Too much stuff!!

Since shutting down the shop, I've offloaded as much stock as possible, and three times I've been through my craft room, tidied and sorted it.

I've finally realised what my problem is though, I just cannot bear to use anything pretty!! Anything I've personally bought is just the prettiest and most gorgeous that I've loved, and it's just sitting there for me to continue to covet, stroke and stash away....

I've been working out the best way to deal with my "problem" and I think I will have to open up every packet, so it doesn't look quite so 'pretty' as when it's first presented, and next time I'm faced with a stack of gorgeous papers (currently quite a lot of glittery lovely my minds eye) I'm just going to get scissors and hack at it... once it's cut I'll HAVE to find a use for it.

Ok, time to get the kids off to school, and then *wish me luck* that I can find some crafty mojo within! :)

Back soon xx

This is the 'original' but restored Mill Race underneath the apartments. It freaked me out all weekend filling up and draining through the sluices..... but was beautifully inspiring and calming.

This is the scene from outside and from most of the windows of the Mill Apartments... *sigh* ... sooooo peaceful and quiet

And..... relax once it's all over. I'll hunt out piccies of the weekend and share them,but for now, thats all I got chance to take!!!

Ok, so I can't remember how many classes / projects I said you'd be getting with your money, but I'm pretty sure that we've outdone what we expected!!  With closing the shop we've had plenty of excess stock to need using, so thought we'd do some classes with those as well as the new gorgeous stash in your goodie bags. (And your goodie bags aren't as straighforward as they sound..... all will be revealed)

So here are FIVE layout projects designed by myself and mum, only sneaky peeks I'm afraid, don't want to spoil your fun.  Claire has another two layouts, and a christmas journal.  Mum and I both have another couple of projects for you too.  

I'll post more sneaks when I've photographed them.

Steph x

Venue piccies

We went back to Butley Mills last weekend to finalise all the arrangements, and decide on rooms and where tables will go etc.  Thought you might all appreciate some piccies of the venue, particularly as I'd forgotten just how amazing, beautiful, inspirational and well decorated it was.  I absolutely cannot wait for THREE WEEKENDS TIME!! :)

Not only that, but I'll be sharing some sneaky pics of projects in the next post.... here goes....

Steph x

Inspiration...... Zentangles

Have you ever seen/heard of zentangles? (or zendoodles I've heard them called too)

I first came across these on Chell's blog, and think they're fab!! (she is sooooooo good at them!)

If you haven't seen one, have a look at this...

(found on www.mescrap.blogspot.com)

I'm sure you've all sat and doodled at one time or another, whilst you're chatting, or on the phone, or thinking.... zentangles were born from this sort of thing, apparently whilst the person was doodling she realised the kind of meditative state she went into.

Head on over to google and pop in the word zentangle, and have a look round.... if you're coming on our retreat, why not use your luvverly new notebook to try a few out, see what doodles you do, and what you come up with, ready to swap in November.....

Steph x

Not done much lately...

Got a gazillion things on the go, but been putting in the extra hours I can at work to get some pennies for littlun's b'days all coming up (not to mention the ''C-word") but have put together this page for our September crop

How gorgeous is my 'future sis-in-law'?  I couldn't resist printing this pic out in grayscale, and wanted to team it with dreamy Prima papers, butterflies, glitter and sequin tulle.  Working on something completely the other end of the spectrum too, to keep the girls at the crop on their toes :)

Also on the go, a couple of BTP projects from Kaiser via Merly Impressions.... my baking recipe book, and classes for the retreat in November.  Can't wait for that! :)

S x

Family canvas for a new addition

I think I'm safe enough posting on here, I doubt it'll be seen before it's given.

A friend had her baby last Saturday, I can't believe how quickly it went, when I met her she was only 17 weeks gone.  I'm sure lots of people will have bought clothes and the like, so I like to always make something a little more personal for people on special occasions - something that no one else could have gotten them, so I thought I'd make them a canvas, to remember the date and with photo corners on this to let them change the photo as the little one grows.

The title was cut on my Slice, the calendar turn is a Maya Road stamp set, I've set it to show the date he was born.  I've stitched directly on to it with my bazzill stitches templates and floss (love that stuff!)  The stars were cut on my slice too, and I've added some gilding flakes, which I totally can't get used to - they end up sticking to everything BUT my project! 

Little bit of Prima swirly bling and I'm away.  Papers used are string of pearls bling, and some BG basics manilla pp

I hope they like it... I'm always nervous about giving people things I've made, you never know if it'll be well received or just hidden away somewhere :(  eeeeek

Canvas for littl'uns room

I absolutely love the Japanese 'Zakka' kitsch-ness.  Kind of a girly version of pokemon and anime I think, lots of cute pictures and colours.  Mixing cartoon with 'real' pictures, and putting faces onto food, plenty of pink and sparkles, whats not to love?

I just grabbed this canvas off the floor yesterday morning, it's driving me mad sitting there blank, and after decorating the one for a friend last week, decided it needed something doing with it.

Originally I painted it 'lemonade' but when I'd painted the rainbow on, it just wasn't right, and needed to be sky blue instead.

I knew I was going to paint the cloud and rainbow, but wasn't sure where to go from there, until I thought about the momiji dolls that I know one of my friends daughters collects.  I printed a couple of the momiji's off of the net, cut them out and added Prima frosted wings.

The cloud is filled in with modelling paste, the rainbow was drawn and painted with acrylic and then I used imagination glitz gel to outline each colour

I added the second doll as the first one looked a little lonely.  To attempt the zakka kitsch-ness I added a sunshine with a smiley face, and added a face to the cloud (which is the bit i'm not totally sure about, it just doesn't look quite right)

I've added some drawn in speech bubbles and music notes to make it look like they're singing angels.  I think munchkin will like it, it's got dolls, wings, sparkle and a rainbow, but still not sure myself.... more practise needed!

S x

*swoon* Paperchase shop back in Norwich

When I moved back down to Norfolk, it's amazing to see the changes.... my biggest disappointment when I visited Norwich again was the closure of Borders!  Sad enough to see such a huge and lovely bookstore go, but hidden in it's depths was a Paperchase concession!  So bye bye borders, and paperchase.

Luckily at the crop on Saturday, Lisa kindly let me know that there is now a Paperchase shop in Norwich.... good job I was off down the very street the next day... so guess where my first stop was!

Had Mr W in two, so couldn't fully be myself (think kid in willy wonkas factory) but I managed a decent snout round.  They're really starting to excel themselves in goodies now, and I personally adore their 'blanks' ranges, boxes, books etc all in natural kraft to decorate yourself.

This was my favourite, not only is it crying to decorate, but hidden inside are blank pages, lined pages, graph pages, kraft pocket pages, and then photo protector pockets in differing sizes... how perfect?  So this one is now being turned into my baking bible.... it's FINALLY time to start writing it all down for my future baking offspring :)

I was even more impressed when I looked at the back and it was only £7!  Yum 

And of course, I defy anyone to nip in there without coming out with a pack of totally cute puffy stickers.... £1 a pack!!  Bargain!

I'm back... miss me?

Wow, where does the time go, and boy does life twist and turn how you least expect it!  I made the sad decision to close down my craft business, and whilst it was hard to let it go, it's a huge weight off my shoulders, and allowing me to focus on catching up to myself, and spending time with my little angels!

It's nice having time to just sit and do absolutely nothing in the evenings now... although it does let you sit and think rather a lot, which isn't always good.  I've had a lot of time to reflect on my past year, and it's not feeling so good!

Time for some therapy then, and just as the Dr ordered, Sat saw the Thorpe Marriot crop.  It was pretty quiet, but that didn't stop us nattering away.  I even got scissors to paper and started a DOUBLE LO... very very unlike me, but I loved this piccie of the kiddlywinks when we had a weekend together at the end of May I wanted it printed BIG.  Bought some new Bo-Bunny from the lovely Sam at Craft Island which was just perfect for these fun filled piccies.

I opened three new packs of Thickers for this that had been laying about for aaaages, so I'm pleased with myself for finally deciding to start using 'stuff' up!  I picked up this natural raffia ages ago in a shop somewhere, and it was just what I wanted to make my banner and accent the bottom of the page.

It's ages since I've done a DLO, I'm so used to singles all the time.  Got some ambitious projects in my head, just hope I can get them relayed down!  My friend just had a baby boy, so I want to make her something special that she won't get from anyone else.  

More than anything, I just want to get back to enjoying creating for me, and because I want to, not because I have to and not for a deadline... just as my therapy

Hope you'll pop back soon, I promise not to be AWOL so long next time!

S x

A month?? Where has that gone!...

Goodness me, I can't believe it's been a month since I posted, I'm a bad blogger!

Anyway... I'm working on a theory, that my cake mojo and my craft mojo have never been seen in the same room together.... bit like superman, so...

at yesterdays crop I had the lovely company of LOTS of lovely crafty ladies, some new faces, some I've met before, all lovely!  But unfortunately, my beautiful lemon meringue cupcakes were a bit.... melted and gooey. So... no cupcake mojo means we have craft mojo.. right???

Hmmm, I don't know.  I look at the LO I did, and sometimes I like it, and most of the time I don't!  But I'm always hypercritical of my own work... so you be the judge...

I was seperating out the Basic Grey Basic's packs, and loved how simple they were, when my eye fell upon the 'airmail' journal strips by collage press, which have been sitting in my pack for ages.  One super duper holiday photo of mums, and my brain 'farted' as my friend emma says, and came up with the idea.

I used a scallop sheet of paper to mask the middle of the page and used the mica and inks to make a glimmer mist to spray the edge.  Then I've literally just used the journal tape strips, some 7Gypsies paper tape strips and thats it!  The alpha's are Kaisercraft 'Loire Valley' And to finish I used a date stamp as though stamping a passport.

Et voila!

And this is the mini book which was yesterdays class, and I was most impressed with everyone else's take on it, and picking up on my stupid measuring mistake!! LOL

Chocolate / Black Forest Cupcakes

It was my baby brothers birthday last week, and since he is one of these people who you can't buy anything for, as he has everything, I decided to make him cupcakes instead.

He's particularly fussy, only eats chocolate sponge cake.... which anyone who knows me will know, chocolate cupcakes are my enemy!  They always sink!

Had a bit of success with them on my birthday, so thought I'd brave it again, and here we are.....

Wasn't in the mood for messing around with buttercream this time, so the frosting is whipped fresh cream with a melted bar of dairy milk mixed in... The black forest ones have cherry compote in the centre of the cream.

And no sinking.... now if only I had written down what I did..... LOL

Need to crack on with my cupcake recipe book!

Steph x

Happy Birthday Mum!

It's my wonderful mum's birthday today, and to celebrate she and I took the munchkins to Thomas Land for a day out yesterday.  Brilliant offer for term time toddlers, we got there at just gone 11, and left just before 5.

Kids absolutely loved it, although maybe you can see from the piccies who enjoyed it most :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM - Love you loads xxx

Really good day out, and highly recommended if you've got Thomas Mad toddlers.  You can use any of the rides in Drayton Manor too (long as they're tall enough) we got soaked on Splash Canyon! :)

S x

*Droooooool* My newest and most luscious punch

I've just purchased this most gorgeous ever punch from Stampin Up!  The demonstrator I know - the lovely Lisa - brought these along to Alisons last Norwich crop, and I simply could not resist pre-ordering!!

Once they arrived, the boy had to be sent over to collect ASAP as I was seeing him that weekend, and NEEEEEEEEDED them right away.  Couldn't wait for another few weeks....

It's a mini-jewellery tag punch, and matching stamp set.  The punch locks flat as well to save space.  Now, I know that SU! are seen by some as expensive, but you'll see in the pictures, the stamped impression they give is just absolutely sharp crystal clear, and perfect with the Versamagic Ink Pads I favour.

Here we go:

STAMP:

PUNCH:

FINISHED TAG

YUM!

And when used on a layout....

Double, Treble Yum!!

If you want to get your hands on one of these amazing sets, then just get in touch with your local SU demonstrator, or even better, head over and order from Lisa, as she is completely amazing!

Find her at www.lavender-stamper.blogspot.com

or http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Norwich-United-Kingdom/Lisa-Stampin-Up-in-Norfolk/365438046150?ref=ts