Fab's Big Christmas Card Challenge #8

Well as I had all my christmas stuff out and I was in the mood, I've done a second xmas card. This is my first entry into Fab's Big Christmas Card Challenge and I did promise my buddy Angel that I would enter this challenge this week. So anyone else out there who's thinking of starting some xmas cards this challenge is worth checking out.

The theme this week over on Fab's is "Spin this Xmas Card" which means there needs to be at least one circle on your card.

The poinsettia and circle sentiment is from Fred, She Said's 'Christmas Poinsettia Pack'. Cut the circle sentiment with circle scalloped nesties, then layered with a further two scalloped circles. The papers are flocked christmas papes from Making Memories. To finish I've added some lines of red and green gems.

As I missed one week of making an xmas card the other week this one makes up for it, so I'm now back on track.

The Sugar Bowl Challenge # 5

It's challenge 5 over on The Sugar Bowl and they want to see your 'Christmas' creations. The rules are, you must use at least one 'Sugar Nellie' item on your work. Well I'm happy for anything to help keep me to my one xmas card a week resolution.

Used SN 'Hug in a Mug' and coloured with copics with a little sakura stardust clear waterbrushed on to the white areas and a little sakura gold metallic. Cut image with Fiskars shapecutter and chalked and inked the edges with red and green. I cut eight scalloped ovals in three diffeent sizes with the nesties using red and green glitter card and layed out into a kind of frame for the image to be mounted on. The red background and gold strip across the card are embossed foiled card from Kanban. Added green ribbon with a knot along the gold strip. The circle sentiment is from Fred, She Said, mounted on to a green glitter card scalloped circle, then added a paper poinsettia from stash.

Wasn't expecting any time to craft today as two of the girls have come to visit, but they've all gone to the cinema this afternoon, so while Steve's been flicking between cricket and rugby on the TV, I got on with some cards.

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend xxx

A New Award

Isn't this just gorgeous? I've been given this award by two lovely blogging buddies Joey and Lorraine, thank you ladies, it is much appreciated. If your not familiar with these ladies blogs, you really should go and check them out, both are very talented ladies and their creations are stunning and a true inspiration, you'd not be disappointed.
As with all new awards I recieve, I will follow the rules, which is to pass this award on to 10 people, so here it goes:

Emma
Angel
Chris
Sue
Val
Ria
Heather
Linda
Ju
Clare
Clare (Taffy)

Well deserved ladies xxx

***Ooops after posting I've just realised I've listed 11, oh well, never mind. Maths has never been my strong point...lol***

Just Christmas and Birthday Cards Challenge #20

This week over on JCBC is a great sketch to follow by Gry-Heidi.

The image is one of the new Daisy and Dandelion images from the Pickles and Onion stamp set. Coloured with copics. The stamped flowers border is also from the same set and also coloured with copics, then added pearly doodles to the flower centres.

The papers are from scraps stash, I've had the purple flowers paper for nearly 5 years, it was from a 12x12 pack of papers in about 5 or 6 patterns and in different colours, can't remember who it was by. It was the first patterned papers I bought, not sure if they still sell these, but does anyone else remember them? I split the pack with my SIL, and I still have enough to last a lifetime...lol. I've used grey buttons for my circles at the top and tied lilac ribbon through them. The flower is from my stash and added a flat backed pearl to the centre. Not part of the sketch, but also added a flat backed pearl to each corner as it looked like it still needed something. I've left it sentiment free, for personalisation later. Below is the sketch to follow:

Checking In

No cards today I'm afraid, the day just seems to of flown by with nothing really much accomplished, and after the problems with the blogger word verification, which I believe is now sorted, I've been gradually catching up with my hop around the blogs, if I've not visited you yet I'm on my way, promise.
What on earth has happened to the Followers Lists? not sure I like it and whats all this friends connect stuff? Oh I do hate new improved things, until I've worked them out.

I've recieved a few awards in the past few days, thank you to those of you who sent them to me, you know who you are. As I already had the awards and posted them a few days ago I have added your names to the relevant posts and the awards can be seen at the bottom of the page on a slideshow and below it is all the links to those who have sent me awards. All the awards a very much appreciated, so thank you again.

Well I'm going to try and complete my blog hop before bed, so goodnight all, and I should have some cards ready for posting tomorrow xxx.

Fabby Day and ABC Challenge ~ C

Firstly had a fabby day today with Emma and Katy, what a laugh we had, and we were women on a mission...lol. We had three stores of The Range to choose from, and we choose Scunthorpe, hoping to get our hands on the Daisy and Dandelion stuff, we choose the wrong one, so consoled ourselves with a coffee and sarnie, before hotfooting up the M180 and A15 to Brigg where the local garden centre sells Docraft stuff, nope still no luck, though we did manage to get the latest Creativity mag with the D&D stickers. Off we zoomed again over the Humber Bridge hitting all the school pick-up traffic to the Hull Range, and hooray mission accomplished. We got our hands on three of the D&D stamp sets, the papers and decoupage weren't yet in and they had already sold out of the Candyfloss & Marshmallow stamps. Feeling a lot happier, we then went for a well deserved coffee and cake, I missed out on the cake as there wasn't much choice left and there's not many cakes I like except chocolate. Katy took some piccies which she has now posted on her blog, you can see them here. Thanks girls for a wonderful day.


Now onto my card I've made this evening using 'Squeak' from the Bubble and Squeak D&D stamp set. It's for an order from my MIL for her neighbours soon to be 2 year old, which fits in perfectly for this weeks challenge over on ABC, C is for Childs Card.

Coloured Squeak with watercolour pencils using a waterbrush, then stamped the balloon, also from the set and coloured with copics and doodled a string between the balloon and Squeak, added a little clear sakura stardust using the waterbrush to the hearts and balloon and black sakura glaze to the nose and outline of eyes.. Chalked the background with brown and pink shimmer chalks and inked the edges in pink. Matted onto beige card from scraps and cut round with decorative scissors. Attached some pink ribbon with a knot across top corner then mounted the whole thing onto pink card from scraps. Paper is from the PM 'Love' papers and again inked the edges with pink. Stamped the sentiment, again included in the set, directly onto the paper with brown stazon. To finish added some die-cut pink sparkly flowers with a pink prima flower and flat heart pearls. The '2' is a die-cut from Kanban.

Hope everyone's had a fab day, thanks for looking.

Funky Fairys Challenge #5 ~ Swirls

WOW, we loved visiting all your blogs and looking at all the fab milk cartons you made for last weeks challenge, the winner and guest designer will be announced later.

LATEST NEWS

***The challenge for the milk carton last week has been extended for a further day, due to the word verification problems on blogger. a number of people have emailed Ria, saying they could not post their comment to enter the challenge. You will now be able to leave your comments, so please add your entry today. Therefore the winner and GD spot will not be announced until tomorrow. Thank You ***

This week we would like to see 'Swirls' on your creations, remember it doesn't have to be a card, you can make any creation for the challenge, all we ask is that you use at least one Funky Fairy Papercrafts item on your project.

I've used FF papers in orange from the Cherish collection. The daisy image is a digi stamp by the talented Chris Dark, coloured with watercolour pencils using a waterbrush then chalked the background. All ovals were cut using the nesties. Layered the image onto two offset scalloped ovals and inked all edges in brown. Used some lace across the card before mounting the image and sentiment. Sentiment was done on the PC, then chalked to bring in the colour match. To finish I've stamped swirls in each corner and added some prima flowers with brads. The flowers were white so have been daubed with brown ink.

We do hope you'll join us this week for the challenge, check out all the beautiful creations the rest of the DT have made over on the Funky Fairys Challenge Blog.

If you don't have any Funky Fairy Paprcraft items, and want to check out the quality of the papers, then there are some freebies available over on Funky Fairy Inspirations. You can also purchase individual sheets and kits from the Funky Fairy Papercrafts Shop, a new kit has been released this week 'Feelin Fruity - Shabby Style', which is gorgeous.

We look forward to seeing your creations.

I'm meeting up with Crafty Emma and Katy from the Glitter Garden today for some crafty chat, shopping and cake.

Enjoy your day everyone xxx

Hopping unsuccessfully

Just want to let some of you know that I am trying to blog hop and leave comments but many blogs with word verification, aren't loading the word codes, so can't post a comment. Thankfully at least I now know it's not just me and others are experiencing the same problems. It's been like this for me since last night. Hopefully blogger will soon rectify the problem, and as soon as I can I'll leave comments for those I've had to miss out.

No cards today I'm afraid I really don't know where the day has gone. Well off to continue my hop around blogland before bed. Goodnight all xxx

Golden Wedding Bookatrix

It's been a long, long time since I've done a bookatrix, and I thought this was the perfect occassion to dust off my keepsake board. This is for an order from my mum for her SIL's golden wedding anniversary.

The wording was done on the PC and printed onto the white/gold shimmer card before embossing the bookatrix page. Added gold looped braid around the edges, and larger looped braid down the centre, then made up small flower arrangements, all from my local haberdashery store. I've used a heart shaped keyring and put inside it a photo of the couple and a heart charm, it is hanging from beaded wire with gold jump rings and another chain of jump rings hangs lower with the wedding date tag attached to the end. Below are some close-ups of the flowers and beaded wire:

I've also made a matching box for it.

We had to go to MIL's today as her washing machine had flooded her new kitchen, what a nightmare. She had a new kitchen put in because of a flood from the bathroom, hopefully once everything has dried out there will be no lasting damage. She couldn't turn it off and it just kept pumping water out. The washing machine was the only appliance she didn't replace with the kitchen, because she said it's the most realiable one she has ever had, even though it was nearly 15 years old, so was only a matter of time really. I think it's had it's life now, so time for a new one, we'll be taking her shopping for one at the weekend.

Hope you've all had a good day xxx

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge # 20

There's a fab sketch to follow by Jill this week over on SCSC.



The stamp is SN 'Duck in Boots', which I won on one of the challenge blogs a few weeks ago, it's the first time I've inked it up. Didn't add too much colour, but used copics on the bits that I did. Added an amber coloured gem to the centre of the flower, some square purple gems to each corner of image and the sentiment is handwritten. Cut the the squares using nesties. The orange paper is from my scraps stash and the purple spotty paper is from PM's Spring Burst collection. Below is Jill's sketch to follow:

Another Award

I've been given this award by the lovely Moni, thank you hun. I have to pass this on to people to for their lovely comments. Well firstly, Moni deserves this award from me also, as she always finds the time to leave comments on just about every post I make. So back at you Moni, thank you.

Have also recived this award in the past day from Angel and Chris, Another pair of wonderful ladies, who also take time to always comment on my blog, please check out their blogs, for some wonderfully inspiring creations. Thank you ladies xx

I want to pass this on to each and everyone of you who visit and leaves lovely comments, so if you would like it please take as a thank you from me. But I'm not going to totally break the rules here, there are a few people I'd like to pass this on to personally and are currently my top commentors:

Angel

Lorraine

Tasha

Maree

Louise-Emma

Just Christmas & Birthday Cards # 19

I was naughty last week and broke my new year resolution of at least one xmas card a week, and I've only just made this weeks sketch over on JCBC which is by Kristin.

I've gone for a bit of bling, well ok alot of bling...lol. The snowflakes are from crafting stash and held together with a black brad. Cut the black sparkling circle with the Fiskars shapecutter and the the purple sparkling scalloped circle using the nesties. The wavy purple is like a vinyl and the silver holgraphic snowflake card are both from my scraps stash. Added black and silver edged ribbon with some purple ribbon over the top of it. The sentiment is a purple sparkly peel-off. I've added a couple of tiny Anita's purple gems, which were'nt part of the sketch, so hope this was ok. Below is the sketch to follow:

Some Awards

I've recieved two lovely awards from three lovely ladies


This first award is from the Lorraine, if you've never visited her blog it's well worth a look, Lorraine makes wondeful cards which she sells to raise money for Gozo SPCA.

And this award is from Maree and Clare, both have wonderful blogs worth visiting, with beautiful cards and creations.

Thank you ladies, these awards are very much appreciated.

Now I'm gonna break the rules again, as I know many of you already have these awards, but if you don't already have one of these, please help yourself with love from me, and if you can please pass these awards onto your friends.

Hope everyone's having a lovely day xxx.

One Stop Craft Challenge #17

A great theme this week over on One Stop Crafts, chosen by Shelley the theme is 'Oriental'. I really love the oriental theme and it's been a while since I've done one.

I've done something a bit different, and not quite sure if I like it myself, so would love your input as to what you think. The blossom tree was hand drawn by trying to copy a used blossom peel-off I had. The little pink blossom flowers, are what I bought a string of at one of the craft shows last year, and added some tiny Anita's pink gems in the centres. I've chalked the background with blues and greens and the cranes (or are they storks?) and waterlillies are peel-offs mounted onto white card cut out and coloured with copics. The paper is from my scraps stash and added gold peel-off borders (sorry gone a bit mad with the peel-offs on this one). The sentiment was done on the PC and printed onto gold paper then inked the edges with red and added two red matte brads. To finish added a couple of red gems. Below is a close-up of the blossoms.

Does this strike you as oriental, other than the oriental style font used on the sentiment? I so hate being unsure about a card, though I did enjoy trying something a little different.

Well it's a glorious sunny day here today, so Steve and I going for a spot of fishing this afternoon, now the waters are all unfrozen.

Hope you all have a lovely day and weekend whatever your plans xxx.

A Spoon Full of Sugar Challenge #39

There's a fabulous sketch by Debbie to follow this week over on A Spoon Full of Sugar.

So loving the blue and brown combo lately. The image is Stamptivity and coloured with copics and a touch of sakura stardust blue and mounted onto dark brown cardstock, the DP is K & Co and the dark brown is cardstock put through my bug using the leafy branch CB folder. Used some blue satin ribbon and a fabric blue flower, which I've shaded from the centre with brown pencil then added a brad to the centre. The sentiment is stamped then inked around the edges with brown ink. Also inked the edges of the base card with brown. Below is this weeks sketch to follow:

Sketch Saturday #38

I loved the sketch this week over on Sketch Saturday.




The image is a digi-stamp by the talented Chris Dark available from here. I've coloured using silver metallic and black stardust sakura pens applied with a waterbrush, and straight from the pen on some detail. Cut all the circles using Fiskars shapecutter. Inked up most of the edges including the base card with black. The background is plain black paper from my stash, the stripey paper I designed myself on the PC and the shimmering grey card is from my scraps stash and I've just creased some random lines down it using and lightly brushed over them with black ink. The sentiment was done on the PC. Added a button with black cord threaded through it, onto a disc of the stripey paper. Personalised the number plate with our nephew's name, his surname is Cross so the 'X' represents this, it's for his birthday in April from his nana. Below is this weeks sketch to follow:

ABC Challenge ~ B is for Blue and Brown & Awards

One of my favourite colour combo's for this weeks challenge over on ABC, 'B' is for Blue and Brown. It was also perfect for using the free decoupage sheet of Daisy & Dandelion available from Do Crafts.


Made up the decoupage using silicon and lightly chalked the background with blue. The spotty background is also one of the papers available with the D & D download, I've inked the edges in blue, the blue daisy paper is from the PM Venetian Skies collection, I lightly chalked it with a darker blue, to darken a little. Layered brown organza, blue ribbon and brown braid along the seam of the two papers and then added some blue braided lace from Craftworks along the bottom. The sentiment was included with the decoupage sheet. To finish, brown and blue fabric flowers from my craft stash held together with copper and blue lattice brads.

Can't wait for the release of this new Daisy & Dandelion range, especially the stamps. For some reason I keep wanting to call them Dandelion & Burdock...lol.

I've also recieved two awards:

This one is from the lovely Ria, big hugs back at you hun xxx

And this one is from the lovely Val, bless you xxx

I'm going to be naughty and pass these onto you all, so if you don't have either of these awards and would like them, then please help yourself as a thank you from me for visiting my blog and your lovely comments that many of you leave.

Hope you've all had a lovely day xxx

Pollycraft Challenge #9

The latest challenge over on Pollycraft has been set by Diane and it's 'Think Pink'. Ooohh one of my favourite colours.

I've used the 'Heartstrings' stamp and added the butterfly, cat and extra flower from the Sharing Sherbert Extra's, all stamps are available from Pollycraft Designs. I've coloured the images using watercolour pencils and stardust sakura pens applied with a waterbrush. I doodled some extra blades of grass, to think only a few weeks ago I never did doodling now it seems to be growing on me as my confidence grows. Rounded the corners of the image and chalked the background lightly with blue and inked edges in pink, mounted onto white card, chalked with pink and inked the edges again. The paper is from my scraps stash and inked the edges with pink. Sentiment done on the PC, printed in pink and again inked the edges in pink. Added some pink fabric and prima flowers with gems and the prima flowers on their own were, you guessed it, inked on the edges...lol. Finished with two pink gems in the two free corners of image.

Funky Fairy Challenges #4 - Milk Carton

Good Morning Everyone, I hope you are all well. We're on to challenge 4 over on Funky Fairy Challenges and what a treat we have for your all. This week we would like to see you creat a milk carton using at least one Funky Fairy papercraft item. Create4fun have kindly donated the milk carton template for you all to use, just send them an email and ask for the milkpackage template, and they will send it to you by email. Here's my DT creation for this challenge:

I've made a matching card to go with the milk carton. The paper is from FF -Paisley Love Vol. 1. The sentiment discs were cut using scalloped circle nesties and messages were stamped. The little butterflies was punched out of the paisley paper. Added a little prima flower with a black brad to the carton and white, black and green fabric flowers layered together held with a white brad on the card and to finish white ribbon to hold the carton shut and down the side of the card with a bow.

Check out all the the other fabulous DT creations, we have all used the Paisley Love Vol. 1 papers in different colours. Which brings me on to this weeks prize, the lucky winner will recieve the whole set of Paisley Love Vol. 1 from Funky Fairys Papercrafts and a guest designer spot for two weeks starting from challenge #9.

This week we also welcome Caroline from Pretty Pink Cards as our guest designer for the next 2 weeks.

Remember you need to use at least one FF papercraft item on your creation which you can purchase from the shop or you can pick up some freebies to get you started over on Funky Fairy Inspirations.

I hope you'll join us this week, and we look forward to seeing your creations.

Sketch and Stash Challenge #4

There's a fab sketch to follow this time round on Sketch and Stash, you need to use two images and two flowers on your creation.

The images are from the 'Birthday Bex' download from Pollycraft Designs, coloured with copics and a touch of bling with my new pink sakura stardust pen. The paper I've had for sometime waiting to be used and is from All My Memories. The writing is all handwritten, so a bit wonky I'm afraid. The flowers are die-cut pink glitter card, with a pinky-pearly fabric flower in the centres. Below is the sketch to follow:

This card is for our little niece who'll be 2 on the 1st March, gosh time flies, only seems five minutes since she was born.

Hope everyone's had a good day. I went for a walk with Mollie this afternoon to a place called Beverley Westwood, it was 14 degrees and quite sunny, it felt really spring like and all the snowdrops were out, looking pretty.

I must apologise to Moni and Craftyanny, I accidently rejected your comments this morning, stupid me. But i did read them before clicking the wrong button, so thank you ladies for your lovely comments and thank you to everyone for your comments, they are very much appreciated.

Enjoy your evening!!

ATC Swappers Countryside - Encaustic Art

Well it's been a while since I've warmed up the iron and melted the waxes, so I thought this months theme 'Countryside' over on ATC Swappers was a good exscuse to have a play. This is the first time I've tried to create a scene other than fantasy, but I'm quite happy with the results.

It's also the first time I've used other media on top of the wax, The trees, fencing and flowers were hand drawn using copics and the sheep and my poor exscuse for a cow (in the last ATC) were drawn using sakura glaze pens. The first two ATC's are one scene, cut in half and are titled 'Ploughed Fields' and the last two ATC's are again one scene cut in half and are titled 'Hill View'. I'm really pleased with the 'Ploughed Fields' and these are my favourites, not so sure about the last two but I think they'll pass...lol.

There's still time to join in with this months swap, hop over to ATC Swappers, to find out more info on how to join and you can see all the wonderful swaps from the very first swap in January.

Right time to clean the iron and put it all away again then back to cardmaking I think.

One Stop Craft Challenge #16

The challenge this week over on One Stop Craft is a great sketch by Sharon.




My replacement CISS system for my printer came today, so hooray I have my printer back in working order, all chips are present this time....lol. So of course I had to give it a test drive in printing. The image is a digi-stamp by the lovely Chris Dark, coloured with copics, inked the edges in green and mounted onto red card from scraps stash. The papers are from Funky Fairys ' In With The Old'. I've inked all the edges of the papers. The rose lace is from a load of lace scraps which my nan collected for me. The sentiment is from Kanban and finished with three flat pearls in the bottom corner. Below is a close up of the rose buds image, and shows the dew drops I've added using 3D glaze.

Below is this weeks sketch to follow:

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #19

Donna has set the challenge this week over on SCSC which is "Spring has Sprung". You can make any spring like creations or use spring colours. I've done a wallet for my take on this challenge:

The image is a stamp I've had for goodness knows how long coloured with copics. The background has been chalked with shimmer chalks, which isn't showing in the photo. Mounted onto pink card from scraps stash. The paper is also from my scraps stash and I believe it was a freebie from one the the magazines back last year. Added prima flowers with tiny coloured gems in the centres and two larger pink gems in the free corners of image. The two buttons are from my stash. Punched a hole through both sides of open edge, fixed eyelets and used blue organza ribbon from stash to tie together.

Sorry I've not added any craft for a few days but I have been doing a little, I did my DT stuff for Funky Fairys yesterday, which I'll be able to show you on Wednesday for the start of the new challenge, but don't forget the current challenge, which is 'Faux Stitching' you've still time to join in if you'd like, and we'd love to see your creations.

Hope you all enjoyed Valentines. We cooked some lovely chineses starters and crispy duck and pancakes, was yummy, and we had candles too, but it wasn't a meal for two we had youngest join us, though she said she'd eat in her room, we said we didn't mind her eating with us, which we didn't. We decided to go out for the day today instead and have some lunch out. We ended up in Filey, the beach was packed, with families, dog walkers and couples, we couldn't believe how busy it was, it was a grey day, though not that cold, and parking was horrendous. After driving around for about 20 minutes we finally got a parking slot and took Mollie for a run on the beach, after that we took a very wet and sandy Mollie back to the car and as we were parked right outside a fish and chip shop, we went and got lunch, fish and chips out of the paper and a sausage for Mollie, it was gorgeous, and something we hadn't done in years. We then took a scenic drive home through the hills where there was still plenty of snow. A really lovely day out.

Got lots of challenges to catch up with through the week so I should be back tomorrow back in full flow hopefully.

Enjoy the rest of your sunday evening xxx.

Pink Gem Candy

The very talented designer Janet Roberts is celebrating nearly 20,000 hits to the Pink Gem Designs Blog, and is offering one lucky winner four stamps of their choice from the Pink Gem's range. Nip over to be in with a chance and also check out the gorgeous new stamps which were released yesterday. The candy ends when the hits counter reaches 20,000.

Blog Candy Winners!!

I would just like to say thank you again to everyone who entered the candy, and give a warm welcome to all my new followers.
It was great reading what other things you all like to do with your precious spare time, reading appeared to be the top pastime, and I was so pleased to see quite a few fellow ladies that also like to fish, when we go fishing I don't see many ladies actually fishing, more often then not they are enjoying the sunshine with a good book, whilst their men fish.
Right I guess you'd all like to know who's won? OK, after removing all duplicates there were 96 entries, I used random.org, and the random first number was......

Here are your random numbers:

83

Timestamp: 2009-02-13 21:32:45 UTC

Comment 83 was Val (Happy Crafter)

Happy Crafter said...
Hi Joanne,You have some fabulous candy there thanks for the chance to be in the draw :)My other fav pastime would be knitting and sewing, niether of them i do as much as i would like though now due to calpal tunnel, especially the knitting anything bigger than a scarf now takes me forever as i have to put it down for a while after 2 or 3 rows.Good luck to all in the draw :)Hugzz Val xxx
12 February 2009 16:30

Congratulations Val!!!

I now have 105 followers and as promised if my blog followers list hit 100 or above I would give a little extra surprise candy for one of my followers. I've used random.org again, and I just want to clarify that No.1 starts from my very first follower up to No.105 which is my newest follower. OK so the random first number was.....

Here are your random numbers:

6

Timestamp: 2009-02-13 21:43:10 UTC

And my 6th blog follower is Heather "Hev"

Congratulations Heather!!! You'll be receiving a surprise gift from me, and you wont know what it is until you recieve it :-)

If Val and Heather could please contact me with your addresses, and I'll get your packages in the post a.s.ap.

So sorry you couldn't all win, but once again thank you everyone xxx

MY BLOG CANDY IS NOW CLOSED

Well the hits are just past 10,000. Thank you to everyone who entered the candy and also to the new followers of my blog. The followers list is also over 100 so there will be a runners up prize for one of my followers. I'll try to get back this evening with the winners, but it maybe in the morning, as need to sort through all the comments and I have noticed some duplicates, which I will be removing, I know most of these were unintentional, but I have to make it fair to all. Good Luck Everyone!!

The Sugar Bowl Challenge #4

The latest challenge over on the Sugar Bowl is 'One'. You can only use one patterned design paper on your project.

I've used SN 'A Good Book' and coloured with watercolour pencils using a waterbrush, I've also used a little pearly doodles on the centres of the flowers and on the heart pendant on her necklace (I've seen this done on some of Poppets cards, and love the effect). Chalked the background with shimmer pink chalk then used a darker pink chalk towards the edges and inked around the edges. The patterned paper I've used is a sheet from the Funky Fairys 'Love Train', which was only available for one day to download. The green background card is from my stash. Added some green lace diagonally on the bottom of card with a sentiment from Kanban attached with green ribbon. I made a kind of lace rosette/bloom with a hair pin and some pearl beads attached. The flowers are prima's with a pearl bead in the centre. Finished with a line of flat pearls in top corner of dp.

I spent a lot of yesterday giving the kitchen a good clean and all was sparkling, then it started snowing again. As I've mentioned before Mollie loves the snow, so as you can imagine, my nice sparkling floor was no more...lol, so looks like the mop and bucket will be staying out a little while longer. Wasn't expecting the snow, the forecast was for rain, we ended up with about 4 inches in the end. Glorious day out there today though, but it must be chilly as the snow isn't thawing very quickly.

Hope everyone's having a lovely day.

Blog Friends Award

I've recieved this lovely friends award from my lovely blogging and forum buddy Louise, I've never met her yet, but hope to one day when I go on one of my visits back home to Worthing as Louise lives not so far from there. She's a lovely person who'll bend over backwards to help anyone, and her blog is wonderful too. Thank you Lou xxxx.

This award states that:

These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbon of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers.I would like to pass this onto the following people for their friendship and Inspiration.
I would like to pass this award to...

Emma - I've was lucky enough to meet up with Emma last week, she's a lovely person and her blog gives me so much inspiration.
Angel - We've struck up quite a blogging friendship in the past few weeks, she makes me giggle with some of her words on her blog and her comments on here. She always finds time to visit my blog and comment.

SueH - I've known Sue well over a year, and we've met a few times for crafting sessions in my little craft cave, and crafting sessions on the webcam too. A very good friend.

Moni - Who just appeared from no where in my blogging world recently, a lovely lady who always finds time to visit my blog and comment on virtually every post.

Tasha - We're always hopping over to each others blogs and leaving friendly chatter, and it's not always craft related.

These are just a few of the ladies I wanted to let know that their friendship means a lot to me,

of course I have many more blogging buddies, and so wish I could name each and everyone of you for this award. If you would like to pass on this blogging friend's award to let some of your friends know how much you appreciate them please take this award to pass on. Well it's the eve of Valentine's and showing a little friends love is well deserved I think, and it's as good a time as any. xxxx

ABC Challenge ~ A

This is my first entry for the ABC Challenge, I'd been waiting for the letter A to start and join in from there.

A is for Anniversary.

I cut out the hearts using the Fiskars shapecutter and layered using purple and pearlescent card and patterned paper from Kanban. I made the base card 6 x 6 then layered the hearts on to it, then very carfully cut the base card around the top of the hearts. Added a piece of the patterned paper across the bottom with a peel-off sentiment, mounted onto purple and silver card with a lilac and silver ribbon running through. To finish I've added a silver fabric flower and lilac paper roses and some peel-off clear hearts and silver outline to the hearts. I've been trying to move away from peel-off sentiments but as I am without printer at the moment, I didn't have much choice, but I think the silver is perfect with the lilac.

Copics Colour Challenge #1

I've found a new challenge blog for all copics marker fans. It's the first challenge over on Copics Colour Challenge and there are three copics colours to use on your creations:

B28 - Royal Blue, V06 - Lavender, YR07 - Cadmium Orange

You can use one are all the colours, if you don't have any of these colours you can use the nearest you have to that colour or colours.

I made this card a few days ago but had to wait before entering it as it was a birthday card for Emma, my blogging buddy, and now I know she has it, it's safe to post.

I only had the Lavender - V06, out of this weeks colours, so I've used this on the coat and flower heads of the 'Sharing Sherbert' image from Pollycraft Designs. The rest of the image has been coloured with other copics colours and sakura glaze pens to some of the detail. Background of image has been chalked. Papers are PM 'Spring Burst'. The stem of the flower was hand drawn onto white card and coloured with copics then cut out and I creased the leaves to give some dimension. The flower is a fabric and prima flower secured with a spotty brad. Added some gems to finish.

Beautiful Blog Award

I've recieved this lovely award from Emma, thank you so much Emma xxx. If you are not familiar with Emma's blog, then you really should go and check it out, her work is stunning and oozing with inspiration.

The rules state I have to pass onto 3 people who I think have beautiful blogs and work. Well, this was a difficult job to whittle down to three, but this time round the three blogs I've chosen for this award are:

Ewonne - Her work is a style of it's own, and to sum it up in one word 'Stunning'.

Bev - Gorgeous and truly inspiring creations.

Maddy - Beautiful and amazing creations and home to the very cute Calvin Mouse.

Funky Fairys Challenges #3 DT Card - Faux Stitching

Well it's already Challenge 3 over on Funky Fairys Challenges and this week we would like to see some 'Faux Stitching' on your creations. Remember you can create anything as long as you use at least one Funky Fairy Papercraft item. There's a fab Funky Fairy download as a prize for one lucky winner.

I've used FF papers from the 'Love Train' and 'Doodlementals'. The image is one of the gorgeous new releases from Paula over on Pollycraft Designs, Sharing Sherbert - 'Daydream', coloured with copics and watercoloured pencils. I've also used a little sakura blue glaze on her sweater detail and to highlight her eyes. The background has been chalked, then cut on circle scalloped nesties. The swirls and flowers are also from the FF 'Doodlementals' kit, except for the smaller swirl in left corner which was stamped. I've added faux stitching along the swirls, around the flower edges and the image edge using a black sakura glaze pen. To finish I've used a stamped sentiment and added a couple of stamped dragonflies, coloured with sakura stardust.

Please go and check out all the other fab creations from the DT, they are sure to give you lots of inspiration I do hope you'll be able to join us this week over on FF Challenges. Remember if you don't have any FF stuff there are some freebies to get you started available over on the Funky Fairy Inspirations Blog where there is also a Creative Designers Call at the moment. You can also purchase lots of gorgeous sets or individual sheets over in the shop.

Lastly I'd just like to wish fellow FF DT member and blogging buddy Emma a very Happy Birthday for today xxx. And if you're quick she has some gorgeous blog candy which ends today, so you might still be in with a chance.

A Spoon Full of Sugar & One Stop Craft Challenge

This is my first ever combined challenges card. Over at A Spoon Full of Sugar this weeks challenge is 'Doodle-Doo' and over at One Stop Craft Challenge it's 'Circles'.

Tilda is coloured with copics, sakura stardust and shimmer chalks. Used oval scalloped nesties to cut image and layered on to pink card embossed with CB 'Swiss Dots' and cut with circle scalloped nesties, swept over the pink card with shimmering green chalk. The green patterned paper is from Kanban and these were two large scalloped circles, again cut with nesties and layed so they slightly overlapped then placed Tilda over the overlap join. Pink background is from PM 'Sweet Nothings'. The sentiment is handwritten and yes, another circle scalloped nesties cut, chalked and inked edges. There are doodle swirls in each corner and faux stitching on the sentiment and image edge. To finish I've added a double ribbon bow and some punched flowers with a little green circle gem in the centres. I thinks thats both challenges covered. I hope it's ok to have combined the two challenges.

Well I've spent most of my day mucking about with my printer. I bought a CISS (continuous ink supply system) for the printer last week. I ran down my original inks and this morning I connected the CISS to the printer after finding clearer instructions from the net, as the one's that came with it were no use what so ever for installation on my Espon D92, so far so good, until switching printer back on, and it just wouldn't recognise the inks, tried every trouble shooting theory I could find. After sending a couple of emails to the company I bought it from on Ebay and no replies, I rang them. They were going through just about everything I'd already tried then they asked me to check all the chips were in place, on inspection there was not one chip, I don't think the guy believed me. So I had to dismantle it all again and pack it away and send back by recorded delivery, for a replacement. So now I have no printer unless, I go and spend £35 on some more original cartridges. I know I maybe should have checked in the first place, but I really didn't think I'd have needed too, I certainly will when I get the replacement. I just hope when I eventually get it up and running it would have all been worthwhile.

Well I hope everyone else had a better day than me. Thank you to all those who have already entered my candy it's been great reading about your other hobbies, especially nice to see some more ladies who enjoy fishing like me. I don't think it's going to take very long to hit the 10,000 at this rate and 'Hello' to all my new followers lovely to see you and thanks for following.

I'll be back in the morning with my DT card for this weeks Funky Fairy Challenges, I hope some of you can join us this week, it's going to be a great challenge, so don't forget to check it out tomorrow. xxx

My Blog Candy - NOW CLOSED

Well here it is, I was going to wait until I was nearer the 10,000 hits to my blog, but what I will do is run this candy until the counter hits 10,000 or just over (just in case I miss the actual 10,000th hit).

Here's what the winner will get:

Dufex Border Stickers

Stamptivity Stamp Set (SMD519)

Dovecrafts 6x6 Designer Paper Pack - A Hint of Pink

Set of 5 Craft Works Ribbons

Set of 4 wood mounted corner stamps

Selection of Fabric Flowers

Selection of Brads

Dew Drop Brilliance Ink Pad - Starlite Silver

Artoz Charm Paperclips

Selection of Foiled Die-Cut Flowers

Selection of Gems & Charms

3 Felt Butterflies

Die-Cut Glittery Butterflies and Dragonflies (2 of each)

As well as reaching the 10,000 hits if my blog followers list also hits 100+ then I will throw in an extra surprise candy for one runner-up picked at random from the followers list, it could be something I've made or more crafty stuff, you wont know until you recieve the runner-up 'Followers' candy.

Here's what you have to do:

Other than crafting one of my other hobbies is coarse fishing, I'd like you tell me what is your next favourite pastime/hobby other than crafting, by leaving me a comment on this candy thread. Then please put a link/post on your blog about my candy and spread the word, feel free to use the candy picture on your blog if you'd like.

This candy will end at 10,000 hits or just over, where a winner will be picked at random from the comments made. If 100+ followers is reached by 10,000 hits a runner-up will also be picked at random from the 'FOLLOWERS LIST'. Please only enter once, any duplicates will be removed. This candy is open to all and I will post worldwide.

***Becoming a follower IS NOT compulsary to enter this candy, I'd rather you followed my blog because you want to not because you have to.**

I really can't believe that I've nearly reached this milestone of hits to my blog in such a short time, thank you to everyone who regulary visits my blog and for all of your wonderful comments, they are very much appreciated, Thank You xxx

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE xxx

A Lovely Blog Award

I've recieved this lovely award from the lovely Moni, thank you hun xx

This award was created by Mary who used this image with permission from gratefulness.org.

There are no rules about passing this on, so I wish to pass this on to all my blog followers, if you would like this award please take as a thank you from me and if you can, please pass it on xxx

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #18

The challenge this week over on SCSC was set by Kim and it's 'Recycling', you can do any project as long as there is an element of recycling.
I had this gorgeous box, which was given to us full of lovely indian confectionary, of course it's now empty and there was no way I was going to throw it away, so thought it would be good to store some of my larger unmounted stamps in. Below is the box before getting to work on it:

Now here it is decorated:

I've covered the lid with a piece of left over wallpaper, and added decorative braiding around the edges, which is also recycled from being tied around a gift box. I've also run a piece of decorative braiding, from my crafting stash, around the sides. Added chipboard discs to each corner, coloured turquoise with a copics marker, then stuck punched brown flowers with a turquoise flat pearl in the centre to them. The butterflies were cut and embossed in my bug, I've used pale green and turquoise vellum, and attached them with a little silicon. To finish I punched a few flowers from the wallpaper, added an amber gem to the centres and attached them with a little silicon, so they didn't sit flat to the surface. Below are some close up's of the flowers and one of the butterflies:

Hope you've all had a pleasant Sunday. We did go to the Range at Scunthorpe today, and Steve managed to get the bulbs for the fish tank there, so didn't go on to Brigg. But I did have another browse through the craft section, even Steve showed some interest at some of the stuff. I picked up a few bits for my upcoming candy, and that took some explaining to Steve...lol. When we got back I went straight off out out again and took Mollie up on the hills where there's still plenty of snow and with the sun shining it was really quite pleasant as long as you were wrapped up well. Looks like there could be some more snow in places tonight, hopefully it wont be as bad as last week. Well enjoy your evening everyone xxx.