Getting back in the swing...

...with a christmas gift. Now hopefully my neighbours daughters won't see this as it's a christmas gift for one of them, I have to adnmit I'm never sure what to get them but like to give them a small gift and as one is nearing 10 and I think the othe is 13 or 14  and I like to give them something similar I am finding it harder as they get older.

I decided on a note book and bookmark set especially since my sassy stamps were waiting for me when I came home from the hospital,I can't believe how long it's taken me to make this but am quite pleased with the outcome. I used the hippie chick from the new sugar nellie artist and they are a dream to colour.I used a combination of promarkers for the skin tones and sakura glaze and glitter pens for her clothes, love the shine they give almost enamelly.

 Chloe use to be an all pink girl but recently had her bedroom redecorated and her mum was complaining she had expensive taste as she picked a teal set from next, or was it laura ashley not sure but my fav colour anyway, so I think she's got good taste. With that in mind I decided to use both pink and teal/turquiose. The note book I covered was a bargin but from Asda 3 for £1 and I thought it would make a good base.

The papers were scraps from my stash so not sure of the make ,think they might be k and co. I added pink glitter glue to the red flowers on the pink paper and sakura glitter pen to the outlines on the blue paper for extra girly spakle. The fibres were from various raks and the beads on the charm from a set my son was given when he was about 3 so these are old as he's 16 now.
I coloured the middle flower with turquoise promarker and recoloured some pale blue glitter paper with the same promarker for the letters of Chloe's name so it would all match.

I thought adding a book mark was an added bonus, I made one for my son in this style as he reads loads and wanted another bookmark as he had 2 books on the go at once, don't know how he doesn't get confused, and he said it was a much better style than a slot in one as it stays put. I tried to keep the design fairly flat so it doesn't distort the book too much even though I did think about adding a matching flower cluster, I decided not to as I thought it might be a bit too bulky.

Hopefully I'll soon be back up to speed as I still have a few birthdays between now and christmas and mum has asked for some personilsed christmas cards for the grandchildren and my siblings and step siblings so thats 9 grandchildren , 5 couples cards, one for husband and then there are more couple cards for their close friends. Then I have all my christmas cards to make and however many my son and hubby want for work and school, gosh didn't realise there was so many. Well plenty of excuses to craft!

I would like to enter my project into the following challenges:-

A spoon full of sugar-punches or dies ( I used corner punches and letter dies too)

Simon says- puches or dies

YNS-bookmark

Papertake-sparkly and bright

Charisma challenges-matching set

Totally papercrafts-Bling it on

Truely Scrumptious-fab layout, options of petals,pearls and pins, well I have plenty of petals.

Abc challenges-G is for glitter

Digi doodles-anything goes

Stamp something with some pink- use pink on your project

One stop craft challenge-anything goes

wow I can't believe I found so many challenges in my book that my project fits maybe I'll be lucky and get randomly picked as a winner with all these challenges, if not I'm still very happy with what I've made, just hope Chloe will be too.

Are you ready...

For something spooky?

Our challenge this time over at Penny's is a colour challenge of orange, black and purple. Now not saying you have to do something halloween themed but if you have any last minute things to do for halloween these colours sure lend themselves well to the celebration don't they.

We have a 2 fab sponsors this time so 2 fab prizes, (wish I could join in too) and I'm sure you'll agree as it's..., no I'm a spoil sport I think you'll have to go over to Penny's to find out so joyfully whiff across in a puff of smoke and find out all those important deets right here.

For my project I made a shaker halloween card with an image I was given in a rak and am sorry to say have no idea who this cutie is by. She looks all cosy and wrapped up warm for her halloween party outing though with her bright pumpkin . The shaker has witches and ghosts in and the outer edge is suppose to be the outside of a pumpkin, hope you can tell.

Can't wait to see what you all come up with, and how many of you make halloween things too.

There are quite a few other halloween challenges around at the moment so I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:-

CRAFT-spooky
Crazy 4 challenges-halloween
Drunken stamper-halloween
elephantastic-halloween
Baby Bud Designs-halloween
The Corrosive challenge-halloween or orange and black
Cowgirl sunday challenge- halloween
Raise the bar-colour challenge
Creative inspirations-halloween
Pear tree designs-halloween
Tuesday taggers-halloween including purple
Crafty goings on candy-a coloured in image

It's a celebration

'hey hey come join our party, celebrate come on'. In the words of Lionel Richie well something like that anyway, we are having a celebration.

Creative craft challenges is one year old and we have lots of prizes to go with our party celebration, and you have to be in it to win as they say. These 'theys' have alot to say for themselves don't they, but we have some fab prizes lined up and plenty of them too so please come on over and join in the funand meet our new design team members too, so loads more inspiration for you all and now there's sure to be a style to suit everyone.

My cards are made with just some of the fab stuff our generous sponsors gave us to play with, firstly Meljen gave us some digi images to play with and this just shouts Party so I stuck to bright colours and added some forever friends party papers and mirri card topped off with some swirly buttons and sentiment. Meljen is offering not one but 3 prizes.

My next card is made with another sponsors generous offerings, digi papers and fun image too and a fab sentiment. These are from stichy bear who are offering a fab prize too.

We have other prizes too from crafty ribbons,  some odd girl,imag-e-nation, lili of the valley,whiff of joy and funky kits too, as well as from some of our design team members. It really is worth popping across here. With all these fab prizes on offer I wish I could join in, wonder if the rest of the team would notice?

A quick christmas card

Quick as it was one I made last christmas and never got around to posting on here or using, though have to admit that was because I added glitter to the shaker acetate and didn't like it as it just stuck to the image and looked a real mess, loks better now honest.

The card is made with Kanban stamps and card and I just added colour in promarkers and stickles glitter, now all I've got to do is sit long enough on the computer to find some suitable challenges to enter, but I suppose it will break up the monotony of the afternoon or morning depending on when I get around to it, so who knows when this will get posted. Hubby and son are both on holiday for half term so I guess I won't get as much time to be bored as they are being wonderful and caring at the moment,though I did hear my son say this morning he couldn't wait for me to be back on my feet again as Dad doesn't know what he's doing, nice to be missed sometimes.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges;-
Lollipop crafts-winter play
Sarah Hurley-christmas but no red or green
Moving along with the times-use promarkers/anything goes sponsored by letraset
Fussy n fancy friday-winter wonderland
paper garden projects-holiday cards

Did I loose my creative side in the anaesthetic room?

Morning all hope today finds you all fit and well and lucky enough to be enjoying dry and pleasant seasonal weather.I feel like I have been away for ages although it's only just over a week.

 I should explain, I can't say I have been lucky enough to have been on holiday but have been in hospital for major surgery, the whys and what fors aren't important but I was so pleased to come home on sunday evening and even happier and more comfortable to have my stitches out on wednesday, but my abdomen, my son describes as a neon light display with patches of deep purple and I feel like I've been used as a football for an international final. I keep being told I am doing really well but I am so bored and so not into daytime telly.

I would love to utilise all this time for crafting, but I think I left my creative side in the anaesthetic room, though I have tried to play and can't believe how long it has taken me. I think the main problem is, if I sit for a while I get back ache and keep having to get up and walk around, so there is little time to get creativity flowing. I did make quite a few things including some DT projects before I went into hospital and they are all scheduled, but the others I might be lucky to find a few challenges for too.

When I arrived home my new sugar nellie stamps were waiting for me and I was despaprate to use them, I did colour in a couple of images and finally added to an altered tissue box I had done before hospital for my craft room, but will have to retake the picture as it was so dark. No doubt before I finish this post I'll need a change of position and walk so might manage it.

Told you, can't sit still for long.

I also got some new country cousin stamps and decided to enter the sugar bowl challenge. I have to say I was stumped as to what sentiment to add so for now just added a thankyou, I went for a vintage look by just stamping in brown ink on cream card and spot colouring. I used mica powders from the stampman dusted over versamark for the background and just added ribbon and twine and a bit of matt gold embossed card for mounting. These images are so detailed you don't need to be elaborate.

Hope you like it and that it means my crafty juices are returning too.I would also like to enter it for the following challenges:-

The sugar bowl-sketch,optional one for the boys

Charisma-vintage

Crafty purple frog-anything goes

Meljen-anything goes

My next couple of posts will doubtless be projects I made earlier and didn't get around to posting so please bear with me, I'm really hoping I get back in the swing of things soon and can get back to my dt duties of visiting all the fab inspiring entries for our challenges.

Don't forget over at creative craft challenges our next challenge will be celebrating our first anniversarry and I can only say I wish I could enter as we have such a large and varied selection of prizes up for grabs it's definitely not one to miss.

I've gone quackers

Seriously I love this duck, I just think it's so bloomin cute and love that sentiment too. I made a get well card with the duck on it for my brother when he was ill and added some daft sentiment about not letting what the quacks say get him down, I don't think he has quite the same sense of humour as me as he didn't think it was that funny, never mind I like the silly world I live in even if I have the sense of humour of a 5 year old sometimes.

My card has this fab duck on from another stampman plate, I have had them ages and have sort of refound them when I tidied my stamps up.Funny how you seem to only want to play with the new toys you have isn't it. I kept my card quite simple by just adding some walnut stained ink painted card, again form the stampman, I'm such a sucker for sparkly.


The card is my design team card for our theme over at Penny's and we can't wait to see all the different entries we will get as our theme is 'So long as it flys'. We have another fab sponsor Tiffany doodles.
Now I'm sure each and everyone of you has something in your stash that could be said to fly. I did have the idea of using some kind of time piece as time cetrtainly does seem to fly so fast now, must be a sign of age I suppose, but I couldn't believe I had nothing in my stash to allow me to do this so I stuck to something more conventional, but that doesn't stop you now does it.

Look forward to seeing what you all come up with so come on get those crafty fingers flying into action.

Trick or treat?

Halloween is looming and although it wasn't celebrated hugly when I was younger it's slowly getting there and it is now more of a fun holiday, though I think we still have a way to go to catch up with our US cousins.

Our challenge this time over at Creative Craft challenges is Trick or Treat.

What a wide and varied choice of project you can create with a title like that. It could be goodies for all the little ghouls and ghosties that will come a visiting or maybe you are practicing some spooky food in preparation for a party. Maybe a party decoration or fancy dress costume of some dark and sinister character or maybe just a simple halloween message in the form of a card. The list of possible interprtations is many. I'm sure we will see lots of greens and oranges and purples too and off course black and white.

We were all lucky enough to be given a halloween image by our sponsor this time The Crafy Pad. It has quite a few of the typically thought of halloween components , pumpkin , bats,broom and lucky black cat. I decided to add an embossed spiders web and sprayed my card with some moonglow spray for a bit of sparkle. My image I coloured with promarkers then went over with a clear embossing ink pen and clear embossing powder. Once it had cooled down I used a brayer and some dye based inks to achieve the gradient effect . The clear powder means that if you're quick you can wipe the ink off those areas with something like kitchen roll and they shine through. It beats trying to go around the edges of the image.

My second card I made a tent card as I'd been given this image in a rak. I've been told by Sandra that she thinks it's a Pink Gem image. I again coloured her in with promarkers and just cut her out and attached her with some fishing line as I have put my bag of link loops somewhere so safe I can't find them.

The moon is simply a circle of glitter paper stuck on black card I used to back the inside of the card. The front of the cards is just a selection of pumpkin images which I masked and again coloured with promarkers. I have to say I was really pleased how this one turned out.

For more inspiration fly across to Creative craft challenges and have a spooktacular time joining in with this fun challenge, can't wait to see what you all come up with.
I'd also like to say a huge welcome to our new DT members Jessica,Nikki, Carly-ann and Jenny, please pop by and give them your congratulations, can't wait to see what you do.

I would like to enter my cards for the following challenges:-
Simon says-halloween
One stitch at a time-use digi images or papers
Scrapbook sisters-full moon
Treehouse-spooky
Digidoodles-orange me glad
Fussy n fancy-halloween projects
Paper romance-halloween or fall
Inky impressions -anything goes
Elephantastic-anything goes
Stempel-magic-halloween
Easy craft projects-halloween
The shabby tea room-picture inspiration
Pear tree designs-autumn
Cupcake crafts-halloween scary creatures
Passion for promarkers -colour challenge

HELP PLEASE-Problems with my reading List

Hi all is anyone else having this problem, My reasding list entries are huge and now I can't scroll down any more than about 20 entries. I have looked for somewhere to ask Blogger but can't find anywhere to report the problem, is it just me or has anyone else got this?


"pm, don't know what it was but things seem to be back to normal, hope yours is too Mel, wierd!

Does it show my age...

... if I say my baby brother will be 40 next month. Well he is and I've made him a card that really will let everyone else know too.

I got the idea when I was blog hopping but am sorry I can't remember whose blog it was but thought it was a fab idea, so whoever you are thankyou. I wanted something simple in style as though my brother is into cycling I recently made 2 cards for my mum to send to his sons with my 2 cyles stamps and didn't want to duplicate as their birthdays are all within about 6 weeks of each other. The papers are k and company and I love the old toy paper, I know toys weren't really like this when he was little but it just adds to the age thing. The flags are just scraps but I think add to the celebration element and it's not too fussy for a male either.

I would like to enter this card for the following challenges:-

Sarah Hurley-stitching

Creative inspirations wednesday challenge-birthday

One stop craft challenge-celebration

Pollycraft -anything goes

Cowgirl stampin sunday-anything goes

crafty calendar -autumn birthdays

creative belli blog-numbers

Ooh la la- non floral

Papercutz challenge-use 3 designer papers

Paper sundaes- something from your stash(I've had the papers for a couple of years)

Twit-ter-woo

Morning all on this wet and dreary morning, but if we only have wet weather on alternate days thats fine by me as long as the others are bright and fresh.

Hope you are all well and the mixed weather isn't allowing too many bugs and viruses to thrive.

My card for this morning I made suprisingly quickly in less than an hour yesturday afternoon, a sneaky craft hour with happy results, for me anyway. I saw on the Crafty Ho's blog they have  challenge to celebrate national childrens day which in the USA is on the 8th October, I'm not sure if the UK has a national childrens day or whether we just should celebrate universal childrens day on 20th November. Not sure how many children I know out there in the universe as as far as I was aware we haven't yet discovered life elsewhere in our universe but still it's nice to celebrate the next generation. It's also international students day on the 17th november but I guess there will be as many students know that and recieve cards from their teachers as there were teachers who knew it was international teachers day yesturday and recieved cards from their students!


Any way either ways whatever day we celebrate the next generation here's the card I made.

the owl I love he's so cute and is a freebie from Dustin Pike. I used glitter paper for the moon and stamped a variety of leaves with some stamps I got in a scrapbook kit from Costco ages back. I coloured with promarkers to make a nice autumnal scene.The leaves at the forfront are some I won from a forever friends chalenge. I added some peeloffs for son and the word 'HUGS' as this is something my son often asks if he can have a hug, and at 16 I know I'm lucky to get these so make the most of them.

I would like to enter my card for the following challenges, I know there were more autumnal ones but alas I have missed there deadlines, but never mind challenges are after all just a bonus and fun aren't they?

The Crafty Ho's-national childrens day
Sentimental sundays-autumn/fall
A Pocket full of posies-autumn leaves
Our creative corner-colour challenge
Crazy for challenges-colour challenge
Totally Gorjuss-sketch layout
Cards for men-autumn
For fun challenges-something not used before-the image the leaf stamps and the fabric leaves too

A blue christmas

Well, thought I'd ink up another of my new christmas manga stamps from sugar nellie and enter the sugar bowl challenge. I've made the card but am not sure if I'm still in time for the challenge.

They have a fab sketch and I had a look at my chrismtas papers (really need to get some more) and found this forever friends snowflake paper. I decided to keep to these colours and this is what I came up with. I don't think when you have such fab images you need loads of embelishments which suits me down to the ground as I am still a simple girl at heart, no matter how I try to embellish my cards I do still struggle.

I added stickl;es glitter to her fluffy bits but for some reason it doesn't show up too well. I would also like to enter this card into the following challenges too:-

Charisma cardz- christmas

Creative inspirations-christmas in september

One stop craft challenge-snowflakes

Totally gorjuss-christmas

The sugar bowl-sketch

Wow I didn't realise there were so many christmas challenges.