Notebook ...

Hello ...

How has your day been so far? 

Yesterday it was so wet and cold and this morning had little improvement ... but now the sun is shining and it is indeed a welcome sight!

I've been to my Pilates class this morning and it was soooo hard ... then after some housework I got into my craft room and made a notebook ... as a gift for my friend who celebrates her birthday this week ... You may remember This card for which I was lucky enough to win a Top Mouse award at WaltzingMouse  .. well my notebook is to go with that card so I used some of the same papers from Bo Bunny and some from Prima Botanicals 

as you can tell I changed the colour of the beads and flower ... mostly because I cannot for the life of me find where I have put my turquoise ones!

... and I also used a different stamp from the Victorian Frippery set ... and just so you can see that I always cover the back of my notebooks too ...

ooops! ... Left a little piece of cotton on there ... 

I'll be back with you tomorrow for another City Crafter Challenge ...  there is still time to enter the current challenge if you haven't already done so ... hope to see you soon 

Enjoy the rest of your day and keep safe

~ Ros ~

Jingle Belles card 24

Happy Sunday!!

It's raining here and not exactly warm but I am content having visited my Aunt yesterday and finding her looking so well ... I just cannot believe she is 84 ... she certainly does not look anywhere near that! (Please God I have her genes) ... the journey to Lincolnshire was beautiful as the sun shone and the countryside was stunning ... fields and fields of the most gorgeous red poppies against the hues of Lincoln greens ... It certainly is a lovely part of the country ... little villages nestling amongst the acres of farmlands and fields ... villages with strange names like ... Spital in the Street ... and lots of cottages like this ...

Before I left I managed to get my card done for this weeks' challenge over at Jingle Belles Rock ... where my sweet blog friend Kirsty is Guesting and also sponsoring a prize from her store ... Pixie Dust Paperie ... Kirsty has set us a sketch challenge this week ...

... and this is my take on her brilliant sketch ...

I started with a sheet of denim blue paper from Core'dinations  which I embossed and sanded and it grew from there ... the only problem I had of course is photographing it because there is quite a bit of  silver ... both my images are 'upcycled'  with a little fussy cutting

Lucky for me I see that The Shabby Tea Room are having an embossing challenge this week hosted by Pattie so I covered two challenges with my card and my Christmas card box continues to fill ...

This evening my Thursday group are doing the church service ... so I will be going along and watching like a proud mama ... 

Have a lovely day my friends ... thanks for stopping by

~ Ros ~

Scrappy card ...

Hi there!

I'm so glad it's friday ... the end to a long week and I can always relax once club night is done ... and it was very busy last night ... but we somehow managed to muddle through and make our projects as well as other bits and bobs ...

My desk was such a mess after preparing the projects and after I had cleared up .. I made a little card with some of the scraps and things hanging around ...

I love the teal colours ... and I love textures ...

I sprinkled some mica flakes over the distressed cardboard heart ... how they remind me of Lux soap flakes Lol! who remembers those?

I know this card is kind of 'different' for me but it looks so nice in real life that I may just have to grab more scraps and maybe play some more ...

I'm off to Lincoln tomorrow ... visiting my sweet adorable aunt ... can't wait! And did I tell you the cat was back? sporting a pink collar with a bell and tag ... she comes in the evening and stays over ... Yep, I'm running a B&B for cats! 

Have a lovely day and thanks for stopping by ...

~ Ros ~

Busy days ...

Hello ...

How are you? ... 

I'm busy getting things organised for another night with my group ... Sometimes it is hard to keep coming up with ideas that I can present for them ... being that they are limited in their abilities it takes a fair bit of work ... And what would I do without the internet and you wonderful bloggers out there who share your creations, your ideas and your tutorials? Lots of my inspiration come from you ... and I am able to adapt most things so that my group of mentally and physically challenged can create something   nice to take home ... So I thank you ...

To see their progression each week is a blessing ... I have no training at all ... either in teaching craft or with special needs ... but we seem to gel ... maybe because I find it so simple to see beyond their disabilities ... and because I have taken them to my heart and they in return bring me such joy ... So as time consuming as it is ... preparing each week is worthwhile ... and this week we are going to make brooches and of course cards ... here is a little look ..

This will be the finished article ... I still have a lot of cards to cut and bows to make 

The brooch 

I had a lot of felt in my stash .... and I got the badges for 5p each ages ago in a sale

Some of the supplies ... the pretty papers were a gift from Jak

Now I need to cut card and tie bows ... I hope to be back with you soon 

Have a wondeful day 

~ Ros ~

City Crafter Altered Jars

Hello and Good Morning to you all ....

Today we have a brilliant new challenge over at the City Crafter Challenge blog ... set by Kirsty  and this is a first for me ... I confess I have never altered a bottle or jar and have been dying to try it ... so thanks Kirsty for a great challenge! 

I loved each and every entry to last weeks' challenge ... you are all so talented ... makes picking winners soooo hard ... and I know the other DT feel just the same as me ... "Thank You" to all of you.

I had all sorts of ideas when I first heard what was in store this week and just couldn't decide ... so I went with 3 different ones ... I'll show you them first and then do a little explaining ... Warning ... there are lots of pictures!

First up I wanted to do a more ornate one ... and the bottle I had was kind of triangular in shape so covering it took a bit of figuring out and a few snips here and there ...

Once the covering was sorted it was just such fun to add all the little embellishments 

Scraps come in very useful here ... I covered the wooden heart with a scrap of paper added a key and a gem stone ... a scrap of hessian and tulle ... a sprig from a flower decoration, ribbon, butterfly and a piece of beading together with a TH ticket ... all glued and tied with twine ...

I also glued some trim where the joins in my paper are and used a sticker backed with card across the front ... and just so you can see the reverse ...

More pretty lace from a Pixie Dust Paperie kit ... who incidentally are kindly sponsoring us again this week 

For my second creation ...  I used a screw top jar and made a container for my pins with a pin cushion lid ... This was 'sew' simple to do ...

The pins originally came in little plastic containers with sponge lids ... so I used this sponge for my lid .. covering it with materials and gluing it to the jar lid with a couple of circles of tulle between the lid and the sponge top ...

I added some pretty lace to the rim of the lid and voila! 

... And those adorable little pins on top were made especially for me by Steph ... 'Thanks Steph ... I LOVE them" 

And finally a quirky and so easy one ... 

... Ok so some of you may recognise what this was ... it was originally a handwash and I loved the 3D fish effect so  I kept the empty container ...

I peeled the manufacturers label from the front ... (Tip ... to remove any sticky labels be it from a jar to a pair of new shoes ... use either a hairdryer or a heat gun and swipe it back and forth over the label for a minute and the label will just peel away in one go) ... The 3D effect is done by a piece of acetate being either stamped or in this case with stickers/transfers on being placed in the centre of the bottle ... mine is secured there using some coloured stones and sand ... the type you use to stand candles in or in vases to hold flowers ...

The back of the bottle also has a 'sea' sticker on and I used some silver glitter paper (self adhesive) over this ... I added some water too ... really to show you the effect  but you could leave it as it is ... 'cos when you come to change the water you will need to make sure you don't tip the stones etc., down the sink!

As a final touch I added some twine and made a sea effect tag complete with charm and pearls 

I had so much fun doing these ... I hope you are going to try one too ... why not pop over to CCCB and see what the rest of the DT and our amazing Guest Designer Sasya have created? ... Oh and Do take a visit to Sasya's blog ... Oh my goodness ... you will NOT be disappointed ( there's even a free tutorial and pattern for the cutest crocheted deer ... Awww!) ... 

Thanks so much for stopping by ... keep safe

~ Ros ~

Jingle Belles Card 23 ...

Hello sweet friends ...

I am just popping in with my card for this weeks' Jingle Belles Rock challenge  and the theme this week is 

.... Let it Sew, Let it Sew, Let it Sew ....

Which of course is to add some sort of stitching to our card ... you all know I stitch on just about everything ... so why is it that I suddenly had a mental block when required to do it??**?? I guess I just over think everything ... so in the end I decided to keep it quite simple ... but with a little bit of ... humour?

..  it kinda speaks for itself really ... red ribbon and stitching ... and I cut some little holly leaves (ok ... I tried to cut something resembling holly leaves) ... from felt and added a wee bit of stitching too ...

... See the little 3D chipboard piece? ... my little bit of humour ... 

Hope you all have a lovely Sunday ... Thanks for stopping by ...

~ Ros ~