Pink and green... and flowers!

What a perfect challenge the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge gang have come up with again this week! I always enjoy a nice pink and green combo, add a few flowers and I'm a happy camper!

This gorgeous stamp is yet another Lili of the Valley gem. This is one serious addiction going on here I can tell you! The good news is that their online store is open again from today for anyone suffering withdrawal symptoms.

Sorry this is such a short post but I am up to my ears in bunnies and eggs in preparation for the weekend!

Happy crafting everyone!

Spring Day!

I hope that you won't mind if I share the gorgeous cards that the children made at the library yesterday to celebrate our Spring Open Day...So much sparkle and glitter...and just look at the bunny shaped card....Love those feathers and tissue flowers...

...and this little star is my friend Lorraine's gorgeous granddaughter making her card and posing for the April edition of the library newsletter!
I wish I could share pictures of all the other children too, but I have to be very careful about parental permission.
We had a great day at the library with a day of card and badge making competitions for the children, and Family History workshops for the adults. If this wasn't fun enough we also had an amazing garden makeover in the library grounds by a group of local young adults. They planted a gorgeous selection of spring flowers and shrubs to transform the area into a spring garden for the local community to enjoy.

I'm one happy librarian!

March Card Chain Challenge

I cannot believe that we are nearly due to say 'goodbye' to March... where did it go????

As this is the final Friday of the month the lovely Deborah has posted the info about her April Card Chain Challenge.

I am ever so slightly addicted to these challenges! Deborah offers a choice of themes, a colour palette and a sketch and you can combine as many of these as you choose.

I love the excitement of the sign up... the anticipation of the arrival of a card, and then bingo: an envelope from far away!!!

For her March CCC Deborah offered a gorgeous colour combo of Butter, Aqua, Teal, Ban de Soleil, and Rose. These colours were good enough to eat, so I couldn't resist using them to make this card for Anette in Norway.

I received these two beauties from the lovely Hannah. Thank you so much, I love 'em!Look at the sweet fringes on the cushion, the ribbon on the curtains and that pretty hand drawn tree in the window!If you want to play along with Deborah's April challenge you can sign up with Mr Linky over at her blog before April 1st.

Happy crafting everyone, it's nearly the weekend!

A quick post before bedtime

I am oh so tired, so please forgive me if this post doesn't make much sense!

Isn't this happy little bunny leaping that host of golden daffodils fun?

He's another Lili of the Valley cutie, and was a real joy to stamp and colour.

I also had fun creating the faux stitching with my sewing machine and a gel pen. I like the look of this technique so will definitely be using it again.

This little fellah is just perfect for the Secret Crafter Saturday challenge theme 'Spring has Sprung!' and Paper Play Challenge week 13 'Easter'.

And so to bed....

One Beautiful Ballerina!

I must say that I think Annie Rodrigue has surpassed herself with this fabulous new stamp! The brilliant new range of Kraftin' Kimmie stamps are now available over at Bunny Zoe's Crafts.

All of the new stamps are dance themed and great fun, but this little 'Angry Ballerina' grabbed my attention and then pirouetted into my shopping cart.

I know it's a bit corny but I just couldn't resist the 'sentiment'!

This is a tent card made with the help of Dena's great instructions over at The Just Magnolia Challenge Blog. In the end I placed the ballerina on the front of the card, rather than suspending her, as I wanted her to look like she was standing in the spotlight. Not quite sure if it works, but I had lots of fun trying!

I cut the large circle with my Mom's Martha Stewart Circle cutter... not easy to use, but gave a good effect. I read the instructions very carefully as Mom cut herself on the blade the first time she used it.

Now that I have seen the card on the screen I plan to try and make the curtains look a bit more 3-D. It never fails to surprise me how different a card can look on the screen. I often work on a card again after seeing it on the PC as all the faults and crooked lines become magnified and obvious!

Happy crafting everyone!

One fairy, and a bear with a blanket!

Unusually, I have two cards to share today...

The first one is a sweet Lilli of the Valley Fairy that I coloured with Promarkers. I added lots of Stickles and Diamond Glaze, but neither is showing up that well on this picture. I brushed a little gold Veracolour over those lovely Cuttlebugged swirls, but again while it looks lovely in real life it hasn't photographed well.

I just love colouring these images as they are so easy and you can get great effects with very little effort. This is all down to how beautifully they are drawn by those very talented LOTV artists and owes nothing to my colouring skills!

Now just to prove that I am not completely addicted to LOTV, my second card features a Popcorn the Bear image that I stamped on a visit to my friend Vicky a few weeks ago. While on the subject of the lovely Vicky, please drop by her blog to see the fabulous card that she posted yesterday as her DT card for the Crafty Cardmakers Challenge. It's a stunner, and one which just took my breath away when I saw it!

I made this second card for a friend who is retiring tomorrow. She collects and makes bears, so hopefully she will appreciate little Popcorn, his blanket, and his sparkly daisy. My mojo was lacking 'oomph' this morning so I decided to use this inspirational little sketch from Sketch Saturday to help things along... thank you so much girls, it did the job nicely!

Happy crafting everyone!

A sunny spring morning!

Mona from Play Date Cafe, has chosen a beautiful colour combo for Creativity Challenge #21. I couldn't ever remember combining these colours before, so decided to take the plunge.

You won't be surprised to find that this card features another sweet Lilli of the Valley stamp! This little couple are just perfect for engagements, anniversaries etc.

I used this gorgeous sketch that I found over on the LOTV challenge site.

As you can see I 'jiggled' it a bit, well actually quite alot! You can check out this lovely challenge site to see the DT girls doing a much better job with it.

This card is for my friend Maureen and her husband Terry who are celebrating their 40th Wedding Anniversary today. I know that flower is a little large for her hat, but I rather liked it and thought is was an additional touch of whimsy and fun! All of the card stock is from Stampin' Up, and there is Diamond Glaze on the little guy's glasses.

It's a lovely sunny morning here, Custard is lying in a patch of sunshine looking very happy with life and I feel a spot of gardening coming on. I am now relegated to the position of assistant gardener as my hubby passed his gardening exams last week!

Enjoy your Sunday everyone!

And the winner is....

A big thank you to everyone who left a comment on my Blog Candy post, I really enjoyed reading them all.

I am so sorry that Blogger went 'strange' and didn't moderate some of the comments. Luckily I spotted the problem early, and so kept all of my emails and even checked through my spam folder so I think everyone went into the hat... or rather little pottery jug.



So let's get down to it and announce the winner:

It's PAULA from pajaluspapersfabricsaddiction.blogspot.com/

Congratulations Paula, please could you email me with your snail mail address so that I can post your Lili of the Valley winnings. I wonder how long it will take the parcel to reach Australia?

Thanks again to everyone who took part or who dropped by.
See you again soon with a card...

Roll up, roll up... there's Blog Candy on offer!

This card is a bit of a prototype. I plan to make more cards using this gorgeous little stamp from Lilli of the Valley, but today I wanted to play around and experiment a little.

The wonderful thing about these lovely LOTV stamps is that they are so beautifully drawn. This means that you can get away with very simple, almost watercolour style colouring. This is a huge bonus for someone like me who isn't really that great at wielding her Promarkers!

The large 'Celebrate' sentiment is from an Ali Edwards/Technique Tuesday set that hasn't seen the light of day for far too long. The roses in the bride's bouquet are accented with Diamond Glaze and her dress has some added sparkle from Diamond Stickles. If I make this card again in landscape format I'll make it much longer, and 'slimmer', so that the balance is better around the sentiment.
Anyhooo, about that candy....

I want to say a big thank you to all you lovely people who either follow my blog or are regular visitors.

I have chosen three lovely Lilli of the Valley stamps as candy. I'll be giving them away to one lucky person who leaves a comment on this post by close of play on Friday 19th March.

I plan to announce the winner over the weekend.

I'm entering this little card in the following challenges:

Lucy's Challenge #7 - Keep it Simple!

Sophisticat #26 - New Beginnings

and Cute Card Thursday Challenge #103 - Celebrations

Happy crafting everyone, and don't forget to leave a comment to have a chance to win!

Edited to add:

Mr Blogger seems to be acting up and I have noticed that some comments haven't moderated properly. I have them all stored in my email folder so hopefully won't miss anyone - however, feel free to comment again as I will be doing the draw by name rather than using a Random number thingy as I am aware of this problem.

If Amy was a fairy...

Ok, I'll start by explaining that strange post title...

I was searching Etsy a few weeks ago for digital stamps and came across the store of the very talented Claire Keay. Claire does gorgeous work, but I was especially drawn to this sweet image of a fairy. Not only is she beautifully drawn but she also looks very much like my friend's daughter!

I thought this was just my impression, but after I had coloured her I asked my hubby to take a look and see if the picture looked like anyone we knew?

He immediately said 'Amy'. Now my husband really isn't known for his ability to remember faces ( I am constantly delighted when he picks me out in a crowd) so the resemblance must be as genuinely uncanny as I first thought!

I coloured 'Amy' with my Promarkers and then got to work on her wings with Stickles.

A little ribbon, pretty ric-rac and some seed beads and she was done!

I haven't added a sentiment so that I can use this card as and when I need it.

This week it is 'Anything goes' over at The Secret Crafter as Wendy and her DT celebrate the launch of her gorgeous new Manga inspired stamps.

Also 'congratulations' to Flutterby Wednesday at reaching challenge 100! This week is an open challenge so I'm going to join in the fun with this little card!

The sun is shining, it's a beautiful morning and I'm off to play with my newly arrived Lili of the Valley stamps!

Happy crafting everyone!

Hold the front page!

I just had to share this link to a fabulous blog that I have just discovered called 'Kickcan and Conkers'.
This charming, fun blog belongs to Deborah, a Yorkshire lass, who now lives in France.
Deborah is passionate about the arts, home decor and thrifting. She also loves collecting vintage books, toys and paper goods and has found the most wonderful Easter creatures that I think I have ever seen!

They are from a company called Mibo and are fabulous!

Just check out 'The Carrot Crew'and 'The Yolk folk'

Aren't these just brilliant?

A big pat on the back to Deborah for showcasing these little beauties on her gorgeous blog.

'Kickcan and Conkers' is chock full of colour and inspiration and well worth a look!

Hello, remember me...?

I feel as if I have done nothing except work all week. Don't get me wrong I love my job and have achieved alot, but I am sooooo grateful that it is the weekend!

Today I have been working on a card for my Mom, but it just isn't coming together at all! So instead I thought I'd share a card that I made a few weeks ago to send to my dear blogging friend Linda.

Linda sent me this little beauty in exchange... sweeeeet!

If you aren't familiar with Linda's lovely cards you can take a look at her blog here.

Linda can turn her hand to a whole variety of styles and I really admire her versatility, however I think my favourites are her vintage cards and boxes as they simply ooze talent and sophistication!

A big, big thank you to Linda for being such a wonderful blog friend.

The highlight of my busy week at work has to be meeting the author Judith Allnatt when she came to the library on Wednesday afternoon. I loved Judith's first book called 'A Mile of River' and was thrilled to discover that she was planning a tour to promote book number two, which is called 'The Poet's Wife'.

Here's a little something from Judith's blog about her new book:

It is 1841. Patty is married to John Clare: peasant poet, genius and madman.

Travelling home one day, Patty finds her husband sitting, footsore, at the side of the road, having absconded from a lunatic asylum over eighty miles away. She is devastated to discover that he has not returned home to find her, but to search for his childhood sweetheart, Mary Joyce, to whom he believes he is married. Patty loves John deeply, but he seems lost to her. Plagued by jealousy, she seeks strength in memories: their whirlwind courtship, the poems John wrote for her, their shared affinity for the land. But as John descends further into delusion, hope seems to be fading. Will she ever be able to conquer her own anger and hurt, and reconcile with this man she now barely knows?

Doesn't that sound good!

Judith was lovely, and seemed genuinely delighted to be asked countless questions by the modest but enthusiastic audience that came to meet her. I am really looking forward to relaxing with my signed copy of Judith's new book!

Have a great weekend everyone, and also 'happy Mother's day' for tomorrow if you are celebrating in your part of the world!

Fifties Sweethearts!

Don't you just love this cute little digi-stamp from The Greeting Farm ?

This image is called 50s Sweetheart and is just perfect for wedding anniversary cards and the like. As it is my Parents-in-law's anniversary during the week I decided to get printing and colouring.

The great thing about digital stamps is that you can size them to fit your card and then add greetings, as I have done here.

I was tempted to add a checked shirt and a jaunty neckerchief to the little guy. My Mom-in-law has just announced her 70th birthday plans and has decided to have a Barn dance in their church hall. The look on my hubby's face was priceless when he found out. Let's just say he doesn't do any form of dancing and leave it at that!

Happy crafting everyone!