Morning all, I hope you're well,
I'm feeling a bit better today but DH has it now. DD was out at a sleep over so I the whole of the table to my self I managed to take over the kitchen to, the LO has took me three days off and on to finish. I messed up a bit when I as sticking bits down and stuck the top bit on the bottom but I managed to save it in the end.

Well I have a ton of ironing to do today and the kids are back at school tomorrow, so I better go and get on with things

Take care all and thanks for looking.

Morning all, I hope you are well,

I am not feeling to good, I have had a cold for a few days but had tried not to let it bother me but now it has caught up with me, I have a ton of baking to do today as well, and food shopping

I started to scrap last night but nothing would fit so I left it and had an earlyish night(still coudnt sleep though) after having a good week I had a bump and felt down a bit but I'm trying to get back on track.

I had an idea to do a doodle page but it ended up as a complete disaster luckily I didn't stick the photos down (they were used on yesterdays LO ) but there were a few good little doodles on there so I was thinking of doing the doodles like I do most of my stamping on little panels, the octopus is the first one, I have done now I have to figure out what photos to use it on a LO there is a cat panel somewhere but DD is colouring it in.
That all from me today, I am planning on doing another hybrid LO I'm not sure we will see how it goes

Take care and thanks for looking.

Morning all,
I have not been up to much usual stuff, DD is revising, DS is sucked in to his computer he is doing clan stuff, he runs a clan its a sort of collective of computer game junkies of all ages who join forces to dominate other clans in battles in the realms of computer games. DH will no doubt be tinkering with computer parts and calling me every two minutes when he needs help as he still (and never will) have full use of his arm.

The Lo I have put up is one using buttons is part of a challenge on Carolinez craftsz forumz, I seem to be using a lot of my old hoarded stash recently, the paper I used was from a lucky dip selection I bought ages ago, I quite liked the lucky dip idea as there were some lovely papers there that I would never have bought my self but were fun to use the down side is there is always a few sheets that I just cant bring myself to use ( like spotty paper).For the scallops I traced round a piece of scalloped paper and then cut out with a craft knife, it could be done by drawing round a penny. I seem to have used a lot of buttons recently I am running out of nice ones I am hoping to strike lucky like I did last year and find some on the junk stall in our town center, its not really a junk stall its a kiosk that can be rented out buy organizations to raise money. I don't get down town much but I always have a nosey around to see if they have any scrap worthy bits.


The LO is in celebration of DDs love of reading, the other day she proclaimed she would die without books, that was after a discussion about books being more gory that films as in childrens books they sleigh each other and rip rib cages open and things like that but if it was to be made in to a film then the rating would be an 18, on that revelation I said they should tell children that to encourage them to read but then you would get someone wanting to ban books. At that then ensued another conversation on how she would write her own books and then be imprisoned with other authors for writing and then the uprising and well I hope you get the drift the point is she loves to read.

Here are two more little owls DS has claimed the first one so I get one of these and the other is a little gift for my mum, who has spent a couple of weeks de cluttering her front room so I am sending her some new clutter to go in it. I have done the eyes differently on these two although I think they are beginning to look a bit menacing, the penguin is slowly wining me over.

Take care and thanks for looking.

Hi all, I hope you are well

DS's hospital appointment went well, we where told they can move the tooth from out of his pallet he has to loose one tooth to make way for it but its worth it as the tooth to be moved is his canine and it will make him more symmetrical, I think he will miss having just one canine as his party trick is to do this sort of smile which exposes the one canine making him look like a troll, a family resemblance he gets from his dads side of the family.LOL

Today I have to normal house work to do although I have already done tones so later I may get to play, though I'm not sure what I'm up to. I have joined a swap that will be featured in the coming weeks on a spoonful of sprinkles so I need to get my thinking cap on for that and scout out what embellishments I need to get.

I made this BIA laced boxed as a gift for my mum I found the lacing a bit fiddly, I am making an owl to go in it and a few other bits and pieces, I made a cloth box for my MIL for mothers day(I didn't get time to photograph it ) and it took less time to make than the BIA box. I was thinking that as fathers day is not far of the box made with bear mats would be a good gift box. I probably wont make one as DH and my Dad as they are not big drinkers but I did see some bear mats on ebay with football teams on them.

Take care and thanks for looking.

Morning all,
I started a BIA laced box last night and what a pain it was to lace I have a few finishing touches to add then I will share. DS has a hospital appointment today just to see what they are going to do about the tooth they exposed in the pallet of is mouth, they intend to pull it back to where it should be with a brace. DD has karate to so busy day for us all one good thing is as DD and her friend rebuilt the karate web page they are getting a few lessons for free.
This LO was just a fun thing, random was the aim and it is different to what I usually do, but I enjoyed it, it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, I have a problem with wonky but I just let it go and it was fine(in the end). The photos are from when the children helped use cut back the conifers in the back garden, now they are both teenagers they are not so keen to help in the garden I was wondering weather all teenagers develop an intolerance to sun light.

Take care and thanks for looking.

Hi all. How are you?

DH was out yesterdays taking his mum and sister to visit relatives in Leeds and Pontifract. So it meant I could play all day(in between doing washing and stuff) I made this little tri frame thing inspired by a trypich on Sarah's blog and my favorite artist Patric Woodroffe ( who has also made and painted some similar screens) I was doing a sketch somewhere in between the two which sidetracked to the idea for the frame.

The frame was easy enough took a bit of time to cut the arches and doors but it was sizing the photos in photo shop that took ages as I asked it very nicely to resize the three photos to a set size and it just did what it wanted in the end I did get round it using reverse psychology and telling it didn't actually want photos four inches wide, that worked wonders but it seem to take up so much time.
And here is Mr Penguin with his new eyes, I decided to leave his beak as I think it's cute being a bit crooked.

Take care all and thanks for looking.

Hi all I hope you are well,

I have not been up to much today food shopping more washing and one LO, I think I was burnt out from yesterday, Terrie( who has a fantastic blog) asked how I fit so much in I have no idea, it was nice to have a really good day, one of the reasons for my not blogging was things where not good for me, but for now they are better so I will try and make the most of it while I can.

Thanks for your votes on Owl V Penguin, seeing as the penguin is way out in the lead I will have to finish him, I am not to sure where to put his eyes but I'm sure I will work it out, I put a new photo up when he is done. The little birds don't take long to make at all I hand stitched mine and it took about half an hour, if I dug the sewing machine out they would be done in a flash which is why I don't get the machine out because it would be like that star trek episode with the fluffy ball things that multiply out of control.
The LO for today is titled pudding as it is our pet name for DD, the photo is one of the ones found in the rediscovered photo album. I have said it before on this blog I am allergic to spots and also a bit intolerant to stripes to I find them quite hard to use but for two reasons I will often force my self to use them, one is get out my rut and reason two is as I often but set of collections of papers if I don't use the spots and stripes eventually they will be the only papers I have left and another reason(beginning to sound like the Monty Python Spanish inquisition sketch is this) is if I do have piles of spotty and stripy papers DH will say I have tons of papers and I shouldn't buy any more. Any way I traced round chipboard letters for the title letters and had to stop myself from edging them or doodling on them.

Take care and thanks for looking.

Hi all, I hope you are well,

Thank for all you comments by the way, it's lovely to receive feed back.

I had a busy day yesterday crafting and non crafting, on the non crafty front I emptied the trailer of my MIL garden waste into recycling bags that had been there since last year, cleaned the bathroom and got rid of the old shower curtain as it was getting manky, the bathroom looks new again, I would like to know the secret to putting silicone sealant on so it doesn't come of, last time we where the great unwashed(OK thats a lie we just couldn't have showers) for a few days so the whole lot was dry and it is lifting again. Other than that I still did the normal cook dinner shout at kids and all other normal stuff.

On the crafty front I made this Owl from this tutorial on another of the blogs I regularly visit(Check out this post to for a semi scrap related thing). There is no template but its not hard to work out my first attempt ended up as a penguin( which I didn't finish but there is a photo for you to see),my owls is a bit dumpy, I think I will end up making more of these little creatures I seem to have gone owl mad recently.

Also prompted buy Sarah on Carolinez Craftz Forumz right down right at the bottom of all posts there is a book of me thread and I have decided to take the plunge and have a go, I haven't done many me pages and the thought is quite daunting but I have started and thats the first hurdle (I hated hurdles at school by the way, something to keep in mind for my book)

Take care and thanks for looking.

Hi all I hope you are well,
Yesterday I found a photo album I though was lost, it had photos of DD when she was a baby we don't have many photos of DS as a baby we didn't have a camera then, looking a the photos it bought back tons of memories both good and bad, there is a photo of DD's first Christmas which is lovely but we where burgled just before Christmas that year and we had tons of trouble when we lived in that house it was in a really rough area, it was a shame as it was only a handful of people that ruined it for most of the residents, the whole area is now boarded up waiting for demolition. But any how it means more photos to scrap.

The LO is finished at last what a pain it was it started out with a paisly paper on it but it felt wrong so I changed that and went for SEI paper which I have had since I started scrapping properly and as I said yesterday hand cut away the background so my chosen backing card showed through but the making thing easy for myself is not an option.The titling was from die cuts I hadn't used for ages and I was thinking of offering them as a swap but once again hoarding stuff pays off. And yes we did fill and inflatable dingy with water and use it as a paddling pool for the kids it worked well and it lasted longer than any shop bought pool we had bought.

I'm not to sure what I am going to do next I have a few things in mind the canvas, another birds house and definenatly another little bird(by the way I am redoing my nani birds as the double sided tape I use has unstuck so glue it will have to be.) and then I have a ton of photos to scrap.

Take care and thanks for looking.

Morning all,
I have not been up to much a bit of house work and today I have some maintenance to do in the kitchen and more house work I am trying to forget about the ironing.

I was doing a LO last night and was really struggling with it in the end I took a different take on it but that involves tons of cutting with a craft knife so it is still not finished, I have noticed I have been using up some of my old stash recently so thats a good thing.

What am I sharing today, well it is a simple little project inspired by the printed packing tape on the left using the brown licky stick tape on the right I used stazon ink (which I seem to be using alot recently but I only have four colours two proper ones although the white is a bit clagy even if I reink it, I bought reink refills and used them on two of my old ink pads.)...
and some foam stamps I have had for ages they had not seen the light of day for ages any way they created the decoration for the hurricane lamp shown below. The tape is stuck on the out side and I have had a candle lit in side and if you stick to the safety rules of using candles it is fine but saying that we have candles mainly just for show.The stazon soaks through the tape to give it a transparency which it effective whether or not the candle is lit. I still have to find time to play with other inks and paints it could be good for other arty projects but I don't think the tape is acid free so no good for scrapping LOs then.
Tacke care and thanks for looking.

Hi all, how are you all?
I have been up earlyish for a holiday week, I have already done a bit of house work tons more to do DH let the cat on the bed and he was muddy, the cat not DH, so I have had to wash the covers.

I am catching up on blogging projects now as this Warkworth castle one in the LO I was working on last night, It is the first of a few from that visit but I doubt they will be themed with the same papers. The title was printed and had cut and some of the elements where hand sewn on.


This is the mini book I made as a prototype, I did take plastic covers of as they where almost like food bag in quality. Thanks for the comments about laminating, I was told laminating was out of the question as one resident has found a way to self harm with it, I don't think the project will get off the ground as PC and H&S seems to be getting in the way. Back to the mini book it was really thrown together for the purpose of trying out the cover idea but it is still cute any way and it also addresses the fact that I haven't put anything of my cat Gizzmo on for ages.

I have got to go now and get some more housework done.

Take care all, don't work to hard and thanks for looking.

Morning all, I hope you are well.

What have I been up to? Well I have made a mini book as a prototype for a book to take in to a special home for adults with special learning needs I suppose it wold be good for a show and tell at school so the children can pass it around and not get the pages grubby, the idea was wipe clean pages but not to big and still pretty but the page protectors I have where cheep and it looks a bit naff but then you never know how something is going to unless you try it, I will share that tomorrow, I may still just take the covers off and leave the book naked.

I intend to do a canvas after seeing this (scroll down just after the lovley stash) gorgeous one on Sarah's blog be careful you will get lost on Sarah's blog as she has so may fab projects on there I spent ages on there the other day. I was waiting for ideas to form as what to do for the canvas but I think I'm going to jump in and see what happens as just recently that has worked well for me.

This LO is of DS at Preston park butterfly world and one again he is reluctantly posing(poor thing). The swirl it ordinary chip board which had been heat embossed using black powder the flower was coloured in with a black permanent marker, the rest is quite simple but I grudged all the other elements up with an ink pad. The elements themselves are stamped (I have a pile of stamps waiting to be cleaned) I used unmounted stamps for these but instead of buying the cling on stuff to stick them to blocks I use glue stick I am lucky and have quite a few acrylic blocks thanks to my dad having lots of off cuts but if you stick the stamps on a bit before you use them they shouldn't slip.

Take care and thanks for looking

Morning all (only just still morning)

This is something I have been playing with inspired by a video of someone inking up cuttlebug embossing folders, I have a big shot and when I got it it has some plain plastic folders in (never quite new what they where for) so using that with a metal embossing stencil an piece of flat rubber (actually for opening jars with but I am told you can buy the proper stuff in sheets for the wizard) and the big shot I did these, I inked it with stazon just dabbing the ink pad onto the stencil till it was evenly covered then add the paper then the rubber on top close the top of the plastic folder and run through the big shot, it was a bit fiddly getting it all together I could have done with another pair of hands. These need trimming but I couldn't wait to share. Some stencils are thicker than others so I had to add and remove card as spacers for some, I think the bird one will look great on a card

I managed to get the old photos of DH so now I have more photos to scrap some where scrapped in my fist book which was a photo album that I stuck A4 Lo into, it was my sort of learning book so I am looking forward to scrapping them properly.

This LO is the hybrid LO I was going on about the other day the title was normal font but I had to cut and paste and resize it which I was worried would pixelate but it turned out OK, the printed elements where just a selection from different free kits I have down loaded over time, it was fun doing this although it took over the whole kitchen as I had all my stash out looking for bits to go with the LO but it was worth it as I found stash I had forgotten about. The photo on this Lo is of DS and that is not a smile its a half scowl and moments after this photo was taken he hid in a cupboard to get away. I know I'm such a bad parent!
Take care and thanks for looking

Morning all I hope you are well,

What have I been up to well I got very carried away with a hybrid LO and didn't realize it was very late and I still had to tidy up all the stash I had got out which had spread to the whole of the kitchen but as it the weekend I had a bit of a sleep in I will share that tomorrow. I have a mixing bowl of fiddly bits to sort out from three days of scrapping, then I may be able to scrap some more. Oh and I have the washing and a bit of house work to do to.

This is the LO I scrap lifted from this which is from Jazzy1972 blog, I really enjoyed doing this it just flew together it was nice to be free with it, It is another LO justifying the need for impulse buying as the metal enameled buttons I bought nearly two years ago. The journaling reeds

First play along and smile nicely...
getting ready use a simple distraction...
then when the photographer is least expecting it, switch to ESCAPE MODE!

I think this is the best of the three using the same set of photos and don't worry tomorrows LO has a different photo on.



Take care and thanks for looking.

Morning all hope you're well,
I had a pretty uneventful day yesterday no drama and no fussing I did scrap though I undertook scraplift which I will put up tomorrow, now I don't often scrap lift the one I did before tomorrows one ended up having no resemblance to the LO I scraplifted from other that it was about 12x12 in size and had a photo on, so thats what I have been up to. Was I just waffling on there sorry bout that.

The LO I have put up is the one I was going on about yesterday using one of the photos from yesterday LO(tomorrow uses the same to but the LO is totally different) it uses Basic Grey papers this is the one I forgot to finish the cutting out and stuck it down I had to carefully cut the little bit while on the LO, the charms are part from a PM gift set and the little dangler that says happiness is from a piece of jewelry from avon.
I have great plans but weather the end product will turn out great I don't know, I have and idea for a hybrid LO, no I'm not going to cross a LO with the fridge to make it really cool (sorry bad joke) it may take some time and DDs sanity may be threatened by my lack of photoshop knowledge but I will have a go.

Thats all for now.

Take care, TFL

Near Disaster LOs

I had a close encounter of a chav kind yesterday when I was out doing the papers two chavs ran of with the trolley in hind site I should of just let them go with it, rang my distributer and not had to deliver the last fifty or so papers but I went after them and got the trolley back, it was really no problem because they just dropped the trolley pulled a stupid face and and said a stupid insult about DD and when I told DD she said how it that and insult(so it really wasn't an insult then.). I ended getting home a bit peed off and because of the unnecessary exorcise (It's against my religion to run) I ended up all chesty and was coughing and spluttering all over the place, I'm fine now , looking back it's a bit funny but it could have turned out with a different outcome, rant over back to the scrapping. This LO is using some photos I quickly took of DD I didn't have much time to set anything on the camera as she has a camera sensing unit built in, the last photo of DD I took she was hiding behind the laptop, DD tells everyone she is violently allergic to cameras you point a camera at her she gets violent. I am doing a few LO with these photos but in different styles, This LO is a bit of a disaster it needs more doing to it but the layer of embossing powders had started to chip off so I had to leave well alone, it's sort of my fault as I heat embossed on ready dressed chipboard and because is it smooth there is nothing for the coating to hold on to I should have roughed it up with a emery board but I also wanted the colour to still show through proving that you cant have you cake and eat it, The wide ribbon has been stamped using staz on to sort of match DDs t-shirt. I may still have a careful fiddle with the LO to see if I can save it. The next one is better but that also nearly ended in disaster to

Stay tuned for the next episode of LOs gone wrong.

Take care and thanks for looking.

Afternoon all, I am running late today as I have papers to deliver, I have now taken over from the kids as DD has been ill a lot recently and DS doesn't like doing them as he was attacked twice, I don't mind as it gets me out it counts as exorcise. DH is back from the hospital and is pot free but they still cant tell what damage was done when he fell but he has a lump on his arm that was not there before he fell but he didn't see a consultant only the nurse.

This is the LO of the cos-play meeting DD and DS had a few weeks back, cos-play is where fans of manga(Japanese comics) and amime(Japanese cartoons) got dressed as the characters, this one was held in boarders so it was a bit of a sales event for them to, they held a drawing competition which DD was gutted as she didn't know and she is really good at drawing manga characters, a costume competition and a knowledge quiz won by one of DD and DSs friends he one a Nintendo DS thingy(so now he has two)

The background paper(which you can hardly see I will see if I can put up a sample) is printed from a CD that came with a book of patterens, some are copywrite free and others are personal use only, the text was printed of from a digi kit I downloaded for free, the kit is called kimono but I have had it so long I don't know where I got it but it has lovely papers and some Momiji / Kokeshi style dolls for some of the embellishments.
I have also put up a photo of DD in her costume, which I made, the trousers are hakama which are flared pleated outer trouser used much like an overcoat usually worn over karate trousers, the top is sort of kataginu(a sleeveless jacket with exaggerated shoulders) although the last incarnation of the jacket did have arms.

I did find the pattern I printed of it was one of the copy write free ones.I have squished it really small but all least you can see what is is like.

Take care and thanks for looking.

Hi all,

DS is not well at the mo and DD was kicked in th knee at karate she is fine really but just a bit sore.

Another of my while I was not bloggin discoveries is design sponge which is a great site not only on the arty side but for the sneak peeks of peoples houses, I don't know why I love looking at other peoples houses, well I do know why I think it because I am nosy, my mum used to tell me I would go into peoples bathroom cabinets when I was a kid so that must be it

I am just sharing a link to theses cute little papercraft birds, They are called nani birds and there are many designs that you can print off, I cant find the link to blank one that you can customized yourself, I have orders for these for presents for teachers also there is a link in his site somewhere for a speaker dog to, DD suggested I could do something similar for a cartoon cat she draws

This LO is one using one of my impulse buys pizzazil (sorry if the spelling is wrong) when I got home I hated the orange card stock (I have it in brown to) and had got it out before to try to use
it but just couldn't get any inspiration for it, the photos on the LO are of my children when thy went on to a life boat when their grandfathers ashed where scattered at sea.

Take care all and thanks for looking.