Post christmas birthday card

My little brother's birthday is on today and I have actually had time to spend some time and make a half decent card for him. Male cards are always difficult but for a early 30s bloke who definately wouldn't like Paper Nation or Sugar Nellie characters it's even more tricky.

So I picked my colours (typical male blue, green and brown) and went with textures and shapes, which is so much easier now I have my Sizzix!

I also decided that as I had the time I would make it more interested by adding some papers on the inside as I have seen Rozzy do many times on her Crafty Pad DT creations and always admired.

Anyway - see what you think - as usual your comments would be much appreciated.

Sunday Sketch & Stamp #17

This is a gorgeous sketch over at Sunday Sketch & Stamp and I had great fun with it. Unfortunately mirricard really doesn't show up well when I try to photograph it, but please try to imagine this with a silver surround rather than a dark one! These lovely felted snowflake brads I bought for just 80p for a pack of 12 - a bargain I think and as they were pink I couldn't resist. The greeting is that plastic confetti which came out a card I received.

Quirky Crafts Christmas Raffle

Over on Quirky Crafts we've got a fabulous Christmas raffle with just the best prizes, including a Cuttlebug, a Zutter Round it all and many others

Tickets cost just £2 and can be purchased using paypal. The draw will be on 10th December. So nip over now and try your luck!

Two important bits of news....

... Firstly this is my week to be a Guest DT member over on The Crafty Pad - the challenge was a sketch with one of Debbie's lovely cute Ted stamps. I had a moment of inspiration to mask Ted and create Mr & Mrs Ted pulling their Christmas tree home. I used some lovely free papers from a magazine and have lots of fun with liquid pearls and glitter!!

See what you think.



Secondly Challenge 18 over at Quirky Crafts and Cazzy's theme this week is Christmas. I thought that it was time I did something other than a card so have posted the small tin I have created for Mum's Christmas fair.

I saw these tins demo'd at Colemans and Pippa and I thought we could do a few for our stalls. I was so pleased with this and I do so love playing with alcohol inks and rubber stamping and embossing - so it has all my favourite elements - lets hope they sell!!

Crafty Pad Challenge 48

This weeks challenge over at The Crafty Pad is to use a TRIANGLE. So I have remembered some cards that I have made in previous years where triangles of patterned paper symbolise Christmas trees.

Sometimes I scrunch the paper and highlight the raised bits with ink but this time I have just left them flat and sharp and added stamped swirls (as is my thing this year). I was really please with the way the background turned out - I just stamped onto red card with Versamark but the card I used must be very porous as it has shown up really well. The stamp and the green paper are part of the new and improved Papermania range which have some gorgeous designs this Christmas.

Double whammy challenge card!

This card I have managed to fit into two different challenges.

Firstly it fits in with Sunday Sketch and Stamp, but rather than following the sketch almost exactly like I usually do, I have tried to put my own interpretation on it, but hopefully it still fits the sketch enough to join in.

Secondly it fits with Penny's Paper craft challenges where the challenge this time was NOT to use decorative papers but to create your own. This is something I used to do alot of but haven't done for a while so it was nice to try again. I have used my gorgeous U-Mount swirls embossed in gold for the back ground.

This stamp is one of the first Christmas stamps I ever bought and I still love it, it comes out every year and I always try to do something different with it. As I have been using alot of water colour pencils this year, that's what I have used on this one. I'm quite pleased with the effect.

The Crafty Pad Challenge 47

This week the challenge on The Crafty Pad is a sketch challenge by Maxine, it was a fun one to work with and I got to use up some free papers, some old friends (stamps) and my lovely snowflake buttons.

Over on Quirky Crafts it Challenge 17, this week Lyn has picked a sketch and here is my interpretation of it. I wanted to use it to do one for my Pink ATC swap, so have adapted is slightly especially as I don't have anything oval.

I just love this little mug stamp, these is something so comforting and cute about it. I always imagine it full of hot chocolate. mmmm!

Can you believe.......

I've won again! Wow - twice in one week. These blog challenges are like buses.

This time I have been chosen as the Featured Sketch Card on Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge Blog with the Christmas card just below. I was actually quite please with the way that card came out in the end and as usual it looks so much better in reality. The lighting in my craft room is pretty poor for taking photos.

Penny has a colour challenge running this week, I don't have the brand of inks she has specified but I'm sure if I rummage in my inks basket I can come up with something close!

Penny Challenges

It's a sketch challenge over at Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge Blog and this is my entry. I have had a lovely evening creating this as I have also been on messenger with Pippa who was also crafting at home - it was like having our own personal crop! Great Fun :-)

Hope you like it - sorry about the mirricard not showing up so well.

I've won...

...Challenge 45 over on The Crafty Pad. Can you believe it? I know I couldn't! I'm just a little ashamed as I didn't feel as pleased with this creation as usual, but was running out of time to do something new.

I just hope I can create something better when I have my weeks guest DT spot which is the prize - I am so looking forward to this.

Thank you Debbie and girls - great challenge again this week!

I've just found....

....this lovely blog where Cathy has some gorgeous creations and some delicious blog candy. Click here to see it and a chance to enter yourself.

Crafty Pad Challenge 45

This is my entry for challenge 45 on The Crafty Pad, which this week is a lovely sketch challenge by Maxine. It is an ATC which I will use as part of my ATC swap on Quirky Crafts, the theme of which is PINK. This swap has been extended until 19th November if you would like to join in.

Had a lovely birthday...

...yesterday, despite the sad occaision. For those who don't know me well, it was also the first anniversary of losing my Mother-in-Law. We all (my husband, his dad and me) took the day off work, we'd had several beers the night before so Pops stayed here with us.

They made a big fuss of me in the morning then we spent most of the day just doing bits and pieces. At 2pm we had made an arrangement which gave us something to look forward to - Pops had ordered a new van earlier in the summer and we were finally able to pick it up yesterday. It's a great little van and he is so pleased with it!! He then cooked dinner which was really nice.

I had some lovely presents including two craft magazine subcriptions: Craft Stamper and Creative Cardmaking (which I struggle to get hold of), some lovely smellies, chocolates, flowers, a cardi and some great crafty stash. From Phil I bought some sizzix dies and nestabilites.

Julia and Al bought me this Oh so cute tea infuser with some fresh tea and some chocolate bars - how happy will I be!


Mum & Dad bought these lovely beads when they were in France last week (these are the wearing kind, not the sticking on a card kind!)


Pippa made this beautiful card which she also entered in my challenge over on Quirky Crafts - which also happened to win this week. Pippa gave me these gorgeous Elusive Images stamps, which I remember gushing over at Stamperama along with some EZ mount and a beautiful fan bookmark - which has all pink and sparkly gems on - although the picture doesn't do it justice!


Ellie made this fab card with lots of 'Anne' elements: pink, sparkly, cupcakes, a Mini, and pink ribbon and bought me the Papermania Christmas sealing wax kit which I have had my eye on for ages.



Haven't I been really lucky - I love all my presents but had to show my crafty bits on my blog - thank you girls!

Quirky Craft Challenge16

Challenge 16 has just been launched over on Quirky Crafts. This fortnight Julia has chosen a masculine theme, something I know I find very difficult.

Click HERE to take you straight to the forum.

I had hoped to use the challenge to do my brother's birthday card but then realised I didn't have a suitable image and had run out of time due to all that has been going on this weekend, so I remembered I had these images all ready at the bottom of my images box. If I don't sell it at Mum's Christmas fair, I can probably use it for my Dad. So here is my entry for this week:

Fun with new Christmas Sizzix dies

This card is for the The Crafty Pad Challenge 44 using red, green and gold. Another good excuse to get on with the C cards.

It also happens to fit in too with Penny's Wednesday Challenge which I am entering for the first time. However I have visited before via the Crafty Pad.

I have used a holly sizzix cut out from my new decorative strip which I bought on Saturday from Colemans. I cut it out twice and highlighted the bottom of the leaves in dark green pen and in the middle with stardust pen to try and add some definition - that is about as arty as I get.

The Father Christmas is from a Kanban sheet I bought at the Grafton Crafts demo day. I added plenty of glitter to jazz it up a bit!

Autumnal colours

Last weeks challenge on The Crafty Pad was to use autumnal colours and although I did all the stamping and the layout earlier in the week, I never got a chance to stick it all together and photograph it and do this post until today. This is of course too late for the challenge entry, but I really like it and thought I'd post it anyway.

All the inks are chalk inks, the large swirls are from the U-mount set I bought at Stamperama and the tree is from a gorgeous set from 'Autumn Leaves' which I bought for £2.99 from our local stationers who buys ends or surplus stock.

Sunday Sketch & Stamp #14

Check out Sunday Sketch & Stamp Challenge to see their gorgeous new challenge.

Here is my entry:

Check out great competition at The Crafty Pad

Quirky Craft Challenge15

Over at QC, Challenge 15 has just got started and I'm really excited because it's my choice this week. I had to choose pink so went for a recipe card:

1 ribbon
2 shades of pink
3 eyelets

Click HERE to have a look -hope you'll join in too.

As a sneak preview here is my entry:


I just adore my cupcake stamps and love colouring then highlighting with stardust pens on shrink plastic as per the right hand cupcake. The 'Imagine' is a much larger stamp also done on shrink plastic and I thought I'd see what happened if I fixed an eyelet first before shrinking - It seemed to have worked and was the third of my three eyelets.

My little mug (always filled with hot chocolate of course) was from Stamp Addicts and went with their range of cake stamps but I thought is was just so cute and look at it shrunk down too!!

And here is my second card (as we seem to be into two or three cards at the mo!). I put light pink card through my Sizzix and then highlighted the raised flowers with a bright pink chalk ink which exactly matches the ribbon and border pink.



With a close up..........

Quirky Craft Challenge14

I can't believe I forgot to put a post up about the new challenge over on Quirky Crafts (I knew me and blogging wouldn't go together!). Any way, we're up to challenge 14 and there is a gorgeous prize this week:

Doesn't that lace just look so scrummy?

The theme this fortnight is Halloween or for the rest of us without kids it's also Autumn. So click on my DT link on the right hand side of my blog to pop along to the forum and post your entry and check out the inspiration from the DT.

For a little taster here is my entry:

Sunday Sketch & Stamp #13

Pop over to Sunday Sketch & Stamp to see their current sketch challenge. There are some gorgeous cards from the DT.

Here is my entry - still working on those Christmas cards.


Why does gold mirricard always look black when scanned? Anyway the red paper was free from a magazine and mounted on gold mirricard. The rudolph stamp was from a set I bought last year but had never used this stamp.

Crafty Pad Challenge 41

This weeks challenge on Crafty Pad is a recipe challenge:

1 Ribbon
2 Papers
3 Brads
and a swirl

Here is my entry - another Christmas one done!

Craft Stamper ATC

ATC for the Craft Stamper Romance swap. The word 'LOVE' is stamped in chalk ink onto Shrink plastic.

Sunday Sketch & Stamp #12

This was a layout challenge, checkout the link down the right hand side of my blog. I have made this card for this challenge with a friend's birthday in mind and I adore pink and green together - a welcome change from red and green (Christmas).

Crafty Pad Challenge 40

Challenge 40, on the Crafty Pad is a sketch challenge and here is my entry, actually this is my second attempt at this sketch partly because is it such a 'useable' sketch but also because the first one has turned out to be what I will enter for my DT entry for a future Quirky Crafts challenge. No good giving the game away by using it on another blog where I know it will be seen.

So I thought I'd better get on with my Christmas cards and came up with this one. I do like this layout, as it uses quite alot of those odd scraps that are just too big to be thrown out! I can see me using it over and over - thanks Debbie.

Cheats card

Here is a quick Christmas card I made yesterday. I am a big fan of certain crafting magazines and Making Cards always has lovely quality papers from Nancy Watt. I actually got round to making one using the toppers etc which come in the magazine, I feel as if I have cheated abit as it really is a case of cutting out and sticking, no stamping, no colouring - which felt a bit odd. But I like the effect and it will come in useful for the stall at Mum's Christmas fair.

Jane's 30th Birthday card

My first proper posting on my new blog is to show off the birthday card I have just made for my dear friend Jane's 30th birthday. She is the last of my friends to reach the big 3-0 and has received alot of stick for it!!

I always have to think long and hard about Jane's cards as she is not a pink fan (or wasn't until she had a little girl earlier this year), so I thought this year I would try monocrome with a hint of colour. I loved this black/white/grey paper with scribble flowers on and knew I had a stamp to match for decorations and decided to use silver and this scrummy turquoise mirricard to jazz it up. I also used my Cute Companions numbers which I had previously won in a competition, heat embossed in glittery silver on black card.

I am very pleased with it, let me know what you think.

Ok, ok, I have given in and created myself a blog!! I'm not sure how often I will get a chance to update it, but will give it a go and at least have a blog to link to when I do challenges.

Thank you for looking and I hope you'll call again when there is something a little more interesting to look at.