A First for me!

Hi everyone!
Well, they say it never rains but it pours, and this seems to be especially true for my cardmaking at the moment.
As I told you in my last post I have lots of special birthdays coming up over the next month and need to try to regain my Mojo to get the cards made.
Well, following a phone conversation with my aunt a couple of days ago, it now appears that my great niece, Francesca is making her first Holy Communion soon (being a great aunt makes me feel ancient!).
I wanted to make a card, but never having done one for this type of occasion before I wasn't sure what was involved. I knew that I wanted to use the Gorjuss Girls image 'Guardian Angel' and, following some advice from crafting friends on Joanna Sheen's forum, I decided to keep the main sentiment simple. The inside of the card is decorated with matching papers and the following verse:
From this day on may the Truth of God's Word
Grow strong in your Heart,
And may the gentle love of Jesus
Fill your life, Now and Always

I hope this card is appropriate for the occasion and that Francesca likes it.

Card Details:
* Image - Gorjuss Girl 'Guardian Angel'
* Medium - Promarkers
* Mats - Nestabilities plain and scalloped Classic Circle Large
* Punch - Martha Stewart Doily Lace
* Flower - Freebie download from Jak
* Everything else from my stash

I tried to get this to fit in with one of the challenges for this week, but unfortunately I just couldn't find anything that fitted, so that's another week that I haven't managed to enter any challenge blogs, oh well!

I'm just editing this post to say a big 'Thank you' to Suzanne for letting me know that I can enter this card into the Passion for Promarkers challenge. It's an open challenge this week as it's the very first one and there are some fabulous prizes up for grabs, so I'll keep everything crossed that I may be lucky!
The colour promarkers I used on this card were:
Ivory, Primrose, Soft Lime, Vanilla, Cinnamon, Pastel Green, Cool Grey 1 and Rose Pink.

Birthday cards for a Special Person

Hi everyone, I hate the fact that I'm being such a bad blogger lately, and I'm really looking forward to being back creating, posting and entering challenges soon. Unfortunately, due to a family illness we're spending a lot of time travelling up and down the country at the moment and everything else is taking a back seat to these real life problems.
I have quite a few birthdays coming up soon for 'special people' though, so I've had to unpack my Mojo and get cracking!
The first VIP birthday is for my beautiful DIL on 30th May and I'd already made her card from us, so I just needed to make a card from my Mum and that would be it.....or so I thought! My darling son arrived on Saturday to ask if I'd make a card from him. Now I don't mind at all as I love making 'girly' cards, but he never has any ideas about the sort of thing he wants and leaves it totally up to me which can make things a little difficult, to say the least! Anyway, I made the card (he hasn't seen it yet so I hope they both like it lol!) and this is it.

Card Details:
* Image - Charmed Crafts digital download 'Madison goes to the ball'
* Colouring medium - Promarkers
* Backing papers and adhesive lace - K & Co
* Flowers - Fred, She Said 'freebie' download
* Everything else from my stash
I used an 'envelope template' which I purchased through Joanna Sheen's forum last year to help raise money for a charity, but had never got around to using. I think I quite like the final result, at least it's something a little bit different from my usual cards.


This is the card I made for DIL from my Mum and I've used one of the sweet little 'Miss Anya' images that I recently received in a RAK. My DIL loves her designer bags, so I thought this one would be right up her street, I've used quite a lot of glitter on this card too so it's extra 'girly', unfortunately you can't see it on the scan.

I have my son's birthday coming up on June 10th, my nephew's on 20th and my best friend's on 28th, so even if I don't manage to do much else, I'll be posting these.

Please accept my thanks for your continuing visits and wonderful comments, they're really cheering me up!

Sketch & Stash Challenge #11

Hi everyone, I've scheduled this card as family matters are taking priority at the moment.

Challenge #11 at Sketch and Stash this week, can you believe it? Please go over and check out the other DT cards, they're wonderful and I hope they'll give you all lots of inspiration. Another gorgeous sketch from Becky, she certainly makes things easy for us with her great sketches.
My 'new' stash this time is the sweet little Penny Black image.



Card Details:
* Image - Penny Black 'Birthday Angel'
* Colouring medium - Promarkers
* Papers - K & Co
* Lace papers - Joanna Sheen
* Everything else from my stash

So many people managed to join in with the last challenge again, thank you so much. I'm sorry that I haven't had time to visit and leave you all a comment, as I love to see all your lovely cards, but I hope you'll manage to join the fun this time too.

A little update

Hi everyone, I'm so sorry that I haven't been around for a while but real life just hasn't been going as well as it should lately!
I think it's unlikely that I'll be about for a while yet, but just as soon as things have settled down again I'll be back (that's a threat, not a promise!! LOL!!)

I have missed you all so much lately, and I'd just like to thank all of you who continue to offer me encouragement and support with your lovely comments, you don't know how much it means to me!

Love to you all

Another busy week!

Hi everyone, well so much for my plans to catch up with my visits to your blogs this week, it's not looking too good so far!
I haven't even had the chance to enter any challenges, so I thought I'd post the wedding card I made for my lovely niece.
She got married last Saturday, so it's safe to show it now. I've been busily making another for my nephew (her brother) who is due to get married on the 30th, so I'll post a picture of it after that date.



Card Details:
* Images - Hangler & STangler bride and groom and Magnolia heart
* Colouring medium - Promarkers
* Backing papers - K & Co
* Everything else from my stash

My niece, Jane, likes the cutesie images, so I thought this one would be quite sweet for her card. It's a large card about 9" x 9" and I decorated the inside to match, but couldn't manage to get a decent scan of it (I must treat myself to a camera with macro when I have some spare pennies!)
I've just seen their wedding photos online, they are beautiful and evidently, according to Jane it was the 'perfect day'. I'm so pleased as she's a real sweetie and deserves everything good that comes her way.

I promise that I'll get to visit you just as soon as I can, until then thank you for continuing to visit my little haven and for all the lovely messages you leave, they really brighten my day.

Sketch & Stash Challenge #10

Morning everyone!
Well, here we are with challenge #10 for Sketch & Stash and Becky's got another fabulous sketch. Lots more layers this week, but still allowing you to pop your sentiments and embellishments where you like.



Card Details:
* Image - digital download from Sketching Stamper
* Colouring medium - Promarkers
* Papers - Hot off the Press
* Glitter glue - Stickles
* Border punch - Martha Stewart Embossed zig-zag
* Embellishments - from my stash

Pop over and take a look at the other DT cards, they're just fabulous and hopefully they'll give you the inspiration to come and join in with us this week.
I'd like to say thank you to Lena for being our guest DT member for the last 2 weeks and I can't believe how she managed to make this week's card even more gorgeous. What a pleasure it was meeting you Lena, I'll be visiting your blog regularly believe me.
As you know, it was my turn to choose a guest DT for the next 2 weeks and what a difficult job you all gave me. Your cards were stunning, but after a lot of dithering I did eventually manage to make a decision, check out the blog to see who our next guest DT will be.

Cute Daisy May Challenge

Hi everyone, just a very quick visit tonight to post this card for the Daisy May challenge. It's week 10 and I've just about made it as the new challenge begins tomorrow. This week's challenge was a lovely sketch.
I've had a bit of a hectic week, which is why I haven't been about very much and I've missed visiting my favourite places lately, but I'm hoping to make up for lost time from tomorrow.

Card Details:
* Image - digital download from PC Crafter
* Papers - K & Co
* Everything else from stash

I promised a dear friend that I'd try to join in with this challenge, but unfortunately this was the first chance I've had this week so I hope you like it, I'm not overjoyed with it myself, but as I made it from scratch in about 15 minutes, it's the best I could do.
I'll see you all again soon, hopefully tomorrow when I should have a little more time. Thanks for your visit.

A card for a Mother

Hi everyone, I hope you had a good day today even though the weather wasn't as good as it has been lately. We decided to risk a shower and pop to the boot sale this morning and I'm so glad we did as I found some lovely bits (not crafting though unfortunately!)

My card today is for Mother's Day. 'You're too late!!' I hear you all cry, but fear not dear friends I didn't forget my lovely Mum until now, for this is not British Mother's Day so we're OK.
The card is for two challenges, the first being Kellie's Magnolia Challenge and the second is Our Creative Corner, both of which want a Mothers Day card.
This is the first time that I've used this Tilda, but I thought she looked a bit 'Mumsy' in her little hat.

Card Details:
* Image - Magnolia
* Colouring medium - Promarkers
* Lace paper - Joanna Sheen
* Borders and corners - K & Co
* Everything else - my stash

The little flower frame that Tilda's sitting on is from the 'Greetings factory' CD, which I've had forever and always seems to turn up trumps when I'm desperately searching for a particular thing.
The colour of the card looks very orange in the scan, but IRL it is more of an apricot and matches the lace papers and the colour I've used on Tilda.

Colour Create - Red, Cream and Chocolate

Hi everyone, another lovely day today. Unfortunately I didn't make it to the boot sale today, I decided to spend longer with my lovely Mum instead. It's on again tomorrow due to the Bank Holiday, so maybe we'll pop along then if the weather's still fine.

I just couldn't believe how many gorgeous cards were about for the Colour Create challenge this week, which has been set by Mina. I'm often inspired by the cards Mina creates, but judging by the challenge entries, it seems that everyone else has been too. I'm not sure whether it was the colour scheme (one of my favourites!) or something else but I certainly couldn't wait to get started on this one.

Card Details:
* Image - Sketching Stamper
* Colouring medium - Promarkers
* Papers & epoxy Sentiment - K & Co
* Border punch - Martha Stewart 'Doily Lace'
* Everything else - my stash

The image was a digital download I purchased from Sketching Stamper a few days ago. I couldn't resist this and another download (which you'll be seeing very soon!) If you haven't visited before, do take a look as Chris's digi-stamps are just fabulous, I'm getting quite a collection now!
Unfortunately, I haven't done this lovely image any favours with my colouring today it was one of those days where no matter what I did it ended up looking worse than before, so another day when you shouldn't look too closely, I'm afraid.
I've just been explaining to my dear (and long suffering) hubby, that the reason is probably that my pens are wearing out and I'm sure a small collection of Copics might put things right. He didn't seem to believe me for some strange reason!

Thank you for visiting and have a lovely evening.

Secret Crafter's Saturday Challenge

Hi everyone, what a lovely day it's been again today and the weather report says it's going to be even better tomorrow, hoorah!
I haven't done any crafting today, as I made the mistake earlier of deciding to 'just tidy up one or two things in my craft room'....Six hours later, and I'm in more of a muddle now than when I started! Will I never learn??
Luckily I made a little card yesterday that just fits nicely with Secret Crafter's challenge this week, 'We want to see flowers on your project whether they be the main image or embellishments.'
This is another of the sweet girls from the PC Crafter download, another very 'unfussy' card again (what I really mean is easy lol!)
I do love these little cuties!

Card Details:
* Image - 'Buttons and Bows' download kit from PC Crafter
* Sentiment and embellishments from same kit

If the weather does stay fine tomorrow I'll probably pop along to the boot sale before I go to visit my Mum and do her 'chores'. If I've managed to sort out the mess I've made in the craft room by then hopefully I'll be able to make a card when I get back.
Whatever you decide to do this Bank Holiday weekend I hope you have a lovely time.

Just Magnolia challenge #3

Hi everyone, I'm a bit earlier with my card for today, I seem to have been getting later and later with my postings.
Possibly the reason I'm earlier today is due to the wonderful sketch that Bev did for this week's Just Magnolia challenge. As soon as I saw it I couldn't wait to make a start.
I already had this little Tilda coloured, so it was just a case of finding some papers that would match and following that gorgeous sketch.

Card Details:
* Image - Pink Tilda Princess
* Colouring - promarkers
* Papers - K & Co
* Pearls - Joanna Sheen
* Flowers, brad and charm - from my stash

This was a lovely sketch to follow, not too complicated but with lots of interest and I'll definitely be using it again, so thanks Bev!