I meant to blog yesterday about my wedding fayre on Sunday but I got so enthralled in my work (!) I forgot all about it. Then I thought I would do it yesterday evening.....................again I got so wrapped up in making cards, by the time I realised I hadn't blogged it was 11.35 pm so I went to bed.

The wedding fayre was successful. I sold some jewellery and a couple of tiaras then yesterday I had a phone call from a lady whose favours I made last month saying she needed some more. I have an appointment tonight to discuss a stationery order with a B2b and I took a booking for a jewellery party next month............so all in all I'm a very happy bunny :))

I had a double table and as you can see on the table above I have quite a collection of tiaras and fascinators. The picture below shows my whole set up (with hubby's disco gear behind it!)

I managed to get the card made for the DCM challenge again. I think that is 3 in a row now!! The challenge this time was set by Tracie and this is what she said

For this weeks dare, I dare you to "start from scratch" I want to you design a card with NO purchased/pre-assembled embellishments - that means no blooms unless you cut them yourself, no buttons, brads etc etc. I guess how easy this is depends on your usual style

And here is my card. The flower is made from some freebie ribbons I got on the front of a magazine a while ago. It looks much nicer in real life because the scanner has flattened the flower!

I am really pleased with this next card. I think it is what is commonly known as simple but effective. The stamp is from The Stamp Boutique on ebay.

My final card for now features a cutie stamp which I had sent to me by a dear friend who was closing her online craft shop. The 'picture frame' is cut from the new wedding scrap pad by K & Co and the paw prints are another stamp from the Stamp Boutique.

Work beckons. I may be back later. bfn

Oh my

More for the challenge on Carolyn's forum. I have (almost) done the front and back covers of my journal and I've done my intro pages.

I made a necklace, which had to have some pink in it, for Challenge 4

The next 3 cards were for Challenge 6. The theme was obviously Romance. One had to contain the word LOVE, one the word CHERISH and the third could be anything.

The final card in tonights offering is for Challenge 7-a card with no greeting. This is one of my favourite images by the lovely Joanna Sheen I have used it for birthday, engagement and wedding.

I don't think I am going to get many more challenges done but if I do I shall post pictures here. I am now going to go and try to add the images to Carolyn's gallery...........easier said than done!!

CbC Challenge

These are my entries so far for the week long challenge over at the Crafts by Carolyn forum The cards with buckles below were for Callenge 1. I have made my mini book for Challenge 2 but I am waiting for it to dry so I can scan it.

The next cards are for Challenge 3. The third men's card is in the post below.

I've made the necklace for Challenge 4 but need to put the clasp on.

I have done the DLO and made 3 romance cards. I will upload the tomorrow evening as I must go to bed now, I have a wedding fayre tomorrow.

BFN

Challenge cards

Just a quick word to let show the cards I made last night. I needed these for family birthdays and anniversaries coming up over the next week!

This card is made using Blonde Moments Sugar Dumpling paper which is just gorgeous. The flowers are Primas from Craft Obsessions and the buckle is cut with a Quickutz die.

The papers on this card are from the LilyKate 6 x 6 pad by Basic Grey and the new Designer Mat Pad from K & Co. The new K & Co pads are just beautiful. I bought the boy, girl and wedding mat pads and a sparkly 12 x 12 pad from Craft Obsessions The service is brilliant, I ordered on Wednesday and my goodies arrived yesterday.

Blonde Moment Sugar Dumpling paper again along with QK, Ellison thin cuts and Bosscuts die cuts. The heart buckle is threaded with hot pink satin ribbon over pale pink organza ribbon. I definitely seem to have a pink thing going on at the moment which is strange because I'm not usually a pink person. My favourite colour is yellow!

The final card is made using the designer pads and Prima flowers again. The greeting is printed on the PC and the stamp is one of the Flourish 2 stamps by Rhonna Farrer. It is also my DCM for last Tuesday. I will have a go at yesterdays dare tonight.

I really must go and sort my tiaras for my wedding fayre tomorrow. I think I must have one of the best jobs in the world. I get to play with lots of lovely beads, paper, jewellery and tiaras all day. Most little girls like playing weddings. I never dreamt I would be still doing it when I was a big girl. LOL

Good morning

and what a beautiful one it is too. The sun is shining and it is quite warm but windy. Let's hope it stays like this for a while now. I am sick of hearing the rain banging on the conservatory roof!! There can't be much left up there! I wonder if this means we won't have a water shortage this summer. I very much doubt it :)


The exploding box was a big success and I now have to make a special card for the same baby's Christening bbut this time from Great Auntie. I have also just received an order by text message (never had one by text before) for another exploding box but in blue. That one is needed asap too!


I only made one card yesterday and that was a rush birthday card ordered by a friend at lunch time and delivered at 2 pm! I used a pink haze card from PDA It's the first time I have used this particular card and I think it is really pretty. The papers are form Papermania and Making Memories. The flower is a mix of blooms from Dunelm, Sarah's Cards and a RAK I received from someone on Carolyn's forum

Sorry about the wonky scan :) I'm off now to see if it fits the latest challenge set by Jo on Bex's forum. The challenge is to use a pink base card, plus black, white and cream. Does this fit the bill? I will let you know.

I am off now to make the other 'special' card. I may be back later.

Special card

Here is the 'card' I made this afternoon. The order was from a very good friend and the brief was, "Can you please make me a special card for Maisie's Christening?" Maisie is Sue's granddaughter. Now I know it's technically not a card, it's an Exploding Box but I think they fit the bill as special cards and I love making them. It's made from pale pink hammered card. The papers are from the new Papermania mini album kits, Making Memories 6 x 6 pads and DCWV mat stack. Other bits are bobs are from various places and the pink gingham ribbon is from Crafts by Carolyn

Rain rain go away

Just how much water can one sky hold? It seems to have rained for ages now. The only upside is the grass is looking lovely and the hostas are flourishing. My poor peony is looking decidely droopy though!

Have you noticed how posh the blog is looking now with all the links etc. The lovely Rachel (Turtle) has taken great pity on my ineptitude and added all the twiddly bits for me. Hasn't she done a fab job?

I thought I would show you a couple of bits from a recent wedding order I did. Whatever happened to hearts and flowers!

Apparently the bridesmaids are 'Goths' and the B2B could find anything suitable. The joy of hand crafted cards etc strikes again. The images on both gift bags are decoupaged Rock Hard Fairies obtained from SSUP

I do have another order, which I did today, to show but it might have to wait till tomorrow cos hubby has to upload the photos from the camera for me as I don't have the software on my lap top. He is ironing and watching an old rugby match at the moment so I don't like to disturb him :)

TTFN

Todays offering

Firstly I would like to say a huge thank you to all the lovely people who have made comments on my blog. It's very kind of you and very much appreciated.

It has been a funny old day today. The rain has hardly stopped all day and we have had people in and out. Mum and dad came first. They went and eldest daughter appeared with her friend's little boy. Hubby has been in and our all day too so I am really glad to be able to settle this evening. Everyone is now in their rightful place and the doors are locked.


This is what I have been doing on and off from 8 o'clock this morning. No challenges, just work! I put together 110 of these dragonflies for a stationery order I am doing at the mo. A very dear friend of mine designed them and holds the copyright on them but we have them exclusively for the use on our wedding stationery.

I have approximately 200 more to put together for the rest of the order! I also have two wedding fayre to do this month and need to sort myself out for those so I shall go and do a bit more work before I call it quits for tonight.

Who' s a clever girl then?

Just look at this...............a load of cards and two blogs in two days. When I have the time and the know how, I will add links to my favourite sites, people etc. Until then, I can cope with adding piccies...........talking of which, here are todays efforts, all ordered!!

First of all I made this card for hubby, he is dj'ing tonight and always gives the hosts of the 'do' a card. Tonight he has.....................a wedding and a works do (we don't do cards for those though) I love this stamp, it is one of many I have bought over the last year from Stamp Boutique on ebay.

This next card is for a Civil Partnership that he has booked next weekend (I am ahead of myself) This card is made using a Magenta stamp and Suet Dumpling paper.

The stamp on this card is by Anna Griffin and has got to be one of my favourites. It is very versatile and I do use it quite a bit. The papers are (I think) Sugar Dumpling. This is also my first attempt at the Daring Cardmaker's Friday challenge.

I made another 3 cards also but 2 are for forum birthdays and the other isn't quite finished so will have to show them later.

At this rate I will be back tomorrow. You have been warned. :)

I have been trying to edit this damn thing for almost 2 hours now. It took me all of 20 mins to write and add pics so I will apologise now for the state of it and if anyone can offer any fool proof advice, please do! The pictures keep jumping all over the place.

Part 2

Don't faint..................I've just finished the card I made for another challenge on the Just Bex forum and here it is, ta da

Paper is No Clue Whatsoever by Gin-X and dress is stamped onto paper from the Lily Kate 6x6 pad from Basic Grey. Stamps are flourish by Rhonna Farrer finished with small vintage Prima flowers and diamantes. Haute Couture and Lady stamp are from Rubadubadoo.

Oh dear

I am so sorry to those (if anyone!) who have kept coming back to my poor old unloved and uncared for blog. I just knew I wouldn't be able to keep this up. So much has happened since I last blogged.

My poor lovely kitten died, bless her. This happened on 8th March which was just 2 days before my birthday. Hubby took me to Worcester for the weekend which was just lovely but overshadowed by losing my poor Smudge. We tried to get another kitty straight away but weren't having much luck when my friend Jo rang and suggested we try contacting the local radio station. DH sent them an email and the absolutely fab Nick Hancock aired our request an rang me after 10 minutes to say that someone had been in touch and would love to help us. We then became 'parents' to these 2 little darlings. We now have Squirt (for obvious reasons) and Tigger, so named because she doesn't she bounces lol

I received loads of lovely birthday cards from a birthday group on the CBC forum. I may get time sometime soon to upload pictures of them all as the are save onto my laptop.

I got my first CJ back too and it is just fab. I also have pics of that to upload (don't hold your breath lol). I am now in another CJ group and enjoying it loads.

My garden is just lovely at the moment. I counted 17 flowers on my peony last night.

The fabulous Bex has started a forum all of her very own. Just Bex has been up and running for just 2 weeks and already has loads to tempt us. Here is a card I made for Sue's first template challenge.

The stamp is one of the new Papernation stamps from SSUP which has been stamped onto cream card, coloured with Sakura Gelly Roll pens. The squares of card and paper have been edged with a pink ink pad. The paper is Doodlebug, the flourish is from the Flourish v2 clear stamps by Rhonna Farrer and the greeting is from Craftwork Cards. I have also made a card for another challenge on the forum but can't show that one yet ;)

Well, I had better get back to my stationery order. I am far busier this year than I have ever been before. I also have some brilliant news to divulge but can't do so until later in the year so you will just have to watch this space.

Take care till the next time.

What's new...............

..............not a lot really. The kids are off school this week for half term and I have been helping DD sort her bedroom out. We finished decorating it at the weekend and it is now all lovely and pink. I didn't realise she had so much junk! She has decided that she doesn't want any chest of drawers and wants to go for the minimalist look. She has a built in cupboard in her room and want to store all her clothes, underwear etc in baskets in said cupboard.............not a happy bunny when I said she had to keep the drawers. The clothes end up all over the floor anyway so I didn't see the sense in forking out for more storage that won't get used ;)) Aren't I a rotten mum!

I've done two challenges on Carolyn's forum this week. The fist was to make a vintage card using rubber stamps. I have never done this before but was quite pleased with the result. I even made my own background. I coloured a piece of cream card with walnut ink dabbed and smeared with cotton wool and stamped a few 'travel' words randomly. The torn paper is a magazine cutting from the late 180's. It was in a lovely ephemera pack I bought last year and it's the first time I dared use anything from it. The bicycle and globe are unmounted stamps from a set of Clear Choice stamps bought from Trago Mills in Falmouth the year before last. They were £8.99 but BOGOF so I got a butterfly set too. I had forgotten I had them. I actually think my mum paid for them so they were totally free. :)


My next challenge wasn't really a challenge but a double dare by the lovely Sue W on the CBC . I said that because the challenge entries were so stunning I wouldn't dare enter as I'm not a scrapbooker. I have been scrapbooking our wedding photos for two and a half years now and have done three pages! Anyway, she double dared me to enter so I did and this is the end product. The instructions were to use one word different from the others-Me. Three different hearts and a bit of doodling which is the & sign and in the heart.

I thought I would add a bit of a quirk to it (see I'm getting clever now) DH is a part time DJ and always says that one of his heroes is Disco Stu from the Simpsons so I thought I would turn it round and have him as Disco Stu's hero instead of just being mine all the time. The title is my second effort on the Craft Robo. I can't show my fist as it was for one of the CJs I'm taking part in. In the photo hubby was actually messing with his amp or speakers or something and has a screwdriver in his hand. I was going to entitle the LO 'Can He Fix It.........Yes He Can!' but realised after I had printed the photo that I had cropped his screwdriver out of it. Oh well, I can save that for another time.

Enough for now, I really must get some work done. I have two birthday cards to make for my son in law's birthday on Saturday and I can finally start the invitations for my parents renewal of vows/golden wedding bash.

Back soon :)

Three times a week

Gosh, this is the third time this week that I have written something here.

It is a lovely sunny day today but it's blooming cold. I'm just hoping that we don't get all the snow that's been forecast.

My gorgeous kitty cat has been an absolute pain in the backside today. She has been on the windowsill in the conservatory and knocked off one of my Nao figures. It just happened to be the one my sister bought me for my 40th birthday. The little ratbag has also discovered that she can jump onto the work tops in the kitchen. I hate to see cats on worktops so seem to have spent a lot of time chasing her off. Every time I pick her up she bites me so she has been banished to bed for half an hour!

Another card for a template challenge. The flowers are a mix of the new Papermania flowers and Sarah's Blooms. The hearts are actually gold but they don't scan too well.

Well that's it for now. I have a stationery sample to do so I am going to make a blue dragonfly and then I am hoping to do a DLO in a circle journal I'm taking part in. No idea what to do though as I have so many perfect moments, which is the subject. At least I can get the pages covered and sort out some embellishments.

Oh and before I forget...........I bought a Craft Robo yesterday, yay. I have bought it from a friend and it will be hand delivered on Saturday. A big thank you to Andrea and John. I hope UK Scrappers know what they are in for as I am just about to go and join the forum. LOL Next week hopefully, I will have time to play and get to know the new baby.

Till next time...........

My fourth Mother's day card and my cards for Carolyn's black and white challenge (which blogger wouldn't let me upload before!)

My Challenge

Well I have had another busy week with samples for wedding invitations. One has even gone to Malta! PN goes international! I have also done my February cards for the birthday club I am involved in. Obviously I can't show them just incase the people concerned happen to stumble across my blog. I did this one from the latest CBC template challenge as it is my sister in law's birthday on Thursday.


















I have volunteered to do a challenge on CBC so I have decided to do Mother's Day cards but using shades of one colour only. Papers, writing, everything must all be shades of the same colour. I have done a few sample cards to show what I mean. They are simple so hopefully people will take up my challenge.


Shades of pink

I have some more cards to upload but Blogger is playing silly b****rs at the moment and won't let me. I have another for my challenge and a couple I've done for Carolyn's new Black and White stamping challenge. I'll have to come back later and do them.

And last but not least, the bestest news of all....................my darling DH is buying me a Robo for my birthday. :)) (biiiiiiig smiles) He asked me if I fancied going away for the weekend, and I said yes but at the moment I would rather have a Robo. He then confessed that he planned to buy me one anyway. Not long to wait now.

See you later..................

Your Birthdate: March 10

Independent and dominant, you tend to be the alpha dog in most situations.You're very confident, and hardly anything ever shakes you.Mundane tasks tend to drain you - you prefer to be making great plans.You are quite original. When people don't "get" you, it bothers you a lot. Your strength: Your ability to gain respect Your weakness: Caring too much what others think Your power color: Orange-red Your power symbol: Letter X Your power month: October

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

New cards

I have spent the last few days playing, well making cards to fill my box if the truth were known. I sold quite a few birthday cards in the run up to Christmas and thought it was about time I did something about it.
Three of the ones I made today are suitable for a ne challenge set by Carolyn on CBC. We had to use a stamped image, some ribbon and one other type of embellishment. These are my 3 which I thought fitted the bill.

I tend not to use many stamped images as I'm never quite sure what I should do with them. You look around the web and see all the fab cards made with inked backgrounds etc and they make mine look boring. I have decided though that we all have to start somewhere so now I feel a bit better about showing them.

Another thing I would like to learn is how to add other people and counters and other posh bits to my blog. I suppose things like that will come when some either shows me (several times) or writes an idiots guide.

Before I go and iron school uniforms, I would just like to say a special thank you to Kathy for leaving the lovely comment on my blog. :)

Till next time..............................

Our newest arrival

I know I have just wafflled for the last 20 minutes but I felt this one needed a thread of its own.

Meet Smudge !

She is our new bundle of joy who came to live with us on the Wednesday before Christmas and it feels as though she has always been here. She is an absolutely gorgeous, mischievous bundle of energy.

Till next time, which hopefully won't be too long this time. :))

Happy New Year

Well better late than never!

Twice I have written my 'article' to bring my blog up to date, gone to find something else, forgotten to save it and lost the blooming lot.

I couldn't do anything last week as I was quite poorly and ended up in A & E. I won't go into details but it scared me. I was out of action for most of the week and still get very tired. It certainly wasn't the start to the new year that I was hoping for. Never mind though, I am almost back to normal (whatever normal is!)

Christmas was very quiet as it was just hubby and I during the day, but we all got some brill pressies. The kids came back at tea time as we went to my parents on Boxing day. It was my dad's 70th birthday and as the whole family was there, we had a lovely day. DH was working on New Year's Eve (he DJs at a local hotel) so I went with him. We booked a room and stayed the night too which was lovely. Mum and Dad came for dinner on New Years Day which was nice too.

The run up to Christmas was busy for me this year as I had quite a few wedding orders which made a nice change from Christmas cards. I also made my first altered canvas for my brother and sister in law. I was really pleased with it. What do you think?

Another first for me was an exploding box, which I did as part of mum and dad's Christmas pressies. Again I was really pleased with it and all the family were impressed!

A special friend was 40 on the 7th January and you can't make a card without the numbers on can you? Rather than plaster it with large numbers, which was my first intention, I decided to go for the subtle approach. Thankfully she liked it. LOL

And finally, my bit of good news to finish off last year was that I was voted a runner up in 2 categories in Quick Cards Made Easy card maker of the year for 2006. I was so pleased. I will have to aim higher this year LOL.

I am taking part in my first ever Circle Journal organised by Mel on the CBC forum and am thoroughly enjoying it. I'm not sure that my pages are as good as the others. The standard of work is soooo high, but it is fun and I am taking part which I would never have done 12 months ago.

Well I must ge back to work now as I have 2 wedding orders to do and a Golden Wedding Anniversary party/Renewal of Vows to organise which I am really enjoying.

So there you are, another load of waffle to bore you rigid.