long time no craft

OK take 2. I've just tried to make this post and lost it all my trying to move it all around. I seem to always have trouble with putting the writing where i want it around the pics.It always leaves big gaps in the actual post. i'm trying this post without any layout so i'll see if it works.
I've not been very well lately with the ME so i haven't been making any cards. Thanks to the great challenge blogs i've got going again and have made these 4 cards. They are a week late as new challenges are out now but i still wanted to make them.
This card is made with the Friday Sketchers sketch 8. I love the hedgie penny black stamps!
This card is made for a postpals member. i used the sketch challenge at Tilda+co challenges from last week.

This is a card for another post pals member. I've used a sweet image from Pink Petticoat and some bug embossing folders.

This last card is made for last weeks colour challenge at penny black sat challenge. This is my favourite penny black stamp and it just goes so well with green and pink cards. I struggled a bit with the brown part of the challenge as i've realised i haven't got a lot of brown. so i found some paper with some brown outlines and used some brown dots to keep to the 3 colours. I must get some brown stash as my friends always use brown with pink and it always looks so lovely.

I need to try and catch up with the challenges of this week now and make the rest of the postpals cards i need to make.Lets hope i can stay awake long enough!

yummy blog candy

Over at Jozza's blog she is offering some lovely blog candy for reaching 5000 posts!

I've been away for the weekend to my sister's so haven't made any cards for a few days, but have some sketch challenges i want to join in with so hopefully i can fit some inbetween coursework that needs to be done!
I'm not feeling so well either as i've got a funny virusy thing that is going round my niece's school. we have been covered in a rash and generally not feeling so well. Hoping it passes soon.

off to see what other yummy cards have been made this weekend.

new challenge blog!

There is a new challenge blog starting on saturday! Penny black saturday challenge . I think it's great to have a penny black blog as i think they are being forgotten a little bit as Tildas, hanglers and other new stamps are very popular at the minute.
They have some cute penny black stickers for a small blog candy giveaway for anyone who leaves a comment and links to their blog!
looking forward to saturday!


I haven't made any cards for few days as i've been busy with my photography coursework. But i have some challenges i want to have a go at so i will hopefully make some today!

an award!

Thank you to Lainy for giving me this award. It's lovely to think someone else likes your creations so thank u!
I now have to pass this on to others who's blogs i enjoy. Well there are now so many, and lots will already have this award so i will give this to:
Maddie (even though i know she has been awarded it by lainy, but i love your cards lately!), Clare who's cards i think are fantastic and are exactly my style!
Kerrie, who's cards also are exactly my type and who is such a lovely person. Lastly to my lovely friend Mols, who has just started blogging and her cards are already great!
As i said i could award this to so many people as the blogs on here really inspire me so much and give me so many ideas about what i want to make!

still loving scrapbooking!

Don't you just love days when you just really love crafting and when it just all goes right! Well today has been one of those days!
This page was quick to make as i followed a sketch put up on a forum i go on. I didn't have any scalloped bazzill but remembered that i had bought a gorgeous template with swirls and scallops from ally pally last year. So i made my own then added some holes in the scallops with my silent setter. the papers are just gorgeous again and matched the colour of my mums top well. I've added some close up pics again to show some more detail. (i haven't rubbed out the pencil writing under the pen in the journalling bit yet!) I want to go and make another one now but my tummy is telling me that it really is dinner time and not scrapbooking time!














Materials i used:

Paper: such pretty papers from Kaiser craft- bloom in blush and bloom in bouquet.
Card: pink bazzill
Alphas: K+Co, Brenda walton juliana die cut alphabet stickers.
Black flock letters were an absolute bargain in the pound shop ages ago. I wish i'd bought tons of them.
Can't remember where i got the pink bloom. Think the green is a prima.
Brads: glitter brads from Doodlebug and i can't remember where the pink one is from.

I love scrapbooking!!

I have had such a lovely few hours scrapbooking. I've been collecting stash for years now for a scrapbook of my beautiful niece. The thing is she is now 8 and i have 8 years worth of memories to scrap! so it's going to take me a while, esp. as i take quite a bit of time over each page.
I love these pictures of her and took loads as she was in a happy posing mood for me(this doesn't always happen as i think she is fed up with auntie Kezza shoving a camera in her face every moment i get!)
The photos gave me the colours of the papers and materials i needed so i went through my yummy stash and grabbed anything that went together. I ended up putting lots back as there is only so much you can fit on a page and i need to make my stash stretch for the hundreds of pages i need to do. I'm so pleased with how it came out and it ended up being one of my quicker ones as it all just seemed to fall into place around the gorgeous chipboard swirl and photos.
I've added some close up shots of areas so you can see the little details better. The colours of the papers are bit better IRL as my camera hasn't seemed to pick them up as well with the light in my bedroom.















Edited to say- Damn i've just realised i've spelt pyjama wrong! I hope i'm going to be able to rectify it but as i've outlined the letters with black pen i may not be able to.

Materials i used: Paper: Doodlebug 'patch of posies' and GORGEOUS sparkly paper from Imaginisce 'for peeps sake/colour me happy'.
Flower clips: doodlebug
Chipboard swirl:Starry night chipboard accents- Rusty Pickle
Letter stickers: Basic grey-gypsy range
Pink flower: Bazzill basics
Flower brad: Dovecraft
Yellow Flower stickers: Pebbles inc. duplicate stickers(with stickles added to middle)
Ink on chipboard swirl: Brilliance dew drop-orchid
Glitter dots: Stickles-cotton candy
Journalling and outlining of title: black fineliner.

yummy blog candy

I've found a lovely blog and some lovely blog candy she is giving away here at Tracy's Ella Bella blog.

here is what is on offer! yum.

new baby card

My sister's best friend has just had a little baby girl. She has named her Emily, (after asking my sis if she minded her calling her daughter the same as my niece). Her middle name is Victoria (who is also my baby cousin) so it's weird to have the same 2 names as our family! but nice too!
I love this penny black stamp. its so cute for baby cards as well as grown up "chilling out"cards. I used some of the cute baby girl doodlebug paper and some precious baby girl ribbon. The name Emily is a named sticker i ordered from the states i think. I finished the card of with some small pink gems to add some girlie sparkle. I hope she likes it.

Kazan's sketch

I made this card for Kazan's sketch at 2sketches4you. I started with the black scalloped edged bazzill. (i made the scalloped edges myself as i didn't have any proper stuff!) I used some stripey patterned paper and added a rectangle of black bazzill and pink paper across it. I added some pink spotty ribbon to add some detail and used 3 flowers with brads. The thank you letters were dont with doodlebug rub ons. A simple card but i'm really pleased with it. So thanks Kazan for a great sketch!

Laura's sketch

I made my dad's father's day card using Laura's sketch over at 2sketches4you. I love this penny black image and thought dad would like it too. I added some faux stitching with a black pen and 'dad' with some doodlebug rub on's. I don't have any scalloped scissors so i made the scallops myself for the backing card. I thought the black and white paper was masculine and added some detail to the card. I finised the card off with some stitched ribbon and 3 blue gems. I hope Laura likes my take on her sketch!

I finally have crafting mojo back!

I'm so pleased i've got some mojo back. I went weeks without making one cards but i've made 4 today!
My little cousin Victoria, aka Squidge, is one on the 15th. I don't know where that year has gone!
I wanted to make a cute and girlie card and thought this lily of the valley unicorn was perfect. I used some cute 'make a wish' paper, a princess sticker and some offcuts of other patterned paper to layer her up. Victoria was d0ne with doodlebug rub ons, the birthday was an image a friend did for me, and the 1st is a stampendous alphabet set.I mounted the unicorn and the birthday piece with foam pads to add some dimension and then added some stickles dots down the side of her name.



Another of my cousins, Squidge's big sister, has her birthday on the 11th. I love my new tilda stamp and knew she would love it too. I paper pieced her dress to match the background paper and coloured her with watercolour pencils as always.I used a corner punch on the main image to add some extra little detail. I cut Jade from a sissix alphabet inmy bug. I used a sakura shimmery pen on the stars and on her shoes. A flower and brad added the final touches to a sweet card.



On father's day, my dad and stepmum Rosemary have their wedding anniversary too. (this month is a busy one for cards!). I love this penny black stamp and thought it was perfect for an anniversary card. I coloured them simply as always, and mounted them onto some yellow bazzill. The paper is from a K+Co pad and i made use of the pattern to "corner" the image. The sentiment was done with Letraset rub ons. To finish the card off i used some gorgeous blooms with a doodlebug brad.

my new tilda's

I couldn't resist these Tilda's. They r so cute and as i needed a kick up the bum with mojo i thought i'd use these. This card fits in with the colour challenge at spoonful of sugar.
The gorgeous papers are K+Co and i've kept it quite simple as i wanted the focus on the image itself. This card will be sent to one of the kids on PostPals. I coloured her with watercolour pencils and used a glittery sakura pen on her shoes and wings.




This card is for my Sister's best friend(who is also the mum of my little cousin as she is with my uncle). This Tilda jumped out at me with her cute clothes and pigtails. I've tried to edge the image with some brown ink to give an outline but i think i need some more practise with that b4 it looks like others cards on blogger that i've seen use that technique.
Hopefully now i've made two cards today i'll get back to making them more regularly again.

i need to find my crafting mojo

I thought i'd let people know i've not forgotten about my blog. i have just been concentrating on my photography course and catching up with work. But i've also lost my crafting mojo. I have bought 2 new tildas so i will have a play with those and hopefully it'll get me going again.
I've got some gorgeous papers for my scrapbook of Emily i'm doing so need to get going with that too.
I haven't lost my love of crafty shopping and ordered a few sale bits from crafts u love. I just wish i felt like using it all!!
i'm not feeling so well today, but i may go upstairs and see if i can get my creative juices flowing. I have a birthday card to make for thurs anyway, so i had better just go for it.

gorgeous blog candy!

See here for the chance to win this gorgeous Hanglar+Stanglar stamp. it is so cute!! and very hard to get hold of. Katharina is being very generous giving people us a chance to win this!

my ally pally stash

I had such a great time at ally pally. It was a huge effort for me as my ME is not doing good and i knew i would suffer from it, but meeting up with friends, meeting others for the first time and of course craft shopping, it cant get better really! I got there by trains and tubes at about 11am and left just b4 3 as i had started to feel ill and faint in that heat(as they had to shut the roof bcoz of the rain and hail). In that time i got some good stash shopping done and a good lot of chatting too. I wish i had had more money as there was so much i wanted but i had to be very good this time round. I will be saving for sept so i can have a better spend up next time!

I also bought some 12 x 12 clear boxes for my papers as they were a bargain as 3 for £10. These pics are useless so i may take some better, closer up ones for u to see the stuff properly!lol

Di Hickman's sketch challenge

This card is for the sketch challenge over at Di Hickman's site.
I first thought it was too simple and that i wouldnt be able to make a decent card with it, but once i chose the gorgeous paper (from creative imaginations) it just seemed to come together. I used a few primas and flowers to be the focus of the card and even used one of my sugar coated brads to hold them together. I find it hard using these as they are so pretty i don't want to give them away! lol
I then added a small bow with some lovely shimmery organza ribbon and a tiny sentiment at the top.
It came out far better than i imagined and i'm really pleased with it.

Ismaki sketch challenge

This card was made based on a sketch over at Ismaki . I loved the sketch and had seen some lovely examples of the card so wanted to have a go myself. It really inspired me and after i'd stamped nellie and drawn a circle round her i got the idea to stamp little elzybells flowers around the edge to give a lovely border to her. I stamped them all and then cut around them to create the circle, then added some shimmer with some sakura pens. Again the lovely paper is from K+Co. I added some stitched ribbon to add the stitching effect on the layout. I finished by adding some primas and a get well sentiment.

I'm so pleased with this card and again am loving doing sketch challenges today!

Taylored expressions sketch

I made this card for a sketch challenge over at taylored expressions . It's called a cupcake challenge but it saus u don't have to use a cupcake! which is handy as i dont have one. But i love that the layput is so different from my normal style so it took me out of my boring comfort zone.
I've used one of my favourite bella stamps and some gorgeous paper from a K+Co pad called sickly sweet. I love the colours and matched them with some lovely yellow bazzill card.
The base card is a shimmery pink which held it all together and the stitched ribbon matched the pink as well.
I've loved the cards i've made today and am pleased there are inspiration and sketch blogs to help change your style a bit! which is what i was needing.

more postpals cards

I wanted to try and improve on yesterday's creations so i had a go at trying to add things i dont often do.
This is the first(or second?) time i've used this sweet little lily of the valley stamp and thought it would be perfect for a little girl called erin on postpals thats only 5 and likes pink. there is lots of glitter and shimmer on it especially for a little princess.



This next little one was a stamped image from a friend of mine on the forum. i automatically go for pink normally so i went with blue but still for a girl. i layered the bits differently to how i normaly would, as i'm such a straight and even type of crafter. I then used my silent setter to put some eyelets in (thanks for the inspiration maddie!) and added some swirls from a doodlebug love set in brilliance dew drops.













This is my fave of the day. I love this swirl cuttlebug die and i love lilac so it all seem to come together well. i added some eyelets again to the image matting and stamped hello with stampendous(i think) alphabet set.I haven't got the energy to run upstairs to check! I love these prima blooms and attached them with some big brads. All of these cards will be for children who are going through horrible illnesses and deserve to be treated to a card or gift. For anyone that hasn't heard of postpals please click on the link and see how much these kiddies are going through and how badly they need volunteers to bring a smile to their faces! thank you x

few more creations

I'm not really overly happy with any of these to be honest, but 5 cards in day seemed worthy of doing a blog entry.they all seem too plain and just same old same old.
This first one is for someone on postpals. The sitting tilda is so cute but i dont think the LO is quite right on the card.







This second card is again for a postpals member and is the first time of using my mermaid tilda. I used glittery sakura pens for the scales and they look better IRL. The card behind her is glittery too. i need to learn to take better pics of my cards.













This 3rd one is for someone on postpals and again is the first time i've used the horse. Thank u maddie for the stamped images. He is so cute, but i dont think i'll use the reddy brown on him again as i had trouble matching paper colours. I want to get the fencing stamp as well to make it look like the horse is in a paddock, with tilda infront of it.













This card is for someone on my forum that has not been well and i think deserves a bit of cheering up.













This again is for someone that going through a rough time on my forum and needs some support.











I'm loving crafting lately but today seem to have lost my mojo a bit. Some days i love my cards and others like today they just dont seem good enough. I would love to be able to make cards like some i see on blogs, esp the tilda blog. some of those are amazing! i know we all have our own styles but i wish i could vary mine a bit. maybe thats a small challenge to myself.

day of scrapping

Whilst watching the FA cup final and the grand national today i fancied doing some scrapping. On the forum i go on we've got some scrapbook page layouts on there for some inspiration(taken from an inspiration blog i think), so it gave me something to work with. It's the first time i've done a LO from a sketch and i did find it easier to follow what was there.

I had these lovely photos of my sis and niece and thought they fit well into the sketch. There is meant to be a 3rd photo on the biggest circle, but i hadn't got anymore printed from that day(yet) so the space is there to add one if i want to.

I used some pretty pink flowery paper as a background and some good old bazzill. The gorgeous blue spotty paper is from sandilion and i'll be stocking up with more of it!

I chose pink and blue from colours in the photo and added some light green as that brought it all together with the title, which is from K+Co.

For the circles i cut round some of the flowers of the background paper and added some chipboard flowers i got free with scrapbook inspirations and some primas. One of the centres of the chipboard flowers didnt match with the colours so i drew round the centre flower onto some other chipboard and covered it with some of the blue paper to tie it all in. A few brads, including a gorgeous sugar coated brad from doolebug added detail to the flowers, and i finished adding some heart+flower rub ons from doodlebug.

i really enjoyed making it and will be ordering lots of photos now to do more for Emily's scrapbook.

DCM challenge

i thought i'd have a go at the mini challenge over at daring cardmakers, which is pretty pastels. i love pastel colours on cards, esp using bazzill light green, yellow and pink, so i made this easily. I love these sugar nellie stamps and can't stop using them since i got them.

The butterfly paper is from a lush paper pad by K+Co called sparkly sweet. i can't remember who the pink flower paper is by.

postpals cards

Postpals is a great charity set up by some friends of mine who also suffer with ME(but far worse than me). It is a scheme where very sick and poorly children sign up to their site and people can then send them cards, letters, gifts and anything to put a much needed smile on their face while they are suffering so much. having been ill for 6 years myself now, and being bedbound at times, i know how lovely it is to get some post that cheers you up and makes u feel like someone out there is thinking about u. So I decided to create a section on a cardmaking forum i belong to, so that the members can make cards for the featured pals on the site each month, who need a bit of extra love and support. I have made 4 so far but will continue to make cards every month for as many of the kids as i can. For anyone that doesn't know of the site and would like to see it the link is :www.postpals.co.uk




i really do adore these tilda stamps and can't wait to be able to afford more! I expect i'll get one or 2 at ally pally in 10 days time!!

PIF from maddie.

Thank u to Maddie for the lovely PIF u sent me! That ric rac is gorgeous!!!
It is now my time to Pay It Forward. I don't know what goodies i will give away yet, but the first 3 people to reply to this post will get sent a few bits. You will then PIF and give away some stuff to 3 other people on ur blog.
ready, steady, go!

These are today's creations. After i got my goodies today i wanted to have a play, and as i had 3 birthday cards to make, i thought i could use some of my new bits. the dress card is for my cousin who has recently opened a wedding sop. i H2O'd the top and stickled the dress to give it lots of sparkle. i embossed some card with my new cuttlebug dots die and used a birthday stamp for the sentiment.

This next card is for my nans birthday. its my new PB stamp which is so cute! I watercoloured it as usual and used a pearlescent card and some gorgeous scrapbooking paper that i had left over. (cant remember who its by but i could find out if anyone does want to know) I again used by bug to emboss the dots again and used a wavey birthday stamp along the top.

This card is my favourite i've made in a long time. My niece is very special to me so i had to make a special card. I used some gorgeous scrapbooking paper from pebbles inc and embossed a piece of card with my dots (again!!) My new alphabet bought today is gorgeous and stamps so well. i added happy 8th with some doodlebug rub ons and emily was done with some fantastic velvety,sticky alphabet from a that pound shop place. I got them a long time ago now so they wont have them anymore. wish i bought packs of them! The gorgeous unicorn is a lily of the valley die cut which i edged with some pink H2O. the ribbon is doodlebug and i held the flowers together with a gorgeous sugar coated doodlebug brad.

glitterpot stash.

oh how i adore that shop!! they r so nice in there and the stock is amazing. they won the best craft shop for the south east for the 2nd yr in a row and are having a 10%discount day today and tomo, and as i had vouchers from my birthday to spend in there i thought it would be rude not to go!

so here is the gorgeous lot of stash i bought:

The bottom right pic is all for my gorgeous niece who is 8 in 2 weeks time. she told us she doesnt want toys as she has too many, so she wants craft stuff just like auntie kezza has. so she is getting her own side kick, some dies, stamps, glitter, punches and some papers. Im sure we'll add to this as she wants some watercolour pencils as well as when we make cards together she copies me and colours them with a paintbrush. I love that she is following in my footsteps and i know we'll be having even more lovely crafting sessions together.

the unicorns i bought are for her bday card as she adores them, and i also got a sheet of those for her too.

I was so lucky, as some lovely person that still remains unknown, sent me some vouchers to spend in the glitterpot for my 30th bday that has just past, so i got to treat myself more than normal. I love the new sugar nellie stamps, they r so sweet. i cant wait for them to get their magnolias in.

right im off to play with my new bits!