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 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 47 - Christmas

Hiya!

Happy Christmas!!!!

I'm in a lovely festive mood today.... I've been shopping for some Christmas goodies this morning, we baked gingerbread men yesterday and my son is constantly playing with a little penguin that sings "Have yourself a merry little Christmas". It's really cute at the moment but I expect it will wear thin by the end of the day!

Anyway, it's just the sort of day to be starting Dream Valley's month long Christmas challenge!

This is my offering:

I have used my favourite papers that I've bought this Christmas from Papermania. Love 'em! And then added a LOTV die cut square (well, it was, until I cut it into a circle!) - I bought plenty of these in advance to get myself a little ahead for the festive season :-)

And then went a little nuts distressing them all! Quite pleased with the results for such a quick card!

Don't forget to pop over to Dream Valley to join in all the festive fun :-)

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 46 - Non traditional Christmas

Hiya,

Sorry, just a quick post today for Dream Valley cos I'm going Christmas shopping! :-)

Our challenge this time is non-traditional Christmas which I took to mean non-traditional colours so I've put aside my usual red, green and gold and gone for a more wintery blue and white scene:

I did the reflection of the reindeer by stamping onto acetate, lining up with the original and pressing down. The hills were made with distress inks and highlighted with glitter glue.  Hope you like it!

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 44 - Glitter and Bling!

Oooops! Apologies - I forgot to schedule my post for yesterday so this is a little later than it should be! Sorry!

This is of course my latest DT card for Dream Valley and we're looking a for a little bit of Sparkle and Bling to cheer us up now the weather is cold and the nights are drawing in :-)

I've been in a really Christmassy mood so although I had every intention of sitting down and making a cute little girly card, this Christmas card just kind of happened :-)

I bought some Lili of the Valley die cut, pre-coloured images to help give me a bit of a head start on my Christmas cards as, yet again, I didn't make them during the year as I was supposed to!

I love this ribbon.... :-)

And these snowflakes that I covered in sparkle.....

I hope you can join us with your lovely sparkley creations :-) Please pop over to Dream Valley and check out all the gorgeous glittery creations my team mates have made!

Love 'n' hugs,

Christmas in July

Hiya,

My efforts for building my Christmas card supply during the year have not quite materialised as I'd hoped but I have managed to start earlier than previous years (not that I expect to be adding to it for a while - I'm not that organised!) So here is my first Christmas card of the year......

I used one of the gorgeous LOTV die cut squares that I bought in an effort to avoid the last minute rush this year and the sentiment is LOTV too. A nice quick card - the only thing that took any time was waiting for the glitter to dry! :-)

Back again soon!

Love 'n' hugs,

Tilda at Christmas

Hiya!

As promised here is another of my Christmas cards.... Just a quick simple one cos we're all a bit short of time at this time of the year, aren't we?

A close up of the image...

I used:

Image - Magnolia

Promarkers

Gold gel pen

Papers - Papermania Mistletoe kisses

Gold mirri card

Card candi

Sentiment - Daisy and Dandelion die cut

String snaffled from a clothing tag!

Challenges:

Stampin' for the Weekend - Christmas

Moving Along with the Times - Last minute Christmas

Crafty ribbons - Traditional colours for Christmas

CES challenges - Traditional Christmas

I'm off to my pal's tomorrow for a fab crafty day but I'm hoping to catch up with all your lovely blogs soon!

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 22 - Christmas!

Hiya!

And a big welcome to my new followers :-) I'm back with my DT card for Dream Valley's latest challenge:

CHRISTMAS!

Well what else would it be at this time of year!?!

This is my first successful stepper card - I've always made such a hash of them before!

The image is of course Forever Friends coloured with my fave promarkers. The tree stamp was in the same set.  I've added loads of fluffy stuff I got from my local craft shop - it makes fab snow and fluffy trims :-)

I like doing my cards in those lovely pinks and blues but you just can't beat the traditional red and green for Christmas! I've embossed the background and highlighted it with shimmer chalk so it stands out a bit better. It looks really shimmery in real life - I can't hope for the camera to catch that at the moment though. It's having enough difficulty distinguishing between bold primary colours in this horrible (lack of) light we've got at the moment. How I long for Santa to bring me my daylight lamp! I've posted him my list :-)

I've used:

Images - Forever Friends

Promarkers

Sentiment - Daisy and Dandelion die-cut

Papers - Daisy and Dandelion

Fluffy stuff(!)

Papermania embossing folder

Shimmer chalks (to highlight embossed snowflakes)

Ribbon and gems from stash

Challenges:

CES Challenges - Traditional Christmas

Crafty Ribbons - Traditional colours for Christmas

Creative Inspirations - Snow much fun!

Forever Friends - It's all Christmas

Let's ink it up - Christmas Projects

Stampin for the weekend - Christmas

ABC challenge - E for embossing

Totally Gorjuss - Let it snow

Now don't forget to pop over to Dream Valley - we've got some fab new members to our design team and they've made some gorgeous festive projects :-)

I've made a bezillion other Christmas cards but haven't got round to posting them on here yet so prepare for an overdose from me in the next few days :-)

Love 'n' hugs,

White on white....

Hiya!

Hope you are all well! I thought I'd have a go at a white on white Christmas card in between wedding invites and this is the result....

The image is a digi from Just Inklined. It's absolutely fab for quick cards as it hardly needs any colouring at all!

I used:

Image - Just Inklined

Sentiment - Sentiments 4 You

Promarkers

Papermania embossing folders

Nesties

Marianne creatables snowflake dies

Gems from stash

Challenges:

Ladybug Crafts Ink - White on white

Whoopsi Daisy - White on white

Right, I'm off - my new cross trainer should be arriving any moment so I need to clear some space! I was on the treadmill last week and smoke started pouring out of it so I kind of needed a replacement.... There's no other way I'll be able to fit into my wedding dress with all the yummy Christmas food I'm planning! :-)

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 21 - Sparkle... and a mini DT call....

Hiya!

I'm back for another challenge at Dream Valley! This time we are being sponsored by our very own Mags (who is now calling herself MagsB....) Please pop over to her blog, she makes some gooooorgeous creations! Anyway, so on to the challenge.... One of my faves this time - we want to see some

SPARKLE!

I put a bit of sparkle on nearly all of my cards and with Christmas fast approaching there's certainly no reason to put away the glitter just yet :-)

I've made a couple of matching cards for my niece and nephew using one of my fave Lili of the Valley images, James the bear in the snow.

I used holographic embossing powder on the hat trim and snow.... can you see it? Try squinting a bit.... :-) And then there's silver glitter around the edge.....

And the matching blue one....

Same holographic embossing powder but I couldn't get this to show up on my photos at all! How disappointing. It's soooo sparkley IRL. Why have I got to wait till Christmas for my daylight lamp???? Grrrrr!

I used:

Image - LOTV

Promarkers

Holographic embossing powder

Silver glitter

Papers - Pink: Tatty teddy Christmas pack, blue: Dovecraft

Silver mirri card

Silver trims and ribbon from stash

Nesties

Snowflakes - Marianne creatables dies

Gems and sentiments - stash

Card candy - picked up at NEC craft show

Challenges:

Blue card only

Creative Inspirations - Winter colours: Blue, grey and white

Ladybug crafts ink - Winter blues

Both cards

Charisma cardz - snowflakes

Lili of the Valley - Anything goes

Sketch 'n' stash - Fab sketch, new stash: card candy

ABC challenge - D for dazzle

Totally gorjuss - Sparkle

Whoopsi Daisy - Anything goes at Christmas

Dream Valley Mini DT Call

I must let you know about the DT call over at Dream Valley..... We're looking for some new teamies so if you'd like to join us, please pop over and read the post on the Dream Valley blog and add your name to our linky thing.... But make it quick cos there's only 1 day left!

Now I do need to apologise for how quiet I have been in blogland just lately. I don't want to bore you with the details but just to let you know I have a few things on my plate at the moment - all of which I hope will be resolved in the near future so I can be back to my usual blogging self! In the meantime, make sure you pop over to Dream Valley and have a look at all the other sparkley creations the DT have made - they're such a talented bunch :-)

Hoping to visit you all soon!

Love 'n' hugs,