Sugar and spice and all things nice!

Hi everyone, hey... look at me actually finding time to join in Challenge 96 over at the Secret Crafter!

And what a lovely, girly fun challenge it is too. This week the challenge theme has been chosen by my special blogging buddy Vicky and it is 'What are little girls made of'!

This card is for my dear friend Lorraine, or the 'Fabulous Lozzie B' as she is affectionately known!

We share a love of all things pink and girly so I thought this cute little image from Nutcrafters would be just perfect.

The original image has the little girl wearing shorts. Lorraine wears cropped trousers or pedal pushers during the summer so I did a little bit of altering to dress her in true Lozzie B style!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend and happy crafting everyone!

Remember me?

I have done so little blogging recently that I almost feel like I need to reintroduce myself!

Big, BIG apologies that I haven't dropped by as much as usual, but I started my new job on Monday and have been really tired. I have been so tired that I haven't even crossed the threshold of my craft room, apart from looking for the cat or carrying in some laundry!

I thought I'd share a card that I made a few weeks ago for my dear friend Mo.

Once again I used that fab Rockability couple from the Secret Crafter. I really love this stamp and am going to have to hide it to stop myself using it all the time!
There's marvellous Mo in action heading up the table. This is my surprise tea party that Geoff, Karen and Mo threw for my last day in my old job. This lovely party seems such a long time ago and I can hardly believe that I was there only a week ago as I have been so busy at the new library. The refurbishment looks great. The staff have worked incredibly hard to get all the books on the shelves and to get ready for the opening which will take place in two weeks time.

So please forgive me if I don't post much over the next few weeks, I'll try and drop by at your blogs whenever I can.

Take care everyone, and happy crafting!

A little late to the party.... Paula's Blog hop!

Hi everyone, I am just back from two wonderful weeks on the beautiful Greek Island of Santorini. Myself and hubby had a fabulous time and returning to 'normal' is proving to be very, very hard!

I haven't managed to get near my craftroom as yet (too much washing to do) so this gives me a chance to share some cards that I made to celebrate the arrival of sweet Lilly Bug a.k.a the newest recruit to the Laird household. Congratulations Paula!

I was all ready to join in the 'Welcome Lilly blog hop' last week but I missed my cue because I was on holiday!

Here is the lovely Lilly at 5 weeks old. I copied this beautiful picture from the lovely Helen's blog.

Helen played postie for all of us girls around the world and kindly delivered our cards to Paula and her family. She therefore had the honour of starting the hop which was organised by Deborah.

Sweet little Lilly was born on the 4th June 2010 weighing 7 pounds 13 1/2 ounces,
Lilly is Paula and Doug's second daughter and apparently Em is taking her role as big sister very seriously!

I sent this card to welcome Lilly.

This is the card that I made for Em,and this is the card for the proud parents!Congratulations, and lot's of love, to Paula and her family.

This is what happens when...

This is what happens when you hang around with Vicky... you feel inspired to try something a bit different and a little bit challenging!

I saw this beautiful card a few weeks ago on Vicky's blog and felt inspired to try and use the little girl from The Secret Crafters cute Rockability stamp on her own. This is the result...
This card took ages but was lots of fun and as you can see she swings across the card on a little silver split pin!
I had to do lots of masking to edit out her dance partner, and then stamp another arm for her!

The birdcage is from Hero Arts and I paper pieced the more solid parts of the cage to give it a little dimension, and then covered them in Diamond Glaze.

I thought it could be cute to put a little hidden message under the cage for the recipient!

Thanks for all your kind messages about my new job. Telling my work friends was every bit as hard as I thought and there were lots of tears. Everyone was really kind and I think they were genuinely pleased for me.

Happy crafting everyone!

Celebrate!

The theme for Challenge #90 at The Secret Crafter is 'Water'.

I have been making some quite complicated cards recently (hopefully they'll be along later in the week), so making this sweet and simple little card made a nice change!

I stamped the cute Hero Arts duck and then added a tiny balloon image by A Muse. I have had the balloon stamp for ages and it took a long time to track it down to a tin full of my older stamps. What a trip down cardmaking memory lane that was!

The water was painted in Tumbled Glass Distress ink and the sky was coloured with Versacolour ink. I added some Stickles to accent the water and some Diamond Glaze to the balloon. All of the cardstock was Stampin' Up Scraps - so I am feeling just a bit pleased with myself.

I also rounded the top right hand corner after taking this picture, which really added some extra interest to the card.

And what is the little duck celebrating... could it be my new job??????

Yes, I have a new job at another library! The library has been closed for over a year while it was fully refurbished. It looks fabulous, and I can't believe that I will be starting as the new librarian in just a few weeks! However, I will be incredibly sad to leave the library where I currently work as the staff are just wonderful - telling them my news will be very, very hard tomorrow.

Have a great Sunday evening everyone!

June Card Chain Challenge

I'm a wee bit late posting the pics of Deborah's fabulous June Card Chain Challenge - especially as we are now in July!

Anyhoo, here is the card that I made, using Deborah's sketch, to send to the lovely Monika.

I also sent this one as a little extra! Monika is such a friendly person, and we got chatting by email. When Monika said how much she liked TGF images I decided to send her one of my favourites: cute digital Audrey. Monika is such a sweetie as she sent me this little beauty for my birthday. This picture is from her blog, as she had taken a far superior photograph to mine!
And just take a look at this fabulous creation that I received from the lovely Jenny in County Wexford!I am just sorry that my picture does not do justice to this gorgeous card. The colours and sparkle are just amazing, and her colouring is breathtaking. The picture on her blog looks lovely and shows this beautiful card in all it's glory!

If you want more Card Chain Challenge loveliness drop by at Deborah's blog to see what everyone else sent and received.

Must go, it's a takeaway Pizza treat for tea tonight!!!!