A Personal Touch

It must nearly be Christmas!!! I'm updating my blog!!

2011-11-28T08:43:00.001-08:00

Well its been so long since I posted I'd almost forgotten how to do it! I am still around! and making the occasional cards but to be honest card making has taken a bit of a back seat over the past year. I still enjoy making and creating but card making has always been more a hobby for me. Please leave me a comment at the end of this post, so I can see if anybody (other than you, Mum!) is still checking for updates!! LOL

I have recently been to my very first Stampin Up party! Through a friend, I found a demonstrator in my local area! Hooray and am even now considering hosting a party of my own. I am hoping that this gives me a kick start back into making cards! I am ashamed to say I have been and bought cards from the shops over the past few months too. So lazy.

I do have a few cards to share though, this being the most recent. I was asked to make a 1st Anniversary card, with the following requirements: to use;

Sheet Music "The Luckiest" by Ben Folds

A Photo of the happy couple on their wedding day

The Colour Purple as this was the theme of the Wedding

x2 Poems

and A Picture of Pooh Sticks Bridge

I printed the sheet music onto clear acetate and fixed it over the top of some thick iridescent vellum using purple brads. I printed the photo onto Bazzil criss cross white card ( it gives a canvas effect) which I then mounted and layered using more vellum and purple card. I've tied a nice satin bow around the bottom of the photo and added a purple adhesive stone to finish. The photo and pictures are all fixed with foam pads so they stand out. The x2 poems are adhered to the back of the card together with a personalised message.

I'm not going to push it so will leave it at just the one card for today! I'll be back soon with some more updates! I Promise!

Zoe

Shabby Chic & Quickutz Butterflies

2011-07-07T07:53:00.000-07:00

This is my second version of this card! And I like this one a little more than the last! The papers are part of the Pink Petticoat Vintage Florals set, which came free in a magazine! I absolutely love them! I've kept the layout of the card quite simple. The sentiment is computer generated and cut out with my trusty old nestabilities! This time I've added a bow of blue gingham ribbon instead of the pink I used last time, which I think stands out a bit better.
I've used my quickutz die for the butterflies! a very good buy! I use it quite a lot! and I've stuck them on with foam pads and added lots of little blue adhesive stones, to make them stand out.

Thanks for looking.

Zoe

xxx

Mishka Mooshka Mickey Mouse

2011-07-03T07:50:00.000-07:00

This card was made by request! My oldest, Adam, put his order in for his own birthday card when I was busy making the pink 30th birthday card a while back!!! This one is from his brother, James! For the faces, I found a colouring page which I've printed off onto a skin tone coloured piece of card. I've then cut out of the template, the eyes, nose and the black part of the mouth. I've used my nesties to cut out the circles. I drew on Minnie's eyelashes and made her a bow from my ribbon stash! Its amazing how easily Mickey was transformed into a Minnie!

My Baby Boy is 5 Today!!!

2011-07-03T06:58:00.000-07:00

Where has that time gone? Well there really was no doubt about what to put on his card! He is absolutely 100% Disney Cars obsessed and what with the next movie due to be released on 22nd July I decided to "Cars 2" theme the card! I did a quick google search for some images and found this fantastic image. The Cars 2 movie is about a world series Grand Prix. On this picture from left to right is Tokyo, London & Paris and they all merge into eachother. I decided to split it into three and came up with this 3 page card. I printed two copies so that I could cut out and layer on the main characters.

I can't wait to see his reaction when he opens this!

Happy Birthday Adam!!!

Forever Friends Daddy Card

2011-06-29T07:54:00.000-07:00

I made this card quite recently for a friend. The Lettering is all cut out by hand and then mounted on foam pads. I've used the same teal spotty paper for the inside of the balloons to tie it all together. The sentiment was printed directly onto the card. I scanned in the Forever Friends bear onto the computer and then I've mirrored it and printed it off, so that I have them facing in different directions.I recently made a similar "Dad" version for Father's Day too.

Thanks for looking.

Zoe

xxx

Diamond Anniversary

2011-06-29T06:43:00.000-07:00

This card is very much inspired by Deb's! Thank You!! Again!! I've just bought this leafy fern punch and this was my first time using it! I've seen it used on so many cards and have admired it for ages! I've made a few Diamond Anniversary cards before, but I felt the need to try something a bit different this time. I've made this a gate fold card. Under the sentiment, I've added a small piece of velcro so it can be stuck down to look flatter. The card is still able to stand when closed. I love the simplicity of the white on white, with just a small amount of matt silver card.I hope to make more like this one!

Zoe

xxx

Father's Day Cards

2011-06-28T09:30:00.000-07:00

I've been really busy working on Father's Day cards over the past couple of weeks. I decided to try out my Elzybells DIY bear for the first time. I chose quite a simple layout, and I think this is my favourite layout of the moment! lots of layers! The sentiment is computer generated. The papers are Making Memories.

I've also used the same layout to come up with this golf card too. I've used my cuttlebug embossig folder to emboss the golf ball, and I've then mounted it with foam pads.

I think this pringle style paper was part of a Shabby Princess kit. I'ts great! I use it on quite a lot of my masculine cards! Especially the Golf ones! This is yet another golfing card, this time using the Cuddly Buddly Country Gents image. I've changed the colour of his trousers as they were green on the downlaoded image. Again, I've used the cuttlebug folder to create an golf ball effect behind him. The sentiment is again a computer generated one which I've cut out using my nestabilities.

Thanks for looking.

You've been Snookered!

2011-06-15T06:38:00.000-07:00

This is another card I've made as a Father's Day Card. I was asked to do a snooker themed card. As I dont have any snooker related images and stamps, I decided to have a go at piecing one together! Easier said than done! It took a little while to get the first one right! So I ended up making 3 all at once so now I've got a few spares for the future! Forward Planning! It was only after I'd finished the card that I decided to make a cue to sit on top too. That was the easy part! I'm really pleased with how this turned out, so much so, that it's got a post all to itself! Lol. To make it stand out a bit more, I've simply mounted it onto a piece of black card. The sentiments are little self adhesive wooden scrabble like peices. I bought a few sets of these YEARS back when I first got into card making. Each sheet has a full alphabet of square and a full alphabet of circles too. This is in fact the first time I've ever used them! See even if you don't use things straight away, one day they will be perfect for something!

Thanks for looking.

James the Engine

2011-06-13T00:26:00.000-07:00

I made this card back in February for my little boy James's first birthday! This was the first idea I had for the card for him. I'd done the Thomas the Tank Engine framed picture before, so I thought I'd have a go at turning James the Engine into a card. I bought him a James T-shirt too! This card is a large A4 size card, not my usual, but this was for someone special!! I have used a colouring page i found on the internet as a template and I've printed out the face onto grey card. There are lots and lots of foam pads on this card! I've tried to give it as much dimension as possible. I'm hoping to find a nice frame to fit and will be hang this up on his bedroom wall. Thanks for looking.

Little Red Tractor

2011-05-31T07:56:00.000-07:00

Well with school holidays, I've found I've got a little more time on my hands, so the perfect opportunity to have a sit down at the computer! I've tried making a card today, but that hasn't gone well, so for now I've given up!

I made this simple kids card a few months back. I knew what I wanted to do when I thought of a Tractor card. The sentiment and the stitching are both computer generated and printed directly onto the card. I found a template for the tractor on Google and have cut it out using some red Bazzill Cardstock. I've then added some buttons and red thread to the black wheels to add a bit of dimension. The tractor is on a couple of layers of foam pads to really make it stand out from the card.I think I'll have a little play with this one and see if I can make it a bit more interesting. I may just run the tyres through my checker plate embossing folder?

Mickey & Minnie Mouse

2011-05-18T05:43:00.001-07:00

I was recently asked to make a 30th Birthday card featuring Mickey & Minnie Mouse. I had a quick browse for some inspiration and I saw some really cute Minnie & Mickey heads which had simply been made using no more than a couple of circles punches! My kind of crafting! I decided to have a go myself and have made a little bow for Minnie's head. I've gone round the edge of each with a silver pen creating a faux stitched effect. Another request that was to have lots and lots of stars on it. So again out came my star punches, lots of adhesive stones and voila! I look forward to making some more of these! My son has put in his order for his 5th Birthday, he said he wants a big Mickey Mouse Card. I'm sure I can conjour one of those up!

My First Digistamp Boutique Purchase! meet Alf!

2011-05-16T05:15:00.000-07:00

Yes I've finally gone and done it, and have made my first purchase at Digistamp Boutique, although now I've started I fear I might not be able to stop. I've seen this image used a few times whilst browsing the DoCrafts gallery. His name is Alf and I think he has a mischeivous look about him! I have to say I had to open a can of lager to make this card! I didn't consume any though, but I really wanted to use a ringpull! I have since asked people to save them for me! This is also the first time out for this cute little bear from Elzybells. I bought up quite a few stamps in the closing down sale. I coloured the bear in but then I really struggled with what to do for the background. I didnt want to leave it white, so I got out my chalks, which dont come out very often and have attempted a background. I'm not very good at colouring and it really frustrates me. I dont really have the patients for it. I've got quite a lot of fathers day cards I need to get working on. Most of them will be Golf themed! which is lucky as I have a few images and some Quickutz dies. I have also been asked to make a snooker themed card, so I'll have to get my thinking cap on for that one as I dont have any snooker stamps/images. Does anybody know if there is a snooker digistamp? Whilst on the theme of Father's Day, DotComGiftShop have sent me a full english plate from their Father's Day Gift range.Its fab! I think I'll let my boys give it to their Daddy! I think I might theme his card around this too! as he's not really into sports other that Formula 1 and motor racing, and every card I make for him seems to be centred around that. He does however, enjoy a good breakfast!

Thanks for looking!

Woohooo...I'm back again!

2011-05-02T01:56:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more cards that I made at the end of last year. I've used the same layout for each of them, and again have gone through and used up some more scraps. The first is my favourite. I love the black & yellow. I think the spotty paper is Basic Grey, Ambrosia. I've made this set with "Men" in mind. I find them quite difficult to make for! I absolutely love this spotty paper! It appears on quite a few of my cards! Its from the Shabby Princess set, Festival. I've matched it with some green strip paper from My Minds Eye.

And finally, this one is made using some more Basic Grey paper, from the Ambrosia set. The sentiment is my best value sentiment stamp! It came from a Studio G 99p set and I use it all the time. I'd hate to think what I'd do if I lost it or it perished! I have looked for a spare just in case but can't one anywhere!

Thanks again for looking.

and here's the male version of the previous card!

2011-04-30T07:51:00.000-07:00

I've chosen to use the same layout as before with this card only this time I've used less circles! Lol! It's given me a chance to use up a lot of the scraps of card. I've also had these mini eyelets hanging around for a while so was a good opportunity to use a few of those up too!

I've used my favourite "kraft" card as the base for all of these cards, and have finished each one off with a Craftwork Cards sentiment. I had quite a lot of scraps! so I've repated this one a few times! My favourite was a black & grey version, but I seem to have sold that one without taking a photo of it first! oopsWell that's two posts in one day! I'm not sure what's come over me. I think I might need to go and have a lay down now! Hopefully it won't be too long before I get back as I've got a few more that I'd really like to share!

Surprise...Surprise...I am still here!

2011-04-30T07:16:00.001-07:00

Although I'm not sure that there will be anybody out there to read this?! I am still making cards! and I have quite a few to share with you, but I just don't often get the time to sit down and blog. So I'd better get on with it while I have the chance!
I actually made these cards towards the end of last year! I really like making cards that use just a few punches and nestabilities in this case. I really could do with some nesting circle punches though! It took me ages to punch out all of these circles in 3 different colours! Something else to add to the ever growing shopping list! Although I do enjoy making cards using rubber stamps and digi images, I find it more satisfying coming up with cards like this.

I think these flower punches are probably my favourite "embellishment of the moment" and they seem to be appearing on a lot of my cards. So there may still be a few more to come! I've also made a male version of this card which I'll show you later! (I hope!) If not, see you in a month or so, lol! Anyway thats it for this post, thanks for stopping by and looking.

Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year!

2011-01-16T08:34:00.000-08:00

I know it's a bit late! Lol So far this year I've only made one card! and that was a copy of an old one too! Card making is taking a bit of a back seat at the moment but I have still got a few that I made back last year that I need to share with you.

I was asked to make this Wedding card with the theme being Peter Pan & Tinkerbell with butterflies and the colours were to be Purple & White. I have to say a big THANK YOU to Kerry for inspiring me with this card, otherwise I don't quite know what I'd have done! It was becoming a bit of a challenge!

It all turned out well in the end though, I'm told the couple really loved the card!

2010-12-20T01:13:00.000-08:00

Good morning, it's a bit nippy here this morning! -8 outside as I type! Thank heavens there is no school run this morning! I do hope my Tesco's delivery is still able to get through though! We had a fair bit of snow fall here on Saturday. I'm also hoping that my sister-in-law is going to be able to make it over for Christmas! She's supposed to be flying in from Los Angeles to Heathrow on Wednesday! I really hope they get things moving soon!

Anyway, as I have a day in the house today, I thought I'd start it by sharing a few of the Christmas Cards I made for my Craft stall last weekend, which was a great success! The pint's of socks and the cookie jars seemed to go down really well! as did my packs of Snowman soup! I didn't quite manage to sell everything, so the bits I do have left over, I will be giving as gifts! No waste! I have to say that I've made very few Christmas cards this year. I have even copied some of the one's I made last year as the inspiration wasn't very forthcoming!

So, onto my first card. This was made as a request for a friend who'd seen my new Elzybells stamp set! In order to use the images of the boy & girl I decided that I would incoroporate them into an Xmas bauble! I really love the colours of this card. Something a little different!

I wanted to make a Santa Suit style card last year, but never got around to it, so it was one of my first makes this time! I had some lovely thick black ribbon in my box and I've cut out the buckle by hand to fit the ribbon. A couple of foam pads here and there and a few black buttons to finish! I think I may give these to my boys this year!

I've made this card using my new Elzybells Reindeer Stamp, and my faveourite layout of the moment! I love the combination of red & brown on Christmas Cards!

This is my favourite from last year, my punched penguin!Followed by the hand cut reindeer! I got the idea & template for him out of one of the craft magazines.Another punched character, Santa!

And finally, a punched Robin!

I may well be back with another blog update this week! I'm certainly in no rush to go out! Luckily I've managed to do most of my Christmas shopping so can snuggle up in the warm with my boys! I will leave you with a snowy picture of my garden! Take care, and have a lovely Christmas if I don't get back on!

Craft Fair Tomorrow....a long post but lots of goodies!

2010-12-10T16:55:00.001-08:00

It's about 1.00am on Saturday. I've just finished preparing for my craft fair tomorrow, so thought I would come on and share the rest of my creations! I've really enjoyed making the gifts this year, more so that cards. I would like thank Helen at It's All Fiddle Fart for giving me so much inspiration, and also to Lisa over at A Day in the Life of a Craft Fairy

I was inspired to make this jar of cookie mix after seeing it on Splitcoast Stampers last year, but never got round to it then. I came across some of these wonderful Kilner Jars whilst shopping in Asda a few weeks ago, and they were just £1 each! For a huge 1l Jar! I bought about 10 of them! I know Tescos/Hobbycraft are selling them for £2.50 each! I found a good recipe here which is perfect for this size jar. I have layered in the ingreedients and made a simple label for the jar. I don't think it needs any more decoration. The pretty layers do all the work! I have baked up a batch and will be taking a few tasters along to display alongside the jars! I bought a few boxes of the festive peanut M&M's. I didnt know what to do with them, so I ate a box. Afterwards, I had a flash of inspiration to make some of these sour cream pouches. I've never made them before and was amazed at how easy they are to make and how effective they are. I've used Doodlebug Christmas Doodles paper and have then added an eyelet and a ribbon, so that they can be hung from the Christmas Tree. I'm kind of hoping these don't all sell!

I found a couple of cute stumpy candles in the 99p shop, which I decided that this year I would decorate and embellish rather than sticking to the stamped candles which I made last year. I invested this year in a roll of Cello wrap from hobbycraft which I think makes displaying them a lot more appealing!

These are my little Elizabeth Shaw chocolate mint's which I've made using some of the Pink Petticoat Mini Christmas images. Sadly though I don't have the nesting punches, so each one of these has been cut using my nestabilities, one at a time! It did take a long time to make them, but I think it was worth it in the end!

This is a mini chocolate bar which came in a pack of 4 from Tesco's. I decided to re-cover them using my lovely sparkly red glitter paper and made a little santa belt for them using some black ribbon and a gold buckle. I've had that punch in my drawer for a long time and I think this is the first time I've used it! I have made a couple of green one's too, so Santa has his little Elf!

The next idea, I got from Little Pudding's Nappy Cakes blog, which I thought was a fab idea! Again, on my trip around Asda I decided that I would have a go at making some of these. I picked up a pack of 4 pint glasses at £0.88p!!! A pack of 4 white Asda value flannels and a pack of basic men's black socks. This was so simple and easy to make, It took me mintues to make all of them! I then searched a few blogs and found one (sorry cant' rember who) that had attached the beer drinkers version of the Lords Prayer as the tag. I've wrapped them in cello wrap and added a little black snowflake to the card, just to Christmasify it a bit! Although they would be great for any occasion!

As If I hadn't had enough the first time round, I decided to make more of the Elizabeth Shaw style mints, only this time I decorated them as Christmas Puddings after seeing the post on Helen's blog. They took a lot longer to make than I'd imagined too! I must remember next time!

If you have managed to get to the end, then thanks for reading and I hope that these may inspire you as the did me!

Chocolate Snowballs in re-cycled baby food jars!

2010-12-07T01:01:00.000-08:00

Last Christmas, I used re-cycled baby food jars for my craft fair. I decorated them and put a little tealight candle inside. This year, as I have my own baby, and lots and lots of baby food jars, I decided to use them to put sweets/chocolate in. I managed to pick up a few bags of chocolate snowballs. Here is the finished product!I've stamped the image using part of an Elzybells set. The paper edged around the edge of the lid is Doodlebug winter asterisks as is the ribbon. I made the little label on the computer. I hope they go down well!

Reindeer Noses

2010-12-03T23:47:00.000-08:00

I've finally got round to photographing some of the items I've made for my Christmas Craft Stall. Here is the first, my Reindeer Noses. I first saw this idea on Splitcoast Stampers. I love the idea of the 8 brown and then the 1 red (Rudolph's!) nose! The brown one's are Malteesers, and unfortunately some of them did not pass quality control so had to be eaten! The red noses are bubblegum, which I found in a set from Poundland! I couldnt actually find anything else which was the same size as the malteesers and red. I did buy a pack of chocolate "Reindeer Noses" from Morrisons, but when I opened the pack they were more orange in colour than red so I decided not to use them.

I've used my nestabilities labels one die to make the bag topper. The reindeer is stamped using part of an Elzybells stamp.

I will be back shortly to show some of the other bits I've made.

Thanks for looking.

A Handsome Prince?

2010-11-25T01:00:00.000-08:00

Here is a card I made a while back using my first Elzybells stamp. I am so sad that Elzybells is no more ;-( I took advantage of the closing down sale though and bought as many stamps as my husband would allow! This is probably one of my favourites though.I made this card 3 times! we've had a few little girls birthday parties! and I thought it would make my life easier to give them all the same card!I've paper pieced the dress using some papers from a Papermania set. I've used glamour dust to create a shimmer on the water which really lifts the card. I stamped some pink and white flowers onto some kraft card to make the background paper and to finish have added some punched flowers and adhesive stones!

I've been busy beavering away in my craft room over the past couple of weeks, getting ready for my craft fair at the beginning of December. Can't wait to share some of my makes with you all!

Back soon!

DotCom Gift Shop Product Review - Christmas Boxes!

2010-11-17T06:24:00.001-08:00

I was delighted to be contacted a few weeks ago and asked if I would review some products from http://www.dotcomgiftshop.com/ The parcel I received contained the following.

A set of 6 brown paper boxes with ribbon, brown paper tags and yuletide deacoupage images. The largest box is 8 x 19 x 13cm and the smallest box is 5 x 8.5 x 6cm.

These boxes are going to be really useful, coming up to Christmas! So far I've decorated a 3 of them. I've been a bit pushed for time just lately, my 9 month old is keeping me very busy! (only reason I'm on here is because he's having nap!) So I still have 3 left to have a play with! I really like the look of the brown paper on the boxes, so I've tried to keep the design really simple by stamping some images on them and then I have simply edged the ribbon around the lid of the box.

The set also contains a huge back of very traditional images. Personally, they are not to my taste, but they would be great for making gift tags/embellishments. They are not really what I would consider to be decoupage images, only a few in the set had smaller matching images which when I tried to layer them, they didn't match up. They would be great to use as individual embellishments with foam pads though. This set is currently half price at only £2.95! A great buy! Well worth the money for the boxes alone! http://www.dotcomgiftshop.com/yuletide-images-s6-paper-boxes

I've used this Set of 6 vintage style christmas ribbons to decorate the boxes. These ribbons are absolutely gorgeous! The base is a cream twill and the colours and patterns are very traditional. Really luxurious! I really love them. Each ribbon approximately 150cm long. My favourites are the pale green stars and the mittens/stockings! And finally, a pack of 12 traditional christmas 3d stickers. These little stickers are really lovely, although I've not had a chance to make anything with them as yet. They are 3d stickers in the postage stamp style! They are embellished with glitter and a few adhesive stones. They would be great for making gift tags and cards with. They are a great mix of colours, with traditional reds and greens but also some pink and blues too.

A little something for a little someone!

2010-10-29T14:29:00.000-07:00

I decided last week that I would make a picture for my friend's little boy who we went to visit on Monday. Obviously he's Thomas mad and his bedroom is Thomas themed so it wasn't hard deciding what theme to use! The 12 x 12 box frame was a purchase from Wilkinson's for approx £7.00. They were a good £14.99 in Hobbycraft last time I looked!I have used a colouring page as a template for Thomas. I printed out his face onto grey card and then paper pieced the white of his eyes and the mouth. The rest of Thomas is all individually cut out in sections, edged with ink and taped together. It did take quite a while but I think it was worth it! I've used quite a lot of foam pads as I wanted to give it as much depth as I could. I made the background paper using one of the standard patterns in paint shop pro. The train track around the edge is printed onto acetate and then fixed to some yellow ribbon with the eyelets.
I wasn't quite sure what to do with the background, so in the end decided to go with the simplest idea of some grass hills! I've made a couple of tickets, which I've personalised and mounted. I wasn't quite sure where to stick them. Spent ages moving them around, in the end I just had to stick them down, but I think they ended up in the best place! To finish it off, I've used my sizzix alphabet to cut out his name, which I've then layered and cut out by hand! I then stuck the name onto the frame itself rather than adding it to the picture.

A slightly early Gruffalo Halloween!

2010-10-27T13:35:00.000-07:00

Good evening! I thought I'd pop on and quickly this evening as I wanted to share with you my latest creation. My Gruffalo Pumpkin! I took my boys to a Halloween event this afternoon in our local community centre where they had a a few tables with crafts, cakes etc. There was also a pumpkin carving competition. My 4 year old wasn't atall interested in helping carve or empty the pumpkin. He didnt want to put his hands in the slime! I spent last night looking for an idea. I've made Ghosts, Bats, Spiders and a vampire in the past. I wanted to stick to something quite simple this year. Last year's went a bit wrong! I ended up holding it together with wire! My son seems to have a bit of an obsession for The Gruffalo at the moment, so I thought I would indulge him! Funnily enough, there's not many Gruffalo pumpkin carving templates on the internet. I did however, manage to find a mask template, which is what I used to create my Gruffalo face!And here is the handsome fella! I'm actually really pleased how he turned out, and how simple he was to carve. There were a few extra details I could have carved out, but for fear of totally ruining it, I held back and kept it simple! He seemed to go down really well, my little boy absolutely loves him! I even won a bottle of wine for my efforts!
Here is a pic of my boys all dressed up in their glow in the dark matching outfits!

I have another pumpkin which I plan on carving for Sunday night. Think we will just go for a silly face next time though!

Thanks for stopping by.

Birthday Candles

2010-10-24T14:20:00.000-07:00

Well I thought I'd try something different and this is what happened! I'm not sure where the inspiration came from for this card! It seems to have worked out well though. Well this was the second attempt at it! The first attempt is the second card, my least favourite! I started out by making my own candle template so that I could cut them all the same! For the first card I've used My Mind's Eye Papers, another recent favourite of mine! I've added some faux stitching to all the edges. The sentiment is from a 99p studio G stamp set! That was so worth the money! I dont have many sentiment stamps and I use this one all the time, as you may have noticed, lol! Adding the buttons to this card was a bit of an after thought, but I think they work well.

I think I'll have a go at making this card in some girly papers too.

Thanks for looking.

Handmade Paper Flowers

2010-10-20T12:16:00.000-07:00

Just a quickie for tonight. I made this card a couple of weeks ago for a lady. It's the only female card I've made just recently. I've been concentrating on making men's cards as I struggle to get inspired. Women's cards seem to be much easier!This paper was part of a free download set from Tinker & Co. I really love these colours at the moment. I've made the flower myself using my nestabilities and an embossing tool. I inherited quite a lot of handmade papers a while ago, but never really used them. They are perfect for making flowers with though. To finish I've added a Craftwork Cards sentiment on foam pads, to the middle of the flower and a few teal adhesive stones. I might make some more like this! It only took a few mins to make too!

Stacked Presents Collection

2010-10-19T06:45:00.000-07:00

Now I'm back into "Cardmaking Mode" again, I've decided to do what my husband told me to do a long time ago and make several of the same design of card all at the same time. My problem is I make one card and spend too much time thinking about it and moving things around. So with this set I've used the same design and just used different papers.This was my first attempt, I wanted to go for a very basic look. I've used DCWV Rockstar foiled cardstock to create the presents. They are mounted on foam pads to add a bit of depth, onto a plain white card, eek!
This is version two! My preferred choice as you can tell by the next two cards that follow! I've used some Kraft card for the base layer. The papers are a download, I really love these colours. The sentiment is from a Hero Arts set.These cards are great for using up scraps of paper! I have had this Making Memories set in my drawer for quite a couple of years now. Nice to see it finally getting used!And the final one, although I'm not too keen on the orange ribbon. I have straightened it up since I took the photo though! lol

Thanks for looking.

My Second Nappy Cake

2010-10-14T13:32:00.000-07:00

I really struggled for inspiration when shopping for this nappy cake. All the colours in the shops, were pink, pink, pink and pink and more pink, no lovely bright colours, so this was my best choice of all the pinks! and this is what I came up with. The little comforter on top has a cute brown bear hugging a pink blanket. I've taken this as it was the only other colour and found some ribbon to match which I've added to the top and middle tiers. These nappy cakes make such a wonderful gift, I don't know of a new mum who wouldn't love to get one! I got a real sense of achievement once it was all finished! The recipient was absolutely thrilled with it, I'm pleased to say! I'd love to make these more often, but they do work out to be quite expensive.

For Mum...

2010-10-11T14:29:00.001-07:00

I made this card for my Mum's birthday back at the begining of September. I made it shortly after the Hawaiian card on my previous post. Its the first time I made these 3 page cards. I have used Summer Drigg's papers on this card and my trusty flower punches! The letters were cut by hand.

I also made this card for my step-dad to give to my mum. The papers and roses are Basic Grey, I've had them in my drawer for a long time but never wanted to cut them! I've added a few punched butterflies, some silk roses and a few pearls to finish.Thanks for looking.

Kraft Cardstock....what do you use?

2010-10-11T13:55:00.000-07:00

Two posts in one day!! Another stash related post tonight. I've been using a lot of Kraft cardstock on my cards recently and just wondered what you all use. I've seen on a few different blogs, some people use parcel paper and old packaging. I have been using these folders which I bought from Staples

I think the pack I got had 200 in. If using them as a base layer for a card, I would say you could get 4 cards out of each, so all in all for about £5 you are getting a serious amount of cardstock! Anyway, just thought I would share that info!

Bye for now!

***EDITED*** Just a quick note to say that this Kraft is thin, I always layer it on top of a white base card. It's cheaper that way and lasts twice as long too! I wouldn't use this sort as the card blank itself, its not strong enough.

A Great Buy!!! .....DCWV Paper Stacks

2010-10-11T09:07:00.000-07:00

I recently went to the Coleman Craft Warehouse we have here in Northants, just for a look, as you do! and discovered these 8x8" DCWV paper stacks, reduced from £15.99 to £8.99! I thought that was a fantastic buy! The Just for Boys one is fantastic, most of the papers are embossed and glazed. I love the plum colours to the Latte set.The also found these two scrapbook in a stack kits which were just £2.99 each! I thought they were worth that just for the plain card in the back! . There were lots more sets reduced too, but my husband wouldn't let me get anymore. I may have to take another trip backAnyway, just thought I'd share my find with you all. Back soon with more cards! I promise!

I'm Back...for a while at least!

2010-10-08T13:52:00.000-07:00

My big boy Adam has started school now and all of a sudden I feel I've got a lot more free time on my hands! although I've still got James to look after! I thought I'd take the opportunity to get back on track and make a few cards.This card was made for an order for a lady who was having a Hawaiian themed party. I decided to use Beach Babe Lola from Pink Petticoat and have hand cut her a grass skirt! The papers are a Shabby Princess download. The numbers were cut out by hand as were the flowers which have been embellished with glamour dust and adhesive stones.

I have made a few cards now, so hopefully I can start updating regularly. I'm going to save some and not blog them all at once! I hope there might still be some people out there who will come and read my blog! Its been so long.

Goodbye pre-school and Thank You!

2010-07-24T08:06:00.000-07:00

Well my little boy has officially finished at his pre-school now. He doesn't start BIG school until 16th September! as he's only just turned 4 and they stagger them starting by age here. So I now have him and his 5 month old brother to amuse for the next 8 weeks! arrghh!! I wanted to make each of the ladies a little treat as a Thank You from Adam. I was very much inspired by some idea's found here on Mandy Gill's blog quite a while ago. I have made each lady a notepad and matching treat bag containing a few choccies. Each notepad is personalised with their name and was cut out using my Sizzix Naturally Serif alphabet.
The little ladybugs are simply made using a few circle punches and a decorative swirl punch for the antennae. The black spots are just holes punched in the red card and then stuck onto a black circle. Much easier than trying to stick spots on!. I've made a smaller version for the treat bags.The sentiment stamp was from a Hero Arts set.
I packaged them all up in white paper bags and made matching personalised gift tags too! I made Adam give them all out, not sure I'd have been able to hold it together! It was very emotional!

Happy 4th Birthday Adam!!!

2010-07-12T06:41:00.000-07:00

Following on from my last post, it was my son's 4th Birthday on 3rd July, and we've just had his party this weekend. I decided after seeing the idea on the Disney website to have a go at making these Toy Story Alien cupcakes. They turned out really well. I made 30 in all. The icing was a bit fiddly but worth the effort. I was glad when they were all done!I also made my own Toy Story party maze games, by buying a pack of 8 from the local pound shop and replacing the picture inside with a Toy Story image! The Birthday Boy! We spent his Birthday Weekend in the Caravan at The Waddington Airshow! We had a fab weekend, especially watching the Vulcan and The Red Arrows!Still not much cardage to report on though sadly. I'm getting a bit more time now so am having the odd dabble here and there!

A Couple More....

2010-06-28T15:05:00.000-07:00

The chicken pox have gone! My oldest is at pre-school for another hour and James is fast asleep in his car seat after his mean mummy took him for his immunisations this morning! So I thought I'd take the opportunity to show my only recent cards! Here is a quick Father's Day card I made using a simple layout. The papers were part of a Shabby Princess set. I have made the sentiment myself using Paint Shop Pro, inspired by the Stampin up Fathers day stamp.This Anniversary card is for a friend. I love making this style of card. Its so elegant and looks great in all colours!

More Cards! This is becoming a bit regular now :-)

2010-06-28T14:52:00.000-07:00

It's my little boy Adam's 4th Birthday this Saturday!!! Where does the time go? We have decided to have Toy Story themed party this year and I've made him this Toy Story Card. I think this style of card is known as a stepper? The back section measures approx 7"x7". I've made the papers myself using paint shop pro and borrowed a few of the images from Google! The front and middle section I've tried to make look like the floor and the skirting boards. I hand cut the bunting which turned out to be a bit fiddly but was pleased when it was finally stuck down! I hope he likes it!
Another Stepper card, but this time for Daddy for Fathers' Day. Again I made the background paper in paint shop pro using a single banana image which I Googled. The little monkey's are stickers by Sandylion. I've had them in my drawer for approx 3 years! Thought it was about time the saw some daylight!And another Stepper! I'm liking these cards at the moment, had you noticed! This time for my friend to give to her little girl on her 2nd Birthday. She's a big Winnie The Pooh fan! The background paper is from a DCWV stack. I did the name by printing in reverse on the back of the patterned paper and then just cut it out and mounted it onto some more coordinating paper.I feel like I'm getting back into the swing of things now! James is settled into a routine now, and sleeps through the night! Adam is at pre-school most days and starts BIG school this september! So by then I'll probably have lots more cards to show!

Thanks for looking! I'm off to enjoy the sunshine for a few days in my caravan now!

Hello, I'm back with something new!

2010-06-13T08:21:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody! Well its been quite a while since my last post. James is nearly 4 months old now and growing well! He and his brother both have Chicken Pox so I'm in for a rocky few days. I'm making the most of Dad being at home today so thought I'd give you a little update. I've not been making cards except for the odd one or two I've needed for myself. I have however had a go at a few different types of craft. First of all this Nappy Cake. It was a joint venture between myself and a friend. I didn't imagine before we started that it would turn out to be quite this good! I'm so happy with it and I hope the lady who received it is as thrilled as we both were!It was my step-dad's 70th Birthday last week and as a surprise I decided that I'd have a go at making him a cake. He is a big fan of aircraft especially the Vulcan Bomber. I've not made any cakes before, other than fairy cakes and the odd chocolate banana loaf so this was quite ambitious for me! He was really happy with it, and I'm really glad I made the effort. It was a little rough round the edges, but at least you can tell what its supposed to be! lolI also made a matching card! The little Vulcan on the card is all hand crafted and each piece of camouflage was cut out individually! Again, he loved it so it was well worth the effort!
I need to get working on some Father's day cards this week, and also It's my sons 4th Birthday in 3 weeks so I need to get working on something special for him too!

Thanks for looking!

I'm still here and I've made a card!

2010-03-25T06:58:00.000-07:00

Well I'm afraid I've not been up to much in the card making sense over the past four weeks! I've mainly been chaning nappies, feeding and taking my oldest to pre-school! I have however, got something to show you! I made a few of these little baby cards to send as Thank You notes to a couple of friends who were kind enough to buy a gift for baby James. The paper is from a DCWV stack which I thought was perfect. I've had it in my drawer for about 2 years and this is the first time I've used it. I've made a frame for the picture using my nestabilities and some Bazzill Cardstock. For something so quick and simple, its taken me 3 weeks to get round to making them! And another card! This was a joint venture with my friend, her Grandma is 100 today!!! A big Happy Birthday to you!!! We made this an A4 sized card and the main feature was to be the photograph of the lady herself and her two grandchildren. To make the frames I've used the scalloped Nestabilities and have embossed them with the swiss dots folder. I've added a strip of embossed card to the bottom of the card and a piece of lace which makes adds a touch elegance! I then used my x-cut flower punches and placed a small pearl in the centre of each flower. I really hope she likes it and that she has a fantastic celebration with her family!

I thought I'd share one of my recent pictures of my boys with you! This is my favourite of the two of them together! I'm not quite sure how we managed to get them both to sit so nicely for this photo, we just got lucky! I've got them in matching outfits too!

Thanks for stopping by, and Thank you for all the kind messages on the arrival of James! I hope to be back into the swing of things again soon and have some more cards to share.

Introducing....James Arthur Robson!!!

2010-03-03T12:45:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to confirm the safe arrival of my baby boy, James Arthur Robson. He was born on 22nd February and weighed in at 6lb 14oz. I was told by the midwife he'd be bigger than my last baby who was 8lb 2oz so when they told me he was only 6lb14oz I was really shocked. He is an exact copy of his big brother when he was born, only a little smaller. Its like having the same baby all over agian! The c-section wasn't quite as straight forward as I'd have liked, and my recovery has been a bit slow compared to last time, but I'm starting to feel human again, and ventured into the outside world today for the first time since coming home from hospital.
Our first picture together!A proud mummy with her two gorgeous boys.

My Last Week....

2010-02-15T04:45:00.000-08:00

As you may have noticed already my pregnancy ticker seems to be ticking by really quite quickly! In fact I'm booked in for a caesarean section next Monday, providing he doesn't arrive before then that is! That's only a week today! So I'm making the most of this week and that fact that its half term so I have my little boy at home with me too.

I've not really made many cards since Christmas. Partly due to the snow and my craft room is way too cold! and that I don't really have the funds to replenish my stash at the moment, so I've just been taking it easy! I have however made a few cards that I thought I'd share with you today.
First up, is this Tardis card I made for my friends Son. No surprises, he's a Dr Who fan! My friend Helen made a Tardis card a while back, which is what inspired me. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. I hope he liked it too!
This is the card I've made to give to my little boy, when his baby brother arrives next week! I think I'll give it as a card from the baby rather than from me and hubby. I've made a big 8x8" card, and have used my favourite Penny Black image. The font is cut from my Sizzix Round-A-Bout alphabet.
This is the card I made for hubby for Valentine's Day! I was inspired by a card I'd seen on SCS a while ago, although as it turns out that mine is nothing like it! The stamp was a freebie from a magazine which I've stamped onto red pearlescent card with white chalk ink. The sentiment is from a Hero Arts set.
This card was inspired very much by Beth at Big Sky Paper and Design. I was trying to achieve some basic cards for men but without the use of images/rubber stamps. The papers were a download from Summertime Designs. I really love the combination of the black, grey and lime! Very masculine!
Again, using the same papers, I've used my favourite layout of the moment for this card!

Well that's all from me for now! Hopefully this week will give me a chance to do some blog hopping and maybe even get to leave a few comments! I'll update again when my little man makes his appearance!

Christmas Candles & Memo Block or Post It Note Holders

2009-11-30T14:27:00.000-08:00

Today, I've been experimenting with a post it note box or memo block holder that I saw on Betty's Blog. She has lots of fantastic tutorials for boxes and gifts etc. Do take a look if you get a moment. I've tried to follow her instructions, but have adjusted the measurements according to the size of my memo pads, which I bought from Wilko's for 36p each! I've tried flipping the papers and cardstock on this version to give it a slightly different look.

As my first attempts they are a little big rough around the edges and could do with a little bit more refinement! However, they were really quite easy to make.

I seem to be having some sticky issues just lately!!! Firstly my bauble money holders wouldnt stay stuck down when money was placed inside them, so after a few attempts, I decided to raise the spotty pocket by using foam pads, so I'm hoping that its fixed that problem! I don't know why I didnt do it that way to start with! Pregnancy brain has well and truly set in and everything seems to be hard work at the moment! The second sticky issue was with my candle gift boxes. After about a day the acetate window fell off as the ds tape wasnt strong enough to hold it on. Then I had a thought! Why not use the glue gun that I've had sat in my draw for 3 years that I've never even take out of the box! And hey presto! it worked! I've even gone on to make a couple more boxes which are much stronger now! I also decided to add a punched snowflake to the top of each candle just to give it an extra touch! I have put a disclaimer in the box though, to remind people to remove them before lighting the candles!!!I had a go at doing a flowery version too!
After fiddling with the wire handles on my candle jars, I got really fed up and went off to hobbycraft where I bought this much thicker and coloured wire, which made making the handles 100 times easier. I've stuck on the snowflake and ribbon using my glue gun, as I'm guessing the heat of the candle will probably just make it all fall off if I use my ds tape! Again here, I've added a snowflake to the candle.

Thats all for now, I'm not making any more cards or gifts, I've packed my craft knife away! well until after the weekend anyway, when I have my sons pre-school christmas craft fair. I have a few orders for Christmas cards from friends but I'm going to wait and see what I've got left over before I make any more!

Christmas Money!

2009-11-27T13:41:00.000-08:00

Well just when I thought I'd finished my Christmas creations! I was speaking with my Mum the other day who said she needed some Christmas Money Wallets, so I offered to make some. Its not something I'd thought of making before, but once I got started I couldnt stop! I had a browse on SCS and saw an idea for a bauble shaped money holder, which I really liked. You can find a video tutorial here! I had a couple of attempts before I came up with the one I was happy with! I made the sentiment on my pc using paint shop pro. Here is my second version. A more traditional wallet style money holder. I've had a little bag in my craft room for ages now with a small pack of sticky velcro inside which I thought would be ideal for this project! I do have some Basic Grey magnetic fasteners, but I'm far to tight to take them out of the packet! Lol! The papers are from the Christmas Lights set from Pink Petticoat. I've made a few of each, in the Olive and in the Blue stars papers and this version with the Holly too.

My friend asked me to make a Christmas Card for her Dad who is an avid Arsenal fan, so I suggested I incorporate that into a card somehow, and this is what I came up with. Luckily the team colours tie in with Christmas colours! I hope he likes it. I've been really busy again over the past few days. My son's pre-school Christmas Bazaar is next Saturday, which I've been frantically making cards and gifts for. Hopefully I will do as well as I did last year and all the effort will be worth it. Anyway I'm going to give myself a few days off now and have a well deserved rest! Hopefully now I can get back on track and get blog hopping again!

And last but not least....my Christmas Cards

2009-11-24T10:18:00.001-08:00

Can you see a theme running through my Christmas Cards this year??? My new Cuttlebug Snowflake!!! I wanted one of these last year! But finally went ahead and bought myself one a month or so ago and I have to say its been really well worth the money! Here I've created some really simple cards using the snowflake, my cuttlebug embossing folder and some coloured card. The concept of this card came to me in a dream! So as soon as I got up I had to make it before I forgot about it. How sad is that? dreaming about making Christmas cards. It just goes to show how much I've bee doing lately! This first one is my favourite! I'm loving red and white this Christmas. Followed by my second favourite, the Lilac one!
This one is in dark navy pearlescent which I think is quite striking.And a slightly paler blue pearlescent version too!

I then found some pastel green pearlescent card too in my stash, so gave that a go too!
And here is a little something I decided to have a go at for the craft fair as a stocking filler. I made the box using a very made up template! and I've just filled it with 4 tealite candles. I've used my nestabilities to cut the square in the lid and have then embossed some acetate with my snowflakes embossing folder.

My next task is to make some money walletts, so I'm off for a browse to see if I can get inspired!

more... more... more...

2009-11-24T09:18:00.000-08:00

I love this style of wedding card. It was originally inspired by one I'd seen on the Docrafts gallery. I usually make them A5 sized and personalise the cards with the names and date, but thought that I'd try a couple of smaller ones for my box! I think they turned out ok? Apart from the extremely thin ribbon on this card, I only realised I hadn't got any thicker ribbon when it came to sticking it all down! I like to make these cards to co-ordinate with the wedding theme where possible.
I've made this version of the 3 Tie's card before but using different papers. These papers are actually part of the Pink Petticoat Christmas Lights kit. I love the red/blue colour combination. Again, I've finsihed it with a Craftwork Cards sentiment. Meet Alex the Lion! I've been having fun with my punches again! My 3 year old son gave him his name! He's a big Madagascar fan! He's not quite how I pictured him before I started and is a combination of a couple of punched lion's I'd seen before. I think he's quite cute though. The background paper is Epsom again. The perfect colours for Alex!

I've used the Sugar Nellie pirate with an Epsom treasure map for this card. I've torn and distressed the eges of the map and then added the sentiment using my sizzix naturally serif alphabet. I've just added some navy eyelets to tie in with the sentiment and to add a bit more colour to the card. Quite a simle one, but I think had I have added anything else I'd probably have ruined it!

I've been so Busy Busy Busy!

2009-11-24T08:46:00.000-08:00

I can't quite believe how many cards I've made over the past few weeks! My boxes were virtually empty and I have a craft fair coming up in December so desperately needed to get some made! Also with my expected delivery at the end of February, I dare say that I'm not going to have a whole lot of time for crafting then!

So first up, I'll show you some of my Non- Christmas cards. I've made a few new ones but have mainly been re-creating some of my older designs in bulk. I must have made about 100 cards in the past few weeks, which by my standards is a huge amount! Several trips to Hobbycraft and lots of double sided tape later....

Here is a layout I used a few posts back, with this squares design, only last time I did all one colour, this time I decided to use a patterned paper and co-ordinating cardstock. The papers are Epsom and Pink Petticoat. The sentiments are craftwork cards. I have to say, I like these better than the ones I did before!The pink and brown version has got to be my faveourite! I've made a couple of each card too to help bulk out my box.

Bathtime Lola is kind of a re-make of a card I did before, in the respect that the image sits slightly high of the card. Its still able to fit into a 6"x6" envelope though! I did measure and check it before I stuck it down. The papers here are from a DCWV stack. The sentiment is Craftwork Cards. I've used glamour dust on the bubbles to give it a bit of sparkle!

I'll be back later with some more!

Christmas Snowflakes

2009-11-11T13:18:00.000-08:00

Well I don't have any new Christmas cards to show today! I've spent the past few days "bulk making" some of the cards I've already done, ready for a couple of craft fairs I've got coming up soon. So I thought I'd take a break from that and have a go at something different! I had some of this tall slim notepads left over from last year and decided to do something with them. I spent most of the day working on this first one, but now its finally done I like it! So I decided to use the same layout for the others but just changing the colour scheme.

It opens up like a book and inside there is a small wallett flap for you to tuck things into! I've also decorated the top strip to finish it off.And the Red & White version! I'm not sure which one I like best, but I think this red/white one is quite striking. I think I may do a few cards like this too. Today I had a sudden flash of inspiration! It doesnt happen very often, so I thought I'd better get on and make these before I completely forgot I'd even had the idea! They are simply tea light holders, using re-cycled baby food jars. I saw one on the Elzybells blog back in the summer which had little flowers stuck all over it so initially I wanted to stamp some holly or christmassy images and stick them all over the jar too, but it turned out to be way too fiddly so I decided to use the same snowflakes as the notepads above! I've created a little handle using some craft wire and finished it off with some ribbon and adhesive stones. I have to collect some more jars now as I think they'd look nice in pairs or a set of 3 maybe.

And finally! a little birdhouse tree decoration. I've had this made for some time now, but kept forgetting to photograph it. It was inspired by the Papertrey website, who have a free template, for personal use. You can find it here! Its such a sweet little touch. I might have to make a few more for my tree.

More Christmas Creations!

2009-11-06T08:27:00.001-08:00

You might remember this chap from a couple of posts ago! Well I've really struggled to make a card with him. I had a flick through some of my old cards to see if any of the layouts inspired me and this is what I've finally come up with! I printed the sentiment using paint shop pro. The Santa's list is part of a great stamp set I picked up recently in Hobbycraft, called Holly Jolly Christmas by Hampton Arts. It must be an old set as I've not been able to find any cards made using these stamps or anywhere else that sells them!

And another version, using one of my old layouts. I've decided to keep the colour scheme to all of my cards fairly similar this year. It saves on buying lots of different papers etc and I like to have some sort of theme to my Christmas cards.

I saw this card on Julie's blog last year and absolutely fell in love with her poinsettia. I didnt have a go at it last year, but was brave this year so have given it a try and am quite pleased with the result, although it was a little time consuming. I love the idea of using the paper ribber tool for the petals. I tried to vein them using my embossing tool, but they didn't look as effective. So a big Thank You Julie for your inspiration! I wanted to keep the card very simple, so as not to take the attention away from the poinsettia so have based the card on one I made last year, only I like this one better!

A Close up of the poinsettia!

I think this next card is probably my favourite of the christmas cards so far . I was so pleased with how this little punched penguin turned out! I've stamped some snowflakes onto some Kraft card for the background, then used a few torn strips of heavy vellum with the edges glittered as the snow. The sentiment is stamped from my new Hampton Arts Set. The large snowflake is a Cuttlebug Die, which aslo comes with a matching embossing folder too! All quite simple again, but quite effective. I think the orange brad just finishes it off, taking the colour from the penguins nose!

I've been crafting all day today and I've only actually made two cards! I have been playing around with a box template as I'm planning on making Christmas Cookies to give as a gift this year. The first box was a bit big and the second one was about the right size but the cookies are a bit too big! I made a test batch yesterday, like the ones you get in Tesco's or Millies Cookies, the slightly gooey ones! I'm thinking that I might be better off making a slightly smaller cookie as' I'll get more out of the mixture and these are little on the large side! Delicious though!

Thats all for now, I'm afraid. I'm off to re-create some more of these cards ready for a couple of craft fairs I've got coming up, and to finish off working on my cookie boxes! I may have to test a few more cookies first though!

Thanks for stopping by and reading.

Pink & Girly

2009-11-04T10:12:00.000-08:00

I've had a few Children's parties recently and here are a couple of cards I made for my son to give. The first being this cute Peppa Pig card. I've used my new hearts embossing folder which I love! The papers are from Imaginisce and are from the Happily Ever After range (I think!!) I've stuck some gem stones onto peppa's crown and have used some glamour dust on her wings.Using the same layout and paper! I've gone for a Disney Princess image this time, both of which tie in with the presents we gave! Hopefully both of the recipients were happy with them!
And another of my "number" cards, only this time in Lilac/Purple, which I'm quite happy with. not a colour scheme I would usually make this card in but it works!And finally, a card for my friend to give to one of her friends who has just found out that she's expecting! I dont get asked to make may of these, so I offered! I love this Lola Rose image from Pink Petticoat. All papers are Pink Petticoat too! The sentiment is part of a Hero Arts sentiment set. The baby bump is layered using foam pads to give it that extra bit of dimension!

wooohoooo.....two posts in one day! I've been busy

2009-10-23T10:33:00.001-07:00

I've been having a play today. These are a a few creations I was inspired to make after seeing this fantastic blog full of really useful video tutorials! Its a really great resource! take a peek if you havent already discovered it! First up is a bag of Reindeer Food. I've used some basic porridge oats mixed in with some red edible glitter. I've never really considered making these before, but they are so simple and I'm sure kids will love them! The little reindeer is the template that I used for the reindeer card below. I've just resized him in psp and drawn the rest of his face on! The little poem is really sweet.And the rest of today's batch!

My second and favourite project today was this Snowman Soup! I actually bought a bulk box of these hot chocolate sachets the other day. I have tried one or two of them, but I bought them with this recipie in mind! I've added a few white marshmallows and candy cane. I have lined the cello bag with the Doodlebug Winter Asterisks paper and have printed the snowman and sentiment from my pc. The top strip has been embossed with the cuttlebug snowflakes folder. This i the final version after having made a few attempts, this was the one I settled for.

Yummy!

I've been getting ready For Christmas! and its only October....

2009-10-23T08:06:00.000-07:00

Well as the title says I've been getting ready for Christmas. It is a little early for me. Usually I don't make any Christmas cards until at least the end of November. I have however been really inspired by all the fab cards and gifts on Splitcoast Stampers and also I'm loving the use of Kraft card stock with white brown's & reds, by the Elzybells team. I'm severely lacking in funds at the moment so the option to buy all the gorgeous new Christmas stamps is just not available! So I've set about making some of my own embellishments using my punches and a pair of scissors! I'm actually really pleased with how they have turned out, but as yet have only made a card using the punched Robin. I thought I'd share them with you though, so here they are! I first saw a punched Robin card on Ruth M's blog which is what first inspired all my punched characters!

The Robin!

I wasn't really sure what to do with the little Robin once I'd made him but after a bit of inspiration surfing, I came up with this. Something quite simple really. I really love these gingham ribbons. I've stocked up as I have a feeling they are going to be the theme of my cards this Christmas!The main man! Santa! I had good fun making him. I'd seen a couple of examples but thought I'd adapt them to come up with my own version. I've used my nesties to cut out the beard and a flower punch for the moustache. I've inked all the edges in charcoal ink to give him a bit more definition. I love my little penguin! I didnt really know what i was doing when I was making him, so made him up as I went along. I'm really pleased with how he turned out. I think I might make a little bobble hat for him though or maybe a santa hat.
Frosty's not really a punched character! I used my nesties again to cut him out, but wanted to go for a bit of a rustic look. So I pulled out my gingham ribbon again and added a button as his scarf. I've used Kraft cardstock for his buttons and hat, all of which have been inked. I decided to go with an orange brad for the nose rather than trying to create a pointy carrot type nose. The string for the arms was an after thought. I'm really pleased with how it looks though. To finish him off I've just added some highlighting with my white marker pen.

I saw Kath's card which had been made using the free template from papercraft inspirations which was what led me to make this card! I've used a combination of doodlebug card to make this card and again have inked all the edges to define him a bit more. I've used foam pads to stick his nose on to make it stand out a bit more and have highlighted it again using my white pen. The snowflakes were cut using a cuttlebug die, but I've now invested in a snowflake punch which is a lot less time consuming! Finished off with some star shaped adhesive stones in the centre of each snowflake. I never seem to use the stars so thought this would be a good way to utilise them! I then finished the card with some brown & red gingham ribbon topped with a sparkly snowflake and a brown brad. I wasn't sure whether to add a sentiment or not, but I dont think it really needs it! I think most people would gather that its for Christmas! I hope!

The reason I've been a bit absent...

2009-09-18T11:17:00.000-07:00

...I'm having another baby! and I've been feeling so ill this time round. I'm currently 16/17 weeks and just starting to get a bit of energy back! Its been a really tough few months, as we have had lots of tests carried out to see whether or not this baby has the same disease that we lost our little girl Rebecca too. The results have come back all clear, which is fantastic news but its been an extremely stressful and worrying time.10 weeks12 weeks

I've made some cards too! The first is a variation on a card from my last post. I was asked by this lady to make a card for her Aunt who is having a tea party for her 70th birthday. I had a go at trying to fold a little table cloth, and as it turns out, its a lot harder than you would think!

I bought a few quickutz dies from ebay recently and decided to make a few simple cards for my box! I've made this card is several colours. The sentiment and border are printed directly onto the card. I've got a few orders that I need to get working on, so as soon as they are finished, I'll upload some pictures.

Thanks for stopping by!

Its gonna be a long one! grab a cuppa!

2009-09-05T06:06:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long post...I've been such a bad blogger lately. I just dont seem to be able to keep up! In all honesty, i've not actually made many cards recently and the ones posted below have been made over the past couple of months. I thought it would be easier to put them into categories, so here goes!

Girly:This card was made for my mum's friend, who wanted something pink with butterflies. What made it easier is that it was for her 85th Birthday, so I started with my trusty old number style card and embellished with butterflies and lots of adhesive stones. It was quite a difficult card to photograph with the mirrored butterflies.

This card is for my friends little boy and girl to give to their auntie. The request was for something pink and princessy with an image of a little boy and girl on it. I've stamped the Edwin and Tilda images but then scanned in the Tilda image to the pc and re-sized her so that she is slightly smaller than her big brother! I love these papers so much, very girly and sparkly! they are from the raqnge Fairest of them all by Imaginisce.
This card is for the same lady as the one above. Her sister has paid for her to have ice skating lessons for her birthday and wanted a card to match. I found a template on the internet for an ice skate and decided to use this papermania paper in the background as it has a swirly pattern, hopefully made to look like it has been skated on! I've added some extra glitter too! I'm really pleased with how this one turned out.

I was asked to make this card for a family who have recently lost thier teenage daughter. The lady asked for something with rainbow's and angels, but I couldnt find any angel images that I felt were suitable, but in a flash of inspiration I thought I'd use butterflies instead. The background image is one I found on Google. I'd be quite touched if I'd have received this card when I lost my little girl, and hope that the family that receive it feel the same too.

For my Mummy:

Tomorrow is my mum's birthday. I like to try out a new idea or project when it comes to my mum's birthday. I like to give her something a bit more special, something that's had a bit more effort put into it. This is my first flowerpot card. I used the tutorial found on Joanne's blog, which you can find here. I love Joanne's blog, its so inspiring and has many ideas for "no tools" flowers.
I found that placing the flowers was the most difficult part. I spent a very long time moving them around, trying to get them in the right place, but in the end had to settle and just stick them down where they were before it drove me completely insane! I tend to do that all to often with my cards! Not bad for a first attempt, but there are definately things I will do differently next time.I've made another slightly different version for my son to give to his Nanny tomorrow. I've used a different stlye of flower punch and less flowers. This one was a lot quicker and easier to put together. Hopefully she will like them both. I wonder how long it will take her to realise how to find the message though! lol. Also I have added a little stand to the back of each of the flower pots so the stand up nicely.

I've bought my mum a nice boquet of flowers, which she had delivered today, and to go with them I bought her a small box of choccies. I've been wanting to make a little treat box for a while now, so today I set about making this one for her. I saw a box recently on Mandy's blog, which was shaped like a bird box. I thought it was really cute, and after a lot of searching, I still couldnt find a template anywhere. I've made this box myself based on the measuremenst of the choccies inside. I'm quite pleased with it. It's not quite how I imagined it would turn out, but a good first attempt. I've made the lid so that it just lifts off with the ribbon threaded through the top of the lid. And finally, I made this card for my step-dad to give to my mum. I'd been working on this little paper pieced cake stand a few days ago and thought it would be ideal for my mum. The cupcakes are actually from one of the Pink Petticoat Lola Rose images which I've printed and cut out and then have heat embossed the tops with clear powder, to make them look like they have frosting on them, and then just coloured the topping in red. The teapot is also a Pink Petticoat image. The cake stand is made by simply using my Stampin Up Scalloped edge punch and a swirly punch for the legs. I'm really pleased with it! I've been looking around for a stamp with a nice cake stand on, but now I dont think I need one anymore!

Craftwork Cards Inspired:

I've had these little Craftwork Cards sentiments in my draw for quite some time now, and I really love them, but I dont use them as often as I should! They were my starting point for this card & candle gift set. I love the shape of the background on this card, not sure what the shape itself is called but I know there are a set of nestabilities out there like this, with my name on them!!!! one day I will own them! but for now I just drew my own template out of card and hand cut the shape. I've gone round the edge with my quickie glue pen and then sprinkled on some glamour dust for that bit of sparkle! I've then gone round the edge of the shape with my pokey tool and pierced the card. Then just a few adhesive stones to finish.

I love these flowers. They are quite large and were a freebie with one of my magazines a few months ago! The papers are from Pink Petticoat. I've used a few pins to firmly attach the card/paper and ribbon to the candle.

This card was inspired by Julie who's blog I came across whilst looking through the Craftwork Cards blog. I've spent a long time looking over her blog and her wonderful inspiring creations. I love the use of a single colour on this card, but I decided to add silver edges to the embossed squares and flowers and a touch of silver ribbon too.

I fancied having a go at one in colour too, and this is what I came up with. Something for the fella's this time!

Something for the kids:

I'm always really inspired by Kerry's blog and was particularly inspired when I saw a card with this layout! I had this Edwin image coloured in and sitting in my box for a while so decided it was about time he was put to use. I found he co-ordinated quite well with these Basic Grey Abrosia papers.

Using the same layout again, but this time with Tilda, whos so cute! and some more Basic Grey papers. I think this is the Bittersweet yummy chocolatey collection. Such a simple, yet striking layout.

This card is for my friend to give to her little boy on his 2nd Birthday. I've layered Thomas's face with 2 layers of foam pads and have layered the middle of the cloud with 2 layers of foam pads but have stuck the sides down with tape. The tunnell is hand cut/drawn and the train lines were downloaded from the internet and printed onto clear ascetate. I'm really pleased with how they turned out. I think I may try this with tyre treads for car cards too if I can find some to download!

Weddings & Anniversary's:

This is a copy of a card I made a few months back, only this time in Sapphire Blue! I really love the simplicity of this card and have since made another one for a friends wedding recently.
This card was made for a couple who recently got married in Canada. My friend asked me to make it incorporating a Canadian theme somehow! As soon as she said that, I instantly thought of the Maple leaf and decided to copy a card I'd made in the past with the images of Tilda and Edwin sitting inside. I was really pleased with how it turned out.
I made this card for my Mum and step-dad's wedding anniversary last month. It was a bit of a last minute card, but I was so pleased with it. I've used a stamp that came free in a magazine and have stamped it using sliver ink and heat embossed the hearts. Finished with a nice silver bow and a few heart shaped adhesive stones.
This is a card I was asked to make recently. The lady had seen one of my cards with the champagne glasses on and had asked for it to be personalised with the names/dates. She also wanted to incorporate light turquoise too. I've used this pistachio card from doodlebug. I hope its the right colour for her. Its the nearest I had to light turquoise! I've added a few punched flowers and adhesive stones to finish. Again, with all the mirror card used, this was a really hard card to photograph!
And last but not least! Hubby and I will be celebrating our 6th Wedding Anniversary tomorrow. We've actually been together twice as long! It took him a while to propose! The colour scheme for our wedding was Ivory/Gold and I like to make our Anniversary cards in gold to match. Not that I guess he would make that link though. Again the hearts on this card were a free stamp from a magazine, which I've stamped in gold and heat embossed. I've embossed a strip of white card with my swiss dots folder, added a strip of gold ribbon and edged it on some matt gold cardstock. The sentiment is stamped in gold too! There is A LOT of white space on this card, not something that I'm all that comfortable with, but I know its the sort of card that my hubby likes! Hope he likes this one too!

Well if you got to the end of this post, thank you for stopping by and reading. Hopefully I will update a bit more often in future!

For the Men & Boys!

2009-07-27T07:13:00.000-07:00

Some of these cards go back a while now! To start with, I was asked to make two golfing cards for a chap who's 60, as it turns out there were for the same man! Luckily I figured this out before I went ahead a copied the first card I made!I've been on ebay and invested in some Quickutz dies, a Golf Tee & Ball and a Golf Club set and the Grass die. I can see myself getting quite a lot of use out of these so thought they would be a good purchase! I can't remember where the paper for this card came from, but I'm pretty sure it was a download. The pringle design works great with golf cards! I've done quite a bit of paper pricking on this card too! I think its my latest "thing"And here is my second attempt! Decided to go with the large numbers theme on this card and embellish it with the golfing die cuts. I've used a tartan looking paper, which I think came from the Basic Grey Archaic set, very fitting as the chap is also Scottish! I've mounted the numbers onto foam pads so they stand out a bit and have tied the two together using some eyelets and elastic stringy stuff!Within the space of 3 days I was asked by two different people to make a card for a keen cyclist! This time though they were actually for different people so I was able to replicate the card! I really didnt have a clue what to do, so I took a look through my trusty old stash of magazines when I came across a booklet of mens cards, I think it was from Papercraft Inspirations last year. This is my interpretation of the card they featured which was a paper pieced mountain bike. I beleive I've seen a version of this card on Stacey's blog too! It was a bit challenging getting all the pieces to fit together!
This one is for a Watford Football Club fan! I'm never really sure what to do when it comes to football cards. I've done one a bit like this in the past, and after Googling some images, this is what I came up with. The background card is part of the Black Magic set I bought recently, it has a yellow core. I've sanded it down so it looks distressed. I didnt realise that it would make so much mess though!

And this final one was for my friends Dad for Fathers Day! The suggestion was for Automotive! Something Classic! So I thought, blokey, James Bond, Aston Martin! The image has a slight hint of green in one of the back windows, and this is what inspired the colours of the card. I really like this teal/grey combination.

A Few for the Kids!

2009-07-27T06:25:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody, I'm sorry its been so long again since I updated my blog...I just dont seem very with it at the moment so am taking the opportunity to blog today and hopefully catch up while I'm feeling in the mood! I've had quite a lot of requests for cards just lately and really haven't had a lot of time to just have a play. I'm all up to date now though so I'm hoping to get playing with some new ideas and textures soon.
This first card is my favourite of the childrens cards! She's a little cutie! I downloaded the Prima Ballerina set from Cuddly Buddly a very long time ago and this is the first time I've ever used her, I'm ashamed to say! I really like her though. The papers are also cuddly buddly. I've kept the card reasonably simple and have layered the ballernia's dress to add a bit more depth.
My second favourite is this Edwin card. The paper is an old scrap I had in the draw. Not sure where it came from but its what started me off on this card! I've fastened some of the stars on with small eyelets and foam pads. Again, I printed off the sentiment using PSP and have cut it cut using my nestabilities.

Here is a Ben 10 Card, I was asked to make....my litte boy's not quite into Ben 10 yet so I didnt have many ideas. I did a Google image search and came up with this picture, which I thought would look good if I layered the arm giving it a bit of depth. I created the sentiment in PSP and printed it directly onto the co-ordinating cardstock. This card was for the same lady as the Ben 10 Card. She liked the layout of the first one so I said I'd have another go with this card. The Thomas Image was Googled and I've layered the face and bumpers using foam pads. And finally, this card was set as a bit of a challenge! I was asked to make it for a special needs, blind teenager. The challenge was to make a nice touchy feely card with textures! I hope I've acheived that here! I started off by cutting out the numbers and embossing them with the swiss dots folder. They are then mounted on contrasting pink card and have been stuck down with foam pads. My thought was that she might be able to feel the shape of the numbers and also the texture of dots. I've added a few embossed flowers also using foam pads and some adhesive gem stones. To the bottom I've added another strip of embossed swiss dots card with an added strip of lace. I have recently inherrited a huge basket full of lace and trims, which I'm hoping to use a lot more on my cards from now on! I'm pleased with the result of my first go with them! And to finish I've layered up 3 silk/paper flowers.

Thanks for stopping by and I promise I will update again soon! I do have some more cards to show you, so as Arnie would say "I'll Be Back!"

A few of my favourites...

2009-06-25T00:21:00.000-07:00

Good evening everybody! What beautiful weather we've had here in Northampton over the past couple of days! lets hope it continues as I'm going away for a few days next week! Here are a few pictures of some of the gifts I made for my stall at the fayre a couple of weeks ago! I wanted to fill out the stall with other bits and pieces instead of just cards.I really love this colour combination. I stumbled across it by accident. Its kind of mint choclatey! First up is a matching notepad and pen set. These are so easy to make, and make such a lovely gift.And to co-ordinate (use up the papers) I've made this little handbag card too. I've made a few more stationery boxes, this time however, I have re-sized and made my own template for the cards & envelopes, so absolutely everything here is hand crafted! The A6 cards and envelopes are just ever so slightly too big as the box is designed for the US card measurements. These gorgeous papers are Pink Petticoat. I downloaded them a long time ago and I really love them. The colours are easily changed to suit.
And a co-ordinating Notepad & Pen Gift set!
For the craft stall I made up about 10 candles, each displayed in an organza gift bag with a matching card. These seem to go down really well. They do make such a nice gift. I'd be thrilled if somebody gave one to me! not that thats ever likely though.

And yet another co-ordinating handbag. I love these papers. They are from the Basic Grey Sugared Collection.

Oh My Word...where has the last month and a half gone?

2009-06-11T13:09:00.001-07:00

I'm so sorry for being such a bad blogger...I just dont know where the last month and a half has gone. It all started at the begining of May. I went to Cornwall for a week on holiday and I'm still not 100% back into my normal routine yet. After we came back from our holiday I had a couple of weeks to prepare for my stall at a local country fair. I've worked my socks off trying to get things ready in time! The show itself wasnt actually all that busy, the weather was great though and we have a really nice weekend away! It was nice to hear such lovely comments from people about my cards and gifts. Here is a piccy of my stall!

I've been asked to make quite a few cards recently and the first one I'm showing you is probably my favourite. I was browsing the docrafts gallery looking for inspiration for a Wedding card and I came across a card by Barbi which really inspired me. So I had a go at my own version and this is what I came up with. The colour scheme for the wedding is light toffee and cream so I thought I'd use these colours for the card. The wording is printed onto a cream pearlescent card, and I have personalised it with the bride and groom's name and date of the wedding.I really love this little girls first birthday card. I think it turned out really well! I've made a blue version of this card before, but this is my first go using the pink colour combination. The papers, card and ribbon are Doodlebug! who else?I was asked to make a thinking of you card for a lady recently and I decided to use a layout that i've used before using the cuttlebug embossing folders. This time though I thought I'd add a little extra to it by layering a stamped Tilda with Boquet in the bottom right corner.

And my final favourite for now! is this BBQ card. I have a stamp set from Studio G who I think are now being sold as Dovecraft stamps. They are the 99p sets. This is from "The Great Outdoors" set. I was inspired to make this card by lots of other cards on the Splitcoast Stampers Gallery. An invaluble source of inspiration!

I think that will do for today. I do still have lots more to show you, but I'll leave some for another time! Thanks for stopping by.

Hey Cupcake!

2009-04-26T13:33:00.001-07:00

A quick flick through my Stampin Up catalogue inspired me to make these cards. The papers and card are all from a DCWV baby stack. To make the cupcakes Ive cut out the bottom part and embossed with my cuttlebug folder. I've inked the edges of the topping of the cupcake and have also drawn around each circle with my glue pen and then added some glamour dust, before mounting it on foam pads. I've then topped it off with a pink button. And a slight variation on the first one! I've used my scalloped edge scissors to layer the curved edge.

Boys, Boys, Boys!

2009-04-26T12:45:00.000-07:00

I've had a few of my friends little boys to make cards for over the past couple of weeks. I wanted to have another go at my favourite little paper pieced dinosaur that I made a few months back, and here he is. This time I've used the basic grey Archaic paper set, which is what origianlly inspired me to make my own dinosuar. The little bones are all hand drawn and cut out. In all I made 4 dinosaurs which were really time consuming but quite theraputic.I had this Sugar Nellie Pirate coloured and sitting in my stamped images box waiting to be used! I had a vision of this card before I made it, and Its absolutely nothing like it was going to be! I've actually kept it a lot simpler than it was going to be. Ive distressed the edges of the map and highlighted some of the lines so they stand out a bit more. I was having a flick through some of my old magazines looking for inspiration when I came across a page of Jo Kill's paper peiced toppers, one of which was a cute little builder. I had a go and he was really easy to make. I just cut out a few circles using a punch, did a little bit of cutting and a lot of edge inking! I've also gone with Jo's style of doodled edges which I think goes well with this image. I really like making my own paper peiced toppers for cards. Its very satisfyingAnd a slightly larger version. The diy letters are little wooden stickers that I got from a pound shop ages ago. I knew they would be usefull for something one day! The wood effect squre is actually some old laminate effect vinyl which we had left over from when we had to make a repair in our kitchen. Its actually been really usefull and I've used it on a few cards in the past.

Baby Baby!

2009-04-23T05:31:00.001-07:00

Hi everybody! Hope you have all had a lovely week! We've had some lovely weather here and I've found myself relaxing in the summer house a few times this week! when I really should have been doing other things, but it was too nice.

Two of my friends have had babies in the last 3 weeks, a little girl and a boy and I wanted to make each of them a nice gift rather than buying something. I've made my little new baby keepsake that I've made a few times now. I made a 3 page concertina card which slides into a
wallet/envelope made from a heavy weight vellum. So here is the pink one! Actually its the first pink one I've ever made, all the others have been for boys, so it made a nice change.

I've also made a matching personalised card too using the cute Penny Black stamp. I really love this little hedgie, he's so cute!

I have lots of cards to blog at the moment, I seem to be running a bit behind lately so this may be the first of many posts.

Back Soon!

Tinker & Co DT Cards - Elisia Paper Pack

2009-04-22T05:07:00.000-07:00

Here are my first few cards that I've made for Tinker & Co as part of the Design Team. The paper pack is called Elisia and you can buy it here! I really love the colours in this set, and the flowery flourish is absolutely gorgeous!
This first card is my favourite of the set. Its made using the Joy-Fold layout. I've used a combination of the three paisly papers from the set, combined with some black card. I think these colours contrast really well. The flourish element has been printed onto acetate and then cut around the edges before being fastened with a small brad through the centre of the flower. A few adhesive stones and some organza ribbon to finish and voila!

I've made this one using a sketch I used a couple of weeks ago, and have used some of the more floral papers from the pack this time. Again the flourishes are printed onto acetate and fastened with a brad.
This was quite a simple one to make, again using the blue paisley paper layered onto white cardstock with inked edges. I used my nestabilities to cut out the squares and layered over the printed flourishes so that they overlapped the square. I then just stamped the sentiment and added a few adhesive stones to finish.
And finally, using my favourite layout of the moment! I paper pieced Tilda's dress using the pink and black spotty paper, which was really quite fiddly, I'd not done this before, but I love the result so it was worth it! I love the pink & black combination, one of my favourites.

Yo can buy this kit from Tinker & Co along with a huge range of other digital kits too.

My Favourite Layout!

2009-04-19T00:46:00.000-07:00

I've discovered that this is my favourite layout at the moment. Every card I make using this sketch I really like, which is unusual for me! So here are a few of them. First of all is this gorgeous Edwin! I decided to use papers from the DCWV Rockstar stack, which I have been very reluctant to use in the past and it has sat in my craft room for about a year now! Its one of those sets thats too good to cut up, but I was brave and here is the result! I'm glad I used it now. The little records are so easy to make and so effective. I just cut a few small circles with my nestablities and popped an eyelet in the centre, and then just added a few white highlighted lines.
I liked the card above so much so, that I wanted to re-create a girly one using some of the pink papers from the Rockstar stack. It took me a while to come up with the idea of using the Ipod as I didn't think I had a suitable alternative to the Edwin image, until I woke up the following morning, after having made the card the night before, and realised that I have a Pink Petticoat image of Lola holding an Ipod! I will use that one next time, lol! I find the best ideas usually come after a good nights sleep, but then I have to write them down quickly before I forget! And finally, I bought these Basic Grey papers a month or so ago now, and was really inspired by the colours. I had this Edwin image already coloured and he kind of matches so thought I'd use him.

Some Great News!!! and some Thank You's!!!

2009-04-19T00:22:00.000-07:00

I apologise for being such a bad blogger! I've been so busy over the past couple of weeks with lots of orders for my cards and family stuff, that I just haven't had the time to do any blogging, so I've set today aside so that I can attempt to catch up!

First of all I'm very proud to announce that I have been asked by Jo at Tinker & Co to become a member of their Design Team, which I am over the moon about! If you haven't come accross Tinker & Co before, please go and take a look at the products in their shop. The digital kits are just gorgeous. Also, there are some freebies for download on their blog, to get you started.
I would also like to say a big thank you to Chrissie, Helen and Victoria for giving me this award. It means so much! Thank you. I hope to get round to passing it on to 10 of my favourite blogs as soon as I am able to catch up a bit!

I will be back later with some cards to show you!

I've gone a bit overboard with the Urban Prairie

2009-04-01T04:08:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I treated myself to the Urban Prarie paper pack from Basic Grey and I really fell in love with it. Its full of very bright spring like papers. Subsequently I've made quite a lot of cards using them! First up is another joy-fold card. Not one of my best cards, but something a little different. And another view! This next card is one I've been asked to make for a lady who enjoys all things sparkly and pretty and also loves her holidays. I decided to print off this beach babe lola from Pink Petticoat. Ive had this set for a while now and never made a card with her before. I've doodled this card quite a bit. I think I got carried away! The numbers are making memories glitter stickers, they sparkle much more in real life!I made this one a few weeks back when I was having a surge of inspiration. I've used the aqua card as the base, which is not something I normally do. I usually just layer the coloured card onto a white base card (i'm stingy and dont like to use up too much of my coloured card!) but thought as this was a colour I don't use all that often that I'd use this instead.

The image is a Magnolia Stamp with a computer generated sentiment. The flower is one of my doodlebug flowers. Its lovely. All glittery and shimmering!

I was trying to make some quick mothers day cards for a couple of orders I had and already had a couple of magnolia images coloured in. The little tag sentiment is one from a free set that came with a magazine last year! I knew I would use it eventually. It co-ordinates perfectly!

And another criss-cross card, I'm really loving these at the moment. This one was made for mothers day, but can easily be changed for any other occasion as the white card can be removed and replaced. I really like the colours on this paper. Red and this turqouise seem to go really well together, I may have to combine these two again.
Finally, this is a card I made when I was experimenting the other day. I saw a card with a vellum flower in a magazine which inspired me. The vellum i've used is quite thick. I've embossed it with the swiss dots folder and then inked the edges. I'm not really sure that this was the card I intended it to be, but it works as a simple quick make!

I've been a busy little bee...I've lots to show you

2009-04-01T03:19:00.000-07:00

First of all, my mums friend, one of my most loyal customers! asked me to make her a wedding card which matched the invitation she received. She actually gave me the invite so I could use the embellishments from it which was really handy. She specifically requested an A5 gatefold card and this is what I came up with! The picture doesnt really do it much justice, its much prettier in real life. The original invite was simple a DL sized card with the ribbon and heart shaped diamonte buckle. I wanted to make the card simple and not too fussy. I've embossed a square with my nestabilities, a new technique for me! Usually I just cut and emboss them! I then printed the sentiment from my pc and mounted using silver mirror card. I've added two strips of the same ribbon to the edge of the card and finished with a few extra adhesive stones! I dont think you can beat simplicity when it comes to wedding cards.

The same lady asked me to make another card for an 80th Birthday, she wanted it to be quite simple with butterflies and flowers. I had a rummage through my stash and I pulled out this beautiful paper, by Laura Ashley. This is one of my favourites, I absolutely love the colours.

I've added some glamour dust to some of the butterflies for some added sparkle. I decided to make the sentiment the main feature of the card instead of sticking something else on and ruining it. I printed it from the pc and layered it using my trusty nestabilities, adding a few adhesive stones to finish it off. This has got to be one of the quickest cards I've made! I hope she likes it as much as I do.
Here are a couple of cards I made using some Pink Pettticoat Images. I love these Lola images! I'd actually had this one printed off for a while, so thought it was about time I made good use of her. I really love this combination of pink and grey.
And this one, I'm not sure about. I love the papers and the colours, but something about it just doesnt feel right. Its a sketch I've used on a few of my cards and they have all looked ok, but it doesnt seem to work her. The papers are from the Basic Grey Urban Prairie set. I've added some glamour dust to finish it off.

And the last pink petticoat card! I think this is my favourite of the three, I have used my quickie glue pen and glamour dust to highlight some of the flourishes on the paper. The sentiment is printed from my pc using the "Sparkly" font from Fontfinder.com

I've added quite a bit of glamour dust to lola and to the sentiment too.
I've made another stationery box for the lady who ordered the first two card as a thank you gift. Again, I've made a matching criss-cross card to go with it.
The only problem I've discovered when making the stationery boxes is that I've made A6 sized notecards to go in the back section, only I can't fit the envelopes in, they are about 1cm too big! So before I make the next one I have to resize the cards and find envelopes to fit! For now though she can have a pack of envelopes seperately!

I'm really pleased with how these have turned out. The box itself is very quick to make, its the contents that take the most time.
Right, I think thats about all for this post. I will be back soon though as I have more cards to show!

The sun is shining here today, and it feels quite mild too, so I'm off to make the most of it before it goes again.

Hope you all enjoy your day.

And the winner is........

2009-03-27T14:15:00.000-07:00

Erin!!! who's comment was the 9th as chosen by the random number generator.... many congratulations to you. I hope you enjoy playing with these lovely Doodlebug goodies. I am ever so slightly reluctant to let them go, but I will!

I'm completely overwhealmed at the response I had to my blog Candy. Thank you all so much for entering and leaving such kind comments, each and every one is very much appreciated.

Thank You.

Its my Blogoversary Today!!! so I have candy to give away!!!

2009-03-26T15:32:00.000-07:00

**THIS BLOG CANDY IS NOW CLOSED**

**THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED AND LEFT SUCH LOVELY COMMENTS**

** THE WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED TOMORROW MORNING**

Today is my first Blogoversary! I can’t believe its been a year since I first started my blog. I've had so many lovely comments which are all greatly appreciated! So as a way to say thank you to you all, I thought I would offer some candy! I’ve actually been planning to offer some blog candy for a while now. Originally I was going to do it for my 30th birthday back in October, but never quite got around to it. Then I thought I’d do it at 10,000 hits which I’ve since passed and still not done it!

I thought I’d go with the Doodlebug theme as I absolutely love everything that is Doodlebug! As you may have noticed by now!
Included is:
1 Paper Potpourri set
1 Pack of Boutique Brads
1 Pack of Silk Flowers
1 pack of Boutique Trims
A Mini Accordion book and
A pack of clear dome stickers.
I will also include some stamped images too, so if you take a look through my blog and chose the ones you like I will send 20 Images, mixed or all of the same design, printed onto high quality cardstock using Stazon Ink.
If you would like to be in with a chance of winning, all I ask is that you leave me a comment and a link from your blog. You have until next Friday, 27th March at 10pm to enter. I will announce the winner on Saturday morning! Good Luck!

Happy Mothers Day!

2009-03-21T14:46:00.000-07:00

Happy Mothers Day everybody! My hubby bought me a nice cup of tea in bed this morning and I was given a lovely bunch of tulips and a little magnetic bookmark that my little boy, Adam made at pre-school. I've then spent the morning at my Mum's this morning out in the garden as the weather is lovely again, but a little cooler than yesterday! My parents are coming round so we can have tea together tonight, so I'd better get the oven on soon! I've been dying to share these with you, they are what I've made for my mum for Mothers Day and now she's got them its safe to post. Knowing that she comes on and reads my blog now, I have to be a bit more careful! I decided to try out the criss-cross card and this was the first one I made. The papers are Basic Grey, Sugared Collection and Doodlebug Tickled Pink cardstock.

I decided that I would have a go at making her a gift this year instead of buying the usual flowers & chocolates. I spent a bit of time over at Splitcoast Stampers looking for Ideas when I came accross the Stationery Box in the Gallery and thought it would be perfect! I've used the same card and paper as I did on her card and also the same Tilda image.

Inside I've made 6 notecards, at the back, 6 matching gift tags and 3 small love notes. There is a little holder for stamps and a small notebook. Here are some instructions if you want to have a go at making one. The lady has also done a video tutorial which is about 20 mins long, but really useful. The box itself was suprisingly easy to make, it was the contents that seemed to take the most time.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out, and Mum likes it too which is the main thing! Hopefully I'll be making a few more of these as gifts now I've done the first one.

Also, just a quick Thank You to everybody who has entered my blog candy and for all the lovely comments I've been receiving. They are all very much appreciated!

Hope you all enjoy the day, and the rest of the weekend!

Not really sure where to start.....

2009-03-15T14:00:00.000-07:00

.....so here is as good a place as any! I've had quite a productive card making week this week. I've spent quite a lot of time looking through my Stampin Up catalogue, not that I can afford to buy anything, but it doesnt cost to dream! And that led me to spend a lot of time over at Splitcoast Stampers. I've tried a couple of new techniques, for me anyway, and I'm actually really pleased with the results, which makes a refreshing change.

First of all I've made a criss-cross card. I've also made a little stand for the card as I think it looks better when its all together. I'm really happy with this card and was suprised at how easy they are to make and how effective they look. This is the first time I've ever used these papers, they are part of a making memories set I got when I was in America in 2007!

Whilst I had the papers out, I thought I'd make more use of them with another Edwin image and this time I've tried the joy-fold card. This is a great layout, and one I'm sure I'm going to use a lot more. Its quite hard to get a clear picture of how the card opens, but basically the Edwin image opens to the right and then the red panel opens up to the left. It's like a card within a card.I saw a card on SCS which really inspired me. It basically had a stamped tree/leaves image in a circle with a sentiment and that was the main feature of the card. Immediately I thought that I could re-create something similar using the magnolia stamp I got in the Christmas sale, and here it is! This was my first attempt, using a pink and black colour combination which I really like. The sentiment is from a 99p Studio G set.And here is another attempt, only this time I've printed the sentiment from the pc before stamping and cutting out the squares with my nestabilities. I really wish I had some more sentiment stamps, they are at the top of my wish list but the pc ones will do for now, it can be a bit of a pain having to print them off though. I love this colour combination of dark brown and a sage green. To colour the images all I've used is my Whispers pens and a blending pen.

And again, but this time in burnt orange and dark brown, lovely!

These cards were so simple to make and yet they are some of my favourites so far. I think I'll be using these colour combinations on a lot of my cards from now on. Also on the last three cards I decided that instead of making my usual A6 card which opens from the side that i'd flip them to a tent fold. I've made a few more in different colours, so I have a whole set of them, but these were just a few of my favourites, I didnt want to bore you with all of them!

As I said I've had a very productive week and there are even more cards that I'd like to share with you, but I'll save some for another day. I didnt realise until I started blogging them, quite how many I'd made.

Buttons, Buttons and more Buttons

2009-03-12T10:17:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday evening, 15th March! I actually started to write this post a few days ago now! oops! but I got carried away with more card making so it got pushed aside. I think I've used up my mojo for this weekend though, so thought I'd take the opportunity to catch up with my blog.
I saw a card in a magazine a year or so ago now and I kept the image thinking that one day I would have a go at that as I really liked it. After raiding my mum's button jar the other day, here is what I came up with. All of the buttons are threaded onto a white ribbon, which was a little bit fiddly but I quite enjoyed doing it. I really like the combination of the orange and greens. I've done a pink/brown/yellow version too, but I think I prefer the first one.

I'm not really sure what inspired me to make this next card, but it didnt go the way I had intended it to, but it seemed to turn out ok in the end. The papers are Pink Petticoat. I think the pink and black combination is really striking. The sentiment is one that I've printed myself using paintshop pro, and I've then added a flower and a brad to the centre.

I was asked by a friend to make a Ruby Anniversary card. As soon as she asked me, I knew that I wanted to re-create a card that I made for my mum's wedding anniversary back in August. I bought these little red roses from ebay, and they are the most perfect little paper roses I've ever seen. I've layered the card using gold mirror card and a deep red doodlebug cardstock.I had a day a couple of weeks ago, where I sat flicking through some old magazines looking for inspiration, when i came across a card which featured a little paper pieced computer. And here is my version! i cut it all by hand and eye, nothing was measured! I think the grey/red has quite a masculine feel to it. This card reminds me of the office where my husband used to work and all the furniture was red and grey. It had a real 1980's feel to it! I've re-created the little computer for another card to but this was my favourite!

Blog Candy Alert

2009-03-03T02:32:00.000-08:00

Viv will be celebrating her Blogoversary on Friday 13th and is offering some yummy candy, pop on over to her blog if you want to be in with a chance of winning!

Caz is also offering some fab Birthday Blog Candy, check out her blog, its fab and a great source of inspiration to me!

Handbags & Gladrags

2009-03-02T00:05:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody! I've got a few cards to share with you today. I have two of my Nephew's birthday's within 5 days of eachother, and wasnt sure what to do for either of them! I had stamped this Sugar Nellie Pirate previously and just needed to colour him in. I'm not really sure about this card, but I think he liked it which is the main thing. The map is part of an Epsom kit which I've tried to age and distress slightly. The background paper is from the DCWV Rockstar Stack, which I absoloutely love but don't like to use! I have distressed the edges around the pirate, its my first attempt at this, I used the edge of my craft to do it but I think I may well have inhaled some of the dust!This card is a copy of a design I used last year. I thought I'd keep it reasonably simple and it only took a few minutes to make.And here are the Handbags & Gladrags! I was flicking through my Pink Petticoat Folder on my PC the other day thinking that I'd hardly used the Lola's Boudoir collection that I so desperately had to buy last year! So I printed off a few sets of shoes and matching handbags. I've also used one of the Pink Petticoat papers which I've just re-coloured to co-ordiante with the different coloured shoes. Each handbag and pair of shoes has been cut out and stuck on with foam pads. I've used my trusty scalloped edge punch too and simply added some ribbon and some adhesive stones.

I think this first one is my favourite. I love the combination of lime and pink together. It feels very fresh and spring like!
I really like this burgundy and grey one too. Not a colour choice that I would normally go for but i think they actually go well together. And finally a bit of a red and black spotty one!

I've admired this Penny Black stamp for quite a while now and it is on my "Wish List" but I thought I'd try it out before I make the purchase so I bought a few stamped images from ebay to have a bit of a play with. My colouring is not great though! I love the look of these baby cards. I don't normally like to leave too much white space on a card but I think thats what baby cards need!

Well my aim for this week is to get some Easter cards made along with a few Mother's Day cards, which is coming up on 22nd March. I have a couple of Ruby Anniversary cards to make to which I'm looking forward to making. I've just received a delivery with the supplies I needed so I'd better head off and start creating!

I'm still rolling.......Part 3!

2009-02-22T16:17:00.000-08:00

Just a few more cards, starting with this cute little nurse of Kerry's. I admired her for quite a long time before I went ahead and made the purchase. I'm not all together happy with the layout of this card though. Its one for the box though!
At the same time I bought Janet's Get Well Millie stamp which I thought was really sweet too and here is my first card I've made with her. I've used K&Co papers combined with some bazzill cardstock.
The next card is one I've been asked to make for a friend. Its for her to give to a female friend who's a keen fan of travelling and camper vans. I got out my trusty camper van stamp again which I love to use. I was asked to make it using blue's so I decided to try and make it more feminine by using some blue swirly background paper and my Stampin Up scalloped border punch.

I've had a couple of these pink petticoat images sitting in my images box for a while now and decied that it was about time I did somethig with them! They were already coloured, I cheated and coloured them in in paint shop pro and then printed them out! I didnt really have any papers that matched them though until I saw this one from my Dovecraft set, which i've enhanced by edging all of the flowers in red pen. Originally the paper was just shades of grey.

And finally, a new baby card! I love making new baby cards. They don't need to be fussy. Just simple and elegant! I haven't really had to make many baby girl cards, so I jump at the chance when I get asked. Everybody I know seems to be having boys at the moment! We need more girls!

I'm going to get back to making some more cards now, before my inspiration runs out. There's just not enough time to make cards and blog them and follow all the other lovely blogs too.

Thanks for visiting and for all the lovely comments. They are all very much appreciated.

I'm on a Roll......Part 2!

2009-02-22T16:14:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more of the cards that I've made this week. These ones are a more for the ladies! I was inspired to make this card by a card I saw on Erica's Blog. If you haven't visited her blog before, go and take a look she has some beautiful cards and altered items and every time I visit I come away inspired!

I coloured in the paddling Tilda image before I knew what I was going to do with it and luckily the colours just happened to tie in with a new K&Co set of papers I'd just bought! I really liked this card until I went and stamped the words onto the blue circle, but its done now and I cant see how I can rescue this one! I'll learn for the next time and maybe just emboss the circle instead!

This has got to be one of my favourites of the week. I've used yet another one of my new Tilda stamps which I've masked and stamped her onto the chair! The first time I've ever tried this technique. I did have to try a few times before I got her in the right place though. Again, I coloured this image in well before I knew what I was going to do with it. I pulled out my Laura Ashley stack and voila, a paper that matched! I saw this beautiful card on Julia's blog which inspired me to make this. I love this combination of colours.

Again, I've gone with the same layout as with the paddling tilda and have used a combination of Laura Ashley papers and Core'dinations cardstock. What I was trying to do with these cards is use a selection of different papers. It always looks really good when other people do it, but when I try it I sit for ages thinking do they really work together?

I knew before I made this card, which papers I wanted to use which is very rare for me! Its from one of my K&Co stacks and I think its beautiful. I'd coloured this Tilda image in previously too when I made another card for my cousin. I was going to make copy of that card, but decided to do something different with her instead. I knew I wanted to keep the card quite simple as I was inspired to make this after visiting Debby's blog, another one of my regular sources of inspiration!

This is a card I was asked to make for a lady recently. She likes gardening so instantly I thought I'd use the Jolly Nation Gardening Lady set that I bought about a year ago and I've never used! I've used the male version quite a lot but never got round to using the lady! I really like her though. I decided to use the Laura Ashley papers again, combined with some doodlebug cardstock. I've added a bit of shine to the rosebush by embossing with my glue pen and some clear embossing powder. I think I might have a go at re-creating this card for Mothers Day which is coming up soon!

I'm on a Roll this week!

2009-02-22T15:33:00.000-08:00

As the title indicates, I've had a pretty good card making week this week. I've made quite a few by my standards! First of all though I want to share with you my new ribbon/embellishment organiser! Its a rotating carousel, which has five layers which contain a total of 60!!! round plastic storage pots! Its fab. I saw it in a shop a couple of weeks ago but they had all sold out so I've had it on order since then. The moment I saw it I thought it would be perfect for storing some of my ribbons. It only cost £12.99, a real bargain!And here is one of the pots containing some ribbon! I've actually got about 10 metres of ribbon into one of the pots.

So to start with a few cards, here are a couple of the more masculine cards I've made this week.

I stamped and coloured a few of my new Edwin stamps to co-ordinate with these Laura Ashley papers. The layout just came to me in a flash of inspiration, which doesnt happen very often! and although at the time I wasn't all that happy with it, now I really quite like it. The sentiment is from Craftwork Cards and has been inked with green ink. Edwin is mounted on foam pads.I bought Harry the Fireman a few months back and this is the first card I've made with him. He is of course one of Kerry's fabulous stamps which you can buy from Spiral Whisper. I've used my trusty Stampin Up spiral punch again! The background paper is part of a DCWV stack but I thought it ties in quite well with the fireman image as it looks kind of watery to me! This card didnt go quite as I'd planned it either, but again I like the result so that can only be a good thing! I love this Camper Van stamp, I have the mini one too! The paper is again from a DCWV stack and i thought it looked quite retro and this is what led this card! I cut some circles using my nestabilities and then embossed them with my cuttlebug circles folder. The two circles are joined using an eyelet, but i've hidden it by tying ribbon through it! The stars are just punched card which I've put some holes in and drawn a line between, hopefully making them resemble buttons. That was the aim anyway!And finally, my lovely guitar playing Edwin. I coloured him in ages ago and he's been sitting in my stamped images box ever since, poor thing. So I decided to do the decent thing and put him on a card. The papers I believe are from the Basic Grey Archaic collection. The brown strip across the card is actually stitched leather! One of my good friends gave me what must be about a 5 metre length of it in a bundle of things she'd collected for me. Another quite simple card, but I really like this one too! I like it when I make cards that I'm actually pleased with. Too often I'm not happy with the end result so it makes a nice change.

Sorry about the quality of the last two pictures, the light has not been great here today!

I think I'll come back tomorrow and post some more cards as I've made more than I thought!

What a LOVELY Weekend!

2009-02-16T00:40:00.000-08:00

Hi there, I hope you all had a great weekend and had lots of Valentine's goodies. I thought I would share with you the card I made for my hubby!

Now the funny thing is, that when I was reading Jules' Blog earlier this week, she said she was taking part in the Cute Card Thursday challenge which this week's theme was Music and Dance, using song titles on your card. Personally I don't get time to take part in challenges but I thought that this was a really lovely idea so I set about making a card for my hubby with the words "Truly, Madly, Deeply" on it, as it was the song we had our first dance to at our wedding. Now as usual, the card didnt go to plan and the writing smudged all over the pearlescent card after I'd printed it so I decided not to use it in the end. Then on Saturday morning when I opened the card from hubby, it had the very same words down the right hand side of the card. Spooky! Maybe I should start to give him a bit more credit than I do! He obviously thought about it this year!

I didnt get any flowers this year, but I bought hubby a nice heart shaped box of Ferrero Rocher which I ate half of! We were going to go out for a romantic meal, with the 2 and half year old! but I decided it would be nicer if we stayed in and had a candle lit dinner instead. I invited my parents round and we had a lovely romantic meal for 5! I cooked a lovely roast, one of my best yet! and I tried to make the table look pretty. It was lovely, and we didnt have to spend a lot of money! Hubby took this artiscit shot of the dining table!

On Friday afternoon, hubby rang from work asking me to make a card for a colleauge's wife! Talk about leaving it til the last minute! Men! So I just copied a card I'd made for my brothers girlfriend, changing the colours. I've not made a huge amount of valentines cards this year for fear I'd still have them sitting in my box until the same time next year.

I decied to make a matching set for my Mum and Step-Dad and here's their version of my Valentine's card!

Michelle over at The Card Grotto is offering some yummy blog candy to celebrate her blog passing 100,000 hits! Thats a lot of visitors! Congratulations Michelle! To be in with a chance of winning, head over to her blog!

I've been stamping again!!!

2009-02-10T09:30:00.000-08:00

I've been playing with my new stamps again. I've inked up a couple of Magnolia's and Sugar Nellies and heres what I came up with! First up is Edwin with his oar! I'm not sure where is boat is though. I coloured him to match the papers which are part of a DCWV Stack. I'm not too keen on this card. I had the layout in my head but it just didnt seem to go quite as I had imagined.

Next up is another one of my all time favourite cards. This is one I made for my brother to give to his girlfriend for valentines day. I got the Edwin and Tilda from The Glitter Pot sale in January. They are actually from the Christmas set but I thought they'd work great for Valentines Day or even Anniversary or Wedding Cards. I've cut the scalloped heart and inner heart by hand, sadly I dont have the heart nestabilities, yet...

This was a bit of a quickie for me. Sometimes I really struggle getting the right layout so I decided to find a sketch and follow it! instead of changing and moving things around like I usually do. I love this little Edwin, he's so cute.

This is one quite similar to the cars I posted a few days ago, but I like this one even better which is why I'm sharing it! I have quite a lot of corrugated card in my stash and I've never used any, but love the depth its given to this card. I might have to start using it more often! I'm still loving my new punches! Especially this Spiral Punch and the Tab Punch from Stampin Up! I think most of my cards will have one of these used of them for some time yet!

I coloured this image before deciding what I was going to do with it and now I think I want to eat it. Its mint choc chip! How delicous! I think the mint coloured card is from the Swimming Pool range by Doodlebug, I really like it, and think I should probably use it more often.

Well the snow is melting fast here. My poor snowman's head fell off at lunchtime today. It's really sad, but to be honest, we've had a really good week of snow and it may be time for it to just go now. I'm happy if it wants to continue snowing but all this wet slushy stuff isn't nice. In all we built 4 snowmen over the week and generally had great fun. I have to say that the brightness of the snow made it a lot easier to get a good picture of my cards.

I've had a few orders just lately so have made quite a lot of cards, although I can't post a few of them just yet. I'm never quite sure who's checking my blog and who's not, so to be on the safe side I've decided to wait a while.

I think thats about all for today! I need to get on and catch up with some blogs as I haven't checked any for a few days now.

Bye for now!

Wow...Northampton has got SNOW!!!

2009-02-06T03:39:00.000-08:00

Well this is just fantastic, I'm loving all this snow. As I've mentioned before we live in a little eco-bubble in Northampton and we never seem to get any weather. Monday we had quite a snowfall and subsequently I built a cute little snowman with my little man. I think he was a bit tipsy though and he fell over! When we awoke on Thursday morning there was an even thicker layer of snow so we went out again and built snowman mark 2. Now I dont have a fire, so we had no coal for the eyes, or mouth. I had to improvise and cut up a potato for his eyes, which i've coloured with marker pen. For his mouth we've used some red ribbon. Luckily we did have a carrott for his nose!Its been snowing quite heavily here now for the past couple of hours and the snow is really quite deep out there now! This is the view out of the front of my house, its lovely. No tyre marks in the road, no traffic moving.And my back garden. I'll be back later with some cards. I'm just so excited about the snow!

Blog Candy Alert

2009-02-02T00:54:00.000-08:00

Sharon over at Gramma's House of Cards is offering some Valentines Blog Candy. Please check out her blog to be in with a chance of winning two gorgeous Magnolia stamps.

Playing with my new Toys! and I've been Tagged....

2009-02-01T14:07:00.000-08:00

Hi All, hope you all had a great weekend! I'm hoping that this promise of heavy snow is going to come! I love the snow. I think its about time that we got knee deep in snow! I want to build a snowman with my little boy! I dont really ever remember having deep snow. The weather seems to bypass us here in Northampton. Well this weekend has been a busy one for me. On Saturday, I decided to pop into my local hobbycraft for a look around but nothing really took my fancy, so instead we took a trip over to the Coleman Warehouse in Rushden, by far the best craft shop in Northamptonshire! Anyway upon arrival we noticed that the car park was heaving! I've never seen it so busy before but we ventured on in anyway. Note to self...the last Saturday of the month is demo day, Avoid! I did however get some goodies, some Basic Grey and K & Company papers.

This morning I was in spring clean mode, and decided that my craft room could do with a tidy up, well I've been through every box and every drawer and have thrown away so much stuff. Nothing of any use, but just little scraps of paper that I think will come in handy one day and boxes that I think are too pretty to throw away but just end up sitting on the shelf gathering dust. After spending all afternoon tidying, I thought I'd have a go with some of my new goodies. I sat and coloured lots of stamped images last night and here are a few cards I've made using them.
First up is my favourite! I love these papers, Archaic by Basic Grey. I've had this Sugar Nellie stamp for a good few months now and I think this is actually the first card I've ever used him on! I've also used my new Spiral punch and Tab Punch from Stampin Up! They are fab. I love them so much!
I've inked up one of my new Magnolia Stamps, Edwin with Oar, that I got in the sale from The Glitter Pot. In all I think I have about 11 new Magnolia stamps over Christmas. I love them all and I still want more! I've been trying to talk my hubby into joining the Magnolia Stamp Club for me, but I think its going to take a bit of convincing. I've also tried talking him into buying me some Copic Markers. I'm not great at colouring images and at the moment I use my Whispers pens and some acetate and I paint them. I find it can be quite time consuming and I'm not always happy with the result. I've seen a few sets of the Copics at a really great price, but we just dont have the funds at the moment. I think I've become totally obsessed with them! I need to get selling a few more cards!

I've also been Tagged by Julie. The rules are that you have to go to your Picture Folder and choose the 6th Folder and then the 6th Picture!

This is my little fella Adam. It was taken on the August Bank Holiday weekend. We took our caravan to a little site in Warwickshire with a group of friends. It was a lovely sunny weekend but the ground was absolutely soaked due to all the wet weather we'd had previously. The kids all played in their welly boots all weekend and the fun game was to push the water carriers around the site! They were empty ones though. I dont think he'd manage it if it were full, but we will get him trained eventually! This is one of the best sites we've been to in a while. The toilets and showers were not very good, but it did have its own tea room which sold cream teas and home made cakes, yummy! The site also had acess to the oxford canal which we took a few walks along. It was really lovely!

Woohoo! I made some more Cards! and Blog Candy Alert!

2009-01-29T01:10:00.000-08:00

First of all, Tara is celebrating passing 10,000 hits on her blog and is offering some great blog candy. All you have to do is "follow" her blog and tell her your all time favourite song and she will add it to her playlist. You have until 31st January to do so. Please go and check out her blog, as she has some stunning cards and is a great inspiration to me.

I've been in my craft room over the past couple of days and have a made some more cards! They are an order that i've received from my Aunt. The first card is very similar to one i made for her before and she liked it so much that she asked me to re-create it for her.

I've used quite a lot of silver mirror card on this one and it doesnt photograph very well! But in real life its really beautiful. Now I have to say that i'm not really a fan of peel offs anymore but seeing as they are what I used on the first card I made for her, that i'd do the same again. Also, I have a draw full of the things and I must use some up before I buy any more stamps! I've used a embossed pearlescent ivory card which is absolutely beautiful, I think it came from InspireMe Papers! I was asked to make this one for an older lady so went with a slightly more traditional look. The papers are from part of the Forever Friends Kit I got earlier in the year and the cardstock is Bazzill/Doodlebug. Again I've used another one of my peel offs in a bit of an effort to use some of the up and clear a bit of space in my drawers!

Well this is a card that I've tried and tested before and seems to prove quite popular! Its such a simple card to make but this time I think I've made it better than ever before which is why I've chosen to share it with you. I made the sign in paint shop pro and printed them out with an extra set of numbers so that I could decoupage them. I've then gone over it with my glue pen and added some glamour dust. The grey lines at the bottom are some thread that i've stitched onto the card. This time I've also layered it onto some red doodlebug card which just finishes it off nicely.

And finally, this is the set I was asked to make for the lady from the pre-school christmas fayre. I've used the forever friends bear on the card and candle and have used matching blue gingham ribbon on both too. I've printed the name date and weight of the baby on the candle too. I really hope she likes it.

Well thats all for today. I'm going to spend some time colouring some stamped images and seeing if I can get inspired to make some cards with them!

Some Awards and Blog Candy Alerts oh and some cards! Finally!

2009-01-21T07:42:00.000-08:00

First of all thanks to Chrissie for passing on the Encouraged Award. I will try and get round to passing it on asap! I'm really struggling to get back into the swing of things since Christmas. I think I overdid it making cards for the Christmas Fair, so I decided to give myself a few weeks off, only that few weeks has been about 4 now! Also my craft room is combined with my utility room and its can get a bit chilly out there at this time of year. I've spent most of today trying to catch up on other people's blogs...the problem is I follow so many and its taking a lot longer than I anticipated, and the list seems to be getting longer by the day!
Katy is offering some very yummy blog candy. To be in with a chance of winning check out her blog and leave a comment linking from your blog. Julie is also offering blog candy as she has had 40,000 hits to her blog! Congratulations. This closes tomorrow (Thursday 22nd January) so you need to be quick if you want to enter!

Here are my first two cards of 2009! The first one is one I was asked to make for a lady who loves Mamma Mia! I didnt know what to do for this card really other than to use a picture or poster image. I've kept the card quite simple. I've used my brand new Stampin Up Scallop Punch which is brilliant! Before I used to cut all my scallopped edges by hand which was quite time consuming! I've used a couple of silk flowers and some papermania adhesive stones to finish. The sentiment is computer generated.This card was a bit of last minute card! I was asked to make it with only a day's notice! I had the idea in mind when I was asked to make it so it was quite a quick card, for me! I do tend to spend a bit too much time on one card! I've used the idea of cutting the numbers out of patterened paper a few times now and I really like the end result. I've used my scallopped border punch again here with some more adhesive stones.

I had a phone call from a lady today who took one of my flyers at the pre-school christmas fair, and she has asked me to make a card and candle gift set which I'm really pleased about. I think I'm finally getting back into the swing of things! Hopefully I can keep on track with all the blogs now and keep mine updated too!

Oh no what have I done?

2009-01-09T02:31:00.000-08:00

I thought I was being clever by trying to change to a new fancy background, but it all seems to have gone horribly wrong. Please bear with me while I try and get it back to normal!

A Belated Merry Christmas & A Happy 2009 to you all!

2009-01-01T11:19:00.000-08:00

Hello to you all! I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year. I've had a bit of a break for the past few weeks as I was so busy before christmas that I think I completely ran out of inspiration! Back at the begining of December I was asked to have a little stall at the local pre-school Christmas Bazaar which I agreed to do, nervously! It went really well though and I sold quite a few cards and some of my card & candle gift sets too. I think I'll keep my eye open for some craft fairs and maybe do one or two throughout the year. Here is a little piccy of my stall!Santa was very generous to me this year! These are the crafting goodies he left for me! Mostly from my wonderful husband, Ian. I've got a few bits in the online sales too so I can't wait to have a go and get creating again! I will have to clear some of the washing and make the utility room my craft room again! Christmas was a bit more exciting this year, with Adam now being 2 and a half and quite enthusiastic about his presents. He was quite keen to open them himself but I had to help out where they were a bit too well wrapped! We had lots to open! Adam also started pre-school on Tuesday! My little baby is growing up! Where does the time go? He is only doing two short sessions a week to start with. The first one went really well, no tears, he just waved me goodbye and said see you later!

Here are just a few of my favorite cards I made leading up to Christmas.This is using one of Kerry's Stamps Harry Ski-ing. I've used some torn vellum as the snow and have added lots of glamour dust. I've used the swiss dots embossing folder and inked with my white stazon inkpad to make it look like snow. The snowflakes are cut using the cuttlebug die and I've added more glamour dust and an adhesive stone to the centre of each. I love this card! Adam gave it to his Daddy for Christmas!

The next two are cards I made for my friends Son's & Daughter's. She has 5 children all together! Again I've used Kerry's stamps. Harry & Martha with Snowmen. I've combined these with Doodlebug Papers and cardstock. I coloured the snowman with my glue pen and covered him with more glamour dust! This next card is made again with Doodlebug Card & Papers and embossed the background with cuttlebug snowflakes. I've used this sugar nellie stamp so much this year! and I got it for a bargain of about £2.50 earlier in the year when it was on sale. I needed to make some quick and easy mens cards and whilst browsing one of my many magazines decided to go with a tie theme and luckily I just happened to have the making memories set that the used to make them in the magazine which helped to inspire me!This card was so quick and easy to make and I love it. I gave one to my cousin for his birthday and he was very impressed!And finally, here is a get well card I was asked to make for a lady. I've used Kerry's Martha Nurse stamp combined with some of the Summer Driggs papers.

My first order for this year is for a Mamma Mia themed card. Not sure what I'll do yet, but I'll see what I can come up with. We got the DVD for Christmas, its great! We've watched it twice already. We also got WallE which I really love and Adam does too!

Right, well thats about all for today. Hopefully I'll be back again soon with some new creations to share with you! I need to catch up with your blogs too!

Thanks for stopping by!

.....more Christmas Cards...a few for the men?

2008-12-05T01:23:00.000-08:00

First of all I'd like to say a big Thank You to Kerry for the Freebie Christmas Tree which I've used to make this very simple card. Thank You Kerry! I started by printing out and painting the christmas trees. I tried putting them on other cards with other images but I thought I'd like the tree to be the main focus of the card. I've added a few red and green papermania adhesive stars to decorate and then stuck it down using foam pads. The strip of dotty paper is doodlebug layered onto some red doodlebug cardstock. I've then printed the sentiment on the pc, again onto co-ordinating doodlebug card and layered this too. I really love this card. I can't beleive how simple it was to make! One of my quickest so far!I got the idea for this card after seeing this card on Tara's Blog! I really love the holly wreath and decided to have a go at making one myself. I've used doodlebug again! Paper & Card! and I've embossed each holly leaf with the swiss dots folder. I wasnt sure what to do with the wreath once I'd made it and one evening I had a flash of inspiration! So I went straight into my craft room and cut out circle from the card and hung a large round sentiment in the style of a hanging bauble!I bought the Papermania Christmas stack a few weeks back in Hobbycraft as i thought the traditional papers would be ideal for some more masculine cards. I've used the free template to cut out the holly leaves and inked all the edges. For the lettering I printed off a few christmassy words and made my own card templates so I can re-create them. I've cut them out using the same paper as the background paper. The font I've used is called Madfont and I downloaded it from DaFont I had the Idea for this next card when I saw the Ribbon Tree stamp in a magazine. I cut out all the different pieces of ribbon and stuck them down and then trimmed them into a tree shape. I added a small star brad to the top of the tree. Then I got stuck! and didnt know what to do with it, so I've kept it simple and a bit manly!

I decided to have a go at making some Christmas Baubles using the Papermania paper pack again. I've cut out the baubles using my nestabilities and finished them with some gold ribbon and a few adhesive stones. I think they have turned out really well. Very simple and easy to make.

More Christmas Cards

2008-12-05T01:18:00.001-08:00

Can you see a theme running through my cards yet? Pink Petticoat? Doodlebug? I wanted to keep my cards all fairly similar this year to make it a bit easier on me. Its been far from easy though! Here are a few more.... For this card, I've made the holly leaves using one of the free templates that came with a magazine a month or so ago. I've inked all the edges and scored down the middle of each leaf before adding glamour dust and sticking them down with foam pads. I made a bulk batch of these and they've been really usefull!Another Pink Petticoat card using Lola Rose, combined with Doodlebug Holly Paper which ties in lovely with her christmas jumper!For this one, I thought I'd have a go at stamping up a Magnolia image to use on a Christmas card. I've used Tilda with Flower Boquet and coloured the flowers in red to resemble some kind of poinsettia type flower! I've gone with the same layout as above, using my handmade holly leaves and hand cut scalloped circle, and I wonder why it takes me so long to make my cards!!!The dotty paper is Doodlebug again! and to tie in with this I've used the swiss dots embossing folder. Then just a few adhesive stones to finish!

Whilst playing around with the Pink Petticoat images I decided it would be a good Idea to do something with just the Christmas Puddings, so I cropped them in Paint shop pro and printed off about 50 of them! I used my square punch to cut them all out and I spent a theraputic evening watercolouring them and adding glamour dust. I had a little production line going. I wasnt entirely sure what I was going to do with them once I'd finished so here are a couple of cards that I made.

I think this is my favourite of the two. I've embossed the bottom of the card with the cuttlebug snowflakes folder and sectioned the two parts with a nice piece of red ribbon. I printed the sentiment on the pc and layered onto co-ordinating card.

So many cards...so little time!

2008-12-04T14:14:00.000-08:00

I've been asked to have a little stall at my little boys pre-school christmas fair in a couple of weeks time. Its the first time I've ever been asked to do anything like this and I'm a little nervous to be honest. I've been working really hard trying to get as many cards made as possible. Tonight I've got nothing left in me! I'm exhausted! so thought I would take a bit of a break and come and update my blog instead. I've got lots of cards to show you.

First of all I thought I’d start with a couple of candle and card sets. This first one is made using a Sugar Nellie stamp that I bought a couple of months ago from Funky Kits. I think I only paid £2.50 in the sale for it! What a bargain! I’ve used Doodlebug Winter Asterisks paper together with Doodlebug cardstock. The white background is embossed with the Cuttlebug snowflakes folder and the raised scalloped circle, which is all cut by hand, is embossed with the Swiss Dots folder. I’ve added a few adhesive stones and a sentiment I made on the PC. I really love this set. I think it’s my favourite out of all the ones I’ve made.
Secondly, I decided to make a candle to match my Forever Friends card. I have added small adhesive stones to the centre of the flowers and tied a pink bow around the bottom of the candle. And finally, another Christmassy card and candle. I made this one using Pink Petticoat’s Lola Rose with Christmas Tree. I used the printing direct onto tissue paper technique for this one! I’ve added glamour dust to the trees for an added bit of sparkle! The Christmas tree on the card is stuck on with foam pads to give it a bit more dimension but this is about as far into decoupage as I like to go! I’ve then embossed the top and bottom of the card with the Cuttlebug Snowflakes folder. The cardstock and paper are both Doodlebug and the ribbon is from Ribbon Oasis.

Award Time!

2008-12-01T01:11:00.000-08:00

I've been a bit slack on updating my blog lately! I've been so busy making christmas cards! I've received a few awards and just wanted to pop them up on my blog and say thanks to the ladies who have passed them on to me.

First of all Alex has given me the Kreativ Blogger Award

I've already passed this award on, so won't send it again but I think just about all the blogs I visit already have it! If you are reading this and don't have the award, then feel free to take it from me!

Secondly both Vicky and Denise have passed on this award to me

"This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or 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 blogger's who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

Thank you all so much, I really appreciated the thoughts and am glad you all enjoy my blog!

I'm now off to have a look and see who I can pass the award onto!

Back soon...

Meet George....the dinosaur!

2008-11-13T09:37:00.000-08:00

I've had a busy day today. I was asked to make a card for a little boy who is going to be 5 soon and I've spent nearly all day making this card! I have no idea what his favourite characters are or anything so I thought I'd play the safe option and go for Dinosaurs! I did a search on the internet but all I came up with really were the Basic Grey Archaic dinosaurs. I then remembered seeing some cards and toppers made using them in a magazine, which I think Jo Kill did, so I dug out the magazine for some more inspiration.

Rather than go out and spend more money I decided that I would have a go at making my own paper pieced dinosaur. So I got out my trusty doodlebug cardstock and set about making a template. I've kind of copied the Basic Grey one, but have drawn it all freehand. I've inked all the edges, hopefully making it stand out a bit more. I have decided to call him George, don't know why really, he just looks like a George! I think I've fallen in love with him. I'm so pleased with how he's turned out.
I'm not so happy about the rest of the card though. The inspiration stopped at the dinosaur! I used a Shabby Princess paper for the background which is in tones of brown, green and orange. I cut out a few small pieces of card which I've inked and hopefully they look like rocks! I was a bit stuck when it came to the sentiment. I dont have many sentiments stamps and by the time i was ready for it, it was too late to print one off the computer, So I've just coloured some peel offs brown.

I hope you all like him!

A little bit of Christmas!

2008-11-11T02:51:00.000-08:00

I spent most of Sunday looking back through old issues of magazines looking for some inspiration for some christmas cards and was so frustrated as I just couldnt find what I was looking for! I didnt know at the time what I was looking for but I didnt find it! I did sit and cut out some snowflakes from one of the free templates that came with a magazine and also some holly leaves.

Here are a couple of the cards I've used my holly leaves and snowflakes on!
I was originally inspired to make this card when I saw the new stamp from Magnolia with the Silent night music background. As I already have a sheet music stamp I thought I'd save myself some money and have a go at using it! I've stamped it onto red doodlebug card in embossing ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. I then took the Guitar playing Edwin and attached him using foam pads. The sentiment is one I've made myself using paint shop pro and Ive cut it out using my nestabilities and then inked the edges. This is also stuck down with foam pads. The stripey paper is from the Papermania set A Wonderful Christmas Time. The spotty paper is a download which I've recoloured from blue to red spots. I am really pleased with this card. Its got to be one of my favourites! I hope you all like it too.

And onto my second creation. This is one I made yesterday and this is the card I was looking for on Sunday but couldnt find! It all started with a sheet of Vellum which I'd torn and decided to use it as a layer of snow. I've taken a sheet of Doodlebug Whimsical Winter Asterisks paper and cut out of it 3 different sized triangles. I have inked all the edges in navy blue ink and then I'ved gone round the edges and also the edge of the vellum with my glue pen and sprinkled Glamour Dust to give them a snowy effect. I have to say that there is glitter everywhere now. I'm sure I will be finding it for months to come! But I love the Glamour Dust. I really wanted something that gave this effect last year but I only had quite a bulky glitter. The snowflakes are stamped onto a pearlescent navy card in white ink and then embossed with clear powder. The snowflake stamp is from another one of my Dovecraft/Studio G 99p stamp sets. I have covered the large blue snowflake I spent ages cutting out, in glamour dust too and then stuck the sentiment, which is another one I have created in paint shop pro, in the centre and mounted it on foam pads. In all, I made about 6 of these last night.

This card was so difficult to photograph! I must have taken about 100 photos last night and yet all it needed to show it off was a little bit of sunshine!

Forever Friends

2008-11-10T15:14:00.000-08:00

I've been having a play with my new Forever Friends stamps. I really love them and have spent hours just sitting colouring lots of stamped images in! Here are a couple of cards I've made using them, which I decided to keep quite simple. I wish now that I'd have used my embossing folders on the horizontal strip! next time I will do!

I think this one is my favourite. I really love the lilac and I think the ribbon bow finish it off really well. The stamp is from a 99p set from Studio G (Dovecraft) called Daisy Sentiments. I have lots of these 99p stamp sets they are great!

I've also been asked to make a sympathy card for a man who was a keen motorcycle enthusiast and they wanted some kind of a bike on the card. I've not been asked to do one of these before so it was a bit of a challenge coming up with the idea! I wanted to keep it reasonably simple for fear of it looking too much like a mans birthday card.

I found the image on Google and I edited it in Paint Shop Pro to give it an aged newspaper effect and also a sketchy pencil drawn effect, which is not very clear to see from the picture. I worked from the colours of the image and found a nice sheet of metallic DCWV card in Champagne and combined that with the white card. I've embossed a strip of white card in the cuttlebug script embossing folder and then I've stamped a sentiment in a bronze ink which happens to co-ordinate perfectly. The sentiment stamp is from another set of the Studio G 99p stamps. I like this one!

An Award!

2008-11-10T14:42:00.000-08:00

First of all I'd like to say Thanks to Denise for passing this award on to me! Thank You! The rules for passing this award on are
1. The winner may put this award on their blog
2. Put a link to the person who sent this award to you
3. Nominate 5 blogs
4. Put links to their blogs
5. Leave a message for your nominees

So here goes!
1. Kerry
2. Sarah
3. Kerry
4. Jo
5. Barbara

Can anybody help me....please?

2008-11-04T04:32:00.000-08:00

I've been told that I should begin to make a list of the bits and pieces that I'd like for christmas. I've seen a punch thats been used on a lot of other blogs and its a spiral notebook punch. I dont know if that's the official name for it but I've been looking everywhere for one and the only one I can find is a Stampin up! punch. I dont really know how Stampin Up works, I've heard the name a lot but dont know how you go about buying any of their products. Here is a piccy of what it looks like. Its so frustrating, I've been searching for ages but can't find anywhere to actually buy one! If anybody has any idea where I could get one from could you please let me know! Thanks.

Happy Hallowe'en!

2008-10-31T13:30:00.000-07:00

I love to get in the spirit of Halloween! So here are the two pumpkins I carved yesterday!

A Spider!

and a Vampire! well its supposed to be! it does look more like a vampire in the daylight.
And for my gorgeous little Vampire! How cute is he? I know I am a little biassed cos he's mine!
I told him he was supposed to look scary!

So far we've only had a couple of kids round trick or treating and I have a great big bowl of sweets sat by the front door too! I have been complimented on my pumpkins though which I'm quite pleased about!

I think I will do a little party next year for the kids (adults)!

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!!!

Look what I've got!

2008-10-30T06:02:00.000-07:00

My wonderful husband subscribed to Papercraft Inspirations Magazine for me and the subscription offer at the time was this yummy forever friends celebration set. It came in the post yesterday and I can't quite bring myself to take it out of the box! it looks so nice. On top of that are two more Forever Friends stamps I picked up when I went to hobbycraft on Sunday. I only went for a browse and ended up buying these! Its the first time I've seen them in there! This is the first card I made with my new stamp. The inspiration was taken from one of Michelle's cards. I've used my Whispers pens and paintbrush to colour the image, but its not quite right. I just dont seem to be able to get the colour right. Any handy tips for colouring these gorgeous bears would be gratefully received! The only other things I have are my watercolour pencils or ink pads and I dont seem to have the right colours in either.I've used the same colour scheme on this one but tried to go with a slightly different layout. The background card is part of the Bon Bon Trio by Doodlebug, I think its called Sandcastle but it matches the colour of the bear lovely.A couple of weeks ago I took delivery of some more Doodlebug papers, Ribbon and card to use for my Christmas cards. I picked up a set of the 99p stamps by Dovecraft which is what I've used to create these two Christmas Cards. I've added to touch of Glamour Dust to the santa hat to give it a bit of sparkle.

Well I've got the pumpkins to carve this afternoon so hopefully I'll post some pictures of them tomorrow! I had to get Adam a new costume as his cute spider one is way too small for him, so a trip to Tescos got us a very cute vampire outfit! He's going to look so cute, so what that it in mind I've decided to go with a Vampire pumpking and a Spider!

Bad Blogger

2008-10-24T01:32:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd better come on and post something seeing as my last post was 2 weeks ago now! I seem to have had a down couple of weeks which all started on my 30th Birthday! how depressing! I'm old now. I haven't made any cards for a couple of weeks apart from one for my friends little girl. She is going to be 2 soon and loves Fifi. It was such a hard card to make. My mojo is missing, so if anybody finds it, give me a shout!

The floral paper is part of a DCWV scrapbook stack and the yellow card is bazzill. I've added glamour dust to some of the flowers, Fifi and the number 2. This is the first time I've used my Glamour Dust and I'm really pleased with the effect. Although it's not one of my best cards, I'm sure Sophie will love it.

I would like to thank Erin for passing on two awards to meI will have a look around later to see who I can pass this onto and catch up on some blogs at the same time!

I have received this award before and have passed it on already, but I'm very happy to have received it again and will proudly display it here. Thanks again Erin!

I'm looking forward to Halloween next week. I seem to be the only person I know that loves Halloween and now I have my little boy to dress up. This year I've bought him a spooky spider costume. I'm not sure I'm actually going to get him to wear it but I'll have a good try and see if I can get some photos. I bought 2 pumpkins yesterday for carving. I think I'll have a go at a spider this year and maybe a funny face too. Last year I did a ghost which turned out quite well for my first go! I really love all the Halloween images and stamps out there at the moment and would love some, but just wouldnt know who to give them to once I'd made them!

Well I suppose I'd better get on with all my jobs for the day! I'll be back soon and hopefully I'll find my mojo and get some more cards made!