Thank you!!!

Playing catch up again but fighting a losing battle-work have asked me to go in 3 times this week, then I have the dreaded meeting at the school.....not leaving me much time for anything else this week!

Firstly I have some major thanks to a few people who have sent me awards....I truely am grateful and honoured by you but I just haven't had enough time to go blog hopping and send them back out...so I don't feel it's right for me to display them on my blog. PLEASE don't think I am ungrateful- far, far from it.

Yesterday I go home to find a little envelope stuffed with goodies from Jenny at Crafty Creations . There were some lovely stamped images, so as I sat down last night to colour in some Design Team images, I couldn't resist colouring a few seeing as they were stamped and all ready to play with. Here they are!

I love the chocolate chip quote and image...anyone able to tell me what make it is please?

Today I have made a few little projects for DewDrop Craftz design team and have the images all coloured and ready to go for the latest Toodles and Binks releases!!!

Watch this space but here is a little taster for now.

Dottie's World - Photo challenge!

It was Karen's turn to set the challenge today and I had such fun with this one...well I did after the panic was over and got hubby to buy me some new ink cartridges in WHS near his work!!!!

"My Monday Mojo card this week involved pictures of the recipient plus one of the Animal Magic downloads, Henry Hare, I decided to use the idea for today's challenge.
I would like to see a download, or downloads, interacting in some way with a picture of either the recipient or "something else". So it doesn't have to be a picture of a person but it must be a real photograph, and not just clipart etc. You could of course just do a layout and that would cover the requirements; it's up to you. "

Here is what I came up with.

I used the little fold card (details linked here) together with Toy soldier George download from the Christmas Collection, and Ballerina Dottie from the Dress up Dottie collection, both available at Charmed!

Right, must dash, meant to de getting ready and going out but as we were child free last night we overslept....LOL...forgotten what that's like without our little walking alarm clock!

Been doing some colouring in last night, hope to play later.

Dottie's World-That Friday Feeling!

It is Friday again-my turn to waffle over on Dottie's World so I took inspiration from Lou's flowers and dug deep in my cupboards for some felt.

I used;

Christmas Pudding Dottie from the Christmas Download Collection

Oval scalloped Nestabilities

Cuttlebug embossing folder Tiny Bubbles

Sizzix original Charm Flower #2 die

Cuttlebug snowflake die

Magnolia Ticket Greeting Stamp.

...and it goes without saying, my Prismacolors and Glossy Accents too!

A simple concertina card!

A little while ago I had an order for two small concertina cards-which I entered into a challnge over on Crafty Creations. I was later amazed by winning my second ever lot of challenge blog candy-thank you Jenny!

Here is the card!

Claire asked for details for dimensions of how to make it and to be honest it couldn't be more simple!

Take a piece of A4 card and score on the centre line making a basic A5 card.

Flip the card over on your scoreboard and score along the card as if you were making a fold for an A6 card (at around 73-74mm) this will divide the card into quarters .

Rotate the card and repeat another fold on the other side and using a bone folder fold back the creases on the score lines to create a tall concertina card.

Take the tall concertina card and simple cut it into two by cutting across at 104-105mm

This creates two little basic concertina cards all ready for working on!

As these can be quite bulky I tend to store and pass these on partly unfolded in a basic size A6 envelope.

I do hope my waffle makes a little sense!

Another busy day...

....in the Dingle household! My crafting time has been almost non existent recently but hopefully I can play a bit of catch up at the end of the week.


Today Jack is celebrating the end of his World War II topic with a VE Day Celebration and all the children in Year 5 were asked to go in dressed up accordingly. We decided on him being an evacuee....easy option but hey ho, life is complicated enough!



Have been trailing around the shops in search of appropriate clothes and threw them all together yesterday, when Jack had a bit of a dress rehersal.

This morning he was full of beans and really excited- he is never ready and waiting at the door before me! At the last minute I had a bit of a brain wave and remembered an old (size 10) wool jacket I had from Top Shop years ago. I rushed upstairs, delved around the spare wardrobe and shook off the dust on the way down the stairs. Jack was thrilled with it- I rolled up the sleeves and thought it looked OK...so did Jack for a while...until he realised it was a "GIRL'S JACKET!!"

He wore it anyway, I think he was too cold not too.....those little legs looked mighty chilly on the way to school this morning!



Here is our little evacuee!!

Merci Simone!

A friend has asked me to make an 18th Birthday card for her so how could I resist using the wonderful Simone from Toodles and Binks.

I took inspiration from two blog challenges for this card;

The Daring Card Makers asked for everyone to use inspiration from coffee, hence the choice of image and the base colour.

The other challenge is from this week's Dutch Dare who asked to use 3 flowers on our creations. I do hope I don't have to count the flowers on the paper too!!!

Look who came to play!!!!

I was just on my way out on Saturday.....fighting with the children to get themselves ready actually....when there was a knock on my door. Opened it to find the lovely Kay standing there with the latest Toodles and Binks stamps!!! Oh no!!!! WHY, WHY, WHY did I organise to go out. What with that and my constant attmept at playing catch up I have hardly had time to play. I did manage to stamp a few images and start cutting last night......but I am at work this afternoon so time is rather precious!

Watch this space and hopefully they will be brought to life very soon. You can buy the stamps here.....can't wait to see them in use!

Be my Valentine!!!!

Eeek....yes, I know I am early. LOL but Nikki over at DewDrop Craftz has set a little challenge and I couldn't resist!

"This weeks challenge....
As everyone is busy thinking about christmas I thought this weeks challenge

would take us away from all that...
I would like you all to think forward to Valentines Day 2009..
I would love to see all your valentines cards... but with a difference..
There are conditions.
NO RED
NO FLOWERS
You have until Monday evening to get your comments in with the link to your creation

and the winner chosen will receive a £5 voucher code to spend at DewDrop Craftz
I look forward to seeing your creations..
Have a good week..
Nikki x"

I decided to use Eric and rumaged around my papers for inspiration! Then a Basic Grey paper (Fusion-Read Between the lines) jumped out at me. It had some great colour combinations for my card and I set to colouring Eric in. As I was colouring in it crossed my mind that many bloggers state the colours they use when they use Copics but you don't very often see this done for Prismacolors Pencils...or am I reading the wrong blogs? Not sure if this would interest anyone else but it would interest me.....especially if new to using Prisma's or thinking of putting a pack on your list for Santa!!!!!

I used PC956 Lilac, PC1009 Dahila Purple, PC1097 Moss Green and PC994 process Red.

I popped over to Basic Grey Challenges added a bit of embossing on the layering and gave some extra texture to the little Sizzix charm hearts and Voila.......

This is the first time I have used Eric, I cut off the little flower he was holding, snipped a little cut in his paw and he can hold any message I like. What a vesatile little monster he is!

Dottie's World Fabulous Flowers

This week over on Dottie's World, Louise asked us to create using flowers, flowers and more flowers.

"I want you to make something (it doesn't have to be a card) and embellish it with flowers of some description. You can use flowers in your image or in the pattern on your paper but there must still be a flower(s) forming the main part of the embellishments, it could be silk or paper flowers, brads, buttons you get the idea right? As always Dottie's World challenges must have one of the Charmed downloads on them somewhere."

Rushed for time as usual I am a bit dissappointed with my card this week. I cheated and used a handful of Primas when I really wanted to get cutting and embossing with my Cuttlebug......but perhaps next week will be different. Lighting is awful and colours are yukky but hopefully you get the idea!

I must admit I love making these cards with a window effect. By framing the the main image I try to add a bit more detail to the card without making it look over fussy. In this card I used Pusskins from the Animal Magic Collection.

The Dottie's World Design Team have come up with some absolute stunners so be sure to pop over and check them out for some blooming wonderful inspiration!

Killing 3 birds with 1 stone...eeek!

LOL...very appropriate title but do not fear, no birds or animals were harmed in the production of this blog!


I decided to group together some of the challenges this week as my crafting time has been almost non existent. What with the new and improved, daily postings over on Dottie's World I now have the Friday slot to waffle on too!!!! With that in mind I wanted to make another card for Nicola's Fur or Feather challenge. After changing my mind ..er...shall we just say "several" times over what image to use, I eventually decided on using Little Birdie from the Animal Magic collection.


Seeing as I had my new oval Nestabilies on my desk, looking rather unloved and unused (criminal I know!) I thought I'd try them out. Using a non-christmas paper such as Basic Grey- Oh Baby-Nathan as a background paper I also met the Christmas card with a twist challenge over on Crafts by Carolyn .


The card just wasn't complete without a fluttering of snowflakes so I also met the criteria for this week's Snowy challenge over on Cute Card Thursday.

I love this Little Birdie and it's so versatile, layer it up, a bit of glitz and some fluffy snow on the branch and a bright red chest, it makes a fab Christmassy Robin. A change of colour and surround him/her with hearts, a great Valentines Day Card. Surround with flowers for Mother's day...........the choices are endless!


I had earmarked this card for hubby's Christmas card....but then he walked in and saw it!!! Hmmm-men!

My "Pretty" Cards!

I had an order for two small concertina cards like one I made a while back. They have taken me a while to make-not because the were complex or time consuming- far from it really. It's just that I have only managed a bit at a time, put them away to do a design team card, do another little bit, put them away again........

At long last they are both sitting on my desk waiting for the glossy accents to be 100% dry before I pop them in their little bags. Another two off my to do list and hopefully you will think there are suitable to go into this week's Crafty Creations Challenge "Pretty for Mum" where Jenny has asked us to make the prettiest cards for mums!

Mr Snowman!!!

I have a few card orders to do and this one fitted in perfectly with this week's challenge over on My Time to Craft where they want to see Snowmen...or snow women even. I so desperately wanted to use my Dottie or Magnolia Snowmen but seeing I I had an order for my little Quickutz one I thought I'd better get another card off my to do list before playing!

Fur or feather!

This week over at Dottie's World it was Nicola's turn to set the challenge;


"My Challenge is:-Fur or Feather.Using a download,i want to see either fur or feather, it could be from Animal Magic, dress up dottie or the reindeer etc,but if you dont have a set with one in, you could just add a feather or make something furry!!but be sure to add a download too."


Well, I was so tempted to use an animal from the new Animal Magic Collection but eventually I thought I'd try the reindeer out from the Christmas collection-I'd never tried it out before and was so much fun.

I made a little frame effect card to give a bit of dimension and used a few fluffy feathers, lace and ribbon as texture to the plain frame.

Been shopping today!

Today we started our Christmas shopping then we drove over to Dunhelm Mills for a few bits and bobs I wanted for my craft room!

I got a white blind for my bare little window, a twisted black metal heart shaped note keeper board, some "wall art" black metal words (Live, love & laugh) a little cupcake picture, some little russian doll type ornaments and a couple more sets of scissors!

Chris asked why I wanted more scissors as I still have several sets of older designs in my drawer- but I just couldn't resist this colour and design...and they are SUCH a bargain. A girl can never have too many scissors!

A Dottie card for my hubby!

Thing have been rather stressful this last week or so-the situation at Amelia's school is at an all time low and our family life has taken knock after knock. I decided to make a little token of my appreciation for hubby, who truely is a darling! Yes, I know it's a bit girlie, but the colours just seemed to go naturally with the sentiment and image.

I used inspiration from Sunday's "Colour me silly" challenge over on Dottie's World and also Challenge 14 from last weekend's BIG Challenge over on Craft's by Carolyn where "you can make ANYTHING you like so long as a piece is HIDDEN obviously the hidden piece will need to be revealed so we know it was hidden in the first place IYSWIM"

I have a little slushy message of love hidden underneath the main image-just popped in at an angle with a little flower on the corner.

Oh my...what candy!!!!

Fellow Toodles and Binks Design Team Member Fran is celebrating her 1 year blogoversary and having gone over 55,000 hits to date. So pop over to Fran's blog to be in with a chance of some seriously scrummy CANDY.

You've got to be in it to win it...and you WILL want to win!!

The mess I face today!!

After a mad attempt to put up more cupboards and completely paint my craft room yesterday (and failing) this is the chaos I face this morning.

I was still painting at nearly 11pm last night-then I gave up and soaked in the bath for half an hour! The biggest issue I had, apart from pass the parcel with all my stash as I moved around my little room was the fact that I had no-where to store the paint that I had made up in a bucket by mixing "dregs" from paint in the garage!! Chris ended up up pouring it into an ice cream tub so I can finish the last few bits today.

I am VERY pleased with the result so far and the lighting really does not do my Dulux impression any favours. I still have a HUGE way to go before I am finished but I an idea in my head now of what it will look like-eventually!!

Colour me Silly!

It's Juliet's turn to challenge us over on Dottie's World this week.


"Hi, Juliet here again today hoping to find you all eager to get crafting!The challenge this week is inspired by fireworks and, as we were limited to one colour last week, this week I want to see LOTS OF COLOURS on your cards - the more the merrier! As usual, you must include one of the Charmed Downloads too, so get those papers out and start creating!!! "


Pop over to Dottie's World to see some of the stunning creations the rest of the Design Team have come up with-I am really loving the new Animal Magic Downloads

I struggled with this one, had the ideas again but just couldn't decide on papers- you know when you have something in your head but you just haven't the right stuff on your desk to get the look. I must have changed my mind over what image to use 3 or 4 times and eventually finished my card approaching 1am this morning!


LOL-even then I struggled as I couldn't find half the things I needed in my wrecked craft room..including my Quickutz holly fasteners die...if it's still under that pile of stash...will I EVER see it again I wonder.


Right, enough waffle lets get on with it-here's what I eventually ended up with.

Not sure this actually works but I used We R Memory Keepers with a strip of BG Colour me silly-Wonder as a ribbon effect ( the colours matched perfectly and it was the only Colour me Silly paper I had.) I tried to used all the colours in the paper picking out the turquiose blue for the flower and fasteners. I sat a little Xmas hat on the dog, but I wasn't happy with it and at that time I was lucky enough to still have my eyes open so I left it!

I am happy with it as a card- but don't feel it's Christmassy enough-I might add a little something....just not sure what yet. What I do know is that this image "Scruff" has got to be one of my favs. Isn't he adorable?

My craft room....a work in progress!!

A leisurely Saturday crafting I thought.....then the DIY bug hit again. Hubby went off to the DIY store and I set to clearing all the junk/stash that I have shoved onto the makeshift shelfing unit
we got a few years back.

Hmmm, where do I put it, the workbench is already loaded and that needs to be cleared too!

My little workspace under the window is my fav, but my Dottie Design Team card for tomorrow morning is half finsished...underneath this lot!!

Hubby came back with two base units for me and a 3 metre worktop for the bargain sum of £99. The worktop should have been £50 on it's own so we were well pleased. I haven't got any doors YET. Not sure what I want I might make something up myself and save a few pennies as we still have so much to do in the house-including the expense of a new kitchen.

I dismantled the PC for the afternoon and we set to work!

My poor little room has moved on a bit from the last picture...but not much. I do now have my two new cupboards in place with a worktop across and the PC set back up. Now ALL I need to do is re-organise everything, find my little desk and complete the half made card.

LOL- I think it's gonna be a late one.

Hmmmm....what colour paint shall I go for?

Another fold card!

As I said when I posted my previous 2 cards, whilst I was cutting and measuring for one card...I went ahead and made another at the same time...made sense to me as I was cutting a sheet of A4 in half. Little did I know then that Challenge 4 over on Crafts by Carolyns would be to make another fold card.....LOL, I should have kept quiet and held one back!

"Make your second Challenge Fold Christmas card. YOU MUST HAVE EMBOSSING ON IT ALSO IT MUST BE A COLOURED CARD"


This time I decided to go with a Dottie Download and double up with this weeks challenge over on the Daring Card Makers where this week they are asking you to "Sparkle and Bling!" A challenge you just HAVE to try out as this week there are some fab sponsor prizes up for grabs-pop over for details.



Here is what I came up with, I haven't put any wording on the inside yet as I am not sure who I will send it to. I LOVE these little fold cards!

I used Magic Princess Dottie from the Dress Up Dottie Collection.