A sweet award

Now, it has taken me a little while to get around to posting this award from the wonderful Kellie.
Love the pic I am fairly obsessed with cupcakes and this award makes me crave something sweet :)
Now, with this award I have to share with you 10 things that I love:

• 1- my fiancee, just over 9 months until the wedding and yes, I have been freaking out ever since we set a date
• 2&3- My boys Levi and Dallas, I know all mums say it but they are the cutest little guys I have ever laid eyes on and they make me laugh every day, the poor things, they are a little bit crazy like their mum but it makes for some very funny moments!
• 4- my crafting, obviously, I would go nuts without my little bit of crafting quiet time.
• 5- cooking, baking in particular. like I said I love cupcakes and it is so satisfying to see a whole batch of gorgeous cuppies laid out in front of you and then digging into the first one :)
• 5- Stamping, and colouring. I love unwinding with something good on tv and colouring in some stamped out images.
• 6- shopping, don't get to do it much anymore, oh well.
• 7- shoes, it's a love hate relationship. I love the look of them but cannot wear them anymore without ending up in crippling foot pain and then just going barefoot.
• 8- HANDBAGS!! I'm so obsessed with them, the other half still mocks my reaction to finding my green bag a few years ago. It is well worn and well loved but I still regularly get compliments on it :)
• 9- Blogging. It took me a while to decide to go ahead and do it, and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing (still don't some days) but now I don't know what I would do without it, it's my connection to the outside world and now I have some great friends living in my laptop, lol.
• 10- I can't believe I nearly forgot NCIS! I am so obsessed with this show, I don't know what it is about it but I can't get enough, I even enjoy watching repeats over and over again.

Wow, I did not think I was going to be able to come up with 10, but i guess there is an endless list of things, it's just deciding which is the hard part.
Now I would like to pass this on to all my followers, I know it is a bit of a cop out not picking for myself but a few people have received this already and I am totally grateful to have any followers hanging around reading my endless waffles.

A yummy sketch from MDUC

Challenge #31 over at Magnolia Down Under Challenges is to make a girlie card using this sketch and include something orange. The orange thing threw me a bit at first but then I remembered I had this gorgeous DP left over from a previous card, and it has orange in it. The spotty paper is the reverse side of the main DP and the paper at the bottom is a separate sheet I bought to go on the first card I made with this paper, but never used it :)
When I saw the lines on the bottom of this sketch I immediately thought of paper pleating as it was a challenge over at Just Magnolia a few weeks ago. I did not get a chance to play along with it then but I loved the look of it and just knew it would fit the sketch perfectly. I sort of switched up the elements on the bottom a little and distressed the heck out of every available edge :)

The papers are from Kaiser, the roses are from I am roses, the leaves and cake stamp are from Bizzy Becs and the tickets are a Bizzy Bec digi. You can get the yummy scrummy oops Tilda from the Magnolia Down Under Store (she is on sale...!). Links to all stores can be found in my sidebar (yup, I'm getting lazy :) and a little short on time)

Our sponsor this week is The Cutting Cafe, be sure to head over there and check out what they have got, There are a few things that have made their way on to my wish list :)
Make sure you head on over the Magnolia Down Under Challenge site and check out the DT's amazing work, you will be blown away by all the talent in one place, plus there is some exciting news for you all!

Oliver and friends get sketch-tastic!

Hello hello, it's another Anya Ink Sunday and this weeks challenge is a sketch, yippi! This is the first sketch challenge for Anya Ink and it is FABULOUS!! As soon as I saw it I knew exactly what I wanted to do, don't you love when that happens :) Even better than that is came out pretty much as I had imagined, I'm really happy with this card, and it is really not often that I say that, hahaha, and it all came together really quickly, I had lovely little Oliver (thanks again Trace, love him to bits!!) all coloured in and begging to be used, the DP was sitting up the top or my newly constructed paper tower (it took about a month and a half and blood, sweat and nearly tears to put together, lol) so my biggest problem was deciding what size to make the card (went with 5x6)
Ta-Da!

I think it would be a great birthday card if you added a number to the front. The dinosaur stamp came from a Stampin' up set I got ages ago and had been sitting, un-mounted, on my shelf ever since. I kind of planned to use it to make party invites for my boys when they get older (I have dinosaur cookie cutters ready for that day too) I guess I got pretty excited about having kids, and I love kids partys.
A huge thank you to Marcia for creating my watermark for me (and being patient and eaching my how to use it, technology is not my friend lately,lol) I love it!
Make sure you head over to Anya Ink and check out the DT's amazing work and be sure to play along yourself, it's a great sketch!

Leg 3 of the relay

We are now on leg 3 of The Greeting Farm relay, are you feeling pooped yet? :)
I am feeling a little weary but it is mostly due to this new damn computer, turns out the software from out printer was not compatible with the new operating system, and there was not an upgrade for it, so we had to buy a new printer too!! Kinda irritating when I am relying on it on a daily basis at the minute! So the new and reasonably priced computer is becoming more costly by the day, GGGRRRRR!
On top of all that I have not gotten photoshop installed yet so my pic is pretty dodgy today. It's very overcast so my apologies to all. The cloud paper is magnolia and the flowers are from Bizzy Becs, everything else is from the stash.

For inspiration I played along with some other challenges:

Create 4 fun - sketch

Stamp with fun - baby

A spoon full of sugar - Freestyle

Cooking it up with Katie - Recipe - non human image (Toby), add some texture (I thought the sewing would cover this), use a product you have never used before (my Magnolia lazy summer day cloud paper, it's new!)

Spring candy from Kel

Check these out!
Aren't they AMAZING!! Makes you wish you owned all of these stamps, I wish I did every time Kellie makes a new card using her C.C Designs spring kit, and now she is giving you the chance to win one for your very own!!!
The kit contains 9 Sugarplum kids, 2 accessory stamps, and one set of Spring Sentiments!

For your chance to win this amazing candy pop on over here... and find out how :)
I would wish you all luck but I want them for myself, lol!

I'm a winner :)

I am a bit excited, I logged on this morning to see my card using the gorgeous little Amelia won over at die cuts R us!!!

I was so happy I just had to tell you :)

TGF relay - day 2

It's day two, hope you are all remembering to stretch first and keep hydrated. I would like you all to meet Charlotte, isn't he a cutie, makes me think of the pink ladies in Grease :) I followed the sketch Saturday sketch over at Club Anya and Friends and it was a really fun one to use, I may be bringing it out again for future valentines cards (it's that time of year so I am sure there will be plenty of valentines themed challenges to come) I have used the same XO DP from my MDUC card and the sentiment stamp is from a random set I had in my stash. The MS punch got an airing again today and that's about it... except for the glitter, which you cannot see!!!!! I have had a very angry evening with everything technical, we acquired a new computer yesterday and I just tried using it for the first time, it took ages to figure out how to even get the damn Internet working, then it would not log me into my e-mail, so I sat and screamed and yelled and called it several names which I would make a truck driver blush and would have given it a damn good kicking if it's proud new father were not in the room, GGGGGRRR!!! Anyways, not I have vented a little (I still want to hit something) I have given her glittery eye shadow and glittered her top so it is not just plain white IRL and her little burgundy shoes, which are too sweet, also got a decent dos of the sparkles. This was the first tie I had applied make up to a stamp but when I leaned in close she whispered to me "give me eyeshadow... and make it sparkle" so who was I to argue :)

So, thanks for looking and I hope all your technical equipment is treating you better than mine is!

oops.... cooking up a storm with Tilda

So, I'm still not sue how I feel about this card. It's one of those ones where I had to walk away and come back a few times. I am happier with the finished product than I thought I would be, I came very close to scrapping it a few times along the way, lol, it's a love hate relationship sometimes!

I have played along using the sketch over at Just Magnolia, but I really relied on Kellie's DT card for my inspiration, went with the round mat instead of square, swapped a few elements around but I hope overall you get the idea :)

this card also plays along with Creative card crew challenges and Simon says challenges who want you to use punches. I have used my MS doilie punch under the lace, you can see it a bit more in real life, it is a bit hidden in this pic.

I did a bit of sewing around the edge of the DP but it blended in a but with the paper colour and does not really show up in the pic. If you look closely, squint, hop up and down on one foot and stick your thumb in your ear you can almost see it :) Don't you just love the DP, I adore it! It's magnolia from Magnolia Down Under store, you can also get the cutie oops Tilda there, and the ticket is from bizzy becs digi store, all links are in my side bar :)

Bringing the sunshine

Hello lovely ladies, just popping by to show you my Farm Fresh Friday card, the theme this week is bringing the sunshine, so I finally had an excuse bring out sing and Hula Anya to play. This card also its the challenge this week at pile it on of warm wishes. Sorry for the super quickie post but I have a million and 1 things I would like to get done today, and I have another card to post, maybe today or tomorrow, we will see how I go, lol. Thanks for taking the time to have a look and leave your wonderful comments :)

TGF relay - day 1

It is day 1 of the greeting Farm relay, after not playing along with the 12 days of sketches I really wanted to take part in the relay. On day 1 everyone gets a free digi image and if you complete a card with this image by the deadline you will be sent the next image, and so on, pretty cool huh! Day 1 is Mer Ian! This is my first card with a digi because I watercolour and my printer ink runs at the sight of any colouring medium, but I used my watercolour pencils and tried to be careful. I'm not entirely happy with how it looks but it worked better than anything else I have tried. The biggest downside is that I do not have a lot of colours so I may have to get creative :)
I have glittered the top and fins of his tail and added crystal effects to the rest of his tail and his hair, I decided it was wet hair, being a mer man and everything, I guess maybe I should have covered all of him in Crystal effects because he would be wet all over, but that would just be silly. You can see the shine in his hair but not the tail unfortunately. The DP on the top of the card is also glittery, I wish glitter photographed better!! The ticket is a Bizzy Bec digi (link in my side bar) and everything else is from my stash. Thanks for looking, hopefully I will be back soon with day 2, if I don't space out before then and forget, this damn mumnesia, I'm sure having kids melts your brain!

Anya Ink - No DP!!

This week is my last week as a guest designer at Anya Ink, which is very sad as I have had a great time playing along with the wonderfully talented DT ladies, the great news is I have been asked to stay on as a Permanent Design Team Member!!! Woo Hoo!!! Thank you so much ladies, it feels great to be wanted, hahaha.Eeek! NO DP! I was pretty stumped with how I was going to go about this, it was just not looking right and I'm not sure if in the end I am completely happy with it but I am happier than I was with the several other attempts I scrapped :) I went for a shadow box card and I finally got my Princess Ava stamp on something, I never know what colours to colour her dress, this time I went with a sleeping beauty style, and paper toled sections. I have also glittered the background behind Ava and applied some crystal effects around the frame on the top layer of card and the ticket sentiment. On the top I ran over some white card with a Stampin' up wheel and heat embossed it. You can see the glitter and the layering on the image in this pic

Look who has come to play...

Just a quickie post, here is Amelia (another stamp from wonderful Tracey) and the friend/ sister/ twin?? of Oliver. They come in a set together and cannot wait to get my hands on the set for myself, I have sad SO much fun colouring them! This little darling reminds me of being a little girl in the 80's and playing dress up's :) I was even being a good girl today and made this card up with scraps of paper I had left from another card, I still have a bit more left which is great because I love it. I played along with the sketch over at the Die Cuts R Us DT Blog You can't see it in the pic but there is a bit of glitter on the hair baubles her star earrings and belt buckle and the stars on her boots and around the edge of the ticket sentiment. Ok, not as quick as I planned, but still a quickie for me :) thanks for stopping by and having a look!

Black & White + a sketch

First of all, a thousand thank you's to the wonderful, beautiful and incredibly talented Tracey (if you have not seen her work it is definitely worth the time to hop on over and take a look, it's amazing!) for stamping me up some images, including this darling little Oliver with his dinosaurs from the greeting farm. He will not be officially released until March, I think, but they had a limited release of him earlier this month and she was lucky enough to get him, I missed out :( I think I love him so much because he reminds me of my son Dallas, it's the hair, he has lovely soft, floppy hair like Oliver, not the little bit too big for his body head like Oliver, thankfully!

Anyways, I took the black, white + 1 challenge one step further than usual and coloured my image in black and white, and i love it, it is so much fun to do and no where near as hard as i thought it was going to be! This card plays along with:

Club Anya and friends - sketch

anyone for Anya - black, white + 1 (green!)

a spoon full of sugar - layering

Susies sassy challenge - boys card (with option of animals)

More news.....

I have some wonderful, exciting news. The amazingly talented waffler extraordinaire Kellie just asked me to stay on at Magnolia Down Under Challenges as a guest for 6 months! Yay! Yippi!! Woo-hoo!!! I'm still doing my happy dance... It's a great excuse to go out and buy some more stamps :)

Be my valentine MDUC

I have another exciting announcement to make, I have been asked by the fabulously talented Kellie to be a guest over at Magnolia Down Under Challenges for January and February!!! How exciting is that!! I'm lucky I did not burst keeping my GDT secrets over the holidays, lol.
Ok, down to business (putting on serious face :P ) the first challenge of the new year for all you magnolia addicts out there is VALENTINES DAY. As you may have noticed I do not have any valentines stamps, so I improvised (this stamp with another use theme is really getting a work out with me) I thought my 60's Tilda with her yummy little lollipop would go great with my sweet love sentiment and, Ta-Da! I was going to keep it a bit simple so it could be used for a guy as well, but then I figured I'm a bit of a girly card maker so I whacked on some flowers and a truck load of glitter and... you guessed it, it's an easel card (I can't stop making them)

Here is a front shot, not the greatest pic, sorry. For some reason this card did not photograph well and was even harder to fix on the computer, I guess all the pinks and reds were a bit too much to handle.

The main x&o DP is my minds eye, all other papers are from my stash. The tickets are from Bizzy Becs Digi Store and the flowers are all from Bizzy Becs, except the large one, I think that's a spotlight find. The little heart brads are also from the stash, and all glittered up. I have also glittered all the white areas on Tilda's dress, the centers of the daisies and the edges of the roses. I even brought out my MS border punch to play again.

Make sure you head on over to Magnolia Down Under challenges to check out the fabulous work of the design team ladies, and this challenge is generously sponsored by the Magnolia Down Under Store, so make sure you get a creation in for a chance to win a fabby yummy in the tummy paper pack!

Flowers for Anya

The challenge over at Anya Ink this week is to use flowers, a nice easy one after last weeks challenge :) I love putting flowers on everything, and I got a box of roses in the mail last week, just in time! ( from i am roses, thanks for mentioning them Tracey, I'm in love with everything in their store)

Madelynn has made another appearance, this was another case of seeing the paper and straight away I knew she would go perfectly with it. The papers are KaiserCraft (front and back of same sheet) and card stock is from my stash (I could not believe I had the perfect colour to go with this paper!!) The crystals scattered around are also Kaiser. I have glittered the edges of my flowers and the flower and heart on the stamp.

Hop on over to Anya Ink and see the DT's amazing work and play along with this weeks fun challenge!

one card and a whole heap of challenges

This is just a quickie post, it is waaaaay past my bed time and i just realised I forgot to crop my photo, silly me, I will fix it up tomorrow or Monday (busy day tomorrow). I'm not sure I'm completely happy with this card, can't put my finger on what is missing but nothing I tried looked right so I left it. It may just be that i has a bit too much white in the DP's I used. Anyway, this card plays along with:
Spoon full of sugar - recipe, 3 DP (the blue is also a DP but you cannot really see the pattern in the pic, you will just have to trust me on this one, lol) 1 ribbon, 3 flowers and 3 buttons (if you look closely there are 3 buttons on her shirt :) it's a bit of a cheat so I threw in a couple more in the corner)
Anyone for Anya - so charming (when I aw this charm I just knew it was perfect for this Image)
Creative Inspirations Challenge blog - distressing
Creative card crew - distressing
Creative Inspirations - new (the DP and charm I got yesterday!)
Cupcake Craft challenges - Girly (I know there is no pink is sight but the flowers definitely make it a girls card)
Stampin for the weekend - sketch
Tuesday morning sketchers - buttons and bows

Phew... Check back tomorrow for my Anya Ink post and a little secret to be revealed...

More Magnolias in disguise!

I have been playing around with the "stamp with another use" theme at Magnolia Down Under again. I also got some new Magnolia stamps this week and just HAD to play (I got a bit excited and think i ended up with maybe 10 new stamps :P) So I came up with 2 projects, the first is pretty self explanatory, my first shadow box card (have been meaning to make one for ages) both stamps are from the so jolly Christmas collection, the ticket is a Bizzy Bec digi, I have glittered the flowers, border on the front and inside of the card, Tilda's hair ribbon and wrapping paper and the cord and wax seals on the presents. The green brads are glitter also. I had trouble getting a good photo of this card with all the shadows, so there is a pic with and without flash, hopefully you can get an idea from what it is really like from the two. along with the Magnolia down under challenge I am also entering this card over at the Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #41 - I used the colours of the frosting as inspiration for the colour scheme of the card (and the pic looks soooooo yummy, I need a cupcake now!) and Crazy 4 challenges - Birthday


Now this card might take a little more explaining, I started with a mini pizza box template from HERE and then added the top and bottom in thick card, and then an easel card on top (told you I was an addict). I have been thinking about making this for a little while, I love making little boxes and this way the box and card is combined, perfect for little gifts as a thank you or just because.
Now for the stamp, I performed a bit of surgery there. I wanted a Tilda who sat facing forward and the only one I had was Santa's little helper, but the problem was she is wearing a Santa hat so I cut off her head (ouch!) and added the head from unwrapped Tilda (I LOVE her hair) so, that's 2 Christmas Tildas on a very non Christmas card :) The papers are magnolia and flowers are from Bizzys Bec's. I have added gloss to the strawberries and cake frosting to make them all shiny and delicious.

This pic has much better colour, the top two are a bit washed out, sorry. You can also see the sentiment i embossed on the front of the box and the faux stitching/ doodling around the edge of the base and lid of the box with my gel pen.

Ta-Da! Just proof it really is a functioning box, please excuse the chipped nail polish, lol.

i am also entering this over at ABC Challenges - L is for layering and both cards qualify over at Cute Card Thursday who want to see something new (all stamps are new except for the Tildas are new and so is all the DP) and Papertake Weekly Challenge - new beginnings (stamps and DP again)

Ok, now a few details at the end so as to simplify an already long post and not fill it up with repeated links. Here is where I got what:

Magnolia Down Under Store - Stamps, paper

Bizzy Becs - stamps, flowers (some were part of a very generous prize from Bec for being one of the winners of her last Creatalicious challenge, thanks again!)

Bizzy Becs Digi store - Ticket sentiment

Anya Ink - 1 layer card

WOW, 1 layer card! Talk about a challenge!! my take on this challenge was adding 1 layer to my card, so the DP is my base and on the front the flowers are my layer and on the inside the lovely Izzy is my layer (I cheated a little here, she was lost when i put her directly on the DP so I added a sneaky little mat, will you forgive me?)
I had originally thought to do a spinner card for this challenge, but my stamp was a bit big so I went for a huge hole in the front instead, lol. Not much to say on this one, papers are Heidi Grace, Izzy is coloured with my newly acquired watercolour pencils, the sentiment stamp is just a random one from my stash, I have done some doodling around the frame
with my white gel pen and the flowers are from spotlight. There is a little glitter on the flowers and the band on her hat but it has not really come out in the photos.


For a huge helping of inspiration come on over to Anya Ink and see the amazing DT work!

A sneaky peek at the inside of my card. You can see from the shadows that she is foam mounted.

Fabulous Candy for Magnolia fans!!!

I just had to post this, you could win these magnolia stamps (if you did not plan ahead and order the kit... like me) I love love love the Tilda on the top right. So pop on over to Jodi's blog and take a look at her amazing work

Some Sketch Saturday goodness

I have seen everyone else using it so I thought I would jump on the band wagon and have a crack at this weeks sketch Saturday sketch. I have had the image all coloured and matching papers sitting on my desk feeling neglected and begging to be used. Usually sketches frustrate me a bit but since Mr mojo packed up and left for the holidays they have become my best friend! I just hope we remain friends because card making has become so much more relaxing not having to stress over the layout :) I have to apologise for the photo being a bit crap-tastic, it came out a little washed out, the blue papers are a bit deeper in real life, it is the most gorgeous shade of blue! The papers are Heidi Grace Woodland Collection and the stamp is Madelynn from The Greeting Farm, I have fallen in love with this little darling and have to stop myself from using on everything, lol!

I''m also entering this over at Anyone for Anya with the theme of anything goes.

Thanks for looking :)

An apple a day...

I had this image coloured in with my new watercolour pencils for a couple of weeks and thought last night it was time to whip her up into a card :) The apple DP is from Bizzy Becs Digi Store, pearl brads, ribbon and card stock are all from my stash. i kept it pretty simple, I did have a sentiment to go on there but it didn't look right no matter where I put it so I ditched it. I am entering her over at Anyone for Anya where the challenge this week is anything goes and Pile it On challenges where they want anything digital (papers).

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Magnolia Down Under, getting milage out of those stamps :)

The challenge at Magnolia Down Under is stamps with another use. I have used unwrapped Tilda from the so jolly collection and made a gift bag, valentines gift tag which can also be used as a card, it is pretty large, and a birthday card, she is versatile enough to be used for just about anything. All ticket sentiments are from Bizzy Becs digi store (i got some more tickets and papers the other night so you will be seeing them soon!)
That's about it, just a quick post for me today, no waffles :) thanks for swinging by and taking a look.

Anya Ink - Black, white & 1

I have been keeping this under my hat and bursting to tell, I have been asked to be a guest designer at Anya Ink for the month of January! I was so excited and honoured to be asked to be the first monthly guest, and then I saw the challenges and wow, for me they are all pretty challenging so it should be great fun!


This weeks challenge is to use the colours black, white and 1 other, I chose orange. I really had no idea what I was going to do until I spent AGES walking around my local store looking for paper and when I was just about to give up I spotted these two papers and fell in love, I knew exactly what I was going to do with these and my new stamp I had on order was perfect, then I saw the little Eiffel Tower charm on the counter when I was waiting to be served (along with some other little treasures you will be seeing soon!) and figured it must have been fate :)


So, it's another easel card (yep, I'm addicted) My name is Fran and I'm an easel-a-holic! maybe I should start a support group, lol.

So, not much to say, the Rose paper is sassafras lass, pocket full of rosies, and the black and white paper is GCD studios, paris nights collection. I have used my MS border punch (again) Lace is from my stash, flowers are from Spotlight and Bizzy Becs, pearls are also from spotlight.



Here is my card, with the lovely Madelynn (I treated myself to some twinkle tots, kind of a late birthday, early Xmas present):A closer pic of the top:

A bit of an angel so you can see the easel action going on back there and the dimension where I have mounted the image and mats below using foam adhesive:

My darling little Eiffel Tower charm, I'm loving it, it's too cute:

So swing by the Anya Ink website and see the DT amazing work and play along yourself!

I am also entering this card over at creative card crew challenge for an anything goes challenge :)