Summer, Summer, Summertime.....

We've had a fab Summer break this year, must admit apart from our Ebay orders we have done very little crafting this last few weeks. Our time has been spent enjoying the sunshine, the beach, the Olympics, family time, riding bikes, reading, BBQ's, playing in parks, camping, rockpooling and all the other things a fab Summer break should entail :)

 

The Olympics were AMAZING and we are very proud of Team GB in this house, also pleased we get to experience it again with the ParaOlympics now upon us.

 

We had a great camping holiday in Northumberland, one of our favourite places in the UK. The beaches ae glorious, so natural and left alone, full of wildlife and not a promenade in sight!

 

This last few days have been spent getting things ready for the new term, i'll be sorry to see Master Maker and Little Lady go back to school, kinda like having them around all the time, will miss them so much!

 

But Oh! Those Summer Niiiiiiiiights.......are ending and back to working, crafting and the countdown to....dare i say it....CHRISTMAS!!! Argh!

 

Hope you've all had a fab Summer too :)

Coming to the end of the year......

.........the school year, that is!

So now we're into the last few weeks of the Summer term ( although we ain't seen much Summer!) I thought it was time to make a start on this years teacher gifts.

As you probably know we always make our teachers something, they put a lot of time and effort in with our little ones and i like to say Thanks with something more thoughtful and personal than a box of chocs.

So this year going along with our wooden theme i thought i would make them a sign to hang in their classrooms which then led onto a matching pencil pot :)

Hopefully these will go down well as they can be used year after year.

I am also selling these signs in our Ebay shop or if anyone would like a kit to make their own feel free to contact me at info@poppytoms.co.uk

Thanks for looking :)

Happy Jubilee Everyone....

Yes, i know, it's a bit late but what with the school holidays and all the celebrations i have been very busy this week in PoppyToms land and real life so this is the first chance i've had to post!

We've had a great jubilee, Master Maker and Little Lady have loved every minute of it and are now huge fans of the Royal Family :)

We have watched some of the celebrations on TV, had family around and we went to a Beacon lighting Village Party!

What have you been up to?

Alongside all the fun our new Ebay shop has really started to take off so i have had a very busy week preparing, making, dispatching orders....life is good! :)

Here's a few pics of what we've been making!

Feel free to pop in for a browse.....

 http://stores.ebay.co.uk/PoppyToms



PoppyToms is expanding!

We've only gone and got ourselves an Ebay shop!

Ummed and Ahhhed for a while, will it be worth it, so much competition, fees etc but all in all the foot traffic outweighs all that.

Day at a time :)

Go on, take a peek, what do you reckon?

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/PoppyToms

Here's a gift i've made for one of the teachers at school to thank her for all the effort she puts into our School Family Days. She arranges regular fun days where we've been attending to help transform a part of the school grounds into what is now a fantastic Woodland area and Outdoor Classroom for the children to use and wildlife to live.

Every school should have one, it's truly superb!

Don't forget you lovely bloggers can buy all the blanks (cheaper lol) from www.poppytoms.co.uk

Squeezing in time to craft!

Well we have all had a lovely weekend in the PoppyToms household, Master maker and Little Lady sepnt the weekend in the Lake District with my Sister and her family, it was their first time away from home (or should that be us!) and they thoroughly enjoyed it. I took the opportunity to sort out Little Lady's toy cupboards before spending an evening in newcastle with Mr PoppyTom at the Gateside Hilton Hotel. We had a lovely time and spent some time on the journey home visiting coastal towns and beaches along the way....bliss!

So although i have been in holiday mode i managed a little crafing. I have been busy making some wooden gift tags using papers, fabrics and embellishments.

These are for sale over on my Facebook page .......

www.facebook.com/PoppyToms

As are these tags ideal for Father's Day :)

I have also made a couple of these Family plaques, great gifts for a family wth a new addition!

Master Maker keeps reminding me i need to make him a cushion but been so busy lately my sewing machine has just been collecting dust!

Think we may need to ask the Prime Minister to add a few extra hours to the day as i always seem to run out of time! Does anyone else find 24 hours are not enough to be a Mum, work, eat, sleep and craft? :D

And the Winner is............

Pink Fairy Vicky!

Well done, just let me know what you would like and a new personalised plaque will be on it's way to you :)

Please Note,
each follower was given a number and Little Lady then chose a number at random to select the winner

1,2,3,4,5........

Well i've been busy painting some large numbers for a childminder to display in her garden. The only instruction i got was some colourful numbers so i had a little think about it and came up with animal patterns! That way not only can the kiddies learn their numbers they can guess the animal too :)

They're not quite fnished, ready for varnishing now.

DONT FORGET! If you haven't entered for your chance to win a door plaque follow me (see post below)

Chance to win a personalised door sign :)

FANCY WINNING A PERSONALISED DOOR SIGN?

Just FOLLOW my blog for your chance to win a personalised sign, choose from Heart, Star, Butterfly, Owl, Car, Rocket, Train, Princess Crown, Cupcake, Flower or Watering Can handpainted (colours to be agreed with the winner) on a rectangular plaque as pictured :)

Winner will be drawn at random on Monday 14th May 2012.

So what are you waiting for....FOLLOW my blog  and spread the word folks :)
(current followers will automatically be entered)

If your on FACEBOOK come and 'like' our page for more updates

https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/PoppyToms/145408695587927

Been a busy bee!

Sorry i have been a litte quiet of late, i have been very busy making products for my shop, trying to make website (easier said than done!!) not to mention Little Lady's recent 'Arty party' that took quite some organising!

So overall sleep has been last on my agenda and i am now sooooo tired, guess lots of you other crafty peeps know this feeling too well too!

If you get a moment take a peek at the new website and let me know what you think please, any feedback will be appreciated!

http://www.poppytoms.co.uk/

Anyhoo...a few pics for you :)

...............................................................................................

A new baby countdown sign :)

A chalkboard i made for my fridge, stops me forgetting what baking supplies i run out of (and stops my buying 3 bags of caster sugar instead of icing sugar again lol)

A name sign for Little Lady's Hamster, it will match his Au Naturale cage nicely :)

Some chalkboards the children made at the Arty Party, just two blank plaques and a bit of chalk paint. I put some chalks in the party bags and they were a big hit!

Some more Arty party makes....shrinkles keyrings (these are great i would highly recommend them) Scratch art bookmarks, beading and decorating fabric bags with fabric pens.....they all had a great time :)



The PoppyToms Shop Has Arrived!

After quite a bit of interest in our laser cut wooden shapes we have decided to sell them to all you fellow crafters :D
Please take a peek at our new website, any feedback would be appreciated :)

http://www.poppytoms.co.uk/

.....and Finally......

...i have some finished items to show you! What do you think?

Wooden bunting decorates with my favourite...yep...Cath Kidston papers :)

Wooden hearts bunting personalised for my gorgeous neice :)



A hanging sign for our Nanna's garden, she has a beautiful garden full of flowers all year round...how do Nanna's manage that?

Some bedroom signs for some of the kiddies...i have a few more to do to make it fair with all the neices and nephews :)

Sewing!

The sewing machine has been getting some use lately, what with Easter bags, cushions and some projects from Cath Kidston's Sew book. Take a look at my Sewing page and Easter page to see the latest projects including my first attempt at a fabric flower!
I've still a week off work yet with the Mini Makers so no doubt i'll have even more to show by the end of it :)

The Easter Bunny is Coming.....

Well,  The suns been shining (i'm ignoring yesterday's snow and putting it down to Mother N having a bad day!) and all the blossom and flowers are out so it must be Spring :) 

The Mini-Makers love to make Easter themed items, whether it's decorating eggs or making cards and with the school holidays here they have been busy little bees!
Best of all it's a time to give gifts which means i've been busy too :) Not to mention tryng to resist temptation of all the yummy chocolate we've been recieving!

I've also had a go at knitting, i'm pretty naff at it really as it hurts my hands and today i have sore fingers booo :( 

Anyway check out my Easter page for a peek at what we've been up to!

Big up Blighty!

I have just bought these gorgeous fabrics this morning! Now what to do with them! Hmmmm!

It's been a while.....

Sorry about that. Unfortunately recently my laptop had a little, well shall we say, 'mishap' and as a result i lost all my pictures :(

So tonight I had a likkle nosey through Mr PoppyToms laptop and it seems he has a few of my handmade pics....not all but it's a start and gave me something to update with.

So go, take a browse :)