Oh I am really getting into this stamping lark!!! With my new ink pad (purcahsed Monday) I have attached my sugar nellie stamps to their wooden blocks, curtosy of Matthew cutting up the wooden cheese board he got (as part of a set! with knife and port!). I have stamped several images, as yet I have only gotten around colouring one of them, and haven't yet attempted using water and brush with my pencils yet, but I will no doubt about that!!
In my web/blog travels I have also stumbled upon this rather fab sugar nellie blog which keeps you up to date with new designs, and shows some wonderful card samples using the nellie stamps, it's well worth a visit
www.sugarnellie.blogspot.com
mmmmmmm..... still having problems with direct links, but I am seeking help to try to get these to work! You can use the link on the left though (I think that works!)

Lillie had a good night again last night, the dream catcher must be working! That or holding her dolls hand, but who cares something is working, I am also reading them a story or part of before I go downstairs. She only stirred once just after we went to bed, I think she senses we are there and just wants a kiss.
Took Hollie to playgroup this morning, she was fab and just went off to the craft table, then the drawing table, then the reading spot and hardly came to me at all, so I have no worries about her settling in at nursery when she starts after easter, oooo... that'll soon be here!!!
Hollie's masterpiece ''Rocking Robin'' made all by herself with guidance from one of the helpers!

Yippee Lillie had a good night last night, only 1 blip which was not long after we went to bed. We put a dream catcher up without her knowing, when we told her what we were going to do she started crying and saying she didn't want it up no no no. So Matthew sneakily hung it at the end of the curtain poll behind a string of fairies she has hanging there!! We will see how it goes tonight, but maybe there really is something with these dream catchers that somehow really does work?
Today has been quite non productive, I have sat at my desk willing to make something, be it cards, scrapbook pages anything, but all I seem to have done is look around various blogs and sketch sites looking for inspiration.
I did have a play and got 3 Hamish images printed nicely, even if I did double sided tape him to one of the girls mini story books, but it seemed to work! Then I after much deliberating made the following card to coinside with the current challenge over on the Just Bex forum
Your card HAD to have 4 triangles, 2 circles, 2 rectangles and 3 squares on it and any other embellishments you wished. I had the picture taken, and all set to post it on the forum when checking the list I had missed a blinking triangle aaarrgghhh!!!
So luckily there was exactly the right place for one at the top right hand corner of the image, phew! But I am totally p'd off with the smudges I made when adding the fake stiching, but will still give the card to my friends little boy who's birthday it is next month, he won't even look at the card (most kids never do) and his mum will understand as she has dabbled in card making herself!

As promised I have completed the card using the image I coloured a few days ago so here it is
not sure if I had over done it with the flowers but I think it can carry it.
I also made my uncles birthday card, yes he has a motorbike and does track days now and then with my BIL, so quite appropriate if a little dark!
Well yesterday was so full but we managed everything we set out to. Delivered the cakes first thing, then spent a bomb in Morrisons, think we have everything for Lillie picnic boxes for her party at the weekend, and nibbles for the tables for the parents. After lunch the christmas de-deccing began and went well, and every year we seem to manage to put 1 less box away in the loft, must just pack it better! The room looks soooo...... bare but sooo..... much bigger we now have so much floor space, which the girls still manage to cover with their stuff!!
I even managed to make a rush card order for my friend, which I delivered today whilst up town.
Yes I thought I had a dentists appointment!!! It's not until next bl**dy month!!!! It's even written as Jan.on the calendar! So I popped into the craft shop and got a new ink pad (still waiting for Matthew to cut me some wood blocks to mount my stamps on) also a bag of mixed buttons and a 'thinkable inkable' stamp with various girly wordings on it, was only 99p.
Wo with Lillie at school and Hollie with mum and dad I've had a catch up with the forum and made the above card (previously shown coloured image), and little else!!! It's just nice to have some peace and quiet without a child at my desk crazing for something!!!
Lillie was a pain yet again, this morning she said she had been having dreams about her friends, and ghosts (not nice like Casper) and witches. Why does she have such an active mind a bed time??? Every night we hope for her to sleep a solid night right through, perhaps a nice happy cutey story before bed may help, who knows I'll try anything!

Lillie played up again last night, again putting her parts on before Matthew had even come done the stairs. I was summond for some reason, why? she doesn't want me I'm mean mummy, still I had words, threats that there would be no nails painted, no sleep overs at nannie and grandads and this seemed to work. She did wake once but this was for the toilet and went back to sleep afterwards.
I baked my cakes this morning, and finally got them filled and bagged up before we had tea, we will deliver them in the morning and then head off to Morrisons, we need to do a full shop as we only got 'bits' last week, and also need to get the rest of the bits for Lillie's party picnic boxes.
Finally got round to colouring a couple more Bella images but it's taken a while for the ideas to flow for the actual card layouts. So after inspiration from some fello bloggers I completed 1 card, the other will have to wait now until Monday at the earliest.


When we get back from shopping and have cleared it away and had lunch, we have the task of taking down the christmas decorations, oh the joy! I hate the way the house looks afterwards, it always looks so bare, it doesn't take too long to get used to again though.

Yeah Lillie went back to school this morning, and we all managed the early morning really well. She had a better night last night, a few whimpers but told her to shut up and she did! She surprised me big time by getting her school clothes on straight away no fuss no arguements, she must have been keen to get back to school. We ended up sitting about for half an hour, but it was nice not to have to rush about with me loosing my temper.
Hollie and I nipped up town, I needed eggs for my cake baking tomorrow, and we managed to pick up a couple of bargains in Peacocks! Bless her she was a bit lost without Lillie, even though she has had great fun with her new desk (birthday pressie, it has an over head projector and slides with numbers/letters/pictures to copy) we actually got the batteries for it, but it is a bit loud and has no volume button??!!!!
While looking for something in my storage boxes I came accross an envelope with lots of stamped Bella images, that someone from me Just Bex forum kindly stamped and sent me. I just had to colour up the ballerina Bella and have made this card for Lillie wishing her good luck for her ballet show. I can't believe it's only a fortnight away, we first heard about it months ago! I will give it to her on the morning of the shows, I may even make one for her teacher! This has to be up there with my all time favourite cards, she's just gorgeous!
I was tearing my hair out looking for my peel off marker pens so I could colour my gold peel off black. Oh why is it that when you have a tidy up you can never find anything you want? Mind you if you saw the amount of storage boxes and carrier bags of things I have around my desk you would wonder how I ever get anything made! I don't I tidy up, I leave it messy and I still can't find it, I NEED to get some organization sorted!

Something very spooky happened last night after I posted on here! I went onto the forum and put up a new post showing my Hamish card, only to get a personal message from my forum friend Kerry saying she had just made a card using Hamish and believe it or not the very same backing paper!!! We had no connect or any idea that the other was going to do this, how weird is that? We have so many similarities we joke that maybe we are related somehow! this is the link so you can have a look but I don't think it is going to work you may need to copy and paste this into your system?

http://forum.cardmakingandpapercraft.com/tm.asp?m=234216

Lillie was a sod again last night, this time worse she was calling out histerically as soon as Matthew got down the stairs, lord only knows what the problem is, when we ask her she says she doesn't know? She has been asking a lot just recently about what happens when you die, what happens to your skin, today was what happens to your food, she knows you turn into a skeleton as they have one hanging on the door at school, maybe this is playing on her mind. She has school tomorrow so I hope she gets a good nights sleep for her and Matthews sake.
I haven't done any crafting today, not really had the inspiration to, I tell a lie I have printed a decoupage sheet and cut it out, but it's not put together and I've yet to make the card, it's for Uncle's birthday next week so I'll show you when it's done.

After not feeling at all crafty this morning I finally managed to get a couple of cards made, this one is for a friend from the card making a papercraft forum who has recently been involved in an accident


this one is for my cousins little boy who turns 2 next week, he is mad on tractors, so thought this Hamish stamp was just perfect. I haven't really stamped before, I tried it and didn't really take to it, but there are so many lovely images that I felt I must give it a go. Matthew bought me some water colour pencils for christmas, I have coloured the image with them but only in pencil form as I couldn't be bothered to find a paint brush and the other bits required, I'll play more when I get more time!


I don't know what we are going to do with Lillie she is playing up during the night, I thought we had got past all of this and since sharing a room with Hollie and having the tv/dvd they had been fine. But for the past week or so each night Lillie wakes up calling one of us for kisses and cuddles, it makes us sooo.... mad, then she call because she wants to be covered up, or wants the loo, or wants the light on aaarrgghhhh.......! I so hope going back to school will tire her to the point where she needs the sleep, I get so mad with her, Matthew has more patience but it's so hard for him as he is up so early for work (hgv driving isn't good with not a lot of sleep). We will see what tonight brings.