Navitity

Yes I'm still on Christmas 2014 not sure if this is the last one but it's a special one and it was difficult to find papers to go with all the different colours. In the end I use some old Kaiser papers that were in a 6inch pad with a sneaky join.

The photo is very special and the journalling was important too. My mum knitted this Navitity set my Sister stuffed and sewed it altogether. She made it for the Nursing Home's Christmas Fayre for display.  The first year a cardboard box was made into a stable and in case you wasn't aware my Mum past away in the January. Since them someone has made it a proper stable and it has come out every year since with card to let everyone know who made. Goodness I can feel the tears in my eyes as I write this post.

Crochet Update

I haven't updated what I've been crocheting for a while so here's some pics, this is my Thursday night Shawl from Helen Shrimpton she called the Bubble-Gum Shawl and its a free pattern. It curls a bit at the ends but I haven't washed it yet and it will probably lay better once I have. Oh I used Stylecraft Candy While Apple Sours. Which was fine once I got over my OCD of it changing colour in the middle of a row!!!

Here's the back, I've done the amount of rows according to the pattern but I use a smaller hook because my crocheting is neater and in this case I could have done another bubble pattern before doing the edging but as we all know hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Two very quick photo's before this baby blanket was wrapped up and given to the parents in waiting.
I hadn't realised I hadn't photo the finish blanket. This was probably because the edging was a bit of nightmare. I used a crochet book for edging and I lost count how many times I unpicked it and still it didn't lay nicely although it does look slightly better as a frilly edge.

I gave my Charlotte Blanket

 away to Chloe's and Sophie's Special Ear Fund  they had a large event and hoped it would come in handy. It was put in the raffle and I was told the winner was pleased with her prize.

Sorry cards are not being posted that often I hope eventually get back to it especially Christmas coming nearer over the horizon.

Splatter It

Hi all and welcome to another week on the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge
Thank you for joining us for the Anything Goes Challenge and we hope you will all join us again this week too.
This week the challenge is

Splatter It 

This week we are showcasing Ranger Products. You don't have to use them for the challenge but if you have them we would love to see them used.

As always Simon Says Stamp will be giving away a $50 voucher to shop at the fabulous Simon Says Stamp Store

Yes I'm still playing with Oxides, this time I cut my mat using Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles and then I blended Cracked Pistachio, Fossilised Amber and Broken China Oxides.

Now I have already stamped a small sentiment but I wondered how well a solid stamp would ink up and stamp. So I got out my splatter stamps Indigoblu Ink Splats and using Iced Spruce Oxide I stamped away till I couldn't stamp anymore.

I then put my Crazy Dog from Tim Holtz Crazy Dog stamps in the centre. I had seem that people added spots to their crazy dog so I gave it a go. I really should of stamped black splats but since initially this was a experiment I didn't think it would matter.

Then I discovered that this weeks challenge was splatters, well I really don't like random splatters they look rubbish when I do them so I decided to use my experiment instead. I really did love how he turned out and gave the card to my son for his Birthday.

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Carol Singing

A bit of sparkle for a dull, damp day another reminder how close a certain day is creeping ever so nearer.

I use one of the Mo's fabulous Singing Elves this one is called Flynn. I think you can guess the papers are Doodlebug.

The glitter card are some from Ally Pally that are called low shedding glitter card which was pretty good especially with using dies. It's also a very good white glitter but of course get it in front of a camera and it becomes creamy colour.

My Snowflake border are from Memory Box and I'm pretty sure the snowflakes are Simon Says Stamp. My frame is MFT and I added glitter to his hat, now that did make a mess but that was more about the person in control of putting the waste back in the bottle. Finally a pom pom for his hat.

I used a white pen for the dots and the line on his jacket, I didn't worry about a sentiment its pretty obvious its for Christmas.

Anything Goes

Hi all and welcome to another week on the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge
This week the challenge is

Anything Goes

This week we are showcasing Wild Rose Studio Products. You don't have to use them for the challenge but if you have them we would love to see them used.

As always Simon Says Stamp will be giving away a $50 voucher to shop at the fabulous Simon Says Stamp Store

I feel I have to apologies for my very simple card but feeling unwell with some thorat virus where I keep losing my voice my energy levels are pretty low at the moment.

Lucky for me the Wild Rose Stamp that I've used called Cat with a Heart is quite a large image and I used the Simon Says Stamp Bundle of Stitched Shapes to cut out my image mat. To be honest if you can't afford many dies this bundle is brilliant the heart and the tag are both from the die set.

The papers are Penny Black Summertime paper pack  and I used the Simon Says Stamp Sending and Wishing stamp set.

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RSVP

These two cards weren't photo-ed at the same time which you can tell. Since this year is about Weddings I thought I show the RSVP cards I've made. The first one is using my favourite Heart Embossing folder from Cuttlebug that is not available anymore and the one I keep losing which I almost have heart failure when I can't find it since my niece is using it for her Wedding.

The fancy oval and plain oval are cut using Spellbinders and the letters are Memory Box.

My DD wanted a RSVP for a Christmas Wedding in December and her invite was made on Kraft card so I used that for inspiration.

The frame is MFT and the santa hat is actually a Tim Holtz stamp the accessories for the Crazy Dogs and Cats. My Santa and Reindeer, I think could be Cheery Lyn. Quite like how it turned out.

I've had a scratching throat all week and on the Friday while I was at my niece's hen do, I lost my voice. Which is only slowly coming back, its caused a lot of amusement to the rest of my family but I'm worn out from shouting and barely a squeak comes out of my mouth.

Traditional Seats

Nearly finished 2014 but still on Christmas images so here's the traditional photos. I'm using the Simple Stories papers and my favourite dies. The Holly is Cheery Lynn and the baubles are Memory Box.

The Merry & Bright sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp and the rest of the title are all out of my stash.

I need to make up some kits for my 2015 photos.

Looks like I shall have plenty of photos for 2017 having been to Windsor last weekend to see my nephew get married. Brilliant day.

We walked from the Guildhall to the reception ( I was pushed in a wheelchair) passing the Coldstream Guards Barracks. Of course my sister convinced the poor guard to take a photo with the Bride and Groom.

What my nephew probably doesn't realised his Great Great Uncle Alfred was a Lance Sergeant with the Coldstream Guards 3rd Battalion who died in the Somme 1916

Look, Ma

Welcome to our Birthday Surprise Blog Hop

On Saturday it is Mo's Birthday and we the Design Team have decided to celebrate with a Blog Hop using Mo's Favourite image Look Ma. I can't wait to check out to see how different are cards are.

I've used the Doodlebug papers or I should say a sheet patterned paper. The cogs corner is by Tim Holtz with Sizzix and it come with individual ones too. A few Brads for the centre of my cogs and the letters to make champ word is Memory Box.

He was a bit tricky to layer but I worked it in two parts the bike then the little chap and I'm rather proud how he turned out. 

I'm the start of the Blog Hop so now you have hop, skip and jump over to my very courageous friend Lou and don't forget to comment along the way for a chance to win one of the prizes.

Lucky Stars

Hi all and welcome to another week on the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge
Thank you for joining us for the Plaid Challenge and we hope you will all join us again this week too.
This week the challenge is

We're Seeing Stars 

This week we are showcasing My Favorite Things Products. You don't have to use them for the challenge but if you have them we would love to see them used.

As always Simon Says Stamp will be giving away a $50 voucher to shop at the fabulous Simon Says Stamp Store

Haven't got the Oxides out of my system yet, this time I've used Faded Jeans and Broken China and spritz a bit of water over my card when I finished blending.

Before I did that I cut out the main mat with Simon Says Stamp Bundle of Stitched Shapes, then I stamped and embossed using WOW Opaque Bright White and Simon Says Stamp Seeing Stars stamp set.

Once my card was dry I added the MFT Lucky Stars and I coloured them with Wink of Stella Glitter Pen which doesn't show up much but it is there.

I even stamped with the oxides and make the sentiment banner with Simon Says Stamp Stitched Banners.

I used the smaller Lucky stars but the larger ones I've used on a Scrapbook page but since the Scrap paper is old and the letters are from my stash I don't want to show the pic but here's the link to see how I love these lucky stars.

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Party Girl

Did I mention that July is girlie month although there are two chaps whose Birthday this month one of is my DS. It's nice making girly card after quite a few boys ones.

This one is called Party Girl from Mo Manning and I gutted the pink starry paper from Echo Park because I only had sheet. I do love how a bit of paper pieceing can really make your card.

The Swirl is from Magnolia can't believe the poor die had been overlooked for so long. My daisies are MFT Upsy Daisy and I'm so pleased the missing die has turned up. But I'm keeping the second set because they are my absolute favourite die and I would heart broken if I lost parts of them.

Pretty certain the stamped sentiment is a Simon Says Stamp set.

It's been a pretty busy week with myself flat sitting while we had the plummer in to my DD flat and I did a bit of painting. I can't do it for long but its nice to think I'm helping a bit. The week ends with Wedding Number 1, number 2 Wedding is 31 days later exactly.

Use Plaid

Hi all and welcome to another week on the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge
Thank you for joining us for the Summer Sunshine Challenge and we hope you will all join us again this week too.
This week the challenge is

Use Plaid

This week we are showcasing Lawn Fawn Products. You don't have to use them for the challenge but if you have them we would love to see them used.

As always Simon Says Stamp will be giving away a $50 voucher to shop at the fabulous Simon Says Stamp Store

Technically I should have make this card for last week but I brought the Lawn Fawn Palm Trees (the crab comes in the set too) for this challenge not paying much attention to the actual challenge for this week!

Of course if you're making a card for a Plaid challenge the best paper to use would be Lawn Fawn so its win, win for me. I'm using their Perfectly Plaid Rainbow Petite pad and using two pieces to cover for the sky/sea and beach.

I cut out my Palm Trees out of scraps of Brown and Green card but if your supplies are running low you will find plenty here. There are coconut dies but as you can see I decided against them since I was in a bit of a hurry.

I edged my beach with the Simon Says Stamp Wavy Stitched Border die. I first used the die on my beach plaid and used the faux stitching line to cut off the scallop, then cut one in white card and stuck my beach onto it.

My card seemed to be missing something so I decided to use the Simon Says Stamp Sailboat die again using scraps in brown and white card. To lift the sail I cut down a foam sticky square and added it to the bottom of the sail but used a dot of glue at the top of the sails.

I used the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Banners for my sentiment and used the Simon Says Stamp Father's Day Finds. Finally some Googly Eyes for my crab, I use a drop of Glossy Accents to glue them into place.

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Oxides

My card is an experiment, I watch a friend play with her Ranger Oxides and I know I'm a bit late to this party but I'm so glad to actually watch someone. Yes I know you can You Tubes but I find it doesn't hold my interest and my mind wanders, which means its pointless watching them.

So I got myself a few, what I considered nice pretty colours and thought I would use the Simon Says Stamp Flora Background, they very gladly sent me when they had Mothers, Fathers Florals release unfortunately it always seems to be around when I busy.

It does make a good background and when I coloured using the Oxides it really brought the stamp alive. Did I say how much I love these inkpads, I was frustrated with the distress inkpads because I love vibrant colours and I always found to get the depth of colour I wanted it use to hurt my hands which was why I love the Inkylicious Dusters. Now I get the colour using blending tools and no pain was involved, Ok it could be that the inkpads are new and but you can get reinkers so I can have the nice and wet all the time.

Didn't want to waste my background so cut them in four and backed it with a white Simon Says Stamp Stitched Square. I used Simon Says Stamp Hydrangea and Stitched Flakes to make my flowers and the leaves are Simon Says Stamp Circle of Leaves

My sentiment is using the Simon Says Stamp Love Die and my I used Simon Says Stamp Stitched Banners with their Best Hugs stamp set.

I heart you

I have some odd and sods bits of patterned paper and thought I should use some of them up. I believe that this is some Stampin Up paper.

Of course my sweet image is from Mo Manning called I heart you this is the older version, the newer one is called I heart you (redux).

Because of the busy paper its quite difficult to get anything to show up so I decided to use the Ivy die I have I think its a Sue Wilson die from Creative Expression but the packaging is now gone so I'm not sure.

My EK Success punch for the flowers is just about holding its own but they don't like thin paper anymore. A bit of ribbon and paper piecing the balloon the cute elephant card is done.

Going to the Zoo

Hi all and welcome to another week on the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge
Thank you for joining us for the Anything Goes Challenge and we hope you will all join us again this week too.
We will be back soon with the lucky winner of the $50 Voucher
This week the challenge is

Summer Sunshine 

This week we are showcasing our very own Simon Says Stamp Products. You don't have to use them for the challenge but if you have them we would love to see them used.

As always Simon Says Stamp will be giving away a $50 voucher to shop at the fabulous Simon Says Stamp Store

You may be wondering what do animals have to do with Summer Sunshine, but Summer as a child meant days out, my parents couldn't actually afford a holiday but we did have days out and one of them would be the Zoo.

I remember Chessington Zoo being just that, it took two buses (we didn't have a car) to get there and I loved going. So to me this card is a great reminder of those summer days.

So to my card my Animals are Simon says Stamp Wild Cuddly Critters and used Simon Says Stamp Stitched Circles to make a frame. It is a tall card because I wanted to at least three animals on my card will just have to use the Penquin later.

My papers are are Doodlebug Dragon Tails  and to hide my join of the two colours I used one of the Simon Says Stamp Eyelet Arch Border die. edited its not Dragon Tails its actually At the Zoo

My sign post is a cocktail stick and one of the Doodlebug papers had animal words which I cut out  the ones for the animals I used. Finally to finish off I cut out some small hearts and stars using Simon Say Stamp Holiday Shapes.

This card as disappeared into my DD room not sure who she plans to give it too but she fell in love with the it.

Ok a bit of waffling here but yesterday I went to Hampton Court Flower Show we had a great time and a big thank you to South West Trains. I never book assistance but the staff always ask if we need help. At big thank you to all the staff at Hampton Court Station who managed to fill up the homebound trains with as many people as possible. Yes it did feel like we were being herded but the end result with full trains and yes the guys even asked if I needed help.

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Driving Home

I thought this could be the last Christmas Scrapbooking of 2014 but there are still a couple more. Another photo stolen from FB from my niece's timeline of my cute Gt nephew, I'm so glad I can see what this little man is up to and still be able to scrapbook him.

The papers are My Minds Eye but it has glitter on it and it kept attacking me and the poor photo looked like it was snowing inside the card.

My favourite Holly and Ivy die from Cheery Lynn and Simon Says Stamps Poinsettia Parade. I added the mittens which you can just about see.

The letters are American Craft that I possibly brought from Hobbycraft and words were from the sticker sheet made into a banner.

Crochet Update

I'm loving making the Helen Shrimpton Rosslyn blanket, it's quite challenging and I have decided I definitely don't like bead stitch. Not sure if its because I hold my wool as if I'm knitting means I don't have quite the right angle to slip through the stitches or it just is a pain in the bum to do.

Although the colours look a bit darker on here I think they will work as a Baby colours. I hope that I can hold it when it gets nearer to the finish, may have to do a bit now and again.

I'm coming up to a very busy month, hopefully I will be able to still make cards but next week I have the Hampton Court Flower Show as well as a crop on Saturday. The following week I have a wedding to go to and the week after I have a doctors appointment along with a Hen Do. I get a couple of quiet weeks before the next wedding although I know there are still things to make for the table and thank you cards.

Baby Shower

I do feel its either Weddings or Babies with the odd boys/men cards but I coming to the end of them. Though I do have to make a boy baby card but the other two I will have to wait for them to be born.

Wedding cards are made I think and I'm now coming to the month of girl/woman birthdays then I need to start thinking of Christmas.

So my little Baby Shower is now done and I'm guess my DD and myself will be fighting over who has which one. Silly me found some a sheet of paper and I couldn't find anything to go with it I think it could MFT but a pad that is different colour plaids.

So I made a frame using a MFT scallop frame die and used some matching (yes it did match when I made the stars and hearts blame the camera again!)card to make the stars and hearts with Simon Says Stamp Holiday Shapes.

Lets Par-tee!

Hi all and welcome to another week on the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge
Thank you for joining us for the Patterned Paper Challenge and we hope you will all join us again this week too.

This week the challenge is

Anything Goes  

This week we are showcasing Art Impressions Products. You don't have to use them for the challenge but if you have them we would love to see them used.

As always Simon Says Stamp will be giving away a $50 voucher to shop at the fabulous Simon Says Stamp Store

I knew I had to have the Art Impressions Let's Par-tee, there are two main images, I decided to use the female golfer. She simply had to have way out golf wear and what better than Doodlebug Easter Express with their small patterns in their 6 inch pads.

It only seemed right to paper pieced her outfit and when I stamped the golf flag I had to paper piece that too.

Once I was happy where the sentiment and flag was I cut it out using the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Squares and I decided to use Simon Says Stamp Daisies which are my favourites they come with me when I go Scrapbooking too.

I did use yellow centres but they got lost in the busy paper so I changed them to pink centres.

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