Tuesday? Already?

I love Bank Holidays.. I love the long weekends, and the extra time at home as a family.. but don't they make the week go quickly? I did have a demo on Sunday at Grimsby Crafts, and a lovely day it was too! Lynne and the girls at the shop were absolutely wonderful, and the customers were so friendly and chatty.. it was a great day!

It's Tuesday already, and I'm lating posting my Challenge card for the My Time to Craft Challenge as my phone line was being upgraded this morning, so I was offline and - to my youngest's dismay! - had no internet!

Still... I'm here now, and can show you my card that I made for this weeks challenge of 'In full bloom'.

I love this poppy stamp that was bought out by Docrafts a while ago now, and I decided to use the colours of the flower for the card, so I kept it all together by using red and green as my theme.

I stamped the image twice and cut out the little bow to create some dimension to the card.

I hope you like it.. I thoroughly enjoyed making it.

Ploddin' on...

After what seems like an eternity, I finally have my new phone in my hands and so far - touch wood- it seems to be wanting to do everything I need it to do.. !

So this is really just a very quick blog post to check that my mobile blogging is still available.... And if you're reading this, then I take it that it is! Haha.

Such a loss..

So long, Red 4 and Fl Lt John Egging. Such a tragedy.

Images from Google

 

Here come the girls...

Morning all....

I'm up bright and early this morning as I have quite alot of work to get through, after spending most of yesterday trying to get at least ONE of my phones to work! The house phone is now working - thank goodness - and my mobile can make and take calls and texts.. but that's all. I don't know - these new-fangled-all-singing-all-dancing phones that promise you the world, are definately a pain in the rump when they go wrong!

Hey ho.. onwards and upwards.. and I'm not stressing about it today - too much work to get done for Thursday!!

So.. onto my cards for today, and I'd like to show you my entry for this weeks My Time to Craft Challenge.. and the theme this week is Here Come the Girls.

I had the perfect stamps to create my cards, and I decided to keep the design really clean and simple.

This is all three of the cards together - I just couldn't decide on which image was my favourite - John Byers images are all so lovely (even the male ones!) that I had to use them all!

These are all from the Nostalgia range, which was bought out last year, but I'm ashamed to say my stamps have never been inked up.. so I was glad to get them out and have a play.

Out of all of the range, I think this one has to be my favourite -

It just reminds me of my girls when they were younger - rainy weather, their own favourite brolly, and their love of wellies and splashing in puddles!

I do hope you can play along with us this week - if you do, leave me a comment and I'll come a-visiting!

What a lovely weekend!

It really has been a peaceful weekend here, the weather has been nice too which makes a change! I've had a very chilled out couple of days, and today was out in the garden fighting back the weeds with the help of my hubby and his sturdy strimmer!

The dogs loved their newly cut garden too.. as did I... and I couldn't resist taking a few photos of the ones I could catch (Truly.. you really must learn to sit still more! lol)

So.. here's my photos for today.. sorry, no cards, as I have a card-free couple of days when I can. Although this week, it seems that most of my time has been card free! Still.... as a photographer, I love taking my photos.. so that's an added bonus.

Here's my boy... destroying his toys as usual.. lol. Such a beautiful boy, and more so now his coat has been clipped. You can definately see his beautiful spots more.

Awww... and my beautiful girl. It makes a change for her to sit and happily have her photo taken, so this is a joy for me. Such a beauty.

So. That's all I've been up to this weekend really. It's my last weekend off for quite a few weeks, as I have plenty of demo's to keep me going right up to the middle / end of October.. and I'm also booked to go back down to Bath to do some more Creativity TV episodes, and I have magasine work too.. so all is good, and I'm looking forward to a very busy couple of months!

Check back soon - I'll upload a few cards this week, but if there is anything you're wanting to see (tutorials or ideas), then please let me know.

Until then. xxxx

G is for....

Lots of things I guess... but my G is for Gardening this week over at the My time to Craft challenge blog. I don't know why, but Tuesday's come around sooooo quickly these days and I find that time is flying well towards Christmas!

But here's my card for today -  I promise to do more cards, but the commissioned stuff takes priority at the minute. I will upload more often though..

I kept the card quite simple because the stamped image is rather a large one.. and I added some flowers in too, to finish it off.

The clouds were made using my Baby wipe technique, that I like to show (and done a tutorial on too.. on a video somewhere on this blog.)

I hope you like the card.. and I promise not to leave it a week until the next one! lol.

Fancy a Challenge?

I love updating my blog, but sometimes it's difficult to have something to post everyday.. things are still a bit quiet on the Crafting front after my op... I think personally, that I have brain mush.. that must just be the anaesthetic and being asleep for four hours or so during the op... but hey ho.. I'm sure that will get better soon. 

So, today, whilst I was browsing the web, I came across this blog HERE that had put a blog challenge up.... so I thought I'd play along. Fancy having a go with me?

Scary things.. .number one topic.. but I'll get to it later!



Challenge Topics: 
Day 1 – A photo of yourself and a description of how your day was.
Day 2 – A photo of something you ate today.
Day 3 – Your idea of the perfect first date.
Day 4 – Your favorite photograph of your best friend.
Day 5 – A photo of yourself two years ago.
Day 6 – A photo of an animal you’d love to keep as a pet.
Day 7 – Your dream wedding.
Day 8 – A song to match your mood.
Day 9 – A photo of the item you last purchased.
Day 10 – A photo of your favorite place to eat.
Day 11 – What’s in your makeup bag?
Day 12 – A photograph of the town you live in.
Day 13 – Your favorite musician and why?
Day 14 – A TV show you’re currently addicted to.
Day 15 – Something you don’t leave the house without.
Day 16 – Your celebrity crush.
Day 17 – A photo of you and your family.
Day 18 – Something you crave a lot.
Day 19 – Another picture of yourself.
Day 20 – The meaning behind your blog name.
Day 21 – A photo of something that makes you happy.
Day 22 – A letter to someone who has hurt you recently. A letter to someone who broke my heart.
Day 23 – 15 facts about you.
Day 24 – A photo of something that means a lot to you.
Day 25 – What’s in your purse?
Day 26 – A photo of somewhere you’ve been to.
Day 27 – A picture of you last year and now and how have you changed since then?
Day 28 – Your favorite movie.
Day 29 – Something you could never get tired of doing.
Day 30 – A photograph of youself today + three good things that have happened in the past 30 days

My Time to Craft Challenge.

Yep. It's that time of week again, and this week our challenge over at the MTTC challenge blog the theme of Fairy Tales. We have lots of inspirational ideas on there, so I'm sure you'd love to play along!

This was my card for this weeks Challenge.

I have used the brand new Papermania Enchanted Christmas range of products to create this stunning fairy card... isn't she amazing??

For a change, I've done the decoupage version instead of doing the stamps (although I couldn't resist those!).. and the decoupage is already precut. All you have to do is to pop them out and layer them up. Easy Peasy!

Here's another close up of the Fairy.. she is absolutely stunning and has so much detail on her.

I hope you decide to play along at the My Time to Craft Challenge this week. We'd love to see your Fairy Tales cards and projects.

Happy Crafting!!

back again....

As promised, here are the rest of the demo samples from this weekend.. I hope you liked the ones yesterday. If you have any questions about items I've used, or anything else, just get in touch..

 This card was the spinner card that I showed how to make.. I used the dies from the XCut range to create the aperture in the card, and used cotton for the hanger of the image.

 I love, love, love this little Rudie Reindeer.. he is my favourite from all the ranges this time!! I stamped and cut him out using the XCut dies to frame him, then used the Typography numbers to do the 25 at the bottom of the card. The papers are from the Cranberry and Apple range.. such lovely bright christmas colours! I added some gloss to the baubles to give them some shine too.

A very simple Penny Slider card.. using the Birthday papers and some of the Birthday alphabet.

This was another very quick card that people liked to fiddle with. It was the Dahlia Fold card.. the fold was on Splitcoast stampers a while back now.. but it looks so effective.

Awww... Mr Santa Claus. Another really lovely image from the NOEL range of stamps. Coloured and then mounted onto the Cranberry and Apple papers. I used glitter to go around the edges.

Right.. I must make a move and get sorted - lots of things to get done today.. not least my challenge card for tomorrow.. I just haven't had time to get it done this week.. I have the plans of what to do, everything is laid out.. but I needed some foam pads! (can you believe I ran out of every single one... and silicone!! What is the world coming to!)

Five thousand miles...

Well, not quite exactly as many as that.. but it certainly felt like it this weekend!!

I had my demo up at Craftzone in Pontefract on Saturday.. I can't tell you how much I love this little shop.. such a hive of great crafting paraphernalia, lots of inspiration from the lovely Wendy, and the customers were a dream to have sat in front of me. There were a few familiar faces there too - so Hello to you especially for making my day go even easier!

After I'd been up to Craftzone, I drove home, packed the car and headed off to Kent for the night and drove back early the next morning. What a journey - I was in bed for half seven!!

Anyway. Onto my cards - I took a quick photo on my phone (sorry about the poor quality.. it's the only thing I don't like about my Blackberry!!) of some of the ones I did.. hope you like them. I'll share more with you tomorrow, as there were quite alot that we'd got through.

The one above is using the same technique as the ones below - just on a larger scale. I stamped with watermark ink and then went over with chalks to create the hazy sort of effect. The embellishments are from the fantastic little Noel box of chipboard shapes.

This was the smaller collection of the same thing - I used the Papermania 3 inch square cards... I love this size.

 The hanger that I created here was made by using the new Xcut dies.. they are really lovely shapes, and this one must be my favourite .. the doorplate. So I created a christmas hanger, used chipboard shapes to finish and added some lettering from the Cranberry and Apple collection, coloured in black and Anita's 3D gloss to finish.

This one is just a very simple matting and layering card. I used the toppers from the Forever Friends christmas range.. I love this image. The Forever Friends are really lovely too, and you can create some lovely cards for a fraction of the price that they are in the shop!

So.. that's my little collection for today. I promised I would upload them to here.. so there will be the rest of them tomorrow! Enjoy.. and most importantly, happy crafting!

Espresso-ly Yours...

Well this week has gone really quickly, I must say!

I am back to work this week, so am avidly making samples for Saturday.... I am over at Craftzone in Pontefract - and it must be my lucky day, as I think that this shop is the bestest shop in the area! I love it and I nip over for a mooch as often as I can.

Anyway... the card I want to share with you today is one that I have made for the My Time to Craft Challenge blog. I've ventured into another style of clean and simple cardmaking, and I must say.. I love it!

This is the card I entered for this weeks challenge.

The idea of the card came from this lady's blog and I have spent quite a while looking through it.. the artwork on there is amazing - she is seriously one talented lady!

So... details of the card - obviously made using splodges of watercolour paint and drawing around with a permanent marker. I love the simplicity of the birdies. I finished it by adding a border at the bottom by using the Papermania Noel range of stamps.

I hope you like it as much as me.. Right.. off to make more samples!

Happy Crafting!