A cute little dragon :)

It's the middle of the month already! Where did March go??!! and I have a dt card to show for By The Cute and Girly where the theme this month is "In The Kitchen".
I was planning on having a baking session with my 2 girls for this challenge since you can enter with any craft, even baking, but Chiara was ill last week and has chicken pox this week and then Rhianna was up last night being sick so she is off school too and Liam has a tummy ache too today, so I have 3 sick kids and there's no way I was getting to do any baking! lol
It's Barry's birthday tomorrow (the girls dad's) and then of course we have Mother's Day here on Sunday, so hopefully they are all feeling better soon!!

So as I said, I made a card for the "In The Kitchen" theme. You can use anything food or drink related, so I decided to use a stamp that I have had for ages and only used once since it has a bottle of bubbly on it.

As usual, the photos are rubbish! lol but hopefully you can see it clear enough. I really have to get a light tent soon!!
The image is a Nellie Snellen stamp which I coloured with a mix of Promarkers and Copics. I only have a couple of Copics so couldn't colour it all with them, but I still love my Promarkers anyway, although I find the Copic tips easier to colour with.
I used some Dovecraft "Tea House" papers, though the cupcakes went well with the food theme.
The flowers are from my stash and have all got stickles added to them, lace from my stash and the little pink pearl hearts were from a little craft shop in Montrose.

Isn't this image sweet? I don't know why I haven't used it a lot more because it is really cute, but it's a clear stamp and me and clear stamps don't go too well together! lol
You wouldn't believe me if I told you how much times I stamped this image before I got one that was decent enough to use! I have no problem with rubber stamps, mounted or unmounted, but clear stamps, I just find a lot of them difficult to get a crisp image with.

I'm off to make some birthday cards and one for Mother's day........I know I haven't left myself much time to get them made, but hey that's just me, I am never organised!
I do only have one Mother's Day card to make though because my own Mum died when I was 10 so she won't be needing one lol, and my Step Mum, well she is not really my Mum so I don't send her one.....that's sounds terrible doesn't it? I do get on with her well enough but we are not close at all, even though she has been with my dad for 14 years. They live far away from me and we don't see them much, maybe once a year......
Anyway, enough of my life story! I have to make one for Barry's Mum, since men never remember to do that kind of stuff!! lol and then some cards from the kids and me for Barry's birthday and then I might be able to put the finishing touches to a challenge card that I started making yesterday.

Thanks for stopping by

Wags N Whiskers- Christmas and a few pics

I'm a day late with my card for the Wags N Whiskers challenge because I thought I had scheduled a post because I would be out yesterday but I thought wrong lol. I hadn't even wrote the post, never mind scheduled it!! Better late than never though.

The challenge this fortnight is "Christmas Themed", so a nice easy one for this time of the year, and a good kick up the bum for me to get cracking on my Christmas cards!

I used the same Dovecraft papers that I used the other day. They were already out from last time I used them and I couldn't be bothered looking for other ones lol.
The stamp I used is Ansley's Surprise. I used a rubber stamp, but it does also come in digi form. You can buy both rubber of digi Wags n Whiskers stamps at Stamp and Create if you are in the US or Canada or if you are in the UK like me, Bunny Zoes Crafts caters for Europe and the rest of the world.

I coloured the image with Promarkers and used  Diamond Stickles on her wings and a Sakura Gelly Roll Clear Star pen on some of her hairband, her lips, the digs bow and on the creases of her dress. Unfortunately I couldn't get a good photo to show the bits where I used the Gelly Roll pen as it was really dull outside.

The flowers I used are from Crafty Emma's Store and the leaf spray thing was from a little craft shop in Montrose, as was the ribbon.

Here's a close up of the sweet image

So that's my card for today, and I will be back later with a Inky Impressions Christmas decoration that I was going to show yesterday but forgot!

While I was uploading the pics of my card, I came across some pics Barry took on Bonfire Night of the fireworks.
A few of  my friends from across the pond have asked what Bonfire Night is......I'm not very good at explaining stuff like that, so you can google if you want to know the whole story behind it lol, but basically a group of men plotted to blow up the houses of parliament. One of the men called Guy Fawkes got caught in a cellar with 36 barrels of gunpowder and was tortured and executed.
Now on the 5th of November we have Bonfire Night. We make a big fire (the bonfire) and sometimes place a "guy" on top representing Guy Fawkes.
But really nowadays, here, Bonfire Night is all about the fireworks and most villages and cities have a big bonfire and firework display.

Ok lesson over lol. We went to a bonfire and firework display in the village that we live in last Saturday. They had a huge firework display and the kids all got free glow sticks :)
My girls didn't like the noise of the fireworks very much lol, but they did stay till the end and I got Barry to take some pics.
So here's a few for anyone who is interested.

Aren't they pretty? lol
Ok that really is all from me today. Hope you are having a great weekend! :)

Digital Tuesday- Anything Goes

The challenge over at Digital Tuesday this week is everything goes and our sponsor is Bugaboo Stamps who are giving away 6 digital stamps to the winner!

I decided to get some more Christmas cards done since I have hardly made any this year! and used an image from Bugaboo.

As usual, I coloured the image with Promarkers and added some icicle stickles on their hats and  the snow. I'm not so keen on these icicle stickles, I much prefer the diamond or crystal ones. it's maybe just me, but I don't think this one is so easy to get into little spaces as the others, it comes out in blobs most of the time rather than being able to add a thin line like I can with the others....maybe I just got a dodgy bottle??
Anyway, the papers I used, I think are by Dovecraft, some ribbon from my stash and some die cut snowflakes done with Marianne dies.

A real simple card but I think it's easier to do simple ones for Christmas, otherwise I would never get half of the amount I need done lol.

 I think this is the first time I have used a Bugaboo image, but I was having a look in their store and they have loads! This one is more my kinda cute style, but they have all types of images, and some real funny ones too.
Oh and my card is also featured on their blog today :)

Right I'd better get ready to pick up my girls from school.......where has the day went?!!

Thanks for stopping by.

Digital Tuesday- Blue and White

It's time for a new challenge over at Digital Tuesday and today is my first post as the new owner! I have done the post loads of times at Digital Tuesday but Ellie has been doing it herself for the last few months and it felt really weird writing up the post.
I am happy to say the all the design team girls have stayed with me:) We have a fantastic team over there, everyone is so friendly and will help each other whenever help is needed, and of course they are all great cardmakers/designers, so I feel very lucky that they have all stayed on with me. Thanks girls :)
It is sad to see Ellie go though. She was the first person to give me a full time design team position and has always been a good friend. Please if you have a minute, pop over to her blog and leave her some "goodbye" love :)

The challenge this week was chosen by Natascha and she chose a colour combo of Blue and White.
Our sponsor this week is Di's Digi Downloads who is offering 5 digital images or 3 of her stamps (winner's choice). I actually didn't know she done rubber stamps (well actually they are clear stamps) until I was in a craft shop here in Montrose about 2 weeks ago and saw some of her stamps for sale.
It was really strange because they only sell a few stamps (and they are as old as the hills!!) and there in amongst all these old stamps was some cuties by Di :)

Anyway, I got a digi image from Di to use for the challenge and this is what I made.

Sorry about the pics. I took them yesterday when the sun was shining and there was just shadows everywhere no matter where I went.
Also my image looks all bumpy, that's because I was too impatient to wait for the stickles to dry before putting it on my card! It has dried now though and is flat lol.
I coloured the image with Promarkers and used loads of crystal stickles. This one is called Festive Shopping and you can find it here

Isn't she a little cutie? :) This is the second time I coloured her, the first time I forgot I was only supposed to do blue and white and coloured her pink and blue lol. This image really is covered is stickles, even the little birdie is glittered!! lol. Well you can never have enough glitter on a Christmas card can you? :)

The papers....hmmm I got these from a friend, but I do know that the one with the squares is from the Papeterie in Aberdeen (only because I see it every time I'm there lol)
I used a shaped card base from Crafty Emma's Store and added stickles along the bottom edge.
Some lovely white satin ribbon from my stash, a paper doily from Poppy's Cabin (link in my sidebar), some stickled snowflakes punched with a Dovecraft punch and a tiny gem in the centres and a gorgeous flower from Little Snippets which I also added a snowflake to.

This photo actually doesn't do this gorgeous flower justice. Although it does look really pretty here, it's stunning in real life. I did have a look in the store so I could add a link, but there doesn't seem to be any listed just now, but I'm sure if you ask Geraldine, she will sort you out with some :)

ETA: Geraldine now has these in her store. You can find them here. 
She has named these flowers "Lora's White Lace Flowers". How cool is that? A flower named after me :)

These are beautiful as a normal flower but I wanted to make it a bit more Christmassy so I added a snowflake, but I wish that I could show you the flower on it's own because it's so pretty.
Geraldine has lots of gorgeous embellishments like this in her Little Snippets Etsy Store, and they are just perfect to add that extra special element to your cards and crafting.

I know that some people have said that they wouldn't want to use them for just any card and would save them for something special (and I used to think like that too) but they are not so expensive like other embellies like this that you have to limit how much you use, and Geraldine is great because she can tailor these to your needs. She has loads (and I really mean loads) of patterns that are not in the shop so she is bound to have whatever you are looking for and she can make them up in any colour.
Where else can you buy embellies in exactly the size and colours you want without having to buy a pack that has ones in it that you don't really need?
Christmas is coming up and these would make that special Christmas cards for family members and friends really special! Why not have a pop over and have a look for yourself? I do not take any responsibility for how much you spend over there though! lol

 I would love to see you join in with the challenge this week at Digital Tuesday, and remember the Inky Impressions challenge this week is about to end so you better get your entries in now! The challenge is shaped cards and you have the chance to win an Inky digi even if you don't use an Inky Impressions stamp and if you do, you are in with a chance of winning a special Inky package! These stamps are so sweet, I know you will love them :)

Thanks so much for stopping by today and if you have time, please leave a comment. I love to read them and it means so much to me to hear what you think of my cards :)