Sketch N Stash #129

Morning all, it's the final challenge for this year from Sketch N Stash.
As with the other challenges this year, we have taken the sketch from our archives and I've loved using these original sketches again.
The optional challenge set by Janet is 'no design papers'. Gosh, this was difficult ( I do hope the paper strip down the side of my card doesn't count!)
Please excuse this terrible picture of my card. It was scanned and as it's quite 'bumpy' it should really have been photographed, but you all know by now how useless I am at taking pictures and hubby is 'on holiday' and enjoying playing his PC game, so I didn't feel I should ask him.

We are being sponsored for our final challenge of 2013 by the Stamp Fairy and they are offering our winner a $10 certificate to spend in their shop, so well worth joining in with us.

I hope you all had a wonderful and peaceful Christmas and I wish you all a very happy and healthy new year.

Favourite Five Christmas Cards

Morning all, I am joining in with Debby's challenge for my five favourite Christmas cards.

This was quite a struggle for me because when I reviewed what I'd made, I found I didn't really have ANY favourites.
My problem seems to be, I love them when I'm making them but I don't like any of them that much once they're finished. Never mind, onward......

Three of these five were made in CAP2 (have I told you I love this program? Oh OK, don't all shout at once!)
If you would like to join in Debby's challenge just post your cards and link them to her blog here
 
 

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Just popping in to wish all my crafting friends and followers a very Happy Christmas and sending hugs to all those in need of them at this time of year.
May you all have a joyful and peaceful holiday and may 2014 be all you wish for.

Sketch N Stash #128

Morning all, time again for the Sketch N Stash challenge and this time another Christmas card from me.
The optional theme this time was my choice and I chose 'Glitter and Sparkle' Well, would you really expect anything else? I'm also going to be responsible for choosing the Top 3, so no pressure then.
My card for this challenge was made in CAP2 and I added loads of Stickles 'Stardust' for a really sparkly card.

We have 2 wonderful sponsors for this challenge and they are:

Ooh La La Creations who are offering a CD of our winner's choice 

and Inky Impressions who are offering another winner $10 to spend in their store

So please pop over to the challenge blog, take a look at the fabulous creations our DT have made, check out last time's winners and Top 3 and with TWO chances to win why not join in with us? We'd love to see you.

Hubby and I are celebrating our 41st wedding anniversary today, not sure if that merits congratulations or commiserations, I'll see how the day goes before I decide. Joke! I love him to bits and wouldn't change him for anyone (well, maybe Tom Selleck but no-one else!)

Sketch N Stash #127

Morning all, it's this fortnight's Sketch N Stash Challenge and I've made a Christmas card (yeah I know, don't faint)

We're being sponsored again by Crafty Individuals, who are offering our lucky winner some lovely goodies.
The optional theme is 'Let it Snow' so I thought a few snowflakes may be in order.
Looking again at the sketch I see that I've changed the jaunty layer into a ribbon, I hope I'll be forgiven.
I hope you'll find time to pop over to the challenge blog, take a look at the gorgeous offerings form the DT, check out our winners and Top 3 from last time and maybe join in with us for this challenge (especially if, like me, you need encouragement to make some xmas cards)

My card was made, yet again, in CAP2 where I'm still enjoying playing with scrapping and card making.

My Beautiful Boys

Morning all, I have another scrap page to share, this time it's of my boys.
This was actually the first page I ever made but it's 12x12 and I had no idea how to convert it to a jpg.
Luckily, a friend on Joanna Sheen's Forum has told me how and it's so easy. You can always rely on the girls at the forum, they know everything about everything and are always so helpful.

I love this page and of course I'm not at all biased (not much!)

Family Scrapbook

Morning all, I've recently started scrapping following my purchase of CAP2 and thought I'd share a few of my family pages with you.
They are very basic as I'm still getting to grips with things but I wanted my first album to be a family scrapbook. The pages I've made are 8x8 which of course, is the only size scrapbook I don't have, typical! So it looks like another new purchase is on the cards.

I started with my maternal grandparents as they helped bring me up when I was small. My parents both worked, so before I started school I used to spend Monday to Friday with my grandparents. I totally adored them both and I still think my Grandfather was the most wonderful man I've ever known (apart from DH of course)

My grandfather started running his own fruit and veg stall, off Victoria Street in London, when he was about 12 years old! He took it over from his mother and when he married my grandmother she helped him. He remained on the same pitch until he retired at 72 years of age and during all that time he would get up at 3am every morning in order to get to Convent Garden to buy his stock.

Both of them loved to be by the sea and they always had a holiday home in Sussex, right up until my grandfather died.
Don't you think he looks like someone from 'The Godfather' in this picture?
As you can see I haven't done the journalling yet, but I have colour co-ordinated the pages as this will be a double spread.

This is my much loved Mum in a 'moody' pose taken by my Dad, who loved his photography, who could blame him when he had my beautiful Mum as his model? Sadly Mum passed away nearly 4 years ago now but I still think of her and miss her every single day.

No doubt I'll share some more pages as and when I get them done, that is if I'm not going to bore you all?
I did a nice page of my sons but as it was 12x12 I can't scan it, so it will have to wait until I get a photograph done.

Sketch N Stash #126

Morning all, another card for Sketch N Stash where this fortnight we're being sponsored by LOTV who are offering our lucky winner a £10 gift voucher to spend in their store.
This time the optional theme is 'lots of layers' and our wonderful DT has, as always, provided some gorgeous inspiration at the challenge blog.
We'd love it if you could join in with us and someone has to win that fabulous prize so why not you?

I used one of my LOTV die cut toppers for this card, all the papers are from some of my (ever growing) collection of digi-kits as I made the card in CAP2 again. I think I spoilt it by hand writing the sentiment, but other than that it turned out much as I wanted it.

I haven't been about online too much lately as I have re-discovered my favourite PC game and seem to be spending lots of time playing, well that's what retirement is all about isn't it? Apart from that I've been enjoying reading and scrapping some photos, so lots of 'me' time is taking place at the moment.
I expect I'll get bored with all that soon and switch back to crafting and blogging again, what can I say, I'm fickle!

Sketch N Stash #125

Morning all, today's card is for Sketch N Stash, yes it's that time again!
Our optional theme this fortnight is 'Fairy Tale' and we're being sponsored by both Di's Digi Stamps and Fred She Said. Both companies are offering one lucky winner a $10 spend in their shops, so two chances to win in this challenge!

Do pop over to the challenge blog and pick up some inspiration from our fabulous DT and then why not join in with us, we'd love to have you.

I'm still trying to get to grips with Craft Artist Professional 2 so this card was made digitally using items from a digi kit called 'Daydream' and the old Penny Black image attached after.
I have to admit I'm loving digital crafting, you can see straight away whether things work or not and just delete them if they don't. No more trashing cards that you've spent hours making whoopee!!
Thanks to the help of my dear crafting friend Ann I've now managed to transfer all my existing digis to CAP2 so I can now use all my old favourites as well as new kits and mess around to my heart's content.
As I'm gradually learning more I find myself really impressed with this software package. I used to use Greeting Card Factory which was fine but it's quite old now so doesn't have as many options as this new package and although I originally purchased this for scrap-booking I'm loving the versatility of using it for card-making as well.

Pretty in Pink

Afternoon all, I know it's not often you see me other than a Sketch N Stash day but I thought I'd enter a couple of challenges with this card made for a family member's 13th birthday.

Card Details:
* Image - Mo Manning 'Rae with journal'
* Colouring medium - Promarkers
* Papers - Serif CA2 and DaisyTrail digis
* Punch - Nestabilities Picot Edge Circles
* Everything else from my stash

I recently purchased Craft Artist 2 from DaisyTrail and have been playing with digital scrapbooking (I may share some pages in the next couple of days for your opinions but please be kind and remember I'm new to this)
Now, you need to understand that I decided to start scrapbooking about 7 odd years ago and purchased a number of beautiful K and Co scrapbooks in all sizes, lots of very pretty 12 x 12 papers and numerous matching embellishments.
All set to go then? No! I never got around to doing anything more than a 6 x 6 album for my Mum containing some vintage photos of her family.
So, I have decided I'm finally going to take the plunge and have so far, made 3 or 4 digital scrapbook pages. I'm really enjoying it and although I'm still doing very basic layouts, I'm fairly happy with the finished results so far.
In view of the fun I had messing about with the digis, I thought I'd try making a card and this is the result. Again, I'm quite pleased with it, although I can now see all the things I could have done better, still that's what learning is all about isn't it? Hopefully, my skills will improve with time and practice.

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:
Passion for Promarkers - Give us a 'P'
Polka Doodles and Studio 12 Digi Choosday - Anything Goes
CutiePie Challenge - Cute and Tag-Tastic

Sketch N Stash #124

Morning all, time to join us again at Sketch N Stash where we're up to Challenge #124.

Card Details:
* Image - Pink Gem Designs 'Heart Postcard'
* Papers - Prima 'Almanac'
* Punch -  Martha Stewart 'Monarch Butterfly'
* Die - Nestability 'Standard Circles'
* Everything else from my stash

This fortnight we're being sponsored by Pink Gem Designs who are kindly offering our lucky winner 3 single digi images of their choice.
I purchased this gorgeous 'Heart Postcard' design from them some time ago and find it a really versatile digi stamp.

The optional theme is 'stitching real or faux' - my contribution to this theme is the stitching on my top layer of (wobbly) ribbon.

As you can see I have used the gorgeous Prima Almanac papers again, these are my current favourites, I just love the colour and designs which have a lovely vintage look. I punched the butterfly twice and raised the top layer so it looks like it's flying off the page although that doesn't show very well here, neither do the gems and pearls I used on the body or the sparkle to edge the wings.

I do hope you can join in with us, check out the challenge blog to see the gorgeous creations from our DT and if you joined us last time don't forget to check our winner and Top 3 in case it's you.

 

Sketch N Stash # 123

Morning all, I think you may need a warning about long posts today, well this is a long post! lol

Many thanks if you remain with me until the end.

Here we go again with another Sketch N Stash Challenge, can you believe we're up to #123?
Our optional theme this time is Pearl and Swirls, right up my street!

 

We are being sponsored again by A Day For Daisies who are offering one lucky winner a $10 voucher to spend in their online store. 
For my card I have used the gorgeous 'Hepburn Dress' image which is absolutely FREE from their store.

Card Details:
* Image - A Day For Daisies 'Hepburn Dress'
* Colouring medium - Promarkers
* Papers - Prima 'Almanac'
* Punch - Paper Shapers 'Wave Flourish'
* Everything else from my stash

I hope you can join in with us, the DT have given you lots of inspiration with their wonderful cards again, just take a look.

On another topic completely, it was my birthday last Thursday (I won't tell you which one because I'd rather not think about it, suffice to say I'm staying the same age as last year and I'm planning on counting backwards for all future ones!) and I had the most wonderful day. I received some lovely cards, some of them stunning hand-crafted ones.
My darling hubby bought me a beautiful ring, well I chose it you understand, but he bought it. This is not at all my usual style but I absolutely fell in love with it as soon as I saw it.

Then my 3 best friends and I went on a girly day out shopping to Norwich where I purchased a new winter coat (love, love, love it!) and a gorgeous pair of earrings and in the evening one of my friends cooked an italian birthday dinner for 7 of us. How spoilt was I? It must rank as one of my best birthdays ever, coming in at a close 2nd to last year's 'big one'.
I can't believe how much my life has changed in the 2+ years since moving up to this village in Norfolk, DH and I have made the best friends of our lives here and we've never had such a busy social life or so many fun times, we both love it.

Congratulations to anyone still reading, you made it to the end, consider yourself a true friend! lol

Sketch N Stash # 122

Time for this fortnight's Sketch N Stash Challenge and this time we have TWO wonderful sponsors offering prizes to TWO lucky winners!

 Inky Impressions prize is $10 to spend in their store

 and Dies to Die For are offering £10 to be spent in their shop.
 
My card was a commission for someone who has just bought a kayak (my friends never believe in making my life easy do they?) I know it's unbelievable, but I didn't have an image with a kayak, so I had to google to find this one.

Card Details:
* Image - Internet
* Punch - EK Success 'Photo Corners'
* Everything else from my stash

Our optional theme for the challenge is 'Birthdays' and I'd love it if you could join in with us and if you're in need of a bit of inspiration just check out what our clever DT have done. Oh, and while you're there check if you are our winner or one of our Top 3 from the last challenge.