Dream Valley Challenge 72 - Christmas!

Hiya,

Wow! I am rushed off my feet as I'm sure you all are at this time of year. I'm amazed I've even managed to get one Christmas card made.... but i have! And here it is.... And just in time too because our challenge at Dream Valley really could be nothing else other than....

CHRISTMAS!!!

A LOTV image, sentiment and papers.... You'd never guess I'm a fan, would you? When I'd put the image with the kraft background together, it made me think of a christmas pudding so I added the sprig of holly :-)

And then on to my other christmas creations.... When I went to the craft show at the NEC this year, the cake show was also on at the same time so I had a bit of a peek and went along to a demonstration where Tracey Mann was making these....

so I had my own little attempt. Not nearly as polished and beautiful as Tracey's creations but I enjoyed making them and will be using chocolate transfer sheets again - what fun!

Right, I must be off. Busy, busy girl!

Have a fab weekend.

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 71 - Anything but a card

Hiya!

Hope you are all well. It's time for another challenge at Dream Valley and the challenge this time is

ANYTHING BUT A CARD!

I've barely had any time for crafting since I've re-started my supply teaching but the last couple of weeks I've had some enforced crafting time! On Thursdays when I don't work I have a physiotherapy class to go to for my hip which is less bending and stretching (like I thought it would be) and more full on gym workout! It has left me pretty much unable to walk for two Fridays now so I've had to sit on the sofa and sew these little cuties :-) Oh well.... Every cloud.... :-)

I started off with the little penguin at my pal Yvonne's (yes, Yvonne, you get another mention - thank you, sweetie!) who kindly re-taught me how to do blanket stitch. I haven't done that since I was in Brownies :-) When I got home I had the bug and cut out two christmas puds and a robin. And then I discovered the christmas trees I had cut out last year but never had time to do anything with....

The penguin and robin - a mixture of xcut dies, nesties and a bit of free-hand cutting....

The christmas puds - again I used nesties for the large circles, and xcut dies for the rest except the icing which was hand cut. I think the holly leaves are a bit too small though but I couldn't find any better ones. Maybe next time I'll cut them free hand too?

Nestie trees which a selection of buttons, gold trim and mini bells....

Hope you like! Now I've just got to decide what to do with them! I might thread them on some rope and make a bit of a garland type thing. What do you think?

Anyway. don't forget to pop over to Dream Valley and join in the challenge :-)

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 70 - Clean and Simple

Hiya!

It's time for another challenge over at Dream Valley and this time we'd like to see your Clean and Simple cards. Now I've always found these a challenge but I have been working on them behind the scenes - heaven knows, they easily take me as long as my normal cards! My good friend Yvonne has helped me to get the tree on this one just right.....

We tried stamping in white, and embossing with all sorts of inks and powders to get the right effect that showed all the detail in the tree and gave a clear enough image. Finally, using some extra fine white embossing powder I picked up at the craft show at the NEC last week, I managed to get just what I wanted - yay!

A close up of the image from Inkylicious.....

The sentiment was handwritten in white gel pen because, again, I was struggling to find exactly the right phrase and font..... and you can't exactly print in white, can you!?! :-) I added a couple of tiny gems and a hand drawn border. Overall, I'm quite pleased with the results!

Now make sure you pop over to Dream Valley and have a look at the gorgeous creations there which all look far more effortless than this one seemed to be!

Love 'n' hugs,

Happy birthday, Madison!

Hiya!

I just wanted to share with you a card I made for my beautiful niece, Madison, whose birthday it is today :-) Happy birthday, Mads!

My sister has bought her a toy puppy for her birthday so when I saw this Lili of the Valley image, I just had to use it for her card:

The papers are also from LOTV - they're so cute!

A close up of the image.....

I really enjoyed making this one - I hope you like it!

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley challenge 69 - Humour

Hiya!

It's time for another challenge over at Dream Valley and after all of those spooky Halloween creations it is quite nice to get stuck into something a bit funny :-)

Our challenge this time is:

HUMOUR!

We are sponsored by Bugaboo and I have used this fab image of Gus - I love it! And the sentiment is brilliant :-)

I just wanted to show you a close up of the image so you can see where I used my 3D gloss on his glasses and moped :-)

If you want to see some more funny creations made by the rest of the DT, please pop over to Dream Valley and have a little giggle :-)

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 68 - Halloween

Hiya!

Hope you are all having a fab weekend :-) It's time for another challenge over at Dream Valley and this time we want to see your Halloween creations.

I'm really enjoying making my cakes at the moment so I thought I'd make some floating ghost cupcakes for this challenge:

I started off by making the eyes with a little bit of help from Hubby :-) I piped LOTS of small dots of royal icing onto greaseproof paper while Hubby followed and added little black specks of writing icing. After we let them dry for 24 hours, we had a little box of eyes to decorate our ghosts.....

The ghosts were really easy. I just melted some white chocolate and piped little ghostie shapes onto lollipop sticks on greaseproof paper and let them set in the fridge.....

The cakes were just a normal vanilla cake mix that I topped with chocolate buttercream and then dipped into crushed malteasers. Then I just stuck the little ghosties into the top and ta da!!!! :-)

My boys really enjoyed them!

Anyway, I must be going. Make sure you pop over to Dream Valley to check out all the spooky creations by the rest of the DT.

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 67 - Buttons

Hiya!

Hope you're having a fab weekend!!! Well, not content with just a fab weekend (I'm currently enjoying one of my regular crafty days with my pal, Yvonne), I'm actually having a fab fortnight.....

Firstly, I'm back at work..... For most people, not a reason to celebrate, but I've been out of teaching for about four and a half years now, and while I've loved being at home with the kids and Paul (and all the crafting time it has given me!) I've always enjoyed my teaching. And now I get the best of both worlds - part time supply work lets me spend half the week doing my usual Mom/wife duties and crafting, and then I spend half the week teaching and earning a few pennies to keep me in crafty stash :-) I'm loving it!

Secondly, I am finally beginning to enjoy the results of my operation on my dodgy hip.... I have had a fairly pain-free fortnight and even managed to get back in my heels again - yay!!! And that is thanks to the fab staff at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital. This card is for the fab team in the hydrotherapy department who have looked after me, pulled and twisted and stretched me until I was fit enough to be pulled, twisted and stretched on dry land :-) I did pop in to drop off the card in person but, alas, it was deserted, so I just left the card on the desk..... Should they happen to find their way to my blog, I just want to make sure they know just how much I appreciate what they have done. Thank you!

Anyway, the card..... A little more clean and simple than my usual offerings but I really wanted the emphasis to be on the sentiment.....

I hope you like it.

Now, make sure you pop over to Dream Valley to see what the rest of the DT can do with buttons!

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 66 - Autumn

Hiya!

Well it's all happening now, isn't it? The nights are drawing in, I've dug out my cosy pj's and I've even started sorting through that hat-scarf-and-glove box.....

AUTUMN is on it's way!

I've had a really lovely summer this year, despite everything with my poor old hip (which, I'm very happy to say, is now almost better....!) but there's something really comforting about Autumn. Everything is a bit cosy and snuggly. Yummy stews and casseroles after coming in from the cold. Hot chocolate at bedtime. And I love the beautiful colours of the leaves. Every year we go hunting for conkers and pine cones with the boys. I'm looking forward to this year's trip :-)

Anyway, you may have guessed that this card has an Autumn theme for Dream Valley's latest challenge!

This card is for my lovely Father in law whose birthday it is today. I've used a gorgeous pic from one of LOTV's art pads - Vintage Boys.....

And I used one of their lovely Country Gent paper pads too - both bought on my recent shopping trip to Leeds.... :-)

A bit of ribbon, some card candi and a bit of raffia to make the sheaf of wheat and hey presto!

Please pop over to Dream Valley to find out what the rest of the DT have made!

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 65 - Purple and Green

Hiya!

Well it's just about time for another challenge at Dream Valley! This time we've got a little colour challenge for you....

Purple and Green!

Well, this colour combination always makes me think of Halloween but I'm not ready for that just yet - I'm not ready to give up on Summer yet :-) So instead I decided to use one of my other purchases from my little trip to the Lili of the Valley shop......

I teamed it up with some papers by Wild Rose Studio that were just made for this challenge and then a little bit of ribbon and card candi....

A close up of the image.... as you can tell, I had a bit of fun with my glitter again :-)

Anyway, I'd better get on with things - lots to do again now the kids are back at school. Homework, spelling tests, reading books.....

Don't forget to pop over to Dream Valley and check out all the other purple and green creations by the rest of the DT :-)

Love 'n' hugs,

My shopping trip to Lili of the Valley....

Hiya!

I thought it was about time I started showing you what I bought on my wonderful trip to Leeds to visit the Lili of the Valley shop - which, by the way, is the cutest shop I have ever visited! I could have stayed all day! I must have gone round it three times - first to find where everything was, then to make my first decisions as to what I was going to buy and then again just to make sure I hadn't missed anything and I'd made exactly the right choices :-)

And this stamp, and the papers I have used were the first things I wanted to play with when I got into my craft room.....

Sooo cute! I couldn't wait to colour in the little fella! And the papers are gorgeous to work with :-)

A close up of the images.....

I also added a paper pieced "Mum" from another LOTV stamp I already had cos this card was for my Mum's birthday.... I added a little bit of glitter too..... :-)

Anyway, I'll show you some more of my purchases over the next few posts :-) Hope you like!

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 64 - For a Child

Hi there!

I've just got back from the most wonderfully relaxing holiday in Yorkshire - absolutely beautiful! My hip is on the mend and I managed to get back in my craft room yesterday for the first time in aaaages :-) It wasn't this card I was making - I had to make sure I had this one ready before my op in case I wasn't able to craft - but I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I went to the Lili of the Valley shop on my way up North and spent all of my holiday money before I even got to Yorkshire :-) Beautiful, beautiful shop. I could have spent the whole week there. I'll show you what I bought over my next few posts.....

Anyway, it's time for another challenge from Dream Valley and this time we'd like to see your creations

For A Child!

Now, this one is easy for me. With two young boys at school I'm always making birthday cards for their friends, so this is for my little Charlie's friend, Poppy!

I've used a cute little image from Digistamp Boutique....

I've cut out the letters and number using my fave Bang! Zoom! alphabet dies from sizzix and added a little faux stitching. Hope you like!

Please pop over to Dream Valley to see what the rest of the DT have made :-)

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 63 - Monochrome

Hiya!

I hope you are all well. I'm recovering from the operation I had on my dodgy hip so I haven't been able to go into my craft room for a bit. Thankfully I managed to get a little ahead on my DT cards and got this one made before I went into hospital for Dream Valley's latest challenge:

MONOCHROME!

I have recently been given a few beautiful vellums and I really wanted to try them out. They worked really well with some of the paper I had left from when I made my wedding invitations so I thought I'd use them to make an anniversary card for some good friends of mine.....

Another cute LOTV image.... (Did I tell you I'm going to visit the shop soon??? I can't wait!!!)

Anyway, I can't sit and type much longer - my poorly hip is quite sore when I'm sitting.... or standing.... Aw, heck, I'd better just go back to bed! :-)

Don't forget to pop over and check out the other monochrome creations at Dream Valley!

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 62 - Summer Days!

Hiya!

So, how appropriate is this challenge then??? We're having the best summer we've had in years and I'm loving it! :-)

When I saw this little fella in Digistamp Boutique I just had to snap him up (mainly because I want to share his ice-cream!). This card is for one of Charlie's nursery friends and I thought it was just the ticket for our Summer Days theme at Dream Valley....

A close up of the image so you can see all the sparkly glitter on the yummy ice-cream :-)

Now, I'm supposed to be recovering from an operation on my dodgy hip that I was supposed to have yesterday but unfortunately it got cancelled :-( Now I need to wait till Friday - not too long to wait, I suppose, but I'd got myself all worked up and prepared for it! I hope it all goes according to plan this time so that I can get it all over and done with in time for a job interview the week after.... Fingers crossed!!! It doesn't stop, does it? :-)

In the meantime, make sure you pop over to Dream Valley and check out the inspiration from the rest of the DT - there are some really gorgeous makes to see!

Love 'n' hugs,

Teacher thank you cards and gifts

Hiya!

I'm just outside in the garden watching my boys enjoy their first few days of the summer hols! They're splashing about in the paddling pool having a lovely time - long may it continue!

Anyway, I thought I'd share the cards I made for their teachers at the end of term. I've used the cutest little monkey from digistamp boutique - I thought he was perfect to put on cards from my little monkeys :-)

Card 1: Miss Neale

Card 2: Miss Fitzgerald

Card 3: Mrs Mazic

Card 4: Mrs Bromhall

Card 5: Miss Sheppard

And then the little bird gifts I made for them.... I die cut the pieces from felt but I can't tell you the make of the dies I'm afraid because I borrowed them from a friend and then gave them back without noting down the make but as soon as I find out (or if anyone out there can tell me!) I'll add it on :-) So cute though! I'll be borrowing the set again to make myself some, I think :-)

Edit: The dies are a Marianne Design Collectable called "Bird" (Thank you, Yvonne - for the loan of the dies and the name of them!)

Right, I think I'll go and prepare another salad for dinner! Nope, not bored of them yet :-)

Love 'n' hugs,