Only Three Places Left!

06:29 Karen 0 Comments

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Today episode is brought to you by the letter K!

19:12 Karen 7 Comments

Oh how I loved Sesame Street when Gracia was little and because Created by ATDML has the letter K for their Thirsty Thursday challenge this week and because I made a layout for it and because said layout was scraplifted from 'the other Karen' today is certainly brought to you by the letter K.

Karen's layout

And my layout

- you may have caught a glimpse of it being made in my last post. I have to say that scraplifting is such a quick thing. Why don't you have a go at scraplifting Karen's page and then link to the Created by ATDML blog to be in with a chance of winning a prize?

Reasons to be cheerful:

1. Although I don't want to make the effort to go out, when I get back from doing the soup run I will have a warm bed to climb into, which is more than the poor souls who come along for the free food have!

2. It only took me 50 minutes to get home from work today rather than the predicted 60 :)

3. Cheese and potato pie for tea - it always brings back happy memories of my nana who used to make it for me.

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In Praise of Wonderful Weekends.

02:28 Karen 11 Comments

Well, this was the weekend. The one we have waited seven long weeks for. The weekend that Gracia came home for a visit. The weekend that lived up to expectations and went over and above all that we could have hoped for.

We drove to Peterborough, on Friday, to pick her up and even though it was twenty to eleven she looked so bright and perky that it filled our little hearts to bursting point to see her so well.

On Saturday, she slept in and then

as she had requested, we went to Sainsburys for breakfast

We visited the school where I used to work and Gracia attended from year 4 to year 6. The school was celebrating its 100th birthday.

I then took her to Eileen and Hannah's house to spend the rest of the day with Hannah and Sophie, who also hadn't seen each other for seven weeks.

Eileen and I had to celebrate the return of our girls by going to the local craft store for some retail therapy!

I then had to document Gracia's return home by scrapping it - well it would seem rude not to!

Today, I baked 3 dozen cupcakes, 2 dozen cookies and 6 apple crumbles for Gracia and Josh to take back to Uni with them. This was done while Gracia sat in the kitchen with me and revised. It was so like old times.

This afternoon, we went to Marks Hall for a walk and the obligatory cup of tea and cake.

When we got home we only had a couple of hours before Josh's parents picked her up to take her to Peterborough station. So as I write this it is 2:35am on Monday morning and thanks to British Rail the kids are still on the train. Signal failure somewhere so they got their train at 8:15 and have yet to arrive in Newcastle! I so hope it doesn't put them off coming home regularly.

Reasons to be cheerful:

1. We cannot believe how happy and healthy Gracia looks. We kept commenting to each other how fit and well she is.

2. A weekend spent with family and friends is hard to beat.

3. The absolutely gloriously sunny afternoon we had at Marks Hall.

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From This to That Part 2

06:40 Karen 8 Comments

Well, here is part two and it features my two favourite projects of last week. First up is the absolutely gorgeous scrap catcher that Jane taught at the Eclectic Keepsakes crop on Saturday.

By the end of the afternoon almost everyone had one of these little beauties dangling from their scrap space and can you believe it - some had even started using them for paper scraps! They were just so easy to make, especially with the comprehensive instructions that Jane supplied and even Denise who claims not to have sewn since leaving school had made a perfect scrap catcher.

Now here's the deal, Jane has a few spare kits that are for sale at £7.50 including p&p. All that is needed to finish the scrap catcher is 250gms of red lentils to fill the bag that holds the catcher onto the table. If you would like a kit, email me at eclectickeepsakes@btinternet.com.

Now on to my other favourite project from last week - Jane's beautiful Christmas Mini Album.

The book cover was constructed from 3 pieces of chipboard which had a hidden magnet in the cover and another in the tab. The whole book was made using MME Lost and Found Christmas and it was just so gorgeous in its sparklyness. The book had 8 folded pages and the whole concept and construction was just genious. So without further ado here it is.

It is such a shame that the sparkle cannot be conveyed in the photos but imagine that all the red is glitter and you will get some idea of how beautiful this little album is. The idea is to put this year's photos and journaling into this ready made little beauty, making documenting the Christmas period much easier.

Reasons to be cheerful:

1. Finding 30 minutes each morning, before work, to finish this little book of gorgeousness.

2. That my blog readers have the patience to plough their way to the end of a very long and picture heavy post.

3. 3 more sleeps until my girl is home for the weekend.

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From That to This - Part 1

08:18 Karen 7 Comments

Well, I have so much to show and tell, rather than bore the pants of you I will do two posts - two posts in one week I hear you cry, what on earth has happened?

As you will know, if you have read the previous post, I went to the ATDML retreat last weekend and brought home many, many unfinished projects. I have been slowly working my way through them and the one I finished first was Jane's Christmas Mini Book. A Book so luscious and beautiful that it deserves a post all of it's own. So that will feature in 'From That To This- Part 2', which I will schedule for Wednesday.

So, on to what I have created. On Thursday the lovely Eileen paid me as visit, as is her wont on a Thursday evening. We skyped Gracia who had not 1, not 2 but 3 young men in her room causing havoc, trying out her lotions and creams and generally annoying her, and guess who was the ringleader - Josh! We also did a bit of cutting and sticking. I took this (Ann's class from the retreat)and made it from that

to this.

Where has that little ball of fluff disappeared to? I can't believe those photos were taken over 5 years ago.

Yesterday was the day of our monthly Eclectic Keepsake Crop. Most of us mixed medium crafted, some making mini books, some making Christmas cards, some making scrapbook pages and most of us making a fabric mini table bin, a class taught by the very talented and very modest Jane. This will also be featured in FTTT - Part 2.

The cupcakes of the day were Lemon Meringue (sorry Deb I know you like lemon and couldn't make the crop and we so missed you and your perky little penguin) and Apple and Cinnamon.

I have decided that I would like to make some of my favourite digital pages into paper versions and so tackled two from last year. The first one I made from that to

this.

I made 8.5 x 11 so that I could print the journaling straight onto the cardstock and then cut out the embellishments on my Craft Robo - oh how I love that little piece of technology. I use it so often and it is so versatile. My one is one of the original ones and I got it second hand for £20.00 a bargain that I am forever grateful for. Thank you to Jill who pointed out, just in time, that I had missed an e out of Sheffield. The perils of putting a title on from the last letter to the first!

The second page I made was almost a direct lift of the original. So it went from that

to this.

I printed out the flowers and decoupaged them onto the page. Used white rub-ons on the Kraft cardstock and also printed out the title using the original digital alpha. I added a little Tim Holts journaling ticket and some pearls and it was finished.

So there we are projects that I have finished this week, other than Jane's mini - the best is yet to come I assure you!

Reasons to be cheerful:-

1. My girl is coming home for a visit on Friday - Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

2. A day spent with very good friends, all happy doing our own thing.

3. A puppy that has grown into a wonderful, devoted and gentle dog.