Shadow Box

I have been working on this project foe a while now. Before I went to California I just hit a mental block and couldn't think what I could do to finish it. When I came back it was like a light bulb went off and everything just came together and looked really good.

I used the SU set Baroque Motifs for the background and my SU punches. I used the emboss resist technique, a little ribbon and I got the flower from Archivers.

Thanks for looking

Hugs
Nic

Spotlight on Lucy

I hope you have enjoyed seeing what I made during our trip to California. I thought before I get back to showing you what I have been doing around here lately I would show you some of what my friend Lucy made while we were staying with her. She is a very talented seamstress.

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She made 3 sets of skirts and purses. This is just one, they were all different fabrics which she let the girls pick out themselves. She also made a skirt for me that I absolutely love.

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These are beach coats she kindly made for my kids. They are perfect for getting changed under and are made from a lovely warm waffle fabric which keeps the kids warm after they have been playing in the water.

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These are DS cases that have a pocket on each side for keeping games, headphones, etc. These are what inspired me to make my husbands DS case. She made a bunch of bags varying sizes including one for my daughter for school. She is very excited for the first day of school to be able to show off her bag. I also got a bag made by the wonderful Lucy. She made it reversible so I could use it either way. It has lots of pockets which I love. I have been using it ever since I got back.

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You can find the link to Lucy's blog in my inspiration central over there on the side of the page it's called Sew Much Fabric. You may not see these projects on there as she hasn't posted them yet. Consider this a sneak peek.

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Thanks for looking

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Hugs

Nic

Craft Catch Up - Part Four

This is the last of my California projects I have to show you. There's actually no sewing on this project. No stamping either. This time I had a try at beading. I picked up some really pretty beads at a store in Tahoe. Beading is another of Lucy's hobbies and I find myself unable to resist the pretty charms and clasps. I kept it pretty simple cause after all I didn't have a clue what I was doing. Lucy helped me plan out the pattern. I made a bracelet for myself and one for my daughter first then I had just enough beads left to make a necklace also. My thanks to my wonderful friend Lucy for showing me so many new cool things.

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Craft Catch Up - Part Three

My friend Lucy made my kids each a DS case to carry their DS in, with a little pocket on each side to hold games and stuff. She made them so quickly and they were so cute, the kids love them. I loved them too, so much so I asked her to walk me though making one for my husband. He works for Disney Interactive so obviously I just had to use the Mickey colors for my project. I was over the moon at how it turned out.

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Craft Catch Up - Part Two

While in California my friend Lucy took me to the most Awesome quilt store I think it's called Material Pleasure. I picked out some really nice fabric with a plan to make placemats and a table runner amongst other things. Lucy said she would teach me quilting while I was visiting. I was very excited about this prospect as I have been wanting to learn for a while now.

Lucy also had plans of her own to make things for the kids but that's for another entry. As you can see below I had the help of another friend while ironing my bias. Also a few step by step pictures from as I went along.

Here are the pictures of my finished quilted project. Thanks to a wonderful teacher!!!!!

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Nic

Craft Catch Up - Part One

I got to try a lot of cool things while in California. My wonderful friend Lucy is the most awesome thing when is comes to anything to do with a sewing machine. She kindly let me loose in her sewing room. One of the first things I noticed though was that she has no coasters anywhere to put drinks on so I decided the first thing I would make would be a set of coasters for her (in her favorite color of course). So now whenever she sits down in her sewing room with a cup of tea or glass of water she is instantly reminded of me :-D

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Nic

Get Whale Soon

The kids and I are currently enjoying a short holiday with friends in California while hubby works hard back at home. Before we left though I forgot to share this card with you all.

I made it for my cousin who is pretty ill at the moment. He suffers from M S and is in the hospital with a kidney infection. We are all sending prayers his way in the hopes he will be well enough to go home soon. xxxxx

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Nic

Kickin' It for Michelle

I read some sad news the other day, fellow blogger Michelle from http://donkeysmiles.blogspot.com/ had a really nasty accident about two weeks ago, which has left her with the loss of her right eye and a long road of recovery ahead. She is on the design team for A Spoon Full of Sugar http://aspoonfullofsugarchallenge.blogspot.com/ and in an effort to cheer her up and raise awareness for what happened they are holding a card drive in her honor. They are asking that everyone please create a card in dedication to Michelle and mail it off to her and flood her mailbox with well wishes from around the world. More details and her address is on the spoon full of sugar website.

They have posted a donkey image on there too that you can download for you to use for the card. I am off on a 2 week trip to see friends in California in 2 days but just had to make a card for this before I left. I hope she likes it.

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Nic

Knot-A-Quilt

My Daughter and I have been working on a knot-a-quilt that she got for Christmas. I have been encouraging her to do as much as possible as it is good practice for her to learn to tie knots. This week we finally finished it and she is very happy. we had one block missing so I made her a replacement from one of her old pyjamas that she had grown out of.

Cards for my Neice

I made a couple of cards recently for my Niece. She lives in the UK and has recently started a new job at a sanctuary for cats and rabbits. She loves animals and I think she will be awesome. She also has just bought a new car so I thought it would be nice to send her a couple of cards to celebrate. I knew i had the perfect images in my High Hopes collection. Above is her new job card and below is the card I made for her new car.

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Stampin News

I know most of you probably know this already but the new Stampin' Up catalogue is out today. I for one am very excited. They have revamped the colors bringing back some of my favorite In-Colors this time to stay. I am going to sit down with mine and start working on my wish list.

With a lot of sets retiring my Demo Jane had a stamp-a-stack class using a few of her favorites. I got to meet and make some new friends while having lots of fun doing what I love most. Here is a pic of the cards I made.

Seen as I am on the subject of Stampin' Up I thought I would show you a picture of my tree. It's from the SU Definitely Decorative line. I bought it months ago and have been putting off putting it up as it seemed such a huge task and time has not been in my favor. Well I finally grabbed some time to put this beautiful tree up on my craft room wall. My walls are textured which is not the best surface for things like this but it seems to be happy for now.

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Epic Mickey Card

It was my Husbands Birthday at the weekend and I made this card for him. He works for Disney Interactive in video games and is currently working on 'Epic Mickey'. This explains the sentiment I put on the card. I didn't have one that said that obviously so I had to get a little creative. As you can see I used traditional Mickey colors. The kids made their own cards again too. This time using a Mo Manning image from Digital Pencil Too.

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Nic

Brother's Birthday

It was my Brother-in Law's birthday earlier this week and I made him a special card to celebrate him turning 40. He has special needs so lives with my husbands parents. We have been saving like crazy and are treating him to a Walt Disney World holiday at Christmas so I made an I O U to let him know and for him to have something to look forward too.

Cardstock is Real Red, Yo yo Yellow, Black and Basic Gray. I made the pocket by cutting my cardstock into an 'L' shape and then trimming it till it was the size I wanted. I used a ticket edge punch for the IOU and thickers for the 40. He loved it and is looking forward to meeting Mickey Mouse in person.

The kids seem to be enjoying making cards with me at the moment so I thought I would share with you their creations for their favorite Uncle. They used the free Digi from Whiff of Joy.

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Nic

More Kids Cards

While the kids were making Fathers Day cards for their Dad they also made them for their Grandfathers too. Above They used a Karen's Doodles image for Hubby's Dad. We have 2 cats ourselves who seem to love our sofa more that their scratch post. Also he loves and has cats. Below they used a Whiff of Joy image for my Dad. My father used to be a mailman so you can see where the theme for these came in. I just love how my son made his own mailbox from a piece of my scrap DP.

Thanks for looking

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Hugs

Nic

Happy Father's Day

I'm just sneaking on here while hubby is watching football (soccer) to show you the card I made for fathers day and also the cards the kids made for him. My image is from squigglefly and the mouse is WOJ and the cat is Karens Doodles.

I also thought you might like to see what the kids made for their dad this year. I took them to a place called Marmalade Skies and let them decorate their own piece of art for him. They turned out pretty good and made totally with love.

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Nic

School Pages

Well here we are at the end of another school year with a long 10 week summer vacation stretching out in front of us. What better time to finish up the kids school year scrap pages. This year sees my youngest on her way to 3rd grade and my eldest graduate from Elementary school and head off to Middle school this fall. Doesn't seem that long ago I was fretting over him starting Kindergarten. Time sure does fly...

Simple Kraft Christmas

I thought it was about time I tried to complete one of my friend Tracy's Christmas Card Challenges. This month the challenge was a color one and I just could not resist the awesome colors she picked out. It also gave me the chance to break out one of my new Whiff of Joy stamps.

The colors were:

*Red(your choice of any shade)

*Kraft(or as close to if you do not own Kraft)

*Cream/Vanilla

*Chocolate

Here are all 5 cards together.

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Nic

Friendship Pages

A little while ago Megan got to go to Kiddie Acres with her best friend Tatiana. They had loads of fun and Sandra, Tati's mom took some real nice pictures of the girls on the rides and stuff so I decided to make them into pages for their friendship books. Here they are:

I made two of each page so they could both have the same pictures in their books.

Gifts for Baby

Sorry I have been a little AWOL. It was my birthday this week and I have been a little naughty and haven't been crafting very much lately. My want to, up and went. However I made this about a week ago and didn't get around to showing you. So I thought I would pop on and let you have a look see.

A friend that my hubby works with had a little baby boy recently so I went through my classes I did with Heather a while ago and found this adorable card which I decided to case and I also made a little box and duplicated the same punch image to make them match. All I really changed on the card was the colors and the DP as I didn't have the same ones. I think it turned out really cute.

Colors are Soft Sky, Close to Cocoa, and River Rock. Thanks for looking.

Hugs

Nic