As I mentioned in my previous post that I haven't been making a lot of cards recently but this past weekend was one of our nephews 16th birthday, so I decided to try and make a card for him.

I decided to use a card sketch to make it a bit easier for me and so went with the Mojo Monday sketch 304.

My card style is quite simple but has a lot of colour, so as this card was for a teenage boy it helped to keep it simple. 

Paper - My Minds Eye | Card - American Crafts | Stamps - Banana Frog and Amy R | Ribbon - American Crafts | Star punch - Fiskars | Button - Sew Sweet. 

Hope you are having a good start to the week. 

I found out I was pregnant the day after my dad's funeral and ever since then I have suffered from bad nausea, sickness, heartburn and acid reflux. It's been quite a tough few months but these common first trimester symptoms are beginning to ease as I am now 16 and a half weeks. 

Although these are easing, I have been suffering more with anxiety and low mood associated with antenatal depression. I have been feeling very restless, not sleeping and eating, crying alot and not able to concentrate on things - hence why there has been nothing on the blog. First thing in the morning tends to be the worse though. 

I have to wait until the end of the month to see a specialist who can help me, so in the mean time, I have been trying to get a grip on my emotions and my thoughts with the help of my family and my midwife.

I truly hope to be able to post more on the blog and make more cards and crafts so that it acts as a kind of therapy for me.

 So for now on there could be alsorts of posts on the blog as I try to make my way through this pregnancy including crafts, cards, home decor and more personal ones.

To those that are reading this post, I hope you don't mind me writing this but I felt I needed to get this off my chest and to help me move on.

I hopefully will be back soon with some cards I have made in the last few months.

Hope you are having a great day. 

The past week has been quite a difficult week for me as my dad passed away suddenly and then my health has been giving me a lot of problems too. My dad and I weren't very close but it obviously was still a shock. So for these reasons, I just haven't been able to concentrate on crafting or blogging. 

I did manage to make one card before last week and that was for our niece. 

Monday was our niece's 21st birthday and as she loves owls, I thought I would use the Clearly Besotted You're a hoot stamp set.

I started with the patterned paper that is the lacey circle. From there, I chose the card and the ink. 

 The cute little owl with the polkadot heart is so cute. Love it. 

Paper - Making Memories Just Chillin Girl | Card - American Crafts | Stamps - Clearly Besotted You're a hoot | Die - Spellbinder Nestabilities Lacey Circles | Ribbon - American Crafts | Border Punch - Martha Stewart | Wooden Stars - Ebay | Foam Letters - American Crafts Thickers | Embossing folder - Cuttlebug seeing dots. 

As our niece loves owls, I bought her a cute little owl mug, only trouble was when Hollie saw it, she wanted one too!

Hope you are having a great week. 

I love washi tape and I love to make lists, so I had this idea of combining them both to make some washi tape to do lists.

First I created a simple to do list in Microsoft word with lines, circles to allow you tick off the to do and a banner at the top with to do on it.

I put the banner at the top, slightly lower than the top to allow you to put some washi tape above it so then it would look like the banner was part of the washi tape design.

I also put some washi tape at the bottom of the paper to finish the list off.

I punched some holes in them so that I can put them in my blog planner but you could keep them together with a paper clip, binder clips or in a plastic pocket. 

If you would like to make your own washi tape to do lists, then simply print off the printable below and get creative with your washi tape.

I have created two versions, one in a4 size and letter size and made them to fit the standard size washi tapes but you could try using thinner or thicker tape too.

Washi Tape to do list - A4 size

Washi Tape to do list - letter size

*Update*

If you like to change the to do, then here are the word documents:

A4.

Letter.

If you print one of these off, let me know how you get on with it.

As there are so many washi tapes out there, you could create some lovely colourful to do lists.

I love to see all the colours and it's a great way to use up a little bit of washi tape.

Do you love washi tape or writing lists? Let me know, I would love to hear. 

I love colour and if you look at my Pinterest boards, you will see they are full of colour but I also love the simplicity of white and I am really loving white and mint combo at the moment and so decided to use mint on this card. 

I was going to use some butterflies or flowers on the little squares but they were too big so went with the little wooden hearts instead. 

I inked the edges on the little squares lighter than on the sentiment because it wasn't until I had put the squares on the card that I realised that they were a bit bare. 

Adding the white faux stitching, the heart gem and the crystal pin brought the card together.

Paper - Dovecraft Tea Party | Stamp - Amy R Its your birthday | Label - Spellbinders Nestabilities Label four | Ribbon - Hobbycraft | heart gem - Hobbycraft | wooden hearts and crystal pin - Ebay | White sekura gelly pen. 

I decided to use the Mojo Monday Sketch 290 for my inspiration. 

Hope you are having a nice weekend. 

As the weather here has been getting a lot better I have been trying to start sorting out the garden. Last year I didn't do much in the garden and we have virtually no plants or flowers so I am trying to find ways to add some more colour and texture to the garden. Truly hope I managed to do more with the garden this year.

For today's card, I used the sketch 60 from Retro Sketches.  This card came together quite quickly as there isn't too many things on the cards and love the wooden flowers on the card. I am really liking all the wooden embellishments that you can get.

As the patterned paper isn't across the whole card, I decided to ink the edges of the papers so that it didn't look so bare.

Paper - Crate Paper Story Teller | Stamps - Forever Friends Black and Gold | Ribbon - Hobbycraft | Brads - Making Memories | Wooden Flowers - Kars. 

This is the sketch. 

Hope you have a lovely weekend.