Let's Eat Cake.

It's Friday, this means I have only 1 week left in my current job and I am starting to get a bit sad about leaving my friends.

It also means that on my 'pod' we will be eating excessive amounts of bad stuff!

The big news in my world is that I bought a new camera, I am sad to be parting with "The Beast" but it is time to move up to a full dslr. The new Beast arrives today, which is very exciting - I don't have any lenses for him yet, so I guess I'll be spending the weekend trawling the internet for good deals!

Today's pic is something I put together for 2 challenges.

Polka Doodles - week 7 Chocolate

Cupcake Crafts - Cupcake 130....Cake 'n' Ice Cream

Making this card gave me the excuse to buy some new cake digital stamps from Pink Petticoat and I have had fun colouring and glittering them. I have no idea where the backing paper came from! The ribbon was on a gift I was given and I used peel offs for the sentiment.

I am pleased with the card and I am looking forward to making more cards using my lovely new cake stamps.

This weekend is going to be a quiet one. Hubby and I are off out tonight for a fancy meal to celebrate all the recent good news and on Sunday his cousin and his girlfriend are coming to stay before heading home to Bulgaria.

Have a good weekend, I'll be back tomorrow - I have another card all lined up for the Mojo Monday challenge.

Cx

Getting my sew on

Well, that's not strictly true! I didn't get my sew on last night, I am just finally getting round to showing you the diary cover that I made for my friend and wedding planner Marie.

I am quite pleased with it, only issue being I took the inside pics in a hurry, so they are a) a bit bleached out and b) I hadn't trimmed off all of the extra threads either!

The fabric is from Ikea and I've had it for a while, I bought it to make tote bags with, but I just couldn't bring myself to part with it! The ribbon and buttons are from my stash.

The tutorial I used was very straightforward and I even modified the pockets and the fastening to make it a bit more useful for Marie.

Try it out, it's fun and takes about an hour from start to finish.

Cx

Spots and Stripes

So I made this card as a challenge entry - it's a tad off the wall, but I like it!!

Spotty papers from my local craft store, My Minds Eye spotty ribbon, self-adhesive gem and the stripey monster topper was made using a digital stamp from Lettering Delights and Striped paper from Funky Hand's Salt&Pepper set.

I'm loving digital stamps and papers right now!

Challenges this has been entered into are -

DYSU - #7 Spots

Crafty Emma's Challenge Blog - #24 Spots and Stripes

See you tomorrow

Cx

Bring it on!

Thank You

This week, I have a busy social calendar, but I have a couple of evenings set aside for some crafting.

I realised that I haven't really posted any pics of things I've made recently, so I've put some pics up for you today.

Thank You - Reprodepot floral paper, re-coloured peel-off and a blue glittery bird embellishment by Simply Creative.

hello! birdie - no.1

Hello! - I am loving Hello cards right now and seem to be using them a lot, so I have made quite a few different kinds.
No1 - Great paisley paper from TK Maxx cut out using the scalloped square template on my Slice, cream card cut using the same template and birdie/hello! stamps by Hero Arts.

hello! birdie - No2

No2 - My Minds Eye wild asparagus paper cut with an X-Cut scalloped edge punch and a Simply Creative glittered embellishment.

hello! birdie - No3

No3 - Black glittered paper from Paperchase - used for the ribbon effect strip and the scalloped circle, Papermania patterned paper cut using the scalloped circle template on my Slice, cream scalloped circle and birdie\hello! stamps by Hero Arts.

I love this Hero Arts stamp set, it's really cool and very handy, it comes with other sentiments and I have used it for so many different occasions. The card I love the most has to be No3, because I really like the layered effect and the glittery black paper.

Enjoy!

Cx

Sundays Are Best

We had such a lovely time with Family Hopgood and Leila is absolutely gorgeous, but there is nothing better than being in your own home on a Sunday watching the NBA All Star weekend.

Today's pic is for the Mojo Monday #178 challenge, I love the Mojo sketches and often use them for inspiration. I love this card and have just the couple in mind to give it to. Here is the Mojo sketch -

I used Canford Card, free papers for the scalloped circle (which I cut using my slice), I decided against ribbon and used card instead, I also decided not to create a bow and used self adhesive gems instead, the stamp is from the Forever Friends Wedding set and the ink is Peony by Colourbox.

This week, I have been using lots of the same items from my stash, it's quite interesting to see how many different cards you can create using similar ingredients!

The only thing that has irritated me this week, is not having time to enter the Kaboodle Doodles and Sketch n Stash challenges - next week, next week.

Cx

Eventful Week!

So, with the birth of baby Otis and my new job!! Yes, I have a new job!! It has been an eventful and really nice week.

Hubby and I went and saw Otis, he is gorgeous, we are totally smitten. The whole family seem to be well, even though they are tired, they seem to be taking to parenthood very well. Obviously, we took him some Ham 'n' Mule originals, so he is a stylish baby too!! I also hung out with the girls last night, haven't seen them in a while, so that was fun. To round off our nice week, Hubby and I are off to visit friends in Berkhamsted today.

There were a few challenges I wanted to enter this week, but with all the things that have been going on, I haven't really done that much crafting, so I dedicated this morning to a couple of challenges and today's pic is the first one.

This is for Corrosive Challenges #103 - you get the chance to be a DT too, how exciting! Here is their sketch and today's pic is my card.

 I decided to turn the sketch around and make my card landscape, I used Canford card, 2 peas in a bucket digital stamps and papers, Martha Stewart zig zag punch, Hero Arts 'Hello!'stamp, Colour Box Peony ink, Stickles glitter glue, adhesive gems, Amethyst and Bluebell promarkers.

I am very happy with this card, I think it works really well and I think I will send it to my friend Liz in New Zealand.

Happy Saturday to you, see you tomorrow!

Congratulations!

To my Sister-in-Law and her Husband on the arrival of their Son - Otis, first thing this morning!! Yay! I am Auntie Claire now!! Hubby and I are going to visit them later, so more news tomorrow.

I really wanted to enter the Do You Stack Up challenge this week - #6 Ribbons (use it anyway), so I rushed home last night and made this beauty!

I am really happy with this card - I like the subtlety of the ribbon (which is from WHSmith, as is the flower embellishment) the card is by Canford, the sentiment stamp is by Hero Arts and one of my faves at the moment and the corner punch was a Christmas bargain from Hobbycraft.  I only bought the ribbon and the embellishment last week (naughty), I really like them, the ribbon had four other designs on the reel and you get 8 embellishments for 1.49, complete with the blingy brad - amazing!

Anyway, that's it from me this morning, Happy Wednesday everyone!

Cx

Post Film Club Blues....

Film Club happens approx every six weeks and last night was the second meeting of Film Club. It consists of myself, Hubby and our friends JJ and Jon. We watch some obscure stuff and there is always a horror movie in the list of 3 films!

We has so much fun yesterday, which just enhanced the happy feeling of the last few days (reasons why to be shared later in the week).


So when I got home today, I made the card below, for the following challenges -

Get Funky - Funky Hand make really cool papers and stamps - mainly digital, I love their stuff. Their challenge is Going Round in Circles (my papers and central feature of the card fit this)

Sketch n Stash - Challenge #54 (sketch below), here they ask that you use new/neglected items.

I like this card a lot, I think it works well. I used neglected papers from Funky Hand's Salt and Pepper set, coredinations beige textured cardstock, new stamps from Hobbycraft and new brilliance lightning black ink.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Cx

Relaxed and happy!

...yep, that is me.

Hubby and I took 2 days off last weekend and went to Deal - it's a Kent seaside town, it was lovely! The hotel we stayed in was perfect, we walked along the beach and ate and drank way too much.

The happy mini holiday buzz hasn't left me yet and its a great feeling considering how stressful the last few weeks have been

Because I was away, I didn't get much of a chance to craft last week and since I have been back, I have been watching basketball and getting an early night!

I am aiming to resume craft duties as normal tomorrow evening, so I can enter a few challenges this week - entering challenges really makes me smile!

Today's pic is of beautiful Deal.

Cx

p.s I have actually finished the diary cover - just been lazy abt retrieving the pics off of my camera!

Easy to be charitable!

Hey there, today I delivered my first batch of cards to Support Our Soliders. They are a non-political, non-profit organisation that send care packages and various other things to our Soliders that are abroad.

I saw an article where they were asking for cardmakers to donate generic cards for Soliders to send to their loved ones. I thought this was a lovely idea and means that I get to do something charitable, whilst doing something I love.

It's quite easy to forget about all the Soldiers that are away from home, as we go about our day to day lives, but we should always remember that wherever they are in the world they are defending our right to freedom and any support we can offer, no matter how small, is always greatly received.

In honour of British Soldiers everywhere - today's pic is a good old Union Jack.

Cx