First Snow

Wow...that month went quickly ;) I am such a rubbish blogger! So here is my design for this month's challenge over at The Cupboard Trilogy It is definitely worth entering this month, the prize is Bazzill cardstock!

I have used more of the Stampin Up papers that the lovely Cal sent me, take a moment to pop over to her blog HERE...she has just uploaded a couple of videos showing the new SU trimmer.....wow, it looks fab! I don't know how well you can see it on the photos but check out the glittery snowflakes. They were cut on the Big Shot and then sprayed with some Shimmer Paint mixed in a spritzer with some rubbing alcohol. They are so sparkly they almost look embossed. All available from Stampin Up :) Yet again my little sewing machine came into use, how fabby is the stitching round the edge of the layout? I love the pattern of the stitch. It's all been a bit stressful here with my eldest son going to various interviews for University. He has had 2 offers so far and has been asked to go to Oxford to interview next week...for four days!! Scary stuff! Why oh why aren't my paragraphs showing when I publish my blog :( Does anyone know?

Ooooops....

Ooooops...where on earth did October go??? Isn't it amazing how quickly time goes sometimes. October passed me by with a few hiccups. The little free time I had I didn't manage to use very well and consequently completely failed to do a layout for The Cupboard Trilogy this month. There are some really good examples over there so worth having a look and joining in. CLICK HERE to see the latest challenge. The lovely Cal very kindly sent me some gorgeous Stampin' Up! papers to have a play with. Some of you may know that I used to be a SU demo a few years back but had to stop because I couldn't dedicate enough time to it to do what I really wanted to do. I do regret stopping and would love to do it again....maybe one day. Anyway, I digress. Here is a layout I have made with some of the Christmas papers.

Cal's blog is HERE, have a look over there because she makes some gorgeous stuff and can order these gorgeous papers from her :) By the way, she also has a charity raffle going on at the moment to win the most AMAZING two mini books. You can see the details over HERE. . . . Can you see the stitching on my layout? (Click on it to enlarge the image)....I bought a little sewing machine from IKEA and it's FAB! And a bargain at only £59...let me know if you want a review (leave me a comment if you do and I will do it if there is enough interest).

Blog Candy Winner!!!

A few days later than planned sorry! I spent Saturday at Cal's birthday crop....CLICK HERE to see her fabby blog. I had such a brilliant time and made 3 art journal backgrounds and half a layout (don't laugh....that's a lot for me!) I will photograph them soon to share. So.....the winner of my blog candy chosen by a Random Number Generator is: LYN CLARK! Congratulations Lyn! Please send your address to sallyjh40@gmail.com so I can pop it in the post to you.

Challenge #4 at the Cupboard Trilogy

I am thrilled to have been asked to join the Design Team as a permanent member over at the Cupboard Trilogy. The Challenge this month is Wings and here is my offering:

You can click on the image to enlarge it for a closer look. The layout was inspired by the quote up in the top right hand corner. It is from Unity Stamps as is the gorgeous little girl stamp on the bottom right corner...I adore her! The beautiful tulle is from the new Stampin' Up! Autumn/Winter catalogue...I am no longer a demo myself but I still adore their products and can easily put you in contact with a demo if you want to get your hands on some :) The background is SU Crumb Cake cardstock sprayed with some of the AMAZING Dylusions Crushed Grape Ink Spray, I am dying to use some more of Dyan's ink and stamps on my scrapbook pages. Don't forget to have a look at my Blog Candy CLICK HERE it is really easy to enter and is rather nice (even if I do say so myself :D ) Thanks for looking!

Blog Candy!!

We all love a bit of blog candy and I have been threatening to do it for a while...so here we go... Ta Da:

You will get: A complete chipboard alphabet with multiple letter A blank canvas to alter A little pot crammed full of blossoms A packet of mini brads A spool of mini rik rak (white...you can colour it with ink) A moleskin cahier journal A pack of amazingly versatile Doodlebug white Paperfrills American Crafts brown alpha stickers 7 Gypsies cardstock stickers (I LOVE these!) A pack of Bo Bunny Bare Naked Chipboard, Bella Journee How fab???? So here's what you have to do: 1. Become a follower of my blog 2. Comment on this post Easy peasy! And if you want a second entry to win just share this on your own blog linking back to this post (and let me know you have done it in your comment so I can go and see your blog!) I will do the draw on 20th October, good luck!!

Sneak Peek and Candy

Just thought I'd share one of my most favourite stamped images of the moment....here she is in all her glory, a sneak peek of a project I can't share until next week

Went to Ikea last week and finally bought the wooden drawers I want to buy everytime I go there. I think I have a drawer obsession! They are on the left of my desk...the bottom row of 5 in a line I got from Freecycle a while ago, the set of 6 small drawers (holding scissors and tools) are from Boots last year, they were full of Gok Wan toiletries. The set next to them are the ones I got in Ikea....now to decide how to decorate them!

And last but not least.....BLOG CANDY!!!! Check back over the weekend cos I'm having a sort out and will be offering some goodies up for grabs!!

I have been keeping a secret!

OMGoodness me, where on earth have the summer holidays gone? We have been so busy and I just can't believe that the kids go back to school and I go back to job number 1 next week :( (job number 1 is as a school photographer for the under 5s and job number 2 is a Zumba instructor for those of you who didn't know!) I have been keeping a little secret...I am guest designer this month over at The Cupboard Trilogy Pop on over and have a look on the fantastic challenge this month. Here is my take on it:

I took the middle line using Buttons, Lace and Eyelets. Don't look too closely at the eyelets as I am sure there are a few squashed ones.....I use a Cropodile Big Bite to set them, one of the best tools I ever bought. I was a bit heavy handed with the first few forgetting just how strong it is. Hope you like the layout and join in the challenge, will be looking out for your creations!

Just a quickie

Why is it when in theory you have all the time in the world you don't seem to manage to get anything done? grrrrrrrrr Anyway...enough of that. It's my daughter's 14th birthday tomorrow so I made her a real girly card with butterflies, lace, pearls and bling. It is similar to one I made for a friend's wedding but this time I added some embossing to tie it in with the latest challenge over on The Cupboard Trilogy

I love my embossing folders and had a play with another card too:

I am just showing a close up of the technique as I am not entering the card to the challenge blog. I love the effect of sticking your patterned paper down before running the whole thing through the Big Shot in the embossing folder. I really like the texture :) Thanks for looking x

I scrapped!

OMGoodness it has been such a busy couple of weeks ending in a very theraputic scrapbooking session. I haven't done any scrapping for absolutely AGES so really really really enjoyed doing this layout. I feel a bit rusty and need to do it much more often :-) This page is my entry for July's Challenge over at The Cupboard Trilogy The closing date is 31st July at 6pm so if you want to join in you had better hurry! It doesn't have to be a layout, you can do a card or other project if you prefer. Let me know if you do take part.

Do you remember in my last post I showed you the anklette my daughter was going to wear on the beach? Well on the second day of her holiday I had one of those texts no parent wants to receive....Mummy, please don't worry but I've had an accident.....

Yep, one broken ankle :-( It's a long story and has been a horrible week, let's just say I am very grateful to have 2 of my 3 children safely home with me again. My eldest is working in Spain until mid August so I'm still not truly relaxed. Anyway, hope you like the layout, don't forget to keep an eye out for the blog candy that I will be posting up this week. Thanks for looking :-)

Tagtastic!

On Saturday I was lucky enough to be able to pop to Doncaster to the Summer Crafting Event. The first person I saw was the lovely Kirsty Wiseman. She was there doing make and takes for Fantastic Ribbons so I had a play while we had a quick catch up and made this:

Now the original design is a necklace but as my beautiful nearly 14 year old daughter is off to Spain this week she thought it would be great as an anklette for the beach. She's so cool! I did promise the other day to show you my AFTH tags when I finished them ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Ta da! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I still have the Kraft one and a smaller one to do but not quite got round to those ones yet :) I hope you like them, it is quite a new style for me but I really do enjoy it. Am hoping to scrap this week.....omg it has been TOOOOO long! I want to join in with the challenges over at The Cupboard Trilogy, anyone fancy joining me? ~ ~ ~ Don't forget to keep an eye on my blog as I am having a bit of a sort out and there will soon be some candy on here!

What a FABBY day!

On Saturday I was lucky enough to be able to pop over to Art From The Heart in Harrogate to check out their sale and take part in a couple of workshops with Dyan Reaveley and Kaz Hall on their preview day.

I did buy loads of stamping and art journal goodness but also got a mega bargain as they were selling some of the shop fittings....check out the fab paper trays:

So my 12x12 paper and cardstock storage went from this :

To this:

After a gorgeous lunch in the cafe downstairs I went back to the shop to make a cute bag and tag (cut from a Tim Holtz die) with Kaz

And the other side:

Made using the amazing Dylusions Ink sprays and stamps. If you haven't tried the inks I urge you to have a go. They are amazing and so easy to use and produce incredible results. I loved making this and still have the inky fingers to prove it 3 days on :) We made these technique tags with Dyan, again using the Dylusions products and an very clever faux bleaching technique. Dyan has promised to make a video for it so I will post a link when she does (no pressure Dyan!).

These aren't finished yet so will post the finished, decorated tags when I do them!! I had such a good day and came away feeling like I had made some new friends, learnt some new techniques and realised that I need a third job to support my hobby!

So.......It's been a while but I'm back! Blogger has changed so much since I last used it on a regular basis, I can see it's going to take me a while to find my way around. Any tips or links to helpful articles will be much appreciated! I am dipping my toes back into the craft world and hoping to share some sort of creation with you all at LEAST once a week (that's me committing to you!). I haven't crafted regularly for years but am desperate to start scrapping again, it's scary when you haven't done it for a while :( Today I am sharing a card I made for my lovely OH....it took me hours I am so out of practise! I took inspiration from the Stampin' Up catalogue. Although I am no longer a demo with them I still adore their products.

The photo was taken on my mobile so not the greatest quality I'm afraid. I hope some of my followers from my other blog will find their way here and egg me on a bit....please leave a comment to say hi, would love to see your blogs too. See you soon! *promise* :)