A Spoon Full of Sugar -Challenge 29

Our A Spoon Full of Sugar challenge this week is to make a 'Happy New Year' card seeing as it will soon be christmas and then in a flash the 2009 will be upon us we thought it was a good idea!!
I've used an old Papertake Weekly sketch for my card, the image I thought was perfect for such celebrations. I have used a mixture of watercolour pencils and pearl watercolours which add a lovely shimmer. This week we have new sponsors, Colette and Katie from Nutcrafters, they have kindly donated a fabulous prize of 2 High Hopes stamps and 2 lots of Prima flowers. Oh how I would love this prize myself!!

This will be our last challenge until the new year we thought we would take a little break. We will be back with a fab new challenge on the 6th January 2009. Thank you to everyone who has joined in the challenges with us, I've thoroughly enjoyed being part of a fabulous design team and seeing so many wonderful creations, and look forward to many more challenges in the new year.

Forever Friends and Friday Sketcher combo

I've combined 2 challenges in 1 today Forever Friends are asking us to make anything that's 'not a card' so I've made a bag-a-lope (if you've not seen one of the few that I've made before it's a gift bag made out of an envelope!). The paper was a download one which I think is quite christmassy, the white layers are swiss dot embossed, the forever friend is a sticker which came free with a magazine, ribbons and gems are ones that I had. This also qualifies for Friday Sketchers as I have used this weeks sketch, and would you believe my bag-a-lope is the size as on the sketch!! Perfect!! The bag isn't very deep but I have a necklace (costume jewelery type) for my sister and mum so it will fit nicely once wrapped in a bit of tissue paper first!

BLOG CANDY - Claire is celebrating 36,000 hits to her blog with the most fabulous candy, to be honest she has whizzed past 36,000 and it is nearing the 40,000 how amazing is that? Check it out here

Yesterday was 'put the christmas decorations up time' mum picked the girls up for the day so we could get on. Apart from stopping for lunch and tea we didn't stop all day! Then when we picked the girls up and got them home they had to decorate their tree, it's in the play room upstairs and apart from the lights they did the rest themselves!

Hollie posing with one of our santa's! If any has any top tips on how to take good pictures of indoor christmas trees please could you pass them on to me? I have tried allsorts to take a picture of my tree which I think looks nice but when the flash goes off it lights the whole room grrrr..... flash off and it's not very clear? If I posted one of the pictures I have now you would think the tree looked just awful.
Help please anyone?

Been a busy little bee!

My first card is for My Time to Craft and my talented friend Becky has designed a sketch for us this week. I have to say I think this is one of my favourite christmas cards that I have made this year! The mirri paper is so shiny you can actually see me in it!! It came from the Paper Mill shop and yes it is paper, I don't think I got enough! It's a strip of sticky ribbon accross the top which is leather look, the patterned paper is Anita's as is the greeting and the image is my Serendipity snowman from Joanna Sheen, this stamp has done me well!!!Over at Stamp Something we are asked to make 'snow somethings' so yep it's my snowman again! I've made a whole batch of these cards, simply stamped the image straight onto the card, then glittered it with Glitz It Sparkles (like stickles I think) I've used the clear, silver and black glitters, it's such a shame the camera doesn't pick this up, as all of these monochrome cards sparkle like anything and look so much nicer in real life!

these are also snow something cards and have again been highly glittered but I couldn't get a very good picture of these ones.

Then we have my entry for Sketch Saturday, a nice easy one, and luckily I had this little image painted and ready to use, he does have a lovely red breast which unfortunately has been tamed down by the flash of the camera!

and finally my snowman is back yet again! These 2 cards are my entry for th Secret Crafter challenge which is Embossing-dry or heat. Without knowing the challenge I thought I would have a go at embossing the image in silver stamped directly onto black card, they have turned out ok. But I have done very little embossing and had quite a few stray speckles of the powders which have spoilt it a bit.I've also been making some snowman soup, but am yet to finish them so will show them at a later time. I think I've given you enough to look at for a couple of days!!

We are getting the christmas decs down tomorrow so doubt I'll get on.

3 challenges

For this card I have used the sketch which is this weeks Lili of the Valley challenge and as it has the scalloped bottom for which I used my decorative scissors this also qualifies for the Dutch Dare challenge which is to use scalloped edges.

and the following card I have made for a friend who is having a baby girl soon, by adding the heart in the top right corner this means I can enter this into this weeks Cute Card Thursday challenge which is 'hearts'. The heart was in a pack of white buttons and bits I bought from a lady at a carboot, I rubbed the top side with micro dots and then sprinkled it with very fine pink mix glitter and boy does it sparkle, sadly this doesn't show in the photo.I am thrilled to be a lucky winner in Katharina's Advent Calendar prize draw, I won day 2's prize which is a Herb and his girlfriend stamp, wow this is gorgeous! What with my new Sugar Nellie's on the way and now this gorgeous stamp it feels like christmas has come early! For more information on Katharina's advent draw and the gorgeous Whiff of Joy stamps see here

Erica has some fabulous blog candy to giveaway on her blog, she started out celebrating 50,000 hits to her blog but now the counter is heading for 52,000 way to go Erica!! For more information see here

My poor little Hollie is poorly again, they said she wasn't really herself at nursery on Tuesday and came out with tears in her eyes, she said her head was hurting. Yesterday she was a lot better and went to nursery and was fine until the middle of the afternoon then she just laid on the settee, when I felt her she was burning hot, her little eyes kept watering and her nose just didn't stop running. This morning she was brighter again and said that she wanted to go to nursery and was ok, but again this afternoon she's gone really hot again and just lays on the sofa close to tears. The paracetamol suspension that the pharmacist gave me seems to work a treat once it's kicked in and she's now playing with her ds with Lillie. I just hope we can shift this before christmas.

Sugar Nellie snow couple

I made this card for my Uncle and his girlfriend, I thought the snow couple looked loved up like they are!!! I'm sure I used a sketch for this card but it's been waiting to be finished off with a sentiment for quite a while so can't remember whose!I couldn't believe I nearly missed the new releases from Sugar Nellie's luckily I saw someone had mentioned it on a post when I was browsing through my dashboard. The new Elisabeth Bell designs are gorgeous, I've been so good and only ordered myself a couple. The new range of stamps by Leanne are also in but although I like them I don't know if I would use them quite so much.

A few days ago I received this lovely award from Amy (Crafty Fingerz) thank you so much Amy I am honourednow I have to pass this onto 5 people, so I am passing this on to Becky, Pootle, Kim, Crafting Diva and Claire

Yet more cards made with tags!

Yes I had a spell of using these christmas tags, the following 3 cards are made using this weeks sketch from Friday Sketchers. I think this teddy tag is so cute I've simply attached him to the front of the card with a brad so he actually swings!!

slightly different colours and gem placement

for the following card I flipped the sketch so the thin layer of paper was accross the bottom, the reindeer is an Anita's sticker as are the little stars, part of a gift for having a letter or card in Quick Cards Made Easy!The next 2 cards are nearly identical to 1 another, the challenge for Cute Card Thursdays was to make a lilac card, the snowmen are tags which I simply stuck a pompom on to the top of the hat to cover the hole where the string was! The paper was a download which I thought the snowy scene and the rows of trees was perfect, added the organza bow just to soften it a little

this card has exactly the same components just placed differently. 2 of my cousins had little girls back in October so these are for them!

I did make some more cards yesterday but I think this is enough for 1 post, if I get time I will post some more tomorrow.

A Spoon Full of Sugar -challenge 28

Our challenge this week at A Spoon Full of Sugar is to make a card with the theme of "Thank you" we will all be needing to send out some of these after christmas I'm sure!
For my card I have used a Tilda image that I had sent me a long while ago, some papers from last year, sticky ribbon and a couple of silk flowers with a fancy button in the centre (this is so pretty the inside sparkles)
Our prize this week has been kindly donated by Bryony of Silly Monkey Crafts and is a gorgeous Sarah Kay stamp. Check the blog to see the rest of the design team cards which are all wonderful as always.

This is also my entry for the Sketch Saturday challenge as I have used their sketch!