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,