Sara Sandberg

Believe!

I've told you before that I have the magical Faraway Tree in my garden - and here's a little sneak of inside a little secret door in it!

OK, it's the arch I made for our arch swap!

The fairy dress is made with feathers for the skirt, little leaves and mustard seeds for the belt . . .

A bit from a dish of pot pourri for the bodice, and strips of acetate with nigella seeds glued on for the straps.

There were some beautiful arches sent in for the swap - you can see them in the Cardmaking Paradise Gallery.

Also new on the site are pictures of a beautiful creation Trudy made from things other people would probably have thrown away!

You can see more pictures of it here.

The latest news in the Sandberg family is that it is Max's last day at school today! He just has to go in for exams after this.

By the time you hit Year 11, it's really not cool to take presents in for your teachers! Max's tutor has had this class for 5 years, and it sounds like she may even have put off moving to a different job until she had seen them get through Year 11. So at the last minute, Max decided he would like to buy her a present, and asked two of his friends if they would like to go in with it. So the three of them discussed how much they would like to put in for this present to the teacher who has seen them right through from year 7 to year 11, and they decided on . . . . . . . £1.50!!! 

So Max asks me to take him to M&S so he can buy the present! And of course, you can guess the rest! Yes, his teacher got a lovely little present that cost a lot more than £4.50!!! Boys!!!  We were at the flower section, with lots of beautiful flower arrangements displayed, and Max said "I'm only buying flowers if I can fit them in my bag".  He didn't want to be seen to be giving a present - imagine buying a beautiful bouquet only to have him shove them in his bag!!!

Jesper comes home tomorrow after another week away - he's been away so much recently I might ask him to wear a rose in his jacket so that I can recognise him when he walks in! Last time I said something like that, he said "well who else would walk in through the front door and kiss you?!"

"Well", I replied, "there's the postman, the milkman, . . .parcel delivery guy . . . . . . ."!!!

Of course I jest - I haven't really kissed the parcel delivery guy!

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Smiles,

Framed Alcohol Inks and a catch up!

It's been too long! I haven't chatted with you for ages! Let's catch up - I'll make it easy on my memory and work backwards from yesterday!

You know those little paint whirry things you get for kids, where you keep pressing a button, and the middle spins round for you to drop paint on - well, I've been wanting to do this with alcohol inks for ages, and yesterday was the day! I found it best to rub the square of acetate over with blending solution first;

It was great fun and I loved the result! I used my 3D frame template, which is so easy to put together and really effective.  And my new Memory Box Butterfly Delights die - I love Memory Box dies, they cut so beautifully.

And there it was, my card for the lovely Marion's birthday. I made a quick box for it - the template is in the same project, and got it ready for posting. I decided to stop it being squashed, I would just wrap a strip of thick cardboard cut from Amazon packaging (I always have some of that!) around it. So then I popped it in a jiffy bag and put a large letter stamp on. Then I had a dilema - I have one of those card template things from the post office, with a hole in for you to check if something is large letter sized. Now this would go through - just. I was tempted to flatten it a bit to make sure it would go through, but quickly realised this would defeat the object of the Amazon card - and if I hadn't put that round it it would have fitted no problem! So with the posting time looming, I decided to chance it, and am now just waiting to see if it got there without Marion having to pay extra postage! That would be a great birthday surprise would't it!?

A new project went on the site yesterday too - Christa and Lainey made some great examples showing a horseshoe is not just for good luck!

There have been birthdays galore since we spoke last - Max was 16;

I never know what to do decorating boys cards, so I just attached some metal swirls, and whacked some eyelets through the dots in the middle of the circles.

So for three days Max was 16, Nicole was 17 and Holly was 18 - and then Holly had her 19th birthday.

That space above is where I should be putting a picture of Holly's card! But I have a confession! Shhhh - don't tell! I made her a gorgeous valentines card - the triple easel heart card - but before her birthday I was really busy. She was home from University, there were birthdays and parties and chaos, and I just thought - she won't get up before lunch, so I'll do it in the morning! I was forgetting she was going to Thorpe Park with her friends, so she was up and out mega early. Anyway, I got on with my things - and forgot about the card! So all evening, I was there waiting for the "where's my card?" question - and it never came! She didn't realise she hadn't got one! So I didn't make one!!!! How naughty is that??!!

So what else has happened? In the weeks before we were wondering if we should be building an ark I woke up to a thick frost. I had sheets I wanted to wash that day and so needed the line up. I put on my best puppy dog eyes, wagged my tail a bit and said in a sweet poor little girlie way - Jespeeeeer, you wouldn't just put the clothes line up for me would you?!

How could he refuse! What he didn't know - as I hadn't thought of this tactic before - is that to put the clothes line up, you first have to find the hole!

So here he is, bless him, on a cold and frosty morning, trying to find the washing line hole! It took him ages!

Well, I think that's everything! I hope you have all had fun. Have you been making anything crafty? Share it with us in the linky below if you have.

Enjoy the rest of your week, and have a lovely weekend.

Smiles,

Cake Stand Template! Mmmmmmm ;)

This fantastic cake stand was designed by Sally Harvey! Isn't it lovely - it's very quick and easy to make too!

And of course I had to buy some yummy cakes to photograph on it!

I know the chocolate muffin didn't look as good as the others, but chocolate muffins are my favourite - and I'm telling you, this one was absolutely delicious!!!

You will find the project - and more cakes - here!

We had the most fantastic thunder storm here last night - I've never seen anything like it - so much forked lightening! We sat in the conservatory and watched it travel across the sky. My dog JoJo doesn't like the thunder at all though! All day there were rumblings. He never comes up to my craft room with me, although little Sammy Cocker Spaniel always does, but this is where he spent the majority of the day!

It's Max's 16th birthday party tonight - I have been given strict instructions not to buy a Pokemon birthday cake and embarrass him! Last year I thought it would be funny to buy them kiddy cakes - Holly had a Disney Princess cake, and Max had a Spongebob Squarepants one! The delight on his friends faces when I said "but he's your favourite!" as Max looked in shocked horror at the cake! The truth is, Max has never shown an interest in Spongebob Squarepants - I have just perfected the art of embarrassing my children!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend. Are you doing any crafting? Why don't you show us what you have made using the linky below.

Love and smiles to you,

 

Birthday cards from around the world!

What a lucky girlie I am! I had the most beautiful birthday cards sent to me from around the world! I wanted to show them to you, so have made a video of them! Why don't you grab a cuppa and take a look?!

 

How lucky I am to have such lovely crafty friends - thank you all so much for my gorgeous cards!

I had a lovely birthday - my family have decided after 25 years of being 21 it's time to be 22! I get up far earlier than anyone else, so when I came down that morning sitting on the kitchen table were 22 red sparkly roses! And the number 22 cut out of paper on the table!  Nicole is very good at presents and organising everyone, and had given Jesper the idea of giving me a telescope. I could tell that he really didn't know what on earth I would want one of those for! But Nicole knows how I love looking at the stars and naming them, and I was dancing round the kitchen when I found out! I can't wait to have a go!

I've had my hair cut this week - it's one of those times that whenever I pass a mirror I get a shock and wonder who that is looking back! I always have a mini panic just when I leave the hairdressers when they ask "did you have a coat?" You then have a very short time to describe your coat in a way that they can identify it immediately from a cupboard stuffed with them. And then when they open the door - I feel like saying "actually - I want that one!"  My daughters now cannot pass me without saying "no, you've done it wrong Mum!" and fiddling around with my hair, fluffing it forward into my eyes!

Happy Easter to all of you - I hope you all are having a lovely chocolatey weekend!

Smiles,

A beautiful start to a lovely Easter!

It's been another beautiful day here - everything just looks so lovely in the sunshine! In fact it looked so lovely when I got up, I was out at 7 taking photos!

If I had been trying to get this pidgeon, I wouldn't have done - it was pure fluke!

This is our magical tree - did you ever read Enid Blyton's Faraway Tree stories? Well this is it! It has three faces in it - can you see them?

One is just under the left branch, the other just above the table looking out into the field, the third is more of a deer head, the branches are the antlers, the eye is the lump sticking out, and the nose is the lower face!

Holly arrived home from uni yesterday - she didn't wake up in time for me to play any April fools jokes though! Teenagers . . .    It's lovely to have her home though!

As I created our Easter Bunny project for last Easter, I thought I would be more traditional this year.

You will find the project here. Lainey has made some stunning examples to show you too, so do pop across and take a look! My friend is really looking forward to Easter as she gave up chocolate for lent! I just can't get my head around that! There is not a single cell of my body that thinks God would want me to give up chocolate for even a day!

I'm sorry to anyone who has been inconvenienced with login in over the past couple of days - I have updated our software so that new members will be automatically joined in the forum, and existing members now only have one username and password to remember. If you are having any problems at all, please contact me so that I can get you back on track as quickly as we can!

I have some lovely things I have been sent to show you, which I will take photos of tomorrow - and it made me think it is lovely to see the things people have made. I will post a show and tell linky at the end of my posts now, so that if you have made something using the projects and templates at Cardmaking Paradise, you can link to it and we can all come and have a look! It's always lovely to see how other people have made the projects!

Enjoy the sunshine!

Smiles,