Sorry I've been gone so long...

Hi All,

Just thought I'd let you know I'm still here!! Sorry I've not posted anything lately, I've been ill with something which just makes me tired all the blinkin time!!!


On top of this, I've started a new job which I have to give what little energy I have to. Hopefully the docs will figure out what's wrong with me soon and I'll be back xxx

Gorjuss Girls at the beach!

Hi All,

Hope you're having a good Monday. I've managed to make another card, this one took forever! I saw the little gorjuss girl stamp and just new I had to use it; but then I found it really hard coming up with papers that would work for the rest of the card! I'm happy with the end result.

I need to find a new way of lighting my cards, the colours come out all wonky!

Here are the challenges I've made it for:
Moving Along with the Times - I used their sketch and beach theme.
Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Paper Piecing






Here's a close up of her...



Here's how I made her:
Stamp: Gorjuss Girl from Set 3. Painted with H2Os and dress paper pieced with BG lemonade paper pad. I used my quickie glue pen on her arm bands and sprinkled Doodlebug Sugar Coating Glitter in Orange.
Papers: backing papers is from Dovecraft Fairies Set, the rest is from stash.
Ribbon is from Making Memories textured tape kids max set.
Fabric flowers are from stash, mulberry ones are Prima.
Buttons are from Papermania.
Rub on letters are from Doodlebug all mixed up swimming pool small.
Cardstock and gems are from Stash.

Hope you like it!

xxx

Under the Sea

Hi All,

Hope you've had a good weekend! It was pouring down with rain so the bbq last night was a bit of a nightmare! The dancing more than made up for it though and my friend loved her card!

I've made this one today, which covers a couple of challenges:

Stamp With Fun - I used their sketch

Scrappy Frogs - Under the Sea Theme

Stamp Something - Colour Theme of Pink Yellow and Green




Here's a close up of lovely Anya...


Here's how I made it...
Papers: DCWV spring stack.
Fabric Flowers from Stash, Mulberry ones from Prima.
Big Gems from stash. Mini Gems from Anitas
Stamp - Mermaid Anya from The Greeting Farm. I've coloured her with Twinking H2Os and for the 'pearls' in her hair I used Tulip Metallic Purple Fabric Glue.
Ribbon is from Stash too and I also used my Fiskars Sunflower Border Punch

Hope you like it!
xxx

I'm on a roll!

I've managed to get so many cards done this week, I have to admit I'm really pleased with myself!!

Here's the latest which also works for a couple of challenges:

Sketch Saturday - I used their sketch
Stampin' For the Weekend - Colour Theme of Strawberries dipped in chocolate.
Saturday Challenge - Use 3 Ribbons





Here's a close up of Anya



I made it by...
Papers - Brown patterned is Basic Grey, Stripy is Magical Moments AmyLynn's Afghan
Stamp - Miss Anya from The Greeting Farm, Painted with H2Os.
Edges are inked with Whispers Brown ink
Sentiment is hand written using sakura jelly roll glaze pen in black.
Card stock, brads and ribbons from stash.
Flowers are Prima
Gem is from John Lewis
I used my Martha Stewart Doily Lace Border Punch.

Off out now. Hope you like it! xxx

Dancing Anya

It's my friend's birthday on Saturday and we always go out dancing together so I thought it was the perfect excuse to get my ballerina Anya out :)

We also both love pink!!

I also thought I'd enter this card into a couple of challenges:
Stampin' for the Weekend - I used their sketch
Creative Card Crew - Ribbons
My Time To Craft - Theme of "Music To My Ears"
The Next Level - Buttons and Bows
Tanda Stamps - Dance The Night Away
Raspberry Ribbons - Circles
A Spoon Full of Sugar - Hearts

The lighting is rubbish here today but hopefully you can make out all the detail!.

Here's a close up of Anya

Here's how I made it:
Stamp - Ballerina Anya from The Greeting Farm. Coloured with H2Os and I've glittered her tiara using my sakura quickie glue pen and Doodlebug sugar coating glitter.
Papers - Polka dot papers are from Lili of the Valley.
- Hearts and shoes paper (just seen behind Anya) was a freebie.
- Pink grid paper is from Papermania Sweet Nothings Pad.
Ribbon is from Papermania Garden Floral Collection
Flowers are Prima and Brads are Making Memories Pastel Mini Brads.
Cardstock, Buttons, Gem and string are from stash.
I used my martha stewart doily lace border punch on the pink with white polka dot paper across the top and I used my white gel pen to add some extra detail to the scalloped circle. I then used my black gel pen to add some faux stitching to the circle Anya is sat on. Anya is attached with double sided sticky foam tape to give the card more dimension.

Hope you like it!

Happy Birthday Dad!

I'd love to say I managed to do 2 cards in one night, as well as spend 2 hours at the gym but it would be plain lie!

It's my dad's birthday in a couple of weeks so I've made him this card in preparation.

Hopefully he'll like!

After making it I realised it would even fit a couple of challenges (we all know I love challenges!)

Whimsy Stamps - Theme is Birthday
Daring Cardmaker - Use Blue and Green
Nutshells - Make a male card using blue and green





Here's how I made it:
Papers - Papermania Secret Garden.
Stamp - Lili of the Valley - "Moggi - Guess What?" and letters are Hero Arts Clear Design Pattern Alphabet
Moggi is coloured with H2Os
Letters are stamped with Teal and Turqoise Pigment inks from Colorbox Cat's Eye and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. They are stuck onto the card with 3d foam pads to give some dimension.
Card stock is from stash
Ribbon is from Dovecraft Muted Ribbons set
Gems are from John Lewis

Hope you like it!

xxx

First Christmas Card of the year

Evening All,

I made this card for the Moving Along with the Times Challenge. This week they have a DT call, fingers crossed for me please! - Their Challenge was a sketch with an optional c theme of Ice Blue & White.

The challenge over at Stamp Something this week is also Christmas, so this card works for there too!

The Creative Belli Challenge is texture - I used Doodlebug Crushed Velvet Flock (see below for more info)

The Papertake Weekly Challenge is "My favourite Things". I think Christmas is by far my favourite holiday, and the Martha Stewart Punch is definitely a huge favourite at the moment!


Here's a picture of the overall card



A close up of Anya



I've done her 'furry bits' with white doodlebug crushed velvet flock, you can kind of see the difference!



To make this card I used:
Stamp - from greeting farm, rain snow and shine anya, painted with H2Os and then doodlebug crushed velvet flock used for the 'white furry bits'
Papers - Dovecraft Winter Wonderland Pack 2008
Cardstock from stash
Embellishments:
Snowflakes from Paperchase, Reindeer from Paperchase, Ribbon and peel off from Stash.
And of course, I used my addictive new martha stewart doily lace border punch :)

Hope you like it! xxx

New Baby

Hi All,

Sorry not been in blogland much - the heat has been getting to me and I think I've managed to develop hay fever - itchy eyes and card making just dont mix!

Anyhow, I've managed to make a card tonight and it matches a couple of challenges too...

Simon Says Challenge - Lemon, orange, apple green and pink. Can do a combination of just two if you prefer.

Truly Scrumptious - I used their sketch

Just Magnolia - So Charming - we want to see some charms on your creations so dig your metal out and get creative!

Pile It On - Use 3 different embellishment types (I used flowers, charms and brads)

High Hopes - Lots and lots of polka dots! Well, there's the dotty background paper and the sunflowers arent technically dots but I'd say they count! There's dots on Tilda's trousers too!

Here's the card!



And a close of tilda holding the baby


Here's what I used:

The stamp is from Magnolia - "Tilda with Baby" I coloured her with twinkling H2Os.
Papers - Polka dot from Lili of the Valley, Sunflower is an old magazine freebie.
Cardstock is from stash, sentiment is hand written.
Flowers are prima paper flowers.
Brads are Making Memories pastel mini brads.
The cute little foot print charms are from Making Memories charmed baby pack.

Thanks for looking!

xxx

Check this candy out!

Joanne is giving away some awesome candy here, celebrating the first of hopefully many "Northern Retreats". Its definitely worth checking out!



Jacqui has some apprecation candy up for grabs! Look how good it is!



Ann is celebrating her blogoversary in style! This is just a tiny part of the candy you can win! Go over and check it out!


xxx

I'm so lucky!

Oh my goodness! The lovely people over at Moving Along with the Times have chosen me as one of their winners of their first challenge! I'm so excited!

Hopefully I'll have a card for you all later today.

xxx

My first venture into Miss Anya!

Hi All,

Well I was bad at the weekend and had a bit of a treat myself time, spent far too much money but am hiding the receipts so it'll stay our little secret! Among my purchases were the greeting farm's miss anya set. Have spent a few days playing with them and I love them already!!!

Here's a card I made with one, which also works for these challenges:
Moving Along with The Times - I used their sketch

Whimsy Stamps Challenge - Recipe challenge: We want you to create a project using 2 different patterned papers (or create your own papers with different techniques), 1 ribbon, and 3 embellishments such as brads, buttons, or flowers.

Creative Card Crew - Whatever the Weather

Stampin' For the Weekend - I used "Time of the Season - Zombies " as inspiration

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - Pink and Green








I coloured Anya with twinkling H2Os and used my sakura glaze pen in clear to highlight the buttons and her hair clip.

Oh, my other favourite new purchase is the MS doily border punch which you can see I've used here.
Papers are Laura Ashley prints for Dovecraft.
Ribbon is adhesive ribbon from making memories Kids Max set.
Flowers are prima fabric flowers.
Brads are making memories mini circle pastel ones.
I hand wrote the sentiment using my black sakura glaze pen and then back it on some pink paper, the same colour as the doily border.

Hope you like it! Pictures havent come out very well as I've got a rubbish camera and rubbish light!!!

xxx

More candy up for grabs!

Lorelie is celebrating over 100 sales on ETSY! These pearls are yummy!

Beth is celebrating the launch of The Next Level and being selected as one of their guest DT members for the next 8 weeksand for having almost reached the 5000 visitor mark. It's such good candy, I'd love to have those images, and that paper, well, really all of it! Haha!

Nutcrafters have some blog candy up for grabs, with 3 different prizes to give away!

1st - The Greetings Farm - Wild Things stamp set, Nutshells Tash, Ladybug and Friends Just Cozy and 15% off at http://www.nutcrafters.com/

2nd - Nutshells Music Mac, Nutshells Coco and 15% off at http://www.nutcrafters.com/
3rd - Nutshells Hazel with Bike and 10% discount at http://www.nutcrafters.com/

If they get to 200 followers by July 6th they're going to add a fourth mystery prize too!

XXX

Check this candy out!

Martine is giving away some awesome candy to celebrate becoming a Stampin Up demonstrator!

Its on until 12pm June 22nd UK time!



xxx

Tilda running!

Hi! I am actually really happy with this card! I made it for these challenges:

Just Magnolia - Paper Piecing

Our Creative Corner - Create a card/project using border punches

Roses on Paper - Participate in another blog's challenge AND be sure to incorporate FLOWERS.

Lili of The Valley - Paper Piecing

Simon Says Stamp - Celebration

ABC Challenge - S is for Summer

The Sweet Stop - I used their sketch







Papers are from sweet nothings stack by Papermania. Sentiment is also cut out from a page from the stack and I then embossed the letters using a sakura quickie glue pen to make them adhesive and then UTEE embossing powder.

I have used fiskars border punch on the lower edge of the horizontal paper piece.
Tilda's dress is pieced on and I've coloured the rest of her with twinkling h2os.

Flowers are paper flower from Prima, Gems are from stash.

Hope you like it!

xxx

Summertime fun!

Hi All,

Managed to make another card tonight! This card covers the following challenges

Daring Card Makers - "I want to see card creations using only sizzling hot yellow based colours"

Scrappy Frogs - "Fun in the sun"

Lili of the Valley - "Summer Fun"

Nutshells - "Summer Sunshine"

Stamp Something - I used their sketch.

Here's the card.

Updated to include materials:

The patterned papers are all freebies from a magazine. Card stock is from stash.

The image is from the the nutshells blog! Such a nice image to work with! She's painted with twinkling H2Os. The card stock she's backed on I punched flowers out of with a small fiskars flower punch.

Ribbon is dovecraft grosgrain ribbon. Sentiment is Lili of the Valley and I doodled a heart on the scalloped circle to match the heart from her skirt. Flower is a prima flower.

xxxx

Belli Challenge

Hi,

Not been in blog land for a while! Not been very well actually, so not even managed to craft much :(

Just made a father's day card though, used the sketch from the Creative Belli Challenge which also had the father's day theme!



Cardstock and gems are from stash. Backing paper is from dovecraft 6x6 masculine collection. The ship is mounted with 3d foam pads on a piece of card I chalked over and then spritzed with a bit of water to give a slight watercolour effect.
I hand drew the ship and used doodlebug velvet flock for the sails, pole and boat parts, then used doodlebug sugar coating for the little sail. Ribbon is from dovecraft. Sentiment is made from doodlebug simply sweet ladybug mini rub-ons.

Hope you like it!
xxx

2 Sketches 4 You 1st Annual Ultimate Card Showdown

Hi,

I came back from dancing the night (well, morning) away and was still full of energy so thought I'd make another wedding card. I chose the sketch from 2 sketches 4 you which is the 1st Annual 2 Sketches 4 You Ultimate Card Showdown!

Ended up being quite a quick card to make but I love the result and will definately do variations on it again! I just love how well this paper and stamp go together!!

Patterned paper is from the Papermania Sweet Nothings stack.
Card and adhesive heart were all from stash.
Stamp was a freebie from a magazine.
I used my new fiskars scalloped lace border punch for the brown cardstock and layered it over a piece of blue satin ribbon, it means it shimmers a bit in the light!
The birds were coloured with twinkling h2os.

Hope you like it!




xxxx

2 new cards for you!

I've got quite a few weddings coming up so thought I should make a start on cards for them.

Here's one I made today, it also works for these challenges

Allsorts Challenge - Curly Swirly - I've wrapped the rose stems around toothpicks to get them curl.

Daring Cardmakers - Take 5 - There are 5 mini pearls on the card - 4 on the paper and 1 on the bow wrapping the roses.

Polka Doodle - Sketch.





The lighting is a bit dark, hopefully you can see all the detail - I'll try and take some more tomorrow.
I'll also be back tomorrow to update on materials. I need to get this post out and off to bed, got to be up for work in 4 hours!!!

On to card number 2...
This also works for a few challenges
Charisma Cards - Going dotty - dotty ribbon, dotty flower, dotty paper used on present.
Penny Black Saturday Challenge - sketch
The Pink Elephant - Recipe : 3 buttons, 2 layers and 1 sentiment




Again, check back tomorrow for more info on how I made them etc!

Sorry for not being able to do it now!
xxxx

Summertime tilda card!

I am actually really quite happy with this card for once!
I've had these wooden adhesive 'bugs' for what seems like forever but they're really hard to actually use on cards without it looking really forced!



Here's an up close of the tilda


The Creative Card Crew challenge is "Pretty flowers", I do love these flowers! It was hard to part with them, lol!

The challenge on Whimsy Stamps this week is "Summer Fun". This card totally reminds me of summertime and I love how with the aperture, I've managed to get tilda to look like she's running right out of the card!

Just Magnolia has a challenge of "Animals and Insects"!


Tilda is coloured with twinkling h2os. The dots on her dress I highlighted with Sakura Glaze blue pen and did the same on her shoe buckle!
The tulips are felt ones I bought in John Lewis last year.
I cut 3 out which I'd drawn onto card (slightly smaller versions of the felt ones). Sprinkled their 'petal' part with doodlebug glitter and coloured their leaves and stalks with a sakura glaze pen in green. I then stuck these on the blue gingham and put tilda over the top of them, to try and give more of an impression that they're in the distance. Same with the small lady bird on the gingham and the big one on the felt tulip!
Sentiment is from the penny black "birthday wishes" set.
Flower is made if 3 different sized prima flowers.
Papers, pearl, insects and ribbons are from my stash.

Hope you like it! xxxx

Lovely Candy

Bev is celebrating 300,000 hits


Nutcrafters are giving away some candy (One lucky winner will receive 4 brand new Nutshells stamps from the new Summer collection, before the official release, and a selection of Imaginisce flowers.

Another card, another 3 challenges!

So, I've managed to get very little crafting done yet again this weekend! We had a bit of a 'horse' issue earlier. A horse managed to escape and was down the lane, but we didnt know where it had escaped to and it was heading towards the main road!! We rang the police but I dont think there's even much they can do about them! Just glad it didnt seem to cause an accident really!

Anyways, I've managed to get one card done for another 3 challenges.

Over on my time to craft, the challenge is "Pink to Make the Boys Wink".

Cute Card Thursday's challenge is "A bit of bling"

And I've used a sketch from lili of the valley thursday challenge

So, here's the card!



And a close up of the fairy...she's got little gems in two shades of pink stuck on the bottom of her dress and 2 clear ones on her antenna.



The stamp is lili's fairies - Primose. Coloured with h2os and then I used a sakura quickie glue pen to glitter her wings in 3 different colours from the doodlebug sugar coating glitter assortment.
The circles are two shades of yellow glitter card and then I've put some "dirty pink" vellum on top of the yellow swirly paper for the other 4 circles. I've also used the vellum over some white card for the square the fairy is sat on.

Hope you like it!

xxx

Some more candy offers!

Well, I havent managed to get any more crafting done yet. A friend came round to watch some films and eat junk food last night and I was really tempted to get off the sofa and start using the table in my lounge to do some cards!! Thought it would be a bit rude though so managed to resist!

I'm off for lunch with friends in a bit but just before I thought I'd let you know about some more candy that's on offer.

Nikki has some candy to try and get to 100 followers before 100 posts! Also, for every 50 she gets beyond that she's adding something else to the candy! Such a good idea!


Marlene has some candy up for grabs too! Those stamps would be such a treat!



xxx

Some More Candy for you all!

Nikki is celebrating 10,000 hits in here etsy store!

Wendy has some lovely candy on offer too!

Camilla has some lovely candy

Trak has some candy for her new website launch

Nilla has some great candy for celebrating her new blog layout.

Ok, my sweet tooth needs a break! Hopefully I'll be back on later with some new cards to show you :)

xxx

Another card for a couple of challenges

This card has taken me longer than I'd hoped (was hoping to get a few done tonight!) I used the colours over on The Colour Create Challenge and thought they'd be pretty easy but they turned out to be more of a challange than expected! The colours were Lemon, Pink Sorbet and Chocolate.

I followed the sketch on The Pink Elephant and the challenge on Scrappy Frogs this week was Fairies.

Some close ups of the Tildas

I really like the effect I managed by ruffling the ribbon around the edge of the semi circle. Whilst making the card I wasnt too confident I was going to like it, but now I think its one of my favourites this week!

Papers were free from magazines. Ribbons was from stash. I wrote on the ribbon with fabric paints.

I masked butterfly tilda when I stamped dragonfly tilda so it can look like they're holding hands.

I coloured them in with H2Os and then glittered their antenna and wings with doodle bug glitter and a sakura quickie glue pen (quickly becoming my favourite now tool I think!!)

xxxx