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