Happy birthday, Harry!

Harry is my little George's bestest friend and he turns 5 this weekend. When I saw this image I'd been sent (LOTV - milk and biscuits) I just knew it was the perfect image for Harry's card. This reminds me so much of the pair of them, I coloured it to look just like them :-) It wasn't intentional but it turned out quite autumnal... The papers are Daisy and Dandelion Picnic Patch, the ribbon came off a bunch of flowers I was sent when I left teaching and I won the charm from Debs.

I used the sketch from Sketch and Stash (new stash - charm) and I'm also entering it into the following challenges:

Pollycraft Monday Challenge - Add a little nature

The ABC Challenge - C is for charms

Meljen's Designs - Stripes

George has another friend turning 5 this weekend too - eek! Better get back in that craft room!

Love 'n' hugs,

Mel xx

Thankyou x47

Phew! Done it! 14 hours altogether... 45 thankyou cards with the same layout in 4 different colours and then 2 slightly more special ones to thank their parents.

Most of the paper strips are Henbury Lane but the green ones are Pink Parfait. Got a fab price on the organza ribbon on ebay and also bought the Sizzix Tag die on there aswell. The "With Thanks" sentiment is stamped from Clare Curd's range but for the name and date stamp I actually got a rubber stamp made at Rubber Stamps Direct - it was remarkabley well-priced and VERY speedy delivery. Definitely saved me a lot of time printing out on the computer. The gems are from the Henbury Lane range too. On the parents' cards I've used the PC to print out "Mum & Dad" (after downloading the same font as was used on the rubber stamp!) and then embossed some card for the background using the Papermania Victorian Fleur embossing folder and then inking it to highlight the pattern.

Posted them off today so let's hope they go down well... I have to tell you, I will NOT be rounding any corners on my cards for a good long while!

See you soon!

Love 'n' hugs,

Mel xx

Miss Anya Birthday Card

Hiya! It's all systems go here - all my stuff has arrived for the 47 cards I need to make so I ought to get cracking. Just had time to get this one done before it all got here. And I thought I'd better make it a good one as this is for the lovely lady who's ordered the other 47!

I love this image - Miss Anya Dressy - she's gorgeous! I coloured her using my promarkers (how did I ever survive without them?) and I used a sketch from Paperplay Challenges that also requires me to use new stash (yummy purple glitter and the gorgeous purple flower I won from Debs). My Xcut shape-cutter wouldn't cut exactly the right size circles so I went back to school and used a good old compass and scissors!

The background paper is a digi download from Docrafts from aaaages ago (Cupcake Craft Challenges - Let's Get Digital) and then a strip of Henbury Lane. For the yellow flowers I've layered up three shades of yellow flowers onto one stalk and scrunched them up a bit. The sentiment is a clear stamp from Clare Curd's range.

This also fits the challenges at Meljen's (Happy Birthday) and Crafty Cardmakers spotlight challenge (Glitter and Sparkle).

Hope you like it! If you don't hear from me for a while, it'll be because I'm buried under a mountain of tags and organza ribbon :-)

Love 'n' hugs,

Mel xx

Twinkle, twinkle...

Just a quick post today - gotta go and make my Mom's birthday cake :-)...

I got this lovely image in a RAK from my pal, Clare, (thankyou!) and coloured her with my promarkers. The papers are papermania capsule collection, I punched and scrunched the flowers and then added a charm and button brads from my recent candy win from Debs (thankyou!).

I'm entering it into 4 challenges:

Totally Gorjuss: Star

Pollycraft Monday Challenge: Recipe (3 papers, 2 buttons, 1 charm)

Crafty Cardmakers: Video inspiration (Lady Gaga "Bad Romance")

Sarah Hurley: Monochrome

I'll be back again soon cos I've got loads to make - especially since I've just secured an order for 47 (yes, 47!) thankyou cards - phew!

Love 'n' hugs,

Mel xx

Too much pink???

Can you have too much pink??? This is for my lovely Mom for her birthday this weekend. I saw the little gift bag template here and thought it was sooo cute - quite a bit smaller than I thought though, but just big enough for her pressie :-) My pal Clare sent me these fab images which were just perfect for a matching card and gift bag. Thanks, Clare! I've coloured her with my promarkers and used papers from Henbury Lane (again!). The "With Love" sentiment is a Daisy and Dandelion stamp and the "Mum" is one of the Papermania Relations stamps. The gorgeous flowers came from a candy I won recently from Debs - thankyou! They're beautiful! Everything else is from my stash.

Just two challenges this time:

Paperplay challenges: Pink to make the boys wink ;)

Sarah Hurley: Anything but a card

Got to get a move on... I've got loads of birthday RAKs coming up aswell as birthdays for a pal of mine and several of George's friends! Aaaarghhh! I'm seriously running out of time. When do the kids go back to school again???? :-)

Love 'n' hugs,

Mel xx

A little award....

I've been a very lucky girl as I've been given this lovely award by Melly and Jenny! I'm sooo proud - thankyou sooo much! I'm grinning like a cheshire cat :-)

The rules of this award are:

1. Thank the person who gave it to you.


2. Put the award on your blog.


3. List three things about yourself.


4. Post a picture you love.


5. Tag 5 other people for the award.

Well here goes...

Thanking... check! Award on blog... check! Three things about myself... hmmm...

1. I used to be a science teacher.


2. I hate saying that I USED to be a Science teacher cos a very big part of me STILL wants to be a Science teacher!


3. I gave up being a Science teacher to be a full-time mom and part-time crafter and I'll never regret the decision :-)

Post a picture I love... Well, it has to be the photo I took of a sunflower that I grew with lots of help from my middle son, George, last year. I think it's fab cos I just got the bee flying into shot. Of course it won't appear here - it'll be at the top with the award piccie because I can never control where the pictures go on my blog! (If anyone has any advice on that topic, please feel free to share!)

Tag 5 other people for the award - well, it got it twice so I'm choosing 10 people! :-) Here goes:

1. Clare
2. Debs
3. Melly
4. Jenny
5. Emma
6. Liz
7. Mandy
8. Lisa
9. Amanda
10. Sarpreet

All of you are fabulous people who have given me so much inspiration and encouragement since I came to blogland. Thankyou all sooo much!

Love 'n' hugs,

Mel xx

My first Tilda card!

Well here she is! I've been wanting to do a Tilda card for aaages! I got this image in a RAK and I think she's beautiful! I coloured her with my promarkers and the papers are Henbury Lane. I really wanted to try out a few new additions to my stash on this card - my white gel pen (with varying degrees of success) and some glitter dust I got (best seen on the close-up). I think I still need to play with them a bit more to get the best out of them so I expect you'll be seeing them on my next few cards too! I followed a sketch from Sketch and Stash and a recipe from Cupcake Craft Challenges (2 papers, 2 ribbons and 2 flowers). It also fits challenges at Totally Tilda (Stitching), The Crafty Pad (Glitz and Glitter), Pollycraft Monday Challenge (In stitches), The ABC challenge (B is for Blue) and Moving Along With The Times (Glitter).

Hope you like it!

Love 'n' hugs,

Mel xx