More Letterpress Love!

Hi there!

Did I mention I ♥ the Letterpress?!

Here's another project I put together for the letterpress hour I did on Create and Craft many moons ago. To make this card I used Everyday Printing Plates Set 4 (for the numbers) and the plates from the Letterpress Starter Kit. I stamped the 'on your Special Day' greeting also using the printing ink to make sure the card fully co-ordinated {watch out if you do this though, the stamp is a little more slippery than usual!}.

The background gold flourish is also from the starter kit, and was created by simply moving the cardstock around and passing through the machine a few times. I then cut the heart using dies, and finished the card with burgundy organza ribbon and gems. I also used a little punched heart to cover up a little smudge too!

Joe and I had a lovely day today. We went to the cinema to see 'Gomeo and Juliet' and we treated ourselves to pop corn! Then we went into the amusements on the seafront, and I let Joe loose {or lose, which wever way you want to look at it!}with 50 pence worth of 2 p's.

Afterwards, Joe had his first doughnut! I told him of when I was a little girl and we used to visit Bridlington, I used to have doughnuts made freshly, and I used to love {and still do} watching the machine plop out the doughnut into the hot oil,  turned over, then move along the chain until they emerged all golden and lovely! It was then I realised he had never had one - and as you can see he thought they were 'yummy!'

 Well, that's it from me for now - off to fold more flower petals! Thanks for coming to visit! x

Oh My, What a Day!

Hi everyone!

Well, yesterday is all over, thank goodness! Because my appointment was in the afternoon, I had all day to dread it! I kept myself busy, making some cards for the local summer fayre, but my mind kept wandering to what laid ahead in the afternoon. As it's quite personal, I'd rather not go into what I had done, but the thing I was dreading the most was the local anaesthetic, which was quite bad, but once I had that over and done with, it was fine - until the anaesthetic wore off! Then I turned to wine and paracetamol in the evening - not thinking about mixing the two - being an ex-nurse and all. Oh well, I had a lovely sleep! Anyhoo, that should be the whole sorry affair over and done with - just have to wait and see, but hopefully this should be the last time I bore you over the subject.

When I was having a look in Joseph's book bag last night, I found a note from school saying that the children could wear either an England or football strip on the day England play in the World Cup, and if a match falls on a Saturday, they can wear them on the Friday. Luckily my friend told me there was a match on Saturday as quite feankly I have absolutely ZERO interest in football, and neither does David or Joseph, but you know what children are like when they are the only ones in the whole school not wearing the same as the others. It really is isolation for them. I do get quite fed up with the lack of notice with these things - finding a note in Joe's school bag at 7pm the night before, with no way to get to a shop really isn't on, but there we are. SO what did I do? I was just going to send him in a red t-shirt, but I knew that wouldn't suffice, so I got out the NEW Artiste's Acrylic Paint from docrafts (please see note below the picture), an old white t-shirt and me paint brush, and painted one meself, drugged up on paracetamol and charddonay at 10.30pm. I think I did a good job, considering the circumstances!

Now I must say, these paints are waterbased, and therefore not suitable for t-shirts that are going to get wet (ie washed) and Joseph will probably come home covered in red paint, but needs must - so please don't think the Artiste's Acrylic Paints are waterproof and suitable for fabric, as they're not!

I also wanted to show you a new addition to my Craft Studio - a wonderful set of Copic markers!!! I decided to be a naughty girl and treat myself for being a good girl!

Ooo, look at 'em all - just makes you want to dive in, doesn't it!

Anyhoo, making more cards today for the Summer Fayre today, so hopefully I have something to show you maybe later, or tomorrow, or after the weekend....soon!

Not for the Want of Trying!

I've been meaning to get around to doing this for ages, writing in my blog that is...honestly, I have - but what with one thing and another time just passes me by! Take last night for example, after putting Joe to bed, I settled down with a burning laptop on my knee, (I swear it's got hotter since I got a new power cable for it!) planning to edit a couple of photographs I had taken over the weekend, when for some reason I couldn't get my photoshop to open, I even uninstalled it and re installed it and the same message came up " Invalid address' or something. So, to cut a long story short ('too late' I hear you shout) I downloaded a free editing suite called 'PhotoScape' and I really like it! It seems quite easy to navigate around, and I can pretty much still do what I did on Photoshop (I only used a teensy weensy bit of it!). However, if anyone knows why my Photoshop isn't playing ball, please let me know (although I suspect the dreaded Windows Vista might have something to do with it!)

So, what have I been up to...well, let me see. I think I'll start from last Thursday as it really isn't viable to start from last year! It was my Birthday on Thursday and it started off as a pretty dismal day, but ended up more positively. David (my hubby) was away in Russia with work, and as it was also my Wedding Anniversary, it was quite sad to be spending it without him. However, for my birthday/ Anniversary present he bought me a beautiful platinum diamond ring, to replace my engagement ring I lost two years ago (well I didn't lose the ring, rather the stone lost me - at a craft show of course! I can just imagine a crafter finding it on the floor, and taking it home to stick onto a card - goodness - how expensive would that card be!). Sheila was meant to be coming over to spend a couple of days with Joseph and I, but unfortunately she had hurt her back badly, and how did she do it I hear you ask - crafting!!! She was cutting card all day, not turning properly (tut, tut, Mrs Halliwell!) and the next day and for the following week, she seized up like a rusty old pair of pliers! So, anyway she couldn't come and I was mightily disappointed - I love Sheila so much (as a best friend you understand...nothing more) and I knew had she come it would have been one of the best Birthdays ever (apart from the one that I actually got married on, I suppose), but it wasn't to be. So, I sat around and moped for a while, the postman came and gave me a big cuddle - at the door - that will get some tongues a-wagging around here I can tell you, and then I went out in order to cheer myself up with some retail therapy. Consequently I bought myself a zoooooom lens (or telephoto lens to you photographic types out there) assistance provided by the lovely Katy Godbeeer (ie. I asked her which one to buy and she told me, they don't call her the all knowing one at Docraft towers for nothing you know!). It's not the best, but the best for what my money could buy. Needless to say I haven't used it yet as the opportunity hasn't arisen, but it willl, and soon I'm sure. Then I went around to a friends for Fish and Chips and rose wine - a fine combination!

Then, Friday was the local Christmas Fair - and I was to have a stall to raise money for such a wonderful charity - St. Andrew's Children's Hospice. I had been feverishly busy in the evenings everyday for about a month (and weekends too) trying to get enough cards and gifts together to make a pretty penny for them. I thought I would show you some of what I made (more to come in later posts).

These are some post it note holders I made, and they are so easy to do, that I made 8 altogether I think! I changed the design of each one, but still they were quick, as I did everything in batches. I choose all my colour schemes at the same time, and did all the trimming together etc. I think all together they took me about 4 hours, which I don't think is bad. Just a quick tip: If you're planning on cutting everything at the same time, make sure all your post it notes are the same thickness, it makes it easier as you can just use the same measurements each time then!

Here they are, all bagged up and ready to fly off my table! I simply used a DL sized card bag and once I had tied ribbon around a rubber band which was fixed to the top, I trimmed the top off the ribbon. They make them look much more appealing, yet cost pennies and are so quick to do.

And here is a close up of a little tag I made. These were pre-cut tags, although of course you could die cut or punch your own. I stamped a large flower design with colorbox cat's eye dune pigment ink, and also inked around the edge with the same colour, then stamped the 'to' and 'from' wording with merlot ink (probably my most favourite colour!). They were so quick yet so sophisticated, I had to hold myself back from making loads!

This post it note features my free downloadable papers available here from the docrafts website! I printed them onto white core'dinations cardstock to give them a gorgeous texture. There is also a little bit of doodlebug glitter card on there (this project is great for using up your leftovers!) and a die cut butterfly. I think I have some photos somewhere of how I made these, so I will post them another night!

Finally, I wanted to share with you this absolutely scrummy photograph of Joseph with his bestest 'gurl'friend! Don't they just look so gorgeous together? It was taken on Sunday at a local garden centre where we went to see Father Christmas.

I wonder whether one day in the future she will be my daughter in law? After all, Joseph says he wants to marry her - although to Joe 'marry' probably just means sharing your chocolate buttons. Oh well, stranger things have happened - you only have to watch Jeremy Kyle to know that!

Oh yeah, and just in case your interested, episode 4 of Creativity! TV is available to watch now for one week! Look here!

I'd better skid addle,

Love, Clare x

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas!

Oh, it's great to be here again! I've missed typing my daily comings and goings, so I'm sorry but you're in for a long one here!

Sheila and I travelled down to London on Monday for QVC, and I don't really know why but it took us about 7 hours to get to the hotel! The traffic was bad going into London, and I think we came across an accident as well, but the most infuriating thing was that David's Dad's SatNav couldn't find Westminster Abbey! I mean, it's not like it's just been built is it? We started off trying the address of the hotel, then the postcode, then the shortened postcode, then places of interest around the hotel such at The Tate Gallery (on the same street) and the Houses of Parliament. No Luck.

Then once we'd arrived at the hotel, checked in and had a cup of tea, we set off to the QVC studios only to find that it didn't know where that was either. The same set of circumstances happened again! In the end we had to go into a petrol station and ask. How mad is that!

We had loads of time though, and were getting all set up from about 6pm. Again, I loved doing the show, although I was shattered seeing as I had been up since 6 am, and we didn't crawl into bed until 2am. To top it all off, the bar was closed when we got back - so we couldn't even have a night cap!

It was lovely to see Dawn, JJ, and the lovely, lovely Leonie again (waving vigourously!), and it sounded as though they had had a good but busy day. I think the next time I will be down will be in February, so it will be great to see them again soon.

Then the next day, Shaila and I hit Oxford Street for a spot of retail therapy, rushing around trying to catch up on Christmas shopping before going the see Wicked! Sheila had bought me the tickets for my birthday, and I have the soundtrack and absolutely love this musical, so I was near to hysteria by the time the orchestra started. When we first walked in, we were taken aback by the stage set.
The show was amazing the acting and singing was spectacular and brought a few tears to my eyes. Even Sheila said that she was thinking of buying the CD as we left. I told you she'd be connverted! I treated myself to a t-shirt, a keyring, a mug, a programme and the most fantastic umbrella you've ever seen. I'll post a piccy of it as soon as I can!

Then Christmas Eve was here before I could blink. Joseph scattered magic reindeer food outside on Nannan and Grandad's garden and left milk and a carrot for Rudolf and whisky and battenburg cake for Santa (Joseph thought he might fancy something different to a mince pie!), then he went to bed and slept until 8 am! His favourite presents were his Dalek head (he hadn't stopped asking about this since October, even though he's never seen Doctor Who), a Go Kart, which was a complete surprise from Nannan and Grandad, and his big city garage from his Nannie and Grandad. I was also very happy with my Wii fit, so by the next time you see me, a near miracle will have occured and I will be a size 6. Ha ha.


I just want to tell you a really funny thing that happened on Christmas Day night. as my mum and dad were leaving after having tea at David's mum and Dad's everyone was trying to give a kiss and a hug to Joe, and he still had his Dalek head on. As he wouldn't take it off, he just said to everyone "Kiss my Knob", meaning the eye stalk on the Darlek. laugh? I nearly wet myself!

I have quite alot of Commissions for magazine work over the next few days but I will try my best to make some cards to post here - Oh, just thought I could post the cards that I did for QVC. Great!

Love, Clare x

The First Lick is the Sweetest...

I forgot to share these pictures with you from the weekend. We went as a family to the annual Barton Beer Festival. The weather was gorgeous, so we decided to go in the early afternoon.

Now, these pictures mean a lot to us, as up until February of this year, Joseph was diagnosed with a lactose and milk protein intolerance and therefore was unable to have dairy products, and consequently anything containing whey powder or lactose. Would you believe that even some tomato ketchups contain milk! Of course, we were very lucky that Joe didn’t have anything more serious, as all it meant was we had to avoid the foodstuff.

I really shouldn’t be complaining as there are many children more seriously affected by the intolerance, but eating out and staying away from home was a nightmare, except for at Disney World. Here, they bent over backward to help us, and would cook things especially for Joe so he could share the same experiences as we. For example, the chef of a self-service eatery came out to us one day, and said he could make Joseph a Mickey Mouse shaped pancake with Soya milk! How cool is that! Compare this to England where in a hotel (that was part of a large chain). The chef commented that ‘he wouldn’t like to say whether milk was present in any of the foods that provided’! I know that they couldn’t guarantee any transference of milk, but you would think they could have informed me which food items contained milk, as surely they would have an ingredients listing. Combine this with the fact that milk protein intolerance is the most common children’s allergy, and it’s pathetic. Anyway, that’s another story.

So, in February he had a milk intolerance test (as 90% of children over the age of 5 grow out of the intolerance), and lo and behold, Joseph had outgrown it early!! This is the FIRST ‘99 cone that Joseph has ever had, and it looks as though it was worth the wait! I love you ,Chuckles!

Talking about ice cream, look what landed on my table in a gorgeous little cafe yesterday! It would have been rude to say no, and anyway, a figure like mine doesn't keep itself, you know. He he!!

It's Been a Busy Day!

Well, I've cleaned today - that's all! The whole house, from top to bottom, even under beds and wardrobes. I'm shattered, although I feel good about doing it.

Saying that, when it's all clean you don't want to do anything to mess it all up again, like have a cup of coffee because it will create washing up etc. Wierd I know!

Tomorrow, we get our little Joe back, he's been staying at grandparents this week, as I've had to work and there has been no childminder. It sounds as though he's had a whale of a time. We called him every night, and sometimes he didn't want to speak to us more than saying hello, as he was playing with Nannie Dodie! I'd rather he be like that though than us unable to leave him. To me it shows he is self assured and confident. I just can't wait to have him back though, where he belongs!