Meg's Birthday

Today my wonderful daughter turns 21! We had a meal out at the weekend and tonight we are having an evening together before she returns to Sheffield tomorrow.

She has grown from this....

 to this...

and we are so proud of her and love her to bits!
Here is the birthday card I made for her. I took lots of inspiration from Marianne Lait, who worked some amazing magic with this stamp set for her Hobby Art DT samples. Do pop over and see Marianne's blog. She designs for both Hobby Art and Lavinia and her project are stunning!

I used glossy accents on the dragonflies and added some liquid pearls to the stamens of the cellandines. All of the flowers and the dragonflies are attached with 3d glue gel and the card is 8 x 8". the scene was created using ink dusters and distress ink with some stamping in memento. 
Thanks for looking!

A card, a walk and a milestone!

 I hope you are all well and enjoying the warm weather! I can't believe the difference from a week ago! I am sharing a card I made using an indigo blu stamp and distress inks in fossilised amber and abandoned coral. I am taking this to Miss Di's playground, as I every bit of card I used except the base card was snippets. The stamp was one of four bought for me by a good friend for my (50th shhhh!) birthday last week. We started the celebrations last weekend with a lovely walk around Langsett Reservoir...

 and ended up as Banks End Cafe for lunch and a pudding (Jam roly poly and custard was just the ticket, lol)! At the time there was still snow on the hills and we wrapped up warm. Don't you just love their polka dot wall?

 My celebrations continued with a visit to a craft shop, another tea room and my Karate grading this weekend. I may be doing a pretty good impression of a beetroot, but I was awarded my first Kyu (brown belt with two black tags). The next time I grade it will be for black belt. I also got a lovely surprise as Meg and her boyfriend, Grant came down from Sheffield to support me. Here I am below with Sensei Alex, Meg and Sensei Richard

 The guy on the left here is Sensei Karl, who is the Area Sensei, and Sensei Richard is from my Dojo. I think they find the height difference amusing too! Everyone here has played a huge part in my karate journey and I really appreciate their help and support over the years.

Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments.

Bird photos from Scotland and News!

 Before I show you my photos, I want to share a bit of wonderful news we had yesterday. Our Daughter, Megan got the A level grades she needed to get in to the University of Sheffield to study Medicine. She won't be too far away (just over an hour to get there) and she gets the chance to follow her dream! We are over the moon and so proud! The past eighteen years has gone so fast. Now we will need to get busy shopping for all those extras she will need - Ikea here we come!

Now on to some more photos. Here are a few of some of the birds we saw on holiday.

 Our first walk down to the beach on holiday revealed this little fellow, a male reed bunting with a beak full of insects.

 This pheasant was right outside the kitchen window when we got up. I guess he was there all night as you can see how saturated he was in the rain!

 Later in the week I was pleased with this shot of a swallow I took at Caerlaverock castle... until I took this one below the following day at Threave - Don't you think he just epitomises joy?

 This nuthatch below was also taken at Threave.

 I ummed and ahhed as to whether I should include the next one as it is such a dreadful photo, but I decided to anyway - a Barn owl taking a rest from his hunting, from the living room at the first cottage

 There were lots of chaffinches at the second cottage and I took this rather handsome male from the dining room window.

 Outside the House Martins (and swallows) fed their fledglings on the flies and midges...

 We visited the Red Kite feeding station at Ballymack Hill Farm and saw some breathtaking red kite action!

 But photography-wise I seem to have had most success with the more common garden birds like this Blue tit at Ken Dee Marshes.

Thanks for looking!

All Grown up!

Tomorrow is my gorgeous daughter's eighteenth birthday! I can hardly believe it! Time goes so quickly... Anyway, here is the card I made for her.

The main image was dusted and stamped onto silk art card with inkylicious stamps, memento inks and ink dusters. I then mounted it on some two tone metallic card (Bronze and maroon) that was a bargain from PDA. I embossed a piece of pearlised black card and rubbed over with treasure brass and treasure pewter. Finally I added a sentiment (little claire) some die cut fern leaves (frantic stamper) and her name in scrabble tiles (stamps from Stamporium no longer available)

Here is a view from a different angle so you can see the sakura stardust pen highlights.I have just realised that this card fits with the Birthday theme at Penny Black and More this month, so I am entering it there.
Meg has gone to spend the last few days of her Easter holiday on the south coast, so we are apart on her birthday for the first time! We have a small celebration planned for a couple of weeks time to compensate!
She is currently studying for her A levels in Biology, Chemistry and Physics, so has put off most things until exams are over and she knows whether she will be able to accept her place at university. I will let you know in due course. I am so proud of her, and even though I will miss her so much I really hope, with all my heart, that she gets the opportunity to follow her dreams.
I will leave you with a few photos...

Thanks for looking!

Winter Wonderland at Stamping Sensations

It is the first Sunday of the month and time for a new challenge at Stamping Sensations. Our theme this month is Winter Wonderland - perfect for any last minute Christmas cards, or winter birthdays. I have made a couple of scenic cards - no surprise there, lol! This month we are being sponsored by Chloe's Creative cards. I have used their Starry wreath, embossed in holographic silver, as a frame for my little scene (Deer -Stampscapes, Tree- Making Tracks, Inc.). I used my ink dusters to make the sunset with Memento inks.
I used the same colours (Grape Jelly, Dandelion, Tangelo) to make the little scene below.

 All stamps except the sentiment are from Inkylicious for this one.

 Here is a different angle so you can see the glittery snow.
The prize is this lovely lot of stash and stamps!

 

Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at all the fabulous creations that the DT have made this month. There are so many beautiful creations! It has been a whirlwind weekend for us. Megan had her black belt grading yesterday. I am delighted to say she passed and here is a photo of her sporting her shiny new belt alongside two other successful students, Heidi and Stuart, who are also from GKR region 30.

Here is an action shot or two!

 

Our form of Karate practices minimum contact, so Megan didn't land a punch on this young man's chin, but it was definitely on target! I would be scared, lol! In a couple of hours we are off out to celebrate Steve's Dad's 94th birthday with some of the family.
Thanks for looking and I hope to pop over and see you soon!

I'm back!

I can't believe it has been over a week since I posted! I have been a bit lacking in the mojo department, and that last week of the half term at school was really busy, including a twilight course, Staff meeting, valentine disco and Governors meeting, all after the school day finished. Needless to say I needed to switch off, and I spent most of Sunday reading (and finishing) a book that I had fallen asleep with several times during the week!
On Monday we were invited to the local Council Chambers where Meg was presented with a copy of the book in which her short story has been published (Proud Mum and Dad moment!).

 Today we decided to take a trip to Dearne Valley and RSPB reserve at Old Moor. We were lucky to have some sun and we saw plenty of birds. It was lovely to get some fresh air and exercise!

 As you can see the sun shone this morning and the blue sky was wonderful! It was a little less bright as the day went on, but we enjoyed watching the shovellers .

 This was a rare moment when their heads were above the water and we could see those magnificent beaks. Most of the time we had this view!

 There were still lots of berries in the hedgerows, but most were past their best now.

They still provided some lovely colour though.
Hope you enjoyed the photos. I will be back soon with some cards hopefully. I am still lacking in ideas, but hopefully a bit of pinterest surfing should sort me out!
Thanks for looking!

A Good Day

Well, I have been finding it difficult to get into blog land this week, but I am finally here and I will be back tomorrow too, with the October Stamping Sensations challenge. So what has brought me here today? I have had a wonderful day so far. This morning I made a ginger cake for my lovely friend Megan, who I went to Rwanda with. Here it is:

After a fairly hectic week at home and at school I needed some baking therapy, lol! Whilst it was in the oven, I discovered who has been raiding our peanut bird feeder all week!

He was quite small, so I think he is a young one. After that I went down to the New Writers UK book fayre where I met up with my friend, Megan and daughter Megan who was volunteering there. We listened to talks by Mark Gwynne Jones, a performance poet from Matlock Bath, and Steve Dunne, a crime fiction author and English teacher from Derby. They were both very approachable and we had a good chat with them. After that came the award ceremony for the children and young peoples writing competition, where Meg was a finalist. We were thrilled to find she had won the silver medal in the 14-16 age group.

Her short story will be published in a collection with the rest of the finalists in February. As you can see I enjoyed my proud Mum moment, and came home with a pile of books to read too! Hope you are having a good weekend. I will be back in the morning with my cards. Thanks for looking!

A sketch at Stamping Sensations

Good Morning! It is the first Sunday of the Month, so time for a new Challenge at Stamping Sensations. Our lovely Teamie Tracy has created a sketch for us to follow this month, and asked us to use Summer Colours. Here is my take on the Sketch:

I used the stamp set Cherish, Hugs and dream from Little Claire, who are our sponsors this month.The Papers were created with one of the lovely butterfly stamps from the set, Ink Dusters and soothing sunset big and juicy ink. I coloured the main image with promarkers and added some stickles too.
Do pop over to the challenge blog for a closer look at the sketch and some fabulous inspiration from the DT. Here is a picture of the wonderful prize on offer.

 

Doesn't it look fabulous?  Talking of things looking fabulous, I wanted to quickly share a photo of Meg as she had her Prom on Friday night. I am such a proud Mum!

Thanks for looking and I hope you will enter the challenge this month!

Megan's song

If you have a few minutes and fancy a listen, my daughter has written a song... enjoy!

My little girl is all grown up!

 I can't believe that my lovely daughter is sixteen today! I thought I would share the card I made for her. As she is really interested in all nature it had to be a scene, and last year she bought a wonderful dragonfly field guide, so I included a dragonfly. I also included some geese flying over as we saw lots when we visited Lynne last week. Here is a close up of the dragonfly.

 I stamped it twice in Versafine deep lagoon and majestic blue on to parchment, and embossed with kaleidoscope embossing powder. I cut both out and layered on top of each other. You can't see all of the iridescence in the photo, but it does shimmer and sparkle. All stamps are from Inkylicious and the scene was created with ink dusters and Adirondack inks . Now for a picture of the birthday girl.

 Here she is wearing one of her birthday presents - a traditional kimono, and here is a view of the back of it

 Finally, I will leave you with a sneaky peek of one of the creations I have made for the next Inkylicious show on create and Craft. It will be on Sunday 28th April at 5pm. hope you can watch!

 Thanks for looking!

P.S. I have some new followers (waves)- Welcome! Unfortunately, I can't seem to find out if you have blogs. Google plus doesn't automatically tell you. Please leave me a link so I can visit you too!