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.

The Snow is Falling

Winter is here and I do not like it , we were due to go shopping in Chester today and we get up to this.

                                                                     Plus just look at my poor little car.



















Never mind time for some crafting in my nice warm room.
Here is Dave's Grandson in his Kinder Garden School Christmas picture, I still find it hard to believe he is only just 3 years old.
I cut out a blue sheet of paper from Bo Bunny Snowfall and mounted the photo onto a piece of hessian .Then I mounted the hessian on to a piece of Kaisercraft paper and layered it on top of a circle of Bo Bunny Snowfall.
I punched out a lot of snowflakes added Diamond stickles to some of them and added them all over to give a 3D efect.
Lastly I added some leaves and a large Prima flower which I added stickles to again.

VAGABOND REST IN PIECES

A few months ago my Tim Holtz Vagabond started to run slow and smelt a bit like burnt toast.I did not like to say any thing to my partner Dave because when I bought it 18 months before even though it had 25% off at QVC he thought I should buy the Sizzix Big Shot.I informed him the Big Shot looked like the washing mangle my mother used to use and the Vangabond was electronic and looked like a lovely little suitcase when not in use,how wrong could I have been.
Just before Christmas it stopped working and I had to mention it to Dave.Being an electronic engineer I hoped he could repair it.After 1 hour of a lot of *****ing he got it open to find a burnt out motor,a gearbox full of dried up grease and a burnt up PCB and wiring (the bit that makes it work in Ladies terms).His comments are not repeatable but basically in his opinion it was made from cheap Chinese crap. 
Looking on the Scrapbooking forums I found I was not alone with this problem.Some Vagabond had packed up within 4 months and by the looks of the forum rants did not get much satisfaction from the manufacturers. 

Do not fret Ladies the story has a happy ending , along came Father Christmas with a lovely new Sizzix Big Shot.It still looks like a mangle but it is so easy to use and it has NO ELECTRONICS.The other thing Father Christmas bought me so a Distrezz it All machine.This machine distresses paper for fun,up to 6 sheets at a time.It is electronic but was cheap and I didn't buy it.
Please check out the lovely flowers I made with my lovely little Sizzix Big Shot plus the distressing on the paper edges ,so easy to do with my Distrezz it all machine.I have kept my manual distressing tool just in case.
The pictures are from our trip to Rome last year and Dave has just booked a 5 night holiday back to Rome in June,Lucky me.

P.S. This is not a ADVERT   l.o.l

http://handmadeharbour.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/handmade-monday-99.html

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Happy New Year to All

Hi to all you Scrapbookers
This is my first post for three months , I just lost my MO-JO but I am back.
Here are a couple  of mini albums I did on my break.
The albums were both bought from the NEC just before Christmas. A good show but I still think  Ali Pally is a much better show , looking forward to Ali Pally in April.
The first Album is of Dave's grandson Jamie and the second was Dave's 65 birthday treat , a trip to Manchester Uniteds Old Trafford.

Bits & Pieces

It is surprising what you can make out of a babies coat hanger , some old lace , a piece of scrap paper & a few old embellishments I had hanging around. I made these some years ago & have just found them when tiding a cupboard out. I have just started selling on Folksy so I think I need to find the template.

My oldest daughter Joanna

Dave's grandson Jamie

My youngest daughter Jilly

http://handmadeharbour.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/handmade-monday-81.html

Granddaughters first School Photo

This  LO is the first school photo of my 2 granddaughters Amber & Laura.
The LO was done on a Linen Canvas that I bought at a big Craft Show at the NEC in Birmingham. I only got the one so if any one can tell me where I could find some more I would be very grateful.
I used a sheet of Kaisercraft "Sweet Nothings " paper that I fancy cut and added lots of stickles glitter.
I also used lots of Prima flowers and a Prima resin wishing well and a Prima Crystal Swirl.
The Butterfly was off a necklace and the Clock is a button
Lastly I added some Lace on the bottom.

Please check out my Items for Sale at :http://folksy.com/shops/craftsfromhome

What can we do now the Olympics is over

Two weeks of fantastic entertainment from the Magnificent Opening Ceremony to the Musical Closing Ceremony  Dave and I were mesmerized by the hole  experience.
This 12x12 is a tribute to our two local girls , Beth Tweedle who got a Bronze medel in the Gymnastic High Bars and Shanaze Reade who got to the Final of the BMX Bike Race.

Beth

Shanaze

No Gold Post Box for Crewe but they both did us proud.

This LO was done for when the Olympic torch came to Crewe on May 31st.

The backing paper is Portobello Road by Papermania.

I made a flower in the same paper and added some bunting and a date stamp by Maya Road.

http://handmadeharbour.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/handmade-monday-80.html

With two weeks in front of the T/V the garden had taken a back seat so Dave has taken three days off work and we have got stuck in and it is starting to look more like our garden again.We have also given the Summer House ( CAT House) a new look. I think the cats approve.

I have finished off the week with yet another mirror. 

I used a sheet of BoBunny " Little Miss " paper to which I added lots of stickles glitter.

I cut out lots of Butterflies from a sheet of Kaisercraft "Sweet Nothings "paper and added a large pink flower that I think was Petaloo adding lots of stickles to that as well.

http://handmadeharbour.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/handmade-monday-80.html

Back to 12x12's

It must be a month since I did any 12 x 12 's so here are two I did last week.

The first is two old photo's I found of our visit to Disney Land in LA when Dave went over on business . I went with him and we had the second week visiting Disney Land , Universal Studios and Hollywood plus much more.

This one is of Dave's Mum and friends working in the Coop stores in war time . The lad in the middle must think all his birthdays have come at once.Dave's mum is on the far right as you look at it.

Just come back from the car boot with two 12x12 shadow box's and three Ikea mirror's for £2.What a great bargain!!! 

http://handmadeharbour.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/handmade-monday.html