Birthday Cards

Whilst I had the computer up and running I had the chance to make a card for my neighbour who is 60 tomorrow. Her husband has whipped her off to Edinburgh for a few days. Given the weather- cold but beautiful they should have a great time.

I used my faithful Clipart Fairy Book-a-Easel disc and then knowing she enjoyed her garden added the dome flower stickers from my stash. the ribbon is pink although it has a purple tint in the photo is from MeiFlower. She makes some lovely organza flowers with the matching ribbons.

It does sparkle due to Glamour dust around the edges. I love the stuff but it gets everywhere its so fine.

My second card is for my Godson who is 11 soon. I thought I would use some of the challenges in order to help me try different things.

Image: Digi stamp from Sugar Nellie coloured with Promarkers in orange and browns.

The sentiment is also a digi-stamp but can't remember where from.

The brads are from my stash

Mosaic tiles are from papermania.

I am entering it for:

Cupcake challenge; Boys and their toys

Pink Elephant: Orange and Brown

Sketch & Stash: Sketch

Catching Up

Is it me or are there times when you really don't mind your other half going out for the whole day? It gave me time to wander the shops and then come home and make some cards at my leisure. I managed to catch up with two friends which was great. It is amazing how wrapped up in your life you can become. While talking to one friend when I said the 'new' grand-daughter was going to be one in a months time we realised how long it was since we caught up as she didn't know we had another grand-daughter!! How bad is that? I felt so bad and very self centred!!

She informed me that she had just got a new job and that it was permanent so I came home and made her a congratulations card.

I used a mixture of The ClipartFairy Modern heritageCD and her Book-A-Easel CD.

The bps are from the Worlds Best Teacher and the Barely pink collections.

Where has the time gone?

I can't believe its been 15 days since I posted. I hadn't realised the time had gone by so quickly.

Started looking after a second school for two weeks whilst their head is off. Its like having two lives!!!!! In order to keep on top of things I have two bags , two files, two note pads etc. So I haven't had time to breathe. Then of all things my back went into a complete spasm last week and is only just relaxing!!! I have never had a bad back before and can't believe how debilitating it is. Will now sympathise with suffers!!!



Any way last night I sat and made a card as a means of theory!!!

I used a Pink Gem stamp and coloured it using promarkers. This time I tried my blender pen. Still need a lot of practise with that though.

Mind it reminded me of those pens you got years ago that sort of 'rubbed' (technical term there so concentrate) felt tip pen out. Many pro promarker users are now taking a sharp in take of breath!! Sorry don't mean to offend.

The web and spiders are OLS stickers that I mounted onto black card for effect.

The ribbon is from a papermania pack.

The 'Pumpkin Pie' stamp is from Pink Gem also. Stamped with Memento rich cocoa onto orange card.

The mats are cut using my new birthday present (early one) of spellbinders.

I attached the ribbon using Wackytac which is excellent to stick fabric with.

I am going to enter this for a number of fall/ autumn / Halloween challenges.

Aspoonfulofsugarchallenge.blogspot.com Halloween

Mytimetocraftchallenge.blogspot.com Ghosties & Ghouls etc

tuesdaythrowdown.blogspot.com Anything goes

letsinkitup.blogspot.com Halloween - no digi stamps

alyssundaychallenge.blogspot.com ASC27 Halloween

paperplaytime.blogspot.com pumpkins or spider webs

craftyourpassionchallenge.blogspot.com Orange/Purple & Black

2sisterschallengeblog.blogspot.com Halloween

crazy4challenges.blogspot.com Fall/ Autumn

onestopcraftchallenge.blogspot.com

Our Exchange Teacher is leaving

We have had an exchange teacher from Switzerland over for three weeks and she leaves this Friday and we are all going to miss her so much. She has just slotted in as if she has been here for ever. Her spoken English is amazing as is her French, Italian, Spanish and German!!!! I can't even speak English properly she puts us all to shame!!!!!!!



I decided to make her a card and used a sketch from the Loretta Monday Challenge on Docrafts. Because of her carefree attitude and 'give- it- a -go personality I thought the Little Miss Attitude image from Sugar Nellie would be great.

Really into purple at the moment.

Image: Little Miss Attitude - Sugar Nellie

Image coloured with Promarkers

Backing paper from stash

Purple and pink Mulberry Flowers

Small adhesive gems.

Backing paper cut with Spellbinders Labels Seventeen

Book A Easel Card

My parents have friends who are celebrating their Silver Wedding Anniversary at the weekend and asked me to do a card. Gosh the pressure. It's fine when you are swanning around your little office/ craft area making cards up for challenges but when someone asks you to make a special card I had a little crisis!!!!


I decided to make one of my Book A Easel Cards using the ClipartFairy CD which I love. I am slowly getting to grips with the Open Office Programme and starting to change things using my own images etc.


I made the Silver Wedding Easel which was fine. The difficulty came when I went to decorate it. I had printed out the elements on linen card and pearlescent paper but hadn't put the couples names on. This left a large space on one side of the card. When I tried grey embellishments the card looked grey when i tried grey embellishments the card looked blue!!!!!





In the end I went for a grey/white bead heart and butterflies printed on acetate.
The brads i got on Sunday from Hobbycraft. I just loved them. the sparkle is glanour dust. its grogeous but gets everywhere!!

Got A Flyer!!!

Today I got a flyer from school. I was home at 4.55pm and felt really decadent!!! It was like a mini holiday. So having looked round the garden something I rarely got time to do I thought I would start on some cards after going on the Wii. Let's just say my husband has arrived in and I haven't moved away from my desk, and the Wii is still in the case!!!!!!! I was doing really well and had lost 4lbs but at the moment can't motivate myself!!!!

At the weekend we went to stay with OH's mother. Whilst my husband went to the pub and my Mother-in -Law worked through the soaps I printed some images and sat colouring them in with my promarkers. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Its strange that as I get older I revert to childhood activities- colouring in- and I love them. Trying to master the art of shading!!!! Well that's my excuse.

This is a birthday card I made using the sketch from the Sugar Bowl and one of their images.



Image: Sugar Nellie- Sweet As Candy
Backing Paper: Dovecrafts.
Image cut using Spellbinders: Labels Fourteen
Middle strip cut using Fiskars Edge punch on both sides of the paper.
Flower: e. Embellishments coloured using Pink Carnation Promarker with a pink sticky gem.
Ticket: Freebie Digidownload - Lindsey's Stamps. Using Open Office I turned it cerise.

All the Things I Love Blog Candy 1million hits

Bev over at All the things I love is offering the most amazing blog candy for having had 1 million + hits on her blog. Her blog is absolutely breath-taking she is an incredibly talented lady who makes the most outstanding cards. They are all different as well. I am visiting it often to be inspired but there are times when you can feel overwhelmed by what she creates.

Blog Hop Whimsy Stamps

Oh where has the past week gone? I can't believe it is Sunday evening already I don't even feel as if I have had a weekend it went so quickly. Do you think I could get a refund because I didn't get that end of week feeling from it????

I went to the cinema with our Swiss Exchange teacher this afternoon as we had arranged to go to Hawes and Aysgarth Falls today but the weather has been horrendous. Granted the falls would have been spectacular but we would have been drenched walking to them. So we went to see Eat Pray Love - with Julia Roberts. It was a long film - about 2+ hours mind it didn't feel like that when I was watching it. What was great about it was that fact she didn't look like a Hollywood star in it, in fact by Hollywood standards she could be said to look almost fat!!!!!!! She wasn't in the slightest but compared to some of these stars who you would mark absent if they turn sideways she looked like a real woman. There was a fantastic line in the film where she asks her friend- who is moaning about putting weight on- had she been naked in front of him (her boyfriend)and had he left - so what was her problem. She was going to eat the food and not count the calories because she was finished with the guilt trips. I could have kissed her!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway having not had time to make cards I went blog surfing and came across a Blog Hop at Whimsy Stamps and thought I would give it a go. Not sure what to expect as I have never done one before but hey I am up for anything. Also I like Whimsy Stamps.