3 days in a row!!!

Okay, back again, well I am, no-one else is, there is somewhat of an echo around my blog, blog, blog.... (see I told you!)

Anyway, regardless of whether anyone even comes along, I will keep putting up the piccies.

I'm having a bit of an Elzybells fest this week - yet another card made with their lovely stamps, and again, it's the Just Desserts set that I've used - I love this set because it covers so many occasions for the ladies, well who doesn't love delicious cakes & not a calorie in sight with these.

I've also used Claire Curd Signature Range papers and my favourite oval nesties (well, my only nesties - but I am working on that!).

Hope you like, and I'll be back soon!

Elzybells Challenge 29

Well, as promised - I'm back again! woo hoo!!!

And I have something fab to show you (even if I do say so myself). The challenge was to create a 3D item - well as I spent an absolute fortune at the Exeter Westpoint show recently, which included some 3D Sizzix Bigz dies, I thought I would use one of those. I also had promised a friend of mine that I would make her a 3D ball to put some photos of her daughter onto, so it seemed a great idea to combine the two....

And now to blow the trumpet for customer care at Elzybells - I recently made a purchase of several stamps, including a Christmas set to help with the Christmas card rush. Well, when the stamps arrived I had been sent the fairytale ending set instead of the Christmas one I ordered. Well, I emailed Elzybells at 5.55 p.m. when I got home from work and found the mistake, within 10 minutes I had a reply saying that the correct set would be in the post and to keep the incorrect one by way of an apology. Well, I didn't expect to receive the correct set the next day as I had not contacted Elzybells during working hours & most post has been collected by 6 p.m. but when I arrived home the next day, sure enough the new stamps were there!!!! THANK YOU ELZYBELLS 20/10 FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE!

Anyway, I just had to make use of the free stamp set I had and thought I would combine it with the challenge and a gift for my friend - the blank spaces are so that she can add photos of her little princess. The 3D ball collapses and can be encased in a card which makes it an ideal gift - in fact so much so that she's asked me to make 5 more for her as Christmas presents for her family!

Hope you like and I'll be back again tomorrow - have so many cards to catch up on, I could be here quite regularly for a very long time.

MIA

Well it feels like it anyway - it's been so long since I posted, would apologize but as no one visits my blog (sob!) anyway there's no point!. Anyways.... Hope to start correcting that & as I've now realised that I have soo many cards that I've not posted on here, I thought I'd start with an old one to begin the catch up.

And I promise (hand on heart), that I will post more often.

Soo.... first up is a card I made ages ago for a friend of my daughter's birthday - she's a teenager so I didn't know where to start, but what girl does not like cupcakes. I made the backing paper myself with the clear stamp set 'Hey Cupcake' from Elzybells, and the main image is also from an Elzybells clear set called 'just desserts' - you can see a bit of a theme developing (hence my severe need to diet!). The ribbon was from a set of ribbons my mum gave me for Christmas last year - she understands what a craft addict I am! and most of you will recognise the Cuttlebug embossing folder.

I've taken two pictures so that you can see the background before the card was assembled - you will notice that the background is not perfect (but then I'm not perfect), hopefully I've managed to cover that up on the assembled card.

Well, hopefully, I will be back tomorrow with another card - see you then!

Crafters Companion Challenge No.3

Well, I've only just discovered this challenge blog & thought I'd have a go as the prize is a popcorn stamp set (& I love that little bear - have the Christmas Popcorn CD's on their way to me as we speak). I don't actually have that much Crafters Companion stuff anyway. I have a few cute companions stamps that I won when I had some cards published in a magazine, a free Christmas CD that came with a magazine and the triple flower fairies CD's - so that's what I've used for this.

This is the first time I've had a go at Stackerpage, and I love it - in spite of my silicone glue deciding that today was the day that the lid would break and so the glue set at the top of the tube (aaarrrrgggghhhh!!) - oh and the only foam pads I have are 2mm ones - not so good when there are 9 layers to this stacker. In the end I cut the end off my silicone glue and used a cocktail stick to put it on the layers and stick together. I haven't used these CD's too much so it was nice to have a real go with them, they are incredibly easy to use - even though I'm using a Macbook and so don't get the fancy graphical interface that my PC using friends get.

Well this has been a very relaxing way to end my week off work - back to getting up early tomorrow, so I suppose I should finish the housework and Ironing, oh and my daughter wants to have a barbecue tonight, in spite of the fact that it keeps clouding over and looking like it will rain at any moment! (teenagers! hopefully she'll grow out of it)

Card for a Phillatelist and football fan

Well, the brief was, this man likes stamp collecting (not the rubber variety) and football, but does not support any particular team. Boy was this a toughy, but I've shown it my friend & she's really happy with it. I had to hand draw the football pitch onto the green card using a white pen (found that Signo is much better than Inkssentials). The edge of the card was created by using a sizzix circle paddle punch to punch half circles giving a stamp like edge. I really wanted a trophy on the left hand side but couldn't find what I wanted so had to resort to peel offs. I created the backing paper on the inside of the card myself using a single football clipart pasted into word lots of times. Hope you like & sorry I've not posted for a while.

Sketch Saturday No. 58

Hi peeps! (I say that but nobody visits my blog - sob!).

I've just recently bought some lovely Elzybells stamps & they are sooo much fun to use and I find myself with loads of inspiration with their stamps - I've included a link and I would recommend that you have your credit card ready if you decide to follow it.

Anyway, as usual I trawl the challenge blogs looking for something to have a go at, and the Sketch Saturday one screamed at me today, so I thought I'd have a go.

The backing paper for the card was made using the stamps from Elzybells new Retail Therapy set, and I have to say I had my best friend Laura in mind when I made this! Instead of the three flowers in the original sketch, I thought it would be more appropriate to have shopping items and so used shoes, a handbag and a top. I even (a first for me!) decorated the inside of the card with the same main image and a row of little credit cards down the side. I have to say I'm really pleased with how this turned out.

Creative Inspirations Challenge No. 6

Well, as I won last week, I had to enter this again!

The DP's for this all came from the new Papermania Blueberry Hill collection, although I distressed the edges with a pale brown chalk ink pad. The image has been watercoloured, and I even made the paper flower myself (well, with the aid of a punch and embossing tool). I'm really pleased with this, it's probably the first time I've tried distressing in any big way & the colours are not my usual range.

Anyway, hope you like - I really enjoyed the sketch & will probably use this again.