Wishcraft

Tilda loves flowers - The Stamp Basket DT

2012-01-26T23:38:00.000Z

Well this is a ridiculously late post from me! I'm finally here with my card for The Stamp Basket blog....

Items available from The Stamp Basket
Craftwork Cards scalloped edge card blank
Magnolia 'Tilda loves flowers' stamp
Magnolia papers - cloudy pink hearts 6x6 & vintage pink 12x12
Memory Box madera corner die
Crystal heart buttons - 12mm
Dovecraft white flat lace 2 1/4"
Vintage style ribbon - pink
Dovecraft adhesive gems

I've coloured Tilda with Prisma pencils - still playing with these, I still don't feel I've quite got the hang of them, but I love using them :o) Flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts, sentiment is a Flourishes stamp and the kraft card is Stampin' Up. Everything else is from The Stamp Basket.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp - anything goes
Creative Inspirations - anything goes
My Mum's Craft Shop - flowers
Cute Card Thursday - you're a gem
Charisma Cardz - pretty in pink
PaperPlay Challenges - lovely lace
Moving Along With The Times - blooming marvellous
Pile It On - add lace

We took Dex to the Legoland centre in Manchester today, he absolutely loved it! I haven't had chance to do any blogging all day though, so I'm really sorry if I haven't visited you yet - I will catch up with you all soon. Pav was in charge of the camera so most of our photos are blurry, but here's one of Dex with Buzz Lightyear made from Lego... Dex did smile for the photo but Pav missed it - which is typical lol!

Waste Not Wednesdays wk4

2012-01-25T21:27:00.000Z

I'm going to keep this as brief as possible because I'm sooo late today! It's lovely having hubby at home for the week, but it means we're out most of the day and I'm running behind with everything!

As you might already know, my mission for this year is to get my un-inked stamps and unused digis coloured up and made into cards, and I decided to make a little challenge of it. Anyone can join in, and usually it will be just for fun, but last week I thought it'd be nice to offer a little prize... so I have a winner to announce today, and that is....

Entry number 2 - Jo

Congrats Jo! And huge thanks to everyone who's been joining in, I love seeing all your creations :o) Here's what you've won Jo - sorry I forgot to add the prize photo to last week's entry!

A Greeting Farm stamp and a bag stuffed full of different embellishments... I might even add some more before I send it out :o) Jo, could you email me your address and I'll get your goodies out to you hun!

And here's my card using this week's neglected stamp...

I bought this cute stamp when it first came out, and as usual for me it's been sat there waiting to be used. I've coloured it with Prisma pencils and paper pieced the blanket. The papers are MME with Stampin' Up kraft card, sentiment is also Stampin' Up and the buttons and twine are from my stash.

Apologies for the rushed post... I think we're off out again tomorrow, oh dear! Back to 'just for fun' again this week, so no prizes, but I'd still love to see anything you'd like to link up using all your dusty images :o)

Less is More - cut it out

2012-01-24T16:03:00.000Z

This week's challenge at Less is More is 'cut it out', which means Chrissie and Mandi would like to see holes or apertures. I needed a card for my mum's hubby so here's what I made...

Hopefully you can tell from the second photo that the wooden cow is attached to the scalloped stripy card, with the spotty card on the inside. I love these cows - I bought them when I first started card making and they're so handy for fun cards... it's got dangly legs which are hiding a bit in the stripy pattern! I've a horrible feeling this might be my last one though, and I don't know if they're available anymore. Papers are Pink Petticoat, printed onto linen card and the black card is core'dinations. Oh, and I cut an extra circle of card to use as a 'frame' around the circle for a bit of definition.

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

CAS-ual Fridays - black & white (no other colours allowed)
Charisma Cardz - clean & simple

So my conversation with hubby when I'd finished my card went something like this:

Hubby - Oh I like that... I thought you were making Andrew's card though?

Me - (puzzled) This is Andrew's card

Hubby - Oh... well it's nice, but I'm not sure if he'll like it

Me - Why?

Hubby - Well isn't it a bit girly?

Me - (even more puzzled) What's girly about it?

Hubby - It's got a cow on, cows are girls... shouldn't it have a bull on?

Ermmm seriously? Can I not have a cow on a man's card? Someone tell me my hubby is being ridiculous before I get all paranoid and feel forced to make another one before his birthday (which is tomorrow!).

Tilda with daisy - The Stamp Basket DT

2012-01-23T18:56:00.000Z

Aww I just love the Tildas in the new Sweet Crazy Love collection, I think they're all so pretty :o) This one is Tilda with Daisy...

These are my first photos taken in my new light box - I actually got it for Christmas but one of the lights didn't work so I've been waiting for a replacement. They look a lot clearer to me, much less shadowy... what do you think?

I've coloured Tilda with Prisma pencils and added touches of stickles on her dress, bow and flower. The papers are Magnolia, I think the pink cardstock might be bazill bling - it's got a bit of shimmer to it. Sentiment is Pink Petticoat, the flowers are from Wild Orchid and I found the pins in my stash.

Items available from The Stamp Basket
Magnolia Tilda with Daisy stamp
Magnolia papers - cloudy pink hearts 6x6 and vintage pink 12x12
Vintage style ribbon - pink
Off-white ivory lace 3/8"
ZVA creative basic lines - pink pearls
Stickles glitter glue - diamond

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

Sketch Saturday - sketch
Cooking It Up With Katie - pink, pearls & posies (2nd entry - hope that's ok)
Allsorts - needles & pins
Pile it on - add lace

Hubby's off this week, so we've been to see the new Sherlock film while Dex was at nursery - it was very good :o) Had a yummy hotdog at the cinema too - I do enjoy a cinema hotdog, only time I ever want one. Dex seems to be all better now thank goodness! We haven't spoken to Morgan yet - I know he's arrived in Mexico safely because we've had a text, but it'll be nice to actually talk to him... I'm sure he's far too busy having fun though! Hope you all have a lovely evening :o)

A Gem of a Challenge - sketch

2012-01-21T20:38:00.000Z

I'm back with my second post for today, my DT card for A Gem of a Challenge. This week we have a fab sketch created by Lisa, and I'm a bit happier with this card than I was with the one I posted earlier :o)

I've been playing with my new Prisma pencils again - not that I don't like my promarkers anymore, it's just that I want to keep practising until I've got the hang of the pencils! I don't think my colouring is quite right on this one, but I'm wondering if I need different paper... I've used Bristol Board for this - can any regular prisma colourers recommend a good one to try?

The image is one of Janet's gorgeous new Fairy Faye digi stamps, this one is Faye with Flowers. The papers are First Edition and I decided I need to start using up some of the flowers I've had hanging around for ages. I bought these in a sale ages ago, probably about 2yrs ago - I've got a huge boxful in all different colours but I tend to forget all about them... wonder if I can get them all used by the end of the year... probably not!

Here's Lisa's sketch

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

My Mum's Craft Shop - favourite colour combo (I have lots, but blue & green is one of them!)
Papertake Weekly - buttons, bows, bling & blooms
Creative Craft - the colour blue

Right, Dex is in bed snoring away - he fell asleep while I read his story, he's so wiped out poor thing. So hopefully he'll sleep the rest of this yucky bug off tonight and wake up feeling a bit better. Off to catch up on some commenting while I can!

Sweet Stampin' - white on white

2012-01-21T17:27:00.000Z

Our challenge at Sweet Stampin' this week is 'white on white' - a huge challenge for me, I just can't work without colour at all! We're sponsored by Bunny Zoe's who are providing our lucky winner with a £10 voucher to spend in their shop, and our monthly sponsor is Joanna Sheen.

You wouldn't believe how long I spent on this card, and I'm really not happy with the result. I've used an image from one of my favourite DigiStamp Boutique sets - the Valentine Bird collection. I made the card using go-kreate circle dies and nesties for the smaller circles. One layer is embossed with the 'swiss dots' folder, the border was cut with the MS scallop dot punch. I added a strip of lace from The Stamp Basket and glamour dust around the edges. The sentiment is Stampin' Up.

Sorry I've not visited many of you over the last couple of days. On Thursday night Dex started with a tummy bug, and we were up all night with him - I think we used every available sheet, pillowcase and pair of pyjamas in the house! He was still poorly yesterday, but thankfully stopped being sick by early afternoon. He's spent most of today dozing on the sofa and he won't eat, but I think the worst is over. Morgan set off for Mexico yesterday and I'm just hoping he won't get it - that would be no fun on the plane or in a hotel for that matter!

I'll be back soon with my DT card for A Gem of a Challenge, and fingers crossed I'll be able to catch up with you all this evening :o)

Less is More - one layer, birds

2012-01-19T18:12:00.000Z

I thought I was going to end up missing Less is More this week... the challenge is a one layer card with a 'bird' theme. I thought of lots of things I could use, but nothing that really suited one layer. Then I thought of this...

It's very simple - probably too simple lol! I've used one of the cute new valentines images from DigiStamp Boutique, available here. I printed it onto Stampin' Up kraft card and coloured it with prisma pencils - first time I've used them on kraft and I've made a bit of a mess of it really but never mind! The sentiment comes with the image, and the blue bakers twine is from my stash. Oh, I added some glamour dust to the hearts on the image for a bit of sparkle, not sure how well that's showing up.

I don't think I've ever mentioned before that my hubby isn't my eldest son's dad, although we met when Morgan was a baby. I'd split up with Morgan's dad when I was pregnant... I won't go into details but there were good reasons... anyway, when I went into work to show off my new baby, there was Pav in my chair - he was my maternity leave cover lol. It took us a long time to get together though - we were just friends for a couple of years. There is a reason for my ramblings, honest! Tomorrow Morgan will be going away with his 'real' dad for a family wedding - they're going to Mexico for 2wks and I'm going to miss him so much! He's never been away from me for anywhere near that long. So I'm popping this card in with his things, so that he'll see it while he's away and know that we're thinking about him :o)

Waste Not Wednesdays wk3

2012-01-18T18:24:00.000Z

Sorry I'm a bit late today, I got here eventually! I'm back with my little challenge to use my unused stamps and digis... thanks to everyone who played along with me last week, I loved seeing all your poor neglected images. I think we need a little prize this week don't we? I'll sort something out and add details to this post later :o)

I have used my new and rather fabulous prisma pencils again, to colour another Sugar Nellie stamp that I've had for AGES... yesterday's first pencil attempt was a bear so this is my first go at colouring a person with them. The photos are a bit washed out because I had to use the daylight lamp, I might replace the photo tomorrow if I remember.

This is of course a lovely Gorjuss Girl, I think she's called Foxy. The papers are Prima 'alla prima' with Stampin Up kraft card and some scraps of core'dinations. Flowers cut with a MFT die, little roses from Wild Orchid, swirl cut with a sizzix die and pearls from my stash.

I've (more or less) followed the sketch at The Sugar Bowl so I'm entering my card there.

So if you'd like to join in with me, just use any uninked stamp or digi from your stash, link it up below and I'll come and visit you :o) As I said, I'll sort out a little random prize this week so I'll be back to add details of that later.

First attempt with prismas!

2012-01-17T19:03:00.000Z

I've been playing with my new prisma pencils today - I absolutely love them :o) This is my first image coloured with them...

I'm fairly happy with this for a first try... still figuring all the colours out and it's certainly not perfect, but they're lovely to use. The gorgeous image is Louie and present from DigiStamp Boutique and the papers are all scraps from a Forever Friends pad.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes for yesterday! I had a nice day - some lovely cards and pressies, and a yummy takeaway and wine with hubby in the evening. Today I popped to Hobbycraft to try and spend some of my birthday pennies, but I didn't buy much, just foam pads and sansador... might put it in my account and spend it online instead lol. Right, off to try and catch up with you all now :o)

Happy Birthday to meeee...

2012-01-16T13:07:00.000Z

Sorry I've been missing for the last few days, we had a bit of a busy weekend. It's my birthday today :o) I must have got used to having the last couple of birthdays at the weekend though, because today feels very strange - hubby's at work, the boys are at school & nursery and I feel a bit lonely! I must remember this and get hubby to take the day off next year!

Anyway, while it was quiet, I took the opportunity to get a card finished...

This is one of the lovely new Fairy Faye images from Pink Gem Designs - I've printed her onto linen card and coloured her with promarkers and flexmarkers. The papers are K&Co, with DCWV cardstock. Pearls, buttons and ribbon are from my stash, the flowers are from Wild Orchid and the sentiment is Craftwork Cards. I'd intended keeping this one quite simple, but I just can't seem to keep my hands off the flowers at the moment... it's still fairly simple though, I think...

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

Cooking It Up With Katie - pink, pearls & posies
Wild Orchid Challenges - anything goes
My Mum's Craft Shop - here come the girls

I've been so grumpy with hubby this weekend - weeks ago I sent him a link for a tin of Prisma pencils, the only thing I asked him to get for my birthday. Last Thursday he realised he still hadn't ordered them, tried to do it and they were out of stock. Grrr! It's not the first time he's done it either, it's fairly rare that I actually get what I want for my birthday. So I might have done a little bit of moaning about it... This morning, there are my pencils - a bigger tin than I asked for... apparently he drove for 3hrs this weekend to get them, when I thought he was on a callout for work. So I am officially the meanest, grumpiest wife ever and I'll probably never hear the end of it lol!

Pink Tilda - The Stamp Basket DT

2012-01-12T16:35:00.000Z

It's Thursday again - not sure how that happened, I think this year's going to fly by again! Anyway, that means it's my day to post on The Stamp Basket blog, and I've used sweet Tilda With Wrapped Heart again but this week she's all pink and girly :o)

Items available from The Stamp Basket
Craftwork Cards scalloped edge card blank
Magnolia stamp - Tilda with wrapped heart
Dovecraft papers - back to basics 'pink'

I've coloured Tilda with promarkers, flexmarkers and koh-i-noor pencils. Added some gorgeous flowers that I treated myself to from Wild Orchid Crafts and some leaves cut with a woodware punch. The scalloped borders were cut with my favourite MFT die... again!... and the sentiment is CC Designs.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

My Mum's Craft Shop - here come the girls
Wild Orchid Crafts - anything goes
Just Magnolia - anything goes + happy new year or use something new (stamp & flowers)
Papertake Weekly - die cute special
CES Challenges - anything goes

Not sure what's up with me at the moment - I seem to be very embellishment happy, not like me at all! Oh well, as long as I'm having fun eh?

Waste Not Wednesdays wk2

2012-01-11T16:53:00.000Z

Well here I am for the second week of my little challenge to get my uninked stamps and digis coloured up and made into cards. Here's today's creation...

I've got so many LOTV stamps that are sat waiting to be used, so I decided to use one today. I didn't let myself buy any stamps from the last couple of releases because it was getting a bit silly really... at least if I start using them I can justify buying more lol!

I'm not sure about this card really - I couldn't seem to stop embellishing once I'd started! It'll probably end up being my mum's birthday card as she likes cards with lots of detail. Very organised for me - her birthday's not til next month! This stamp (I think) is called Mini Messages - you get the bunny image and 4 little sentiments to stamp on his sheet. Papers are GCD Studios 'ella blue' with lots of inking around the edges, flowers are mostly Wild Orchid - all started out white and I've used various inks and sprays to change the colour. Swirls cut with sizzix dies, butterfly cut with a Stampin' Up die. Pearls, ribbon and wooden shape (sprayed with gold spray & sparkle) all from my stash. Card blank is 7" square.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

I Love Promarkers - cute & cuddly
Papertake Weekly - die cute special
Creative Inspirations - swirls & pearls
Everybody Art - shabby
Dream Valley - anything goes

If you should happen to use one of your un-inked stamps or digis this week, feel free to add your creations to the linky below and I'll pop over to see what you've made :o)

Less is More - predominantly purple

2012-01-10T13:25:00.000Z

I didn't manage to join in with last week's challenge at Less is More, even though there were 2 weeks to play along - it's the first time I've missed one :o( So I thought I'd combine this week's theme of 'predominantly purple' with last week's 'just one word'...

It had to be a very simple card today, because Dex's cough is making him a bit miserable and he doesn't want me to do anything - he sat on my feet in the craft room while I made this!

I've used a cute Elzybells bear - never used before even though I've probably had it a couple of years, so that's another one of my un-inked stamps I can stop feeling quite so guilty about.... I stamped it onto linen card and coloured it with promarkers and flexmarkers, and used a sakura clear stardust pen for the spots on her dress. Added a gem on her flower (Dex told me to - he likes a bit of bling lol), a Personal Impressions sentiment and then mounted it on a lilac (or lavender? Light purple?...) card base.

Sorry this is a bit brief (you might think that's a good thing), hopefully I'll have a bit more time tomorrow!

New images from DigiStamp Boutique!

2012-01-09T18:59:00.000Z

How fab is this new mouse character?! I love him :o)

This is one of the new offer images from DigiStamp Boutique for this month - they'll be in the shop later this evening so I'll link it up then. The images in this set all come with fab matching sentiments - I've used one of them on my card. There are 2 other 'offer of the month' sets being released too, all SO cute :o)

I decided to print him on linen as I really like colouring on it, seems more fun somehow! He's coloured with promarkers, flexmarkers and koh-i-noor pencils. The papers are from my new MME 'blink of an eye' pad again, with red cardstock from Papermill Direct and textured kraft card from Stampin' Up. Scalloped border cut with an MFT die, and the 'husband' sentiment was put together using Elzybells stamps. The card blank is 7" square.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

Sketch Saturday - fab sketch
CES Challenges - anything goes
Simon Says Stamp - new something (new papers & image)
Cute Card Thursday - what's new
Pile It On - manly cards

Thanks for all the birthday wishes for Dex - he had a fab day yesterday and got spoilt rotten! He's not feeling very well though - he's had this bad cold that we've all had, and he's been up half the night coughing, so I've had to keep him off nursery. I think he'll probably end up being off tomorrow too, but he's been ever so good so I don't really mind. Off to catch up with you all now :o)

Sweet Stampin' - spots & dots

2012-01-07T18:59:00.000Z

I'm back with my 2nd post for today, my DT card for Sweet Stampin', where our challenge is 'spots and dots'. I love using spotty papers so this was a nice and easy one for me :o) We're sponsored by Stamp Fairy and Crafty Ribbons this week and our monthly sponsor is Joanna Sheen so there are some fab prizes to be won!

This card is for my mum to give to my youngest son Dex, who'll be 4 tomorrow. I've used a very cute Lenny Notes image kindly provided by Stamp Fairy, coloured with promarkers, flexmarkers and koh-i-noor pencils. The papers are MME 'blink of an eye', buttons and 2 different ribbons from my stash.

I've made the most of having a relaxing day today - tomorrow will be much busier! Hubby's mum is having a joint birthday lunch for me and Dex (my birthday's in a little over a week), and then my mum's having a little family party for Dex later in the afternoon. We still have to wrap all of his pressies tonight so I hope he goes to sleep ok, he's a bit excited! Hope you're all enjoying your weekend :o)

A Gem of a Challenge - photo inspiration

2012-01-07T11:43:00.000Z

This week at A Gem of a Challenge we have this gorgeous inspiration photo chosen by the lovely Rebekah...

And here's my card... those with an aversion to pink might want to look away now ;o)

This cute little ted is a new digi stamp called Love Heart Teddy, coloured with promarkers, flexmarkers and koh-i-noor pencils, and I added some sparkle to the hearts with a sakura clear stardust pen. The papers are from a Forever Friends pad, with textured kraft card from Stampin' Up. The sentiment ticket is from Pink Gem, available here. The swirly corner is a sizzix die, the butterfly was cut with a MS punch, and the pearls and raffia lace are from my stash.

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend so far. I'm not planning on doing much today as I still have this rotten cold, so I'll be curled up in the chair with my Kindle for most of the day I think :o) I'll be back in a little while with my DT card for Sweet Stampin' though.

The Stamp Basket DT - Tilda with wrapped heart

2012-01-05T18:56:00.000Z

It's Thursday which means it's my day for posting on The Stamp Basket blog, and this week I got to play with an adorable Tilda stamp which is part of the new Magnolia 'crazy in love' range. I think a few of us on the DT have been happy bunnies this week when we heard that Janet will be stocking these stamps, dies and papers :o) All the new goodies are there for you to see in the shop and you can pre-order them now if you like, they'll be in stock very soon.

When I haven't used a Tilda for a while, I forget just how lovely they are to colour - I really had fun with this one :o) Of course it helped that my new Prima papers arrived in time for me to use them too!

Items available from The Stamp Basket
Magnolia stamp - Tilda with wrapped heart
Craftwork Cards scalloped edge card blank
Deco Art glamour dust - crystal
Dovecraft adhesive gems

I've coloured Tilda with a combination of promarkers, flexmarkers and koh-i-noor pencils. The papers are Prima 'alla-prima', with Stampin' Up textured kraft card. I've added some wooden flowers, covered in glossy accents and glamour dust, and yellow pearls from my stash. The border was cut with an MFT die and I'm not sure what make the sentiment stamp is.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly - anything goes + optional something new
My Mum's Craft Shop - something new (new stamp & papers)
Simon Says Stamp - new something (as above)
Cute Card Thursday - what's new
Delightful Challenges - have a heart

I'm still trying to shake off the cold I've had since before Christmas - my voice went completely yesterday and it's not much better today... hubby and the boys are quite amused by my squeakiness, no sympathy in this house! Do you remember that cartoon - was it Dastardly and Muttley? - well I had a laughing fit last night and sounded just like that dog lol :o) Hope you all have a lovely evening, will be round to catch up with you later.

Waste Not Wednesdays wk1!

2012-01-04T18:46:00.000Z

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, my crafty resolution for this year is to try and work through my huge pile of unused stamps and digis. A few of you said you might like to join in, and Amanda came up with the name - thanks hun :o) I also want to use more of my 'stuff' in general, so you should see slightly more elaborate cards from me this year - this doesn't come naturally to me really though, so making one card takes a long time at the moment!

Anyway, as soon as I thought of starting this weekly thing, I knew which stamp I'd have to use first. For some reason this sweet little girl has been sat waiting to see ink for about 2yrs... shame on me!

So as you probably know, this stamp is Daisy from Sugar Nellie, coloured with a combination of flexmarkers, promarkers and koh-i-noor pencils. The papers are from a free MME pad that came with a magazine ages ago, with cardstock from Papermill Direct. The sentiment is Personal Impressions, swirl cut with a sizzix die, butterflies cut with a Stampin' Up die, tab cut with a Stampin' Up punch and embossed with a Stampin' Up embossing folder. Pearls, lace and shimmery button all from my stash.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly - anything goes + optional something new (don't think I've used anything new though, sorry!)
Flutterby Wednesdays - open challenge
I Love Promarkers - buttons & lace

So this is just a little 'for fun' challenge to get me using all those poor forgotten stamps, but if anyone would like to join in with me, please leave me a comment and I'll come and see what dusty stamp or digi you've used :o) I'll add a linky next week if there are a few of you joining in. Just for fun, no prizes, although I might do the occasional little giveaway - we'll see how it goes!

Dex's 4th birthday

2012-01-03T17:43:00.001Z

It will be Dex's 4th birthday on Sunday, my little baby's growing up fast! He told me he'd like a boy on his card, and a ribbon, so that's what he's got :o)

I also had to put a bit of pink on his card, because that's his favourite colour - I don't suppose I'll get away with using pink for long so I might as well make the most of it!

The image is super cute Sammy from DigiStamp Boutique, coloured with promarkers, flexmarkers and koh-i-noor pencils. Papers are Echo Park 'walk in the park' with dark brown cardstock from Papermill Direct. Sentiment is CC Designs, ribbon from Hobbycraft and the number 4 was cut on my Cricut (Plantin Schoolbook cart).

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

CLP Challenge - sketch
Totally Gorjuss - something happy
Simon Says Stamp - anything goes
Charisma Cardz - anything goes
Stampin' for the weekend - anything goes
Secret Crafter - anything goes
Pile It On - anything goes

The boys are back at school and nursery tomorrow - I'm quite glad they didn't go back today, it's been blowing a gale and pouring with rain all day so a great day to spend in the craft room and not venture out at all! Hope it's been a bit nicer where you are :o)

** Ooh - I nearly forgot! There's a sale on at DigiStamp Boutique at the moment, so you can get 30% off everything until 7th Jan! **

The Stamp Basket DT - Mimo ski

2012-01-02T20:53:00.000Z

I'm running late as we took the boys to spend their Christmas money. My mum came too - she got me a pressie for my birthday and let me have it now (there's a couple of weeks until my birthday), a pretty case for my Kindle so it won't get damaged in my bag :o) We also managed to get some extra bits for Dex's birthday without him seeing - that's on Sunday... very bad birthday planning in our family lol!

Products available from The Stamp Basket
Craftwork Cards scalloped edge card blank
Bildmalarna Mimo - ski stamp
White seam binding, dyed with distress inks
Dovecraft adhesive gems
Deco Art glamour dust in crystal

Ooh and in the next couple of days Janet will have the new Magnolia Sweet Crazy Love stamps, papers and dies in the shop! I'm quite looking forward to having a play with some of these :o)

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

Sketch Saturday - fab sketch
Crafty Calender - cold and frosty

Ok, so now my paper ban is over (yippee, hurrah - 2 new paper pads on their way already lol!!!) I've been thinking about what I should do this year. The pile of un-inked stamps and unused digis has been bothering me for a while - I just can't seem to stop myself buying them and then for some reason I don't get round to using them... and then I buy more! I'm going to try and change that this year, so I've decided to have at least one day each week where I use an unused stamp or digi, or maybe both if I have time... on Wednesdays I think. Any ideas of what I can call my weekly 'thing'? Maybe some of you fellow hoarders will join in with me :o)

Paper ban...

2012-01-01T21:00:00.002Z

** This post will stay at the top of my blog so I CAN'T conveniently forget! Please scroll down for more recent posts **

We've been out most of today so I've not had chance to make anything, but I thought I'd give this its own 'official' post lol... I've decided to ban myself from buying anymore papers until the New Year! Eek, I'm scared just typing it! But seriously, I have an obscene amount of paper and I really need to start using some of it up.

Of course, my ban doesn't apply to stamps or dies, or anything else I might fancy tee hee, just paper. Hmm, if I don't hit 'publish' then I can just forget all about this can't I?!... nope, here goes...

**2nd July update - One whole month into the ban, no cheating and I'm 'coping' ok... buying lots of stamps though lol**

** 19th Nov update - Wow, not too long to go now! Can you believe I haven't bought any papers since the end of May?! It's not been easy, but I've got used to it and don't even consider buying papers now - before if I saw something I liked on someone's blog I'd have rushed off and bought it straight away... I don't feel the need to do that now, so hopefully it's achieved something and when the ban is lifted I'll do less impulse buying. I must admit though, I'm getting SO desperate for that lovely feeling of flicking through a brand new paper pad - I can't wait for January! **

A Year in Review

2011-12-31T14:47:00.000Z

I spotted the lovely Lorraine playing along with A Year in Review and I thought I'd have a go too... several hours and lots of swapping and changing later, here are 12 of my favourites from the year...

Blimey, it's SO hard to choose favourites! And they've all ended up quite girlie, even though I like making male cards - not sure what happened there!

I'd like to wish all my lovely followers (and of course, anyone else who pops in) a very Happy New Year! We'll just be having a quiet night in tonight, with a few glasses of Bucks Fizz lol - such party animals eh?! Hope you all have a good time whatever you're doing :o)

Paper suggestions anyone?

2011-12-30T18:53:00.000Z

As most of you will know, I'm coming to the end of my paper ban (yippee!) on Sunday. I've not bought any papers since May and I've been trying really hard to ignore all the lovely papers everyone's been using, so that I wasn't tempted to run off and buy them lol.

So as I've not got much idea of what 'must have' papers are out there at the moment, I wondered if any of you could suggest your current favourites so I can have a look? It's a bit scary being let loose again though, I must try not to buy too many!

A late Christmas card...

2011-12-28T22:01:00.000Z

Luckily I'm only late blogging it - it's my mum's Christmas card and it was finished on Christmas Eve, which is quite good going for me lol :o) Hope you all had a fabulous Christmas! We had a great time, although we've all had this rotten cold that just won't go away. I got a Kindle for Christmas and I'm just a teeny bit hooked on it already... hubby liked it so much he went out today and got himself one! And he doesn't even read really - men and their gadgets eh? I also got a light tent that I've been so looking forward to getting, but one of the lights doesn't work so I'll have to wait for that to be sorted... boo!

I used one of the LOTV cute die cut images, with a touch of glamour dust added. The papers are Dovecraft with red cardstock from Papermill Direct and textured kraft card from Stampin' Up. Sentiment is Craftwork Cards, snowflake was cut with a Cuttlebug die, red pearl from my stash.

Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things properly soon, isn't it hard to get going again after you've had a break?!

Less is More wk 46 - music

2011-12-23T17:33:00.000Z

Just a flying visit to post my last minute card for this week's Less is More challenge, which is 'music'. I really shouldn't be here at all... still loads of wrapping to do and I STILL haven't made my mum's Christmas card... eek!!!

I've had the image and sentiment (made in Word with lots of faffing about with text boxes) printed off for days and finally found a spare few minutes to colour it in today. It's one of the Cute Santa images from DigiStamp Boutique, printed onto linen card and coloured with promarkers and flexmarkers. Added a bit of glamour dust for some sparkle and mounted onto red textured card from Papermill Direct.

Sorry for the short post, hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with a finished card for my mum and her hubby!

Mimosa (not) waiting for Santa!

2011-12-22T17:03:00.000Z

It's my day for posting on The Stamp Basket blog today, and I decided to use the sweet Bildmalarna stamp 'Mimosa - waiting for Santa', but not on a Christmas card this time - I thought she could work quite well for birthdays too...

Products available from The Stamp Basket
Craftwork Cards scalloped edge card blank
Bildmalarna 'mimosa - waiting for Santa' stamp
Seam binding in chalk white, dyed with 'tattered rose' distress ink
Dovecraft Adhesive Gems (on the sentiment tag)

I've coloured the image with promarkers and flexmarkers, the papers are First Edition with dark brown cardstock from Papermill Direct. The sentiment is Stampin' Up, and everything else is from my stash.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp - bingo card (1st row - ribbon/ twine, gems, glitter/ sparkle)
I Love Promarkers - anything goes
My Mum's Craft Shop - anything goes
Charisma Cardz - anything goes

Apologies if I've not managed to catch up with your blogs yet - there just aren't enough hours between now and Christmas, and I'm ever so slightly stressed here lol! Hope you're a bit more organised than I am, but I bet I'm not the only one still running around like a headless chicken :o)

Grandma's birthday card

2011-12-20T18:51:00.000Z

I was really pleased with the card I made for my mum to give to my grandma... I'm not so happy with the one I've made for us to give her, it's not quite how I imagined it looking!

I had fun making the background - it's funny to think that not so long ago I didn't like getting messy and inky! I used lots of different blue and green distress inks and then sprayed it with a green cosmic shimmer spray - this is where I got really furious because all my sprays are completely blocked... after lots of soaking in hot water, rinsing and swearing I gave up and put some into an empty spray bottle instead - so annoying! And somehow I've ended up with bright green spray all up the wall in the craft room! The image is a Hero Arts stamp embossed in silver, and I've embossed around the edges of the stamped panel in silver too. Ribbon, silver cord and black pearls from my stash, and the lettering is computer generated, the card blank is 7" square made from hammered card.

I'll not say Happy Christmas yet, because I'll be back at least a couple more times this week - I'm SO disorganised and I was really hoping I'd do better this year!

A bed fit for a cat?

2011-12-19T20:56:00.000Z

Well I should have had a card to show you, but by the time I'd finished it the light had gone and I couldn't get a decent photo with the daylight lamp. I'll have to take more photos in the morning, but I thought I'd just show you some photos of our cat :o) Please excuse all the kids toys in the background though!

I went shopping with the kids this morning (I know, mad woman!) and we decided to buy a posh new cat bed... hubby wasn't at all impressed with how much I spent on it, and Bram has been completely ignoring the blimmin' bed all day lol! There was much excitement when he finally decided to risk getting in...

I wonder if this will stop him sneaking onto the kids beds, hiding under my craft desk and squashing himself into various tiny boxes.... probably not!

I suppose I'd better go and write in some Christmas cards now, seen as tomorrow is the last day for posting them - oops!

Birthday mice...

2011-12-18T20:55:00.000Z

This is the card I've made for my mum to give to my grandma for her birthday in a couple of days. Sorry, there are loads of photos!

I love this style of card as they really do look special - my mum's thrilled with it :o) But they're nearly impossible to get a decent photo of - maybe the light box I'm getting for Christmas will help!

I've used LOTV die cut images - in theory this was supposed to speed things up, but by the time I'd faffed around with everything else on my card it took just as long as usual. The papers are unknown ones from my stash with dark brown cardstock from Papermill Direct. I can't remember the make of most of the things I've used and I haven't had chance to look for any challenges again... headless chicken at the moment sorry!

Off for a commenting mad dash while I'm sat still for a bit!

Can anyone help Vicky?!

2011-12-17T19:41:00.001Z

Vicky (Vixx Handmade Cards) is having huge problems at the moment... if you try to open her blog there is a message that says her blog has been removed! She's obviously very upset, and I wondered if anyone had any ideas of what might have gone wrong and how she could fix it?

Vicky would really appreciate any help anyone can offer, thanks everyone!

**Phew, all seems to be back to normal now - what a relief eh, blimmin blogger!**

Some quick Christmas cards

2011-12-17T17:54:00.000Z

Another busy day today, we've had a huge toy clear out to make space for all the new stuff the boys will be getting for Christmas. And then we put the tree up - it's looking very pretty apart from one bit at the back that has about 30 baubles crammed onto 3 or 4 branches... Dex was in charge of that bit!

As I've not had chance to make anything today (although I should be making cards for my Grandma's birthday, which is only a few days away!), I thought I'd show the quick cards I made for Morgan's teachers and Dex's nursery staff.

I made 12 of these cards using different LOTV die cut nativity scenes and Christmas Sparkles digi papers from Pink Gem Designs, printed onto linen card. I kept them really simple, just printing the sentiments directly onto the card and inking around all the edges.

And then very similar cards for Morgan's teachers using LOTV die cut images that Morgan picked out, and Pink Petticoat gingham papers, printed onto linen card. Inked all the edges, added lots of glamour dust and that's it. Sorry the photos aren't very good, but they were taken quite late when the light had gone.

Tonight I should be rushing around making my Grandma's cards and writing in Christmas cards (still haven't posted any yet!), but I'll probably end up wasting the whole evening on the laptop - there's always tomorrow isn't there?!

Less is More - let it snow

2011-12-16T16:49:00.000Z

I've been so busy this week I completely forgot about Less is More - unheard of! I finally remembered last night when it was too late to do anything about it, so I've made a very quick card this afternoon. I quite like it though, for a change :o) The challenge is 'let it snow' and it's one-layer card week too.

I've stamped an Elzybells bear and sentiment in memento 'rich cocoa' onto Stampin' Up kraft card, and added some snowflakes in white and cocoa. Then I went over all the snowflakes with a sakura clear stardust pen which doesn't really show up in the photo. I've rubbed white ink around the edges of the card and used white koh-i-noor pencil around the image.

There are probably loads of Christmas challenges I could enter, but I've not had time to check any of them and I want to squeeze some commenting in while I've got a few spare minutes!

Big Christmas Sale at The Stamp Basket!!

2011-12-15T12:46:00.003Z

Just a quick one to let you all know about the fab Christmas Sale at The Stamp Basket...

25% OFF SELECTED BILDMALARNA STAMPS
25% OFF ALL FIZZY MOON STAMPS
25% OFF SELECTED MOLLY BLOOMS STAMPS

25% OFF SELECTED NELLIE SNELLEN STAMPS
25% OFF SELECTED STAMPAVIE STAMPS
25% OFF ALL WILD ROSE STUDIO STAMPS
25% OFF SELECTED MARIANNE DESIGN CREATABLES
30% OFF BACK TO BASICS PAPER PACKS
30% OFF BO BUNNY PAPER PADS
30% OFF MY MIND’S EYE PAPER PADS
30% OFF MARIANNE DESIGNS PAPER BLOCS
30% OFF SMALL PAPERMANIA PAPER PACKS
30% OFF WILD ROSE STUDIO PAPER PACKS

…..and much, much more!

Just in case you need something for yourself or a last minute gift for a crafting friend :o)

My little shepherd

2011-12-14T20:26:00.000Z

I just thought I'd pop back with a couple of photos of our little thumb-sucking shepherd, he did ever so well bless him :o)

Sorry, not the best photos but they were taken on hubby's phone. I did well up a bit, but managed not to cry... oh, and I was telling Dex how well they all did with their singing so he sang Away in a Manger for us at home, which apparently went 'Away in a manger, no crisps for a bed...' lol!

Thank you for all your lovely supportive comments on my moany post, it really cheered me up to read them, and to know that others wouldn't have thought the worst of me. I feel much better about it all now :o)

Christmas candle

2011-12-14T10:22:00.000Z

Yesterday I spent all day making candle boxes to give to Dex's nursery staff - or as Dex calls them 'his ladies' :o) Now I've never made these before, so it took me all day to make 4, plus a trip to Hobbycraft for more acetate because I kept scoring them wrong and I needed more supplies to ruin lol...

The photos are of the first one I managed to successfully make - I think the ones I made after probably looked slightly better than this, but I didn't get round to taking photos of them, and we've taken them into nursery today as it's Dex's last day before Christmas.

I googled for candle box tutorials and came across this one which I more or less followed, but I had to adjust the measurements a bit because my candles were too big really. So if I do them again, I'd get smaller candles. The papers are GCD Studios Joyful Peace and the sentiment on the tag is an Elzybells one. I wish I'd added a bit more detail to them now, looking at the pics, but never mind at least they're done!

I'm entering my box for the following challenges:

ABC Christmas - Y is for Yippee - it's almost Christmas!
CES Challenges - a traditional Christmas

I'm going to have a bit of a moan now about the recent blog candy that I offered... I posted it to the winner at the beginning of last week and have had a couple of emails to say that the package still hadn't arrived. I was a bit irritated at the bloomin' postal service to be honest, it does annoy me when things go missing or are delayed like that. I offered to send her some other bits after Christmas if the parcel didn't turn up at all. But then it became fairly obvious that (without actually saying it outright) she must believe that I didn't even send it, because she's stopped following my blog... this is someone who's cards I've been commenting on for a little while and she's been commenting on mine, and I thought was a genuinely nice person. She obviously doesn't think the same about me if she thinks I'd lie about sending the parcel. I'm now not sure about even bothering with blog candies again, if they cause this sort of bad feeling. I was really upset about it yesterday and didn't feel like blogging at all, but I know that most bloggers are lovely so I won't let it put me off.

Right, moan over! As I've been so busy over the last few days and I'm feeling a bit wiped out by my yucky cold, I've decided to take the morning off lol, and sit here with the laptop and catch up with you all. Then this afternoon we'll be watching my little shepherd in his first nativity, bless him... tissues at the ready!

How to make 70 cards very fast!

2011-12-13T10:20:00.000Z

Yep, I actually made 70 of these little cards in a couple of hours yesterday morning, and then I made another 12 less simple cards in the afternoon... 82 cards in one day - go me lol :o) And then when I'd made that lot, I went Christmas shopping with my mum and didn't get back until nearly 10pm, so I apologise for being very behind in visiting your blogs but I will catch up tonight.

These are Morgan's cards for his friends at school, using the pre-coloured versions of Carol Singing Cat and Ice Skating Hoot from Pink Gem Designs, printed onto linen card. These images come with a black line version that you can colour and you also get the pre-coloured image, which is ideal when you have a lot of cards to make - I made 35 of these...

... and I made 35 of these for Dex's friends at nursery, using Fairy Teddy, Teddy with Christmas Tree and Teddy with Candy Cane, again in the pre-coloured versions from Pink Gem Designs.

I was right about getting Dex's cold - I'm feeling really awful today! I just seem to shake one thing off and then I get something else, or if I'm ok one of the kids will be poorly, fed up with it now! I've got to get gifts made for the nursery staff today, and lots more to do tomorrow including watching Dex as a shepherd in his first nativity! All I really want to do is curl up in the chair and fall asleep, wonder if I can find a spare half hour to do that this afternoon...

Sweet Stampin' - things with wings

2011-12-10T18:38:00.000Z

I'm back with my 2nd post for today, my DT card for Sweet Stampin', where our challenge is 'things with wings'. We're sponsored by Bugaboo and our lucky winner will receive 7 fabulous digis of their choice :o)

Now I'm not sure why, but this little 'Ava Fairy' cutie from Bugaboo just seemed to need purple hair, so I went along with it - it quite suits her doesn't it? She's coloured with flexmarkers, promarkers and koh-i-noor pencils, with lots of glamour dust for sparkle.

The papers are from the 'capsule collection' by Papermania, with black core'dinations, and a piece of whitewash core'dinations with a purple core that I've embossed and then sanded back. So that made me happy because I managed to use another forgotten embossing folder. And then because the sketch I used had a large oval on it, I used my cricut too... ooh dusty things are actually getting some use at the moment! I coloured a wooden flower with a purple flexmarker and added a little button, and the sentiment is Penny Black.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly - anything goes + optional something dangly (do the things on her head count? lol)
Everybody Art - sketch
The ABC Challenge - E for embossing
Flutterby Wednesdays - open challenge
Divas By Design - anything goes
Cute Card Thursday - anything goes
Totally Papercrafts - anything but Christmas
Crafty Catz - anything goes

I'm all on my lonesome this evening, because hubby's going out for his work's night out... he's an engineering buyer and his department is all the engineers and electricians - nights out are generally a bit messy, so I dread to think what sort of state he's going to come home in! So it's just me, a pizza and the X Factor tonight I think :o)

A Gem of a Challenge - sketch

2011-12-10T11:43:00.000Z

This week at A Gem of a Challenge we have a fab sketch for you, created by the lovely Rebekah. It's also my first challenge as an official member of the Pink Gem DT, as Janet asked me to stay on following my guest DT stint - thanks so much hun :o)

Isn't this snow couple just gorgeous? It's called Snow Love and it's one of my absolute favourites, I think they're so sweet :o) I've coloured the image with a combination of promarkers, flexmarkers and koh-i-noor pencils... I was going for a vintage sepia feel which I thought was working quite well, but when Dex saw the finished image he said 'teddy bears!' lol, so maybe it ended up a bit too brown? I've added lots of glamour dust too.

The card blank is 7" square, papers are GCD Studios Joyful Peace with dark brown cardstock from Papermill Direct. Wooden snowflakes from my stash, covered in glossy accents and then glamour dust, red pearls also from my stash. The sentiment was computer generated - the font is called Chocolate Box I think. This card is one that my 'stepsister' asked me for - my mum and her dad got married earlier this year and she wanted a special card for them, hope this will be ok!

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

Craft Your Days Away - snowmen
CES Challenges - a traditional Christmas
Totally Gorjuss - let it snow
Stampin' For The Weekend - Christmas
PaperPlay Challenges - snowman
DYSU - something old
Creative Inspirations - snow much fun
My Mum's Craft Shop - traditional Christmas
My Time To Craft - vintage Christmas

I'm definitely starting with Dex's cold - it's very inconvenient, I just haven't got the time to be ill! Soooo much to do - somehow I need to make all the cards and pressies for teachers/ nursery staff, and cards for Dex and Morgan's classmates, before they finish at the end of next week... should be fun trying to cram all that in, and I can't even decide what to make for pressies!

Back later with my Sweet Stampin' DT card :o)

Late and not great!

2011-12-09T18:08:00.000Z

Ooh it's not like me to be scraping in so last minute for Less is More! The challenge this week is 'green', which should have been no problem at all, but I've been a bit hampered by my poorly boy so I've only just managed to fit my DT makes in... luckily Dex has just had a little nap so I rushed off upstairs and threw a card together!

I cut the scalloped card blank on the cricut - yes, I know, I actually used the poor dusty thing! I've moved it into its own little space in the craft room in the hope that I might get a bit of use out of it, and I have used it a couple of times since I moved it... if it goes back to being unused I'll be getting it sold.

When I'd cut the card shape, and the little die cut tree - which is a die from Little Claire, I wasn't sure what to do with the rest of my card, as you can probably tell from the way it turned out! Well, I didn't have much time to think about it! The sentiment is from Elzybells, brown gingham ribbon from my stash, little snowflakes are from a Hero Arts set.

This card might get binned, but at least I've made something for the challenge :o)

Digi Stamp give away at The Stamp Basket

2011-12-08T21:07:00.000Z

I didn't think I was ever going to get on my blog today! Dex is still poorly and it's so hard to get anything done - he wants my attention all the time and I've been sooo tired today, so I think I'm about to come down with it too. I just hope we'll have it all out of the way by Christmas, fingers crossed!

For my card today I've used the new digi stamp from The Stamp Basket, which you can get free by suggesting a name for the little elephant character, or by donating to a fundraiser for a little boy called Brandon and his family. You can see the full details of how to get the free image here.

Items available from The Stamp Basket:
Digi stamp - Love Came Down at Christmas (free until tomorrow at 5pm)
Craftwork Cards scalloped edge card blank
Deco Art glamour dust in crystal
Dovecraft adhesive gems
Red polka dot button
Burlap twine - red

I thought I'd make a simple embossed card - mainly because I wasn't functioning well enough to put papers together lol. And I need to start using my embossing folders anyway, I always forget about them. I've coloured the image with promarkers and flexmarkers, and added lots of glamour dust. Wooden snowflake from my stash, covered in glossy accents and then glamour dust, with a spotty button and red twine.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

Crimbo Crackers - embossing
Forever Friends - it's all Christmas
Moving Along With The Times - last minute Christmas
ABC Christmas - Y for yippee! (anything Christmas goes)
Cupcake Craft - DIY backing paper (hope my embossed papers count, if not please delete me!)

Sorry for my lack of commenting - I'm going to catch up a bit tonight, assuming Dex stops shouting us upstairs for his nose wiping... sigh!

Passion For Promarkers - mega Christmas challenge

2011-12-06T10:12:00.001Z

As you might know, at Passion For Promarkers there are 2 teams, doing 6 months of challenges each... Team 1 will be taking over soon, so today is my last card for PFP for a whole 6 months! We have a special challenge with loads of prizes - I've shamelessly stolen the challenge info below so that I don't miss anything out. Hopefully this will all post ok...

This week we are launching our very special Mega Christmas challenge which will last until January 3rd 2012. I’m sure you’ll agree that the design team deserve a little break to catch up on their last minute gifts and cards. However to make up for the lack of challenges we again have some magnificent prizes up for grabs.
Our theme for the Mega Christmas challenge is a nice easy one “celebrations”, so basically we want to see your creations for any type of celebrations, including birthdays. However as time is precious for our DT at this time of year we are limiting the number of entries you can make to just 3 for this month long challenge. Please remember to be eligible for our prizes you must use your promarkers, flex markers, tria markers or aqua markers.

So now for the exciting bit – the prizes!

Letraset are offering 1 amazing prize of 3 new packs of promarkers (metallics set, contemporary xmas set, modern xmas set)

Whiff of Joy Stamps are generously offering 1 stamp from their sentiment collection

Pink Gem Designs are generously offering 4 digi images of winner’s choice

Joanna Sheen are generously offering 6 packs of promarker fine liner sets

DigiStamp Boutique are generously offering 6 digi images of winner's choice

Saturated Canary digis are generously offering 2 digis of winner’s choice

bugaboo stamps are generously offering 7 digis (which we are going to split into 2 prizes)

Tickled Pink stamps are generously offering 2 digis of winner’s choice (from Lil Lolita, Lil Lad and Lil Pinkette ranges)

Crafts & Me are generously offering 6 digis of winner's choice

Now I'm hoping it was actually ok to make a Christmas card because no one else on the DT seems to have used Christmas as their 'celebration'!

I've used one of the fab new images from DigiStamp Boutique - there are 5 new 'offer of the month' sets for December and this one is from the very cute Rudolph set. I've made this one for my auntie and her hubby, but now I'm not sure if I should be making them separate cards this year - Mike's in the army and he was sent to Afghanistan in Nov for 6 months, so my mum says she's buying them separate cards... it doesn't take much to confuse me so I can't make up my mind what to do now lol!

Anyway... I've coloured the image with flexmarkers and promarkers, with some pearls for the red noses and mistletoe. The papers are Dovecraft with red cardstock from Papermill Direct, wooden snowflake and heart button are from my stash.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp - anything goes
Creative Card Crew - tis the season
The Crazy Challenge - anything goes

I've got Dex home from nursery today because he's been up most of the night coughing and crying - which means me and hubby hardly slept either. Weirdly, even though Dex often asks if he can stay at home, today when he's actually poorly he's all upset because he wants to go to nursery! He's curled up on the sofa watching Toy Story at the moment, and he's got Toy Story 2 and 3 lined up for when it's finished lol. Sorry I've really rambled today, haven't I? That's what no sleep does to me... well done if you made it to the end of all that nonsense :o)

A little tag selection...

2011-12-05T16:17:00.000Z

Well I said I might show some of the tags I've been making, so here I am with a little selection - not too many as I don't want to bore you all too much! I've just chosen a few of my favourites....

I made the little punched tag ones first - loads of them in all different colours, some Christmas and some birthday. And then I had an idea for some bigger ones using plain pieces of card and the little tab punch from Stampin' Up... I really love how these turned out so I might end up doing most of my tags like this.

I had planned on getting the Etsy shop open tonight, but I started taking all my pics and the camera batteries ran out! So I'll get all my pics done tomorrow morning instead, and for now I'm going to make the most of having a bit of 'free' time and do a huge catch up with you all - I've got SO behind with commenting, sorry!

Daddy card for an order

2011-12-04T22:02:00.000Z

I thought I'd pop in and share a card I've made for an order, just to prove I'm still here and haven't disappeared under my mountain of tags!

This is from a baby boy to his daddy and I thought this sweet LOTV diecut image would be perfect, so I've just added lots of glamour dust - no colouring needed on this one. The papers are Pink Petticoat printed onto linen card, with red card from Papermill Direct. The big snowflake is a Cuttlebug one, with a smaller punched MS snowflake layered on top, covered in glamour dust and with a shiny card candy centre. Two layers of ribbon from my stash and a computer generated sentiment.

I might be back tomorrow to bore you all with a selection of the tags I've made, so you can see what I've been busy with... sorry again for being a bit quiet at the moment!

Marianne Design Poinsettia

2011-12-01T19:10:00.000Z

It's Thursday which means it was my day for sharing a card over on The Stamp Basket blog. For some reason I just couldn't get in a colouring mood so I decided not to force it (the results are usually terrible when I do!) and made something different instead.

The result is very.... sensible... for me, isn't it? I love everything I've used but I'm not completely sure about the finished card!

I cut the poinsettias from some thick mulberry paper that was bundled into a drawer and forgotten. Because the mulberry paper is nice and soft, I was able to emboss the detail on each petal using a tiny ball tool - I think there's an embossing die that goes with the one I've got which would have done that bit for me, but the embossing tool worked fine. The papers are from the gorgeous GCD Studios pad 'joyful peace', with coredinations cardstock, the border was cut with the MS doily lace punch and the sentiment is a Pink Petticoat one.

The following items are available from The Stamp Basket
Marianne Design Creatables 'poinsettia serrated edge' die
GCD Studios 'joyful peace' papers
Martha Stewart doily lace punch
Dovecraft adhesive gems

There are paper bargains to be had at The Stamp Basket at the moment, as Janet is having a sale on all paper packs until Saturday - 20% off all packs... shame I'm on a paper ban isn't it?!

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

Freshly Made Sketches - sketch
Simon Says Stamp - anything goes

I'm still aiming at opening a shop on either Etsy or Folksy - wish I could make up my mind which to use! I thought I'd start off mainly selling tags and I'm quite enjoying myself... yesterday I made almost 150 tags lol. Even hubby said he was impressed :o) So I might be a bit quieter for a little while, as I've got some orders and my little tag production line to get on with. I'm sure I'll still be around fairly regularly though!

Less is More wk43 - a bit of bling

2011-11-30T11:48:00.000Z

Today's card is one that I quite liked when I was making it, but looking at the photo I'm not so keen - I think it's a bit boring! I made it for this week's challenge at Less is More, which is 'a bit of bling'.

I used the limited edition winter distress inks to make the background - the greeny colour is a mix of 'evergreen bough' and 'iced spruce' and then I decided to see what the bright red 'festive berries' shade would look like around the edges - it went a shade of purple!.. not what I expected (although people who know about these things would have worked it out I'm sure!) but quite pretty I think.

I stamped the tree from Hero Arts Swirl Christmas set in memento ink and then added some random bling... although if I'm completely honest it wasn't random at all - I shuffled the blimmin' things around for about half an hour before I was happy, and I still don't think it's quite right. Can you imagine how long it takes me to decorate our Christmas tree?! The sentiment is an Elzybells one and the teal cardstock is from Papermill Direct.

I'm also entering my card for Simon Says Stamp's 'anything goes' challenge.

I've got Morgan off today because of the teachers strike. I ummed and aahed about keeping Dex off nursery too, but decided to send him in the end as I'd get more done with just one of them here lol... regretted it a bit though because Dex got all upset when I dropped him off. Ooh, just remembered I'm supposed to putting a stew in the slow cooker, better go and sort that out or I'll forget again!

My candy winner!

2011-11-29T18:20:00.000Z

I'm finally back to announce that my candy winner is

Entry number 10 which is the lovely...

Doreen

Congratulations Doreen :o)

Please email me your address and I'll get your stamp (and a few other goodies) posted to you.

I've had one of 'those' days today... I had the bright idea to make a load of tags to bag up and put in my box at nursery. So I've been a one woman tag machine today... I've been making them in the kitchen so the table is piled high with bits of card now. And I'm not even sure if they'll sell at nursery - I'm still debating the Etsy shop idea, but I wonder if it's a bit late in the year to be putting Christmas bits in an Etsy shop. Sorry, I'm waffling again - ever feel like there's just too much going on in your head?!

If you came to see a card instead of my rambling nonsense, please scroll down to see my Passion For Promarkers DT card! Congrats again Doreen :o)

Passion For Promarkers - sketch

2011-11-29T10:45:00.000Z

Before I get on to my card - sorry I haven't drawn a winner for my candy yet! I didn't get chance yesterday, so I'll be doing it later and will post the result this afternoon.

So, our challenge this week at Passion For Promarkers is a fab sketch created by the lovely Tracy... a sketch which made me panic slightly because there are lots of layers - well, lots for me anyway! But I'm really happy with the result, so I think I need to start being braver with the sketches I attempt. We're sponsored by Sugar Nellie so there'll be a fab prize for our lucky winner :o)

I've used one of the fab Maurice images from Pollycraft, coloured with promarkers and flexmarkers, with some glamour dust on his hat. The papers are from a Trimcraft pack I think, with textured red cardstock from Papermill Direct. I did lots of inking around all the papers for a change, added some spotty ribbon and pearls from my stash, and a Craftwork Cards sentiment.

Here's Tracy's fab sketch

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

Creative Craft Challenges - free for all
Pollycraft Monday - Christmas fun
I Love Promarkers - anything goes
Delightful Challenges - red & green
Totally Papercrafts - Christmas (I think this is my 3rd entry so please delete me if there's a limit)
Here Come The Boys - for the man/ men in your life

As usual I'm very behind with commenting, so I'm going to try and have a big catch up... I should probably be doing housework but I won't let that stop me lol :o) Back later to announce my candy winner, hope you all have a lovely day!

Quick Christmas card

2011-11-27T21:25:00.000Z

I need a little selection of Christmas cards for my box at Dex's nursery, but as I'm not sure whether any will actually sell I wanted to keep most of them fairly simple. So I dug out my LOTV die cut images - which are what I was searching for the other day when my wandering Gorjuss girl turned up - so I can make some that don't need any colouring. I'm also trying to use sentiments that I can easily swap if someone wants a card personalising - and so that I can still use them if nothing sells!

I wish LOTV still did these little packs of cute squares, they're so handy for quick cards... although I'm considering buying some of the A4 sheets while the sale's still on, just on the off chance I get a rush of orders lol!

So the image is a LOTV cute square, with lots of glamour dust added. The papers are Dovecraft, with dark brown cardstock from Papermill Direct. Large snowflake cut with a cuttlebug die, small snowflake is a wooden one, covered first in glossy accents and then lots of glamour dust while the glossy accents were still wet. I've sponged a bit of 'gathered twigs' distress ink around the large snowflake and added a card candy centre, and a Pink Petticoat sentiment to finish.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

Paper Sundaes - winter wonderland
Dream Valley - sparkle
Totally Gorjuss - sparkle
Crazy 4 Challenges - snow
Our Creative Corner - O' Christmas tree
Totally Papercrafts - Christmas
Charisma Cardz - snowflakes
Lili of the Valley - anything goes
Papertake Weekly - Christmas crackers

Right, off to watch the X Factor results show that we've sky-plussed... we've not eaten yet either as hubby's been happily playing a computer game while I was in the craft room, lol hopeless aren't we! Will be round to catch up with your blogs later too :o)

1 gorjuss girl - free to good home!

2011-11-27T21:00:00.001Z

Some of you might remember my little gorjuss girl who disappeared... I turned the craft room upside down looking for her, but she stayed hidden and I thought she must have ended up in the bin. She was one of my favourites, so I bought the stamp again. Well, today I had a big tidy up because I lost something else, and there was my stamp hiding behind a stack of paper!

So, as I've now got her twice, I thought I'd see if anyone would like my 'extra' one... she has obviously been used though, hope you don't mind! I'll add some bits and bobs from my stash for the winner too.

No rules, no need to advertise it unless you want to, no need to follow me unless you'd like to... I'm just leaving the link up until Sunday, as it's only a little give away.

Candy reminder!

2011-11-27T18:01:00.000Z

Just a really quick post - I'll be back later with a card, but as there's only a few hours left on my candy I thought I'd post a little reminder for anyone who meant to enter but hasn't got round to it yet! Back soon :o)

Sweet Stampin' - punches & dies

2011-11-26T18:49:00.000Z

I'm back with my second card for today, my DT card for Sweet Stampin' where our challenge is 'punches & dies'. We're sponsored by Pollycraft and our lucky winner will receive 5 digi images, and there are loads of fab ones to choose from :o)

Ooh isn't it annoying trying to get half decent photos at the moment?! My lovely MIL has got me a light box for Christmas, so hopefully that will help - wish I could have it now though!

The super cute image is Dexter the Penguin - snow cone, I'll have to use this image for Dex's card I think :o) He's coloured with promarkers and flexmarkers, with lots of glamour dust for sparkle. The papers are Dovecraft, another pack I'd forgotten all about, and the cardstock is from Papermill Direct. I've added some punched snowflakes and pearls, and used a nellie snellen die to mount the image... I don't use this die very often as for some reason it doesn't cut well in my big shot - it seems to struggle to go through at all, and will only cut certain cardstock. Anyway, I thought I'd persevere this time as the image & sentiment fit perfectly in it.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

Pollycraft Monday Challenge - Christmas fun
Charisma Cardz - snowflakes
My Mum's Craft Shop - things with wings
Papertake Weekly - Christmas crackers
Everybody Art - Christmas card
Totally Papercrafts - Christmas

I'm looking forward to watching the X Factor with hubby tonight, I thought it was a shame Craig went last week though. I'm also looking forward to getting my littlest darling to bed, he's been a right little monkey today! He found a bright orange ink pad earlier and splodged it all over the kitchen table - such a mess! Wine and chocolate needed tonight I think! Hope you all have a good evening whatever you're doing :o)

A Gem of a Challenge - monochrome

2011-11-26T13:42:00.000Z

Hello everyone, hope you're all enjoying your weekend so far :o) I'm here with my first card for today, for our new theme at A Gem of a Challenge, chosen by the lovely Christine, which is 'monochrome, not xmas + a sentiment'.

I've used the gorgeous Butterfly Chloe and coloured her with promarkers and flexmarkers, with some touches of Sakura clear stardust pen for a bit of shimmer. The papers are from the papermania 'big one' stack - I tend to forget all about these papers but they're great for monochrome cards. The border was cut with my favourite MFT die (again!) and I added a Craftwork Cards sentiment, a little punched flower and some little pearls from my stash.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

Cutie Sunday - birthday
Divas By Design - monochrome
Fab n Funky - happy birthday
I Love Promarkers - anything goes
Flutter By Wednesdays - open challenge
Creative Card Crew - monochromatic
Secret Crafter - borders & flowers

Off for a huge catch up with you all as I didn't get much blogging time yesterday... back later with my DT card for Sweet Stampin' :o)

Fizzy Moon in grey - The Stamp Basket DT

2011-11-24T12:42:00.000Z

It's Thursday so that means it's my day for showing a card on The Stamp Basket blog, but before I get onto my card I need to say a HUGE thank you for all the lovely messages you've been leaving me about yesterday's post... honestly, crafters are such wonderful people and I love my bloggy friends :o)

No, I know... it's not my best card, and they're not the best photos either - they look a bit washed out.

I decided to colour Fizzy Moon in grey, just to see what he looked like - I think he looks quite cute, what do you think? He's coloured with flexmarkers and promarkers, with glamour dust for a bit of sparkle. The papers are Pink Petticoat printed on linen card, with grey coredinations card that I've sanded a bit. I used a Little Claire tag die to cut Fizzy Moon out and then I made a mat for it by drawing around the tag and cutting it out.

I dyed some white seam binding with distress ink and then sprayed it with water, scrunched it up and dried it with my heat gun for a wrinkled up look. I made a (not very good and not big enough!) bow and then sprayed the ribbon again, wound it loosely around a chunky paintbrush handle and dried with the heat gun again, so that it curled. I don't think I've arranged it quite right so I'm not overly happy with it, but I do like the curly effect so I might try this again and hopefully improve it! Added a polka dot button, a tiny gem on one of the presents and a LOTV sentiment cut out with a MFT tab die.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

Freshly Made Sketches - sketch
Creative Inspirations - blue, grey and white
Paper Sundaes - beautiful bows (I'm not very good at bows but I tried!)
Simon Says Stamp - tag, you're it

Don't forget I have a mini candy that's just running until Sunday, if you'd like to win a sweet gorjuss girl and whatever else I decide to put in with her :o)

I did it....

2011-11-23T18:40:00.000Z

I finally plucked up the courage to go to the dentists and get registration forms - I was shaking just going inside but that's the first bit done, now I just need to take the forms back and get an appointment. Although she did say it could be a few weeks before they can get me in.

I decided to go to the docs as well, as I've been having constant headaches and ear pain and I wasn't sure if it was all to do with my teeth or something else. Somehow my appointment with the doctor turned into a long discussion about anxiety and depression which she feels may be causing a lot of my problems (she thinks I might be teeth grinding in my sleep!). I spent most of the appointment in tears (so embarrassing!) and I now have to fill in a depression questionnaire and go in and see her again next week. I'm feeling a bit weird about all this... my family are very much the 'pull yourself together' type and I don't really know how to deal with any of this... I didn't think I was even going to say anything about it until I started typing... feeling a bit cross with myself and I don't know why... Gawd, sorry just ignore me, I don't half go on!

Here's a card, for those of you who came to see what I've made instead of reading a load of nonsense...

Just a simple one that I made for Morgan to take to the birthday party he went to the other day. I've used Making Memories papers, nestie stars and a sentiment from a Cat's Pajamas set. Buttons are from my stash and I added some glamour dust to the number 9.

Hopefully I'll be back with a more cheerful post tomorrow!

Passion For Promarkers - swirls & sparkles

2011-11-22T10:31:00.001Z

Our challenge for this week at Passion For Promarkers is 'swirls and sparkles', chosen by the lovely Michele. You'll notice that I'm the only one on the DT who hasn't been sensible and used this challenge to add to the Christmas card pile - I seem to remember that last year I was finishing off my card for mum and her hubby just before we set off to their house on Christmas Day lol... no doubt I'll be the same this year! We're sponsored by Letraset who are providing one of their fab promarker stamping kits for our lucky winner :o)

I've used one of the adorable Fairy Hattie images, which are one of the 'offer of the month' sets at DigiStamp Boutique. I've coloured her with promarkers, flexmarkers and koh-i-noor pencils, and added lots of glamour dust - I might have gone slightly overboard, she's even got sparkly shoes :o) The papers are First Edition, dark brown cardstock is from Papermill Direct, sentiment is CC Designs and the heart pearls from my stash.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

Sketch Saturday - fab sketch
Totally Gorjuss - swirly whirly
DYSU Challenge - splash of blue
Creative Craft - free for all
CRAFT Challenge - stars in your eyes

The tooth saga continues and I've still not been brave enough to go near a dentists. I think my tolerance for pain is too high, and I'm actually getting used to it lol... Morgan went to a party yesterday at Laser Quest and as Dex was too little to go in, I took him upstairs to the soft play centre so he could play while we waited for Morgan. While we were there, part of the offending tooth actually broke and when we got home I yanked the broken piece out myself... even I know that's not normal!

Less is More wk42 - silhouettes

2011-11-21T19:52:00.001Z

Ooh I was very pleased to see the theme for this week's Less is More challenge - I have a bit of a thing about silhouette stamps! I'm sure I'll be back again later in the week with another attempt at this one, I could play with this theme all day (if I only had more time!).

I wasn't sure what I wanted to make at first, and then I remembered some test pieces I made when I was playing around with alcohol inks for a project for Papercrafts TV last month. I'd never used alcohol inks before, just because I'd not got round to buying any yet, so this piece was just me playing around to see what I could do with them.

So I've used a piece of glossy card that I'd already created the inky background on, added a Flourishes stamp and then sprayed it all with fabulous Goosebumps spray - although you can't see that in the pic. Sentiment is Stampin' Up and the pearls are from my stash.

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

Creative Card Crew - minimalistic
One Stitch At A Time - anything goes
Pile It On - anything with 'p' (pearls, pink)

Well I've had a very busy day, and we're running late with everything because Morgan had a party to go to after school. So I'll keep this short so I can have some time for commenting, will catch up properly tomorrow :o)

Happy Birthday Sweet Stampin'!

2011-11-19T11:32:00.000Z

Sorry, I'm a bit late with my post... still in pain but I won't bore you all with it again! Thanks to everyone who left me such lovely supportive messages - you're all fab and you're really helping me feel a 'bit' more confident about going to the dreaded dentists... I will make it there soon!

Today we're celebrating Sweet Stampin's 2nd birthday with a nice and easy 'happy birthday' challenge, and LOADS of fab prizes! Please pop over to the blog for full details - we have prizes from Saturated Canary, Tiddly Inks, Crafty Sentiments, My Creative Classroom, Prairie Fairy and The Craft Room, and there are random prizes for commenters on some of the design team posts - so for extra chances at winning make sure you leave some comments on the DT blogs :o)

I've used a gorgeous image that was kindly provided by Krista at Saturated Canary, and I've coloured her with promarkers, flexmarkers and koh-i-noor pencils. I don't very often do blond hair as I find dark hair much easier, but this is not too bad compared to my usual attempts at blond! The papers are First Edition, with coredinations cardstock. The sentiment is from a little set of tag stamps, but I'm not sure what make they are, flowers were cut with an MFT die and the pearls are from my stash.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

Paper Sundaes - digital images
Delightful Challenges - bingo (I used patterned paper, punches/ die cuts and flowers)

Off to take another dose of paracetamol so I can get some commenting done!

Sorry...

2011-11-18T21:10:00.001Z

Just popping in to say hello and I'm really sorry for not making it around many of your blogs. I did do a bit of very slow commenting but it's hard unless I've just taken a dose of paracetamol - unfortunately that's the only painkiller I can take as all the others make me sick. The only way I can have anything stronger is if I'm given anti-sickness treatment at the same time... hopeless really aren't I?!

I got as far as going past a dentists today - I had every intention of going in to register (honest!) but somehow went past instead, the fear just took over! So hubby's going to pop in tomorrow and pick up registration forms and then he'll have to drag me in kicking and screaming I think. I do have a card to post for tomorrow, so I'll be back in the morning - still hoping for a miracle recovery so I can avoid the dentists altogether lol!

Mimo ski - The Stamp Basket DT

2011-11-17T19:33:00.000Z

I'm a bit late with my post today because I've been struggling with a bad headache all day... I have my suspicions that it's actually caused by a problem with one of my teeth, but as I'm extremely phobic of the dentist (haven't been to one for years) I'm in denial! I managed to get my card onto The Stamp Basket blog earlier, but I had to take a break from the laptop after that. Anyway, here's my card...

The following items are all available from The Stamp Basket

Card blank - Craftwork Cards 'on the edge - scallop white' (size 6)

Stamp - Bildmalarna 'mimo - ski'

Papers - GCD Studios 'joyful peace'

Ribbon - Berisford satin 'burgundy'

Deco Art glamour dust in crystal

I've coloured Mimo with promarkers, flexmarkers and koh-i-noor pencils, although it was a bit of a bad colouring day so I'm not very impressed with how it turned out! The snowflake is a wooden one, that I've embossed with several layers of gold embossing powder.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

ABC Christmas - W for winter sports
Cards For Men - it's nearly Christmas
Moving Along With The Times - let it snow
Fab n Funky - baby it's cold outside
Truly Scrumptious - Christmas with pearls or vintage (this is about as vintage as I get, but if it's not right just delete me!)

I'll probably be a bit slow catching up with all your blogs tonight, but I'll get round as many of you as I can... fingers crossed I'll wake up miraculously recovered and won't have to find a dreaded emergency dentist!

Less is More wk41 - one layer, leaves

2011-11-16T12:27:00.001Z

Need to keep this short today, because I've got loads to do and shouldn't really be here... I also shouldn't have taken time out to make my Less is More card, but I haven't missed a week yet and wasn't going to start now lol! This week is one-layer week and Chrissie and Mandi want to see leaves... this filled me with panic because although there are lots of leaf stamps that I'd like to own, I haven't actually got anything leafy yet... or so I thought...

I had a good rummage through my stamps and didn't come up with anything really, but then I remembered a Stampin' Up sentiment set that has a few little accent stamps included, and I found this little clover leaf in there - yay!

I made a mask by cutting a row of 3 squares from a post it note, placed the post it note on my card (which is 5x7 size, ivory linen) and stamped a script stamp (from Indigo Blu) in the spaces using 'new sprout' memento ink. Then using the same ink I sponged around the edges of my squares for definition, then stamped the clover leaves using 'bamboo' memento and added the sentiment in the same ink. I then realised the sentiment would've looked better further over to the right, so I added the little butterfly trail stamp to balance it out a bit.

Right, must run and get some stuff done, but I'll catch up with you all later :o)

Passion For Promarkers - white on white

2011-11-15T10:21:00.001Z

Before I get onto my cards, I need to say a big thank you for all your comments on our house disappointment - you're all so lovely! I'm feeling ok about it really, it obviously just wasn't meant to be and fingers crossed we'll find something perfect next year.

So onto this week's challenge at Passion For Promarkers... it was Debs' turn to choose the theme and she chose 'WOW' or white on white. We're sponsored by DigiStamp Boutique and our lucky winner will receive 6 digi images of their choice :o) Oh and just a quick mention - we're having a mini DT call at PFP so if you're interested pop over and leave us a link to your blog.

Sorry there are so many photos, but in a moment of madness I decided to make a set of six 5" square cards - I'm very irritated because I faffed around stamping snowflakes all over the base cards in versamark and then adding cosmic shimmer, and they're very shimmery and twinkly in real life... but I just couldn't get the blinking things to show up in the photos! So my cards aren't as boring as they look here, honest!

I've used one of the new 'offer of the month' sets from DigiStamp Boutique, the Cute Santa Collection, which comes as individual images and also as a handy A4 sheet with all the images ready to print. I used the A4 sheet and accidentally sent it to print from the rear of my printer where I keep linen card ready to print, so my images printed on a sheet of linen. I decided to have a go with them anyway and ended up really enjoying colouring on linen, as you can probably tell by the fact that I coloured all six! I'll definitely be trying this again, because I quite like how the shading looks too :o) I added some glamour dust and an Elzybells sentiment.

I'm entering my cards for the following challenges:

Totally Gorjuss - Christmas traditions
Creative Craft - minimalistic
Cards For Men - it's nearly Christmas
Pile It On - traditional Christmas

Aww cute news - they're doing a nativity play at Dex's nursery, and he's going to be a shepherd - bless!!! I wasn't expecting them to do anything as they're all so little. Oh dear, I'm so going to cry though, how embarrassing will that be?!

Excitement over!

2011-11-14T17:12:00.001Z

No card to show today, although I have been making lots I can't show them yet. I just thought I'd pop in and say thank you for all your comments yesterday, and to everyone who left messages about the house... unfortunately when I rang the estate agents today they said the house had already sold, they've just not put a sold sign up yet... boo hoo!!! I'm very disappointed but that house was obviously not meant for us. At least it's given us a bit of a push and we can start looking properly next year. Glass of wine or two for me tonight I think, sob!

Oscar and his umbrella and an eeeeek!!

2011-11-13T21:41:00.000Z

Mum asked me for this card - apparently she's kept the last card I made using this image and papers, because it's her favourite and she couldn't part with it lol! So she wanted another similar one that she'll hopefully be able to give away...

Apologies for the photos, the purple is showing all different shades but it's all (including the cardstock for matting) a similar shade to the seam binding.

The image is Oscar and Umbrella from DigiStamp Boutique, coloured with flexmarkers, promarkers and koh-i-noor pencils. I think the papers are from a Sweet Shoppe download, and the 'puddles' sentiment is probably TLC Designs... hope that's right! The 2nd birthday sentiment is computer generated. The seam binding is from The Stamp Basket - it was white and I've dyed it and scrunched it up a bit using 'seedless preserves' distress ink.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

Sketch n Stash - Vicky's fab sketch
Paper Sundaes - digital images

Now for a load of excited waffle - feel free to ignore it! There's a house for sale near the boys' school/ nursery... I've wanted to move near the school for ages, and this house also has an 'extra' room downstairs so I could craft downstairs instead of taking one of the bedrooms, and the boys could have separate rooms if they want to. It's priced ridiculously low so we could afford it in theory... however, they've priced it low so they can get a quick sale, so I looked at the online pictures and tortured myself and anyone else who'd listen about how perfect it would be, but didn't really consider it as an option, because we have our own house to sell which will take ages....

Today we visited my mum, and she said she'd been thinking about the house and wondered how we'd feel about her buying it, and then when our house eventually sells we can pay her back/ buy it from her!!! Eeeeek!!! I'm now a bundle of very excited nerves! Of course, we might hate the house when we actually view it, or something else might put us off doing it, but I'm just in shock at her offering us the option! I'm going to ring and book a viewing tomorrow... oh my goodness, we'd have so much work to do though, if we're actually going to do this. Sorry, I'll shut up now lol - if you're really lucky we'll hate it and then you won't have to put up with me going on about it again...

Sweet Stampin' - gingham

2011-11-12T13:21:00.000Z

I'm back with my second post for today, my DT card for our new challenge at Sweet Stampin' which is 'gingham' - couldn't get more perfect for me really, I love anything gingham! We're sponsored by Fairy Dust Crafts so there'll be a fab prize for our lucky winner :o)

Apologies if I've been a bit boring using these papers over the last week, I wanted to try and use up the ones I'd printed rather than using them for one card and then shoving them in my box of scraps and forgetting about them! Only a few scraps of them left now... unless I print some more lol!

The image is a very cute Pollycraft one that I won from the lovely Faye, coloured with flexmarkers, promarkers and koh-i-noor pencils. I put the wording in place (using a simple text box in Word) before I printed it. The papers are Pink Petticoat, printed onto linen card, with textured kraft card from Stampin' Up. The tabs were cut using the Stampin' Up word window punch, and the buttons are Papermania. I decorated the inside too, but as usual forgot to take a pic of that!

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

Pollycraft Monday - Cazza's fab sketch
Crafty Catz - use a digi
Secret Crafter - spots & stripes

Wonder what will be happening with The X Factor now that Frankie has left (hurrah!), are they going to bring back one of the acts that got voted off? Can't wait - gotta love trashy Saturday night telly lol :o)

A Gem of a Challenge - sketch

2011-11-12T09:47:00.001Z

This week at A Gem of a Challenge, Christine has created a fab sketch to use but she'd also like to see some stitching and a sentiment. Oh dear... I'm not very good with my sewing machine, and I'm never very happy with my faux stitching either. My card is a bit of a disaster!

I did try to use my sewing machine but I ruined every piece I stitched - I'm going to practice stitching on a load of scrap pieces this afternoon because I love the look of stitched cards, it's something I really wish I could do. So I resorted to faux stitching which always looks very messy when I do it -which is why I went for the distressed look, I was hoping it would blend in better!

I made some inky background pieces using 'scattered straw', 'ripe persimmon' and 'fired brick' distress inks, then stamped images from the Funky Flowers set (possibly my most used stamp set ever) to create the 'papers' and for the main image. The only other stamp I used is a little Stampin' Up dot stamp. All images were stamped in 'fired brick' distress ink. I added some dark brown gingham ribbon from my stash and a card candy centre on the flower.

I'm a bit embarrassed even showing this card - not happy with it at all! But I'll be back later with my DT card for Sweet Stampin' and that one makes me much happier :o) Thanks to everyone who gave me advice about my cricut... still mulling things over but I think I probably will end up selling it.

Cricut - someone help me decide!

2011-11-11T18:25:00.000Z

I've had my Cricut Expression since January and I'm hardly using it at all... I cut letters sometimes or the occasional shape, but I don't think it's really 'me'. So I'm starting to think seriously about selling it and getting a Grand Calibur instead - I already have a Big Shot so I'm used to that sort of machine and think I might get more use out of it. I don't know why I'm dithering about it really... has anyone sold a Cricut and then really regretted it? Does anyone want to buy it?! Lol :o) So can anyone help me decide?

The Stamp Basket DT - Fizzy Moon

2011-11-10T16:39:00.000Z

Thursdays are my day to share a creation on The Stamp Basket blog, and I've used a very cute Fizzy Moon stamp. It's the first time I've coloured one of these stamps and I thought I'd made a big mess of it, but it didn't look too bad when I'd finished... phew!

I've coloured the image with flexmarkers, promarkers and koh-i-noor pencils, and then added glamour dust on his hat. I cut a circle aperture from a piece of Nitwit paper and raised that piece on foam pads, with the image in the aperture. The sentiment is from the same Fizzy Moon stamp set, and the poinsettia was cut with a Marianne Design Creatables die with lots of stickles and a little gem added... and I know the poinsettia shouldn't really be blue lol... I like it in blue though!

Items used:
Craftwork Cards scalloped edge card (size 6)
Image & sentiment - Fizzy Moon - presents
Nitwit Collections - Joyful Hearts 'holly white' paper
Marianne Design Creatables die - poinsettia serrated edge
Deco Art glamour dust in crystal
Dovecraft adhesive gemstones

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

Winter Wonderland - make your cards sparkle
Crimbo Crackers - make it sparkle
CRAFT Challenge - cute
Papertake Weekly - first Christmas

My cold is finally starting to go, hurrah! I'm still coughing but at least I'm feeling better, so hopefully I can get lots done in the next few days. Ooh and my limited edition winter Distress Inks arrived today so I need to find time to play with them, they look gorgeous :o)

Passion For Promarkers - kraft & 1 other colour

2011-11-08T10:50:00.001Z

Our new challenge at Passion For Promarkers is 'kraft + 1 other colour', chosen by the lovely Julie. We're sponsored by Some Odd Girl this week, and one lucky winner will receive 3 digi images of their choice :o)

So, another baby boy card from me, and I got an order for another one today. The girls at Dex's nursery asked to see some of my cards when I took the Halloween treats in, and the manager has now said I can put a box of my cards at the nursery and she ordered a card too :o)

I've used the very cute Baby Fynn from DigiStamp Boutique, coloured mainly with flexmarkers, plus a couple of promarkers where I needed extra colours. The papers are those Pink Petticoat ones again, printed onto linen card, with textured kraft card from Stampin' Up. The sentiment is from Elzybells, the tabs at the top were cut with the Stampin' Up 'word window' punch, and for the little hearts on the sentiment I used the heart section of the Stampin' Up owl punch. Spotty buttons from my stash.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

A quick baby card

2011-11-07T19:38:00.000Z

Hubby asked me for a baby card for one of his friends, so I made one and then I sort of let someone else have it... oops... so this is the replacement! I'll show my first card tomorrow lol...

I've had these Pink Petticoat images printed out on linen card for ages and hadn't got round to using them. Normally when I colour on linen I keep my colouring quite flat because it tends to bleed, but I thought I'd try a bit of careful blending and see how it went - I think it actually looks ok, not bad anyway. I coloured mainly with flexmarkers. The papers are also Pink Petticoat printed onto linen card - I'm trying to use up the papers I printed at the weekend. I inked all the papers with grey ink and added some card candy and little pearls from my stash.

I cried reading Katie Renz's blog today... I didn't know her at all but she seemed like such a lovely person, it's so sad that she's now lost her battle with cancer. Her poor family... she had 3 young boys and I set myself off again every time I think about them. Just so sad... giving my boys extra big hugs tonight.

Less is More wk40 - red and orange

2011-11-06T19:01:00.000Z

I'm back with my second post for today, a card for this week's Less is More challenge which is 'red & orange' - fine for me as I like bright colours. I thought it'd be an ideal one for getting inky... so I did... you should see the state of my hands!

I made an inky background on a scrap of linen card, using distress inks in 'scattered straw', 'ripe persimmon' and 'fired brick', then stamped the Hero Arts image using 'gathered twigs' - yep I finally got to play with the Autumn limited edition inks! I used a scrap of stripy paper, some dark brown card from Papermill Direct and stamped the Stampin' Up sentiment on a tab cut with an MFT die.

I'm also entering my card for the 'over the edge' challenge at CAS-ual Fridays and Jules' Crafty Snippet Challenge - this is what I'm planning to do with a lot of my offcuts of white linen Jules, they're all going to get the inky treatment... eventually anyway!

By the way, it's just the photo that makes everything look slightly wonky, at least I hope it is lol.

Flying Frog - The Stamp Basket DT card

2011-11-06T12:33:00.000Z

It's not actually 'my day' for posting on The Stamp Basket Blog, that's Thursday, but I made an extra card because I couldn't wait to use this stamp, she's so cute!

For once, I'm actually quite happy with my card, and despite my still yucky cold (when will it go?!) I had lots of fun making it :o)

This is a Nellie Snellen stamp called 'Sweet Elin - flying frog' from The Stamp Basket - it looks like this one is out of stock at the moment, but I'm sure Janet will have some more in soon. I've coloured her mainly with flexmarkers, I'm starting to get the hang of them now... just added a promarker or two where I needed extra shades, no pencils this time. I was debating doing one of my cloudy sky scenes, but then I thought I'd try the dotty effect around her - Coops style, hope you don't mind hun! I also added a bit of shimmer with a Sakura clear stardust pen.

The papers are digi ones from Pink Petticoat, printed onto linen card, with textured red cardstock from Papermill Direct. The sentiment is Stampin' Up, border was cut with my MFT die - yes, again. The fab spotty button and red twine are from The Stamp Basket.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

Sketch Saturday - Faye's fab sketch (I flipped it so I didn't have to cover up the frog!)
Stamp With Fun - buttons
Papertake Weekly - anything goes + optional sparkle & bling
Simon Says Stamp - buttons
Paper Play Challenges - button up
Charisma Cards - cutesy (2nd entry)
Dream Valley - anything goes (2nd entry)
Crafty Catz - anything goes

I'm not sure what we're doing today, we usually spend a few hours at my mum's on Sundays but I don't think she'll want infecting with my germs! So I might be back later with another card if we don't go anywhere. Hope you're all having a lovely day, whatever you're doing :o)

Less is More wk39 - stars

2011-11-04T10:26:00.000Z

I've finally managed to make a quick card for this week's Less is More challenge, which is 'stars'. This should have been SO easy for me, because I love using stars, but for some reason I couldn't come up with much - although I bet next week I won't be able to think of anything that doesn't involve stars lol.

I decided to use my fun little giraffe stamp, as he's holding a star shaped balloon. The last time I used my balloon animals I couldn't remember where I got them - I've remembered now, they were from Dies to Die For here. A couple of people said they would have liked to get their own set so hopefully this will help anyone who still wants them. I've coloured the giraffe with koh-i-noor pencils on Stampin' Up kraft card, and added some stickles on his balloon. The sentiment is also Stampin' Up and the buttons are Papermania.

Thank you for all your lovely comments yesterday on my first DT card for The Stamp Basket and for all the get well wishes... I'm still feeling dreadful but it's only a cold so fingers crossed I'll start feeling better soon - my poor bright red sore nose can't take much more lol.

My 1st DT card for The Stamp Basket!

2011-11-03T11:47:00.001Z

I'm here with my very first DT card for The Stamp Basket - so excited but I'm a big bag of nerves too!

I have used:

Stamp - Bildmalarna 'mimosa - waiting for santa' - The Stamp Basket
Coloured with - flexmarkers, promarkers & koh-i-noor pencils + white gel pen for falling snow!
Papers - Nitwit Collections 'joyful hearts' - The Stamp Basket
Cardstock - Papermill Direct
Sentiment - from the Fizzy Moon 'presents' set - The Stamp Basket
Deco Art Glamour Dust in crystal - The Stamp Basket
Berisford satin ribbon & Dovecraft adhesive gemstones - The Stamp Basket
Blossom & circle nestabilities

I'm not sure if I achieved it, but I was trying to do a 'just starting to get dark and snowy' sort of scene lol. She's very sweet isn't she? My first Bildmalarna stamp, aww :o)

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

Totally Papercrafts - glitter it! (2nd entry)
Delightful Challenges - a very sparkly Christmas
Creative Inspirations - lashings of sparkle
I Love Promarkers - glitter & glitz
Papertake Weekly - anything goes + optional sparkle & bling
Charisma Cardz - cutesy

Still got my yucky cold... I didn't really do any blogging yesterday, I just didn't feel like doing much... today I'm at the streaming eyes, constantly sneezing stage, it's great fun! Hope I haven't sent you all to sleep with my long post... I'll be showing my card on The Stamp Basket Blog in a little while too - pop over there to see the fab cards my teamies have posted so far this week :o)

Passion For Promarkers - a day at the zoo!

2011-11-01T10:13:00.000Z

Our theme for this week at Passion For Promarkers is 'a day at the zoo', chosen by the lovely Emma. A nice fun one I think :o) We're sponsored by Joanna Sheen so our lucky winner will receive a £10 voucher to spend in her fab online shop.

I've used the super cute Marco monkey from DigiStamp Boutique, coloured with promarkers, flexmarkers and koh-i-noor pencils. I love the new flexmarker brown shades! The papers are Doodlebug, with Stampin' Up textured kraft card, the bright green card is a scrap of DCWV. Number 3 cut with the sizzix 'night & day' alphabet, sentiment is Stampin' Up.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

Fetch a Sketch - sketch
Simon Says Stamp - anything goes
Stamps R Us - masculine (thank you for making me top 3 last week!)
Cupcake Craft - take a leaf out of my book
Cards For Men - animals

Well I should be frantically running around doing housework today (got visitors tomorrow and let's just say my house sports the 'lived in' look lol) but I've got a rotten cold and I really can't be bothered! So I might just sit here for the morning and catch up with some commenting instead... maybe I'll summon some energy and enthusiasm for cleaning later, you never know!

My exciting news!

2011-10-31T19:50:00.000Z

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!

2011-10-30T21:44:00.001Z

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!

2011-10-29T15:30:00.000+01:00

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!

2011-10-29T13:31:00.001+01:00

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!

2011-10-27T17:27:00.000+01:00

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

2011-10-26T18:40:00.000+01:00

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

2011-10-25T10:22:00.000+01:00

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

2011-10-24T16:13:00.000+01:00

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!

2011-10-21T15:29:00.000+01:00

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

2011-10-19T16:35:00.000+01:00

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

2011-10-18T10:04:00.001+01:00

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

2011-10-15T15:53:00.000+01:00

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

2011-10-15T09:45:00.001+01:00

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

2011-10-14T16:09:00.000+01:00

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!

2011-10-11T09:57:00.000+01:00

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

2011-10-08T14:50:00.000+01:00

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?...

2011-10-07T12:56:00.000+01:00

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

2011-10-06T15:13:00.000+01:00

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

2011-10-05T17:45:00.001+01:00

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

2011-10-04T10:26:00.000+01:00

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!

Less is More - the colour of your eyes

2011-10-02T21:41:00.000+01:00

Hmm... this week's challenge at Less is More is to make a card using 'the colour of your eyes'. My eye colour? Weird lol! Well not so weird I suppose - they're hazel, which I've always known of course, but I've never really studied them. So I had a proper look for the challenge, and they're a bit of everything! There's yellow, green and brown in there... I got the distress inks out!

For once I'm actually quite happy with how this turned out :o) I had no plan, I just played with the inks on a scrap of linen card, added a Hero Arts stamp and a Penny Black sentiment. The base was going to be white, but then I happened to have some dark brown card on my desk and it seemed to set off the stamped panel quite well, so my base is dark brown card from Papermill Direct.

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

Truly Scrumptious - clean & simple
Simon Says - anything goes

Further to my car saga - I've left it with my mum's hubby Andrew who knows what he's doing with cars. He says fixing it isn't a problem, but it's going to take a while - I might be without my car for up to 2 weeks, which is going to be no fun for doing the school/nursery run as I'm about 30-40mins walk away and it's all uphill on the way there. Not much fun for me, but even less fun for Dex with his little legs bless him!

Sweet Stampin' - lilac & lace

2011-10-01T12:40:00.000+01:00

I'm back with my first DT card for Sweet Stampin'. Our challenge for this week is 'lilac & lace' which is easy really, but I don't use much lace so it was a bit tricky for me... for some reason I've got loads of lace though so at least some of it got used!

I've used another of my favourite stamps (yes I know, another one!), this is Fizz from Sugar Nellie. She's coloured with promarkers, flexmarkers and koh-i-noor pencils, with a touch of stickles on the bubbles and a pearl on her flower. The papers are Papermania with cardstock from Papermill Direct. Flowers and buttons from my stash, computer generated sentiment, and the lace started off white but I coloured it with a promarker.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

CES Challenges - totally gorjuss/ pretty girls
Aud Sentiments - happy birthday
Simon Says - anything goes (3rd entry)

Today is turning into a bit of a nightmare! To start with, I'd ordered some 'make it colour' blending card from the lovely Elaine at Quixotic, because I've wanted to try some for ages... lot more expensive than my usual card but people seem to get fab results with it so I really wanted some... the postie delivered it today - jammed in my letterbox FOLDED!!! I was in, he just didn't bother to knock. It's all creased and I was FUMING! I should add this is in no way the fault of Quixotic, it was packaged fine - Elaine is sorting everything for me even though it's not even her fault.

Then hubby came home with my car which has FAILED its MOT.... agh!!!! Apparently the garage couldn't fix it because there's something electrical and it needs welding underneath or something... I dunno! So I've now got a car I can't drive until we can get it in somewhere else to be sorted, and then pay for another MOT. That should be fun on Monday when I have to get the boys to school and nursery!

A Gem of a Challenge - with love at Christmas

2011-10-01T09:42:00.001+01:00

It's my first week as GDT on the A Gem of a Challenge blog, and our challenge this week is 'with love at Christmas' (a Christmas card including a heart/ hearts), set by the lovely Jenny.

I decided to give my poor neglected Cricut some use and cut a large heart from a piece of Dovecraft paper. I've used the lovely Snow Love stamp, one of my favourite Christmas stamps, stamped on Stampin' Up kraft card and coloured with koh-i-noor pencils... which was probably a mistake! I still need lots of practise colouring on kraft, the white didn't go quite as white as I would have liked (maybe I 'need' prisma pencils?) and all the stamped lines faded so I had to go over them with a black fineliner. Added stickles and glamour dust for some sparkle.

The paper was mounted on foam pads for a bit of dimension. The wooden snowflake was a sneaky purchase from a few days ago... I just happened to pass a craft shop on my way to meet a friend - well it would've been rude to walk past without going in wouldn't it?! Added a button from my stash and a LOTV sentiment.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

Charisma Cardz - love
Paper Sundaes - anything goes (2nd entry)
Simon Says Stamp - anything goes (2nd entry)

My little car's in for its MOT today - isn't it horrible waiting to find out the results (and cost!), I'm always a bag of nerves on MOT day. Will be back in a little while with my first DT card for Sweet Stampin'.

Flourishes medallion

2011-09-30T17:51:00.000+01:00

Just a quick one from me today - I won some lovely Flourishes stamps and they arrived this morning so I thought I'd use one.

The medallion is one of my new Flourishes stamps - I inked it up in 'desert sand' memento and then dabbed 'rich cocoa' around the edges before stamping onto ivory linen card. There are sentiments in the set, but I thought it might make a nice 'thinking of you' card, so I used a Personal Impressions sentiment. Used a background grid stamp on the base card... think this is a Kaisercraft stamp but I'm not sure. I don't really like this card, but that's not unusual for me lol!

More good news!

2011-09-28T18:20:00.000+01:00

Sorry, me again! Back with some more good news for today - I'm now on the fab design team at Sweet Stampin'... told you I was having a good week :o) And there's still one bit of exciting news that I can't tell you yet, can't believe my luck at the moment!

Off to do some catching up with you all...

Less is More wk34 - a sketch & some news!

2011-09-28T11:45:00.001+01:00

It's taken me a while to come up with something for this week's Less is More challenge, which is a sketch. I was hoping something a bit more interesting might come to me, but... nope! At least it's another one to add to my very small pile of Christmas cards...

As I nearly always use a white base card, I thought I'd use a coloured one for a change, so the base is made from teal card from Papermill Direct, with some white linen for matting. The snowflake was cut with a cuttlebug die, covered the card candy centre in stickles, and the sentiment is an Elzybells one stamped in versamark and embossed in white.

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

Allsorts Challenge - keep it simple
Simon Says - anything goes

And now I can finally tell you my first bit of good news :o) I'm on the brand new design team for Papercrafts TV - you can see their fab store here. I've actually known about this for AGES and have had to keep it quiet, but as I've now been announced on the blog I can tell all... so if you'd like to read a lot of nonsense from me and see a terrible photo, have a look at the Papercrafts TV blog!