This weekends crafting

 Today i thought i'd share a couple of things i made this weekend.  First up is a sock monkey called Bernard!

 Next up is some ceramic coasters. One is birthday present and the other i might put up for Valentine's Day.

 This last one is a plaque that a friend of mine asked me to make.  She has a friend who is a beautician and works from home and she wanted a sign to hang on the treatment door.

  So what have all you guys been making this weekend?

Blog Planner organising sheet

How organised are you?  Personally I’m a woman of lists.  I live by them.  Each day I write a daily list and anything not completed gets carried over to the next day.  It kinda works but I do sometimes have an item that just keeps carrying over for ages.  Last year I created a home file which has dividers in for different topics such as travel, food, parties etc.  It has served its purpose well but has been so well used it has fallen apart.  This week I’m going to start again and make a new one. Whilst looking for inspiration I found a few articles on blog planners.  Keeping on top of your blog can take up time and given spare time is sparse in our house I have decided to create my own blog planner to help organise myself. I tend to write all my posts for the week on a sunday and then choose the schedule option so that they appear as a post randomly during the week. I find it easier to do schedule posts as i just wouldn't get the chance in the week to update my blog and do live posts.  Some people prefer to write posts as and when they have done something or have something to say which is great if you have the time.  Because my posts are all written and uploaded on a sunday i do sometimes miss spontaneity but hey ho!. Anyway if anyone does want a copy of my blog planner I have uploaded it . Not sure why but the photo below doesn't show the text but if you click on the link below you can see the correct version.

Just click here for a copy

And the Valentine's ideas just keep on coming!

Today i thought I'd share even more valentine's items i have been making.  I recently tried cutting vinyl out with my Cricut machine and now I'm obsessed!  It just looks so cool and professional.  I love how cool the red writing looks on the cream ceramic box and it goes on super smooth.  The other trinket box wording was done using free cut out scrabble tile printables which i got from here and mod podge (oh how i love that stuff!).  The chunky square magnets were made by painting a wooden heart red and then gluing on the tile.

Valentines Day Sock Monkeys

Morning everyone.  Have we all had a nice weekend?.  We have had a busy weekend. It was our nieces first birthday party on Saturday and we had the in laws staying over.  With everyone being over I didn’t get much chance to do any crafting so today’s post is about something I made last week.  Meet Matilda and Jeff the Valentine sock monkeys……

 These are supposed to be going in my Folksy Shop but I'm not sure i can part with them as they make me smile so much!!

More Valentine's idea's

Do you and your other half celebrate VValentine's Day?  We do but don't particularly buy gifts other than little token ones (and i make all mine of course). We then tend to go away for a night or out for a nice meal but either the week before or the week after as the prices just get silly as companies know they can charge more at Valentine's Day.  This year we have got a great deal on www.groupon.co.uk for a nice 4 star hotel with 3 course meal, overnight accommodation, a glass of champagne each , a bottle of wine and full breakfast all for £79 Bargain!.  i can't wait.   Anyway i have been playing around with a few idea's of things to make for hubby and for my unit at Botany Bay.  here's a few things so far..

First Valentines Day tutorial

Hi everyone.  Hope you all had a good weekend.  Personally mine was not great as in my day job we are going through a restructure and whilst my post appears safe (I'm taking on 2 more teams and approx an extra 100 staff including site staff for no extra pay)some of my staff are at risk and there are a number of people fighting for posts.  The formal process of the restructure began on Friday.  Anyway lets not dwell on that and focus on something much more cheery like crafting!. 

Today's post is a tutorial (though the projects that easy you probably don't need one!) on how to make the wooden keepsake below.

This project is an easy peasy one that anyone can have a go at.  All you will need is a wooden heart ( have a search on eBay for these or try your local craft shop or www.woodencraftshapes.co.uk ), some ribbon,buttons, tester pot of paint emulsion or acrylic will do and either a cricut machine and vinyl or letter stickers (or failing that a gel pen and you can do your text freehand).  First of all paint your wooden heart in the choice of your colour and leave it to dry.  Once it has dried cut out the following words using your cricut machine and a piece of vinyl. I loved you then i love you still i always have i always will. If you don't have a cricut machine its fine just use letter stickers (available at any stationery shop/craft shop or hand write the text on).  Stick on your letters as the photo above shows and then add a hanging ribbon and glue on some buttons as embellishments. That's it valentines gift number one in the bag!

What's on your to do list for 2012?

Happy New Year everyone. Are you one of those people who makes New Years resolutions or not? As a rule I don’t really tend to make new year resolutions as they tend to end up more like a to do list for the first week in January!. Having said that there are certain things I would like to work towards this year. The first is expanding and growing my Scratchycat craft business. At some point this week I need to sit down and write some goals and a business plan on how I aim to do this. I have a few ideas in the pipeline but need to work them out on paper. More importantly I need to become better organised. I always thought I was a fairly organised person until things became really busy before Christmas and then I realised I really wasn’t prepared for the rush!.

Now then have you all managed to get any crafting in yet?. I have managed a couple of projects so far.

They are pressie's for my little niece.

This week I am going to be working on Valentine’s Day projects and some IPad cases so I’ll pop up some pics when I have finished. If I get chance I might also do a tutorial for the ipad case.