End of An Era

Well, that's it! Jacob has officially left nursery as he starts school the week after next, and it was our last day of 6 and a half years......

We had a pirate themed party to celebrate and here is a pic of the boys (Samuel was invited too) with his key worker Nazia, Kim and Jacob's most favourite friend, Sarah. Danielle sneaked on too to do the rabbit ears on Sarah.

So, six and a half years later, two children through nursery and we've worked out that we've spent around £42K on fees, which works out at an average of £6.5K a year........ Just think what we could have done with the money!

But we are richer for the experience, friendships and laughter, which there has been an awful lot of!

And I'm old enough to be Nazia's, Sarah's and Danielle's Mum!! How old do I feel?!!

We All Went To The Zoo Zoo Zoo!!

It was the Pre-School leavers trip on Friday from Nursery and we all went to Blackpool Zoo!! Despite living fairly close to it, we've never actually visited it so it was a new trip for me and Jacob!

There were 16 kids plus staff, me and 3 other parents who visited the zoo and we had a great day!

Quite a few animals including giant tortoises:

And, yes! There were dinosaurs!! All with roars and a gushing volcano! I managed to impress the staff and some of the kids with my vast knowledge of which dinosaur was what. Until they realised I was reading the information stands......

We saw giraffes too:
And watched the sealion show. What's the difference between seals and sealions? Seals slither along the ground and have internal ears, whereas sealions have tiny little flaps covering their ears and then have useful flippers!

And then we all went on the adventure playground. Including two BIG KIDS!!!!

Thank you to the girls for another memorable trip and this should be the last one I go on as Jacob leaves this year, however I have a feeling I'll be asked back!!

My Lost Thursday

My lost Thursday! I went as part of the school leavers trip (those at nursery who leave to start school in September) to Farmer Ted's and Jacob came along too!

We had a great day and saw a lot of animals!

Jacob really enjoyed himself as you can see!

The adventure playground was great too!

I've already signed up to go along next year when Jacob does actually leave to start school!

A great day was had by all - Jacob fell asleep on the coach on the way back to nursery and he was still tired on Friday - see my next post for more detail!

Jade - Word Book

This word book was made for a member of staff at nursery who was leaving to go and work with autistic children. Jade, at some point, has looked after both boys and 'knew' Jacob when he was a mere bump! He was actually due on her 18th Birthday but arrived 2 days later!

Made using papers from Funky Daze (Saturday Shopping collection!) and this was actually the first thing I made when I got the cd as I just love the colour combinations!


The letters I printed using word art onto thin card and then layered them onto the pages (which I've printed again onto thin card and mounted onto thicker stuff for stability - thick card does not agree with my printer!)

Virtually all the sentiments are handwritten and I've kept to the colour scheme with co-ordinating embellishments and ribbon.


The photos were 'donated' by a co-worker who was only too happy to help me out!

The heart clips below are actually fancy paperclips from Paperchase!

I've used brads, funky foam flowers, gems, ribbons and buttons throughout.

The three little bears on the letter E were generously donated a while ago by JennyFlower - they fit right in - such great insight!

I made the word book as a thank you from Samuel and Jacob, so it was only right to devote the back page to them!

And she loved it! You can see the front cover of it on the Funky Hand website in the DT examples - so now you know what's inside the book!

• Backing papers: All from Saturday Shopping - Funky Daze
• Dies: Cuttlebug flower from Baby Face Alphabet set and Sizzix Scallop tag combo
• All embellishments: From my stash or made by me
  
  
  

End Of An Era....

Yesterday was the party at nursery, to celebrate Jacob's birthday and also Samuel's and also the fact that Samuel was leaving nursery after 4 and a half years.... And it was a pirate party too!

The weather stayed fine for long enough for me to do a treasure hunt in the garden at nursery which had 15 kids running around like mad trying to find 8 pieces of gold (plastic gold coins!) that Jade and I had cunningly hidden!

We played two games of pass the parcel and it was evident that I'd not concentrated when wrapping layers onto the presents as I'd used too much sellotape for 3 and 4 years olds to tackle plus I'd put double sweets in between the layers in some instances!

We also played musical bumps, musical statues, sleeping lions and musical chairs. Prizes were given to the best dressed girl and best dressed boy.

And here are Jacob and Samuel with the cake.




Have a guess what they are thinking on the last photo - best comment will win a prize!

So that's it now for Samuel, no more nursery. School on Monday!

Jade, Kim and Nazia loved their little bags and albums; Hayley was shocked with her Minty Madness gift bag; and all the thank you cards were well received. And no, I did not cry! Nearly, but held it all together!!

All Is Revealed!! Part Deux!

And here are the little thank you books in more detail! I went through the hundreds of photos that we have of Samuel from being a little tiny new born right up to a few weeks ago and I picked out my favourite ones (some you will see repeated on each of the books as I really like the photo!)

Front covers - the sentiments are attached via an eyelet and then fibres or ribbon are tied through the top and through the binding.

First pages - Samuel shown as a tiny baby and then a little bit older

And now around a year old and just before his second birthday holding Jacob

Finally with more recent photos

And the back of the books have been embellished with ribbon.

• Backing paper: Funky Seasons
• Embellishments: Various, including: foam flowers, prima flowers, ribbon, gems, acrylic flowers and brads

My WIP - All Is Revealed!!

No need to keep wondering what my WIP is! I've made these little bags and matching books as thank you's for the four members of staff in pre-school at nursery as Samuel's last day is 4 September. Quite an occasion as he's attended nursery from being a little 5 and a half month old boy. And he's loved it!

The idea for the bags and books came from watching Anice's recent appearance on telly demonstrating Funky Seasons, and Jozza had made a wonderful black and white bag and book with her youngest daughter in - so thank you Jozza for the inspiration! And also thank you to Lynsey for expertly binding the little books and for the brew!

I tend to associate people with colours and went for a theme based upon the colour collections within the Funky Seasons cd, which, I must say, never fails to inspire me and it must be my most favourite cd!

The template for the bags are on the cd and I printed on the reverse of the card with the contrasting pattern, and they were really easy to make!

For Jade, I went for green and purple.

Kim had pinks and chocolate browns

Nazia, bright summer oranges, lime greens and yellows

And for Rachel, Samuel's key worker, black and whites

I've printed the sentiments on the books onto vellum which read 'Just a little something to say thank you!' and then layered onto the disc. I hand wrote the names on the bags. All the bags and books have been embellished with ribbons and fibres - the books I will show in more detail on another post as this one is already a bit picture heavy!

Rachel has already got hers as she's on holiday for Samuel's last week. She really liked it!

• Backing paper: Co-ordinating papers from the collections within Funky Seasons
• Sentiments: Computer generated and hand written
• Ribbon & fibres: All from my stash
• Embellishments: From my stash, including heart gems and eyelets (originally from Kath)

Carol's Fun Sketch 2 - And Another Nursery Thank You!

Funky Hand DT mate Carol has her second sketch challenge on her blog and here is the design:

And as I still had a thank you card to make for nursery (as Samuel leaves to go to school, Jacob moves up to the pre-school room) and I wanted it to be different to the others, I decided to use Carol's sketch for it.

Still kept the Easter hat theme (Jacob has a habit of screwing his face up as he thinks he's smiling nicely for the camera!) I went for something bright and punchy this time with computer generated sentiments (used chiller font) and ribbon.

• Backing paper: Printed onto photo paper and from a free download from Crafts Beautiful
• Sentiments: Computer generated using Chiller font
• Ribbon: Ric rac from my stash (and Blackburn market)
  

8 Loo Rolls Later & A Washing Up Liquid Bottle....

It's not always about making cards in my household. Nursery expect the children to make things too. Fortunately, they now give plenty of notice. I've had a month to help Samuel make a rocket for a little competition they were having - who could make the best space rocket in pre-school!

In my defense, it took 2 weeks for the Fairy Liquid washing up bottle to be empty (yep, it just lasted for ALL those dishes) and then I forgot about it. And then remembered on Monday afternoon (deadline Tuesday am), so we got going with the big roll of tin foil, some sellotape and a lot of Scooby Do stickers and gold sticky stars. Thank goodness for Bank Holidays!

The design brief was for the child to make a rocket. I just did the sellotape bit as I didn't trust either child with it (by this point a grumpy and tired but refused to go to sleep) Jacob came downstairs and had to join in. It was Samuel's design and he put all the tin foil on himself.

The boys cut up the crepe paper, added the yellow band around the rocket and then all the stickers. I did the hangy thing (quite badly it turns out as it was rubbish and did not work!) out of silver ribbon.

Looks really good doesn't it? But not as good as the ones that the other children's parents had made. It was obvious that most of the parents had actually made the rockets, either that or there is a scarily high proportion of genius artists / sculptors in that class at nursery. Samuel's Scooby Do Rocket did not win.

Me, bitter? Nah. But Samuel was.

Nursery Thank You's & Carol's Sketch Number One!!

What a good idea this is!! My Funky Hand DT mate Carol has decided to have a go at setting a design sketch:

"Like many of you, I enjoy working from a sketch! So I decided to have a try at one of my own, and here it is!"

This is her first challenge and isn't it fab?!

As you've probably realised, I'm getting addicted to these challenges, but I'm trying to be a bit more savvy and to turn the challenge to my advantage! This time I've got thank you's to make for some staff at nursery as Samuel is due to leave on 4 September. So, I thought, (it was a light bulb moment!) I'll combine the two!

The photo was taken at Easter after we'd spent time making bonnets (well, they are boys and turned out as crowns!) Its been layered onto paper (which was a perfect match for the backing paper colours!) along with Now That's Funky backing papers printed at A5 size so the pattern was not too big. I really do like these stripes and the random circles - I always want to print these patterns off even if I don't want to! The sentiment I made using the computer and the backer is also from Now That's Funky. All edges have been inked - and that is also becoming an addiction!

I did think about using ribbon but changed my mind as wanted to keep it simple! Only another 5 to make....

Watch out for the 'special' thank you's I'm in the process of making!

• Backing paper: Cold Walk collection from Now That's Funky by Funky Hand
• Brad: Making Memories

Down On The Farm

I am either a gullible parent or mad, as yesterday I helped out at the boys' nursery as it was the school leavers trip to Farmer Teds. Both boys attended (although Jacob has another 2 years before he goes to school!)

We had a great time despite it being really really hot and humid and saw and did lots of things!

There were horses

And swings
And climbing frames with big green and red tube slides

And mini tractors for the kids to ride on

And big yellow slides for the staff to go on! Yes, Jade, Rachel and Kim!! Nazia and I were far too sensible to participate. Plus, I had to take the photos!

And yes, despite it being 29 degrees, all the kids (14 of them) wore wellies. Why? Because last year when Rachel did the same trip, it was very muddy. At least we were able to spot our kids as they were the only ones wearing shorts, t-shirts and wellies....

There were lots more animals, but the majority of them were either pooing or weeing when I was going to take a photo so I didn't. And I had the task of trying to explain to one child why a cow does not poo on a toilet like good children do....

A is for Apple

Just finished creating these teacher / nursery Thank You toppers and have added them to my website. Mostly inspired by the current PaperCraft Inspirations magazine but some tweaking done by me!

I've recently had a rush on education related toppers so I thought I'd better get some new ones made!

These are the product of two nights work....




In case you are wondering, the two pence coin is for scale, and no, it's not included!

P.S. I could have a big whinge about PaperCraft Inspirations and the latest subscription offer not being available only 2 weeks into a 3 month long promotion and the lousy customer service responses. I really would have liked the Laura Ashley Collection that was on offer but I won't.........!!