More things to make with security envelopes!

I don't like to waste anything in this house and security envelopes are usually saved to make gift tags. However I came up with an idea for a Christmas card using them too.

Lots of little trees!

Obviously I couldn't stop there and had to make some more cards!

My favourites are the black and white butterflies and the Christmas trees one. They all look better in real life as I just can't seem to get decent pictures of them!

I'm not sure if I should add them to my shops or just keep them for fairs - I have 5 booked before Christmas. What do you think? And what about the price - they are fairly simple so I don't want to charge too much - I was thinking £1.50. I'd love your views on the cards and the prices please.

Not boring in this house!

Some of out kitchen utensils - my favourite is the road runner pizza cutter :) Feeling a little unwell today hence the lack of a decent post - and yes I realise I am sad for taking pictures of kitchen utensils!!

Luke the alien

You know this little guy from Toy Story?

He is called Luke in our house - Squeaky Luke to be precise and we have no idea why. Tara started calling him that about 18 months ago and that is what he is now called!

Well here is Anya's version of Squeaky Luke. Rendered in beads no less - just ignore the carpet. Thank goodness it will be going soon :)

The saga of the fabric pile

Remember this? Well it got bigger and slightly more wobbly before it was reduced to this....

Yep - it's really all chopped and in a pile to be put away and I haven't hidden it anywhere! Of course there is still the 6 shelves worth of fabric still to wash and dry and pink the edges of but something tells me that the monster pile of fabric isn't going to get to be that big again.

I do however have 30 of these road atlases (acquired from Sams) to go through and pull the pages out of to turn into envelopes! They are safely ensconced on the other seat of the small sofa at the moment - I might do them later!

Thrifty goodies

So yesterday I single handedly stimulated the economy in the Burnley charity shops :) I went with specific things in mind (jumpers to felt) and the charity shop gods listened to me!

I managed to get 8 jumpers and then I found these beauties in the last shop I went in.

Two pure new wool blankets!! The colours haven't come out correctly in the photographs but the bottom one is a light green and the top is a pale yellow one.

And just look at the label!!!

I also got a bit of fabric!

And some books. All of the above will be used for 'Swirlyarts'. I did look hard but only found one thing for me - but they are fabulous!

Some gold shoes!!! I had a pair of gold ballet shoes that I got at a jumble sale a few years ago but they died recently so I was thrilled to find these beauties! I was going to cut the straps off but once I tied them on I was quite taken by them. What do you think? I must admit they will get me some stares but so do my pink sparkly shoes and bright tights so I'm not going to lose much sleep about it!

Tara's book bag

I have made Tara a book bag for school as I made her sister one and didn't want to leave Tara out!

Tara chose the fabric and I'm quite pleased she picked this one as it is a lined curtain so is quite thick. I got it in the charity shop although it's originally a Next one.

I kept the tab tops on as they double up as the fastenings!

With a little help from some velcro of course!

The back - with a Swirlyarts tag naturally. You never know who might be looking at it!

She rather likes it - and carried it all the way up to school.

It's nice when your crafting is well received! Or course, big sister now doesn't like her plain turquoise one and wants one just the same - good job there is some spare material!

Some new goodies

This tidying malarkey is very good - I found 2 sets of gift tags that just needed string! And here they are!

These have been recycled from cigarette cards (Matt has a collection and gives me the spare ones!) and can be found here in my Misi shop.

The second set are also made from cigarette cards and can be found in my Etsy shop.

I also found some pages from a vintage Child's Play book - very 70's - which were turned into envelopes. With side openings no less! The damaged pages (well the bits that I could rescue) have been turned into tags which need finishing off today - they are on my to do list! The envelopes can be found in my Folksy shop.

I only managed to list these because Matt took the girls up to school for me this morning - thanks Matt :)

This tidying lark...

......could be good for productivity. I found some offcuts of paper (little scraps left over after making my recycled notebooks) and made over 30 of the little matchbook notebooks I make - a great way to use up scraps of paper!

Here are a few of them :) Better get back to tidying - you never know what else I might find!

Paper flowers

I used this fabulous tutorial from Ruth to make these paper flowers. When I saw Ruth's I knew I had to make some but with a recycled twist!

They are made from the insides of security envelopes - I have plenty of them after all! The blue ones are earmarked for decoration on a present which you will see once the present has been given and I'm not sure what to do with the orange ones. They need some sort of decoration in the middle before they can be used. Any ideas? I don't really make cards any more so not cards but any other ideas would be gratefully received!

And don't forget to go and look at Ruth's tutorial. She has another for some different flowers which are beautiful too.

Jam time!

It's that time of the year when the blackberries are ready to pick and we turn this

into this

Yum yum. For a really easy microwave recipe then click here. We might go and pick more today but not to turn into jam - Anya really wants a blackberry crumble :)

Give the girls a box of lace....

.......and they are happy for a couple of hours :)

I don't know where they get it from :)

The girls asked for some blank gift tags when I was chopping some for chicken tags the other day. I asked why and was told that they were going to make some tags of their own with them - should have guessed really!

Here are Anya's.

And here are Tara's

They get their love of chickens from me! There are plans for another tag making session after school :)

Creative space

This is my creative space today. I'm very pleased as I managed to tidy the mess from yesterday and get a bit of sewing done too :)

On my sewing table - business cards that are half made (I'll finish them off at ballet on Saturday), some green corduroy that is the remnants of a Christmas present (yes really - I'm getting organised this year!) and some beautiful 'Flutterby' fabric from Martine of greenolive.

See who else is playing over here.

2 hours by myself

I will have 2 hours to myself today as Tara will be at nursery :) I could do plenty of things but I am thinking that I should tidy up my craft room a bit - what you you think?

Not a busy day!

I've been busy playing this game today instead of doing all the things I had planned - as you can see I got to Rocketing Rabbit stage :) Give it a try!

My big girl!

I can't believe that Tara is now old enough to go to nursery - it doesn't seem 2 minutes since she was born yet alone 3 and a bit years! She was very eager to wear her uniform this morning!

We went for her first visit to nursery this morning - it was an hour to have a look round and a play with us there just in case she got worried/nervous/scared. Needless to say as soon as she saw the sand she was off and chatting to the other children there. Matt ended up fixing some robots for Mrs Wright the nursery teacher, and I sat and chatted with the other mums! She goes back for an hour by herself tomorrow which should be 9.30-10.30 but she is doing 9 til 10 as we drop Anya off and it seems silly to come back home to go straight back up! I think she will be fine and ready to start full time (9-11.30) on Wednesday.

It's a school nursery and her big sister is VERY excited that she will get to see Tara at playtime. I'll just have to think of what to do with that spare time! I'm sure I will think of something though ;)

New tags

Some new gift tags! I had been hoping that there would many more sets but I have been very busy - you know when you are busy but doing lots of little things with nothing to show? It's been one of those weekends! Both sets are made from the same huge fairy tales book that I rescued from the charity shop. I have many more tags to make but haven't had the time yet!

This set is on Etsy.

And this set is on Misi.