Matching Card and Present

Hello Everyone - hope you're having a wonderful Wednesday!

I am showing today the matching card and present I made for my daughter to give to one of her friends.

The patterned papers are Kay and Co Sparkly Sweet, the image is Queen Charlotte from Whiff of Joy coloured with watercolour pencils and sakura stardust pens. I've added adhesive pearls from Papermania to the flowers and the top of the card.

I'm not so sure about the lettering I've used at the bottom of the door hanger - but it was after midnight when I was making this and I really needed to get to bed (and as usual was doing it last minute - needed to take it to school in the morning!!).

Hope you like what you see. Please pop back again sometime soon.

Love, Andrea xx

Anyone for Anya and Simon Says Stamp Challenges

Hello and Happy Saturday everyone

I hope you are having a fabulous day - I'm having a fairly lazy day - done the shopping, two loads of washing, and cleaned the bathroom, planning to do some ironing this evening!!!

I am entering two challenges today - Anyone for Anya, which is funky flowers, and Simon Says Stamp, which is to stitch it up.

I have made a bookmark to match a card I made a couple of weeks ago - my flowers for the Miss Anya challenge are the flowers on the background paper and in Miss Anya's basket, plus the punched flower I have put under the eyelet at the top of the bookmark. My stitching for the Simon Says Stamp challenge is the faux stitching I have doodled around Miss Anya.

Here is the inside of the bookmark - sorry about the way I have taken the photo - a bit skew wiff! (I couldn't work out how else to photograph the inside (lol!)). The sentiment is a clear sticker which I found in a scrapbooking kit I've had for absolutely ages - I thought it was perfect for my niece who is turning 12 this week!

Anyway, I hope you like what I am showing you today. Please pop back to see me again soon!

Love, Andrea xx

Just Magnolia Week 23

Hello Fellow Bloggers

I hope you have all had a good day today. I actually managed to go shopping on my own, and didn't have to rush back to collect the children from school - hubby had the day off work too, he's cleaned the carpets, washed curtains and cleaned windows, and now gone to Morrisons to return the carpet cleaner and buy some ingredients to bake a cake (his first attempt has only turned out about 1cm deep (aaaaahhh! he's really disappointed!) But I can't say anything, my cakes never turn out very deep!

Anyway, now to my card today - it is for the Just Magnolia Challenge 23, which is a sketch by Bev. I loved using it, and I'm pleased with the way the card has turned out. I have stamped Tilda, coloured her with watercolour pencils, and decoupaged her up.

Just to update you re. my Mum - she came out of hospital on Tuesday evening after being in hospital for almost a fortnight. She has undergone lots of tests, and is waiting for some of the results, the results that have come back so far have all been inconclusive - the doctors do not yet know why she developed fluid on her lungs. She is supposed to go back into hospital for some further investigation and is waiting for a date. But she seems well in herself and is just extremely happy to be home!

Anyway, best go link my card to the challenge. Hope to be back soon.

Love, Andrea xx

Whiff of Joy Challenge 47 ... Get Well Soon Mum

Hello Everyone

Happy Monday - the start of another week which is bound to fly, just like they all seem to at the moment!!

The card I am showing today is for this week's Whiff of Joy challenge, which is a colour theme - teal and orange. I don't think I would have put these colours together, but I am so pleased with the way my card has turned out.

The photo doesn't do it justice really - mind you, do my photos ever show things well? - no, me thinks!! I love these papers - I'm sorry I don't know what set they are from as they were in some candy I won, as was the charm. I have used WOJ's Fred Celebrating Elephant stamp, coloured with watercolour pencils and sakura stardust pens - he is such a cutie! I don't have any die-cutting machines so I have cut the circles - to hide the mess, I distressed the edge of the white card with a ruler and then inked it - the orange circle was cut with scalloped edge scissors, and then I punched holes all around it. I love the flowers on this card - they were punched out, and then I folded them to give them some dimension and make them stand out from the backing paper a bit. I didn't have any teal coloured gem stones, so I coloured some, but they are looking a bit green!! I added orange dew drops on the corners. Ribbon is from my stash - only have a small strip left now (boo hoo!)

I have made this card for my Mum, who is in hospital at the moment - absolutely climbing the walls because she really wants to come home!! She went in last Wednesday night with fluid on her lung - we were hoping she could come home today, but the doctor has said that there is still some fluid on her lung and they are waiting for some test results - hopefully, she will be allowed home tomorrow (fingers and toes crossed!!). Get Well Soon Mum!

So I decided to make a gift bag to put some goodies in for Mum whilst she is in hospital. It is a box in a bag, and the instructions are here - thanks Tab for pointing this one out for us :)

As I was making it, I thought I should have cut the paper down, not used the full 12in piece (only realised that after I had glued the paper to the box at the bottom) - but then when I started filling it, decided it was a good job I had used the full piece!!! Afraid I didn't have time to do any embellishing really - thought it was more important to fill it and take it to hospital - but then the paper didn't really need much embellishment. I just added some chipboard die cuts, fastened on with eyelets, to put the ribbon through.

(Do you know what??? - it took me about 3 minutes to remember the word chipboard then (lol!) - why does that happen??? Or is it only me that it happens to?).


That's it for now - I need to go and get some tea! Hopefully, see you again soon.

Love, Andrea xx

Friday Sketchers Challenge #68

Hello, and hope you've had a Happy Wednesday!

I have used the sketch over on this week's Friday Sketchers challenge blog - I love sketch challenges, as it takes away some of the decision time for me!

I have inked up another of my Miss Anya stamps (I just love these stamps - just adore their hair!), and coloured her with my Sakura Stardust pens (which adds a bit of shimmer and glitz) and watercolour pencils. The papers are Kay and Co, the ribbon is from my stash, the flowers are care of Fran's candy, and I made the charm using one of my daughter's broken bracelets (sssshhhhh! don't tell her - she hasn't noticed yet!!). I distressed the edges of the papers a little bit, still not brave enough to do it very drastically (lol!). I've added papermania gems, and the sentiment is a stamp, which I stamped and then wrote over with a Sakura Stardust pen.

Anyway, I think that's it for now - I'm gonna leave the room as cricket is coming back on the television (oh no, sorry, it's football - no, a different coloured football team, now a different match! Can you tell - my hubby's got hold of the TV remote? Back to cricket again!). I'm off to do some crafting.

See you soon.

Love, Andrea xx

Just Magnolia and Spoon Full of Sugar Challenges

Hello everyone - hope you are all well today!

I am hoping to enter my card today in this week's Just Magnolia challenge (which is ribbons and bows) and the Spoon Full of Sugar challenge (which is distressing).


I have used the Magnolia stamps I recently won in Tab's candy - I have decoupaged Tilda (first time I have tried decoupaging a stamped image - quite pleased actually), and I masked her to add the strawberry to make it look as though she was leaning on the strawberry (first attempt at this too, and I think it could have been a bit more central). I then stamped the sentiment onto shrink plastic (first attempt at making my own charm for a card - not over impressed with it as I have not cut it out very well - uneven cutting seems to show up more after it was shrunk!). As I was adding the charm, I somehow managed to upset my bow and I can't get it to look good again (oh well - if I try anymore to put it right, I'll end up with no bow at all I think!)


I have distressed the edges of the image and the patterned papers (which are Kay and Co) a bit and added red ink - I'm not brave enough to do it too much yet, but I hope it's enough to be entered in this week's Spoon Full of Sugar challenge!

The layout I used was last week's Papertake Weekly sketch, but I didn't finish the card in time to enter that (just don't know where time goes!).

I've just realised that I forgot to glitter Tilda's wings, so I'll do that when I've finished blogging this evening.

Anyway, must go and link this post to the challenges before it's too late! Hope to see you again soon.

Love, Andrea xx