Ooh La La Challenge and Mum's Birthday card!

It's my Mum's birthday today and I made this card for her. I was pleased to see it fits with this weeks challenge on the Ooh La La challenge blog This weeks challenge is Black, White and one other colour! Just right!



The paper and brad are from the Dovecraft 'A hint of pink' collection , Computer text, swirls are G studio 99p clear stamps, Paper Mania Gems. Card and peel offs from craft creations. Flower part of candy won from cat's whiskers (Thanks Jacqui)

ABC Challenge

I was asked to make a card for my friends Aunt today and after I had finished I realised it fits with this weeks ABC challenge of having some jewels.



The paper and brad are from the Dovecraft 'A hint of pink' collection , Computer text, swirls are G studio 99p clear stamps, Jewels from a set called Gems were originally a cocktail glass that I have dissected for a few cards. Card and peel offs from craft creations. Flower from inspirations (was a bunch I have pulled apart!)

My beautiful girls

While we were on holiday at Grandma's in the summer, the girls decided to mess about taking pictures.

I thought they were lovely and just had to make a page with them for my new scrapbook.

I was really pleased with the result until my daughter pointed out a mistake! Can you spot my deliberate mistake?

Nevermind I will just have to create a new layout with them. Such a shame!

New Look!

Well as you can see I have been playing today and got a new look for my blog. Please let me know what you think. I have tried to make everything easy to read. It took hours to find a background I liked that didn't interfere with reading the words. At one stage I had three backgrounds going and couldn't work out how to get rid of them! I was getting so frustrated I nearly deleted the whole blog cos I hated the background! Eventually the kids had a vote on my 5 favourites and this one won! I did like the others though so I might be changing more often now I've worked out what to do. So watch this space! Thanks to The Cutest Blog on the Block for my new FREE background!

Carried away?

Sorry got a bit carried away with these little ticker things!
I think they are so cute!
Need to think of one more cos there's a little fishy one I need to use.
Any ideas?

Challenge yourself!

I have just joined Karin with her new challenge on her blog to create 1 Birthday and 1 Christmas card a week. I never seem to have the right card handy at the right time. I have also joined the birthday club on the Trimcraft website so by joining Karin on this quest to get organised and be prepared I am hoping I will always have a card ready when I need one!!! I'll need to make more than 1 a week though but it is a good start. If you want to join Karin in her challenge, pop over to her blog and get crafting!

I have also just signed up to the Christmas all year round blog to join in their challenge to make 5 new Christmas cards a month! each month there will be a new challenge set and a prize draw for those who complete 5 cards based on that challenge. if you fancy getting ahead on your Christmas cards check it out here

Autumn ATC

Here is an Atc I made that I thought would fit for this weeks Papertake Weekly challenge. The background is done with poinsettia stamp (QVC- Dawn Bibbey) stamped with versamark and brayered with a big and juicy spice ink pad. Sorry can't remember where paper was from. Leaf stamp made by stamp craft. clear embossing powder added with micro beads. jewels and letters from stash.

Jacobs ladder tutorial

While checking out Juliets paper palace blog I followed her link to find a great jacobs ladder tutorial! I can't wait to try one. If you are interested check it out here

Green Tomato Chutney

While I was blog hopping tonight saw a recipe for green tomato chutney. Sounds nice and my mum has ended up with lots of green tomatoes this year. So if you are in the same boat and wondering what to do with your green toms check out the recipe here

sticky note books

This is a great little tutorial at greetingarts blog on how to make sticky note covers.
Great for little gifts or christmas school fairs etc. I am going to try them out at brownies. Check it out here

What to do?

The weather is for once sunny and bright! I have gardening to do and washing to hang out now the tumble dryer has finally given up! But I want to craft!!!!! There are so many challenges this week that I want to enter why does it have to be sunny today! When I put aside a day to garden it rains, now I want to craft it's sunny. Sod's law at work once again. Well being a responsible adult (bummer) and knowing that if I put off the garden till tomorrow it will definitely rain, here I go into the garden armed with my pruning shears and basket of washing. Wish me luck or a small rain cloud!

Back from Holidays

Hi folks,
Been back from visiting my mum and family for about a week now. Taken me a week to get back to normal.
Had a fantastic time at my mum's we visited crab Apple Crafts, Rosemary merry's shop (from QVC) A lovely bright and airy craft shop with loads of gorgeous stuff! A scrapbookers paradise! They also had a sale on which was even better! Rosemary herself was very nice and gave me some tips to help me with my new clear acrylic album! So wish me luck I will hopefully be starting that soon when my daughter goes back to school.
We did quite a lot of craft shopping and a couple of days crafting in between visits to other members of the family.
We also went up to visit my sister and her family in the lakes. We all had a lovely time even though the weather could have been better. We had a couple of trips to the cinema. Mamma Mia is fantastic and I think all girls should go on a girls night out! Ok maybe I no longer classify as a girl but it was a great film!(not meaning I have had the op! just that I am slightly older than girl age!) Mummy 3 was also good and the kids loved Dark Knight.
Came home and a couple of days later went to a funeral for my friends son. A very, very sad day but he had a wonderful send off, His brother and friends did him proud with their eulogies. I pray that he is now at peace and his family find the strength they need to carry on.
Now I am in the start of term rush of bag buying, pencil case filling and last minute uniform buying. Everyday my daughter remembers something else that she desperately needs so she can return to school fully prepared with a pen for every occasion and I hope a brain as well prepared as the accessories! Needless to say her friends will all have gone for a different colour and hers will be soooooo last week that she will want to restock everything within 24 hrs! Not going to happen!!!
Anyway enough of my ramblings for tonight! Glad to be back and can't wait to get going on some of the great challenges that are tweaking at the craft particles in my brain!
Take care
Ali

Christine's Blog

My friend Christine has a brilliant blog with wonderful cards and also some very witty blogging too! Chris is asking people to consider her campaign for the removal of word verification (the pimple on bloggings bum!) Chris was a great help to me when I started blogging and knew nothing about the blog world! I read her original plea to fellow bloggers and only now realise why she wrote it as I find word verification a pain in the butt when leaving comments. I didn't even know I had word verification on my blog! (not leaving myself many comments, I hadn't realised it was there!) With chris's help I turned mine off and switched to comment moderation. This lets you read comments before you publish them on your site and is a good way of knowing you have knew comments and easily screening them. Touch wood I have not had any bad ones yet! Mind you I haven't had many at all yet! lol

Best Wishes
Ali

Jude's Blog Candy 19th October

Jude has got these wonderful Laura ashley stamps to give away as her blog candy. Visit her blog here for a chance to win.
Good Luck