3 in 1

That's 3 challenges with one card! Sketch Saturday, which gave me the layout, Penny Black's challenge was a Get Well card & Charisma Cardz had an animal theme so the card fits all three.

The stamp is a Penny Black one which I've coloured with watercolour pencils, the roses are done with a Sakura Stardust pen for a bit of sparkle. The papers are Pebble Ink, which I received from the lovely Steph this morning as I won them in one of her giveaways, and put them to use straightaway, the circles and flower border are punched using Nestability dies and the flower embellishments are from my stash.

The only problem is it's not a very good photo, it was a bit dim outside and the colours are a bit stronger than they look in the piccy!

I'm a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator

I'm very excited about becoming an SU Demonstrator, the stamps and accessories are gorgeous and I think it's a great opportunity to do something I love & earn some money whilst doing it! Now that can't be bad! My kit should arrive in the next few days and I can't wait to have a play and get started. Ooh happy days!

Elzybells new stamps

Have just been released and they're gorgeous, what's more there is an amazing mega candy where you could win all the new stamp sets - too good to be true - no!! The link to the blog is here

Dottie's World Challenge - Blast From the Past

The challenge on Dottie's World this week was to recreate a layout from an old card, so here are my two cards for the challenge:

Card 1 - the original card has been made using a FourthDimension stamp and coloured with H2O's, the papers are from an Artylicious CD and the brads are from my stash.

Card 2 - Is using a Girls About Town download from Charmed and coloured with Sakura Glaze & Stardust pens and the papers are from Pink Petticoat, ribbon & flower embellisments both from my stash

Someone leave me a comment please

I want to see if it's working, a few people have told me they've not been able to post a comment to my blog lately and I've just taken off the word verification as I had a problem with that on someone else's blog, so hopefully that'll sort it.

Now if I don't get any comments I won't know whether it's because it's not working or I'm Billy-no-mates! LOL

So someone, somewhere, say something (or send me an email, pm on crafts forum if you still can't leave a comment)

Thanks

Jan x

Surf's Up!

I haven't gone mad, yes I do live in land-locked Shropshire but today I've been a surfing! I received my new Bodi-Tek surfboard, which is the latest gadget in my collection of amazing exercise equipment that I'm definately, absolutely going to use and get fit! Honest! This is good though, it's basically a small surfboard that shakes & moves around from side to side & front to back, you have stand on it and that's it, you have to retain your balance and it's enough to give you a good workout, now I liked the sound of that, working out without working too hard - that's right up my street!



So it arrived today, I plugged it in & stood on it for about 10 mins and can really feel the muscles I've worked in my legs & butt, especially my calf muscles, it'll be interesting to see how I feel tomorrow. So it's a new, leaner, fitter me then (in a day or two obviously, give it a chance!). Let's hope this one doesn't end up on eBay like the rest of my equipment (am currently selling a ski-machine & a bike/walker type thingy if anyone's interested).



Pic of Bodi-Tek:

I've received an Award!

I'm so thrilled and delighted to have been given this award by the lovely Sarah who has a gorgeous blog - Autumn Rose Crafts. Thank you so much Sarah for thinking of me & I now have to think who I can pass this on to.

Ooh it feels like Oscars night all over again!

I'd like to pass this award onto the following wonderful Bloggers:

Gail

Raspberry Cupcake

Nicola

"Auntie" Helen

Amanda

Not easy to choose, because there are so many lovely people & blogs to choose from.

Jan x

First Easter Card

Well the sun is shining & the birds are singing, it feels like Spring - hurrah! So with that in mind I felt inspired to do an Easter Card using this gorgeous little chick I fell in love with on the Pink Petticoat website, it's a digital stamp & I've coloured it in using Sakura glaze pens. The yellow backing papers are also from Pink Petticoat & the pink dotty paper is from Kaboodle, the button is from my stash.

First Easter card made this year and nice to be ahead of myself for once, instead making Easter Cards on Good Friday like I usually do!!

High Hopes Guest Designer Call

Well you've got to be in it to win it as they say, so I thought I'd give it a go and send off an entry for the High Hopes Guest Designer Call.

I don't have any High Hopes stamps - yet! But the challenge said it was ok to use what you have, so I used a digital stamp from Pollycraft, this one is from a set called Penelope Gardening, I thought it was such a great image, and I've used watercolour pencils to colour her in as I wanted to keep the image quite pale not to overpower the pale pinks in the background. I've used three papers from FunkyHand's Funky Seasons CD in a mixture of pinks & browns and used a sentiment from the same papers, the ribbon is also a paper strip from one of the papers. I've also inked around the edges of the papers and the image with a sepia toned ink pad, to blend it all in together. I'm really pleased with it, I love the way the colours work together, so fingers crossed!

Cuttlebug Mellow Yellow Monday Challenge

This week's challenge had a yellow theme, so I thought I'd go for a summery birds and flowers card. I used some green mulberry paper & yellow card from my stash, I embossed the card using the Birds & Swirls folder, two yellow buttons also from my stash, and the gorgeous embellishments are from a pack I bought ages ago (for the life of me can't remember where I got it from) but it was exactly what I wanted for this card.

Pollycraft Monday Challenge No. 9

Think Pink!

For this challenge I've gone pink & green, which I hope is ok rather than all-out Pink, but I think it does the job.

The image is a download from Pollycraft - Phoebe & Maude Spring Kit, which is just so sweet, the pink backing papers is from a FunkyHand CD and the other two papers are part of the same Pollycraft kit. The brad & butterfly are from my stash.

Kaboodle Challenge No. 2

The Kaboodle Challenge was a sketch one and I really liked the layout of it. I'm pleased with this card (I'm my own worst critic!) I think the colours work well together and it has a really fresh, sweet look.

The stamp is one of the Tilda range from Magnolia, and the backing papers are from Kaboodle, I I just love spots & dots and definately seem to have a bit of a dotty theme going on at the moment. I used the backing papers to layer onto Tilda's outfit as I was struggling to get a good colour match, her hair and shoes have been coloured with Sakura Glaze pens & I've used watercolour pencils for her skin, the rose has been coloured with a Cosmic Shimmer paint.

The sentiment (which says "Birthday Wishes" not very clear in the pic) is from Buzzcraft Florals and the brad is from my stash.

Penny Black Challenge - No 36

This is my entry for this week's sketch, such a sweet stamp, which I've coloured with Sparkling H2O paints and decoupaged the mice. The background papers are by Papermania and the brads are from my stash

Sketch Saturday Challenge No. 38

This week's entry for Sketch Saturday Challenge, I've used one of my brand new Smirk stamps, which I think are so sweet, and I've coloured it in with watercolour pencils and a black Sakura glaze pen on her hair. It's not very clear in the photo but her dress is a scrap of the pink dotty backing paper. The backing papers are from one of my favourite collections at the moment, "Funky meets chabby chic" which I downloaded from Funkyfairiespapercrafts.com. The brad is from my stash and the sentiment is from Penny Black.

Penny Black Challenge - Romance

I received a set of Penny Black stamps today in the post just in the nick of time to enter this challenge. The stamps are gorgeous, but in the end I choose this sweet little hedgehog, the "love" sentiment is from the same set. The background papers are from Funkyhand's "It's Funky Too" CD and the ribbon is from my stash. I went for a clashing mixture of pinks & purples, quite bold for me, but I think I've pulled it off!

Yummy Cupcakes for Charisma Cardz Challenge No. 6

I made this card today & then saw the challenge from Charisma Cardz - perfect!

I recently did a craft swop with the lovely Claireybear from the Crafts Forum I'm on & she sent me some gorgeous Fimo toppers, including the two cupcakes I've used on the card.

The papers are downloaded from Funkyfairyspapercrafts.com and the disc is a Cuttlebug die

Hope you like it!

3rd card today - what a busy girl I've been

I've been wanting to use this stamp for ages & finally got around to it today. Had a lovely crafting afternoon, no clients & Georgia went to a friend's, so I didn't have to do the school run & I just put my head down, crafted away & finished three cards (that has to be my record in one day!)

I used:

• Ellie Stamp from Stamposaurus coloured with Sakura Glaze pens
• Backing papers & banner from FunkyFairiesPapercraft.com
• Dotty ribbon from my stash

Sketch and Stash Challenge #3

My entry for this week's challenge

I've used:

• New backing papers I downloaded this week from FunkyFairiesPaperscrafts.com
• Green matting card from my stash
• The fairy stamp & sentiment is by Francoise Read
• The three flowery acryllic buttons are also from my stash
• The fairy has been coloured in with Sakura Stardust pens & the dress is the same as the backing paper
  

The Pink Elephant Challenge No. 1

The theme for this challenge was a colour one - to use pink, white & black, which I liked the idea of

• Backing papers from FunkyHand's Funky Season's CD, also used for the black & white circles, cut using a Nestability die
• The black wavy border is from FunkyFairies Doodlementals collection
• The "hi" has been cut using a Cuttlebug alphabet die, the tag is also a Cuttlebug die
• The pink flower, black & white spotty adhesive ribbon & the brads are all from my stash

Hope you like it

Testing, testing, one, two, three

I recently came across a post on the Crafts Forum asking if any crafters would like some free toppers, so of course I said yes please, never one to turn down a freebie! The comany, MemoriesMajestic were asking crafters to trial their toppers and let them know how they got on with them, so I more than happy to oblige. I was given an A4 page of toppers to download & one of them was this cute little red car. I've made a simple card, I could have decoupaged the image, but just used it as it was, with the addition of some diamond glaze on the headlights. I put the topper on a green embossed birthday background (Cuttlebug) and a green card, so I felt it could be used for male or female birthdays.

Stamp Something for your Valentine Challenge

I made this card with an Art Nouveau heart stamp I've had in my collection for ages, the small hearts were cut using a Cuttlebug Die and part stamped with the same stamp, the background paper is from the FunkyHand Too CD and the mesh behind the heart is from my stash.

Pollycraft Monday Challenge No. 8 & Kaboodle Doodle Challenge

Another Challenge card this time for the Pollycraft Monday Challenge & also for the Kaboodle Doodles Challenge as the theme for both of them this week is "love". The two birds on the fence came from the Pollycraft website and is one of their free downloads and I thought it was just right for this week's challenge. The backing papers are from the FunkyHand Seasons CD, the love heart & embossed paper behind the birds image have both been embossed with Cuttlebug Folders and the heart brad came with my Crop-a-dile.

Sketch Saturday Challenge

This is my first Challenge entry, and I'm pleased with the results and it gave me an opportunity to use my brand new Magnolia Tilda stamp, which is gorgeous.




The stamped image has been coloured using Sakura Glaze & Stardust pens, the backing papers are from FunkyHand's Downloadable Paper Blossom set and the button brads are from my stash.

The Show's Over

And for once that's not a bad thing. I'm usually quite sad when a show comes to an end, it's usually been months of work & the three nights of the show always goes so quickly. But I didn't overly enjoy this play, I only had a small part, which I don't mind, but it did mean a lot of hanging around doing nothing & I never really got "into" the play. Plus of course the weather's been so awful & it's been a drag having to go down to a (cold) hall for rehearsals. So it's all done & dusted and I'm glad to say it seemed to go down well & we had good audience numbers, in spite of the weather. Had the usual aftershow party last night, at a local pub, I had two large glasses of red, and was quite tiddly, but enjoyed relaxing with other cast members & having a good old chinwag with them! They really are a lovely bunch of luvvies!!

So here's a picture of me dressed as Irene Riggs, in Cause Celebre, it's set in the 30's, hence the delightful dress! Not a brilliant picture as my legs look really short and stumpy - nice! But you get the idea:



We've got a reading for the next play, a comedy, on Thursday, so looking forward to that & seeing what part I get and which play we do.

Curtain Up!

Well here we are, decided to start blogging & so it's Curtain Up on my new blog & also, hopefully, Curtain Up on Cause Celebre, an Am-Dram Production I'm in tonight, unless it's snowed off of course!

Woke up this morning to a very white world, we still had some snow on the ground from Monday & so with this on top no-one's venturing very far today. Kev got to work this morning, but it took him 20 mins just to get out of our lane, so I'm going nowhere!

Some pics of the house and garden, Skye's not enjoying being out in the snow at all!

I've started to get back into my cardmaking, after a long break over Christmas & bouncing with ideas again, so just need to find the time to put them into practice. Yesterday I did a "Love" card, with Valentine's Day in mind, but could be used for other events too as it's quite close to Valentine's Day & may be a bit late going onto the website.

The card is an A5 aperture, the main heart has been stamped and embossed on red metallic card and the small hearts have been die-cut from another stamped heart. The background paper on the front of the card is from one of the Funky CD's and the paper behind the heart is a metallic mesh from my craft box.