I’ve Been Shopping Again!

Hi there!

I had the most relaxing day yesterday. I didn’t get anything done, I just spent the whole day not doing anything, but watch tv and films, play my Wii and spend time with OH. It’s got to be done sometime, and if it’s been a while for you, I would seriously recommend it!

One thing I did do yesterday was buy some bits on eBay for my Scotland mini book. I’ve got no closer to actually making it, but at least I’ve started thinking about it! For under £8 I got: 

Some Travel, stamped fabric stickers from The Paper Loft.

This Travel ABC from P.inc.

Hot off the press Vacation sentiments from Paper Pizzazz.

I did also get some Scotland based stickers the other day but I’ve totally forgotten where from! Typical right. Along with the things I gathered I should have plenty to make my album, my only regret is not picking up postcards, which is SO unlike me! I really don’t understand it! But I have loads of leaflets from where we’ve been as well as photos and tickets and things like that.

I’m quite looking forward to getting started, so now I just have to get everything together, wait for these bits to arrive and then it can begin! At the moment, I’m planning on using it as a side project when I start working on the Christmas stuff next month… Which seems way too close! I have had a bit of stitchers block recently, and have barely picked up my bear project, but I want to get it done by the weekend, so we shall see. I then have a couple of tiny things to do, which shouldn’t take long even if I do them alongside the “Big Project” as it became affectionately known last year!

So, my plan for the rest of the week, is to get everything together. Organise myself, and get stitching! I also want to dig the Big Project out, because it’s been hidden away for a while now, and I want to make sure I know where I am with it!

What have you been up to this week? Remember to add some relaxing to your to-do list!

Happy Crafting!

Stitching For Myself

Hi there!

Friday is finally here, is it just me or has it been quite a long week? 

I’ve spent the last couple of days planning and starting a cross-stitching project for myself, or rather for OH and myself, which is pretty unusual! The majority of my stitching ends up as either a card or a gift for someone else, but this one was always going to be staying at home! I was looking for ideas, for something I could stitch quickly, which would fit in with our stuff, and I came across this post from Hancock’s House of Happy which has loads of awesome free patterns. As you can see, I’m not hugely far but I wanted an idea of what the design would look like, so I am actually stitching the coloured part of all 4 first (I can have fun with the white later). 

I even found the perfect frame pretty much straight away on Ebay: I loved this when I saw it, it’s simply perfect, fitting in with other frames we have at home, and also the colours are a great fit for the pattern! Granted initially I was going to stitch 3 campers and now I’m doing 4, but they really are quick and easy to stitch, and looking at the progress I’ve already made, they look fantastic! I can’t wait to see how it all comes together!

I’m now playing the waiting game for the frame whilst I stitch, but I think it’ll all be finished by this time next week, which is great. It’s nice working on something for me, and I know I can take my time with it, as I don’t have a deadline at all, which normally I do, especially if I am stitching a card!

Aside from the stitching, I have some card stuff to work on this weekend, and OH and I are going to see Tim Minchin tomorrow at the Eden Sessions, (at the Eden Project) which is amazing, but would be more amazing if it wasn’t an open air show, with heavy rain forecast! Still you can’t have everything, and I’m sure the weather won’t dampen our spirits (groan)! 

Hope you have a great Friday, whatever you’re up to!

Happy Crafting!

My Latest Scrapbooking Buys

Hey there!

I can’t believe it’s already Thursday! I got absolutely no crafting done yesterday. It was an awful dull day, and I had a load of housework to do, so crafting took a back seat. I have lots planned for today though so don’t fear!

I thought I would take a break from the christmas posting; though I feel I should take a moment to say I had my highest number of visitors yesterday, and I do hope some of you have returned! I am very grateful to everyone who takes the time to visit me here in my little bit of cyberspace – I really value your comments and input! I am still making and creating for Christmas and will post an update soon!

A short while ago I mentioned getting some bargain scrapbooking stuff from Ebay, and saying I would show you all – I’m so sorry, it just totally slipped my mind, but here I shall now show you! I’m really looking forward to using this, and playing with a few new ideas.

This paper cost under £2 (including postage) for 50 assorted sheets (sorry I have no idea what collection it is from) a little blurry, but what you can see is assorted sheets in blue, green, yellow, purple and pink! What I really like is that I can add to these with other coordinating papers… And then there is the book… I paid £7 (including postage) which was fantastic. This also coordinates really well with the papers I got (I got them separately hoping the photos were accurate!) It has a space for a photo on the front of the book (I removed the plastic cover so I could take the photo without any glare). This will be my first 8×8 album, and I am really looking forward to trying something new.My plan for this album is to create a book about my family. With a double page per person. I’m not going fully into the whole heritage thing, I want this to be more personal than that, something that is a little more laid back than a book of my family tree. I also have a few ideas of other things I want to include, but I am going to wait until next year to get going with it all.

I have already got some lovely stick on lettering that I plan to use within the album, from various places (my local craft shop and a stationary shop in town mostly). As you can see I will still be going for a mostly classic look, only because I think that will look better in the long run, and I shall be continuing this project for (hopefully) a long time. I also couldn’t resist this piece of scrapbooking paper, which is 12×12 but I will cut it down so I can use it Isn’t it gorgeous! I don’t even know where I am going to use it, perhaps as a photo mat more than a backing. as it is quite dark. I just had to buy it when I saw it, which doesn’t happen to me all that often.

So there you are! I finally got around to it! I spent a lot of yesterday doing jobs like that, you know, all those little ones that get put off for “later”. I feel quite satisfied now. Things put away in the right place and whatnot. 

I have lots more planned for today, I want to prep some blueberry muffin mix for tomorrow -I think they come out better if you let the mix settle for a while – though whether it’ll last that long I don’t know! Of course I plan to get some more cross-stitching done! The weather is meant to be terrible, here in the south west of England, but I have to get on, even if it means uncomfortably sitting where I can get the most light! I also keep getting distracted and sidetracked by the other things I am working on this month! It will all happen though –  this is how determined I am to finish everything in time!

I suppose then, I should get started! Hope you have a lovely Thursday.

Happy Crafting!!

Halloween in Stitches

Hello, 

So, it’s Monday, and here we have torrential rain, and, even though it’s 9am, you’d think it was evening!

To distract myself from the terrible weather, and to continue my theme of Halloween crafts, I have been looking at various cross-stitching kits and patterns I have found online. I haven’t done any Halloween projects this year as I’ve had plenty to do elsewhere, though there are some lovely bits and pieces available, here are some I really liked!!

When “Googling” this weekend I came across this site  http://www.sewinspiring.co.uk/acatalog/heritage_crafts_stitchcraft_cross_stitch_kits_cuties.html I adored some of their kits, they do a lovely range of cat kits for holidays, and two Halloween ones which were so cute!  I especially liked this one: Another site I came across was http://www.craftycrafty.tv/2008/07/creepy_cute_crossstitch_by_nee.html because of these!  I love the modern touch with these, they’d make great little charms or decorations, utterly adorable!

I also looked around for some free patterns from the web, I’m a big fan of these, because there are SO MANY sites offering them, and well y’know it’s free! (We all love a freebie)! Here are a few sites I look at, and some of my favourite Halloween patterns:

 http://hobbyloco.com/XSpatterns4.html has a handful of designs for halloween, including this sweet tiny pumpkin design:http://shopping.originpublishing.com/chart.asp?id=921&category=5 has some  great downloadable charts, including  this cauldron design and http://www.cyberstitchers.com/patternlibrary/index.asp also has some nice downloadables too!

Seriously guys, as much as it’s great to go out and buy kits, if you’re like me, and end up with loads of threads and fabric, and don’t want to go out and buy kits, looking online for the free projects and patterns is brilliant! It’s easy, trust me I’m no expert, but I just search online and find LOADS of things for all different occasions.

On a side note, I won my auctions on eBay!! Yep, hopefully I shall soon have in my hands a brand new scrapbook and some coordinating papers (All for under £10)! I am so excited, I am going to be making an album all about my family, hopefully with some great pictures of everyone through the ages! I’m really looking forward to this project, living so far away, it’s going to be really exciting!! Also I’ve never done and 8×8 album before, and want it to be really simple. Something tells me I’m going to be getting some refill pages! At the moment my plan is to have a double page about everyone and then some pages featuring events over the years too. But I’m not getting too ahead of myself, I don’t even have many photos at this stage, but I plan on phoning around, getting some stories , etc. I shall soon be scrap-booking crazy – which is good because at the moment, there has been a bit of a lull (to the point OH was saying we need to go out for the day again soon, because I haven’t scrap-booked[?] a day out since last month)

Tomorrow, watch this space for some Halloween decorations of the Crafty-Kind!! So exciting, there are some beautiful decorative items people have created!! If you’ve made anything and want a mention, do leave a comment!! 

For now though I am off, though to do what I don’t know, because it’s too dark to do any stitching BIG PROJECT on a major slowdown at the moment, getting a bit apprehensive as to whether it’ll make it!!

Bye for now,

Happy Crafting!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Post Has No Title

Hello there!

On the second day of Halloween… (no? Not going to take off?)

For those of you who are new visitors, this is the second day I will be talking about card-making. And for this particular card I decided to have a bit of fun, I didn’t make the card I had planned to make (which I will make today) I was just in that kind of mood yesterday!

Still continuing my theme, I used a starry background (from the same set – Sugarloaf See-D’s Boy’s Toys #50161). I wanted to make this card more fun, and bright, which kind-of goes against the “colour-rules” of autumn, but then, I’ve never been a massive fan of rules! (I love that my spellchecker underlines COLOUR!)

Without further ado, here is my second card: 

The idea was, that this card is a little more child-friendly… and less… fussy than the first one! And in the end, Halloween is supposed to be fun and a little bit silly!

This is pretty much the same as yesterday, really. I stuck the stamped paper to a card… I cut the pumpkin out of a piece of green card, and stuck the orange over the top (cutting it slightly larger so you can’t see the layering) drew on the lines with a black pen, cut out the eyes, nose and mouth from some black card, glued them on, attached the orange ribbon to the top (actually inside the card, which will be covered when I put inserts in them). And wrote Happy Halloween by hand (which you can’t really see, is in blue and green glittery pen).

Other news, not much really… was really naughty and bid on a couple of scrapbooking bits on Ebay (fingers crossed I win, would be a total bargain) – New 8×8 Scrap-book, and some co-ordinating papers! I am also still cross-stitching, (BIG PROJECT still in progress) though had some time off yesterday, because it was cold! (Single figure temperatures are here!) and also because it was quite noisy yesterday as OH’s Mum is having a conservatory put in, and they were digging out for the foundations. (Very exciting though, to be able to see the whole thing progress!) It’s funny mentioning how cold it is, obviously it’s time for the clocks to go back soon (extra hour in bed yay!) but seriously, this is the first morning I got up and it was still slightly dark! (Has been dark-ish for a while now, but I needed to actually turn lights on this morning!) and that’s about it! 

I’m really looking forward to winter though! (What can I say, I love it) Not so much the cold, but lots of fun things happen (my birthday is in November, [that which I said I wouldn't talk about] and new year in December/January, and OH’s birthday in January too) so loads going on!

First though, I am still excited about Halloween, although we’re not planning on going anywhere, we’re just gonna stay in and watch some films etc. I have a couple of weeks without and Beauty and the Beast rehearsals, and I’m going to enjoy the time at home, and the extra day to work on some crafty bits!

Until tomorrow, fellow crafters! 

Remember, if you put a link in the comments section, I will reference you when I do a post on Halloween Crafts… And don’t worry if you’re not doing anything for Halloween, I’ll be doing similar things all year round!!

Happy Crafting!!

(ps, am really annoyed that yesterday the font copied over from word no problem, and today it’s just not happening! I don’t like the boring font on here… I want choice dammit!)