Saturday 31 March 2012

Some dt cards

I haven't been able to get online long enough to get any blog posts done this week (problems with my internet connection), so I have a few dt cards to share.

The first is for Digital Tuesday, where the challenge was "Life Is Peachy" The sponsor was Spesch Stamps, and Tracey offered the design team their choice of image to use as usual :)


 I found this challenge quite hard because I couldn't find any peach coloured papers. I finally found these ones which were from a paper pad that I have had for ages, but it only had a few papers left in it and no front to it, so I have no idea who makes it.
The image is of course a Spesch Stamps digi called Ashley and is coloured mostly with Promarkers. I just used Copics for the skin and hair as I only have a few colours so far.
Some lace, flowers and a butterfly from my stash and job done.


I just noticed that I went over the lines a bit with her hair. I think I really need to get a new pair of reading glasses and actually wear them!! lol

The other card I have to share is another one for Digital Tuesday where the challenge this week is to use your favourite colour. The sponsor is Robyn's Fetish and I used one of their images called Babette Bunny.


Of course I had to use pink! I bet that was no surprise to any of my regular visitors!! lol
I coloured this one with a mix of of Promarkers and Copics as well.
The paper is by Papermania, ribbon from my stash, flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts and a butterfly made by Geraldine.


I will be back tomorrow with my dt projects for the new monthly challenge over at By The Cute and Girly. I really enjoyed making my cards for Aprils challenge. It's a really great theme and so  much you can do with it, so remember to check back tomorrow to see what the theme is!

Thanks so much for stopping by, especially since I have been really rubbish at blogging lately!
I am planning a little giveaway for my followers in the next few weeks so stay tuned for that and I will also have a random giveaway for one person who leaves a comment over the next few weeks, just to say thank you for coming to visit my blog and all the lovely comments you leave me :)
So the more comments you leave, the more chances you will have to win a prize :) I'm not sure what the prize will be yet, but I will go shopping for a few bits this week and will try my best to get some lovely goodies to share with you :)

Friday 16 March 2012

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


Tuesday 6 March 2012

A giveaway, a money off code and finally some pics of my lizard!!

This post is a sticky, please scroll down for more recent posts

This will be a long post, so you might want to get yourself a cuppa and get comfy before reading!
I haven't made any cards today, instead I had a play with some digital scrapbooking software from My Memories.
Most of you who know me, will know that I don't really do scrapbooking and I am totally useless with any graphics program, but this software from My Memories is so easy to use and is a lot of fun too :)
You get a lot of free papers and embellishments etc with the software itself to get you started and then in the My Memories store you can buy more paper, kits, templates etc to add to your collection and there is a load of freebies too.
Seriously the hardest part of it all is choosing which kits or papers to buy!! I spent hours on the site today choosing from all the gorgeous kits! They are all very reasonably priced too and they even have a dollar and freebie section.
Now I know what you are thinking, the dollar section stuff and freebies will be rubbish and you need to pay lots to get the nice stuff (that's exactly what I thought to start with), but honestly, the freebies are fab (I will be using some very soon because I downloaded a pile!:)) and the dollar papers and kits are all great ones too. There's lots of full size kits that were full price but have been reduced to $1, so get in there quick and get them while they are at that price!
I don't like to write about a product that I don't like, so I don't recommend any products to my followers/visitors unless I truly do like them, and honestly I can't believe I haven't bought this software before now. If I knew digital scrapbooking could be this easy, I would of started it a long time ago!!
Oh and you don't have to just do scrapbooks, you can make cards, calendars, and all sorts of other crafty things :) which you can then print out (on your home printer or you can take them to a store to be printed) or you can upload to the net too for everyone to see.
 
Speaking of freebies
 I have a copy of My Memories digital scrapbooking software to give away to one of my lucky followers worth $40!!

All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is:
Become a follower of my blog if you are not already a follower.
Pop over to the My Memories store, have a look at their boy kits (since I used a boy one today) and leave me a comment telling me which one you like best.

For an extra entry, become a follower of my memories blog, facebook page or twitter, or all 3 for 3 extra entries!
Just leave me a comment for each entry letting me know which one you are following.

That's it, no need to do anything else, unless you want to post about my giveaway on your blog/sidebar, which I would be very grateful for and I will choose a random winner to win a gift from me from those who do:)

And for those of you who are not lucky enough to win the software



I also have a code that you can use to get $10 off the purchase price of the My Memories software plus $10 coupon to spend in the my memories store!! So really you are getting the software half price and getting some extra goodies to play with on it too, as well as all the papers and elements you get with the software itself anyway.
The code you need is STMMMS44022
 So as I said, I had a play and I made my first ever (that I have done on my own without a template and even then I have only made 3 of those) digital scrapbook page!
I didn't know what pics to scrap first and I was going to do one of my kids, but since a few people have asked to see pics of my sons 2 leopard geckos that he got at Christmas and our new baby bearded dragon, I thought I would use some pics of them instead.
Now remember this is my first layout I have done myself and although my memories software does have templates that you can use (and you can move them around which is great), I decided that I would start from scratch and do everything myself to show you how easy it really is.


I done this as an 8x8 so that i can print it out on my own printer if I want (I could of also done it a4 size but I have a thing about having to do square cards and pages lol).
Now I know a lot of people don't like reptiles (and I must admit before we got them, I was one of those people!) but come on, how cute is Skittles' face? (he's the one in the middle). He is still a bit skittish (which is where his name came from lol), but the other two just love to get out and get cuddles :))
The bearded dragon we only got a few weeks ago and hasn't got a name yet because we don't know if "he" is male or female. He looks quite big here, but it's just because I cropped the photo and actually he was only about 5 inches long including his tail :)

Ok so what did I do to make this page?
I used the For The Boys kit, which by the way is great value for money! It has 20 papers, 40 odd embellishments/elements and alphas/monograms too! I honestly couldn't believe how much was in this set for that amount of money!
I used two of the papers, matted the camouflage one and then added my pics with mats then started to embellish. Everything I used is in the kit so you don't need any extras.
I just resized them and moved them about and rotated them to where I wanted them, added some mud splat (which is one of the elements and I thought it went really well with the lizards since they are always digging around!) and then added the word art on top and done a bit of journaling. Actually my 6 year old Daughter Chiara done the journalling part (with my help to spell), which shows just how easy it is to do :)

So what do you think for my first digital page? I kinda like it and I think the kit goes really well with the lizard pics :)

If you can't wait a week to see if you are the winner of the software, you can pop over and buy it right now using my $10 off code
STMMMS44022
and remember you will also get $10 to spend in the my memories store when you purchase the software :) 
This giveaway will run until midnight Tuesday 6th March and the winner will be announced on Wednesday 7th.
Good luck and thanks for stopping by.

Digital Tuesday- Sketch

The new challenge is up over at Digital Tuesday and this week we have a sketch to follow which was made by the lovely Natascha.
I love sketches, so it was nice to have one at Digital Tuesday for a change because we don't have much sketch challenges there.....think we should maybe have some more.

This is the sketch

 
Our sponsor this week is Doodle Pantry, and I have used one of their images from their Cuddly Bear set for my card.


I have to apologize again for the rubbish blurry pics! I'm going to have a good play around with my camera today and see if I can figure out what's wrong with it!
I coloured the cute bear with Promarkers, used some Hot Off The Press papers that came free with a magazine (I have been using papers that I got with magazines a lot lately!), some ribbon and a mix of flowers from my stash with some card candi, and that's about it.
 

 Thanks for stopping by. I hope to see a lot of you joining in at Digital Tuesday this week and remember, I still have a blog candy giveaway running which you can find on the first post on my blog:)

Monday 5 March 2012

Wags n Whiskers- Spring

I am so late again!! I just don't seem to have much time for blogging just now :( I have loads of dt cards made, but just haven't had a chance to post them! and I just noticed that I didn't post last weeks Digital Tuesday card on my blog either!! So I have 2 cards to share today and have scheduled a post for tomorrow morning for tomorrows Digital Tuesday dt card while I am on the computer!

So first up is my dt card for Wags n Whiskers. The challenge this fortnight is Spring Break.
I decided that I would use some Springy colours and for the image I thought of "April showers bring May flowers" :)


Sorry about the blurry photos, I think there is something wrong with my camera :( I just can't get a clear pic just now. I did clean the lens, so it's not that lol (wouldn't be the first time I have though there was something wrong with my camera and it was just a mark on the lens!! lol
It doesn't help that I took these pics at night and I don't have a light tent or any daylight lamps! I am going to try to take any pics in the afternoon from now on and see how much of a difference it makes (starting after my card for tomorrow because I have already took a photo of it).

Anyway, I have used some papers from a pad that came free with a magazine. The stamp I have used is called "Love You Sis" and of course is from Wags n Whiskers. 
I have used the rubber stamp but remember they all come in both rubber and digital form.
This image although it is Nikki's 2 girls, reminds me so much of my 2 girls. There is only 19 months between them, but Rhianna treats her little sister like she is much younger than her lol. It's quite cute when she is being the "big sister", but they can also be little monsters and fight like cat and dog most of the time!! lol

I used some lace from my stash and a chipboard sticker I also found in my stash, not sure who makes the chipboard bits, but I think I bought them in the Hobbycraft sale a while ago just because they were reduced lol.
I also used a crotchet flower, butterfly and some leaves from Little Snippets and added a silver spacer and card candi in the middle of the flower.
 

The image was coloured with a combination of Promarkers and Copics, and I stamped an extra image so I could add an extra layer for their boots and some of the umberella.

You can see the dimension better in this pic.
I love the colours in the card. It's not colours that I would normally use together, but I really like them :)

And my card for last weeks Digital Tuesday challenge where the theme was "Leap Year"- use an image that leaps. Our sponsor was Robyn's Fetish and I used one of their digi images called "I toadily luv you".

I'm not keen on this card, which is probably why I forgot to post it! lol, but I do think the image is quite sweet.
I coloured with Promarkers and used some papers that came free with a magazine that I bought months ago. Some ribbon from my stash and a little froggie from Little Snippets....isn't he cute? lol


 Not much to say about this card, except it's really plain lol. I do love the embroidered frog though. Think I might take him off of this card and use him on another one :) lol

Thanks so much for stopping by. Remmeber my blog candy giveaway is still running (you can find it at the first post on my blog), and for anyone who spreads the word by adding my giveaway to their sidebar or mentioning it in one of their blog posts, I will put their name in a draw to win some crafty bits and pieces from me too :)


Thursday 1 March 2012

By The Cute and Girly- In the Kitchen

The new challenge is up at By The Cute and Girly today and this month it was Geraldine's turn to choose a theme. She chose "In The Kitchen" and at first I wasn't sure what I was going to do for this theme, but once I thought about it, I realised that there is loads of scope to be really crafty with this theme.
I just made 2 cards for the first post of the month, but I think for the 2nd dt post in the middle of the month, I will make some cakes or something with my kids and I had another idea of what I could make (well alter actually) so I will see how that goes and if it works, I will post some pics lol.

Anyway, onto the cards I made for the challenge. You can do anything kitchen, food or drink related, and as one of our sponsors is the fab Spesch Stamps, I used their Lemon Girl image and made a card with it :)

 As I said the image is from Spesch Stamps and is coloured with Promarkers and the sentiment is one of Meljen's freebies that I got ages ago and remembered about it when I was colouring the girl. I thought it went perfect with this image :)
The papers are by Hot Off The Press, flowers are all Primas except the little blue one which I found in my stash, and the gems, butterfly and lace is also from my stash.


I wish there was more light in my house! All my photos seem so blurry lately. I just can't get a decent pic now matter what time of the day I take it or what room I take it in. Think I need to invest in a light tent and some lamps!!

The other card I made is using a Stichy Stamps image that I have had for goodness knows how long!
I was having a look through my digi images and came across it and thought it would be perfect for the challenge, so I coloured it up with Promarkers and made this card.


I kept this one really simple and let the paper do the work :) The designer paper is from an old Basic Grey pad, sorry can't remember what the collection is called, I have had it for ages and only have a few loose sheets left.
I added some ribbon and raffia and tied them together in a bow, and also threaded some of the raffia through a button from my stash and job done.
I love these papers, they are so pretty, I really need to find some more of them!


 That's it from me for today. I hope you will check out the challenge! As always we have some great prizes from our sponsors- Simon Says Stamp, Joanna Sheen and Spesch Stamps and remember you can enter with any craft, from papercrafts to baking and anything in between!

Oh and just a reminder that my giveaway is still running, which you can find in this post here.
You have until Tuesday night to enter for a chance to win a copy of the My Memories digital scrapbook software worth $40.
All you have to do is pop over to the My Memories store and then leave me a comment letting me know which one of their boy kits you like best :) and if you are one of my followers already, there's no need to do anything else. Unless you want to spread the word by doing a post on your blog or putting the details of my giveaway in your blog sidebar, and if you do that, you will be in with a chance of winning a crafty prize from me :)
And for anyone who wants to buy the software, I have a code which you can use to get $10 off the price of the software and also $10 free to spend in the My Memories store :)
The code you need is STMMMS44022


Thanks so much for stopping by