Seems like ages...

...since I managed any crafting. The weekend was taken up with trying to organised the house, getting kitchen stuff down from the loft and finding homes for it all in our make shift kitchen. Just started to get straight then Chris decided he would drill out the big whole in the kitchen wall for the extractor fan to go!!! (We need it done before Building Control will pass the extension, even though we still have the kitchen to do!!) Goodness-I know it needed doing but we both really didn't expect it to make so much mess. So yesterday I was clearing up brickdust again!!!

Last night I started knitting a new teddy- I am quite excited about her- I think she is fab and I have all these weird colour combinations in my mind that I want to try out. So far I have only done her body and head front, I am resisting the temptation to do any more until this evening.

Disaster has struck- I have run out of basic white card. I never really used much before I started stamping, I always went for hammer instead, but I have been getting through it quite quickly now I have my new found passion of stamping. Off to the Paper Mill Shop on Wednesday to stock up!

Here is a card I have just finished. It's the second of an order of eight. Struggling to find ways to get all the personalisations on these- I feel I will be repeating myself over and over again if I am not careful.

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Very happy, shattered, but happy!!

I was very unsettled last night, Jack was poorly and I didn't get much sleep. Today I have been to work and didn't really have chance to eat properly as I covered lunchbreaks. I got home in time for a quick cuppa and a look around online before I had to dash back out on the school run!



BUT, what I discovered in that short time has put a huge grin on my very weary face!

Firstly I discovered that Martine over on the Crafts Beautiful forum has selected my Fairie Poppets card as the winning card in her Fantasy Card Challenge. THANK YOU Martine- it was a great challenge and I thoroughly enjoyed taking part.






Secondly, Liz44 over on the Just Bex Forum had asked my about the Hampton Art stamp I used to make my latest inchie cards. I directed her where to go to spend her money- as us crafters do!!! What does she do to repay me- She nominates my inchie card to be feautured on Inspirational which they followed up and I am featured on there today!!!!

Thank you for making a lovely ending to a very long and tiring week!

...and now my first Nellie!!

Well Mr Postie turned up trumps again today, that all my birthday pennies spent!! Apart from feeling really yukky, achey and tired (was awake a just gone 5am again!!) I have tried to cheer myself up with my new goodies. And how could I resist using such fun and bright colours...not my usual style at all. (Do I actually have a style? hmmm- not sure!)

As well as a few more stamps I got some bargain Quickutz dies,only £1.99 so I treated myself to a few "extras " like the photo corners and another fastener (that makes my third now!) a little tag and a lacey thing(!)

Isn't it funny how an image can inspire such motivation for colour!! Or am I alone in my own mad world?

What did I tell ya'!

I am hooked!!!!LOL. After water colouring a few more Cuddly Buddy images last night, this morning i have made a card using yet more of the scrummy Basic Grey Oh Baby! Girl range, the colours are just so much fun to work with!

and here's my second one!!

I did manage to water colour a few images tonight, and in between I finished this. Struggled a bit deciding what paper to use but got there....eventually!!

My first Cuddly Buddly!

Not my usual colours, but I chose the paper first-then coloured to match!! I can see me getting hooked!!

Whooo hooo...letter post has arrived now!!

And with it my order from Cuddly Buddly.......just cutting and mounting some stamps NOW!!!!

Been quite good, only a few stamps, some brads, some gingham ribbon and a sheet of Kling on. Off to play now!!!

Mr Postie has been!!

I got back from the school JUST in time. I had just put the kettle on, looked out the window and there was the red van!!!I got all excited but I still have more to come!!

Today I have got;

My Easter Swap from Champs. A huge thank you, the chocolate looks great- will tuck into some of that tonight with hubby!

and a little parcel of crafty goodies. I was hoping it would be some of the new stamps I have ordered but it was 2 more CB folders!! Yipppeee, I now own "Swiss Dots" and "Perfectly Paisley!" Now I am off to try them out with my fingers crossed that when Mr Postie arrives later with letter post, some stamps will arrive too.....greedy aren't I!!!

Another inchies card!

I have been experimenting with a few diffenerent colours but I still think I like the pink one best!!

Todays cards.

Been a busy ol' girl today and managed to make another 2 cards. The first is just for my stock using yet another 2 stamps, I got years ago, used, from another crafter....again, it's been sitting unloved in a drawer!! ( I think I got these at the Crafts by Carolyn Birmingham meet!!!)

The next is inspired by a challenge from Martine over on Crafts Beautiful, who challenge us to;

"create a card, scrapbook page, or anything of your choice but it has be in the theme of fantasy, so it could be fairies, angels, unicorns, mermaids, etc etc "

I took an easy route and used a Faerie Poppets decoupage sheet that had been sitting in my conservatory for yonks!!!! Haven't done any decoupage for ages, it's another great craft you can do easily while watching TV!!! I also took the opportunity to make a commission card that I needed to do! Sorry, not great pics- will try to re do them in daylight!!

My OTHER Penny Black!

LOL...I have 2! This is a card I have made with the other image I have been colouring. I loved the little ladybugs and took inspiration from them for the red polka dot paper!!!...and of course my all time fav, gingham ribbon!

Spending, spending!!!

I have treated myself to some new stamps!! Quite different from the ones I have got so far, I eventually succumbed to a few Sugar Nellies! Then Jules of Creative Makes directed me to Cuddly Buddly and I treated myself to a few more!!! Cannot wait to try them out now!!

I have been keeping myself busy, water colouring some stamped images!!! I am going to stamp some more in a moment so I can join Chris and the children downstairs.

Then I made a card up with the inchies I made yesterday- had such fun with this- I will have to stamp some more of these too I think!!

And lastly I have just made up a card using one of the images recently water coloured. This Penny Black stamp is once again, one that I have had for many years. I got it, used, from a crafting forum member and like the other doggy Penny Black stamp - up until now I have been too unsure about trying it!!! All I have done is coloured it and embellished the puddle and his little nose with some glossy accents.

Inchies!!

After looking around for inspiration for chipboard a few days ago I came across some inchies. I ventured into these very briefly last year..think I managed about 10-20 and had such fun working on such a tiny "canvas!" Fuuny the a discussion came up about them on the Crafts Beautiful forum and it inspired me to have another go. Here is my effort-they took me just under and hour!!LOL!!! I cheated slightly as I used my new stamp by Hampton Art and just cut out the little individual pics!!

Another "Back 2 Basics" card

After yesterday abysmal production of anything I set out today with all good crafty intentions. LOL..and so far I have at least made 1 card.

Nothing fancy, just trying out a few stamps. I stuck to the criteria for the Back 2 basics challenge on Crafts by Carolyns. Sorry picture is awful, it is so cold and dull here today.

A quick challenge!!!

I have had these die cut flowers sat on my desk all day. I have stamped them , I have embossed and inked them, then I covered them in glossy accents and then they sat there some more!!!! Within the last 10 minutes I have very quickly stamped an image, made a frame and finished a card!What have you got sitting unfinished on your desk, table, lap....I challenge you to complete something today and link piccie on my blog!! Anyone up for it??

My Easter swap!!!

Champs do not look!!!!Kiddies are off tomorrow and I may not get another chance to load piccies of the MN Easter Swap I sent out!!!

After much umming and arring, I decided to make a little mini Easter Album. There was a link on Crafts by Carolyn put up a link a while ago which had downloadable templates, but do you think I can find it now...had some lovely ideas too! Will go and hunt it out when I get the chance.

I simpified it,resized the eggs, made a basic concertina card, cut rectangles of "grass" and attacked them with my craft knife to make little grassy pockets for the Easter Egg tags. I kept the tags very plain and simply for Champs to embellish with her Easter pics...I do hope she likes it!!

Moo, moo...don't eat the daisies!!

I love these little cows, made from oddments of wool...taken from Knitted and Felted Toys by Zoe Halstead. The bright colour way is taken from the book and I think it looks so fun and funky.

I have so much wool to use up, I could make a whole herd!!!

Crafts by Carolyn- A Recipe!

First, take a scoop of... We thought you might like a little recipe challenge so today, we're challenging you to produce a card (or LO, altered item, whatever) with the following ingredients:
Scallops
Ribbon
Flowers

Your flowers could be stamped, Primas, blooms, patterned paper - whatever you fancy. Your scallops can be big or little and if you don't have scissors or a trimmer blade or a scallop edge punch then you could take the DIY approach...

Well, my attempt is definately the DIY approach...got out the old decorate egde scisssors for this one!!! I am not a lilac person at all, but I am SO in love with those swiss dots!!!!!!!!!!

My Time to Craft Challenge 6: Quotes and Sayings

"This weeks challenge is - Quotes and Sayings. Try making an ATC, Card, Tag, Skinny, Scrapbook page, Fatbook Page (4x4) Gothic Arch, Moo Mini card, Skinny, Inchie or Altered Art."

I rummaged through my stash and eventually came up with what must have been on of my first ever stamps. LOL....look here is one of the reasons why I never took to stamping-its a first attempt back in Jan 2004!

and here is todays attempt...please say I have improved...even a little bit!! (crosses fingers and runs off!)

Vintage swap!!!

After a lot of dithering I have signed up for the Vintage Swap on Meridian Ariels blog. I am now eagerly awaiting to see who I will be partnering!!!

MORE craft time!!!

I sat down last night, as promised and watercoloured some of the wonderful images that were sent in that fabby parcel of goodies...and I had so much fun. I had forgotten how realaxing painting can be. I must treat myself to a few new fine brushes, mine are looking rather sorry for themselves- I think the children must have been at them! Anyway, after using all that pink yesterday, I obvoiusly got stuck in a bit of a rut as the theme continued!!!

This one I embellished with some fine pink glitter, the flower is the Quickutz daisy, embossed with a CB folder, and topped by one of Lisa's (The Craft Fairies) gingham blooms.

This one I struggled with, the stamp was so much bigger than what I have worked with so I kept it really basic, but I loved colouring this one in. I used a silver gel pen to edge the sign, colour in the little ear-rings and of course make the tiara sparkly!! Please escuse the quality of painting- it has been a long while since my threadbare brushes have been used.

My last card was inspired by Jack, who was rummaging around my stamp collection (not that much to rummage around but still!) to make his nan a birthday card. As I was "guiding" him with suggestions, we discovered a stamp I got 2nd hand ages ago and never used. So I stamped one image for Jack to colour and one for me...I love her, I think she is so pretty!!! I am stamping a few more images of her in a minute so I can watercolour them tonight!!!! I used glossy accents on her little nose and the flowers on her hat and pinnafore.

Long time - no craft!

Goodness it seems like ages since I have done any crafting but thinking back it was last Sunday. So much has been crammed into this last wek but I still feel I have nothing to show for it. Thursday was really tough, I had so many appointments I travelled to the school and back 5 times- by the evening I couldn't even out weight on my poorly heel. Friday I went off to work and had to leave early as Amelia was poorly, but when I got home I bandaged my foot up and hunted for my crocs which were somewhere at the back of the wardrobe- thank goodness today my heel feels a little better.


I decided to treat myself to some crafty time today- been quite self indulgent actually as all I have made is one little card, but it was very theraputic! I have made my first ever challenge from My Time to Craft! http://www.mytimetocraftchallenge.blogspot.com/

Challenge 5: Tickled Pink

"Hi everyone! Thank you for taking part in last week's challenge, looks like you had a lot of fun with it. This week's challenge is - Ticked Pink! So add plenty of pink to your projects! Remember make anything you want using our theme, an ATC, Card, Tag, Skinny, Scrapbook page, Fatbook Page (4x4).We will have some new designers next week - so pop by to see their work! "



and boy oh boy...is my card pink!!!

Race for Life

After my MILs recent scare of her breast cancer recurring and some more recent bad news, I did a foolish thing today and joined up to the "Race for Life!" I say foolish as I am in agony at the moment with what I beieve to be a heel spur, I have had the pain on and off for a few years now, but never this bad. But hey ho it's only 5k, I can dose myself up with painkillers and hobble around!

So in addition to my hectic life I am somehow going to fit a training program in...did it in 2006 in exactly 40 mins, would love to beat that but will just aim to get around for now!

PLEASE, PLEASE, if you are reading this and can spare even a pound or two, please donate. So many lives are being hit by cancer and I just feel compelled to help in any way I can. My Just Giving webpage is at the top of the blog! Thank you.

( I did consider taking Amelia around with me for the first kilometer...but then I decided that WOULD have been too foolish!!!

Anniversary card order!

Chris came home from work on Friday with a personalised card order - the lady had included loads of personalised info in the form of a sketch. I have tried to make it "look right" this afternoon, but just couldn't. It looked far too cluttered for a standard A5 card...so I have made it into a concertina card!! I do hope the lady isn't offended by me not using her sketch!!!

I have blanked out the personalised details but here is the finished card in very poor lighting...why haven't I used those Daisy D papers before?

21 again....literally!!!

Well 21+21 makes....an ol' lady!!!!LOL. If I seem to be talking a load of old waffle...and when do I not talk waffle.....it is my 42nd Birthday today. I was woken by Amelia at 6.30- this morning, saying "Presents now Mummy, presents NOW!!!" How could I refuse- so at that unearthly time of the morning all 4 of us sat on the bed with my cards and pressies...it's been ages since I had a cup of tea in bed!!!

I have had some absolutely wonderful handcrafted cards...thank you!!!! Like a fool I have proudly stuck them all to my patio doors before taking piccies, but I will do that tomorrow.

Chris manged to get away from work earlier so at least we have a bit more time together, but even so we have an excuse to treat ourselves ...all weekend!!

Back to Basics!

Been rushed off my feet with school stuff and today I am SUPPOSED to be studying. BUT I couldn't resist tying up another loose end (there are so many in my life!) by just "quickly" finsihing the half made card sitting on my desk! That's my excuse and I am sticking to it!!

Here is the challenge from Crafts by Caroyln!

BACK 2 BASICS and I want you to create something with ONLY inks and or markers NOT an embossing Powder or heat gun in sight Patterned Paper and other embellishments are fine.

This is my first attempt at stamping using my Marvy Markers, yes...those ones that have been sitting in my stash for years feeling very unused and unloved!! Not sure about the colour combination I have used, but fun all the same!