Mum on her Wedding Day

I found this little framed picture of my mother on her Wedding Day while cleaning out our loft last Sunday. I made it about 2 years ago and had forgotten all about it . Have to admit I may had shed a little tear when I found it having lost her when I was in my twenties.

You may recognize the box , it is a K&Co alphabet box I bought some time ago. After painting the box I papered the inside and then  mounted mums picture on some 3 mm double back tape to give her a 3D effect . I then mounted a small cameo in the top right and finished it off with some left over bits of glass and peal swirls. I then crackle grazed the front. It was then finished off with more small bits of swirls I had left over from other projects , a silver butterfly picked up from Primark and a lovely Pink Rose gluing some of the glass swirls on the bottom of the Rose for effect.

All it cost me was the price of the K&Co box of Alphabets for a ever lasting memory.

My loving mother on her Wedding Day

While I was busy in my craft room Dave decided the summer house needed a revamp.

Before

Day one's miss

Phase One was to make the seating area in front a bit larger . This was finished within two days & the plains for Phase Two is now in the design stage. This will consist of repainting the summer house & making a rose filled pergola over the setting area. I can not wait to sit under a lovely rose perfumed  pergola.

Phase one complete

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Villa d'Este Italy

The Villa d'Este is classed as one of the greatest gardens in the World & I think I agree. It sits on a hill side in the town of Tivoli about 1 hours beautiful train ride from Rome. Dave and I went a few years ago & intend to go back next year. You can book a tour to the Villa and Hadrians Villa but it is expensive & you only get about 1 hour at each. We found the trains run about every 20 minutes and cost about 5 euro each return. When you get to Tivoli it is about a 10 minute walk to the Villa. Monty Don of Gardeners World has a 9 minute video on youtube which is well worth watching. 

This is the link--https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HQjOtN9PMU  

The book it's self was bought from the MDF Man at Hobby & Craft Show in the NEC Birmingham last Autumn. It comes as a basic MDF Front & Back with three rings , the pages I make & add to it as I go along.I can not remember what the paper is on the  front page & the Villa e'Este sign was bought in the gift shop. 

                                              

Page one is Prima paper with a button flower from Hobby Craft. Page two has a bird & button flower from Hobby Craft with the ticket tucked behind the picture . As you can see it is not expensive & is free for over 65's. This is common in the Rome attractions.

Page three is Docraft paper with a lovely little clock & flower picked up on my travels. I love the film strip under the picture but I can not remember where I picked it up from. As you can see Dave loves his big women. Page Four is me on the Villa balcony over looking the gardens . The paper is Kaisercraft with a flower from Hobby Craft. The birds I cut out of an old book.

The blue paper on page five is from Papermania & the paper on page six is from the Docraft collect with flowers from Prima. A lot of the small items like the butterfly were picked up at the Hobby Craft show in the NEC. The hessian under page six's picture sets it of a bit . I also lift my pictures off the pages with double back tape to give a small 3D effect.

Pages seven & eight are at one of the must beautiful parts of the garden & we could not resist taking a selfie

of the two of us. The paper is from Docraft with the birds & lace trim from Prima. The key I think is part of a chain from Primark .I buy a lot of my embellishments in the Primark sales.

Page ten has Prima's lovely gates either side of the picture with admit one wooden ticket just under the picture also from Prima. The Grand Music Fountain is page eleven . The fountain reacts to the music played at mid day . The birds & flower stickers are from Kaisercraft. I know I miss out page nine but it is not one of my best so I used some artistic license.

At last we come to final two pages with the first being another selfie of Dave & I looking down on this magnificent garden . the bird in the top left was bought at a small stall at the NEC Craft Show with the flower from the Range. As you can see I've used that film strip again. Can any one till me where I can get some more from. The final page has the Tim Holtz Bliss Ticket on a small hessian ribbon just to set the picture off.You have probably noticed I change the shapes of my pages , I thing it just gives each page it's own identity.

                    If you ever visit Rome leave a day for Villa e'Este it is well worth it.

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Joanna's BIG Birthday

This is a small book I made this week for my oldest Daughter Joanna on her 40th Birthday.The papers I used are old scrap pieces and the decorations were pick up from the Great British Craft fair at Bolton two weeks ago. It was its first time at Bolton and it wasn't a bad show.Still not enough paper for me but I picked up some good bargains.

The best thing was I picked up the tickets for just £4 for two people off the internet.For that price I had to go.

The BBQ Last night for her birthday was great .It was nice to see my two daughters together and to see Laura & Amber my two gran daughters. Lots of wine and conversation was had by all.

Back at last

Hi to all my followers who are still out there. Sorry I have not been in touch for such a long time but with Dave nearing retirement we decided to revamp the house. We have moved the stairs around to give us a extra room ( I will come back to this) , we have fitted a log burning fire which was unbelievable through the winter  and we have redecorated through out the hole house.
Now the new room up stairs was going to be a new guest room but we or should I say I came up with a better idea . You guested it a lovely new CRAFT ROOM so Dave can now have the dinning room back.
The problem was for the first two weeks I have just sat in it thinking how lucky I am but at last I have started to produces crafts starting with one of my favorites the Ikea mirrors as you can see from my pictures. 
Dave has now retired and one of his first jobs was to revamp my Blog, it is still work in progress but I hope you all like it.