Scrummy Stash Challenge

I haven't got very much in the way of paper crafting to show you at the moment - things have been slightly chaotic around here, what with little Miss A deciding to start her Terrible Twos six months early........nuff said! I have been busy with the knitting needles and crochet hook though - front, back and first sleeve of a little wrap-around cardie for the little 'un and halfway through a ripple-effect crochet blanket for a friend's baby due in November. Pictures will follow when the projects are finished - promise!


I was quite taken by this week's Scrummy Stash Cafe challenge - but didn't feel quite up to a whole layout. So, thanks to a new arrival of Hanglar images last week, and wanting to try more of the watercolouring with markers technique, I managed to whip up this little cutie this evening - I just love the colour-wash effect you get with this technique! And don't you just love her timberland-style boots?

Cardstock: Artoz
PP: HOTP
Lace from the lovely Paige, die-cut snowflake covered in Ice Blue stickles; Kaiser / Papermania gems; peel-off snowflakes and sentiment written with White Sakura Souffle pen.

Birthday madness (and blog candy winners)!!!

Happy birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to meeeeeeeeee! Morning all! Can you tell I'm in a good mood? I'm actually feeling surprisingly chipper, despite being one year closer to the big 4-0 and being woken up at silly o'clock by little Miss A!

So, what goodies did I get, I hear you ask? My funky sister bought me a nest of clear acrylic tables (I've been ooohing and aaahing over hers for months!) and this hilarious card:

















My darling Mr A has given me a mini sewing machine - it's very compact (weighs 2.6kg and measures 30 cm wide) but according to the ladies in John Lewis, is a very useful first machine. I AM intending to use it for hemming trousers and other 'proper' sewing stuff, but you also know full well that there will be some stitching appearing on my cards in the near future :-)

And last, but definitely not least, I got this FABULOUS patchwork wall hanging from my parents - handmade by my amazing Mum. Now, I thought the quilt she made for our wedding was pretty awesome, but this one just blows me away. I love the colours and the effect of all the red fabrics making up the zig-zag - can't wait to get it hung on the wall in our bedroom. Thank you Mummy!!!




















Oh, and before I forget, here are the winners of my blog candy:

Winner of the 1st prize is:















Winner of the 2nd prize is:



Congratulations! Could you please email me your addresses and I will get the goodies off to you asap!

Specially for Grandma!

Grandma mentioned that there weren't any recent photos of her granddaughter on here the other day - so here, just for you Mum, are the latest!

Little Miss A has recently developed a taste for tea!!! Daddy lets her have a little in one of our Tintin cups (I must remember to buy a plastic one!) and she's doing really well - almost no mess!

Also, do you like the stripey tights? So cute!

Here she is showing her 'je suis un rockstar' look........ She's actually keeping them on for more than a minute now......!

And no, she hadn't had her hair brushed at this point....

And last but not least, here she is showing her 'serious student' pose - Grandad would approve I'm sure!

Oh, and before I forget, yesterday's new word was 'duck' (i.e. the little knitted duck she got when she was born). The little white teddy is still going everywhere with her - she took him for a walk in the park yesterday.........

Those nasty molars are almost through now - thank goodness! It's been hell watching her go through so much pain........ Just hoping the next lot will be less stressful for all involved.

Celebrating milestones

Evening all! Have had a fantastically creative day today - managed three LOs and three cards - I think that's beaten my previous record! It feels great!

Here are the three cards, all of which were commissioned by a colleague who has various friends /members of her family celebrating major birthdays in the coming months.























Can you tell they're all for women? :-)

Sugar and Spice

My creative world has centred around little girls this weekend - what better excuse for lots of pink and sparkle?

Spotlight on a card made for the daughter of of one my sister's school friends, born last Wednesday. For this, I used K&Co Brianna papers, Primas, Kaiser gems and pearls, and Letraset rub-ons for the 'title'



















Having re-discovered the various packs of freebie papers when I was making my little colour book, I thought I'd see what else I could use them for! So, here for your delectation, are this weekend's efforts, featuring little Miss Hanglar, Penny Black hedgehogs and my latest Little Cotton Rabbits!








Thanks for looking, as always - and don't forget you have just one week left to sign up for the blog candy (see further down)!

Scrap Your Day - x three!

Wasn't feeling very inspired from a creative point of view today, but needed something to keep my mind off other things, so I sat down and finally managed to finish the last three months of my Scrap Your Day book. It's funny, I was starting to lose enthusiasm for this project, but looking back over the photos made me smile and brought home just how much little Miss A is changing, even month on month. So, if it only serves as a record of these changes, then it works for me!

Here is June (this was a day that really had nothing special about it, but maybe that's the point?)


Here is July: a bit of a cheat this, as we were actually travelling on the 25th, so I've done a spread of photos from the week's holiday - gosh, I wish I was back there!). I've added coloured words to some of the pictures and enjoyed doing the mix of colour and b&w shots (gotta love Photoshop!)



And lastly, here is August: typical Bank Holiday weather, but we did manage a nice walk along the River Lea (and I had fun with all the little square photos!)

2nd Weekend update

Just realised that I forgot to include piccys of my latest LOs in the last post - I would seriously leave my head on the bus if it wasn't screwed on!

Both LOs were done for challenges on the Scrummy Stash Cafe blog:



This one was for Rachael's lovely class last week - I used Acrylic paint on sequin mesh; lots of Stickles and gems, MME & Bo Bunny papers (plus journalling spot turned into tag); Bo Bunny and Fancy Pants chipboard, Arctic Frog rub-ons and stickers, Carolee's mini alpha stickers. The little pink flower is actually one of a pair of earrings that I bought solely with the purpose of scrapping.......!

This one is for this week's challenge to do a multilingual LO (the title means Hand in Hand):



Bazzill cardstock (all scallops hand-drawn and cut), lots of Prima flowers layered up (and Stickled!) and Sizzix die-cut letters and MM rub-ons for the title, plus some buttons from my stash.

Sunshine on a rainy day......

So what do you do when you have a couple of hours free on a Sunday and it's raining so hard, there's no way you're going to venture out of the house? Well, in my case, you make a little colour swatch book!





I actually started this project a few months ago but only got as far as cutting out the card....so today I sat down and actually finished it! The aim of this book is to help me keep track of the various colours of marker pens, watercolour pencils, ink pads and paints that I have - I'm hoping that it will also help me match colours to other projects.







There is a section for the watercolour pencils, another for the markers (mainly Tombow but there are also some Sakura and other gel pens), and lastly one for the ink pads (Versacolor and Colorbox chalk) and paints. For the backing papers I limited myself to one set of freebie Rusty Pickle papers that were given away some time ago in Scrapbook Magazine (plus one sheet of Doodlebug for the front cover). I used Pink Paislee and Arctic Frog letter stickers for the titles (the 'book' word on the front comes from a Boden catalogue!). Final touch was a bunch of organza and thin satin ribbons in matching colours. Oh, and I had FAR too much fun with all my Stickles!!! :-)








In other news, I am VERY chuffed to report that my local organic shop has taken a batch of my cards to sell on a return-or-sell trial basis - fingers crossed for the next month! Also, the editor of my company's in-house magazine has very kindly put an ad for my little online card shop into the latest issue - the magazine goes to all employees in the group, so over 2,000 people! WOW! I was so amazed and pleased, I can't tell you!