Made With Love by Kat

I was so excited to get my first Glittery Hands Box ! This was a project that I backed on Kickstarter a few months ago and I'm so glad to see it come off. The box had a great mermaid theme, which was very different to other craft boxes I've seen recently, and I particularly loved the shell ephemera - particularly the "100% mermaid" cutout. I'm also looking forward to playing with the anchor stamp and I've been adding the lilac paint to all sorts of bits of scrap paper to use in my next layout. I've got some ideas for projects I want to make with the contents which I'll share with you soon, but for now, take a look at this unboxing video to see what I got. 

I was so excited to pick up these gorgeous goodies from Hey Little Magpie . I'll be using them to make my friend's little girl a birthday card, and to start filling my Spring Project Life album (I'm waaaaaay behind schedule - SUCH printer woes!). I really love the My Mind's Eye On Trend 2 collection - it was really hard to stop myself buying all of it and I'd still like to get the decorative brads and the wood veneers ... 

Hi guys - I wanted to share this quick flip through of the mini album I made with pictures from our recent trip to Oxford. I took so many pictures in the city and at the Cotswold Wildlife Park on the way home that I'm not quite sure what to do with them all - the giraffe pic I scrapbooked and shared last week was one, and some will go into my Spring Project Life album too. I used a whole mix of papers and embellishments by Maggie Holmes, Heidi Swapp, Dear Lizzy & Docrafts - here are some more close-up pics: I love looking at other people's mini albums too - share yours in the comments section below x

So I was quick and lucky enough to snag an A Beautiful Mess Happy Mail grab bag - and here's what I got!

I wanted to share with you this quick layout I did after my fiancée and I visited the Cotswold Wildlife Park a few weeks ago. I had ordered the Maggie Holmes Confetti ephemera collection months ago and while I loved the vellum giraffe I was at a bit of a loss over what to actually do with it. Then when we met this adorable young giraffe who was out and about enjoying a rare sunny Spring day, it seemed like fate that they should meet! The backing paper is just some plain grey cardstock I had in a box, with the fab ombre chevrons from a Docrafts paper pack I picked up at The Range. Then I used Heidi Swapp September Skies papers for the layering and a 3x4 Project Life card I had in my stash – I have absolutely no idea who the designer is but I have loads of these and they’re adorable. 

Hi folks - here's the latest in my sporadic series of craft news pieces and features. The Guardian had a lovely piece last month about macrame superstar Emily Katz, which you can read by clicking here , and another about how craft isn't just a "nice activity" for people to do - it can make a real difference to lives. Read it on their Culture Professionals Network here . Female First revealed the results of a survey which suggested 52% of people like to sit at home and do some crafting after a stressful day (although I'm fairly sure there was some bias, as the survey was carried out by craft TV channel Hochanda). And scrapbooking fans will enjoy this article in Time magazine about a WWII sailor's scrapbook from the war - read it by clicking here .

Oh I'm having so much fun playing with my new watercolour brushes! I've been mixing painted backgrounds with stamps - I plan to get some card and make my own journaling cards for my Spring album, which I really look forward to sharing with you!