Lilac and Lemon - adorable!

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

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

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 :)

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

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....

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.......

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........

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

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 :)

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