Live, Laugh, Love...CRAFT!!!
Life's Too Short for Housework!!!



I am so pleased you found your way to visit me...I do hope you see something that makes you smile.



My Fab Followers and Blogging Friends

Monday 31 January 2011

My Card is A Pollycraft Favourite....AGAIN!!

Last week's challenge over at Pollycraft was black, white and one other colour......I chose ORANGE, and Pollycraft chose MY CARD as one of their favourites! Here's the card...


And here's my Pollycraft Favourites Badge :)

The challenge over at Pollycraft this week is 'Baby, it's Cold Outside!' so why not pop over and join the fun.

Thanks for looking!


Sunday 30 January 2011

Liebster Blog Award

A big hug and THANK YOU to Dawn from over at 'Dawns Crafting' who has sent me this adorable blog award!

The idea is to award unkown blogs, which I think is a wonderful idea!

In accepting the award I've had to agree to the following conditions;

1) You have been tagged, do you want to accept? YES PLEASE! Now create a post on your blog and post the love blog photo.

2) Link back to the person who gave you the award and say if you accept.

3) Choose 3-5 of your favourite blogs to tag, link these in your post too and tell the lucky people they have been tagged.

As the aim of this award is to bring unknown good blogs to light, I ask you PLEASE to avoid tagging someone who already has shed-loads of followers!

Thanks again Dawn, you are a real bloggin' friend!

I would like to nominate:

1) Jacki over at Cards By Jacki
2) Claire over at Easson's Angle
3) Catherine over at Le Coin De Catherine
4) Lorraine from over at Lorraine's Place
5) Catherine from over at It's a Stitcharama

Love ALL of your blogs ladies!

Thanks for looking






Saturday 29 January 2011

Yay! I'm on the Crafty Pad DT!!!!

I've got some exciting news to share with you this evening! A little while ago I applied to be on The Crafty Pad DT, and found out a few days ago that I got on! Whooo-Hooo!


Of course I've been dying to tell you, but had to keep it under my hat until it had been announced on the blog, which it has been this evening, so here I am sharing it with you!
My first challenge will be 6th Feb, so watch this space!!! I am so pleased to be joining the team, and really hope to see you joining in when you can, we have some great sponsors lined up and excellent themes for the challenges too, so go and have a look around, and add us to your favourites.....just click on the link below.


And before I go, I HAVE to let you know that Debbie has some superb digis for sale in her store, so why not pop over there and have a browse too!


Thanks for popping by!

Pollycraft 'Black, White &......'Orange!'

Today's card is for this week's Pollycraft Challenge #77, which is 'Black, White & One Other Colour.' As you can see, I chose ORANGE. It's not a colour I work with very often, so I thought I'd challenge myself and give it a go.


The image is called Lil Miss Attitude by Pollycraft, and you can find her HERE. She has been coloured with Promarkers.


I used Pink Petticoat Gingham papers in black and tangerine, inked the edges and followed a sketch from my sketch folder. The sentiment was a freebie, but I can't remember where I got it from! I added a black ribbon bow, some paper roses in peach and orange, and a few tiny flower gems to finish.


I was really pleased with the finished card, and will definately try to use orange a bit more often now!
As well as the pollycraft challenge, I would also like to enter:
Digis With Attitude challenge #15 - 'Go Digital People!'
Fab n Funky #57 - 'Delight in Your Digital.

Thanks for looking!


Thursday 27 January 2011

Rain or Shine......

I know I'm cutting it a bit fine, but I really wanted to join in again with the Digis With Attitude challenge this week, (#14) where the theme is 'Raindrops' how do you do it? So here is my entry:
I had a picture in my mind of what I wanted this card to look like, but it involved embossed white card, and tragically, my Bigshot is BROKEN!!! AARRGGHH!! (Anyway, that's a whole other story I may share with you sometime.) So, a quick change of plan, some freehand cutting based on my nesties and voila!

The image was a freebie and is coloured, of course, with my Promarkers. The BP is Papermania Yellow Tones, the paper roses are from Malaysia (courtesy of ebay) and have icicles stickles added.I also added a little to the underside of the umbrella. Oh yes, I used my MS corner punch too! The raindrops are gold liquid pearls...first I tried cutting raindrops out from the BP but wasn't keen on the effect, but I really like the liquid pearls. I inked the edges, added a few gems and that's it!
Thanks for looking!


Wednesday 26 January 2011

'Let's PARTY!' ATCs

Over at Cardmaking and Papercraft, Spyder hosts an ATC swap, where this month's theme is:
 'Let's PARTY!
I immediately thought of the fabulous images of Grumpy Gretchen by Digis With Attitude! and decided to create mine using these....and here they are:


They sort of tell a story of a party-night-out....the 1st is called 'Let's Eat Cake!' the 2nd is 'Mmmm, Martini!' the 3rd is 'Let's Salsa!' and the 4th is 'The Morning After the Night Before!'  (Yes, we've all been there!!)

I'm still having problems with my Promarkers bleeding, especially when trying to colour small images such as these, but I've had lots of advice on different paper/card to try, even had some sent to me by a dear friend to try, and will be getting some really soon.

Right, off to the Post Office to get these off to Lyn (aka Spyder, I'm cutting it a bit fine, but I'm sure she won't mind!

Thanks for popping by x

Tuesday 25 January 2011

They Say These Things Come In 3s.....


Well, it seems I'm on a roll! I was thrilled when I discovered that I'd won a Mystery Prize over at CYDA for a card I entered into their 'Anything Goes' challenge last week!! You can see the card/post HERE.  I never win ANYTHING, but in the last few days this is the 3rd win I've had!!!

I don't usually bother with the Lottery, but this week.............................well, you never know!!!!

Monday 24 January 2011

I WON at Digis With Attitude!

I can't believe it! Remember my dinosaur easel card, (if not, you can find him HERE), well, first I was a Pollycraft Favourite, and NOW, I have won Card of the Week over at Digis With Attitude! Yay! I won $10 to spend on their fab digis too....oooh, what will I choose? I am chuffed to bits and want to thank the girls over at DWA!

Sunday 23 January 2011

..A 'FAIRY' Happy Birthday!

Today I have made my mum's birthday card.....it's next Saturday and I didn't want to do what I usually do and leave family cards til the last minute.
I knew I wanted to use a girly image, but also wanted to use vibrant colours. Here's what I did......

The image is a digi called Fearne (sorry but I can't remember where she is from....thought it was Pollycraft but can't find her there....)and has been coloured with my Promarkers. I don't have all that many (yet!) so I did the best I could to match the colours to the DP, which is Dovecraft 'Wild Blossom' by Kate Knight.

I went over her wings and picked out details of her dress with a Sakura Stardust Clear Star pen.

I cut a glittercard border circle using my nesties, and because I loved the backing paper so much, I didn't want to cover most of it up, so placed the image to the LHS. I added some punched leaves and corners too.
 
I cut out some flowers from the DP and distressed them, then double-layered and finished them off with some Stickles in the centre. The spotty ribbon, sentiment and card used for the matting are all from my stash. I die cut the 'm-u-m' letters, and the butterflies which are double layered, and placed them so as not to cover too much detail of the DP.
I am really pleased with how it has turned out, the only thing I might change in hindsight, is to turn the image so that she is facing the left, rather than looking 'out' of the card.
I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Thanks for popping by!


Saturday 22 January 2011

........Up, Up and AWAY!

Here are my ATCs for the swap over at ATC Swappers, where the theme this month is 'Up, Up and Away!'


I used an image from Pollycraft called 'Sky Fairy' which I have coloured with Promarkers and cut out using my nesties. I inked the edges, mounted them onto co-ordinating cardstock, and added some Stardust silver pen highlights and some co-ordinating gems to finish.

I would like to enter my ATCs into the Bunny Zoe Crafts - #8 'Love is in the Air.'


Thursday 20 January 2011

New Challenge Blog and Candy!

A new challenge blog is on its way folks.....and Jenni Hamilton (the Cardmad Fairy) is having a candy giveaway to celebrate it's launch.


 You may well have seen her designs before, I know I have, over at Cardmaking Downloads you can find some fab digi stamps created by Jenni, and here is a card I made a while back using one of them.

Pop over to the new blog and see for yourself.....and while you're there, why not pop over to her digi stamp shop and check out those fab designs for yourself.


Wednesday 19 January 2011

My 'For Fun' DT Card

Today sees the start of a brand new challenge over at 'For Fun' challenges, and the theme is:
ANYTHING THAT GLITTERS
So, you need to make your creation sparkle - use glitter, gems....anything that will make your project glitter!
Here's my creation
The image is called Mer-Mae by Some Odd Girl....isn't she cute! I coloured her with my Promarkers and added some stickles (waterfall.) I used my nesties to cut out the scalloped circle in blue glitter card, and found a BP with 'bubbles' on it too. I added a sentiment, some pale blue gems and a thin ribbon, and finished off with some hand-cut bubbles in white pearlescent card. I did have trouble getting anything to stick to the glitter card, and had to resort to Pinflair in the end, it was the only thing that worked!!!
After taking the photos my dear beloved 4 year old decided he rather liked this card, and pulled the mermaid off and creased her beyond repair!! So, as I wanted to send this to my friend (Happy Birthday for yesterday Claire!) I had to re-do the mermaid.....and here is the 2nd version:
I actually think I prefer the colours in version 2, so what began as a disaster turned out to be a blessing in disguise!!!
Here she is before I added a little stickles to her.

So, if you feel the need to bling it up and cheer yourself up, why not pop over to For Fun Challenges and join in this week. Don't forget to check out the fab DT creations while you're there, and pop onto their blogs to see how they came up with their ideas.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

  

Tuesday 18 January 2011

....I'm a Pollycraft FAVOURITE!!

What a lovely surprise! There I was, checking out the latest challenge over at Pollycraft this week, and I discovered that my entry last week had been chosen as a POLLYCRAFT FAVOURITE!
Here's the card I won with....
So I can now add the badge to my sidebar and wear it with pride....which I am just about to do!


Monday 17 January 2011

...........Lovebirds for Valentines Day

Today's card is a Valentines Day easel card for my DH. It is for the monthly competition over at Cardmaking Downloads, where this month's theme is to create a card with a love/Valentines theme.

I used a decoupage download created by Elaine Hayhoe, which is available to buy from Cardmaking Downloads HERE. The only additional items I've added are some pearlescent pink card, a blue ribbon and a few gems.

I would also like to enter this card into he following challenges:


Sunday 16 January 2011

'Food & Drink' ATCs

Over on the Cardmaking Downloads forum, it's time for the regular monthly ATC swap.....(we swap mid-way through the month.) The theme this month is 'Food & Drink' and here are my ATCs for the swap.
I used some of the wonderful 'cuties' range to decoupage....Banana Cuties, Cherry CutiesApple Pie Girls. here's a closer look....

 Apple Pie
 Banana Cream Pie
Cherry Tart
















I also made some RAKs, as I am the host of the swap, and here they are too...
I added some stickles to the choccies on these, it looks quite effective, and who doesn't enjoy a sneaky chocolate every now n then!!!

And of course, here are the wonderful ATCs made by everyone joining in with the swap too:

DAWN


DEBBIE


JEAN


We are a small and select group this month, due to lots of illness and previous commitments, but if you would like to join in the next swap, please feel free to add your name to the list in the forum, everyone is very welcome!