Matt's new home

I didn't think I would be using this stamp again so soon but our friend has recently decided to buy a home instead of renting although he hasn't yet got a moving date. have to say I love how just using different colours can change this image from LOTV just shows their versatility. The sentiment is also from LOTV one of a set but unfortunately I seem to have misplaced it so I have to hope no one else wants a new home card until it turns up as I really don't want to buy a new full set of 12  just for
a replacement.

The papers are all from my scraps files so easy and effective too.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges;-


crafting at the weekend-anything goes
sweet stampin - just for men
treasured times-anything goes
we do doobadoo - something masculine

artbymiran challenge-anything goes

brown sugar - anything goes

creative corner - turquoise and brown

creative fingers - anything goes

Card for Grace

Hi all long time no see, sorry for not being around but life has been getting in the way of my popping in to visit anyone from blog land let alone spend time posting anything.

This is a card I made for a neighbour who celebrated her 6th birthday. This wee girl goes to ballet and jazz dance classes and is a proper pink and sparkly girl so her card had to include both of course.  i coloured the freebie digital image from    with promarkers and added some confetti flowers that I think came from M and S many moons ago and of course the peel off sentiment had to be pink.


I decided on an easel card made with my new grand spellbinders dies, I added some freebie magazine pink dotty paper to the base and a smaller white oval to write my message on along with some foam and more sparkly confetti flowers to act as the stop. Grace loved the card which was the most important thing.

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

Glitter and sparkle-Happy birthday

scribble and scrap-always anything goes

613 Ave-always anything goes/party time

paper creators crafts-card for a child

Happy birthday Princess

I made this birthday card for my niece, its meant as a tongue in cheek joke and it wouldn't surprise me if it ends up in the bin. I should explain further my niece I managed to upset on face book a while ago by suggesting that instead of her boyfriend who she lives with taking her out after he finished work she ought to cook him a meal as the meal she was suggesting wasn't that hard and then she could do the washing up. She took the huff after a tit for tat conversation that other family members were reading and thought was funny by telling me I didn't know her at all and I should stop being childish before she un-friended me, which made everyone laugh as it was a very childish response, she later told her Dad I'd been picking on her. Hence the card. The image is from LOTV and coloured with promarkers.

The sentiment is hand written with sakura gel pen and is meant to be sarcastic, I had seen this image used with a sentiment I loved 'you can't ground me I'm a princess', I couldn't find this anywhere and considering my niece is in her 20's I didn't think it appropriate.

I added a gem to the tiara and added some sparkle with sakura gel pens on the skirt of the image and the gift. I matted the image onto purple mirri-card and then onto a cream base card. Simple but as I expected it to go in the bin I didn't want to spend too much time on it. Needless to say I got a thank you via Facebook for my card but I'm still not my nieces friend on Facebook but I can live with that lol.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges;-

left of centre-girly

QKR-C + S

OSAAT-anything goes

The corrosive chalenge-anything goes

craft your passion-frame it

Brown sugar-anything goes

 Sweet stampin' - Sparkle and shine

A creative romance-girly

Sweet stamps.com - anything goes

Allsorts- happy birthday

New Home

My niece has moved into a new home with her boyfriend which hasn't gone down well in some areas of the family as she has only known him a few months. My mum was telling me this and I said she should go for it as if you feel its right it often is just as I did. I met my hubby as a dare from his sister on a blind date in June and the same year in october I moved in with him and I asked him to marry me the following february and we married in that august. My mum said yes she knew that i had done the same and it broke her heart and worried her silly though she admits that as we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary last august for us it worked.

Anyway I made Chelsea this card to wish her and her boyfriend happiness together and that if she followed my example i look forward to a wedding next year, though I somehow think her mum might want more than the 4 months we organised mine in.

The card uses another LOTV stamp which i coloured with promarkers and kept it a bit girly using pastel colours. The paper i think was a magazine freebie not sure as it was in my oddments folder. The ribbon is from my stash and the sentiment is also LOTV. The mint matting paper is from a QVC scrapbooking set but it matched perfectly. Chelsea loved the card too. i rounded the corners with a corner punch just to complete the soft look.

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

Brown sugar- pastels

fussy n fancy-spring colours

creative fingers-anything goes

open minded crafting-use some ribbon

Dis digi designs-use those markers

pumpkin spice-girly

Geeks change the world

I know it may seem an odd title for the post but I do believe it to be true as without those peeps who come up with wacky ideas we would never have any new inventions and in this day an age techno geeks are the ones that seem to make advances and inventions appear almost on a daily basis.                                                                                                                                I'm sure most of us know at least one geek in fact anyone with children must feel like they have been left behind when they start talking technology and text etc. I'm lucky I not only have a geek son but a geek husband too so they have conversations that to me may be in a foreign language I've never heard before let alone speak . They do try though especially my son, he tries to explain things simply but no matter how intrested I try to be my expression obviously isn't very convincing as the conversations are usually short and end with 'you haven't got a clue what I'm on about have you mum?'. Then there are the times when my son and hubby digress into geek and I just make a point by flinging in some crafting terms or medical words from my nursing days and they get the message and start speaking english again.

Anyway back to my card which I made for my son for his birthday, I love this sweet James image from LOTV and can see it will be well used as I know many folk who use computers of one form or another which makes this wee chap perfect for all of them and for so many occassions too from birthdays , new jobs and even exam cards. 

My son acts as though his arms have been severed if he has no access to a computer or the internet in one form or another even if its only reading fan fiction on his phone. I coloured James with my promarkers and used some small stamps my son chose when he was little and liked crafting with mum to make things he uses his computer to look at or play etc. He plays star trek game online so I had to draw that one and the heart well without embarrassing him represents the dating sites he and his friends use and compare notes on. (if anyone knows any nice young ladies who want to meet my eligible son and wouldn't be put off by him using a walking frame or wheelchair to get about please contact me for further details- not too far from sheffield though as I have to play taxi driver and i need time to craft too lol). The cat represents him researching kitten care as he was looking to get a kitten see previous post to meet Issy .

I kept the design simple and tried something new making my own apature card which I filled with red paper that I then covered with acetate to give a nice shine to before attaching the images. The top layer is embossed lattice design that I then coloured with different greys to try and represent pixels (bits used to make pictures on computer screen and cameras too) sorry if that sounded geeky but thats about as far as I can explain it. It must have worked as my son knew what it was supposed to be so that made it worth the effort.The sentiment is simply a peel off.

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

A creative romance-one for the boys

Artbymiran-anything goes

chocolate,coffee and cards-circles and squares

left of centre-card for a male

sister act card challenge -anything goes

cute card thursday-paw pals

4 crafty girlz-anything goes

Happy 5th birthday Polkadoodles

Polkadoodles is having a mini birthday blog hop with freebies and the chance to win lots of goodies to thanks to Nikky. Go join in the fun here and help Nikky and her originals celebrate.

Chirrpy chirrpy cheep cheep

My baby sis has a couple of chickens which she keeps in her garden so for an Easter card this image from Stitchy bear was perfect. I coloured the image in promarkers and then as I couldn't get the look I wanted I fussy cut the image and cut the 3 chicks from the end and moved them to the front of the image. 

The card base is white and I layered 3 different yellow papers which I used a Martha stewart corner punch on for added interest. The Blue check paper is a magazine freebie . The sentiment is hand written using sakura gel pen on an oval which I edged with blue promarker.



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

polkadoodles-springtime
Craftitude-anything goes or Easter
suzy bees -things with wings
crafting at the weekend-anything goes
osaat-anything goes
Creative fingers challenge-bingo(I used die cut,image and ribbon -on the image basket)
Dream valley-say it with words
613 Avenue-anything goes

baby popcorn? and my sons new baby

I received this image ages ago in a craft rak swap, I think it a popcorn the bear image. I think he's really cute so i coloured him with the palest brown promarkers I could.

I fussy cut him out as I had an idea of how I intended using him.  I found some card blanks I had forgotten about many of them tri fold cards but A6 size and I found a textured cream card I thought would make a perfect baby card.

In the last Docrafts magazine I bought there was a free Cd which had forever friends images, toppers, bits and pieces and papers to print. I just loved this bumble bee paper and thought it would be just right behind an acetate window.

I added the bear image off set to the corner of the window and the position of the bees gave the card balance.

The layout was from catch the bug  stella sketch challenge but I think I've missed that deadline but it just worked as it kept the focus on the image.

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

fairytale challenges-cute only

A gem of a challenge-cute and cuddly

Incy wincy-furry friends

eureka-CAS

craft your passion-pretty pastels

The corrosive challenge-pastels

fairies challenge-baby

Lastly I'd like to introduce you to Issy my son's new baby, not human but I'm sure she will be as loved and spoilt by my son. He moved into his own home in january and the saying goes new home new baby and as he is just 20 I'm quite happy that his new baby has 4 furry legs and one very cute face and personality.

Meet Issy 

and here with her proud Dad. I always knew my son was a big softie and he is totally smitten with this kitten.

Happy birthday LOTV

LOTV are celebrating their 10th birthday next month and they are celebrating big time with parties on and off line.

Part of their celebration is a month long challenge to make a 10th birthday card for them.

I decided to use this stamp of 2 wee cuties sharing a cuppa. I imagine that the idea of LOTV was initially discussed in this kind of situation not that I know but think it would be great if it was.

I decided to go monotone using creams and browns, I even used cocoa coloured momento ink,

I used my new square spellbinder dies to create a fancy square card and layer base and stamped the image onto a go kreate die. I added a scrap of cream pearlised embossed paper and a cream hand tied bow. The sentiments are hand written onto die cut circles using x-cut dies and a sakura gel pen.

Not my usual style of card but I actually enjoyed making it as a change.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges;-

LOTV monthly challenge-make a 10th birthday card for them

little claires -lots of layers

sister act-anything goes

stamping boutique-birthdays

art by Mi Ran-anything goes

QKRstampede-spring celebrations

wags and whiskers-lots of layers

Easter egg bunny

Another Easter card, I know many think of pastel colours for spring and Easter cards but I'm a bright and bold colour girl, don't get me wrong I do think pastels have their place but when Spring bursts into life it does it with a bang in my book.

This is a freebie digi from the Prairie fairy and I coloured him with promarkers. I fussy cut him and mounted him on a die cut of textured yellow card in an oval shape  a bit like an egg.

I hand wrote the sentiment using sakura gel pen .

The background paper is made up from more small squares of paper stuck together to make a patchwork effect. I used the sakura pen to add stitching along the seams.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges;-


Craft your passion-bunnies,chicks and eggs

papermakeups digimakeover- Easter friend

stempelmagie-handmade background

paperminutes-heads only

love ribber stamps-Easter/spring

eureka stamps-easter

Tradtional Easter card

 I made this card for my mum in law, she lives in Tenerife and thinks of Easter in a more traditional way so I felt this image was perfect.

I wanted to make the card bright and spring like so used just bright yellow and white to give a clean fresh look. the white paper is embossed with hearts, the yellow is simply coloured copy paper. The image is from stitchy bear stamps and is coloured with promarkers.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges;-

ALBC -birds and bees
alphabet challenge-E is for Easter
Open minded crafts-Easter or pastel colours
The pink elephant challenge-Easter

Incy wincy-CAS

OLLCB-Easter/spring

Everybody art-anything goes

pause dream enjoy-anything goes

sweetstamps monthly challenge-anything goes and embossing

Animals friends-Easter/spring

egg head bunnies

I live quite a way from my nephews and won't see them at Easter so i like to send them a fun card. One made so far and I really need to get on with the other but I thought this might appeal to my nephew who's 7.

The bunnies are a freebie digi from Beccy's place and I am quite liking these aperture cards so thought I'd give it a go for 3 on a card. I have these squares of patterned paper from a scrap-booking set from qvc there are loads of them and I've never been sure what to use them for ,so I thought I'd have a go at some paper patchwork.

The stitching is all done with sakura gel pen and the images are coloured with promarkers.

The sentiment is  hand written again in sakura and the banner is an autoshape from microsoft word package coloured in promarkers again.

The bunnies peep through the apertures when the card is stood up.

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

Beccy's place-use a Beccy's image

feeling crafty challenge-fora child

Dream valley challenges-Easter

Just for fun-Easter

Cute card Thursday-Easter

Hanna and friends-Easter

Alphabet challenge-E is for Easter

Designs by lisa-Easter

sugar creek hollow-Easter

Di's digis-Easter

Open minded crafting- Easter or pastel colours

Semma crafts-Easter

watching the day go by ...

I love this image it so reminds me of lazy warm summer days sitting in the garden  listening to the water tumble into the pond from the waterfall as the bees hum collecting pollen from the lavender and other flowers and the birds sing or feed their babies on the bird table. It is a time when I have the time to sit that i can truely say I am at peace, as i can drift into daydreams and not worry about all the things life throws at us or the housework or even the gardening that I probably should be doing.                                                                                    This stamp is one of many available from sugar nellie  and was among the first I bought from there as I just love her. She is called Daisy  I think and if not I think she ought to be.

I decided I would keep this card mostly white as its a colour i love for summer though don't wear that much as its not that practical especially when lifting wheelchairs in and out of cars or doing the other jobs of life but i can dream.

I stamped her onto a fancy spellbinders die cut circle and coloured her with promarkers and had a try at using a dotty technique for her grounding and sky.

The base of the card I used a die-sire embossing folder and some embossed dotty paper sorry mot sure which folder that one is . I added a die cut swirl and some punched daisies to embellish. To give a fresh feel to the card and add some warmth I added yellow centers to the embossed and punched flowers.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges;-

The sugar bowl-Easter or spring

craft your passion-no designer paper

path of positivity-peace

sassy studios-make your own embellishments

catch the bug-springtime

sketch saturday-layout

A gem of a challenge-spring is in the air

sweet stampin-flowers

Allsorts-spring blossoms

A different kind of fast food

 A card for my stock pile of guy cards , I seem to find them easier to make than girly ones guess that's what happens when you have sons and not daughters and hubby and son both work in a place where girls are in the minority big time.

I used this fun LOTV image as the weather has been nice and all the ads on the radio seem to be gearing up for the start of gardening and barbecue season. This cute chappie seems to have made off with the sausages guess they were too good to resist not being charcoal black like many BBQ sausages from my experience. Guess I don't go to the right BBQ parties.

I followed the Saturday sketch from LOTV but not sure if the challenge has closed yet but thought it was a fun sketch. I decided to try and do the challenge at crafty little fairies that was shabby chic or vintage but I've missed the challenge anyway. Have to say I'm not altogether what shabby chic style is when it comes to cards so I went for an aged look with the hope that they will accept it as being vintage.

I used a Kraft base card and add some faded effect dark green patterned paper that I have no idea where it came from as all the bits I used were in my scraps folder. I matted this on some paper that has rusted letters on and distressed the edges with a pair of scissors then added ink to the roughed up edge. I added the plaid paper again roughed and inked edges and the same to the strip of rusted letter paper I layered on top of that.

The sentiment is stamped in momento cocoa ink and stippled with a paint brush using the same ink to soften the white card. I stippled around the image of the dog too for the same reason to age its look. I used spellbinders dies to cut the circles and a sakura pen to add faux stitching as a finishing touch.

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

LOTV Saturday sketch-layout

sentimental Sundays- vintage or steam-punk

As  you like it-stitching real or faux ( this time round faux and although I bought a wee sewing machine just for ding cards I do find faux so much quicker and controllable too even though I love the real thing for embroidery and dress making)

polkadoodles-animal magic

the stamping boutique-distress it

red rubber inspirationals-masculine birthday

time outoptional masculine

fairies challenge blog-vintage/shabby chic

To a special Grandma

A card for a special Grandma who lives in another country deserves to be special too.                                 I decided to use this cute bear from LOTV and try something new for me with my new embossing folders from die-sire. I used a chevron pattern and a daisy pattern to emboss some cram card and then cut a circle from it to make an aperture card. I've seen some lovely ones on the LOTV gallery but I'm quite happy with my first attempt.

The bear is coloured with promarkers (the flower colour inspired by some vibrant wallflowers I have in my garden) and then fussy cut before being stuck to some acetate that I placed behind the aperture, I love the glossy effect it give the backing paper that was a magazine freebie so it isn't the thickest of papers. I have to admit after colouring the bear I had real problems deciding on what colour papers to use for both the backing and the decorative strips I added top and bottom.

I eventually decided that blue would highlight the blue butterflies and the blue and pink paper I punched with a Martha Stewart border punch would tie in the backing paper too think that ones K and co. The sentiment is a tiny peel off that came with a creative nation kit from qvc many moons ago but was the perfect size to add to the envelope teddy is carrying. Hope she likes it. 

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges;-

A creative romance-Eggcellent spring

sunflowerfield challenges-Easter or spring

OSAAT-flowers

papercrafting journey-for a special lady

MAWTT-Easter or spring

creative knockouts-spring

For a special mum

We were lucky enough a few weeks ago to have a new The Range store open a few weeks ago so now I have access to even more crafting supplies as the store is next to Hobbycraft and the Range offers competition price wise.                                                                                                           I had a wander around the store and one or two crafty bits fell into my basket and amongst them was this cute stamp which I thought would be perfect for mother's day.                                                                                                                I coloured him in with promarkers and used sakura glaze pens for the tea. I stamped the teddy onto a spellbinders fancy oval and mounted that on a layer of green gingham freebie paper from birds.com and put that on a layer of red copy paper.The sentiments were also something that dropped into my shopping basket and again are from Docrafts at the Range. The roses are from my stash,the leaves are die cut coloured with promarkers.

I decided to make a wee gift box to put my mum's mother's day gift in after seeing a picnic style box whilst having a wander around blogland, with a fab tutorial here. I covered the box in the same red and green gingham and added a die cut butterfly and white ribbons along with more red roses from my stash. The window i added acetate and decorated with a spellbinder fancy circle.

Mum loved both as well as her gift.

I would like to enter these projects into the following challenges:-

brown sugar-mother's day

2 sisters-teddy bears

catch the bug-anything goes

little claires monthly challenge-make a tag

stamping sensations-use dies or punches

crafty hands challenge -anything goes

craftitude-anything goes or add corrugated card or paper

crafty catz-animals

sister act-anything goes

Lilacs in the springtime

Lilacs in the springtime think that's a song but I thought they would make the perfect image for my mum in laws birthday at the beginning of May. I didn't have a stamp that just has lilac on but I did have this lilac flower fairy. I coloured her with promarkers and added sparkle to her wings with sakura stardust gel pen.

I recently got these grand nestabilities spellbinders dies and I now know why people get addicted to die cutting. i decided to make an easel card using a score pal to make the score lines but decided to keep it simple by letting the image and the fancy edges of the die cuts tell the story so to speak. I used a small fancy circle spellbinder die onto which I stamped the sentiment from LOTV. I finished the front of the card with a hand tie bow.


 The inside of the card I I again used a die cut and covered it with some lilac heart patterned paper and added a go kreate die cut as a place for the message to be written.

I added some flowers and punched leaves as the stop for the card front when opened, I didn't have the exact colours so I changed their colour by using promarkers in the colours I coloured the image in.

I really love the look these dies create you hardly need embellishment and I can already feel another addiction growing-poor bank account.

Sorry about the photo quality but for once the sun was shining but hope you get an idea of how the card looks.

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

passion for promarkers-use a sentiment

paperminutes-more than one fold

creative card crew-spring

whoopsi daisy -things with wings

The ribbon girl april card challenge-spring

Di's digis-spring

scorepal-more than 1 fold and monochrome (hope mine counts as its mostly monochrome

Really reasonable ribbons-flowers or buttons and bows

bearly mine-spring

Bathtime bucket

How could anyone not say 'ahh' when they see this wee chappie, once again from LOTV. This time not only coloured with promarkers but sparkle added with sakura glaze pens. The image base I distressed with brown ink to give extra definition.

I had a plan to increase my stock of male cards so I went with the sludgy end of the spectrum  for the papers and I also thought the browns went well with the bucket colour. The brown dotty papers were scraps from my scraps folder and made a good base for the LOTV sentiment.

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

passion for promarkers-give us a laugh(funny image or sentiment)

cute card thursday-all boy

Allsorts-no flowers

paper crafting challenges-masculine

paper creators-spots and dots

613 Avenue-sights sounds and smells of spring( as spring arrives i see people starting to wash their cars each weekend)

The squirrel and the fox-all creatures great and small

challenges 4 everyone-anything goes

artbymiran-anything goes

Purple fairy

This image by sweet pea stamps is I think a fairy for grown up little girls , well every girl likes some fairy sparkle in their life , she's a little Gothic I think too. I coloured her with promarkers and sparkle added to her wings with sakura glitter pen. She is stamped on a spellbinders die cut oval and added to a white base card on a matt of embossed circles paper. I added two ribbons under the oval. No sentiment as yet as I haven't decided what to add a sentiment on, oval or tag or a simple rectangle banner.








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

Sugar creek hollow-create your own background

my mums craft shop-anything goes

Charisma cardz -anything goes

crafty girls challenge-anything goes

craftitude-anything goes or corrugated paper or card

Art by miran-anything goes

crafty calendar challenges-things with wings

cupcake inspirations-monochromatic

Brown sugar-CAS

Suzy bees bloomin challenge-anything goes

Sweet as cherry pie

Sweet as cherry pie, sitting pretty on the edge of a spellbinders die cut circle. Coloured in promarkers this C C designs cutie wishes a happy birthday with a blue peel off sentiment on a base of birds.com blue gingham and magazine freebie cherry paper matted on a base of red and onto a white base card.

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

4 crafty chicks--colour an stamped or digi image
creative knockouts-for a child
4 crafty girls-anything goes
papertake weekly-anything goes optional Easter treat holder
just add ink-layers