The sun has got it's hat on....

....hip hip hip hooray, the sun has got it's hat on and we're going out to play!!!

Not that I actually like the sun that much, it's nice when it's warm but I don't really like hot! We are off to my cousins little girls christening tomorrow and then having a couple of days at Legoland, can't wait!

So I'm having a bit of a catch up. I meant to post this card earlier as I have used last weeks Sketch Saturday sketch and added bling so it would've covered the Dutch Dare challenge to, but it's too late! I can however enter it for the Cute Card Thursday challenge which is 'bit o' bling' and Papertake weekly who want us to 'scrap this' and use up scraps of dp that we have left over.

This card is for the My Time to Craft challenge which is 'pretty in pink'.

Chaisma Cardz -Go Dotty!

It's time for challenge 21 at Charisma Cardz and Lyndsey chose the theme 'Go Dotty'.
I have used this fun Tilda image I think she looks like she is running to give that flower to someone she's very fond of!! I've used 3 different dotty backing papers and used my coloured pearls that I bought for last weeks challenge as more dots.

A Spoon Full of Sugar -challenge 53

Well what a fantastic birthday week we had last week at A Spoon Full of Sugar and congratulations to the lucky winners. This week we would like to see 'Lace' on your work, and if you don't have any lace you can use a lace effect punch.
I've tried something a bit new for my card, I've seen some lovely cards this shape so all I did was take a square card and used a dinner plate lined up at the corners to draw the curved line and then cut it out!! I think it would've looked a little nicer had I of cut it with decorative scissors but I can do that next time! Our fab prize is 2 Leere Aldrich stamps which have be kindly donated by our sponsor Stampavie.

I am entering this card into the Just Magnolia's 'Let's get in shape' challenge.

CCT & LOTV combi card

Not overly sure if I like this card, it's the circles around the image I think they look a bit odd, but that's how the sketch is over at Lili of the Valley so I thought I would give it a go. I've combined this with the Cute Card Thursday challenge which is called 'a sporting chance' so here's Edwin getting ready for a game of footie!!The weather's lovely here today, we went for a little wander round town this morning, went in all of the charity shops looking for a pale lilac/pink handbag for mum, she's bought her outfit, hat and shoes for my cousins wedding but can't find a handbag, we had no luck either!
It's only the first day of the half term holiday and the girls are driving me nuts already, oh the joys of parenthood!!

Charisma Cardz -Flower, Lace & Pearls challenge

Our Charisma Cardz challenge is Flowers, Lace and Pearls (we would like to see these on your make) and has been set by Sally this week. The naughty lady helped me spend some money lol as I hadn't got any pearls and although I did have lace I wanted some wider, so Sally my purse is a little lighter now!!! We have a fabby 'Build a flower' stamp set which has been kindly donated by MFT (My Favourite Things) for one lucky winner.
Please pop by the blog and join in the fun and to see the beautiful cards from the rest of the team.



I am also entering my card into the Colour Create's 'sky blue/tan/ecru challenge and also into Just Magnolia who have a lovely sketch this week.

A couple of challenge cards.

There is a fabby sketch over at Just Christmas and Birthdays for this weeks challenge, not sure I am entirely happy with my card I think it's the choice of papers, but I wanted to make a bright card! My next card is made using another sketch, this time from Papertake Weekly.
I would also like to enter this as my 'Happy Birthday' card for the lovely Becky's birthday blog candy. Becky is celebrating her 30th birthday tomorrow and has some lovely candy on offer, for more details see here. Don't really think my card has the required 'aww' factor though!!!
The girls got to have their sports day yesterday, we sat there watching the grey clouds circling the skies above, but were so lucky for it to have stayed dry until they had finished. Hollie came 3rd in her nursery race, although she insists she won lol!!! Lillie came 2nd in the sack race and 3rd in the bean bag and bat race. So overall they were both pretty happy! I did take a few piccie's, but they are on my new camera and I've not linked it to my pc yet so can't show any.

A Spoon Full of Sugar's 1st Birthday 'celebrations'

I can hardly believe that A Spoon Full of Sugar has been up and running for a whole year, wow I've been there from the beginning and have and still am thoroughly enjoying being part of such a wonderful and talented team of ladies.

For this weeks very special challenge we would like you to make a 'celebration' card. This can be a Happy Birthday, Anniversary, new baby, anything that deserves to be celebrated!!

As it is the blogs birthday/anniversary I have gone for an anniversary card (possibly for mum and dad next month), I used this layout in blues for hubby's card back in February but thought my Papermania scrumptious papers were perfect especially with the hearts!We have an amazing lot of candy this week, with our lovely sponsors being so generous in helping us with our celebrations. We have wonderful goodies from Whiff of Joy, Whimsy Stamps, Roses on Paper, Nutcrafters and Silly Monkey Crafts. Yes that means there will be 5 lucky winners!!
Please see the website for all links to websites and take a look at the gorgeous cards from the rest of the DT to, oh and we have the lovely Deb and Marlou back as our guest designers, drop bye and say hi!!

I'm a little short on time this morning, it's both my daughters sports day and I've got to dash back to the school. Everything crossed for the rain to hold off but I see grey clouds slowing gliding round the sky!


I would also like to enter this card into the One Stop Craft challenge which is 'pink & brown'.

Catch up time

My pc decided to close itself down on me Friday lunchtime, and I we were at a birthday party yesterday so didn't even switch my pc on. So it's time for a quick card catch up.

First up is my card for Just Christmas and Birthdays as you can see I went for the christmas option, there is a lovely sketch to follow. I adore this snowman image and used him a lot for my cards last year but left him black and white, so I decided to jazzy him up with a bit of colour!! My papers are from my new Papermania Naughty and Nice Christmas pad that I picked up in the sale, the gems are from Poundland and the sticky ribbon from my stash. This card also qualifies for the Secret Crafter challenge 'Glitter' as he sparkles nicely as I have highlighted the snow with glitter glue!This card is again covering 2 challenges well 3 really as I have used the Sketch and Stash sketch, my card has a horse on it for the Papertake Weekly 'Animalia' theme and as my card is suitable for a child this is also going to be my entry for My Time to Craft.and finally, I have once more used the Sketch and Stash sketch (this is so versatile!) and this is my card for the Whiff of Joy 'friendship' challenge. This card is amongst one of my favourites, I think it is so pretty, and the flowers which I originally rejected absolutely make the card so nice. (Hubby brought them home from work for me along with some others which someone had thrown away, the others are rather big and I thought these were too little, that was until I looked at them properly and now wish he'd found more!!!!)Well that's it for crafty makes until I make some more lol!!

As I mentioned yesterday we went to my friends as her youngest son was having his birthday party. It was a carnival feel with games such as hook a duck, knock the cans down, guess how many marbles in the jar, lucky dip, face painting, it was really good. All my friends hubby's idea, he is so good with the children, Lillie and Hollie thoroughly enjoyed themselves and won a couple of prizes.

Today has been a lazy day, well apart from cleaning out the animals which is a task in itself. but Hollie has been in her element giving all the piggies individual cuddles! Here she is with Treacle our oldest piggy who just loves a good cuddle.

Charisma Cardz challenge -A Star is born.

Good morning, it was my turn to set the challenge this week for Charisma Cardz and I chose the theme 'A Star is born' I would simply like to see a or more star(s) on your card or project.
For my card I used one of the older Sugar Nellie images, I think this is Luca, I received the image in a PIF a long while ago. I thought he was just perfect for my card as he had a 'star' on his top and yep he's a 'rock star'!!! More stars with the paper and a couple of green star embellishments to finish off!We are sponsored by the lovely Sally-Ann owner of the new Digi Stamp Boutique again this week and for one lucky winner we have the oh so cute Libby download (shown below). Sally-Ann is also our guest designer. The rest of the design team girls have done a fantastic job with my theme, so why not nip accross to the blog for a peep!?!

A Spoon Full of Sugar -challenge 51

At A Spoon Full of Sugar this week we would like to see 'Buttons' on your work.
Easy for me I love them nearly as much as flowers! My local craft shop sells biggish bags of mixed buttons for £1 so I have several and when we last went to the carboot a lady had loads of pots of different buttons and was selling the buttons for a penny each which are the ones I have used for the flower centre and around the flower. Our prize this week is a fab selection of goodies which have been kindly donated by Scrapopotomus.


I've used the colour combination of 'pink/green/blue' for the Lili of the Valley challenge and I've used the lovely sketch from Whiff of Joy.

Birthday Boy

Hollie is off to her friend Harry's birthday party tomorrow, so I managed to make him a card combining 3 challenges!
I've used the sketch from Sketch and Stash, the 'blue and green' colour combo from Colour Create and also as my card is for a boy it passes for this weeks Cupcake Crafts challenge!Hollie wanted to make a card so she also made one for Harry, he is her favourite at school, she calls him her boyfriend and often comes home and says she kissed him in the playground lol!!! All I did was cut the pieces of paper and told her where to put them, notice the love heart!! Not bad for a 4 1/2 year old heh!?!

Just for you and more to!

Had a productive day today and am very pleased with the results.
Here is my card for the Just Magnolia challenge which is called 'In stitches' this can be real or faux, mine being the latter! I have used the sketch from Sketch Saturday and am also entering this for Stamp Something which is 'pink'.For my next card I have used the sketch from Friday Sketchers and am also entering this for the Secret Crafter challenge which is to use 'brads or eyelets', I've only used the one brad which is in the centre of the flower so I hope it counts! You can't really tell from the piccie but the back layer is actually handmade paper which is very textured and I think it looks fab. I really love this card! I'm also using this card for the Dutch Dare 'Mothers Day' challenge as I certainly think it's nice enough for mum!My last card today is for the Sugar Bowl challenge which is to use the sketch and to also add buttons. I saw the sketch and was a backed away to start with, but after finding the right papers I think it looks ok, not too sure about the flower, but I can always change it as it's only attached with the brad.and finally a little gift box I made to put 2 pairs of earrings in for my step daughter who's 9th birthday is today. This is my entry for My Time to Craft which is 'Anything but a card'. a slightly different angle.That's it, not sure if I'll get any crafting done tomorrow, no idea what we are doing yet!

It finally happened!!

Yes after a couple of weeks of wiggling, poking, prodding and a little bit of worry, my eldest daughter Lillie's first tooth came out!!!! I didn't believe her when she first said her tooth was wiggly, until I reluctantly gave it a wiggle myself! Lillie is a bit of a drama queen so we were expecting the whole process to be a trauma, but she was fine especially after we told her it was her new big tooth pushing out the old one so it could take it's place. I couldn't bare it when she kept asking me to look at it, how weird is that? Friday she came out of school and said "have you noticed anything mum" pulling down her bottom lip to reveal the hole! She was eating an apple at snack time and didn't realise it had come out until she saw it in her hand lol!!! Needless to say it went under her pillow and yes the tooth fairy did visit to which she was very pleased, but couldn't understand how the fairy being tiny could open the little organza bag and swap the tooth for money!! If only she knew that he was 6ft 5" male lol!!!I also wanted to share a couple of other piccies with you which were taken last weekend. It was my home village's church flower festival over the bank hol and my mum and Auntie's do their bit, my mum does the windows in the porch and last year Lillie did a little arrangement to. There is a small seat like hole (we used to sit in it when we were kids) so Lillie made her arrangement to fill the gap! She couldn't wait to do one again this year and get her name on the fliers and parish mag!! The theme this year was magazines, so here it isand then this really tickled me! The girls had been playing in the living room, then it was bath and bed time, I hadn't been in the room until we came down and saw thisYep Troy and Gabriella were enjoying a picnic!! By the looks of things their weather was a lot nicer than ours when we had our picnic at the farm park, all wrapped up in coats!!!

Have a good weekend!

Charisma Cardz -sketch challenge

Our challengne at Charisma Cardz this week is a lovely sketch which has been designed by Vee.
I have used the Sugar Nellie 'Hug a Mug' image, my paper is a download, some sticky ribbon and a few gems.Our prize is the fab Lilly download from Digi-Stamp-Boutique kindly donated by Sally-Ann who is also our guest designer this week!


I have used the red, cream and chocolate colours purposely to enable me to use this as my entry for the Colour Create challenge!

Good Enough to Eat!

Over at Truly Scrumptious there is a fab sketch to work with and the extra challenge to make your work 'good enough to eat'! So today I dug out my BBQ Bella Fella and along with my Dovecraft masculine papers and a decorative corn on the cob button I made this card.

A Spoon Full of Sugar -challenge 50

Our challenge this week at A Spoon Full of Sugar is 'Touchy Feely' we would like to see some texture on your card.
For my card I have used one of my older Sugar Nellie images, the touchy feely parts are the swiss dot embossed panel, flowers and ribbon!

Our prize is a Greeting's Farm stamp 'Geisha Girl' kindly donated by Byrony of Silly Monkey Crafts.

I am entering this card for the 'Old Macdonald's Farm' challenge over at Daring Card Makers and for the sketch challenge at Friday Sketchers.

One of my all time favourites!

Yes I make a lot of cards and actually like quite a lot of them (not all I must admit!) but this card has to be one of my all time favourites. I think it's the colour combo and the sweet image with just the 2 bits coloured yellow to match the rest of the card that does it!
I have combined 3 different challenges with this card to! I've used the sketch from Dutch Dare, the colour combo of 'black, white + one' from My Time to Craft and I think it should pass for the Cupcake Craft challenge of '5 embellisments' as I've used brads/flowers/a button/some raffia and peeloffs!

This next card covers another 2 challenges, I've used the Forever Friends sketch and Papertake Weekly are asking for 'stars and stripes'.My friend Mel has very kindly given me the following award, thanks so much Mel. It's too hard for me to pick my favourite 10 blogs to pass this on to so if you are on my blog list (and there are many of my favourites that aren't) please consider yourself awarded!