Spotty Bear Card

I married up some spotty ribbon with my martha stewart doily lace and marianne flower then and finished it off with 3 candy dots for a very spotty card!

After reading a newspaper article that our local blue cross rescue home has over 20 black cats & kittens that no-one wants, I have decided to use my birthday money and have a black kitten ( or perhaps 2) instead of getting a new handbag! We already have 1 rescue cat who I hope will adjust to having a new playmate.

Sugar Nellie Gives Martha Stewart a Bear Hug

My very first Martha Stewart punch arrived today - the doily lace one, which my mother has bought me for my birthday (Thanks Mum!) So I have teamed it with a cute Sugar Nellie stamp called Bear Hug with some butterfly vellum as backing and some prima flowers

Sizzix Owl Birthday Card

I have had this cute owl die from Sizzix for ages and hardly used him, so thought I would have a play making him up from various scraps of paper. My Cuttlebug has been red hot today cutting out the all the letters, the circle and some of the flowers to go on the card!

Paddling at the beach

Another card made in a vain attempt to use up some of my papers that seem to just be piling up at the moment. This is a very sweet freebie vintage image from Digital two for Tuesday and they also have some lovely fishing ones at the moment which look great for those 'hard to please' mens cards !

Took the kids to see Toy Story 3 yesterday which is a great film, even my 15 year old son raved about it afterwards ( and now wants a Toy Story game for his X-box!)

Sugar Nellie Card

I had another play with my Sugar Nellie stamps - this time using a blue colour scheme. I really must start to use up some of my stash of papers which are growing at an alarming rate. However some of them are so pretty I just can't bring myself to cut them up!

Commissioned 50th Birthday card

One of the ladies at work will be 50 soon and I have been commissioned to make a card for her. I have used the green, black and white colour scheme for this and spelt out her name and age in diamontes with some Marianne die cut flowers as an embellishment.

I was very good when I went to buy some more DST yesterday and only bought some card blanks as well - but I did linger over the Martha Stewart punches - guess they will have to go on my birthday present wish list!

Black & Green Marianne Flower Card

A fairly simple but striking card with just a black, green and white colour scheme and using my new Marianne flower die as an embellishment

My New Toy - Marianne Flower dies!

Aren't these flowers gorgeous!! I made them with my new Marianne Designs Creatables flower dies and love them - I expect you will be seeing them crop up as embellishments on lots of my cards in the future.

These were made with just a few scraps of old paper

A little Bird Told Me .......

I just love this sweet free vintage image of 2 birds sitting in a branch from Digital Two for Tuesday. They currently have some great Alice in Wonderland images to download for free at the moment too! This is the first time I have used the x-cut leaf punch and love the way it embosses all the veins on the leaf as well.

Creativity Bubbles Card

These Bubble Shopping stamps were free with the latest docrafts Creativity magazine that I picked up from The Range yesterday. Not something I would normally buy, but they are quite fun.

I was very good and didn't buy the Goodie bag, but I was very tempted, however I have stacks of paper and embellishments that I must use up first before I can justify any more purchases

Made this for a shopping mad friend whose birthday is coming up soon.

Couple of Kiddies Cards

I found some old snap cards which had childrens TV characters on them and thought they would make great toppers for cards! The Bob the Builder card has a hammer and paintbrush shaped buttons to embellish it. Hopefully some young child will like them!

Nestie Flower Card

I've got the day off work but it's just too hot to do anything other than craft indoors in the shade! I made the flower from layers of pink mulberry papers cut out using the blossom 2 nestie from Spellbinders.

The rest is pretty much recycled - the little girl is a free image from a magazine which was printed onto the back of an old Christmas card. The backing paper was a tag left over from a piece of wrapping paper and the black paper used to layer it up was out of a box of chocolates!

Living it up in London!

Just come back from a couple of days in London, celebrating my Silver Wedding Anniversary. We saw a show (The Lion King), did loads of sight seeing and shopping and have come back with sore feet and an empty purse. The only disappointment was that I didn't stumble across any craft shops there!

However I did have a super bundle of crafting goodies waiting for me in the post from a group called Combat Stress (who help support our troops with mental health problems) as I had made them lots of cards to help with their fund raising.

Gorjuss Girl Birthday Card

This is one of my favourite Sugar Nellie stamps - a Gorjuss girl with her teddy called Bear Hug. I took advantage of the world cup on the TV to spend a bit of time colouring in some stamps and making cards!

The background paper is from Papermania Henbury Lane range and has a lovely shimmer to the roses.

Friends for 35 years!

Just finished a birthday card for Angie - we have been friends now for 35 years! She loves yellow so I always try to make a card with a yellow colour scheme. This cute little guy holding a flower was a free stamp from a magazine.

18th Birthday Card

I made this card for my nieces 18th birthday later this week - she is already a sophisticated young lady, so hope she likes this hot pink and black card!

Another Sugar Nellie Card

Another card with my bargain Sugar Nellie Stamp - this time using a brown, orange and green colour scheme. A bit too hot today to do anything other than craft indoors today!

New Sugar Nellie Card

This card was made using my new Sugar Nellie stamp, she was a bargain off eBay as she only cost £1.45! That has got to be one of my best buys from there. I love pastel colours and so I am going to colour her using a variety of promarker pens. This is my first attempt using lilac and pink.

More Cat Cards!

I'm on a bit of a roll now and have made several more cat cards with my new stash!

Cattitude!

Yehhh! I had a super time at the scrapbook and cardmaking fair today and bought far too much - but in my defence most of them were absolute bargains including a fab cat & dog scrapbooking kit with 10 sheets of 12x12 papers, loads of matching embellishments, rubs ons and ribbons for only £5.

I was also introduced to the delights of silkies pearlescent paints and made an atc with them there and so just had to buy 3 to bring home. Also treated myself to more flowers & brads, new pair of scissors, football shaped buttons and some yummy papers.

Head Stuck in a Watering Can

This is one of the stamps from the new Peter Rabbit Beatrix Potter stamps by Crafters Companion, I was lucky enough to win them from Craft Stamper Magazine last week - and of course, had to have a play with them straight away!

They are coloured with my faithful promarker pens and stamp up very well. I'm off to a card and craft fair at Needham Market in Suffolk tomorrow, unfortunately its a week before pay day so will only buy things that I really, really, really need!!

Just Gone Fishing!

This little boy fishing is another great digi image from Digital Two for Tuesday, who have some really unusual and cute vintage images - they have just put some super old motorcycles on which would look great for Fathers Day cards - and they are all free to download!

New Owl Card

I just love these cute little owls on a paper stack free with a magazine - especially the brown and blue colour scheme. I coloured the flower with a blue promarker to match and finished it off with 3 card candy buttons in the corner. I won these in a magazine competition and they have been soooo useful, just adding a bit of embellishment here and there!

Ohh - Another Award!

Thanks so much to Kay at the Daisy Chain for this super award! Kay makes some fab cards and we have swapped a few times through the Craftrak website. Her cards always have a sense of style about them - just like this chap!

Now I have to say where I would like to be in 10 years time - well, still in a job! I work in local government and with massive cuts looming no-one knows who will still be around in 10 months let along 10 years. Ideally I would love to have my own craft room which could be possible in 10 years if eldest son has moved out. Youngest daughter would then be 18 so I expect she will still be here. I would be approaching my 35 wedding anniversary then which would be a reason to celebrate. We are spending a long weekend in London, going to the theatre, visiting museums and eating out to celebrate our Silver Wedding next month!

I would now like to pass this on to some blogging friends

Smiffys Cards - watch out for her workshops in her new log cabin

Carlyann - just love her tilda cards

Chrissie - her cards have great layouts

Joey - check out her animal magic card - cat with attitude!

Annette -for the fab altered artwork

Sugar Nellie Mackenzie

This cute stamp of Mackenzie by Sugar Nellie was a free gift when I subscribed to Craft Stamper Magazine and I love her! She is carrying a basket of apples and looks so sweet.

The backing papers are from the summer special edition of Creative Card Making magazine and are called cherry blossom - yummy!

I'm going to get my promarker pens out now. After a busy week at work I feel like doing a bit of colouring in, as it is very theraputic!