Cats With Attitude

I treated myself to a set of Inkadinkado Cat Attitude stamps today and of, course, could not resist trying them out straight away!

So I've made these atc's to swap with any other cat lovers - I have a growing collection of cat stamps of all shapes and sizes, just like my pets.

There is the oldest tabby 9 year old Pangur, named after a cat in a 9th Century Irish poem. Then the brother and sister from the same litter - Millie a small black bundle of fur who is a little timid and likes to sit on top of the DVD player and watch what is going on.

Finally we have mad Moxxi, boisterous, fast and very nosey who puts up with loads of love and cuddles from my daughter. He and Millie are both 10 months old but Moxxi here in the photo is twice the size of his sister!

I'm a sucker for a freebie!

I cannot resist a free gift of stamps on a magazine and so had to get this months Cardmaking & papercraft Mag with these cute Adam Pescott pet stamps.

I then had a nice relaxing session colouring them up with promarkers ready for when inspiration strikes!

Pampered Pussy Cats!

I treated myself to some more of the Docrafts Pampered Pets range.

I especially like these smug looking cats!

Floral Sympathy Card

Hubby's Uncle has just passed away after a long illness so I've made this simple card for his aunt using a hero arts stamp layered on black with a Woodware sentiment.

More Birdcages and Chandeliers

More cards made with the lush papers papers from Making Cards magazine,

I'm crafting while I can because tomorrow we are starting to fit a new bathroom, everything is being torn out and replaced from top to bottom - I'm expecting lots of mess and dust over the next few days!

I love Saturday afternoons!

...because I normally get some time to craft! Hubby is watching football, son out visiting mates, daughter playing with her toys and the 3 cats are fast asleep.

I had to go into town to buy daughter a Brownie uniform this morning as she enrols soon and guess what .....the uniforms are sold in my local craft shop! The latest edition of Making Cards magazine fell into my basket as it has these lovely bird cage and chandelier papers in it. I also stocked up on double sided tapes as you can never have too much of the stuff, can you?

Hot Pink and Black Lace !!

Continuing with my hot pink and black theme, this birthday card uses another of the large silver foil sentiments from Anita, layered against a piece of wide black lace and and lilac spotty ribbon.

The ribbon was bought for Easter cards but some how found it's way onto this card!

It's my 9 year old nieces birthday soon and as she loves making cards when she visits, I am putting together a large box of stash for her present.

Black Vinyl Stickers

I've had these black vinyl floral silhouette stickers kicking around in my stash for ages, so it was about time to find a use for them!

These are a couple of cards that I am sending to ex-craftrakkers over on craftbubble.

They also helped to use up some pink and black scraps of paper too!

Three of a Kind...

I treated myself to the latest Docrafts Goodie bag at The Range yesterday and in it were these lovely silver foil sentiments from Anita. Each of the cards has the same basic design but with different colour schemes and embellishments. I even coloured in the little flowers on the sentiment with promarkers to match!

There are lots more bits and pieces in the bag which I want to have a play with later on

Happy 50th Birthday Robert

My Brother will be 50 on Wednesday - that must mean that I am heading in that direction, surely not!

Mind you with all the changes to pensions, it doesn't look like I will be able to retire until I'm 70, so I suppose being in your 40's is still relatively young.

I'm going to do an 8 mile midnight walk soon to raise funds for my local hospice, St Elizabeth's and planned to do a bit a walking this weekend but have come down with a bit of a cold. Going to dose up on echinacea and see if I can shake it off quickly.

Friends make life special

This is a lovely sentiment which is part of a set from Personal Impressions - I loved the unusual outlines of cats but the 3 sentiments can also be used in so many other way.

This one I teamed up with the bird on a branch silhouette from Marianne Creatables

Pink and Girly !!

Bit of a quick and simple card today using Pink Petticoat rose paper teamed with Craftworks stripy paper, 3 pink card candy dots and sentiment.

I had to make a card today for my son who was going to a girls 18th birthday party this evening. He didn't like anything I had in stock so I made one in hot pink and black with Happy 18th Birthday on it. He then discovered that it was actually her 19th birthday!

Luckily I was able to peel off the sentiment and re-print another one! I didn't even have a chance to take a photo of it before he went out the door, he was dressed as John Lennon as it was a fancy dress party.

Kanban Birds

I took a trip to Bury St Edmunds today and just had to pop into the 2 very good craft shops there! I picked up some great sentiments and colour-me ovals from Craftwork cards and this set of bird toppers from Kanban. My mother loves wrens and so the orange card will be for her birthday later this month. I am taking her on a weekend trip to London to see the Titanic artifacts exhibition at the O2!

Debbi Moore Fairyland!

I just had to buy Creative Cardmaking Magazine when I saw the free papers and tags by Debbi Moore from her Fairlyland CD - lovely whimsical fairies and even some larger sized card papers and embellishments.

These are the first 2 cards I came up with, and there are loads more bits to play with. My nieces 9th birthday is coming up and I think she would love a Fairyland card.

Woodland Folk Bargain

I popped into The Range today to take back some unused paint and just had to take a peak at their crafting section. I was very good and only picked up some glue dots and a pack of Woodland Folk chipboard shapes that had been reduced to 99p - well, I couldn't resist a bargain!So these are the first cards that I made with them, the owl card has some rough textured card as background that I have had hanging around for ages.

7 Things About Me

Big thanks to Shirley-Anne for nominating me for this award - I am chuffed! To carry on the tradition I must

1.Thank the person/persons that shared this award with me and link it back to their blog/blogs. I recommend you look at Shirley-Annes blog - Stamping for Joy, especially her 'less is more' spring entry!

2.Share seven things about myself.

1. I have 3 rescue cats, Moxxi, Millie and Pangur
2. I once visited the Polices Black Museum full of exhibits from famous murder cases - only a select few are allowed in!
3. I am left handed which is occasionally awkward crafting-wise
4. I collect Cobridge Stoneware- alas now out of production
5. My Grandmother is now 95 and my Grandfather is 100 and I hope I have inherited their genes
6. I raise funds for my local Hospice by selling stamps for them on eBay, I usually raise several thousand a year
7. I hate tea and coffee.

3.Pass this award onto seven other bloggers that I have recently discovered.Please look at these blogs - you will come away so inspired!

The World of Sarpreet - especially her demo cards

Colour & Ink - guest designer for loads of companies

Maggies Crafts - very talented card designer who lives in my home town

Pams Space - and member of a Gin/Wine club!!

Sweet n Crafty - Carlyann does cute cards soo well!

Charity Crafter - for supporting so many good causes

A Perfect creation - Kathleens cards are so classy!

4. Leave a comment so they can pass along the recognition!

I've got the day off from work as its half term - off to watch the Disney film Tangled with daughter later on - have a good day everyone!

A Couple More 'All Our yesterdays' cards

It's been so cold recently that it seems strange to be making summery cards with these cute children on the beach - summer still feels a very long way off!

Went off to an auction today and spent far too much money, most of of the stuff is going straight on eBay.

But I am very tempted to keep several items including a cute little pair of racing glasses from the Jockey Club Paris, and a wooden bookslide decorated with a pair of camels. That's the fun of auctions, you never know quite what you will come home with!!!

All Our Yesterdays Card

I used the diagonal sketch from Inspirational Cards blog to come up with this card - the sweet seaside scene was free with this months Cardmaking and Papercraft Magazine.

The spring fling paper was matched with the card embossed with flowers highlighted with teal cats eye ink.

I haven't been able to much crafting today as my nephew managed to loose the key to the back door - eventually after hunting for ages, it turned up behind a cushion on the sofa!!

Poppies Galore!

This is my new stamp from Dimension Fourth called Poppy Corner - isn't it great! I love the curling tendrils of the leaves. Both of these have been coloured with promarker pens and the ATC has a Woodware sentiment of 'just for you' in one corner.

The sentiment in the square card has been mounted on cardstock cut with the frilly squares dies from Go Kreate. I'm entering this into Allsorts inspired by Nature challenge

Little Pink Felt Birdie

This cute little pink felt bird and flower were part of a set of 8 which I found in The Works today for the bargain price of 59p! I also picked up a set of 100 printed birthday sentiments for 99p

So, of course, I couldn't resist using them to make a card as soon as I got home from work. The background papers with daisies are by Nancy Watt. The set also includes 2 bunny rabbits which will be great for Easter cards, when I get round to thinking about them.

I'm getting brave and going to enter this into

Bunny Zoes ...... spring flowers everywhere

Fancy a Hanglar Bike Ride?

I know its a bit early, but spring is just around the corner and I fancied making a bright cheerful card with the cute pink petticoat papers that are free with Quick Cards magazine.

The cycling girl is a Hanglar stamp and the little pink flowers fell into my basket when I visited the Range in Ipswich yesterday. I went to get the free pampered pets stamps set from Docrafts but you guess it, they had run out. However they have taken my details and promise to let me know when more come in.

If Friends Were Flowers .....

A simple card for the Sentiment challenge at Allsorts - just a Hero Arts Watercolour stamp layered onto strawberry pink cardstock with a scroll border punch down 1 side

The striped background paper is by Pink Petticoat

3 Tier Birthday Cake

I made this card with the cake layer stamps that are in the Docrafts goodie bag along with the yummy Papermania lemon sorbet papers

There is a layer of stickles glitter glue to highlight the edges and candle flames

I finished it off with a large silk flower and am going to enter into the Inspirational Card Sketches challenge who have a Bunny Zoe Crafts gift certificate up for grabs.

I'm glad to see several members of Craftrak are meeting up on CraftBubble to resurrect the swaps as we miss the site since it went down

A Rose by any other name..

A card made using another of the Romantica stamps that I recently won - this time it's a Valentines card.

The edges of the roses have been distressed with red chalk ink and although the photo doesn't show it, some of the words and petals have been highlighted with stickles glitter glue!

I'm entering this into the Allsorts challenge and the Crafty Calender which both have Love themes !

A Glass of Champagne anyone?

Well, this is the first card that I have made with my new stamps that I won from the magazine and have teamed it up with a Tim Holtz swirl.

I love the purple and silver combination and suppose the stamp with its 2 glasses of champagne could be used as a wedding, engagement or even a special birthday card

I'm going to enter this into the new Little Claires Anything goes challenge and Make it on Monday.