Charisma Cardz Birthday Blog Hop

**ENDS TONIGHT 8pm GMT**

Happy Birthday Charisma Cardz

We're celebrating over at Charisma - it's our first birthday and we're having a blog hop to celebrate, with lots of lovely pressies (for you lot) along the way!

First things first though - this week's challenge, which is all about celebrations, it doesn't have to be birthday, any celebration is fine and here's my card for the challenge:

I had some koh-i-noor pencils for Christmas, so I've had a go at colouring my image in using them. Here's the rest of the details:

Image & sentiment - Penny Black

Papers - freebies from magazine

Cardstock - Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip & Whisper White

Other - SU! Word Window punch, die-cut flourishes from stash

And now on to the blog hop! If you've come here from Carly, you're in the right place, if not, go back to the Charisma blog and start from there

If you get lost along the way, here's the order you need to go in:

Carly

Jan (me)

Vee

Leanne

Joanne

Sally

Allison

You need to collect a word from each of us to make up a sentence and mine is "First"

Now for the goodies, there are some amazing prizes up for grabs on the blog, also each DT member is giving away a small candy and this is mine:

I'm offering:

a selection of stamped images (there'll be more in the actual prize)

a flower stamp from In My Mind's Eye

a small reel of black & white spotty ribbon

garden themed card toppers

handmade butterfly embellishments which are sparkly in real life

also a pad of papers (not shown)

To enter into my draw, just leave me a comment below, and I'll make the draw on the 6th January at 8.00 p.m. (GMT)

Don't forget to visit the rest of the teams blogs, and have fun with the challenge!

Review of 2009

I've seen this on a few blogs and thought I'd have a go, it's a review of my favourite cards of mine from 2009, it's taken me ages to choose, sometimes I had a few to choose from and sometimes hardly any! I only started blogging in February so January's comes from my Flickr account.

It's been really interesting looking back through my blog, seeing how my cards & my style have developed and also remembering some of the events of 2009.

So *drumroll* here's my favourite cards of 2009:

January:

February:

March:

April:

May:

June:

July:

August:

September:

October:

November:

December:

TFL x

Sweet Stampin' Challenge No. 6

Hello & Happy Boxing Day! Hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday, we had a quiet but really lovely & relaxing Christmas, doesn't it go quick though - all that build up, work & stress and over so soon.

So onto this week's challenge at Sweet Stampin, maybe a chance to use some new crafting goodies Santa brought? A fab sketch by Jo, this is my kinda sketch, simple, straight, clean lines but of course you can make your entry as elaborate as you like!

This is your last chance to get into the month's draw for the Punch & Stamp set, so hope you can join us.

Here's my card:

I'm not sure why the picture's so wishy washy, but hopefully you can see it clearly enough. Do you like the lace trim? This was salvaged from a net bag that a pair of pyjamas I bought for my daughter came in, too nice to throw out and I've still got the rest of the bag too, which may come in useful!

Here's the rest of the details - all Stampin' Up!

Stamps - Queue Up (Level 3 Hostess); In The Stars

SU Markers - Pretty in Pink

Ink: Basic Black; Pretty In Pink

DSPs - Sweet Always (retired)

Cardstock - Pretty in Pink; Whisper White

I'm also entering my card into the following two challenges:

PaperPlay - New Beginnings

Cupcake Craft - A Time for Celebration

Have a great day!

Merry Christmas & Thank You!

I just wanted to wish each and every one of my blogging buddies a wonderful Christmas & New Year.

I've met some lovely people, made some genuine friends and just love being part of this blogging community.

Thank you to everyone who has ever left me a message, and for the wonderful words of kindness & encouragement.

Have a lovely holiday

xxxx

Matching Money Wallet

Here's the money wallet I made to go with my daughter's Christmas card, it's now safely tucked under the tree!

Same papers used as yesterday - digi papers and Stampin' Up! cardstock Lovely Lilac, the snowflakes have been punched out and glittered with SU! Dazzling Diamonds and the sentiment is SU! Best Yet (retired)

I'm entering this into the following challenges:

Allsorts - Anything but a card

CRAFT - free, no theme

Crafty Creations - free, no theme

TFL

My final Christmas Card!

I think! No I'm certain, all are now done and this last one is for my daughter, I've done it in her favourite colour - purple and there's a matching money wallet, which I'll show you tomorrow as it was too dark to take a decent photo by the time I'd finished.

I'm entering my card into 4 challenges:

Sunday Sketch & Stamp - Sketch

Simon Says - Merry Christmas

Anyone for Anya - Last Christmas Card of the year

Susie's Sassy Designs - A touch of Gold (the ribbon is gold IRL)

I've used Stampin; Up! Lovely Lilac cardstock and my papers are digi from Shabby Princess, the rest is from my stash.

I also did the last of my Christmas shopping today plus my grocery shopping, so apart from a bit of wrapping, I'm actually ready for Christmas - hooray!

Top 5 & a Blog Award

I've just found out I won a Top 5 over at Get Sketchy and can now proudly display this badge on my blog - how exciting!

I got the award for my very pink & girly Anya card:

I've also been given an award by my Sweet Stampin DT buddy Margreet, how fabulous darling! Thanks Margreet, and I'd like to pass it on to anyone who doesn't have this award.

Will hopefully get a card done later on, haven't made one all weekend, think I'm crafted out with all the Christmas cards, still have one more to do for my daughter.

TFL x

Anniversary Cards and Sweet Stampin Challenge

Good morning everyone, on this icy cold (but very sunny here) day, it's my 11th Wedding Anniversary today, so having a nice chilled day, the bubbly's chilling in the fridge and we'll have a takeaway tonight - we rarely go out for our Anniversary as it's not very romantic sitting in a restaurant amid a load of Office parties! So we'll have a lovely meal at home, with some Champagne and snuggle up in front of the fire.

So first I want to show you my Anniversary cards, this is the one I made for my hubby, I used the sketch from this week's challenge at Your Next Stamp, so I'll enter it there

Stampin' Up! used:

Cardstock - Whisper White; Very Vanilla; Chocolate Chip

Ribbon - Very Vanilla

SU Markers - Close to Cocoa; Creamy Caramel; Pixie Pink; Pretty in Pink; Barely Banana, Summer Sun

Scallop Border Punch

Other:

Image - Pink Petticoat digi

Papers - digi's from Two Peas in a Bucket

Embossing Die, Heart Die

Tag - cut on CraftRobo

Sentiment - Printed on computer

I also want to show you the card that Hubby made for me, yes made for me, he disappeared in my craft room this morning and came out with this:

It's the first card he's ever made, and I think all in all he did a great job! He raided my stash, was very creative in attaching the flower to the card using a brad, and even did some stamping! I also have to show you the back as he used my handmade by stamp!

Stampin' Up! used:

Cardstock - Real Red; Pretty in Pink

Other:

Sentiment - (brand new, I've not even inked it up yet!) PTI

Roses & brad from my stash.

I was chuffed to bits he made me a card, I also had a gorgeous bouquet of flowers.

Now onto this week's Sweet Stampin challenge which is "Punch It" - now this isn't about relieving Christmas stress, but we want you to use at least one punch on your entry. Here's my, very bright & sunny card:

All Stampin' Up! used:

Stamps - Flight of the Butterfly; Pick a Petal; Stem Sayings

Punch - Butterfly Punch; 1" circle punch

Cardstock - Whisper White; YoYo Yellow; Only Orange

Ink - YoYo Yellow; Only Orange; Basic Black

It's even brighter IRL but made a nice change after all the Christmas colours.

Hope you can join us this week & look forward to seeing all your entries

Have a good day all

Charisma #50 - 2 week challenge

Good morning! Is it me or is it freezing? I'm so cold this morning, but we've not got snow forecast here in Shropshire.

So it's our last challenge before Christmas over at Charisma as we're making this one last for two weeks, it was my turn to set the challenge and I decided to go for -

"Anything but Christmas"

I don't know about you, but I'm just about Christmased-out with all the cards I've made, so it was really nice to do something different.

No apologies (apart from Lyn if you're reading this!) but I've gone all out pink & girly with my birthday card and I'm so used to spreading glitter around my craft room, that despite the "no Christmas" theme I couldn't resist adding some (pink of course) glitter to Anya's hairband and handbag.

Stampin' Up! used:

Sentiment - Fun & Fast Notes

Cardstock - Whisper White; Regal Rose

DSPs - Sweet Always (retired)

SU! markers - Regal Rose; Rose Red; Pretty in Pink; Summer Sun; Creamy Caramel

Word Window Punch

Other:

Stamp - Anya

ProMarkers

Glitter & ribbon from stash

I'm entering my card into 3 challenges:

Get Sketchy - sketch

Anyone for Anya - Bling it on

Totally Gorjuss - Free & Easy

Hope you can join us for our challenge this week & next and we've got some very exciting news at the end of the month - so keep your eyes peeled!

We've also got a DT call on at the moment, so pop over to Charisma for a look

Right, I'm off into town this morning, it's gonna be heaving, so I've sharpened my elbows in preparation!

Doodle Palace - new images

It's new release day over at DoodlePalace, and this week there's a gorgeous teddy image and some new borders, so I went for the bone border and used a DoodlePalace image of Emery the Pitbull (now isn't he a cutie, he's based on Dee's own Pitbull Emery). I've coloured my image with a mix of PM's and SU! markers and used SU! chalks around the image.

Stampin' Up! used:

Sentiment - Birthday Best

SU Markers - Bashful Blue; Ballet Blue, Summer Sun

Cardstock - Whisper White; Chocolate Chip

Other

Image - Doodle Palace digi & border

papers - from a CD

I'm entering my card into the following four challenges:

Stampin' for the Weekend - Blue & Brown

Digital Tuesday - Happy Birthday

Creative Card Crew - Anything Goes

Cupcake Craft - 5 x 5 Birthday Card

It's freezing here today and I've still got Christmas cards to make, so really ought to crack on!

Have a good day all

Hubby's Christmas Card

This is the card I've made for my hubby for Christmas, I wanted it to be "lovey dovey" but not too slushy, so I've gone for brown & orange with a hint of pink and just the 2 love hearts, so I think that should be ok!

I'm entering my card into three challenges:

Delightful Sketches - Sketch

The Pink Elephant - Christmas

One Stop Craft - Christmas Love

Stampin' Up! used:

Stamp (heart) - Hello Again

Ink - Pretty in Pink; Basic Black

Cardstock - Chocolate Chip; Pumpkin Pie; Whisper White

DSPs - Sweet Always (retired)

Ribbon - Chocolate Chip

SU! Markers - Pretty in Pink

Other:

Stamp - Hanglar; ProMarkers, Glitter

Not a brilliant photo as it's really dull here!

Sophisticats Week 15 + 4 Challenges

It's week 15 over at Sophisticats and we've a really easy theme for you this week:

Christmas!

So if you've still got a few more cards/gifts/boxes to make you can enter them into our challenge, it's also our last challenge for the year and we'll be back on Monday 4th January. Lisa's donating a lovely prize again this week, so hop over for a look.

I'm also entering my card into the following four challenges:

Simon Says - Let it Snow

Digital Tuesday - A Christmas Song, mine is "Joy to the World"

Pollycraft Monday - Sketch

Crafty Calendar - Winter Sparkle (I've glittered the snowflakes)

Stampin' Up! used:

Sentiment Stamp - Best Yet

Cardstock - Old Olive

Ink - Old Olive

SU! Markers - Not Quite Navy; Bordering Blue

Other:

Image - Pollycraft Digi

Papers & ribbon from stash

Hope you can join in this week & TFL x

Sweet Stampin' Challenge No. 4

Good morning, we've another colour combo challenge over at Sweet Stampin for you, you've got a choice of four colours and you can use any three or all four on your entry this week, if you don't have SU! colours, then a similar colour is fine.

I went for the combo of Bashful Blue, Old Olive & More Mustard, I wasn't sure how well these colours would work together, but SU! colours are sneaky, you can mix them about and somehow they always seem to work! I never would have put these colours together but I like the result.

SU! used:

Stamps - Darling Dots (Level 1 Hostess gift)

DSPs - Bashful Blue

Cardstock - More Mustard, Old Olive, Bashful Blue

Ink - More Mustard, Old Olive

Buttons - Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie (oops - well it's close to More Mustard!)

Punches - 1", 1¼" and 1-3/8"

Don't forget if you use SU! you get two entries into the monthly draw, this month the prize is:

A lovely set of stamps - Punches Three (a Level 1 Hostess gift, so you can't buy it!) and a matching square scallop punch.

So hope you can join us again this week, I've got my Saturday Stampin' Up! class this morning, so off to put out some mince pies and get the coffee brewing.

Have a good Saturday

Stampin' Up! Class

Had my Stampin' Up! class yesterday and I thought it would be nice not to do Christmas, which seemed to go down well and we went all Spring like with the new "Flight of the Butterfly" stamp set, ooh this is a lovely, with a matching punch as well, I think this is set to become a firm favourite!

We made the card and then had some fun making earrings in shrink plastic, which is another great use for this stamp set too!

SU supplies used:

Stamp - Flight of the Butterfly

Cardstock - Certainly Celery; Pretty in Pink; Very Vanilla

Ink - Pretty in Pink; Certainly Celery; Lavender Lace; Stazon (for the earrings)

Ribbon - Certainly Celery

Other - Glitter pens & SU! Watercolour brush to colour the earring butterflies.

A good time was had by all & lucky me I get to repeat it tomorrow with my Saturday class

TFL x