Woo hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Sunday! Have you woken up to 4 inches of snow like us??!!!!!

A card and a bit of news today! I'm so proud to say that I've been asked to join.....

I lurve Sketch Saturday so it's a dream come true!! Woo hoo!!!!!

So onto today's card. My sis asked me to make a card for her friend's birthday. She picked out Torn Paper by Elzybells as she says the dog looks just like her friend's little dog.

So I coloured the cute doggie with copics and added Lyra pencil shadows as usual. The papers are gorgeous MME Happy Heart. Sentiment is by Stampendous. Rolled rose is an MFT Die-namic die. The teeny heart on the corner of the image is a cut-out from the Magnolia heart border die which I was going to use then changed my mind so just used a cut-out instead!

I'd like to enter this into:

Allsorts- free and easy

Sweet Stop Sketches- sketch

Craft Us Crazy- anything goes

Simon Says- animal antics

My Time to Craft- a for adorable

Ditzy Crafty Mess- anything goes

Glitter Geeks- pets

Do you stack up?- anything goes

Oldie but a goodie- this stamp is over a year old (though my first time of using it!) - have a heart (see die-cut heart and heart paper).

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Elzybells, Stampendous); Copics; Lyra pencils; Assorted cardstock; Nesties; Rolled rose Dienamic (MFT); Heart (Magnolia die); Hot fix crystals; Brad

Thanks for dropping by today. I hope to get around to all my new followers this week to say helloooooo! x

Which one's your favourite?

Hi everyone! How's your weekend been? We've had gorgeous weather here, maybe Spring has finally Sprung? I hope so! Hubbie is working today and Mum is packing to go home so I have kept myself busy doing what I love best!!! I've got 3 really different cards to show you today. I hope you like them- which one's your favourite?

First up is a card my sis asked me to make for my bro's 40th birthday this week. She chose this Stampendous Changito Monkey stamp. I immediately thought I'd use these great papers by Sugar Lily called Digital World- very apt! I coloured in the image with Lyra pencils. I would never usually use a colour combo like this- I rarely use yellow- but I really like how this turned out, it's funky! (if I do say so myself!!!) I used my new star nesties to create an embelly. The "email me" sentiment was on one of the sheets of paper and I printed out the "40 today" on my PC.

I'd like to enter this into:

Sweet Stop Sketches

Paper Cutz- anything goes

Simon Says Stamp- Happy Birthday

Papertake Weekly- use 3 of something - 3 papers

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Stampendous); Lyra pencils; Copics; Papers (Sugar Lily); Assorted cardstock; Nesties; Button

Next up is my second Christmas card of the year!!!! And I've gone for the same image I used last time- doh!! Anyhow I think this is a slightly different style of card from me in that it is Stamping Bella a bit vintagey! I coloured Snowbunnybella with watercolour and lyra pencils. I then stamped Waltzing Mouse snowflakes around her and inked the edges of the image too. This gorgeous paper is by Cosmo Cricket. The sentiment is also Waltzing Mouse. What do you think of my homemade poinsettia??!!! I LOVE IT!! I'm lovin my work today aren't I???!!! lol. I made this using my new Magnolia die. I inked up the edges of the flowers and put Art Institute beads in the centre. I can't take the credit for the style of this flower which I saw here.

I'd like to enter this into:

Diecut Dreams Christmas Challenge- sketch plus lavender and lace

Crafts 4 Eternity- use fabric, buttons & beads

Charisma Cardz- use die cuts

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Stamping Bella; Waltzing Mouse); Watercolour pencils; Lyra pencils; Paper (Cosmo Cricket); Assorted cardstock; Rose corsage ink; Lace; Button; Thread; Beads (Art Institute); Poinsettia & romantic lace dies (Magnolia); Ribbon; Pearls

And last up is a Mother's Day for my wonderful Mum from my sis. She chose this Whipper Snapper stamp which I coloured with copics and lyra pencils. I love these fun tree and birdie papers by Pebbles, I've been waiting to use them and I think this image is perfect! The sentiment and heart were freebies with a mag from ages ago. The green border is from K & Co. Buttons and thread from stash.

I'd like to enter this into:

Sketch Saturday

Stamping For the Weekend- Mother's Day

Stamp Something- something sweet

Crafty Catz- Mother's Day

Alphabet Challenge- trees

Crafty Creations- Mother's Day

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Whipper Snapper); Copics; Lyra pencils; Papers (Pebbles); Assorted cardstock; Sentiment & heart (freebies); Buttons; Thread

Have a fun and busy crafting week! Hope you get to create to your heart's content xxx

To be sick or not to be sick....

...that is the question. Well, not really the question, more like the big gloomy cloud I've got hanging over my head. To explain- my sister had this awful vomiting virus over the Bank Holiday when she was staying at my Mum's. She then passed it on to her partner. Now I was supposed to be seeing my sis and my Mum the day my sis got sick so we cancelled and me, thinking I was being careful, "quarantined" my Mum and said, I won't see you for a few days in case you get it. So Mum came to stay with me on Wednesday instead, us thinking there's no way she's going to get it after that amount of time. What happens? Thursday morning she's being violently sick!!! So history tells us I'm about to get it too!!! I've been getting tummy twinges but I'm not sure whether they might be psychosomatic!! I hate being sick so the thought of getting this thing is making me very uneasy!!! Keep your fingers crossed for me!!

So onto an update on my craft room! I've finished painting it and have nearly sorted all my stash out now. I was going to leave taking photos until I'd done some crafty creations to put on my walls but I think I'll show you how it looks next week with any luck and can do photos of what I've made at a later date.

Here are some more of my Craft for Life cards that I made before we moved just to keep you interested (hopefully!!)

I love this little Penny Black transparent stamp, it's so cute. I coloured the mice with watercolour pencils and added some highlights with brush markers. The paper was just an old freebie scrap from a magazine. The embossed strip is a Cuttlebug Spots and Dots folder. I added a sticker sentiment.

A close up of the little mice!

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Penny Black); Watercolour pencils; Brush markers; Nesties; Cuttlebug folder; Paper (freebie); Assorted cardstock; Flower (Ebay); Brad (Woodware); Sticker sentiment (Papermania)

Yes, another Penny Black transparent stamp! Again, coloured with watercolour pencils. The paper is another freebie.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Penny Black); Watercolour pencils; Paper (freebie); Assorted cardstock; Punches (Woodware); Rub on (Papermania); Gem (Lakeland)

I love this stamp so much! It always makes me laugh when I see it! I definately agree with this sentiment! This stamp is by Stampendous and coloured with copics. The sentiment comes with it. The paper is from a set by Papermania.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Stampendous); Copics; Paper (Papermania); Assorted cardstock; Nesties

And my last card of the day is this birthday card featuring stamps from a Hero Arts cupcake set. I've coloured with copics and added hundreds and thousands using Liquid Pearls to give it a 3D effect. I outlined the sentiment with Stickles. This paper is also from a birthday Papermania set.

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Hero Arts); Copics; Paper (Papermania); Assorted cardstock; Nesties; Stickles; Liquid Pearls

So I hope you've enjoyed your visit. It's taken me ages to do this post as BT cocked up the transfer of our phone line so we don't have Broadband at the moment- this is also the reason I haven't visited any of your lovely blogs plus the move has taken up most of my time. We are hoping to have Broadband next week so I really hope to show you the photos of my new craft room and maybe the week after actually have the time to do some crafting!!!!

Take care for now x

Hero Arts, Stamping Bella and Changito Monkeys!

Hi everyone! Hope you're all doing OK. I had a very exciting weekend picking up my new car and showing my Mum and sis round our (hopefully) house-to-be! I don't know about you but I think this cold weather is really starting to drag! Borrrrr-ing!! Roll on Spring, please!

So this card I've made for my other Auntie who was 80 last month. I've made it using these beautiful papers I got for Chrimbo in the DCWV Summer stack. I just love them! The two large flowers and the group of flowers in the left hand corner, I cut out of some paper within the stack to make them focal points of the card rather than just leaving them as paper. The stamp is a Hero Arts one from one of their large messages sheets. The butterfly would you believe was actually pink but I experimented by colouring black with copics- it worked! I then added a flower gem for contrast. The silver baubles were rescued from a Christmas cracker and I then trimmed the wire and twisted them around the ribbon.

I'm going to enter this for Cute Card Thursday who's theme is "Blooming Gorgeous".

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Hero Arts); Paper (DCWV); Assorted cardstock; Ribbon (recycled); Baubles (Recycled); Butterfly (?); Gem (Joanna Sheen); Copics

Onto my second make, a Valentine's card for my hubbie. I love this stamp from Stamping Bella as I thought it would be quite versatile. I thought you could mask out the hearts at the top and stamp different sentiments above her but for this one I thought I'd use her as she was intended! I coloured her with Lyra pencils and paper pieced her top, skirt and all the little hearts she is juggling. A bit fiddly and time consuming but I wanted the colours to match the paper exactly. The papers are by American Crafts. I then used 4 different stamps from the Elzybells Valentine tag sets I won (see last post). These sets are mega useful. I white embossed the decorative heart on pink paper and mounted on the "secret admirer" round stamp. The message at the bottom is 2 separate stamps which I stamped to form a sequence. Hope hubbie likes it!

I'd like to enter this for the following challenges:

Mojo Monday- sketch

Fussy and Fancy- "Hearts"

C.R.A.F.T.- "Paper piecing"

Pink Elephant- "Pink"

Sophisticat- "Love"

Secret Crafter- "Hearts"

One Stop- "Make it personal"

Papercutz- "Use pink on a male card"

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Stamping Bella; Elzybells); Paper (American Crafts); Lyra pencils; Assorted cardstock; Nesties; White embossing powder

Here is a little close up of my paper piecing. I also added some Lyra pencils to her skirt to add some depth

And lastly, my last post is for my friend's little boy who's birthday is up and coming. I got this Changito Monkey stamp and matching sentiment for Chrimbo and have coloured with Lyra pencils. I then used an embossing pen and clear glittery embossing powder to emboss the bubbles. The paper I think is Artic Frog (?) and the letter stickers are by Basic Grey. I embossed the brown strip to be reminiscent of bubbles.

I'd like to enter this for:

Cupcake Craft Challenges- "4 legged and furry"- do monkeys count? They walk on all fours??!!!

Unscripted Sketches- sketch

One Stop- "Make it personal"

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Stampendous); Lyra pencils; Paper (?); Assorted cardstock; Embossing folder (Cuttlebug); Stickers (Basic Grey); Clear glitter embossing powder

Mice and monkeys!

Hi all! Hope you all had a lovely weekend. I'm sorry I didn't get round to visiting many of you but I had a bit of a busy week last week. I'm starting training on Thursday for my new job! I had CFS for about 4 years (though thankfully only have occasional flare ups now) so I haven't worked for ages. Then last year just as I was getting better, I was thrown in at the deep end as I had to run my Dad's business when he passed away. We scaled back the business hugely so now I just do paperwork for the family business so am able to take on some other part time work. I'm really looking forward to doing something different though am a bit nervous!! Wish me luck!!

Anyway, enough of my ramblings, onto some cards.....

My first card is a birthday card for a male friend and is this using this cute Whipper Snapper stamp. I love how chilled out he looks! Wish I was where he is!!! I coloured the image with copics and then the shading around the edge is done with lyra pencils to give a softer effect. I love the writing, it's a Sizzix phrase set. I bought it in their Winter sale. By the way, have you seen my cute flip flop brad?!

I'd like to enter this for a number of challenges:

Cupcake Craft Challenges- sketch (rotated)

Paperplay Challenges- "Furry friends"

Copic Colour Challenge- "Blue, grey and green"

Crafty Catz- "Birthday card"

Paper Cutz Challenges- "Beach/summer"

Crafty Calender- "Keeping warm"

Sophisticats- "Spring/bright colours"

Here's my usual little close up to see a bit of copics shading. I still need practice but I'm definately improving!

Crafty stash: Stamp (Whipper Snapper); Copics; Lyra pencils; Nesties; Phrase die (Sizzix); Papers (Making Memories); Assorted cardstock; Brad (Poppicrafts)

And my second card of the day is also for a male birthday. I've got so many birthday cards to make at the mo!! This Changito monkey stamp I got for birthday or Christmas and have coloured with lyra pencils. I stamped a frame around him from the Doodley Frames set by Autumn Leaves which I love. The sentiments are both by Elzybells but from different sets- one is from the sheep set and the "hey buddy" is from the "missing you" set. The little sentiment holder (I know that's not the word I want but it escapes me!) is another little Sizzix bargain I got in their sale. I don't know if you can see but I cuttlebugged the strip across the middle.

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Stampendous, Elzybells, Autumn Leaves); Lyra pencils; Paper (?); Assorted cardstock; Nesties; Spot and Dots folder (Cuttlebug); Tag holder (Sizzix); Ribbon (recycled)

And for this card, I'd like to enter it into:

Friday Sketchers- sketch

Paperplay challenges- "Furry friends"

Crafty Catz- "Birthday card"

Sketchy colours- "Brown and turquoise"

Thanks for dropping by. Can't wait to see your creations this week x

Happy Birthday to me!

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a good week and weekend. Did you see the X Factor? My prediction of the finalists came true. Now I'm going to take a guess at the winner, or a sort of guess... I think it will be either Joe or Olly. I've heard that Joe will be singing with George Michael, Olly with Robbie and Stacey with Michael Buble. Don't know if this is true or not but I LOVE George and Michael (ha ha) so I'm SO looking forward to the final!!

So it was my birthday at the weekend and of course I got lots of lovely crafting stash to enjoy. Here it all is! Firstly I got a mini sewing machine off Ebay really cheap. I can't sew to save my life but thought a bit of sewing would add a certain je ne sais quoi to my cards so I thought I'd give it a go- watch this space!!

So my first lot of goodies to show you is this lot of flowers and gorgeous butterfly embellies. I got these from the US. Aren't they beautiful?

Then I got this gorgeous lot of bling! This includes pearls, "say it in crystals" , "say it in studs" and flower centres. Again this was all from the US. I also added some more pencils to my Lyra collection- I got these mail order from Atlantis Art Materials in London.

Some stamps.... including 2 Autumn Leaves (Stampology) sets- Fine & Dandy and Doodley Frames , a little cheeky Changito Monkey, Inkadinkado Sketchy Flourishes and a Prima stamp.

And finally a load of paper and card which I got in the US (noticing a theme here) when I was in Florida. That whole lot of paper and card cost something ridiculous like a fiver! It was about a quarter of the price it is here! I also got a couple of Sizzix Bigz dies which I'm SO looking forward to using.

I can't wait to get started on using all my new stash plus I have stamps from the Summer I haven't even used yet. I'm going to finish my Christmas cards this week (card posts later in the week) and then hopefully from next week get started on using my gorgeous stash!!

Do let me know what's on your wish list for Christmas this year, I'd love to find out what crafty stash everyone is longing for!! xxx

Yep, you guessed it! More Christmas cards.....

Hi everyone! I hope you had a nice weekend. I'm under the weather with a bladder infection and hubbie is in bed with flu- what a healthy pair we are! So am feeling as miserable as the weather here in Essex so I thought I might as well get on with the Christmas card making. I started way too late this year so I feel like I'm rushing them a bit which I really hate doing! So this first card is for a few challenges and is based around a cute Penny Black snowman. The paper is last year's DCWV Christmas pad and the top layer has the words to "Jingle Bells" on which is perfect for this week's Allsorts Challenge which is a Christmas carol or song. I even found a rub on which said "Jingle Bells" too! I added a punched strip, some raspberry ribbon, a punched snowflake and blue hot fix crystals.

I'm entering this card for the following challenges:

Penny Black- Winter Wonderland

Friday Sketchers- sketch!

Allsorts- Christmas songs

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Penny Black); Copics; Papers (DCWV); Assorted cardstock; Punches (Martha Stewart & Woodware); Ribbon (Poppicrafts); Hot fix crystals (Bead Co.; Rub on (K & Co)
This next card is for the Crazy for Challenges sketch which really suited a quick and easy bit of cardmaking. The image is Stampendous coloured with copics, I wanted to use really bright colours on this card to reflect the bright paper which I think was DCWV again. I made use of my snowflake punch again which is new for this season and which I've used on just about every card I've made. The little white snowflake is a gorgeous snowflake embellie which my lovely friend Fi bought me- you'll be seeing more of these!! (Thanx so much, Fi! x)

Crafty stash used: Image (Stampendous); Copics; Paper (DCWV?); Assorted cardstock; Punch (Woodware); Snowflake embellie (The Works); Sentiment (Lili of the Valley)
Finally here are a few more cards I made. The images may be Hero Arts I'm not sure. I coloured them all with copics- just added highlights which you can't really see that well in this photo. The paper is by Artic Frog. More use of my punch and snowflake embellies!!!

Crafty stash used: Sentiment stamp (See D's) Images (Hero Arts??); Copics; Paper (Artic Frog); Assorted cardstock; Punch (Woodware); Snowflake embellie (The Works); Ribbon (Recycled)

Hope you enjoyed visiting today, have a fab week! x

Cupcake Craft, Colour Create & Just Christmas.. Challenges

Hello all! Yet another miserable wet day here in Essex and I've got a couple of cards to post. The first is for Just Christmas & Birthday Cards Challenge who've got a sketch to follow this week. I've used the sketch to make a card for my hubbie who's birthday it is on Sunday. I bought this Changito Monkey stamp especially for him as he's on his laptop which is very apt for my hubbie who designs computer games for a living! I especially love the banana instead of the apple on the PC! I coloured Changito in using Lyra pencils and I've used one of my fav colour combos using papers by Pebbles Inc.

Here is a little close up of the cute chapie!

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Stampendous); Lyra pencils; Papers (Pebbles Inc); Assorted cardstock; Nesties; Ribbons (recycled); Button (Sizzix)

My second challenge entry is for Cupcake Craft Challenge who's topic this week is "Snow" and Colour Create who's colour combo is blue, silver and white.

I made this card using some recycled snowflakes pulled off an old christmas card- I think they work really well. The papers are by Papermania and the sentiment is by See D's- again I did a bit of tricky overstamping but, hey, that's what See D's are for!!

And another little close up!

Crafty stash used: Stamp (See D's); Papers (Papermania); Assorted cardstock; Nesties; Corner rounder punch; Snowflakes (recycled); Sticky lace (?)

Marie Curie Create a Card for Cancer Care Appeal

Hi. Here are some more A6 cards I've done for the Marie Curie Create a Card for Cancer Care Appeal. Again, I've done fairly simple cards but hopefully the detail is in the colouring in! This first card is another one of my new Forever Friends stamps which I coloured in with watercolour pencils. I layered the image on a couple of colours of assorted cardstock. The background paper is from the Retro stack by DCWV and the little sentiment is by Pink Petticoat and I cut it out with a tiny scalloped oval nesty.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Forever Friends); Watercolour pencils; Assorted cardstock; Nesties; Paper- Retro stack (DCWV); Sentiment (Pink Petticoat)This second card is using a Changito Monkey stamp which I love! I coloured in with watercolour pencils and cut out with scalloped rectangle nesties. I added some doodling around the edges before mounting on aqua card. The brown background is run through my Big Shot using the Spots and Dots embossing folder and then mounted on aqua cardstock. I finished with a matching strip of card.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Stampendous); Watercolour pencils; Nesties; Spots and Dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug); Assorted cardstock; Fine black linerThis last card was done using another new stamp by Magenta. I haven't seen this one around and got it on a trip to New York. I coloured the stamp in using watercolour pencils and added highlights with Crystal Stickles. I then cut the whole image into 3 separate pieces and mounted on peach and brown card. The background paper is from the Retro stack by DCWV and is again mounted on peach card.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Magenta); Watercolour pencils; Crystal Stickles; Assorted cardstock; Paper-Retro stack (DCWV)

Valentine's Day

Hi. Happy Valentine's Day to you all. Here is the Valentine's Day card I made for my hubbie- isn't it cute?! The stamps are a Changito Monkey clear set which I coloured in with watercolour pencils. I then cut round the image using my rectangle nesties and added doodling around the edges. I then used some larger nesties to cut the polka dot brown paper (can't remember where it's from). I then mounted on some brown card (one layer of which I embossed using the Spots and Dots embossing folder) and some lime card. I then cut out some vines in a slightly darker green and added a green brad. The sentiment was also from the set, cut out using oval nesties and mounted using sticky pads for a 3D effect.

For the first time ever I did something inside the card too and used another sentiment from the set mounted using my oval nesties. Hope you like! x

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Stampendous); Watercolour pencils; Assorted cardstock; Paper (?); Nesties; Spots and Dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug); Vine (Boss-Kut); Brad (Poppicrafts)

Cupcake Craft Challenge 6

This week's Cupcake Craft Challenges is the above sketch designed by Chris at Pollycrafts, our sponsor. You can alter it, flip it etc as long as the original design can still be seen. Entries to be in by next Monday.

Below is my design although I must admit I did forget slightly what the sketch looked like and somehow in my mind I thought the circles were up in the right hand side but you can still see the original sketch so that's the main thing! As I'm doing Christmas cards at the moment, I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and enter this one.


Crafty stash used: Stamps (Elzybells sentiments); Stamped image (Ebay); Copics; Paper- Xmas stack (DCWV); Assorted cardstock; Prima flowers; Gems (Lakeland); Ribbon (Recycled)