~ Banana Frog Hop Winner! ~

Here's the winner from yesterday's Frog Hop! First of all, thank you so much for dropping by and leaving comments. Enjoyed reading them and here are some answers to the questions:

- feel free to scraplift

- LO mean Layout.

Now the winner of the hop picked by random generator is... :

Congratulations! Please email Bev (sales@bananafrog.co.uk) with subject line 'May's Frog Hop Winner' to claim your prize. Let her know which stamp set takes your fancy! 

Join us again for another Frog Hop on the 30th of this month! Until then, happy stamping! TTFN!

~ Caardvarks: May Challenge Tiffany Doodles ~

Played with Caardvark sketches when making my Xmas cards. They had two sketches on offer:

Here's my card: 

Patterned paper by Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses. Stamped images from Unity's Merry Merry Merry. 

Here's the other sketch: 

Here's the card: 

Paper: BG Eskimo Kisses

Stamp: Unity's Merry Merry Merry

TTFN!

~ Banana Frog Hop! ~

If you're here from Debbie's blog, welcome! This month's is Banana Frog's birthday and there are some great prizes to win (if you have checked the BF's blog). So the theme's this month is on 'birthday'. I've in store some projects relating to it!

Kids love wearing birthday badges. Not surprising since it publicise their birthdays.    One can easily buy a badge with any sentiments on it these days. Bearing that in mind, I thought I create one using one of the new stamp set that came out recently.

I used Fairytale Princess for this project. The word 'Birthday' came from Retro Greetings set (one of my well-used stamp set). 

The base is punched using a 3" scalloped punch. A piece of scrapped patterned paper was laid over it. Then the relevant images was stamped, coloured with Copics and attached using foam dots. To wear it, simply attached a brooch pin at the back. Voila, that's it, a simple and rather unique birthday badge for your li'l princess!

Let's not forget if you have boys (like I do) so I created another one just for boys. I made use of Charming Prince stamp set. 

Background was sprayed with a silver mist. Stamped images coloured using Copics. A quick and easy birthday badge for a boy

I also made a quick mini LO (6x4") for my display frame. I love doing mini LOs as they are very quick to finish and easy to display and store! I bought an Ikea flip-over frame with 6 pages (which equates to 12 pages) some time ago and it was left in my cupboard for years until last year when I decided to do something about it. It struck me that I could do a 6x4" LO whenever I've a new photo. It will be displayed in the frame. The only time the LO is removed is when it's being replaced with a new LO. Any old ones are simply stored in a 6x4 album (any normal photo album, which can be easily altered of course!) So far, it has been successful and guests who visit, love looking at them. Here's my LO: 

Photo of my other half on his birthday. Photo size is 4x3". This size allows you to use up any leftover scraps. As the space is easy to fill, it can be done in less than half an hour!

Hope you are enjoying the hop. Bev is ever so generous this month so if you fancy any Banana Frog stamp set, here's your chance to win it. Simply leave a comment and a random draw will take place on Monday. Good luck! Your next leap is Nat! Happy Hopping! TTFN!

~ Christmas Cards All Year Round: May's challenge ~

This month's challenge is to use flowers, along with ribbon and button! Well, here are my 5 cards, based on a Christmas theme: 

,

Picked a pack of Tutti Frutti papers from the local stationery. Used them for kids' class and had some left over so channelled them for cards. Have to say, luv the colours on them. You will probably see the same poinsettia on all the cards as I picked up a bunch last Christmas and have lots around. They have come in handy for this challenge. Stamp set is Unity's Cheer & Joy

Patterned papers are Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses (I'm fast depleting my supply of papers as I've used loads). Stamp set is Unity's Merry Merry Merry. Card is based on a sketch at Caardvark.

Cute deer but I found it hard to use the paper and decided to highlight the deer for this card. Sentiment from Unity's Bright & Merry Winter Wishes. Card is based on a sketch from Unity's Hip Hop #9

Stamp set is from Unity's Merry Merry Merry. Card is based on a sketch from Caardvark.

Stamped set is Unity's Glorious Angel. Card is based on a sketch from Unity's Hip Hop #9.

Some of these cards were made for other challenges (which can be seen in my blog posts). Had fun doing them and I'm so glad that I'm keeping to my quota each month! Roll on June...TTFN!

~ Unity's Friends With Flair ~

So pleased that Friday has come again.... and this Friday is especially special as it's the start of half term! Yay! A week of break. Looking forward to not having to rush about in the morning. Although scary to think that the next term will be the last in the school term. It's like a year has gone past so quickly. 

Had some time to craft last weekend and created a commissioned canvas using May's store kit. I told myself I had to stop getting so many stamp sets as I'm running out of space to store them not to mention lack of time to play but the May set was just too unique to pass on...

Background misted using Tim Holtz stencil and glimmer mists. Then the flora stamps were used at the bottom of the canvas. Patterned paper by Cosmo Cricket. Went overboard with the flowers as I don't get much chance to use them (I've got boys and there is only so much flowers you can put on them).

The stamped florals

Luv the large circular journaling block... gonna be very useful!

Also created a card based on this sketch: 

Here's my card: 

Patterned paper by October Afternoon

The inside of the card. The zig zag border was punched out from an EK Success punch.

Thanks for dropping by. Thankful for a quiet weekend and hoping to be able to squeeze some crafting time. Whatever you do, have a great weekend... TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 86 ~

This week's challenges are sponsored by {ippity} stamps!

Do check out Elizabeth's blog. She's offering a free stamp set to a random winner at 365 Cards blog so hop over there to get more deets!

Today's challenge was 'Keep It Simple'! Here is the instructions:

One stamped image (you can color it in), one stamped sentiment, and one embellishment of your choice. No patterned paper on this one!

Eeeks! No patterned paper! Well, all I can say that this was one super duper quick card: 

Background image stamped using {ippity} Because Of You and sentiment from The Simple Things

Need to get over my hangup about making simple cards! TTFN!

~ CardPatterns: Sketch 65 ~

I played with this sketch:

And came up with this: 

Patterned paper by Basic Grey Granola. Stamp images by Banana Frog Hiya Chick.

Incidentally, this card was my offering for Banana's Frog May Colour Focus as well based on a colour inspiration. This can be seen here. TTFN!

~ Le Weekend ~

What a brilliant weekend we had! The sun was out and boy did it shone. In fact, it was swelting on both days. We did what everyone would do, we chilled out in the garden. The boys had their water pistol out and soaked themselves thoroughly. Hubs cooked our dinner on the BBQ on both days while I emptied the laundry basket. Temperature was recorded at 31 deg celcius.

There more sun predicted over the next few days. About time although this will severely impact my crafting mojo!



Hopefully it will be sunny next weekend. Looking forward to more BBQ and outdoor meals. TTFN!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

~ Unity's Friends With Flair ~

It's Unity's day today and I played with April's store kit:

One of my fav images. Patterned paper by Basic Grey Sugar Rush and the background is stamped using {ippity} Because of You set. I created this card for 365 Cards. 

Thanks for dropping by and have a great weekend! TTFN!

~ Sports Festival ~

Zac was fortunately chosen to take part in the Sports Festival held in the Junior School. He goes there this coming Sept and I guess it's the school's way of slowing integrating them. As it is, the Year 2s are invited to attend certain assemblies in the Junior school. 

Thank goodness for a wonderful, sunny weather! He was involved in 3 different games, football, basketball and tag rugby. He certainly enjoyed himself tremendously while his brother hung about, watching him and playing football with his friends. As for me, photo opportunity for me and I played not only with my DSLR but also my Hipstamatic app. 

Now I wish the app had a zoom feature! It would be so handy!

Learning how to bounce the ball.

Learning how to throw a rugby ball. There was progression and the kids finally played a game at the end. 

Craftwise, feeling a little mojo-less at the moment! It's like I wanna do something but at the same time, not in the mood to do so! Oh well, the heat doesn't help too... and there's more sunny days ahead! I guess I shouldn't complain as it isn't often we get such warm weather! As they say, make hay while sun shines! TTFN!

~ On Display: Banana Frog ~

Something I made for Banana Frog blog:

My li'l wee one asked me to label his bed so I came up with this bunting. I recently received some new Banana Frog stamps and so they came in handy for this project!

I used patterned papers from Pink Paislee Bayberry Cottage collection (6x6 stack which I won as a goodie bag from Crafty Templates!) Luv the colours as they are perfect for me! Stamp sets used here are Charming Prince and Mad Font. 

Found this cute photo of my boy and had to use it. I used the same sets again for this page. 

BF recently brought out Hiya Chick set... I must have swoon as I luv birds and birdcages! This set is just fab! Used this set to complete my decoration of the bunting. 

I now need to do one for my eldest! More stamps to play! Yay! TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 79 ~

This week's sponsors are from Some Odd Girl.

Today's challenge is based on a colour scheme:

The DT members were given some lovely digi stamps to play with and I chose Skater Kody. Here's my card: 

Patterned paper by Pink Paislee BayBerry Cottage collection. Image coloured using Copics.

TTFN!

~ Winners! ~

Where did the weekend go? It just flew and I had such a fabulous time. Anyway, back to reality and here are the winners for various giveaways. 

First of all, Banana Frog Birthday Bash winner. Based on a random generator, here's the winning comment: 

Congratulations Tanya! Please email Bev at this address (sales@bananafrog.co.uk) with the subject heading: Banana Frog Birthday Bash winner from Audrey's blog. 

The next winner is from my week in Growing In Unity held last week. Again, based on a random generator, the winning comment came from Day 3: 

Congratulations Gwen! Please email Eryn (eryn@unitystampco.com) with your choice of Unity single stamp with the subject heading: Growing In Unity winner from Audrey's blog. 

A big thank you to those who dropped by and supported my blog by leaving comments. It's very much appreciated. Have a lovely week ahead! TTFN!

~ Basking ~

What a busy day! The morning saw me bringing my youngest to a birthday party. Then in the afternoon, the boys were in Birmingham town centre basking for Christian Aid. They teamed up with another gal and played a series of songs for half an hour in two spots. During the time they played, a fair number of people donated, and we saw quite a few fiver notes. The kids enjoyed themselves and were rewarded with treats at the end of their performances. Here are some photos...

Pics taken using the Hipstamatic app on the iPhone. I sincerely hope they contributed to a large takings for Christian Aid. TTFN

Edited: Just received an email to say how much was taken during the day... £753 based on a whole day (11am - 4pm) of basking by 20 children! Quite pleased about the amount raised! A big thank you to the passers-by who were at B'ham town centre today and gave generously.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

~ Happy Birthday and Blog Giveaway! ~

Edited: This blog post will remain at the top till blog giveaway ends! (Posted on 1st May!)

Lots of birthdays this month, namely Banana Frog .... Happy 4th Birthday! Then there's moi.... still 21 and will be always! :) 

It's Banana Frog's 4th birthday and there's some major celebration going on. Check out the blog to find out more details! You definitely don't wanna miss it! And speaking of new stamps, have you seen the Tadpole set? This set compliments Hiya Chick set perfectly. Here's a card that I did with that cute bird!

Now that bird is just too cute. I'm such a softie when it comes to birds! 

Who says you can't use it for an Xmas card?

As it's my birthday today as well, I'm gonna offer a blog giveaway. Banana Frog has kindly offered a stamp set (of your choice!) Leave me a comment letting me what's the best birthday gift you received!  Blog giveaway closes on 15th May!

And what's my best birthday gift... well, the iPhone my hubs is gonna get me. At this moment, we are deciding which network to go for and which has the best contract. I'm not much of a phone user but definitely a net & text user so will need to find a contract that suit my needs. Looking forward to it... it will compliment my Mac perfectly! TTFN!

~ Growing In Unity: Day 5 & Friends with Flair ~

It's a Unity day today. Last day of my Growing in Unity week, one which I had a blast, playing with Unity stamps. It's also Friends with Flair day today as well. And it's gonna be another maniac day for me too, with dental appointment and violin rehearsal thrown in! I guess that's what being a mom is.... your kids' schedules takes over your life!

Thankfully, found some time last nite to scrap and with a new stamp kit, Brave Girl. A box chocked full of new stamps was delivered yesterday, much to my delight! Here's my first LO: 

Made use of Scarlet Lime April's kit for this LO. The base is Basic Grey Basic White paper (boy do I hug the Basic ranges). LO based on a sketch at Butterfly Craft. I used quite a fair bit of stamp images from Brave Girl... gonna be one of my fav scrapbooking sets!

LO created using a Studio Calico May kit (which incidentally arrived this week). This is based on a sketch by Sketchy Thursdays (I rely on sketches a lot these days as I've got limited time for crafting and dun wanna be fluffing about). Although the kit is entitled Brave Girl, I found them equally versatile for use on male LOs too. 

The photos used on the LO were taken on my iPhone using a Hipstamatic app. Now if you have an iPhone, you need this app! It makes your photos look rather 'vintagy'. What I love about it is the ability to change lens, films and flashes to create a certain look in the photo. Or simply shake the phone to get a random look. It makes taking photo so much fun! 

Thanks for dropping by. And if fancy winning a Unity single stamp set of your choice, drop me a comment. The winner will be drawn this weekend! It's gonna be a fun weekend as my boys will be basking (playing their violins) in Birmingham town centre on Saturday for charity. They are helping out Christian Aid and I'm praying for sunshine! Whatever you are doing, hope you have a good weekend! TTFN!

~ Butterfly Crafts: May Visual Challenge ~

Found some time to scrapbook and used this sketch at Butterfly Crafts.

Here's my LO: 

SB kit: Scarlet Lime April 10 

Stamp: Unity's Brave Girl scrapbooking set

TTFN!

~ CardPatterns: Sketch 63 ~

Here's the sketch:

Here's my card: 

Patterned paper: Cosmo Cricket Material Girl

Stamps: Unity April's store kit

TTFN!

~ Caardvarks: May Challenge Tiffany Doodles ~

Here's the sketches for Caardvark:

Here's my card: 

Patterned paper: Cosmo Cricket Material Girl

Stamp: Unity's April2010's store kit

TTFN!