Hellooo.....

Blowing away the cobwebs in here after ten months.
It's January, one of my favourite times of the year. New year, fresh start, clean page, all things that spark my creativity.
I am not making any sweeping resolutions about how often I plan to post or how much stuff I am going to make or what new goals I have in mind. I am just going to start by sharing the first things I have made in a long time - two cards for the first week of the 52 card challenge on UKS.

Not Quite a Teabag Holder

I haven't had a lot of time to blog this week so I now have quite a few projects lined up ready to share. This one is my most favourite one though.
Following the blogbits links on UKScrappers I came across this lovely teabag holder made by Amanda. It reminded me of something I've been meaning to have a go at making for a little while now for my 12 year old daughter. It's not for teabags but for her to discreetly carry - let's just say - personal items, that she doesn't need yet but will do anytime.
The best bit is I made it with fabric cut from some of her old items of clothing that I saved when she grew out of them.

The bunny on the front was saved from the pocket of a denim skirt she had when she was about six and the main red cover is made from the sleeve of her primary school sweatshirt. The lining fabric is from a pretty top she had when she was about seven or eight.

I love upcycling! I've got a suitcase full of my kid's clothes that I've kept to turn into something else one day. Enough to keep me busy for years.

More Yellowy Goodness

Ha! Can't get away from yellow now that I've started.
With the longer hours of daylight that we're getting (hurrah!), my chickens have started to lay again. So I have once again been pondering the ways to use up more eggs and that of course means a return to one of my faves: homemade lemon curd.
Really quick and easy (I make it in the microwave) so within a very short time I'd gone from this:

To this:

It's so easy to make and tastes delicious! You just melt the butter with the lemon juice and zest and then heat with the sugar for a little longer (don't let it get too hot or the eggs will start to cook when you add them). Next beat in all the eggs and then heat slowly, a minute at a time, until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Pour into sterilised jars and you're done.

One warning though - it won't last long. Well it doesn't in my house at any rate!

A Little February Sunshine

When I took down the wreath of jingle bells from my living room door after Christmas, I decided to leave up the hook in an effort to encourage myself to make my own 'all year round' wreath.
It worked! Hurrah!
A few weeks ago I spotted this gorgeous peg wreath on the Hambly blog and pinned it to my 'things I want to make' board on Pinterest - a step towards my wreath.  Then last weekend I found a pack of fifty wooden pegs in the pound shop - further encouragement. All I needed was the final push to help me decide on a colour scheme and then I stumbled across this post on Julie's blog and I was away!

It was really easy to make and didn't take long at all. The pegs are covered with strips of paper from my scraps folder and all the other bits (ribbon to hang it, circle cut from chipboard and the little wooden heart) I already had so all it cost me was a pound!

I've hung it on my living room door and it's brightening up my hall already. Hope your day is bright!



Little Knitted Chicken (My first Monthly Make)

I loved the little juggling chooks that I saw on the Red Ted Art blog - so cute! I wanted one of my own but instead of sewing I picked up my knitting needles. Not that I am a real knitter you understand; I can just about cast on and off and my only stitches are knit and purl. I just had the urge to knit last night though, it's very theraputic and maybe with it being half term I have too much time on my hands this week???
So here I was wanting to knit and wanting a little juggling chicken - why not put the two together? This is the result. Because she's a bit stretchier, as she's knitted, I managed to shape a couple of wings for her too. I love her! She's telling me she needs a friend though.......

More Catching Up

Half term means a little extra time so here I am catching up again. I've had sooo much fun making these cards! I've used stash that I'd forgotten about, techniques I haven't used for years and colours that take me out of my comfort zone. All this fun and a stash of cards ready for when I need them - brilliant!

Week 4 was based on a sketch and I liked it so much I made two versions:

 

Week 5  prompt was to use any kind of aperture. I made a very clean and simple one for this with circles 'floating' in the square apertures.

 

Week 6  prompt was Hot pink, butterfly and paper. Hot pink is not in my usual repertoire but I did find some leftover paper from a kit swap from a few years back (I think it was Rusty Pickle?). Butterflies I love so no problem there.......

Week 7  A colour prompt this week: cool pastels. As it's Valentine's day tomorrow I chose to make this one for my dh. I think he'll like it.

 

I'm loving card making right now and being inspired by all the other cards people are making. 



 



Better Late Than Never.

I have promised myself I will absolutely make time to be creative this year. When you're out of the habit of creating it's difficult to get started sometimes. I occasionally sit here surrounded by mountains of tools and stash with an hour or so to spare but just can't kick start my mojo and instead waste that precious time surfing the net. Not this year - OK?
In an effort to get me going I decided to join in the 52 Card Challenge 2012 over on UKS. The first few weeks of January have flown past with no spare time but yesterday, at last, I managed some time to create! I'm late, but I've caught up and have made and photographed my first three cards - hurrah! Very happy to be making again.


Week One: new, circles, scallops

The circles and scallops speak for themselves. The new was using my new Martha Stewart Scoreboard to make the rosette.


Week Two: primary colour, handmade embellie, journaling spot

OK - not that much of the primary colour but I made the little flower paper clip thingy (it's actually a book mark) and stamped Happy Birthday on the journaling card.

Week Three: bunting, banners, flags

I absolutely loved the inspiration pictures for this challenge! Gorgeous little flags and banners and all sorts of clever little ideas. I feel a few more cards coming on inspired by this week's ideas.

Photo At Last

At last I've found a minute of daylight to photograph and upload the cover of my LSNED book. The pages inside are also cut and ready to be decorated.
I am enjoying this class so much more than I expected to, even though my lessons are all still in my notebook and not yet on decorated pages. It's really making me think about life's everyday little events that normally pass me by. There's only been one day so far where my 'lesson' wasn't obvious but involved a little deeper contemplation.
Today I learnt that for me, as a Mum, sending my baby off to her first day of secondary school was equally as emotional as her first day of primary school. Who would have thought that? She was only four when I handed her over to her first teacher - I was bound to be emotional about that. She's almost 12 now, I expected that today would present no problem. Wrong. I keep thinking of that Abba song, 'Slipping Through My Fingers', and it makes me cry. Silly isn't it? 

Learn Something New

I have decided to do Shimelle's Learn Something New Every Day class. Last minute, of course. I'm not well prepared, of course. What's new?
My book is still in the process of being made and here we are day two and I'm off for a weekend away. However, I already have my first days entry in my head and I've learnt plenty today already! My plan is to take my notebook away this weekend and then catch up with my actual pages when I get back.
I'm using this book for my notebook. The cover is felted wool made from an old jumper and the book inside is hand made by me. It was my project for a weekend get together with some crafty friends last weekend. I took them all a piece of felted wool and they all made beautiful notebook covers and hand made books to put inside.

Sunshine Kisses

I was inspired by a mixture of two of Shimelle's challenges to make this card. I loved the polka dot butterfly in this challenge and I was inspired to use hot pink in this challenge.
I'm pretty pleased with how it came out and I used my favourite sentinment on it: 'Sunshine Kisses and Birthday Wishes'.

3 Really is a Magic Number

I'm picking and choosing from the remaining challenges, partly because I know I don't have time to do them all and partly because my aim for the weekend was to finish off the remaining layouts for our Florida holiday from four years ago and guess what? I only had one single and one double left to do! I am soooo happy to have achieved this since the weekend and my scrapping mojo is well and truly back on track.
So this challenge was about using elements in threes (which I have with the buttons, photos and rub on corners) but I also thought the title of the challenge made a perfect title for these pictures of the kids which were sort of extra to the pages in the album.

A Colour Story

So on to the next challenge - a colour story in red, white and aqua. I really do love this colour combination and I have more than a few sets of photos that fit perfectly with it. The layout is called '(Not quite) Surfin' USA' but it's as close as we were likely to get in Orlando.

Grid It Up Challenge

I'm still having fun completing challenges from Shimelle's weekend of scrapbooking. The next challenge was to use a grid and I loved this because truth be told I am a very 'straight lines' scrapbooker at heart. Here's my layout which I had to prop on my lappy to photograph. This could equally have been the colour challenge because it just so happened that the colours in the photo were red, white and aqua but I went with some other photos for that one.

Adding To The Stories

The next challenge really wasn't difficult for me because I've told so few of the stories in this album I'm trying to complete. I've often left spaces on my layouts to add journaling later but as the album isn't even finished neither is much of the journaling.
This challenge has inspired me to complete all the missing stories in my album and I've done several already. On the the layout shown below I hadn't left journaling space so instead I've written the story on a journaling card and tucked it between the boys' photo and the mat. You can just see it sticking out at the side of the photo and on the bit showing it says, 'Once upon a time'. On it I've written the story of the three little pirates in the photos.

Still Inspired!

I've decided that all the layouts I do this weekend for Shimelle's online scrapbooking weekend will be to finish off an album of our holiday in Florida four years ago. That's because we went again this year and I don't want to start on the new album until I get the last one finished! I think the challenges will be enough to get through all of my remaining pages - hurrah!
So here's my next layout for the Chop Your Paper challenge. I had the perfect piece of patterned paper for this from Teresa Collins from 2008 which was just a year after the trip. I love using up old stash!
Again, apologies for the poor photo: I will get better at this.

Inspired

It's been a very long time since I scrapped. I've created lots of things over the past few months but I haven't actually made a scrapbook page for longer than I care to remember.
I've thought about it often enough, I've tidied my workspace, stroked my stash, even bought new stash but just not picked up paper, glue or scissors.
So I was delighted to catch a mention of this over at Shimelle's blog. Shimelle can always be relied upon for inspiration. She seems to be constantly dreaming up ways to kickstart the imagination. I don't know how she does it but I'm glad she does.
 At last then I've been inspired to pick up my mojo along with my photos and have been scrapping like a mad thing.
It's past time that I photographed and uploaded some of my efforts so - here is my first scrapbook layout for hmmmmmm....however many months and my response to the first challenge from Saturday (I will need to come back to Friday's challenges).
Sorry for the poor photo - I'm totally out of practise for taking photos of layouts.

Alphanumeric Blog Hop

Some of the Ds I love:

Daisies, daffodils and dandylions,
Dalmations, dolphins and  dragonflies,
Dancing, daydreaming and doodling,
Dinner, dark chocolate and desserts,
Disney, Dr.Who and dressing up.

What's your favourite D?

D is an important letter to me - it's my initials - both of them! It's also the first letter of my Mum's name and it was my Dad's too. I guess they liked the letter D a lot to give it to me too, although there is a funny story about how I came to be Donna. I'll save that for another time though because today is all about the alphanumeric blog hop which began on Mel's blog. 
Surprise! I was given the letter D - and why not? It's my letter :-)
I hope you're enjoying the hop. Your next stop is to see Miss Smith, Better be on your best behaviour!


Here's a complete list of all the blogs on the hop:
I Speak Melsh: http://ispeakmelsh.blogspot.com/
BE Glorious: http://beglorious.blogspot.com/
Captured On Film: http://mrsbeee.blogspot.com/
Chatty Crafty Arty Pig: http://chattycraftyartypig.blogspot.com/
Creating Room: http://creatingroom.blogspot.com/
Curiouser and Curiouser: http://journalofcuriousthings.blogspot.com/
Daily Life - Bits and Pieces: http://www.melissagross.blogspot.com/
Deb's World: http://debs14.blogspot.com/
Den's Crafty Diary: http://deecie.blogspot.com/
From High In The Sky: http://fromhighinthesky.blogspot.com/
Gallo Organico: http://gallorganico.blogspot.com/
Ginger's Life Of Spice: http://gingerslifeofspice.blogspot.com/
Handmade By Kirsty: http://handmadebykirsty.blogspot.com/
Havoc and Mayhem: http://www.havocandmayhem.com/
Heather's Scraps: http://heathers-scraps.blogspot.com/
Helena's Creative Maven: http://helenascreativemaven.blogspot.com/
Holaday's Happy Hearts: http://holadayshappyhearts.blogspot.com/
Jeant-Jinnag: http://jeant-jinnag.blogspot.com/
Just Jimjams: http://just-jimjams.blogspot.com/
K's Crafty Corner: http://kscraftycorner.blogspot.com/
Life...As I See It: http://jillconyers.blogspot.com/
{Life Behind The Purple Door}: http://www.lifebehindthepurpledoor.com/
Lisa E Design Blog: http://lisae-design.blogspot.com/
Living Life One Blessing At A Time: http://livinglifeoneblessingatatime.blogspot.com/
Mary's Musings: http://craftycreation.blogspot.com/
Michelle Loves...: http://michellelovesallsorts.blogspot.com/
Obstinate Pursuit: http://obstinatepursuit.blogspot.com/
Over At Our Place: http://overatourplace.blogspot.com/
Paper Turtle: http://paperturtle.blogspot.com/
Peonies and Pennies: http://peoniesandpennies.blogspot.com/
Random Reflections: http://www.kbwalker.blogs.com/
Rosalind Revival: http://rosalindrevival.blogspot.com/
Scrap Dreams: http://cheriandrews.blogspot.com/
Scrappyjacky: http://scrappyjackylive.blogspot.com/
Scrapworthy Lives: http://www.scrapworthylives.com/
Staring At The Sea: http://fiona-staringatthesea.blogspot.com/
Surefiredaisy Says: http://surefiredaisysays.blogspot.com/
This Kalil Life: http://www.kimberlykalil.com/
This Little Life Of Mine: http://tracyscraftycorner.blogspot.com/
Xnomads' Blog: http://xnomads.typepad.com/blog/


Note: If any of the posts aren't up yet, please bear with us - the different time zones and the peculiarity of blogging platforms when it comes to autoposts may mean that one or two posts don't appear on time! If that's the case, come back to this list to pick up from the next blog, but do please pop back and try the other link later, when the post should be there for your enjoyment.

A Pause in Transmission

I am sadly going to be without internet access for a short while - eeeek, what will I do???
Actually, I'll be doing quite a lot; primarily involving a big black mouse, some of his friends and a cruise ship (yippee!)

I will be back soon though - watch out for this:

Sixty Easter Cards!

I'm very lucky to have a job that I love - I'm a primary school teacher. We do have lots of important stuff to do like numeracy, literacy, science etc, etc, BUT... every now and again we get to play. With paper! One of those times is Easter. We have to make Easter cards. This year we had to make a lot of Easter cards!
The children always make a card to take home but this year we had also arranged to make cards for children from a school in Manchester who sent us Chinese New Year cards. Thirty children in my class, two cards each - that's a lot of cards. And that's not taking into account the Easter baskets we had to make to carry home their Easter goodies.
Now I'm guessing that most of you are like me and make quite a lot of mess when you are creating. Well imagine that mess multiplied by thirty. Are you seeing the scene of devastation that was my classroom this morning? Oh yes - we can sure make mess in Year 5! Still, we can also tidy it up with a little help from the Magic Mess game and the 'Everybody has to pick up twenty pieces of paper from the floor' rule.
It was all worth it in the end as they went home clutching their cards and baskets for a well earned two week break.
Here is the card I made for them as a sample.

And here are some of the children's cards hanging on a specially erected line in the classroom because we had no space to stand them all up!

Fun Flowers

You may have seen my 'Fun With Felting' post a week or so ago, where I showed some pictures of a couple of things I'd made on a free felting course run by the County Council. Well this afternoon I went on another free course and made this sweet flower brooch. Simple, enjoyable and pretty - a great way to spend an hour on a Monday afternoon.