Happy New Year.... 2011

The countdown has begun

I would like to wish everyone a wonderful New Year, Happy 2011 to all

Merry Christmas everyone

I know it's a bit late, but I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, I hope that you are having a wonderful day.  We've had my parents here since just before christmas which is lovely.  Unfortunately I have I have now gone down with the girls cold/virus so am feeling a bit pants!  Getting no sympathy from hubs as I haven't been given him any as he has it to!

Chairsma Cardz - Pearls and Lace

Good Christmas eve eve!  Apologies for my lateness in this post, it's been a bit of a busy morning, wrapping and sorting pressies etc and most importantly my baby girls 6th birthday!

 It's time for a new Charisma Cardz challenge and our last for 2010, the theme is 'pearls and lace'.

For my card I have used the '2 turtle doves' pre-coloured image which is part of the 'twelve days of christmas' images that the fab Beccy has drawn, see HERE for more wonderful images.

We have 3 fabulous sponsors which means 3 lucky winners, for all details of prizes please check out the blog.

Chairsma Cardz - New Year Celebrations

Good morning, my turn to set the challenge at Charisma Cardz and I have chosen New Year Celebrations.  Thought it would be a good idea to get something made in advance, I know myself I won't have much if any time for crafting over the festive period, I must admit I kind of cheated for this challenge!!  It was very last minute, in fact I got it finished at 10.30pm tonight!!  It's a very simple printed calendar page from a program I had with my camera years ago, I've once again used my musing and the picture it was drawn from, layered it twice on co-ordinating card and heh presto one calendar!

We have 2 fab sponsors this week which means 2 fab prizes, for details please check out the blog.

The girls have done much better examples for this challenge, so don't forget to check them out!

I've had a mad few days what with ballet all weekend, madly baking before work, then work, straight onto school to see Hollie's nativity, yesterday was the carol services for Lillie's year and then shopping straight after that!  This is my first 'normal-ish' day, thank goodness!!  I still have to write almost all of my christmas cards, and must do some ironing as I am running out of clothes to wear lol!!!  and then there's the mountain of wrapping that needs to be done!

Heh ho we might get there before christmas day!

It's SHOW TIME!!

Well the time has finally arrived for the ballet show!  After months of lessons, extra lessons, rehearsals, full dress rehearsal today etc the big day has finally arrived! 
We cannot believe it was less than 2 years ago that we were doing it for the first time, but we only had Lillie taking part, now it's both girls, which is better for us as it means they 'appear' on stage more!!
Lillie is part of 3 dances and Hollie in 2 dances, I totally up the time they 'appear' and it's approximately 10 minutes in total lol!!
I thought I would share a few pictures of the girls in their costumes which I took at Tuesday evenings lesson in their costumes.
First up is Lillie in her sparkly number!  Funny how all the girls like this one!

Here we have Hollie as a 'flower' as part of the garden party

which is where Lillie is a waiter!

 and then there is the picnic dance, Lillie is part of a family who are out in the park for a picnic

 when along come the naughty 'teddy bears' who see the picnics and decide to help themselves to the families food whilst they are off playing!!!

 I think this piccie is really cute, it's when Hollie is a hungry bear and spots the yummy picnic!  (Well imaginary picnic at the time lol!!)

 Fingers crossed it will all go well, they have 2 performances to do, so we are expecting very tired children at school on Monday lol!!  I can't wait until tomorrow evening when we can sigh a big sigh of relief that it's all over and we can get back to some sort of normality!

Finally here are the good luck cards that I made for the girls using the fab musing that SJ drew for me.

2 weeks til Christmas aarrghhh!!

Here I am with a couple of cards, first up is a card that I am entering into the Daring Card Makers 'snow much fun' challenge.  I have made this for my step-daughter who is spending christmas in Portugal (at her aunties), I am going to pop a candy cane mouse inside and tell her not to open it on christmas day, so she gets a surprise with the piccie of her and her 1/2 sisters and also a little treat!!

 Next up is my card for the Meljen challenge = red, green & gold.  I have used the wonderful musing of my daughters which I comissioned SJ (SJ's Little Musings) to draw for me.  As any one who reads my blog regularly will know I absolutely love SJ's images and use them loads, so just had to have a personal one done!  The image is of Lillie and Hollie doing a ballet pose!  They have their big show tomorrow, 2 performances, they are at their dress rehearsal as I type!!  I left my baby in tears bless her, I think she is a little worried about it all, and me stressing whilst getting organized doesn't help matters!  The girls are going to give this card to their ballet teacher, each year I make a ballet themed christmas card, this year it has that 'personal' touch!!

 This is one of the photo's that I emailed SJ to work her wonders from!  I have also put a copy of this inside their teachers card so that she realizes it's them on the front!!

Chairsma Cardz - A christmas gift

Good morning, it's all frosty again this morning.  We were up and about earlier this morning, getting organized for a day of madness lol!  My eldest is off to a museum to see what christmas was like in Victorian times, she's all dressed up in long skirt, top, apron, shawl and bonnet!!  Hollie has her christmas party this afternoon and we have 350+ christmas lunches to do today OMG it's going to be crazy!!!
Anyhow onto the new Charisma Cardz challenge and this week is a 'christmas gift' bag, box, envelope etc.
Now I misread the challenge and posted a christmas 'gift' but was told it was ok, thankfully as things have been a bit mad these past few days and I've not had a minute to make anything.
So here are my absolute favoutite makes of the year I think!  Candy Cane Mice!  Aren't they cute?!  I first saw these on Karen's blog, she certainly has some wonderful crafty ideas! 

 I also made some snowman soup.  A different set up to the ones I've made in the past, but far quicker to put together, instead of making toppers for the bags, I just printed out the poem (thanks again to Karen) cut it out, popped it in a cello bag with the soup ingredients behind it.

We have 2 fabulous sponsors this week, and the girls have made gorgeous examples and stuck to the actual challenge lol!!!  To take a look at these please nip over to the blog HERE.

A Spoon Full of Sugar - Challenge 133

Good frosty morning everyone, boy it's coooooolddd........!!!!!!!!! 
Time for our last A Spoon Full of Sugar challenge of the year, and it's an easy peasy one to end on!!  We would like to see some 'christmas cards!'
I need to count mine up and see if I need to make any more in a hurry lol!!  Then there's the chore of writing them all ugghh..!!
Anyhow, here is my card for the challenge it's an 8x8 so a really nice size, this was made especially for my mum and dad from the girls or as written inside the card, their '2 little angels'! 
The papers are papermania naughty and nice christmas, I added some glitter glue to each of the white dots as it needed a little something and I didn't want to add anything more i.e. embellies!  The gorgeous angels image is on of SJ's musings (SJ's Little Musings) and I absolutely adore them, I so wish I had more time to create with them!  The pointsettia is from a bunch of artificle ones that I got from QD, just added the pretty button as the centre.

We have 2 fabulous sponsors for this challenge :

Whimsy Stamps who have very kindly donated a $15 gift certificate.

Bunny Zoe's Crafts our very own Nikki has donated a £10 gift certificate.  She also has a christmas sale on so go take a look!

I would like to enter this card into the Secret Crafter challenge = christmas and also into the Simon Says sketch challenge.

Christmas cuties!

My card today is for the One Stop Craft - christmas cuties challenge.  I thought this little image fitted the theme perfectly, I have this in my Pollycraft folder but I'm not 100% that it is so please don't take it as gospel!  It doesn't show very well in the picture but the tinsel and star are coloured with metalic pencils, and the fir trim on the hat, gloves and coat are all glittered along with the snow, am really loving my white glitter at the moment!!

The cutest angels!

Today's card is for the Secret Crafter challenge which is to use 3 snowflakes, 2 circles and lace.

As soon as I saw Sarah Jane's (SJ's Little Musings) angels on Friday I couldn't wait to get my hands on them, they are just the most adorable, cutesie images ever!  I absolutely love SJ's work and have used many of her images, I have comissioned her to do a musing of my girls I soooo cannot wait to see it, it's soooo exciting!

A Spoon Full of Sugar - Challenge 132

Good morning, it's cold and crunchy outside here today, I've had to dig my trainers out the last couple of days to wear doing the school runs as none of my many pairs of boots have any grip lol!!  Take care where you are!

We have a recipe challenge for you this week at A Spoon Full of Sugar and the ingredients needed are : 3 patterned papers + 3 flowers or buttons + 3 gems.

I didn't set out to use ALL of the ingredients but the card was lacking a little something so I ended up using the buttons as well as the flowers!  The image I have used is a freebie from Bodil, I think she's such a pretty little thing and it made a change from making christmas creations!!

We are sponsored by Digital Delights who have donated the following prize 

I would like to enter this card into the Friday Sketchers challenge as I have used their sketch.

Chairsma Cardz - One for the girls

Good morning, it's 'one for the girls' this week at Charisma Cardz, so just make something nice and girlie!

I have used a wonderful Digi Stamp Boutique image, this one is called 'party time Zoe & Flo'.  The gorgeous paper is some that my dear friend Becky sent me for my birthday, I nearly cried when I cut into it, oh and it was double sided to!  I have recycled an M&S chocolate cherry liquer wrapper which I knotted, my mum buys me a box of these every birthday and christmas, they are sooooo delicious!!   

For all prize details which are fab! and to see the gorgeous examples from the rest of the girls please nip on over to the blog for a look!

A Spoon Full of Sugar - Challenge 131

Good morning, we have a new A Spoon Full of Sugar challenge starting today and it's an easy one this week because 'Anything Goes'!

I would've liked to have made anything other than a card but time seems to be getting away from me quite rapidly at the moment, so sadly a card it is!

I have used an old stamp for this card, it makes a change from digi images which I seem to use 95% of the time now!

I am pretty sure this is a Sugar Nellie image called 'hug a mug' but forgive me if I am wrong (as not 100% sure could be WOJ!).

This was an experimental colouring session for me using shades of grey, I was a bit unsure when I was colouring but think it looks ok.

We have a great prize donated by DRS Designs of a $10 gift voucher to be spent in their store. 

I would like to enter my card into the Sugar Bowl challenge, fingers crossed my image is a SN!  The challenge is to use black+white+1 other colour, and to use the sketch which I have turned on it's side!

Snow People

Thought it was about time I shared a card, it's been a while!  This card is for the One Stop Craft challenge which is 'snow people', my snowman is a freebie image from Beccy's Place.  If you've not been to Beccy's blog, head over there right now, you won't be disappointed, there are wonderful free images which Beccy also gives examples of in use but there are wonderful tutorials to.

 

A Spoon Full of Sugar - Challenge 130

Good morning, we have a new challenge at A Spoon Full of Sugar and it is 'distressing' and it was lol!!!  This is a theme I tend to struggle with so went my normal taring route, I tore all papers around the edges and made a rosette style embellie.  The image is one of SJ's Little Musings freebies (who has a buy 1 get 1 free offer on in her digi shop at the moment).

Our sponsor is Black Leaf Studios and one winner will receive a beautiful christmas digi set, to see this nip over to the blog. 

I would like to enter this card for the Top Tip Tuesday challenge which is to use buttons (I've used 2!!).

A glittery christmas

Good morning, woke up to frost outside the girls thought it had been snowing lol!!

The challenge over at Pollycraft this week is 'a glittery christmas' and no sadly I'm not the Joanne that set it, oh how I would love to be on that DT though!!  Christmastime is perfect for lots of glitter, for my card I have used a Pollycraft freebie from a while back, papers and greeting from my Daisy & Dandelion 'a winters tale' pack, sparkly textured card from a Poundland scrapbook pack (excellent value!) and lots of glitter glue!!!!

I would like to enter this card into the Everybody Art challenge as I have used their fab sketch and also into the Secret Crafter challenge which is 'sparkle and shine'.

Pollycraft - doodling!

The challenge theme over at Pollycraft is 'doodling', something I don't do too much of I must admit, well not on my crafty projects, I have many little bits of paper with doodles all over them lol!!

I have used a freebie Pollycraft image from last year, still love it!  My 'doodling' are the lines around the image and each layer and also the greeting which I'm not too sure about! 

Charisma Cardz - Sympathy

Good morning, hope it's nicer out where you are than it is here, wet and windy is just what we don't want for the school run!!

We have a new challenge over at Charisma Cardz and we are looking for 'sympathy' cards this week.

This was certainly a challenge for me and I left it until the last minute as I wasn't sure what to do.  In the end I found a sympathy verse, which I copied, changed the font to something fancy, printed it out, cut around it with my x-cut border punch and made that my focal point.  The paper is from the Papermania capsule collection 'mono', the whole pad is scrummy and I'm so reluctant to cut into it as there is only 1 sheet of each!!!  I finished off my card with some small white flowers and some kandy kisses, and after all of my worrying I really do like the finished card!

We have 2 lovely sponsors this week :
Soft Pencil have donated a $15 gift voucher to spend on their site.
Pizzazz Aplenty have donated a fantastic 'bling' package (I so want this!!) to see the contents please nip over to the blog.

I would like to enter todays card into the 'anything goes' challenge over at Cute Card Thursday and also into the 4 Crafty Chicks challenge which is themed 'with sympathy'.


My eldest daughter has been chosen as 1 of 10 children to represent the school at the towns rememberence service today.  I'm so proud of my girls, I guess like some of the other parents I can't understand how my children get chosen out of so many, my youngest was 1 of 4 to represent the school a couple of months back, but it's a lovely feeling to know that they must be doing well.

Christmas robins

I think the robin has to be my absolute favourite bird, so cute with the gorgeousness of the red breast.  I was thrilled when I saw the freebie image from Just Inklined a while ago I just adored it, there is a different robin freebie available at the moment called 'rotton robin' he's quite fun!. 

Anyhow onto my card, I would like to enter this into the following 2 challenges

1) Secret Crafter - red and gold (I used green to, hope that's ok!)

2) Sketch Saturday - the sketch, flipped 180degrees!

The flowers are some that I picked up at the weekend from The Range, I think they were £1 a pack, wish I'd gotten some more!!
I think this has to be amongst/if not my favourite christmas cards that I've made so far!!