Been Bakin'

Christmas cookies for friends and family:



Christmas cupcakes for FC Irlande's Christmas party:



And some cupcakes for my fiancé's birthday (oh, and I made the cupcake stand as well):

First Free Stuff Winner!

A little late, but the lucky winner of 3 brand new design 'Konnichiwa Christmas' cards is... Easy T! Congratulations - the cards will be winging their way to you very shortly!

Look out for more free stuff in the New Year!

Competition! Christmas Card Giveaway: Free Cards

For a chance to win a set of 3 free Christmas cards from my brand new 'Konnichiwa Christmas' collection, leave a comment or reaction, and if you tell me your name, I'll put it in a hat and draw the winner on 4 December - just in time to receive the cards!

A couple of samples from the collection (these are the very first drafts so if you win, you'll receive a more polished set of cards):

Market Research

Big news: I am building a website to promote and sell the things that I make. The product list is small at the moment - I want to see what excites people like and what bores them. General ideas are:

• cards and gift tags
• picture frames
• invitations
• bunting and decor
• decorated pages for framing with photos
• custom booklets, notepads and albums

These pictures show a few things I've been putting together: cards and gift tags. I'm working on invitations as we speak, so I'll post those soon. As you can see, themed sets are already taking shape:






Labels feature an eyelet for reinforcement (and style!):

Nearly Christmas

Usually I'm unwilling to start thinking about Christmas until after Sinterklaas, but being committed to making your own cards necessitates forward planning. I've made a few samples of more traditional (but non-religious) cards for this year:

Scrapbook Selection

I was just sorting through my collection and it is woefully small. I am hoping that now I work from home I will have more time to scrap our photos... scratch that, I am DETERMINED now that I work from home to make more time to scrap our photos!
Anyway, here is a small selection from scraps past. I've got a bunch of new tools and a buzzing in my head which means the next selection will... well, have more stuff on them. Enjoy:

From Montenegro:

From New York:

And from France:

Just Visiting

Since we moved to Brussels we've been entertaining visitors. Always there are photo memories. No better way to record the visits than in a Guest Book:

Box It Up

Last time I bought a box it was to put presents in. It was half the size of this one and cost me £7.99. This is my first attempt at covering a plain old cardboard delivery box, and I don't think the results are too bad for a first try.  Just need something to put in it now....

I even lined it and added corner guards:

Cupcake Cupcake

News just in: someone else I know loves making, decorating and eating cupcakes! AND she knows just where to get the best baking ingredients in this still-new city. Just need to find the time to go there...!

So, what did I make her for her birthday? ...um, cookies, actually. But there was one cupcake I made:

Custom Cards

Here are a couple of my one-off, custom specials, to be framed and put on the wall, and never to be repeated. The lucky owners are a dear friend who just so happens to love all things zombie, and my future sister-in-law who just so happens to love all things singing.

Special Guest Appearance

I would like to claim them as my own, but in fact my mum made these amazing additions to our Halloween Housewarming. The pumpkins are so cute, and the bunting read 'Happy Halloween', of course.

Hauntingly Creative

So, we moved into our own place, just in time to give me a few days to prepare for our Halloween Housewarming. Boxes lay still packed while the paper, scissors and glue were given priority.