Recyle Challenge

I found another challenge site via Crissi's blog - and this one set the challenge of making a card using recyled items. Wow, what a challenge. Here's mine.

I used an old Woods of Windsor soap box and cut the side off. The Lavender's Blue song is from one of my music books. The Special came from a Special K box. The dried lavender on the front is from my garden and it is tied up with a piece of chive from my garden.

I had a certain someone in mind when I thought of this card.......LOL!!!!

Daring Cardmakers Challenge

Daring Cardmakers have set another challenge - this one was for a christmas card which had to include the following:

paper tearing

the colour purple

a hole

Luckily I used torn mulberry paper on my card because I forgot about the torn paper bit! LOL!

A great challenge cause I don't think I've used purple in my christmas cards before - and I quite like the effect.

I stamped the image using a stamp I bought at Hobby Lobby in the States, (it has no designer's name on it) - I used a punch to cut out the snowflakes holes and the sparkly purple paper behind was some sent to me by my forum friend Cat. The Winter stamp used with Versamark is one of Stampin Up's.

Saturday seems to be Rugby Day!!!

I know - a strange title for a crafty blog!!!! No you haven't tuned into a sporty blog by mistake.

The Rugby World Cup has started and of course, it goes without saying that WALES are going to win! As keen Welshmen and women and keen rugby fans we shall be glued to our tv's for the next six weeks. We hardly ever watch tv so this is going to be a new experience.

DS has tennis practice this morning so I'm up bright and breezy. I'm hoping to be able to get on with my own LEAF challenge today as well as doing the million other things that get in our way during the weekend.

Woke up to see 7 rabbits on my lawn this morning - my poor plants take a real battering. What is the use of having one Welsh Springer Spaniel and two cats if the rabbits still are allowed to come here for dinner!!!!!!

Right, I'm now waffling big time. I'm off!!!!!

Another Great Challenge Site

I found another great challenge site today - this one is a scrapbooking one - I've sent them a copy of my layout and I'm hoping they'll let me join in. The challenge was to do a 12 x 12 using four different patterned papers. I'm not normally one for using lots of varied colour so it was a challenge for me.

Here's my take on the challenge

The website is http://sisterhoodofscrap.blogspot.com/ Another one for my Challenge List! Its growing day by day!

I never knew there was so much crafting to be done on the internet!

ATC Challenge - Men

This is my first offering for the TMTA challenge - the ATC had a theme of Men. I chose to take a picture of Jonathan's grandfather - this was actually taken on his Wedding Day in 1914. He doesn't look overly happy does he? Thought the picture went with the vintage theme.

FRIDAY'S SCRAPBOOK CHALLENGE

ROLL UP!!!!! ROLL UP!!!!!

COME AND JOIN IN THE MAGICKDIVA THURSDAY CHALLENGE. EACH THURSDAY I WILL SET A NEW CHALLENGE TO GET YOU BUSY CREATING!

AS WE ARE VERY NEARLY INTO AUTUMN, AND ONE OF MY FAVOURITE TIMES OF THE YEAR, THIS WEEK'S CHALLENGE IS TO PRODUCE A SCRAPBOOK PAGE WITH A LEAF ON IT. THE SIZE CAN BE ANYTHING YOU LIKE TO WORK WITH.

WHEN YOU'VE DONE YOUR PAGE, LEAVE A COMMENT AND A LINK TO YOUR LAYOUT.

I WAS GOING TO UPLOAD SOME PAGES I DID SOME TIME AGO ON THIS THEME BUT LOOKING AT THEM - MY SCRAPBOOKING STYLE HAS CHANGED SO MUCH THEY ARE JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH. SO I'LL GO AND COMPLETE MY OWN CHALLENGE!

HAPPY SCRAPPING!

So what have I done today?

So far today I have pooh picked the horse's field (very mucky job but keeps me fit), .....picked blackberries but yet to do anything with them.......done some crafting......cut and sorted out some of my Cherry Pie Stamps and put them into CD cases (very organised - so unlike me!)......sold some stamps on my ebay store and got them in the post......sent off loads of post to Aunty's peeps......done two loads of washing.......practised my singing for Opera Group starting again on Monday.......done the dinner........

Quite a lot in a day really when I look at it!

My New Stamp

Here's a card I made with my winning Stamp from Julie.

I used Stampin UP watercolour pencils and blended with a water brush.

Pavarotti RIP

As an opera fanatic - I was saddened to hear of the death of Pavarotti today. I got to hear him some years ago at one of his Concerts in the Park but he wasn't really at his best. Although he isn't my favourite tenor - that definitely has to be Placido Domingo - he had a sublime voice.

I also received this in the post

This was something else I received from Julie - she had posted it on Aunty's forum and I loved it and she sent it to me. Its so lovely and made with Cherry Pie Art Stamps - its having pride of place on my bedroom wall.

Thanks Julie - keep watching your post - there may be a little something there to say thanks! xx

I had great post

I received some great post today - I received my stash from the competition I won on my friend Julie's blog - what a great lot of new things to play with. The ink is just my colour, I love green. I'm gonna have a play with the stamp and upload some things.

Thanks a lot Julie! It was great to win!

Daring Cardmakers Challenge

This is my card for the Daring Cardmakers Challenge - it had to contain something 'soft' - so I've included feathers and mulberry paper. All stamps used are Cherry Pie Art Stamps, naturally! LOL!

And another Challenge Site

I found another Challenge Site - this one is for Monday's!

Its an ATC site - a great place to be inspired!

I can't wait for Monday!!!!

The link is here but you can also find it under my Challenge Site list
http://tmta.wordpress.com/

ANOTHER GREAT CHALLENGE SITE

I've come across another great challenge site - Daring Cardmakers - their challenge this week is to use something soft on your cards.

I'll have a go tomorrow and upload what I do.

MY VERY FIRST PIF

Watch this space - or get those comments written - you may be the recipient of my very first PIF.

In accordance with the PIF rules - I will choose 3 people at random to receive something hand-made from me.

IT COULD BE YOU!!!! LOL!!!!!

Wednesday Stamper

I found this challenge site via Hazel's blog! I love the idea of having a different challenge to do every day - I seem to work a lot better when I have a focus.

This Challenge was to use Mulberry Paper or hand-crafted paper - I use mulberry a lot in my cards s0 here's my take on this week's challenge.

The link to the site is

http://wednesdaystamper.wordpress.com/

Is it Autumn yet?

Autumn is my favourite time of year cause I love to go out blackberry picking and making chutneys ready for Christmas. I've just been out to the lane outside my house and picked a load of blackberries - I got stung by the nettles and covered in thorns and blackberry juice - but that's part of the fun isn't it? LOL!

Up at the yard where the horse is - they have some lovely elderberries and crab apples well away from traffic - apart from tractors though I suppose - and I'll probably go and pick some of those tomorrow. I'll upload some autumnal recipes as I go along.

Does anyone else make jams or chutneys? or are you all too busy with papercrafts??

Another Elsie Challenge

I haven't done the last few Elsie Challenges because things have been a bit hectic at home - but I managed to find my "mojo" and finished this week's. This was a place we loved to visit when we lived in Texas - they used to have a Bluebonnet Festival twice a year - which was the flower of Texas (each state in the USA has its own flower) and the little town would be filled with craft stalls. They were also famous for their sausages. We loved this house and would have loved to have lived there.

You Tube - How to mount unmounted rubber stamps

Thanks To Donna I have been able to upload the video - hope you all find it useful - I did!

Time Flies

This was a layout I did some time ago - I had these two old pictures of my husband that I wanted to put in an album I was doing for his parents' 60th Wedding Anniversary. I also wanted to show the similar pictures, but with our own children. The top left is my daughter with our dog and the top right is my husband with his dog back in the 60's. The bottom left picture is my husband when he was about 10 and the bottom right is my son when he was about 10! Time certainly does fly!

Upload a YouTube video?

Does anyone know how I can upload a You Tube video onto my blog? I've tried to do it but it just keeps saying it can't find it. I wanted to show a video showing how to mount your unmounted rubber stamps as it might be a great help especially for all those Cherry Pie Art Stamps. In the meantime - I'll post the link on here and you can go look for yourselves. She also has some great ideas for storing unmounted rubber stamps - I just love the CD cases idea!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ROM-hOaapM

I WON

WOW - I can't believe I won the competition on Julie's blog!!!! It was such a great competition and I'm sure we all had fun racking our brains - glad you liked mine Julie - can't wait to get those generous goodies! Looking forward to seeing your finished layout too.

I'll have to think of a clever idea for a competition - hmmmmm..........

Elsie Challenge - Use 3 embellishments

This was done for the Elsie Challenge of using three embellishments - I used three pictures in the middle, three leaves, three ribbons and three brads. This was of Jonathan and Chris on their first boy's trip out to the Brecon Beacons. You'd think in August they would have had some good weather - but oh no - it was so misty up on the mountains they had to come down. Nothing to do with their fitness levels, you understand!

Elsie Challenge - Use of Arrows

This was the layout I did for the Use of Arrows challenge. I've never used arrows on my layouts before and it was a fun thing to do. These were pictures of Emma at Center Parcs being her usual dare-devil self and climbing high, with no fear. They were just perfect pictures to use together with arrows.

Elsie Challenge

I need to get myself organised before Saturday and complete the Elsie Challenge on Aunty's. I missed last week's due to all sorts of reasons but would love to try and complete this week - which is to use ripped or torn or decorated papers. I do this all the time so it SHOULD be easy!

TWO STEP STAMPING

One of the things I love about Stampin Up stamps is their two-step stamping images. The one stamp offers you the base image, the other stamp is the overlay or adjoining image. It helps to use light ink for the base image and darker ink for the overlying one.

Dominoes

I have done a few of the dominoe swaps on Aunty's but I find them too frustrating. I love receiving them though - and the Queen of Dominoes is Crissi - here is an example of some she sent me

Here's a fab card topper I received from my friend Jo from Aunty's forum - we do regular topper swaps and this one was themed Back To School.

Thanks Jo - I love it!!!!