Beautiful Baskets and fun with a big pouch & a pup!!

Morning Peeps,

 

Another day of catch up on my blog.  Just to keep you up to date with what I have been up to whilst I was not blogging for that huge length of time......miss me??

 

Well my lovely Sister went and got herself a lil' puppy to go with her massive dog.  She is just the sweetest wee thing but such a terror!! She was introduced to the family at the end of July, just a wee thing but she is already a monster, but a sweet monster.  I am not the best dog sitter in the world though....

 

awwwww look at the wee angels......

 

Yeah I only just survived lol.........of course I am kidding!!

 

So not only does my Sister have the challenge of looking after these wee toerags and do crazy shifts at work, she decides to hold a Macmillan Coffee Morning but the week earlier than the official one due to shifts.  She is the best baker ever and I have had the pleasure of taste testing all the cakes that she was baking for the day.  Luckily, it hasn't affected my weight at all. 

 

For the day she was having a raffle and so Fresh Scents Scotland donated a couple of things for this.  It was great to actually pop a basket together as I haven't done much with the bath product side of the business in ages.

The ingredients, lots and lots to keep the recipient smelling lovely & fresh for a long time!!

 

The Basket was the main prize but I thought a couple of the Bath Powder Jars would also be a lovely addition........one Jasmine, and one Cookies & Cream

 



If you would like to make a donation to this great cause, you can find all the details here - http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Donate/

 

Have a great weekend!!

 

Amanda xx

Victorian 60th Birthday Card

Evening All

What a gorgeous day it has been today, I was actually really happy at being able to get some washing out on the line for a change!!

So, what have I been up to?

Well I didn't tidy the craft room on Friday as I posted it was done today instead.  I had managed to find something else to take up my time :o)  A basket and card order which was fab. 

I love having orders and actually having a reason to craft instead of just making things up for markets, I mean I enjoy that as well but its more generic and I tend not to challenge myself.

David purchased some new style baskets and they are lovely looking, I am very pleased with them.

The card I made was 8x8 and its such a great size to work with.  It was required for an older more elegant lady so it was a good opportunity to get away from cute animals and bears etc.

I used a Kraft card as the base, extra strong double sided tape, double sided tape, wet glue, large foam pads, a piece of silver Mirri Card, a piece of lace style card, a piece of rose background paper, a couple of birthday sentiments, a Victorian topper, some cream ribbon with some glass bead droplets, some brown gems, some turquoise gems, a paper flower and some flowers put together using a technique that Ali Reeve from "Stamps Away" used on some background paper for a card she made.

So to make these simply cut out varying sizes of flower shapes from decoupage paper so that they could be layered up when finished.  I then scrunched them up to give a crumpled look.  Popped some coffee in he bottom of a bowl and added just a small amount of water from a hot kettle to dissolve, the flower shapes were then all dipped in and covered in the coffee.  I placed them on a piece of tin foil just to give them someplace safe to dry, before I left them though I sprinkled some more coffee granules on top to give flecks of deeper colour, left them just for a few minutes and then dried them off with a piece of kitchen towel and left to dry.

Once the flowers were fully dry I stuck the layers together with wet glue, shaped them some more, and added gem centres just to add a little sparkle and to tie them in with the rest of the card.  I also cut out leaves and used the same tecnique.  The finished flowers were attached to the card with wet glue and foam pads on the small one to give it a little height.

I was very pleased with the finished card, mainly because it signals the end of my crafty block!!

So thats what I did Friday. 

Saturday I got my things together for the "Granny Would Be Proud" Market held in the Hillhead Bookclub Bar & Restaurant across from Waitrose on Byres Road in Glasgows West End.  It was a great day, met some very lovely crafters as always and had a cupcake to die for made by "The Sweet Hut", oh it was just scrummy!!

Well, thats all for tonight, Happy Crafting xx



Fresh Scents Scotland Goody Basket

Happy Friday Guys

Hope you are all well.  I have been busy busy getting stuff ready for a market this weekend at a local country park.  It is such a gorgeous place, I just hope that it stays dry for the weekend so that people come out to visit.

If you are local its at Finlaystone Country Estate http://www.finlaystone.co.uk/ have a wee look, really is just beautiful.

So I have all may boxes ready with the stock, extra card, scissors and gelly pens for pricing, a good stash of change, plenty of business cards & some crochet to keep me busy if it quiet.  I love being out and about with my creations.

Only question, do I take the cat?

Yeah, I think she should stay at home too, there will be too many pooches out and about ;)

I have also been making up some gift baskets, these are not posted on the website as usually do made to order many for local people as delivery is something that is expensive and there's not really anyway to get around that.

They look pretty fab when they are finished and are really good value for money as I source the ingredients at wholesale and don't have the same overheads, I can sell my products slightly cheaper than the high street stores.  The reason I say that is there seems to be a consensus that if its cheap its not the same quality, I have been told by many a customer that my products are great as they are fresh, the souffles and bath bombs also fizz better and the fragrances are lovely.

These can be made up with anything at all from www.freshscentsscotland.com to your specified value.

I should be heading to bed now for an early night but I never can sleep the night before a fair so I'm thinking I will make up some bracelets or earrings or something, keep me busy for a few hours!!

Have a great weekend everyone,

Amanda x