Another award, I'm speechless.

Hello and good afternoon, it's rather stormy over here, chucking it down at the moment outside, dark and grey, although only 4.30 pm, and a 'lovely' thunderstorm as well.

One thing at the moment to cheer me up though. The lovely Suzi aka Sugar n Spice, has given me another award. Thank you so very much, it's very much appreciated. I'm really speechless (so to speak).

Just one bit of a problem, as with all awards they need to be passed on. I have to pass it on to another five deserving bloggers who show great attitude and gratitude. I'm afraid I will have to get back to you on that one, at a time when I have some more time.

By the way, don't forget the new challenge, 5, will start at C.R.A.F.T. Challenge tomorrow, so only very little time to enter into the current one! Hope to see you there soon.

Love,

Jo.

DT call at Double Dutch Challenge.

Hi everyone,

Just found a new DT call on Double Dutch challenge blog yesterday. You can find them at http://doubledutchchallenges.blogspot.com/ . When I saw this I wanted to get in touch with them immediately, but unfortunately there were some other things that needed doing first. You know, the dreaded housework. Now in between all of the ironing I have finally found a little bit of time and sent the e-mail off. Now all we can do is wait and see if they are interested.

By the way, it would be great if you came to visit us at C.R.A.F.T. Challenge this week as well. You can find us at http://trimmiescraftchallenge.blogspot.com/. This week's challenge is a double one, father's day and/or brown/blue colour combo male card. Hope to see you all there!

Have a great crafting weekend!

Love,

Jo.

fun with shapes and more: Challenge #6

fun with shapes and more: Challenge #6

Hello everyone,


Today I quickly made a card for one of my youngest class mates. She is having her

birthday party tomorrow and we received the invite earlier this week. Although she will only be 6 on her birthday, I think she will probably like the image I have chosen. The background papers I'm not really sure about, probably more suitable for someone a little bit older.
I have used a garden fairy decoupage image layered onto 3 different Funky Fairies papers. 2 from the swirly range, pink and brown and one from the birds range, a turquoise one. The papers have been die cut using scalloped edged rectangle nestibilities and classic oval nestibilities in my Big Shot.

I therefore believe this cards fits in with several challenges.
1. Allsorts Challenge blog , the challenge there is 'Curly Swirly' and I feel it is fit for purpose with the swirls papers.
2. Charisma Cardz Thursday Challenge where the challenge is a colour combo pink/brown. I feel it fits the bill there as well.
3. Cute Card Thursday, the challenge is to 'A Nip and a Punch'. You need to use your punches or die cuts, I made some diecut pieces of paper to mount the image on, so feel it fits this challenge as well.
4. Shapes and More where the challenge is to use scrolls/swirls in your card, fits again.
5. And last, but not least I'm also entering it in Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge, where the challenge is Pink, Turquoise and a hint of brown, and this card fits the bill there as well.
Hope you all like the card and of course especially the birthday girl. All comments are very welcome and very much appreciated. Thank you for looking.

Love,

Jo.

Birthday card and combined challenge card

Hello everyone,






Today I quickly made a card for one of my youngest class mates. She is having her



birthday party tomorrow and we received the invite earlier this week. Although she will only be 6 on her birthday, I think she will probably like the image I have chosen. The background papers I'm not really sure about, probably more suitable for someone a little bit older.



I have used a garden fairy decoupage image layered onto 3 different Funky Fairies papers. 2 from the swirly range, pink and brown and one from the birds range, a turquoise one. The papers have been die cut using scalloped edged rectangle nestibilities and classic oval nestibilities in my Big Shot.

I therefore believe this cards fits in with several challenges.

1. Allsorts Challenge blog , the challenge there is 'Curly Swirly' and I feel it is fit for purpose with the swirls papers.

2. Charisma Cardz Thursday Challenge where the challenge is a colour combo pink/brown. I feel it fits the bill there as well.

3. Cute Card Thursday, the challenge is to 'A Nip and a Punch'. You need to use your punches or die cuts, I made some diecut pieces of paper to mount the image on, so feel it fits this challenge as well.

4. Shapes and More where the challenge is to use scrolls/swirls in your card, fits again.

5. Creative Card Crew Challenge, where the brief is child's play, a kid's card.

6. And last, but not least I'm also entering it in Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge, where the challenge is Pink, Turquoise and a hint of brown, and this card fits the bill there as well.

Hope you all like the card and of course especially the birthday girl. All comments are very welcome and very much appreciated. Thank you for looking.

Love,

Jo.

DT entry 3 for C.R.A.F.T. Challenge/entry for Creative Inspirations Challenge blog

Hello everyone,



It's time for the third Challenge at C.R.A.F.T. Challenge today. I'm also entering this in the challenge at http://creativeinspirationschallenge.blogspot.com/2009/05/challenge-10-and-winner-of-9.html?showComment=1244184062350#c5239664809482610407 as it fits that one as well. (blue and brown combo) and on One Stop Craft Challendge for this week 'Let's hear it for the boys'
This week the challenge is a 2 in 1 challenge, father's day and combo brown and blue. I hope you like my take on this challenge.



As I have been away on holiday and needed to catch up with all the washing and ironing over the last few days and week, I have not really had a lot of time to make a card, but I thought this relatively simple card is covering the bases. I hope you all like it.



It is always quite tricky to find something that fits a male card, but when I saw this decoupage image with matching background, I thought it was very suitable. Especially since my hubby loves action and cards.




























I have used a simple pearlescent blue base card on which I have layered first the matching background, then brown card cut with a scalloped edged rectangle nestibility, then a blue one and then some backing paper that I found free on The Crafty Pad some time ago and I felt it worked very well with this card.





Thank you for looking and I certainly hope you will join us at the C.R.A.F.T. Challenge, looking forward to your creations.





Love,





Jo.

Todays giveaway at The Crafty Pad

Hi everyone,

I thought I would just let you all know what today's giveaway is at The Crafty Pad. This one is also definitely worth looking at. Debbie has some gorgeous stamps on sale there as well. Do check them out.

Today's giveaway is 'Just Teddy-Hugs', a really cute stamp, I'm sure you will agree. If you want to be in with a chance of winning this stamp, please go and visit her blog. You will also find some lovely weekly challenges there.

Love,

Jo.

The first of several awards to pass on.

Hello everyone,

It's time to finally start passing on some of the lovely awards I have received. Somehow I have never managed to find time to pass them on. So, let's start with this award. It was given to me by the lovely Cheryl and I'm supposed to pass it on to 5 other blogs. So, I will grab the cuppa and have a bit of a think.

I will pass it on to:

1. Tracy

2. Cathy

3. Gisela

4. Sam

5. Julie

They all have lovely blogs, that definitely are worth having a look at. Hope you will all find it easier to pass it on to 5 blogs than I did.

Love,

Jo.

Back from holiday again!

Hello everyone,

Just got back from holiday in Somerset with the family late yesterday afternoon. Trying to catch up with everthing I missed over the last week and there has been a lot.

First I noticed that Debbie has a lovely giveaway going at

The Crafty Pad that is just too good to miss. She is giving away one of her lovely stamps daily for a week. Today is day 4, so I have already missed 3 great chances! Today she is giving away her Belinda Garden stamp.

The next thing I noticed was that I have been missing some major problems with Mr Linky at our new challenge blog C.R.A.F.T. Challenge. Otherwise the challenge blog seems to be doing well. So, it's time for me to get my skates on to come up with a DT entry for the next challenge that starts on Thursday again. It has been partially done, but you'll have to wait till Thursday for it to be revealed.

I also found I have been given another lovely award. This time it was the lovely Cathy who gave me this lovely award. Thank you very much! It does as usual have some rules attached to it.

The rules are that I thank the person for the award and pass it on to at least 7 people who deserve it and then list 10 honest things about myself.

The difficult bit will be to come up with 7 more people to pass it on to. I still have to come up with some people to pass some other awards on to as well as I have not really had much time to think these over yet.

As for the 10 honest things about myself, here it goes:

1. I am addicted to crafting, even managed to bring some crafty things with me on holiday.

2. I have 4 lovely kids, 3 boys and 1 girl.

3. I am married to a lovely man and have been for the last 10 years.

4. I am quite a busy person with lots of housework to do as well as a job.

5. I have just been on holiday to Somerset with the family for 1 week.

6. I have not done a lot of work today yet, although I have managed to do some of the laundry.

7. Today I have helped my daughter with her DT entry for C.R.A.F.T. Challenge for this week, although I have not yet had a chance to work on mine much yet. Oops!

8. I will soon need to get something sorted for tea as the family will return after swimming lessons at 6.30pm.

9. Tomorrow the kids will go back to school, hubby back to work and I will need to do some housework as well as getting some cards done.

10. I'll be back at work again on Tuesday, not something I'm looking forward to as it is likely to be very busy again indeed.

So, that is the 10 things sorted. Now I will need to think about who to pass it on to as well as getting my DT card sorted. Also need to get some birthday cards organised soon as well.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday everyone, I'm going to try to get my DT card done now before the troups are back.

DT entry for Challenge 2 at C.R.A.F.T. Challenge Blog.

Here is my entry as DT member at C.R.A.F.T. Challenge blog for week 2. The challenge was to involve moving components, so anything that slides or swings, or moves really. You can find the challenge at http://trimmiescraftchallenge.blogspot.com/ .

Just before I noticed the challenge layout for week 2, I had created these invites for my middle son's 10th birthday party. He wants a party in a swimming pool, just like his sister did a month or so ago.

The photo below shows most of the possible views of the card as a little sneak preview.

And here is also a view of his birthday card, which also fills the criteria for the challenge.

For the invites I used paper 8 of pack 2 of the freebies from Funky Fairies at http://funkyfairyinspirations.blogspot.com/ for the background paper on the front and on the inside of the card. These were printed out as 2 versions on 1 A4, to cover an A5 card.

For the birthday card I used two large yellow pieces of card (larger than A4, smaller than A3) and some step by step 3D images I found on the internet as well as the Bart Simpson Background paper. The Spongebob background paper is my own creation using the main image of the 3D image. This 3D sheet was also flipped to act as the back of the spinner.




The base card of the invites themselves consisted of 2 white A5 cards, folded in the middle and then decorated further.




On the front of the card I used an image I found on the internet of Goofey in a ring on his back. The same image was also cut out and put on another piece of background paper that I designed myself, measuring 6.6 cm to form the spinner. The same paper also had the invite details printed on for the reverse of the spinner. You can find the background papers I designed underneath the next photo of the card.

The backgound paper I designed for the spinner of the invites.

The background I designed for the birthday card inside.

Below you can see a view of the inside of the card. I have made quite some of this type of card over recent weeks or even months as I find they are quite effective. The window in for the invites was cut out using a large scalloped nestibilty in my Big Shot and the spinning image was assembled using a piece of blue cotton in between the 2 images back to back. They were stuck together using silicone glue to really keep the thread in place. It was then stuck to the back of the inside card with double sided sticky tape. The valley fold was made 4.25cm each side of the centre of the card to allow the card to fit in its envelope when the card is folded (otherwise the image sticks out).

Unfortunately the Big Shot is not quite big enough to cope with the size card for the birthday card I made. This therefore needed to be cut out by hand.

A little 'It's a Party' sticker were put on the inside of the card.

On the reverse of the Goofey image the spinner showed the details for the party.

Another view of the inside of the card is shown here:

And another view of all the invites.

Next are some further views of the birthday card for my son who was 10 on the 17th of May. He loves Spongebob Squarepants, but especially Bart Simpson.

For his card I used an image of Bart Simpson put onto a piece of oval card cut out with Nestibilities. It is very similar to the other swivel and spinning cards I have on my blog.

Here are some pictures of the card.

A view from the front.

A view of both back and front of the card.

The inside of the card.

The inside of the card showing the spinner.

A view from above.

A close up of the spinner.

Last but not least a close up of the front swivel image.


Hope you enjoyed looking at these cards and looking forward to seeing you join us in our challenges at http://trimmiescraftchallenge.blogspot.com/.

Card for first C.R.A.F.T. Challenge. Moving home card.

Here is a real fun card for the first C.R.A.F.T. Challenge at http://trimmiescraftchallenge.blogspot.com/. There was a choice of 2 cards and the wedding card below was chosen instead. Guess I could always try and enter this one as non DT.

At least I think it is a fun card and I had loads of fun thinking it out and making it. I had already noticed some 3D images on the net to do with moving house and thought they would be ideal for this card I made for my sister, who has recently moved house.

For the background of the front of the card I used google maps to find where she used to live and where she is now living. I managed to find the house she used to live in as well as a picture of the type of house she has moved to.

I thought it would be quite fun to make a penny slider type of card, using the map and the planned route from old to new house as the front of the card with the 3D image on top of the penny slider system. I'm pleased it turned out exactly like I had pictured it in my mind.

On the photo above you can see the moving people half way up the penny slider route. And below at the top.

A close up of the the 3D image.

For the inside of the card, I used the other image on the 3D sheet, as you usually need to do a little decorating, even if you are moving into a newly built home. I also flipped this image, to be able to make it into a spinner for the middle of the card.

The background for this I made myself, using both images in succession. Feel free to use the background if you have any use for it. But of course do not sell it as your own creation.

And here are some images of the inside of the card.

A close up of the spinner is seen below.

And from a slightly different angle.

And viewing it from the top.

I hope you enjoyed looking at this card and hopefully it has given you some ideas for your own creations. I really loved making this card and seeing it take shape as I went from one stage to the next. I'm really pleased it is so much like I imagined it would be and I hope my sister will love the card as much as I loved making it.

Thank you for looking. All comments are welcome and very much appreciated. Looking forward to seeing all your creations when you join us at the challenge!