Trentham Monkey Forest.........

Good morning, I hope you all had a great weekend. I had one of the nicest for a long time. My eldest daughter lives up Stoke so we don't see that much of her, now. It was a gorgeous, sunny weekend so decided to have a drive up to see her.

I was deciding what we could do to make the most of weather, somewhere we could take a picnic and I remembered seeing signs to Monkey Forest, five minutes from where Jodie lives. I looked on the internet and it looked a fab place to visit.

We took my two nieces so my sister could have a bit of time with the new baby on her own, the two year old was so excited. When we got to her house, she was waiting at the door with her bag, ready to go, I walked up the drive and the first thing she said was " you're late". We were actually 10 minutes late, I don't know how long she'd been waiting there, bless her.

I highly recommend this as a place to visit, whether you are a family, couple friends or just for a nice walk. The monkeys are in  natural surroundings, as much as they possibly can be, there are no cages or fences and just walk around freely. You are asked to keep one metre away but they really are close enough to touch (not that you can).

Some of the females had just given birth and I could of cried with joy when I saw this mother and baby, isn't he adorable? It was so lovely to see these wonderful creatures at close hand in their natural habitat, playing games with each other, jumping around in the tress, feeding. One monkey, literally walked straight past us on the path, without a care in the world.

Spot the monkeys.

After we'd had a walk around the monkey forest, we were all getting hungry so headed to the picnic area. It was a lovely grassy area with picnic tables and a fab play area. 

Olivia had so much fun running around and getting lots of attention from her big cousins.

This place was really geared for families and children with two play areas, one for each age group, nothing was over priced like a lot of attractions. A good day had by all and we will be going back soon.

 A nice refreshing ice-cream after a long, fufilling hot day.

 We couldn't leave without visiting the shop for a souvenir of our day and a little monkey for this sweet baby boy.

Have a great week, my friends and thank you for letting me share my weekend with you.

xxxxDebxxxx

Inspired by Stamping June Releases.....French Country.

Good morning, I hope you've all been having a good weekend. I'm back today with my last project from this month's Inspired by Stamping June releases. This is another French inspired set called French Country. I absolutely adore all things French and have loved creating with this month's releases.

 I haven't made an Easel card in a long time so I decided to make one for my last project using the French Country set.

I started off by stamping the chicken wire from the French Backgrounds onto the front of the card, then adhered a jumbo tag. I stamped the cockerel onto a book page, layering it onto some hessian and some ephemera from my stash.

I stamped the sunflower twice onto some patterned paper, cutting some of the petals from the second image, using foam pad, I lined it up and put it on the full sunflower image.

I covered the bottom card with pattern paper and some IBS Crochet Trim, stamping the sentiment from Big Notes in French II. I used two layers of foam pads to lift it, so the Easel card doesn't fall flat.

I'm often asked where I write on an Easel card, I stamped a sentiment from Birthday Greetings, just on the back, where there is also room to write who it's from.

Check out what the other DT have been creating.

Joanna

Colleen

Irit

Kendra

Leah

Pam

Shani

Shea

Tina

Vicki

Don't forget to leave a comment on Joanna's blog for the chance of winning this set. It's Release Day, tomorrow and for 48 hours only, it will be free shipping on purchases over $25 using the code " June Release". This offer will end on the 12th June at 7pm (Brisbane time).

Thank you for joining us this month for the new releases, I'll be back tomorrow to reveal this month's sets in full.

xxxxDebxxxx

Inspired by Stamping June Releases.........French Backgrounds and Big Notes in French II.

I hope you are enjoying this month's new releases from Inspired by Stamping, I'm back today with a very French vibe. I've using two new sets today, both are French inspired, the one is called French Backgrounds and the other is Big Notes in French II.

I stamped the Fleur de Lys background stamp onto plain white paper, distressing the edges in Antique Linen and stamping over the top " Joyeux Anniversarie" from Big Notes in French II.
I stamped a white tag with the Eiffel Tower from the Paris set, it is actually the small image that is part of the clock. I just inked up the tower. I also used the floral leaf stamp from Flowers Bloom, finishing off with some Inspired by Stamping Flowers.

Check out what the other ladies have been creating.

Joanna

Colleen

Kendra

Irit

Leah

Gloria

Shani

Grace

Tina

Calypso

Don't forget to leave a comment on Joanna's blog today for the chance to win today's sets. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

xxxxDebxxxx

Inspired by Stamping June Releases........Summer Flowers.

It's the second day of Inspired by Stamping June releases, today I'm using a very pretty set called Summer Flowers.

I was spoilt for choice of which flower to use but I decided to use the pretty Chrysanthemum stamp, I stamped it in cerise, I cut around the flower using foam pads to give it some dimension. I cut out some leaves in felt, stitching along the centre.

I finished off the tag for my card by stamping "Happy Birthday" from Fancy Circles, adding some pompom trim and a twine bow.

Check out what the other ladies have been creating.

Joanna

Colleen

Kendra

Irit

Leah

Pam

Shani

Vicki

Calypso

Don't forget to leave a comment over on Joanna's blog for the chance of winning this stamp set. Thanks for stopping by. Have a great weekend.

xxxxDebxxxx

Inspired by Stamping June Releases........Summer Postcards.

Good morning, I'm back today to show you the first of the new Inspired by Stamping releases for June. I'm kicking off with Summer Postcards, it works perfectly with the Vintage Postcard or as a stand alone set.

It's Fathers Day on the 16th June so I wanted to use this set for a masculine card. I stamped three of the ocean themed stamps and cut them out. I added a bit of colour to the Lighthouse with some fine-liner pens, I then stamped "Postcard" from the Vintage Postcards set, onto some lined paper, layering the stamps and over stamping with the ocean themed postmarks, creating a collaged effect. Lastly, I stamped "dad" using the Fancy Alphabet.

Check out what the other DT have been creating with this month's sets.

Joanna

Irit 

Leah

Grace

Vicki

Calypso

Shea

Colleen

Kendra

Gloria

Tina

 6th – 10th June, we will be giving away blog candy, each day one lucky winner will receive the featured stamp set/ or sets for that day, for the chance of winning just leave a comment on Joanna's blog each day. Winners will be randomly selected and will be announced daily on the June winners page at 7pm (Brisbane time), the following day.

Free Shipping will be available on all orders over $25, this will start on the 10th and be available for only 48 hours, using the code "June Release", ending on the June 12th at 7pm Brisbane time.All stamp sets will also be offered as a bundle for a 15% discount.

xxxxDebxxxx

Whoo Hoo Wendesday........fabric flowers.

Hello there my friends, how is your week going, so far ? It's my turn to do the Whoo Hoo Wednesday for Inspired by Stamping. I'll be showing you how to make these fabric flowers.

You can find the tutorial over on Joanna's blog, if you create a card or project using this technique, one lucky winner will win a $15 gift card to the Inspired by Stamping Store, you can find Mr Linky, here, with the full details.

It is day 3 of Let's Get Trendy Now! 3 and today it's about "Handmade Embellishments" I love making my own embellishments especially flowers. I'd forgotten this post was scheduled today, I hope it's ok to link it up to today's challenge.

It's the start of Inspired by Stamping June releases, tomorrow, here are a few sneak peeks.

Happy Crafting

xxxxDebxxxx

Let's Get Trendy Now! 3-Day 2.........Sequins.

Good morning, another beautiful sunny day here in the U.K. and I'm off for afternoon tea later for my friend's birthday, it's a perfect day for it.

It's Day 2 of Let's Get Trendy Now! 3 and today they are focusing on sequins, I knew from yesterday's post it was going to be sequins. I think I must of been dreaming about sequins last night and what I could do with them. When I woke up this morning, I knew exactly what I was going to make, does anybody else dream about crafting or is it just me????

I'd recently bought some sequins from Poundland, as I'd been seeing quite a few people using them on their projects.. They were large bags, crammed full of all sizes, shapes and different shades of one colour. I bought the pink and blue but I might get the other colours next time I go.

It's my niece's birthday tomorrow, she will be 10, so the first one I made was with the pink sequins, this is another quick and easy card to make. I can spend hours on one card but today's two cards took me less than an hour as did my card, yesterday.

I die-cut two pieces of vellum using the Spellbinders Scalloped Square and stitched three sides together, I filled the little vellum bags with sequins and stitched the last edge. I glued the shaker bag onto some white card, it seemed to get lost on the patterned paper. I used Helmar 450 glue as it dries perfectly clear so you can't see it through the vellum.

I stitched around the patterned paper and adhered to the front of my card, then centred my bag of sequins, finally a punched out glitter butterfly and a sentiment. I love this stamp set from Inspired by Stamping, as it as lots of different words so you can make up your own sentiments.

Supplies
Stamps- Inspired by Stamping Little Phrases.
Paper- Prima, Vellum, Glitter Card.
Pretties- Sequins, Spellbinder Nestabilities, SU Rhinestones.

One last thing to share with you, my sister had her baby boy on Saturday. He was 12 days late but once he decided it was time to get out, he'd arrived within one and half hours, weighing 9lb 8oz.

He was just a few hours old here, they have named him Adam.

I was away when he was born so this was my first cuddle, he is 36 hours old in this photo, he's a right little bruiser and so adorable. He was been passed around like a parcel but it really didn't seem to bother him, he just kept opening one eye to see who'd got him, then fell asleep again, bless. Needless to say, I'm a very proud Aunty!!!!!

Thanks for taking the time to look, back soon.
xxxxDebxxxx

Let's Get Trendy Now! 3- Day 1.........Neon.

Hello, my friends, today is the first day of Let's Get Trendy Now! 3 if you haven't heard about it yet, you must check it out!!!! There are some fabulous designers, who will be sharing five new trends with us. Day 1 is NEON. Well, I love challenges, as you know and this is a bit of a challenge.

Don't get me wrong, I love neon colours, I love al colours but I predominately work with pastels and most of my papers show that.

I used the sketch that they provided for inspiration, it is for a LO but I thought it would work well for a card too.

 After searching through my stash, I found some papers that I thought would work.

A very quick and simple card, I punched out some hearts and stitched them through the centre and adhered to some neon pink card. I also stitched around the white card that the hearts are stitched on just to give a bit more depth. I then stamped "Happy Birthday" and curved it for a 3D effect.

Supplies
Papers- Cosmo Cricket De Lovely, Basic Grey Gypsy.
Stamps- Inspired by Stamping Big Wishes.
Other- SU Heart Punch, SU cardstock.

Thank you for stopping by, have a great week.
xxxxDebxxxx

Just Because........I love yarn.

Good Morning !!! I hope as you are reading this that I'm sat on the beach at Brean, maybe with some crochet and enjoying some of this yarn I'm about to show you.

I've no particular reason for writing this post apart from, I love yarn!!!!! I love the different textures, the softness, the rainbow of colours and the list goes on. I was looking at the recent photo's I'd put on IG so I thought I'd share them on my blog too.

I fell in love with this Rowan Fine Art which is a hand painted sock yarn made with merino, kid mohair and mulberry silk, it is as soft as it looks on this photo. They had some gorgeous muted tones but I was just drawn to this brighter palette called Serin.

My other recent purchase was some Drops Merino Extra Fine DK, which was on offer at £2 for a 50g ball of pure merino. This was a bargain but even at it's regular price of £3.10 it is great value compared to other brands of merino wool, I buy my Drops yarn from Wool Warehouse as they stock the full range.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it but just the love these colours together after seeing and been inspired by this post from Lavender and Wild Rose. If you love crochet and pretty things, check out Jen's blog, you won't be disappointed.

Some more Drops merino, my friend, Kerry and I are planning to have a mini Crochet Along (CAL), we both wanted to do a daisy style granny square blanket. We've got the yarn ready to go and will start it when Kerry has finished her latest WIP.

This my colour choice, I've been playing about with patterns and variations, I think we are both happy with this pattern which is a mash-up of two. I'm just not sure yet whether to add some plain granny squares in too or which square to use, yet. I might even use both of them, decisions, decisions.

This is the last photo of my yarn obsession, a friend has asked if I would crochet her some bunting in pastel/ice cream colours. These were the two choices I gave her with the yarn I had, she decided on the bottom colours, a mixture of lemon, mint, raspberry, cotton candy blue and strawberry, mmmm, sounds delicious.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
xxxxDebxxxx