My Creative Spirit (Blog Archive)

By the Sea Shadow Box - featuring Harry bean :-)  Had a song or two from the seagulls early doors again today…. the little darlings.  I don't mind them really, it's all part and parcel of being by the sea which I love.  We had a great day yesterday ending up at Tehidy Country Park . I'd not been there before and really enjoyed wandering through the woods by the lake in the sunshine.   Random.org  generated no 60 as the winner of this months giveaway, kindly donated by  Darren at Jones Crafts.  Comment No 60 was left by Mari Hop.  Congratulations Mari.  If you could mail your address to me at mycreativespirituk@gmail.com , I'll get your goodies in the post to you.  Huge thanks to everyone who left comments this month.  Loved reading them all.   Our April Giveaway will be announced on Thursday 3rd April so do call back and leave a comment.  If you're not in it you can't win it :-). It's the last day...

Just a quick post this morning before we head off down to Porthlevan for a wander across the beach and a hot chocolate afterwards to warm us up.  I thought I'd share the finished project for the workshop I'm running on June 1st.  Roy (Mr Candy Box Crafts) has designed the MDF blank to hold up to five mini albums, and drawers to hold keepsakes and 6 x 4 photos in.  If you're not able to make the workshop, but are interested in the kit for the project, please mail me at mycreativepspirituk@gmail.com .  For more info on the workshop and booking details   click here . This was Porthlevan last month during the storms that hit the UK coastline.  The town took such a battering.      Happy Mothers Day to you all, I hope you're pampered today and look forward to catching up with you again tomorrow :-) 

OMG what an amazing thunder and lightning storm we had last night. It was right overhead hand made the whole house shake.  I thought it was going to fall down at one point.  The weather was so bad I was in two minds whether to drive down to Falmouth as I'd planned   but I bit the bullet jumped in the car and set off just after 7 and arrived at 12. We stayed up chatting for a while so by the time I hit the sack I was shattered.  I'd forgotten what time the seagulls get up - they woke me at 5 with their pesky squawking and when they'd made sure I was wide awake, they flew off to make a racket somewhere else.  I love being by the sea lol!!!  A circus came to town this week with it's Big Top, clowns, acrobats and colourful caravans.  It's arrival inspired me to make just one last pop up card with the Le Cirque papers for my sis (She loves that collection) before I travelled down to stay with her.  She loved it :-) We're off to T...

I didn't think I'd be blogging today but I managed to get a wiggle on late yesterday afternoon and did this quick video on how I made my pop up card ahead of the weekend, so if you fancy making one for a mothers day gift just follow along with your paper trimmer. score board, papers and glue. I used Secret Garden papers, flowers and banners and some leaves cut out from a Marianne Creatables die LR0150. We're off out today to take in some local history at Coughton Court .  I drive past it every time I go over to Pink Tulip and haven't been in for years.  I'm sure it will involve a lovely lunch too.   New One Day Workshop  Oh I nearly forgot to mention I've managed to find a date for a new one day workshop running on Sunday 1st June. I've been working with Roy and Steve (Candy Box Crafts) on a mini album and drawer combo to decorate in the bright and cheery Mother Goose papers.  They've come up with an amazing little double drawer design I'm...

Thank you all for asking me to show you how I made the mini bow on the altered chocolate box I shared last week.  I've put together a short video on how to make two bows in different widths and am now working on one for the pop up card shared on Mondays post. Fingers crossed it will be ready for Mondays post so do call back.  There's excitement in Graphic 45 land today as they announce the top 30 finalists for this years Design Team Call over on their blog, so if you want to take a peek at who's made it through the tough first round click here.  They're also sharing Karen's amazing Mother Goose layout and my By the Sea layout from CHA back in January.  Can you guess where the picture was taken lol!!! As my friend Richard would say - God's Country …….. (that would be Cornwall then)  Enjoy your day what ever your up to, congratulations to all who got through to the final round of the DT call and look forward to catching up with you again on Monday...

Pop up cards seem to be all the rage in the shops at the moment, so I thought I'd have a go at making one myself.  Love how it came out.  I used Kaisercraft cardstoock for the bottom section and then Botanical Tea flowers and Banners pop outs, a couple of paper butterflies and the Botanical Tea stamp set for the embellishments.   the great thing about this little card is that it folds flat and can be posted in a little envelope made to fit perfectly with the envelope punch board which I'm loving.  We used it on saturday to make the file tab on the side of our Junque Journal.  there are so many ways to use it, its definitely a great thing to invest in if you don't have one already.  I'll post instructions on how to make one of these cards next week along with how to make bows using the envelope punch board too.  Before I hop off  I just wanted to mention that there's still time to leave a comment on our March Giveaway post i...

I'm a little late posting some pics from Saturdays workshop at Pink Tulip.  Thanks Shelia, Tracy and Angela for all your hard work that went into making the day run without a hitch, and of course thank you ladies for coming along and cutting into those beautiful papers and having a great day. Our project this month was my Botanical Tea Junque Journal.  We're all loving these papers and all the pretty things you can make with them. Here's a few pics taken during the day. Next months workshop is on Saturday 12th April .  It was great to see Roy and Steve (AKA Candy Box Crafts) too. They called in with some fabby new blanks we've conjured up to get crafty with.  Happy Birthday Steve for Saturday and belated birthday wishes Roy for earlier in the month.  Well thats all for today so enjoy the rest of your day and thanks for calling by :-) C

Happy Friday everyone, hope you've had a good week.  I thought the sunshine was too good to last.  We're back to rain again here! Oli and a friend headed off on a last  minute .com holiday in Tenerife earlier this week and has called a couple of times to let me know how great the weather is.  Come back sunshine, missing you already.    I've been running up some new samples and a couple of gifts this week with the latest G45 papers.  I've used the Botanical Tea papers this time to alter this notelet box I've made as a gift, and have started to fill it up with notelets and envelopes made from the patterns and solids papers that compliment the collection   I'm loving my envelope punch board the girls at SirStampalot persuaded me to buy.  Envelopes are so easy to make with it to fit any sized card you want.  I had to add one of the easy to make ribbons inside the box too.  I love them :-)  I'm at P...

After a great day on Saturday with Isobel and her lovely ladies at Scotch Lodge Farm we took ourselves over to Stratford-upon-Avon on Sunday to enjoy the sunshine, do a bit of shopping and have lunch alfresco at Carluccios. I was on the look out for some hand made chocs to finish of my gift box for Mothers Day and finally found them in about the fourth chocolate shop we went in.  The box is one of the new ATC boxes from G45.  I used a brown copic marker to colour  the edges and then covered it in pink and brown papers from the Botaniclal Tea patterns and solids pad.  the ribbon decoration on the lid was made with my new Envelope Punch Board.  It would make a lovely Mothers Day gift if your stuck for ideas and there's still time before 30th.  Here's a few more pics: I had to share our little italian lunch with you too.  It was simple, beautifully cooked and absolutely delicious :-)  While I was choosing chocs Andy found...

Little Boxes - Envelope Punch Board  I'm up early this morn to head off to Scotch Lodge Farm  and Craft Shop to run a demo day for Isobel and her lovely ladies.  If you're in the area and fancy calling by I'd love to see you. Theres loads to browse through in the shop and some amazingly tasty home made goods for sale too.   I've finished the accounts this week and had a bit of time to mess about with my envelope punch board last night. I've now got a pile of little boxes in all different shapes and sizes.  They're so easy to make, quite addictive, and a great way to use up all those odd squares of paper too.  Most of them were made with a 6 x 6" square or less.  Great for favours, sweetie treats and little gifts :-)  Anyway I'm heading off for a shower now so enjoy your day, it looks like its going to be a nice one and catch up again soon :-) 

Bird Song Shadow Box - Candy Box Crafts & Graphic 45 I had a really productive day around the house yesterday and a visit from Mr Candy Box Craft himself too.   While we sat chatting, tea drinking and eating cake (very brittish) he spotted one of his boxes I've been working on at the back of my table. He loved it so I thought I'd share it with you all before I send it of to John at Jones & Co.  He has an interest in all things oriental having traded with the Far East for many years, so I thought I'd make him something with an oriental feel from two of the brands his company wholesales as a thank you for having me on the Jones stand at Stitches. Don't tell him you've seen it :-)   I used the 8" x 8" deep shadow box from Candy Box Crafts and 12 x 12 papers from Graphic 45's bird Song Collection, along with some tacky glue, black paint a Gina Designs chipboard pagoda and some black embossing powder.  After a lot of fussy cutting and quite a...

Janice from Sirstampalot getting crafty :-)  I had a wonderful weekend with Janice and Andy at  Sirstampalot  in Peterborough . Saturday was demo day with lots of Clare style tips to share with all the lovely ladies and gents who came along.   Sunday was workshop day.  We used the Botanical Tea papers for our project.  Huge thanks to Janice and Andy for their hospitality and to all the lovely ladies and gents for coming along and making the two days such great fun.  I'll be back in September for another demo day and workshop and really looking forward to it.  I did come home with one or two new Ciao markers, just a few Molly Blooms stamps and an Envelope Punch Board that I can t wait to try out.  the girls had made some amazing things with theirs.   Here's a few pics of everyone getting crafty. Enjoy your day, thanks for calling by and look forward to catching up again soon :-) C