ribbon reels but there is nothing stopping you from just filling them with lengths of ribbon and poking the ends through the holes at the front for easy access. They are the perfect size for holding all the great Woodware ribbon reels and if you use a lot of ribbon they make dispensing it really easy.

I had great fun decorating my one. I painted it with white acrylic paint and then used decoupage glue and a foam brush to stick down some scrummy Prima paper on each side. I used just one 12"x12" sheet to decorate the whole box (including the bottom... not that anyone is going to see it!!). Oh I did ink the edges of the paper before I stuck them down with a chalk ink pad. Because they stack it will be a great way to store all my ribbon for easy access and of course I'll have fun sorting it. They are amazing value at just £1.49 each!

More Crop Creations

2010-08-17T14:32:00.000+01:00

At the crop I also took some photos of some of the things the other ladies were working on. Here are a few of them...

Jan was working on gifts for her colleagues for the end of term. She made some really cute banners to go in her cupcake boxes which look good enough to eat! Wish I had got a photo of the boxes.

Jenny was finishing off a double page layout from a class from a previous Cre8tive crop. This was the first ever 12"x12" she had ever done as she had always worked in 8"x8" before.

Anita was working on a great double page layout from when her family did scuba diving on holiday. I love the way she has done the underwater photos on the bottom half and the pool shots on the top half.

Sorry if I didn't round to photographing your work. I'll get some more at the next crop.

Products from the Cre8tive shop used...

Jan's banner

Scalloped Circle Punch

Circle Punch

red & brown felt Thickers

Bazzill Bling Cardstock

Jenny's Layout
Lime Rickey Papers used.
If you would like a kit with instructions for this class it is available in this and other colourways please contact me for details

Anita's Layout
Bazzill Cardstock
Basic Grey Doiley
Basic Grey Paper
Corner Rounder

Tri-Fold Mini Books

2010-07-27T20:31:00.000+01:00

We are back from Paris... wow what an amazing city! We had the most amazing time and brilliant weather too (35 degrees on a couple of days!) I'm sure the photos will be appearing on layouts shortly.

As promised here are some of the photos of the ladies mini books from the Cre8tive crop just over a week ago and some of the ladies working hard. Can you tell from the photos that they worked hard!?!

Sneak Peak

2010-07-16T21:10:00.000+01:00

Here is a sneak peak of the colours for the class tomorrow.

I'll show you what the ladies do with it in about a weeks time when I get back from Paris!

Misting Class Layouts

2010-07-15T20:19:00.000+01:00

Here are some of the ladies layout from the class last weekend. I didn't manage to photograph them all but it is nice to see what some of the others did with the class.

Mandie scrapped a lovely photo of her daughter, while Elizabeth scrapped a photo of somewhere they had been and Viv scrapped one of her daughters wedding photos. I think you'll agree they all look great.

My top tip for misting is to have a cardboard box ready to mist into. This saves a lot of hassle putting down scrap paper or turning the lawn a nice shade of pink! If you have a nice big box you can spritz from a decent height (12" is good) and get a nice fine mist. If you spritz closer you will get a more blobby intense look which can be good too.

Knotted Ribbons

2010-07-14T14:16:00.001+01:00

A very short quick post today to let you know that the lovely knotted ribbons are now back in stock and loaded onto the website ready for you to order. They come in 6 different colours white, cream, lemon yellow, baby pink, baby blue and lavender. You can find them here.

Sunshine Award

2010-07-13T10:16:00.000+01:00

I have been given a sunshine award by my friend Sue... Thanks Sue! Sue has just recently restarted her blog and I am sure there will be lots of ideas and inspiration coming on there as she is a prolific scrapper. I would in turn like to pass the award on to some of my blogging friends...

Clare, Sarah, Rachael, Irene

I'm meant to pass it on to 12 friends but I only have 4!! How sad!

Warning Inky Fingers!

2010-07-09T12:56:00.000+01:00

As promised here is the step by step instructions for making the flowers I have been using recently.

You will need...

A circle or scalloped circle punch (on my cards I used the super scalloped circle, for this demo I have used the super circle from Woodware)
An old book (yellowed pages are good!)
Paper Piercer
Brad (any colour will do as you don't see it)
Mists (on this example I used Adirondack Espresso and then decided I wanted to add a second colour so added Radian Rain Mister Fern)
An old cardboard box (or lots of scrap paper)

Step 1

Punch out 6 circles from your book. Stack the circles roughly on top of each other. They don't have to line up.

Step 2

Using your paper piercer make a hole roughly in the middle all the way through the stack of circles. Add a brad to hold the circles together.

Step 3

Lift the edges of just the top circle and scrunch into the middle into a tight knot in the middle. It should cover the brad. Spritz the flower in your box and then scrunch the second layer into the first. If you don't like getting inky fingers then you will want to wear gloves for this stage.

Step 4

Repeat for each subsequent layer. If you are using a dark colour of mist like the espresso you may want to mist only every other layer.

Step 5

Make sure you leave the final layer flat as this is what you will use to stick your flower down. You can leave your flower like this and it would be done or continue as below...

Step 6

Un-crumple your flower and re-crumple one layer at a time so that you have some of the paper with no ink showing revealed. Again you can leave the flower like this

or if you prefer as I have done add a second colour of mist. I added a lighter colour and one with some glimmer in it (the Adirondack mists are the only ones I know of that don't have glimmer in them.)

Misted Layout

2010-07-07T11:38:00.005+01:00

At the weekend I attended the Littlegreen retreat in West Sussex. I taught a class on Saturday on how to use misters and we made a layout too. Here is my layout....

We used the mists to make the background and the coloured circle and we used them to colour most of our flowers. We made the large flower and misted it as we went and we also misted the small white flowers so they tied in with the colours in our layout. Here are some close ups of different parts of the page.

The handmade flower.

I used punchenella to mask the background as I was misting.

New to the shop knotted ribbon. The ladies loved it so much I sold out over the weekend but will have more in stock soon.

These blue flowers were white to start off with and we spritzed them to match our layout.
I do still need to add a title and the journalling (need to check the date). I'll upload some of the layouts from the class soon so you can see what everyone else did.

Supplies list (with links)
American Crafts White Cardstock
Misters - Glimmer Mists, Cosmic Shimmer or Radiant Rain
Small white flowers
E-Line flowers
Pearls (for flower centers)
Metallic Brads (also for flower centers)
15mm Ribbon
Knotted Ribbon (Will be here when back in stock!)
Scalloped punch to make flower
Glue dots for sticking knotted ribbon down

Same but different

2010-07-05T14:21:00.000+01:00

I have taken to making at least 2 cards if I am making a quick card as I have to get everything out each time so it makes sense to do more than one. Here is the other card I made at the same time as the Thank you card from my last post. See the cute flower again!

I wanted to soften the edges of the stamped greeting so I used the same colour I stamped with and a sponge dauber and in a circular motion added a bit of colour to the edges. I love the fact that the same colour is light enough for the original stamped image to show through.

Thank you card

2010-07-02T14:49:00.000+01:00

Where has the time gone? It is over a week since my last post! My father in law has been in hospital so I have been busy with the family but I have been crafting too... just not had time to upload anything. I'll try and upload some of the projects from the last week over the next few days. First, a card which I made for my middle son's teacher who left on maternity leave on Thursday. Hot weather to be pregnant in and I'm sure she will enjoy the peace and quiet at home before the little one makes an appearance. Here is the card I made... my son made the flower... they are easy peasy. I'll put a little tutorial up at some point soon (especially as they feature in other projects).

Dare to believe

2010-06-23T13:45:00.001+01:00

The layout below was created by Renée a lady who goes to the Runways End Scrapbooking retreat in Farnborough. When she started this layout she was unsure about stamping and the composition of the layout. She had fallen in love with the Art Stitches paper from Prima but wasn't sure what to do with it. Between a few of us and looking at a few layouts for inspiration we came up with this layout idea. Renée was brilliant... when I suggested practising the stamping first she said nah I'll just go for it. I absolutely love this layout and the Prima Art Stitches paper did a lot of the work too. All Renée needed to do was check the date and add it... I wonder if she did!?!

Fathers Day

2010-06-21T14:25:00.000+01:00

I hope you all had a great Father's Day on Sunday and spoilt the men in your life. We had a wonderful family day together with a meal out with my husband's side of the family.

Here is the card I made for my father-in-law. I was pleased with how the colours tied together. I also liked the way of folding the ribbon so I've done a close-up shot for you.

We had a bit of excitement at the end of our meal as all of a sudden smoke started billowing across. We thought the kitchen was on fire but soon discovered it wasn't the hotel but something over the back. We later discovered it was a garden shed on fire.

Ribbon

2010-06-17T14:23:00.000+01:00

Pauline from the Oxford crop bought a couple of meters of all the new May Arts ribbons. They looked so lovely all together I had to take a photo (my husband doesn't get shots like this!) If you fancy some you can find them here.

Basic Grey Page of the Month May 2010

2010-06-16T13:29:00.001+01:00

It was great to see two of the ladies making up their Basic Grey Page if the Month kits at the crops over the weekend. On Saturday Sarah was doing hers in West Sussex and on Sunday Sandie was doing hers in Oxford. Great to see how they turned out and how different photos make them look so different. Sarah made her photos black and white so they went with the lovely bright papers (sometimes easier than trying to find photos that go!). Sandie didn't like the tearing so she used a Martha Stewart border punch on her green paper. If you are interested in the kits we have a waiting list for 2011 so just get in touch!

Crop-tastic

2010-06-15T10:55:00.000+01:00

This weekend just gone has been manic with two crops, one on Saturday in West Sussex and one on Sunday in Abingdon near Oxford. Saturdays crop was at Littlegreen which is a special needs school. Money raised on the day goes to the school to help them pay for all those little extras that the kids wouldn't have otherwise. The setting is absolutely stunning and the drive there is always breathtaking. Here is the school...

and this is the main hall where we scrap

and the classroom

If you are interested in finding out more about the crop e-mail Sue at sue@suehr.fsnet.co.uk

Quick and Easy Birthday Card

2010-06-11T11:08:00.000+01:00

My middle son is going to a birthday party with his best mate and needed a card. Before school this morning I set too and made this oh so quick and easy card. Ben didn't want any faf or fuss to the card (he didn't really want the three brads added but I couldn't help but embellish it a little!) The sentiment is a rub-on that Ben chose and the paper is just a scrap from my scrap drawer. I think it is a great boy or man card.

Inspiration comes from the strangest places!

2010-06-10T12:18:00.001+01:00

I was on a course yesterday on budgeting. This meant that I didn't get back home until late so I popped into our local Coop and grabbed a pizza for tea. It was scrummy but when I was tidying up the packaging caught my eye. I have seen people use mesh to make backgrounds, well the base for the pizza to sit on was made from polystyrene and it had a great texture to it a bit like the mesh and this got me thinking... what if I added a bit of paint and used it to make some backgrounds. I put the packaging to one side and gave my hubby strict instructions not to throw it away (he has a habit of chucking things before I can say stooooooooooooop!) Once the kids were in bed I grabbed a paint dabber some scraps of card and had a play. You can make some great backgrounds and it is oh so easy. I've just used black paint here but I'm going to have another go using white for a more subtle effect and I reckon mixing colours would be cool too.

So here is how to make your background....

Take your pizza box packaging and dab your paint dabber straight onto the raised surface. No need for paint brushes as the dabbers can be used straight from the bottle. Cover an area large enough for the card you want to print onto. I intentionally didn't cover the whole area so I had a more distressed look.

Carefully lay your card face down onto the paint and using your finger gently rub the back to transfer the paint onto the card. You could use a brayer here but you don't need much pressure so fingers are fine! Lift carefully and voila you have your background. Easy peasy.

Here are a couple of cards I made using the backgrounds.

Products used that you can find at Cre8tive...
Black Dabber
Black ribbon with White Dots
Jade Grosgrain Ribbon
Teal flower
Edge Distresser

10% Discount for Making Cards readers

2010-06-08T15:21:00.000+01:00

In the next issue of Making Cards we have an advert with a special 10% discount code so if you get the magazine look out for the special offer. I'm not sure exactly when it will be in the shops but I guess in the next couple of weeks so keep your eyes peeled.

New Blog

2010-06-07T10:31:00.000+01:00

One of our favourite manufacturers Ranger have just launched their very own blog. Tim Holtz who is their senior educator has had his own blog for a while but it is great to know Ranger are joining in the fun too. They have brilliant products so I am looking forward to some great tips, techniques and insider info. You can find the blog at http://blog.rangerink.com/blog/

If you see some products you like don't forget to check back with us for some great deals including 6 for the price of 5 multibuys on many of their items including alcohol inks, paints, stamp pads. See the complete range of Ranger products on our site here (there are over 500 so you might want to select the category at the top to refine your search!)

Hot Stuff

2010-06-04T12:13:00.000+01:00

Phew it is really hot here today! Too hot to be creative really, maybe this evening when it is a bit cooler I will feel inspired. How about you... does the warm weather mean you are outside enjoying the great outdoors or do you like to craft in the warm weather?

I thought I'd give a little sneak peak of the prize that on it's way to Lisa.
Next time the prize winner could be you!

Early Riser

2010-06-02T11:06:00.000+01:00

We have had an e-mail from our prize draw winner this morning... I wonder if she was late to bed or an early riser as the e-mail came in at 4.38am! Anyway this is what she said...

Dear Katie,

Wow thank you so very much for picking my name out of the 'hat' i am delighted to be receiving the prize draw and am totally stunned to have won something!

I shall stalk my postman til it arrives!

Thanking you again so much in anticipation

Lisa

aka Stunned of Somerset!

If you are reading this Lisa I'll try and get your prize sent out later today.

And the winner is....

2010-06-01T21:22:00.000+01:00

drumroll please.... Lisa Ransom from Somerset. Congratulations Lisa. Lisa is the winner in our most recent prize draw and has won a box of papers and cardstock worth over £50! It's a brilliant prize and so easy to enter the draw. All she did was place an order with us for more than £30 before the deadline and she was automatically entered in the draw. How easy is that? She bought some lovely things she wanted, got free P&P to boot and now is a winner too. Next time it could be you... watch out for the next prize draw coming soon.

Wonderful Willow!

2010-05-27T21:05:00.000+01:00

I have had a day off today and had great fun doing willow weaving with the children at my sons school. Between us we managed to get through 100 children doing one on one make and takes of shooting stars, bird feeders and vases. The kids were amazing and took to the weaving straight away. There were an awful lot of bird feeders made and not so many vases. I got to make one of each so I knew how to help the children with theirs and I was really pleased to be able to bring them home. The bird feeder went straight outside filled with peanuts and within half an hour had our resident blue tit on it! Here are some pics of my creations.

Ribbon Technique Instructions

2010-05-25T14:08:00.000+01:00

As promised here are the instructions for the ribbon folding technique used on the layout at our last crop.

Step 1
On the rear of your card stick your ribbon at a 45 degree angle. I used the extra sticky double sided tape for this project as it holds the ribbon really firmly.
Step 2
Turn the card over and holding the ribbon taught place a square of the double sided tape next to the ribbon, parallel with the edge of the ribbon and level with the top of where the ribbon comes around the edge.
Step 3
Fold the ribbon up at a 45 degree angle so that you have a straight edge of ribbon across the bottom and use the tape that has already been positioned to hold it in place. Repeat placing another piece of tape ready to fold the ribbon again.
Step 4
Repeat the folding and sticking of the ribbon until you have reached the desired length.
Step 5
Make sure your ribbon is going in a straight line. The easiest way to do this is to have an edge to keep parallel to.
Step 6
To finish cut the end of your ribbon. If you are doing the entire length of your card you can fold the end over to the rear of the card and adhere. For this card we are stopping part way and the end will be covered with a flower.
Step 7
Stick your flower to cover the end of the ribbon.
Step 8
I used scraps of coredinations card left over from the layout for my card so I decided to distress the edge of the card to show the core colour through. Drag your distress tool back and forth on the edge to distress it.
Step 9 - Finishing off your card...
Cut a mount and distress the edge of this too. Mount your flower onto this and then mount onto a card blank. Cut freehand leaf shapes, distress the edge of these, score along the middle of the leaves and adhere next to the stem of your flower. Stamp a greeting on your card blank and your card is done.
I also did a second card using different colours.
Products used (click and you should be taken to them on our site)
Raspberry Lime Iridescent Ribbon
Teal Flowers
Metallics B Brads
Coredinations Cardstock (various colours)
Edge Distresser
Extra Sticky Double Sided Tape
Wild Plum Adirondack Dye Stamp Pad

Cre8tive Crop

2010-05-24T12:29:00.001+01:00

The crop on Saturday went extremely smoothly. The class was a great success and I was really pleased that all the ladies had a go at the great ribbon technique I had come up with. It is fiddly but worth the faf for a great finished effect. I'll try and take some step by step photos of the technique so others can have a go too. Perhaps I'll take my camera to swimming tonight and then whilst the kids are learning how to do a perfect front crawl I can get some snaps ready to load tomorrow.

It is a scorcher today but my office is lovely and cool so much so that I had goosebumps earlier!! Lunch in the sun soon sorted that out. Time now to go and pack orders.

Don't forget you only have until the end of the month to enter our prize draw... just place an order for £30 or more and you'll get free P&P and automatically be entered in the draw. The winner will be announced on our home page at the beginning of June. Oh and the prize is over £50 worth of papers and cardstock... I'm looking forward to matching up some lovely papers and card for the prize :)

Summer is here!

2010-05-21T11:18:00.000+01:00

Well at least for a few days. I have my youngest off school today. He came home last night and was fast asleep in bed by 4pm!! He woke at 6:30 for a few minutes and then proceeded to sleep another 12 hours!! He has a headache a temperature and a sore throat so what is described by the doctors as a 'virus' I expect! I hope he is feeling better tomorrow as it is our scrapbooking day and normally both Dave and I leave the kids in grandmas capable hands. When you are ill though you want your mummy or daddy so we may have to rethink in the morning depending on how he is feeling. I am teaching a class at the crop using core-dinations cardstock so I have had fun tearing, sanding, embossing and scoring. I have combined lots of techniques to use the card on one layout which isn't what you would normally do but I think it turned out ok in the end. The inspiration for the layout came from a core-dinations flyer.

Moths, child of the week and SATS!

2009-05-15T12:16:00.000+01:00

We don't have fairies at the bottom of our garden (well not that I have seen anyway!) but the night of Sunday 3rd May we set out to see if we had any moths. The trap was set at dusk (8:30ish) and the mercury bulb gave Blackpool illuminations a run for their money!! Bright and early on Monday 4th May the 7 us us (the Savages plus a sleepover friend each for the big two) went to discover what visitors the night had brought. We had three brimstone moths and a three spotted .... on the ground near the trap (one met an untimely demise thanks to Jez's large feet! - eek) and in the trap we had

GGG

2009-04-28T10:58:00.000+01:00

Dave had a brill time on Saturday on his Indian Cookery Course. He came home with not only dinner for Saturday, but also dinner for Sunday too!! He has all the recipes so we are looking forward to lots more currys! GGG is ginger, garlic and green chilli which is the basis for most of the recipes. Alex did really well as the meal on Saturday was quite spicey but he managed to eat it all.

On Sunday Jez had the Hampshire final for the chess challenge. He had entered 2 years ago and although he had enjoyed it there were a lot better players than him there (despite him being the school champion beating everyone else at Titchfield in the years above him!) This time he knew he was a bit better and had enough confidence to say in advance that he would really like to get through to the next round which he did winning 4 out of his 6 matches. He has a great rosette as a prize and is looking forward to the southern final now which he is quite realistically realising that he probably wont get through (but he will have a good try anyway!) There were two other boys from school both year 5's who enjoyed the day despite not getting through to the next round. I think using clocks was a big surprise for them (as it was for Jez first time he went). I hope someone takes on organising the chess at school from Bill as it would be a shame for Ben to miss out as he is a nifty little player too.

Fond Reunion

2009-04-24T09:40:00.000+01:00

The visit to Ben went really well last night. It was lovely to see him and we had a really warm greeting. A massive hug and he even shed a tear (I don't think he was overly homesick or had missed us that much, I think he was just genuinely pleased to see us - and very tired). We had the guided tour of the site and all the facilities, played some ping pong, went on the adventure playground and bought a souvenir to bring home. Ben has spent all his money on sweets and the arcade! I am sure he must have had more sweets this week than in the last year!! I am looking forward to collecting him later and having him home again (even if it does mean we don't get out the door as early in the mornings!!!)

On the way back from the visit last night Dave dropped me off in Highlands road and I jogged home. I am so unfit that I was wheezing and spluttering by the time I got home. I measured the distance this morning and it was 0.7miles and I did it in around 7 mins. I am feeling grotty today (nothing to do with the jog) but I would still like to try and do some more running... got to get fit somehow!

The photo below was taken on Wednesday 8th April (Ben's birthday) and is the latest photo of the boys with their cousins. Sam is now taller than me (just).

Stabilize!!

2009-04-23T13:35:00.000+01:00

Do you remember the Bee Gee's song Staying Alive? "Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh Staying Alive, Staying Alive" Well Alex has replaced the Staying Alive with "Stabilize"! It sounds really cute.

We are off to visit Ben tonight at his residential that he has been at all week. It seemed strange that we would go and visit the eveing before he comes home but actually I am really looking forward to going and to seeing what he has been doing all week. They have had amazing weather all week with stunning sunshine and blue skies. I'm sure Ben will be shattered when he comes home tomorrow after a week of late nights and lots of activities. The week before he went away was quite manic too with badminton 3 mornings, a visit to Grandad Ian and Grandma Rogerson, a day with Nana Sue and our first trip out in the caravan. The campsite (Black Knowl) was great and the fact that it had a one way road going around it was great. The children on the site cycled round and round in circles. This was great as a motivation for Alex to want to ride his bike. He has nearly mastered it several times before but not quite. After going round a few times with me he set off by himself and with a bit of determination and encouragment from his brothers he gradually got it. By the end of the day he was cycling by himself and more importantly getting foing by himself. By the time we left he had made it all around the road without putting his feet down despite a hill (down and up!) Mind you the hill has a lot to answer for!! Alex was going down the hill quite happily when he caught his tyre on another bike and came a cropper. A kind father of 3 boys brought him back to the caravan for us carrying his bike, Alex blood pouring from his nose and alover his hands. As always it looked worse than it was (although it was quite bad!) He was very brave and it hasn't put him off getting back on his bike :)
We came back to school to some very sad news. Jodie who was a mum at the school passed away during the Easter break. She had been battling against cancer for a few years but it still came as a great shock. She has two young children who are really going to miss their mummy. She will be missed on the playground too... she was always a very cheery, smiley mum who always had a happy 'hello' for those she passed going up and down the path. I didn't know her more than to say hello to but she was a warm, personable character who brightened up the school community.

Rainy days

2009-04-10T14:49:00.000+01:00

Well it's Bank Holiday weekend and it's raining. secretly I think this might be a good thing. We need to relax and unwind and spend some time tidying and sorting and some family time too. This morning we have been busy tidying and cleaning. We even pulled the bed out and did under the bedside cabinets which doesn't happen very often. Ben has started making his Lego model he got for his birthday. It looks like it is going to be big so goodness knows where it will go when it is done. Alex has put in his request for Spaghetti Bolognese for his birthday tomorrow (and a big birthday cake with Happy Birthday on the top!) Dave has been trying to sort the internet out for a couple of hours so that both computers work at the same time but to no avail, at the moment it is one or the other. Right I've got about 1 1/2 hours to do some work before cooking tea.

8 Weetabix!!

2009-04-03T14:15:00.000+01:00

Yes 8... that is what Jez had for breakfast this morning! I can see our food bills going through the roof as they get older!

The boys are really excitied as their cousins arrived last night. They haven't seen them yet as they arrived at nearly 10pm but they are coming to pick them up from school tonight so there will be a lot of excitement on the playground. Also it is the last day for Jenny Antony who has taught at the school for 35 years! Yes 35 years! And the amazing thing is that she is one of the best teachers in the school, no staleness or loss of enthusiasm. She is the only teacher that I have never heard a negative word about. All other teachers manage to do something that someone doesn't like but Jenny is so docile, calm and lovely that everyone thinks she is brill. She will be doing some supply teaching which is great as the kids will miss her. On the flip sode it is a male teacher that is replacing Jenny which is going to be great for Ben in the last term of the year. It will be really interesting to see how he responds to a male and I hope he is really challenged.

Ben hasn't been chosen for the school netball team which if I am honest I am surprised about. I think probably his gender went against him as they are only allowed 2 boys per team and there were more boys who were good than girls. They have probably struggled to find the girls and had a glut of boys. Ben was upset not to be chosen and I have spoken to the teacher as she hasn't seen them play really but has gone on the other teachers recommendation. She is going to have a think about it and perhaps give Ben a trial. I don't want to be a pushy parent but it seems a shame that those who don't quite make the mark don't get to do the club at all. She wanted someone else to run another club but there isn't anyone to do it.

We have bought our bookcases for the top of the stairs from Ikea... here's hoping they are as good as they look in store!! (and easy to assemble!)

Happy Birthday to me!

2009-03-31T10:28:00.000+01:00

Well yesterday saw me celebrating my 35th birthday! Because of the clock change the boys weren't up in time in the morning for me to open any cards before school so I saved them all to the evening. I had planned to spend the day crafting but ended up packing orders and placing orders with suppliers and I had to leave early for school as Ben's class were doing a brass concert. I did manage to start a layout in the evening which is a page for the America album and also a class for our crop. Two birds with one stone. I only have a few pages left to do for the America album and I am keen to get it finished before we go away this year so I am concentrating on it at the moment. It would be brill to get it all finished as it is will be the first album I have completely finished!! I also want to sort out all the other layouts I have done as they are all just a uddle of pages at the moment. I was thinking of an album per year so I can add the pages to the albums as I do them. I am definately in Spring Clean mode a the moment and am desperately trying to sort and clean through all the stuff whilst keeping on top of the daily chores. My theory is that if I sort more each day than is messed up then I should eventually get on top of it all!!

Mothers Day

2009-03-27T10:17:00.001Z

Yes I know it was a few days ago but I haven't had 5 mins spare to add to the blog and I want to add this date so that when I do the scrapbook page I can know when it was! I have just finished a page of a different visit to Grandad Bert and I haven't got a date for it so I'm going to have to do some research to try and find out when it was! This trip we were all able to go down in one car now we have the Saphira which was fun. Grandad Bert is doing really well. He is 93 and is still completely switched on mentally. He didn't get out of the chair while we were there so I don't know how he is doing on his legs but he was all there to talk to and it was lovely to see him so happy laughing and joking. Colins sister (Sylvia) and her family popped in too (for 5 mins literally!) which was intersting as I have never met any of them. Dave's cousin seemed really nice and she has two children a little older than ours (15 and 11) and a new husband (her first husband dies a couple of years ago. The comment of the day was when she saw Dave and said "Cor you've grown!" Not surprising since she hasn't seen him since he was a teenager!!

On a different note despite the garden seriously needing attention there are some lovely sights with the Camellia in flower, the wisteria in bud and the hellibore in flower too. Might have to take some photos later.

The Savage men! Aged 93 to 5!!

4 Generations Layout. Photos from 2004 I think!!

Burn Baby Burn

2009-03-02T09:38:00.000Z

Dave has had a metal barrel he got from work in the garden for a couple of months now. He got it to use as a burner for all the garden waste etc. With the hedge we took out down the bottom there was a lot of stuff waiting to go. Well this weekend we continued our sort out which culminated with the boys all having fun (and getting very smelly) burning everything. The burner worked a treat and fun was had by all. The workers of course needed sustenance so had crumpets and muffins while they worked.

We also put up the awning which was surprisingly easy to erect and is great. Jez can fill the water by himself so that will be his job when we are away. We sorted more toys through to Alex's room and although it is starting to fill up there is still space so that is brilliant. It is amazing the things the boys have played with since moving rooms and sorting the toys. Jigsaws, marble run, thomas track, lego have all been rediscovered.

Jez had a sleepover on Saturday night for Daniels birthday and while Jack and Sam snored away Daniel and Jez decided to try and stay up for 24 hours. They nearly made it but not quite finally falling asleep at 3am only to wake again at 6am. As you can imagine Jez is more than a little tired!!

I have finished my second class for the crop. I go between really loving it and not being sure about it!! We will have to see how it goes down with the ladies.

Legs Bums and Tums

2009-02-27T08:17:00.000Z

Having missed body jam yesterday I gave legs bums and tums a go this morning. I very nearly didn't go as I had quite a lot of work to do but I went for it and I'm glad I did. It was a really good class. A mix of aerobics, a real heart racing section and then an abs workout on the floor. I struggled with some of it towards the end but that will give me something to work towards. So hopefully with a possible class on a Thursday or a Friday I will make it most weeks.

I have been working on classes for our crop on the 7th. I have nearly done the layout class although I have asked someone else to teach it for me (they haven't replied yet!) and I have ideas for the other class but I haven't had chance to play yet. Here is the boy layout class and there is an equivalent girl one.

Scouts

2009-02-26T09:11:00.000Z

Jez had his first session at Scouts last night. He really enjoyed it making green pancakes (yuk!) and apart from a few faces that he recognised there were lots of new kids to get to know which is great. He said they were really welcoming which is brill. I stayed for a bit just to make sure he was settled and to see what they were doing. I didn't realise that they raised the Union Jack at the beginning of the meeting. It was quite a formal procedure but a great tradition to uphold. I slipped out as soon as they got started on the activities only to find Wendy Wyatt in the car park and talk to her for half an hour and then meet Trish and Phil from down the road who were doing dog training. It is such a community sometimes around here, something it would be good to foster. Ben has Cubs tonight which I am sure he will enjoy just as much and he had Matthew Webb his best friend there to show him the ropes.

Treasure Chest

2009-02-25T20:45:00.000Z

I have just taken photos of Bens treasure chest finally to put on UKScrappers so I thought I would add them here to. This is a treasure chest that I made for Ben for Christmas. I am really pleased with how it turned out and Ben loves it (so much he takes it to bed with him!!)

How did I do it?

Step 1.

Ink up a clear stamp with a paint dabber. I used one of the Fancy Pants stamps and a blue dabber.

Step 2.

Once the dabber is completely dry using an ink blending tool and distress inks blend colour onto the box. I used 3 colours on the box and then I used a fourth darker brown to go round all the edges. The dabber will resist the ink so you will still see the image you stamped underneath.

Step 3.

Ink up a stamp with the dark brown distress pad (again I used a Fancy Pants one) and stamp directly to the bottom of the front of the box. Don't leave it on for too long as the ink will bleed a little into the wood.

Step 4.

Colour the grungeboard hinges and lock with the same dark brown distress pad. Add eyelets and fix in place.

Step 5.

Paint grungeboard skull and crossbones with a black dabber and glue film behind the eyes. Stick to side of box.

Step 6.

Varnish box with several coats to protect.

Naughty but nice

2009-02-25T09:44:00.000Z

Well plans for dinner all went a bit awry last night as I had forgotten Jez had football and by the time we got home it would have meant a late dinner if I had cooked something. So there was only one thing to be done... no not take away! Pancakes. It was Shrove Tuesday after all. The boys had 4 each, Dave 3 and me 2. I think we will have to make more mix next year!! So as the title says naughty but nice! I don't normally give anything up for lent but I think I will try and cut back on the chocolate and sweets as I have got into a bad habit of having something nearly every evening. I'm not going to cut it out all together but definately cut back.

I am looking forward to Body Jam tomorrow. After having 3 weeks off because of being too snotty I am keen to do some exercise again. I am still a bit snotty but I'll just take some tissues and hope for the best!

Have a bad day!!

2009-02-24T09:11:00.000Z

Charming! Those were the last words of Ben as he said goodbye to me today. He was in a strop because I wouldn't give him money for a snack at school. The reason he got so stressed was that he was going to take his own money and then I said he didn't have to take his own money I would give him some. Then in the car on the way to school all 3 boys played up terribly and so as a punishment they all lost their snack. Ben was not a happy camper!

Mind you he was in a strop earlier too because I had thrown his beloved Canada trainers in the bin. They had been falling apart for a while and yesterday they finally gave up the ghost and his toe was poking through the side. According to Ben they were still 'perfect' this morning!!

I think an early night is called for tonight!!

11 Today

2009-02-23T11:40:00.000Z

It has become a little family tradition that on a birthday (and Christmas) the children join us in bed for the birthday celebrant to open their presents. It is great, we all snuggle up and everyone can see what is going on and what they have got. I think Jez was pleased with his pressies. He had some lights for his bike, some money, a game he had asked for the Playstation and to share with his brothers a pair of portable DVD players for the car. We really struggled to know what to buy for him this year as he is growing out of 'toys' but hasn't yet got many interests of his own that need things buying for (apart from the pc). Hopefully that will change as he starts scouts and hopefully trys some new acitivities at secondary school. We hear about his place a week from today. How exciting :D

Early Birthday

2009-02-22T19:15:00.000Z

We have celebrated Jez's birthday today as he has school tomorrow and swimming after school and I am out working in the evening so we thought we would make the most of it today (apart from the presents). We went out for lunch to the Bun Penny which was really nice. The food was great but the service wasn't brill. Colin and Ann came too. Ann had made a cake for Jez and we were so stuffed from lunch that we just had that for tea.

The other thing that the boys are very excited about is that the drum kit is all assembled and ready to play. The boys enjoyed having a bash on it this afternoon. I hope it isn't too noisy for our neighbours!

New Room...

2009-02-20T14:18:00.000Z

Well I am sitting here feeling rather tired but satisfied as Alex has now moved into his new room. It is a little tight between the bedroom door which goes against the wardrobe and the bed but hopefully we can leave it as it is. It is looking good although we have only transferred through a fraction of the 'stuff' and the storage space that I thought was going to be brill is rapidly filling up. We have thrown away two massive piles of books and I have two bags of clothes to go too and that's just from sorting through his shirts!! Lots more sorting to do tomorrow and the boys are desperate to have the drum kit assembled so hopefully we can do that too. It would also be good to put up the awning on the caravan to work out how that goes and I'd like to go to the kids club film and we need to sort Jez's birthday present and get Alex's passport sorted. So how much of that are we realistically going to fit into one day!!!!!

I have started to put a few bits in the caravan today, just to see what we have and haven't got. We are doing quite well for bits and bobs. Need to buy another chopping board but we have most of the other equipment we need. The boys had a great time playing out there while I sorted. They loved closing all the curtains and making it dark! I can see we are going to have fun.

Eeek... Ben has homework to do before he goes back to school and he hasn't started it yet. The beginning of the holiday was so nice and relaxed and then the last 3 days we have had a different reli visiting or doing something with the boys each day which was great but also meant we haven't got some of the things done we should have!! Never mind!

Memories

2009-02-18T09:04:00.000Z

Last night I was busy painting the woodwork in Alex's room and despite Alex being in bed the house was full of sound. They were the sounds I hope to remember right into my old age when the boys are all grown and have their own families. Alex was in bed as I said singing a song to himself. Not a quiet little lullaby but a rip roaring tale. Even now I can't remember what the tale was about but he was singing his little heart out bless him. This was intermingled with the sound of laughter from downstairs. Dave and the big two were having a game of Uno Extreme and it was obviously a great game as every so often all 3 of them would burst into laughter. Hearty male laughter, it makes you smile just to think about it. I didn't know Uno could be so funny!

Well the dying of the voile curtain was a disaster, it didn't take at all. I had suspected it wouldn't take well but not at all :C On a happier note I also dyed the sofa covers (well half of them - doing the other half today) and they seem to have taken better. I am just waiting for them to dry so I can put them back on and see if the problem areas look better! While they are being done the boys are making full use of the cushions from the sofa. They make great defences for their pretend games. Alex is at this moment forging metal balls!!

Grandma Ann is taking the boys today so I am looking forward to finally finishing the decorating and getting some work done. Got kits to make up and a newsletter to write (Dave has been nagging me which I need!)

Spring has sprung?

2009-02-17T09:02:00.000Z

Well yesterday really felt like the first day of spring. The air was warm, the sun was shining and the birds were singing. I managed to get the first load of washing on the line this year (I still had two loads go through the tumbler!) and it was nearly dry by the end of the day too. How exciting!!!!

Jez has nearly finished his third book of the holiday. It is the third in a series called The Shapeshifter by Ali Sparkes. We lost Jez for most of yesterday as he disappeared in his books. I remember those days... I only get to read a few pages before sleep these days, as long as I'm not too shattered by the time I get to bed. I loved reading at Jez's age too although I was more into Enid Blyton and Judy Blume!!

I asked the boys if they wanted to do anything today and the answer I got was not go out anywhere and stay here and play all day so that is what we will probably do. I might drag them down the park later if the weather is good again!!

Persistance!

2009-02-16T08:42:00.000Z

Well after both boys refusing to back down I was ready for a battle of wills this morning but amazingly (and thankfully) Alex admitted that it was him who had been lying so we can get on with our holidays without any further reprisals!!

Why is it that during term time I have to nag the boys to get dressed, have breakfast and get on whereas in the holidays they do it without being asked? Both Ben and Alex were dressed and getting on with their breakfast before I came down at 8am this morning. Jez was still snuggled up in bed with a book, but it's great to see him reading again as he hasn't read as much for a while.

I've got all sorts of little jobs to do today including buying some dye to change a curtain in Alex's new room from lime green to blue. I'm also trying to decipher the agreement for the lease car. I wish they could use language that everyone understands!