Blog award!

Woohooooo! I've received this award from my new friend Pauline, she has only been blogging since last Thursday and has already received this award herself! wtg Pauline! *claps*

and it's not hard to see why when you look at her beautiful cards, they are lovely!

I have also received this award from Jane, a fellow auntys forum member and lovely friend,

she never fails to support all of us and makes the most wonderful creations herself

Thank you ladies! xx

The rules for this award:

1. The winner can put the logo on her blog.

2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4. Put links of those blogs on yours.

5. Leave a message on the blogs of the girls you've nominated.

i'm going to cheat (sorry) and give this award to each and every one of you, i've made lots of lovely new friends since blogging and it would be hard to choose just 7 of you anyway.

So please feel free to add the logo to your blog if you wish, and say Jo awarded it to you ;)

Penny Black Saturday Challenge

This week, the ladies over at Penny Black Saturday Challenge blog have set us a colour challenge, to use pink, brown and green.
Here is my card :)


The 'happy birthday' stamp is another bought from Sassy Crafts.

Sketch Saturday #5

It's week 5 for my other blog, Sketch Saturday, and here is this weeks sketch...



I chose to make a christmas card this week, I have used my Rubber Stampede 'Santa collage' stamp as the main image, I love this image!
I also chose to use my new Stamps Away 'Dec 25th' stamp, which I bought from Sassy Crafts, you can find the stamp HERE, altho I do urge you all to look at the rest of Sassy Crafts store, for fabulous products, excellent prices and a first class friendly service!



If you have the time to make a card, LO, ATC, even a painting! using this sketch, I'd love to see your work

tfl xx

BLOG CANDY from Magick Diva!

The very lovely and talented Fiona (aka Magick Diva) has reached 10,000 hits on her blog! wow! what an achievement eh? congratulations Fi! xx
And as a thank you she is offering some fabulous blog candy to one lucky blogger (yes I said BLOGGER lol)
All you have to do is tell Fi what your favourite thing to do is while crafting and to link back to Fi's lovely blog and this very generous candy offer, and she will choose one lucky winner!

Good luck everyone! xx

WIN a set of BUNNY STAMPZ!!!

All you have to do is leave a comment in the guestbook on the new Bootiful Stampz website... http://www.bootiful.webs.com/

Yes! it's that easy to be in with a chance of winning a set of bunnys!
You have one week to enter for this freebie

full details on the BOOTIFUL STAMPZ BLOG

Good luck everyone! xx

Inchy By Inch #9

This week, Inchy by Inch has another guest designer, Carole, setting the challenge.

Carole has chosen Black and White as her theme and has done some amazing examples!

I have made 2 inchies this week...

This is simply a white inchy blank, stamped and doodled on, edged with black ink with a doodled butterfly on top

and this is my yin yang inchy, a black inchy with a smaller white square which I cut a few slots at the top of and added a shadowed edge to it, I then punched a circle, drew on the yin yang symbol and stuck on with silicone so that it is raised from the background a little.

Crafters Directory

There's a new website up and running which will show you LOADS of sites/blogs etc on one page!

It's called Crafters Directory and it's a directory for ANY craft related site, be it shops, blogs, or forums, but it must be craft related.

It only costs £10 a year to put your site or blog on there, which is less than £1 a month! BARGAIN eh?!!

click the link above or the banner below to book your place now!

Hello, My Friend

This is my first time entry for Penny Black Saturday Challenge, it's only the second challenge they've set, but I couldn't take part last week as we were asked to use our first PB stamp, and as I don't own any PB stamps (yet!), just a few images, I had to sit last weeks challenge out :(
However! I can take part this week!! YAY!
The theme is Friendship, reflecting all the new friends that so many of us have made since blogging.
Here is my card, i'm not sure what is the title of this image but it looks like the hedgie and bumble are old friends doesn't it?

Sketch Saturday #4

Sketch #4 for this weeks Sketch Saturday is...




You can rotate or resize any of the elements within the sketch if you wish to.


Here is mine, as you can see I rotated the sketch by 90 degrees.





I have used plain papers in assorted earthy metallic colours, the image is from Penny Black and is called 'Best of Luck!' (I think its called that anyway, I just have the image not the stamp). The sentiment is hand-written.

Ha-bee Birthday

This card was initially made for this weeks Cute Card Thursday challenge, in which we have been asked to make a birthday card, yes as simple as that, thanks ladies, and also thanks to Sweet 'n' Sassy Stamps for the amazing blog candy that is up for grabs this week too! WOW!

I have used Bee Maggie from Bootiful Stampz on this card, and a HUGE fabric flower embellishment, the honeycomb backing paper I made myself on the computer, and I also printed the 'ha-bee birthday' sentiment and the 2 bees.



Now once i'd made this card I realised that it also qualifies for this weeks Papertake Weekly Challenge, Feelin HOT HOT HOT, in which we were asked to use hot colours on our projects this week, well that flower certainly looks like its giving off some heat to me!!

Titania, Queen of the fairies.

This week, Tilda & Friends have asked their first guest designer, the very talented Jacqui,to set the challenge.
Jacqui has asked us to use inspiration from A Midsummer's Night Dream, her favourite play.
Here is my ATC, I substituted the froggy from this Magnolia stamp for a flower made from a couple of punches.

NEW Bootiful Stampz site launched!

Sally has just launched a new site for Bootiful Stampz. Here is the link.

It's a seperate site from Auntys store, although you can still buy Bootiful Stampz from there.
Sally is in the process of moving everything over to this new site where there's also a gallery to view the full range of stamps and pics of the work done by the design team too.
You can still keep up to date with all the news and links, either on the new site or on the Bootiful Stampz Blog.
Please leave a comment on the guestbook or visit the new forum exclusively for Bootiful Stampz!

Another gift bag...

I couldn't resist making another gift bag, and it fits in with 3 challenges too!

Arty Girlz have asked us to use pink on our projects,
Sassy Crafts have a magnolia challenge, where you can win a Magnolia stamp of your choice! CLICK HERE for more details and how to enter this challenge yourself,
and the 3rd challenge? well it's to do with the buttons and the bows... over at Auntys forum, we have crafting teams and each month one of these teams sets everyone a challenge, this month the challenge is set by 'Buttons & Bows' team and their challenge is, yep, you guessed it, to use buttons and bows!! (at least 2 of each per project)

so here is my Magnolia, Tilda, pink and lilac gift bag with added buttons and bows embellishments!





and the back...

A Bootiful Gift Bag

I lost my internet connection earlier today so I made this gift bag.
It is just one A4 sheet of thin card, folded and glued into an open topped bag.
I punched holes and thread through some string handles, embellishing the holes with buttons, I made a tag and tied it onto the handle. I decorated the front of the bag with Butterfly Maggie and a couple of organza bows.



The back is almost identical, instead of a stamped image, I added the 'thank you' rub on greeting and finished it with a butterfly diecut

I'm a Guest Designer!

Wooohoooo!

Yes, I have been asked by Fiona from Inchy by Inch, to be the first guest designer! how cool is that?! I'm very honoured to be asked Fi, thank you so much xx

I decided to make a sketch for this challenge, it's ok, it's not too hard, I do realise you have to work on a one inch piece of card! ;) Here it is...

and here is my inchy...

Hope you like the challenge! xx

Watermarks on your photos

The lovely Julie from Inspirational fame, has allowed me to type up a tutorial for anybody with Paintshop Pro to be able to make their own watermarks to add to their photos.
This tutorial is for PSP 7 but can also be made with later versions.
I'm not sure about other paint programs (photoshop etc) but would presume that you can do the same sort of thing too.

Happy PSP'ing! xx

Lollipops!

I have altered a lollipop pot using Bootiful Stampz Maggie stamps.
I have used Lolly Maggie (obviously) as the central image, I also stamped a few extra lollies to add to the pot.



sorry, the second picture is blurred, but you can still see that I've used Pumpkin Maggie, holding her trick or treat tub, the 3rd photo is Red Riding Maggie, she's bound to have some lollies for Grandma doncha think?! ;)

Sketch Saturday #3

Do you like crafting from sketches?

Yes?, then you might want to pop over to Sketch Saturday where the new sketch has just been revealed for this week.

Go on...give it a try...you might like it! ;)

This is my card using this weeks sketch...

3 embellies and a kitty

This week, the ladies over at Cute Card Thursday have asked us to use 3 different embellishments on our cards, and there's a fantastic prize up for grabs from Tracy Jane's Crafts too! wow!
I have used paper cellar bg paper from their celebrations range, the happy birthday stamp was bought from Catslife Press, their service from the US to the UK is outstanding and very friendly, prices are excellent too, I shall definately be using them again :)
I have destroyed a large fabric flower and used one of the layers as a backdrop for this sentiment, blue ribbon, and orange gems as my embellies.
The image was in my stash, I love this lil penny black kitty! sadly I don't have the actual stamp tho...(yet) ;)

Katharinas Sketch #4

YAY!!! another fab sketch from Katharina :)
This is for this weeks Papertake Weekly Challenge
although I must admit I don't think I've done it justice tbh.
Hubby says its perfect for his Dad though, so as long as he's happy I am too.

Bits & Pieces...

...is the theme this week over at Tilda & Friends ATC challenge blog, to use up left over bits of card etc.
I have used a scrap piece of purple card that I had previously punched a few flowers from, I used this card as a stencil to ink through with white ink onto a purple ATC blank, I then shadow inked the 'stencil' and layered that on top of the ATC blank. I added pearlescent flower embellies to the centre of the flowers and then stuck Tilda on top, which i've coloured with watercolour pencils and brush markers. I added the fibre and flower brad to finish.

inspired by a peg bag!

Yes..... a peg bag lol.
Fiona, from Inchy by inch, has shown us a photo of a Laura Ashley peg bag and asked us to use this as inspiration for our inchies this week,

"I'd love you to use it as your inspiration for your inchy this week. However you would like, maybe the colours, the flowers, maybe even the shape!"


I chose to use the flowers as inspiration, I got out my K&Co Isabella papers again and cut out the larger flower, stuck onto a different complimenting paper from the same pad, and also used a woodware fern punch for the leaves.


Hope you like it Fi ;)

Christmas Cutie

The ladies over at Cute Card Thursday have gone festive this week! You should go have a look at the amazing cards made by themselves, they're adorable!
Here's my card, I have used another Magnolia image sent to me by my friend Storm. The greeting is quite hard to see, but says 'Season's Greetings' and is a negative ink print from an embossing board, which I then cut out and wrote the letters back in with a pale blue gel pen.

Summer Sun

This week, Tilda & Friends ask us to bring them some sunshine, I used my 'summer hat Tilda' stamp and 2 flower punch outs with a glittery centre for my summer sun.

I believe...

Do you?... this weeks challenge set by Inchy By Inch is fairies.
I received my copy of Cardmaking and Papercraft this week which had a free flower fairies stamp with it, I cut the fairy from the packaging around the stamp but her wings were a bit too big so I cut them away and stuck the fairy to a butterfly diecut instead.

Edwin in the sea

The girls over at Tilda & Friends ATC challenge blog asked us to use the theme beside the sea.

I have used Edwin sitting on a pencil and discarded the image from the waist down and replaced it with a swimming ring which I drew then coloured in. The background wave stamp is from the pirates collection from Tanda stamps. The sun, i'm not sure of as it was loose in my bitsa box but I think its a poppin piece from TLC. The quote (which is not shown well due to the flash off my camera) reads 'Oh I do like to be beside the seaside' and was cut off the side of a book of first class stamps!

Sketch Saturday...

... or should that be Sunday, ooops!
sorry everyone, not intentional to keep you waiting all day, I genuinely forgot the date! I think i've lost a week somewhere.
Anyway, for those of you that like to work from a sketch I do hope that you will like mine and have a go for yourselves.
To see sketch #1 please CLICK HERE
Thank you, Jo xx