Winner......

Some good news to help lift my day.....I've been chose as a winner over at the Crafty Individuals challenge, which is a thrill as there are soooooo many delish entries each month, not only do you get to chose a stamp from their wonderful selection you also get a blinkie......and I do love a blinkie......lol, sad I know. As many of you know I work for Thorntons and after yesterdays news which left us all shocked and reeling I needed some good news to perk me up ready to go into work this morning. What is about 99 years and stores closing.......first Woolworths who closed at 99 years, now T J Hughes who have reached 99 years and ourselves who at least reached 100 years and are streamlining so that we can continue. Sad day for the High Street as 2 other retailers closed as well.

Phew......

Morning Peeps, well it was when I sarted writing this but now its evening when I'm posting it.......sorry didn't want to confuse you....lol, phew its warm I didn't believe the weather forecast as it was quite miserable on the Saturday and though it couldn't possible change, but I was wrong, hope you are all feelin' alot better than me though as my son has passed his cold onto me now and I'm feeling rough......hacking cough, runny nose, achey and a temprature.....in this heat as well, so I spent yesterday feeling a bit sorry for myself so I apologise not getting round to your blogs but wasn't in the mood for much at all.........can't you tell I'm feeling sorry for myself....lol.
Todays card is for A Gem of a challenge, and this was a freebie image from Janet, which is just too darn cute, I've coloured the image with Prismas again and added star dust stickles on the bubbles.....which I just love colouring. I've used embossed vellum as one of the papers and added the bow as the sentiment.

Challenges

Crafty Pad.....use bold or pastel colours.

Ribbon Girl.....pink and cream.

Sweet Stampin' ........something old (ribbon) and something new (image).

Pink Gem......sketch.

Hugs n smiles

More glitter......

Morning Peeps, ok its the weekend again and who pinched the sun, we've had rain now on and off for the past week and its not looking any better this morning and its July next week......yay off on my holls soon. Being as I'm going through a glittery phase I thought todays card should have just a smidge more glitter on than the previous posts.......lol, so please forgive me getting carried away with the stickles Star Dust again. The image is Baby Bea........super cute, and has been coloured in with Prisma pencils, the great thing about these are, I can colour and watch TV now instead of having to go to my play room to colour.In fact I'm kinda addicted to them at the moment as I've just coloured another image after just getting up........sets up a stress free day....... well thats the theory anyway.The papers are from First Edition don't know what I'll do when my pads start to run down as I love all the pads that they are bringing out.

Challenges

Delicious Doodles......cute and cuddly.

Stampin' for the weekend......favourite things, pink, glitter, teddies.

Rainbow Lady......use a digi (image).

Simon Says.......sketch.

Oh well better go and get ready for work and today we've got a stocktake

so I've got to count all the chocolates in the shop.....

its a hard job but someones got to do it.

Hugs

Glittery Grungy Monday......

Evening peeps after doing a pretty grungy tag for last weeks challenge I thought I'd do a glittery one for this weeks challenge, I've used a mixture of Graphic 45 papers from the Once Upon a Spring Time collection and Basic Grey, the background diamond stamp is from The Artistic Stamper. If you want to join in the fun over at Lindas click here for the deets from The Duke of Distress himself. I've added a chipboard flower which I covered in the same paper that I used for the background of the tag.

Challenges

Grungy Monday........April technique

Simon Says Stamp and Show......some metal.

Pile it on....show me some metal.

Make my Monday......tags with a flower

Theme Thursday.....use a border.

thanks for taking a peek

hugs

New Island Girl........

Afternoon peeps just got back from a train journey with Ethan, hubby and son. It was the first time that Ethan has been on a real train and he was quite nervous to start off with, we stood on the platform watching all the trains go by and even one of the drivers tooted his horn and waved at him, when the ticket inspector came down checking tickets he asked Ethan if he had a ticket but because he didn't as he's free he printed one off for him........he didn't stop chatting the whole of the time and I'm sure most of the people on the carriage were relieved when we got off as I'm sure the rest of their journeys would be alot quieter.
Today see the release of some more new digi designs from Kim at Cuddly Buddly called ......Island Girl, who is a down to earth little lady who wears her specs proudly, Kim has taken her inspiration from life on the Isle of Mull and the fact that shes has to wear glasses herself, and I definately do these days as I can't see a thing infront of my nose but can read a notice in the distance.......lol.
I've coloured the image which is called 'Little Big Tree' in with Prisma pencils, blending with Sansador and I did use Sakura pens on part of the coloured image to add a little extra sparkle. The papers are called Quilted Holly again a nothe digi download and one of my favourite Christmas papers.
Kinda weird doing Christmas cards in June but being as I love sparkle and glitter I couldn't resist this cutie.

Challenges

Creative Beli.......things begining with G, glitter, glasses, green.

A Spoonfull of Sugar......Ribbon and bow.

Everybody Art.......Anything goes.

Creatalicious.....sketch.

Oh well lots of catching up with my fave blogs to do now,

think I need a cuppa and a biccie.

Don't forget that the new Cuddly Buddly Digi challenge starts next Friday July 1st

hugs.

Teddy Bea.......

Afternoon peeps just got in from Rainbow World with Ethan, which is another soft play area that they let the adults scramble over as well as the kids......there are usually more adults than children playing on the slides and climbing frame it has to be said and today I came down the bumpy slide on my tummy......wheeee such fun, its great having a grandson as I get to play, and I'm a big kid at heart, unfortunately my knees are not what they were....ouch!.
Todays card is for the challenge at Teddy Bo Challenges called Bling it on, athough I've not gone mad on diamantes etc, I've gone for gliiter and sparkly embossing, the papers are from my fave Summer Breeze pad by First Edition and Teddy Bea has been coloured in with Prismas which are fast becoming my new fave medium to colour with, trouble is it takes alot longer to colour with these than my H20s, the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts.
FOR SALE
If anyone is interesed in buying a nearly new (only used about 5 colours a couple of times) set of aqua pens (40 in total) for £50 including postage please email me for further details.

Challenges

Teddy Bo.....bling it on.

Crafts for Eternity....R for ribbon and roses.

Moving along with the times.....inspired by a song (I'm forever blowing bubbles.......).

Hugs n' smiles

Sketch N Stash.......

Morning everyone hope you all had a lovely weekend at least the weather was a bit better yesterday after Saturady when it bucketed it down for most of the day, well as you know its Monday and that means another challenge at Sketch N Stash where you get to play with your old and new stash and follow a great sketch which this week has been created by the lovely Vicky. For my card I've used a stamp from Penny Black that I've had for ages which I absolutly love but I've never got around to inking it up....shame on me. I've coloured the image with my fave twinkling H20s adding Star Dust stickles for bling as well as on the candy from Craft Work Cards, which is my newest stash. The papers are from First Edition .....Hideaway, I'm so lovin' all these paper pads....scrummy.

the sponser this week is

and the winner gets to choose 4 images.

Challenges.

Penny Black......Pesky Critters.

Penny Black at Allsorts........Favourite stamp.

Simon Says.....Bingo (Flowers, Brads(faux),and sentiment).

My Mums Craft shop......seeing spots.

Hooked on Crafts......anything goes

Be back later to check out your entries for this fortnights challenge

happy crafting

hugs

Pretty Grungy.........

Morning peeps its Sunday again, time must be going quicker as I can remember what I did last week and being as I have the memory of a gold fish these days it proves my point. I'm posting my entry late again for Grungy Monday, thought I'd do a pretty version of grunge using Broken China and Dusty Concord, although I use Milled Lavendar for the main part of the Technique......click here to see the details over at Tims blog, its the only time I get my iron out willingly and when I was doing this card I had a basket full of ironing waiting to be done........but I left that to get on with the tag......lol. Hubby did it for me instead.Think I'm going to Ikea this morning for some more storage, I don't seem to still have enough and can't quite get my room organised.......probabaly because I keep buying more stash. However I am selling a full set of Aqua marker pens most have never been used for £50 so if your interested email me.Thought I'd enter this tag into the challenge over at Simon Says Stamp and show..... torn edges, and being as the main image is stamped on a torn page I thought I'd enter, the flowers are from Wild Orchid crafts, for the main butterfly I stamped onto acetate and coloured the back with purple glitter. Just remebered I haven't made my DT card for tomorrows Sketch n Stash challenge.....gotta fly!!

Challenges

CES......lots of sparkly flowers.

Sweet Stampin'.....things with wings.

The Stampman.......butterflies and dragonflies.

Delicious Doodles....things that flutter.

Polka Doodles.....things with wings.

Divas By Design.....anything but a card.

Try it on Tuesday.....Tag with a butterfly.

thanks for taking a peek

Have a lovely weekend

hugs

At the seaside.......

Evening peeps, gosh its nearly the weekend again, will be busy tomorrow at work ready for Fathers Day. Had a fun day yesterday with Ethan doing cooking......well you know the sort of cooking I mean mixing coco pops into chocolate and then adding sprinkles, trouble is the Ethan wanted to put one spoon of mixture in the cup cases and then one spoon in his mouth, mind you hes good when it came to the sprinkles on the top and we did save some for mummy and daddy.
Todays card is one of the new digis available at Cuddly Buddly called Beside the Sea.......I love bears so I couldn't resist coluring this cutie, and its nearly summer when you get your bikinis out.......lol, I think I'll struggle getting in my one piece let alone a bikini this year. The image was coloured with a combo of Prisma pencils and twinkling H20s, the papers and sentiment are also available from CB. The flourish is a die from Marianne designs, perfect size for cards.

Challenges

Paperplay.....at the beach.

A spoon full of sugar....splish splash.

Totally Papercrafts.......Die cuts and punches.

Stampin B.....use a border punch.

Stamp something Friday......pretty papers.

Thanks for taking a peek

hugs

Butterfly.......

Morning peeps hope you are all well and enjoying another sunny day although they had forecast rain all day today, at the moment the sky is blue here so we'll have to wait and see.Had a late night last night after going to the cinema to see the new X Men film which is good, just wished they had comfortable chairs I find it hard sitting in one pace these days for too long....achey bones and all, I think they should have comfy sofas so you can curl up.......might put it in the suggestion box. Today we've got Ethan and hes not very well at the moment, running a temprature or he was yesterday.
I thought I'd share with you a card that I made using a  tag I'd made ages ago, I hate not using my tags so I try to recycle them as part of the background like this one. The tag has been made using alcohol inks in three colours and then I stamped a butterfly image and sprinkled silver embossing powder on them for a smidge of bling, the main image on the card is from Crafty Individuals that I stamped onto acetate and then alcohol inked, the papers are from my fave Summer Breeze pad by First Editions.....each pad of papers they bring out gets better and better, but these are my faves at the moment....until the next one that is. The flowers were made out tof alcohol inked glossy card and the star dust stickles added on the top for sparkle as was the tag.

Challenges.

Stamp Something........something puched (flowers).

CES......inspired by a movie (the butterfly effect).

Stamp with Fun....pearls and flowers.

Crafty Calendar.....things with wings.

Pile it on......angles.

Charisma.....pink and green.

thanks for taking a peek

hugs

Fathers Day.......

Morning peeps and what a glorious day it is so far after all the rain we had on Sunday, oh well got some card making in as well watching a film and just relaxin'......my kind of Sunday. Thought I'd do a hat trick with a third Fathers day card for today, sorry if you're getting bored seeing male cards I promise I'll post a girly one real soon, I've gone for a collage style again using stamps from Elusive Images....Edwardian men plate. The mini tag, car and pen nib images are from Graphic 45. I've done another bottle cap embellishment using an image from Crafty Individuals, colured with rust alcohol ink and a combination of beeswax, glossy accents and gold glitter to finish it off. I've used my new button dies from Die-namics available from My Mums Craft Shop I'd been on the look out for some button dies and these are perfect for when you can't find the right coloured button and they come in 4 sizes as well, I've used black cut paper to make the faux threads.I have to say I was well impressed with the servive I recieved from the shop as I place my order on Monday morning and I was playing with them the next day.......

Challenges

Oh La La.....Fathers day.

Cup Cake.......male card.

One Stop Craft......Fathers day card.

Allsorts.....1 paper, 2 punches/dies and 3 buttons.

Fussy and Fancy.....male card.

My Mums Crafts shop......use punches (I used a punch to cut the image for the bottletop)

My Time To Craft......more than 1 image.

Papertake.....Dads or lads card.

Top Tip Tuesday......open theme.

Off to build a sand castle with Ethan later

thats his wish for today

hugs

Lazy Sunday.......

Well after the sun, came the rain......all day so far so at least it saves watering the garden although at the moment its really stormy, what is it they say about 'Flaming June'......hmm not today. On the plus side I've had a lazy day doing very little except making a couple of cards, thought I'd enter Chrissies Less is More challenge, this is a first for me and I've decided its harder than it looks, for a first its easy to get smudges on your nice clean white card and secondly all that white spooks you a little cos you feel that you should fill it. The theme this week is called in 'In The Frame', so not being that aufait with embossing I thought I'd add a silver embossed frame made using a stamp from Viva, the ship stamp is from Artemio and coloured in with distress inks. I know technially we shouldn't have layers on the card but I had to have a sentiment on a layer as it hides a smudge......ooops. Oh well I'll try harder next time.

Challenges

Less is more......In the frame.

Secret Crafter.....male card.

Crazy 4 Challenges.....male card.

Oh well I think its time for a Nana nap.....zzzzz

hugs

Grungy Monday.....

Morning peeps hope you are all well, firstly  abig thank you for your inspirational comments they make crafting so worthwhile and inspire me to continue......Todays tag is for Grungy Monday over at Lindas, the challenge this week is called 'Distress Ink-o-rama', if you click here you will be taken to Tim Holtz for some tutorials, I thought I'd get mine posted before Sunday this week as I'm ussually entering at the last minute, there are some really great entries again this week, I'm having trouble with the colour fading on my tags .......I think it may be the tag as they seem quite shiny and the colour of the distress inks seem to fade to very pale, I never seem to be able to get the intense colours that others seem to, so here is my pale coloured tag, I did use Bundled sage, Old Paper, Dusty Concord and Tea Dye, I've used an embossing folder down part of the tag and at the bottom, the car stamp is from The Ewardian plate by Elusive Images, the clock I embossed in Tea Dye and then added rock candy stickles to the face for bling.......the clock face not mine, although.........nooooo!! The sentiment is from Spellbinders, and the image of the man is from Crafty Individuals, I melted some wax in the bottle cap with my heat gun, and then melted some more over the image, added a dusting of Gold Perfect Pearls to finish.

Challenges

Grungy Monday......Distress.

Just For Fun......anything Tim.

Paperplay......Fathers day/male.

Moving Along with the Times.......anything but a card.

Fab n Funky.......male.

Tag Tuesday....manly tag.

Shabby Tea room....embossing.

Simon Says stamp and show.......a tag.

Polka Doodles......something for dad.

Alphabet.......F for Father.

Delicious Doodles......Fathers day.

Oh well better go and get ready for work

Fathers Day next week so we should be busier

happy crafting

Romance.......

Morning fellow crafty bloggers hope you are all well, another blue sky today after the rain yesterday, at least the gardens are having the odd drop of water, my roses have supassed themselves with glorious big blooms. Todays card ties in with roses the flower of Romance......I'm feeling sentimental and mushy so I've done a vintage wedding card inspired by the challenge at Crafty Individuals this month, there are some lovely inspirational projects to inspire you there. I've distressed, misted, crackled and washed this card.......when I say washed I mean put a wash of Fresco acrylic paint over the background paper to dull it down and then stamped on the top of it with Pumice using my two most used stamps from Crafty Individuals......music sheet and swirl stamps. The frame I first painted in gold dabber then added the new crackle glaze with a top coat of a couple of colours of Fresco paints and voila (little bit of French) you get a lovely crackled finish......

The paper was also misted as was the heart doiley.......with Tea Rose, Irridescent gold, English Ivy and Twilight. The sentiment stamp Cherish is from Whiff of Joy, I think the flowers were from Hobby House and are perfect for vintage cards, I'm hopeless at putting on flowers so I have to wait overnight to finish the card as I can never decide where to put them............big decsions.....lol. The Victorian bird with rose was from Holland when I went last year, they do quite alot of Victorian style images with the glitter on very reminisant of old fashioned Victorian cards.

Challenges

Crafty Individuals.....Romance.

Oldie but a goodie........lots of layers.

Papertake......anything goes.

Everybody Art......distress.

Pink Elephant......here comes the Bride.

Pollycraft.....love and marriage.

Our Creative Corner.....wedding using pastel colours.

CRAFT.......wedding/love.

Crafty Cardmakers.....love the lasting time

catch up with you all later

hugs

You've got mail........

Though I'd share with you a card today that I made a while back, the image is by Cezs Pachela featuring the pup from Toby Tumble......this image is called 'You've got mail'. The papers are also from Cuddly Buddly, I coloured the door and dog with distress inks and the flowers with twinkling h20s. I embossed the whole of the image with clear embossing powder to get a twinkly varnished look. I've kept the layout simple just adding a bow and gems.

Challenges

Cupcake......things with tails.

CES....clean and simple.

Paper Sundaes......lets get sentimental.

Stamp something.....use a digi.

Creative Inspirations.....cute bears/animals.

We're watching Charlie Bear at the moment......Ethans favourite bear.

happy carfting

hugs

Sketch N Stash...........

OK who knicked those last two weeks, I thought there was still another week to go for the challenge, then I suddenly realised there wasn't and I had to get my skates on to make my DT card in time, this week the sketch is by our talented Jill.

.
I've used another of the new releases from Sylvia Zet called Dandelion Girl for my card this week......... another sweetie, the image is available from Cuddly Buddly,the corner dies and flourishes are from Marianne Designs, and the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts. The new stash that I used this week was the image and the old stash was the pearls and lace. I'm looking forward to visiting all your fabbie entries again this week.

Challenges

Drunken Stampers.....Happy Birthday.

One Stop Craft....Texture.

Stamp Something Friday......use a digi (papers and image).

Cute Card Thursday.......Embellish it.

Delicious Doodles......Texture.

By the cute and girly.....In the garden

Hugs n' Smiles

Grungy Monday......

Don't panic it's still Sunday but I seem to get later and later posting my entry for the challenge for Grungy Monday over at the fabbie Lindas blog, this week the technique to follow is one of my faves ........'Shabby Chic' and you can follow the deets if you click here to be transported to Tims blog where there is a lovely tutorial for you to follow. I've gone with a guys theme as I love me cogs and metal and I just love doing men cards. The paper under the stamped acetate which is the challenge by the way over at The Craft Barn has a printed map of Italy and we shall be driving down those very roads real soon as I've been talked into driving to Italy rather than flying which takes 2 hours as against 2 days.........my hubby and son would be quite happy driving anywhere for as long as it takes where I kinda like the idea of being there by lunchtime sitting by the pool........anyway back to the card, the stamp with the car on is by B Line, the cogs is by The Artistic Stamper, I'm sorry I've forgotten the paper manufacturers name which is a nuiscance as I need some more.

Challenges

Sunday Stamper......use stash that makes you happy, (I love working with metal),

The Stampman......Boys and men.

Fussy and Fancy........card for a man or boy.

Paper cutz........Beach or travel theme,

Stampin' B ......Male card using black, brown and 1 other colour.

oh well I'd better and get some gardening done, well I'll probably just

stand there and point at what needs doing being as my back

is still playing up, thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it.....

Happy crafting

Out of action.......

I can't believe that I have gone and done my back in ......how .....I picked up the garden hose to water my new plants that I'd just brought from the garden centre whilst carrying a box of tea bags......lol.OK you all stop laughing  now, I know its funny and I haven't got a scoobies why it happened all I know is I'm in agony and can't stand or sit, the only comfy pace is lying down and I'm supposed to be a work tomorrow.....that could be fun.