Happy Birthday!

 

Hi everyone!
The Just Magnolia and hAngler & sTangler Challenge is celebrating it's 2nd birthday and although I haven't managed to join in with them for as many challenges as I would have liked, I really wanted to make a card to celebrate their birthday
HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIRLS!!!!
I thought I'd use one of the sweet H&S images instead of a Tilda (it was a hard choice) and this little cutie is one of my favourites.

Card Details:
* Image - hAngler & sTangler
* Colouring medium - Promarkers
* Tag - K & Co 'Wild Raspberry' tag pad
* Punch - MS Doily Lace
* Sentiment - Pink Petticoat 'Curly Girly'
* Everything else from my stash

As I seem to be finding time to do some crafting at the moment, I'm hoping to be back tomorrow with an entry for this week's Teddy Bo challenge, you know how much I love these so you won't be surprised to learn that I couldn't resist buying a new image today.
In fact, I seem to have been a little naughty today as I also bought some digis from Funky Kits and another MS punch from Joanna Sheen. Oh well, that's addiction for you!

Tulips from Andover

Hi everyone!
I know the song title is really Tulips from Amsterdam, but these ones are from Andover, sent with my love.
I've not been managing to much crafting,  posting or blog visiting lately, but I wanted to join in with the lovely TeddyBo challenge if I could and I think I may have just scraped in in time. Their theme is 'Punch It Out' and they want to see us use some of those punches we all have hundreds of!
Things here seem to have calmed down a bit (temporarily, I'm sure) so I managed to get a card done and I'm hoping to visit some of my favourite places later on today.

Card Details:
* Image - Teddy Bo - 'I Love You Bunches'
* Colouring medium - Promarkers
* Punches - MS 'Cherish' ATP and 'Embossed Zig Zag'
* Sentiment - Lily of the Valley 'Girly Curly Sentiments'
* Everything else from my stash

On the house move front, we've organised everything we can and now we've reached that horrible 'just waiting' period when the stress sets in because you have time to imagine all the things that could possibly go wrong.
The survey results were good and the quotes for removals were horrendous (as expected, after all it is about 150 miles away!)  Anyway, I'm keeping everything crossed that it all goes smoothly and quickly, because now I've mentally moved out I just want to get on with things.

Sketch N Stash DT Card - Challenge #59

Hi everyone, time for another Sketch N Stash challenge. This week's sketch is by Julie and I loved using it, I think I'll be using this one a lot!
I just couldn't stay away from these little cuties any longer, so yet another of the Sugar Nellie images today, this one is 'Verity' and I think she's gorgeous. I re-sized her this time so she's in close-up instead of the full length image.

Card Details:
* Image - Sugar Nellie 'Verity'
* Sentiment - Sentiments 4 You
* Colouring medium - Promarkers
* Papers - Basic Grey (not sure which ones as the front of the pad has vanished)
* Punch - MS 'Doily Lace' & EK Success 'Photo Corners'
* Everything else from my stash

Our prize this fortnight is from our main sponsor, the ever generous Steph at Simon Says Stamp and she is offering our lucky winner a $15 voucher to spend in the shop, so definitely worth joining in for.
Don't forget to take a look at the DT cards for some inspiration and also check to see who won our last challenge and the who the Top 3 are.
I can't believe how many of you continue to join in with us each fortnight, thank you all so much for your continued support and we love visiting and checking out all your wonderful creations. Please remember though that the whole point of our challenge is to follow the sketch, of course you can make changes to it but we must still be able to see the original in there somewhere. If your card bears no resemblance to the sketch I'm afraid it will be deleted, I think this is only fair on the other entrants for the prizes.

On the personal front (if you're interested, you may want to make a coffee first as this could be a LONG post!!!!!)
We recently spent a week house hunting  in Norfolk  and viewed so many properties that I was actually sick of looking at houses (I never thought I'd say that!) We saw some lovely places, but none of them was right for us, so we decided we'd go back up there again once our property had sold and take another look around then.
On our last day one of the Estate Agents persuaded us to view a final property in our favourite location, we'd already seen and discounted this property on the internet and didn't really want to go as we knew that it wasn't what we wanted, but we decided to check it out anyway. We walked in and both knew immediately that this was the one!
It has oil heating (we wanted gas)  has most of it's garden to the side (I wanted a private, rear garden) has a stream running across the bottom of the rear part of the garden (DH has a phobia about living near water in case of flooding) and is much bigger than we need AND WE LOVE IT!

Since our return last week we've sold our house, had our offer accepted on the bungalow, had a survey carried out, arranged a solicitor and removals firm and we're now counting the days to our 'Escape to the Country' and this new chapter in our lives.
In view of all this, I must apologise for not posting or commenting very much, but I look forward to getting back into things properly once I'm settled and all my craft stash is unpacked.
Thanks, if you've managed to stay with me through this very long post that's what I call a 'follower' ha ha!!

Sketch N Stash DT Card - Challenge #58

Hi everyone, I'm back for the latest Sketch N Stash challenge which features a sketch from our lovely Vicky.
We have 2 sponsors again this fortnight, our regular sponsor Simon Says Stamp who are offering a $15 voucher as their prize

 and Meljen's Designs who are giving away 4 digi images of the winner's choice

I've chosen one of Meljen's digis as the main feature on my card, I think this sweet little blue bird of happiness is so cute and just perfect for a notelet to a friend.

Card Details:
* Image - Meljen Designs 'Bird's Little Letter'
* Sentiment - Pink Petticoat 'Girly Curly'
* Colouring medium - Promarkers
* Papers - Papermania 'Blueberry Hill'
* Everything else from my stash

I hope you can join in this fortnight and don't forget to pop by the challenge blog for some gorgeous inspiration from the other DT girlies and also to find out who won our last challenge and who this fortnight's Top 3 are.

Sketch N Stash DT Card - Challenge #57

Hi everyone, well here we are again for this fortnight's Sketch n Stash challenge!
The sketch was designed by our lovely Sue and this fortnight we're being sponsored by Whimsy Stamps who are offering a $15 voucher to the winner of this challenge.
I've used one of Katie's lovely images but Whimsy also host digi images by Chrissy and Meljen as well as their own designs.
I really fell for this adorable 'Furry Friends' image, although I don't think I've done it justice here. I've decided I'm not very good at colouring animals, think I need to find a tutorial somewhere to show me how.

Card Details:
* Image - Whimsy Stamps 'Furry Friends'
* Colouring medium - Promarkers
* Papers - Papermania 'Spring Life'
* Sentiment - Pink Petticoat 'Girly Curly' sentiments
* Everything else from my stash

Don't forget to pop over to the challenge blog to check out the other DT cards and also see who was lucky enough to win last fortnight's prize from Pink Gem. I do hope you'll manage to join in the fun with us again this time.

Here I am again!

Hi everyone, I'm back with another card today, well fancy that!
This little cutie is one of a new batch of 'Teddy Bos' that recently pleaded with me to buy them. As if Teddy Bea isn't adorable enough on her own, just look at that little puppy she's cuddling (oh how I wish I could colour animals decently!)
I happened to have a quick peek at my bloglist this morning and caught sight of this week's Teddy Bo challenge, and... well, I thought it would be rude not to join in. I found a few other challenges that I think this card fits too.

Teddy Bo - Duck Egg Blue and Brown
Charisma Cardz - Four Legged Friends
Try it on Tuesday - Inspired by a song (Puppy Love)
Passion for Promarkers - Sugar Rush

I used a mixture of coloured pencils with Sansador for blending and Promarkers to colour this image. The sentiments are digis from Crafty Sentiments, the circle sentiment frame is my new Marianne die, this is the first time I've used one of their dies and it was so difficult trying to get it out that it made me curse!

Card Details:
* Image - Teddy Bea 'Puppy Love'
* Sentiment - Crafty Sentiments Designs 'Birthday Celebrations'
* Colouring medium - Coloured pencils and Promarkers
* Punch - MS Doily Lace
* Mats - Nestabilities and Marianne 'Circles'
* Everything else from my stash

On the moving front, the property should go onto the internet on Monday and into our local paper for the first time next Friday.
I've submitted some bits and pieces to a specialised auction house and we have a general auction house to go to next week with more stuff. We're planning on doing a boot sale with everything that's left after that and hopefully by then we should have got rid of all the things we stashed in the loft five years ago!

I'm hoping to do some blog hopping and commenting tomorrow to catch up with my favourite blogs, so you may hear from me again then.

Meeting myself coming back!!......

Hi everyone, now, you may think this a strange title, but trust me when I say this is exactly the state of mind I'm in at present, so this post is to apologise for not being around recently and to explain why.
Get yourselves settled with a mug of coffee 'cos it's gonna be a long one!

Our problem started because we are one of the millions of couples 'lucky' enough to have been conned years ago, into taking out a low cost endowment mortgage that is now not going to repay our mortgage, add to this that we are both retired now and on a limited income.
Rewind about 5 years when we decided that we could not face having a huge mortgage shortfall once we were in our 60s, so we sold our lovely house and moved into a mid terraced new build. This meant we could repay our mortgage, move to this convenient little house and have no further worries. Yeah, right!
Having tried to squeeze all of the stash from our various hobbies into the new house (DH has even more stuff than I do!) we realised that we needed a bigger property, DH is also finding the stairs becoming more of a concern due to his ongoing health problems, so what we really need then is a bungalow.
Now, our part of Hampshire is beautiful and we love it, but it's definitely NOT the bungalow capital of the UK, nor is it renowned for it's reasonably priced housing, so after happily living here for the last thirty odd years we are about to move to Norfolk.
We have spent the last couple of weeks sorting out the house, emptying the loft, packing all our hobbies into boxes and hiring a storage container to put them in. Yesterday we signed with our local estate agents, so our house will be 'on the market' by the weekend, I've booked a week in Norfolk house-hunting for later this month and as soon as we sell and find somewhere to buy, we'll be off.
We're also leaving both our sons here. DH doesn't mind that (I think it's a man thing!) but I do, I'll miss them so much. I'll also miss our town, we've lived here since moving from London nearly 40 years ago when we got married.
So if you don't see me about much you know why and I apologise now to all the people who's blogs I usually visit. I'll keep you up to date with what's happening and my DT posts are scheduled for a while so you'll occasionally see things here.
I look forward to catching up with you all when I get settled, until then take care and wish me luck!

Sketch N Stash DT Card Challenge #56

Hi everyone,
I'm back with my DT card for the new challenge at Sketch N Stash. The sketch this week has been designed by the lovely Lizzy and was another fabulous layout!

This fortnight we're lucky enough to be sponsored by the gorgeous Pink Gem Designs who are offering one lucky person the chance to win download digi papers for both baby boys and girls, take a look on the challenge blog for more details.
I've used their adorable 'Cool Dude Frog' I just toad-ally fell in love with him.....
.....sorry, I just couldn't resist, I'll go and sit on the naughty step now!!

Card Details:
* Image - Pink Gem Designs 'Cool Dude Frog'
* Colouring medium - Promarkers
* Papers - K & Co, Basic Grey and My Mind's Eye
* Punch - EK Success
* Everything else from my stash

We had a record number of entries for the last challenge and the DT would love it if you could manage to join in with us this fortnight, so why not take a look at the challenge blog and the gorgeous cards the team have made and while you're there don't forget to check who won the Simon Says Stamp and Bunny Zoe prizes from the last challenge.

V is for Vintage

Hi everyone, today's card is another change from the cuties.
When I first started cardmaking my passion was vintage style cards, especially the Art Deco period and I couldn't understand the fascination with 'cute' at all. Oh, how we change!
Since becoming 'hooked' with cute images, I hardly ever manage to make vintage any more and I do find myself missing it, even more so since fellow DT buddy Daniele joined Sketch n Stash (if you haven't seen her gorgeous vintage cards, do take a look!)
Anyway, long story short, I decided to make a vintage card for a change and luckily, I found that it even fits a few challenges, so here they are:

Raise The Bar - A Valentine card with no pink or red
One Stop Craft Challenge - Love is in the Air
Crafty Calendar Challenge - Love
Paper Sundaes - Pick Your Topping (I've used flowers and lace)
The Shabby Tea Room - Keeping Warm (colour inspiration)

I really enjoyed this, in fact I think you can expect to see lots more vintage style cards in the future (as well as the cuties, not instead of) I hope you like it too?

Wee Stamps!

Hi everyone, just popped in to give you the 'heads up' on a new line of digi stamps just released.
They are called Wee Stamps and these adorable creations are the brainchild of children's illustrator Sylvia Zet.
Pop over to her blog HERE to learn more

 

Naughty....but nice!

Hi everyone, my card today fits some of the 'Valentine' challenges out there in challenge blogland.
I thought I'd have a change from the cute images I've been using, to a slightly naughtier one. I'm sure this is one that the men in our lives might enjoy a little more than teddies lol!
In case you weren't aware, I actually modelled for this and I think KennyK managed to catch the 'real me' perfectly (yeah, in my dreams!!!)
Regardless, I'm entering this into the following challenges:
KennyK's Challenge -  Circles
Cute Card Thursday - Hearts and Flowers
Do It With Digis - Valentines
Papertake Weekly - Putting On The Glitz
Cupcake Crafts - I (heart) You
DH and I don't really 'do' Valentines (and not just because we're a bit long in the tooth now) we never have really, but as I'd made this for the challenges I thought I'd give it to him for the special day. My logic is that because I remembered and he didn't, he now owes me and I can treat myself to a little 'crafty' something.

Card Details:
* Image - KennyK 'Miss Fortune'
* Colouring medium -  Promarkers
* Papers - Papermania (so old I don't know the range)
* Punch - MS 'Valentine Hearts'
* Everything else from my stash
I also used some black velvet ribbon and liberal amounts of Stickles 'Black Diamond' for added sparkle.  

Sketch N Stash DT Card Challenge #55

Hi everyone,
I'm back with my DT card for the new challenge at Sketch N Stash. The sketch this week has been designed by our Jackie and what a brilliant one it was (it actually induced me to use one of my precious ribbon sliders!)
I've used another of my sweet 'Teddy Bo' images from Fairy Doodler, I thought this was an appropriate one for today as it's Valentine's Day.
I'm popping this in to the Teddy Bo Challenge as an extra entry (hope that's allowed!)

This fortnight we are not only being sponsored by our wonderful regular monthly sponsor Simon Says Stamp
(who is offering a $15 voucher)

but also by the fabulous Bunny Zoe (whose prize is a £10 gift certificate)
Just check out Nikki's latest goodies HERE

Card Details:
* Image - Teddy Bo 'Tea For Two and Two For Tea'
* Colouring medium - Promarkers
* Papers - Jak Heath 'Little Dots' (Iced Blue) and Papermania 'Blueberry Hill'
* Sentiment - Sentiments 4 You
* Everything else from my stash

We'd love it if you could manage to join in with us again this fortnight, so pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at the fabulous DT cards for some inspiration.
While you're there, check out who was lucky enough to win the KennyK and Meljen prizes from our last challenge......who knows 'It could be You'!!

Christmas Love

Hi everyone, well as any regular visitors will know Friday is normally Christmas Card Challenge Day for me and today is no exception. In fact, I think I've probably broken my own world record for getting it posted on my blog in the fastest time, everything just seemed to come together today (for a change) and I'm quite pleased with the end result (for another change).
As you can see, I've managed to use yet another of the adorable Teddy Bea images (I promise I'll give them a rest for a while now) This one is called 'Sweet Little Angel' and I think she certainly looks the part.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:
ABC Christmas Challenge - The sketch, plus 'C is for Clean and Simple'
Bah! Humbug! - 'Doilies'
Jingle Belles - 'No Red, She Said'
Winter Wonderland - 'To The One I Love'

Card Details:
* Image - Teddy Bea 'Sweet Little Angel'
* Colouring medium - Promarkers
* Papers - Hot Off The Press
* Everything else from my stash
The gold coloured doily was part of a free gift with a vintage christmas card magazine a couple of years ago,  it's the first time I've used one and I do quite like it used like this. The peel-off sentiment was part of a Daisy and Dandelion set and I also used liberal amounts of Stickles 'Star Dust' to add lots of sparkle to the image.

A nice and easy card, just how I like 'em!

In The Pink

Hi everyone, I didn't post my second card yesterday after all, I thought TWO Teddy cards in one day was a bit much so I saved it for today!
This is the adorable Teddy Bea again and this time she's on her swing, I think she's waiting for the love of her life, Teddy Bo to turn up.
I started off by using the CLP sketch until I managed to put my borders on the wrong part of the card so it doesn't fit with that now. Still, I think it matches a few challenges and they are:
A Spoonfull of Sugar - Let's see some love
Digital Tuesday - From The Heart
Passion for Promarkers - Let There Be Love
The Teddy Bo Challenge - In the Pink
I went for a delicate, summery look on this, I think I spoiled it with the dark shadow but I didn't have the energy to start again.

 Card Details:
* Image -  Fairy Doodler 'Bea Swing'
* Colouring medium - Promarkers
* Papers - Pink Petticoat 'Vintage Rose'
* Everything else from my stash

When I popped over to FairyDoodler today I saw they had some new teddy images, I resisted but I don't know how long I can hold out for!

Reach For The Stars

Hi everyone, I'm back as promised, with yet another Christmas card.
This one matches the criteria for a few challenges so here goes:
 Winter Wonderland - their theme is 'Reach for the stars'
 Totally Papercrafts -  where the theme is 'Friendship'
Stamp Something - are asking us to 'Use a digi'
Fairy Tale Challenge - who want 'Snow and Ice'

Card Details:
* Image - Mo Manning 'A Thousand Stars'
* Colouring medium - Promarkers
* Papers - Papermania 'Love Jesse Edwards'
* Punch - MS 'Garden Trellis' and 'Double Loops' corner punch
* Everything else from my stash

I actually got to use one of my chipboard shapes for this, I've had them years and this is the first time I've taken one out of the box! I used Tippex to whiten my star (I didn't have any paints, must remedy that) and then lots of 'Star Dust' Stickles for sparkle.

Buttons and Bows

 Hi everyone, me again and this time with another Christmas card. Oh I'm going to be so happy come Christmas and I've got loads of cards already made!
This one is for two challenges, the first being Bah! Humbug! where they are asking for 'buttons and bows' well I've only used one of each so I hope that counts.
The second challenge is Jingle Belles where the theme is 'Baby, it's cold outside' and they want to see scarves, mittens etc. I can see 3 pairs of mittens and 2 scarves on this, so that should be OK.

Card Details:
* Image - Karen's Doodles 'First Snowfall'
* Sentiment - Woodware 'Circular Greetings'
* Colouring medium - Promarkers
* Papers - DCWV 'Rose Tinted Christmas'
* Punch - EK Success 'Photo Corners'
* Everything else from my stash

I'm about half way through another card for some more Christmas challenges, just waiting for the glitter to dry, so I may be back tomorrow (if it all goes well)

Adorable 'Love'

Hi everyone, I'm back again today with another card. I'm so in love with these gorgeous images that I just can't stop making cards with them.
This card is for this week's Sugar Bowl challenge which is the gorgeous sketch shown above with the optional extra theme of 'Love' well, I hope the fact that I 'love' these cuties counts!
The colours haven't come out very well on the scanner, but she is mainly coloured with vanilla, pale pink and caramel.

Card Details:
* Image - Sugar Nellie 'Grace'
* Sentiment - Sentiments 4 You
* Colouring medium - Promarkers
* Papers - Papermania 'Exquisite'
* Punch - EK Success 'Wave Flourish'
* Everything else from my stash

I'm still enjoying joining in with all the challenges, but my card box is getting so full that I'm trying to cut down the number I make. I just don't know what I'm going to do with them all lolol!

An Oldie but Goldie!

Hi everyone, today's card fits a few of the christmas card challenges.
I'm so pleased that I'm (just about) managing to keep up with these, I'm sure I'll really appreciate it come the end of the year when, for once, I won't be tearing my hair out trying to get all my christmas cards made. At least, that's the plan!

This card was made for the following challenges:
Bah! Humbug! whose theme is 'An oldie but a goldie' using craft stuff you haven't used for a while. This sums up my christmas tree which was part of a QVC TSV a couple of years ago.
Winter Wonderland 'My Sentiments Exactly' where they are asking you to use a sentiment as your focal point on your card or creation. I've used a sentiment from the Daisy and Dandelion christmas stamp set and mounted it on my new Die-namics die cut.
Jingle Belles where the theme is to follow this sketch

 Card Details:
* Papers - Dovecraft 'Winter Wonderland'
* Punch - MS 'Doily Lace'
* Die Cut - My Favourite Things Die-namics 'Polka Dot Greetings Die & Stamp Set'
* Everything else from my stash

I used lots of Stickles Star Dust on this card together with a very sparkly ribbon, unfortunately it doesn't show up very well on the scan.

Thank you to all of you who have been leaving such lovely comments, It's been a joy reading each and every one of them.