Star books…

Hello crafty friends, I do have another card with the new LOTV fairies but I thought I’d just share these star books first as it’s been a bit of a cute overload the last few posts

I was sorting through my pictures to move onto a new laptop and I’d forgotten about them, I may have put them on here before but if I did it’s a long time since

I’ve done a few of these, I love making them and they don’t really take too long. I found a tutorial on you tube for the measurements if anyone would like a link but once you’ve made a couple you can easily change the sizes

This is the front when it’s folded, it ties with seam binding dyed to match

I don’t know why but I didn’t take pictures of the other pages doh

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And this is the second one, this is using Loti’s quirky stamps which are all available from Mama Makes…

I should have really put this one on last month, I’m done with Christmas for a while now!!

Hope you like them, thanks so much for stopping by

Christmas animals…

Good morning everyone, I’ve been such a bad blogger and didn’t realise how long it had been since my last post!

We went to Tenerife, it was lovely just to get some sunshine and relax but I’ve come back and it’s Christmas, and I haven’t done a thing!!

I promised myself I would make all my own cards this year and despite good intentions I only had about a dozen done (which admittedly is better than usual) so I’ve frantically been trying to get them all made over the last couple of days. I’m not good under pressure and when I know I have a deadline my mojo goes out of the window

These are a bit of a change for me, the challenge this fortnight for AYLI is your favourite Christmas animal so I looked at some Polkadoodles collections as they are our sponsor this time

I’ve used the images in them quite a lot but never really taken notice of the design sheets which are included. What a revelation, they are fabulous! You just print the A4 sheets and all the toppers and embellishments are ready to cut out and use, I printed the matching backing papers too and was really pleased with the results

The first one is my challenge card, my favourite Christmas animals have to be polar bears and penguins so this image is perfect…

The snowflake background I used is a Marianne die

I thought I’d share this one too as I made quite a few…

There’s still time to enter the challenge and we have a fab prize up for grabs from Polkadoodles

The bundle I used for my cards today is Winnie Winterland. The prices are very reasonable anyway but if you want to buy anything do it on a Tuesday when they usually publish a fab discount code on their blog

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Thanks so much for stopping by, I’ll be trying to catch up on all your blogs later this week when I eventually get myself sorted for Christmas

Halloween or Autumn?

Good afternoon crafty friends, thanks so much for taking the time to stop by

Another beautiful day here, we really have had some gorgeous Autumn weather the last couple of weeks. I’m going to tidy up the garden, my neighbour has a huge oak tree and we seem to end up with all the leaves!

Then I think I’ll take Manny for a nice walk, I love it when it’s breezy and chilly and sunny, my favourite sort of day

I thought I’d share this picture today with it being Halloween, my Great Niece went pumpkin picking and carried this one round the whole time! she’s such a cutie…

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The As You Like It challenge for this fortnight is to share your favourite Halloween or Autumnal colours

I do like to add black to my cards but it has to be subtle which is why I’ve gone for Halloween. As much as I love Autumn and all the colours that come with it I feel that Halloween sort of gives permission to use lots of black and it looks great with green, purple, orange or yellow

I’ve had this Tim Holtz die a while but never had chance to use it…

The little stamps and sentiment are from the Mama Makes ‘Monster Mash Up’ set

You can find all the details for the challenge here

I thought I’d just add this shaker card too while I’m posting…

These are also Mama Makes stamps and there will be a step by step for it on the Mama Makes blog

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That’s it from me for today, I’ll be back soon with news about the new product launch from LOTV

Have a great day everyone

A new challenge for me, and LOTV news…

Good morning everyone, I hope you are enjoying the weekend

I have a few bits of news today to share and also a new DT challenge for me…

as you already know LOTV had to stop selling digital products until they can sort out some new EU reporting rules. I appreciate that many crafters didn’t get on with the digis so if that was you, you’ll be pleased to know that they are bringing back rubber stamps (as well as the papers and printed sheets that I told you about before). Hopefully they will be able to get the digi issue resolved soon and then everybody will be happy!

We have a new Facebook group, it’s run by the DT and is the only official LOTV group

We love to see what everyone is making and get your feedback on the products so please do join even if you are not a regular Facebook user, it’s very easy to use and really friendly

We had over 500 members in the first week so hopefully it will turn into a fantastic go-to place for us to show sneaky peeks and news as well as you being able to share your own makes and ask any questions. Just click on the link below to take you straight to the group page and then you just need to click ‘join group’ and answer a couple of questions (these are just to filter out the spam requests). We’d love to see you there and please don’t forget to tell all your crafty friends too!

WE LOVE LILI OF THE VALLEY

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Onto my own news, I’m joining some of my lovely crafty friends on the As You Like It DT (thanks for asking me girls)

The challenge has stood the test of time when so many others have closed down, it’s a fortnightly challenge and they have some great prizes up for grabs

The theme for the current challenge is a fun one, CAS or Full of Frills

I do love CAS but find it very hard to leave white space. I can’t resist loading up layers of patterned papers and dies so I guess my card for this challenge would have to be classed as Full of Frills!!

I used one of the new LOTV printed Art Sheets…

The papers are the new Frosty Christmas (grey) and the lovely cross stitch circle die is from Swedish House Crafts

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Hope you like it, thanks so much for stopping by and do be sure to check out both the AYLI challenge blog and the new Facebook group

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Enjoy the rest of your Sunday

Lili of the Valley news…

Hello bloggers, thanks so much for stopping by

We had a lovely time in Rome, what an amazing city. I’ll share a few piccies another time I haven’t had chance to sort through them yet. I love taking photographs but I think with all the digital technology now you just snap away at anything and I took 1000’s. When you had a film in your camera you were more selective, now I take about 20 from every angle and then when I get home they all nearly look the same! Mind you when the Truprint envelope dropped through the door in the old days I was inevitably disappointed because out of every 24 there were probably only about 6 decent ones!!

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Onto the LOTV news…

due to some new EU VAT reporting regulations it’s proving difficult for them to sell digital images at the moment. I did mention the new Art Sheets a few weeks ago but they’re also going back to selling printed papers and stamps which I know will please many of their customers

If you are new to Lili of the Valley they have 2 fantastic bundles offering their whole collection of digital images or Simply Print sheets for an unbelievable 90% off. If you already have some of their images (which I think most of you will have) then there are still some great offers if there are any you are missing. They are only on sale until tomorrow so don’t wait or they will be gone

Here are a few simple cards I made using the new Christmas Art Sheets and some of the new papers…

This is the Christmas Pugs Art Sheet and the papers are Scandi Christmas

The circle die is Reverse Confetti from Dies to Die For

This is the Christmas Friends Art Sheet and the papers are Vintage Christmas

This is the Snowy Friends Art Sheet and the papers are Frozen Snowflakes

The square doily die is Tattered Lace

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Hope you like them

I have a question before you go…

if any of you lovely crafters are subscribed to my blog feed could you let me know if you are still getting an email when I do a new post? I don’t always get a notification now from a few of the blogs that I follow and one of my followers emailed me to say she wasn’t getting any notifications. I know things changed a while back with the new data protection rules so I’m interested to know how it’s affecting the blog and if I need to do anything

Thanks so much, enjoy the rest of your weekend

Copolop Christmas cards…

Good morning everyone…

I’ve scheduled this post and hopefully while you are reading it I’ll be on my way to Rome. We’ve never been before and I got some great recommendations of where to visit,  thanks so much if you commented on my Facebook post

Carol… you really make me want to go and tour around Italy in a little sports car, maybe next year!

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Despite good intentions at the start of the year I’ve hardly done any Christmas cards, I had a free day so bit the bullet and did some batch making. I love these Coppoloppolaro stamps from Mama Makes, they’re quirky and a bit different

I didn’t want to spend hours colouring so just did a loose dot technique which was so much easier and quicker…

The stamps are mixed and matched from the following sets; Copolop Christmas Hug, Copolop A Beary Good Christmas and Copolop Christmas Pals – all available from the Mama Makes website

The cross stitch frame is Memory Box

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There are more pictures and a quick step by step for these on the Mama Makes blog so I’d love it if you would leave a comment on there and say you visited from here

Thanks so much for stopping by, have a good day everyone

LOTV on Hochanda

Hello crafty friends, another hot day here so I’m doing a quick post and then sitting out for a while and enjoying my garden

I have an appointment in Wetherby next week so we had a drive out this morning in Keith’s little sports car just to see where it is and for parking. I thought he was a bit mad when he got that car but I have to admit it’s really good fun and he’s certainly felt the benefit of a convertible the last couple of months. We called and had breakfast on the way back (I love eggs benedict so don’t even look at the menu) so that was a really lovely Sunday morning

I’m not really a big sports fan but I do like Wimbledon so I‘m excited for that to start tomorrow, and I’ve been enjoying the World Cup too so fingers crossed for a good result on Tuesday. 

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If you haven’t seen it on Facebook already I need to tell you that Lili of the Valley are back on the TV tomorrow. They have new Christmas images for 2018 that will available in rubber, I know many of you have missed the rubber stamps

There are some fabulous samples from the team and my lovely crafty friend Lorraine will be demoing some of her pretty cards on air using the new stamps

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Here are some of my makes, I used old favourite James the Bear…

and this is one of the new images, penguins are always top of my list at Christmas…

These papers are on the LOTV website, Laila made a few different coloured versions of their hugely popular frosty Christmas in digital format for you to print at home, this is the pink one and you can find them here along with some other designs

The lovely swirly sentiment on the 2nd James card is from a new set that will be also available tomorrow

The mountain die and ‘let it snow’ are Lawn Fawn, scalloped frame is MFT

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Hope you like them, do try and catch the shows tomorrow at 11am and 3pm on Hochanda

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Have a wonderful Sunday everyone whatever you are doing

Star Book for Mama Makes…

Evening all, I’ve been a bad blogger again – where does the time go?

I have to admit I’ve been spending a lot of time out and about and in the garden, the weather has been so lovely it’s too nice to sit inside

Keith is off next week and the sun is going to continue to shine so I thought I’d better sneak in a quick post now or it will be another week

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I saw a useful post on Facebook this week from the lovely Anne Redfern, an easy solution to the recent problems with comment notifications (or lack of them).I know a lot of my visitors are not on Facebook so I hope this is helpful;

Go to your blog dashboard.
Click on Settings.
Click on Email.
Delete your email address and click on "Save Settings" in upper right.
Re-enter your email address and click "Save Settings" again.
You will then receive an email in your inbox from Blogger confirming that you want to subscribe. Click on the underlined word "Subscribe."

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Leonie is featuring some Mama Makes stamps this week on her Let Loose shows on Hochanda, I love these stamps, they’re quirky and a bit different to what I usually use. I made this star book and really enjoyed doing something different…

    

    

    

There’s a lot of pictures but I wanted to show you all the pages. If I make another I’ll be sure to photograph it before sticking together because it won’t lay flat, but I think you can see enough

You  can see all these cute stamps and the lovely sentiments on Hochanda on Wednesday at 11 and 2, they’re also available on the Mama Makes website. Loti makes all the stamps herself, she designs some of them and also finds new and exciting artists, they’re quite unique

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Keith is watching the football so a nice soak in the bath for me now and a catch up on some Jennifer McGuire videos, it you haven’t seen her then give them a go, she has some fantastic ideas

Thanks so much for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your weekend

 

Polar Bear Pals…

Good evening crafty friends, are you all ready for Christmas? We have a whole year to plan for it yet here I am again rushing around at the last minute trying to get things done. I did a big food shop today and got the last of the pressies wrapped so I think I’m getting there now

I did manage to make most of my cards this year, I love these Polar Bear stamps from MFT and until a couple of weeks ago I thought it was a Christmas set. I’ve never used the sentiments and just found out they are actually birthday stamps but I like using them for Christmas

I used them with the Memory Box grand ‘Merry Christmas’ die and some Cheery Lynn snowflakes for these quick cards…

Here’s another one, I made a few the same as this. The large snowflake is cut from card and layered three times to make an embellishment. I’ve been doing this a lot with die cuts, especially sentiments and I like the effect 

These are a bit different for me, I hope you like them for a change

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I probably won’t be doing another post before Christmas so I’d like to just say thanks so much for visiting my blog and for your support throughout the year

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone