Birthday girl!

I can't stop paper piecing this cute little girl from PI!

Here she is modelling Kaisercraft pattern paper. I made her trousers/pants from one of the die cuts included in the paper pad and added some stitching. Sweeeeeeeeeeet!

Happy crafting everyone!

A quick thank you card.

Hello everyone, yes it's me again! I'm finding going 'cold turkey' from blogging rather hard to do.

I can't promise regular posts but will try and join in the fun whenever I can!

I needed a few 'thank you' cards. What a great excuse to ink up my latest Pure innocence stamp called 'Being cute is what I do'. I think she may just be my favourite PI girl so far. I paper pieced her dress and coloured her with Promarkers. The papers are both scraps from Basic Grey and look lovely with that turquoise card from Stampin' Up!

Using my newly serviced and repaired sewing machine I was able to stitch around the centre panel of the card. Stitching on cards may just become my new obsession!

Anyhooo, enjoy the rest of your weekend. I have a card to finish (hurrah) and then the ironing awaits (boo hiss).

Take care everyone and happy crafting!

Happy New Year!

I thought I'd just drop by and wish everyone very Happy New Year! A big thank you to everyone who left a comment on my previous post or who has been in touch by email. Thank you so much for all your kindness and friendship. Just to prove that I've not been leading a totally craft free existence since November I thought I'd share a few views of my untidy desk and one or two of the cards that I've been working on recently. These are my quick make/mass production cards at the assembly stage... A close up after adding oodles of Stickles!

And here's the final Christmas card for 2010.

This golden oldy from the fabulous Emerson Quillan has to be one of my favourite Christmas stamps!

Finally, I couldn't resist making this set for my sweet niece. These little digi's from Heather Ellis look uncannily like her and so were perfect for creating simple single layer 'thank you' cards.

Life remains hectic and is likely to become even more so in the run up to the submission date for my ICS work. In addition I now have the added stress of two weeks of jury service in late January! Seriously, is someone having a joke????

Take care everyone and happy crafting for 2011!

February Card Chain Challenge

Each month the lovely Deborah of The Society of Stamp and Scrapaholics runs a Card Chain Challenge. I love receiving cards from fellow card makers so decided to play along!

The idea is that you receive a fellow card maker's snail mail address, make her a card, and send it off. The next person on the list does the same thing with you, and so on. Each person makes a card for the person immediately above her in the chain, and the first person in the chain makes a card for the last person in the chain.
Everybody gets a hand-crafted card so everybody wins!

Deborah organises all the administrative side of things and it couldn't be easier!

To take part in the February Challenge you had to choose from three card making options. (You could combine all three if you wanted to).

The options for February were:

1. A colour palette of Citron, Cucumber, Violet, Mauve, Lilac

2. Deborah's template

3. A themed St Patrick's Day or Friendship card.

I love mauves and greens so I decided to use Deborah's colour palette, but I think my card was friendly too!!!

I sent this card to Cassi in Vienna, VA, USA...

...and was thrilled to receive this sweet card from Yvette in Belgium!

Deborah will be showcasing all the February Challenge cards on her blog at the beginning of March. She will also post the details for the March Card Chain Challenge.

If you've yet to discover her excellent blog why not go take a look as Deborah is one bright, funny lady, and a fabulous card maker!

Happy crafting everyone!

You truly warm my heart!

I am constantly delighted by the kindness of the card making community!

You are such a sweet and generous 'bunch', so I decided to make a little card to let you know how I feel!

There's also three of you lovely people who each deserve a special thank you...

First of all a big thank you to Jane for all those lovely giveaways. I have now been lucky enough to win Spike! He will be perfect for a cute valentine for my hubby.

Next I want to say a big thank you to the adorable Donna for sending me a huge parcel of goodies - you are soooo kind! This is one of the lovely Pure innocence images that she sent me, coloured with Promarkers and gleaming with diamond glaze.

Finally, I'm going to say thank you to Vicky for a really lovely day of stamping and friendship on Wednesday. Such fun ... and lots of nice cups of tea too! Thank you Vicky, and see you again soon!

So this card is to say thanks to them and to everyone who follows my blog or drops by.

... and what do you know, this card is also a good fit with the theme of 'Hearts' for The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #86 and 'Heart-to heart' over at Raise the Bar Challenge #4.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Let's share a secret....

Just a quick post today to share the fabulous secret of Nesties card construction!

For the uninitiated, which included me until a few days and one Donna ago, please watch this brief video from the wonderful Lucy. She demonstrates making these little shaped cards so well!

Here is a shot of the back of the card that I shared yesterday. As you can see the score is about 1/4 inch from the top. The adhesive is sandwiched inside the card. You need to make sure that you use really good adhesive as the person opening the card may not realise that this isn't a traditional 'folded' card.

Here is the front again, with the addition of the Hero Arts sentiment.

Donna suggested adding the image after assembling your card. I think that's a really good idea. By doing this you can make sure everything is positioned correctly. With the 'squarer' shaped card that Lucy makes in the video I don't think this would matter as much.

This card was delivered today to thank my parents for a wonderful Christmas Day, fabulous food and their lovely gifts.

Happy crafting everyone, go get those Nesties!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!

I feel as if I have crossed over into a new card making dimension. The adorable Donna has unlocked one of life's great mysteries for me... I finally know how to make a Nesties circular card!

Hooray and a funny little happy dance!

Actually I was so over excited that I photographed this card before adding the sentiment. After I had calmed down and stopping jigging around my craft room like some mad woman, I added a tiny little 'thank you' in the gap below her feet!

Thank you Donna, you are sooooooo kind.

I was surprised and delighted to discover that Victoria had left this little award for me on her blog. Thank you so much!

It's such a treat to get an award, and then such a treat to be able to pass it on to others!

As with all awards there are a few rules
1. Copy this award to your blog.
2. Link to the person who gave you this award.
3. Identify 7 interesting facts about yourself.
4. Choose 7 other bloggers to pass this award on to.
5. Link to their blogs.
6. Leave them a comment to let them know about this award.

Here are my magnificent seven:
Linda
Donna
Jill
Vicky
Lynne
Sally and last, but by no means least... Beth.

My seven sort of 'interesting' facts are:

1. I became an auntie in May last year and am totally smitten with my adorable little niece.
2. I found my way into blogland after breaking my wrist at work. No cardmaking for six frantic weeks... thank goodness for all those wonderful blogs that kept me sane.
3. The most famous person that I've met is Prince Phillip. He was very friendly and put everyone at their ease, but I cannot remember a single word of our conversation.
4. I began my career as a children's librarian and once had to dress up as a bear!
5. In September I hosted a party for 130 children and their parents... and the Lady Mayoress of Birmingham, and the poet Chris White.
6. I spend far too much money on craft goodies... and am going to make it a resolution to spend less in 2010. How long will that one last?????
7. I have just realised that I've forgotten to feed Custard and it's after 7pm. (Back in a minute...)

Enjoy your awards ladies!

Finally, I just want to congratulate the Vanessa and Alice who have both won a day on the Hero Arts blog. I am thrilled for them, and I am sure they will create some gorgeous things along with the HA girls!

Happy crafting everyone!

I cannot believe that it is New Year's Eve - where did 2009 go?

Here are a few cards that I have been messing around with over the last few days.

I love this little girl by Diane Duda. The image is called Bunny and is from Sugar Nellie. The flowers are Junkitz Clear Stampz. I have to say a big thank you to Beth for both of these as they came as part of my recent candy win over at her blog.

The next card features a Heather Ellis 'Pure Innocence' digital download .

Soooo cute, and sooooo reasonably priced too - especially as Heather has a sale on at her site right now. I must thank the wonderful Donna for the tip off about these images!

I was able to print two images on an A5 sheet and then add the sentiment using a cute font on my PC. The inside sentiment reads '...hope it's happy'.

 

So happy New Year everyone, let's hope its a good one... with lots of cards, creativity and fun!