Had a very eventful evening!

 Hi everyone!

I'm feeling very lucky at the moment that I'm at home and able to write this
message. My brother and I were in quite a serious accident this evening. We
were traveling to see a comedian in Belfast and were on a back road and came
round a corner and suddenly the car started sliding as a patch of the road had
just been surface dressed and had loose stones all over it. The car kept going
until we were facing the way we came and then kept going over the hedge and down
a big drop and rolled twice before stopping on its roof. I just couldn't believe
it had happened! Thankfully we were both relatively OK - my brother is actually
fine, not a scratch on him! I have a couple of cuts on my face and my hands are
cut all over them but it's my shoulder that's causing the most discomfort at the
moment as I felt it hit off the ground on one of the rolls. Thankfully no broken
bones or torn ligaments - I went to A&E and they x-rayed my shoulder and face
and patched me up. A few paper stitches on my face and I have to wear a sling
for a few days.
We are both so so lucky to be alive!
 

WOYWW! Finally!

Evening all!

I feel a bit bad that I haven't taken part in What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday in ages - way back in May!  I can't believe it's been that long!  I've been wanting to join in but have been really busy with this and that and for some reason especially on Wednesdays!  Not that this week is really any different - I'm squeezing this post in just on time!
I saw this quote during the week so it made me push myself to get a post done!

When I read it it just made me think of crafters and their usually less than tidy desks! lol!

Here's my desk this week:

So, scattered over the desk in no particular order are my Magnolia Stamp Club parcel that arrived a couple of days ago, but that's as far as I've got with it.  A few pages out of my stamp file of some stamps I might use on a new card (there might actually be some of stamps I've already used recently and haven't put them away yet!) A great big mug of tea.  My most used sentiment stamps from Wild Rose Studio.  And a few bits of things that I salvaged off a t-shirt belonging to my niece that my sister was throwing away.  Oh, and some Christmas sentiments that I'm hoping will inspire me to make some Christmas cards if I leave them on my desk for long enough!

So that's me!  Sorry it's been so long, I'll try not to do it again!

Thanks for looking!
 

The Birthday Train and a Mini Blog Hop!

Morning everyone!

Still cold and wet here in my part of the woods - very cold and wet!  I thought I was gonna need a boat to get home from work yesterday and the bad weather hadn't even hit us then!

I'm not gonna talk about the weather any longer as I've got a bit of a long post for you today!

It's Tuesday morning and that means there's a 50/50 chance of a new challenge with the Creative Card Crew - and guess what?  Today is one of the days when we have a new challenge!

The challenge for the next fortnight is....

Purple!

And the fab sponsor for this challenge is Robyn's Fetish

They are offering a fabby prize of 4 digi's to the lucky winner!

The design team were lucky enough to get to play with some of their fab images and this is what I did:

The Robyn's Fetish image is called Choo Choo Charlie and I coloured it with Promarkers: Aubergine, Slate, Lilac, Forest Green, Lime Twist, Meadow Green, Sky Blue, Arctic Blue, Pastel Blue, Black, Cool Grey 5,4,2,1, Cocoa, Caramel & Sandstone.  Phew!  I added the text to the trailers on the computer before I printed the image and filled them up with some glossy accents and German glass glitter.

And just for fun I made the image into a slider!  Here it is at the start of it's journey..

 And here it is at the end of it's journey!

The papers are Stampin' Up! Cheerful Treat and the ribbon and sparkly brads are also Stampin' Up!  The cloud die is a Memory Box die.

The inside has more or less the same layout as the front and the sentiment is a Wild Rose Studio one stamped with memento ink in Elderberry.

So go have a look on the Creative Card Crew's blog to see the rest of the DT's fab creations!

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:

By The Cute & Girly; Boys/Men
CRAFT Challenge; Children
Digi Doodle Shop Challenge; Anything goes
Fussy & Fancy Friday Challenge; Travel theme
I Love Promarkers; Occupations
Oldie But A Goodie; Show us your ribbons
Stamp & Create; Anything goes
The Squirrel & The Fox; Celebrate the occasion
Totally Papercrafts; For a child

And now back to the subject of the Design Team it's time for my first ever blog hop - and it's even a surprise one!

Our lovely teamie Jan only went and got married last week!  She looked so lovely and happy in her gorgeous photo's that the rest of the DT decided to throw a surprise blog hop in her honour and to say a big huge CONGRATULATIONS!

So if you're following the hop you should've landed here from Vicky's blog or if you want to start from the start (which seems like the sensible thing to do!) you can go straight to the Creative Card Crew blog.

Here's a wee card that I've made for the new Mr & Mrs Jan..

I decided to go for a circular card to symbolise the whole never-ending thing!  I used this fabby wedding couple stamp from The Greeting Farm and coloured it with the following Copics: Skin;E21,13,00,0000,R20.  Bride's hair; E55,53,51 Groom's hair;E37,35,33. Dress;E41,40,Y15,13,11,YG13. Suit;110,C10,8,6,5,3.

The papers are by The Paper Company: Wedding Bouquet and Papermania: Vellum paper.  I used a Cheery Lynn Heart to Heart lace doily die and a Magnolia flourish die as well as Spellbinder and Go Kreate circle dies.  Another Wild Rose Studio stamp and Stampin' Up punches for the sentiment and finished it off with some Wild Orchid Crafts pearls.

The inside uses more of the same

So that just leaves me to say another congratulations to Jan and the next stop on the hop is Elisa's blog!

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Cute Card Thursday; A different shape
Divas By Design; Lovely layers
Dream Valley Challenges; Celebrations
My Heart Pieces; Anything goes
My Mums Craft Shop Challenge; Hearts & Flowers
Stamp n Doodle; Anything goes
Whimsy Stamps Challenge; Anything goes

Phew!  I told you it was a long post!  Thanks for sticking with me!

Royal Box

Good afternoon blogland!

I'm a little later today than normal, in fact I've been a little later all week than normal as it was my Dad's 60th birthday this week and it's not good having a party in the middle of the week!  The celebrations aren't over yet though so we're all looking forward to next week!
It's also my wee nephews 5th birthday tomorrow so more partying to do for that!! lol

Anyway, it's Friday and a whole 2 weeks has passed since the last challenge at The Alphabet Challenge Blog!  So we're up to Q and the lovely Mari chose the theme of...

Q for fit for a Queen!  (use jewels!)

I've gone for something a bit different this time and altered a little heart-shaped box (it's a bit dark too, just like the Nirvana song!)

So here it is:

 I got the box as part of some gorgeous blog candy that I won from the fabulous Zoe!

I got the fabby crown from Calico Crafts and when I saw it I thought it would be perfect for this challenge!  I filled the crown with glue and jewels and then added the heart, which promptly hid all the jewels!  but I liked the heart in the crown so I tried to get it to stand up a bit so you can just about make out a few beads!
I pulled out all my bits and pieces and tried to figure out what I wanted to do next.  I foutered about with the long bead and the wire and came up with that and didn't really know what to do with it - so I just stuck it on!  I did a bit more foutering with the wire and I made the mesh - I then thought it reminded me (just a bit) of the fab wire work by the oh-so-talented Mel - check out her blog to see some real gorgeousness cos my attempt is woeful!

I'm actually quite pleased with how it turned out as I'm not usually one for altering things - maybe some of these days I'll get around to all the other boxes and things I've got to try to alter!
I stuck some big beads - like fake Pandora beads - to the bottom for feet - I really like the stripey one!

So that's my wee box - It's gonna be a Christmas present for my mum (she doesn't look at my blog!) and I'm hoping to get a nice brooch to put inside it.
Go take a look at the rest of the DT's gorgeous pieces of inspiration on the Alphabet Challenge Blog and have a go yourself - I'm looking forward to seeing all your bling!

I'd like to enter this in the following challenges:

My Heart Pieces; Anything goes
Southern Girls Challenge Blog; Bling bling
Stamp n Doodle; Anything goes
ABC Challenges; X for Xing - Does my wire count as xing?
Whimsy Stamps Challenge; Anything goes

Thanks for looking!
 

First Day Of School!

Afternoon all!

Hasn't it gotten so cold?!  I can't seem to be able to get warmed up at all - I'm sitting at my computer wearing a coat! lol!  The evenings are fairly dropping down too, we're heading for winter!

I remember when I was young sitting in the classroom at the start of a new year, wearing my brand-new uniform with the stiff collar digging into my neck and the jumper that could stand up on its own and the sun beaming in through the floor-to-ceiling window and the sweat lashing me!  This September seems to be a bit different to a few years ago, the weather has been horrible for the start of the new school year.

My gorgeous nephew had his first day of Primary School last week so I thought I'd make him a wee card;

The image is by Lili of the Valley and is called Back to School Boy.  I coloured it in the colours of the Primary school uniform using the following copics: Skin; E21,13,00,0000,R20. Uniform; G99,YG97,67,Y19,17,15. Shoes; 100,W9,7,5. Bag; E37,35,33. Hair; E55,53,51. Plus W3,1,00,Y00.

The blackboard paper is from the Prima: Romance Novel pad and the green one is from the Bo Bunny: Blast Off pad.  I used Spellbinder dies - Star circles, standard circles large and petite ovals large and a star Cuttlebug embossing folder.
The sentiment is computer generated and the stars are from the Spellbinder Star Circles set - the large one is a die on its own and the small ones are some of the bits out of the mat under the image.  The name on the stars is hand written.  The SEI twiney-ribbony stuff is from my stash.

The inside is following the layout from the front and the sentiment is from LOTV.

I used this particular mat to follow on from what I made for him to give to his Play School teachers when he was leaving at the end of last year and I never managed to blog them, so here they are now:

The sentiment on the "lollipop" is computer generated and the one on the tag was hand written by Ryan himself!  The ladybirds are ones I bought in Australia and the ribbon is that most-used ribbon from my stash!

And here he is with the whole set!

I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges:
Bearly Mine Challenges; Anything goes
By The Cute & Girly; Boys/men
Crafts 4 Eternity; Numerical Numbers
Crafty Boots Challenges; One (and I'm now singing the U2 song!)
Divas By Design; For a child
DYSU Challenge Blog; Kraft & Twine
Papertake Weekly; Things that make you go aww!
Quirky Crafts Challenge Blog; Numbers
Scrappy Frogs Challenge Blog; Back to school
Stamp & Create; Anything goes

Thanks for looking and another big hello and wave to my new followers!
 

Christmas Is Coming!

Morning!

What a fantastic month and a bit of sport we've had!  I was really sad to see the end of the Paralympics as I enjoyed it all so much!  I've still got a few programs recorded on my sky box so I'll be able to ease myself away from it by watching a few wee bits here and there!  I'm really gonna miss all the fantastic action of every event.  All I can say is ROLL ON RIO!!
And just to end the week off nicely there was a fantastic F1 race in Italy - I wasn't fussed on the winner, but loved seeing Fernando getting a podium place in his Ferrari.  Love it!

But, now that all the sport is over (well, the motorsport isn't yet!) it means there's lots of fab programs to watch on the telly!  I caught the first episode of the return of Dallas last week and am looking forward to the next installment.  I'm also so excited about the return of True Blood - we're only going to get to see series 5 now, even though the series finale was on in the States a while ago.  And the first episode of Strictly is on on Saturday night - right up our street with all that glitter!  Fab-u-lous!  Time to get the exercise bike parked in front of the box me thinks!

Anyway, time for another challenge from the Creative Card Crew!  Our challenge for the next fortnight is...

Trees!

This time we are sponsored by the fabulous Simon Says Stamps with a fantastic prize of $20 to spend in their shop!

I decided to stick to a Christmas theme for my card, and as I regularly do, I made a selection of similar cards:

No colouring on these ones, so they were quite quick to make  I used a selection of papers from the Kaiser Craft Christmas Carnival collection.  Kaiser Craft papers are available at Simon Says Stamp.

I used the Stampin' Up! pennants punch and turned them upside-down to make little Christmas trees!  I added some coloured Swarovski crystals as baubles.

The corners are Spellbinder dies from the Floral Accents set.  A large selection of Spellbinders is available at Simon Says Stamp.

The sentiment is from CC Designs, Christmas Words and is completed on the inside of the card with "Peace & happiness at Christmas and throughout the new year" (I didn't take a pic as it's plain apart form the sentiment).  I used another Stampin' Up! punch for the sentiment and my ribbon is from my stash.

So go and have a wee look at the fab inspiration from the rest of my teamies on the Creative Card Crew blog and have a go yourself!

I'd like to enter these in the following challenges:

Anything Goes Challenge Blog; Early Christmas
Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge; Christmas
Joanna Sheen Challenge Blog; Going dotty
No Matter Which Challenge Blog; Die cuts and/or punches
Stampin For The Weekend; Start Christmas early
ABC Challenges; W for wishes
The Squirrel & The Fox; Anything goes
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge; For a child
Sparkle's Christmas Challenge; Sparkle & Bling

Thanks for looking and a big hello and wave to my new followers!


 

Never Enough Pockets!

Morning everyone,

It's been a while since I've posted as once again I'm engrossed in sport, this time the Paralympics.  And all I can say is WOW!  Absolutely amazing to watch!  I shed a few tears during the Olympics but this is ridiculous!  I'm loving every minute of it.

But anyway, another Friday is upon us and that means it's time for another challenge at the Alphabet Challenge Blog!  We're up to P and theme this time is...

P for Pocket Card (or a pocket on your work)

I've made cards with pockets before but I've never made a pocket card before so it was a new experience for me.  Here's what I did:

The image is "Happy couple" by Tiddlyinks and I coloured it with the following copics: Skin;E21,13,00,0000,R20. Dress;YR24,23,21,00,R32. Shirt;YG97,67,45. Suit; 100,C9,7,6. Roses;R37,24. Hair;E49,39,35,33.

The papers are Basic Grey, Porcelain.  I used a Stampin' Up! scalloped edge punch on lot's of strips of the paper curled them a little and then stuck them down on a piece of card.  I then used a Spellbinder oval die to cut out the shape.  Not surprisingly, the die didn't cut through all the layers of card so I had to finish the job with my scissors.  I die-cut a scalloped oval out of black card and attached to the frilly oval after I had re-curled the layers.  The flowers are vintage ones I've had for a while.

The sentiment is computer generated and punched out with Stampin' Up! punches.  The ribbon is from my stash.

The inside uses the same papers and another Stampin' Up punch for the tab.  The names are computer generated and the "Congratulations" is a Stampin' Up! stamp from the "Wedding sweet" set.  The inside also has it's own little pocket for adding the gift!

So pop over to the Alphabet Challenge Blog for lot's of inspiration for Pocket cards and join in!

I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges:

Charisma Cardz Challenge; Seeing double (Two flowers on the front and two people in the image)
Crafts & Me Challenges; Add a flower
Joanna Sheen Challenge Blog; Going Dotty
My Heart Pieces; Layers layers layers
My Mums Craft Shop Challenge; Anything goes
No Matter Which Challenges; Dies and/or punches
Southern Girls Challenge Blog; It's all about the flora
The Pink Elephant Challenge; Use patterned paper
Whimsy Stamps Inspirations Challenge; Lot's of layers
Basic Grey Challenges; Punch it


Thanks for looking!