For a Few Challenges

Happy Hump Day! I've had a day's leave today, and not done any housework (yaaaaay!!!!). I spent ages this morning looking for a present for my sister in law, and still haven't decided what to get :(

But, this afternoon, I managed to make her a card - although I'm not all that happy with it really - not sure why LOL! I do wish I'd used eyelets to feed the ribbon through on the image instead of just cutting a slit.



The BP is Kay and Co, and the image is Demure stamp from Sugar Nellie (coloured with promarkers). I received the lace in a RAK, ribbon from my stash, and the flowers, brads and sentiment stamp are Papermania.

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:

The Sugar Bowl - the sketch I followed
Speedy the Cat's Friends - flowers
Magical Crafts - flowers
Quirky Crafts - ribbons
Creative Craft Challenges - stamp it up

I do have another card to show you - not sure whether to keep it for tomorrow or post it later tonight (LOL!)

Anyway, thanks for popping by and I hope you come back sometime!

Love, Andrea xx

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

Friday Sketchers - Cool Dude

Hello Folks

My card today is one I made for a friend of my son's. He's having a sleepover tonight - and, just typical, Andrew had croop in the night last night so I'm really worried the same will happen tonight, but he was insistent that he still wanted to go. At least his friend lives on the same estate as us, so I can go and fetch Andrew if he has a problem! (Don't think I'm gonna sleep too well tonight though LOL!)



The image is a freebie from SJs Little Musings - I coloured him with promarkers. The papers are Kay and Co, and the sentiment is from Pollycrafts. I have followed the sketch on Friday Sketchers. Was going to see if there were any other challenges I could enter, but I can't be bothered to look too hard now!!

Considering how my mojo is really playing up at the moment (which has meant I've had to buy several cards this year!), I am pretty pleased with this card.

Hope to have Father's Day cards to show you later this week - unless I have to buy them of course (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

For My Goddaughter

Hello Everyone

I'm back from holidays (sob!). We've had a lovely (short) holiday in Woolacombe, North Devon. We left home last Sunday, went to Bristol Zoo (very disappointing I thought!), stayed the night in Taunton, and then travelled on down to Woolacombe on Monday, where we stayed in a caravan til Friday. We had gorgeous weather, although a slightly chilly breeze a couple of days, the children managed to play in the sea, hubby managed to get his legs and feet sunburned (again! - when will he learn to use sunscreen before going onto the beach??), I managed to scoff down a gorgeous Devon Cream Tea (mmmmmmmmm yummy!) and we didn't have to wear coats all week (hooraaaaaayyyy!! LOL!).

Unfortunately, we got home to some bad news - my Mum and Dad were meant to be going away today for a week, but Mum is not well again - she saw her GP yesterday for the results of an X-ray she had a couple of weeks ago, and was told that fluid is building up in her lung again (fourth time I think), and she has a partially collapsed lung. She is to have a scan on Thursday. I really hope they can sort her out this time - she has been ill since last August, and has been in hospital three times.

So, enough of my waffle - I'll show you the card I made for my goddaughter, whose birthday was on 22nd May - hope you had a fabulous birthday Cate!





I made a shutter card. The images are all from Pollycrafts, and have been coloured with Promarkers. The papers are Kay and Co, and I just added some gem flowers.

I am entering my card into the following challenges:

Charisma Cardz Challenge which is Going Round in Circles - there are lots of circles on my papers, and in the images.
A Spoon Fullof Sugar Challenge which is Celebrations - my card was for my goddaughter's birthday
Passion for Promarkers which is Anything Goes

I must stop waffling now - Richard wants the computer!

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope to see you 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

My Second Mother's Day Card

Hello Everyone - I hope you've had a wonderful weekend! We had such a beautiful day here today, lovely and sunny, but a little chilly! And I had a lovely day yesterday when I discovered that I was lucky enough to be the winner of last week's Sketch Saturday challenge - lucky green for me definitely - see the card in my previous post!

I am happier with this second Mother's Day card. I am entering it in this week's Sugar Bowl Challenge - which is a sketch with the added 'please include' theme of 'Shabby Chic'. I'm not very good at distressing, so I used some Kay and Co papers which looked shabby chic to me. The round mat was sprayed with Memories Mist, then embossed with my new Cuttlebug, and then sanded to show the embossed design. I also made a paper flower - I'm so pleased with it - I followed the tutorial here and I did use tissue paper out of a shoe box! - instead of using an ink pad, I lightly highlighted the creases of the paper with a promarker. The image is Demure from Sugar Nellie, and I coloured her with promarkers.


I hope you like my card - my next project is a card for a Golden Wedding - hope to show that to you soon.

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

Friday Sketchers #86

Just a quick post today - I have made a card to enter in this week's Friday Sketchers Challenge. I have made the card for another friend of my daughter. I'm struggling to keep up with all the birthdays of her classmates at the moment - she came home with another party invitation yesterday!


The image is Queen Charlotte from Whiff of Joy (I know - I'm using that for all the little girls just now - but I think it is perfect for 5 year olds (LOL)!) I have coloured her with my new Promarkers - need lots more practise I know - but this is not too bad for a newbie!! The papers are Kay and Co - I used a metallic pen to go around the edge of the backing paper - flowers are from a daisy punch - the oval frame is from my Majestic Keepsake Board - card, gems and sentiment from my stash.

That's it from me now - must clean the bathroom! Hope to be back soon to show you the pressie I'm in the process of making

Love, Andrea xx

Sketch Saturday - Matching Cards and Pressies

Happy Wednesday everyone.

Two of my daughter's classmates had a joint birthday party yesterday, so I made matching cards and pressies for them both. Only thing is, I used the same wrapping paper for both presents, and wrapped them at the same time, and then forgot which was which - der!!! I did apologise to the Mums in case I got them wrong!!

For the cards, I followed the sketch on this week's Sketch Saturday Challenge. I rotated the sketch to fit the image, which is Queen Charlotte from Whiff of Joy, coloured with watercolour paints and pencils. After stamping Charlotte, I masked her and then stamped a present, so that she had something to sit on. I printed the sentiments on the computer. The pink papers are Kay and Co, and the lilac ones were from Lakeland. The gems are dew drops - maybe they're a bit big for the cards really!

And I decided to make matching photo hangers as part of the presents - can you see now why I panicked a bit when I couldn't remember which was which after wrapping?!!!



Well, I hope you like what I've shown today - I was pleased with them and I hope the girls like them!

I hope I don't have to make any more birthday cards for a while - I must get on with Christmas cards - I thought I was doing well, but I'm not - gonna have to end up buying some cards to give I think!

Hope to see you again soon.

Love, Andrea xx

Charisma Cardz Challenge #45 and Cute Card Thursday Challenge #86

Well, hello everyone - hope you are having a fantastic weekend! Sorry I haven't been around for a while - I just seem to have lost my mojo at the moment - but I have had to get my act together to make some birthday cards.

This is the first one I have made. I am going to enter it in this week's Charisma Cardz Challenge - Merry and Bright, but I'll understand if my entry can't be counted towards the prize cos it's not a Christmas card. My take on the challenge is to use bright colours, and have the girl merrily cartwheeling across the card! I do love the way these penny sliders work, and they are so easy to make!

I'm also going to enter it in this week's Cute Card Thursday Challenge, which is Glitter Me Silly - I have glittered the papers for the number and the slider, and the flower is also glittered. The girl has been painted with pearlescent paints.

Ingredients:

Pink Card, Ribbon, Butterfly Charm, Glitered Flower all from my stash
Patterned Paper - Kay & Co Sparkly Sweet, glittered with Crafters Companion Spray and Sparkle Gold
Stamp - Upside Down from Diane Duda for Sugar Nellie Stamps

Damn!! I just realised I forgot to change the month on my watermark on my photo - but I have only just made the card, I promise!!

Well, I hope you like my card. I'm hoping that this is the start of finding my mojo again because I'm hoping to get some Christmas cards made this week! I have a week off work (yaayy!!), with the intention of making some cards and buying (or maybe making) some presents.

Hope to see you again soon!

Love, Andrea xx

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

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

Birthday Gift

My daughter went to a birthday party last Saturday, and had a thoroughly wonderful time. This is the card and gift I made for her to give - not the Barbie Princess doll Eleri wanted to give but I really hope that Nia liked this birthday gift.

The papers I have used are Kay & Co, which have been paper weaved for the photo holder. The stamped image is Queen Charlotte from Whiff of Joy, coloured with water colour pencils. I have made the frames using my Keepsake Majestic Board (oval frame on the card) and my Ultimate Pro (for the photo holder), and have stamped and heat embossed swirls onto the frames, using Versamark and clear embossing powder. The alphabet on the card is printed from my Cute Companions CD, and on the photo holder they are from a scrapbooking kit I have.

I decided not to add a birthday sentiment on the front of the card - I thought it could then be used as a door plate - but I printed an insert with a verse for the inside.

Thanks for looking - I hope you like what you have seen. I think I'll be making more of these photo hangers for gifts.

Hope you can come back soon.

Love, Andrea xx

Simon Says Challenge

As ever this is a last minute entry!

The latest challenge on the Simon Says Challenge blog is Anything But a Card. I took inspiration from Abbys Garden and decided that I would love to make a hanging photo frame for my daughter's bedroom.


I used paper weaving for the background - it took me ages to work out why I was not getting the pattern I wanted (ie every other blocks of colour) - I did eventually realise that I needed to have one patterned paper across the top, and then weave horizontally with the other patterned piece! The papers and embellishments I used are from an old Kay and Co scrapbooking kit. I have added glitter glue to my daughter's name and the embellishments.

Because I wanted to enter this in the Simon Says Challenge (and I'm not sure whether there has to be stamping on the project), I thought I'd better do some stamping - so stamped some swirls with versamark around the frame - I think you can just see it in the photo below. Just need to add my daughter's photo, et voila, it's ready to hang!

I'm also going to enter this in Penny's Challenge.

And this is the end product with a photo added!


Eleri and I are both pleased with how this has turned out, so I think I'm going to make one for her friend whose birthday is coming up.

Thanks for looking! Look forward to being back again soon.

Love, Andrea xx

Truly Scrumptious Challenge 10

I have used the sketch over on the Truly Scrumptious Challenge Blog for this card for my daughter's class teacher. I loved the sketch, and am pleased with the way the card has turned out. Part of the challenge is to use some of your neglected stash, so I have used my Sugar Nellie Daisy stamp which I ordered from Funky Kits ages ago, and this is the first time I have inked it up (so she has defenitely been neglected). I also found these Papermania die cut flowers which I have had for a looooooooonnnng time in my stash. The charm is made using some beads from a broken bracelet which belonged to my daughter (and I nabbed whilst she was asleep - naughty Mummy! (lol) - she hasn't noticed yet, but I know she will when she goes to sign the card!!). The papers are Kay and Co Sparkly Sweet ... again!!!

Anyway, thanks for looking and I hope you are able to look at some of my other cards, and pop back again soon!

Love from

Andrea xx

Whiff of Joy Challenge 37

Good evening folks! I have managed to come back again - have also managed to put that load of washing in the machine, and do a bit of ironing (but not yet finished - still hoping to finish it before hubby gets back), so I must be quick with this post.

I am entering this card for this week's Whiff of Joy challenge - which is a recipe - 3 patterned papers, 3 flowers and 1 ribbon - I hope the fact that I have used the ribbon on two panels is OK?!

I'm not sure what the image is called as she was sent to me by someone - I do think she's so sweet, the papers are Kay and Co Sparkly sweet. I have decorated the inside using the same layout, but did not use ribbon inside and only one flower, so hope that doesn't count me out either!!

Here's the inside:

I hope you like my card - now I must go and finish that ironing!!

See you again soon.

Love from
Andrea xxx

Friday Sketchers Week 57

I hope I'm not too late to enter this week's challenge on Friday Sketchers. I loved working with this sketch. I have used faux stitching around the image and the main backing paper - by paper pricking and then using a Sakura gel pen to make the stitches. This is also my first attempt at a lollipop flower, from the tutorial on The Next Level blog. I have used a Whiff of Joy image, coloured with watercolour pencils, the backing papers are Kay and Company Sparkly Sweet (I just adore the colours of these papers), put some heart shaped beads on wire curled around my round nosed pliers, added some ribbon, brads and a sentiment, et voila!!!

Anyway, I'd better go and link my card onto the challenge.

Hope to be back soon!

Love
Andrea xx