Tuesday 29 December 2009

Digital Tuesday DT- Dazzling Diamonds

Time for another challenge over at Digital Tuesday and Michelle R is our hostess this week.
Michelle lives in Florida so lucky for her she doesn't get the cold snow that most of us do, but her Daughter would love for it to snow, so Michelle's challenge this week is for her Daughter. She wants us to use Dazzling Diamonds to make a Winter scene.
Our sponsor this week is Soft Pencil and Elizabeth is offering this weeks winner a $15 gift certificate to spend in her store. She also very kindly gave the DT some images to use for the challenge and she also made a card especially for the challenge, so do pop over to the challenge blog to check out all the eye candy, her images are just the sweetest.

Right onto my card, I could of just took a photo of outside and the challenge would of been covered because it's still snowing here lol, but I did make a card. I must confess though that this is my second card for this challenge because I made one nearly 2 weeks ago then gave it away on Christmas Day and had forgotten to take a pic lol. So here is my 2nd attempt.


I finished this card at about 10pm last night so there wasn't much light, which means another pants pic (I really must remember to take my pics when there if daylight), but you can still see the cute image and the Dazzling Diamonds.
The base paper is Stampin Up and the other one I used as a mat is by Sandylion. It has large embossed snowflakes which you can't see because I stuck my image on top lol.
The image is from Soft Pencils Winter collection and I coloured it with Copics as usual. I don't have much colours that work just now so just had to use the colours that worked, then I used a glue pen to colour over the roof and ground, sprinkled with Stampin Up heat and stick powder then added the dazzling diamonds glitter.
The lace and flowers are ones from my stash and the swirls were made with an All Night Media punch which I also covered in dazzling diamonds (not the punch itself, just the punched swirls lol).

I hope lots of you will join in this week as it is a fab prize. I know I would love to win a $15 gift certificate to spend on Elizabeths gorgeous images.
I can't wait to see what you make, and I promise I will come look at very entry this week. I must apologise for my lack of commenting on entries over the last few weeks. Life has been so busy and I just haven't had the chance to comment as much as I would like, but now that Christmas is over, I should be back to normal :)

Lora x

Tuesday 22 December 2009

Digital Tuesday DT, and a few pics of the kiddies

Good morning, I hope you are all ready for Christmas unlike me who still has half of her shopping to do lol. It's another blizzard here in Scotland........I am sooo sick of snow already lol.
The weather forecast this morning said it will snow until Christmas Eve then on Christmas and Boxing Day it will be sunshine......go figure. I just know that I don't like the cold and especially when it's -10 like last night.

Anyway it's time for another Digital Tuesday challenge and I have another quick make to show you and some pics of my 2 girls, so this is gonna be a long post. Mind you I haven't posted for a week so I really should have lots more to show but I don't because I forgot to take pics before I gave stuff away. Bet your glad about that lol.

Right the new challenge this week is "Let It Snow" and Michelle P is our hostess this week. She wants to see lots of snowflakes. Dustin Pike is back again this month as our sponsor with 3 of his digis to give to our winner.
I made an easel card for a change (my first one too) but I'm afraid the pics are terrible (did you expect anything else from me lol). I also followed the sketch over at Sketch and Stash.


I love how easy these cards are to make. I know I will bore you with these from now on lol.
I used Stampin Up papers again and a SU sentiment too. This one is from a hostess set and it's one of my favourites. The image is by Soft Pencil (which is my new stash for sketch and stash) and I coloured with the usual Copics and covered it in Dazzling Diamonds glitter and twinklets (Diamond Dust), the image weights a ton with all the twinklets I put on lol. You can't really see all the sparkle in that pic so here's another one of just the front when the card is closed.

Hopefully you can see the sparkle of the glitter and I know you can see the twinklets on the ground because I used loads lol.
Oh for my snowflakes, I have lots of snowflakes all over my papers and I punched some snowflakes from acetate and covered with Twinklets, with a pearl in the middle to finish.

I hope some of you will be able to join in with this weeks challenge in the middle of all the festivities. I know I will be doing some challenges this week when the kids are playing with their new toys (after I have had to build them and put in all the batteries etc of course). Although I have got Liam a few cool toys that I may just have to play with first lol.
The Digital Tuesday challenge will not be taking a break over Christmas so for those of you who like to still make cards over Christmas and New Year, you can still join in with our challenges as normal :)

Right onto my next make (I told you this was a really long post). I made a quick pocket thing to go over a bottle of booze (or any other bottle you wish, but I think I am going to use it on a bottle of Bacardi for my MIL....yuck I hate Bacardi lol. I have no idea what I will put in the pocket though because she doesn't really like sweets, except Brazil Nuts which I have bought for her but they won't fit lol, so any suggestions welcome :)


Obviously this should be hanging from a bottle but I haven't bought it yet (I am so un organised aren't I ?)
The directions for this are on Splitcoast Stampers but it is really easy to make. This is the first time I have made one and it only took about 10 minutes to make, except the little mouse mouse which I paper pieced.
I just used some plain shimmer card stock for the base and red shimmer card for the mat and a lovely die cut that Piali sent me. I saw some lovely ornaments that she made on her blog with these die cuts and she sent me some so I could make some ornaments but I haven't had time to yet......sorry Piali, I promise I wll try to make them.
The little House Mouse image is one I bought last year and this is the first time I have used it.
I am out of red Copics and I wanted the bauble and his hat to be red so I paper pieced it with the same red card and some kraft paper for the mousie. I also used some dazzling diamonds on the bauble and fur of his hat but as usual my photography skills are pants and you can't see that.

Now I promise I am nearly done but as promised here's a few pics of the girls from yesterday. They got their face painted and wanted to show you all their lovely rainbow butterfly faces, although Rhianna had smudged hers on her forehead by the time I got to take pics lol. The woman put glitter on top of the face paints too and it looked really pretty but you can't see it in the pics, so just imagine you can see the sparkle lol. They are just some quick snaps I took last night when we got home, so not really good photo's (as in the quality but that's nothing new for me) and I really should of fixed the red eyes but never mind, they are still cute :)

This is my 6 year old Rhianna. See what I mean about the smudged bit? A bit of a shame because it was really pretty but she did manage to keep the rest in tact all night :)
I have no idea why she is holding up a Christmas bauble lol. I think she was getting tried of the cat knocking them all off the tree. I think this is the first pic I have shown of her after she got her teeth out. keep singing to her "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" lol, bless her, she just laughs at me.


And this is my 4 year old Chiara. She's normally really shy so it's really hard to get a photo of her smiling like this. By the way their hair doesn't normally look like this, they had just took off their hats and just put their hair behind their ears so I could see the face paint lol.

And here's one of them both together. Just because I think they look cute :) Please excuse Chiara's lunch down her top though lol. Well they wouldn't be happy kids if they didn't get dirty would they? lol

And that's it from me. I hope you are not ready to sleep after that huge post lol.
I should be back tomorrow with a card and if anyone had any ideas for last minute gifts I could make (trying to save on the pennies as I still have loads of pressies left to get) then I may have something else to show too. I have still to get gifts for Barry's mum, dad and sister and her boyfriend and also for Barry, some for my kids (the girls and my 11 year old son) and something for Liam's dad as he will be here on Christmas morning too. OMG I just realised how much I still have to get (insert loads of exclamation marks here, because my exclamation key has broke lol). So any ideas would be gratefully received.

Lora x

Tuesday 15 December 2009

Digital Tuesday DT


It's the lovely Maria's turn to host the challenge over at Digital Tuesday and her challenge is "Happy Birthday", make a birthday something.
Our sponsor this week is Ildi Co who also offered the design team some of their images to play with. Unfortunately I couln't use the image I got because my printer is still broken :( so I had to use one that I already had printed.


The image I have used is by Soft Pencil, isn't she a cutie? I coloured with the usual copics.
The papers are Stampin Up and flowers are digital ones from Fred She Said.
I didn't finish this card till after midnight last night so had to take the photo indoors at night so the colours are nothing like they are in real life but never mind. I may try to get another pic later when the sun finally comes out.

Well that's it from me for today, gotta run to do the school run.
Thanks for stopping by.

Lora

Monday 14 December 2009

Cute Dasiy May DT card

I can't believe it's the start of another week, the days have just flew past this last few weeks. I still have most of my Christmas shopping to do and loads of cards to make for family and friends.
The Christmas fayre was a huge success and we made well over a thousand pounds but my cards didn't sell very well this year :( The rest of the things I made flew and I had to make more for the second day but loads of people had already bought their cards so didn't want to buy more. But Chiara's nursery teacher asked if I would come into nursery early today and set my cards up on a table in the nursery to see if any of the nursery parents want to buy as a lot of them didn't get a chance to go to the fayre, so fingers crossed that I get rid of some more today.

The challenge over at Cute Daisy May this week is Green and Gold and this is the last challenge of the year. The DT will be taking a break over the holidays and we will be back with our first challenge of the year on the 4th of January.
My printer is still broken but I found a CDM image that I had already cloloured, but I had coloured Daisy red, so I covered the red with green glitter and voila a green and gold image :)

I finished this card last night and had to take the pic indoors and the all the glitter and the mirror paper was just a nightmare to get a decent photo of, so this is the best I could do.
The paper is Stampin Up and so is the border sticker. Flowers are a mix of Prima, ones from Tabby Crafts and a rose from my stash, which I sprayed with glimmer mist.
The cute image is of course a Cute Daisy May which I went a bit mad with the glitter on and I also put some glitter around the edge of the scalloped circle which I cut with my nesties.
The gold mirror mat is some sticky backed paper I got in my blog candy win from Lorraine a while ago.

Well that's it from me for today, I will be back with a card tomorrow for Digital Tuesday.
I will be busy again most of this week at the kids school as they have their Christmas parties, the church service and I need to do a huge clean up today and put away Santa's Grotto, which by the way turned out fab and it was a HUGE success so all the effort was defo worh it :)
I do have pics to share but don't have time to show them today but I promise to show them during the week. But I need to get a move on now and get the girls to school.

Lora x

Monday 7 December 2009

Cute Daisy May DT card and hop winner

Time for another challenge over at Cute Daisy May and this week the challenge is "Twinkle for Christmas. Net wants to see your cards with lots of twinkle. It can be glitter, stars or anything else that twinkles.
I have used one of the same fairies that I used on my card last week because my printer decided it would die on me and it's the only CDM image I had already printed. Not having a printer is not much use when I have to use digital images for 3 of the design teams I am on lol, so better get it fixed quick!
Anyway onto the card.
Another pants photo because I took it indoors last night. I really should do my cards during the day so I can get a decent pic in the daylight.
The papers I have used are all Bo Bunny. The darker blue strip is the reverse of the stripey paper.I love double sided papers because they always coordinate perfectly but I am not so sure about this one, I think the blue kind of looks a bit out of place. Maybe it's just the lighting in the pic because it looks ok IRL but I'm still not sure about it. But it's stuck down now so it will just be stopping there. For my twinkles I used some glitter on the fairy wings and my flowers which I found in my stash and the branches have been sprayed with glimmer mist.
I know you can't really see the glitter and glimmer mist here but I promise it is there.

Now that's the card done, I have a winner to announce.
Thanks to everyone who done the blog hop and for leaving me lovely comments, I hope those of you who are new to my blog will pop by to see me again sometime :)
Random org wouldn't work for me this morning and I am in a hurry to get the kids to school so I done it the old fashioned way and got Barry to pick a number and he picked number 3 so the 3rd person to leave me a comment was Dedou. Congratulations! Please email me with your address and I will get your goodies in the post.
If the winner does not contact me by Thursday evening, I will pick a new winner on Friday morning.

Thanks for stopping by to see me, hope you are all having a wonderful day even though it is Monday lol.

Hugs Lora x

Sunday 6 December 2009

Christmas Sugar Bowl

I've managed to make a few cards tonight, some are for DT work that I can't show just now but I also made a card for The Sugar Bowl challenge. This is one of the challenges that I really don't like to miss as they always have a fab sketch.
The please include option this time is to use your favourite colour. I don't really have one favourite colour so I used two of my faves, pink and blue. I added a few embellishments to the sketch and changed the circle for a oval to fit the piece of paper my image was stamped on, but apart from that, I followed the sketch as it was.


I took the photo inside just a minute ago so the colours don't look like they do IRL. They are really much softer and the pink doesn't look orange like it does here but never mind, you will just have to take my word for it.
I love this image, isn't she just the sweetest? I coloured her with the usual Copics, well tried to colour her with a wonky hand lol.
The pink paper is the reverse of what I think is a Basic Grey sheet but I'm not 100% sure, and the blue snowflake paper is by Sandylion, it is a lovely thick embossed paper and it is really nice when you see the whole sheet together but I was £1.49 for one sheet!! OK it was a 12"x12" sheet but still I think that's a bit expensive for one piece of paper. That's why I only used a little bit of it lol. The pink piece under my image is just plain pink card which I stamped with the Stamps Happen Christmas Snowflake stamp from Janlynn.com
I just checked out the Janlynn website tonight and wow they have loads of new holiday stamps. I want so much of them!
Back to the card, the flowers are a mix from my stash and Tabby Crafts, the snowflake charm was from my local craft shop and other little bits from my stash.

I think I will have an early night tonight because I will be super busy tomorrow at the kids school. I have to set up Santa's Grotto as he is coming on Tuesday and Wednesday and then the fayre and open day on Thursday and Friday so busy busy week for me. In between all that I have to try make another 50 or so cards for Thursday and Friday! Somehow I just don't think that will happen lol.

Thanks for stopping by. I will be back in the morning with my DT card for Cute Daisy May and the winner of my CDM blog hop candy.

Lora x

Saturday 5 December 2009

Another Christmas Card

Been really busy this week so not been able to blog much, but I did make a card just for fun.
I really need to get cracking on these christmas cards. I have to make loads to sell at the school but I have only about 10 done so far and they have to be all ready by Thursday!
It doesn't help that my whole right arm is not working properly! I woke up this morning and my arm was dead, I thought I had just been lying on it during the night and it would come back to life in a few minutes but it's been hours and it's still the same. It's took me ages to write this post because I keep making mistakes because my hand doesn't want to go where I want it to on the keyboard lol.
Anyway, here's the card I made.
Image is a Sugar Nellie coloured with Copics, paper is a double sided Bo Bunny sheet and other bits from my stash. The poinsettia was actually from a pack I bought last year and never used, so I have a few of those I can use this year :)

Well that's it for this post because it too hard to write lol

Hugs Lora x

Tuesday 1 December 2009

Digital Tuesday and By The Cute And Girly DT

It's the start of another month which means a new challenge over at By The Cute And Girly.
This month the theme is Lets Go To The Movies. Remember you can make anything you like as long as it fits the theme for this month.
The DT have came up with another fabulous array of projects this month, so be sure to go check the challenge blog out to see them all.
I've been really behind with all my DT stuff with being ill and all the stuff I have had to do for the school fayre but I did manage to make a card and a little gift card holder.
My card is using a digis from Digi Sparkle who is one of our sponsors this month and is inspired by the kids movie "Cats and Dogs". I know they don't look nothing like anything from the movie though lol.

The papers are stampin up and other bits from my stash.

And here's my gift card holder which was inspired by the film "Jerry Maguire"
.


If you have seen the film, you will know the bit that Jerry Maguire shouts down the phone "Show me the money"?, well I thought it would be a good idea to make a gift card holder (or a wallet with cash would of probably worked better), but I made it then thought oh no I don't have a gift card top put in it.......


So I used my Icelands Bonus card lol. Don't think it has the same effect that an actual gift card or cash would have do you? rofl. I would put a gift card in it if I were giving it to someone lol.

Here's a pic of the inside without the card in.

The stamps I used are a mix of freebie ones I got in a magazine, Inkadinkadoo and Stampin Up, which I stamped in black and used clear embossing powder on.
This was really easy to make. Only took about 10/15 mins from start to finish.
The paper I used is some I have had lying in my stash for ages and I have no idea where it came from.

I know you will all have much better ideas than me for this challenge!

My last card is my Digital Tuesday DT card. It's my challenge this week and I picked Christmas Sparkle. I want to see loads of sparkle and bling on your Christmas cards.
I think glitter and Christmas cards go hand in hand so this was a real easy challenge for me, just the way I like em lol.
Our sponsor this week is Mo Manning who is giving the winner 3 of her digi images! She also gave the DT their choice of image to use for the challenge.


I think I went a bit overboard with the glitter though lol, but isn't this just the sweetest image? The paper is by Crafts House and the snowflake punch is a Woodware one. I also used some Diamond Dust on the punched snowflakes.

A close up of this little cutie
Well that's it from me for today. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you can join in with the challenges.

Lora x

Monday 30 November 2009

Janlynn Blog Candy Winner!!

Sorry if you have been waiting for me to announce the winner of my Janlynn candy, I totally forgot about it!
I am so glad that I did a followers only candy this time because it means I can give away goodies to people who come visit me often and leave me lovely comments, instead of giving it to someone who will never visit me again.
Anyway you have come to see who won so here we go.

I got Barry (my boyfriend) to pick a name out of hat and the winner is............ Kym (Kym's Crafty Cards). Congratulations Kym!!

I know you will love these goodies, they are great quality and I promise I really did want to keep some of those flowers for myself because they are so nice lol.
Thanks to everyone who entered, I wish I could give you all something to show how much I appreciate you following my blog but unfortunately I can't.
But if you want another chance of winning, you can go do the Cute Daisy May blog hop and leave a comment on my CDM post (below this one), you will be entered to win my mini candy, and the rest of the girls on the CDM design team has candy to give away too!
And I will have more giveaways after Christmas too :)

Kym, please email me with your snail mail address and I will get these goodies out to you asap.

Lora x

Cute Daisy May Blog Hop

Welcome to the first ever Cute Daisy May blog hop!
If you came here from Linnie's blog then you are on the right track, but if you just came by to see little old me, then you need to go start at Beccy's blog to join in the fun.
Visit every DT member who by the way all have some cady to give away on their own blogs, and write down the letter that they give you. When you get to the last DT members blog, you will be directed to the Cute Daisy May blog where you need to leave a comment and you will have the chance to win some CDM downloads. You mut visit every DT members blog though in order to collect every letter as they will spell out a word which you have to email to cutedaisymay@gmail.com.

So first things first, I have some cards to show you. The challenge this week is Gems, so a nice easy one this time. Here's what I came up with.


I followed the sketch over at Sketch Saturday which was perfect for using gems as the sketch had the dots on it already so I just put the gems exactly when the dots on teh sketch were. I did rotate the sketch though so my image would fit. And of course the image is a Cute Daisy May. Isn't it adorable?

I also made another card with 2 Cute Daisy May images but it's not for the challenge, although it does have pearls on it so maybe I would of been able to get away with this one too lol.


Sorry about this pic, I took it at about 11pm tonight so it was really dark. I think you get the jist of it though.
I used a Christmas apeture card and dangled a little Daisy fairy in the middle. I used 2 Daisy's back to back so she can twirl round and look pretty on both sides. I done this by mirroring the image so they matched up.

This is the card opened.




I used another Daisy from the same sheet for the inside.
Now I could of kept this card to show another day but I wanted to show these cards in use because I have some to give away :)

All you have to do is leave me a comment on this post.
And here's a pic of what the winner will get. The snowflake paper is not included, it was just on my desk as I was using it today and I was too lazy to move it before taking photos lol.
All the cards are the same as the one I have used, just in a selection of different colours :)
The flowers are a selection from my stash (I have way too much!!) and there is lots of different kinds and colours.

Now all you got to do is leave me a comment and then go visit Avril. Oh but before you go, you will need the letter T.

Have fun!

Lora x

Sunday 29 November 2009

Janlynn Blog Candy!!

This candy is now closed

As I have been saying for a week or so now, I have some candy that Janlynn gave me to give away to one lucky person. I have tried all this week to get a pic of the stuff but I have either been ill (again!!) or it's been raining and I couldn't get outside to take a pic. So today while the weather looked ok thought I would get out and take a pic, but just as I got everything ready, it started to pour of rain, just typical!! So I took some pics indoors. They are not very good but hopefully you can see everything. My photo's really do not do any of this goodies justice though, they are all really good quality items and I honestly wanted to keep them for myself lol.

So here's what's up for grabs.

The top pic is everything the winner will receive, the other 2 pics are just giving you a closer look:) Janlynn have a huge sale on just now, but if you were to buy this lot for the full price, you would pay just under $70!!
Here's a list of everything, you can click on the links and it will take you straight to the item on Janlynn's site if you want a better look :)
Holiday Theme Scrappers Pack
Diva Scrappers Pack. Both these sets have over 75 pieces each! They contain handmade papers, diecuts, flowers, ribbon, buttons, bows etc and are very good quality.

Red Roses
Blue Roses
Yellow Roses
Pink Roses
White Roses
Purple Carnations
Large Poinsettias
Large Metal Flower embelishments

Right here's what you got to do to be in with a chance of winning.
1. This candy is for ACTIVE FOLLOWERS only, so if you are a follower already all you have to do is leave me some lovely comments to let me know you have visited :) If you are a new follower, you can still enter but you must have left me at least 3 comments from now until the candy closes, so I know you are not only visiting for candy. Sorry, I know this may seem a bit harsh, but after my last candy, 12 people stopped following as soon as I announced the winner, so to make it fair to my followers who are actually interested in what I do, you must be an active follower to enter. I do love to get new followers though and meet new people so don't be shy, it is open to all as long as you actually want to come visit once in a while :)
2. You MUST put a pic of this candy with a link to my blog and also add the Janlynn banner to your sidebar. You will find it in my sidebar. (the one with the tiger).
3. Leave me a comment on this post to let me know you have put the Janlynn banner and my candy pic on your blog.
Then just come visit when you feel like it:)
You can still enter if you don't have a blog. I know I have some followers who visit regularly who don't have their own blog yet, and they are more than welcome to enter. If you can't leave a comment, you can enter by emailing me at lorascards@aol.com
Oh and I will post worldwide so anyone can enter :)
This candy win run until the 29th of November which would of been my Mum's birthday if she was still with us. I will post the winner on the 30th.


Lora x

A box, ornament and a card

This months By The Cute And Girly challenge is nearly over but you do still have time to get your entries in, there's still today and tomorrow to go, so I thought I would show you a few of my DT bits that I made this month. I already showed my chest at the start of the month but I didn't show the rest of the things that I made so here they are now, of course they have been on the challenge blog all month though so if you have been over there this month you would of already saw them lol.
I have to apologise for the pics of these, they are really bad as this is when my camera broke and I had to borrow one from a friend which was worse than my own one lol.


This was a gift box that was broken (you know how the edges come apart when a 4 year old stands on it lol), which I just taped back together and covered with some SU! paper.
I got the cute image ages ago in a blog candy win so I have no idea who makes this stamp. If anyone knows, I would love to know because I really like this image and I only had the one.
The little train and tag is from a Woodware set that I won on Kath's blog a little while ago. I just stamped them on some scraps of the paper I was using. I really like this stamp set, it has lots of little bits that can be used on their own or together and they still look fab. Great for little boys cards too, and it also has some little elves in it but as I had already coloured my elf image that I used here, I didn't use any from the set this time.


Here's the box at another angle so you can see the scalloped edge. I used a Fiskars threading water/scalloped border punch.



Noe that pics were not to bad but the next two are really blurry, but I have gave away the ornament thing and I can't find the card to take another pic, so I'm afraid you will just have to try imagine what they look like irl lol.


The papers I used on this one are Stampin Up and the image is of course a Sugar Nellie which the lovely Lorraine sent me. Flowers are from Tabby crafts, love Tab's shop for flowers and pins! The ribbon and charm which you can hardly see here is from my stash. The charm is a present with a bow on top just incase you can't make out what it's ment to be lol.


This ornament was so easy to make, just some designer paper (I think this one is Bo Bunny but I can't remember for sure), punched edges with a Fiskars scalloped punch and added a few gems, beads and a charm. I've made some of these to use as decorations at the Christmas fayre as they are so quick to make. Just 5 strips of paper and a few brads to hold it together and it's done. They even look nice without the added embellishments.

If you haven't been over to the BTC&G blog this month, why don't you pop over and join in the fun? The other girls have some fab projects on the blog, so loads of inspiration to get you going. And although I have only done paper crafts, you can enter with any craft you like and there are some fab prizes to be won. I am hosting this months challenge which is Winter Wonderland, so I'm sure a lot of you will be making cards/gifts with this theme anyway as we are all trying to get our Christmas cards made so why not enter and win yourself some craft stash for your trouble?
The new challenge will be posted on the 1st of December so remember to check back for that too.

Hugs Lora x

Saturday 28 November 2009

Whiff Of Joy a missed and new challenge combined

I know my title sounds silly but that's exactly what my card for today is. I started making a card for last weeks WOJ challenge using Gio's sketch but I forgot about it and never got it finished so on Wedenesday I went to look at the new challenge and remembered that I still had last weeks card half made, and it just so happens that this weeks challenge is to make a Christmas card, so I finished it off and it fit's with this weeks challenge instead :)
Barry bought me a new camera for my Christmas and I didn't want to open it before Christmas but the camera I was using can't take pics inside and it has been pouring of rain again today so he gave me my pressie early so I could take pics of my card inside :)
I have no idea what half of the buttons are for yet so my pics are not the best but I could of never took a photo indoors (without any lamps either) and be able to even see my card at all so this is a huge improvement.



My image is colored with the usual Copics. Papers are Crafts House "Winter Wonderland"
I like these non traditional Christmas colours and the papers have a lovely sheen to them.
The sentiment is SU! from a hostess set which I stamped with Stone Grey Stazon, but on the shimmery gold card it looks totally different. The shimmer shows through and it kind of of looks like it's been heat embossed until you look at it close up. Ribbon, charm and little rose are all from my stash, and the larger flower is from Tabby Crafts. It was just a plain white flower but I rubbed over it with some lilac ink and coated it with Twinklets.



Just a closer look at the image and my flower. Iused different glue for the twinklets this time and it sticks properly without any of it falling off if you touch it. I think my Christmas cards will all be covered in this stuff because I love it :) It really is all Bev's fault though. If I had never seen her use it on her cards then I would of never knew about it and my Diamond Dust addiction would if never been born! So Bev if you read this I'm blaming you for all my cards beig covered in the stuff lol. Just wish my cards looked half as good as hers though!

Well that's the card done. I've been busy all week gettig things ready for the school Christmas Fayre and haven't had any time for blogging or making cards this week, and I have loads still to make but I'm hoping to get some time to join in with at least one more challenge and do some bloghopping, as well as getting the rest of my DT work finished.
I've made all my Santa's magic keys, which I will try to remember to take a pic of to show on here and I have made quite a few decorations. Still got to make some sweet holders and gift bags/boxes and calendars, oh and my own chrsitmas cards to sell at the fayre lol, so think I might just be busy for the next week! I have to have the Santa's Grotto decorated by the 8th of Dec and all my cards and gifts made by the 1oth so not much time and so much still to do!
I am still looking for large snowflakes to hang from the roof (and for some other projects at the school) but I'm having trouble finding any. I only have a small snowflake punch so it's not any use. We need some large snowflakes (between approx 4" and 6") and also some smaller ones, so think I will have to keep looking for ones I can buy already cut (any ideas?) Only problem with that is that we are on a really tight budget so I have to find some that are really cheap. Failing that, I will have to cut them by hand and to be honest I don't think there is any chance of me getting that done any time soon lol.

Well that's all my news. I hope you are all having a great weekend and hope my American friends had a great Thanksgiiving.
Thanks for stopping by today.

Lora x

Oh a little reminder, my blog candy ends tomorrow so if you would like to enter, then you only have until tomorrow evening (my time) to enter.

Tuesday 24 November 2009

Digital Tuesday DT card

It's my turn to host this weeks over at Digital Tuesday and the theme this week is "Thank You".
Penny from Penny's Creations is sponsoring us this week and offering the winner her 5 digi images.
She was also kind enough to give the design team 2 of her images to use for the challenge.



I used her Bear With Sign image and just printed him straight onto some Kraft cardstock and printed him out again on white card then cut out just his sign, inked over it with some distress ink and added a SU! sentiment. I also inked around the edge of the bear and coloured his nails with a brown copic.
The lovely paper is from Stampin Up. The brown piece is the reverse of the stripey one.
The swirls were punched with an All Night Media swirl punch. It is just a single swirl punch but I used 2 together to make a little flourish kind of thing. Flower is a Prima and the button is from a bag that the lovely Stef sent me. (thanks hun, they have came in sooo handy, mmwahh)
This is a lot simpler than most of my cards and I didn't really colour anything but it's nice to have a change and I need to start doing simple quick cards for Christmas so I can get a lot more made, so this was good practice. Not sure if I like it but I love those SU! papers. They are from one of the speciality packs (I think) and are much thicker than their normal ones and they also have a textured feel to them. I got these last month and this is the first time I have used them because the colours haven't went with any of the cards I have been making lately, but now I have opened the pack I think you will be seeing a lot more of them :)

Well I hope you are all having a great day. It's pouring of rain here again so looks like it's going to be a crafty day in for me...yay :) but tonight Liam is doing a break dancing performance at Aberdeen's Lemon Tree so I have to go pick him up when that's finished. I really want to go to see him performing but all the tickets are sold out :( We only found out this morning that he was getting to perform as he was off lessons for 2 weeks when he had tonsillitis so his tutor didn't think he would be able to do the performance because he had missed learning some of the routines, but he went to his last lesson and managed to learn everything he had missed and done it so well that his tutor said he could go after all. But I phoned this morning for tickets and they are all sold out. The woman at the box office has been trying for over an hour to see if she could get me tickets (which was really nice of her. she even worked over her normal shift so she could keep phoning to try get me tickets), but she couldn't get through on the phone to the place that the performance is being held, so she has gave me the number so I can try myself later.
Keep your fingers crossed for me! Hope someone who has tickets is ill and can't go lol, then I will be able to get their seat :)
If I do manage somehow to get tickets, I will take lots of picks so you can see my little break dancer in action lol. I haven't even seen him do it myself and this is his first performance, so I will be really gutted if I can't go.

Until then though, I'm off to make some Christmas cards while I only have one kid at home and she's sitting watching Mr Maker (a kiddies arts and crafts thing on the telly).

Lora x

Monday 23 November 2009

Cute Daisy May DT and a challenge

I'm really late posting my DT card today, been at the kids school all day getting some decorations made for the school fayre.and forgot to post it when I got home. I found some nice snowflake decorations that were easy to make on the internet the other day so I made some of those. Will show pics of them another time though.
I still need to make loads of stuff and do lots more cards but at least I have started now.

The challenge over at Cute Daisy May this week is "Red Christmas", so that's one more made for the Christmas box :)
I entering this card to Stampin For The Weekend as I followed their sketch.



I made this card at the last minute last night and took the pic before the twinklets had dried properly, so the flower doesn't look so white anymore, you can see the red a bit more through the twinklets.
The papers are Stampin Up and the scallopedoval is a digi element by Summer Driggs.
The sweet image is of course a Cute Daisy May and I paper pieced her clothes. AfterI had cut her clothes out, I stamped over them with an Anna Griffin backgrouns stamp with Versamark and heat embossed with vlear embossing powder. I also stamped some tiny snowflakes on her jacket with some distress ink, but you can't realyy see any of that in the pic. It looks nice irl though. Gives it a bit of texture and make her clothes look like they have a subtle pattern. The rest of the image is coloured with Copics.
The sentiment is a chipboard embelishment that I bought last year but can't remember where and the ribbon, spacer, brad and pearls are all from my stash.
Well I'm off now in search of some large snowflake shapes for the Christmas Fayre.

Lora x

Friday 20 November 2009

Just for fun



I forgot I made this card last week just for fun. I had some of the Stampin Up papers I had been using on another card on my desk and a WOJ image that I coloured ages ago so thought I would stick them onto a card, and this is how it turned out.
I just love these SU! papers just now, they are so pretty and just happened to go well with my coloured image. The lace looks squint here but it was just because I scanned the card and the scanner had moved it. It does look straight IRL. The lace was from a local haberdashery and the velvet ribbon I threaded through it is by Craft House. Flowers are a mix of Prima and some from Tabby Crafts. spacer and pearls from Ebay and branches are punched with a Mcgill punch.
I made this card to send to someone who hopefully still reads my blog :) so one of you will be getting it through your mailbox soon :)

Now the card is over and done with, I have an apology to make. I have a lot of mail that needs posted but I have been busy at the kids school all week and haven't been back in time to catch the post office, so if any of you are waiting for packages from me, I am really sorry. They will be posted first thing in the morning. I have also had trouble getting card to stamp my images on and for my card bases as the papermill shop was out of the normal card I use when I went last week, and I haven't been able to get there this week, so hopefully they will have tomorrow or else I won't be able to make any more cards until they get some in!

Right I'm off to look for some more ideas for this Santa's grotto thing! Thank you to everyone who left me some ideas :) If anyone else has any ideas/advice on what else I could do to decorate a room to make it into a Santa's Grotto, they would be gratefully received. Just incase anyone didn't see my post below, I need to make a fireplace and decorate the rest of the room too. I have a few idea but the more ideas I have the better. I should of maybe mentioned in my previous post that as it's for the school, we are on a budget, so it has to be cheap but look good :)

Thanks for stopping by

Lora x

Thursday 19 November 2009

Any Stamp Will Do and I need some crafty advice!

Just a quick post tonight to show the card I made for Stef's colour challenge at Any Stamp Will Do.
Stef's colour choices were red, green, blue and yellow (or gold).
The papers are all Stampin Up, I used my Fiskars border punch for the scalloped edge, flower is from Tabby Crafts, ribbon is Dovecraft and of course I have used a Sugar Nellie Gorjuss Girl which I coloured with Copics and used a bit of glitter on her star.
Just a simple card but that's just the kind of cards I need to be making just now so I can get lots churned out for Christmas. Especially as I have the school Christmas Fayre to make cards to sell at and I need to make othr gifts to see too, which I haven't even started and it's on the 10th and 11th of December. Think I'd better get my bum in gear!

Speaking of the Christmas Fayre. I was asked today if I could decorate the Santa's Grotto. They really want it to be WOW, so no pressure there lol. I need to make a paper fireplace and some decorations to hang up and anything else I can think of, so I was wandering if any of you imaginative people have any ideas for me? In other words....help!!! I have no idea how I'm gonna do this so any ideas would be gratefully received :)

Thanks for stopping by

Lora xx

Tuesday 17 November 2009

Just Magnolia

I just remembered that I had a card to post for this weeks Just Magnolia challenge that I made on Friday after the challenge was posted! Oh well at least I am still on time :)
It's another fab sketch this week so of course me loving sketches, I just had to play along.




I had to scan this one and you can hardly see the acetate snowflakes but just look for the brads and you can imagine what it looks like irl lol.
I have no idea who makes this paper but I got a 12x12 sheet of it at my local craft store for 49p!! Think they must of made a mistake with the price because I have never bought a 12x12 from there that has cost me under £1. It's a thick quality paper too so if I go back to get more, they will probably be doubled in price.
I've had this image coloured for ages but have never used it because the ink has run a bit as it was stamped in stazon and I used Copics to colour but it doesn't look as bad as it does in this pic, think the scanner has just made it blurry. Anyway I used it and it's stopping right where it is.
I used one of the Nestie shapes Heather cut for me (I so need to get more nesties of my own!) but I only had the one size so , I traced around it onto a piece of card with a quickie glue pen and covered it in sparkly embossing powder and heated, then cut the label shape out using the embossing as a guide, and there you go, a home made embossed label shaped mat :)
The big snowflakes are just some old stickers I had and I stuck them onto card abnd cut them out so I didn't need to stick down the edges. There is acetate snowflakes on top of them and also some on their own and I covered them with Twinklets (Bev my addiction to Twinklets is all your fault!!!) and added a snowflake charm. I used a strip of holographic kind of paper and put some sparkly lace from my stash on top. I think the sentiment is a Dovecraft stamp. It was one I got last year in the £1 bin at my local craft shop.
I wish the twinklets showed up better because they really are pretty, although I found them a nightmare to stick on. Well not stick on but getting them to stay on. Any suggestions?
That's it from my tonight. I think I will be off to bed in a bit because Chiara fell asleep ages ago. At last a normal sleeping routine for both me and her :)

Thanks for stopping by. Remember my candy from Janlynn if you haven't entered already:)

Lora x

Cute Daisy May does Digital Tuesday

I'm feelin good today because I eventually got a sleep last night yay!! Well Chiara went to sleep about 1am and I had to be up at 7.30 am but at least I didn't go to my bed when I was ment to be waking up like I have been doing this last week!
For those of you that have no idea what I am talking about, my 4 year old Daughter has tunrned her nights into days since she was sick and hasn't been going to sleep till sometimes 6 or 7 am!, but I have sorted that now (I think). She's not ill anymore and is back at nursery which will tire her out so she should be back into a normal sleeping pattern and I will get back to my normal cardmaking and blogging routine :)

Enough about that though, because it's time for another Digital Tuesday Challenge.
This week our sponsor is Cute Daisy May and Linnie is offering the winner 5 of her sheets!
The challenge this week is hosted by Ellie and she has chose a colour challenge of white, purple and gold or silver (or grey or yellow in place of the metalics).
I use Purple, Gold and White.

The papers are digi ones but I'm not sure where I got this ones from. Cute image is of course from Cute Daisy May, isn't she a cutie?, I coloured her with Copics and used some flower soft for her furry bits.
Flowers are Primas and a little ribbon rose I got off Ebay, ribbon is Dovecraft and pearls from my stash.
The other girls on the DT have made some beautiful cards, you have to go take a look at them, and why not join in with this weeks challenge while you are there :)
Remember you can use any digi image you like and you can combine challenges too, as long as it is a new card/project (not shown on your blog before) then you are in with a chance of winning 5 of Linnie's cute sheets.
And if you love the Cute Daisy May sheets, why not join in with the CDM challenge too. You can use any images you like to make your card rubber or digi and the challenge this week is "Texture".
Thanks for stopping by today. If you haven't seen my Janlynn blog candy yet, go have a look! It's the top post. Loads of lush flowers and 2 scrappers packs full of goodies, which of course are perfect for cardmaking too.

Monday 16 November 2009

Miss Anya does Sketch and Stash

I really am a bad blogger! I haven't posted on here since last Tuesday!! Not that I haven't been making anything or have nothing that I could post, because I have loads of stuff to post including some blog candy, but I just haven't been able to get photo's of anything because of this miserable weather!
So today I was adamant that I would post something so I went and scanned one of the cards I made that didn't have so much sticky out embelishments on it. As usual it is a rubbish pic but at least I am posting something lol.
I followed the sketch from Sketch and Stash. I did just have to pop over there and check that I could still enter as I have had the card made for about 5 days lol, so thought I might be late but lucky for me it's a fortnightly challenge :)


The papers are Stampin Up! I wasn't sure about these papers when I ordered them and just ordered for the sake of ordering really (you can never have enough designer papers, right?), but I am loving them now, although this scan does them no justice. They actually have a more creamy colour base but it looks more yellow here.
The gorgeous image is of course Miss Anya which the lovely Heather (Rica) stamped for me a few months ago. I've been hoarding them lol. I coloured her with Copics and added some flower soft on the muff and some stickles on her fur trim around her coat and boots.
Blue flowers are Prima and the little white ones are from Ebay. I got a huge lot of flowers for a few pounds, so you will be seeing loads of them over the next few weeks. I attacked them all with more stickles. The pretty snowflake is a glittered wooden one that I bought at HobbyCraft last week, and I added a little pearl in the centre. And finally the sentiment is from a freebie stamp set I got in a magazine.
I am going to try get a pic of my blog candy after my lunch so I can put it on my blog today, so remember to pop back for that. Also there is a new challenge over at Cute Daisy May today. The girls have all made beautiful cards so pop over there to see them too. The challenge this week is texture.

Thanks so much for stopping by and visiting me even though I must be the worse blogger ever! lol.

Lora x

Tuesday 10 November 2009

Digital Tuesday and FSS DT

I can't believe it Tuesday already! Probably because I spent most of last week sleeping lol, but Tuesday is upon is and it brings a new Digital Tuesday Challenge.
This week is Anjous turn to host and her challenge theme is Holiday Wishes.
I told you last week that Fred She Said has some great new releases but I haven't been able to show you any of them because I was ill last week (by the way I feel so much better today, except for the swollen glands), so I used one on my Digital Tuesday card.


I used one of the coloured sheets this time as my red Copics were runnning dry and decoupaged it up. I should of took a side view pic so you could see the dimention because there is 4 layers on here, but you will just have to take my word for it.
I used some stickles in the middle but they dried all weird. I did think of putting a gem or pearl in the middle after I had taken the photo but I knew there was no chance of me getting another pic because it had started to rain so I just left it as it was.
I used papers from SU! again and the sentiment is also SU! from a level 1 hostess set, and flowers are from my stash.

Now that the card is done, I can moan about my trip to Hobbycraft yesterday. Barry came home and gave me some money as an early Christmas pressie to spend at the new Hobbycraft store in Aberdeen and I wasn't going to go because I still felt ill, but I couldn't resist it lol.
So I went with a list in my head of things that I wanted thinking the store is huge so surely I will get everythign I want and maybe a few extras. How wrong was I?!!
I have been wanting a snowflake die or punch for ages and a flourish one too, so my first stop was the dies and punches aisle, no flourishes or swirls at all and only one timy snowflake punch that was about 1 cm big, well small! There was tickets on the shelves with prices for snowflake punches but none there, so I asked a girl who worked there and she said she would go get a price gun thing and scan the price tickets to see if they had any in stock because there might be some in the stockroom, so she went and got one and scanned the tickets then told me oh yes it says we have 4 of each size and I thought oh great, then she said but they will probably be in tomorrows delivery. Well I wanted them then not the next day so I gave up on that and said I might pop in the next day (no chance of that though). Then I thought I would go get some foam pads, but of course they didn't have any. What kind of craft store doesn't have foam pads???
It kinda went downhill from there, anything I wanted they didn't have so I ended up spending £11 and went home with a tiny wee bag. I think I will just stick to my local craft shop or go shop online!
So there, that's my moan over lol.

Thanks for stopping by.

Lora x

Monday 9 November 2009

Christmas Tilda and 2 challenges

I've been wanting to join in with Susies Sassy Challenge to make a Christmas card all week but being ill has got in the way, so today I made it my mission to make a card for it and also for Charisma Cardz because they have a great sketch this week.
Here's my efforts.
I'm not sure who makes the snowflake paper, but the other papers I have used are SU!
I think I got this Tilda image from Carly ages ago and it's been sitting in my image box coloured for about a month, just waiting for a Christmas card to be used on.
Ribbons are Dovecraft and Craft House, pearls from my stash, and the charm is from The Works.


Not much else to say about this one, so here's a close up of Tilda.


Right this time I am defo away to go bloghopping and not get distracted by card making lol. I have a bit of a head ache now but I'm gonna take some painkillers and hopefully it will go away so I can stay on the computer for a while. Just wish the painkillers would put away the horrible sore throat and swollen glands, so I could eat because I am starving lol.

Thanks for stopping by.

Lora x
p.s My Cute Daisy May DT card for today is under this post :)

Cute Daisy May DT card

Good morning ladies, hope you are all having a great day! My throat feels worse today than it did yesterday but I don't have a headache today and hopefully it won't come back so I can do some bloghopping today :)
The challenge at Cute Daisy May this week is "Wild Thing"- use an animal on your card.
I done my DT card the other day while I was feeling not too bad, but I rushed it because incase I started feeling worse and just as well I did because 10 minutes after making it, I wanted to die!
I must say, it's not one of the best cards I have ever made. I don't like the papers and my colouring is rubbish because my Copics are running out again!! You would think I coloured with them every day or something lol.

I don't think my little elephants look very wild though lol, but they are really cute. They are of course from one of Linnies Cute Daisy May sheets. It was one image but I cut them out so I could put them closer together so they would fit on the oval. If you haven't checked out the Cute Daisy May sheets yet, where have you been all this time?? They are only £1.99 a sheet and you get 4 or sometimes more images on a sheet! I don't know about you, but I know I have paid that for one image, and your getting at least 4 images per sheet. There are lots of Daisy May girls to choose from, and she has them in babies, little girls and grown up Daisy, and as you can see here Linnie has also done animals and the cutest snowmen ever, seriously you got to check out the snowmen. I do have a little thing about snowmen just now so you might just be seeing lots of them soon. If you wan't to try before you buy, Linnie has a freebie sheet in her store which I just had to snag as it has the cutest snowman on it as well as some other lovely images. Then you can coem join in with our challenges :) You don't have to use a Daisy May image though to join in with the challenges, you can use any image you like, and it doesn't have to be digi's, you can even use your rubber stamps :) So go on what you waiting for? Get your bum over there and join in and you could win some more fab Cute Daisy May images for your efforts :)

Sorry this post is beginning to get a bit too looong. Can you see how much I have missed blogging while I've been ill? I just have to keep typng to make up for it lol.
Anyway back to the card. I followed the sketch over at Sketch Saturday. I wasn't going to enter it because I really don't like this card but I won't get another one done this week. The papers are Papermania and I got them on sale for 99p for about 60 or 70 8x8" sheets! That's probably why I am not so keen on them because I didn't have to spend a fortune to get them lol.
You can't really see but I punched the swirly paper with my Fiskars scalloped edge punch inkeeping with the sketch. Most of the flowers were from Lorraine (hope your back on line soon hun, I miss you loads mmwahh) she sent me the little roses aon the outside flowers in the blog candy I won a while ago, and the bigger flowers were ones she sent to my Daughter Rhianna for her birthday but I pinched some from her because I didn't have any purple flowers that fitted. Of course I had to give her another handfull of my Primas before she would give me them. Think I woul dmaybe be cheaper just buying sme purple flowers of my own lol. The other flowers are Prima and a little organza ribbon rose that I got in a card making set months ago from the £1 shop. Only bought it for these flowers and some little buttons, the rest went to the kids. And finally the ribbon is some from my local haberdashery. I got 2 meters of this one and 2 meters each of the same in pink and green all for £1.50! Can you see why I love that shop?? I have paid more than that for 1 meter of ribbon and I got 6 meters :) So overall I think this is a very cheap card lol, it's made with just bargains or freebies lol. Think my base cardstock was more expensive than the whole card pmsl.
Right I promise not to write anymore! I'm off to check out your blogs.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my looong post that has probably sent you into dream land.

Hugs Lora xx