Christmas Fair

Well, where has Christmas sneaked up from? It only feels like yesterday we were starting school and now we have been working on donations for the School Christmas Fair.

This year Little Lady decided we had to make something for the School Fair and cakes just wouldn't cut it "Mummy we make cakes for school all the time!" She's right they run a monthly cake sale with the proceeds going to a different charity each month, which is great but donating cakes just wasn't enough for the SCHOOL CHRISTMAS FAIR!! 

So we whisked up 50+ sweet bags......

These are soooo easy to make Little Lady helped make everyone!  The stamps we used are our Little Holly Stamp and our Christmas Greetings. And lots of glitter glue.

So 50+ bags of sweets you would think would be enough, and in most cases you would be right! BUT! To Little Lady NO! She decided she wanted to make some toys, yes you read that right MAKE some toys. So after a few discussions, Little Lady won I ended up crocheting monsters and minions.....

SORRY, WORST PICTURES EVER!!!!!

Yep, I have learnt to Crochet!!!! It has only taken me till the grand old age of ** but I have finally done it! Many people have tried to teach me over the years, I have driven them mad as I just couldn't get it, but for some reason about two months ago it just clicked and I LOVE it!

So for my next challenge I have to make Little Ladies Nativity costume! Drum roll please! She has been cast in the oh so vital roll of CAMEL. Yes it is the ideal roll for her she gets to plod along at her own pace in her own little world and I have to figure out how to make a camel costume (minus the head!) oh the fun!

And a post from me would be complete without a picture of Little Lady and Little Man in all their craziness.....

Oh dear

Is anyone still out there............

What can I say I have been really bad these past few months. 

We (by that I mean the royal "we") have been to the Ross Papercrafts Shows at Rainton and Grimbsy and a week on Saturday (25th October) I yes I will be at Stamperama in Flitwick in support of the East Anglian Air Ambulance. I can't wait, it will be my first show since May and boy have I missed chatting away to all you nice people! So please if your in the area that day why not come along have a chat and support a great cause! Check out their website for more info http://www.stamperama.com

I have also been playing with my paints again!

Since Little Lady started school/swimming we seem to get a letter (or two!) every night so I decided that I needed a better way of filing it all, our poor breakfast bar was disappearing under a sea of "important" letters. So I bought some cheap clipboards, decorated them and now they are hung neatly near the front door with all letters and notes neatly filed!!!!

This is Little Lady's

Do you recognise the stamp I used???? Yep its Lizzie Doodles, Little Lady chose it herself and helped to finish it off!

And this is Little man's

As for the other two I am just adding the glaze and will share them with you when they are dry!

Oh and Little Lady she is loving big school, the best part being lunch times where her and her "bestiest friend ever!" play with the big kids - I dread to think what she gets up to! And Little Man well he is a star, keeping me on my toes and growing up very fast on Friday he hits the big 10 (weeks!) where does the time go - if I am not careful he will be off to school before I know it!

Playing Catchup

So many things have happened here at Crafty Roo HQ I am not quite sure where to begin, I guess I should  start were I left off nearly 1 month ago!

BIRTHDAY

Well Little Lady turned FOUR, when/how did that happen? Sometimes I don't recognise the grown up young lady staring back at me or more accurately the teenager answering me back! 

To celebrate the big day she had a birthday party which she planned. She gave me a list of games she wanted, now I know what your thinking "how difficult can it be to do pass the parcel?" well this is Little Lady I am talking about so she wanted "proper" carnival games......

So we had Hook a Duck, Giant Skittles, Score a Goal, Whack a Mole, Pop a Balloon and Bean Bag Bucket.

Oh and of course a sheep cake 'cos that's what all 4 year old's want as their birthday cake!

NEW STAMPS

We also have new stamps!!!

We have some fabulous Christmas ones........

 

Some new additions to our Build Your Own Range, these new ones are all sentiments and you get to create your own greeting - I have to say these are great to work with especially for last minute makes!!!!!!!! 

 

Some spooky Halloween ones

  

And as requested Cogsworth has been made into a stamp.

 

So if you are fancying a new stamp or two for those crafty makes why not check out our website.

NEW ADDITION

I guess this has to be the biggest bit of news! 

Baby Roo finally arrived.

Our little Man is the spitting image of his big sister at that age apart from he has far more hair! However that's as far as the similarites go! He is the most chilled out Little Man I have ever met, as along as his belly is full he is one happy little chappy! I can't wait for him to get a little bigger and we can all start crafting together!

GIVEAWAY

Finally, do you fancy winning some of the new Crafty Roo Stamps? Well why not check out Issue 70 of Creative Cardmaking........

End of the School Year!

I can't believe Little Lady has finished school, it only feels like yesterday I was packing her off on her first solo adventure 

and she has now completed her first year at school (well nursery!)!

 Boy has she grown sooo much this year, she has gone from a little girl who was shy and nervous to an independent young madame who happily walks into school all by herself, well with her "bestist friend ever!" She is really looking forward to September and is driving me crazy asking how many more days till she can go to school! 

Before school finished she was awarded the "Queen of Calm" award for always making sure everyone gets a turn, calming any situation and having a calming influence on others! I couldn't be prouder! As for a photo - yep I forgot my camera - at least I remembered the assembly!

So in true Queen of Calm style she decided she had to make a present for her teacher, but not just her group teacher but all of them because "they all help me!" So, what can you make for 8 YES 8!!!!!!! teachers!!!!

An apple of course.......

All painted by little lady! She even wrote all the tags herself....

Yes I know what you are thinking the tag was 30cm long! And with each tag she wrote she told be why each teacher was sooooo special! 

And for those eagle eyed among you do you like the "Thanks" stamp? Well watch out on the website as it is coming very soon!

Creative Stamping

SOOOOO have you seen it?????

Well a while ago you may recall I mentioned a secret project, well the time is here and I am so excited to share that Crafty Roo Designs is in Creative Stamping Issue 18!

 If you haven't seen it I would really recommend it as you get an A4 sheet of stamps FREE!!! They might not be Crafty Roo stamps but they are still fab! And as for us you will find us on pages 30, 31 and 32......

Happy reading!!!!

Soooooooooo.......

Where does the day go? Every time I close my eyes I seem to have lost another hour!

Anyway, the other day I had some exciting news to share and here it is....

Do you fancy the chance to win 2 sets of Craft Roo stamps? And get to read a fab mag full of brilliant ideas, well why not check out Issue 69 of Creative Cardmaking

And as for the stamps you could win, well, its a set of Lizzie Doodles 

 

AND Daisy Doodles.

So what you waiting for????

Lots to share......

Wow it has been a while since I last sat down to chat! Many things have been going on here at Crafty Roo HQ.

First up Little Lady is in her new bedroom, I ended up painting

• Jake, Izzie and Cubby (from Jake and the Neverland Pirates) 
  
• 1 duck
• 1 frog
• 2 hippos
• 1 lion
• 1 elephant
• 1 giraffe
• 1 donkey
• 1 pig
• 2 sheep
• 1 cow
• 5 chickens! 

 I should I have known when it comes to little lady, painting her room was never going to be easy! She chose everything herself including the stunning purple carpet!

Now the work begins on Baby Roos room, if little lady gets her way it will feature Fireman Sam - I don't think soooooo!

Also I have been busy designing some new stamps which are in production this week! So here's sneaky peep....

If that's not enough why not pop back Friday for some very exciting news..........

Promises

I bet you all thought I had disappeared! Nope I had just been Little Lady knapped! It's a long story, I guess I should start at the very beginning. 

Last weekend (well the one before that!) was my very last Ross Papercrafts Show for a while, for those of you who came along you and saw my waddling will understand why! Baby Roo is definitely effecting these old hips of mine, so I have to admit defeat and take a little "time off" but we will be back in September (well Mr Roo and Crafty Nic will!) and I will definitely back in November! I will update the show dates shortly!

While we were at Ross I got asked a few times how these little beauties had been made.......

Well all it is is Kraft card, with Rich Cocoa Memento Ink stamped onto it and coloured in using very soft coloured pencils, nothing more fancy! It gives you a fab effect and can be used for any design!

So I can hear you all ask what I plan to do with my "time off" well I am in the process of designing some new stamps mainly for Christmas but there will be a few other things too. And making lots of new samples to share! So stay tuned!

But probably my biggest job is keeping my promise to my Little Lady. From the moment we started talking to Little Lady about Baby Roo we talked about her moving bedrooms and for a little girl that doesn't like change it's a big deal! That was until she realised SHE could decide how it was decorated! From that point she was all for it, except I was busy so I made a promise, and in our house a promise is something you never break, maybes and mights can be changed but promises nah! 

I promised when I did my last show I would start to paint her new bedroom (here comes the problem part!) with anything she wants, over the past month she has had a plan brewing in that giant noodle of hers. So for the past week and a half I have been locked in her new bedroom painting, every time I think I have nearly finished she wants something else adding! But the end is sight her carpet arrives tomorrow so today is the final day of demands!!!!!!

Time flies

Wow, where does the time go?

These last few weeks have flown by, we are currently in the progress of having a major change around in our house, which has seen a new office being built in the garden, my craft stash being relocated, the back bedroom (my craftroom/ Mr Roo's office) emptied (it took forever!) and now we are starting to fix it up so we can decorate it and it can become Little Lady's room, she wants a pirate/jungle/farm theme so that's going to be interesting!.

My new craft desk has been overtaken by bunting for Little Lady's new room, which is finally finished! I always forget how long applique can take!

So now I can get onto a super exciting but TOP SECRET piece of work, so watch this space it is fab and worth the wait!!!

In the meantime here are a couple of cards I made ages ago for some little people who turned 2! Using some of my crafty stash I forgot I had, so I guess there is an upside to having to sort out the craftroom.....

For You...

I hope you have all had a lovely Easter break, after so many days of great weather today is a bit of a shock to system! 

So here is a card to bring a bit of sunshine to this rather wet morning!

To make this card I started by stamping the detailed Lizzie stamp 3 times onto some pink velum, heat embossed them and cut them out. Next I cut a piece of cream card 2cm smaller (length and width) than an A5 card, on this I positioned the flowers but didn't attached them and then stamped the solid leaf once for the top and bottom flower and twice for the centre flower. Over the top of the leaves I stamped the detailed leaf stamp. Around the edge of the cream card I drew on some stitching. Down the right hand side of the card I attached some wide pink ribbon. 

The cream card was then attached to a pink piece of card cut 1cm larger (both length and width). Onto the pink card I had randomly stamped the detailed Lizzie stamp around the edge in a darker pink ink. This was then attached to a A5 base Kraft card.

To finish of the card I die cut two shapes, one in cream just big enough to add the sentiment "For You" and a larger pink one which I stamped the detailed Lizzie stamp onto, this was then attached to the bottom of the ribbon along with some pins. Finally I attached the flowers and added a gem to the centre of each flower, each corner of the cream card and to each side of the sentiment.

I hope you like our stamps, if you do why not check out our website

Stamps used for this card 

Take it slow......

I really love playing with the little critters stamps, they make cool cards really quick!

To make this card I started by stamping Sammy onto a small square piece of white card and coloured him in using a water brush and Distress Inks. Around the edge I used red ink and an acrylic block to create the lines and lightly distressed it in blue. Next I cut a piece of red card 0.5cn larger than the stamped image and a blue piece of card 0.5 cm larger than that.

To create the background I used two sayings from Relax stamp set and stamped "Relax...." in blue and "Take it slow...........!" in red I alternated these across a scrap of white card to the top of the piece of card I added a strip of red card and to the bottom I added a strip of blue. This was then mounted onto a 5.5 inch square piece of white card, which I then mounted onto a red 5.75 inch square. Into the four corners of the text I added a brad. this was then attached to a 6 inch square base card.

To finish of the card I attached Sammy to the red and blue piece of card (I did mine at funny angles) in each corner I added a brad and attached it to the card. Next I added some googley eyes to Sammy and added  Glossy Accents to his shell. Finally I added some red gems.

I hope you like our stamps, if you do why not check out our website

Stamps used for this card 

Sunflowers mean summer!

Sunflowers play a big part of spring/summer for the Crafty Roo family, Little Lady spends hours sowing seeds and  watering them and watching them grow. We plant far more than would ever be needed for our little garden, but at least it gives us "spares". Then when the flowers open they become squirrel food right through the autumn/winter and if any are left in the spring we feed them to hedgehogs.

This year we are trying a new variety called "Giant Russian" the only reason we HAD to have these was because on the front of the packet the plant was taller than a man - and of course to a 3 nearly 4 year old that's all that matters, not the part that said hard to grow!

Anyway, enough waffling's, here's a lovely summer card......

To make this card I cut two small squares of white card and stamped the detailed Sunny Doodles stamp in the center, coloured it in using Distress Inks and a waterbrush, stamped "With Love" around the edges, distressed around the edges,  then added UTEE randomly around the edges.

These squares were then mounted onto Kraft card which had been distressed around the edges. The using a DL Kraft Card for the base card I added a panel of patterned paper which was 1cm smaller than the DL card and attached the two squares.

To finish of the card I added large buttons to the center of each flower and a piece of knotted string, then around the the center of the card I wrapped some string and tied it.

I hope you like our stamps, if you do why not check out our website

Stamps used for this card 

Mildred's Birthday

Sometimes I just have to play with my stamps and if things work great if not they get filed! This one worked.....

To make this card I started by ripping a page from a book and stamping Mildred onto it, then using acrylic paints I coloured her in - making sure I painted over the lines.

Whilst Mildred was drying, I  found some patterned papers to make a background distressed around the edge, stamped fake stitches, where the two papers met I attached some lace around it. Next I lightly distressed a very small doily for the bottom corner and die cut and embossed some flowers for the top right. For the brad I found a 1 inch brad sanded it lightly and stamped "Birthday Wishes 2U" into the centre using Stazon.

Once Mildred was dry I stamped Mildred again this time using Stazon and added some flowers to her bodice from the On the Branch stamp set. I tore around all the edges of the page from the book,  then stamped the corner cog stamp from Large Cog Corner and finally I distressed around the edge.

To finish of the card I attached the doily to the bottom left corner of the patterned papers, then added Mildred at an angle, across the bottom of the card I added some ribbon and a bow (I made a slit in the doily to push the ribbon through). In the top right of the patterned papers I added the die cut flowers using the large brad. In the corners of the page from a book I added a brad and a bead cap. This was then added to an A5 base card which had been distressed around the edges. finally I added some buttons and hatpins.

I hope you like our stamps, if you do why not check out our website

Stamps used for this card