Wednesday 16 September 2009

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

Friday 4 September 2009

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

Wednesday 2 September 2009

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

Friday 28 August 2009

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

Monday 24 August 2009

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

Friday 21 August 2009

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

Friday 14 August 2009

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