IDIC card making challenge 'Happy Harry Freebie challenge'

Good morning to you all! Blogger has been playing up terribly this week and although I have read lots of blogs I haven't witten any posts nor have I managed to leave all the comments I wanted to!

Fingers crossed this will go ahead....

Today IDIC have a brilliant challenge sponsored by Robyn's Fetish and everyone gets a free digi stamp of Happy Harry to use! Yipeee! So go over to the IDIC blog and grab the freebie then make any card as long as it is fun and happy!! Anything goes!

My card is pretty simple and very silly! I found a mouse joke to make Harry laugh, then coloured him withpromarkers and popped him onto some paper and card easy!

I hope you join in this week as it really is a fun challenge! See you over at IDIC xxx

Grateful for art mail, good mail and all this mail!!!

I have had a really busy week, I have worked everyday, had evening meetings and had a son in casualty with a bad knee injury requiring lots of pain killers and extra TLC!

Needless to say I have not managed a single solitary craft item the entire time and no blogging. So no card this week for I did it creations card challenge but do pop over to see what the team have made this week.

Today I would like to share with you some wonderful mail have been lucky enough to receive......

A Fantastic PIF (the first I have received so very excited!!)from the mega talented Helena, arrived from 'much further North of me' in the UK (I did share the word art before but not the gorgeous Journal)

Some beautiful papercrafting from the Artistically skilled Rinda over in America, I have showed just one of the many goodies she sent (Pandas are DD's favourite animal... how did Rinda know?

Then my good mail / mail art all the way from the USA from the lovely Melissa

And I have finally (after trying for several months!) been chosen to host 'pass the book' which originated from Sian but this book was sent to me by the multi crafting expert Nicky along with a fab card.

I am really grateful to each and everyone of these lovey ladies, none of whom I have met in real life, though I do count them as friends. I totally appreciate the time taken to handcraft these items especially for me big love to you all xxx

Yay another Lay out!

Challenge 4 is to scrapbook a photo that needs an explanation.

On the face of it this is just a really badly taken photograph, of DD at school prizegiving. Of course that is where it was taken, but DD is not often in the mood to pose for her photo. In front of her whole year group, teachers and parents, her proud mother snapping away with a DSLR camera was too much! She hid, turned her face, blushed and practically ran back to her seat in horror! I attempted several pictures and this as the best of a bad batch! When I showed the page to her this evening she immediately said 'that is so embarrassing! Even Miss X asked me if my mum had embarrassed me!'

I suspect there will be many more occasions where I will cause great embarrassment, trying to record these moments for prosperity may just be too much! I look forward to discovering how embarrassing I can be when she is a teenager...... and beyond! Any tips for capturing a teen on camera??

More scrapbooking!

I am so grateful for Shimelle and her challenges for NSD last week, I loved them all and have been trying to find time to create pages to fit them all! My attempt at Challenge 1 was posted earlier in the week (using patterned paper as a background).


Here is my take on Challenge 2, create a triangle of embellishments

I think this is the first LO I have ever made of just me! Last October the children were playing in the leaves and I was taking photos, then I decided to play too so I gave hubby the camera and he snapped a couple of me that I actually liked!! I do love the Autumn, the colours of the changing leaves are beautiful and it is one of my favourite times to take a walk in the woods.

Challenge 3 is adding a border between two photos and I chose 2, taken the same day as the Autumn ones of me.

The border is very simple from MME it is adhesive felt, the scalloped edge on the L is punched out circles, DD hand made the paper flowers for me after I showed her how and I added buttons cut with my fab Die-namics die. I have slightly changed the title and added the journalling but cannot show you as it has some personal info.

Now do I have time to fit in Challenges 4 & 5 before the end of the weekend??!!!

IDIC card making challenge 'Ribbons and lace'

Another week and another fabulous challenge! All you have to do this week on IDIC is use ribbons or lace on your card.

The challenge is sponsored by Stitchy Stamps and I chose 'Teachers Pet Bookmarks' to work with. These are perfect for Teacher Appreciation (in the USA), as an end of year thank you (which is what I am using mine for) or a 'just because' for the teacher in your life! You can see the three bookmarks here although I have used just 2 of the designs.

Close up of the card

and the bookmark

Hope to see you joining in this week xxx

I would like to enter my creations into the following challenges

Crafty calender teddy bears

Stamp,scrap and doodle Saturdays use up old stash (ribbons and my black board was packaging)

Crafty creations challenges anything goes

Finally some scrabooking!

I spend so long looking at blogs, books and scrapbooking websites that I never have time to actually scrap! However although I was away Saturday, I got really excited with all the ideas from NSD.

I had signed up for the online 'creative crop' over at Big Picture Classes and got sent challenges via email. I only managed one (though I am determined to try the '10 + 10 +10', which is TEN products, TEN techniques and TEN words). My entry was for 'out of the box' which was thinking beyond a 12 x 12 square shaped LO and to have bits sticking out (does that make sense to anyone!???)

this was my LO

a scraplift from the challenge email, though have yet to add my journalling! Can you see the wood behind? This is the floor so that bit of the page is out of the box!

It is my fave photo from last year of the children, taken on a walk in Scotland as they passed through a 'kissing gate' they hugged each other.... they can be very sweet sometimes!

The other challenge I mnaged to complete was Shimelle's using patterned paper as the background, which is something I never really do. I finally finished the LO that was from the first Scrapinspire sketch and I added journalling afterwards ( and there is some behind the Army title). This celebrates DS's 9th birthday party in the woods, in camo gear!

I also wanted to mention that Handmade Hannah is offering £15 to spend in her shop if you become a follower and mention the giveaway on your blog. I found Hannah's blog via UKS when she was posting tips on how to get motivation to scrap earlier this year, I have been hooked ever since!

IDIC card making challenge 'Monochrome'

Monochrome is the theme this week at I did it creations, sponsored by Beary Dust I have used the cute digi image of Blanket Bear available here. I have used it on a baby card, coloured with blue promarkers, layed on blue card and paper.

There are other Monochrome cards by the DT over at IDIC to inspire you to join us this week.

I would also like to enter this card into

The fuzzy wuzzy challenges babies

Eat sleep stamp sketch

Stamp something use a digi

Pixie dust Studio under the sea (using all blue!)

Stampavie and more baby

Bearly Mine beautiful babies

The inaugral Family x12 blog hop

Welcome to the very first blog hop in a series (hopefully!) organised by Margie. The idea behind family x12 is to record a photo of your 'family' (this can be anything you consider to be family, parents, cousins, pets, friends etc etc) one a month for a year.

I love this idea, an ongoing record of the changes that can happen right under our noses that we often miss . Sometimes this can be good as I don't always want to be reminded of another grey hair, more weight gained or new wrinkles appearing!! But children seem to evolve quickly and I look back and wonder when and how it happened.

Another positive aspect of this project is having photographs of us all together, this is a rare experience as I tend to be taking the snaps and I also hate being in the picture (I never look good and frequently delete the ones I am in).

I actually managed 4 different family portraits this month, 2 taken on self timer, 1 taken by my son's friend and one of my shadow shots. I have chosen this picture.....

this was taken at the weekend, on self timer, at Portland Bill in Dorset. It was a gusty day stood on the rocks and my hair is totally wild and windswept, but it makes me smile!

I am really excited to see what the other 5 family pics are and will be joining in the blog hop when I get home from work. From here you should head over to Jo's blog, Captured on film, she has the most amazing photographs posted there so do take time to browse.

Here is the entire list of everyone taking part today in case you get lost, just beware we are based all around the world so an autopost may be slightly wrongly timed (including this one!)but they will show up at some point I'm sure.

Margie http://xnomads.typepad.com/blog
Melissa http://www.melissagross.blogspot.com
Carol Ann http://scrapperthoughts.blogspot.com/
Ruth http://www.chattycraftyartypig.blogspot.com
Jo http://www.mrsbeee.blogspot.com
Sharis http://www.airbs.blogspot.com

I hope to see you again next month for the next family foto shoot!

The winners!

Firstly an apology I totally forgot that I had offered 6 people the chance to win a card as part of my number 6 post on Mel's alphanumeric blog hop here.

Finally I got round to writing out each name on a piece of paper (there were over 40!) and placing them all in a pot

then I had 2 very keen volunteers pick out 3 names each

number 1

Sian

number 2

Wendy B

number 3

Peonies and Pennies

number 4

Debs 14

number 5

Mary B

and number 6

Angel fish

Please would you contact me via email on furrypig3 (at) yahoo (dot)co (dot) uk if you want me to send you card and of course include your address!! Can I ask you to do this in the next 2 weeks and I will attempt to get them all sent out by the end of the month!

Story telling Sunday

This is my first venture into Story telling Sunday, started by the wonderful Sian, who would be at home on Jackanory reading to us all. Her story telling skills are now famous, with many others joining in via her blog each month with some fabulous fables and tall true tales. I hope I live up to the task in hand as I always love to follow as others narrate monthly on their blogs.

I would like to introduce the Magpie

source

This is a very common bird, with a very annoying cry, that is not popular or well liked as it is known for taking food (often baby birds from the nest) from others. The other reputation the Magpie has is for stealing bright, glistening objects like jewelry and small trinkets.

Now the Magpie I want to introdce you to is not of the feathered variety! Many years ago there were 2 sisters a brunette and a blonde. The blonde loved pretty things and was rather pretty herself, loving to gaze upon her beauty in a small hand held mirror. Her elder and somewhat plainer sister, was rather jealous I believe.

One day this envy enveloped her whole being and she stole away her sisters beloved mirror and hid it in the shed within their garden. The blonde sister was very sad and the whole family searched the house for the mirror to no avail until eventually the older sister confessed... she had seen a magpie steal the mirror and carry it in it's beak to the shed. The family searched the shed but the mirror was never ever found.

The elder sister was surprised that her parents never totally believed that the Magpie had flown into the house, into the younger sister's bedroom, found the mirror, lifting it in it's beak, whilst flying out the house and heading for the garden shed

source

Another item went missing sometime later ..... did the Magpie strike again or was it someone all together more sinister??? Please tune in next month for the Tale of the Magpie part 2.

In the meantime pop over to Sians to see what everyone has written about this month.

IDIC card making challenge 'Mothers Day USA'

IDIC is celebrating Mothers Day in the USA with this weeks challenge, sponsored by Robyns Fetish.

I have used the cute Chrisie Angel image available here, coloured in with promarkers on embossed white card. I have used the fabulous button Die-namics to make matching embellishments and the flower is made of 6 punched circles folded and glued together. The sentiment is just printed out on the computer ..... another very simple card from me!

I cannot wait to see what all the DT have made this week so join me in visiting their cards here.