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