Seize The Cupcake!

Hello everyone .. here's a card from the weekend I had hoped to post before now, but I haven't been able to get a  decent pic due to the abysmal weather we've been having. Oh my goodness autumn is sooo truly here - first day back at work yesterday after a fortnight off including a week in the sunny Algarve - and I got frozen through and soaked to the bone - typical!! At least it makes you appreciate your holidays !! :-)

Anyhoo here is a card I made for a variety of girly, sweet and colour challenges.

Stamps: LotV "Hello Cupcake";

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Papers: Papermania "Lucy Cromwell";

Supplies: pearl hearts from The Hobby House; flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts and Craft4U2Do; lace from John Lewis; sentiment by Craftwork Cards; ribbon, doily and heart buttons from my stash

Challenges:

Ribbon Girl Colour Challenge (September) - Pink & Green

Moving Along With The Times - Girly, Girly, Prim & Proper

Joanna Sheen - So Sweet!

Ooh La La #114 - If The Shoe Fits

(I love the way these LotV little girls look as though they are wearing their mothers' shoes)

Craft Your Passion #129 - Buttons & Bows

My Mum's #75 - Hearts & Flowers

Pretty Little Ribbon #14 - Lace & Pearls

Divas By Design #53 - Lovely Layers

Sunday Sketch & Stamp #125 - sketch (flipped vertically)

Our Creative Corner - Inspiration Pic + Use Polka Dots and Buttons

(polka dots on cup and heart buttons)

I have to admit that yesterday the weather was so miserable, and I was so cold on my first day back in the office, I threw sense and caution to the wind .. and at lunchtime I could be found scoffing a big slab of cake along with a milky coffee, rather than salad and fruit - naughty! lol!!

That's all for today.

Hugs

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

Hi there - I think I have finally woken up to the fact that I am still woefully short of Christmas cards, and that I need to really get a wriggle on for the remaining (few) months of the year! I do have some new Chrimbo stamps which haven't yet seen ink, but for some reason I was drawn to this darling teddy - I just love this series of LotV bears as they have such adorable faces!

I also took the opportunity to use my new Memory Box border die - I love these dies; they are just so intricate and pretty.

Stamps: LotV "James Bear - In the Snow"; sentiment from "Christmas grungy messages" set;

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers + lots of glamour dust;

Papers: LotV "Frosty Christmas";

Supplies: clear gems from stash;

Tools: Memory Box "frostyville Border" and "Snowy Corner" dies.

Challenges:

J&C Creations (September) - Cute Christmas

Creative Inspirations #181 - Christmas in September

PB & More At Allsorts - Early Christmas Makes (2nd entry)

Paperplay #38 - Choose A Holiday (Christmas)

Jingle Belles - Dashing Through The Snow

Crafty Pad #189 - Inspired By A Song ("White Christmas")

Allsorts #173 - Inspired By A Song ("White Christmas")

Corrosive #158 - Animal Companions

Stamptacular #182 - Bling It On!

Southern Girls #53 - Bling Bling

That's all for today - thanks for looking.

Away With The Fairies (2) - Things With Wings

Good afternoon everyone - after my exciting news this morning about becoming a Lili's Little Fairy ( see here), I got quite carried away with the idea of fairies, and decided to make a couple of fairy cards.  I haven't actually done any crafting for a fortnight what with work and then going away on holiday, so I thought I needed to get a bit of practice in colouring :-) Bizarrely though I didn't choose one of my beloved LotV fairy images for this task - the reason being that I wanted to make cards for some autumnal challenges, and I thought this gorgeous Whimsy stamp by Sylvie Zet would best fit the bill. Also  I wanted to get some practice at colouring hair which I always find a bit of a challenge ... and the fairy on this stamp has certainly got a good head of hair to colour !!

Today's post could equally be called one image, two ways, as I have made two cards using the same stamp - the colours are also similar, but the style of the two cards is quite different. Both are quite outside of my comfort zone, as I never normally use these colour schemes.  

First up is a CAS card which I made to highlight the use of autumnal colours.

Stamp: Whimsy set by Sylvie Zet (free with Papercraft Essentials magazine);

Sentiment: Pink Petticoat (digi);

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Supplies: pearls from The Hobby House.

Challenges:

Passion For Promarkers #167 - Clean and Simple

Stamptacular Sunday #181 - Less Is More

Paper Pretties Wednesday #224 - No Patterned Paper

Without Words #1 - Autumn (CAS Card)

Papertake Weekly - A Hazy Shade of Autumn

Crafty Pad #188 - Autumn Colours

Addicted To Stamps #39 - Autumn Colours

Colour Me Creative #52 - Autumn Colours

Paper Shelter #82 - Autumn Colours

Crafty Catz #150 - Brown & Orange

Crazy 4 Challenges #154 - Anything Goes with a Fall Twist

Sparkles #36 - Away With The Fairies

Fab 'n' Funky #139 - Things With Wings

Crafting For All Seasons #36 - Things With Wings

Challenge Up Your Life #78 - Fantasy

Creative Craft - Anything Goes

Whimsy #51 - Anything Goes

Secondly I made a bit fancier card for three challenges:

Stamps: Whimsy fairy as before; Whimsy "Friendship Ticket" stamp; See-D birthday sentiment;

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Papers: Prima "Botanicals";

Supplies: flowers and seam binding from Wild Orchid Crafts; pearls from The Hobby House; lace from my stash;

Tools: Leone Em "Ash Branch" leaf punch.

Challenges:

Crafty Calendar (September) - Browns & Creams

Wild Orchid Crafts # 59 - Autumn Colours

Sketch Saturday #225 - sketch

Rightee - that really is all now from me for today - though I hope to get some more crafting in before I go back to work on Monday :-)

Hugs

Exciting news - I'm away with the fairies!

Good morning everyone - I'm currently on a much anticipated fortnight's  holiday from work, and here I am just back from a last minute week in the Algarve ... beautiful apartment in a lovely location in Lagos, sunny weather and great food - bliss! Pity we had to come home really, but the pill was sweetened by some really exciting news ...

I'm a little fairy!!

No ... I didn't suddenly sprout wings to fly back to the UK, but was thrilled to discover that I have been picked by the lovely ladies over at Lili's Little Fairies to join their Design Team

WAY HAY, WOO HOO, YIPPEE!!  .... I'm doing the happy dance!!

Yes I really love my LotV stamps, so I am beyond thrilled and excited to be joining Lili's Little Fairies and can't wait to get stuck in to working with the fabulously talented team!!

Of course, having just got back from holiday yesterday afternoon I haven't had opportunity to sprinkle any fairy dust this week, but hope you will all pop over to the challenge blog to see the gorgeous DT cards made by the rest of the team on this week's challenge theme which is

Flower Power

So in lieu of a new card, for this week only here are a couple of pictures of recently posted cards which could fit this theme ....

Firstly ... a card I posted here, with  flowers all around on the image and paper, and used as embellishments ....

Secondly, a card  using my all-time favourite LotV stamp (first posted here), with plenty of paper flowers going on :-)

Well I think that's just about enough excitement for me for now (actually it's enough excitement for the whole year lol!) ... look forward to seeing your challenge creations. Hope to be back later with a new card at last!!

Hugs

Marcea's 1000 follower candy

Hi there ...Just a quick post from me this evening to say do hurry ... The lovely Marcea. is giving away not 1, not 2 but SIXTEEN pieces f candy to celebrate her 1000 followers. How generous is that??. So if you are one of Marcea's followers pop over there ... And if you're not then you won't be disappointed if you become a follower . But hurry ... The candy closes tonight!

Going round in circles

Now I'm a big fan of LotV - adore the stamps, and also lurve the new papers ... I don't think my bank manager likes LotV at all, but that's a different story lol!! So when I saw that Lili's Little Fairies are doing a DT call I got me really excited ... until I saw the theme, when my heart sank :-(  Anything but a square - oh no!! Now I don't mind a challenge, but there's no way I can showcase my best with this as I don't have any large die cutting machine, so the best I can manage is the largest size classic circle nestie - and let's face it, that's still pretty teeny!!  But hey I thought I'd best give it a go ... after all you've got to be in it to win it!!

Here's the result.

To tell the truth I'm not overly happy with this card for two reasons. Firstly,  I smudged my glamour dust on one of the snowflakes (I probably shouldn't point this out when I'm competing for a DT spot!) but my cardmaking time is too limited at the moment for me to start over, so let's call it a "feature" of the finished product!! Secondly, for some reason I had real trouble stamping with my grungy image sentiment - the centre of the image refused to co-operate even though I tried several different inks. I think I'll have to do a bit of testing over the the next couple of days as normally LotV stamps are fantastic - I'm not worried though as if there is a problem I'm sure it will get sorted easily.

On the bright side, I think this new release Christmas penguin is beyond adorable, the new Chrimbo papers are yummy and I'm quite pleased with my swirly snowflake border.

Stamps: LotV "Snow Cute" and "grungy sentiment";

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers; lots of glamour dust!

Papers: LotV "Nitwits - Frosty Christmas";

Supplies: gems from Hobbycraft;

Tools: classic circle nestabilities; Memory Box "Frosty Border" die.

Challenges:

Lili's Little Fairies - Anything But A Square

Crafty Pad #186 - Anything But A Square

Allsorts #170 - Anything But A Square

CRAFT #170 - Shaped Card

PB and More At Allsorts - Early Christmas Makes

Creative Card Crew #18 - Christmas

Secret Crafter #201 - Animal Antics

Sparkles Christmas #20 - Sparkle and Bling

Penny's #91 - Sparkle & Shine

Simon Says - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

That's all for today - enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Penny Black Saturday - Buttons & Bows

Hello everyone, and welcome to another monthly Penny Black Saturday Challenge.  Sorry I'm running rather late today ... only managed to make my card this morning and then I had to go out this afternoon ...  so I'll get straight down to business. Thanks very much everyone for your fabulous creations in last month's challenge, and don't forget to check the main challenge blog to see if you are a winner!

This month's challenge theme is an easy peasy one ...

Buttons & Bows

and as always we have some fabulous prizes to give away to randomly drawn winners.

Penny Black

Crystal Wreath
3986J

1-2-3 Stitch

$20 voucher

The Ribbon Girl

5 Packs of Buttons of the Winner's Choice

Craftwork Cards

A4 Chipboard...Chipboard Cards...Tickets & Mannequins

J&C Creations

Wow!!

In order to be eligible for any of these yummy prizes, don't forget you need to submit a new piece of work which uses a Penny Black image, large sentiment or stickeroo as its main focus.

All the rest of the DT have created some fabulous cards as always - don't forget to check them out. here's mine.

Stamps: Penny Black "Water Lily Skiing" (2063K); LotV sentiment circle;

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Papers: LotV "Nitwits" collections - "Promises" and "Bonnets & Bowties";

Supplies: pearls from The Hobby House; buttons, twine and ribbon from my stash;

Tools: large, small and scalloped classic circle nestabilities; EK Success and Docrafts flower punches; Leone Em "Ash Branch" leaf punch; Martha Stewart "wildflowers" border punch.

Challeges:

Bunny Zoe's Challenge #27 - Summer

Sparkles #35 - Nature
Cupcake #207 - Flowers (waterlily)
Southern Girls #52 - It's All About the Flora
Secret Crafter #201 - Animal Antics
Moving Along With The Times - Flying High
My Mum's #72 - All the three's 
(3 flowers, 3 buttons, pearls grouped in 3's)
Heck Of A Challenge #1 - Anything Goes
Simon Says - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Better dash now ... time for dinner and the X Factor - hope to be back soon with some Christmas cards (at least, I hope it will be before Christmas lol!)

Black and White and 40 All Over!

Hi there ... today I would like to show you the 40th birthday card I made last night for my boss at work. Making men's cards is never easy, but for once I had a very clear idea about what I wanted to make, partly on the basis of challenges I spotted and partly on the basis of the stash I had to hand. So instead of dithering about like I normally do, I just cracked on and made it - here's the result.

Stamps: LotV "Cheers Bear"; Whimsy ticket stamp; See-D birthday sentiment;

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Papers: Black Market Paper Society "Ebony & Alabaster";

Supplies: Papermania gems and twine;

Tools: Cuttlebug "Hippie Chick" die cut numbers; Cuttlebug "Swiss Dots" embossing folder.

Challenges:

Lili's Little Fairies - Spots or Stripes

(I have both, both on the image and the papers !! :-)  )

PTW - Free For All Sketch

(I chose Sketch #68 - flipped)

My Time To Craft #186 - Milestone Birthdays

Divas By Design #50 - Let's Celebrate!
Creative Craft - Monochromatic Birthday

Paper Pretties Wednesday #221 - Black + White + 1
Hooked on Crafts #24 - Cards For Men

Incy Wincy - Frogs 'n' Snails 'n' Puppy Dogs' Tails

Top Tip Tuesday #84 - Birthday Gifts

Craft Your Passion #125 - Emboss It

Crafty Pad - Twine

A Gem Of A Challenge #53 - Animals or Teddies (2nd entry)

Crafty Calendar (August) - Teddy Bear Parade + lots of layers (2nd entry)

Simon Says - Anything Goes
Party Time Tuesdays  #83 - Anything Goes

I ♥ Promarkers #132 - Anything Goes
Everybody Art #202 - Anything Goes

Forever Friends Fortnightly #43 - Anything Goes

Ready-Teddy-Go #13 - Anything Goes 

(3rd entry .. yes I really do love teddies lol!!)

That's all for today ... hope to be back soon with some LotV Christmas cards - my new Chrimbo stash of stamps and papers has arrived - yay! :-)

I'm Dreaming of a White, Kraft and Blue Christmas!

Good morning - hope everyone is enjoying the Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK. 

Just a quick post from me this morning - feeling rather tired as my poor husband has somehow trapped a nerve in his neck / shoulder and has been in agony the past couple of days .... not getting much sleep as he is tossing and turning all night long with the pain of it all! 

I was wanting do some crafting last night over the Bank Holiday weekend but couldn't seem to set my mind to anything ... I'm waiting with baited breath for my new LotV Christmas goodies to arrive and somehow can't fancy digging in to any of my multitudinous existing Chrimbo stash in the meantime lol!! I tried making a card with another new Christmas Memory Box die I have recently bought ("Bubble Joy") but that just turned out all wrong - nothing seemed to be working!

In the end I made a little card which is a subtle variation (ie different colour scheme) on one I made a few weeks ago (here) with a second new Memory Box die that I definitely DO get on with :-)

Stamps: Hero Arts (Christmas background text)

Media: stamping & distressing with TH distress inks in "Tea Dye" and "Vintage Photo";

Supplies: pearls and gems from The Hobby House; ribbon from my stash;

Tools: Memory Box "Flowering Christmas Tree" die; Martha Stewart "eyelet lace" edge punch.

Challenges:

CUYL #76 - Christmas In Summer

CSAYL #25 - Non Traditional Colours

Sparkles Christmas #19 - Punch It!

Anything Goes #74 - Make Your Own Background

Creative Card Crew #17 - Maps/Newsprint/Sheet Music/Script
Jingle Belles - Holiday Bingo! (stamping / flowers / tree)

CCT #231 - Bling It Up!

Dutch Dare #179 - Bling It On!

Crafting For All Seasons #34 - Stitching (real or faux) 

(mine is faux on the ribbon!)

J&C (August) - Something A Little Bit Different

(using kraft is rather different for me, and this card is just a little bit different from the one I posted here)

Divas By Design #49 - Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp & Show - No Rules!

Off to get dressed now, and see if I can summon the energy to do a bit of ironing! Thanks for visiting.

I can't even give it away!!

Well I have to be honest and say I didn't think it would be so difficult to give away a yummy Memory Box poppy die as per my July Penny Black Saturday blog candy draw . Three weeks now, and two randomly drawn winners who haven't come forward.

So ... In line with what I said last week, I have decided to give this die to one of the original entrants who I know is a regular visitor to my blog ...  And that's you

Jennifer

Jennifer is a fab bloggy friend who has recently given me some great moral support when I needed it with a personal worry I was having ... so the poppy is on its way to you - enjoy!!

Oh So Girlie!

Good morning! Having broken in to my first gorgeous Nitwits paper pad from LotV on Monday night I got me on a roll, and  I decided that I just had to make something featuring the other pad I had got - the "Bonnets and Bowties" collection. Looking around I saw that this week's Lili's Little Fairies challenge is Oh So Girlie and the Wild Orchid Challenge is Summer flowers: given that this paper pad is bursting with summery blooms I only needed to decide which girlie LotV image to ink up and I was away!!

I often come back to this darling little fairy ... I think it is because I really adore dandelion clocks!I coloured her dress a bit more brightly than I would normally to tie in with the papers, but I think I like it!!  I was also feeling pretty chuffed this evening as I had a broken Leone Em leaf punch in my craft tote ... I had been meaning to ask my husband for months whether he could fix it, and tonight I finally got round to it and it was fixed within two minutes - yay!

Stamps: LotV "Dandelion Clock"; sentiment by Dimension Fourth;

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Papers: LotV "Ntiwits - Bonnets and Bowties";

Supplies: flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts; gems from The Hobby House & Papermania; wooden butterfly shapes and ribbon from my stash;

Tools: small, large and lacy circle nestabilities; Martha Stewart "eyelet lace" edge punch; Leone Em "Ash Branch" leaf punch.

Challenges:

Lili's Little Fairies - Oh So Girlie!

Wild Orchid Challenge #57 - Summer Flowers

Ribbon Girl Colour Challenge #22

thanks for visiting and hope you have a lovely day.

I really can't make my mind up ....

.... which is the most adorable, this uber cute teddy peeking out of a gift box (who has been hiding naughtily in my cupboard for the past few months doing his very own "resist ink" technique lol!!), or the totally delicious new papers from LotV - they really are stunning, amongst the loveliest I've seen!!  Anyhoo, here is the result of me putting them together.

Stamps: LotV "Patchwork Present"; Penny Black "happy birthday";

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Papers: LotV "Nitwits - Promises";

Supplies: flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts and Hobbycraft; gems from The Hobby House; lace from WOC; ribbons from John Lewis;

Tools: Fleur de Lys Square nestabilities.

Challenges:

Crafty Calendar - Teddy Bear Parade + Lots of Layers

A Gem Of A Challenge #53 - Animals or Teddies

Pile It On #34 - Cuddly Critters

Simon Says - Animal Antics

Crafty Catz #146 - Animals

Crafts & Me #97 - Add Some Lace

Pretty Little Ribbon #13 - Add Some Bling or Sparkle

Whimsy #50 - Lots Of Layers

Really Reasonable Ribbon #54 - Purple Pzazz + Ribbon
Ready Teddy Go #13 - Anything Goes

Gotta rush to get ready for work, so bye for now!

New Winner of Memory Box Poppy Die

Hello everyone,

Unfortunately the original winner of my Penny Black blog hop candy, which is the Memory Box "Prim Poppy" die, has not claimed her prize! Therefore I have drawn a new winner and it is ...

... and that's you Tabitha Davis

Please contact me by email to claim your prize within 7 days (by 12:00 noon BST on Saturday 25th August).  If it is not claimed this time,  I will pick someone from the original list to send it to who I recognize as a regular visitor to my blog.

Hugs