Happy New Year!!!!!!

Happy 1st Birthday Charisma Cardz -Blog Hop

We honestly cannot believe that it has been a year since Charisma Cardz went live with our very first challenge. I know we seem to say it a lot recently but boy how time flies!!!
Well we have a special 1st birthday celebration blog hop for our visitors but more about that after I've told you about our challenge!
This weeks challenge, our last for 2009, is 'celebrations' this can be birthday, new year, new baby, christmas lol, anything you like!! Remember it doesn't have to be a card either, a gift, scrapbook page whatever you wish!
I went for the card option!We have some wonderful prizes on offer from a selection of our sponsors, for details of these please see the blog.

Right, onto our blog hop. Now I've never been involved in one of these before so this is very new to me and to some of my fellow design team friends, so forgive us if we make any mistakes!
You should be joining me from Leanne's blog and you should have collected some special words along the hop, which will make up a phrase when you return back to the main blog! We are each offering a small blog candy during the hop for one lucky winner, who will be drawn and announced on the Charisma blog on the 7th January 2010!
Here is my selection of candy which includes a card which doubles as an image folder with a selections of images inside, 120 stick on gems, some rub on sentiments, a brand new 'smirk' stamp, a selection of flowers, a 2010 bookmark calendar and a lipgloss + keyring which I picked up in Next when I got myself one!!
Well onto my special word, we hope you will take part in our birthday challenge and continue to join us with many of our CHALLENGES which we will have each week throughout the year! Thank you so much to everyone who has joined in with our CHALLENGES and made it such a great year!
Now you must hop on over to Sally's blog to continue your journey!
Have fun!
and
***Happy New Year***

A few christmas pics

I have been meaning to post a few christmas pictures on here, well, since christmas!! Tonight when I had a bit of time I am having lots of problems uploading my pictures and keep getting errors, so have only managed to get these 3 on here for now!
Here are Lillie and Hollie on our bed with their christmas sacks that santa left on their beds!They did very well waiting until about 8.30am to get up although Lillie did come in about 6 to tell us that santa had been and left them a sack on the end of their beds!! Which is surprising as she was a complete pain going to bed and didn't go to sleep until 11.40pm after being threatened that there was only 20 minutes left and santa hadn't been yet so they might not get any presents at all!!!!
Then on boxing day we had Matthews daughter join us for 3 days (oh joy!! nough said!) here is a picture of the girls just before bedtime. This will be the picture that will go on their thank you letters.

and here is a photo of the whole family! We had spent the morning bargain hunting in the sales (yes on boxing day!) and then went to my mum and dads for lunch and the rest of the day, along with my sister and her family and in the evening mums sisters, brother and their other halves all joined us to. We had a little photo shoot when we got home!! Surprisingly we got a couple of really nice pictures!

We are having a really nice time, hubby has been off work since Hollie's birthday last Wednesday and doesn't go back until Monday. We've been so busy, sale shopping and decorating!! Yes the girls have shared a bedroom up until now and we felt it was time they had their own rooms. So we went and had paint mixed up and yesterday Matthew and I painted a very bright pink room for Hollie, she has a disney princess themed room and she has moved in tonight!! Lillie is having a sleepover in Hollie's new room as we have painted her room today and the fumes are a bit strong. Her room is a bright pinky/purple and tomorrow when everything is put back in it's place will have a Hannah Montana theme!!

Tomorrow we are off to do a bit more shopping!! Trying to get some pinking sheers, as our next task is to make some bunting to decorate the hall with for the girls party in a couple of weeks time!

JOANNE X

My baby girl is/was 5 today!

Yes 5 years ago I was stuck in hospital wishing I could've gone home, desperately not wanting to be kept in over christmas! Yes my baby girl was born, such a sweet little bundle!! We were allowed to go home just before lunch on christmas eve much to my joy at being 'released'!!
Here she is now the ripe old age of 5 (going on 15!!!) she is one stubborn little sod, she can be such a sweet little girl, and the devil appears!!!we went to the pub this evening for a meal with my parents and sister and her family and our uncle, it's been a yearly ritual for the past several years!! Really to celebrate my dad's birthday which it is tomorrow, but we go on Hollie's birthday as we don't want to eat too many big meals in a row!
She was really happy with her Peppa Pig cake!

blowing out the candles with the help of cousin Ethan!

I am full of cold and feeling crappy at the moment, it's all in my eyes, front of head and nose, I could cry at the drop of a hat. I just hope I can dose myself up enough to feel ok on christmas day!

I would like to wish all of my friends and anyone reading this post a Very Merry Christmas.

We've been baking!

Weather permitting, my friend and her boys should be coming over for lunch tomorrow. So we thought we would do a little party buffet, we bought some bits from morrisons and today we made some scones, mince pies and I have chocolate brandy gnache chilling in the freezer ready to be turned into truffles just for us adults!! I will make chocolate covered honeycomb for the children in the morning!
When getting out the christmas decorations we found a couple of baking sets which I had bought as presents in the sales. Having since bought presents for the once recipients of the sets, I gave them to the girls as an early present, not that they behave enough to have really deserved them!
Here is Hollie mixing her fruit scones >and the results!

Here is Lillie mixing her cheese scones >

and the results!

They make far better scones than I do, for some reason mine usually turn out like biscuits!!

Snow and christingle pics

It started snowing here yesterday, we had a few tiny flakes when we came out of church after the christingle service, but it didn't start really snowing until tea time. Here is a picture of the girls just before our walk to school. There were 79 schools in our area but the girls school and the one I work at (although I am off) were still open!We've had quite a bit of snow on and off during the day, I took this picture of our table and chairs this afternoon! I had a call from the school saying they were officially closing at 1.15pm and that I could pick the girls up at anytime, I got my hat out of the car boot and shutting the boot knocked the build up of snow off, it is now re-covered and still lightly snowing,who knows what the morning will bring!

This picture is of my girls posing with their christingles in front of our christmas tree. I can never take a nice picture of the tree, you know with the lights nicely glowing which is a shame.

and my last picture is of Hollie with the table decoration that I helped her make at school. It had lost a few laurel leaves and a couple of silver stars by the time I picked her up, but I think she/we did an ok job with what we had to use!!

Take care in the snow.

Chairsma Cardz -non christmas

Our new Charisma Cardz challenge is 'non christmas' thinking it was time to have a break from the christmas theme, so you can make anything birthday, love, new year, congratulations etc.
Well ~I had to look through my files as my wrist is still restricting me a bit and I've not really felt or had the time to be crafty the past few days. Luckily I have a few cards that I not shown yet, this being one of them!
I will either give it to hubby for our anniversary in February or as a just because (I love you) card (I used to send him cards 'just because' before we got married!)For prize details and to see the design team creations please drop by at the blog.
There is also a Design Team call if you are interested!?

Being off of work meant that today I could go to the christingle service that both my girls were attending with their classes. It was quite nice, and I was surprised when Lillie got up in front of the congregation and read out out a prayer, she hadn't told us about it!! She did very well!
I then went into Hollie's class and helped the children make table decorations, left handed cutting of the greenery was fun! I will show pictures later when we get them home, also with their christingles if they haven't already eaten the treats off of them lol!

Lillie's nativity pics and ooppss I dinged the car!

Today was Lillie's classes nativity, here she is 2nd from the left. The song they were singing is called 'donkey plodding' and here they are doing the donkey ears!!here she is with daddy!

and a picture in her angel costume.

The play was better than we had thought, usually the angels (who are angels as there were no parts left) just join in the singing, but this time they did a bit on the stage! Last year they just sang carols and Lillie was stuck behind someone so we couldn't see her!

As I mentioned last night I dinged the car! Lillie had her ballet/tap exams we should be at the hall (20-25mins trip) an hour before exam time incase the examiner is running early SHE HAS NEVER RUN EARLY since we've been going! Anyway we get there almost ready to park the car and oh my god realize we have no ballet clothes, I asked Lillie to put them on but she insisted on changing when she got there! We then had to head home to pick them up. Once collected she quickly changed in the car. Only for me to hit the car in front of us in town, we hadn't even left our home town, this was certainly one delay I DIDN'T NEED!! After frantic phonecalls and swapped details I still proceeded to the exam. Lillie phoned her friend to tell her she would no way make the tap exam, but should be there in time for the ballet one. Yep she missed the tap exam and literally had time to have her hair done and shoes put on and she was downstairs lining up to go into the hall. The woman was running an HOUR EARLY!!! Still they came up the stairs saying "that was fun" which was good to hear! Shame it turned out to be one hellishly expensive exam. Ah well these things happen I guess, at least it was only a little bump and it could've been a lot worse. I think I have sprained my wrist from gripping onto the stearing wheel so tightly, it hurts to turn it a little bit too far either way, but it seems to have eased a bit as the day has gone on. I have been given the rest of the week off of work as I explained I wouldn't be able to do everything that I normally do and would be slower, and my boss was off sick so they said they would get cover in as they could do with someone who was 100% which is understandable with 3 busy days of dinners.

Well it now means I can go to the christingle service with Hollie and her class and also go in and help her make a christmas table decoration, allbeit lefthanded!!

A Spoon Full of Sugar -challenge 82

Good morning, it's time for a new A Spoon Full of Sugar challenge and this week we have the following sketch for you which has been designed by Nikki.We were lucky enough to be sent one of the new release Wags n Whiskers stamps from Nikki to use especially for this challenge.

We are sponsored by Wags n Whiskers and Lacey Stephens the co-owner has not only joined us this week as our guest designer, but has also kindly donated the prize of any 2 Wags n Whiskers stamps for the lucky winner!

We also have a new design team member Coco, please drop by at the blog to see all of the gorgeous WnW's cards.

This challenge will run until we come back after christmas on the 6th January 2010!

My baby girls nativity

Yes it was Hollie's class nativity this morning, bless her she was a bit nervous and instead of chewing on her clothes which she does a lot (we get through cardigans like I don't know what!) she chewed her fingers instead! She was 'Angel Gabrielle' and had been practising her lines for days, but when you are on a stage in front of a hall full of parents and grandparents and a microphone thrust in your hand it's a bit daunting, so she needed a little prompting with her words, but she managed pretty well. I just couldn't get over how tall she looked on the stage! I honestly thought she was standing on something! Hopefully she will be tall like daddy and not short and chunky like me!
I thought I would share a few piccies of her with you.
Here she is doing her speaking part.My beautiful girl!!!

and one last piccie of her in her out-fit, how angelic (if only she were lol!!!)I can't believe my baby girl turns 5 next Wednesday, where does the time go?

We have Lillie's school play on Wednesday but she doesn't have a part as such, she is an angel, as are all of the rest of the class who didn't get a main role!!

We have to go for ballet and tap rehearsals tonight after school, as Lillie has a ballet exam tomorrow and also a tap rosette exam!! She's giving up tap after christmas, she doesn't seem to enjoy it as much as the ballet. It'll save us a few pennies if nothing else!

A few challenges conquered!!

Time is rapidly running out and there is still so much to do so that we are ready for birthday and christmas! So I'm afraid I have very little time to craft, just snatch the odd moment here and there and when I find a sketch or lots of challenges that I can combine that's great!
This first card covers 4 challenges:
1) One Stop Craft = Christmas love (thought this couple fitted the bill perfectly!)
2) Just Magnolia = It's christmas.
3) Papertake Weekly = Red & Green shouldn't be seen!
4) Create4Fun = easel card (my fave!).

and my next project covers 3 challenges, should've been 4 but I forgot the glitter for the WOJ challenge so can't add that!

1) Project Tuesday = A gift bag (this is one of my fave bag-a-lopes!).

2) Cute Card Thursday = Sew beady (beads and charm at the bottom of the image).

3) Secret Crafter = Snow (what better than a snowman!?). I thought this bag would be perfect for the keyring that I have ordered for my mum and dad to put on their keys. I went a bit mad on the tesco photo department website, ordering jute bags with pictures of the girls on for myself and the 2 mums, photo's, 1 of which is poster sized!! Keyrings, a purse, I just couldn't resist, now I can't wait until Saturday to see them!!!

I would also like to enter these into the current Simon Says Stamp challenge which is christmas.

Charisma Cardz - new challenge

Our new Charisma Cardz challenge was chosen by Carly this week and she has chosen a colour combination of 'Red/Green/Silver(white).
I have used my super WOJ image, I so love this and wish I had ordered some more! I used a silver pen to decorate the tree, her colour, tights and smashing silver shoes (I nearly got a pair of silver shoes last time I went shopping!!). The ribbon is the wired variety that I helped myself to off of hubby's stall when he did the christmas fayre last week!!!To see the rest of the girls wonderful examples and for prize details please pop by at the blog.

I'm already at work, I had to schedule my post this morning. It christmas dinner today and we have over 300 dinners to do, so it's all hands on deck and we are in for one busy morning!!!

Wow wee........ so excited!

Imagine my shock to visit Project Tuesday for this weeks challenge, to see my gingerbread couple easel card on the blog!! Each week they choose and entrant to feature and this time it was ME!!!! I am thrilled that my card was liked so much!! Thank you ladies!Back tomorow for the new Charisma Cardz challenge.

A Spoon Full of Sugar -challenge 81

Good morning, it was my turn to choose the challenge this week at A Spoon Full of Sugar so it was panic, panic, think, think, panic for me lol!! In the end I chose 'monochrome' not just black and white but all shades of the same colour.
I chose this theme as I knew exactly what stamp I was going to use, as he is my fave for christmas cards and so easy to colour, well glitter!!! I used a sketch that I have used in the past, but can't remember from where, so my card literally took minutes to make, it took longer for the glitter glue to dry (which doesn't really show up in the photo)!!It was also my turn to choose the Guest Designer and I was delighted when Kellie Winnell accepted, I absolutely love Kellie's work she is one talented lady that's for sure!
We are sponsored by Bunny Zoe Crafts this week and Nikki has very kindly donated the very cute Sweet Message set from The Greeting Farm for one lucky winner. Nikki also has a christmas sale on at the moment so if you want to bag a bargain you'd best visit her store fast!!
So what you waiting for let's see your monochromatic creations and don't forget to check out the blog if you need any inspiration!

A couple more cards

Here is a double challenge card, I have used the sketch from Sweet Sketch Wednesday and as I have made it into an easel style card I can also enter it for Project Tuesday!

the view from the side.

The sweet gingerbread couple, rolling pin and greeting stickers are all from Poundland which I bought at least a year ago!!
My 2nd card is for the Papertake Weekly challenge for which I have followed their sketch, but I have turned it 90%.

We have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow, we have a trip up the loft to bring all of the christmas decorations down, and that means boxes and boxes of them!! It takes us best part of the day, but we have got to clear away all of the girls toys from last christmas and birthday which we have in the room as that is where the tree goes, and we have to make room for the next lot uugghh!!!!!!!

Doubt I'll get anything more posted over the weekend, so have a good one!!

A couple more christmas challenge cards

Woo hoo... another 3 cards made today, still don't think I'll have anywhere near enough for what I need, and did actually buy some the other week as a last resort (naughty me!).

Well at the weekend we are off to Jimmy's Farm, hubby and I went to the harvest festival, where my fantasy husband James (piccie on the right) was cooking. Sadly he won't be there this visit although there are a couple of other chefs doing demo's. We are taking the girls this time as there are all sorts of things for them to join in with like crafts, competitions and of course Father Christmas will be there to! So I thought it was only right to make a card for Jimmy and all the workers! How thrilled was I when I received my friend Mel's christmas card yesterday to find some images inside, and this little piggie was one of them. Anyone who knows Jimmy Doherty and about his farm will know that he is a rare breeds pig farmer, and this image was just perfect for my card! I used a tartan paper for the top and the paper does have holly and berries on it. I felt that it wasn't christmassy enough so added the eyelet with the christmas tree charm and made with love charm and a few red gems to bling it up a bit! I printed the sentiment on my pc.
I have used the sketch from the One Stop Craft challenge this week.My second card is made using my faberoonie new WOJ stamp which arrived yesterday and was inked immediately!! Now I'm not at all sure about the sponged background and think I might just stick to doing sky type sponging in future, but I guess it looks a bit different lol!! I have used the Friday Sketchers sketch for this card and would also like to enter it for the Secret Crafter challenge which is 'christmas trees'.

As I have used the colours Red and Green on both cards I would like to enter both (not sure if you can) into the Cupcake Crafts challenge which is to use this colour combo.