CCT21 - In the house: It's your day

theme close to my heart this week over on CCT, 'In the house' - my favourite place to be! First thought was to do another of my magnolia home scenes as I've got the fab new table but being dictated by time this week I chose the quicker alternative, a PB bathtub stamp (could have gone for a bella bathtub or a rubber romance bath stamp too - hmmm, do you think I like my bubble baths? LOL)

Materials:

• Image: 'its your day' Penny Black stamp. sentiment from a PB clear set
• Colouring: distress inks and cosmic shimmer paints (the bubbles sparkle IRL) the bathtub is a lovely soft lavender colour but looks grey in photo :(
• Paper: BG 'Euphoria' pad got over just looking at it now and finally using it! blue & burgandy cardstock from stash - closest match I could find
• Others: quickcutz revolution flourish die (REV-0024), cuttlebug bubbles folder, oval petite scallop nestabilities, SU word window punch, pink gems from stash

If you take part this week you will be entered into draw for a prize which this week is 2 fab new stamps donated by Katharina from her new range of stamps.

Which ties in neatly with my other bit of news/info. If you've not already been, 'Whiff of Joy' is now taking pre-orders for the Charlie & Charlotte range of stamps. So go on over and have a look, I'm sure you'll not be able to resist, especially as it's FREE shipping if you pre-order now.

It's so exciting seeing myself on the DT page of the website; I'm not sure what's given Katharina the idea that I have that much craft supplies - she must have been talking to my hubby, I'm sure I don't have THAT much, honest! Love how she's made all our photos black & white - it looks really professional, just hope I can come up with the goods now :/, should be soon!

Hopefully I will have a Wii console and Wii fit to play with later today. I'm not much for going to the gym etc but have really started to put weight back on since I've gone 'part-time' (some of my clothes are starting to feel a bit 'snug'!) so need to do some excercise but knowing me it has to be something which I will actually do and at home. So being the big kid that I am we thought we'd get the Wii as it looks fun. I'll let you know how I get on! Anyone else tried it?

Tilda & friends ATC: beads

Theme this week for the ATCs is 'beads'.

The only beads I have are some micro beads I've had in my stash for years so thought I'd give them an airing. Used Edwin with paddling oar which I had cut out previously and replaced his oar with a present but then didn't use him. So grabbed him as I made this late Mon night and needed something quick.

Used bit of bright scrap paper for the bottom half of background then for the beads, I dug out some double sided peel offs in shapes of stars and stuck them to top half of ATC and added beads to them to complement the paper. Edwin just coloured with my promarkers and white gelpen. He's been curved and stuck on with 3d foam down centre only (his edges are stuck with sticky dots so he's curved off the ATC with just his central belly part sticking out :) )
Bit of a quickie this week but that's the beauty of ATCs, can whip them up with bits laying around without having to worry it has to be for an particular occasion like you do with cards. Go on, give it a try - it's fun and great if you've got kids to keep entertained this summer. All details over on the Tilda & Friends ATC blog

Spoonful of sugar sketch

Managed to quickly finish a card for spoonful of sugar, sketch challenge this week by Katharina. Been too hot to stay in and make cards but I've had this image coloured up a couple of days ago so thought I'd use up some more scraps and came up with this:


Materials:

• Image: 'Picnics of daisies' Sarah Kay stamp. cut out and raised on 3d foam pads
• Colouring: distress inks & cosmic shimmer paints
• Papers: scraps (HOTP)
• Others: Fiskars 'threading water' border punch, oval nestabilities, quickcutz flourish die, corner floral punch. Brown ribbon and 'happy bday' embellie from stash

Not one of my favourites as I'm not actually that keen on the paper but I'm hoping it will grow on me yet.

Also, I've been given the Wlyde Women award again from Gill and also from the extremely talented artist Elisabeth (I just love all the drawings she comes up with and wish they could all be turned into stamps but then I'd be broke so probably just as well they aren't LOL). Thank you so much girls, you are both so sweet and it really does brighten my day! I have already 'played' (see here) but needless to say I would give the award right back to both of you too :)

Right need to try and get my DT stuff done now as I'm out tomorrow and know I will be short on craft/blog time again this week.

Have a good night/day depending on when you're reading this!

day out

Phew, am absolutely shattered! No cards today as we (that's me and hubby) went on day trip to Conwy and Llandudno (North Wales) which is only about 40mins drive away. Went with my sisters and their families. It was a glorious sunny day but not too hot so had a lovely time and managed to take some lovely photos too. So just so you have something to look at here are some piccies;

Hubby & me along the city walls leading to Conwy castle:

Conwy castle (the 2 specks in the tower are my 2 nieces - there were 4 towers and we split up and went up different ones :) - tired just thinking about how much I walked today LOL)

Looking out from our tower the other way, we got this view:

Further along the coast was Llandudno where we ended our day at the beach (it was sunnier but photo didn't turn out right!):Going to have a rest now and think about cards some other day but if the weather continues to be so nice it's going to be tough to stay in and make cards!

PTW - Katharina sketch#7 & an award

Another fab sketch by Katharina this week over on PTW . Used another one of my Sarah Kays for this as I haven't managed to use them all yet and thought I'd go for a more bright/modern colour scheme for a change (even though I still do prefer these images with the distress/vintage colours and schemes).

Materials:

• Images: 'Rosalies Bicycle' Sarah Kay stamp 'enjoy' ticket from a hero arts sparkle set
• Colouring: distress inks and cosmic shimmer paints they really sparkle like mad IRL tried to capture that on the photo below
• Papers: DCWV blossoms & butterflies stack & brown cardstock
• Others: cuttlebug embossing folders (border for the strip in the middle & 'argyle' for the semi circle which was swiped with versamark pad before embossing to get that 2 tone colour). fiskers circle cutter, nestabilities scallop rectangle die and gems from stash

Also got this beautiful looking award off Rach yesterday who makes gorgeous cards and is 'up there' when it comes to colouring with distress inks if you've not seen, you must go look. I only recently came across Rach but I'm glad I did and lucky me gets to be a teamie with her as she's a 'Whiff of Joy' DT member too :)

rules for this award are:
1. You can give it to one or one hundred or any number in between - it's up
to you. Make sure you link to their site in your post.
2. Link back to this blogsite (http://www.tammyvitale.com//) so Tammy can go visit all these
wonderful women.and remember the Purpose of the Award: To send love and
acknowledgment to women who brighten your day, teach you new things and live
their lives fully with generosity and joy.

Well, I really would be here for hours if I listed everyone I wanted and then I'm sure I'll miss someone out so instead I would like to pass this on to YOU! Yes you, because if you've read this far then you're probably one of my regular visitors (who else would read all my waffle?!) so thank you and please accept this award and pass it on should you so wish :)

Have a lovely weekend.

Hugs,

PB & late Fri sketchers

May have just made it by the skin of my teeth for the Fri sketchers challenge (thanks to the time difference :) ) if not then I've still got the PB challenge which this week is 'snow much fun' and could do with some more christmas themes as I like making them now otherwise I know I will end up running out of time which is what usually happens every year. (I must have over fixed the photo as the colour is not quite as pink as it should be but it's late so it'll have to do) Materials:

• Images: 'Snowy 'PB stamp. snowflake is papermania clear set
• Colouring: Tim Holtz distress inks and cosmic shimmer paints. Just realised I've not added my white gelpen highlights - will have to do that later. Told you it was late!
• Paper: Papermania 'naughty & nice' christmas paper pack. Love this pack as it's pinks, browns and greens. the packs this year are thicker weight paper too.
• Others: border made with my fiskars threading water border punch which finally arrived today along with the quickcutz flourish die - yeah been waiting ages for these. pearl gems from stash.

Have a great weekend.

Ila's Magnolia candy

Look at this, it's Ila's fab Magnolia Candy here. You just need to spread the word to go into her draw on the 28th July. Good luck! (If I'm lucky enough to win I would be giving the flower stamps away as I already have those so fingers crossed!)

CCT 20 : things that grow

CCT theme this week is 'things that grow'. Well, people, trees and birds grow so I used another one of my fab Sweet art ebony stamps.


Short on craft time this week, what with my sister visiting, so used the scraps on my desk which was just enough to make a quick kickstand card.




Materials:

• Image: 'birdhouse' Sugar Nellie stamp from the Sweet art Ebony range at Funky Kits
• Colouring: Promarkers, white gel pen & sakura glaze pen over the birdhouse with a bit of sparking H2Os thrown in to give some sparkle
• Paper: scrap from a Basic Grey pad
• Others: flower brad & ribbon from stash. Scallop border made with quickcutz border die and my cropodile. I did order the fiskars threading border punch over a week ago but still not here yet.

Here's when it's flat, so you can see the bottom half of the layout better:

and this is close up of the coloured image. I love this stamp, it's so big and detailed yet actually didn't take long to colour in. As it was so large, I let the picture do the work and kept the rest of the card very simple, although I couldn't stop myself from adding the scalloped border as it looked a bit plain without it. I got a bit of ink on my hand, but didn't realise so ended up with a smudge on the image - luckily it was in a spot where I could hide it with the 'Hello' sentiment :D

Also, need to say thank you for all your comments and I'm not ignoring you all but just not glued to my pc like I usually am but will try and catch up with everyone soon.

However did manage to do a quick scan of a few blogs (just didn't stop long enough to leave comments) and you must stop over at Katharina's for more sneek peeks of her stamp range designed by the fab Elisabeth Bell.

Have a lovely day.

Tilda & Friends ATC: Buttons

Just a quickie from me today. Theme this week is buttons. Managed to find a rolling pin button in my stash so just put that with my apple pie Tilda and a bit of scrap dp and voila.

Materials:

• Image: 'Apple pie Tilda' and 'Apples' Magnolia stamps. Apples have been stamped onto shrink plastic to make little dangling embellishments by punching hole and colouring before shrinking then attaching to ATC with thread and brad
• Colouring: Letraset Promarkers, white gel pen, stickles
• Paper: from scrap box think it's K & Co
• Other: rolling pin button from stash

All details for making an ATC and the candy on offer can be found over on the ATC challenge blog, along with all the other fab DT creations. So hop on over and join in. Why not get the kids to make one too as there will be a prize for under 16 entries as well.

Award

I'm afraid no cards to show as I've been out all day and my crafting output will be a bit more erratic for 2 weeks so bear with me. I did manage to tidy up my blog last night (wanted to update my bloglist to the one that tells you when they were last updated. Am hoping it will make my bloghopping time efficient as I can see who has updated, when!) and whilst I was at it thought it was time to do a bit of redecorating so changed my colour scheme, made a new blogheader and put a new photo up.

I was given this lovely looking award from Kathy (just a shame I can't use it to spend LOL)



Rules are as follows:

1. Only 5 people allowed.
2. 4 have to be dedicated followers of your blog
3. One has to be someone new or recently new to your blog and live in another part of the world.
4. You must link back to whoever gave you the award.


Quite simple really it is a way of saying thank you to those who take time out for wonderful comments to boost your day.

So mine would be (Kathy would have been there but seeing as she gave me the award I've left her out IYSWIM):

Annie

Debby

Jo

Michelle

Camilla would be my "recently new, in another part of the world person"

Sorry I couldn't put more on, please forgive me ;) Also, by no means feel obligated to pass this on as I know how busy we all are and would totally understand if you didn't want to play :)

Big Hugs,

OMG, just look at this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just when I thought it couldn't get any better just look at who else Katharina has got designing for her! Yep, Elisabeth Bell. This will be one of the new stamps and if you hop on over to Katharina's blog and suggest a name for her and a boy you could be in with a chance of winning these stamps! I'd just started to calm down now I'm all hyper again LOL Oooooo just the thought of getting all these stamps to play with is just too much :)

Spoonful of sugar - for the girls

Finally had to play with my new Sugar Nellie stamps where Elisabeth has outdone herself with her gorgeous designs for the 2nd batch of Sweet Art Ebony releases. I had to get them all but so far have only managed to colour this one in!

Materials:

• Image: 'Penpal' from 2nd release of Sweet Art Ebony range of Sugar Nellies. 'Love' studio g mini 99p clear stamp sets. dotted pink border an old Woodware clear border set, lost the packaging so don't know the name!
• Colouring: Promarkers, white gel pen, Sakura stardust pen and stickles glitter glue
• Paper:Basic grey 'Stella Ruby'
• Others: Cuttlebug 'script' embossing folder used on scrap brown cardstock. Circle nestabilities die, lots of faux stitching and ribbon, flowers and brads from stash

Think she is my favourite of the new ones (although the birdhouse runs a close second), she's so pretty & sassy! So it definitely fits in with this week's spoonful of sugar challenge 'one for the girls'. It's another folder card, so will be used to house some images for one of my candy winners if I can bear to part with it as I love the colours on this. Anyone else have problems parting with their cards, or is it just me LOL?!

Thanks for all the lovely comments and congratulations on my DT post. I'm still sooo excited by it all and can't wait to start!

Have a great Saturday. The sun finally came out today but boy is it windy!

Smell of exciting news in the air!. . .

O.K I've been bursting to say something but couldn't but now I can!

What am I blabbering about?

Well if you've visited Katharina recently (who I'm sure is on most people's blogroll!) you'll know her exciting news which means I can announce mine! I've been dying to post all day but not had a chance till now!

Yup, she's starting her own rubber stamp business, 'Whiff of Joy' and she's asked me to be on her Design team!!!!! I know, I couldn't believe it either, especially when you see everyone else on her DT:

Camilla (Norway)
Inge (The Netherlands)
Murielle (France)
Rach (UK)

Congratulations girls and thank you so much Katharina! Here's hoping we can play some small part in helping you make your dream business a success! If you pop on over to Katharina's blog there is the chance for a guest DT spot and you'll get to see a sneek peek of one of her stamps. What are you waiting for?

Oooo, feel so much better now that I've shared the news :) Can't wait to start!

My Blog Candy Winners . . .

. . . are "drum roll please" (I used Randorm.org).


.


.


.


for set A: Tina (yummyscrummycreate)



.

and for set B: Malin

As there were so many entries I took the next 3 names as well and they will get a small consolation package (mainly images and some 'bits' from my stash). The names are:

Crafty B
Torill
Lim

Congratulations girls! If you could email me your address I will get your candy out to you either tomorrow or most likely Monday.

Thank you all very much for taking part, I can't believe quite how many did take part and from all over the world too! I will try and post some cards this weekend, if not, have a good one.

Hugs,

Friday Sketchers #10: 'Happiness'

Think I just made it in time for Friday Sketchers.

Materials:

• Image: 'Kiss for Chloe' Sarah Kay stamp. 'Happiness' making memories magnetic stamp set I've had for years
• Colouring: watercoloured with distress ink pads and twinkling H2os, white gel pen. chalk ink round the edges
• Papers: Basic Grey 'Sugared' 6x6 pad
• Others: flowers and metal flower/charm from Camilla. rest from stash. Nestabilities petite circle scallop dies, corner punch and SU word window punch

Loved how this turned out as the colours are 'very me'. I love all the earth/muted/autumnal colour palette and think all this dreary rain has made go reaching for them. So much for summer! Hope the weather picks up soon else my Sister is going to get a shock to the system (she's visiting from Hong Kong and lands Saturday)

As I wanted a softer look I gave my Promarkers a break and went back to my distress inks for a change. All the lovely flowers and gold metal embellies and button were from the lovely candy I got from Camilla :) The grainy look to the photo is actually the twinkling of the H2O I used - it really shimmers IRL but impossible to capture on photo. You might see it more if you click and zoom in on it.

Right, might try and tidy up my craft room as it's looking a tip again!

CCT19 Animals only: 'Blooming Moo-velous'

CCT theme this week is 'Animals only, no people allowed' which did actually make me stop and think as I've been engrossed with my Sarah Kays and Magnolias recently! Was going to do a 2 for 1 and use the card I did yesterday (post below this) but then thought I should really do a seperate one.


So used 1 of these cute cows I got off Alota stamps the other week (just think they are so funny) and lots of scraps I had laying on my desk. The base card was scrap too hence it's a kick stand card as it wasn't big enough for a normal square card!

Materials:

• Image: 'Molly moo stamp set' off Alota stamps
• Colouring: Promarkers, white gel pen and stickles
• Papers: Basic Grey 'Blush' All just scraps from earlier card
• Others: adhesive gems from stash

Here's the card laying flat so you can see the layout better.

Hope you'll join in with the challenge. Pop on over to CCT to see all the other fab DT cards to help inspire you and also to see the fab Sarah Kay stamp that can be won if you take part.

PB sketch challenge

Yeah, managed to make a card for the PB challenge this week! It was a sketch this week and I love sketches.

Materials:

• Image: 'waterlily skiing' PB stamp. corner flourish stamp from Fancy Pants 'from the garden' set. mouse and butterfly have been cut out and raised on foam pads but not obvious from photo
• Colouring: Promarker pens and sparkling H20s on the lily and butterfly
• Papers: Crate paper 'notebook'
• Others: embossing folders for the floral panel and the 'happy birthday' circle scallop nestabilities. Cloud 9 epoxy 'raindots' present from Michelle :) they are fab - will have to find some more!

Am halfway through giving my house a good sort-out/clean, it's amazing how much junk is shoved in cupboards and shelves. Am nearly there now, just a few more rooms to do then I can play with my new Sugar Nellies. They have just landed on my door today whoohoo! They are GORGEOUS, good incentive to get my skates on if ever there was one. Think spoonful of sugar challenge will get a look in this week :)

Don't forget, last chance to enter my blog candy by tomorrow, 11pm. I may not get a chance to leave a comment on your blogs but as long as you have posted about my candy and linked back to it then you are entered (If I can't find a link or a post then you're not. Some of you say you have but not left any link to a blog and I don't have time to go hunt them down!) For those that have left comments about not having a blog, sorry - maybe next time ;) I'm sure I'll be doing more candy in future as I have some things in the pipeline ;) but I can't say anything yet! Will announce winners Fri morning, good luck!

Tilda & Friends ATC: Animal Friends

Tilda & friends ATC theme this week is 'Animal Friends'. First things that spring to mind are cats and dogs but I don't have those magnolia stamps (just umpteen other ones!) so thought I'd use my horse magnolia which hasn't seen ink since I got him (a loooong time ago) and gave him a little birdy friend.


This was nice and quick one as it was just coloured with promarkers, a little bit of sparkling H2O's and foam pads to raise both birdy and horse. That's all there was to it. The background stamp is magnolia too and the 'friends' is from one of those studio g 99p clear stamp sets - love those for the little sentiments.

My late Ismaki

Well, as promised, here's my card I started for Ismaki but which will be too late to enter now as there will be new sketch up later today. I loved the sketch as I got a chance to make a DL size card instead of a square one for a change but I actually don't like my finished card that much. Can't quite put my finger on it but it, may be because I like my more muted/distressed colour palette and this is more bright, girly and pastel. Anyway, its done now and am hoping it'll grow on me. I went a bit mad with my adhesive gems too!

Materials:

• Images: hanglar stamp. Tickets are Hero arts
• Colouring: Promarkers
• Papers: Papermania 'sweet nothings' 6x6 pad
• Others: quickcutz scallop border, cuttlebug border embossing folder. flowers, brads and gems from stash

Oh, for those of you who love the Sweet Art Ebony stamps, Funky kits have got the new ones in stock - quick run, as I know they will sell out quick!!!

Right best try and get some serious housework done (no really, I can't put it off anymore. Need to give the whole house a thorough seeing to as have family coming to visit next week). So just to warn you, apart from my couple of DT card/ATC I may not be around as much but will try and visit blogs etc when I can.

Have a good day.

Another Award

Have been given this one

from the lovely Kathy (distressed stamper). If you don't know her you must pop on over to her blog as she makes the most fab cards. Thank you so much Kathy, it's so nice that you thought of me and means a lot :) There are just too many people I want to give this award to (and some of you have already received this) so rather than just choose 2 I am going to take the short cut and award this one to all my regular visitors, so that would be you - especially if you've read this far!

I'm afraid I've not got a card to show you today, just don't know where the weekend has gone plus today is 'hubby day' so never get much time to craft although I did find time to stash shop; unfortunately for my bank balance, my branch of the 'Papermill shop' is stocking PBs (at a VERY good uk price) and more and more stamping stuff these days. The one and only art store I go to has more and more cardmaking stuff too - maybe I have increased their demand soo much they have increased their range LOL).

I do have a half finished card for Ismaki which I'll finish and post tomorrow even though it will be too late. There really are just too many challenges that I would like to do but am just having to accept the fact I'm not going to be able to do them all!

Talking of challenges, if any of you have any under 16's then why not get them crafting and they can take part in' Crafty Monkey's', fab challenge blog set up by kids for kids. Summer holidays are looming so a great way to keep them occupied for a bit. There's some lovely candy up for grabs too, so well worth a visit.