Laura's card

I made this card for one of the girls at work. I try to keep the front as flat as possible because the other girls at work all need to sign it and it's hard to write on the inside of the front cover if there are lots of bulky embellishments on the front. It's not an easy task, let me tell you!

The stamp is a Penny Black which I half paper pieced and half coloured with Twinkling H2O's.The sentiment and swirls are a combination of Sizzix and Go Kreate Dies.

Laurence's Card

I made this card for my friend Laurence. It was also supposed to be for the Less is More Challenge which was to use a bit of red on your card but the challenge was weeks ago and I've only just put the card on so it's a bit late to enter it now! The embossing across the bottom is an embossing folder by Cuttlebug used in my Bug.
The lady is a stamp by Art Impression and is paper pieced with red card.
I added red self adhesive gems to the centre of the embossed flowers to tie in with the red dress.

Happy Birthday Mum

It was my mum's birthday on Friday. I thought I'd make her a card that was a bit different from the norm this year. My mum loves hot chocolate and chocolate in general so I thought I'd make this mug shaped card in to a frothy hot chocolate card. The papers are by Hot Off the Press. The flowers I made using a die cut by Marrianne Designs

in my Cuttlebug.

The stamp on the tag says "All you need in life is a friend who has chocolate" which is from a set by Inkadoo.

Inside the card I put "or a daughter who has Gooey Chocolate Brownie Cake!" We'd made my mum a birthday cake using a Gooey Chocolate Brownie recipe. Then we spread chocolate icing over the top and decorated it with mini eggs and chocolate buttons. Very squidgy but delicious! Mmmmmm.

Cat in a Bra

This is one of my favourite Penny Black Stamps. It started life as my Mums' but somehow found its way to my house and decided to stay!
The papers are by K&Co. The cat in the bra stamp is coloured partly with Twinkling H2Os and partly by paper piecing. The "Hello Friend" is a Cuttlebug Die.

For a Sophisticated Lady

My friend asked me if I could make a Birthday card for her Mum who is very glamorous and sophisticated.

I used my Rubber Romance stamp and a mixture of purple and black so give a sophisticated look to the card. The flourish is a Rhonna Farrah stamp which I embossed with black embossing powder and then added the bow in black satin ribbon. The sentiment was done on the computer and was the words my friend asked me to put on it.

She was very pleased with the card.

Saturday Challenge

I made this card for the Saturday Challenge at the beginning of this week but I've been having a mum and son week while my daughter is over at my mum's for a few days so I've only just got round to putting it on my blog.

The Saturday Challenge this week is blue and cream. I used my Penny Black Stamp for this card and papers from Papermania.

Josh and I went to a secret nuclear bunker on Wednesday. Unfortunately it wasn't the best day out ever but we had fun looking for the spy mice and rats.

There were a couple of hands on exhibits but not really enough to keep Josh interested. We had a nice picnic outside afterwards though before we drove home and it was certainly something different. I don't think we'll be going again though.

Sunday Sketch and Stamp

It's my friend Denise's birthday a week tomorrow. Last year I made her a cheeky card so this year I thought I'd make her a cute one and use my Penny Black Hedgehogs. I also decided to use the sketch from the Sunday Sketch and Stamp Challenge.

This is their sketch. And this is my card for it.
The papers are My Mind's Eye. The hedgehog stamp is a Penny Black coloured with Twinkling H2Os. The Happy Birthday is also a stamp which I printed in Perfect Plumera Chalk ink then outlined it with a red Marvey le Plume pen.

Craft Challenge

I think this is the first time I've ever done the Craft Challenge. This week its a colour challenge and the colours you have to use are black, lime green and lilac.



Black and lilac I have in abundance but lime green?! Hmmm. Well this is the nearest I could get without having to go out and buy some which I can't do as I'm on a stash starvation diet. So I hope it still qualifies, if not well at least I had a go eh?

The metallic card is by DCWV which I've embossed using a Cuttlebug embossing folder. The Happy Birthday is a Go Kreate die cut. The little bird is by Imaginisce. The ribbon is recycled from something but I can't remember what exactly.

Happy Birthday Irene

This is the card I made for my Auntie Irene whose birthday is today. I used this gorgeous House Mouse image that a friend sent me which I coloured with Twinkling H2Os. The paper is by K&Co and is double sided. I used one side for the layering and the other side for the leaves and sentiment. The leaves were made using a die cut from Little Claire Designs and the sentiment is a die cut by Go Kreate.

Sorry about the quality of the photo. I really need to get my photo studio set up again!

Monochrome Card

The Penny Black Saturday Challenge this week is to create a monochromatic brown card. Since I needed to make a card for my friend Shaeron and I'd already decided I wanted to use this Penny Black Stamp I thought I'd give it a go.

The papers are by Papermania, the stamp, of course, is a Penny Black coloured with Twinkling H2Os and paper piecing. I really do love this stamp. It used to be my Mum's but I have permanently borrowed it from her and now it's mine, all mine!! :-)

Happy Birthday Debbie

It is my blogging friend Debbie's birthday today. This card I made using my new stamp by Nellie Snellen that I got at the Harrogate Craft Fair in March and my new fern punch. The papers are by Papermania and Bazzill. The Happy Birthday is a die cut by Go Kreate.

For the inside I used papermania papers again and then cut a white insert using another Go Kreate die and then used pen to create faux stitching around the edge to add definition.

30th Birthday

I made this card in a rush as I was a bit late for my sister-in-laws birthday. Luckily they were away on holiday for it so I might just have got away with it?!

I used my gorgeous new stamp by Nellie Snellen that I got at the Harrogate Craft Fair, coloured with Twinkling H2Os. The papers are by Papermania. The flowers are a mixture of Prima's and some I have been sent. The ferns were done with my new paper punch. I hope she liked it!

Mum's Birthday Card

It was my Mum's Birthday on Thursday 18th. Luckily for us it usually falls during half term week so we take the opportunity to go and stay for a few days so that we can be there for her birthday and also my mum's house makes a good base camp for then going off to visit other family and friends that live over that way and further afield.

We went over on Wednesday and after dropping most of our stuff of at Mums', the kids and I went through to my friend Shaeron's who's just moved from Bradford to Knaresborough. It was a very foggy drive but it was worth it to catch up as we haven't seen each other in an age. We had a lovely lunch and then a walk to the ruined castle before setting off back to Bradford.

Thursday was of course my Mums' birthday. This is the card I made for her. I used my favourite papers by My Minds Eye and my favourite stamp which is a Stampavie Sarah Kay stamp. I used paper punches to make the flowers and the leaves and wording at the bottom are My Minds Eye rub ons. For the inside I used the Birthday Cake stamp that Josh bought me for my birthday.

To celebrate my Mums' birthday we went out for lunch, there was seven of us all together, my Uncle Don, Auntie Ann, my Gran, Mum, Ellie, Josh and little me. It was a lovely meal and Josh coped really well with it all which is always a bonus.

In the evening Mum, Auntie Ann and I went to watch an all male pantomime in Marsden called the Wizard of Ossett. It was so funny and very well done. I was suitably impressed and we all had a great evening.

On Friday it was back over to Harrogate to visit my Dad and his wife. Another lovely lunch and a walk followed by a play in the local park.

Saturday morning we headed back home in time for Ellie to go to her swimming lesson in the afternoon. So a very busy week lots of fun.

Quirky Crafts Challenge 22

We have a new challenge over on the Quirky Crafts Challenge Blog. This fortnight we are doing Gez's Challenge which is... Cute.

As we're still being sponsored by The Cutting Cafe I used one of their Digi downloads to do the wording around the fox which says "Because nice matters and you're one of the nicest people I know." Isn't that such a lovely sentiment?!

The fox is one of my favourite cute stamps and is by Imaginisce. I paper pieced the stamp so that it would match the other papers I've used which are all by My Minds Eye. I added a couple of Rub Ons also by My Minds Eye just to add a bit of detail and finish it off.

I gave this card to my friend Denise who came to my rescue and took my daughter to school for a couple of days last week while my car was getting fixed after her exhaust fell off! She really is one of the nicest people I know! Thank you Denise!


If you would like to join in with out Cute challenge and be in with a chance of winning some Cutting Craft Digi Downloads then you can find out more about our challenge here.

More Snow and a Card.

We woke up this morning to more snow!!! Arggggg! At the moment its lovely and pretty but it's knowing that it isn't going to stay that way for long that's the problem. No doubt it will melt a bit and then freeze and we'll be back to the ice rinks for pavements again. Something to look forward to I guess!

Ok enough of the moaning and onto the card. A friend of mine at the gym asked if I could make her a very sophisticated 16th Birthday card for a girl who is into Audrey Hepburn. Well you know me, I love a challenge.

So I started off with a black DL card blank which I stamped my "Chic Background" stamp by Butterfly Kisses onto using Versamark ink which I then embossed with clear embossing powder. My friend Deanne very kindly let me have a couple of her Audrey Hepburn stamped images to use. I cut one down and double mounted it on to black and then white card and stuck that over the embossing.

Susanne also wanted "My Darling Aimee" on the front so I printed that out on the computer and double mounted it and put it across the bottom.
I couldn't find a way to add the 16 to the front so I used the full image of Deanne's stamp on the inside and put the 16 on that instead.

Susanne loved it. Hopefully Aimee will too.

Quirky Crafts Challenge 20

Hooray! It's the new Quirky Crafts Fortnightly Challenge!!! It's time for challenge 20 already and this fortnight it's Deanne's turn to set the challenge which is "Teddy Bear". You can't go wrong with teddy bears can you? A great challenge.

So I've made two DT cards for this one again. The first one being on a feminine theme where I've used Debbie's teddy bear images from The Crafty Pad Designs and I've used some Cuttlebug embossing borders in my Bug to make the beautiful flower border at the top of the card and the "with love" at the bottom.

For the second card I used a Forever Friends bear and went with a more masculine theme. I used papers by Hot Off The Press which I distressed using brown chalk ink. The Bear is coloured with Twinkling H2Os (of course, you know me so well!)

So if you would like to join in with our Teddy Bear challenge over on Quirky Crafts you can find more details here.

Hope to see you there!

Truly Scrumptious!

Ok it's not the best photo in the world - I will take another tomorrow. (I have now added a better photo!) You see I meant to take the photo today while the sun was still up but I forgot and so rather than leave it yet another day before I posted my card on my blog and into the Truly Scrumptious challenge I thought I'd take a badly lit photo and then update it tomorrow when I have taken a better one.


So this weeks challenge is a sketch with the added extra of using the colours pink, green and black. Now they are not a colour combination I would normally go for but then that's the whole idea of a challenge isn't it - to take you out of your comfort zone and challenge you?!

So I raided my 6 by 6 paper stash as I remembered I had some papers in there that would fit the colour combo really nicely and this is the card I came up with.
I love the little bird on this card. It's by Imaginisce and cost 99p. It's so simple which makes it great for paper piecing and I just love the flower on its bum! I think the papers I used are by Dovecraft but I'm not sure, please correct me if I'm wrong! The squares and circles are all done using Nestabilities in my Cuttlebug and the flowers are mainly Primas.

Foxy Loxy

I made this card for my friend Melissa whose birthday was on Tuesday. I used the gorgeous My Minds Eye papers and rubs on and my adorable little fox stamp by Imaginisce. He's so cute! The circles are Nestabilities used in the Cuttlebug of course. We had Josh's parents evening on Thursday. We didn't get very much out of his teacher but she feels he has settled in well and is doing ok.

We did go and see a presentation on a residential stay they want all the year 7 kids to go on to a centre in Wales. It looks fabulous but we were a bit worried about how Josh would cope with it all. We managed to speak with the guy who is the Director of Student Services at the school and he was great. He was talking about meeting up with all the 20 parents that have kids with special needs and finding out what things they need to be made aware of for each individual child so that their needs will be met while they are away at the centre. (I'd better start making notes now!)

It was all very reassuring and such a nice change to have someone wanting Josh to go and not miss out and genuinely interested in finding out what Josh's needs are so that he can go on the trip rather than being grateful that he's not going so they don't have to deal with a "problem child."

I think if, after we had spoken to him, we'd still said that we were unsure the guy would have kept us there and kept talking until he had managed to convince us to say yes. lol. It really is a whole different attitude to what we've been used to...

...and I love it!

Just For You

I am on a mission to use up images that I have been sent by lovely blogging friends. I have such a big stash and because they are images I don't have myself I never think "Oh I'll use that one" I always think of the stamps I already have. So I have all these lovely images sitting in my "Stamped Images box" (old ice cream tub) that I never think to use.

At the moment every time I start to make a card I get out my images tub and have a look through to see what I can use and for this card I chose these adorable Pennyblack Hedgehogs which I teamed up with some free papers from a magazine. It's the new Quirky Crafts challenge tomorrow so please make sure you come back to see what our next challenge is. I'm sure it's one you'll love and everyone can join in with.

Back tomorrow!

Happy Birthday Auntie Ann

Don't you just love My Minds Eye stuff? These papers are my favourite at the moment. I just love the colours and they are so great to work with.
For the inside I used some of the off cuts from the front of the card and I used a flower rub on that I got from winning the recycling challenge on Trimcraft.

Stamp: Imaginisce

Papers: My Minds Eye ~ Bazzill Basics

Embellishments: My Minds Eye brad, Rub ons, Flower and leaves

Equipment: Cuttlebug ~ Go Kreate Dies (Happy Birthday and Frame) ~ Corner Rounder Punch