Doodle Divas Featured Diva

This is just a shout out about Karen's Doodles Doodle Divas weekly Featured Diva contest.

Each Friday, a Featured Diva is represented on the Doodle Divas Blog in a special slideshow. To enter to be a Featured Diva, all you have to do is submit a card, layout, or any project using a Karen's Doodles image - and there are some gorgeous images to choose from. One lucky Diva is then chosen as the Featured Diva for the week and their project is put into the Featured Diva slideshow for all to see!!! The lucky Diva also gets to choose two Karen's Doodles images for free!!!! How awesome eh?

Unfortunately, there was only one entry last week - so they are trying to spread the word. Why don't you go have a look at the past Featured Divas' work, and see if you'd like to have a go! I intend to enter again soon but have a few other projects to work on at the moment! There's just not enough time to do everything I'd like to do!

Love, Andrea

Summer Colours

Hello - Happy Sunday and Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful Dads in our lives!

I was looking for inspiration to make a card for another friend of Eleri's (yet another birthday party - what a party goer my daughter is turning into LOL!) I found a fabulous sketch on the Karen's Doodles UK Challenge blog, so printed that off to use. Then I realised that challenge was ending so there was no way I would get a card made in time. But I decided to use the sketch anyway, as I had no other ideas. But then, as luck has it, I can enter my card in this week's challenge which is 'In the Summertime'. I've used bright summery colours.



I just love the way this card turned out. The image is Fairy Fun from Karen's Doodles, and I coloured her with Promarkers, and added a bit of sparkle with Copic Spicas. I stamped some little flourishes around the image to stop it looking too plain. The bp is Kay and Co, and I embossed the lemon panel in my cuttlebug. I love the bunting on the card. Finally, I added a punched out flower daisy.

I'm not sure how the card looked when it was opened as Eleri dropped it as she was carrying it into the party and stepped on it - the flower and bunting probably got very scrunched LOL!

I'm also going to enter this card in this week's A Spoonfull of Sugar Challenge which is 'a Sunshine Inspired Card'.

I must go now as I need to be 'housewife' for a while LOL!

My next post will be to show the Father's Day cards I made, and I have a confession to make - so you'll have to come back again to see what I've been up to LOL!!

Love, Andrea xx

For My Niece Today

Hello Everyone

The card I'm going to show you today is the card I gave to my niece, Kaylee, who is 2 today - unbelievable how time flies!!

We took Kaylee's present this afternoon - and I've not long ago de-stressed from the visit LOL!! We gave her a Peppa Pig Play Tent and Car - I think she would love playing in it, but I'm not sure how long it will last with her two older and excitable brothers around LOL!! Her older brother (who's nearly 6) was trying to fit the poles into the tent, some of the poles were on the floor and my chldren were treading on them (it's a wonder they didn't break!). When the tent was up, the two boys were rolling around and tipping it on its side, one of the poles came out of place. Luckily, it was then time for us to leave because I needed to get our car home for hubby. Gosh, I don't know how my brother and sister-in-law cope with children who are continually on the go like that!!

Anyway, to my card. I have used the Fairy Fun digi image from Karen's Doodles, and for colouring I used Promarkers, watercolour pencils, and then added a bit of sparkle with Copic Spica glitter pens. The papers are Kay and Co. I made the sentiment on the computer and used my favourite technique of going over the text with a glitter pen. The image and mat has been die cut with a Nellie Snellen die. Unfortunately, none of the sparkle shows in the photo.



I am entering this card in this week's Sketch Saturday challenge, which is the fabulous sketch I used, and also Cupcake Craft challenge, which is Dazzle Us (sorry my dazzle is not showing up!).

Hope you like my card, and I hope to be back again soon.

Love, Andrea xx

Sketch Saturday and Flutter By Wednesday

Hi All - hope you're having a great week and, to everyone lucky enough to be visiting the NEC in the UK this weekend, I hope you have a fabulous time and spend some pennies for me! (lol!)

A friend asked me to make a card for her to give her goddaughter, so I decided to follow the sketch on Sketch Saturday this week. But I just compared my card to the sketch, and it looks like I left a layer out (oops!), but I'm going to get away with it by saying that my DP layer is slightly smaller than the card so that counts as the missing layer (I hope!).

I have used a digi image from Karens Doodles called Fairy Fun - isn't she just adorable? I've coloured her with Promarkers. Because she's a fairy I can also enter this card in this week's Flutter By Wednesday.

I used my new Nellies dyes for the mats for the image but, because I did not yet have a C plate or embossing pad for using in my Cuttlebug, I had to draw around the dyes and cut them out by hand!! You'll be pleased to know that I now own a C plate, but have yet to have a play with these new goodies!

The papers are all Kay and Co, and I punched the flowers out. The gorgeous turquoise pearls are Papermania, and the sentiment was from Lakeland.

That's it from me for now - might just go and have a cuttle!!

Love, Andrea xx

Special Sister - Sketch Saturday

Hello and Happy Wednesday Everyone


Well, my daughter's birthday has absolutely flown by, and I think she has had a lovely day. We did manage to do Pizza Hut and the cinema - Eleri and I watched The Princess and The Frog, and Andrew and Richard watched Astro Boy.

I'm going to show you the card I made for Andrew to give to Eleri, and I'm entering it in this week's Sketch Saturday Challenge. and the Digital Tuesday Challenge (my first time for this challenge!).

The image is from Karen's Doodles - isn't this the most adorable little girl - I just love this image. I coloured the image with Promarkers - the only problem is that the ink bled outside the image - would this likely to be caused by the card I used?, 'cos I would really like to be able to use Promarkers with digital images ... any advice would be gratefully received! I managed to hide some of the bleeding around the image by going around it with a blue pen, but I should have done something about the eyes, maybe used a white gel pen. The papers I used are Kay and Co, and I produced the sentiment on the computer.

The photo doesn't show it but there is lots of sparkle on the card - I used a Sakura Stardust Clear pen to add it, and it looks lovely IRL!


We were not home in daylight for me to be able to photograph the card Richard and I gave Eleri - I'll try to show that one tomorrow, so please come back to have a look see!!

I will show you a photo of the birthday cake as promised yesterday - does not look anything special - Eleri just wanted a plain cake with icing and sprinkles on it. The cake mixture did not have any butter in it - instead it has courgette and ground almonds! I am fairly pleased with it - but don't look at the height of the sponges - mine never rise as much as they should - just haven't figured out where I go wrong, although I have realised that the recipe said to use 18cm cake tins and mine are all 20cm - well that's my excuse this time anyway lol!! I think there's a bit too much lemon in it, and it is a bit too sweet for me, but everyone who has tasted it has enjoyed it! The recipe was from my new cook book by Harry Eastwood, all of the cake recipes include some kind of vegetable - sounds weird huh!! - but it is a way of getting the children to eat vegetables they wouldn't normally touch!





And, finally, here are a couple of piccies of my little girl on her birthday! Guess who forgot to take the camera to Pizza Hut (der!!!)













Sorry about the long post! See you again soon, I hope!

Love, Andrea xx