Rrrrooooaaarrrrr........!!!!!!!!

I have made a wall/door hanger for my nephew, he loves dinosaurs so as soon as I saw this image from SJ's Little Musings I knew I had to use him, and have already showed a card that I made for a friends son. Isn't he so full of character!? I used the pre coloured image and matched it with some free download papers and buttons from my Skegness haul lol!!! This hanger started out life as a cd which I simply covered, you know one of those ones that ends up getting all scratched and unable to use ones!
I would like this to be my entry into the One Stop Craft challenge which is to make a wall hanger. Also Cute Card Thursday's challenge is 'ribbontastic' I think the ribbon loop should qualify!!

This next card is for the Cupcake Crafts challenge which is 'friends'. Lillie is off to a friends party in a little while and this is the card she chose, I think this elzbells image is perfect for the girls girly friends! I've also followed the sketch from Truly Scrumptious.Well that's it from me today, nothing much planned for this weekend yet. Hubby is out all day tomorrow on a course for work, then we are off to our friends for tea, which should be nice to catch up with them. Sunday there is a possibility we may go and price up a new kitchen, still undecided, we really want one and with homebase having an up to 50% off with an extra 30% off on top we would be silly to at least not go and see how much it would cost! I know we will just have to smile through gritted teeth when they tell us the total price, but on the bright side I have chosen one of the cheapest designs they had!! Trouble is I also found the cooker I liked the look of, it was only £1,899 mmmmm......... think I'll stick with my normal little oven and keep the double as a dream for when we win the lottery (if only!).

Have a great weekend whatever you have planned.

Chairsma Cardz - candle!!

Good morning, time for a new challenge over at Charisma Cardz and this week we are asking you to make a birthday card but there is a catch there has to be at least 1 candle on your card, be it part of the image, the paper, an embellie etc.
I have used a super dino digi image (from Dustin Pike) who happens to be holding a candle, which goes perfectly with the paper!! I couldn't decide what colour a to 'ice' the cake so went for a nice chocolate one instead, always a favourite in our house! We are so lucky to have 2 sponsors this week. Sally Ann of the Digi Stamp Boutique has kindly offered a £5 voucher.......and.......... We also have my fellow ASFoS teamie Nikki of Bunny Zoe Crafts as our sponsor this week and she has very kindly donated a Magnolia stamp for the winner.

Quick Kelly card

Just got the one card to show today, and I have used my newly purchased digi image of Kelly from Pretty in Ink. Isn't she lovely, she has the most amazing big eyes and she's got a few curves which I think makes her a babe lol!!! Nicola has just started out with her digi shop, and she has this lovely image and one other in the shop at the moment, but she is working on more, and I can't wait to see them! I hoping for a handsome chappy to keep Kelly company!!
Well hubby is off to the hospital this afternoon, got to have some cardio tests done, which means he's got to run on the running machine which is something he hasn't done since before we got together (so nearly 10 years!). Me and the girls are going to tag alone for the ride but will drop him off and go shopping........... always a better option in my eyes lol!!!

A Spoon Full of Sugar - challenge 92

Good morning, time for a new challenge at A Spoon Full of Sugar and we would like to see you using Distress Inks (don't worry if you don't have them anything else is fine), Pearls and Glitter.
I have used one of my old Whiff of Joy stamps (I think from the spring kit last year) just coloured with my brush markers as I don't have the inks. I used a few mini pearls from my stash along with the glittered embellishments that came as part of a scrapbooking set from Poundland!!We are sponsored by Soft Pencil Digital Designs and Elisabeth has kindly offered the prize of a $15 voucher for the lucky winner.
Please visit the blog to check out the rest of the girls fabby examples, and to say goodbye to Camilla who is sadly leaving the team.

I would like to use my card as my entry into the current Whiff of Joy challenge which is 'pearls and swirls'.

Happy Anniversary to me, well us!!

Yes, today we are celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary, hardly seems believable that 8 years ago I was having my hair done in our hotel ready for our marriage ceremony at The World Famous Old Blacksmiths Shop in Gretna Green, Scotlland! No we didn't elope, our close family came with us! Matthew had been there done that with the 'big' wedding and wasn't keen on another and I had organized my friends wedding and been involved with my sisters, that I kind of thought it's a lot of money for everyone else to enjoy themselves! So sitting in the living room one evening I said what about Gretna and it was like yeah ok lets get the info, then deciding this was for us, when were we going to do it? Then just sitting there I said what about the
20-02-2002 at 2.02pm (they weren't open at 20.02pm) as I liked the way the date read the same both ways! Little did we know how special a date it was!! On the morning we had just literally set out to pick mum and dad up, my phone rang and it was the people from the Richard and Judy show wanting to know if I would talk to them about of wedding! Of course I said yes, originally trying to get them to talk to Matthew but no they wanted the bride to be, and that night 19-02-2002 live on air via phone I was on the show!!!!
Then would you believe that in the rolls royce on the way to the WFOBS Matthews sporon (yes he wore a kilt, we were in Scotland afterall!) started to ring lol!! It was brother-in-law telling us the news reporters were there and was it ok to be filmed and interviewed? Hell why not!!
So after our ceremony, which was lovely, and so different to my sisters 4 months earlier, we interupted our meal to all gather in our room to watch the news!! Famous!! but never to be seen again. Mums friend said why on earth didn't someone use the video recorder and record the news but none of us thought of that at the time :0(
Anyhow that was 8 years ago, we've always said we will go back and renew our vows, we were going to do it on 20-10-2010 but we have now decided to do it on our 10th wedding anniversary, so something to look forward to and lose weight for lol!!!
Anyways enough rambling, here is the card I made for hubby using the fabby Crafty Musings freebie valentines download, I printed the picture out in sepia as I thought it looked nicer!At the same time as making this for Matthew I just had to make one for my mum and dad for their anniversary, which isn't until June! I just love this piccie of them, makes a change to see them both so happy and my dad laughing!

Hubby has already mentioned one for his mum and dads anniversary, but we need to somehow get a picture of them together. That's our mission the next time we visit!

Well best I go get dressed, can't stay in my pj's all day now can I?! lol!!

3 cards for today!

I was on a bit of a roll yesterday, and made a few cards normally it takes me all day to mess about and make 1!!
This first card I have made using the Sweet Sketch Wednesday sketch, the puffy stickers are from a pack I had originally got for the girls from Poundland and the papers are from my 12x12 papermania 'big one' temptations pack, these will keep me going for a while as it's a 200 page pack (of which I've used 50 for my friends party pouches!).

next up is my card for the Secret Crafter challenge which is 'multi folds' which gave me another excuse to use my new found folded card (don't know what it's name is or even if it has one! looks like it has wings!). Papers again from the Papermania the big one pad, ribbon and matting card from my stash and the flowers are ones salvaged from a bin lol!!and last up is my card made using the sketch from Create 4 Fun, I went for an easter card for this one as I have a Papermania easter pad which had worked it's way to the top of my pile! I have used one of my Daisy and Dandelion -candy floss & marshmallow images and the ribbon is from one of my tops (you know the loops to hang them up with!)

Well that's it for today, got baking to do this afternoon and need to go shopping as gggrrrrr........ went to start and have run out of castor sugar!! You would think they would be things we automatically put in the trolley as I bake regularly but no, a couple of weeks ago I had run out of cocoa and sugar!! Still a bit of fresh air wil l do us good!

Back tomorrow with another couple of cards. x

Charisma Cardz - Sketch

Good morning one and all, we have the sketch below for you to follow this week at Charisma Cardz.and here is my card! I have used a freebie image from Crafty Musings, Paper Cellar 'check' papers, brads, buttons and a peel-off from my stash. This little guy looks soooo..... much like my youngest nephew that I have made this card for him, his birthday isn't until November lol!!!!!

For all prize details and to see the wonderful cards the rest of the girls have created make sure you pop on over to the blog. Love to see you there!

I am going to enter this card into the Papertake Weekly 'check this out' challenge.

A Spoon Full of Sugar - challenge 91

Good morning, time for a new challenge over at A Spoon Full of Sugar, and this week our theme is 'Spring time', so we would like to see you using spring colours/images etc
We are celebrating a new release of stamps from Wags n Whiskers and Nikki (the co-owner of W&W) kindly sent each of the design team a stamp to use. My image is called 'Hey Grandma' from the 'Wee Ones' collection. I've used papers from the Papermania spring life pad and a few of my new buttons!!There are 2 of the new release Wags n Whiskers stamps up for grabs, to see some more of the designs check out the girls cards over on the blog.

I am entering todays card into the Sketch and Stash challenge as I have used the sketch!

My Valentine's

My parents had the girls for the whole weekend, so Matthew and I took advantage of the time alone together and booked a couple of nights away. It is the first time we have been away on our own since having Lillie over 7 years ago, and I must say it was lovely! 9 years ago we should have been heading off for Disneyland but I broke my ankle the week before so we had to postpone it and went for Halloween instead, doesn't seem possible that 9 years have passed so quickly!
We had a four poster bedroom which was very nice, here is a piccie of hubby in the roomthere were lots of little extra's in the room, like this little rose on the pillows!

toiletries to use, along with other pamper products, hairstraighteners, a bottle of bubbly, sweets and fruit

There wasn't too much to do, so we had quite a relaxed time, although we did manage to spend enough in the shops lol!! But even that was nice, being able to really look at things without watching the children and being nagged for things! After tea we went for a quick stroll on the beach, it was quick as it was pretty darn cold!! Took a couple of piccie on timer, with the camera placed on top of a telescope lol!!refreshments back in the room!

and this is what else we did in the room lol!!!! There was a craft stall on the market, nothing really that took my fancy as there was a lot of decoupage sheets, but there was a tray full of odd buttons 6 for 5pence, so I started to pick through them as you do, Matthew said we would be there for hours so offered the lady £5 for the whole tray full and she said yes!! So with the purchase of some sandwich bags back in the room we sorted them into colours and bagged them up! We counted a few piles and I certainly got my moneys worth lol!!!

Yesterday we had breakfast delivered to the room, so we didn't have to get up so early, and after breakfast we opened our cards and pressies, before packing up and vacating the hotel. We had a wander around Ingoldmells which is the other side of Skegness, had lunch in a nice pub and then headed home.

I picked the girls up this morning who seemed pretty pleased to see me, and mum and dad are looking forward to getting a good nights sleep tonight!! They said they had been ok Friday and Saturday night, but mum doesn't sleep properly as she constantly listen out for noises, and she said last night they, Lillie mainly was a complete pain, was awake at 2am, then at 5am wanted to know if she could play her ds lol!!!

Back to normal again now, poor hubby has reluctantly gone back to work and we have a nice lazy half term ahead of us, yeah lay ins!!!

Are you feeling the love?

There is so much love around in blogland at the moment, must be the time of year lol!!
When Hollie my youngest went to put her book bag in her tray at school, there was an envelope with 'To Hollie, love Henry' written on it and inside was a chocolate heart lollie!!! Alright for some heh, if I remember correctly she got a valentine from him last year to. aah sweet heh!

I have made this card following Nicola's lovely sketch over on her Pretty in Ink blog, as she says it's a way to use up some of the many scraps of paper we all have so many of! I have used one of the fabby freebie images from Crafty Musings, I used the grey tones image (it is also in colour) and just coloured the girls hair band red to match in with the other red elements which I think works well. I'm having a tought time choosing which card/s to give to hubby on Sunday! I still have another to show but will save that until next week as I know that I am going to give him that for our wedding anniversary which is on the 20th!Cute Card Thursday's challenge is 'In the name of love' so using one of the past Pollycraft freebie images and some freebie download paper I put together the next 2 cards for my girls! They are spending the weekend at Nannie and Grandads so they can open these on Sunday morning, I also got some 'love bug' choccies from Tesco and a couple of Valentines muffins out of Morrisons for them to!

and finally, my entry for the current Cupcake Crafts challenge which is 'red and white all over'. Here is a gift I have wrapped for hubby, I had a bit of the paper left over, so not wanting to waste any, I decided to make a tag, well, it's more like a small card really as I wanted to have a border of hearts all around the image! The image was sent to me by my dear friend Becky, she knows how much I love images and this one was just perfect with my paper!

Chairsma Cardz - male card

Good morning, time for a new Charisma Cardz challenge this week we are asking you to make a card for a male. We all know how difficult they are!! I treated myself to a craft magazine last week and there was a freebie cd with it, from which I got the decoupage image and papers that I have used on my card, although it doesn't show up the pale blue paper has a textured look.For all prize details and to see the fab work from the rest of the team please check out the blog.

2 more cards

Quick post tonight, I made this card yesterday for the Sketch Saturday challenge. I've had the stamp for quite some time but this was the first time that I had gotten around to inking it up! I would normally have coloured it in browns but my marker has run out, need to get another one from somewhere (also need pink and flesh tones) if anyone knows a good place to get them 'cheap' please let me know.

and this card is made following the sketch from this weeks Papertake Weekly challenge. Again another of the stamps that I have only just inked up!!
That's it for now, back in the morning with a new Charisma Cardz challenge!

A Spoon Full of Sugar - Challenge 90

We have a recipe challenge this week at A Spoon Full of Sugar, the ingredients are :
1 patterned paper / 1 embossing / 1 button / 1 ribbon
The design team were each sent a Whimsy stamp to play with and I got this sweet little snow person. After finding the folding instructions for this card last week I just had to make another card (1st attempt in yesterdays post!), I stamped the image twice so that I could 3d the hat and scarf, I would have done the bird aswell but didn't think it needed it. The embossing part of the recipe had me stumped and then I thought I would have a go at running the whole image through my cuttlebug using the swiss dots folder to make it look as though it were snowing!! The ribbon is some sticky ribbon from my stash and I threaded a little bit of string through the holes of the button as they were a bit big to be left with nothing! I do like this card a lot and may well be making several more just like it for christmas (nearer the time me thinks!!).here is a sideways piccie, I didn't have enough of the paper to do a complete layer on the side panels, so hubby sugested some cut out snowflakes would look good, so that's what I did!!

So if you haven't already guessed with us receiving Whimsy stamps to play with, our sponsors this week are ............ Whimsy Stamps, for prize details please check out the blog, and whilst there don't forget to have a peek at the rest of the DT cards which are as always just fab!!

I would like to enter my card for the Secret Crafter challenge which is 'monochrome'.

Have a good day!

A couple of challenge cards

My first card is for the Whiff of Joy challenge which is 'love'. I treated myself to a craft mag last week and there was a WOJ section and I just loved one of the cards, so here is my take on said card! I just had to have a go at this fold to, I had seen it once before but never found the instructions, like the easel cards it's so easy one you know how!!! I am also entering this for the Pollycraft challenge which is 'things with wings'.my second card is for the Cute Card Thursday challenge which is 'spots and dots', my paper has quite big spots and some smaller odd shaped dots, I added the pips for extra dots/spots!!!

Charisma Cardz - I Love You

Good morning, it's dull and damp here this morning, I hope it brightens up a bit as my youngest is off on a trip with the school this morning to a wildlife park where they get to see a special swan feeding session! She doesn't really think she wants to go, at the moment she is a bit teary at school again, she has to have the reassurance that there is an adult there she can be with, thankfully my friend accross the road who's daughter is also in Hollie's class is helping out so I asked if she could be with her and they said it was fine. She was ok when I left her, it will just be when it's time to get on the bus and who she sits with!!

Anyway enough rambling and onto the job in hand! We have a new challenge over at Charisma Cardz and it was down to me to choose the theme this week, if you don't like it you know who to blame lol!! With Valentine's Day fast approaching and my anniversary the following week I thought it was quite fitting to go with the 'I LOVE YOU' theme. You don't have to stick to making a card it can be a gift, a gift bag to put a gift in, a scrapbook page etc.
I was going to used the meerkat image again but in the end went for a completely different style which I'm still not sure whether I like or not! I was lucky enough to get a super bargain pack of My Minds Eye papers and they are soooo... pretty (pretty enough to be put on the I want to keep these and not use pile lol!) that I wanted to make a card with them, they match beautifully. I also thought I would give some templates a go which came free with my magazine a couple of months ago, normally they just get tossed aside and just moved around never used. I used the 2 birds as they had different plumage I gathered 1 was male the other female and put them together as though they are kissing! The sentiment is a rub on which was part of a Valentines candy I won about 3 years, see I don't get to use this sentiment too often lol!!
We are sponsored by Simon Says Stamp who have kindly donated a $20 gift certificate for the lucky winner.
Please drop by at the blog to see the gorgeous samples from the girls.

I would also like to enter my card into the Lili of the Valley challenge which is Valentine's.

A Spoon Full of Sugar - Challenge 89

Good morning and it's a wet one here, hope it's better where you are!
Time for a new challenge at A Spoon Full of Sugar and this week Sonja has designed us a lovely sketch to work with. With the hearts as part of the sketch this is perfect for those valentine's cards which we'll all be needing very soon!
My hubby loves meerkats, I must admit I kind of like them to, they have so much character! So I couldn't resist this digi image from Sandra Dry, doesn't he look debonair with his smoking jacket and cravat!?! I kept the card simple(s) I tried to add embellies but nothing looked right, and didn't want to take the emphasis off of Alexander. The sentiment is computer generated, I think this might just raise a smile once opened! We are sponsored by Stretch n Bubbles and Alison has kindly offered the winner the choice of any four images.
Please go and have a look at the super gorgeous cards from the rest of the design team, to see how they have used the sketch.
Have fun, and have a good day!

I would like to enter this card into the Papertake Weekly 'love actually' challenge and for Secret Crafter who are asking for 'hearts'.