BasicGrey Blog Candy # 9

Well, here we are again with some scrummy BasicGrey candy for you courtesy of Simon Says Stamp !

So, what do you have to do to win my candy ?

Some of you will be used to it by now but for those first timers, here goes :

Well, there are no strict rules and the comments I make below are not compulsory to enter this draw but it would be nice if :

You could give your support to Simon Says Stamp, BasicGrey Challenges and myself by becoming a follower if you are not already.

Add my blog candy to your sidebar and please feel free to "take away" my blinkie !

Join in with us at BasicGrey Challenges and also Simon Says Stamp's challenge blog, Simon Says Challenge ! You can combine challenges with both of these challenge blogs which is great news !

This blog candy will be open to everyone Worldwide (including all DT members of both challenge blogs) until Saturday 12th December when I shall draw a winner with a random number generator and post a new fabby blog candy for you to enter.

I would like to give a huge thank you to both Heidi and Amber of Simon Says Stamp for giving me this fantastic candy again for you to win.

Good luck !

WINNER of Blog Candy # 8

Sorry for the delay in drawing the winner of my blog candy # 8. Without further ado, the winner is........

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers: 28 - Claude

Timestamp: 2009-11-29 14:03:47 UTC

Many congratulations ! If you would please email me with your full name and snail mail address I will ask Amber of Simon Says Stamp to post your goodies off to you.

Thank you for entering and better luck next time !

BasicGrey Challenges

Good morning and welcome to BasicGrey Challenges ! This week we have a fabulously quick and easy sketch by our ultra fantastic and talented Tara G ! In fact, the sketch was so quick and easy Ms Costello managed to make 6 cards all in one night ! Check them out, they are amazing !!

The rest of the DT's cards are gorgeous too. It's amazing how we can all interpret one sketch so differently. Very inspirational.

The DP's are BasicGrey Nook and Pantry. These are gorgeous papers. Unfortunately, I was rushing to do this card and didn't realise I had covered up the panel of gorgeous fruit paper with my image ! I only noticed once I had taken the photo ! Never mind, it happens to all of us at times.

The image is of course Tilda and I bought her at the NEC. I just love this stamp.

The sentiment is a Cats Life Press stamp and I bought it from here

The ribbon is from my stash.

I'm definately going to make another card using this sketch and next time, you will be able to see the panel !

Again, sorry about the quality of the photograph. The weather here has been dreadful and so dark. We have had the lights on all the time at home and I don't know how many times we have got soaked through. Never mind, I can't complain especially when I see what those poor people in Cumbria are going through with such terrible flooding and damage to their roads and bridges.

I am going to be taking a break for the next week to look after my girls so if you come back and see the same ole card up on the screen, you now know why ! I'm not the best blogger in the World but I try and blog as much as I can.

Both girls are absolutely full of cold and poor Ski now has tonsilitis and I'm full of cold too and have a terrible cough. The lovely Lols and Sharon have given me some time off from Simon Says Challenge and Colour Create so I can concentrate on getting my girls better and also myself and then be back in the full swing of things as soon as I can.

I will be back later to post the winner of my BasicGrey Blog Candy and to also give you a new one to enter.

Take care everyone, thank you for your visit, your best wishes that you have left recently and for any new comments you leave. They mean so much to me.

Don't forget to enter my BasicGrey Blog Candy. You can enter by clicking HERE !

Simon Says Challenge

I seem to be forever saying sorry for my lack of blogging lately but no doubt we are all in the same boat with lots of illnesses and being so busy with children and their many activities in school as well as out of it. I hardly seem to spend anytime at home at the moment in fact, I was thinking about moving into the school last week as I was spending so much time there !!! I only seem to be finding time to do my DT cards and even then its a mad panic at the last minute.

This week on Simon Says Challenge we want to see some Winter Love.

I will also again apologise for the very dark photo. The weather throughout the whole of the UK has been dreadful for a couple of weeks now and trying to get a decent photograph is just impossible (unless of course you have "the biz" !). Hopefully it might start to get better and we can get some sunshine back in our lives.

The DP's are BasicGrey Figgy Pudding and these are just gorgeous for vintage looking wedding cards and not only for this time of year either, I think they would do for anytime of the year as they have a vintage silvery look to them.

The music sheet is a Magnolia stamp "Silent Night" that has been stamped in dusty corduroy distress ink.

The sentiment is a stamp by Cats Life Press and this has been stamped in dusty corduroy distress ink too. The inked background is antique linen.

The image is a Magnolia stamps which a friend of mine bought at the NEC in Birmingham a couple of weeks ago and when I saw this challenge coming up, I begged her for an image to use ! Thank you so much Heather !!! The happy couple have been coloured with ProMarkers. I added some liquid pearls to Tilda's hair band and used a Copic Spica pen on the flowers and the folds on her dress. I have inked the edges of the image with antique linen distress ink and stamped a Woodware holly border around the edge in the same ink. The pearls are from my stash.

The velvet ribbon is by Cosmo Cricket.

The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and these have been inked slightly with antique linen distress ink and then I added some star dust stickles to them. The leaves have been punched with a Woodware and Leone Em punch and I have added some Picket Fence Stickes to them. Te wires with beads I bought from Hobbycraft.

The scrolls are just pieces of the same paper rolled up and tied with some raffia. Thank's Rach for this wonderful idea !

I absolutely loved making this card, such a shame I haven't got anyone to give it to ! Still, it can be kept in storage just in case its needed !!

Heidi is very generously giving away a prize of a $25 P&P free shopping spree !

This week is tinged with sadness though as we are losing our fantastic DT member Kim. On a personal note, I have worked with Kim a few times now on various DT's and its always been such an enormous pleasure. Kim is one of the nicest people you could ever wish to meet and so talented and inspirational too. Still, she has a very excuse for leaving us, she is spending more time with her gorgeous grandchildren and of course, they must come first. I shall miss you Kim.

The rest of the DT have again done a fabulous job with this challenge so please hop over to the challenge blog and of course their own blogs and have a look. If you visit their own blogs, you may find some hidden candies too !

Thank you for your visit and please bear with me !

Don't forget to enter my BasicGrey Blog Candy. You can enter by clicking HERE !

Surprise !!!

Please don't die with shock - yes, it's me and I'm actually blogging (but, I should be ironing) !!!!

It's my Great Uncle's birthday on Tuesday and he's going to be 87 bless him. Here is the card I have made for him ....



I found the courage in the end to break open my Cosmo Cricket papers. These ones are "Earth Love" just in case you are reading this from another planet !!!

The image is by Lili of the Valley and I just thought it was perfect as I'm sure he will have a little snooze with the paper on his birthday, perhaps not under a tree but a snooze anyway !!! You already know its been coloured with ProMarkers !

Raffia and button from my stash.

"Dream" sentiment by Melissa Frances.

Right, I suppose I ought to crack on with the ironing before the hubster returns from Tesco with the kids and catches me !!!! I'm far to busy to shop AND iron you know !!! ;o)

Thank you for visiting me this afternoon and for any comments you may leave - they do mean the World.

Don't forget to enter my BasicGrey Blog Candy. You can enter by clicking HERE !

Colour Create Challenge

Good morning and welcome to another Colour Create Challenge !

This week our colour combo was chosen by our very talented DT member, Mina and this is her inspirational photo for us all to use

So this week's colour combo is green, red and white with the optional extra being Christmas !

The rest of the DT's work is outstanding again this week and there is a fantastic luminaria that Karen has made that I will just have to have a go at preferably before Christmas !!

The DP's are both My Mind's Eye Signature Christmas which are so yummy and just perfect for that vintage look.

The image is a Christmas Angel from Lili of the Valley which I bought at the NEC. Isn't she beautiful ? She has been coloured with ProMarkers. Her wings have had the Stickles treatment !

The Christmas sentiment behind the Angel is a new stamp from Magnolia so I had to do some masking and bring out my SU stampamajig which is just a life saver and makes life so much easier for any stamping you do, not only masking. I use it for placing sentiments on cards and for centering (is that how you spell it ?!!!) things - an amazing tool and well worth getting one I would say and I don't even work for SU !!!

I inked the edges with antique linen distress ink and then stamped a holly border stamp from a clear stamp set from Hero Arts around the edge in the same ink.

The ribbon is from my stash.

The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and I inked the edges with antique linen distress ink and added some Stickles. The leaves are punched from a Woodware leaf punch and I added some Picket Fence distress Stickles to them to give them a snowy effect.

We look forward to seeing all your fantastic creations and hope you can come along and play with us this week ! We had a brilliant response to last week's challenge and it was so good to see so many of you playing along.

Thank you for your visit and for any comments you may leave, they always mean so much.

Have a great windy and rainy Thursday and I do hope the weathermen have got it wrong especially for those of you in the North of the Country.

Don't forget to enter my BasicGrey Blog Candy. You can enter by clicking HERE !

Simon Says Challenge

Good morning and welcome to another Simon Says Challenge. This week our theme is "Animal Antics". You can make whatever you like as long as it has an animal on there somewhere. It can be big, small, wild, tame, furry, feathery, slippery, slimy the choice is yours :-) We can't wait to see what you all make,, It would be nice to see some Christmas gifts for our pets too !! :-)

Heidi is also very generously giving away a $25 P&P free shopping spree to this week's winner.

For the next 2 weeks we have NORMA LEE joining us in the Designer Spotlight, Norma Lee won a challenge on our Papercraft Planet forum and has a fantastic blog so if you haven't popped by to see it yet you're in for a treat :-)

The DP's are My Mind's Eye "Be Merry" from last year.

The image is by Penny Black and it has been coloured with ProMarkers and stickles added.

The mistletoe is a Sizzix die and I have added some Picket Fence distress stickles which I think are fantastic, it does look like sprinkled snow. I also added some star dust stickles to the berries.

The snowflakes are punched from a Woodware punch, stickled and a gem added to the centre.

I am sorry about the quality of the photo, it is so dark and dismal here again today and it looks like the next storm is coming in as its so windy and throwing it down with rain here today. I may be up in the night holding the fence up by the look of it !!!

Thank you for your kind wishes about the girls. Both are still full of cold but much chirpier (or is that the Calpol ?!!). At least the sickness has stopped.

Please pop by and have a look at the rest of the DT's cards, they are again, fantastic.

Take care and keep well and thank you for your visit today !

Don't forget to enter my BasicGrey Blog Candy. You can enter by clicking HERE !

BasicGrey Blog Candy # 8

Well, here we are again with some scrummy BasicGrey candy for you courtesy of Simon Says Stamp !

So, what do you have to do to win my candy ? Some of you will be used to it by now but for those first timers, here goes :

Well, there are no strict rules and the comments I make below are not compulsory to enter this draw but it would be nice if :

You could give your support to Simon Says Stamp, BasicGrey Challenges and myself by becoming a follower if you are not already.

Add my blog candy to your sidebar and please feel free to "take away" my blinkie !

Join in with us at BasicGrey Challenges and also Simon Says Stamp's challenge blog, Simon Says Challenge ! You can combine challenges with both of these challenge blogs which is great news !

This blog candy will be open to everyone Worldwide (including all DT members of both challenge blogs) until Saturday 28th November when I shall draw a winner with a random number generator and post a new fabby blog candy for you to enter.

I would like to give a huge thank you to both Heidi and Amber of Simon Says Stamp for giving me this fantastic candy again for you to win.

Good luck !

WINNER - BasicGrey Blog Candy # 7

Thank you for all the entries to my BasicGrey Blog Candy. There can only be one lucky winner and that is......


Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers: 24 - Charlene

Timestamp: 2009-11-15 08:51:42 UTC

Many congratulations. Could you please email me so that I can arrange for Amber at Simon Says Stamp to post your goodies off to you !

Sorry if you didn't win this time but don't forget that I have candy every fortnight so keep coming back to enter.

BasicGrey Challenges

Good morning on this very wet and windy morning. I thought we were going to be blown over during the night !!

What a very busy week I have had this week what with my little girls being poorly with sickness and now are both streaming with colds, hubby's been at home under my feet (back to work tomorrow so I might be able to get my routine back !), all the after school activities with extras tagged on for dancing exams and I picked up my new car !!! It's been a long time waiting I can tell you but its now firmly with me and its wonderful ! I'm so pleased with it.

Anyway, enough waffling. You are here to see what we have for you over at BasicGrey Challenges this week. Well, its all about glitz and bling so we want you to get all your sparkly bits out !

The DP's are BasicGrey Wisteria.

The image is one of the new fairies from Lili of the Valley which I picked up with many more at the NEC ! and she has been coloured with ProMarkers and Stickles and a Copic spica pen used on the wings, tiara, flowers and outside edge of the image.

The bling has been taken from a Prima pack of swirly gems.

The blue half pearls are from Quixotic Paperie.

The flowers (which are an inspiration from the Magnolia DT girls, Tab and Kim) are from Wild Orchid Crafts and are just gorgeous. I could have gone mad buying every single colour in the flowers but I was very good and stuck to ivory and white and thought I would have a go at add a touch of colour with my ProMarkers/distress ink. The blue is from a ProMarker pen. I think I should have used a lighter colour but all in all, I think it worked well. Cheaper than buying them in every colour anyway !!! Tell me what you think, good or bad ? I won't be offended if bad, I don't want to look silly now, do I ?!

The pearls in the flowers are from Hobbycraft and the leaves have been cut from a Woodware punch. I have added silver glimmer mist and stickles to the flowers.

The sentiment is a Melissa Frances transfer.

Simon Says Stamp is sponsoring this week's challenge with a fantastic prize of Indian Summer goodies. I have just bought these papers and they are so delish in real life, such vibrant, warm colours - you will love them.

My lovely teamies have made some stunning creations again for you this week so please pop over and have a look and leave them some nice comments.

There is still time to enter my blog candy. I will be closing this later on today so make sure you get your name down !

Have a great day and a very happy crafty weekend !

Thank you for your visit and for any comments you may leave. I'm hoping that I might be able to get around and visit you more this coming week. I am sorry for my lack of commenting and visits.

Don't forget to enter my BasicGrey Blog Candy. You can enter HERE !

Simon Says Challenge

Edited to say : I am also entering this goodie box for the festive box challenge over at Stampin' for the Weekend - why not join in too - they have some lovely goodies up for grabs !!

Good morning and welcome to another Simon Says Challenge.

This week our theme is "Thinking of You". It is so lovely to receive a card/creation and know that someone has you in their thoughts. There are many reasons to send a Thinking of You message for example A Get Well Card, Sympathy, to Cheer someone up, Support or Just Because card/creation. We would love it so much if you would join us and to see your wonderful creations.

I decided to make something other than a card this week for a change and made this gift box instead. It was made from the little monkeys that gave me the painful hands, shoulders and arms on Saturday, a huge Sizzix die (box 3) and the extendable plates I needed !!! I added two rectangles of card to the top and bottom of the box which you can see in the second photo.







I was very impressed with the Sizzix die although (for me) it did take a little twisting and turning of the card as its made with four pieces of card (I'm a bit slow when it comes to instructions) but with hubby on hand it was made in no time !!! I was amazed at how accurate it all was and now nicely it just fitted together and I would definately buy another one and would recommend them. So quick and easy once you know how !!



The DP's are Kaisercraft "Pear Tree" which is double sided.


I distressed the edges of the box with antique linen distress ink.

The image is one of the new Magnolia Christmas stamps, beautiful isn't she ? I decided to get my distress inks and watercolour paper out for a change (see, shocked you there - no ProMarkers this time !!!) as I think it gives a more "vintage" look.


The flowers I made myself and I added some gold ribbon underneath with some leaves, a sprinkling of rock candy stickles and polar white flowersoft for the effect of snow.


The holly is another Sizzix die I bought at the NEC and I painted these with rock candy crackle paint and sprinkled on some polar white flowersoft again.


I also edged the image with rock candy stickles which gives a subtle sparkle. I just love the rock candy range, its sparkly without being too sparkly and has the most fabulous sugar coated texture (probably why its called "rock candy" hey ?!!!!!!).


I haven't decided what to put in the box yet. I shall be using it for a Christmas present no doubt but its large enough for chocolates - perhaps a little treat for myself ?!!!


You must hop over to the challenge blog and see the rest of the DT's creations, they are amazing yet again. Heidi is of course offering the splendid prize of a $25 P&P free shopping spree which amazing I would still like even after the NEC !!!


Hope you all have a great Wednesday. I'm going to be on my knees praying that the money comes through today for my new car so I can go and collect it. It's just a matter of keep checking the ole PC to see if some numbers appear and its driving me mad as I know they are on their way !!!


Don't forget to enter my BasicGrey Blog Candy. You can enter HERE !

The Girls Are Back In Town !!!

I'm so sorry for the delay in posting my photos of our NEC trip, have you all been on tender hooks ?!

Boy, I was exhausted by the time I got home at nearly 11pm on Saturday night (train was delayed) and I have never ached so much in all my life from my heavy bags ! I told hubby as soon as I walked through the door that if it had not cost me so much, I would have left my bags at the station - my hands were sooo sore ! I knew I shouldn't have bought those Sizzix dies and plates so early on in the day !!

I spent Sunday taking ibuprofen, catching up with my girls and having a play with my new goodies. I'll be showing one of the things I made on Wednesday for Simon Says Challenge.

Today I've had a poorly little girl to look after who needed lots of cuddles from her Mum.

What a wonderful time we had, so much chatter, laughing and shopping and it was so fantastic to meet up with the crowd again including some new faces this time including Tab, DawnyP, Rach, Kay, Zoe, Tracy, Kim Piggott and I am sure so many more !

Here are a few of the snaps that were taken :



Kay (Toodles and Binks), Zoe, Tracy






Kim Dellow, Kim Costello, Heather (Rica)





The girls all chattering !






Marcea and DawnyP







Jacqui, Bev and Caz



Me, Tara, Kim Costello, Heather and Tab

It was such a pleasure to meet all those lovely ladies and to spend a whole day shopping just for craft - heaven !

Watch out for us in 2010 !!!

BasicGrey Blog Candy # 7

THIS BLOG CANDY IS NOW CLOSED. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ENTRY !

Well, here we are again with some scrummy BasicGrey candy for you courtesy of Simon Says Stamp !

So, what do you have to do to win my candy ? Some of you will be used to it by now but for those first timers, here goes :

Well, there are no strict rules and the comments I make below are not compulsory to enter this draw but it would be nice if :

You could give your support to Simon Says Stamp, BasicGrey Challenges and myself by becoming a follower if you are not already.

Add my blog candy to your sidebar and please feel free to "take away" my blinkie !

Join in with us at BasicGrey Challenges and also Simon Says Stamp's challenge blog, Simon Says Challenge ! You can combine challenges with both of these challenge blogs which is great news !

This blog candy will be open to everyone Worldwide (including all DT members of both challenge blogs) until Saturday 14th November when I shall draw a winner with a random number generator and post a new fabby blog candy for you to enter.

I would like to give a huge thank you to both Heidi and Amber of Simon Says Stamp for giving me this fantastic candy again for you to win.

Good luck !

Colour Create Challenge

Good morning ! A bright and sunny one it is too for a change although there is a nip in the air this morning. My DH is very pleased that its bright sunshine this morning as he voluntarily helps out a local firework company "Northern Lights" and they always put on a big display in the town. He is going to be out all day and night setting up the display and firing later on so dry weather is good news !!

This week at Colour Create we have a fabulous colour combo for you which was chosen by our very talented DT member, Karen. Thank's darlin, it was a fantastic colour combo to work with.

So, the colour combo for you is blue, white and silver and this is the photo for your inspiration this week

I decided, along with the rest of the crafting population it seems ! to make an easel card. Wow, these are so simple, yet so effective. I can see why everyone is having a go at making one.

The gorgeous DP's are Heidi Grace Designs "Frost Blvd./Crystal Snow" and I picked them up from the Hobby House stall at Ally Pally. I have since been on their site and you can buy it online. I wish I had bought more as it is so beautiful. I also used for matting and layering some blue Core'dinations and some silver card.

The image is Toodles and Binks Skate and the sentiment/verse is also by Toodles and Binks. I just love Toodles and Binks images, they are such a pleasure to colour. I coloured the image with ProMarkers and added some sparkle with a Copic Spica pen.

The flowers were punched with the EK Success retro flower punches and I added some diamond Stickles and a gem to the centres.

The skates and word "Winter" are a Sizzix die which can be found here. I also added some diamond Stickles to them both.

The ribbon, snowflake and snowflake brad are from my stash.

Here are some more photos so you can see all the card :

The rest of the DT's cards are absolutely stunning and it certainly shows that we all loved this colour combo. We look forward to coming over and see your cards and other creations.



Thank you for your visit and for any comments you may leave, they mean so much.



Enjoy yourselves tonight at any firework parties and be safe.

The New Challenge Blog on the Block - Quixotic Paperie Challenge Blog !

Good afternoon ! Well, just how excited was I when I was asked by the lovely Elaine of Quixotic Paperie to be their first Guest Designer on their new challenge blog ! I feel so honoured to be working with this lovely bunch of ladies again and I wish them all the luck in the World with their new challenge blog.

Challenges will be running every Wednesday, starting on Wednesday 4th November 2009, which also happens to be Elaine's birthday! Happy Birthday Elaine !!!

There will be a monthly prize, provided by Quixotic Paperie. The prize will be drawn from all the entries over the course of the month, so if you enter every week you have more chances to win!

The challenge this week is of course "Birthdays". The rest of the DT's creations are absolutely stunning so you must hop over and have a look look at them and leave them some lovely comments.

The DP's are by Daisy Bucket and are called "Playful Petals"

The image is a stamp by CC Designs called "Apple Emma" and she has been coloured with ProMarkers. Apple Emma is available to buy at Quixotic Paperie.

The sentiment is by Hero Arts and is from the set "Anytime Messages" which is also available to buy at Quixotic Paperie.

The ribbon is from my stash.

The flowers have been punched from retro flower punches and the leaves from a Woodware punch and the stamens I bought from Ally Pally, just love these.

We look forward to seeing your Birthday creations !

Again, I would like to say a huge, huge thank you to Elaine for asking me to be their first Guest Designer and to the rest of the DT too for putting up with me again ! Thank's girls !!!

Have a great day and thank you for visiting me and for any comments you may leave.

Simon Says Challenge

Good morning. What yukky, wet and cold weather we have again today. Hope it clears up for tomorrow's fireworks.

This week on Simon Says Challenge we want to see you "give thanks" so any creation you can think of to say a "thank you" to someone.

Heidi is very generously giving away a $25 P&P free shopping spree in store.

Our Guest Designer this week is Penny D. Her blog is called A Work of Heart. Thank you Penny for agreeing to be our guest this week.

I wasn't in the mood for cute when I made my card. I had seen a gorgeous card on the Cosmo Cricket group on Facebook which was so simple yet stunning and it gave me inspiration for this card.

The card actually looks better in real life as we've had such dark, dreary days I had terrible trouble trying to get a good picture.

The DP's are Cosmo Cricket and I think they are called "Happy Ever After".

The image is a Penny Black stamp called "Constellations" and I have stamped the image in peeled paint and brushed corduroy distress inks and spritzed it with a very fine spray of water to give a water coloured effect. I then added some diamond Stickles for a bit of sparkle.

The sentiment is a Hero Arts sentiment.

The flowers are a mixture of Hero Arts and Prima and the button is BasicGrey.

The rest of the DT's cards are gorgeous, you must hop over and go and see them.

I shall be back at lunchtime with some very exciting news and a new challenge blog to get really excited about !

Thank's for your visit and for any comments you may leave, I really appreciate them.