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

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?

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!

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?

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

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!

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!

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...