A bit of Knitting!

 This is the baby blanket I made for my daughter Holly's baby, and our first grandchild, which is due in just about 6 weeks!  Face book friends may recall that I was asking for advice on the pattern repeat which made the zigzag edges.  Well, after undoing my work several times, I finally took a deep breath and kept going, and the zigzag became more pronounced the more I knitted.  I kept the colours fairly neutral as we don't know if it's a boy or a girl, but exciting times ahead!  Below is a pic of my gorgeous girl at Christmas with the turkey foil - not sure what she's trying to say!!

Hugs, Juliexx

Mo's Digital Pencil - introducing Lou

This little lovely is a gorgeous new digi image from Mo Manning and is called Lou - click on the link to take you to the image in Mo's Digital Pencil.

The image was crying out to be used with these yummy First Edition papers called It's a Girl and I've also used the following Marianne Products:

Circle Frame - Basic Round - CR1331

Heart/ Ribbon Tags - NEW!! From a wonderful new set of tags/labels that includes an oversize label tag - CR1353 

Knitting embossing folder and die set - DF3418

The Baby sentiment is by PTI and the Dear sentiment, I did myself with some alphabet stamps.

Bitterly cold up here at the minute, but the mountains look beautiful covered in snow, and someone even talked about skiers on Skiddaw!  

Happy Weekend, folks.

Juliexx

21st Card for My daughter using Paperbabe Stamps

Our beautiful youngest daughter. Emily, turned 21 on Sunday and this is the card I made for her using a mix of stamps and templates from Paperbabe stamps. I bought them ages ago but this is the first time I've plucked up the courage to use them as I felt a bit daunted.  So, I followed a tutorial that I found in a magazine last year that took the fear factor away!  The way the stamps work where you can combine an endless variety of features/hair are fabulous so you'd always end up with a new face/profile! The sentiment stamps are a mix of Tim Holtz and Impression Obsession and the words on her hair are also from Tim Holtz.  Em is studying Art at Camberwell School of Arts and also works at a Gallery, so this all seemed rather apt.  

We had a lovely weekend in London celebrating, including Miss Saigon on Saturday night, which was awesome as ever, and a small gathering for family and friends that were in London on Sunday.

Awful thing is I haven't got any decent pics of Em on the day so can't post one here!

I'm entering my card into the current Paperbabe Challenge which is anything goes!

Happy Birthday lovely girl!xxx

Juliexxx

Mo's Airplane and a 20% sale at Mo's Digital Pencil

I love this little guy, and bought the airplane die specifically to use with him!!  He's called Airplane and of course he is a fabulous Mo Manning image.  Have you seen all the new images in the store here and there's a 20% discount on all stamps at the minute!!

I love the papers too - from a 12x12 pad called Vintage Charm from My Mind's Eye.

The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink and that airplane die is a Tatty Teddy  one that was a craft fair bargain! 

We've got a busy weekend ahead celebrating our Emily's 21st, so looking forward to it!  

Enjoy your weekend!xx

Hugs, Juliexx

Passion for Promarkers - Monochrome

Well, after our long break over the Christmas period. we're back up and running over at a Passion For Promarkers. Don't forget to check on the challenge blog for the list of winners of all our fabulous prizes for the Mega Challenge - we had a super load of entries!  Today's new challenge has been chosen by our lovely Lucy and that is Monochrome.  I've loved this challenge as this colour combo isn't something I use enough!  We are being sponsored by All Dressed Up for this challenge and so I've used this gorgeous girly from their Three Little Party Girls set

Her skin colouring is with my usual mix of colours - Coral, Sunkissed Pink, Blush and Ivory with a touch of Dusky Rose for Blush, and her dress, I coloured with  Ice Gray skin tones.  As always, I've used a variety of Marianne dies, list below:

LR0319 - Petra's Small Ornament 

LR0385 - Triangle Border (looks like lace!)

LR0395 - Wave die set - NEW January 16 release!

LR0396 - Curved Border Die - NEW January 16 release!

As I said before, we're being sponsored by All Dressed Up and there are two of their gorgeous digis up for grabs!

That's all for now, folks, enjoy the rest of your week!

Hugs, Juliexx

Final Christmas Card make of 2015 with a Sneak Peek of a new Mo Manning Digi image and Happy 2016!

Happy New Year everyone - hope you enjoyed your celebrations whatever  you did.  We had a fantastic NYE at my BIL's with a Disney themed fancy dress to celebrate my SIL's iminent 50th! Scroll to the bottom if you want to see a couple of pics!
Today's card is giving you a sneak peek of a new image coming soon to Mo's Digital Pencil - On a Snowball - not sure if she is my last Christmas card of 2015 or my first for next Christmas -eek, only 363 days to go!

I've coloured her with Promarkers and then used some Marianne Christmas papers, Horizons Pine Tree die - LR0283 and  some Marianne mini sparklers to set her off.

The deers are Impression Obsession, the sentiment from Lili of the Valley and the rest is from stash.

And now for the party pics:

Birthday girl in the middle with my SIL and MIL.  Below the Frozen contingent with my Holly rocking a very pregnant Elsa! 

Happy 2016 everyone - I hope the year brings you health and happiness.

Juliexx

Not a card but a Christmas Tree Dress!

I can share this now as my youngest daughter is now home for Christmas and this is the 'tree' in her room.  I've seen these on  pinterest and as I had the mannequin, I couldn't wait to have a go! Two pics, with slightly different lighting but just couldn't pick up the fairy lights underneath the skirt branches. Defo going to do this each year!

Happy Christmas everyone, have a wonderful time with your nearest and dearest.

Hugs, Juliexx

Crazy Bird Christmas Cards

Just popping on in between the housework, to share my uber quick Christmas card using the Crazy Birds Stamps, Dies and accessory sets.  They proved to be a bit of a lifesaver, as I didn't need to colour them apart from the hat.  I stamped them and then embossed with aged Black Frantage, so I retained the detail and got some depth.  The snowy embossed background is with a Marianne embossing folder - Ice Crystal, DF3419.  Decided to add a Rudolph nose - it accounts for his expression perfectly!!

Right back to the housework, hoovering now and then it's the big clean up of the craft room - I've spread out to the dining room, conservatory and living room as my craft space is so messy!!  The hubster is not impressed - he's wearing an expression a bit like Santa bird above!

Hugs, Juliexx

Final Dream Team Blog Hop for 2015

Despite the sentiment on my card I can't believe that this is our last  Mo's Dream Team Blog Hop for 2015!  Where oh where has that year gone!!
Our fabulous Debby has chosen the theme and of course, it had to be Christmas! Debby's  blog is also where you should have started so hop on back there if you want to see all the cards in the hop. The full order is below if you need it.

 Debby, Lou, Becky, Alice, Vili, Anneke, Kaly, Gretha, Julie,

I've used this cute image called Nativity Play - I used to love going to these when my children were little.

As always, I've used my Promarkers to colour my image and then used an array of Marianne products, as below:

Large Star XL Die - LR0369

Village Chalet  - COL1328

Tiny's Grass Die - LR0360

Victorian Christmas Papers - P9125 

A5 Glitter paper in Gold

Frames 4 Square Die (although I appear to have covered most of it up!) - LR0234

The shepherds and sheep are from  Joanna Sheen die set, and the Away in a Manger sentiment is from a Graphic 45 paper scrap that I had.

Well that's it for now, I'm also the last stop on the hop, so I hope you've enjoyed it. I also hope that you've left a comment on each of the team's posts as you could be in with a chance of winning one of the two $5 dollar vouchers to spend in  Mo's Digital Pencil store,

Mo's Anyu and Nanook

Really enjoyed making this card - I've seen a few of these designs in blogland and think they're so effective and reasonably easy to create.  My  digi image, is Anyu and Nanook, from Mo Manning of course, love it and suited this design perfectly!

My promarkers have been out, along with lots from my Christmas stash!

I hope your festive preparations are well underway, I feel I'm finally getting somewhere, spent the day shopping in Carlisle yesterday, which seems to have bounced back although it's so sad to see people's lives piled up outside their houses. Our home town, Cockermouth, is also back open for business but still so many people out of their homes for Christmas and a lot longer beyond, I'm sure.  There are so many bridges closed, if not gone entirely, that it's taking a while longer to get to places but we drove through the snowy mountains yesterday and it was still as beautiful as ever here.

Today will see me tackling the pile of ironing this morning and then going to Crafternoon, which is just a great place to go and take whatever craft you are working on and sit with like-minded people and chat and drink tea!  Lovely!

Enjoy your Tuesday!

Hugs, Juliexx

Simple Xmas Cards with a Freebie

These snowglobe stamps were a recent freebie with a magazine and they helped me to get my card count somewhere near it needed to be!  Honestly, I'm behind as ever this year, and I'm not even working!  

I've stamped them with Versamark and then heat embossed them with Wow white opaque embossing powder.  You'll see I've made a few versions as you scroll down.

Think I'm just about finished now apart from a few specials!  Countdown this week to my lovely Em coming home in a week's time!!!
Hugs, Juliexx

Mega Christmas Challenge at Passion for Promarkers!!

This week at Passion for Promarkers we are launching our very special “Mega Christmas challenge” which runs for a whole month and ends on 5th January 2016!    It gives us all a chance for a bit of a breather but to make up for the lack of challenges we have some fantastic prizes up for grabs!

 

Our theme for the Mega Christmas challenge is “let’s celebrate”.  You are welcome to make Christmas cards but as the challenge will still be running after the ‘BIG’ day you can of course make any type of creation as long as you follow the theme.

 

I've picked another Mo image - Candy Cane Pug - which can be found here in Mo's store, and I've  gone with some non-traditional Christmas colours which suit the image I think!

 

My papers are from Lili of the Valley and the sentiment is Kaisercraft .  I've left it quite simple as the image is my focal point.

  As time is precious for our DT at this time of year we are limiting the number of entries you can make to just 3 for this month long challenge.  Please remember to be eligible for our prizes you must use your promarkers, flex markers, tria markers, metallic or aqua markers.  Please can you help us by stating which Letraset products you have used on your creation i.e. ‘coloured with promarkers’ etc.  Thanks x x

So now for the exciting bit – the prizes!

Letraset are generously offering one lucky winner a super bundle of goodies which includes:

2 x packs of Winsor & Newton Promarkers, 1 A4 bleedproof marker pad, 1 A4 pack of Safmat and 1 pack of transfers.

DigiStamp Boutique are generously offering one lucky winner a prize of a £10.00 voucher to spend in her store.

Bugaboo stamps are generously offering one lucky winner a $30.00 voucher to spend in their store.

Polkadoodles is offering one lucky winner 2 gorgeous digis called ‘Serenity Blossom’ and ‘Octavia Thinking’.

Michele R Designs are offering one lucky winner a €10.00 voucher to spend in her store.

Little Claire Designs are offering one lucky winner 3 digis of their choice from their online store.

Crafty Sentiments Designs is offering one lucky winner 3 digis of their choice from their online store.

Sassy Studio Designs are offering one lucky winner a $20.00 gift certificate to spend in their online store.

The Ribbon Girl is offering one lucky winner a £10.00 voucher to spend in their online store.

Wow we are sure you’ll agree our sponsors have been super generous once again this year!

Both  design teams are taking part in the mega challenge with Team 1  sharing some inspiration today and then in two week’s time you can be further inspired by some makes from Team 2 - all can be found here on the challenge blog.

That's it for now - well done for making it to the end!!

Big hugs, Juliexxx

Dollar Digi December Flashback sale at Mo's Digital Pencil

Hi Folks - just nipping on quickly to share this awesome bargain with you - Mo has reduced a number of her older images to a dollar until the 11th December!! So go!  What are you still doing here!!

Juliexx

Saturated Canary girl with Staffie

I nipped over to France recently (as you do!) to visit my sister who is out there doing up a gite and enjoying some late sunshine which helps with her RA.  I left this card for her birthday - she has a houseful of animals, in particular three staffies so I  had to use this image from Saturated Canary!

I used one of the largest dies from Marianne set Anja's Oval die set LR0376 and also an embossing folder for the mat underneath the image -  Flowers DF3401. Finally the sunflowers were cut with a Marianne die - Tiny's Sunflower Die - LR0361.  Oh and the fabric roses are also from Marianne Designs - love the denim feel of these.

Hope you like!
Hugs, Juliexx