On the 25th day of Christmas I gave to Choccy & Furry..

...some yummy christmassy lush products

.....to have a lovely soak after a hard (but fun) day.
A bath bomb, soap and lip balm, wrapped in cling film to help preserve scent.

I've had a lovely, creative time making items for the gals, searching for bargains, and trying to make sure they suit the person they are going to, I hope I accomplished this :)

To see what I received check out my other blog.

On the 24th day of Christmas I gave to Choccy & Furry..

...a scrapbook page of memories.

I wanted to do a personal scrapbook page for both Furry and Choccy - These were my 2nd & 3rd pages I'd ever done so was concerned about getting them looking good, especially trying to do them in a style I thought they'd like.

FURRYS - The gift of friends:

I printed off photos that were taken the first time we'd met, and ones I thought we'd all like. I put a wonderful poem that I found with it, though I have to admit, edited it slightly to make it suit better.
I backed it all on brown as I know this is Furrys favourite colour, putting it with pink and ivory as I think these colours looked fab together.
The embellishment "good times" was a piece of card which I used glossy accents on to make it "pop"

CHOCCYS - Ironbridge
I tried to split this layout to represent the 3 areas of ironbridge we visited when Oona came to Telford.
On the left is photos of Blists Hill, a victorian town so its on victorian style paper that I aged slightly.
The centre is the time spent outside, both on the actual ironbridge and playing in the park. I mounted this on mellow yellow paper that faintly says "laugh, love, fun" which I thought was perfect.
On the right is our time at Enguinuity, a science fare type place, full of learning, hence being on a background of clocks, notes etc.

Too see what I received check out my other blog.

On the 23rd day of Christmas I gave to Furry..

..a book about extrodinary potenial in pigs

I bought "The whole hog" for Furrys advent pressie, a tad risky as these kinds of books can be rather dull, but all reviews of the book is that is very interesting and well written, whether your a fan of pigs or not.

On the 23rd day of Christmas I got for Choccy...

...a collection of seed cards

As Choccy is a keen gardener I decided to give her some seeds. In my shed I have envelopes with seeds I've collected from my own plants. I put some of these into small clear bags and created cards with images of the plants and growing instructions on them. I laminated the cards so the bags could be stuck to them but also be removed without harming the instructions.

On the 22nd day of Christmas I gave to Choccy & Furry..

...a 2010 calender

This is where my stalker powers and (rather small) internet knowledge came in handy. I found some photos of Furry and her family - this is what happens when people put photos up on the internet, people like me turn them into calenders, you have been warned!!!

Choccy was harder, there were few photos to find of all her family, and I didnt want to miss anyone out, so as I know she loves Magnolia Stamps I set about finding the best pictures made with these, and use those.

I made 2 totally different style calenders, both with Microsoft Publisher, printed them out (which working out which way to put the card so it printed the right way, back on back, in what order etc was mind numbing late at night) and used a binder to fasten them together. I then punched a hole at the top so it can be hung up.

To see what I received check out my other blog.

On the 21st day of Christmas I gave to Choccy & Furry...

..2 packs of 3d halloween stickers
To use on the girls cards or Scrapbooks.

To see what I received check out my other blog.

On the 19th day of Christmas I gave to Choccy & Furry

...a jar of bath fizzers

Another idea originally from Martha Stewart, I made a bath bomb mix and added Fairy dust scent, and a little red colouring. I then pushed it into a silicon ice cube tray and waited a couple of days to ensure it was properly dry before jarring it up.

I'm planning on making similar for my brother but with ck1 scented oil for part of his christmas smellies hamper.

To see what I received check out my other blog.

On the 18th day of Christmas I gave to Choccy & Furry

....A funny little broach

A pig broach for Furry, with funky googly eyes, I enjoyed making this guy, trying to give shape to his face, character to his ears, and the stereotypical curly tail.

And a nakey Santa for Choccy. I had a pair of ear rings with a simpler design when I was younger and loved them, they were a cheeky joke. I had great fun trying to make his curly hair/beard and give him white chest hair but not make it too prodominant.

I pushed an old charity pins into the back of each to make an imprint, baked the fimo, and then glued the pins in place, creating new "pins" out of old ones I wasnt using.

To see what I received check out my other blog.

"Thin Air Cakes"

I'd been looking for an excuse to use a set of cake themed scrapbook items I received free with a magazine subscription but having very few "girlie" moments that I think they'd match in my life I hadnt got round to it, it doesnt help when my mind finds it really hard with girlie PINK.

But when my youngest began pretending to cook one day I seized the opportunity.
Non of the photos came out very well, he was in a corner of the kitchen that at his height looks very cluttered (the boxes have family christmas presents in, ready to be shipped to Santa)

After finishing his cooking he went round offering his imaginary cakes round out of a tin I use for homebaked cakes. I nicknamed them "Thin Air Cakes", they were lighter than a feather, with zero calories!!

I'm not sure of this layout, I feel its missing...something..it doesnt quite all tie in together. I tried cutting an acetate cupcake to put under the 3 sections to see if this would work, & though it doesnt seem so disjointed its still lacking something, but if I add anything else I think it'll look cramped...hmmm...maybe it'll grow on me.

P.S...just spotted a mistake, I know its one no-one else will notice, but I do! Its meant to say 14th December 2009, not November, aghhhhh. Shall have to see if I can find a marker rubber & try again.

Day at the Zoo layout

We took a family day out to the Zoo, my family & my older brothers. The kids loved it, and we saw a lot of animals. Between myself, my brother and my son we took some fab photos, from all sorts of different angles. This gave me plenty of choice for making a page...almost too much choice as there was a lot of photos I wanted to use... so I can up with this layout

I tried to use the photos to make the look of the wire fences they use at the Zoo, if I was to do it again I wouldnt cut the top of the photos, I'd leave them pointed. It was simple to do, work out the size of the photos & therefore how many I could fit, rotate 45degrees in photoshop, crop to a square, alter the size to the size I needed and print. Cut out, and use a hole punch ( I used my crop-o-dile) to punch a semi circle on each corner.
Do similar with the box for writing.
I find it helps to layout the photos in publisher first, gives me an idea of the final layout.

This is my favourite layout so far, I think its simple but effective, no embellishments, or added items, just the photos, journalling and backing paper.

While your in a Christmassy mood...

...heres a Halloween Layout, lol

I dont think I've developed a "style" yet with scrapbooking, too early I guess, and I'm enjoying playing with different shapes, and styles. What has surprised me is that I'm using hardly anything that I'd learnt from books, hmmm, might not be a good thing but I prefer to play things by eye.

Yup, that is a piccy of me with my devil horns on, its one of the things I like about giving my eldest my old digi cam, I might get a lot of awful photos but at least there are some of me!! & yes, you will get sick & tired of that dress, it is my fav :) I also have a bag and corset on the same material so I'm sure those will "crop up" (boom boom, sorry bad scrapbook joke) at some point.

On the 16th day of Christmas I gave to Choccy & Furry

..a selection of Rub ons.

To see what I received check out my other blog.

On the 15th Day of Christmas I gave to Furry & Choccy..

...a post it note holder and matching address book

I'd been wanting to make one of these Post it note holders, and thought an address book was a good idea to go with it, in my head telephone messages (when not on a machine) are frequently written on post it notes, so here would be your address book all ready incase you needed to call them back, or contact someone about the message.

I took a thick piece of card and cut it into a square shape. I covered the front with paper (brown in Ruths favourite colour, and I know Oona likes chinese themes), then added a looped strip of paper and fastened to the back to hold a pen. I then placed a matching piece of paper to the back to hide any of the card and secure the loop of paper even more. I placed the post it note pad on the front and fastened with a bull dog clip which also allows it to be hung up if wanted.

The address books I took apart and recovered, adding a couple of stars/chinese image to the front so it didnt look so plain.

Too see what I received check out my other blog.

On the 14th day of Christmas I gave to Furry & Choccy..

...a slice of Loofah Soap

I read up on soap making and decided it was best I tried Melt and pour soap. I saw some soaps with a loofah on them, good for the circulation, exfoliates as you soap, and they looked fab!

I read & read & read, and the main point I came across was that you could use any water tight container for soap moulds as long as it was clean & you could get the soap out of it. I thought a pringle container was perfect if I could fit a loofah in it.

I bought some melt & pour soap off ebay, with a goats milk base and no sls. I then went loofah hunting. Loofahs are made from the fruit of a plant, I have to admit I used to think they were made from sea cucumbers and am very thankful I learnt otherwise. They arent scarce, except in shops!!!! Online p&p make them silly prices so I visited a lot of shops to find one. Shops now adays like back scrubbers, or hand loofahs, mits etc, not old fashioned loofahs. I finally found one in a Tesco Extra store, or rather I found half one.

I cut it in half and pushed it into the pringles tub, or should I say pushed, and pushed, and shoved, it was a very tight fit.
I melted the soap in a melting pot (a stainless steel indian food dish over a saucepan of hot water) and using a food thermometer to stir got it to optimum melting point, and took it off the heat. I stirred in scent and a small amount of Mica glitter (used in beauty products), then poured it over the loofah quickly.

I then left it for 48 hours (with the pringle lid on) to set.

When set I ripped off the pringle tub and sliced into soap sized pieces. I wrapped it up in baking parchment to keep it clean but allow it to sweat a bit if need be.

To see what I received check out my other blog.

On the 13th day of Christmas I gave to Choccy & Furry..

...3d embossed pink lillies

..... acid free so can be used for scrapping and card making

To see what I received check out my other blog.

On the 12th day of Christmas I gave to Choccy & Furry..

...a Journal with lots of questions

A Journal Jar is a Jar full of questions to help someone journal their life, to write memories for the generations to come.

Rather than doing a journal jar I decided to print the questions on paper fastened to a keyring.

I took apart and recovered a couple of notebooks, I added a ribbon on each to use as a book mark, I also used this to create a loop to fasten the keyring to. I decorated the front of the journals to compliment the pattern on the paper.

To see what I received check out my other blog.

On the 11th day of Christmas I gave to Choccy & Furry

.....A farmyard notice board


I saw some 12x12 notice boards in poundland and knew I wanted to alter them somehow, I also saw some 3d animal stickers which were my inspiration, that & Furrys love for Pigs (sorry Mr Furry, sure thats not why she fell for you)

I painted the notice boards a couple of times with green paint to give a field effect, I didnt want it perfect as, well, fields arent are they!

I first of all just unpeeled the stickers and stuck them down but found that this didnt hold them so used the glue gun. While it was out I also used the glue gun to attach crystal gems to the mini bulldog clips, and on top of the drawing pins.

I clipped the bulldog clips to the top so the noticeboard could be hung up, and also added 3 stripes of magnet to the back so it can also be put on a fridge or similar if wanted.

To see what I received check out my other blog.

On the 10th day of Christmas I gave to Choccy & Furry...

...2 scented bath bombs


I was lucky enough to have been given some bath bomb moulds by my MIL, one large and a smaller one. I'd wanted to try making my own for ages but this gave me the perfect opportunity.

I made the bath bomb mix and added Fairy Dust scent and a small amount of red colouring. It was quite hard trying to work out the right consistence until I saw on a youtube clip to squeeze some of it in your hand and drop into the bowl from a foot high, if it breaks up its not damp enough, if it stays whole your onto a winner.

I pushed it into the moulds, the next problem was trying to get the 2 halves to stick together. By just pushing them together it didnt work, so I tried spraying a bit of witch hazel on one half to "stick" them together. As long as I sprayed a small amount it worked, too much and it fizzed, making it impossible to stick together.

I removed them from the moulds and left to one side to dry.
When dry I wrapped them in clingfilm to help maintain the smell and prevent them getting wet.

To see what I received check out my other blog.

On the 9th day of Christmas I gave to Choccy & Furry

...a selection of christmas rub ons

..all acid free so perfect for cards or scrapbooking.

To see what I received check out my other blog.

On the 8th day of Christmas I gave to Choccy & Furry

...an altered piece of Jewellery

I was one of the bargainous people who queue'd up outside Marks and Spencers on their first 25th anniversary 1p items day. The queue was long but people were in good spirits. We were all given a bag, and on entering the store a bag of sweets and can of gingerbear were popped into the bag. I let my Mom chose an item (she arrived late so stood with me but didnt feel it was fair to get a bag seeing she'd pushed in) and I chose a bracelet and necklace.



When I got home and looked at closer I saw the coin on them was almost as poor a quality as my photos, cant complain for 1p items so I put them to one side thinking they'd come in handy at somepoint.

On my travels I came across 2 little humming bird charms, one with pink wings, the other with blue. I thought they'd be perfect for my busy friends, who rarely sit on the laurels doing nothing, Furry's usually got an activity or 2 planned and Choccy is always crafting.

I carefully removed the coins and replaced them with the humming birds, which went on perfectly, and looked a million times better.

So heres what they received yesterday:-






To see what I received check out my other blog.

On the 7th day of Christmas I gave to Choccy & Furry

....a couple of jars of chutney

I had a glut of frozen Damsons, so I used Delias recipe to make Damson Chutney.

We also went scrumping at the beginning of autumn, my Mom told me that my dad used to take us out to collect apples off some trees on a walk we used to do to get to a lake. I took my sister and youngest along the route and after quite a bit of looking found the trees. Most of the ones we might have been able to reach had fallen off so I shook the tree as hard as I could while the other two watched where the apples fell.

We got a good bag full and I used about half to make Apple Chutney. Its a much milder taste than the Damson Chutney.

To see what I received check out my other blog.

On the 6th day of Christmas I gave to Choccy & Furry..

....a vanishing pen

This pen can be used to draw guidlines or anything else you want, it then vanishes within 3 days. Its also acid free so fab for scrapbooking as well as cards.

To see what I received check out my other blog.

On the 5th day of Christmas I gave to Choccy & Furry...

..an animal made out of socks (new ones :)

I loved making these! Another pig for Furry, made out of 2 socks, some beads, buttons and a ribbon. This is my favourite sock animal, its great for throwing around, and playing with.

When I saw the stripey socks I knew I had to make a Zebra sock animal, and this one developed an endearing beer belly :D Sadly it doesnt sit down properly but I think its punk hair do more than makes up for it,lol. I did try it with earrings and nose ring to enhance the punkness but it just didnt work.

To see what I received check out my other blog.

On the 4th day of christmas I got for Choccy & Furry...

...some lovely smelling vicks scented bath salts

This Jar of bath salts will clear your sinus', Head or just wake you up!

I mixed 1 cup coarse sea salt with 2 cups epsom salts, a few drops of vicks scented oil and 1/4 teaspoon of glycerin. I then split it into 2 different dishes and added blue colouring to the one bowl and stirred well.

Finally I layered it up in the jar, first blue, then white, blue, white etc until as full as I wanted it to be.

To use you just take as spoonfull or so and add to running bath water. Lie in the bath, soak, enjoy :)

To see what I received check out my other blog.

On the 3rd day of christmas I got for choccy & furry

...A jar of Magic Snow

This comes from the idea of cookie/cake mix in a jar. Kai came up with the name for this present, he watched me pouring the ingredients into the jars and called it snow.

The Jars contain the dry ingredients for.... Hot cookie dough for Furry, and Coffee Torte for Choccy.

I also put with them a laminated sheet of the whole recipe, so if, when they make it using the Jars plus wet ingredients, they enjoy it and it works ok they can make it themselves from scratch.

To see what I received check out my other blog.

On the 2nd day of christmas I got for choccy & furry,,,

..a birthday scrap layout kit, and vellum sheets.

To see what I received check out my other blog.

On the first day of christmas..

... I made for Choccy & Furry...

... a countdown door hanger and whiteboard pen.

I made these a while ago & blogged about it here, but didnt mention I'd also made 2 more, one for choccy, and another for furry.

To see what I received check out my other blog.

Go to Furrys blog to see what she wrote about it.

Card holder wreath

I shall post my first make of the advent swap tomorrow, that way I know the girls should have opened them. Until then, heres what I made yesterday...


I got the idea from Martha Stuart but couldnt find an embroidery hoop large enough, so I took some florists wire, taped 4 pieces together, moulded them around my circular washing basket and taped the ends together.
I then wrapped ribbon around it and glued the end. Over this glued bit I put some ribbon to hang it up with and a bow at the top (made from wired ribbon).
Finally I attached craft pegs on with the glue gun, some pointing inwards for smaller cards, and some pointing outwards for the larger cards.

Heres what it looks like without cards on:-