An award!!!!

I was stunned to find that the amazingly talented Kellie Winnell had left this award for me on her blog!!!! Thank you soooo much Kellie for thinking of me! You must check out Kellie's blog if you haven't already because her work is stunning!! I am to list ten things that give me pleasure:



1. spending time with my children and hubby

2. crafting!!

3. craft shopping!!

4. blogging

5. a nice long soak in the bath with a good book

6. great food

7. chocolate

8. cooking special meals and them being appreciated


9. Christmas (just love everything about it - even the shopping!)


10. playing the piano



Now I need to pass this award on to 10 bloggers. Hmm this is sooo difficult but here they are:

Gio

Mina

Kim

Marlene

Aija

Di

Tab

Jacqui

Donalda

Janiel

Whiff of Joy DT meets Sketch Saturday and some candy!!

This is my last DT card for Whiff of Joy as my Guest Designer term ends today :(. It has been an amazing 2 months and I've loved every minute of my DT work and worked with some amazingly talented ladies and the most gorgeous stamps!! I'd like to take this opportunity to say a massive thank you to Katharina for having me on her team and to all the DT for making me feel so welcome. xxxxx

Today's card features the stunning Willow dressing up stamp I featured on Thursday, this time she's in her little black dress!! I have used the gorgeous sketch at Sketch Saturday. I've coloured her with copics and stamped a stempelglede grunge stamp around the edges with walnut stain distress ink and added some stickles. The gorgeous papers are BoBunny and I've distressed them and sponged with walnut stain distress ink and stickles too.

The large flower has been made with EK success retro punches and I've added some glitzy black fibres and a pearl brad to the centre. The smaller flowers are spacers that I have flattened and added sugar coated brads to the centres. I've finished the display with a few branches punched with MS branch punch from black cardstock.

The sentiment is from a Forever Friends die cut set - perfect for this image!!

I couldn't resist using my gorgeous MS punch around the page punch to make the corner element of the sketch!
Katharina has generously given me an extra one of these stamps for candy!! So one of my lucky visitors will win this gorgeous stamp.

THIS CANDY IS NOW CLOSED

To be in with a chance of winning Willow dressing up please leave a comment below and link my candy on your blog! The candy will close at 8pm on 2nd February and I will announce the winner at 9pm. That way the lucky winner might get the stamp for release day!! I will post internationally x

Good luck and thanks for looking! x

Whiff of Joy DT sneak peek meets 3 challenges!!!

Here is my final sneak peek from the stunning new Whiff of Joy collection - City Girl, being released on 4th February. This is the ever so sophisticated Willow with Champagne. This is such a useful stamp I think as it could be used for prom cards, wedding cards, 21sts, and anything girly!! I have also managed to combine this card for 3 challenges: Colour Create challenge who have the gorgeous colour combo of soft pink, soft blue, white and silver; Quixotic challenge who would like to see butterflies (easy one for me as I LOVE butterflies; and Cute Card Thursday where the challenge is blooming gorgeous (ie flowers)!!! I have coloured Willow with copics and added some stickles to the detail on her dressand the bubbles in her champagne. Around the edge of the image I have stamped a grunge stamp from Stempelglede with Weathered Wood distress ink and added stickles to that too! The gorgeous pale blue paper is from K&Co and the soft pink paper is Basic Grey. I have stamped the Stempelglede stamp around the edges of the blue paper too.
The gorgeous pink lace was a bargain find at my local haberdashery store - 40p for 3m!!! I have added a thin silver ribbon and a butterfly charm from the Hobby House. The pink rose is from Hobby Craft and the white ones are from Wild Orchid crafts, all sprayed with Glimmer Mist. The gorgeous pink paper flower is by Prima. I have added some leaves and butterflies to my flower spray punched with Woodware leaf punch and MS Monarch butterfly punch. The tiny pearls are from my stash. Well that's the whole collection now - gorgeous aren't they!? Katharina is also starting preorders for the spring kit on 1st February and this time she is letting us all see them before we order!! Can't wait for that one! I will be back tomorrow with a little candy - one of these gorgeous City Girl stamps will be up for grabs!! Have a great weekend and thanks for looking x

Everybody Art challenge and my first Hanglar!!!

My oh my I have searched and searched and searched and (you get the picture LOL) and finally I have a Hanglar & Stanglar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yippee!!!!!! Isn't he gorgeous? I had to colour him IMMEDIATELY upon opening the envelope LOL. If anyone reading this has one of the girl Hanglars and tires of it (yeah right OK I know it's a long shot) PLEASE email me and I'll buy it from you!!! This card is following the gorgeous sketch at Create 4 Fun (which I've rotated) but unfortunately have missed the deadline for it, and the colour challenge at Everybody Art which is my favourite, brown, blue and white - LOVE this colour combination! The papers are K&Co Wild Saffron and I have distressed them with tearing and brushed cordoruy ink. I have also stamped a flourish from Stempelglede around the edges of the papers, image and flowers!

I've coloured him with distress inks.

I'm having to make my own flowers quite a lot at the moment as I have very few flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts left and all the ones I want are sold out at the moment, but I have to admit I'm really enjoying making my own! I have used EK success retro flower punches with a button and jute string to finish.

For these three I've used EK success retro flower punch and Xcut daisy punch and some brads.

I have used the corner part of my MS punch around the page punch on opposite corners of the cream panel.

Hope you like it and thanks for looking!!!! x

A DOUBLE DOSE OF EXCITING NEWS!!!!!!

I have had such an amazing and exciting week behind the scenes and have been absolutely bursting to announce my news!!!

I am so proud to announce that I have been asked to be the Guest Designer for the next 6 months at Magnolia Down Under challenge!!!!

AND.......

I have also been asked to join the Simon Says Stamp challenge team for 1 year too!!!!!

Of course I had to think about these DT posts long and hard for all of a nano second LOL!!! I'm soooooo excited to be on these teams of amazing talent and can't wait to get started! I hope you'll be able to stop by and see my first DT cards for them both!!

A huge thank you to both teams for the incredible honour of joining you, I'm thrilled to bits!!!! xxx

Whiff of Joy DT - City Girl sneak peek no 2 meets A spoonful of Sugar

I have another sneak peek for you from the Whiff of Joy City Girl collection which is being released on 4th February. Although this one is a city boy!! Little Oakley is all grown up and handsome! This stamp is "Cool Oakley". I had such fun with this card! I am entering this into A spoonful of Sugar's challenge as it is "freestyle" this week!

Oakley has been coloured with copics, the edges of the image are distressed with brushed cordoruy distress ink.

I have added an eyelet and some jute string to turn it into a jeans label!

The stars are from Tim Holtz grunge elements and I have sponged them with brushed cordoruy distress ink and then rubbed on some copper luster rub on. The jeans are made entirely from blue textured cardstock and lots and lots of sewing on the sewing machine! I have made the sentiment into a jeans label by stamping onto some card from an actual jeans label (love recycling things like this!) and distressing the edges and more stitching.

I nearly made another card to put Oakley on because once I'd finished my jeans I just wanted to leave them as they were LOL so had to take a picture before I covered them up. You can even give the recipient their birthday money in the pocket!!!!
One more stamp to show you from this incredible collection and I'll also have a little candy for you so check back tomorrow!! Thanks for looking x

(for my Just Magnolia challenge card see the post below)

Just Magnolia challenge - hearts and flowers

This week at Just Magnolia our challenge is sponsored by Wild Orchid Crafts and so our challenge is "hearts and flowers". I decided to try to make a heart shaped easel card......what do you think? I started by making a woven heart as per the tutorial at StampARTic here, and then mounted it onto card. The papers are Papermania and I have stamped around the edges with New Year swirl from Magnolia using vintage photo distress ink. I have distressed the papers with this too and added stickles.

I have coloured Tilda with hearts using distress inks and added stickles to the lace on her dress and her wings.

The gorgeous flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and I have sprayed them with pearl glimmer mist. A couple of pins from my stash and two leaves punched with McGill fern punch complete the flower spray. The sentiment is written with a gold gel pen onto the ribbon flourish from the Magnolia winter kit.

I stamped a heart from Stempelglede with fired brick distress ink (not sure on the colour, should have been a pinker red me thinks!) and then added little red hearts which are the "waste" product from MS heart lace punch. The pink pearls are from my stash.

The base of the easel is decorated with another woven heart and a simple band of white paper punched with MS doiley lace and heart lace punches and a double bow of red organza ribbon. You can just about see under the ribbon loops I have added tiny hearts of the striped paper(again the waste from heart lace punch) at intervals along the middle of my lace strip.

This is how the card looks when folded ready for posting!

Hope you like it and thanks for looking! Hope you can join us this week and do have a look at the rest of the DT's stunning creations on the challenge blog - you won't be disappointed! x

Whiff of Joy DT - City Girl sneak peek!!!

Oh my word have I got a treat for you today!!!!!! I've barely got over the gorgeousness of the Whiff of Joy Happy Mail collection and Katharina has stunned me again with another incredibly gorgeous collection - City Girl illustrated by Elisabeth Bell!!!! These will be released on 4th February so you don't have long to wait at all, and so as not to keep you in suspense any longer my first sneak peek actually consists of three out of the five stamps!!!!

Now, regular visitors to my blog may need to sit down before reading further.....there are NO torn edges on this card!!!!!!!! (gasps) I don't know how I restrained myself but I just didn't think they'd go with the theme LOL! So, without further ado, here it is...............

Isn't this a stunning image!? She is called Shopping Willow.

I have coloured her with copics and inked around the edges of the image with Worn Lipstick distress ink. I have paper pieced all her shopping bags - she's been to some stylish boutiques don't you think? The papers are K&Co and I have added a prima painterly petal with a brad and part of a prima crystal swirl. The little photo holders are from my stash and the sentiment I have put together with some alphabet stickers. But that is not all there is to this card......open the front and.............
Wow!!! I just LOVE this one too, isn't it an amazing image!?

This is Willow Dressing Up, again coloured with copics. The flowers are punched with EK success retro punch and the eyelets and ribbon are from my stash. So, it's your birthday......you shop......you dress up.....and then what????
You party!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is so hard to choose a favourite amongst these but I think this just pips it for me. She just looks like she's having so much fun I want to be her LOL!!! I just had to have her wearing a LBD!!!

This is Dancing Willow, coloured with copics (no, really LOL????) The sentiment is from a Doodlebug peel off sheet and the gems are from my stash.

The "celebrate" sentiment is from the same Doodlebug sheet. I have covered the letters in stickles for added sparkle. Well, what do you think? Stunning aren't they! I have two more to show you and some candy to celebrate the release so make sure you keep checking back!

Hope you liked my sneak peek, thanks for looking x

Sketch Saturday challenge

Today I have another cute image to show you from Di's Digi Downloads. This is Maisie sitting on ledge. Love the carefree look she has with her smile and her leg swinging down! I have followed the gorgeous sketch at Sketch Saturday for this - loved it thanks! The papers are K&Co Wild Saffron collection. I'm not usually one for yellow but quite like the look of this - nice and sunny!

I've coloured the image with copics. I made a frame for the image instead of mounting the image onto a mat and thought it was quite fun to have her leg dangling out of the torn edges of the frame!

I have stamped a Whiff of Joy swirl from the spring swirls set in each corner with vintage photo distress ink. All the papers have been distressed with this ink too. The pearls are from my stash and the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts.

The sentiment is also from Whiff of Joy - the summer kit and I made a little tag by punching each end with part of a flower punch and then a hole punch. The raffia is recycled from some packaging!

Hope you like it and thanks for looking! x

If you would like to see this week's Whiff of Joy challenge card see the post below xx

Whiff of Joy challenge and DT - Gio's sketch

Good morning! I hope you're all well. Today is, of course, time for a new challenge at Whiff of Joy challenge and this week we have a stunning sketch by the lovely and talented Gio. Loved your sketch Gio, thank you so much!!! I rotated the sketch to fit my image as I wanted to use this gorgeous Willow writing recipes stamp again, gorgeous isn't it!? The papers are K&Co and I have, of course, distressed the edges and inked with Walnut Stain distress ink.

I have coloured Willow with copics and stamped three different swirls from the Whiff of Joy Christmas swirls set using antique linen distress ink. I used my MS doiley lace punch for the edges of the paisley paper. The roses are from Wild Orchid crafts and the twigs have been punched with MS branch punch from grey cardstock.The sentiment has been cut from a larger sentiment tag from a Forever Friends set, the edges inked with Walnut Stain distress ink and mounted onto grey cardstock. Poor Willow, she hasn't been writing recipes any time I've used her yet LOL, she is always thinking of someone or reading LOL but I guess that shows how versatile this image can be! I finished with a gold organza ribbon bow - seem to have a thing for oversized bows at the minute LOL!! I was going to trim the ends but then quite liked how they trailed onto the table when I stood the card up so I've left the alone!!

Hope you like it and can find time to join us this week and pop and have a look at the rest of the DT's stunning work! x