Even MORE cards!

I told you there would be a rush of cards! The first one is another take on the Poetic Artistry sketch which I did a few weeks ago. The stamp is a Stamps Away stamp from Clever Cut, they're so cheap and really nice images too. The sentiment was also a stamp from Clever Cut.

Both the cards are using Laura Ashley Papers. I'm quite pleased with how the second turned out, it's not my usual pink and purple card so makes a nice change. The third picture is of a cake that Ed and I made! It's a chocolate fudge cake. I wanted to decorate it with these gorgeous pink decorations but we were trying to be careful with our money and Ed wanted it to be plain anyway. It tasted gooood!

I've added a 'Blog Candy List' to the right of my page. I thought this was a good idea, as people can take a look and it shows clearly when they are finishing. So keep remembering to check it out! I am determined to win some candy haha!

Making Memories Card/Paper

I found some lovely paper at Craft Central not too long ago, it was stripes and spots in various colours. It didn't have a name on it so I asked the lady at the counter and she said it was Making Memories. I have looked for it online and I can't find it anywhere!! The only thing I found was this site, you can see the paper I mean halfway down the page. This catalogue looks as though it's a few years old so the only thing I can think of is that they have stopped doing it or something. Any ideas?

Here are a few of my cards. I've used Penny Black stickers on the first two. Capture The Magic had a sale on Penny Black stickers so I stocked up ;-)

Cute Card Thursday - Challenge 19

I've finally got round to uploading some pics. This is a card for the Cute Card Thursday challenge. This weeks challenge was to make a card with animals on it, and no people! It gave me the chance to use my new elephant High Hopes stamp. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, the paper was free from a magazine too...I made a special effort to use some up!

Safari Park and Blog Candy

There's some lush blog candy over at Lianna's Designs...she's only running it until Friday so go check it out! I really WILL get my camera out soon and take some photos :-P

There's also blog candy at Andrea's World, she's got some Magnolia stamps up for grabs!

Have also seen some lovely candy over at Maria's cards, I'm quite jealous of all the stuff she has bought in the states too wow!!

We had some friends to stay this weekend, whilst the parents are away. We went to the West Midlands Safari Park, which is only about half hour from me. It was great, loads of animals, though we did get scared when a pack of wolves seem to be circling our car!! Oh and the snakes in the reptile house were HUGE, there was an Anaconda!! Needless to say, I had a nightmare about snakes last night (I have them often but I still find them intriguing to look at!)...

Bye for now...

Fran's Blog Candy

I hope people don't get sick of my blog candy posts! There's so much about though, it's hard to resist! Fran has got 2 sets of gorgeous candy available, they really are lovely goodies! Go check it out! I don't actually know if many people read my blog...I'd like to think people do :-) I've even thought about doing my own blog candy sometime...I've got a few things in mind. Do people actually go out and buy blog candy? Or do they give away bits that they don't want/need? Or maybe it's a bit of both hmm. Anyway I think blog candy is great!!!

Even MORE blog candy!

Kezza has recommended some more blog candy! I'm useless in competitions so I probably won't win anything but it's fun to have a go anyway ;-)

Karen - for reaching 2000 hits!

Nikki - for reaching 10000 hits!

Becky - Just because she's generous!

Artfully Ila - Check out the new set of High Hope stamps, they're very cute!

Pretty Pressings - Almost 170000 hits, wow! Gorgeous blog candy!

Some of these are finishing tomorrow so you must hurry, that's if you're not already sleeping by now!!!

My birthday and more blog candy!

Well for those of you who don't know, I'm a 4th July baby! So it was my birthday yesterday! I wasn't feeling very well (I have ME) but it didn't stop me enjoying it...how could I not enjoy it with all these beautiful presents! I'm in a real crafty patch at the moment so whenever people asked me what I wanted for my birthday, that's what I asked for! I'm sure it got boring for people but for me, bliss!!!

So I thought I'd show you some pics...it feels a bit like bragging but it's certainly not, I just know that people put pics up when they get new stash and I always find it really interesting to have a nosey!!

1) Kezza recommended the Letraset rubs ons, so I'm looking forward to giving them a go. The rubber stamp in the middle is a High Hopes elephant stamp, it looks so cute!! Then I got all the Laura Ashley things from my brother and his girlfriend...I didn't even ask for them, so was a lovely surprise! I got some lovely new primas from Kate and Gaz. I haven't used primas before, from what I know of anyway, I just use any random flowes! So it's good to add to my stash :-)

2) Well, the following post was responsible for this little pile of goodies. I took a look at Poppicrafts and loved what I saw, I could've asked for much more!!

3) The Glitter Pot - This has got to be my FAVOURITE craft shop. Kezza is so lucky to live so near! I could spend loads here. I'd wanted some Lili's die cuts for ages so I'm looking forward to trying some of these. I'm also excited about the Craftwork Cards mini sentiments. I struggle for sentiments sometimes, they're the most basic thing but something I just don't have much of. So these will be really useful!

4) Non Craft Presents - Well I did get SOME non craft related presents!! I got some new music, which is always great! Really into Duffy at the moment. Then I got a nice Ripcurl top and a couple of photos! I went to a photo shoot with my brother and his girlfriend over a year ago. They got a special deal and invited me to go along too. It was fun but I wasn't able to view the pics, as I was away at the time. Anyway, it was such a surprise to see these. They're really nice, though I wish I'd been a bit slimmer, but was such a nice present!



Last but not least, I have come across lots of Blog Candy...and I just can't resist! The first is Steph who is celebrating reaching 20000 hits! The second is Karen who is celebrating setting up her own craft company and third is Katharina who is celebrating the new High Hopes stamps. And I mentioned one of the High Hopes stamps earlier, the elephant is not one of the new ones but it's gorgeous and the new ones look great too! Go check them out!

Two new cards

I've been a bit slow at putting these cards up, so I thought I should get a move on! The first card is one I made for my friends mom, she was 60. It was my first attempt at using the Ladybug and Friends stamp. I was a bit worried how the 'purple elephant' would turn out but I'd chosen the colours to match the PP and think it has worked out ok. I chalked around the stamp because the white card didn't seem to fit in.



This second card was made for my friend who has just had a little girl. The paper is actually from a little stack I found in Tesco's. It is SO thin and not good quality but it's fine once backed onto card. I did the Holly lettering using my Olivia Cuttlebug alphabet. I have found Kate's advice very useful, in that because the letting is so thin, it can be tricky to stick them onto the card. So what makes it much easier if you put double sided tape on the back of the card BEFORE you cut the letters, so then once you've got the letters, you can just peel off the tape and stick them on. It does mean you waste a bit of tape but it's so much easier. So there's a little tip for you all, incase you didn't already know ;-) I did the scallop free hand, it's not very perfect but hopefully you can't tell!



Right I'm off to watch the Murray game!!!

More blog candy at ELF-Creations! Poppicrafts!

Emma is giving more blog candy away over at ELF-Creations. It's definitely worth taking a look, as Poppicrafts are kindly giving away a £10 gift note. I've never used Poppicrafts before but they look like they've got some gorgeous products! Once you take a look, you won't be able to resist...I couldn't!!

I will upload some cards soon, when I get round to it!!

Becky's blog candy & Spiral Whisper comp

I have found some excellent blog candy, go check it out at Becky's blog but it finishes tomorrow morning, so be quick! :-)

There's also a competition at Spiral Whisper to name the new stamps. There are loads of good suggestions, I don't know how they're going to choose!

Mojo Monday Week #42 & Caard Varks Pink Challenge

Well I've done another sketch today, that's 3 sketches in total now! I must say, they're very fun! And I absolutely loved this one, from Poetic Artistry. I'm really pleased with how the card turned out and will be using it for a lot of other cards too. I could easily change the colour scheme, it can be used in so many different ways.

This card also fits in with the Caard Varks pink challenge too. I'm not sure of the rules of all these sketches but I've seen people use one card for 2 challenges and I couldn't see anything stating that I couldn't, but I'm not 100% sure so I'm sorry if I've broken the rules!

Jacqueline's blog candy

Jacqueline is giving away some lovely blog candy. Go check it out at Jacqueline's blog, she makes some amazing cards too!

More cards

Here are a couple of cards I've done lately, I'm not that happy with them, particularly the one for the sketch. I thought I'd put them up anyway, as it's all part of the craft journey ;-)

This is another of Friday Sketchers sketch. It's one of those cards where I can't decide if I like it or hate it. Let's just say, it didn't go as I'd planned. I'm not sure the backing paper goes with the rest, I'm also not sure of introducing the yellow either, but it's done now and gave me more practise of working with sketches.

This is quite a simple card, but I quite like how it turned out. I have used glitter on the blue parts of the stamped image but it's hard to see on the photo.

Emma's Achievment and Blog Candy

You should all go over to Emma's blog, as she's made a real big achievement and is offering lots of lovely blog candy. Having ME myself (similar to fibro), I know how hard it is to lose weight so she's done really well. Congrats Emma!

My first sketch

Well I'm new to this blog world, and have only recently discovered 'sketches'. I think they're a great idea and was eager to try one out. This is my first ever sketch so bare with me, but I really enjoyed doing it. I've gone for the pink, pretty, cute look on this card. Mom saw it and said she wasn't that keen, as she doesn't like cute images and cartoony things. It's got me a bit worried as she's the one who usually buys all my cards, and I've bought tons of cute stamps! Just wondered what other peoples views were...I think they're really cute, but maybe they're not for everyone. I hope the majority like them, I wouldn't want to be sending cute cards to people when they don't like them hmm! Anyway here is my Friday Sketchers sketch...

I used a compass to do the circles and cut them out by hand. I can't wait to get my circle nestabilities, that a certain someone is buying me for my birthday ;-) I also used my lovely new Cupcake papers. Hope you like, looking forward to doing more!

Male cards

Well I've been making some cards using my Dovecraft Charcoal papers. I've run out of male cards so thought this was a good opportunity to get some done. They're all quite simple but took me a while to think up ideas. I'm very impressed with the Pebbles rub on in the first card, I love the font and they peel off so easily (as do doodlebug!). I'm going to get some more of those!! Here they are...

Award

Well, thanks to the lovely Kezza for my first award on my blog, it was a lovely surprise! I have found so many excellent blogs over the last few weeks, all of them full of inspiration and ideas. It's really difficult to know who to pass this award onto but the 3 people I have chosen are:

Kate because she's been my craft buddy for a while and is new to these blogs like me!
Kitty because I adore her cards, she seems to get the colour, pattern and layout spot on!
Zoe because I also love her cards and she makes a lot of varied cards :-)

I love reading all your blogs so keep up the good work girls :-)

Prismacolors

Well I said I'd do a seperate entry about my prismacolors...here it is! I went the whole hog and bought the 120 Premier tin from somebody in America off ebay. They arrived within about a week...

As you can see, I am working my way through sharpening them all. I have tried various sharpeners, and have found a cosmetic one to be the best. Some people may prefer the pencils really sharp but I find that they're more useful with a rounded ball on the top, as I'm only going to be blending with them anyway, and the last thing I want is pencil lines on the card. I found this nice yellow tub to put them in. I was torn whether to keep them in the beautiful tin but I thought they'd be more assessible like this.

I have only made one card with them so far, though I have been playing with them. I'm not very sure about this card. I thought it was turning out ok but I'm not that happy with the end result. I showed it to mom, she said it was nice but was 'too busy'.

I'm happy with the effect of the prismacolors, though this was the first attempt using them. I think I made the mistake of overblending them, it still looks ok but need to practise and this doesn't show them in their full glory. I'm very happy with my purchase though and look forward to using them a lot more :-)

Cuttlebug Arrived!

My Cuttlebug arrived!! I've had a little play with it...I must say, I'm very impressed. I've wanted a die cutting machine for a while but the price has always put me off. But now that I have one, it's opened my world up, so many more ideas to try out! It's funny because if ever I saw a card in a magazine which uses the cuttlebug, I used to skim over them. Now I don't have to! I had a big spending spree, also buying lots of embossing folders, alphabets and nestabilities. I also ordered some Prismacolors but they deserve a post for themselves!

I made this card yesterday, my first attempt at a Cuttlebug card. I used a Penny Black stickeroo, paper from a QVC paper pack, Bazzill card, Swiss Dots embossing folder, Dovecraft brad and fabric flowers.



This is a card I made for my friend's dad, who has recently had a hip replacement. I wanted to do something a bit different to the previous one, so I changed the colour scheme and tried out my nestabilities. I borrowed the idea from Cass to snip the corners off the image, it looks more effective that way. I used another Penny Black stickeroo, some DCWV ribbon, Bazzill card, random paper (I've got so many patterned papers, it's not funny!), Olivia alphabet and small scalloped rectangle nestabilities. I'm quite happy with both these cards, still got a lot to learn though!

First Post

This is my first post, so I don't really know where to start! This card is one of my recent ones..it was inspired by the Docrafts Spring Selection. I love the monochrome look, I always think it stands out really well. The metallic silver card I used to do the layering is actually silver embossed but you'd probably get the same effect from silver card. I added the silver gems to balance it out.