Merry Christmas Everyone !

I am sure that this will be my last post before Christmas so I just wanted to say to everyone.....

"Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for the New Year"

I can't believe that I only started my journey into cardmaking just under a year ago. I have met so many lovely, kind and talented crafters during that year who have inspired me and made me spend all my money !! and have given me opportunities I could only dream about a few months ago. I thank you all. I am hoping that I am worthy enough to join you all and spread a bit of inspiration to fellow crafters as you have done for me.

Thank you to all those who follow my blog, you don't know how much it means to me.

Roll on 2009 with even more fun to be had with crafting and blog hopping !

Hoping you all have a fantastic time with your families and that Santa brings you everything crafty !

Take care with lots and lots of rubbery hugs,

Just one more......

I just wanted to show you the sweet bags I have made for our Darlings for their stockings. I have used my new label Nesties, Joel the Reindeer from Toodles and Binks coloured with ProMarkers, House Mouse stamp from Christmas clear set and ribbon from my stash. These were also coloured with ProMarkers. It's probably more than enough to send their teeth black in the New Year !

Gosh, has a week really gone by ?

I have made it ! I am still alive ! I have just had the most awful week to top off my last awful weekend and have finally come through the otherside of the dreaded lurgy. Typically my DH was working long days this week (3am - 3pm) and Ski was still at school. I don't know how I managed during daylight hours but as soon as my DH walked through the door, he wore the trousers ! Poor Fizzy came down with it too during the week so we were both curled up on the sofa watching that awful Christmas Daily Cooks - what a load of old *&%£"! !!!!

I emerged from my duvet this morning feeling relatively human and ready to face the World.

Tonight I thought I would pop by and say hello and show you two rush makes of the week before last and guess what ? They aren't Christmas cards !! LOL

My friend had two boys, both born on Christmas Eve, 5 years apart ! Now, I wonder what the odds are of that happening ? They needed Birthday cards and here they are.

This card I had already made some months before but I adapted the inside of it and made a pocket to slide some money into it.








To make this card I used :

Black card from The Papermillshop.

Magnolia Edwin, wall and graffiti "Happy Birthday" stamps. Edwin and the wall were painted with distress inks.

All the patterned papers, lizard and the sentiment are a download from Designs by Krista






To make this card I used :

BasicGrey Cupcake papers. I punched the balloon border using my X-Cut border punch system which I totally forgot I had ! oops !

House Mouse stamp "Pop-ular Fun" which I have coloured with ProMarkers. The largest balloon I covered with glossy accents.

Again I added a pocket to the inside of the card although looking back, I could have added something else to it too - never mind, too late now.

Thank you for popping by. I hope to catch up with you again before the "Big Day" to wish you lots of merriment.

Thank You

I would like to say a huge thank you to all those people who have sent their kind wishes and love to my little girl who bumped her head last week -gosh, is that really a week ago now ? I am happy to report that apart from a stinking cold, she is back to her old self and still climbing on chairs and anything else she can scramble onto !

Kaboodle Doodles Challenge # 16

Sorry for being late posting this card. I have just had a weekend I don't ever want to repeat. To cut a long story short my baby DD, Fizzy, decided to give me a heart attack by falling off a chair onto the hard kitchen floor and when I went to her she was motionless on the floor, white face and blue lips. Of course, panic set in and I phoned for an ambulance. Within minutes they were here and she was screaming the place down. Apparently when she fell she went into shock and this is a very normal way a child deals with shock ! - they could have told me. We then spent the rest of Saturday night checking her every ½ hour (panicky parents) only to be woken by her being sick the next morning and she ended up being really poorly yesterday and another trip to A&E where they said she probably had a tummy bug and it was just coincidence that two came together.

Anyway, she is back to climbing chairs now and hanging off the Christmas tree so she must be back to her old self !

Now for what I am really here for .......

This week on the Kaboodle Doodles Challenge Blog.....

"This week the challenge is all about Males, we would like to see a creation aimed towards boys and/or men. Ok so it is quite a difficult one this week, but we are nearly at the end of the year so we thought we would give you a challenge"

This is the card I made.....

The patterned papers are the Kaboodle Doodles All Star Kit available in the Kaboodle Doodles online shop.

I cut the stars on my Cricut and these are Core'dinations card. I doodled some stitching around the edge and added some BasicGrey letters and dabbed them with some silver ink.

The image is Edwin who I have coloured with ProMarkers.

The string and button are from my stash.

I hope that you can find a little time in between those last minute Christmas cards to come and play with us this week and I look forward to visiting your blogs.

Take care and have a fabby week. Thank you for taking the time to come and visit me !

Hugs,

BasicGrey Challenge #15

This week over on the BasicGrey Challenge Blog ......

"For this weeks challenge we would like to see you use some recycling on your creations, eg, cardboard, parts cut from another card, material from old clothes, postage stamps, it can be anything you like, the list is endless, also its not essential that the recycled item has to be old and used, you could simply use the inside of a business envelope for example as i know they can have some lovely patterns that can be used as backing papers etc, so have fun and of course not forgetting to use at least one item from basicgrey somewhere on your creation"

This is my card ..

Firstly, I am sorry for the dreadful photo. It is so dark and miserable here I have had terrible trouble trying to get a decent photo even with all the lights on and a light over the top of my card !

The patterned papers I have used are BasicGrey Wassail and some gorgeous handmade paper with gold dots on it (this must be recycled somehow ?). I have also used some purple Bazzill for matting.

The main recycled "green" part is the dark purple patterned card that the Angel are on and the tags. This was card from a cake box that my daughter's birthday cake came in from Tesco ! I thought this card might come in handy for Christmas time as it had patterns of snowflake type shapes on it so I kept it in my box of scraps.

The Angel is a download from All That Scraps and she is coloured with ProMarkers and the only two Copic pens I have ! I have glittered her wings with some fabulous glitter which I bought from Crafts U Love called "Twinklets Diamond Dust" and it is little pieces of glass which sparkle just like diamonds. I also used this on the two brads and snowflake. You may just pick this up from the second photo I have taken if you zoom in.

The snowflake has been cut using my Cuttlebug and I rubbed some purple Brilliance ink and pink Colorbox chalk onto it and sprinkles the whole lot with diamond dust. The filigree and brad are from my stash.

The pink ribbon is also from my stash.

This week is the final week for the BasicGrey Challenge Blog until the New Year so you have plenty of time to gear up for our next challenge. We look forward to seeing you back again with us next year.

Thank you so much for popping by and visiting me and for any lovely comments that you leave !

Take care and have a good weekend. Hugs to all.

Anniversary Wishes

I made this card for my Brother and his wife and also for something else which I won't reveal just yet ;o)




I took inspiration for my card from Friday Sketchers as they had a fab sketch on there to follow.

To make this card I used :

K and Company patterned paper.

Red Core'dinations cardstock for matting.

A red piece of gorgeous paper from my BasicGrey Wassail pad and embossed this with my hearts folder on my Cuttlebug.

The image is a Penny Black stamp called Sweet Pea Wreath which I coloured with distress inks and I added some glossing accents to the flowers. You might just see this in the second photo I have taken. I cut all around the image and cut out the centre because I wanted the hearts embossing to show through. This took quite a bit of time and patience (which isn't my strong point !) with my craft knife !

This ribbon is a brown Anita's ribbon.

The pearls are from my stash.

The sentiment I made on my PC and distressed it with Antique Linen and Old Paper distress inks.

The colours in this card and gorgeous and warm and I was really pleased when I finished it.

Kaboodle Doodles Challenge # 15

This week on the Kaboodle Doodles Challenge Blog......

"This week the challenge is all about Embossing, any type of embossing, use your embossing powders and heat tool, or your cuttlebug and collection of folders, your light box and embossing tools - anything you like"

This is the card I made this week :

I used Kaboodle Doodles Green Papers Kit and also a piece of Papermania green Christmas paper.

A piece of bronze coloured Core'dinations card which I embossed with the script embossing folder on the Cuttlebug and then I sanded it to distress it. It also makes the embossing stand out too.

The image is a Papermania stamp which I triple embossed (my first time !) and I used silver, gold and silver pearl embossing powders. I really enjoyed doing this although I was a little worried I would end up with the stamp stuck in the embossing powder or a melted stamp ! I then rubbed some Brilliance Cosmic Copper ink into the embossing and "polished it" which gave it a distressed look and also made the image stand out a little more. I mounted it onto some bronze shiny card.

The sentiment is a Woodware clear stamp which I stamped in Versafine Olympia Green and distressed with distress inks (old paper and walnut stain) and also mounted this onto some bronze shiny card.

The rainbow drops and ribbon are from my stash.

I loved making this card, such a challenge and something I had never tried before.

I am looking forward to seeing your embossed creations !

Hope you all have a good week and I hope the end is nearly in sight for all those Christmas cards (says she who hasn't even written one yet !!).

BasicGrey Challenge #14

What a very busy week it has been this week and I have had no time at all for crafting or blogging. I was lucky and manged to make this card last weekend !

Now for this week's challenge on the BasicGrey Challenge Blog .....

"For this weeks challenge we would like to see some charms on your creations, you can have as many as you like, and of course not forgetting to use at least 1 item from BasicGrey somewhere on your creations"

This is the card that I made :




I used brown card from The Papermillshop

BasicGrey Pheobe patterned paper which is lovely with the little birds on it. I also used BasicGrey Sultry for the stamped birds. The birds are Hero Arts stamps.

The blue/green card is Core'dinations which I stamped with an Inkadinkado florish in Versafine Olympia Green.

I downloaded the image from Pink Petticoat and coloured it with ProMarkers. The sentiment is also from the same download from Pink Petticoat.

The ribbon and key charm are from my stash.

The flowers are Hero Arts flowers with leaves from Hobbycraft. The spacers and brads are from my stash. I also used some little rainbow drops and pearls also from my stash.

I have sent this card to my friend who is moving house in the New Year.

I would also like to say many congratulations to my new playmates ! Who are :

Kim Tara Anthea Chris Rica

You must go and visit these talented ladies blogs - they are amazing !

I am sure we are going to have lots and lots of fun !

Have a good weekend.

It's a Cracker !

This is the other card I made for my friend's little boy. I decided to follow the sketch Martine had designed for the DT call on the BasicGrey Challenge Blog seeing as she had done such a good job ! It was a great sketch to follow - thank's Martine.

I used :

Bazzill Basics "ruby slipper" CS and Papermania patterned papers (these are so lovely).

White card from The Papermillshop embossed with my snowflake Cuttlebug folder

Elzybells "Cracker Surprise" stamp coloured with ProMarkers.

Woodware snowflake punch and gems from my stash.

BasicGrey brads and spacers from my stash.

Ribbon from my stash with Santa charm from e-bay.

The senitment ticket is from a tickets kit from Kaboodle Doodles and I printed the sentiment from my PC.