Thank You & Happy New Year

Well this is my last post for this year.
I would just like to thank all of my crafting friends from the blogging world and forums for being such wonderful friends, your support, advice and inspiration has been amazing and truly appreciated.
I've been blogging since August and already have over 5,000 hits, I really wasn't expecting so many visitors, and I am so touched that so many people actually want to look at my cards, crafts and ramblings and show interest by leaving such lovely comments. So thank you to everyone.
So all that is left to say is....

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU, MAY 2009 BRING EVERYTHING YOU WISH FOR AND MORE.

Whatever your plans to see the old year out and the new year in, have a lovely time. Right I'm off to get my glad rags on, we're off to a friend's this evening and Steve's volunteered to drive this year, so hold on to your wine bottles...lol. Take Care.

Woodland Elves - Serenity

At long last I've been able ink up one of the new Woodland Elves stamps from Pollycraft Designs, which I brought just before Christmas.



This is 'Serenity', I absolutely love her. Coloured using copics, cut using the scalloped square nesties and the edges were chalked. The papers are Amy Butler's from K&Co. The sentiment is a foiled and embossed sentiment from Kanban and chalked on the edges. To finish I've added a silk flower with a spotty brad, some circle and square blue gems and a button to the bottom corner roll.

Tasha's Blog Candy

Tasha celebrated her birthday on Christmas Day and to mark this she has some wonderful blog candy up for grabs, a £50 voucher to shop online at the Glitterpot, plus stamps for 5 runners up. Hop over to Tasha's Blog - Millie's Magical Moments and leave Tasha a joke and link on your blog to be in with a chance of this fab candy, and whilst your there check out Tasha's fab cards.

Spiral Whisper new releases preview.

Spiral Whisper have some absolutely gorgeous new releases for the new year, go take a look at the previews and you could also be in with a chance of winning some of these cute stamps before the release.

New Blog

Clare has launched a new blog in preperation for the launch of her new 'Clare Curd's Signature Range' in the new year. It's all really exciting. To find out more visit Clare's blog.

Chinese New Year

It's not the Chinese New Year until the 26th January but I made this card for our friend who lives in the states, so I'll need to send it in a couple of weeks.
Next year is the year of the Ox, I downloaded the ox image from the internet and coloured with copics. The blossom tree is a peel-off and coloured with copics and sakura souffle pens. The sentiment was done on the PC, after a bit of research 'Xin nian kuai le' should mean 'Happy New Year', mounted sentiment onto red card then attached two peel-off lanterns.





I've already made a start with one of my new year resolutions, which was to be more organised with my card making and try to keep ahead, so a good start so far..lol, another is to take part in more challenges, which will be a good way to hopefully keep ahead with my cards.
Hope you have all had a lovely weekend xx

Brilliant Blog Award

Thank you to Lisa over on Crafting Diva Designs, who has very kindly given me this award, please go and hop over to Lisa's blog for some fab cards and ATC's, Lisa is also a DT member for the new challenge blog starting in the new year Sketch and Stash.

I'm meant to pass this award on to seven people, but have decided that each and everyone of my blogging friend's deserves this award, you have all given me so much inspiration over the past five months and visiting your blogs is a pleasure. So please, if anyone doesn't have this award and would like it, or even if you do and you'd like it again, please help yourself.

((HUGS)) xxx

K & Co Birthday

Woke up just after 5 this morning bright as a button, so I had two choices, jump in the car and whip off to Hull for the Next sale or make mum-in-laws birthday card. Looked outside and there was a thick frost, so decided on doing the card.
I got some lovely K & Co papers, stamps and embellishments for xmas, so thought I'd have a play with them. The image is stamped and coloured using my fabby new copics, cut using the plain and scalloped oval nesties. Both papers are K & Co added some cream lacy cord between the two papers, coloured three chipboard discs and added peel-off 'MUM', then peel-off sentiment to one of the K & Co banner embellishments, finally adding two cream buttons from my crafting stash.



Now I'm having a coffee, and then I'm planning to nip off to Next, hoping the sale is going to be good, I'm after a cardi that I've had my eye on for weeks, but I'm sure other stuff will just fall into my basket...lol, luckily I wont be able to spend too much time in there as we have to be in York for lunchtime for the meal at brother-in-laws. Have a good day all whatever your plans xx

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas

I hope everyone has had a lovely Christmas and got everything they wished for.
I got lots of crafting goodies and my ultimate favourite and surprise was a set of 72 Copics pens, so have got to get practicing on my colourings now, not that I'm complaining, got lots of other lovely stuff too, a sketch by Steve of Mollie all nicely framed, a photo of Mollie on canvas from my mum and step-dad, a gold chain, digital photo frame, DVD's, CD's, handbag, picnic set and so much more, thoroughly spoilt again.
I need to make a card for mum-in-laws birthday tomorrow, so a good exscuse to have a play. Though it's been an enjoyable couple of days, I'm shattered, don't seem to have stopped cooking, eating, clearing up and starting again...lol. Tomorrow we're off to my brother-in-laws for MIL's birthday, so will be nice not to do any cooking.
Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their Christmas, I'll post again soon, when things get a bit quieter.
Take Care everyone xxx

Christmas Message & Altered Diaries

Well I've decided I'm not going to post any more xmas cards on here for this xmas, as I'm sure many of us are pretty much all christmas carded out...lol. I have some altered 2009 diaries to show you instead, I only took pictures of two of them, I did these as xmas gifts to some friend's and as I was running so behind and had to get them off in the post a.s.a.p., I didn't have the time to photograph all of them.













I doubt I'll be posting again now before Christmas Day, so I would like to wish each and everyone of you and your families a Very Merry Christmas may it be full of joy and cheer.



To finish I'll just show you a quick pic of Mollie & Steve taken today. We got her one of those doggy santa hats, and she hates it...lol, but finally managed to get a quick pic of her, when she had it on for more than 10 seconds, possibly because Steve was carrying her. She certainly doesn't look too happy about it....lol, bless her. Merry Christmas xxxxxxx

And the Christmas cards still keep coming

Still keep remembering the odd cards I need to do...lol. I've made a start on Steve's and the girl's cards, but have had to do these inbetween, my christmas card mojo has definately gone for a christmas break, finding it so hard now and I'm not 100% happy with these except for the last card, which didn't really take to much effort:



This is for my mum-in-law. I've just used a Kanban sheet and sparkled it up a little with some glamour dust and added peel-off sentiment, outline sticker and snowflakes.



For our good friend's Nessa & Woody, again a Kanban sheet, sparkled up with some glamour dust. Image and sentiment mounted onto lilac mirror card.



And now for a bit of fun this one's for my brother-in-law. Used the Face In Hole website to put his face on this sexy santa's helper...lol. We've got him some work clothes for xmas, like he wanted, he lays industrial flooring. Do you think this is a good attire for the workplace?...lol

Hope everyone's xmas preperations are all going to plan, I think ours is now on track. The girl's have started to arrive and we have some family coming today to exchange pressies and then we are all off to a Christmas Market by the Humber Bridge.
Hope everyone is having a good weekend xxx

Candy and New Challenge Blog

Sketch and Stash is a new challenge blog which starts on Monday 5th January and to get the word about they are offering the lovely WOJ stamp 'Willow with Umbrella' for one lucky person. The candy ends on the 3rd January. So pop on over to take a look at the new challenge blog and be in with a chance of winning the lovely stamp.

La Pashe Christmas

Managed to get another La Pashe Christmas sheet done, was hoping to use them all this christmas, but not looking likely, so will make the others up for next year. I love these sheets as they can be mixed and matched. I've used both foam pads and silicon for the different depths.

Linda's Blog Candy

Linda over at Linanna Designs has a lovely feast of blog candy to be won. There is no set closing date but the candy will run until 10,000 hits to Linda's blog is reached. While your there check out Linda's gorgeous cards, very inspirational.

Busy Few Days

Are we all ready for Christmas????
LOL...Me neither, but getting there slowly.
Sorry for the lack of posts over the past couple of days, I've been cardmaking madly...lol, thankfully all my friends and neighbours cards are now done and posted off today. All I've left to do now are Steve's, the girls and mother-in-laws cards. So not too bad, I'll just work through them over the next few days. I've taken pics of a couple of cards I've done and will show over the next few days. I've also been doing some altered diary's as gifts. I can't post any pics today but will do in next few days when people have recieved them.

Here's a one card to keep you all going.

I've used the SN 'Hug in a Mug' stamp, coloured with pencils and a touch of sakura stardust, cut using the circle wavy nesties and inked the edges. The background is embossed bauble card from Kanban and I've layered one of the baubles slightly over the image. Added some purple elastic tinsel string and two lilac ribbon knots, finished with pink peel-off sentiment.

Fabulous Blog Award

I've just recieved this fab award from Joey, thank you so much for thinking of me Joey. If you've never hopped on to Joey's blog, then where have you been? Her blog is full of inspiration and wonderful cards. So please go take a peek over at Joey's Stuff.

This award's rules are:- You have to give it to 5 others and link to those people as well as who gave it to you, Those 5 shall also pass it on to another 5 people., Plus you have to write down 5 things you are addicted too!

Well here's my five top addictions: (in no particular order)

1. My Family

2. Cardmaking/Papercrafts (obviously...lol)

3. Twinkling H2O's

4. Fishing

5. Black Pudding

I'd like to pass this blog award to:

1. Linda's Blog - Linanna Designs

2. Carlz Blog - Carlz Cardz

3. Lisa's Blog - Crafty Moments

4. Kim's Blog - Crafty Makes

5. Mariell's Blog - Mariell's Little Corner

Well I better hop on over to all their blogs and let them know, and if you have the time why not have a peek at their blogs too.

Roary The Racing Car Birthday Card

This card is for my godson who'll be 3 on Christmas day. His mum asked me to make a card to be sent into Channel 5's Milkshake, so they can show it and read out a birthday message to Nathan on Christmas morning. I did a card for this also last year, and silly me forgot to record it and so did his mum...lol, but they did see it, so I must make sure I set the Sky+ to record it this year. Last year's and this year's theme was Roary the Racing Car, so I had to try and do something different this year. Firstly I'll show you last years card:



The Roary image and logo were printed from the Milkshake website as images to colour. Coloured with H2O's, printed sentiment from PC and coloured. I took some photo's of Nathan in his Roary hat and scarf sitting on the stairs, then printed the photo out and cut round Nathan and placed him on Roary's back tyre so it looked like Nathan was sitting on Roary.

Now for this years card.




Nathan has now become Big Chris...lol. Thanks to a link posted on Image-n-ation (sorry can't remember who posted it) the site is called Face In Hole. It's a really fun site where you can put a face on animals, celebrities, kids characters etc... Anyway I was well chuffed when they had this Roary image. The background papers and tyres are from Kanban. The lettering is black corrugated card cut in the CB using the Hippy Chic alphabet set.

Stamping On Acetate

These are a couple of general christmas cards I've made using some aperture cards from Kanban. I placed a strip of acetate behind the windows and used some fab little stamp I found in Somerfields a couple of weeks ago. Used black Stazon for stamping then coloured using sakura stardust, glaze & metallic pens. The message and snowflakes were stamped and highlighted with the sakura stardust and metallic pens. They are both much the same apart from the difference in colourings and stamps used.

Secret Crafters Saturday Challenge #11

This weeks SCSC is a sketch set by DT member Donna. Loved this layout and I'm sure I'll using this again in the future.

I've used the 'Snow Loved' Sugar Nellie stamp and coloured using H2O's and a Sakura Stardust pens. The coloured cards and papers are from my scrap stash and the patterned snowflake paper is from the Pheobe & Maude Winter Kit from Pollycraft Designs. The sentiment circle is a metal rimmed tag I had in my crafty stash and added a purple glitter snowflake and silver peel-off sentiment to it. Finished with some blue gems.



Below is this weeks sketch.

Wonderful Blog Candy to kick start the New Year

Karen over on Crafty Goings On is offering some delicious blog candy, and my goodness what a feast it is, worth lots of pennies. Hop on over to take a look and be in with a chance of winning this fab candy. Ends 01/01/09.

Pollycraft Challenge # 5

This weeks challenge over at Pollycraft was set by DT member Emma W, and the challenge is to create a male birthday card. Hmmmm a challenge at the best of times, but thankfully I needed to do a card for my little godson who'll be 3 on Christmas Day. Though admittedly I think little boys are a lot easier to make cards for than older lads or men.

I've used one of the new Wilbur Woof Birthday downloads, available at Pollycraft Designs, I've used a second layer on the balloons only. I cut the image using the square scalloped nesties and used the next size up on the brown card mount. The papers are from the collection Doodle Dreams Chocolate & Blue also from Pollycraft Designs. To finish I've added some furry paw print ribbon from Ribbon Box and a chipboard disc coloured blue with a permanent marker and stuck a peel-off doggie bone on to it.

Birthday Candy

Dawny has some gorgeous candy up for grabs on her blog 'Pink Piggy', to celebrate her birthday. Ends 20th December

Spiral Whisper Competition

Spiral Whisper have a fab competition for some new not yet released stamps. You just need to hop over to their blog and leave a comment telling them what your 3 favourite craft items are.

Christmas Fred's Flowers & Another Cuttlebug Holly

These are two more cards I made before I went away.

The first is using Fred's Flowers Christmas Poinsettia Reds collection available from Fred, She Said. As well as the flower, the 'merry christmas' background and patterned paper are also from the collection. I've used a gate-fold for this card, added a gold embossed personal sentiment from Kanban above the flower and added a gold ribbon bow to the bottom. Gold outline tape runs down each side. The flower is made up with 2 sets of leaves and 2 sets of larger petals and 1 of the smaller petals. I lightly creased each leaf and petal to give lift and shape, the leaves were then slightly curled under at the tips, a gold brad was used to hold all the layers together and the flower was then attached to the background using a little silicon.

I really love this CB Holly folder. I embossed onto green card then followed the outlines with a gold metallic sakura pen. The frosted berries and gold ribbon was a rescued embellishment from a christmas pressie last year, and I think it looks pretty good against the embossed holly. The berries are actually frosted gold and red, though the picture makes them look mulit-coloured. Mounted onto gold card. The sentiment and corners are gold peel-offs.

La Pashe Christmas

I'm back home now after my flying visit to Scotland, had a lovely couple of days away. Now I'm going to have to get cracking on the rest of my own personal christmas cards, but I think they can wait until tomorrow.


The card below was made before I went away and it's now safe to show. It's from the La Pashe, Remember When ...Christmas series 2. The decoupage has been made up using both sticky foam pads and silicon. Mounted the whole image onto matte gold card, and the sentiment is just the printed sentiment provided in the series.



I really love these sheets, and have both christmas series so hope to work through them for this years christmas cards.

Greetings from Tullibody

Well I got here safe and sound yesterday teatime. Had a lovely day today with my mum we enjoyed a shopping trip to Edinburgh and we didn't spend too much, or buy anything for christmas. Then this evening my mum and step-dad took me out for a lovely meal at a place called The Birds and the Bee's in Stirling. It's an old converted cow shed, where you can sit on milk churns, tractor seats and stuffed sheep, a very interesting place...lol, Oh and you sit at tables to eat which are in the milking stalls. The food was lovely I had breaded haggis for starter and a turkey dinner for main course, then we shared cheese and biscuits after that, so feeling very full now. Tomorrow I'll be visiting the butcher's and local farm shop to get some bits for xmas before setting off on the road again to come home. So I'll say bye, bye to you all for now, take care. Joanne xx

Going away for a few days

I'm off to Scotland tomorrow to visit my mum and step-dad for a couple of days, so there may not be any posts from me for a couple of days, unless I get the chance to get on the internet. I finished the last of my christmas card orders today.....phew such a relief...lol. I can't show you the cards I've done just yet as they maybe seen by the recipients, but as soon as I know they've got them I'll post the pics for you.

Take Care Everyone xxx

Cuttlebug Holly

When I brought the new Christmas CB folders I thought I'd use them endlessly, but so far, it's not been the case. I've got round to using the holly folder for this card. I've coloured the leaves and stems using Whispers, Sakura red stardust for the berries and Sakura metallic gold on some of the detail of the leaves and berries. Mounted onto gold textured card and holly paper from my scraps stash then finished with gold peel-off sentiment and holly corners.

I've just noticed that the 'Happy Christmas' sentiment is a bit wonky...lol, I have now rectified.

More Hessle Christmas Cards

I had another order for a four more Hessle Christmas cards. I played around with my photo's of Hessle this time in PSP, to try and make them a little different from the one's I'd already done a few weeks ago. The layout for each is similar and all have silver holographic card that has been embossed with the 'Snowflakes' CB folder. The sentiments have been printed from the PC.

Due to the holographic card some of the pictures have quite a reflection of colours, but as you may know this is often a problem with anything reflective.

Whiff of Joy Advent Calender ....reminder

It's now on day 7 over on Whiff of Joy's Advent Calander, remember the calender lasts until the 24th December and there is a prize to be won everyday, and gorgeous prizes they are too.

Snow Loved

This is another of my new Sugar Nellie stamps, 'Snow Loved'.
I've coloured using sakura stardust pens and twinkling H2O's, so it's quite sparkly. Mounted on to pale green card embossed with the CB 'Swiss Dots' folder. The paper is from my stock from last year and but believe it's Dovecraft. Finished with silver peel-off sentiment.



At least I managed to get to play with two of my new stamps, the other two are not christmas ones, so I'll have to wait a bit longer before I can play with these, as I've got to try and finish all my christmas orders, hopefully before Tuesday as I'm off up to visit my mum in Scotland for a couple of days. When I get back hopefully I'll only have my own Christmas cards to finish. Please will someone remind me to start the Christmas cards in July next year...lol

Hope everyone is having a great weekend so far xxx

Crafty Designz

Both of these cards are made up from downloads from Crafty Designz.

This is from the Cutie Pie series. I couldn't decide whether this image was a boy or girl, but I finally decided it could be either, so I've used for a girl this time round. The image has been layered once. The paper was included with the download as were the printed bows and sentiment panel. I layed the paper as two panels and used red mirror tape around the edges, the flowers are foiled die-cuts from Kanban and the sentiment is gold peel-offs. Though it's not showing in the picture I added a touch of clear sakura stardust to the snowman, base and the pom-pom's on both hats.

This one is from the Beary Christmas series. The image has been layered once, the papers, sentiment, bow and tag were included with the download. The 'Grandson' was hand written using a dark red stardust pen. I added some green crepe tape along the edges of the middle panel paper.

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #10

This weeks SCSC theme was set by Kim and is to use dry or heat embossing. My cuttlebug had good use for this one and I was able to play with one of my new lovely Sugar Nellie stamps, so I loved this theme. The stamp is 'Hug in a Mug' I've coloured her using Whispers and the edge of image was done by using the Fiskars snowflake border punch and embosser. I've embossed the silver holographic mount using the 'Snow Dots' CB folder. The base card was already patterned and from Kanban. 'Swiss Dots' CB folder was used on the pink card running down the edge and I've attached silver ribbon and silver cord with beads and sequins. The sentiment was printed on the PC and the Fiskars punch/embosser was used again around the edges and mounted onto the pink 'Swiss Dots' and silver holographic card.