A blog award

I am completely chuffed to bits as I have just been given this wonderful blog award from the very talented Rainmac! Thank you so much that has made my day.

I now have to do 5 things:-

1. Thank Rainmac for nominating me (see above!)

2. post the award (see above)

3. list 3 things you like about yourself ...mmm harder to do... lets go with.... my sense of humour (still gets me in trouble!), my honesty (don't always like that one!) and lastly I like that I still feel pain, worries, sadness, loss and happiness, joy, passion and all the other emotions that regularly make me cry (often embarrassing!)but show that I am still human!

4. post a picture I love ( it has to be of the children, but which one to chose??)

5. Pass the award onto 5 other bloggers ....Another hard one as there are so many I love, but here are my 5:-

K at K's crafty corner

Mel at I speak Melsh

Ruth at Everyday life of a suburban SAHM

Oona at It's not Terry's it's mine

Debbie at Padster's Marmalade Mutterings

I follow lots of blogs and would love to read them everyday if I could but I am always getting behind and running out of time, I would actually like to nominate several more people for this award so might just come back and do that when I have more time (I am tired and need to get up early as DS is playing footie at Wembley tomorrow WOW!)

Another Scrappin Silhouette Layout!

I am so loving this weeks challenge on Scrappin Silhouettes that I decided to make another Layout using the same fab sketch.

This photograph was taken just a few minutes before the one used on the monotone page in my last post. I loved Hubby and DS together in the falling snow grasping onto snowballs dressed in shades of winter blue.

I decided to concentrate on the theme of 'snowflakes', again I made good use of my new MS snowflake round the page punches and even used the snowflakes that were created from the negative. My favourite embellishment are the hand made acetate snowflakes cut using a cute cuttlebug die then embellished with a little bling... who would of thought it..I managed to get the boys and bling on the same page!

Scrappin Silhouette challenge 7

This week it's a 1 photo sketch to stimulate us all into creating something wonderful! Please go visit Scrappin Silhouettes and see all the amazing DT work this week and join in the challenge!

As soon as I saw the sketch I knew I wanted to scrap one of my winter photos from the fabulous snow earlier in the year. It absolutely ruled our lives at the time! I walked to work, on a couple of days when I couldn't get the car out and took photographs on the way. It was so quiet and beautiful I could have wondered around for hours in the deep crisp virgin snow.

I made this almost monotone layout and the only journalling I will add will be the date and place, I wanted to keep it really simple (as usual!) Also as you can see I have used my new Martha Stewart punches from QVC I fell in love with them during the show and broke my stash diet (yes I had been on one for over 3 weeks but they were a really good price!!). I have used the Apen snowflakes around the page punches and the fabulous snowflake 'strip' punch that punches both sides to leave the cute row of snowflakes. I broke with the traditional snowy white and went for a silvery blue palette as it worked much better with the photo. What do you think???

Scrapping With I did Creations Swirls and Flourishes

This week the challenge over at Scrapping with I Did It Creations is to create a Scrapbook Page or Layout (sorry this challenge does not include cards) incorporating the theme of Flourishes and Swirls.

The DT were given the gorgeous Cafe Creme papers that are availailable from the I Did It shop here for only $2. I loved the brown paper as it's my favourite colour and as soon as I saw these papers I knew just the photograph to use with them!

I kept the page fairly simple and used a peice of Cafe Creme paper in the background. I cut out some elements of other sheets to make embellishments, the bottom right corner is 2 layers of a piece of a pattern, the top layer has been covered in glossy accents and ounted on the underlying layer with foam pads. I cut several butterflies out of another sheet, 2 of them I stuck together to make a double winged butterfly and this is attached to the chipboard flourish (from my stash), The other 2 butterflies are covered in glossy accents and they are sitting next to the swirl at the top. The swirl was created using a plastic mask and glossy accents... a little messy and it went slightly wrong when DD put the lid to some brads she was using on top of the drying gloss so I had to do an urgent repair job... I think I got away with it!!!

Please go on over to the blog here to see the other examples created by the DT this week and the challenge has been sponsored by Pear Tree Designs who will be supplying the prize. They have some amazing digi images with prices starting from just £1!

I look forward to seeing your entries, 'you have to be in it to win it' as they say!!

Cards I have made

Scrapbooking is definitely my first papercrafting love at the moment but I still make cards to give to friends and family and I try to join in the card swop at Crafytplace when possible.

Here is a selection of a few of the cards I have sent in the past couple of months, I do often forget to take pics before I send them as I'm always in a rush to get things in the post... they rarely arrive on time, but I do try and make them specifically for the recipient!

What could be more specific than using someone's name?? I love these cute animal letter stamps from Penny Black and have used them on several cards.

My DS is Pokemon mad at the moment so I made this for his birthday in June, fortunately I chose one of his favourite Pokemons as the main design!

I was given this image to use after asking for an picture of a pregnant woman to use for a work mate who was going on Maternity Leave (thanks for coming to my rescue TM xxx). I was pleased with the end result as I am seriously one of the world's worst colouring in type people and even with Promarkers I still seem to make a hash of it!!

This is made using up scraps and embellishemnts and again I was pleased with how it turned out, though it is pretty simple (probably why I like it as I am a pretty simple kinda gal!)

A while ago I bought a wordbook kit from online and have used it for several 'milestone' birthdays though it is actaully designed for weddings. I would love to have either of the two new CD's from Funky Hand as not only can you make the word books but they also have lots of digi images and alphanumerals and they can be resized to suit each individual craft! Amazing!

Cards I have been sent

I am so lucky to have friends that send me their own handmade cards, I treasure each and everyone of them especially those sent for no reason other than to brighten my day.

There is one particular person who always seems to know when I am at a low ebb and sends me a card and often another handcrafted item (or even chocolate!) to cheer me up, we have never met and maybe we never will, but she is one of life's special people who takes time out to make a relative strangers day a better one. I am very grateful to her and also sorry that I am a bit rubbish at reciprocating the wonderful things she does...but watch this space!!!

Here are a selection of some of the wonderful cards I have received in the last few months...

I love the sentiment on this card, it matches the image perfectly and look at the real tiny pegs that are used... too cute!

A pig, what more could a pig loving girl like Furrypig ask for!!

Yellow flowers are my absolute favourite so I loved this Spring themed card

This Sunshine card really brightened my day and I thought the use of glittered paper added that extra special touch to the sand.

I adored the whole Cherry thing that was going on in this card, from the stamp to the background paper, and the sentiment to the tiny red gem used to simulate a cherry! Where do these papers/sentiments/goodies come from I want them all!!!???

Thanks to everyone who has sent me one of your cards I haven't even got round to taking pics of them all but I have kept each and everyone xxx