Woo hoo!!!!! Happy Mail is here!!!!

Well, as it turned out I have something to show you after all!!!! I woke to find that my postman had brought me some Happy Mail!!! Happy Mail is the title of Katharina's new release at Whiff of Joy stamps. This release is designed by Alison Acton and will be on sale from the 9th January so save some of your Christmas pennies!! Of course I have more to show you over the coming days, but I have to say these stamps are so cute and very versatile as I hope I have shown here by using this stamp to make a card for my Father in Law's birthday! I am going to enter this into the challenge at Colour Create which is to use the colours lemon and lime (thanks Di) which I didn't know until after I made my card....spooky eh?

Isn't it such a fun image!!!?? This is Charlotte riding Pidgeon. The "Air Mail" is just one of five sentiments that come with this stamp: Happy Mail; Birthday Mail; Just for You; Love Letter and Air Mail, so you can see already how versatile this stamp is!
I have coloured the image with copics with the chain around the pidgeon's neck detailed with a gold gel pen. The Air Mail sentiment has been stamped with peeled paint distress ink. The papers are from the K&Co Wild Saffron collection and have been distressed with tearing and sponged with vintage photo distress ink.

I was lucky enough to receive a Crop a Dile for Christmas so had to have a play with it, these eyelets have been sulking away in my stash for almost a year as I didn't have anything to set them with LOL! I have set one, top and bottom and threaded some jute string through and tied it at the top. I love this string for men's cards instead of ribbon.


I have added several buttons from Basic Grey along the bottom.....

....and top of the image for embellishments and I have stuck the ends of the string to the card in a curl for added interest.


Hope you like it and will come back to see the rest of the collection in the next few days, they really are gorgeous! and once again.....

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

That was 2009

I noticed a few people doing a post of their favourite cards from the year and thought I would do the same seeing as I have nothing to show you today AGAIN! Gosh, feels so wierd not posting cards after the many Christmas cards. I have four family birthdays coming up in the first two weeks of the year and I can't get motivated after my little Christmas break. I'm waiting for some special stamps so I'm hoping that will kick start my mojo! Anyway back to my "that was 2009". I only started my blog in April, it was funny looking back at my first posts when I knew noone was reading, feels silly typing to noone doesn't it LOL!

Two piccies for APRIL as I decided to show the exploding box I had made for my daughter's first birthday so here is the inside and outside.

MAY and I now have my beloved copics and getting to grips with them.......

JUNE, I just loved altering this jewellery box for the Just Magnolia monthly challenge!

JULY, this is a special card as firstly I made it for my Dad to give my Mum and secondly it won me a place as GD on the Whiff of Joy anniversary blog hop!

AUGUST, I mounted this card onto some matching pink ribbon and it now hangs in my daughter's bedroom along with two other matching cards.

SEPTEMBER, sorry two piccies again as I just couldn't decide between these two, they both won me a place as GD for Whiff of Joy, which I am absolutely loving doing as we speak until the end of January!

OCTOBER, this card I made for the Whiff of Joy challenge birthday blog hop which also happened to be on world cardmaking day.

NOVEMBER, another very special card as this was my first card as a DT member for Just Magnolia.

DECEMBER, it was extremely hard to pick a card from the mountain I made in December but I eventually decided upon this as I almost didn't give it to the lady I'd made it for as I loved it too much LOL! Well, I can honestly say it has been a truly amazing year for me. After purchasing my little Forever Friends card making kit at my local garden centre in February and coming online for help, I have started a blog and made friends with lots of wonderful like minded people. I have been so incredibly lucky to become a design team member for Whiff of Joy challenge, Just Magnolia challenge and Crafty Calendar challenge and am currently guest designing for Katharina at Whiff of Joy!!!!! Not in my wildest dreams could I have imagined such a year and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your encouragement and support throughout because I know I wouldn't have made it without you all so big hugs to you all!!!

and finally.........

H A P P Y N E W Y E A R!!!!!!!!!!!

Stamp with fun challenge

It has felt strange not crafting and blogging for a few days! Here is a card I was asked to make by my husband's Aunt after she saw some of my cards at my MIL's house, how flattering is that!? As luck would have it there is a challenge to make a New Year card over at Stamp with Fun challenge too!

The papers are a Bo Bunny paper but I've lost the bit with the name on, sorry! I have used three stamps from the new Magnolia winter/Christmas kit. It took rather a lot of practices on scrap paper but eventually I have stamped two glasses of champagne and masked them to stamp the bottle and then stamped the ribbon flourish underneath! The images have been coloured with copics and then I have added stickles to the champagne in the glasses so that it looks like sparkling champagne. I have written 2010 on the ribbon and added some details to the bottle with a gold gel pen.

I have embossed with gold embossing powder one of my Stempelglede flourishes from the Grunge Flourish Hearts collection and then added some small gems.

The plain turquoise on the bottom of the card is the reverse of the paper and I have punched one edge with MS doiley lace punch. The gorgeous ribbon is from the Hobby House and I have hand written the sentiment. All the paper edges are distressed and sponged with vintage photo distress ink.

Hope you like it and thanks for looking! x

Whiff of Joy DT - Christmas gift

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones. We had a rather large visit from Father Christmas in our house LOL, plenty of fun! I got quite a few distress ink pads to add to my collection so everyone doesn't have to wear pink and blue now LOL. I wanted to share with you a bookmark I made for my SIL to go with her Christmas present using one of my DT stamps from Katharina. I love this stamp it is so beautiful, I love the expression on Willow's face. Now I know strictly she is Willow writing recipes but I thought she still suited a bookmark well. I used some gorgeous papers from K&Co Madelaine collection, I have two books of these as I love them so much LOL! I tore all the papers and distressed them with brushed cordoruy distress inks and I used my MS doiley lace punch on the piece behind Willow.

I decided to have a go at colouring Willow with distress inks, I usually stick to copics for my Whiff of Joy images but I'm really pleased with how this turned out and think it suites the paper well. I stamped one of the swirls from the Whiff of Joy Christmas swirls set with tattered rose distress ink and also on the BP with brushed cordoruy.

I didn't want to add to much bulk so that the bookmark doesn't mishape books too much when used so I opted for a gorgeous painterly flower from Prima which I have distressed with brushed cordoruy as it was far to bright otherwise. I then added a flower punched with EK success retro punch from the backing paper and a pearl brad from the Hobby House. The leaves have been punched using a Woodware punch.

On the other side of the bookmark I used the reverse of the front BP, torn and distressed again.

I have stamped the swirl stamp on the BP as on the front and have added two flowers punched with the EK success punch and some small pearls for the centres.

The Chinese Proverb has been written with my calligraphy pen, I found it on the internet looking for a quote about books or reading. Don't you just love how you can find anything out these days on the internet! I have edged the sentiment with brushed cordoruy distress ink and added some small pearls from the Hobby House in each corner.

Thanks for looking, I hope you like it. I'm going to carry on with my festivities now, hope you have a wonderful time for the rest of your holidays. x

Christmas Crackers and Merry Christmas

Well, here we are, Christmas Eve, my little boy is so excited I don't know how he is going to get through the day bless him! I still have some food to prepare and we decided not to wrap the children's presents until tonight in case they found them so another busy day! I wanted to share with you (if indeed anyone actually reads this LOL) the Christmas crackers I made following Rach's fabulous tutorial on the Whiff of Joy Tutorial and Inspirations blog. I'm so excited to see if the snaps work LOL. The paper is by Kaisercraft and matches the colours of my dining room brilliantly! It is double sided, the purple trims are all made with the other side of the paper.

I have used Wee with Drum on two of the crackers, coloured with copics and details with a gold gel pen....

....on the other crackers I have used Willow with Stocking, again coloured with copics and the white trims have been covered with stickles.

The images have been matted onto the reverse side of the paper and I have applied gold liquid pearl dots around the edges.

The gorgeous ribbon is from the Hobby House. I used my MS doiley lace punch on the edges of the paper stiffeners at each end and glued them so that the protuded from the edge to show off the lace in the contrasting paper. Hope you like them! I would like to wish you all a wonderful Christmas with your famillies and friends, I hope it is a special day for you all. Last but not least a couple of little pictures to get you in the Christmas spirit!

The mini snowman my little boy made on the patio table (complete with paper hat by moi LOL!)
and last but by no means least a picture of my stone fireplace all deocrated for Christmas and our first fire in it! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! X

Friday Sketchers challenge meets WOJ DT

Ooo it has the smell of Christmas in my house now as I have made mince meat for my mince pies and bread sauce today, two of my favourite Christmassy smells filling the air!! I managed to make my Christmas crackers last night too (I'll show you those later) so I'm almost done.

Another fabulous sketch at Friday Sketchers challenge, just what I need to get these Christmas cards finished! I have used papers from Basic Grey Wassail collection distressed in my usual way!

The gorgeous Willow with Candle from Whiff of Joy is coloured with copics and the swirls from the Christmas set are stamped with antique linen distress ink and stickled.

The gorgeous poinsettias are from a gold Prima Christmas bubble as is the holly leaf. The thin satin ribbon is from my stash.

The sentiment is from the Whiff of Joy winter kit and is now available separately - there is 20% off Christmas stamps at Whiff of Joy still too if you haven't already grabbed a bargain!

Hope you like it and thanks for looking! I would like to thank you all for visiting me and leaving such lovely comments and wish you all a very Merry Christmas!!!!!x

A birthday card for sketch Saturday!!!!

Amongst all the Christmas preparations I managed to find time to make a birthday card which is a refreshing change!! (had no choice really, it was hubby's birthday on Monday!). This is the card I made him with the wonderful Claude celebrating giraffe from Whiff of Joy to the wonderful sketch over at Sketch Saturday. I love his hat and waistcoat and the expression on his face don't you!? I love giraffes, they're so graceful in real life. We went to a zoo this year in France and I wasn't sure about going as I'm not really a fan of zoos, as if they're not nice it is upsetting to think of those poor animals, but this was the most gorgeous zoo I've seen with wonderful large spaces for the animals, and when we turned a leafy corner and saw four giraffes' heads poking up through the leaves it brought me to tears they were so beautiful! Sorry, back to the card....the papers are from a K&Co pad and I have distressed the edges with scissors and brushed cordoruy distress ink.

Claude is coloured with copics and I have then sponged around the image edges with brushed cordoruy distress ink. The sentiment I have written with a gold gel pen and distressed the edges of that too.

At the moment I only have the MS doiley lace edge punch which I didn't really feel was suitable for my husband's card LOL so I improvised and punched out a kind of reverse scallop edge using one petal of an EK success flower punch! I have added a couple of strands of jute cord from my stash.

On the bottom of the easel card I used the same papers and framed a sentiment with a grungeboard frame from Tim Holtz. I coloured the frame with a copic, distressed with brushed cordoruy ink and rubbed bronze metallic rub onto it for an antiqued looking frame before adding a couple of black brads.

Hope you like it and thanks for looking! x

Whiff of Joy DT

Well I'm feeling a little less stressed today after facing my nemises (AKA the Christmas food shop) yesterday with children in tow. Gosh from leaving the house to getting home was 3 hours and it is only a 10 minute drive away!! Only a few little things left on my list now and they're nice things to do like baking mince pies and making Christmas crackers so I'm nearly there woo hoo!!! This morning's card is another one of my six commissioned cards. I have kept things simple on this one as time was against me. The background paper is from the Basic Grey Wassaill collection and the checked paper is by Magnolia.

I have used Quiet Santa from Whiff of Joy, coloured with copics. I have cut Santa out and stuck him onto a background of sparkling swirls stamped with the Whiff of Joy Christmas Swirls set. I wanted it to look like magic dust sparkling around Santa as he creeps in the house!

The ribbon is from my stash and the charm is from the Hobby House.

Hope you like it and thanks for looking! x