from boxes to notebooks!

I've moved on from the boxes now. I've been making these cute little matchbook notelets. 
I'll let you know how I made them soon. They're really fun and would make a nice little gift to pop in an envelope with a card. Or in a goody bag at partys. I'm on the lookout for miniature pencils now. Anyone know where I can find a supplier in the UK?

And the winners are.....

OK, so it is now 2pm not 12pm, but I was out getting some shopping earlier. 

So here goes...

the winners of the Tonic Studios Birdy punch are...

Hearts and Cupcakes 

check out her cute blog!

(comment number 17)

and

Rozi 

Yey Rozi !!!! (I won a lovely blog giveaway from Rozi a few years back ) 

You should check out her beautiful handmade books!

(comment number 1)

Congratulations girls...please let me have your addresses!

cart before the horse

I'm slowly working myself up to doing some serious crafting, but I have a strange back to front way of doing things. I like to get all my little boxes ready before I start making the jewellery to put in them.

Actually I find it quite therapeutic to cut, score and stick. Now I am in the mood to try my hand at a little notebook or some other paper items . 

My other job for today is to embroider my little girls name onto a plain black fabric bag I have so that she can use it at school for her gym kit. Exciting stuff!


PS. Last chance to enter my blog giveaway ...drawing is tomorrow. 

Etsy Shop update

Hi, just wanted to let you know I am finally getting around to putting some things into my Etsy shop. Hopefully more will go in next week. 

My little girl will be going to school for the whole day as of next week. Think of all that time I'll have to start doing things once again. 9 o'clock until 3 o'clock. I am sure the time will fly by though, so I need to get myself a bit organised. 

You wouldn't believe the amount of time I waste just hunting for things for a project. I wish I had a special room only for my craft stuff. 

On that note, we have someone coming to view the house tomorrow. I am not holding out a huge amount of hope as they are still in the position of having to sell their property first, but at least we have some interest, so thank you Lord!


PS. Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a cute birdy paper punch. 

times they are a changing...

My precious little 5 year old is now a schoolgirl. Here she is concentrating hard on her very first homework ever! 
There have been more than a few tears...and all of them have been from me! She is settling in fine. 
I have been keeping myself busy. One thing I did was to repair a bad chip in a beautiful very large blue and white china bowl I bought recently at my local auction.

 It cost me £10 with a lovely delftware plate that I have hanging in my bathroom. I repaired the chip with an epoxy product called Milliput. It goes really hard.

 Then I used my acrylic paints to disguise the white patch. Unless you stare at it really hard, it looks fine. It's probably not the way a proper china restorer would do it, but it worked for me :-) 

Time for a Giveaway

Hi !
Some of you might remember that I designed this little birdy paper punch for Tonic Studios.

Well good news...I now have a couple of these to give away. The punch is one of their Simplicity Geared Punches which makes using it a breeze. 
Hardly any effort is required to punch through paper or card. 


Would you like to get your paws on one?


I have two to giveaway. 
This giveaway is open to everyone.


Here's what you need to do...


1.Leave me a comment telling me how you would use your Birdy Punch for one entry...


2.Become a follower and leave me a comment to let me know for a second entry.


3.For a third entry you could post about it on your facebook or twitter or blog...leave me a comment letting me know where.


Please make sure I have some way of contacting you if you win!


The time of the draw is noon on 1st September 2011

Drawing is closed now...winners have been announced :-)

Angel Delight Cake Frosting

Apologies to all my international readers, but this little handy tip might only be of use to you if you are in the UK. 

It happened out of necessity. I had a cake to ice but had no butter or anything else to make butter icing, all I had was a packet of Angel Delight butterscotch flavour. I mixed it with half the quantity of milk advised and then added icing sugar until it was cake frosting consistency. If you add even more icing sugar to make a stiffer paste you could use a piping bag, so I may do this next time. If you use skimmed milk, then this is a much much lower fat option than regular butter icing, and I have to tell you...it was DELICIOUS ! 

Really finger lickingly delicious! I had enough to top and fill a regular sponge cake and some left over for a batch of cupcakes. It kept fine in the fridge for a week. 
Now I can't wait to try this with the other flavours available!!!