A bit of sugar...nellie

Today I decided that I was going to go through my rubber stamps and use some that I haven't used in a long time, mainly because I don't have any new stamps lol, but also because....what's the point in buying stamps if you are only going to use them once or twice?? So I inked up some old Sugar Nellie stamps and made a few cards.

First of all I made one following the sketch at the Sugar Bowl, but I forgot that the extra option was to paper piece, and I really wanted to do the extra option (I don't know why, but even though the challenges say that you don't have to do the extra option, I always have to....I just think if someones took the time to think up the extra challenge, then why not do it :)), so I made a second card and paper pieced the image lol.

I flipped the sketch so that my image would fit better. Used Hot Off The Press papers that I got free with a magazine, and used the same papers to paper piece the image and made the flowers. I coloured the skin and hair of the image with Promarkers and everything else is paper pieced, even the tiny bow on the dolls hair, the dolls shoes,  the little bits of her belt and the pocket and patch on her trousers......think I got a bit carried away!! lol I also used promarkers to darker some bits of the paper piecing.
The flowers were made by cutting out 3 rough circles, scrunching them all up, layering and then I made a rolled flower to go in the middle. Then I took a small piece of wire and twisted it, then to finish, I added a tiny sead bead on the end of the wire.
The butterfly is from Little Snippets Etsy store.

 I am entering the above card into the Sugar Bowl challenge, but thought I would show the first one I made as well.

 I followed the sketch as it is for this one. Used some scraps of paper and some flowers from my stash and a little dragonfly and butterfly from Little Snippets. Unfortunately Geraldine has decided to stop selling the embroidered embellies in her etsy store, but she will still be selling  her crotchet items and some other bits and bobs too.

As usual, I coloured the image with Promarkers.

I have another card to show that I made for Sketch and Stash, but I will show that tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by

A couple of Sugar Nellie challenge cards

I decided yesterday that I am going to try join in with lots more challenges now that I have more time on my hands, since I don't have to do anything at my kids school now because they have moved school, so last night I checked out the Sugar Bowl challenge and pulled out some of my old Sugar Nellie stamps to have a play.

The first one is for the Sugar Bowl where there is a sketch and also the optional theme of "One For The Girls". I always love the sketches that they have over there and Sugar Nellie's happen to be my fave stamps, so I like to join in when I can, and I have promised myself that I am going to try join in with all the challenge there :)

I couldn't get very good pics today as it's really windy here so I couldn't take photo's outside and it's too dull to get a good pic indoors.
I coloured as usual with Promarkers. I think this is only the second time I have inked this cutie up!! I know it's shocking isn't it?! I don't know why because I love these older SN stamps......maybe it's because I just kept buying them and didn't have enough time to play with them all lol. Well I don't have that problem now as I don't have half of the stamps I used too :( and it doesn't look like I will be able to buy new ones anytime soon, so I think my old stamps will all be getting a good airing over the next few weeks :)

I used K&Co papers again and some pretty flowers and butterflies that my friend Ger sent me (thanks hunnie xx), some card candy (which was from another fabby friend) and I got out a few of my Marianne dies for the flourishes and leaves.

After I made this card, I decided that I wasn't quite ready to put the stamps away, so I made another one for a different challenge.
I saw someone else enter the Pink Ink Sketch Challenge which I had never heard of before, so I thought I would give it a go.

Again the papers which are all Papermania, gems and the pretty lace were gifts from my fab blogging friends (I really would have nothing to show if it weren't for them sending me some stuff to get me crafting again!) and the gorgeous butterfly is from Little Snippets Etsy Store, I just added some tiny gems to it's body.

I think this is the first Sugar Nellie Manga I bought and again I have only used her once or twice, but I really enjoyed colouring this one.
The gorgeous butterfly is one of the newer styles of butterflies in the Little Snippets store, and I think it's my favourite style so far.....although I say that every time Geraldine shows me a new butterfly lol.


Well that's it from me today. I will be back tomorrow with a couple of cards using some "Little Snippets"

Card for the Sugar Bowl

I got some time to play tonight, so I had a look through my stamps and decided that I would use one of my old Sugar Nellie's to make a card for the Sugar Bowl where there is a fab sketch by Marlene.
Normally when I enter their challenges, I do the extra option which this time is Summer, but I missed out the theme and just followed the sketch, which I rotated.

I used an older Gorjuss Girl and coloured her with Promarkers but unfortunately the colours don't look the same here as they do irl because it's night time here and I just finished the card and took a pic (otherwise I would of forgot about it if I left it ill morning! lol).
The papers (which I love by the way :)) are all My Minds Eye from the Lost & Found collection. The only trouble is working out which side of the papers to use because they are both gorgeous!
I inked all the edges of the papers with Antique Linen Distress Ink and also inked the edges of the border.
the pretty butterfly which I added some pearls to, is from Little Snippets Etsy Store....LOVE Geraldine's butterflies, they are sooo pretty! Oh and the sentiment is from a Stampendous clear stamp set.

A close up of my gorjuss girl to finish.
Still not happy with the colouring because I am using that horrible paper I bought the other day! ....mind you I don't really need an excuse, my colouring is terrible anyway!! lol

Thanks for stopping by. Oh and if anyone else has any suggestions about paper/card for Promarkers that I can get in the UK, pleeeease let me know because this paper is driving me crazy!! lol

Simply Create challenge

 

I have attempted a circle card today, well yesterday actualy but I finished it today lol. I think I have only ever made one circle card before and it was really pants so probably wasn't the best kind of card for me to attempt for a challenge but never mind.
I wanted to join in with the challenge at Simply Create and I decided I would do something different for a change.
The challenge is to use the colours from the inspiration board below and use a flower and a buttom somewhere on your creation.

Isn't it gorgeous? I think I will make another card using this inspiration board :)

I used one of the older Sugar Nellie stamps and coloured her with Promarkers, then distressed the edges of the card she is stamped on with my scissors and went round the edges with stickles, although you can't see the stickles here.
The papers are by Pink Petticoat which I also distressed the edges of  has the light pink, blue and green in it, so I just had to find some darker pink embelishments so I had all the colours from the board.
The flourish is from a pack by Scrappy Car called Bling Board. This was one of my bargain  buys from Hobbycraft in the January sales, reduced to just 29p per pack, and I got the last pack :) I bought this having no idea what I would do with them but couldn't resist a bargain lol, so I'm glad they came in useful for something.
The larger flowers are from Janlynn.com and the smaller ones are Papermaina..... the small ones look a lot darker in the photos but irl they are more like the colour in the inspiration board.
The tulle is from Hobbycraft and I forgot about the button part of  the challenge and added a little rose on the tulle bow with  the pearl sprays, then remembered I had to use a button, so changed the flower for a button and threaded some dark pink ribbon through it. Oh and I added some little half pearls from my stash as well.

I haven't decorated the inside yet, but will do that tonight once the kids are all in bed, and I might even get another card made :)

That's it from me for now, hopefully I will be back tomorrow with a card that I have made tonight.... that's if the kids go to bed without a carry on!!

Thanaks for stopping by

Sugar Nellie for a special friend

 I had a play with my stamps today and made a card for the Sugar Bowl challenge where Tiets has done another great sketch.
I don't have that many stamps but of what I do have, most of them are Sugar Nellies as I love their designs and they are a delight to colour :)
The optional theme is Autumn so I got out all my Autumn coloured papers and had a go. I even coloured my image with distress inks for the first time! I need loads of practise, but it was fun, so think I might buy some more colours and use the inks more often.

I must apologise for this pic as it is really bad!! I still don't have a working camera so had to scan it and the card is quite dimensional because there is a lot of layers so it didn't scan very well and for some reason no matter where I place the card in my scanner, it always cuts off one of the edges....so annoying!!
My new battery charger thing (long story lol) shoudl be here tomorrow, so hopefully my next card on here will be a half decent pic!

Oh my, this photo really is blurry! but hopefully you can get the jist of it .  I will replace it as soon as I get my camera up and running again!

I made this card with a special friend in mind as she has been going through a tough time lately so just wanted to let her know that I am thinking of her :)
As I said I coloured the image with distress inks, except the grass which I did with Promarkers because I don't have a green ink yet.
I'm not sure how I did?? Please leave me a comment and let me know. Any constructive criticism welcome, and if anyone has any tips for using them it would be much appreciated :)

The papers are a bit of a mix, the light leaf print one is Bo Bunny and the others are Papermania Capsule Collection.
The ribbon and rafia stuff are from my stash, sentiment is from an Autumn Leaves Stampology set and the sunflower (not very Autumn like lol) is from Janlynn.com.

I have some more cards to show over the coming days using embelishments from Janlynn which unfortunately are now disscontinued, but they have so much more crafty goodies for you to look at, from craft stamps to cross stitch, so no matter what crafts you like to do, they have something for everyone.

That's it from me for now. Hope you have had a great weekend and for my UK friends, hope your having a great October Holiday!

By The Cute and Girly DT makes

It's the start of a new challenge over at By The Cute and Girly. 
This month it's Ayelet's turn to host the challenge and she has chose the theme "Celebrations", so really you could do somehting for any occasion :)
We have 4 sponsors this month which means 4 prizes to win! And one of our sponsors this month Stitchy Stamps gave us some of her digital images to play with.

So here's what I made for this month's challenge.

I used Stitchy Stamps Lil Behind image for this one, isn't she a sweetie? I love how her bum is sticking out lol. I coloured her with Promarkers and matted her on a scalloped rectangle which I just cut freehand as I don't have a die that shape. The spotty paper is Papermania and the other is Kaisercraft as is the scalloped mat which is the reverse side of my base paper. All the flowers and the pin are from Wild Orchid Crafts and lace is from my local haberdashery ( love that place lol).

And here's a close up of this cheeky little one :)

I'm having a problem with the Promarkers bleeding a lot when I use digital images. I have been using the same paper that I used with my Copics and it never bled with the Copics.......so if anyone has any suggestions what to use with the Promarkers, please let me know as I use a lot of digi's so need to find paper that works well with the markers.

 I used a Sugar Nellie image for this one which I got in a rak a few months back.
I'm not sure about the papers on this one as they are more that I got from Debs (thanks again hun).
The blue cardstock is a bit shimmery but you can't really see that here.
The large flower was one that was lurking in my stash and the other is a Prima, spacer and ribbon are from my stash.

 I have had a template for making these for forever but have never made them before, so wasn't sure how they would turn out, but I think they are quite cute and I might just make some more sometime :)
The paper I used is actualy lilac but it looks blue here, hence why I used purple pearls. Again I'm not sure who makes the paper and the trim was at the bottom of my ribbon box so no idea where that came from. For some reason it looks as though the trim is pink in places but it is cream irl.....weird lol.
This is actualy the girly version of these booties but I think you could get away with using them for a boy too. The boy version has laces instead of the strap, so I really should of made those since I made a blue baby card lol, but never mind, I can make those another day :)

Well that's what I did, now it's your turn! You can make anything you like as long as it fits the theme and you can enter as much times as you want throughout the month as long as every entry is a different craft. ie 1 card, 1 layout, 1 jewelry item, 1 knitted item, 1 altered item etc etc.
Think of how many times you could enter and all those chances you could have to win one of the prizes! :)
So what you waiting for? Get yourself over to the challenge blog and check out what the rest of the girls have done. There is so much variety again this month, that there is no way you will leave there without being inspired :)

Thanks for stopping by today

A good old Sugar Nellie

I made a card today with an old Sugar Nellie stamp just for fun then was on the Sugar Nellie blog and noticed that Karen/Zoe wants to see some of the older stamps being used. That was just perfect timing :)
I know a lot of people like to use new stamps and I do too but I also like to use my old ones as I don't see the point in buying a stamp if I am only going to use it once and never ink it up again, and I don't have the money to buy new stamps all the time so I have to use old stamps.

I must admit I do like all the new Sugar Nellie stamps and a lot of new ones from other companies but why does everyone, especially bloggers feel like they have got to have the newest stamps and hardly ever use the older ones that they obviously like or else they wouldn't of bought them in the first place?
I think if I like a stamp and it is 20 years old, why not use it? The people who receive most of my cards are not into stamping or cardmaking anyway so they would have no idea if the stamp was old or new.

Anyway now that I have got that off my chest lol, here's the card I made.

I used the sketch from Cute Card Thursday but I left out the sentiment because I don't know what I will use this card for yet.
 The stripey paper is Heidi Grace and the other one is another of the papers I got in a rak.
Ribbon is from my local haberdashery, flowers are all from Wild Orchid Crafts and the leaves are also from a rak.
The image is coloured with Promarkers.

Now I have looked out all my Sugar Nellie stamps (most of which are old ones), so I am away to have a play with some of them :)
Hope you are all having a fab day today!

A few challenge cards and some pics of the kids

I must warn you that this will be a long post and has loads of pics so you better make yourself a cuppa and get yourself comfy before proceeding to read lol.
I done a few challenge cards today using the new stamps I bought from Funky Kits a few weeks ago.The first card is for The Sugar Bowl and it's a sketch by Tiets and the "please include" option is 3 flowers, 2 brads and 1 button.


The image is of course Sugar Nellie "Peek A Bunny" which I bought in the January sale. I couldn't resist buying most of the sale stamps as they were such good value for money!
I couldn't get a very good photo of this one but I find every time I use this muted kind of colours, I can never get a good pic for some reason, and the image lines look very dark in places but they are not like that IRL...weird.
Anyway the papers are K&Co, flowers are Prima and Tabby Crafts and brads, spacers and button are from my stash.
The image is coloured with Polychromos Pencils and Sansodor.
My next card is for Stamp With Fun where they have a great sketch. I rotated the sketch to fit my image better.
I'm not sure about this card because it's colours that I never normally use and I also used some sheet music which I don't think I have ever used either, but here it is anyway.
The image is one of the new Sugar Nellie Manga Girls and this one is called "Coffee Time". I coloured her with my pencils and Sansodor.
The papers are from Basic Grey's Scarlet Letter collection and the sheet music is from an old viola music book. Just in case you were wandering, I don't play the viola and never have lol.
We were visiting Barry's Mum and Dad on Monday and there is a charity shop across the road from their house and I saw the book when I was passing so I nipped in and bought it lol. It's amazing what you can do with other peoples rubbish lol.
I distressed the edges of all the papers and inked them with brushed corduroy distress ink.
The sketch had a stitched circle on it but my sewing machine in broken so I wasn't going to attempt stitching a circle by hand (I have enough trouble stitching in a straight line!!), so I used some pearls from my stash instead.The lace is from a local haberdashery and the red organza ribbon is by Dovecraft. For a change I made a faux bow :)

My last card is one I did for fun, just because I wanted to ink up my new CC designs stamp lol.

I'm not sure about this card either but thought I would show it anyway.
I got a pack of about 300 tiny spacers months ago that are too small to use on most flowers, so I wanted to find other ways of using then up instead of binning them, so I used them to make some swirls.The papers are Papermania, flowers are Prima and Tabby Craft, large spacer and pearl from my stash and the image "Gretel" is coloured with my pencils and oms and I used some glitter for her wings.

Now that's all the cards done, but I thought I would show you some pics of the kids that I took at their Nana's house on Monday :)
I took these just after they came back from getting pics done at the photographers.
Barry's Mum wanted a photo of the 3 of them together so she paid for a photographer so she could get a big decent pic of them all :)

They are all of Liam and Chiara except this one of Rhianna raiding her Nana's fridge! This is just after she raided Nana's make up bag lol. She has some make up on here (which she did herself) but by the time we left, she looked like a clown lol.

Liam had a headache and had went for a lie down, this is him after he just woke up. Bed head lol.
He normally has his hair short but he is growing it just now. I think he's only growing it to annoy his Dad because he keeps moaning at him to get his hair cut!

Liam posing!!

Liam and Chiara playing Ring A Rosie with Ted lol. Liam will be so embarrassed when he finds out I have showed these pics on my blog lol.


"We all fall down"!



Chiara with "Traveling Ted" from her nursery.

How cute is this kid??




I have loads more but I will save them for another day. I really shoulddo a scrapbook for some of these pics but I have never done any scrapbooking before so have no idea where to start......maybe one day :)

Hope I have not bored you with all the pics but I had to show them, who can resist that 3 cute faces?? I am sooo biased lol