Only me ….

 

Is there anybody there? …I hope you haven't all abandoned me for being such a ridiculously bad blogger!

I had such great plans for last week, no work, no family, I was going to craft ands blog all week  …I didn’t venture up into the attic for 5 whole days and the week just whizzed by in what seemed like a blur of cleaning and visiting

Last weekend we had our Lili of the Valley Christmas trip to London, we had a brilliant time and packed such a lot into a couple of days including theatre, shopping, museums, Christmas markets  …and of course lots of eating, drinking and girlie chat!

 

This first pic is on our balcony overlooking the London Eye, we had amazing views over the city…

 

 

…and this one is near Leicester Square on our theatre night to the Donmar Warehouse

 

 

 

I also went to visit my friend in Settle during the week, she moved away to the Lake District a few years ago but we still like to keep in touch, we’ve been friends since college days and it’s always nice to have a good old catch up. We always used to go and stay up there when our kids were little but now tend to just meet for lunch and shopping just the 2 of us

 

I have so many cards to show you because I’ve not been on for a while, I’ll put a couple on today but first news of a great Christmas Challenge at the Ribbon Girl, something a bit different…

 

Kids Christmas Craft Challenge 2013

 

Just for kids aged 16 and under

We know lots of you like to make cards or do various other crafts when your Mums, Aunties, Grandmas, Nanas, carers and big sisters and so on are all making cards or colouring in so we thought it would be nice to have a special challenge JUST FOR KIDS!   The challenge will run until 9pm (UK time) on Saturday 28th December

The winners will be announced on New Years Eve - we're sure you will have some time to fill in before Christmas and maybe some spare time between Christmas and New Year - you might even be hoping to get some new craft things in your stocking and this is a great opportunity to put them to good use

 

         

There will be 3 prizes of crafty goodies and the challenge will be judged by 3 popular UK crafters:

Dawn Phillips, Kath Stewart and Andrea Gourley  

The winners will have their project displayed on the blog, on The Ribbon Girl Facebook Page and on the front page of The Ribbon Girl online store website on 1st January 2014

You can enter any type of project, for example you could make a card - could be a thank you card, a birthday card, a get well soon card, you can do a drawing or painting, a piece of knitting, crochet or sewing - in fact, any type of craft you like to do as long as it is your own work

This challenge is open to all young people under the age of 16 years whether or not they are a relative of the Ribbon Girl Design Team or Guest Design Team Members, you an see the full details of how to enter on the Ribbon Girl blog

 

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Next is a Crafty Ribbons Christmas event running throughout December. Lili of the Valley are sponsoring one of the days and Elise and I made a card each

There are some fabulous giveaways and you still have time to enter so make sure you go back over the posts, there is uggins of inspiration and you can find it all here 

 

This was my card and I used one of our Art Pads, they are so great if you don’t have time to stamp and colour. This lovely image is in the Christmas Angels pad and is also available as a stamp called Little Ivy

 

 

I chose to make an easel card for a change, here’s what I used;

 

LOTV Christmas Handwritten Phrases

Doohickey poinsettia die

EK success corner punch

LOTV Krafty Christmas and Classic Christmas papers

Tim Holtz ideaology brads

Lace and twine from the Ribbon Girl

Red and green stickles, had these years, I never use coloured glitter but they look amazing round the bottom of her dress and on the ivy

 

 

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I’ve missed a couple of Papertake Weekly posts (sorry Dawny!)

I did have cards ready so I’ll show you those over the holidays

This week the challenge is to choose your favourite theme from 2013. It was hard to pick but I chose…

old, new, borrowed, blue which was from July

I had a new baby card to make for a friend so this was perfect…

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve again used the Lili of the Art pads, this little cutie is in the Toddlers pad and you can also get him as a stamp called Baby Boy

The papers are from the new Winter Wishes pad, I love the colours and will use these papers all year round

I made some tags with his name and date of birth on and then the lace, pearls, charm, twine etc are from the Ribbon Girl (where else?)

 

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Thanks for stopping by, I will find time over the holidays to visit all your blogs and see what you’ve been up to

Jess is home unexpectedly for Christmas, she had an offer of a job in a North Yorkshire racing yard which was too good to miss so she moved last week and gets a couple of days off over Christmas as the rotas were already done so that was a lovely surprise. It will be great to have her nearer home, I didn’t like her being so far away and missed her a lot as you know

 

I’ll be sharing some of favourite 2013 cards from the Lili of the Valley design team on the Ideas to Inspire blog tomorrow and then the rest of them on New years day so do stop by if you get a spare minute (I know, I know  …turkey and pressies, you’ll be up to your eyes in it!!)

The girls have been doing a great job running the blog and there is still a new card every day while I am off

 

We’re going to the cinema now and although I’m setting off with good intentions I know I’ll end up with a huge tub of popcorn and scoff the lot  …it’s the law I think  …and it’s Christmas!!

 

Have a a fabulous Christmas everyone

 

Big hugs and sloppy festive kisses for you all, my lovely crafty friends xxx

 

 

 

 

Nativity Angels

 

 

Hey everyone, what are you up to over the weekend?

I had planned to nip into town today for a bit of last minute shopping but I saw the rain and changed my mind, I’m such a wimp! I did most of my shopping when we went to Stratford Upon Avon, it’s a lovely place and the rest I’ve ordered online so I’m quite organised with my pressies. I’d love to make my own cards but I’ll end up buying them (again!) as there just aren’t enough hours in the day at the moment.

I had to laugh at all your comments about the scrap of lace, it’s back in my box and I’m happy to know that everyone is as frugal as me with their stash (except you Mary, shame on you!)

 

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As it’s the first challenge of the month we have our usual Anything Goes at Papertake Weekly

The optional extra is to make a clean and simples (CAS) or less is more card, I fancied trying this and spent 2 nights faffing about   …it’s harder than it looks and my efforts ended up in the bin

I wanted to try but this is only an option and if you don’t want to use this theme then you don’t have to

I told Dawny I’d have to give it a miss this week so I haven’t got a card on the blog but then I remembered this one that I did for Creative Stamping magazine a while back, I think it would be classed as Clean and Simple so thought I’d show you…

 

 

 

I used Nativity Angels, Lili of the Valley of course, and a Marianne stitched border die

That’s about it really and I like it, it made a change not to do a square card!

The sentiment was done on the computer and I just finished it off with some little gems

 

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Hope you like it, have a fabulous weekend everyone

 

 

Christmas Challenge…

 

 

 

Good afternoon everyone, I hope you’re enjoying the weekend

Time is whizzing by and I can’t believe that we’re into December now

 

Jess is working Christmas and New Year so won’t be coming home, our first Christmas without her so it will be strange and a bit sad. I’m sure she’ll be more than happy staying with her beloved horses, they get to finish at lunchtime and all make a meal together to celebrate so she’ll be just fine and have a great time I’m sure

 

We went to visit her last weekend and took her presents, Joe dragged himself away from his friends and came with us. I managed to get a rare picture of them and we spent some lovely time together…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s the final challenge of the year at The Ribbon Girl and it's a huge one; a Christmas themed challenge with ideas and inspiration galore from the whole Design Team

We would like to see all your Christmas projects, it can be a card, fabric, paper craft or knitted projects etc as long as it’s festive  …and it's as easy as that!

Because it’s the last challenge of 2013 there are some great prizes to be won prizes including a £10 voucher from LOTV, £10 voucher from Ribbon Girl and a few special products from the Ribbon Girl online store

 

I made a little gift box, it’s from an IPod so is lovely and sturdy, and it was plain black so a good base colour for these lovely Lili of the Valley Classic Christmas papers

 

 

 

 

Apart from the Lili of the Valley Grungy Christmas message everything else I used is from The Ribbon Girl

 

 

The flowers were white, I coloured them with distress stain to match the papers

 

 

I put some pearls on the bottom to make little ‘feet’

 

 

Here’s a list of all my supplies;

Stickles

Tulle

Dark green open weave ribbon

Rebecca lace

Flatback pearls

Button twine

Pearl bead string

Jute mesh ribbon

Darjeeling white mini blossom flowers

Darjeeling white blossom flowers

Rusty jingle bells 18mm and 13mm

Teardrop pin wheel

 

 

Hope you like it! There was so much fabulous work from the design team that Mary will be showcasing it all week on the blog and Facebook so do make sure you keep checking back as you will be amazed at some of the projects!

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Finally, a question …

I know us crafters can be bit precious with our stash! I threw this scrap of lace away today and then promptly fished it back out of the bin thinking maybe I can use it on a little tag!

 

 

…is that really taking things a bit too far, it’s about 4cm long?

Shall I just grit my teeth, be brave and throw it away!!!

 

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Have a lovely Sunday evening everyone, it’s Keith's birthday today so we’re going out tonight to eat and drink far too much!

 

 

 

 

Papertake Sketchy Challenge ...and a Baby Blog Hop!

 

 

 

Morning crafters, thanks for stopping by!

I have the new Papertake Weekly challenge today and also an exciting blog hop to celebrate the launch of the 10 new adorable new Baby stamps from Lili of the Valley

The stamps will be available to buy on the website on Monday and also at the Christmas party in Leeds on Saturday if you are able to come along

 

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It’s a Sketchy free for all this week at Papertake, as always there is a brand new sketch for you #85

 

 

You can use this one, or you can pick from the back catalogue (see them all here)

I chose number 71…

 

 

and I used one of the new baby stamps for my card

 

 

I love this image, he’s sooo cute!

I used candles and cake papers (fab bright colours for children's cards), sentiment from simply sophisticated and the border die is Magnolia Doohickey

 

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Onto the blog hop and you know what to do by now, just ‘hop’ from one blog to another following the links and leave a comment on each card, hopefully we can give you lots of ideas and inspiration for using these cute new images

As always we have some hidden prizes along the way, we don’t know where they are so do be sure to visit and comment on every blog

We will let you know tomorrow which were the ‘lucky’ blogs and the winners will be drawn at random from all the comments that were left on those blogs

There are 2 full sets of the new stamps up for grabs (woohoo!)…

2 lucky winners will each get all 10 new designs and there will be a 3^rd prize of a clear set of baby companion stamps

Here's a list of all the blogs on the hop, you’ll need to visit them all and leave a comment on each one to have the best chance of winning some of the hidden goodies;

 

Ideas To Inspire

Me!

Becky

Dawny

Debbie

Dena

Elise

Fleur

Gretha

Jen

Kathy

Kim

Lou

Mary J

Moni

 

 

I made a little gift card holder for today's hop, Lou made one of these a while back which I loved, I’ve been intending to make something similar for ages…

 

     

 

I used some gorgeous Tilda papers that I’ve had in my box and couldn’t bear to cut!

The teeny little shoes from the new launch are great for using as embellishments, this is one of the pairs from the girls set

 

    

 

I made a little pocket on the inside and a card using Bunny Moon stamp, you can tuck a little gift card in here also

The alphabet is a Sizzix die and the flag banner is LaLa land

 

     

 

 

    

 

Hope you like it! ‘hop’ along to Becky's blog next  …and if you get lost just start again at the beginning and pick the links up from there

Don’t forget to stop by the Ideas to Inspire blog tomorrow when you can find out who the lucky winners were of the prizes

 

Enjoy the hop!

 

 

Giving thanks …

 

 

Evening all, a quick post from me tonight, it’s been a hectic week that’s flown by in a flash and I have a busy weekend ahead

Thank you all so much for your lovely comments on my white card, I thought I was happy with it and then when I saw the work from the rest of the fabulous DT the doubts started creeping in, I’m so pleased that you all liked it and really appreciate you taking the time to let me know your thoughts

 

Onto this weeks challenge at Papertake weekly and the new theme is…

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is the 28th so we want you to make a card or project for that this week please, or you can just make something that says 'thank you'.

There’s a voucher up for grabs for the lucky winner, and it’s £10 to spend on some gorgeousness from The Ribbon Girl

 

 

 

 

Here’s my ‘thank you’ card

I used one of the images from the new Lili of the Valley ‘cute cottage garden’ art pad, I love this pad, it’s so pretty

 

 

 

 

I used Bonnets and Bowties papers and the sentiment is from Vintage Labels Occasions, both Lili of the Valley

I dug out 2 of my favourite dies which sadly haven’t seen the light of day for a while, a fab Doohickey stitched border and the LaLa Land flag banner

Finally it’s finished with a bit of scrumptious cotton lace trim from The Ribbon  Girl and of course,as always, some stickles

 

PS. The little random blue flower at the bottom isn’t supposed to be there lol! I couldn’t understand how I came to forget to put a brad in the centre of it when I looked at the picture and then thought I don’t remember putting a flower there. There were a few on my desk and I think it sneaked on while I was moving things around to take the picture!!

 

Hope you like it, have a fantastic weekend everyone

 

 

 

 

White …

 

 

Good evening all, hope you’ve had a lovely weekend

The Ribbon Girl colour challenge for November, inspired by this gorgeous picture is

 

** WHITE **

 

 

 

I was quite excited to do this one, I’ve never made a white card and I enjoyed it

The design team have really excelled themselves with this theme and there is some gorgeous work to give you some ideas

 

 

 

 

I used white and silver for my card and embossed one of the Lili of the Valley statement stamps, this is from the Just To Say set

Everything else is of course from The Ribbon Girl fabulous online shop;

Tulle

Antique white lace patch

Heart pins

Stickles

Darjeeling white blossom flowers

Darjeeling white mini blossom flowers

2 row diamante trim

Silver Spiders web

White seam binding

Pearl flatbacks

Round diamante spacer

 

 

Hope you like it, it looks a bit clumsy on this picture now I’m looking at it  …it does look nicer in real life!

 

 

Snow & Ice …

 

 

Morning everyone, hope you’re ok today

Before my card, just a quick thanks to those of you that leave me a lovely comment, it’s much appreciated and I really enjoy reading them. Things have been hectic this last couple of weeks and with being poorly I seem to have got a bit behind with everything. I will try a catch up with all your blogs this weekend and see what you’ve been up to

 

It’s time for this weeks Papertake Weekly challenge and the theme is …

Snow & Ice

We just want you to use  blue or 'cold' colours on your card or project or you could also include snow/ice somewhere …or both!

There’s loads of fab inspiration from the design team if you need a few ideas to get you going …and as always there’s a lovely prize up for grabs

 

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I decided to make another little snowy scene, I love doing these and it’s a good way to show off nice papers…

 

 

 

 

These scrummy papers are from the new Lili of the Valley Simple Joys paper pad, I adore this pad, definitely one of my favourites

I cut the image out from an art pad but you can also get her as a stamp, it’s called Skating Along

The sentiment is from my much used Christmas Handwritten Phrases

Finally a couple of DooHickey ‘Slender Firs, 3 Joy ‘Snowflakes’ and some flatback gems along with a liberal sprinkling of glamour dust

 

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Time to go to work, hope you like my card  …have a lovely day everyone

 

 

Lovely Lili challenge – add sparkle!

 

 

 

Morning lovely crafters, thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you’re all having a nice Sunday

It’s a gorgeous day here today, I ended up going back to bed yesterday but this morning I feel much better so I’m going to take Manny for a walk later and blow away some cobwebs; I haven’t moved out of the house for 3 days!

 

It’s time for a Lovely Lili Challenge over at The Ribbon Girl blog today    …and it’s a brilliant one that you’ll all love joining in with   …ADD SPARKLE

 

There are prizes up for grabs from Lili Of The Valley and The Ribbon Girl so worth having a go, you just need to use a Lili of the Valley image or sentiment on your card or project

 

As always there is some amazing inspiration from the design team so do go and see what they made, and you can also find out the full details on there too

 

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There’s loads of sparkle which doesn’t really show, I used frantage and stardust stickles

I used one of the Lili of the Valley art pads (party and cake) Always and Forever papers and a sentiment from set 6 Dreamy Days

 

All the other gorgeous goodness is from The Ribbon Girl (of course!)

Tulle

Flatback pearls

2 row diamante trim

Rose organza ribbon

Stickles

Liquid pearls

Mini glossy accents

Velvet ribbon

Topstitching thread

 

I had a bit of trouble taking a decent picture of this card, the glossy accents on the balloons and the mirror confused the camera as it was so reflective under the light and I couldn’t get it to focus where I wanted!

 

Hope you like it, enjoy the rest of your weekend x

 

 

Birthday Bonnet…

 

 

 

Morning all, how are you today?

I’ve not been too well, came down some horrible virus and have been in bed for the last 2 days. I’m feeling a bit better this morning, still a bit woozy but definitely in need of some fresh air!

 

It’s an Anything Goes theme this week at Papertake Weekly, there is as usual an optional extra and it’s to make a Christmas Card

Remember this is only an option and if you don’t want to use this theme then you don’t have to

 

I’m still enjoying making cards with the new Lili of the Valley girlie stamps so I didn’t take the Christmas option. The 5 girls have been really popular and some of them have sold out at the moment but this one is still available, it’s called Birthday Bonnet

 

I recycled a card from last year for this that I wasn’t completely happy with, I can’t bear to throw them away if I’ve used lovely papers so I took off everything I could and re-used the base

 

 

 

 

Here’s everything I used;

Maja Design papers

Birthday Bonnet

Handwritten Phrases

Spellbinders ovals and large scalloped ovals

The rest of the gorgeous goodies are all from the Ribbon Girl, these crystal hearts are scrumptious

Emily lace

Crystal hearts

Hemp twine

Cheesecloth

Kort and Godt rolled paper roses

Heart pins

White beaded sprigs

 

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Hope you like it, I appreciate your comments very much and always enjoy reading them

Have a great weekend all

 

 

My Favourite Friends …

 

 

Evening all, hope you’ve had a lovely weekend

I’ve had a busy couple of days, it was the Lili of the Valley open day yesterday so I was working all day

Today I went into Leeds with Keith, he is the worst shopper ever! He only goes to town once a year before we go on holiday, we haven’t been away this year with one thing and another so he really needed a few things. He said we’ll go shopping and have a wander round so I thought lovely, that it will make a nice change, we’ll have lunch out and I might get a few bits too. We went straight into Next where he bought the first 2 pairs of trousers he saw and a hoodie then said right lets go, we were home 30 minutes later!! We have a Next half a mile away or I could have ordered them from the directory, we may have well just stayed at home   …and I had a slice of toast for my lunch!!

I like to watch the X Factor and Downton Abbey on a Sunday so I always have a couple of lovely crafty hours to myself. The new Lili of the Valley girlie stamps are released tomorrow and DT have loved using them, they are the cutest yet!

 

I’m super late with my Papertake Weekly card but you still have time to enter

As it’s the last one of the month it’s a Sketchie Free For All, you can use any of our sketches but as always there is a new one and I’ve chosen to use it, sketch 84…

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve used one of the new girls out tomorrow and this image is so adorable, it’s called My favourite Friends

The papers are Always and Forever and the sentiment is from Handwritten Phrases

The gorgeous border dies are Joanna Sheen, I’ve had them a while and as I said before I’m making a point of using something I’ve not used before on all my new cards – they have matching corners and are really lovely, in fact I’m mad with myself for not getting them out sooner

 

Hope you like it, enjoy your Sunday evening everyone

 

 

LOTV Blog Hop …

       

 

 

Morning all, thanks for stopping by!

Lili of the Valley are launching 5 cute new girlie stamps over the weekend so we’re having a fun DT blog hop to celebrate!

The stamps will be available to buy on the website on Monday 4^th November and also at the open day in Leeds on Saturday if you are able to come along

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We thought we’d have a change for this hop, you all enjoy seeing how an image can be used in different ways so this time we are showing cards all made using the same stamp

We’ve chosen Getting Ready  ...and she is just adorable!

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Just ‘hop’ from one blog to another following the links and leave a comment on each card, hopefully we can give you lots of ideas and inspiration

As always we have some hidden prizes along the way, we don’t know where they are so do be sure to visit and comment on every blog

We will let you know tomorrow evening which was the ‘lucky’ blogs and the winners will be drawn at random from all the comments that were left on those blogs

 

We have 3 sets of the new stamps to give away, three lucky winners will each get all 5 new designs 

Here's a list of all the blogs taking part, and remember that you will need to visit them all and leave a comment on each one to have the best chance of winning;

 

Ideas to Inspire

Anne – you’re here

Dena

Elise

Fleur

Gretha

Jen

Kim

 

Here’s my card for the hop...

 

 

 

 

I used papers from Simple Joys, I love the white pages from this collection – they remind me of a Laura Ashley wallpaper I had many years ago in my bedroom! They can be used for Christmas or general so it’s a very versatile pad

 

I paper pieced the table cloth, I find colouring with deep reds very difficult and they always seem to bleed. The plain red in the pad has a clever embossed effect so it looks a bit like fabric. I stamped the little presents again and cut them out, I stuck these on with foam pads so they are dimensional

You can’t see very clearly on the picture but I put some glossy accents on the mirror to make it look like glass

 

 

Here’s everything else I used;

 

Square doily from Krafty Hands

Cheery Lynn heart dies

Vintage Sentiments – Just to say

 

and from The Ribbon Girl …

Stickles

Heart pin wheel

Mini glossy accents

Spot organza ribbon

Rose organza ribbon

Flatback pearls

 

 

 

Hope you like my version today!

Don’t forget to leave a comment to be in with a chance of winning   …and from here you should be heading onto the fabulous Dena's blog

 

 

One final thing, don’t forget to stop by the Ideas to Inspire blog tomorrow evening when you can find out who the lucky winners were of the prizes

 

Enjoy the hop…    and good luck!

 

 

 

 

James Bear …

 

 

 

Good morning crafters, I had a busy day planned today but got out of bed at 11am!

I never lie in but have had trouble sleeping lately, I’ve been waking up because my knee was hurting in the night. It’s feeling a bit better now and I had a great night’s sleep, I obviously needed to catch up from the past couple of weeks! But, I don’t like to waste half a day on a Saturday, the weekends pass so quickly as it is!

This card is on the Ideas To Inspire blog today, we have got a Lili of the Valley column in 3 consecutive issues of Quick Cards magazine and I got to make a card for each feature

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This is my card for the first column, it’s edition 119 which is on sale at the moment and I’ve used a fab James the Bear image from one of our Art Pads

It had to of course be a ‘quick card’ for the magazine and these pre-coloured images are so perfect, this one is from Furry Christmas

 

 

 

I used our Candles and Cake papers, the reds and greens in this collection are fab, perfect for Christmas cards I think

Here’s everything else I used;

 Christmas Handwritten Phrases

Embossed white card

Spellbinders standard circles and lacey circles

Cheery Lynn small snowflakes

Flatback gems

EK Success corner punch

Adirondack white paint dabber

 

You can’t really see on the picture but the sentiment is not stuck flat. I like to bring the ends in a bit so that the middle is raised like a banner, it’s a nice effect and adds a bit of dimension to your card

 

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That’s about it from me I’d better get started on some of those jobs I had planned, need to be finished for when it’s X Factor time!

 

Have a great day everyone