Dream Valley challenge 96 - True blue

Hiya!

Hope you are all well! We're still having our bathroom done at the moment so things are still a little chaotic at home but I did find time for a little play in my craft room :-) And just in time for our new challenge over at Dream Valley:

TRUE BLUE!

It really is about time I got stuck into my Christmas cards - they're never going to get done at this rate! Luckily, while I was at the craft show at the NEC a few weeks back I picked up a couple of the Christmas art pads from LOTV - they're so handy when you're as disorganised as I am :-) I love this little cutie and teamed her up with some of the yummy Christmas papers from LOTV and a gorgeous fluffy ribbon I'd got in my stash :-)

Right, I've got some presents to start wrapping while I'm feeling all christmassy :-) Make sure you pop over to Dream Valley to join in the fun and to enter our DT call.....

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 95 - Anything goes!

Ooooops! Guess who forgot to schedule their blog post!!! I'm all over the place at the moment trying to keep the house running smoothly while we're having our new bathroom fitted. There's so much to do.... I was really glad of the excuse to do something a little different for our new challenge at Dream Valley...

ANYTHING GOES!!!!!

I went to the craft show at the NEC recently and picked up a few more bits and pieces to add to my jewellery making collection that I'm starting to build up. I wanted to make a nice Christmassy set.... What do you think?

This is only my second attempt at making a double stranded wire bracelet - a lot more successful than my first attempt! I added a little extension chain with a little Christmas tree charm :-)

And a little pair of earrings to match - I love how quickly I can make a pair of earrings! Absolutely loving my new hobby! Thank you to my friend, Yvonne, for the inspiration :-)

Make sure you pop over to Dream Valley to join in all the fun!

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 94 - Getting ready for Christmas!

Hellooooo!

I'm back! :-) Sorry I've been away so long - you may remember that I was packing away all my craft things ready for our house move when I last posted on here.... Well now we're all moved and settled in and (after 6 weeks of waiting!) we finally have internet connection - woohoo! :-) Things are still a little topsy turvy - not all of our boxes are unpacked and put away, and our bathroom is in a dreadful state awaiting new tiles and new plumbing and... well, new everything really. But the important stuff is unpacked so I can get back to my crafting and join in with my teamies over at Dream Valley again :-)

Goodness me! Last time I posted it was all sunshine and flowers and now we're:

Getting Ready for Christmas!!!!

So here it is, the first of my Christmas cards this year (I'll never learn to start in January, will I?!?)

And you won't be surprised by my LOTV image and papers.... I'm hoping they'll be at the NEC when I visit next week so I can top up my stash a bit more! :-)

Anyway, make sure you pop over to Dream Valley to join in all the festive fun!

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 89 - Flowers

Hiya!

Wow! Things are busy at the moment! We're right in the middle of trying to move house and I've had to pack away all my craft things into boxes - sob! I just managed to get this card made before everything needed to be packed away and it's just in time for the latest challenge at Dream Valley:

Flowers!

It's my lovely Mom's birthday this week. Don't all Moms like a lovely vase of flowers??? :-)

I love this LOTV image - so pretty!

And I took a pic from a slightly different angle so you could see the gloss on the vase....

I went for a nice pink and blue colour scheme - I'm refusing to let go of summer, despite the weather!

Anyway, my house move has been delayed slightly (which is a nuisance cos the boys start their new school next week and I really don't fancy 3 hours of driving back and forth each day when it's only a 3 minute walk from the new house!) so I don't know when I'll be able to unpack my crafty stash - boo hoo :-( And it will more than likely interrupt my internet connection too, so if you don't hear from me for a while, don't worry! I will be back soon! :-)

In the meantime pop over to Dream Valley to join in all the flowery fun :-)

Love 'n' hugs, 

Dream Valley Challenge 88 - Weddings!

Hiya!

We have a lovely new challenge for you over at Dream Valley.....

WEDDINGS!

Now I don't now about you but it seems like everyone is getting married at the moment.... This is the first of three wedding cards I've made just recently and I've still got one to go :-) I love taking the opportunity to personalise a card to make it something the happy couple can keep and treasure....

Sorry the picture is a little blurry - I couldn't get it to focus properly no matter how hard I tried! :-(

Gorgeous little piccie from LOTV - you can't see all the glitter on the flowers etc either - grrrr!

This is better - in focus and glittery - yay! :-) Computer printed personalisation....

And again....!

Please pop over to Dream Valley and add your beautiful wedding creations to our challenge!

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 87 - Favourite colour combo

Hiya!

Hope you are all well and having a lovely day :-) It's time for another challenge at Dream Valley. This time we would like to see your 

favourite colour combinations!

This lilac and turquoise colour scheme is a recent fave of mine thanks to the beautiful paper pad from LOTV. They're so pretty!  I recently made a birthday card for one of Charlie's school friends and his Mum really liked it and so asked me to make a few cards for her. This is the first I have to show you:

A close up of the image. You can just make out the sparkle on her skirt :-)

I love these pretty bunting stamps I have - fab for personalisation :-)

Anyway, I'd better be off. I'm suffering from a distinct lack of sleep after spending a chunk of the night at the hospital with my youngest son, Charlie, after he had a fit last night. It was so scary. If any of you have experience of this sort of thing, please feel free to tell me how everything is alright and I have no need to worry! The doctors told me all that last night but I think it will take time for me to believe it. Charlie is a lot better now and playing as if nothing ever happened :-)

Please pop over to Dream Valley to join in all the fun!

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 86 - Summer!

Hiya!

It's time for another challenge at Dream Valley and this time our theme is

SUMMER!

I chose a pretty little image from LOTV - it doesn't matter how old I get, I think I will always enjoy going on the swings in summer. I just hope my boys stay young enough for me to tag along with them to the park for a good few years yet! :-)

A close up of the image....

Make sure you pop over to Dream Valley to see all the other summery creations by the rest of the DT!

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 85 - Inspired by a song/movie/book

Hiya!

Hope you are all well and you're enjoying some beautiful weather! I love this time of year and being able to get out and enjoy the garden or going for a drive somewhere new. My hubby loves going out somewhere in the car so this LOTV image was perfect for his birthday card and for our new challenge at Dream Valley:

Inspired by a song/movie/book

The song is, of course, Driving in my Car by Madness (I can't even type it without wanting to add in the horn noises....!)

A close up of the image...

I love the creations put together for this challenge by the rest of the DT. Make sure you pop over to Dream Valley and join in the fun!

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 84 - Monochrome

Hiya!

Hope you are all well. I've had a lovely weekend including a really nice Father's Day picnic. Paul had to work so I took the boys to meet him in his lunch break and we went to the park for some fun and a lovely picnic - beautiful! :-)

The challenge this time at Dream Valley is

MONOCHROME

I'm going through a bit of a brown thing at the moment - virtually every card I make has a shade of brown in it, so when I was making my monochrome card it just seemed to be the way to go!

Some of you may know that we're in the process of selling our house and moving to be nearer to my Mom. The amount of paperwork involved is horrendous - not at all the sort of paper I like to be working with! So when I eventually got some time in my craft room I was totally in the mood for duffing up papers and letting them know exactly how I feel about them at the moment :-) This is the result....

This card is for the anniversary of my very good friends Yvonne and Graham - I hope they had a lovely day!  They have a huge amount of books so this LOTV image was perfect for them :-)

Anyway, I have a fair few cards I need to be making at the moment so I'd better get off the computer and back into my craft room :-)

Don't forget to pop over to Dream Valley to join in all the fun!

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 83 - Baby!

Hiya!

It's time for another challenge over at Dream Valley and this one is one of my faves.....

BABY!

There's so much I love about this challenge. I love being able to do a really cute little girlie card.... And I LOVE this LOTV image.... And I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! that there's a gorgeous new person in the world :-) Congratulations, Robyn, on the birth of beautiful Frankie. I hope she brings you endless joy!

It was really nice to get my flowers out again too. They don't see much daylight these days with all the boys cards I end up doing :-) That's the way it goes for a crafting mom of three boys!

A close up so you can see the sentiment better and all the sparkle..... You can just make out the clouds in the background....

Anyway, I hope you like it. Don't forget to pop over to Dream Valley to join in all the fun! :-)

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 82 - Things with wings!

Hiya!

Well, I don't know about you but I'm having a lovely weekend - enjoying all this beautiful weather! I almost forgot to do my Dream Valley post..... :-)

This time we'd like to see

Things with Wings!

I've chosen to use a beautiful owl stamp from Woodware. It was just screaming at me to be paper pieced so I've used some lovely summery papers given him a bit of a patchwork effect...

From this angle you can see the glittered edges and 3D gloss I've used on his eyes.... And I just love the sheen on the ice-cream-y coloured card candi :-)

Now, as is usual these days, I'm completely up to my eyeballs in things to do so I must leave it there. But don't forget to pop over to Dream Valley to join in the fun :-)

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 81 - Anything goes!

Hiya!

It's time for another challenge over at Dream Valley :-) This fortnight's challenge is the ever-popular

ANYTHING GOES!

Well it was my beautiful sister's 10th wedding anniversary this week so my card is for her and her husband. Happy anniversary, Nic & Ty! Love you both :-)

My card has another gorgeous image from one of LOTV's pre-coloured pads (always handy when I don't have a lot of time to colour myself - I just added a little shading and shadow to it) and some of their gorgeous papers too....

A close-up of the image....

Please pop over to Dream Valley for some inspiration and to join in the fun :-)

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 80 - Say it with WORDS!

Hi Everyone!

And Happy Easter! Whatever it means to you, chocolate eggs, a visit to church or spending time with family and friends.... I hope you have a good one!

It's time for another challenge at Dream Valley and this time we'd like you to

Say it with WORDS!

I've got a lovely text stamp from Inkylicious that I've been wanting to use but I had to wait for a very good friend's birthday first! This was for my friend, Claire (It was actually her birthday in February.... She did get the card on time... Or at least she would have done if she hadn't been off on her travels! It was on the doormat waiting for her when she got home....) who I've known since I was 11. Love ya, Claire! xx

Very simple.... Distress inks, a few gems and some stickles..... Other than that, it's all about the words:

A close up of the corner so you can see the sparkle a bit better :-)

Anyway, I've got a HUGE roast dinner to be getting on with :-) Hope you all have a lovely Easter! Don't forget to pop over to Dream Valley....

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 78 - Mothering Sunday

Hiya!

Oooops! I had a busy day yesterday and forgot to schedule my Dream Valley post - sorry!

Well here it is - better late than never, eh? :-)

The new challenge at Dream Valley is all about Mothering Sunday and our very special Moms. Now I'm sure you would all argue with me but I actually do have the best Mom in the world. And if you knew her, you'd agree with me :-) She's a very hard-working nurse but always has time for us kids, no matter what. There have been many occasions recently when I just needed a friendly ear to listen and she is always there. Thank you, Mom. Love you xx

Here is one of several Mother's Day cards I'm making this year.  I decided to make a pot of flowers in my frustration at not being able to find exactly the right stamped image of a vase/pot/container of flowers :-) You may already be familiar with my scrunchy flowers....? The papers and sentiment are both from LOTV.

A close up of my scrunchy flowers....

Anyway, I hope you like it! Please pop over to Dream Valley to see what the rest of the DT have made for Mother's Day :-)

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 77 - BIG birthdays!

Hiya!

Well, dare I say it? It seems that Spring may have arrived! Yay! :-) It has put me in a lovely mood so the cards been making over the last few days all seem to be pretty, cheerful, pastel colours. The new challenge at Dream Valley is all about

BIG Birthdays!

I've gone a bit 'pink' with this card..... Once I started I couldn't stop so everything ended up pink - except the bear :-) There are a few BIG birthdays coming up in my family this year, but of them all, the 90th birthday of my Father-in-law's mom is probably the biggest. Now you don't get to celebrate birthdays that big very often, do you? :-)

I haven't used this Fizzy Moon image for quite a while but I really do like it. He's so cute! The sentiment is one from LOTV. I was gutted though. It's a really sticky one and it was stuck fast to the acetate sheet it was on and as I was peeling it off it got two little tears in it :-( It took ages to position it onto my block so I could stamp it without the tears being visible. I've never had that happen to one of my stamps before and I was quite upset about it! Must be more careful in future!

A close up of the image showing glitter I added.... Can you see the 3D gloss on his nose too???

Right, I suppose. It's about time I tidied my kitchen - it always looks like a bombsite at the weekend.  But with the nice weather I can send the boys out in the garden to play so I can sort it out in peace :-)

Don't forget to have a look at the other BIG birthday inspiration from the Dream Valley DT!

Hope you have a fab weekend.

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 76 - Vintage

Hiya!

Hope you’re all having a fab weekend J It’s time for another challenge over at Dream Valley. This time we’d love to see your VINTAGE creations!

This really isn’t my style so I’ve had to try really hard – but I guess that’s what a challenge is all about, eh? J But I’ll tell you something, I haven’t enjoyed making a card so much in ages! I really enjoyed distressing all the edges and using my lovely new paper pad from LOTV. This card is for my fab Slimming World consultant, Denise. Such an inspiration! Happy birthday, Den!

The image is one I’ve had for ages but never got round to using. It’s called Busy Doing Nothing from Sheena Douglass.

Anyway, I hope you like it! Don’t forget to pop over to Dream Valley to see all the beautiful vintage creations from the rest of the DT J

Love ‘n’ hugs,