I'm Divine

I have a claim to fame! I've been featured on the Divine Influence Blog courtesy of my lovely Trimmies friend Leanne. So I can now proudly display this lovely banner.
I finally have something new to share with you all. This is a leaving card I made for my friend Melissa who is going back to Australia in a few weeks time. It's from all the Bunco ladies so I went for a tag card again so that everyone could write their own individual messages on a tag and I could just pop it in the card.

The papers are K&Co, the Mouse Stamp is a Penny Black coloured with Twinkling H2Os. The writing is done with Quickutz Dies in my Cuttlebug.

The tags are all done on my mum's Cricut as mine has now completely packed up.

Melissa got her card and present last night at the Christmas Bunco and I'm pleased to say she loved them both.

Leaving Card

When Ellie started back at school in September she had a stand in teacher as her regular teacher was off on sick leave. However the regular teacher has now been given a clean bill of health and is taking over again after half term. Sadly this means that the stand in teacher had her last day on Friday. I made her this card as a leaving card, I also made her an altered After Eight Mints box but I stupidly forgot to photograph it before Ellie took it in to give to her.

The papers for this are all by My Minds Eye. The image is by Woodware and I did paper piecing to colour it except for the puddles which I did with Twinkling H2Os and blue stickles. The flowers I made myself using paper punches of different sizes.

You know (in the crafting world) they say there is no such thing as mistakes only happy accidents? Well this card had a lot of "Happy Accidents" The orange spotty strip was supposed to go underneath the image but I managed to get glue on it and when I tried to rub it off it made a right mess. To disguise it I put the strip over the top instead and then added punched leaves to give it a little bit of something. Also while I was inking the edges of the spotty backing paper I slipped and put a big green smudge down it so I had to cover that with the punched flowers. I still think it's looks ok though and if I don't tell anyone they'll never know! :-)

Shhhhhh!

Leaving Tag Card

Another Bunco friend has headed off back to the States and, as is now customary, I made a card for her with lots of little tags so that everyone can write their own private message to go in it.

The papers for this card are all from set by K&Co. The wording was done using Quickutz alphabet dies in my Cuttlebug. The lady stamp is by Crafty Individuals (I think). The flowers are all Primas.

The tags I made using my Cricut and I added some fibres to each tag. The papers again are K&Co and the flowers are Primas.
I may going a bit quiet for a while after this post. The kids are off school for 6 weeks and need lots of attention and also I have lost my crafting mojo. Too many personal things going off at the moment.

I have temporarily relieved myself of my DT posts over the summer holidays and I am going to take a well earned break in the hope that once the holidays are over and the children go back to school things will be looking much better and my mojo will have returned.

I found it so hard doing the teachers gifts and Meghan's leaving card and that's not like me. I also haven't felt much like blog hopping either so my apologies if I haven't visited your blog for ages either.

I hope you all have a wonderful summer and I will see you all again in September.

Hugs

Fe x

School's out!

Yes Josh and Ellie finished school on Friday. Hooray! For Josh this is a big turning point as he is starting at the High School in September. It's going to mean big changes for him but I think once the newness of it all has worn off and he settles in I think it will do him the world of good.

On Wednesday it was Sports Day and despite doing many rain dances throughout the morning, the sun shone and it wasn't cancelled. Bah Humbug. As usual Josh ended up in tears after the first 10 minutes and then refused to take part and I was left to deal with him, as usual.

Did I actually think this year would be any different?! No, that's why I was praying for rain! LOL!

We ended up just finding a quiet spot and messing about until it was all over. I don't know why I don't just keep them both off on Sports Day. It would make life a whole lot easier and be a lot less stressful.

On Friday Josh and the rest of the Year 6 kids had a leavers assembly and I have to say I was doing fine until they started singing the school leavers song at the end. The lyrics were along the lines of:

This is our leavers song
We're proud of what we've done

Go from here with confidence

With all the things to come

We've never been so mature

As we head out through that door

We're leaving for ******** High

Time to say Goodbye

There were more verses but Josh can't remember them.

Anyway seeing all the kids up on the stage, most of whom I've known since they started in reception 7 years ago. Kids that I've been on school trips with, walked with them to the church for Harvest Festivals and Christmas services, I've lit their Christingle candles for them and watched them intensely to make sure they didn't set fire to themselves. I've seen them taking part in various assembly's and plays throughout the past 7 years and seen them all grow up so much in that time and to see them all up there singing those lyrics... well soppy sod that I am, I blubbed like a baby!

It didn't help that my favourite teacher at the school is also leaving. She's the only class teacher that Josh has ever had that has actually understood him and known how to handle him to get the best out of him. If it wasn't for this teacher I dread to think what Josh would be like now. She is an amazing lady and I'm gutted that Ellie will never get to have her as a class teacher. I am mortified that she's leaving.

This is the card I made for her.

The papers are by Hot Off the Press and the stamp is a Woodware.

Not A Christmas Card (As Promised)

I have decided I am not going to do any crafting today as it is the kids last day at home - they go back to school tomorrow. Yes, it's back to getting up at 6.15am again tomorrow. Oh joy. Can't begin to tell you how much I am looking forward to that!

As I promised, no Christmas cards today, instead here is a card I made for one of the school Mums/Bunco ladies who left England just before Christmas to go and live in South Africa. Well they were going home to Sweden for Christmas then they go on to South Africa from there some time around now, I think.

This was for Helena from all the Bunco ladies.
Inside I made two fold down pockets and gave each of the Bunco ladies an individual tag to write their own personal message on. On this photo they aren't quite finished. I added ribbons to each tag in alternate yellow and brown and I also added some flowers to the corners of the fold overs. Unfortunately there were one or two people who were late getting their tags in so I didn't get chance to take a final photo of it completed so you'll just have to use your imaginations a bit.

Lol!

This is a close up of the layered butterfly and felt flower on the front.

Papers, Tag (on front) and Embellishments: K&Co

Tags (inside): Cricut ~ Tags, Bags and Boxes Cartridge.

Leaving Card For Anita

My friend Anita and her family have been living in England for about two and a half years now. They came over from America through her husbands work. About a year ago Anita and another lady from the States called Beth decided to introduce the ladies of Cheshire to "Bunco" nights. Bunco is a game played with 3 dice and 12 players (although you can play with more or less!) The aim of the game is to keep rolling sixes until you get 21 points. You get 1 point if you roll 1 six and 5 points if you roll 2 sixes. If you roll 3 sixes then you have to shout "Big Bunco!" and you've won that round. At the end there's cash prizes for the person with the most wins, most losses, most Big Buncos and the last Big Bunco. It's actually quite difficult to explain but very easy to play and to be honest it's more about the ladies getting together once a month to eat chocolate and have a laugh - the game is just an added bonus. It was quite an emotional Bunco night this Thursday, Anita is leaving to go back to America in two weeks. The Bunco Ladies all clubbed together and we bought her a teapot, creamer, sugar bowl and 4 mugs and I made a card which everyone signed. I thought I'd use lots of Sugar Nellie stamps (and there's a Magnolia in there too) to represent all the Bunco Ladies. I really liked the way it turned out. If it looks very tall it's because it's a 12 by 12 sheet of card folded in half.