Cupcake heaven!

This is the second of the brilliantly quirky stamps from Kraftin' Kimmie that I bought last week. Her name is Francesca and here she is wandering in cupcake heaven. Francesca the cupcake queen is my entry for One Stop Craft Challenge #52 . It's their Blogaversary so the theme is 'Celebration'. This card is for a former work colleague, who is celebrating her birthday next week so I think that fits nicely.

This beautiful stamp, and the one that I featured in this post, are the artwork of the talented Annie Rodrigue. Annie's fabulous website is called Moonlight Whispers and from there you can hop across to her blog .

I'm excited to see that Nikki has just announced plans to stock the current range of Kraftin' Kimmie stamps, plus some new Moonlight Whisper stamps over at BunnyZoe's Crafts. I will never have any money....

I'd like to say a big thank you to the lovely Dolly (Vicky), who has sent me a 'Making Smiles on Faces' Award! Guess who now has a big smile on her face!

Receiving this award made me realise that I never got around to posting 7 things about myself after getting an award from Paula. The Making Smiles Award asks for just 5 snippets of personal information, so I think that this mini biog will work for both:

1. I was delighted to read earlier today that the adorable Lucy Abrams is only 5 foot tall. Hurrah for miniature card making folk, and welcome to my world as I am only 5 foot and 1 inch tall. And that's a very crucial inch let me tell you!

2. The first thing that attracted me to my wonderful hubby was his dazzling smile. I have to confess that even after all these years that smile still gets me every time!

3. I was so excited about trying to squeeze in a little crafting before going to get my hair cut this morning that I forgot to wash! You will be pleased to hear that I put this right as soon as I realised, but honestly talk about a one track mind!

4. I was a quilt maker before I was a card maker and still have a chest of drawers full of fabulous fat quarters and quilt wadding.

5. Custard is named after Custard the Cat in the cult 1980s British children's cartoon series 'Roobarb and Custard'. Our Custard is black and white, rather than bright pink and he has a much sweeter nature then his namesake.

6. I drive a bright red VW Polo and have called 'her' Minty!

7. We went to see Green Day at the LG Arena last night and they were amazing!

If you are a regular visitor to my blog or you are one of my much valued fabulous following friends please grab this award from my sidebar as you are all people who make faces smile!

Hugs to you all!

There's room on the broom...

It's nearly Halloween....
We are planning to hold a fun Halloween event at the library on Saturday. The children will be making a 'spooky book' full of pictures, spells and the most ghoulish, gruesome Halloween jokes that we can find! We've asked the kids to come in costume and I will confess that I am looking forward to dusting off my witches hat and donning my stripey Halloween stockings to join in the fun!

This little card is for my work buddy Lozzie B. She is such a fabulous, fun person and is always my 'wing man' whenever we do anything crazy at the library. Our Halloween 2008 karaoke rendition of 'It's raining men' is the stuff of legends!

I used that cute, huffy cat stamp from Eat Cake Graphics and went totally OTT with the distressing as I wanted him disappearing off into a dark Halloween night. There is a little bit of Stampin' Up cuteness in each lower corner and the little punched border is stamped with a lovely, new Hero Arts cling stamp. In case you can't read the sentiment it says: 'and if you think I'm getting on that broomstick again after what happended last year...'

I can't resist entering my huffy friend for the Allsorts Challenge #24, which is 'Furry friends' and The ABC Challenge: 'F for Flying'!

If you are looking for a lovely Halloween themed book for younger children I'm going to recommend 'Room on the Broom' by Julia Donaldson, author of 'The Gruffalo'.

This sweet rhyming story, which partly inspired my card, is a great favourite with younger children. At this time of the year it is a warm and funny alternative to some of the scary stories that are available for older children.

Halloween hugs to you all!

One of a kind!

Isn't this little lass amazing?
Drawn by the fabulous Annie Rodrigue, she is called Charlotte and comes courtesy of Kraftin' Kimmie!
If you are not yet acquainted with Kraftin' Kimmie I highly recommend a visit to her shop and to her inspirational blog, which is called Kraftin' Kimmie's Korner. Sweet Ms K. also has a challenge site which is currently running the theme 'Shades of Autumn'.
If you go to Kimmie's shop you will find a helpful list of worldwide stockists.
I purchased Charlotte, and her friend Francesca, from the lovely Elaine at Quixotic Paperie.

This is a two challenge card as I am also entering Charlotte and her little friends for The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #55. This week DT girl Cathy has chosen 'Orange + one other colour' as the challenge theme. I was a bit concerned about whether I had enough orange in my stash, but I need not have worried as I re-discovered a whole load of yummy orange, rust and apricot card stock that I had forgotten!

I dusted off that sweet Cuttlebug folder, added a little Fiskars punched edge and sprinkled some Diamond Stickles to work it's sparkly magic yet again!

Happy crafting everyone!

Hannah's heartfelt wishes!

Isn't Lori's simple little sketch from The Pink Elephant girls just adorable?
This is the sketch for Challenge #37 and I could just hug those girls as I have had so much fun using it to create my card!

For anyone who doesn't recognise her, this little girl is an image from the fabulous Mo's Digital Pencil.

When I first saw her I really laughed! This little girl with the 'single-sock-situation' reminded me so much of my friend's daughter Hannah! Poor Hannah hardly ever got to wear a pair of socks when she was little. For some reason socks always lost their partner somewhere between the laundry and Hannah's feet. One day I remember dressing Hannah while Jacquie took a shower. At first I couldn't find any socks at all, despite looking in all the drawers and cupboards in her bedroom.

I finally came up with two socks from down the cushions of the sofa in their lounge - needless to say they didn't match, but I felt a great sense of achievement all the same!

I want to invite Jacquie to come for lunch, so this little card will do nicely. I'm sure she will 'twig' who this little girly is meant to be!

The card stock is Bazzils and the sentiment is from Hero Arts. The ribbon comes from my stash, as does that sweet stripey paper. I used white gel pen to create the white dots on the pink swiss dots card and added some sparkle with diamond Stickles. I lifted the little girl, and her collection of socks, on dimensionals. Sadly, the colours haven't really photographed that well as they look really fresh and pretty in real life.

After a week with no crafting, today has felt like so much fun and has really lifted my spirits!

Yes, I spend way too much money on stamps but hey, it's still cheaper than therapy!

Happy crafting everyone, it's sooo good for the soul!

It's beginning to feel a bit like Christmas...

It's not that I am Christmas-a-phobic or anything, it is just that I usually like to get Halloween out of the way before I start my Christmas cards! However, this year the Christmas card making season officially started TODAY!

The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #54 wants us to 'dig deep' and delve into that stash!

This sweet little Magenta Dove stamp has been living in my Christmas stamps and embellishments box for quite a while, so I decided now was time to set him free...

So far I have made nine of these simple little cards. They are in a variety of colours, and I am pleased to say that I am using some of my larger card scraps to make them. That pretty ribbon is left over from my wedding favours, so I think that counts as stash too!

Happy crafting everyone!

Hello friend!

Each year I am delighted to see a family of robins visiting our garden. Towards the end of the summer they drift away, but one or two usually reappear as the weather gets cooler. This morning I was pleased to see a little robin friend watching me as I topped up the bird table with kitchen scraps!

I had my little visitor on my mind as I headed for the craftroom, but I have to admit that the old mojo was at a low ebb this morning. I decided to go sketch hunting for a little inspirational boost. I came across this sweet and simple sketch from the lovely girls over at Limelight Papercrafts.

I am not quite sure how that cute sketch turned into this little tribute to my little feathered friend, but then isn't that just the magic of card making?


I thought that my little autumn visitor could play along with The Pink Elephant Challenge this week as their theme is 'Fall'.

I broke out some of my favourite Hero Arts stamps to use with my little Cuttlebug cut robin, and just had to give him some of the little goggley eyes that I usually reserve for my little Christmas Rudolphs! The Limelight team challenge also required the addition of ribbon, so I added some lace to look like clouds in a bright autumn sky!
Happy crafting everyone!

Such a grateful bunny!

I really am one grateful girl!
A very big thank you to the gang over at Cupcake Craft Challenges for including my little bunny cards as a top 5 pick for challenge #60!

The girls have now posted their Challenge for week 61 which is 'buttons and stitching'. I love using buttons, but cannot get my sewing machine to sew on paper... I wonder if a wee bit of 'faux' stitching might be allowed?

I needed some little thank you cards today, so decided to break out my bargain eBay purchase. I have to say that I am totally smitten with these little beauties from Stampin' Up! I stamped the largest image onto some Bazzils card stock and then added Hero Arts Pearls in black, and some faux stitching. I lifted the little panel up on dimensionals for added interest.

So simple and easy...
I am dreaming of hours of fun with these lovely stamps. However, I feel a bit guilty that I didn't buy them directly from Stampin' Up! I'm waiting for the Stamp Surveillance Squad to turn up at my door and take them away from me!

Happy crafting everyone!

A quick hello!

Hi folks, just a very quick post as this is supposed to be study time. I am working on my Institute of Customer Services (ICS) passport and log today so must not spend too much time blogging!

Here is a little birthday card that I made over the weekend, but didn't have time to post.

This is for my friend Sue. If anyone 'deserves a day sprinkled with fun' it is sweet Sue as she has had a really rough deal over the last few years. However, I am pleased to report that she has a lovely new man in her life now, and I am sure he is going to spoil her rotten on her special day!

The main image is another adorable Ketto stamp. This one is Maisy's little friend Kenya. I coloured her with watercolour pencils and added some Diamond Stickles to the flowers (not showing up at all in either of these pictures). I am not 100% happy with the layout of this card, and have to admit that the ribbon rather saves the day!

I picked autumn colours to fit with two challenges: Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge theme this week is 'Autumn Colours' while Stamp Something is running a 'brown plus something' challenge.

I am delighted to have fall shades putting in an appearance again as the trees around my house look amazing at the moment and are filling my mind with golds, greens and yellows. Being a professional gardener my hubby is a big tree fan and so he took me tree spotting and leaf peeping at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens on Sunday. We had a lovely time, and although I will never learn all those Latin names I did enjoy seeing all the trees in their autumn finery.

I really must get back to studying now, even though I really I want to play with that just delivered bargain stamp set that I bought from eBay.

Happy crafting everyone!

Little Miss Manga!

Just one more card for today!
The challenge this week over at SCSC is 'celebration', so I decided to enter this little birthday card that I've made for a former colleague. I really enjoyed colouring this cute little image from Sugar Nellie and have lots more colour combos and layouts planned for her.

The picture is a bit dark but I hope that you can make out the Versamark stamping of that beautiful 'Flourish Hearts' image from Hero Arts. The sentiment and Raindrops stamps are also from Hero Arts.

Happy crafting to you and a happy 'I must go and do the ironing' to me!

One grateful bunny!

Here's that crazy little bunny again!


This time Mr Rabbit is modelling spotty paper from the Basic Grey collection called Eva!

Over at the Hero Arts blog Tami is featuring paper piecing as her theme for the week. To be honest I had already decided to use patterned paper for this little bunny, but it is always good to get a little extra inspiration. Tami is showcasing some truly fabulous cards so it's worth a look!

That shaped backing paper was made using a template that the wonderful Kristina Werner shared as a freebie, possibly back in the Spring. I have used it a few times, and love how versatile it is as you can change it around to suit your card. I've searched Kristina's blog to add a link for this template, but I can't track it down! If I do find it I promise to edit this post.
The little bunny is lifted on dimensionals, and I decided to have those sweet, floppy ears carrying on above the backing paper for a fun twist! I used the Hero Arts Raindrops stamp to add texture by stamping with Versamark ink to the card base and then added a line of pearls, a little flower button and some diamond Stickles to complete the card.

Happy crafting everyone!

A little sugar magic!

I just wanted to share a picture of the beautiful cake that my Mom's dear friend Pat made to celebrate my parent's Golden Wedding Anniversary. Aren't those little icing sugar flowers gorgeous?

Pat is so talented and can make a fabulous cake for any occasion. She very kindly made my wedding cake and created little icing flowers that matched the roses and lilies in my bouquet - such a sweet lady!

And the winner is....

The winner of my little World Card Making Day Giveaway is.... (please imagine a brief fanfare folks)....

Vanessa!

Congratulations to you, Vanessa!

Also a very big thank you to everyone who left a comment on my WCMD post. I really enjoyed all your messages of friendship and encouragement.

I hope that Vanessa will enjoy the pretty 6 x 6 papers and co-ordinating fabric brads from 'My Mind's Eye'. There's also a white gel pen and some little Bazzils brads for her to play with!

(Vanessa, please send me your home address via the email link on my sidebar).

Happy crafting everyone!

Thanks a bunch!

I needed a few little thank you cards so decided to have some fun with this grateful little bunny!
I downloaded him from Artisan and printed him onto kraft cardstock. The background stamps and the sentiment are from Hero Arts.
I have further plans for this little fellah, so don't be surprised to see him appearing in different 'clothes' a bit later on....

The current challenge over at Allsorts is to create a card using kraft cardstock, and the Cupcake Craft Challenge theme this week is 'thank you cards' - so I thought that these little bunnies should just hop on over and make themselves known to Mr Linky!

Have a great day!

Hi everyone, I just want to wish you all a very happy World Card Making Day!

I hope that you enjoy this simple little card that I made to celebrate what has to be a serious red letter day on every card maker's calendar!



This sweet stamp comes from Scrapmagasinet, and is called Rakle-Sitter. The wonderful Nikki stocks these cute stamps over at her shop Bunny-Zoe. The other stamps are dear old friends from my beloved Hero Arts, and that image of the world is just some clip art that I messed with on the computer!

If you are a regular visitor to my blog thanks for dropping by again, it's always a pleasure to have you visit! And if you are taking part in the Big Blog Tour, you should have just arrived from the very talented Winter Sims's wonderful blog, so hello and welcome to you too!

Anyone kind enough to leave a comment on this post will go into the hat for my small, but perfectly formed, World Card Making Day Giveaway. I'll draw the winner on Wednesday morning next week, so don't forget to check back for the result!

OK blog hoppers, you now need to head on over to meet and greet at Bella Blu Design.

Have a wonderful day, you are all so special and talented!

Happy crafting everyone!