Sisters

Kerrie on the cardmaking forum posted a lovely scrapbooking sketch challenge for this coming week. I hunted out some photos and as soon as I'd decided which ones I wanted to use I just had to scrap them straight away :o)

I adore these photos. They are even more poignant as David's youngest sister Ollie passed away a few years ago, we have lovely memories of their visit to England and to us in 2001. The sisters are from left to right on the top photo: Luverta, Ollie (middle front) and Mildred with David at the back.

I used Daisy Bucket Garden Gate partterned papers (seem to be very popular with me at the moment); Doodlebug embossed white Bouquet Impressions card; Bazzill bling blue flowers with red cosmos and yellow prima flowers and Craftwork Brads in the centres; green ricrac and dark blue velvet ricrac, and white Doodlebug Mini Just My Type alphabet stickers.

Hope you enjoy looking at this scrapbooking layout, really hope David's family visit my blog and see it.

Take care, have a lovely weekend.

Coaster box

What a week! Still I have tomorrow off work and plan on catching up with the housework now I'm feeling a little better. David has a horrible dentist appointment tomorrow so isn't looking forward to that.

Here is a coaster box I made for my good friend Lynne for a swap on the cardmaking forum which she received today. I was praying she'd like it and she loved it.

I used Basic Grey Luscious paper on the outside and Daisy Bucket Garden Gate summer sweet distress paper on the inside of the coasters (which I made). The quotes are by Cloud 9 Woodstone Simple Thoughts and edged with Bazzill Bling card, and the flowers are Bazzill bling and Prima fixed together with Doodlebug Sugar Brads. I used lace which I bought from a store in Beccles, Suffolk and Kaiser Adhesive Pearls to finish it off. Lynne's name was cut using Sizzlets 12 inch decorative Naturally Serif alphabet die on my Cuttlebug. When I put the coaster box together I left the ribbon long. I sent the coaster box flat (unmade) so Lynne could put the box together and then either tie the ribbon and cut the excess off or tie into a bow and tidy the ends.

Thanks for looking.

Snowy scrapbook layouts

Yay, I don't normally craft during the week as I'm normally too tired after work but ... you know how it is :o) you have a sketch, look through your photos, print them off then go and hunt out the paper. I just couldn't resist making a start and in the end made 2 layouts. The first one was last weekend's sketch challenge layout on the cardmaking forum:

I love this sketch. I used Bazzill card, Doodlebug Flurry and Winter Ribbon Stripe papers, Doodlebug Cold Spell stickers (snowflakes) and Carolee Creations Snowy World stickers (the wording).

The second layout is this week's challenge on UKS. The elements were: use the sketch; incorporate stamping; use ribbon and do some doodling, yay claimed 30 points for my team (Spring Chicks).

I used Carolee Creations patterned paper, snow brads, Hero Art snowflake clear stamp (under the journalling), white ribbon, and did the doodling with the help of the Funky Swirl doodling template by Crafters workshop.

We are having a competition on the cardmaking forum and the theme is "celebration". Umm that's so hard because I've got 2 layouts in my mind and I'm only allowed to enter one. Never mind I'll do them both and then decide which one to enter once they're done. So far I've printed off the photos and selected a range of papers ready. Hopefully I'll get round to putting these together at the weekend.

Must go and prepare dinner now, thanks for looking :o)

Male cards

Yay Monday's almost over and not a bad day at all, surprising I didn't have that normal Monday morning feeling we all get :) The sunny weather might have had something to do with it. Trouble is we had to go to work but never mind, with us starting early we were home by 3 pm and that was with a trip to Asda too. I've just made up some fresh fruit salad, David and I are trying to eat healthily at the moment. We only started last week but I can feel the difference already.

I can finally show you a few male cards I made recently. I find male cards so hard to make, I never know what to do but I received some Magnolia Edwin stamped images in a swap so decided to use those:

The first two have patterned papers by Dovecraft, the last one has papers by Harmony Designs.

Thanks for looking.

Cardmaking Day

Boy hasn't it been hot? Managed to get out for a walk early this morning but even at 7.30 am it was hot. Was glad to get back in the coolness of the fan :)

This afternoon I had a cardmaking session and finished this month's birthday cards. Can't show you those yet but can show you 4 challenge cards Kerrie put up on the cardmaking forum. Two are from last week and two for this week.

This one was a sketch challenge. I used a Penny Black (Dressed up Dog 2082E) stamped image; and my April Scrapagogo Greetings kit papers which are Making Memories 5th Avenue. The sentiment stamp is by Cuddly Buddly. The scalloped edge I created by using my EK Success corner punch.

The next challenge was to make a card using flowers. Again I used a Penny Black stamp (Poppy Fields 3199J), K&Co Poppy patterned paper, Cosmos and Prima flowers and Doodlebug sugar brads.

Now on to this weekend challenges. I didn't get a chance to do last weekend's with being poorly so was pleased to enjoy my crafting session this afternoon and get all the challenges done.

This is the sketch challenge. I used Doodlebug and Daisy Bucket garden paper, Prima flowers, Papermania glitter brads, the sentiment is by Hero Arts and the image is a downloadable printed image by Pink Petticoat which I coloured and glittered with Stickles glitter glue.

The last challenge was for a bright and beautiful card. The paper is by Doodlebug, the image is a Magnola Tilda with heart dress, the sentiment is a rub-on and the flowers are by Prima and Cosmos, I used Kaiser gems in the corner of the image.

Thanks for looking, hope it's a little cooler next week :)

Wedding card

Yay I managed to make a few cards today. I'm afraid I can only show you one of these though as the others are for a competition and a friendship card swap I'm organising on the cardmaking forum.

The one I can show you is this wedding card which I am quite pleased with, it's for an Asian couple so I didn't want anything too traditional or religious. In the end I came up with this:

You can't see from the photo but the front of the card finishes where the wider white lace is. I love lace at the moment and used quite a bit of it on this card. The patterned paper is by Imaginesce Loves Me - Wild Hearts; I also used pearlescent card stock and some flowers I'd had for a while. I cut the heart shape using my Creative Memories cutting system.

David and I are still coughing some but are much better than we were last weekend. It's been mighty hot today (28C) but it's been a good day, housework for me this morning and then crafting this afternoon. We have started a healthy eating regime and I made some sugar free jelly this morning and also some fresh fruit salad for when we feel peckish.

Thanks for looking, hope to make some more cards tomorrow.

On the mend

Phew I really don't know where this past week has disappeared to, I didn't start feeling better until yesterday and am still coughing especially at night but at least the cold has gone. David's worst days were Thursday, Friday and Saturday, thankfully he's on the mend now too. As you can guess we didn't go up to Cheshire after all :( we couldn't with the way we were feeling. I was off sick until Thursday and took Friday as leave and David took Thursday and Friday off as leave though spent both days in his chair coughing and spluttering. It's a shame as the weather has been so lovely this Bank Holiday weekend but we haven't felt like going out at all. I did go for a short walk yesterday morning but any exertion leaves me coughing so didn't go far, and we did a food shop this morning but that's it.

:( I haven't felt up to cardmaking, but did push myself yesterday afternoon to make some small cards (can't show you yet) and small hangings. As every Friday Kerrie put some challenges on the cardmaking forum and I managed to make a double layout Saturday with the sketch, another couple of LOs to add to my snowy album:
I used Daisy Bucket Wrapped Wishes patterned paper; Doodlebug Loopy Lace alphabet stickers; Prima flowers; Papermania adhesive gems and the Revolution Scallop die cut for the scalloped edges.

Every Monday UKS puts up a new weekly challenge. The hardest part was finding a photo of me I liked :) The elements were: a photo of yourself; 'seen' journalling; ribbon; use a bloom or use colours from the team logo (purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red). Once I'd found a photo the rest fell into place:
This photo was taken in Aberdeen in Duthie Park's Winter Gardens back in 2003. I used Basic Grey Sultry patterned paper and edged it with Fiskars Victorian Wide scissors. I cut the title with Cuttlebug Hippie Chick and Sizzlits First Steps alphabets and the flowers are by Prima and others in my stash.

Back to work tomorrow :( we're going to have to take it easy as we're still not feeling 100%. We wouldn't wish this horrible bug on anyone. It's the worst we've ever felt, David said he had't been that ill since he was small and had the flu. It's not often we are poorly at the same time.

We've rearranged our Cheshire visit for June by visiting Mum later in June so we'll go down to Sussex for a few days and then go up to Cheshire afterwards. It's something to look forward to.

Thanks for looking :)