And another couple of cards...

... that I hadn't posted yet! These were a commission for eldest daughter's friend's mum, who wanted a couple of cards for a German teacher, that's why the greetings are in German.

The first one is a Get Well card, the second just wishes a Merry Christmas. Thanks for stopping by, that should be all for today :)

Cards for Mum

I made my mum a set of cards for her birthday, no theme or colour scheme, just a few cards that I thought she might like to give to people. Here are the ones that use only SU! materials:

These two above were inspired by a card by Silke Ledlow - if you've never been to her blog, check it out, her work is gorgeous!

This one is another card inspired by last year's Idea Book and Catalogue, like the one here.

And for this last card, I used a layout from the Mojo Monday blog, which you can find here. Sorry, no lists of ingredients today, but all images are copyright Stampin' Up! and materials are by SU! as well, with the addition of a couple of embossing folders for the first two cards. Thanks for stopping by, look out for another post shortly.

Just too busy!

Hi all, sorry I've been MIA again, I just can't seem to find the time to go on the computer and write blogposts! I have finally reached the point where I can craft for myself (including gifts) again, all commissions, for nursery and my own, have been completed and delivered! Feels good, I can tell you :) Both school and nursery Christmas fairs have been and gone, and both went really well, raising lots of funds.

I'm still knee-deep in Christmas preparations, though, trying to buy presents, to make presents (most years I make a wee calendar with a photo of the girls for granparents, auntie and uncle), trying to find time to sit down and write Christmas cards and eventually start food shopping as well. Oh to be organised and actually have it all done by this time! Maybe next year...

I'm also trying to scrap a December album, with a page every day. Thought it sounded like a good idea... Well, I really enjoy doing it when I get round to it, and I'm pleased with the pages I've done so far, but unfortunately, I'm a week behind... Hope to be catching up this week :) Once it's done, I'll show my favourite pages.

To prove that I have actually been crafting lately, here are a couple of cards, one made for my friend's birthday, and the other made for youngest daughter's friend.

This card uses a Little Claire stamp, watercoloured with pencils, cardstock from Paper Mill and spotty paper from American crafts. Sentiment is Studio G.

This one uses Dovecraft paper, Paper Mill cardstock, SU! scallop punch and computer-printed sentiment. Hope you like, thanks for stopping by! Off to bed now, hope to be back sooner the next time :)

Another Award and a Couple of Cards

Wow, I've been given another award, this time from my lovely SBS 26 sister Ikki! Ikki is a very kind and supportive lady, with lots of lovely creations on her blog, so make sure you pop over for a visit! Thank you very much, Ikki :)

I am passing this award on to the following seven people whose inspiring blogs I love to visit:

Priscilla

Kathy

Deb

Bev

Elaine

Jenny

Debby

I have to admit that a lot of the time I merely lurk around these fab blogs, so this is a wee token of my appreciation, to make up for me being rubbish at leaving comments.

I have a couple of cards to share as well, which I made for my mum as part of her (very belated) birthday present. They both use a Sugar Nellie stamp (Honey with presents, I think), watercolour pencils, Studio G sentiment stamp and papers from a Costco pack.

The ribbon on this last card is from Ribbon Oasis, and the charm is from Mei Flower. Thanks for stopping by!

Kiddie Card

Here's a quick card I made for youngest daughter to give to a friend from nursery. I was going to enter it into a challenge, but never got round to it (story of my life just now:)). Hope you like, I used SU paper, Magnolia stamp, Cuddly Buddly sentiment, watercolour pencils to colour, QK letter dies and a couple of flowers from stash.
Off to have my tea now, thanks for stopping by!

An Award!

Whoohoo, I've been given an award by Tonya, my lovely and talented SBS26 sister - thank you so much! The rules of this award are: name six things that you value, six things that you don't and pass the award on to six people.

So here goes, six things I value:

1. My very patient and usually supportive husband, who puts up with the crafty mess in the house and crafting often getting done before housework.

2. My girls - even though they sometimes drive me crazy, I'd be lost without them.

3. My and my family's health.

4. My parents and the fact that I have a pretty normal relationship with them, even though (or maybe because?) we live so far apart.

5. Honesty.

6. Regular Friday afternoons of "me-time" while my in-laws look after my girls. I know, I'm very lucky!

Six things I don't like:

1. Aggressive, confrontational people - life's too short to waste energy like that.

2. Inconsiderate, selfish people.

3. Root beer! Tastes like nasty medicine to me! Needless to say, we don't have it in Germany or in Scotland.

4. Wet, windy, cold days. I know, I live in Scotland, I should be used to it, but that doesn't mean I have to like it...

5. The girls squabbling endlessly over trivialities.

6. My own messiness and disorganisation :(

Now, to passing this award on... I always have a lot of trouble deciding who to give the award to, because there are so many talented, deserving bloggers out there. And then, when I started having a look around, I found that loads of peeps had already been given this award. So, I'm going to chicken out, and I'm passing this on to everybody out there who visits! Thanks for stopping by :)

So falling behind...

Sorry everybody, for not posting, and I've not even got anything to show you here today. Had my craft fair just over a week ago, and it was such a disappointment. Maybe that held me back a little... We were stuck away in a side room and people didn't even come past us initially, until somebody closed a door somewhere and they had to come our way. No interest in cards whatsoever, I only made my money for the table back through the sale of a few Stampin' Up! catalogues. And the leads I got for Stampin' Up! that day, well, they have now fizzled out as well. But enough moaning, have a look over here, where I've just posted a few new things I've made. Thanks for stopping by :)

Bad Blogger!

I know, I'm very slack with my blogging these days. I am making stuff, I'm just not getting round to actually posting about it all. Methinks that one of these days, I'll need my own wee laptop and wireless broadband... Aaahh, a girl can dream :)

But without further ado, here are a few things that I've made recently, most now to make sure I've got a decent display at a table top sale/craft fair in a couple of weeks.

Cupcakes



I've had this set for a while now, and it hadn't seen ink, so I've had a wee play. Very simple, but I like them.


Pocket Silhouettes

This is actually a little pizza box, which I'll either fill with mini cards or with treats, haven't decided yet. Again, very simple, I'm from the "less-is-more" school, I guess...

Mini Scrappage/Holiday Display

Took this layout and idea right out of the Idea Book and Catalogue (p. 27) and made my own version. Need to find a frame for it for the holidays, and after that, it'll go in an album.

Oh, So Lovely

Finally, a commissioned card for my friend's mum to give to her friend. She requested poppies on the card, and Oh, So Lovely sprang to mind. Loved watercolouring the poppies! She was so taken with the card that she actually paid me more than I had asked - how sweet!

Now, got to try and drag youngest daughter away from her toys and convince her that it's a good idea to play her nursery maths game for a little while... Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Card Appeal

Hi everyone, just wanted to draw your attention to a card appeal my SBS sister Kate is running:

"This Christmas I'm arranging to have cards made to send to the children at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. Many of you will be very familiar with the amazing work the hospital does. Many of the children are in hospital around the festive season but the staff try to make it as special time as possible.Wouldn't it be lovely for the children to have a special card that they can give to the nurses who help them so much, or to a family member or friend who visits them!The staff at the hospital would love for us crafters to donate a box of cards (blank on the inside so the children can write it themselves) in the run up to Christmas. The cards will be distributed by the play workers on the relevant wards."

Kate would love for loads of people to help - you'll find more details on her blog. Thank you!

Christmas Cards

I've had a play with my Christmas stamps - Season of Joy, to be precise - and here are a few cards that I came up with:

Images Copyright 1990-2008 Stampin’ Up! ®

Stamp Set: Season of Joy

Colours: Whisper White, Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive

Other: red gingham ribbon, Real Red brads, Old Olive DP (retired), scallop edge punch

Images Copyright 1990-2008 Stampin’ Up! ®

Stamp Set: Season of Joy

Colours: Whisper White, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Summer sun

Other: Holiday Treasures DP, scallop edge punch

Images Copyright 1990-2008 Stampin’ Up! ®

Stamp Set: Season of Joy

Colours: Whisper White, Kraft, Real Red, Old Olive

Other: Versamark ink, Real Red DP (new level 1 hostess set)

Love this set, will be using it lots more in the run-up to Christmas! Thanks for stopping by :)

Cards for Craft Fair

Oh dear, I've gone a long time between postings again - the kids have been on midterm break this last week, and hubby took the week off as well, so we were out and about a fair bit and we also celebrated eldest daughter's 10th birthday! I can't believe she's in double digits, seems like yesterday she started school! Incredibly, for her, that's half a lifetime ago!!! Anyway, we had a nice week and made the most of the horrific weather, with a good long walk through a lovely country park during a dry spell, a trip to an aircraft museum including a visit to the legendary Concorde, and a visit to Deep Sea World (which the two younger ones enjoyed immensely, and the older one, who'd been on at us to go, found pretty boring in the end... Well, I guess you can't please everybody). I did get some crafting time, but again, no blogging time. So here's what I've been making for an upcoming local craft fair:

Cards:

Bookmarks:

Notebooks:

Hope people will be in a buying mood... Last year wasn't too great, so I'm branching out this year, offering not just cards. We'll just have to wait and see! I'm hoping to use some of my new goodies, too, that I bought at Hobbycrafts in Glasgow yesterday - had a fab time looking at lots of lovely stash!

Well, so much for now, got to go and pick up youngest daughter from a party and eldest daughter from the stables. Be sure to hop on over to my stamping blog, though, I'll be posting a couple new samples there, too. Thanks for looking!

SBS 26

I've taken the plunge and joined the Sisterhood of the Blogging Stampers, group #26! So, hello everybody, my name is Anne, I'm originally from Germany, but have been living in Scotland for the last 15 years. I've been married to a great guy for 12 years and we have three lovely girls, aged 10, 7 and 4. When it comes to crafting, my main love is cardmaking, but I also dabble in scrapbooking a little, plus I love to knit and crochet. I'm still fairly new to stamping (or so it feels), but I'm really enjoying it, and have amassed quite a sizeable collection of stamps in a rather short time. I became a Stampin' Up! demonstrator in July and am slowly trying to build my business, which so far has mainly consisted of buying up all the stuff I like :) I'm really looking forward to making new friends and getting to know all of you better! See you soon,

Anne

PS: To those of you from Ohio/Cleveland area: what a coincidence! I lived in Cleveland for a year (way back...) and I was over to visit just last Easter! Good times!!

Pink and Green

The challenge over at A Spoon Full of Sugar calls for Pink and Green to be used on our cards - pink and green? Just my favourite colour combination ever (as some of you may have heard before...)! I've been colouring these cute little Tildas the last couple of days and had one left to do, so I did her in pink and green and teamed her with these funky Papermania papers. Added a piece of ricrac, a little button, a Studio G sentiment and inked liberally round all the edges. I'm quite taken with this card, unfortunately the picture doesn't do it justice, the colours are much more vibrant in real life.

Also thought I'd post a few more creations from the weekend. First of all the same card as in my last post, but in two different colour schemes:

And secondly, a snowmen card, using Studio G stamps, Cuttlebug embossed pale blue cardstock and a piece of gingham ribbon:

Hope you like, thanks for looking!

Birthday Promotion!

Stampin' Up!® are celebrating their 20th birthday this year, and as part of the celebration, some birthday themed stamp sets are reduced by 20% during the month of October. Simply place an order of £20 or more and order one of the promotional sets at 20% off.

Click here to see details and feel free to contact me if you would like to take advantage of this promotion.

Christmas Cards

First off, a couple of Christmas cards I made last week. Not sure about the first one, too plain, methinks now...

Images Copyright 1990-2008 Stampin’ Up!®

Stamp Set: Perfect Presents
Ink and Card Stock colours: Whisper White, Glorious Green, Old Olive, Real Red, Bashful Blue
Other: Real red and Old Olive brads

Much prefer the next one, this one went to Elaine, my upline, for a swap:

Images Copyright 1990-2008 Stampin’ Up!®

Stamp Set: Perfect Presents
Ink and Card Stock colours: Whisper White, Old Olive, Bashful Blue
Other: Winter Green DP (retired)

This last card I made today, my only offering on World Card Making Day, and I really like it :)

Images Copyright 1990-2008 Stampin’ Up!®

Stamp Set: Perfect Presents

Ink and Card Stock colours: Whisper White, Old Olive, Real Red, Chocolate Chip

Other: Old Olive DP (retired), scallop punch, linen thread

I even decorated the inside, instead of just putting a plain insert in:

Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday Invites

It's my eldest daughter's birthday soon, so I decided to make the invites for her party. She's only inviting seven girls, so it wasn't bad at all. I kept them very simple:

Images Copyright 1990-2008 Stampin’ Up!®

Stamp Sets: Be Happy (retired), Cheer & Wishes

Ink and Card Stock colours: Whisper White, Gable Green, Pixie Pink, Lovely Lilac

Some long overdue photos!

Here are some of the projects I demonstrated/explained at my first workshop, several weeks ago... Inspiration was taken from the 2007-2008 Idea Book and Catalogue, and also from a few projects from Jenny Moors' blog - thank you Jenny :)

Images Copyright 1990-2008 Stampin' Up!®

Stamps: Oh, So Lovely retired hostess set, Occasional Greetings

Ink and card colours: Ruby Red, Creamy Caramel, Old Olive, Whisper White

Other: Old Olive DP (retired), Watercolor Wonder Crayons™

Images Copyright 1990-2008 Stampin' Up!®

Stamps: Two Cute (retired), Seeing Spots, Occasional Greetings
Ink and card colours: Ruby Red, Creamy Caramel, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White
Other: Scallop Punch, Earth Elements brads

Images Copyright 1990-2008 Stampin' Up!®

Stamps: Pick a Petal, Cheer and Wishes

Ink and card colours: Tempting Turquoise, Brilliant Blue, Green Galore, Only Orange, Yoyo Yellow, Pink Passion, Real Red

Other: Whisper White grosgrain ribbon

Images Copyright 1990-2008 Stampin' Up!®

Stamps: Seeing Spots
Ink and card colours: Tempting Turquoise, Brilliant Blue, Pink Passion, Whisper White
Other: Whisper White grosgrain ribbon, scallop punch

Another Blog!

I've decided to set up another blog, just for my Stampin' Up! projects, so I don't get everything muddled. Feel free to pop over to Stamping Stuff, I'll not just be posting projects, but also details of promotions, events etc. See you there!

Christmas Animals

Today, the challenge over at Cute Card Thursday was to make a Christmas card with a cute animal on it. I've had a couple of Little Claire hedgies already stamped and coloured, so off I went:

Cardstock is Paper Mill shop and DCWV, patterned paper is DCWV, sentiment is stamped on a Sizzix bookplate, held on with Papermania flower brads. I had fun making this, it's very Christmassy somehow :)

Thanks for stopping by, I promise I will try and be a better blogger!

Tilda and Friends Colour Challenge

Hadn't made any ATC's in ages, so I really wanted to join in with another Tilda and Friends ATC Challenge. They have a colour challenge this week: Blue, Green and Pink! I love green and pink together, and a little bit of blue won't go wrong either. So here is Nellie:

I embossed a bit of pink cardstock with a Cuttlebug folder and wiped an inked sponge over it. Then I added a piece of green spotty paper to the bottom and inked all around the edges. I watercoloured Nellie, cut her out and adhered her with foam pads. Finally added a MM clip, a couple of blue gems and the sentiment.

Thanks for looking - off to do some packing now as I'm away to Dublin tomorrow morning for a girls' weekend of fun :) Have a good weekend!

Christmas Card

First of a couple of quick posts while the kids are upstairs playing and/or doing homework...

Here's a card for A Spoonful of Sugar where the theme is Christmas. Well, it's definitely getting closer, so any reason to make a Christmas card is welcome :)

Kept it quite simple, DCWV papers (which I've had for ages!!!) for the background, new Tilda stamp for the image, watercoloured, QK holly leaves, buttons from stash, sentiment by Studio G and lots of inking round the edges.

Thanks for looking!

Been Having a Play!

I got my Stampin' Up pre-order set on Tuesday and just had to have a play. Of course it's taken me until today to actually post about my cards, but that is another matter...

I ordered a set called "For Father", because I really loved the images (especially the cute little puppy - you'll see :)), and they're so well suited for men's cards, something I'm always struggling with a little.

So, first I stamped the apple crate, which has a lovely olde-worlde-feel to it, and very autumnal, too, so it's just right for now. Didn't find it very easy to colour the image, I must admit, I am no artist and shading and highlighting don't come naturally. I am quite pleased with this, though, my second attempt, and I'll give this card to my father-in-law along with his belated birthday present...

The image and all supplies are Stampin' Up. Cardstock and designer paper are Old Olive, the mats are Pumpkin Pie and Close to Cocoa. The image was coloured with Watercolor Wonder crayons and my Aqua Painter.

Secondly, I stamped the cute puppy. I think that stamp really sold the set to me :) I made this card initially for A Spoon Full of Sugar and Nikki's great sketch, but it also fits Cute Card Thursday's challenge of Cats and Dogs. (Apologies for the shadows across the picture - apparently that can happen when there is sunshine! It's been so long, I think I had forgotten...)

The image, sentiment and supplies are Stampin' Up, except the ribbon card blank which are from stash. Cardstock is Close to Cocoa and Not Quite Navy, designer paper is Rose Red. The image was again coloured with Watercolor Wonder crayons and my Aqua Painter.

Okay, I'm ready now to create some more. I'm starting to feel in the mood for Christmas cards - is that weird? I think I'll get the Christmas box out and see where that takes me :) Thanks for stopping by!