It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...!

21 days to go and I haven't bought a single Christmas pressie!!!  OMG!  I'm not the most organised person at the best of times but this year I seem to be particularly bad.  I don't even want to rely on online shopping because I've heard so many tales of stuff not getting delivered because of the snow!  I call it snow, but it's more like frozen flurry round here - enough to make it look like a winter wonderland but not enough to build a snowman :o(

Anyway, here is a card I made 'for the love of it' using Donna's gorgeous Christmas Sparkle papers.

These are just so pretty and girly, and best of all, they have inserts in the kit too!  Here's one I used on the inside of this card.

 And if you're feeling tempted, now is a fabulous time to go and bag yourself a kit or two because Donna is offering the entire Christmas Inserts kit FREE if you buy 3 or more of her digi kits.  An absolute bargain, trust me!  They start at around 4.00 a kit and you get sooooo many papers and other elements in some of the kits, and they are just so versatile.  Can you tell I'm hooked? LOL!

Well that's my lot for the time being.  There is 'work in progress' and I can't wait to show it off!  Thanks for passing through.  Have a great weekend and I hope it's a bit warmer where you are! :o) xx

Blog Hop Winner

Happy (freeeeeeeezing!!!) Friday all!  Just quickly popping in here to let you know that I did the Random Number Generator thingy this morning once all the comments had been posted, but unfortunately I don't know how to post the picture of it on the blog.  However, I put in numbers 1 to 44 and it threw up the number 8, so the winner of the Partridge in a Pear Tree image is

Vicky

Well done Vicky.  If you email me I'll let you know how to claim your image!  Huge thanks to everyone who joined in and left such lovely comments - they were all greatly appreciated! :o) xx

Evergreen

Happy Sunday all!  Very quick post from me today.  Over at Keep it Simple our theme this week is Evergreen and I made this really, really quick and simple card using one of Donna's latest releases - Christmas Inserts.  These are fabulous LO's that coordinate perfectly with her Christmas papers, but they are so beautiful that I decided to use one of them as the base of my card and just stamp into the white area.

I have to confess that I nicked the decorated branches idea from my lovely buddy Teri who makes the most amazing projects and is a constant source of inspiration!  You can't really tell from the photo here but the baubles reading 'Joy' were embossed from behind to make them 'pop' slightly from the card, but apart from the stickles glitter glue, there are no other additions whatsoever to this card - that's how amazing these inserts are!!!

Right then, that's my lot for now - I'm off to play around with some paints now.  Have a great Sunday, and thanks for popping by! :o) xx

OK, we're off!!! Over at Delicious Doodles Challenge, we're kicking off with a fabulous Blog Hop and we tried to make it as easy as possible for you - no weird phrases to collect or sentences to make up. No!

All you peeps need to do is take a trip round our blogs, leave some love, pop back to the Challenge blog and insert your own project via the Blue Froggy thingy.  Dead easy huh?!

AND we have PRIZES GALORE!!

Each of us will be giving away, that's right - GIVING AWAY - the image that we have used to make our creations! So, if you want to win these digi-images, all you need do is leave a comment on the DT members blog. At the end of the week on Thursday 25th each DT member will announce who their winner is.

AND if that isn't enough to get you all excited,

Teri is giving away

TEN DIGI IMAGES

on the Challenge Blog, in celebration of our very first Challenge.  The winner will get to choose 10 digi's from the Delicious Doodles Shop!!

BUT to qualify for this awesome prize there is a small catch!  You must comment on ALL of the DT Blogs,
AND make a 'something' to enter with the Blue Froggy.  No particular theme, 'Anything Goes'.

OK, so here is the Blog Hop order in case you get lost

(Team A):

Keryn

Anita

Pascale

Saskia

Ildiko

Lyn (This is where you came from)

Anne (that's me!)

and then you need to visit Terri

(Team B):

Maria

Amy

Claire

Alex

Darlene

Allison

Ruthie

Grace

Teri (Store Owner)

and then back to the Delicious Doodles Challenge Blog to enter your creation for your chance to win the fabby TEN digi-images of your choice!!

Phew! Hope you got all that peeps!

The Challenge and Blog Hop will finish on Thursday 25th November at 6pm GMT (UK time)

Each winner for the individual digi's will be announced on the DT members Blogs, so be sure to follow them if you want to know who their winners are!

The Grand Prize winner will be announced on the Challenge Blog on the morning of Friday 26th November before the next Challenge goes live later that day.

So, here is my offering using the "Partridge in a Pear Tree" image:

It's going to be 1 of 12 for my pennant banner entitled (surprise, surprise..) The 12 Days of Christmas.  Teri has already released some more of the "12 Days..." images and they are just fabulous. 
Wishing you ALL the very best of luck.

And here is the image that I'm offering up for my winnings:

I hope you enjoy seeing the team's samples, and I wish you all loads of luck!  These are truly fab prizes!

Have fun, and Thank You for popping by here! :o) xx

Remembrance Sunday

Happy Sunday blogland.  Well the weather here is as grim as the mood today and the bug that has had me firmly planted in my bed for half the week has struck again, this time with my eldest son :o(  We had planned a nice family day out today to blow some of the cobwebs away that I've gathered this week and make the most of the very respectable weather we've had for a couple of days.  Alas, the bug has put paid to that so I guess it's back to the drawing board for me.

Well then, over at Keep it Simple this week our theme is Wonderland and I thought this image of Teri's was just perfect for it.  By the way, if you register as a follower on the soon-to-be-launched Delicious Doodles Challenge blog, you are in with a great chance of winning 5 of Teri's amazing images because when we reach 100 followers, Teri will randomly draw another name from the pot and that lucky person will get to choose 5 images of their own.  PLUS, if you keep your eyes peeled for the start of the challenges next Friday (19th November) you will be in with LOADS of chances of winning them because we're launching with a very special blog hop ;o)

My bg paper here is one of Donna's fabulous papers from the brand new Christmas Dreams kit which has just been released.  They are just ........sigh....!!!!  If you fancy getting a kit for yourself, this is a fantastic time to do so because Donna's having a birthday sale.  Between now and 19th November you can buy any of her kits and CD's with 15% off.  Amazing! 

Also, I just wanted to mention that one or two people very kindly commented on the 'charm' on my card last week:

Well, you may be surprised to hear that it wasn't actually an additional embellishment, but actually part of the design on the paper itself!  Amazing, isn't it?  Even in close up it appears to be dimensional!  There are so many of these gorgeous elements on Donna's papers and I can't wait to show you more samples using them!

In the meantime I wish you all a healthy and happy Sunday, and Thank You for stopping by.  Your feedback is always much appreciated :o) xxx

Want to win some Digi's?

Well, I know a great place where you can get your hands on 5 fabulous digi images if you're the lucky person who's drawn randomly!  Over at Delicious Doodles Challenges, Teri has already done the first draw for reaching 50 followers and when we reach 100, another name will be drawn from the list (and this morning, it stood at 63, so it won't be long!!!).  So if you're not already a follower, I urge you to get over there and join in!  The challenges begin on 19th November and the team have some fabulous themes and giveaways - you do not want to miss out!

My card this week uses one of Teri's gorgeous new releases - Mother Mary made her first appearance yesterday and here's a card I made with the image:

I just love this.  Teri makes these images so easy to colour and for this I used soft coloured pencils, blended with an eye make up sponge and soft chalk.

I had some very exciting news this week too when I received an email from Donna inviting me to join the Bearly Mine DT!  No sooner had I accepted the post when my mailbox began filling up with THE most divine papers!  OMG, Christmas came early!  Donna is extremely generous and offers LOADS of freebie papers on her blog, but to get your hands on this one that I used here, you'll have to wait for the forthcoming launch of her amazing Christmas Dreams kit.  I promise, you are going to love it!!!  In the meantime, there are plenty more gorgeous kits to be had over on her blog.  If you check out my Magnolia's Only blog too, I'm going to be showcasing some more of her papers there!

That's all for now.  Hope you like what you see.  If you do, please go check out these very talented ladies blogs and show your support for them!  Have a great Sunday and thanks for stopping by!  :o) xxx

Fairy Image

Ooops!  Sorry, I meant to post this yesterday.  I had intended to do a draw for my fairy but it would be much easier, I think, just to stick it on here.  Please help yourself.

If you do use it, please would you let me know because I would love to see what you do with her!

Thanks so much.  Enjoy!

And breathe........

Phew, thank goodness for half term!  It's been a really busy week, but great fun.  We had Arts Week at school this week and we have packed in such a lot of fabulous activities.  The highlight of the week for me though was on Friday when we took the class to the library to see an exhibition by a local artist by the name of Fran Rogers who's gorgeous artwork absolutely blew me away.  Fran does the most gorgeous, gorgeous maps of local villages and lanes and I came away from there so full of inspiration.  She runs a class on Thursday afternoons apparently, which is fab because that's my afternoon off!!!  However, I've had to leave my number with her as she's fully booked at present! Argh!!  What she has done though is inspired me to get my pencil out again and draw, and, with the help of my Linda Ravenscroft "How to Draw Fairies" book I created this little beauty.  If you would like a copy of this image then please leave a comment and I will draw a couple of names next week!

Over at Keep it Simple this week our theme is Take a Bow (bow rhymes with No! LOL!) and here is my offering.  It's another of my Friendly Plastic scraps creations, moulded together using the lacework technique and cut to make the bauble shape.  The top of the bauble was just cut to shape and warmed to stick to the bauble.



Well that's my lot for now.  I have a number of gorgeous new images from Teri's Delicious Doodles to play with this week and I intend to make the most of my week off using her fab creations.  

Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a great Sunday!

Friendly Plastic - A New Addiction

Oooh, it's a frosty one this morning - I got up to find my car completely white today, and funnily enough I had a dream last night that it was snowing!!  It wasn't a complete whiteout, just an early snowfall, IYKWIM?

Many, many years ago I bought a couple of sticks of Friendly Plastic and I did something stupid with them.  I used to have a compartmentalised box full of embellishments and the sticks of FP had been stored inside this box and I left it in the conservatory.  When I came to use them.........  well, I'm sure I don't need to spell it out!  Needless to say I never used FP again and all my embellies were completely ruined!!!  However, Liz Welch's many appearances on C&C recently has whetted my appetite once more and I ventured out and bought some more sticks of FP and I just cannot stop playing with it!  It's incredibly addictive stuff.  I'm sure there's a million things that can be done with this stuff and I can't wait to explore the possibilities, but these are my first pieces that I want to share.

This is my card for this week's Keep it Simple challenge.  I think I took the 'Simple' aspect a little too literally because having already created my charm, the card took me about 3 minutes to assemble - but I love all that white space!!!

The charm is a chipboard diecut coated with gold UTEE and filled with FP.  It's so dinky, but it was great fun to make.

My earlier pieces weren't exactly a raging success so I kept all the pieces and chopped them up into tiny fragments and I made this bangle using Liz's lacework technique:

Then I made this necklace

and this is my favourite piece

 

I do have one or two other pieces that I wanted to share but to be honest, with this new blogger format, I lose the will to live!  For some reason it's only allowing me to upload one pic at a time and I have to close down in between each one in order to add another photo!  Ridiculous!

Anyway, I hope you like the pieces.  Have a great week and roll on Friday - it's half term!! YAY!!!

Thanks for stopping by! :o) xx

Busy Weekend

Hi all, thanks for stopping by.  Very quick post again from me as I have a very busy day ahead.  Only domestic stuff, but among that is WAY too much ironing so I need to save as much time as poss.  Here are my projects for this week.

Over at Delicious Doodles, Teri has released a brand new gorgeous Jewelled Fairy image this weekend, and this is how I used her in one of my projects.  Remember the other Mushroom House project I said I'd begun a while back?  Well this is it completed - it has sat around waiting for her to be launched I think!

this is the front of the card

open up to reveal a secret door

and here is the jewelled fairy in her secret garden.

Over at Tag, You're It! the theme for this week is The Jewellery Quarter.  Here is my tag inspired by this project that I saw on Faye's blog last week!  Thanks for the inspiration Faye!  As soon as I saw it I went off to google a leather-look technique and I found a brilliant one here  and here is my version



here's a close up of that 'leather'

Oooh, I could easily get addicted to this technique - it was such fun!

Finally, over at Keep it Simple this week our theme is Seeing Stars and this is my VERY simple card that I made for my dt sample:



Thanks so much for stopping by.  Hope you have a great week! :o) xx

Tag's for October Swap

Just a quickie here to let you know that over at Tag, You're It! our theme for the October Swap is Feeling Fruity and I'm hosting that swap.  The idea is that you make 3 tags based on the theme, send them into me by 25th October at the latest, along with a SAE and I will mix it all up and send you back 3 tags from the other players.  It's great fun and it's always lovely to receive another blogger's beautiful art through the mail, and there's always the surprise element of not know who's you're going to get!.

My tags were made using a SU set and a tapestry twig stamp along the bottom edge - very, very simple!  A bit of glitter and bling here and there and voila!  I was really pleased with them, and I hope whoever receives them will be just as chuffed!

Thanks for stopping by!  :o) xx

Happy Sunday!

Oh boy, it's grim out there today!!  Autumn is definitely upon us.  There is a very soggy and unnattractive carpet of dead leaves all over my driveway but I'm afraid it's way too wet out there to go and gather them up at the moment.  Will this rain ever stop!!

However, Autumn is definitely my most favourite season of them all - each of the seasons has it's own virtues and I love all of them for their own, but Autumn is somehow more special.  It has a magic about it with it's richness of colours and spicy, comforting smells, the crunching of leaves and snapping of twigs and the crackling of bonfires;   I carry nostalgic and romantic memories of Autumn in my childhood around with me all year long and it feels like a big warm hug any time of year.  This is the time of year that I go mad with home-made soups and crusty bread, and I love to make apple charlotte which is something that just doesn't seem to work at any other time of year!

Here are some of my creations for this week. First of all I wanted to show this card which was made using one of Teri's Delicious Doodles - as soon as I saw the image I just swooned!  I LOVE The Green Man, and I bought the image immediately and yesterday I printed out another one and made this card with it.

Check out that quote - isn't is just the most gorgeous quote!!  I found it on the web yesterday and thought it was perfect for this card.

Next up is a Christmas card I made, again using one of Teri's gorgeous images (by the way, they're all available for you to own too!!!!)

Awwww.......  as a Westie 'mum' I couldn't resist this gorgeous little fellow!  But if you're not a Westie person, Teri has lots of alternative cuties in her Christmas Stockings - go see!!

Finally, I'm showing my Keep it Simple offering for this week where the theme is Thank You.  And nothing could be more simple than this card:

The whole thing was made using my Scrapbook Artist kit with a digi scrap kit that I bought from The Creative Cottage - these kits are beautiful and very easy to use.  I printed out two copies and cut out the butterfly on the second image to use as decoupage giving the card a little dimension.

That's my lot for now.  Hope to be back soon!  In the meantime, thank you for stopping by and have a great week ahead! :o) xxx

Oh Happy Day!

I have been so excited about making this announcement - I have been chosen to be on Teri's fab creative team over at Delicious Doodles and I am delirious about it!  I have always been a big fan of Teri's art ever since she started showing them off on her blog and her images are just so wonderful to work with!  I have a fab (cheap!) Epson printer and the ink is (thankfully) compatible with Promarkers and Copics!

So, just to start the ball rolling here's a card that I made recently using one of Teri's images:

Oh boy, this was such fun!  I made the dp using Digital Scrapbook Artist 2 and the kits that came with an additional CD-Rom called Daisy Trail.  I took a basic background and added some 'embroidery' and  'crackle' to it then added the image as a photo.  Once it was in position I used the transparency tool to take the image down so that the crackles would show through the skull.  A few digi diamonds and sparkles later, I printed it out and coloured the rose and added highlights using promarkers.  The text was added using the fonts on the kit and enhanced using their text effects feature!   Love it!!

So, why not go over and see what my other fab teamies have created - I tell you, there is some amazing talent among these guys, and then get yourself over to Delicious Doodles shop and check out Teri's amazing images for yourself - they're gorgeous!!!

Thanks for stopping by! :o) xx

Tag, You're It! and Keeping it Simple!

OMGosh, I cannot believe that September is almost over, and I haven't yet sent off my tags to Sam for the September Tag Swap!! ARGH!!!  At least it gives you comfort to know that it's still not too late - you still have about 4 hours left! LOL!!!!

My offerings for this week's challenges at Tag, You're it! and Keep it Simple are right here:

Hard to believe this gorgeous little mini album began life as an envelope!!!  The inspiration came from a fabulous lady called Laura who's blog just blows me away!  I have made several of these now and they are becoming quite addictive!  The papers were from a kit I received well over a year ago but for the life of me I can't remember who they're by!  Such a shame because I've really dragged them out over the last couple of weeks and I have nothing but tiny scraps left now.

Over at Keep it Simple the theme is Gold Dust and I made this little card which has now gone into my memory album.  All the photo's are of my two boys at various stages of growth (and hair length!!! LOL!)  The gold dust is the chandelier which was stamped with versamark then heat embossed with gold glitter embossing powder.  Much more sparkly IRL! tut...

Well it's my turn to host the Tag swap next month so I am just going to go up the apples and pears, to see what suitable stamps I've got......(hint, hint!!!!!!!).

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by! :o) xx

Hate rushing but....

... as usual I am!! Just wanted to show off this card I made for the Keep it Simple challenge this week which is Bling It! I went to my friend's 50th birthday party on Saturday night and this is the card that I made for her. It's almost impossible to see on here but it is VERY sparkly! I sprinkled the chandelier with sparkly clear EP and embellished with some crystals, and again with the numbers. It was all very rushed and I feel so guilty for some reason for giving out a card that only took me about half an hour to make!

Well that's my lot for the moment - I am so behind this week so I haven't had any crafting time at all. However, tomorrow's Thursday and the best thing about Thursday's is............ I get the afternoon off!!!! YAY!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great week! :o) xxx

Craft Room Clearout

I read somewhere that if you don't use something for 12 months, then you don't need it and should get rid of it because it's causing clutter! And so if anyone is interested I am reluctantly downsizing my stash of things that I haven't used for way too long.

I have created a new page on this blog of items that I am loathe to part with. The magpie in me wants to keep everything I have 'just in case' I need to use it in the future, but the sensible me knows that I have to start getting rid of things that I haven't used in ages because a house move could be on the cards soon.

I have put one or two items on for now but I will be updating it on pretty much a daily basis for a while, so even if there's nothing that grabs your fancy right now, please keep checking back as more items will be added regularly.

Also, please bear in mind that I work during the day so if you don't get an immediate response from me, I will reply as soon as I get home.

A Couple of challenges

Washing done, shopping done, cleaning done, ironing.... errrmmmm.... that can wait a while longer I think! Just wanted to give a plug to our challenge blogs. First of all here is my offering this week for Tag, You're It's theme which is From the Fairy Garden.

Now, you can be forgiven for thinking that you may have seen this before somewhere, because my project this week was heavily inspired by an article I saw in issue 73 of Simply Cards and Papercraft by the very talented Su Pennick! I would love to show it off to Su but sadly I spent a couple of fruitless hours scouring the web yesterday for her blog, to no avail. So if you know her, or know where she lives in cyberland, I would be really grateful for a link. I have never in my life bought a craft mag because of the cover project, until I saw this that is. There was no way I couldn't buy the mag and I fell madly in love with the entire project. So when I came to make my concertina tag card using Su's original design as inspiration (I'm sure it would have been a lot easier and a lot quicker if I'd followed her instructions!!!!!) I never imagined how much fun I would have making it! So much so that I'm halfway through project no. 2 now!!

Moving on to my next card, this is my very quick and very simple offering for Keep it Simple.

The theme this week is Give us a Swirl, so that's what I did! LOL! The card was made using a square card mask across the centre and spritzed with my home-made glimmer mist using alcohol inks and gold mica powder.

Unfortunately, even in the close up photo, you can't see the glistening that is evident IRL - shame! The butterflies were then stamped on using a bright yellow Brilliance pad. I think the black swirl is Inkadinkadoo - but don't quote me on that! The text is a rub-on.

Right, well that's my offering for today. Please get over to these blogs and play along with us. It would be fab to see some new players along with our fantastic regulars!

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by! :o) xxx

Woah... slow down!!

Groan, I haven't posted anything for ages because time is going waaaaay too quickly right now! It was back to school full-time on Monday and despite my fears and reservations, I can honestly say with my hand on my heart that I am LOVING my new role soooooo much!!!! I am like a pig in wotsit!!!

So, without a creation to post (well I have, but I'm being lazy!) I will shout about some fab blog candy that's up for grabs! Lothian Crafts

have this fab candy to giveaway to some lucky bod who is a) a follower, b) displays their blinkie, and c) shouts about it on their blog. Now I never win any of these things (sob!) but I'm happy to give it a shout as it's a fab prize!

So get over there and keep your fingers crossed! Good luck!

Countdown begins here.....

WAH!!! The end of summer is fast approaching (Ha!! that's a laugh - Summer ended in June as far as I can remember!!!!) and the school uniform drill has begun :o( None of the jobs I had planned have been finished - most of them have been started, so that's some consolation! Back to school on Friday for me - the boys still have another week off but I'm going for a TE day.

But on the plus side, it means that autumn is waiting just around the corner and I LOVE autumn. I love it's coziness, the smells, the warm colours, hot puddings, toad-in-the-hole (made with vege sausages, of course!! LOL!), and new challenges. What a super link into my next news!
My wonderful teamies at TYI have got together with our lovely friend Clare and have created a fabulous new weekly challenge blog called KEEP IT SIMPLE! It's all about clean and simple cards which everyone loves to do from time to time, and our first theme is a Christmas card in traditional colours, and here is mine:

CAS cards are a HUGE challenge for me but I do want to improve, though I fear I may have overplayed the 'simple' bit with this card! LOL!! It's a big learning journey for me and I am really excited about the prospect of learning from others how to do this CAS thing, because it really is a talent in itself I think!

I do hope we have lots of players because I love to see CAS cards and I really want to pick up tips from those who do it brilliantly - plus we have some wonderful prizes to give away from fabulously talented sponsors, as well as the kudos of being picked as one of our top 3 players each week!! WooHoo!!!

So please pop along, give us a try - we'd love to see as many as possible over there!

In the meantime, I will be back later with my tag for this week. Have a great BH weekend! :o) xx