Sent my daughter off on a train to visit a friend in Wales today. She'll be going straight back to uni after her visit so I wont't see her for a while :( . On the walk down from Euston to Charing X (yes don't choke - I did actually walk, it was a lovely day) I popped into Falkiners/Shepherds the bookbinding supply people and had a browse at their gorgeous papers, handmade, Japanese all sorts. They were very expensive though so I managed to restrain myself.

Round the corner from Falkiners is Blade Rubber Stamp. A nice little stamping oasis in the middle of London, actually it's the only one as far as I know. Central London overheads must be too high for craft shops. I was very restrained today, I bought some ez mount, which I needed after my 'blip' earlier this week ;-)

Anyway here is a picture of something I made earlier (about a year earlier actually). It was for a Scottish friend and the flowers are thistles, this is a CI stamp - CI213 and distress inks to stamp the image. At a guess I'd say I used Dusty Concord ans Pine Needles but not completely sure. I spritzed the stamp with some water (Tim Holtz technique)to help the colours a bit. The letters are grungeboard minis and the ribbon and cardstock was from stash. Next week I must definitely add some more new stuff. Especially after my shopping trip earlier this week!

I had a trip to the Craft Barn yesterday, after I'd done my duty trip to the Garden centre to get Pelargonium plugs, which by the way is by far the the cheapest way to get them, even cheaper than buying seed as far as I can tell.

I had a loyalty voucher burning a hole in my bag. I hadn't intended to spend much money (when do I ever) but still a few unplanned items fell into my basket. I bought a new PaperArtsy stamps (an A5 sheet), the one with the big bird on it(HP1005), Crafty Individuals chipboard houses, a notebook to alter (it looks about 5"x5"), a Crafty Individuals Miniatures book - People and Places 2, a Crafty Individuals Stamp CI-267 - it's tree with clocks and cakes and teapots on it, the Spica clear gel pen, Wild Plum alcohol ink, on TH's blog recently people were asked which was their favourite colour, this one came up really often, along with Stream and Lettuce (but I have those already :-)) and last but not least 2 pads of the new DI pads, Wild Honey and Victorian Velvet. They had all 12 colours in and I couldn't decide which to buy so I just picked 2 at random (we all know I will buy them all eventually).

I have spent this afternoon in the garden clearing the beds of their winter detritus. Only done a couple so far, my knees can't take much more than that! But it was such a lovely afternoon it just seemed nice to be outside, winter has lasted far too long this year and those of us living in the soft South East just aren't used to it.

Ooooh, just seen the line up for the Craft Barn Extravaganza (12th-13th June), Leandra from PaperArtsy, Jean and Malcolm from Crafty Individuals, Suze Weinberg and many more. I'm definitely going, not sure which day yet though.

Ok in response to a query, this is what is behind the doors of the bunny card. The little flowers I know are EI but I'd have to go and dig around for the Easter Egg stamp to know what that was. Flowers and Egg were all coloured using Derwent Inktense pencils

Ok, here are some examples of my crafting over the past couple of years. I'm not going into great detail about them as I can't really remember all the details, but if anyone has any queries about anything I'm sure I can dredge up some info from somewhere.

Anyway I've got quite a few more piccies to put on the blog but I've got to play with them first and as I've already discovered, it doesn't seem poosible to rotate them once they've been uploaded to blogger.

Bye for now.

Well that' s Easter done and dusted. No fish, no Simnel cake but plenty of lamb, hot cross buns and chocolate. I'm still trying to catch up on some projects that I completed in March. Here's one.

I made this using canvas board that I bought quite cheaply from 'The Works'. I swiped a few colours of distress inks (straight from the pad) over the canvas. I used Fired Brick, Tattered Rose and Peeled Paint. I didn't cover all the canvas. Then I spritzed the canvas to soften the edges. I cut out the poppies from some paper napkins. I stuck them on using Claudine Hellmuth matte medium, which I also painted on over the top of them. The poppy on the bottom left (both layers) left was painted with the medium several times (allowed to dry between each layer) until it was stiff enough to shape. The flower was then attached using a jewelled brad from my stash. The frame on the top left of the canvas is from Crafty Individuals and that has been coloured using Fired Brick and dusted with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls. The image in the frame is from the Crafty Individuals Miniatures books Butterflies and Flowers. On the back card was glued on in a complimentary colour. Then I punched 2 holes in the top and inserted the eyelets using my Crop-a-Dile and threaded through ribbon from my stash. Last but not least the Happy Birthday was made using white glossy card and a Go Kreate die.