A Challenge, a Card Commission and a Thank You

Good morning, well this is the second day I've been on before evening so maybe I'm changing my habits, I may also be changing something else very soon.
When I first set up my blog I was so impatient to get started that I just called it the first thing that came to mind, hence the thoroughly boring title.
For ages now I've been thinking about getting rid of my other blog and just using this one for all my projects. I want to change the name to something that would reflect different styles and sounds a little more interesting (along the lines of Variety is the Spice of Life) but I can't come up with anything I really like, so I'm setting a challenge to my visitors, can you think of a suitable name for my blog? (I hope I'm not setting myself up for some rude comments here)


I received a card commission for a 12 year old's birthday recently with the brief being that she liked horses and fairies and was quite girly. This is what I've come up with, I hope she likes it!
Please forgive the terrible scan, this was about my 6th attempt and I gave up. I made so much fuss that DH is going to try to get me a cheap, easy digital camera to use, so if anyone knows of any good ones, please share the information.
Card Details:
* White glitter card and lilac cardstock mounted onto white hammered card.
* Butterfly charm attached by jump rings to Fiskars "lace" border punch.
* Number 12 tag and name tag printed off PC and also attached to lace border.
* Fairy image (courtesy of fellow Sheenie Jacqui)decoupaged and glittered.
* Embellished with eyelets and gemstones.


I have been given the Proximity award by blogging buddy and fellow "Sheenie" Jane, thank you so much for this. Please do pop over and visit her blog if you haven't been before.

Christmas Angel card and Candy

Well, I'm back with another card. This one is for my best friend and although she likes the cuties I'm not sure her DH would be so keen! Neither of them are crafters so I've kept it quite clutter free.
Card Details:
* Hot off the Press christmas papers mounted onto White glitter card
* Christmas Angel image from my stash
* Fiskars Lace border punch

I caught up with some blog hopping today and found some wonderful candy:

Ila has some gorgeous High Hopes and Magnolia packages on offer and just needs to know your favourite Christmas film or song, open until 3rd December, so hop over and take a look.

Bev is offering some fabulous 'Whiff of Joy' candy from her and Katharina until 4th December.

Finally Jude is celebrating 3000 hits by offering some great candy, a christmas pressie for yourself, she says and who can argue with that?

Cute Card Thursday - Lilac

A very good morning to everyone, I'm very early today anyone would think I was organised for once (they'd be wrong though!)
This morning's card is for the Cute Card Thursday challenge which this week is Lilac
The card I've made uses a Hanglar & Stanglar image which I've coloured with Pro Markers (surprise!) It's been mounted onto some purple miri card which has been throught the Cuttlebug and then cut with Nesties. The backing paper is DCWV 'Pink Christmas' mounted onto some lilac glitter card and I've finished off with a lilac Cuttlebug corner and a bauble embellishment from my stash.
She looks such a little sweetie, all wrapped up against the cold and carrying her little wooden heart.
I may be back later with another card if the day goes well, if not I expect I'll post it tomorrow. Thank you for your visit and I hope you have a good weekend.

Suzanne's First Card Challenge

My friend and fellow "Sheenie" Suzanne has posted her first ever card challenge. She is such a lovely lady who always makes such stunning cards and her blog is full of tutorials and tips to help you make wonderful cards too. If you haven't already visited her, please do pop over. Make sure that you've got a few hours to spare though as you won't be able to drag yourself away easily, trust me!
The challenge is: make a card using letters as the main feature - can be the whole card or letters on the base of a standard card - you chose
Well, I've made all my christmas cards now except for my sons' cards, so I decided to use this challenge to make my youngest son's card.
The card size is A4 folded lengthwise and I used large stencils to cut out the "Noel" in silver glitter card. The letters have been embellished with some Magnolia images and star peel-offs.
The little Magnolia images were a gift from my lovely friend Becky and just a small part of a whole pad full of images that she enclosed with my christmas card. Thank you Becky, I love all of the images, but didn't think I'd be using them so soon! They have been coloured with my much loved ProMarkers.

Sisters

Hi everyone, at last my back is feeling better, so I've been able to play today.
I've really enjoyed making this card and I've used the cuttlebug christmas tree as the focal point. This was kindly sent to me by my dear friend Ali, (unfortunately I don't have this folder myself) and I've coloured it with pencils and then blended with Sansador and paper stumps, all finished off with a few touches of stickles glitter glue. I haven't used this form of colouring for ages and had forgotten how calming it can be.
I have used 2 of the new Magnolia christmas images (coloured with Pro Markers) for these sweet little sisters who are trimming the tree with tinsel and hanging the decorations. I just love their little stripey stockings!
The backing paper is from my stash and has been mounted onto some holographic silver miri card.
Thank you for taking the time to have a look at my cards and for the lovely comments you've been leaving me.

Thank You

Just a little message to say a special "thank you" to 2 friends who have also awarded me the Proximity award.
Thank you Wendy and Suzanne, if any of you haven't already visited their blogs, please do pop over and enjoy their wonderful creations.

My back's feeling lots better now, so hopefully I'll be back later to post a card.

A Further Award

Well, a huge "thank you" to Irene, Anne and Beryl for passing this fabulous award onto me, I'm so grateful ladies.

I really can't choose who to pass this on to, so I'm going to say to any of my "Blogging Buddies" that visit me, if you haven't already received this award, please consider yourselves nominated and take it for your blogs.

Yesterday I promised to be back later with a card, which didn't happen I'm afraid. So sorry, but I very stupidly managed to pull my back and wasn't really up to sitting at the computer. It's feeling a little better today, but still quite painful so I'm not sure if I'll get a card done today either. I really don't know what's happening lately, first my neck, now my back. I'm putting it down to old age and getting more stupid as I get older!
Suffice to say, I'll be back as soon as I can comfortably sit in one position for any length of time!

An Award!

Hi everyone, I had a surprise awaiting me when I popped onto the PC this morning, the fabulous Edna had left me an award! I am absolutely thrilled as this is a lady who always gives me such inspiration and encouragement, and was partially responsible for me getting hooked on blogging in the first place (so now you all know who to blame!) If you haven't been to visit Edna before (unlikely!) please take a look at her wonderful blog.
This award has such wonderful ideals, exactly what I believe blogging is all about!
This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind blogger’s aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight blogger’s who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.
Well, I've decided to pass this on to some crafters whose blogs give me such pleasure when I make my visits:
Becky, Caz, Irene, Jeanette, Kim, Nicola, Sandie and Sue

I'll be back later with a card.

No "Cuties" today

Hi everyone, I'm afraid I haven't made any cute cards today, instead I've been finishing off some family christmas cards.
I've posted them on my other blog HERE if you care to take a look.
I'm sure I'll be back with more cuties very soon, meanwhile thank you for all your kind comments, including those who liked my little background stories.

Cute Card Thursday - Snow and Snowflakes

Hi everyone, I managed to find a challenge to fit my cards today and I'm entering 2 cards because I think they both fit the brief for this one.
The cards are for Cute Card Thursday's challenge of Snow and Snowflakes This week we would like to see 'snow' or snowflakes on your card
The first card is Tilda sitting on a sheepskin covered bench which is keeping her bottom warm, but her little knees look very red.
This has been mounted onto a cuttlebugged circle nestability, then onto some 'snowflake' christmas paper and some lilac glitter card. She's been coloured with Promarkers and finished off with a sparkly snowflake embellishment and a little cuttlebug corner.
In the second card a different little girl called Tilda (surprise!) has just finished building her cute snowman, and she's so proud of him that she's brought a little lamp outside so she can see him better. She thought he looked a little cold, so she's lent him her scarf and ear-muffs. Again the images have been coloured with Promarkers, and the snowman and snow flurries have been finished off with Duncan's 'True Snow' to give some texture. They are mounted onto 'Swiss Dots' cuttlebugged cardstock, then onto DCWV christmas paper and finally onto some silver holographic miri card (which my scanner hates!)
I'd like to thank all of you for the lovely comments you've been leaving, it's lovely to hear from you all and I hope you continue to visit.

Just Because...

Hi everyone,
Well I've been busily making more christmas cards with little cutie-pies, but couldn't seem to find any challenges to fit the bill. Then while blog-hopping this morning, I noticed that Fran said she often forgot that she could make a card just because she wanted to, and not because it was a challenge. So, with that in mind, I'm posting a couple of cards 'just because' I wanted to make them.

The first card is another little Tilda, she's looking very festive in her red and green dress and I think she's wondering what can be in those beautifully wrapped presents. She has been mounted onto a gold foil circle that has been cuttlebugged, and then onto some green and red backing paper. I've added some gifts, and a christmas bauble as embellishments and a little PC made sentiment.
The next card is a bit of a change from the normal cuties and features a Rubber Romance image, again mounted onto a cuttlebugged circle and some DCWV backing paper on top of some holographic miri card (which is actually silver IRL and NOT the weird colour that my scanner made it) The star embellishment and sentiment come from my stash.

I've been using some Duncan True Snow on my cards that have snow scenes, just to give it a little texture and then finishing off the snow with some Stickles glitter glue, to make it sparkly. I'm of the opinion that a girl can never have too much glitter and sparkle, I hope you agree!
Thanks again for visiting me and I hope you'll pop back again soon.

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Let it Snow

Hi everyone, another day, another challenge and today's is for the Papertake Weekly Challenge Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow - This weeks challenge is Snow! Anything snow related - snowmen, snowflakes, snowy scenes etc!
I'm actually popping 2 of my cards in for this, as they're both little snowy scenes and I couldn't choose between them.
I have used a background of silver holographic miri card and K & Co "snowy" backing paper on both cards, and they both have Magnolia snowy scene backgrounds. In the first card little Tilda is looking very festive in her red coat and I have also added a little Magnolia sentiment, while in the second card Tilda and Edwin are off for their morning ski. Both cards are coloured with Pro markers and finished off with little snowflake embellishments from my stash.
I hope you like them, I'm really enjoying making these and joining in with some challenges, I'd forgotten how much fun they can be!

Cute Card Thursday - Red and Green

I warned you I might be back!
This card is for Cute Card Thursday's challenge of Red and Green. This week we would like you to use red and green on your card.
Another cute little christmas Tilda, together with some of her presents, this time she has been mounted onto a cuttlebugged circle (cut using my nesties) the green backing paper is from my stash. The card is finished off with a couple of little gems, a red bauble 3D'd onto a line peel-off and a sentiment done on the PC.

Spoonful of Sugar - Card for a Child

Hi everyone, as promised here's my next challenge card.
This one is for this week's Spoonful of Sugar's challenge we would love you to make a card for a child
I thought that this card would be just about right for the challenge, showing a little girl on her way to post her letter to Santa.
The background scene was from Joanna Sheen's 'Messy Rabbit' backing papers and I added some of the 'Swiss Dots' cuttlebugged cardstock to the bottom to give a feeling of snow. This was mounted onto some pale blue 'snowy' backing paper and the sentiment was done with rub ons (which didn't rub on very well!)
I hope you like her and I may be back a little later with a further card. I know, I know......but now I'm on a roll with these christmas cards, I can't stop until I'm finished!

Magnolia vs Stampavie Challenge - Clean and Simple

Hi everyone,
I haven't done any challenges since....I can't remember when, so as I have all these christmas cards to make anyway, I thought it might be quite nice to enter them into some challenges.
The first one is for Sunday's Magnolia vs Stampavie challenge A Nice Clean simple stream line look to be used on your project this week & No more than 3 Colours to be used in total! (only just managed to make this one in time!)
Tilda and Edwin are sitting on a log, but they are both well wrapped up against the cold, so I'm sure they won't catch a chill.
They have been coloured with pro-markers and then mounted onto some cuttlebugged cardstock, then onto some K & Co "snowy" backing paper and finally onto some glitter card. The little words were rub-ons and the whole thing is finished off with a couple of little gems from my stash.
Thank you for visiting, I'm hoping to be back tomorrow with another card.

Thank you Ann

Whilst I was "absent", I received an award from the lovely Ann thank you so much Ann, I really appreciate it and it certainly cheered me up.
As I have been blog hopping around I noticed that the people I would have liked to pass the award to already seem to have it, so if Ann doesn't mind I shall leave the award on my blog and if any of you have not already received this, help yourself.

My First Christmas Cards

Hi everyone, can you still remember who I am? I've been away much longer than I anticipated, but I have managed to pay some visits to your blogs.
Unfortunately my neck took a lot longer than I expected to feel better, which meant I was really behind with the cards I had promised to make for the shop. Thankfully they are now completed and I've been able to make a start on my christmas cards.
It seemed that whether I was bloghopping or on Joanna Sheen's forum, people were talking about how they had either nearly completed all their cards, or even worse, that they had now finished them! I was in panic mode as I hadn't even started on mine, and when I made a list I was more worried as I seemed to have so many to do.
Luckily, I'd already informed my Mum and my sons that I wouldn't be making their cards this year, so at least there are only mine to make. They'll have to buy some, how very selfish of me!
I had bought Joanna Sheen's Messy Rabbit backing papers earlier in the year and decided to use a couple of the christmas ones for some of my cards (I've decided that my christmas cards this year will be "cuties" as I haven't played with them for ages!) The images have been coloured with pro-markers and embellished with bits and bobs from my stash.
To be honest, I don't know if I'm that pleased with them now they're finished as I'm not sure that the colours in the papers actually go with the images, but they'll have to do as I've got so many left to make I can't start re-doing them now, I think the others I'm going to do will be a different layout to these though.
Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think.