What a morning!

Wow, what a morning I've had. I woke up this morning looked out into the garden and saw a hedgehog on the lawn, bit late to still be out but he was moving around so I didn't think anything of it. About an hour later I looked out again and it was sill there, something not right. I went out and had a look the poor thing had a cut behind its ear and was not looking too good. It was in the shade so I left it while I tried to find out what to do. We used to have a little wildlife sanctuary near us but it closed a while back so who do you phone? I phoned tiggiwinkles but they were not very interested so I called my vet to ask who to take it to and they immediately just said bring it here and we'll sort it out. I took it and they were great explaining what they would do and that they would let me know how it was getting on. What a fantastic service.

After dropping the hedgehog off at the vets I went on to do a bit of shopping, thinking it would be quite quiet on a Monday morning, boy was I wrong, I think everyone in the area had decided to go to the same shop as me at the same time, it was packed and the queues were awful. On top of that they were servicing about half the fridges so there were no yogurts, dairy products or fresh fish available. Oh well I guess I'll just have to brave the shops another day this week.

Then I was home about an hour and a half later than I had hoped. At least the sun is shining and the sky is blue here at the moment. I need to go and post my blog candy off to Bubbles and I've got a card to make for a graduation and I must get it done today so I'm off to try and complete it. There just aren't enough hours in the day sometimes but I'll let you know how I get on.

Claire

Blog Candy Winner

Thank you all so much for your lovely comments and for entering my blog candy draw. This morning I put all the names in a hat and pulled one out.

Drum roll please!

The lucky winner is:

Bubbles, (Joanne)

Congratulations. Please email me your address at chalfontcrafts@hotmail.co.uk and I'll post all your goodies on to you.

Once again thank for taking part, look out for more candy when I reach 5000 visitors.

Claire

Blog Candy

Here's what I have managed to collect together for the lucky winner of my blog candy. Hope it comes in handy and inspires some new ideas for the recipient.


Contains:

• Alphabet rubber stamps
• Paper punch
• Beads
• Stickers
• Gold transfer foil
• Papers
• Self adhesive stones, (clear)
• Peel offs
• Glitter

I'll keep looking as well so there may very well be more in the packet when I send it!

Good luck everyone who has entered, I'll draw the winner tomorrow morning so there's still time to leave me a comment on the post below if you want to enter.

Claire

1000 Visitors & Blog Candy

I can't believe my blog has had 1000 visitors. I thought I'd just say thank you so much for looking and please keep leaving me comments, I love to read what you think about my creations and what I've been doing.

I know it is only 1000 visitors which is not that many in the grand world of blogging but I am really pleased that people want to look at what I've been doing and keep coming back for further visits.

As a thank you, I'm got my first lot of blog candy to give away, nothing spectacular but I'll have a root around in all my crafty drawers and find a nice selecetion of bits and pieces for one lucky person. All you have to do is leave a comment on this message and I'll pick a winner out of the hat after the weekend. Please check back next week to see if you have won!!

Claire

Birthday Card

Another miserable day here today, just got the washing out this morning and it started to rain and it hasn't really stopped since, hoping it gets better for the weekend.

I made a birthday card this morning for one of my mother's work colleagues. All I knew about her was what Mum said - which was she's a girly girl and likes pink! This is what I came up with. The first picture is of the outside of the card. I wanted to keep this simple and I think what I've done says everything!


The second picture is of the inside of the card. I took inspiration for this card from a picture of another card I found while searching through google. I am really pleased with the finished result and think I've managed to create a sophisticated girly card.


Claire

Some atc's I made today

Hello all,

I've been quite busy sorting out all my stock/stash over the past couple of evenings. I was surprised at just how much I have, I knew there was a lot but there were lots of things I don't even remember buying. I decided I wouldn't buy anything else until I'd used up lots. Well that was going well until I popped to the garden centre and thought I ought to have a look in the craft shop while I was there - well they had some bargains which were just too good to miss!! I bought some 12x12 paper and a couple of sets of alphabet stamps - will power, what will power!!!

I have made a few atc's today. One is for a competition so I won't post a picture of it here just yet. The other three I've made are a series of Oriental Fortune atc's. Each has a hand painted and stamped background and a little fortune, (like a fortune cookie).

I thoroughly enjoyed making them and it made me realise it's been a while since I made some atc's just for the sake of making them rather than entering an organised swap. Here's a photo of the finished atc's:

I put them up for swap on the CM&P Forum and they all went quite quickly, which is always nice!!

Post soon

Claire

Waterfall ATC's

I did it - I made something!!! While I was lurking on the CM&P Forum and looking through the last months posts, I was reminded of the June technique swap. Every month there is a swap and you must make a certain number of atc's using a specific technique, this month was waterfall atc's in any theme. I sat for quite a while thinking about this and I finally came up with some ideas and once I got started I was flying through them.

I have made three all together, two for the swap and one for the host. I have taken pictures of the finished atc's and also pictures of each stage of the waterfall. Each waterfall has five sections. The first one is for the host and has the theme of vintage chocolate advertisements.

I can only upload five pictures at a time so pictures of the other atc's will be in the following posts.

Hope you like them, please leave a comment.

Claire

2nd waterfall atc

I used 'Oriental' as the theme for this atc. I love the black and red and think is a really striking combination of colours.

Claire

3rd waterfall atc

Last but not least, my favourite of the bunch. I have used pictures of pin-up girls on this atc. Once again I love the colours and the images are fun.

Claire

Crafting mojo gone awol

Hi everyone,

I've been going through a bit of a crafting dry spell these past few weeks. I sit down at the desk and hope inspiration will hit, after about half an hour of sitting staring at all my stash I admit defeat and walk away for another day.

Don't know what's wrong with me. I'm hosting another mystery swap on the CM&P forum and received 2 entries this morning. They are fantastic and they have given me a bit of motivation, so I'm going to sit and try to make something today.

The weather is awful here so at least I won't be looking out the window wishing I was outside. I'll let you know how I get on and show you what I manage to make, if anything!

Claire

Flower Fat Book Pages

I signed up to another fat book swap a while ago and have finally found the time to make the pages. The theme this time is flowers and there are only 8 people signed up for this swap so I haven't had to make as many pages as before. I have enjoyed making these pages once again and find 4inch by 4inch a great size to work on, it's not so big that you have trouble filling the page and not so small that you struggle to fit everything on that you want to.


Here are the first 4 pages I have made, hope you like them:

Claire

The Next Four Fat Book Pages

Here are the last four pages:

The pages with the tags in have a quote from Shakespeare or a poem printed on the tags. One is from 'The Winter's Tale' and the other is a poem from an anonymous source. Both are about flowers.

Claire

Computer Problems

Another apology for not posting for a while. My computer has been messing about and I wasn't able to get on the internet at all from last Wednesday. I managed to finally sort the problem yesterday and I'm back.

Quick update on the past week - I've been enjoying some good weather at last and spent much of the weekend working in the garden, my aching limbs are wishing I hadn't spent quite so long weeding but it had to be done! I've also been busy making some fat book pages for a new swap on the CM&P Forum.

The craft sale I told you about went well. Each person could only take a very limited amount of stock and I took about 20 cards and 4 little maze books. All my stock sold in the first 30 minutes so I'm really happy, just wish I could have taken more but hopefully it will result in some future orders - fingers crossed.

Hope everyone has had a good weekend and the weather has been good for you also - perhaps summer is finally here - it'll probably snow tomorrow now I've said that!!!

Claire

Another Mystery Swap

I host a mystery ATC swap every month on the CM&P Forum - the idea is people sign up before they know what they will have to use. The items for May were:

• Button
• Cotton Wool
• Fake or dried flower

The swap closed at the end of May and even though there were not as many people taking part as in previous months I think it was a great success, the ATC's are all fantastic. I feel very privileged when I host a swap because I get to see all the amazing work up close. Here are my entries:

You can't really see it in the picture but the robin is my fingerprint!

Now all I have to do is think of 3 items to be used in the June swap - thinking cap on!!

Claire

I'm back

Hi everyone,

I got back yesterday but have been feeling quite unwell so didn't manage to make it on here to say hi! Anyway I'm back and have a list as long as my arm of stuff I need to do and make. I'll catch up and post some photo's either later today or tomorrow.

Post soon
Claire