He's Here!!!!

Welcome to the world my grandson, Alistair.

Born at 7.50am and weighing in at a whopping 8lbs 15.5oz, he arrived with a little difficulty - but mum and baby are doing well now.

Congratulations to my daughter and her hubby, Katie and Karl... and of course to Alistairs big sister, Lily.

I'm such a proud nonna!

Not a crafty update...

It is the early hours of the morning, and my daughter is in labour. Yes, I know I'm supposed to be there - I am her birthing partner after all (well, one of two - the husband has to be present as well *lol*)... but the evening has turned into a farce. Arriving at the hospital, we were suddenly informed that only one birthing partner was allowed (Katie's husband obviously takes priority over little old me)... and that there was no visiting allowed after the birth either (partners or husbands only). This is all apparently due to some virus scare at the hospital... or swine flu... or something daft that really shouldn't have interfered with a joyous occassion - I may be wrong, but I do think that there are sensible precautions... and then there are scaremongering jobsworths who really should be a little more calm about things. So I came home rather than wait in one of the most awful and dreary waiting rooms ever created by the NHS, and... I am thoroughly peeved. I had my camera ready... magazines too - and a shawl that my mum had knitted (it is GORGEOUS!!!). I was all pumped up and excited about seeing my grandson being born... and instead I'm sat here at home with a stress headache, wondering how my baby is getting on...

I'll post when I can about Alistair when he's finally born (names are already decided upon, and no amount of whining by the grandmother could persuade them that Peter would be such a wonderful name to use instead) - getting exact birthweight and a photograph if I can.

His First Disco

Oh, the memories! My eldest child's (and only son) first school disco at his 'big school'.

I loved the checked paper I had that matched his shirt so perfectly - but wanted something a little more as well. I love the tactile sense of using stitching, and decided to add to ths with my choice of background... the large background strip behind the photograph is made by weaving two papers together - fiddly, but well worth the effort. Of course, stitching and handmade flowers arepart of this layout...

...and I decided that lollipop flowers would have a more masculine feel. Scrunched and spritzed rougly cut-out circles from co-ordinating papers made these flowers match in with the layout quite nicely :)



Layout!!!

Okay, so this isn't a recent creation - it was made well before the Yuletide holidays, but I've only just had time to upload! My camera (quite a good one a year ago) is apparently outdated, oldfashioned and pretty much useless now *lol* Still, when it does switch on, it seems to work okay for now (hint to Hubby for upcoming birthday ... don't mention my age, but please ask me if a camera would be a good pressie).

My middle daughter is due to have her baby today (I just knew baby Alistair wold be coming late into the world), and this layout was made with a photograph that was taken when she was just five years old. It was so cold and frosty, she could barely smile - we all said she looked like a cute chipmunk. Plain Co'ordinations papers and also MyMndsEye was used, with lots of stitching...

I used the colours in her coat to decide what I wanted to use... and the poinsettia flowers I had made fitted in perfectly with the layout.

I highlighted the wording with a little sparkle - very unusual for me.

"Your Cute SMILE warms up a cold WINTER day".

Time Flies

How time flies by! Not that I have done very much creating of late - a couple of layouts and a half-finished paper album... but the recent holidays were a busy time for me and my family - with some terribly saddening times as well as celebrations too. Suffice to say, along with a multitude of birthdays in January, there is also a funeral tomorrow and one on Wednesday also... my deepest sympathy and humblest thoughts go out to Dave's widow Sue and their family, and also Pete's widow Eileen, their children Penny and Steve as well as their grandchildren. Sad times.

I'm hoping to start regularly positng again very soon - with photographs of happier times (gingerbread houses and christmas cake!) with some papercrafting included.

Be well, everyone.

Exploding box - L.Denison style :)

I decided to make an exploding box a la Laura Denison :) This is heavily based on her idea, with the tags being different on mine, and the proportions slightly different too - but it's basically her idea :)

I used La Belle paper, with a little MME too.

I'm still not happy with the lid of the box - I think it looks like a toilet roll holder from the 70's... but I'm working on a new one. I finished the box when I attended a craft evening at my local craft shop - lovely time me and my friend Lou had there.

I have just 36 tags in my box - and 8 extra journalling spaces made from the flaps that cover the outer flaps of the box. Four of these tags slip in sideways in a space made from the outer flaps - quite a little ingenius idea from Laura there :)

Some of my tags/photo mats I made into little opening covers - some with acetate covers that I inked with stazon. All the edging was done woth a Martha Stewarts corner punch.

Still papercrafting...!

A month has passed me by - but I am crafting... honest :)
I had made a halloween mini, but have decided that I need to make another one - more grown-up (if you get what I mean?). Anyways... here's the original try:

I made the cover first (the cherished chipboard from HobbyCraft) - the paper was red, then I inked it up with Red Lava and a bit of Plum Cosmic Shimmers... scrunched it, dried it, ironed it - way to shock the family - I haven't gotten my iron out in years - if the tumble dryer can't get the creases out, how am I expected to? Anyway...  the family are now in tune with my way of thinking - i.e, that papercrafting is more important than housework (and ironing paper is more important that ironing clothing).  I also used a bit of Distress Embossing Powder to create the dusty aged effect.

Chain, hitch fastener, spider, skeleton, horrible web stuff - and LOTS of modpodge and the cover was complete. It was fun creating it all - even if I didn't use the little skeleton hands I had got just for the sole purpose of decorating the cover of this album.

All the pages inside are different - but they all have tags and pockets. My eldest daughters favourite was the haunted house with the opening door and the ghost inside - the back of the page has a space for journalling and a photo mat. She also loved the coffin mini-mini book for photos and journalling.

My favourite page was a sixteen page mini-mini that looks like a miniature spellbook, hidden inside a pocket - inked and aged pages sewn together for binding - but my camera is out of battery, so can't show you that one at the moment :(