2 Border collies and a table

I usually like to post in the morning - I'm a bit of an early bird and love the peace and quite while everyone else is asleep. I never have been one of those who can lie in, not even when I was a teenage. Before I joined blogland I use to take Ice for her walk about 5.30am but now I find myself stopping at my computer ( just to check something ), next thing I know it's time to get Robin up and ready for school. This morning however I couldn't get my photos loaded so had to leave it.

This is a bit of a cheats card since the  K&Co Hopscotch paper looked too good  to spoil with  any extras. The stamp is another from Jayne Netley Mayhew and a joy to work with. Stamped and embossed in black, eyes and tongue coloured with Promarkers , cut out, layered up - job done! 

Similar idea here but this time using purples and lime greens. Birthday tag  printed from Silhouette .

Yesterdays animal charity dog show was less nerve racking than I expected and although I didn't sell that many ( 12 ) nearly everyone who took the time to look actually bought one.  As I have mentioned before I have an outlet at a pet parlour ( hence lots of animals on my cards rather than cute characters ) well one good thing was that another lady doing the same thing asked me if she could have a set for her shop too. Wow, what a compliment. Biggest problem is it's the other side of Plymouth and I'd probably spend all my profit on petrol getting them to her. It may be cheaper for me to post her a batch. 

My set up before the sale. What you can't see in this picture is the water coming off the  canopy! At least it did clear up and the sun came out later.

Challenges Alphabet - D is for dog
Here comes the boys - Father's day, husband, partener
Charisma cardz 21 - boy oh boy
  Crafty Emma's 38 - embossing
Do You Stack Up  21 - animmals

Are you ready for tomorrow's special event at Julia's blog for WOYWW  PIF  - I'm relieved to say my gift is ready to be sent. I can breath a big sigh of relief.
See you tomorrow.

More HM to sell

Only a very quick posting this morning as today's the day when I do my first ever sale. I'm really nervous! I'll let you know later how it went. In the meantime here are a couple of cards I made yesterday. 

I love these new House Mouse sheets since the characters are larger - some of the earlier ones were a bit fiddly to cut.

Orange flowers were coloured with orange glimmer mists and layered with textured  card  and finished with a  gem.

Hope the cocoa's not too hot!

I wish I was the big fat mouse ( or perhaps the cheeky one in the jar )

Well hope you all have an enjoyable Bank Holiday whatever you do.

Christening card and another House Mouse

It's been a busy week.  Card making, PIF gift being made, painting MIL's bathroom while she's away,  shopping/coffee with friends, and a card making workshop yesterday. 

My great niece is being christened so I made this completely using my Craft Robo, it was printed first then cut. How simple is that? Well actually it took me about 3 failed attempts before I got it right but I'm pleased with the final result.

Another House Mouse card - don't they look like they're having fun. I'm trying to do as many of these before the charity sale on Monday but I've been a bit busy making my Pass It Forward gift for next weeks big event. If you think I've gone mad then check it out on Julia's blog here to see what I'm talking about. I struggled with what I was going to make but once I got started I'm really enjoying making it. You'll have to wait a bit longer to see it. I've only  until Wednesday to finish it. Yikes - I better get a move on.

Materials

House Mouse decoupage

MS border punch

LOTV sentiment

Nestability - Lotus

Marianne swirl 

Challenges

Christening card - Papertake Weekly - pale pretty pastels

House Mouse - Paper Pretties PWC 155 - birthday card

Hope you all have a great bank holiday weekend - are you doing anything special?

Love Teresa x

WOYWW 103

House mouse everywhere - no stamping this week. I know these are fiddly to cut out but I actually find it very therapeutic cutting out at coffee time or while watching the TV. I love HM decoupage and have every single set, I make them to sell and sell they do everytime . As soon as there're seen they are snapped up first. Since I have the animal charity sale on Monday ( scary - as I said before I've never sold face to face before ) it will be House Mouse Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday!!! 
Hope you won't get bored. Normal service will resume soon.
What's on my desk? Lots of bits and pieces, 2 cards in kit form, lovely resin embelishments I bought but haven't used yet, 3mm ribbon ( 10p in a charity shop ) which I colour with my Pro's, wordy bits to put in the cello bag saying what's written in the card, and of course my ipod so I can listen to audio stories while I work. I'm currently listening to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for about the 10th time - I have them all and it's a bit like painting the Forth Bridge. I must add I do listen to other stories inbetween too.

I thought I'd show you the other end of my desk where all the electronic work goes on. I've bought this lovely book called Paper Boutique which shows you how to make the most gorgeous paper flowers using punches. The only problem now is do I start buying the punches - I know it will be the start of something else to spend my sons inheritance on!

I thought since I'm making more than I'm posting at the moment I'd slip in this finished HM for you. It's very simple but Oh so sweet.

The backing paper is some I bought in bulk from Anna Griffin, card edge coloured with Sunflower Pro, a strip of ribbon and 3 pieces in appropriate colours, sentiment, gold matt et voila card done.

Hope you all have a Happy WOYWW today. I'm off to have a nosey - you can too at Julia's Stamping Ground.

C&S Kraft Animals

The title should cover the challenges I'm entering with this.

I hope you aren't getting bored with these animal cards but they are lovely stamps to work with. Of course they're Jayne Netley Mayhew again. I've coloured them with Promarkers in various shades of brown and warm greys, layered up the two in the front for dimension and kept it C&S using Kraft card for the matt and circle frame with the Shapabilities buckle. I think the BP is from DCWV All Dressed Up collection.

Challenges

Alphabet Challenge - C for Clean and Simple

Cute Card Thursday - Use Kraft card

I Love Promarkers - Animals

If the Shoe Fits - C&S

Sarah Hurley - use a frame ( hope this counts )

Buttercup Thanks

So much for the lovely sunny start to Saturday it must have been some of the windiest weather for months. Fun when we were trying to put an awning up which was new and trying to follow instructions that were probably translated from Chinese! What about a picture says a thousand words? Well at least we kept the people watching entertained for a couple of hours. LOL 
Yippee 2 wins in one weekend how lucky am I.  Spent ages then going back to see if I'd won any others since I realised I hadn't been checking all of my entries.

I'm not so sure of this buttercup image as I don't find it bold enough to stand out but I'd alredy coloured it with Twinkling H2O's so thought I'd make a Thank You card which is always useful. I found the image a bit flat so I added extra flowers which were this time coloured with Promarkers to give a more vibrant yellow. 

Materials

Jayne Netley Mayhew stamp

My Mind's Eye - Summer papers

Cuttlebug Swiss dots - on Coredinations and distressed

Nestability scalloped circle - Glimmer mist spritzed

Spellbinders pendants - Lotus

Flowers - cut/punched edged in lime ink

Marianne die - swirl

Challenges

Papertake Pretties PWC 154 - flowers

Papertake Weekly - something floral

I'm so excited

I'm so excited because I came in the top 3 of Polka Doodles challenge with my owl easel card. I couldn't believe it when I saw my name. You see I never win anything - if there were 20 raffle prizes and 21 tickets I'd be number 21. Now if it was the OH he's really lucky ( not lucky enough to win the lottery though unfortunately). Now if he did what would I buy? Grand Calipur, Copics, Nestabilities ......

OK enough dreaming here's today's card using one of the cute Lili of the Valley squares and following the lovely sketch from Moving Along With the Times.

Materials

LOTV - die cut squares

LOTV round sentiment stamp

My minds eye BP - summer

Nestabilities 

Versa magic chalk ink - Pixie dust

Versacolor - Lime

Xcut flower punch

gems

glamour dust on flowers

MAWTT sketch 99

Challenges

MAWTT sketch

LOTV - Here comes summer

Charisma Cardz - birthdays in pink

Truly Scrumptious - AG

Hope you all have a great weekend and I'll see you soon.

Luv Teresa x

Black and White Badger

Morning Chicks. It's a lovely sunny morning here in the SW of England and I believe we're in for a good weekend which is great as we're going away in our camper to Woodlands adventure park. Robin is taking a friend so he'll be happy and I can do some stamping and colouring - sheer bliss.

I'm on a roll - another badger card today.

I love this card - black and white always looks so effective. Having said that it took me ages to get the BP right, most combinations just looked too dark. The badger is embossed, so simple as yesterday no colouring here. This ought to be for a 1,2,3 challenge if I'd found one.

Materials

Badger stamp - Jayne Netley Mayhew

Nestabilities die - labels 1

Shapabilities - Fleur de lis

Sizzix - decorative corner

Cuttlebug - swiss dots

Papermania backing paper

Challenges

Lexi's Creations - spots and stripes

A Spoonful of Sugar - AG

Cards for Men - for someone special

Scrapbook sisters -  B+W
The Shabby Tea Room - Monochromatic

I always appreciate it if you leave me a comment,  then I can visit your blog too! Many thanks for coming to visit. 
Happy Crafting  Hugs Teresa x

Animal cards to sell

Well here's that hidden card for you to see. It's another Jayne Netley Mayhew stamp which is so simple I'm almost embarrassed to post it. Simple because it's just embossed with black - that's it, no colouring at all. but oh so appealing. I had planned to make it into a man's card but I just loved it with these colours and if I tweaked it a bit could fulfill two challenge sketches in one.
You'll be seeing more animal cards over the next couple of weeks as I regularly sell them at a dog grooming parlour and have been asked if I'd take them to a charity sale in a couple of weeks - profits going to an animal rescue centre and the CPL. I couldn't say no as Sarah lets me sell them there and doesn't take anything for doing it ( she's happy with a contribution to the animal charity she supports). 
My MIL also sells them at her Age Concern coffee mornings so again no selling by me.

I've never done any direct selling and I'm quite nervous.

Materials

Jayne Netley Mayhew - badger

DCWV papers - All dressed up

LOTV sentiment stamp

Martha Stewert butterfly punch

Sakura metallics pens

Challenges

Sweet sketch Wednesday 102-43

Saturday sketch - 155

 One stitch at a time - anything goes

Whoopsi Daisy - Lets punch it out

I always appreciate it if you leave me a comment, and I can then visit your blog too! Many thanks for coming to visit. Happy Crafting Teresa x

WOYWW 102

OK so here's what on my workdesk today.

I had a bit of a tidy up last night - honest!

Pop back later to see what's hidden underneath that insert square.
( Sorry I had to delete some things I'd written here as I'd embaressed my son too much - oh I am a bad mother!!! )

Happy WOYWW 102. 

Teresa x

Sentiments for a challenge

My local craft shop has set a difficult ( for me ) challenge of making the words the focal point of the card. 

Although I use sentiments all the time this took me out of my comfort zone.

The colours are much stronger in RL - they look a bit washed out here

Materials

Clarity stamps word stamp

Nitwits paper

Textured card

Shapeabilities pendant die - Fleur de lis ( yellow card spritzed with Glimmer mist )

Sizzix decorative corners die

Ribbon

Challenges

Just Tracy's - sentiments ( it's only words )

Butterfly tiles

On Thursday I went to my first ever workshop at Just Tracy's which was great fun. The technique was quite simple but one I hadn't done before. This involved scoring lines to give a tile effect before stamping and  softening with matching ink. The image was stamped again and the butterflies and postmark layered. Simple but very effective. Word peel-offs were used - again something else I don't use and then finished off with blue ribbon. 

Challenges

Polka doodles menu - turquoise, butterfly, ribbon and gems

Stamp something - anything goes

Sarah Hurley challenge 39 - butterfly

Who's been eating my chocolates?

Hope everyone's enjoying the weekend, we've been lucky here the rain has held off - just as well my son has an archery competition tomorrow in the woods - I didn't fancy slipping around in the mud.

I just love these mice, aren't they naughty - actually it's Hammy the Hampster that's the culprit this time. The odd little mouse isn't actually from this sheet but was in the bag with the rest so he's longingly looking at the chocolates.

Those of you observant ones will recognise this was work in progress on my WOYWW last week. It's one of the brilliant House Mouse decoupage sheets from Joanna Sheen - not sure from which set since I have them all!

The corners were embossed and sanded for a distressed finish, image edged with my favourite Martha Stewart doily lace punch, and finished with the birthday tag stamp from LOTV. 

Challenges

Papertake weekly - fancy a punch

Paper Pretties PWC153 - add texture

Crafts and me - punches

Bunny Zoe - lace 

Sentiment Sunday - anything goes

Crafters Companion - girls birthday 

I always appreciate it if you leave me a comment, and I can then visit your blog too! Many thanks for coming to visit. Happy Crafting Teresa x

You've passed - well done

My Godson William, who is 18, passed his driving test 2 days ago so I had to produce a card quickly. This Retro car set from Kanban was ideal and the image is a digi stamp called Mikey which I have had for ages is from Charmed Cards which can be found here. I used the ready coloured Mikey to save time but I have to say printed onto smooth matt card it would be difficult to tell much difference from one coloured in Promarkers.

I started with a blank piece of card which I rubbed withVersaMagic chalk ink (Mango Madness)   then stamped the car and words in Vintage sepia versafine.

Mikey was printed twice and layered up.

The keys were cut on the Silhouette/Craft Robo.

Challenges

Cards for Men - someone special ( godson)

Allsorts - stamp alot (car, well done, congrats, and digi stamp )

Digistamps 4 Joy - celebrations

Tuesday Taggers - one for the boys
Stamps R Us - masculine
Pollycraft - Boyz to men

WOYWW 101

WOW another WOYWW already. Us crafters never have time to be bored do we?

Well here's my messy desk - every week I feel ashamed and promise myself I'll have a tidy up. Sounds familiar to anyone?

I also thought you might like to see a bit more of my craft room than just my messy desk with my current project. Yes I am lucky to have two desks one for messy work and the other for computer work. I have to keep space clear for my Silhouette which is very difficult so I usually put big things there which I can move easily. I also have our campers TV which I have on while I'm working - mostly reruns of CSI on 5USA, easy to listen to and only half watch!

I'll be off to have a nosey around all your desks later - hopefully I won't be shamed into tidying today. So Happy WOYWW 101. I'm considering doing Pay it Forward for Week 104 but can't think of what gift I can make, but I love the idea of sending something to someone I only know through their blog. 


Thank you for visiting my blog today. I would love for you to either leave a comment or follow my blog and then I can come and see your work and leave comments for you too. 

Chocolate cake

Wouldn't you just like a bite of that chocolate cake - check there's no mice droppings in it first though!

I've glazed the jam but it wasn't dry when I took the photo so looks a bit cloudy - I was too impatient to wait - just like eating cake really.   I've got a Victoria sponge in the oven while I'm doing this - it's 7.30 am and I realised I didn't have anything to go in my sons lunch box! Smells delicious but I'll have to wait until my friend comes around for coffee later for a piece.

Materials

Stamp - LOTV Sprinkled with sugar

Backing paper - My Minds Eye Summer 

Flowers - Xcut punch and gems

Lace - Martha Stewart doily punch

Challenges

LOTV - animal antics

Cute Card Thursday - I like chocolate a lot

Moving Along With the Times - Have some cake

Sketch and Stash - sketch 61

Sweet Molly

Isn't she just sweet - butter wouldn't melt in her mouth!

I still can't get my photos to look as bright as they do in RL. Any suggestions?

I've followed the sketch at The Sugar Bowl and have used this lovely image of Molly from Sugar Nellie. She has been coloured with Promarkers and layered to give her some dimension. 

The papers I've used are a bit of an assortment, backing K&Co Hopscotch, rectangle - free Nitwit from Creative Cardmaking magazine, and green dotty is Forever Friends 240 gsm cardstock pack. 

I love using greens and blues together it makes a change from all the girly pinks - don't get me wrong I like those too.

The corner is a Sizzix die and the lens shaped things are left over from a quilled flower strip I cut on my Silhouette and coloured with Pros. Waste not want not!

Challenges

The Sugar Bowl - sketch ( plus optional vintage / distressing )

A Trio of Owls

This weeks Challenge 18 on Polka Doodles is to make an easel card. Now I love CD's and use them a lot as they always sell - people like a handmade card but one that looks very professional  which is what you get from a CD. This CD from Nicky is Back to Nature and is a good compromise between hand coloured and glossy print. I printed the owls on 160 gsm glossy photo paper and the backing paper is printed onto 120 gsm matt photo paper which I buy from SVP at a very reasonable price.

It's all nuts!

I love these Jayne Netley Mayhew stamps and this cheeky squirrel is no exception. I followed a Papertake Weekly sketch only to find out it's already past the deadline. I know it's one of those weeks when I'm getting all my days muddled up.LOL

For this I followed this great sketch on Sketch Saturday 

Materials

Jayne Netley Mayhew stamp - from Joanna Sheen  coloured with Inktense water-colour pencils

NitWit backing papers free with a magazine

Nestabilities circles dies

Swirl - cut with Silhouette and de-bossed ( it was meant to be gold mirri card but looked better this way)

Cuttlebug embossing folder

Coredinations torn strip

Buttons - Papermania

Challenges 

Sketch Saturday - sketch 153

Moving Along With the Times - anything goes

Cards For Men - circles

Papertake Weekly  - anything goes

Bunny Zoes Craft - One for the Boys

One Crazy Stamper - Men

Alphabet Challenge - an animal you'd find at the zoo ( OK technically

not a zoo animal but I bet you'd find one or two at any zoo)

Here Comes The Boys - anything goes 

Stamps R Us - Masculine

Wags and Whiskers - use dies or punches

Little Miss Muffet - dies and punches

             Delightful Challenge - distressing ( distress inks used on outer circle )

Scrappy Frog - anything goes

A Spoonful of Sugar - White + one other colour

The Crazy Challenge - Male cards

One Stitch at a Time - Emboss it

WOYWW 100

Well after being a wally and thinking yesterday was Wednesday today actually is WOYWW day.

What a mess, I really must have a tidy up ... but I neeeed all those little bits and pieces and if I put them away I'll forget to use them.

I'm trying to work on the squirrel but we realised our passports run out and we're going away again for Whitsun so we've got to get on with filling in the forms. I spent hours last night trying to print the photos - and I would rather not spent hours looking at my awful mug shot! The program wasn't playing ball and kept telling me it had a problem and had to shut down. Grrrr 

This morning I had to cut them to the exact size required - can you believe it I got it wrong and had to go back to using a set I'd done weeks ago but I did't like as much.

At least it's only once every 10 years.

Well Happy 100th WOYWW to everyone and if you don't know what it's all about pop over to Julia's Stamping Ground blog and take a nose around.

WOYWW 100 or perhaps not?

What a horrible wet and windy night it was here in the UK we were spoilt after so many weeks of glorious weather.

This was my workdesk early this morning ( I'm an early riser ) - even though the Inktense pencils are there the LOTV image was coloured with Promarkers.

Note the syringe that had Pinflair glue in that went semi solid while I was away - I'm now letting harden completely before I can clean it out, LOL

And here's the result from this mornings work.

How's that for cutting it fine I love Promarkers challenge closes today by I wanted to enter this card which I have keep simple so as not to detract from this sweet Lili of the Valley image. I don't usually do DL cards but on this occasion it fitted the shape of the frame I'd made. The flowers have been glittered and the apple, apple core, girls boots and ponies eye have been glazed to make them stand out.

Materials

LOTV stamp

Frame cut with Silhouette coloured with Tim Holtz distress inks

Sizzix labels die

Sentiment printed on computer

Pearls and ribbon from stash

Challenges

I Love Promarkers - no designer papers

WOYWW 100

Silly me I've just had to add this as I realised today is only Tuesday,  it's actually WOYWT