Exciting News!

Well, the news is out and I am very excited to be part of a brand new midweek adventure over at Midweek Magnolias.  Please pop over there to say Hi to our lovely team of fabulously talented ladies who are just counting down the days to 7th March when we kick off  with our first theme.  I hope that many of you will join us over there and have lots of fun with your gorgeous Magnolia stamps etc...

I would like to add a personal Thank You to all those wonderfully talented ladies who applied for a DT post.  It would have been so lovely to have every single one of you on board, but sadly there were just too many of you, and making the selection was very, very difficult.  But I really hope that those ladies will still come and join in with us - we will be looking for DT members along the way and it would be lovely if some of them would take up the challenge.

In the meantime, why not pop over there, grab our button and save the date for our first theme.  EVERYBODY is welcome!

Fancy a Crafty Retreat?

The Wandering William
Foldgate Farm
Steventon
Ludlow
Shropshire
SY8 4BN

Oh my goodness, I have to show you this:  CRAFTY RETREAT  Doesn't it look absolutely gorgeous!  Well you can spend a fabulous few days here just crafting with other lovely crafters.

My lovely buddy Amy is organising it and it's happening in October 2012.  There are 3 dates,

Group 1: Friday 12th Oct - Monday 15th Oct

Group 2: Tuesday 16th Oct - Thursday 18th Oct

Group 3: Friday 19th Oct - Monday 22nd Oct

and there are still some places available.  The cost is £200 pp with a £50 non-refundable deposit.  Contact Amy if you are interested.  There is also the option to pay by installments so you don't feel the pinch quite so much.  I have a 'special' birthday coming up later this year and I am definitely considering a couple of days away........ :o) xx

I love half term!

Aaaah.....  Happy Monday blogland - and it's always a happy Monday when I can sit at home, in the warmth, with me kids and me paintbrushes, Harry Potter on the telly and the deafening sound of contentment ringing in the air!

Over at The Official Magnolia Inspiration Challenge blog this week, they're celebrating Edwin and you're asked to make a card using Tina's sketch, and of course, Edwin. 

I have a number of favourite Edwin stamps, but this one is far and away my favourite, so no surprise that I chose Pirate Edwin for my card:

I am also showing this off in the Magnolias Down Under gallery this week as their theme is to make something using just one word sentiment, so Ahoy!

All the papers are Rusty Pickle, Edwin is painted with Distress Inks.  Hope you like!

Thank you for stopping by and have a great week! :o) xx

Injured!

Happy Saturday blogland.  Not a great start to the half term holiday for me!  What a fool, I was cooking sausages for my boy's breakfasts and I wasn't happy with the amount of fat that came out of them, so I took the sausages out of the pan, poured the fat away and plunged the pan into a bowl of hot water to remove any residue.  Immediately a huge geyser of boiling steam shot up and scalded my thumb! OUCH!!!  So I have made my card today in great pain (awwww.... maximum sympathy noises please!).

Today I made another good ol' Easel Card befitting two challenges.  First of all I used the weekly sketch on Sketch Saturday,

and used the theme Pink, Pearls and Lace for Just Magnolia's challenge this week.

Hope you like it.  That's about my lot for the moment - I'm going to go and rest my thumb a while now....

Have a good weekend, and for those of you who, like me are lucky to get the school holidays, I hope you have a great week with your youngsters - I know I intend to!

Thanks for stopping by  :o) xx

Brrrr...... Bring on Spring!

We finally got snow - Yay!!!  One thing I love about the snow is that my little fella gets so excited and will spend hours outside in it, but when he comes in he always wants to snuggle up with Mum with a cup of 'special' hot chocolate, and he was even more delighted that I finished this one with a little sparkle!

Onto today's project.  I have made this tag for two challenges.  Over at The Shabby Tea Room this week the theme is Candy Hearts and you have to use a food theme and include hearts.  They also have a photo for inspiration:

and here is my tag:

It's incredibly pink, isn't it!  Now I do like a bit of pink, and a skip through my blog would show that, but for some reason this seems pinker than usual for me! LOL!  The Love Heart 'sweetie' is made from very pale pink Fimo, in a home-made mould!

On my cyber travels this week I have also discovered that my lovely friend Sarah who makes THE most stunning cards and creations, has started a challenge blog with some of her amazingly talented DT over at Pretty Little Ribbons challenge blog.  This week their theme is Anything Goes, and so I would like to show this tag on their blog also.  The team have some of the most stunning inspirational projects I have seen for such a long time.  Sarah also has a fabulous online shop of the same name and I would urge you to pay her a visit and see what gorgeous goodies she has in store!

That's my lot for today.  I'm off to have a play with my camera.  I still haven't quite mastered it, and I'm getting rather impatient!  Grrr....

Hope you're wrapped up warm and taking care in this freezing cold weather.  Thanks for stopping by! :o) xx

Love IS in the air!

Happy Saturday bloggers!  Today is a special day as it's DH's birthday - my 'toy boy' has caught up with me in age again! LOL!  Not sure what we are going to do to celebrate though as it's so bloomin' cold out there that all we want to do is stay indoors where it's lovely and toasty!  I didn't get round to making him a card this year - he is the worst person to make a card for because it always stresses me.  However, my youngest did go the extra mile and made a card for "the most amazing dad in the world" and when I caught him rubbing a tissue all over it I asked what he was doing?  "I'm giving it some fragrance" he replied, and stuck it under my nose, immediately clearing my sinuses, as the 'fragrance' on his tissue was Olbas Oil!! LOL!!!  Nice one son - now why didn't I think of that!!!

So, over at The Shabby Tea Rooms this week the theme is Love is In the Air and this gorgeous photo  is posted for inspiration:

and here's my card:

I am really enjoying getting back into card making again and it's becoming infectious at work.  At lunchtimes on a Tuesday, we've been having a bit of a Technique Tuesday session at work.  One of my colleagues has become interested in crafting and wanted to see the Big Shot demo'd, and I happily obliged.  The following week we had a short stamping session, I also demo'd Shrink Plastic one week, and this week I put together a small kit to make a tag - the technique was Heat Embossing and we had just 20 minutes to produce this very simple tag:

Unfortunately, I didn't heat set the sentiment at the bottom of the tag properly and some of it rubbed away so I used a bit of initiative and stamped it again onto a seperate piece of cardstock and using the pinking shears  I cut it out and stuck it over. Job done!  The best part about this though is all the Oooh's and Aaah's  and excitement you get from non/brand new crafters as they see their projects come together, and as they watch the embossing powder melting, they think I'm some kind of alchemist!! LOL!!

Well that's my lot for today.  I have some prep work to do for next Tuesday's session.  Hope to be able to show you something tasty next week!  Have a good weekend all, and wrap up warm!  Thanks for stopping by! :o) xx

It's February already!

It's the weekend and I'm poorly...  :o(  I've got myself a tummy bug which is making me feel utterly miserable so I came online to look at some gorgeous pieces of work by the billions of talented crafters out there to cheer myself up!  I also needed to post my piccy for the Simply Magnolia challenge this week which is Hearts and Love.  I used my current favourite 'thing' which is Image Transferring from photo's to fabric and I made this adorable little hanging stuffed heart:

I took the image from this card that I made last year:

and transferred it to plain white cotton which I then stitched onto plain red cotton, which was then stitched to this gorgeous vintage-style rose fabric

Hope you like it, it's going onto ebay this weekend, so fingers crossed for a sale!  That's my all for the moment.  Have a great weekend all! :o) xx