Sketchie free for all …and a giveaway

 

 

 

Hey everyone, thanks for stopping by and I hope you’re all well?

Jess came home at the weekend and it was so lovely to see her. I think she only comes home to see Manny, she spent the whole weekend snuggled up with him on the sofa! Her job is quite physical and they seem to go out a lot on an evening as they’re all about the same age so when she comes home she just catches up on sleep!! She’s settled in nicely now and really enjoying herself, I’d like her to be closer to home but she’s happy  …and if she’s happy I’m happy!

The weather has been nice here so I’ve got some cutting back done in the garden and tidying up ready for Winter. My tubs have been lovely this year, I keep dead heading hoping to get another week or two but they’re starting to look a bit sad. Keith had a hernia operation a few months ago and he’s not been able to cut the hedges so they were getting overgrown. My neighbour has a gardener so I collared him yesterday and asked him to do them for us. It was money well spent, they look nice and neat now and it’s made a real difference

 

*

 

Mary and Andrea at The Ribbon Girl have another lovely giveaway this week…

 

What would you make with this?

 

 

Look at these gorgeous vintage style goodies!!

'Princess' faux pearl and diamante vintage style brooch

A bunch of 10 Wild Orchid cream open roses

1 metre of ivory 3mm x 5mm oat shape pearl bead string

1 metre of 15mm cream satin ribbon

1 metre of 'Josephine' ivory vintage style fine cotton lace

All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is visit their blog and leave a comment telling them how you would use this beautiful collection of goodies and leave a link to the Ribbon Girl store on your blog - the winner will be chosen on Saturday 28th September

 

 

***

 

Time for this weeks challenge at Papertake Weekly and as it’s the last one of the month it’s a Sketchie Free for all

Dawny has done a new sketch for you, number 83 …

 

 

…or if you would prefer to use another sketch then please feel free to use any Papertake Weekly sketch you fancy

I chose Sketch 81 from the list and this is my card…

 

 

 

I want you to be honest because I had my doubts about this card, I don’t know if it’s the papers that are just too busy with the flowery image but it all looks a bit messy

I used one of the Lili of the Valley art pad images, these are great for a quick card and the sentiment is from their Handwritten Phrases

The papers are from the ‘Pocket full of posies’ stack

 

*

 

There’s some great inspiration from the design team and as always a smashing prize up for grabs, this week it’s a voucher from Simon Says Stamp so have a look at the sketches and get your entry in

 

*

 

Enjoy the rest of your week everyone

 

 

Make It Sparkle …

 

 

 

Good evening everyone, how are you tonight?

I’m a bit late with my Papertake challenge, another week has flown by in the blink of an eye and caught me out!

This week the theme is …

Make It Sparkle

It’s a lovely one, you just need to add something sparkly and I don’t think many of us crafters need asking twice to add a bit of bling to our cards!

There’s a lovely voucher up for grabs for the lucky winner and our sponsors are Mary & Andrea from The Ribbon Girl

 

 

 

 

I’ve done a little Winter scene on my card for this challenge and added sparkle in the form of Frantage to create a snowy effect…

 

 

 

The characters are of course the adorable Jack, Patch and Puss (minus Puss!) from Lili of the Valley and this stamp is Skating Fun. I coloured them and then cut them out so I could stick them on with Pinflair to give a 3d effect

The little circular sentiment is from the Greetings Postmark set

Dies are Memory Box and Marianne

 

*

 

Hope you like it, enjoy your evening everyone x

 

 

 

 

It’s Autumn …and a new Ribbon Girl challenge

 

 

 

 

Good afternoon everyone, I hope you’re having a good weekend

I went to the Harrogate flower show yesterday, crikey it doesn’t seem like 2 minutes since I was telling you that I’d been to the Spring show and here we are at Autumn already!

The shows are very different, I like the Autumn one because I love to see the giant vegetables

There was a marrow that weighed 119 lbs …

 

 

…he wasn’t there showing it off I’m a bit sorry to say!

 

The leeks, onions, carrots etc are unbelievable …as are the flowers. I can remember my Grandad growing Dahlias and we were under threat of punishment by death if we dared venture into that part of the garden as kids. These growers take this so seriously and apparently have to sleep with their flowers and vegetables for fear of sabotage from other competitors. The flowers are nothing short of SPECTACULAR and we spent hours looking at the Dahlias and Chrysthemums

 

 

The weather has definitely turned now, it’s horrible today and we’ve had the fire on the past couple of nights. I don’t think you begrudge the arrival of the bad weather so much if you’d had a nice Summer and it’s been nice to snuggle down and watch a film with the fire burning away. Manny of course gets the best spot right at the front and nothing will move him until it’s bedtime!

 

***

 

Time for the September Colour Challenge at The Ribbon Girl today, this month it’s 'Peach/Orange' and here’s a lovely picture for inspiration…

 

 

 

There are two fabulous prizes up for grabs;  a £10 voucher from Lili Of The Valley and  a £10 voucher from The Ribbon Girl

 

 

 

 

I had a bit of a shock when I came to look through my paper collection (which has to be said is considerable!) …there was no peach or orange in sight!

It’s not a colour I use very often and I ended up taking this colour scheme from just about the only suitable sheet of paper I had. They are not two colours I would ever have put together normally

 

 

 

I used a Magnolia stamp for my card for a change and the papers are from a My Minds Eye pad.I found a few sheets of matching Core’dinations card which I used for matting and layer, the border strip and the tag

 

 

 

 

The sentiment is from Lili of the Valley, it’s on the useful Simply Sophisticated set and I’ve cut it out with a Noor stitched tab die

The heart tag and scalloped border are both DooHicky dies

 

 

 

 

The rest of the gorgeous goodies are of course from The Ribbon girl;

 

Peaches and cream self adhesive pearls

Pearl flourishes

Kort and Godt rolled paper roses

Kort & Godt chrysanth

Peach tulle

American seam binding

Button twine

Ivory lace with pearl trim

Flower charm

Stickles

Liquid Pearls

 

 

***

 

Hope you like it!

 

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday folks

 

 

Childs Play …and a giveaway!

 

 

 

 

Evening all, blimey, another week flown by! Where on earth does the time go?

If you came along to the Lili of the Valley open day on Saturday we had a great day and it was very busy. The all day Christmas workshop with Dawny was a huge hit, we’re repeating it on October 12th (which is fully booked) and then again on November 2nd. I think there are just a couple of places left on the November one so if you fancy joining in don’t wait too long to secure your place. It’s £40 and you don’t need to bring anything, everything you need to make 5 fabulous Christmas cards and projects is included  …as well as refreshments morning and afternoon

 

 

*

 

 

There’s a lovely Christmas giveaway over at The Ribbon Girl this week

 

 

 

Pack of 10 red gingham buttons

Bunch of ivory gypsophalia

1 metre green Christmas Winter Village Grosgrain

1 Diamante Bow Buckle Slide

1 metre silver grey satin

1 metre green/white pencil stripe

10 metres dark green button twine

Pack of 10 sparkly flower buttons

Pack of 10 jingle bells

 

…plus a metre each of these new wired edge sparkly, glittery Christmas ribbons which have just arrived

 

To be in with a chance of winning just leave a comment on The Ribbon Girl blog and mention this giveaway on your blog with a link to The Ribbon Girl online store. One lucky winner will be picked on Saturday 14th September

 

 

*

 

The challenge over at Papertake Weekly this week is…

 

Childs Play

 

We had an amazing 474 entries last week, this is another nice easy one and we want you to make a card for a child (for any occasion)

 

I chose this James the bear image, love love love these James stamps and I think this is perfect to send to a child…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had a go at the dotty shadows that I’ve seen done quite a lot recently, I can never seem to get a shadow that looks quite right – they’re either too dark and messy or not bold enough. I was quite pleased with this for the first attempt

 

I found my own way of getting a snow effect too, I put stickles glitter glue round the edges and let it dry, then I dabbed over it with the Adirondack white paint dabber. It turns it white but you still have the grainy texture of the glitter – voila!

 

Here’s everything else I used;

 

James – Christmas Stocking

Christmas Handwritten Phrases

Christmas mini icon tags

Kelly Pannacci papers

 

and from The Ribbon Girl …

Tulle

Jingle Bells

Seam binding

Hemp twine

Cotton Lace

White Top stitch thread

 

 

 

That’s it from me, I have good intentions of posting more regularly but it never goes to plan! If I’m not here before I’ll see you on Sunday for the new Ribbon Girl colour challenge

Thanks for all the comments you leave me, I love to read them and appreciate all your feedback good or bad!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Swirly Tree …

 

 

 

Good morning crafters, thanks so much for stopping by

The weather has picked up again here this few days and its been lovely, can you believe it’s September already, how scary?

 

Joe started college this week and signs are positive after the first couple of days which is a relief

He came home yesterday full of excitement about the stir fry he’d made, so I have a list of ingredients and he’s doing stir fry tonight for tea (I feel it might be the first of many lol!) He’s always liked to cook, Jess used to pay him to make her food lol, she couldn’t even be bothered to butter a slice of bread  …I just hope they teach him to clean up after himself!

Jess is doing well, she’s nicely settled in and has finished her trial so will hopefully be there for a year and she’s been given her own horses to look after now. She fell off the other day and last week had a horse rear up and kick her quite badly, these horse are not like the friendly ponies that she’s been used to riding all her life but she loves it

 

Time for a new Papertake Weekly Challenge and this week the theme is;

 

Anything Goes…

with the optional extra to do make a Christmas card or project

 

I decided to stick with the Christmas theme and used one of the new Lili of the Valley stamps

This one is called Swirly tree

 

 

 

 

 

 

I like these more traditional images for a change and this is very easy to colour

I used Lili of the Valley Krafty Christmas papers and Christmas Handwritten Phrases

You can get the fab rusty jingle bells and red Velvet Lace from The Ribbon Girl

 

*

 

Hope you like it, have a lovely day everyone xx