The *C* word.......

Hello There...

I hope you have had a wonderful weekend? I certainly have been lucky enough to! I have been away on a long weekend crafting retreat with 11 of the most lovely ladies that I am also lucky enough to call friends. Have had a super creative time and lots of laughter and yummy food with perfect company.

I have got some things to share, but i need to photograph them properly and then I will pop them on here.

But for now I thought I would try to catch up a bit on some previous layouts that I made....so I will start with this one that made using 'A Christmas Carol' papers, from Graphic 45 and photo's of my cheeky nephews and nieces xx

Thankks for looking xxx

An old favourite of mine.

I thought I would share an old favourite of mine with you. I made this page just over 5 years ago and it still remains high in my list of faves.I used various bit and peices of papers on it, some odd bits of organza ribbon,  stickers, a jewelled button,fluffy fibres, blossoms, brads, chipboard letters and number....and ooooodles and oodles of GLITTER!!!

The large chipboard letters were covered in Glossy Accents in small sections at a time and then dipped into glitter, I squeezed some shapes with the GA for added effect. When it had all dried I then poured a thick layer of GA over the top, this not only sealed in the glitter and stops it migrating across the page protector in my album,but it also gives the letters a gorgeous thick gloss

I really love this photo of Chloe, taken on her 7th birthday....doesn't she look cheeky! Jeeez where HAS the time gone???

P.Y.O. and a little sneak peek.

This is a layout of my eldest Nephew, Oliver. We all went to our local PYO Farm on our annual Strawberry Picking day out....(you know the kind,one for the punnet, one for our mouth....just for quality control purposes obviously).......and it was Olivers first time at properly picking them for himself and he really enjoyed it! And I have to say the strawbs at Sharnfold Farm ARE delicious!

I used some papers from an old Pink Paislee collection ( I think its Spring Fling) and also some PP alpha Stickers. The blossoms are Prima and the stickers are Crate Paper Emma's Shoppe

The red edged star is cut from some Scenic Route paper and I added the little gingham bow and strawb charm to finish it off. The gold swirls that are scattered here and there are made using some Pebeo Gold Outliner( I used to use this for outlining work on glass and ceramics)

I will leave you with a little sneak peek of something coming soon.....I hope you might like to come back in a few days to see the rest of it :)

Warmest Wishes

Anita..xxxx

How Charming! A new challenge....for card makers!

Hello there :) I hope you have had a beautiful weekend and had chance to enjoy the amazing weather we seem to have been blessed with! Long may it continue. Over at Scrapology we have just launched a new challenge....alongside our monthly Scrapping challenge there will now also be a card making challenge.....some months there will also be prizes to be won. This month we have had a fab challenge set by Elaine of Quixotic Paperie, she has a fabulous online shop that sells the most fabulous stamps, papers and lots and lots of lovely charms, please do go and have a looky at her goodies, you will not be dissapointed! Elaine has set the Challenge 'Be Charmed'and all you have to do is incorporate a charm on your card....so what are you waiting for? Go and create and leave us a comment with a link to your card....there is a voucher to be won for Elaine's shop up for grabs Here are the 2 cards I have made for the DT posting. This first one was for my daughter's Birthday. The image is the 'Birthday Fairy' by Lili of the Valley and I have popped her onto some Papermania papers and embellished with various blossoms, a bit of sparkly Papermania Ribbon, I used my LeoneM punch, Perfect Pearls, Stickles and added a charm. The image is coloured with Promarkers. My 2nd card is using a Penny Black stamp, called Flutter-Bye and I have coloured it with Promarkers, the butterfly is coated with Glossy accents. The papers are from a small pad by K&Co and I have also used some Stickles, half pearls, daisy punch, CC sentiment and of course a charm. So, why not come and join us on this challenge and create a card....you have got to be 'in it' to 'win it!' Warmest wishes Anita.xxx

A Good Luck Wish

We are very proud of both our girls and always will be and at the moment Lauren (14) is working extra hard at school and is in a group called Pathway One. This means she is taking her GCSE's a whole year early. Just over a week ago now she sat her first exam ( isn't the first one always the worst!)




Anyway, I thought I would make her a good luck card using one of the fairly new Magnolia images. Luaren likes vintagey colours and style quite a bit so I tried to replicate that in the card. The paper is Scenic Route and the narrow cream lace is authentic vintage lace
I have to admit I so enjoyed making this card for her and was pleased with the result....and more to the point she loved it too.
Good Luck with the rest of your exams Sweetheart.xxx

My Card For Chloe

Just a quickie post today( sorry, I know they are few and far between now....but then I never really have anything interesting to say anyway...xxx)

This is Chloe's card I made her for her birthday. She loves handmade things, bless her, and is a keen cardy/scrapper herself and her fave thing is to sit and colour in lots of images with my Promarkers.

She was chuffed when she opened up the card and saw one of her favourite images on the front and she especially loved the strawberry charm. Some of the flowers I bought from Wild Orchid Crafts and the gorgeous charm is from Bunny Zoe's Crafts.

Have a super day whatever you are up to.xxx

Happy Mothers Day....

Evening all :) this is just a very VERY quick fly through, I will hopefully get back on with a bit more time tomorrow so I can catch up on your blogs and see your beautiful work and comment . I hope that those of you who are Mummys have had a wonderful day today? I just wanted to share with you the Mothers Day card I made for my lovely Mum. Its my first attempt at a Tent Card and I was totally inspired by one I saw on Sarah's lovely blog, so thank you for the inspiration Hun :) I know I have probably used the wrong kind of image and backing paper, but I like it....and more to the point so does my lovely, lovely Mum...(((((hugs)))))) if you are reading this..xxxx

Sorry got to fly, catch up tomorrow hopefully....xxxxx

Buttons and Bows...PFP Challenge

Afternoon all :)

I made this card over the weekend but didn't actually finish it totally til last night. Its for the latest challenge over at the Passion For Promarkers Challenge blog and its any colours you like but the theme is Buttons and Bows. I bought this gorgeous ribbon( its a fine organza type with an embossed pattern in flock) and the buttons on Saturday at The Eternal Maker at Chichester and just wanted to use them straight away lol....still, makes a change from them sitting in a bag tucked away under everything else for weeks...nay months....on end LOL!

I thought I would make an easel card and add a little calendar to it. The PP is S.E.I. Dill Blossom.

Thanks for looking...have a super evening...xxxxx

Dipping her pretty lil toes....

I thought this image was so cute, but I don't think I have done her justice on this card, I don't think the balance is right with the flowers/embellies. Having said that, she must be ok as my sister took a liking to her and has given her to a friend today lol.

I have 2 poorly little peeps at home today :(. Chloe has been poorly on and off since last friday( I was out for the day and got called home to collect her from school) she was ill still over the weekend and on monday but felt better and went back to school tues. As the week has gone on she has been up and down and then during the night she got a temp again and was grizzly with earache. I managed to get a docs appointment this morning and found she was right on the verge of an ear infection......BUT worse than that the doc found that her right lung is all congested and got a lot of infection in it, no wonder the poor little mite is feeling off colour. So she has antibiotics( and some choccie as that ALWAYS works lol) and has been snuggled under the duvet on the sofa for the day. Lauren has been feeling pretty rough for most of the week, coldy,cough,achey etc and this morning she could hardly move, so she has spent the day all wrapped up too....so hopefully the weekend will bring a big improvement all round.

Sue, if you read this Hun, it shows it was a good job we didn't make arrangements for today eh LOL..xxxxx

Have a great weekend everyone...

Warmest wishes

Anitaxxxxx

Flutterby Cakes and a card that's charmed.

I hope you are all having a lovely Sunday? I have had quite a busy one so far, but plan to sit and chill this evening. I fancied doing a little baking earlier and anyone who REALLY knows me knows I am no Delia Smith! So I thought I would make some Flutterby Cakes after Lauren was talking about them earlier on in the week.

Now I am not one to normally read and follow instructions properly he!he!he! and these buns were no exception!!! I guess I should really call them 'Chuck it all in and hope for the best cakes'!!! I know I was *supposed* to cream the marg and sugar together first....and I know I was *supposed* to sift the flour to make it 'light and airy' and beat the eggs before adding.....but I didn't do any of that! Oh no! I just chucked all the ingrediants and a spoon full of hot water into a bowl and mixed it till it looked ok. Well I don't know about you, but, I think they came out just fine....and more to the point they ARE delish and they are light and fluffy.....and nearly ALL GONE!!!!Dale and the girls thought they were pretty delish too, so its not just me being biased! I didn't measure for the butter icing properly either, just mixed till it looked ok....to be honest it was a little soft, but hey, the wings stayed stuck!
I thought i would share this card too, I actually made her on thursday but haven't had chance to upload her.

I pulled out my jewellery making bag and made the little charm to hang below the ribbon, I thought it finished off the card nicely.

I hope you all have a nice evening.....me....I am going to go and serve up dinner and then chill for the evening....and hopefully watch Being Human later....have you seen it? Its fab!..xxxxxxxx

Sweet Strawberry Wishes

I am fed up of dark days and no sunshine at the moment ( the same as everyone else lol) and I know of someone special whose birthday is coming up soon and so thought I would make a cheery bright card. Unfortunately, try as I might, I couldn't get a better shot than this one, so apologies about the colours, they are much prettier in good light.

I used a mix of papers( doodlebug and Basic Grey) based onto some Bazill dotted swiss. I coloured the image( from ebay) with my Promarkers and finished with various flowers, ribbon, Ice stickles and a gorgeous strawberry charm from http://www.bunnyzoescrafts.com/.

Lovely in lilac.....and a birthday jar.

I have been playing with cards for a couple of days and only just managed to get some decent light for the photos. This lilac and pink one is rather glittery and very girly and has a lovely little silver flower charm suspended by fine silver chain. Its based on some pink bazill bling and has various scraps of papers plus some primas and other blossoms, just edged then with some punched out ash leaves.







I made this big card a few days ago and blogged it then, but today I decorated a gift jar to match the card. Its for a very good friend of mine who I am spending the day with tomorrow. Its actually her birthday today, so we will be celebrating a day late....but whats a day between friends.

I filled the jar with chocolate truffles and an organza bag which contains a murano glass heart on a silver chain, which matches a pair of earrings that I made her for Christmas. Hope she likes it :).xxx

A card for Holly...........and

another layout!






Yep, I have been busy again today lol. I made this card for my niece Holly, she will be 6 tomorrow, I used some of my christmas pressies from my best friend, Sue :). Yep, I christened my Ice Stickles AND opened a pack of Thickers....how extravagent is that!!! LOL. Hope Holly likes her card.





I also used up the scraps from the layout I made yesterday and made another layout today. I used the large die cut shape that I cut from the original paper yesterday before fixing it to the acetate, so that was perfect for the base of todays layout. I also used the little word strip that was left and cut out a few more flowers from the other paper sheet. So basically all I needed to add was a sheet of bazzill bling, some lace, some prima blossoms and crystal swirls and a tag....oh yes and some thickers and some MLSB alpha stickers. I just love these papers soooo much. The photo was taken when Chloe was only about 45 mins old, having her first cuddle with her Nanna.

































Tomorrow is Holly's birthday party so I am not sure if I will be crafting or not, still at least we have taken down all the decorations today so I won't have that job( or the foil chains!!!) hanging over me.