New release blog candy!

If you have yet to discover DoodleFactory Stamps from Starvingartistamps follow this link to their blog for the chance to win some brand new Halloween Stamps!

Love that little vampire!

A fairy in her autumn finery!

It's my Mom's birthday in a couple of weeks time and being a child of this 'season of mists and mellow fruitfulness' she is a big fan of autumn/fall colours. So when I saw that the adorable Dawn McVey had chosen these beautiful colours for Raspberry Suite Challenge 16# I nearly danced to my craftroom!

I might be taking a bit of a risk sharing this card now, but I don't think that Mom ever drops by my blog. I think that my Dad might look in occasionally, so Dad if you are reading this please don't show Mom... and if you have already got her present, please leave it in the usual place for me to wrap!

The cute little fairy is Maisy by Anise Ketto for Stampingbella. These stamps are like hens teeth over here in the UK so I grabbed this one as soon as I saw it for sale.


I stamped the little fairy in Versacolour ink and then embossed with Chocolate Brown Stamp-n Stuff powder from Stampendous. I wanted the image to match the chocolate brown of the Bazzils cardstock and the Versacolour just wasn't dark enough. I used some Kelly Panacci clear stamps to stamp the brown card, and also the kraft paper as the circles look like the flower in her hand. No prizes for spotting that greeting from Hero Arts!

After adding a Fiskars punched border I felt that some further embellishment was needed. I was so happy to find that little yellow foam flower hiding in my stash!

I really love this little stamp, so don't be surprised to see her popping up again VERY soon!

The only question is will she be wearing pink and green, or turquoise and lilac?

Ladies, place your bets now....!

Love birds!

I had been thinking about using pink and green on a card, but wasn't sure which other colour to bring in. How very kind of Samantha at SPCC to give me a helping hand and suggest Yo Yo Yellow!

As I don't have any Stampin' Up inks/papers I had to use a mixture of Versacolour inks and watercolour pencils to get as close as possible to her lovely colour pallete.


This little card is for my sister-in-law and her husband as they will be celebrating their Wedding Anniversay later this month. Thankfully my sister-in-law seems to be making a slow, but steady recovery and is now back home with her husband and beautiful baby daughter.

As I had enjoyed using those little Pink Petticoat bird images on my last card I decided to use some of the others from the download package. This cute little couple seemed perfect for an anniversary card.

Once again I lifted those teeny tiny wings on dimensionals, and also raised the little heart and added lots of Sparkles!

I didn't have any cardstock of the right colour so I applied Versacolour 'Orchid Pink' with my favourite blending tool (a dried out Wetwipe!!!). Then I stamped with that beautiful Hero Arts Design Block to give additional texture. Some spotty ribbon and Hero Arts pearls in black seemed to finish things off nicely!

I also added some faux stitching with my fabulous new gel pen. A few days ago I ordered some Uni-ball Signo broad gel pens from Cult Pens. They arrived today and are simply wonderful! They flow nicely and don't leave any gaps. I am officially in gel pen heaven!

I managed to get over to see Jacquie and the kids yesterday. I had such a great time, and even got to meet Hannah's lovely boyfriend Ryan. He is such a gentle and intelligent young man, who obviously cares alot about Hannah.
Matthew was really pleased to see me, and while I appreciated this I had a hunch it was something to do with the rather lovely carrot cake that was served at lunch! Jacquie's husband is currently away working in Beijing. Anthony isn't a big fan of cakes and cookies so whenever he is away his family go feral and load up on sweet things!

So tweet!

I have been wanting to do a birdy card for a while now, and when I saw that The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge was 'Flights of fancy' I just had to play along!

I had lot's of fun with this sweet little girl from Pink Petticoat. Their downloadable images are a helpful alternative to buying, and then storing, clear or rubber stamps. There's always a great selection of images in the boutique section and shopping with them is really easy.

As you can see I am still in my turquoise and lilac phase!

I cut the printed image to size and allowed it to dry thoroughly so that I could colour it with Versacolour ink. I lifted her little wing on a dimensional and then went to work with clear stickles. The 'Merci' stamp is from a Hero Arts Clear Design set which has a whole variety of thank you messages. I wanted it to appear as if the little cage was hanging from the sentiment. The ribbon is from my stash and the beautiful swirls are from an Autumn Leaves clear stamp 'Double Scroll' by Rhonna Farrer. I haven't decided what to put inside, but I expect to go with something like: 'thanks for being so tweet!'

If anyone read my blog entry from yesterday they may be wondering how things went with the Mystery midnight snail...

Well for me I guess it has a satisfactory conclusion, but it's a somewhat hollow victory.
I was ready for war! I had my arsenal of snail murdering chemicals (and a plan to keep Custard the cat out of the lounge) and I was ready to do battle with this monstrous intruder!!!

As my hubby moved the big sofa in readiness to lay our deadly trap he discovered a small, rubbery slug lying dead by the tiny hole in the skirting board where the radiator pipe comes into the lounge. The slug looked so forlorn that I couldn't believe he had ever had the energy to cruise around decorating the rug with that silvery trail of slime. I felt such a bully and gently wrapped him in some tissue before placing him in the bin.

Am I a big softy or what?

The mystery of the midnight snail!

Imagine my amazement when I opened the door to our lounge a few days ago and discovered my beautiful rug covered in a glittering, slimy snail trail!

I cleaned up and began hunting for the snail. I lifted the rug and moved the sofas but couldn't find him anywhere. I told my hubby about it when he got home and we both agreed that the snail had probably hitched a ride into the house on Custard the cat. The adorable Mr C. likes to bring little treasures into the house attached to his fur (thank goodness cats don't have pockets).

Since moving to 'Chez Nous' Custard has brought us a whole range of flora and fauna including mud, twigs, seeds, grass, small slugs, ladybirds and dried bread from the bird table. He surpassed himself with a small brown mouse who took up residence in the utility room. The mouse made himself at home in the hole for the washing machine water supply. It took a trail of cheese and a humane trap to evict that little visitor.

Anyway, back to that snail...the following morning I found a fresh trail across my lovely rug, and again I moved all the furniture after scrubbing the rug and the floor. Still no sign of that snail. The next day I found nothing except an unembellished caramel, terracotta and cream rug. I breathed a big sigh of relief. So imagine my horror to discover this morning that the snail had struck again and had graffited his way across my lounge floor once more.

I hate the idea of putting down pellets but this is war!

The card that I want to share today features the Sugar Nellie Manga girl that I used for Emily's birthday card a few weeks ago.


This card is for Hannah to congratulate her on her exam results (there may also be a little gift for her). While making this card I discovered that you can colour clear Stickles by using Versacolour ink! Not as good as the real thing but it seemed to work out OK and was the little lift that this card needed. I love this image and had great fun working with lilac and turquoise again. When I made alot of baby quilts these were my 'fall-to' colours. I added some little Hero Arts pearls in black and lifted the little girl on dimensionals. The spotty paper is a tiny scrap from my stash.

I will keep you posted on the snail situation!

A common thread...

I was blown away earlier this week when I visited Travelingmama Tina's blog and discovered her plans to help support a deprived Moroccan school through her newly opened Etsy shop.

For those of you not familiar with Travelingmama: Tina and her family live in Morocco and document and share their daily lives through their wonderful photographs and blogs.

Living in a country where 80 % of the women cannot read or write Tina was encouraged to hear that the government was to offer money to help repaint all of the public schools. However, Tina had heard about a school not too far from her own home that was in need of even more support.

To quote Tina 'The children walked miles and miles to attend school, but there was no fresh drinking water for them nor a restroom. Their school supplies were scarce and they had very few books to read'.

This is when Tina and her family decided to use their creativity to offer help to these children by opening an Etsy shop and by encouraging people to donate to their project.

If you want to read more of Tina's inspiring story or wish to make a donation please head on over to Travelingmama and the Travelingtribe blogs.

This week Tina has a new Inspiration Challenge running. It is based on these evocative pictures of the Medina.

Originally I was going to create a card inspired by the colours and textures of the picture above, but then I was drawn back to this amazing picture taken by Tina's son.

Look closely and you will see two tiny threads, which appear to run the length of the shop.

These tiny threads got me thinking about a poster that my Dad brought home for me when I was a teenager. I had this poster on my wall for years and it's message had a powerful effect on me as I grew up.

The poster depicted God 'knitting' all the people of the world from one long, unbroken thread. You may already be familiar with the quote which was 'We are all linked by the common thread of humanity. If we break it, we are all undone'. I decided to use that quote on my card as it seemed to fit with Tina and her family's story. I think that the way they are living their lives in Morocco is helping to keep those threads nice and strong.


After that big build up my card looks a little bit tame, but I wanted the quote to be the focal point and for it to be held by thin silver thread. I'm not going to send it to anyone, just keep it in my craftroom so that once again I can look at these words on a daily basis.

I just want to wish Tina and her family every success with this wonderful and generous project.