It's in the Pipeline

It's Jane's turn this week to set the dare for Daring Cardmakers everywhere and she wants us to use pipe cleaners on our cards:

Any shape, colour or form - put them on a card! I know it can be difficult to incorporate Pipe Cleaners on cards (sticking them down is one obstacle!) but they can be put to lots of interesting uses too! So go on - it wouldn't be a challenge if it was easy would it?

Craft time has been nil this week, I only had yesterday to come up with something for a rather tricky dare!
Mine is a simple idea, it came from pencil toppers I used to make for my mum to sell at fundraising events, which were pipe-cleaner "snakes" with googly eyes and felt tongues stuck on their heads, these snakes were twisted around a pencil and they sold quite well. I still had some of these "bumpy" pipe-cleaners lurking in one of my craft boxes so dug them out to make this card. I hand cut the letters in what are are supposed to look like more snakes and added more googly eyes and red fibre tongues.

Papers are BG Archaic - that's twice I've used them now! wow.

If you think pipe-cleaners don't give much scope for cardmaking - just pop over to the Daring Cardmakers blog and see all the ways the Team have used them - you'll be hunting out those twirly, furry little sticks in no time - come on, have a go, it's a great challenge!

Quick Catch Up

'Tis a funny thing that as soon as our visitors pack up their car and head off back up north the sun comes out and the skies are blue. Now why is that? I think it's all just a bit mean. Why couldn't the sun come out when we headed over to Southwold yesterday? All those beach huts look so much nicer in the sunshine and I wanted to show off my favourite Suffolk places when they were looking their best, especially as our visitors hadn't been over thre before.
Never mind, we had a great day out and even though it wasn't a blue sky day it was dry and warm enough to be out and about. After lunch and a walk along the prom and pier in Southwold we at visited Leiston Abbey on the way to Aldeburgh where it was the perfect time to buy icecream and sit on the wall by the beach (well, the pebbles!) there to eat them.
On the way home via the scenic route we called in to Bury St Edmonds for a pizza before heading back home. It was a bit late by the time we got in but it had been a good day and doing something different is always a tonic.

Here are the other two cards I made for a customer order.
The first is for her little grandson and I've made a zigzag fold card with a wavy edge for this one. I've covered the card with various blue papers and added flock and glitter to the edges for a bit of a wave effect. The ship is from one of the Cuttlekids collections and the numeral and name were cut with Mr Robo. I've added wavy borders to the message section to keep the theme going
Okay, so I cheated a bit with this next one - it's the card I made for Mel's "Sprinkles" DCM challenge a few weeks back but I thought it would work quite well for a 4 year old girl's birthday - I added some name, age and message tags to personalise it.
Having not managed any crafting since last week I need to get back to working my way down the "to do" list. At the end of last week I did the last pages in one CJ - which means my own will be heading home soon, then there's another one due to be sent on during the next few days - but I've not had the chance to even start that yet. After our visitors had gone this morning I managed to get my DCM card done for tororrow, so that's one thing crossed off anyway!

Back with that one tomorrow, but that's all for now
Thanks for looking

"Hugs & Kisses" 3 & Another Kiddie One

I made this card for Em's birthday using the Bubbly Funk July kit

I love doing hand-cut scalloped edges on stripey paper, I like the informal look you get. I inked a bit of colour onto the little price tag, wrote the greeting with a gel pen and added some hand cut mini mosaic tiles.

I even managed to get the turquoise paper the right way up this time!

This next card is the second of the four kid's cards I've been asked to make.
The rocket was cut with Mr Robo. I've used my rocket template a few times now so it was worth the effort of making it. It's great that you can resize your templates to cut whatever size you need. I cut a regular c5 card down to 14cms wide and then cut the rocket so that I could have it shooting off the top of the card so that I could use a 15cm square envelope to put the whole thing in .
When I make a new CR template I always make a base piece which I can then stick all the other pieces onto. This time I've cut the base in silver mirror card so that it shows through the window and the highlight bits.
I was going to add some "planets" but decided it didn't really need any more stuff on there.

Thanks for looking - I'll add the other kids' cards next time

Pointed

Over at the Daring Cardmakers we like to challenge fellow cardmakers with interesting dares - but we also like to have fun by sharing some of our ideas and maybe giving some hints and tips in the form of our new look Midweek Little Extras. This Tuesday we had the fabulously talented Mel Goodsell sharing some of her ideas and tips for making quick and clever birthday cards. The new style LEs have only been going for a couple of weeks or so, but already there's quite a library of ideas and "how to's" beginning to build up. Definitely worth checking out if you've not already been following them.

Today, though is our normal main dare day and here's what we've been up to this time:

OK, this week it's Tanya's turn to set the dare and this time it's a dare with a POINT! A nice sharp point, at that!
This Way!
I want to see arrows on your cards - whether big, small, staright, curly, lots or just one arrow
Have fun and please come back and point us in the right direction for your creations just as soon as you're ready to share.

I've not managed to get to grips with this whole arrows thing - I'm not sure I see the point (hahaha) of them, which is probably why I found this dare such a struggle. I spent all yesterday morning making my card then realised it really was a load of bosh. This having to make another card because the first was rubbish is getting to be a habit - one I need to break as I don't have the time for all this faffing about. I'll show you the bosh one in a minute.
I was happier with the 2nd attempt;
I dug out some 3 Bugs in a Rug papers I've not used for ages, I'd forgotten how much I love these colours. The paper with the flowers in circles on it has lots of blue dotted circles as well as the "stripey" ones with flowers in them, so I decided to use that idea over the edges of the paper and on to the card itself.
As is often the way, I didn't have the right colour brads or buttons to embellish the flower, so I covered some cereal packet chippie with a scrap of paper and used a circle from one of the Cuttlebug dies topped with a blob of Glossy Accents to make faux big brads. I'm not totally happy with the way I've done the greeting, but my brain was hurting by the time I needed to fill that space..........
Lots of fantastic ideas for using arrows over on the DCM blog - the others all have much more inventive ways to use them than me, that's for sure, so please check them out over on our blog

So now I'll give you a laugh - I don't really mind sharing the bosh ones occasionally - with a bit of luck someone will even come up with an idea to save them from the bin!
It took flippin' ages to do the doodled edges and I like the "You are a...." with the big star going off the edges of the card. I think it's the arrow that really made this one look a mess but I'm not sure I can get it off and what I'd do in the space if I managed. Ideas and suggestions welcome - iit took sooooo long to do that B&W edge I'd feel really cheesed off if it had to go binwards.

I do have at least one more Bubbly Funk July kit project to show but I'll save that for the weekend and instead show one of the commissioned kids' cards I've just been doing. I really really don't like doing kid's cards abd I've had four of the little blighters to do! Here's the first of them:
Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder and Cuttlekids aeroplane diecuts.
Scallops cut with the Craft Robo
All card from PDA
Brads and Ribbon from stash

Bubbly Funk "Hugs & Kisses" part 2

When I found this little tag book among the fab stash in my designer's box of goodies for the July Bubbly Funk kit I knew straight away what I was going to do - and that doesn't happen very often!
I really enjoyed making this. I love making things that you can let yourself go with the flow and minibooks are great for that, while you're working on one page ideas for others seem to jump into your head.
In a BF kit you don't just get paper, card, ribbon, blooms and brads - Caroline always manages to find those little extras that make the kits fun - this to prove my point I'll put a list of what you got for £20 if you bought the July kit at the end of this post!

I made the front cover from felt, with most of the embellishing done before it was glued to the chipboard so that any messy or sharp bits were hidden away. I stitched the title "On Birthdays" - it's supposed to look "homespun" and a bit random! I cut felt flowers using the Cbug and hand cut a little bird - because at some point I decided to add a little birdie to all the pages in the book.
Most of the pages of the book are just my favourite birthday quotes printed out and embellished, but there's also this one which has a little pocket containing lots of really, really bad jokes about birthdays. I discovered whilehunting for funnies that for some reason there are very few GOOD birthday jokes.


































I absolutely love this "Hugs and Kisses" collection from Dream Street Papers. The colours and designs are so fresh and fun - I've hardly got anything left now so I think this is another collection I'll be having to buy more of.
If anyone from Dream Street happens upon this, can I make a plea? I would love it if there were 6x6 or 8x8 versions of your papers too.....

here's that list of the goodies in the July kit
Paper & Card
12x12 Bazzill Cardstock x 4 - pink, blue, white, green
12x12 paper x 1 each of: - Dream Street Hugs 'n' Kisses:Care Package, Airmail, Sweetheart, Hugs, Love Lines, Postmark
Adornit - Dainty Scallop
Karen Foster - Lined Paper

Embellishments
Stamp due-cuts x 2
White tags x 4
Brads - large x 5, small pink x 5
Buttons - pink x 10, blue x 10, green x 10
Sequins
Seed Beads
Ribbon x 3 lengths

Other Stuff
Glitter Pot
Pegs x 2
CherryArte Rub-ons - Princess Alpha
Shrink Plastic - x2 sheets (pink, blue or white)
Felt - blue, pink and green
Net - White and blue
Prima Flowers negative sheet - pink

Chipboard
Maya Road Tag Book
Large Letters - XOX
Small Letters - xox
Tipsy Hearts x 3

Mountboard

Bubbly Funk "Hugs & Kisses" part 1

Ohhh, first of all and before I forget - thank you so much to everyone who left a comment on my last message - the card-in-a-bag made for Sue's "All Wrapped Up" DCM challenge -it was lovely to read them and to know that you liked the card. When I receive comments about my work it's such a boost to the old confidence. If you're anything like me, you're not always sure that what you're making is up to much - it's a relief when you hear that people actually do like the things you make, isn't it?

Now that the August Kit from Bubbly Funk is safely in the hands of the lucky subscribers (and I'm pretty sure they are still ooohing and ahhing over the beautiful things they've found in their boxes) I can start sharing the things I made for the July kit.

Caroline, Di and I have about a month ahead of release date to play with the kits, add our extras to them and get our projects ready to go on the wonderful Bubbly Scruptious emag - which is available only to those who buy the kits and is gradually filling up with ideas, challenges, competitions and all sorts of usefuland fun stuff.
I've already got the next two kits here on my sticky mitts and it seems like ages since I was playing with all the fab, fun and funky papers in the Dream Street Papers "Hugs and Kisses" collection.
This BF kit was even featured on the Dream Street Blog, which was very cool indeed!
My first card was a flowery one - well you've got to have flowers, haven't you? The flowers are all made with different sizes of circles. I love my Craft Robo for all sorts of die-cutting, but for getting circles of exactly the sizes you want it really excels! I've finished each flower off in a different way, and added stems of felt or ricrac. I made the Greetng piece in Paint Shop Pro, I'm sooo NOT a techie person that I can hardly believe I made this - shame I can't remember how, isn't it? hehehe.
The pretty scalloped edge is an Adornit paper which also came in the July Kit

There were a couple of pieces of shrink plastic in the July kit and I used some of it to make the birdie and the little birdhouse. The message bing carried by the bird is from one of those cute little Studio G Clear Stamps set. The bird's wing is cut from velvet paper.
It's just a pity that I didn't notice that I'd stuck the paper circle on at the wrong angle till after I'd finished it - so the little hearts all point in the wrong direction. hmmm you can't win 'em all. I'm going to have to think of something to disguise the mistake!

I've got more things to show but I'm going to save them for another day.
Loads to do this week, commissioned cards to do plus plenty of new kit stuff to get on with.
Thanks for dropping by, please come again soon

All Wrapped Up

It's Sue's turn to set the challenge for the Daring Cardmakers this week and she wants us all to wrap up.

It’s a Wrap

No, not the kind stuffed with Chicken & Cesar Salad or the woolly kind you put around your shoulders to keep you warm, mind you, the way our summer is going I think we could all do with one of those!

I would like you to give your card a coat made of acetate, vellum or anything for that matter.
As long as it ‘wraps’ around the outside of your card, anything goes!

hmmm, this one had me stumped for a few days. Whenever I sat down to try and get something made all I managed to do was surround myself with bits of vellu, acetate and other stash - none of which sparked an idea that I could actually work with. Eventually I made a card with an acetate wrap. It was a regular side opening card, but the acetate folded around it in a gatefold fashion and was tied with ribbon. If you've already checked the DCM blog, you'll have noticed that my card on there doesn't bear any relation to the one I've just described. That's because at some point yesterday afternoon I decided that I hated the other card. It was awkward and cumbersome and every time I looked at the photos I liked it less. So back to the drawing board.

My Think Pink kits arrived last week - part of the fundraising effort for Breast Cancer Care over at Bubbly Funk. In each kit is a pretty pink drawstring bag and I got to thinking how small a card would have to be to fit inside one of these bags. The answer was VERY small, too small really - but what if I made it into an accordian card?
So I spent all yesterday afternoon and some of the evening at my desk - I've not made an accordian card before so it was a bit of trial and error. This morning I've made all the letter tags for the back of the card and at about 9.50 this morning I finished decorating the bag - just in time do take some photos and get it on the blog. phew!
The card measures only 8 x 6 cms and has 6 "pages" either side.
These pictures aren't great, I'll try and replace them with better ones later.



Papers are Imaginisce (yes, I know you're saying; "Not Again"), lots of the ribbon and buttons are from the Think Pink kit already mentioned, plus flowers, brads and other stuff from my stash.
I enjoyed making this - but with hindsight I wouldn't use my regular 280gsm cardstock as it's made a rather bulky finished card - Bazzill weight would have been fine as there's paper on both sides to stiffen it. I'd also have made some of the pages before sticking to the card to make concealing sticthes, brad prongs etc would have been easier. I actually made this from 3 spereate "cards" so I needed to use the paper to join them all together - using 12x12 Bazzill would have been easier.

The DCM Design Team have made some fantastic cards this week, with a dare like this it's hard to show in one photo how the cards work, so do pop around and visit the personal blogs as we can show more photos of the details on those.

Great dare Sue - this one was a REAL challenge!

Crafty Templates 3 & More

Firstly, here's another card using the August Template set from Crafty Templates. If you would like to know more about Leo's templates and Goodies Kit, click here

This one's a Christmas card - crikey, that must be at least three C cards I've made already....
I still used the Prima papers from the Goodies Kit though, I think they work quite well for rather funky Christmas trees.
I couldn't bear to actually use the chipboard swirl that came in the kit, so instead I used it as a template to draw the gold swirly lines in the corner of the card. Sbeaky, eh?
There's something new on the Crafty Templates blog - if you like taking part in challenges - and would like the chance of winning some stash, check out the blog here

Next is the second of the cards commissioned by my aunt's best friend for my aunt's & uncle's birthdays. I've used Sue's sketch from JB forum again. This wasn't the card I planned though because it just wouldn't come together when I tried it with the BG Two Scoops papers I wanted to use. So after rummaging through my papers and rejecting pretty much all of them, I came accoss the Cosmo Cricket Honey Pie pad and managed to make this:

So what happened to the first effort?
Well, normally it would have gone into the reject pile, but I've heard so many people say they just stick at a card or LO until they finish it that I decided to give it a go and see if I could make something of it after all.

I changed the paper I'd used for the top and bottom borders, and made the lower one bigger at the same time. Now the balance was better and so were the colours. I cut the centre strip down to make a tag and added a rub-on greeting but was still a bit stuck for an embellishment. In the end I fell back on good old Prima flowers but for a change I used two sizes of the same colour, I was looking for the right button to do the usual button and ribbon thing when these pins caught my eye.
I know that pins are quite trendy at the moment, but I'd rather unsure about using them - they don't seem the "safest" bit of kit to send through the post, do they? Anyway, I've added a few beads to the end of this one and superglued them on, with a biggish one at the pointy end to cover the sharp bit. Still not convinced about the card, but I'm quite chuffed that I actually sat there and finished it instead of hiding it in a box with the rest of the rejects!

Thanks for looking,

Crafty Templates 2 + Think Pink Challenge

The second of the cards I've made for the new Crafty Templates set is this one:Have I mentioned how much I love this set of templates? hehehe
I've used paper from the add-on Goodies Kit again here - I liked the idea of putting the music paper inside the card so that it shows through the cut-out frame, I thought it worked well with the little singing birdie. I made his tail by curling some narrow strips of blue Bazzill.
I couldn't decide what sort of greeting to add to this card so I've left it blank - I can add something before I send it, or just leave it this way.

These frame cards are such fun to make, and of course the detail bits, like the little birdie on this one also make fab toppers for cards and other projects too. Once you've subscribed and received your set of templates you can print them off as many times as you like, so you're building up a fantastic library of ideas to use again and again. If you've not been tempted to subscribe to Crafty Templates yet maybe this is the set you've been waiting for!

Next time I'll show the rest of this card:



I've fallen way behind on the challenges for the Think Pink Campaign, but as it's my turn to set the challenge for this week I had to pull my finger out and make something (I think it's Di's way of making sure I do actually make stuff)

My challenge is called "Tartology" and goes like this:
When my mum made cakes etc she'd often say "Kathy, can you just tart this cake up a bit please?" - by which she meant "Could you put some icing on this cake and make it look nicer?"
So "tarting" something up has come to mean prettify, decorate, make something a bit plain look much more enticing.
So this week's challenge is to do some tarting of your own. I'd like you to get hold of a boring, plain, cheap notebook into and make it look fabulous and desirable.
If you've got a Bind-it-all you could also start from scratch and make the notebook too - I use scraps of paper which are offcuts from when I make the inserts for my cards for the pages of BIA books.
The pink one is a teeny weeny BIA notebook, the other one is an A5 hardback bought 2 for £1 at Poundland
Have fun

If you'd like to join in - even if you're not a Bubbly Funk member, then I'd love that - and if you'd like to donate a card, notebook or something to sell in aide of Breast Cancer Care then Di and Em who are organising the Big Think Pink Sale would be chuffed to bits. See the Think Pink Blog for more information and to read all the whys and wherefores about this fundraising effort - and to find out all the latest news about who's been sending goodies in and what donations have already been made by local compaines etc.

Crafty Templates & a Challenge Card

I'm going to spread my latest Crafty Templates cards out a bit - you know how it is, got to make the most of it when I've got stuff to share!

I loved the new set of templates - there are lots of "frame" templates this time and not only do they make for fab cards, I think they'd be wonderful used as picture frames, or on scrapbook LOs and as covers for notebooks. So far I've only used them for cards though, but hopefully I'll get round to some of those other ideas eventually (thinking ahead to gift possibilities for the C word)

Yesterday I showed a detail from this card, so here's the whole thing:

Most of the stash I've used for this card is from the Goodies Kit also available from the Crafty Templates Website. This month the papers are from Prima, and there's a delicious pack of flowers, buttons, ribbons and other inspiring bits and pieces to play with.
I decided that this "rainbow" corner design would be perfect to add something extra tucked inside. I doodled the white spots and dots on the ornage paper and stuck it on the base card, then raised the yellow frame shape over that on foam pads, this gave plenty of room to add a removable tag tucked inside - though it was only when I was doing the photos and the tag kept falling down that I realised that I needed to add another couple of foam pads under the rainbow shape so that it has something to lean against, durrr!
I added the greeting with rub-0n letters, but I'm not sure I like that much.
The big red flower is in the goodies pack and I think I was very brave to actually use it as I really wanted to keep that as "treasured stash". I covered a chipboard flower to make the inner flower then used some of the beads and sparkles pack from the kit poured into Glossy Accents for the flower centre.

This is a detail from my next Crafty Templates card - can you guess what it is.....? hehehe
Next up is a dual purpose card. wheyhey!
Sue posted a fab template in the challenge section of the JB forum, and it inspired me to get started on some commissioned cards I've been putting off doing. My aunt and uncle both have "special" birthdays coming up soon and my aunt's best friend has asked me to make a card for each. I'm going to try and use the same basic idea to make my aunt's card too, so they will sort of match - so watch this space and see if I can manage it!
I need another idea aswell because I'll be needing to make them cards from us too.
This is the first time I've actually delved into the BG Archaic paper pad and I've used several of the papers for this one. Mt Robo came in useful for this one, I cut the letters and the circle frame - I cut these once in paper and once in black card then stuck the bits together to give a bit more substance.
I made the little tag using PSP - I drew two circles then overlapped them slightly and filled them in with black before transferring to the CR for cutting. The tag actually loops through the circle frame and there's a little message on another circle under the flap. I added the camera charm set in Glossy Accents as my uncle is a keen photographer.

All for now, back soon with the full pic of that Crafty Templates card

Scrumdiddlyumptious

This week's whizzed by.
This time last week we were having breakfast sitting in a beautiful barn in the Norfolk countryside and planning what we'd do with the day. I think last Friday was the last "nice weather" day, it got showery after that, and most of this week it's been just varying degrees of wet; damp, drizzly, pouring - and a bit of torrential thrown in to make up the set.
It's been chilly too - or maybe that's just me.

Anyway, over on The Daring Cardmakers Rachel's set us a "Reminder of Summer" challenge this week - she must have known we were in for some not-so-summery weather! Or maybe we can just blame her for the lack of sunshine this week hehe

Scrumdiddlyumptious

All things foodie - feature a food you associate with summer and sunny days (just to remind us of those summer feelings)

We're looking forward to drooling over strawberries and cream, icecream sundaes, and long, cool cocktails - we're sure you'll make our mouths water with your delicious cards, so please join in with the foodie fun and leave a message on the Daring Cardmakers Blog so we can see what you've come up with for this dare.

Here's my cardIf you popped by the Waffle Zone last week you'll probably recognise the papers as I'm still loving these new Imaginisce stuff. I've used a mix from the "Baby Powder" and "All Kinds of Happy" for this one as the colours are perfect ice-cream shades.
The actual ice-cream cone is one of Leo's Crafty Templates from the July set - the templates are not just for making shaped cards, there are usually quite a few templates for making toppers for you cards in there too.
I've handcut the scalloped edges, and added holes cut with the smallest eyelet cutting head from the Making Memories set. I love my cropodile, but boy, does it feel good to let rip with the hammer now and then!
I used a scrap of yellow Bazzil to make the cone - and it's the stuff with a "waffle" texture - I had to point that out just to show how pernickity I can be - waffle card for the waffle cone, am I taking this to extremes? Just as well I've already had the bad experience of trying to stick sugar strands to a card or I'd have been down in the kitchen hunting those out too.

There's lots more Summer Food Temptation from the DT over on the DCM blog, so please pop over and have a look - and of course, we'd love to see your own creations so leave a message on there so we can come and visit your blog and see your cards.

I've been catching up with a few things since we got home, so here are a few teeny glimpses of some of the things I've made this week, I'll share more over the next few days

And this last one's a little sample of the cards I've been making with the August templates and goodies kit from Crafty Templates - I'll show the whole of this card tomorrow, and the others over the next few days.

With a bit of luck I'll get some blog-hopping time this weekend so I can catch up with everyone else's goings on too - it's such a nice way to spend an hour, just visiting the blogs of crafty friends, seeing the things they've made and catching up on what's happening

I came back from Norfolk to find that the very lovely and very talented Jozza had given me this Wylde Women award.

I've only just had the time to go and investigate what it's all about and visiting the originator of the award I found this:

Introducing the Wylde Women Award to give to your favorite Wylde Woman blogger. Here are the rules:

1. You can give it to one or one hundred or any number inbetween - it's up to you. Make sure you link to their site in your post.

2. Link back to this blogsite (http://www.TammyVitale.com/) (so I can go visit all these wonderful women.

Purpose of the Award: To send love and acknowledgement to women who brighten your day, teach you new things and live their lives fully with generosity and joy.

What a lovely idea - I think it's wonderful that our crafting community embraces so much of the world and so many skills and styles of crafting. I love that there's always someone out there ready to share their expertise and to inspire the rest of us. So I'm very happy to have been given this award by Jozza and to pass it on to.....
Asia Wu, Kaz and Joanne
Because I love visiting their blogs, and of course they are all very talented crafters

Wild for Saffron 2

Another couple of sneak peeks of things I made with the Bubbly Funk August kit. This kit has just been released for pre-order and is due to be despatched around 15th August.
The boxes are always filled with a fab mix of plain and patterned papers, 12x12 card and all sorts of embellishments including ribbons, buttons, brads, blooms and of course there'll be chipboard in there as Caroline specialises in the stuff!
Numbers of kits available is limited so pre-ordering makes sure that you don't miss out.
Thanks for looking....

Going Wild for Saffron 1

Time for some Sneaky Peeks at the things I've made for the new Bubbly Funk August kit which is now available for pre-order
This time the kit is based around the Wild Saffron papers from K&Co and is a lovely mix of soft and spicy shades.
You can see a bigger picture and a list of the kit contents on the Bubbly Funk Shop
When you buy the kit you also get to check out the Bubbly Scrumptious e-mag, which is gradually filling up with all sorts of ideas, projects, hints and tips.


These are just little glimpses of two of the things I've made with this lucious kit

I'll add more next time.

Anniversary Trip

We've just got back from a few days in Norfolk to celebrate our 15th anniversary. We had a lovely time and stayed in the most beautiful spot - perfect for a chill-out break. We stayed in a fab B&B out in the countryside, Le Grys Barn the rooms are actually converted from listed farm buildings attached to a gorgeous 17th Century barn - this is where breakfast is served and dinner too if you like. The views from the little patio outside our room was beautiful and it was so peaceful there - we found it quite hard to get ourselves moving before 11am to do any other sightseeing!
We spent our anniversary day on the Norfolk Broads, we hired a little boat and took a picnic out with us, then in the evening we'd taken a bottle of champagne with us and asked Julie to cook for us so there was no need to do all that search for a nice restaurant and sort taxis out stuff. It was a lovely, sunny and relaxing day and the meal at the end was delicious!Rather than put a load of photos on here, I've recently started a new fotopic gallery - the idea being to have somewhere to share photos with our friends and family, so if you'd like to have a look at some more pics of the trip, and of the barn, our room etc click here

Unfortunately, I've managed to come home feeling rather grotty - a touch of sunstroke, I think - my own fault for not wearing my hat! Anyway, I'll be back with some crafty stuff asap....

Thanks for dropping by - and thank you so much for all the lovely messages you've left over the last few days - I'll be trying to catch up with everyone over the next few days to see what I've been missing :)