With a Personal Touch

New Home

2011-08-31T16:15:00.001+01:00

I am really focusing on my Stampin' Up demonstratorship now, so all my crafting and blogging will be happening over at my new blog Stampin' Delight.

If you're still hungry for more (he he!), I also have a food and parent blog over at Comida y Vida

Hope you'll come over and join me at my new home.

Thanks for your support

Busy, busy, busy and a birthday

2011-05-20T20:50:00.000+01:00

I know I haven't posted here in a while again, it's tricky trying to do my crafting and cooking and looking after Grace. I have been busy, busy, busy though .......

Check out my food blog Comida y Vida where I have posted 5 fabulous but simple tapas dishes and there is now a £100 voucher giveaway, it's easy to enter, just a quick "like" on Facebook and leave a comment on my blog. The competition closes 11pm Wednesday 25th May so hop over now to enter.

I have also been busy with my Stampin' Up business. I did my first party; it was such fun, a fab evening of crafting with some lovely ladies. You can see what we made here.

I have made a card for a friend for her daughter. She loved the style of an easel card and we went for cupcakes and pink and brown. This is what I came up with.

I used all Stampin' Up supplies for this. The colour combo is Regal Rose, Very Vanilla and Chocolate Chip .... mmmm scrummy!! The cupcake image is from Crazy for Cupcakes, one of my favourite sets.

So that the card can stand the punches circle is raised up and is decorated with a sweet sentiment, a cupcake and a gorgeous pearl.

I am entering this into the following challenges:

Charisma Cardz - Birthdays in Pink
ABC - unusual folds

If you like the card and want any of the supplies you can contact me here. Hopefully I'll be back soon with some more ideas, but if you think I've gone AWOL don't forget to check out the other blogs where I might be hiding!

WOYWW

2011-04-20T12:47:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since I blogged here but I promise I haven't been idle - more of that later. I thought to kickstart me back on this blog I'd join in the fun of WOYWW - not sure what I'm on about? Well it's just nosy neighbours really .... post a pic of your desk and then join in the fun here by snooping round everyone elses.

Well, my craft desk is now non-existant. The loss of the craft room to a nursery was a tough call but it had to be done. So now my crafty space is wherever I can find some space i.e the dining room table.

Today it looks like this:

Notice the multitasking elements of my space - childminding to the top left, treat storage to the mid left (Ooops - so much for eating healthy!), accounts to the bottom left which I should be focused on 100% as got lots to do and am severely behind with them. Centre stage is the lappy, my link to the outside world which is constantly glued to my side! Top right, the printer for producing all the accounts reports I am so busily doing. (cough, cough!!) Bottom right is my naughty corner - yep I should be busy on Sage accounts but this has been conveniently replaced with some Stampin' Up loveliness - so much more fun than the accounts. I'm in the throes of preparing samples and demonstrations for my first Stampin' Up party - check out what else I've been making here. Grace doesn't often sleep in the day so thought I'd make the most of it.

How cute is my sleeping baby?

So best get going or those accounts will never get done before she wakes up!

And just in case you're still hungry for more, see what I've been busy in the kitchen making here.

Hugs,

Candy Winner

2011-03-23T11:19:00.000Z

Where have the last few days gone?? Been having tough time with Grace suffering from chronic wind. She was up for 12 hours straight on Sunday and Monday with no morning and afternoon naps, and both her and I were exhausted. Luckily yesterday she slept so I managed to catch up.

Top of the list was to draw the candy winner and I finally got round to doing it last night. I'm not sure if baby brain played a part but could not work out how to do one of those random number generator thingymajigs. So I opted for numbers in a hat and ....... drumroll please ...... the number picked out my lovely husband was

So well done to Crafty Chris, if you send me your postal address to claim your prize.

Thanks to all those that entered and for all the lovely comments about Grace. I even made you a thank you card

Well, strictly speaking this is part of a set I made to send to my family and friends that have spoiled us rotten with gifts for Grace.We had so many gifts I needed to produce lots of cards in between feeds and nappy changes so I turned to Stampin Up supplies as they are fab at quick and easy.

Visit my Stampin Up blog to see how few supplies I needed to make these effective cards.

Thanks for popping by,

Perfect excuse for no blogging

2011-03-14T23:03:00.000Z

Well since my last post I've had a life changing experience ..... I am now a mummy!!!! I have a beautiful baby girl who was born on 16th February at 7.30am.

Introducing Grace Ava ......

Snoozing in the Moses Basket

I (and my hubby) was quite impressed with how I coped with the labour - something I was petrified about!! I'm no good with pain normally, but I did most of the hard work at home and was only in hospital 2 hours before Grace arrived.

It was such a relief when she arrived safe and sound, though I was exhausted. By the time we headed home I had been up for 4 days straight - a whopping 84 hours - with only a few moments sleep in between contractions.

The birth of my gorgeous girl was followed by a rollercoaster of emotions, as on the neo-natal check done on Day 4, we were sent back into hospital with Grace. She has been diagnosed with a heart murmur - something I have since found out can rectify itself, or can be lived with. Some need to be treated with medication or operation, so whilst we're trying not to worry it will be a relief once we know what we're dealing with, so just awaiting an appointment at Birmingham Children's Hospital.

The very next day I learned that my dear Grandad had passed away during the night. He had been unwell for a couple of years and whilst it was a blessing that his suffering was over, it was still a shock. Sadly he never got to meet Grace but it has helped my Grandma with the thought that he waited till he knew she had arrived safely. At least he had seen a photo of her, just never got the cuddle he was hoping for. I'm sure he's looking down on us now and will be my little one's guardian angel.

Cuddles with Daddy

So not been able to craft for a few weeks, but she's a good excuse I've got don't you think?

I've been busy writing the few thank you cards I made before Grace arrived, now the mission is to make a million more as we have been spoilt rotten with gifts. My little girl has a wardrobe full of fabulous outfits to rival any top celebrity!! lol

Will hopefully be back soon with some new creations and to announce the CANDY winner.

If you've not entered, get in quick as there's only a few entries so good chance of getting some freebies. Will be drawing the winner on Sunday so enter before 11pm on Saturday.

Be back soon,

Loving Less is More

2011-02-07T21:13:00.000Z

There are so many challenge blogs out there that I struggle to keep with all the challenges available in any one week, but this new one seems to have launched at a perfect time for me with my love of Stampin' Up. It's Less is More and promotes Clean and Simple cards. Perfect!!

The challenge this week is Pink, Black and White and so I grabbed my Stampin Up' Stash and selected the pink shade of Melon Mambo to go with Basic Black and Whisper White. With the Love You Much stamp set I created this CAS Valentines Card by using the Heart to Heart Stamp and Punch. The medallion uses some Pretty In Pink card stock as a base and is layered up to give further interest.

I really wanted to say "Love You" so with the magic of the Stamp-a-ma-jig I used 2 stamps from Basic Phrases, but don't look too closely as it isn't quite level. Doh!!

I'm also entering this into the following challenges:

Saturday Challenge - Valentine
Allsorts - Love Love Love
Crafty Cardmakers - Hearts
Charisma Cards - No embellishments

There's another sweet Stampin Up project on my SU blog here with some cupcake goodness!!

CANDY REMINDER
Also, don't forget I've got some candy on offer and am just awaiting a delivery to add more to the prize. Get yourself entered as there's not many entrants so a good chance of winning!!

Till next time,

Dib Dib Dib, Always be Prepared!!

2011-02-04T20:06:00.000Z

I was never a scout (obviously!) , or even a brownie or girl guide but I do try and be prepared. I think we’re ready for bump to appear whenever they want to (hopefully sooner rather than later!!). The nursery is all ready, and I can’t stop going in just to have a look ;-)

We’ve got the Moses basket ready

And the cot for when it’s a bit older complete with Dreampod (how cute does that sound for a sleeping bag!)

So in the theme of being prepared I have done a few thank you cards ready for family and friends that come along to see the new addition to the family. I wanted to do them in a similar colour theme to the nursery and this is where Stampin Up! comes into it’s own as the colour range is diverse with something to suit every project.

To match my Nursery collection of Zeddy and Parsnip I chose cardstock in So Saffron and a now retired colour of Close to Cocoa as had some old stash to use up. Though I could have used Crumb Cake or Soft Suede from the current colour collections.

As I have a few cards to make I opted for a simple design using the Fun and Fast Notes Set. I stamped the hedgehog in Chocolate Chip and then used the Blender Pen to colour him in as yet to get the markers in the required colour. (That blender pen is my new favourite bit of kit!)

Highlighted the butterfly with Daffodil Delight marker and then matted the image onto Close to Cocoa cardstock. I used the sentiment to stamp the word Thanks as a little tag and then matted it all onto So Saffron card which had been stamped with the Fast Flowers wheel in Chocolate Chip ink.

I'm entering these into Charisma Card Challenge with "No Embellishments", and the open challenge with optional flowers at Papertake.

So done a few and off to do a few more now whilst we watch the Rugby. I'm on one sofa cheering England and hubby is on the other cheering Wales. Come on England!!!

Have a good evening and if you want to enter my candy, click on the link above.

Candy Time

2011-02-02T20:38:00.000Z

So I’ve been blogging and crafting on and off for a while now, but over Christmas decided that with a baby on the way (due on Monday…eeeekkk!!!) I would be at home for a few months and really wanted something to do to fit in around bringing up my first child.

So with a lots of excitement and a little trepidation I signed up as a member of Team Jelly and am now a fully fledged Stampin Up! Demonstrator.

To celebrate this news (and hopefully the safe arrival of the new addition to the family soon) I thought I’d organise a little candy.

2 Crafty Pad Stamps – Lulu and Sentiments
5 sheets A4 Patterned paper
3 sheets A5 Glitter Card
6x6 Papers from K&C Roam Pad
6x6 Papers Celebration Selection
5m Organza Ribbon in sky blue – my fave!
5m Purple Ribbon
2 Hobbycraft Stamps – Daisy and Butterfly
Butterfly Card Charms
Butterfly embellishments
Handbag Card Charms and Pegs
Stampin Up Real Red Ink Pad

So all you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is :
1. Become a follower
2. Leave your name on the linky (hope it works it's my first time!!)

If you would like to put a link in your sidebar back to this post to let your friends and followers know that would be fabulous, but is not a requirement to be entered into the draw, just I'd be eternally grateful! ;-)

For an extra chance to win, hop on over to my brand new Stampin' Up! blog at Stampin' Delight and become a follower there too. Enter your name again below with number 2 afterwards and you'll have double the chance of winning. Sweet, hey?!

This candy is also to thank everyone that visits and leaves a comment, it really does make my day. I'm sure I'll be blog hopping around a lot in the future, if just to converse with people that make more than cute gurgling noises!! lol

I aim to make the draw on the 23rd February, though please bear with me just in case baby arrives a couple of weeks late and I'm not back in blogland by then. As soon as I'm back home with baby and able to get to the laptop I will announce the winner.

Greenhouse Garden Thank you’s

2011-02-01T18:41:00.005Z

I have been fortunate to receive some pre-loved items ready for my new arrival from various friends and family, the support cushion has become my favourite thing already!! So I needed a few thank you cards.

As I wanted to use some of my new SU goodies I opted for the Greenhouse Garden set. This set involves 2 step stamping, so the Stamp-a-ma-jig really proves it worth and made me realise I need more inks!! I really enjoyed making these cards, so simple but effective.

The 2 types of flowers are stamped onto some White whisper card and then cut out. Then mounted onto a strip of Whisper White which is attached to a coordinating square of cardstock mounted onto a white 3 inch card.
I did 3 colour combinations, this one is Melon Mambo and Real Red – not a colour combo I originally thought would work but now I think it does?

this card is using Pacific Point and Bashful Blue

And the final one is Pumpkin Pie and Daffodil Delight.

I am entering this into the challenge at Stamptacular Sunday which is “Whateva” as long as it includes some stamping and the Challenge at MAWTT which is “Spring”.

Come back tomorrow cos there might be something sweet on offer!!

I heart SU and chocolate

2011-01-30T20:35:00.001Z

In case you haven't heard I've joined Team Jelly!! Woo hoo!! Well as I love Stampin Up products and with a baby on the way I'm hoping with a few months at home I'll be able to get into crafting more - in between feeds, changing nappies and everything else that is heading my way of course!!

So with a few new SU supplies to play with I decided to create this mini pizza box and card with the Love You Much stamp set as a little Valentines gift set.

This was my first time with this stamp set so I kept it simple. I stamped the hearts onto Whisper White card and then cut out and mounted onto Real Red card. For the card I mounted some Whisper White satin ribbon on to a strip of Real Red card before layering the hearts with some dimensionals. The sentiment is from Whimiscal Words and again stamped in Real Red for full on colour coordination - that's what I love about Stampin Up!!

For the mini pizza box I used the Whisper White Satin around the edge and layered the heart onto a mount which had been stamped using just the mini heart from the trio stamp. And what little treat did I put in my little gift box ........ some chocolate of course.

Well they are Maltesers, so the lighter way to enjoy chocolate!

I'm joining these challenges

Creative Craft Challenges - Monochromatic Madness
Creative Inspirations - Valentines, Love
Charisma Cards - Valentines/Love
Stamptacular Sunday - Whateva
Our Creative Corner - 3D Valentine

Right off to get tea - we're having Sirloin steak and chips with Stilton sauce. Yum!!!

Keepsake Calendar

2011-01-21T19:34:00.000Z

Hi all, hope you're all having good week. Mine has been very baby orientated in the fact that we went to ante-natal class and learnt what happens with the midwifes once little one arrives and how to bath a baby etc Then the car-seat arrived, and I had to midwife appointment. Just got the hospital bag to pack!! Eeek!!

Anyway, in amongst all this baby prep I mananged to sneek in some craft time and I saw the idea for this calendar at The Pink Elephant, and couldn't resist making one. I always forget a few birthdays or anniversaries along the way and dread the thought of transferring them from one calendar to the next so with this one you always have a handy record of those important dates and it can be used each and every year. Genius!!

I had some Stampin Up stash for Christmas so decided to make it with just supplies from SU. Once I had my Calendar monthly sheets printed off (from here) and knew what size base to create I used Real Red card to cover a thick piece of cardboard and trimmed it with some Close to Cacao card at the top and bottom. I then stamped the little flower from the Flight Of Butterfly set in Chocolate Chip to create a background.

On each monthly page I selected a different SU stamp and where possible picked something to do with the month. Like February and Love Birds, December and Snowmen and Cake in June - I have many family birthdays that month. Then it was a simple case of punching holes with the Crop-O-Dile to attach the calendar sheets to the backing card with some brads.

Last finishing touch was to punch two further holes and attach a piece of Real Red ribbon to hang it up. All done and now no excuse to forget any more birthdays!!

Right off to make tea - Chicken & Prawn Jambalaya Jamie Oliver style but before I go I'm after a bit of advice. I need to get a new craft knife - any tips on which is a good one to get??

Thanks,

Going girly

2011-01-13T22:46:00.000Z

After my last two baby boy cards I fancied something different but not wanting to go too crazy kept the same theme of paper piecing the gorgeous Digistamp Boutique Simply Baby Collection and decided to go girly!!

I followed the sketch at Sketch Saturday and used some card from my stash along with some digi papers and sentiment from Pink Petticoat. Also added a few prima flowers and papermania pearls to finish it off.

I am entering into the following challenges:
Cute Card Thursday - Monochrome
Crafty Creations - New Beginnings
Crazy 4 Challenges- Photo Inspiration - pinks

I will be back tomorrow with a special little project I've been working and I promise it's not baby related!!

Until then happy crafting
Louise xx

Another Digistamp Boutique Baby Boy

2011-01-09T10:50:00.000Z

Still in baby mode today as been shopping in mothercare - so that's the cot bed mattress sorted and some sleepsuits for the little one when they arrive - and when I got home and wanted to use one of the other images from the Digistamp Boutique Simply Baby Collection to create a card.

I followed the sketch at Friday sketchers and used some card from my stash along with some digi papers and sentiment from Pink Petticoat.

I am also entering into the following challenges:

Stamp Something - Digi challenge
Do it with Digi's - New Beginnings
Fab N Funky - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp - New Beginnings
Creative Card Crew - New Beginnings

Think I might move on to something different soon ..... maybe baby girl cards?? lol

Louise xx

Baby Boy

2011-01-06T23:17:00.001Z

Evening all, I felt up to doing a little crafting this evening, as have been a bit preocupied with baby stuff during last few days. This week I've had less movment and the growth chart on Tuesday had dipped, so spent a few hours at hospital today hooked up to a monitor and and had an ultrasound scan, and thankfully all is ok.

With baby on the brain, the only card I wanted to make was using this Digistamp Boutique image. I've had it for a wee while, but this is the first outing and sure not to be the last - so cute!!

It was my first attempt at digital paper piecing and I quite enjoyed doing it so you might see some more like this soon.
It fits in with the following challenges:

Sketch & Stash - sketch and digi purchased but not used.
One Stop Craft Challenge - New Beginnings
Do it with Digi's - New Beginnings
Crazy for Challenges - Celebrate something

It's good to be back crafting and creating again and if you read my other blog, you'll see I've got a few resolutions to do in the kitchen too.

Louise xx

Image: stamp from Digistamp Boutique

Paper: Winter wonderland from Craft table,

Tools/Mediums: Copics, Nestabilities, Xcut system

More Thank You's

2010-12-28T21:47:00.000Z

So another post so soon, yeah I know, it's unheard of for me!! ;-) But with the coughing and sneezing I've been housebound for a couple of days and the only thing I've done in any shape of activity is a little bit of crafting. The rest of the time I have been curled up on the sofa with a book or a film.

I was lucky to receieve some lovely Christmas presents and so have a stack of Thank You cards to do. For this one I followed the sketch at Friday Sketchers.

I used some card, digi paper and ribbon from my stash and the stamped flower and sentiment are from Stampin Up's Just Believe set with an added image from Flight of the Butterfly in the lovely Melon Mambo.

I'm entering this into the challenges at:

Cupcake Craft - Thank You
Papertake - Be Thankful
Simon Says - Anything Goes

Who knows, might be back soon with post number 3 in as many days?

Louise x

Thank You for a Lovely Christmas!!

2010-12-28T10:28:00.000Z

After the past few stressful weeks, me and hubby were so looking forward to some time together over Christmas (our last one as just us) and had planned some nice treats. A Christmas Eve romantic dinner, a 5 course sumptuous Christmas Day dinner with our parents and then a day shopping in the sales for baby stuff.

And then hubby came down with flu on the Wednesday before Christmas!! In bed for 2 full days and he was so ill with a fever that left all the preparations to me. Battling through the snow with my bump I did the food shopping, went on the tour round hospital and the last minute gift shopping. Though in my condition this left me with excruciating back pain by Christmas Eve night, eating bread and ham at 10pm and fit for nothing.

We woke Christmas morning and whilst I was suffering with my back, hubby had got through the fever and was a feeling bit better, so together we soldiered on preparing the lunch.

Canapes - Smoked Salmon Blini's, Dolecatte stuffed figs wrapped in Parma Ham, Roasted Red Pepper Shots,
Starter - Game Terrine with Apple Chutney
Main - Roast Cockerel & Red Wine with all the trimmings including Jamie's make ahead gravy and Homemade Stuffing.
Dessert - Christmas Pud (sadly not homemade but maybe next year!) and Brandy Sauce
Cheese - too full to indulge!

Luckily by the main course, my mum had stepped in to dish up as I was really struggling by this point and had developed a bad chesty cough. Oh yes, just as hubby had started to feel better I began to feel worse. So the last two days since Christmas we have not moved from sofa's with me developing a full on cold and hubby slowly recovering after not eating for days.

Yesterday though I was so fed up of it all, I decided to try and do some crafting and as I had some stash bought me for Christmas, and I have a few Thank You cards to make.

I used the Stampin Up set Just Believe in Bashful Blue and Pacific Point, teemed up with some card and ribbon from my stash.

I'm going to enter into the following challenges:

Moving Along with The Times - Anything Goes
Allsorts - Anything Goes
ABC - K is for Keep it Simple

Off now for another dose of veno's and olbas oil. Here's hoping we're better in the New year so can celebrate that instead.

Louise x

Am I Seeing Triple??

2010-12-11T22:10:00.000Z

Not sure why I decided to veer away from Christmas when it seems to be approaching at the speed of light but I decided to do some simple stamping with my SU supplies. I bought a product share deal from Victoria earlier in the year and have used some of the matching ribbons and card, but never done a set with all the colours.

Then I saw the challenge at Die Cut Dreams Challenge which was to make a set of 3 with either matching theme, image or layout and immediately thought of my 3 colour product share with SU's new additions last year of Rich Razzleberry, Melon Mambo and Soft Sude.

I used the Flight of The Butterfly stamp set from SU and think these are so simple but stylish cards suitable for birthdays or thank you's, they are so versatile.

Also I am entering this into these challenges

Moving Along With the Times - lots of spots
Flutterby Wednesday - butterfly, fairy or angel
Sew Many Challenges - flower power
Digi Doodle - Animal/Insect

Hopefully back with some Christmas creations soon

Louise x

LOTV Bear for Christmas

2010-11-29T20:52:00.000Z

Phew, the last week has been hectic. We were away last weekend for my hubby's birthday, then had a busy four day week at work and Friday was a lovely day at the BBC Good Food show, which you can read about on my other blog here.

This weekend was time to lay the carpet in the nursery and a good old house clean, but as I was feeling a little under the weather today I decided to stay at home and work which I did for a while until the craft desk called.

I coloured up this cute LOTV bear and followed the sketch at Sketch Saturday which I flipped around.

The other challenges I'm entering are:
Die Cut Dreams Christmas - use a die cut - I used my nestabilities to die cut the image.
One Stop Craft Challenge - christmas cuties
Crafty Creations - Christmas is coming
ABC Christmas Challenge - X if for xmas

Well that's another card done, only a zillion more to do. When is it December, ages away surely?!?

Louise x

Image: stamp from LOTV
Paper: Winter wonderland from Craft table,

Tools/Mediums: Copics, Nestabilities, Punch,

Hubby's Birthday

2010-11-18T15:10:00.002Z

Hello all, well I've made it back to blogland again and I might even get some time for commenting soon. I do visit and see all your wonderful creations just don't get time to comment, unless I read fewer blogs and then I'm afraid I'd miss something!

It's hubby's 30th today and I'm feeling bad because I couldn't splash out on him like I had planned with no job looming so I've made a cake (i'll post a photo once I've decorated it in a while!) and we're going out for a meal with the rest of the family. I did make him this card though

I followed the sketch at Sketch Saturday but spread it over an easel card and keeping embellishments to a minimum so it is more masculine! The image was a freebie from LilyBoo Designs whose fab images you can now purchase from Cuddly Buddly here.

Off to get messy with Chocolate Buttercream

Louise xx

Where does the time go ....

2010-11-17T23:00:00.000Z

I feel like I am always posting saying I'm back and then disappearing again. The past month has been a bit up and down, first there was a weekend away at a wedding of one of best friends, followed by some quality time with my godmother whilst baby shopping! We picked out the nursery colour scheme

and all was seeming to be well and then .................................. on November 5th I was called by my Head office in Spain to say they were shutting the UK office and the company, and me and my assitant would be losing our jobs at the end of the year. At 6 months pregnant this is the last thing I needed and I spent the whole weekend as an emotional wreck as you can imagine!! The past week I have been finding more out regarding my legal rights etc and hopefully all will be well in the end!! (fingers, toes and everything else crossed!!)

At home I've been concentrating on sorting out the nursery (something nice to think of and take my mind of the work issues!) which means I've had to relocate my craft desk and have about half the amount of space to store my stash!! So it's been a bit difficult to get crafty but I do have some cards I've made to share with you

The first one to share is the wedding card I made. I used the Henry and Zoe Get Wed digi from DigiStamp Boutique and went for a green colour scheme as I knew this would fit in with the wedding colours.

Hopefully it won't be long till I'm back with another of my creations!

Louise x

Getting crafty again .....

2010-10-10T10:49:00.002+01:00

Hi everyone, well it's a wee while since my last post when I proclaimed my return, so where have I been?? Well, the reason for the absence was a cookery holiday in France and hectic work and social life since then. You can read all about my latest cookery adventures and the fabulous course here.

Finally when I did get round to getting back in the craft room, I spent a day reorganising my stash and desk as it had turned into a dumping ground for bills, paperwork and everything else the rest of the house didn't want.

So today with a clear task and an imminent birthday I got round to making a card.

Now, being away from the craft desk for such a long time, meant I just wanted to keep it simple. So with my SU Flight of the Butterfly set in hand I created this card. The paper is from My Minds Eye spring papers (I know it's autumn but I love the colours!) and some ribbon from my stash.

Challenges entered :
Allsorts - song title - Butterflies from Mariah Carey.
Crazy for Challenges - Birthday
Flutter By Wednesday's - Butterfly, angel or fairy
Cute Card Thursday - own embellishment - 3D butterflies made from 2 stamps, 2 inks and punch.
Colour Create - Pink Green and Cream.
Stamp Something - something punchy

So with the card made, now it's off to get ready as off out for lunch with the family to celebrate my Nan's birthday. 85 years bless her!!

be back soon ... I promise!!
Louise x

I'm back and with a little news .....

2010-09-03T21:51:00.000+01:00

So the last time I posted was the beginning of June, so you might have been wondering where I had disappeared to? Well, nowhere really but I did find out some fantastic news in June which kinda rocked my world .... I'm pregnant.

And as soon as I knew about it along came the sickness, tiredness and a general lack of interest in anything other than sleeping. So the craft room was left abandoned but I promise to get back into it soon - right after my week away next week - and hopefully I can start joining in again with the fun!! Some new stash is bound to help don't you think ???? :-)

Double the trouble!!

2010-06-11T19:09:00.000+01:00

Had a busy day again but with the 12th of June being tomorrow, there were 2 very important cards to get done. My sister and mum share this as their birthday (what a birthday that was for my Mum 28 years ago!) so it's always a very busy time.

The first card I made for my Mum using the new colour SU stash I got from Victoria. I just love these patterned acetate. To show off the beauty of it I kept the design quite simple with some accents from the Flight of the Butterfly set.

I had to take a side angle view as the reflection off the acetate just kept showing me and my camera!

I chose green and cakes for my sister's card - her favourite colour and the cupcake plans for the party! I chose this fab image from Bugaboo, as I love have fun their images are. Plus if you follow them there is a freebie every Friday.

So it's now off for a busy weekend as out for meal this evening for my Mum's and then there is the World Cup Cupcake Birthday Party tomorrow. Have a good weekend everybody.

Louise x

Jim at Sketch Saturday

2010-06-10T23:05:00.002+01:00

Hey all, it's been a hectic week here. Work has been mega busy and in my spare time I have been in party preparation mode. We're having a party this Saturday for my sister's Birthday which is the same day as the first England match of the World Cup (and her chap is a huge footie fan!). So to make it feel special for her we have plans to have a England vs USA Mega Birthday Party.

BBQ and Cupcakes are the theme as we went a class recently, you can see how we got on here. So we have been busy planning and buying supplies for decorating 46 cupcakes in England and American style. Will post the photo's after!

I do have lots of cards to do as June is heavy on Birthdays and I have an event to plan for, but more of that another time (intriguing hey?). The first Birthday card was for a colleague at work.

I followed the sketch at Sketch Saturday and used this fab image for those dreaded male cards from Digi Stamp Boutique.
Just a quick one tonight as have more cards to make, so will be back soon.

Louise x

Oops .... where did the week go.

2010-06-02T21:25:00.000+01:00

I just logged onto Google reader and saw that a few of the blogs I follow had posted WOYWW posts, and I thought to myself my aren't they organised?!? Then I checked the calendar and realised that today is indeed Wednesday. I do love bank holiday weekends, but they sure do mess with my body clock!

So it's Wednesday and each week (this is only my second time!) Julia at Stamping Ground asks to have a nosey at your desk. So as I logged on to do this post I realised I hadn't posted anything since last weeks WOYWW. I have been busy creating but not got round to posting any yet as been working on the Thank you cards from last week and on my foodie blog. Guess there's just not enough hours in the day for 2 blogs!!

This Wednesday has been filled with lovely goodies coming throught the post so my desk is overflowing with them today.

One package was filled with the fab new colours from Stampin Up which my demonstrator Victoria has packaged together in an irrestible package incuding card, inks, ribbon, designer paper and some fancy acetate.There is also the contents of my other package .... anyone guess what it was?

Anyway I can't wait to get started with both goodies, but off to have a nosey first.

my first WOYWW

2010-05-26T15:58:00.000+01:00

Well a few of my blogger buddies partake in this every week and I thought I would give it a whirl. Julia at Stamping Ground asks to see what's on your desk every Wednesday so everyone can come and have a nosey!! Pop on over to her blog to see what it's all about.
So here's my desk, not too much on it, as I am working from home today and instead of doing actual work I've spent the last hour having a good sort out of my desk, to make room for doing some boring work stuff!

There is a work in progress of some thank you cards that I am doing for an order. Thankfully they are much simpler than the invites so shouldn't take me long. I should have started this ages ago but with the amount of daisies punched out for the invites, I have killed two and I needed another. Is there a way to revive punches? So I scoured the internet for one and it seems many places are out of stock - just my luck! I finally found one at Stamp Bug and I have to say their service was super quick.

So that's all for this week, I'm off to have a nosey whilst I wait for the call from the garage as car is in for service and MOT (fingers crossed it's not too expensive!)

Hopefully be back next week!

Jungle Fever and a Birthday Giraffe

2010-05-25T23:04:00.001+01:00

Oh my, I know I've been absent for a while, but I was away with work. We had rain, snow and fog in Spain don't you know!! (unusal for Spain in May but just goes with this years strange weather!). Then I came back home to blighty to this fabulous heat wave!! Whilst lovely for the body and mind, it doesn't go well with card making as found it a bit too nice to be holed up in my craft room.
However, this evening is a little cooler so made this birthday card, and the jungle heatwave must have been lingering:

This cute giraffe is from Meljen's Designs who has some of the cutest digi stamps on the market. Melissa is one talented artist and she is also very generous, with a freebie given even week to her followers. I followed the challenge at Sketch Saturday, though it's always hard on DL cards! The papers were from my stash and the sentiment is SU.

I'm entering into the challenges at:
Stamp Something - 2 for 2 year anniversary - 2 papers, 2 stamps.
A Spoon Full of Sugar - celebration - birthday

That's all from me now, but I'll be back tomorrow with another creation I promise.

Louise x

My second Pollycraft Fairy and no red wine!

2010-05-03T20:33:00.001+01:00

So if you read my previous post you'll see I had a little mishap with my first card!! So I coloured the image again and here's the card.

I followed the sketch from Just Christmas and Birthdays and used both image and sentiment from Pollycraft. The papers are from MME and used a ribbon from stash along with some parcel ribbon and eyelets. It fits in with the challenge at Digi Doodle of Anything goes.And this one made it safely to my goddaughter complete with lots of sparkly confetti inside!

Louise x

Pollycraft Fairy at Papertake

2010-04-27T20:11:00.001+01:00

Evening all, I had a really lovely weekend. A very girly day at Victoria's stampin Up class on saturday followed by a catch up with my best mate whilst having a shop around Ikea. Sunday was a chilled out day with hubby. I did find time to make this card for my 6 year old goddaughter whose birthday it is this week.She loves pink and fairies and strangely gardening, so hopefully it's perfect!

I followed the sketch at the Papertake challenge (which has now closed before I posted!) and used some the MME papers I have. The Pollycraft image is coloured with copics and the sentiment is computer generated using Word Art. The flower is a stamped image which I cut out and then shaded and added a gem for the centre. I'm entering into the following challenges:

Magical Craft Fortnightly - Something for the girls
Our Creative corner - Blooming Blossoms
Pollycraft - make your own flowers
Sophisticat Challenge - card for a child

So there we have it, a lovely card for my goddaughter and then I go and spill red wine on it so it was completely spoilt ... so i'll be back here soon with version two. And the lesson learnt is don't mix crafting and drinking wine!! So it's just me and my blog tonight ..... and a glass of vino!

Cupcakes at the Sweet Stop

2010-04-14T22:56:00.001+01:00

Just a quick post tonight, none of my usual wafflings as got lots to do at the moment.
I have tried to squeeze in a bit of craft time this week and went for the tactic of colouring in the image whilst watching a movie with hubby so could then put the card together when I got a bit of spare time.

Both images are from SU, and the papers I used are both digital ones from Funky Fairy. I am entering this into the challenges as follows:

The Sweet Stop - sketch
The Pink Elephant - 1 image, 2 dies (flowers and scallop) and 3 embellishments (ribbon, flowers and gems).
Cupcake Craft - Childhood memories. I grew up in a house surrounded by lots of home baked cakes, from fairy cakes to lemon drizzle, chocolate squares and weetabix cake (strange but delicious!). Sounds lovely ......? Well maybe, but we weren't allowed to eat them, my mum was in the WI so they were all for sale. I did love the quieter weeks where we got to eat the unsold ones!! lol
Creative Card Crew - Happy Birthday
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - Birthday

That's all for me now, off to have a tidy of my craft space! Who knows one day I might be brave enought to join WOYWW.

Louise x

Exciting times and simple Stampin Up duo!

2010-04-09T22:04:00.001+01:00

I sat down to write this post earlier this afternoon but events overtook me as you will see!! I logged on my twitter account just at the time that they were announcing a competition winner for one I had entered and oh my goodness I won!! This is such a fabulous prize I feel so lucky!!! Intrigued are we ........? Ok, well enough suspense built ..............................................

I won a cookery holiday in the Dordogne region of France!! OMG indeed!!!

After the shock and then double, triple and quadruple checking that I was reading it right I had a glass of wine to celebrate. Still to work out the details with Cook In France, and see if we can afford for hubby to come with me, but exciting times indeed!

So onto the inital reason I started this post, and a cute duo I have made with some Stampin' Up goodies I have bought from Victoria who has a prize draw for any orders before Monday, and some candy I won from Debbie.

I had some gorgeous white linen cards I wanted to use, a gate fold and a gift card. I used the stamp from the Happy Moments set and sentiment from Whimiscal Words. For the gift card I did some paper piecing with some card stock, and then matched the colours with a stamped image on the main card.

I am entering this to the challenge at A Spoonful of Sugar as a card for a Male.

Well that's enough excitement for one day, hope everyone else has had a good day too, looking forward to a nice weekend in the sun!

Louise xx

Happy Birdie at Sweet Wednesday

2010-04-06T20:57:00.002+01:00

I hope you all have a lovely Easter, I had a fairly busy one planned with lots of entertaining of friends and family, so the craft room was off limits and the kitchen was the room of the moment. We had a curry feast with friends on Friday, with homemade bhaji and chapatis to go alongside our own special curry. It went down very well!
For Saturday we had an italian feast planned for 8, but the sickness bug struck and it was cancelled, but ended up cooking most of it as we had bought all the ingredients ..... more Baileys cheesecake for me then!! (Diet starts this week!).
On Sunday met up with relatives for lunch up on Staffordshire moorlands and then chilled with friends in the evening and thankfully Monday was what we call a "mong" day - doing as little as possible and staying your pj's as long as possible!

Due to the cancelled dinner party I did get time to knock up a quick card for my uncles Birthday following the sketch at Sweet Wednesday.

With bright spring colours and lots of birdies it fits in with the following challenges:

Digi Doodle - Easter/Springtime (a brand new challenge and a new digi-shop!)
Fab N Funky - Spring is in the Air
Magical Crafts - Animal Antics

Here's hoping that with all these springtime themes, it will return and get rid of this wintery weather. For those that want to cook a little summer into their lives in eager anticipation of the months ahead, check out my other blog with a simple recipe for Easy Peasy Paella.

Louise x

Image: Image from Cuddly Buddly,
Paper: not sure but think they are from Papermania

Tools/Mediums: Copics,X-Cut cutter

p.s I did add three embellishments after took this photo but forgot to take photo before I posted it. Ooops!

A fab and busy weekend

2010-03-28T23:43:00.001+01:00

Before I show you this evenings card I thought I'd fill you in on my weekend (get a cuppa and make yourself comfy!!) :

Well after being cooped up in the house all week (badly sprained ankle and a full on head cold being the causes - see earlier post!!) I couldn't wait to get up on Saturday and go to the Stampin Up Class with Victoria. She always has something fun and fab for us to make, and this time it was "Fabulously vintage" in a lovely plum and moss colour combo, for a peek at what we made - go here. The classes are so much fun and though vintage is not my normal style I loved it, make a mistake and nobody will notice!! lol (ain't that right Lyn! :-)

In the afternoon it was time to pick up my wedding album, and as requested by a few of the girls at the class I thought I'd post a few of the pics here:

It was such a wonderful day, more than I could ever have hoped for. We were so lucky to have such a truly
special day, even the British weather was perfect!

Here's the card I've made this evening, I've a mega busy day full of housework, gardening and ironing (actually rather enjoyed it seen as sun has been shining!) but needed to get another Easter card as visiting grandparents tomorrow.

I followed the sketch at Sweet Sketch Wednesday and used this cute freebie image from the AI Factory. Not sure where the papers came from apart from my "scraps I need to use" box! The other challenges this card fits in with are:

Magical Crafts Fortnightly - Spring/Easter
Rosie D's - Green, Yellow and White
Incy Wincy Designs -Spring/Easter
Crafty pad - Yellow, orange and green

That's all for me now, but I promise it won't be long before I return, Victoria's class has given me back my mojo!

Louise xx

Easter Bunny at Saturday Challenge

2010-03-25T23:22:00.002Z

Evening all, it's seems such a while since I made could just sit down and get creative. After the wedding order my mojo had left me, and then we started to redoecorate and organise the craft room so the desk was uninhabitable!! It's a shame as I even had new stash to play with!! This week has been the first week I've wanted to make a card, but I've been struggling to get to the desk as have been off my feet with a severely sprained ankle. How did I do it .... something to do with my 3 year old Boxer dog and a large stick charging at me!!

Today is the first day I've managed to put weight on that foot and hoping I am back to full fitness tomorrow as got plans for the weekend, including a Stampin Up Class with Victoria. I'm sure after that my mojo will be back with a vengeance!!

So here's my first card for a while, and with Easter approaching I thought I'd make a card for my Nan. I have these pastel deckle cards which are great for quick cards as they are small enough to require a simple design.

I followed the sketch at Sketch Saturday and used this freebie from Bee Crafty. As the card is for Easter there are a few challenges it fits in with:

Allsorts - Spring
Bee Crafty - Spring
Charisma Cardz - Spring
Crafty Cardmakers - Spring has sprung
Crazy for Challenges - Spring
Digital Tuesday - Happy Spring
I Love Digi - Easter
Saturday Challenge - Spring has sprung
Simon Says - Spring/Easter and Glimmer (I do have gems that sparkle!)

Well that's all for this evening, need to get my foot elevated and the best place is bed!!
Night night xx

Image: Bunny from Bee Crafty, Sentiment from Pink Petticoat
Paper: My Minds Eye - Spring papers
Tools/Mediums: Copics,X-Cut cutter

Embellishments: square gems, prima mini flowers, outline sticker

Mothers Day Butterflies

2010-03-17T00:49:00.001Z

Hey everyone, just a quick post as mega busy at the moment. Just when I thought work would calm down they go and have set a new Price List for my customers, which is about one full weeks work, and they have changed the structure so about another weeks work to set it all up!! Oh the joys!!

So not had much time to make cards recently but with Mothers Day, there were two cards I had to get done! So without further ado, here's the one for MIL.

The image is from Lilyboo Boutique and the Making Memories paper were from a magazine freebie. I used some ribbon and flower from my stash and finished with a punched butterfly. I am entering it into the following challenges:

Allsorts - Pink, White and Black
Flutter By Wednesdays - Butterflies
Charisma Cardz - Butterflies

Sorry it's short and sweet but life has been busy, busy, busy.

Louise x

Good friends are important

2010-03-08T23:13:00.004Z

Hey everyone, how are we? I'm feeling tired but relaxed, back from a lovely weekend away visiting friends. They live down south between Bracknell and Sandhurst in a lovely little village, so spent the whole weekend walking with the dog through the local woods, always ending up in a lovely country pub, and then a lovely meal at their local italian. It was such clear skies which made for lots of sun, even it was a little chilly at times. All the fresh air made me rather sleepy on the way home though, so it was a good job hubby was fully awake listening to the footy on the way home!!

I made this card to take with me as Katherine is one of my oldest friends, (one of my bridesmaids last year!) and she does love a good cup of tea.

I just adore the images from Karens Doodles and this one is no exception. Such detail in the image and so cute! I did follow a sketch, but now not sure which and I'm pretty sure the challenge will have expired as did this quite a few days ago. oopps!! It does fit in with the green challenge at Cute Card Thursday and I think the card has a spring like feel so I'm entering it into Get Sketchy challenge and Rosie D's Challenge. Pile It On asks for one colour plus a neutral and this is all the shades of green.

And talking of good friends, I have not long been blogging but during my time have met lots of lovely people online and even a couple in real-life, one of whom has given me an award!! My very first award, how exciting!! So thanks Lynn and I look forward to catchin up with you over a bit of crafting and a chip buttie in a couple of weeks time,

I have to say 10 things that make me happy
1. My two boys - my darling hubby who puts up with all my interests and my little baby, a not so small Boxer dog of 3 years old.
2. Spending time in my craft room, (even more so when it is finished being decorated. )
3. Getting creative in the kitchen.
4. Meeting up with friends, especially if it involves lots of good food and wine.
5. Going to music concerts / festivals.
6. Meeting bloggers in real life,
7. Visting blogs and seeing all the wonderful creations.
8. Freshly made bed with clean pyjamas
9. Watching movies and my favourite tv shows on boxset.
10. Dairy Milk Fruit and Nut!

and 5 pieces of trivia about myself

1. I lived in Spain for 18 months, 12 of those were in Madrid.
2. I speak spanish every day despite living in Staffordshire!
3. I am a newly fledged food blogger.
4. Will reach my 6 month wedding anniversary in 3 days.
5. After spending years away from home at university, bought a house 5 minutes from the parents!

I need to pass this to 5 other bloggers but seen as Lynn beat me to passing it on to the two other bloggers I've met in real life and there are so many online friends to choose from, I've decided to open this up to anyone who passes by my blog. so please just help yourself!

Louise xx

The reason for my absence

2010-03-03T22:02:00.002Z

Despite the odd one I haven't really had time to post much or even make many cards. If evenings haven't been taken up with the tolls of my day job (it's a hectic time), I have been a busy bee making 44 wedding invitations. This was an order that my mum kindly got for me as she was showing a friend the invitations I made for my wedding and they loved them.

In fact, it was making my wedding invitation that got me addicted to card making and as they say "the rest is history" and I'm a very happy card maker and blogger now.

I ended up making my own invites as I had a clear idea what I wanted and it was a combination of a pocket invite and a wardrobe style. I know, I know, I sound like the bride from hell who wants it all but I really did want something a little different to the mass produced ones. Eventually I found a supplier of the blank invite and set to work creating the exact invite I wanted. Not sure I quite estimated how much work it was but I was so happy with the results and feedback comments from my guests was fab, so it was definitely worth it. So here it is .....

They were quite simple in design but time consuming to do due to the lettering and layering up.

Now obviously I didn't design these with a challenge in mind but after a session on google reader found it fits in with the following challenges:

Colour Create Challenge - red, black and off white (mine's more white, but there's definitely red and black!)
Fab N Funky - different shape cards - hope this applies as the wallet is a different shape for me!
Cute Card Thursday - ribbon - all 44 pieces of it!
Creative Card Crew - celebration and weddings are the best kind of celebration!

So with the order complete, after this weekend visiting with friends, I promise to return with a vengeance to make lots of cards. In the meantime you can check out my food blog where I have posted my Spanish tortilla recipe.

Louise xx

Woo hoo ...... I'm back.

2010-02-24T00:04:00.001Z

Hey everyone, I have been MIA due to an enormous amount of work, and trying to complete a Wedding invite order but hopefully it's all done and I can get back to card making .... till I have to do the Thank You cards that is!! Stupidly I forgot to take a photo of the invites to show you, but I have another one to make so will be sure to photograph that.

I sat down last night on my first night free to craft and spent all of it catching up on blogs, so whilst i may have visited sorry if I've not left many comments ........will try harder I promise!! The most frustrating thing was that my new Stampin Up goodies arrived last week and I had no time to play with them so with this evening free I cracked open the box and made this card with the Crazy for Cupcakes stamp set.

I followed the sketch at Crazy for Challenges and didn't really plan this card with any other challenges in mind. I did however find a 3 new challenges for me:
Lexi's Creations - who have a "anything goes" theme and I'm sure these cupcakes would definetly 'go' at a party!!
Sophisticats - where the challenge is embossing
Totally Papercrafts - lots of spots and this has some spotty embossing.

Night, Louise xxx

p.s. feels nice to be back!!

Image: Crazy Cupcakes from SU
Paper: Funky Fairy papers - paisely love and distressing vines
Tools/Mediums: Copics,Stampin Up Choc Chip, Big Shot & Cuttlebug Swiss Dots

Embellishments: square gems

Cupcake addiction maybe ...... ??

2010-02-08T22:36:00.001Z

Yep, here is another card with a cupcake image, mind you I spose this is better than being addicted to the real thing .... oohh having said that I could just do with a cupcake right now, or something sweet anyway. Maybe I'll have one from my box of Thorntons that I'm trying to eat my way through from Christmas. One a day can't hurt though right ....... back in a min .......

Ok, chocolate devoured and I'm ready to show you my card. I followed the sketch at Friday sketchers who this week have Prairie Fairy digital stamps as their sponsor, and four fab images up for grabs.

Love the sketch as it demands lots of layers and just about getting the hang of layering them all up now. I am also entering the challenge at Cute Card Thursday as my brown vellum is full of "spots and dots", and the theme at ABC Challenge is N for new stash and mine is the Papermania pearls as love the effect they give (even tried to colour one!).

Well got 2 more cards which I just need to finish off. Then tomorrow and wednesday will be tied up with invitation making and taking my Grandad to the hosptial. Hope all is well with you.

Hugs
Louise xx

p.s. sorry can't promise no more cupcakes as just ordered the "crazy for cupcakes" Stampin up set from Victoria and joined in with the Sale-a-bration. Apt don't you think?!

Image: Cupcake from Robyn's fetish,
Paper: Funky Fairy papers - pink paisely
Tools/Mediums: Copics, Brushmarkers,Nestabilities,

Embellishments: Papermania pearls, brads and ribbon

Soo Good Sweet Sketch Wednesday

2010-02-02T22:35:00.001Z

Oh my goodness am I on a roll, well it makes up for me being MIA for a week. Here's my third post within last 24 hours. I had this little image all coloured up, this one finally felt like I was getting the hang of copics and the blender pen! What do you think?

I followed the sketch at Sweet Sketch Wednesday and used this cute image from Phindy, check out her Etsy shop here and if you join the group at Paper Craft Planet you can get this digi-stamp as a freebie. So hop on over and become a Phindy appreciator like me!

Night everyone

Louise xxx

Image: Soo Good from Phindy
Paper: BG Bittersweet,
Tools/Mediums: Copics, Xcut shape cutters

A card for a man .... done it at last!

2010-02-02T20:53:00.001Z

Hi there everybody, well in my limited craft time last night I decided to do a birthday card for a male. I know, not as much as fun, as doing a girly card but it's got to be done and I love the fact there is a challenge out there just for this. At Cards For Men they have a sketch to follow this week. The only thing is I failed to note down is there was an optional theme of Valentines, oh well good job it was optional as I did a birthday card!!!

I used this cute digi-stamp from Karen's Doodles, she has the cutest images featuring this cutie called Bigsby and a cute turtle called Herbert. Go and check out her creations, you won't be disappointed! I have done my usual and scouted around to see if it fits in with any other challenges and with Valinetines being the theme of the moment it's just the Cupcake Challenge who have a theme of four legged and furry!!

Might try and do another card this evening and then it's back to invite making.

Louise xx

Image: Bigsby from Karen's Doodles,
Paper: Craft Table - blue gingham, the other from my stash
Tools/Mediums: Copics, Xcut shape cutters

Birthday Cupcake at Sketch&Stash

2010-02-02T00:18:00.009Z

Evening all, sorry it's been a while, but work has been mega busy and my one free evening was spent doing some wedding invites I have an order for. (Will post up a pic once they're done.) So rather enjoyed this evening as although I was back late from the office, my evening was a crafty one!! Mind you an hour of that was spent catching up on blogs, I have popped by to see your wonderful creations, just no time to comment! Sorry, must try harder! :-)

Here's one of the cards I made this evening, I followed the sketch at Sketch and Stash and used this cute cupcake image from Robyn Fetish and some new ribbons that were a bargain from the Works.

I am also going to enter this into a couple of other challenges:

Fab and Funky Challenges - use a digi image and have a chance to win 5 digi-stamps from The Stamping Boutique

Stamp Something - a theme of delightfully delicious and I could certainly do with a cupcake right now!

Pink Elephant - pink

Best get off to bed now as got another busy day tomorrow.

Louise xx

p.s will try to take better pic in daylight tomorrow! just uploaded new picture but it seems to have taken the original post off!! ooops!

Image: Cupcake from Robyn's fetish, See'D's Sentiment
Paper: Funky Fairy papers - pink paisely
Tools/Mediums: Copics, Brushmarkers,

Hectic Week ... can I bear it any more!!

2010-01-22T23:17:00.004Z

Well it's been a hectic week at work and the accounts that I had planned to do are still on my to do list. But can't grumble as been busy with orders which looks promising for 2010. Wish my Head Office thought the same though, as under pressure to get accounts to them .... hence why sat here at 11.00pm on a Friday night doing my accounts on Sage. Needed a little break so thought I'd post my most recent make.

I followed the Sketch & Stash challenge for this week, and used this fab little image from Dustin Pike.
Well best do a little more accounts before bed .... so much to do!!

Edited to say ... Oh my goodness, maybe I shouldn't have had a break to post this on Friday night as just realised (3 days later) that I had followed the Cupcake sketch and not linked it to the right challenge!! Sorry ladies at Sketch and Stash!! Maybe I shouldn't try and multitask at 11.00pm on a Friday night!! :-)

Louise xx

Image : Dustin Pike "heart hold Bear"
Paper : Funky Fairy download (now sadly closed down!) - paisley love
Mediums/Tools : Xcut Circle cutter, swiss dots embossing folder, Copics,

Valentines Vase of Love

2010-01-19T21:54:00.002Z

Evening everyone, well it was a very busy day at the office again and I was supposed to spend this evening doing some more but after turning my Everest pile of ironing into Snowdon (woo hoo!) I thought I deserved a little craft time!!

I already this cute freebie image from Pollycraft coloured up so I just follwed this sketch from Get Sketchy and here's my card:

This also fits in with the following challenges : Papertake Weekly have a theme of Pretty Pink Papertake and there is definitely a lot of pink on this card. Both A Spoon Full of Sugar and ABC have a challenge of layering, and I have layered up some cute heart digi papers from Funky Fairy.

Keeping my fingers crossed the snow doesn't come back tomorrow!

Louise

Image : Pollycraft Vase Full of Love (it's a freebie!!)
Paper : Funky Fairy download (now sadly closed down!) - paisley love
Mediums/Tools : Copics,

Sweet Love at Bee Crafty

2010-01-18T23:13:00.002Z

Second post for tonight as not sure when I'll be back again, so I'll make it quick. I followed the sketch at The Sweet Stop, a first time entering this challenge for me, who want to see a sentiment only - what a challenge that is!! I used this cute Bee Crafty image who have challenge of your favourite colour combination along with a digi, and brown and pink seems to be my faves at the moment.

This also fits with the following challenges :

One Stop Craft Challenge : - fancy edges, mine were created with my Xcut Border punch, but don't look too closely!!
Allsorts : - pink and brown

So it's off to bed for me now. Sweet dreams!!

Louise xx

Image : Bee crafty Love word
Paper : Funky Fairy download (now sadly closed down!) - distressing vines
Mediums/Tools : Xcut Circle cutter, xcut border punch, Copics,

Kitty's Sweet Birthday

2010-01-18T22:16:00.001Z

Evening all. Hope you're all ok, I've had a mega busy day at work but think I've finally made progress with the IT issues, just the other work is piling up. Think it's going to be a busy week but at least I have a card making class with Victoria to look forward to on Saturday!

I did manage to finish off this card though, I followed the lovely sketch at Sweet Wednesday for this card, who have Freshly Brewed as their sponsor this week, so if you love a coffee like me, be sure to get your entry in!

I do love this image by Mo's Digital Pencil, so I'm sorry you're seeing it again so quickly!! I am also entering this card into the challenge at Cute Card Thursday which is Pink and grey. They have Simon Says Stamp as their sponsor for this week.

Off now to finish another card and may even sqeeze in another post before bed!!

Louise xx

Image : Mo's Digital Pencil "For You",
Paper : Funky Fairy download (now sadly closed down!) - distressing vines
Mediums/Tools : Xcut Circle cutter, Copics,
Embellishments: ribbon from stash, star gems. card topper

Quixotic Sketch Valentine

2010-01-17T13:14:00.004Z

Morning everyone, well I have busy day today which includes taking the dog on a huge walk whilst the weather is a a bit better, housework including the dreaded ironing and some reports for work. Sunday the day of rest .... I don't think so!! But whilst just doing a bit more work on PC thought I'd do a quick post of another valentine card I've made.

This card was made by flipping the Quixotic sketch for this week to suit a DL card.

I am also entering this card into the challenge at Crafty Pad stamps who want to see at least one animal on your card. If you use a crafty pad stamp you get double the chance of winning and don't think it will be long before I purchase Roshell the duck, she's so cute, just go check her out here.

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend and I'm hoping to get crafting again soon!

Louise xx

Image : Sausage Couple and heart button from Pollycraft, Sentiment is computer generated.
Paper : Winter wonderland from Craft table,
Embellishments : heart brads from Madaboutcards,
Tools/Mediums - Copics, Swiss Dots embossing folder,

Papertake Sketch Valentine

2010-01-16T17:00:00.002Z

Hi everyone, hope you all had a better week than me?!? I have been working silly hours at the office (12 hours in one day!!) and then some work in the evenings too and have more to do this weekend. Finally got a new laptop from the manufacturers so have spent hours loading all the software on, but now the desktop PC is playing up and can't get the two to synchronise. This is in addition to lots of the normal work I have to do, but with my company there is no IT support department, in fact there's no-one but me to do everything - just call me the general dogsbody!! So whilst the PC is trying to do a back-up so can do a system restore, I thought I'd make use of the time to do a quick post from my laptop. I say quick, so I best stop waffling on .....

Here's a card I made this week following the Papertake sketch, who have Kraftin Kimmie as their sponsor. I wanted to do a Valentines card (it'll soon be here!) and chose to use this fab image from Pollycraft.

This also fits with the Pink and Brown theme at Allsorts challenge who have some embossing dies up for grabs as the prize this week and boy would that be fab to win as only have the swiss dots so far. I am also entering into the challenge at Charisma as these hearts are brand new, they were part of my craft pressies in my stocking from my Mum. Yes I am 30 and my mum still does a stocking for me to wake up on Christmas morning and open (just like Santa's been!) ... some traditions are definitely worth keeping!! Though she does say my husband should take over now but it just wouldn't be the same :-)

Anyway best be off, the pc is just getting through it's back-up! Hopefully I might get chance to pop back tomorrow with another!

Louise xx

Image : Cherry Kisses and heart button from Pollycraft, See-d stamp for sentiment
Paper : Funky Fairy papers - pink paisely and one from my stash.
Mediums/Tools : Copics, ribbon, heart beads. twine

Mo's DP Birthday

2010-01-10T23:22:00.001Z

Hey everyone, well we haven't had the snow that was promised for today, luckily. A few flakes earlier but far too wet for it to stick. The rest is slowly melting so looks like we're coming out of the big freeze now!

I haven't had any time to craft today as been busy working. I have a meeting on Tuesday and lots to prepare for it. I did find time to take photo's of a card I did earlier and not had time to post. Here it is:

This fits in with the challenge at Mo's Digital Pencil of Birthdays. I love this cute image by Mo, and she has lots of other fab ones at the shop. The Crazy for Challenges blog has a birthday challenge this week too.

Sorry this is a quick post, but off to bed now as got a long day and night working tomorrow. Hope to catch up with you all after Tuesday (as long as work hasn't finished me off!!)

Louise xxx

Image : Mo's Digital Pencil "For You", sentiment Raindrop Echo

Paper : Funky Fairy download (now sadly closed down!)
Mediums/Tools : Xcut Circle cutter, Copics, ribbon from stash

Saturday Sketch Angel

2010-01-08T22:44:00.002Z

Hi everyone, I can't believe how long this snow is lasting!! I am just about back to normal again now after being ill, but am snowed under at work (literally!!!) as this is normally my busiest week of the year and having 3 days away from office means no chilled out weekend for me crafting!!

Though I did manage to put this card together as I already had the image coloured up. I followed the sketch at Sketch Saturday which was a great one to follow and my first time joining this challenge but definitely not my last. The sponsor this week is Your Next Stamp, a new company with some fab images.

This challenge also fits in with another new challenge for me over at Flutter By Wednesday where the theme is new and well apart from this being a new challenge for me personally, I also used my new copics to colour in this angel.

Logging off now as been on the computer all day working and all evening catching up on blog reading. I now have square eyes!!

nite'all
Louise xx

Image: Angel (sorry not sure where I got this from, if anybody knows can you let me know so I can show the creator some love!) Sentiment is computer generated
Paper: Papermania Flowery Colossal Pack
Tools/Mediums: Copics, Brads, Prima flowers, Silk Flower and Gems.

Allsorts Baby Boy

2010-01-06T18:42:00.002Z

Hi guys, well it's taken me all day to make this card. Just recovering from the horrible Norovirus which wiped out both me and my hubby so we've been in bed (one in each as couldn't stand to be near anyone!!) or curled up on sofa in duvet for 2 days, but think we are going to attempt to eat a proper meal tonight.What's worse is my little Christmas treat of new copics arrived yesterday and whilst I was itching to play with them I just didn't have the energy!!

So I sat down to make this today as needed to start and get back to normality, but it took me a while and this is acutally the second attempt as got the paper all glued down in a mess on the first one!! I followed the sketch at Allsorts Challenge for this week where the challenge also includes new or old and I did both - the use of new copics and some papers from old stash (just so I can buy more!!).

With the start of a new year this New Baby card fits in with a whole heap of challenges out there so I think I might just break my record of challenges per card!!

Stamp Something :new somethings, my first card with my new copics
Cards For Men : new, a new baby boy card
Saturday Challenge: new, a new baby boy card
One Stop Craft Challenge : something beginning with "B", take your pick - boy, blue, brad, baby. think i've definitely got this one covered!!
Cupcake Craft : baby card
Papertake Challenge: New beginnings

Phew think that's all of them!!

Image: Moodles from Pollycraft. Sentiment from Pink Petticoat
Paper: from stash and Anita's spotty vellum,
Tools/Mediums: Copics, Brushmarkers, Brads and Gems.

Well that has proper worn me out now, Can't wait to feel normal again (well normal for me!! lol)

Louise xx

Cute Card Thursday Cupcake Birthday

2010-01-02T09:43:00.001Z

Well I hope you have all recovered from celebrating in the New Year. We had a fab time with friends, lots of good food, cocktails and rocking out on Rock Band!! Got home yesterday and didn't want to start the New Year by tacking the ironing so opted for a watching Willy Wonka whilst making up this card.

I followed the Cute Card Thursday sketch for the layout. They have Alison of Stretch N' Bubbles as the sponsor this week. A chance to win four of her fab digi-stamps!

This card also fits with the challenge at Crazy for Challenges as it features some polka dots and the Clearly I Stamp challenge of brads which keep the spotty vellum in place.

Off to Boundary Mill now, see what's left in the sale. Might pop into Ikea though for some extra crafty storage, just not told hubby that bit yet as he hates going in Ikea!! LOL
Bye for now,

Louise xx

Image: Cupcake from Robyn's fetish who are now back online!!
Paper: Basic Grey Bittersweet. Anita's vellum, Papermania,
Tools/Mediums: Copics, Brushmarkers,

Papertake and Colour Create Birthday

2009-12-31T10:47:00.002Z

The last day of 2009!! What a year, I got married, went on my dream trip to Canada and started my blog. All very memorable events!!

Here's a card I have made for my stash, and after all the red and green and blue and white of Christmas I fancied a change - lime and lemon it is then!! This is the challenge at Colour Create this week.I also followed this weeks Papertake sketch, as i really do love the simplicity of the sketches at Papertake and often revert back to them for my layout.

And as a birthday is a celebration I am entering it into to the following challenges:
Cupcake Craft Challenge : A Time for Celebration
3 Clover Designs : Celebration
Charisma Cardz : Celebration - go on over and check out their challenge as because it's their Birthday there is a blog hop with loads of prizes. If I have time later I will definetly be having a hop!!

We're off today to friends in Chesterfield to celebrate the New year with them so i must go pack now.

Louise
xx

Image: Bee with flower from Robyn's fetish, sentiment computer generated.
Paper: rayher, Core cordinations Mediteranean,
Tools/Mediums: Copics, Brushmarkers, Nestabilities

Favourite of 2009

2009-12-30T17:44:00.000Z

Well I have only had my blog for a couple of months, so it's not really a review of all of 2009, but I have picked out my favourite creation from the past 3 months and it is this:

This was one of the first cards where i got to play with all of my new stuff in one go : Copics, Nestabilities and the Big Shot and I was really pleased with the results.

Quixotic Paperie ask you to name your favourite and have a fab candy of a MYSTERY GIFT PACK on offer. So why don't you pop on over and enter as would love to see all your favourites.

Think this might be a lot harder next year after a full year blogging!! :-)

Louise xx

Birthday for the stash

2009-12-30T11:46:00.001Z

Well after struggling to do all my Christmas cards in time I haven't had any spare craft time to do any other projects so thought I'd do a birthday card for the stash, which is looking a little sad at the moment.

Sorry for the photo, it doesn't really show the bright and cheery colours I've used. It was late by the time I'd finished, not that the daytime is much better with this horrible weather.

I did follow a papertake sketch but then realised I'd missed the challenge week, so I'm just going to enter it into the Anything goes challenges at Creative Card Crew and Anything but Christmas at Charisma Cardz.

Not sure where the last couple of days have gone, I had so many crafting plans!! Mind you I am pleased I have set up my foodie blog and done my first post - Pheasant Terrine! Go check it out at Comida y Vida.

Happy New Year to you all

Louise xx

A Christmas Break

2009-12-28T17:46:00.001Z

Hello, hope everyone has enjoyed Christmas? We did something very unusal this year and spent it just me and my hubby. Normally we are either cooking for everyone or spend all day just driving around visiting. So this year we decided to be a bit scrooge like and spend it at home just us, with the excuse that it's our first Christmas as a married couple!! We loved it, we had prepared plenty of treats like homemade chciker liver apte, pheasant terrine which was devine (and I will post the recipe up soon as I took some photo's along the way!) and then duck with teh best parts of a roast dinner - roast parsnips, potatoes and pigs in blankets!!! It was lush.

Well enough about my Christmas, and on with a birthday card for a friend with a Boxing Day birthday who turns 60 this year. Not wanting to mention a lady's age I kept the card quite simple.

She does love flowers though so hope she likes it. As it's fairly quiet in challenge land I think I'm just going to enter this into Rosie D's free challenge theme.

Off to do a birthday card now and finish off my new foodie blog. For those who like good food too, pop back here for further details.

Louise x

Snowman Soup

2009-12-21T12:13:00.001Z

Well after a very enjoyable Stampin-Up workshop with Victoria I had my sister and husband fighting over the Snowman soup we made, as they loved the idea. So I thought why not make a few more to share the love. Not quite as professional looking as the one we did in class but I think they'll love them.

These will be given out on Christmas Eve night as a little extra treat. I found the poem on the back here and the cute snowman image was a freebie from Dawn Moore at Lost in Paper Scraps whilst the label is computer generated. They also fit in with a few challenges:

Allsorts - Anything but a card
Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - last minute gifts and they are certainly this!!
Stamp Something - Holiday somethings
Crazy for Challenges - a treat package and it includes chocolate!
Bubbly Scrumptious - what makes Christmas special, curling up with husband watching the Christmas movies with a hot chocoloate and popcorn.
Creative Inspirations - Christmas gift

So this might well be my last post before Christmas as have lots to do in these last few days, making a pheasant terrine, homemade chicken pate, smoked mackerel pate all for Christmas hampers and a few more presents to sort and then relatives to visit to give gifts!! And I'm meant to be at work till Wednesday!!

So I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Christmas.

Love Louise xxx

Last minute gift

2009-12-21T09:27:00.000Z

Hi everyone, well I hope you're all more organised than me, I still have presents to get today to give out tonight and then my darling hubby's card to make.
We always struggle with gifts for his Nan's, they have everything they need, so we decided to do some homemade shortbread and I found this fab little kit at Madaboutcards which made wrapping it up so quick and easy.

Hope they like them ?!

Must dash, lots more to do!

Louise xx

How naughty am I?!?!

2009-12-18T15:44:00.002Z

So after my earlier post about my hectic week at work I sat down to my desk to make a start on the accounts, but then the fabulous candy win from Digital Tuesday Challenge that I received kept looking at me. I chose 3 images from Mo's Digital Pencil, and I just couldn't resist having a play. So I chose Bismarck with Bone and as I lack any grey copics I had to make do with using my watercolour pencils. I didn't follow a sketch (quite unusual for me these days) and went for the traditional Christmas colours.

I also had a go at embossing the card with my Swiss dots folder (the only one I possess at the moment) and found it quite tricky when the card is bigger than the folder so took a little time, something I'm short of at moment!!

It fits in with the following challenges:
Simon Says : Merry Christmas
Creative Card Crew: Anything Goes
One Stop Craft : Christmas Love

Well you got to love the parents, we are very lucky both sets live quite close and are always happy to help with dog minding duty, which we have needed quite a bit recently with our hectic social life. Found this cute verse here which I modified slightly:

Mum and Dad you know we rely on you

perhaps more than we ought

But we really do appreciate

All your love and support

Have a really lovely Christmas

and may all your pressies by beauties

have a nice long rest before resuming

Your dogminding duties!!

How apt is that!!
Anyway I better get back to the accounts ..........
Louise xx

Candy win ... woo hoo!!!

2009-12-18T08:51:00.003Z

Hello everyone, I haven't had much time to blog hop or post anything this week as work has been mega busy (2 days of 16 hours!) so imagine my delight when I did manage to sneak on to a couple of blogs on Tuesday evening and saw I had won the challenge at Digital Tuesday Challenge and lucky for me the prize was 3 images from Mo's Digital Pencil, a shop I had browsed before and was eager to purchase from when had some spare funds! So I've picked my 3, including this cute little dog.

Pop on over to Mo's Digital Pencil, she has some fab images, it was so hard to choose just 3!!
Bismarck with bone was a definite though as it reminded me of Samson, my boxer, who had a bone this big last year which kept him quiet for ages .... mmmmm think I'll have to get another !!! here's my gorgeous little boy

Playing with a stick (this one is quite small compared to the normal ones he picks, they're normally 4 times the size of him and you have to hurdle it as he whizzes past!!! )

Loving the creature comforts of the sofa and his blanket!!
Spoilt, my doggy, surely not!!

Anyway, after this little relief best get back to the accounts, in the hope I can finish them in time for some craftin this evening!

Louise

xxx

Birthday candy Bonanza

2009-12-17T20:36:00.000Z

If you haven't already noticed it around blog world, Jude has some huge Birthday candy on offer to celebrate her birthday on 6th January 2010. There is lots to win, I think I'd need an extension to the craft room if I was the lucky one to win it (keeping fingers crossed!)

Jude has listed the fab candy as follows:

Stamps from whiff of joy,Pollycrafts and 5 stamps from Stampin up!

Heat Gun

Friskas border punch circle

K & Co 12x12Recycled Pad of Cardstock

Altered art items door hangers ,wee gift boxes ,plaques

! chipboard album with jump rings

Ribbons,

Bottle assorted buttons

Prima flowers

Brads

Assorted sheets 6x6 Stampin up Design Papers

Charms

Assorted layering ,matting squares ,circles

A Christmas Card for someone special!

2009-12-13T22:16:00.001Z

Mmm, the wild mushroom risotto was lovely!! So as I am only just getting round to making cards for close family members here's my second one of the day, and the second one for the grandparents.

This card fits in with the following challenges:

Magical Crafts - Christmas/Birthday for Someone special
Crafty Pad - Christmas
Frosted Designs - Happy Holiday
Our Creative Corner - Christmas

The recipe for this card is :

Image : LOTV stamp Bunnies in Stocking
Paper : Rayher
Embellishments : punched snowflakes, sentiment tag

So that's another one off the list, onto the next ........
Louise x

Another Challenge Bear

2009-12-13T19:50:00.001Z

Hi everyone, well after attending Victoria's workshop yesterday which was fab, I am full of inspiration and seen as I've still got quite a few Christmas cards to make I have been busy this afternoon, (after the ironing had been done of course!!). I inked up another of the Lily of the Valley bears and put together this card for my Nan.

I really love this colour combo for Christmas, especially seen as the promise of a White frosty Christmas in the UK is a lot better this year than the last few ..... fingers crossed!!!

This card fits with a few challenges:

Papertake Weekly - No red or green
Pink Elephant - favourite colour combo and mine seems to be the frosty blue and white combination!
Quixotic - Seeing Stars
Stamptacular Sunday - Christmas with a Twist, no red or green
Three Clovers Challenge Thursday - blue, white and silver
Kraftin kimmie - sparkle
Stamp Something - Winter Wonderland

The recipe (as per other cards!)
Image: LOTV Bear with star
Paper : Winter wonderland from Craft table,
Embellishments :Stickles, Star gem, organza ribbon

Thanks, off to cook a wild mushroom risotto for tea now, but hope to pop along later with another Christmas card I have made.

Louise x

Mangnificent Magnolida Down Under Candy

2009-12-11T21:11:00.000Z

Wow, I would love one of these personalized stamps, they give your work a really professional finishing touch. Kellie at Magnolia down Under has one on offer in a fab candy. Pop over to her blog to get yourself in with a chance.

Birthday at Sketch and Stash

2009-12-11T10:02:00.002Z

Sorry not blogged or entered challenges for a little while. Had a very hetic week celebrating my birthday!! Oh yes I turned 30 this week!! I spent a drunken night out with friends on Saturday so Sunday was a write off and I had such good craft plans, lol!!!. Then on Monday me and my DH went to London for a couple of days.We did the Tate and the natural History musuem and ate lots of nice food, including at two tv chef restaurants!!

So then i was under pressure to make a birthday card for my best friend whose birthday it is this week. I followed the Sketch and Stash challenge sketch.

My something new is the pretty heart ribbon which is part of a set I bought (not sure where though, sorry!!). I do love this sketch though so will be using it again!.

Managed to catch up on my blog reading yesterday, it's not good when you have a couple of days away as google reader goes crazy, and I don't like to miss a thing!! Maybe I need an iphone ... hmmmm!!! On my way round I noticed this card fits in with a couple of other challenges out there :

A Spoon Full of Sugar - Monochrome, with a fab stamp set sponsored by Bunny Zoe's Crafts. It's such a fab set.

Allsorts - Purple, with 4 digi stamps from Stretch and Bubbles

So that's all for now, I must get on with some Christmas cards, only 2 weeks to go!!! Panic!!!

Love Louise x

Another LOTV Bear Card

2009-12-04T09:04:00.003Z

Morning all! As I only have a very limited supply of stamps at the moment, it seems I am always colouring up this little bear. So apologies that all my cards feature the same set of images!! I do seem to keep improving with my use of Copics though and you know what they say practice makes perfect!!

For this card I followed the sketch at Mojo Monday, I do love their sketches as they are generally quite simple and effective and although there is no prize it is great just to play along!! I am entering it into the challenge at Kraftin Kimmie stamps where the theme is touchy feely so hope the organza ribvbon I have used fits in with that!

Image: LOTV Bear with star
Paper : Not sure where from but it is blue sky, Core Coordinations Royal Blue,
Embellishments : Papermania Elements, Outline stickers, punched snowflakes

Be back soon with another posting, but no bear I promise!!

Louise x

O' Christmas Tree

2009-12-02T23:59:00.004Z

So I've asked the hubby to get the tree and decorations down from the loft, as it's tradition we have it up for my birthday, and with a busy weekend with guests staying to help me celebrate I have till Friday to get the house cleaned and decorated!! Needless to say I'm still waiting so I thought I'd do a card with a tree on instead.

I love these digi stamps from Pink Petticoat, there are so simple and funky, they are good for the millions of cards I have to make.

So this fits in with the following challenges:
Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - Christmas Trees
Rosie D's - Red, Green and Bling
Digital Tuesday - Christmas Sparkle
Cupcake Craft - Red and Green

The card uses the following items:
Image: Pink Petticoat - Curly Pom Pom Trees
Paper : Rayher, Bazill Card
Sentiment : curly sentiment from Pink Petticoat
Embellishments : Papermania elements

Best get off to bed now, as got full on day at work tomorrow
Louise x

Papertake Sketch Challenge Card

2009-12-02T09:27:00.004Z

With a mountain of Christmas cards to make, I inked up a few Dandelion images. I chose to use this one and follow the Papertake Weekly sketch. The prize up for grabs is some stamps from Kraftin Kimmie who have some fabulous cute characters to ink up!!!Kept it simple as I think the papers are gorgeous and no need for too much embellishment, though I might add one or two before I send it out, I just can't resist!!

I love these colours together, and whilst not traditonally Christmas I think it is definitely a nice combination. It also fits with the "Hot Chocolate" theme at Die Cut Dreams Challenge, who have fabulous toppers up for grabs which are as always provided by Die Cut Dreams shop. Pop on over and check out what's in store.
Also as it is a Christmas Card I can enter into the challenge at Creative Card Crew, who have a prize from Whimsey Stamps.

Image: Daisy & Dandelion Stamp from Do Crafts.
Paper : Winter wonderland from Craft table, Basic Grey (not sure what called!)

Thanks for looking, just a few more million to make, or so it seems. Think I might start in January for next year!!

Louise x

Dandelion Christmas 4 challenge card

2009-12-01T23:42:00.002Z

Well, finally caught up on my blog reading after a few days away from the computer. I don't like it when google reader says I have over 100 to look at, and I don't like to not have a peek at everybody's. So although I have visited you all I was a bit short of time to leave some comments, sorry people but will do my best to keep on top of it now :-)

Now I've finished the Company Christmas cards, thought it time to add to my collection for family and friends. So I inked up the free Dandelion stamp that was with an old issue of Do Crafts Creativity and then followed the Friday Sketch, who have a fab Magnolia Tilda stamp up for grabs.

This card also fits in with the following challenges:
Spoonful of Sugar - non traditional Christmas colours
Crafty Sentiment - 2 patterned papers
Pink Elephant - favourite colouring medium, for which I have recently discovered the delights of Copics.

Image: Daisy & Danelion Stamp from Do Crafts.
Paper : Winter wonderland from Craft table, Craft Creations, Pale Blue painted Sky
Sentiment : curly sentiment from Pink Petticoat
Embellishments : punched snowflakes from glitter card.

Thanks for popping by, so glad it's another one done!
Louise x

Candy Arrival

2009-12-01T19:08:00.000Z

After a really bad couple of days at work I just got home to find a parcel awaiting. It was my candy win from Jak at Crafters Kitchen. Woo hoo!! Jak showcased a brilliant stocking filler present featuring linen tea towels from Al at All Tea Towels and offered the chance to win some, and luckly ol' me won. I chose this cute tea towel called Peguins Drinking Tea, which I just think is lovely.

So if you haven't already please pop over to both Jak's blog as she has some fab ideas and All Tea Towels for some great gifts or just to treat yourself.

Louise x

Christmas LOTV Bear

2009-11-26T11:46:00.002Z

I just love this Christmas bear from Lily of the Valley, it's my favourite stamp at the moment and can't you just see why!! I kept this quite simple but wanted to do a non red and green and opted for Brown and blue to fit in with A Spooful of Sugar colour combo.

So as it's a Christmas card for my godmother, I'm entering it into a few Christmas challenges that are out there including Papertake Weekly, Kraftin Kimmie and Charisma Cardz.Plus it's another one off the list!!

Image: LOTV Bear with star
Paper : Winter wonderland from Craft table,

Best get back to work now as generally speaking I really shouldn't be blogging but doing some accounts, but don't you just know what I'd prefer to be doing!!

Thanks

Louise xxx

What a coincidence with Die Cut Dreams!!

2009-11-24T23:55:00.001Z

I made this card last week for my husbands birthday (still seems strange saying that after just 2 months married!!), and then saw the challenge set by Die Cut Dreams, well what a coincidence!! I chose these cute doggies as my image as my DH is a dog lover, as his spoiling of our 3 year old Boxer testifies!!

The card was kept quite simple as it was for a male. It fits the Die Cut Dreams challenge this week of Puppy Love (and my goodness does this image some it up or what!!), and the Pink Elephant challenge of plaid and brads with no ribbon. I am also entering into the Creative Crew Challenge for favourite things as both my boxer and my husband are my favourite things (hope that counts!).

Image : Sausage Couple from Pollycraft
Paper : Winter wonderland from Craft table,

Embellishments : heart brads from Madaboutcards,
Sentiment : computer generated.

Thanks
Louise

Christmas Stocking Challenge card

2009-11-22T23:06:00.005Z

Finally got round to having a play tonight, and once I coloured this cute Lily of the Valley stamp in, I had a quick blog hop and found it would fit into a few challenges. I used the Papertake Challenge Sketch and then decided it would fit in with A Spoonful of Sugar as a card for child, Simon Says Challenge with Animals and Colour Create which have a fab candy stick as inspiration and ask for Red, White and Green.

Image : LOTV stamp Bunnies in Stocking
Paper : Winter wonderland from Craft table
Sentiment : curly sentiment from Pink Petticoat

Thanks
Louise xx

p.s. oops just noted that I took the piccy before I added the sentiment in my rush to get something posted!! I do add a cute sentiment of "happy Christmas". x

been a little busy ........

2009-11-22T22:32:00.000Z

hey everyone, sorry not been partaking in challenges and blogging last week but have been busy with a few orders. Had a few Christmas cards to make for my mum all in one design so it was like a bit of a production line and then started the order for my Company's Christmas cards. I've got 30 to make (seemed like a good idea when I started!!), keeping it quite simple with decoupage images as below, 10 done 20 more to go!!

might just try and squeeze a challenge in now ......

Louise x

3 Challenge Bear

2009-11-12T19:33:00.002Z

Got so many goodies at the NEC couldn't wait to use them. So got out the Big shot and Nesties to get a frame for my lovely Lily of the Valley Bear. The paper is a digital download from the Craft table and the sentiment is from Pink Petticoat.

Followed the sketch from Die Cut Dreams Challenge, which also asks for a snowy feel so hope the Snowflake paper will do. It also fits with the challenges at Charisma Cardz which wants something merry and bright and One Stop Crafts for a card for children, as I think it will be purfect for my goddaughter.

Image: LOTV Bear with Star
Paper: Winter wonderland from Craft table
Sentiment : curly sentiment from Pink Petticoat

Thanks
Louise x

Friday Sketch & 5!

2009-11-10T21:56:00.003Z

Not had much time for crafting and blogging since last week as had hectic weekend with trip to NEC which I loved and a hen-do on saturday to see Rocky Horror.
The Craftshow was fab, so many helpful people and as a newbie I rellay loved watching the demonstrators. I spent a small fortune, but it's ok as with Christmas and birthday approaching fast I made the most of it!! So a Big Shot was the top purchase of the day along with some Nesties. I just couldn't wait till Christmas though so here's my first card using them!!

I followed the sketch from Friday Sketchers and then used my Merry Topper stampendous stamp layered up using Nesties and then embellished with some sparkly snowflakes. Quite like the fact that is not a traditional christmas colour (just wish the pic was better, but craftin in the evening and the light's not good!). I am also entering this into the challenge at Clearly I Stamp which asks for 5, I give you 5 colours, purple, lilac, white, silver and black!

Image : Merry Topper Stampendous Stamps
Papers Craft Creations - Snowflake
Embellishment : snowflakes punched in glittery card.

Thanks for looking,

Louise x

Pink Petticoat Christmas Tree for Sassy Suzie

2009-11-05T23:06:00.002Z

Not had much time to craft this last few days as been busy with work, catching up on overdue accounts, my favourite job, not!!! Plus the little spare time I have had, has been used to have a blog hop, collect ideas for supplies and what to look out for at the NEC tomorrow. This is my first visit to a big Craft Fair like this but I am so looking forward to seeing some demos and all the different stalls!!

Anyway I did have this little image all coloured and matted up so thought it best get put onto a card before it gets lost in the scrap pile!! Kept it simple but quite like that!

Sorry really should try and take more photos ion the daylight!!
I used some freebie paper from Pollycraft for the background and the digi stamp with sentiment is from Pink Petticoat (one of my new favourite shops!). The ribbon was a bargain picked up at Dunelm this weekend (it's dangerous going in 'normal' shops that sell craft items too ... I just can't resist!!), and the rest is from my stash.

I am entering this is into a brand new fornightly challenge, Sassy Suzies Challenge, which has a fabulous prize to kick start it off. Pop along to check it out for yourself cos there are some gorgeous DT cards.

Off to bed now, as want plenty of energy for the NEC tomorrow

Night night
Louise x

Mojo Monday and Simon Says Challenge

2009-10-28T17:23:00.001Z

Not been feeling very well today so did a quick make card with Papermania embellishments, which I layered up on to some blue card which I covered in gold glitter (need to practise this as it went everywhere!!). The pink paper which matched the embellishment was stamped with a holly stamp and then all layered up with scraps from my stash and finished off with a bow to complete the Mojo Monday sketch. This also fits the challenge and the Simon Says Challenge of all that sparkles as although the pic doesn't do it justice there embellishments and glitter do sparkle!

Thanks Louise x

Sketch n Stash Challenge

2009-10-27T22:09:00.002Z

Just a quick post tonight as been preparing all my cards for my mum to take to her WI meeting tomorrow. Made this last minute addition as my entry into the Sketch & Stamp Stash Challenge as it was a lovely sketch to follow and very in my style.

Sorry for the pic but it's a bit dark here in my craft room. Next expense I think is going to be a "daylight" lamp.

Image : Decoupage Santa (new)

Paper: Digi paper freebie download, Winter wonderland from the Craft Table

Embellishments - punches and gems, Anitas outline (stash)

This also fits a couple of other challenges, One Stop Craft Challenge have a Celebration theme and Christmas will definitely be a celebration, first one as a married couple!!. The other is that the Creative Card Crew has a Snowflake theme and this card has both snowflake paper and embellishments.

Thanks for stopping by,
Louise x

Allsorts & Creative Card Crew Challenge Card

2009-10-25T12:29:00.002Z

My sister asked me to make a New baby boy card for her boyfriends sister so I bought Moodles from Pollycraft which I think is so cute (just can't wait to get some copics so can do him justice!). I then used some paper and vellum from my stash for a simple layout.

This fits in with a couple of the current challenges for this week. Creative card crew want a card for babies and children and Allsorts have a furry friend theme.

Image : Moodles from Pollycraft
Papers : PM vellum, Paperpizazz Yellow Gingham
Sentiment : Curly sentiment from Pink Petticoat
Embellishment : PM brads and Star Gem.

Thanks Louise x

MAWTT Challenge Card

2009-10-25T09:53:00.001Z

Well what a day yesterday was, I got my DH to help me move the furniture round in the new "craft" room and we got rid of the single bed to make it into a proper workspace. Oh my, I am so happy now, he may never see me downstairs again!! (This could be dangerous!!)
Then the tickets arrived for the NEC too, so got very excited about that too and then spent a lot of time sussing out what are my top priorities for expanding my stash. Think I have decided to go down the copics route rather than Promarkers as they seem to be favoured by the majority?!?

So late last night when I finally got round to actually doing some crafting, I made this card with the Moving Along with the Times challenge in mind, plus it was a quick make. I layered up a decoupage image then used some Craft creation background paper and few punched snowflakes to finish it off. I quite like the clean simplicity of it.

Another Christmas one for the pile too!!

Thanks Louise

Friday Sketch

2009-10-22T22:55:00.000+01:00

Well not done much actual crafting today as spent most of afternoon totally reorganising my little bedroom so it can be dedicated to cardmaking. It needed a good sort out as I and my DH can both be hoarders and so there was lots of decluttering to do before could organise my craft stash !!

Managed to make this for the Friday Sketch though, using one of the decoupage sets I keep for quick card makes. I then layered it up with the freebie Winter wonderland papers from the Craft Table and a few sparkly snowflakes and outline sticker as the sentiment to finish it off.

Thanks Louise xxx

Birthday candy bonanza!!!

2009-10-22T00:32:00.000+01:00

It was Chris's birthday yesterday over at Twinkles Glow with Stamps and she is giving away the most amazing candy to 2 followers. So pop on over to wish her some belated birthday wishes and have a look for yourself. This is very popular because it is such a fabulous offering!!!

Louise x

Spoonful of Sugar Sketch Entry

2009-10-21T22:13:00.004+01:00

Not had much time to craft this week as work has been very busy, but since I started this blog I just can't wait to see what challenges there are each week and what I can do with them with my limited stash. The Spoonful of Sugar sketch immediately appealed as it is similar to cards I have done before, but decided to "up the ante" and have a go at using some digi papers and a new digi stamp.

I also wanted to enter this into the Stamp something challenge where the theme is Bling, as I always try to use a few gems on my cards, I couldn't resist adding a couple of gems to the snowflake embellishments

Image : Cuddly Buddly Freebie Seaons Tweetings

Paper: Digi paper freebie download from the Craft Table

Embellishments - punches and gems.

Thanks
Louise x

Blog candy at Mariannes

2009-10-20T20:58:00.001+01:00

Just been having a quick surf around blog land for some inspiration and came across this fab candy on offer from Marianne, who has been lovingly welcomed into blogland and wants to return some of that love.Its open till 1st November so get on over and check it out, and have a peek at her card creations whilst you're there!

Good luck, I'm keeping my fingers crossed!! X

Spoon Full of Sugar Challenge Sketch

2009-10-19T20:59:00.003+01:00

Heres one of the cards I made last night but didn't have time to post till now. I saw the sketch by Caryn at A Spoon Full of Sugar and immediately had a few ideas, (some of which I plan on making soon!!), but chose to use this Stampendous stamp and some papers I got from the Paper craft magazine.The embellishment for the card is 2 puches layered up. I'm also entering this card into the challenge at SCSC as they wanted you to "Dig deep" and this stamp has been loitering in the stash for a while!

Apologies for the photo, I did take the cards to the office in the hope I would find a spare 5 mins to photograph them in daylight, but no such luck as was a manic day at work, so had to take it this evening under the glare of my spotlight!

Thanks, Louise x

3 Challenge Entry

2009-10-13T19:22:00.003+01:00

As I was off today decided to make a card in preparation for my Nan's birthday. I picked the image up Pollycraft, it was a freebie, check their blog for more details and used brown paper from Papermania as the main back-drop to give the card an autumnal feel. The butterfly is coloured in pastel greens which have not come through on photo clearly due to fading natural light.

I made this card and found 3 challenges that it was suitable for. It is a birthday card and so can enter the One Stop Craft Challenge, it is brown for the Stamp Something challenge and I think these are autumnal colours for Secret Crafters Saturday.

Image : Pollycraft freebie Funky flutterby.

Paper: Papermania

Embellishments - anitas outline and sentiment from stash.

Thanks for popping by,

Louise x

First Candy Win!!!

2009-10-13T16:03:00.002+01:00

Hey everyone, I'm not normally in blogworld at such a time, but I have stayed at home today as not feeling too well. Well enough to be on my laptop but not well enough to work!!

So my win from the Robyn's Fetish Store grand opening on Saturday from the blog hop challenge couldn't have come on a better day. Has definitely cheered me up and starting to feel a bit better already, especially seen as it's my first win!!! You should check out the Roybn's Fetish Store as there is 15% of all images throughout October!!

Also, wanted to post up a couple of cards I made last night, both anniversary cards for both sets of parents! The first was made with a freebie image from Pollycraft and I did want to follow the Friday sketch but had a few issues with bows!!The heart border is from a See D's stamp and the background paper is K&Co. First time I had a go at the shading malarkey and I have to say quite pleased with the result.

The second card uses a Hobbycraft stamp and some new paper i bought from Provocraft.

Well must have been having a pink evening!! Thanks for stopping by,

Louise

Dutch Dare Challenge

2009-10-11T18:33:00.002+01:00

Well not had productive craft weekend as spent saturday morning battling my way into Tamworth (though did pick up a few bits and bobs from Hobbycraft!!), and then when got home had to help set up new surround sound with DH. Saturday nights are reserved for Strictly as I'm avid fan but did manage to colour this little chap in. Mounted it up this morning and spent past couple of hours blog hopping, before got round to posting it. In fact I seem to spend more time blog hopping and sussing out supplies at the moment than actually crafting but loving the inspiration, just don't know where to start with expanding my stash!!!

So when it came to mounting it up I found some complimentary papers in my stash and followed the recipe from Dutch Dare Card Challenge, which was for 2 different colours of cardstock,2 different pieces of Patterned paper, 2 flowers, 2 brads and 2 gemstones/buttons, though I hope flowers can be replaced with snowflakes!! It also fits the challenge at LOTV as a card for children and the Creative Card Crew challenge was a theme of celebration and Christmas is most certainly a celebration.

Image : Drake the penguin, freebie from Pollycraft
Papers & Card : papermania spring life and from stash.

Embellishments : brads, snowflakes and gems

Thanks for having a look

Louise
x

Tilda Stamp up for grabs

2009-10-10T09:31:00.000+01:00

Hey everyone, well it's saturday morning and looking forward to clearing out the little bedroom so I get my very own little craft place!! It used to be my craft haven but got taken over for wedding stuff so now it's time to claim it back!!

Before I do that, was having a quick blog hop and came across Bev's candy with a Simon Days Stamp giveaway.

Just pop on over to Bev's blog and say hello.

Crafty Makes Candy!!

2009-10-08T11:06:00.000+01:00

Hi guys, Actually at work now, but the blog hopping bug has bit me and it's just too tempting compared to the accounts I should be doing!! Only a couple of days left to link yourself to Kim's candy at Crafty Makes, which looks fab, so pop on over and have a look. She has some fab card designs and helpful tips on techniques!

Must get back to work ..... grrr!!
Louise x

Birthday for him

2009-10-07T22:52:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone!!
I always struggle to think of ideas for male cards so when I spotted this fab freebie digi-stamp from Bee Crafty I decided to give it a some masculine colours and see what happened. I wasn't sure how to embellishment but thought a star theme with a few outline stickers, gems and some ribbon was nothing too girly. I am quite pleased with the outcome and a friend has already snatched it up to send to her brother in law so it must be ok?!

Image: Digi Stamp freebie Cake Slice from Bee crafty
Papers: from stash (includes some wallpaper!!)
Tools: Xcut Shape Cutter
Embellishments: Anita Outline stickers, star gems from craft for all occasions, PM Ribbon.

1st challenge entry!!

2009-10-06T06:57:00.002+01:00

Well last night decided to have a go at my first challenge and picked the Cupcake Craft Challenge as the theme this week was "thanks a bunch" and with my limited range of stamps I thought it was a good option. Once I stamped the image and started having a play with the layout card also found that I could follow the Mojo Monday sketch and therefore for my first time I've only gone and entered 2 challenges!! (woo hoo to me!!).

I used :
Stamp : See D's coloured in with Brushstrokes
Paper : PM Flowery
Embellishments : PM Ribbon, Prima flowers and gems

p.s. think a little craft retail therapy is in order for some copics and stamps!!

Thanks for stopping by, can't wait to have another go at a challenge or two! :-)

Louise

New Baby Girl .... simple!!

2009-10-04T22:28:00.002+01:00

had to quickly put together a new baby girl card for my neighbours. They left the arrival as a suprise but had thought it might be another boy to join their 3 year old ... anyway Charlotte arrived on Wednesday morning and came home yesterday.

I had an embellishment that I wanted to use, but the colours are more boyish, being yellow and blue to decided to make this very girly with some bright pink paper from my stash. All matted up on a cream card and some Papermania outline stickers for the sentiment. The embellishment is just left hanging which I like as it is reminescent of a baby's toys, just hope the neighbours like it too.

Just been surfing for some stamps so can really get started on improving my cards, any tips on where is best to buy them from? I quite like the penny black range to start with, cute and appealing to all.

Thanks

blog hopping crazy

2009-10-03T22:30:00.001+01:00

so, after blog hopping around I now have decided I need to invest in some good stamps to start off my collection. My craft box consists of Docrafts (papermania, daisy & dandelion, see D's) embellishments, stamps and papers which just don't seem to compare to the fabulous stamping creations of Whiff of Joy, Squiggle stamps, Penny Black to name but a few.
In fact I feel positivley ashamed of my simple creations compared to the likes of Bev with the fabulous little elves, or Joanne who not only has fab cards but who is also a James Martin fan!! Not to miss out Cathy who has some wonderful designs and is great inspiration. I have to say I am getting quickly addicted to blog hopping!!!

So with a mountain to climb in terms of getting my cards to a standard that seems good enough, please feel free to leave tips, advice and suggestions on what is a good buy. I tend to get carried away with craft shopping, (a bit like food shopping!) and with a limited budget I want to start off with the best options, or else we may be on beans on toast for a few weeks if I get carried away with stamp shopping!!

Thanks Louise x

first one ..... not sure what to write?!

2009-10-02T23:32:00.000+01:00

Well, this is my first blog and as the title aptly describes I haven't a clue what to write. I have been reading a few fellow crafter's blogs recently and am intrigued by the weekly cardmaking challenges so thought a blog was the best way to start to get involved.

I have got into cardmaking fairly recently, with my first major project being the invitations for my wedding (3 weeks married and counting!!). Only when a few of my guests commented on how lovely they were and I then received an order for a friends daughters wedding, did I think I should start getting into it a bit more. I did save the date, invites (which I'll post a picture when I get a min) and then the name places, table plan and order of day so it has been quite full on and I'm looking forward to getting into more creative cardmaking over next few weeks!!

So hoping to post a few things shortly and may give one of the challenges a go soon (not sure how good I'll be) but look forward to your comments and advice!!

Thanks for stopping by
Louise