This is the month for all the birthdays of my daughters friends. It seems to be that of all her little friends (they are just all now turning four, so all grown up to them!) about 80% of them were born in January! As well as my self and my mother-in-law! 
So all in all it is a very busy month for making birthday cards for me, especially for 4 year olds!
My new craft love just has to be Prima Marketing flowers! I love them all, especially these vintage 3d frosted ones! I think that they are a match made in heaven with these lovely papers and message plaques from Craftwork Cards. Pop them all on a shaped card and highlight with stickles and voila you have a lovely card for someone how is maybe has a little handbag fettish!
I got a lovely set of images from Kanban cards recently and wanted to create a soft, romantic, travel inspired card themed around one of the most romantic cities in the world. I was really happy with the outcome and feel that it is suitabe for both male and female recipients, which is always an achievement. The Eiffel tower chipboard and gliiter I feel add a bit of dimension and much needed texture to the card. 
One of my proudest crafting moments came when I received a letter with a short note and small gift to let me know that one of my cards was being printed in the readers gallery of Papercraft Essentials!
I got some new toys when I was at the Harrogate show and I have been dying to play with them.......I know, I know, I hear you all screaming,"WHAT TOOK YOU SOOOOO LONG!". Well, I'm not sure exactly but here it is.
Thought I would try my hand at altering a kilt pin. I love these pins that have the charm loops already on them, so I decided I would try and incorporate the memory capsules, glass and frames with some cute charms that I always seem to be collecting! I think that the image is from Crafty Individuals but am not a hundred per cent certain. The memory capsules are great when you want to add some dimension and movement to a piece using minimal effort to achieve maximum impact. I was quite happy with my first attempt and am definetly going to try this again.
Another first for me! I took part in a Christmas decoration swap this Christmas (which I guess is techniqually now last year! lol!) which I found really challenging. I chose to make a decoration using stampbord (which was another first for me!) and a Paper Artsy stamp. It was such fun to make and I love it on the tree (or in this case hanging on a doorknob!). The decorations I received were all really fab too! 
Seeing as it is the start of a new year I got all retrospecive and started looking through photos of my old projects. And I found a photo of my first scrapbook page that I made for a challenge a couple of years ago. It is of my daughters first Christmas using scraps of paper. I am quite proud of the result even now and of course have wonderful memories of that time! 
Stamped collage -"Dreams of Paris"
Three of a kind-"Words of Christmas"
Shades of Blue-"Creativity vs. Art"
Halloween-"Bewitching Night!" 
This is the week 4 handout project in Claudine's @ home course. I really enjoyed making this project. it was relatively quick and very easy to do. I love the technique of transfering pattern paper design onto the back of sticky back canvas and ending up with a patterned fabric! The possiblities are endless. My mum had recently sent me a cd of family photos and on it were pictures of my great grandparents so this project just seemed made for them. My new favourite obsession are Prima Marketing products, especially the flowers and pearls, so I incorproated them into the design as well to added dimension and an aged, antique feel. Hope you like as much as I do.
Am beginning to catch up with the class and have completed almost all the pages for weeks four and five. But just when all looks good I have gone and run out of, wait for it.............sticky back canvas! Just my luck and poor planning! Well here are my efforts for this week. My favourite technique this week was the transfer onto the back of sticky back canvas. I will definetly being getting extra supplies of that at the harrogate show on the weekend!
At the end of this month a memorial service will be held for my Aunty Jude, who died a week before Christmas last year, in Perth Australia. I currently live in Edinburgh with my husband and family and will not be able to make it back for the service. I will miss being able to see the family and take part in the service so as a contribution on my part I offered to make some bookmarks that my Mum wanted to give to the guests who came.
The Chandelier Canvas
Last weekend it was my husbands birthday. He turned 43, but ssshh don't let him know I told you! LOL! I didn't have any idea what to get him....men can be so difficult to buy fo and then I decided to spoil him with some of his favourite food from an italian deli in town that we would never normally shop at, as it is too pricey. Well if you can't get spoilt on your birthday, when can you? 
doing these and know that I will use them in my crafting, especially the reverse stamping technique which is my new favourite technique! 
Paste Paper.
These are two mini projects I have made using techniques taught in Claudine Hellmuths course. I have really enjoyed making them and am quite proud of the way they have turned out. I look forward to using this techniques in my future projects.
On Saturday I demonstrated some projects I had made with Tim Holtz Crackle Paints. I really enjoy using any of Tim Holtz's Distress products but found the crackle paints to be
really inspiring and I got some ideas for techniques from the Ranger web sight. I really love the resist crackle technique that I have done in the tags above, it looks so effective but is so easy to do. The photo frame in the bottom left was one I had done a while ago by just putting a coat of crackle paint on a papier mache frame and then distressing it with 
vintage photo distress ink. It has a photo of my daughter in it and she just had to have some fairy wings!
a collage of stampers annonmymous stamps using co-ordinating distress inks. I am very happy with the outcome. 
What a lovely Sunday! The weather here in Scotland was just gorgeous and I spent the day with friends at the Ayr Flower Show which was great fun! The only down side was that I had a flat tyre on the way home along the motorway, at least I can change a tyre though so not much time and we were off again. Was quite restrained and only bought 3 plants and a few bits and bobs (much better than I am when it is craft involved!) but am looking forward to being able to get the garden in shape.
I am so LOVING this course with Claudine Hellmuth! I have never realyy planned with paints like this and I am enjoying it so much! It's just a shame With work and hoem commitments at the moment I am so behind. I can't decide which technique I love the most as each time I try a new one it then becomes my favourite! Week ones techniques were gesso etching and gesso image transfer. Here are my attempts at them. All I can say is that the gesso image transfer definelty works better with a photocopy image as an inkjet image gives a much softer result.
I am one week into a twelve week on-line course with Claudine Hellmuth, and I am so excited about it all. The first week was fab!!! I have only done the two extra projects as I am still waiting for my chipboard book to arrive. Isn't it typical, I was so sure that I had one that I didn't bother looking for it until the class started.....and low and behold I couldn't find it! I have learnt so much already and am really enjoying geting my hands dirty! I've never done an on-line course before and can't believe how widespread everyone is, it seems that there are people from all over the world! I am looking forward to getting to know everyone and am enjoying looking at everyones blogs and reading all their great ideas. The quality of everyones work has been so high. Can't wait for the rest of the course.
I can't believe how many birthdays I have this month! And my Mum's and cousins are on the same day!
A nice but quick and easy card to make for my cousins birthday. I like a bit of decoupage and I think that this Kanban kit is nice and stylish. I love the colours and the soft muted tones.
My baby cousin's engaged!!! Not that she is a baby anymore! This is fantastic news and I am so happy for them both! So I made this card.
I just LOVE frangipanis! They are my all time favourite flower and remind me of home! I took this photo at my cousins house in Western Australia and she has quite a few frangipani plants. I am soooo jealous, I wish I could grow them here in Scotland!
I used Papermania capsule collection papers, ribbons and gem stones along with distress inks and cupcake creative expression stamps to make this cute card for my cousins birthday. 
I saw a similar design being demoed on Ideal World and just had to give it a go myself! I am quite chuffed with the results and really pleased with how easy it was to create such a presentable piece.
I made this for a class I did last christmas and i just came across the photo as I was uploading all the photos from my camera ( I know that punctuality is not my strong point!). I was really happy with how this turned out and think it makes a lovely christmas tree decoration.
We have all arrived back from Australia after our volcanic enforced longer holiday (but who is complaining! I love being back home!) And I have logged on to my blog and come to the realisation that I have been rather slack at maintaining it! So I have come back with my head and suitcase full of ideas and plan to try them all out. Hopefully they are successful, but the fun is in trying! Watch this space!!!
On the first of August I had a demo day at a local craft shop. I have never demoed before only taken small classes and was quite nervous but my love for crafting won over in the end. The day was on framed memories and here are the projects I made.
