Almost december ... and I'm Feeling Summery

After our family holiday in St Ives in Cornwall this summer I was definitely feeling the love for VW Campervans. To the point I was researching second hand campers on the drive home. For now it is possibly a little impractical for our family particularly considering the carseats and my love of a good hotel mattress but you can't beat the iconic look of those lovely vehicles, and so we bought the kids a toy Camper van each and I treated myself to some VW Camper and Beetle style stamps.

 

 

I've already featured the stamps as part of my steadily growing Christmas tag range. But when I started experimenting with my more bright and summery distress inks I just couldn't stop and ended up with 7 vivid variations. I really love these bright colours against the monochrome camper and the natural twine give it a bit of a beachy feel!

 

[Now available at Etsy]

 

Super Hero Party: The finished result!

It's always nice when a plan comes together. Weeks of research on pinterest, brainstorming, cutting, gluing and baking finally came together. This time for my son's 4th Birthday Party. Amazingly this is the first children's party where I didn't feel rushed at the end, no sobbing into the regal icing, I even had time to go back and try ideas shelved as 'if I get time I might try that' - all helped by a few late nighters of course.

When we first started party planning my son quite liked Spiderman (you may remember the mask post back in August) then he quickly discovered other animated series the Super Hero Squad Show, X-men and the Avengers and so the party evolved into a more general 'Super Heros' party. I tried to represent all of his favourite characters in the food and party items: Hulk Jellies, Iron-man Biscuits, Captain America Cupcakes, Wolverine Cake, Thor's Cheese Hammers & Spiderman Invites ... we even had a telephone booth to change in....

Showing some love for local crafting :)

Feeling the love today for local crafting. I discovered 'Sparkle Dreams' paper crafting shop and workshop at Studley Grange. Having lived in Wiltshire for 4 years, I have long bemoaned the fact that we have quite limited sources for good crafting materials - often having to resort to online shopping or my weekly pilgrimage to the crafting giant Hobbycraft.

 

 

How wonderful to discover an intimate little shop, around the corner with animated and passionate staff, offering a more personal service. It was a joy to be able to browse the racks, see and touch products I'd only seen photos of online. I was like a kid in a candy shop, with cries of "Tim Holtz!" and "I've not seen this MME paper before!" it was a revelation ... and probably a bit embarrassing to everyone I was with.

 

Don't get me wrong, I am a bargain hunter and will always shop around for my crafting needs, but for the joy and shear satisfaction of being able to touch and see what I'm buying might be worth overlooking a little price comparison now and then ;) Not to mention showing support for our local businesses.

 

NB:- Sparkle Dreams can be located at Studley Grange 16, M4 Motorway near Wroughton. The shop also offers regular crafting workshops. [Photo credit Sparkle Dreams]

Super hero party: Iron Man Biscuit Cookies

There are likely to be quite a few super hero party related posts soon, as for the past few weeks I've had my head down creating and baking for my Son's themed Birthday this Saturday.

 

Firstly here is a last minute idea of mine: Iron Man's hand biscuits (I'm British and just can't bring myself to call anything that isn't soft and chewy a 'cookie'). They are baked with coloured dough so they look effective without needing a rainbow of regal icing or a steady hand for royal icing flooding. Althou, if you want a quick version of these biscuits, simple make the red dough and then cut grey and white regal icing into circles to stick on afterwards. [Read more, for the receipe]

 

 

 

Handmade card: Teal and Brushed Corduroy

It's my step-mother's birthday today, so I can finally reveal the card I made for her. I used a mixture of papers, dies and inks. It's probably the most 'my style' card I've made for a while. Tried very hard not to over-work it. Love the paper colour combination and the vintage book page buttons.