A special challenge and Blog Hop

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If you haven't seen this, read on because I've got some very exciting news! On the 1st February there will be a very special ‘One Off Challenge’………with some rather special candy as the main prize. No ordinary candy, but a really serious piece of equipment that all of us would love to have in our craft rooms.
Keep a close eye on Brenda's Blog, Floral Fantasies because she is sharing some sneak peeks of the prizes on offer ........yes ‘prizes’ because as well as the main challenge prize, there will be runners up prizes and a Blog Hop with prizes to be won at each stopping point. Why not click on the picture to find out more from Brenda!

Suggestions please!

It's been a busy weekend. Yesterday I spent the morning turning up trousers for my Dad. After lunch we went to see him and took his Birthday things. He loved the card, and we went for a lovely walk in the sunshine. When Steve came home from work we went out for a Chinese meal to Cheung's, where the food is wonderful and the spare ribs are to die for! His Sister had bought him a cake with the word Fifty in candles on the top, so we finished off with a slice of that some hours later!!!
Today I've made a couple of cards this morning and been out to look at cars this afternoon. We put a deposit on one and I will pick it up a week tomorrow! I'm so excited! This is the first time I've changed my car because I want to, not out of necessity. The previous one was barely more than scrap and the one before that I'd had to change as the baby seat wouldn't fit into the back being a 2-door!
Anyway, onto the cards. The first is a first attempt at a wedding card for my nephew, and I'm rejecting it as it didn't work. More roses will start to look like a funeral wreath, and less leaves didn't look right either. Any suggestions?

My second card is a cute one. The mouse is from Whiff of Joy and the papers are digi downloads. The swirly one was from Funky Fairies, sadly no longer available, and I'm not sure about the other. The sentiment is from Aspects of Design funky frames.
Don't forget to pop back tomorrow to see something I've been working on for a few days that I'm rather pleased with, nudge, nudge wink, wink!
I'm off to rethink the wedding card now, whilst cooking tea.

Apologies and Tuesday Taggers

I'm not being a particularly good blogger this week. Please bare with me. This week it has been parent's evenings at work, so I've been at school quite late on 3 days. I've had three new children in my class, it's Steve's 50th Birthday tomorrow, I've been to the dentist and the car has been to the garage (neither of which were serious, thank goodness). I've also heard from my Neice who is currently in Antartica and has just returned to Scot base safe and well after 6 weeks in the field. I was getting withdrawal from emailing her! I'll explain more when I've got more time. I've been working on a project too, which will be revealed on Monday. Make sure you pop by and take a look!
Anyway, here is a rather hurried entry for Tuesday Taggers where the challenge is to include a bit of jigsaw. I sprayed a tag with Moonshadow inks that I've recently transferred into spray bottles. I used the hero arts leaf flourish (bet you are getting bored of it!), a quote from the internet and some tiny blank jigsaw pieces I have had in my stash for aeons. They took some serious digging out! Just realised I've done a quote mentioning cards on a tag. A bit incongruous but I liked the idea my cards become a record of history!

Dad's birthday

After the four seasons card/ book I made for my dad's eightieth Birthday last year I wasn't sure what to do this year. Then Lynne K posted her entry for Allsorts, and, knowing we were going to meet up this weekend I asked her if I could borrow her design and her stamps! Lovely lady that she is she said yes, so here is the finished article. I used adirondack inks and Versafine on stampboard. Stamps are from stampscapes, Crafty Individuals, Clarity stamps and craftwork cards. Thanks Lynne. I know he will love it!
I'm off to prepare neeps and tatties to go with our Haggis - a day early, but we are celebrating Burn's Night tonight with some friends.

Zebras

I've had the promarkers out again. This time I used a digistamp from Teri at Delicious Doodles. I bought it and then thought 'Zebras don't need colouring!' It only took a few minutes to think about colouring the background though, and it could be done in virtually any combination of colours. I'm thinking of trying a purple sunset next. The background paper is made with a stamp by an American called Katy Widger and I bought it from Blade Rubber stamps on a visit to London. The stamp company is Rubber Poet. If anyone knows a stockist of these in the UK please let me know, because I'd love some more. I used Kaleidacolor creole spice ink, a Martha Stewart punch and the Victoria cuttlebug embossing folder and some brilliance gold ink to burnish the edges. Thanks for looking x

Tuesday Taggers leftovers!

Before- well after I cut off the top and bottom!

After.
Here is my entry for this weeks Tuesday Taggers. I saved the central section of some crackers, cut out the motif with my nesties, mounted on a card and stamped the corners with an oriental corner stamp (See-D's). After that I put it under a heavy weight for a couple of days. It's still curling a bit, but not too much.
I'm not sure about this card at all. It's a bit licky-sticky for my liking. I might have been better using something else. I'm going to spray the remaining ones with some creative colour sprays and use the reverse side!!!

Allsorts Challenge - Pink and Brown

Here's my entry for this weeks Allsorts challenge, which is Pink and Brown. I've used my craft stamper freebie designed by Elusive images, my Hero Arts leaf flourish(again!) and some Papermania paper. I used a Martha Stewart border punch to edge the panel. The hearts are stamped onto a background created by swirling brilliance ink onto a craft mat and spritzing with water (learned from Jill at the Stampman). I did add a teeny bit of rambling rose pink Starburst Stains too. I took the card to work and tried photographing it at lunchtime, but I still needed flash! I must invest in a daylight bulb! The brown ink on the heart stamp does stand out more than it appears in this photo.
I made a concerted effort with this card. Initially I just reached for the promarkers, but then forced myself to do something different and I really enjoyed it!  I've got to admit that I'm not into pink, which probably explains why there is more brown than pink!
I should feel like I have more time now as I'm no longer deputy and I'm back to being key stage one coordinator, but it isn't the case at the moment. I'm catching up with all the jobs I didn't get round to last term! It is much less pressure though, which I'm very happy with!  Steve and I decided we would use my Deputy wages to buy another car after Christmas, but the next two weekends are busy and I didn't want to test drive anything in the snow!  On top of that the screen-wash on the current car has developed a very big leak, so I'm driving round with a spray bottle on the passenger seat until the garage can fix it on Monday. I'm just hoping it's not a lot of money, cos I don't want to be spending anything on it if it's going soon! Please bear with me. I might not do all of the challenges I regularly do this month, but hopefully I'll be back to normal by the end of it! 

Doodle Dragon Studio Challenge - Love, and Polkadoodles

Here is my entry for the first Doodle Dragon Studios challenge where the theme is love. The bear was a freebie during their blog hop, but is now available in the shop. I coloured him with promarkers and used my rectangle nesities. The background has a Crafty Individuals stamp and is edged with a Martha Stewart Punch. The Sentiment was from Little Clare Designs. Thanks for looking!

P.S. I've just been told by my lovely friend Brenda that it's the theme on Polkadoodles too, so I'll enter it for that one as well!

Steve's Birthday

Steve reaches the big 50 at the end of the month and I was racking my brains as to what I could put on his card. He loves ducks but I couldn't get hold of the penny black stamps I'd had in mind and with all the snow delivery might be tricky, so I asked Teri if she was prepared to draw me a duck. She is such a lovely lady she drew two! This is the mandarin duck, which is available at Delicious Doodles. I coloured it with promarkers, adding a few highlights with a white gel pen.
I made an easel card using some papers I inherited from my Auntie Margaret when she cut down on her crafting stash. the sentiments are all from Graphicus except the 50th which was computer generated. The border was punched with an EK success punch (dotted scallop), bought from Sir Stampalot.
On Friday night  Meg and I went to Karate. We hadn't been for 4 weeks (Two weeks christmas break, weather and a problem with the hall). We really enjoyed it and took part with enthusiasm, but boy do I ache! The backs of my thighs and my shoulders are the worst, and I'm struggling to dress myself!!! I'm hoping it will have worn off by tomorrow. In the meantime I am able to sit at my desk and craft without any pain!!!

Dare you to Digistamp Challenge - Buttons

This weeks challenge at DareU2Digistamp is Buttons. I've been busy with the promarkers this week, so I put them together and added a few buttons. Both cards are for young ladies. The first is for a daughter of a friend and the second for a young neighbour. The digistamp on the first is from Sassy Studios and the gorgeous teddy is a creation of Vince and a freebie from his blog - check it out, because he is a very talented guy! Thanks for looking!

My First Guest DT slot!

Here are the tags that I've made for my first guest DT slot which is with Tuesday Taggers. The theme this week is Tag it with Birds. I've done these on shiny card stock and stamped first in versamark with the Hero Arts leaf flourish. I then used a circular mask and applied distress inks. The first has the flourish stamped again in Tea dye distress ink and highlighted with white gel pen. the second has a Lavinia stamp (vine) stamped in majestic blue versafine. Both tags feature birds and branches from the Tranquil plate by Innovative Stamp Creations, stamped in black versafine. I had such fun making these. My fingers went from looking like I chain smoked to looking like I'd bruised them very badly! I got a funny look at the till in Sainsburys!
It is such a lovely theme so why don't you pop over and have a go too?

Allsorts Challenge week 34 - a sketch

Here is my entry for this weeks Allsorts challenge. Emma has created a lovely sketch and the theme is entirely up to us. To celebrate Digistamp Boutique becoming a regular sponsor you get two chances if you use one of their fabulous digistamps, so I have. This is Bernard. I coloured him with promarkers and I think he goes very well with these MME papers. The flower stamp is also MME, joining the punched leaves. I used some tulip paint and some flat back pearls in the centres. Thanks for looking!

Been a bit quiet doing lots of colouring!

Just realised I've not posted anything since Wednesday. Most evenings I've come home and got the promarkers out. I almost ranted when Meg's school was shut again, but I coloured instead. Thursday was interesting. We took my class swimming for the first time. Sixteen came to school that day, and all went smoothly until we got back on the bus to come back to school. The road outside the leisure centre was sheet ice and the bus slid sideways across the junction, coming to rest against a road sign! The children were very calm and quiet. There was one comment of 'Are we going to crash again, miss?' which was answered with 'Let's be nice and quiet whilst the driver concentrates'. By the time other motorists had got out of the way and left us with room to manoeuvre we were half an hour late getting back to school. Every child thanked the driver on the way off and several told him he was wonderful, bless 'em! He was filling up!  There have been no injuries on the playground and our school has been open every day. I'm sounding a bit self righteous now aren't I?!! Sorry!
Anyway, onto the cards. All three are digistamps. The tiger is from Crafts U Print, the monkey is from Dustin Pike and the Beautiful Hydrangea is from the lovely Teri at delicious doodles. They are all coloured with promarkers. Thanks for looking!

Tuesday Taggers and I've won a lovely prize!

Tuesday Taggers theme this week is just Black and White. I wanted to play with a couple of stamps I bought recently. Both are Hero Arts - the birds are from a set of clear stamps and the Leaf Flourish is wood mounted. I stamped the black paper I used for the roses  with the leaf flourish too, but in white this time. The sentiment is from Graphicus. The roses were made following Brenda's instructions. Awful photos, but I had to use flash.
We have missed the worst of the weather here by about 10 miles. Mansfield and the surrounding area has had loads of snow, but we have been lucky (?). Our hilly road is still very icy, but negotiable with care. The school where I work has been open and all staff have made it to work... many children haven't though. I had a class of eleven today! We have let them out at playtimes too and they have worked together to build the most amazing snowmen. We did ban sliding and snowballs though (I know! What meanies!) Meg's school was closed as many staff live in the north of the county, so she spent the day with a friend after sleeping in, lucky thing! I was the lucky one later though - I found out I had won a set of stamps from the stamp man blog hop! Woo hoo!

A very quick one

I made yet another following the Allsorts sketch and using up more Laura Ashley papers - the contemporary collection this time. The stamp is another of the graphicus Big Flowers. I think the rest of these papers will be going into a future blog candy along with the LA stamps I bought to go with them. I've not used them at all and I want the space!

Allsorts Challenge - old or new plus a sketch

Here is my entry for this weeks Allsorts challenge. I was very good and used old stash and a stamp I haven't used in ages. the stamp is Non Sequitur and the papers are some Dovecraft Laura Ashley ones. I bought both the traditional pack and the contemporary pack when they came out, but they weren't what I expected and I've not used them at all until today. The leaf punch was a Christmas present and the roses are made as Brenda showed me.

Now when I saw the freebie papers that were on offer from the Funky Hand I had to download them and use them too, so I did another one just for fun! The Stamp is from the Graphicus plate Big Flowers. Thanks for looking!

New Year's Resolutions

I didn't do very well with my new year's resolutions last year. I wanted to buy less and use more stash...it lasted till February! Since then I have spent quite a bit, but I have managed to use some of the things I hadn't used in quite a while. The candles on this card are Non Sequitur stamps I hadn't used in about two years. My aim this year is to use more of what I've got. I will still spend, but I aim to go through my stamps and stash. If I can't bring myself to use it (like some of the papers I have) then I'm going to get rid of it. I will be trying to keep my stash to the space it occupies now. I will do my best to keep my craft space a bit neater so I don't lose things so often! I'm also going to make an effort to branch out from cards a bit more often. Tags, ATCs and Fat pages maybe. Finally, I'd like to meet up with a few more of the lovely people I've met in Blogland, and see the ones I've met again! Hope you all had a fabulous New Year!