Looney's handmade craft blog

I never thought I would get excited that my website is being upgraded, though I must confess I am actually finding it’s all very exciting! My dear husband has been working hard (in his spare time) upgrading my website over the last few months.

There are several new upgrades in the works (shhhhhh top secret) but he has just finished upgrading and simplifying my checkout pages with the new...

What a winter we have had over in the southern half of the UK this year, there has barely had any frosts, which is quite bizarre. Thinking back over the years, I don’t remember any winters being quite as mild as this one and by the looks of it neither does this daffodil…this one is an early riser!...

This poor confused daffodil in my front garden was raising its head up above the soil at Christmas time, yes at Christmas!! Maybe it was hoping to catch a glimpse of Santa and not miss out on the action (lol)....

Although it's a couple of weeks since i finished decorating this years Christmas cake and luckily i managed to take a photo before the vultures (my husband) attacked it. I thought you guys might like to see this years effort, it's a reinvention of my previous penguin Christmas cake...

This Saturday our house was filled with the smells of Christmas, as my friend (Nikki) and I baked up a storm, making a complete mess of our new kitchen. There were lemon peels, currants, sultanas, cake mixture and all sorts of cooking paraphernalia spread all over the impact zone like some dirty crimbo bomb! Yep you guessed it we were making Christmas cakes well in advance to ensure plenty of time for alcoholic feeding (not advised to eat my cakes when driving) of this year’s choice of flavour...

Autumn is my favourite season as the nights draw in and the leaves change colour to yellow, orange and red as they fall from the trees I always get a warm and fuzzy feeling I can’t explain, I just find it comforting. You’ve got Halloween and bonfire night, warming soups, casseroles, open fires. It’s that time when both my husband and I reap the benefits of all our hard work throughout the spring and summer in the garden, when the harvest comes in (however small it may be).

When making greeting cards or any craft for that matter, it is important to keep a clean work surface, not to mention clean hands. I know this sounds pretty obvious, but one little mark on your hard work can mean its heading straight to the bin and having to start from scratch. You really don’t want to be sending out your cards with any imperfections, or they “the customer” certainly won’t be coming back in the future.

When I first started card making several years ago, I set out to my local craft store not knowing exactly what I should buy and remember feeling somewhat daunted at the vast range of gizmos and gadgets available to the crafter.

Many of the products which are available are not necessarily required when you first start out. I would say that the following items are some essential tools you will need.