Crusty's Birthday...Next Time I'll Take A Picture!!!

Ok, so I know I was supposed to be on a post a day for a month challenge, but then I had issues with my laptop. Then the issues were fixed...or so I thought!!! Turns out they weren't fixed, so I've been unable to post things properly...BUT now I'm back with plenty of makes to share, so you'll be hearing a heck of a lot from us over the next couple of weeks...I hope you're ready!!!

I'm kicking off the back log with a post that is long overdue...in fact I think Crusty/Lindsay thinks I've forgotten all about her...I haven't!!! It was her 24th birthday back on the 3rd of September...I still can't quite believe she's 24!!! I can still picture her as a tiny little girl that was obsessed with wearing a multi-coloured pair of pumps everytime she left the house!!! I can still hear her calling our Brother "Ga-Wuff" in stead of Gareth...and I can still recall the countless trips we took to Finkley Down Farm Park that was (and still is) her favourite place!!!

24 she is though, and definitely a lot more expensive than she was when she was younger!!! Crusty's always baking some cake or another around here...not that I'm complaining (especially when I get to eat them)...but what we thought might have just been a phase has now turned into baking almost every week!!! So, seeing as there wasn't much else she wanted and there was no question of it getting over used, we all chipped in a little bit and finally brought her a professional mixer...

Not that she got it on her birthday...nope as soon as it was delivered, it was out of the box and used!!!

Now, I'll be totally honest... Mum and I aren't exactly bakers ...my job's the measuring whilst Mum's a little too impatient and keeps wanting to open the oven to check how everything's getting on...BUT we couldn't ask Crusty to make her own birthday cupcakes could we!?! So, we tried our best and after a few disasters, came up with these ....

I should probably explain... for years, we've all played the "yellow car" game...if you're not familiar with it, it's a game whereby everytime you see a yellow car you get to hit the closest person to you and shout "yellow car"!!! It was probably made up years ago as an excuse to hit everyone, but as I said, it's a game we played as kids. Until recently when it seems to have made a re-appearance which now consists of punches everytime you spot a yellow car, no matter where you are AND if the other person isn't there, then you take a picture of it on your phone (if you're quick enough) and send it to the other person!!! So...Crusty's birthday cakes were the ideal excuse to hit her...and hit her I did!!! 

Ooo and I'll let you in on a bit of a secret...Mum and I made these cakes before Crusty's birthday whilst she was away for the weekend. We set them all out and decorated them, then had to put them away until she came home later in the day. But that caused a problem....you see, when it came to trying to put them back together we couldn't get the road to flow right...Mum was certain it was 6cakes wide and 4 cakes tall...turns out it was 5 cakes by 5 cakes!!! Whilst Mum and I were struggling to get it all back together Dad piped up with "didn't you take a picture of them so you'd know how to put it back together?"...NO!!! Lesson learned hahaha!!!

Ok, baking attempts over I'll get on to showing you the projects we're more used to making!!! Starting with the card I made her ...

Yep, yet again I've hand stitched all the edges around the card...but I did it so long ago, that I was sitting out in the garden in the sunshine while I stitched!!! I actually love this card...so much so that I've already requested one of my own for my birthday!!! 

Mum made this one from our Brother...a while back we made this cupcakes paper for another project, so when it came to making a card for Crusty, this paper was an obvious choice!!! Add that to the little mouse carrying the large cake and you've got this card!!! 

Lastly this is the card Mum made for Lindsay from her and Dad. Another card for crusty...another cupcake!!! This one's so cute and girly, I love it.

I'll tease you a little bit here, because there was another card that I made my Sister, but I can't share it with you as there's another copy of it for someone else who's not had their birthday yet...I'll tell you now though, that I am so proud of it, I can't wait to show you all!!! 

So there you go Lobby Lou...I do love you!!!

Little x

New Start!

Afternoon all!! As Mel told you yesterday, we've been a little bit busy of the past few weeks helping my Nan move home. It's been a pretty big task, much bigger than we'd anticipated. Nan's lived in her 3 bedroomed home for over 35 years, but now as she's getting older and living alone she's decided the house has become too much for her to manage. Not only are there 2 bedrooms that just aren't getting any use, but she's also struggling to cope with the stairs. She's not physically incapable, but the stairs are pretty steep making all of us a little worried she might fall and hurt herself. So at the start of the year we decided as a family that as Nan gets closer to 70 with all her marbles (apparently) in tact, that now would be the ideal time to make a new start in a new home that is more suitable to her.

Little did we know back then, just how quickly things would move once the time came. From the day the offer came until the day she moved in, it was just 3 weeks!! So for the last 3 weeks we've had the task of packing up not only Nan's belongings, but also 35 years worth of memories. It's amazing when you think how much has happened in her home...It was in fact the first home I ever lived in, as well as the first home my Aunt's eldest Son lived in...it was the home that both of my Nan's Daughters prepared for their wedding's in...it was the last home my Grandma (Nan's Mum) lived in...the place I remember charging my Nanny and Grandma for fictional cups of tea on my little plastic till...and where I bit into an apple that contained a caterpillar which put me off ever eating anything grown in the garden again!!! The inevitable moment of looking back through old photographs came, so we sat, reminisced and giggled about the moments Nan's house has seen...Ooo and NO I shall not be sharing those photos with you as they're all far too embarrassing!!!

What I will share with you though, is the cards both Mum and I made and gave Nan on her first morning in her new flat....

This is the card I made...for years I've always wondered what the most appropriate thing would be to put on my Nan's cards. Whilst packing up all of her things, one constant theme was cats...from little ornaments and pictures, to the ashes from her most treasured of cats Tibby...My Nan's definitely got a thing about Cats!! So when I saw the image of the cat lying on the bed looking all cosy, I knew exactly what I was going to use. Then, to make the card extra special, I not only added the plain coloured layers around the image, but I hand stitched all those little crosses into them too. It's not the first time I've used the paper stitching, but as I'm a little behind in sharing projects, it's the first one you've all seen!!

This is the card Mum made. A while ago, Mum made a new home card for her very special friend Jackie. She was so pleased with how it turned out, that she decided to make something similar for Nan. As you can see, the little mouse is not only going into number 36 (nan's new flat number), but he's also got the keys in his hand...so cute!!

In all honesty, when the discussion about moving Nan came up, I wasn't totally convinced. I'd have loved her to stay in her house, but I knew it just wasn't practical. When the option of a flat in a warden controlled building specifically for the over 55's came up, I still wasn't totally sure. I think hidden deep in my thoughts was the thought that we were moving her to an old people's home. Now she's moved in and settled I am more than certain it was the right thing...I've always pictured an over 55's building to be filled with older folks that get up at ridiculous o'clock in the morning and go to bed early!!!...the reality of the place is almost completely the opposite of what I'd imagined...not only do the residents sit outside on the patio until almost 11pm, but they also get themselves drunk to the point where they have to be put to bed!!! Nan's made some lovely and totally hilarious new friends, she's been far too busy to be sat in front of the tv and I can honestly say I have my old Nanny back....the one I remember from years ago, that was full of life and happy as can be.

It seems that holding onto the past isn't always a good thing.

Little x

A Little Bit Late

I should have shared today's selection of cards with you back on the 20th, but I've been rather busy with customers orders. We were asked what now seems like a very long time ago to make one Daughter and two Sister birthday cards for Kayleigh. You might have noticed along the way we've been making cards for one particular family? Well Kayleigh's the last of the three Sisters to have her birthday this year. We've made them all quite a few cards now, so each time we're asked it gets harder to beat the previous year, but hopefully she loved these cards ...

First up is the Daughter card. Kayleigh loves the old fashioned VW beetle, so when I found this image I knew it would be perfect for Kayleigh.

Next up is one of the Sister cards. When making cards for the three Sister's they each have their own specific favourite colour. Kayleigh's colour is purple whilst her Sister Beth's is pink, so I've tried to incorporate both colours on this card.

Kayleigh's in her second year of a veterinary degree so I couldn't resist using the little hedgehog on this card. Again the colours match the Sister's as Mel's favourite colour is yellow!

Apologies for being so late, but we hope you had a great birthday Kayleigh.

Little x 

A Month Of Posts ... Ribbon & Glitter & Pretty things!

I'm so glad I've finished making all the male cards we need for a while. Now I can go back to playing with Ribbon, glitter and pretty things! Talking of which, I thought I'd share a couple of cards with you today that definitely fit into that category ...

First up there's this cute forever friends bear with his special bunch of flowers for Nanny! See look! There's ribbon and glitter and pretty flowers ... definitely my favourite kind of cards! 

Then there's this one for the same lady but this time from her Great Grandson. This will be her first birthday card since becoming a Great Nanny, so we knew it had to be extra special. Hopefully she'll think it is. 

Little x

A Month Of Posts ... 18

I've got three cards to share with you today. They're all for Melissa who celebrates her 18th Birthday today. I can still remember the day that little Mel, came to celebrate Crusty's 16th birthday. In fact, I even have a photo of her and her Sister's that I thought I'd ...... well aren't 18th birthdays supposed to be about the embarassing childhood photos?? So ...

haha Ok, I'm not that mean!! Maybe I should just skip straight to sharing her birthday cards with you ...

Mel's plays football in an all girls team whose team colours are yellow and blue so I couldn't resist using the footballs to spell out Sister. A photo never really tells the complete story though.... some of those footballs are on little acetate springs so it looks as if they're floating and Tatty's kicked them there!

Another photo where you don't really get the full story. The little hedgehog on the left of the picture is dangling from those balloons. He hangs loosely so it looks as if he's flying away with them! If you swing it a little bit, the hedgehog also manages to land the little present on the top of the stack the little Mouse is carrying!!

Lastly there's the Daughter card. What I haven't mentioned until now is that yellow is Mel's favourite colour. So all of her cards always contain yellow. I got a little bit stuck with what to do for her Daughter card, but in the end I went with this. I love the bunting banner. I've also made it so Dad's got the champagne and Mum's got the balloon!!

Hope you've had a fab birthday Mel, although by the looks of the message on facebook you have a hole in your toe? haha the drunken nights begin!

Happy 18th birthday from all of us 

Little x

A Month Of Posts ...

I'm heading back in time with today's projects. A few weeks ago we were working our way through a rather long list of cards we needed to make. These two cards were part of that list ... 

First up is this card I made for a Nanny from her three Grandaughters. I've got a bit of a thing about this garden image at the moment. I think it gives the cards a real homely and summery feel. You've probably noticed I've used it a few times now, but it works so well with most of the characters we use ... it's definitely my favourite! 

Next up was this card made for the same lady, but this time from her Son and Daughter in Law. Mum made this one using the little hedgehog from the woodland folk range. A while back I found something new I wanted to try out with my card making. I decided to use it for the first time when making Mum's Mothers Day card. I was pleased with it, as it seems was Mum as she's used it on quite a few of her cards since then!! The little letters you see on the card above have been placed on little springs using jewellery wire, which gives the cards added dimension and that extra bit of something special. Ooo and you can of course manipulate them into any position, they're really fun to play with!! 

Over on the docrafts site, today's topic was about whether you scrapbook or not. Personally I've not tried it yet. I'd really love to, but I haven't had the courage to do it yet. I've got some beautiful photographs from our holiday to Australia a couple of years ago along with tickets and other bits and bobs. So far I've gotten as far as buying the scrapbook and getting all the pictures and stuff together, but then I just sit and stare at it. I'm too worried it'll end up not looking all that great!! Maybe one day I'll get to it, but for now I'm sticking with the card making and being afraid of scrapbooking!! 

Hope everyone's enjoying this bit of sunshine we seem to be having.

Little x

A Month Of Posts ... Flowers

Since I got made redundant almost a year ago now, crafting has well and truly taken over my life. I now quite happily spend the majority of my days pottering about making something or another. For the past 6 months I've also been lucky enough to have Mum at home with me almost every day. One person at home making things can cause quite a lot of craft mess, but two people ... well that's just total chaos!! Mum and I have taken over the kitchen with all of our crafting, in fact there's no longer a kitchen table ... it's a craft table now!! 

Today's been a typical day in our craft world. I've been sat one end of the craft (kitchen) table, whilst Mum has sat the other end. We've both been busy making various projects, almost all of which I can't yet share with you (sorry about that!). Every now and again we'll ask the one another for a bit of help ... it'll be a "does this look right?" or "what can I put with this?". We both sort of feed of off one another with ideas ... I'll start something and get stuck and then Mum will come along with the answer to how to finish it or vice versa! I'm sure some day soon the day will come when one or both of us go back to working full-time, but in the meantime I'm loving being able to spend so much time with my Mum doing something we both love. It's a real privilege to have this time ... even though at times she gets a little annoying (mainly when she's pretending to listen but you know she's not!!) I wouldn't change her for anything! Love you Mother xxx 

Now then, I know I said I couldn't share most of the projects we made today with you just yet (I'll get to them soon I promise), but there is one that I can share ... 

Over on the Crafty Ribbons Challenge blog they've set a new challenge. This time round the theme is flowers. A few days ago whilst looking online for something else I came across a quote I thought would be nice to add to a card at some point. So when the theme was set to flowers I knew exactly what I wanted to use!! The quote in question was "If I had a flower for everytime you've made me laugh or smile I'd have a garden to walk in forever" and as you can see I've added it amongst the flowers on the card ... 

So what do you think?? I don't know what it was about last week, but it seems everything started to align to make this card. For starters I received a new copy of a magazine that included some very vintage looking backing papers that just seemed to be perfect to match the image I'd chosen from the docrafts Country Companions DVDrom. Then we were sent a very very parcel from a very naughty craft angel that included some beautiful floral ribbons along with the flower shaped buttons you can see on the card ... unfortunately the ribbons didn't match this project, but I've got something else in mind for them!! Everything seemed to fit together too easily ... it was as if the card was supposed to be made!! I'll admit this card is very different to my usual projects, for starters it doesn't have a polka dot in sight! Plus the colours are not what I'd have normally chosen. Despite that though, I really like it ... maybe I'll have to challenge myself a bit more often ... then again I think I'd miss my polka dots too much!! 

Hope you like it.

Little x