You have a piece of my heart!

Penny Black Image - You have a piece of my heart
Coloured with copics - E00 E02 R20, C0, C1, , C3, C5, C7 R81, R83 & R85
Papermania DP - Scrumptious
Flowers & Pearls (also coloured with R85 copic), Ribbon, charm, & brads from stash.
6x6 Cream card from The Papermill
Distressed edges with Old Paper

A few firsts for me with this card the first time i have distressed the edges of my image with a distress tool and ink, been seeing this done on Create & Craft so thought i would have to get one and try it, got lots more practising to do, but the image was passable! Also distressed the edges of the Design Papers, Also the first time I have ever used 'Proper' Ribbon and a charm, I have used sticky backed ribbon before but this is stuck down using double sided tape and the 'knot' is tied around it and used a little charm which says
'Together Always'

I would like to enter this card into these 10 Challenges:

Moving Along With The Times #133 Blooming Marvellous (add flowers to your project)
Charisma Cardz Challenges!! #3 Pretty In Pink (must be pink) (No More then 10 Challenges)
PaperCrafting Journeys #1 Florals - (add flowers to your project)
My Mums Crafts Shop Challenges #41 Flowers (add flowers to project)
Do You Stack Up #56 Use Ribbons
Oldie But A Goodie = Have A Heart - Project must have a heart on it and you must use something over 6 mothe old and list it = My stamp is over 6 months and so is the papers and the ribbon is about 8years old!!!
Sweet Stampin Challenges Lets See Those Animals
Simply Create Too #5 Love is In the air
Creative Inspirations Paint Challenge For Someone Special (it's for my hubby)
Crazy 4 Challenges C4C121 Layer It On lots of layers and embellies

Thanks for looking

Friday Fun - Its 'Raining 'Cats and Dogs'

Dinner Time

Pumpkin

Fluff

Ellie

William and Ellie

Butternut In Ellie's Bed!

These are my Fur Babies' They totally rule our lives and its a competition who is going to be boss each day between the short haired ginger cat 'Butternut' and Ellie, Butternut usually wins, The Basset is 'William' he is Ellie's best friend and is our neighbour.

Actually it's dry and fairly bright in my part of the UK (South East Kent) Not been able to do much crafting this week, bad week with CFS, lots of pain :-(

These are my first ever attempt at friendship Bracelet's

Watched a few videos on utube and had a go at making these with some 'cross stitch' threads from the £1 shop, I don't think I would like to actually stitch with the thread, (i think all CS's have their favourite threads) but these turned out fine and my daughter has been wearing them, (and asked for more!) I would like to learn some different styles and also think it would be nice if I could add some type of bead to the ends.

Thank you for visiting and A HUGE WELCOME to my new followers, (you wouldn't believe how excited I was to see how many people had found me!) I read every single comment left and try my best to visit you all every day even if i don't leave comments on your blogs.

I would like to enter the Friendship Bracelets into:

Crafty Creations Challenges -#154 Which asks for Anything but a card With the theme of 'Valentines for Kids'.

I have never entered anything other than a card into a challenge and am not sure if it has to be 'Papercraft' so if i have got it wrong and this is not allowed please except my apologise

Thanks for visiting Hope you all have a Fun Friday

Lou x

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday

WOYWW #138

Good Morning everyone, thank you for your kind welcome into the super duper ever growing family that is Whats On Your WorkDesk Wednesday, Mrs Dunnit is a very charming host, and I kindly except her invite to return, but boy, I did not realise how long it would take me to get round everyone’s desks and actually leave comments, I didn’t manage all of them but it was well over 150 so I was quite pleased. (I couldn’t leave comments on some due to blogger. Honest it was he’s fault!) and I need to work out a proper system this week, I couldn't remember where I had visited and where I hadn’t!

I was wondering do you leave comments at every single desk, or do you visit the same ones every week, so only comment on those ones?

So onto my desk this week,

You will see nothing very much of interest I took this Tuesday evening before I tidying away the bits and bobs I used for making the Pink Gem Card (although it was posted after, I actually made the Magnolia card at the weekend so the pink gem one, is the last one I did, does that make sense?) the pile of stamped images, does anyone else do this??, I usually stamp and then emboss the image with clear embossing powder so I have a stamping session and stamp a load of the same images for colouring at a later date, I have a box of images, stamped and embossed all ready to colour, and when I am poorly and can’t manage to sit up at the desk, my kitchen trug’ type thing filled with markers and my box of stamped images come to the bedroom and I can colour when I am well enough, so I end up with lots of coloured images waiting to go onto cards, Usually none in the colours that i want !!!

I couldn't’ decide what image to use on the pink and green card so coloured a couple.

So while I was taking my pictures I thought I would show you my little colouring book that I have been keeping since I started using markers (copics & pro-markers)

I have CFS and my memory is very severally affected and one day I can colour an image which I like and then the next I can’t remember what colours I used, so I colour a couple of images and then record all the details in my book, I also write down other peoples tips and what colour combos they recommend, for example I think a good pro-marker combo for the forever friend bears is Vanilla, Ivory and Saffron, I have listed hair colour combo’s and skin tone combo’s, all sorts of tips and helpful hints I have found since using markers, basically it just saves me wasting card and ink and time and effort, This works well for me and is so helpful, it has all sorts written in it and stuck in it but it works and I would recommend anyone just starting out using markers to do something like this.

This is what happens when i leave my photographic lighting box (thingy) set up, so i don't use it very often which is why most of my photos are dark and dismal

Thanks for visiting and if you read the waffling and didn't just look at the piccys well done you hehehe Hope you all have a great week.

Lou x

Oh I forgot to say if there is anyone who does not know why i am showing you this and waffling on and if you have no idea what WOYWW means - Where have you been???- head on over to The Stamping Ground where lots and lots of people allow you into thier homes to snoop round their crafting area, its great!

The Crafty Pad Challenge Blog

I won At The Crafty Pad.

(My Craft Spot - Nadia's Challenge Blog - The Crafty Pad & Joanna Sheens Monthly Challenge Blog)

I was soooooo please to win last weeks challenge over at The Crafty Pad with the sparkly card I had made for my neice Chloe (here) Thank you so much ladies.
I had sooo much fun choosing my prize over at DIGITAL DOWNLOADS - which is a fabulous site, please give it a visit.

So when I saw the challenge for this week

The Crafty Pad Challenge 154 Lets See Something for the Boy's

I thought that i could enter and use a Crafty Pad Stamp 'Diggin Albert' which you can find here (not sure if he is still available as a stamp but you can get him as a digi image) but then i saw the DT cards, (which are all amazing) and they all seemed for youngster's so wasn't sure if it would be allowed so i did 2 just to be sure
This is Digging AlbertAnd this is another using the Skateboard Dude stamp by Gillian Roberts -
I told you i do lots of Boy/Male themed cards - I give lots of my cards to my Gran for some of her 60 odd grand & great grandchildren, and as there is only about 15 girls she needs lots of boy themed ones - I don't have grandchildren myself yet!!!

(I will come back and add details of design papers and copic numbers if i can find my lists!!)

I would also like to enter either of these cards into these challenges too:

Nadia's Challenge Blog Challenge #23 Theme - A Boys card, and you have to use a stamp.
My Craft Spot Monday Challenge #42 Theme - Lets Hear it for the boys
Joanna Sheen Monthly Challenge Theme - Celebration (any celebration birthday, wedding anniversary, good luck)

Thank You for Looking.

Lou x

Tilda Card

Whilst visiting lots of blogs this week I have noticed lots of us crafters are using up stash and our old stamps and I have lots of papers and i still love all my old stamps, so this is no hardship for me. I seem to be using all my old favorites just lately.

I would like to enter this card into TotallyPaperCrafts Make Your Own Flowers The flowers are made using x-cut punches.

Also Into Lets Ink It Up Challenge #19 Anything Goes (As long as it has stamped image) Tilda is stamped.

Thanks for Looking
Lou x

Fairy Milly

This Stamp is another that I love, I bought it ages ago from Pink Gem Designs along wth many more, and they all still please me and are just brilliant for kids cards.
I have coloured her using copics E00, E11, R20, R81, R83,R85, E33,E25, & E51 and used gold star and clear star Sakura Jelly Roll Pens on her wand and wings and added some glitter to the little stars on her dress, and bow.
I like simple cards, I love the ones that are all decorated with lots of flowers too but if i had to choose i would probably go without so I have kept this very similar to the sketch over at A Gem Of A Challenge


so would like to enter this card into this challenge.

I am also entering this card into:
Crazy For Challenges C4C120 which is asking for a Childs Birthday Card
Stamping For The Weekend Challenge 24 Out With The Old - My stamp is old and the papers were a freebie with Cardmaking & Papercraft Magazine they are Quite Contrary Summer Papers by My Minds Eye.
Colour Create Challenge #88 Pink and Green

Lisa Jane from My Makes "n" Me also pointed out that this would qualify for the challenge over at Moving Along With The Times challenge 132 which is Things with Wings so Entering this card for that one too Thank You Lisa Jane x

Thank you for looking.
Lou x

Do You Stack Up Challenge Blog

This is one of my all time favorite stamps it's by Sarah Kay called Spring is Back , another 6x6 card (i like the square cards) and i used pro-markers to colour this one, the design paper is Dovecraft Back to Basic 1 I would like to enter this into The Do You Stack Up Challenge #55 which this week is asking for Patterened Paper

Thanks for looking
Lou x

First ATC's (in more than a year) Feel very much like a newbie crafter again

These are for a Music Themed swap, the pyramid floral is a Thank you. I think I might need to add a little 'Thank You' tag.

ATC Backing was made using The Whitewash Collection Colorcore Card stock embossed with a cuttlebug embossing folder called Allegro and then sanded and the die cut Drama masks are by Quickutz and guitar is a sizzix die and a small music note punch, the floral pyramid one is from a Nice & Easel sheet.

My first WOYWW - # 137

Please feel free to skip the rambling and just look at piccy's (Long long post, lots of rambling and lots of photos)

I have been reading this blog STAMPING GROUND since well before it’s First Birthday but have never taken part, I used to craft at the dinning room table so as soon as I finished at the end of each day everything had to go away so we could use it to eat dinner, so I never had anything to show, I used to go around other blogs and marvel at the spaces, (I never managed all the blogs tho even in the early days, I love Julia’s way of writing and I decided that as soon as I started blogging again that I would take part, I am not sure if I will manage every week, it depends on how unwell I am, but today I thought I would show you my crafting space – no longer am I at the table but I have my very own space, I know many people have spare bedrooms or even proper offices but here in England you have to practically be a millionaire to own a big house with spare rooms (ok I might be exaggerating a bit) but generally our homes are quite small and I am far from a millionaire so when my son went to university we discussed with him about me sharing his room, as he is hardly here (holidays only Now :-( ) I also had a long list of what storage I would like and spent many hours drooling over spaces and homemade storage but knew that I would never be able to afford any posh craft stuff so when my sister in-law had a new extension (new kitchen, dinning room and treatment room, she is a reflexologist !) she offered us her old kitchen I can tell you I almost bit her hand off and so waited patiently (well not so patiently) till they got round to removing the cupboards and hubby collected them and with a bit of hammering, sawing, and adjusting and lots of swearing lol he put them into bedroom, I was a bit unsure how it would look but knew that I wanted all the craft stuff to be able to be put away when son comes home so he has his bedroom back ‘almost’ and i can honestly say it works really well, so here are a few piccys of my space.

So I have 2 1/2 wall cupboards with doors so things can be hidden away and then a small open wall unit which is perfect for 6x6 papers, there is also a corner display unit on the end which I have some of sons medals and awards standing, oh and a small cross stitched picture I did! Under the wall cupboards is a long strip of lighting and I have to use the small daylight lamp because as you can tell there is not a window, it's at the other end of the room.

I have 4 base cupboards I don’t know if you can tell but basically they go along one wall and a little bit around the corner onto another wall, well before son went to uni he worked at a DIY store and managed to purchase the kitchen work top for £10 (can you imagine how delighted I was, I bet you can)

My Bigshot is standing on an Old Card Table that folds flat when not in use and is the perfect height and fits into the large cupboard when not in use.

I am sure you are all very fed up by now but I wanted to show the just another few pictures of my Pen storage – this is a CD holder bought from a large supermarket (S) when it was on sale for £7 and hubby bought some black mounting board and made separate compartments big enough so that all my pens can fit in even when I expand I use copics mostly but have a collection of Pro-markers a few whisper pens and various other gel pens etc..And they all fit wonderfully with space for more!!! When I am unwell and need to craft in bed (another story for another day) I use a kitchen tool holder to hold my pens and not sure of the exact cost but it was only a few pounds I wouldn’t have paid more! But again it works really well for me and I think the total cost of my craft space and storage as well as it being recycled cost us less then £50 – I have lots of little storage boxes in the cupboard and some more crafty recycled storage but I will leave that for another day.

One day I will get around to painting the doors and maybe even getting some proper craft storage, but hubby is happy I am not using the table, (and making mess, I know he just didn't understand lol) and I am soooo happy that I can leave out the things I am working on and that it works well when my son is home, even the cat is happy

If your still here Thank you for looking and I will do my very best to get around as many of your blogs as possible. And remember to leave your love for Julia over at The Stamping Ground.

Lou xx

Cards For Men Challenge Card

I make A LOT of Men/Boys Cards - and this stamp is perfect, easy to colour and no need for much embellishments, which is great for boys cards.

I would like to enter this card into CARDS FOR MEN Challenge 2 Which asks us to make a card for Boys and Their Toys

Card is just a tiny bit under 6x6 in Design papers are K&Company pad called Hopscotch a Computer generated greeting, coloured with copics but i can't find the list anywhere! and the stamp is A Stampavie one by Gillian Roberts called Skateboard Dude

Thanks for looking

Happy Birthday Chloe

I adore this little fairy stamp - it is from Pink Gem Designs and is actually called Fairy Chloe

I made this card for someone else to give to our neice Chloe

I would like to enter this card into The ABC Challenge and this weeks letter is H for Happy Birthday - I think this might just meet the requirements hehe

I would also like to enter this into My Mum's Craft Shop Challenges and this weeks Challenge is Here Comes The Girls Challenge #39

Last but not least i would like to submit this card to The Crafty Pad 1st Challenge of 2012 which is Challenge # 153 SPARKLE - I hope that it is clear enough on the photo but the diecut letters were cut out of Pink Glitter card and her wings are glittered, along with her wand - I apologise for not using a Crafty Pad image you will see way back in my blog i was once a guest design team member for The Crafty Pad and purchased a few stamps and was lucky enough to get to use Butterflies with Verse & border which i loved so much i went on and purchased the stamp set as I had not and still have not got digi stamps mastered yet!!! It was only whilst i was browsing my blog list (instead of sleeping) that i noticed it would fit with this challenge as the card really was very very sparkly and thats what our Chloe loved about it.

After having some sleep I have found (I think) the details i wrote about the design papers and copic numbers so thought i would just add that to the description as I really like the blogs that include details!

A4 Pink card fold in half - (from Papermill) Then very simple a A5 Papermania Capsule Collection (Red Hot Paper Pack) Sparkly glitter card and Fairy Chloe from Pink Gem - the little butterflies are from Hobbycraft 99p for a big sheet of puffy butterflies (great value I think) and Flowers and brad from stash and onto the copics, i used

E11, E00, R20, Rvoo, Rv02, Rv04, Y17, Y21 & Y00 and also Poppy Pro-marker and gold pro-marker -

Boy those Design Teams are talented, i love looking and drooling over all the lovely images and projects

Thanks for looking

Introducing Ellie

This is Ellie, she was born 27th May 2010 and came to live with us on August 4th that year, she has turned our world upside down and we all can’t really believe how much we all adore her – My son started Uni in September 2010 and before that spent 6 months in Australia so I was suffering Empty Nest Syndrome v.badly. My daughter has always wanted a dog but we had a very old cat who would not of tolerated a dog and as she was poorly until she went to cat heaven there was no way we could put her though the trauma so when she passed in 2009 within a few months my daughter started asking (begging) for a dog, however we couldn’t decide on a breed, I wanted a yorkie, hubby wanted a Jack Russell and daughter wanted anything with four legs that barked. So the searching started and daughters birthday came and we said she could choose, within 3 days Ellie was living with us.

She totally rules our lives and we adore it, she is very spoilt but very well behaved and we have comments from other dog owners on how well behaved she is, our lives now revolve around 2 teenagers and Ellie, oh and the cats when they can get a word in hehe

A couple of cards to practise blogging!!!

I am trying hard to remember how to work this blogging thingy lol.so gonna do some posts just for practise and to keep a kind of diary of my crafting.

So yesterday I made 2 cards, I know 2, but I cheated they were both die cut decoupage ones but so I thought I would try and post details about them (really just to get the hang of this blogging)

So firstly I have this beautiful Bassett Hound decoupage – This of course was for a Bassett owner who owns 2 beautiful bassets who we all adore (I will ask them to pose for some piccys and introduce them to you at a later date)

This is a 3D die cut decoupage sheet from craftuk called Furry Friends Pets and includes 3 doggies this gorgeous Bassett a cute little Westie and a very handsome German Shepard it is a lovely quality A4 sheet, 220gsm and so easy to use just pop them out and layer them up with either silicone or 3d pads I used pads for this,

This card is a 15cm x 15cm cream base (from The Papermill) I have used Basic grey 6x6 Max and Whiskers paper and a couple of Dovecraft funky brads 'Pets' and a pre-printed Happy Birthday banner. Super easy to put together all I did was go around the edges of the diecut shapes with a Pro-marker just to hide the white edges – it didn’t really need this but I get a bit obsessed with white bits!

I would like to enter this into TotallyPaperCrafts Challenge #99 which is Spots and Stripes

So Secondly this is for our niece who is 3 on Saturday and she started taking dancing lessons a little while ago, so a perfect girly image, this is also a 3d die cut decoupage, I bought it in the sales after Christmas it was a half price kit called Daisy and Dandelion The secret Woodlands Die cut decoupage and pyramage pack and it Contains 4 x die cut sheets, 2 x background papers, 2 x patterned paper plus a free project sheet, so lots for your money however I wasn’t that impressed with the diecut there was huge white bits around the edges and you had to be very careful when popping them out because it would have torn really easily.

Another super easy card 15cmx15cm which is one of my favourite sizes for cards. A pink card base again from The Papermill then 6x6 Papermania Scrumptious Paper pad, a scalloped oval cut with nestabilities with stickles around the edge and a small piece of paper from the die cut kit – the teddy is layered using 3d silicone, best to use the silicone when doing little fiddly bits and I still use the cocktail stick method and then some peeloff's to spell out her name and a Happy Birthday Easy peasy.

Now let me see if i can get this to post with the photos in the right places!

I would like to enter his pink card into The Do You Stack Up Challenge #54 which is Be Pinky

And I would also like to enter this into Crafty Cardmakers # 59 and the rules say 'No Floral Embellishments'.

I think i have stuck to the rules and have linked up properly please forgive me if i have got it wrong.

Is there anybody out there?????

My goodness I have no idea how to work this now I cannot remember how to post messages and it looks like its all changed - its been such a looonnnggg time, A few changes have happened in my life and had a long break from crafting but i am back and hoping to get involved with my old groups and get to grips with these blogs - I love reading other peoples blogs and have a huge list saved as bookmarkswhich I visit daily if not weekly.

Anyway I am going to attempt to load a piccy now  - oh not sure where this is going to show up but this is one of the main reasons crafting stopped . A new addition to the family this is my baby she is a cross between shitzu and jack russell and is called Ellie, she has the sweetest temperament and makes me laugh and smile all day long.

Ermmmm well I think i have some reading to do so i know a little of what i am doing and i will be back to show piccys of my new craft area!!!! yipee yes my very own little space I LOVE IT and once I have got to grips with blogging again i will start showing you what I have been up to recently and I am planning on having a sort out of some stash so some blog candy could be on the cards if there is still anybody out there!!!!!!