115 Days to Christmas!!!

Over on Dottie's World this week it was Juliet's turn to set the challenge and what a great challenge too! Thank you Juliet!

115 Days to Christmas

So to the challenge - simple really, just make something Christmassy - a card, tag, decoration; absolutely anything as long as you include one of the downloads (it doesn't HAVE to be from the Christmas collection either as many of the other images are so adaptable).

The rest of the design team have created some absolutley amazing work so please pop over and check it out.

I loved this challenge and me, being me, I decided to use an image that wasn't from the Xmas bundle. It has been such a hectic week for me this week with Chris being on holiday, trying to decorate and then having Jack's Birthday....I ended up being pushed for time to make a card- so there I sat at the last minute with all these little images in front of me and ideas swirling around my head...unfortunately I have put most of them to one side for another day.

I ended up using Bedtime Dottie from the Dottie at home collection I thought she looked so appropriate "waiting for Father Christmas!" I kept the card really simple with the "white Christmas" theme in mind.

Yesterday Louise posted details of Dottie's World CustomerS of the month! Basically if you play along with the 115 Days to Christmas challenge you can get yourself a free exclusive Dottie Download Image...and it is divine...don't miss out!

Happy Birthday Jack.

Yesterday we took Jack on a surprise visit to a local Go Kart track for his first real experience of karting.

He was really nervous at first.

and there was an awful lot of waiting around

but he soon got the hang of it.

Today he was up about 6.30 all excited...I cannot believe he is 9 today, he has grown up so quickly.

Happy Birthday Jack!!!

ps. I have Racing George all printed and cut out just waiting to be scrapped!!!!

A quick card for Jack!

Busy, busy, busy......rush, rush, rush! It is Jack's 9th Birthday tomorrow and we are having a little get together for him.....and today we are taking him go-karting as a bit of a surprise. Camera is all on charge and I hope to get a couple of good shots to scrap.

In the mean time I have quickly put together a birthday card for him using this week's Friday Sketchers sketch.

Rugby George!

Over the last few days we have been TRYING to decorate the hallway- it has been an ongoing job for years and was made ten time worse last year when we had the extension done. We still have so much to do but I now have skirting and architrave in my downstairs toilet and in part of the downstairs hallway. I wonder if it will actually EVER get finished but hey ho, we are one step closer!

In between all the painting and decorating, I have dusted off the sawdust and scrubbed off the gloss paint to make a card order for the lovely Whizzz. I was delighted when she mentioned that she needed a card for a rugby player as it gave me the ideal opportunity to try out Rugby George. Seeing as Whizzz has been taken over by the beady bug, she is swapping me for some papercrafting goodies.....I do hope you like Rugby George!

Today I have SCRAPPED!!!

Please do not fall off your chairs I know I am not a scrapper....I find it so self indulgent making something for ME to keep! But with the release of a new Dottie & George collection ...how could I resist.

Amelia is a little Halloween babe, she was born in the early hours of Halloween 2001 and I always feel saddened that she has so many interruptions on her birthday by the trick or treat callers. I have some great pics, a few years old, of both Jack and Amelia dressed up and the Halloween downloads just inspired me to do a LO of just one of my favorites. I feel this photo just sums Amelia up, she looks so cheeky in it!

Dottie's been Tagged!

Over on Dottie's World it was time for me to set my first ever Sunday challenge!!! GULP!

I was going to be all prepared with an idea (that I needed to try out first may I add!) when Lou announced the “rota” and there I was at the top of the list and panic set in. With the children on holiday I put my idea away for another time and resorted to something a bit simpler!

"This week I want to see a tag or tags of any shape or size. It could be tag shape toppers, gift tags, tag books....and because hubby and me have just celebrated our wedding anniversary....for an extra Dottie bonus I would love to see some hearts and flowers too!!!"

The rest of the team have come up with some wonderful creations again; I hope you are as inspired as I am and Lou has shown some of the wonderful new "Spooky" collection too!

Here's what I came up with....after a lot of faffing around!

I loved working with the little love birds image, I had such fun blending colours for their plumage but unfortunately it doesn't really show on the pics.....after that I attacked them both with my pearlised paints, a glitter gel pen for detail and of course finished off with some glossy accents!

A quick Xmas tag!

I used another one of my coloured images from my little stock (thank goodness I had done a few in advance!) to make up a quick Xmas tag for this week's Tag You're It challenge!

"Hello again folks ... now I don't know about you, but I need mince pies and Christmas carols to get me in the mood for the festive season ... but each year, I leave my card and tag making to the very last minute and end up rushing them!! So, in an effort to get a little more organised and get you into thinking about Christmas before you end up in a last minute panic our challenge this week is to make a Christmas tag!"

Not happy with it, I like the image and the colours but not pleased with the overall look of the tag...never mind. I am sure I will be happy of it when I am rushing around like a lunatic the week before Xmas!

Cold as Ice!

I have completely lost my mojo today, I have dillied and dallied nearly all day not really able to settle into anything. Shuffled a few papers around, then put them away again. I have so many ideas in my little head but just enough time to really put any of them into action. At least the weather was kind enough to let the children have a little bit of time out in the garden this afternoon...it's like monsoon weather again now!

Whilst the children were out on the trampoline I gathered up my pencils and a few images and I sat and coloured.......very relaxing...well as relaxing as it can be with 2 children bouncing around and screaming at the top of their voices!

This evening I have made up a card for this weeks Tilda & Co Challenge using 2 of the images:

The sun is now drifting away very fast and soon it will be as cold as ice....
Using the colours Blue & white Only . Show us how cold your projects can feel this week.

I used the round sentiment download from the Dottie & George Xmas collection!

A quick challenge card!

I had so many idea for this week's Cat challenge over on My Time to Craft but I simply ran out of time to do much about them. Instead I resorted to using one of my "here's one I made earlier" images that I had already in my little box.

Not really happy with the colours on this, I struggled to find the right tones to match the paper!

A Friday Sketchers card!

Had to make a card for MIL today so I decided to use this week's sketch over on Friday Sketchers.

..and MORE blog candy!!!

Congratulations Sammi who has just achieved 5000 blog hits!! Well done!

She is having a bit of a blog party and has some candy up for grabs, go and have a look!

Dottie Goes- Pink, Pink, Pink!!

Over on Dotties World this week the challenge is PINK, PINK, PINK!

"Right, this week Karen wants us to go pink pink pink with our cards, she also wants us to add a bit of glam in the form of beads, jewels and/or charms you can use just one or loads it's up to you as long as your main colour is pink and you USE ONE OF THE CHARMED DOWNLOADS."

I decided to go for a "Pink Christmas" and had such fun colouring the images...I have coloured in a few extras so they are all ready in my little box for a "quick make card!" I was a bit dissappointed with Dotties wellies though, once I made them all glossy with my glossy accents they looked a bit too red for my liking. I had such fun with the Xmas tree from the Xmas Downloads collection. I paper pieced it by printing onto green card, pierced holes in each of the baubles and then spent a very relaxing time sewing on each of the little seed beads....I will HAVE to do more of these in different sizes..I just love the texture of it...and it make use of the huge amount of sead beads I have!!!!

MORE blog candy!!

Take a look over at Juliet's Paper Place there are some wonderful goodies up for grabs!

Up bright and early...

....well early anyway! The weather may be bright (for now with fingers crossed) but I am feeling rather groggy with a rotten, croaky throat.

Chris left at around 5.30 this morning as he has a meeting in Ferndown....so like a MAD,MAD woman, I got up with him, put on the dishwasher, washing machine and had a cup of tea and rather than go back to bed and make the most of the children being asleep....I got up and finished making a quick card for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge. I don't have that many Penny Black stamps...YET...but I do have two old ones that I got from another crafter a good while back! Yes more stamps that have sat in a drawer for years before I was confident enough to try basic stamping!

LOL...I think this stamp is great for men's cards and it fitted the sketch lovely.

Better make breakfast now, I have a busy day; going to the garage with my dad to get his car checked out, then lunchtime I have an appointment at the Opticians with Amelia.

And what have I achieved today...

...LOL......Not a lot!

I have made two cards...here is one of them-my attempt at this weeks Friday Sketchers Challenge. I used another one of my bargain £2 Sugar Nellie stamps and a tiny little flower stamp (unknown) that a lovely crafter sent me ages ago. Hmmmm now I am getting into my stamping, me thinks I may need for swirly florishy stamps next!

Blog candy alert, blog candy alert!!!

Look what Karen has got up for BLOG CANDY!!!!!! ........drool...what fabby papers!!! A gal can NEVER have enough paper!

Tilda ATC- Summer

After having a few days in panic mode over Design team work and stressing if my work is OK I decided to take a little "time out" today and just play. I used my new little foxy stamp earlier and I have just made an ATC for the "Seasons" Challenge over on Tilda & Friends ATC Challenge.

I have used 4 images I had already stamped and cut around, quickly made up the ATC cards and coloured 4 likkle faces and hair. Then I packed 3 away for another "time out day!"

I decided to work on SUMMER first. I am happy with the Tilda, I am happy with the overall design...but I want to scrape off the glitter now!!! (sad) LOL...bit too "in your face" for my liking, but it is Summery..LOL.

Free Circular Sentiment Downloads.

Using the free Circular Sentiment Downloads over on Dottie's World I made a card using Princess Dottie from the Dress up Dottie Collection - I have used this image several times before and I love it. I love using liquid pearls on her earrings and necklace and even the little buttons on her shiney shoes!!! ( yeah, I am just a big kid at heart!)

The sentiment downloads are so versatile and I am starting to print off different sizes to get the perfect size I want for my nestabilities etc... I was stunned when Karen blogged her card yesterday to see exactly HOW versatile they are...I would never have thought of printing the sentiment circle off that big!!

Anyway, enough of the waffle, here's my card.

Meet Foxy!

Now how can I resist a bargain seeing as I am looking to increase my stamp collection. This little Foxy Fellow was a mere £2.....and he is so quick and easy to colour too. Just as well as I am SOOO short of time at the moment.

I made this card for this weeks Spoon Full of Sugar Challenge where :

"we would love to see you use something that you have recycled on your card,It could be some scraps of card from your stash or some old scraps of material anything really it's up to you,let your imagination run wild."

This is what I used, basically I took a VERY old card I had made years ago and tore off the lovely bronze card and ribbon!

The circular sentiment is a free download over on Dotties World.....these are just so versatile check out yesterdays example by Karen!

Free Downloads over on Dottie's!!

Check them out...there are some great sentiment circles downloads over on Dottie's World!

I have a bit of a funny day ahead of me today, got lots of crafting that NEEDS to be done, some exciting DT work, continue sorting my craft room, promised Jack a game of scrabble, take my dad to an appointment, kitchen designer appointment......the day is SO broken, goodness knows if I will get anything done. So far I have stripped, washed and dried one lot of bedding, blitzed the kitchen and almost made a card. The kiddies are still in their PJ though!!! Bad, bad mummy!

I am having my breakfast...well a cup of tea....and hopefully going to get this card complete..then I will pop Amelia in the bath and do some therapy witth her..no rest for the wicked!

Lots of crafting to do.....

....and look at the state of my craft room!!!

I have been getting stressed out recently as I am just not getting anything done. The house has come to a stand still and we just haven't the time or energy to get it done. I know building the extension took a big chunk of our finances and I can imagine it will take us years to get the house as we want it....it will be an ongoing job. It hit me the other day as I dropped in at a friend's house and came home envious of her skirting and architrave!!!LOL!

I have been trying to get some crafting done whilst the kiddies are on holiday and it's proving a challenge. Even letting them play on the PC for a while is a nightmare as the little craft room/study is so small...I felt I needed to take another step forward with craft storage so that the children can play alongside me crafting. Everything has been put on hold really until we can afford to install a new kitchen, as hubby is having a few of the old kitchen units for his garage and I am having a few in my craft room together with a lovely 3 metre worktop. But that seems all like pie in the sky at the moment.

Anyway for now hubby has raided the "stuff" in the garage and found me 2 floating shelves that we took down ages ago to have a wall plastered and decided not to put them back up. There is a third one....somewhere! He is an darling, he asked when I would like him to do it...I said NOW!!! So he did! Now ALL I have to do is re-organise my huge mess!!!

Hmmmmm....now what exactly should I put on the shelves?

My First Dottie's World DT card!!!

It's been a bit of a whirlwind really, I was approached by Lou of Dottie's World on Friday and there was no way I could refuse........housework, NVQ, decorating...how can that compare with making Dottie & George cards!! (I'll still have to fit in hubby, kiddies and once September is upon us..a bit of work again!)

I planned to do lots of crafting yesterday but what with Jack being at the hospital with what turned out to be a fractured toe....I was running around with Amelia instead leaving me very little time for crafting. LOL...that's life.

I did manage to make my first card toward the Dottie DT team though. Basic card, fun & simple challenge....a great way to ease me in gently!

This week's Dottie Challenge is MULTI CHALLENGE-CHALLENGE!

This week all you have to do is use one of the Charmed downloads BUT (there's awlays a but isn't there!) you have to combine it with one or more challenges from other challenge blogs! I think it's great to combine challenges and I think it should be encouraged, so there you go, I'm encouraging you!

I decided to combine this with the challenge over on My Time to Craft where the theme is Christmas. For speed I used an image I hade alread printed and coloured in with watercoloured pencils (pre-Prisma days!) So I picked out some bright and fun colours to match the image.

NEWS FLASH, NEWS FLASH!

I can now reveal my first bit of very exciting news.

LOOK HERE!!!!

So, excited, so honoured, SO NERVOUS!!!!!!

Lookie, lookie BLOG CANDY!

On my VERY quick blog travels this morning I noticed Bev's Blog Candy it looks totally scrummy pop along and have a look!

Right, Amelia is "quietly" playing in her room, Hubby and Jack are STILL waiting at hospital..I will attempt another card!!!

Happy, excited Dingle!!!

Over the last couple of days I have had not one but two lots of exciting news...but at the moment I cannot really give any details....I am so excited but rather nervous too!!!!

On top of all this excitement in my poor little brain...hubby has taken Jack down to the hospital!! Jack came home from karate last night complaining that he had hurt his foot during the first session.....but continued to do another 45minute session afterwards!!! We put an ice pack on it and left it 'til this morning to see how it was! Poor Jack is still in such pain and his poor little toe is turning black and blue....so off they went to the hospital leaving Amelia & me at home playing the waiting game. We were in hysterics this morning with Jack hopping around and balancing on one leg like a flamingo.....just as well the karate has taught him a great sense of balance!!

Right, enough of the waffle.....a quick card that had sat half completed on my desk nearly all day yesterday. I know it is VERY similar to the last William card I made but in a vain attempt to get myself organised I am trying to make batches of 2 or 3 similar cards....I am even starting working on my September birthdays this way...LOL...a first for me..I am never ahead of myself.

(shhhh musn't speak too soon!)

William's first outing!

At long last I have found time to use William who I won from Jennie- ideal seeing as I was stuck on making a few cards for male relatives!!! I also used one of the Dream Street papers I won off of Emma.

Here is my first- using this week's challenge over on Tilda & Co Challenges.

As I was adding a few glossy accent touches to the almost finished card..I couldn't resist putting

gel in his hair....I am now thinking of a caption "Mum told me not to use too much gel!"

I love Dottie!!!

I have had SO much fun today making hubby an anniversary card...I couldn't resist using one of the Dottie & George images out of my newest download collection. I made the card with this weeks Dotties World challenge in mind.

The challenge is Aperture....Ribbon & Doodles....Of course it involves using a download from Charmed Cards,then it can be one or more Apertures,one or more ribbons and hand drawn Doodles.
I used a new little a arched window stamp from Paper Artsy and cut around that for my aperture, ribbon-I love this dotty...and erm...as for the doodling...LOL...not my strongest point but I loved the little hearts surrounding the loving couple..I coloured them with a glittery gel pens and attacked them with my glossy accents!

Some of my recent stash!!!

I recieved this stash last week but things were so hectic here I never got around to blogging it. I cannot wait to get started on my Xmas cards. Last Xmas I wasn't even stamping so I am trying to get myself organised by getting some mix and match papers and stamping loads of images...then I can sit down and just colour using all the colour tones within the papers. LOL...that's the idea anyway.

I have treated myself to a few wintery Magnolias, I have Ferdy Snow Frog and the Dottie & George Xmas Download collection .......oh......I must catch up with a few things before I can start though!!

I can't wait to play with the "Naughty and Nice" pack!!!!!

Dottie in the House!

This weeks Cute Card Thursday challenge was to make a card with the theme of "In the House!" I chose Dottie in the bath for this card. Not my usual colours but it has made a nice change. I love working with Dottie...the images are such fun!