Christmas Tags

A quick set of makes to have in my Christmas box so I'm all ready for wrapping.

Nice shot of the loft carpet too!

Bugaboo really do make things easy for us, these were cut, coloured & glazed, Bugaboo did the rest!  Jx

Challenges;
Holly Jolly Christmas - Tags

Scarecrow

This is a new digi stamp I bought from Squiggle Stamps in their closing down sale.  Everything over there is reduced at the moment which is great for us, but it's a shame that they will no longer be with us in the New Year.

Paper this time is a Bo Bunny Sheet called Blitzen Turtle Dove, it's a Christmas paper but in an Autumnal shade! Colouring by Prpmarker & the leaves MS die cuts.

Challenges;
I Love Promarkers - A Male Card
Papertake - Their sketch
Passion For Promarkers - Autumn Leaves - Die cuts under my sunflower

Spooky

Now I don't normally do Halloween cards, but once I spied the latest freebie over at a Digi Stamp Boutique, it was a done deal, and the result was this!

I so love cats & this cat is no exception, hasn't he got so much character?

Challenges;
Cards For Men - Animals
Sketch n Stash - Great sketch
Digi Stamp Boutique - September Challenge - 2nd entry

Mary & Joseph

It's so long since I made any Christmas cards - I really must get back on track, but there has just been so much going on of late, Christmas just gets pushed to the side, but I know it's going to bite me in the bum soon enough!

So, for inspiration, I turned to my new Bugaboo hoard - didn't know about Bugaboo this time last year, but by the end of this Christmas, anyone who knows me will know Bugaboo for sure!

This time I've gone for a Mary & Joseph image coloured by Promarker & mounted  on Craft Creation papers.

Challenges;
Made Especially For You - Gate fold card.
CHCC - Nativity - is this close enough?  No baby in sight to perhaps not! Jx

Penny Black Cat

I must be in a Penny Black phase at the moment - no cards all week, then two in close succession!  So from my oldest PB on the last card, we move to my newest and this great cat.

Sorry I can't tell you who the papers are by, in fact, the whole card is made up from bits which have been lying about my desk for a while, (my desk is so messy!)

Challenges;
Shopping Our Stash - Fur or Feathers - has to be fur & a kitty
Crafty Pad - Breast Cancer Aware - Pink & A Bra
Dawn's Challenge - Think Pink/Breast Cancer Aware Jx

I Beg Your Pardon

I think I've said before, this is my first PB stamp & I still love it, I always think it makes a lovely fresh and feminine card.

I've made this card using Craft Creations papers then my new Magnolia  Dies for the  hellebores flowers with their tiny Mei flower centres.

Challenges;
Allsorts - Inspired by a Song - Dolly Parton," I Beg Your Pardon...I Never Promised You A Rose Garden!"
Sketch Saturday - A delightful sketch which I will use again for sure.
CRAFT - Make Your Own Embellishments
Dawn's Challenge - Think Pink/Breast Cancer Aware

Har Reporter

I'm a big fan of CAS cards although my son says they are bland and boring!  This one uses a couple of the great Harry Potter styled images.

Colouring as always is by Promarker and the card is finished off with a computer generated sentiment and some doodling.

Challenges;
Passion For Promarkers - CAS
CRAFT - For Children

Wedding Bells

A quick post tonight of a card I made yesterday.  It was to late to photo it last night, so I took a pic in day light today.

Challenges;
Sunday Sketch & Stamp - Use the sketch provided

Show Us Your Ribbons

This morning it's Claire who is host to the Oldie But A Goodie Challenge, and she has chosen the theme of,

Show Us Your Ribbons

That's right folks, we want to see ribbons on your cards this time around, and the prize for our lucky winner will be $10 to spend in the Digi Doodle Shop, and with everything half price there at the moment, it's a great place to shop.

Remember also to use an item older than 6 months on your card & to tell us what it is.

For my card, I chose a lovely Crafts & Me stamp called, .  She was coloured with Promarkers, then combined with Basic Grey & Kraft Fun Day papers.  My oldie this time being the tiddly little button in the corner.

Challenges;

Sketch n Stash - Loved the sketch
My Mum's Craft Shop - Buttons
Crazy For Challenges - C4C154 - With a fall twist - fall colours
Crafty Catz - Brown & Orange
Craft Punked - Pets - And it has to be cats for me!
CRAFT - Autumn
Secret Crafter - Milestone Birthdays - 18
Creative Craft Challenge - Anything Goes
Papertake - A Hazy Shade of Autumn

Why not now, hop over the the main blog to check out the rest of the DT's work, before joining us on our ribbon challenge. Jx

New Beginnings

I know there are a few of us Mum's out there who are feeling a bit sad at the moment as our teens move on to start a new chapter in their life.  Alan my eldest moves out today and is heading for his first year in Halls and Uni life.  Obviously I'm thrilled that he's moving on and is taking the next step to independence, but I'm also sad at the prospect of not having him around as he's been at home all summer and we've had such fun together.  It's been a summer of running and cycling, tennis and badminton.  Learning to drive and passing his test.  Together we have cooked and tidied and Alan's favourite... painted the fence.

Now I say painted, but before that it has to be scraped and wire brushed, treated with ferrous oxide before being given the black finishing coat.  It's been a nightmare - and the nightmare goes on as we're not finished!  But together we've chatted and moaned, laughed and worked and if truth be known, I think he'll miss the fence!
(But not as much as I'll miss him though!)

...and that's just one side!

So with the above story, hopefully you'll see the significance on the fence on my simple card.

Good luck Alan in the years ahead and enjoy your time at University, Lots of Love Mum x.

Challenges;

Sketch Saturday - A simple sketch which I kinda? followed
Squiggles & Giggles - Die Cuts & punches - The fence is a die cut
Stamptacular Sunday - Less Is More

6.46pm Alan is settled in halls and we're back home - gee the house feels empty.

His window looks right onto the roundabout and out King Street towards the flats.

Sledging By

Yesterday, I managed to find time to play with more of my goodies from Crafter's Companion and this time I went for my Christmas stamp by Mulberry Wood.  As soon as I saw this cute snowman, I knew I wanted him and he helped kick start my Christmas card production.

I was really good at the beginning of the year and was making a Christmas card every week, but this past month has been terrible for Christmas cards, so I'll have to get going again with them otherwise Christmas may have to be cancelled - slight exaggeration! Sorry the photo is a bit dark - will take another in day light.

Challenges;
Sweet Stampin - Wow
Allsorts - Lots of Layers
CHNC - For A Child
Crafty Catz - Christmas
PB & More @ Allsorts - Christmas
Christmas Stampin All Year Long - Case your first Christmas Card - Below is my first blog Christmas card. Could only follow the layout though as I don't own the stamp - in true beginner fashion, it was an image from a friend! Jx

First Blog Christmas card from June 2010

Oh Duck

Just a quick post - can't sleep so logged onto my blog - now I really can't sleep cause I've started doing things!!!

This is another Crafter's Companion stamp & card.  Colouring by Promarkers.

Challenges;
Crafty Cardmakers - Winged Things

Just For You

Last week, I was lucky enough to win the Crafters Companion monthly challenge and my fantastic prize was £30 to spend in store.  Below are my goodies, and below that, one of the stamps in action!

This time I only chose one cute stamp, the rest are a bit more "grown up" I felt and filler a niche I did not already cater for.

Night shots of predominately white cards are never the best, but I think you get the picture!
This stamp is called Just For Ewe and is by Sheena Douglass.

Challenges;
Chocolate Coffee & Cards - Down On The Farm
Made Especially For You - Sketch - Please say if it's ok to change circles for rectangles - if not remove my card & I'll do another.

Jx

Gardeners World

Well it's taken till the first week in Sept, but they got there in the end... my sunflowers have decided to bloom, and aren't they lovely?

I'm not surprised the sunflowers decided to make an appearance yesterday, it was a beautiful day with the temp around 22 deg C.  And the day was well used by Team Thomo - the hedge has all but had it's annual chop.  The remaining short section will be finished today hopefully and that will be it for another year.  Couldn't have done it without my two helpers though so thanks you guys! Jx

101 Dalmatians

Well I've watched that film about 101 times - it was one of Alan's favourites when he was little, and we all know how often a favourite video/dvd gets played.  Will have to dig it out for him before he heads to Uni next weekend.

Onto my card, obviously starring the Dalmatians and some spotty papers by MME and Andrea Jayne.

Both  the image & the sentiment are Penny Black.

Challenges;
PBSC - Buttons & Bows
Sketch Saturday - A lovely sketch
Made Especially For You - Disney Theme
Creative Craft Challenges - All About The Boys
By The Cute & Girly - Boys/Men
Joanna Sheen - Going dotty

Anastasia

Ok, I know Anastasia isn't everybody's cup of tea from the comments I had last time, so if she offends I'm sorry.

Challenges;
Sunday Sketch & Stamp - A lovely sketch.

Race Day

This is another new purchase of mine from Digi Stamp Boutique.  It's just a quickie card for a boy that ties in with quite a few sports challenges that are running just now.

Challenges;
Fetch A Sketch - Another simple one to follow
Wags n Whiskers - Sports
Digi Stamp Boutique - September Challenge
Crafty Sentiments - Male Card
Eureka Stamps - Go team go - anything sporty
A Gem Of A Challenge - Boy Thing

Sugar Rush

It most certainly was! Thought I had another week for this one!

Quick post as tea needs to be made, but I'm pleased I got my card made this afternoon with the lovely Trip to the Park stamp by Sugar Nellie.

Coloured and paper pieced this one too - I told you I loved paper piecing.  And the papers are lovely Hot Diggity Dog by Andrea Jayne.

Challenges;
Sugar Bowl - And this great sketch
Papertake - Anything Goes
My Mum's Craft Shop - Anything Goes
Secret Crafter - Animal Antics
Fab n Funky - Autumn Colours - Browns Jx

Don't forget, Dallas starts back tonight, 9pm Channel 5...but will it be as good as it was in the early days???

It's As Easy As 1, 2, 3!

This Tuesday, it's the turn of Debs to set our next Oldie But A Goodie Challenge and she's gone with;

One Image

Two Design Papers &

Three Flowers

And the lucky winner of this challenge will receive 7 free digi's of their choice from the ever so generous Bugaboo Stamps.

This time I used a Bugaboo stamp called Violet Watering Can, coloured it with Promarkers then set it on MME paper and an unknown purple sheet!

I punched my own little flowers then added gems & a sentiment. My oldie this time being the grey paper - it's years old.

Challenges;
Papertake - Pick a previous sketch - mine is from January 2012
Craft's & Me; - Birthdays
I Love Promarkers - Anything Goes
Crafty Catz - 3,2,1 - 3 embellishments, 2 papers & 1 image.
Catch The Bug - Anything Goes
Craft Your Passion - Floral Images Jx

Bugaboo Newsletter Freebie

Well I got onto all my jobs yesterday, it was a lovely day, so washing was done, grass cut, another section of fence painted and a start made to the hedge - brilliant! Only it doesn't feel so brilliant today as I ache all over!

Last night I also managed to fit in another quick card using a lovely freebie image off the Bugaboo newsletter, and guess what...that's me made 100 Bugaboo cards now and considering I hadn't even heard of them this time last year, I think you can tell they have made a huge impact on my card making!

So, my simple card - along the same lines as my Humming Bird one only this time I added a different sentiment & some gems.

Challenges;
CatchThe Bug - Anything Goes
Addicted To Stamps - Lots of Bling - hope you can see them, they are there!
One Stitch At A Time - Use A Digi
That Craft Place - Black & White

A Pink Melody

Sunday is here & it's dry so I can't decide... do I continue to paint the fence today or do I cut the hedge after I've cut the grass of course! Oh decisions, decisions, & the longer I sit here pondering, the more chance there is of rain before I do anything!

Card wise, I decided to use bits already started on my desk, so that included a previously stamped Melody, a scrap of pink dotty paper and some ribbon.

The end result is below!

Challenges;
Totally Gorjuss Challenge - A lovely sketch to work with
LCI - Paper Piecing
Made Especially for You - Paper Piecing
Party Time Tuesday - Anything Goes
Crafts & Me - Birthdays

Humming Bird Heart Beat

That's another song I love - it's by Katie Perry, is that the title or just a line from it...not sure, but it's one that I listen to regularly on my iphone when out running.  This year, I have actually continued running after doing the race for life - unusual for me as I'm normally just a summer season jogger, but this year, I'm running and cycling with Colin and logging my exercise on the Map My Run App which I just love.  Anyone who runs/cycles/walks and has a smart phone should get this app, it's free & creates a great log of all your exercise, speeds, distances & calories burned.

However, I digress, onto the topic in hand and today's card, well it's another Bugaboo quite simply cut & mounted on a scalloped backing and an embossed diamond panel.

Challenges;
Charisma Cards - No embellishments
Crafty Creations - Summer Scene
MAWTT - Flying High - well the humming birds do appear to be off the ground - just!
Sweet Stampin - Inspired by a song or film - Katie Perry - Humming Bird Heart Beat
Catch The Bug - Sept Anything Goes
Jx