Who's up for a Mini Challenge?

OK I have seen these done before, Jenn Balcer posted one on her blog today. What happens is "someone" sends a few people the same items, such as a stamped image, some paper/s and maybe an embellishment. The people in the challenge all make a card using the said items and any additions. The results are quiet fantastic, 3 or 4 cards all made using the same stuff but which look totally different. This got me to thinking.... Hmmm... I'd love to do one of those.. So whos up for it? For this first one, and because I havent got a lot of time before my holiday, I would say this is up for UK people only, so I can get the stuff sent and maybe see the results before I am off....

Leave a message to this post if you want to join in, I will take 3 others (so that will be four including me) all in the UK please for this first one. The next one I will take anyone in the world, as long as you promise to share your creation once you have done it. And also as a further note, it seems to be that once there has been the first challenge, one of the people from that group do their own one with the same people until we all get a turn.

Would love to see who wants to play!!

Bella Box

ABOVE is the BIG view of the box - below are close ups of the sides ect

I have had fun getting all girlie and blingy these last few days. Fitting it in between naps ect and I can finally reveal it. I am not totally happy with it, I feel the front needs "something" else, I might add the word "Caz's" above the bellas . I will re post if I do.

There are a few photos, front sides and back ect. my camera is a bit blurry today, I keep taking new photos and its the same each time. Sorry!

Doodlebug Designs for some of the ribbons, all the jewels and the coloured papers www.theglitterpot.co.uk . Embossing is done using the cuttlebug. The stamps are Stamping Bellas for the girls and Inky Antics for the "Bellas" wording. I coloured using Twinkling H20's again www.theglitterpot.co.uk

This box is being used to store my Bellas. I currently have 16 in there, I figurerd I could fit

loads more. I also at present am storing in there a inkpad, scissors, glue stick and acrylic block in there so I almost have everything ready to go for some stamping fun.

As so often is the case, I do believe this looks nicer in real life, I am terrible at taking photos!

There are more photos in the slideshow to the right of this text.

Enjoy looking and please do let me know what you think!

Great post today - Penny Black, coasters and Whippersnapper

I had a fun post today. First there was a pack of coasters from Sue from the Cricut Message Board, she very kindly offered my half her bundle of coasters and didnt want anything for it, just a thank you for the circles and signatures I have made for people on there. Now wasnt that sweet?! Second there was a stamp and ink pad from Judi, I get lots of goodies from her. And last but not least THREE Penny Black alphabet sets and one number set, www.pennyblackinc.com or www.theglitterpot.co.uk for uk shoppers!

I am still working on the bella box, I had hoped Caiden was napping right now so I could finish this off and share with you. Also I will be working on a Stampendous clear pail decorated with doddlebug ribbons, jewels and stamps! But again, I can not share with you as this is for a magazine article. I am soooo excited about this, I hope it looks half as good as I want it to :)

Carrying on from yesterdays blub, Harvey has indeed found Charlotte alive and well in our hallway. A tiny spider on the step ladder than Darren brought in from the garden to get into the loft. Harvey talks to Charlotte and forces me to say Hello when we pass her. She's ok, shes small, about 2 pin heads in size, so I can cope with that. Had she been any bigger she would be out the door like a shot! Oh and he must of liked it as at 8:30 this morning he was watching it again, asking me to vow that I wouldnt cry again. [dont tell him I did though] its a great film though, a story I remember from my childhood and I remember the little runt guinea pig that I loveingly called Wilbur and hand fed through a pipette, sadly he died, I did try though, and I cried and cried when he died :( Funny the things you remember, enjoy and try to pass onto your kids.

I hate spiders...... but

I just cried on Charlottes web when the spider died!! LOL what a sop I am. I am terrible for watching kids films and crying, they get me everytime. The film was really sweet, I thought Harvey might enjoy it but he wasnt really interested but I am sure when he is a little older he will like it. It killed an hour and a bit on this wet windy bank holiday weekend. Its rained pritty much non stop for 2 days! YUCK.

Right, I'm off again, Caiden is napping and I want to get going on my current project, a storage tin for my bella stamps.

Seeing ducks...

I joined the bella image swap on the yahoogroup and I chose to stamp "bubblebella". I had to stamp almost 70 and in the middle of stamping these images I started seeing ducks! I am sure Em didnt mean for a duck to be in the bath with Bella, BUT once I had seen it I couldnt get it out of my head, I also couldnt wait to make a card and show you all!! I have coloured the bubble by her leg in yellow, the part that is bellas leg I coloured orange as the ducks bill and doesnt it look cute!!

Image coloured with watercolour pencils and aquabrush. Mounted onto a cuttlebugged card using the bubbles embossing plate, I swiped over this with a brilliance blue ink pad. I cut the edges of the stamped panel with my new toy, the Cutterpede and the scalloped cutting blade, how cute! I cut the wording with the cuttlebug font "you're not the boss of me" and added some pritty ribbon from Hobby Lobby (via Candice), added a flower and a beautiful brad from my NSSS Sherilin. Added two PP also. Once assembled I added glitter glue to the letters and bubbles.

I dont know who this card is for, I guess it could be for all women who tend to keep the world running!! So watch your mail boxes everyone... it might just come your way!

Girls just wanna have fun!

Flower ribbon Card

And I have been having fun with these two girlies. These are fab stamps from www.pennyblackinc.com (via www.glitterpot.co.uk) They have been coloured with watercolour pencils and aqua brush.

The background paper is doodlebug, the gem is doodlebug also. Needed a flower for this card, but the glitter pot does not have many for sale so I thought I would make my own with ribbon. I swiped the pink ribbon with orchid brilliance ink to make it a bit brighter.

Ice Cream Fun

For this card I was inspired by the girls ice cream to make a fun circle background. I punched three large circles in fun colours. These were stuck onto a pink base card. I used a black thin pen to add stitching marks. I stamped a small circle with a white brilliance inkpad. I outlined the circles with crystal glitter glue. The girl was stamped and coloured with watercolour pencils. The wording circle is also Penny Black. Added a prima flower and doodlebug gem.

I was really pleased with both cards. Got to make two more girlie cards tonight, using the sizzix "so girlie" dies. I'll post them tomorrow :)

Did you know?

Click on any of the photos on the blog to get a better view of them.

Also, another interesting thing I found out today was how the cursor, you know the arrow one moves about your screen. Check this out!

http://www.1-click.jp/

Georgous Boy!

Oh how I love my boys, I may be soooo tired its untrue, have grey hairs that werent there before and wrinkles and stress BUT I wouldnt change them for the world.

I showed you Caiden last week, or chocolate monster as he is now known, I just wanted to share this lovely picture of Harvey, what a totally adorable smile!! BTW it was his sponsored bounce today, one minute on a trampoline and they had to do as many as they could. He did 37, bless him, he said he kept falling over!

Mondays message

I really struggle for creative titles! So today's is Mondays Message. Here are a couple of cards that I have made recently.

The first one is a www.stampingbella.com design. Just love these girls. The wording is Autumn Leaves and the swirls on the backgroud card are www.stampingup.com doodle this stamps. I coloured with watercolour pencils and aqua brush. Background paper is Rob and Bob from provocraft.

This one is from doodlebug and is their clear "friends" set. These flowers are so funky and fun, I do love doodlebug so these stamps were right up my street. I have coloured these partly with chalks, partly with pencils.

Ladies who lunch!

I stamped, Yipee!! I FINALLY used one of my birthday Bellas. Arent they cute? I also finally used my plasma flowers that I showed you the other week. I punched them and threaded them through the ribbon, they look cute dont they?

Bellas coloured with watercolour pencils and waterbrush. Papers are doodlebug.

Bit of a quick card whilst Caiden was napping, I have to think what I may want and bring it all downstairs so its not anything special, but was pleased to be able to stamp, colour and use my plasmas shapes :)

To see more info on these plasma shapes click on the "plasma" word in my labels list on the right of the screen.

RIP Stamper

Stamper my beautiful lop eared rabbit passed today. It was very sudden, he was fine yesterday, today he just was quiet, not moving ect We didnt have him very long, about 8 months, but I love my animals and was very upset (despite my moaning about him eating my garden)

He is resting in my garden, this is the first pet that has died with us in our home and the first of many I am sure. He was buried wrapped in a pillowcase, taking a carrot and a flower with him.

RIP Stamper - Miss you xxx

Bad Choices?

Do you think sometimes you make a bad choice? Well dont panic, I am not going to get all deep and meaningful on you. I am talking "Malted Milk" or "Chocolate Bourbon" and for you outside the UK, and I am assuming that they arent available outside the UK then I am talking biscuits or cookies. OK so my decision was bourbon and look at this!!

I must say his bigger brother Harvey was much better on eating it, but even he does look like he had brown lipliner on!

Kids dont ya just love em'. And this was about the 3rd clothes change of the day!

ARGH!! Christmas!

Not even summer and I just got my comission for Christmas issue of Beautiful Cards!! Hmmm I remember this from last year, sitting in the garden making christmas cards. Its actually quiet frustrating as I love to use new stuff but the stamp makers wont have their Christmas designs out so I will use last years.

Just had to share that with you.

Been busy but I cant show you!

I have been busy stamping over the last few days but I can not share with you all as 8 of the cards are for Beautiful cards magazine and the two I made last night are for classes that I am teaching Saturday. I hope to be able to share something with you soon!! I desperately need to ink up my new Bellas and play with my plasma flowers as promised.

For my class Saturday I have been using doodlebug friends flower clear set http://www.craftsulove.co.uk (and click on doodlebug stamps) and they are FAB, fallen in love with them and I have already told the shop they arent having them back! also their cute stick alphabet will be mine as well [evil cackle] I have to tell you a funny about these stamps, well it wasnt funny last night but it is now...... I made a card, cut four squares of background paper in doodlebug papers. Stamped flowers onto bazzill card, added a little pencil, stamped the stems onto the paper, stuck the flower heads down. Proceeded to add the words with these cute little sticks.... they are self assembly, rubber and foam on bottom and stickers on the top and I was mounting them as I needed them. OK frienb what the *%&%£( frienb!!! BBBBB where the heck did that come from!! LOL you know what its like, b and d look the same but the wrong way..... I grabbed the wrong one and boy was I miffed about it.... the last touch on the card and I did it wrong.... where there is a will there is a way and I was determined that all was not lost, I printed friend (yep d) onto a piece of cardstock and will stick that in place. Still will give me a little story for my class.

Fab Birthday

I've had a fab birthday and proof that you do not need lots of money, lots of presents and cards to have a good time. I got a lovely skirt and top from my parents for my Spainish holiday, Darren unbeknown to him had already got my 10 Bellas, he got me some plants for the garden as well today, 12 for 99p!, I got a lovely package from Sherilin my NSSS from the Cricut forum and a chocolate fountain from my brother that we are going to test tomorrow.

Darren popped to work for a while and told me to think of where I wanted to go. We are a bit short of money right now so I was thinking of somewhere that wouldnt cost us a lot of money. We went to a pub for lunch and it was two for one there so we saved money!! Caiden and Harvey had a great time and we ended up going to the Wacky Warehouse for a hour of soft play, ball pits ect... Harvey LOVED it, Caiden loved crawling everywhere and kissing himself in the big soft mirror!! LOL I enjoed the meal and enjoyed even more being with my family and seeing the boys so happy and being with Darren also. Things like that dont cost the earth and are priceless.

Caiden has just started walked back and fourth across the living room with his little push along truck, it wont be long before he is walking properly, he is cruising around the furniture all the time and crawls so quickly.

When we got back home I decided to declutter the bookcase that was in the kitchen and just full of JUNK and took the bookcase upstairs to my craft room, it looks great there. It would have been perfect to spend some time crafting up there today but I have had a headache all afternoon so it would be hard to concentrate and I should really go now and rest my eyes.

Thanks for all the messages on the cricut forum and the cardmaking forum I belong to.

Disney take 2

It took forever to decide what to make next after Minnie, so I thought Chip and Dale were mega cute and they didnt look too hard. I didnt have the right brown for Chip, he is a darker brown and as learnt off the cricut newsletter has a "brown chocolate chip nose" and dale has a pink nose (tee hee a silly little fact I am somewhat and strangely proud of - the fact I know which is which) anyway enough of the strange workings of my mind..... back to the card, yep I decide Dale would be cute, not too hard... well is wasnt hard but it was a BIG frustration as he just kept tearing, changed the settings slightly one way, slightly the next and FINALLY got one that was OK, not perfect by any means but OK.... I think Cricut need to provide paper packs in disney colours that will cut without stress! It took me an hour to cut and piece this one Dale. The card I put together this morning and it is WINDING THE HECK OUT OF ME with the wonky ribbon but when I tried to undo the card I tore a little of the paper so I will just have to learn to love my wonky (artisticly wonky of course) ribbon! And if I cant live with it, I'll have to RAK someone with it!

Where in the world are you?

I love my cluster map on here and I am amazed at the places people have viewed my site from. I especially am interested in the new spots and where they are in the world. My geography is not great so I often have to get google earth up to see if I can work it out. Sooooo if you are one of the dots on my map, especially one if you are out of the UK and USA then please post a message below and tell me where you are reading from. Thanks! I do believe my newest spot is Hawaii :) WOW

Mickey and Friends is fantastic!

Darren let me go and play when he got home from work and I made my first Minnie. I wont say it all went smoothly, I had earlier in the day dashed up and had a 5 minute play whislt Caiden was napping and I cut what I thought was the base, I also had a go a cutting her shoes and bow and it was tearing, I left the machine thinking I am not sure I am going to like this cart and the stress of it. I went up to the room feeling positive that I was going to create something. As soon as I got back I popped in a new blade and set about cutting. I cut all the pieces with no rips and was so pleased. Then came the next struggle, assembly, had all these little pieces and I wasn't quiet sure of their placement, the border also looked too large. Then it had dawned on me I had cut the wrong part, I should have cut the base, which would include little marks so I know where to place the parts, but I had cut the shadow DOPE!



So here she is, my first Minnie! and this card is for my friend in the USA who made these carts possible for me!! Thank you so much... this card will be winging its way to you shortly.


I cut this at 5" and also cut a grey shadow to layer the whole lot onto.

Imagine the scene

Power cut, dark, candlelight, kids asleep, you and husband alone... no TV..... what would YOU do??




Hmmmm, dont know about you but I was dying to do it all day, so I did.... Yep cranked up my cuttlebug to see if I could embossed those little plasma shapes!! LOL what else?? Tee Hee Oh and by the way they did emboss. But it wouldnt cut with the cutters, that was too bad :(

Great day... too bad for the powercut

Well that was fun.... a 12 hour + powercut so no crafting and certainly no cricuting. Thankfully most of it was during the night, it started at 9:15pm last night and power came on sometime after 11am this morning. Hmmm I am so thankful for my gas hob.

Great mail day, the mouse and Bellas have landed so I am in for a fun night, power permitting. First job is to make a thank you card for my special friend in USA who helped me out. (again)

The mouse has landed

nuff said! :)

Ohhh that's cool!

My craft room is a mess, is was an even bigger mess but I spent a little time up there this morning tidying and throwing. Whilst going through my files I found some A-Z files, you know the dividers that going into folders with A-Z tabs. These are plastic ones, see thru in different colours and thats when a lightbulb went off in my head. How cool would these be to punch and make my own plasma type shapes. So off went the cleaning mode and I grabbed the nearest flower punch to hand. This is the result....

Needless to say I am thrilled that I over brought these, I actually have about 4 unopened packs which include pink, blue, green, yellow and more colours to play with and I can make 100's of embellishments with these!! My challenge for myself is to make a card using these, that will be my next card for my blog.

Just wanted to share this little gem with you, check out your local stationers you never know what you can find.

Yesterdays card

I dont know what was up with blogger last night but it wouldnt let me post anything. So here is the card I made yesterday. I managed to sneek a little birdy into the card.

Materials Used : Hero Arts Bird, Stampin Up! Flourishes, Penny Black flowers, White Brilliance Ink Pad, Black Versafine, Stream Adirondack dye Ink Pad, Water Brush, Prismacolour Pencils and Gamsol eqivalant, narrow black pen, ribbons

How To :

1/Stamp bird with ink and colour lightly with prismacolour pencils, blend with stumps and sansodor liquid.

2/Stamp flowers image with dtream dye ink and lightly colour using the aquabrush to make the outline run.

3/Stamp white flourishes onto blue bazzill base card

4/Take length of ribbon and tape to back of white card, wrapping around the front of the stamped panel, take smaller length of ribbon in different shade and tie this onto orginal ribbon.

5/Make photo corner by shaping a triangle of cardstock. Mount white card onto basecard and then add photo corner. Add detailing to outside of white card using the narrow black pen.


Would love your comments on this card. Thanks

Tweet or not?

Materials used : Hero Art Bird set, Micheals $1 word stamp, Dotty ribbon from hobby lobby via Candice (thanks for being my personal ribbon shopper), Prima flower, button from my NSSS package, Black ink, prismacolor pencils, stumps, sansodor.


Sorry, I could never resist a pun on words.... so finally I went up and looked at my card. I kinda liked it, kinda didnt so I chopped it some and was happier. I think this card looks nicer in real life than it does the photo. The colours are a weird choice of mix, but I like them, I maybe should have added more pink to the birds, but I didnt know I was going down the pink route until I was there. I still want to play with this set more, perhaps when I am feeling more creative I will do better. Thanks for looking.

In a rutt

Hmmm I am in a stampers rutt and I cant seem to get out of it. After my little bella roll I cant seem to get going again. I just tried to make a card but it just didnt seem to be happening. Part of it is that I think I am just trying to incoperate too much into it, I wanted to use the birds, use some ribbons, papers and flowers. Thing is, I am a simple card maker, I think I am trying to emulate others and its just giving me a brain fog! Also I have other matters on my mind which are just sitting there and festering so that is taking the enjoyment away also.

I'll go back to what I have done so far later and maybe I will feel happier about it all then, maybe I wont and it will end up in the bin.... we'll see.

Boys are sleeping, husband is out polishing his car?! (men eh?) I have been doing housework and moving things about... wonder how long it will take Darren to notice I brought the tumble dryer downstairs? (bit silly really, I had visions of me tumbling down with my tumble drier) anyway I didnt so thats OK. Any of you get these mad fits of moving things?? I am terrible, I move furniture all the time. Thing is, I get it into my head I want to, and I can not rest until it is moved and as Darren doesnt share the joy of moving rooms around it usually means I do it on my own with him guarding the boys from their mad mother! And results in me ended up needed a radox bath from all the aches of pulled muscles :O(

I think I have waffled enough today, I feel like I need to add cards on here all the time to keep people interested in my little 'ol blog, but for now a load of rubbish typed by me is the best your gonna get.................................

PART TWO
OK Boys are still sleeping and my butt is stuck in Harveys bean bag chair.... sooooo... I thought I would carry on this ramble. And here I attach a photo of a card I made at a recent demo. I was using a paper from Crate, I am sure that is spelt wrong but I think you know what I mean, anyway we sold out so I decided to show people how to make there own.

This card is using the paper - card below is my faux card!

Here is a MINI TUTORIAL ALERT!!

Materials Used : Decorative chalks, cotton wool ball, dauber duos.

Take a folded 6 x 6 card and place in front of you. Place a piece of copy paper so it is covering the top third of the card. Swipe the cotton wool into the chalk to create a band, as you are getting near where the bottom of the band would be, simply flip the paper down and again use as a mask for the chalk. Take a selection of dauber duos and use them directly onto the coloured strip. REMEMBER to ink them both on and part off the coloured stripe to give a better look to the dotty pattern. You can use the paper again to mask so the spots are not going below the coloured strip. SIMPLE SHRIMPLE!

A day early..... but... Happy Birthday Corinne!

My friend Corinne celebrates her birthday tomorrow and just encase I dont get to come on tomorrow I wanted to send her a special message! Corinne and I share birthdays 6 days apart, our boys (Harvey and Ben) were born 5 days apart. We are so alike in everything and we both married quiet mechanics! LOL it all gets quiet spooky.

a great big cyber hug for you my friend and I hope to see you soon. xxxx

Missing blogging, missing cards, missing you!

A few people mentioned recently "I dont know how you do it with the kids and all" and I was like "yeah, I fit it in at nap times ect". Well this week just hasnt happened :( Caiden hasnt been napping long enough for me to stamp, few other things going on, like friends coming round ect and crafting this week has been non exhistant. This isnt for the want of trying let me tell ya, I have been DYING to play with my ribbon rolls and new birdy stamps and all the other things. Its frustrating and a frustration that I am sure a million and one mums around the world face. But kids will grow and we'll have plenty of crafting time to ourselves and we will be wishing back our little ones and babies..... So if my blog goes quiet sometimes, rest assured it not coz I am wanting to neglect it or you, it means that I am having some quality time with my fast growing boys.

I am determined that this weekend I will play with my ribbons and bird stamps, infact I did manage to stamp, colour and cut the birds out yesterday so I just need to assemble them somehow. I did not mention it, but last weekend when I was demoing I was lucky enough to meet the lady (Shari Carrol) from Hero Arts USA who made the cute little birdy cards that you see on their website, she was a lovely lady and I was honored to meet such a stamp artist as her. Her look is very different, she is into collage and has just written a book on it, but I think as crafters we can learn to admire all types of work.

Speak to y'all later!

My Ribbons came!

My Ribbons came, my ribbons came! Doing the happy dance. 6 beautiful bright rolls of spotty ribbon and best of all another great card from Candice. She sent me the beautiful "now your stylin" Minnie mouse card she made. (IBelieve they are autumn leaves stamps - which I NEED) I will take a photo later. Also in the post today I got Hero Arts birds set from www.theglitterpot.co.uk and I am hoping to sneak upstairs when Darren gets home to play with my birds and ribbons :) I will be sure to show you what I have done when I have done it.

Another beautiful day here. Just brought Harvey some school shorts and he looks sooooo cute! The best thing is they are NO IRON!! YIPEEE I HATE HATE HATE ironing and no word of a lie I rarely do it. We just all walk around crumpled! :o) thank goodness the days of "proper" school shirts are gone and polo shirts are fine, still they do get a little crumpled but I like to either dry them in the drier to hang them out quick and hope for the best..... theres certainly better things in life that to iron, I just end up chasing the creases around with the iron and ending up with something MORE crumpled that before....

Have a great day! From Stamping Chirping Crumpled Caz!

Post roll call...

OK I like to remind myself what I have to look forward to and here are a few things I am waiting for :)

- Mickey and Friends and Mickey font cartridges - SHIPPED YIPEE
- Beautiful ribbons from Candice - Here YIPPEE
- StampingBella order for my birthday pressie - SHIPPED YIPPEE

I'll be sure to let you know when they come and share with you any creations I make, there is nothing more inspiring than "new stash" to get the creative juices flowing.

Please excuse lack of cards Caiden is sleeping but I just dont feel creative today, hence the no cards and the unbundance of waffle!

I make the best toast in America!!

Tee Hee, just had to share that gem with you. After giving Harvey his toast this morning he piped up that I "make the best toast in America". Pritty funny since we live in England.... Hmmm maybe I have been talking about all my American buddies too much!