I made this card for last weeks Cupcake Crafts Challenge but just didnt get around to posting it. The background papers are from Papermania - Roses and Champayne, along with some of the Bazzill dots cardstock. The beautiful topper came in the Sugar Nellie Topper swap - I love how she's coloured and layered onto the background cardstock. The sentiment is from Craftwork cards.....now onto this week's challenges - will I be able to fit them in......christmas cards.....wedding invitations.....cakes........it's all happening!

I know these are n't the best of pictures.....I thought I would take them on a dark brown background, which looked nice at the time of taking the photos, but looks awful now that I have uploaded them. Still I wanted to show you these (particularly those in the UK and near Poundland)! I bought these 3d self adhesive decorations from Poundland on the weekend. They are well decorated and made of chipboard. In 5 minutes flat I had made the two cards below, using some bazzill dots cardstock and one of these decorations. I did add some more doublesided tape behind them as I didnt think they had quite the best adhesive on them......but aren't they brilliant.....now I wish I had bought more!

I have been spending every waking moment I can snatch to complete a wedding invitation order I have, and christmas card orders....so not much spare time for other crafting at the moment.....I haven't even had the time to do any blog hopping. Still I thought I would do this one quickly for the Cute Card Thursday Challenge which is Snow and Snowflakes.

The image is from Magnolia, the background paper from Diecuts with a View, Bazzill cardstock, ribbon from my stash, embossed snowflake panel, snowflakes from my stash, and some Deco Art Glamour Dust.

This weeks challenge from A Spoon Full of Sugar is Blooming Marvellous - this weeks creations should use flowers or floral paper somewhere on the card.

I would love to take the credit for this beautifully coloured and assembled image, but I received it in the Sugar Nellie topper swap. It is absolutley stunning. I have layered her onto some bright pink cardstock which I was given as a sample at the NEC on saturday. I then layered this onto some green bazzill dots cardstock. The torn paper in the corner has come from my stash and the sentiment is from Designer Digitals.

Which Die-cutting and embossing Machine do you have and why?

I went to the Hobbycrafts fair at the Birmingham NEC at the weekend. It was really crowded and overly busy, so it was impossible to get to see a lot at each of the stalls. I saw some of the famous TV faces though - Wendie Rhodes, Stephanie Weightman, Sara from Crafters Companion, and many others featured on the crafting channels. There were some great deals going for Die-cutting and embossing machines - one thing I dont have but would like to have. I saw demonstrations for The wizard, Cuttlebug, and the Sizzix Big Shot and even though I was impressed with what each of them could do, I couldn't decide which one would give the most all round use and most of all use all the various dies and embossing plates that are available.....so I left with none.....but I need to make up my mind which one is most certainly the best (so I can put it on Santa's list).....what do you think??

This weeks challenge 25 over on A Spoon Full of Sugar is a child's card. I actually made this card a few days ago, but havent been able to get around to posting it. Now the image (isn't it gorgeous) came in my pack of toppers from the recent Sugar Nellie Birthday topper swap. I love the way Hamish is coloured and his kilt is paper pieced with tartan. I dont know where the other pieces that make up the topper comes from though. The background is bazzill cardstock - a piece of green which had a hole punched in it from some time ago, and the scalloped circle too which I had lying around. The stitches are made using a white gel pen.

Last week's challenge from Cute Card Thursday was Fairies and Angels.

I have coloured Tilda with water colour pencils and layered her onto a embossed panel and the fence. Sentiment stamp from Studio G clear stamps.

This is my second post for today (amazingly), but I just had to show you this. Recently
Sugar Nellie opened a forum to celebrate their first birthday. During the birthday week, they had various contests and giveaways etc, including a topper swap. Having made a topper and taken part in the swap, today the postman arrived with my envelope from Sugar Nellie. Having only expected to get the toppers (which are truely fabulous - puts mine to shame), I was surprised to recieve in the envelope, not one, not two, but three stamps from Sugar Nellie......what a great sugar fix that is. The colouring on some of the toppers is brilliant, I have been looking at the blogs of those that were marked with the "designers" name, to see what they used and how they coloured.......I am off to Google Sansador and I am now even more convinced I should be investing in some Promarkers (I think I will be writing a note to Santa A.K.A - Hubby take note).

This is my take on this weeks sketch challenge 27 on Friday Sketchers. I have used a Sarah Kay image, which I have water coloured with pencils. I have layered the image onto pale blue glitter cardstock and fastened them together with brads. The background papers have come from Diecuts with a View Christmas stacks. The ribbon has come from Poppicrafts and the flowers have been made using papers from my stash and the woodware daisy punches. The sentiment is a stamp from Studio G, Designer clear stamps.

Last week's challenge from A Spoon Full of Sugar was a sketch by Trina. Talk about lost my mojo last week. I wasnt feeling great and was in no mood for crafting. Anway here is my take on the sketch using Diecuts with a view background paper, bazzill cardstock, sentiment from Craftwork cards, peel off flowers and gems, hot pink ribbon from my stash, Sugar Nellie Stamp.

A couple of quick cards made today. Sarah Kay and Sugar Nellie is my absolute favourite stamps. Both images have been watercoloured.

Sarah Kay - Paper from my stash, sentiment from Designer Digitals, Ribbon from Poppicrafts.

Sugar Nellie - Paper from Diecuts with a View Christmas stack, Bazzill cardstock, ribbon from Poppicrafts and white peel off sentiment and dots.

Time for change......I've given my blog a make over - a facelift. Simply Chic has lots of free backgrounds which are easy to upload and easy to use. Now I need to make myself a great header...will have to work on this over the next day or two.....now I'm off to work on my cards.

I have had the most awful week - I haven't felt so ill in ages - so its definitely time to book an appointment with the doctor. I haven't made any cards or done any postings, but today I back....and feeling so much better.......so I am now going to pop to the gym and then I will be catching up on all the challenges and visiting some of my favourite blogs

The Sarah Kay Challenge Blog and Magnolia Challenge Blog has now been combined so they have a new blog up and running - Magnolia Vs Stampavie. They will still run a weekly challenge using stamps which they have listed on the blog. The first challenge for the new blog is a sketch. I have used papers from Diecuts with a View, Traditonal Christmas colours, ribbon from my stash, daisy punches to create the flowers and I have coloured the image using watercolour pencils. I didnt do a good job today with the colouring and went out of the lines a few times with the red, which was hard to take off so I shadowed the image with blue (it works wonders for the little mistakes). I have also used a white gel pen to highlight areas of her dress and hair bow. The sentiment comes from Craftwork cards.

This weeks Challenge from A Spoon Full of Sugar is Sparkle and Bling.

It's a new month already and even more closer to Christmas. It is starting to become a nightmare to shop - lots of people and no where to park the car, and it takes twice as long to do the shopping......there is almost a need for traffic lights in the aisles of the supermarkets!! I'm behind this week with everything....Half term so it means the boys come first and we try to fit in as much as we possibly can.
The background papers for this card is from Dovecrafts Christmas range. The Sugar Nellie snow family image I have watered coloured some areas, and then painted the snow peoples (there is a woman in there so I can't call them snowmen) bodies with transparent glitter glue for the sparkle. The stones for bling and the navy cardstock, have come from my stash, the stamped sentiment is from Studio G.