Pay it forward blog candy.

Hello everyone! It's blog candy time. I have been lucky enough to win some candy in the past so I thought i'd "pay it forward" and hopefully make some new blogging friends along the way.

So who fancies winning this lot of goodies?? 

In this bundle there is:


-A Stampin' up Terrific tags stamp set
-2 LOTV stamps (one mounted) "Rosie with cake" and "By the river"
-Stampavie, Lily and Milo stamp
-A Marianne design cat stamp
-Personal Impressions Christmas "tinchies" swirly snowflake stamp
-2 Dovecraft glitter rub on sets, sugar and spice and tea house
-Jillybean soup Christmas labels
-Paperchase Christmas embellishments
-Basic Grey birthday rub ons
-30 heart pins from the ribbon girl
-4 heart paper doilies
-doodlebug christmas ribbon
-Fizzy moon glittery red ribbon
-A roll of pink raffia ribbon
-3 skeins of Making Memories scrapbook yarn
- a gelly roll metallic sakura pen
-2 large and 5 small wooden hearts
-5 wooden butterfly buttons
-bows and flowers
-11 charms
- and last but not least OVER 71 stamped images and sentiments from "Elzybells stamps" (which are now discontinued), Whimsy stamps (Christmas ticket sentiments and the banner sentiments), Penny Black, Woodware.

EDITED TO ADD, I WAS UNAWARE THAT YOU AREN'T ALLOWED TO SHARE STAMPED IMAGES WITH SUGAR NELLIE, SO HAVE DELETED THAT. THANKS FOR LETTING ME KNOW POPS. 

Right here are the rules:


(1) you must be or become a follower (but only genuine please)
(2) add a link and pic to your sidebar to spread the word
(3) leave a comment for me so I can have a nosey at all your creations and put your name into the draw!

My niece wants to draw the winner out of a hat, so I will take photos of her doing just that and will share them with you. 


Closing date for entries is 3rd December, so that the winner can have the bits in plenty of time to use the Christmassy bits. 


Good luck and I look forward to "meeting" more of you! 

yet more illness and colouring!

Hello bloggers. Thank you for lovely comments on my last post xx It always puts a smile on my face when I see comments have been left.  thank you to you all for those compliments about my photos. Keryn,(I still love our shared, but spelt different name!)  It is another hobby of mine, but I don't get out enough to take as many as i'd like :-( I did a photography evening course nearly 2 years ago, when I was having a slightly better time healthwise, and passed the BTEC with a credit. I completely loved it and learnt a lot and when I improve health wise i'll be taking more photos. 



Right, well health update. I've got a nasty virus on top of everything else now, as you know. Well we then thought it may be glandular fever, as my niece was diagnosed with it recently, but she has improved a bit and we are doubtful if it was the correct diagnosis, so hopefully that too means that I don't have it either.
I have felt very very poorly though, with an awful throat, bad ears, cold symptoms, light headedness, nausea and all the rest. Just yucky and it's wiping me out more than I normally am.
So, I've done nothing all week apart from lay watching tv and colouring images. I'm finding it so relaxing and keeps me occupied when I'm too ill to do anything else. I do find it so hard just laying there doing nothing.

Anyway, I thought i'd share with you some photos of the images i've done so far. I am starting to slowly get to grips with promarkers now and am finding my own technique of using them how I like to. I still have a while to go until my colouring is as good as some I see on blogland, but I'm happy with them more now. I hope you like :


(ooops, I pressed publish, before finishing my post. My brain barely works when I'm this tired).

I adore this image from sugar nellie, but I need to work on how to make it look fluffy and knitted. I tried to make the pen bleed a bit around the heart to make it look fluffier, but it didn't really work. 

This is another GORGEOUS sugar nellie stamp. I do love a chubby, jolly santa image.I've added a bit of sparkle to him as well on his buckle and boots and on some of the gifts.
(I'm sorry the photos are a bit dark, but i've taken them this evening.)

Two of my favourite Tilda's in different colour ways. She is just so cute and I love sitting them on things to add some dimension to cards.

Finally I adore this LOTV stamp and loved colouring him:

OOOooo before I forget! I made a card the other day!! My lovely godson was 6 last month, but i've been so poorly and didn't have the money to get his prezzies, so they are very late. :-( Hopefully with his new DS game he won't mind. This is the card I made him:

Before I go I need some advice please. I have seen so many people get such lovely colours using distress inks, so while Craft Obsessions was having an offer on them this past weekend, I ordered a few. I got them today, but when I've gone to use one on the card I use, it just separated and didn't look smooth and even at all. I know they are meant to have a bit of a distressed look, but on tutorials I've watched, they have given lovely deep, even colour. So is there a certain card I need to be using with distress inks and a paintbrush? I'm got some coated card from Rymans (I followed advice from the lovely Vicky on that). Is the coating on it causing this problem? 


Here is a photo to show what I mean, but it's not great:

I hope i'm explaining myself well enough. It just didn't seem to spread very well and went very gappy. When I've seen others use them they get a much smoother finish with them. I hope i'm not being stupid and this is how they work. Any advice is very welcome. 


I hope you are all as well as possible and avoiding all these yucky bugs going round. Thank you as always for taking the time to read my blog xxxx

Duvet crafting.

Hello everyone! Thank you to those who have left messages. They are so appreciated. Welcome to new followers too. It's so lovely to meet more people and find new blogs that inspire me.

Well, i'm still feeling pretty grotty. My 11 yr old niece has just been diagnosed with glandular fever and I am now getting a lot of the same symptoms. Having ME makes me far more susceptible to viruses and bugs, so my auntie took me to the Dr's. What a waste of time that was! He said that there isn't any point testing to see if it is, as there isn't anything they can do about it anyway.
He said that most people get it in their lifetime, many who don't realise, and that even if I had anti bodies in my blood, then it could mean I've had it before or have it now.
I've since been told by a few people that he's talking rubbish and they were all tested for it. He is a condescending man and I won't be seeing him again.

So I don't know if I do have it as well or not, but I do know i'm feeling pretty awful. I've made a bed up in the living room from sofa cushions and blankets and spend most of my day laying watching tv or sleeping. I'm so fed up but I always remind myself that there are many worse off, so I will just cope each day and hope to boost myself up a bit soon.

I have kept my promarkers and stamped images next to me and have been doing bits of colouring when I can, so that's all I have to show you at the minute, craft wise :-( 

Here is one of my adorable new Magnolias. I just love these stamps so much. I just can't afford them quick enough! lol.

Excuse the poor photos, but just snapped and cropped on here.

As i've not got any card photos to show you, I thought I'd share a few i've taken in the past few weeks:


Isn't autumn just so pretty! 

This is me, with my little Millie moo moos, My niece Emily with her shiloh, my auntie Jayne with her Lucy and my lovely mum with my sister's other doggie, weebo. It was so lovely to get out for a nice walk with the dogs. I was very ill the next few days, but it is always worth grabbing the special moments and paying the price. I will not let this illness take away all of my life. 

I am lucky to have such a great bonfire night in my village, as I just love it. Millie isn't scared by it at all, so i'm lucky. 

Right, I don't want to bombard you with photos!! I hope you are all as well as possible and i'll be back soon, to put my blog candy up! 

Phew, I've found it again!!

Hi everyone!! It seems that shopping is the way to kick start my mojo! lol I popped onto my favourite shop online, the Glitterpot, and fell in love with the new Magnolias and some Christmas papers. I've now been itching to colour them in, so have made a bed up in the living room, stamped images and will now rest up whilst taking time to colour my images ready to make cards with. I wish my football accumulator bet had been successful, as I could the have bought the whole set!! Oh well, maybe next week.

I will put a pic up soon, once i've got some coloured, or even some cards made. I will also be putting my candy up soon as well. 


Oh and more exciting is the fact that I can put my fairy lights and Christmas decorations up in just over 3 weeks time!!!! I cannot wait. I adore Christmas and can't stand this doom, gloom and darkness that this time of year brings, so the 1st Dec is always time to brighten things up for me! 


I've managed to make it round a few of your blogs and will do more later, after a rest. I wish you all a good day xxxxxxxxxx

Where has my mojo gone??? :-(

Hello Bloggers!

Long time no speak. I seem to have hit a bit of a wall lately. The longer i've gone on feeling so exhausted and in pain, the less and less I feel like crafting :-(
I hate it. I go through spells like this, when I just can't even bare the thought of sitting up for too long, let alone craft anything.

I finally got a new corner desk from Ikea and some other storage bits, and I thought that would really help kick start me back into it, but I ended up having to put a lot of stuff on it, whilst trying to de clutter my wardrobe, and it's been unused. I now need to find the energy to clear it all off and set it all up nicely, and then maybe I can get a card made at least.

It's so horrible feeling so wiped out that doing anything is just too much of an effort. I really get so so frustrated with this illness, as I used to be so active and busy. The clocks going back doesn't help either, as the lack of daylight really affects me too. Time to bring out my SAD lamp again. 


I'm sorry that this post is a moany one. I will really try to get crafting again soon and show you some of my creations. I'll take some pics of my new crafting space too when it's all tidy.

I hope you are all as well as possible and i'm sorry i've not been round commenting on your blogs xxxx

small update.

Hi everyone. I just wanted to pop along and let you all know that i've been very poorly again for a while and am having a bit of a relapse with the ME. The fibromyalgia pain has been worse too, so i've not been well enough to do much at all, other than lay on the settee. It's really hard to cope with and I'm worrying with how low i'm feeling again. Maybe a check with the DR to make sure nothing else is going on might be in order.

Anyway, I'll be popping round your blogs to see what lovely cards you've been making, but I am not well enough to leave messages as not on here for long periods.

Hope you are all ok and are all as well as possible. Speak soon xxxx

struggling along...

Hi everyone. I'm sorry i've not been blogging or visiting your blogs. I'm still not doing great and am feeling more wiped out than normal again, since having that big thing. Luckily the lump in my neck has gone down, but i'm still not feeling well. Not even well enough to make cards :-(

I have got one to show you though, as I made this last week sometime. 

I'm sorry it's not a very chatty update, but i'm going back on the settee under lots of blankets. I hope you are all doing well and enjoying your week. I will try to get round all your blogs soon xxxxxx

Santa Claus is coming to town.........

Hello everyone!! I know some of you are now groaning, shouting "it's September!!" at the screen, but it's only 3 months ish until Santa is on his way! Woohoo as I love Christmas. Everything about it. I can't wait to buy more folksy type decorations this year from a local farm, to go with my new decor!

Anyway, I'm in the mood big time for making Christmas cards and i've made one of my bigger 8x8" cards. I just adoreeeeeeeeee this LOTV image and will be using this little man a lot I think. I have also used some more angel hair paper that I found in my stash as well as some red sequins that I bought in the January sales from WHSmith, with using them on cards in mind.
I hope you like it! :

I found these lush papers in my stash from Blonde Moments and thought they went perfectly with the colours i'd used and the baubles on them. I loved glittering up the tinsel for proper shimmer. I've used my bug to emboss the red card to add more "bauble" shapes. I bought a ribbon maker, just a cheapy from papermania, as I just couldn't tie a bow and it sit flatter. I've still had trouble sticking this one on, and will need to cover up the sticky pad a bit more! 

I'm entering this into the following challenges:

Charisma Cardz Challenge: Inspired by a song.

Secret Crafter- inspired by a song. 

(My song, obviously being "santa claus is coming to town") 

Passion for promarkers- Theme- Beary special 

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I hope you are all having a nice Wednesday. I'm still not feeling great, but managed to have a nice little walk with Millie moo and now printing some nitwits papers out whilst singing to Take That! It reminds me of seeing them this year at Wembley with my mum. We both still get a bit choked up when we talk about it as it was just so so good and very special for us to share it together. We are going to see Josh Groban in November too, which will be very special. If you haven't heard of him he has the most beautiful voice and his song "To where you are" is very special to us as we played it at Grandad's funeral and we always think of him when we hear it. It's a beautiful song if you've not heard it and if you have lost someone dear to you, it will probably mean as much to you as well.

Thank you as always for your comments. I do love coming on and seeing messages from you lovely lot! Have a good evening. oh and one more thing..... 4 more sleeps until Downton Abbey returns!! My god I just simply adore that programme and squeal everytime I see the advert!! lol 

Sketch and stash challenge 70.

hello bloggers! I hope you are all as well as possible. I'm thinking of all you northerners who are getting the tail end of hurricane Katia. I hope not too much damage is done. It's been windy "down souf" but it's been quite a nice day. I enjoyed a bit of a blow about walking Millie as I'm feeling rotten, so it gave me a nice bit of fresh air.
I've had to give in and take the antibiotics as the pain has spread all up the side of my neck and ear and I have a horrible headache and even pain in my eye sockets, so it would be silly to not take them. 


I've been a crying mess lately. I don't know what's got into me. I cried a lot yesterday watching the memorials for 9/11. I watched the British memorial and seeing those poor families read out their family members or friends names and then placing those roses was just so emotional. So so sad, that after 10 years, it still seems so raw.
  I then cried watching a gorilla give birth to a little baby, on a programme I watched. I adore animals and seeing how natural birth was for her and how she pulled him out as she gave birth was just amazing. She kept lifting him up to look at him and it brought tears to my eyes!
  Then I cried at the X factor, which I do most weeks, as I'm a soppy cow! lol

Then today, I was talking to my sis and she was telling me about hearing a song on the radio that made her sob in the kitchen, as it was played at our grandad's funeral. I had forgotten about it, due to my memory problems, and she played me some, and bloody hell did it bring those memories back, so I cried my eyes out again!! My family are all feeling very emotional at the minute, as we lost him 10 years ago this month. It was not long after the 9/11 attacks, so I think it's all just reminding us of the pain and upset we all went through. He was the first close person we had lost, and we were all very close to him, so it's still hard after 10 years. You never quite get over losing someone you love do you!

So, i'm hoping I have no more tears today as i'm all cried out! lol. I am quite content though, so at least i'm not feeling down with it.

          _____________________________________________________


Right, onto my card. I am trying to keep my mind on something other than how rough I feel, so I wanted to have a go at the new challenge over at Sketch and stash. It is an open challenge to use any of the sketches on the blog.

I chose this sketch, no. 52:

and here is what I did with it:

Close up of adorable Tilda. 

Close up of snowflake charm. 

Close up of sentiment. 

I was so excited when these gorgeous Whimsy stamps arrived this morning from the US. I expect they will be used a lot of my Christmas cards this year! 

I also found some gold angel hair, when I went through some Christmas stash i'd put away, and thought it went perfect with this card. (Tilda's socks are more glittery in real life.) I think all this card needs is some Christmassy flowers, but I haven't got any yet, so when I can afford it, I'll be ordering some from wild orchid crafts! 

I've just seen that part two of the challenges there are to use new or neglected stash and to mention which is which. Well my new are the Whimsy Stamps, and my neglected is the angel hair paper!  

I hope you all have a nice evening and thank you as always for any comments left. They are really appreciated xxx

Saturday's update.

Hello everyone!! I hope you are all having a nice weekend so far.

I'm having to rest up big time as i'm a bit poorly. I woke yesterday morning with a pain in my throat/neck and found a big, painful lump on the front of my neck. I freaked the hell out of me and I rang for a Dr's app straight away for later in the day when mum could take me.
I hadn't been feeling very well for a few days and thought I was coming down with some sort of cold bug or something.
Well, it turns out I have an infection somewhere, probably in my throat/tonsils, and my lymph nodes in my throat have swollen to try to heal it of course. I've been given anti biotics, but I hate taking them as they always upset your tummy, so she said to take them if it hasn't started to settle by monday. So until then i'm filling myself full of berries, fruit, water etc.. to get as many anti oxidants into me as possible! lol

So i'm feeling bit poo poo and have to rest more than normal. I will get back on the settee in a min and colour some more images. I did a few the other day, but one just didn't work. (the LOTV carolling girl holding the candle). I just couldn't get the shading on her dress right so it's going in the bin and I need to try again.

I did manage to make a little card a few days back with another of my new LOTV Christmas images. This one is just too adorable and I think i'll use it quite a bit this year! Hope you like it. xx

It looks more glittery/shimmery in real life, as i've used sakura glitter pens on the babygro dots and the wheels. I'm really not happy with my camera still. I'm going to have to get someone to look at it for me, as my pics never look lovely and crisp like many of yours do. 

Right i'm off back to the settee in a bit. I'm in heaven later with Strictly come dancing back on, then Red or Black, then the X factor, then either Million pound drop or Jonathan Ross, then Match of the Day! Perfick!
Enjoy your saturday's!!! xxx

the start of my Christmas cards!

Hello everyone!! I hope you are all having a good day. I'm very sleepy again today and dropped a lit match on my carpet! Luckily I blew it out very quickly and it's only just a little bit burnt, but it scares me what silly things I do when i'm having a more then normal tired day. 


I could not believe when my postie arrived today. I got my new LOTV stamps! How is that for amazingly fast delivery!! I ordered them just after midnight, yesterday morning I suppose, and got them this morning. I couldn't believe it! I can't wait to have a play with them.

I've managed to make one card today, but am too tired to do much more today.

I made this with one of my gorgeous new LOTV stamps I got last week. I just adore robins! 

Side view

Close up of the adorable image. 

Close up of sentiment. 

I'm entering this into the following challenges:

LOTV- sketch by pops. I love this sketch and it's made me layer more! 

Papertake weekly- anything goes. 

Stampin' for the weekend- Holidays (My favourite of all being Christmas!)

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I hope you all have a lovely evening. Thank you for visiting me and for lovely comments as always xxxxxxxxx

crafty buys!!

Hello everyone!! What a horrible windy and rainy day it is here today! That just means I have to stay tucked up inside and craft and rest!

I had a right little treat on sunday. My dad had given me some money for some crafty spends (which was very very surprising!) and I popped along to the glitterpot with my niece. OOOOOOO i could spend hours in there and easily hundreds of pounds at a time (if i was rich! lol). I'm so so lucky to have it so close to me. I bought some lovely bits and bobs, along with some bits for my upcoming blog candy. (I'm too excited to do it, so I doubt i'll be able to wait until December, which is when I thought I might do it). 


I just went to take some pics to show you but my camera battery is flat, so it's charging now and i'll add some pics in a while.
I also saved enough to buy a few of the adorable new LOTV stamps. I was up at midnight when the new collection went on sale, so I thought i'd get in there quick. I ordered these beauties from the newest collection:

And these from the first collection fell into my basket to! Does that happen to you?? You go on to order 3 stamps and come away with 6 in your basket??!! lol 

Aren't they just adorable!!! I really love the designs and can't wait to start on my Christmas cards! 

I've not got any cards to show you just yet, but i'll be making some today as I've been colouring images on the settee feeling too worn out to walk and in a lot of pain with my legs. I get bored if I don't do something, so colouring images is great for when i'm physically wiped out.

Talking of colouring..... at the Glitterpot, they had demonstrators there and Emily and I had a chat with a women colouring beautifully with copics. I am so torn now as I went for promarkers as I was told they were cheaper, but the copics just look beautiful. There seem to be some nicer muted colours and I also didn't know they were refillable. She also told me about the way that the numbers work and that they are based on the colour wheel, which makes matching tones is much easier for blending.
I do love my promarkers, but when going round blogs, I keep being drawn to some amazing colouring by people using copics. I don't seem to be able to get this sort of effect that people such as the amazingly talented Claudia Rosa at pretty pressings. 

She has such lovely light areas in her colouring, to really create shape, but I can't seem to get anything like that without having quite harsh lines of colour. I try to leave much lighter areas, but to blend the darker colours in, you need to go over them with the lighter colour, which then darkens the lighter colour by putting a second layer over it. Maybe I just still can't quite get to grips with markers??
I thought with the broader range of tones with the copics, I could get that effect better?? What do you all think?? advice or tips are very welcome. 

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Phew it is windy out there. I've just been out to walk Millie moo and we both got bit soggy, but it was strangely nice too. Blew the cobwebs away!
I came back with big pockets full of conkers too! lol I just love them. They are so pretty and my house always has them on the windowsills from the autumn to keep the spiders away. Whether it works, I'm not sure, but I'm willing to try anything to keep those blighters away from me. 

Aren't they such a pretty part of nature! 

Right I also promised to show some of my new lush stash! I got some lovely papers:

and some other bits and pieces. I just could not resist this adorable penny black stamp. I do love the mice! 

Here are the images i've coloured so far, so i'll put them up when i've made them into cards! 

Ok, I think I have waffled on long enough!! I wish you all a good rest of the day and thank you as always for any comments left xxxx