New Year, New Start

Well, that was the plan, but life got in the way as it often does with young children.

After a break from crafting of any kind for many years, I got back into it through a neighbour Louise, who got me into Scrapbooking after the birth of my daughter.  However I have never found enough time to keep upto date with all the photos I take.  I think the problem a scapper has is that once you start you see a layout in all sorts of places so you take more photos, and the more photos you take the bigger the "to do" pile gets.

Anyway, I'm waffling.  I decided that this year I would try to scrap more as I do love it and think it is a lovely way to keep memories.  I then saw a challenge on SJ Crafts blog, and decided this was the ideal way to get kick started, so here is my take on "Happy"

I know that it is usual to list the products used, but everything here is really just from my scrap box, so I couldn't say.  The challenge was Happy, and my children just love getting together with their little cousins.  We were also asked to use punches.  I don't own many punches myself, but there are a few little butterflys if you can see them, including the negative of a punch that I must have used elsewhere.

Hopefully this will be the first of many that I share.

T-shirt flowers

My daughter is a chip off the old block so to speak and just loves getting messy with glue and paint.  This was evident when we went to a Messy Play session after school one day.  All the other children managed to keep clean (even my 3 year old!) but my daughter came home with rainbow splodges on her nice white school polo shirt.  Even after a wash with Vanish it still looked like this:

I then remembered something I had pinned on Pinterest about making flowers from t-shirt material and had to give it a try - I wasn't going to let this T-shirt go to waste after only a couple of months wear!  So thank you to Elna Allen for posting.  This was actually very simple and has got me addicted.  I think there may be some brooch pins bought and stocking fillers made!

It's been a long time

Sorry for not posting recently.  At the beginning of the month I started a new job.  May not be a big deal to some, but I haven't worked sonce my daughter was born nearly 6 years ago.  It is only part-time but it has taken a while to get into the new routine, so crafting has unfortunately taken a back seat.

For the last couple of years I have had big plans to make personal Christmas presents for everyone, and then run out of time.  As such I have made a start this year, and have a couple on the go and a couple in the planning stage, so over the next couple of months I may not be able to show much as I do not want to spoil the surprise for anyone.  Hopefully I will be back on here soon with some more updates. 

Hope everyone has a fab Halloween weekend!

Butterflys

I go to a regular crop run by Louise.  Every now and then she runs an all day crop, where she gives away all sorts of goodies.  At the last one I won myself a 12"x12" deep picture frame.  As we had just started to redecorate our bedroom I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.  I had seen a picture in the ideas gallery at Hobbycraft and thought it a really pretty but simple idea.  Now the picture frame I had was an untreated pine frame which really didn't go in our new bedroom, but we had plenty of paint left over from our feature wall, so this was used to paint the frame to fit into our colour scheme.  I then spent an evening punching and gluing little butterflys.

Sorry about the angle but I kept getting a reflection from the window in the glass.  And here is a close up:

We are quite happy from the result and it didn't actually cost me a penny as I was given the frame, used paper scraps from my scrapbooking and paint from our bedroom wall! - Bargin ;)

Learn Something New Everyday

Starting yesterday and all through September Shimelle Laine is running a class called Learn Something New Everyday. Today I have learnt to be grateful for having 2 happy healthy children.  An old school friend of mine was on Channel 5 news today talking about her daughter (who is a similar age to mine) who has been very sick and been through more than any 5 year old should have to.  I had tears in my eyes, just makes you feel so lucky.

The kids go back to school next week, so hopefully I will be able to tick of some of my list of projects rather than the papier mache and card making I have been doing with the kids.

Favourite T-shirt

This was a favourite T-shirt of both my son and myself.  I thought it made him look really cute, and everytime it went back in the drawer he pulled it out again.  So it was a sad time when we deceided that really he had grown to big for it and it was time to pass it on.  Now most of my childrens clothes which I would consider as still wearable will go to friends or the charity bag, but I didn't really want to part with this one.  Then I remembered seeing somewhere, t-shirts being turned into cushions.  Now I am really sorry to that person but I can't find it anywhere, but had a go. 

I machine sewed the bottom and arm holes and then filled with stuffing,  I then stiched around the neckline.  My son was impressed and it now sits proudly in his bedroom.

Felt Flowers

I will confess that I am a bit of a craft magazine addict.  There are always so many lovely things to inspire.  A couple of days ago issue 3 of Mollie Makes dropped through my letterbox.  The free gift was a kit to make felt flower rings.  Now whilst these are very beautiful, they are not really the kind of thing I would normally wear.  However I was very excited about how easy they looked so attempted to make one of the flowers and then attached it to a hairclip for my daughter to wear.

I'm fairly pleased with the result and think I will be spending an evening infront of the TV making a couple more.  I wonder if  her friend would like them for her birthday present.