a few cards.......

I haven't had much time to craft recently - with the school holidays and trying to keep 4 kids happy then coming down with some dreadful bug I've sooooo not felt like it. managed to do a couple of cards though, one's for a group swap (theme of holidays/travel) the gorjuss girl is a birthday card for a friend on the group and the whiff of joy is a rak!!! all coloured with promarkers/copics, papers and embellishments are from stash.
I'm looking forward to the girls going back to school tomorrow - will be able to start getting back into some kind of routine with Declan lol - things have just gone to pot over the summer with naptimes and everything!!!! It will be nice to have some structure back to the days and the odd bit of 'me' time lol It will also give me time to deliberate over whether or not to buy a craft robo hehe Hubby offered to buy me one as a combined late birthday/early anniversary pressie but I'm trying to weigh up whether or not I'd get enough use from it considering its around £200!!!!

tab's delish candy :-)

Tab has a great candy on offer, have to hurry though as it ends today, but go check out her blog here and see what fabulous cards she makes.

Another birthday card

This time for Laura's friend Becky who is 10. I struggled with this one as she's not a girly girl - so I wanted to do something that wasn't too over the top. I bought a set of 4 or 5 of these decoupage sheets from the local market a couple of months back and never used them. Decided to see what I could do and this is the result :-) I used the big deco on the front, and just added a few gems and peel offs, then rather than layering the small one up, used the elements to decorate the inside - and added a bit of glitter glue lol. I'm really pleased with this - its definitely girly but not too fussy - just hope Becky likes it! I know her mum will 'cos she's always trying to turn Becky into more of a girl not a tomboy lol

Maisie's birthday card

One of Hazel's best friends just had her 12th birthday yesterday and this is the card I made for her. They celebrated in style - by spending the whole of Sunday in a wet, muddy field at the 'Party in the Park' concert at Temple Newsam, Leeds, along with their other 2 friends Amber & Jack, and Maisie's family. They had an absolutely ''awwwwesome'' time so I'm told except both Hazel & Maisie were unfortunate enough to have their mobile phones pinched - neither of the phones were new, up to date ones, not worth anything - but you know girls & their phones lol.

Well, on to the card lol, the image is Whiff of Joy, I love this image as it works for so many occasions, coloured with copics & promarkers (am I the only person who seems to use a combination of both rather than one or the other lol) Papers, card, flower, & brads from stash (the purple 'girly' brad wasn't meant to be on the card but right at the last minute I pulled a petal off the flower and it was the last purple tinted one I had lol sooooo out came the brads hehe) Sentiment is printed from the computer.




Hope everyone's having a great week, I'm soooooo fed up of the rain, its driving everyone crazy as its too wet for the girls to go out to play so they're all stuck inside arguing over everything from the tv, the computer, the ps2...... you name it they've managed to argue over it :-( Honestly, I'm convinced that whoever decided 7 weeks holiday was a good idea has NEVER had kids lol

Finally, I made something :-)

Well, with college over and finished I thought I'd have had more time to craft and catch up on blogging - mmmm I hadn't bargained on my mojo taking a holiday and my computer throwing a tantrum and deleting EVERYTHING from the hard drive - all my college work, hazel's homework, digi stamps, images, photos, backing papers..... all gone :-(

Finally got a little inspiration and made these cards for the girls for school for the teachers, nothing elaborate but they were pleased. The little girl images were a download from Digistamp Boutique I can't remember where the other images were from I'll have to add those later. Backing papers from stash and downloads

fathers day card for my stepdad

Image is coloured with promarkers & copics, peel offs and backing papers from a goody bag, ribbon from stash and teabag medallion one I won in Clare's blog candy a while ago
Nothing fancy, just needed something quick lol

my recent creations :-)

sorry, there isn't much to show and I've been terrible not visiting blogs but I'm just so snowed under with the college work right now - everything's to be finished, marked, submitted etc before July 1st so it's a bit crazy getting the assignments done. Final biology exam on Monday then biology's done and out of the way lol, just need to get the study skills, health studies & psychology sorted lolol oh the joys..... its been hard work but I've enjoyed it..... but not as much as I'll enjoy having some 'me' time before hopefully starting my OU psychology degree in October!

Ok so on to my cards lol, these are two I made for Hazel's friends at school (12 year old girls so thought the images would be perfect!) Both Miss Anya images from the greeting farm, coloured with my promarkers & copics(ok, an attempt at colouring with my pros lol) paper's are downloads from Tinker & Co.
The bookmarks are from a selection I made for the girls school summer fayre..... used some of my new whiff of joy stamps (well come on, they've been sat there all this time and not even seen the ink pad thats got to be a sin lol) a gorjuss girl, and just general stamps from my stamp tin lol.... papers, ribbons, fibres all from stash!

another award

This is another I forgot to post from one of my closest friends Jo
yes she's the one you've to blame for setting me loose on blogland lol thank you hunny for being there with the boot when I need a kick up the butt whether its college work or crafting I know I can rely on you to be there and kick me hard! :-)


I'm supposed to pass this on to 8 people but its really hard to choose so I'm going to pass it to EVERYONE who visits my blog - so feel free to post it, each and every one of you deserves it :-)
I am going to pass it directly though to one person who I think really deserves this and that's Amy Jo's daughter. Anyone who hasn't done should have a look at her blog - even though she's only 11 her cards are fab - a lot better than some I've seen made by people who've been crafting for years. Amy I love your cards sweetie and every time you send me one I'm thrilled - keep pinching mum's stash lololol xxxx

blog award :-)

These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind of bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly written text into the body of their award"

I actually got this a couple of weeks back from Clare, but sort of got bogged down with all the college work and completely forgot to upload it. thank you so much hun, it means a lot when there's so many fab blogs around, you made my day by choosing my blog for an award :-) xxxx

I'm passing this on to

Anesha
Ju
Jo
Mary
Linda
Jackie
Linda
Maria

More dimensional flowers

These are the other two cards for the England Stampers dimensional mingle. Both sets of flowers and papers are downloads from Fred She Said Ribbons on both are from my stash - yes, there is ribbon on the sides of the blue one lol but its a sheer very pale blue so doesn't show too clearly, buttons, paper flowers & brads all from stash, wording is a scrapbook download from Jo

Dimensional Flower Cards

Over on the England Stampers group Kathy set this month's mingle as 'dimensional flowers' we had to make 3 cards to send to our swap partners. This is the first one which I made using backing papers from Milly's Garden over on Tinker & Co combined with a printable fold back kit from Crafty Designz used as a topper and fastened with ribbon.
Anyone interested in joining the group just let me know, its a great little group and Kathy's looking for new members - and its not only for people in the UK or stampers lol

I absolutely love the milly downloads from Tinker & Co and when I saw the new Milly Gothica collection I just couldn't resist it, so much so I had to take it through to the inside too :-)
Papers are from Milly Gothica & Milly's cake, the ribbon doesn't show too well but its sheer black with silver sparkles, flowers on the front and black hearts from stash, flowers on the inside cut from the milly cake backing paper
I love this card it has to be one of my favourites in a long time :-)

Birthday card for a friend

This is a card I made for my friend's birthday, hope she likes it. Decided to go with the SASSC sketch #12 again :-)
Watercoloured the image with the felt tips again, backing papers are free downloads, ribbon and gems were in my stash.

2 cards in 1

I needed to make a card for a yahoo group swap with the theme 'buttons & bows' so I used the new stamps and smiles sketch over on The Fresh Batch I love these sketches, they're great to work with
The image is Whiff of Joy, watercoloured with felt tip pens from WHSmiths! the umbrella charm was silver but coloured it with a green sharpie pen to make it co-ordinate, papers were free downloads, ribbon and buttons from stash! Its not actually as dark as it looks lol - just that I've lost the lead for my camera so have to rely on the scanner and its not as good lol

Katharina's Candy - New WOJ summer release

For anyone who doesn't know already Katharina is offering the chance to win the new summer stamp release. Head over to her blog to be in with a chance to enter

1 birthday card - 2 challenges

Laura and Alisha needed a birthday card to give to their friend Chloe, sooooo after racing round town dragging 3 kids looking for a pressie for an 8 y/o girl (they only got the party invite yesterday lol) then picking Hazel up from school I'd less than an hour to wash/dry alisha's hair (she's just had it cut so was a bit flyaway lol, wrap pressies and make a card - and did it with 10mins to spare!! the fab new sketch over on Papertake Weekly Challenge was perfect for what I needed, I just flipped it round lol. at the same time I managed to make a card which works for the challenge on Cute Card Thursday which is "Floral Fantasy" - nice easy one - use a flower on your card!!!
Really enjoyed doing this card - the sketch was great to work with!!! And I got to use flowers - for a change lol. Image is coloured with prismas, backing paper is Dovecraft retro floral. Ribbon, flower and pink flower gems (even though they look silver on the scan) all from stash

card for hazel's best friend

Hazel's best friend Amy is 12 today - so guess who's job it was to make a card!! no problem I thought - until Hazel said it had to be shaped like a bag, had to have zebras and some bright pink!!!!! and of course when they're 12 they know just what they want lol
I wasn't so sure about it - wasn't the best card I've made but its been declared cool & awesome (which I'm assured is good lol)and both Hazel and Amy were pleased so mum must have got something right for a change lol

Ray of Sunshine

hello all my crafty friend's and bloggers.
my friend Jo have just decided to set up what we're calling a "ray of sunshine post "
What we are going to do is post 3 cards every month to 3 different children on
Postpals Each month someone else picks 3 more children to send to. We thought it would be a lovely way to make a very sick child smile. This is very close to home to both of us as we both have children with long term illnesses, Jo's eldest son has hydro and my little boy has cystic fibrosis, so if you would like join in we both would be very grateful. Whatever you make you can post on your blogs for everyone to see, and when we have a few interested then we will make a list on our blogs with everyone who wants to join in.
Please don't worry if you cant do it, we appreciate how busy you all are.
if you want to know more please email either Jo or me

thanks for reading
hugs
Caroline and Jo xxxx

Stamps and Smiles Sketch Challenge #10

This is the first challenge I've done in months lol - Laura needed a birthday card for her friend and I came across this sketch while I was blog hopping The Fresh Batch and loved it. I wasn't sure if I'd do the sketch justice but I'm really happy at how it turned out - I'll be using this again lots!!!
Sarah Kay image is watercoloured with a combo of staedtler and whsmiths pens, papers are basic grey, pink spotty paper is from my stash but had it so long can't remember who makes it (will have to edit later if remember!) sentiment was a magazine freebie

easter cards

Thought I'd share the easter cards I've made over the last week or so :-) The easter chicks are elzybell stamps - the one with 3 chicks is coloured with prismas and sakura glitter & glaze pens, mounted onto dark pink card, paper is retro floral (can't remember who makes it lol) mounted onto green shimmery paper, pink ribbon from stash (its actually spotty but turned it over cos the plain side matched better!) and all mounted onto yellow base card, sentiment is elzybells.
The one with 2 chicks is watercoloured with some cheap felt pens from whsmiths - was having a play and scribbled some ink onto acetate and watercoloured with a waterbrush - was pleased with how they turned out - looks great and cheap too (pens were £1.49 for 50!!!) the only downer is that when I tried using purple/lilac colours with the waterbrush it seemed to split it down into blue & pink and made everything look tie dyed lol
The green tilda was coloured with the pens too, cut out and mounted onto a pale green oval (from the majestic? keepsake board cos I haven't got nesties or a cuttlebug lol) the chicks are from the elzybells stamps - just cut a few out and coloured them, easter wording is printed onto patterned paper, cut out and glittered, flowers, gems and dark green backing from stash
I decided to try something different for the next chick one lol - stamped onto brown card, coloured with prismas, used sakura glaze for the beaks and feet, and sakura white souffle for the daisies. mounted onto a green nestie I found lurking left over from some I had at christmas, then drew around the edge of the circle with a yellow prisma. the backings are a free download but I can't remember where from at the minute.
Last, a double dose of tilda!!! backing papers are another free download from shabby princess promise collection. centre oval is from majestic board again, using a shimmery irridescent white paper which shines pink, chicks are elzybells again, pink tilda coloured with pens, green with prismas..... daisy flowers punched from backing paper scraps, easter printed as before onto patterned paper with a bit of glitter added for extra sparkle, purpley flower from stash :-)

copics or promarkers???????

Been looking at buying some pens but not sure which ones - promarkers or copics - just wondered if anyone has any useful tips lol I want to be 110% sure I'm buying the right ones seeing as they're pretty pricey for someone as bankrupt as I usually am lolol

my stamp arrived..........

.......... and I couldn't wait to ink her up and have a play!!!!!
So, here's the first of I'm sure many cards with tilda dressed as the cutest little bunny..... papers are basic grey 2 scoops (neopolitan and non-fat yogurt)and cherry arte (Kitty Lou Becca Boo) from The Scrapbook Garden Tilda and tree were coloured with prismas, the tree's one of the new Tilda spring collection - not a stamp I have unfortunately, but got a few images from a friend so thought i'd put them to use heehee - would have been impolite not to :-)ribbon from stash, green flower cut from the cherry arte bp..... decided not to go with too many embellishments - wanted to let the papers do their thing lololol Carried through to the inside and attempted to decorate the inner - used a couple of strips of the cherry arte paper, a panel of the neopolitan and inked up tilda onto a small circle and coloured with prismas again!!!

Free shipping offer....

over at Elzybells! Special summer offer ends tomorrow so for any elzybell fans now's the time to grab a bit extra for your money!!!

wooohooo I found the stamp :-)

After a lot of searching finally tracked it down - thanks to Clare's suggestion of Sir Stampalot!! I did try there initially and it wasn't in stock but decided to have another look as Clare said they had it in as a special order - and they had one left woooohoooo can't wait for it to arrive now. Thanks everyone who tried helping me track her down - I was just about to give up hope or buy the sitting tilda in the bunny suit which Mandy has - though I much prefer this one. so now I, like tilda, am a happy bunny :-)

Searching for a stamp..........

and can't find it anywhere :-( I saw the Tilda in the bunny suit which was released last year and thought it would be perfect for easter cards - but nowhere has it - its either not in stock or they don't have it at all. Found one place with it but its quite pricey and in the US so probably wouldn't be here in time for easter anyway.

This is the one I'm looking for so if anyone sees her on their travels give me a shout lol!!

The other 2 cards for the gold mingle

Well, these were two cards I sweated blood and tears over lol. I've never struggled so much as having to stick to one colour!!!

The flower card was made using a piece of gold embossed card someone sent me a while ago thats been sat in my craft box for ages. The image was stamped, embossed with gold ep and layered up. The frame and the edge of the card were originally white - but I attacked them with the inkpad and gold ep lol - same for the flower button - that was originally pink!!! Sentiment stamp is one I've had for a while but thought it fitted the flower theme - ribbon & brads from stash!

The angel was stamped in gold and paper pieced with Laura Ashley papers. The gold backing paper was stamped randomly with a shamrock and 'luck of the irish' stamp from the dovecraft mini stamps - sentiment from same pack. oval was mounted onto a piece of the Laura Ashley paper to give a narrow edge to break the gold up. Ribbon & peel offs from stash.

Where does the time go????

I've just been looking back over my posts and realised that its nearly a year since I started blogging!!! Wow, seems like no time at all lol

Some cards I received

For a change, I'm sharing some cards which I've received over the last few days, instead of boring everyone with cards I made :-)



The flower one is from Clare which she sent in with her blog candy I won, a really pretty card and some great goodies to play with, thanks hun x

The blue gothic fairy is a rak from Karen (Kaz-za) and I absolutely love it - its a fairy and its gothic - gorgeous!!!

The gold/green is from Germaine and this was the card she sent me for the gold mingle on England Stampers.


Thank you ladies for sending me such delightful cards :-)

Whiff of Joy Matthew

I love these stamps, and had coloured Matthew in a while ago but never got round to doing anything with the image. Matted it onto a piece of old gold paper, and added a couple of brads. Papers are papermania again, ribbon is from the local market, Matthew coloured with Prismas (no surprise there!!)

Been playing again........

This is definitely a bit busier and more fussy than I'd usually make, but I like it, it seems to work lol.

Tilda is coloured with prismas and coated with 3d glaze, papers are papermania, crochet flowers from the tin full my mum made and the lace is a strip I found hidden away in the bottom of my sewing box

My first of 3 cards for a gold art mingle :-)

Over on England Stampers, our lovely group owner Kathy set us another art mingle, this was what she wrote
St. Paddy's Day is just around the corner, and what better way to celebrate than with a stamping swap. I know what you're thinking: you are assuming this is going to be cards with green and shamrocks.

But you would be WRONG!

You see, I am much more interested in the leprechaun's GOLD at the end of the rainbow. So here's how this swap will work.

As with the last mingle, you will be making THREE cards... The cards can be any size or shape. You can make three cards the same, or each can be completely different.

They must be predominately gold or have gold tones. You can use gold ink, gold embossing powder, gold twinks, gold colour mist, gold paper, gold embellishments, gold ribbon, etc. etc. etc. You can have other colours in the card, too; but gold should be the most prominent colour.

You do not have to make it a St. Paddy's card. You can use any kind of sentiment or stamp or embellishment that you wish -- please, no decoupage images or stickers on this swap.

Sounds easy enough but I have to admit I struggled with this one!! First off my gold ink pad doesn't like detail stamps - anything more than straightforward lines and it stamps a sludgy coloured mess - so not to be beaten I dug out one of my Tim Holtz distress pads (antique linen I think) its not gold, gold but coloured with a clear sakura glaze pen gives a nice gold hue which works perfectly with the vintage stamp I wanted to use - to show I CAN do something other than cute lol The gold flowers are just punched from a scrap of gold card, with one attached to the centre of a paper flower, ribbon is left over from christmas a couple of years back but as its covered in gold stars it looked just right!

I love the simplicity of this one, its soooo long since I just stamped an image - took a while to get used to not colouring lol. Thats one down, 2 to go.

Valentine's cards

This is a new one for me lol - valentine's isn't really my thing at all -I can't remember the last time we did anything to celebrate - definitely before kids lol! How terrible is that!! Its not that I'm not into the whole romance, hearts & flowers things - just don't confine it to only one day a year lol!!! Think hubby would have heart failure if I actually gave him something on valentines!!!!!
This year though over on England Stampers Kathy came up with the idea of a valentine mingle - so we all sent/received 3 cards - what a great idea I thought - until it actually came to putting them together - first it was deciding on images, then colour combos - all the time stressing whether or not they were 'appropriate' for valentines without being overly soppy or sentimental as they're all for ladies!!

The precious moments card was a last minute my 9 y/o daughter wanted me to make for her boyfriend!!!! Honestly, kids lol! When I was 9 boys were just these strange smelly creatures who made life hell (ok, so here I am at 36 - and opinions haven't changed a whole lot lolol) I found the image on a colouring page, so reduced it and printed - then coloured with prismas, added a bit of ribbon, brads and a printed greeting - and hey presto one happy little girl lolol

The others are the cards I made for the mingle so hopefully they're ok.
The tilda image is one I had sent a while ago, had it coloured but never used lol, sat her on a little heart tag (hanglar I think - found it amongst all my images lol) and put her onto the embossed swirl background which I painted with shimmer paints - similar to H2Os but lots cheaper lol Paper is papermania, heart brads, beads and little heart charm from stash, ribbon from local market!!!

Used papermania papers again for Melinda - had to ink this one and use it as soon as it arrived - which luckily was in time for valentines!! Again, ribbons from stash - little red hearts are cut from the centre strip of a ribbon, printed a greeting and added a few peel offs to 'finish'

Finally the cutest little kitten I've seen for a while. Used prismas to colour the image, cut around and mounted onto a piece of embossed heart card I had in my box of tricks!!! added a couple of white heart brads to the corners and to the ribbon, backing paper was a freebie download, but can't remember where from lol. another printed greeting, silver die cut swirls - fitted together to make a lovely heart lol and of course peel offs!!!!