Black and white

Above is the card I made my eldest Grandson, who was 17 yesterday. Don't know about you but I find with the boys the older they get the harder it gets to think of a subject for there card. I know he is a big Rugby fan and plays really well but there are only so many cards you can make with rugby on. Thought this would be a change

Above is my last SOTH card I made my friend Darlene in Canada, pleased to say she liked it. I do love Black and white always think it looks classy. I love this image I used, I bought that when I was in the US a few year back. I must admit I am getting quite partial to the die cuts too

I know I have been useless lately posting on my blog, between chest infections and colds have not had the energy. It has took me all my time to keep up with my swaps and birthdays. Anyhow that is enough moaning hopefully  starting to pick up now. Can you believe another year has gone by and Ethan is now 14, still loves Sponge Bob so made him this. Got the stamps off Dimension and they are great for the young one as there are all what the kids like Mobile phone X box control head phones and as you can see the words for the sights the kids go on, the Sponge Bob is a colouring page I got off the net, don't think there is a stamp of him I might be wrong

 \the image below I got sent in a image mingle I am in, we got 4 sent and had to choose one to make something of and send to our partner. I like this one so made it into the front cover for a note book I made my partner, I think she liked it

 The ATC below I made for my Sept ATC swap, the theme was coastal so it gave you a wide variety to choose from. Love this mermaid that I got as a gift off my friend Darlene and thought it would fit in very nicely. Hope you like my efforts, will try not to leave it so long next time

My mystery Holiday

 Well look were we ended up on our mystery holiday, Garve in Scotland, above I am with the manager of the hotel. Don't you just love a man in a kilt

 We went to Loch Ness boy is it big, I was hoping to see Nessy but could not see him anywhere. would you believe when we went up to the gift shop look who was standing there, good old Nessy, had too have a photo with him. Look below LOL

 The picture below is the most expensive loo in Scotland, it is a ruined castle at Loch Ness but if you need the loo they won't let you in unless you pay to go too the castle which is £9.00, so needless to say you have to keep your legs crossed till you get to the cafe. Must admit I love Scotland and if I had my choice of where to live within the British Isles that would be where I would live.

I will post some more photo's another day as I think that is enough for now. We also went to Skye and John-O-Groats, Innverness and a couple of other places. I must admit I did enjoy it but was a lot more hectic than I thought, it has took me nearly a week to recoop

My friend Joyce

 Above is the card I made my very good friend Joyce, we have been friends for 54 yrs and when we where young (cough cough ) this was us. The fair one is Joyce and the dark one me, wish there had been a dark haired girl with the jeans but unfortunately not, as that is how we dressed a lot. Can you remember girls when we used to roll our jeans up to look trendy and loved listening to the records on the juke box. Those where the days, not a care in the world

Deb asked me to make her a card as a thank you for the chap who did there wedding album and this is what I came up with. I am so pleased she liked it, as you will of gathered it is my eldest Son Simon and his new wife Deb. I really hope he will be happy this time

Journal pages

Above and below are my latest journal pages I have made for the swap I am in on Kateyscorner group. Every month we have to make 2 pages about things we like, well I love doing crosswords, I do an average of four a day. I can't always finish them but my Hubby finishes them for me and then tells me off for my spelling. I must be the worlds worst speller but as I tell him I am keeping his brain active making it work harder he he.

I also like Steam-punk so have included some of that too. The base of the page is crosswords I have done painted over with a thin layer of white emulsion the went over that with Pans pastels. I am getting to really like those, have used a mixed media of stamps. There are some Indigo Blue and a couple of Viva las Vegas. I am still learning journaling as it is new for me but am enjoing the challenge

Birthday and wedding

 It was one of my friends birthday the other week and made her the above card, she likes Betty Boop so had to include her and seeing she was at the seaside used the stamp from a 100 percent ( think that is there name). I really like this stamp, sorry Cath know you got her first but could not resist

My eldest Son got married again the other week and this is the card I made them, I don't know why but I always struggle with wedding cards. Anyway they liked it and that is all that matters. I hope he will be really happy, I like Deb. The stamps I used for this one are from Dimension
Sorry Folks not good at the writing part but before I go I hope you are all enjoying the sun, been really warm here in the North East which is quite unusual. I am not complaining I love the sun, it cheers you up

Playing with beads

 Finally had a bit of inspiration, been looking at my beads for weeks and did not know what to do, finally achieved these. Above is a necklace I made myself with some nice big blue wood beads I got off Create and craft. Thought Ted could show them off for me, just love this Bear got him out the charity shop and when you switch him on he talks and moves, how could you not love him, worth every penny of his £3.50

Above are some bracelets have been learning myself to make where you do the knotting and tie your beads in as you go. I like these and are dead easy to do once you remember the sequence of the cord when you are doing the knots. Hope you like my efforts

Africa

 The above and below are my ATC for KC's July ATC swap, the theme was gate fold and your choice of subject. So I picked African, what a surprise I just love African and doing sunset themes

 Below is a birthday card I made for a friend again African, she is a Masai, I am pleased I don't have to walk round with all those things round my neck, I suppose it saves you having to wash your neck LOL

Haven't we had some lousy weather, do you think we are ever going to get any summer, I feel for those who have had floods, at least we are not that bad

More journal pages

Here are two I have just done, they went in the post today, so hope the Lady they are for likes them. As I said before we are doing things we like and I love using bird stamps so have based my pages on these. These are my second lot of bird pages, should include those too me thinks

So here they are, the top two backgrounds are done with Pans pastels, must admit am getting quite smitten with these, so easy to work with. The ones above are done with two of the spring distress inks from Ranger, love these colours too. That is all for today Folks am hoping I can get back to normal now

Hello Bloggers

Hello Folks, sorry for being so quiet but really struggling lately. I am blaming this awfulweather we have had, just have had no get up and go. Even struggled getting my swaps done. Any how thought I would share some pages I have done for swaps. The two above were for a deco swap I was in and you had to do something you love to do, well I like lots of things but two of my fav's are African and American Indians. I am pleased to say the Lady they were for liked them

 Above and below are pages I have done for a journal swap, in this swap again you have to do things you like, so on these I chose animals as love doing those too. I also like doing sunset scenes so thought I would do the backgrounds based on a sunset, well I hope they look ok.

Will try not to leave it too long next time, will slap my hands and tell myself to get busy. That is all for today Folks

Smurfing birthday

My great neice is 6 on Friday and smurf mad so come up with this, hope she likes it. Got the images from the smurf site off the colouring page and printed them out and coloured them. Hope it brings a smile to her face, think it will as put her name on and she loves that . Made the bunting myself, well lets face it not hard is it

Don't faint

Thought it was time I made a post, I just have not been able to consentrate latley. Anyhow the above and below pages I have done for Janice's deco, her theme is vintage, was quite pleased with them, it makes a change I am usually not happy with what I do

 Below is the birthday card I made for my Aunty, bless she was 83 the other day and she loves vintage. I got my cousin to bring her through a couple of weeks ago and filled her a couple of boxes of stuff as she likes to make cards too. Anyhow she went home very happy with lots of new goodies and has let me know she is enjoying using them, she is one lovely lady

Time flys

 Above is my eldest grandaughters 18th card I can't believe she is 18 already, were have the years gone, she was about one on this photo.
Below is one of my most favorite stamps, mind I have a lot of favs but I do love African

 Below another stamp I love, it is brill for a fun card, I have had this stamp for years and can't remember who it is by. You can do such a lot with it , there are loads of different things you can put in his hand

Know I have not posted for a while, sorry about that but have had lots of family birthdays and lots of things going on. Will try a bit harder

Happy birthday Cath

Happy birthday Pet, hope you liked your card, could not resist this one and seeing you bought me the stamp seems only right you get the 1st card. Well Fred got one too as it is his birthday too today, so Happy birthday Fred too

Happy Birthday Neet

 Above is the card I made for Neet, it is her birthday today, Happy birthday Pet, hope you have a fab day. I used the Kan-ban steam-punk stamp as I know Neet likes steam-punk, I made the flowers, well punched them out then stamped clock faces on them, the little happy birthday at the top are Kan-ban stamps too. The cogs and nuts are die cut

The above card is for KC's March challenge which is to use something new or something you have had lying around for ages, well these are new stamps I got from Indigo blue, not normally my colours but thought I would tries something different

Happy Birthdays

Happy Birthday Kaitlynn 10 today

Look how well she looks and how pretty,photo below. Jo take a look isn't it great

 Below the memory book I have made for Tracy as it is her birthday today too, sorry the photo is not very good, only finished it last night and was giving her it today, so had to take the photo last night. Pleased to say she loved it and that made all the work worth while, as I covered all the pages and decorated most of them so she could just add her photo's

 Below is the first page, I took a photo of her at Kaitlynn's party ( sneaky or what ) so I could put it in the book for her. That's all for now Folks

Chalk and cheese

 Another photo stamp found, I love this image, bought the stamp ages ago then forgot about it. What's new, anyhow thought I would have a go and don't think it turned out bad. Stamp smith stamp, again stamped with brilliance and coloured slightly with chalks
Below decoupage from a CD, fab images from Linda Ravenscroft, wish I could draw like that. Have made it for our Tracy for her birthday, I am pleased with the outcome but won't be making a lot of these as the first layer was a devil to cut out

Two books

 Above is my book I have made for this years deco swap, which I run on KC, I chose pink and brown Vintage. I surprised myself as I don't do a lot of Vintage, I am more likely to pick African or American Indians, anyhow will be a nice change. I have made another Japanese stab book I love these, got addicted when Susie Jefferson had a tutorial in Craft Stamper. Thanks Susie

This one above I made for Tracy for her friend, she wanted a brag book to give her to carry around with photo's of her baby. I didn't put too many embellishments on as if she is carrying it around in her bag they are going to get knocked off, anyhow I am pleased to say Tracy was pleased with it, just hope her friend is

Mixture

 This is 3 different stamps, the figures are one and the branch another lastly the building, all from AAA in the USA. I did the background with distress inks and stamped with  black Visa-fine and clear embossed

 This poppy stamp is one of my favourite poppy stamps designed by Wendy Brown for Simply stamps, it is so easy to colour and always looks good, background again with distress inks and of coarse cut out with Spellbinders. I made the bow on one of those little gadgets with the two pieces of dowelling on and you tie the ribbon round it and low and behold it went through the 5m slot so only cost me the ordinary stamp

These are my ATC's for KC January swap, love this little fellow. One is stamped on the card and the other on acetate, stamp from the Artistic stamper

Jan and Feb KC challenge

 Above is my February KC challenge, each month Cath sets us a challenge and we make a card and upload to the group. This month you put felt tip on a acrylic block and spritz with water, I used perfect pearls spray to spritz. Then you turn your mount over and stamp it on the card. When dry you stamp with your choice of stamps. I used stamp camp bird stamp and Hero Arts word stamp

Above is my January challenge which was what winter means to you. Well snow is what I think of and we have plenty of it today. This is an About Art Accents stamp

Happy birthday Margaret

Happy birthday Margaret hope you liked your card, another Stamp Smith stamp of Sophie Loren. Backing paper from Do Crafts the rest from my stash













This one Is a Sweet Pea stamp and of coarse used some Spellbinder dies, I love these they look so nice. The backing paper is Do crafts again ( got these off a friend for my Birthday ) I made the flower and used some silver ribbon from my stash.
 I have made quite a few cards this last two weeks as have loads of family birthdays in February just hope I have done enough