Work, work, work!

Okay, after quite a long hiatus I am back up and running! I can't quite believe it has been almost a month since my last post!

I haven't been completely neglectful of my craft room, there has been a few Father's Day Cards (which I will try and upload tomorrow). Now I am back and I have a lot of challenges to catch up on! Plus, I donated 2 handmade cards a month for a whole year to the Institute of Education's Promise Auction and I have a request for a graduation and 2 birthday cards on my to-do list!

That's kind of the reason I've not managed to get back to blogsville, I am a fundraiser at the IOE and we had our first Summer Fete on 4th June and it was fantastic! Lots of hard work, but definitely worth it, we raised over £1,500 for Centenary Scholarships!

Then, no sooner had we finished packing away the stalls than I had to start getting into gear for the IOE's first telephone campaign! Plus trying to get fit for our 2 holidays in September (and my 25th birthday!) doesn't leave me with a whole heap of time! I don't know how you ladies with a family manage to squeeze everything in! I only have me and Simon (and the 2 kittens!) and I never feel like I get everything done that I need or want to!

Before I go any further I would like to thank some fantastic gals for the fantastic awards they have left for me (you know who you are) and top of my to-do list is to proudly display them, thank them again, by directing you to their very creative and fabulous blogs and to pass these onto so many more talented crafters out there!

Until next time!

You're so plaid!

I'm a bit behind this week, but this card is for Day 80 (using plaid) over at 365 Cards and using the sketch over at 2 Sketches 4 You.

The flower paper and matching ribbon are Bo Bunny and the Plaid paper and Mom sentiment are both DCWV, the flower gems are from my stash.

Spot the dog!

I have missed quite a few challenges this week, I have just been super busy, late nights means no early morning crafting! On the plus side I am the Supreme Bowling Champion! Well, that might be overplaying it a little! I won at the Staff Association bowling with a score of 102!

I was hoping I might be able to get a little more caught up today but, it hasn't happened, although I did manage to complete the 365 Cards challenge, which was to decorate the matching envelope, also using the sketch over at Papertake Weekly.

I used DCWV's All Dressed Up stack with cream cardstock and the dog and paw print stamps are both Anita's

The name's Bond!

The challenge over at 365 Cards today was to use our favourite manufacturer, which of course for me is DCWV! In this case the All Dressed Up stack! Then I used this sketch from Just Christmas & Birthdays and used the theme at the Pink Elephant of Monograms/letters.

This is what I came up with!

I'm not sure if you can see it but what looks like a dimple in the centre of the ribon is actually a bow, I will try and get a close-up tomorrow when the light is a little better.

I only recently got these cream card blanks and now there is a whole range of the black and cream mats in the All Dressed Up stack that I can use with these, fantastic!

You will also probably notice that the circle isn't quite a circle, well that's because I don't have a die-cutting system at the moment or a punch big enough so it was free-handed!

For those of you wondering what the M is for, it will be for my fabulous sister Mandy, not for M in James Bond as Simon thought! Although it would be every easy to change to a card for a guy, by choosing a central monogram without a floral pattern.

Now I'm off to try and calm the kittens down, after a huge, furry black and white tom cat snuck in the house and frightened them!

Little animal!

Using the sketch over at Card Patterns, this 10th birthday card is made using DCWV Animal Cracker paper, with the little monkey fancy cut out of another sheet.

As you can see I have rotated the sketch so that I could fit the paper with text in the right way!

Jobbin' along!

I see Mr. Linky seems to have broken down...again! If it was Mrs. Linky, I'll bet it would be lot more reliable!

Oh, well, I'll just have to hope I remember to link this up later!

The sketch is from Truly Scrumptious Challenges and the theme was: spots, circles and dots!

Button crazy!

Using the sketch over at 365 Cards today and the colour challenge at The Pink Elephant, I started with a white base and used American Craft papers, then added lots of buttons.

I stamped and embossed the sentiment using Paper Mania stamps and added larger versions of the buttons to add dimension.

Top of the Class!

Using the sketch over at Mojo Monday I have created this School themed card.

I haven't added a sentiment as it is quite nice in that it could be used for a Teacher or as a well done for doing so well for a pupil. Or even as a good luck on your first day of school, which is coming up for a few special little ladies soon.

The papers and rub-ons are both from Fun-Tastic!

Too cool for School!

When I first saw the challenge over at 365 Cards to use note paper, it really had me stumped. Then I remembered these fabulous Fun-Tastic papers! The rest then fell into place!

The letters and rub-ons are also from the same range.

Another card with the same papers can also be found here.

Ele-fun!

It seems I'm on a bit of a roll this week, what with combining challenges and all!

This card is for Cute Card Thursday using letters and for Cupcake Craft Challenges where the card must be for a man or a boy.

I used DCWV Animal crackers paper for the background and fancy cut the elephant and water spray from a 12x12. The rub-on and ribbon is from my stash and the glittered alphas are also DCWV

Monkeying around!

With the above sketch at 2 Sketches 4 You and the challenge over at Papertake Weekly being to include animals in your card, I have managed to combine both!

I have used a cream card for the base and used DCWV Animal CRackers paper and chipboard embellishments.

Even Toucan not find a sentiment!

The challenge today over at 365 Cards is to only embellish the corners of the card. I have finished 2 corners, but I really need some assistance with a sentiment to finish the bottom right corner of this card, then I will add the final corner's embellishment to match the weight of the sentiment.

I was originally thinking of using a bird type greeting and really drew a blank. Even Simon couldn't help me today!

Then I was looking for a sentiment with "Two can/Toucan" in it and still nothing, so I really need your help with a witty sentiment that matches this lovely DCWV Animal Crackers Toucan/Puffin/Do-Do, so that I can finish my card!

Just my cup of tea!

Not!

I spent ages thinking about what I could do and having no coffee stamps or images, I thought I would do a coffe and cream colour theme, but no, no paper either!

So I decided to do the very British thing of tea, instead! The coffee inpired me for sure! So I hope it counts over at 365 cards?!

Inside it says: "It's all in how you make it!" I myself am a 2 sugar, milk in last kind of girl.

I was thinking of a certain posh lady when I was making this, (no, not the Queen!) and I think it is right up her alley!

I would have liked some patterned grey paper but I did the best with what I had, surely this has to be a reason to go craft shopping?!

UPDATE!

I couldn't leave it alone! So I dug out this paper from the DCWV All Dressed Up stack and added it, but because it is quite late there is rather a dodgy photo, I will update this tomorrow morning, I promise!

Monkey business!

I have almost finished the sheet of DCWV Animal Crackers paper that I have been using, so this should be the last of this glittery goodness, for a couple of days at least!! I just can't help but use it, it seems whatever I do with it, it comes out looking bright and wonderful, even with my scrappy handwriting!

I fancy cut the jungle tree out of another sheet and wrote Cheeky using a Sharpie pen, the gems are from my stash and the rest is from the stack and chipboard set.

If you fancy a challenge today, remember to go and have a look at 365 cards for the DIY: Handwritten sentiment challenge!

Hippo-potty about Animal Crackers!

Yep, you've guessed it, it's another 365 challenge using DCWV Animal Crackers stack! This is my favourite stack, by a long way, it's ace!

I fancy cut the Mummy hippo out of a 12x12 and created the scallops using my Dovecraft corner rounder. The circle with the Baby hippo is chipboard from the same set. The final 2 requirements on 365 was the scallops and bling where I used pink flowers and oval pink gems. The buttons in the top right corner are actually 2 buttons mounted on top of each other, brown on the bottom and pink on top.

You rock my world!

This was one of those great challenges over at 365 Cards where I knew instantly, what paper and kind of card I was going to make. I started this morning and then Simon was all in a faff about having ironed trousers and I had to wait until I got home just now to complete it!

On a side note, after much complaining from said boyfriend, I have now added a new photo to the side bar. This was taken on our last holiday to Spain and it is in an animal park called Mundomar.

Back to the card, I started with a red base and added card from the DCWV Rockstar stack at the bottom and mounted a guitar border on silver card. Before adding the border I included some black satin ribbon. Then I mounted white DCWV alphas onto black glossy card, mounted this on more silver card and added this at an angle. I finished this off with multicoloured peel-off notes (as per the specification) and a fancy cut silver guitar (not pink as in the photo) on 3D foam, also at an angle.

Rumble in the jungle!

Using the above sketch from 365 Cards I made this Birthday card.

The papers and chipboard are DCWV Animal Crackers range, which I am loving at the moment!

I will probably add the message: "Have a roaring good birthday!" inside too.

The cat's whiskers!

I was so excited to use my new DCWV Animal Crackers stack for the Mojo Monday challenge today. As well as my new stam set from Anita's stamps!

Good enough to eat!

That is the challenge over at Truly Scrumptious Challenges this week. I used DCWV papers and a Dovecraft corner rounder for this scrummy card.

Inside it says: "But, not as much as I love you x"

Sugar Rush!

Ivolina (a fellow 365er) is giving away some fabulous blog candy at the moment so make sure you hop on over to her blog for some inspiration, really great cards and a chance to win!

The Cat's Meow!

The challenge at Paper Take Weekly was to create a card based on the above sketch.

Of course I had to use my new Anita's Stamp set and I decided on this rather fluffy cat. I used Deja Views paper and buttons from my stash.

You know, now I have some really good stamps I am starting to like this stamping larky!

Top Dog!

I really enjoy the ad inspired days over at 365 Cards and today was no different.

I was especially excited to see the cute dog at the foot of the bed in the advert, as only yesterday I got some new stamps, and one of them is the spitting image of that little cutie! They are still on sale here if you would like a gander! I have used the othe cat stamps here and also here.

I started with a load of scraps from my stash (DCWV, Sandy Lion and American Crafts) and created a patchwork effect. I then used the stamp (from Anita's Stamps) and stamped the dog in green. This was mounted on white card and matted on the matching DCWV purple paper and the same card as the base card. Next I added the die-cut sentiment (silver, the same as the mirror in the ad) and added the gems on the image and background. You can't quite see it but the four gems surrounding the dog are pale pink, lilac, pale green and pale blue, to match the patchwork colours.

Glad for the grad!

I started with a mat from the DCWV All Dressed Up set (rather appropriately) and mounted this on black glossy card. I then made the mortar board out of the same black glossy card and attached a tassle with a black dovecraft brad. Next I rolled up white card and added the red ribbon and attached this to the card on top of a black satin ribbon from my stash.

The mortar board didn't look right on it's own so I cut out a circle to mount it on and instead decided to use the circle as a person (I think I have seen too many of the Bupa ads!) and added the hat jauntily. Finally I used vellum alphabet stickers to create the sentiment and mounted this on the same white and black card I used for the Graduand and their hat!

Almost forgot, I then added 3 little black gems in the top corner, just to finish it off.

You know, when I first saw this challenge I just knew I would have to do it in one of the University of Manchester colours (pre/post merger). I have to say, I absolutely loved my time at University and I would highly recommend Manchester as the place to be! Class of 2006 rocks!

Taking a tumble!

I'm a bit late posting this little number (number, get it?!), yes I really do need to laugh after what happened to me today!

So, I had my last dental appointment today (yay!). I was full of the joys of no more chair time and a spring was definitely in my step! Well I was a tad too bouncy and right in front of a full bus stop, I trip over absolutely nothing (by that I mean my own feet!) and it isn't one of these graceful lady falls, my lovely boyfriend tells me it was like watching a toddler going down: you can see it is going to happen and then all of a sudden they are in a heap on the floor and you just know the tears are coming! Boo hoo, I was that heap!

Now I have bruises absolutely everywhere (although, so does Simon as he had to practically carry me home!). Although at least I didn't bruise my right leg, the shiner I got from putting my foot through the bath hasn't quite gone from there yet! Don't even ask about that one!

Oooh I look back at what I have just written and it looks like I have been shouting with all those exclamation marks! There I go again! Okay, I will try and stop now.....

Anyway, back to the card, the reason I am late is I was trying to recover from my little trip (with bags of groceries I might add, I managed to break my fall on a Rolo desert). Again, back to the card, it is mostly papers from the sweet stack, which is pretty sweet.

Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to make it home without any incidents....

Purrfect!

After yesterdays challenge when I knew exactly which papers to use, today was rather different! Think pink! I was spoiled for choice! I have made a few cards using these aperture card blanks and I haven't been too keen on them, but this one just works!

I was going to make it a Sorry! card because he looks like he has been naughty! Then I remembered a certain lady at work who absolutely LOVES cats! This is purrfect for her! Remember to click on the photo for a slightly larger view, you can barely see his cheeky smile in this one!

The papers are DCWV and the stamp has no name on it, nor do the kitty stickers, but I think I got it from Woolworths (before it closed). If I remember right the pack had a really scrummy looking ice-cream sundae sticker which I wanted to use in a scrapbook.

Scrappy Work!

Yes, I am still using these DCWV scraps for the 3rd or 4th card this week! It seems to go so far! This one is for the challenge over at Cupcake Craft Challenges, which is to use a number in your design.

Are we there yet?

They really making it hard over at 365 cards this week! Especially when I have an upset tummy (no-one mention sausages please!).

Although I did know straight away that I would use these DCWV Travel papers, so far I have only ever used them in my holiday scrapbooks so it makes a nice change to do something different with them.

Two days ahead!

Well, I really was ahead of myself when I made this Mother's Day card 2 days ago! So this time I made a more generic one that can be used for a birthday or Mother's Day.

I finally got around to uploading some of our pictures from this weekend here. It really was a fun packed weekend, I have to say it has felt like being on holiday! I'm not sure if I'm ready to go back to work tomorrow! Mind you who looks forward to the first day back after a long weekend?!

Did someone say sausages?

So, I still had scraps from this DCWV paper so that's where I started! I then added a chipboard ribbon slider and mounted a matching DCWV sticker onto blue card and then onto this.

It was a quick one today as Simon currently has the barbeque smoking, and there should be sausages soon!

I hope you're all having fab weather for the bank holiday too!

Also, thanks everyone for the lovely comments, I am looking forward to all the blog hopping I have to catch up with as soon as I am in the house for more than 5 minutes, and seeing what you have all done with these challenges!

Oh well, just lop it off!

A very quick post today, as I am on my way to bed, I am so tired! After yesterdays events we ended up going to Chessington's World of Adventures today, so I have had 2 very long non stop days! Not that I am complaining! It was very fun, and I will fill you all in on the details (and photos and videos) tomorrow at a more civilised hour!

Here's my 8+ blooms for the day, the paper, sticker and chipboard are DCWV and the ribbon is from my stash. This did start out as an octagon card but I put the double sided tape on the wrong side! I blame it on the tiredness! So I just chopped the edges off, to make a different but still interesting shape!

Age is just a number!

In this case, the number 6! I used scraps from the card I made 2 days ago, to create this funky little number!

I've got the day off today and I am off to have a trip on the London Eye! We've lived in London now since Christmas, so it is about time we got around to it!

Then we are off to watch a new TV quiz show being recorded, all I know is that Steve Jones is presenting and that Fern Britton is one of the team captains, so that's quite exciting.

But anyway because I'm in a bit of a rush I haven't had chance to let the glitter dry (as you can probably see) so I will take another shot when I get home tonight.

Have a nice day everyone!

Leaf it up to me!

I started with a card from the DCWV Sweet mat stack. I layered this on matching brown card and used a light green card as the base. Then glittered the decoration at the bottom and added gems to the centre of the flowers. I then took another sheet from the same stack and scalloped the bottom edge and matted with the same brown card as before. Next I added the sentiment and the two dragonfly friends.

What the heck?

Yes! That's what I thought when I saw the challenge over at 365 Cards! The task was to include "What" either on or inside your card. I really had to think about this one. Initially I was think of a Piratey them with "What! No Rum! Walk the Plank!" or something like that, and I started and it just looked a little bit silly!

So then I had another think about it! This is what I came up with!

I started with a DCWV paper and added a sticker which I first raised on 3D foam. Next I added a flat sticker and stuck the large glittery W (also DCWV) on top of this and then continued with smaller letters around the flow of the curl on the paper. To match the glittery W I finally added glitter on each of the small letters too.

I got love in my tummy!

To celebrate over 100 followers Tammy has some amazing candy to give away, so make sure you go and check out her stash and inspirational creations! I am feeling the blog love today!

Missing my sleep!

So I was up at the crack of dawn today to the sound of the kittens doing the derby up and down the corridor! Now they have a collar with a bell it really is a bit of a racket when they are in full pelt! On the plus side I managed to get todays 365 Cards challenge done before heading off to work!

I started with a sheet from a DCWV matstack which I layered with silver card. I then selected a matt silver card to add 3 heart peel-offs with frames onto. Next I put another 3 hearts onto silver mirror card and cut around them leaving a border. These were then raised on the original hearts with 3D foam. I then added silver ribbon (the last that I have left!) with the sentiment: Miss You, with a heart button to the right

Although, because it is so early the light is a little bit funky in the photo! When I get home tonight I will get a better shot!

Just so you can see the terrible twosome, I have added pics of Tango and Pumpkin, on the right. They are now around 10 months old and will soon be too big to be called kittens!

Something Fishy!

I was tempted to do a fish card when the challenge was a clear card, but I'm glad I didn't as I got to do it today anyway!

I started with a piece of acetate, then added the holographic blue card on the inside of the last page, then I added a ripped piece of DCWV sand paper. I then ripped the other way on another piece for the front of the card.

I then went a bit crazy and started adding fish, squid, seaweed, shells and starfish all over the place! A very fun card to make!