Me and My World

All gone Steampunk.........

2012-02-02T01:28:00.000-08:00

Over at Just Inspirational this week our sponsor is the fabulous Sassy Studio Designs.

If anyone's not seen these images then you're really missing out, they have some absolutely amazing digis and I love working with them. Our inspirational picture this week is 'Steampunk'

with the optional choice of working with a sketch designed by Kelly

Well, I have to admit my intial reaction was 'what on earth do I create that classes as steampunk?' It's a style that I've never actually worked with before, it's completely new to me and I definitely had to think outside the box and push myself out of my comfort zone for this one - thankfully my hubby's a little bit more up on steampunk than I am so was able to help me out in my hours of need lol!!

For my card I chose to work with 'Steampunk Josephine' coloured with promarkers, backing papers are a digi download from Digi Scrapbook Boutique. The cogs and clock face were diecuts I bought from ebay - then inked them and covered with pewter embossing powder and added a length of old chain to make it look a bit more steampunk lol!!!!! Considering there's not a flower, ribbon or speck of glitter in sight I'm really pleased with how this came out, might even consider doing more!!!

Don't forget to go and check out the rest of the DT's amazing creations - and this week sees some new additions to our talented DT

Challenges I'm entering this week:-

My Craft Spot - Anything Goes

Ditzy Craftymess - Anything Goes

Die Cutting Divas - Anything Goes

My Sheri Crafts - New Things (New image, new papers and a whole new style!)

Stamp, Scrap & Doodle Saturdays - Anything Goes

It's all about Flowers.......

2012-02-01T08:29:00.000-08:00

That's our challenge this week over on The Crazy Challenge blog, and not only do we have pretty flowers, we're sponsored by the amazing Saturated Canary who this week is offering a prize of 2 digis for the winner. So what you waiting for?? Pop over to the Crazy Challenge, check out the DT's fab creations and let's see flowers somewhere on your project :-D

For my card I used 'Hand-me-down's one of the adorable Saturated Canary ragamuffins, coloured with promarkers and flexmarkers. Papers and sentiments are a digi download 'Vintage Rose' from Pink Petticoat, which I've had forever and absolutely love for those soft coloured, pretty girly cards. Ribbon, flowers and card candi are from my stash, flowery border is my Martha Stewart punch, swirls are my favourite sizzix die lol

Challenges this week:-

Moving Along With The Times - Blooming Marvellous
Hotshot Craft - Flowers
Incy Wincy - Flower Frenzy
Secret Crafter - Ribbon
Crafty Sentiments - Punches and/or dies
One Stitch at a Time - Use a digi
Kaboodle Doodles - Girly
Pollycraft - Favourite things (one of my favourite digis, flowers, ribbons, swirls)

Just Inspirational Week 13

2012-01-26T02:44:00.000-08:00

This is the inspiration picture over at Just Inspirational this week and our sponsors are StitchyBear

For this one I decided to be completely different and instead of going for the bright colours I went for black (from the background!) and white - with plenty of added sparkle to add some colour :D

I chose Fairy Moon for my image and printed onto white card - of course, my printer decided to have a tantrum so the image came out a very faded, washed out shade - so out came the black promarker which I used to colour the whole image (note to self: next time don't print on glossy card lol it doesn't colour as smoothly!) I then outlined the image with glitter glue, matted it onto a piece of black card, then embossed a piece of white card with my dots folder, and added more glitter to the embossing! Added a silver spotted ribbon and the flowers (from my stash - ribbon came from a market stall, flowers were from poundland), bit more glitter on the flowers and some holographic card candi and bingo! quick, simple but hopefully effective!!!!

Crazy Challenge - Vintage

2012-01-23T09:09:00.000-08:00

This week's sponsor over at Crazy Challenge is The Stamping Boutique and the theme for this week is vintage. Well, there were some great images to work with, but despite absolutely loving the vintage look it's certainly not a strong point of mine, as I'm sure you can tell!!!

I chose First Dance for my image, coloured it with promarkers then added a layer of glossy accents - which seemed a good idea until it came to taking a picture and then I've struggled to get a decent pic without glare! The papers, flowers and ribbons are all from my stash!

Just Inspirational Week 12

2012-01-19T11:15:00.000-08:00

I can't believe its 12 weeks already since Just Inspirational began - it's flown by so quickly!! I have to say I'm really enjoying being on the DT, its certainly got the brain working again lol. This week's sponsor is the fab Ellephantastic and the picture below is the inspirational picture for this week - just how cute is that!!!

For my card I coloured my image with promarkers (for a change lol) The pink spotty paper is from Papermania, card and flowers from stash and sentiment is one I printed and mounted onto matching card

Don't forget to go over to Just Inspirational and check out what the other fab DT members creations, and remember there's still time to apply for the DT call here

Challenges for this week:

Alphabet Challenge - Y (You Choose)

Paperplay Challenge - Ribbon

Celebrate the Occasion - Polka Dots

My Time to Craft - Favourite Embellishments (Flowers and Ribbon)

Daisy Doodles - Anything Goes

Dream Valley - Anything Goes

One Stop Craft Challenge - Spots and Ribbon

Crazy Challenge #102 - Tic Tac Toe

2012-01-16T15:13:00.000-08:00

This week I have been fortunate enough to join the team over at Crazy Challenge. I'm really enjoying being part of a DT and being able to see everyone's fab creations.
The challenge this week is Tic Tac Toe - just choose a line in any direction - easy!!

For my 3 I chose the image from this week's sponsor Digi Doodle Shop, coloured with promarkers and went for ribbon/lace and gems/pearls.

I'm going to enter this into the following challenges:

Cards for Men - Boys and their toys

My Time to Craft - Favourite Embellishments (Ribbon)

Daisy Doodles - Anything Goes

Dream Valley Challenges - Anything Goes

One Stitch at a Time - anything goes

Creative Craft Challenge - The Colour Blue

Addicted to Stamps - Blue

Just Inspirational Wk 11 - and DT call

2012-01-13T03:23:00.000-08:00

This week's sponsor is Floppy Latte Designs

and this is the beautiful inspiration picture, which I'm sure will have the creativity overflowing with all the pretty colours and imagery :D

After much deliberating I chose one of the 'floral frames' from Floppy Latte, coloured the image with promarkers and added a few die cut flowers (from a large mixed bag I bought from one of the pound shops) along with some ribbon and gems (also a pound shop special!) The pink flowery paper is from Papermania's 'Parkstone Pink' collection, butterfly toppers are Anita's Pearlescent Butterfly Toppers and peel off sentiment also 'Anita's' from the latest Docrafts goody bag - the perfect excuse to play with my new stash of goodies :D

Don't forget to pop over to Just Inspirational and take a look at what the rest of the talented DT have come up with, and also check out the DT call

This week I'm going to enter the following challenges :-

Alphabet Challenge Blog - 'Y for You Choose'

Anything Goes Challenge - 'Anything Goes'

Bearly Mine - 'Anything Goes'

CES Challenges - 'Anything Goes'

Crafts and Me - 'Anything Goes'

Crafty Catz - 'Use Something New' (new papers, toppers, image)

Crazy 4 Challenges - 'Happy New Year' (use something new:- again papers, toppers, image)

Cupcake Craft - 'Something New' (new stash & image)

Do You Stack Up - 'Pink' (flowers, ribbon, paper - I can do pink!!)

I Brake for Challenges - 'Simple' (for me this is simple lol)

Just Inspirational Week 10

2012-01-06T06:45:00.000-08:00

This week's sponsors were Whoopsie Daisy Designs and the beautiful picture below was the inspirational picture.

I was spoilt for choice with the images kindly donated to us by the sponsors as I am a bit of a fairy fan, but haven't made a card with fairies in a while.

I coloured the image with promarkers and used Stickles and Kars glitter glues for the sparkle, the starry paper is from Papermania's Midnight Fantasy, holographic patterned card behind image is Kanban (I think, been in my stash a while lol) Ribbon, peel offs and flowers from my stash!

Just Inspirational Week 9

2012-01-03T08:48:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone's had a great holiday season! It seems like forever since I've blogged lol but had a mad month with sorting Mum's funeral and christmas etc - its certainly good to be back to some kind of normality.
This week's sponsor on Just Inspirational Challenges is Limited Runs Digital Stamps. I used the picture chosen by Kelly to inspire my colour choices for the dragonfly image. It's not my usual card but I love how it's turned out, I really enjoyed making this and love the colour combo - definitely one I'll use again!
Papers, ribbons and embellishments are from my stash, images coloured with promarkers and of course stickles on the wings for that extra sparkle!!

Just Inspirational Week 5 - a bad week for me :-(

2011-12-04T05:00:00.000-08:00

Our sponsor this week over on Just Inspirational challenges is Stamp and Create. I absolutely love the images we were given to work with - so much so I ended up making two cards, both below. I'll have to add all the details later just wanted to get the pics on my blog but I've had a bad week so not really up to blogging and crafting much right now.

I got a phone call Tuesday morning from my stepdad telling me my mum was in hospital, after a few tests they suspected she had meningitis again (she'd had it 13 years ago) They put her in intensive care, on a ventilator to help her breathe, sedation, antibiotics etc, and gradually by Friday we were told that her temperature was still high, but that was down to the infection, but the signs were looking fairly good - they were seeing what they expected to see as she was recovering slowly, so much so the nurse said for the kids to make her cards, draw her pictures, take her a teddy bear etc so she'd see them when she woke up. Yesterday morning at just after 7am my stepdad rang and said hospital had phoned him and she'd deteriorated overnight so we needed to get there. After talking to the drs they wanted to try another type of antibiotic but couldn't promise anything, at lunchtime they did more tests and said she was showing complete kidney failure and a small heart attack, as well as signs of liver failure and low blood pressure, so any immediate family that could get there should, but before evening. By 12.45 her bp had dropped even more but they gave her some medication to keep her stable while my brother got there but it didn't help and at 1.30 she suffered a massive heart attack and died peacefully in her sleep - sadly my brother missed her by minutes. So as I'm sure you'll appreciate right now I'm extremely shellshocked - trying to stay strong for my 4 babies and my stepdad - all while trying to come to terms with it myself as it was sudden and unexpected

Just Inspirational Week 4

2011-11-24T00:01:00.000-08:00

This week's Just Inspirational picture is this cute christmas trio, and we are fortunate enough to be sponsored by Shelley's Images. I chose 'Santa's Old Faithful' for my image, printed onto supersmooth card I bought from the NEC and coloured with a combination of promarkers, flexmarkers and spectrum noirs (will post a list later). I printed the image 4 times, coloured them all the same and then decoupaged them. The papers and sentiment are magazine freebies, card candi from my stash.

And the decoupaged bit

Definitely need to get better pictures at some time tomorrow - right now I need sleep, had a very painful, sleepless night last night, and have an early start in the morning - have to be in Sheffield for an hospital appointment at 9.15am, and of course, I don't drive so have to rely on buses, while hubby stays here and gets the kids off to school - have to leave at 7.00am in order to guarantee being on time - aren't I going to have fun lol!!

Promarkers used:

Santa: Oatmeal, Apricot, Blush, Sunkissed Pink, Poppy, Berry Red, Cardinal Red, Warm Grey 3, Emerald, Pine, Meadow Green

Reindeer: Sandstone, Tan, Caramel, Burnt Sienna, Gold

Spectrum Noir: Cool Grey 0.5, 1

Flexmarkers: Light Fawn, Blue Grey 1

Challenges this week:

Delightful challenges - Red and Green

Digi Doodle Shop - Animals

Hanna & Friends - Red and another colour

Shelly's Images - Red and Green

I Love Promarkers - Anything Goes

Little Red Wagon - Christmas

The Papershelter - "Christmas Sparkle" (Red, green & gold)

Scrapbook Sisters - Christmas

Creative Craft Challenges - Free for all

Papertake Weekly - Christmas Crackers

Sassy Cheryl's - Anything Goes

Pollycraft - Christmas Fun

Totally Papercraft - Christmas

One Stitch at a Time - Anything Goes

The Crafty Pad - Red, green and gold or silver (used gold glitter on the bells but pic doesn't show too clearly)

Card and Scrap - Traditional Christmas colours

Papercraft Star - Anything Goes

Lollipop Crafts - Anything Goes

Birthday cards for my father in law

2011-11-23T15:31:00.000-08:00

I really struggle with men's cards, I always find it a real struggle to not add loads of flowers and glitz and hadn't a clue what to do for my father in law's birthday - so out came the Thomas Kinkade cd - plenty of images on there lol

Main image and backing papers printed from the Joanna Sheen Thomas Kinkade cd, dark panel card from stash embossed on hougie board, die cut border cut from glossy card and 'coloured' over with distress ink (its not quite as peach as it looks lol) rub on sentiment, ribbon, card candi all from stash. Matching insert also from cd with a free verse from somewhere on t'interweb :D

And from the kids I couldn't resist this adorably cute 'Me to You' bear - 'cos "Grandad's a star"! lol Images and sentiments are from a decoupage card kit I bought, everything else from stash! I wanted to go for 'cute - but not feminine' and despite a few gems and a bit of sparkle, I thought the strong blues managed keep it masculine!

Carried the circles through to the inside and used a smaller die cut image, verse again another freebie

Just Inspirational Week 3

2011-11-17T00:01:00.000-08:00

I can't believe we're onto the 3rd week of challenges already over at Just Inspirational Challenges. I'd like to thank everyone who's taken part so far, I've really enjoyed looking at all your amazing work, being inspired by you all and seeing how everyone draws different ideas from the pictures provided!
Over to this week's challenge - the picture above is the one Kelly chose this week. I opted for the snowman family image from our sponsor Crafty Sentiments and used the gold and pink colours from the bears. Image is coloured with promarkers and flexmarkers, paper is a beautiful shiny gold from papermania 'At Christmas Time' - I love the soft gold and the vintage look - just wish I'd been able to get a better picture in decent light to show it to its best!! Pink card (from stash) embossed with papermania snowflakes folder, ribbon and card candi also from stash.

Promarkers used: Pale pink, baby pink, sandstone and tan
Flexmarkers used: Muted pink, glacier blue and light fawn

Pollycraft - Friends/Friendship
TTT - Anything Goes
Little Miss Muffet - Simplicity
My Time to Craft - Take Two
Moving Along with the Times - Let it Snow
Craft Your Passion - Let it Snow
The Pink Elephant - Embossing
CraftyCatz - Snowflakes
Fab & Funky - Baby it's cold outside
The Paper Shelter - Snowflakes
Crafts and Me - Simples
Heart Song - Gold or glitter
Cupcake Craftroom - A sweet Christmas
Creatalicious - challenge #28
Sweet Stamps - Non-traditional Christmas colours
Digital Tuesday - Christmas
Paper Pretties - Non-traditional Christmas colours

Just Inspirational Challenge 2

2011-11-10T01:41:00.000-08:00

Today I want to show you my card I made for this week's Remembrance Day challenge over at Just Inspirational. I used an image from our sponsors for this week, Meljens Designs. I wanted to create something simple and not too fussy - something new for me lol. The image was coloured with promarkers, and I added a little stitching and beads just to lift it a little - add a little sparkle without going over the top!

Promarkers used:

Flowers: Poppy, cardinal red, warm grey 3 & 4, black

Stems: Pine, lush green, meadow green

Stars: Apricot, mustard, gold

Gold card candi, backing paper, ribbon and beads all from my stash

Challenges for this week :

Create Me Pink - Flower

Craft Your Passion Anything goes + brown
Kaboodle Designs - Colors of Fall
Cupcake Inspirations - Used some of the colours, hope that's ok :)
Daisy Doodles - Anything goes with a digi
2 Sisters Challenge Blog - Ribbon
Craft Your Days Away - Autumn
Digital Tuesday - Anything Goes
Sparkles Forum Challenge - Autumn
One Stitch At A Time - Use a Digi
Simon Says - Photo inspiration (poppy field)
Bows and Berries - Clean and Simple (definitely is to my normal style :D )
Cute Card Thursday - Red for Remembrance
Stampavie and More - Anything Goes
Delicious Doodles - Rembembrance

Just Inspirational goes live !!!!

2011-11-02T16:15:00.000-07:00

Today sees the launch of a new challenge blog Just Inspirational Challenge blog, and I'm thrilled, and honoured, to be part of the fab DT. For a few of us its the first time we've been on DT's so thanks to the lovely Kelly S for giving us the opportunity!

The theme this week is to use a photo chosen by Kelly S as inspiration, can be the colours, trees, leaves - anything which the photo inspires you to create!

This is my card for the first challenge - and my first ever DT card! There's been more than a few nerves and chewed fingernails but despite that I really enjoyed doing this - even though the colours are a million miles away from my usual choice!

The image is 'Ava flower patch' from our sponsor for this week Bugaboo Stamps
printed and coloured with promarkers, papers are downloads from Shabby Princess 'Harvest Spice', and Summer Driggs 'Golden Sunshine'.
Kanban 'Distressed scrolls' card for the swirls, flowers are petaloo.

There's loads of great challenges coming up, new challenges are posted every Thursday, so if you want to join us, and meet the rest of the team check out the blog here . Looking forward to seeing all your fab creations x

Promarker colours used: Skin - Ivory, blush, oatmeal, sunkissed pink: Dress - Vanilla, buttercup, sunflower: Hair - Sandstone, caramel, gold: Bow, shoes & belt - Spice, ginger, burnt orange
Grass & flowers - lush green, apricot

Challenges I'm entering :

Charisma Cardz challenge #44 - 'cutesy'

One Stop Craft Challenge - No sentiment

Papertake - Anything goes

Make it Monday - Anything goes

Crafting for all seasons - Texture
Dream Valley Challenges - Anything Goes
The Corrosive Challenge - Flourish
Pollycraft - Anything Goes

Happy Birthday Molly :)

2011-08-20T11:23:00.000-07:00

My step-niece Molly is a real 'girly girl' and yesterday was her 5th birthday, so I thought this little cutie, from the 'Sherbert Pip' range of stamps available at Funky Kits, would be perfect for her seeing as she likes pretty dresses and bags too lol.
This is my take on Maria Therese's sketch over on the Sugar Bowl, image is Cherry Pip, coloured with Spectrum Noirs (turquoises for the dress/shoes, skin tone for face/arms/legs, putty from skin tones and bronze from essentials for hair, cool grey for outline. Added some stickles for sparkle on the image, and on some blue lace (behind the image) Papers are Pink Petticoat Vintage Rose download collection, flowers from stash (the 2 largest were white but coloured them with spectrums to make them match)Scalloped border cut with a nellie snellen border die. Peel-offs and die cut sentiment also from stash.
Going to enter this in the following challenges:-

Pile It On - Blue, Blue, Blue
Try it on Tuesday - Anything Goes
Papercrafting Journey - Anything Goes
Whoopsi Daisy - Anything Goes
Crafts Us Crazy - Anything Goes
Bearly Mine Challenges - Bring On the Bling
Crafter's Companion - Glitter and Glitz
Clear it Out Challenge - Glitter It
The Sugar Bowl - Sketch, optional theme - blue
A Spoonful of Sugar - Birthday
Papertake Weekly - Bingo - Blooms, Lace, Free (Gems)
Deep Ocean Challenge - Light Blue
Divas by Design - Birthdays
Crafts and Me - Blue
Poodles Parlour - Anything Goes
Crazy 4 Challenges - Bingo my 3 items in a row are - square card (6x6), die cut (sentiment), 2 or more papers
Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge - Use-A-Lot use 3 or more favourite embellishments (flowers)
My Time to Craft - G is for.... Girl
Scrapbook Sisters - Blue
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Easel card

Birthday card for my stepdad

2011-08-18T11:04:00.000-07:00

This is the card I made for daughters and son to give their grandad for his birthday. The image is the 'Thomas' digi stamp from Funky Kits coloured with promarkers (actually coloured the image a while ago so can't remember the colours, papers are Basic Grey and Nitwits (from stash) peel offs, sentiment, card candy and gems from stash!

I'm entering this into the following challenges:

Craft Us Crazy - Anything Goes
Ai Factory - Anything Goes
Paper Playtime - Anything Goes
Whoopsi Daisy Challenge - Anything Goes
Crafts and Me - Blues or Blue/Greens
Deep Ocean Challenge - Light blue (the bottom dp is light blue, and light blue on top paper/image - just bad light lol)
Scrapbook Sisters - Blue (well, its blue with added colours lol)
Try It On Tuesdays - Anything Goes
One Stitch At A Time - Anything Goes
Anything Goes Challenge - Birthday
A Spoonful of Sugar - Birthdays
Cards For Men - Anything Goes
CES Challenge - Mix and Match (my 2 papers are Basic Grey and Nitwits)
Divas By Design - Birthdays

Tilda wedding - take 2!!!

2011-08-03T02:50:00.000-07:00

After one of my friends saw the wedding set I'd made, she asked me to make a boxed card the same for her sister who gets married this week. Well, I didn't make it exactly the same, but tweaked it in places to make it the same enough to be what she wanted, but not identical - added a couple of different flowers, different glitter, words etc

As before, papers are pink petticoat vintage rose collection, flowers, gems, glitter, peel offs from stash, tilda and edwin image coloured with promarkers

Going to enter this one into the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly Challenge Anything Goes
Gingerloft Challenge make it sparkle - lots of glitter and gems so defintely some sparkle lol
Crafts and Me Anything Goes
Passion for Promarkers Hugs and Kisses - wedding card so should fit the theme I hope :)
Allsorts Free and easy
Anything Goes Pick of the bunch - flowers - Definitely no shortage of flowers on this one with!
Colour Create Challenge Pink, white & green - only a little green, but its there on flower stems, flowers on paper and on dress/bouquet
Totally Tilda Recipe - Pearls (on flowers) Swirls, Ribbons and Lace
The Paper Shelter Flowers, Flowers, Flowers
Craft your Passion Anything goes
Make it Monday Anything Goes

tilda wedding set

2011-07-26T05:08:00.000-07:00

This is what I made for Laura to give to her teacher for her wedding on 5th August. After seeing a clock made up with a wedding image at Doncaster summer craft show, I was inspired lol. I used a Tilda image for the clock, easel envelope card and box, coloured with promarkers, papers are pink petticoat 'Vintage Rose' collection, flowers, gems, peel offs, lace and ribbons all from my stash

I have to apologise for the poor light and quality on the pictures - my camera was having a tantrum and at nearly 1am I wasn't arguing with it lol

The card

The Clock

The box

2011-07-26T04:25:00.000-07:00

I've not been in much of a crafting frame of mind for a couple of months, so when I got told Laura's form teacher is getting married on 5th August and Laura wanted a card big enough for the whole of the class to sign I hadn't a clue where to start lol. I wanted something big enough to sign, but nothing over the top so I used one of the 'flippin' aperture cards, put a piece of illusion mesh in the apperture backed with gold mirror card, I love the illusion effect. The image is a free download from a magazine - i think it was papercraft inspirations, but not sure, just added a bit of glitter and some gems, then finished the card with lace, ribbon and peel offs from my stash :)

Blue and....... purple

2011-03-17T03:57:00.001-07:00

This was made for a swap on a yahoo group I belong to with the theme 'blue and .... another colour' so me being me, opted for purple :)
Image is another of the gorgeous adorables from Sugar Nellie coloured with promarkers, I absolutely love these images, they're beautiful. Papers are a selection from stash, used the cuttlebug 'rose' embossing folder for the blue background then used a Martha Stewart punch along the bottom and added some little gems to the flower centres. Swirls were cut from one of my sizzix dies then embossed and gems added. Flowers and butterfly were from my stash, but had to glitter the flowers with stickles of course, and the butterfly is coloured with promarkers to make it blend in a bit better as it was too pale lol.
I haven't had much time to enter challenges lately, but decided I need to get back into doing challenges and this card seems to fit quite a few this week so here goes:

Wild Orchid 'Dieing to punch it out'
Creatalicious Challenges 'Two Tone' (blue and purple)
Papertake 'Triple Tastic' (3 blue gems/3 papers - blue, purple flowered, purple)
Aly's Sunday Challenge 'Anything Goes'
Mygrafico Challenges 'Anything Goes'
Gingerloft 'Flowers'
Southerngirls 'Flowers'
One Stitch At A Time 'Glitter and Gems'
Stamp and Create 'Spring'
Creative Cottage 'Spring has sprung'
By the Cute & Girly 'Springtime'
Magical Monday 'Spring Colours'
The Pink Elephant 'Spring'
Squigglefly 'Spring'
Paperplay 'Embossing'

Amy's birthday card

2011-03-10T03:23:00.000-08:00

Hazel asked me to make a card for her friend Amy who was 14 last week - she said to do something in purple and black - the kind of thing Hazel would like lol. Well, straight off thought of the Kenny K images :) Coloured the image with promarkers, printed off purple & black papers - think they're from crafty cardmaking and Shabby Princess but can't remember exactly. Cut the circles and flowers from matching card, added some gems, glitter and a little charm.... and away we go lol. Apparently its the best card Amy's seen and she's keeping it forever lol - wish all teenagers were so easily pleased

Lilac and Lemon - adorable!

2011-02-17T02:29:00.000-08:00

These images are just so gorgeous, and when one of the groups I belong to set a lilac and lemon theme for a swap I knew I had to use one of these little beauties :) I can't wait till the new ones are released in March :)

Sunday's with Santa

2011-02-17T02:27:00.000-08:00

This is my easel card for this week's challenge over on Sunday's with Santa (facebook group) It was nice to actually have time to join in this week for a change lol.

Mum's first card

2011-02-11T01:33:00.000-08:00

My mum's been off work ill since before christmas and got bored so she rang me last week to ask for some decoupage sheets and things as she was going to have a go at cardmaking! Well, I printed her some, went shopping with her and she's definitely got bitten by the crafting bug! I bought her some bits and bobs and when I saw her again a few days later she gave me the first card she'd made to say thank you for the things! I think considering its her first ever card its pretty amazing!

another birthday card :)

2011-02-11T00:49:00.001-08:00

I made this for my daughter Hazel who turned 14 on Wednesday.... I want to know who's stolen the last 14 years as it honestly seems only two minutes since I was in hospital having her lol!
The image is a digi download from Kenny K, coloured with promarkers, the papers are free downloads from Summer Driggs and the flowers are made from the same papers with contrasting ribbon. Paper flowers, ribbons and gems from stash, sentiment printed off pc!

declan's birthday card

2011-01-29T06:06:00.000-08:00

can't you tell he's ben 10 mad lol! haven't made anything for a while and found some ben 10 downloads on one of the craft magazine sites, added a couple of little bits of my own (the hero time, name & age bits lol) .... and here's the result :) Unfortunately I couldn't get a good pic cos of the light

and now....

2010-12-30T08:46:00.000-08:00

blogger is notifying me of comments.... then deleting them lol and they're not retrieveable oh joy!! so, if anyone had sent a comment I'm not ignoring you or not posting... just blogger being a pain!

Hadn't realised it had been so long.......

2010-12-30T08:05:00.001-08:00

One of the girls at school who gives Alisha & Declan a lift home once or twice a week asked me to make some cards for her - something horsey for her friend, a spaniel for her 13 y/o son and twilight for her 9 year old daughter. The penguins is the one I gave her from us - a gorgeous digi stamp coloured with promarkers, mounted onto torn white glitter card and a few peel off snowflakes... simples!
I can't believe how long it is since I made a card so am definitely a bit rusty - and the others I made I forgot to get pics of :(
Hope everyone's had a great christmas and not been full of 'flu like we have here but these things happen lol.

apologies........

2010-06-26T14:28:00.000-07:00

for not commenting on anyone's blog for a while and for having nothing to show but I've not been well. Initially started about 8 weeks ago with breathing problems and pressure feelings in my head so off I went to the GP to be told no, its not blood pressure or anything you're depressed/stressed/hyperventilating and having panic attacks (!!) so of course I figured he knew what he was talking about so trotted off with my prescription for PROZAC, which after about 10 days I had to stop taking as I had a reaction to it and worsening symptoms. Went to the out of hours DR who told me I WASN'T depressed, but I did have a stomach infection so put me on antibiotics but it just got worse so after 4 days with no sign of relief I went to A&E where they ended up admitting me, giving me triple dose antibiotics through a drip and doing some tests to tell me yes, I have high blood pressure which I should have been taking medication for, a stomach infection, a small tissue hernia and cellulitis, but they decided to leave the hernia as the op's too risky because of weight issues. Got discharged after 5 days only to come home and find the breathlessness never eased, in fact it got worse and I started swelling from the waist all the way down my legs/ankles. Went back to the GP who said it was just a side effect of the antibiotics so I'd to wait for it to settle, which could take weeks or months:( Left it another few days during which time I continued swelling, visibly putting weight on (12kg in 2 weeks) and barely able to take 2 or 3 steps without gasping for breath before going back to the out of hours DR who said I had water retention and trapped wind - yeah right lol trapped wind was not a problem. After he gave me more meds which didn't work and I suffered another week not being able to do anything and by now barely able to breathe at all my mum and hubby decided it was ambulance time lol - ended up spending another 8 days in hospital having loads of tests done to be told I'm NOT depressed, I DON'T have trapped wind - but did have water retention - lots of it because the problem is actually heart related!!!! Apparently my left ventricle isn't pumping as well as it should and my heart's a bit stretched. It appears that it may possibly stem from me having had high blood pressure while pregnant - but its not been checked in over 3 years! I certainly wasn't expecting that one but don't think its too serious as I've been started on some medication and am being referred to cardiology within 4 - 6 weeks to see where they're going to go from there - the water tablet they gave me is great though I've lost just over 3 stone since last saturday lol - have to laugh or I'll cry, cos as well as all this my washing machine's packed in on me and Darrell got told on Wednesday he's out of a job - it never rains ..............

Chloe's Birthday Card

2010-04-23T15:32:00.000-07:00

This is the first time I've entered the pollycraft challenge, but seeing as I needed a birthday card for alisha's friend who turned 8 on Tuesday how could I resist the gorgeous 'Fearn' a freebie from Pollycraft - Even better than that pollycraft's monday blog challenge was an absolutely fab sketch by Sue :) It would have been rude not to make use of such a gorgeous little fairy and a great sketch and turned them into an easel card. I wasn't sure how it would work until I'd finished - but Chloe said it was "the best card ever" so for a change i got something right lol (or maybe that was more to do with the money tucked inside haha)
The image and sentiments were coloured with promarkers, (will try and make a list and add later lol) and I used a Silver Star Sakura Glitter Gel Pen to colour over the wings and some of the sentiment wording (shows up better on the second pic lol). Used dark purple and lilac 'mottled' cardstock, silver spirelli circles I bought in a kit from a craft fair about 2 years ago lol, papermania (I think!) papers, and flowers/brads all from my stash)
I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Pollycraft Monday Challenge - Sketch
Creative Card Crew - "Happy Birthday"
Simon Says Stamp Challenge - "Things with Wings"
ABC Challenge "S for Sparkle"
Critter Challenge Blog "10 elements" (3 colours of c/s (purple, lilac, silver) 3 flowers, 2 brads, 2 patterned papers)

Another challenge card :)

2010-04-07T08:02:00.000-07:00

Wasn't sure where I was going with this one - until it was all put together lol! The image is one of the always freebies from Lauretta over at Lauretta's Digital Stamps. I love how well the image printed..... and coloured beautifully. Thanks Lauretta for such a gorgeous image - and free too :)
I was having a look through some things yesterday for some psychology notes I needed and came across a couple of fiskars circle punches which I've had for about 2 years now - and never used, so after seeing Vix challenge over on Crafty Cardmakers I decided to 'challenge' myself and actually blow away the cobwebs and try to use the punches! I'm not usually a 'punch' person - I can never normally line them up properly or don't seem to be able to have strong enough wrists to punch through properly, but I bought them in a sale at something silly like £1.50 each I think - and its taken until now to actually use them. Not only did I challenge myself to use the punches but I went a step further - and used no backing papers - just off cuts of the lilac & pink glitter card trimmed with a decorative edge cutter and no flowers (shock! horror! I'm still recovering from the pain of that one lol) Used black glitterations peel off dots on the punched circles and the matching lines on the edge of the pink borders (which don't show too well in the photo but if you look closely the glitter just catches the light lol)
I was still unsure about this card when I looked at it again this morning but Darrell assures me that its great as it is - I think its just that it seems bare without ribbons, flowers, bows etc etc. I've decided to go ahead and take the plunge and enter it into the following challenges:

Crafty Cardmakers "Challenging Challenge"
Allsorts - No DP's
Meljen's Designs Challenge #1 - Anything Goes!
Pollycraft Anything Goes
One Stitch At A Time Anything Goes

Image coloured with the following colour promarkers: magenta, pink carnation, orchid, almond, dusky pink, peach, soft peach, cool grey #1, cool grey # 5, leaf green and berry red

One card, many challenges :-)

2010-03-30T07:59:00.000-07:00

I'm on a roll, I think the mojo's slowly creeping back yippee - managed to get another card made which is for my 'study buddy' Cheryl. We planned on having a study day today - unfortunately had to change our plans at the last minute. We didn't get the kid-free time, but did get a lovely 2 hour chat on the phone - not the same as face to face but still great to catch up.
Its not often I enter a challenge these days, but this card fits with in quite a few current challenges so I decided to enter it for 11 which is a record for me lol. The adorably cute bunny and sentiment stamps, the backing paper and ribbon were all free with quick cards mag - it was one of those times when I saw the mag and had to have it - just for the stamp which is versatile enough to use for loads of different occasions. The card, gems and flowers are all from my stash. The bunny was stamped with memento tuxedo black ink and coloured with the following promarkers:
Sandstone, tan, caramel, chestnut, almond, dusky pink, pink carnation, cornflower, china blue, powder blue and honeycomb.

Fussy & Fancy Easter
Townscrapper - Easter
Charisma Cardz - Spring has Sprung
Stampin' for the Weekend - Easter
Colour Create - Pastels
Corrosive Challenge Blog - Easter
Crafty Cardmakers - Spring into Spring
Paper Play - Easter
The Pink Elephant - Pastels
Pile it on - Animal-Riffic
Magical Crafts - Easter

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge

2010-03-27T04:18:00.000-07:00

I've decided to enter the teddy card I made for Steph into this week's Saturday challenge over on Secret Crafter where the theme is 'pink, green & flowers'
Well, there's definitely plenty of pink, the patterned paper has green and the teddy image is matted on green - and of course, there's flowers - just for a change on one of my cards :) Now I know, technically you can't link back to older posts but as I only finished this one yesterday morning before I posted it to my blog I'm kinda hoping it's ok lol

a few recent cards

2010-03-26T07:37:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I actually got round to making more cards finally woohoo!!! The flower one is made using some papers I've had for so long I can't remember who makes them lol. Used a fiskars border punch to cut a strip of paper for down the side and edged it with some glitter glue. The topper is off a sheet with 12 on for 75p which I bought from a nearby craft shop - perfect for quick cards lol - added a little glitter to the flower vase, then covered with glossy accent glaze to give it an enamaled look. Added a spot more glitter glue to a fabric flower (a bargain bag full of about 20) and used glitterations line peel offs to frame the pic. Used the glitterations again inside along with peel offs and a stamp from my stash - and the best thing is this was made just 'for something to do' so maybe my mojo is starting to slowly creep back!!!

The other 2 cards were made for Hazel's best friend Jack and his girlfriend Steph, who are both 13 today - so happy birthday you guys, hope you both have a fab day!!! Both images were freebie deco sheets from cardmaking and papercraft mag, used a combination of papers and embellishments from my stash - wasn't too sure about the doggy one as it was coming together as its a while since I did a male card - and a teenage boy is just a nightmare to try and get right - BUT Hazel was pleased with it and that's got to say something. The little bear is soooo cute - I have a feeling I'll be buying some of those sheets if I can track them down..... and another success with Hazel woooohooo if I can please my fussy teenager then I can please any lol
One thing I really have to remember and I just noticed ..... I changed batteries in the camera and AGAIN forgot to set the date on the pics lmao - one of these days I'll remember...... or take it off completely lol

mother's day cards

2010-03-17T12:51:00.000-07:00

well, i knew it had been a while since I made any cards - but hadn't realised just how long :( I guess its down to a combination of life, studying (or trying to) and my mojo taking a long trip - don't know where it's been but it certainly didn't take me along. After a pleasant trip to the mind, body, spirit fair at Elsecar Heritage Centre on Saturday I thought it would be a sin not to call into the craft shop seeing as they have one there... actually felt a little inspired so bought some die cut decoupage sheets to attempt making mother's day cards for the kids to give their nannans lol. They're nothing special but I guess its a step forwards........... Both lots of decos are Red Hot Bed (I think lol) all paper, ribbon, peel offs, embellishments from stash. Unfortunately due to rushing round like a woman possessed didn't stop to take 'proper' pics so sadly these blurry ones are all I have lol

a few cards.......

2009-09-07T04:11:00.000-07:00

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 :-)

2009-08-22T03:22:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-07T04:08:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-29T04:33:00.000-07:00

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 :-)

2009-07-19T03:30:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-21T07:13:00.000-07:00

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 :-)

2009-06-12T03:40:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-19T09:47:00.000-07:00

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 :-)

2009-05-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-18T09:20:00.001-07:00

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

2009-05-18T09:07:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-10T06:19:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-01T03:14:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-29T08:50:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-21T10:14:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-20T08:48:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-20T08:39:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-17T03:35:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-11T05:49:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-09T03:07:00.001-07:00

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???????

2009-04-02T05:34:00.000-07:00

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..........

2009-04-01T03:49:00.000-07:00

.......... 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....

2009-03-29T05:17:00.000-07:00

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 :-)

2009-03-29T04:43:00.000-07:00

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..........

2009-03-26T07:51:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-13T09:24:00.000-07:00

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????

2009-03-11T03:25:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-04T07:31:00.000-08:00

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

2009-03-04T06:55:00.000-08:00

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........

2009-03-04T06:50:00.000-08:00

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 :-)

2009-03-04T06:34:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-13T03:11:00.000-08:00

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!!!!

2009-02-11T10:02:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd share the cards I made for Hazel's birthday on 9th Feb - I can't believe she's 12 already - and she's a proper madame with it lololol!!!!

The black & pink card is a penny black image (i think!!) but it just suited her perfectly - her favourite weekend pastime is shopping with her friend so as soon as I discovered this image in my collection I HAD to use it!!! And yes - it does look just like them lol - Hazel with her long dark blonde hair & Amy with her shorter, brown hair - always got silly grins & surrounded by shopping bags!!! Image is coloured with prismacolors and some sparkly H2O type paints that I bought for about £3 a couple of years ago, papers are papermania, the fibre is from my box of bits and the shopping charms & brads are from poppicraft.

I absolutely love Whiff of Joy stamps and wanted something sweet for a card from her brother & sisters so couldn't resist using Melinda blowing hearts for this one. Coloured with prismas & sakuras with a nice coat of glitter on the top & wings lol!! Papers are papermania again, sister tag & flower from stash, making memories heart brads.... and red hearts are cut from the centre of a ribbon I bought from the local market!!

another quick card

2009-02-05T11:55:00.001-08:00

Was really fond of this one - then had an accident with the pva lol - ended up spilling wayyyy too much - hence the glitter on the white oval, sentiment and the flower lol.

paper is one i downloaded months back - but can't remember where from, fairy is a download from scrapbooking mad, gems & ribbons from my quickly depleting stash, flower one my mum made and sentiment printed of computer - doesn't show too well but found a great font to use lol - the capitals are fairies!!! just how cute is that!!!!!

pawfect!!!! well,not really!

2009-01-30T04:16:00.000-08:00

wanted a quick card for a RAK and found this sheet I bought months ago - ended up taking more time than it would with a stamped image lol cos when I put it together I decided it was lacking and didn't look finished...... added a few outline peeloffs and found a clipart bone and printed a sentiment - then added a bit of ribbon!! still not sure about it but think its just because I'm so out of practice with decoupage lol

Finally made a card !!!

2009-01-26T03:44:00.000-08:00

Can't believe this is the first thing I've made since before christmas - how bad is that!!! I think my creative streak has either gone into hibernation or got swamped with all the college assignments!!!

This one's for a flower swap in one of the yahoo groups I belong to. The image is from an image swap we did a while back over on sbs 16, coloured with prismas & white spirit, with a nice coating of glitter glue for an added bit of sparkle. papers, ribbons and flower from my stash, sentiment is a stamp I bought a while back and thought it would be appropriate! Not sure if its one of my best cards, but seeing as I'm a bit rusty I'm fairly happy with it :-)

I know things come in 3s......

2009-01-23T03:43:00.000-08:00

but all 3 girls have been ill together - what joy!!!!!! they seem to have picked up some kind of virus, started with alisha getting up in the night screaming with headache, stomach ache, feeling sick....... then its moved on to laura and Hazel! Alisha had 1 day off school at the end of last week, hazel's had 2 days off and poor laura's been off all week. she went in to school wednesday and by 10.30 they'd sent her home!!! so as you can imagine its been a bit chaotic to say the least - juggling sick kids, college and assignments is no easy task - but fortunately i've got very understanding tutors!!

I know I'd planned on going into nursing but not this way lol - though after what I've heard about the degree course from my friend who had her uni interview last week I don't think I'll be bothering - its not family friendly at all - especially as I'll need days out every few weeks for Declan's hospital appointments. Soooooo uni's on hold now while I decide exactly what I want to do!

Happy Birthday Declan!!!!!

2009-01-20T07:22:00.000-08:00

Happy birthday Soldier!!!

Mummy's little man is 2 already! Can't believe how quickly the time's flown! For those that don't know, Declan was born by emergency caesarian as he was in distress, which was scary enough, but at 2 days old he was on the operating table having an emergency ileostomy, as unknown to anyone he had a perforated bowel and everything was poisoning his system and he came close to not being here! It was touch and go for a while, but he finally came home on 27th Feb 2007 aged 5 weeks and 3 days and boy did I celebrate.

No-one's sure why the perforation happened but the hospital seem to think its Cystic Fibrosis although tests done before and after his stoma reversal are still inconclusive so they're treating him as CF until they know either way, even though he's showing none of the expected symptoms - ie not growing/gaining weight, constant chest infections etc

All that matters to me though is he's here, he's fit and healthy - has barely had so much as a runny nose lol - my chest is worse than his, he's got an appetite like I've never known and he's certainly growing!!!

a few of the christmas cards I made......

2009-01-13T14:24:00.000-08:00

But was in such a rush to get them out I mailed them, and gave them to friends at college - without taking pics. these are a few which friends who received them in a group posted so I snaffled some pics!!! serves me right i guess for leaving everything to the last minute. i'm gutted really though as they were some of the nicest cards i've done :-(

pollycraft candy

2008-12-09T01:23:00.000-08:00

This one is absolutely amazing!! Take a look here for Paula's candy and if you haven't seen the pollycraft range of stamps and downloads you're in for a real treat!!!

candy

2008-12-09T01:18:00.000-08:00

Claire is celebrating over 36,000 hits on her blog by giving away the most amazing candy!!! go check it out here and take a look at her fab cards!

congrats Claire and here's to the next 36,000

Darrell's birthday cards

2008-11-24T13:37:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd share the cards I made hubby for his birthday lol! The boy is a stamped image from Jo, coloured with prismas, papers, gems & peel offs all from stash. the wolf is a stamp I've had for ages but never found anything really to do with it lol! stamped it onto cream textured card with walnut stain distress ink, then cut into a circle, used backings and ribbons from stash and stamped a sentiment from one of a see d's set :-)

my new whiff of joy stamp :-)

2008-11-23T04:30:00.000-08:00

Isn't Lizzie just the sweetest little girl lol! I absolutely love this stamp - just can't believe that 'cos of all the college work I had to do she's been sat here nearly 2 WEEKS without me using her!!!! How bad is that! I really enjoyed making these, it was so nice to be able to sit and do some crafting without having to stress over assignments - have to make the most of a limited amount of 'me' time

All images are coloured with prismas, white sakura souffle, glitter glue and sakura stardusts for the added sparkles - though they don't show up so well on the scan! Papers on the blue cards are docrafts (I think) and the red one is a one I downloaded and found sat on the comp - can't remember where its from but think its one of the Summer Driggs kits, but wouldn't swear it under oath lol. Ribbons and embellishments from my stash

good news :-)

2008-11-15T05:23:00.000-08:00

been feeling the pressure recently - a lot lol! been really stressed with all the college work and finances etc but got a little bit of good news today for a change! My eldest daughter Hazel who's 11 sent an application in to Britain's Got Talent and she just got a letter this morning telling her she has an audition on 26th November - not sure how well she'll do or how far she'll get as the competition will be tough - but its always been her dream she lives to sing so here's hoping lol!!!!!

a few cards I made last night

2008-11-02T03:13:00.000-08:00

All these are with some of the images Jo sent me, the little girls are sweet ebony images, these stamps are definitely going on my 'after christmas' list. The little dragon is called Daphne and is from Lilac Lemon Designs - I love Beckie's stamps they're gorgeous, for anyone who hasn't seen them go over to Lilac Lemon and take a look.
All backing papers and embellishments are from my stash :-) All of them are coloured with a combination of prismacolors and whsmiths blendables (great pencils for anyone on a budget!) The clouds and hi-lites on Daphne Dragon are coloured with white sakura souffle - I love the effect those pens give, adds a bit of depth and texture lol

sweet ebony

2008-11-01T08:34:00.000-07:00

I love this one, its one of my favourite images :-) I'm not fortunate enough to have been able to buy the stamps yet, but Jo sent me some gorgeous stamped images and this was in with them - I couldn't wait to get colouring, so here's the first card I made. Coloured with prismas and whsmith blendables, backing papers are from my stash and the little flowers are punched from the backing papers with a little gem in the centre for a bit of sparkle :-) I'm really pleased with this one - its one of the best I've done for a while

autumn colours.....

2008-10-31T08:27:00.000-07:00

something a bit different to the usual girly colours I tend to go for - took a bit of doing this one though cos I coloured the images and started putting the card together and hubby decided the backings i was planning on using didn't work..... so it got me rethinking and printing out different backings till I found something that worked lol - but I got there in the end :-) The flower isn't as orange as it looks lol - its crocheted in a variegated thread so is more golden shades and cream like the ribbon

My new stamp

2008-10-30T05:43:00.000-07:00

well, it seems to be a heck of a long time since I made a 'stamped' card thats not coloured.... so was a little out of practise and not sure how this one would turn out. I bought the stamp from Mandy who's on a forum with me - her online store Sparklybits is like aladdin's cave lol - there's so much to choose from, prices are great and delivery is so fast!

I stamped the image onto plain white cardstock with black stazon, matted and layered black & white circles, edged with silver peeloffs, mounted onto black - didn't have a matching backing so stamped the tree randomly in black and silver onto white paper and used to back - finished the whole thing off with some peeloffs and crystal type stars - then covered the tree with 3d glaze which gives it an enamelled effect

2 cards I made

2008-10-25T11:35:00.000-07:00

Taken a while but finally got something put together at last :-) Wasn't too sure about them - especially as the pics aren't great - but hey ho, can't get it right every time - I'm sure they'll grow on me lol All the backings are ones I printed off from free downloads (my favourite word - 'free') Images are all coloured with prismas and covered with a 3d glaze, fibres and gems from stash - the one on tilda's bow is pink but the scanner didn't like it :-(, the black flowers on the halloween card were taken off a length of white ribbon - I tried drawing a spider's web and smudged it lolol so covered the mistake with flowers!!

10 minute warning!!!!

2008-10-24T03:42:00.000-07:00

My darling daughter decided to tell me 10 mins before they were due out to school that it's her teacher's birthday today and she wanted a card for her!!! I had some images coloured already so just 'threw' something together quickly - just hope her teacher likes it!!! maybe next time she'll give me 15 mins then I can add some embellishments lololol

Image is one of the Tilda Pink Ribbons (but wanted a change from pink lol), coloured with prismas and coated with a 3d gloss, embossed card was sent to me by a friend with a cuttlebug, paper and sentiment sticker from my stash

free downloads

2008-10-23T15:05:00.001-07:00

check out the free downloads on funky fairy all you have to do is leave a thankyou comment in return for gorgeous freebies!!

RAK from Jo

2008-10-16T10:41:00.000-07:00

Isn't this absolutely gorgeous!!!! Its a rak I received from one of my closest friends Jo. Not only is it a stunning card - inside there were some stamped images!!!! Thank you again hun, it's absolutely beautiful and I love the images - you're an angel xxx

my anniversary card.......

2008-10-07T11:35:00.000-07:00

from Laura, my 9 y/o! she made it all by herself without me knowing or helping!! Just had to share cos I think its cute - but then I would lol I'm her mum hehe

Alisha's birthday card

2008-10-01T11:41:00.000-07:00

This is the card I made for my daughter's 6th birthday - it was a quick one cos didn't have much time - I wasn't too sure about it but seeing as it was nearly midnight and had to get up early for college I had to leave it as it was - but Alisha was pleased - she loved it cos its pink and has fairies!!!

Papers are the dovecraft fantasy, image was one I received from a friend and ribbon and flowers from stash :-)

A card I made for a RAK

2008-09-30T05:44:00.000-07:00

Using a free downoadable limage from pc hug club and papers from stash

We finally have names........

2008-09-29T11:52:00.000-07:00

for the 2 little bundles of mischief :-) After much deliberating and loads of great ideas we finally decided on........ Jinx for the b&w kitty, and Jem for her sister :-) So now they're no longer just 'kitty 1 & kitty 2'!!!!

Something to show.... at last

2008-09-25T14:09:00.000-07:00

It's taken a while - but at last I have something to show :-) Decided to have a go at making something see if it would take my mind off the migraine I've had for 2 days - and no voice either!! got up Tuesday for college and was really croaky and as the day wore on it disappeared - the kids love it lol
The image is one I bought from ebay a while ago, sentiment was a freebie in with the images - coloured with prismas, papers are papermania simply elegant and the crochet flowers are some my mum made

new additions

2008-09-21T12:44:00.000-07:00

Aren't they just the cutest hehe went to have a look at them yesterday and was only going for one but they were both curled up together and looked so cute I couldn't resist and had to have both. The major thing now is names!

Sorry :-(

2008-09-17T07:20:00.000-07:00

I havent forgotten all my blogging friends, I just haven't had any time to spare to spend on here! I just started back at college and its pretty intense so haven't had any free time to craft or anything! The course I'm doing is usually a part time course over 2 years, but they had quite a big demand so they set up an extra group - but its full time - so I've 2 years work to do between now and the beginning of July! Oh yeah, and then there's the assignments to do at home, Uni application and my dissertation! phew!! It will be worth it though because a year from now if all goes ok I'll be at uni and doing my nursing degree :-)
Can't wait until I get back into the routine and things settle down and I can try and get the creativity flowing again lol

My baby's growing up!!!

2008-09-03T07:00:00.001-07:00

Hazel my eldest daughter just started senior school this time! I can't believe how quickly the time's flown makes me feel old!!! It never dawned on me till Friday when she went to school that its 25 years since I was in the same position - first day at 'big' school - help, I'm old!!!!

Thought I'd post a pic of her looking all grown up in her new uniform - she'll probably kill me though hehe!!

blog candy!!

2008-08-26T07:20:00.001-07:00

Hilma has great candy on offer over on her blog so pop over and leave her a comment - easy as that!!!

Finally got something to show :-)

2008-08-21T08:26:00.001-07:00

Taken a while but finally got a couple of cards made!!! 2 are birthday cards for my stepdad who's birthday was on the 16th and wedding anniversary cards for my mum & stepdad's anniversary yesterday - the camera was having a 'moment' so couldn't get clear pics of the birthday cards :-(

The Kinkade image is one I coloured a while ago and the others are all coloured with my new prismas, backing papers are papermania simply elegant, dovecraft fantasy and printables from canon scrapbook

Irina's Candy

2008-08-13T02:14:00.000-07:00

How fabulous are these???? To be in with a chance to win one of Irina's originals, pop over to her blog and leave her a message. For a chance to enter twice, make a card following her sketch - how easy is that???

Claudia has candy!

2008-08-13T01:50:00.000-07:00

Claudia has candy on offer so go over and take a look at her amazing blog, her cards are truly a work of art!