Suzie's 365 14: guilty pleasure

14: guilty pleasure - This picture says it all really - I love any dark chocolate:



I won these at the raffle at John's bowls club lunch the other day. Perhaps I over-indulged because I'm really suffering atm with a flare up of diverticulitis.

CHNC challenge 55: use a digital image and/or paper

I can hardly believe that a week has gone by since my last challenge and here we are today with challenge 55 on my CHNC blog. If you don't know what I'm talking about, why not follow the link and join in - thanks to some great sponsors that are supporting me, I'm now able to give a prize every week to a randomly-chosen winner.

Challenge 55 is being sponsored by Bugaboo Stamps more information here.

I made a set of five cards for this challenge using a lovely digi supplied by Bugaboo Stamps called 'Christmas words Noel'. I digitally coloured the image in Paint, adding strips of double sided tape on the sides. I then peeled the backing off separately to add Art Institute glitter. The cards are A5 folded sideways (so I can use up some more of those envies - you can see them here).

Two of Bugaboo Stamps team - kindly joined in the challenge, although, unfortunately, I failed to stress that it was a Christmas challenge blog, so their cards are not for Christmas, but, nonetheless, they are gorgeous - you can see them here and here - thank you, Cheryl and Rae Anne.

I'm also entering these cards into the following challenges:

ABC Christmas: A for anything goes
Sparkles forum Christmas challenge 12: Christmas stockings
Shopping our stash 34: all that glitters, sparkles or shines
Chocolate, coffee & cards 4: glitter latte - show some glitter
Sweet stampin: all that glitters
Card caravan (the hybrid chick) 10: sparkle
Friendship's garden 7: clean and simple
Bizzy Becs January: anything goes

Gingerloft 31: anything goes

Lexi 56: anything goes

Inspire me Fridays 41

Make my Monday 71

Suzie's 365 13: inside your fridge

Today Suzie is asking us to show inside our fridge. So here is my 13: inside your fridge - I decided to show what's on the inside of the door:

 You can tell that a diabetic lives here - jars of Dalfour sugar-free jam, sugar-free jelly and on the top shelf is the most important of all, insulin:

Friday fill-ins

I came across Friday fill-ins via Suzie's blog (thanks, Suzie for the link), so here are my 'fill-ins':

1. When I looked out the window this morning I saw frost.
2. War doesn't make sense to me.
3. Remind me to get back to my diet.
4. Crafting is something I love to do!
5. TP is toilet paper.
6. I cleaned the refrigerator recently and I found some shrivelled carrots.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to watching a bit of television, tomorrow my plans include some crafting and Sunday, I want to go to church.

Why not go over to Friday fill-ins and join in?

Catch up for Suzie's 365

I'm a day or two behind with Suzie's 365 photo prompts (well, a bit more than a day or two), so I thought I'd have a bit of a catch up before I get too far behind.

Day 9: water - straight from the tap:

Day 10:  metallic - I keep pens in lots of these metallic containers:

Day 11: an item of clothing - a dress that I've kept from my childhood (nor really sure why!):

Day 12: translucent - never before have I taken lots of photos of the back of a No. 7 compressed powder compact:

So now I've caught up I'll try and do something for the prompt each day!

Thanks, Suzie, for this initiative and inspiration.

WOYWW 136

I know that a lot of regular visits to my blog from the WOYWW gang probably think that I'm tidy most of the time. Well, I thought I'd show you my workspace after my crafting yesterday.

WOYWW - if you don't know what I'm talking about - surely there's no one left who doesn't - then click on the link and go to Julia's blog and have a peep at everyone's workspace ... and join in the fun.

Anyway, back to my workspace, as you can see there are things all over the place, including the floor (and you can't see the other side of the room). This will be tidied up though before I start any more crafting because I like to put things back in their places and start with a clear space.

The photos aren't very clear, but perhaps that's just as well - lol! (although, if you really want to, you can click on them to enlarge).

Those who visited last week for WOYWW will remember that I showed stacks of long envies - well, I'm making a very small effort to make some more cards that are A5 folded lengthways - you can see in front of my keyboard that there are some cards ready to be done - you can only see a little peek of what's going to be put on them because they are for my CHNC challenge 55 which will go live on Saturday morning, so I'm not showing them yet. If anyone's interested in joining in and making Christmas cards throughout the year, please visit my CHNC blog - the current challenge is here.

I don't quite know how I did it, but I got round to visit most WOYWWers last week - not sure whether I'll do so well this week, but I'll try. Thank you for all those who visit me and leave comments - they are much appreciated.

Vellum Valentine

This is for the sketch on The house that stamps built What if? Wednesday D2811:

The card was also inspired by The perfect sentiment challenge 13: vellum Valentines - to use a sentiment for Valentines (love) and include some vellum. The background paper is an offcut of some crinkly paper that I've had for ages and the roses oval was torn round a template using an offcut of vellum. The LOVE sentiment is chipboard, the three hearts from stash. My xyron came in handy for sticking the background crinkly paper and also the vellum oval.

Colours are for Cards and things 103 (hope the silver is OK for the grey):

This is also for:

Heart song inspirations 30: torn paper
Pixie's crafty snippets 2
Aud sentiments 45: any sentiments but you must use your scraps
Pink elephant 130: hearts
Delightful: have a heart
My time to craft 170: hugs & kisses - love
Just Tracy January: love is in the air
Lily pad: chipboard challenge
Let's craft and create 35: anything goes
House of gilli 23: anything goes
Cupcake craftroom January: anything goes
Bizzy Becs January: anything goes
Art impressions 46: anything goes
CES 67: anything goes
Gingerloft 31: anything goes
Lexi 56: anything goes
Inspire me Fridays 40
Make my Monday 71

Thanks a bunch

For this card I've followed the sketch for More than favors wacky Wednesday 62 (a new challenge to me):

The red die cut label shape is matted on to a gold foiled one which, unfortunately, is very difficult to get a photograph, so it looks dark here whereas irl it is a reflective gold. The stamp (don't know the make) was inked with versamark and heat embossing detail gold. The lace, ribbon, sentiment and gems are from sstash and the flowers were part of the prize I won from Crafty Ribbons - you can read about it here. Thank you, so much, Crafty ribbons - I'm linking this for Crafty Ribbons 10: new beginnings. So I've used something old and something new, which is good for these challenges:

Corrosive 140: ring in the new year - something brand new (the flowers)
Fashionable stamping 12: anything goes using your new stash
Cupcake craft 174: something new
Lollipop crafts: anything new goes
Stamps R us: new crafty goodies
Freshly brewed January: use something new
Simon says: new something
Cute card Thursday 198: what's new
Fairytale 32: something new
Crazy4challenges 118: use something new
Cardmakin mamas: something new you received
Crafty calendar January: new news - new stash
Shelly's terrifically thrilling Thursday: out with the old, in with the new
Order of the opus gluei 121: out with the old and in with the new
Digistamps4joy 34: anything (something old, something new) goes

It's also for:

One stop craft 164: bingo - I chose the diagonal line flowers, diecuts, embossing
Paper creations ink 16: die cuts and/or punches
Lothian January 22: die cuts
One stitch at a time 95: use embellishments
Crazy challenge 101: lace and/or pearls
Cutie pie 9: ribbons & lace
Scrappy frogs: lace
Crafty creations 151: let's heat it up with heat embossing
Dancing in pajamas TCP: embossing
Clear it out Tuesday: thank you card - with bonus of using ribbon
Really reasonable ribbon 39: sparkle & ribbon
C.R.A.F.T. 136: thank you
Crop stop: go for the gold
Let's craft and create 35: anything goes
House of gilli 23: anything goes
Cupcake craftroom January: anything goes
The paper shelter 45: anything goes
Bizzy Becs January: anything goes
Art impressions 46: anything goes
CES 67: anything goes
Gingerloft 31: anything goes
Lexi 56: anything goes
Anything goes 58: anything goes at anything goes
Inspire me Fridays 40
Make my Monday 71

Victorian woman ATC

For this ATC I've used the Victorian woman digital image from Papercraft star, some lace from stash, some tiny buttons and a background run through my cuttlebug with a spotty embossing folder swiped with dusty concord DI. The original was a geyscale picture and I changed this to a muted purple in Publisher.

This is for:

Friendship's garden 7: ATCs (I was amazed and delighted that I was given a special award that you can see on this link)
Think Monday think ATC: with dots
Wee memories 82: minis - nothing bigger than 4 x 4
Crazy challenge 101: lace and/or pearls

Simply purple

I love crafting with purple, so I wasn't going to miss the opportunity to take part in Less is more 49: colour challenge: predominantly purple.

The lovely funstamps 'fuchsia round' was stamped with versamark and heat embossed with detail silver for Crafty creations 151: let's heat it up with heat embossing. The image was then colours with marvy le plum alcohol pens - I used a very light green, almost grey, for the leaves so it didn't detract from the purple.

The background was created with a Creative Expressions crackle embossing folder which was then swiped with dusty concord DI. This is for Dancing in pajamas TCP: embossing., also for Samuel Taylors January: distress.

Simply party on your special day

This is a quick and simple card made with some wallpaper sample background and some Express yourself glittered stickers and a pearlised silver sentiment.

Colours are for Sketchy colors 99:

This is for:


Pixie dust studio 108: mono-tize-it
The craft garden January: monochrome
Going grey with Scrap-creations: glitter
Shopping our stash 34: all that glitters, sparkles or shines
All kinds of cards 44: party
Getting cricky simply Sunday challenge: it's a celebration
Alota 74:  C celebration
Lollipop crafts: anything new goes (got the stickers yesterday)
Ladybug 51: anything goes using your new stash
Anything goes 58: anything goes at Anything goes
St Luke's January: :new year, new start - a new lease of life for a sample piece of wallpaper
Crafty cardmakers 59: no floral embellisments

Christmas shopping

No, I haven't been Christmas shopping - lol! - it's the lady on my card - a decoupaged Jolly Nation character. The background paper is DCWV. This is for Winter wonderland: let's go shopping - and another for Jingle belles: no time like the present(s) - by the smile on her face it looks as though this lady has managed to get some of the presents on her list.

This is also for:


Let's craft and create 35: anything goes
House of gilli 23: anything goes
Cupcake craftroom January: anything goes
Papertake: anything goes
Blog a doodle: anything goes
The paper shelter 45: anything goes
Bizzy Becs January: anything goes
Art impressions 46: anything goes
CES 67: anything goes
Gingerloft 31: anything goes
Lexi 56: anything goes
Inspire me Fridays 40
Make my Monday 71

That important date again

Following on from the last 'save the date' card, this is another that emphasises the 25th as an important day - another one for City crafter 90: save the date.

This time I've used sketch 1 for 52 Christmas card throwdown:

I've also gone with the numbers theme for Moxie fab world Tuesday trigger: by the numbers, where this photo prompt was given:

Papers are from My Mind's Eye Christmas Glitter book and the Santa is a chipboard element.

This is also for:


Drunken stampers 80: glittery holiday
Card caravan (the hybrid chick) 10: sparkle
Let's craft and create 35: anything goes
House of gilli 23: anything goes
Cupcake craftroom January: anything goes
Papertake: anything goes
Blog a doodle: anything goes
The paper shelter 45: anything goes
Bizzy Becs January: anything goes
Art impressions 46: anything goes
CES 67: anything goes
Gingerloft 31: anything goes
Lexi 56: anything goes
Inspire me Fridays 40
Make my Monday 71

Save the date

City crafter 90: save the date made me think straight away of 25 December, so here is a Christmas card that incorporates that all important date.

The background paper is My mind's eye Lost and Found Christmas trees. The elements I've used are chipboard, so this is also for CAS-ual Friday 34: chip off the ol' block - a clean and simple card using chipboard.

It's another entry for Sparkles forum Christmas 12: Christmas stockings - and another for Jingle Belles: no time like the present(s) (the presents in the stockings).

A big apology:

I had quite a few other links for this card, but somehow, unfortunately, I've deleted them - I am so embarrassed about this and sincerely apologise to those challenge blogs involved.

Black and white Christmas

I love black and white cards, so it was no trouble to make a card for Crimbo crackers 6: black and white. The background is a piece of wallpaper, so this is also for my own CHNC challenge 54 to 'give something a new lease of life' - recycle something - also for St Luke's January: new year, new start - to give a new lease of life to something.

The glittered and silver foiled stockings are from an old kit, the glittered stars are left overs from an Anna Griffin kit and I can't remember where the sentiment came from.

This is also for:

Christmas cards all year round January: non-traditional colours
Sparkles forum Christmas 12: Christmas stockings
The pixie cottage 102: monochromatic
Pixie dust studio 108: mono-tize-it
The craft garden January: monochrome
Drunken stampers 80: glittery holiday
Card caravan (the hybrid chick) 10: sparkle
Some odd girl: bling me - glitter and silver foiling
Let's craft and create 35: anything goes
House of gilli 23: anything goes
Cupcake craftroom January: anything goes
Papertake: anything goes
Blog a doodle: anything goes
The paper shelter 45: anything goes
Bizzy Becs January: anything goes
Art impressions 46: anything goes
CES 67: anything goes
Gingerloft 31: anything goes
Lexi 56: anything goes
Inspire me Fridays 40
Make my Monday 71

So far so good ...

... although it's only 9 January - lol!

I've managed to keep to my crafty resolutions so far  (you can see my crafty resolutions here) - I've been using up scraps (although, admittedly, I've accumulated others because I've cut into new papers), I've been making Christmas cards ... and this morning I spent time putting inserts in, labelling and bagging the cards I've made since last Monday.

I wonder how long this will last?

Lovely goodies

I've been so fortunate lately to be the winner of some fab prizes for challenges. The stamps on the right are from Victorine, I bough the embossing folders with a voucher for Joanna Sheen from Rainbow Lady and the bag of goodies on the left arrived this morning from Crafty Ribbons.

I've also won lots of digital images recently, some of which you've already seen and some will be used soon, no doubt.

Caroling snowmen

This is for Seems a little sketchy 3:

The image is 'caroling snowmen', which is one that I chose from Meljens as part of my prize for winning Meljens challenge 89, so this is for Shopping our stash 33: use a Meljen's image.

This was a ready-coloured image and I thought it would go well with the offcuts of Papermania lemon sorbet papers that I had left over from the previous card, so this is for Pixie's crafty snippets 2 and There she goes 137: new year, new new start - depicting your new year resolutions - to use up scraps and Creative craft: resolutions -  to use up scraps (you can see my crafty resolutions here)

The snowflakes were made with a woodware punch.

This is also for:

Paper creations ink 16 die cuts and/or punches
Pollycraft 121: punch it
Creative card crew 1: snow day
Everybody art: snow
Creative belli 134: snowflakes
Do you stack up 53: let it snow
My craft spot 39: winter wonderland
Christmas cards all year round January: non-traditional colours

Welcome baby

This card is for the sketch on Paper makeup 17:

The digi image from Bugaboo stamps called 'baby stroller' is one that I won for a challenge on Top tip Tuesday - I coloured the image digitally on computer in Paint; the papers and tiny buttons on the wheels are Papermania lemon sorbet, with just the addition of the bow with gem, the punched scalloped order and flower border. As I've used a bugaboo stamp this is another entry for Catch the bug January: anything goes.

It's also for:

Glitter geeks 1: hand in hand - things that go together - spots and stripes
Daisy doodles 50: new beginnings
For fun: new something - baby
Digi doodle shops best 89: new beginnings
Dutch dare 146: new beginnings
That craft place 3: buttons and bows
Gingersnap GC132 colour challenge: soft yellows and white

Suzie's 365 8: cosy

As soon as I saw Suzie's prompt for today I thought of an old photo of Oscar and Nelson. Oscar was John's first guide dog (sadly died last year) and Nelson was the cat we had then, who sadly got run over one day.

The big bed, of course, belonged to Oscar, but Nelson used to barge his way in as if he owned it and if he insisted on stretching out, Oscar would just get out and let the cat take over.

8: cosy:

I had a fun time with this card

When I saw yesterday's challenge on Sugar creek 'let's save some trees' I thought  'NO WAY!' - they were asking us to re-purpose paper towels, toilet paper or coffee filters! Well, I don't have coffee filters, so I was left with the choice of kitchen paper towel or toilet paper. I remembered that mum had some fancy Christmas toilet paper given to her, so I thought perhaps I could get some from her, but she might well have used it up by now.

Anyway, I put the challenge to the back of my mind, thinking it was one I wouldn't be taking part in. However, I'm still quite unwell with this chest infection (a bit better, thank goodness), so I was unable to go out to church this morning. I was miffed about that, but the bonus was that I was here to watch Barbara Gray of Clarity stamps on Create & Craft. One of the things she did today was to scrunch up tissue, distress it and sandwich it between acetate with a coloured-in stamped image. This gave me the idea of use some already-embossed kitchen towel paper, which I swiped with victorian velvet and then dusty concord and chipped sapphire DIs:

Having done this I found a piece of acetate that I've had for ages and ages - it already had silver foiled flowers on it, so I just coloured them with copic V09. I then stamped the Clarity stamp lady with Stazon ultramarine (having had a try first with some versafine that didn't stay put) and very lightly coloured with copic V04 - this was done on the 'wrong side' so there could be no smearing. I then ran this through my Xyron (I'm so glad I have this for tasks like this) and matted on to an offcut piece of lilac paper which has a slightly distressed look to it. This was then mounted on to a piece of 'oil on water' card that looks pink in some light and more purple in another. A couple of brads were added at two corners - so this is also for Paper pretties 187: use brads or eyelets, and Mark's finest papers speedy fox and friends 89: use brads of eyelets.

Then came the learning curve! I didn't want to just put the kitchen paper straight on to card because I'm sure it would have become tatty very quickly so I ran a piece of acetate through the Xyron and stuck the kitchen paper to it. Meanwhile, I backed an 8 x 8 card with some of the 'oil on water' card (I had gutted the inside of this because I only had one piece).

Then on to the final step - ah! this is where the learning curve really kicked in! I ran the acetate through the Xyron so that the kitchen paper towel side got sticky - laid it on the card only to find that, because the kitchen towel is 2-play, the bottom part stuck the card but started to come away from the top piece - I managed to rescue this by gently using my trusty ATG glue tape gun.

So, here it is - a large 8 x 8 card:

As well as the challenge on Sugar Creek, I'm linking this for these challenges that ask for something old and/or something new - the old being the supplies I used and the new being the new technique of using kitchen paper towel:

Crafts by Carolyn forum TTC12-01: something old, something new
Corrosive 140: ring in the new year
Order of the opus gluei 121: out with the old and in with the new (house button is very old, stamp is new)
Stamps R us: anything goes
Digistamps4joy 34: anything (something old, something new) goes
Freshly brewed January: use something new (technique)
My mum's craft shop 38: something new (technique)
Simon says: new something
Cute card Thursday 198: what's new (technique)
Fairytale 32: something new (technique)
Crazy4challenges 118: new year - new technique
Di's digis: it's all new (technique)
Our daily bread 91: in with the new, out with the old
Crafty calendar January: new news (technique)
St Luke's January: new year, new start - give new lease of life to something (piece of kitchen paper towel)

Also for:

Sparkles forum 27: anything but a Christmas card
Getting cricky simply Sunday challenge: it's a celebration
Alota 74: A, B or C - B birthday, C celebration
Kaboodle 100: let's celebrate
Critter 96: celebrations
Tuesday throwdown 79: shiny new year - something shiny
Craft your passion 91: anything goes + distressing
Let's craft and create 35: anything goes
House of gilli 23: anything goes
Heart song 29: anything goes
The pink elephant 129: anything goes
Cupcake craftroom January: anything goes
Papertake: anything goes
Blog a doodle: anything goes
The paper shelter 45: anything goes
Bizzy Becs January: anything goes
Art impressions 46: anything goes
CES 67: anything goes
Dream valley 23: anything goes
Gingerloft 31: anything goes
Inspire me Fridays 40
Make my Monday 71