Catch up day

Well as I went shopping yesterday I've got to use today to catch up with everything I didn't do, as well as what I wanted to do today. So safe to say i have a to do list as long as my arm. lol. Luckily kids are in good moods today and happy to dance to the wiggles so thats them entertained.
Well managed to get 3 los done last night. Not to sure on the first one, looked different in my head. used a plainer pp and as the kids are playign with stamps in the image I used stamps to decorate it. Plan to add colour at a later stage.

Pleased with this one. We went to Milton keynes last year to see santa but these were the only photos I was able to get as there were strict 'no photography' everywhere.

This is one I did for a challende on the Twilight addicts social group. The rules were:
use a number in the title - done
Use Hidden - or no - journalling - hidden on the back
One main colour (there can be others too.. but one main)- purple
a LO from one of your faves.- done, sophies pocket by shylier

This is the first lo Ive done where I've used two photos from different times. I'll scrap the one of the girls first christmas seperatly at a later date but I wanted this to show how much they had grown up over the year, but were still good friends. :)
Well better get on and carry on with housework. Hope everyones having a good day!

Shopping day!!!

Well the day started out dull. Was planning to do some cleaning, ironing and maybe some crafting. Then my mum rang and said she was going to dunhelms and did I want to come! Well I was out the door like a shot. lol. I was plannign on getting some craft bits and mum wanted some curtains. Well I came home £98 lighter and mum £179 lighter but with no curtains or craft stuff. lol.
I was very restrained and bought things we needed! Was very impressed with myself. I got a new kettle, ironing board, some lovley soft towels, bathmat, tins for when I bake cakes and a few other bits. I also got some nice new clothes out of the next warehouse nearby. :) Was gutted though as there was a really nice top, one of the ones that ties under your bust then flows out, however though there was a zip down the side it was sown (however you spell that) together at the top, so the zip did nothing and there was no way it was going over my boobs, so back it went!
Mum on the other hand got the BEST rug I've ever seen! Its a deep red colour, really soft and kinda mettalic so when you run your hand across it it changes colour. It was reduced from £199 to £139 so would have been rude not to get it! lol.
Well no pics today as tired, but will take some of new los and shopping bargains tomorrow to share. :) Night all!

Birthday day!

Well today is hubbys birthday. It did NOT start well. Cameron was playing with his trains on the stairs and Annies hook got caught, he pulled it and ripped the carpet! Then I took my fave bedspread out the wash and found its got weird marks on it like bleach :( Then I burnt the cake!!!!! But ended well. I made another cake and a yummy dinner (chicken and mushroom pie, mash, roast potatos and veg) so everyones now well fed and lying about. This is caitlin enjoying the cake. I made chocolate with chocolate fudge icing.

Also made hubby a birthday card. Scraplifted from this months sarahs cards dt leaflet as im rubbish at cards. lol

Hoping kids will go bed soon and can relax as Im SO tired after today!!!

Market day

We havent been to the market at Stamford for AGES! We used to go every week but then started savign for the car. But now we have it, off we go again! I love Stamford, its got great little shops, pretty streets and a nice area to have a picnic and feed the ducks. :) We planned to take a picnic but thoguht it would be cheaper to get some chips. Oh we were wrong! Ended up going to a little cafe and spent £25. Was nice though. lol. Got a load of fruit and veg, cakes, magazines and books form the charity shops. So came home a happy bunny. kids had a great time too. Heres Caitlin relaxing in the sun.

A rare photo of daddy and kids. Cant wait to scrap this one. :)

So came home and had a nice relaxing afternoon in the garden with yummy cakes. :) Also found a brill little shop I could spend a fortune in! lots of little household things in cute colours and shaped like cupcakes and all that. lol. Going to buy a couple of bits next time we go. :)
Anyway, here are some los I did last night. This is when the kids first saw our tree at xmas this year.

This is one of Caitlin after she fell asleep under the christmas tree last year. It will be called 'the best gift' once I find a G. lol

Now for those of you who know me, you'll know my fave shop is Sarahs cards. As well as the other bits I buy Ive been a subscriber to their kits for over a year and LOVE them. However this month with saving and so many birthdays I didn't think I'd be able to afford it so canceled it. But with getting such a good trade in for our old car I had enough for a little spend. ;) Was thrilled too as ordered it late yesterday, and it came this morning! So this is what I got.
Obviously the first thing in my basket was this months kit. :) So glad I got it as its so nice! Even Mark loves the papers and hes not normally fond of anything. lol.

I've also got a thing for punches at the moment. I never used to bother with them but got a few at the retreat last year andnow I'm hooked. :) So got this one

And this one. :)

Currently makign a shopping list for hubby for my birthday as lots more punches I want!!

Boring day

Afternoon all! Had a very boring morning working out money for the next few weeks. Trying to bring bills down as much as possible so been ringing around. I always seem to get people that don't know what they're talking about however. Drives me mad!! Anyway, did another couple of los last night so thought I'd show them first. :)

This is Cameron fast asleep on our first night in disneyland a couple of years ago. Think he fell asleep the second his head hit the pillow.

A rare set of photos of the kids working together without fighting! this was for another challenge. The rules were:
Scrap something that makes you happy = the kids. :)
Use 3 photographs and our sketch = done
Use ribbon = done
Use something floral = done
:) Going to hopefully have a go at some more later. See how quickly I get the ironing done!

WOYWW

Whats on your workdesk Wednesday. I'd love to know how this started, lol. Always ment to do it but usually dont' knwo what day it is so always forgot. So this is my 'workdesk' today. its not normally this bad but been working on a few different projects so things are everywhere!

So whats on my workdesk right now is pretty much everything. lol. What I'm specifically working with however (in front of the computer) is a very old Sarahs cards kit from last year. I'm currently trying to work through my kits as I've got SO much stash so I'm pulling one out, using it all then pulling another out. Doing well so far. :)

Have to say these photos shocked me into a tidy up. lol
Here are some los I did today.

This is for a challenge over on the Sarahs cards blog. The idea was to use paint in a lo. Now I admit I'm one of those who owns loads of different paints, and will paint chipboard from time to time but never really do much else. So decided to do some reserch and use as many paint techniques I could fit on. :) So included the following:
Large paint dabbing - green on the background, like caitlins painting in the picture
Detail painting - Painted the center of the flowers hot pink
Paint stamping - Used bubble wrap and flower stamps behind the photo, and florish stamps on the letters (which I LOVED!)
Painting chipboard - painted the letters
Edging - used black paint around the edge of the photo and the flower paper.
Now there were more I found but this was all I could stick in. but I'm really pleased with how this challenge took me out of my comfort zone and made me try some new techniques. :)

This is a lo I did for a challenge on UKS. Im really getting into challenges latly as I was in a bit of a rut scrapping. The rules for this were to:
Use something large - the M
Use something other than 12x12 - used diecut background
use bright colours - the purples and greens are pretty bright.
Done more los but will post them tomorrow as getting dark now. Just had a nice pottering about day today. Think kids were pleased to be indoors as been pretty active latly. Back to busy days tomorrow though!

nursery day

Well its Tuesday, so kids in nursery and i have a moment to breathe. lol. Had fun few days in the sun. :) Sunday (aptly named!) we went to our usual car boot sale then had a picnic in the park next door. My mum and dad came with my neice evie too so the kids had a great time playing. Here is Evie and Caitlin banging on the table 'making music' cameron wasnt impressed and yelled at them to shhh. lol.

caitlin enjoying the sun in the sand pit

Evie

Cameron

A photo of my Mum , Dad and Evie. :)

So that was sunday, yesterday I was babysitting evie and teh sun was still bright so out came the paddling pool!! Many basins of water later the kids were having a great time and I was sunning myself and reading a book. Bliss. :)

Busy few days. :)

Well as title says its been a busy few days! Went to the fair thursday, my dads 60th dinner friday, then today!.....Ill tell you in a moment. ;)
As I said we went to the fair on friday. the kids had a great time and there were a few rides they could go on.
Their fave was a bouncy castle slide. Which was a bargain really as was supposed to be £1 for 5 turns. But because they were so quiet the lady let them play untill they lost intrest.

There was also a huge bouncy castle which they both wanted to go on. I didnt like the look of it as there were lots of older kids but gave in. Well guess what, I was right. Cameron managed to headbut another kid, blood everywhere. I stay calm, clean it up, lots of cuddles etc. What does cameron say, 'get off mummy! I want to go back on!' The kid was covered in blood! My mum says I was the same. lol.

This was one of the quieter rides.

While there we met up with my Mum and dad, and once the fair was over we went to a nearby park. Here there was a huge swing thing which was really funny as my dad went way too fast for my mums liking and she was screaming the place down!
Now for today. Well those of you who a followers would know my car is a heap of rubbish. Wrong engine, bad wiring, the lot. I was very much ripped off. Well today I bought a new car!!!!! And to make it even better we got much more on the trade in than we expected so we have spare cash!! Heres a pic of my new little car. :)

Its much smaller than our old one (renult megane) but I wanted a smaller run about as we didnt need all the space. So all up to date now. :) Going to relax in the garden tonight I think. Hope everyones enjoying the sun!

Decorated flowers

A little later than planed due to being poorly, here is my post about decorating the flowers. Now there are loads of ways, inks, paints, glimmer mists, stickles etc. Here i've used different papers and different stickles and glimmer mists. I have a thing for stickles and use them on everything, lol. I love how the different types give different effects. Which I'll show here
The flower on the left is a patterned paper with Glitz stickles. This stickles has lots of different colours in the glue which makes its a bit more interesting than the other stickles. :)
The flower on the right is plain pink with a matching colour original stickles. In this case cotton candy.

As well as using different decorations, using different papers gives different effects. On the left is a heavily patterned paper. On the right is a plain paper flower which has been decorated with gold glimmer mist.This gives it sparkle and pattern, but doesn't show up great in photos. lol.

Here is another example of different paper. On the right is a more lighter patterned paper. On the left is the same paper but with distress stickles. Distress stickles has large chucks of glitter than normal, so doesn't really sparkle but gives more an effect of crushed coloured glass. Great for males cards/layouts.

Another example of different paper on the left. On the right Ive used a different type of paper for each layer, Giving a new effect.

Last photo. On the left is a plain paper flower. Nice and simple. On the right is decorated with stickles icicle. Which is a clear silver stickles.

So as you can see theres lots you can do with them to make them look different. You can use them for loads of things too. Cards, layouts, they're particularly good for altered items. I stuck some to a headband once which looked very cute until my daughter stole it! lol

How to make flowers.

Afternoon everyone. Well as promised here is a tutorial how to make some flowers. :) Now this is the first time I've tried to do anything like this so be kind, lol. Took as many photos as possible to illustrate the point. Hope its helpful!
Well first thing is the equipment you will need. First a 6 petal flower punch/die/template to cut out, some form of liquid glue (glossy accents works great) some scissors, a toothpick or pricking tool, and some paper. Now with the paper its best to use a good weight double sided paper. Flimsy papers dont hold their shape very well and double sided papers look better, lol. For this I'm only using one sided so I can show where the folds would be.

Ok, so step one is to punch or cut out 3 flowers. Then fold each of them across the lines shown below. No need to draw anything this is just to make it easier to see the folds. :)

Ok, from flower number one make a small cut to the middle between two petals. Only cut to the middle where the folds meet dont cut it in half.
On flower two cut out one petal as shown.
On flower three cut out two petals together as shown.
Keep the petals you've cut out we'll use these later.

On each flower, put a little glue onto one of the petals beside the cut/gap where you've cut petals out (call this petal A). Then glue the petal on the other side of the cut/gap to Petal A. So you should now have 2 petals on top of each other looking like one. This will result in 3 flowers as below. If you look closely at flowers 2 and 3 you can see where I've glued them.

Cut a small hole at the bottom of each flower.

Take your pricking tool or toothpick, and carefully curve the tops of the petals around it. Try and make quite a tight curl (but not a roll) as this will look better later.

Your flowers should now look like this.

Ok now this is hard to explain just through text, but I'll give it a shot! Take the two petals cut out earlier and your pricking tool. Curl the tops of the petals as done on the previous flowers. Now, put your pricking tool on the side of one of the petals and curl it in towards the middle. Do the same to the other side. Almost like trying to make it into a loveheart shape. Once you'v done this hold it at the bottom like a cone and just use your fingers to tease the curls at the top so it looks like below. (yes this is a different paper but the pink didnt really show up at all on closeup) This is now flower 4

Almost there! Put some glue around the base of flower two. (the 4 petal one) and put it inside flower one (5 petals) The easiest way to do it now is to hold it together and put some glue inside the middle and put flower 3 (3 petals) inside. turn them around untill you are happy with the position of the petals. Put a little more glue inside and push flower 4 in. You will probably need to use a little force here to push it through the hole at the bottom but thats fine. Some of this flower will poke out the bottom creating a little stick. DONT cut this off yet. Its really handy if you plan to decoate the flower later. Ok, it should now look like this.

Thake the single petal you cut out at the beginning and curl it around your pricking tool making a little tube.

Push this into the middle of your flower. And done!

Hope these are easy to follow. I've tried to be as clear as I can. You can now decorate as you wish, or just cut the 'stick' off to make a flat base and stick to anything you want. You can make with lots of different papers

And can also decorate in lots of ways. Which I will show in my next post later on. :) Thanks for reading. if you do follow this I'd lov to see what you come up with. :)

Car boot day. :)

Well been up since 5am today! But had a little nap so brain feels less like mush. But will get to that bit in a min :)
First thing to show you is a LO i forgot to upload the other day.

Story behind this is that when Caitlin was younger she had a sippy cup with her name on. however she wanted a mug like Cameron had. I told her she was too small for the mug so was amazed when I found this one day! She'd took the lip from her cup and stuck it on top of the mug. lol. Shes just too clever sometimes.

This next picture I just had to share, lol. When it comes to Caitlin the apple didnt fall far from the tree. she LOVES anything creative. Stamping, drawing, anything. Each morning she comes into our room with her little easel and pencils and draws a picture. gives us a few more moments peace. lol. Howerver this is what greeted me the other morning. She had somehow dragged the box of bits we keep for cutting and sticking from the back of the wardrobe, and was having a great time rearranging them of my bedroom floor. Little scrapper in the making. :)

Well, as I mentioned this morning me and hubby did a car boot sale. We used to run a stall each week before the kids were born selling retro computer games so it's always nice to do another one together. So cue the 5am start, standing in the freezing cold while trying to set up and answer the usual round of questions 'no I don't have any gold, No I won't take 50p for an item marked £5' and so on. But it was fun, and was nice to walk around without worrying about the kids getting bored or the countless dogs who try to jump into caitlins buggy. In the end we made about £80, £40 of which we spent. lol. Only £20 was there though to be fair, £5 was entry and £15 was hot dogs while there and milk and bits on way home. Was thrilled with what we got. :) So as usual had to share my bargains. lol. This is a photo of everything. As you can see quite a bit for £20!

In this picture is a lamp with daylight bulb (yey, no more scrapping in the corner in the dark!) some Thomas toys, a fairy outfit for Caitlin and a little monkey I thought was cute. :)

This is barney and friends. lol> now as I type this Barney has been going for about 3 hours no non-stop. Caitlin loves him! He is really good, if you cover his eyes he plays peekaboo, sings songs, you can poke his tummy and he giggles. Very interactive. great for £1! More Thomas toys and some dragonball Z toys mark picked up. The teeny pile of books and dvds are for me. lol. I always like to get some books as I don't often read a book twice so hate paying full price then giving them away. really into James patterson at the moment so got a few of his. Also got 'my big fat greek wedding' and 'the devil wears prada' on dvd. I' going through a films phase at the moment, watching a girly film while scrapping so these are ideal. :) Now the great big thing in the corner...anybody know what this is? lol. I know its a transformer but hubby doesnt have a clue what one. Cost him 20p but he was very excited as its a couple of little ones and they combine to make a great big one but he doesnt recognise any.

Also got Cameron a Thomas poncho type towel. When we went to Butlins he HATED the swimming pool. Which is kinda our fault as we never take him normally. So hope to start again now its summer and thought this would be a good bribe. lol
Now this is the bargain of the day! For his birthday Cameron got some of the Thomas take along range (anybody else sick of Thomas yet?) With this you get die cast Thomas trains. Now there are literally hundreds of these and of course he NEEDS all of them. each one costing between £5 and £9. I found a bag of them, along with other Thomas bits, for £5!! All are new and some talk and do other bits. Worked out they were 20p each! Bargain!!!!!

Ok enough car boot now. lol. Plannign to watch a dvd tonight and make some more flowers for a swap I'm in on UKS. Learned how to make really pretty Prima like flowers when on the SC retreat so been doing those. Will try and take photos and do a tutorial tomorrow. :) Hope everyones well and had a great weekend!