Come on England!

This may be a rather hurried post this week, as I am waiting for the England v Italy game to kick off. Are you enjoying the Euros? Must say I have been quite unimpressed so far overall, but there's time. I am not a betting girl, but my money would certainly not be on an  England win, as ashamed as I am to admit that. But I will still be cheering them on! (See, I am patriotic!)
If my arm was bent up my back and I had to say who I thought I would win, I think I would have to say Germany. It's a long time since 'The War' so I'm sure I won't get strung up for that!

Talking of Germany, it leads me nicely on to tell you about my week. Of course this wouldn't be my blog without a little mention of Herman, who is, you may remember, a German friendship cake. Well I have not baked any Herman so far this week, as he is not ready to cook with yet. However my interweb meanderings after inspiration about what to do with him led me to find a website and forum devoted to him. If any of you are interested in learning more about him or finding new recipes, or tips or advice, or other people's experiences, then you can find it here at the Herman website. And if you have a good look around the site you might find an article written by me! You might even recognise the photo!

I haven't had a lot of time this week to do much making. Although I did receive through the post a copy of Craft Artist Platinum edition and of course I have been having a little play. I'm enjoying the whole digital art 'thing' even though I prefer to get my hands dirty with paper crafting, and glue and glitter! But even so I thought it might be a nice way of making the thank you notes to send out to all our family and friends who came to the Christening last weekend. It took me quite a while to do, though I am sure with practice I will get the hang of it all. I didn't get the final effect I had wanted but was relatively pleased with what I did achieve, really.

There are some really nice digikits over on Daisy Trail so have a look!

As usual I'll be linking up with Wendy for Handmade Monday, over on Handmade Harbour, which, for those of you who perhaps don't know, is a link party for craft bloggers. There are some fab blogs linked there by some very creative, talented and inspirational crafters, so take a look! I will be doing as soon as the match is over!

All together now...Come on England!

Til next time! 

A very special Sunday!

Welcome to Monday once again! Can't believe how quickly these Mondays come around!
Once again I'll be linking up with Wendy and all the other crafters over on Handmade Harbour for Handmade Monday. Lots of fab and very inspiring blogs over there, so don't forget to wander over there!

As the title suggests, it was a very Special Sunday yesterday. Not only was it Father's Day, but it was also my littlest's baptism. So it was a very busy and very tiring day!

I don't need to tell you that The Father's Day cards this year were handmade, do I? I did try something different, however, and made them using a digital scrapbooking programme. Now I can't say that digital scrapping is, or ever will be, my 'thing', but I'm always looking for new things to try out, and since the programme was FREE with a magazine, I thought it would do no harm to try!
I used the materials and embellishments on the programme, along with photos , and put them together to make the two cards.

This is one of the cards, and I was quite pleased with how it turned out. Further experimentation is needed tho!

I do like the flexibility of using a digi kit. but it is quite 'flat' and one dimensional. It definitely would benefit from using other media too. I'm sure the uses are endless though, with just a bit of imagination. I already have a few ideas about how I will use the kits I have agreed so far!

So yesterday my daughter was baptised. it was a lovely day and I was so proud of my girls, who were both impeccably behaved, and also very grateful for all the lovely gifts and cards she received. it was so lovely to have so many close friends and family to share Teaghan's special day with.
Of course regular readers will remember that I had started to knit her dress. Unfortunately it never got finished, I was rushing it really, as I knew I only had a few weeks to make it. and I had to rip it back several times and after a few weeks I decided to just bite the bullet and buy her dress.

But I was very pleased with her dress in the end, and I know I'm very biased, but I thought she looked beautiful in it.
She did wear handmade shoes though!

These gorgeous shoes were made when Teaghan was newborn, by the lovely Caroline of Carolee Crafts.

I will make a christening dress at some point. I have the patterns and the yarn ready to go! So watch this space!

Short and sweet this week! I hope you have a lovely week ahead, and of course enjoy reading the fab blogs linked up for Handmade Monday.

Til next time!

Handmade Reward Tokens

This year seems to be flying past way too quickly. I can't believe we are into June already! Although you wouldn't know it from the weather we are having!

As usual I'll be linking up with Handmade Harbour this week for Handmade Monday. It's a lovely community of craft bloggers so have a bimble over (after you've done here of course!) Many thanks to Wendy for hosting it again.

For those of you who are regular readers, you will know of my love for all things Herman (and if you don't know what Herman is then take a look here!) We've been eating Herman cake and Herman pancakes for several months now. I have attempted to make sourdough bread in the past, too, with mixed fortunes. I was having a wander around the web looking for Herman inspiration, when I came across a recipe for Herman bread. I had a spare starter available and thought it would be worth a try.And it really was! Very tasty bread I have to say, and much nicer than the sourdough bread I have made before. It was a little bit sweeter than normal bread (that'll be the sugar in the starter obviously!) but not overly so, and it still ate well with savoury fillings. Not tried it toasted yet, though I suspect it will toast well too.

I have been making with The Flop this week, too. We have a reward system where she collects lolly sticks over the week in exchange for a treat at the weekend. She collects the sticks by basically being good, doing as she's told, eating her meals, helping out...you get the picture. And if she is naughty, then she has one (or more) taken off her. I can't remember where I came across the idea, but it really works for us in a way that the Naughty Step never did. And I like the idea of her being rewarded positively when she's good. it gives her an incentive as well because she wants that treat at the weekend!
Well, we decided to freshen it up a little bit and this week I gave her the chance to help me make some tokens to replace the lolly sticks.

We started off by choosing what she wanted her tokens to look like. She decided on some digital button embellishment images I have (from Daisy Trail ) then I gathered together backing papers, leftover cardboard from a box (so a bit of recycling there!), some scissors and glue

Then it was simply a case of cutting out and sticking. We glued the cut out 'button onto the cardboard first, then cut that out and added the backing paper on the reverse.

We had to find containers to keep them in, and I happened to have two sweet 'cupcake' tins, one to keep the tokens in and one for Caoimhe to collect them in.

She seems quite excited about earning her tokens, even more so than when she collected lolly sticks - maybe because she helped me to make them? Hopefully that excitement will continue!

That's it for this week. Don't forget to see what everyone else has been up to this week. Looking forward to a little wander through the blogs myself!

Til next time!







Congrats to Her Maj!

60 years, blimey! Not sure I could manage that long in the same job! I hope you've all enjoyed the celebrations, whatever they were. It has been lovely to see all the bunting and flags around. I remember all the celebrations from the last Jubilee, which has made me feel very old!

The Flop enjoyed her Jubilee party at nursery on Friday. She had to wear red, white and blue (obviously!) and wore a lovely blue and white striped sundress (with a very well known piggy on the front!) and a red cardie. It was quite easy as you can imagine to find something for her in Jubilee colours! I wanted to do something handmade though, especially as I haven't made anything for a couple of weeks, so I made a little crocheted headband for her. I was most impressed that not only did she wear it all day, she also managed to bring it home from nursery (and still on her head!) The inspiration for it came from the over sized flower button I came across at the local haberdashery. I had intended to make a crocheted red, white and blue flower and attach it to a plain plastic headband (do they still call them Alice bands??) but when I saw the button I changed my mind, and I am glad I did now as I was quite pleased with the end result.

I've also made some ATC's for the trail over on UK Scrappers.

I used some lovely paper I managed to 'obtain' from my mum, and the buttons are from my button box...also obtained at some point from my mum too!

I'm linking up with some other craft bloggers for the weekly Handmade Monday, which is hosted by Wendy over on Handmade Harbour. There are lots of great blogs to read there, so what are you waiting for! I'll be having a read as soon as I've replenished my brew!

Til next time!