Happy New Year

I hope you have all been having a good Christmas holidays and are getting ready for the New Year.

We've had a very relaxing time visiting family and just chillin' and although I haven't been around on Blogland I have been reading all the lovely comments you lovely Blog Hoppers have been leaving and I'm feeling slightly overwhelmed by them all. I've never had so many visitors so thank you to you all for joining in, I hope you've enjoyed it and thank you to my new followers. I will try and visit you back over the next few days.

I've been trying to catch up with my JYC book and will try and post some pages soon. I've been enjoying looking at the other pages that other bloggers have done, they are amazing.

Because of this not much proper crafting has been achieved so I will just share with you some of the wonderful crafting presents Santa was kind enough to leave me. I will enjoy playing with them very much over the next year.


Just a reminder that Mrs Stampman's Blog Hop continues until Sunday 3rd Jan so there's still plenty of time to join in the fun and there are some great prizes on offer.

It just leaves me to wish you all a very Happy, Healthy and Peaceful 2010.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

The Stampman Bloghop, Candy and Award Event

I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas and are now feeling full of Turkey and Goodwill and relaxing ready for a bit of fun with The Stampman's Bloghop.

I hope you are enjoying your hop so far and you should have arrived here from Emma but if not go back to The Stampman and follow the links.

You need to collect the letters posted on each blog along the way in the correct order, make a note of them and leave a comment on ALL blogs you visit to be eligible for a prize. The Stampman are sponsoring all the prizes and mine are 400 assorted round brads. Sounds fantastic.

Once you have got your final answer after collecting all the letters, you need to e-mail it to Jill at thestampman@btconnect.com before the hop closes at Midnight GMT on Sunday 3rd Jan 2010 to go into the draw for a prize.

I hope you are following all this so far!!

My Letter is D and you need to visit Sarah next. Have fun.

Jill has asked us to post a project we have done during 2009 and want to revisit and so I thought I'd show you a card I made last Summer using all sorts of spritzs and sprays and a Tattered Angel Glimmer screen. I love using stencils in this way and I've picked this particular project because I used colours that I don't usually and really liked the fresh look it had, it seems full of sunshine and that's something I always look forward too as the New Year starts, the promise of Spring and Summer!!


Jill would love to see any projects you would like to revisit again and is offering an award on her blog if you leave her a comment with a link to your post about any creations you feel are well worth a second viewing. We can then all come and have a look too!!!!

Enjoy hopping!!!!

Twas The Night Before Christmas

Well, it's finally here and what a day we've had. This was the scene here today as we walked into town for the traditional Stand Pie.

Yes, we've had a snowy Christmas Eve and lots of it. Everyone was out enjoying it and Freya said it's the best Christmas ever (and that's before Santa has even been ).

I hope you are enjoying your day and not rushing about too much.

I just wanted to share this snow with you so I'll be off now with a wish to you all for a very Happy Christmas and thank you for stopping by over my first year in blogland and leaving such wonderful comments. You're a lovely bunch.

I hope Santa brings you all the things you wish for. Freya is following him on Norad and he's on his way so make sure you leave out those wish lists.

Love to you all.

Happy Christmas

This is likely to be my last post before Christmas, time is precious at the minute as I'm sure it is for everyone else so please forgive me if I'm a bit slow with my blog visiting at the minute.

I hope you are all keeping safe and well in this lovely seasonal weather. I think we have missed most of the snow here, we haven't had any more since last Friday although it has barely got above zero and the nights have been bitter. Will it be a white Christmas? I do hope so.

Are your preparations going well. I think we are nearly sorted. We braved the supermarket today, which was fun, I don't think, so hopefully we can leave the shop madness to everyone else now and keep warm at home.

If you are feeling relaxed and full of turkey on Sunday 27th you might like to join in the fun of The Stampman's blog hop, which starts on Jill's blog. She has some lovely prizes to give away.


Well, I haven't got any craft to show you today, I'm still rushing to finish some pressies, but I will post them after the 25th when they have been received, so I'll finish by wishing all my lovely friends in Blogland and your families a very Merry Christmas and a Peaceful, Happy New Year. I hope Santa brings you all lots of new crafting goodies and you get some time to play with them.


HAPPY CHRISTMAS
and a
PEACEFUL NEW YEAR

Snow Day!

Like lots of you, I know, we have SNOW!!!! Hurray. I just hope it lasts and we can have a white Christmas, wouldn't that be wonderful.

I hope you've all had a good week and Christmas preparations are going well. It's been a busy one here. I had a wonderful afternoon at Freya's Nativity and a meal out last night which was lovely, especially watching the snow fall outside. It felt really special.

School has now finished so things should be a bit more relaxing from here on in, fingers crossed!

I found another Christmas card I'd had a go at after seeing the wonderful Sheena Douglas making them. That lady is a wonderful source of inspiration and so infectious with her enthusiasm.


These were Bow Window cards made by cutting out a window frame slightly bigger than the base card you are using and then sticking acetate to it leaving a strip of card at each end to attach to the card using wet glue.

Before attaching the window a scene is stamped on the card. I used some papermania stamps I had, but Sheena used houses which looked much better.


Finally the window was decorated with a swirl and a greeting. Having had some success with working out the bow window I shall have another go at these but use a better scene behind.

Before I go, I just have to say it's the end of an era today with the final Wake Up To Wogan this morning. I know he's not everyone's cup of tea, but I was brought up listening as a child and all my adult life he has got me up in a morning and I'm going to miss him. That was some farewell he gave this morning, I have only just recovered. Happy Retirement Terry!

Thank you for stopping by and have a great weekend. Keep warm.

Birds and Pearls

Brrr it's so cold isn't it and we've had no daylight here today, it's been dark, damp and foggy all day so apologies for the photos tonight, I've scanned one and photoed the other with flash to get the best results but nothing like taking them in daylight.

Before I get going with this post I must just say a huge thank you for your support, I was feeling really bad over that cake but I know I did the right thing. Family time is so precious at anytime but more so at Christmas.

Following my last post, I have been asked whether the clear embossing powder sticks to the mica powdered card from the original inking. I made the card such a long time ago I couldn't honestly answer 100% so I had another go last night and found out two things, yes the clear EP sticks but to get the best results with the mica powder you need to use watercolour paper. Not sure why this is but ordinary card just doesn't work. So here are step by step instructions.

1) Cut a piece of watercolour paper the required design size you want.

2) Liberally ink with versamark or similar.

3) Apply mica powders with a large brush until they cover the paper really well.

4) Ink a stamp with the versamark and stamp into the powder. This will remove it to show the stamped design (If you are really organised and have a piece of triple embossing to hand stamp the mica powdered stamp into this so as not to waste it). Otherwise clean the stamp each time before reinking & restamping into the powder

5) Sprinkle clear EP over the whole area and heat emboss from underneath to get a glossy finish.

Hope this helps.

Here is the piece I did last night and a piece of triple embossed chipboard I made after stamping the dragonfly card in the last post.


The Tag It On challenge theme this week is birds and this is what I came up with.


The tag was glimmer misted with various shades of pink. The Crafty Individuals stamp was inked in Brilliance pearlescent Ivy and Crimson and clear embossed. The little hearts were then decoupaged.

I realised after I'd finished it that the stamp is very swirly so I've added some pearls and am also entering it into the Allsorts challenge. Their theme is swirls and pearls this week. You have to be a speedy crafter at this time of year when time is so precious so hope this is ok.

Thank you as always for stopping by and I hope you are all wrapping up well and keeping warm.

Christmas Is Coming.......

I hope you've all had a great weekend and your Christmas preparations are well under way.

We've spent the weekend putting up our Christmas Tree, No, it hasn't taken the whole weekend, we did go shopping and other things as well, and it's looking beautiful. I always think the house looks so cheerful with all the twinkly lights during these dark December days.

I've also managed to get some stuffing made and other bits and pieces in the freezer so I think we're getting there.

Only Christmas cards to write, pressies to wrap, crafty presents to finish, cakes to decorate........ ahhhhhh!!!!! It'll all get done, I'm sure.

I was feeling ok until a lady phoned tonight to ask me to make and decorate a three tiered Wedding cake for the 27th December, yes two weeks today!!!!! I never usually turn down requests but I had to for this one, I don't think it would be physically possible, but that doesn't make me feel any better. If she'd only asked a month ago it would have been no problem. I feel awful now!!

I've managed to get a bit of crafting done, finishing special Christmas cards based on the moon tag I did last week. Thank you so much for all your wonderful comments, I felt slightly overwhelmed! Anyway, I will show you them once they've been delivered so in the meantime I thought I'd share a non Christmassy card with you I did a few weeks ago.


This idea was demoed by someone on a Create and Craft show I saw but it was so long ago I can't remember who it was, so apologies for that.

The background was done with moonglow mica powder applied after the card was given a coating of veramark and then a swirl stamp was inked with versamark and pressed into the powder all round the edge removing it to show the stamp. Clear EP was heated all over to seal it and give it a glossy finish.


The dragonfly and flowers were Inkadinkadoo Mindscapes and were stamped in versamark on acetate and white embossed and then cut out.

Liquid Pearls were added as a finishing touch.

I enjoyed playing with this technique and shall definitely try it again with different colours.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you all have a great week. Don't work too hard!!

Tags Galore

I've been desperate to catch up on some tags all week and this morning have managed to do two, Wow! that's good for me. Only problem is they are both late for what they are intended for, still I'll post them anyway.

The first one is for last weeks Tag It On challenge which was Blue Moon. Sorry it's late Frankie!


I masked the moon and dabbed baby blue eyes blue gold and wisteria purple blue (don't they have fantastic names) starburst stains all over the tag and let it dry. The Crafty Individuals trees were stamped in brilliance blue and embossed with holographic powder and a colourbox dark blue and clear EP to give a bit of depth.


I then worked darker ink over the top of the tag and shaded the moon and hand drew some clouds with pencil. Lastly I went over the top of the tag with Frosted Forget Me Nots Starbust stain to get the glimmer back. For some reason this stain has lost it's blue but it's great for applying glimmer when you don't want any colour.

The second tag is a take on Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas. If you haven't seen them yet, have a look, he's doing some amazing stuff again this year.


I think this was Tag 7 which was all about masking. I've used my own Santa stamp which is one I've had for ages and not really used. It's been rediscovered again this year though. He was stamped in Graphite black Brilliance and clear embossed. The swirls were then stamped with white acrylic paint and left to dry thoroughly. Peeled paint Distress ink was applied and a red pigment ink (unfortunately I don't have a red DI yet!!) and then the white swirls were buffed to remove the ink from them.

I added a gold embossed greeting but it looked terrible so I added some more swirls and gold embossed those to disguise it. I think looking at the whole thing I should have stamped the image at the top and put the greeting at the bottom. What do you think?

Well it's not a patch on Tim's who had stickles and music on his as well but at least I've managed to have a go.

I hope your week is going well so far.

Thank you as always for your wonderful comments, I can't tell you how much I enjoy reading them, they are so much appreciated.

Feeling Very Honoured

Yes...I am very honoured today to be the guest designer on Tuesday Taggers after winning the Handbags and Gladrags challenge a few weeks ago.

This is the card I made for them which had to include a Christmas Tree.


This is where the peel off got used from the last card. I sprayed Key Lime, Starfish and gold glimmer mists all over it and let the card dry thoroughly. Crimson brilliance ink was then gently rubbed over just to highlight the design a bit more before the peel off was removed. I coloured some of the baubles with a gold gel pen and added stickles and some gems. The BP was Dovecraft again I think.


I'm pedalling very hard to try and keep up with everything at the minute. Those dreaded Christmas cards have been finished at last. The problem was I didn't like what I'd done and didn't know how to rectify them. A bit of ribbon and a greeting sorted the problem.

My JYC has been started but I still want to have a go at Tim's tags and those gorgeous roses that Brenda has shown in a brilliant tutorial today. You can see them here.

Then there's housework, Christmas preparations and all the other usual jobs to be done. I really don't know how you hardworking Bloggers find time to do everything AND go to work!!

Happy Crafting and thank you for stopping by.

Christmas Prepartions

I've just found out there are only 2 more weekends before Christmas, not 3 as I'd been thinking!!!!!! Panic time.

I am feeling slightly better though as I made my Christmas cake yesterday so that's one "to do" ticked off the list.

Please forgive the short post again today. I have a box full of photos and bits and pieces for my JYC but as yet nothing has been made into pages, I think I'm a bit behind already!!!! Guess what I shall be doing for the rest of the afternoon.


I was playing with peel offs yesterday, yes I know, not at all fashionable but I was trying different things with them and the left over bits looked just as good so this is the card I made with them, cutting round the edge and then matting and layering the design. The BP was from the Artylicious CD and Dovecraft, I think. I have a bag full of Christmas papers that are no longer in their original wrapping. Various size gems were stuck on the tree just to liven it up a bit.


I hope you are all having a great weekend and your Christmas preparations are going well.

Thanks for stopping by.

Did You Miss Me?

Hello, I'm Back!!!!

We've just spent the week at Center Parcs in Sherwood Forest, our regular rest week before the chaos of Christmas and it was great. We went with some friends and their children and are now thoroughly prune like from spending hours swimming and riding the flumes, watching fireworks in the pouring rain and shouting ourselves hoarse at a very silly but brilliant pantomime.

It's lovely to leave all the routine behind for awhile and just chill out. We communed with lots of nature so as I've no crafting to show you today I thought I'd share a photo of the birds I took yesterday.


I was banned from all thoughts of crafting so I've got lots and lots to catch up with now, including my December scrapbook, Sir Tim's tags, challenges and those Christmas cards I've still not done!!!!! So bear with me while I catch up with all your wonderful blogs too. I will get there eventually.

It's lovely to go away but so nice to get home again too.

Gothic Swirls

Hello from a very wet and dismal Yorkshire today. Will this rain ever stop!!!

I hope your weekend is going well and the weather is brighter in your corner of Blogland.

This week's Tag It On Challenge is to use an arch shaped tag and include something Gothic, swirls and scrolls. You are really challenging us now Frankie.


I Googled Gothic architectural images and came up with some beautiful drawings of buildings which I printed off. I cut out the front of a Cathedral and colour tinted it with watered down Dusty concord distress ink and stuck it onto my tag.

The swirls are from Creative Expressions and were stamped with the same ink and the edges darkened. The chipboard swirl was coloured again with Dusty Concord and clear embossed.

I must just thank all my lovely blogging friends for the wonderful comments you leave. I really get a thrill reading them and your support and encouragement is fantastic.

I have a very busy week coming up so may be a bit quiet, please forgive me and I will catch up with you all when I can.

Thank you for stopping by.

A Christmas Carol

The Allsorts challenge this week is a Christmas Carol or song and you wouldn't believe what a struggle this card has been. I'm still not happy with the end result but I've run out of time. Even the photo is wonky. Oh dear, must be one of those days.

The stamp is one I've had for ages and I like to glitter the roofs. I used a Sakura glue pen this time and after it had dried the glitter just rubbed off so back to the trusty wet glue and a fine nib. My hand shakes that much when I'm trying to do fine lines I find it really hard to control so it's not as good as I would have liked.

The rest of the image was coloured with watercolour pencils.

The backing sheet music was printed of the computer and coloured with distress inks. I've got to thank my Hubby for that idea!!

The green backing is from the Graphicus Christmas CD.

Short and sweet today. I've bored you enough this week with my ramblings.

I hope your week has gone well and wish you a lovely weekend. Apparently there could be snow!!

Thanks for stopping by.

Tags, Bags and Flu Jabs

I am so relieved that I'm at least a bit normal, thank you all those folk who agreed with the handbags and shoes thing!!!

My friends all think I'm nuts!! To me bags are just for stuffing all those things in you can't leave the house without, purse, camera, tissues, keys, wet wipes, phone, pen, tub of mints, carrier bag and many other assorted necessities. I then end up with Hubby's keys and phone when he's got nowhere else to put them and that half drunk bottle of juice we invariably seem to have after having a coffee out. Why can't children ever finish their drinks!! It's no wonder I need something the size of a suitcase that always weighs a ton.

At the end of the last post I promised you the tag for the Tag It On Challenge, the original reason we made the alcohol ink background,(the theme this week is alcohol inks and faces)... so here it is.


I cut the tag shape out of the photo paper and stamped all over with the same script stamp using Brilliance Galaxy gold. The ladies were stamped in Brilliance crimson as with the last card.


I stamped the swirl in the corners, covered the ladies with a mask and sprinkled gold embossing powder over the rest of the tag and very very carefully heated it. Photo paper buckles and bubbles really easily under heat but I got away with it... just!!!!!

I've really enjoyed playing with the inks and these stamps, they are something a bit different for me but I will definitely play with them again soon. It's been nice to get away from the Christmas thing for awhile. I've still got those cards to finish!!!!!! Keep finding more interesting things to do!!!!!

I hope your week is going well so far. Mine has been stressful, have you ever tried to get a flu jab appointment from a doctors receptionist. It's harder than getting into China!! My Mum is on the list of vulnerable people and has the flu jab every year but her surgery didn't contact her and she forgot this year. I also said it was a good idea if she has the Swine flu jab. She's on medication which means she has no immune system. Anyway, to cut a very long story short, when she rang to get an appointment yesterday, they said the earliest appointment she could have was for the next flu clinic in 2 weeks time!!!!
This is not good enough me thinks!! She could very easily catch flu in this time. After several telephone calls I ended up speaking to the practice manager who told me they hold flu clinics every day but these were totally full of chronically ill people. I appreciated they were very busy but pointed out the differing stories I was being told. She then said she had just noticed they had an appointment today at 9.30am!!! What is all that about!!

Anyway it's all done with now. Sorry to rant. I don't get upset often but when I feel an injustice is being done I can't leave it alone.

Thank you for stopping by.

A Hint Of Green

This weather is certainly perfect for crafting and not a lot else, although we did have a lovely morning shopping in Harrogate yesterday.

Lots of little bits of secret Santa shopping needed doing so plenty of sneaking into shops while creating a diversion was going on. Freya is very good, we can get away with buying things when she's with us and saying it's being sent away to Santa, although she will be getting plenty of surprises so don't worry!

It was thick fog and drizzly rain while we were out and by the time we got home the wind had got up and it was pouring. A perfect excuse for a crafting afternoon.

Freya and I had a play with alcohol inks, her results were better than mine, I was too heavy handed so I did them all again. Fancy being shown up by an 8 year old. Anyway this was all in aid of Frankie's Tag It On Challenge which was to use alcohol inks and faces. I have made my tag but you'll have to wait to see that one 'cos I had so many bits of inked paper left I decided to make a card and while I was putting it together realised it fitted the Tuesday Taggers challenge this week of red, gold and green. I have to confess to having to think hard how to get the green in but if you look closely you'll see the little green gems!!!


We made the background by putting the alcohol ink onto a craft mat and squirting it liberally with blending solution and then twisting some cheapy photo paper around in it and just kept going until we had something we liked. The gold ink was added in the same way at the very ink. I think I used Cranberry and Denim Blue for the card.

The Crafty Individual ladies were stamped in Brilliance Crimson and the background was a script stamp also from Crafty Individuals which was stamped several times and gold embossed. I gold embossed the chipboard swirls to match.


I was also honoured by receiving this lovely award from the very talented Rhonda who lives in beautiful Vancouver and makes gorgeous tags.

Apparently, I have to tell you 5 interesting facts about myself, how hard is that!!!!

Well here goes-

I'm very grumpy first thing in the morning until I've had my first cup of tea, which my lovely hubby brings me in bed every day, how lucky am I!!!!

I love to be outside in the sunshine, it just makes me so happy, which is why Spring and Summer are my favourite months.

I can't understand people with a handbag and shoe fetish, I only have one bag and a couple of pairs of shoes for Winter and Summer, but I absolutely love buying plants and craft stash instead.

I love my music. Music of all kinds, I don't really have a favourite. Some music makes me happy and want to dance (not very well I hasten to add) and some just makes me want to sit and listen. But I have music on all day!

I adore silly American dramas like Everwood, Brothers and Sisters and ER and cannot miss them, yes I know ER has finished now. I shall be in mourning for ever. If I'm going to miss an episode I'll go to any lengths to see it!!! Sad I know.

Blimey that was a struggle.

I don't normally pass awards on, it's so hard to choose but because I'm nosey and some blogs especially make me smile I'd like to pass this award to the following.

Jill (Mrs Stampman)
Sarah (In The Zone)
Polly
Kathy
and Ei for her wonderful e-mails.

and everyone else who'd like it.

Well I hope you are all having a lovely weekend. I'll be back soon with that tag. I think I've wittered on enough for one day.

Thank you for stopping by.

For The Children

Happy Children In Need Day. I have been busy baking Pudsey Bear biscuits for the school bun stall this week and Freya has gone to School in funny tights!!!! We love CIN, I think when you have children of your own the plight of other youngsters less fortunate than your own becomes far more poignant.

My thoughts are also with those poor people not that far from here who are suffering with such terrible floods. I can't imagine what they are going through. The weather can be very cruel sometimes.

Over on the Allsorts Challenge they have asked us to do something for a child, which seemed very appropriate this week.


I have used a beautiful reindeer doodle drawn by the very talented Claire and shared with us here.


I coloured him with watercolour pencils and gave him a glittery red nose. Stickles were rubbed over the background and then he was matted onto glitter paper and some BP from the Artylicious Christmas CD. I printed the greeting on the computer and gave it the same border that Claire has given the reindeer so that it all tied in.

Well it's Friday again, don't the weeks fly, so I hope you all have a lovely weekend whatever the weather and thank you for stopping by.

More Funky Flowers

It's perfect weather for crafting here, damp, breezy and cool. I've spent the morning making stuffed felt birds at school as Christmas decorations and now it's back to the paper!


I've managed another card with the Funky Flowers stamps. This one was coloured with watercolour pencils and then stickles added for the bling factor. Dusty Concord distress ink was wiped around the edge and used to make the matting paper. I also used silver mirri board for matting.


I had a go at the background that Jill demonstrated recently, although I didn't have the patience to make masks, but I think it worked ok. The ink was brushed into the flowers with a water brush.

The greeting is from Crafty Individuals.

Short and sweet I'm afraid today. I've got that many ideas flying around my head at the minute that I must get back to the crafting table, well after Neighbours anyway, yes, I know I'm sad!!

Thank you for stopping by and I hope your week is going well so far.

Flowers Galore

I hope you are all enjoying the weekend. I know the weather has been a bit wild and woolly for some of you, hopefully things are calmer today.

We have been quite lucky. It was breezy yesterday but quite bright and today has been absolutely lovely. I even got to spend the morning in the garden tidying up all the dead leaves and cutting things back ready for the spring and it felt almost hot in the sunshine!! I don't know about you, but I always feel so much better when I've managed to get some fresh air.

The challenge over at Tuesday Taggers this week is to create something without using patterned paper. Now this is right up my street as I don't tend to use a lot of patterned paper anyway on my cards.

After a long awaited visit to The Stampman a few weeks ago I treated myself to Kay Carley's Funky Flowers stamp set and at last I've managed to have a play with them. After watching Jill on C&C recently I had lots of new ideas to try out.


I stamped out the flowers and coloured round the edge of them with the Sakura stardust pens and then spread the colour with a water brush. It certainly makes your pens last longer and I love the soft effect. I then used one of the single flowers to stamp all round the edge in orange. This was then matted onto some printer paper that had Shabby Shutters Distress ink wiped all over and then stamped on in the same colour to create a background paper.


Around the main card I used a stalk and leaf stamp from the Funky flowers and stamped in Brilliance pearlescent rust and galaxy gold.


I made the flower embellishment by stamping two of the single flowers in different sizes and cutting them out. They were coloured with watercolour pencils and some stickles added. The leaves were punched out of the distress ink BP and I added some extra stamping to darken them.

Tiny jewels were added to the corners to finish things off.

I'm learning lots of techniques for card making from all your lovely blogs and am beginning to find putting them together much easier so a big thank you for all your inspiration.

Thank you as always for stopping by.

What A Week

I've been a very poor blogger lately, I keep thinking I must do a new post and then something crops up and another day has gone so forgive me for the lack of new stuff and also for not getting round and visiting my favourite blogs this week. I will catch up, I promise!!

I had a day off this week and it seemed such a luxury. I spent the whole day making my Christmas cards. I've done about half the number I need but at least I've got going so that's been great.


These are two of them. The Christmas trees were pieces of cardboard painted with metallic blue craft paint and stamped and gold embossed using one of the Elusive Images Christmas plates.

The stocking stamps are from Stamptivity. I stamped them in Brilliance pearlescent crimson and painted them with watercolours. Stickles and little bells were added to the ends.


The BP on both was from the Elusive Images Christmas CD and I stamped snowflakes on the tree cards to break up the cream card.

I was feeling fed up on Monday. I had to go to the dentist and then found out that my favourite mag, Scrapbook Inspirations, is to be no more, not enough interest apparently!! so I logged onto Blogger to see what I could find to cheer myself up and discovered I'd won Enfys' wonderful Martha Stewart Blog candy. I couldn't believe it, she'd had so many entries I never gave a thought to being drawn. I am completely overjoyed. Thank you so much Enfys.


I was also given this lovely award from the lovely Eiglas. I am supposed to pass it onto to 5 other bloggers but I couldn't possibly choose as you are all such a lovely lot so please help yourself if you haven't already got it. I'm also meant to answer some questions but forgive me if I pass on this one Ei, I'll never get any visiting done tonight if I attempt them.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope your week is going well so far.

Handbags and Gladrags

That's the theme of this weeks challenge on Tuesday Taggers. I'm not a Handbag or Gladrag kind of girl. Anyone who knows me always says that plants and craft stash are my handbags and gladrags!!


Anyway, I thought I'd have a go at this one as I have a slinky dress stamp that rarely sees the light of day, not sure why as it's lovely. I stamped it onto glitter paper, cut it out and stuck a fluffy pink feather behind and mounted it all on dark card to show the feather off.


The BP was cuttlebugged with ink rubbed over, one of my favourite techniques and cut into two circles. A pink peel off handbag and some stickles were added as finishing touches.

Thanks for a great challenge girls.

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend, the weather's not been too bad here and I even managed a few hours in the garden today. The tender plants need bringing into the greenhouse but I am fast running out of room!!

Thank you as always for stopping by and the wonderful comments you leave. I always appreciate them. For those who asked, this year's cake is still in the planning stage. I promise I'll blog it once it's done.

Winter Wonderland

I hope your week is going well so far. Doesn't it come round to Friday quickly.

There's a definite change in the weather now, today is decidedly chilly here, but at least it's dry for a change.


Everyone's thoughts seem to have turned towards Christmas in blogland and this month's By the Cute And Girly challenge is Winter Wonderland.


I was recently admiring a pop up card on Anne's blog and she kindly sent me the instructions. I was also inspired by an article in last months Craft Stamper using one of Sir Tim's stamps so I combined the two and this is what I came up with. I decorated the pop up bit in the inside and thought I'd finished and then realised I needed to decorate the outside as well. I don't think one card has ever taken me so long. It was done over two days and is not a patch on Anne's but I shall save it and send it to someone special as so much work went into it.


The reindeer and all the swirls were taken from the Tim Holtz stamp, the snowflakes were the free stamp on Craft Stamper and the sledge was drawn using an old template I unearthed recently. I think it was also a free magazine gift. I cut it out, inked it with brilliance crimson and then drew swirls on with a gel pen.


While on the theme of Winter and blue I thought I'd also show you our Christmas cake from last year. It matches this card quite well, being sparkly blue with snowflakes


Apologies for the poor photos. The candles were so tall that it was hard to know how to photograph it and our kitchen tiles are not exactly the best back drop.


I put it in the spare room after it was finished and went to fetch it on Christmas Eve only to find all the snowflakes had wilted!!!!!! I'd forgotten that the air was likely to be damp during the winter from the shower being used and this makes the sugar paste go soft. Luckily with a bit of time and patience I managed to straighten them and stick them back onto the cake so disaster avoided. Note to self, keep the cake in a dry place this year!!

Thank you for visiting and I hope you have a lovely weekend whatever you are up to.

Burst Of Colour

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. What a contrast in the weather. We had gorgeous sunshine on Saturday and howling gales and torrential rain yesterday. Perfect crafting weather with the photos I took on Saturday though so I'm not complaining.

I think I've just scraped in with the Tuesday Taggers challenge of a "Burst Of Colour" this week, which is again sponsored by The Craft Barn.
I hope my card is colourful enough to qualify, I got stuck with the blues again but tried to inject some colour with the green holographic matting card.


I've used one of the Stamptivity stamps again on a pencil watercolour background. The BP was made with a flower head stamp from an Autumn Leaves set and stamped with a mixture of watered down and full strength Faded Jeans and Dusty Concord Distress inks and the sentiment was from Crafty Individuals. The dragonflies were cut out and stuck on and then stickles added here and there.

I hope your Monday is going OK, we have had a Training Day which has extended half term nicely. Back to normal tomorrow though.

Thank you for stopping by.

Autumn Sparkles

This glorious Autumn weather is really spoiling us isn't it. It's been fantastic here today, sunny and mild. We went to Harewood House to make the most of it and had a lovely walk round catching up with all our bird friends and Freya enjoyed the Scarecrow Trail, although we didn't manage to find them all. We even managed our lunch in the fresh air, on the last day of October, would you believe it. Although the leaves are falling quickly now I still managed to take plenty of lovely Autumnal photos.


I've also made a start on my Christmas cards, about time I know and the Simon Says Stamp challenge this week is "All that sparkles" so I've decided to enter my first effort as there's plenty of glitter paper and stickles been used, although it's not so obvious from the photo, apologies again for the poor light. I'm going to have to sort out how to photograph them better during the winter months.


The tree was inspired by one I'd seen that had been cut with a Spellbinders Pine tree die but me being me made my own tree template and hand cut each layer out of DCWV Christmas papers. It folds flat for posting but gives a lovely 3D effect. The greeting was taken from a stamp I've had for ages but I liked the modern look of it.


Before I sign off tonight I'd just like to thank Carol for becoming my 40th follower. You don't know how chuffed I am to have reached 40. I was so happy that just one person was following my ramblings when I first started out in Blogland not that long ago, so to get to 40 is amazing.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.