A lot to catch up on ...

Goodness, it is almost a month since I last blogged! Life has been pretty busy here, lots of decisions to be made about my new house but in the 4 weeks since we got the key we've had a new heating system installed throughout, the windows have all been replaced, a few walls have been knocked down, moved and rebuilt to make the kitchen a little larger, the kitchen has been ordered and 3 rooms have been plastered and painted throughout. This weekend my brother put down the flooring in one of the bedrooms and he's there at the moment laying the floor in the other bedroom. Phew, lots of hard work :)

I've had a little time to spend making cards but I gave up on the idea of making all my Christmas cards and have bought some for the regular people and I'm keeping my hand crafted cards for the extra special people.

Amongst all the busy-ness of making the house look fabulous I squeezed in a weekend away with 7 other crafty friends. We completed several projects and this is the card that I taught to the group on the Friday night, it had a coordinating box to go with it but I forgot to take a photograph of that

Paper, sentiment and reindeer image - Pink Petticoat

Twine, ribbon and jinglebell - Ribbon Girl

Star die - Spellbinders

Whilst at the cottage we had a bit of a Molly Bloom fest - I love Molly Bloom stamps which is handy because so does Jane, Gail and Jean so we played swaps with our stamps for a little while and I cane home with several stamped images all ready to colour in

Stamp - Molly Blooms

Papers - Sweet Shoppe Designs

Ribbons and twine - Ribbon Girl

I've made a few of these little giftbags too, the die is a Papertrey Ink die and they are perfect for adding a giftcard or small items such as earrings and jewellery

Papers and font - Sweet Shoppe Designs

Die - Papertrey Ink

Papers, snowman element and wordart - Sweet Shoppe Designs

Ribbon, twine and charm - Ribbon Girl

The kit I used for the gift bag and this card is Fa-La-La by Dani Mogstad at Sweet Shoppe Designs and whilst I was creating these projects I thought I would use it to make a festive header for my blog, I'm hoping we get some snow this holiday time!

Jingle All The Way To Christmas ...

It's the 25th of the month so we have a new Christmas challenge over at the Ribbon Girl blog. I made two projects for this challenge

The first is a card using a Crafters Companion Christmas Humphrey stamp, I love this little elephant and it stamps so nicely. I coloured him with Copics and then sprayed it with Spray & Sparkle to make him glittery and shimmery. I added a nice big bow made with spotty organza, ricrac and a polka dot button from the Ribbon Girl and those papers are a recent purchase from Pink Petticoat - love them!

My second Christmas project is this fab wooden reindeer from Kaisercraft that I have covered with papers from Nitwit Collections. I added a jingle bell garland made from bells and bakers twine from the Ribbon Girl and cut out a saddle using one of the Spellbinders labels dies. I covered his antlers with Stickles to make them super sparkly. I bought my reindeer from Merly Impressions

In the pink ...

I love everything pink so guess how pleased I was that this weeks Just Magnolia/Hanglar challenge was to make a pink card!

Hanglar stamp

Ribbon Girl pins and ribbon

Pink Petticoat sentiment

Papermania (I think) paper and cardstock

Martha Stewart border punch

Papertrey Ink scalloped border die

Spellbinders star border die

Cuttlebug embossing folder

Stickles

Crafters Companion Spray & Sparkle (I have no idea how I've lived without this for so long)

Getting Distressed ...

... well sanded and roughed up paper edges are about the most distressed I get with my cards but I think it fits the bill for the Just Magnolia/Hanglar Stanglar challenge this week.

I used all of my favourites (and new favourites!) on this card

Hanglar stamp

Coloured with Copics

Martha Stewart border punch

Ribbon Girl ruffle edge sheer ribbon (love this!) and fancy pins

Pink Petticoat Vintage Stars, Sprinkled with Twinkles papers and NewBaby sentiments

Lots of machine stitching and roughed up paper edges :)

Ribbon Girl Colour Challenge

The colour challenge over the Ribbon Girl blog is lilac and green and we have a great prize of a £10 voucher to spend at Lili Of The Valley and either a green or a lilac ribbon mini kit from Ribbon Girl

This is the card I made using the lilac and green colour theme

My Minds Eye paper

Tiddlyinks digital stamp

Satin ribbon

Seam binding

Crystal swirl (recoloured with a Copic marker)

Stickles

Copic Markers

Martha Stewart paper punch

Pink Petticoat sentiment

Safmat

I love how you can recolour the crystal swirls to coordinate with any project by simply running a Copic marker over them

Okay, I'm off to get on with the mountain of school work that needs to be done before Monday morning - only 1 week to go until half term and a week off though. Yippeeeee!

You're Sew Special ...

Sending this off in the post to a special friend :)

Papers - Material Girl by Cosmo Cricket

Twine, lace and charm from Ribbon Girl

Digital stamp and sentiment from Pink Petticoat

Thank You Sew Very Much ...

This card made me so happy and it's been sat on my desk since last week just so that I can look at it :)  I think it will be one of those cards that I just can't give away

Echo Park Little Girl papers, Pink Petticoat digital stamp and Ribbon Girl ribbons

I Won A Prize ...

I won the summer card challenge over at the Pink Petticoat blog with my apple tree card which has made me very happy and the prize is some lovely ribbons. I love this card so I thought I would show it again :)

Now I am on the look out for more corrugated kraft card :)

Has Summer Ended?

I took Haggis out for his walk this afternoon after being stuck indoors all morning with the rain and the leaves are starting to fall from the trees already! The summer holiday isn't even over yet and it's turning into Autumn? That's just not right.

Anyway the rain this morning inspired me to make another card for Liz's challenge at the Pink Petticoat blog. The challenge is to make a summer inspired card and as you can see I was inspired by the typically English summer weather we have been experiencing here today :)

Pink Petticoat papers, Papertrey twine kraft card and ribbon, Prima buttons and Paperchase jewels - I think I need to encourage my brother to take his girlfriend shopping in Manchester again as they are my personal jewel shoppers :)

Sparkly Little Tug Boat ...

The result of my sorting and purging earlier in the week I found this gorgeous sparkly braid at the back of one of my ribbon drawers. It's actually the remnants of making a tie back for my bathroom curtain and it looked just like the deep blue sea. So, it needed a boat to sail across it and I had this perfect little tug boat from a Kay Miller kit tucked away on my hard drive.

Little boat image from Kay Miller, Pink Petticoat papers, Hero Arts stamp

A Little Bit Summery 2 ...

Here is another card for Liz's challenge at the Pink Petticoat blog. There is nothing more summery than a big round yellow sun filled with happy sunshine buttons. It looked such a happy card that I made it into a Get Well Soon card

Papers from Pink Petticoat, Autumn Leaves and Basic Grey buttons, Papertrey stamp, twine from garden centre and some pretty hand stitching

A Little Bit Summery ...

Liz over at the Pink Petticoat blog has set a challenge to create a summer inspired card and I made this

Pink Petticoat paper, Basic Grey buttons, Papertrey Ink stamp, twine from garden centre and the corrugated card stuff was recycled from some packaging

Another day, another challenge ...

Well actually it was a through the night creation :lol: Does anyone else sometimes have to get out of bed as they are wide awake at 2AM and their head is full of ideas to make?

Anyway, after hopping around a few blogs this week I stumbled on the Double Dutch challenge blog - and it's such an inspirational blog too. This weeks challenge was to make a tea bag!

I used a new kit by Mary Fran over at NitWit Collections and filled it with chocolate mini eggs. I made quite a few to give away to the little people who come to visit us and this was the only one left to photograph.

Yesterday I went to a crop with some friends and did lots of chatting, gossiping and a bit of crafting - oh and I ate quite a few chocolate mini eggs, played with Debbie's Papertrey stamps and ink, shopped in Jean's shop and generally had a lovely day. Debbie showed me how to make one of her boxes (which is finished but needs something to go inside of it before it's ready to photograph) and I came home with a few cards done and my brain whizzing along with an idea for our cyber crop next week.

(Stamp - Stampin Up, Colours - ProMarkers, Papers - Shabby Princess, Cardstock - Coredinations, Punch - Woodware (I think), Ribbon - Stampin Up, Paper lace - not sure where that came from, I found it in my cupboard)

(Paper - Scrapkitchen Designs at the Sweet Shoppe, flowers - Prima, Punch - EK Success, Brad - Autumn Leaves, Ribbon - Beresfords)
(Papers and image stamp - Pink Petticoat, Colours - ProMarkers, Stamp - Melissa Francis, Cardstock - Coredinations, Punch - Woodware, Martha Stewart and Marvy, Ribbon - Beresfords)

(Papers and image stamp - Pink Petticoat, Colours - ProMarkers, Dies - Nestabilities, Ribbon - Stampin Up, Wooden flower - Hobbycraft, Brad - Making Memories)

Lots of cards ...

I am so enjoying having a holiday from work and have spent every evening for the past few days playing in my craft room making cards :)

(Papers - Nancy Kubo ,Stamp - ElzyBells art stamps, Ink - Stazon, Colours - ProMarkers, Font - SP Toby, Punches - Martha Stewart and EK Success, Flower - Prima, Button - Doodlebug, Ribbon - Stampin Up and Beresfords, Brads - Basic Grey)

(Papers - Doodlebug and KI Memories, Stamp - ElzyBells Art Staps, Colours - ProMarkers, Cardstock - Coredinations, Punches - EK Success, Marvy and Nestabilities, Flower - Prima, Embossing Folder - Cuttlebug, Brad - Basic Grey, Ribbon - MayArts, Font - Sp You've Got Mail)


(Happy Place by Fee Jardine at Sweet Shoppe Designs, DJB Lizzy Fizzed Out computer font by Darcy Baldwin at Sweet Shoppe Designs, American Crafts ribbon)

(Paper and image stamp - Pink Petticoat, Colours - ProMarkers, Cardstock - Papermill, Punches - Martha Stewart and Fiskars, Buttons - Autumn Leaves, Thread - DMC, Ribbon - Beresfords)

(Paper and image stamp - Pink Petticoat, Colours - ProMarkers, Cardstock - Papermill, Punch - Stampin Up, Dies - Nestabilities, Stamp - Autumn Leaves, Ink - Stampin Up, Ribbon - Beresfords)

(Paper and image stamp - Pink Petticoat, Colours - ProMarkers, Dies - Nestabilities, Ribbon - Beresfords, Font - Pea Martha)

(Paper - Shabby Princess, Image stamp - Pink Petticoat, Colours - ProMarkers, Dies - Nestabilities, Punch - Stampin Up, Stamp - Autumn Leaves, Ink - Stampin Up, Ribbon - MayArts and Stampin Up, Cardstock - Stampin Up)

(Image stamp - Pink Petticoat, Papers - Bloom and Grow by Zoe Pearn at Sweet Shoppe Designs, Greeting stamp - Melissa Francis, Ink - Stazon, Cardstock - Coredinations, Brads - Papermania, Punches - Woodware, Marvy and Fiskars, Paperstring - IKEA, Colours - ProMarkers)

(Image stamp and paper by Pink Petticoat, Cardstock - Stampin Up, Paper frill - Bazzill, Ribbon - May Arts, Colours - ProMarkers, Glitter)

Phewwww - that was a lot! I also joined in with the Hero Arts blog challenge for the first time, stamping on something other than paper and card. I made this little birthday favour bag by stamping directly onto the bag and colouring with my pens

I'm off to a crop early in the morning so I had better get myself away to bed or I won't be wanting to get up

Last one! ...

This final card is for the 2 sketches 4 you challenge blog and I just had to use this little bunny image stamp again, he's just so cute!!

Image Stamp - Pink Petticoat (coloured with ProMarkers)

Papers - The Shabby Princess

Greeting stamp - Autumn Leaves

Ink - Stampin Up

Cardstock - Stampin Up

Ribbon and ric rac - May Arts

Punch - Stampin Up

Flower - Prima

More cards ...

Another card, another challenge! This time I needed a quick card for a friend of my Dad's who is having an operation. I love this little sheep, a Pink Petticoat image stamp, and I love my ProMarkers too :) This card is for the CPS sketch challenge.

Image stamp - Pink Petticoat

Cardstock - Stampin Up

Dies - Nestabilities

Ribbon - Doodlebug

Challenges ...

I'm joining in with a few card challenges this week - it's great being on holiday :)

This card is for the Friday Sketchers challenge - great sketch.

Paper and bunny image stamp by Pink Petticoat

Cardstock by Stampin' Up and The Papermill

Autumn leaves buttons, EK Success corner punch

Beresfords ribbon

Image coloured with ProMarkers (and glitter of course)