2010 favorites

I never thought it would be so hard to pick out some favourites from the cards I have made over the past year but I have found it so hard.I have so far narrowed it down to 20.There is a chance to win candy too for choosing your favourites.The stamp man has a blog hop and an award with the chance of some fab candy for picking and sharing your number one favourite for 2010. Here is my award and my favourite stampman stamp card I made this year(I did have another 3 on my short list for favourites but I can't choose and overall winner so this is my stampman favourite).

  Debby is also challenging us to choose our favourite 5 from 2010 and I thought it was hard choosing my fav 5 christmas cards and again she is offering some fab candy too. Here are my next 4 favourites, have to say I don't think I could choose an overall favourite as I like them all equally and looking back over the year it is funny to see how my cardmaking has changed and progressed, and it does seem along time since I made some of the cards I looked at, but here are those I finally picked and posted before I could change my mind yet again.

Hope you all have fun sharing yours and a happy new year too.

More thankyous

Morning all and hope you are all ready to face a brand new year! Some of you will be ready to party and in the final few hours of 2010 , others have a little longer to wait but I would like to wish you all a happy healthy and successful 2011 both to yourselves and your families and thank you all for taking time to visit my  blog whether you leave comments or not.

Now onto some craft. My son asked for a couple of thankyou cards for people he hasn't been able to see personally to thank and he didn't want girly ones either. It's hard to make a thankyou for a female when you are given the remit not girly as if he didn't like them he wouldn't send them so that would be a total waste of good craft supplies. Anyway they have both been given approval so all is ok.

I used one of my new stamps from Sugar Nellie sassy set 3 not sure what his real name is but I call him cool dude, that way I remember which they are. I made both cards with the same image but coloured differently but both with my wonderful Promarkers. I'm not saying Copics aren't wonderful but I don't have any so can't say before I get shouted at by all you Copics lovers, lol.

The first card I did in shades of grey and silver. I love how he turned out and how well he worked with the pearlised, matt and holographic mirri-cards. The liquid pearls I think are the perfect finishing touch and although I would say girly escaped un noticed, well my son is male afterall and we all know they have tunnel vision at times.


I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

Passion for promarkers-anything goes

Flourishes-pearls

Crafty Ho's -picture inspiration

The Pixie cottage-layout

fun at fairy knoll-anything goes

CRAFT-thankyou
Phindys place-give thanks

My second card I used shades of green, have to say although I don't count green as a favourite colour I do have a soft spot for it, especially acid green and deep emerald/bottle green. I do tyhink this is a bit odd as I hated wearing it at school and it was our uniform colour, bottle green skirt and jumper or cardigan, white shirt and green and red striped tie, from infants to 5th year (not sure what grade that is but I think it's year 11) . Sixth form we got to wear navy blue and no tie for the girls, boys always wore black blazer and trousers and the same tie all way through to leaving sad really.

Well back to the card sorry, maybe I should resolve not to digress but can't see that lasting so I'll not bother.

I used cream base card and the same for my image, The paper was a scrap I found in a bag of bits and the corners are stickers from a magazine freebie. The strip is from me messing with some alcohol inks and although they aren't all green I thought the mix of colours worked quite well.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

Papertake weekly-be thankful
ABC challenge-keep it simple
Cute card thursday-thankyou
Scrapbook sisters-it's a mans world(well it's for my son to send and his remit for the design)

Crafts 4 eternity-layout and shades of green

Thank you

I always think it's nice to say thankyou especially when you can say it in person, but sometimes you can't be there with the person who gives you something you love and a card is the next best way to say thank you I think. I know a quick phone call or text will do and lets the sender know you got your gift but a card just says it more.

Our family has a few thankyous to send as we couldn't see our benifactors in person to give our thanks so here is one of the cards I've made. I did have some already made and they have been popped in the post but I think you've probably seen most of them before, this was an extra so I thought I'd combine it with some challenges.

I used a mix of promarkers and sakura pens to colour in this fab LOTV image and added sakura sparkle. I don't know why I decided to used greys and creams but I later found a challenge that fit so maybe I already knew this subconciously or something, buit I do think she looks cute in greys.

The papers are dry embossed using another fiskars board and mounted on silver mirri card. The base she is on stamped with a stampman lace stamp and embossed with moonglow pwoder of moonpearls for extra shine. The sentiment is a peeloff. The ribbon was from one of my gifts.

Now I'm not telling who this is going to as it will spoil the suprise but it is sent with much thanks for a beautiful goft that has been much admired and is truely appreciated too. Oh and that is really going to wind some of you up with curiosity but I might tell you later.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

Really reasonable ribbons-picture inspiration
Die cut dreams-girlie
Charisma cardz-lace and pearls
Friday sketches-layout
Winterwonderland-thankyou
Magical monday-thankyou

For a special couple

January starts a round of celebrations again in my family, there always seems to be something to make a card for, although from march to June things slow down and I have another quiet period from october to the begining of november as there are only one or two birthdays a month in these quiet periods.

In January we start with new year of course , then I have my sister's birthday and my son's godfather's birthday as well as some friends birthdays but there is also a special couples' anniversary, my mum and step dads wedding anniversary.

They were a bit sneaky when they got married (as some of my siblings and step siblings wouldn't have been too happy about the idea that they were getting maried at the time), so they told us all they were off on a cruise with some friends and only rang to tell us they were married after the deed was done. Thankfully all have now accepted that they make each other happy and we all get along. I am so glad mum found happiness and someone to share her life with, she deserves it as does my (step)dad who is the best dad I could ask for.

I made this card for them trying to be organised see, just got to put it safe but not that safe that I can't find it later. It was good to make something not christmassy , though I seem to be doing lots of WOW cards of late and this is another, but I do love the effect.

I used a Magnolia stamp but not the whole image and put it in a heart. I coloured in Promarkers using mum and dads colouring, hence the grey hair on dad. The embellishments I used ribbon and count the pink one as being on my image as it's attatched to the silver mount card. The white one is made into a flower just for something a bit different.

I decided to dry emboss all my base papers the same and used a fiskers board with swirls. I used white vellum as my main base as I thought this gave a soft feel to the card. I used pearlised leather look card for the cross bands which when embossed with swirls adds two dimensions due to the double embossed effect. The mount for the heart is pearlised paper so again a different texture. The ribbon flower I attatched with a white flower brad.The mirri card is actually recycled from a tissue box and has swirls on it , keeping in with the theme, not that you can see many of the swirls though. The sentiment is also recycled from a bought card and as it was silver on vellum it just seemed perfect. I attatched this with more flower brads. I thought it would be nice to do an easel card as I haven't done one for a while and because there was a fab embossed rose and some hearts on the other bit of the vellum from the recycled card and it seemed a shame not to use it. I embossed some more swirls around the hearts and flowers and used these on the base bit of the easel card with another strip of embossed leather pearl card.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

7 kids colleague fund-anything goes

crafts and me-anything goes

Aud sentiments-anything goes

I love promarkers- anything goes

Tuesday morning sketchers-embellish using in a different way

For fun challenegs-anything goes

Papertake-anything goes

Sweet stampin-celebrations

Totally Tilda-an easel card

Totally gorjuss-for someone special(2 special people in my case)

Just Magnolia-layout

Magnolia-licious-WOW

Passion for promarkers-anything goes

wild orchid crafts-pink, silver and white

Bunny Zoes-sparkle and shine

Another notebook

I made this notebook and bookmark as a token gift for the younger daughter of my neighbour Leah who does like craft and does have my blog address and may well see it here, if she's not out being a tom boy.

I made her sister one earlier and hopefully she hasn't seen that but with the very cold weather who knows how much time they will have been spending on the computer. They are both just a little gift for them as I thought most girls like to write something down.

The images are coloured with sakura pens with promarkers for the skin tones.  The papers were some magazine freebies and glitter paper. The button corners I didn't have in the right colour just yellow so I recoloured with Promarker.I addd ribbons to the spine and made a name bead charm for fun.Finally I added Leahs name to the frony in pink metalic card using one of the alphabet dies I have for my Bigshot. Really will have to get some more dies and utilise it better. Hope she likes it.

The bookmark I made to match and I slotted it inside.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:-

The fairy knoll-anything goes
Digi doodles shops best-anything goes
Moving along with the times-anything goes
Sew many challenges-anything goes
Penrith crafts-anything but a card
Simon says-anything goes
ISB-not christmas and cute

Merry Christmas Everyone

Good morning and merry Christmas to each and everyone of you, may you keep safe and warm and enjoy being with those you love and are loved by. Have a fantastic day and may Santa have been kind to you all too.

My favorite 5 christmas cards

Debby has asked if we would share our favourite 5 christmas cards of this year with everyone and there is a chance to win some fab LOTV James bear stamps for your christmas cards next year too. There are some fab entries so far well worth a look see. Here are mine.

 I seem to have had a thing for white on white this year, something I had never done before and have found I love. Might have to try it in some other colours like blue on blue or my dreaded pink on pink, might be something for the new year resolutions list that never lasts too long.


Well while I'm here I would like to thank all my followers for their support and visits and wonderful comments along with all you other lovely crafters who pop by from time to time. I would also like to take this oppourtunity to wish everyone a very happy Christmas and a happy, healthy and successful new year, just in case I don't get the chance to pop by in person and as it won't be long before our southern hemisphere aussie and newzealand friends will be opening their pressies. Hope Santa is kind and brings you all you wish for , well as much as he can carry or afford as we crafters always wish for so much of the creation stuff don't we?

Happy Christmas

Creative craft challenges-Anything goes!

Oh boy, I think everyone must have had a really busy last 2 weeks as we didn't have many entries for our last challenge, so this time there are no excuses, as I'm sure Santa will be bringing many of you some crafting goodies to play with and as our challenge is anything goes you will all be able to enter, but no more than 3 projects each of course.

We, Creative craft challenges have a fab sponsor again this time Stischy bear stamps and you could win $10 to spend in their store. We have been given a couple of images to work with and the Dt have come up trumps as well as doing their own thing too, really does deserve a proper look over on the challenge blog and if you visit their sites they will give you more details about the cards they each made.

I made 2 cards with the images we were given, the first is a spare christmas card, as no matter how well I think I am organised and have sent out all my cards there always seems to be that unexpected one that you recieve, so I always like a few spares. This image is called 'bah humbug'. I really think he looks grumpy(but cute in an odd way too) as if there's too much snow or he thought he would have fewer gifts to deliver with the recession. I coloured him with promarkers and added sakura glitter highlights. The papers are a mix from my scraps stash. The card is a plate style and normally I would show you it stood on the stand but, I bought a plate stand and drew around it so I had a template and both the template and the stand are in such a safe place so I know where they are, that at this moment in time I can't find them anywhere.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

Fairy knoll-christmas or winter

Fresh brewed coffee-christmas

For fun challenges-christmas

I love promarkers-Santas

Creative inspirations-layout

Ellephantastic-winter or christmas or wish upon a star
Critter sketch challenge-anything christmas
Sentimental sundays-inspired by a song(Santa is coming to town)
Cutie Sunday-christmas(even though he looks grumpy I still think he's cute in a funny kinda way)

Craft your passions -christmas card

 

The second image we were given is called birthday boy and I keep thinking of all the funnty captions you could put with it, most of them sounded a little sordid, don't know what's wrong with my brain , lol , must be overworked or something, well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

I also thought it would make a fun new years card so now I've just got to find where I put my new year sentiments,probably in that safe place with my plate stand and template, which I still haven't found yet.

I coloured this 'oldman' with promarkers and whiter sakura pen for his hair, hat and highlights.The papers are all from my sraps box. The corners I coloured with promarkers again so they all blended as with the candy brads. These I have to say I'm a bit dissappointed in as the colours didn't work well but they are suppose to be royal blue and mustard, the rubbish daylight doesn't help either with the photo as they really aren't that dark.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

Crafty sentiments-anything goes

Paper pretties-male card

Sarah Hurley-layout

Scrappy cats friends at Marks finest papers-colour challenge

Paper Sundaes-cut it out
Charisma-happy new year
Crafty card makers-latest or greatest and first

So here is my first card I took a picture of, as the first card I made is long gone and I certainly didn't take any photos of it, in fact I can't even remember what it was like.This one I entered to moving along with the times and at that point I didn't have a blog , I later high-jacked my sons, so glad I did with all the fab bloggy friends I have made and all the wonderful inspiration too.

 I hope you can all see an improvement!

My third card is one I made for a wedding anniversary, this is quite  a simple card with some dry embossing in the corners of a yellow pearlised card , a powder embossed sentiment, layered on lace stamped and embossed paper and roses, ribbon and liquid pearl decorations.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

CES-anything goes

Allsorts-anything goes

The crafty pad-anything goes

Hope you all have a fab christmas and get some time to do what you want not just cooking etc, unless that's what you want to do of course and most of all I hope Santa brings you something nice that you wished for. Thanks for popping by and happy holidays , merry christmas or even just happy Tuesday.

Hopefully I'll find that sentiment and that stand or template and have some crafty time too.

For my cuddle bunny

Well this is the last card I have to make, now just the just in case cards then that's christmas cards done for another year and we can start looking forward to spring.

Talk about plans go to pot, my son came home yesturday and before he had even got in the house announced as he only had one lesson today his head of 6th form year had told him it wasn't worth him going in and he could work from home. I of course thought he was winding me up but when I phoned school he wasn't. He still gets his mark but I had planned on a bit of housework, a bit of washing, putting up the tree etc and a cuppa and some crafting before he came home at lunchtime.

He says if I wait till he has done his work he'll help me , well it's good to know he finally has his christmas spirit as he didn't want the tree up etc but as I know he will get distracted with facebook and Sims and whatever else there is on his computer  as well as sauntering through doing the work he has  I think I would still be there at 6pm tonight. I'm hoping he get so distracted I can get on and he won't notice. The best laid plans and all that. I have to admit though it's nice that he wants to help and will keep an eye on the washing and tumble dryer if I'm busy, so at least I know I've trained him well.

This card is for my hubby Tim, who also happens to be my best friend next to my son and mum, 3 best friends aren't I lucky. I decided to use the LOTV winter bunnies stamp again as I do love it and more white on white as I found hidden amongst some other papers some pearlised white. I did lots of dry embossing both on the base card and the pearl paper and finished with some ribbon, white and red to tie in with my colouring of monotone with a splash of red. I love all the different shades of grey in my promarkers, and thought it would make hubby's card a little more unusual than traditional colours, hope he likes it. Of course there had to be some sparkle so stickles and sakura stardust glaze pen for that.

Sorry about the picture but I took this yesturday and had to have the lights on as we were having a snow downfall at the time and it really makes the photos look grainy. I tried no flash, soft flash, auto flash micro mode and auto focus in various combinations and messed with the picture in photo editing and this is the best I could come up with. If we have any fine brightish weather today I'll try again, time and son and memory permitting of course.

I would like to enter my bunnies into the following challenges:-

Crafty Purple frog-christmas

CRAFT-black, white and a splash of colour

Moving along with the times-let it snow

LOTV-layout

The craftypad-embossing

Creative inspirations challenges-anything goes christmas

Incy wincy-non traditional christmas colours

Critter sketch challenge- no patterned papers

Stamping with the dragon-make it sparkle

Stamp with fun-christmas

Pollycraft-white on white

Pear tree designs-christmas


Enjoy the rest of your day and hope it goes to plan, thanks for dropping by and happy holidays to those I don't get chance to pop by to see myself.

where does time go

I just seem to be busy doing nothing, and getting no where fast, so appologies for my absence though I know you will all understand. I thought I'd show you what I was messing making at the weekend, some were for a gift and have now gone to their new home and were enjoyed as they weren't a christmas gift and the rest the 2 men imn my life have had a fair old dent made in them.

I was amazed at how many gingerbread cookies I got from one lot of dough 102 in total, and I livened  them up using my edible art glitter to decorate them for added christmas sparkle, it doesn't need much and everyone was twinkling by the time I had done.

I also made 2 kinds of biscotti  chocolate fudge brownies and some peanut butter cookies which are truely delicious for got to take piccies of them though and now most have been eaten. My son also made some lemon curd so our kitchen was a tad busy over the weekend.

I would like to enter my cookies into Meljens challenge-candy or cookies

(quite literally)

A new website and chance of candy too

I just found this on Debbi's blog, Letraset have a new website and a blog, how fab is that. In celebration you have the chance to win 10 packs of 5 promarkers thats 50 promarkers , wouldn't that be fab, pop over and see how you join in.

A tall order from my son and a very long post!

My son loves and does appreciate my cards but sometimes I think he thinks I can work miracles. He asked for a few christmas cards for his 5 special friends that he has lunch with most days, when he gave them out, those that were around all thought it was unfair as they all wanted special cute cards too, so he came home with a request for another 6, the punch line, for tomorrow morning mum, I promised. I must be mad, but in between juggling getting dinner ready and up at 5:30 am to get them finished I did it. He took them to school and I guess they were a hit as he said his friends liked them and now those that hang around but aren't quite friends are requesting them,not sure they'll get them though.

My son wanted 4 more girl cards and 2 boys, similar to before, the proviso I gave, please NOT pink! He agreed and this is what I came up with. Now all the cards have gone and I've got time to post them , it will be intresting to see if they fit any challenges, I do hope so.

First for the boys I decided to keep it simple and use up some more of my triangle cards as I'm not sure what else to use them for. These manga images from Sugar Nellie seem to fit really well so that was my reasoning.

Santa first, coloured in Sakuras with Promarker for his skin. My son did cringe a bit when I said I was just waiting for the glitter to dry, I asked why it wasn't ok for a boy to have glitter on his card. I was told the recipient he had in mind thought of himself as 'hard' so it might not go down too well. I was forgiven when I said it was only a bit on Santa's fur, and the card met with approval when my son saw it,and from the sound of it the recipient too.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenge:-

The Alphabet challenge-G is for Glitter

This is another manga from Sugar Nellie not sure if he's a pixie or anelf, have to say I'm not sure what the difference is, does anyone know, if so please tell. Again I coloured with Sakuras and Promarkers for the skin tones.I decided to keep the boys cards traditional colours as that's what my son asked for on the first lotof cards, for the boys anyway.

I would like to enter this card into the Meljen challenge for red,green and gold.



Now the girls and not alot of pink in sight. I do use pink and am not totally opposed to it, but all pink cards I struggle with that's all. Perhaps I'll have to take lessons off my teamie at creative craft challenges as she really is a pink girly.

Anyway the first one my son wanted to have purple hair as apparently one of the girls does have purple hair, I think he might well be fascinated by it. Oops I might get into bother for that as he took some cards in with my blog address on and told them they could see their cards on the internet here on my blog, sorry Andrew! Mum strikes again at potentially embarrassing son, not exactly breaking news though lol.

I again used a Sugar Nellie manga, the fairy this time and I think she looks fab with purple, well liliac hair. I decided to give her blue shades of clothing,which was lucky as now they have all gone on their merry way I have found a challenge that uses my colour scheme.
I would like to enter this card into the Playdate cafe colour challenge. The layout is for the challenge at Truely Scrumptious.Over at Papertake weekly their challenge is to use no red or green so that's another this card can be entered for.Prairie fairy have a use a star chalenge and I have quite a few stars on this card.

This next card I love, have to say am loving the white on white, I'd never done one before the Sugar Nellie WOW Sassy girl competition and now I am well and truely hooked and will definitely be on the look out for more white DP's.

This again is a Sugar Nellie image from the Gorjuss girl range, and I thought quite fitting as a christmas image, just love the teddy angel too. I thought the red would stand out perfectly against the white and I'm not really found of red and yellow together but I do like this card. For those wondering just what colours I do like, well blues and purle shades and some greens are my comfort zone really and love black and white , red goes ok with them too.

I tried the ribbon ripple on my last Sassy entry for the WOW competition and was amazed at how easy but effective it was, so expect to see more of this from me. Love easy things that give a different look.

This card I will be entering into these challenges:-

The Pixie cottage-sketch and or sparkle and shine

Crafty creations-use a bear

Passion for Promarkers-anything goes

This next card is again coloured mostly with Sakuras apart from the skin, mainly as it was a rak and it's on glossy card. I find that Promarkers leave lines as they dry uneven on glossy card, though sometimes this is quite effective, not this time. The snowflakes are rub ons from some candy I won last Christmas as is the sentiment. I thought the blues fitted with the sentiment and the red ribbon just warms it up a little bit.

This card I am entering into these challenges:-

Stamp it crazy-snowflakes and snowconeswith colour theme( think I might just make the deadline but if not hey ho)

sketch and stash-layout

Crafts and me-moody blues

Pixie dust studios- let it snow and no traditional colours(forgive my ribbon?)

Totally gorjuss-snow

My last card was also a rak image,and I love this and thought it so appropriate with the weather and low temperatures we have been having. I always thought teenagers didn't feel the cold especially when you see them out around town in scanty clothing even though it's freezing, but when my son is on facebook before school whilst waiting for his taxi it appears not, as nearly all his friends from school moan about having to get up early, which my son thinks is funny as most are on facebook till gone midnight and he thinks they should go to sleep earlier, and secondly the cold, never have I read so many moans. Oops sorry again Andrew , hope your friends don't read that either.

This one I coloured with Promarkers and took the colours from the freebie paper I used as backing paper with some of my comfort colour Blue! I added some sparkly bits which were also a freebie from a magazine last year.

This one I'd like to enter into these challenges:-

Secret crafter saturday challenge- arctic blue, carnation pink and lime zest

For fun challenges-layout

Just magnolia-make a christmas card

Quirky crafts-around the world, well I think this wee Tilda definitely looks Scandanavian

Magnolia-licious-colour challenge


Well there are my marathon of tall order cards, and thank heavens I had some sketch layouts to work from and that by miracles there were some challenges I could enter.

If you are still with me thankyou and well done too. Here's wishing you all a fab weekend and hope you get some time to do the things you want to do and not just those you have to, right now I'm off to work out a shopping list so hubby can go do the shopping. Have fun  and thanks for visiting.

Squeezing in a last try for a special prize

Oh I so hoped I'd manage to make a WOW card with each of the first set of Sassy girls, but the best laid plans were scuppered by my son who came home last night and said there had been up roar amonst his friends as he had only given 4 of them, his closest friends special cards and now they all wanted them. It's nice to know that they are appreciated but then he said he had promised them for today, so my planned crafting went by the wayside and I did remember to take piccies as I finished the last one this morning at 7am. Unfortunately that means I onlty have had time for one more entry to win the fab prize on offer from Karen at Sugar Nellie, a spellbinder grand caliber and a from the number of entries a very coverted place on the new Sassy girls design team, money can't buy that.


Due to time being short and trying to post this before my potatoes for dinner boil over, here is my card. I would like to wish everyone good luck although as there are some fab entries I'm not holding my breath at being sucessful at getting into the next round , let alone winning , but I am trying to keep everything crossed and that does make cooking dinner a tad difficult, I've already managed to burn my fingers .

Without further ado, here's my card. This one in the 'P' O' Princess' image from Krista's drawing, I think that name has so got stuck in my head I can't remember the sugar nellie name, which isn't good now is it, but I made this for my sisters birthday and the original name just fits her better, I haven't yet added a sentiment as I'm hoping to come up with something witty about chocolate, which is dear to her heart.Any suggestions gereatfully recieved.

I coloured her with promarkers , added moonglow magic moon beams embossing powder for highlighting the layers edges , a flower and pearls to finish.

I would like to enter this into the folowing challenges:-

Sugar nellie-sassy WOW
Friday sketches-layout
Creative inspirations-white on white
Passion for promarkers-anything goes