I've won!!!!

Hello everyone!!
I've been a bit quiet in blogland for a few days as the dreaded ME has been exhausting me and I also had a day of babysitting my adorable niece as well, which wore me out, so I've been resting up. 

I come back on and start to have a looksie round blogland and find i've won some blog candy!! I am over the moon as I don't often win things and it's put a big smile on my face! So thank you Sam from the lovely "whisker's cards" blog. 

I did manage to make one card a few days ago for an order, so I will share it with you. 

I'm not that happy with this one. I wish I had double mounted the red and blue card behind the image and am not so sure about the green ribbon either, but it's made now. The lady who made the order wanted something about how proud she was of her dad, so I made the sentiment with good old rub on's.
I adore these LOTV images, and did have to buy this one specifically for this card, but i'm sure it'll get used again! lol

I'm going to have to get a move on with a baby album as my next door neighbours are getting married in 9 days time and I want to make them an album for the little baby they lost last year :-( 

Anyway, I hope you are all as well as you can be and thank you for taking time to visit my blog x x 

Magnolia thank you.

Hello everyone! I hope you've all had a nice weekend/father's day. 

I've been very drained and delicate today after a very painful IBS attack last night, so have spent most of the day on the sofa. I kept looking at my coloured images though as was desperate to make a card, so I had a nice hour crafting before a nice hot bath.

I made this for my new friend, who I have met through facebook and both suffer with ME and fibromyalgia. She has sent me a few sweet little gifts and cards, so I wanted to thank her.

I know this image is of twins, but I thought it works well as a friends image too. 

Here is a close up of the gorgeously cute girls. I'm feeling like i'm starting to get to grips with promarkers now and I'm finding the more I practise the more I get used to how the pens and the blending work. I hope you agree!! x

I just love this shimmery, pink ribbon. I do need to learn how to tie a proper bow though! 

I used this cute little flower but added a little heart button to the centre instead of the little bead that was there. I love these swirls too, but I need to get a die cut die myself, so I can make them from whatever colours I want, rather than them being brown and me having to glitter over them. (although I don't think glitter is ever a bad thing! lol) 

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Stamp something- pretty papers

Magnolia stamp lovers- It's all about the buttons. 

The ribbon girl- use pink and cream 

I hope you all are well and have a nice evening before the week starts again x x 

father's day card.

Hello everyone!!
Another very grotty, wet and windy day. Don't you just love the British summer time! 

I have made a quick card for my dad for sunday, but it's always something that makes me a bit sad as my dad isn't really what you'd call a great dad. He doesn't  really make an effort with my sister and I at all, and despite living only 10-15 mins away, we barely see him. He hardly shows and interest or emotion, and it's at this time of year when I envy those who are lucky enough to have a great dad who loves them.
Despite this I can't not make one, despite him saying not to bother or waste money, but it wouldn't feel right if I didn't.
So I just made a quick card, and a funny sentiment that sums him up well as he is a bit of a handy man. I hope you like it. 

The shading doesn't seem to show up at all on the bear, but it is more shaded than it looks. I do love these Elzybells stamps, and can't wait to see what Elizabeth, the designer does, now she is designing for penny black. 

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

secret crafter- male card

cupcake craft challenge- oh boy oh boy oh boy

little red wagon- for dad

Scrappy frogs- simply red. 

papertake weekly- dads and lads

craft us crazy- father's day/masculine

wags and whiskers- one for the boys

I've also done some colouring of images today as I've been too tired to do much else. I'm slowly getting used to promarkers but of course, now need loads more to have a wider range of colours!! 

(excuse the bad photo as it's on my phone)

I got the adorable new girlie stamps from LOTV today. I am so impressed again with how fast their delivery is, and the stamps stamp so well. I love them! I daren't even think how much I've spent on new stamps recently. The way I look at it is that i'm too poorly to go out and live like normal, so crafting is my passion and hobby. 

I thought i'd give you all a look at what I found when I got out of the bath today:

again, i'm sorry for poor photo, but I just grabbed my camera when I saw how cosy she looked. I do adore my little fur baby. 

I hope you are all ok and have a nice weekend x x x x

Lily of the Valley, my new love.

Hello everyone! It's been such a grotty day, which involved me being soaked to the skin and hiding under a tree when I took little Millie moo moos for a walk. So the rest of the day I decided crafting was in order.

This is another of my new LOTV stamps and I coloured her in with promarkers again. I've noticed that the black ink seems to fade under the markers though and am not always getting nice, crisp images after they are coloured. I'm using versafine black ink. Is this the wrong ink to be using with markers? I'd rather use an ink that can be wiped off with an alcohol free wet wipe, and not a proper cleaner, so any recommendations, apart from stazon (unless that is what I need), are gratefully received.


I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Totally gorjuss- "flowers"

LOTV- "bring on the music". (I used Stevie Wonder's "happy birthday") 

I hope you are all ok and haven't been soaked too many times today! xx

Another Tilda card.

Here is a card for another of my little cousins. This image is so cute and was dying to be glittered up! 

I think the magnolia papers are just adorable and will probably be using them a lot!
I wish the letters stood out more, and I tried to glitter them up to make them stand out more. I should have put them on some card to make them pop out more, but never mind. I'm sure little "squidge" (our nick name for her) will love it. 

Tilda and Butterfly

For my cousin's birthday I thought my new magnolia stamp was perfect for her.

I'm entering this card into the challenge over at Flutter by Wednesday- polka dots. 

I used my cuttlebug dotty die for this and the adorable Tilda is holding a butterfly. 

It can also fit with this weeks challenge over at Cute Card Thursday, which is to use pearls or pins. I have used 3 little pink pearls. 

Lily of the Valley stamps!!

Hello everyone! 

I have had a lovely day crafting. I spent yesterday feeling completely dreadful and barely moved off the settee, but today was a better day so I got some crafting done.

The day started off well with a crafty delivery from the postman. I ordered some of the GORGEOUS Lily of the Valley stamps, after seeing them used on so many lovely cards on blogs. I also had a few sneaky purchases from the Glitterpot, which included a few more Magnolias, a new embossing folder and some much needed Bazzill. 

I was then having a nosey round some blogs and saw that Lily of the Valley had released some more adorable girl stamps, so of course it was essential that I ordered some!! I can't wait to get them. The service is great and very fast so I'm sure I won't have to wait too long. 

I had an order from someone for an anniversary card for her parents so I got on to making this, with the adorable "love Grows" stamp. 

I decided to have another go with my promarkers and am reasonably pleased with how it's come out. I do need more practise and I find it tricky to work out what colours I need and with how much darker they look when they are wet. 

So if any of you have any tips for me after what u've seen please do! 

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Stamp Something- Which is to use something punched or die cut (I have used die cut swirls)

A spoonful of Sugar- who's theme is "splish splash". Now I really have stretched this theme I know, but as she is watering the plant, I thought that would be ok, with a theme of water. (if it isn't ok, then I understand if you want to cancel my entry). 

I hope you all as well as possible and have had some sunshine today! 

Gardening Tilda

Hello everyone! 

I'm just so in love with my new magnolia stamps and am loving using them on the 8x8" cards. I adore the new papers as well and am forcing myself to actually use them, as then i'll just HAVE to buy more! 

I hope you like it:

I've coloured the images with water colour pencils. I've still not quite got the hang of markers, and not quite enough of them to blend the colours properly. I do feel like I have a bit more control over the pencils and a water brush.
I've added some light blue chalk as a sky too and I like the effect, so will probably do it more.
I've cut out and mounted Tilda to give some dimension to the card, as well as the sentiment. I made that with a doodlebug stamp for the outline and the sentiment is an Elzybells stamp. 

I'm entering this into the papertake weekly challenge as it's an "anything goes". 

Have a good weekend everyone xxxxx

2 order cards.

I did just put these in the last post, but I wanted to enter that one in some comps, so I have made a new post now! lol 

I'm not feeling so well today, so i'm off to settle down and watercolour some images to try and take my mind off it. HAGD! xx

Magnolia card

I was so eager to use my new magnolia stamps I treated myself to as well as the 8x8" cards, so I had a lovely few relaxing hours of crafting. 

I love the new magnolia papers too, but find it hard to use them, I just want to look at them! lol 

Here is a close up of gorgeous butterfly Tilda, all glittered up. 

I used a variety of flowers from my stash, and added card candi from Craftwork cards as the flower centres and added yet more glitter. 

I hope you like it!

I hope you are all having a nice day, despite the rain! (that's if you have rain like we have here in the south!) 

I am entering this card into the following challenges: 

Magnolia stamp lovers

A spoonful of sugar

long time no craft.

Illness has a lot to answer for! The winter was a very difficult time for me and the ME got much worse. I then started to get a lot more pain than I was used to, so I recently went back to the doctors to see if there could be something else. 

I was then diagnosed with Fibromyalgia too. It was bittersweet as it meant I knew why I'd been in so much more pain, but it then adds something else for me to cope with and another thing that can't be cured. 

Anyway, let's get on to happier things! I've been slowly crafting again and have a few scrapbook pages to show you all. 

I had my niece, who is now 11, with me for some of half term, so we worked together on these two pages. 

Here is a close up of the title. I love the stickers from doodlebug. 

The journalling die cut is also from doodlebug. 

We had such a fun day at the halloween festival and Emily, my niece, came up with great ideas for the pages and how to match colours etc..
We did this next page about the great selection of pumpkins. Some of them were huge! 

We both love these doodlebug rub ons. It suited the fun theme of the page. 

Here are the pages together. 

I hope you like them. I'll add some cards soon as I've made a few cards too.
I hope you are all as well as possible xxxxx

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!

Long time no blog! Things have either been busy or i've been too ill to even move off the sofa. This relapse lark is not much fun. 
I have been doing a bit of manic crafting for a craft fair, but it was a waste of time as hardly anyone turned up, it was in an awful venue and on a freezing cold midweek night, so i sold nothing :-( 
I'm trying again on the 7th at a pub that has much more passing traffic and regulars etc... and near to lots of homes, so so hoping i sell a few bits as i need some more money for prezzies! 

Here are a few of the things i made:

 

 

Inside pages: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another album:

 

 

 

A fold out album:

 

 

Inside pages: 

 

 

 

 

 

Chipboard tree decorations:

 

 

 

 

Little gift box:

 

 

That lot exhausted me so i've not made anything more for a few days. BUT as i've been snowed in and i adore Christmas, i have got my tree up and am working on making this a festive little haven. 

I'm sure some of you have had snow worse than i have but it's been weird as two days ago we had hardly anything then now we have this:

This was the view from my front door this morning! 

 

 

 

walking in a winter wonderland! 

 

 

The village pond: 

 

 

Seagulls on the pond, and i'm not even that close to the sea! lol 

 

Millie moo moos running in the snow. 

Right, well i've probably bored the hell out of you all now with hundreds of photos!

I hope you are all as well as possible x