Ahoy there.....

Have you seen this month's Craft Stamper? TONS of fabulous and inspirational projects in there to whet your appetite this month and the freebie stamp is a Paper Artsy seasonal pointsettia!! Nice one! And I'm so chuffed to have an article of my own in there this month! As well as a couple of projects with the free stamp I have written a piece about the Imagepac Stamp Making kit and shown a couple of examples of the stamps I have made with it. I frequently show things I've made with my own stamps on this blog but I wanted to do the article to show how really, really easy it is to make your own so I hope it inspires others to have a go. For obvious reasons I can't show the samples that are in the mag, but one of my cards didn't make it because of copyright issues. I wanted to show an image that I had scanned and made a stamp from but as the image came from a badge I rescued from my son's birthday card, they weren't able to show it. However, I wouldn't be making any profit from it by showing it on here so here goes:



and here's a close up on his fab gold tooth:

This was done by adding a quickie glue pen and some gold foil - it's so simple but really effective!

Well if you're reading this then I'd like to express big thanks to you for popping in. Have a great week ahead! xx

Going Dotty

Well I can't be accused of not getting my money's worth from the Swiss Dots CB folder - It's by far my favourite of all their embossing folders but really, do I have to feature it on everything??? My NBF makes another appearance on my very first Penny Black challenge entry. I was inspired by the fab DT cards and so headed off to rubber jungle that is my craft room to see what PB stamps I have secreted in my stash. Shock Horror!! I have hardly any PB's!!! How come? It's not like I'm not a fan, or anything, they just seem to have managed to stay on the shelf as I go by with my basket! We'll maybe have to do something about that in 2009! What a NYR!! LOL!!

So here it is, my Penny Black Challenge debutante - no patterned paper allowed. Very simple, very quick, clean and unfussy. This could be my 2008 Production Line card, methinks! ;o)

Thanks so much for popping by!

Snow is falling...

...at least it was when I made this tag - now it's just wet, grey and dreary! :o( Can you believe it's almost December? 15 more work days to go - YAY! However, I imagine they're going to be the busiest 15 days of my life because my 'To Do' list is written on Andrex!!!

I have, however, been able to make a couple of projects this week using one of my own stamps. I had a house -doodle phase over the summer and this is one of the stamps I made using my drawings - there will be more over the coming weeks but for publishing reasons I can't show them yet ;o) But watch this space!

Anyway, this is my tag for Tag, You're It! which has the theme "Snow is Falling" this week, and my stamp was perfect for it! And while I was playing I made this card too, another one to add to my growing pile of Christmas Cards!

Thanks for stopping by and have a good week!

Back in the land of blog

Oooh..... I have been such a baaaad blogger -I've been a bad crafter altogether in fact! But hopefully I'm back now. The last few weeks have been pretty bleak and I haven't had any 'Me' time at all, but even if I had, I hit a sooooo-low-Mojo spot and packed all my stash away, out of sight and out of mind. But this weekend I've promised myself that I must get my butt into gear and make something. So I did - I made a DT tag for Tag, You're It! What a lot of boxes I had to get out to come up with this!!! LOL!!! It's really opened my eyes as to how much stuff I have stashed, and how little I use it! Shame on me.....!

On a sad note, my lovely buddy Sam has decided to call it a day with the Tag Blog and I'm going to miss seeing her fantabulous creations on there. Organising, setting up and continually monitoring the blog was a joint venture that I have loved being a part of with Sam, but I totally respect her decision and, if you're reading this my mate, Thank You sooooooo much - it was such a pleasure working with you and I will continue to be inspired and delighted by your wonderful creations!

On an entirely different note altogether, did anyone see Kajagoogoo on "Now That's What I Call 1983" last night? Oh Man!!! Is Nick Beggs ultra cool, or what!!!! ;o) http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=EmZdDdc4kR4

Thanks for popping by - have a good week!

Psssst.... There's a new blog in town!

Don't be the last to find out!! Craft Stamper have created a brand new blog and it promises to be very popular so you need to get over there and check it out for yourself. And just for fun they're launching the site with a fab blog candy giveaway - these wonderful Penny Black Twelve Days of Christmas stamps (Oh my, I want!!!):
So, to be in with a chance of winning these brilliant stamps, get over there, leave a comment and keep everything crossed!!! Loads of luck to you!

Autumn Tag

Sigh.... I just love Autumn, and it's very definitely here..... or is it? It's positively tropical here today. I had one of those gloriously rare moments on my way to work on Thursday this week and darn it, I didn't have my camera on me. I was sat at traffic lights underneath a huge shower of falling leaves - every colour of autumn, gently floating down. I sat there wondering how come there were so many falling when there was barely a gust of wind in the air, and I was wishing like mad that I'd brought my camera. And as I sat there watching them, suddenly a swan flew overhead. It immediately reminded me of a book of fairy tales that I read when I was about 7 or 8 years old - for the life of me I can't remember what it was but for a fleeting moment I was transported back to my junior school.....and then it was gone. The lights changed, the swan disappeared from sight and I was back on my journey!

Over at Tag You're It! this week the theme is Autumn (surprise, surprise!!!) and here is my tag offering. The main stamp is one of the very first stamps I ever made and the 'hair' is made from stamping out lots of little leaves onto Basic Grey paper (perfect for this time of year!!) and cutting them out. You can't really see from the photo but I've been hotfoiling again - lots of bits here and there to highlight the leaves.

Well I have lots of crafty plans for the weekend - Thank You for popping in on your travels, it's much appreciated! ;o) xx

Toot Toot!!! In the pub!

Edited: Eeek, sorry, I've removed the mag articles, but you can see them in the November issue of the mag ;o)

Yay!! I've been into town this morning and picked up the November Craft Stamper magazing and drrrrrrrrrrrrum roll....I'm in it!!! Whoopidoo!!! I got to play with the free stamp to make some samples for this issue and I have to say, I really LOVE those stamps!!

And, as luck would have it, Sam's hubby Phil was having his birthday around this time too and I was having so much fun with the stamp that I used it on his birthday card too:

Oh yes, and it's Altered Flowers over at Tag, You're It! this weekend, and a chance for you to meet the lovely ladies who've joined the team to offer up more inspiration with the challenges! They are the hugely talented Carol, Sarah, Kath and Dawn - go check out their blogs, you'll be glad you did! The challenge this week is to create a tag using altered flowers - these can be altered in any way you like - stamped, embossed, cut, glazed..... entirely up to you. Well...... I DID stamp on my flowers - honest I did! I used a music sheet background stamp. Humph! It didn't quite have the effect I was aiming for, just a grubby flower look!! LOL!! The chandelier stamp is actually one of my own - heavily inspired by the 'famous' chandelier stamp, I made this one from my own pic!

I do like a bit of bling - can you tell? LOL!!! Thanks for stopping by, and if you've been kind enough to leave me feedback, Thank You so much - it's greatly appreciated! ;o) xx

Dream Tag

Well it may be late coming but the glorious weather we've been enjoying here for the last few days is MOST welcome! It's given me the chance to get out into my garden and have a good ol' autumnal tidy-up in preparation for the big fall. We are surrounded by trees on all sides here which is gorgeous in Winter, Spring and Summer, but we don't half work hard for them it in the Autumn! LOL!! I've discovered something really freakish too - we have a very small pond in the garden which I put in a couple of years ago hoping to attract frogs - Oh boy, did we attract frogs!!! This year, back in March/April time I discovered our first ever batch of frog spawn which I got really excited about and I bought a small fish tank and detached a few of the eggs so that my children could watch them develop! That was really exciting for them. However, what I have been noticing is that some of the tadpoles in my pond have never evolved - it is now mid-late September and mano of them are STILL tadpoles!!! I also seem to have an albino frog! He's only tiny, fully formed but completely white! However, he won't be still for long enough for me to get a photo of him! (or her, of course, before I'm accused of being sexist! LOL!!).

So before I get lost in the wonders of my garden, here's my tag for this week. It's a Stampsmith photo stamp and I think she's called Sabrina or something like that - I never do labels because I can never remember who makes what and titles, but I do know that all the other stamps I used are Fancy Pants. Whatever her name is, she didn't want to be photographed!!! You wouldn't believe the trouble I had getting a decentish photo of my tag!!! The image kept coming out distorted, like old newspaper - brilliant if that's the look I wanted to achieve, but I didn't, FGS it took me a dozen stamps to get a clear image of her in the first place!!! LOL!

Well whatever jollies you have lined up for yourselves this weekend, I hope the weather holds out for you wherever you are, and I thank you for popping by my blog - it's much appreciated! ;o) xx

And just for a change.... a tag....!!!!

Over at Tag, You're It! this week we invited Sarah to be our Guest Inspirational Designer this week because she produces the most incredibly inspiring creations and her fantastic Christmas Tags have got me well and truly revved up for the season. Guess what I'll be doing this weekend!!!! LOL!

Well here is my tag this week - the theme is Needle and Thread and after spending Tuesday night handstitching 20+ labels into uniforms, there was NO WAY I was going to start again on my tag so I got my trusty Toshiba out for that one - oh boy, my senses are re-awakened, I LURVE my sewing machine again!!

Thanks for popping by!

Friday again

Well I don't know about anyone else but I think this years' 6-week holiday has gone much quicker than any other I've ever known! Why is that? It could be that my children are that bit older and that bit more independent so less reliant on me to provide round-the-clock entertainment for them which has allowed me a bit more time for myself? Maybe others have their own theories which I'd love to hear!

I've had a very creative week or two but a lot of what I've been doing is either over on my Magnolia blog or cannot be blogged yet because they're for publication. I do however have this tag to show that I made earlier in the week - it was inspired by something I saw on Silvia's blog who's work I absolutely adore and would love to have her style - if you've not seen her blog yet, how come?

You may have spotted that my stitching went a bit awry - that's because it was a last-minute decision to do the stitching and I obviously had too many layers to stitch through and my machine rebelled, LOL!! At first I cursed, then I decided that actually I quite like it, it fits in with the 'shabby' side of the shabby chic look I was trying to achieve. So undeterred I carried on with it and this was the result - there was great temptation to thread a needle and stitch it by hand, but then I decided life was too short for perfection!!! LOL!! The text, which is impossible to read here, says "Nobody knows what a boy is worth. And the world must wait and see; for every man in a (I know, should be 'an' - tut!!) honoured place, Is a boy that used to be" - sniff!! How true, and this is my own adorable young man who's honoured place for now is on my tag! LOL!

Thanks for stopping by! ;0) xx

Tag - Punch Art

Happy Friday folks - I tell you, the time is whizzing by way too quickly. I'm now officially in therapy in readiness for returning to work on 1st Sept. BOOOO!!!!!! :o( However, I shan't let it spoil my day - I'm all loved up today because me and my gorgeous bloke are celebrating our 10th Wedding Anniversary today....sigh!!! It was a fabulous wedding - we booked ourselves a holiday cottage in the West Highlands of Scotland for a week then hit upon the brilliant idea of stopping off en route at Gretna to 'tie the knot' at the Blacksmith's Cottage! Despite wanting to keep it just the two of us, my sisters and best friend put their feet down and were adamant they wanted to share our day so they all drove up from Manchester and Birmingham to spend the afternoon with us in the glorious sunshine and witness our marriage. Then we all ran around Gretna Village trying to find the place where I'd booked us lunch only to discover when we found it that they'd decided to give it to another wedding party who'd turned up 'on the offchance'!! LOL!!! You'd think it would put the dampers on it wouldn't you, but we just laughed it off and the Manager arranged a very quick buffet for us in under 3/4 of an hour and a piper played for us while we waited! It was the most perfect day!

I suppose all this was on my mind when I was making my tag for this week's Tag, You're It! theme which is hosted this week by the wonderfully gorgeous and grossly over-talented Deb Neerman who has chosen Punch Art as her topic. So pop over there and see what other delights there are in store, and if you have 10 minutes and a load of scraps of left-over paper to spare, why not bung them all together on a tag and join in the fun! Thanks for popping in and have a great day!

Sisters are doing it for themselves...!

Ooer! I've joined the Sisterhood of Blogging Stampers, and so far it's been quite painless ~ no flashing of the knees or nipples and definitely no dodgy handshakes! And apparently I'm in Group 23 (which is my birth date so that's quite apt!!) with (so far) 12 other lovely ladies - some I already know and the others I shall acquaint myself with soon! Now, as I type this, I believe there are 13 of us in this group which means there are places for 7 more new 'Sisters'. It would be fab if some of my lovely blogging buddies nab some these places because it would be great to share more space with you! I think at this point I'm supposed to share details about me - Eeek! What's there to say ~ I'm just me, Anne - I stamp, I cut and stick bits of paper together, bend bits of card and I think it's fair to say that I'm happiest when I have a paintbrush in my hand and some fab music blaring away behind me. I have been a member of the Magnolia Design Team for over 12 months and I am loving their stamps as much today as when I first discovered them about 18 months ago. I also like to make my own stamps which I show off on here from time to time. Well, that's the crafty me - the 'real' me is mum to two adorable little fella's, Missus to an adorable big fella, and chief to two fabtastic doggies!! So that pretty much sums me up ~ no doubt my 'sisters' will learn more about me in the fullness of time, as I hope to about them too! :o)

My Stamps

Am editing this because at the time I stuck it on here I was panicking because I was having so many problems with blogger and couldn't type much. However, it all seems perfectly in order again now and I want to link my tag to Theme Thursday's challenge blog which this week is all about Tags!

Ooer! I seem to be having blogger problems today - I keep getting gremlin messages and it's freakin' me out!! So I'm leaving this very short and sweet in case it all goes belly-up. This is a tag I made using one of my own stamps, I called it Nu Shooz because it's a pic of my youngest son's new shoes! Thanks for looking in - hope I'll be back :o{

Tag, Free Papers and a FAB award!

Friday already?? This week has just flown by, and yet so much has happened I can't remember the details! However, I have had some chance to play with my stash this week - not a lot I grant you, but what little time I did have, Oh Boy, was it fun!! I was sent these papers by Nat of Craft Buyer to give away on the Tag Challenge blog. The papers are called Allsorts and they are sooooooo luxurious. They are fabulous designs but the quality is just superb - they have a satin finish and are gorgeous to work with. Here is the sample tag I made - probably the quickest and simplest tag I've ever done. The papers are so gorgeous that I decided to let them do all the work for me!

If you fancy winning a pack of 36 of these 6"x6" papers, pop over to the challenge blog, make an untraditional shaped tag, link it to the blog and your name will go into the pot to be drawn at random, and the winners (for there are two of them!!!) will be announced next Friday! And don't worry if you're not one of the winners because very soon there will be another two packs of the equally gorgeous Christmas papers to give away, but that's another challenge ;o) LOL!!

I also have an enormous cry of gratitude to my lovely friend Dawn who has sent me THE most amazing award. This is the Wylde Women Award (isn't it just gorgeous!!!)

and here is what it's all about:

1. You can give it to one or one hundred or any number in between - it's up to you. Make sure you link to their site in your post.2. Link back to this blogsite (www.tammyvitale.com//) so Tammy can go visit all these wonderful women.and remember the Purpose of the Award: To send love and acknowledgment to women who brighten your day, teach you new things and live their lives fully with generosity and joy.

So I decided that I'm going to use this award to send to all those lovely ladies that I used to be in regular contact with before I had to go out to work for a living!! One of the best things about working from home was that I was able to keep in touch more often. These are some of the ladies that I miss so much since my home job ended:

Elaine

Carla

Audrey

Deb

And there must be hundreds more, but blogger seems to be playing up today and it's already taken me 2 hours to prepare this much!!!! ARGH!

Hope you're all set for a fab weekend - I know I am!!! Thanks for popping by! :o) xx

Foiled again!

A real quick post from me today as I'm still mopping up the tears from this morning's Leaver's Assembly!!! WAAAH!!!! I was doing jus' fine till the children stood up and sang "Somewhere over the rainbow" and it just kicked in and the tears came rollin' down the cheeks, and the more you try to stop, the worse it becomes. Of course it didn't help having my son sat in front of me rolling his eyes because I'd probably embarrassed the heck out of him, but Hey, that's what being a mum's all about isn't it? If not, I've been getting it soooo wrong all these years! Anyway, here's my creative offering for the day - it's my tag for the Tag, You're It! challenge this week, the theme being Fairies. I used a set of the new Dovecraft fantasy stamps, and my favourite current 'ism' - hot foils - I can't stop foiling everything - I love it!! If you fancy a chance of winning a set of your own fairy stamps, just like the ones I used here, get over to the blog, play along with the theme and you're name will go into a hat to be drawn next week and the winner announced on Friday! Good luck everyone, and thanks for popping by! ;o)

Edited just for Penny: Here's the best close-up I could get that shows the foiling - it's quite tricky to photograph this stuff and show it off at it's best:

Y.ou K.now Y.ou R.ock!

This is a brand spanking new challenge blog which has been set up by Deb and Julie called Y.ou K.now Y.ou R.ock - check out the site and see for yourselves the story behind their venture, and take part in the challenge; "Take a look at the CD in your player. Check out the art on the cover and be inspired in some way! We're not going to be literal here. Just take an element that you like and use it in a card!"



So here's my interpretation. The album which is one of my most favourite's ever is Fleetwood Mac's The Dance (honest, I do listen to other stuff sometimes!! LOL!)

and here's the card:

Hmmmm..... seeing them side-by-side like this you're probably thinking "and...????" LOL!! Well, I don't do deep and cryptic - what you see it what you get - but I will explain my interpretation. I wanted to use only Pink Black and White as they're the colours that stand out most on the album sleeve. OK, it's not quite the same shade of pink but I can't afford a Set Stylist like they can so I had to make do with the closest I could find. The stamp, by Penny Black, is perfect for anything with a music theme but especially so here because of the piano keys. I didn't have any of Stevie's black lace so I improvised and used white. The quote "It's never too late to be what you might have been" couldn't have been more apt for this album as it was one of the last times the band ever performed together as a whole. I always think white pearls look classy, and they were added to pick out the classiness of this sleeve. Around the edge of the cello/violin??? I have added a touch of gold foil - despite their very checkered past I still think that the Mac's have an air of Regality (is that a real word??) about them, and that's represented by the gold foil. The broken heart is symbolic of the broken relationships within the band, both personal and professional. The actual album sleeve has an ethereal look about it which I recreated (ROFL!!!) using a bit of digi masking. So there you go, something I threw together without much thought!! LOL!!

Brilliant challenge girls - I cannot WAIT for the next one!! Thanks for looking in! ;o)

Looooong post alert!!

Grab yourself a coffee, I've not blogged for 2 weeks and I've got sooooo much to tell!

Coor, this has been a week of tears and cheers, and I have experienced more than one Proud Mum moment this week! To begin with Monday was Common Transfer Day and my eldest son went to visit his new school....sniff!!! :o( I was gutted when he came home (smiling and very happy, I might add!) and reported that ALL his pals are in one class, and he's in another. I went off in a rage but my boy proved that he has a greater degree of maturity than his mother and told me not to stress saying that he's happy and excited at the prospect of making new pals!! Tut!! Then yesterday I could have burst with pride when he was picked for the local schools bell-boating regatta. Lord it rained... and rained and rained and rained. Luckily, across the canal was an idyllic little pub and my friend and I waited for an opportune moment to leg it and watch and cheer the races from the balcony in very civilised fashion complete with a glass of bubbly - coka cola in this case!!! LOL!! And the crowing glory was that our school's Team A and Team B were the two finalists, and my boy's team won!!! HURRAH!!! So proud!

Then just as I was settling down to a cup of coffee last night, my youngest announced that I had to read his report! In fact they had both brought their end-of-year reports home and I am still glowing with pride! Both of them brought home the kind of report that I know my mum would have loved to have read with my name on the front - sadly I never gave her the opportunity to feel the kind of pride that my boys have given me! I seem to recall the words "easily distracted" being overused on my reports, and one teacher even reported "If Anne showed as much interest in her school activities as she does in her outside school activities, she would produce better results!" Oops!! :o)

I have been playing a lot with my stash this week too. Here is my tag for this week's Tag, You're It! challenge - the theme this week is our monthly colour theme and I chose Red, Brown and Cream - don't ask why, I've never used these colours together before but I found a piece of AG paper in just those colours and thought "Hmmmm..."

Last week we offered to send tag kits to 2 people as part of a challenge - we had so much interest and enthusiasm for this that we decided to send out 4 kits instead. Now I can't reveal anything about those kits just yet, but I did make these tags as Thank You's to the ladies whose names we pulled from the hat:

Then midweek I did manage to get around one or two of my favourite blogs and I was really excited to discover that the lovely and totally 'kewel' Deb has nominated me for a Brilliant Weblog award which REALLY cheered me up as it came at the 'tears' time, and was the start of the 'cheers' part of my week!!! So massive Thank You's to Deb and get over there and check out her blog - she does some fantabulous stuff and makes things in 15 minutes!!! Can you believe that!!! It would take me longer than that to find the stuff!!!! LOL!! And now, as part of the deal, I have to pass it on to 7 bloggers whose fabby blogs excite and inspire me so I nominate:

Sam

Carol

Penny

Sarah

Rosie

Dan

Silvia

Phew, that was soooo difficult picking just 7 - I could have multiplied that by 10 at least because there are so many wonderful blogs out there so deserving of this award.

Finally, my week is rounded off with the news that on Wednesday I completed my NVQ and I am a fully qualified Teaching Assistant - I just need a job that will allow me to put it into practise now!

So, if you managed to stick with me this long, go grab yourself a sweetie from the tin and big Well Done to you!! Hopefully I will get more blogging time after next week as the long hot summer (yeah, right! LOL!!) holidays begin!!

Thanks for popping by! ;o) xx

Tag, You're It! Favourite Quote.

I've been a baaaaaad blogger. I've got this new job you see and it's really taking up all of my time and my head so I don't seem to have any time to do the stuff I want to do any more - I never even get to have a cup of coffee these days! I keep waking up on a Thursday and realising that I've still not done my tag for the challenge blog and instantly my head clears itself of everything including the ability to stick bits of paper together!!! However, I did manage to make one tag for one of the themes in this week's challenge(s) - you can either make a tag using your favourite quote or make a tag that incorporates an image of a family member (or several members of your family if you so wish!). So here's my favourite quote tag, and now I desperately need a cup of coffee - after all, it is the weekend and I think I've earned it!!

Hope you all have a fab weekend! I need to get out more!

Tag, You're It! Colour Challenge

OMGosh, this working for a living is really exhausting and eating into my creative time!! I went into my new job all on my own on Monday - my predecessor left us last Friday and I'd only had about 2 hours handover altogether! By Wednesday evening my head was so full of 'stuff' whizzing around that I ended up falling asleep around tea-time!!! By Thursday I had done NOTHING with my stash then I suddenly remembered - EEEK!!! It's Friday tomorrow and I hadn't made my colour theme tag for Tag, You're It! so I had to get my ass into gear and get creating - quick!!! The colour theme, as picked by my lovely friend Sam is Olive, Aubergine and Ivory (couldn't colourise that one, it would leave you guessing!! LOL!) and I have to confess this is not a combination I have ever worked with before - at least not consciously. Anyway, here is my tag. The dress was stamped onto Ivory card (that's got that one covered!!! LOL!) and I painted it with an aubergine'y H20 (colour no. 2 out of the way!!) then I splodged a touch of lettuce adirondak ink around the edges which, before it dried, was an uncanny shade of olive. However, when it dried it turned iceberg so I found some olive coloured card to mat it onto. A couple of bits of bling and sparkle and Voila! A nice quick and relatively easy tag!! ;o)

Thanks for popping in! ;o)

Weekend??? What weekend??

OMG, where did it go?? I started a new job on Friday (sort of - it's not official till September!) then my little 'un had his birthday on Sunday so I've kinda been a bit neglectful of my blog - oops!! However, keeping things short and sweet, I have a couple of offerings - oops, one has to go on my Magnolia blog - phew! nearly forgot! So here is my only offering for now - it's my Monogram tag for Tag, You're It! which I cunningly crafted from one of those letter book thingies and decorated with a few bits of bling and pearl relief paint. Thanks for stopping by!

Make a Moo, Arty Girlz and Tag, You're It!!

There's a common theme running through some of my projects this week - see if you can spot it!! LOL!! :o) I was having a sort through some of my stash this week when I found this little bottle of starry glitter. Goodness knows what was going through my mind when I bought it - my only defence could be that I may have been expecting at the time because it's been up in my craft room for absolutely Yonks, untouched!! I also came across a couple of can lids that my friend Lorry sent to me aaaaaages ago and I decided that this would be perfect for my Tag, You're It! circle tag . So I actually sat down to use the lid as a template to draw around when I had the brainwave to use the actual lid itself! With a little help from my crop-a-dile which cuts through tin like melted butter, Lo, a tag was borne! Then out came the glitter - Woooo!! What fun this stuff is - why on earth I haven't used it sooner is beyond me! It's messy I'll grant you, but it's so effective! I love it now, but there's not a lot left so I need to find more!!!

Close up: isn't that glitter just gorgeous!

It was also useful when I was making my Moo's for this week's Make a Moo or Two challenge - the theme is Brown and Beige. I do find it quite difficult to work in such a small space but I had a go, and although I really enjoy doing it, I always feel somehow that I'm missing something where Moo's are concerned?? Everybody else seems to be able to fill that little space with such flair but I really struggle to keep things in proportion.

And finally for this weekend's offering, I decided that as many of my friends are taking part in the Little Boxes swap I would join in too, and this little house fits in nicely with the Arty Girlz challenge this week which is wings!

Thanks for popping in! ;o)

So Salsa & Sunday Stampers

OK, so it's Tuesday and I'm just posting my Sunday offerings - maybe that's because I only just made it today ~ ooer!! You know what it's like, all these gorgeous blog challenges out there and you want to do them all, but there just aren't enough hours in the week - doesn't stop your imagination from firing up though, does it! I love tags (did you know?? LOL!) and I want to do ALL the tag challenges but sometimes needs must, and although I'm not entirely happy about this, I managed to combine two challenges into one, primarily because I really MUST get my children out of the house today if only to stop my youngest from kicking over another tin of paint!!! :o( Oh yes, that's the kind of day I'm having so far!! ARGH!!! I only went for a shower and he took it upon himself to stand on a tin of paint (that I'd left out ~ grrr!!!) which immediately tipped over, lid came off and Lo, my dark green carpet is suddenly Toasted Almond! Gorgeous on the walls, not so tasty on the floor!!! However, my Bissell Upright did it's job well and with a little help from Rug Doctor detergent, all is well again - phew!!!




So here are my Sunday offerings - Turquoise for So Salsa and Sisters for Sunday Stampers! I made an acetate overlay which I stamped the quote on and attached the butterfly which is made from fantasy film then sprinkled these gorgeous glitter stars along the edge with a little help from glossy accents. Thanks for looking in!

Tag You're It!! Our House!

This has been a looooong and difficult week for many personal reasons, and yet it seems to have flown by. Half Term already and Yes, I AM looking forward to having a week off, but it's with very mixed feelings. It's one step closer to Middle School for my eldest, which means one more grey hair for me, and in just over 6 weeks I will be in need for some serious therapy!!!! I'm already falling apart at just the thought of the Leavers Assembly and emotional restraint isn't my best trait! Eek!


Anyway, on with this weeks' Tag, you're it! challenge. Many, many weeks ago Sam and I drafted up a huuuuuuge list of challenge ideas that we wanted to throw out to all of blogland and I have to confess that the current trend of 'house building' brought this week's challenge to the top of the list quicker than originally intended and we're 'striking while the iron's hot!' so to speak. This one wasn't actually due to make an appearance for a few more months but we were a little concerned that people might be 'housed out' by then, so we decided to jump on the bandwagon and offer it up now. So, if you're feeling in a housey mood, make a House Tag and pop a link onto the blog to share it with the rest of us.

The gold text stamp in the middle of my house is one of my own stamp creations. The flourish and script are Fancy Pants and the window, hearts and squares are woodware clear stamps from the wedding set. I think the brick chimney is a Paper Artsy stamp. Thanks for popping in - go check out the challenge!

Skinny, Maison & Tag

Woah! Where did the summer go?? Last week I got sunburnt, today I've brought my baby tomato plants in to stop them dying of frostbite!! British weather - don't you just love it!!!

I've been having a very busy weekend but not achieved very much. I haven't done the Skinny Saturday challenge for a while (probably because it wasn't there for a while!! LOL!!) but I've done it this week because, like so many millions out there, I've been bitten by the House bug - almost literally; I really need to get some domestics done!! LOL!! Here's my offering:

It IS a skinny, I promise, but I couldn't resist hanging the extra bit on the bottom - this is going on my craftroom wall as I'm really pleased with it.

I've been uuming and aaahing over whether or not to show this off because it's another page of the House Book I have been making for months. Over on Dans ma maison this week, il y'un papillon (and there endeth my knowledge of the French language!!) and as luck would have it, one of my pages (my garden page) has a butterfly - OK I didn't make it this weekend but I gave in in the end and decided to include it anyway:

And over on Tag, You're It! this week our theme has been Pretty & Feminine and this was my offering. I used my gorgeous Maribel stamp again by Gunhild at Stempelglede. However, my camera hasn't picked up the pretty colours very well and I think I've discovered what the problem is all of a sudden - I bought one of those twisty energy-saving lightbulbs and I don't think it gives the same blast of light. That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it!! LOL!!

I am also halfway through 2 other challenges but I've had to abandon them for now for the sake of my children having smart, clean uniforms tomorrow!! LOL!! Hopefully I might be able to get them finished this evening. Don't you just love Sundays!!
Thanks for stopping by!! ;o)

Dans ma Maison il ya...... une petite fille

Ooh la la..... how continental!!! ;o)

Welcome in our house!! This week, in our house there is a little girl!!You have to make your creation in a special size(format): it must have the shape of a house (small, big, fine, wide as you prefer).

I spied this challenge blog last week and I would have loved to join in but I have been soooo busy with everything else. However, I noticed that this week there has to be a little girl in the house and as luck would have it, I already made this a while back. I have been making this House Book for a few months now but it is as yet waaaaay too far from being finished so I'll show this page now as it's this week's theme. It's actually a lot more attractive than this IRL, it just won't seem to photograph well - there are lots of spritz of gold on here but the camera just doesn't want to pick it up! I have a great urge to carry on with my blank pages now!

Thanks for looking! :o) xx

Tag, You're It!!! Challenge #6 - Black & Gold

I've been making stamps again this week. My supply of silicone is quite depleted now though so I had to send for another load which arrived on Wednesday - or not as it turned out!!! Unbelievably my package had been tampered with and the contents stolen. Now I'm the first to give the benefit of the doubt and I would like to think that maybe it just hadn't been sealed properly and the goods had fallen out, but No, sadly there is strong evidence to show that it has actually been prised open! Grrr... Not the first time it's happened round these parts either unfortunately. I don't know what whoever took it imagines they are going to do with the sachets though - they only have to be exposed to light for a few minutes and they begin to harden!! LOL!!! Serve 'em right.

Anyway, this week's challenge over on Tag, You're It! is an introduction to our new monthly feature. Each month we will be offering a two-way colour challenge and the first one is this week's theme - Black and Gold (or for you chocolate lovers, Gold and Black, if you prefer!! LOL!!). The main image is my youngest son and it's a stamp I made from one of my favourite photo's of him which I took shortly before he started school. I love his mean n' moody look - he is a very happy, smiley boy so we don't get to see this side of him too often, and hardly ever when there's a camera around LOL!! The 'Inspire' is also part of another stamp that I made - I'll probably use the whole of it in the fullness of time (like this weekend, maybe!!!). The other stamps I used are Hero Arts 'Gratitude' collage stamp, and a gorgeous corner from my Fancy Pants Bella Blush set.

So, once more I would like to thank everyone who pops by my blog, and especially to those who are very generous with their kind words; it's so greatly appreciated! :o) xx

So Salsa #1

Edit, before anyone gets the chance to see this - what a fool - I just realised that there was actually a theme for this challenge and I went nowhere near it!! LOL!!!! The theme is A is for Apple - I didn't actually read that bit till I posted on here!! ROFL!! Never mind, pretend this is an Apple Tree and the apples haven't yet formed!!! :o) Phew......!

So Salsa (Stamp or Scrap a Label Sunday Afternoon) - what a brilliant title for a challenge blog - so wish I'd thought of it first!!! ;o) Well, I don't need to be asked twice, but I do need to be asked on a Saturday if I'm to do it by Sunday, LOL!! But Christa very kindly left a link to her brand new challenge site on Tag, You're It! and I couldn't resist playing along!

So here is my label. It's a manilla parcel label which I spritzed with Adirondak colour washes then a top layer of Medici Aqua Regia (I checked the bottles! LOL!!) Topaz (same as glimmer mists, just a different make). This is a bit whimsical for me, not the sort of thing I normally do but Oh what fun I had making it! During the week I received the most fabulous scrapbooking kit by Pink Paislee and I used parts of this as my inspiration. The flowers were from my most recent acquisition, the Fancy Pants Bella Blush set.

Thanks for popping in!

Tag, You're It!, Sunday Stamper and Make a Moo or Two! Phew!

What an emotional week it's been for me. My eldest went off on his school residential trip on Wednesday and, if you're a parent you will know exactly what I was going through. I knew in my heart of hearts that he was going to be just fine and would be having the most fabulous time, but it doesn't stop you worrying though, does it? Anyway, he came back on Friday and, as predicted, he had a wonderful time and my worrying was all for nothing! I also lost my young charge on Friday - he left us to go to another school so I suppose I am officially unemployed again - for now, anyway! It was quite a sad occasion saying goodbye to him but I'm sure he'll be just fine.

It's also Week 5 of the Tag, You're It challenges and this week my dear friend Sam chose the theme Moo Tag. I think I misinterpreted what she had in mind and I came up with this:

there was great temptation to go and stick it on a bigger tag when I saw what Sam had done, but then I decided I actually like it just as it is, and guess what, it's got Gold lips which suits this weeks Make a Moo or Two challenge so I thought I'd link it to there too!

Then on my travels I spotted the Sunday Stamper challenge this week is Two Little Boys so I went off and made this:

The stamp is my own two little boys which I made from a photo I took last year on the steps at Brixham Harbour. I made the tag first, then I made a seperate Moo. I completely soaked my card in Winter Jasmine Gold stuff (I am hopeless with labels, honestly - I mean that sparkly water-based painty stuff that you can daub or spritz) and I edged it with gold EP. Then I looked at the two and thought "Ding Ding.... and Idea!!" and so I mounted the Moo over the tag giving it dimension with some sticky pads and mounted the whole thing on some black/gold spritzed card, thus resulting in another Moo Tag
It's Bank Holiday weekend, so naturally the Monsoon Period has started!! Tut! Bang goes all my plans to get out in the garden. Hope you all have a fabulous BH Weekend, and Thanks for popping in (ps - have a go at a moo tag while you're at it!!! LOL!!)

Sunday Stampers - Words

Oooh, I discovered a new challenge site yesterday - Sunday Stampers - but I was too late to join in last week's theme - I really wanted to as it was Faces and I have a fab stamp that I wanted to use.........somewhere!!! If I could have found where I'd put it, I would have had plenty of time. However, I checked out the blog this morning and the theme for this week is "Words" (and Yes, I have been singing the bloody Bee Gee's song all morning Hels, Thank You very much!!! LOL!!).

So, I got a couple of my favourite stamps together (if anyone can tell me who makes the 'Laugh' stamp, I'd be much obliged - I haven't got a clue???!!!) and I made this mini album which I will fill up over the next few days with a photo or two - probably of my boys!

Thanks for popping in, and to everyone who's been very kind with their feedback, I am sincerely grateful! Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Make a Moo or Two - Girls

I did actually make a moo for last week's Make a Moo or Two challenge, which was "Vintage", but I felt so under the weather that I never even got round to photographing it till this morning, so I'll show it with this week's theme which is Girls.

I've got to show you this as well though - my boys bought me a pop-up light tent for Mothers' Day this year (probably the best bit of kit I own!) and I set it up then went back to the table to chop up a couple of pieces of card to support my Moo's while I photographed them, and when I turned round to stick them in the tent, this is the sight I was greeted with

Awwww......What a model eh? ROFL!!!

Thanks for popping in - oh, and if you've got a spare slide mailer handy, why not use it on a handmade tag and show it off for this week's Tag, You're It! challenge ;o) xx