OOOOOh, how organised am I?

This is the vintage collection of 'post-it' note pads I'm giving as teacher gifts this Christmas. I'm hoping to make more for family and friends and maybe to sell a few - best get making!!!!

I absolutely love this card! I really really do. I'm thinking of enlarging this to 12 x 12 - well, doing a 12 x 12 version. I've been wanting to make a family set of lo's and this is a fantasic one of my sister. The papers tie in with the photo so well, even though the patterned one is from the Dovecraft Eastern Promise collection, it shouted 70's to me. The Prima pearls are one of my favourite things at the moment and she is one lucky person for me to be using them on! So far they have been purely for looking and stroking! I hope she likes this as she says last years wasn't up to par ;( Can't wait for her reaction!

I made this shortly after making the card, it was that beautiful I wanted my own version and it's the start of my 'Family' pages! I have put a plaque in the left hand corner (should you think it looks a little lonesome up there) but as it has her name and dob i figured i should leave it off a public page! I love the wordings on this, I purposefully did them the same yet different as that is my sister, whilst the 'same' person, she has 'different' roles - deep eh!!!! Dad pointed out I'd forgotten 'Niece' - ooops! I had serious fun making this LO as the plummy coloured matt was something I've wanted to do but never had the time. I stamped, shimmered, tore, tattered and stitched!!!! I call it 'creative' others may call it 'messing about' :p

1st birthday card..

When I was baking Adam's cakes I dug out the candles and had a 'lightbulb' moment - how cool would it be to use a candle on a card! This was the result!

Ooooh, commisions!!!

I was asked by a friend to make two wedding cards, and for this she was willing to subsidise my crafting addiction :0 . The Groom is Spanish and they live in Northern Spain. I had no idea where to start with this, but after a google of Catalan weddings, the only thing that stood out was the heavy use of lace. When wasting - I mean stocking up on some craft essentials I found this gorgeous lace in a shop and had to have some. I then looked in on a local shop that has just opened and as is popular, they have the 'fill your box' paper deal and although I didn't have time to do that, I did spot the stunning backing card used here! This was where the colouring came from and the fact that when I think of Spain, I think terracota! The brown ribbon was off a box of chocolates. The rest were stock items. I have had a tray of beads for a long while now and they went beautifully on the cute pins I've recently bought. I love this card. It's not 'weddingy' per se, but it is romantic and I, for a change, love one of my cards!

The second card was from the bride and groom's boys. My remit was that the card be 'childlike' and to Mummy and Daddy (catalan spanish) and that Daddy is a farmer. I had a brainwave of making a tractor a wedding car and set about finding die cut tractors! I bid on ebay for these and asked the lady to ensure one of the 4 was white! When they (2 extra) arrived there was the white but then this lovely orange! I knew I wanted to personalise in the tyres but that's not actually that easy! Just about pulled it off. The rest just 'happened'! I love the staples on this card - very random! Oh and the paperclip was one I was about to put on some documents when I realised it was the perfect colour! This is definately a quirky and original wedding card - I hope the bride and groom like it!

Little Man's Birthday....

.... and as I have done for most of his birthdays, I got out the flour and eggs and produced the following yummy things:- I love how this turned out - not totally professional (would have shaped the round cake) but for Adam it was perfect. He loved the bunker best and he and Lucy were convinced completely when I said I was filling it from Adams sandpit!
These were a little idea from another web site. I am soooooo in love with these I could think of so many reasons to make more. I decided to bag them and giving them to the party guests instead of cutting up the golf cake and wrapping them in a mad rush at the end.

I love them with my table as a backing!!!! Still can't believe you bake these in the cone!!!!!

OMG when did I get old enough to have a 7yr old? Heck who am I kidding, some school friends are Grannies, but I'm not that old!!! Oh no, not me!!!!

My gorgeous niece

Can't believe I haven't blogged these LOs. I did them sometime back in May along with the

black and white ones. I'd been playing with them digitally for a while but couldn't find a 12 x 12 paper I liked for the background. Thanks to My Minds Eye I managed and have a pad full of their gorgeous papers left over to do more. These LOs are of my lovely Niece.

For some reason I went against the norm and photographed both sets against a window - not a good idea and they seem a little washed, they don't for real though.

End of an era

Not quite that dramatic but Adam is no longer in the infant class at school. I have sidestepped a little from cards and scrapping and stumbled upon papercraft gifting. After the success of the Easter boxes I was itching to have another go and when I found the template for these boxes I had to make them.


As he was leaving the infants class though, I wanted to get his actual teacher and her assistant something to remind them of Adam so we went to the garden centre and got the following - completely inspired by the plant name!I asked some teacher friends which gift they've loved and one said she'd had a plant with a painted pebble so I stole that idea and made the pebbles (with help from Adam) a gift tag instead. I took a trip to the florist for some cellophane and paper and hey presto - two wrapped plants. I loved how they came out.

I'm not sure if it was a coincidence but on Leaver's Day Adam won the Creativity award!

Don't throw the painted stones but I am now thinking of Christmas gifts - ouch!!!!

Cards made during the summer

This was a trial at a word card for a child and I was pleased with the results - especially as it
was for my child!

This is the first of what turned into a run of stepper cards for children this summer.

Two card genres which I have trouble with, men and children but I managed to achieve some

fairly respectable examples this summer.

Too busy to craft ;(

That is not a good place to be! I've been busy doing not much too so that makes it worse. Decorating, moving house, planning a wedding - they are all things you can forgive yourself for being busy with but I have no such excuses! I've just been busy with life. We've been away on our annual holiday to Mum and Dad's. It was great just to see sunshine! Adam is growing way too fast - he's now 'playing out'! In today's day of TV and all things with 'screens', this is a wonderful thing and I hope the weather holds out while the light nights do. But as a Mother, it is both scary and lonely. On an up side, I should have a little more crafting time :o)

I did the above LO during this 'extra' time. I am blocked up with cold, aching all over and exhausted but on coming in from work and waving off Little Man, out came my glue and papers and I finally got these precious pictures into my scrapbook. I love the innocence in photos of children. When Adam was born, Lucy instructed Grandma to 'put him back in there' after she decided Grandma had given him enough attention. A few weeks later, after holding him and everyone ooohing and aaaahing, I think she decided he wasn't so bad after all. Since then they have created a lovely relationship that is sooo cute to witness. If only they lived closer.

On a more crafty side of things, I'm beginning to give serious contemplation to making cards to sell. I have had a few enquiries about selling my cards and whilst I still can't believe someone would pay me money for one, I am extremely flattered and somewhat proud of myself for once. Watch this space - Lillipad Designs maybe a household name on day roflol!!!!!

BBQ man

Precious Moments.....

these little monkeys have been plaguing me since I digi scrapped them a while ago. Using the software papers I did the layout very much like above but when it came to making them 'for real' I couldn't find a suitable backing paper. There are many out there (5799 on just one of the sites I trawled), many are truly stunning but alas non were 'just right'. I asked fellow scrappers who helped as much as they could but I still wasn't happy with the suggestions. Now, we have a little family tradition going here in Lilliland. On my birthday each year we head off to a caravan park. It began when Adam was just 1 and we went to Northumberland. Have been every year since. This year we chose to take things easier and stay closer to home in East Yorkshire - well, it would be closer if we were crows or they built a faster road :-O, still took two hours! So, we were in Skipsea Sands with not much planned for a change when Mark looked at the map for somewhere to go for my birthday and chose Spurn Point. Had it down as one of those places you need to see in England. So, we were driving through Hornsea en-route and stopped at lights, to my left Adam spotted a sign in a shop window 'CRAFTS'! So I was allowed to go in and treat myself on the way home. I was discussing the layouts with the owner who came up with the fantastic idea of stamping the papers. She had some lovely stamped examples on cards in the shop and I managed to find a lovely 'cherry blossom' Clarity Stamp on her shelf that looked like it could just do the job. So once home I set to creating. Much as I was terrified doing something I've not tried before, I knew I could do this again and again if need be. They, in fact, came out perfect first time and this is the result of that work. The elements on the page also took some finding (the large stones are also from the Hornsea shop). I am rarely 100% happy with my layouts/cards but this is the closest. The subject helps tremendously. The one of Adam and I melts my heart every time I look at it. He looks so scared and vulnerable. This was also my first encounter with Prima crystals and one I know will not be my last - I am hooked, well and truly.

Bad girl.....

Whilst I'm confessing to being a pants friend, I made this card for my sister (what, you never guessed?) and she gave it me back to send again this year, preferably signing it this time ;-( I know we can all do these daft things but I did it again last month with a card to friends, thankfully I have wee stickers on the back with 'handmade by' on so they knew it was from me lol!

I'm such a pants friend ;-(

I was sooo proud of myself for making this mountain card for my lovely friend. I had it made ages and ages ago inkeeping with my new ethos that I will be organised with cards this year. Such a shame I forgot to send it. I am a lost cause, a pants mate, a walking nightmare. In future I will have to add a category to my card making - I now need - a craft room and a post room!

Happy Easter Holidays

Well, not much crafting has been happening this week! Things in Lilli's Pad have been crazy to say the least with little sign of a reprieve. We had my sister etc. here for Easter, which was lovely. The kids love being together and it's such a reminder of how insignificant many of my woes are. I love seeing them running free, not a care in their world. Even our 'baby' Cherie has to have her part in things and the three together were a pleasure to watch and photograph.

My niece seems to be becoming more and more of a mini me (a thought that must surely give my sister night terrors lol). Whilst here she insisted on making a card for her teacher. So being the good Aunt and frankly, a chance to get some things to play with out, I asked what colour base card she wanted! Blue, pink, mint, white........NO!!!!!! 'I don't want to make a boring card, I want to make her a POP UP card :-O!!!! Thankfully I do have a Robert Addams - really must see how you 'link' things on here - CD and we made a lovely butterfly on a flower card for her. My niece did most of the cutting out and I 'tidied' bits up but on the whole she made the card. Sadly I only have the beach photos and none of the card......

I can't see me being able to make much anytime soon either, apart from a girls birthday card I need for Sunday afternoon! We are having quite a lot of work done in the house and my talents are being used for 'site manager' 'purchaser' 'secretary - isn't it always!' 'filing clerk' and anything else that needs doing bar the actual contractors work. We are finally getting a conservatory, the fence needs replacing - all 16 panels, the drive needs the kerb dropping and then sorting and then just to make things really mental, the cooker is playing up - thankfully have breakdown insurance - and the flat roof over the utility is leaking. On top of that I'm also trying to replace my car before the 1st May! Then, inside the house we are trying to finish the en-suite and the decor refresh we started last year. Way too much for my little brain to cope with. It's really frustrating as I've just received some lovely 12 x 12 papers I can't wait to play with.

Easter treats

Well, I have to say this project has me a little smug and self congratulatory - is that a word?? I planned on getting Adams teachers a small something for the end of term but then I was looking online today at Robocrafts members site and saw these templates for lovely boxes and decided they would make nicer gifts to give - nothing nicer than a handmade gift in my opinion. Much as I'd like to wax lyrical about the effort involved in these wee boxes, they truly couldn't have been easier. cut out box - robos job! bit of acetate in the window, glue down tabs, get Adam to fill with eggs (a few got sidetracked to his mouth :-O ) then tie a bow and let Adam loose with the stickers, I did do the first one and he copied the rest. He then had to write the tags which seriously are tiny and his teachers have loooong names!!! Have 3 more, may stretch it to more :-).

From screen to reality

Now, you're thinking I've lost the plot and am putting the same picture on here but......look closely! On the first attempt I wasn't 100% happy with the title word 'party' so I got out my Kirsty Wiseman cd and printed the dotty paper then using my wee robo cut out a new title. It still looked a little flat so I grabbed a brown felt pen and 'doodled' round the letters. Looks much better than the first one - no?

I'm not sure if I am a boneefido (Victoria Wood impression) insomniac or whether crafting at night is the only time I can therefore I don't get much sleep, but this is why I had so little sleep again last night. This is the 'reality' layout from the Shabby Princess digi one did the other day. I have used my little friend, Robo, to do the word 'party' but I'm not happy with the size so may replace this. I love the My minds eye papers and decoupage on this layout. The embossed dotty papers are adorable. Finally getting round to scrapping some of my treasured pictures of my gorgeous little man and my beautiful niece. Hopefully there will be many more soon.

Oh and a little applause for my camera work on this please, if you don't mind! Have discovered a better way to take pics of scrapbook pages now so there isn't too much 'side' distraction.

Creative week....

...being creative!

Well, I have bags under my eyes Ryan Air would charge the national debt to take on board and a house Kim and Aggie would recoil in horror at to prove I've been very involved craft wise this week! I've had my stash everywhere from the table next to the chair in the lounge, the dining table, the kitchen worktops and even the playroom had a pile of papers hiding and pretending to be toys! Why, oh why a neat freak would choose papercraft as a hobby, especially when she isn't fortunate enough to have a 'Craft Room ;-( . Anyhows, I have been progressing and thanks to a few good friends and a few more great websites I've found things to help me progress and things to enjoy. This page really is one I've been wanting to scrap for such a long time. The day is still so vivid in my mind, playing with Adam on the bed with his teddy which was as big as he was. I can hear his giggles in my mind now! That is one sound that just melts away any stresses, any worries and fears, whilst listening to the giggling you feel your heart expand to rib cracking proportions and wonder if you could bottle the moment to bring out on those rainy 'low' days.

I'm not altogether happy with the page though, I have no flowers so I improvised with curling ribbon I fashioned into a flower but I think it dissolves too much into the backing paper so may change it when I get some lovely blue flowers.

Shabby Princess was one site I was directed to, oh my! what beautiful papers etc to download, and free too! Now were I a whizz on here I would link the site but sadly I'm a technophobe and you will have to Google! I made a fab layout (above) which I intend to make for real using My Minds Eyes papers and embellies, in fact I'm multitasking as i type, I'm printing the photo and some backing papers!!!This black and white one is special! Not only because it is totally gorgeous but because I got to play with my new baby!!!! I decided I deserved my birthday present early this year and bought a Craft Robo Lite! I've been ummming and ahhhhh (more argh really)ing for a while now as to which way to go with a die cutter. The thing that made my mind up was I looking online for a circle punch and it being £10+, and we all know you need more than one size circle punch! So I went for the Robo. Oh my, it's not for the light hearted. OK, if you want circles it's pretty simple, but if you want other things then enrol on a graphic arts night class! I did, with the help of some clever people on UKSrappers site, manage to download a template for the scalloped flowers - the central circle with phrase is all mine though!!!!! And boy am I proud of myself for that. Printing the phrase and then lining it up to be cut was no mean feat, OK I know it's not 'perfect' but give me a break, I'd had the machine less than 24 hours! I looked online today and you can buy the templates which maybe a route I will take as it's hard enough finding time to click 'print' never mind create files in a programme I'm scared of, also if I don't then this wee machine (and it is wee, so great if you've a small craft space) won't work as hard as I'd like it to.

These cards were made when I should have been tidying up! I made the pink/green card from some scraps I'd overprinted a while back. The papers are from Craft Beautifuls website - more freebies!! I totally luuurve them, they are so fresh and cheering that you can't help but smile when you see them. The one above it I also made from some scrap papers - Brenda Pinnick this time, along with an embellishment I'd forgotten I had. Spurred on by this one and finding the Ramblers embellies I'd bought with my sister in law in mind, I decided to be ahead of my game and make her birthday card which is after Christmas - crikey! I'll be making Christmas cards next week :-O Think I made it to bed before 1am that night, just!

Early Days...

and not just for my darling boy. This was one of my first ever scrapbook pages. I invested in an
inexpensive software package which allows you to design 'digital' pages, but you can also print everything individually. I like to use the software to 'mock up' a design idea I am unsure of as it allows you to see flaws that could prove expensive should you buy everything then find it just doesn't work. I have also used the package to print off embellishments for pages. The only thing on the page that isn't card/paper from the cd rom is the fibre on the tag and the initial backing paper. My passion lies in scrapbooking but as a 'novice' I found it could be intimidating when you trawl sites ~ so much to learn when I just wanted to create a page. The software helped me, and still does, to have courage in my designs, although there are always pages that work so much better than others. Again with the photography!!! Must remember to take pages out of album when taking the picture!

A Brrrrrrfect Snow Day!

I've been wanting to scrap this memory since the day it happened, which was the beginning of the school Christmas holidays. The snow was magical, deep and great fun. Adam loved it, Cherie loved Adam loving it and I didn't have to drive in it - win, win, win!

I do think our snowman could have been so much better though and the end result was a little on the scary side.

The crystals are 'leftovers' from the wedding cake below - no waste with a crafter!

You can't really see it but Cherie is sticking out her tongue. That is another scrapbook page on its own!

Still need to work on the photography!

The cards....

I had a few wedding card ideas and couldn't decide which to do for my cousin so in the end I made 3! I 'donated' the 2nd and 3rd to my family.

The net on the dress card is made from the same netting I used for the wedding cake stand.

I really loved the picture I used on the Bride card. It makes me think of when I was a little girl and would dream about what my wedding would be like.