Candy Time!

I checked today to see when I first started blogging, and realised it was just over a year ago - definitely time for some candy!  For now it's a mystery one, partly because I haven't bought any yet lol, but also because I thought it might be good to keep it a mystery... let me know what you think!

I would like this to be for followers only this time, just to say how much I appreciate you all for sticking with me and leaving me such lovely comments, when I don't always have the time to visit all of you.  Of course, you are welcome to become a follower and enter the draw if you'd like to, but please only do this if you think you might like to follow me anyway.  It's a bit depressing seeing followers disappear when the candy ends!

So the only rules are that you must be a follower already, or become one, and add a link to my candy on your blog.  Please leave a link to your blog below.  The candy will end on 31st Aug, so there's plenty of time to enter and for me to gather candy :o)

The first reveal pic - Christmas goodies :o)

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  Dovecraft 'Christmas Fancy' 6x6 paper pack (looks lovely, I bought one for me too!)
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  LOTV 'Christmas Ted - Balancing Act' stamp
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  Craftwork Cards 'Candy Cane' card candy
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  Glamour Dust (essential sparkle!)

Another reveal pic....

 

• Papermania Capsule Collection A5 paper pad in green
• Bildmalarna stamp - Little Mimosa
• Craftwork Cards 'snowballs' card candy (leave them white or colour them with copics or promarkers)
• Papermania 'mosaics' gems
• Lots of lace - various colours and styles

I'm also going to put together a bundle of lace as a 2nd prize.

And for an extra prize....

3 digistamps from Di's Digi Downloads - Penguin Christmas Tree,  Hoppy Bunny and Off Puttin'

So that's 3 winners altogether :o)

Crafty Cardmakers spotlight - glitter & sparkle

Time for a new spotlight challenge at Crafty Cardmakers and this week we're doing glitter & sparkle - a favourite of mine, so I had fun with this :o)

I've used one of my new LOTV stamps, I do love these bears and I really have to get some more of the Christmas ones, so cute!  I've coloured him with promarkers and added extra shading with koh-i-noor pencils blended with sansador.  Added sparkle to the image with glamour dust, although I realised too late that I forgot to add a little snow sparkle under his feet - I'll do that later!  I've used nestie circles and nellie snellen frames to cut out and mount the image.  The papers are MME (I need more of these, love them!) and are all sparkly, I've used shimmery blue & pink cardstock, and embossed one piece of the blue with a cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder.  Added a computer generated sentiment and some punched snowflakes with pink stickles in the centres.

I'm also entering my card for the following challenges:

• Friday Sketchers - fab sketch
• Winter Wonderland - all I want for Christmas (hope there's crafty goodies in those parcels!)
• Paper Sundaes - Christmas in August
• Just Cute Bears - embossing
• Totally Gorjuss - Christmas in August
• Secret Crafter - make a start on Christmas
• CES Challenges - anything goes (first challenge)
• Lili of the Valley - dotty for circles
• Creative Card Crew - sparkle & shine

**Don't forget to enter my candy - it ends tomorrow!  Link in the top right corner of my blog**

Little rock star...

Just a quick one for today, as I should really be finishing a DT card.  I'd planned to get lots of crafting done yesterday but had a very bizarre day and didn't really feel like doing anything other than colouring when we got back, so that's all I did.  Mum had decided that she wanted to scatter my dad's ashes finally - it's been almost 10 years since he died and she's been putting it off all this time.  For the past few years she's been living with a new man, they're now engaged and will be moving into a new house in a few days.  Mum said she didn't feel right about taking my dad with her to the new house, so yesterday we drove out into the countryside to scatter the ashes in a river... it was lovely and sunny when we set off but the further out of Sheffield we got, the worse the weather got... until it was absolutely pouring down.  Then we couldn't find the river that mum wanted to go to... drove round and round in circles for some time... decided to leave it until another day!  Mum still didn't want to take my dad with her to the new house, so he came home with us and is now in our kitchen, waiting for the next attempt!!!!

And on to my card!  The image is a stamp from Squiggles & Giggles, coloured with promarkers.  Papers are MME, with coredinations cardstock.  The circle was cut with my new Go-Kreate big circle dies (this is why you couldn't find them by googling Linds - it's Kreate, not Create... silly me eh?!), then I 'duffed up' the edges of the circle (a la Faye) meaning to enter the challenge at Sweet Stampin, but then realised when I put it on here that it's 'distressed birthdays' and I haven't put a birthday sentiment on, sigh... Finished off with a bit of raffia stuff and some card candy dots.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• The Corrosive Challenge - one for the guys
• Let's Ink It Up - anything goes + some yellow
• Totally Papercrafts - plain & simple

My little book giveaway winner is....

Faye

Hope Sweet Cheeks enjoys his books hun - email me with your address please :o)

Don't forget - if you haven't already entered, my 'proper' blog candy is open until 31st August - link in the top right corner.  I'm going to add one last prize tomorrow, so there'll be 3 winners altogether.

Would anyone like.... (not craft related!)

I tidied up Dex's mammoth bedtime story collection earlier, and for some unexplained reason, found that we have 2 copies of the Mr Men book 'Mr Christmas' and also 'Mog The Forgetful Cat'.  So I thought I'd give them away if anyone wants them for a little person near you.  If you'd like them, please leave me a comment, and (if I get any interest!) I'll announce a winner tomorrow.

All day to make one card!

All day I've been trying to make this fairly elaborate (for me!) card for an order, it's no easy task with my two little darlings trying my patience!  I finally managed to finish it this evening and I'm quite pleased with it :o)  I've taken lots of pics to try and show the fold properly - the first photo is the front view obviously.

The second pic is of the inside of the card opened out - my customer requested the fairy on the front, but wanted photos inside so I've made this zig zag design.

And this pic is from above, just to try and show the fold - terrible pic really!

The image is from from Stitchy Bear, coloured with promarkers, extra shading added with koh-i-noor pencils and glamour dust for sparkly wings.  The papers are Funky Fairy downloads (shop closed now), printed onto linen card, with black coredinations and pink linen cardstock.  The flowers were punched using x-cut punches, with pearl centres added.  Used my new go-create circle dies - this is the smallest one, they're huge!  Lace from stash, computer generated sentiment, numbers cut with sizzix 'night & day' alphabet.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• Magical Monday - flowers (+ any magical image)
• Stamp With Fun - card for a girl
• Kaboodle Doodles - 2 patterns, 2 plain, lace + flowers
• A Pocket Full of Posies - winged things (+ flowers)
• Creative Card Crew - sparkle & shine
• Flutterby Wednesdays - open challenge (+ fairy, angel or butterfly)
• Stampavie & More - swirls
• Crafts & Me - petals & pearls
• Stamp Something - digi
• Craftalicious - pearls & swirls
• Craft Your Days Away - with wings (2nd entry)

A thank you and an apology

I just wanted to say a huge thank you to those of you who've given me awards over the last few days - there have been quite a few of you and it's so lovely of you all.  Unfortunately due to the yucky school holidays, I'm hardly getting any time to myself either to create or get near the computer... and when I do get some peace I'm so frazzled by the constant noise that I can't create a thing and just want to sit quietly!  So sorry I haven't managed to do anything with my awards.

I do appreciate you all and will try to have a little hop around later so I can see what you've all been creating while my mojo's hiding from the children :o)

Another candy reveal...

No card today, so I thought I'd show another reveal from my blog candy - don't forget you have until 31st August to enter (link in the top right of my blog).

Flutterby cards

Lots of flutterbies today (sorry Linds!).  I had a sympathy card to make, so I made 2 so that one of them can go in my box at hubby's work - I keep saying I'm going to stop doing this, weeks will go by without any cards selling and I start saying I'll have the box home, then about 10 cards sell in one week... so I carry on!

I've used the lovely papers from the Ella Blue pad by GCD Studios again, love these papers.  Cardstock is coredinations, butterfly is a Quickcuts die with big flat back pearls from my stash.  Sentiment is a Stampin' Up stamp I got as part of a magazine subscription gift ages ago.

Then, because I wasn't really in a colouring mood today (unusual for me!), I carried on with the butterfly theme but made a more cheerful card.  I used up some paper and cardstock from my scraps - paper is Papermania 'big one' with coredinations cardstock.  Used the same butterfly die, covered it with spray adhesive and coated it with glamour dust (I'm wondering if this might have been a mistake because it still feels slightly tacky!).  Added some little pink buttons from my stash and a Craftwork Cards sentiment to finish.

I'm entering my cards for the following challenges:

• Craft Your Days Away - with wings
• Charisma Cardz - die cuts
• Crafty Catz - buttons & butterflies (last card)
• Moving Along With The Times - glitter (last card)
• Flutterby Wednesdays - recipe (sparkle, 2 x dp's + 3 x buttons or gems) (last card)
• The ABC Challenge - B is for Blue (first card)

Birthday Josh

I've not been around much this week - partly because I've been practicing with the koh-i-noors, but mainly because the kids are driving me maaaaaaaaad, so I've been trying to get out with them most days.  For the first few weeks of the holidays, it was nice having things a bit more relaxed, but it will be so nice to be back into the usual routines when school starts again!

The fabby image is from Digistamp Boutique, and is one Sally-Ann was lovely enough to draw for me - I had a request from a customer and this is just perfect for it, thanks Sally-Ann :o)  He's available here if you'd like him too.  I've coloured him with promarkers, and then added shading with the koh-i-noors... not very well on this one!  I think I need some different card - the promarkers blend fine on the one I'm using, but it's coated and the pencils don't seem to blend so well on it.  I shall keep practicing!  I've paper pieced the present, and added 2 layers of glossy accents to the ribbon to raise it up higher than the paper piecing.  The papers are Making Memories, cardstock and ribbon from my stash, and cute little buttons from Crafty Emma's Store.  I just need to add the sentiment now.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• Creative Inspirations - fab sketch
• Allsorts - paper piecing
• Stampin' For The Weekend - anything goes
• Digistamp Boutique - monthly competition

A colouring experiment!

Now obviously I need to work on this lol, it's NOT perfect!  I got the idea from this tutorial which actually combines copics and prismas - I rushed off and ordered some Koh-i-noor pencils from Elzybells (sadly they're closing soon) so I could try it myself.  I've wanted to try them for ages so the tutorial just gave me a little push ;o)  They arrived this morning, so this is my very first attempt at combining the two, hopefully there'll be some improvements when I get the hang of it!

I've used an image from Digistamp Boutique, coloured with a combination of promarkers and koh-i-noors.  Cardstock is coredinations, with some stripy paper from my scraps - I had a sort out this weekend and you wouldn't believe the amount of scraps I found!  I've added some Doodlebug letter tiles and card candy to finish.  This one's for my brother-in-law, so I've kept it simple as I don't think he's all that bothered about anything fussy.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• Sweet Sunday Sketch - fab sketch (although I've altered it slightly to fit my letter tiles, hope that's ok!)
• Digistamp Boutique - monthly competition

Isn't she cute?

Aww love this image - how cute is she?!  Another one I've made for no particular reason, I just had this little cutie coloured so I thought I'd make her into a card.  She's a digi from Tiddly Inks, and is coloured with promarkers with lots of lovely glamour dust.  The papers are MME, with cardstock from the Papermill.  Ribbon and pearls from my stash, and sentiment is from a set of Kraftin Kimmie stamps (I think).

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• Sketch Saturday - fab sketch
• A Pocket Full of Posies - all that glitters (+ flowers - hope the flower on my image counts, if not feel free to remove me...)
• Party Time Tuesdays - anything goes birthday
• Flutterby Wednesdays - open challenge (+ butterfly, angel or fairy)
• Craftalicious - pearls & swirls
• Sweet Stampin - favourite stamp or image (I can't choose, it feels wrong... she's 'one' of my favourites though!)
• Sentimental Sundays - ribbon or lace

Vintage bunny?

Bunny Zoe's have a vintage challenge this month, which I would normally avoid, because I'm rubbish at vintage!  But I thought I'd have a go for a change - it's meant to be a challenge isn't it?  This is about as vintage as I'm likely to get....

I've used a gorgeous little bunny image from Di's Digi Downloads, available here, coloured with promarkers.  The papers are GCD Studio 'ella blue', with coredinations cardstock.  Lace and pearls are from my stash... and that's about it - a fairly simple card but I'm quite pleased with it.  This card is for no particular reason, so I've not added a sentiment yet - it's great now I've moved my colouring stuff downstairs, I've actually got time to craft just because I feel like it sometimes :o)

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• Bunny Zoe's - vintage
• Friday Sketchers - fab sketch
• Colour Create - ivory, duck egg + 1 other
• Crafty Catz - animals
• Cupcake Craft - lace
• Creative Card Crew - cute & girlie

Little Claire polar bear

Another Christmas card with one of the soon to be released Little Claire stamps, this time using the cute polar bears.  I've coloured them with promarkers, with glamour dust for sparkle.  The papers are Doodlebug, and I've gone around all the edges with a silver ink pad... unfortunately I'm impatient and it seems I couldn't wait for the ink to dry properly, so there are a few silver smudges!  I've added a silver star, which is a nestie one that embosses a pattern as it cuts - but you can't see the embossed detail on the pic.  Added a few card candy dots, but no sentiment yet - I'll add one in the bottom right of the easel when I decide who it's for.  Here's a front view....

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• Winter Wonderland - easel card with sparkle & shine (oops, too late to enter!)
• Delightful Challenges - animals or insects + dots & stripes
• Charisma Cardz - easel card
• Pear Tree Designs - male (prob will be for hubby from our youngest son)

Little Claire snowman

Here's another couple of cards made with one of the new Christmas stamps that will be available on the Little Claire site soon.  For my first one I decided to make a little step card.  I've coloured the image with promarkers and added some glamour dust for some sparkle, I think the paper is Papermania, sentiment is computer generated, added a little punched snowflake with a gem centre to finish.

I've used the same stamp for my second card, again coloured with promarkers with some glamour dust.  The papers are Dovecraft 'Christmas Fancy', with DCWV cardstock.  Snowflake cut with the fab cuttlebug icicle die, then smothered with glamour dust and finished with a card candy centre.  Computer generated sentiment.

I'm entering both cards for the challenge at Die Cut Dreams Christmas Club, where they want to see snowmen, and my second card at Fab 'n' Funky, where the challenge is 'spotty, dotty & stretchy stripes'.

Happy Birthday Crafty Cardmakers!!

We're celebrating our birthday today at Crafty Cardmakers, so we have a nice easy challenge for you - we'd simply like to see your birthday creations :o)  I can't believe it's been a whole year since we had the first challenge - I'd only just started blogging and Vix was kind enough to give me a chance at my very first DT post... I'd like to think my card making has come on a bit since those early days, and a lot of what I've done since has been down to Vix's encouragement, so thank you hun!

I've made this card for a friend of mine, who also makes cards, but I'm not sure if it's good enough so I might end up making another one!  I've used a fab summery image from Digistamp Boutique, coloured with promarkers, and then used glossy accents to glaze the glass.  The papers are MME, with DCWV cardstock.  Green Tara flowers with button centres, downloaded sentiment from Cuddly Buddly, mounted on a nestie die.  All buttons and the ribbon (tied in a bow using the bow-easy) are from Crafty Emma's Store, bought with the voucher I won on the Pollycraft challenge.

I'm also entering my card for the following challenges:

• The Sweet Stop - fab sketch
• The ABC Challenge - A is for August
• Cute Card Thursday - whateva! (anything goes)
• Crafty Catz - buttons & bows
• Sweet Stampin - pretty in pink
• Challenge Up Your Life - celebrations
• The Pink Elephant - summer fun
• Sentimental Sundays - anything goes
• Digistamp Boutique - monthly competition

**I have candy at the moment - link in the top right of my blog if you'd like to enter**

More Little Claire Christmas stamps

I had a bit of a re-organisation yesterday and then did lots of crafting, and didn't get chance to blog, so I'm showing 2 of the new Little Claire stamps today.  It finally dawned on me that if I moved all my colouring stuff into the kitchen, I could get lots of colouring done while still being there for the kids, then make the cards up later.  Until now, everything was upstairs in the craft room, so I could only 'work' when they were in bed or out with hubby.  Hopefully I'll be able to get a lot more done now, without ignoring my boys :o)  Not sure why I didn't think of it before!

I've made my first card using the cute 'we three cats' stamp from Little Claire (available in the store soon), coloured with promarkers, with lots of glamour dust on the hat trims.  The papers are Dovecraft 'christmas fancy' (there's a pack of these papers & glamour dust in my blog candy...link in the top right of my blog), with coredinations cardstock.  I used an inverted corner punch around the image, and then used the punched out bits for a bit of extra detail, with some little green pearls from my stash.  The sentiment is computer generated - I've printed off a full sheet of different Christmas sentiments so I can just cut them out when I need one.

For my second card I've used this sweet polar bear stamp, again from Little Claire, coloured with promarkers, with glamour dust again (I like my sparkle, especially on Christmas cards!).  Paper is DCWV, red cardstock from my stash.  Added some ribbon tabs and the sentiment is a Pink Petticoat download.

I'm entering my cards for the following challenges:

• Papertake Weekly - white & bright
• Moving Along With The Times - Christmas

Little Claire reindeer

Here's a card I've made with one of the new Christmas stamps from Little Claire, that will be available in the store very soon.  I love this reindeer - isn't he cute?  I've used promarkers to colour him, and nesties and nellie snellen circle dies to cut him out.  Embossed some coredinations whitewash cardstock with a Cuttlebug snowflake folder, then sanded it all back to reveal some of the colour underneath.  Red cardstock from my stash.  The card base is a normal square but I've cut half of the front out to leave a triangle - the pic below shows the shape better.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• Creative Craft - animal antics
• Simon Says - sing it baby (Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer)
• Our Creative Corner - Christmas in July

**I have candy available at the moment - there's a link in the top right of my blog if you'd like to enter**

A little reveal....

Well, as I have no cards to show you yet (I'm making, but can't show anything yet!), I thought we'd have the first sneaky peak of some of my candy that's on offer - a nice little selection to get you started on your Christmas cards :o)

Go to my candy post here if you'd like a chance at winning... I'll reveal more next week!

Crafty Cardmakers - spotlight on punches

Last week's challenge at Crafty Cardmakers was a recipe challenge - use orange or yellow, an animal or fish and stickers or a punch.  This week, our spotlight is on punches and some of the DT have also followed the recipe, although if you want to play the spotlight week, you don't have to follow the recipe if you don't want to.  That probably made no sense - I have my boys asking constant questions, squabbling and pestering for food in the background... oh the joys of the school holidays!

I've used the sweet 'hello! ladybird' image from Di's Digi Downloads, available here, coloured with promarkers.  The papers are Making Memories, with coredinations cardstock.  I've used punches to make my flower and leaves - woodware daisy, x-cut flower and woodware leaf (I think it's actually called 'grass' if I remember right) - I then inked the edges of the flowers and leaves with pink ink.  MS doily lace trim punch used to cut the border.

I'm also entering my card for the following challenges:

• Sweet Stampin - fab sketch
• Pile It On - butterflies, bugs & bees
• CRAFT - hot & spicy colours
• Colour Create - hot pink, warm orange, saffron
• Charisma Cardz - something with a tail (you can't see it, but the little dog's definitely got one - hope that counts!)
• Creative Inspirations - animals
• Crafty Creations - summer lovin'
• Flutterby Wednesday - anything goes (inc a butterly, angel or fairy)

**I have candy at the moment - link in the top right of my blog if you'd like to enter**

New August club stamps from Little Claire

Here are a couple of cards made with a great new stamp set from Little Claire.  The Lazy Days set is available here as the August Club set - if you fancy joining the club you simply buy the current set and sign up to receive the new stamp/ set for 6 months, it also entitles you to 10% off all your other purchases.  You can also see all the fab cards from the other DT members on a slideshow and in the gallery on the Little Claire site.

My first card was made using the little washing line stamp from the set, curved slightly on the stamping block (they're clear stamps so they bend nicely).  I stamped it onto ivory linen card, then again onto plain white card.  Coloured the shorts on the plain white card with promarkers, cut them out, then turned them over and rubbed an embossing tool over them just to give them a little bit of dimension.  Then I covered them in glossy accents and once set, glued them into place using pinflair glue.  The sentiment stamp is also from the set, mint and brown cardstock from my stash.

For my second card I've used the hammock stamp from the set, coloured with promarkers and paper pieced using gingham paper.  The papers are Making Memories, cardstock is coredinations and again used the sentiment stamp from the set.

I'm entering my hammock card for a couple of challenges: Donna's Den (green) and One Stop Craft (patterns).

**I have blog candy at the moment - click the link at the top right if you'd like to enter**