Go Mikey!!

Lou's digital downloads are always worth waiting for and the latest collection (MIKEY) is no exception. Have a look here and then hop over to Charmed to get yours. You can see cards made using them at Dottie's World.

The best things about them for me are that:
1) there's no waiting for them to arrive in the post
2) you can re-size them to your needs
3) you have a choice of choosing them with a white background or transparent
4) they don't cost much
5) they'll make teen boys and young men's cards so much easier to make

Have I convinced you to get them yet? I have? You won't regret it. Just in case you need any more convincing though, here's a picture of the pre-coloured ones you get along with the black & white images for you to colour as you wish.


Thanks for looking
Take care, love and hugs
Sarah C xoxoxo

Take 3 Cards

I made an ATC the other day and decided to turn it into a birthday card for a friend. I've made it in advance, so have covered the sentiment or it would have given the game away somewhat! I cut an arched window aperture and stuck an ATC sleeve behind it to hold the ATC.

As some of you are aware, I have a wedding to go to on Saturday. After 20 months of planning, my little sister's getting married. I made this card for her which should arrive tomorrow (Friday). I've used a pre-coloured image from the back-to-front Dottie and George collection by Lou and available only from Charmed and printed it onto watercolour paper. I cut an arched aperture so that I could back the images and it would look like she really is looking out of the window. The open frames have been backed with acetate.

This card fits with My Time To Craft's latest challenge 'WOMAN'

Inside the front

The wording inside follows on from the front and reads: to go before your prince sweeps you off your feet and you become ..... Mrs Norman

Here's their wedding card. I've once again used pre-coloured images from the back-to-front Dottie and George collection by Lou, available from Charmed and printed onto watercolour paper. I wanted the card to be fun as that's what they're all about (as well as love of course!). And yes, I am safe putting these last 2 cards on here early as she doesn't have internet access at the moment and he's staying at his brother's.

Thanks for looking

Take care,  love and hugs to your all

Sarah C xoxo

Cards For Different Occasions

I've made 3 cards in the last 24 hours for such different occasions. I definately am not a card maker nowadays and much prefer doing scrap pages. Oh well, sometimes you just have to bite the bullet as they say, so here's the cards:

1)This is for my cousin's as it's her birthday on Saturday. I've glittered alternate stripes on the backing paper which you can just about see.

2) My youngest sister and her DH-to-be get the keys to their first home tomorrow and I want a card to be on the doormat when they first get there (please Royal Mail don't let me down). The house design was card lifted from a card by my friend Juliet. It's not half as good as her card is, but I had to go to plan B when my stupid computer wouldn't realise I'd put a disc in it's drawer with downloads on. I wanted to use the back to front Dottie and George on it!


3) This card's for my mum's cousin (see post below). I've tried to make it suitable for a man to receive, but have a touch of femininity and gentleness, hence the lace.

Thanks for looking

Lods of love and hugs

Sarah C xoxoxo

Challenges and more

One longish post from me again today everyone. I did some crafting on Saturday and came down poorly on Sunday, so never got it all photographed until today. A little too late now for one of the competitions and some of the challenge deadlines but never mind.

UKS weekly challenge last week - only managed 20 of the 30 points as I mis-read the main part and included the word FREE in my journalling not the title. Oh well, I tried!
Sketch This - LO using the sketch provided which I turned clockwise

Creativity Life - Competition to do a LO using scrumptious chocolate shades

Just Christmas and Birthday Cards - I managed to make the Christmas card this week using the sketch

Dottie's World - Last Sunday's challenge (told you some were late!) Fur or Feathers ~ image is by Lou and available exclusively from Charmed

Arty Girlz - Using a poem or verse on the front of whatever you craft

Papertake Weekly - Competition - Let It Snow
Cute Card Thursday - Competition - Snowflakes
DoCrafts - Last week's weekly card sketch challenge

My Time To Craft - Challenge - It's Raining, It's Pouring ~ image is one Lou kindly gave us on her blog a while ago
One Stop Craft Challenge - sketch which I turned (as usual!!)

Thanks for looking

Take care and I hope you are all well

Love and hugs

Happy as Larry ~ Busy as a Bee

Well, who wouldn't be happy if they were surrounded by stash and were crafting for the afternoon/evening? That's how I was. I had several challenges I wanted to do and yesterday was my 'catch-up' day. Here's what I did:

One Stop Craft Challenge ~ Theme - Petals
Mine are blooms I've cut and contained in an organza bag sealed with a heart

Cute Card Thursday ~ Theme - Red & Green

Papertake Weekly ~ Sketch

Just Christmas and Birthday ~ Sketch

Biker George is downloadable from Charmed

Card Positionings Systems ~ Sketch (CPS 90)

My Time To Craft ~ Theme - Snowmen (Dottie is available for download from Charmed)

Sketch This ~ Sketch (I've turned it round)

Arty Girls ~ Theme - something inspired by yours or someone elses blog
I've used my blog colours for the inspiration

Thanks for looking.

Take care,

Love and hugs

Christmas and Birthday

Just Christmas and Birthday Cards' Challenge Sketch on Monday was this

So, a Christmas and a Birthday card with it. Here's what I made:

I've made pockets inside this card and popped the green card in there just to show you. At this stage, I have no idea what I'm going to put in them, but I know that I'll come up with something. maybe a stamped and watercoloured image on one side and the wording on the other? A lovely poem perhaps? I'll be sure to show you when I've done it though. And yes, I have noticed the pink ink on the inside! I'm going to use the ink to add a distressed look to the white of the card before I give it away. Mistakes happen for a reason.

Thanks for looking

Take care

Love and hugs

More Cards and Challenges

This must be a record for me. Usually if I've made this amoaunt of cards in a week, it's because I'm crafting for someone else or because I'm in a rush to get some done. This time it's because I've decided to join in with some card challenges and make some cards 'just because'. I've spent the last few months concentrating on scrapbooking and have made about 80 lay-outs since the middle of March this year. Card making took a back seat and now I've got re-newed interest in them.

Both images are pre-coloured from the fantastic and amazing animal magic download bundle available by Lou and available exclusively from Charmed. To see more, visit Dottie's World.

First card is using Donald Donkey and made for the Sketch Saturday 1st November challenge. They had an added challenge of using Autumn colurs too. I've used yellow, brown, rust, bronze and gold. The yellow is actually a little lighter, but no matter what I did, I could not get it to look any better. Even using an editing programme didn't help much. The ribbons are gold satin.

I'm just a little late with this next challenge, but I loved the look of the sketch and wanted to make a card using it. The sketch is from Papertake Weekly and is the 13th October challenge. Told you I was a little late didn't I? I have some new vellum glue and put too much on the left corner, so the vellum wrinkled. Because of this, I decided that I could cover it with the sentiment and that itself flipped the sketch over. Simple to change and problem solved.

The multi-toned blue organza ribbon is gorgeous and was in the blog candy I got a while ago from the lovely Emma. I also used red organza, brads and a rub-on sentiment. The image is 'Home Tweet Home'.

Thanks for looking

Love and hugs

Catch Up, But No Craft To Show

Sometimes life is a series of hills and mountains that need climbing. After getting (almost) over my virus, I'm jobless!. I never got the one at Cambridge or one they put me in for at Histon. I got asked if I'd like my CV putting forward for one at Papworth, but I can't get there on the bus and don't have daily access to a car. So, here I am waiting to hear if I can get Job Seeker's Allowance and Housing Benefit again. Until then, I'm living off the money I saved from the work I have done this year! I did have details of a job that; if I got it, would have set me up for the next phase of my life. But, after ringing a mobile several times to be told the inbox was full, I found out that they'd had at least 100 people ring and were ploughing through them before opening it up again, if at all! Until a job comes along and inbetween job hunting, I'm free to talk to and see family and friends, catch up with my friends on forums, blog and blog hop and of course craft!!!

After 2 weeks of being mostly indoors, I've been lucky enough to have 3 days out and about where I've taken some Autumn photos. Don't faint, but I've even managed to update my photo blog with some of them.

I spent 2 days/evenings making some Christmas cards this week. One of my sisters had hoped to have a stall at a local fete. She asked if I'd like her to try and sell some of my cards in return for looking after her children while she did it. Of course I said yes. The chance to have some time with my niece and nephews was enough, but it had the added prospect of maybe making a little money. Unfortunately it never happened, so I'm left with quite a few cards looking for homes. My plan B is to see if David's Dad still wants some cards to sell at his church to raise some funds and split the proceeds. Will be good if he says yes, but I have a plan C which is to keep them and add to them over the year and then have a stall myself somewhere.

That's my catch-up. See you here again soon.

Take care, love and hugs

I'm Back !!!!

Well, I'm finally back in the land of blogging. I missed you guys and did a huge blog hop yesterday. I so hope I never missed any of you, but if I did please feel free to remind me you're there.

While I was away, Ruth very kindly gave me the Wylde Women Award. Thank you so much Ruth. It means a lot to get these awards. I've been lucky enough to have been award it in July too and am awarding it to everyone who's kind enough to stop by my blog.

You may notice a couple of changes to my blog, but that's because I tried out a different background yesterday and everything went crazy!!! I've lost my slideshow for one :( Oh well, at least I'm here to tell the tale :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've been busy crafting while I've been away. Here's some of the things I've done:

My mum and youngest sister getting on the coach after a day out quite a few years ago! I've used very little to make this: 2 sheets of paper from a Papermania paper pack, 1 sheet of white Bazzill, Ellison Tag-A-Long, Alpha-in-a-box die-cut alphabet, 2 sunglass buttons, blackpen.

This one was for a challenge on UKS. Brief was:

* Something hidden = 5pts ~ journalling behind the photo

* 4 and 2 of something = 5pts ~ 4 different papers and 4 photo corners / 2 photos of the scores and 2 brads

* circles = 10pts ~ a circle tag on the bottom right

* sport/activity photo = 10pts ~ mum and I playing air hockey on holiday

This one was for the next challenge on UKS. The brief this time was:

* Use Becky Fleck round page map sketch pictured here - 10pts ~ yep, but upside down
* Use 5 of something - 5pts ~ 5 different papers/card (red bazzill card for the base / pale green paper / striped paper (free with a mag) / circley card (WeRMemoryKeepers) / dark red card for the journalling)
* Scrap a celebration or a achievement - 5pts ~ photo was taken Sunday at Ian's 21st party
* Include pink - 5pts ~ on the stripe paper
* Use glitter and / or bling - 5pts ~ bling on the ribbon down the centre

Journalling on the red card says "How many lads does it really take to put up a". Leading to the title "Swingball" on the PP.


I have done 2 more LOs. One was using a large photo of Joshua which won't be on here as if I cover him up it will lose the look of the LO and the other is for the house challenge on UKS which I'm leaving unveiled to you all until nearer the end of the uploading time for it. You've only until the end of next week, so that's not long. I'm not showing you as it's so different to my usual style and it means I can tweak it if I feel the need to.

I've done a box for a challenge on 3C's set by my friend and blogging pal Tee. She said:

My Second Challange is for you to decorate an item to make it your own..whether it be a ready made wooden or cardboard item or even an old food container..re-vamp it to use it!

The extra bits for this challange are as follows:

1. Use paint...Acrylic or any other you want to use. ~ black acrylic paint for the inside of my box

2. Use something recycled on your item. ~ I've triple heat-embossed some mesh (gold and black) that David uses to do some repairs on his car

3. Use something metal on your item also ~ the coin on top is metal

I'm using it to hold the things I need to pick-up before I leave the hose and often forget ~ ear-rings and memory stick with my music on for in the car.

Last, but not least here's the cards I made to take with me on Sunday. Appologies for the bad photos.

I hadn't realised how long this post would be when I started, so thank you if you managed to get to the end without falling asleep LOL

I've Finished My Christmas Crafting

I never thought I'd say I've finished my Christmas crafting, but I have, so I can. My nephew is Arsenal mad and Niece is High School Musical mad, so I've made them cards, fridge magnets and door plaques. Hope they like them.

Here's my first attempt at a star card (I think that's what they're called) with it's box

Just so I can give Lou another mention, here's the last 2 curvy cards I made

That's my crafting and probably blogging finished until Boxing Day. Off this afternoon to deliver a couple of cards and presents, then hopefully a relaxing evening before the big day. I'll be spending Christmas Day at Mum's and coming home Boxing Day - hopefully with new crafting goodies if Santa's been listening to me!

I hope you all have a very merry and safe Christmas

xxx