With Father’s Day fast approaching (June 16th) I have been left wondering where has the time gone?  How can it possibly be June already?! 

I’ve been working hard to finish orders and to increase my stock of male suitable cards and gifts. 

So what have I been making then?  Well I needed to add some cards to my stock, and thought I would try out a recent purchase – a Keepsake Craft embossing board.  I hunted out some masculine papers and set about embossing.  What fun, and definitely something to do in the future with my daughter.

Sporty Dad and Duck

Having made all the letters for the cards, I had an idea of adding some little embellishments, but didn’t have anything quite right, so I had another route through my crafty stash and found another unused purchase – shrink plastic! (I can hear many gasps of astonishment from experienced crafters, but I really haven’t used it before)

My mind took me back to shrinking crisp packets in the oven as a child in the 70’s and early 80’s, so I was ready to be amazed and set to work with stamps, ink pad and pro-markers. This is possibly the most fun ………. ever!

Football Dad and Spider

I hope you like my finished cards, I’d love to know what you think.

I am now thinking about other uses for both the embossing board and the shrink plastic.  What would you like to see?

Happy Summer Crafting

x

I have just received notification that I have been awarded a Bronze medal in the Mumpreneur UK website awards.

I entered the awards in the hope of having some feedback on the website and picking up on some pointers. What a fabulous surprise to be given this award. I am thrilled to say the least.

It goes to show what a fantastic job my lovely husband has done on this site, so my thanks go to him for everything he has done here and in helping me make updates and changes.

Thanks everyone for helping me get this far.

Happy Katherine!

Well I’m back from a well deserved break in the West Country, and what a lovely time we had too!  The weather was variable, but we managed some time on the beach and had a fabulous trip to the Eden Project.

I spent a lot of time wandering around local craft fairs in St Ives and all the lovely arts and crafts galleries.  So I have come back refreshed from the break and full of inspiration for more makes.

I have been practising my crochet while I’ve been away and made a few little pocket bags, ready for my next fair.

Yellow Pocket Bag

I’d love to know what you think of this little bag.  I have a few more waiting for an embellishment, so I’m going to work on some little crochet flowers.

Glad to be back and time to get making for Summer fairs and Father’s Day!

Happy crafting

x

I’ve been working on some new knitted gifts, and can now reveal them to you.

Grey/Cream Golf Club Covers

I spent a lot of my youth in a golf club – Father and Brother both played. So I thought some golf club covers would be a great present for my Dad for Father’s Day. I found this pattern in a recent edition of Craftseller magazine and loved it. They’re made in aran yarn, very soft, and the double rib makes them very stretchy.

They’re ideal for Father’s Day or as a gift for a golfer. I will be making them in a few other colours too. I’m currently looking for some blue aran so if you know of anywhere I can get some, please let me know.

Happy crafting
x

Before I left my permanent work, I was approached by a colleague to help out with a charity event.  Someone I worked with on projects earlier in my career has been persuaded to walk up Mount Snowdon for a charity that is very close to her heart: to buy a ‘milk’ bike. 

In her spare time she helps to run North West Blood Bikes Manchester a charity that provides an emergency delivery service for any NHS Hospital in Greater Manchester, they also help St Ann’s Hospice’s and Chester Milk Bank; the service runs from 7pm to 6am Monday to Friday and 7pm Friday evening until Monday at 6am (24 hour weekend cover) and 24 hours over bank holidays.  They deliver blood, platelets, records, samples, drugs and donor breast milk completely FREE of charge, all done by unpaid volunteers. The charity is an emergency service offered during times when users would have no alternative than to use expensive paid-for transport or courier services.

Earlier this year Clare launched the Merlin Milk Bike Fund and she is looking for sponsorship to buy a ‘milk’ bike to commemorate the loss of a friend and to celebrate 10 years of the Chester Milk bank, so she is walking Snowdon…

I was asked to make a hat for her to wear for the ascent of Snowdon, something related to breast milk!

I hope it helps her raise lots of money for such a fabulous cause (and keeps her head warm).  If you would like to sponsor her you can do so at :
http://www.justgiving.com/Clare-Redfern

Yesterday I spent the day at the Creative Craft Show in Manchester with my lovely friend Dawn Hulme. It was a fabulous day filled with lots of crafty chat, crafting products and workshops.

The show was much larger than last year. There were more stalls, more space and more workshops. It was lovely browsing the craft products, looking at all types of crafts, watching demos of zentangle, mini stamping, extreme knitting and using paste and masks.

We signed up for a couple of workshops – Japanese flower making and Crochet. I assumed the Japanese flower worksop would be origami – don’t ask me why! How wrong could I be?! It was the most fun I’ve had in ages. We made a little flower using incredibly expensive silk and some beads. At the end of the hour I had a little brooch and I had found my new favourite craft! I hope you like my final example. Do please let me know by leaving a comment.

We had a quick run to the crochet workshop, where the lovely people from Blacksheep Wools taught us how to make a crochet granny square. Dawn can crochet already, but she was a huge help to me in working out how to slip stitch. It certainly helped that I’d had a go over the last couple of months, but I was really pleased with my finished square.

We finished the day with a further browse and of course a spend on some lovely much needed crafty bits and pieces. We were both shattered and had a great day.

I’m full of new ideas and inspiration, so watch this space!

Happy crafting
x

Best Dad Cars

Well, it’s that time of year again when we celebrate our fabulous Dads. I’ve been thinking about this special day since Mother’s Day in March and I’ve been making a few cards to cover a number of hobbies, interests and fun themes. It’s surprising just how difficult it is to put together designs for Dads. I’ve come up with the following and I hope you like them.

There will be more in the Mr Man range soon and I’m also making some gifts for golfers and i-phone users, so keep a watch for these in the next few days.

So who’s your favourite Mr Man? Or are you more of a Little Miss? Let me know and I’ll try to add them into the cards.

Happy crafting
x

This week I’ve been crafting with my daughter again. She (and I) were inspired by Mr Bloom on Cbeebies to make a scrapbook to help her remember some good times and adventures. So we set to work, raiding our craft stashes for paper, pens, stickers, glue, card and sparkly bits! Then we sat down with the computer to look through all the photos from this year so far – at least an hour spent on this!

Having printed out a number of photos, we set to w0rk making a cover and putting together a few pages. It was geat fun covering ourselves (and the living room) in papers and stickers.

The embossing boards are really great to use with kids. Durable with fun shapes.

By the end of the week we had a cover and three pages – Christmas, 4th Birthday and a drawing of Peppa Pig! And she’s keen to do some more pages for Easter, Birthday Party and Red Nose Day. We’re also going to take some pages on holiday and make some beach pages!

A great rainy day activity and we have something to keep and add to forever!

Happy crafting
x

Less than two weeks since I left work and yesterday, I found myself back on the tram to Manchester! No, I haven’t had second thoughts about leaving and I didn’t go to grovel to HR! I went for a night out in the big city – another ex-colleague leaving do!

As I trundled along, I realised how much I actually miss the dedicated time to let my mind wander. It’s nice to have nothing to do other than muse over the day / last couple of weeks and jot down my thoughts.

I love being at home, pottering about the house and garden, updating my website and facebook page and being able to craft. But I think I’m going to have to find some time each week, out of the house, to ponder, reflect and come up with ideas.

So my next task is to find somewhere close to home (I have to factor nursery hours in) with a relaxed yet creative atmosphere! Hmmmmmm…………….Any ideas?

Happy crafting
x

One of the most surprising things that happened in my last week of work was discovering a colleague that crafts!  It shouldn’t be that much of a surprise really, but having worked on projects with Dawn for the past 7 years, it really was a shock to find that not only does she live less than 5 miles away, but she has her own Folksy shop too!

So my last week or so was spent catching up with Dawn and chatting about crafts!  What a lovely few days.  She has a lovely range of crafts on her website.

Today we had a quick catch up and have booked tickets to go to the Creative Crafts Show at Manchester Central. It will be fun to go with a fellow crafter and without little one with me! NOw the diffculty comes in choosing which (if any) workshops to take part in!

I can’t wait……………

Happy crafting
x