The past two weeks have past in a rush since we broke up for the summer holidays. We we able to catch up with our family who we hadn't seen for five years........and it was wonderful. Many nights of chatting until late over numerous cups of tea (which I don't drink)!!!

I am slowly finding my way around my craft stuff and finding my way around some of my favourite blogs online......only to see more nice things which I can only add to my wish list!!

This weeks challenge from Cupcake Craft Challenges is Sew Mad - Stitching either real or faux!! The youngest son had a birthday party to attend so it was the perfect opportunity to use Birgitta from All that Scraps for this card. I have coloured her using promarkers and some finishing touches with a white gel ink pen, the papers came free with Papercraft Essentials Magazine, the brick wall cardstock is Kanban (found in stash), and the sentiment is a digi download....but I didn't save the link where I got it so it remains nameless for the moment. The lace is from the local embroidery shop. Oh and my stitching faux of course....the sewing machine is still on the wishlist!!!

Inside with a mini Birgitta and handwritten sentiment.

Chocolate Cupcakes with a Belgian Chocolate Wave and a Elizabeth Shaw Dark Chocolate Mint Crisp.

I know that getting the craft stuff out would be a.......good (bad) idea.....its so addictive!! I should be studying - at least thats what I just told the lovely man of the house I would be doing for the next hour or so......but will squeeze some time in to blog first:) but I will be studying afterwards!! Cupcake Craft Challeges has a challenge of cakes and Icecream for this weeks challenge......cakes I love creating....not such a big icecream fan, but this little girl from Elisabeth Bell (ex Sugar Nellie) is gorgeous.

Materials Used:

Elisabeth Bell - Summer Icecream

Promarkers - will note the colours for next time

Background paper from Nitwits Just a Note

Lilac cardstock

white corner peel offs, Doily, flat back pearls

Pink Roses from here

Hooray......the weather is on the up which means brighter days and better pictures too!!. This weeks challenge from Cupcake Craft Challenges is to Make your own flowers. I love the colour combination on this card.....and it has been made without any stamping!!! I recently went to a craft fair and though I am not big on peel offs these days, I found these from Little Claire Designs. There are some cute little characters on each sheet and they are so quickly and easy to colour and I am sorry I didnt buy more at the time (will have to order some) - I have used promarkers in cocktail pink, rose pink, cinnamon, lilac and pear green. The back ground floral paper I have found in my stash, raspberry cardstock, ribbon from my stash and the flower I have made using the woodware, small, medium and large daisy punches. The brad is from a range by papermania. The sentiment too is a peel off and came on the sheet with this cute little girl.

This weeks challenge from Cupcake Crafts is a sketch. I made this card a few days ago, with the intention of photographing it and then posting it on my blog, but it somehow managed to slip under the piles of christmas fabric I have on the worktop and I forgot about it :( so I am late posting.

This cute little girl is C.C. Designs Swiss Pixies Birgitta, which is a digital image available from All that Scraps. I have watercoloured her and added some silver gel ink to her wings (didnt quite pick it up in the photograph). The background paper came free with Papercraft Essentials Magazine, ribbon from my stash, paper cellar gems, lillac bazzill cardstock, white cardstock which is dry embossed using the ultimate pro from crafters companion, and the sentiment from Designer Digitals.

This weeks challenge from Cupcake Craft Challenges is a sketch.

I have used a stamp from the Greeting Farm Miss Anya collection but I have added a set of wings to her. The wings are availabe FREE from Owl Whimsy and if you take part in her challenge there is a set of digistamps to be won too.

The papers I have used is from Papermania creative tones, red cardstock, sentiment from craftwork cards, watercolour pencils to colour stamped image, and digi stamp wings from Owl Whimsy

This weeks challenge from Cupcake Craft Challenges is Fairies.

I found this cute little image from Here. I have watercoloured her and added some glamour dust to her wings. The background paper and the bow image has come from Digifree, the flower from my stash, green and pink cardstock, scallop edge scissors and sherbert pips from craftwork cards. I also pierced a trail on the card too.

Green and Pink is starting to be my favourite colours at the moment....so more cards in the making.

This weeks challenge from cupcake craft challenges is numbers.

I have used a little Hello Kitty from my piece of Hello Kitty fabric. I have mounted her onto cardstock to stiffen the fabric before layering onto a punched circle. The background paper is from Dovecrafts wild blossoms pack, the pink cardstock from my stash, circles made with woodware circle punches, scallops with fiskars scallop edge scissors, sentiment from Studio G Designer clear stamps.

This weeks Challenge from Cupcake Craft Challenges is to use 5 embellishments - boy was this difficult to do!

My card this week has a little Hello Kitty on it....do you see that yummy piece of fabric in the background! Well I bought it from a certain auction site.....I cut out a kitty and pasted her to some cardstock so I could cut around the image closely. The background paper is from Dovecrafts Wild Blossoms. The sentiment is a stamp from Debbie Moore.

My five embellishments - Ribbon, brad, flower, a gemstone on Kitty's bow and lots of faux stitching!

I have been blogging for a year this month - its my blog anniversary....so watch this space.....I am going to give away some candy soon which will include a piece of this yummy fabric.

Easter is finished - the chocolates have all gone (well nearly) but left behind a reminder of why they should be eaten in moderation - in other words those extra pounds are all those chocolates!! But at least I thought I was being good - I didnt buy any - the kids had some but ate it before Easter Sunday. We had family visiting on Easter Sunday so I thought I would make us a White Chocolate Cheesecake for dessert - its Easter..... (dont even think about getting out your calculator to work out the calories - it would break). However they came over from Dubai and bought us some Patchi chocolate.......now here is where it all goes wrong. Having lived in Dubai's neighbouring town Abu Dhabi for a few years, Patchi chocolate would have to be my ultimate treat now. It is a well known Middle Eastern Chocolate of Lebanese orgin and so it should be - luxuriously package pieces of delicious milk or plain chocolate with various flavours........a weak will power and I find myself reaching for one as soon as I walk pass the tin! So next week when half term is over I will be hitting the gym....in the meantime one more chocolate wont hurt of will it?

This weeks Challenge from Cupcake Craft Challenges is One Layer - You may have one layer of cardstock other than your image and base. You could even just stamp on your base card. Its up to you But you may use as many embellishments as you want eg. flowers,ribbon, buttons etc.

I got this topper in a Sugar Nellie Swap a while back so thought it would be great to use it now as it suits the challenge. The topper is mounted onto purple bazill cardstock and the mounted onto the base card. The ribbons have come from my stash. Quick and Easy.

Going to make this a bit of a long post as I have so many pictures to upload that I have lying around. Firstly this weeks challenge from Cupcake Craft Challenge is Folds. I made this little box called 2-5-7-10 using the Tutorial from here. It is so easy to make and it makes the smallest of gifts a joy to give. This one I am sending for my mum for her birthday. The pearls on sterling silver which you can see in the picture I bought in bulk last year and they have made wonderful presents over the year for girl pals and family - naturally two pairs are inside for Mum. I have used cream cardstock. brown ribbon from my stash, brown and pink cardstock, Snag em rubber stamp flowers, and happy birthday rubberstamp (cant remember where this one came from). I watercoloured the flowers with hints of pink and green leaves and added a few peel off white dots for extra decoration.

I won a competition in Papercraft Essential Magazine issue 40 and my prize came yesterday from Kirsten Lapping Designs - a set of stamps, pots of yummy glitter, embossing powders and small decorations for shaker cards etc, a box of ATC cards and a pen. The acetate wraps and card inserts are to follow.

The Magazine Page showing my card

The whole page from the Magazine

This weeks challenge from Cupcake Craft Challenges is a sketch. The image I have used here is Pretty Head Rachel from The Greeting Farm which comes as a Digital Stamp. I have coloured her in watercolours, the background paper is from my stash, the handbag paper is from Papermania. The flower in her hair has been recyled as well as the ribbon.

This weeks challenge from Cupcake Craft Challenges is a colour combination - Brown and Pink, or Brown and Blue or Brown and Green.
Brown is one of my favourite colours and mixed with pink....hmm delicious combination....so it just had to be a cake!
I have cut out a cupcake shape making the base of pink card which I scored lines on to resemble a cupcake case, the pink topping is from a paper which came free with Papercraft Essentials Magazine. The pink ribbon is from my stash, the brown background paper is Doodlebug Chocolate Truffle, The sentiment is from craftwork cards, and the raspberry and chocolate cardstocks are from DS Crafts. I used a punch to make little sprinkles to place on top of the cake.
Also Cupcake Craft Challenges are looking for a new design team - It closes on the 21st March 09.

This weeks challenge from Cupcake Craft Challenges is Spring - flowers, fun, lovely colours etc

I have used this Anya stamp again this week. She is most definitely one of my favourite stamps, and the little basket of flowers is perfect for Spring. I have coloured her with watercolour pencils. The background paper, frame and flowers are all Digital downloads, which can be found FREE from here. There are so many lovely papers and elements on this site along with many update daily via Digifree from other sites. The sentiment is a stamp from Studio G designer clear stamps. I added some doodled white dots to the frame, and layered up one of the flowers to add some 3d effect to the card.

This weeks challenge from Cupcake Craft Challenges is Inspiration - a picture of a white vase containing Yellow flowers, along with a cream background and shelf. The inspiration could come from the flowers or colours etc.

I have used one of the Anya stamps from the Greeting Farm (loving these at the moment). I have coloured her using watercolour pencils. When looking through my stash to find some papers which were of a yellowish tone, I came across this piece with spring time flower wording on it (not sure where I got it from originally), and thought I would use it as it was perfect for what I wanted. The lace edging and flowers with brads have come from my stash, the sentiment is from Craftwork cards.




On to musical note - U2 (our family favourite band) have their new album out today and next week it is the announcement of the tour dates - we have promised ourself as a family (not including little one) that we will buy tickets and go to see them if they are playing at a venue near us - fingers and toes crossed they will.....now it's just 6 days to go

Another month and once again I am behind with a lot of things. My favourite blogs have been running some fab challenges but I haven't been able to put the time in to participate. I have been baking cakes (oops no pictures again), doing a few cards and the kids have been off school for the past two days because of the snow. Anyhow this is one I did last night for the Cupcake Crafts Challenges.

This weeks challenge 25 from Cupcake Craft Challenges is colour - Pink, Plum, Pale Plum and White. As Iam loving this Pretty Head Lily from the Greeting Farm, I just had to use her again.

Pink cardstock from my stash, plum and pale plum Bazzill Swiss Dots, faux stitching done with a needle for the holes and a white gel pen. I have coloured Pretty Head Lily with watercolour pencils, the sentiment stamp is from Studio G, designer stamps. I made the flower with Woodware Daisy punches, and scraps of Bazzill and white cardstock. Added some white dots with the gel pen.

Once again time has eluded me. I haven't been lazy as such....I have been busy. In the past week I have made sixty invitations for a 40th birthday party (photos to follow), a Table planner for a wedding (to Match the invitations I did last year), plus other pieces I have been working on which includes the wedding favours for the same wedding, birthday cakes and I have literally just finished baking a Dark Fruit Cake for a 75th Birthday in mid February......letting it mature for a couple of weeks before decorating it. I am also trying to sort out a few other things which I could try now that I am a stay at home mum.....with both kids at school......more to follow.

This weeks challenge from Cupcake Craft Challenges is 3 different card stocks, 2 embellishments and one ribbon.

I been stalking The Greeting Farm recently. I would love to order all the stamps but my purse strings are firming shut at the moment, so I'm going to add them to my wish list (which is getting bigger all the time). Anyway after weeks of looking, and wanting I had to give in, I just couldn't resist this download...she is fabulous....Pretty Head Lily. I have coloured her with water colour pencils and added some white dots to her bow with a white gel pen. I have used ribbon from my stash and brown, cream and pink cardstock, gem stones which I added to her bow and the corner of the pink card, and the brown scalloped circle has been embellished with white peel off stickers. The Teenager description I made on the computer.

Anyone seen the Smirks range of stamps and papers etc yet? I was holding the stamps in my hand yesterday.....they are quirky and fun.....but just didn't do it for me.......I think Sugar Nellie has spoiled me and now these Greeting Farm girls are too coming up smelling of Roses xx

This weeks challenge 21 from Cupcake Craft Challenges is Glitter. I am also chuffed because I was named in last weeks Top 5 over on the same challenge blog....how great is that.

I have a stash of brown card to use up at the moment, so expect to see a lot of brown cards coming from me over the weeks. However brown is also one of my favourite colours and I do have a tendency to buy clothes in various shades of browns.

The topper I have used here is one I received before Christmas from the Sugar Nellie Topper swap - It is made using a stamp from Sugar Nellie. I have layered it onto a white square of card which I have paper pricked and added some ribbon (which happens to match her dress). The sentiment is from Designer Digitals. I have used a white gel pen to doodle dots around the edges of the topper and the brown matting. Her wings are glittered and as well as some areas on her dress.

This weeks challenge over on Cupcake Craft Challenges is Background inspired. The background of their blog is a mixed of Chocolate, Pink and White - Chocolate cupcakes!

I made this card a little while ago but didnt post it as I was keeping it for something else, but then decided I didnt want to use it. The paper is Doodlebug Neopolitan Stripe, Chocolate Cardstock, Chocolate Ribbon, Cupcake stamp from Studio G Clear stamps which I paper pieced. The cupcake has been layered onto Doodlebug Chocolate truffle paper and a Pink Bazill circle which has been embellishment with white peel off dots. The sentiment was done on the computer and edged with scalloped scissors

This weeks challenge 11 from Cupcake Craft Challenge is "Theres a hole in my bucket". This weeks criteria is make a card, atc or whatever with a hole in it - it could be an aperture card, a shaker card, anything that has a hole in it!!!

It's half term this week, so time for crafting is short, so anything I make needs to be quick and simple. The background paper for this card is from Diecuts with a view, Rose tinted Christmas stack, some bazzill cardstock, Sarah Kay image coloured with watercolours, and sentiment from Designer Digitals. I used a circle hole punch to punch the aperture in the card. The scalloped border around the aperture was supposed to have been centred, however it didnt quite work cutting it with the compass circle cutter and the scallop scissors....but I used it as I thought it still looked pretty. I also used a white gel pen to make doodle dots on the aperture border. I can't remember where I got the ribbon from , I have a reel with 5 metres on which I bought in a sale a while ago.

Well I have posted anything since Tuesday. I was working flat out trying to get all my cards done along with lots of Halloween things for kids for a craft show I had been invited to take part in yesterday. Now those of you who have kids, will know that life with children is never straight forward no matter how much you plan or what you have planned, nine times out of ten something will always come up. Low and behold, Friday morning my youngest woke up with a suspect spot on his left arm.......could it be chicken pox??? Well he has been vaccinated against them - being born in the Middle East he was vaccinated at 15 months for chicken pox, but there was still a 3 % change he could still get a mild dose of them - hmm was he in the three percent?? As Friday wore on no more spots appeared - poor child, I spent the day proding and poking at him, making him lift his shirt so I could check for more spots....but none. Then friday night, one more appeared on his arm and one on his leg.....I rang the craft fair organiser and told her I might have to cancel. Saturday morning, two more on his back and one on his side.......I rang the craft fair organiser to cancel and off we went to the doctor. Baffled she was, one spot looking like chicken pox, but the others well......maybe he is having a mild dose as they said might happen....by saturday night several spots on the legs, one on chin, one on forehead....Today same as yesterday. Well apart from moaning a little last night the one on his leg was starting to itch, we have had a normal bouncy boy, getting on as normal........and me stacks of cards and halloween goodies, stored in my kitchen waiting to be sold. All the fun of being a parent.

ok so enough rambling.....this card for the Cupcake craft challenges blog, I made a few days ago, but didnt get around to posting. This weeks challenge was a sketch. The papers from Trimcrafts christmas Pink set, the image from Pink Petticoat, the flower from Poppicrafts, which I have stamped over with a studio G scroll stamp in white brilliance ink. The sentiment is one from craftwork cards and the button are from my stash. The photo isn't good, I am blaming it on bad Autumn light xxx