Happy Birthday SS!

Wooohoooo! We are celebrating our 3rd birthday!

It's been 3 years since I started Sketch Saturday and what a fun 3 years it's been too :)

I've had the pleasure of getting to know loads of friends while blogging, especially my talented and supportive friends on the SS design team (past & present), our wonderful & equally talented guest designers, our awesome and very generous sponsors, and of course our talented SS challengers! Thank you to you all xx

On Saturday 4th & Sunday 5th of June, The Craft Barn are hosting their June Extravaganza weekend with FREE craft demos from 24 demonstrators, with a theme of 'The Best of British' featuring designers and demonstrators from the UK and wherever possible promoting products manufactured in the UK. What a wonderful weekend that will be, to find out more please CLICK HERE.

This week, to help us celebrate our birthday, our fabulous friends over at The Craft Barn are offering a goody bag with contents to the value of £50..... WOW!!!

Sandy, Thank you so much! xx

Like previous years, we are offering our SS friends the chance to win a Party Bag Candy too :)

It's really easy to be in with a chance of winning a PBC, to enter, all you have to do is take part in the main SS challenge and leave your entry with Mr Linky as you would normally, (new work/direct link to your work only please)

Once you've done that, please leave the same link on the blog of the DT member who's PBC you'd like to win.

So not only will you have a chance to win a truly amazing prize by The Craft Barn  but you'll also have a chance to win more goodies on offer from the design team :) YAY!

See? told you it was easy! :)

To keep it fair, there are a few rules that apply:

You are only eligible to enter each DT members party bag candy once, and ONLY if you've already taken part in this weeks challenge too (please leave the direct link to your work for each PBC you enter)

We want to thank sketch saturday challengers so this is why it's only open to SS entrants!

(we will be checking! and all entries that are not eligible will be deleted)

Each PBC will close on the DT members blogs at 8:00 AM (UK time) on Friday 3rd June, please note: FRIDAY MORNING. No entries will be accepted after this time, sorry.

This is so that the DT members can let me know their winner's name so that I can get the post ready for the following morning to announce the winners on the Sketch Saturday blog :)

However, the normal Sketch Saturday challenge (to win that amazing £50 goody bag) will run until 11:59PM on the Friday evening as normal, so if you are too late for a PBC you could still win that super-amazing prize!

Would you like to see my PBC?

well I can't show you a pic of the contents (that's a surprise) but I will show you the box that I have made, using this weeks sketch design...

My Party Bag Candy is actually a Party BOX Candy :)

I didn't use a template, I worked out the sizes I needed to make the top and bottom parts of the box after measuring the size of the stash I have put inside it.

The pretty patterned paper is from Stampin Up (sweet always) and the gorgeous image on the front flap is by LOTV, coloured with promarkers. The flap lifts to reveal an acetate window which shows a glimpse of the candy within the box.

So if you would like to win this box and its contents, please enter the main SS challenge and then leave your direct link here too.

Good luck everyone! xx

I'm a cutie!

... a cupcake cutie! :)

i'm delighted that my card was liked and chosen. Thank you SO MUCH to all the cupcakes :)

This weeks challenge over at Cupcake is called 'Bookworm'
will have to see if I have the stash to take part this week too :)

Mornin!

It's the start of the weekend so that means it's time for another Sketch Saturday challenge :)

This week we are sponsored by the lovely Nikki from Bunny Zoe's Crafts, who is generously donating a £10 shopping spree to this weeks challenge winner!

Here is my card for this week

(I took this photo last night while using my daylight lamp, think perhaps I need to make a light box so I can take better, clearer photos)

I used this adorable Bugaboo Brat girl balloon image from Bugaboo Stamps
Isn't she a cutie eh?
I've coloured her with promarkers, and used SU 'tea party' designer series papers to compliment the sweet image. I used my boho blossoms punch to make the flowers. The sentiment is by Inkadinkado.

Well it's work for me later today, I am very happy in my job but I would much rather be crafting!
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend xx

A couple of cards

For my first card, I've used this old stamp by sugar nellie/elizabeth bell, it's called sweet and sassy and is SO adorable...

I coloured this little cutie with promarkers, and stuck the image to the underside of an aperture cut out of the front of the card with an oval coluzzle.
The patterned paper is by Stampin Up (sweet always)
The flowers & leaves were made from white paper and cream cardstock using paper punches with added gems for a subtle bling. The same cream cardstock is the card base and also borders the oval too.
I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges...

Cupcake - in the garden
Papertake Weekly - bloom and grow
Truly Scrumptious - anything goes
Spoonfull of Sugar - anything goes
Crafty Catz - anything goes
Crafty Creations - flower, patterned paper and ribbon
Colour Create - white, cream and brown



My second card has been made for the aunt and uncle of my daughters boyfriend, who are expecting a baby boy in early June. I had already made a baby boy card which was similar to the one I made here, except that I put a tiny little sailing boat design on the front of the pocket instead of the star, and used a pale checked blue cardstock for the dungarees.
I didn't have time to take a photo of it though, because Emma decided she wants to send it, and has written it and sealed it in its envelope now.
She saw this card and now wishes she'd waited before writing the other one because she says she prefers this one...

I forget now where I saw this chest of drawers idea but it was on blogger somewhere so i'm sorry that I can't give credit where it's due, but I'm sure there a lots of cards along the same idea.
This is my first stepper card too :)
I drew the chest of drawers and made the drawer fronts to match, the whole lot being sponged beforehand with bashful blue SU ink. Then added brads for the drawer handles and attached with foam tape. The little outfit was hand cut from a scrap of paper that had been folded so that the bottom is still attached, I then glued around it, leaving the openings for the arms, head and legs. I made the coat hanger by twisting 2 head pins together that I took from my neglected jewellery making stash.
The spotty paper is by Dovecraft (back to basics 2), the sentiment was printed on the pooter, and the cute little image is of course by Magnolia, I coloured him with promarkers and when cutting him out I discarded the wings off the image.

hmmm, not sure if this applies but as it isn't exactly square, I will attempt to enter this card into the following challenges at...

MMCS challenge - anything but square
Totally Gorjuss - not square

and also the challenge at...
ABC challenge - unusual fold

well she's so fine, fine, fine...

Well I wonder what was wrong with Blogger, whatever it was it must have been major eh?
Thank goodness it seems fine now so I can show you my DT card for Sketch Saturday...

a nice easy sketch this week I thought,

The image is of course LOTV and has been coloured with my promarkers.

The papers are by Dovecraft 'eastern promise' (floral) and Stampin Up 'tea party' (spotty)

I paper-pricked the spotty piece and then hand stitched through the holes with white cotton and layered it onto a piece of white cardstock that had been punched with my eyelet border punch (by SU).

The flowers are by Petaloo and are called 'sweet petite'

"the only flowers you'd ever wanna meet!... Oh, o-oh, ohhhhh!"

sorry had a Jackie Wilson moment there LOL! :D
(apologies if you will have that song embedded in your head for the rest of the day now!)

Incidently the flowers were given to me for my birthday by Sandra, who's sadly leaving our SSDT today :(

Please go see her beautiful final DT card this week and wish her well.

We're going to miss her on the team.

Thank you San xx

Our sponsor this week is...

and you could be the lucky recipient of a $25 shopping spree in their fabulous store if you are this weeks challenge winner :)

Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful weekend xx

Flashback Friday challenge

This is unheard of for me, 3 posts in one day! :)

I visited Faye's blog earlier today and saw the beautiful wedding card that she made for a sweet stampin challenge last year.
She posted it for Flashback Friday, who want to see our first wedding cards.
So I thought i'd play along too :)

This card was made for my cousins wedding back in August 2009...

oooh, I used the same paisley embossing folder as I have today on my spacehopper card.

I also made a photo album too...

Hmmm I wonder why I didn't have them matching? if i was making this today, I would use the same papers/colours as I did on the card.


off subject, Jake has made apple and cinnamon muffins at school today *YUM!* i've tasted one already, deeeeelish!, think I need to taste test another...

I {heart} the 70's

When I was a little girl, I thought spacehoppers and clackers were 2 of the best toys to play with, although my bionic woman doll and weebles were my absolute fave toys as I remember, I also remember enjoying playing hairdressers with the boy next door (6 year old girl + scissors + 6 year old boys hair = one little boy with a VERY short (1" max) lop-sided fringe & me hiding from his mom in an ali baba laundry basket!).
I digress, back to spacehoppers... I lost count of the amount of times that I bounced and fell off my spacehopper cos I was the one who always seemed to bounce off the curb or  bounce into fellow hoppers and I never seemed to go in the direction I wanted to go! was such a laugh though, especially when the kids in our street had a hopper race! (of course I was always last, or ended up going sideways! lol) I was forever getting my knees grazed as a kid, my Mom always had the germolene at the ready :D
My sister, Helen, had clackers. I used to love playing with those. They weren't much to look at, and were basically hard plastic balls about 2" in diameter, attached to a ring or small paddle with strong string. You held the ring or paddle, allowing the balls to hang below. Then you had to get a rhythm going using a up/down motion, making the balls swing apart, then together again (a bit like a newtons cradle), gradually swinging harder until the balls 'clacked' together above and below the hand. Many bashed knuckles and bruises ensued, but you kept trying til you succeeded and it was part of growing up in the 70s :)

When I was part of the Sweet Stampin DT, I was asked to pick a theme for one of their challenges, and i'm delighted to see that it is still going ahead despite my leaving. The theme is Childhood Memories. I had the spacehopper in mind when I thought of the challenge, so have decided to take part in their challenge, this time as a challenger ;)
I'm going to give this card to my sister...

I drew the spacehopper onto card then coloured it with promarkers.
I also drew the clackers onto card too, didn't realise at the time how fiddly it would be to cut out the image though. Obviously they aren't to scale with each other, the spacehopper would be way too big for the card if they were to scale!
The paper is by Dovecraft, from their 'funky vintage' collection.
I got out my circle punches and echoed the design in the paper with some cardstock scraps and layered them along the top.
The paisley strip across the middle was made using a cuttlebug folder.
The sentiment and verse were printed off the pooter.
Now I have to remember that i've made this card because it isn't Helen's birthday until September!
I'm safe to say she won't see this on here because Helen doesn't blog, infact she hardly goes on the computer at all (yep, i know, she's the weird one in the family! LOL)

I have made the spacehopper into a digi image, it's free, if you want it, snag it ;)

After deciding to share the image, I had to scan the coloured spacehopper into my pc and then use my paint program to draw the outline again. Would have been so much easier to draw the thing in my paint program to start with eh?

I'm entering this card into the childhood memories challenge over at Sweet Stampin (Hi Girls! xx *waves*)

also the fab challenges over at
Papertake Weekly 'fancy a punch',
and Crafty Catz 'give us a quote/sentiment'

cheers!

I was asked by my boss to make a card for an upcoming birthday in her family. Now I don't normally like making cards for men, but then I realised that I have this fab Pollycraft beer monster digi image and I knew I could make a suitable card...

I think he is my fave Pollycraft image cos he's always there when I need to make a card for a man, and he can be coloured in whatever colours I fancy (the only time i'd get stuck is if the recipient was teetotal) and at just 99p he's an absolute BARGAIN!

I coloured him with my promarkers, and printed his hand/glass again so that I could pop that out with foam pads.
The papers are by Dovecraft, backed onto cardstock by SU (chocolate chip & garden green), the sentiment is also by SU.
The name is a mix of chipboard letters that were in different colours, I peeled off the top layer of each letter, covered with glue and then applied green flock for a fuzzy texture. I have had this flock for aaaaaaages and never got round to using it, actually I have lots of other stashy bits n pieces that I have not used yet either! (ssshh!)

I enjoyed making this card so much, that I made another similar to it for the 21st birthday of a friend of my daughter, but that's sealed in its envelope now and I forgot to take a photo beforehand.

Hope my boss likes this card, i'm in work tonight so will get the verdict then!

I'm entering this card into the following challenges...

Pollycraft - boyz to men
Crafty Creations - anything goes
Stamp Something - may digi day (use a digi)
Secret Crafter - dust off your stash (green flock)

I'm loving entering challenges again! :)

ok... off to draw a spacehopper!!

bbs xx

Maya's DT week.

Yep, as the title says, this week is Maya's DT week over at Sketch Saturday :)
So this week, I wanted to use one of my Hanglar & Stanglar stamps, which was given to me by Maya herself, isn't she just adorable? (the cutie on the stamp is too) Thanks again Maya! xx

I coloured her with my promarkers and paper pieced her dress - the Hanglar girlie - not Maya! lol
The papers are from a paper stack called 'Picnic in the Park' by Serif, I got the paper stack free with my copy of Simply Cards & Papercraft this month. They give some fabbylicious free gifts!
The creased paper behind the small gingham print is also from the same stack, but I scrunched it up into a ball, smoothed it back out again and sponged over the creases and the around the edge with SU mellow moss ink.
The diamond patterned stamp is from Catslife Press.

This week we are once again sponsored by Tickled Pink Stamps, and you could win yourself 2 fab digi stamp downloads of your own choice!
Thank you Kellie, it's wonderful to have you sponsoring us again :)

We have a new Guest Designer for May too... please say hello to the very talented Nina!
and don't forget to visit our wonderful and equally talented design team too ;)

I'm entering this card into the following challenges...

Pollycraft - Anything Goes
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes (option of 'adding something round')
My Mums Craft Shop challenge - Cute & Girly
Simon Says Stamp challenge - Paper piecing or piercing
Fairy Fun Fridays - For the Girls
Just Magnolia & HS challenges - Anything Goes

see Faye?... 6 more challenges this week! YAY!

Thanks for stopping by, hope you all have a wonderful weekend xx

Cupcakes!

I recently received an email from the very lovely Faye from Cupcake Craft Challenges, asking if I'd like to design a Cupcake makeover!!
Would I?!! erm.... YES!
Faye gave me an idea of what she'd like the new design to look like, so I got to work in PSP and came up with a design that I'm really proud of and more importantly, a design that Faye and the other cupcakes love *insert BIG smiley face here*
Ladies, Thank you for trusting me to design your new look blog :)

To see the design and take part in this weeks fun challenge, please click on their new logo...

Well I loved the cupcake designs so much that I have made 3 sheets available for download via craftsUprint, or you can buy them directly from me by email.
If you email me please put CUPCAKE as your subject title, and then let me know which designs you'd like, i'll then send you a Paypal invoice.

CUPCAKE SHEET #1

"Cupcakes - step by step topper"
makes TWO 3D card toppers

CUPCAKE SHEET #2

"Happy Birthday Cupcake"

makes a 3D over the edge card topper

   

CUPCAKE SHEET #3

"Cupcakes - digi stamps"

print out and colour in any 'flavour' you wish!

Please Note: The sheets are NOT pre-printed, they are digital downloads, you save them to your own computer and print them out yourself as and when needed.

Each sheet costs just 80p from craftsUprint, you need to be a member (free to join) and there is a minimum spend of £5.00 per order.

However, if you don't want to buy £5 worth of downloads, but like one (or all three!) of the designs above and would like to buy them, then the price direct from me is £1 each sheet, payable by Paypal. 

I will invoice you for payment, and email your sheet(s) to you within hours (or minutes!) once payment has been made.

At this moment, I don't have my sheets uploaded to my own site (but I will be sorting this soon)
In the meantime, if there are any of my other designs that you'd like to purchase direct from me, please let me know which sheets you'd like by letting me know the cUp reference number
(for example, Games Addict topper with decoupage is  Ref# cup183488_966 )

TERMS OF USE
All craft sheets purchased are for personal use only, You may print and use each sheet as frequently as you wish provided it is for your own personal use.
You must not sell or give away any of my craft sheets. You may sell any cards that you make from them, but you must not sell the craft sheet itself.
You may not create discs from any of my images to sell, rent, lease, lend or duplicate, however, you can make a back up disc provided it is for your own personal use only.
Due to the sheets being in a digital format no refunds will be given, no exceptions, sorry. Please ensure that you order the correct sheet before completing the transaction.

Thank you for looking :)