Some Awards :)

Have I been a naughty blogger lately or what! I have been given 3 awards recently and am only just getting around to passing them on!


Firstly I'd like to thank Sue & Helen who both awarded me........

And as the rules state, here are 7 facts that (some) people (may) find interesting about me!


1 - I have Bungee Jumped! And it was amazing :)


2 - I have twins (Boy & Girl and they will be 18 on Wednesday!)

3 - I have worked in the Prison Service for the past 8 years, with 15 - 18 yrs old boys.


4 - I studied 'Film Studies' in school and once appeared on a TV chat show about Grange Hill with John Craven. I treasured the photo I had taken with 'Stewpot' for years!!!


5 - I used to be a Punk!


6 - I worked for Ann Summers for 12 years! (not whilst I was a punk...scary!!!)


7 - Last November my 20 year dream to visit New York City came true - I spent a fantastic 7 days there and the highlight was the Helicopter ride :) I actually cried when we were coming down to land in JFK as I couldn't believe I was there!!! And I WILL be going again.



Have some of these 'facts' changed your view of me now?

The 3rd person I want to thank is Pauline who sent me this award





Huge Thank You's to the 3 of you :) It means a great deal to know that you thought of me and think my blog?/work?/friendship? worthy :)



As I know there are an awful lot of awards already given to many of you I am going to nominate 7 people who can then chose which of these awards they would like - If you pick the top one you MUST add the 7 (interesting) facts about yourself ;)




The 7 who I would like to pick one of the above awards are:

Helene - You inspire me every time I visit your blog - Thank you :)

Stephanie - Your skillmanship and generosity astounds me (and you show us topless pics of your hubby!) Thank You :)

Samantha - One of the friendliest bloggers I have had the pleasure of 'meeting' (hope to meet you for real soon!) - Thank You :)

Clare - A dedicated follower - It would be hard to find one card on my blog you've not commented on - Thank You :)

Sue - My 'oldest' crafting buddie whose encouragement and motivation got me in into this mess!!! I still have the card you made me when I'd been crafting for all of 2 weeks - Thank You :)

Alex - You are a very talented and generous lady, who is always there to help - Thank You :)

Pickle - You are another talented and generous crafting buddie - Thank You :)

Suzi - One of the few who I know will be on the DC forum until stupid o'clock - just like me! And is never too busy to help - Thank You :)

(If you have already been awarded either (or both) of these awards recently - sorry! As I was hopping over to my 7 nominations I noticed a few of you already had them! I wasn't going to spend another hour re-nominating so I wont take offence if you don't pass it on)




This has to be the hardest post I've had to write! How on earth I'm s'posed to feel ok about passing an award onto fewer than 100 people I don't know!

I would like to pass on my own little award to EVERYONE who has ever 'spoken' to me, offered me advice, answered a question, left me a comment or visited my blog........

THANKS xxx

Sketch Saturday #65

A great sketch over on Sketch Saturday this week.

I started with the Manga Girl and decided I wanted her to have green hair this time - due to my limited Promarker colours these Manga images work well as they scream out bold & bright - We've had Blue hair, Pink hair and now Green - a bit like me when I was hairdressing!!! I really need to get a purple SOON!

To go with the green hair I chose some papers from 'Pocket Full Of Posies' from DCWV - I love this stack, it has so many bright sparkly colours :)

I used the same nail polish & Glamour Dust 'bling' method for the brads in the flowers and I highlighted parts of the image with 3d Gloss.

I used my MS Doily punch for the lacey edges at the top and bottom of the card.

Allsorts #15

As well as the gorgeous sketch by Jules, this week over at the Allsorts Challenge Blog they asked for 'Torn Edges'.

I needed to make a male birthday card this week - well I need to make 2 actually - so when I saw this sketch I thought it would be ideal.

I've used a fab Penny Black image that I've watercoloured and my Nesties to matt & layer it. The yellow backing is more of the gorgeous 'Gemstones' and the tan that I've used for the torn pillars and the matt is Co'ordinations. I also embossed and lightly sanded the matt piece.

The sentiment is actually ribbon that I have stabilised on a piece of card. Card Candy to finish.

Just Magnolia #19

Gorgeous sketch this week from Rach on the Just Magnolia Challenge Blog, I really enjoyed working with it :)

I've used more of my My Minds Eye 'Bloom & Grow' pack - these are scrummy papers and some are even double sided, not something you find very often on the lower priced papers - Love them!

I painted the orange brad with nail polish and dipped it in my Glamour Dust - I love to 'bling' up plain brads this way :)

Stampin' For The Weekend #12

After last weeks vintage theme on Stampin' For The Weekend this week was a colour cobmo - Pink & Grey - Yum!

I've used a Gojuss girl who I cut around using a round Nestie - I cut her hair and feet first and slipped those over the Nestie - hence the wrinkles in her forehead!!! Then backed the whole piece onto an oval Nestie.

The daisy paper is from a Black & White DCWV stack but not sure which one sorry! The pink paper is from Making Memories 'Avenue' Collection.

Punched flowers, ribbon and glitter glue to finish.

Colour Create #25

Wow, I'm on a roll tonight with my challenge cards!!!

This weeks colour combo at the Colour Create Challenge Blog is Blue, Sand, Silver and Black.

I've been waiting to use the gorgeous Scruff image from Charmed Cards and Crafts for a while now! Did you know that this image is FREE when you buy any other Digi Images!

I cut a section off the front, added some 'Gemstones' pearlised paper and overlapped the image to add a little more interest.

I then added some 'Sand' coloured cardstock to the inside back panel with a strip of the same pale blue 'Gemstones' paper that had been embossed in my Cuttlebug.

Scruff is coloured with Promarkers and highlighted with 3d Gloss.

Cute Card Thursday #74

'Lazy Dayz' is the theme this week over on Cute Card Thursday, and we all love those don't we?

I chose to use a gorgeous House Mouse image that I think screams Lazy Dayz - I can just imagine lying on a giant leaf soaking up the summer sun - I'd have to imagine pretty hard though and I don't mean the leaf...............................sun - in the UK at Summer time!!!!!!

I've used my Water Colour Pencils again for this image. The paper is from K&Co 'Sparkly Sweet' and the blue is 'Gemstones'. The sparkly lace was gathered and I just unpicked it so that it would lie flat. Ribbon and pearls added to finish off. Sentiment done on PC.

Penny Black Saturday Challenge #63

Week 63 over at the Penny Black Saturday Challenge Blog is all about 'Stitching'! ...faux stitching, hand stitching, machine stitching....any kind of stitching!

My stitching is done with a darning needle and string! I thought it would tie in with the 'garden' theme inspired by the image.

Papers are from the 'Bloom & Grow' stack from My Mind's Eye - aren't they fab!

I really need to make more PB cards as almost half of my stamp collection is PB!!!

Simon Says Challenge #17

'Christmas in August' is the spec for this weeks Simon Says Challenge, and I desperately need to do more of my Christmas cards - so here's 2009's Christmas card number 2 !!!! ...How bad am I?

I've used 'Frosty' from one of my favorite Christmas sets from Hampton Art. I'll have to do a matching Santa and Rudolf now too ;)

The paper I've used is from Daisy & Dandelion's Christmas Collection and I've edged top and bottom front with a Fiskars Snowflake border punch. Frosty has been surrounded with some silver glitter glue sparkles.

Whiff Of Joy #44

A fab sketch to work from this week over at the WOJ Challenge blog. Great sketch Rachel - one I will most definitely be using again :)

I bought some gorgeous Lace from my local 'ribbon shop' last week knowing I was going to be using it with my WOJ Wedding stamps - so as soon as I saw this sketch out came Willow & Oakley!

I wanted to keep the colours quite plain so stamped onto some Pearl card and just highlighted Willow & Oakley with some Glamour Dust.

I searched my stash for some brown brads or jewels - but didn't have any :( So I took 3 large split pins (yep - stationery type!) and did my little paint and dust trick with nail polish and Glamour Dust :)

The sentiment I did with WordArt and printed it directly onto more of the pearl card.

Stamptacular Sunday #20

This weeks theme on the Stamptacular Sunday Challenge blog was 'Beary Special'! And when you see the sentiment you'll notice I took it literally!

I've used an Anita's stamp with Versafine Sepia and heat embossed it with clear powder. I was going to watercolour this again but decided to try it out with some chalk - no specific method to my chalking - much the same as most of my techniques - keep adding, blending and 'titivating' till it looks acceptable!

The paper I got years ago from a Supermarket! Thought I'd use it as it looks quite 'old beary'!!!

Added some pearls, lace and ribbon - what would we do without lace and ribbon!

The sentiment was printed off the pc using 'First Kisses' font.

Allsorts #14

Afternoon bloggers! Hope the weather's not too bad with you - here in South Wales the rain keeps reminding us it's about, but it's quite bright in-between - if not a touch windy!

This weeks theme over on the Allsorts Challenge blog was 'Country Garden'. After using my 'Boy Carrying Watering Can' stamp last week I felt myself being drawn to it for this challenge too. I used my Whispers pens to colour it as I am still limited on my Promarker colours and felt they would be too much - I so NEED to buy more!

I decided to do something a little different with the image this time, but I wasn't sure what! So after sitting and fiddling for a while I decided to cut away the 'backdrop' and fix it over an aperture in the card. I then added an insert made with matching paper so it can be seen through the picture.

My MS Doily Lace Punch was still out from last night's play - so had to use that too! Added some ribbon and flowers punched from the papers. Papers used are...............Yep - BG 'Sugared' - AGAIN! I soooooo need to buy some more papers too!

Just Magnolia #18

'Friendship' was the theme this week over on the Just Magnolia Challenge Blog.


I've used Tilda with Sunflower and a sweet little wooden Sunflower that matches it pretty well. I've coloured Tilda with WC Pencils and used BG 'Sugared' Papers.
My MS Doily Lace Punch had a little bit of a work out too!
The Sentiment is stamped with Versamark, chalked and then the whole piece heat embossed with clear powder.

My 'Shroom' Card won A Prize!

WOW! Lisa picked my card as her 2nd place winner for her 'Make a card for Candy - Shroom' challange over on Allissa Designs.



Thank you so much Lisa :)

Jan's fantastic card won - take a look.