after Christmas ....

.... and I've still got a whole week before I go back to work! It's been lovely having a long holiday with just "us" .... it's how I like it best! The boys have been spending their Christmas money and playing with whatever it is they bought with it, we've sharpened up at Guitar Hero and I'm sure any day now I shall be moving off beginner!

I made some new stuff (of course!) - the first thing I made is a Mermaid Bag Book with some graphics from pcCrafter.

I decoupaged the mermaids and added a tiny bit of glitter, I designed and paper pieced some shells, starfish and a couple of jelly fish .... I also used some lovely seashell rubber stamps that I'd forgotten I had ... they look lovely embossed with a verdigris powder.

I'm rather pleased with how it turned out and I can't believe I managed to make the whole book without the aid of Prima flowers!!

I've also made a heap more felt brooches - I've really enjoyed the hand sewing, especially doing blanket stitch (something I haven't done since leaving school!)

I think the cupcake ones are my favourite! They do take an age to sew though ..... still, gives me something to do whilst sitting in front of all that Christmas television!

I got felt ....

.... so I made felt brooches! I've been wanting to play with felt for ages, here's what I've made so far:


I'm off to make more .... if only I'd realised sooner that my sizzix cut through felt!

I love .....

..... my postman. He has brought me the most amazing things this week! I really look forward to coming home from work and seeing which of my packages is waiting for me (although I do dread seeing the "we couldn't post it so we've taken it to the sorting office" card). I've had a bit of a spending spree over the last week or so, mostly on felt, ribbons and buttons.

I found this wonderful ribbons on MISI, from Crafty Moments - she is selling it at £1 for 15m. I bought three lots and it arrived earlier this week - it is so lovely that I have ordered another four lots! I also bought these buttons from her:

I then went on to buy a whole lot more buttons from ebay ...... I got to spend Friday afternoon sorting them into colours - bliss! And, if that wasn't enough, my latest purschase from my friend Chloe (the Paper Fairy) came - 100 brown paper bags, which takes my bag stash to something in the region of 500. I think I should stop there ..... for a while at least.

I also got lots of beautiful handmade cards from my very talented friends - so I thought I'd show some of them off here:

Make it ....

.... sell it. I've discovered a new uk based website for selling handcrafted items and supplies called MISI (Make It Sell It) and I've just listed my first item on there. It's a lovely site with all sorts of handcrafted goodies available .... I wish I found it before I started my Christmas shopping! I think next year I shall try to either make all of my presents or buy presents that other people have made.

Anyway, I'm not sure how many people are using MISI so keep your fingers crossed. that my book sells! Here is a link to my MISI shop and here is the front page of the album I have for sale.

I'm going to spend the rest of the day working on my Secret Santa for our office - we each have to make a present for the person who's name we drew out of the hat. I'm making a "movie night" bucket with movie tickets, home made popcorn, popcorn boxes and some chocolate wrappers .... I've also bought the "it's a very merry muppet christmas movie" dvd and replaced "muppet" with the surname of the person I am making for. As soon as it's all done I shall post photos. I think this is one of the best things we have thought of so far for our office - my favourite is still the complete office party we had last year when there was just the two of us sharing!