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

Flowers Galore!

It's Saturday!  I've had a whole week off and I now have loads of washing to do!  I am also very fed up with the cold weather and can't wait for Spring so that I can get out into my garden and pretty it up a bit!  I have been looking at photo's this week and sighing over the once-beautiful garden I had before I neglected it and have now set myself the task of turning it around this year.  I need to equip myself with a new 'greenhouse' first though.  I used to own one of those pop-up greenhouses but after many years, it finally caved in to the rust and I had to skip it.  That's where it all started going awry, I think!

So, in the absence of the real thing, I have decided to throw my efforts into creating floral projects for the home.  Over at Marvellous Magnolia this week, the them is Floral Bonanza, and the Inky Chicks want you to create something for Mother's Day, so I combined the two and concentrated my efforts into creating this sign:

(Click on picture to enlarge)

I have one of those wooden sign's that pretty much every house has and I used that as a template to draw around - neat huh?  I then spent a painstaking half hour cutting it out and distressing the edges, before diving into my box of 'unused coloured images' to finish it off!  Here's the girls close up:

This was a stamped image that my lovely friend Suzi sent to me which I had great fun colouring in.

Tilda normally has a broom on this image, but I decided to relieve her of it!

...and the colouring technique on this one I unashamedly 'stole' from the lovely, and remarkably talented Alby.  This was one of the images I made while I was learning how to use my pencils and I remember sitting in front of my pooter for about 2 hours till I almost went blind just trying to copy his colouring and shading technique!  I was pleased with the result but I had to develop my own way of using them if I was to keep using them, and Alby gave me some great tips!

So there you have it.  Thank you for stopping by my blog and I hope you leave with a smile on your face.  Have a great weekend! :o) xx





Time for Change

Things around here have not been the same since we lost our darling Rosie.  It's not something I want to dwell on too much but it's hard not to when she is on my mind every waking hour.  I don't seem capable of doing anything at home without imagining her there by my side as she always was (except when it was sunny outside, because she loved to sunbathe!!).  My mojo has been completely missing but I really want to get back into the crafting habit.  Rosie always made me uncomfortable while I was colouring because she used to lie across my feet - something which I would curse while she was here - what I wouldn't give to have her do it again!

I have been a bad DT member as I have been MIA for some time, but now I need to change that and get right back in the saddle.  I haven't had any new stash for some time due to a serious lack of funds so I decided to have a clearout of some of the stuff I don't use and sell them on ebay.   One or two things staked a claim on my new income, but I did manage to salvage a little to buy myself a couple of new Magnolias and some dies.  This frame and image are part of my new stash and you can rest assured that you will see this Marianne frame used MANY more times because it is now officially my most favourite die cut ever, and I can't stop cutting it out!  I used it here on my card for this week's Midweek Magnolias theme which challenges you to use Kraft Card on your project.  See:

I coloured Tilda with Copics, but having not used them for such a long time, I know that I desperately need a refresher course!  The BG paper is one that I made myself and the vintage label is Kaiserkraft.

Well that's my lot for today.  I'm busy planning how I'm going to redecorate my living and dining room at Easter and I want to get my nose back into my mags!  Please pop over to see what my lovely teamies have created over at Midweek Magnolias - they are an amazing bunch of girls which so much talent and they have been really busy!

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Have a great week! :o) xx

Sad Week

 

Rosie

1.8.97 - 30.1.13

Possibly the hardest post I've ever had to make on my blog, but I can't let the passing of my darling little girl go unmarked.  This is purely for my benefit because I am grieving so much after having to say goodbye to my beautiful Rosie on Wednesday this week.  Her suffering was thankfully short-lived and is now over and she is totally at peace but the memories are still raw and painful, even the happy ones.  I miss her sweet face, her barking at every animal on the telly, her getting excited and whizzing around in circles when I call names to come and collect their food, her darting up and down the living room at 100mph when she wanted to play, her wrapping her paws round my neck giving me her "please don't make me" look when her lead was produced at night because she hated being dragged out of the warmth into the cold air, her sitting beside me in the kitchen, Her sneaking up to nick the cushions off the sofa the minute our backs were turned, and her lying on my feet while I play with my pencils and stamps.  She's left a gaping big hole in my heart that I don't know how to deal with.  Her nephew, my gorgeous little man, keeps getting up to look for her.  He goes over to where she made her bed but he can't understand where she's gone. 

 

My lovely friend Elaine sent me this which I will treasure:

 

it is so poignant because I can still see my Rosie peeping round the corner at me with that quizzical look on her face.

 

My friends have been wonderful and I am so thankful for all of their kind words and support.

 

RIP Little Girl

xxxxx