Boys, Boys, Boys!

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.

Handbags & Gladrags

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!

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

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!

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

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!

So many cards...so little time!

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.

Pinky The Pirate!

I was asked to make this card for a lady who sails ships for a living. I dont really have much other than my new sugar nellie pirate stamp, which I'v tried to make a bit more feminine by colouring it in shades of pink.
I've used the same layout that I used for one of my mum's cards as it was quite a simple one! The little ship is part of a font I downloaded recently, which I've printed directly onto the doodlebug card. I've used my mini Marks rubons, for the sentiment. They are by American Crafts and I got them from hobbycraft recently. Its a whole book of individual letters, its fab!

I'm not normally a great fan of Hobbycraft if I'm honest, but recently its been getting some really yummy stuff in, like all the American Crafts range and K&Company and I noticed today when I happened to "pop in" they have a lot more of the Making Memories range too. I held back though and didn't buy much atall.

Another rainy day...

...where has the summer gone? It is August isnt it? I guess we can't complain too much though, we've already had a much better summer than we did last year. Maybe its all the sun thats kept me so inspired over the past couple of weeks! Firstly I would like to say thank you to Tracey for giving me the Wylde Woman Award, its very kind of you!

I have a couple of cards to share with you today, the first being a pirate card using the Sugar Nellie pirate. I love this little cutie.
I was inspired by these cards that Kerry made a while back and decided to make myself a template for a scalloped frame. The papers are from one of the Kirsty Wiseman kits and this is the first card I've used my new cuttlebug embossing folder on too. I've added the sentiment to the frame using making memories rubons and the coins are from an Epsom kit. I wasnt sure what else to do with this card. I have a treasure map that I wanted to use, but the image covered most of it so it was barely recognisable. I am pleased with the end result though.

I've had these Dovecraft papers for a while and have hardly used any of them, so I started these cards by chosing the papers and then coloured the images to coordinate. I think these colours are gorgeous together.

I made this card a couple of days ago at the same time I did the pink one for Michelle's Challenge. Again the papers are from Dovecraft. This is my new set! the jumbo brad in the cente of the flower is also Dovecraft, A Hint of Pink, hence the name for my card!

I'm not so keen on this paper, so I decided to try and make it a bit more interesting by edging all of the leaves with my sakura quickie glue pen and embossed them with clear embossing powder. I think it has lifted the card and made it a bit more interesting. Definately a technique I will use again!

And finally, a litte orange and blue number. The orange paper is from Shabby Princess and the blue floral paper is from Epsom. A bit of a brave colour combination for me. I saw the sketch on somebody elses blog a couple of days ago, but I think it suited their card better than it has mine!

Well thats all for today. I'd better get on and do some housework now. Hope you all have a good day and that the sun comes out soon!