Sympathy cards aren't cards I generally enjoy making, unfortunately they always mean someone, somewhere has lost someone dear to them and are in unimaginable pain.

A close a family member on my husbands side, died a few days ago. It wasn't news we were expecting, as quite often it never is. We are deeply saddened and wanted to express our heartfelt condolences to the immediate family, and so here we have a sympathy card I've made and sent to the immediate family members.


I wasn't planning on using one of the new stamp sets from the Spring Summer catalogue but while creating this card I knew I wanted to stick to a monochrome theme, I didn't have any patterned paper that I felt would be appropriate so I used a stamp from the Timeless Textures stamp set and made my own background paper by stamping in Smoky Slate onto Whisper White cardstock.

I think it looks simple in an elegant way. Its exactly the look I was after. Clean, bright, sombre, special and beautiful.





The butterfly has been die cut using the Butterflies Thinlit Dies and has 2 layers. The underneath is cut from Basic Black Cardstock. The top layer is Vellum, from the new Botanical Gardens Designer Vellum Stack from the upcoming Spring Summer Catalogue. There is a subtle pattern on the vellum and I felt this added something to the card.

I finished the butterfly with a row of 9 rhinestones down the centre. Simply stunning.

I hope you and your family had a lovely Christmas and are looking forward to 2016 and all that it brings.

Myself and my husband had a quiet Christmas at home this year. We started off with an amazing meal at Marco Pierre White Steakhouse Bar & Grill in Congresbury near Bristol on Christmas Eve. The food was amazing, for a special treat and a truly memorable meal, we decided to share a Chateaubriand, essentially a large fillet of beef, intended to be shared and never for just one. This dish came with the most amazing onion rings, a grilled tomato and a small copper pan of triple cooked chips. A little jug of Bearnaise Sauce was the perfect accompaniment.

We opted out of starters so we could make sure we finish this beautiful steak and still have room for dessert - but we couldn't resist the warm basket of beautifully baked sourdough bread. For dessert I had a very sticky toffee pudding and Phil had a raspberry knickerbocker glory. It was a lovely relaxing evening with stunning food. The service was excellent and the waitress very kindly offered to take a photo of us.

We visited Phil's dad and sister on Christmas Day morning then spent the rest of the day at home, just the two of us with our cats Charlie & Bayley. I missed having my mum and brother to stay so we decided to use Skype so we could open our presents together. It was really nice as we were still able to be part of each others day, 130 miles apart.

Whilst I did miss hostessing, it was also lovely to put my feet up and relax and cook Christmas dinner at my own leisure. I cooked roast turkey and all the trimmings - my all-time favourite roast is rib of beef but my husband always says "its not Christmas if you don't have turkey", so turkey it was and it will always be. I'm not the biggest fan of turkey so I always make Jamie Oliver's Get Ahead Chrismas Gravy to serve with the meat, trust me, it makes all the difference to the meal and is well worth the effort to make it.

As we were spending Christmas apart from family, I wanted to make something handmade to give as presents. I made 6 of these little hampers, containing little treats to eat and drink and I really hope everyone liked them and found a little something inside that they really enjoyed. Naturally I couldn't post pictures of these until after Christmas, so here is my version of a Handmade Christmas Hamper and the little treats included within it.

These biscuits are so yummy, they are Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Belgian Milk Chocolate Shortbread Wreaths. I am glad I bought them when I did as they were sold out in no time. I packaged 2 biscuits in 4" x 6" cellophane bags to include in the hamper.

I made a label using the Lots of Labels Framelits and some kraft cardstock. I then stamped 'Chocolate Shortbread' using the Alphabet Rotary Stamp and underneath stamped the winter scene using the Cozy Christmas stamp set. I added a white star punched from Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper and also coloured in the snow on the roof with a Wink of Stella glitter pen which will be available in the new Spring Summer catalogue. I stapled the label to the cellophane bag using the Handheld Stapler.


Here is another favourite of mine - Sainsbury's All Butter Fudge. It's very crumbly fudge and at £1.25 for 200g it's an absolute bargain. I put 4 little pieces of fudge into a 3" x 5" cellophane bag. The label is Kraft cardstock punched out with the Decorative Label Punch. Again, I used the Alphabet Rotary Stamp to stamp the word 'Fudge' and then added the sentiment 'Happy Winter' from the Happy Scenes stamp set. The little bird has been stamped using the Festival of Trees stamp set. I used the handheld stapler again to fix the label to the cellophane bag.



A hamper wouldn't be a hamper without some good old English tea so I ordered individually wrapped Twinings English Breakfast tea bags from eBay.

I made these cute tea bag holders using some 6" x 6" Designer Series Paper and added a sentiment using the Washi Label Punch and stamped 'Season's Greetings' using the Happy Scenes stamp set.

I used a video tutorial I found on YouTube by Joan Robertson to make the tea bag holder - click here to watch it, it's so easy and quick to make and each one holds two tea bags.

Now this is a real treat. I included in the hamper a little glass jar filled with Mr Miles hot chocolate (made in Somerset), enough for 2 mugs plus some pink and white mini marshmallows for some extra indulgence!

I got the clip lid glass jars from Sainsburys for £1.25 each - unfortunately I can't find them online but they are similar to the Kilner Spice Jars. They are perfect as once the hot chocolate has been used up, the glass jars can be reused in either the kitchen, or even in the craft room.

I used the Alphabet Rotary Stamp to stamp 'Hot Chocolate' onto some Kraft cardstock. I then punched out little tags using the Washi Label Punch. A star punched from Gold Glimmer Paper punched using one of the Itty Bitty Accents punches and fixed to the tag with a glue dot is I needed to finish off the jar. To fix the label to the jar, I punched a small hole using the 1/8" Circle Handheld Punch and threaded through some Linen Thread before tying the label onto the glass jar.

Oh my gosh, where have the last few weeks gone? To say we've been busy is an understatement. With less than 2 weeks until Christmas now the pressure is on to get the presents wrapped and cards made (yes, I'm still making my Christmas cards). I haven't even got any decorations up yet.

Normally by now, I would have everything well under control but this year hasn't quite gone to plan. With a late holiday in October, complete redecoration of our living room (floors, walls, furniture, lighting....) and some heartbreaking anxiety issues with one of my little cats, Christmas has not been my top priority, even though its one of my favourite times of the year. Thankfully, everything is coming together now and fingers crossed, our beautiful cat Bayley seems to be improving. My husband and I are certainly looking forward to a nice break at home together with the cats as we both have 5 days off work!


I made this card a few weeks ago. Its another version using the Hearth & Home framelits but with a totally different look to what you've seen already. I used some DSP from the Home for Christmas Designer Series Paper. To get an aged look, I spritzed the DSP with water and scrunched in into a ball to break the paper fibres down. I then stretched the paper back out and left it to dry. Once it was dry, I mounted the DSP onto a layer of Gold Foil and a base of Lost Lagoon cardstock. I stamped the window scene onto some Very Vanilla cardstock and simply coloured in the birds with my Real Red Stampin' Write Marker to look like red robins. I cut the window from Kraft Corrugated Paper and added a wooden Snowflake Elements and the sentiment Peace in Gold Glimmer paper. Peace is certainly want this Christmas, peace at home and peace in the world.