Monday 28 February 2011

Awards, awards :-) number three!

Hi, it's me again... I didn't get to post the third award yesterday, kids getting in the way *lol* Why can't they live without food and drink and entertainment for a few days, he?? *g*
Well, here we go, this is the lovely award I got from Moni


The rules are similar to the last one, thank the person you got the award from, tell 7 things about yourself (will be hard to think of more stuff...) and pass it to 15 bloggers (OMG, that's a lot!).

7 things about me:
1. I am quite generous, I like to give stuff to people that I think they like just because I love giving... or maybe I just like it when people are happy?
2. I can't stand the taste of banana and I hate the taste of coffee but love the smell.
3. I often start things because I got ideas flooding my brain and then don't finish as something else has come up that I want to try/do.
4. I am bad at keeping secrets unless they are important or I have promised someone to keep it. I will probably tell someone if it's something I just wanted to keep to myself. How stupid, eh?
5. I've got a degree in graphic design and wanted to become an illustrator for children's books...
6. I could happily spend days on days in my craft room just colouring, only to emerge for food, drink and to use the loo/go to sleep!
7. I am devastated (well that's a bit harsh, but I really hate it) that I don't seem to have a proper cardmaking style but flit from one thing to the other without being able to do one style properly.

Now to the really hard part, passing it on to 15 bloggers...
I won't say anything about them apart from "go and check them out" as they are all fab and you won't regret it!
6. Joey
10. Bev
12. Ikki
13. Rachel
14. Julie
15. Caz



Sunday 27 February 2011

Awards, awards :-) Number two

Well, as I said earlier, I have been blessed with more than just one award and the second one came from the lovely Carol of Apples & Pears
It's this one

and I am really chuffed to be considered "stylish"!

The rules for this award are:
Make a post linking back to the person who gave you the award
Share 7 random things about yourself
Award 7  recently discovered bloggers with this award
 Contact these bloggers and tell them they’ve won the award

Well here are 7 completely random things about me:
1. Ever now and again, I have a sudden urge to clean and tidy and go really mad with it, actually moving about everything to get everywhere and throwing out stuff to declutter. And then I accumulate again for ages.... *lol*
2. My favourite food is sushi, but being a proper foodie, you can delight me with almost any kind of food.
3. I can live without chocolate but I can't live without proper bread (and I mean proper like sourdough with crunchy crusts and dense inners. (Told you I am a foodie ;-) )
4. I am a gleek (might have mentioned that before... )
5. I like watching a few other TV programmes and get quite into them, can't miss a thing! Some of my favourites are Silent Witness, Being Human, Dr Who, Misfits...
6. I don't like going outside much, which is hard as I got kids and they need to go out so I force myself to.
7. I had a scrabble evening last night with friends who only live round the corner. It was fab and the best part: our kids had a sleep-over at theirs and I had a lie-in! Lucky me! Got to go and pick them up in a minute...

These are the stylish blogs I'm passing the award on to:
1. Dorcas from Dorcas Designs
2. Vera from Lings happy place
3. Chrissie from Simply one of a kind
4. Mandi from Enchanted Occasions
5. Marlene from Disguised as a Grown-up
7. Carol from Carols Crafty Corner
I'm off to tell these Ladies about this now. Will be back later with my third award...


Award, awards :-) Number one

Seems like someone likes me after all *lol* In the past couple of weeks I have received 3 lovely awards from fellow bloggers and I haven't had a chance to blog them yet. So I am going to try catching up a bit  now and hope for the best.
The first one I got from my lovely friend Kathleen is this one:


The idea behind this award is to promote little-known blogs to a wider audience.

In accepting this award, I must agree to the following:

1) Decide if you will accept the award, and if you do, create a post on your blog and show the 'Favourite Blog' badge with pride.


2) Link back to the person who gave you the award and let them know if you accept the award or not.

3) Choose 3-5 of your favourite blogs to tag. Add a link to these blogs in your post and give them the good news.


Well, I always have trouble choosing only a few blogs as there are so many wonderful places that inspire me and I am sure most of them must have had these awards already. But because I have to get through three today I will keep this short and sweet!

-Lesley from GrenouilleGreetings has become a true friend to me and her blog is always worth a look! She never stops amazing me with her creative imagination and the little details she puts into her artwork!

-I know for sure that Kerry of ALoadOfOldPickle has this award, because Kathleen has awarded her, too, but she is a big inspiration for me, too. Her style is very CAS which I love and I even cased her before... *lol* (and she is a very kind and generous person, too!)

-Julie from CatchMeCrafting is another of those fab bloggers that never cease to amaze me! And she is one of the best crafty friends you can imagine. I am giddy to say that I am going to meet her and Lesley again very soon for a crafty play day!

Monday 21 February 2011

My crochet flowers...

Hi bloggers, just a quickie from me, I am off to take the boys out.
Here are the flowers and a head band I crocheted when I was in bed with a virus the other day. I am much better although not completely back to normal. 
Excuse the pics of me wearing the headband, these were taken by my 6 year old... I think considering his age they turned out really well! Just the subject is hideous *lol*
Hope you like them!





Saturday 19 February 2011

I am tucked away in bed...

Hello my lovely bloggers!
I am stuck in bed at the moment with a really nasty stomach virus that my darling husband decided to share with me *Yeurgh* I feel really ill and whenever I try to get up after a few steps I need to sit/lie down again. But hubby got over it quickly in about 2 days so I hope it won't be long.
There is an upside to it, too. Being stuck in bed I got to play around with some crochet hook and yarn and made my first flowers! All thanks to the wonderful Dorcas who posted some of her homemade crochet flowers together with some videos on stitches. Being german I couldn't make heads or tails from the tutorials I'd seen before, although I do know the basics of crochet. Dorcas however posted videos that explain which is which and a list of abbreviations and the differences between english and american stitch names. Now I am all clued up I can't stop making them.
I finished a little head band earlier and will now start to decorate it, if I am pleased with the outcome I will share pictures!

Thursday 17 February 2011

A tag for you...

Hello bloggers!


Whoo, I had a busy week! Last weekend I had the pleasure of hosting my third annual Sale-a-Bration Stampin up party in my house with the lovely Joanne of mainly-flowers blog fame! She is a truly talented crafter and such a nice person to boost. We had a blast doing our make and take and my lovely friends spent enough so I could grab myself some freebies - I love freebies *lol* (who doesn't?)
I also had some crafting-club fun with my ladies where we made envelope-gift-bags and hanging baskets of love and a card to match. Haven't taken pics yet but will, promise!


Today I want to share something I rarely do, a tag. I am a lover of Papertrey ink goods and the Passion for Papertrey blog asked for a tag in their challenge as did Simon says stamp challenge did too, so here I am with my little tag that will soon find it's way onto a card, I'm sure!




Supplies:
Library card stamp - PTI
Sentiment - part image from "Floral frenzy, PTI
Flourish - "Fancy Flourishes", PTI
Felt butterfly- felt in Ocean Tides by PTI, cut with a Cuttlebug die and stamped with "Background Basics:Text", PTI
Kraft and Rustic cream cardstock - PTI
Spotted ribbon - PTI
Antique lace - from my grandmothers stash!
Ink - Versafine Vintage Sepia and TH Distress Inks in Antique Linnen


The little banner was snipped by hand...


I am entering this in the following challenges:
Simon says stamp and show - Show a tag
Simon says stamp - Create your own embellishment
A Passion for Papertrey - Tag you're it!


Hope you like my little tag and hope to see you soon again on my little blog!

Friday 11 February 2011

2nd Mo Manning card for teenager

Back again... ;-)



For this card I matted the image (Copics again) onto dark blue cardstock and added the rounded tap punch out (SU) which was stamped with a star and sentiment by PTI. The light blue card was embossed with a Fiskars embossing plate (music notes) and edged with Faded Jeans Distress Ink. The base of the card was stamped with a music note stamp from Impression Obsession in Not quite Navy ink by SU and edged with Faded Jeans again. I wrapped a bit of twine around a corner to finish.

I am entering this into these challenges:





Delightful Challenges - Get Punchy
Craft Your Passion - #44 - Anything Goes
One Stitch At A Time - #48 - Do It With A Digi
Catch The Bug - Anything Goes
Copic Creations - #43 - We're Cool
Little Claire's Designs - #1 - Anything Goes
Stampin' With The Dragon - #19 - Anything Goes

Hope you like them and as always, thank you if you choose to leave a comment!

Just noticed I didn't keep it that brief actually... sorry ;-)


Edit: Oops, didn't realise you had to use animals as the subject for Fuzzy Wuzzy... it would help to read those posts properly, wouldn't it? 

Teenage Boys Cards curtsey of Mo Manning

Hi bloggers,


my little one has been very poorly yesterday and gave his bug to me, so I keep this brief as I have a blazing headache...
I had to make 2 birthday cards for teenage boys, one a keen gamer and the other for a music lover, Mo's digital pencil had the perfect images and as I had them coloured ages ago (I mean months, not weeks!) it was very quick work as well! 



I used a Basic Grey paper for the background and mounted the cut out image (which was coloured with Copics) with foam pads to give a bit of depth. The sentiment is by PTI and stamped onto white card that I distressed with Antique Linen Distress Inks. The border on the side was cut by hand with a homemade template. I pricked holes and added faux stitching as well as distressing again with Distress Inks in Antique Linen.



I am entering this in these challenges:




Craft Your Passion - #44 - Anything Goes
One Stitch At A Time - #48 - Do It With A Digi
Catch The Bug - Anything Goes
Little Claire's Designs - #1 - Anything Goes
Stampin' With The Dragon - #19 - Anything Goes

As I can't post both cards into the same challenge if it's in the same post, I'll repost the second card in a minute....

Thursday 10 February 2011

Papertrey Ink festivities...

Hello bloggers,


you might have noticed that I am a bit of a PTI nut *lol*


Well, they are celebrating their 4th anniversary and there are some contests, and those prizes are just to die for!!! Anyway, I thought I'd join in the fun and hope I might be picked for a prize. Wouldn't that be just fabulous?
Anyway, here goes...
Make it Monday cards, requiring the use of several sentiments from different sets to make a card, I made these two:






My pictures still don't come up too great but it'll have to do as both my kids are home ill and I simply don't have the time for long set ups etc.


Update: I have retaken the pictures and they look a bit better now...


Today there is also a challenge to use buttons in a "new" way. Well, it's not that new what I did but it is for me, as I never did it before. 






The colours on this look wrong on the pic, they are Ripe Avocado and Melon Berry in real life, but light/camera are not playing nicely...


Update: I have retaken this picture as well and it is a bit better but the ribbon still looks like two different colours?


Hope you like?

Tuesday 8 February 2011

Thank god for brains!

Hello bloggers,


I finally managed to get five minutes to think about why my computer wouldn't get the pics of my camera and it dawned on me to try a different cable, as I couldn't think of anything else that could be faulty/checked everything else. So, hubby gave me - grudgingly- the cable from his external hard drive and voila! It was the cable! Thank god, that's easily and cheaply put right!
So, without much further ado, here are the baby shower gifts, the card and the nappy cake I cooked up last minute (do I ever do anything NOT last minute?). Again, sorry for the bad pics, it isn't that easy for me to take pics in bad light... (Excuses, excuses I hear you say!)


First off, the nappy cake. I did remember to take pics before wrapping it in cellophane, but it looks much better in real life than on the pictures - you just need to believe that ;-)




The roses are rolled socks and I put some baby wash, bath & lotion on the top tier.


Next, I made favour bags for all the guests and they looked like that:



They were made from envelopes I had lying around... Inside I put some chocolates and a couple of handmade gifts. One was a little mini album with cute windows/flaps/tabs and the other a phone charm made with shrink plastic.



It's hard to see but it's a tiny tea pot made with a PTI die and stamp.


And lastly I made a card for the hostess with a wonderful image by Mo Manning, sorry for the image quality (or lack of... I really should learn how to take better pictures!). She was coloured with Copics and the text was stamped with a PTI alphabet set and coloured as well.



Thanks for popping by and hope to see you here soon again!