I'M SO CUTE!!

No .. .. not me .. .. my little image for today!!  LOL!!

I have spent quite a bit of the day with my Mum today .. .. doing loads and loads of colouring .. .. and talking and re-living the olden days!!  Some of them good and some of them bad .. .. but all part of life's rich tapestry.

I was able to take along lots of things to show her as I have been working on some wedding stationery for a fayre my lovely Sis and I are doing towards the end of March .. .. and it was great to be able to share it with her. 

I still have loads and loads and loads to do for the fayre  and it may mean me having a blog break just so I can give it 100% for a week or two ..  but for now I will battle on.  At least if I haven't visited you for a little while you know the reason.

But for now here is my share for today:

This used:

Image:  Penny Black "1706H" I'm So Cute !!

Sentiment:  Woodware Clear Stamps (all individual words you put together to make up your own sentiment)

Backing Papers:  Pink Petticoat

Josy Rose:  Nail Heads
ProMarkers
Glossy Accents for the doggies cold little nose

Diamond Stickles

Ribbon from the Stash Box

I have also been the recipient of some more lovely awards.  Thank you very much ladies for thinking of me.

I promise that I will get around to posting them (and revealing even more secrets about myself!!!) but for now I am afraid they are on the back burner as time has become extra precious and scarce .. .. sorry!!

Right back to it for me....

Catch you again tomorrow.

Love

ROCK STAR

Hi Everyone

Well I hope your weather has bit a bit nicer where you are than has been here with me today .. .. .. especially if you have children on half term holidays.

Nothing worse than weather which means you don't even want to leave the house .. .. kids just don't like being cooped up in the house do they?  Unless they are a teenager of course and then chances are they don't even want to leave their bedroom LOL!!

Just a quick and simple share today .. .. but one I like.

This used:

Backing Paper:  DCWV "Rock Star"
Image:  Inkadinkado "98693" Rock Star
Sentiment:  Created using Funky Hand "Craft the Year Away"
Sizzix Die:  Stars #2
Diamond Stickles
Cord from the Stash Box

and that is it .. ... hope you likey, likey.

I was asked by Katina and Annmaree what I use to take my photographs.

Well the secret isn't in my photography skills thats for sure .. .. but I do use a photo booth that I bought a while back from Maplins.  It is portable and has two little lights with it.  It all collapses flat and has pockets for the lights etc.. .. not that mine is flat very often.  It is usually set up on my ironing board in the spare bedroom LOL!!!

It looks like this:

It looks huge here as if you could park a car in it but it isn't really .. .. ..  and I don't use the camera stand .. .. just the lights and the photo box .. .. and I put white card on the base and at the back of the box.

I have had mine a while now.  It was on special offer when I got it - but I do find it really good and I could take photographs at midnight if I was still awake LOL!!!

My camera is a Sony Cyber-shot.

Hope this helps.

Love

FRIEND TO FRIEND

Hi Everyone

Well what a wet and miserable Monday it has been!!  It has hardly brightened up at all today here.

Lots of creations need to be done in the House of Hearts .. .. but still time for a little share.

This used:

Image:  Penny Black "1342K" Hugs & Kisses For You (love this image it might be my second fav)
Sentiment:  Great Impressions "E411"
Backing Paper:  Pink Petticoat
Martha Stewart Punch:  Traditional Scallop
X-Cut Punch:  Small Flower
ProMarkers
Ribbon and Pearls from the Stash Box

A couple of answers to questions regarding my Snippet Collection of yesterday.

Carole sent me a comment ...  part of which said:

"Ok so now ..... where is the heart on the second card? I've enlarged it, scanned it, sent it through the Techeartoscope; sliced, diced and reassembled it and then forwarded it on to the CIA and even they can't find it. Well .... it is the CIA so thats not saying much. LOL I give, where is it? LOL"

Carole .. .. the hearts are there I promise and there are lots of them .. .. they are all along the black ribbon.  Strangely enough I can see them on my laptop but not so well on my stand alone machine.  Hope you can see them now you know where they are LOL!!  I tried to blow up a picture to show you but it doesn't look very good.  Sorry if you spent a lifetime looking and sorry if the CIA are going to be charging you for wasting their time LOL!!!  Where do you get Techeartoscopes from? .. .. I think I need one of those for quality control purposes .. .. tee hee!!

Also Loftylass would like to know what paper I used on the Wedding Card.  Yes, you are right it is Pink Petticoat .. .. "Just An Old Fashioned Girl".

So I now have my poorly lappy back again .. .. yay!!!   A new hard drive and a new battery and it is like a new machine.  We are now in the process of getting everything back on it.

Lovely to have my machine back again .. ... with keys where I expect them to be!!  There are extra ones on the old machine I have been using and I kept pressing one of them by accident that thought I was wanting to print all the time.  Good job it wasn't connected to a printer or I would have got through a couple of reams of paper!!!   Eeekk!!!

Catch you again tomorrow.  I am sure there won't be any problems with the heart tonight LOL!!

Have a lovely evening.

Love

JULES' CRAFTY SNIPPET CHALLENGE - WEEK 7

Hi Everyone

Hope you are all having a good Sunday.

I find I really look forward to my Sunday creations as they feel so different to the cards I make throughout the week.  It must be because I don't allow myself to do any colouring (it certainly makes for faster creations that's for sure!!).

I have made a little hole in my "snippets" today .. .. but the drawers have filled up a little this week with a bit of an influx of cream and black .. .. hence the reason these two colours are featuring a bit this week.

Here are my snippet make for this week:

This used:

The compulsory snippets (card, paper and ribbon)
Sentiment:  Elzybells
Paper ribbler (for adding a bit of texture)
Woodware Flower Punches:  Large, Medium and Small
Martha Stewart Punch:  Embossed Zig Zag
Eyelets from the Stash Box

This one used:

The compulsory snippets (card, paper and ribbon)
Sentiment:  Hobby Art Crafts"GR1833B" Happy Birthday Boxed
Fiskars Punch:  Threading Water
Sizzix Die:  Tattered Florals
Brad from the Stash Box

This one used:

The compulsory snippets (card and ribbon)
Sentiment:  Lili of the Valley
Cuttlebug Dies and embossing folder set:  Heart
X-Cut Punch:  Small Flower
Pearls from the Stash Box

The compulsory snippets (card and ribbon)

Image:  Paper Artsy "HP1004EZ"
Sentiment: Hobby Art Crafts"GR1833B" Happy Birthday Boxed
Cosmic Shimmer Embossing Powder "Black Sparkle"
Diamond Stickles

So there we go.  My makes for this week.  I think my favourite this time is the second one.

A few other lovely blog chums have played along as well over the course of the week.  Lovely to see you and your inspiration!!

First up is Carole with another fantastic make.  Carol is becoming quite a regular and makes the most beautiful creations.

Thank you very much for the inspiration Carole .. .. I think I will be doing a take on this one as I do have some similar equipment in my craft pod LOL!!  Love your colours .. ... you can see Carole's gorgeous make here. 

Next up I have two "newbies" playing along.  Welcome ladies!!!

First up is Brenda.  I was well impressed with Brenda taking part as she has been struggling big time as she is having a few problems at the moment.  Brenda is banned from the computer and undergoing physio .. but lucky for her she has a lovely family who are helping her to post etc.

Brenda's creations can be found  here .  The snippet makes were done over a few days as Brenda is unable to craft for very long at the moment (far too painful .. .. poor Brenda).  So thank you for the huge effort you have made in taking part Brenda .. .. you must be so desperate to get back to crafting. 

and my second "newbie" is Doreen.

I am well impressed with Doreen.  Can you believe that she keeps all of her snippets stored in boxes according to the designer!! and there was me thinking I was good to have mine stored by colour LOL!!

Well done Doreen .. .. love your organisation!!

I also love Doreen's make.   You can find that here.  How nice that you managed to play along today.  Doreen always has lovely layouts and great distressed edges.

I hope that people take time to go and see how beautifully people have used their snippets.

Well I haven't found any earth shattering ways of using snippets this week .. .. other than attaching them to cards.

I did read of one person who makes their scrap in confetti and then has a confetti party where they throw it all up into the air.  Mmmmm.... not too keen on that one!!  Great fun I am sure but lots of clearing up afterwards .. .. .. it would be like the pine needles from Christmas.  They would keep appearing everywhere for days and weeks afterwards.

It would seem I gave folk a bit of torture yesterday .. .. sorry .. .. not intentional.  Where was the heart?

Well it was here .... ...

Have a lovely evening everyone.  I hope you liked my snippet makes.

Catch you again tomorrow.  In the meantime if there is a snippet creation you would like to share or you know of good ways of storing or using up all the snippets of paper we all see to accumulate then let me know here and I can link to you next week.

Love

FIELD OF DREAMS

Hi Everyone

Well it might have been a nasty day weather wise (rain, rain and more rain) but it has been a lovely day crafting wise.

I was up bright and early and am really pleased with my makes of the day.  It was one of those days when things just seemed to happen without too much thinking .. .. .. I like those sort of days!!!

Of course the very first thing you ever do on a Saturday morning (well the first thing I do) is have a look what the challenge is over at Penny Black Saturday.  Any excuse to play with my Penny Black stamps LOL!!! 

This week the theme is "Mens Cards".

Here is my make

This used:

Image:  Penny Black "2365F" Field of Dreams
Sentiment:  Penny Black "3849E" Birthday Dreams
Backing Papers:  Aimee Asher
Fiskars Punch:  Threading Water
ProMarkers
Buttons, string and thread from the Stash Box

So that is my share for the day.

Thank you for all your lovely comments yesterday on my attempt at cake icing.  You are all very kind .. .. but I think the general concensus is "stick to the cards Jules!!" LOL!!! 

I will be back tomorrow with my personal crafty snippet challenge.

Have a good evening and thanks for calling by.

Love

FRIDAY SKETCHERS .. .. AND ??????

Hi Everyone

I hope you have all had a good day.

Friday is here again .. .. yay!!!  Time for the weekend!!!

My share today uses the sketch from over at Friday Sketchers.

This used:

Image:  Penny Black "3470H" Gift Hedgy

Sentiment:  Woodware Clear Stamps "FRCL 128" Circular Greetings

Backing Papers:  Aimee Asher

Woodware Punches:  Daisy (various sizes)

Josy Rose:  Nail Heads

Nestabilities: Standard Circles Large, Classic Scalloped Circles Large
ProMarkers

Diamond Stickles

Brads and Embroidery Thread from the Stash Box

and here is the sketch (there are some lovely sketches around at the moment don't you think).

and now for "the cake" .. .. .. how could I not share it!!!

Don't split your sides laughing.

We had a lovely evening celebrating our friend's birthday and then the cake made its appearance.

This is what everyone saw ............

The emblem is of his fav football team - perhaps if it had been a bit bigger it might have turned out better. 

The birthday boy was well pleased (and very polite) and his wife explained how I had helped with the decoration as she couldn't manage with her poorly wrist.

I then instantly apologised and said how sorry I was that it wasn't a very good job but the birthday boy made me feel so much better because he said that at the end of the day it doesn't really matter what it looks like .. .. it is the love and thought that has gone into it.  The love his wife had put into making the cake in the first place and the love I had put into icing it.  (Isn't he lovely). 

All the good icing bits - my friend had managed to do prior to me making my mark with all the black bits.  Don't blow the picture up any bigger .. .. it only looks worse LOL!!!  It looks like he is 20 not 70!!!

Then finally .. .. good news!!!

My lappy has come home.  Yay!!!

They have put me a new hard drive in and a new battery .. .. all under the warranty that only has another month left on it .. .. yippee .. .. it feels like Christmas.  So my lovely hubby is now installing and up-dating everything for me so hopefully I will be back up and running properly by tomorrow evening.

OK dry your eyes now and stop laughing .. .. you have other blogs to go and visit!!  LOL!!

Take care everyone.  See you tomorrow.

Love

SUPER QUICK SHARE

Hi Everyone

A super, duper quick post from me today (what do you mean .. .. that will make a change LOL!!).

I am out to celebrate the birthday of the gentleman I iced yesterday's cake for.  Oh dear!!!  Not sure I will be able to look him (or the other guests) in the face as his cake makes an appearance.  My camera will be going with me.  Who knows I might take a picture and share it .. .. but then again I might not!!. 

In the meantime I will simply share a card (at least I am proud of this)

This used:

Backing Paper:  Aimee Asher
Image:  Hero Arts "S5316" Silhouette Grass
Sentiment:  Papermania "Stamping for Him"
Josy Rose:  Nail Heads
Ribbon from the Stash Box

and that is it!!

Time for me to go and make myself look beautiful.

Catch you tomorrow

Love

CHEESECAKE WISH

Hi Everyone

I hope everyone is OK. 

Its a bit dull and cold here today and we had quite a frost this morning.  Hubby's car was all frosted over first thing!!!

I thought I would share a bit earlier today as I have quite a bit planned for the rest of the day.  

So here is today's share using the very first ever Penny Black stamp I bought .. .. I think he is my all time favourite. 

I wonder if that is because he was the first?    If my house was burning down and I was only allowed to grab one stamp out of my whole collection it would be this one.  Oh dear .. that was a depressing thought .. .. we will leave that one there!!!  Too painful to think about!!!

Anyway, here it is

This used:

Image:  Penny Black "1652J" Cheesecake Wish

Sentiment:  Funky Hand "Craft The Year Away CD" - Hobo Font
Backing Papers:  Aimee Asher

Woodware Punches:  Flowers

Martha Stewart Punch:  Frond

Josy Rose:  Nail Heads

Glimmer Mist sprayed on the flower

ProMarkers

Glamour Dust

Ribbon and Brad from the Stash Box

You might remember that last week I mentioned that I might need to ice a cake for a friend .. .. .. well the dreaded day came and I did it this morning.  Luckily the cake was already iced and all I needed to do was to ice a football emblem onto a cake and the words "Happy Birthday Doug 70" in a circle around the emblem and then two circles to encase it all .. .. .. .. all in black icing!!!

Well all I can say is .. .. a blind man would be glad to see it and no way was I putting a photograph onto my blog .. .. I am sticking to the cardmaking LOL!!!

At least my friend was pleased and hopefully Doug will be too. 

My lappy still hasn't come back from the computer hospital yet .. .. and it has been two weeks now!!!  I am beginning to think that it is poorlier than they first thought (as though needing a new hard drive wasn't bad enough).

Enjoy the rest of today.

Catch you again tomorrow.

Love

GET FUNKY!

Hi there everyone

I hope you had a wonderful Valentine evening.

The House of Hearts was a romantic place to be .. .. but I can still smell the cooking from last night .. .. it was lovely at the time but not so attractive this morning!!  So all the windows and the back door is open and hopefully the fresh air will soon do its business.

Today it is my turn to launch the new challenge over at Get Funky!

My post is all done and scheduled and should be appearing anytime now .. .. if all has gone to plan!!!

Here is the creation I used to launch the month

This used:

All Patterned Papers:  Funky Hand CD "Craft the Year Away"
Sentiment:  Funky Hand "Our Betty" Stamps set "Love N That"
Martha Stewart Punch:  Embossed Zig Zag
Sizzix Dies:  "656640" Tattered Florals and "655217" Swirl
Brad, Ribbon and Gems from the Stash Box

Actually not all of the papers are from the CD.  The strip of hearts has actually been cut from the freebie paper that Anice has designed especially for the the challenge this month.

Tee hee .. .. .. as you might have guessed I am making the most of all the love that is around at the moment and asking that you "show us your heart".

I hope that you get chance to play along with us and Get Funky!  All the rules and the link to the free paper can be found on the challenge blog here.

Have a lovely day everyone.  As my post is nice and early today that should mean I can have a good old blog catch up tonight .. .. mega behind with my hopping!!!!

Love

HUBBY'S VALENTINE

Hi Everyone

Happy Valentine's Day .. .. whatever you are doing!!!

A mega quick share tonight as romance abounds in the House of Hearts .. .. ..  romantic dinner for two on the cards!!  (Hope I can stay awake as we were awake at 6 o'clock so we could exchange cards before hubby went off to work LOL!!)

Here is the valentine card I made for my hubby .. .. my very first black base card.

This used:

Backing Papers:  Hot Off the Press
Hearts and Love sentiment:  Elusive Images
Sentiment:  Computer Generated
Sizzix:  Heart Die
Cuttlebug Embossing Folder:  Music Notes
Josy Rose:  Nail Heads
Gold embossing powder
White Gel Pen
Ribbon from the Stash Box

So that is my share for today  .. .. I am back early in the morning as it is my turn to kick off the Get Funky! Challenge.  Can you believe it will be the Funky 15th again so soon .. .. .. but first a romantic 14th!!

Catch you tomorrow.

Love

JULES' CRAFTY SNIPPET CHALLENGE - WEEK 6

Hi Everyone

Right that is it!!

After lots of brain searching and internet checking my personal challenge has a better name .. .. Jules' Crafty Snippet Challenge (you would be surprised how many blogs and challenges there are out there .. .. and all the titles I thought of seemed to clash with something).  I don't want to be accused of stealing someone elses' names or ideas!!

Hopefully this little title is OK for me to use .. .. and from now on all my scrap card/paper and ribbon is going to be classed as a snippet .. .. as in something that has been snipped off something much larger in times gone by that has been sitting waiting to be put to good use.

So, what did I do to fulfill my crafty snippet challenge today?

Well here we go.. ..

This used: 

The compulsory snippets
Images and sentiment:  Woodware Clear Stamps "FRCL004" His Birthday

This one used:

Woodware Punch:  Square
Sizzix Die:  Flower Layers #5
Cuttlebug Embossing Folder:  Swiss Dots
Sentiment Stamp:  Anitas
Josy Rose:  Nail Heads
Distress Ink:  Tea Dye (this made the edges of the squares look so much cooler)

A little tip here .. .. when I stamped the sentiment it was one of those scary moments as I stamped it once the square was attached to my card (silly girl!!!).  The stamping didn't work and I had a couple of letters missing .. .. I daren't risk writing the letters with a pen as the colour was unlikely to match .. .. so I wrote with a cocktail stick that I had rolled over my ink pad to collect the colour.  The job was a good one .. .. phew .. .. lucky me!!! 

More paper piecing here and this one used:

The compulsory snippets
Image:  Magenta I-0415
Josy Rose:  Nail Heads

and my last for today .......... using one of my favourite background stamps.

This used: 

Background image:  Inkadinkado 00355-Y
Flower and border:  Stampendous "SSC094" Loved Filled Topper Set
Sentiment:  Docrafts
Martha Stewart Punch:  Frond
Ultra Thick Embossing Powder and Lakeland Stamp for making the impression
Josy Rose:  Nail Heads and Acrylic Stone

Lots of embossing going on with this one.  I put lots of fine layers on the black leaves (they are really shiny but you can't really tell from the photo .. .. and the flower was one of those things that just happened whilst playing.  I stamped the flower on a deep purple snippet originally but decided it looked a bit boring like that so it ended up having a bit of a makeover with some coloured embossing powder that had a bit of mica powder in it.  Not a bad finished look.

So those are my creations.  There won't always be four of them .. .. .. it is just a coincidence that there were four last week and four this.

Right so now it is time to see what others have been doing with their snippets  .. .. a couple of new faces this week!!

First off a longstanding blog buddy "Juls" hit her snippets  .. .. to see her lovely creation you need to click here.  Fantastic makes Juls .. .. and I think those torn strips are just wonderful .. .. they might be making an appearance here soon LOL!!!

Next up is "Cat" who has utilised some waxed background papers that were made a while ago and have been used on a brilliant make.  Such gorgeous colours on this one.  If you would like a little look you need to wander over to here.  Cat is actually my daughter in law (the beautiful bride you saw in the photograph on my blog on Friday - she doesn't really live in a shoe box as her blog suggests - she might be tiny .. .. .. but not "that" tiny!! LOL"").

Then we have the ever eagre "Annmaree" and I am loving her bright and beautiful make  .. .. ..  and all those beautiful hearts!!  Thanks Annmaree .. it is gorgeous.  To have a peep at this lovely make you need to go here.

Lastly for this week we have "Lynne".  A really gorgeous creation in such beautiful colours.  I love the layout and the detail on this one very much.  (Plus Lynne keeps trying to tempt me with those gorgeous Waltzing Mouse stamps  .. .. I did sneek a quick look but only got as far as the first screen as I just know I would want so many things .. .. I am working on the assumption at the moment that if I don't see it I can't want it LOL!!).  To see Lynne's lovely creation (and the link to the tempting stamp blog) just click here

Thank you ladies.  Lots of inspiration being shared.

I am quite proud of myself as my snippet drawers are definitely reducing .. .. I even remember to dip into them first when crafting during the week too.

A few folk are querying the "rules" etc of taking part!!!

These are "my" rules:

No cutting into any "whole" piece of paper or card
No images unless they don't need colouring or can be paper pieced (I only put this one in because I would just spend time colouring instead of using up my snippets).

No cutting ribbon off a reel

Although these are my rules they don't have to be yours.  It would just be nice if we could rid our workspaces of some of the clutter and snippets that seem to hang around. 

If you want to share a creation or have some tips on using up the snippets then leave a comment on this post to let me know and I can link to you next week and share your creations/tips.

Have a lovely rest of Sunday and a great week.

Valentines Day tomorrow .. .. I hope you have all made your cards!!!!

Love