A tag (for a change...!!) and a couple of cards

Over at Tag, you're it! this week the theme is "Lets Go Stripey". So that's what I did! I loved this striped cardstock which is from the DCWV "Pets" stack and I'm starting to manage to get away from Christmas colours at last!! LOL! The stamp is one of my current favourites from Gallery Textiles and there's more of those to come in the coming weeks so watch out for them! The flower and leaves are punched from my new Woodware punches, and at nearly £10 each, you can bet your life I'm going to get my money's worth out of them!!! LOL!!

This card was a forum sketch challenge and the perfect opportunity for me to use one of my new Sugar Nellie stamps by Leanne Ellis. I love her stamps and used the "Wish" one on a number of my Christmas cards - but wouldn't you know, I didn't photograph any of them!!! That's what you get for being so last minute!! tut!

This card was a challenge I set myself - stamping directly to card and using no papers whatsoever. No matting and layering although I did cut out the heart from another stamped image, but it fitted with the text so it had to be done! Again I used one of Leanne Ellis's stamps along with a Papermania stamp, a bit of bling and some Twinkling H20's. It was trickier doing this than I expected, but as it's not bound for anywhere, I figured I got away with it! LOL!!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend and looking forward to the week ahead. Thanks for dropping by!

Happy 2009!

It's been such a long time since I blogged. The last few weeks before Christmas really took me by surprise - it seemed to come from nowhere, completely took over my life, then was gone in a flash!!! It all kind of went belly-up when I got a phone call from my son's school informing me that he'd had an accident and could I get over there. He had apparently been running to his next lesson, slipped on some grit at the top of a flight of stems and belly-flopped to the ground taking a chunk of his leg out in doing so. I had to get him to hospital and hold his hand while they stitched him up - that was till they had to get a chair and open a window for me - Wimp!! LOL!! I'm dreadfully needle-phobic and I thought having kids would get me over that but no such luck! LOL!

Anyway New Year got off to a great start with the NY Honours list featuring Robert Plant MBE (good call!!!). I haven't made any resolutions, not real ones, but I do have a few ideas I'd like to put into practise. I certainly intend to do much more stamping - I had a horrid moment this morning while sorting through my stash when I discovered at least half a dozen stamps that I bought in the last few weeks to use on my Christmas cards and instantly forgot about and now I'm annoyed with myself! So first job this year is to organise my stamps better!

First pic of the year is my tag for this week's Tag, You're It! challenge - use your new stash! One of my Christmas pressies was a flexible art mold and I have been having some fabulous fun with it using polymer clay - more on that to come, but I couldn't resist adding one of my pieces to this tag, which also uses a couple of my new Purple Onion stamps - I love this vintage calendar in particular.

So, Happy 2009 to all who pass this way, I hope it proves to be a very happy, prosperous and creative one for you! Thanks for stopping by! :o)

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!