Snow, snow cute!

It's hard to believe that I photographed this card at 2pm this afternoon. If we get any useful daylight tomorrow I will re-photograph and edit this post.

Edited to add:

Here is the same card photographed on Sunday with the help of a little November sunshine!

Hope you can make out the cute sparkle on the lime green bits - I just love Stickles!I love this little penguin from Pink Petticoat! The collection is called 'Have an ice Christmas' and there are a total of twelve super cute images. Liz has only just added them to the site and I think they will be selling like hot cakes in no time at all!

My little penguin card is being entered for two challenges: The ABC Challenge this week is 'I is for Indigo' and over at Flutterby Wednesday #85 the theme is for a fairy, angel or butterfly and circles.
Please believe me that this little card looks a whole lot sweeter IRL!

Happy crafting everyone, and I hope you are all keeping warm as its getting chilly here in the UK!

We all love Lucy!

I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to play along with Lucy's 1st challenge!
I am a huge fan of Lucy's wonderful card making style. Her creations are always so pretty and feminine. I also think that Lucy has a great sense of humour as many of her cards are very witty and cute!

I wanted to make a small card to send to my dear friend Eileen who is off work following knee surgery last week. She is the librarian at another library in my area so I am helping out a bit while she is away. Eileen always dresses really well and has great taste in shoes, so I thought this sweet digital image from Hero Arts would be just right for her!

Once again I must apologise for the poor quality of the photograph. I had to use the flash on my camera and it has bleached the colours.

Happy crafting everyone!

He does exist... I saw him too!

Just can't get enough of this sweet little girl and her look of surprise!

Sorry about the quality of the photograph, I took this picture under my craft lamp and the colours of those beautiful Basic Grey papers have gone all strange.

I used this sweet little sketch from Inspirational Card Sketches as the basis for my card... I just went 'off script' a little bit...

Happy crafting everyone!

He does exist!

Santa does exist... and if the look on this little girl's face isn't proof enough for you take a look at this fabulous, fun post on Elise's blog!

See you again soon, happy crafting everyone!

Ketto cuteness!

A very quick post this morning as it's a Christmas shopping day today for myself and hubby.

I just wanted to share these little thank you cards that I made earlier in the week for my sweet sister-in-law.

These lovely little Ketto images come courtesy of my sweet blog friend Beth. I've been saving them for a special project and it was great to finally get colouring and cutting as they are so much fun.

Sadly this is the last of that sweet 'Poppet' paper, except for a teeny, tiny scrap. Do I use that last piece on a card or sleep with it under my pillow?

The sentiments are from Hero Arts and the other stamps are Hero Arts Raindrops background stamp, that sweet Kelly Panacci clear design set that I love and a fabulous Stampin' Up set! There's oodles of glitter and sparkle on each card, but it doesn't quite show up in the photographs... you'll just have to trust me on that one!

I love the sweet long-legged fairy on my first card, so am going to enter her for Flutterby Wednesday Challenge #84 over at Danni's Dreams. If you haven't discovered this cute site it is worth a look as there is always plenty going on there, including challenges and tutorials.

We have had some very high winds across the UK over the last few days.

How does my daft cat deal with this? He goes and climbs the tallest tree in our garden!

Thankfully my hubby was able to encourage him to come down.

It's official, cats are odd!

Victoria's candy!

Just a quick reminder that Victoria has some gorgeous candy on offer over at her blog until Wednesday 9th December.

For anyone who missed my earlier post this candy call is for a wonderful charity called SANDs.

Here are some of the cards that I am sending...

I was delighted to discover that I can fit ten cards into the padded bag that I bought!

I think that this one is my favourite!

She is a cute little digital image from The GreetingFarm. She was in their digital clearance sale and I am glad that I snapped her up when I did as she is no longer available.

I found that lovely paper in my stash, it is called Poppet and I wish I had more as it is gorgeous. I had just enough for this card, and for some thank you cards that I am making to give to my sister-in-law as a little stocking filler.

It's a digital challenge over at The Cupcake Craft Challenge this week so my sweet little friend fits the bill quite nicely!

Happy crafting everyone!

It started with a hiss...

Sometimes these things just happen...

Anyone who is a regular visitor to InkyFingersRule will know that this little sweetheart has just stolen Beth's heart. Her name is Epiphany, and with her arrival Beth has joined the long list of people who didn't intend to be owned by a cat!


Just over 18 years ago I had made the decision not to get a cat. I didn't want the hassle. I was perfectly happy to enjoy the visits that my neighbours cat, Whiskers, made to my house most days for little snacks and treats. Whiskers began to put on weight - too many snacks perhaps? Then one evening she marched across my kitchen and settled herself in a box of old decorating sheets in the big cupboard under the stairs. I climbed into the back of the cupboard with her and 'held her paw' as she gave birth to three pretty little kittens.
I decided to keep the two female kittens and my work colleague gave a home to the little boy cat.
Cleo, and her sweet little sister Daisy, wobbled out of the cupboard after a few days and hissed, tiny warning hisses at me when I went to pick them up. Truly, it 'started with a hiss'!

Anyhoo, back to that card...
I wish that I hadn't photographed on pink, but hopefully you can still see the outline of the card itself. This cute little image seemed so appropriate after reading about Beth and Epiphany. You may recognise Reeta from GreetingFarm. I decided to paper piece her in some of the tiny scraps that I had as leftovers from my previous card. The little kitten is also paper pieced and is lifted up on a tiny dimensional. The papers are all 'Eva' by Basic Grey and the card stock is Bazzils.


I stamped a favourite Hero Arts background stamp onto one of the plain papers from this pack and clear embossed for added interest. The sentiment is from Hero Arts, and I think that tiny button is from Basic Grey to match the Eva collection. The bling and the ribbon are both stash items.

The theme over at Pink Elephant , is 'So thankful', and there is even more 'thankfulness' going on at the Flutter-by-Wednesday Challenge #83 ! Papercutz are keeping it sweet and simple this week as Challenge #17 is to use a hand stamped or digital image on our card!

Happy crafting everyone!

Pretty in pink...and green!

Here's Twinkle Tot Madelynn out in the snow again!

This time she is wearing a pretty pink coat and a cute scarf, both paper pieced from Basic Grey's beautiful 6 x 6 paper pad Eva. I had so much fun piecing those cute Mary Jane's!

All the other papers are from same pad, and the soft pink card stock is Bazzils.

I really love this little image and wanted to use her again. I wanted to give her a different look to my previous card so went hunting for a sketch. There are so many great sketches at the moment, but I finally settled on this one from Card Patterns as it gave me the chance to use so many of those cute papers.

Rather then stamp snowflakes I decided to have Madelynn lost in a flurry of cute, little snowy pearls!

The Cupcakes are having 'Snow much fun' with Challenge 64 , and the Crafty Catz are going 'dottie' this week so rather amazingly for me this is another three challenge card!

Happy crafting everyone!

Blog candy

Victoria has some amazing blog candy on offer until Wednesday 9th December.

This is no ordinary giveaway as Victoria is raising money for a very special charity:

SANDs Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Charity:

Victoria and her husband sadly lost baby Flynn when he was just two days old, following birth complications at 42 weeks. Victoria says on her blog 'I don't know how I would have coped if it hadn't been for the love and support my husband and I received from this wonderful charity'.

You can find all the details over at Victoria's blog, but in a nutshell she is asking for people to send handmade cards and gifts wrapped with envelopes in a saleable state. She will then pass these on to SANDs, who will sell them and keep 100% of the proceeds to help set up new groups across the UK.

Simply create a card or handmade gift. Cards can be for any occasion or theme.
You can create as many items as you like, each item = 1 entry to the candy.

Then put your name down on Mr Linky for each item sent. E.g. 5 cards = 5 entries.

There's no limit to number of entries per person and you can contact Victoria via her blog for the postal address details.

Candy closes on Wednesday 9th December and Victoria will pick a winner using Random Interger Generator shortly afterwards.

Easel-y peasy, lemon squeezy!

I nearly called this post: 'reader, I was that child' as this little party-goer reminds me of myself as a small child. I was always too late for cake as I was usually hiding behind a curtain or beneath the table. I would then appear, little cheeks aflame with embarrassment, in the hope that there might be just enough cake left for me!

I am now officially in love with easel cards! Aren't they fun, and surprisingly easy to make.

I can see why they are currently sweeping across blogland! I think this format would make great photo cards, and really fancy place settings too.

Thanks to Helen from the Secret Crafter DT, who signposted the way to some great instructions here, which helped big time.
This cute little girl is from Eat Cake Graphics and came as part of a bumper haul of images from the wonderful Lynne.
The card is all Bazzils and the 'you make me smile' sentiment is from Hero Arts. That sweet flowery vellum has been hiding out in my stash for years. It is called Purple Pansies from Over the Moon Press at E K Success. I bought a few sheets to use for pretty gift bags and this is from the sheet that I had leftover.

There are currently easel card challenges over at Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge and Crazy 4 Challenges so I will be meeting up with Mr Linky as soon as I finish this post.


Happy easel card crafting everyone!

Let it snow!

This is 'Madelynn' from The Greeting Farm, isn't she sweet?

I really enjoyed colouring her with my Versacolour inks and watercolour pencils and she was sooo easy to cut out.

I created this little card for the Colour Dare Challenge #41 as I am 'nuts' about cream, teal and brown as a combo.

I am also entering this card for the Crafty Calendar Challenge #2. When I saw that the theme was weather I knew that I wanted to join the fun! You might like to head on over there as the DT cards are brilliant and the lovely, and very talented, Victoria is the guest designer this month.

Finally, I am 'bringing out my bling' for the current Allsorts Challenge.

The snowflakes and the sentiment are from that very old stamp set that had lost it's label. However, I noticed that the packaging has the name on it in tiny letters and it turns out to be from Scraptrends. I've added a pretty pearl, cute Papermania bling in the snowflakes and some of my favourite ribbon. The Bazzils card stock is brown and has some Versamark stamping with with the beautiful Antique Brocade Cling from Hero Arts. It is a bit too subtle for the camera to pick up.

Have a great Sunday everyone, and sadly no, that isn't the view from my house on my blog header. While I do live on a hill and therefore have a brilliant view of Birmingham, it does not look as pretty as the Amalfi coast in mid-July!

Merry and bright!

This is another wonderful stamp from Kraftin' Kimmie.
Her name is Anthoinette and I just had to make her s-l-i-d-e across this card on her little skates!

I've never made a penny slider before and approached the whole thing as if it was a major engineering project. I rarely make templates but I have to admit that making a template for the 'hill' with the slot in it was a good idea as it helped to get the positioning correct.

The blue background is covered with embossed snowflakes from a stamp set that has lost it's label. The sentiment is from a new set that will be appearing again very soon, so I'll give you all the details then. I added a cute little tag for Kraftin' Kimmie Challenge #4 (Tag you're it!) and then went totally OTT with the glitter glue. This card doesn't look quite how I had imagined, however I am quite pleased as this is my first attempt at a penny slider!

I still feel really poorly so I'm going to tidy up, get a hot chocolate and settle down to watch Day 4 of the fabulous Kristina Werner's 25 days of Christmas. It's a snowman window card today!

Happy 5th November to everyone in the UK.
Needless to say I will be keeping Custard in this evening as he is very frightened of fireworks.

Happy crafting everyone!

Blog award bliss!

I am sorry not to be able to share a card today but I am feeling very poorly with a nasty throat infection thing.

The lovely Sally has been kind enough to send me this blog award. She is also currently poorly so I hope that she feels much better soon.

This sweet award comes with a few with rules, which are:

Pass this award on to five people, post on their blog to let them know you left this award, and then answer a list of questions in ONE word.

1. Where is your cell phone? Bedside table

2. Your hair? Messy

3. Your mother? Unique

4. Your father? Enthusiastic

5. Your favorite food? Veggie

6. Your dream last night? Work

7. Your favorite drink? Hot Chocolate

8. Your dream/goal? Happiness

9. What room are you in? Box room

10. Your hobby? Crafting

11. Your fear? Loss

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Home

13. Where were you last night? Sleeping

14. Something that you aren't? Normal

15. Muffins? Chocolate

16. Wish list item? Huge

17. Where did you grow up? Birmingham

18. Last thing you did? Yawn

19. What are you wearing? PJs

20. Your TV? Off

21. Your Pets? Custard

22. Friends? Appreciated

23. Your life? Simple

24. Your mood? Poorly

25. Missing Someone? Cleo

26. Vehicle? ‘Minty’

27. Something you’re not wearing? Ball gown

28. Your favorite store? Craft

29. Your favorite color? Turquoise

30. When was the last time you laughed? Yesterday

31. Last time you cried? Unsure

32. Your best friend? Jacquie
33. One place that I go to over and over? Imagination

34. Facebook? Nope

35. Favorite place to eat? Country pub

Picking just five from all you wonderful girls is really hard!

If I have sent you an award before please don't be offended that I am casting my net a little wider this time.

I'd like to send this award to the following five people:

Vanessa

Paula

Victoria

Nicky

Jo

Their blogs are all brilliant, and full of colour, fun and inspiration.

Happy crafting everyone, I think I need to go and lie down now!

Christmas candy!

There's fabulous Christmas candy over at Deanne's blog!

Candy girl!

Just a quick shout to let you know that the wonderful Beth has some gorgeous blog candy on offer until Saturday 21st November.

Keeping it simple!

I hope that everyone had a fabulous Halloween last night!

We had such a great time at the library yesterday. I only hope that the children enjoyed themselves as much as the staff and the parents!

The Hero Arts challenge this week is to make a very simple Christmas/Holiday card.

I think that this little card qualifies as simple as it took me just a few minutes to make!

That little clear design stamp is perfect as a topper and it fits so nicely into the punched circles. My cute snowflake embossing folder got it's first outing today... I am sure it won't be it's last either! I embossed the lighter card stock with the swiss dots folder and then jumped in with my white gel pen. A little versacolour ink in lime and purple gave the little centre a cute lift!

Today, I am busy making Christmas gift tags from my huge stock of scraps. The friendship group that meets at the library is holding a craft fayre to raise funds for the Christmas party. I like to do my bit and hope that my packs of pretty gift tags might buy a few festive goodies for them...

Happy crafting everyone!