Design team call at BTC&G

Just a quick post to tell you about the design team call over at By The Cute and Girly challenge blog.
We are looking for a few dt members to join our growing monthly challenge blog.
By The Cute and Girly is a bit different to other challenge blogs in that we cater for ALL kinds of crafts, so I am looking for all kinds of crafters, whether you love to do card making, scrapbooking, other papercrafts, x stitch, jewelry making, knitting or any other craft you can think of, I want to hear from you!

You can read all the details here. The call is open until the 1st March and anybody can apply whether you have design team experience or not.

If any of my lovely visitors would be so kind as to spread the word about this call on your blog, that would be a huge help and I will repay you by giving you my love lol.
And if you know anyone who may fit the bill....let them know about the call! pretty please :)

Lora x

Digital Tuesday and Fred She Said DT card

It's Lorraine's turn to host the challenge at Digital Tuesday this week and she has chose "A card for Mum" as the challenge. This could be a Mother's Day card or a Birthday card for a Mum or anything else that is for a Mum.
As my own Mum died 20 years ago, I decided to make a card for my MIL.
This is not my normal style of card but she likes flowers, so I think she will like this.
I must apologise yet again for the poor photo! I took it last night adn there was just no light at all. I can't wait for Spring to come!!

I followed the sketch over at Charisma Cardz for this one.
The carnation image is one of the new releases from Fred She Said which I have coloured with my pencils and oms and then added some glitter crystal laquer to all the petals so it is raised and shimmery.
The papers are K&Co, they are from different collections but I think they go well together.
I used scraps of K&Co paper to punch some flowers using a Dovecraft punch and a tiny flower punch that I have had in my stash forever, but I have no idea who makes it. Pearls are from my stash and gems are My Minds Eye. The sentiment is just done in Word, but I later remebered that FSS has a Mother's Day sentiment that is much prettier than this, so I think I will change that.

I have lots to do today so better get cracking!
Thanks for stoppin by.
Lora x

Fred She Said and Cute Daisy May challenges

Time for a new challenge over at the Fred She Said Challenge blog and this months theme is "Love", we want to see at least 3 hearts on your creation.
You have until March 28th to get your entry in so loads of time. You must use a FSS image on your creation to enter but if you don't have any, there are loads of freebies which you can check out here, but Tracey has so many great new pretty things that I know you will want to buy some too :)
So here's my card for the challenge.

I used the Corner Rose Digi which is one of the new releases. I resised it (sorry can't remember what % I scaled it to) and printed it out 3 times, then coloured with polychromos pencils and Sansodor and cut them out, cutting the leaves and a bit of the rose off the second image and a bit more off the 3rd so I could decoupage them. You can really see the layers here due to my rubbish photography skills but there is 3 layers on it.
I also added some glitter crystal laquer on bits of the rose the spritzed the whole thing with glimmer mist, so it's nice and sparkly :)
The main papers I have used are K&Co and the spotty piece is Bo Bunny. The flowers are Primas, heart charm from my stash, spacer and ribbon are from my local craft shop and the hearts are ones made from handmade paper that I found in my stash. They looked a bit plain so I some pearls around them to make them stand out a bit more.

My next card is for Cute Daisy May and this weeks challenge is "Flower Power"


I followed the sketch over at Sketch and Stash for this one, with the addition of a few flowers (well the theme is flower power after all lol).
The image is coloured again with my pencils and oms. The papers are Anna Griffin and K&Co , flowers are Primas and two of them are from Tabby Crafts, and the lace which is my new stash is some that Barry bought me when he was in town last week. I could say a lot of bad things about him (he is a male of course lol), but I must admit that he always comes home with something for me if he is in town without me, sometimes it's just some glue and other times he comes back with loads of ribbon or some buttons but he always surprises me with something crafty :)
Oh and the little green gems are some I got from a fellow blogger and are by My Minds Eye.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you will join in with the challenges.
As always Linnie will give the winner of the Cute Daisy May challenge there choice of oine of her digi sheets and over at Fred She Said, Tracey will give the winner a $20 gift certificate to spend in the FSS store!! So if you have your eye on any of those new releases or any of the older stuff (because they are just all fab!), now's your chance to win some :)

Lora x

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

Digital Tuesday has went all girly!

It's my turn to host the challenge this week over at Digital Tuesday and I chose our theme to be "All Things Girly", did you expect anything else from me? lol
Digisparkle is our sponsor this week and is offering a £10 voucher for 2 winners to use at theor digital store.
Heather the owner also gave the Dt the option of using any of her downloads for the chalenge, so I picked the Ballerina download, there's nothing more girly that a ballerina is there?


The paper is Papermania and the bit I used for the mat is by Anna Griffin.
I coloured the image with Polychromos Pencils and Sansodor then added a little bit of tulle over her skirt and a little bit of silver ribbon to hide where I stitched to get the tulle to bunch together to make it puffy.
The flowers are a mix from my stash, Joanna Sheen and Tabby Crafts, organza ribbon from a box of chocs lol, swrils were done with my All Night Media singlw swirl punch and I just put a few of the swirl together and the little ballerina charm is one I found in my stash.

Here's a close up of the image so you can see her tutu skirt better :)


I had fun making this card and would love you to comment and tell me what you think of it :)

Thanks for stopping By

Lora x

P.S If you are looking for the Fred She Said blog hop, just scroll down a little :)

Cute Daisy May DT

It's the start on another week, (how did the weekend go so fast?) and there's a new challenge for you over at Cute Daisy May. This week the theme is "Bright and Cheerful" and I think it's just what we need to brighten our day with all the dreadful weather we are having!




I have used 2 of the images from sheet 186. I coloured the bird with Polychromos Pencils and Sansodor and a little glitter for it's perch and done the whole cage in gold glitter with the
exception of the bows which were coloured with my pencils.
Although I love all the Cute Daisy May girls, it makes a nice change to use something different now and again and I thought this cage was so pretty :) I just cut the little birdie out and stuck him on top of the cage.

I'm not sure who makes the main paper I used but it is double sided and the bits I used for the matting is the other side of the sheet.
The middle strip is from a K&Co mat stack and the piece the image is on is another K&Co paper.
Flowers are Prima and some orange ones I found in my stash, ribbon is some that Barry bought me and it's glittery:) How well does he know me?? lol, and the gold metal spray thing is from a local florist warehouse. I just unwraped some of the wire which was twisted around each other and made some little swirls.
I really like these sprays because I haven't seen anyone else using them (I like to be different lol) and they are so easy to twist and shape and of course because they are pretty :) They are actually much nicer in real life than they look in the pic and the beads realy sparkle :)

Well that my offering for this week. I hope you will join in and go look out all those bright papers that you have had forever and if you are scared of colour like I am!, you have probably been too scared to use lol.

If you are here for the Fred She Said blog hop which start today! please see post below.

Thanks for stopping by

Lora x

Fred She Said Blog Hop!!!

Welcome to the SECOND "FRED SHE SAID" blog hop!!! If you just happened to drop by my blog and you are not aware of this wonderful event taking place, please go back to the "FRED SHE SAID" blog here and start your hop! We would all love if you commented on our posts :)
Also, along the way, you will see a special CODE WORD. Collect them all up! Once you reach the end of the blog hop (which will be the "Fred She Said" Challenge blog), follow the instructions to make your entry and your name will go in for a draw for a $20 Gift Certificate for the Fred She Said Store!
Here, at "Fred" we have been getting all FLOWERY to hasten the arrival of SPRING! Come see what PRETTIES we have in store for you.

If you are a regular visitor to my blog, you will know that my favourites are the cute characters Tracey draws, but who doesn't love flowers as well?? And Tracey has lots of new flowery stuff being released today for you to drool over. I know I will just have to have a play with all of them :)

Here is my "Fred She Said" creation:

Sorry the pic is so bright! I took it outside first thing this morning for a change and everything i s sooo bright lol.
This little cutie is "Emma With A Sign" and comes double sided (you get her facing the front and facing away, just showing the back of her) so you could make some wonderfull projects with this one :) The flowers I have used also come with this set.
I have used the You Are A Blessing text, but there is other variations and also a blank sign so you can add what you like. Tracey has even said that you can email her if you want a different sentiment and she will do it for you! (as long as it fits in the space), how cool is that??!!

I have just used the front facing Emma as I have been so busy the last few days and didn't have time to make what I had originaly planned using both front and back of Emma, but I will get a sample done using both over the next few days :)
I coloured Emma and the flowers with my Polychromos pencils and Sansodor and I used some white glitter on Emma on her sash and flower and some pink flocking powder in the middle of the flowers.
I followed the sketch over at Cutie Sunday except used a rectangle to stick Emma on because it fitted better than a square.
The papers are DCWV and I used some scraps of some glittered K&Co paper to punch the swirls with an All Night Media punch.
Ribbon and pearls are from my stash.

Now the special code word you need from me is:
FLOWERS


Here is a list of the blog hoppers in case you lose your way:
FRED SHE SAID blog ( Sonya is posting here )
Shelly
Michelle Maria
Lora (You are here!! :))
Lisa F
Julie S
Darsie
Carol L
Carol H
FRED SHE SAID CHALLENGE BLOG

This blog hop will run from today, February 15th until February 22nd. On the 23rd, the winner will be announced on the "Fred She Said" blog
Thank-you for taking the time to play along. Now, to continue the blog hop, please visit Lisa and see what wonderful creation she has to show you :)
When you are finished hopping, why not check out the pretty and new flowery things at the Fred She Said Store!

Thanks for stopping by :)

Lora x