Happy Birthday Josh and Happy Father's Day

Today is my son's 12th Birthday. Doesn't time fly? I can't believe he'll be a teenager next year... Ooooh scary thought.

This is the card I made for him. I used some green metallic card that Josh bought me for my birthday last year, plus papers from a set by Hot Off the Press. The image is from a set of Forever Friends papers. The Happy Birthday and Josh are made using Go Kreate dies in my Cuttlebug. I added a couple of small buttons just to finish off.

Josh opened his DSi before his birthday - long story but he got lots of great games for it for his birthday. I'm sure we won't be able to drag him away from it today.

Of course it's also Father's Day today. This card I made for my dad who's away on his holidays right now. Hope he's having a good time.

and this one I made for my friend Charlotte to give her Dad.

and the inside.
Hope you are all having a lovely Sunday.

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!

Christmas Is Coming!

Not the best photo in the world as the sun was shining in the wrong direction. I should have taken the photo this morning when the light was better. Ho hum.

I made this card using my Forever Friends Christmas papers and as luck would have it, it qualifies for this week's Forever Friends Challenge.

I used the sheets to make a decoupaged image of the bear and then used the off cuts to make the squares. I think it's turned out really cute.

We had Ellie's parents evening on Wednesday. She got a glowing report and is doing fabulously well. She's only 6 and has a reading age of a 9 year old and a spelling age of 8. Her teacher says that Ellie is always keen and enthusiastic and tries hard at everything. We came away very proud of her. Josh has his parents evening next Thursday, fingers crossed that his is as glowing.

New Challenge

We have a new weekly challenge over on Quirky Crafts. This weeks challenge is "One For The Boys" I've made two cards as examples for this challenge. The first one is for our friends Tommy and Marissa who had a baby boy three weeks ago. They have called him William Thomas and I had a little cuddle with him on Saturday when they came over. He's adorable!


I thought I'd use some of my Forever Friends baby papers as they are just adorable and used some Forever Friends stickers as embellishments to both the inside and outside of the card. The wording I did using my Quickutz alphabet but I used my Cuttlebug to cut them as it's so much easier to use and more hand friendly than the Quickutz. :-) Papers: Forever Friends ~ Bazzill Basics
Stickers: Forever Friends
Equipment: Cuttlebug ~ Quickutz Alphabet Die ~ Go Kreate Die
The second card is for one of Ellie's class mates. She has been invited to his birthday party on Saturday and originally said yes but has now changed her mind and decided she doesn't want to go after all. So we'll see.


This is one of my favourite Whipper Snapper stamps and is lovely to use on cards for younger boys.

I stamped the Triceratops image out three times, coloured each one and then decoupaged the layers using foam pads to give it some dimension. Stamp: Whipper Snapper

Coloured With: Twinkling H2O's

Papers: Papermania

Equipment: Cuttlebug ~ Nestabilities ~ Go Kreate Die

If you'd like to join in with our challenge please pop over to http://quirkycrafts.forumotion.net/portal.htm

See you there!! :-)

Charisma Cardz Challenge

This weeks Charisma Cardz Challenge is a sketch challenge. I thought I'd use the sketch the make a Birthday card for our friend Tommy.

Unfortunately my Hubby doesn't like it. He doesn't think Forever Friends bears are appropriate for 31 year old men. Well I do keep trying to find a really good stamp to use for men's cards but I haven't managed to find one yet.

All I can do is apologize Tommy if you don't like it either and promise I will try harder next year!! :-)

Charisma Cardz Challenge

In my last post, I commented that I still needed to make a "Big Brother" card for my friend's little boy who is in Ellie's class at school. How's this for a coincidence - the Charisma Cardz Challenge this week is.....

..."Something for the guys!"

How perfect?! So here is my "Big Brother" card for the Charisma Cardz Challenge.
It is still very soft colours for a boys card but because the card is for a little boy who has just got a baby sister I didn't want it to be bold and typical guys colours, I wanted to keep the baby element in and use the softer, more pastel shade colours.

Papers: Forever Friends
Equipment: Cricut ~ ZooBalloo Cartridge
Embellishments: Ribbon

Forever Friends Challenge

This weeks Forever Friends Challenge is a sketch challenge. I do love a good sketch! :-) This is my card for the challenge. It is for my friend who went into hospital on Tuesday to have a C-section and is now the proud mummy of a baby girl. I'm also going to make a "Big Brother" card for my friend's son who is in Ellie's class at school.

Papers: Forever Friends

Embellishments: Prima Flowers ~ Buttons ~ Peel Off Sticker

Colour Create Challenge

This weeks Colour Create Challenge colours are Blue and Brown (one of my favourites!) with an optional extra of pearls and lace.

I decided to use this challenge to make a card for my daughter's friend Beth whose party is the weekend after Freya's. Beth isn't what you'd call a "girly girl." She's definitely not into pink and pretty dresses and princesses and that kind of thing. I thought the blue and brown colour combo would be nice for Beth as it's still quite soft and feminine without being overly girly, if you know what I mean. Stamp: Forever Friends
Coloured With: Twinkling H2O's
Papers: Hot Off The Press
Equipment: Cuttlebug ~ Embossing Folders ~ Quickutz Alphabet Die ~ Nestabilites ~ Corner Punch
Embellishments: Adhesive Lace ~ Flowers ~ Adhesive Pearls

Raspberry Ribbons Sketch Challenge

This is my DT card for this fornights Raspberry Ribbons sketch challenge. If you'd like to play along you can find the sketch here. Stamp: Forever Friends
Coloured with: Twinkling H2Os
Equipment: Cuttlebug ~ Nestibilities
Paper: Freebies from a magazine
Embellishments: Flower brads by Making Memories ~ Ribbon

My Birthday Presents and Handmade Cards.

Here are the photos I promised yesterday of my presents and cards.

I got:

Some CK One from my brother and his family.

A Radley keyring and a Halloween Penny Black stamp from my Dad and his wife.

My Auntie and Uncle gave me a new embossing folder for my Cuttlebug.

My Mum gave me a set of stamps by Cloud 9 Design called "Simple Thoughts - Girl", some 6 by 6 Forever Friends baby papers, a Forever Friends stamp, two Cuttlebug embossing folders and a Cuttlebug Die set called Sliders.

My Gran bought me a top but I forgot to put that in the photo. Whoops. Good job she doesn't have Internet access or visit my blog!!! :-)

I also have some money from another Auntie which I think I will save to spend at the Harrogate craft show in March. If I don't hit the Hobbycraft sales with it first! Lol! This first card is the one my Mum made me from her. Its so pretty.

Then this one she made me from my Gran. I love these papers by Dovecraft they are so funky. I don't know if you can tell by the photo but she's decoupaged some of the images on it too.

This is the third card my Mum made for me which is from my Auntie Ann and Uncle Don. The paper is gorgeous and she knows I'm a sucker for those Tildas. The last handmade card I got was from my lovely PCJ and blogging friend Debbie. She also send me some lovely stamped images to use but I've forgotten to take a photo of those too. I am hopeless today! I love the colours of this card and the image of the lady is just fab. Such a beautiful card.

And to finish off with here are some photos that were taken on my Mum's camera while she was over for my Birthday.

This is Mum with Josh and Ellie.This is mum and Auntie Ann.
The last photo is Max, Peej, Me, Josh, Auntie Ann and Ellie getting ready to blow out the candles on my Chocolate Caterpillar cake.

Forever Friends Challenge

This weeks Forever Friends Challenge is "A Christmas Carol". I started off with this card and I was going to have it as "Frosty The Snowman" but then when I went back to the challenge blog I realised one of the DT members had already done that one so....I made this one instead which is "Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow" The papers for both card are obviously from the Forever Friends range. The extra snowflakes where made using various punches. The ovals where done using Nestibilities in my Cuttlebug.

Raspberry Ribbons Sketch Challenge Ten

It's an extra special Raspberry Ribbon challenge this week. As it is the tenth sketch challenge there is some blog candy up for grabs. So what are you waiting for? Get over there and join in with this weeks sketch and see if you can win yourself some lovely blog candy. I wish I could enter! Go on then off you pop!...



...are you still here? Lol!


Well if you haven't gone then I'll tell you that the fairy girl stamp is a Sugar Nellie, the paper is from a Forever Friends pack, the "Have a Fairy Merry Christmas" is by Lavinia Stamps and the ribbon is from John Lewis which I bought in the January sales at the beginning of this year.

Now go check out that blog candy! :-)

Forever Friends

I've made this card for the Forever Friends Challenge Blog. This week it's a sketch challenge. I made this using Forever Friends papers and some scraps of blue card that I had left over from another project.

The snowflake is a Cuttlebug Ice Crystal which I've added "Waterfall" Stickles to and a jewel brad in the centre.

I decoupaged the Forever Friends bear to give her a bit of depth.