3 challenge cards and some zoo piccies!

Hope you are enjoying the bank holiday weekend, the weather has been a bit miserable here so far, but is due to brighten up again which is good as it is our town festival this week, starting with the carnival tomorrow which my girls are taking part in, that is if Lillie is feeling well enough!
Anyhow here are some cards that I have made over the past few days to tie in with a few challenges.
First up is my card for the Sketch and Stash challenge, I've used a freebie image from Anne Bodil, she's pre-coloured which is fab!! The ribbon/braid is new, I got it from a carboot last week, everything else is from my stash.The following card is for the Cute Card Thursday challenge which is to use no designer papers! The image is a freebie from Paula at Pollycraft.

Last card for this post and it covers 3 challenges!

1) Secret Crafter = Buttons and Blooms (I love how the button I've used for the flower centre matches the little girls tights perfectly! she's Lilli a crafty musing!).

2) One Stop Craft = Swirls and Pearls.

3) Create4Fun = sketch

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Just thought I would share a few pictures that I took when we visited the zoo last weekend.

This was soooo..... cute Hollie sat on the ground to stroke the goat and it laid it's head on her lap!!

3 posers!!!

This was a paper mache tiger head which was on display, we thought it was fun to make it look as if it were trying to take a bite of Hollie's head!

You could get really close to the giraffe, even touch one if it was in the mood to let you!

Hubby's favourite, the meerkat, I must admit I love them to especially when they pose like this!

and finally a picture of my girls, I really liked the pile of logs so made them pose lol!!!!

That's all for tonight, we've been busy today emptying boxes which have been packed since we took the old kitchen out. It was time to sort out and put the stuff back, we are nearly done and it's sooooo...... nice to get a bit more of the living room back!!

Hope to be back tomorrow with some carnival pictures!

All about the boys - zone!

Me again, two posts in one day!!!
This card is for the Daring Cardmakers challenge which is themed 'boys zone' and also for the Pollycraft challenge which is 'buttons and butterflies'. Had to get this card on quick as DCM have a new challenge tomorrow!!
Gotta dash, tea is nearly ready, me and the girls are having ours early as we have the hairdresser coming shortly to give us all a trim/cut and I'm going to have some blonde put in, looking forward to it as it so needs doing!

Charisma Cardz - Going round in circles!

Good morning, we have a fab new challenge over at Charisma Cardz chosen by Vee this week and the theme is 'Going round in Circles, this can be circular creations to using something circle shaped on your creation!
I have made a circle shaped easel card, my paper is all spotty which added a few more circles! The image is 'birthday Poppy' from the Digi Stamp Boutique which once again Sally-Ann very kindly let us girls use her lovely images!

As Sally-Ann gave us images to play with, it kind of gives you a clue as to our sponsor this week! Yep it's The Digi Stamp Boutique and Sally-Ann has very kindly donated the prize of 10 digi images for the lucky winner!

A Spoon Full of Sugar - Challenge 105

Good morning, I don't know about where you are but the weather has been wonderful this past week but temperatures have dipped considerably today, ah well we had it good for a while!!!
There are big celebrations for us over at A Spoon Full of Sugar as we are celebrating our challenge blogs 2nd anniversary! How fantastic, I am thrilled to have been involved from the very beginning and can't believe how time has flown by, thank you Nikki and Debbie for asking me, I love being a part of the team.
So obviously our challenge this week is to make a 'celebration' card/project. The image that I have used is from Karen's Doodles, this little mousey looks like he is certainly having fun partying amongst the balloons, streamers and confetti!We have 2 fabulous sponsors :
Nikki has very generously donated the following prize:and Denise has very kindly donated this prize :

So we would love for you to join in with our celebrations, we have so many cards from the design team, guest designers and this weeks special designers Nikki and Debbie's daughters, so please check them out!

Sweet Strawberries!!

Here is the card that I made a few days ago for the Sweet Sketch Wednesday challenge, obviously by following their sketch! I just fell in love with this sweet image from Bodils Scrappeverden the paper I used is a download, the flower, lace and strawberry button are all from my stash.

Chairsma Cardz - 3D

Good morning, we have a new challenge over at Charisma Cardz, this week we are going all 3D, this can be anything from adding flowers, gems etc making an easel card, gift box, the list is endless etc.
I must admit I went for the easy option and made an easel card! The image is one of Mo's Digital Pencil (I think), I had the cat part of the image coloured for ages just hadn't coloured the ball of wool as I couldn't decide on a colour, until this card came together.We are sponsored by Bunny Zoe Designs = £15 gift voucher, and The Digi Kitty = 10 digi stamps.
The girls have made wonderful 3d examples so please take a look.


I would like to enter todays card into the Create4Fun challenge which was the sketch I followed.

A Spoon Full of Sugar - Challenge 104

Good Tuesday morning and it's time for a new A Spoon Full of Sugar challenge, this week we would like to see everything 'cute and girly', this should be an easy one for anyone!!
The dt were offered stamps from our sponsor to work with for the challenge, my stamp is called 'springtime helper' isn't she cute, look at that big happy smile! The flowers she is watering are brads, which I have had for ever! Our sponsor is :

check out their website, there are so many fabby rubber stamps to choose from! Jennifer has very kindly donated a $10 gift voucher for the lucky winner to spent in the store.

The girls have as always made gorgeous girly examples, so don't forget to go take a look!

I would also like to enter todays card for the following challenges :

Sketch and Stash = sketch, see told you I would use the fabby sketch more times lol!!
Pollycraft = 'summer blooms'

Papertake Weekly = 'say it with flowers'

One Stop Craft = 'summer breeze'

Secret Crafter = 'metal' - the brads are metal!

Bright and summery

I made this card yesterday following the Lili of the Valley sketch, and think it will also fit the 'summer breeze' challenge over at One Stop Craft as it's very summery colours! The image is one from Bee Crafty, papers and flowers from stash.I've had one of those days you would rather forget. My youngest daughter looks the sweetest little thing and yes she can be, but I swear she spends most of her time thinking up what she can do next that's naughty!! This morning I walked into the room to find all of the teddy bears and cuddlies that her and Lillie had had since they were born and christened all over the floor! These are kept in baskets in our spare room and not played with, this was not all, she had ripped off every tag from the Steiff bears that they had (not expensive ones but Steiff none the less) omg I was fuming! Then to top it off I had a bath and took chunks out of both my legs shaving lol!! Let's hope tomorrow is a better day!

Love bunnies!

Today's card fits 4 different challenges :
1) Sweet Sketch Wednesday = sketch
2) Cute Card Thursday = 'someone special'
3) Papertake Weekly = 'shiny/sparkly/special'
4) The Creative Cottage = 'fancy folds'The image is from Meljen Designs and I think it is just perfect for an anniversary card, which is handy as it's my mum and dad's anniversary in a couple of weeks!

Matthew and I had a rare night out last night and went to see Katy Brand in her Big Ass show, it was really good, really entertaining and Katy was great. We had wondered how she would fill in the gaps between costume changes, this was done brilliantly with a huge tv screen on the stage on which she appeared as various characters who would disappear off of the side of the screen and she would appear from that side of the stage, or she would interact with her characters on the screen and actually go inside the screen with them (obviously it was pre-recorded, but really well done). She did do her fabulous 'single ladies' (Beyonce) routine but not in the Sports Relief lycra out-fit as Captain Rosie Fielding of the armed forces, it was brilliant! Our biggest disappointment was that it didn't last longer, just over 1 1/4 hours wasn't long enough!

Chairsma Cardz - Sweet Treats

Good morning, time for a new challenge at Charisma Cardz and this week we are asking for some 'sweet treats' which means your project must include food or drink on it somewhere.
I have used an image from Mo's Digital Pencil and just think it's such a cute image with the dog sneaking a lick of the cookie! The cookie is obviously my sweet treat, and morrisons tubs of mixed cookies are certainly our treat when we go shopping, luckily for my waistline they don't sell them in our store in town!!

We are sponsored by Posh Pins & Charms :The prize is a fabby 5 packs of posh pins, yummy!!!

Please drop by the blog to see the sweet treats from the rest of the dt, they are sure to have your tummy rumbling! That said I'm now off to get some breakfast lol!!

A Spoon Full of Sugar - Challenge 103

New challenge time at A Spoon Full of Sugar and I have made a major boo boo!! I have just realised that along with celebrating the new W&W's digi image realeases we also had a recipe to use, which I haven't ooppss.... sorry girls! The recipe = 3 designer papers & 3 buttons. Can you believe that all, all the buttons I have been using on my recent cards and this one which should've had 3 on has none!
Nikki so kindly let the dt have a play with the new images and I got 'Summer Treat' oh these images are so cute, the expression on the little girls face is so sweet I really enjoyed colouring this.

We are sponsored by :

The very lucky winner of this weeks challenge will receive any 2 stamps of their choice, I tell you it will be a hard decision to make!!

Please check out the blog to see the rest of the girls examples following the recipe!

I would like to enter todays card into the Creative Cottage challenge which is 'food and or drink'.

More buttons!!!

I usually like most of the cards that I make, but there are some that I REALLY like and this one today is one of those! I have used 'Alfonzo' one of SJ's (Crafty Musings) past freebie images, isn't he great? Don't I say that about all of SJ's images though!?! I have followed the new and to be used many times sketch from Sketch and Stash, with paper from my 'Big one' pad, I forget the make, some glitter paper from one of my scrapbook packs from Poundland and a few buttons from my Skeggy stash which means I can also enter the Cupcake Crafts challenge which is 'buttons'! I would also like to enter this card for the Cute Card Thursday 'boys to men' challenge.

For my second card I have followed the Pollycraft sketch and used a past freebie image also from pollycraft. Instead of colouring the image I decided to paper piece it by printing out the image onto a sheet of green paper as well as on white, simply cut around the green image and stuck in on top, I added the die-cut holographic balloon, well, just because I could! lol! This also fits the current Secret Crafter recipe challenge of using '3 embellies (ribbon, button, balloon),2 papers, 1 image'.Both cards also qualify for the Simon Says Stamp 'birthdays/celebrations' challenge.

Buttons galore!!

I just adore Meljen's images, especially the one I have used in todays card. I actually coloured it yesterday and finally putting the card together today, very simple, 1 background paper and a selection of buttons! I would like to enter this into the Daring Cardmakers challenge which is 'the emerald isle' and I've used lots of green/emerald colours!

It's our town's festival at the end of the month, we have a carnival day and then various activities throughout the half term week (not that we partake in any!). There is a teddy bear factory thing in the town hall, and the school are running a competition to decorate a teddy bear picture, the winner/s will win a small bear to make at the festival! I thought a kind of patchwork bear would look cute and the girls both liked the idea, so I went through my dp scraps and got taring!

Here is Hollie's bearand this one is Lillie's, I like the way she has used one pattern for the ears and arms, in places she tore the pieces of paper really small and then glued them on, it looks quite effective.

Well that's it, we've just watched Britain's Got Talent, now as there is nothing on worth watching we are going to watch my dvd 'My Bloody Valentine' in 3d', so now about to put on my sexy 3d specs lol!!! Ooooo... Jensen Ackles he is just soooo..... yummy, the sole reason I have now started watching Supernatural, if only I'd known he was in it sooner! Will treat myself to the dvd box sets sometime, that or put them on my birthday list for hubby!

Chairsma Cardz - Wedding/anniversary

This week at Charisma Cardz we are asking for Wedding or anniversary makes, can be a card, gift, scrapbook page anything!
Now not having any stamps or images suitable I scoured through google images, found some lovely traditional images but as soon as I saw this cartoon I had to use it, I just thought it was so amuzing!!! The papers i have used are from my Papermania 'love' pad and the colours went with the image perfectly.

We are sponsored by

who have very kindly donated a $20 gift voucher for the lucky winner!

Please pop over to the blog to check out the rest of the dt cards they are all simply gorgeous!

I would like to enter this card for the Create4Fun challenge as I have followed their sketch.

Back again with 2 more cards!

Oooo 2nd post of the day from me! This card is for the Just Magnolia challenge, I don't very often take part as my cards are no where up to scratch against the other entries, but after seeing the lovely sketch I just had to join in this time! and this card is using the Sketch Saturday sketch, and also fits the 'friendship' challenge over at Secret Crafter, I've had this little Sugar Nellie Manga stamp for ages now, first time I've used it (well not actually, as this image was sent to me lol!).

Apologies for the awful pictures quality!