Little madam!

I love this adorable image!
From the moment I saw it it reminded me of my daughter Laura (and dare I admit it? also of me as a child too!)
It is of course by the extremely talented Mo Manning, and is called 'Two Jill'
I coloured her with promarkers, and cut her out to add to my card for this weeks Sketch Saturday challenge, where this week you could win 2 fabulous Tatty Button Stamps, courtesy of our generous regular sponsor, The Craft Barn.

Here's the card...

The papers are all by My Minds Eye, from their 'quite contrary' collection. 

I love these papers, they are sooooo pretty :)

I am entering this card into the following challenges (yay!)

Simon Says Stamp! challenge blog - Anything Goes (& blog hop to celebrate their 2nd anniversary! congrats SSS!)

ABC challenge - T is for Trouble (and this little madam looks like she could be!)

Cute Card Thursday - ANY sketch from ANYWHERE! (perfect for me!)

Well I'm going to enjoy my last day off work today because I am back tomorrow, Sunday's are always long shifts, but I am looking forward to spending another day with my hubby and kids on bank holiday monday :)

Please remember to stop by the SS design teams blogs, as always they have some beautiful cards to share with you all :)

tfl xx

Emma & cake

We had a lovely time last night celebrating Emma's special day, and she loved her birthday cake :)

The bottom cake is plain madeira cake (but has a subtle vanilla flavour)
The 'shoebox' cake is layers of red velvet cake, which I flavoured with raspberry
The shoe was made over 3 weeks, I made the toe and instep part and had to dry them out while resting on cardboard and packed with bubble wrap, the heel was made and dried out using a cocktail stick, once thoroughly dry, I 'glued' them together with black royal icing and then added the bow and the pink insole, before leaving to dry out further.

Can I just say that black icing tastes REVOLTING!

Happy Emma's Day!

April 23rd is St George's Day in England (our Patron Saint)

But April 23rd is a much more special day for our family because today is my daughter's birthday, and it's an extra special birthday this year because Emma is 21 today!

Look at this posh photo she had taken professionally *proud Mom*

A daughter is love in a bright pink bow
A bundle of happiness all aglow
A tomboy in jeans with a tear streaked face
Crying because she has just lost a race.
Then all of a sudden, no longer small,
She's a vision of loveliness dressed for a ball
A dreamer, a schemer, no two days the same
What is a daughter...It's more than a name
She's a pleasure, a treasure, a comfort each day
Loving and sweet in her own special way
She's a sense of contentment felt deep inside
Bringing a lifetime of pleasure that fills us with pride

Happy Birthday Emma Louise ~ Love you xx

You can see the card we have sent to Emma HERE.

My friend Sandra, is also celebrating her birthday today!

Happy Birthday San! xx

Sandra is of course a member of our talented design team at Sketch Saturday.

And as it's saturday, it's time for a new sketch challenge :)

This week we are sponsored by Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps.

There's a sale on this weekend, you can get 15% off everything in the store by using the code BUNNY15, sale ends tomorrow so be quick to be sure to grab yourselves an Easter bargain!

Sparkle Smith very generously gave the DT some images to use on our cards this week, I chose Kitty Cat Josh, because it reminded me of my son Jake and our cat Tickle.
Here's my card...

Thank you to Sparkle for the image :)
I coloured Kitty Cat Josh with ProMarkers.

The checked green paper is by Stampin Up, the colour is Always Artichoke.

Both the blue and brown papers are from Nitwit, but I stamped the paw prints onto the brown piece using an inchie stamp from Tanda Stamps
The sentiment is from TLC creations

Wishing you all a very Happy Easter.
don't get sick by eating too much choklit - yes i'm looking at you Fluff! ;)
xx

I have made one of these today...

a red velvet cake.

That isn't a pic of my cake, I googled for the pic above to show anyone who hasn't heard of a red velvet cake what it looks like, I haven't frosted mine because I was just testing out the cake recipe to see if the cake will be suitable for my daughters birthday cake.

The end result... looks fab with a light, yet moist texture, and it's very VERY scrummy!

The recipe I used called for vanilla extract, but I used raspberry flavouring, I'm really happy that I did too because it gives a subtle flavour which works so well with the cocoa powder & reminds me a little of these...

Hershey the chocolate monster

Morning! :)

This week Sketch Saturday challenge is sponsored by a new (for us) sponsor...

and you could win youself a $20 shopping spree in their amazing store just by entering this weeks challenge using this weeks sketch.

Here's my card this week...

Isn't this little dude fab?!

His name is Hershey and he's available from Paper Makeup Stamps.

Katie Cotton, owner of PMS, gave the design team an image to use on their cards this week, I chose Hershey. His expression is priceless, too much sugar? no can't be, you can never have too much choccy ;)

I coloured Hershey with promarkers.

All the cardstock used was from my stash, I decided to make a choccy bar, complete with punched out 'bite'

The checked paper is another free download from Bearly Mine Designs.

The added chocs around Hershey are my own design.

Thank you Katie for sending me Hershey, I know I shall get lots of use with him :)

To see more fabulous creations using images from PMS, please go visit the rest of the brilliant SS Design Team.

I have a very busy week ahead of me, my eldest daughter will be 21 next saturday! yikes! where have all those years gone?!

150 weeks!

Yep, this week is week 150 for Sketch Saturday :)
WOW!

And this week we are sponsored by the wonderful Simon Says Stamp where you could win a $25 shopping spree in their amazing store!

Here's my card...

The image is from Stitchy Bear and is called Butterfly Love, i've coloured her with promarkers.
The floral paper is a freebie from Bearly Mine Designs, it's such a pretty design, don't you think?
The green paper is by Nitwit Collections, I received it free with a craft mag.
The Happy Birthday sentiment is from a SeeD's stamp set.
I added 3 small flowers using a retro flower punch and adding colour with my PM's.

The lovely SS design team and GD Peggy have made more beautiful cards for your inspiration, please stop by their blogs to see and to say Hi.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges at:

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp - Spring Colours


Hope you all have a great weekend and if the sun is shining, get out there and enjoy yourselves :)

Awwwwwww!

Morning!

It's Saturday, so that means it's time for another sketch challenge over at Sketch Saturday. This week is Sem's DT week, and she has got a truly wonderful sponsor this week, Whimsy Stamps. Denise (Whimsy's owner) will be giving our challenge winner a stamp and die package worth $31 (amazing)!!!
Now I know you want to win that eh?!
so please join in with us this week using Sem's fantastic sketch.

Denise very kindly gave the design team a choice of an image to use (Thank you Denise! xx)
I chose this adorable kitty image... Love Me Anyway, one of Crissy's Digi's...

I love this image Soooooooooo much!
I want to scoop up little kitty in my arms for a cuddle.

Fiddly work cutting it out, but it was SO worth it!

I coloured Kitty with my promarkers. The patterned cardstock is called 'chateau upholstery' and is by Chatterbox, it's one of my favourites, it's double sided, both sides being shown on this card, i'm not sure if it's still available actually, as I first bought this cardstock years ago and quickly ordered me more soon after. I am down to my final 12x12 sheet now, so I hope it is still around when I need to buy more.

My SS teamies have made such wonderful cards as always this week, many using other whimsy images. Please stop by and see for yourself, links are in my sidebar >>>

Thank you for stopping by today, hope you have a great weekend and to all the Mommy's out in blogland (well the UK anyway!)... Happy Mother's Day for tomorrow xx

Sweet Goodbye

It's time for me to say goodbye as a DT member for Sweet Stampin.
I've loved being part of such a fun challenge blog, back from the very first day when Emma started up the blog for crafters who used Stampin Up products, through to now, where you can now use whatever products you wish as long as you follow the theme for the week, and there really is a fab mix of themes!

I'd just like to say a HUGE THANK YOU to all of the Sweeties, past, present and Guest Designers for your friendship and inspiration, thank you to the fabulous sponsors, and thank you to all of you, the sweetie followers and challengers... it's been an absolute pleasure! xx