A christmas shoe!!!

In addition to my previous post re the Charisma christmas challenge, I made this christmas shoe! I have been itching to have a go at one of these for months and last week I bit the bullet and loved the finished item! This christmas themed shoe is the 2nd that I have made, I used double-sided card which was great for the lining, the christmas tree embellie is a brad. I had some christmassy bags from last year, I was going to make chocolate covered honeycombe for the teachers pressies but simply ran out of time lol!!! They were perfect for this project, the contents are marshmallow christmas trees. We have both sets of parents joining us for christmas lunch this year and I will be making these as the female place settings and must have a go at fellow design teamie Julia's snowmans hats for the males! a view of the empty shoe!

Hope you like them!

Chairsma Cardz - christmas crafting

Well with christmas getting ever closer our Charisma Cardz 'christmas crafting' challenge is perfect for either making a start on your cards, adding to your card pile or maybe make a gift, a decoration, anything.
We were given the chance to use an image from our sponsor, the image I have used for my card is Milly and snowball, so cute, I love the little robin sitting on her hat! Although it doesn't show in the picture the card is super sparkly as I have glitter the snowflakes, snow and snowball! Our sponsorer this week is :

Sally-Ann has very kindly donated a choice of 10 digi images from her shop, wow!!

We have our new design team girlies with us now so ther is plenty of inspiration on show, so go take a look!

A Spoon Full of Sugar - challenge 123

Good morning, it's new challenge time at A Spoon Full of Sugar and this week I have chosen 'spots and stripes' as our theme.
We were given some images from our sponsor to use if we wished, for my card I have combined 2 of them, I just thought the boy and girl looked like they were having so much fun playing cowboys/girls!! Our sponsor is Meljen Designs and the winner will receive 4 images of their choice from the Meljen line at Whimsy Stamps.
We are joined by my old teamie from Charisma Sally Jones who has made the most gorgeous card, to see this and the rest of the girls fab cards please pop on over to the blog.

Multi challenge card

Todays card covers the following 5 challenges :
1) Secret Crafter - Anthing goes.
2) Pollycraft - cute and cuddly.
3) Papertake Weekly - animal magic.
4) Cute Card Thursday - sketch.
5) Meljen - autumn colours. The image is from Pollycraft and is pre-coloured which is always great for quickie cards! To be honest I have lost the urge to craft at the moment, I keep buying crafty bits hoping they will give me a boost and I'll get back into the swing of things, but nothing much as yet!! I guess we all go through it at times.

Chairsma Cardz - Anything goes

Good morning, here I am with new Charisma Cardz challenge and this week 'Anything goes' yep you can make anything you like!
I decided to make a little sweet basket instead of a card for a change. These are so easy to make, you start with a square divide it into 9 equal squares a couple of cuts and the basic basket is there! I found some freebie download halloween paper hence the halloween sweetie basket! For all prize details and to see the examples from the rest of the design team and our guest designers please check out the blog.

A Spoon Full of Sugar - Challenge 122

Hello, wow it's Tuesday again it only seems like yesterday I was doing last weeks challenge post!! Well it's time for a new A Spoon Full of Sugar challenge and this week 'Anything Goes' make anything you like!
I've gone for a christmas card and paired up a couple of SJ's Little Musings, these are Hollie and Noel, I think they make a sweet little couple don't you? The paper is a download and I used my compass cutter to cut out the ring.
For prize details and to see the wonderful examples from the rest of the design team please check out the blog.

Charisma Cardz - Sketch it

Good morning, wow these weeks are flying by so fast! We have a new challenge over at Charisma Cardz and this week we have a sketch which has been designed by the 'boss' Carly! For my card I have used one of SJ's fabby christmas digi images (SJ's Little Musings) this is Hollie, don't you just love her bauble earrings!?! The papers are Daisy & Dandelion, A winter's tale, christmas collection, I love them and have just ordered another pack, the sad thing is there is only 1 sheet of each colour/pattern and I so hate using it and knowing I've got none left lol (hence the ordered pack!). I tried out my new X-cut border punch (only £3.99) on the checked strip and although it doesn't show that well it really does look nice. The greeting was printed via the pc and the buttons/ribbon are from my stash!

We have 3 prizes this week :

1) The AI Factory have very kindly donated a $10 gift voucher.
2) The boss Carly has donated a beautiful oriental Magnolia Tilda stamp.

3) $15 worth of digi images from a 'surprise' company!

The girls have as always made fabby examples using the sketch, drop by and take a look, and don't forget we have a DT call at the moment take a look HERE if you would like to join us on the team (we don't bite!!).

'Puck'er birthday!!

Both of my nephew's have become big skaters over the summer holidays and are both on roller hockey teams, so I started looking for roller hockey images to see if I could find anything suitable to use for my cards. Ethan will be 8 in November so have made his cards well in advance lol!! The size of this card is 8x8 and was a bit of a challenge as about 80% of my paper pads are only 6x6 but using the Papertake sketch from last week it fitted quite well!! The red layer is once again a recycled envelope cut down!! I did the sentiment on the pc and it fits the 'Play on Words' over at Cute Card Thursday. I'm really happy with how the card has turned out, I always love the black, white and red colour combo and think the image is pretty cool to!

I had a pleasant surprise yesterday when I picked Hollie up from school, she came out and said to me that her teacher wanted to see me! My reaction was "oh s**t, have you been naughty!" she replied "no mum". He told me that he was so happy with how fantastically Hollie had gone back to school and taken to the new classroom, and way of learning really really well, and that her work is so very neat! He remembers, as well we do the many weeks of tears and days of leaving her in the classroom all upset, we've had no inkling of that this term. I'm so pleased and thought it was really nice for him to acknowledge this.

A Spoon Full of Sugar - Challenge 121

Good morning, time for a new challenge over at A Spoon Full of Sugar and this weeks we would like to see 'Fall into Autumn' colour challenge. This was a bit of a challenge for me! You see we had been given the chance to use an image from our sponsor and I had chosen the 'christmas scene' before actually reading that we had to use the fall colours!! But it seems to have worked out quite nicely and am really pleased with how the card looks. Our sponsor is Robyn's Fetish Digital stamps who has kindly offered the winner a choice of either 5 digital images or digital paper sets.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges :
1) Secret Crafter = sketch.
2) Pollycraft = autumn colours.

A toothless child and lots of tears!

My eldest daughter Lillie has been losing teeth like nobody's business, she lost 2 this past week! As I mentioned the other day she lost a tooth in the middle of the night, still haven't found it but the tooth fairy was aware of the loss and visited anyway!! Then early this morning she came in "look my tooth has fallen out" I didn't even know she had another one that was loose, she says she just poked it with her tongue and it popped out!!
This is what she looks like at the moment!! I keep joking and telling her "that'll be no more corn on the cob for you for a while" which is her favourite, couldn't be that cruel so have had to cut if off the cob for her (it's so much easier to open a tin lol!!).
I came to the conclusion yesterday that she has been back to school since Monday so she must have been kissing the boys a lot!! She says "No Way"!
We had some sad news on Thursday evening, Matthew's mum has been poorly for a while, she's been finding it very difficult to to breath, even talking on the phone would be too much for her. We knew that from tests she had fluid on the lungs and on Thursday she went back to the doctors to get the result of her MRI scan which she had last week. Sadly when Matthew phoned to find out how she got on she told us it was cancer, oh my when he came off of the phone the tears flowed, he hadn't been sleeping very well for days worrying about it and now to be told this he's just thinking the worst. Today speaking to sis-in-law she told me it's actually secondary cancer stemming from the breast cancer that she had previously had and given the all clear for. I still well up thinking about it, for her, for Matthew, for his dad, I'm so hoping it's been caught early enough to treat, but as I mentioned himself and his brothers are all thinking the worst, and are thinking 'last christmas' etc we have to stay positive and hope that they will tell us everything and not keep us in the dark. We should know a bit more next week, she is going to have some fluid drained from her lungs which should help her breath more easily.

A card and a bookmark

I have made a card for my nephew who's birthday is in November, I think this monkey image from Dustin Pike is so cute you can put any greeting on the sign, I used peel-off letters to spell out nephew's name!
This card covers the following challenges :
1) Papertake Weekly = sketch
2) Lili of the Valley = One for the Boys
3) Create4Fun = Red, White and Blue.I've made a quick little bookmark using one of Meljen's fabby images, a piece of backing paper I've had for years and I tried out my new punch for the strip along the bottom instead of using ribbon!
I would like to enter this for the following challenges :
1) Meljen Designs = Back to School.
2) Dutch Dare = Bookmark (back to school theme).

Charisma Cardz - Try something different

Good morning, it's time to try something different this week at Charisma Cardz! Yes we would like you to try a new technique or use something you wouldn't normally.
I attempted a new style of card! First attempt was a bit ugghh........ I'm not good with a craft knife!!! This is my second attempt, still a bit dodgey in a couple of places where I've used the knife and I have a fold where I shouldn't (just underneath the image panel!) but I think it looks ok! I've used an image from Simply Inger and I chose the pre-coloured version, always handy when you lack the enthusiasm or have the time to colour. a side view

I will definately try this style again but the measuring, scoring and cutting takes a while, I guess it gets easier the more you make! If you would like to have a go click HERE to be taken to Stamp Owl's Studio where I found the instructions.

Our prize this week is a 3 months subscription to Scrapbook News and Reviews the world's largest online scrapbooking magazine.

I would like to enter this card for the Pollycraft challenge which is 'Christmas -no red or green' and I've used blue and white!!!!

Clean & Simple

Morning all, the challenge over at Secret Crafter is 'clean & simple' the idea is to make quick cards, not too many embellies etc. Perfect for my LOTV die-cut images, simply used grey to matte and layer, the red is a recylcled envelope (hubby found me loads all sizes!) and a button and tiny piece of ribbon from my stast, heh presto, job done!!!! School is going well I am pleased to say! Lillie is so looking forward to her first swimming lesson tomorrow, I think it will do her the world of good to not only be with her class friends but to also have an instructor, when we take her she is a real scaredy cat!
Lillie came into our room in histerics this morning at 2am, she had woken up and her top front tooth had fallen out and she couldn't find it!!! I said don't worry about it we will look for it in the morning, she was in such a state because the 'tooth fairy' wouldn't come!! I told her we would look for it and they will come when they know she has laid it out to be collected (she doesn't put in underneath her pillow anymore, as the 'tooth fairy' fogot to come when she lost her first tooth, (did come the night after lol!) so now she puts in on her bedside table!!

A Spoon Full of Sugar - Challenge 120

Good morning, day 2 of the girls being back at school and things are going well (said touching wood!). We have a new routine with a cd and when they hear it start playing it's time to get up, breakfast, and then dressed! They have new classrooms, some new class mates and came home all smiles yesterday, so I'm a happy bunny, let's hope it lasts! I started back at work yesterday to, to be honest I hadn't missed it one bit, but going back was as if we'd never been off!!

Anyhow onto business, we have a new challenge at A Spoon Full of Sugar and this week we are going 'Animal Crackers' and would like to see projects with an animal on them. We are sponsored by our very own Nikki aka Bunny Zoe Crafts who has very kindly donated a Magnolia stamp and Magnolia magazine as the prize.

I would like to enter this card into the Sketch and Stash challenge as I have used their sketch, I've used new papers which I got from the Range in the hols, the image, flowers and button are from my stash. Also the Cute Card Thursday 'material girl' challenge, my white flower is taken from a bunch of artificle silk ones!!

Day's out photo's = picture overload!!!!!

We've been having some lovely days out this summer holiday, so thought I would have a bit of a photo share of a few of our favourite days!
On Monday (bank hol) we went to the Village at War event at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse museum of Norfolk. The setting was the 1940's WW2 with original vehicles, costume, make-up, hair, games etc. We had to carry ID cards incase we were asked to show them by the home guard patrol, luckily we didn't get caught by the drill sergent!! The girls really liked being able to exchange their ration books for some sweets! It was all very Dad's Army! Here are the girls getting their cards stamped by one of the soldiers!Here is my baby girl, she should be putting on her lippy nicely, but is looking more like a clown bless her!! You can't see it from this piccie but she actually has her curler in and her scarf on (see below pics!)

I was pretty impressed with hubbies photography (trying to be a bit arty!) here am I having my victory roll hair do done!

I just adore this piccie of Lillie, I think she looks stunning! -even with curler and scarf!

and here's my adorable baby Hollie!

My favourite picture of the day!

One of me and my girls.

Last week we had hubby's daughter with us, one day we went to Hunstanton! It was a beautiful day!! lol!!! V. cold and wet!

We had already planned to go to the sealife/seal sanctuary centre, but boy is it expensive for what it is! Look at this cute little face!

Friday we went to visit the in-laws who live in Trimmingham nr Cromer, the weather was a bit nicer although still windy!

playing in the waves.

My beauty! The bottom tooth fell out in the week! 2 days later one at the top fell out when she was brushing them before bed, and there's another wobby one still to come out!!!Little cutie!

We also went to my Auntie and Uncle's swimming, here's my little rotter shooting at me with a water pistol!

and finally, and actually our first day out last week, we went to Gullivers land at Milton Keynes. We hadn't been in the park long when the girls had their photo taken with Diego -Dora's sidekick! We were too busy to see Dora!!We just love this cinderella carriage at the top of the castle!

The girls got to dress up at the Fairytale Acadamy, and take the pledge to become fully fledged fairies and princesses!

and finally the girls with some of the Gullivers characters during the end of day parade!

So the holidays are almost over, going to cram in a couple more days out and then it's back to the ol' school/work routine! Am already thinking about the October half term lol as it'll be my birthday!!!

Enjoy what's left of the holidays, and if you get chance go check out the Charisma Cardz challenge, I'm on DT hols this week!