It's my birthday and I'll Craft if I want to....

As I type the title of this post, I finf myself humming that 80's song 'It's my party and I'll cry if I want to'. I guess that give you a clue as to how old I'm getting!!

Anyhoo......it is my birthday today and, as such, I have decided to forgo the normal Sunday activities of washing, cleaning and ironing, and just enjoy the day.

Well I have to say I have had a lovely day. I have enjoyed a bit of crafting time (hence the post title!), visited or spoken to most of my family and met my latest Great Nephew (born on Monday) for the first time. All this was wrapped uo with a delicious meal at Jamie's Italian. A lovely day indeed!

So - back to my crafting, which has revolved around my new Great Nephew - Tyler-James.......

Last night I finally finished the blanket that I had been knitting, and also Tyler's special card......

......and here it is. I have used ine of the lovely Suzy's Zoo stamps from Joanna Sheen and coloured it with my spectrum noir pens. I did have a bit of a moment of horror this morning, as I coloured the image last night, using what I though was a pale orange on the beak and feet. However, when I looked at the card this morning, they were luminous....and I MEAN luminous!! After a moment of shock, I managed to repair them with a couple of deeper shades of orange......disaster averted!!

The papers that you can see are all from the NitWits Stuffed With Love collection and are just perfect for this kind of thing.

For my first Great Nephew - Jack (born in April), I had incorporated his name in to his card, so, of course I hade to do the  same for Tyler, only this time I did it on the inside.....

I also made a tag, with the washing instructions on it, for the blanket that I made....



And here's the whole package.....

Finally, here's the little chap that all the fuss was about.....

I'm going to enter my card for the following challenges today....

 Joanna Sheen - Animal Crackers

Poodles Parlour - Anything Goes

One Stop Craft - Just Good Friends

Thanks for stopping by today.

Sharon x





Feeling Festive??

It's the middle of summer and yer, as always, us crafters are already turning our thoughts to Christmas. The stamp companies are releasing their Christmas offerings to tempt us.......and boy, is it hard to resist!

Lucky for me, I was given these lovely stamps by the Stamp Addicts team, to create some cards for their last show, and I have to admit, I really love this Mr and Mrs Santa who form part of a larger set.

As you can see, these images are quite modern and quirky, but I have stuck with the traditional Christmas colour scheme and incorporated some lovely backing papers, incorporating holly and mistletoe.

And for me, Christmas is not over yet as I have some more Christmas stamps to work with ready fro the next Stamp Addicts show is C&C, which I believe is scheduled for 9th August, They're completely different to this set........so watch this space!

In the meantime I'm going to enter this card in to the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes
Poodles Parlour - Anything Goes
Sweet Stampin Challenge - Christmas in July.

Well that's me done for today. As I sit here typing it's 11:10pm in the UK.......50 more minutes until I am another year older, as it's my birthday tomorrow. I'm going to bed in a minute, as I can cope with being a year older as long as I don't sprout any new wrinkles! Off to get my beauty sleep.......byeeeeee!!!!

Sharon x

An apple a day

Here's another one of the cards that I made for one of my son's teachers this year. I really like this image from Digi Stamp Boutique as it reminds me very much of my own son - particularly with his shorts, back pack and scrunched up socks!!

I have coloured the image with ProMarkers and decoupaged it, before mounting on some lovely backing papers and borders from the lovely NitWits Live n Learn FQB set.

This is another one of those cardswhere I resolved to make a nice 'inside' too, so here it is......

I thought I would enter this in to a couple of challenges:

• Passion for ProMarkers - Feeling Fruity
• Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by today.

Sharon x

Fairy Nice.......

This fairy is extra nice because she was free! She came as part of a set of two acrylic Whimsy Stamps with a magazine and I have to say I really love them.

To make this card I have used backing papers from the NitWits Promises Too digi set and them coloured the image with promarkers to match, before sprinkiling a bit of  'fairy dust' in the form of some glitter and some pearl paint.

I have also punched some flowers to create some handmade embellishments.

So - a very simple card really, but sometimes I like them that way!

I'm going to enter this in to the following lovely challenges:

• Sketch Saturday
• Southern Girls - Angels and Fantasy
• Di's Digi Designs - Mystical Creatures
• Papertake - Make your own embellishments
• Simon Says Stamps - Anything Goes

Now that the weather has cooled off a bit, it's time to get back to finishing off my baby blanket as my second lovely Great Nephew has been born........Tyler-James, born on 23rd July. His due date was my birthday, which is 29th July so, although I am glad that he is here safe and sound, I have to confess that I was looking forward to sharing my birthday with the little man. Plus it would have given me a few extra days to finish off that blanket too!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today....see you soon with a picture of a new baby card and a completed blanket with any luck!!

Sharon x

It's 23 degrees and I'm thinking about Christmas!

Yes - it's probably the nicest day that we've had so far this year, and here I am just about to load up a Christmas card. It's certainly not easy to get all 'Frosty the Snowman' on a day like this but I am happy to exchange my early Christmas cheer for a bit more lovely sunshine!!

So here is my card for today, which I am going to enter in to a few Christmassy challenges.

This lovely snowman is one of the new releases from Stamp Addicts, and, as you can see he is quite a sizeable chap so he makes a real focal point for a card.

I have coloured him with Promarkers and mounted him on to an easel card. The backing paper has been printed from myJoanna Sheen Messy Rabbit Christmas CD rom.....sadly I am not sure if you can still get the Messy Rabbit stuff these days.

As you can see, I managed to fit a little bit of tinsel in there as well, although I can tell you, getting it too stick wasn't easy!

Well that's my card for today, which I would like to enter in to the following challenges:

Paper Shelter - Anything Goes
Shelly's Images - Christmas Anything Goes
Delightful Sketches - Christmas in July.

Right - time to get cracking on finishing my second baby blanket now, as my Niece has gone in to labour and I still have another 17 rows to complete. Plus, I haven't started the requisite hand made card yet either.... I am waiting for a name, to see if I can incorporate it in to the card. So much to do and so little time......too bad that I have to go back to work tomorrow!!

Thanks for stopping by on this sunny Sunday!

Sharon x

Wings and Things

There are quite a few challenges around this week which are Fairy and Fantasy orientated, so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to blog one of my Stamp Addicts Fairies!

So here she is - a lovely floating fairy who is part of a range at Stamp Addicts. For this card I have stampd and coloured her in Promarkers and 'dot distressed' the edges of the main image. The flowery backgound mat that you can see is another stamp from Stamp Addicts and it is big enough to stamp the background of an entire A6 card. I stamped this with a pigmet ink and then clear embossed it to bring out the colour a bit. Finally I finished with a few punched flowers.

I would like to enter this card in to the following challenges:

• Papertake - All things girly
• Paper Shelter - Anything Goes
• Cute Card Thursday - Fairy Nice
• Southern Girls - Angels and Fantasy
• Di's Digi Designs - Mystical Creatures

As I type, all is quiet in my house as both the boys are out, so I might take an opportunity to get a bit of crafting done....ahhhh a lovely bit of 'me' time!!!!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Sharon x

I am a Winner at Sqiggles and Giggles

Lucky old me........I entered a card in to the Squiggles and Giggles challenge blog (it was the one I made for my friend who was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and you can see it here) and I can't believe that I was one of the top three!

I am so pleased to have been a winner, plus a get to pick a free digi for a prize.

Happy days!

Sharon x

Less is More....

It's the one layer card challenge once again over at Less is More, with the added twist of using three of something, so I have used three pale green gems for my card. I guess you could also say three paws for the kitten as well!

I used a lovely Strawberry Kisses stamp for this card and coloured in with Spectrums before adding a bit of glitter to the pink champagne to make it even more sparkly.

Anyhow - I'm adopting the less is more theme for my blog ramblings as well today, so that'sall from me for now.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sharon x

Skool's out.....nearly!

Well the sun is shining (so far!) here in Milton Keynes today, so I was able to get my camera out and take pictures of those Thank You Teacher cards that I was talking about yesterday. Strangely, I accidentally pressed a button on my camera this morning and found an exposure button, which would have solved all my 'cloudy' problems.........who knew??!!

Anyway - back to my card for today..the first of four teachers cards, which I have based around a sketch from Sketch Saturday.

The little boy is from digistamp boutique...I got him last year but never used him in the end! All of the papers are from the NitWits Live 'n Learn FQB which has some really gorgeous themed papers plus some fab embellies too, including the buttons on this card which I have glazed with diamond glaze.

I have also seen that a lot of people are doing some lovely things with the inside of their cards these days, so I thought I had better make a bit more effort on that side too. Back to those lovely NitWits embellishments, which enabled me to produce this.......

So that's the first of the batch, which I am going to enter in to the following challenges....

J and C Creations - Anything Goes
Poodles Parlour - Use a Digi Stamp
Sketch Saturday

Thanks for stopping by today - and I hope you all get some sunny weather before we all get back to the grind tomorrow.

Sharon x

The Paper Shelter DT call

My last quick post for today as I wanted to make sure that I out in my entry for the Paper Shelter DT call out.

To enter this call out, you have to post a card wsing Digi's only, which is more about the colouring than the embellishment. So I chose this one.......

This is the card that I made for my son Christmas. It is made from various elements from the Polka Doodles Magical Christmas CD, each of which I lovingly coloured with my promarkers.

So Paper Shelter Crew - I would be sooooo pleased if you would stop by and have a look at my blog, and if you have, I hope you like my little offering. I am keeping everything crossed!

Thanksfor stopping by!

Sharon x

It's all about MiMi

Well I have been quite busy, craft wise today as my son wanted to give cards and presents to his teacher, plus the three teaching assistants! Still I decided to treat this asa challenge and come up with four individual cards which I finished putting together today.
Unfortunately though, the weather has been so darn dull (not to mention rainy!) today, that I just didn't get enough good light to photograph them. Here's hoping for a bit more sunshine tomorrow so that I can put my very amateurish photographic skills to good use!

So for today I am showing a card which I havemade for my niece, who has just passed her driving test. I have used one of my old favourites - a Mimi stamp, which I think is just perfect for the occassion. It didn't have L Plates on the stamp though, so I had to make a couple myself. They are not quite in scale to the rest of the image, but I am sure you get the gist......

I have coloured the image using my Spectrum Noirs and have matched the colours in with the papers which were a freebie from a magazine!

There are a few nice challenges out there this week, so I am going to enter this card in to the following:

J&C Creations - Anything Goes

Little Claire - Summer (beacuse it's an open top car and we only get to do that in the UK on the sunniest of days!!

One Stop Craft - Travel

Wishcraft Cards - Waste not Wednesday

So that's me done for today.

See you tomorrow - hopefully with some thank you teacher cards.

Sharon x

A card can make a difference.....

A colleague of mine was recently diagnosed with Breast Cancer. I can only imagine how frightening it must be to hear those words from your doctor and it really reminds you how fragile life really is. Anyway, this particular lady has amazed me with her courage, dignitiy and positivity since her diagnosis and I have nothing but admiriation for her. She has now had her op, and I found myself in one of those situations where you wish you could do something to make things better, but you don't know what. Then I realised that maybe a handmade with something heartfelt inside might give a bit of a boost when it's needed most....and here is the result.

I thought a Swalk image would be perfect for this card, which I have tried to keep as clean and simple as possible. I hope that it may have raised a bit of a smile when it finally reached it's destination.

I thought  would enter this card for a few challenges as follows:

PaperTake - Anything Goes
Bearly Mine - Ribbons and Bows
Squiggle Stamps - Red White and Blue
Allsorts - Red White and Blue
Catch the Bug - Anything Goes
One Stop Craft - Summer Flowers

Thanks for looking.

Sharon x

It takes a week to.......

......stick on a bow. Well it does, in my case anyway! Last weekend this card was all made up and ready to go, except for one thing...the decorative bow. Well with one thing and another during the week, I never got round to doing it, so, this morning I was determined to get it finished, and here is the result.

The stamp is a Whimsy stamp which came free with a magazine (very impressive I thought!) and the backing papers are from my NitWits Lifes Little Lemons FQB.

I thought I would enter this in to the following challenges, now that it is finally finished.

Papertake - Anything Goes
Bearly Mine - Ribbons and Bows.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Sharon x

A little more Christmas cheer

Well, as it turns out the new Christmas stamps must have been pretty popular as they never got to do their second show because there were too many sell outs!

None the less I thought I would show another card that I made for the show, which hopefully you might have spotted!

This time I have used just one of the stamps from the Rodney Reindeer set. I do think his face is quite comical and, dare I say it, he looks like he may be a little bit dim!

I have stamped and layered the reindeer three times, and made the middle one Rudolph.

The backing paper is from my Messy Rabbit Christmas CD, and I wanted to have a border  to match, so I doodled the little baubles myself. I think I need some more practice, but overall I thought they came out pretty well. I was just glad that I didn't mess it up completely and end up throwing the whole card in the bin!

Once again I'm going to enter this in to a few Christmassy challenges:

Secret Crafter - Christmas
The Squirrel and the Fox - Christmas in July
Papertake - Anything Goes

Thanks for looking and bearing with my Christmas indulgence. Back to summertime for my next post!

Sharon x

Blooming wonderful

Don't worry - I'm not showing off about my card - I'm talking about the stamp set that I used to make it.

Now I'm the first to admit that I'm not usually in to serious botanical sketches (I'm more of a cutie patootie girl if you know what I mean!), si I was a bit dubious when I received these botanical stamps form Stamp Addicts earlier this year. That said, I had some real fun with them and it was lovely to create something a little bit different to my norm.

For once, I put my alcohol markers away and got my watercolour pencils out instead, as I though they were more fitting for this kind of image, which put me in mind of The Diary of and Edwardian Lady.

There is also a first here for me......my first ever shaker card....can't believe I have ever done one before. I have to admit, I was really pleased with the effect of those sequins.

I've kept the design very simple as I think the floewrs speaks for itself and doesn't need too much fuss.

Finally, here's a few challenges that I am going to enter today.

Bearly Mine - Anything Goes
Allsorts - In Bloom
Crafty Calendar - Flowers in Bloom

Thanks for looking.

Sharon x