Birthday weekend

It's been a busy weekend. My son and my daughter had their birthdays on Sunday. Age 7 and 22, they were born exactly 15 years apart. So there has been a lot of cake baking and eating going on this weekend. This is the cake I did for my daughter. It was a bit of a rush job, but it turned out OK. We took it to church to share with our friends as I didn't have a party for her this year.
This was my son's cake. We thought he'd appreciate a giant cupcake, and just for fun we rearranged the candles to read, Drippy Hay Bath...he appreciated the humour!

We were all pretty caked out by then!
These were the cards I made for them...

and these were the cushions covers I made for my son. You can see a few more pictures of them here.

Waiting for summer

I am soooo cold. Summer is slow coming in the Highlands this year and we're still needing warm sweaters, hot water bottles at night and the heating on. I hope things warm up soon. I want to get out and do some more tidying in the garden !
These couple of photos were taken in a rare moment of sunshine.

A damp Highland morning

I was out and about with my camera this morning before I came in to get on with my sewing projects. (My daughter hates these plastic shoes of mine, but they are so comfy!!)

When the Earth was New

when the earth was new

was the sky bluer

the grass greener

the air sweeter

when the earth was new

did the brown soil thirst for the first rains

to quench it’s crumbling depths

did the flower have to be told how to unfold her petals at first dawn

when the earth was new

did the dew fall purer on every leaf

did the tree know where to push its roots

did the fern unfurl it's fronds in praise of creation’s beauty

when the earth was new

copyright Doda Smith

Birds and spices

These lovely new Bird products from Tonic Studios mean that it is so quick and easy to rustle up a card to be proud of. In fact, the whole Tonic range coordinates so perfectly together. For more details on this card and more crafting inspiration check out Blog Tonic.

I found another use for the lovely dies that come with the Butterfly tags set...labelling my spice jars.

I cut the labels from some matt black vinyl and wrote the spice names with a white pencil, that way I can wipe it off and rewrite them if I change up what spices I use. I love the shape of this label! I also love the chalkboard look it gives....I might just have to label EVERYTHING now! ;-)

A bird journal

I've just finished off a little bird journal. The paper inside was recycled from one of my old school jotters plus one of my older daughter's school jotters. Mine is so old the paper was cream so I layered it cream/white/cream/white. I have to admit my journal making was a bit rusty, but I really enjoyed the process and now I should be better at it if I make another one soon.

If you are interested in making your own journal there are a gazillion tutorial videos available on Youtube. Just pick one you feel comfortable with and give it a go.

The fabric cover is decorated with rubber stamps from Tonic Studios. I used Versacraft ink as this is suitable for fabric - you can fix the ink with an iron.
The bird is cut out of Tomato Paste tube using one of Tonic's new bird dies. I think this is my absolute favourite die.

I wrapped a pencil and lined the inside using some of their new Bird paper range.

As you can see from the squared paper, it was old maths jotters I used. Now I am going to use this for scribbling my poetry and song ideas down - a  much better use as far as I am concerned. I don't have a head for numbers!

Another birdy card

Aren't these birdy papers and dies from Tonic so sweet? The dies look really pretty when you emboss them too. The detail is lovely.

Time to go do some more birdy stuff now!

Birdy goings on

Just a flying visit to my blog today! I've been making some bird cards with the new Tonic Studios range of craft goodies. I'm also in the middle of making a cushion using one of their bird dies to cut out the felt. Here it is in progress. More to come on that in the future.

By the looks of the two projects above, it seems I am in a colourful mode at the moment. I hadn't realised!