WOYWW - Buttons!

Not much room for anything else apart from buttons at the moment! 
I'm waiting for some jewellery wire for necklaces to arrive - it should be here tomorrow - but in the meantime I thought I'd try and choose the buttons.  There's just too many to choose and there are some more somewhere - I have a box with my "bestest" ones in but I can't find it at the mo.  Harumph!

I was trying a bt of distraction therapy really - I should have been writing a letter for the sympathy card on my desk but couldn't face it.  I just don't know what to write - in fact I don't even know if I should write.  I stopped to help at an RTA on Saturday evening and there was a fatality.  I'm a bit of a mess about it all - there wasn't much I could do more than hold their hand and comfort them whilst the emergency services arrived but should I write to the family to let them know that someone was there? - put their minds at rest.  But would that really help?  Am I doing it more for me than them?  I'm wondering whether writing stuff down would be cathartic.  I think I have to do it now or I'll possibly regret it but I don't even know where to send the letter to.  Making the card was a bit of therapy in itself. 

Sorry to end on a bit of a downer - lets hope I'll have some nice button jewellery and a sunnier outlook to share with you tomorrow.

Mothers Day & Mum's Birthday

Mum's birthday always falls close to Mothers Day - there was one year I remember it being on the same day!  As someone who finds it difficult to think of one present to buy her I really struggle to find two! 
I thought things were going well this year because she dropped some "hints" - well when I say hints - she sent loads of links to ebay items as she wanted to increase her "Old Country Roses" china collection.  The more I spoke to her though, the more fearful I became of buying the wrong thing - there's so much to bear in mind - whether its a first or second, whether its vintage or the new stuff.  In the end, I couldn't take the stress o have said I'll give her some cash to buy what she really wants.
I had to give her something to open on her birthday though so I made this......I was supposed to be making something else to go in that box but realised too late that an essential component was missing.  It's on order now so I'm hoping it will arrive in time for mothers day now.

Thanks to Debbie for the tutorial on this card and box in one

Mum made me laugh - she carefully pinned her ribbon brooch on to her jumper but soon realised she had placed it somewhere inappropriate.  I said I'd have to make her another for the other one.

Papers are coredinations jewel and crate paper blue sky collection.  Cutesy owl from Craftwork cards coloured in with my trusty promarkers.

I can't post her mothers day card yet as she sometimes checks my blog but Mum did ask me to make a card for her to send to my Granny.  So here it is.........

 

You'll see a lot of those card candy flowers over the next few days - they're on all the cards I've made today and another I have in mind.  They're so simple to make - 5 candies right way up with one upside down in the middle.  I've placed a 'jewel' in the middle of this one but I think it looks better with a pearl - you;ll see once I can post the other cards!

The butterfly was my bragain of the day - from home bargains - where else?.  It cam in a box of 6 - wired, probably for easter bonnets I'd guess.  All 6 for 69p!

Is running ladylike?

I think not but, more fool me, I've signed up for the sport relief mile and so really thought I'd better have a go at running.
I honestly believe I've never run a mile non-stop, certainly not since starting secondary school - and when forced to d cross-country, my friend and I just used to run around the corner, walk and chat for most of the sourse and the jog hen coming back into view.
So...... training!
Blimey it's hard work but I can now run a mile as long a sI have some 'walky bits' in the middle and have been working on extending the length of time I can run without stopping and/or collapsin.  I'm up to 1/3 mile now whih sounds good until you realise the mile has to be run in 2 weeks and 2 days.  Not that I'm counting or anything!
IF you'd like us - "&son" is running too we'd really appreciate it.  We have a just giving page  here

So that's why I've not been crafting lately - I've been running instead but I'll be back soon (maybe with blisters!)

'Hello' card - thanks to Rusty

The lovely Rusty sent me some stamped images and I've been itching to use them for a while,

We were hoping that my sister would be home at the end of the month but it now looks like her deployment has been exended by a week or so.  I made her this card to cheer her up with one of Rusty's images

Long post for a (literally) long project. 12ft of papercraft!

Finally, it's finished.  Many of you will probably be bored to tears now with talk of my paper bunting.  I was starting to bore myself to be honest but for you, and me, it's finally over!  Huzzah!

For those of you not in the know my sister is due home from a posting overseas at the end of the month and we won't be there when she gets home as she lives 'down south'.  I wanted to make something a bit special for her return and know she has a love of bunting as she paid a local craft shop to make some birthday bunting last year.  I' know my way around a sewing machine but sadly don't own a working one so I thought I'd attempt to make some bunting from card in lieu of a welcome home card. 
And then the obsession took over. 
I spent far longer thinking about what I was going to do rather than actually doing it.  And the best thing is, apart from the ribbon that it hangs from it's all made from stash I already had with a little bit of judicial borrowing of pens, inks, cricut machine from the lovely Emma G.

This has very much been a team effort by myself and "&son", my little crafting buddy.  It' s been a bumpy ride for both of us- I think I went a bit control freak in the middle because I wanted it to be perfect but then I had a word with myself and realised that my sis would like it all the more for the little idiosynchrosies added by her hephew. 
Each triangle is cut from a 12x12 sheet so when laid end to end there's 12 foot of card.  All lettering and embellishments are cut from the cricut.  The lettering and house from 'Winter Woodland' the flowers from 'Sweet treats". 

Triangles were drawn from template by "&son" and cut to his lines by myself.  Most of the lettering was cut out by him too.  Whilst the gromlets were fixed by me he did the punching of the hole in the middle of each.  He also made up the flowers.  I was in charge of sticking and stamping unless specified differently below.

Enough of the chatting here are the pics.............

12x12 is an insert from a scrapbook album (I assume you're supposed to take these out as I can never squeeze the 'made up' page in the sleeve if this background one is left in'  Stamped with an Autumn leaves swirl.  Sticky ribbon from 'crafty ribbons'

12x12 is bazzill basics stamped with a papermania wooden stamp.

Ribbon from a Crafty Place Stash Swap

12x12 - Coredinations Gemstone.

Sticky ribbon from 'crafty ribbons'

Another 12x12 insert.  Stamed with the papermania stamp in blue this time

Sticky ribbon from 'crafty ribbons'

12x12 and ric-rac unidentifiable stash

12x12 stamped beautifuly by "&son" with papermainia stamp.

Paper lace by k&co

12x12 inlay decorated with card candy

Paper lace byk&co coloured with poppy promarker and then inked with copper

12x12 unidentifiable stash

Sticky ribbon from 'crafty ribbons'

12x12 DCWV Whiteout

PAper lace by k&co coloured with pastel blue promarker

12x12 inlay stamped with Autumn Leaves swirl

Paper lace by k&co

12x12 unidentifiable from stash

Sticky ribbon from 'crafty ribbons'

So that's it - I'll try and take a photo of it hung in her lounge but for now you'll have to imagine what they look like when not split into 2's in order to fit in the viewfinder on the camera.

TTFN!

I sooooo want/neeed a cricut

Lovely Emma has let me borrow her cricut this weekend for a project I have on the go.  I'm making some paper bunting for when my siser returns from Afghanistan.  I asked her whether she'd mind cutting them out for me but she offered to let me borrow the machine instead.  "&son" and I have lusted after it all day.
Trouble is it such an expensive piece of kit - I reckon what she's lent me for the weekend would cost £600 ish in the uk to purchase.  The other trouble is, it's such a marvellous machine - I can almost feel myself justifying that type of spend - and believe me, I really don;t have that kind of money to spare!

I'm going to try and declutter my house this year.  "&son" wants to save up for a wii and I said I'd sell some of his stuff for him on ebay to help him along so maybe I'll set up a cricut fund from ebay profits and see how things go.

Tonight I played about a bit with the fonts.  As the bunting is triangles cut from a 12x12 sheet I had to work out which font would give me the largest letteryet still fit on to the triangle if the letter had a 'broad bottom' like W or M

Off topic I know but when we travel to manchester we always drive to Glossop then catch the commuter train in - it stops at loads of stations with brilliant names but our family favourite is 'Broad Bottom' - "&son" firmly believed it was called 'Wide Arse [said with a Mancunian nasal twang] until he could recognise letter's!

After much faffing I couldn't resist Winter Woodland. which has a bonus font in it.  You can also cut 3d houses, trees etc to make a Christmas scene. 

The bunting is going to be a kind of shaby chic patriotic red white and blue.  As a taster, here is the W scanned in.  You cut out the shadow and the letter separately.  How pretty is that!  It's about 7 inches wide and just over 5 inches tall

Christmas Catch Up Part 2 - Shadow Frames & Clocks

I'm glad I waited to blog these because at the time I was just too frazzled to enjoy it.  I gave myself too much to do and kept beating myself up about 'not being as organised as last year'.  It was nearly Christmas before it clicked that 'last year' I'd been signed off sick for most of December so had plenty of time to do lots of crafty things.  It's not so easy when you're working late, taking kids to Christmas parties etc etc etc.  Some of these went to the wire - I was up at 2 in the morning on Christmas eve finishing off one of the clocks but, in hindsight, they seem to have been worth the effort.

I bought the kits from home bargains (where else?) a while ago and they were ridiculously cheap.  From memory the clock ones were £3.99  and the plain shadow boxes were £1.99.  They came with paper, etc but I used my stash instead

First up - for my sister Jane.
this uses Crate Paper 'lil sprout

This one was for Mum and Dad using a mini-kit that my lovely friend Emma G gave me containing the letters, ribbon and bling.  The background paper is by Cosmo Cricket.  The bling by basic grey.

Next up, my other sister, Ruth's clock - she's moved to Germany now so she'll have this in her new flat as reminder of her darling nephew

The polka dot paper  and charm came with the box on this one, The other paper is MME - Bloom & Grow

And finally

A picture of my godson for his Mum, my best friend from Uni.  Crate paper again but Orbit range this time.