Saying goodbye to my 30's.....

Wow! 10 years went quickly...

I have a lot to be thankful for..my 30's have been fab...I met my hubby, got married, learnt how to craft, made a couple of new and forever friends, strengthened some old friendships, got healthy, moved to NYC...the list could continue.

The main photo today is from a great party during my 30's..it's one of my fave photos...here are a few more..

Me + Hubby on an very early date!!

 My SIL, Sam, Ma and Daddy - at the Mascot Race 2005

My SIL Lucy and I in Brighton...2006

Amy and Lemon in Amsterdam 2011

Hubby + Me on our 1st Wedding Anniversary in Camber Sands 2010

Today I am going to enjoy the last day of 39 and get ready to embrace 40..starting with our little house party tonight...

I have been working tirelessly making party bags - I'll show pics next week over WOYWW so all the ladies that sent me bday wishes can see what I got up to.

Then off to Atlantic City Babyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!! tomorrow for a day and night of excess and fun!

Happy Friday everyone..

Cx

WOYWW makes me warm and fuzzy...

I really enjoyed WOYWW yesterday, not just because of all the lovely comments left for me, but because there was so much to see and interactive with - it cheered me up - working until 1am the night before made me grumpy!

I also added a few more people to 40 for 40, only a few slots left...so use the link on my sidebar if you are interested.

Lemon is here now and that is WONDERFUL...tonight the 40th celebrations kick-off.

I wanted to share the beautiful illustration that my work colleague gave me...it's today's main photo. She just happened to mention she can 'draw a bit'...hmmm modest or what! So I begged for a few of her drawings to make things with.

JT and I are going to use it in some shape or form and it comes with the words - 'we are all going to die, but I have a helmet' - awesome.

Have a great Thursday and thank you for making me smile.

Cx

WOYWW #225 An early birthday gift...

Hello and Happy WOYWW to you all - Weds already and not a single post from me..tut tut.
For those of you that don't know what WOYWW is, pop over to meet Julia and the gang at her blog Stamping Ground for our weekly global desk nose.

Ok, so let's do my desk first and birthday gifts last..so that Julia doesn't tell me off :)

My desk is a hectic hub..you can see...new Pink Petticoat images printed ready for colouring, thank you cards for my bday, a few cards made and ready to post, my beloved trimmer, glasses, bone creaser, tape and a million other things. This is a different view of my desk you get to see ALL of my messy space..

As most of you know I am turning 40 on Saturday and there is still time for you to click on the image to the right of my blog and sign up for 40 for 40.

I have had 2 early birthday gifts...the first being a beautiful backgammon set from JT's parents..Hubby and I spent the weekend with them, they are a hoot. We went to Philly and I ran up the Art Museum steps...just like Stallone in the Rocky films..only I did it in 3 inch gold wedges...

Me running up the Philadelphia Art Museum Steps

The second is that I have got my first DT position!! I am overjoyed and thrilled to be joining Moving Along With The Times...run by Hazel in Scotland..I start next week - EEK!! Check out the shiny new DT badge on my sidebar..

Final pics are of the x2 cards that are made and on my desk...

Thank You - stenciled birdcage

Stenciled background, stamped Eiffel Tower 

The Eiffel Tower ones are to say thank you to the neighbour that hosted Dr Kevin's dinner a couple of weeks ago.

Lemon (my Bestie) arrives tonight and I am so excited to see her! 5 months is too long to be apart...she's my wife...

We are off to Atlantic City this weekend to celebrate with Hubby, his bestie Polly (who is in town for a conference), Lemon and our new NYC friend Hari.

I'm off to look at desks now as I have just walked in from work (it's Weds AM here in NYC) then to bed...

Cx

Going on an adventure...

Hubby and I are off to spend the weekend with JT's folks in DTown..can't wait!

A while back I was talking to Lemon (my bestie) and told her I was going home to craft...she asked me to make her something that night and send it to her.

I did, but didn't think I had taken a photo of it - which was sad, as it was awesome for a 10 minute make!!

Then last night I came across the photo in my folder - so that is my main photo today and also an entry to Pink Elephant challenge - as you have to use a digital stamp..

The stamp is by Kirsty Wiseman and I kept it really simple with the corrugated card circle and 'HELLO' peel-offs.

Wish I had written 'Woof' instead!

Happy Weekend everyone.

Cx

Finding myself funny...

...now anyone that knows me, knows how much I crack myself up :)

So when I was making a card for Dr Kevin's birthday last week, I thought it would be funny if I themed it around Magic Mike...as like me, he LOVED it..

Obviously anyone with half a brain loves the scene with the 'My Pony' dance...

The main photo is the card I made.

I bought the stamp from KennyK, especially for Dr Kevin..love it, many more uses in this bad boy (ha ha cracking up).

Ok, so I ad the stamp, it's all coloured what now?

How about typing out the lyrics from 'My Pony' to use as backing paper?!

Once it was constructed I literally thought I was going to die with laughter..even Hubby thinks I outdid myself here.

What do you think?

Cx

p.s Dr Kevin LOVED it...so all is well :)

p.p.s - Great WOYWW yesterday got loads more 40 for 40...still time to sign-up and there are twenty spaces left...

WOYWW #224....10 days to go

Until I am 40 - wowzers! Don't forget to check out my 40 for 40 offer :) - link to the right.

 It's that time again and that can only mean one thing....WOYWW...come and join Julia and the gang for the weekly global desk nose..check out Julia's blog Stamping Ground for more info.

Today I am showing you LOTS!! Ha ha sorry Julia :)

Let's start with my desk..taken on Tuesday night about 10.45pm NYC time...I am in the midst of making party bags for my party, the beautiful Venetian Summer stamp (that I have wanted for ages) card is going in each of the 24 bags, the little stack of canvas at the top right of my mat is a gift I need to get finishing for a friends birthday, there are papers kicking around for my Goddaughter's birthday stuff, Promarker colour chart and Promarkers everywhere! Messy!

Here is a close-up of the card.

Venetian Summer Card

Love it, such fun to work with.

I spent last week and Saturday organising... A4 papers and smaller scraps are now colour coded and live here...

Drawers!

All the drawers hold different colours and there is one drawer for printed images. BLISS! The ones to the left hold punches.

Stamps live in these gorgeous folders...

Folders on their shelf

By Martha Stewart and Avery for Staples...on sale for 50 cents each - YAY!! Each folder is beautifully labelled using a Martha Stewart Avery printable kraft label and each folder has different groups of stamps (birthdays, weddings, etc)

Folder Label

Inside Birthday folder

I just love to organise.

Have a happy WOYWW everyone...next Weds my bestie Lemon arrives for the birthday celebrations...ATLANTIC CITY BABEEEEEEE....

Ha ha

Cx

OWH final stages..

As you all know I make cards for OWH and the current deadline for delivery (including Christmas) is 15th of October.

I have been furiously labelling, tucking and making cards.I have a few more days left of making and then I want to post everything before Lemon arrives on 25th of September.

I thought I would show a few of my latest makes..

Main photo - With Love cards, using a stamp I had forgotten about (more about that later). I embossed the background, die cut the coloured rectangle and coloured the stamp using watercolour pencils!!
I love this technique - the flowers end up looking great with the variation of colour in the petals as you lay down the colour.
It's easy to do, all you need is one of these and some watercolour pencils or Letraset Aquamarkers,  then you colour a little square of colour onto some card and taking the aquabrush apply the colour to your image - easy!
Here's a photo of all the variations I made...

With Love - Watercolours

I've also decided to link to the OWH challenge, with my main card today, it seems only fitting :)

The next set of cards was made using 2 new stamp sets - Teresa Collins Far & Away stamps (for the balloon) and a Hero Arts sentiment stamp set.

Just Saying Hello - brown

I made 3 versions of this card and used different colours for each of them. I used the reverse of journalling cards for the main background, as the fronts are hideous, but on the reverse they have really nice patterns.
Here is a photo of all of them - 

Just Saying Hello - all colours

Final card is really simple..just a punched scalloped heart, some papers, a silver sticker and a stamped sentiment/ They came out really well, every single card has a heart punched with a different paper.

You're the best

I am pleased with how all of the OWH cards have been coming out. I'll show you Christmas before I send them, I am particularly pleased with those ones.

Cx

I'm on a roll...

I won a challenge!! Yay! What a great start to the week..

I won last weeks Designed to Colour challenge - which I entered using one of the cards from the remote playdate with JT.

Awesome! Combined with my spotlight of the week win over at KennyK last week, this is shaping up to be a very happy birthday month :)

To celebrate I am doing a x2 challenge entry and the main (and somewhat foggy) photo today is my entry.

Designed to Colour are doing another Anything Goes Challenge and so I can use the card I made for the KennyK Colours of Fall challenge. JT and I are in sync yet again, as she entered her colors of fall card yesterday.

Fall (or Autumn where I am from) is my fave time of the year, so handily I seem to have a lot of fall colours in my stash...

What did I use?
My new Fashionista Stamp by KennyK (I won it for spotlight of the week using Hubby's anniversary card).
I used the embossed wood background, as supplied by JT (she used it too)
Green paper is by American Crafts
Paper twine from my stash
Punched sentiment in orange
Punched leaves and flowers from my stash.
Spice and Honeycomb Promarkers for her top, shoes, bangles and earrings
Tawny Owl for her trousers and top
Cocoa and Walnut Promarkers for her hair
Moss, Oatmeal and Pastel Pink for her eyes, skin and lips.

This card was fun to make and I love the new stamp...can see her getting used a lot.

Happy Monday.

Cx

Warm Fuzzies..

Whatever they are I will be sending them to someone soon :)

This is the last card from my Sunday playdate with JT. She already posted her entry for Retro Sketches #80 - which is awesome, great use of washi tape.

The sentiment is new and I like it because it sounds like something I might say to someone...

Here is the sketch -

As JT said in her post, we decided to enter the challenge, but then set ourselves a challenge on top of this to use a set of stamps that we both had!! Complicated?! JT used the camera and I used the plane.

The polka dot stripe is washi tape, the rest of the stripes are just standard paper stock - the blue bits are glittery and are by DCWV and come in a long stack...very versatile. The paper that the stamp is on, is actually the reverse of a hideous journaling card that came in a cheap set I bought. I've kept some of them and the ones I don't like I will be using the reverse for other things. The button is from a batch that I bought just before I left London, from my fave stall at Lewisham Market - 5p each and this one is fabric covered!

This card makes me smile and is a nice way to end the week methinks.

Tonight we are going to dinner at a neighbour's house to celebrate her Son's birthday and Dr Kevin's birthday. I made him a little gift using an image he sent me of him and Rica (his Australian Sheppard) on holiday this Summer in Maine. They look so cute together... Hope he likes it! I treated it using a Lomo wash, added some text, printed it out and popped it in a frame.

Happy Friday.

Cx

WOYWW 223 - Looking back...

Hey everyone - yes it is that time of the week where we join Julia and the gang over at Stamping Ground for the global desk nosy..pop on over and see what I am taking about.

I decided to go back in time this week and show you a photo of my desk that I took on 21st Aug, as I was leaving for work I realised that there were all kinds of non-craft related stuff there and it made me laugh so I took the photo to share with you. You can see nail polish, from an emergency pre-work repair, a coffee cup, my notepad (the pink thing, it goes EVERYWHERE with me), my phone, a card, my glasses and the usual craft mess...

It made me laugh as I normally do not use my craft desk for this kind of randomness! Or maybe I do, but just never notice?!

x2 more photos for you - well they are actually for Maisie Moonshine, because she spied my beautiful pin cushion on my desk last week and I promised her pics. It was made several years ago for my birthday by my Australian friend Jade. She is very talented and this is a treasured item for me.

Happy WOYWW everyone - I'm off to have a nosy at desks now.

Cx

p.s don't forget I am doing 40 cards for 40...so email me your postal address and I'll send you a card :)

Stenciling fun..

So as you saw last week I have been trying to learn how to use stencils..I have had varying results - surprisingly mostly good :)

Today's photo is of a card I made for one of my Bestie's and his family as they just has a Baby Boy (as yet un-named).

I am so chuffed with how well this came out I decided to enter it into the Creative Card Crew challenge this week - #44 Things with Wings...great name for a challenge!

I used a Hobbycraft basics navy blue ink and Studio G inks for the paler blue and the brown. I went over the paler blue just slightly with the navy. The sentiment was made using my trusty EK Success label punch.

The reason I am so pleased with this card is because it is so non-traditional..yes it's blue and there is a bird, but it's huge and modern!

I am starting to get the hang of this stenciling thing and can't wait for my new Ranger inks to arrive..

Cx

Another win thanks to Hubby...

Well not quite, but I did get Spotlight of the Week over on the KennyK Challenge blog!! Once again I won something with a card I made for Hubby..I think he might be a lucky charm. I got 1 KennyK digi and I chose Fashionista, can't wait to use her!

My main photo today is another card that was made during my remote playdate with JT on Sunday..

I am using it as my entry for the Designed to Color Challenge #19 - Anything Goes. Rules are simple you have to use a coloured image to enter.

I used a Flower Jar stamp by Bugaboo Stamps. I used the following Promarkers to colour the image -
Moss = leaves
Frosted Leaf = stems
Grey Squirrel = centre of the flowers
Pink Mittens, Tropical Orchid and Pink Carnation = flowers
Tropical Orchid and Morning Mist = jar label

JT and I used the recipe idea so - x3 papers, x3 embellishments, x1 sentiment and x1 coloured image. It is really easy and makes for fun cards.

I like the mix of papers I used here and I think the little bit of ribbon across the middle helps.

You will notice that I am watermarking my images now...I am trying to remember to do this every time, but I do forget. I have been fortunate enough to have a lot of repins of my work on Pinterest and I really wanted to discourage people from just randomly using my imagery, so have been attempting to watermark them so people know that it belongs to someone!

This makes me sound a bit mean! It's more to discourage the people that use my image and don't credit me! I always credit my sources, suppliers, blogs I use as inspiration etc and think it's only fair that others do the same.

Cx

Remote playdate..

Hello!

So today JT and I had our first Skype Playdate and it worked really well...only downer for both of us was being unable to 'steal' from each others stash :) Aside from that we managed to gossip, make stuff, give advice and have a laugh as usual.

It was like old times.

My main photo today is of a card that I made with JT - it will be my Mojo Monday entry this week and it's actually a birthday card for JT's Dad.

Here's the sketch -

I have wondered for a while how best to use the map paper and I think this is the perfect place!! It has such a masculine feel. Both of us decided to emboss one of the papers and use a patterned piece for the other one, very similar ideas basically...that's what comes from crafting together for a few years..I miss my CB so much, but she'll be here twice this year, which is great!

Overall I'm pretty pleased with the outcome and I have 2 more challenge entries to post, from today's little playdate, so a very productive Sunday morning.

I am off to eat brunch now, with a warm and fuzzy feeling inside.

Cx

Spooky anniversary..

A bit early, but I loved the Kenny K challenge this fortnight - Spooktactular - and wanted to enter and it meant that I could use it to make my Wedding Anniversary card - yes we got hitched on Halloween!

It also meant I had an excuse to by one of the new Kenny K witches stamps :)

So I went to town a bit....

The main photo is of my entry, but because I have used a concertina fold card, I thought I would show you another photo so you can see the sentiment.

Spooky Anniversary - sentiment close-up

What did I use?
Shery K free Halloween paper
Promarkers to colour the Hella Enchanta by KennyK
Heart punch - black and green card from my stash
American Crafts punch - for the border and the sentiment
Sentiment - clear stamp by Hero Arts
Concertina card is by Papermania

I think my card is amazing, little bit complex and detailed, maybe I could have lived without the black/green hearts, but hey I still like it, not sure what Hubby is going to think!! He has already mentioned that I keep 'using him' to enter challenges...which might be a tad true..

I did have start with the intention of Hella, kinda looking like me...not sure that has worked, we'll let Hubby be the judge of that.

Have a great weekend, I have dinner plans with Hubby and some friends tonight, Saturday we are off to the jewelers (long story, to be told another time) and I have a Skype playdate on Sunday with JT and I can't wait!

Cx

Oops!

Ha ha yesterday I mentioned my shiny new noticeboard that I made myself, but I forgot to show a photo of it (think I was tired as I worked so late the night before).

So today's main photo is my new noticeboard.

I made it by modifying a reasonably priced one (Target $12) by Board Dudes..I wanted a board that you can pin stuff on and use magnets..fussy fussy.

I used my hot glue gun (for the first time ever..) and it wasn't quite as scary as I thought it would be! I used Ikea fabric that I bought to make the lampshades for our flat in London and masking tape on the back around the edges of the fabric, to make it all tidy.

On the lovely new noticeboard you can see magnetic pots - $1.50 for 2 from Michaels - I am planning on filling them with things that I use often, but can't keep in reach due to logistics..so far I have googly eyes in the white one (Hubby's suggestion) and fabric bows in the yellow one. Also on there are x2 images I created using stencils and distress inks.

Stenciling is new for me and I am pleased at how well they have come out. Here is another one -

Love Stencil

I am going to buy some more inks tonight on my way home and have a bit more of a play...I got a big pack of stencils for free with a magazine ages ago, so I have lots of choice.

Final photo for today shows the noticeboard in relation to my desk - sorry the photo is a bit dark.

Noticeboard - in situ

Cx

WOYWW #222 Sharing the birthday love...

Happy WOYWW everyone!! I am joining in late today as I got in from work at 2am this morning.....Go to Stamping Ground and meet Julia and the gang, if you have no idea what I am yabbering about!

This week I have a bumper bonus stack of photos for you, as I got the final piece of furniture for the craft room...I was hoping to be all organised and have it all tidy for you...

Main photo - my rather messy desk, but now with Promarkers ON my desk!! Yay - front and centre is a stack of goodies from JT.

Card from JT - this is the card that you can see on my desk. It's beautiful and was waiting for me when I got in at 2am today and it's so me!

Card From JT

New expedit in the craft room - which now separates my desk from the 'bedroom' area - needs new boxes and a proper organising session, but you get the idea!

New Expedit - craft shelving for the bedroom 

Final photo is of my shiny new noticeboard (not the best photo) It is magnetic and has cork edges so you can pin stuff too. I covered it with some left over Ikea Fabric...I finally used the hot glue gun...go me!
It was an idea I saw on Pinterest and I think it works.

Sorry for the epic post....but I promise I am nearly done.

Now on to the sharing of the birthday love. As I am 40 next month and you are all so lovely, I thought that from the 28th of September for 40 days I would make cards for 40 lovely WOYWW'ers.

All you have to do is email me your address and let me know if I should leave it blank so you can use it - wherever you are in the world and I'll send you a card!!

It's a little bit off the wall, but I think it will be fun.

Happy WOYWW.

Cx

p.s small print on the 40 days of fun...I promise to post them all before December 31st!!

Happy Labor Day!

Today is Ma and Amy's last day here, we are off to Coney Island..weather permitting.

On Friday a friend asked me to make a card to accompany her Thank You gift for her Cousin. Whilst playing in my new improved craft area (more about that later in the week) last night I stumbled across this great blog - Passion For Promarkers.

They have a challenge and their current challenge is a recipe - x3 papers, x1 image, x3 embellishments and x1 sentiment.

My main photo is my entry - using a Bugaboo Flower Mouse stamp as my image - coloured using Caramel, Tan, Pink Carnation, Moss, Honeycomb and Cocoa Promarkers, a Pink Petticoat sentiment, x3 papers - the x2 patterned ones are new and by DCWV and Crate Paper, my x3 embellishments are x2 brads and x1 button from my stash. I added a bit of twine for fun.

I love this card, it came out so well and I love the idea of a 'recipe' for a challenge, might have to do this remotely with JT.

Hope my friend's Cousin loves it too.

Cx