Cards and gifts

These are some of the quick little cards I made to go in with the cards that I had made to go off to Great Ormond Street. I wanted to not only send a card for the child to write and give out, but also give them a card, these are 8.5 x 14.5 cm's I cut them to fit envelopes that I already hadthe cute toppers are actually half of a gift tag, I just cut the back bit that you write on off!! Then with the piece of card I cut off I made simple little little bookmarks to go inside the cards, so a little gift to! My auntie has just had a knee operation (a whole new knee) so I made this card for hershe's a qualified flower arranging demonstrator, so the flowers were perfect, they are 3d'd, I've actually had it made up for ages but never found the right way to use it, until then! After seeing Rach's wonderful gift bags I just had to have a go, this was my first attempt it has 5 cherry liquers chocolates inside (my all time favourites! actually out of a box I hadn't opened from my birthday, now I'm just going to have to finish them off!!), my auntie loved the card and didn't want to spoil the bag by opening it!

We had a major move around in our living room yesterday ready for the christmas tree etc to go up next weekend. We threw out a dustbin bag and carrier bag of old toys, cuddly's etc and a lot of the others have now been moved into the new playroom upstairs, only leaving a few bits for the girls to play with before all of the new things they will be getting for christmas. The room looks much nicer, looking forward to getting the tree up now.
Right must get the girls in the bath then find the advent calendars, we have material ones that you fill yourself and we've not even got them down from the loft yet!! So cannot believe tomorrow is the start of December, help!!

Cover Girls!!!

Never did I ever think I would be a cover girl!! But this morning when I opened up my Quick Cards Made Easy mag that postie had delivered I couldn't believe my eyes!!! I was whooping and dancing round the kitchen, the girls and hubby were wondering what was going on! This is the front cover of my magyep that's me, Lillie and Hollie bottom right hand corner! Then the picture is also on the contents page!

then again with the actual Readers Feature! Also featured are top left is Kerry (Angelswings) and top right Lisa (Crafting Diva) well done girls!and a close up of my entry! Can you believe this wasn't it!? Going through the rest of the magazine I saw myself on the letters page to! First letter! I sent in the tip about buying artificle flowers and taking the heads off to use on your cards as a cheaper option to buying Prima's etc!

Fingers crossed now to be in next months as one of the winners in another couple of competitions I've entered through the magazine!!

Yesterday I went into the hairdressers really rather blonde and came out very dark with blonde and red chunky stripes through the top! I'm still getting used to it, he girls like it and hubby said it's the best it's looked for ages which was a surprise, I didn't think he would like it as he likes the blonde, my few stripes must be enough!

Another award

I've been lucky enough to receive another lovely award, I have 2 of my A Spoon Full of Sugar design team friends to thank for this one, so thank you so much to Debbie and Michelle, I am truly honoured that you would think to pass this on to me :0)

This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships!These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

Normally I just say if you would like the award just take it and I know that most blogs I visit have already received this award, sometimes more than once, but this time I thought that I WOULD pass it on to 8 people as requested, so here goes : Mandy, Becky, Cathy, Katharina, Tara, Nikki, Claudia-Rosa and Sally-Ann

P.S. If anyone see's my mojo can you send it back home please, as it seems to have gotten up and gone, again!

A Spoon Full of Sugar -challenge 27

Our challenge this week at A Spoon Full of Sugar is to use a sketch which has been designed by our very own Michellefor my card I used my Sugar Nellie image (jingle bells I think) can you believe I had a set of nestabilities for my birthday a month ago and still haven't opened the packet?! I used the inside of my roll of DST to get the circle shape then cut it out with scissors, the coloured layered I used my circle cutter which I've had for ages!here you can see a close-up of the tiny bells I added over the top of the stamped ones, and the tree and envelope charms We have a lovely Whiff of Joy stamp -Teenage Lizzie kindly donated by Katharina as this weeks prize (I want it myself Lol.!)
I am sure you are going to enjoy using the sketch, and if you need any inspiration go take a look at the rest of the girls cards, they are all fantastic!

Saucy Santa!!!

I have had this decoupage saucy santa made up since last christmas and thought it was about time I used it Lol.! So with this weeks Secret Crafter challenge being 'decoupage' what could be better. The actual card is very basic but I think it looks ok. I have sent it in to Quick Cards Made Easy to wish them a happy christmas, hopefully raise a smile, and with any luck it will be liked enough to win me £100 worth of Paper Cellar goodies (we can only hope!)
When we looked out of the window yesterday morning to see if we had had any of the snow that had been forecast we were a little disappointed to see we had only the tiniest little patches. Mind you we were pleased as we had planned to take the girls to Baytree Nursery to see Father Christmas and then have a wander around the outlet shopping centre in Spalding. Well whilst eating breakfast the snow started and came down quite quickly, we gathered the hats, scarves, winter coats and set off. We thought about turning back as it was settling on the roads and when pulling off from traffic lights we had no grip, but Matthew decided he would keep going, this is the view from the window halfway there this was the worst place though once through it it got clearer and the weather started to brighten up. Here is a picture of Lillie and Hollie with the snowman displayand with Father Christmas and a couple of his reindeerwith 'the' Father Christmas (they know he isn't the 'real' Father Christmas they say he is one of his helpers as the 'real' one is so busy getting ready for christmas eve!)the pressies actually come down the chimney!! They also receive a small christmas tree each which you can see Lillie holding.
There are also real reindeer outside, this one was fabulous he actually posed for the pictures!!
I have to thank Angelswings, Craftymumof3 and Crafting Diva as each of them 'tagged' me

thanks ladies, not sure that you will want to know 7 facts about me but here goes
1) I've been on the Richard and Judy show via phone link!! and the following day on the Scottish News!!
2) I got married at Gretna Green on 20-02-2002 (the date is a pallindrome and a date like this won't be around again for hundreds of years!) So a very special day!
3) I wish I could play the piano
4) My favourite chocolates are M&S cherry liquers mmmmm...... delicious!!
5) I am the oldest of 7 grandchildren
6) I am a hoarder and never seem to have enough room!
7) I used to star in the village pantomine's for years until I started High School then it wasn't cool!

I should now tag 7 people but almost everyone whose blog I visit has already been tagged! So if you haven't been consider yourself tagged.

and finally, I received this lovely PIF from Cathy last week, the card is just gorgeous as are the images

so now it's my turn again. So the first 3 people to comment on this post will receive a PIF candy from myself. You need to have a blog to take part as you will then in turn have to offer PIF candy to the first 3 people to comment on your blog.

A card for Ellie (and Ethan!)

Cathy's daughter Ellie is going into hospital to have her tonsils removed soon, and it's also a week before her birthday bless her. Cathy has asked if we would make Ellie a card to cheer her up during her overnight stay in hospital. How could we refuse?
So I have made a spring card and added the very pretty Nellie with crochet hat and scarf image from Sugar Nellies, a few blingy gems and both a Get Well Soon and Happy Birthday greeting. 2 cards in 1, I hope she Ellie likes it!Yesterday whilst going through my bags (oh how I need some better storage) I came accross some letter and number templates that I ordered from a magazine, it was a great offer as you only had to pay the postage. So I thought I would set myself a challenge and see what I could come up with using Ethan's (nephew who's birthday it is on Sunday) name. First of all I found out what colour his bedroom was, lime green, orange, blue, then had the task of finding papers in those colours! Then cut out the letters drew around them in black ink and set to work.
Here is the finished articleit's A4 in size folded length ways so it is long and thin, the E H and N are all raised up on foam pads to give a bit of dimension, they also have a thin blue ribbon wrapped around parts of them. I had originally laid it all out with clusters of buttons but wasn't happy with it and when I showed Matthew he said it was very girly. Mmmmm.... what to do! Then I remembered I had some holographic dinosaur stickers so as you can see I added quite a few of these as if they are having a roam around!
At the moment it is a card, but when the cards come down, I will attach double sided tape to the inside so it can be stuck together for a bit of strength, then punch a couple of holes at the top, may even use my Big Bite I got for my birthday (used it once so far!) and put a couple of eyelets in. Add so blue ribbon or even string for a rustic look so Ethan can either hang it on his bedroom door or hang it on the wall inside his room.

Blog candies

Anita is celebrating her blogoversary and reaching and passing 25,000 hits to her blog with some extra scrummy candy. See here for details.

Debbie is started out celebrating 10,000 hits to her blog, then it changed to 12,000 and now when I looked it's 14,660!!! Wow how's that for good going? Debbie has the most gorgeous candy up for grabs here

Ruby is celebrating getting and passing her 1,000 visitor to her blog with a fabulous selection of candy, and she also has 4 runners up prizes to! See here

Denise has set up her own stamp business called Whimsey's Design Stamps, and is celebrating the launch by giving 3 lucky winners a stamp each. Take a look here to be in with a chance of winning.

Lacey is not only celebrating her birthday but also passing 30,000 hits to her blog, she has some fab candy to give away, go take a look here and check out the cute card her daughter has made!

Now off to watch the jungle!

A Whiff of snow!

The title of todays post is a combination of a couple of challenge cards I have made! The challenge over at Papertake Weekly is 'Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow' so I have used a 3d snowman sticker that I got from Poundland last year! I have also used the sketch from Just Christmas and Birthday Cards so 2 challenges with 1 card, I just love the shine of the ribbon (I used to make a lot of bows like this when I did catering, bigger of course) and the papers go with the image perfectly! I will add the recipients name to the bottom right of the card when I decide who it is going to be for as I think it is a little bare. my second card is for the Whiff of Joy challenge (hence the whiff!) this week there is a fab sketch to use. I have held off painting this beautiful image for fear of spoiling her, I'm not really happy with it although I think it looks ok, just wish I could shade! She is so elegant, so graceful

and my last card for today is for my nephew who will be 6 on Sunday, he is into Ben 10 at the moment so when I printed off the picture to make the card for my friends son last month I printed extras for this card. I've made another DL sized card which is perfect as the image is tall and slim, I printed 2 copies, then cut them out, glued one flat onto the dp and then added the 2d image using foam pads. I didn't want to turn the text on it's side so it fitted onto the card, so I made a feature of it and added it accross the top corners on a foam pad, think it looks ok, will just need a bigger envelope!!
Well no jungle to watch tonight because of the blasted football gggrrrr..... but must get my place on the settee for the Dirty Dancing final (come on James!) followed by Desperate Housewives!

Oh and talking of 'snow' earlier, we have been forecast to get some Friday/Saturday!

A Spoon Full of Sugar -challenge 26

Our challenge at A Spoon Full of Sugar this week is called 'Blooming Marvelous' you could use a stamped image of flowers or with flowers on, or flowered paper or add flowers to your card anything you wish.
I have used an image that I received in a swap, I think it's a Pink Petticoat image and not a stamped image but I am sure that is fine! Unfortunately the outlines run a little in places which has spoilt it a bit, but I have lacked enthusiasm for painting images the past fews days so had to go with it. After colouring the image with my pearl paints, which are shimmering nicely, I attached prima flowers over the top of the ones on the images and added a small gem to the centres. Then added various sized and coloured flowers from the same set and a few buttons, the sentiment is a rub on.

a close up of the flowers added to the dress!This weeks prize is 2 lovely stamps which have kindly been donated by our new sponsors Alota Rubber Stamps.

I am also entering my card in for another couple of challenges, I followed the sketch from Sketch Saturday and seeing that I've used buttons I can enter it for the Secret Crafter challenge which is called 'Cute as a Button'.

A nice surprise!

Nice it was actually lovely! When I went to see what post we had this morning I found a large padded envelope with Origin Publishing on the front woo.. hoo.. I thought, obviously some goodies, but what for? This is what was inside : Jolly Nations shrinkies, tea bag folding book, page of Paper Cellar stick ons, Cute Companions stamp sets - Deck the Halls and Wish Upon a Star and Christmas Collection cd

so so excited with these, who wouldn't be receiving free stamps??Now it says these were sent as a thank you for my card appearing in the readers gallery of issue 28 of Beautiful Cards, this isn't a magazine I buy very often and cannot for the life of me remember what card(s) I sent in, if you happen to have this magazine could you please let me know which is was then I may just go out and buy one!!

Well thankfully I managed to escape the lurgy although I've had a headache all day but no sickness or ...... you know! Lillie was better again by Friday afternoon, but we had Matthew off to on Friday! Think he had just convinced himself he was going to get it to, you know what men are like!? But he works himself to exaustion then gets a really bad headache which makes him sick and a day in bed or resting usually cures it. He was feeling a lot better yesterday and helped me paint our old room which will be a play room/guest room soon. We got a third of the way round and I looked at the walls and hated it, I hated the colour it was too dark, we finished the room and I couldn't bare it. So off we went to town for a tin of Magnolia!!! Got home went to the room and said "it's dried lighter mmm.... it's not as bad as it was" the decision to make was do we do another coat of this colour or 2 coats of the magnolia? We stuck with the first colour, think we can live with it, hoping with the furniture back and a few pictures up it will look ok. Just got the glossing to do now.

I got Lillie to ask for last weeks homework that she missed, so that she could catch up. They had to dress up a picture of Pudsey Bear, give him an outfit! So here is the finished article, she added sequins to the bandana, made trouser legs out of the paper I had been using for a card and cut out a top (a girls!) from the Sunday magazine, what a dude!!!

Here is the card I was making at the time, it's one my friend Kay asked for for someone who is leaving work this week. She doesn't know the reason but there is a running joke about Smurfs so she wanted one on the front! Thank goodness for Google!!!

she also asked for a Norwich City football card last week, I used the Papertake Weekly sketch again, this time I re-attached the corners that I had cut off of the patterned layer onto the corner of the plain layer. I was pleased with the finished result and Kay loved it!

I'm off to a chocoholics party later, never been to one, but have been told it's not expensive and there will be lots of christmassy bits, so fingers crossed it will be ok. Not that we need chocolate of course!

Spoke too soon!

It had to happen didn't it? Yes Lillie came into my bedroom 7am this morning saying that her tummy really hurt, I told her to get the bowl that Hollie had had Monday evening, and within minutes she was being sick. Hollie went to nursery and although the school is minutes up the road I had to take the car as Lillie wouldn't have made it on foot, bless her she sat with the bowl on her knee and told me I had to drive slow as I was going too fast and making her tummy hurt! All she has had are sips of water all day, and this afternoon she has been constantly on and off the toilet, crying that it hurts, I am waiting a call back from the doctors to see if there is anything they can prescribe or suggest I do. Lillie is always the illest of the 2, Hollie just sort of takes it in her stride. Been told to make sure she drinks, she can have calpol and to use sudocream crossing everything that this does the trick.
Not a lot of creating done by me today, I have made a card that my friend asked for but haven't loaded it up yet.
So thought I would leave you with a very simple altered picture frame that I did a couple of weeks ago. The frame is a suedette material and there were a couple of black marks on the top left corner, so I simply attached 2 orchid flowers to cover this up and another to the bottom right corner just to balance it up a bit. I received this pack of flowers as a gift for appearing in one of the craft magazines, me being me couldn't use them on a card they were far too pretty Lol.! So they are now gracing the front of my picture frame with a piccie of the girls on my bedside cabinet!! The flowers although orchids were a great match for the gladioli the girls are standing with!

BLOG CANDY ALERT

Elaine is celebrating her 40th birthday on the 15th of the month, and is giving away some fab candy, oh how I would love to win this one, something that I desperately want. Take a look here for more details.

Claudia Rosa (Pretty Pressings) is celebrating her blogoversary with the most wonderful blog candy, there are 4 chances to win and each of the prizes is just fab! Claudia's case is amazing! Take a look here

Christmas Bella

Papertake Weekly have got a great sketch for this weeks challenge, I have used my christmas bella image, watercoloured her and added 3d snow writer for the fir on her hat and boots, all finished off with a few gems.Hollie went back to nursery today after having the day off yesterday. Monday I headed off to bed at about midnight as I reached the top of the stairs there was a whiff of sick! Poor Hollie was laying in a pile of sick, they normal cry and scream the place down but not this time. The smell as I walked in the door was horrendous, bless her I had to wake her up, strip her, her bed and give her a shower! Luckily Matthew was home from darts in time to help me. I was going to keep her off again today but she had been fine during the day and hadn't been ill overnight, she said she wanted to go so I sent her in. When we picked Lillie up she came home with a letter saying gastroenteritus (sp?) was going around, fingers crossed it will miss Lillie and Hollie had the mildest of cases.

Snowmen

2 more challenge cards today (made another but will show that tomorrow)
This first card is for Stamp Something whose challenge is 'simple somethings' you were only allowed to use 1 layer of card! I haven't even used that, I have stamped my serendipity snowman from Joanna Sheen straight onto the card itself, highlighted him with lots of glitter, added Anita's ribbon and some sticky gems, card done! staying with my snowmen (this wasn't done intentionally) here is my card for Friday Sketchers. I chose blues instead of the traditional reds and greens and instead of adding a flower I punched 2 1.5"circles ripped 1 to make it a bit smaller and added a fancy button in the middle. I have used 3d snow writer for the snowmans pompom on his hat (image sent by Trina) and the snowflakes and added a little accross the bottom of the image.

Both of these cards also qualify for this weeks My Time to Craft challenge which is, would you believe 'snowmen' and no I didn't know this before I made the cards for a change!!

BLOG CANDY ALERT

The very talented Fran is celebrating her blogoversary and passing 55,000 hits to her blog with the most fabulous blog candy, take a look here.