Here I am!

So I'm home again.  And my trip was amazing.  Spending time with friends is so wonderful, and sharing a love of stamping meant that we never stopped talking even for a second. :)

I am so grateful to my incredible hostess for making me feel so welcome.  Thank you BOTH for making my summer so perfect.

Anyway - I thought I should share a card. Here's one to celebrate the end of the summer... it's back to school for me tomorrow.  Look - no stamping!

I love all of these products.  THESE alphas, THESE stickers, THIS paper and THESE journaling cards... YUM YUM YUM YUM!  And of course THIS twine... my fave.

So I hope you all had as good a week as me.

Happy Tuesday.

xx

Hi! (and Bye!)

I just LOVE the new Alphabet Soup Chipboard kit from My Mind's Eye.  and imagine my DELIGHT when I found the digital range too - HERE at Sweet Shoppe Designs!  The gorgeous patterned paper is from the digital kit - such sweet little telephones.  I added THESE Making Memories alphas, yummy pink grosgrain ribbon from The Ribbon Girl, and another of my home made journaling cards.  Am addicted to making these.

I added a couple of Papertrey Ink buttons to the telephone, stuck on top of each other for EXTRA dimension. :)

So...

I'm off for a few days. Bags are packed, on line check-in done, nerves under control (not a good traveller). 

I'm not sure if I'll have a chance to check in here... so, have a great week and weekend and I'll be back with more next week.

BYE!!!!!

Birthday Monster

I had some fun making this card - I really love the Monster Fun set from Hero Arts, and I thought it was perfect for a masculine card... not a big fan of making boy cards.  Anyway, I paired it with a sentiment from THIS set, THESE Thickers and some yummy kraft cardstock. EVERYTHING looks nice on kraft. :)  The card base is Hero Hues Grass Layering Papers.


And my lovely friend Linda and I have had a FAB afternoon today making cupcakes.  We chose a design from THIS book... and here they are!  We were very proud of our afternoon's work.

Isn't he CUTE.  He's supposed to be a polar bear by the way... 
So excited. I leave for the US in a couple of days.
Aaaaahhhhh!!!!

Giveaway Winner...

And the winner is EVELINE.

I've emailed you :)

More later...

Playing with Punches

So I had a play with some punches and paper... and here's the outcome.

I used papers from THIS pad, and THIS punch, my favourite.  The sentiment stamp is from THIS set.  I inked the edges of everything with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. Love the dimension created by a bit of inking. :)

Have a happy Friday and a fab weekend.

x

Thanks

Just playing with some fun products...

I wanted to use one of my home made journaling cards (see HERE), and my butterfly die (HERE).  I added some Echo Park stickers and paper, silk ribbon,stitcthing and put it all onto some Hero Hues Layering Papers. Perfect for card bases.

Hope you are having a great day.
I've been baking.
So just for my lovely friend and colleague Clare, HERE is the recipe I've been following today.  And here is the outcome.  The caramel didn't set too well, but they taste pretty good. They're for Andy's colleagues and they aren't too fussy about presentation :)

P.S. Just wanted to remind you if you have any questions, especially about stitching or digital, see my FAQs at the top of the page.  The answer may be there :)

Sending Smiles

Hello and welcome to the Lawn Fawn Hearts Cards for Kids Blog Hop! We have all come together today to make cards for a wonderful cause, Cards for Kids! We hope to encourage you to also make cards for this great cause and have fun along the way, too! So please hop along with us, and make sure to leave comments as there will be prizes for commenters and participants! So let's get going! Also, if you are lost in the hop, you can always start at the beginning at the Lawn Fawn blog. Thank you so much for hopping along with us today!

If you are part of the hop, and have just arrived from the fabulous ANITA's blog, welcome.
Here is my card:

I used a cute chipboard shape from THIS new My Mind's Eye Alphabet Soup set.  Love, love LOVE it.  And the thickers are THESE ones.
Next on the hop - BRENDA. 
Thanks for hopping - have fun. 

Ribbons and Buttons and Twine... oh my!

I got a wonderful package of yumminess in the mail today from The Ribbon Girl.

Lookey.

So I got to it straight away and made a simple ribbony card!

Here's a close up of one of the beautiful Polka dot buttons - they are plain on the reverse (see the blue one in my card).

The sentiment is from THIS Hero Arts set.

And the button twine is perfect for threading through buttons. It's soft and easy to tie into bows.
Don't forget to enter their giveaway too - click HERE, become a follower and be in with a chance of winning a huge pile of ribbon.
Enjoy your day - check back tomorrow for the Lawn Fawn Cards for Kids Blog Hop. Should be fun. :)

Mmmmmmm... ribbon

I have good news, especially for my fellow Europeans, a cute new online shop 'The Ribbon Girl' has just opened, dedicated to one of my favourite things... ribbon.  And the lovely girls there asked me to be on their Design Team - yay, I get to play with ribbon some more.

They have a blog HERE too - and look, they have a gorgeous GIVEAWAY at the moment.

Check out some of the thing on my wish list:

Looky... yummy twine.

Oooh, love the Cornflower Blue.

And love THIS- especially the black.

And check out the CUTE wooden hearts HERE.

Challenge 12 winners

So sorry this has taken so long... You'd think being on holiday would give me more time, but somehow not!
And here are the winners of my 12th challenge...

I chose the cards that used buttons in the most creative way... and the ones that used the most buttons too. :)

                           1.  Ayana

                           2.  Donelda

                           3.  Angeline

And honourable mention to Katherine for THIS card.

Thanks to all who entered.  A new challenge will follow shortly. :)

I'm back!

Hello!!!  I'm back.  I've been on vacation for a week... in deepest darkest Wales with no phone, internet or TV.  PROPER relaxation.

So I am thrilled to see all the entries for my giveaway - and look - 600 followers today.  Amazing. :)

Here is a card I made with some FABULOUS new digikits by Vinnie Pearce.  Oh how I love her.

The beautiful bird is from THIS kit, and the gorgeous background paper from THIS kit (Look... they're on sale!!!).  The sentiment is from THIS Hero Arts set.

Happy Weekend to you all and thanks for always leaving such sweet messages and always making me smile.

Giveaway!!!

I'm taking a blog vacation.
I'll be back in about a week.
So in the mean time...

I promised a giveaway when I reached 500 followers, and here it is.  Sorry for the delay - I was waiting on some product I ordered especially for this event :)

So in the giveaway are some of my favourite products.  There are LOADS of things I love at the moment, and what better way to share them than to give a few of them away to you. :)

Hero Arts 'Be Happy' stamp set is one of my favourite sets from the 2010 catalogue.  I adore the bees and have used them for loads of different cards, including an engagement card, Valentine's card and friendship card.

The 'Love me Do' collection by My Mind's Eye has my favourite cloud patterned paper in.  So I thought I'd giveaway the whole set. :)

The brand new 'Kiss the Cook' set by Hero Arts has me salivating with anticipation... I've been wanting it for AGES, have finally got it, AND got an extra to give away. :)

Hero Hues Layering Papers are the BEST cardstock I've used.  Love love love them.  And the envelopes are cute too.

   

And finally, my favourite gemstones.  Perfect for dew drops on leaves, or to add a touch of shine to a more sophisticated card.

Wanna see a peek of the pile of stuff???

Here it is, all ready to be boxed up.

And you KNOW I'll throw in some ribbon, buttons and other little extras.

And a card. :)

So... to win, just leave a comment below - tell me what YOU love.  And make sure you are a Follower of my blog.  I'd love it if you could share the news on your blog too.

You have until Sunday 22nd August.

Good luck. 

:)

GIVEAWAY CLOSED

Glittery Fish

Today's my father's birthday, and here is the card I made him.  I used fish from
THIS and THIS Hero Arts sets, and paper from THIS kit.  I stamped the fish onto orange paper, then sponged Spiced Marmalade distress ink onto them for some shading.  Then I covered them in Stickles and added googly eyes.  Sparkly. :)



Happy birthday Dad.
xx

Christmas Tags

It's time for a new Caardvarks challenge and the theme is so fun - tags and minis!

And the sponsor this time... JustRite.

They sent us some Christmas products to play with - and here's what I made:

Hope you get a chance to play along... you might just win some yummy JustRite stamps :)

Floral Card Set and a video...

Today I have a video on the Hero Arts blog.  In it, I show how I made my own journaling cards using the fab Cling Ledger stamp and some distress ink.  So easy and fun... and a lot cheaper than buying ready made ones :)

So here are the cards I made.  I used Color Me Flowers and Sunshine Folded Cards and Gems combined with lovely sentiments from the Big Hugs set.  The cards would also be great for printing your own sentiments on to.
So here are the cards...

And here is the video.

Have a great day. :)

a new arrival

Hero Arts releases two adorable baby themed digikits today: Sweet Girl and Oh Boy.  I just love this little chick from the Sweet Girl kit.  I printed it onto a sweet My Mind's Eye Journaling Card with a typed sentiment, then printed it again onto yellow polka dot paper to paper piece.  Decided to keep it very simple...

Oh, and check out the cute little sausage dog in the boy's kit... can't wait to play with that later!

MORE cotton reels :)

Yeah, OK, I can't resist these Hero Arts cotton reels.

This card is a brighter cousin of THIS one... :)

Had my mum and dad here for the day today - so nice to sit in the garden and have lunch on my new patio. :)
Came up with some big projects for the house too - so exciting.
And mum gave me this:  

How awesome will it look wall mounted and filled with stamps and cotton reels??? Oh, and cleaned too :)
 (do you spy a peek of the patio?)
Hope you've had a good day.
P.S.  Check back later this week for a giveaway!!!