Wednesday 30 September 2009

Every girl needs a bit of sparkle


No crafting today folks..
just a fun day with my girls
and some serious retail therapy.
:-)
How do you like my new shoes?
I HAD to have them.. lol*
Hubby says that, at the end of the night, I will just
have to tap my heels together and say,
"there's no place like home".
xxx

Tuesday 29 September 2009

5 Christmas 'S' Words

It's been a dark afternoon here,
so it was nice to get some sparkle out and
make another Christmas card.

How cute is this image -
can you believe she was a 'freebie'?
You can pick her up from Pollycraft
and check out the other fab new Christmas images
that are available from there.

I made this card for the Pollycraft challenge
and was delighted to discover that,
unlike my watercolour pens,
my copics don't run with my printer ink.

The challenge is 5 S words.
You need to choose at least 2 elements to add to your card
from...
Snowflakes,
Sparkle,
Spots,
Stripes,
Swirls.
I managed to get all 5 on my card :-)

I've also managed a double challenge
by following the fab sketch, from Ute85, on
Recipe:
Digital Stamp - Pollycraft,
coloured with copics.
Not sure what make the Xmas design paper is.
The 'swirls' paper is Funky Fairys
Card candy, sentiment and ribbon
from my stash.
Snowflakes were punched from glittered paper.
xxx

Sunday 27 September 2009

Nursie

I tried with the distressing... I really did!
I even went a bit crazy with the sewing machine,
but it's not really me, is it?
My neat and tidy Virgo side just won't let go.
:-)

I followed this week's great sketch over at
Friday Sketchers,
where the added option is 'distressing'.

It's the first time I've inked up this Motivet stamp,
and I just think it's so adorable.
This week's prize is 3 gorgeous stamps from their
traditional line,
so, if you want to be in with a chance of winning them
get your entry in.

Recipe:
Stamp - Motivet, Doraline as a nurse,
coloured with copics.
Design Paper - My Mind's Eye, Magnolia.
Ribbon, pearls and bloom from my stash.
I haven't added the text to this yet,
as I haven't got any 'get well' stamps or stickers.
They are on my 'to buy' list.
xxx

Glitter Milly

Afternoon everyone,
hope you are all enjoying a relaxing weekend.
They fly by all too quickly, don't they?
I am in a good mood today,
hubby wallpapered the front room yesterday
and amazingly, the paper was still on the walls this morning!

I am cracking on with my Christmas cards
and this one is for the challenge over at
Sketch Saturday.
I just flipped the sketch to make it work for my image.


This week's sponsors are The Craft Barn
who have a great selection of crafting goodies.
They are nominated for the
Best Independent store in the south of England,
in the 2009 craft awards
and if you'd like to support them you can vote here

Recipe:
Stamp - Pink Gem, Winter Milly,
coloured with Copics and lots of stickles glitter!
Design Paper - K & Co, Peppermint Twist
Card candy and sentiment from Craftwork Cards.
xxx

Friday 25 September 2009

Stitching Galore

Hooray... something I can do!
Simon Says
wants you to 'Stitch It Up' this week.
I always machine stitch my cards,
but you can also hand sew, or fake it and use a pen.
There's a great set of DT work on the blog,
for you to look at, to give you some inspiration.

If you haven't used your sewing machine on card,
give it a go.
It's very easy and I didn't have to alter any tensions or
anything on my machine.
Just practice on a piece of card first.
I use either a straight stitch or a zig-zag,
as I find the fancy stitches on my machine don't really work very well.
A good tip is to always use white cotton on your bobbin
and just change your spool colour.
The white shouldn't show through.


Recipe:
Stamp - Stamposaurus, Lazy Ellie
coloured with copics.
Design Paper - My Mind's Eye, Bloom & Grow
Card candy and sentiment from Craftwork Cards.
xxx

Thursday 24 September 2009

Forever Friends Christmas Bear

I am confused today -
I know, it doesn't take much :-)
Using these copics is a steeper learning curve than I thought.

I now understand not to use the blending pen as a 'blending' pen
lol**
I wish I had used a pink on this little bear's dressing gown,
for highlights,
but it's difficult to do that when you don't have many pens.
I am also getting used to using much deeper and richer colours -
several projects have gone in the bin,
as my people looked like they had spent far
too long under a sun bed!!!


I was going to enter this for the sketch challenge at
'Moving Along With the Times',
but their post dates have confused me and

it turns out this was last week's challenge.
(Ever had one of those days?)

Is it too early to open the wine???

Recipe:
Stamp - Forever Friends, Cup of Cocoa,
coloured with Copics and stickles glitter
Design Paper - K & Co Peppermint Twist.
Punched snowflake with Diamond Dust

Tuesday 22 September 2009

Autumn Girl

Here is my VERY first attempt at colouring with Copics.
Now I understand why everyone loves them -
the pens are fabulous to work with,
with a much softer tip than I expected.
I haven't quite got the hang of the blender pen yet,
sometimes it seems to leave a little water mark behind.
Still, I can see that I am going to have so much fun
learning how to use them.
I used my coloured image on this card for the
Stamp with Fun challenge.
This week's theme is 'Autumn'.
Please check out their blog, there are some really
stunning cards from the DT.

Recipe:
Little girl stamp, GCS Artstamps,
coloured with Copics (how cool is it to say that? lol*)
Design Paper - My Mind's Eye, Bloom & Grow.
Candy leaves and ribbon from my stash.
xxx

Copic Heaven

Oh Wow!
Look what just arrived in the post -
my first ever Copics.
I am so scared that my colouring will be rubbish with them,
that I daren't even take a cap off yet.
How silly is that?
:-)
I will look at them a bit longer and then
try and pluck up the courage to use them..
lol**

Monday 21 September 2009

Ginger Nut Box

Afternoon everyone.
Well, it's been raining here today,
which makes it a perfect day for baking
and crafting.
I made a batch of yummy gingernuts
and altered this box, to give some as a little present.


I am entering this for this week's
Stamptacular Sunday challenge,
which is 'Anything BUT a card'.
Pop on over there and see the lovely ideas
that the DT have come up with.
There is also a great prize up for grabs
from Carmen from Card Art

Recipe:
Gingernuts :-)
Flatpack white box
Design Paper - My Mind's Eye, Magnolia
Stamp - Sugar Nellie
coloured with Promarkers.
Love Stamp - Inkadinkado, Tickets & Tags.

xxx

Sunday 20 September 2009

25th Anniversary

Here's a card I have made for a friend's
25th Wedding Anniversary.
I have followed a lovely sketch over at
Sketch Saturday,
just tipped it on it's side.
Pop over there and have a look at the great DT work,
and don't miss the chance to win some fab goodies from
this week's sponsor,
Nikki Fairbairn at
Bunny Zoe's Crafts

I thought there was something missing from this card,
so after the photo I ended up adding
some sticky pearls to the top right.
The stamps are coloured with Promarkers -
but without a blending pen for them
it's difficult to get the shading right.
I am also not convinced about the distressing on the white card.
I have used Tim Holtz Distress Ink,
but I haven't got the hang of the technique yet.
Moan, moan, moan... lol**

Recipe:
Stamps - Whiff Of Joy
Design Paper - K & Co, Classic
Blooms were punched from the paper
and I added some stickles glitter to them.
Pearl brad and heart charm from the Hobby House.

xxx

Buford Feeling Poorly


Hallellujah!
I have seen the light.
I am going to try my hand at using COPICS.
Scary, huh?
I have been studying hard the last few days
(and driving everyone around me crazy)
and I now have the right paper and ink all ready,
just waiting for my Ciaos to be delivered.

Here's a card for this week's
Friday Sketchers
that I have coloured with some Promarkers.
These have been sitting in a drawer since the day
I bought them. Every time I tried to use them
the ink from the stamp would bleed terribly.
Thanks to all those in blogland who leave tips and tuts
for us, I took their advice and
got myself some Memento ink
and NO MORE bleeding!

Of course you will have to bear with me whilst I learn
the tricky art of blending and shading
with my new pens,
and if anyone has any tips for me
I would be glad of the help.

Recipe:
Sketch from Friday Sketchers
turned on it's side.
Stamp - Buford Feeling Poorly (not sure of the make)
coloured with Promarkers.
Design Paper - My Mind's Eye, Bloom & Grow

xxx



Thursday 17 September 2009

Feeling under the weather?


This afternoon I had a delivery of some nice new goodies
to play with,
from The Stamp Bug.
A couple of things - Glimmer Mists and Distress Inks -
are going to take me a while to get the hang of using.

My card is for this week's Simon Says Stamp,
which is a recipe challenge.
3 embellishments
2 papers
1 image.
It is also based on the sketch over at Mojo Monday.

The stamp is Pink Gem, Milly in the Rain and
Milly's coat, boots and umbrella are paper pieced.
Then I added some glimmer mist to the boots and brolly.
It's hard to photo this, but it does give them a lovely sparkly finish.
The design paper is My Mind's Eye, Wild Asparagus.
I made the sentiment on the computer.
I have tried to use the distress inks around the edges,
but I think I need more practice with them.
Ignore the colour on this photo, it's a bit weird,
but it does give you an idea of how the glimmer mist sparkles.


xxx

A Winter's Day

I think I'm getting faster...
it only took me 2 hours to make this card this morning!!
;-)
This follows a lovely sketch, by Heather, over on
I do like those sketches where you can use your larger stamps
and make them the main focus of the card.
The extra challenge this week is to use a minimum
of 3 stamps.

The 3 stamps I used were all from the Woodware,
Winter's Day set.
I stamped the robin in the foreground,
and then masked him, to stamp on the watering can scene.
My third stamp was the 'A Winter's Day' sentiment.

Recipe:
Stamps, as above, coloured with watercolour paints
and sprinkled with Polar White Flower Soft.
Design Paper - K & Co Peppermint Twist
Snowflake border and sticky pearls from my stash.
xxx

Tuesday 15 September 2009

Apple Sauce & Stamp with Fun Challenge

Have you ever made apple sauce?
Today was my very first attempt,
and after coring, peeling, slicing and cooking
about 9lb of apples,
I ended up with 6 jars and 3 freezer bags
full of the yummy sauce.
Looking around my bomb site of a kitchen now,
it also seems like I have used every bowl and
pan that I own!!

Whilst tea - gammon cooked in diet coke -
is simmering away on the stove,
I have just had time to make this card for
the Stamp with Fun Challenge,
following the great sketch from Saphira.
Recipe:
Stamp - Pink Gem, little Gem's birthday,
coloured with whispers pens and a little stickles glitter.
Design Paper - DCWV Nana's Nursery, Baby Boy.
Card candy and sentiment from Craftwork Cards.
Blooms and leaves from my stash.

Now, I better go and do the washing up,
before hubby gets home!
xxx

Sunday 13 September 2009

Bat Girl!

Here's card No2 of the day,
and it's the first outing for my new
Pink Gem stamp,
Mimi & Pumpkin.

I am entering my card for this week's
Sketch Saturday
Please check out the blog.
It always amazes me that from one sketch,
you can see so many varied and wonderful cards.

Recipe:
Stamp - Pink Gem, Mimi & Pumpkin,
coloured with whispers pens.
Design Paper - Doodlebug design inc.
The bat template was a download from Martha Stewart
If you follow the link there are some other great
Halloween templates there.
The sentiment was made up on my comp.
xxx

*************************************************************************

Strawberry Mint Julep

Hello everyone,
hope you are enjoying a leisurely Sunday.
All is quiet in our house -
my girls have gone back to Uni
and hubby is at work.
So I am having a lovely crafting day,
under the watchful eye of my sleepy doggy.

Here's my first card of the day,
that covers 2 challenges.
The fab sketch is from MichelleO at
A Spoon Full of Sugar
and the theme is 'Stawberry Mint Julep'
(pink & green) at
Cute Card Thursday.

Please check out these blogs if you haven't been
over there for a while,
there really is some amazing work from their DT,
and some wicked prizes up for grabs this week.

Recipe:
Stamp - Penny Black Ladies Divine,
coloured with whispers pens and a sprinkling
of stickles glitter.
Design Paper - DCWV Nana's Nursey, Baby Girl
Flowers, dew drops and sentiment from my stash.
xxx


Thursday 10 September 2009

Oriental Birthday

Konnichiwa.
Here is my entry for this week's
Simon Says Challenge,
where the theme is 'oriental'.

There is a fab $25 dollar shopping spree
up for grabs this week,
along with some hidden candy on the DT blogs.
Check out their brilliant work and
get some inspiration along the way.

I dug deep into my craft box for this challenge,
and found one paper printed with characters
and another embellished with stitching.
The stitched one is really pretty -
as usual my photo doesn't do it justice.
The design paper is My Mind's Eye -
Wild Asparagus.
I punched the flowers from this too,
until my punch jammed up!!
The oriental lady and sentiment are from Craftwork Cards.
The lady is actually coloured in a pale lilac colour and
the sentiment has a copper foil effect -
again, it doesn't show very well on the photo.
Then I added a few stick on pearls and
some stickles glitter.
xxx

Wednesday 9 September 2009

Red, White and Blue Christmas

Rummaging around in my Christmas box yesterday,
I came across this little decoupage bear.
I think it was a freebie from a magazine.
Well, as a yorkshire lass I don't like to throw ANYTHING away,
so even though it's not really my style,
and the card is much smaller than I would normally make,
here it is.

I am entering it for this week's
Cupcake Challenge,
where the theme is
Red, White & Blue.
Check out the great DT work over there
and don't miss out on the chance
to win a fab gift voucher for
Simon Says Stamp.
xxx

Monday 7 September 2009

Frosty the Snowman

Afternoon everyone,
I am struggling today.
It was my birthday yesterday
and one thing I can say about getting older,
is that the hangover lasts longer!!

If you're looking to build up your stash of Christmas cards,
Winter Wonderland has a great sketch this week,
with a 'Frosty the Snowman' theme.
There is also a lovely prize,
donated by Lesley, so pop on over there and join in.

I always need lots of Christmas cards,
so I find it a good idea to make a few at a time and
get a little assembly line going.
I made these 3 cards using the same sketch,
just changing the colours of the papers.
Recipe:
Stamp - Pink Gem, Mimi and Snowman,
coloured with whispers pens and stickles glitter.
Design Paper - Daisy & Dandelion, A Winter's Tale.
Sentiment from Craftwork Cards.
Sizzix die cut swirl.
Punched snowflake and sticky pearls
from my stash.
xxx





Friday 4 September 2009

Happy Birthday Heidi

Happy Birthday to you,
squashed tomatoes and stew...

It's Heidi's birthday this week,
so the Simon Says Blog challenge
is to make her a birthday card,
using a fab sketch by Iris.

Heidi is the Queen of Candy and
she generously donates lots of goodies from the
Simon Says Stamp Shop.
This week there is a fantastic prize,
and Lorraine is aiming for 557 entries!!
So get crafting :-)

Recipe:
Thankyou to the lovely Paula for sending me some
stamps, including this Gorjuss Girl,
which I coloured with whispers pens.
Design Paper is My Mind's Eye Wild Asparagus.
Card candy and sentiment from Craftwork Cards
Thankyou to Diane too, for sending me some craft goodies,
including those cute bows.
xxx

Wednesday 2 September 2009

Piece of Cake!

Just as soon as I headed over to
I knew that I could have some fun
planning my Christmas table.
Oh yes, I can hear some of you say, 'it's a bit early',
but do you know there are only
114 days 'til Christmas!!!

The challenge this week is to make a table setting.
Well, every table needs a centrepiece,
so I decided to make this 'cake'.

Each little cake slice easily opens up,
and I was thinking of filling them with
sugared almonds.

The template for this cake slice came from
splitcoaststampers.
Sorry, I can't add the link, because their site is down right now,
but it should be up again soon and then you can search their site for it.

I used K & Co Peppermint Twist paper.
It's nice to use a double sided paper like this,
so that you can see a pattern when the slices are opened.
Then I punched some snowflakes,
covered them with diamond dust
and stuck one on the top of each slice.
A nice piece of ribbon holds all the slices together.

Don't forget to head over to Winter Wonderland
and check out the gorgeous projects
from the DT
xxx

Tuesday 1 September 2009

Japanese Birthday

Morning everyone,
I am catching up on all my jobs today,
after having a nice, long weekend.
Here is a card I made for this week's
This week's challenge is this fabulous sketch,
with the bonus option of using blue and orange.
I managed the orange, but not the blue,
so I am half way there... lol*

I used these cute little japanese dolls from Craftwork cards.
They come in packs of 32 foiled images, a couple of different sizes,
and are on white card, for you to colour them yourself.
If you haven't visited the craftwork cards online shop,
go and check it out.
They have lots of goodies, including my all time fav.
embellishment - Card Candy,
in every colour you could ever want!

The design paper is My Mind's Eye, Bloom and Grow,
which is rapidly turning into one of my fav. papers.
I made the sentiment on my comp.
xxx