Truly Scrumptious meets Dutch Dare!

Here is the card I have made for the Truly Scrumptious challenge, we were given a lovely sketch to work with and the extra feature was to add beads! I had a dig around in my bead bag and have used 3 deep red beads for my flower centres!

I am also entering this card for the Dutch Dare challenge which is to use lace. Done!!

2 challenge card turns into 4!

I originally made this card to cover 2 challenges it now happens that I can enter it for 4 woo hoo just love it when that happens!
The 4 challenges are :
1) Friday Skethcers - sketch
2) Secret Crafter - 3 buttons, 2 dp's, 1 ribbon
3) My Time To Craft - Floral Frenzy
4) Colour Create - pink, orange, green The weather is iffy here again today, it looks ok out at the mo but in minutes it could be raining, already had 2 downpours! I really feel I should take the girls somewhere (other than shopping lol) but everywhere costs so much and the weather ruins anything at the mo. I so hope it brightens up so we can do something soon. Mind you they are quite happy painting fingers and toes at the moment, they think they are at the beauticians!!!

Charisma Cardz -My Sketch challenge. Also Leanne's fabby candy!

It's new challenge time over at Charisma Cardz and this week it was down to me! So I attempted to design a sketch (I've used this layout on cards in the past), I'm always worried that it won't be liked but the design team girls have done wonders with it! For my card I thought I would flip the sketch on it's side and put a button in place of the flower, as I thought with the snake image (Grab-a-Doodle do) it would be a good boys card and I don't think boys really want flowers on their cards.We are sponsored by Pink Gem Designs and Janet has kindly donated a cute Dina Dinosaur stamp for the lucky winner.
We are joined by Lorraine as our Guest Designer this week, to see her card along with the rest of the teams creations pop on over to the blog.

BLOG CANDY

Our fellow design team member Leanne is celebrating getting 5,000 hits to her blog and also her recent move with her family to Dubai, she tells us it is very hot, a bit different to the weather here!!! Just look at the prize she is offering!

Wow how much do I want to win!!! So please don't enter Leanne's candy because I want to win lol!!!!! Just kidding! No I really do!!

A Spoon Full of Sugar -challenge 62

At A Spoon Full of Sugar this week we have the following fabulous sketch designed by Caryn for you to use.I really liked this sketch and know I will be using it again and again, for my card I've gone for the christmas theme again as I had this cute little topper sitting in my tray (recycled from one of last years cards!) which was just perfect for the circular element of the sketch. I picked out the gold from the image and used this with my layering, peel-off greeting and brads.We are sponsored by Bunny Zoe Crafts and Nikki has very kindly donated the fabulous High Hopes stackable santa stamp and a selection of christmas charms as this weeks prize.
We have the very talented Chris (sketching stamper) as our guest designer this week, you can see her wonderful card along with the rest of the design teams over on the blog. So what you waiting for?!

This is going to be my entry into One Stop Craft Challenge this week as the theme is 'christmas in July'.

Charisma Cardz - Tag it.

At Charisma Cardz this week Vee chose the theme 'Tag It' where we would like to see tags on your creations or just make a tag.
It was perfectly timed for the arrival of my Do Crafts Creativity magazine with free gift of the Daisy and tag stamps, so I went for a traditional christmas theme of red and green.We are sponsored by Crafty Computer Paper and the prize is a fabulous £15 to spend in the online shop!
The girls have made a wide variety of examples and are all fabulous as always, don't forget to nip by the blog to take a look.

Christmas in July!

Woo I've made 2 christmas cards in 2 days! My first card covers 3 challenges!
1) Sketch and Stash = sketch - used new gems and a very old topper!
2) Cute Card Thursday = xmas in July.
3) Cupcake Crafts = a christmas card.

and my 2nd card is for the Pollycraft challenge which is a sketch with the theme of food and or drink! This is my first time entering a Pollycraft challenge, the first of many! The above card is for my cousin Marie who's birthday it is on Friday. The flower gems were scattered on the table at my cousins wedding a couple of weeks ago so she gathered a load up for me to use on my cards, stating that it was her birthday soon!! The ribbon was also tied around the napkins!

I also have news for those few of you who don't already know, is that pre-orders for the Whiff of Joy autumn stamp kit are now being taken until the 7th August.

Katharina is offereing a fabulous blog candy of 2 of the stamp kits, competition is fierce, but you've got to be in it to win it!

A Spoon Full of Sugar - challenge 61

Late again, apologies to the girls for todays post being late, but I had a panic call from my dad this morning wanting us to go over as he wasn't feeling too good. I've mentioned before that he suffers with depression, he has been having some good days, but we think today after hearing that a neighbour/friend had gone into intensive care after being knocked over by his dog (he's only a little man and the dog is a great dane, I always say he could ride them and looks like a jockey walking a horse) trigger something and in his own words 'just doesn't feel right'. So we headed off and spent the day with him.

Anyhow back to this weeks A Spoon Full of Sugar challenge which this week is 'swirls', we would like to see swirls on your work, this can be die-cuts, stamps, papers, anything swirly!
For my card I have used a neglected Sugar Nellie stamp, and stuck to a blue and white theme, my swirls are stamped and I had a go at paper piercing although not too successful I think it looks ok!We are sponsored by Squiggle Stamps and Tracy has very kindly donated a lovely bundle of goodies including 2 stamps, papers, ribbons, flowers and more! Drop by the blog and see the full prize details and fabulous examples the rest of the girls have made.



I am also entering this card for 3 other challenges which are :
1) Dutch Dare = Dies or punches (my flowers)
2) Colour Create = Blue and white
3) Secret Crafter = Spots and stripes

LOTV - animals

The challenge over at Lili of the Valley is 'animals' so it was a great opportunity for me to ink up my Rachelle Ann Miller monkees stamp that I won in Becky's birthday candy! They are so cute, but I had to do a bit of doctoring with my image as in a couple of places my inks bled, hence the blue sparkly balloon and the sparkly pressie, the glitter glue covered it up nicely! Hollie has already bagged this card for her little friend Bradley who is having a party next week!

The rest of the teachers thank you's!

All teachers presents were given out this morning and Lillie's teacher came straight over to me and asked if I would consider doing a craft workshop at the school! Ooooo...... what a result, I said yes of course, it would only be a couple of times during the year she said maybe christmas and easter, gotta start somewhere I guess!
and on top of that I got my application form for the catering assistant at the school my goodness it's scary filling out the form I've NEVER done one before! I went straight from school into a YTS scheme but I got taken on at my placement before the scheme even started and that's where I stayed for 13 years before leaving to start my family. I've got to try and find my school exam results aarrghhhh..!!!!
Anyhow here are Hollie's bookmarks she made for her teachers, sadly I forgot to take a picture of Lillie's but they are very similar.Here is a picture of all of the completed gift bags all lined up and ready to go! I wrote each of the teachers names under the Thanks plaque on the image for that added personal touch!

and another card which Lillie chose for her teacher, you may notice that all of the images have yellow/blonde hair which is to make them look a bit like my girls although their hair is longer lol!! This card is also my entry for the Friday Sketchers challenge.

Charisma Cardz -sketch challenge

This week at Charisma Cardz we have a lovely sketch for you to work your magic with! Our sketch was designed by past dt member Lyndsey.I took one look at the sketch and thought how perfect it is for a scrapbook layout, so here is the page I made using a piccie of my eldest daughter Lillie dressed as a mermaid ready for a mermaids and pirates birthday party a couple of years ago! She wore the outfit again last year and came 1st in a competition which she was thrilled with as she not only got a voucher and gift certificate for Woolies (which we had to use in a hurry) but also a BIG bag of sweets!!!! We are proud to be sponsored this week by Whimsy Stamps and Denise has kindly donated 2 fabulous prizes, so yes that means 2 winners! So good luck!

Teacher thank-you conveyor belt!!!!

Me being me I leave every thing until the last minute!! The past 2/3 days I have been processing teacher thank you cards like on a converyor belt! At least I've got good use out of my Pollycraft stamp lol!! Not only did I use the image for the cards, 7 in total, I also used it to titivate gift bags!
Here are some of the cards

pretty basic but still pretty I think!

Here are the bags I decorated up to make them look a bit nicer, although I love those big polka dots! (3 bags for £1 from Poundland!).

Hooray I have just finished writing all of the cards, hubby is just putting them and the pressie's in the bags and we are done, ready for giving out tomorrow!

I figured it wouldn't be as emotional giving them out tomorrow as waiting until the last day, although I am sure there will be tears, it always happens when they give the children a hug and say bye! Ah well we'll have to make a mad dash for the door!!

The girls also made some bookmarks to go in the bags but I have uploaded the pictures yet, I'll show you them tomorrow.

A Spoon Full of Sugar -challenge 60

Debbie has designed us a fabulous sketch this week at A Spoon Full of Sugar and here is my card, just one of the many thank you cards I am having to make for the girls for school! We have a fab and fun Space Ian stamp for the winner which Bryony of Silly Monkey Crafts has kindly donated.
Don't forget to drop by the blog and check out the ever gorgeous creations from the design team.

My youngest Hollie has her first ballet rosette exam this afternoon, she had the rehearsal run through yesterday and they looked pretty good so I think they will be ok!!

A couple of challenge cards

I had quite a productive day yesterday, the girls went to play round friends which gave me some 1 on 1 time with my desk/pc lol!!!

My first card is for the Friday Sketchers challenge, I just loved the simpleness of the sketch this week. I was sent this image from Karin along with my prize when I won a JC&B challenge months back and it just goes with the paper and embellie perfectly!

Then onto my 2nd card which covers not 1 but 5 challenges!

1) Daring Cardmakers = blue and green.

2) Secret Crafter = 3 ribbons.

3) Sketch Saturday = great sketch.

4) One Stop Craft = stars and stripes.

5) Papertake Weekly = my favourite things = image, ribbons & buttons.

Last up is my card for Sketch and Stash and I've gone for a christmas theme, I've used my neglected mini postcards and pointsettia embellie.

Charisma Cardz - Alter It!

This week at Charisma Cardz Carly set the challenge 'Alter It' where we would like to see an item altered with 1 rule NO CARDS!!!
Well I was going to alter a cd, then I thought a notebook but them I went for my favourite old faithful a bag-a-lope!! I need to make several of these to put teachers pressies in so thought it was a good place to start!
I've used a C5 envelope, some downloaded backing paper, and image from Pink petticoat and I've even recyled the pink ribbon which was tied around my serviette at my cousins wedding on Saturday!!! (you'll be seeing a lot more of this ribbon to as I went along the table collecting it! such a scavenger!).
So here is my bag sitting on top of an envelope reminising about how it used to look lol!! and in no time this will become a bag to!We welcome Karen and Allison onto the team this week as they cover for Leanne's as she prepares for her move to Dubai.
We are sponsored this week by DRS Designs who have kindly donated a lovely mix of stamps for the lucky winner.

A wonderful wedding

It was my cousin Adam's wedding on Saturday and we had an absolutely wonderful day. The weather was perfect, warm but not hot and bright blue skies. The service went well (I even sang the hymns!! normally I lip sync!) and Adam and Kirsty looked divine.
Here is a piccie of my hubby and I looking a bit posh before we went into churchEveryone I spoke to I hit with my hat!! I took it off later and put the flower corsage which is on my dress in my hair, but I felt like I was missing something lol!!
Here is a piccie of myself with my mum and dadMy dad has been a bit poorly with his depression for the past few weeks and it was touch and go if he was coming to the wedding with mum, so glad he did and he seemed to have a nice time, nice for mum too because she would've be a bit upset coming on her own, I know we were there and the rest of the family but it just wouldn't have been the same.
I took 146 photo's in all, but this has to be one of my absolute favourites of the bride and groom, so glad we clocked the photographer doing the posy shots!and one last picture of one of the many many flower arrangements my mum assisted on making, there was a team of about 7 doing the flowers 1 was my mum and 2 my aunties and they did flowers from Monday right up until Friday night all day!!

and yesterday when I delivered my auntie's cake (grooms mum and yes the wedding was at their house, only 1/2 of it shown in the above pic) she gave me one of the bigger arrangements (it sat on the top of a tall vase) some fresh flowers to revamp it with and a bottle of wine, not bad in exchange for a cake me thinks!!

A Spoon Full of Sugar -challenge 59

Apologies for the delay in this post, I've had a bit of a hectic day, I knew I should've schedueled it. Ah well better late than never heh?!
Our A Spoon Full of Sugar challenge this week is 'Hearts'
Lucky for me I already had this card made in advance, I used an old mojo monday sketch for the layout. The heart and sentiment are both rub ons.Please see the blog for prize details and to see the rest of the wonderful work of the other design team ladies.