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!