A big sorry!!

Hello! I am back from my holidays and needed to post something to show that I am still around!! My recent holiday unfortunately wasn't quite the getaway I had anticipated and the first day we were there saw the theft of my handbag (including my digital camera), hence the reason no photos on this post. I have been busy crafting, you will have to take my word on this!, however with the loss of my camera I am unable at present to how any of them. It has been a rather hectic time of late, with Maisie starting big school and Emerson doing his afternoon at pre school and I have not been blogging, so my apologies for not leaving any comments. Maisie is not taking to school particularly well so much of my time is being spent with her (she won't do a full week until November). One thing my holiday did was it gave me a few days clear of all things crafty and allowed me the opportunity to properly consider how I wish to spend my time. I am going to continue with blogging but on a more casual basis, to allow me some quality one on one time with emerson, some special time with Maisie... and of course my lovely Matt!!! My computer needs to be rebuilt as makes even the smallest task take forever and time is so precious when children are small, I'm getting frustrated by the amount of time each post takes1!! I hope you are all well, and will no doubt steal a few moments here and there to catch up! I do miss you!!
Love Jane xxx

HalloWallet in the making...

Yes it's Friday again!! After my weekly craft evening with Julie (www.jujuberries.blogspot.com) here is my 'Friday post', this time I've gone all Halloweeny inspired by some lovely coloured Papertrey card and paper stock. Although this isn't finished yet, I am already quite pleased with the result so thought I would share it with you. I made the wallet using one piece of card and I chose to make each window 5" x 3.5" to allow room for a reasonable sized photo. I was also very clever (for me anyway) and scored a 2mm fold in between each window to allow for embelishments and layered card so that it folds back in on itself without crushing anything!



There is a little flap from the front cover which will be secured to the back with magnets. I am waiting for some Halloween bling to arrive in the post (will probably arrive when I'm on hols and get sent back to the depo knowing my luck!)to liven up the inside pages, so an updated post may be made later next week!. My lovely crafting buddy Julie was very generous with allowing me to use her Martha Stewart punch which has featured very heavily on this project (thanks Ju xx!). This is one of many little wallets that I will be making for friends and family this year, and it's a project that I have really enjoyed designing.
Hope you have all had a great week and wish you all a lovely weekend, I'm on hols as of tomorrow so no more posts until late next week.
Bye for now, Love Jane xxxx

Engagement card

Here is a picture of a card I have made this morning under strict instruction from my younger sister. Her friend has just got engaged and she didn't want to just go to the shops to buy a card....so instead she came to my house and I made one!!! Not that I minded, it allowed me a little play time with my new papertrey bits and bobs, which I have to say were well worth the wait. I dont know if it shows on the photo but there is a line of hand stitching to the right of the card with a small button sewn in(yes not just plonked with a gluedot!!), and some complimentary cross stitching on the left hand side. I did not have any engagement sentiments so just stuck my letters onto some paperstock, cut them out wonky with my wiggly scissors, inked the egdes and stuck them higgledy piggledy onto the card. This one was a bit of a challenge for me as I do not have much experience in cardmaking and there's that whole pressure of whether my lil' sis will like it and if her recipient will too!! Have a great day, love Jane xx

Birthday Bag

Good evening all, just a quick post tonight as I have a really busy weekend planned and probably won't find much time to blog. I have had an exhausting past few weeks and today I booked a family holiday to Pembrokeshire , what with the kid's chicken pox aswell, I think we all could do with a little R&R. We're not going until next weekend however there is so much to organise when you holiday with little ones, isn't there?!. I usually take anything and everything I can lay my hands on, just in case!!!! Anyway, just wanted to show you another one of my gable boxes. I found the template at the back of a crafting magazine and it is now one of my firm favourites. It's so easy to alter the dimensions too to make it wider or taller, (if you're really organised and know what you want to put it in before you make it!). I love using core-dination card to make them as it is so sturdy.

I also discovered a more inventive way of tying the box. The button acts as a stopper on the left side, with the ribbon pulled across the back, then looped through the right hand side and tied as a bow (are you following....?!!!). Anyway, have a great weekend whatever you're doing.

Love Jane xxxx

Like mother, like daughter ....

The cutest thing happened this weekend, and I just had to post it here. I was busy doing housewifey things and had left my 4 year old, Maisie, out in the dining room with some paper and crayons. When i went back in I found that she had been making a scrap page!!!! Obviously a little somebody has been taking more notice of my hobby than I thought, it was so funny. She had got a photo (luckily not a one of my favourites or the nature of this post may have been slightly different!!) and taped it to the paper then decorated the rest of the page with drawing (the face is supposed to be her dad!). If that wasn't cute enough, she then proceeded to show me how the photo flapped up and underneath there was more drawing! She had also written mummy and Maisie under the pink paper flap. I nearly cried, that was how sweet a moment it was, and I also promised her that I would post it on my blog as it was so good, (excuse photo Maisie still has bed hair as it was still early in the morning!!)so here it is...



I managed late last night to do a page for my paperbag album. I wanted somewhere that a photo of Romilly and her sister Lacey could be displayed together so chose the saying '2 peas in a pod' and worked around that. The 'peas' will hold the photo's and are held in place underneath the writing, they just pull out. I don't have many letters so 'pimped up' my basic black ones by putting them on green buttons!



Hope you all had a great weekend, look forward to catching up later,
Love Jane xxx

2 girlie paperbag albums

Well hello all, yes it has been a whole week since I last posted any makings on here, I can't believe how time flies!! Most of you know that I have been nursing a very poorly little Maisie from quite a severe case of chicken pox all week, but thankfully she seems to have finally turned a corner and is looking a little brighter so it looks like the penicillin is working. Thank you for your well wishes, it's so depressing when they are really poorly isn't it.
Anyway, on a crafting note, I don't know if you remember but a few weeks ago I presented my little 6x6 paperbag album to Lacey for her 2nd birthday, and now have orders to make more!!! Last night i was able to begin and I chose to work on the two nearest occasions first (Anya and Romilly's birthdays). These are the personalised front covers, quite simple but girlie i think.

Also, following my favourite brown, pick, cream colour theme i made up this page using mainly papermania papers (i think!) and embelishments.


As Romilly starts school this September I wanted a school themed page (although I didn't have many schooly type stick ons so I may add more if I come across any)


I layered up some scraps of paperstock to create a birdhouse for this page, just to tie in with the birdie paper in the background. The little sign says 'a little birdie told me...). Forgive me this one, as it was getting rather late at this point and I really needed my bed. I will probably come back to this one also.
I don't know about you but do any of you find it difficult working in such a small space as a 6x6 (although more like 6x5 to allow for the punched binder holes)? Any tips??

Also, I wanted to thank the lovely Jessica at ~Bits and Pieces~ (http://jessicana-bitandpieces.blogspot.com) for giving me the beautiful blogger award. She is a very talented lady from Australia and her work is lovely, pop by and say hi!
Anyway, off to catch up with all of your creations now, catch you laters....
Love Jane xxx

Put your shades on this ones a bit bright!

Here is my latest scrap book page, dedicated to my sweet little Maisie. As you can see I got rather a little carried away with colour, but I just wanted to go for it with this one as I tend to stick to the more neutral shades usually (and it was a fun page after all). Admittedly it probably is a bit on the busy side (?) but I really enjoyed working out the LO and patterns etc. I still find that I am stunted considerably by the lack of kit that I own, but it's all so flipping expensive and the nearest proper craft store is 25 miles away.


I did get to play with an edge punch last night which was rather fun and there's something so satisfying about making those cute pinwheels!!


The photo's were taken on 2 different occassions playing at our local park last summer (the little boy walking with Maisie is her cousin Conor, whom Maisie assures me that she is going to marry one day!!!!). I'm sure there are laws about that, but I've got several years to put her off that idea!
Anyway, hope you are all having fun in the sun, it looks like another warm one today.
Love Jane xx

PLEASE HELP!!!

I'm having major problems trying to leave comments on sites. I've managed a few but I am now experiencing error messages after typing long comments (how annoying). They are from blogger and have error codes on them but when I try to search in blogger for reasons why and how to overcome them I'm getting nowhere. Have any of you guys had this happen? If so what do I need to do, I have so much to say and no way of doing it AAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! PLease help, Thanks Jane xxx

Summers Here!

Hooray, we've had some sunshine! I will be the first to admit that I am an Autumn/winter girl, in fact I had even been making stews and lighting my wood burning stove of late in an excited 'it feels like Halloween weather' kind of way... but, I guess that's not that interesting to a 4 and 2 year old so we have been cramming in some summer activities and catching them on camera over the last few days, so I thought I might share a few.

We went for a day trip to Weston on the weekend (admittedly there are nicer places we could have gone but we made the decision to go quite late that morning so we went with the closest, anyway there is a beach, donkeys and everything else you would want from the seaside!).

It was lovely, we had a picnic on the beach, the kids enjoyed a donkey ride (Maisie chose Jesse and Emerson picked Fred!), we went up in a BIG, BIG wheel to capture the delights of Weston! and there was also a steam funfair so they had a few rides on the old fashioned carousels, all topped off with a Pizza Hut meal on the way home.

Today we visited Harry for the day. After the mammoth task of pumping up what felt like the biggest paddling pool ever with a manual pump (I know what to get you for Christmas Julie!!), I kicked backed and enjoyed watching the kids fool around in the water for most of the morning.

Everything was going well until Emerson got splashed in the face and if you can imagine this face gurning at you for around 5 minutes accompanied with what sounded like the moo of a very ill and tired cow, then that is exactly what it was like.

Luckily all it took was a kiss from big sis and all was well in the world again!! Thats certainly one to show the girlfriends when he's 18! I don't know what it is with him, whether it's a boy thing, but he just keeps pulling the most strange faces in front of the camera at the moment!

On a crafting note I am hoping to complete a scrap page of my lovely Maisie that I actually started last week but just haven't got round to completing yet, so hopefully I can post that in the morning. Bye for now, hope you're all enjoying the holidays, Jane xx

Catching up

Hello everybody, I didn't ever imagine that I would ever get back blogging but I managed to slip away from the kids attention for a few minutes so here goes... I've had a real hectic past week or so, my little Emerson got chicken pox on 31 July and I've been clucking over him ever since. He was really lucky as I'm told he has had it mild but to me there are far too many spots on him! I'm finding myself following him around desperately trying to remind him not to pick the scabs or he will scar, but he doesn't get it so I just follow some more!! Also Matt and I went to Knebworth for a huge rock festival, it was a one dayer with Metallica headlining and it was just amazing. We managed to get 2nd from front with 60,000+ people pushing from behind, a bit scary but well worth it as we were so close to the band and they were brilliant. Didn't get back until 3am the next day, and if you know me thats late... I'm using falling asleep on the sofa at 8pm!!

I have a few little projects I've managed to do during the last week but did not have time to post, starting with a photo frame for my lovely little 'nearly nephew' Harrison, it was his birthday on 7th and thought I would make him something to keep...

Also another little bag, this time for my gorgeous little niece Leilah (Ange if you're reading this don't look!!!)...

... and a little bag for my man (They need little treats sometimes don't they?!!), I put some belgian chocolate covered nuts inside because I like those too!!

Also a huge thankyou to the lovely Aimes for nominating me to recieve .... wait for it.... 3 YES 3 blog awards!! Thankyou so much Aimes, you know how excited I get and this was just such a surprise!! I love all of your work and enjoy visiting to see what you've been up to, it's always gorgeous and usually the topic of mine and Julies conversations, so if your ears are burning, it's all good!! I'm sure all of you must know Aimes (!) however if you don't (where have you been?!) visit her at http://www.craftingconfessions.blogspot.com/ and you will see why I sent you! Anyway, must go, children getting restless and I still need to comment on some blogs! Love Jane xx

Pretty little things

I've had so many little people birthdays over the past week, that I have been making lots of these little boxes (this is my first girlie one!) as I think they are so nice to put sweeties in (just the right size for a couple of bags of buttons - this one has pink chocolate buttons from Thorntons!). It was nice to be able to really pretty things up a bit with some gorgeous paper (sweet treats - doodlebug design). I hand stitched around the birthday sentiment with red cotton to tie in with the red ribbon and backed it on to my corregated card. I threw the card together very late last night using a butterfly stamp design I'd coloured earlier. I was able to use the corregated card for punching out the flowers and as a background paper (I don't like throwing things away!).

On a completely different note, I had a lovely surprise this morning. My blogging buddy Lisa from http://www.the-craft-garden.blogspot.com/ has given me the Beautiful Blog award. I can't believe it, it's so exciting!!!! I've been visting Lisa's blog for a while now and she is so talented in many aspects of crafting, it's a pleasure to see (well worth a look if you haven't already been). So thank you Lisa, you've made my day, xxxxx.

Candy Links

Just thought I'd do a quick post, even though I have no crafts to show today, to give a little mention to 2 of the lovely ladies blogs I've been following, Emma fromhttp://www.devotiontothedream.blogspot.com/ and Stephanie from www.stampingandsharing.blogspot.com. They are so talented and their work is enviably good, so they are well worth a visit. If you're not already a member I can guarantee you will be!!! They are also very generously offering the chance to win some gorgeous candy, so hurry up before it goes...
I would also like to thank everybody so far for visiting my blog and leaving comments. I appreciate just what a time consuming thing all of this crafting is and that does not even include the time taken photographing and then posting your work. To then find the time to comment on my blog is so kind and greatly recieved. I hope to get some more pieces on in the next few days, however I have been taking it easy the last few days and just making the most of the wet weather by watching films and playing with the kids (even lit the logburner last night - very cosy!). Have a lovely day, Love Jane x

Not really a card maker but...

Today is my friends little boy's 2nd birthday and as I had so much fun making my dinosaur box before (see older post) I decided to go back down that route but using slightly different colours. It wasn't until last night that I realised that I didn't have a birthday card for him, so armed with my trusted dinosaur stamp, I decided to make one. Now I do not claim to be a card maker, and it's not really an avenue I have gone down until now but I was quite pleased with the end result, and at least I won't see another 3 of the same card hanging on the mantelpiece when I go to the party this afternoon. It's fancy dress (kids only thank goodness!) and whilst that's easy for Maisie (princess dress of course), emerson does pose a bit of a problem. I need to get my thinking cap on quick as we have to be there in an hour, so better go. Please excuse the poor photo, Just when I think I'm getting to grips with my camera I produce this blurry snap! Have a great day, Love Jane xx

Emerson's scrap page

Here is a new 12x12 that I pulled together yesterday afternoon (had to wait until this morning for some sunshine for a good photo though!) of my little treasure Emerson, licking chocolate from around his mouth! This photo was taken at a birthday party last year but is one of my favourites so I had to do something with it. I created a frill around the picture by waving jute and taping it to the underside of the photo (just can't get away with lace on a boy page!!), layered several papers and a brown paper bag (!) which I stamped... yes that's right I actually now own a few stamps. I was a little worried actually because the stamping was one of the last things I did and I was terrified that it would go on wonky and ruin the whole thing but luckily I got away with it. Again I used my favourite thing in the world at the moment ... the green core-dinations card. Goodness only knows what I would be using if I hadn't have made that discovery! I really do need to get alot more paper stock, I'm using it as quick as I'm buying it. Did see some lovely 12x12 pads on Thursday called nanas kitchen which were so lovely, but were £20 and as I already had an armful of things, and I wasn't supposed to be spending too much on myself that day, they stayed on the shelf - boohoo :( Maybe next time....

Have a great weekend, Love Jane x

Dinosaur box

Here is my latest offering. It's my nephews birthday next week and aswell as buying the usual boy pressies I really wanted to make something too (I just can't help it these days!). I used a template from a craft magazine and a cute new stamp I bought yesterday (coloured using water pencils). I thought it would be nice to fill with treats instead of just putting a boring old packet of sweeties in with his gifts. I use core-dinations card (again!!) for the box, I love using this stuff and the green colour was just perfect for this.

Hope you have a great day whatever you're doing,

Love Jane xxx

The sleep fairies have been!

For the last year probably every night that my kids stay a full night in their bed the 'sleep fairy' leaves a penny under their pillow, (because of their age they don't know the value of money so the fairy found that 10p's worked best as they are more shiny!!). This has been working wonders and we rarely have midnight visitors anymore, also it gives them something to be proud of and is their pocket money! As mentioned in an earlier post we have just finished decorating Maisie's new room (just had to extend the house) and so for the first time this week they were seperated into their own rooms so the sleep fairy kindly left them a special gift last night. The idea for the bags was from Inkin' Idaho. They are brown paper bags decorated basically with a little flap over the top to secure in place. Each one inside had a personal letter from the sleep fairy saying how proud she was of them and some shiny pennies. They were so excited with their bags, although Maisie did notice that the fairy had embelishments a bit like mine, luckily being 4 years old, she did not read too much into that and just thought it was funny!! Anyway short post today as I am off to the shops with my friend Julie, I'm taking her to a shop I have been raving on about for ages, it's full of all sorts of things but at REALLY cheap prices - so I better get a move on! Catch you later.... Jane xx

me, my man and my first ever 12 x 12 layout!!

Here is my first attempt of a 12 x 12 layout. I was originally going to scrap a cute picture of the kids when I spotted this rare picture of me and Matt together. I'm usually the one behind the camera so we just don't get many of us together. I'm also feeling quite loved up at the moment, what with all this wedding planning, so I decided to go with this one. I drew and cut out the vine from core-dinations card and just gradually built up layers of papers and flowers (did you notice my pinwheel flowers inspired by the lovely Deb at Sparkling Scrapbooks?). I wanted it to have lots of points of interest, so I hope I haven't gone too mad with decor!! I need to buy stamps and ink as that is something I do not own as yet and I know that this is something that everybody else can't live without so I need to go shopping...again!!! On a different note, I am going to knebworth to see Metallica perform (and many other bands) in less than 2 weeks. I've just recieved the tickets and I've applied online to try to win a meet and greet, fingers crossed for me everyone please!! Jane xx

One more reason to drink coffee!!

I was just about to put my coffee jar into the glass recycling bin when (and this is extremely rare for me this time in the morning) I had this idea. I was only moaning about my lack of storage containers the other day and here I was about to throw one in the bin. A good wash-up and a few ribbons later and I now have a cute little buttons jar. I made a jute flower at the top with layered buttons as the flower centre. I also tied a little Beattrix Potter character on to the tag (I'ts from the story of The Tailor of Gloucester which I thought was quite appropriate as I am from Gloucestershire!). All I need to do now is drink lots more coffee then I can start making jars for the rest of my kit!! On a completely different note, it was Maisie's last day at pre school today and she had a little sports day (although it had to be held in the hall because of the rain). She came home with a little medal for taking part and a big folder full of her 'work' from the past year, really sweet.

Jane x

Teacher Treats

As it's the last day of term (and the very last day of pre-school) for Maisie, I made some goodies for all of her teachers. I got the idea for the treat pouch from Debbie at Country Heart and Home (very clever lady), and it was the perfect size for slipping in a really cute Thorntons Fairy chocolate bar. I used core-dinations cardstock and sanded it down, and used jute rather than ribbon for a more natural, earthy look. The butterflies matched the paper really well (and were a bargain as they were a freebie on the front of a craft magazine reduced to 30p!!!!). I could not fit the other gift into the pouch, (which was a personalised pen), so, as it was getting late at this point, I made a little gift bag. I simply wrapped some of the matching paper around the pen, secured the paper with glue dots and then tied a little jute handle and matching bow. The card carried the same theme and papers as the treat pouch so it all matches and they will remember which bits we gave them!!! I am a little nervous about handing them over as this will be the first proper thing I have made and given out, so I hope they like it!
On a completely different subject, I have been shopping again and my craft stock is now building nicely - although this does raise the question of where am I going to put it all?!!

Jane xx

My Paperbag scrapbook is complete!!!!!

I felt the need to document the fact that I have completed my first ever scrapbook!!!!!!!!! It's a fat one too!! I may have gone a little crazy with embelishments because it just won't sit flat, but I like that. Although this picture maybe does not do it justice, as there are actually lots of ribbons, tags and things all hanging out of the edges around the top and side, I also hand stitched the orange card on to the front page which doesn't show on here, i think i need to go on a crash course in photography, (if you look really closely there are probably crumbs from breakfast on my table!!). Anyway, have to make this a short post as I need to finish off my teachers gifts and cards. I've also got lots of housewifey chores to do - although I am suffering with terrible back ache today (possibly from crouching over a craft table until the early hours!) although more likely because Emerson decided to jump on my back, knees first, this morning. Bye for now...
Jane xx