A-a-a-a-CHOOO!!!

Phew.... Excuse me, I just can't stop sneezing!!  I don't normally 'suffer' with hayfever - OK, I get itchy nose and eyes occasionally, but for some reason, this year I am really, really bad!  It began on Sunny Saturday when I sat outside to do my work for a couple of hours.  My eyes and nose are just like someone's turned a tap on and I'm sneezing like a hundred times a day!!!!  OK, that may be a slight exaggeration, butI've never had hayfever like it before!  It's weird, it's like I've got a really bad cold with none of the aches and pains that go with it, just a permanently red nose!

Anyway, over at Midweek Magnolias this week we have a game of Bingo for you to play.  Our lovely Cathy has created this fab bingo board and you need to choose a line across, down, or diagonally in any direction, or, if you're feeling very adventurous and creative, why not go for a full house!

So, eyes down and off we go.  I opted for the top line and went for Pink, Ribbon and Die Cuts/Punches.  Here is the card I came up with, complete with my home-made Frantage - gosh, I love this effect!  So much so that just about everything in the house is getting the frantage treatment at the moment, including the metal corners on my card.

The flowers I made myself with a punch that I've had for absolutely years - probably ever since I first began crafting at home.  I've never done anything quite so adventurous with it before though, but I love the effect of the flowers so much that I'm punching away like crazy every spare moment I get and making these by the sackload!  The bg paper is also one of my own again -all in all it'a a totally a DIY creation really! LOL!

The Frantage I made with some white and gold UTEE, a splash of pink embossing powder and a little glitter.  But, a little goes a long way so I think I'm going to be Frantage-ing for quite some time yet.  I'm going to be sharing this card with Totally Tilda's challenge this week - I've not participated for a while, but I like their heat embossed theme this week so managed to tie it in with my MWM dt piece.

Anyway, that's about my lot for today.  I've rambled on for far too long.  Thank you for stopping by here, and I wish you a good week! :o) xx

April Showers

Happy Wednesday once more to all who stop by here.  April is a mental month for me because so many of my close friends and family members have birthdays in April and every year it catches me out and unprepared!!  This year is no exception :o(  I've got a busy time over the next couple of days as I have a few cards to get made.  I've also got an exciting function to prepare for later this year too as hubs and I are celebrating 15 years as Mr & Mrs.  After a lot of chat (from me) and a lot of listening (from him!) we have decided to have a Mad Hatter's Tea Party by way of celebration and I am having the best time making the preparations.  The only thing we can't rely on is obviously the weather, so I'm putting a contingency plan in place too!  Ideally we will have a lawn back by then - just now it is a sad and sorry excuse for a lawn and I am planning on getting out there to repair it over the next few days.  Very little rain coupled with lots of snow and ice have pretty much decimated our lawn and all that is left is dry burnt grass, lots of moss and tons of dandelions and dock leaves trying to break through.

Onto my card this week.  Over at Midweek Magnolias, my fabulous teamies have created a wonderful selection of inspiring samples to get people to join in with our April Showers theme.  Here is my offering:

Once again the bg papers are my own creation, and Tilda is coloured with my Faber Castell pencils. 

I've even been and bought a couple of purple pencils this week - eek!  I am hopeless with purple but I really want to give it a go!  I did use it on the flowers though:

I probably should consider moving away from blues anyway - it's my favourite colour but I tend to use it too much.... 

Well that's my lot for today - I have a couple of calls to make, a couple of cards to make, and a few pressies to wrap!  It feels like Christmas round here!

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

Is it Summer yet??

Brrrr....  Judging by the look of my car, I would say not!  It's so confusing for the wildlife - I've woke up listening to birds singing, but not as excitedly as they normally would.  My daffodils popped their beautiful golden heads out, only to be beaten back down again by snow and I am just desperate to get into my garden and make a start on getting it ready for the summer, but that wind is so cold, even in the sunshine!  Maybe next week?

In the meantime I shall have to content myself with indoor projects.  I have a few ideas of things that I want to get on and do, but first I want to show you the tag that I made for this week's Midweek Magnolia theme which is "How Charming", and we are asking you to use a charm somewhere on your project.  The girls have been busying away like mad to create some amazing inspirational samples which I urge you to go and check out for yourself.  Here is my offering:



The papers I used are WAY off the mark for me - I don't recall ever using mint before, but they work so beautifully.  They were a sample that a friend sent to me many years ago and I've just never got round to using them because they're not my usual taste.  I've always thought they were gorgeous, but a little too 'modern' for me, but I decided that they would be perfect for this tag, and they are so Spring-like and cheery.  Unfortunately, I've covered all the beautiful birds that lie underneath the image - the paper normally looks like this

Beautiful, isn't it?

I'm sharing my project today with themes over at Lovely Hanglar or Sweet Magnolia as they have the theme Butterflies or things that flutter and with Marvellous Magnolia who's theme is Wings(my charm and the invisible birds on my paper!) and with You, Me and Magnolia who have a Spring theme.

And that's my lot for today.  I'm off to meet a friend for coffee soon which I have been looking forward to for the last week!  Hope you're having a good week wherever you are, and thank you for stopping by! :o) xxx

Favourite Stamp

Happy Wednesday to all who pass through here.  This week at Midweek Magnolias we are asking you to use your favourite stamp and tell us why it is your favourite.  I chose this Tilda which I think is actually from a Christmas collection, but I don't care because I think she can be used all year round.  The reason I have chosen this one is because I love the way her dress scallops and bumps making it easy to colour, and I love the bow in her curly hair - it reminds me of my first perm! LOL!!   So I used this image on my project this week which is a Milk Carton which I wanted to make to fill with goodies for my friend who is about to hit the 'big one' in a couple of weeks time.

The papers are once again my own which I made using freebie images from the internet.

Thank you so much for stopping by.  Have a great week, and don't forget to stop by Midweek Magnolias to see the fab creations my wonderful teamies have come up with! :o) xxx

Roses, roses everywhere, and winner!

 

 

Good morning blogland!  Before anything else I would just like to say the most enormous THANK YOU to EVERYONE who joined in with our bloghop over at Midweek Magnolias last week!  It was hugely successful and all the team are so delighted to see so many lovely crafters.  We had a blast!  Thank you to all who visited our blogs and for the many hundreds of wonderful comments we all got for our creations.  It was so successful that we may just have to do it again ;o)  Watch this space......!!!

 

In the meantime, I would like to announce the winner of my blog candy and that is

 

CAZ

 

Well done Caz, and thank you for your lovely comments.  If you would like to email me your addy and I will send your pack out to you.

 

Our new theme at Midweek Magnolias this week is Everything's Coming Up Roses! and we want to see lots of roses on your projects.  Here is the card I made for my DT piece:

The paper is another of my own creations which I made using some freebie vintage images from the web and a spotty background which took me HOURS to create and I wish never to do another!!  The colour doesn't show very well here but it is a very pale grey/blue which I think is much nicer IRL, but having 'mastered' stripes, I figured spots would be a doddle - No!!!  I'm lucky to still be a part of this family given the amount of foul language I've been hurling at my pooter this week!  They've disowned me now and I need to win back their favour! LOL!  I wouldn't mind, but you can't even see the damn spots!!  The gorgeous frame is one which I am ashamed to own because it's the creation of one Stephanie Weightman, who I just cannot bear to watch on C&C because she winds me up so much.  Why bother asking guests a question if you're only going to answer it yourself?  So rude!  However, her range of dies have now hit Hobbycraft and I just happened to be there when they were stocking the shelf and I came away with this, costing me £25!!  Am I totally mad?!  There is a lot more to it than just this, but I instantly regretted buying it when after goodness knows how many attempts I finally managed to extract one in one piece from the die itself, without tearing it.  Give me Spellbinders and Marianne dies any day!

 

Well that's my all for today.  Please pop over to Midweek Magnolias and check out the amazing samples that my fabulously talented teamies have created.  Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great week. :o) xx

Happy Birthday Midweek Magnolias!

Hurrah!  We are officially one year old now!  Hard to believe that 52 weeks ago we launched this fabulous weekly 'challenge' blog.  We call it a challenge, but in actual fact it's more an inspirational theme blog and lots of very lucky people have been fortunate enough to win fabulous prizes donated by our amazing sponsors, Magnolia in Sweden!

However, as this is our birthday, we have lots of other special treats for all our players to be in with a chance of winning.  We are having our first blog hop.  Chances are, you have probably arrived here via Jenny's wonderful blog - if not however, please visit her because if you do, and you leave her lots of love, you will be in with a chance of winning our fabulous Birthday Blog Prize which was very kindly donated by Cathy.  Take a look at this amazing bundle:

All this could be yours if you play along with our blog hop.  To do this you need to be a follower of Midweek Magnolias and you must visit each of the DT members own blogs and leave a comment. 

Some of the DT are also offering smaller prizes of their own and I have put together this little package:

There is some genuine vintage lace, some ribbons, die cuts, stick on sparkly gems, doilies, flowers and 2 boxes for you to alter in any way you see fit.  I may throw in one or two extras also ;o)

So, we have our big blog prize from Cathy, our Mystery prize from Magnolia, individual blog prizes and on top of all that, we are all giving away our cards this week to the individual blog winners also!  Wow!  What a birthday treat!

And before I forget to post it, here IS my card for this week:

I hope you like it.  The bg papers are all my own design (and stamped with a Kaisercraft stamp)and Tilda is coloured with pencils and stickles glitter glue.

So what now?  Well now, you need to hop over to my lovely talented teamie Becky and see what goodies she has to offer.

Thank you to everyone who plays along with our themes each week on Midweek Magnolias.  We do love seeing you there and we hope everyone has as happy a time there as we do!  Thanks for popping in here also.  Have a great week! :o) xx

A little Shabby, a little Chic!

Oh I'm late off the mark again!  I meant to post this at 6.30am this morning but unfortunately I overslept!! Argh!  Something I never do.  I am an early riser because I'm most definitely a Morning Person.  Anything after 7pm might just as well be written off!

So, over at Midweek Magnolias this week we are going Shabby Chic!  One of my favourite themes, although I really struggle to achieve it!  It seems to come so easily to some people, but my projects tend not to look like the image I had in my head.  So Shabby Chic is now my short-term goal, and herein begins my journey!  Watch this space!  LOL!!!

I made my card using my new favourite dies - Marianne's Petra Large Oval.  The bg was made using a couple of Kaisercraft stamps which I thought look terribly Chic!  I 'shabbied' my card using distress inks, but I'm not sure if it looks more 'dirty' than aged - maybe I've just invented a new technique 'Dirty Chic'! LOL!  Anyways, I am sharing my card with two other blog challenges.  Simply Magnolia - Anything Goes and Totally Tilda - Spots and Stripes

That's my lot for today then.  Please pop over to visit my lovely teamies at Midweek Magnolias - they have some amazing cards that they have created to inspire and entice you to play along with our theme.

Thanks for stopping by.  Please leave with a smile on your face! :oD xx