SUSIES BLOG CANDY

Susie has some fab blog candy on offer until 4th May - so pop along and leave a comment - oh and have a look at her fabulous work too while you're there!

Tag - you're it Challenge

I love making tags and the Tag You're It challenge is a great one for me. This week they wanted to see the use of slides on our work.

Here's one I've entitled Dream.

Wednesday Stamper's Challenge - STRIPES

The Challenge over at Wednesday Stampers this week is Stripes.

My DD who is 17 is very talented when it comes to horses, whether it is riding them, healing them or drawing them. I have chosen one of her drawings here - she is also a lover of all things American and can't wait to return to Texas to live when she's old enough. She calls this horse Burning For Glory and I've mounted him onto an American Flag. The stars have been embossed so there is some stamping on here! LOL!

TMTA - BELTANE

The challenge over at TMTA says the following:

"In mythology, the night from April 30 to May 1 is Walpurgisnacht or Beltane. Walpurgisnacht is a Germanic tradition, whereas Beltrane is a Celtic tradition. Anyway, it’s the night of the witches and I thought to myself, why don’t we let the witches dance and celebrate ."

This is not only in Mythology - Witches and Wiccans all over the world will be celebrating the feast of Beltane on 1st May - the original May Day - and now the only remnants of this feast are the May Pole and the Dances around it. Beltane is a Festival to mark the return of summer with the lighting of fires. Can I just say that not all witches wear black hats, ride on broomsticks and have warts on their noses. LOL!

My ATC depicts a poem about Beltane in honour of the Goddess and also a recipe for Beltane Incense - As its probably far too small for you to read I'll copy it out here

Bring me my drum

and bring me my cymbal

bring forth the sistrum

bring forth the timbal

Dance now for Hathor

Celebrate Beauty

Dance in her Honour

Sing for our Lady

BELTANE INCENSE

3 parts lilac flowers

2 parts frankincense

2 parts patchouli

2 pinches ginger root

2 drops lilac oil (optional)

Grind together - mixing well. Either burn on a Beltane bonfire or in your incense holder. (Never leave a lit candle unattended - I can vouch for that one having had a house fire at Christmas!)

WELCOME LITTLE ONE

I'm undecided whether to put some wording on this card or not - the title Welcome Little One is shouting out at me and it could be used for an unusual baby card - but at the moment I'll just leave it plain. I've used SU stamps here - Equestrian Dream for the horse, the flowers are from the Carte Postale set. All papers brads and ribbons are SU - some of the inks are Tim Holtz Distress Inks. A slightly different style - hope you like it. I'm going to enter it into the Arty Girlz challenge this week where anything goes and they have some great prizes up for grabs. Also Rosie suggested I put it in the My Time To Craft challenge as theirs this week is babies! So two challenges with one stone! LOL!

TRACIE'S BIRTHDAY BLOG CANDY

Tracie is offering some fabulous stamps on her blog to celebrate her up-coming birthday. Taureans are really the best people - says someone who'se birthday is next week! LOL!!!

I'M OVER THE MOON

Just wanted to share a bit of good news with you all - I'm to perform Queen of the Night for Kennet Opera in Newbury in November! One of my other passions is opera and singing and I have sung major roles for them before, prior to me leaving to live in Texas. I can't wait to get back on a stage again singing.

TOPPERS TAGS & ATC'S

The theme over at Toppers Tags & ATC's this week is plants/trees/flowers. Pop on over and let us see your fab creations.

I followed the link from Inspirational blog to Beatriz's blog to see some more of her fab work and found that she was running a small challenge so I thought I'd join in. This is what you had to do:

Create a tag using:
*Pink and green
*Chipboard
*Scallops
*Ribbon
*At least one flower

I think I've covered all the Must-have's here - I used my scallop scissors to cut the pink paper.

SKINNIES CHALLENGE - TIME FLIES

The challenge at Sea Gals Skinny is Time - I've done this piece of time flies. It certainly does - there never seem to be enough hours in the day for crafting! LOL!

TMTA - Mermaid Challenge

The challenge for TMTA this week is mermaids or Water sprites.

DARING CARDMAKERS - WOOL OR COPPER

Daring Cardmakers mini dare this week was to incorporate Wool or Copper in your project. I thought the tree image looked quite coppery and I've added copper staples. The ink is also copper toned.

BLOG CANDY

So, if you are short of Cardstock or Papers you need to check out Sandy's blog and keep your fingers crossed that you win one of her blog candy prizes.

ARTY GIRLZ CHALLENGE/WEDNESDAY STAMPERS

The challenge at Arty Girlz this week is to make your own background paper. I clear embossed the butterfly onto white cardstock and inked with Tim Holtz distress inks. The top butterfly was cut out on acetate, the bottom one was embossed and coloured with Twinkling H2O's. Stamps, and embellishments all Stampin Up.

The challenge at Wednesday Stampers this week is insects so I think this will sufficie for their challenge too.

TIME TO CRAFT CHALLENGE

I've found another challenge blog on my travels - My Time To Craft - and this week their challenge is to use something FRUITY on your projects.

I had a look through all my supplies and can you believe not one thing fruity!!! So I improvised - I cut an apple in half and stamped it - the extra stamps are from SU. I thought the little tag stamp was appropriate as that bird is homing in on the tasty apple!

TOPPERS TAGS & ATC'S

Here's the challenge over at Toppers Tags & ATC's this week:

Your 4th mission, should you choose to accept :) is to create a Tag, Topper or ATC with the Theme of Faces AND Stitching - it can be male, female, young or old. There are no other rules relating to your creation.

Aagghh - stitching - I'm useless with a needle! As you can see!!! LOL!

INSPIRATIONAL CRAFT SWAP

The very popular Inspirational blog is running its first craft swap - if you'd like to join in with our first swap click on the banner on the right!

I'VE DONE IT - A NEW CHALLENGE BLOG IS BORN

Yes I know like you really needed yet another challenge blog - but I love doing challenges because it really does "challenge" me. I was surprised and disappointed when the inchy challenge blog disappeared so I've set one up - you'll find it here -

http://www.inchybyinch.blogspot.com/

So pop along to see what the first challenge is - don't be afraid - its amazing what you can do with an inch piece of paper.

Hope to see you there soon

PS - there's some blog candy too!

SOMETHING A BIT DIFFERENT

A visit to Anne's blog inspired this card - I hope she doesn't mind. I used the Da Vinci Women Cherry Pie images and some paper I had - I think its Dovecraft - which means I could enter it into Tracey's competition.

I used STAZON for the image - can you believe I only just bought this a few days ago! I only got the black but think I need to add a few more colours to my collection.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE INCHIES GONE

I've just noticed that the Tuesday Inchy blog site has gone - is it just me? I used to love doing the inchie challenges - I may just have to start my own up!

DARING CARDMAKERS TUTORIAL

Whilst doing this week's Daring Cardmakers challenge I noticed the extra tutorial about doodling on patterned paper by Lythan. I thought I'd have a go and, after a few attemps most of which went in the bin - I was eventually happy with this one. I'm not sure where I got the papers from but I like the way this has turned out.

Muted Spice - Daring Cardmakers Challenge

I've used the Oh So Lovely SU stamp here - and some scrap papers I've got in my ever growing scrap box! I think this card might work for the daring cardmakers challenge this week - which is Hot and Spicy - maybe I'll call this Muted Spice!

Challenge - Tag You're It

There's a new challenge on the blog - Tag You're It - I love tags - but this one was a challenge for me - no stamping!

Theme Thursday Challenge

Theme Thursday Challenge this week is to use Stripes. I've used SU supplies for this one - the stripes are cut out of cardstock and sanded - though not sure the sanding shows up very well. The inks in the stamping uses the same colours as the stripes. The flower used is from the Dovecrafts Embellishment kits so this can be included in Rattytatty's competition.

As promised, some piccies of us in Rome - the top one is opposite the Forum in front of what was Augustus' Palace and the bottom one is in the Colosseum. I must admit the Colosseum is not one of my favourite places to be - I get a very dark and sad feeling when I enter it and it makes me quite sad. My daughter, who is a lot more in touch with her spiritual side than I am, also felt ill and shaky so we didn't stay long.

And yes, my DH is that tall! LOL!

Bella Roma - its one of my favourite cities and I would have loved to have been Italian - great food, great wine, great people and Opera - what more could I ask for! LOL

4 x 4 CHALLENGE - Family

The challenge this week over at 4 x 4 is family. I can't remember where I got this image from but its looks kind of nostalgic doesn't it?

DO YOU SPOT ANYTHING NEW?

Thanks to my very talented daughter - I now have another new banner. What do you think?

ARTY GIRLZ CHALLENGE - RIBBONS

The challenge this week at Arty Girlz is ribbons. Its supported by Storm at Molly Daydream who sells lovely ribbons. I thought I'd do a Thank You card - they're always handy to have in your stock. All thank you stamps are Stampin Up.

I DID A LOAD OF CRAFTING YESTERDAY, HONEST

I really did do a lot of crafting yesterday - but it was two CJ's for Aunty's forum - one is a stamping CJ which I'm finding a lot of fun. I also had to do some inchies for the inchy swap I'm running on Aunty's and 17 ATC's for our latest ATC swap. Sorry but I can't show any of it yet as it will spoil it for everyone. Once the inchies are all swapped I'll post a piccy of them all.

Here's a card to be going on with with the cute pussy cat stamp from Emma at Sassycrafts. She's just had some new stamps in which are fab and I've spent my birthday money early! LOL!

SKINNIES

There is a new Skinny Challenge blog on the block run by one of my Aunty's forum friends, Caroline. If you like doing these challenging bits of art - pop along and support her blog. This week's challenge is WINGS.

Here's mine - I used my Cherry Pie Art stamps for the images and Tim Holtz distressing inks.