Who am I and what inspires me...

I have a very personal and special post to share today.
It's a culmination of my crafting history and what inspires me to craft.
From a very early age I utilised my love of crafting and loved nothing more than creating cards, gifts and keepsakes for family and friends.
Keepsakes that still hold special memories and are treasured and loved in the same way as they were given, from the heart and with the great pleasure I had in creating them.
The early creations may well have been assembled with crepe paper, cotton wool balls, empty toilet rolls and such like but this is where it all started.
My family have always supported my love of creativity and I have also enjoyed the immense learning curve as I developed my craft and eventually turned it into my career.
In more recent years I have learnt and developed techniques from those who inspire me, there are so so many talented people out there!
My passion for craft and these techniques have all come together for this project, it is decorated to tell the story of building the family tree. Putting pieces of the puzzle together bit by bit and it was my gift to my daughter for her 30th Birthday our "Family Tree"
Discovering who we are and unlocking the information over time, the wings represent those we have lost and my dad being in the Royal Air Force, each element has it's place and together tells the story.
This is what I like to do, capture stories and recreate them in my art.
I wanted the colour to be fitting for this keepsake, rich and decadent and it had to be in Jennifer's favourite colour of purple.
Imagination Crafts  Starlights and Alchemy Waxes worked just perfectly.
I commissioned a friend of mine, Krisha, who is a genealogist and runs her own business -
Ancestor Finder  to research our family history.
Wow! The discoveries are fascinating and it's very addictive!
It has also been a very emotional journey as it started back last year before mum passed away so the timing was even more poignant.
Krisha put in hours of research and I have to thank her so very much for doing such an amazing job of discovering "Who we are as a family"
The history that has unfolded for us is really special and will be treasured always.
We will never take for granted the poverty and hard work, time in the workhouse, the tragedy, WW1 respect and recognition and we will always treasure the memories, happiness and love.
Today I share an insight into these very special memories all contained in a folder I created along with the hours of research printed off, the family tree in book form, which I assembled, along with family photo's.
Have you researched your family tree, I'd love to know...
Thank you so much for visiting
Much love and hugs xKx

Gift wrapping

Good Morning,

A short week this week after the bank holiday weekend, hope you had a good one and were able to relax a bit and enjoy.

Yesterday was my daughter, Jennifer's 30th birthday and I don't know where the years have gone!

She was born prem, 9 weeks early at 2lb 15oz so every birthday is special and this was no exception.

I organised a few surprises for her, one of which was to gather friends and family for a celebration lunch at a lovely pub/restaurant.

She had no idea anyone else would be there except for her, Paul and I as we had already done a few things and she had been given her presents.

We had a lovely meal with family on Friday evening, went to local gardens and historic house on Saturday and had cream tea and she had a day out in London on Sunday with family.

So thinking it would just be a quiet meal on Sunday she was very surprised when more family and friends joined us.

It was a brilliant day and such a happy time.

I decided to try something different for her present wrapping and chose kraft brown wrapping paper which I stencilled using 

 Imagination Crafts Starlights and stencils.

I was so pleased with the result and will definitely be doing this again.

You can really personalise gift wrap in this way and keep to a colour theme too, Jennifer's colour is purple.

Hope you have a good week, at least it will be a short working week.

Sending love and hugs xxx

Stencil and Starlights

A quick card made using two Imagination Crafts stencils, the background is called Retro Squares, I'm unsure of the name of the second which also has a butterfly on it but it caught my eye as really useful for a background or main feature/s.
Starlights were used randomly through the Retro Squares in both Lavender and Pink Sunset then I used black archival for the section of the second stencil, masking off other areas.
The black on the shimmer and sparkle gives such an elegant and striking design.
Finished with dream cut from a die.
Have a great day...x

My homework and class projects from Lisa B Designs Workshop

Morning all,

As promised here's my round up of the cards and techniques from
Lisa B Designs workshop last Friday.
We used Lisa' s new stamp sets from the Floral Collage series and Imagination Crafts stencils and their Stencil paint which I've been itching to have a play with since their release.
I've also used a Crafters Workshop Fragments stencil, Burlap Bits, which is a dinky size of 4 x 4" I love it!

Other items used include VersaColor inkpads and WOW embossing powders.

The first card I started on Friday and once home I added more detail and embellishment.
I've used Imagination Crafts stencil paint in Mallow and Lime Green with the Honeycomb stencil and a touch of Diamond Sparkle. The floral stamps are from the Clematis Elements set.

I then used the Poppy Elements with Boysenberry and  Bamboo VersaColor, this was my take on samples Lisa and Kirsten showed us at the class.

Lastly inspired by the class a design I came up with at home using stamps from the Pimpernel Elements set, the Burlap Bits stencil and Lime and Rose stencil paints.

Back later,

Crafty Hugs xKx

On my desk today...

Happy Bank Holiday Monday to you all.
For the first time in weeks I've managed a reorganise and tidy up of my craft area.
I store a lot of things in labelled boxes.
There's a couple of smaller boxes in which I've gathered items for future projects, as I think of ideas I put things together ready for when I need them and so I don't forget!
There's boxes with all the "ingredients" for up coming workshops and demo's, these are either work in progress or ready to start on apart from items I've been sent to work with.
I've even got a lovely oval folding table to revamp which was kindly given to me by one of my workshop ladies and I really want to tackle this during the summer months.
My desk is by folding doors onto the garden with the sun streaming through and I can get the best of both worlds when I open the doors.
I've got my rocker armchair here too for my break times long with my Nespresso machine and TV, although I listen to music and the radio a lot while working.
Today's desk features some continued work from my time on Friday at my good friend Lisa at
Lisa B Designs workshop day and some lovely
Imagination Crafts goodies.
Fabulous!
So without further ado I'm going to enjoy the sun and crack on with my crafting.
Thanks so much for popping by today.

Crafty Hugs xKx

A little bit of Imagination...

Afternoon Everyone,

Nearly the Bank Holiday Weekend, do you have anything nice planned?

I wonder if the weather will be kind to us...

Part of my DT work for Lisa B Designs includes playing, I mean working!
with amazing products from Imagination Crafts.

Here on a 6 x 6 canvas I used their Grunge Elements stencil with
 Inkadinks sprays and Diamond Sparkle.

It's great sometimes to just play and see where we end up, this is where I ended up with this.

No overthinking just going with the flow...

Hope you like it.

Have a lovely evening, back soon.

Crafty Hugs xXx