All about the boys (or men!)

Hi blogworld,

Well here ends another era - this is the last Saturday that I'll be posting a card for the fabulous challenge that is Sweet Stampin.  I felt that I wasn't giving 100% to my wonderful DT buddies - lack of Mojo being the main culprit!  Then with the work that is going to be going on on our house in the next couple of months I'm just not going to be able to give the time that is needed to the challenge in the future either.  I've therefore taken the sad decision to step down.

So, boss ladies, thank you for picking me to be on the Team all that time ago - and my fellow DT buddies, have loved working with you.  If you can call this much fun working!!

Back to work! This challenge it's all about the boys - so we'd like to see your masculine cards please.

Our monthly sponsor, with a prize of a £10 voucher is:

Our weekly sponsor, with a prize of a £10 voucher is:

My card:
Front shot:

Detail of image:

The arty farty:

I used:

Stamp:

The Greeting Farm - My Guy Ian

coloured with me Promarkers

Dies:

Stacking Stars

Nestie circles

Papers:

K&Co - Hopscotch

Anything else?

Hobby House - Pearls

The Ribbon Girl - Hessian Mesh

I do honestly feel that it's the end of an era for me - stepping down from two of my oldest DT positions, and leaving some fabulous Teamies, but I feel it is the right decision for me right now and I'm happy (sorta anyway!!) with the decision.

One thing thing this does mean, now then is this good or bad?, is that I should have some time to come visit all your blogs!  Be afraid, oooh yes be very afraid, this girl waffles and isn't afraid to share!!

Have a good weekend!

Sarah

What a week!

Good morning blogworld!

Well aren't school holidays fun!  It's been a right rollercoaster of a week - in the SHMbO department!  Sooo glad it's Saturday and not only as it's a new challenge over at Sweet Stampin.  Where, this week, we would like to see your projects, with stamping on, for either Mother's Day or for a Special Lady.

Our sponsors are:

Monthly sponsor, with a £10 voucher:

and

Weekly sponsor, with a fab prize:

Kobie very kindly sent us DT girls some MDF embellishments and very pretty they were too!

This is my card this week:

Close up:

 The backwards arty farty:

I used:

Stamp:

Stamping Bella - Uptown Girls:

coloured with ProMarkers and Copics.

Dies:

None!

Papers:

my mind's eye - the sweetest thing

Anything else?

MDF heart - Hobbycutz

Ribbon and gems from my stuff

So there we go, hope you like.

Thanks for all the lovely comments and advice you wonderful lot left of my last whingy, whiny, waffley post about my angst over parenting. We did as all of you said to do - stuck to our guns, got the bed we wanted for SHMbO and she loves it!  I have pictures, not of her as she wouldn't stay still for long enough, but of the room and bed, which I'll share over the weekend.

See you soon,

Sarah

Pearly, swirly..

or is it??

Good morning blogworld,

It's another Saturday and so it's time for an new challenge over at Sweet Stampin and this week we'd like to see pearls and swirls - plus the stamping please!

This month's sponsor, with a £10 voucher, is:

This week's sponsor, with a £10 voucher, is:

Hmmm, like it - but not sure it's particularly swirly and pearly or even pearly and swirly!  Love the colour, love the image, even think I coloured well (for once!) but not convinced about the pearls and swirls - sure you can all do much better!!

So front shot:

Detail of image:

The arty farty:

I used:

Stamp:

Stamping Bella - Uptown Girl: Lolly and her brolly

coloured with my Promarkers and a touch of Prisma pencils

Dies:

Memory Box - Modern Landscape; Cherry Blossom and 

Papers:

echo paper - Note to self

Anything else?

Pearls and some Distress Ink

Looking forward to seeing everyones entries and hope everyone has a good weekend.

Cheerio

Sarah

Oooh I've tried soooo hard!

do you think it's worth it????

Hello blogworld,

Ribbons anyone?  I'm sure you probably know it's Saturday but did you know it's time for a new challenge over at Sweet Stampin?  This week we'd like to see your ribbon/s on your card - along with the stamping, of course!

Our weekly sponsor, offering a fab prize is:

Our monthly sponsor, with a £10 voucher:

Now I had meant to go to town on the ribbons but I spent soooo long stamping / masking / positioning  then sooooo long colouring that I almost forgot about the ribbon - so there's just the one!

I'd also so ran out of puff that I just left it fairly plain.  Just hope all that effort was worth it!!

Front shot:

The arty farty:

I used:

Stamps (a lot!) (all C C Designs)

Swiss Pixies: Butterfly Fence
Swiss Miss - Rosalie
Sugarplums - Tulip Trevor

Papers:

My Mind's Eye - miss caroline

Dies:

Wot no!

Anything else?

Gems and ribbon from my stuff

Craftwork Cards - sentiment

I think the next card I make will be a tad easier!!!

See you soon,

Sarah

A challenge, or two:

Cupcake Craft Challenges: 226 - Make a Scene

Sketch n Stash: Challenge 105 - I hope this one is OK - I slightly moved / combined the sentiment with the circle on the sketch.  My stash are the stamps - well over 2 years old!!

Crafty Ribbons Challenge: Love/Romance/Anniversay

I love Promarkers: Challenge #152 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Inky Chicks: Challenge #2 - Becky's Bingo Grid (I picked Ribbon, Image, Pearls)

Arrggh...

who invented gingham - tell me please as I want to give them a piece of my mind (well a piece of what's left of it anyway!).

Hello blogworld,

So what's the best thing about Saturdays?  A new challenge at Sweet Stampin, of course and as you might have guessed the theme this week is 'Gingham'.

Can I say this please before we go any further - I do not like Gingham, I tried to like it, I really did, but it just didn't work, so this challenge was a real challenge!

Our monthly sponsor, with a £10 voucher is:

Our weekly sponsor, with a $20 certificate is:

My Teamies have made wonderful examples for you, I, however, made this:

Front view:

The arty farty:

I used:

Stamp:

C.C. Designs - Swiss Pixies: Liesel and her wheelbarrow coloured with my Promarkers 

Dies:

Lea'bilities

Papers:

my mind's eye - Pretty Please papers (I think that's what they were called, they were a free gift from a mag years ago)

Anything else:

Paper twine, charm, gems, decorative corner, the dreaded gingham - all from stash.

So there you go, first Sweet Stampin card, for me, of 2013 - it will get better promise!!  

Hope everyone has a great weekend, I should be off out tomorrow to watch the new Tinkerbell film with SHMbO and a couple of her friends this is assuming that we don't get snowed in of course ;-)

See you soon,

Sarah

A challenge, or two:

Creative Corner Challenges: Challenge 2 - Cute as a button

Stampin for the Weekend: Anything Goes

Flutterby Wednesdays: #222 - open challenge

My goodness how long has it been!!

Hello blogworld.

Huge apologies for the long absence - it's just been such a hectic week that I haven't had time to blog at all.  Not that I've been being lazy though - 53 Christmas cards made, not bad for a week's work!

And it's one of those cards that I'm using today for the new challenge at Sweet Stampin.  This week we're feeling all festive as Santa's on his way to visit us!  Seriously though this means we'd like to see anything with a Santa on your project, as well as stamping (the clue is in the title!).

This weeks sponsor is giving one lucky winner a $12 certificate :

And one lucky winner will get a £10 voucher from our regular monthly sponsor:

Now then, I have a slight problem with Santa - I don't like him, well I don't actually know him personally to not like him!  What I mean is that I grew up not liking being made to go talk to Santa - I have lots of pictures of my bawling my eyes out standing next to man in red!!

So I have only the one image of Santa and it's been rather over used over the years, I was on the hunt for an alternative Santa - Abi (the boss lady!) was very kind and said that I could use the word 'Santa' but that didn't feel right.  Therefore, after a degree of hunting around on the internet I found this image and it's become one of my batch made Christmas cards.

Here you go:

Can you spot Rudolph!! Hubby couldn't, but then he is getting very old (private joke there, which will be explained between Christmas and the New Year).

I used:

Digi stamp:

Floppy Latte - Santa Sleigh Silhouette

Die:

Memory Box - Modern Landscape border

Anything else?

Martha Stewart glitter 

Glamour Dust

I'm just as busy next week, so again you might not see me very much but I will definitely be back mid-week.

Cheerio for now,

Sarah

Hello Christmas!!

and hello blogworld!

So here we are 1st of December, which means we are officially in Christmas time in the world according to Sarah!

Just to prove the point this is the first of two posts today - and they are both Christmas cards!!

Firstly - it's Saturday and so it's time for a new challenge over at Sweet Stampin and this week, along with the stamping of course, we'd like to see ribbons and snowflakes on your entries.

This week we have two great sponsors :

and:

Our regular monthly sponsor is:

The DT were allowed images to play with but ooh the trouble I had with this card!  I forgot that I had this image and spent a whole day colouring the wrong image. Luckily I can use that for something else, but boy was I mad when I realised what I'd done, that then set the whole tone for the card.

The die didn't work - so it's been chopped to pieces; the ink pad fell on the paper and smudged - so it became distressed; the snowflake wouldn't cut properly - please ignore the shabby looking-ness of it!!  Anyone want the card - I sure don't!!!

So here is the infamous card:
Front shot:

Arty farty side shot:

Arty farty two - to show glitter?

 I used:

Digi:

The Stamp Fairy - George and Friends

coloured with my Promarkers and Flexmarkers

Dies / Punches:

Nesties for the oval and scalloped oval

Martha Stewart border punch

Memory Box - snowflake

Papers:

crate paper - Pepermint Collection

Anything else?

Ribbon, gem and border thingy from my stuff

Craftwork cards - Kraft card blank

Right am off now but I'll be back in a mo!!

Sarah

A challenge, or two:

Wags 'n Whiskers Stamps: Challenge 93 - Christmas

Cute Card Thursday: Challenge 245 - Snowflakes

I love Promarkers: Challenge 145 - Anything Goes

Passion for Promarkers: Week 177 - Theme: Distressing

It's snowing!!

well over at Sweet Stampin it is anyway!!

Hi blogworld,

There you are!  It's been awhile hasn't it - I've been mired down with all that cleaning but by today (and which day is it again?!) I should be coming out the other side!  And to those of you saying please come clean my house - nope, no chance!!!  Of course in-between all that cleaning we've also been moving furniture around starting the long process of changing rooms - I'll be posting pictures and waffle on that subject very soon!

Now down to business - so why is it snowing over at Sweet Stampin well because the challenge this week is 'Snow People'.  So any sort of snowmen, women, children, etc - and stamping, don't forget the stamping - are the name of the game.

We are sponsored this week by:

 and

With our regular monthly sponsor, the wonderfullness that is:

So my card - Bugaboo were kind enough to let the DT pick an image each and this is my creation with my pick.

Front shot:

Close up arty farty:

sideways arty farty:

I used:

Digi stamp:

Bugaboo - JJ Calender Months - November

coloured with my Promakers

Dies/Punches:

Go-Kreate for the circles

A punch for the little mittens - but whose, I've no idea!

Papers:

I've blanked it out - it's not Christmas yet!!

Anything else?

Craftwork cards - card blank and sentiment

Glamour Dust

Viva Decor pen (which I smudged!)

So are you going to pop on over to the blog and join in then?  I do hope you do, you could win a fabbo prize and you will certainly see some wonderful DT inspiration.

Oh and I'm waaay behind with commenting, again!, I'm hoping to get round and see everyone over the weekend.  So hope y'all have a great weekend and see you soon.

Sarah

A challenge, or two:

Cupcake Craft Challenges: Cupcake 218 - Sketch

Crafty Catz Challenge Blog: Challenge #159 - Lets have sparkle

Crafts and Me Challenges: Challenge #110 - Untraditional Christmas colours

Can you see it?

the glitter that is!

Hello blogworld

Good morning on this lovely Sweet Stampin day!  Or Saturday as it's known out of blogworld ;-)  I wonder if you've got the theme for the new challenge yet?  No, well here's a clue - you generally manage to tip the pot of it all over your workspace when creating something using it!

Ah, yes!!  That would be glitter then - so the theme this week is 'All that glitters'.

We are sponsored this week by:

with a gift pack as the prize.

Our regular monthly sponsor is:

with a £10 voucher to spend in the shop.


Now I know a lot of you will use this as an excuse to make a Christmas card, I can't do that - it's not December!

So here is my glittery but not Christmassy card:

Front shot:

Close up of image:

The arty farty:

Trying to show the glitter - does it work?

I used:

Digi image:

Emma Canning: Flatfriend - Birthday Wishes

Papers:

First Edition - Summer Breeze (again!!)

Dies:

Memory Box - simple banner and Macarena corner

I'll get back to you about the border - I can't remember!

Anything else?

Glamour dust

flat back pearls from my stuff

We are now on the countdown back to school - will be nice to get my craft time back!  Although, in all honesty, it's been a very nice week off.  We've all managed to enjoy ourselves and I'm almost sad to see school go back (for once!!).

Have a good weekend all and I'll see you next week.

Sarah

A challenge, or two:

Sketch n Stash: Challenge 99 - The only new things on this are are the digi and the simple banner die - everything else I've had from a few months to more like 6 or 12 months!!

Stampin for the Weekend: Challenge 20 - Anything goes.

Card Makin Mamas: Anything goes.

Fussy and Fancy: Challenge 75 - Pearls and Flowers.

And a final....

Booo!

Hello blogworld,

Well haven't I been a busy bee this week - so many posts, when most weeks I post maybe one tops!  It may last till next week, but it won't the week after as She Who Must be Obeyed is off on half-term and we have grandad staying with us.

So it's Saturday and time for a new challenge over at Sweet Stampin.  This week the theme is 'wooohooo' and we are looking for your Halloween / spookified creations - with stamping on it please!!

Our sponsor this week is Letraset with a set of pens as the prize.

And our regular monthly sponsor Joanna Sheen and a £10 voucher to spend on-line.

This is the second boys birthday card with a Halloween-y touch.  Still practising my colouring with black clothes and I don't think I got it as well this time as the previous two, but love the greens!

Front shot:

Close up of image:

I used:

Digital stamp:

Pink Gem - Halloween Josh

coloured with my Promarkers

Dies / Punches:

Nesties

Marianne Designs - the corner

Martha Stewart - punch

Papers:

echo park - Chillingsworth Manor

Anything else?

Ribbon

Craftwork Cards - Card Candy (made to look like spiders)

Sentiment computer generated

There, I think that's the last Hallowen-y type card, but you never know - I've still got some of this paper pad left!!!!

Cheerio

Sarah

A challenge, or two:

Alphabet Challenge Blog: S for Skeletons, Spiders and spooky.  Well, I have spiders - albeit Card Candy ones!!

Stampin for the Weekend: Challenge 19 - Something Spooky

Fab 'n' funky Challenges: Challenge #143 - Black, Orange + choice.  My choice would be green!

Sketch n Stash: Challenge 98 - Angie's Sketch.  The image and papers are new - the ribbon and Card Candy are old, old, old!!  So old that I can't even remember when I got them!!!!

Windows....

Hello blogworld

Well that's been a few days since I was here hasn't it!  I wanted to say thank you for all the kind comments you left both about my last poor offering of a card and the fug I find myself in.

I think a lot of my dissatisfaction is down to state of my dining room (which is my crafting area), the fact we still have one kitten un-homed (and looking likely to stay un-homed for a long time!) and that there are lots of decisions to be made on the house front.  Not least of which is where do we start!  I do hope we are not the only people out there who have many more possessions than they ever thought they would have!  I think I can see a major, and by that I mean drastic, culling of my possessions (to include books and craft stuff!).

Anyway waffle, waffle, waffle!  Not the reason I'm here.

The proper reason is that there is a new challenge over at Sweet Stampin and this week the theme is 'through the window'.  Now you should've heard all the scratching of heads that went on over this theme!  My teamies have nailed it with wonderful examples - mine? Well, I'm still scratching.

So this week our sponsor is:

 

And our regular monthly sponsor is:

You want to scratch your heads too?  Well here it is:

Front view:

Arty farty - trying to show how I 3d'd the outer paper, trying to make a windowey type thingy - as at that point I was panicking that it wasn't windowey enough!

Do y'know I can't find the close up I took of the image.  I know I took one, but I just can't find it, I've probably deleted it!!

So, I used:

Digi stamp:

Milk n Coffee - Lisbeth and Mushroom house

coloured with my Promarkers

Dies:

Nestie

Paper:

Cosmo Cricket - Mini Deck: Pixie-Licious

Anything else?

3d gloss on the mushroom

fence die - freebie from Tracy at Dies to Die for

There we go, I'm sure once you see the examples from my teamies I'm sure you'll get the theme better. Then when you are there looking, why not pop in an entry - but please remember to stamp somewhere.

See you soon,

Sarah