Easter activities

We’ve had quite a lot to do this Easter holiday and this week Alice has been entering lots of competitions in our local shopping centres. First the small independent shopping centre, Millgate, ran a competition to design an Easter egg, the first prize is an Easter egg and an egg for everyone in their class at school.

I love watching Alice doing this type of thing. As the deadline is at the end of the week, we went for a cuppa to give her time and space to do her design entry. As usual I had my ‘big’ bag with me which has a box of crayons and some coloured pencils in – I feel this is a real sign of being a Mum!

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Last week we entered the Easter egg hunt on The Rock shopping complex. There always seems to be something like this on there in the school holidays, and it’s something different to do outside. Surprising though, this time Alice won the first prize – a month’s tuition at Explore Learning and an enormous Thorntons Easter Egg filled with Millies Cookies!!! So we collected the prize this afternoon.

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I think we have one happy little girl this Easter holiday and we might just have to share the egg and cookies around friends and family!

Happy Chocolate Eating!
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Hunkydory

Over the last few weeks I’ve been inundated with family requests for cards, so many birthdays, anniversaries and we even had a wedding this year! When you get to my age all the weddings just seem to stop, now it’s 40th and 50th birthdays of friends and we’re all waiting for the weddings of our children – which will be some time off yet!

Anyway, I invested in some of the Hunkydory ‘little books’ a little while ago, and as I have needed some quick cards recently, I decided it was time to stop looking at the images and actually use some. As I have quite a collection of Hunkydory cardstock, these little books are brilliant to put with card I have already. The images are really lovely too and there are loads to choose from in each book. I have one for men, one for birthdays and one about birds and they seem to cover every occasion. The bird images range from paintings of garden birds to more contemporary designs, these lend themselves beautifully to wedding and anniversary cards.

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I’ve also had quite a few birthdays this last few weeks and these images have been great for all ages.  This ‘hipster’ image really made me think of my brother.  I’m not really sure why as he doesn’t have a moustache or beard, neither does he ride a bike, but the overall feel of the image was just right.  It’s such a cool colour scheme, the little hints of teal work so well with the bright red and black.  I love it!

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This was the card I made for one of my daughter’s friends birthday. It comes from the birthday book and looks so lovely, I just couldn’t resist making a card with it. It really reminds me of my daughter on her bike, full of life, and the butterflies set it off perfectly.  I found this lovely cloud paper in a back-issue of Craftseller and love the dreamy feel it gives to the card.
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My next card was for my hubby, he loves a glass of red wine, so this image was perfect. I coupled this with a bottle of rioja from a local wine merchant, and made up a hamper of cheeses, biscuits, snacks, pasta and sauce. It was very well received and we all enjoyed a lovely dinner with the contents.
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Finally here’s my card for an ex-work colleague who has a small boat that he likes to sail over the summer.
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One of the things I love about making cards is being able to make something individual for the recipient, and these little books are great as there just seems to be an image to suit every occasion and age. I am sure they will come in very handy over the next few weeks and months. Time to get thinking about Christmas cards next though!

Happy crafting
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Crafting for School

Like most schools, my daughter’s primary school has a summer and a winter fair each year.  These are run by the staff and pupils, and many of the stalls have items the pupils have crafted in school.  By far the most popular stall is the ‘pot goody’ dice roll.

The children are all given a plastic pint pot and asked to ‘decorate it’ in a given theme and fill it with little gifts.  It’s a great idea and there are some amazing creations every time.  We always have some fun trying to think of something to make.  The best one from each class wins a prize, and then all the ‘pots’ are prizes in the ‘pot goody’ dice roll game at the fair.

So this week, we have had to squeeze in making a ‘summer themed pot goody’.  I decided to have a look through all our previous makes for some inspiration.  Unfortunately, they have mostly been winter ones so far!  P1180745It was fun looking through the pictures with my daughter, watching how she has grown up since her first year in nursery!  We loved making this little snowman, I don’t know how she didn’t win this, maybe I should have worked harder on the carrot nose!

Next up was the summer, pirate theme!  Now this was a difficult one.

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It was fun making the face from paper plates and it’s such a great way of using up bits from the crafty stash box! I don’t think she won this one either, but it was fun making the pirate just the same.

The next two entries we found are both winter ones, and I seem to have let the side down somewhat as they are both Christmas trees!
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The first was when she was in reception and the second was last Christmas. It’s great when she gets to make something fun and add as much embellishment as she wants.

This year’s theme of Summer conjured up lots of ideas between us, flowers, sunshine, bucket and spade, sandcastle, but we settled in the end for a bee!

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We had to raid some of my crafty stash as well as the general box this time as painting wasn’t something we had a lot of time for this week. But I found some yellow washi tape and black ribbon for the bee body. We used some white funky foam for the wings and eyes and black pipe-cleaners for the antennae and mouth.  We then went mad with papers cutting out flowers and leaves using punches and dies.  We stuck them all onto a paper plate (coloured green), layering up some of the flowers and curling some petals to add dimension!  We finished by sticking the bee on to the flowers and added a few small flowers onto the bee’s body.  He’s (I’m pretty sure he’s a he bee) been filled with sweets and some pencils.

Having taken her bee to school this morning, she’s now waiting to see if she has won the prize this time.  Fingers crossed!  We should find out at the fair tomorrow.

Happy crafting
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Happy Father’s Day

A very Happy Father’s Day to all the Dad’s out there. I hope no-one has forgotten and that you are all spending time with or thinking about your Dad on this day. It’s my Dad’s birthday as well, so we will be paying him a visit later.

Watch Dad

Watch Dad

Have a great day
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A Look Back in Time

I woke up this morning thinking about all the toys I used to make, wondering where I had put all the photographs of them. Mum and I spent a lot of time making toys for people about twenty years ago. It’s what really got me back into crafting after University. So I spent some time hunting out the old photo boxes today, which was a great opportunity to reminisce about my lost youth. It also gave my daughter a chance to have a laugh at my huge 80’s hair and glasses!

So I’ve scanned some of the pictures to show everyone what I used to make back in the day!

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I must have made about thirty of these octopuses over the years for friends and family members. If you’ve got one out there I’d love to see it now! My daughter has one in her bedroom that I made before she was born. In fact they have become a staple gift for all the new babies in the family!

I also made a lot of pierots and dolls for friends and colleagues. I believe one of these dolls was sent to Australia.

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It’s been fun hunting out these reminders, I may add more in the coming weeks.

Happy crafting
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Easter Holidays part 2

Well the Easter holidays have not quite been the fun packed couple of weeks we hoped for.  We have had a pretty traumatic month all in all.  Having just got through my beloved little cat Stella passing in March, and then being rushed to hospital for a week, we have again been left distraught as we have now lost our other gorgeous cat, Guinness.  It has been a tough couple of weeks and it has left us all rather empty and finding it difficult to do things around the house.

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Having said that we have tried to do some things over the break, many of which have involved being out of the house.  It’s just been too empty.

Crafting hasn’t been at the top of our list, however, I have encouraged my daughter to make a little diary for her homework.  I think she’s done an amazing job.  Her marking of Guinness’s passing is lovely.

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I’m feeling a bit lost at the moment and hoping to get my mojo back soon.

Happy crafting
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Easter Holidays

Easter holidays are tough for me this year as I love chocolate and cake and I just can’t have any!  But baking is also one of the best activities for the school holidays.  So with my daughter eager to make something for her friends and family, I helped her out with her idea of making chocolate nests.

This has got to be the easiest ‘baking’ ever!  I let her be in charge and tell me what I needed to do.  So she broke up shredded wheat into a bowl.  I was tasked with melting the chocolate over a pan of hot water and once melted I poured it into the shredded wheat bowl.  She then mixed it all together.  I had bought some Easter themed cake cases and little sticks from a local pound shop and they set the cakes off a treat.  The little nests were then made in each case and some chocolate eggs added to complete the nest effect.

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They looked great once they had set and I believe they tasted pretty good too.  We were certainly popular amongst the neighbours on Easter Sunday!

Now just another 2 weeks of holidays to fill!

Happy crafting
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Family Birthday

This weekend as well as being Valentine’s Day, is my Mum’s birthday. A big one this year, 70! She’s not particularly impressed with being 70 but we’re all going out for a family meal which will be lovely. Three generations of the immediate family, Parents, Children and Grandchildren.

70th Birthday Handbag Card

We also have a 4th birthday, a 44th wedding anniversary and a funeral to attend, so it’s a big weekend of emotions for us.

So hopefully to help cheer Mum up about being 70, I made her this handbag card. She’s a huge fan of shoes and handbags and I thought the colours would brighten up the day!

I hope she likes it.

Happy crafting
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Wood craft

Over Christmas I have visited my in-laws and discovered how my Father-in-law has been preparing for the Christmas period.  He is a fellow crafter (having taken early retirement a number of years ago) and his current craft of choice is wood turning.

This year he made a little Christmas tree for my daughter, which I loved too, so I ordered another from him for our Christmas dinner table.  These little trees are so quirky and gorgeous.

Wooden Christmas trees

The larger tree is made of lime wood (I think) which is very appropriate for us as we live in a lime tree prevalent area.  It looks lovely as a focal point on the table too and has prompted a number of comments from visitors.  I love it so much that I haven’t been able to put it away with the rest of the decorations and it is taking pride of place on my kitchen window ledge for use on my table throughout the year.

I was also surprised with a lovely gift for our Christmas tree.  This beautiful bauble.  It has been polished but this is the natural colour of the wood.  Isn’t it gorgeous?

Wooden Christmas tree bauble

He’s made some beautiful pieces for us over the years and has just recently set up an on-line store. So if you’re in the market for some beautiful wooden gifts or home accessories, give his stall a visit – Paul Brooks you won’t be disappointed.

Let me know what you think.

Happy Crafting
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Anniversary

Today is my 8th wedding anniversary.

Traditionally it’s a bronze anniversary, so I made this card for my hubby.

Anniversary card

We went for a lovely meal at weekend and I’ll be cooking tonight.

But look what hubby brought home!

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Something tells me this is going to be a well used book! The recipes look amazing. I’m hungry already.

Happy Anniversary
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