Candy!

Check this out: the lovely, talented Jacqueline is giving away some fabulous blog candy! All you have to do is leave a comment and link to the giveaway on your blog. Good luck!

Friday Sketchers

As usual, I'm doing things at the last minute, like making "Thank You" cards for the girls' teachers - youngest daughter has her last day of nursery tomorrow, and the other two finish up on Friday... So the latest sketch over at Friday Sketchers came in handy, and this is what I made:

Papers and card are We R Memory Keepers, flowers are from a Lakeland pack, stamped sentiment is SU, ribbon is Ribbon Oasis, and the image, of course, is one of my newer Tildas, coloured with watercolour pencils. This is for YD's nursery teacher.

For my older two, I made the same cards, only used slightly different papers on the bottom:

I stamped Maggie having masked off the pocket on the dress, to make it look more like a school pinafore, and I didn't bother with the flowers, either. Maggie was then coloured in the school's colours. I added the pile of books, assembled the blackboard (although the school does not use them anymore... we're all high-tech now...) and wrote on it with white gel pen. Added a tiny little bit of "chalk", too. I have to admit the idea isn't really my own - I borrowed it from my friend Lesley, who made lovely cards like this using Sizzix people and Cuttlebug books. I hope you don't mind, Lesley!

Lastly, a commissioned card for a wedding:

I do struggle with those! I like a fresher, more modern look and I'm not a huge fan of the traditional golds and silvers, so that makes life difficult. But after a good rummage, I came across this Amy Buttler paper that I've had for a while, and I found DCWV cardstock that matched the colours rather well. Cut two QK hearts, added a little bit of ribbon, a little bit of bling and it was done.

Now I just need to decorate the gift bags and maybe make a minialbum to put in with one of the gifts as YD's daughter's nursery teacher is due to have her first baby very soon. Did somebody say "housework"? Didn't think so! LOL :)

"Me"-time, hurray!

Finally got some time and drive to create and blog again, and it's nice! Made my friend a long-overdue birthday card inspired by the latest Papertake Weekly Challenge - "Feeling Hot Hot Hot" - and it also fits with Cute Card Thursday's challenge of making a birthday card.

The image is one of my new Little Claire stamps, coloured in with watercolour pencils, and the sentiment is Studio G. Paper comes from a Little Sizzles pad, ricrac is a Doodlebug Paperfrill, fabric flowers are from Michael's and the crochet flowers I made myself.

The next card is for today's DCM challenge "Just a quick one": make a card in 30 mins or less! Now that is a challenge for me! I am NOT very fast when it comes to making cards, and I swither and dither over everything. I don't know how people manage to make a card in 10 minutes and make it look great, too! Well I gave it a go, and I failed miserably :( I had everything put together in 25 mins, except for the sentiment - that took me another 10 mins to get just so... I shall enter the card anyway, as it's still an achievement for me, and if I hadn't had that deadline, I would probably still be pushing things around, cutting new bits etc. So thank you DCM! And thank you to Stamp Something, too, as it was their latest sketch that provided the basis for the card. Better make another one for them, though, one that actually includes stamping...

I made this for the Enterprise Group at nursery: a Christening card commissioned by one of the nursery nurses. I used cardstock and patterned paper from our Enterprise stash - I think the paper is actually out of a Poundland kit! I also used some of my own stuff, like the nestabilities, a bit of ribbon, QK duckie and my new and much longed for Swiss Dots embossing folder!

Right, on to the next projects: got two wedding cards to make, plus "Thank You" cards for the girls teachers. I'm still considering making gifts for them as well, but, as usual, I haven't left myself much time, so I'll probably be heading to the shops next week... Thanks for stopping by!

It's been a while...

... since I last blogged! What with getting ready for the craft fair (which wasn't a huge success sales-wise...), supervising children playing outside and a complete lack of mojo and "umph", I've actually felt more like vegging on the sofa and watching telly than creating and then blogging about it. I've not even looked at blogs much, let alone left comments, and I do apologise for that! I shall try and do better! Having said that, this is only going to be a fairly short post, since I'm going out tonight with a few friends - I've got to get ready, and I've got to leave the house in a reasonable state for my in-laws who are coming to babysit (hubby is away on a lads' weekend to Arran).

So, I've made a card and an ATC. The card is for the latest challenge at Cute Card Thursday, which was to make a Christmas card. I think this must be the earliest Christmas card I've ever made! And I am not planning on making more until the end of August or beginning of September, which is plenty early in my book :) Anyhow, I was very glad that I had just bought a couple of Christmassy stamps from Little Claire at the Artstamps Scotland show last Saturday. I love this mousehole image, it's just very cute (sorry for the squint picture, though).

The image was watercoloured, with Stickles added in a couple of places for extra sparkle. Background paper is English Paper Co (I think), and the sentiment stamp is Studio G.


Next up, an ATC for Tilda and Friends, with the much more seasonal theme of "Give me Sunshine".

I used Doodlebug paper with summery phrases, a piece of ribbon for Tilda to sit on, and a couple of big flower brads. Tilda was watercoloured again.

Thanks for stopping by, and I'm hoping to pop round everybody's blogs tomorrow and leave some long overdue comments. Enjoy your Friday!