Hazel and Laura's cards from jo and amy

The 2 tilda's on spotty backgrounds were made by Jo and the other Tilda and the princess ones were made by the talented Amy! The girls are delighted with them and all the goodies you sent so thank you sooo much to you both xx

Isn't this gorgeous? And Amy's only 10 she's a very clever young lady!! Thank you Amy darling I love it, you've done a fabulous job xxx

How gorgeous is this?? I know some of you will have seen it posted on Jo's blog but just had to share it, received this beautiful card from Jo along with a box full of goodies for me and the girls to share, and more gorgeous cards for us from Jo and her daughter Amy - a very talented young lady :-) Thank you soooo much Jo hun, its stunning, I absolutely love this image - and I know the girls are just as thrilled with their cards too!

Friends card

Thought I'd keep this one simple! Stamped image painted with H2Os, cut out and mounted onto pale pink then all mounted onto darker pink card. Image stamped in silver versamark on pale pink and all finished with some peel offs!

Latest cards I've made

Been playing again - for a change!!! All images are coloured with pencils and blended with white spirits.

The bunny image is one a friend sent me and I coloured it then stamped 'hello' onto the flowerpots. The backing is from my stash

Couldn't wait to play with these - my stamped Sarah Kay images I bought from ebay - just a shame there was only 2 images available! Backing paper is DCWV, stamped sentiment and ribbon from my stash!

Another Sarah Kay, I love these they are sooooo cute! Backing papers are from English Paper Company Lazy Daisy Cornflower.

I liked it so much I made 2 :-)

Used the same image and backing paper, but matted onto a different shade card and this time used watercolours

Charlie's 1st birthday candy

Its charlie's 1st blogging birthday and to celebrate she's offering the chance to win a gorgeous set of hanglar stamps. so to be in with a chance of winning (even though i want them) and to see her gorgeous cards visit charlie's blog http://www.hjemmehoscharlie.blogspot.com/

Another award

wow, my second in just a few days! This time its the kreativ blogger award from one of my closest friends Jo http://fairymadjojo.blogspot.com/. Thank you so much hun for this honour, I'm thrilled to receive it

Now I have to pass this award on so for this I choose 3 of my new sisters in sbs 16 all who have great blogs and who I feel I can learn lots from, though everyone has such great blogs and its dificult to choose just 3

Stacey http://lefthandedblonde.blogspot.com/

Tina http://tinascraftyplace.blogspot.com/

Melanie http://www.scrappinwithmel.blogspot.com/

Blog candy :-)

ooh Michelle has a fabulous candy up for grabs as she reached 5000 hits - and with a blog as amazing as hers there's no wonder! Go check it out, a great blog for inspiration and for the animal lovers too http://donkeysmiles.blogspot.com/

Thank you card

Hazel wanted a card from her and her friends to say thank you to their teacher as she's spent the last few weeks coaching a few of the class for a speaking competition they were entered for. Sadly they didn't win but Mrs Faulkner the teacher says they were fabulous and did the best they could which is all you can ask from a group of 10 and 11 year olds.

The image is one I had sent from a friend, stamped and embossed then coloured with pencils, cut out and matted onto purple coloured card, backing paper is from my stash, sentiment is from a box set 'say it with stamps' stamped in imperial blue onto backing paper and matted on to same card as image.

I'm pleased with it - lets hope the kids and Mrs Faulkner are too!!!!

Well, here it is finally got it made into a card for a friend at school who's birthday was yesterday. Must have done something right as she thought it was a printed pic!

An award for me!

Wow, this is such a huge honour! I've been given an award by Chrissy, thank you Chrissy for giving me this award it means such a lot. For anyone who's not seen Chrissy's blog then check it out http://chrissymaries.blogspot.com/ she produces the most amazing artwork and fabulous cards. I'm thrilled to have received an award from such a talented lady. Still not quite sure what my purpose is though!

Now for my dilemma...... I have to pass this award on to another 3 blogging friends - which is difficult choosing just 3 as all the blogs I've visited are fantastic and full of inspiration. Sadly I can't give the award to everyone, but each and everyone of you deserves it!

Firstly I'll choose Jo (fairymad) http://fairymadjojo.blogspot.com/ Not only is Jo's blog full of beautiful creations, but without Jo I'd never have been introduced to the world of blogging and made so many new friends. Jo, for everything you've done and all you've gone through you deserve this one hun xx

Next up is Jane http://carrollscreations.blogspot.com/. Jane's blog is full of work which is absolutely amazing and so inspirational - I come away full of new ideas each time I visit - which is often so probably explains why I've got the ideas but never seem to have the time to put any of them together :-)

Lastly I choose one of my new sisters Fifi http://madebyfifi.blogspot.com/ another fantastic crafter who creates the most amazing artwork, and is always there with kind words and encouragement, thank you

More amazing candy up for grabs!

Isn't this an amazingly generous candy!! to be in with a chance to win it check out Deb's blog http://lildebstampscrap.blogspot.com/2008/05/blog-candy.html and help her reach her goal of 2000 visitors to her blog

Hanglar Blog Candy!

Heidi is very generously offering the chance to win a fabulous candy containing a hanglar and stanglar stamp and images. Check out her blog http://heidi-kortoggodt.blogspot.com/ there's some absolutely amazing things on there - great especially if you're a H&S fan like me - just such a shame they're so difficult to get hold of here in the UK

Thank you Heidi for offering the chance of winning such great candy

Blog candy from Emma

Emma is offering the chance of winning a great blog candy to celebrate 5,000 hits and her birthday. Even if you don't want to enter the candy draw check out her blog http://elf-creations.blogspot.com/ there's some great stuff on there - especially pink cats!! Now I know there was a reason I bought those papers lolol

I'm addicted to colouring!!!!!!!!!!!!

Been playing with the colouring again and this is the result. The image is from a colouring book which I scanned and printed smaller. Coloured with pencils & white spirits. Backing paper is DCWV ribbon is some I've had in my stash for a while and been looking for the 'right' project to use it on as its the only length I had hehe!!'

Now I know its reached its destination I can admit that I made this card for my very good friend jo (fairymadjo) http://fairymadjojo.blogspot.com/ Didn't want to spoil the surprise before she got it though by posting here that it was for her. Jo, so glad you like her and hope you're feeling a bit better now hun, big big hugs xxxx

Been playing again :-)

well, i'm now the owner of some new 'artists' coloured pencils, blending stumps and a bottle artists white spirit lol so thought I'd have another go at colouring in how the professionals do hehe - was surprised again with the result although the scan doesn't show the colours too well.

Now have to start saving so I can eventually get some prismacolours or something similar :-) Until then I'm happy with my cheapos lol

What I've done over the weekend.......

I saw a couple of tutorials on Saturday for the 'magic coloured pencil' technique, and also colouring with pencils and gamsol/sansador (which I'd heard of but hadn't a clue what either was - hadn't realised it was basically just an odourless white spirit!) Looked pretty straightforward so thought mmmmm I can do this!

I was desperate to have a go but didn't have the right equipment so improvised lol. Followed the instructions but used watercolours instead of coloured pencils and some cheap cotton buds I had knocking around!

The first pic is just printed onto normal paper so didn't work so well as there was quite a lot of pilling which is a shame as you can't build the colour up although I do like the more subtle effect - will have to try printing it on something else.

The second is on watercolour paper - just printed a pic off one of the online kids colouring pages and coloured it - just cheap watercolour pencils I got from poundland and used cotton buds instead of a paintbrush or anything. Works quite well but the buds are a bit thick for some of the more detailed areas and tend to hold too much water..... but for an experiment I'm thrilled with the result! It makes me look like a 'proper' artist almost :-) My mission now is to get some artist grade coloured pencils and some sansador, or odourless mineral spirit.... and maybe some blending stumps lol so I can play even more!! Might have to dig my oil pastels out too see if I can do anything with those too!

I'm absolutely amazed at the result I achieved, and will definitely be using the 2nd image on a card so watch this space :-)

I love these Sarah Kay images - takes me back to my childhood in the 70s when Sarah Kay and Holly Hobby were all the rage lolol

Cass has blog candy :-)

to celebrate 5,000 hits Cass has an amazing candy on offer so go check out her blog http://poursomesugaronme-rockchick.blogspot.com/

There's some fab stuff on there Cass, love your blog, here's to the next 5,000! Found it really difficult to pick just one song though lol

Stamping question/problem

A few weeks back I received some stamps I'd ordered from the USA, they're a couple of Thomas Kinkade ones (by cornish heritage farms) I've tried stamping them but no matter what I do I just can't get a decent image at all - and can't figure out where I'm going wrong
I've tried different inks - used a black pigment, black dye, distress inks (which I've seen samples of using the same stamps)..... but still no success. When I try to ink the stamp the ink seems to disappear as though its soaked in or slid off the image so I'm having to ink it over and over, I also get lines where the ink pad edge is..... and when I stamp I can't get a good image. I'm not sure if its because the stamps are so detailed or not.......

If anyone has any suggestions (yep even give up stamping lololol) I'd love to hear them. The first 2 pics are my extremely feeble attempts and the 2nd too are some from the chf gallery to show how it should be done

Alisha & Hazel's Countryside ATC's

Alisha wanted a picture of a cow for some reason lol and it had to have flower soft on the trees and gold peel offs :-) One 5 year old who definitely knows her own mind lolol
Hazel, being Hazel, decided to go for humour and use a picture of Shaun the Sheep having a picnic in the countryside :-)

Country scene atc

Wasn't sure where to go with this one as all my country stamps were too big for atc's so went for a pic I printed off a few times, decoupaged it then added some flower soft to bring it to life a bit more! Quite pleased with it, just hope swap partner is when she receives it lol

New Challenge Blog

Great new challenge blog for all the stampers. Starting tomorrow (9th May) Stamp Something will have weekly challenges and loads of inspiring ideas to get you motivated to STAMP SOMETHING!!! http://stampchallenges.blogspot.com/

Good luck with the new blog, look forward to the challenges

Some more cards the girls made

This time they've been making waterfall cards.

The first one is Alisha's

then we have Hazel's (front and inside)

and lastly Laura's (of course it had to have fairies on!)