April Giveaway!

My last giveaway was a handmade cross ring that was won by Suki from The Owl Club, who I've also nominated for a Liebster Award. See my last blog post to check if you've been nominated, too.

So this time I wanted something a little different and I know how everyone loves their soaps, so it would be nice to win some bath products seeing as though everyone is full of stress from blogging!

Some quick things to bear in mind:
Competition ends on 30th April at midnight
UK residents only please
Please read the terms and conditions on the rafflecopter form
The first two options are compulsory if you want a chance of winning

Good luck everyone xx

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks all! :)

Helen xx

Liebster award for Creative Cat

On Monday I received a liebster awards from Elba from Live Colorful. Elba had helped me out with what I should choose as April's giveaway and we both share similar blogs, plus she has some amazing tutorials on Valentines day cards, coasters and loads more!

So when you receive a Liebster award you need to answer some questions the blogger who gave you the award asked you so people can get to know more about you.  It’s a fun way to meet and connect with other talented bloggers and reward all their hard work and creativity.

Here are the questions that Elba asked me:

1) Describe yourself in three words:

   Confident, imaginative, dramatic.

2) Do you have a hobby?
   I have many. Piano, sketching, blogging, rock climbing and writing are my favourites.

3) Your favourite colour is...
   The orange you get in a sunset :)

4) Coffee or tea?
  I haven't had tea for ages but its really nice so tea it is!

5) Where do you find inspiration for your new posts or creations?
   Pinterest, or during a day dream.

6) What is your favourite song?
   You're that I want cover by Julia and Angus Stone. It's like the folk version of the song.

7) Name three things you can't live without...
   Soap, iPad and family (including my two cats) 

8) What has been the biggest obstacle you've had during your adventures as a blogger?
   Trying to fit in work and blogging at the same time.

9) What is your favourite dessert?
   Sticky toffee pudding!

10) What season do you enjoy the most?
   I usually love winter because we go skiing, but when we don't I love the summer!

11) Is there anything that scares you?
   Noises in my house at night. My imagination goes crazy if that happens and I'm just there like,"Oh my gosh! Ghosts!" Even though I don't believe in ghosts, which is quite funny.

 And now I want to share this amazing award to 11 awesome blogs that I really love and where I’ve found excellent tips, experiences, creations and a creative way to live that is really inspiring.

A liebster award for:

1. Tea cake and make

2. Sew Caroline

3. How to crochet a heart

4. Katy Clouds

5. Grey Luster Girl

6. The Creative Place

7. The Glue Gun Girl

8. Craftzilla

9. The Owl Club

10. A Sort of Fairytale

11. Ladybird likes...

Congratulations!!

And here are some questions for you...

1) What do you usually do in your free time?

2) How did you celebrate your last birthday?

3) Whats your favourite sport to watch/play?

4) Do you have any pets?

5) Whats your favourite memory of 2012?

6) Did you have a childhood sweetheart?

7) When did you last laugh?

8) Whats your favourite word?

9) Tomato ketchup or brown sauce?

10) Sewing or paper crafts?

11) Christmas or birthdays?

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The Liebster Blog Award Rules

1. Show your thanks to the blogger(s) who gave you the award by linking back to them and following their blog.
2. Answer the eleven questions the blogger who gave you the award asked you.
3. Choose 11 up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers to award the Liebster to.
4. Create eleven new questions to ask to the newly awarded bloggers.
5. Post the award on your blog. List the bloggers you are giving the award to with links to their sites. Leave comments on their blog so they know about the award.
6. To not break the chain don’t give the award to the same blogger who gave you the award.
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for this oppurtunity and well done if you've been nominated :)

Helen xx

I need your help!!

Hello all,

Even though I'm sticking to the idea of a monthly giveaway, I'm stuck as to what I should give away. So... I need your help! Remember: You don't have to choose one, you can say which ones you prefer. Also... I'll reserve everyone who comments into the giveaway, just say so if you don't want to be entered. The giveaway, as usual, will unfortunately be to UK and Ireland residents only. Sorry :(
So, here is my haul:

1) Two bath confetti packs, two bath sugar packs, two bath sprinkle packs and a handmade soap of mine.

Comes in orange, plum, lemon and lime.

2) An orange and purple handmade candle of mine, made by dipping and twisting wax. Took about forty minutes to make.

 Would look really nice in a vase!

3) The Paris necklace that is the first item of my Silver Hearts jewellery range. Took about an hour and a half to make over the course of three days.

Thanks again everyone!

Helen xx

New news!

Lots has been happening since I last spoke to you all! The giveaway is CLOSED (sad face) and there will be a new one in a couple of days for those who missed out. Not sure what the prize is yet but I've kept to the promise of a monthly giveaway :)
And the winner of the handmade ring giveaway is...
(Drum roll)

Suki from The Owl Club! We've kept in touch and we're both really excited about it!
 Congratulations! :) xx

Also, I've had many troubles with my readers trying to follow me because I haven't got any way for them to follow me, so I've added the Google Friend Connect widget on the right hand side bar. If you were an original follower you'll have to re-follow instead, but new followers don't need to worry.
In other news...
I'm taking part in the Cheshire Book Awards and I've read 1/7 books so far: The Bonehill Curse by Jon Mayhew. Will be posting a review on that shortly.
My twitter account was temporarily hacked :O but it's all fixed now!
I've been trying out this and if you scroll down you'll see the tutorials. They're really fun to do!
And....

To cheer up your first week back after half term (if you had half term off) I've collected some cute pictures for you to gaze you tired eyes upon :)

 

Have a happy weekend! :)

Helen xx

Silver Hearts jewellery range!

Hello all :)
I've decided that my hobby of jewellery making should be taken to the next level, so I'm launching my own jewellery range called Silver Hearts! It is mainly going to be full of little silver charms to do with classic children's stories, hobbies and travels and I made my first necklace today! It's a Paris themed necklace (quite obviously) and each charm was individually made and each link on the chain was individually connected :) it also has a little clasp, the ones you see on nearly all necklaces, that I soldered onto it with care.

I would love feedback from everybody about this new range that's coming soon once I build up a nice collection of jewellery.
Thanks again,
Helen xxx

14 days of craft tutorials: Origami heart bookmark

Welcome to day 1 of Creative Cat's new project 14 days of craft tutorials! Today we're going to be doing a lovely origami heart bookmark that slots snuggly onto the corner of your book page. It's very easy to make and I'm going to be teaching you through photographs :) Enjoy!! xx

You will need a 4"x4" piece of origami or printer paper.                  Step 1: Fold the paper diagonally from
Mine is relatively bigger but you'll want it small.                              each corner.                                             

Step 2: When you have an X shape creased                      Step 3: Open it out and grab the edges like this.
through your paper, fold it once horizontally.                                 

Step 4: Fold down the top flap to make this shape                         Step 5: It should now look (something)
and press down, forming a triangle.                                                  like this.                             

Step 6: Fold the left corner of the top triangle                            Step 7: Do the same with the right corner
up to the top corner.                                                                         so it looks like a diamond.

Step 8: Fold the top corner to the bottom.                                     Step 9: Open the top corner out and
                                                                                                            open the triangle like this, making a cave.

Step 10: Fold down the edges of the cave.                                      Step 11: Crease the top edges down.             

Step 12: Fold the rectangle part                                                       Step 13: Fold the rectangle part up half  

down.                                                                                                   way. 

                                                                                             
                              

Step 14: Fold it back so it looks like step 12.                  Step 15: It should now look like this, with the

Open it up in a cave-like way again and flatten                  triangles you just made pointing outwards either

the triangles down.                                                               side.

                             

                                                                                                                               

Step 16: Bring the two flaps up at the                                            Step 17: Lift up the top half and....

bottom to create two mini triangles.                             

                                                                                              

A lovely origami bookmark. Slip this onto the corner of your book for a stylish take on making your own bookmarks. Leave feedback in the comments folks!

Helen xxx

Guerilla art project: My Banksy painting

Even though I was meant to have finished my guerilla art project a while back lats week I was painting a brick wall and a Banksy rat this morning at my art group.
I only thought of it very quickly and when I showed a friend of mine the picture she asked where it was because she thought it was an actual brick wall with a Banksy rat on it....lol
Anyway, this is the finished product...

 

Excuse the fact it's on its side. I'll get round to swivelling that round later but for now, I'd love to hear some feed back off you all. I'm getting it framed as well so it would look lovely when that's done. Please tell me if I could improve it in any way :)

Medium: Watercolour on cartridge

Colours used: Burnt umber, Payne's grey, ultra marine, lemon yellow, raw sienna, crimson red.

 Thanks all,

Helen xx