Getting Back to Normality

Hello there, how are you today?

Can you hear that? It's a lack of noise, H is back at school, Hubs is back at work and I'm alone here in the Crafty Alchemy Lab, well not quite alone, Bailey Dog is curled up on my chair snoring loudly, it's nice to be back working hard in the peace & quiet, I've achieved a lot over the Summer, new products, new connections and a new plan, a big one. I'm rather excited. 2015 is going to be one busy year for Crafty Alchemy.

My personal crafting time has all but evaporated at the moment but I'm confident things will even out over time.

I've got a little layout to share that I made a while back, H has often sat watching me knit, both Mum and I have tried to teach her, but she was never that interested, but back in June she showed an interest again so out came the little knitting needles and a bag full of yarn, and off she went, she seems to have picked it up, she talks herself through each stitch - "in through the back, wrap yarn around, pull it through & off" - it's quite amusing to listen to, but she's doing really well, she's keeping it easy at the moment and knitting a blanket for the bears. 

It was one of these Sunday mornings when we were at Mum's when I snapped this photo of her concentrating really hard on her knitting...

I used an assortment of paper from a Quirky kit, I love the yellow and pink colour combination. I've doodled around the edge of the cardstock and coloured my doodly border in with a Rose Pink Promarker, I also doodled stitching around the scalloped edges of the pink paper. The little cork hearts are actually cork stickers. The journaling is in a pink 3d frame and says " Hermione at Nana's house, concentrating very hard on learning how to knit"

I wanted a knitting style embellishment but would you believe I had nothing knittingish in my stash - I know shocking isn't it! So I got some yarn and wrapped into a teeny little skein of yarn and stuck 2 heart topped pins through it to look like knitting needles, I used a blob of glue to attach it to the page. I also used a few little stickers attached with 3d foam pads for a bit of dimension, such as Staying Focused, Let's do something amazing today and Happiness is Homemade.

Well that's all from me for today, I'm tackling the To Do List (It does deserve capital letters) continuing plans and trying to remember who I was meant to email.... It's really bugging me, I can't for the life of me remember who I said I'd get back to despite going through my inbox, oh well, I'm sure I'll sort it out.

I'll be back later in the week when it's my turn over on  the Sarah Hurley 365 Blog.

Take care & hope to see you soon.

Claire xx

Making a 3d Framed Layout

Morning, morning, morning, how are you today, the sun is shining, H is back at school and my week off is coming to an end.

I've been finishing up the Christmas products ready for launching next week hopefully, my desk is full of felt squares at the moment, but I've had a good re-organise so I still have room to work.

I'm trying to use up as much scrapbooking stash as possible at the moment, as I really need the space and there is no point just hanging on to papers that are too pretty to use, so once again I'm on a mission to use it up.

So for this layout I delved into the forgotten corners of my paper rack to see what I could find....

First I grabbed some blue cardstock to make my frame, I used a template cut from yellow cardstock for the frame, so I drew around it, cut the scalloped edges then cut out the centre of the cardstock using a craft knife

So that it looked like this, I also popped some brads around the edges and doodled a border around the edges

I trimmed the patterned paper a bit so that it didn't stick out from behind the cardstock frame, then attached the frame using 3d foam tape...

Ta Dah!

I created a faux Polaroid photo with a photo & some white cardstock and used 3d foam pads to attach this to the page. I love this picture of H, she was only about 2 at the time. I've used  foam & chipboard Thickers for the title

The journaling reads "Hmm...let me see, today me & my bears are going to take over the world and cause all kinds of mischief. Then we'll have sandwiches, cake & juice for lunch! Bwahaha!

I hope you've enjoyed stopping  by today and hope to see you soon.

Claire xx

Sarah Hurley 365 - Dogstagram Part 2

Hello there, how are you today?

It's my turn over on the Sarah Hurley 365 Blog today and I'm back with the second part of my mini book featuring Bailey the dog....

You can check it out here... #Dogstagram Part 2

Thanks for stopping by, hope to see you soon.

Claire xx

Sarah Hurley 365 Blog

Hello there, how are you?

It's my turn over on the Sarah Hurley 365 blog today, I'm up with a little book of #Dogstagram, featuring the furbulous Mr B aka Bailey...

You can check it out here

See you soon.

Claire xx

The Unfinishables

Well it's official, the Back to School shop is done, finished, over, well, we still need a pair of black pumps, but other than that.... it's all done  ***big sigh of relief*** 

I was then lucky enough to find myself with half an hour or so to myself so I sat in the conservatory listening to The Best Little Network ladies on BBC Radio Lancashire this afternoon, a very pleasant way to spend a bit of time today I must say.

I've been doing a lot of thinking, planning and working things out over these last few weeks whilst H has been off school, we've been able to spend some quality time as a family, which has been lovely, we've had a few adventures and I know exactly what my plans are for when H goes back to school in a couple of weeks, The Crafty Alchemy Lab is going to be a busy place to be for a few months... I'm oh so excited!

Meanwhile I have managed to get in some crafty time here and there but I seem to have a lot of unfinished projects kicking about, well these 3 actually...

They're quite large and quite detailed, which is probably why they're taking me so long. From left to right we have a Tando Creative top hat kit that has just been started, a large half altered dress form, it was a bargain from TK Maxx but I started it in February 2013, and finally the Tim Holtz Configurations box that I'm altering on a Christmas theme and started last August. It's not that I don't want to finish them, it's just I cannot decide on the absolutely perfect way to finish them.

So why, you ask, am I showing you my half finished projects? Well, quite simply, I want to get them finished and I'm hoping this will encourage me to get on with it rather than keep looking at them with feelings of crafty guilt. Now that you all know I feel I have to get them done.

Have you guys got any unfinished projects lying about? half done journal pages? unfinished knitted jumpers? Have you got lots of things you feel that you need to finish and never quite get around to it or have you lost the love for the thing you started? (this has happened to me so many times lol) Go on, you can tell me, maybe we can support each other in our desire to complete The Unfinishables (this is my new name for unfinished projects) In fact I've probably got enough to create a blog series out of this, I think I need to go and write this down, I'm having an idea. 

I'd really love to know what unfinished projects you've got lurking in your craft room :)

Thanks for stopping by today, hope to see you again soon.

Claire xx

Nana's Birthday Card

Hello there, happy Sunday to you all.

I've been trying to get back into some sort of routine this week, not long now and H will be back to school and all normality (well as normal as it ever is around here) will be resumed.

I've been reorganising the studio a bit this week too, and already I've been quite productive, here's what I was making yesterday....

It's Nana's birthday tomorrow so I thought I'd make her a card, it's not a special birthday as such but when you get to a certain age every birthday becomes a bit more special than usual. I used papers from an assortment of Sarah Hurley kits, along with a heart stamp and rose stamp from the kits. I stamped the heart in grey ink all over the pink paper and used a scalloped border punch with the vanilla coloured paper. The roses were coloured using Marsh Green, Pear Green, Dusky Rose and Antique Pink Promarkers. I then used a scalloped circle punch and stamped Happy Birthday using Sarah' Sentiments stamps.

All of the edges have been inked with Pumice Stone Distress Ink and I used 3d foam pads to attach them all to the card.

Well that's all from me I've got loads to get through today and I'm feeling a little tired after going to see Mamma Mia at the Winter Gardens last night (it seriously rocked) H is feeling it too, she's asked if she can spend the rest of the day in her pjs on the sofa with my blanket watching DVD's, I said yes :D

Thanks for stopping  by and hope to see you soon.

Claire xx

An Amazing Adventure

Well hello there, how are you today? The sun has disappeared here today and it's raining so H and I have an afternoon of crafting and DVD watching planned, good times!

It's all been about family this week, it's the one week of the year we're all off together no work for me and Hubs and no school for H, it was lovely to spend some time together. We also went away for a couple of days, it's been 5 years since we last had a holiday, how it's been that long I really don't know.

So Monday we set off on a 4 and a half hour drive to St Albans in Hertfordshire where we were staying in a 600 year old haunted hotel that used to be a coach house. 

But it was the next day that totally rocked, DD had been so excited about this from the moment I told her and I have to admit I was pretty darn excited myself. We spent the Tuesday here...

Yep, the Harry Potter Studio Tour in Leavesden, Oh my goodness it was so amazing, there aren't really words to describe it, it's definitely a must for every Harry Potter fan.

We took so many photos (335 to be exact, not including photos on our phones).  I can guarantee you'll be seeing a fair few Harry Potter scrapbook pages from H and I, I may even do a whole album, there's certainly enough photos. So grab a cup of tea and a slice of cake and sit back and enjoy all 335 of my photos....Just kidding, There's only 11 in this post.

Here's H stood at the gates into Hogwarts...

The props from the films were fantastic...

This is Slughorn's Potions classroom... look at all the bottles, there's hundreds!

H and I at the Ministry of Magic...

The Hogwarts Bridge...

Me outside Ollivander's in Diagon Alley (getting photo bombed by H)

Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes, we loved the huge Fred/George Weasley in the window

Now I actually cried a little when we went into this room, there really were no words at all for this....

And this next photo just sums it up for me...

H grinning from ear to ear. 

It was a truly fantastic day, H loved it, I loved it and even Hubs secretly enjoyed it, I heard him on the phone to a friend saying it was brilliant, until I looked over and he added "if you like Harry Potter that is, the girls loved it" Although I think his highlight was bumping in to Peter Crouch in the petrol station at the services on the way home, he even had a chat and got a photo, which is on his phone.

We came home on Wednesday and I spent most of the afternoon unpacking and trying to figure out how it's possible that 3 people go away for 2 days and nights and manage to generate 5 piles of washing, I guess it's one of life's unsolved mysteries.

Well I suppose I should go and empty the washing machine again, and if I don't order the photos of our trip today I think H may fall out with me as she's desperate to start scrapping them. 

Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a lovely day.

Claire xx