Hit and Miss, Some Awards and I've Been Tagged!

Hi there everyone! I hope you're having a good week so far.

Today's been quite a nice day. I had to pop into town with Natasha after school so we had a coffee. She wanted to order it for me so I said I would have an Americano. She said, 'Mummy, is it 'A Merry Carno' that I have to ask for?' I love that, it really made me giggle! It might well have been 'A Merry Carno' with me drinking coffee after 4 o'clock! Do any of you have a cut off time for drinking caffeine. I used to be a caffeine addict, umm, who am I trying to kid I still am a caffeine addict but I need to stop after about 4pm or I'm awake half the night. I shall confess here, I am addicted to Vanilla coffee, and I mean addicted!!

I just wanted to write a post to say that my blogging might be a bit hit and miss over the next couple of weeks while we move. I have spent most of the day making calls about utilities, ooh what fun!! ;o) I've even survived the day without chocolate, I hope you're all suitably impressed!

I have a couple of blog awards to share with you all. Sarah-Jane over at Cards and a Cuppa gave me this lovely award:



Sarah-Jane is a SU! Demonstrator and is churning out projects at the moment, I'm sure she must have little elves helping her! You should go over and check them out, they're really good. She's been busy making men's cards this week which we all know are more challenging than others! Thank you Sarah-Jane for thinking of me;

Rae (I love her simple yet stylish designs, also check out her Use It! challenge blog (see my sidebar link) it's great. I know I've said it before but I love the way she challenges you to use up old bits of stash!) Join in, you know you want to!
Heidi (I love her designs, she's started trying out white on white, it looks great!)
Karen (Karen's cards are really unique and detailed, so much thought goes into them)
Louly (I love her Holly & Madison characters and how she uses them, especially with her shaped cards)
Karen (Karen does her own sketch challenges. I like her style, it's simply classy!)

Sarah-Jane also 'tagged' me today. Now, I'm new to this tagging thing but my understanding is that I have to go to my 4th folder in my photos, choose my 4th picture and post it with some info all about it. I think I've got that right, it is getting late after all ;o) So, here is my pic....



This picture is one that my friend printed, mounted and framed for me as a birthday present a few years ago. On the back she put, 'Keep Living The Dream'. At the time I was hoping to meet my Mr Right and not long after along came my lovely Ian! I still look at this picture now and smile to myself because he was worth the wait, and she was right dreams can come true! Well I hope you're not all being physically sick after all that romantic talk. Onto the next task...

As part of this tagging I now have to tag 4 more people, so I choose...

Sandra
Mandi
Joann
Michelle

I'm not sure if everyone enjoys doing this or not, so hope I haven't upset anyone by sending it on!!

I also owe a big thank you to the lovely Sandra over at Sandra-Dry Designs. She awarded me with a hug and a lemonade last week. Sandra has just set up a new Digi Challenge blog called 'Dare you to Digistamp' with her friend where you use digital downloads rather than stamped images for your cards. I will definately be joining in on some of those. I've just recently got into the digi downloads, there's some fab ones out there. The beauty of them is you don't have to leave your house to go and get them, or be told that they're out of stock for another few weeks, they're instant! Now that's my kind of shopping! :o) So here's my little awards...

Ah he looks so sad!


I would like to pass these awards on to Sarah-Jane over at Cards and a Cuppa and Michelle over at Stamp and Smile. I know it seems odd giving awards to the person you've received some from already, but they both leave a note on every single card that I make and I think that's really lovely! I'd also like to pass on my awards to all of my other followers. Thank you for your support {hugs}

I feel honoured to have received these awards. I still get very excited about them!!! It amazes me that people think to send awards, never mind that they actually come back to read what I type or see what create!

I've got boring jobs to do tomorrow :o( I have to arrange redirection of mail, more utility calls, more phone calls to arrange disposal of furniture etc etc. I want to make cards!!! Still, not long now and I will have so much free time on my hands I won't know what to do with myself! Hmmm, I know... I could make some cards!! Woohoo!

Enjoy yourselves ♥

Somebunny Loves You

Hi there

I wanted to join in the 2 Sketches 4 You Challenge #22 by Laura this week, but I needed to wait to post it until Natasha was in bed because the card I have made is for her for Easter.


As you've probably all worked out by now I don't really work with pastels very often. Whenever I get out any pastel papers I always want to make the card more dramatic somehow. The little bunny brad from Smirk that I used on this card had a black outline which inspired me to dig out the black! The card actually looks better in real life because the striped paper is sparkly. I think this bunny looks a bit mad with his huge eyes. He looked a bit sad before I put them on and I know Natasha will think they are very funny so I just went with it :o)

I cut out two rectangles in PP and layered them both onto black. On the smaller rectangle I tied on the ribbon and pushed through the bunny brad. I stamped the bunny sentiment and layered this onto black. I then cut out my bunny, inked all around the edges and pop dotted him so that he looks like he is holding the message. I finally added his boggle eyes for a bit of fun :o)

Dies: Quickutz rabbit
Paper/Card: Imaginisce 'For Peeps Sake - 'Color Me Happy' & 'Spring Fling', Bazzill Swiss Dots
Stamps: Penny Black 'Some Bunny'
Accessories: Smirk 'Naughty But Nice' bradz, pink ribbon from stash

I'm going blog hopping in the World Record Inspirational Blog Hop over at Unity Stamp Company, start here if you want to join in. It takes a while to go through but it's worth it!

Enjoy the rest of your Saturday ♥

You're a Star

Happy Friday everyone!! I can't believe it's the weekend already, can you? I must be getting old, the time seems to be going by quicker and quicker lol

Today I have another quick make card to show you. For some reason at the moment I'm into stars and circles. I whipped up a quick boyz birthday card for one of our friends. Did you notice that I haven't used a challenge for it this time, be amazed..be very amazed!! I do love my challenges, they are great for getting my mojo going!

I think this card is self explanatory, so will just leave you with the recipe.

Dies: Sizzix 'Circles #2', Quickutz Star
Paper/Card: 3 Bugs in a Rug 'Seeing Stars - Twinkle', Bazzill Bling & Classic
Accessories: Stampendous birthday phrase stickers

Hope you all have a lovely Friday and I will try and post something over the weekend.

Hugs, Ruby ♥

Spot the Present!

Hi again

Just a quick post tonight, it's way past my bedtime :o)

I wanted to enter the Use It! Challenge #3. If you haven't been over there yet you should check it out, it's a great way to use up your old bits and pieces that you perhaps like to admire but never use!! The challenge this week was set by Heidi Van Laar (I LOVE her designs!) and she wanted us to use something that's a year old (my present cutter) some eyelets (white ones from about 300+ that I hardly ever use!) and polka dots (paper downloaded from Pink Petticoat - see link in side bar)

I also saw a challenge over at 365 cards, day 19 - 'Keep it to Yourself', where you have to make a birthday card without using any sentiment and thought this card would fit for that too.

Well...this picture drove me nuts! It looks perfect white in Photoshop, as the card is, and as soon as I upload it to Blogger it goes a shade of pink!! Hopefully you can still get the idea! As you can see it's a very simple card. I printed and cut out some black and white polka dot paper. Using my Fiskars Treading Water punch I cut out the turquoise border and then cut the present, adding eyelets. I'm quite pleased with the overall effect, it's not my normal style but sometimes I like to try something a bit different.

I'm off to bed now, sweet dreams or enjoy the rest of your day depending where you live!

Ciao!

Boop boop dit-tem dat-tem what-tem Chu!

I've just been over to the Corrosive Challenge Blog and Challenge #4 is 'Under the Sea'. So I thought I'd whip up a quick fun card with a baby fish on it, and as I was doing it Marmie (my Mum) reminded me of a song that one of her old friends used to sing to me when I was little with the words 'Boop boop dit-tem dat-tem what-tem chu'! She was asking me what it was called so we did a Google search and came up with this You Tube video.



Do any of you remember it? Now, the ONLY reason I am showing you this is so that you get why my post has the title it does. It's a bit of nostalgia for us, but you will think I'm totally insane if you actually take the trouble to watch it!! The young kids will love it though :o)

(Well, in my 'About Me' section I did warn you that I'm quirky!! In my defence it has got a 4.5 star rating, so it's not just me that's watched it lol)

This is a really quick card to make and could be used as a template for so many different designs...Think heart instead of fish, or shoes/handbags etc. etc. A quick change of papers and die cut and the world's your oyster! (sorry that was an awful pun). I'm in a mad mood today, sorry everyone!! I cut two strips of different card, layering one on top of the other. I cut out two circles in different colours and added the die cut fish. I then stuck on the tag and finished off by adding a few circles as bubbles (using the spots from my Quickutz Easter Egg cutter) and a gem for his eye.

Dies/punches: Sizzix 'Fish & Fish Bowl', Quickutz Easter Egg, small/medium circle punches
Paper: Cosmo Cricket 'Cogsmo: Bandwidth', 'Cogsmo: Links'
Tag: Express Yourself DIY cards (I love these tags, they are full of bling and you just stick them on..one day I might make something similar of my own...one day)
Gem: From my stash

By the way, do any of you know if it's ok just to add a You Tube video to your blog?? I'm guessing it is because you can just embed the code, but I don't want to be breaking any copyright laws!!!!

Following up from my last posting where I asked whether you have a cardmaking budget or not a couple of you have a budget, some just spend until they are broke and one is in a stamp club so the cost is spread monthly. At the moment I am in the middle category, but I'm guessing with a new house I might be entering a lot more 'Use It!' Challenges to use up my older stuff!!

Have a great Thursday!

Dotty Sisters!

Hi there

Well first of all I must share our good news...We FINALLY exchanged contracts on our house today. Woohoo, we are moving on 7th April, I can't believe we've actually resolved all of the little bits and pieces that were holding everything back! It's been going on for ages!!

I wanted to enter a challenge over at Dotties World. I've been buying things from Karen at Charmed Cards & Crafts probably for a couple of years now. (mostly Basic Grey papers!!) Her site is fab and her service is too! She's really lovely, she always sends a little token gift with my order, such as toppers for cards or some ribbon etc, and she goes out of her way to help. I don't know about you but it's that kind of thing that keeps me a loyal customer. Anyway, enough of me chatting, onto my card...! Can you tell I'm excited that we're moving?!



So, the details....I used cardboard pre-cut shapes, I don't normally buy them but I just couldn't resist when I saw these Amy Butler ones that match my pad. I used my Copics, gasp, horror! Yes, I'm using them :o) I've had to play around with them to get used to how they work and to be honest I didn't really have enough colours before to be able to use them properly. Also, I kept on getting blurring where the colour would run outside of the edges. I seem to have worked it out now that if I leave it to dry for a moment before trying to blend it seems to stop the problem.

The challenge was to use two downloads from Charmed Cards & Crafts on the card. Why is it that I choose to enter a challenge where I need to use not just one download, but two?!! I don't make it easy for myself, do I? I decided to use my Holly & Madison downloads. They are gorgeous designs. I also wanted to use my Amy Butler papers so chose a theme of lime, grey, blue and green. I thought that the card needed a bit more colour, hence the red accents that I used to colour the girls.

I split the card into two thirds lime and one third blue/grey DP and then added three tags at the bottom. The first wide one was pop dotted, the second circular one was just stuck on to the first, and the sentiment tag was pop dotted. The tag 'My Sister, My Friend' kind of sparked off the whole design. I thought I could go with the idea that Holly & Madison were sisters.

I printed the downloads and coloured them with Copics, colour details below. I adhered them to two rectangles and stuck them at angles. (They remind me of those little collector cards that people get framed!) Finally I added a few small die cuts from the set, and voila the Dotty Sisters were born! I was going to add pearls but it looked a bit too much. I'm still not sure if the card is too busy as it is.

Digi Downloads: Charmed Cards & Crafts, 'Holly & Madison'
Paper & Tags: Amy Butler Faded China
Pens: Copic B05, R00, E93, RV21, YG03, YG67, G21, B00, B23, Y11, R27, R59, E33, E35, E47, C-1, C-5, C-7, 100

I still need to sort out better skin colours with my Copics but that will come in time. This girl needs to set a craft budget. Do any of you do that? If so, how do you do it? Is it weekly, monthly? I am terrible though.. If I don't buy it you can guarantee it is discontinued or gone by the time I go back to get it. If I do buy it I find it cheaper somewhere else afterwards lol. What's a girl to do?!

Oh by the way, the chocolate cravings have subsided thank goodness. I kind of killed them with a big bar of chocolate on Mother's Day. Well, it has to be celebrated, doesn't it! ;o)

I hope you like my cards, I'd love some feedback, particularly on the Copic colouring in!

Have a good evening. I'm off to watch Holby City now! ♥

Saving Blog Awards

I've been asked by a couple of people how to save awards to their blogs when they receive them from fellow bloggers. I thought it would be easier to do a quick post about it. Now, please bear in mind that I am only a newbie at this blogging malarkey so this might not be the quickest/right way to do it, but it's worked for me!!

1. Right click the award and click 'save image as'
2. Save the document to somewhere you can easily find it again (I save it to my desktop)
3. Upload the image as you would in your blogging software. I use Blogger so I simply add it as a picture into my post
4. If you also want to save it into your sidebar you can do this in Blogger by adding a picture. Go to 'Layout', 'Page Elements'. Scroll down the page and you will see a header marked 'Add a Gadget'. Click this button and it will open up a new window entitled 'Basics'. On this page you will see the header 'Picture' (subheader - 'add a picture from your computer or from somewhere else on the web'). Click on the plus sign under this header and another box will open up where you can upload your picture by browsing for the location of your file.

I hope this helps. If you try it let me know if it works for you :o)

Love You Mum x

Happy Saturday everyone. Hope you're all having a good Saturday :o)

We have had a lovely day, early afternoon we all took Lulu to the park. Ian and Natasha were running around like mad with Lulu until her little red tongue was nearly hanging on the floor! She loves the park. She scared us half to death earlier though, she ran out of the house when Ian was locking the front door and she ran along the pavement beside the main road towards the park. Luckily she looked back at Ian as if to say, 'are you coming then' and then she bounded back towards him when he called her name. It was as if she was saying, 'I'm going to the park on my own if you won't take me'!! After that we picked up Mum and popped over to a local shopping village which has a handful of sweet little shops. We bought Lulu a darling 4 poster dog bed!!! It's adorable. We had some lunch out in the sunshine with Mum and then we came home and have been perfectly lazy ever since! My kind of Saturday :o)

My card today is for Marmie (Mum). I just hope she doesn't go on line tonight and see it!! My Mum is very special. She has been a tower of strength to me over the years. We have our moments, don't most mothers and daughters, but I always know that she is there for me no matter what. I love her so much. Unconditional love...it's a truly amazing thing. I hadn't really fully understood it until I had Natasha.

I created this card using the colours from Kristina Werner's latest Color Inspiration Challenge #46. As soon as I saw the colours I knew exactly what paper I was going to use for it.

I also wanted to try out one of Kristina's new techniques with ribbon that she has just been showing for her Year in Cards class for March. It actually went a lot better than I thought it would!



I cut and layered two rectangles, one in blue Bazzill swiss dots paper (love it!) and the other in the sei tulip paper. The colours are actually more vibrant in real life but I still have to master my camera. Up against Kristina's image it looks so faded!

I then cut out three smaller rectangles, the largest in red, then blue swiss dots and finally the white. I stuck the white card onto the blue and then played around with the ribbon technique by Kristina. I used a pink ribbon which I wrapped around the blue/white card, but thought it looked a bit too modern for my Mum so I added a piece of red ribbon to cover the staples. You can see the video tutorial here. I cut out some Quickutz tulips and stuck these to the card, using pop dots for the centre flower for effect. Finally I doodled around the edges of the white card because it looked a little plain.

Dies: Quickutz tulip
Paper: s.e.i DP, not sure of the name, it's an older one, Bazzill Swiss Dots
Accessories: Ribbons from stash, Copic Multiliner 0.03 for the doodling

So my lovely Marmie will be coming down for lunch with us tomorrow. We were going to go out but Natasha asked if we could stay in so I am going to cook us a simple lunch and we are all going to spend the day together. Natasha and Ian have been whispering to each other on and off all day, so I'm guessing they're up to something for tomorrow.

I have put in a request for a bath, some chocolate (obviously!), some vanilla coffee (did I tell you I'm a coffee addict as well as a chocolate one?!) and some time to read a magazine/book. Don't want much, do I?! Lol. Oh yes, and a bit of cardmaking thrown into the mix of course!! That's my idea of a perfect Mother's Day. The thing is when you're a mother you have to do things for your own Mum too so it's not quite the same, is it ;o) Not that I would have it any other way though. It's lovely getting us three generations of girls together.

Well I am going to sign out now. Enjoy the rest of your Saturday and I will be back soon. I have a couple of quick and easy cards to share with you ♥

Spring Fever!

Hi again

I made it through the day without finishing off the chocolate, so I'm feeling very proud of myself tonight :o) I had just one piece, which I counted. (When I say counted what I mean is that I lost my weight through Weight Watchers so every food has a points value and you are only allowed a certain number of points each day). Personally I think all chocolate should be zero points but I guess it wouldn't taste so good if you could eat it all day...or would it?!!!

Rae has challenge #2 on over at her 'Use It' challenge blog. This week the challenge was set by last week's winner, Danni over at dannisdoodles. She made a lovely white card with pretty spring flowers on it. Her rules were;

•use spring colors on your card
•use 4+ flowers
•use a tag

Oh yes and because it's a 'Use It' challenge you need to dig into some old stash that you haven't used. Hmmm, now that shouldn't be easy really, should it? I am sooooo bad at buying things, putting them away and then forgetting what I've bought. It makes for nice surprises when you do actually rummage for bits though ;o)

I think I might have a bit of spring fever, I'm feeling very creative today! I wanted to do something with spring colours and a bit of black. I dug out some Cuttlebug cutters that I have been meaning to use for a while and this is what I came up with;



I started by cutting out a piece of Basic Grey paper from my Eva pad and inked them with charcoal chalk ink pad by Colorbox. Using my X-Cut punch aligner I cut out a border in pink. I cut out 3 yellow squares with my Nesties which I inked, and using my cutters I cut out the frog, butterfly and flower in different scraps of paper. I had the cute little boggle eyes in my stash and thought they looked fab as the eyes for the frog. I then added the necessary 4 flowers with stick on gems, and added a sparkly tag with the 'best wishes' sentiment.

Dies: Cuttlebug 2 x 2 'Garden Creatures'
Paper: Basic Grey 'Eva' 6 x 6 paper, Bazzill Bling
Accessories: 'Got Flowers Sm Mix Bright' by Prima Marketing, boggle eyes from stash, stick on gems by Mei Flower, tag by Express Yourself DIY cards

I really enjoyed making this card, the colours were fun to work with and I loved doing the boggle eyes on the frog. Zoom into the picture and you can see how cute they are! Thanks for the challenge Danni, it was fun!

Mother's Day / 365 Card Challenge #18

Hi there

I am having a BAD chocolate day! I'm managing to remain at goal weight but with everything going on I could eat chocolate constantly. I can't tell you the number of times I've been to my fridge today to get out some chocolate only to tell myself I don't need it!!! I know, you're thinking 'why does she have it in the house?' Well, I have to confess I am better having one square a day than not having it at all because then I just go mad on it. I keep telling myself, 'T-T-T' (Tongue, Tummy, Thighs!) It works for me every time!! Hence the need to blog, takes my mind off it. It's odd, I seem to go through phases like this, do any of you do that??

Have you seen the 365 Card Challenge site? I think I will have to add it to my list of things to do when I move. This challenge site basically gives you a challenge every day. Can you imagine how many fab cards you would have by the end of the year, and also how much of your stash you will have used instead of storing!! I think it's a great idea. I thought I would enter the following card for their 'Going Green' challenge, well it's got some green in it, if that counts!!! Ok, so it's Day 18 that I'm entering for, but it's a start isn't it?!!

I made this card for Ian's Mum for Mother's Day. I have been wanting to use these papers for a while now but could never quite get them to work, they seemed dull somehow. Well my friend Hedgie came over the other day and brought her papers with her for us to do a Mother's Day card. Hmmm, now I knew I'd have to try and use them because she'd gone to the trouble of picking out papers for us! She paints so she is great at matching colours together. She also makes the most AMAZING teddy bears, you know those antiquey looking ones (I'm sure there's a proper name for them) She is going to open up her own business with them..one day! I do keep nagging :o) It's amazing the work that goes into them though. I wouldn't have the patience, that's why I like cardmaking - you see results quite quickly!

Anyway, this is the outcome....



Dies: None..shock horror! I actually just used a simple flower punch! ('Retro Flower' by EK Success)
Paper: Bazzill Basics, Cosmo Cricket 'Honey Pie - Avery & Ella' (What a fab name..Honey Pie!)
Stamps: 'Happy Mother's Day' by Azadl Earles - it's an old one, sorry! Rae from 'Use It' would be proud of me using up my old bits and pieces ;o)

I really like how the ribbon looks like the stem/leaves of the flower. That was actually totally unintentional. I thought the knot needed to go at the bottom because there was a gap there and lo and behold a stem emerged! It's another basic design, but I think it could be used over and over again for lots of different cards. You could change the papers around to make it more traditional/funky. It could have an image stamped in the middle, and then change the flower to a sentiment on a circle/tag, you could change the flower for a star if you wanted to make it masculine. Most of my cards are basic at the moment, because there are boxes all over the place and not much room to create. I hope you still like them though :o)

Going Green!

Hi again

I was going to post this yesterday but it was a bit tricky because the card was for my Mum for St Patrick's Day and she is an avid reader of my blog, although she isn't an official follower. Shame on her lol. I am going to enter this into for challenge #3 at The Corrosive Challenge Blog. The challenge this week is to make a card that has green on, so this one is perfect for it!

It's another quick make, I cut out two rectangles, ran them through the embossing folder and rounded the corners. Before sticking them down I added in a couple of staples (got this idea from Nancy over at 'Scrap This'. Thanks Nancy ;o) Her cards are great, so bright and cheery! I then cut out the heart which I ran through the embossing folder too and then inked the edges. I cut out a little rectangle from Basic Grey paper and rounded those corners too. I stuck the green panels straight onto the card, then added a pop dot under the BG paper to raise it. I stuck the heart on and added the shamrock which I also pop dotted. Finally I stamped the sentiment in green. It's not that easy to see the layering here. Oh yes, I also doodled lines around all of the green card, but not the shamrock.

I took the photo in the garden for a change, it's been absolutely wonderful out there today. Why is it a bit of sun makes you feel so much better in yourself? :o)

Today has been yet another stressful day on the house front, we've have been 'exchanging' since last Tuesday and each day get told that 'today is the day'. Hmmmm, me thinks not! We still have a bit to go on the packing but we're getting there, thanks to my lovely Marmie (Mum) that pushes us to keep going. She's great, she really helps us get things done!

Well this is just a quick post now, off to direct the packing of yet more boxes! I will leave you with the recipe for the card;

Dies: Sizzix 'Hearts, Double', Cuttlebug 'Swiss Dots' Embossing Folder, Quickutz shamrock
Paper: SU! Glorious Green & Green Galore & white cardstock, Basic Grey Cardstock (spare sheet, sorry not sure what the name is)
Stamps: Hero Arts 'Happy St. Patrick's Day'

Let it Snow

No, I'm not wishing for snow, honestly! It's far too nice out there at the moment! I just thought I would share a quick Christmas card that I made.

I admire the girls that have been making a Christmas Card each week, I always say I will but it just never quite happens. I guess I'm a girl that likes to live life on the edge and increase stress levels around November/December!! I work better to deadlines!

Anyway, this is such a simple card to make. All I did was emboss a piece of 'elephant' Bazzill bling (those who follow my blog will know that Bazzill call it something else, but I like to have my own names for things!) Sorry, I digress...So I embossed it using the snowflake Cuttlebug embossing folder, then cut out two strips in black glitter (left over from my Gothic Fairy) to attach to either side of the embossed panel. I then cut out the phrase, 'Let it Snow', in glitter and added a swarowski crystal for the dot of the letter 'i'. That's it, simple huh! When I do card commissions for Christmas I tend to make cards that are quick and easy because of the quantity involved. Also, nobody would buy them if I had to factor in the time/materials used!

Dies: Sizzix 'Let It Snow', Cuttlebug 'Swiss Dots' Embossing Folder
Paper: Bazzill Basics & black glitter card
Accessories: Swarowski crystal

I was also given this blog award yesterday, for supporting Kim's blog. Such a pretty award, don't you think?! You should check out her blog, she does some lovely designs.
We all know how fantastic it is to receive nice comments about our work, it makes it all worthwhile somehow. It's great to get feedback. I love to leave people comments because I know how much it cheers up my day.

I'd like to pass this award onto all of my followers;

Necron (I can't seem to find the link to your blog Necron)
MiniShoes (I can't find the link to yours either, love the name by the way!)
Sheena (go see her card for Lyn using one of the Holly & Madison downloads, it's luverly)
Emily (check out her pirate card, it's fab!)
Sarah-Jane (great with SU! products, and check out her post it note holders)
Michelle (check out her latest flowers card, SO funky!)
Debs (check out her darling 50th birthday cake, it's so cute!)
Katy (go see all the gorgeous bits she has made, not just cards)
Nikki (look at her cupcake card, it's good enough to eat!)
Christine (go see her tree header, it's gorgeous! Oh to have that as a stamp!)
Hannah (look at her gorgeous card for the Use It! challenge using my fave Amy Butler papers)
Sandra (one blogger I've actually met! Go back a bit and see her Daisy and Dan school card, it's one of my faves)
Pinky (what a cool name and check out her lovely colouring in of those stamps!)

I can't tell you all how much I appreciate your support, it keeps me creative knowing that you're interested in seeing what I make. Those that have been following me will know that I was aiming for 10 followers and guess what I've now got 13!! Poor Ian sees me doing a little dance every time another person follows my blog, he thinks I'm nuts!

There's just so much talent out there and inspiration. It's endless. I absolutely love blogging, I'm really enjoying 'meeting' lots of new people that share my passion in cardmaking. Keep up the great work guys! If there's anything new you'd like to see on my blog just drop me an e-mail.

Hope you all have a fab day!

Gothic Fairy

Hi there

As promised I am back to post a card tonight. I made this card for Ian's daughter, Charlotte (hope she's not reading this!) It's her birthday tomorrow. She loves all things goth but still has a girly side to her so when I saw this fairy cutter I knew I had to do it for her. The idea for the 'dark' fairy itself is taken from my local craft shop, they'd made one up using a scallop circle behind her. I wanted to do something different though and have gone with a teen theme. Starting from the bottom up I cut out some 'texting' paper which I thought would be quite cool for a girl of her age, she's going to be 16. I then made up the gothic fairy and used my artistic licence with Kazan's Sketch #22 over at 2 Sketches 4 U!

This week 2S4U have a competition whereby the children can also take part to win a prize. I'm trying to talk Natasha into entering one, whether she will or not is another thing. So, for now, so that she doesn't feel pressurised I am just going to enter mine. If she chooses to do something later in the week she can. She's actually quite good at cards, you can see one of her creations here in one of my older posts.

So, back to the sketch... As you can see from the pic the sketch is to use 1 square and 2 rectangles. Well I've used the fairy as the main rectangle, the larger gift as the other, and the smaller gift as the square. (Hope that's ok Kazan!!) I cut out and embossed two squares using my Nesties and then embossed them using a hearts Quickutz folder. I then cut out two strips of sparkly card to make lids for the boxes, and attached the ribbon. Finally I added 3 photo corners and the letters/number 'HB2U' to keep in line with the 'text talk' on the paper.

Hope you, and Charlotte, like it!! I'd love to hear what you think!

I haven't listed the recipe because I'm falling asleep over my keyboard here but if any of you would like it just drop me an e-mail! If I remember I will edit it with the info tomorrow, but unfortunately I'm not an elephant and I do forget!!

Night night, sweet dreams! :o)

Hi there!

Hi everyone

Don't worry, I haven't fallen off the planet, just been busy with the move etc! I can't wait to just get it all over with so I can get back into posting more regularly, it's chaotic here!

I plan to get something on line either later today or tomorrow. Hope everything's going well with you all and you're still crafting. I got some new Stamping Bella stamps the other day which I can't wait to use. I've been trying to get them for ages then came across them in a craft shop in Surrey.

Hope you all have a good morning/afternoon depending on your time zone and I will see you soon :o)

Use It!

Hi again! How is your week going? Mine is going ok, we are still waiting to exchange though which is very frustrating. We have now got to the point that we've packed enough just to be annoying. You know when you think you've left out the most important items that you need like storage containers for cooking and certain utensils, only to open the cupboard and find there's nothing in it! Well that's where we're at right now! One thing's for sure though none of my card goodies have been packed yet. They are staying out until the very last minute!!

I don't know if you know of Rae Barthel's work, but I love it. It's always fresh, bright and not over complicated. I can sometimes put too much on my cards, but she always seems to get it just right. Well, she has just started a great challenge blog, it's called 'Use It!'


The idea is that you use up your stash instead of dashing out to buy more. She has just held her very first challenge which has this basic recipe;

• Use one of your fave papers from your stash (what fun that was digging out some old bits!)
• Use something (anything) that you have never used before (well that should have been hard, but naughty little ole me had quite a lot to choose from in that category... whoops!)
• Use some ribbon (easy peasy - I lurve ribbon)
  
• Use a button (now a friend of mine absolutely hates buttons on cards, she thinks they are awful, so I'm not sure she will be liking this one!)
  

Well, I've been thinking that sometimes my cards are a bit dated, so I decided that I wanted to try and make my next card a bit more fun. I also wanted to do something with black, and colour because I do SO like my colour. Anyway, here's what I came up with...



I cut out squares in black card and the Basic Grey paper. Using my Stamp-a-ma-jig I then stamped out a flower using a set I bought about 2 or 3 years ago from a company called 'Blonde Moments' (see my sidebar for link). I love this flower set, it's really fab. I coloured the flower in using my Copics and added some white to the flowers using my Sakura pen. I then stamped the word 'flower'. I then rounded all of the right hand corners for a bit of a change. I inked the edges on the BG paper and the white card used for the flower image.

I found a little dotty button in my button stash and threaded through a scrap of pink ribbon. I then added some black and white gingham ribbon (still trying to keep the black thing going on) and a little piece of pink ribbon to lift the colour a little and match with the ribbon in the button.

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, it's colourful (although I'm not sure the photo is actually showing the actual colours, they are a bit brighter in real life). I'm also really pleased that I FINALLY used that stamp set. I often look at it but never quite get around to making anything with it, so thanks Rae for the challenge, it's a great idea using up your old stash!

Have a good evening. I'm off to bed now! Sweet dreams ♥

Howdy!

Hi everyone

This is going to be a very quick post tonight as my friend is coming round for a natter. Ian and I decided to take a night off from packing. Not that I've been doing much to be honest, just answering hundreds of questions that generally start with 'where do you want this..', or 'do you want to keep this..'!!! If I had a pound for every time I heard those questions I would be a rich girl tonight!! We were supposed to be exchanging today but there have been more delays :o( We will get there eventually, albeit my hair will be quite white by the time we do with all the stress!! I love cardmaking, it's so easy to get lost in it all and focus on something else.


Anyway, I wanted to make a card for the latest sketch #21 by Laura over at 2 Sketches 4 You. I thought I would try and post it at the start of the week instead of late on a Saturday night like I normally do. Woohoo - Goal accomplished!



I made this card for a bit of fun. I love this horse cutter and have not really been sure what to use it for, so thought I would blow the dust off him and create something! I don't know about you guys but I always feel guilty buying something just for its cute factor when I know I have absolutely no use for it! When I first got him though unbelievably I was asked to make two horse cards so he has almost paid for himself I guess!

The picture probably speaks for itself really but I will run through it quickly just in case my picture isn't clear. I cut out two rectangles, one in Deciduous, the other in Snowball Cranberry. I then cut out a circle in white and a scallop in cranberry. I cut the horse out in black and brown and added the cranberry for his hankie (or whatever you call it!) I punched a brown strip using my Treading Water punch and placed this behind the circle that I had layered using pop dots (as I call them...some of you call them dimensionals or glue dots or foam pads). Finally I cut out two pieces of Cranberry so that it looked a bit like a rosette. *Edited* I added four Chocolate Chip brads in each of the corners.

*Edited* (forgot to add in an item I had used)
Dies: Sizzix 'Circle, Scallop', 'Circle #1', 'Horseplay'
Paper: Basic Grey 'Mellow-Deciduous', 'Dasher-Snowfall Cranberry, Bazzill Basics
Accessories: Craftwork Cards 'Chocolate Drops' legless brads, Fiskars Treading Water Punch

Anyway, so much for a quick post. I'd better say 'ciao' for now. Have a good evening!

Lucky Nellie

Hi there. Hope you're all having a good Saturday. The weather has been quite nice here today, fresh but a bit of sun.

My friend bought me this little elephant stamp the other day, she said it was to remind me not to put my weight back on!!! (cheeky moo!) (I've recently got to my goal weight by losing 2 stone). She said she expects me to use it and not just put it in a drawer, so there was the challenge! I was looking through some of the blogs that I follow and came across a perfect sketch on 'Clean and Simple Stamping' Layout #31 and thought I could quickly use 'Nellie' with my new Basic Grey papers. Some of the entries are gorgeous. You should take a look. It's a great site for quick and easy cards, which sometimes, let's be honest, we could all do with :o)

I stamped Nellie onto a piece of pink marbled paper from my BG Eva pad, and then stamped her again on one of the pink patterned papers. I cut the same paper for the side panel. I thought the pattern had a little bit of a 'trunk' like pattern to it, can you see it?! I used the printed acetate that had come with the stamp which had the image printed on it, lined up my *new* Stamp-a-ma-jig (SAMJ) and then stamped Nellie in the right place on the paper saving wastage. My SAMJ has saved me money already, and the environment too, can't be bad! I then cut out a strip using my 'Sunburst' border punch in 'Imagine' and inked the edges of the card in pink. To finish I added a dotty ribbon.

I had to improvise a bit because I couldn't find an acrylic block anywhere, so I used a glass photo frame that doubles up as a great block for sticking your small stamps on..result! So now I have done two stamped images. I've finally done what I have been threatening to do for a while, I've stamped something...woohoo!!!! Be proud of me Hedgie!

I stamped the word 'lucky' because I'm very lucky to have her as my friend. She's been such a good friend to me while I've been off work, picking up Natasha from school, making me laugh out loud, taking me to get groceries, to hospital appointments etc. etc. Oh yes, and nagging me to do some stamping!!! Oh and did I mention that she brings me chocolate, now what more could a girl want. There's a stamp out there somewhere with a phrase to do with chocolate and good friends. If you know what it is please can you leave me a comment to let me know, it's been bugging me today!!

Stamp: Prima Marketing Clear Stamp - Elephant, Colorbox Chalk Inkpad in Pink Pastel
Paper: Basic Grey 'Eva' paper pad, 'Color Me Silly - Imagine'
Accessories: Fiskars 'Sunburst' Border Punch, Offray Microspool dotty ribbon from local haberdashery, SU! Stamp-a-ma-jig

I bought her one of those Basic Grey Notch & Die Tools for her birthday, but even though I got mine over here in the UK I couldn't find it anywhere. I decided to get it for her from the States, so ended up paying $25 plus to get it over here, only to receive a letter from Customs to say that I needed to pay another £15 plus VAT for them to deliver it because of the value!!! That has to be THE most expensive delivery charge so far!!! She's worth it though....maybe ;o)

ps - saw it last night on line in a UK store for £25!!! Ouch!!

Hippie Chick & My News!

Have you seen the new challenge site, The Corrosive Challenge Blog? I've used their sketch for this card and guess what... I am going to be on their next design team. I'm SO excited! Woohoo!

I wanted to do a fun Thank You card for someone using this Penny Black stamp called 'Hip!' Something not many people know about me is that my cousin used to call me 'Hippie Chick' when we were younger, so this post entry just had to have this name! I love these little characters too, they're great. Firstly, I stamped the image and coloured her in using Copics. I didn't have the right dark green so used one of my Tombo pens which seemed to work ok although took a bit of blending! I still need to play around with the Copics to get the right effect, but I think I'm slowly getting there.

I paper pierced the edges of the image and layered it onto s.e.i paper, then onto the K & Co paper. This paper is double sided so I turned the corner over and added a brad. The inspiration for the folded corner came from Crafts by Louly (she does fab cards by the way, you should pop over and have a look!), but instead of loosely folding the paper over I did a firm crease because I'm posting it. I then mounted it onto a big piece of the K & Co , stuck down a strip of the dotty side of the paper, and then added five little brown legless brads down the strip. Now, tell me who wouldn't buy these - they're called 'chocolate drops' - mmmm, good enough to eat!! Did I tell you I'm a chocolate addict? No, well I'm sure you've guessed by a couple of my postings!!

Stamps: Penny Black 'Hip!', Personal Impressions, 'Thanks'
Paper: EK Success 'Chocolate Fun Dots/Green Mini Dots', s.e.i. 'Garden - Petite Pop'
Pens: Copic Y17, Y11, E93, R00, RV06, RV02, YG03, Tombo 158
Accessories: Craftwork Cards Chocolate Drops' legless brads, American Crafts dotty brown ribbon (sorry no actual name on spool), K & Co 'BW Neopolitan Flower Brads'

Survey update... So far K & Co are winning, but I've only had a couple of comments. That's the trouble with being a new blogger I only have a few followers so not many to survey lol. Thank you to those of you that are following me, it really makes my day to think people like what I'm doing, makes it worth it! I'm aiming for 10 followers by the end of next week, what do you reckon? Will I do it?!!!

Fave Paper Survey!

Hi everyone

I've had boring house moving contracts to review tonight with Ian so I haven't had chance to finish my card for my challenge, but I will post something tomorrow. House moving is SO stressful, isn't it! It will all be worth it in the end though.

In the meantime I'd love to hear from you as to who your favourite brands of paper are. Mine are definately Basic Grey and K & Co at the moment. I love their colours and all the co-ordinating elements that you can get to go with them. I got two new 6 x 6 pads today from Basic Grey, Eva and Urban Prairie.

I also saw this K & Co Amy Butler pad today. It's now officially on my wish list. I love the colours. I was very tempted, but I have spent a lot of money on card making supplies this past two weeks. My budget is all used up for a bit now. Besides I need to play with what I've already bought!!

Oh yes, and I haven't forgotten I still need to do some stamping! You will be proud of me, I've just received some goodies from SU! and I've also been playing with stamp designs using my new Copic pens. I'm getting there with the technique, they are just different from my old Tombo pens that I used to use where you would use the blender for blending two different colours. I love the effect you get from them though. So if anyone has any useful Copic tips for this trainee Copic girl then please drop me a note. I'd love to hear from you!

I've also got some exciting news to share with you tomorrow, so have a good evening and I will be back tomorrow with a new post ♥

Easy Boy's Card

Hi there, hope you all had a good weekend. We had a lovely time, we saw friends on Saturday and had a lovely lazy day yesterday. The weekends fly by though, don't they?

So, this time I have a quick and easy make card to add. I don't know about you but I find cards for boys in their late teens a bit harder to do. In my family the boys tend not to be into anything specific. They are all really traditional and don't play football, golf, go to the pub etc. They are all quite studious, but I've already done that whole studious theme thing too many times. I wanted to make a card that I could adapt for boys' birthdays and came up with this simple idea.

I cut out a piece of green cardstock to match my ribbon, added two strips of brown at the top and the bottom. I tied the ribbon around the back of the green card before sticking it down. I cut out a star using my Quickutz star cutter and stamped a sentiment. Before I stuck the star down I added a brad.

Dies: Quickutz star
Paper: Bazzill Classic
Stamp: Rubber Stampede 'Swirl Happy Birthday'
Accessories: Corner rounder, ribbon, brad

Not my normal style, but sometimes it's nice just to do a simple card, don't you think?