Miss Anya's in stock - be quick

Angel Crafts have the Miss Anya stamps in stock now - but be quick, they'll fly out like hot cakes.

Boringgggggggggggggggggg

well I didn't get any crafting done yesterday.... I had an appointment with Willow's clinical psychologist in the afternoon about her potty training (Willow's, not the psychologist's lol) which went quite well and I have taken away a few more ideas to try and help. She's also going to ask the nursery for a report and whether they have any concerns - if they do she'll ask them to get the Ed Psych involved. She's also writing to Willow's consultant and calling the Continence Nurse. Have I mentioned that I really like this young lady?

Then one of my clients called with her employees hours so I didn't get peace to run her payroll until late last night - but finally got it finished at half past midnight.

Anyway, must dash - have to drop Fayfee off at 2's group and then have to go right across town to deliver these payslips

CCSR Colour Challenge #3 - try #2

I thought I'd have another go at the CCSR Colour Challenge this week and I took some inspiration from our local celebrity Kath who is on the CCSR DT. I ordered some plain acetate from Emerald Crafts which arrived on Saturday morning as I have loved Kath's recent acetate cards and I wanted to give it a try. I was also pretty inspired by all the DT's work this week as it's such a lovely fresh colour combination: Turquoise & Yellow. Certainly not 2 colours I would normally have chosen but they work together brilliantly - and are so cheery looking.

Image: Gorjuss Girls Set #2 from Sugar Nellie, coloured with promarkers and accented with white sakura gellyroll and stardust pen on the shoes 

Papers: swirly background paper from CCSR the big one (adhered to the inside and outside of the back of the card) , turquoise flowers cut from the flowery paper from CCSR the big one

other: yellow card cut with 2 sizes of Labels 1 nesties in the cuttlebug, used same card to punch daisy flowers with woodware daisy punch, turquoise and yellow paper flowers from a huge scrapbooking set I bought a while back at Costco, papermania adhesive stones, and finally the acetate was from Emerald Crafts.

Here's a wee close up of one of the brand new Gorjuss Girls Set #2 from Sugar Nellie

(unfortunately the turquoise promarker used for her dress bled quite badly onto her wee crossed arms, so I had the cunning idea to stamp the image again, coloured the arms with ivory and blush promarkers then cut just the arms out and decoupaged them onto the original coloured image with 3d foam squares - phew what a save!!)

18th Birthday - commission

oh to be 18 again!! Life was so simple then, but lets face it, I'm never gonna see my twenties again let alone my teenage years.

I was asked to make an 18th birthday card for someone who "likes hot pink, and is a shopaholic" so this is what I came up with...

Image: Shopaholic from Sugar Nellie, coloured with promarkers - plus added adhesive stones

Papers: Doodlebug Love Spell

Card: core'dinations

doodlebug cardstock sticker swirls, papermania paper flowers from new embellishment trios, papermania pink shimmer dots, papermania cardstock sticker numbers - heat embossed several times with pink Papermania embossing powder, WRMK eyelets, all ovals cut with nesties in cuttlebug.

Sugar Bowl Challenge #9 - Men!

This challenge at the Sugar Bowl had me groaning - I usually struggle with cards for men and boys, BUT one of the wee boys at Scott's Lego club is celebrating his birthday on Monday and his mum is providing them with cake, juice and sweets so I thought I'd make a birthday card for him.

The image is one that Mar kindly stamped up for me and is called Rockstar, from the Luca and Nellie range at Sugar Nellie. And the papers I chose are ones that I'm not a great fan of, Cupcake from Basic Grey, but they seem to work well with the image.

Image: Rockstar from Sugar Nellie, coloured with promarkers

greeting: tag greetings from Stamps Away! - highlighted with stickles

papers: Basic Grey - Cupcake

card for matting: core'dinations

eyelets: WRMK

fibres: Basic Grey - Cupcake

CCSR Colour Challenge #3

Kath and Sheila over at the CCSR blog decided on this week's colour challenge of Turquoise & Yellow and I wasn't too sure about it to begin with. But once I got my papers and core'dinations card out it came together quite quickly.

Paper: CCSR the big one

yellow core'dinations card, cut to size for backing greeting and for punching out daisies (woodware punch)

small flower from CCSR Doodles and sentiment from CCSR Sentiments stamped onto dark turquoise core'dinations card with clear ink it up inkpad then heat embossed using papermania seafoam white embossing powder

turquoise brads at centre of flowers from new Papermania embellishment trios

yellow polka dot ribbon from stash

Just to let you know...

2 things,

my order from the fantabulous Oliver at Emerald Crafts has outdone himself again with his fantastic service - I placed my order at 2.30pm yesterday afternoon and it arrived with postie at 8.30am this morning.... 16 hours!!

the second thing I wanted to let you know was... I have received a reply from the editor of the Evening Express. He has completed his investigations and has come to the conclusion that we have been badly let down by them. The remedy he has offered is for me to write a letter  to him for publication "highlighting your web address and expressing the websites purpose and asking people to get in touch should they see fit"

Whiff of Joy Challenge #27

As you know, I love working from sketches - I find the layout of a card the hardest part, and this takes all the hard work out of it for me, so I was chuffed to see this week's Whiff of Joy Challenge was a sketch by Heather

I have bought so many new stamps lately, that I've not had time to get many of them coloured in, so this also gave me a chance to colour my favourite image from the Elisabeth Bell/Whiff of Joy Spring Kit.

Image: Willow with flower basket from the spring kit at Whiff of Joy, coloured with promarkers

Papers: black/white polka dot from CCSR The Big One, red patterned - Basic Grey Cupcake  - edges distressed and faux stitching with black micron pen, plain red card with faux stitching heat embossed using silver papermania embossing powder

Embellishments: red grosgrain ribbon attached with staples, chipboard swirl from Basic Grey - Bittersweet chip sticker shapes coloured in with black promarker, prima flowers, red flower button and silver thread, greeting from kanban

Here's a close-up of the image, have had a bash at doing black hair - not terribly happy with it, but I guess it'll take a bit more practice.

For those of you who have been asking after Mar - I have posted a wee update on her blog tonight, and if you have any smelly old kaftan's lying around, send them her way lol

Attention Attention!!

Right ladies, credit/debit cards out....... pc on..... mouse in hand? get yourself to Emerald Crafts right now as they have the new stock of brand spanking new DoCrafts May goodies in, including the new goodie bags, loads of new Forever Friends, new papermania paper ranges, core'dinations card packs, Daisy & Dandelion stamps (for men, that are soooooooooooo cute), expandable envelopes for all those embellie rich cards, stitch and craft designer templates - in fact, instead of listening to me waffling on about it... get over there and get shopping before it sells out.

Personally, I think Emerald Crafts have to be one of my absolute favourite craft retailers, Oliver offers the most efficient service and I can't speak highly enough of him.

CCSR - Sketch Challenge #3

Just in the nick of time (the new challenge starts tomorrow), here's my attempt at the CCSR Sketch Challenge #3.

I decided to choose a non CCSR stamp, and while I was flicking through my pre-stamped image folder I came across the Daisy & Dandelion images that I'd stamped out in brown versafine, so decided I would stick to (mainly) the one colour - brown. I thought the image was lovely as it was without colouring it in and I have turned the sketch on its side to make this card.

Image: Daisy & Dandelion, stamped with brown versafine inkpad, matted onto dark brown core'dinations card, papermania pink shimmer dots added to corners

Paper: CCSR the big one

mats: latte core'dinations embossed with swiss dots folder in cuttlebug and sanded, pale gold gemstones core'dinations inked with brown ink it up inkpad

greeting: hand doodled with white inkssentials pen onto dark brown core'dinations card, papermania pink shimmer dots added to 2 corners

anita's brown polka dot ribbon (the knot replaces the 3 circles in the sketch)

Letter to the editor

Well, I haven't calmed down any from yesterday but I do want to thank all for you who have left messages of support, I really appreciate it.

I have typed out the article that they printed in the paper for you.... although some editions had an abbreviated version which didn't include the website address or even the name.

Little Willow Robertson endures painful treatment 3 times a week. The four year old's condition leaves her in distress and discomfort. It is an ordeal her parents find difficult to cope with,  so much so that they decided to set up a support website for parents of children with additional needs and today Debbi Robertson, 36 and her partner, offshore worker, Graham Brockie, 52 both of Portlethen have gained charitable status for their efforts.
The extra special parents website now has members in Australia, America and Namibia as well as in the north east
Willow was born with a bowel condition which requires the distressing treatment every 2 days, Debbi and Graham, who knew nothing of the condition before Willow was diagnosed, were so frustrated they set up the online support group. Debbi who is also mum to Scott 9 and Faith 2, said "it is nice to be able to speak to other families and see how they manage"  "the website is for parents who have kids with any additional needs - from food intolerance to asthma and terminal illnesses" 
 Debbi said it is frustrating and distressing for parents when they first have to deal with their childs additional need,  she said "we set it up initially because we had never come across Willow's condition. we wanted to to speak to people who understood what we were talking about and it snowballed from there"  "the procedure Willow has to go through is distressing for her but its distressing for parents as well"
Debbi is committed to moving onwards with the site and wants to create an easy source of information for parents,  she said "its great to get recognised by receiving charitable status. it means we can hopefully take on bigger projects in the future" The charity's website is www.extra-special-parents.org

So here is the email I have just sent the editor...

Mr Bates,
I feel I have had to write to you regarding the article in Monday’s Evening Express by Catherine Shanks about our charity Extra Special Parents.
I was distressed to find that there were a large number of inaccuracies and omissions:
• My daughter’s name is Willow BROCKIE not Robertson, Robertson is my married name and as I have been separated from Mr Robertson for many years and he is not Willow’s father – this has caused a lot of unnecessary anguish and embarrassment.
• My daughter does not “endure painful treatment 3 times a week” we have to perform a bowel washout procedure every day as she has limited bowel control due to her congenital condition, which is uncomfortable for her, and which both her and we find distressing as it is an obviously invasive procedure.
• We did not start the website because we find the procedure “difficult to cope with” , we started the website because we wanted to talk to other parents who had experience of Imperforate Anus, the condition Willow was born with as it is not a common condition, and also because my son has Autistic Spectrum Disorder. We felt very isolated and worried about what the future would hold.
• We did not gain charitable status “today” we gained the charitable status from OSCR in January.
• We have members across the whole of the UK and worldwide, not just “in Australia, America and Namibia as well as in the North-east”
• The website isn’t just an “online support group”, it is an information-sharing and signposting website as well – we provide information on benefits and how to claim, signposting for financial, emotional and practical support as well as a place to swap practical ideas, share experiences. We put families in similar situations in contact with each other. And many members make use of the “members lounge” on the forum to relax and ‘get away from it all for a while’.
• I feel the statement “the website is for parents who have kids with any additional needs – from food intolerance to asthma and terminal illnesses” is very misleading. I tried to get across the point that we include needs like food intolerances, diabetes and asthma as these are not often recognised as disabilities, but can be very debilitating and stressful for families. The point is the website is open to parents and carers of children with any kind of additional need, including those with hidden disabilities, physical and mental conditions as well as those with “traditional” recognised disabilities.
• The statement “ wants to create an easy source of information for parents” also suggests the website is still being constructed which is definitely NOT the case, The website is now over 3 years old and holds a vast amount of information already, and is well established. As I stated to your reporter, being awarded charitable status means the following: we now have more doors open to us for raising funds which will enable us to promote the site further both locally and nationally; to also try to raise awareness of various issues affecting families of children with additional needs for instance one very topical issue locally is the cutting back of support staff in Aberdeen city’s schools which will have a direct effect on children with additional needs. According to the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004, Every education authority must—(a)in relation to each child and young person having additional support needs for whose school education the authority are responsible, make adequate and efficient provision for such additional support as is required by that child or young person, and (b) make appropriate arrangements for keeping under consideration— (i) the additional support needs of, and (ii) the adequacy of the additional support provided for, each such child and young person.
• I believe that in other editions of the Evening Express (e.g. the city final edition) the website name and address were also omitted. Which would render the article a complete waste of space.
• Finally the photograph used was 2 years old and in my opinion (and also of the opinion of several local members and friends) was hardly conducive to attracting new members, in fact I would probably say it has had a detrimental effect. The photograph was taken in July 2007 in connection with a story that was run about my partners bank card being cloned, and the photographer had asked me to look angry and fed up – not the image we had hoped to portray of a family friendly support website. A far better one to use would have been one from this collection http://3276.e-printphoto.co.uk/ajl/index.cfm?z=z&y=y&p_id=7637821&c_id=8402&action=view which is also more recent.

We have had super coverage from Aberdeen Journals in the past, as well as from the BBC, magazines and even The Sun and I am very saddened and upset by the possible harm this coverage has done our website. Needless to say we have had no extra hits or new members as a result of your article.
I look forward to hearing your comments in due course.
regards  

Debbi Robertson
Secretary/Treasurer
www.extra-special-parents.org
www.espkids.org
Charity No. SC040185

Edited to add.... I have received a prompt reply from the editor who has said he will investigate this fully before he replies to me fully and the reporter is not in the office today but he'll get back to me as soon as possible

And by the way, isn't that the most hellish photograph you've ever seen?? my BFF told me I look like I want to batter someone

I am soooooooooooooo upset!!

As you know, Graham and I started up a support website for parents and carers of children with additional needs, and in January we gained charitable status from the Office of Scottish Charities Regulator. I contacted the local press to let them know and they only got back to me about it last week. So I told the reporter all the info she needed, a wee bit of back story, what our hopes are for the site, what the charitable status means for us etc etc. 

They were sending a photographer out on Saturday morning to take pics of us all, but I called and asked them to reschedule as Scott was at his dad's on Saturday and they said they would get back to me. BUT they didn't bother, they ran the story in last night's Evening Express and I'm so upset, and quite a bit angry too.

They got a lot of the information wrong, didn't mention a lot of the important information I gave them, and the final slap in the face was the fact that they used a picture they had taken 2 years ago of Willow and I. Now you might be thinking - hey that's not so bad really - but the photo was taken after Graham's bank card was cloned and they ran a story about it and the photographer had told me to look p***ed off and angry. SO its hardly the best picture to encourage potential members to join the website as I look like this awful bad-tempered harridan. 

I have also been told that the city edition of the paper didn't include the website address - so that was a complete waste of time.

Needless to say, I'm busy composing a rather acerbic email to the reporter and the editor.

They're back at school

 - woohooo!

bit of a thought to get out of bed at half 7 again, but hey-ho. So after I dropped Scott at school I had to take Faith into RACH for a hearing test. She had been referred as I have a few concerns about her speech - but she passed with flying colours, they told me there's nothing wrong with her hearing at all.  So she must have that predominantly male trait of selective deafness lol

WoJ Summer Stamp Kit Pre-order

Get yourself along to Whiff of Joy right now!!

Katharina is taking pre-orders for the fantabulous new Summer Stamp Kit designed by Elisabeth Bell and if the Spring Kit is anything to go by it will be fantastic. Katharina has listened to feedback from the Spring Kit and this time, in the Summer Kit, as well as the 6 brand new, never before seen, main character stamps, you also get 5 accessory stamps, designed by Elisabeth Bell and 4 text stamps, designed by Katharina (in English). And all for the fantastic price of 28 Euros - that works out at less than 1.90 Euro per stamp - how on earth does she do it??

You can either click on the link above or on the banner in my sidebar to take you straight to Whiff of Joy and get buying. The Pre-orders are open until the 4th May so hopefully you'll all have pay-days before then so you have no excuse. I know I'll be ordering mine as I can never resist anything by Elisabeth Bell.

Here's the only sneaky peaky we're getting...

And just to make things more fun, Katharina has some fabulous blog candy - 2 super lucky people are going to win the Summer Kit.

Just click here to find out how to enter. Ends 1st May.

The Sugar Bowl - Challenge #8 - attempt #2

I so enjoyed using Tiets' sketch for challenge #8 over at the Sugar Bowl, that I thought I'd have another bash at it... Sorry for the dreadful pic - dodgy light once again!

Image: A gift for you from Sugar Nellie, coloured with promarkers, sakura gelly roll and stardust

Cardstock is all core'dinations

papers are all Papermania Spring Burst

Greeting: Kanban diecut

white Doodlebug boutique trim and Papermania clear shimmer dots

Focus on Fayfee

Those of you who know me outside bloggy land already know how my youngest got her pet name, but for those who don't.... When my mum brought Willow in to visit me in hospital after I had given birth to Faith, Willow came right up to the fishbowl (the plastic cot things they keep babies in) and pointed in at Faith and said "awww look mummy, its baby fayfee!" So it kind of stuck! Faith has been known ever since as Fayfee.

I was taking some pics of the girls in the bath the other night and seeing as this post is called Focus on Fayfee, I thought I'd share this one, and a few that I took today of her sitting on the kitchen table....

    

Stamps, stamps and more stamps

Well, I resisted the temptation of rubber stamps for a long time, but back in December '08 I finally cracked and ordered my first Sugar Nellie's and I've been hooked ever since. I've managed to build up a nice wee collection - although I'll probably bankrupt myself before very long with all the new releases at Funkykits and Whiff of Joy.

Anyway, I'm a typical Aquarian - laid back and pretty easy-osy, however I've found myself becoming pretty anal about my stamps. I have a wee system..... When I get new stamps, I try to ink them up as soon as possible and stamp out about half a dozen of each image onto Concord Card which I buy from Caboodle. I also purchased a couple of index card boxes and the index guide cards. So I take one of the guide cards - I write the name of the stamp on the index tab, then below that I write all the stamp details e.g. the designer, the company and the date purchased. Then I file my stamped images accordingly. This way, I have a wee supply of images ready to colour without having to faff around stamping them out as I need them - it also means the ink has plenty of time to cure before colouring, so no chance of bleeding or smudging. Its also handy for having ready stamped images for image swaps.

This is my Sugar Nellie Box....

For a start I decided to use CD jewel cases to store my unmounted and clear stamps - but these only hold a couple of stamps. Then I discovered Elzybells stocks the larger DVD sized cases and these hold far more stamps and the cases sit nicely on a shelf. The DVD sized cases also have a clear sleeve so you can insert a sheet of paper for indexing - you can stamp the images and write on the spine. I have managed to find an online retailer that stocks similar DVD sized cases without the disk trays inside for only 45p each, so have placed an order to replace all my CD jewel cases. 

The DVD cases are very useful for clear stamps - as you can attach them to both sides of the inside of the case, holding twice the number of stamps. For instance 1 DVD case holds 2 packets of the CCSR  or Papermania clear stamps.

So that'll be my job when my DVD cases arrive on Monday..... stamping insert sheets :(

Sally-Ann and Toodles & Binks

There's some exciting news over at the Toodles & Binks blog and over at Sally-Ann's blog. Yup, to celebrate T&B are offering some fabulous candy - but be quick!

Get Well Soon Mar

As some of you already know, my dear friend and fellow crafter and blogger, Mar had major spinal surgery last week and is now on the long road to recovery. Mar handed the keys of her blog over to me so I can update all her other bloggy buddies on her progress until she is fit enough to get behind her bloggy steering wheel once again. Please feel free to leave a comment for Mar on her blog - all comments will be passed on to her.
So now that I know she has finally received her card, I can share it with the rest of you...

Image: Maggie splashing in puddles from Sugar Nellie (given to me by Tina), coloured with Prismacolor pencils and blended with baby oil sentiment kindly given to me by Tina too.

blue card embossed with birds and swirls folder in the cuttlebug, plain red card

red smirk ribbon from trimcraft

flowers are prima

swirly brad from HOTP

charm was taken from a papermania elements topper

The Sugar Bowl - Challenge #8

This is my attempt at Tiets' wonderful sketch over at the Sugar Bowl. And of course I couldn't resist using one of my brand new Elisabeth Bell stamps from Sugar Nellie. In case you were wondering, I have turned the sketch upside down - just for a change.

Image: Daisy with Pram from Sugar Nellie, coloured with promarkers and sakura stardust

Papers: Basic Grey-Eva and pink Doodlebug card

I have included faux stitching using a white gelly roll pen on the pink card and black pen on the pale pink patterned papers, the sentiment is from the CCSR Sentiments set, flowers are Prima, pink card leaves punched using the Floral Punchcraft - Fern Family punch from Emerald Crafts.  And last but not least adhesive gems from Papermania

CCSR - Limited Supplies Challenge #2 - Keep in Shape!

This weeks challenge at Clare Curd's Signature Range Blog had me humming and aahing for a while - it sounds easy until you actually start thinking about it. 

This is the criteria...This week we're challenging you to keep in shape... It doesn't mean you need to go off and workout LOL, You need to pick a shape and follow it through all the elements of your creation...

Eg: If you chose square...

Card base: Square
Image: stamped on square
Embellishments: square
Sentiment: on square

Same would apply for a circle, rectangle, oval, etc etc! Hope you have good fun its a challenging one!

So I decided on Oval!, and to save any spitting the dummy out moments I kept it simple. I was totally inspired by Kath's DT example, I loved the bright springy colours - so here's my take on the challenge...

I cut the card base using the oval X-cut shape cutter and template from an A5 card blank, and used the same template to cut an oval from one of the papers from the CCSR The Big One paper pad, to cover the front of the blank.

I coloured the dots with Turquoise, Apple and Canary promarkers - I know that its circles on the paper and not ovals, but hey - what are circles if not just squashed up ovals? lol

I cut another piece of the same paper using the largest oval nestie and coloured in the circles as before, then layered it onto deep turquoise core'dinations card cut using the largest scallop oval nestie. I attached this to the card with 3d foam tape.

I used the nesties again to cut a piece of white card for the sentiment (which is hand doodled) and a scalloped oval of the turquoise core'dinations card to mat it onto. I then looped some lemon organza ribbon, attaching to the back of the sentiment.

The stamped image is the brand spanking new "Shopaholic" from Sugar Nellie, coloured as usual with promarkers

Scorchio :)

what a beautiful day we had yesterday - I spent all afternoon outside in the sunshine colouring some of my new Sugar Nellies, and would you believe it, I got sunburnt!! Although its turned brown already.

It can't quite make up its mind what it wants to do today though - the sun and fog are having a bit of a tug of war.

I'm getting a little nervous about Tuesday, if you've been keeping up with the news you'll have heard about the tragic helicopter crash on the 1st April where sadly, 16 people lost their lives. Since then there have been another 2 near misses, and the helicopters involved were the Eurocopter Super Puma EC225's. One had a precautionary landing, and one had pieces of metal coming from its exhaust when it landed on the platform. Graham is due home tomorrow and they fly in the EC225's. Understandably the crew who are due off are getting pretty nervous, and to be honest my guts are in an uproar and I won't be able to relax until I know he's back on dry land safely.

So I'm busy today, trying to limit the amount of mess the kids make - hopefully the sun will win the fight today and I can get them out in the garden again.

I'm also going to try and find an hour to put together a card with one of the images I coloured yesterday, so I may (don't hold your breath though) post that later.

Have a nice day :)

Happy Easter

Bathed the kids yesterday morning so they were all shiny and clean for going to Raegan's birthday party yesterday afternoon and they had a ball. Willow was a bit intimidated by all the noise for a start, but after everyone sat down for food she got her confidence back and that was her off. Faith "no fear" took off her shoes and made straight for the bouncy castle and I she only came off to stuff her face with sweets. Scott was bouncing around so much he broke into a sweat.

 

Well it would appear that my bank card has been compromised, I tried to use it to buy some Whiff of Joy stamps, tried to pay via PayPal and it was declined 4 times. I was mortified, as I know there is more than enough money in the bank to cover it. After calling the bank twice we managed to discover that there had been some suspect attempted transactions on the 26th March....... Eh, hello, that was a fortnight ago!! So because I don't recognise these attempted transactions, the bank have cancelled my card now and are sending me out a new one. But in the meantime I have a tenner in my purse and can't get any more money until Tuesday because of the bank holiday. But on the bright side, at least we have caught any problem before it gets worse. Two years ago, Graham's bank card was cloned at the local ATM and it was used for about £500 of stuff, including an £8 congestion charge in London. The bank were very good and refunded all the money taken from our account, but it was the inconvenience of cancelling the cards and waiting for new ones to arrive. Thank Crunchie for internet banking, or they could have cleared our bank account before I spotted it.

My new Elisabeth Bell stamps from Sugar Nellie arrived yesterday and I managed to ink up half of them, so I'm hoping I can distract the kids with their easter eggs for a while today so I can get a chance to colour some in and attempt to make one or two cards - don't hold your breath though.

Pants

Faith has decided she no longer wants to wear nappies - and yes, I thought "yay" potty training here we go. But its never quite as easy as that in this house.

Yes she doesn't want to wear nappies, but she doesn't want to wear pants either.....

she'd rather wear them on her head

Truly Scrumptious Challenge #4 - Flower Power

This is a birthday card for one of my friends' little girl, Raegan. We're all off to her birthday party tomorrow afternoon and I thought the sketch for the Truly Scrumptious Challenge #4 would be ideal.

Image: Maid Charlotte from Whiff of Joy (kindly given to me by Fiona), coloured with promarkers

Pink & Beige Core'dinations card - the beige is embossed using a flower folder from the thank you combo set, in the cuttlebug

Paper: Papermania Simply Elegant

Flower ribbon from Doodlebug Boutique Trims

flowers: prima

papermania shimmer dots in the centre of the prima flowers

greeting: kanban diecut

Last minute Easter card

I realised I had only made the one Easter card so far and I need two - one for my folks' and one for the out-laws. So have been busy busy this evening and not only thrown together an Easter card, but I also made Mar's Get Well Soon card.

Image: one of the gorgeous Sarah Kay images I got from Dawn Marie, coloured with promarkers

core'dinations card in orange, lime and lemon - the lemon was embossed with my favourite paisley folder for the cuttlebug.

ribbon is dovecraft

greeting - silver peel off

Thanks for all the good wishes

I want to say thank you to everyone who has contacted me to send their good wishes to Mar. For those who don't know, Mar went into hospital yesterday for major spinal surgery. The surgeon is quite pleased with how the operation went, and she's back on the ward and on the road to recovery.

Mar asked me to post updates on her blog to let everyone know how she was getting on, and you can read them here.  

Happy 1st Birthday Lexie

Graham's great niece, Lexie will be celebrating her very 1st birthday on the 25th April and this is the card I made for her.

Image: LeLo - Party Dragon, coloured with prisma's and blended with baby oil (stickles and clear stardust pen were used to highlight his spines, wings and toenails/talons)

Pink and patterned papers both from Basic Grey - Eva

green core'dinations card for matting and layering

greeting was hand doodled

And seeing as this was my first serious attempt at colouring an image for a card with my new Prisma's, here's a close-up...

Get Well Soon Matthew

As I mentioned the other day, my BFF's eldest son is in the hospital with an eye injury and I wanted to make him a card to try and cheer him up when he gets the patches off. Willow spent the evening with me doing her own cards, even using the cuttlebug to add a bit of texture! But kept getting frustrated because she can write her own name, but she can't get to grips with writing Matthew yet.

Anyway, Matthew is 15 and as you can imagine, its not easy making any kind of card for a teenage boy, because lets face it - according to him (and his mum, come to think of it) card-making is pretty gay lol

I was racking my brains for an idea for his card when Pamela mentioned nurses, so I trawled the internet looking for a suitable "Hot Nurse" image for his card and this is what I eventually settled on. Believe me, you really don't want to see the results you get by entering Hot Nurse into Google!!

Image: from the internet, Greeting: Stamps Away!

red and grey card are both core'dinations, the grey card has been embossed using the Paisley folder in the Cuttlebug, red card (and image) was cut using oval scallop (and oval) nesties.

Black polka dot paper is from CCSR The Big One

Ribbon is from the beetle black Doodlebug Boutique trims

CCSR - Technique Challenge #2 - DIY Flowers

Here's my attempt at the Clare Curd's Signature Range - Technique Challenge #2 - DIY Flowers.  I made the flowers by stamping the paisley stamp from the CCSR Doodles stamp set 9 times onto the pink check paper from the CCSR The big one paper pad with Stazon ink. I cut around each of the paisley's and then stamped the large flower from the Doodles set onto the jade polka dot paper from the CCSR paper pad and cut it out too.

I then used the X-cut pokey tool to make a hole in the centre of the jade flower and at the wider end of each of the paisleys. I poked the pink papermania brad first through the flower then through each of the paisleys and fanned them out until they were evenly spaced. Then fixed the brad in place. I then lifted each of the paisleys up and placed a 3d foam square between each one, creating some dimension and used a glitter pen to highlight some of the doodling.

The card base was covered with the jade polka dot paper and I tied an Anita's teal organza ribbon around the left hand side of the card.

The greeting (CCSR sentiments set) was stamped directly onto the card using Stazon ink.

Papers: CCSR The Big One

Stamps: CCSR Doodles, CCSR Sentiments

Ribbon: Anita's Teal Organza

Brad: Papermania

New Stamps at Sugar Nellie

I'm sure you're all aware that the pre-order for the Gorjuss Girls set #2 opened over at Funkykits on Friday night, its open until the 11th April and they plan to start shipping them on the 18th. If you liked set #1 then you'll love set #2. And if you want them then i would recommend that you pre-order them as it looks like they won't be releasing them as single stamps until May.

But did you know, that yesterday they also released the last set of six Elisabeth Bell stamps and a new set of Mary Hall stamps. I've just been on to check and it looks like 3 of the Elisabeth Bell's have already sold out, so you better be quick if you fancy the other 3. The new stamps are called Make a Wish, Daisy on trike, Daisy with pram, and the 3 sold out ones are called A gift for you, Daisy and dolly, and Shopaholic. Let me tell you, they are all gorgeous - and personally am thrilled to see more stamps featuring the Daisy character. 

The ever popular original Daisy stamp is back in stock too - so if you don't have her then I suggest you grab her while you can as she's never in stock for very long.

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

talk about a back-handed compliment....

I just made hot chocolate for the kids, like I do every other night and my eldest said "Thankyou mum, you're too nice to be hated"

charming eh?

Catch Up

Mar has reminded me I haven't done much of an update of what's been going on lately, so I thought I'd just do a chatty post today and catch up.

I got my tin of 60 Prisma's from the fabulous Sonia at 1Buy1Pencils during the week so I managed to get a blister from sharpening them all :). I also got the images from Dawn Marie, from our image swap, and she's sent me loads - so I certainly have no shortage of images to colour now that I have them plus the ones I got from Tina and Fiona and Meahni recently too. 

I received my order from Oliver at Emerald Crafts this morning - have I mentioned the fab service you get from them? :) I was just stocking up on some essentials, more of the super Papermania shimmer dots which are so pretty, some die cut sentiment banners from Kanban, these cute little tag shaped sentiment stamps from Stamps Away 

I also got more of the Doodlebug boutique trims, this time in white; the birds and swirls cuttlebug folder and have finally managed to lay my hands on a floral punchcraft fern family punch woohoo

Yesterday was a bad day all round, I had a huge row with just about everyone in the local GP's surgery, then had a stand-up row with an older man in the carpark about leaving my girls in the car for 5 minutes. I got so angry I burst in to tears when I got home. Then my chum Pamela phoned as her eldest had been injured in PE, he's now been admitted to hospital. But I'm not going to say anymore about it as I'm sure she wouldn't want it splashed all over the internet. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed for them and hope its all going to be ok.

And we have started our Easter Holidays up here, so the house looks a complete midden already - och its not too bad really, I could still get away with it if I got surprise visitors. Still seem to have a mountain of washing to get through and the kids seem to be constantly needing something to eat or drink. I can't even chuck them outside as we still have the pea-souper from yesterday.

And finally I'll leave you with a pic of the wee bag of sweeties I made up for the head teacher who took the kids home for me on Tuesday after my car died - it goes with the card I made for her.

Image: Gorjuss Girls from Sugar Nellie, coloured with promarkers

paper: CCSR the big one

card: core'dinations

ribbon: red organza from Anita's

Sketch Saturday - Sketch #44

I tried to make a reasonably CAS (Clean and simple) card for this weeks sketch on Sketch Saturday, using one of the new Whiff of Joy stamps designed by Elisabeth Bell.

Image: Willow sitting with floral wreath from Whiff of Joy, coloured with promarkers, sentiment is Stampin' Up (the image is partly cut out to make it look like she is balancing on the scallop circle)

card as always is coredinations, cut using circle scallop nestie in the cuttlebug

papers are both from the Basic Grey - Porcelain pad

green organza ribbon from Anita's

I won some candy

Here's the surprise candy that I won on Max's Mad March Spring Surprises blog candy giveaway...

There's still plenty of time to enter this mad giveaway, here's the details

... Firstly ... there is no deadline,
... Secondly ... winners will be selected totally randomly and ...
... Thirdly ... the surprise element is that prize photo's will only be revealed after the winner has been selected so you don't actually know what you're going to win until you've won it!! (although sneaky peeks may be posted occasionally to whet your appetite.

So here's the rules 
* Add a comment here (only 1 entry per person please) and pop a direct link on your blog (if you have one) telling others about "Max's March Madness Spring Surprises Candy"
AND if you have commented and are also one of Max's Followers then you'll have 2 chances of winning.
*If you don't have a blog then you can e~mail Max if you prefer to be in with an equal chance of winning.
* At random times over the coming weeks Max will pop in and randomly select a name (or names!) from the comments list ... that lucky person will win a spot prize!
* Announcements will be made in a separate message, along with a photo of the prize they've won.
Prizes are many and varied and will include stamps, albums, card kits, paper packs, embellishments, ribbons, chipboard, and various combinations of ... in fact oodles of crafty goodies that all deserve a good home.

So what are you waiting for - pop on over to Max's fantabulous blog

Clare Curd's - For Him stamps, I know where you can get them...

Ner ner na ner ner!!

Seriously though, I do know where you can get them online, they have just got new stock in today and this set of male stamps are a great buy at only £5.99 so you should really grab them while you can at Emerald Crafts This is a super online shop, I have had terrific service from them in the past and have just placed another order with them.

Missed challenge - Truly Scrumptious

well, am still playing catch up this week. This card was made using last week's Truly Scrumptious challenge sketch, so unfortunately I can't enter it, but hey-ho. Its also a thank you card for the head teacher at the school, for helping me out on Tuesday.

Image: Gorjuss Girls set #1 from Sugar Nellie, coloured with promarkers

paper: basic grey - marrakech, CCSR the big one

grey core'dinations card, embossed with paisley folder in cuttlebug

black ribbons - doodlebug boutique trims