Some awards to share, first one of several

Hello everyone,

I recently was told by someone that I always update my blog so well. Well, ummm............, not so sure to be honest.

Over the last few months I have had several blog awards, that I just did not have time to put on here and share. Not sure how everyone else with jobs, families and a great hobby of creating really manages it!

So, to make a start, here is the first one to share. This one was given to me by the lovely Debs. She left me this award as well as a second one at the same time in May and a third one this week! How fab is that?


It has to be passed on to some lovely bloggers. Difficult who those could be as there are far too many of those about!

So, let's have a think.....

I would like to pass this one on to the following very talented and inspiring bloggers:

1. Andrea

2. Gina


3. June


4. Jak Heath (the lady behind the Flippin' range)


5. Anesha

Please pass them on to some others that you feel deserve them as well. I hope you have not already got these awards, but it's the thought that counts, right?

All the people above have got some great work on their blog, do go over and have a look.

Have a good weekend all!


Love,





Jo.

Challenge 15 at CRAFT Challenge, anything but a card.

Hello everyone,

Doesn't time just fly? It's time for challenge 15 already this week at CRAFT Challenge and we have something different for you in store this time. This week we want you to make anything but a card.

Can't wait to see what you all come up with.

For this week I have kept a project that I made early summer. Just kept it behind to use now. I made some candles for the craft fair at school (none sold I'm afraid, so they'll be fine for birthday presents I guess). Hope you like them.

This is a candle I made using a stamp from the Crafty Pad 'Belinda's Garden', I really love this one and hope you agree. This is the one I'm using as my DT entry for CRAFT Challenge.

I also made another few candles, this one has a stamp of 3 hens from Penny Black and is also quite nice and I also made some others with a bird stamp and some frog ones as well as a fairy one. Hope you like them.

Thanks for looking, all comments very welcome and much appreciated as always. If you would like to know how to do the candles, why not have a look at this thread on Trimcraft that is discussing this exact thing.


You can even print off a favourite photo onto tissue paper and use this for a very special personalised candle. I have tried it before. I have just added those pictures here. It was a candle I made as a Christmas present for my in-laws last Christmas with our kids on it. This was however the first one I made and not very successful yet. (I think the ink was nearly out on the printer)


This week's challenge is sponsored by She is donating LLB DVD and papers. The pictures are below.




Have a good weekend, looking forward to seeing your creations and good luck!


Love,


Jo.

Starwars birthday card

Good evening all,

This is a card I made for a friend of my 10-year old son today, who is mad about starwars. I'm fairly sure he'll like it. My son called it 'awesome', but that could have been to get rid of me as he was playing on the playstation LOL.
I used some starwars background figures, added a scalloped rectangle, and added a 3D image from 'clonewars' as that is the most recent version, I'm told. (just printed 6 for 6 different layers.

Hope you like it. All comments are very welcome and much appreciated.

Love,

Jo.

CRAFT Challenge 14, embossing.

Hello everyone,


Rather wet and windy here at the moment, hope you all have a bit better weather. I'm not as busy as last week, but still catching up with work both at work and at home, while also playing hostess to the in-laws who are baby sitting our kids for the last few weeks of the holidays (great to have them about). They are due to go back home at the end of next week.


This week is challenge 14 at CRAFT Challenge already, the brief is 'embossing'.





I have made a very simple card this time. Embossed the base card with flowers (using big shot), added a scalloped circle cut with nestibilities out of earlier flower embossed card, and then put a circle cut with nestibilities on top with a fairy stamped image (free with a recent Papercraft Inspirations magazine, some of you may recognise it) and coloured it in with whispers pens, added some sticky gems for the hair decoration.





Then I stamped the Happy Birthday sentiment and heat embossed this using some red embossing powder. Cut out the sentiment and added with some pieces of ribbon to the card and it was done.

I will try to do something better for the next challenges, already prepared one for next time, (no sorry, you'll have to wait), but the time after will be a bit more elaborate as I'm planning it to be a card for my youngest birthday in the middle of September. Got some ideas already.

Hope you like it and the weather improves for this weekend.

This week is sponsored by: and is an undecorated tabbed journal. It's definitely worth joining in, I think.

Thank you for looking, all comments very welcome and much appreciated.

Love,

Jo.

CRAFT Challenge 13, inspiration picture.

Hello everyone, I'm back of holidays.



I first spent nearly a week at my in-laws while picking up our kids, which was great. Then we went for a lovely week in Scotland. We went just north of Inverness and on one of the days, we spent a lovely day at the beach.



This was great for the inspiration challenge at CRAFT Challenge. I had been thinking that it might be a good idea to decorate or make a picture frame using shells collected on the beach. Hope you agree. I was lucky enough to find a discounted picture frame at LIDL's when we got back as I felt this one was just perfect to use. I just haven't had a chance yet to get the pictures I made on the beach onto my computer and printed off to put in the 3 spaces. These pictures are the ones that came with the frame, not my family pictures. Good thing as well, as I like our privacy.



Hope you are all well and will be joining us again at CRAFT Challenge this week.

Thank you for looking, all comments very welcome and much appreciated as always.

Love,

Jo.

Challenge 12 at CRAFT Challenge, a sketch

Hi there all you lovely people out there!

This week it's time for challenge 12 at CRAFT Challenge. This week we have a sketch for you to follow.




I must admit I felt it was quite a tricky one, hope you'll find it easier than I did. I also needed to be relatively quick with this one as while this post is being published, I will be on holiday at the start of this challenge. Enjoying a well deserved rest and some quality time with the hubby and the kids. It takes quite a bit of organising still having an entry ready in time, but here it is. Hope you like it and the sketch.





For this card I used a rectangle cut with a scalloped rectangle nestibility, then cut again to make it into a narrower rectangle. I cut out 3 scalloped squares of patterned paper and put those on top. 2 strips of ribbons for present were attached. A fairy 3D image from The Lilac Garden added, a rectangular strip of patterned paper and then the sentiment added.
Thank you for looking and looking forward to catching up with you all when I return from holiday.

As usual all comments are very welcome and very much appreciated.

Love,

Jo.

Challenge11 at CRAFT Challenge, a recipe, part2

Challenge 11 at CRAFT Challenge is quite a nice one. I have therefore made 2 cards using the same brief and here is the second one. Do join us! We love blog hopping and seeing all your lovely creations. Due to absence this week as I will be on holiday I won't have any access to the internet, I will have to miss out on seeing them this week, but will hopefully be able to see all your creations again next week.

Well, this is my second card for this challenge. Hope you like this one as well. For our first challenge I made a wedding card as well for one of the girls at work. About a month ago I was told one of the other girls at work is getting married in August as well! Within days of eachother. Couldn't very well leave her out now, could I. So, this one is for Carole and her hubby to be.

At the front of the card you will be able to recognise the recipe quite well. There are 2 buttons, 2 squares (3 if you count the 3D image itself), and in total 3 papers on the front.

On the inside there are 2 papers and a pop-up 3D image.

To make this card I have made both 3D images (the one in the middle is from Lily Pickle, the one on the front I found on the net). I cut out 2 squares out of patterned paper to mount on eachother and to mount the image on. The outside of the card was covered with some free backing paper and the inside of the card(I used two pieces of card stuck together with double sided sticky tape) with some other free backing paper. In the middle of the inside card I cut 2 slots measuring 4 cm each to allow the image to be mounted on it and pop up .

Thank you for looking and looking forward to catching up with you all when I return from holiday.

As usual all comments are very welcome and very much appreciated.

Love,

Jo.

Challenge11 at CRAFT Challenge, a recipe

Time for Challenge 11 at CRAFT Challenge this week already. Doesn't time just fly? I have been pretty busy this Friday to make 3 cards for the upcoming 2 challenges at CRAFT Challenge. This to get ready in time as going on holiday for 2 weeks soon. Will soon need to think about the next one as well as won't have much time to do that one.


Well let's get back to the subject in hand, challenge 11. This time we have given you a recipe to work with:










2 buttons

2 square shapes

3 papers

was our brief, I hope you don't mind a few more papers and 2 more buttons as well. I had those left over from when I was knitting some little outfits for the kids when they were first born, they are just sooo sweet I think, but I didn't get a chance to use them and I think they really go well with this card. I hope we are allowed to use shaped buttons.











We are really looking forward to your creations, but due to my holiday, I won't really have a chance to see them this week (no access to the internet), but please do join us!












This is my first interpretation of this challenge recipe. Hope you like it.

For this card I used a baby in a cot 3D image I found on the net, used some free papers from Funky Fairies and some other sources as well as a free background from AnnaBella. The shape in the middle was cut with a diecut from nesitibilities and a little Flippin' Kids spinning 3D image.

Friends recently had their 5th child, a little boy, so Congratulations to You! I will be popping this card in the post really soon.









Thank you for looking and looking forward to catching up with you all when I return from holiday.








As usual all comments are very welcome and very much appreciated.

Love,

Jo.