Heart of the Country

Whooo....Hooooo..... this morning I woke at 6.30am, looked out the window and saw...... sunshine and blue skies !  Started my day really nicely for a change as there's currently no rain pouring down, I hope you have a nice day wherever you are located.

Today I thought I'd share the other SMASH* page with you which I completed yesterday morning.  The pix on this one were taken during our recent trip to the Heart of the Country Shopping Village at Swinfen near Lichfield.

Last time I went there it was quite a different place, with lots of crafting stuff, now it has been renovated turned into a really lovely space, with gentle piped music playing quietly as you wander around the little shops or sit in the gardens.  We walked around looking at all the lovely things for sale - I have to confess to weakening and making a couple of small purchases !  One of them was the cute wall hanging in the pic, which I thought would look nice in my new kitchen. 

As we were walking along, a butterfly landed on a budleia flower close by me and, luckily, I had the camera in my hand and managed to capture a close up shot.

It was nice to browse round the Designer shops and boutiques, just looking, and I could have spent much more time in La Maison Bleue where there were so many gorgeous fabrics, candles and french style bric-a-brac - the menfolk were getting a little restless, so I had to drag myself away.

I found my wall hanging in the Magical Story Living Barn, where there were so many lovely things I could easily have taken home with me !  Apparently the Barn is constantly changing it's contents and decor and is transformed into the Christmas Barn for the festive season, which would
be lovely to see I think - I might have to revisit if I find myself in the area nearer to Christmas. 

We finished off our visit with a yummy lunch in the Barn Restaurant, their sandwiches/baguettes were delish - hot roast pork, stuffing and apple sauce and melted brie and cranberrry (my mouth is watering at the memory !) were consumed with gusto by all of us.

To finish off my page I added a few hearts from a set I had in my stash, the hearts were just perfect for the subject of the page and bring splashes of colour.

Hope you've enjoyed today's page, have a great day and thanks for visiting.

Roman History

 

I hope you are enjoying your Bank Holiday wherever you are and whatever you are doing - the weather down here in Cornwall is pants !!  We started the morning with torrential rain (I'm soooo... glad I'm not one of the poor unfortunate souls who are camping down here in the Southwest this weekend).

So, with it being most unlikely we'd head out somewhere for the day, and whilst the rest of the household slept, I sat down in my crafting space and completed a few pages in my SMASH* Book.  I thought I might as well take advantage of a nice bit of peace and quiet !

For this two page layout I've used some of the pix I took during a recent trip to Wall nr Lichfield in Staffordshire.  There are some very well preserved Roman ruins there, maintained by English Heritage, and we've talked of going over to check them out, but never got around to it.  As we were staying with my Dad for a few days recently following his hospital stay, we were quite close to Wall and it was a great opportunity to get Dad out for a breath of fresh air and a little gentle exercise. 

If you are 'into' Roman history and like to explore the remains of Roman sites, this is well worth a visit and is just beside the famous Roman road - Watling Street.  Unfortunately the Museum was closed when we visited, it opens only on the last saturday each month - according to the notice on the door anyway.   There are apparently 'finds' and artefacts from the excavation of the site on display, so we'll have to time our next visit to coincide with the opening times of the Museum.

On my pages I've used Washi Tape (love this stuff !) journalling cards and a few embellies which I found in my stash - no idea of the manufacturers, but they were just right for my pages and I like the little compass I found amongst them.   I cut out the wording as individual letters using my newly acquired Memory Box alphabet set of dies - I just know I'm going to be using these dies a lot in the future. 

The sun was trying to break through the thick layer of cloud as I sat down to write this, but as I'm just finishing writing it's gone really dark outside.  There's massive black clouds gathering and I think we are in for yet another deluge - oh well, I can always head back to my table of craftiness and do another page or two or some other project to keep myself amused.

Enjoy your day, even if the weather is less than ideal, thanks for taking the time to visit my bloggie today.

My Favourite Someone

Just got my Day 14 SMASH* page finished for the 30 day challenge I'm working my way through.  Day 14 is ' Favourite Someone' and mine is my Dad. 

I've now completed seven of the thirty days so still have quite a way to go yet !  There's no deadline, I'm just creating a page when inspiration strikes.

Sadly my Dad was admitted to hospital yesterday with another suspected heart attack - I just heard that he had a comfortable night and there are more tests planned for today.  He's likely to be in hospital for at least another three or four days, but his condition is stable for now which is great news.  He's not yet well enough to be chasing his nursie round the ward, but he's feeling quite positive I understand !

Love Ya Dad xxxxx

SMASH*ing time again...

I've managed to complete another page for the SMASH* Aholics 30 Day Challenge on Facebook.  This one is Day#22 - Fabric. 

I'm enjoying dabbling in the world of Quilting at the moment and have a nice little stash of pretty fabrics in my sewing box now.  I picked up some amazing fabrics during my visit to the Art and Craft show at Princetown on Dartmoor last friday.  They are now safely stashed in my sewing box until a later date, when I'll be turning them into some type of quilting project. 

I haven't done a lot of sewing for years and my sewing machine got quite a shock when I wanted it to actually work.  Once I'd got it going on some scrap fabrics, it started to behave itself and is working well now, thank goodness.

Here's a close up shot of the tiny quilt which is tucked into the pocket on the lefthand page.  It was my first quilting project and because I wanted to make it so small, I used paper templates to ensure I got nice smooth joins and hand stitched the whole thing.

I'm working on a lap quilt now, all the pieces have been sewn together and the backing attached.  Just the actual quilting to do now which may take a while, but I'm finding it really relaxing to sit and sew.   I'll share piccies once it's completed.

I've also been busy making a few cards over the past couple of days and I'll be sharing these with you over the next few days.

Thanks for dropping by to check out today's project.

I Love Cake !

   

Happy Sunday everyone.  I'm sharing a couple more pages I've completed in my SMASH* Book. 

Recently I've taken a few pix of food I've cooked which looked attractive enough to photograph, as I had in mind to do a food related page.  Last friday as I was unpacking the food shopping, the pile of vegetables on the countertop just begged to be photographed and included in my page.

I found some great cooking related bits and pieces in a set of magazine freebie papers by NitWit, so cut out utensils, oven gloves etc to add to my layout and my design turned into a double page spread.   The pages already in my SB had images of cutlery all over which was perfect for my food theme.  

I hope you are enjoying my journey of discovery in the Wonderful World of SMASH* I know I'm having lots of fun !

SMASH*ing the Art of Yarn

Just a quick post today, sharing the latest finished page in my SMASH* Book.  As I was clearing out some paper rubbish for recycling, I found a newsletter from the lush 'Spin a Yarn' shop in Bovey Tracey, Devon and there were so many fabby pix on it, I just had to sit right down and SMASH* them all !!  A perfect recycling project I think.

Hope you like today's project, thanks for dropping by, let me know what you think of it if you have time. 

The Fabric of my Life

You've guessed it !  I've been SMASH*ing again !  Well, I had started this page a few days ago, but only just got it finished. 

During a recent trip to my local Art Shop in Kelly Bray, I spotted a 12 x 12 sheet of sticky-backed fabric in a sort of patchwork design.  I thought it would be perfect for SMASH*ing pages and the idea for my Fabric page was born.

The background was created using a strip of the sticky- back fabric, then a strip of lace, then washi tape, a length of seam binding I dyed with Alcohol Inks, a floral strip printed from a NitWit Collections paper kit and finally the bottom strip from a sheet of A4 freebie papers by NitWit that I got in a magazine.  It looks realistically like cotton tape and was just the right width to finish my page. 

I've had the felt embellishments in my sash for a while, not knowing what best to do with them other than use them on a Scrapbook layout !  Various flowers from my stash and a crocheted flower I made a while ago, a lovely purple paperclip I got from Staples stationery store and a piece of printed cotton tape all added to the finished design. 

I stamped 'hand crafted' on the litttle fabric tag using a stamp from a set by Stampin Up!, the buttons were altered using Alcohol Inks and I did the little bit of knitting using cocktail sticks as they were just the right size and scale.  I hand wrote the page title which was one of the first elements I added over the background design.

I was thinking of doing a little scrap of x-stitching to add to the design and I may still do this at a later date.   Always difficult to know when a piece is actually finished !! 

Rare and Exotic Plant Life

I've been playing with my SMASH* Book again and completed this page with a couple of photographs I took during the couple of days we spent with my Dad, Bruv and family in Porthleven, Cornwall.

I had started the page with the image top left - it was in a leaflet from one of our local DIY Stores and this is the sort of effect I'd like to create in my garden.  I clipped it out of the leaflet and put it into my book, stamped a few images and sentiments on the page and added text using Tim Holtz words.

Found a couple of embellishments in my stash as I was sorting through and thought they were the perfect finishing touch to this page.

Thanks for dropping by to check today's project, hope you've enjoyed your visit.

Whoo... Hoooo... I won !

I'm late posting on my blog today - in fact the day is almost over !  We've had reasonably nice weather with sunshine for some of the time but it has turned cold again this evening and we actually have the central heating on - in June ? yeah ! brrrr.... !  In fact, the rain is currently 'lashing down' - Oh Joy !

Now to the reason for the title of this post, I found out a couple of days ago that I've won this awesome Candy (check it out) from Jennie The Artistic Stamper's Blog, how fabulous is that?  I can't wait for Mr Postie to drop all this gorgeousness through my letterbox !!  Thanks so much for the chance to win Jennie.

I did manage to complete a card from start to finish today, in between cooking yummy meals for my Dad - who's staying with me for a few weeks - and my OH.  Got to spoil our Menfolk one day a year after all LOL  Today's creation is my DT card for the I Love Promarkers Challenge and I'll be sharing it with you on wednesday when the new challenge starts.

I've also completed a couple more pages in my SMASH* Book, so at least I can share these with you today.

Here you go then

On this page I've included lots of mementos and journalled notes from time spent having fun with friends, some of it crafting some of it just 'hanging out'.

The second page includes more mementos of time spent with friends.  I hope my pal Linda doesn't mind, but I've included the front of the card she sent to me for my birthday this year.  It's perfect for the theme of my 'doing fun stuff with friends' pages.  The 'washing line' was actually the advertising 'blurb' included with my subscription gift from Craft Stamper Magazine and I chopped it about a bit and rearranged some of the elements.



Tomorrow I'll be sharing a Clean and Simple (CAS) card I made recently. 

Thanks for calling in to check today's crafting Stuff.

Having a SMASH*ing time !

I've had a great day today visiting the Art Stamps show in Bodmin, Cornwall with five crafting pals There weren't a huge number of stalls but the ones that were there were packed full of fabulous goodies. 

We all did a couple of 'make and takes' - one of them was with Stampin Up! where we made a fancy fold card, in the other we made a brooch from Ecoboard. 

I also signed up for was what described as a 'Scrapbooking Workshop', which actually turned out to be a decorated canvas session.  It was tremendous and messy fun and I'm pleased with the finished result, although want to add a few final touches using some of my own stash now I've got it home. 

I'll take some pics of today's projects and post them up on here tomorrow.

This week I ventured into the world of SMASH* Books, staring my very first pages in the SB I've had for a while.  I'm already hooked and everywhere I look I see things I want to add to a page or start a new page with.  So, here are my first five pages, lots of stuff from my recent vacation in the USA:

I'm loving how the pages just grow organically and constantly change as I find more interesting things to add.  I've started a couple more pages but I won't bore you with any more today, I'll save them for another day!

Hope you're having a great weekend - the weather is freezing here, hoping it warms up a bit soon as my Dad, Bruv and family are down in Cornwall for a week's holiday and we are planning to join them for a couple of days during the week.