Bah! Humbug! Day and Anything Goes...

This week is soooooooooooooo easy at Bah! Humbug! as our theme is Anything Goes!!!  That means you can really run wild and be creative in any way you like.  I decided to make some Christmas ribbon gifts for crafting friends.  Infact I sent the cheeky little fellow with the red hat out to Janet as part of her spot prize last week. 

Wonder who will get the blue version?  I know, but I'm not telling!

The stamped faces are from a set I bought from Joanna Sheen's special offer page a few weeks back and I can't remember the make, but I do like them. Both were coloured with Promarkers.  I've used peel offs for the sentiments and the little oval frame is from a set of Cuttlebug stamp dies that I've just bought. 
As well as for Bah! Humbug! my ribbon gifts are also for the challenge at...

• ABC Christmas Challenge - Lights (tangled in boys antlers which I've just realised I've forgot to colour - imagine brown antlers please)
• Pile it on - Quirky - hmmmmm think these will count for that.
• Die Cut Dreams Christmas Club - Snowflakes - only tiny ones but they are there - honest!

Well off to work soon to do the long shift and won't be home till tomorrow.  Will catch up with everyone then.  Have a great day everyone.
Ann xxx

Scrapping again...

and it's been a while since I completed my last page.  I could tell that, because when I got the box and album from behind my settee I nearly screamed the place down when a huge spider crawled out.  It must have been 6 cm at least (okay 6 mm but it's easy to get confused when you're in a panic).  I dropped everything and made a run for it.  Luckily so did the spider cause when I finally picked up the courage to come back to the box it had disappeared.  Very sensible, in view of the fact that I had my shoe off ready to sort him out!

As you can see it's more photos from Brazil.  I've made it quite hard for myself as I had these photos developed at Tesco and they are all the same size.  Makes it hard to ring the changes and also I would have preferred a larger size photo in the layout above, but needs must and no scanner so can't alter things in that way.

All the photos are of Shelley.  Bless her - she posed all over the hotel grounds for me so I could get lots of shots with my then new camera.  The background paper just seemed to fit the scene perfectly.  It was in my stash and I think it may have originally been from a DCWV Photostack pad, but I'm not sure.  I've a lot to learn about scrapbooking, but I'm chuffed with myself in the way I've cut the slits in the grasses to slide in the photos.  Think that's an effective touch.

The flower was made using my Cricut for the base layers to get the size and then a Marianne flower die for the top finished off with a Dovecraft gem brad.  I was going to use one of my Prima flower centres that I won the other day, but the one in the right colour fell to bits when I got it out of the packet.  Hmmm, won't be buying them in a hurry.  Very disappointing!

I'm hoping my flower embellishment means that I can enter my pages for these challenges...

• A Spoonful of Sugar - Floral Delight
• My Time to Craft - An Extra Special Person (Shelley, my youngest daughter is certainly that!)
• Alphabet Challenge - Flowers

I was tempted to enter this into the Die Cut Dreams challenge of 'angels' but seeing as Shelley has just acquired a horrid huge tattoo of a skull she doesn't qualify on that count anymore.  Better start saving up for the 'removal of monstrousities' operation that's sure to be needed in a few years time!

Have a fab day all.

Ann xxx

Pink fairy flowers....

I bought this Lilli of the Valley stamp at the NEC and for some strange reason (could it be I have too many stamps) this is the first time I've used it.  I just love this delicate fairy and the way she is leaning forward to smell the flowers.  My original thought was to combine her with a quote stamp I have about taking time to smell the flowers, but on this occasion she's been used for a very pink girlie birthday card requested by my daughter Laura to send one of her friends.

I coloured her with Promarkers and used Stickles spread very thinly on her wings and skirt to add a touch of magic without too much glitter everywhere.  I haven't used my Stickles for ages (a long, long time) and I think it says a lot for the product when the stuff was still easily usuable.  No pushing pins in or anything like that.  Brilliant.

The pink base card is from my stash and the patterned papers are from a Papermania collection that I bought some years ago and I found hiding in the back of a cupboard during my big clearout session.  There is a lot to be said for this tidying up business!

My card is for the challenges at...

• Cutie Sunday - great sketch
• Promarker Challenge - Pink Birthday (my daughter would ask are there any other kind of birthday's)
• Tuesday Taggers - all that blooms

Have a fab Wednesday everyone.

Hurrah a little bit of crafting...

I've just been so busy sorting and also setting up Challenge Mania that I never managed to get anywhere near my craft desk till yesterday.  It was lovely to do something even if it was only a very quick card before setting off to work.

I must admit I do like this frog and pocket stamp set that has been in my stash for ages, especially when making a card for a male when you don't really know their interests.  During my tidying session these fun google eyes turned up (well they actually spilled all over the floor and were a pain to pick up) and as they were to hand I thought why not have a bit of fun and use them for the frog's eyes.  They were just the right size so it must have been meant to be.

How cute is that frog?  I love him.  I would have prefered to use circular brads, but the squares were the only ones left in that colour so they had to do.  The card is Core'rdinations cuttlebugged using the Swiss Dots folder for the back piece and stamped on for the pocket.

To round the pocket up a little I used a double layer of foam pads in the middle of the pocket, then a single layer down  each side and finally really strong DST on the edges.  It just gives a bit of depth.

The sentiment was stamped on to the Core'rdinations cardstock, but because of the texture of the card it didn't show up too clearly so I went over the top with a Letraset outliner pen.  Maybe it's a little dark now, but hey it's readable.

If you're reading this Max I hope Niall likes the card.  I'm posting it first thing this morning with his present so fingers crossed it arrives on time.

My froggie card is also for the following challenges...

• Sweet Sketch Wednesday - love their sketches - every week a new inspiration
• Simon Says - Male Card or Father's Day
• Sentimental Sunday - use old stash (my stamp set) and a sentiment (Happy Birthday)

Have a fab day everyone.  I'm off work for 3 days now so hoping to get some serious crafting in and maybe finish the sorting out.  Why is it when you empty a wardrobe donate to charity, put some things in the bin and send bras off to Yorkshire Air Ambulance there has got to be less stuff, but it won't fit back in? Hmmm, case of the toast falling butter side down I think. 
Oh disaster too late to enter challenge at Sweet Sketch Wednesday!!!  That will teach me to get into action sooner.

Don't burn your bras...

Have you noticed how some people put some really weird things on their blogs especially when they haven't actually got any cards to show.  Who me? Never!

There is method in my madness.  I have just spent the whole weekend having a huge wardrobe sort out.  Having lost loads of weight over the past year there are just too many things in my wardrobe that don't fit anymore and tons of old stuff that I simply would not wear.  Why do we buy some of the stuff we do? Crazy!

Anyway sorry I'm rambling too much.  Whilst in the middle of the complete chaos in my room I remembered reading an article about a bra collection on the Yorkshire Air Ambulance website.  I'd visited the site a couple of weeks back when Emma at Crafty Emma was raising funds in memory of her Dad.  The digi image 'Relaxing Ronnie' is still on sale if you haven't got him and he is great for Father's Day cards.

So to cut a long story a little bit shorter my now too huge for me bras are off to West Africa via Halifax.  Hmmm wonder if I should go with them to make sure they arrive safely. If you have any spares lurking in the backs of drawers, etc do visit the Yorkshire Air Ambulance Recycled Bras page to find out more.  They need quite a few!

Have a great day.

Ann xxx

Grand Opening....

Okay this should be happening tomorrow really, but I can't wait any longer to let my friends take a look.  Seeing as we are all challenge mad (some of us are totally obcessed - me for one) I decided to form a blog which keeps me and my friends in the know about what challenges are on and where.

Now it would be impossible to list every challenge and there will be days when I've worked overnight and won't be able to update till late in the day, but I'm hoping that most of the time the whole blog will be useful for both me and my challenge blogging buddies.

I've kept the look of the blog very plain on purpose so that's it's really easy to read and check the challenges.  I will possibly add more challenges as we go along, but as you'll see there's plenty already on to keep us more than busy.

I do hope that the blog is liked and is useful to all of us.

Click on the link to be taken to Challenge Mania and have fun.