May is Perry Birthday month

So my brother-in-law's gift is out of the way and ready to be given on Saturday when we meet up for "CampBrocklebank IV" our annual family camping trip.  My Mum takes her motorhome, my sister's family her caravan and I usually take my tent but the site we have chosen this year doesn't accept them so I'm slumming it in the motorhome.  Then we have a week of horrendous weather and come home.  We've had snow, high-winds, torrential rain, the lot!  But the kids love it and its nice to get everyone together for a week.  My other Sis is popping over from Germany for a little while too and we'll be nearer my Gran (who is still in hospital after her stroke - but definitely on the mend) so I should be able to get over and visit her.

So May is Perry Birthday month because my b-i-l, sister and nepher (all Perrys) have their birthdays within 3 weks of each other.  I'd hoped to make them all a little something but have had to admit defeat with my nephew - he's just gonna have to mae do with a "Woody" dressing up costume.  Let's be honest, he's 5 - he really won;t care what he gets.

Which leaves my sis.  I swore I would not make any more button necklaces after my first attempts - they're just too darn fiddly but both my sisters have been nagging me so I'll probably have to make anothe one before I can unstick my fingers from the superglue and hang up the blunt edge pliers for good.

It's quite hard to tell from the pic but the buttons are muted blues and a silvery grey.  The box is made from a sheet from LLB Venaissance.

and wrapped up

My sisters have also both asked for a ribbon brooch.  I'm still trying to perfect the flowers on these but I think they're getting a bit better.

and here is her card

A beautiful gorjuss girl - my sister is so special I even used a sheet of my Cosmo Cricket "Earth love" for this one.  Rub-ons are by American craft.   Sentiment from Craftword Cards.  The little flowers are off cut's from a corner punch - I must have had them in a little pot on my desk for at least a year - I knew they'd come in handy eventually

Better crack on with the housework now - 11.12pm - is probably not a good time to start tho 

My exciting Sunday afternoon

Wow wasnt it great weather at the weekend ~(if you like that kind of thing) I'm not a big fan of getting hot so whilst everyone else enjoyed barbecues, I sat in my craft room on the shady side of the house (with the window wide open as a nod to the weather)

I spent the afternoon making this pressie for my b-i-l.  His birthday was earlier in the month but I won;t see him until this weekend.  I asked my sis what he would like and she said "sweeets" - so here they are!  The hobby case was from Home Bargains (where else!) and cost £2.99 I think. 

So this is the exciting bit, I found out that my cricut and my cuttlebug will both cut sticky back plastic.  I had a roll with sweeties on to cover the top of my ex-classroom storage unit and I've now found a way to use up the off-cuts.  The letters are cut from the cricut (Opposites attract cart) the sweeties from Celebrations Cart. 

I've covered the inside too

And I've sealed the pretzel bags that the lovely Rusty sent me using Nesties labels. 

Hopefully he'll let me help him eat them - I love those toasted teacakes!

One for the boys

I love this digi stamp from little musings - because it reminds me of my nephews and also a photo I have of my son in a teepee in our garden - ok it was made with a tablecloth and 3 canes but that was good enough for him so it'll do me too.
The card is for my bil - Dad to said nephews.

image by little musings coloured with promarkers (another one coloured in our journey through Europe last month)
matting from stash
sentiment and card candy from Craftwork cards

I'd like to enter it into the following challenges
MSE - B's challenge (spurious I know but it is blue and has boys on it - that's the best I can manage)
Cards for men - Outdoors
DareU2DigiStamp - Anything Goes
StampChallenges - Birthday somethings
Stampin for the weekend - A card for a male

Get Well Soon!

My good pal Rusty from the MSE card forum has been in a great deal of pain recently and has, thankfully I think, been taken into hspital to try and help her a bit.  I've made this card to try and cheer her up using a freebie digi from "Meljens designs".  Life seems to have been throwing her a lot of lemons recently ;-)

The background papers are from basic grey - cupcake, the ribbon, flowers, sentiment and snaps from my stash.  I made my own ribbon slider using a nestie cut oval and some judicious slits with my craft knife.

Whilst I was in the middle of that my Mum called to say my Granny has been taken into hospital with a suspected stroke.  She was due to go on holiday tomorrow poor love  but hopefully they'll be able to get her back on her feet in time for her birthday party in July.
I couldn't resist using my new cricut cartridge - paisley - for this one.  I love Russian dolls - you'll be seeing many more of these on my creations!

Get well wishes to anyone else who needs them - I'm hoping I won't have to make any more get well cards for a long while.

WOYWW Compare and contrast

I had very good intentions last week (don't we all) and took my WOYWW pics but then never got time to blog them.  So this week I had a cunning plan.  I was forced offline for a couple of days due to a fault on my modem and decided to make good use of my time yesterday evening by tidying my desk so I could do a compare and contrast from one week to the next.  Sadly, I forgot that I needed to finish off some invitations today so you can't actually tell the difference.  Hey-ho - I know it was tidy yesterday and that's got to be worth something

Last Wednesday

This Wednesday

So on my desk today I have some (finally)  completed invitations for my Granny's 85th birthday party.  This is my first batch of invitations (and possibly my last) and I've learnt a lot of lessons on the way.

Lesson 1 - don't get stranded in Germany due to the Icelandic volcanic ash thus severely reducing the amount of time you have available.

Lesson 2 - Plan.  Even if you are short of time it's worth the effort - I think I was finally happy with my design around invitation 25 (of 27).

Lesson 3 - If you accept help from a 9year old boy, you will not have straight edges.  Get over it, it's not that important.

Lesson 4 - don't trust glue runners that you bought from a euro shop. 

Lesson 5 - it's worth saving those little pieces of paper - most of the matting on the invites is from off-cuts.

Anyway. they're done now - teabag cards because it's an afternoon tea party

The teapot stamp is from craftwork cards, the cakes cut from sweet treats cricut cartridge and all those teapots have been coloured in hand.

Better dash - I have envelopes to address, a birthday card (that's already late) to make, a get-well card to make, a house to tidy and a presentation to write before I go to bed. 

Completed Layout from Craft Den Scrapbooking Class

Before going on holiday I managed to make it to the Thursday night scrapbook class at the craft den.  I'd love to make the classes more often but struggle with childcare. 
Lynne came up with this design for us to work with.  If we'd have been at school I would have been in the remedial class, struggling with the pearl pens, messing up paper, etc etc but thanks to Lynne I came away with a nealy fnished page. (and a template for that lovely concertina butterfly.  The background paper is plain - we made the pattern using a doily and some tim holtz distress inks.  Will be trying that again just as soon as my inks arrive from the US.
I completed it today and it now has pride of place on my mantelpiece.  The only extra I've added is the heading - because I chickened out of journalling again.  It's taken from a Cosmo Cricket Strip-tease from the Gretl range.

The picture is of my darling boy aged about 3 and he's actually trying to catch a bubble.  I loved the Martha Stewart punch so much that I've asked my friend to buy me one from America.  The pearls on the swirls are made with a Viva Pearl Pen which would have been my favouritest thing n the workd if I hadn't just taken delivery of my cricut expression.

The trickiest type of card......

..........a card for a fellow card maker.

I've been down to visit my Granny over Easter.  It was lovely, we took her out for a couple of day trips, ate too much chocolate, lost &son for 45 minutes on Aldburgh beach (ok that wasn't fun - I was nearly frantic - he's decided to go and have a look around a classic car show whilst I turned my back to help Granny on to the prom with her 'walker').
Granny had proudly displayed the Mothers Day Card I'd made for my Mum to give to her and a card made by my Aunt for Mothers Day.  My Aunt is very talented but you know how sometimes, you can appreciate someones work but it's just not to your taste.
Like a fool, I offered to make a card for Granny to give t my Aunt on her upcoming birthday - I thought it would save her a trip to the shops but as soon as I got home I realised the enormity of the task ahead - Anyhow, I've tried to keep it true to my style and I'm sure she'll think it's very simple and won;t be able to tell that I've spent a whole evening fretting over it as it looks like it was thrown together.  Hey-ho, life's too short.

spotty paper - Crate Paper

Stamped image from Crafty Place Stash Swap,

Lettering - Bloom (Sizzix Sizzlets)

While I'm hear, I'll just quickly post the pics of some Easter baskets I made for the girls at work.  How cute are those bunnies.  Thanks Mr Cricut!

Ooh and some very exciting news, well I think so, I've just agreed to purchase my very own expression machine from a lady on ukscrappers.  Technically it's 3rd hand because she bought it from the marketplace herself but it comes with 10 cartridges.  I'd have only been able to afford 3 for the same money new.