A Sporty Pair

Hello, I hope you are all well and enjoying your weekend - we've had a gorgeous afternoon this afternoon.

Well, it was my hubby's birthday yesterday - he's the same age as me again LOL! I decided to make two similar cards for him, using the Dottie Downloads Sports George digital images from Charmed Cards and Crafts - these are pre-coloured images. And I decoupaged them up a bit. I decided to do shaped easel cards again, and used my new favourite tools, the scalloped and plain circle nesties.



Here are some close-ups:

I hope you can see that I attempted to represent a cricket ball (and added stitches around with white gel pen - I also did that down the centre but then covered that up with the image!) and for the golf ball I debossed with the swiss dots cuttlebug folder. I printed the sentiments on the computer.





I hope you like them. I'm going to enter them in the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly - Truly dimensional
Do You Stack Up - Scallops
Ellephantastic - Anything but square or rectangle
Inspire Me Fridays - Anything goes
The Secret Crafter - Stitching - the cricket card

Thanks for looking, and have a fab weekend.

Love, Andrea xx

Clean and Simple Turns to Very Messy and Something In Between!

Hello fellow bloggers - I hope you are having a lovely weekend.

Well, are you wondering how clean and simple can turn into very messy? - here's how! This is my clean and simple card - a wedding acceptance for my Mum to send for my cousin's wedding - very simple, just a plain white card embossed with a Cuttlebug folder flower fantasy, and a computer generated sentiment die cut with a Labels 10 nestie, eyelets added and organza ribbon coloured with a Promarker. I also ran the promarker around the edge of the die cut, and then added Diamond Stickles. I'm entering this card in this week's Less is More challenge which is sentiment focus. (Just realised I can't enter this card as it is not one layer - the sentiment is a separate layer).



And, at the end of my crafting session, this is what my kitchen table usually looks like - this is why I sometimes don't feel like crafting, 'cos I can't be bothered with the tidying up afterwards - I have to tidy up after every session ready for the next meal.



And this is what I made in between



The colours are much brighter in real life - I don't really know why this looks so wishy washy. Anyway, this is a card for a classmate of Eleri's - she is going to his party tomorrow. The image is Cowboy in Training from Bugaboo Stamps. I've coloured him with Promarkers. And I've used my new toys - at last I've got hold of some circle nesties (whoop, whoop!!). The papers are Kay & Co. The card I've used for matting and layering has been coloured with Promarkers to match the image. The happy day sentiment is a digi from TLC Creations, and the name is computer generated and then the letters cut up and added separately. What do you think of the lassoo? - well that's from the tag I took off my son's new jeans. I just love the way this card turned out, and I'm entering it in the following challenges

Truly Scrumptious Challenge - the sketch I followed
Creative Inspirations Wednesday Challenge - Punches and dies - my new circle nestie dies
Catch the Bug - 4 or more layers
Fussy and Fancy - A card for a child

That's enough from me - hope to see you again soon.

Love, Andrea xx

My First Shaped Easel Card

Hello Everyone

This might just be a quickie to show the card I gave to my Mum for Mother's Day yesterday. My first shaped easel card - I love this, definitely going to try more of these:



The more I see this image, the more I fall in love with it - it is a digi from Cuddly Buddly called Daffadowndillies. It was perfect for my Mum's card as she loves daffodils. I coloured her with promarkers - I do find it difficult adding light and shade to something that has a lot of detail so I'm not over impressed with my colouring of her jacket or skirt.

I used my Nestabilities Labels 10 die for the shape. I didn't want to add too much so thought it would be good to emboss the orange pearlescent card, using a Cuttlebug folder called flower fantasy. And then I added Diamond Stickles around the image plate - I love how that adds a little something LOL!

There are two stamps used for the sentiment - the Lots of Love is from a Christmas set from Anita's stamps, and the Mum was in a free set with Crafts Beautiful magazine this month. Then just added the dew drops. I thought about adding flowers but decided I didn't want to overpower the lovely image.

I'm entering this in the following challenges:

I Love Promarkers - Emboss it
Polkadoodles - No printed backing papers
Make It Colourful - Use bright colours
AI Factory - Bright as day
Stamp Something - Use a digi

Well, maybe that wasn't as short as I anticipated. Thanks for looking, and see you soon.

Love, Andrea xx

I'm a Passionista :), Awards and a Card

Well hello fellow bloggers - I hope you are having a good week.

I have discovered this evening that I was made one of this week's Top 5 Passionistas over on Passion for Promarkers with the card in my post below - woohoohoo!!! What a surprise!

I have also been very lucky to have been awarded 2 awards recently - and I do apologise to Katina and Monica for taking so long to blog about them. Thank you very much to you both, and thank you for the lovely comments you always leave me.












One of the things I must do to accept these awards is to share 7 random facts about myself - well here goes:

1. I have been white water rafting twice, and it was fantastic!
2. I once completed an army assault course for charity, but I couldn't get over the 12 ft wall LOL!
3. The last two facts make me sound really sporty and outgoing but I am not in the least sporty, and I am really quite shy!
4. Something that I really really want to do is to see whales in the wild.
5. Richard and I were very lucky to win a major prize on the National Lottery here in the UK - we had 5 numbers plus the bonus ball, and we won over £23,000 - sadly it's all spent!
6. One of the things we spent the money on was a skiing holiday in Whistler, Canada - wow!
7. Richard thought it would be a good idea for me to have some skiing lessons at a dry ski slope in this country before we went to Canada - and I broke my hand on the first lesson, and was therefore not able to ski on holiday!!! ROFL! We still had a wonderful holiday though!

Another thing I am supposed to do is to pass the awards on to 7 other bloggers I have recently found - now I am really struggling with this one because there are so many fabulous bloggers out there, but I will work on it I promise!

Now onto my card - one of Andrew's friends had his birthday today, and this is the card I made him. He is the drummer in the school band, so I decided to use the digi image Jerry Kisses Drummer from Pollycrafts. I've coloured him with Promarkers. I downloaded the music background from the internet - I believe it is supposed to be drum music (but I don't know for sure LOL!).



I followed this week's sketch at The Sweet Stop, and I also want to enter it in the following challenge:

Creative Card Crew - For a child

Sorry for this long post - hope I haven't bored you to tears LOL!

See you soon.
Love, Andrea xx

For Someone Special

Hello and Happy Saturday - To those of you who have been or who will be going to the NEC, I hope you have a fabulous time! Unfortunately, I have not been able to go (again!) as my hubby is working!

But I have managed to make a card for someone who is leaving their job very soon - I am going to miss her, and I know many many other people will too!



The image is a Wee Stamps digi called Sweet Blossom from Cuddly Buddly - isn't she soooo sweet!? I have coloured her with Promarkers. The papers and the embossing folder I used are the V&A Hanoverian range from Do Crafts. The border punch I used is X-Cut, as are the heart dies, and the flower dies are from Joy Crafts, fastened together with pearl brads. I coloured the layering card and the adhesive pearls with the pink Promarker to match her dress, and added a touch of glitter with Diamond Stickles.

I followed last week's sketch at the Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge, but missed the challenge!

But I am going to enter the following challenges:

Passion for Promarkers - In the Garden
2 Sisters Challenge - Make your own embellishments - I hope using dies to make the flowers and heart count!
Totally Papercrafts - Cuddly and cute
CES Challenge - Die cut crazy

That's probably all I need to say this evening - thank you for calling by! See you soon. I'm going to have another attempt at crochet - attempted earlier in the week but could not get the hang of it at all (LOL!). My sister made Eleri such a gorgeous crocheted jacket a couple of weeks ago, and she's made herself some lovely things, and it's made me wish I could do it - well, what I'd really like to be able to do is to crochet some flowers to add to a card.

Good night!

Love, Andrea xx

A Card For My Nephew

Hello Everyone - hope you are all well. I have not done much crafting lately - don't know why really - just haven't been inspired enough!

But I did make this card for my nephew whose birthday was a few days ago - he was 9.



I made another outer space card, using the pre-coloured digi set, Out of This World, from Digistamp Boutique. The background has been embossed in the cuttlebug, and then I ran a silver ink pad over it. The rocket is hanging on a strip of acetate, so that it looks like it is flying. I decoupaged the aliens up a bit, and added clear glaze to the little space ship and to the windows on the rocket, to make it look like glass. I also added some sparkle with a Sakura Clear Stardust pen. And that's probably about it - there wasn't room for a sentiment on the front.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

One Stitch At a Time - For the boys
The Crafty Pad - Use a digi

I had Friday off work last week, preparing to do a table top sale yesterday - I was wanting to sell some toys and clothes that Andrew and Eleri have grown out of, and also get rid of our pushchair/pram. I had a full car load so the pram wouldn't fit in the car but Richard was going to walk it to me. But, poor little Eleri was ill (she had the dreaded tummy bug! - only a 24 hour thing, she's much better today), so we decided not to bother with the pram. I managed to sell some stuff, but not as much as I'd hoped. Then I took 3 bags full to charity shops - but I think we've still got about 7 boxes of stuff to go back up in the attic, ready for the next sale!

While I was away, Richard had hacked at our apple tree, hazel tree and rose bushes - and the trimmings are all over the lawn - goodness knows how long they are going to be there. He says he wants to use some of it over his vegetable garden to try to keep the cats off - I really hope it's not going to look like I imagine it will!

Anyway, you probably don't want any more waffle from me, so I'll love you and leave you for now. Thanks for looking, and I hope you call again sometime.

Love, Andrea xx

And I'm a Guest Designer for OSCC!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well Hello - its the weekend - hope you have a good one!

Sorry about my gloomy post on Thursday - but I am feeling much better now - don't know where that all came from LOL!

Anyway, here's my second bit of lovely news this week - Shelley at One Stop Craft Challenge invited me to be Guest Designer this week. To put it mildly, I was gobsmacked, but of course I had to say yes, even though it was a bit nervewracking!!

The challenge this week is Clean and Simple. Well, I don't think I've ever done clean and simple, but I had a few ideas to try, and this is how my card turned out.



I stamped and embossed a sentiment from a CC Designs Thank You set, then die cut with my Nellie Snellen die, and added another die cut layer. Then I just die cut and embossed my favourite flower dies from Joy Crafts (OK, they're the only flower dies I have and I really want some more LOL!). Added pearl brads to the centre and that's all there was to it, apart from rounding the corners of the card. This is all pearlescent card, so it is nice and shimmery.

I loved this card when I'd finished it, but I'm not sure again now - maybe its too clean and simple, maybe the base card is a bit too big?!

I think this sentiment is perfect for a blogger whom I follow, and I'm sure many of you in blogland know - Jacque. I don't know her personally but, from what I read on her blog, she is a very very talented crafter and an extremely generous person - she often has sweet stuff to give away. So I would like to dedicate this card and 'cyberpost' it to Jacque.

I made a couple of other clean and simple cards which turned out OK - I might show those in another post.

I hope you will take a look at the One Stop Craft Challenge blog this week and maybe have a play in the challenge! I've seen many fabulous CAS cards around blogland so you know you can do it LOL!

I'm attempting to schedule this post - another thing I've never done before - so fingers crossed that it will work!

Thanks for visiting me and I hope you will call by again sometime.

Love, Andrea xx