Happy New Year everyone...

I had such good intentions for making a fabulous Happy New Year card to post today - even found the perfect image at Whimsie Doodles, but I just can't as my rib muscle is still so painful.   Wouldn't mind, but I didn't even think I had any muscles!!!

Anyway as you can see it's another card made using one of the stamps from the Favourite Flower collection by Joanna Sheen and I'm actually not going to say this one is my favourite - I do like it, but not as much as the rose, hydrangea and the sweet pea stamps.

Hope you have a fun time bringing in the New Year and do take care. Pulled muscles or broken bones are no fun - I can vouch for that.

Another favourite flower...

Oh dear disaster has struck - I've done something to a muscle under my ribs or thereabouts and it's really painful to sit crafting or on the computer (hmm I know - why am I writing this post then? - well blogging is totally addictive and I'm only going to write a bit!).

Can't make any cards at the moment so grabbing the opportunity to show another of my sample cards for Joanna Sheen's Favourite Flowers stamp sets.  I think yesterday I said the hydrangea was my favourite - hmmmm well actually I love this rose too and the sentiment that accompanies it.

As the challenge at My Time to Craft is 'anything goes' my card fits that challenge well.

Hope whatever it is that I've got doesn't stay around too long I've got toooooooo many things to do.

The Stamp Man and my best crafting project award...

The Stamp Man has a great blog hop going on until January 3rd and part of the event involves looking back over your past year and picking out pieces of work that you are really proud of.  Sounds easy, but oh my when you look back through the months it gets really hard to choose.

I decided that I was really proud of the way I finally got to grips with Promarkers.  When I first started with them I found them so hard to use successfully (not helped by the fact that the type of card I had was useless), but now I love them and use them all the time.

For my special piece of work I've chosen  a card I made as a sample for Joanna Sheen when the Favourite Flowers range of stamps were released.  I loved doing this card even though the hydrangea took ages as I used three shades of Promarker and coloured the flower heads petal by petal.  The butterfly was part of the set too and was also coloured with Promarkers. 

Do pop over and visit The Stamp Man to join in the fun.  There are some great prizes on the blog hop and also if you join in the awards you qualify to display the 'Best Work Award' on your blog.

Yeah it's Pink Elephant Day...

Well I hope you all had an amazing Christmas - I certainly did.  Well I did if you don't count the heating breaking down or having to stuff cotton wool in my ears due to having the telly on at top volume for Grannie - she's not deaf - it's just that everyone mutters - lol.

Anyway on to this week's challenge which is a sketch.  Infact there two sketches on offer making our challenge super easy at The Pink Elephant, which is just what we all need when we're all feeling a bit brain dead after all that turkey and Christmas pudding.
Our sponsor this week is Totally Stampalicious .  I really love the way that at the moment when you buy a set of their stamps you get a set of the same design in digi format.  What an amazing idea - love it!  Stampers can stamp to their hearts content for the front of the card, but use the digis in whatever size they want to print alongside the verse on the inner.  Just brilliant - wish all companies did that.

My card is also for the challenges at ...

• Cupcake Craft Challenges - A time for celebration - birthdays
• Crafty Creations - no rules have fun - yeah I did!
  

Have a great day everyone and I hope you've been saving any bows or fancy paper that came along over Christmas as it's not long now to wait for the start of Bah! Humbug!

Happy Christmas...

Just popped in to say Happy Christmas to all my blogging buddies.  Hope you all have a brilliant Christmas and Santa brings you lots of goodies (I've got my fingers crossed on that one as I haven't been that good lately!) - tee hee.


Don't forget that in the New Year Irene, Max and I have a great new venture planned - Bah! Humbug! Christmas Card Challenge.  We're so looking forward to this - it will make next Christmas an absolute breeze for all of us.  No mass panic next year - we'll all be able to sit back with a mince pie and a glass of red wine watching 'Miracle on 34th Street'.  Bliss!!!

Last Two Christmas Cards...

Phew I was really cutting it fine this year - so glad I have finished and next year I am going to be far more organised.  Hopefully running the Bah! Humbug! Christmas challenge site will help - I certainly hope so.  If you haven't had a look at that yet please do.  We've got 25 followers already - I'm so giddy with the excitement.  It's going to be so much fun.

This is the House Mouse stamp that Laura bought me to make Christmas cards for her to give to special people.  I love the stamp - it's so cute, but oh my did it take some time to colour!?  Each of the beads needed hightlighting and then just when I thought I'd finished I'd find a bit of mouse that I'd missed.  Great fun especially when you're in a hurry!

I used Promarkers to colour the images and then matted and layed on to my papers.  I really don't know who the papers are by as they were sent to me by a blogging friend and I've used them so often.  Thank you Elaine if you see this - I just love these papers - the colours are scrummy.
Both my cards fit the challenges at...

• Crafty Calender Challenges - Winter Sparkle (not sure how much it shows in photo, but mice are standing in layer of sparkly snow)

• SophistiCat Challenge - Christmas
• House Mouse - Winter Wishes

Now entering the following challenge is a little cheeky - well more that a bit, but I have missed out on the last two challenges at Rainbow Lady's Challenge blog so I'm hoping I can get away with this...

Cynthia's current challenge is to use an image of a stag or other large animal on your card!  Hmmmmm mice - well House Mice are very big news in the stamping world and size is only relative after all.  If you were knee high to a grass hopper a mouse could seem huge.
Hmmmmmmm will I get away with that?  Is Christmas hysteria setting in big time - I think it maybe!

Have a good day everyone.
Ann xxx

There's Snow Friend like you...

A card for a special friend, who I know has received this now so it's okay to post it here.
I tried so hard to resist buying this digi image and sentiment by Whimsie Doodles as I have so many different snowmen both rubber and digi in my stash, but it was a loosing battle!  This one is just so cute and I love the sentiment too!
Anyway I am blaming Sheri at PaperCrafty's Creations for my spending cause she just keeps making the most fantastic cards using Whimsie Doodles and has just been asked to be a permenant member of the DT there. Yeah brill news Sheri - you deserve it.
My card is a shaker card with Diamond Dust behind the acetate apperture - love the swishing sound that stuff makes in shaker cards - it's just so realistic.

My card fits the challenges at...

• Crafty Calender Challenges - Winter Sparkle
• SophitiCat Challenges - Christmas
• Die Cut Dreams - Snowflakes
• Simon Says - Merry Christmas
• Tanda Stamps - A square card
• Crafty Ann's - anything but red or green
• Alphabet Challenge - J = jewels (each of the snowflakes has a diamond stuck in the middle)
• No Time to Stamp - Snow
• The Corrosive Challenge - Blingy

Wow that was a long list of challenges! Not a record, but pretty good going.  Hmmmmmm talking of challenges I have some exciting news... 


Check this out - BAH! HUMBUG! - yep if you are one of the crafters like me who is meeting herself coming back then this new challenge may help.  
I seem to think that quite a few new challenges are starting in the New Year, BUT you can never have too much of a good thing and anything that helps to get us more organised for next Christmas has got to be good.
Do pop over there and maybe become a follower - we would be so excited if you did.  I may even sort out some blog candy!!!

Blingtastic Pink Elephant Day...

This week sees a Sketch challenge at The Pink Elephant.  Fantastic easy sketch - just what we all need when we are so close to Christmas (and still making Christmas cards - eek!).  In Style Stamps have very kindly sponsored us this week and each of the DT were given digi images to work with.

I received the fantastically blingy Fairy Cynthia on her swing. So cool check - out the others in the range - there are some really cute ones.  I coloured Cynthia with Promarkers to match the glitter card and then added tons of glitter and gemstones - I felt like going way over the top with the bling.

In addition to The Pink Elephant challenge my card also fits the bill at...

• Creative Card Crew - Anything goes!! 
• Digital Tuesday - Birthday card (my inner has the 'Have a birthday filled with magic'.
• CRAFT challenge - free for all
• Alphabet Challenge - decorate with jewels

Have a fantastic day everyone - hope you can find time to check out the samples by my fellow DT members at The Pink Elephant and even better join in the fun.

Ann xxx

The Stamp Man...

This looks interesting!!!

This is what Jill has to say on her blog...

'I decided we should have some crafting fun between Christmas and New Year so from Sunday 27th December until Sunday 3rd January 2010, I'm going to host a New Year Award/Blog Hop/Giveaway, so something a little different!!

There are 2 things to join in with, the first is for the Award, and the 2nd is the Blog Hop, they are separate events but I hope you will be able to join us for both.

The instructions will all be given here, the start point, from Sunday, 27th December, both events will run for a week to enable everyone to fit it in sometime over the Christmas/New Year holidays.  It won't take a week to complete, but it will enable you to stop and rejoin the hop whenever it is convenient!

For now, it would really be appreciated if you could add this picture to your sidebars and possibly mention it on your blogs to advertise the events as the more people that know about it and join in, the more fun it will be!'

Sounds like it's going to be good fun - I will certainly be popping over here on the 27th to join in.

Boots update...

Yeah I got into the site!!!

Boo hiss they have sold out - so cross with Boots as the items were in my basket this morning and their site crashed after taking my credit card details.

They were even still in my basket when I relogged in as soon as the site went live but disappeared on the way to check out.

Bad Boots - bad bad Boots.  I will not be shopping with them again.  Can't believe they put all that money into advertising the deal and then let people down in this way.

Ann xxx

Happy Birthday from Lofty...

Here's another card I didn't get chance to show a little while back - one that I'm not sure about anyway but hey it's bright and breezy just like Lofty himself!

Lofty image is by Joanna Sheen and paper is by ??

My card fits the challenge at...

• Cupcake Craft Challenges - 5"x5" birthday card
• Stamp with fun - little presents
• Creative Card Crew - anything goes
• Tanda Teaser - square card
• C.R.A.F.T Challenge - free for all

and now for the BAh HUMBUG bit - which has nothing to do with card making, but it will make me feel better if I have a moan so here goes...
I have spent hours this morning trying to get the Boot's offer of the week and all their website does is crash time after time - grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr not a happy bunny. Even got to the very last page with credit card details in and everything, but no it crashed.  I may never buy from Boots again I am so fed up. So much for Internet shopping being a breeze.

Oh my goodness...

A little while ago all the challenges around were promoting Postpals and I'm sure lots of us sent cards to the children on there, but I wonder how many of us remembered the following month or have sent a Christmas card or gift.

I'm ashamed to say I haven't!!

But I will now!  Please if you have a spare card (in my case I may have to send a New Year greeting cause I'm meeting myself coming back at the moment) visit Postpals and send a card to one of the children.

Ann xxx

Hoot stepping out...

Nearly forgot to show this Hoot card originally made for the release of the Hoot range of stamps by Joanna Sheen!  How could I do that? 

He's such a cutie holding his party balloons.  The sentiment and parcel are from the same set of stamps - all very useful stuff.  I think the backing paper with Happy Birthday on is by DCWV and the sentiment on the back panel was computer generated.
My card fits fits the challenges at ...

• Creative Card Crew - anything goes!
• Project Tuesday - a side step card. 
• Stamp with fun - little presents

Still in complete chaos here getting ready for Christmas.  Stayed in all day yesterday waiting for a parcel and when did it arrive - 7.30 this morning!!  Poor postman has gone back to depot to recover from seeing this mad woman with hair stuck on end trying to unlock the door half asleep and shouting 'Just a minute' at the top of her voice.
Well if they are going to deliver at such unreasonable hours what can they expect?

Have a great day everyone and hope all your gemstones stay where they have been stuck unlike mine which seem to be sliding all over the place.  That will teach me to buy cheap silicone glue instead of Pinflair. 

Irene I'm sorry when your card finally arrives you may have to reattach the gems!!

Holly Fairy in Pink...

A card for the girl who says 'Everything looks better in Pink' - yep this is for Laura. I had done her a pink snowflake creation, but she saw a card from a friend (yes you Chrissie - it's your fault) with this image and said how much she loved it so what could I do? Yep I know too soft for my own good!!

The card is 8"x 8" as I wanted the larger size, but also the images by Mo Manning are so gorgeous it's a shame to print them in a small space. This fairy is one of my favourites, but to be truthful Mo's drawings are just all gorgeous.

The white layer is embossed with holly leaves to match the fairy who is touched with glitter (I mean magic dust ) everywhere.

My card is also for the challenges at:

• Crafty Calender Challenge - Winter Sparkle
• Caardvarks - Go Digital
• SophistiCats - Christmas
• Crafty Sentiments - Glitter
• Creative Card Crew - Anything goes
• Crafty Ann's - Texture
• Stamp Something - Winter Wonderland
• Kraftin Kimmie - Bling it

My tip for the day is...

When transferring packs of cans of coke on to the belt at the supermarket checkout do not bump them. If you do and any of the cans have the slightest weak spot in the metal it will result in a explosion of coke and a 3 foot high fountain will appear and drench everyone within 6 feet.

The wettest person is likely to be either you or the poor defenceless girl on the till.

Believe me in this as I speak from experience!!! Yesterday was not the best shopping day I have ever had!

Ann xxx

Pretty Poinsetta...

I was just so organised earlier in the year when I was doing sample cards for Joanna Sheen's new Favourite Flower range of stamps. When doing one for Joanna I also did an extra one for my box in order to be ready for Christmas. Hmmm unfortunately the organisation only lasted for this one card which as you you can see is for my mum!

Love, love, love this poinsetta stamp and the small individual flower heads (leaf bracts) that are also in the set and what I used to create the frame around the verse. The poinsetta plant is decoupaged to give depth and the bow is a seperated stamp in the set and can be added to the pot or maybe not depending on what you like.

My card is for the following challenges:

• SophistiCat Challenges - Christmas
• Magical Crafts - a special card
• Frosted Designs Challenge - Holiday theme
  

Have a fantastic day everyone - I think I may just about finish my cards by about Friday if I'm lucky. Hope you are doing better than me.

Ann xxx

Pink Elephant Day...

Yeah especially for all those crafters out there like me who are way behind in their Christmas preparations The Pink Elephant theme this week is CHRISTMAS!

It might be Christmas gifts or maybe a last minute card (or in my case batch of cards) you choose - we'd love to see what you come up with.

After doing my Snowman poop gifts I realised that I was left with all the chocolate marshmallows in the bag and if I didn't do something with them fast I was gonna end up eating them myself. Not good as I have just lost so much weight and I really don't want to put any on again.

So I decided to do a reindeer version - the stamp is a digi image by Pollycraft and the verse was computer generated. The 'Happy Holidays' sentiment is from a sheet of clear stamps by My Sentiments Exactly.

Very easy to make - must remember these for next year as I think they would great fund raisers at Christmas fairs etc.


My Reindeer Poop bag is also for the challenges at:

• Caardvaarks - go digital
• Passion for Promarkers - anything but a card
• Digital Tuesday - a Christmas Song - Rudolf (after recovering from his cold)
• Bubbly Scrumptious - food

Have a fun day and do pop over to The Pink Elephant to check out the work of my friends on the DT.

Important Update...

Thanks to a great friend pointing me in the right direction I've just discovered some fantastic FREE digi images and verses to make both Snowman Poop and Reindeer Poop bags. Roberta at the Prairie Fairy has given me permission to put a link to them and her blog on here. Thank you so much Roberta.

Snowman Poop Bags

Reindeer Poop Bags

Aren't they just fabulous? Roberta also has some blog candy on offer and a range of digi images coming out soon. Judging by the sneak peeks they look like they are going to be rather nice.

Ann xxx

Naughty or Nice...

Now there may be some people out there who have spent so much on craft stuff that they can't afford to buy any presents. Eeeeeeeeeeeek does that sound familiar?

I did hear one crafter on the forum I belong to (you know who you are!) say 'It's the thought that counts' and I must admit to being the guilty one who suggested that she made cards with the following sentiment

'I thought about buying you a present ...
but didn't !'

Anyway these little goodie bags are some little fun 'extra' gifts I've made to give out this Christmas. The sentiment and snowman stamp were from Jessica Lynne designs quite a while ago and I'm not sure whether they are still available or not.

My little gifts are also for the challenges at...

• Crafty Calendar Challenge - Winter sparkle (snowman and snowflake are glittered)
• Creatalicious - Something for Christmas with lots of sparkle
• Passion for Promarkers - anything but a card with a Christmas theme (not much Promarker colouring on this but I love Cool Aqua for giving a snowy touch to snowmen)
• Simon Says - Let is Snow
• Paper Cutz - a project using a snowflake or a snowman
• Fun with Shapes - snowflakes
• Pile it on - Tinsel Town
• Stamp Something - Winter Wonderland
  

Okay only another 15 cards to make and gift boxes and ...

Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Messy Rabbit in a muddle...

Hmmmmmmmm there is something about Messy Rabbit's face here that either reminds me of Frank Spencer in 'Some mothers do have em' or me trying to do all the things I need to get finished over the next few days.

I love this stamp - sorry I seem to say that such a lot, but stamps are just so addictive. Some people stroke paper - I stroke rubber! Oh my goodness what have I said?

I quite like papers too - especially DCWV ones and I love the red and green pattern on this paper.

I used my Cricut to cut the Christmas sentiment for the final panel on the shutter card. The lights are part of the set that came with Messy. I found some quite thick cord and twined it in a pattern fixing the lights on top to hold it in place and then finally added the sentiment. It was a bit fiddly as the cord kept fighting back, but I got there in the end.

I found this verse somewhere on the internet and thought it was perfect for the theme and the string of lights at the top and bottom of the verse are also from the Messy set of stamps.

Materials used:

• Messy Rudolf stamp set - Joanna Sheen
• red and green card from stash
• patterned paper - DCWV
• Cricut

Challenges:

• Cupcake Craft Challenge - a Christmas Song - It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
• Everybody's Art - Red and Green

Have a fantastic weekend everyone and I really hope your preparations for Christmas are going better than mine - eeeeeeeeeek!

Ann xxx

Double embossing !!!?

When I opened my comments this morning I had two comments from someone asking about double embossing. One of the comments had an email address on it as well, but I really can't remember the name.

I wasn't sure which card the comment referred to, but thought I would be able to find it and the comment and give a reply.

Alas no!! I can neither find the card or the comments which means that I can't give a reply to whoever it was who asked.

Please if you are that person would you comment here and add a link to the card you want to know about and I will answer you.

Thanks

Ann xxx

Hoot flies in...

to say 'Happy Christmas'.

Love this stamp (Joanna Sheen) and the papers I've used with it which were part of a gorgeous blog candy I won earlier in the year.

My sketch is this week's challenge at Mojo Monday and my card also fits the challenges at...

• Crafty Calender Challenges - Winter Sparkle
• Everybody's Art - Red and Green
• Pile it on - Tinsel Town

Have a great day everyone - I'm on quite a high as I got that job that I had the interview for the other day and I'm just so excited about it all.

Ann xxx

Elegant Lady...

Yeah it's not a Christmas card! Although I do think it rather thoughtless of people to have birthdays this week when I am no where near completely my Christmas cards - however seeing as it Shelley's boyfriend's mum I'll let her off.

To create the card at top speed (in order to get back to those Christmas cards) I've used an image and backing paper from Joanna Sheen's Fashion Boutique CD. The images on this are just beautiful and I particularly like the backing paper that matches this image. To add oomph I've added feather embellishments to echo the ones on the image and backing paper.

Couldn't decide whether to go for a black or white bow so did something I've never done before and tied the two together - think I like the effect and may do it again in the future.

I used the sketch from Sketch Saturday and tweaked it a little to fit my embellishments. My card is also for the challenge Crafty Ann's , where the theme is to add texture.

Have a great day.

Ann xxx

Here comes Frosty the Snowman again...

Just had to use the snowman image from Your Next Stamp more than once - he really is a cutie. This time I used a scalloped acetate circle folded in half to make a semi circular card. The acetate has a blue pearlescent circular card attached to the inside of the acetate and a white paper overskirt attached to the outside, which means that all the DST is hidden sandwiched between the two layers.

I must admit I went a little crazy with the snowflakes and gem stones, but hey it's nearly Christmas!!

My card fits some of the same challenges as yesterday...

• Paperplay - Christmas without red or green (shhhhhh don't look at the candy cane!)
  
• Stamp Something - Glitzy
• Crafty Calender Challenges - Winter Sparkle
• Caardvaarks - use digital images and sentiments
• Pile it on - Tinsel Town
• Cupcake Craft Challenge - a Christmas song or Carol
  

Have a great day everyone - and spare a thought for those of us facing job interviews - eeeeeeeeeeek!

In all the panic (see interview note above) I totally forgot to mention that Karen at Your Next Stamp is offering 10% discount this week to The Pink Elephant participants so if you fancy treating yourself pop over there and use the discount code TPE when placing your order. Yeah - Happy Shopping.

Ann xxx

Naughty blog gremlin!!

Just read and clicked publish four lovely comments from friends and the comments vanished!

How awful is that?

So Irene, Vicki, Beryl and someone else (sorry can't remember who that was now) thank you I did read your kind comments, but for some strange reason they have got lost in blog land.

Ann xxx

Pink Elephant Day...

It seems to be the season of favourites at The Pink Elephant as last week our challenge was 'favourite colouring medium' and this week we have 'favourite colour combo'. It's really hard to choose actually as there are so many gorgeous combinations around, but I went for one I haven't used for some time...

Lilac, white and silver.

Our sponsor for the week is Your Next Stamp who do some really cute stamps in both rubber and digital format. The image and sentiment on my card are from the Christmas Digital package, which is both bargainous and such fun to work with. Watch out for this snowman being around a lot this week - I really must get my Christmas cards done!!

I used the great sketch from this week's Friday Sketchers challenge and my card also fits the challenges at...

• Paperplay - Christmas without red or green
• Crafty Ann's Challenge Blog - Texture
• Stamp Something - Glitzy
• Allsorts - Purple (hope lilac counts for this)
• Crafty Calender Challenges - Winter Sparkle
• Caardvaarks - use digital images and sentiments
• Pile it on - Tinsel Town
  

Thanks for looking and do check out what my team mates have created using their favourite combos.

Ann xxx

Santa Emma

Hmmmmmm remember the other day when I posted a card with image from C.C. Designs at All That Scraps and I said it had been an expensive trip well this was what tempted me - digital stamp Santa Emma. I just think she is so cute in her Santa suit.

The sketch I've used is this week's challenge at Mojo Monday - every week the sketches there are just so fantastic - I love them.

Additional materials:

• Black card and black glitter card
• nestie circles
• Promarkers
• sentiment stamp (?)
• sparkly stars and gems from stash
• ultra fine glitter

Of course having bought Santa Emma it would have been a crime not to get the parcels for her to sit on wouldn't it? To create this image I sized both Santa Emma and the parcels in Serif before printing the parcels on to dotty patterned paper. Emma and the bows were printed on to white card and then coloured using Promarkers.


Additional materials:

• red card
• organza ribbon (coloured using Promarkers), gems and ultrafine glitter from stash.
• tags cut using Cuttlebug die
• edges scored using Scor-pal

Additional Challenges:

• 2 Red Bananas - Christmas
• Pollycraft - Wonderful Christmas Time
• Stamp with fun - Christmas
• Creative Card Crew - Christmas
• Digital Tuesday - Sparkle and Shine

Have a fantastic weekend everyone - I'm going on a Christmas shopping weekend - yikes think it may be rather busy in Manchester. Not to worry maybe the free bar in the evening will help me to cope.

See you on Monday for The Pink Elephant challenge and thank you so much everyone who has joined in this week showing off their 'favourite colouring medium'. I've been seeing some truly amazing cards. Thank you so much.

Ann xxx

Christmas rose..

Not so much a Christmas card today, but certainly a card that would be good to send out in the winter months as it features the beautiful Christmas Rose - Helleboris Niger. The image is from the Favourite flowers stamp range by Joanna Sheen.

Additional materials used:

• green card and patterned papers from stash
• lace threaded with organza ribbon
• Cuttlebug swiss dots folder with dots sanded to give a more distressed look
• gold border and sentiment peel offs from stash
• Promarkers
  

Challenge

• Crafty Creations - Lace and distressing

Now off to make Christmas cards on mass - heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp!!!

Messy Rabbit

Ah - another Messy Rabbit card - isn't he just so cute? This is the same base card as I used for a new home card I made a little while ago. It's very easy to do and lent itself perfectly to the Messy Rabbit Wreath stamp by Joanna Sheen.

I designed the door using Serif and printed the door base and extra panels on to Ice Gold card. I used my Scor-pal to score the edges of the door and panels to give a realistic effect. The panels were also mounted on gold mirri for a touch of oomph.


I made tiny letters (using Serif again - love playing around with this programme) and cut the letter box so that the letters could be slotted inside. Linda Hill, the very talented artist who created Messy lives in Derbyshire so it seemed fitting that Messy also lives in that area!



I have quite a few Christmas cards to make and as I have some ready made wreathes that came in a kit from way back I may use them in a production line this week. Watch this space!

My card is for the challenges at :

• Stamp with fun - Christmas
• Pollycraft - Wonderful Christmas Time
• Creative Card Crew - Christmas

For those who read my post yesterday about the squeeking envelope it was a House Mouse stamp - so cute! One mouse pretending to be a Christmas tree and the other teeny weeny mice are dressed as presents. Not sure what I'm going to do with it, but hopefully inspiration will strike and it better be soon!

Another blue Christmas...

I seem to be using blue a lot this week - Laura will not be happy!

Talking of Laura she has ordered a House Mouse stamp for me that she wants me to make her Christmas cards with. I've no idea which stamp she has chosen, but a package arrived today that looks the right shape and squeeks when shaken so I can't wait to see what it is. She has said it's a tricky one to use so it's to be hope my mojo comes back!

My card for today has one of my all time favourite Pollycraft images on. It's the one I saw being used on friend's blogs last year and first led me to Pollycraft. Even though I have loads of Pollycraft images now I still love this one.

Additional materials:

• DCWV snowflake paper
• dark pearlescent card and plain blue paper
• silver peel offs for sentiment, borders, corner and trims on clothes
• gems and glitter from stash
• Promarkers for colouring + Sakura stardust pen to get spikes on hair and clear stardust for detail on branch

Challenges:

• Pollycraft - Wonderful Christmas Time
• Creative Inspirations - the sketch (which I had to tweak slightly due to size of image and size of snowflake paper)
• SophistiCat Challenges - Snowflakes and Sparkle
• Stamp with fun - Christmas
• A Spoonful of Sugar - Non Traditional Christmas Colours
• Creative Card Crew - Christmas
• Two Red Bananas - Christmas

Thank you for looking and taking the time to leave such great comments.

Sheesh done it again - clicked post before scheduling - oh just pretend it's Wednesday!!

Ann xxx

Bah humbug...

I don't really mean that - I love Christmas, but having decided to stay in yesterday and get on with those desperately needed cards why oh why did my inspiration go on walkabout.

By the end of the day I had made only one card - how bad is that? Having said that my recent craze on trying out different soup recipes did take some time up and then there was a bit more craft room sorting to do, but even so!

Anyway the card I did make is another card using that gorgeous Swiss Pixies Nora image by C. C. Designs. I really like the clean lines of these stamps and digis. Oh my - having just popped over there to get the link I've spotted the cutest stamp in the new December range - uh oh - isn't Sugarplums Santa just wow? Very tempting!

Additional materials:

• Blue pearlescent paper and silver mirri board
• blue snowflake paper by DCWV
• Swiss dots cuttlebug folder
• silver snowflake bradlet, gem brad and silver sentiment peel off from stash
• X-cut snowflake punch

Challenges:

• Sketch by Cutie Sunday
• Stamp with Fun - Christmas
• The Cuttlebug Spot - Brrrrrrr Winter
• ABC Challenge - Indigo Blue
• Two Red Bananas - Christmas

Have a great day everyone.

Whoops was supposed to be scheduling this and clicked post by accident - ah well it's been one of those sort of days!!!
Ann xxx

Pink Elephant Day...

I really can't believe Monday is here again and we have a new challenge at The Pink Elephant.

This week is a colour theme and wow it's a super easy one...

Use your favourite colouring medium - how fun is that? For my card I used Promarkers - since buying the new colour range I just can't stop using these pens. I just love them.

I decided to make an acetate card and this may be the last one I ever do as it was just so hard to take a photo of. Some of the shots had a reflection of me on complete with camera - some had the windows etc - oh it was so tricky. I must try to find out how the experts manage as this card is really quite nice in real life (honest) and yet the photo does not do it justice at all.

The image I've used is Swiss Pixies Nora by C.C. Designs and oh my do they do some gorgeous stamps? I hadn't heard of them until my friend Irene won a challenge in the Summer and received a couple of beautiful stamps. Check out her cards here and here. Aren't they just fabulous?

Each month at C. C. Designs there are new designs and the great thing is you can get the images in both rubber and digi versions. I love my rubber, but for us over here in England it can take a long time for stamps to travel over the pond and the postage makes them more expensive too. Buying the digi version solves both those problems.

The fancy border on my card and 'snow' sentiment are all rub ons which were very kindly sent to me as part of some lovely blog candy from Fab at Fab's Big Christmas Card Challenge. Thank you again Fab - I love these rub ons.

Have a great day everyone and hope you are able to join in our challenge at The Pink Elephant this week.

Ann xxx

Here come's Santa Claus...

Well Messy Rabbit in Santa suit which is near enough as long as it's craft stuff in those parcels! Wonder why he's delivering presents in a room where the calender says it's only half way through December? I'm got a degree in worrying about tiny details like this!!

Materials used:

• Messy Rabbit Santa by Joanna Sheen
• bedroom room backing paper is from backing paper pad also by Joanna Sheen
• silver mirri card and blue pearlescent
• Fiskars Shapeboss to emboss holly border on card
• rub on white Christmas sentiment
• tag cut using Spellbinder tag die
  
• gem and ribbon from stash

Challenges:

• Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps - Merry Christmas - Happy Winter
• Pile it on - rub ons
• Everybody's Art - Christmas
• Papertake Weekly - Christmas Crackers

and of course Allsorts Challenge Blog (and I have so enjoyed entering cards for this - ends Saturday - what am I going to do?) - Christmas Songs or Carols. Today's song is 'Here comes Santa Claus'.

Have a great weekend everyone - see you on Monday for the Pink Elephant Challenge.

Ann xxx

Stunning lady...

I don't usually like large A4 cards, but when I saw this glamourous lady A3 decoupage sheet at the Kanban outlet shop I just couldn't leave her behind. You can't tell in this photo, unfortunately, but she is decoupaged and both her dress and the tree in the background are embellished with gems and I added some Sakura Stardust to her skirt which is subtle but in real life looks really glitzy.

Due to the size of the card the sentiment was a bit of a problem. Sometimes, and maybe you do this too, I make the whole card and then can neither think where best to put the sentiment or what would fit best. On this occasion all the peel offs I had were just too tiny! Thank goodness for Keith at Wath market - what would I do without him? Not only did he have the right size (or the best fit I could have got), but it was in a box where all the peel offs were 5 sheets for a pound! Don't you just love it when that happens?

Materials used:

• Kanban A3 decoupage sheet
• gold sparkly card, red and black card
• gold border and sentiment peel offs
• gems from stash

Challenges:

• Fab's Big Christmas Card Challenge - Winter ladies (check out the beautiful ones Fab has on display that have been created by Vince)
• Everybody's Art - Christmas
• Papertake Weekly - Christmas Crackers
• My Time to Craft - Very Vintage
• Winter Wonderland - Christmas with no stamps or papers
• Crafty Ann's Challenge - Black white and one other colour (sorry I didn't enter last time Ann, but I'm here now!)

and last but not least (I really can't resist entering this one yet again - just so much fun)....

Allsorts Challenge Blog - a Christmas song or Christmas Carol - I think with this glam lady my song has to be 'Mistletoe and Wine' by Cliff Richard which is I remember rightly has a romantic feel to it and this lady certainly looks like she's heading to a romantic 'mistletoe and wine' night out.

And lastly but really importantly Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends. Yeah - hope each and everyone of you has a fabulous day.

Messy Rabbit's Christmas Pudding...

This is one of my favourite of the Messy Rabbit Christmas stamps - having said that I have a new favourite each time I use one from the set.

Materials used:

• Messy Rabbit Pudding Stamp set by Joanna Sheen
• sentiment stamp (not sure who by - sorry!)
• holly patterned mirri card, silver and green mirri card by Kanban
• tags cut using Sizzix die
• holly punch
• ribbon and border peel off from stash

Challenges:

• Everybody's Art - Christmas
• Papertake Weekly - Christmas Crackers
• Creative Card Crew - Favourite Things (Messy Rabbit rubber stamps - well any stamps actually)
• Kraftin' Kimmie - Happy Christmas
• Allsorts Challenge Blog - Christmas Song - 'Feed the world' - click on link to hear song!

and last but not least the Daring Cardmakers challenge which is ...

Put 3 things on your card that begin with the first letter of your name.

Now I would not have dared to do this, but after commenting on Irene's blog yesterday about pushing my luck and entering the challenge with...

A ribbon, A patterned paper and AN image

Lythan commented on Irene's blog ' And as for Ann... go on push your luck!' so I did!!!

I do hope I don't get banned from the DCM challenge as it's one of my favourites.

Oh and before I forget YORK was just brilliant and even better news we have booked a holiday flat and will be going for a whole week's holiday next year with muskateer number 3 - Max - yeah - watch out York here we come.

Ann xxx

Silly me!...

Has anyone else bought things from QVC and then wondered why on earth did I buy that? I've done it loads in the past and thought I was cured, but no the Daisy and Dandelion TSV got me the other week so I thought I better make an effort and use something out of it.

This cute elephant is from a sheet of die cut decoupage that was included in the kit. Hmm - not very impressed at all. I thought it was okay at first, but when I had built it all up with silicone glue I just wasn't happy with all the 'extra' white bits that shouldn't have been there.

Tip of the day coming up - Do not try to trim white bits off decoupage while silicone glue is still wet. It's not easy and ends up a disaster. Good job there were two sheets of the elephant as first ended up in bin and on number two I did my own cutting.

The sketch I've used for this card is the new challenge sketch at Cutie Sunday. Another of my favourite sketch blogs.

Additional materials:

• Die Cut Decoupage and rub on sentiment from Daisy and Dandelion QVC kit
• holly paper by Dovecraft
• green card and gold mirri card
• gold peel off letter, tag and organza ribbon from stash

Additional challenges:

• Simon Says Stamp - Animal Antics
• Pile it on - Rub ons (the 'with love at Christmas' is a rub on)
• Allsorts Challenge - a Christmas song - this one is 'Have a holly jolly Christmas'

click here to listen to Burl Ives singing the song - ah I love that guy!

Have a good day everybody - I know I will as today is a very special one. I'm meeting my good friend, Irene , in York. Oh wow we are going to have a whale of a time.

Monday means Pink Elephants...

or at least one Pink Elephant anyway and this week Ella has a recipe for us ...

Plaid - Brads and NO Ribbon (oh my not using ribbon was a real toughie!)

Our sponsors this week are Wild Flower Kids Rubber Stamps and the design team were lucky enough to work with fantastic images from the 'Tis the Season' digi image range.

For my first card I used the digi Christmas Tree and the oh so cute Elf Lilly. The 'Merry Christmas' wording is from the sentiment set which is part of the range too.

The sketch is this week's challenge at Friday Sketchers - I'm addicted to sketches at the moment and I loved this one.

Additional materials:

• Black and red card
• red metallic brads
• plaid black and white card
• gold snowflake
• Promarkers
• White flowersoft to create fluff on Lilly's coat and hat

Additional challenges:

• Fun with shapes - Gifts as part of image
• Allsorts challenge - A Christmas Song Title - mine is 'It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas'

To hear Bing Crosby singing and get in the mood click here or if you're more of a Johny Matthis fan click here.

My second card has a much softer feel to it possibly due to the colour lilac and the layers of checked vellum layed over checked card and also over plain white card.

This time my sketch was from Crazy 4 Challenges and is a very clean unclustered sketch which I feel shows the cute snowman digi from Wild Flower Kids off so well.


Materials used:

• Snowman digi and sentiment digi from Wild Flower Kids
  
• gingham vellum
  
• gingham card
• white and lilac card
• Sakura Stardust Pens for colouring
• ultrafine glitter and white square brads

Additional challenges:

• Creatalicious Challenges - snow and lots of sparkle
• Creative Inspirations - Sparkle
• Dare you to digi - glitter
• Kraftin'Kimmie Stamps - Happy Christmas
• Allsorts Challenge - a Christmas Song Title - mine is 'Frosty the Snowman'

Check out the original song and cartoon here!!

Gosh all those links I'm shattered. Have a fantastic day everyone and I hope you'll get chance to join in with us at The Pink Elephant this week. Remember it's plaid (or checked if you want to cheat a little like me) and brads BUT no ribbon - sigh!!

The Pixie Cottage...

I've just discovered the Pixie Cottage - just look at those stamps. My favourite has got to be the girl with the sledge, but then again they are all rather nice and just that touch different. Love them.

If you like the look of them as much as I do pop over and check out their website as they are celebrating and giving these stamps as blog candy to one lucky person. Hope it's me!!

Present box...

I really, really wanted to join in the Pollycraft challenge this fortnight, but seem to have spent most of the two weeks trying to decide what to do.

Then some paints arrived that I had ordered from ebay and as soon as I saw the packaging I realised it was just too good to throw in the bin.


My first thought was to use the acetate box and just put a decorated image on the front, but on closer inspection I found the acetate was a bit scratched and marked. Then it struck me - why not use the box as a template?!

I carefully cut down one side to open the box out flat. Then I layed it on a piece of 12" x 12" card. It just fit - wow - how lucky was that? It would have been more sensible to have drawn round the template on the wrong side, but by this time I was so taken up with trying it out that I never thought!

To be able to mark the flap parts I cut one from the main template and used it to mark my card - by now I had realised it would make more sense to mark the back rather than the patterned side of the card.
I carefully scored along the line and then turned the card over to fold in the flap. I used a circle punch to cut the semi circle.


As the template only just fit on the 12" x 12"card there was no space to add a tab to fasten the box closed. To solve this I cut a 1" wide strip the same length as the long edge of my box and folded this in half lengthways to make a hinge to fasten both long sides of the box together. As soon as this is done the box is rounded and the flaps at each end can be closed shut.

Then comes the fun decorating part - I used my new Pollycraft stamp Grace - I think she's getting used a lot because she's so much fun to add glitter and gems to.

I intend to put a couple of pairs of fancy socks in this box and even if you missed the name on the tag you probably guessed by the colour - PINK - that this is going to be a gift for Laura.

Of course my project is mainly for the challenge at Pollycraft where the theme is 'no cards allowed', but it also fits the challenges at...

• Creative Inspirations - 'sparkle'
• No time to stamp - 'All wrapped up'
• Cardvaarks - 'Colour a stamped image'

Thank you everyone for looking and leaving such fantastic comments. Everyone of them makes me smile.