Monochrome Bicycle

Hello Blogland, hope all is well wherever you are in the world, it's wet & grey here in Shropshire, so a day in my craftroom beckons (hopefully!)

It's time for another challenge over at Sweet Stampin and it's sketch week again, here's the sketch for you to follow:

I really liked this one, another to keep & use again I think.

I've used my Everyday Basic Button set from PTI and used black & white buttons for the wheels, and just added a touch of colour to the bicycle seat, handlebars and bell, but other than that it's black & white all the way, which I always like, I always think mono cards are so striking!

I've done a bit of paper piercing with my SU! piercer & mat pack (to give me nice straight lines!) added some embossing too and a bit of faux stitching around the sentiment.

My cardstock is SU! Basic Black & Whisper White (so I have used some SU! on my card - remember to enter our challenge you don't have to use SU! but you get two entries into the monthly draw if you do, plus it's the last week to get into the draw to win the pack of mixed SU! 6x6 papers donated by me!), the paper is from Pink Petticoat and the rest is from my stash.

I'm entering my card into the following challenges:

A Passion for Papertrey - Black & White

Fab n Funky - Black & White

Crafty Creations - 3 Dimensional

Thanks for looking & hope you can join us this week - have a good weekend!

Birthday Candles

It's week 8 over at Charisma and this week Kelly has set the challenge to create a birthday card which must feature a candle on it. As soon as I saw this challenge I knew exactly what I was going to use - my SU! Queue Up stamp with the line of candles and the candle sentiment from the free SAB set Whimisical Words, they go so well together and this was the perfect opportunity to ink them both up!

Here's the details of Stampin' Up! used:

Stamps - Queue Up (Level 3 Hostess); SAB Whimsical Words; In the Stars

Ink - Basic Black; Pumpkin Pie

Cardstock - Whisper White; Pumpkin Pie

I'm entering my card into the following challenges:

Critter Sketch - the sketch

ABC Designs - Birthdays

Hope you can join us this week, we've a couple of great prizes to give away.

TFL x

Candy Winner!

Sorry for not getting this on yesterday, but I've now drawn a winner for my candy using Random.org and the winning number is.......wait for it.......

no. 33 and that's Charity Crafter

Yayy, congrats on your win, send me an email (addy in my sidebar) with your address & I'll get your goodies out to you.

A huge thank you to everyone who took part and a big hello to everyone who decided to follow me as well.

Have a good day all

Birthday & Blogoversary Candy!

**EDIT** THIS CANDY HAD NOW CLOSED - PLEASE DO NOT ENTER VIA MR LINKY

I'LL ANNOUNCE THE RESULT LATER ON TODAY

As it's my birthday today and my 1st Blogoversary on the 5th, I thought it would be a great time to offer up a little candy as a little thank you to all my wonderful Blogging Buddies, I love being a member of this crafting blog community and have met some amazing people, gained so much inspiration and made some lovely new friends.

My candy consists of the following:

A4 papers

6 x 6 mixed papers

Photo corner stickers

Assorted embellishments

We R Memory Keepers clear stamp set

Stamps Happen Inc - Leaf Collage wooden stamp

Smirk wooden stamp

Kiss wooden stamp

Fiskars Flower Border punch

Fiskars Snowflake punch

X-Cut Stars punch

I may add a few other bits and pieces in too, plus some images.

No complicated rules for this one, just post a picture and a link of my candy on your blog and leave your name & blog addy on Mr Linky below, no duplicate entries please.

I'll make the draw on 23rd Feb and announce the winner on my blog.

Sophisticats Week 23

Good morning, oh actually it's afternoon already, where has this morning gone? Anyway, here's my DT card for Sophisticats. This week our theme is Embossing, whether that's wet, dry, using a lightbox, embossing folder, whatever you like.

I've got a bit of both going on, as I stamped the image in Versamark & then embossed in pink embossing powder and have used an embossing folder on some Whisper White cardstock to make my cute little Baby Girl card.

Stampin' Up! used:

Image & sentiment - Fun & Fast Notes

DSPs - Sweet Always (retired)

Cardstock - Pretty in Pink; Whisper White

Word Window Punch

Non SU!

Button, ribbon, embossing powder - all from stash

TFL & hope you can join us this week x

A card for 3 challenges

I don't seem to make many cards at the moment that aren't for one of my DTs, so it was nice today to sit down & make this card and find three challenges to enter it into. I would have posted it earlier this evening (it's now gone 10pm) but I had to take my daughter Georgia to A&E this evening as she'd bashed her hand and we thought she might have broken something as it was very swollen & very tender. Luckily though nothing is broken and we were only there for an hour, which is very good by A&E standards, so if you're going to have an accident I guess early Sunday evening is quite a good time to do so!!

Anyway, on to my card, I bought this LOTV stamp at the NEC in November & this is the first time I've inked it up! Shame on me! I also dug out my CraftRobo to do the ovals as my biggest oval nestie was too small, and I'm glad to say that my Robo was behaving and cut through the Stampin' Up! cardstock beautifully, which is doesn't always do. I am actually planning to sell my Robo as I've now got a Cricut but it did come in handy today....hmmm should I keep it....??? LOL

So here's the details:

Image - Lily of the Valley, coloured with ProMarkers

DSP - SU Tea & Crumpets

Cardstock - Whisper White; Barely Banana

Ribbon - SU Chocolate Chip

Flowers - cut with X-cut punch

Buttons & brads from stash

I'm entering this card into the following:

Lily of the Valley - Sketch

ABC Challenge - One paper

Passion for ProMarkers - Buttons & Bows (any colour PM's)

Nearly time for bed & see you all in the morning for another challenge over at Sophisticats

Oops a day late!

So here's my DT card for Sweet Stampin this week (which I should have posted yesterday, but I'm so behind this weekend it's not true!!) Our theme this week is New Beginnings, which you can interpret how you like, new baby, new home, new marriage - whatever, it's up to you and remember if you use SU! products on your card, you get two entries into the month's prize draw, which this month is a mixed 6x6 pack of scrummy SU! papers, courtesy of Moi!!!

Here's the details - all SU!

Stamps - Good Neighbours - inked up with Really Rust; Garden Green; Bashful Blue - also used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to align all the houses & roofs

DSPs - Really Rust from Designer Pattern's Pack (Hostess Level 1)

Cardstock - Really Rust; Chocolate Chip; Whisper White

Button - Really Rust from Earth Elements button set

Ribbon - Chocolate Chip

Non SU!

Flower punch

Sentiment - done on 'puter

Hope you can join us this week, we're seeing more entries each week, which is very exciting so a huge thank you to everyone that has supported us so far.

I'm also entering my card into Sweet Sketch Wednesday as I used their lovely sketch.

TFL x

Charisma # 7 - Sketch Challenge

Sally has set us a lovely sketch this week over at Charisma and it's nice and easy as there's no theme to followI really enjoyed using this sketch and will keep it to use again. Here's my card:

I've gone for lovely fresh Spring colours and used some of my favourite SU! papers that are sadly no longer around, what I'll do when I finish my pack I don't know!

Here's the details:

Image - Heather Ellis digi, coloured with ProMarkers

Sentiment - SU! Whimsical Words - free SAB set

DSPs - Rainbow Sherbert

Cardstock - Apricot Appeal; Green Galore; Whisper White

Flowers - SU! One of a Kind stamp set, stamped in Tempting Turquoise & punched out using matching SU! Boho Blossoms punch

Brads from stash

I'm entering my card into the following challenges:

Your Next Stamp - Spring Colours

Fab n Funky - It's Childish

A Spoonfull of Sugar - Spring Time

Incy Wincy - Punch it out

Hope you can join in the fun this week & TFL xx

A new found love

Guess what I've just discovered? Stitiching on cards, up until now I've avoided this like the plague as getting my sewing machine out is a)nigh on impossible and b) only to be used in dire emergencies as me & the sewing machine are not the best of friends! However our challenge over at Sophisticats this week is sewing - eeek - set by one of our newer DT members Gina, so I had to get stitching. I decided rather than face the cupboard in the spare room & try to extract the machine I'd go for a bit of hand sewing as I've always liked embroidery, so I got out my paper piercer, stamped out the holes using my SU! guide and did a simple running stitch as a border around my image. I'm so pleased with the result that I will definitely be doing this again! So thanks to Gina to introducing me to something new - that's what I love about challenges, discovering new ideas & sometimes stepping out of your comfort zone.

So hope you can join us this week over at Sophisticats & here's the details for my card:

Image - digi from Digistamp Boutique, coloured with PM's

Sentiment - SU! Circle of Friendship, stamped with Chocolate Chip ink

DSPs - Stampin' Up! Sweet Always

Cardstock - SU! Whisper White; Chocolate Chip

Ribbon - SU! Chocolate Chip

Other - SU! circle punches

Flower and pink ribbon from my stash

I've found quite a few challenges to enter with this card:

I Love ProMarkers - Sketch plus pink & brown

Simon Says - What's Love Got to do With It

Susie's Sassy Designs - Hearts & Flowers

Dare You To Digi-Stamp - Use your punches

One Stitch at a Time - Stitching

Bee Crafty - Sew Cute

Tellens Place - Valentines using at least 5 hearts

TFL x

Sweet Stampin' Challenge No. 13

Good morning - I'm up bright & early this morning (well for a Saturday that is) as I'm off to Birmingham today to meet up with my Sweet Stampin DT boss Emma and a few other lovely blogging buddies for a day of crafting - I'm so excited and have been looking forward to it all week!!

So here's my card for this week's Sweet Stampin Challenge which is a colour challenge. I always struggle with colour challenges, they're nearly always colours I think won't work together (and I'm always proved wrong of course) but once I'd decided what I was doing with this one I was ok. I wanted to use my newest SU! stamp set "One of a Kind" and went for a simple flower card (you know me, like to keep it simple!) I think I like the finished result, but I'm not certain yet, I've made the card for my Mother-in-Law as a thank you for my birthday pressie and hubby thinks she'll really like it, so that's the main thing.

Here's your colour choices for this week, you need to use at least three of the four, like I did, you can use all four if you want and if you don't have SU! colours (and if not, why not LOL!) then a close match is fine:

The prize this month is a mixed pack of 6x6 papers from lil' ol' me so I hope you can join us once again this week.

Here's the details for my card (all Stampin; Up!):

Stamps - One of a Kind; Fresh Cuts

Cardstock & SU! markers - Cameo Coral; Summer Sun; Real Red; Whisper White

Button - Playground Designer Buttons

Other - corner punch; Boho Blossoms punch

Non SU:

Embossing folders

I'm entering my card into the following challenges:

Stamp With Us - Thank You

Sweet Sketch Wednesday - Sketch

Hope you can play along this week & TFL xx

Male Cards

Two words guaranteed to strike terror into the hearts of most crafters!! Why do we all hate doing men's cards so much, I like clean cards and don't use loads of embellishments but I still don't like doing men's cards, no ribbons, flowers or bling can be challenging and of course for most of us our stash consists of very female-orientated stamps & images! However this is the challenge that Tasha has set this week for our challenge at Charisma Cardz so it's time to get your thinking caps on.

As usual, I did my card last minute and set about making it yesterday, I had a digi image in mind I was going to use & then realised that my darling daughter had taken my ProMarkers to school (she had asked first) to use in Art! The image I had in mind needed PM's, I didn't think it would work in pencil or watercolours, so I needed a change of plan - quick! I settled for this image I've had in my stash for ages and made a very simple card by stamping to make a background and layering up the cardstock, so a very quick card that has turned out ok I think.

Here's the details:

Image - from stash

Sentiment - SU! Vintage Labels (free SAB set)

Background stamp - SU! Seeing Spots

Cardstock - SU! Very Vanilla; Chocolate Chip

Other - SU! Word Window Punch; brads from stash

Hope you can join us this week, we had a bumper no. of entries for our Love theme last, so a huge thanks to everyone who joined in, there are two prizes up for grabs this week, so two good reasons to play along

Happy Thursday

Simple Flower Birthday card

Here's a quick & easy card I did earlier today, keeping it nice & simple. There's a challenge over at the Cutting Cafe to use one or two of the free digi stamps they're giving away this week, I've used both the dots and the flowers on mine and I've combined it with One Stop Craft's challenge, who are looking for the colour combo Apple Green, Chocolate & Clotted Cream. Rather than try & match up a colour to the backing paper & flower outline, I decided to keep it uncoloured and printed out the flower & papers onto SU! Very Vanilla cardstock for the cream colour.

Here's the rest of the details:

Sentiment - SU! Stem Sayings

Cardstock - SU! Very Vanilla; Chocolate Chip

Flowerpot - cut on Cricut

We've had a few flakes of snow again today, which I hope doesn't come to anything, really bored of winter now - roll on Spring!

TFL xx

Love You Tons!

As I've previously mentioned I've got a Cricut on a borrow at the mo (and now have one on order too yippee) and I'm loving the Paisley cartridge, I did this cute elephant the other day and have made a card with him, he's great for Valentine's! You'll be seeing more "Paisley" creations to come for sure as I'm in love with this cartridge and it's now on my wishlist for when I get my own Cricut!

Here's the details:

Elephant & Sentiment - Cricut Paisley & Alphalicious cartridges

Stamps used (to make heart background) - SU! Love You Much; Hello Again

Ink - SU! Real Red; Pixie Pink

DSPs - Digi from Stuff to Scrap

Cardstock - SU! Real Red; Pink Passion; Pixie Pink; Whisper White; Basic Black; Bashful Blue; Ballet Blue

There are loads of Valentines/Love challenges out there at the moment so I'm entering my card into the following:

Die Cut Dreams - Have a Heart

Crafty Calendar - Love (plus hearts as a bonus)

Willow Sketchie - Sketch

Paperplay - Love

Lily of the Valley - Valentines

C.R.A.F.T. - Love/Valentines

Creative Card Crew - Valentines

TFL xx

A Tartan Fairy

Good morning all, it's Monday morning so that means a new challenge over at Sophisticats, we had a record number of entries last week for my Love theme, so thank you to everyone who entered, we were blown away by the number and quality of the entries we received.

We've got two new DT members joining us this week to, so a great big welcome to Diane & Tasha.

This week our lovely Avril has set the challenge and she's given us a Scottish theme of "Tartan" which we want to see on your cards, it can be just a small accent or a ribbon or you can go all out (a bit like I did) with a tartan overload!

We've been sponsored by Digital Ink who provided the DT with some fab images to play with and I've used this gorgeous fairy on my card, as I love fairies and I decided to paper-piece her skirt to make her look really Scottish (well I'm sure they have fairies in Scotland) and to match up with the backing papers. I've picked out the red stripes in the pattern, by embossing some Real Red cardstock with a dot embossing folder and glittered up her wings for a bit of dazzle.

I'm entering my card into the following challenges:

Sweet Sketch Wednesday - sketch

Quixotic - Fairies

Fab 'n Funky - Embossing

Here's the details for my card:

Stamp - Digital Ink digi coloured with ProMarkers & Stampin' Up! Markers

DSPs - digi papers (freebies)

Cardstock - SU! Real Red; Barely Banana; Whisper White

Flower & glitter from stash

Hope you can join us again this week

Fur Coat & No Knickers!

No that's not me being rude, that was the name of the play I've been in, which finished last night. We had an absolutely fabulous time doing the play, we sold out every night & even had to turn people away, so it's been a great success and I thought I'd share a couple of pics with you from the show. They're not the best quality as they were taken on my phone in the dressing room, I'll try & get some better ones off one of the other cast members.

The play was a farce, set in the late 70's and is based around Deidre Ollerenshaw (me) who is getting married and the shenanigans that go on at the stag do & wedding (a blow up doll was involved and a drunken Irish Priest!!!)

The first pic is me & Jane, who plays my mother Edith

Pic 2 - me in my wedding dress

Pic 3 - The Happy Couple (but not for long!)

TFL x

Floral Frenzy

Hello there, it's the weekend - hooray and here's my DT card for Sweet Stampin, our challenge this week is called Floral Frenzy.

I made my card for a friend who commissioned it for a 60th birthday and it was one of those" oh do whatever you like" kinda requests, so I made it and hoped she'd like it - luckily she loved it!

Our sponsor this month is a lovely lady and one hell of a crafter - oh it's me - he, he! I'm giving away a mixed pack of Stampin' Up! 6x6 double sided papers, there are papers from about 8 different packs so plenty to get your hands on, but you have to join in to win. The more challenges you enter this month, the more chances you have, plus if you use any SU! products on your projects, you get two entries for that project! So hope you can join us.

I'm entering my card in Get Funky's February challenge, it's a free theme for the month & I've used FunkyHand papers on my card. I've cut the flowers and the "60" out on a Cricut, I've got one on a borrow at the moment whilst a friend is holidaying (for two months, lucky so-and-so) in Australia but I'm very excited as hubby is now buying me one for my birthday - whoop, whoop! I've put SU! Dazzling Diamonds around the edge of each flower, and added some card candy (from my stash) to the centres, the ribbon is from my stash and the sentiment is SU! from the set Cheer & Wishes.

Hope you can join us this week & have a great weekend.

Some more Love

Still feeling the love with all these fab Valentines/Love cards around & our theme over at Charisma this week is "I Love You", it doesn't have to be a Valentines card but we're looking for the Love in your entries this week!

I've kept my card quite simple this week and I think it could be given to a man or a woman and those hedgies are so cute!

Here's the details:

Stamp - Penny Black, coloured with PMs

Sentiment - Stampin' Up! Circle of Friendship, inked with SU! Real Red

DSPs - Funky Fairy Digi paper

Cardstock - SU! Whisper White; Real Red

Ribbon - SU! Striped Grosgrain Ribbon - Real Red

Other - SU! 1" and 1½" circle punches; hearts cut on Cricut

I'm entering my card into the following challenges:

A Spoonful of Sugar - followed their sketch

Penny Black - Special Someone

By the Cute & Girly - Love

Creative Card Crew - Valentine

Hope you can join us this week, and don't forget I've got a candy on offer at the top of my blog.

TFL x

Just wanted to say......

For all the beautiful cards & pressies I've received for my birthday from all my fabulous blogging buddies. I'm overwhelmed by the kindness & you've made my (birth)day!

Hubby's still away but coming back this afternoon, so I was a bit gloomy this morning, but he rung first thing to wish me Happy Birthday & direct me to his card & some choccies he'd hidden away. I then opened a lovely handmade card by my gorgeous girl (who doesn't make cards normally so it was extra special), I opened the cards & pressies that had already come in the post and since then have had texts, FaceBook messages, email messages, blog messages and when the postman came, more cards & pressies. And I'm having a fabulous day!

I will take piccies of the beautiful cards I've had, and I know there are some still on their way, so will post them on here in a few days, and I will make sure I thank each of your personally, but please accept this group "thank you" until then.

I'll be posting details of my Birthday Blog Candy later on, so keep your eyes peeled for that & at the risk of being gushy - thank you all again so much for making my day so very special and making me feel loved.

Huge kisses all round xxxxxxx

Time for Sale-a-Bration!

It's the time for the Stampin' Up! Sale-a-Bration, which means FREE stamp sets! Oh yes!

There are three ways to get your hands on these brand new sets, which are only available as Sale-a-Bration freebies and cannot be bought -

Customers - for every £45 you spend you will qualify and can choose one of the stamp sets (4 in all), plus there's no limit on how many times you can qualify, so you choose a set every time you spend £45.

Hostess - If you host a Stampin' Up! workshop with sales of £300 or more you will qualify for a free set too.

Demonstrators - If you sign up as a new Demonstrator you can choose an extra stamp set from the whole of the catalogue (up to a value of £38.95) to have in your starter kit, making it a fantastic investment.

This offer runs from 30th December until 28th February, so if you would like to place an order, or ask about hosting a workshop, or becoming a Demonstrator then contact me on

jan. jackman@gmail.com

Here are the 4 stamp sets you can choose from:

Love Birds and a DT Call

Good morning from a snowy Shropshire, it snowed yesterday and again overnight so back to the right pain of having snow again, it's only a few inches but enough to be a nuisance! My hubby had to fly to Frankfurt yesterday, but luckily the airport wasn't affected and he got there ok, he doesn't normally go abroad, I don't like him being so far away, and even though it's only until tomorrow I'm missing him loads.

So while he was gone yesterday I made this card for my Sophisticats DT, as it's my challenge this week & I've set the theme of "Love" nice and easy at this time of the year, but it doesn't have to be Valentines, although I'm going to give my card to Kev for Valentine's as he's not seen it.

We've got some exciting news over at Sophisticats this week, not only do we have a new DT member Mandy, who's gorgeous blog can be seen here, but we're also having a DT call as Lisa feels it's time to expand our little team.

Lisa has the details on her personal blog here so pop over for a look here if you fancy joining our team.

So onto the details for my card, quite straightforward as it all comes from a digi kit from Pink Petticoat, apart from the ribbon & the button, which are from my stash; the border was punched with my SU Scallop Border, the oval border done with a nestie and the image coloured with ProMarkers.

I'm entering my card into the following challenges:

Willow Sketchie - Sketch

Fab n Funky - any digi image

DU2DS - Hearts/Valentine

Bee Crafty - Love (using digi image)

Hope you can join us this week & don't forget to check out the DT Call!