Wedding vow renewal

Some friends of ours are renewing their wedding vows after 20 years of marriage. I'm not sure if the day of the ceremony is also their wedding anniversary so I decided to go with congratulations as the sentiment. The cure couple are a CC designs image. I paperpieced her dress and added them to a swiss dots embossed circle. There's a touch of glitter on her dress and lots on the punched leaves. Flowers are Wild Orchid. papers are Papermania and DCWV.
Challenges
Sketch Saturday
Paper Sundaes photo inspiration (I used the colours)
Totally Gorjuss Hearts
Papertake open theme
Crafty Creations anything goes

A bear, a bunny and a mouse

Don't forget only 2 days left to enter my candy above.

I made 3 cards at the weekend and finally had time to post them last night but blogger was playing up and I couldn't attach my cards so am doing this before work this morning. I'm normally well on my way and finish at 1.30 but as I have to stay all afternoon today thought I would go in later and get this post done.

I thought I would do something different for a baby card so used this sweet FF image. Baby is a rub on. It made a change to use just one paper on this card, which is from the Papermania capsule collection. I added some velvet ribbon punched leaves and Wild Orchid roses sprinkled with glitter. The lovely sketch is from
Moving along with the times and the colour scheme of brown, cream and pink is for Create 4 fun.

I used the fab sketch from Whiff of Joy for Henry the mouse carrying a very large cake. Papers are a mix from stash. Wild Orchid roses again and lots of glitz with the gold card, zigzag edging and gems.

Last Easter card for me with this pink bunny. The sheep paper is Honey and Hugs. This was a great sketch to use a couple of those strips of paper we all keep in our stash with a cuttlebug embossed strip in the middle. An Easter egg sticker and some glitzy flowers complete the picture for the following challenges.
I Love Promarkers Sketch
CRAFT Easter
Paperplay Easter
Fussy and Fancy Easter

Butterflies

SECOND POST FOR TODAY. PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR WW DT CARD.

I was lucky enough to be asked to be guest designer this week at The Crafty Pad. The challenge is to use yellow, orange and green. This is quite a different card for me, with which I am really pleased. I received a sheet of butterflies and this lovely quote, which I decided to make the central feature of my card. I coloured the largest butterfly with Promarkers and Sakura clearstar pen. I added Shimmerz to the green sections of the wings and added some gold gems.Papers are K&Co Daisy. Three mini buttons and three butterfly gems added to the border which I cut with my MS Daisy border punch.

I am also entering this into the challenge of Spring has sprung at Charisma and pastels at Colour Create.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Well Santa Claus isn't due quite yet admittedly, the Easter bunny is due next. Our challenge this week at Winter Wonderland is a lovely sketch by Pascale.

Now it may look a little daunting but as you can see from the wonderful DT cards this week it is a fun sketch to use. You must include Santa on your card. It doesn't have to be the main image as I have done using Quiet Santa from Whiff of Joy. You could use Santa papers or embellies instead. I added some poinsettias and flowers from Hero Arts with some gems. Santa has been coloured with PMs of course and lots of glitter has been added to his hat, coat and beard.

We'd love to see you join in this week's challenge. It will make a change from all those Easter and Spring challenges out there.

I'm also entering this card into ABC Christmas Challenge G is for Glitz.

Baby boy

I'm sure many of you picked up this Friday freebie a few weeks ago from Pollycraft. I thought it was time I used him as he is is just so cute. I added a few star gems and a K&Co flower. The lovely sketch is from Creative Inspirations. Other challenges are new beginnings at Die Cut Dreams, babies at Crafty Creations and monochromatic at Quixotic.

Animals and birds

Yay, I just reached 300 followers. Thank you and welcome to my new followers, hope to see you coming back here often.

The Friday before last the lovely Paula at Pollycraft gave away 2 Friday freebies and has a DT call. You must use one of the images. I chose to use Cody last week and was very pleased to find my card chosen as one of the Allsorts top 5 on Saturday. I love the other image too so here is my card made using this cute duck and cake. I made it a real girly card with the colours. I added some doodling and shimmer chalk to the image and some little beads to the cake to look like hundreds and thousands. Papers are Honey and Hugs. Some ribbon, bows and Sizzix cut balloons from glitter card and a ticket sentiment complete the design.
Challenges
Tales from Pollycraft Image and DT call
Pollycraft Sparkly things
Friday Sketchers Fab sketch
Charisma Something for the kiddies
Cupcake Food and drink

The second card is another Easter card as I have sold all the other ones I made. Coco is a Digistamp Boutique image. I used an assortment of papers and flowers for this one and added sparkle with a Sakura goldstar pen and butterflies.
Challenges
Inspirational Card Sketches Sketch
Crafty Cardmakers Spring into Spring
Incy Wincy Easter or Spring
Stamp with fun Easter
Digital Tuesday Happy Spring
Passion for Promarkers Spring (include animal)
Simon Says Easter/Spring (include glimmer)

If you like these sentiment tickets you can buy them at Alissa's Paper Town. Many of you will know that Lisa is in a wheelchair and is raising money for 2 hip replacements. One of the ways in which she is doing this is by adding more items to her online shop so pop over for a visit.

Easel dancer

I have a very busy week ahead at work so not many cards from me this week. Tomorrow I should finish at 1.30 but have a meeting until 5pm so no crafting tomorrow afternoon. My job, which I really like, finishes on 31 March and I will then be seconded for 7 months to work on an organisational review. The bad news is that I will have an extra 40-60 minutes travelling each day. The good news is that they have accepted my request for redundancy at the end of that time so come 1 November I shall have all the time I want for crafting. I plan to have a few months off before hopefully finding a part time job.

Enough of all that, onto the card, which is very pink. It's one of the Whiff of Joy city girls of course, coloured with Promarkers and Sakura clearstar pen. I added a scrap of velvet ribbon. Flowers are Prima with punched leaves highlighted with the clearstar pen. The sentiment was mounted onto a Spellbinders die cut, which I was lucky enough to win as part of Jacqui's candy recently.

The challenge at Whiff of Joy is an easel card and the fab sketch is for Moving along with the Times

Gone fishing

The challenge this fortnight at Kaboodle Doodles is to make a shaped card. Now I'd never tried this before but that is the idea of a challenge isn't it. I cut into a square card using my X cut circle cutter remembering not to cut all the way round or the card would have been in 2 halves! I kept the card fairly simple for a change. The image is Personal Impressions and paper ad chipboard are Dovecraft. Three blue buttons add the finishing touch.

Hop over and see what the rest of the DT have made. We'd love to see your entries and you could win a $10 gift certificate from Soft Pencil.

Spring flowers

Wow it has been a beautiful warm sunny day today after a rainy and miserable day yesterday. We did our first gardening of the year so far and it is lovely to see those spring flowers appearing. I hope the weather has been kind to you today.

I have 2 cards to share with you tonight. The first card was made using the sketch from Lili of the Valley and their cute bear stamp. Papers are K&Co Daisy and Papermania Honey and Hugs. I added some organza ribbon for the challenge at Totally Gorjuss and some cherry blossom flowers from Wild Orchid with punched fern leaves and a couple of flatbacked pearls.

The second card is another Easter card using a Pollycraft digi image. I doodled round the edge, something I don't do often enough. More K&Co Daisy papers plus Papermania Amethyst Infusion. The sparkly butterfly was part of an Easter sticker pack from last year and matched the colour scheme perfectly. Flowers are Prima with brads and punched leaves.

This card is for rather more challenges than usual as so many have a spring or Easter theme this week.
Sketch Saturday Sketch
Pollycraft Sparkly things
A Spoon full of Sugar Easter
Papertake Lilac and lemon
I love Digi Easter
Crafty Catz Spring
Stampin for the weekend Easter
Allsorts Spring is in the air
Secret Crafter Spring has sprung
Magical Crafts Spring/Easter
One Stop Craft Let it shine

Lastly a couple of pics of my garden especially for my blogger friend Christine in Canada. Christine asked me to share these as they don't have any yet and even had a little snow again today, brrr.

First DT card for Winter Wonderland

I was so excited to be asked to join Santa's helpers at Winter Wonderland and this is my first DT card. The challenge this week is to create a Christmas/winter scene with an aperture on your card. I'm not terribly happy with this card but I'm sure somebody will appreciate it at Christmas.

We are sponsored this week by Delicious Doodles. Teri gave us all a choice of digi images and I chose Angel and baby Jesus. I created an aperture using a small oval nestie and I stamped a silver star in the aperture. Papers are DCWV. I created the curved paper by using 2 different sized oval nesties. I added lots of glitter to the wings and halos and kept embellies to a minimum with some glitter stars. Keeping the star theme I used my MS star border punch.

Please hop over to the challenge and check out the rest of the DT's cards. We'd love to see your entries and just think how pleased you will be at the end of the year when you haven't got all your Christmas cards to make at once and you could win some of Teri's fab digi images.

Sleepy bear

This card is really making me think of warmer days. I'm sure you've noticed I do love bears and this one from Penny Black looks so comfy on this branch. I love the main paper from Honey and Hugs with the little owls peeping out from behind the trees . Other spotty papers are scraps. I also used some scraps to punch some flowers using a couple of MS punches along with some punched fern leaves and flatbacked pearls and a little bow.
Challenges
Penny Black Spring colours
Cupcake Going green
Incy Wincy Green
The Pink Elephant Spring
Crafty Creations Spots and dots
Simon Says Green
Paperplay Thank you

Pollycraft Friday Freebie

THIRD POST FOR TODAY. PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE SWEETNESS AND MY MAGAZINE ARTICLE.

Last Friday the lovely and Paula at Tales from Pollycraft very generously gave away 2 fab freebies. She has a DT call and to enter you have to use one of the freebies so I chose to use Cody. The gorgeous sketch is from Passion for Promarkers and the colour scheme of pink, black and white is for the challenge at Allsorts. Sweet is the challenge at Totally Gorjuss.

I printed Cody twice so that I could 3D her hat and shoes. The pink papers are Pink Parfait which I punched with my MS border punch. Flowers are Wild Orchid with punched leaves. Sentiment is a ticket from Alissa Designs which I coloured with shimmer chalks and a Promarker. Some brads and gems finish off the card.

Christmas bear

SECOND POST FOR TODAY.
Feeling Christmassy due to my new Winter Wonderland DT position I made this card for three challenges. The card is all white except the image for Jusr Cute Bears. I hope the little bit of colour on the ribbon is OK as it just looked so perfect on this card. The sweet sketch is from Sweet Sketch Wednesday and the challenge at ABC Christmas is F for Frosty with the option of snow.
Image - Forever Friends coloured with Promarkers and sprinkled with glitter.
Die cuts - Nestability and Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder
Snowflakes - from America

The Sugar Bowl 31

I made this card a couple of days ago to send to a special blogger friend who has been feeling a bit down lately. Now I know she has received it I can share it with you all. My fave purple and one of the Gorjuss girls for this fortnight's sketch at The Sugar Bowl with the must include stars. She has stars on her boots and I added some Cuttlebug die cut stars and star charm. Papers are Papermania capsule collection to which I added some ribbon, a bow and some card candy.

Let's go surfing and fame at last

Another bright cheery card which makes me think of Summer. This little surfer from the Greeting Farm looks cool in red and blue and of course I had to give him blond highlighted hair. I used my MS star border punch and added some red ribbon to the scrap of blue paper. The sentiment is cut from Cuttlebug embossed card, which I then files to show the white. A couple of X cut punched swirls and gems in the corner to finish.
Challenges
Crafty Catz Something for the boys
Crazy 4 challenges Masculine card
Cards for Men Happy Birthday
Die Cut Dreams Use at least 2 hand punches

The second thing to share with you is the story which has appeared in Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine out today. Aren't they great pictures of Paige. Unfortunately they insisted on a pic of me as well. You may remember Paige's terrible accident last year and Erin's request to send her cards. I thought it was such a lovely thing to do that I wrote to the magazine about it. (I've already been asked by one blogger friend for my autograph,lol!) The story didn't come out quite the way it was originally written as I wantd it to be about Paige and Erin rather than me but that's journalism for you.

When I read the reader's stories last year there was no mention of being sent anything. I am now stunned and rather embarrassed to find they will be sending me some goodies. I'll have to find a way to share some of these I think, maybe more candy. (For current candy see above.)

April showers

Well I know it is March but March showers doesn't sound right. A bright and colourful card tonight with this Sugar Nellie cutie. The card is embossed with a Cuttlebug flower frill and of course the rainy day image was the perfect excuse for an umbrella charm. I used some lovely bright blue ribbon to match the card and flower and then covered up most of it with the spotty paper, oh well!
Challenges
I love Promarkers Sketch and embossing
One stitch at a time 1 ribbon, 2 brads, 2 DPs
Cute Daisy May Anything goes
Secret Crafter Anything goes

2 more Easter cards

I've had a busy weekend and not much time for either crafting or blogging. I did find time to make a couple of Easter cards this afternoon after taking my Mum out for lunch. The first one is a Messy Rabbit image. The green paper is Honey and Hugs and the ribbon is Laura Ashley. I added a stamped image chalked and highlighted with glitter pen. I used this lovely sketch from Simon Says. There's a challenge of green at Fussy and Fancy and oval and ribbon at The Crafty Pad where I won the last challenge with a prize of GDT. I'm going to be busy with DT cards this week so may not have many to share this week.


The second card is another of the Digistamp Boutique images I bought recently. I added some stamped flourishes to the corners and a Sizzix swirl. Papers are Pink Parfait. The fab sketch is from inspirational Card Sketches. Bee Crafty have a Spring challenge and Sophisticat want flourishes and bling.

Both cards are for the Easter challenge at Susie's Sassy Designs.

Last Mother's Day card

Hope all you Mums out there who are celebrating Mother's Day this Sunday get some lovely cards and pressies. Coco from Digistamp Boutique is looking cute here in pink and purple. Papers are Papermania Capsule Collection. I added some punched leaves and butterflies, Wild Orchid flowers and die cut corners.
Challenges
Papertake Sketch
Just Cute Bears Mother's Day
One Stitch at a Time Purple and pink
Cute Daisy May Mother's Day
Charisma Beautiful butterflies
Cute Card Thursday Celebrations
Teddy Stampers Mother's Day
Totally Papercrafts Things with wings

Have a great weekend everyone.

Hubby's Birthday

Well what with Hubby's Birthday on Monday, my exciting news this week, see previous post, and posting my candy, see above, I have finally got round to posting hubby's Birthday card. Graham loves cars and thought Hooty in his car was great fun. He looks like he is flying across the page just like Harry Potter.

Of course, no flowers but I used my MS heart border punch and added some large hearts. The solid heart was a die cut from my stash and the punched heart was a sample from Tracy at Dies to Die For. She is tempting me again. I found some heart buttons which made a nice splash of colour in the corner. The ticket is from Alissa Designs.

This card is for 2 challenges, just for men at Allsorts and no flowers allowed at Die Cut Dreams

Thank You

Why oh why do some e-mails go into Spam? I checked my Spam folder on Monday and was astounded to find an e-mail inviting me to join the Winter Wonderland Design Team. When I picked myself up off the floor I immediately e-mailed my response, which was of course YES. The team currently have a DT call out so if you would like to join me as a WW newbie then you have until Saturday to mak a Christmas card for this week's challenge.

So here's a cute little card tonight to say a BIG THANK YOU to the lovely girls at Winter Wonderland for asking me to join them. Christmas cards are some of my faves to make so I now have a great excuse to get those snowflakes and Christmas papers out each week.

The little fairy is from Buzzcraft and I added some glitter to the wings. Papers are K&Co.
Challenges
Crafts 4 eternity Sketch
Crafty Calendar Flower power
CRAFT Mother's Day or flowers
Charisma Fairies
Polka Doodles Wings
Magical Crafts Things with wings
The Crafty Pad Charm

3 more cards today

I've got 3 more cards to share with you today, all very different. The first is one of the WOJ city girls. I've never made a card in coffee and cream before and would never have thought of colouring her dress like this but that is the challenge at Whiff of Joy. The gorgeous flower is from Bo Bunny and was just perfect for this colour scheme. The lovely sketch is from Moving along with the times whose theme is one for the girls.
Other challenges
Paperplay Just because
Stamp Something Girly
Stampin for the weekend Monochromatic
Crafty Cardmakers Feminine celebration

The second card is for The Sugar Bowl whose theme is shabby chic. Papers are K&Co and have been inked, torn and distressed. I added some Shimmerz to the flowers for a bit of sparkle.

Lastly another Easter card with one of the Pollycraft images. The fab sketch is from Sunday Sketch and Stamp. Cupcake have a challenge of flower power and Stamp with fun want a spring card.

Rainy Day bear

It's Kaboodle Doodles fortnightly challenge day again and this time we are sponsored by Bugaboo. Jodie very generously gave the DT their choice of image and s giving away 7 digi images to the lucky challenge winner. It's a really easy challenge this time, Birthday, so hope to see lots of you playing along. There's some great fun cards by the rest of the DT. I couldn't resist one of the bears, naturally. As I had recently bought some umbrella charms this image gave me a good excuse to use one. Flatbacked pearls are also from the Hobby House.

Bunny hop

Good morning everyone. Les Miserables was fantastic last night. The cast were all excellent and the lead performer who played Jean Valjean was truly outstanding. I saw this show in London about 20 years ago and was so pleased that our theatre was chosen as one of the places the touring company would visit. We are so lucky in Norwich to have a really great theatre.

The sun is shining and I think it just might be a bit warmer out there today. Graham is washing the car, one of his favourite pastimes. so I had time for some crafting this morning. I am saving my craft money for the Big Stamp and Scrapbooking Show on 11 April at Alexandra Palace. I went last year and it was brilliant. Do let me know if you will be there.

I'm trying to resist buying anything before then and I managed to resist the spring set from Digistamp Boutique for 3 days but on the fourth I weakened. Well, they are so lovely and at £2.99 for 5 images they are also a real bargain.

I used the sketch from Truly Scrumptious for the square card and the sketch from Sketch Saturday for the other one. There is an option with Truly Scrumptious of good enough to eat and we all love Easter eggs, don't we. The chipboard flowers were free with a mag this month and the Easter eggs and Spring sentiment were part of my Easter stickers from Poundland.

Full of Eastern promise

I was lucky enough to win a challenge last week and my choice of 3 digi images from Stitchy so I chose Miss Weeble as I don't have any oriental images. Her parasol was such fun to colour. Papers are K&Co and Laura Ashley. I added some butterfly ribbon and a sentiment from Craftwork Cards. The swirling leaves are a Sizzix die and the flowers are from Wild Orchid.

The sun has been shining here today but it is still very cold outside. A quick post as I need to get ready soon. We're going to Pizza Express and then to the theatre to see Les Miserables to start off hubby's birthday celebrations. Tomorrow we're out to lunch with friends and then we both have the day off work on Monday, which is his birthday. We're meeting some more friends for another lunch that day so no cooking for 3 days, hooray. Not too much time for cardmaking or blogging for a couple of days.

Challenges
Sophisticat Oriental
Sweet Sketch Wednesday Sketch
Cupcake Round and round
Tuesday Taggers Swirls and curls where the prize is from Crafty Individuals
Craft Garden Photo inspiration (cherry blossom trees)
Cute Card Thursday Lucky green
Crafty CatzShades of green

Feeling floral

No rain for three days now and as well as 4 crocuses and a few pansies I found my first dwarf iris in flower in the garden today. A few more of the dwarf bulbs are in bud so hopefully we should soon have a few spring flowers in the garden. It's still cold here though and sharp frosts at night.

I'm trying to fit in a bit of blogging in between all the cards I need to make this week but I'm sorry that I'm not visiting as much as usual at the moment.

This first card is for somebody at work who asked for a floral card in purple, so how could I refuse that request. Papers are Papermania capsule collection and I know you will have seen me use this image a few times now. I don't have many images that are just flowers and of course, the beauty of digi images is that you can resize them. I embossed some purple card and used my MS doily lace border punch on the long edges. I just got a delivery from Wild Orchid Crafts yesterday which included these gorgeous purple flowers. I added a Prima hydrangea, some punched leaves and a punched butterfly with some gems.
Challenges
Bee Crafty Embossing
Crafty creations One colour
Simon Says Mother's Day/ Girly (card for a female)

The second card is another Pollycraft image. I'm really pleased with the colour combo, which is a bit different for me and gave me the chance to use some more of my new roses but peach this time.
Challenges
Teddy Stampers Sketch
Just cute bears Mint and brown
Creative Card Crew Celebrations
Digital Tuesday Scallops
Quixotic Leave it out (use leaves)

3 more cards today

I have 3 more cards to share with you today. I made one last night and two this afternoon as I was home about 2o'clock today. I have so many cards to make this week I don't have much time for blogging. It's hubby's Birthday next Monday and I haven't even made his card yet.

This is of course one of the new city girls from Whiff of Joy whose lovely sketch I used. I just hope I'm not too late with this one. I think this card has a real 60's feel to it, with the shoes and the scooter so I am also entering it into Simon Says vintage and a flower. I made the flower using Nesties Peony and some scraps of paper. I inked the edges and added a checked brad and some punched leaves. Lastly Papertake want you to use any or all of buttons, bows, brads and bling. Well I have a brad and some bling.

This Easter card uses the last of my Pollycraft Spring images. Papers are FF Pink Parfait again. I added some faux stitching around both the image and the stamped sentiment. I inked the edges of just about everything and even tore(ouch) the green paper for a distressed look. It just needed something to finish it off and I remembered my Sizzix corner dies.
Challenges
Create 4 fun Sketch
Secret Crafter Stitching
Pollycraft Distressing
The Pink Elephant Add green to your colour combo
Passion for Promarkers Back to Nature

Lastly, hopefully my last Mother's day card which was an order for an easel card. It's the FF Pink Parfait papers again with Prima flowers, pearls from the Hobby House and pink satin and pearl bead bows from Wild Orchid.
Challenges
Paper Sundaes Sketch
Paperplay For a mother
Allsorts Mother's Day
Totally Gorjuss It's for you Mum
A Spoon Full of Sugar Beads
Lily-boo too Mother's Day

Three cards

I made the Captain Jack card last night and the other two today so here goes for a few challenges. I told you I bought a couple of the fab spring images from Pollycraft and here's the first one. Isn't it cute? I'm just loving the pink and yellow, which I never thought I would. Papers are FF Pink Parfait and flowers are Prima and Wild Orchid.
Challenges
Friday Sketchers sketch
One Stop Craft Optimistically pink
By the cute and girly Spring is in the air

And for a complete colour and subject change here's Captain Jack from Pink Gem. No I can't see the resemblance to Johnny Depp either. This was my first challenge win last year and shame on me for not using him before. This was a great sketch for using up some paper scraps. I just had enough of the starry ribbon to add three strips. I'm really pleased with the effect of that with the stripes and spots.
Challenges
Pink Gem Sketch (Option pink and gems. Well I added the gems but I thought Captain Jack would object to pink!)
Quixotic One for the boys
Stamp Something DPs, buttons and ribbon

Last but not least is another Easter card. I bought a few Easter stickers last year in Poundland and still have some of them. This egg was one of them, which I customised by removing the tulip and the orange gingham bow. I added a white bow and sat Squiggle stamp's Daisy inside the egg which I then mounted onto a Nellie cut square. I used a mixture of papers, som stripey ribbon and MS punches for the fern and flowers. A real mix of colours on this one for a complete change.
Challenges
Cute Daisy May sketch
Squiggle Spring
Crafty Catz Fancy edge and ribbon