My exciting news!

I meant to write this post much earlier, but I've been so busy this is the first chance I've had...

A while ago I had a lovely email from Janet asking if I'd like to join the DT for her new on-line craft shop... I didn't have to think about it for long!  The shop is called The Stamp Basket - it's under construction at the moment but will be open tomorrow, so exciting :o)  Here's just a few of the fabulous goodies Janet will be stocking...

• Cute, fun stamps including Bildmalarna, Fizzy Moon, Nellie Snellen, Wild Rose Studio and more!
• Gorgeous embellishments - pearls, lace, seam binding etc
• Fabulous papers including My Mind's Eye, Bo Bunny, NitWit Collections, GCD Studio (I'm particularly excited about the papers, seen as my paper ban will finally be over in January, woo hoo!)
• Martha Stewart punches, Marianne Design Creatable dies and much more!

I'm really excited about the fab teamies I'll be working alongside too - Vicky, Kerry and Teresa - such a lovely talented team... not sure how I slipped in lol :o)

Pop along to see The Stamp Basket Blog too, where we'll all be showcasing our creations and you can see all the latest news from The Stamp Basket.

I'm really thrilled to have been asked to join this lovely team, so a big thank you to Janet!  Ooh can't wait for the shop to open tomorrow :o)

On a completely different subject, I'm feeling a bit miffed tonight!  We've had LOADS of trick or treaters and the cakes have been very popular - I had 40 cakes and they've nearly all gone!  But that's not what I'm miffed about... we popped out for about half an hour so the boys could do their trick or treating, and when we got back some little 'darlings' had smashed the pumpkins that Dex and Morgan had put on our wall... there was pumpkin EVERYWHERE!  That'll teach us for getting into the spirit of things eh?  Grr... anyway enough of my moaning, don't forget to have a look at the shop when it opens tomorrow!

Last minute Halloween creations!

Oh I'm always rolling in at the last minute aren't I?!  But I did at last manage to make something for Halloween - these are for Dex to take into nursery tomorrow for everyone in his 'class'.  He's SO excited about taking them in - isn't it lovely how little things like that make kids so happy, I love it :o)

Sorry the photos aren't great, it was going dark by the time I took my pics and I think it's tricky to take pics of anything other than a card anyway... Oh, and I didn't actually make the cakes - they're available in trays of 18 for £5 from good old Asda lol!

I've used some very cute images from Pink Gem Designs, that luckily come with a line image and a pre-coloured version for those quick makes - I've used the pre-coloured ones as I've done 18 of them for Dex's nursery and then I'll be doing another batch tomorrow for the trick-or-treaters too... I'd never manage to colour all of them so these are perfect for me!  You can see Pink Gem's Halloween digis here.  I've printed them onto linen card and mounted them on black card cut with blossom nesties.  And then stuck them all on some jumbo lolly sticks that I bought from Hobbycraft.  Popped them in cellophane bags, tied them with baker's twine and that's it - one very happy child :o)

There are quite a lot of Halloween challenges around, so I'm entering the following:

• Simon Says Stamp - anything goes
• Dream Valley - anything goes
• Di's Digi Designs - Halloween
• Secret Crafter - spooky or whimsical
• Crafty Catz - Halloween
• Stampin' for the Weekend - spooky!
• Paper Play - Halloween
• Divas By Design - something spooky
• Fab n Funky - hubble, bubble, toil & trouble
• My Mum's Craft Shop - spooktacular
• Crafting When We Can - Halloween and/or anything but a card

Apologies if I've missed any of your challenge rules, I did try to read them all but just delete me if I've not followed any of them properly!

A Gem of a Challenge - cold and frosty!

I'm back with my second card for today, my GDT card for A Gem of a Challenge, where our theme is 'cold & frosty'.  I had fun with this one :o)

I've used a gorgeous stamp called Andy on Sledge.  I've coloured mainly with flexmarkers as my new colours came and I just had to play!  I really love them, but I must admit they take a bit of getting used to when you're used to promarkers... I was having some blending issues, until I'd been colouring a while and realised they work better (for me) if I colour from dark to light, instead of the other way round as I usually do with PMs.  So hopefully I'll improve with them now I've worked that out!

I added lots of glamour dust and then kept the card quite simple, just adding some wooden snowflakes, card candy and a MFT die cut border.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• Simon Says Stamp - anything goes
• Winter Wonderland - clean & simple Christmas card
• Cute Card Thursday - fab sketch
• One Stop Craft - no sentiment
• Totally Papercrafts - glitter it
• Cards For Men - animals
• Creative Craft Challenges - fancy edges
• Crimbo Crackers - anything goes (Christmas)
• Charisma Cardz - anything goes

We've been to see Rio at the cinema this morning, the boys loved it... actually me and hubby enjoyed it too, big kids we are!  We'd intended going yesterday, but when we got to the cinema it had sold out - oops! So we booked tickets for today, then went to Monkey Bizness (soft play) instead and then hubby talked me into getting a new phone!  I've been putting it off and insisting I didn't need a smartphone - I knew I'd be totally baffled with everything it could do lol... anyway, I got one, a Samsung Galaxy - now I just have to figure out how to use the bloomin' thing!

Sweet Stampin' - anything goes!

Oh dear, where has this week gone?!  It's always the same in the school hols, and especially when hubby's off too - I feel like I've hardly been in the house at all... looking forward to getting back to normal next week!

My first post for today is for our new challenge at Sweet Stampin' which is 'anything goes', so a nice easy theme that you can all join in with :o)  We're sponsored by The Stamping Boutique so there'll be a fab prize for our lucky winner.

I decided to make a clean and simple card using some Hero Arts stamps I got from Papercrafts TV called Trees of the Season.  I've stamped the tree and the Stampin' Up sentiment in 'bamboo' memento ink.  The papers are from one of the Papermania capsule collections I think.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• Simon Says Stamp - anything goes
• Stamps R Us - nature's gifts
• Kaboodle Doodles - halloween or fall
• Craft Your Days Away - autumn

Back in a little while with my Pink Gem GDT card...

Goosebumps!

I've had a nice crafty day today, mostly making DT stuff that I can't share yet, but here's one I made just for fun...

The first photo actually shows the colour and texture better, but it's a bit 'glary' so I've added the 2nd pic as it shows the stamps off a bit clearer.

I've used my fab Darkroom Door vintage automobiles stamp set again, I think this set's just so useful.  I started by cutting the frame shape with a Go Kreate die, and left the shape in the die so I could make an inky background, using distress inks and an ink duster brush, and then stamped one of the images and a sentiment in 'walnut stain' distress ink.  I made the background panel in the same way using small stamps from the same set.  Then I sprayed both pieces with my new favourite product Goosebumps - LOVE this stuff!  It's hard to explain but it gives a sort of shiny, bumpy, rubbery texture, such a fun effect :o)  Added some twine to finish and that's it.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• Moving Along With The Times - no girls allowed
• Simon Says Stamp - anything goes
• One Stop Craft - no designer paper
• Make It Monday - anything goes (first time entering, not sure if there's any rules that I've missed)

For some reason I couldn't get many blogs to load up last night, they kept freezing and crashing, so I'm sorry if I missed catching up with you.  Fingers crossed everything will be working again this evening!

Photos from Wetlands

I'm getting next to no time for crafting this week, with the boys off school and hubby off work - I've booked tomorrow in the craft room though... hubby's doing child duties so I can catch up!  So I thought I'd share a few pics from our trip to Wetlands Animal Park yesterday... hubby in charge of the camera so there's never any decent ones of the kids!

CUTEST.... WALLABY.... EVER!!!

Meercats 

Dex looking a bit nervous feeding the deer 

Morgan looking a bit nervous too - the owl was about to fly over his head 

And a scenic one of the water!

I'm trying to comment on all your blogs this evening, but for some reason certain blogs are making my laptop freeze and Google Chrome keeps crashing.  So it's a bit slow but I'm not giving up yet!  Hopefully back with a card tomorrow :o)

Passion For Promarkers - for a child

This week at Passion For Promarkers our theme is 'for a child', chosen by the lovely Denise.  We're sponsored by Letraset and our lucky winner will receive one of their fab promarker stamping kits.

I decided to make a Christmas card which will probably be for my auntie's little girl Jessica - it's nice to have an excuse to make girlie cards although she's only 1 so she's probably not that bothered yet!

I've used the very cute Hattie from the Cute Christmas set which is one of October's 'offer of the month' sets from DigiStamp Boutique. I've coloured her with promarkers, flexmarkers and koh-i-noor pencils, and added loads of sparkly glamour dust.  The papers and bright pink card are DCWV, and I coloured some plain wood snowflakes to match with a flexmarker - although they look like they don't match in the photos, no idea why!  Scallop borders were cut with my much loved MFT die and I added some black card candy as it seemed to need something to finish it off.

I followed the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches but didn't think to check when the challenge closed so I've missed the deadline!  Quite disappointed because they made me one of their 'perfect princesses' last week, but it's quite typical for me to miss challenge deadlines.

Might be back later to link up some challenges, but we're off out for the day to Wetlands Animal Park so I need to go and get us all sorted now.  Will catch up with you all later!

Less is More wk38 - polka dots

Apologies for my lack of blogging over the last few days... as I mentioned on Friday, Dex was poorly and then I've not been well either.  We're more or less all better now, so hopefully I'll be able to get on with things this week.

I was quite pleased to see that the new challenge at Less is More is 'polka dots' - I love spotty things (and stripes and gingham too...) so here are my creations so far...

For my first card I've followed the sketch at Clean & Simple and punched some flowers from a scrap of aqua card.  I then stamped some black spots on each flower using a little Stampin' Up stamp that I've never used before as it's too small to do much with - perfect size for these flowers though.  I shaped each flower with an embossing tool, added card candy centres and a Stampin' Up sentiment which was a recent ebay purchase.

Then I made a set of simple thank you cards, using a spotty butterfly stamp from the Funky Flowers set from Pink Gem Designs and another one of the Stampin' Up sentiments.  I thought I could maybe do sets of these in different colours when (if?) I set up the Etsy shop.

It's the school hols this week and hubby's taken the week off work too, so we're hoping to have some days out.  Hubby took the boys to the park this morning so I could get a DT card done, and when they came back Morgan had the beginnings of a black eye!  He fell off his scooter but I've no idea how he managed to land on his face... that's going to look good when we're out and about this week!

I've had better days!

It's never good when your 3yr old manages to throw up in your face is it... it's been a bad day... and I think that's probably quite enough information!

Before the 'incident' I was playing with a fab set of Darkroom Door stamps from Papercrafts TV called Vintage Automobiles - LOVE this set!  I've never tried Darkroom Door stamps before, they come in a lovely silver tin and they'll look great on my shelf - I'm going to have to collect more of these sets!

I just wanted to make some simple cards ready for if and when I decide to open my Etsy shop.  All stamps, including the small stamps used for the backgrounds, and the sentiments, are from the same set, stamped in 'rich cocoa' memento ink on Stampin' Up kraft card.

Dex is asleep now - I had to get hubby to leave work early so he could pick Morgan up from school, as I was in no state to go anywhere!  Hoping he'll feel a bit better when he wakes up.  Off to catch up on some commenting while I can...

Less is More wk37 - cocktail

This week at Less is More Chrissie and Mandi have set the theme of 'cocktail'... it doesn't have to be an actual cocktail, it could be the colours or however you want to interpret it, but I went for the obvious as I have no imagination this week lol...

I've printed the image - Summer Quencher from DigiStamp Boutique - 3 times and then coloured them with promarkers and flexmarkers, and added a little pearl on each flower.  Normally I use pencils if I'm colouring directly on the card base, but I bought a box of thick white card that was on special offer at Papermill Direct and the pens don't bleed through it!  I'm sure they would if I did any blending, but for simple flat colouring like I've done here it was fine :o)  The sentiment is Penny Black.

Oh and this is my cocktail apparently...

You Are Made Of Passion, Genius, and Courage

3 parts Passion 2 parts Genius 1 part Courage And a Splash of Energy Serve over ice

What's the Recipe for Your Personality?

Blogthings: Learn Something Surprising About Yourself

Who's pinched my 'splash of energy' then?!  Because I've definitely not got it...

Oh, while I'm here... do any of you sell on Etsy? I do have a couple of places locally where I sell my cards, but I'd love to sell a bit more and feel like I was properly contributing.  Is Etsy easy to use and have you sold much?

Passion For Promarkers - stars

This week at Passion For Promarkers it was my turn to chose the theme, and I went for 'stars', intending to make a male card... you can't go wrong with stars for boys in my opinion lol.  But I haven't had chance to use my new Fairy Glen stamps from Sugar Nellie yet, and this little cutie was stamped out and waiting to be coloured, so I thought I'd go girlie instead!

This little fairy is called Delia and I think I'll use her lots - she's so cute and easy to colour.  I've used a combination of promarkers, flexmarkers and koh-i-noor pencils to colour her in and then added loads of glamour dust.  I never do black hair because I'm not very good at it, but I thought she'd suit it so I had a go.  I've also stamped some stars around the corners using a little stamp from a Country Companions set, but I think it's made it a bit too 'fussy' looking.  The papers are Dovecraft 'back to basics' with black core'dinations, sentiment is from a set by 'the pink pajamas' and pearls from my stash.

We're sponsored by Crafter's Companion who are providing a £20 gift voucher for our very lucky winner - think of all the goodies you could buy with that :o)

I've followed the fab sketch at Sketch Saturday so I'm entering my card there... I seem to be getting back into following sketches at the moment, after months of not being able to stick to them at all.  Off to have a big catch up session now because I'm so behind with all my commenting as usual!

Sweet Stampin' - masculine

I'm back with my second post for today, for our new challenge at Sweet Stampin' which is a masculine theme.  Perfect timing for me, because I wanted to make a card to thank my mum's hubby Andrew for fixing my car.

I've used a stamp from Elzybells that I'd completely forgotten buying!  I'm glad I found it though, it's perfect for this card.  I've coloured the image with promarkers and koh-i-noor pencils.  The papers are from a Papermania pad, cardstock from Papermill Direct.  The border was cut with the MS zig zag punch, star cut with a sizzix primitive star die.  The sentiment is Personal Impressions, button and twine from my stash.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• Freshly Made Sketches - sketch
• Papertake Weekly - get in shape (use 3 different shapes - circle, star and rectangle... my base is square so I suppose I've got 4!)

We've done our trip to Build a Bear, which really is a strange and very noisy place!  Dex ended up choosing a pink bear... he didn't like the bunny because it was mainly brown with not enough pink!  Hopefully we can avoid going there again for a while, although he did have his eye on the little Buzz Lightyear outfit so we might get him that for Christmas... I can just see his fluffy pink bear dressed up as Buzz Lightyear lol :o)

A Gem of a Challenge - sketch

This week at A Gem of a Challenge we have a fab sketch created by our lovely boss Janet :o)  Now sketches don't always work for me... I have a tendency to lose the plot along the way, but I think I've managed to stay fairly close to this one.

I had planned to make a Christmas card with this week's sketch, but I was asked for a card for a 6yr old boy and thought of this fun image.  I've coloured the Cool Dude Frog with promarkers and koh-i-noor pencils and then cut him out.  Added some glamour dust on his shades (very Elton John!) and layered him on an embossed and sanded piece of core'dinations.  The papers are Echo Park, the star and number 6 were cut with sizzix dies.  Jute ribbon and buttons from my stash, and I pulled a thread from the jute to finish off the buttons.

Here's Janet's sketch

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• I Love Promarkers - autumnal colours
• Fab n Funky - fall colours
• Divas by Design - button up
• Delightful Challenges - colours of fall
• Craft Your Days Away - Halloween colours
• Stampin' for the Weekend - colours of autumn

We're off to the dreaded 'Build a Bear' shop later... I find it slightly off-putting seeing the poor things being stuffed!  Last week we went there so Morgan could spend some of his birthday money, and he actually offered to get Dex one as well, but no he didn't want one... not until we were back home and it was too late anyway.  So we said if he was good we'd take him back to get one - he wants a pink bunny apparently!  He does make me laugh, my little pink loving boy :o)  Back later with my Sweet Stampin' DT card...

Swirl Christmas

Sorry I've been a bit quiet this week, I've been busy with DT stuff that I can't show yet.  I'm not really happy with today's card, but I don't have anything else I can share until tomorrow so this is it for now...

I've been playing with the Hero Arts Swirl Christmas stamps.  The reindeer, sentiment and background swirl are all from the same set, stamped in Memento inks on linen card from Papermill Direct.  I added a few pearls to the reindeer, and a cuttlebug snowflake sprayed with glitter spray (not showing up in the pic).  The blue card candy was white and I coloured it with the same memento ink I used for stamping.

Sorry this is a bit of a rushed post, I'll be catching up with some commenting this evening and will be back tomorrow with my Pink Gem and Sweet Stampin' DT cards :o)

Passion For Promarkers - Christmas critters!

Time for a new challenge at Passion For Promarkers and this week our theme is 'Christmas Critters' which was chosen by the lovely Andie.  We're sponsored by DigiStamp Boutique and our lucky winner will receive 6 digi images of their choice.

I've used one of the gorgeous new images from the Cute Christmas set which is one of the current 'offer of the month' images at DigiStamp Boutique.  And for once I've actually managed to (more or less) follow a sketch... I often start with a sketch but wander so far away from it there's no point entering!  This time I've stayed fairly close to it and quite like how it turned out so I might use this one again.

Sorry I'm waffling again... I've coloured cute Jasper with promarkers, flexmarkers and koh-i-noor pencils, with lots of glamour dust for some Christmas sparkle.  The papers are MME and were free with a magazine - I'm being so strict with my paper ban that I even debated if it was ok to open this free pack but I finally decided it wasn't cheating... well not too much anyway!  The sentiment is from Elzybells and black pearls from my stash.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• Sketch Saturday - fab sketch
• CES Challenges - seeing red
• Totally Papercrafts - animals
• My Mum's Craft Shop - all creatures great & small (2nd entry)
• Secret Crafter - anything goes as long as it sparkles
• One Stop Craft - anything goes
• Sentimental Sundays - anything goes

My little car passed it's MOT retest yesterday afternoon and I did a happy dance when I found out lol.  No more wasting most of the day walking backwards and forwards, and more time for crafting and blogging :o)  Sorry, I've got ever so behind with commenting in the last week but I've just had no time or energy for anything!  Hopefully I'll be able to catch up now.

Less is More wk36 - hearts

This week at Less is More it's one-layer week and Chrissie and Mandi would like to see hearts... not something I'd usually use on a one-layer card, but I got out my Funky Flowers stamp set from Pink Gem and had a go...

I've added 2 photos of the first card just to show the shimmery effect.  I stamped the image and sentiment in black Perfect Medium and then brushed on Perfect Pearls in Perfect Gold.  Cardstock is Stampin' Up.

For my second card I used a little heart stamp from the same set, stamped in memento Lulu Lavender, dabbing on Sweet Plum (I think) around the edges of the stamp.  The sentiment is from a Flourishes set and gingham ribbon from my stash.

Not very inspiring I'm afraid, struggling to come up with much at the moment.  I'll probably have some time in the craft room again this evening, so hopefully something a bit more interesting will happen then!  At least yesterday's silly creation went down well - Dex slept with his plane next to his bed last night and says it's fantastic :o)

Is it a plane?...

Well, yes actually... it is!  Or maybe it's a helicopter, I'm not sure...

Now don't laugh - I know you want to!

When we were in Hobbycraft buying door hangers and other stuff to alter, Dex spotted a little plain wood plane and asked if I'd paint it for him... sort of hoping he'd forget about it I said 'of course!' and he's not shut up about it all week lol.  So today, with the littlest dictator stood next to me telling me what colour I should do everything - his favourite colours are pink and blue - and requesting black spots and glitter, this is what I've been doing!

I've used Eco Green acrylic paints, added some stickles on most of the pink bits and some black spots using a Stampin' Up stamp.

I'm not sure why I'm even blogging this lol, seems like conclusive proof that I've gone completely mad :o)

Lovely Louie

Well I'm still not feeling very creative, but I just had to try and make something with one of the cute new images from DigiStamp Boutique...

I just love this image, Louie is so adorable!  You can get the Louie collection here.  I'm not really happy with my card though - there are some days when I just can't seem to get my colouring right and today was one of them.  I've coloured Louie (badly) with promarkers, flexmarkers and koh-i-noor pencils.  Not sure what make the gingham card is, the dark brown cardstock is from Papermill Direct.  Added some card candy and a Little Claire sentiment.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• ABC Challenge - anything goes
• My Mum's Craft Shop - all creatures great & small
• DYSU Challenge - brown
• Papertake Weekly - anything goes (optional something punched)

We got absolutely soaked on the way to school this morning, and Dex doesn't go to nursery on Thursdays so he had to do the journey back with me too after dropping Morgan off... Dex was very cheerful about it really even though he must have been freezing and he's starting with a cold.  We were feeling a bit sorry for ourselves by the time we got back though, and hubby said he'd pop out from work and pick Morgan up this afternoon so we don't have to trail out in the rain again :o)  Oh I do hope my car is fixed soon!

Gorgeous new images from DigiStamp Boutique

All this walking seems to have dried up all my creativity, so I've not made anything for the last couple of days... I want my car back please!!!  Anyway, I just thought I'd share the adorable new offer images that Sally-Ann has just released at DigiStamp Boutique.

There's a fab Christmas collection that you can get here

And a super cute new bear called Louie

Aren't they all gorgeous?  Fingers crossed I'll have something to show you using one of them tomorrow!

Passion For Promarkers - alter something

Our new challenge for this week at Passion For Promarkers was chosen by Anja and she wants us to 'alter something that is not square'.  We're sponsored by Joanna Sheen and our winner will receive a £10 gift voucher for her fab online store.  I admit to having a bit of a panic about this challenge - I'm not much of an alterer, although I'd love to get into it more.

Mine is probably a bit of a cheat - I just couldn't think of what I could alter so I bought some plain wooden door hangers... plus lots of other stuff that I'll hopefully get round to altering soon lol, turned out to be an expensive challenge for me!  I painted my hanger with Eco Green acrylic paint in 'butternut', then when it was dry I added some 'shabby shutters' distress ink around the edges, and stamped some flourishes (also from Eco Green) and dusted them with cosmic shimmer - the flourishes are actually a shimmery green but they look more silver in the photos.  Added some gingham ribbon from my stash.

The image is a Gorjuss Girl - one of my many unused stamps.  I'm glad I've finally used her, I think she's lovely.  I've coloured her with a combination of promarkers, flexmarkers and koh-i-noor pencils on my new favourite 'make it colour' cardstock from Quixotic Paperie... oh I love this stuff, one of those things that really did live up to the hype so I'm glad I've tried it :o)

I'm entering my hanger for the following challenges:

• CES Challenges - totally gorjuss/ pretty girls (2nd entry)
• DYSU - swirls
• Fussy & Fancy - try a new technique (altering something, acrylic paints, stamping on wood...)
• Simon Says - anything goes

Walking backwards and forwards to school is proving to be a bit of a challenge!  I did a total of 3hrs walking yesterday... it feels like such a waste of my day lol.  Although I must admit in the morning it's quite pleasant - the boys enjoy it and are happy kicking up leaves and looking for conkers.  The afternoon walk is a nightmare though, as they're tired after a long day and it was so hot yesterday too - Dex had a tantrum before we'd even got going and then sobbed and moaned all the way home... such fun... can't wait to get my car back!