Jacqui's 10,000 hits candy

Jacqui has a great candy on offer over on her blog, so go and check it out - her blog is full of some of the most fabulous cards I've seen!!! Congrats on the 10,000 hits hun, here's to the next 10,000!!!!! I soooooooo want this candy hehe

Some RAKs I received

The postie's been really nice over the last couple of days and brought me something other than bills and junk mail. The first is from Peta, over on CraftyCardScrappers forum, the second is from a Elaine who's in a group I belonged to until recently and last but not least is from Bev who apart from having a fab blog is also on the CCS forum

RAKs I made..........

My mojo still seems to be on its jolly hollies - sure wish I was!!!!! Still, managed to come up with 3 cards I'm sending as RAKs.......

Decided to try something different with the Tilda and add some flower soft around the frame and in her basket - I sooooooo want some nesties lol but need the 'bug first - not much chance of that in a long while so have to make do with improvising hehe. Backing paper from stash, flowers made with offcuts of card/paper to co-ordinate

The sheep and cats are Pink Petticoat downloads, coloured with pencils and markers, sheep is coloured with white Sakura Souffle then all images are coloured with Sakura Glaze!

Pre-order Whiff of Joy stamps

The Whiff of Joy website is almost finished. Katharina is launching the site and taking pre orders for the Charlotte and Charlie winter collection, designed by Alison Acton, on Wednesday, 30th July 2008. As a special thanks they're offering NO SHIPPING COSTS for all preorders.

There's also a chance for 3 lucky winners to receive a free Charlotte or Charlie stamp. And entering couldn't be easier!!! Help Katharina advertise for the start of the Pre Order by grabbing the Whiff of Joy banner and add it to a side element of your blog with a link to the website and then leave a comment on Katharina's blog telling her about it - and that's it! Easy isn't it - so what you waiting for?????

Bev has candy

Bev has wonderful candy on offer! hanglar images plus other goodies - including some of her fabulous handmade crochet flowers. Go over and check out her blog - but remember, I want the candy!!!!

An award for me :-)

Imagine my surprise when I received this award twice from Bev and Marcea. Thank you both so much, it means such a lot, especially from 2 such talented ladies :-) Came just at a time when I was about to just give it all up as I've been feeling pretty low

It's the Wylde Women Award and the rules are:

1. You can give it to one or one hundred or any number in between - it's up to you. Make sure you link to their site in your post.

2. Link back to this blogsite so Tammy can go visit all these wonderful women.and remember the Purpose of the Award: To send love and acknowledgment to women who brighten your day, teach you new things and live their lives fully with generosity and joy.

Sheila

Angela

Dawn

Sharon

Vanessa

Chrissy

well, I could go on - the list is endless but I'll be here all night. This award really is for all my SBS 16 sisters and all my other blogging friends who leave lovely comments and give me the encouragement to keep going, so thank you all

Mum' s Birthday Cards

Finally got round to making a couple of cards. The top is a Thomas Kinkade I coloured, the second is an Hanglar stamped image I bought from ebay. All ribbons from stash and backing papers were printed from Canon Scrapbook

Candy, Candy Everywhere!!!!

I just need to win some, but I know my luck - I couldn't win if I was the only one entered hehehe. There's some absolutely amazing blog candy on offer right now as well as some fabulous cards to get the inspiration up and flowing (and boy do I need it lol) seem to have hit a brick wall and hard, my creativity went on its jolly hols and forgot to take me :-(

Marlene

Maria

Tina

Lorraine

Sophia

Ila's candy :-)

Ila has the most awesome candy on offer over on her blog so hop over and take a look at her fabulous work

'Flying Bugs' ATC

This is an atc I've made for a group 'winner takes all' swap with the theme 'flying bugs'.

The backing papers are printed from a website but can't remember which one! The little rhyme is the creation of my 11 year old Hazel, wooden flower and ladybirds in the corners, the other ladybirds are coloured in peel offs - but I couldn't find red so had to have pink lol. And of course had to have the peel off borders!! Found it a bit difficult to get a good pic as it won't lay flat on the scanner and the light reflected off the peel offs on the cam!

Not too sure about this one yet, but I think its growing on me but hubby and kids think its 'cute'!

Look at all my goodies :-)

Over on SBS 16 Sonja organised a secret sister swap for us.... the idea was to send goodies and something you made to your partner. I just received mine and look at the great things I got :-) Stickers, backing papers (a set I've been promising myself for a while and never got round to buying them!) ribbon, glitter, a dreamcatcher, and not to be missed out a SUGAR NELL STAMP which I've wanted for soooooo long :-):-) Then of course there's a beautifully decorated domino with a cute kitty on it and a fabulous handmade notebook.
you should see me... I'm grinning like an idiot lolI'm sooooo thrilled, can't wait to play with them all

My secret sister didn't put her name on the package but with a bit of detective work (blog hopping and postcode tracing lol) I think I figured out who sent it hehe and I want to say a HUGE thank you - its absolutely stunning, I'm thrilled with what you chose for me and the beautiful book and domino you made too. I'm a very very happy bunny - its like my birthday and christmas all rolled into one - but better :-) I also want to say tank you to sonja for taking the time to organise the swap

Pressies for the teachers :-)

Well, it took a while but finally got there!! Decided that rather than the usual flowers/chocolates which last 5 minutes I'd go for something they could keep!!! Ended up having to give the teaching assistants a handmade card and a promise of their baskets after the hols as only just managed to get these done in time to take to school - in fact one went with wet glitter glue on hehe!! But they were well received, teachers seemed thrilled with them which is all that matters
Think it would have been better going to school with a jumbo box of tissues - Hazel is devastated as she's finished primary school now and is off to high school in september. She's looking forward to it and is dead excited, but there's only 6 from her primary transferring to the high school she got accepted into as its not a local one, so she's going to lose touch with most of her friends she's known from being 5 poor thing!!! But she wanted to go to a 'better' school lolol she'll soon make new friends!

Can anybody help please

I'm trying to set my blog so that I have to approve comments but can't find how to do it. The only thing I can find is to set a list of email addys for people I want to view my blog. I want it so that it can be viewed by anyone but they can only comment if I allow the comment cos I'm getting a few messages appearing I don't want.
Also I'd like to know how to 'link' properly to other blogs, so instead of putting in a full email I can just put maybe a name and it highlights and links straight to the blog

Would be great if someone could explain how to do this cos I'm hopeless with the technical stuff

even more candy alerts :-)

http://tiptoptoppers.blogspot.com/2008/07/its-blog-candy-time.html

Linda (Linanna) http://linda-wright.blogspot.com/2008/07/blog-candy-up-for-grabs.html

Shary http://shary-theothersideofme.blogspot.com/2008/07/exciting-news.html

Deb http://countrylovincardmaker.blogspot.com/2008/07/blog-candy.html

And another candy :-)

This is one for the Magnolia fans! This is just the most yummy candy!! And Claudia's card are stunning - so inspirational :-)

"Blog candy includes:
One new Magnolia stamp sponsored by Magnolia-licoushandmade book filled with 200 stamped images (some you can choose)1 brand new spool of Stampin up ribbon (i forgot to add this to the picture)"

http://rosaswelt.blogspot.com/2008/06/de-licous-candy.html

Candy Alert - Again!!!

Maria has a fabulous candy on offer after reaching 5,000 hits - to be in with a chance to win hop over to her blog, leave her a comment telling her what your next item on your wish list is.... and post her link on your blog! easy!!! just look at what's on offer, ooooh so many goodies!
http://mariascards.blogspot.com/2008/07/5000-hits-blog-candy.html

Magnolia Candy :-)

Just came across this on Andrea's blog for a chance to win go to andrea's blog http://andreabrownjohn.blogspot.com/2008/07/magnolia-blog-candy-pauline-from.html and leave her a message

More Candy :-)

I want to say congratulations to Frances on reaching 25,000 hits. In celebration Frances is offering some great blog candy so go and check out her blog and take a look at her cards, but remember I want the candy hehehehe http://franmade.blogspot.com/2008/07/blog-candy-alert.html

Maya's blog candy

http://mayas-hobbyblogg.blogspot.com/ Maya is offering a fabulous candy as she reached 10,000 hits - on offer is 140 hanglar stamped images in the cutest little bag she made. There's some amazing cards on there so go and take a look - but remember I want the candy lololol
Congratulations maya on 10,000 hits, you're blog is truly inspirational

An award

I meant to post this a couple of days ago but got tied up doing other things so never got round to doing it.

Imagine my surprise when I received this from Chrissy http://chrissymaries.blogspot.com/. Thank you hun for giving me this award - and thank you for all your support and encouragement, you're a wonderful lady and a fabulous friend - oh and very talented too!!

I'm supposed to now nominate more people to receive this award but find it difficult to choose, so will just give it to all my blogging friends - each and every one of you deserves it for your fantastic inspirational blogs

Hazel's card to Laura

Thought this one should be posted on its own lol. This is the card Hazel my eldest daughter made for Laura's birthday.
She pinched one of my nellie images (again from ebay hehe) coloured with distress ink for jeans & tunic and some pink & purple ink for the stripy top. everything else is from her stash. She's only 11 so I think she's done a great job with this - and no help from mum!!!

Laura's birthday cards

Well, I don't know where the years have gone but my little princess is 9 today, so happy birthday sweetie :-)

These are the cards I made for her..... the first one is from her baby brother Declan, using an image from Sheila (http://www.kippercraft.blogspot.com/) I received as part of the SBS 16 image swap - so thanks Sheila, I love this little guy he's so cute..... and as Laura keeps saying Declan's a little monkey it was perfect

The 2nd one is from mummy and daddy using an hanglar image I bought from ebay and backing paper from my stash

The last one is from Alisha my youngest daughter, image is another ebay one lol from the new tilda flower girl range (I think!) Backing papers were printed out from canon scrapbook and the flowers are made with 2 different size daisy punches, and held together with a gold brad

Been colouring again :-)

I was chatting with a girl in one of my yahoo groups last week and asked her how she stamped/coloured her Thomas Kinkade stamped images as I'd had a few problems with mine - turns out that one of my stamps is known for being a s@@@ to get a decent image from lolol Anyway imagine my surprise when just 3 days later an envelope dropped through the letterbox all the way from the USA with a mix of about 12 Kinkade images inside - and only 1 is the same as my stamp!!!!!
Decided to bravely attempt colouring them but wasn't sure if I could do them the justice the artwork deserves - and here's the results so far. The first one, Open Gate is just coloured with cheapo coloured pencils and the second is same cheap pencils but with a 3d glaze over the

finished image! I'm astounded when looking at the before and after pictures how different they look coloured in.

Thank you - and an atc :-)

Just a quick thank you to everyone who left me such lovely encouraging messages after my flip out Monday:-) I really appreciate all your kindness and decided not to let whoever it was win - I'm better than that!!!!

Also wanted to share an atc I made for a swap. The pattern is one I found on the internet, but I reduced it to make it fit an atc, stitched it (without any instructions so made it up as I went along lol) and decided to combine my two current addictions - colouring and stitching :-) I'm really pleased with how it came out, think its one of the best atc's I made so far

Feeling sad :-(

Discovered today that someone in my yahoo group has been sending snippets of messages from the group to the owner of another group I'm in along with a couple other members. This has ended up looking as though myself and my friend Jo have been slating the group and its members and making derogatory comments -which we haven't but we've not been allowed to defend ourselves and show the messages in full so the owner can see the context....... I now feel as though I'm ready to give it all up - groups, crafting, the internet........ all of it. I feel so hurt that someone who I thought was a friend could go behind my back and do this when neither Jo or myself had done or said anything wrong...... so now I've got the group owner on my case and had a few of the members giving their opinions too..... even though they only got one side of the story. Instead of having the decency to send private mails to either of us it got broadcast in the group and so now we're the bad ones..... talk about witch trials - they've got us found guilty and ready for execution without a trial I'm getting blamed for all the bickering etc on the group now and told I started it when it wasn't even me who posted the message in the first place!
Why do people have to be so cruel and go out of their way to hurt people?? I could understand if I'd upset anyone but this is just so horrible. I'm now in a position where I've to watch everything I do or say in my own group!!!!! The person behind it hasn't even got the courage to own up and the group owner says I should go to them over it all not her group - yet she's refusing to tell me who it is but I do have a couple of possibles - after all, there's only 11 in the group so shouldn't be too hard to pinpoint
Going to have to think long and hard over this one but maybe its time just to give it all up...... either bang everything on ebay or maybe just bin the lot and say to hell with it