WOYWW 169

Happy Wednesday to you all.  This is the last Wednesday of the school holidays here which means that this is my last precious day just with my son, while my girl has her last day at nursery.  It's such a rarity to spend time with just him and me and I have no idea how we will ever manage it again, aside from him being off school poorly (very rare) while she is at preschool.

Today we will be doing some sewing as he has just discovered those pre-hole-punched sewing kits.  We will also be making a little Smash book type thing for him to record his lessons for September as he is going to be joining in with me for Learn Something New Everyday.  I thought it would be a good way to encourage him to write outside of school as he really needs the practise.  He reads beautifully, is okay at mental maths, has a great vocabulary and a wonderful imagination but anything involving using a pen / pencil and everything goes wrong - it's a bit like his brain and his hand are not connected!

I did have a clear up last week after we had both done some crafting and I sorted out my supplies for LSNED and put them in the box on the left there.  The pockets contain pieces of punched owl (we would like to confirm that no owls were harmed in the making of this blog post).

The owls will be used as date markers / journalling tags and I'm sure Louis will want to make some of these too for his own book.  Aren't they cute?!

If you stopped by last week then you will know about the mystery of the hospital tags.  Well I solved that by asking a lovely friend who was also a stand-by independent midwife for me at the time and she said NHS midwives issues them in case the baby needs to be admitted at all.  I did wonder if that was the case as they hadn't been worn, just filled in.  Still no idea why they were in the car 3 years later though!

Well that's my desk revealed for the week, how about you?  Care to share your crafting space?  Link up with the Queen of the Desks Miss Julia and let other creative types have a nosy too.

Bye for now
xx

Teacher Presents

I worked for a while as a Teaching Assistant and I was amazed by the amount of gifts I received at the end of term and at Christmas.  I don't remember giving presents to my teachers when I was at school so it was quite a pleasant surprise.  I experienced a range of gifts and cards but I have noticed each year that there are more and more things available in the shops especially for such occasions.  I thought back to my gifts and the ones I remembered were not the bunches of flowers or the epic amounts of alcohol and chocolate (although they were VERY welcome), but the slightly obscure, the really odd, and the ones that were home-made.  I decided that I would avoid the really odd and try for something a little out of the ordinary and most definitely home-made.  I had an idea for spraying a gorgeous design onto the 99p Hobbycraft canvas totes and it started really well but the final butterfly messed up big time and I had to have a rather swift rethink.  I was making a Dundee cake for my Dad and I thought it might be a good option for the teachers as it keeps well and isn't chocolate :-)

Obviously I wanted to make the thank you cards as well.  I've been waiting for the right time to use this little owl and now seemed very appropriate.  All the papers are My Mind's Eye and both the owl and the bunting punches are by Stampin Up.  I punched out the scallop circle before I adhered the background card to the card blank and the little owl fits right in the negative space - perfect!

I needed to stick the baking paper down with something and I literally squealed when I remembered my newly purchased Smash tape.  It had just perfect wording on it for edible loveliness.

I wanted the finished gift to be wrapped in brown paper and twine and then prettied up with a tag that they could keep.  

Here's a close up of the tag using papers from Echo Park's Everyday Eclectic range in 6x6 (more on that very soon!)

I will go back to the canvas bags but I need to do a bit more experimenting with the spray inks to try and stop them bleeding but either way, one won't be going to Louis' next teacher as it is a man.  No pretty trinket boxes or notebooks, no floral bookmarks, I need to get my thinking cap on for this one!

Bye for now

xx

WOYWW 140

Good morning to you all from a very chilly Southern England.  We didn't have snow which really upset the children but who knows what the next few days will bring?

For your delectation this morning we have Slimming World magazines (I am trying to make a note of which books my fave recipes are in) and my Smash book which is going to be my weight loss and fitness inspiration.  Funny that the first page I opened was a picture of a cake...  Just behind the iPad, out of sight, is the current DT project for S J Crafts and next to that is an album that I made that I am repurposing into a DIY Smash book for ideas for the home.  I need to rejuvinate my desire to sort both myself out and get on with the decorating etc but I don't want to miss sticking pretty things together either.

I finished another of my boxes and I am really pleased with the way they are turning out.  Lots more to do though.

And seeing as last week's peek inside my drawers went down so well, I thought I would show you another one. This is my ribbon box - the larger bits are wound around card and the smaller bits are in jars sorted by colour - purdy!

I thought I had visited a fair few last week but the list on Julia's blog gets longer and longer - I do try though.  And we do love to see, because sharing is caring.

Bye for now
xx