My Creative Spirit (Blog Archive)

Mother Goose Notice Board    I was sorting out my boxes of projects over the weekend and found this Memories notice board made for C & C last year.  I'd had the MDF back board for a while, one of Robs (Mr MDF Man) and decided to turn it into a magnetic notice/chalk board.  It was a really quick make and useful too.  I painted the board black and then embossed the word at the top with Stampendous black embossing power to give it a shiny look.  The frame mount is made from a piece of A4 chipboard, painted with blackboard paint.  the top section of the frame was made from four strips of 1 1/4" chipboard stuck over the larger piece to form the frame and covered in checker paper.  Before covering the board with the green paper I put magnetic strips down both sides and then made little counters from 5/8" black card circles that also have magnets in them.  There are a few magnets stuck to the back of the frame base too to hold lots of pi...

Had a fab day yesterday with all the lovely ladies at Pink Tulip and the first workshop of the year went down a storm so thought I'd share a few pics with you Thanks ladies for coming along, it was lovely to see you all and of course big thanks to Sheila, Tracie and Angie for all their hard work in getting everything ready for us all xx I'll be back at Pink Tulip on Thursday 6th Feb for a vintage layout day, not literally lol !!! and then on Saturday 15th Feb when we'll be making the Couture Altered Advent box.  If you'd like to come along and join us call Pink Tulip direct on  01527 852052.  Enjoy your Sunday and look forward to catching up again later int he week :-) C 

Couture Layout - Graphic 45  Morning all, what a busy week it's been this end:-) I can't believe its friday already.  I've had the all clear from the Consultant.  I had no idea the lovely surgeon had added extra screws in my hip joint until I saw the X Ray.  Theres no moving that baby lol!!!  It's been layout week here in the My Creative Spirit craft room so I thought I'd share one with you.  The picture I've used was given to me by my Auntie a while ago and is of my Great Great Uncle Wolney and his family circa 1900.  I've used 12 x 12 and 6 x 6 papers from the Couture Collection by G45 for the background for a real Victorian/Edwardian feel and then added some three dimensional decoration cut out from the Gorgeous paper.  It's a painful process as some of the flowers are really small but gives great dimension to your projects and a real William Morris feel too.  There are a couple of the new G45 ornate metal brads and key hole too....

Just a quick post before heading of for a checkup on the new hip, well old hip now as it's over a year since it was fitted. I can t believe I had it done now.   If you're in need of one I'd highly recommend the op.  It really is a life changer. The new Jan releases from Kaisercraft are now in the shops here in the UK and we were lucky enough to receive them all from Jones Crafts a little while ago to work with, so I thought I'd share my projects with you. The first is a layout using the Art of Life collection.  I thought I'd use Mum and Dads wedding picture for this one as it went really well with the theme of the papers. For the second I used Spring Blossom papers and my favourite ever picture of my sister  and the card is made from the Violet Crush collection. Enjoy the rest of your week and catch up again soon :-) C 

Hope you've got back into the swing of things after all the festivities and are enjoying your weekend. I've been messing about with the new collections by Marion Smith, now in at Jones Crafts Wholesalers and retailers here in the UK,  and have two new book designs to share with you.  The first is a Meander Album made with Mad Tea Party papers by Marion Smith.  These papers are truly adorable and were lovely to work with.  I used one of each of the papers in the collection for the main pages and then matched up some 6 x 6 G45 Secret Garden solids for the tags and photo mats.  They all worked really well together.  To see the whole album just click the video link below. . If you' like to make the album its available as an on line workshop.   Click here to go over to our blogshop My second book is more of a Junque Journal, albeit a very pretty one, and was made from a few pieces of kraft card and an eclectic mix of Nirvana and Garment Di...

Nervana Photo Frame Happy New Year everyone and here's to an exciting and creative 2014.  We've all been snapping away over Christmas and now have loads of photos for projects this year so I thought I'd make a picture frame for one I took of the crafty elf.  A 5 x 7 photo on it's way from the Tesco:-)   Ever the practical crafter it's a simple project and quite masculine for a change, with no frills to suit the photo.  He's going to smile at me through 2014 on my crafty desk lol!!   I used the new papers from the Nervana collection by Marion Smith from Jones Crafts along with the bicycle from her junque and gems packs to bling it up just a touch, and then some of the cut outs from the paper to add the hats and sentiment.  The frame is mounted on foam tape and theres a centre slider that pulls out to hold the photo so it can be changed …….  not that I'm going to do that :-)  Here's a close up of the bottom detail  Supply List ...

District Garment Vintage Layout I hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas.  We did, and this year we really were all together as a family for the first time in many which made it all the more special It's been busy in the house with visitors and visiting so I haven't really had a change to take a good look at the two fabulous DT boxes full of goodies that arrived over the last week.  One was from G45 with the amazing new collections and staples being released at CHA in January. which I'll share with you once the sneak peeks have been featured over on the G45 blog, and the second was from the lovely Darren at Jones Crafts  .  Present overload or what!!!!  In Darrens box of goodies was the gorgeous new papers and embellishments by Marion Smith, beautiful buttons by Jones and some other goodies too.  I did manage to grab a couple of hours to myself late one night and put together the vintage layout above using three of the papers from the Garment ...

Alternative Advent Calendar - Couture G45 Happy Sunday all.  First I want to thank everyone for stopping by and leaving a comment on this months celebration giveaway.  There were nearly 400 of them from all over the world.  WOW!!  It was impossible to reply to them all but I have read each one.  "Pick me Pick me" tickled me,  all the congrats touched me and it was lovely to hear from so many new crafters too.  they all went into the random draw.  So on to our lucky winner.  From the long list of entries  Random.org  (Draw No  #19,258)   picked out  Gail Duncan  who left her comment on 3rd December 2013    Congratulations Gail.  If you could e mail your address to me at mycreativespiritiuk@gmail.com the elf can hop off to the post office and get your goodies on their way to you.   This is the last post from me this side of Christmas so Happy Christmas to you all, have a wonderful...

Cheeky Vimto, Cheeky Smile - Happy 21st Ols xx Had some Mum time with No1 son today for his 21st and lunch and a few cheeky vimtos at the Stag at Redhill before he headed off to celebrate with his friends. Great place and great food.  While he was out me elf, the real Crafty Elf and H put up the Christmas Tree and decorations and ………….  Ta Da Christmas is all wrapped up with Birthday celebrations in our little old house tonight…………   I'm now madly finishing off the last of my cards to get them in the post tomorrow, the last day for them to arrive in the UK before Christmas.   I've done lots of festive frocks this year, using Sandras Fabulous Festive Fashion stamp.  Here's a sneak peek of a couple of them; There's only four days left to leave a comment on our December Give-away post to be in with a chance to win this months mega prize.  Just click here to go over to the post.   Well that all from me for until Sunday when Il...

Mother Goose Remember When Album We're now into the Christmas count down good and proper with less than two weeks to go until the big day.   I'm running a little behind but our tree is going up today, well thats the plan lol!!!  Oli's 21 on Tuesday and after his party I'm heading off to Cornwall  to pick up my sister,  pop out for a Christmas meal, do a bit of shopping, visit friends and tootle down  to Mullion to see Margaret at Scrapbook Magic, oh and the lovely lamas in the field there  before heading back up north on Saturday.  I sort of have a push me pull you moment when I see them :-)  which always makes me smile.   This week I've been working on this bright and cheery Mother Goose album and finally got down to finishing it and filming the workshop that goes with it.  Here's the link to the album vid if you'd like to see everything inside.   Remember When Album There's also an album kit to go with the workshop av...

Key to My Heart Layout - Kaisercraft When Darren gave me this paper collection from Kaisercraft I had the perfect pictures in mind for a lovely layout with a french feel.   A few years ago Harry and I went to Paris and of course Disneyland.  After dropping our bags at the hotel, the first thing I took him to see was the Eiffel Tower.  I'll never forget his face as we walked around the corner to see it looming above us. He'll never forget it either nor the huge Strawberry ice-cream he had standing underneath it.  The pink papers in this collection have a sort of strawberry feel to them too. We had a few days sight seeing in Paris, including a whistle stop visit to the Louvre.  All he wanted to see in there was the Mona Lisa.  Once he'd seen that she does appear to watch you as you move around the room he was ready to go lol!!!   When we arrived at Disneyland, the first thing on Harrys to do list was have his picture taken with Mini Mouse.  ...

Happy Monday to you This was an exciting make.  My first DT package from Darren and the team at Jones & Co . contained one of the Kaisercraft picture frames, papers, stickers and pockets from G45's Sweet Sentiment collection, pastel buttons, vintage trim and Kaisercraft Butterflies.  After looking through all my photos I decided to make a montage using two of my favourite pics.  The first was my mum (middle left) and two of her sisters, taken in 1948 when they were schoolgirls in Clun, and the second was my Aunties wedding (Sheila was 8 in the bottom right picture).  The fourth sister, bridesmaid Loxie was born after the war when the girls came home to Birmingham.  I used Nougat Paperartsy Chalk Acrylic paint for the frame and backing board and then started chopping into the gorgeous papers after stroking them of course:-).  As always placing everything and deciding what went where took an absolute age, but once I'd done that putting it together ...

Christmas Gift Idea - Candle in a box          Can you believe we're on the 5th December already.   I hope you're getting into the festive swing f things, have dusted off your tree, polished your baubles and shopped 'till you dropped ahead of the Christmas rush.  I've opted for internet shopping this year and am nearly sorted, which is amazing for me.    We've been sharing some fabulous gift ideas for Christmas using the Twelve Days of Christmas collection by G45 over on their blog this week .  Today we're using the Golden Rings paper and following the Five Gold Rings theme.  There's another card idea from the amazingly talented Gloria Stengel, and a candle gift idea from me and video tutorial for you to follow if you'd like to make one yourself.  (see link below)  On the 5th Day of Christmas gift  Here's the tutorial  Keep warm everyone, have a great day and thanks for calling by :-) ……...

Helllloooooo  We have two things to share with you today, the first is a big announcement and the second is the launch of our December Giveaway.  Some of you will know and love working with the lovely Sandra, Lorraine, Stavros and  Darren on the Sales side who make up the wonderful team at Jones & Co Nottingham, trade suppliers of top quality Haberdashery and Craft products.  (Darren & Stavros above). Click here to like their page on  Facebook to keep up to date with whats new.  Darren (Sir Darren as he said he'd like to be called!!!!) has been instrumental in setting up the first ever design team for Jones & Co,  and earlier this week I was asked if I would like to join.  How fabulous is that, and with a huge Yes I did.  There are six of us in the team all listed below along with links to their blogs.  Between us we cover a wide range of creative styles and are all really looking forward to getting c...

Friendship Card - Typography Graphic 45 There have been some fabulous ideas from the DT on how to get the best out of Graphic 45 papers this festive season.  If you haven't seen Olgas little Christmas Houses do go have a look, they are just adorable, and come with a tutorial too so you can make a set all for yourself.   Today we're sharing more altered projects featuring the Typography paper collection.   Click here to go over and have a look at Annes fabulous mini album and my friendship card.  There's a step by step tutorial on how to make one yourself too.   Have a great day all, thanks for calling by and please call back on Sunday for the launch of our December blog give-away. ttfn ….. :-) C

Crafty Pixie Toes Christmas Card  It's the end of another busy week that's flown by again.  The vids and instructions for our latest on line workshop " Twelve Days of Christmas " are all finished and the workshop went live ahead of schedule. Its available in over our  blog shop .  I've managed to make a few more Christmas cards too.  The one above was made from backing paper, a decoupage sheet and  the  Fabulous Shoes stamp collection 2 from House of Zandra ,    and words from the Christmas Jofy 05 stamp set.     I'm off up north later to Stockton on Tees and am looking forward to seeing all the peeps, we always have a great day and then once I'm home I'll be starting the new Mother Goose on line workshop, which will be out in a couple of weeks.   New G45 papers are on their way and I'm looking forward to seeing the new collections from G45 in the flesh lol!!! and scope out some new projects for 2014.  ...