Fe-Fe's World Of Craft, Creations and Kids.

This blog was started mainly for my crafting, however I also find myself writing about my family life too and in particular about my son Josh. Josh is just Josh to us and we're used to his quirky behaviour. As I don't want to have to mention Josh's autism every time I post about him, I thought I'd mention it here. Hopefully you will bear this in mind as you read and it may give you a little insight into the wonderful world of the autisic child in a very gentle way!

Saturday 16 June 2018

Xmas Mouse Card

I desperately need to make some more Christmas cards so I had a look at the ABC Christmas Challenge which is L is for Love and M is for Mice. As I'm not in love with anyone at the moment I decided to go with Mice.

Here is my card.

I used a Country Companions stamp coloured with Promarkers and a little bit of chalk on the background.

Monday 16 April 2018

I is for Ice

As I said in my last post the ABC Christmas challenge is H is for Hat and I for Ice. I've already done the H is for Hat so thought I'd try my hand at I for Ice too.

I have a gorgeous penguin stamp that has the sentiment "Have an ice day" underneath it that is a perfect fit for this challenge. Here is my card.

Friday 6 April 2018

H is for Hat

Decided I'm not going to leave all my Christmas cards til the last minute this year and so I thought I'd take part in the ABC Christmas Challenge which is H for Hats and I for Ice. I've not done the I for Ice yet but here is my H for Hat.

I used one of my old favourite Whipper Snapper stamps which I coloured with promarkers and then stamped the sentiment in the corner. He's such a dapper snowman in his hat.

Wednesday 4 April 2018

Birthday Card for a Challenge

I needed to make a card for my Aunt Irene who lives in Scotland so thought I'd have a look at the challenge blogs that I like and see if I could find a challenge to get my teeth into. I found a card to CASE on the Less Is More Challenge.

The case card is a cluster of flowers in beautiful blues with a silver glitter sentiment and a gentle smattering of sequins on it.

For my card I decided I liked the blues and as I don't usually work with stamped flowers I dug out a really old set and used this flower stamp from it which I've never actually used before. Rather than do a cluster of flowers I did mine in a line.

I added a sentiment in just plain silver as I didn't have silver glitter and added some bling with gems to the centre of the flowers and scattered around the flowers. I really enjoyed this challenge as it totally took me out of my comfort zone, which is good because I feel like I've got stuck in a rut. That's why I like a challenge that really does challenge. :0)

Tuesday 13 March 2018

Mother's Day Card

This is the Mother's Day card I made for my Mum. I set myself a challenge of using a die I've had for a while and haven't used yet. In this case it was the border die which I cut out of green dotty card stock.

The inside is from another die set which I have used a few times. The Happy Mother's Day stamp is an old one too and the little butterflies are from a set called Royal Flutter By Spellbinders.

Sunday 18 February 2018

Mum's Birthday Card

It's my mum's birthday today. One year left before the big 70! I made this card for her using the butterfly die she bought me for Christmas which I love. It also fits nicely into the Cute Card Thursday Challenge which is "One Word Sentiment"

The paper used is a lilac pearlescent one by Craftwork Cards, it's really pretty but doesn't come over that well on the photo.

Sunday 4 February 2018

Three 5th Birthdays

My youngest daughter has a birthday party to go to this afternoon for three of her friends from school. Two of them are twins and the third is their best friend so they are having a joint party. I asked them all what their favourite colours are, Ellie said red, Olivia said pink and Carmen said silver and gold. I didn't have any silver card so I went with gold.

The wings, tiara's and wand tips are all made with glitter card which of course gets everywhere. I know how fairies feel now, I'm leaving a trail of fairy dust wherever I go!

I hope they like them.

I'm going to enter one for the Cute Card Thursday challenge which is "Anything Goes". I don't normally enter ones where it's "anything goes" as I don't really feel like it's much of a "challenge" I have that particular "challenge" every time I start making a card. I prefer something that takes me out of my comfort zone and feels like its challenging me to do something different, but in the spirit of trying to get back into blogging and posting more regularly and getting used to how it all works again after such a long time away I'm going to make the exception just this once. :-)

Sunday 7 January 2018

Flower Challenge

I have made this card for my youngest daughter's friend at school who will be 5 towards the end of this month. The Moving Along With The Times challenge is 'Flowers' so I thought I'd use my Sarah Kay Stamp which has lots of pretty flowers on it and teamed it up with some flowery paper too.

You can never have too many flowers in a flower challenge!! :0)

Ode to Special Mums

Ode to Special Moms(by Erma Bombeck)

Most women become mothers by accident, some by choice, a few by social pressures and a couple by habit. This year, nearly 100,000 women will become mothers of handicapped children. Did you ever wonder how mothers of handicapped children are chosen?

Somehow I visualize God hovering over Earth selecting his instruments for propagation with great care and deliberation. As he observes, he instructs his angels to make notes in a giant ledger.
"Armstrong, Beth, son, patron saint, Matthew.
Forrest, Marjorie, daughter, patron saint, Cecilia.
"Rudledge, Carrie, twins, patron saint, give her Gerard. He's used to profanity."
Finally, he passes a name to an angel and smiles, "Give her a handicapped child."

The angel is curious. "Why this one, God? She's so happy."

"Exactly," says God. "Could I give a handicapped child to a mother who does not know laughter? That would be cruel."

"But has she patience?" asks the angel.

"I don't want her to have too much patience or she will drown in a sea of self-pity and despair. Once the shock and resentment wear off, she'll handle it.
"I watched her today. She has that feeling of self and independence that is so rare and so necessary in a mother. You see, the child I'm going to give her has his own world. She has to make it live in her world, and that's not going to be easy."

"But, Lord, I don't think she even believes in you."

God smiles. "No matter. I can fix that. This one is perfect. She has just enough selfishness."

The angel gasps, "Selfishness? Is that a virtue?"

God nods. "If she can't separate herself from the child occasionally, she'll never survive. Yes, here is a woman whom I will bless with a child less than perfect. She doesn't realize it yet, but she is to be envied. She will never take for granted a 'spoken word.' She will never consider a 'step' ordinary. When her child says 'Momma' for the first time, she will be present at a miracle and know it! When she describes a tree or a sunset to her child, she will see it as few people ever see my creations."I will permit her to see clearly the things I see...ignorance, cruelty, prejudice...and allow her to rise above them. She will never be alone. I will be at her side every minute of every day of her life, because she is doing my work as surely as she is here by my side."

"And what about her patron saint?" asks the angel, pen poised midair.

God smiles. "A mirror will suffice."

"Welcome to Holland"

"Welcome to Holland" By Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away...because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss. But...if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.