Top 5 creations of 2013

I thought I'd join in my lovely DT/blogging/real life buddy, Debby's, favourite five creations  for 2013 - such a great idea and it has made me realise, 1, how hard it is to pick just 5, and 2, has made me realise how many of my cards I'm never entirely happy with!  However, I did do it and here they are

1.

I think this one was the only dead cert and my all time fave of the year - I think I just loved how the frantage turned out!

2.

I was particularly pleased with my colouring of her hair on this one. 

3.

I just like the mixture of textures with this one. 

4.

I am nearly always more or less pleased with how my cards using Mo's images turn out - they such a perfect place to start from but I was particularly pleased with my apple colouring and the colour combo generally. 

5.

My first card using Lavinia stamps - hope to make more of these in 2014.

I could have sneaked a couple of more in, but I am very much an"Obey the Rules" kind of gal, so I left it at 5!

You can check out lots of other  top five picks here over on Debby's blog and she has some scrummy candy up for grabs, so come and join in!

Only an hour to go until 2014, so Happy New Year everyone!

Teacup Fairy

This little lovely from Mo Manning - is one of my favourite Mo images and I just felt the need to colour her up again!  I've teamed her up with some Tilda papers and some Stampin Up flower Stamp and Punch combos.  I also added some little seed beads to the centre of my flowers for a bit of detail.  

The sentiments are both stamped and punched with Stampin Up goodies too!

I am at work again today, but  hopefully, it will be a short day.  Just having a quiet night tonight maybe watching a bit of Jools Holland!   Have fun, whatever you're doing - Happy New Year everyone!xx

Sketch N Stash New Challenge

It's back to work for me today, boo hoo, although we did have a lovely Christmas - I am glad all the organising and preparation is over - it can be nuts at times!  Just got to put away all the Christmas decorations and that's it for another year! It's nice to get back to making ordinary cards, and this one is for the new challenge that starts today over at Sketch N Stash. and as we're being sponsored by The Stamp Fairy, the DT got to choose an image to use - lucky us!

I chose this little cutie, Nellie from the Nellie and Leo Love set - you can find it here in The Stamp Fairy Store.

The optional theme for this challenge is No Design Papers, which I only realised after I had picked out my papers from some yummy new papers that best matey, Lesley, had given to me for Christmas! So I had to have a rethink, and used an embossing folder for the background mat, and then a Spellbinder Marvelous Square for to cut out the image.

I then added some fab new heart die cuts from Impression Obsession to my bow and a little Stampin Up sentiment, together with some flowers and pearls. 

You could win a fab $10 voucher to spend with The Stamp Fairy so I hope you will play along with us over the next week (we have a short challenge this time around).

You can check out the gorgeous makes of my DT buddies here, and I promise to try and get my blogging back up to speed for  2014!  

Passion For Promarkers Mega Christmas Challenge Midway Reminder

This is my card for our midway reminder at Passion for Promarkers for our Mega Christmas Challenge.   The theme is Use a Sentiment and I've matched up this Lili of the Valley image with and Inkadinkadoo sentiment from a set that I purchased in the US.  

It seems appropriate to be posting this image on Christmas Eve so while here, I wish you all a wonderful Christmas whatever you're doing!

And just another reminder of all the fabulous prizes that you could win if you play along!  The challenge runs for another two weeks so you may find some time to join in once the festivities are over and you can play with all your crafty gifts!

Letraset are generously offering one lucky a winner a pack of their Autumn/Winter promarkers Ltd Edition set!

DigiStamp Boutique are generously offering one lucky winner a prize of a £10 voucher to spend in her store.

Bugaboo stamps are generously offering one lucky winner a prize of 10 digis of their choice.

Polkadoodles is offering one lucky winner a prize of a copy of their Bonbon Belles Double CD collection.

Clearly Besotted Stamps is offering one lucky winner 1 stamp set of their choice.

Dies to Die For are offering one lucky winner a £10 voucher to spend in their online store.

Bearly Mine Designs are offering one lucky winner a £10 voucher to spend in their online store.

Again, big hugs and love to all my blogging buddies - Happy Holidays!

We're hopping at Mo's - our final hop for 2013!

Yes, it's the third Thursday in the month so it's time to hop at Mo's Dream Team.  This month's theme is Seniors as chosen by our fabulous Anneke, so that is where you should start if you want to hop along. If you're already hopping, then hopefully you've arrived here from Gretha's blog who will have had an amazing card to show you I have no doubt!

I've chosen the stunning Whoopee (Birthday Girl version) - just click on the link to take you to the image in Mo's Digital Pencil.  I've also used the wording (Yeehaw) that comes with the male version here.

I've coloured her  with my Pro and Flexmarkers and then added a few die cuts and rolled flowers to finish her off!  I think she does look just about done with her celebrations!!

Check out her painted nails  - I think she would have red nails in real life but the colours didn't quite match! 

My papers are from Kaisecraft - The Lake House pad, and I've also cut the teeny rolled flowers from the same papers using an Impression Obsession set of teeny dies - love! 

Your next stop on the hop is over to the brilliant Debby and I know she's going to have a brilliant card to share with you.  Otherwise the complete order of the hop is below (links in my side bar).

Anneke, Danielle, Kaly, Mina, Jak, Gretha, Julie, Debby.Y, Heidy, Alice, Vili, Alexandra

It was rather nice to get back to making non-Christmas cards, so I hope  you like!

Sketch N Stash new challenge

Hey peeps, sorry I'm so late posting today's challenge card - just where is the time going!  Anyhoo, our new challenge starts today over at Sketch N Stash with the faberoony sketch below from our back catalogue. I've rotated it 90 degrees and my child on sleigh die-cut and the two deers are the three round elements along the bottom.

I used this gorgeous vintage image and then just layered it up with all my various embellies, finally adding  some frantage for a bit of glitter and sparkle.

I love this little die that I got from my  Dies to Die for recently.  What I love even more is that Tracy sends your order all nicely packaged and some added extras of a variety of die cuts, and this time I got a Christmas chocolate too!  Thanks Tracy!

These are our sponsors for this challenge:

Inky impressions

Ooh La La Creations

I hope you will find the time to play with us over the next couple of weeks - the challenge runs until after Christmas, so maybe you'll have some new Santa-sent crafty goodies to play with!

Basic Grey Challenges Anything Goes - Final Challenge

Yes - very sad to report that this is our last challenge at Basic Grey Challenges.  : (

But we're hoping to go out in style and have an Anything Goes theme, before we go!

I decided to make a tent card, inspired by this fabulous Mo Manning digi stamp, Little Elf Pipa, and as she is swinging on a bauble, I thought I would make it swing in the aperture!  But it doesn't, I hear you cry and that's because I'd run out of my normal Crafter's Pick Tacky glue and had to use a runnier glue that made a mess and stuck my image to the back of the tent so it doesn't swing - that clear?  No- just ignore my babbling!

I've coloured her with my Promarkers and Flexmarkers, then added some glitter for her fur trim and some Aged White Frantage onto the bauble to give it some depth and sparkle!

Love this little sentiment with the image - perfect, don't you think?

This is where it got messy, when I tried to glue down my hand made wreath around the aperture.  I used ribbon, gold string beading, red sequin ribbon and these little rose hip style berries and entwined them round each other to make the wreath. And of course, my yummy BG papers are Jovial 6x6 papers.

Well, I  hope you will help us to go out with a bang and join us in our final challenge.  Thank you to all my fabbie BG teamies who have made being part of this team so wonderful!xx

Our sponsors are again the fabulous Simon Says Stamp, offering their regular prize of $25 dollars to the lucky winner!

Happy Saturday!

Quick Christmas cards with Tim Holtz Dies

I've just about finished with making my Christmas cards now - just got to write them, finish my shopping, put up the tree, wrap the presents, make the mince pies.........

These are some more reasonably quick ones that  I made using the Tim Holtz Treeline Die and Mini Deer.  I also used this Memory Box Star die , the smaller of the set of two, and I dropped it and it is now lost - I've checked the floor, the bin, my paper recycling bag but cannot find it - it's so tiny too!

I made them in a few colour ways  and added a Waltzing Mouse sentiment  which matches the sparkle of the glittered paper that I used for the night sky.

I've made about 8 of these which bumped up my tally nicely! 

I hope all your preparations are going to plan - we have our Christmas lunch at work tomorrow, which is always good fun!