>>> Mojo Monday Week 81 <<<

Another card sketch at Mojo Monday:
Here's my take on the sketch:

Patterned paper by GCD Rockets Red Glare collection. Stamped images from Non Sequitur Oriental Love Letters and sentiment from Purple Onion Designs.

TTFN!

>>> Happy Easter! <<<

It's Good Friday today! The weather sucks but what else is new especially in this country. I had arranged for an Easter egg hunt with the boys' classmates and their family so it had to go on. Spent the morning baking cupcakes and banana loaf.

We had invited them over for tea.

The party arrived nearly 3ish. The guys lost no time in hiding the eggs. Thank goodness it had stopped raining. As soon as the customary photos were taken i.e. before the hunt, they were off.

The kids made their own baskets and decorated them too.

Each of them had a huge egg, clearly labelled with their name and only that person could pick it up. The smaller eggs were free for all. The kiddies had so much fun hunting for them. You could hear squeals of delight and shouts of 'I found another one'.

The hunt for the eggs!

Before the hunt, I counted I had 65 eggs. No sure if they managed to find them all but thank goodness, it was over before the rain fell again.

Their goodies!

Will definitely do it again next year, hopefully in better weather conditions! TTFN!

>>> Card Positioning Systems #110 <<<

My first attempt with this card challenge blog. This is the sketch:



Here's my take on it:

Patterned papers from We R Memory Keepers Urban Window Boho Chic collection and Pink Paislee Spring Fling collection. Birdies stamp from BackPorch Memories February 09 stamp set. Border punch from Fiskars.

TTFN!

>>> 365 Cards: Day 42 <<<

Today's challenge is entitled 'Stampin Saturday'. Luv it especially anything to do with stamps. The challenge is to stamp a background pattern on a cardstock and if possible, avoid using patterned paper. Well, here's my take on it:

I stamped directly on my card, but not before spraying lightly with Maya Road mist. I used stamp images from Basic Grey Marrakech Morrocco stamp set. The huge purple ric rac was from a scrapbook kit years ago! The 'happy birthday' is from Banana Frog Retro Greeting set. Yup, the entire card is done using merely stamps!

Score-It week starts tomorrow. Looking forward to what's in store... TTFN!

>>> Card Patterns Sketch #9 <<<

Here's the sketch for the challenge:

My take on it:

Those cute creatures are from Kelly Panacci Twit Twoo stamp set. They are so adorable! Paper from Scrapworks Magpie. I drew the speech bubble myself. Images coloured using Promarkers.

TTFN!

>>> On Display! <<<

Here's what I did with BackPorch Memories April Medley kit. There were papers from Bo Bunny Abbey Road, Jenni Bowlin Farmer's Wife and Pink Paislee Facinating.

April Medley kit

April stamp set

Here's what I created with those lovely papers:

My boy and his friend dressing up at Blakesley Hall. These papers came in handy.

My boys and their friends decorating a mask during a crafting activity. This was the result of their creativity.

One of their concerts performance ... Suzuki group concert.

For my project, I made this woven basket using simply cardstock. Instructions can be found on the Splitcoaststampers resource site. Sorry but choccies are all gone now! The kids hunted them down.

BackPorch Memories cyber crop is next weekend. I'm busy designing classes and challenges. Paula has lots of attractive prizes up for grabs! Join in and you don't need to be a kit member to do so! Gonna be fun! TTFN!

>>> Easter Egg Hunt! <<<

It's Good Friday today and I arranged for my boys' friends to join them in an Easter Egg hunt. I've done this almost every year and usually with their cousins but as they are away on holiday, I found them another pair of siblings to join them. It's boring if they simply hunt alone. Their parents were invited as well and we had tea after the egg hunt. The morning saw me baking cupcakes and banana loaf. The kids were dead excited. The weather didn't cooperate and it drizzled. Thankfully, it stopped for a while and during that time we made a quick dash to hide the eggs and then got the kids to look for them. Luckily by the time they found them all (if they did), the rain started again. I tell you, weather here especially on a bank holiday is rather crap! Seldom do we get sunshine, just when you needed it most!

The adults had a great time chatting as well. Later found out we enjoyed similar kind of food so that's good news! We even indulged in a bit of Wii game too. Yup, adults and kids challenging each other. It was fun! Anyway, I leave with some images of today's event:

The cupcakes that I baked. Since it's Easter, hence the mini eggs theme. Behind is the banana loaf that I baked.

The kids having a photo session before they went hunting. They had already spotted a couple of eggs and were raring to go!

Showing each other their eggs! Each one had a biggie which was labelled with their name and they could only pick it up if it was theirs!

Ollie found his big one!

Here they are with their eggs! Between them there were 65 eggs! Why is it so difficult to get them to pose without their silly faces esp my boys!!!

Definitely do it again next year! TTFN!

>>> 365 Cards: Day 41 <<<

Today's challenge is called 'Feel Better Friday'. The challenge is to make a Get Well card that has 5 flowers on it. Here's my take on it:

Used a Making Memories journaling notepad from Noteworthy Delaney. Flowers from Prima, one of their earlier releases and bouquet paper from Chatterbox. Trying to use up old stash hence the orange thingy (it's late and I simply can't come up with the name!) in the background. Bee image from BackPorch Memories March stamp set.

TTFN!

>>> 365 Cards: Day 40 <<<

The challenge today is 'Spring Break'. We are supposed to take inspiration from sun, sand and surf. Amy's card inspired me greatly and I remembered I had some Island Summer papers by Rusty Pickle which fitted the theme perfectly. So here's my take on it:

This came quickly as I simply cut the patterns out from the patterned papers, including the tag!

Will have to re-take the card in better lighting. Dislike those shadows! That's what happens when you create at nite! With the boys around during the day, hard to do anything crafty!

TTFN!

>>> Happy Birthday ... <<<

to Hubs! It's his birthday today and he's at work. Unfortunately he couldn't take a day off.

As for myself, been busy running errands and baking. Had to go to the supermarket to get 2 sets of extra Easter eggs for tomorrow's egg hunt as well as top up on baking ingredients. Came home and made cupcakes for hubs. Created my own buttercream to add to the cupcakes but I think I need to reduce the amount of icing sugar as I found it a wee bit too sweet (followed a recipe from a book).

The wee one caught red-handed sticking his fingers into the cream. Well, I supposed his way of indicating it's his!

The birthday boy! The bigger one that is!
Had to get another cake stand as my pink one is used to hold my wood-mounted stamps and it was becoming a hassle taking them out each time I wanted to use it.

TTFN!

>>> 365 Cards: Day 39 <<<

A surprise greeted me when I checked on 365 cards site! I was chosen as a winner! Cool!

Today is Wacky Colour Wednesday! Well, the challenge is to create a card in purple, orange and green! I can't tell you how much I laboured, persisted and sweated over it. Everything I did just didn't look rite! In the end, I told myself to just get on with it... after all, it's gonna be given away!

Paper by Kimberly Polosen. Cardstock embossed with Cuttlebug swirl embossing folder. Stamped images from Banana Frog That Takes The Cake and coloured with Promarkers. Sentiment by Purple Onion Designs. Decided to make a birthday tag instead of a card as it just wasn't going rite for me today!

TTFN!

>>> Day of Surprises! <<<

Wow! Today's a brillant day! Checked out 365 Cards site and found myself a winner for their daily draw that they are having at the moment! Cool! Then I went over to Card Patterns and found that my card was one of the top 5 (out of 74 cards submitted). Godsmacked! I do them for fun really (and to use up my stash) but it's such an honour when it gets selected! :) Pity, I've to give it away... I seldom keep my cards... they are made to be given away most of the time, hence the excessive usage of stamps!

Took the boys for extra violin lesson. I had arranged with their school music teacher and we went to his place for their lessons. Boy was he a busy bee... when we reached there, he was teaching a 3 yr old gal. Then it was our turn and after that, another gal turned up. Well, not surprised as he's a brillant teacher and the boys have improved tremendously under him! Zac has now progressed to the next song, and is on par with Oliver. It will be much easier if both were on the same level in terms of teaching. They have only 2 more songs to go before they finish Book 1. Hoping they get that done before the summer hols!

Had to go and get goats milk for Zac as his rashes were beginning to come out. He's allegic to cow's milk and because we ran out of goats milk (including the supermarket!), I gave him a tiny bit of cow's milk for his cereal for the past few days. Big mistake... cow's milk is just lethal for him. Praying his rashes doesn't erupt as he's terrible with scabs! He simply picks on them and makes them bleed! Eeks!

We eventually made our way home and spent the afternoon chillin' out. Weather's been brillant despite the prediction of downpour. TTFN!

>>> 365 Cards: Day 38 <<<

Today's challenged is called ' That's It, I Quilt!' A very cute title and as the name implies, it has something to do with quilting! Create a card based on the quilt pattern below:

Have never done quilting before. While thinking how to approach it, I flipped through my stamp folder and lo and behold, a stamp with a quilting pattern jumped out at me! Perfect! So here's my take on it:

Stamped 'quilting' image from Stampington Clearly Impressed Writing Set. 'Happy Birthday' from Purple Onion Designs. Papers from We R Memory Keepers Urban Window collection: Diner and Making Memories (not sure which collection).

I supposed this way works best for me as I do have envelopes for A6 cards but not square ones...will be on my shopping list next... a pack of square cards & envelopes! Most likely, hubs will get his card as it's his birthday this Thursday!

I'm definitely luving the card challenges from this site. TTFN!

>>> Flurry Of Activities <<<

Yay! It came! My DT kit! What a sigh of relief! Couldn't have been more pleased to see the postie handing me a huge parcel (bought extra stuff including 2 new Fiskars border punches! (Addicted to them).

Woke up early (9ish!) as I had a lot to do... laundry (yup, yet again), tidy the house and clean the loo. Got the boys to tidy up their toys too and they were good and did it! After all, they made the mess, so they jolly well have to clean it since I'm not the maid!

Their classmates and their nan arrived quarter to 1. We had planned to go to Blakesley Hall where there's a crafting activity for the kids. The activity was to decorate a mask and all of us had a go. After that, we took a look at the house. Imagine... living here for nearly 10 years and I've yet to enter the Blakesley House! They did a good job of renovating and restoring it and it was interesting to see how it was like in those olden days! Big house though! I leave with some photos of today!

The gang working on their masks.

Ollie's mask which he somehow managed to lose while doing an activity in Blakesley House!

Zac drew a lot on his as he disliked feathers!

Here's mine!

The foursome. The gals are classmates of the boys!

Off to create tonite! TTFN!

>>> Natter Natter! <<<

Today started out easy. The boys had a lie-in as well and we didn't get up from bed till about 10ish! As for me, the afternoon was spent sorting out the laundry. I had several baskets of clean clothes that needed folding and sat on my bed, folding them while watching taped episodes of Desperate Housewives and Dirty Sexy Money! Luv my American soaps! Once done, tackled the mountain pile of clothes that needed ironing. Managed to shoo the boys off to karate so that I could get an hour of peace!

Will have to tidy the house tomorrow as I've got guests coming this week. House's in a state esp with the kids' toys everywhere! Got some baking to do as it's hubs' birthday this Thursday. Got him a book, Grow Your Own Drugs by James Wong, the chappie who makes remedies thru herbs etc. There's currently a TV programme with the same title on him. Having an Easter Egg hunt on Good Friday with my boys' classmates. Will be fun. Praying that it won't rain too heavily as rain is predicted. Darn the British weather... where is the sun when you need it!

So much to do and so little time. Hope I can squeeze a bit of crafting in somehow ... still waiting for my BPM DT kit ... deadline is Friday and I just hope it comes before then! TTFN!

>>> 365 Cards: Day 37 <<<

365 Cards is having a Score-It week. Check out the site later this week when they will show projects using the Scor-it Board and Scor-it Mini.

Back to cardmaking, today's challenge is entitled 'Do-It-Yourself'. The challenge is "to dress up some chipboard and add it to your card". Well, great challenge as I've tons of chipboards and they could do with being used up. I went thru' my box of chipboards and picked out a bug chipboard! Why, no idea but I thought it was cute! Went thru' my stamps and decided to use a particular set which I've not touched for a while. Here's my effort:

Made this for my dad (on the behalf of his grandkids). Decided to go slightly vintagy. Coloured the bug with Promarkers and then stamped it. The calendar stamp set is from Purple Onion Designs and it's in French. Always wanted a stamp set in French parce que je parle francais! The circular words are days of the week and aout is August!

TTFN!

>>> Sunday! <<<

The boys surprised me this morning! Ollie came in with his homework done! (sound of jawdropping!) Most of the time, I've to nagged at him to do it but he got up early, did his homework and even got his brother to do his as well as helped him get changed! His reasoning... so that he can play his DS without interruption. He certainly got what he wanted!

Hubs allowed me to lie-in this morning. He took the boys to the park with their bycycles and taught the youngest one to cycle 2 wheels. And he did it! Yay! Pity I wasn't there to capture it but I need my sleep more! LOL!

Easter break has begun! The boys are off for two weeks and I've already got a range of activities for them for this coming week. Nothing exhausting, just something relaxing and not prohibitively expensive! It's amazing how much a family outing can cost!!!

On the crafting side, I'll be working on 2 classes for BackPorch Memories cybercrop on 17th-19th April. Also waiting for my DT kit from BPM as well... hope it doesn't take too long. Absolutely hate last minute work esp when you have so much ideas and so little time! Off to make cards... TTFN!

>>> Scrap Like You Mean It:: Scrap Something Hidden <<<

I've joined in the scrapping challenge at UKScrappers forum and this year they started a Scrap Like You Mean It whereby you scrap a page each week till the end of the year. Hence you will end up with 52 LOs at the end of this year. I've missed a few weeks worth but will catch up eventually.

Here's my LO for this week's challenge to scrap something hidden.

Made use of Scarlet Lime March 09 main kit. Used Tim Holtz' music mask and sprayed the background with mimosa glimmer mist.

I took inspiration on how an envelope is folded and altered slightly to fit my requirement.

It eventually opens out to reveal the journaling. I liked how it turned out as I had difficulty trying to scrap those photos initally as they were in different sizes but putting them in this format solved my problem.

On a cheerful note, I'm now down to 3 full patterned papers and 1 cardstock from my SL March kit. I'm chuffed as I've never used of much from a SL kit before. Definitely making a dent this month. Now looking forward to April's kits, both main and project! Roll on.....TTFN!

>>> 365 Cards: Day 35 <<<

The challenge today is 'Super Sketchy Sunday'. Here's the given sketch:

Here's my take on it. This sketch had me pondering for a while but this is what I came up with:

Paper from Paper Salon Sizzle (which I had found it difficult to use in SB but worked well on cards!) The stamped image is from Kelly Panacci Twit Twoo (I've got this weakness for owls and couldn't resist this set!) Coloured using Promarkers.

TTFN!

>>> UKScrappers April Challenge! <<<

This month's challenge calls for a card to be created in either red, pink or orange. I chose orange as I've not done a card in that colour before. Here's my effort:

Papers by Scrapworks Magpie and Cosmo Cricket Get Happy. Stamp set by Hero Arts Four Dolls and Book of the Month Club. Chinese characters read 'thank you'.

Card is part of teachers 'thank you' cards. Trying to stay ahead of the game and plan early. TTFN!

>>> 365 Cards: Day 35 <<<

Today's challenge is entitled 'Ad Inspired'. The challenge is to take inspirated from a given Ad:

That is one heck of a beautiful room and I 'hug' that duvet! Doubt if the hubs would appreciate a pink room! Anyway, here's my take on it:

Green paper from Sweetwater and stamp from Hero Arts Four Dolls. Stamped images coloured using Promarkers ('hug' them and I think I need more colours esp in greens!) The fan was coloured in pinks but it appears purplish here.

I'm currently doing 'thank you' cards for my boys' teachers for the end of the school year in July and have chosen these Japanese dolls as the theme, hence you will see them a lot. TTFN!

>>> 365 Cards: Day 34 <<<

Today's challenge is entitled 'That's Eggs-ellent'. Basically, the challenge calls for either an EGG or an OVAL as the dominating shape, in honour of Easter. The card doesn't have to be an Easter theme.

Here's my take on it. I went for an Easter theme as I need to give one to MIL. She's one heck of a MIL... fab lady! Bought her a mazipan Easter egg, on the behalf of the boys. She luvs mazipan.

Stamp images from Unity (happy, snail & egg) and CherryArte (label). Background paper from Fancy Pants (scraps more like it!) and grass cut from Crate Paper Brunch collection. I got a 12x12 baggie of scrap papers which I dig into frequently to do cards these days. Trimming came from Scarlet Lime March 09 kit. Stamped images coloured using Promarkers. Was experimenting how to shade the images.

Have to apologise for the poor photography here as I tend to do the cards at nite, hence can only take them under fluorescent light! I do try and photoshop it though to make it look better! The theme of my card is based on the Easter Egg hunt that I'll be organising for my boys & their classmates next week. Hence the egg hidden among the grass! TTFN!

>>> Charm Cards & Crafts Candy! <<<

Came across this competition with a twist! Up for grabs is a set of 72 Copic markers.

A colouring enthusiast delight!

The competition calls for a card with either a downloaded image or stamped image that has been coloured in. I downloaded this image from Charmed Cards & Crafts site (it was a free download to try before buying). Here's my effort:

Made use of my Nestibilities Label 2 die cut and Basic Grey paper. Coloured using Promarkers.

TTFN!

>>> Unity Hip Hop 3+3 Challenge <<<

It's Thursday and it's Hip Hop day. Finally managed to suss out how to join in on the challenges. They are normally held at the Spiltcoaststampers forum. Being new to that forum, it took a while to navigate and find out where the challenges were.

Thursday's Hip Hop challenge is '3+3', basically 3 layers and 3 colours. I can't tell how how hard it was to stick to that requirement. Here's my take on it:

(excuse the shadows on the card as photo was taken late at nite and lighting is dire!)
Made use of an old sheet of SassafraLass paper. Lined the inside with cardstock. Used Unity March KOTM set. Coloured with Promarkers!

TTFN!

>>> Blog Candy! <<<

Came across Jennifer's blog while surfing and she does some amazing cards. Luv how she colours her images. I'm still learning.... Check her blog out! Oh and she has some great candy to share as well! :)

I will try and get some Copic markers to play with one day....

TTFN!