Busy busy busy....

Hi guys! Hope you've all had a good week. I'm OK, trying to keep myself busy though I am a wee bit hungover this morning as we had a night out with friends last night and I didn't get much sleep. Am currently thinking of ways to update my craft room. Yes, I know I've not had my new room that long but I've been looking at the Crafty Storage blog which is SO fantastic for getting inspiration and I've been musing over ideas of improving the organisation of my stash and just generally making my room as inspirational (whilst being practical!) as I can. Am going to do some research over next few weeks and then start purchasing some stuff!! I will, of course, give you a tour!!!

Oh, also forgot to say I have updated my Challenges page to what I think is a fairly comprehensive list. I mean, how many challenges can you enter in one week, right?!!!!

OK, onto my first card of the day...

This is a card my friend asked me to make for her friend's wedding. I used this sweet Lily of the Valley stamp and coloured with watercolour pencils and used a lot of glitter on the bride! The papers were by Basic Grey (not sure about the brown one). I hand-stitched the pink pearl strip onto some ribbon and the embellie hanging from the flowers was actually pulled off an old anniversary card. It contains hearts and pearls so I thought it'd be perfect.

I'd like to enter this into:

Crazy 4 Challenges- bling

If the Shoe Fits- flowers

Stampin Celebration- inspirational photo

Alphabet Challenge- vintage

Little Red Wagon- glitter

Delightful Sketches- make it sparkle

See the sparkle!

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Lili of the Valley); Watercolour pencils; Papers (Basic Grey & ?); Assorted cardstock; Flowers & Leaves (Prima); Embellie (Recycled); Pearl string (haberdashery); Ribbon (Poppicrafts); Pearl, pearl pin and ribbon (Wild Orchid Crafts); Stickles

My next card is using this gorgeous Elzybells image coloured with Lyra pencils. Love this Elzybells sentiment too!! Papers are by Dream Street.

I'd like enter this into:

Diecut Dreams Christmas Club- furry things

Papercutz Challenge- critters

A close up! He looks a bit dazed doesn't he?!!!

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Elzybells); Lyra pencils; Papers (Dream Street); Assorted cardstock; Silver pearls (Bunny Zoe Crafts)

My third card features a Christmasy Riley coloured with copics. Papers are by DCWV, Bo Bunny and Colorbok. I've used the Sketch Saturday sketch.

I'd like to enter this into:

Sketch Saturday

ABC Christmas- tree

Papertake Weekly- animal

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Riley); Copics; Papers (DCWV, Bo Bunny, Colorbok); Assorted cardstock; Ribbon- wide (recycled); Ribbon- organza (Laura Ashley); Snowflake (blog candy); Nesties; Sentiment (Lili of the Valley)

Phew! And finally my last card of the day is one that doesn't feature an image which is quite rare for me. I used Stamping Bella's "a note to you" stamp and sentiment but masked out the "you" and then hand-wrote "santa". Hope it's not too obvious where I've written!! Papers are by Cosmo Cricket and I've done alot of machine stitching on them. The sketch is one based on my Christmas Sketch book. Snowflake die is a Sizzix one.

I'd like to enter this for:

Crafty Catz- stitching

Charisma Cardz- anything goes

One Stop Crafts- snowflakes

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Stamping Bella); Copics; Papers (Cosmo Cricket); Assorted cardstock; Punch (Martha Stewart); Die (Sizzix); Pearls (Wild Orchid Crafts); Ribbon (blog candy); Sewing machine

Hope you all have a fun crafty week! Thanks for stopping by! xx

Busy bee

Hi everyone! Hope you're all doing good. I really want to say thanks to all of you who've left such supportive comments re my Mum, I really am going to try and get round and visit you all. I know I've been a hopeless blogger!

My latest feeling is that of frustration. We saw the oncologist on Monday and we were told that Mum can't have any treatment yet as they need to rescan her liver as the only scan they have was from the end of May when she had the bowel tumour removed. Apparently they leave it 3 months to see if it has grown any. Now wouldn't you have thought that if they knew this 3 months ago, they'd have automatically booked her in for a scan at 12 weeks??! Oh noooo, that would be too sensible. Instead we have to wait for an appointment with the oncologist so he can tell us all this and then wait another 3 weeks for her to have a scan and then get another appointment with the oncologist so he can tell us the news. So basically we have to endure another load of torturous waiting. Sometimes you just want to scream!

Anyhow as ever I've been a busy bee to take my mind off things and I'm hoping you will think this lucky as I have 4 cards to show you today!

I made this card using a sketch from the Cardmaker's Christmas sketch book which I really love. I very rarely make cards without images so I thought this was a nice change and took me out of my comfort zone. The papers are from Doodlebug- did you notice how the paper matches the Gingerbread brads?!! The brads are mounted on card cut with the smallest circle nesties.

I'd like to enter this into Christmas Stamping All Year Round who's challenge is to use a border punch and Moving along with the times who's challenge is Christmas.

Crafty stash used: Papers (Doodlebug); Assorted cardstock; Punch (Martha Stewart); Brads (won in blog candy); Nesties; Sentiment (Lily of the Valley)

My next card is for Sketch Saturday. Image is Penny Black coloured with copics. The papers are by Dream Street and sentiment is Lily of the Valley again.

As usual I love to give you a little close up!

Crafty stash used: Image (Penny Black); Copics; Papers (Dream Street); Assorted cardstock; Sentiment (LOTV); Brads (Poppicrafts); Ribbon (?); Nesties

Another unusual card for me again- this time the shape. When I first started making cards, my cards were alot smaller and way less involved and I used this shape alot. I have quite a few of these left which I never use so I thought I'd have a go at using them up! This sketch is again taken from the Cardmakers' Christmas sketch book. I coloured the image using watercolour pencils. You can see I've used alot of crazy stitching on this one.

I'd like to enter this into CRAFT challenge which is to use coloured pencils and the Alphabet Challenge- unused stash.

Crafty stash used: Image (Penny Black); Watercolour pencils; Paper (Doodlebug); Assorted cardstock; Button (Bunny Zoe's); Pearls (Wild Orchid Crafts); Sewing machine

And lastly another different style of card this time using recycling! As you know, I often keep bits from Christmas cards to recycle and I have this beautiful wreath and robin which I just knew would do a great recycled card. Again I used alot of stitching on this one- I think it's getting better don'tcha? Papers are by Crate Paper.

I'd like to enter this into Cute Card Thursday- challenge is bird or butterfly and Fussy and Fancy- challenge is christmas colours.

Crafty stash used: Image (recycled); Papers (Crate Paper); Assorted cardstock; Sewing machine; Buttons; Rub on (K&C0)

I hope you all have a good week. Promise to try and visit you all !!!! x

Enjoy the ride!

Hi everyone, hope you're all doing well. After last week's shock, I've picked myself up, dusted myself off and the fighting spirit has returned. I've been carrying on with making cards as it's been keeping my mind occupied so I have 3 cards to show you this week! I just hope there's no more bad news to come (we're seeing Mum's oncologist tomorrow). We did have some good news though as Mum saw her surgeon this week and he said that her wound finally looked like it might be healing so she wouldn't need an operation on it. He said he thought maybe she'd be able to start chemo in 2-3 weeks so we are praying that the oncologist agrees tomorrow.

Did you all see Strictly last night? I can't believe I missed the first one, we were late coming home from the football!! At least they seem to have a better line-up of people this year. I think I actually recognise all of them!

So anyway, onto my first card....

My sis moved house on Friday so this is a moving house card for her. She lives in Clifton and every year they have a hot air balloon fiesta there that they go to see but next year (due to the house move) they will actually be able to watch it from their roof terrace so I thought this card would be really apt and a bit different from all the usual moving house cards.

So the stamps are from the Everyday Button Bits from Papertrey Ink. The balloons are all on one stamp and the grass in a second stamp. They are a little tricky to colour if you want to do variations in colour but I decided to use brush markers as they were more accurate. Do you like how I coordinated the threads in the buttons to match the baskets?!! The papers are My Mind's Eye. The sentiment is from the PTI stamp set.

I'd like to enter this into 2 challenges:

Crafty Creations- transportation

Cute Card Thursday- play on words

Crafty stash used: Stamps (PTI); Brush markers; Nesties; Papers (My Mind's Eye); Assorted cardstock; Buttons (Bunny Zoe Crafts); Thread (Argos); Gems (Wild Orchid Crafts)

My second card is a Christmasy one. I love this image so much, especially the mousie with the scarf and gloves on! I coloured with watercolour pencils and outlined with a copic pen. The 2 papers are Fancy Pants and I did some machine stitching around the edge. The giant snowflake was recycled from an old Christmas card as was the little snowflake actually! The sentiment is a K&Co rub on.

Here is a little close-up

So I'd like to enter this into:

Simon Says Stamp- Holiday fun

Pollycrafts- Christmas with no red or green

Crafty stash used: Image (Penny Black); Watercolour pencils; Copics; Papers (Fancy Pants); Assorted cardstock; Stitching; Snowflake embellies (recycled); Rub on (K&Co); Flowers (Wild Orchid Crafts)

And lastly a little Sizzix created card. I used the Bigz scalloped card die to make the card base. Paper is by Cloud 9 Design. I created Kendra using an assortment of papers and cardstock - I do love these die but they are SO fiddly!! Sentiment is a K & Co rub on again. The snowflake I won in some blog candy.

Crafty stash used: Scalloped card and Kendra dies (Sizzix); Papers (Cloud 9); Assorted cardstock; Sentiment (K&Co); Snowflake

Oooh, before I forget I got in the Top 3 at Winter Wonderland last week for my snowman card! Yay!

Hope you have a lovely week x

Enough

Hi everyone. Hope you're all doing well. I've had a pretty terrible week. Ever feel like you've had enough of all the terrible things life keeps on throwing your way? Right now, I really have had enough. I'm tired and fed up of fighting to get life back to some sort of normality. Just when you think things finally are getting better, life insists on kicking you back down. We found out this week that the hospital made a big cock up and Mum's oncologist didn't have Mum's full notes when we went to see him. Turns out we found out by accident (they thought we knew!!!) that they found a suspicious spot on Mum's liver. This means her chemo will change from being preventative to aggressive and she is likely to face another major operation. We have gone from thinking the cancer had gone to it now being likely to have spread.

I don't have the energy to get angry at the hospital staff who through this error have led us to have had false hope. It seems like just another one of life's cruel jokes that we seem to keep facing at the moment. I'm tired of being positive and of dreading the unknown. Sorry folks, I'm having a bad day!

In an effort to keep myself busy, I've been a cardmaking machine this week!! And have made 4 cards!!! (OK, not a machine but this is good for me!!)

So my first card is my favourite. I love the colour of this stripey My Mind's Eye paper. Image is Penny Black coloured with copics. Papers are by My Mind's Eye, Bo Bunny and Crate Paper. I've done some stitching on this. My use of the sewing machine is not great. Most people would practice before embarking on doing their cards but I'm impatient so I thought I'd learn as I go along, I think it adds to the homemade-ness of it!! lol. The snow sentiment is actually cut off an old Christmas tag. The sketch is an old Basic Grey Challenge one.

I'm entering this into the Winter Wonderland Challenge- recipe: snowman, 4 papers & 3 snowflakes

Crafty stash used: Image (Penny Black); Copics; Papers (My Mind's Eye, Bo Bunny, Crate Paper); Assorted cardstock; Snowflakes (Sizzix die, Woodware punch); Sewing machine; Sentiment (Recycled); Pearls (Wild Orchid Crafts)

My second card has been made using the Sizzix Bigz scalloped card die. The stripey paper is by Bo Bunny. Image is Penny Black coloured with copics. The sentiment and snowflake are K & Co rub ons.

I'm going to enter this into Stamp Something Challenge which is to stamp something cute.

Crafty stash used: Image (Penny Black); Copics; Die (Sizzix); Paper (Bo Bunny); Assorted cardstock; Rubons (K&C0)

My third card is for my friend who's had a little boy. The image is Elzybells and I've coloured him with watercolour pencils and paper pieced his nappy. All the papers are by Making Memories.

I'm entering this into Friday Sketchers.

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Elzybells); Watercolour pencils; Nesties; Papers (Making Memories); Punch (Martha Stewart)

My final card is a total recycled job and was super quick! I hate to see great elements from Christmas cards wasted so I always hang onto them. In this case, the element was the whole front of the card!! Basically I layered it up using some Basic Grey papers and cardstock and simply added some gems. Quick and easy and green!!

Crafty stash used: Image (recycled); Papers (Basic Grey); Cardstock; Gems (Wild Orchid Crafts)

Being stressed is never good for my bank balance as I always resort to a bit of retail therapy. I decided to stock up on some Christmas goodies and some basics at Wild Orchid Crafts and Bunny Zoe's. I bought loads of different coloured pearls, some different button packs, paper flowers, Snowflake gems, pearl pins, lace and the bow-maker- will get back to you on my opinion on this!

Thanks for stopping by today x