Christmas Day

I cant believe thats Christmas Day over with we all had a family gathering at my aunt & uncles in the country - having a chill out day today with tidying up, putting away presents and i did have a bit of time to watch a new DVD and work on a few creations for Sheena!

Hope Santa was good to everyone - did you get crafty goodies ???

i sure did.

Here's a few pics from Christmas Day.

Me and Jim

Me and my sister Angela

The outside of the house.

The dinner table just before the bun fight began !

My new slippers !

Christmas Eve

WOW its christmas eve already - where has this year gone - i can still remember my birthday in July like it was just last week. must be the sign of getting old !! lol

This week in addition to finishing Christmas preparations i have been a busy beaver - completed my tax return, got a job (yawn yawn), played with my cricut expression, made some new cards with Sam Poole's "create a room" range and yesterday was playing around with images from Sheena Douglass's new range which will be launching on c&c in January - more on that to follow over the next couple of weeks. so watch this space for sneeky peeks.

So id like to share some of the "create a room" range that ive done - now you've got to realise my style at times is a little Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen (surreal) although i dont actually live like it - its just all in my head !

This one is gorg, a nice tranquil room and i would love furniture like this.

All images coloured in copic markers, papers from an Anna Griffin range and card stock from papermania.

Now the LLB starts to come out - this is SO ME - all in PINK - have to admit though it would give me a sore head if i had to live in it but it would be fun.

Again coloured in copic markers and papers from a HOTP range.

This is the WOW one that is so LLB ! Again another sore head would be had but i just love the fact of mixing such bold colours with the animal print. Imagine having a red staircase that would be so fab.

Coloured again in copics and papers from HOTP.

Sam - if you are viewing these - id be interested in your thoughts.

More room cards to come when i get time to be creative again and more stamps from Sam's range to follow in the new year too - wonder what it might be - im hoping for a bedroom range.

Its Cricut time !

Yesterday i took delivery of my nice new cricut machine. however tinkerbell and other carts were not in with the package but guaranteed for xmas delivery.

I unpacked it last night and today i get to play - yeah! Ive cleared the decks so there is plenty space and will watch the dvd first.

really excited about getting stuck into it.

Bummer though that the other carts arent here yet but at least i have the bundle ones to play with to start with. If i make anything exciting i will post it later on.

Now question for you - do you know where in the UK to get cheap carts? what ive been looking at are around £40-60 on some sites (obviously except c&c) but im a bargain hunter and always on the look out for cheap deals. If you know somewhere please leave me a comment. ta

Got a few hours to play as then braving the road conditions to head out to our new iceland shop and see what offers they have - then meeting 2 friends for xmas meal and pressie swapping - looking forward to it.

Hope everyone has a good day whatever they get up to - stay warm and safe.

Toodles for now

Tonight its time for ....

JUST US GIRLS - JUGS CHALLENGE #64

Here is my entry for the last challenge of the year for JUGS - Just us Girls - challenge #64.
The spec for this challenge was to use light blue, green and white colours in your design.

I was excited to use my new tinkerbell stamps so this just went so well with this challenge.

Hope you like her.

Tink herself is coloured using copic markers and her wings sparkled with glitter

The card blank is from craftwork cards

Backing papers are from a DCVW spring stack

The flowers and leaves are from wild orchid crafts and they have been edged in sparkly glitter

The sentiment is from a mixed set from lili of the valley

The buttons are papermania.

Whiff of Joy - challenge #94 Kim's sketch

Today i have created this lovely stamped card of a little girl all wrapped up in her womble styley coat bearing a huge box chocolates for her loved one. This is for the Whiff Of Joy - challenge #94 - Kim's Sketch.

The image was coloured in copics and the box of chocolates have been glittered to make them sparkle and stand out but unfortunately this doesnt show up too well in the photos.

The background paper is from a collection from crafters companion, silver mirror board, craftwork cards shaped card stock, pinflair bendy peel offs and border corners coloured to match the red from the image and wild orchid flower embellishments.

Now then off now to work on some other challenge projects.

The snow is still chucking it down here today so i wish i had a nice warm womble jacket like the girl in the stamp and i wouldnt say no to the chocolates either - i can wish cant i !!

A Little Bit of Christmas

Today i have created a lovely christmassy angel image for a few blog challenges.

How i created her is :-

Lili of the Valley angel stamp coloured in copic markers and the background was coloured in distress inks using cut and dry foam.

The stained glass glittery background is a piece of card covered in ripped up masking tape at all odd angels to give a cracked crazing pathing look. This was then inked with distress inks, sprayed with stick and stay and covered in ultra thick embossing powder with gold glitter and heat embossed. This was then covered with a very thin accetate sheet.

Wow the relfection in the mirror board is excellent as you can see the name of my lumix camera reflecting in it as im taking the photo !

The Angel was mounted on mirror board and then layered onto the glittery background which in turn was again on mirror board.

The extra strips that were cut off when matting and layering was used to create the strips across the card.

The poinsettia and leaves were attached with pinflair and the sentiment typed and using a round punch cut out and matted on mirror board which in turn was punched out and attached to the flower to look like the centre of the poinsettia.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-

Lili Of the valley - challenge 77

Just us girls challenge - JUGS #63 technique challenge sparkly stained glass

For Fun challenges - christmas

A Gem of a challenge - challenge 11 (sketch with optional distressing)

WOYWW - Whats on your workbench wednesday 80

Ok then !whats on my workbench! - mmm dont know if i wanna share whats on mine as i am such a neat and tidy person that im rather ashamed to admit my whole craft room is in a total and utter mess - cut a long story short - i have no space left !

I moved various projects down to the living room to work on in august and basically im still there !

What im working on at the moment is Debbi Moore venetian party projects for a family get together in between christmas and new year - so im creating the invitations, place settings, little boxes for putting chocolates in - like favour boxes and of course the masks for everyone to wear.

What you can see in the forefront is the mask and fan that i have just finished for myself to wear and the others are all works in progress in various stages of having things stuck on them with my trusty clothes pegs to hold the pinflair in place. Feathers, bling and glitter everywhere but then it wouldnt be me without a glittery flittery mess - i think i was a fairy in another life !

ok then i have taken pics from the craft room .....

i will share but you have to be sitting comfortably as those that know me will be shocked to see the place looking as messy as it is.

This is my main working area but as you can see it has major boxes on it as thats the stuff i had downstairs with me and had no time to put them all away so they will sit there till im finished christmas stuff then they will get put away - dont know where though ! i keep hoping the fairies will come in and magically tidy up overnight - but this hasnt happened as yet.

This is the left of my area - again as you can see it is cluttered too.

Lastly this is the view from the right of the desk - my stash has encroached onto the bed settee and you can only just make out the poor fish as their tank area is getting taken over too !

I have designed a new layout for my craft room to incorporate another bench and the sets of bench drawers which are over the other side of the room with the laptop station where i keep all my papers and crafting cds - that side of the room is just as messy !

It will take ages to get it all emptied, moved and then filled up again so i have a helper, my friend Lisa who actually volunteered (bless) to help me out ! Roll on the new year when we can get cracking on the new craft studio look - then when i post pics no one will recognise it !!

Create and Craft TV shows saturday 11th December

Just a wee note to tell you all about 2 great shows that will be on create and craft tv tomorrow saturday 11th december

Sam Poole will be doing her first solo tv show at 11am with her new create a room stamp range - check out Sam's page to know what its all about.

http://www.creative-studios.co.uk/

Following straight after at noon will be the one and only Sheena Douglass with Artistic Stamping showing her A little bit sketchy range. She will also be on at 7am - early start for her too !

Check out my blog links to the RHS for Sheenas Blog, Artful Dodger Blog and Twisted witch blog (my fellow design team members) and of course my previous blog posts to show the samples that we all made for the launch of the range.

Looking forward to both shows - will get the DVD on, feet-up, coffee and biscuits, laptop at the ready and will have to put my Loopi Loom down for the 2 hour duration !

Hope you manage to catch the shows.

Prairie Fairy Blog Candy

Prairie Fairy has moved back to blogger and is offering up some fabby blog candy.

Check out http://prairiefairy.blogspot.com/ to be in for a chance of winning.

My First Blog award !

Good morning all.

Last night i received my first blog award.

It was given to me by my dear husband - aw chucks !!

The conditions of this award is that i share 5 facts about myself and also pass this award onto 3 other deserving blogging peeps.

So here goes -

5 facts

1 - i survived turning 40 earlier this year

2 - i have 11 holes in my ears (for earrings that is)!!

3 - i love all things PINK - then again thats nowt new to those who know me !

4 - im daft on all things penguin, dolphin, fairy and leopard print

5 - i just received my first blog award - yeah!! hopefully first of many.

The 3 deserving peeps who are receiving this award from me are : -

1 - Shazza

2 - Vicky

3 - Beckie

Congrats ladies - i will forward on your award once i suss out all email addresses. x

For Fun Challenges - blog challenge

I am entering this lovely image of an Arabian princess for the "For Fun blog Challenge" this week.

Both the princess and the palace have been coloured using copics and then glittered to give them christmassy accents.

Hope you like it

Pop on over to the For Fun Challenges blog using this link to check out what its all about.

House Mouse "oh charming christmas tree #84" blog challenge

Here is my entry for the House Mouse " oh charming christmas tree" #84 blog challenge

I have created a stepper easel card and the images have been coloured using copics.

The budgie's breast and the red on the santa hat have been flocked and i broke up a set of small christmas light embellishments to decorate the tree with. The other single stamped images of the wee mousey head with reel of ribbon, wee mousey and candy sweet and candy cane have also been coloured in copics but covered in glossy accents to make them stand out.

Flexi bend peels offs from pinflair, poinsettia embellishements, papers and ribbons are from my stash.

Hope you like it