Hello Honey!

Hello again,Im back already!

I have a confession...

I am a tag freak. I love tags. I love making them,I love getting them and I especially love looking at ones other people make. Today's blog is for a tag I have just finished,using the super duper cute Paper Smooches Loopy Leaf Die,which as soon as it arrived,I had an almost uncontrollable urge to use it with felt. I cuts it beautifully. I cut so many little green fronds,the craft room floor looks like a forest! They are so clean and pleasing. So anyway,I found a use for two of them (just another 3488 to go! ;-) )I put them on a simple white cardstock tag,originally with the idea of using them in a sort of Spring bouquet,but then I saw my Lawn Fawn Dewey Decimal petite pad peeping out under the piles of leaves I had just cut,and it was open on the honeycomb page. It looked so perfect it gave me a new idea. I used the gorgeous versatile new Paper Smooches Flag Tags set to create a fish tail flag and cut it out and stamped the cute stitching around the inside (what a great idea that is! Love Paper Smooches),set the leaves on the fish tail and coloured in the hive from beautiful Bee Mine set,and put it on pop dots. Stamped a little heart in the set,and my sentiment. I coloured the big bee and fussy cut her out. She looked too plain just on the card so I pinked off some burlap (another obsession of mine) and mounted her onto that. I cut a teeny tiny bit of tulle for her wings and glued the edge on,so that they flap. Then just added a little of the ever useful Lawn Fawn Triple Twine set in mustard. Voila!

Hope you like it!

Lou x

I Whaley like you :-)

Ahoy there!

Well,snow isn't quite what I was expecting this close to Spring :-/ 

Today's card is made with one of my favourite sets from my favourite companies,although with this weather,maybe I should have used the penguin instead of the whale!

 I have some new Washi tape and immediately thought of this set I had lurking and started thinking nautical thoughts.

I started by wrapping three sets of Washi,in the colours I wanted to stamp the card in,keeping in nautical with blues and reds,and a bit of mustard (can't beat a bit of mustard ;-)) Then,I used the awesomely useful rounded rectangle stacker dies to cut out a frame,stamping the Bitty Buddies frame onto it (it fits pretty much perfectly-score!) I used the Avery Elle Fanfare set to make some waves for the whale,and fussy cut them. I stamped the gorgeous little whale and his water jet onto a piece of card,used the smallest rounded rectangle die for my sentiment and added another heart underneath. I used Stickles on the hearts,then when they were dry,put a bit of Glossy Accents to make the super shiny. After framing the whale and adding the sentiment,I put pop dots on the frame to make it stand out from the Washi background and added two little rope bows from the Lawn FawnTriple Twine set which complimented and completed the look. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Bitty Buddy set,it's so versatile and not just for Valentines Day. It has matching dies too (always a bonus). 

I hope you like it,it was made with a very special person in mind  :-)

Freakshow Junk Journal (warning-veeeeery long post!)

Helloooo!

Look at this-I'm back again just DAYS after my last posting! ;-)

Ok,so this post will have a LOT of photos,so you may want to grab a cup of something hot and sit down...or just skip it entirely. 

I took part in a Junk Journal Swap over at Your Paper Pantry,and the theme was circus/sideshow freaks,anything weird and wonderful along those lines. What a theme! I was super excited to do it,and couldn't wait to get started. Boo had a vintage book about a circus pony that she had never liked,for some reason,and I kept thinking how perfect it would be as I started planning the journal. So I decided NOT to tell Boo I was going to 'upcycle' her detested book and managed to remove it without detection,because in true child style,we must NEVER EVER NEVER throw anything out,even if it isn't liked much. Just in case. (Oh dear,she's a hoarder like her Mama:-/) This meme very much applies in our household...

Yup. That about sums it up! Anyway,so I dissected this book and used its covers for my journal covers,and some of the pages that had particular relevance. The rest are bits from the awesome Graphics Fairy,vintage ephemera and other bits and bobs. Here it is,all finished

(Inside the front are two mini pull-outs)

Now are the other pages in order,hope you like a bit of weird,because these certainly are!

Whew! There were a few more pages,but I spared you ;-) I bound it using the ball chain method,so it can lay flat when it is open,and it ended up super chunky so I'm glad I chose the ball chain over rings-I don't think they could have handled it.
Anyway,I hope you liked peeping through it-I LOVED doing it so so much-right up my alley :-)
Toodle-pip for now!
xxx

Aaaaaannd I'm back!

Whew! What a lot to happen over the last few months. Moving is never easy or straightforward but we have now reached a sort of equilibrium and routine around the remaining boxes.

What have you missed make wise? Quite a bit really! I can't seem to go a single day without skulking up to my craft room to have a tinker,swiftly followed by the children :-/ And I can't seem to pass up the challenge of a swap,so I usually sign up for far too many,and then I was chosen to be a part of a design team with a weekly blog post. It is a wonder we haven't all starved and the house lays dusty and forgotten while I remain a hive of activity up in my eerie! I feel a photo montage moment is called for,starting with the annoying glitch way back with the Halloween bits I had been feverishly working on. So,without further ado and blabbering on,here is what I have been up to over the last few months....

HALLOWEEN

Yup,its THOSE hands! These were for a stickpin swap...

The tags for the bags....

One of the stickpins (I should have used longer pins-these babies just kept on growing down the shaft!)

The whole package :-) I hope customs liked them,hehehe

A stamped tag swap

AUTUMN  MAIL-ART SWAP

Front....
using Autumn Nights Glimmer Mist,the leaves are from a PTI set,the moon is a print from Retro Art Cafe and the old lady on a goose stamp is a random from a grab bag-I would love to know what set she is from!

And backs...
Using TCW Birch mask,Tim H Falling Leaves and feathers from a Stampendous set.

CHRISTMAS TAGS

A couple of Christmas tags for various family members...

These tags are made using the cutest Molly Blooms stamp EVER!

POSTCARD SWAP...

MINI ALBUM SWAP
These are my pages for a chunky mini album page swap(we had to do 9 pages)....I do not want to cut another snowflake for at least 8 months! ;-)

I made my first ever junk journal for a swap too (woah,that thing took OVER!) I will do a separate post for that,as there are loads of pages!
And then I was chosen to be a part of a Design Team over at Make The Day Special
which was a dream come true! I had been shopping there for a loooong time,saw the DT call and entered. And in a strange twist of fate,Emily the owner,asked me to stay on until the shop moved ownership in March,which I gladly accepted,and now..... I am the new owner! Whoop whoop! :-D 
So thats me all up to date. Big changes,lots of happy dances and great new beginnings :-)