Anything Goes #48 - Inspired by TV

Just a quickie, just back from sunny Reading tonight. 5 hour drive home, I am pooped! My stupid 3G card was not working last night so I couldn't post and catch up on blogs as I planned to so this post is late, sorry!
It's a new challenge over at Anything Goes. This time the theme is 'Inspired by TV'. This is actually easier then it sounds! My project is inspired by 'Escape to the Country'. I just love these kind of programmes, I am so sad - anything housey or antiques I am there!

I decorated a lovely house key holder from Craft Den. It's not going to be used for keys, of course, ribbons are top choice at the moment! I used Prime Madelaine papers again, LOVE them. For the roofs I used copper craft metal, stamped with the little circle design from the Claudia Helmuth housey/foam stamps set. I then traced around the circles with a small embossing tool, turned the metal over and then embossed from the other side with a large embossing tool, then lightly sanded them down to give the burnished look and swept over with brown stazon. The door numbers are made from Tim Lost and Found papers and fragments. The background is willow dabber paint and gold inka gold.

Everything from Craft Den of course!
Come on in and join the fun!!
K x

Latest layouts

Hi everyone, thanks for your lovely comments about my thank you book for nursery, I can't believe it myself that this is her last week. Emma by contrast is delirous now she has realised what I am saying about it being her last week. I have told the nursery staff not to take it personally!!
I'm off down to my head office tomorrow, back Weds, which I could do without, but it always makes the week go much faster! My AG DT piece is all ready, I have been a good girl this week and got myself organised!

Here are my last two layouts, one from Craft Den class last week and another I did at home. BTW, is anyone having the same problem as I am having, where blogger is putting great big gaps between may paragraphs? It takes me ages to delete them all out and even then sometimes it puts them back in when I have posted! So annoying, grr.


Emma and Granny down in Norwich a few Christmases ago. I thought the photo was so sweet with these Bo Bunny papers. I have added a Tim tattered die cut flower, which is alternative layers of pale blue fabric and blue card, edged with versa magic Pumpkin Spice ink. I have kept the detail simple with some bling, cherry blossom flowers and ribbon. The butterfly punch is Martha Stewart and everything from Craft Den, except the cherry blossoms from stash.


The next one is a continuing attempt to use up old stash! I've had these K&Co papers forever and never found the right photo. Although I love them, the papers are almost too bright to do anything with, but I thought these piccies looked well. I have hidden a journal tag behind the scalloped just detailing what she is doing and when the photos were taken. I am being shamed into putting more journaling in my layouts by Lynne! She's right of course, Emma will want to know about the photos when she is older and see my handwriting when I have left her all these scrapbooks one day!! The glitter flower is Prima, an impulse buy from QVC and this is the first thing I have found that they go on so far! I have chopped up some lace border for leaves and added some bling branches. The dragonfly I have made out of metal using a Woodware stamp and embossing tools. I coloured it with copics, which didn't work so well, but it's for my album so who cares!

Remember, the next Anything Goes Challenge is launched tomorrow. Click here to join in with us! Don't forget its our last week of the DT member call as well!
K x

The last week....

Emma has her very last week at nursery next week before she starts school on 6th September. I can't believe it. Four and a half years almost she has been going, full time, bless her, since she was 6 months old. I will bawl like a baby next week! Those lovely nursery staff have been such a big part of hers and our lives - oh, why do they have to grow up?!
I have made a mini book thank you card to give to them next week. You see us crafters don't just buy a thank you card, or even make one, no we make a mini book!!! How's that for showing off, lol!
Lots of piccies I am afraid, particularly since I don't really want to give it away! I might have to make another one just for me.

The whole book

First Page - just look at that face!!
First Day
Little Ladybirds - baby class

Busy Bees - toddlers class

Having fun and playing

Careful Caterpillars - pre-school class, and Good-Bye, sniff!

Hope you like and have a lovely weekend, K x

Poppy is in charge...

Well I did get over the shock of the BIG vet bill, only to pay out another £90 today for annual boosters and worming and more special food for George's 'delicate tum'. Poppy drew blood from me three times while I was trying to drag her out from under the futon in the attic (she slipped past me and under so fast I thought at first that it was my fringe that had moved in front of my eyes) and then again at the vets whilst she was being wrapped in a towel to have her worming tablet. Whirling Dervish comes to mind... The vet commented that she was quite feisty...understatement. I was practically lying across the vet's table to hold her down, wrapped in a stripy towel (she was, not me), at 9.30 in the morning. Who would have thought that someone that weighs 4.5 Kilo and is the size of a teddy bear could be so strong! My mum once had a lovely cat called Tiger, who was of a slightly grumpy nature and you had to wrap him in a towel and sit on him just to change his flea collar and then actually jump onto the kitchen top when you let him go, as he went off like a Tasmanian Devil, to make sure that he didn't get your legs! Poppy is heading that way! George just sat still and accepted his fate, sweet boy!! Poppy came and sat on my arms later while I was working, all sweetness and light and back to normal as the lovely, loving cat I know! It is such a good job that I really, really love them!

Anyhoo, here are the last few layouts I have completed, not very many lately, I had Emma on my own all last weekend and most of my free evening time was spent in creating a mini 'Thank You' book to give to nursery. Now I have done it I want to keep it! I'll post it later when I have taken all the photos.

Last week we did a LO at Craft Den using some lovely floral and butterfly papers. I didn't see who they were by which is not like me. Most likely they are Bo Bunny or Prima, I'll have to check tomorrow. You can see that I have smothered the flowers with stickles. Here is Emma chasing bubbles in the cottage garden during our holiday to Scotland in May.
The next LO I did a while back and it's taken me ages to photograph it. I used Prima papers and cut out a frame which is raised on foam pads

The butterflies are cut from a coordinating paper and the flowers are from the Tim Holtz tattered florals die. I've added stickles n ribbon.

I joined Slimming World two weeks ago - I have been before a couple of years ago and was doing OK, but kind of went off track when my friend Caroline died, and just never bothered with it again. Of course, I have piled on even more since, and although I have been told it doesn't show by a few people (they are being extremely kind), I was quickly reaching the stage that my full term pregnancy weight was over the horizon , minus the baby!! I used to be the skinny one in size 8 dresses, how things have changed! I didn't have a great week this week, but I have lost 3lb so far over two weeks so I am on my way! A few of my Craft Den friends joined a while back and are making the 1.5-2 stone marker at the moment, which is fantastic and they look great. I think I need a photo of the thin me on the kitchen cupboard door to spur me on! Anyway as part of my motivation I have added a weight loss ticker to my blog. It might help me anyway!

I won't be craft stash shopping for a while......

...... George's vet bill was £478. Wowzer!! I will have to get some crafting done this week to help get me over the shock!

I have made a few cards this week with stamps I bought recently from *whisper* QVC. I dont really buy off them often as they are expensive and when I do see something nice I wish I could buy just one or two - who needs 20 or 30 sheets of the same thing! Anyhoo, I thought that these stamps were lovely and being large, even I could colour them in. lol. I have used 7gypsies and echo park papers and a lovely new frame nestie. I've kept the cards quite simple. Hope you like K x

Scrapbook Mojo was back for a while!

Hiya, I had had a bit of a scrapbook mojo moment last week and made a few layouts using up stash!!! My idea is to start making room by using up some of my rather large stash collection, but it's only just dawning on me that I then have to find room for what I have made, LOL!

Here is Emma sitting on her daddy's shoulders during a lovely walk on holiday in Scotland in May. You can see how blisteringly hot it was that day! I have almost used up the Basic Grey Wisteria papers which I also used on my Anything Goes DT card yesterday and added some pom pom ribbon, flowers punched with tattered flowers die, Marianne Design florishes, buttons, pearly wedding spray flowers and some pearlised sequin waste. I have also used a lovely piece of hideously pricey lace along the bottom. SB pages only that one, lol! I have stamped a flourish in the corners using some new Kanban stamp sets and versa magic purple hydrangea ink and added a title from my stash. Just about everything except the lace are from Craft Den.

The other one I did is taking an idea from a LO which Lynne did at Craft Den some months ago. I didn't go to this class but I loved what she had done with the paper, which is the to-die-for Prima Madelaine collection. How gorgeous are these colours?! Love these raspberry, duck egg blue, green and cream combinations. This is Emma and daddy on the beach in Scotland again. I have cut the middle out of the paper to make a frame, and added punched flowers and some little card flourishes which I have coloured with a green and a brown versa colour ink pad. The Prima leaves were my last ones, boo hoo, they are really lovely.
I haven't got the gorgeous George back yet tonight, he is staying at the vets again and see how he is tomorrow. He started being ill on Sunday and by Tuesday morning I had already paid £200! Goodness knows how much each night at the vets is costing, I only hope it's 5 star accomodation, but I doubt it somehow!

Hope you like and have a lovely evening!

Anything Goes Challenge - Happy Birthday/Celebration!

Hello, hello, I am late in posting this fortnight's Anything Goes Challenge as usual, at least it's the same day, sometimes it's next week!

The theme this time is 'Happy Birthday or Celebration. I have gone down the celebration theme this time. I have used a LOTV wedding couple stamp, coloured with DI and some gorgeous Basic Grey Wisteria papers from Craft Den. I have also done a scrapbook LO to finish these papers which I will try to blog tomorrow, they are really, very lovely papers. To finish I have added a selection of ribbons and bling from my stash. Hope you like and have fun joining in. I am just finishing getting round the entries for 'Pick of the Bunch'. WOW thanks for so many fantastic entries! So many ideas for me to lift, lol.

I have had a bit of a stress filled day today, hence the very late blog. My 'honsome mon', George is poorly and now overnighting at the vets and I had to take an emergency afternoon off work to deal with him. I have been very worried and it's still a waiting game to see what is wrong with him, but I feel relieved that at the moment nothing obviously sinister is raising it's head. Fingers crossed :-)Me and the vet even had a laugh about how, even after he was very ill this afternoon, and I had lifted up all the food off the floor, he still tried to eat the teeny weeny little bits of cat biscuits which were spilled on the floor - he's a big lad and loves his food! As long as he still has an appetite.....

You can see in my side bar just how 'honsome' he is!! just love him!

Looking forward the your lovely entries this time at Anything Goes!!

Craft Your Days Away Birthday Challenge

Hi all, having a bit of a mojo return at the moment, so I am going with it!! I have a card for the Craft Your Days Away first birthday challenge today. I have coloured the image with prisma pencils (badly, you can see the stripes :-( ) and used up just about the last of my Basic Grey Green at Heart paper pad from Craft Den. Plenty of stickles and glossy accent in the bunny ears! I am being a very good girl and using what I already have, rather than buying more at the moment. I know, strange concept to me as well!! Having said that, I have just heard the postie at the front foor and there was a satisfying thud!! lol
Here is a LO we started at Craft Den last week. Lynne always comes up with lovely ideas to get us all started and off we go. I slightly tweaked mine and added flowers, bling, a chippie bird, coloured with brilliance ink and then crackle accents and a title from stash. We also made tags and I have hidden mine behind the photo with a little bit of journalling about Emma's face painting obsession!
Right, off to see what the lovely postie has delivered!

Scrap Our Stash - August 'Re-Do a layout'!

Hello, hello. How are you?

Over at Scrap Our Stash we have a new theme for August - Re-do a layout!

With all the new techniques, stash, styles coming out over the past few years, we all probably have a layout we would like to do differently. I actually do re-use photos sometimes and use them in another layout, not necessarily a re-do, but sometimes I just fancy using those piccies again in a different way.

I know some people don't like to re-do, so the challenge can also be to share an early layout and also a more recently completed layout, so we can see how your style (and stash!) has changed.

I loved going back to my very first scrapbook layout and re-creating in my current style. Well 4 years have certainly changed my style! My first layout was very basic, I only had one pad of cardstock and I used some free papers from a magazine, a few heart stickers and a piece of ribbon from a Christmas present, which I think is stuck down with a glue stick! But... it was my very first LO and all in all I still love it! My re-do I have done using Echo Park and American Crafts papers. I just love these kinds of colours together, they are so much fun. I have added some foiled, woven sheets underneath to mat the photo. The flower was a plain white flower, which I have painted with The Stamp Man Moonglow Starburst Stains. They are so lovely, they have built in mica and create a lovely sheen. Prima bling and assorted ribbon finish it off. I have kept the title the same. Spudling is a nickname we gave to Emma when she was little!


Come and join in, use up some stash and have fun with the challenge this month
See you later! K x