Happy Birthday Nephews!

Firstly a little apology for my lack of blogging recently, but my laptop is seriously poorly!  My son had a problem with the power cable of his laptop, so while he was waiting for the new one to arrive I very kindly lent him my laptop and when he handed it back to me, it died :(  We're hoping to be able to retrieve the stuff on the hard drive, but it's not a done deal yet - fingers crossed for me please!  In the meantime, I'm using my daughter's old laptop ...

So, I'm still not finding much time to craft, but have made these two cards for my two little nephews who both have their birthdays in the next week.  Otto, my youngest nephew will be one and one of his bigger brothers (he has three!) Jasper, will be six.

Otto's card is based on one I saw in a magazine in a feature about how to use rik rak:

Jasper's card is one I have made before for males, but I have personalised the number plate with his initials and the age he will be:

Hoping to craft again sometime soon!

Carole x

Happier Girls!

I'm not sure that the lighting was really good enough today (it's been tipping it down for quite a lot of the time), but I took my improved Happy Girls outside for another photo shoot!  Due to the lack of stickiness of my double sided tape, I was forced to take drastic measures and sew their dresses by hand, and before you say it, yes, I probably could have dug out the hot glue gun and re glued them, but I do like a bit of sewing!  And while I had the needle and thread to hand, it seemed a shame not to add a bit of bling to their little plain dresses ...

 Carole x

Birthday cards

Now that the cards are being displayed on the appropriate mantel shelves, I can share them with you. I made these two cards for two special people - my hubby Phil and my lovely friend Yvonne.

As ever, I struggled with a card for a man, but was quite pleased with the fairly simple design I came up with.


Yvonne and I met through our dogs! We walk together in the forest at least once a week but usually more often. She has two Bassett hounds (hence the card design!) and an absolutely gorgeous American Cocker Spaniel called Max. Since moving to Dorset I have made friends in all sorts of ways, but some of my bestest friends I met through the dogs - must be something about "doggy people"!!!


Carole x

p.s. I'm hoping to get some good photos of my new and improved "Happy Girls" so that I can show you. My double sided tape was pants so I have sewn them together, and whilst I had the needle and thread out, it seemed rude not to sew on a little bit of bling!

New Home

I actually managed a little bit of crafting time on Tuesday! However, with all the changes going on around here, my mojo had taken a nose dive and also there was high drama whilst I was trying to get on with things in my Crafty Corner. It's a little distracting to say the least when four emergency vehicles, including the air ambulance turn up in our little road to take our poor neighbour away! Well OK, the helicopter wasn't in our road, but it was circling overhead before it landed in the local school playing field and the paramedics in their red jumpsuits arrived. Good news though, Tim is now back home, and the emergency is over.

So, I made two cards and my September ATCs. One card is for my OH's birthday, and this one is a new home card for my friend Natalie's parents who are moving down to our neck of the woods tomorrow! It will be lovely to have them living here, I think I'm looking forward to it almost as much as Natalie is! They have two Springer Spaniels so some nice walks will be in order once they have settled in.


My new job is going well, I now have my own set of keys for the shop and am working there on my own most of the time - I even built a new display stand yesterday! Alex is also really enjoying her new school and has made lots of new friends - it's so lovely seeing her happy after such a rubbish time at her last school.

Carole x

Taking a Risk!

I had a lovely afternoon crafting yesterday, but I only managed to make two cards! I am really pleased with both of them and shouldn't really be sharing them yet, but I am going to take a risk and show you one of them. It is for my sister Jo who is away on holiday at the moment and not back until the day before her birthday on Sunday, so I'm hoping that she will be too busy unpacking and going out the night before to think to check my blog! I normally have to remind her to have a little look anyway.


This card is so me! Hopefully Jo will like it too. Alex thinks that it is a typical Carole style card!

I will show you the other one after the special day!

Carole x

Vegetables!!!

I spent a little time in my Crafty Corner yesterday, but not creating any of the cards and projects that I have on my own to do list! My Mum had asked me to make her a couple of cards for special friends of hers. One was easy, it was like one that I had made previously (although this one is improved due to me trying out two new punches), but the other was more of a challenge. Her friend is turning 60 and is a keen gardener. Not a problem I thought. But not a gardener of flowers, oh no - vegetables! Oh my goodness. I gave this card loads of thought, so had some ideas when I came to make it.

I had bought a pack of doilies when we visited Swanage, and I wanted to have a play with them, so one of those is on, I printed off a vintage picture of vegetables and backed them on some kraft card to kind of represent seed packets, and then I made a couple of carrots! I am really chuffed with my carrots, made by making a little card cone covered in double sided tape and then DMC embroidery thread wound around and poking out of the top of the cone for the leaves. I also tried to replicate a seed marker to get the 60 on to the card to continue the gardening theme. I hope my Mum, and her friend like it.


Alex and I have also been working on a couple of magazine commissions over the weekend .....

Hayden went back to school today, and Alex starts her new school on Wednesday, so I am hoping to fit some regular crafting into our new family routine. We shall see!

Carole x

Happy Girls :)

A while ago while blog hopping I made a lovely discovery - and I must admit that I was attracted by the lovely title - who wouldn't smile at the title "Happy Girls"? I was smitten! I knew that I just had to have a go - and I wasn't disappointed! As luck would have it, I had just been given a box of wooden beads and at the time I hadn't a clue what I would do with them! They were actually originally one of those car seat covers made of different coloured beads, thanks Roger!


My only slight problem, and one that I shall warn you about, is to ensure that your double sided tape is man enough for the job - mine most certainly is NOT :( I am thinking that I might blanket stitch around the ones I have already made although this means that they won't be the quick and easy project that they were meant to be. I guess the good thing about getting the needle and thread out is that I could embroider a little flower on to their dresses ..... I also couldn't get hold of any hemp thread, but found that thick cotton thread bought from a hardware shop did the trick.

In case you want to have a go at making your own Happy Girls, here is the link and the fab tutorial!



Hope you like them as much as I do! I thought they would be cute tied onto pressies, maybe on a card or an ATC - now there's an idea! This months ATC theme is "Things that make me Smile", and these happy girls certainly do that!!!

Carole x