Blog Candy Alert!!!!!

I said recently I was going to have a Blog Candy when my hit counter reached 200, may happen soon.

Early Birdie!!!!!

I just had to post this photo straight away. I was up early to make a card for a very special friend. She shares my passion for crafting, we are constantly bouncing ideas of each other and she has had a bit of a rough ride lately. She is lovely.

This is so not my style of card, but I have been looking at other cards, particularly Steph's cards, the shabby chic style. And although I don't think this comes anywhere near her delightful creations, I am happy with it as my first attempt. I used some papers I have had forever, some ribbon I cant even remember where I got it from and Whisper White cardstock from SU. The image i am just loving at the moment, Tilda is so cute, I have this one and Dress Up Tilda, and definitely feel more are needed. The sentiments are from the Circle of Friends Stamp set from SU

Imagine my horror then when I came to photograph the card. I had done what I had told my Thursday Kids Craft Club not to do!!!!!

THE CARD OPENS THE WRONG WAY!!!!!!!!!!

Well my daughter said it makes it unique and she was sure my friend would see the funny side. That'll teach me to make cards at the eleventh hour, or fifth hour as it was this morning.

Right off to feed myself and children then brave the joy of Asda shopping on Saturday morning!!!!!! See you later.

New Venture!

I feel like a real novice at this. I have been asked to make a wedding invitation sample for a friend of a friend. The spec was to create something similar to some samples I was given, for it to be done on shimmer card and a ribbon tied in a knot.

I couldn't believe how hard it was but this is what I came up with after about 4 attempts, all of which went in the bin.

Right off to go and play some more.

I've been tagged!!!!!!

OMG!!!!!!!! How boring am I this is the image from my 6th folder and the 6th picture. Its out of my Literacy Picture Folder, and is an image I use to try to ignite some creativity in the children to describe a setting. I think its the Grand Canyon, which is a place I really want to visit, as I have always been fascinated with it. I also study Geography at university and have always been quite sad when I comes to rock formation and stratas.

Thanks Steph, Now I have to tag 6 more people. Here goes. I'm tagging Rosina , Anne , Sarah , Natalie , Mandy and Jeanette . Hope this is right.

I'll be back later with some piccies.

Its Friday Again Tomorrow!!!!

I don't know about everyone else but the days and weeks seem to be flying by at the moment. I, personally, think its a conspiracy against teachers, having so much to get through and so little time to do it all in. Any way. I thought tonight I'd introduce you to some of my Crafting Club.

Angela is on the left, Tina is in the middle, and Little Sarah in on the right. I'm taking the picture. They really didn't want me to take the photo, but convinced them everyone wanted to meet them. There are two other members of the group, but unfortunately Georgia had gone home and Lindsay was at home with her Hubby, as it was his birthday.

These are the cards we made on Tuesday

They are a creative lot, they were so quiet on Tuesday, as they were concentrating on the project. The technique was paper piecing, doesn't Tilda look great!!!!

One week to go!!!!!!

Hi all. Thought I'd share some more samples I have been doing for my first workshop next Wednesday.

I was so stressed on Monday that I just locked myself away, in my craft room and beavered away on these cards.

Will have to get stressed more often.

It was a very productive night. What do you think?

All the project are made using Stampin' Up products. I'm trying really hard, to not have any waste, hense the ATC and Small Gift box. Hope you like what you see let me know

CANDY ALERT!!

Can you believe it, Steph is having another Blog Candy, see side bar and go look.

Oh Wonderful Day!!!!

Hi all. Can I just start by saying, today has been a much better day than yesterday, despite being stuck in traffic for two hours this morning heading down the motorway for a science course. It was brilliant. The speaker was lively, real and brill!!!!!

My group have been singing and dancing, I've been part of The water cycle, and the green in a food chain. What more could one want. Its been refreshing to be out of the classroom for a day, at least!

Also a big thank you to Jeanette for the award, I really appreciate it.

As I'm new to this I'm assuming I pass it onto five other bloggers. So here they are in no particular order:

http://www.elzybells.typepad.com

http://juliesjapes.blogspot.com/

http://cardgrotto.blogspot.com/

http://littlespaceofmyown.blogspot.com

http://monicas-passions.blogspot.com

I hope this is right.

Now that the important stuff is done, today's projects.

These project were made using templates from Which Craft UK. They are a fantastic company with good customer services and very prompt delivery. I took them on holiday with me. Whilst shopping one day I came across a lovely little shop in North Wales called the Lemon Tree (which reminded me of the song). It was one of those shops which sold gifts and exclusive items, meaning very expensive. I'm telling you this coz this is where the paper came from. Can you believe it was wrapping paper. Far too good to wrap a present. So I bought all the shop had, about 10 sheets, went back to our cottage and made this collection of gift boxes

This is the inside of the tall box, isn't it lovely and unusual. I have a thing for templates and 3-D objects.

This template was also from Which Craft UK. It is for one matchbox, but decided to make a mini chest of drawers. You could give a matching necklace, earrings and bracelet. Unfortunately I liked them so much i had to keep them, despite the fact that my mum wanted them. Had to make her a set of her own!!!!!!

Hope you like, let me know.

Mini Makes!

Today has really been one of those days were you know you should have just stayed in bed. Everything has gone wrong and the day's stress levels have soared.

These are some more projects that I photographed this weekend. They are mini cards made using the rectangle adn square card and matching envelope dies.

I kept the design simple by just using red and white with a stamped star.

The belly band which holds a set of 4 cards and envelopes was inspired by Angie over at Chic n' Scratch.

This is an alternative, instead of a belly band the holder is made from a circle, folded to create an cute little pocket

I think the monogram would enable you to make a really sweet and personal gift

So I'm now going to have a relaxing evening in my craft room, playing and designing ready for my workshop next week.

Hope you have all had a better day than me. It can only get better, LOL, :) Bye til tomorrow!

Oldies but Goodies!

I have had a good day today taking photos and hopefully you'll be impressed. My craft room has a window at each end of it. I would post a photo of it but its not very tidy, EVER!!!! Anyway, having these windows allows a lot of natural light through, which I think is good, coz it means I don't have to go outside in the freezing cold weather. As a way of posting most days, despite working full time and not always being able to craft at night, I thought I would use some of my old projects.

Here's the first. I love making mini scrap books. These little creations make great presents, particularly for my daughter's ballet friends.

This Little book was created using Lili of The Valley die cut Fairy Collection.
If anybody out their has never used their products you should. They are simple images, which I love.
I created this book from The Sizzix Album Cover and Album Pages dies, I thought at first they were too small, but they were perfect.
Lili's Fairy are a group of Fairies, obviously, which live in The Lane, Thistledown Meadow and each have their own characters. Their creator, Laila Anbergs, wrote about these gorgeous little fairies, then made them in to die cut shapes.
Each page of my book is devoted to one character. I used the sheet which is provided with each order of these sheets and typed their descriptions on the computer. I then printed these off and used them as the basis for each page. Each Fairy has their own colour too, co-ordinating papers are also available.

This is Scarlet,

...Primrose,

...Moss,

...Rose,

...Copper,

...Iris,

...Nymph,

and last but not least, Sky!

They are so cute,
everyone who received a book just fell in love with them!
Let me know what you think, Bye!

CANDY ALERT

Jeanette is giving away some goods, go to side bar and see whats happening!!! Good Luck :)

Simply........fun!!

Hi guys, hope you have enjoyed the sunshine yesterday although it was freezing. Spent some time outside practising photographing projects. I've taken some advise from a very lovely lady, Jules, and am going to try to photograph my projects at the weekend then post them through the week, so make sure you stop by and have a look, then tell me what you think.

These projects are a few sample for my first workshop, which is taking place in just over a week, so have lots more work to do. I used the Simply Said set of stamps. They are lovely stamps, and suit a few occasions.

The cardstock Is Certainly Celery and Rose Red with a little bit of Chocolate Chip (I love the names of the SU Papers).

I also used the Stampin' Around Wheel with the Fast Flowers Wheel Stamp to stamp the Rose Red card and the Take Along (another template from Andrea Walford).

I used the Old Olive Designer Series Papers and some Chocolate Chip Grosgrain Ribbon.

I also decide to follow the growing trend at the moment and add a little Bling!

Click on the images to see the detail of this stamp set is beautiful and as it says simple.

If you are passing by leave a comment and let me know what you think, and please if you have any advise for my workshop let me know.

Chocks Away!

Good evening everyone. I hope you have all had a good week. Its the weekend again Hooray!!!!!!! I wanted to share a special card I made recently. It was for my Hubby, who was forty recently, but looks as young as the day I met him. I love making 3D cards and this was just him! He is a plane enthusiast so I just had to make this fantastic creation from Cathie Shuttleworth's collection of templates. They are fab, I've made a few. I think inking the edges of all the pieces before putting it together really added to this design. I loved making it. Let me know what you think. Bye for now, I'm off to play and make some samples for my first workshop in two weeks time, can't wait I'm so excited. Bye for now :)

Class Cards!

Well its been so busy this week and stressful, have mock SATs next week and I'm pulling my hair out trying to get the children to remember things, too much for some and very unfair for others. Its so hard watching children go through the stress of tests. Standing there not being able to help when you know they are struggling is heartbreaking.

Anyway on a lighter note, I met with my After School Craft Club today and all I can say is WOW! They did so well. They all choose whether they wanted to make a card for a boy or girl, we talked about thinking of any birthdays coming up soon. Decision made, they then have to choose colours which matched. I think they all did really well, (sometimes children do tend to choose outrageous colours don't they!!)

We battled through double sided sticky tape and sticky buds, there were a couple of mishaps with the cards being the wrong way round, but I assured them this was a regular occurrence with many of us experienced crafters still !!!

The results were fantastic, the added extra that one of the little creative angels came up with was the torn piece of paper on the right of the card, underneath the sentiment, saying that it would look like a ribbon.

Aren't they brill, spot the deliberate mistakes!! Our future crafters.

Let me know what you think, leave me a comment and I can get back to you!!!

Bye til tomorrow.

What a Day!!!!!!

A quick post today ladies, and any gents who may pass by. Its been a really hard day to day. Teaching this morning, then sorting out new assessment strategy, the government are deciding to put into place, hopefully to replace SATs. A bit mind numbing at the moment. Anyway enough shop talk, down to cards and papercraft.

I just love Andrea Walford at http://andreawalford.com/. Her workshop and class planners are great. the next few photos are based on one of these. They are a collection of Cards, Love notes and tags.

This is the beginning, all the items are contained within!

This lovely little case contains 4 cards, with matching envelopes, 4 love notes and various tags.

All the images are from Loads of Love, from Stampin' Up. I fell in love with this collection the first time I saw it. I'm not really a girly girl!! If you know what I mean, and this stamp set fits the bill. The gingham ribbon is something I have had for ages, can't even remember where it came from but it goes so well. Each Pick-Up is coloured differently.

This one is watercoloured using Sakura Glitter Pens and Whisper Waterpens. The other truck is coloured using just Whisper Waterpens.

Hope you like them, leave me a comment a let me know.

Loads of Birthday Love! Part 2!

Second post today. Just made this matching gift bag to the previous card. Its based on the Blessing Mix box made by Angie at

Chic n'Scratch

they are great simple boxes. This one is full of a special treat.

Hands up who would just be in heaven if this pick up stopped outside to deliver at their house, lol, :)

Loads of Birthday Love!

This is a card I made last night for a very special friend. Its his birthday today. I just love this stamp set as it is so versatile. I coloured the truck using promarkers, which i like to use to get a more cartoony (not sure that's a real word, but sure you know what I mean) feel. I then highlighted it using a white Sakura Gelly Roll pen.

Another technique I like to use is inking the edges of my card and mats. I then added the embellishment. The problem is when I make cards, I really like, I hate having to give them away. But Hey Ho, can't keep them all.

Let me know what you think!!! Hope my friend likes it!

Just For You

Wow, taking the pictures outside really does work, they look great. Thanks for the advise Julie.I have made these pizza style boxes for the group of girls my daughter has been dancing with all week. They have all done a fantastic job performing at the Palace Theatre, in Cinderella.

The boxes contain 4 cards and envelopes, along with 4 stamped images (Messy Rabbits sister, Ballerina, available from Joanna Sheen) 4 sentiment accents and a set of crayons (16p from Asda). They are such a quick gift, i originally made them for my Nieces for Christmas. They were a real success. Hope you like it, leave me a comment to let me know:)

Blog Addicted

Well I have to say creating and editing a blog is very addictive and I hope the feeling continues. I will post a photo of a creation later just waiting to for the sun to come up. I've been reading a few blogs and have thought about what I could write.

Like Steph, a Jem like me, my motivation was to do something different. My life is already busy being a mum of two and a Primary School Teacher. But I have felt lately than I need a new challenge and what could be more challenging than making my life even busier. I hope whoever visits my blog will enjoy the creations they see and would leave a comment. Bye for now will post a picture soon!

Welcome to Card Oasis!

Hi,

This is my attempt at setting up a blog. This is card I made for a friend. Its the first card I have ever posted, hope you like it, let me know!!! TTFN