Apologies to anyone on my gmail list

I was hacked 30 minutes ago (the IP is a mobile phone in Turkey) and now my sending limit has been reached, so I guess I have spammed everyone in my address book. SORRY!

I met with Maria today ...

... so I now know my birth name and my birth mums name. I have the forms to apply for my original birth certificate, and information about the government administered contact service. It really hasnt sunk in yet, and the one question I am unable to answer is why I didnt ask my adoptive parents for information about my birth mother. Maria said they would have known a lot about her and about her circumstances.

Adoption update

I now have a social worker! Hello Maria ... Not spoken with her yet, will probably take a couple of weeks to get all my info together then I will get an appointment for an interview. So by this time next month I might know who my birth mum is ... or was

I've made an Easel card!

These are great cards to make cos they use up lots of stash! The stamp is Purple Onion and I've had it for ages but I didnt have an acrylic block big enough to use it.

Lisa Jewell car booty

These five books cost me £1 ... now I am on the hunt for After the Party, The Truth about Melody Browne, One Hit Wonder (but not Roommates Wanted cos that is the US title of 31 Dream Street!)

Nature CJ ... entry by juliab

This is a gorgeous CJ and full of lovely ideas ... I'm sure that nip will be over the moon to get it home ... I have these stamps (or something similar) and had never thought of using them this way ... its a brilliant idea to stamp the houses in white on black to give a moonlight effect

... wrightboysmum LHS ...

 ... this seems to be a very fancy kitchen towel (?) or scrapbooking paper with a deep texture (!) adhered to an old book page then stamped with a funky flower border. Some of the flower heads are layered and embellished with brads. The colours work so well (something I struggle with, I have no eye for colour) and the double page spread is so gorgeous I had to blog both of them

... wrightboysmum RHS ...

more loveliness

... pip ...

A collage of beautiful plants and flowers ...

... and this is Ally

Ally used a fern leaf as her mask, and adorned her page with a bundle of real twigs ... perfect

Booty bargains

Very poor turnout at Redcar boot today ... lots of ladies getting rid of scrappy stuff but they wanted WAY too much for their old (dull) stickers, stamps and papers. Just about to head home when I noticed several boxes of VGC books ... and asked the stallholder for her recommendation ... so I have Hard Eight and Full Tilt  to read. She also sold me this glorious red bag, its New Look but very much in the style of a Kipling bag (without that horrid monkey). I spent all of £1 for the three!

Starts tomorrow ...

Shim's new class starts tomorrow, its like 4 weeks of crafting with my best mate! I've done lots of classes with Shimelle and I love every one of them.

Butterflies CJ ... my entry

I seem to be the only person who does not own a butterfly stamp or a butterfly punch or butterfly paper, so I made my own butterflies with some paper blooms I've had for ages. The butterfly mask is chunky chipboard that came with a kit.

Colour theory CJ ...

Pinkster had the fantastic idea of making her CJ a challenge CJ. Each slip of paper had three challenges on it, to stretch and challenge us. Unfortunately, somehow, the challenges went AWOL, so by the time the CJ got to me, I was told to think up my own three things!

... my LHS ...

For my three challenges I chose: make my own background paper (stamp I have had for ages); hard and soft (grungeboard and beads); and monochrome (all colour is Tim Holtz broken china)

... my RHS ...

... Ally ...

There was a recipe card for this one, use of a stencil, doodled border and handwritten title

... Wrightboysmum

amazing use of texture, and I love the font used

Clever book closure

book-closings-on-the-cheap

I HAD to post a link to this super clever and super easy book closing. I love notebooks that have an elastic closing, cos the contents are held safely inside and they sit on my shelf so neatly. This blog gives a simple-as-anything tutorial on making your own book closing from stuff that 99% of us will have on our desk. Mega thanks to Sharon