Bright & Colourful

This is my first card for a few days but I am really pleased with it. Although I love my Retro Floral papers, I've always struggled for ideas when it comes to the brightest of the papers. But, I had another play tonight and {hope} I've managed to pull it off!

For this card, I coloured both Tilda and the bench {from the stash Chris sent me} with my Whisper pens. I highlighted Tilda with my clear Stardust Gelly Roll. I mounted up Papermania Retro Floral paper onto green cardstock and finished with ribbon and adhesive gems.

Apologies for the photo, I got impatient, ignored all of the golden rules!
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New Banner Thingy

Morning all! Well, the eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that I haven't made any cards over the last couple of days. But, I have still been busy.....!

I've downloaded the trial copy of Photoshop Elements and I am absolutely loving it. I've also downloaded some of the gorgeous freebies from Shabby Princess and have managed {following their fab tutorial!} to make a new banner for my blog!

Actually, I have made several so far and it's all a bit of a work in progress. So, expect to see a different one virtually every day for the next month until I find one that I am 100% happy with! I think that this one is a little pale so I will have another fiddle tonight.

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Lets Hear It for the Boys!

Evening all. Got a bit fed up of making pink cards (shock horror!) so deviated a little. Still a bit girly though don't you think?!

The papers are freebies that I downloaded from the Canon scrapbooking site, the card is DCWV and the image is one of the lovely Magnolia's that Chris sent me as part of my PIF candy. I coloured Edwin with my Whisper pens and highlighted with a clear Gelly Roll Stardust pen. He is mounted on to the card with 3D pads but that hasn't come out very clearly in the picture.

On to other news.... I've been tagged by both Janet and Zoe! So, here comes some fascinating facts for you:

1. If a movie was being made of your life who would you like to be cast to play yourself? and why?

I think Cameron Diaz as she's smiley and bubbly (which I am too apparently!). I would also KILL for legs like that. Seriously, I'm not joking....

2. You are spending a whole month on a dessert island for charity and you have to choose your favourite celebrity to spend the first two weeks with & your least favourite celebrity to spend the second two weeks with, who would they be & why?

I would spend my first two weeks with Philip Glenister aka Gene Hunt from Ashes to Ashes. I'd spend the entire two weeks making him say "Fire up the Quattro!". Love him. My second two weeks would be spent with Tom Hanks. Controversially, I cannot stand the man and find him hideously irritating. However, I'll be starving hungry by then and as he already knows how to survive on a desert island, he can catch my dinner for me!

3. What are your three favourite crafting products?

Ribbon, stamps and adhesive gems.

4. If you could invent something to do anything what do you think it would be?

I'd love a transporter which could beam you immediately home. I hate that long drive or flight home after a great time away, its exhausting.

5. What are the last three books that you read?

I re-read Dan Brown's 'The Da Vinci Code' and 'Angels and Demons' whilst I was in hospital. Then before that, I think it was 'Shopaholic and Baby' by Sophie Kinsella.

6. Qvc or create & Craft?

Actually, I don't like either. I've never seen anything on either that I actually liked. It all just seems like old fashioned tat.

7. Docrafts or Dovecraft or DCWV?

Hmm. Difficult one but I think DCWV purely for the papers.

8. What is your claim to fame?

Umm, I'm not sure if I have one. Does it count that I am the girlfriend of the reigning Cold Water Swimming World Champion?!

I've had a quick scout around and, once again, everybody has already been tagged! I'll do some further research and get back to you about my future tagees!

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Bath Time Bella

I've decided that the reason I wasn't liking my cards was because I was rushing whilst I was making them. I was always too hasty to glue everything down and then, when it was too late to change anything, I decided I didn't like it. For the last two cards, I made sure I'd got everything arranged BEFORE I applied the dreaded DST! Satisfied with this realisation, I've just made another card that I actually like! Woo-hoo!


This card is made from DCWV papers and cardstock and Pink Petticoat image and sentiment. I also used some Poppicraft ribbon and one of my new sizzix photo corners to finish off the design.

After admiring Janet's incredible colouring, she told me that the secret was simply Whispers brush markers. After umm-ing and ahh-ing for a while about whether to get them or not (this crafting business is really expensive when you are first starting out!), I decided just to go for it. And, whilst they have taken a little getting used to, I am really loving the results. So, thank you Janet for the tip off!

Ali is away competing at a swimming gala this weekend so I have to amuse myself..... I wonder what I am going to do today? Go for a tour of the local craft shops of course! I'll report back later with any yummy purchases!

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Fancy Some PIF Candy Anyone?!

You will be pleased to hear that I have {finally} got my bum in gear and have got my PIF candy sorted!

Chris sent me some gorgeous goodies and now it is my turn to pass on the fun to the first 3 people to leave a reply to this post. The only rule is that, if you win, you too must post some PIF candy on your blog for 3 more lucky people. Good luck folks!

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At Last, A Card I Like......Sort Of..........!!!

Hurrah! I finally made a card that I don't think is too bad!

For this one, I used my Tilda with Blanket stamp and used 3D foam pads to layer it on to various shades of pink card and Papermania Retro Flowers dotty paper. Tilda was coloured using watercolour pencils and I used a Poppicraft flower (from their new set - Tait I think its called) and some of their ribbon to finish the card off.

After the crafting disasters of this past week, this one being a vague success has made me feel lots better!

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Arte y Pico Award!

I've been a bit rubbish lately at keeping up to date with important things. The main important thing that I haven't done is to post my Arte y Pico award! I have recently been lucky enough to have 3 different people nominate me for this award so I would like to send a big thank you to Chris, Steph and Saz.
However, along with awards come responsibilites. On receiving the award, the recipient must:

1. Pick 5 blogs that they consider deserve the award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also their contribution to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2. Give the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3. Show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
4. Show the link of the Arte y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of the award.
5. Show these rules!

Well, this is where the problems come. I have an enormous list of blogs that I visit virtually on a daily basis. However, all of my favourites seem to already have this lovely award! So I am a bit stumped as to who to award it to. But, if you are reading this and are thinking "I've never been given it, she could have awarded it to me...." This one is for you!

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Looks a bit Tatty.....

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear......... Can't seem to do anything right at the moment. Tried using the lovely Tilda stamped image that Chris gave me as part of my PIF candy but fear I haven't done it justice.

In my first attempt at the circle behind the central image, I tried to ink the edge of the card to give it a bit more definition. Unfortunately, the card soaked up the ink so quickly, I got myself in a right mess. So I had to make another one. What then annoyed me even more was that I'd ruined my last piece of card that was the 'right colour'. Argh! I went for the next best thing but now think the inking looks uneven because I was being so cautious. Then, I'd just finished it when Ali came in and said "Ah, she's floating". Thats when it dawned on me that I should have put the dotty circle on 3D foam pads so that Tilda would actually be 'sitting' on the edge of the circle. To top it all off, I somehow managed to crease the top right hand corner of the blank. Classy. Not a good nights work........ However, despite my overall dislike for the card, I still like the Tilda image! Oh, and the buttons!

Does anyone else ever have times when everything they try goes wrong?! Please do tell me if you do - it might make me feel slightly less useless, especially on the back of last weeks missing mojo!

By the way, I promise I haven't forgotten about the PIF - I was waiting for a few little things to arrive in the post. However, they are here now so {hopefully} I should be able to offer a little candy to 3 lucky people tomorrow night.

Take care one and all,

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Fabulous Blog Candy @ Katharina's Creative Place

If you get chance in the next couple of days, you should nip over to Katharina's Creative Place to check out her blog. Not only will you find some beautiful cards from a very talented card maker, but you will also have the chance to win some blog candy which Katharina has kindly posted to celebrate her 30th Birthday.

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Desperate for Inspiration

I've been struggling with ideas this week. Do you ever get those nights where you just sit there and nothing comes to you? Well, thats what I've been like this week. So, I went back to basics!

This is a {very} simple card made totally from Pink Petticoat - ooh, and a little bit of ribbon! I figured that if I kept it simple and didn't try to be in any way adventurous, it might kickstart my brain again! Hopefully, it has worked........

I then went on to make this card for my friend Claire at work. Both of us are obsessed with food and constantly on a diet so the sentiment seemed very apt! I also had a go at paper piecing the image with a coordinating Pink Petticoat paper. It's the first time I've done this but I really like the effect.

As I've been having such difficulties getting going this week {no idea why}, I am quite pleased with these attempts. Hopefully, I am now rid of my brain freeze and free to carry on with a weekend of crafting!

Apologies again for the pictures - I have followed the instructions you all gave me earlier in the week but it is still disasterous! I'll have another go tonight but I may need to just accept that I am never going to be a professional photographer! ~x~

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A Big Welcome to All of My New Sisters!

Now that SBS16 is full, I thought that I would just post a quick note to say a big hello to all of my new sisters! I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you and sharing in your crafting triumphs...... {and disasters!}.

As you can probably figure out from the other bits and bobs on my blog, I am 26 and live in Southampton in the UK. I live with my boyfriend Alistair and work full time at the University of Southampton in the Economics department. My job is essentially to keep the academics on the straight and narrow and to cuddle the students when they've failed their exams! Unfortunately, I work full-time which means that I don't get as much time to craft as I would sometimes like.

I've only been card making since the start of this year and I absolutely love it. However, because I'm a bit of a newbie, I often struggle for inspiration {last night for example...!} but have found flipping between blogs provides invaluable help to me - in fact, I have become rapidly addicted and have to stop myself blogging more than I craft!

Anyway, enough from me. Looking forward to checking back with you soon sisters!

P.S. For those of you who have never heard of the Sisterhood of Blogging Stampers, you can find out what it's all about here.

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5000+ Hit - 'Bling' ing Beautiful Challenge

As many of you already know, Vicki over at Paperlicious Oasis is holding a 'Bling' ing Beautiful Challenge to celebrate 5000+ hits to her blog. The rules of the game are that you are allowed to make any style of card that you want, BUT it must have bling!

After several overly jazzy efforts, I settled for this very simple card. I'm a little worried that it is slightly lacking in the required bling but as someone very wise once said......less is more dah-ling!

P.S. Please please please can someone let me in on the secret of how you take decent photographs of cards. I followed the daylight rule but still....... it's not this colour in real life! ~x~ Pin It

Gorgeous PIF Candy from Chris!

Yippee! I am the proud owner of this gorgeous PIF candy from Chris. She has sent me loads of fab stamped images, flowers, ribbons and buttons all wrapped up in a gorgeous little wallet card. Thank you so much Chris - I was over the moon when it arrived at work this morning. You'll be pleased to hear that my whole office were mightily impressed with your handiwork!

Whilst I am off in a minute to go play with my new goodies (will post up the results soon!), I shall be starting to prepare my very own PIF blog candy soon. So, watch this space, you never know what delights may shortly appear...............!

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Early Sunday Morning Creations

I was up at about 6.30am this morning so thought I would do a little bit of crafting. I'm actually fairly pleased with the results!


For this card, I returned (as I always do!) to my Pink Petticoat stash! I mounted DCWV brights paper on to a card blank. I coloured a Pink Petticoat image with watercolour pencils and mounted on DCWV brights card stock. I tucked 3 strips of white ribbon under the card and then mounted on to the blank using 3D foam pads. I then got my new Tag-a-long (£8 - BARGAIN!) and cut a tiny tag. To this, I added a Pink Petticoat sentiment and a couple of eyelets. The final card was given a little bit of sparkle with some adhesive gems.

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Papertake Weekly Challenge

After much deliberation, I finally decided to give the Papertake Weekly Challenge a bit of a bash. This weeks theme is 'Making Waves'. The idea is to incorporate scallops or zigzags in to your design. This is my attempt.........!

I used DCWV papers and Pink Petticoat images. I coloured the image with watercolour pencils and added glitter (which hasn't really come out in the pic, but looks good in real life!). I used my trusty childrens scalloped scissors on the edge of the paper and also around the image. The corners looked a little untidy so I bashed a couple of eyelets in. I finished the whole thing off with a ribbon brad and a strip of coordinating DCWV paper.

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2nd Round of Tildas....

Well, as you can see, I have been to work with my solitary Tilda stamp again! I'm not sure these attempts are quite as successful as my last attempts.

The first card was made simply by layering pink spotty Papermania paper and pale pink card on to a card blank. On to this, I used 3D pads to mount a stamped image of Tilda. I coloured the image with watercolour pencil and inked the edges with pink ink. The card was finished with a pink flower (found in Tesco!) and 3 eyelets.

I'm not convinced about it........looks a bit plain. But then do I like it like that? Ooh, I'm not sure........!

For the second card, I used my yummy K&Co Amy Butler papers. I stamped Tilda in black ink and coloured her with watercolour pencils. Unfortunately, as I was mounting the image, my knife decided to go do-lally and ripped half of the purple card. After a quick bit of improvisation, I made a scalloped edge to go across the bottom which I them embellished with white gel pen and adhesive gems. Again, I'm really not sure about this card. If anyone can work out where I am going wrong, please do let me know!

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I've Been Tagged Twice! Argh!

I am pleased to announce that I have been tagged by both Janet & Debs! Now, the rules of the game are that I now have to reveal 7 bizarre/interesting/random facts about myself. Technically, as I've been tagged twice, I think I should probably be revealing 14 facts about myself. However, a) I can't think of that many interesting facts about myself and b) I don't want to bore you to tears. So, I think I'd better just stick to 7! Here we go.........

1. I grew up in a house on the seafront on the sunny Isle of Wight. And no, I don't have webbed feet or 7 fingers on each hand!
2. I have a degree in English. This does not however mean that I can spell. Because I can't.
3. I would quite happily exist for the rest of my life on pitta bread, houmous and olives.
4. I have a ridiculous adoration of giraffes. Obsessed is a word some may use.
5. I eat all my food in sections and refuse to put more than one food type onto my fork at any one time. Food has to be eaten in order - vegetables, potatoes, meat.
6. Due to fact number 5, it takes me HOURS to eat a stirfry.
7. My boyfriend is the 2008 Winter Swimming World Champion!

So there we go. Still awake?! Well, the 3 people I now choose to nominate are....... Jools, Sharon and Chris.

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My First Ever Tilda Cards

Well, I finally caved...... I've bought a Tilda stamp! It is the very simple Tilda with Blanket. I fear this is going to be the first of many Tilda purchases as I absolutely loved working with her.

For my first attempt, I layered blue card stock and magazine freebie paper on to a square card blank. I fixed ribbon and a ribbon brad across the card join with double sided tape. I coloured Tilda with watercolour pencils, cut her out and mounted her on white card which in turn was mounted on blue card. The scallop edge was once again made with my trusty kids scissors! The mounted image was then layered on to the card. To finish the card, I set heart shaped eyelets in the bottom right-hand corner and added a tiny bit of sparkle with some blue adhesive gems.

Overall, I'm fairly happy with it - not bad for a first attempt. Need to keep practicing my colouring though!

Above is my second attempt with the Tilda stamp. Firstly, I layered up my double-sided Amy Butler K&Co paper on the card and added a very thin mock ribbon down the side. I then, once again, coloured Tilda with watercolour pencils (no water this time though) and mounted her onto the card with 3D pads and some more of the coordinating K&Co card. The card was finished with a Pink Petticoat sentiment and 3 Papermania pearl brads in the bottom right hand corner.

Again, I'm happy with it, but still think I could do better!

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