Yesterday was such fun!

 My second post today! As some of you know Lynne, Megan and I went to Sir Stampalot yesterday. I wanted to take the car out for a decent run and where better to point it than in  the direction of Peterborough! We arranged to meet Brenda there and had a wonderful time! I bought a fairly big pile of stash, and had a good chat with Brenda and Janice too. They are both lovely, as is the new bigger shop. It's a very long time since Lynne and I stood in the doorway of a shop and said WOW! The run with the car was great, and I was pleased that I could check out the acceleration and how it handled on the A1. Anyway, my card is the first  I've made using some of my new stash. I had about 4 MS punches on my wish list, but eventually bought a set of 'punch around the page'. The flower is a Tilda stamp. Although I really don't like the children with no mouths, Brenda pointed out that they do quite a lot of useful stamps to create scenery etc, and this is one that looks pretty good on it's own. I coloured it in promarkers and decoupaged it to make it stand out a bit. The papers are MME. I'm now going to go and play with the new Penny black stamps I bought and stroke some kaisercraft papers! The Hero stamps have been put grudgingly away as presents for Mother's day and my birthday.

Another 50th Birthday

I have a friend who has been driving a very bright yellow car for some time, and has decided to change it... for a pinky red one! Her excuse is that it is easier to spot it in the car park! She will be 50 tomorrow, so when I saw this digistamp from Bugaboo, I just had to get it! I coloured it with promarkers. The swirly stamp is paper artsy and the flower is punched from MME papers. Thanks for looking!

Another card from my messy session

Just a quick post to share with you a card I made using some more of the inky papers I made last week. This uses Aspects of design sheet Funky frames, available from the Stamp Man. I added a bit of Faux stitching round the edges. I also added a few dots of sakura stardust pens to the main image. I was trying to be a bit more inventive with them, and I'm not sure it worked!
Just a quick update that my niece has tracked down a housemate who backed up her laptop onto his computer six months ago and still has her photos. Also the Antarctica ones are still on the University server, so she will be able to get most of them back. things are looking quite positive for her thesis too. Thank you so much for all your kind words.

Tueday Taggers gets Messy!

Tuesday Taggers this week is sponsored by The Craft Barn, and the challenge is to get messy. I very definitely did! I got out lots of different sprays - Adirondack colour washes, Creative colour sprays and my starburst stains (these were in pots originally, but I transferred them to some spray bottles I found in Sainsburys!) Firstly here is a picture of a bit of my mess...

and now I'd better show you the results...

All of the stamps are from Stampscapes apart from the geese flying over, and those are Lavinia stamps. It is a 'Joy Fold' card. Not sure why it's called that, but I saw a couple last week and decided to have a go. The backgrounds are all done with Adirondack colour washes apart from the scrunched/ creased one, which was done with starburst stains. I had such fun, and now I have a stash of background to use, so no doubt you will be seeing lots more!
Thanks for looking!

A Wonderful Wedding

As I mentioned briefly on Saturday night, my nephew's wedding was wonderful! There seemed to be a bit of a theme with embarrassing photos! As the register was signed there was a wonderful slide show of pictures of them both from being babies right through to adulthood. I think the one that raised the biggest laugh was my nephew proudly standing to attention in his Thunderbirds outfit! The best men (he had two) did a great job with photos too, distributing them round the tables as 'evidence' ! It was a wonderful occasion. My niece had returned home from New Zealand early last week in time for her brothers wedding too, so we enjoyed it all the more seeing her again after an absence of 4 years whilst she was completing her PhD. After the wedding I drove home to Nottingham, but my SIL, BIL and niece stayed over.
Unfortunately, whilst they were there some complete *******s broke into my SIL house and stole (amongst other things) my niece's laptop, hard drive and memory sticks that had all her PhD thesis, research, every photo she has taken in NZ, Costa Rica, Panama, Antarctica. Four years work gone. She was awarded her PhD with the proviso she made some alterations to her Thesis. We are just praying she can get the one back she submitted and make the requested alterations without the research evidence she would have had with her laptop. So some brainless idiot is going to get at most £50 in a pub somewhere for a battered laptop that contained four years of my niece's life. It is sickening. I'm sorry to use my blog as a place to have a rant, but I'm feeling so angry, and I can't think of anything I can do to make it better. I don't think it has sunk in yet for my niece. So please if you can spare the time say a little prayer for her and lets hope the police can catch the *******s.

An Award from Rachel

I've just received this lovely award from my 70th follower (yay!), the very talented Rachel. Please pop over and visit her blog as she is one amazing teenager. At the tender age of 14 she has such a gift, AND looking through her blog I think she puts every bit of her stash to best possible use! If only I was that good! Thank you so much, Rachel. I am honoured!
I'd just like to take this opportunity to welcome all my lovely followers, old and new alike, and say thank you so much for all your lovely comments. Now I need to tell you ten things that make me happy.

1. family
2.  being a mum
3. friends
4. crafting
5. chocolate
6. cooking/ baking
7. gardening
8. making a difference
9. shopping for craft stash
10. blogging

I'm now going to cheat. If you would like this award please help yourself, because I value each and every one of my followers I'd like to pass it on to each and every one of you. Thanks for all your support!

A little gift and Allsorts

Here is the little something I was telling you about in my last post. I have spent a couple of days working on it and I handed it over to the lovely young lady my nephew got married to today. This is a view of the top...

here you can see the side, and inside ...

lots of very cute embarrassing pictures of him on a zigzag pull out! The whole thing started out life as an M&S 'curiously strong mints' tin. With the mini tag on the top I think it qualifies for my entry for Allsorts this week too! I used stamps from Crafty Individuals and Hero Arts, with a sentiment from Graphicus. The paper I made the roses with started life as white copier paper which I drenched in cherrylicious creative colour sprays from Crafty Notions, before scrunching it all up. My hands were a little red for a while until I covered them in purple, green and blue, after which they looked bruised! You can probably tell half term has been a bit of a craft fest for me! Today has been such a wonderful day too. My niece is home for the first time in four years after completing her PhD in New Zealand (Antarctica, Panama and probably other places I've forgotten too!), my nephew has married his true love, and the sun has shone all day!

Meg's Story and another wedding card

Today Megan was invited (with two guests) to a presentation and tea at County Hall. She received a copy of the book in which her short story has been published. You can read more about the competition here and find out more about the book here. Here she is with her copy. I'm a very proud Mum!

Now you know I still wasn't sure about the other wedding cards I did? Well I've made a third, and I think this is the one I will give them!

I used Rubber Stamp Tapestry stamps for the heart,adding a few punched flowers and some gold tulip paint. The base card is stamped with Art Impressions T2773 in aged mahogany. I used my MS doily lace border punch and a white organza ribbon. I hand wrote their names in the heart, because no matter how hard I tried with the alphabet stamps I own, I couldn't get them straight! I am in the process of making something else for them, which I will post soon. Thanks for looking!

Tueday Taggers - Time

Here is my design team Card for this week's Tuesday Taggers where the theme for this week is Time and Clocks. Please pop over and join in the fun! I made the background paper by swirling Dusty concord and spiced marmalade distress inks onto my non-stick mat and spritzing with water. I lay my paper over the top and dragged it a little to ensure coverage. When it was dry and ironed flat I stamped with Hero art's leaf flourish, crafty individuals text background, a flourish from CI and Hero arts sentiment (Take Time...). The main image is from Non Sequitur, stamped in black versafine over a background brayered with Kaleidacolor Creole Spice.
I'm quite pleased that I'm still using old stamps and stash and not rushing out to buy new stuff! I'm saving my pennies for a couple of weeks time when I'm taking the car for a decent run out...to Peterborough! Yes, the draw of a bigger Sir Stampalot store was just too much to resist!

Allsorts challenge - 3, 2, 1

This week's challenge at Allsorts is a recipe, to use 3, 2 and 1 of something of your choice on your card. It is sponsored by Digistamp Boutique.  I thought I'd use the opportunity to have another go at my nephew's wedding card. For my 'three' I chose roses, made with pearlised red paper.

My 'two' are two Crafty individuals hearts, stamped and embossed in silver and over-sprayed with crafty notions creative colour sprays in Cherrylicious. My 'one' is a silver organza ribbon. The stamp is one from the squiggly ink range by Paper Artsy, stamped in aged Mahogany Distress ink, which I also sponged around the edges. The sentiment is computer generated. Still not sure if I'm totally happy with it. I know I'm very hard to please! Thanks for looking!

We have winners!

The wonderful Brenda has completed the draws for all the lovely goodies provided by Sir Stampalot. The winners are as follows:

Challenge winners are:

1st Place Emma - UK - Big Shot and dies

2nd place - Lina - Sweden - Assorted embellies, ribbons etc.,

3rd place - Sue - UK - Penny Black stamp

Blog hop winners:

Lorraine's blog - Josephine -UK - Embellies & cardstock
Francesca's blog - Michelle - UK - Embellies, flowers, stickers
Chris's blog - Diane - UK - Cardstock, embellies, ribbon
Jules' blog - Amelie - Sweden - Stamp Happen stamp & envies
Clare's blog - Tammy - USA - Hero stamp and sentiments
Tracy's blog - Sarah - UK - Papers, buttons and ribbons
Debby's blog - Nikbee - Australia - Hero stamp and sentiments
My blog - Sannas - Finland - Stampendous stamp & envies
Julia's blog - Kari - Norway - DP's, ribbons & buttons

Pinky's blog - Mirabella - Poland - Stampendous stamps

Winner of the Blog Hop solution which was "We are Moving"

Debbie M - Hampton Art stamp, embellies & ribbons

Well Done everyone! Don't forget to email Brenda with your details so she can get your lovely prizes posted to you ASAP!  Pop over to Brenda's blog for news about more Stampalot Challenges to come, too!

Sir Stampalot Challenge and Blog Hop

Hi There!
Hopefully you have arrived here from the lovely Debby's blog. If not you need to go to Brenda's blog to start with and follow the links till you arrive here again. Don't forget to go back to Brenda with your entry for the challenge too! Pop your entry into Brenda's Mr Linky. The challenge and blog hop is open worldwide and entries to the challenge can be combined with other challenges, but not back linked.
Full details are posted on Brenda's blog, so do please have a go!

For the theme 'Moving' I've made a double 'wiper' card, so called as two little wipers swing out of the top when you pull the two edges!

I used the leaf flourish from Hero Arts, a small butterfly (Hero arts Clear design set), the Victoria cuttlebug embossing folder and the Journey word art from Crafty Individuals. I couldn't make a card for Sir Stampalot without including a rose, as it was there that my good friend Brenda taught me how to make them.
The letter you need to collect from me is M and, once you have left a comment, you need to pop over to Julia's blog where you can continue collecting your letters and see the fabulous creations from my talented teamies! If you want to find out more about Wiper cards then you can see a great tutorial here, but I would strongly recommend you leave a comment and finish the blog hop first!!! Thanks for visiting and good luck!

P.S. If I know you and you win, please can I come round for a play?!

Valentine's Day

Here's my Valentine's card for Steve. I saw the Digi image on Fred She Said and had to have it! It comes with the sentiment You are better than chocolate... but to be honest it was a tough call! It's probably a bit girly but I really liked the humour.
I coloured it with promarkers and did the background with the Hero Arts Leaf Flourish (again!). I really must put it away and use something else!

Fan'tag'stic News!

Just a quick post to tell you I've been chosen to join the design team for Tuesday Taggers! I am ecstatic! Thanks to all those people who encouraged me to go for it. I am really looking forward to working with my new very talented teamies! Thanks also to those people who have congratulated me after seeing the post on the Tuesday Taggers blog.
The card, by the way, was  a very quick monochrome card with stamps by 'Stamp to your arts content' and Hero arts.
Thanks for looking!

Love, Love, distressed buttons and bows!

On Sunday I decided to make another wiper card, but this time a single wiper that would fit into a C6 envelope and be easy to cut from A4. I decided to follow the Allsorts requirements for this week, which is 'Get distressed with buttons and a bow'. I sprayed some crumpled paper with Moon Shadow mists in tawny turquoise and burnished bronze. When it was dry I tore it roughly to fit the front,  two side strips and wiper square. I attached some cream lace, a very old button and some 'paper string'. On the two side strips and wiper I attached some ribbon and some stamped and embossed hearts ( Elusive images).  the front has an image from a Crafty individuals book and more stamped embossed hearts from a CI stamp.
It is a very different colour scheme for me, but I like the grungy feel of it, and as it is about love I've decided to enter it into the 'By the cute and Girly challenge' for February too.
I am having a lovely week. I picked up my new car yesterday (new to me, but only thirteen months old and still looks and feels like new). It is a lovely drive and feels a bit posh! I'm looking forward to the weekend when I can take it on a longer run. I'll be back soon with other news! Thanks for looking x
P.S. was thinking of doing a photo tutorial for a double wiper card  - let me know if you are interested

Tuesday taggers - Teddies

Here's my entry for this week's Tuesday Taggers, where the theme is Teddies, sponsored by the Craft Barn. I had no teddy stamps at all...funny, cos I used to have some... Oh yes, they were all in Megan's craft drawer! The stamp is by Rubber Stampede and is called best friend bears! I coloured it with promarkers and used distress ink round the edges. The papers are all small scraps of leftovers from other projects. I finished it off with a scrap of sari ribbon.
As a child I had mostly home made bears as my Nana used to make them for me. They got better the more she made. By the time I was 15 she was an expert and they did look like they were 'shop' ones! The ones I cuddled as a youngster were...how can I put it...unique? a bit lopsided? Definitely not as pretty as these two.  Thanks for looking!

And here's the muffins...

I meant to put them on my last post. The recipe says either mixed spice or cinnamon and ginger... I used mixed spice this time, and  bramleys to give them a bit of bite.

Allsorts Challenge- a sketch

Here is my entry for this weeks Allsorts challenge.The image is from Dustin Pike (see side bar for link) and is coloured with promarkers. The patterned paper is a freebie from Glenda at Artylicious, and the red pearlescent paper is put through the cuttlebug using the hearts embossing folder. The sentiment is a peel off. It's been a very different sort of day today. I went to work as normal to find one of the classrooms had a fountain in it coming from a heating pipe. The heating was off and the temperature in most classrooms was 11 or 12 degrees. The classroom with the burst pipe was a little warmer, but rather wet! We had to close the school. We had an electrician in at school sorting out some other problems and he had to keep switching the electricity off, so it was dark and cold!  I came home at ten o'clock and spent the morning marking and getting warm again!. After lunch I made some spiced apple muffins and this card (and drank lots of tea, and surfed the net!). Thanks for looking!