Something new from the Doncaster Craft show!

Yoohoo only me! I know and so soon too! Heck I had the best of intentions to post more often but the pesky time bandits have been around again! I wouldn't mind but I never even saw the little blighters. One minute loads of time and the next I'm chasing myself.... ~and breathe~ Still here I am! So a few things to share with you.

First we've a new challenge over at Totally Gorjuss, this week its all about boys! Yup we want to see cards for the men in your life. OK OK I know lots of peeps aren't so keen on boy cards but honestly when you see what the Gorjussettes have come up with you'll be inspired! Oh and if you need more inspiration there's a £10 spend at Crafters Companion too ;))

I've used this sweet little cricketer from Lili of the Valley He was an absolute breeze to colour! So the card came together super quick which was a good job really...... remember the time bandits?

So today I popped over the the Summertime (hah what a joke that word is!) Craft Show at Doncaster Race Course. How could I describe it? Well worth a visit! Super location, handy free car parking (take note NEC!) and its about 15 minutes from my house. Oh and chocka-block with fabulous crafting goodies! So I managed to acquire 'one or two' essential bits and pieces;)) It would have been rude not to wouldn't it?

So while there I got this super cute Lili of the Valley stamp and these lush Tilda papers. Coloured with Copics natch.

Now my ace find, OK I know I'm not the only one but.... check out these leaves! Aren't they just fantastic? They're organza fabric, oh and already glittered which is a bonus. I mean I love glitter but always end up with as much on me as I do the card ~blushes~

A little close up of the leaves and flowers, WOC as usual.

These lush leaves come from a fabby company called HobbyFun UK They have the most gorgeous organza fabrics! And you know how I am with fabric lately.... I just about resisted leaping onto the rolls and wrapping myself on them. I made do with a few surreptitious feels instead.

And yes there's an 'and' I felt a bit inspired after seeing the bead stalls! So a few pink beads later I made myself a bracelet too!

Welcome back Mr Mojo!

Stampotique Guest Spot

Woohoo! Well the day, well OK night has dawned.... hang on if its night it can't be dawn can it? I'll rephrase that - the time has come! Yes that's better ;))

The tiime has come for me to share with you my first submission for the fabulous Stampotique Designers Challenge Blog! I'm so honoured to be asked, their full time DT make such F A N T A S T I C creations. So I'm hoping my little offering is up to scratch...

So here it is.... This week the theme chosen by the talented Gez is flowers. So when I saw 'Baby Cakes' and this wonderful text stamp 'Fabulous' I knew immediately what I wanted to do ;))

And that folks is how it looked in my head! 'Baby Cakes' has of course been coloured with Copics. I stamped her first and then masked her and stamped 'Fabulous' so it looked like it was behind her. That was then glittered for a touch of va va voom. A spray of roses and a crinoline flower and Voilà!


A spot of detail of the lovely Baby Cakes. I so need those boots!


As a treat an arty shot!

Oh my another one!


The flowers which were Stickled to add to the bling factor. I mean you can never have enough bling can you?

Summertime and some RAWRRRR!

Howdy!

I guess you're splitting your sides now you seen me write 'summertime' I can hear you now 'has she gone nuttier than usual? Summertime?? where's that then because its not here' I am of course referring to the latest challenge over at Totally Gorjuss I chose the theme of 'summertime' thinking well the middle of July almost it'll be appropriate because its summertime, allegedly. Unfortunately we appear to have been transported into some grey monsoon land place! I have to say I'm not so keen on grey monsoon land myself. I'm more a hot summer land place. So if the weathermen happen to be reading this send summer back please because I'm missing it.

So here's my card for the challenge which this week is sponsored by Crafters Companion One lucky peep will get £10 to spend in their online store. Good huh?

So I've inked up little Tilda with her lolly.

Isn't she sweet? Its obviously much warmer where she is if she needs a lolly to cool down with. I've got the brolly Tilda.... I could have used that couldn't I? She's been coloured with Copics and the papers are MME. And its my last bit, honestly I was hyperventilating when I cut it.


Flowers a la Wild Orchid Crafts.

Now those of you with a good memory may recall Lumpy.... Lumpy is alive and well and lives on the floor by my craft table. He likes it there..... Now my plan was to increase Lumpys circle of friends. Olivia, Frank and Roland appeared and then things kind of slowed up.... I felt I needed fleece to make these little critters squishier. JoAnns to the rescue! I've not seen any fleece for sale my side of the pond :(( So I'd like to introduce...

Wilf and Prudence! Now these two are lovely and squishy! Now I plan on making more of these little guys and then they'll be off on their travels. They'll be going to Kids Company which is a London based charity to help children.

So you've a couple of things to look at, if you'd like of course. The new challenge at Totally Gorjuss and the Kids Company charity - could you help them?

Oh and if you see the sun while you're out and about point it in my direction please!

The tour continues and some news

Howdy!

Our tour of the East Coast continues! This weekend it was Cleethorpes.... Cleethorpes is a quaint little town which joins onto Grimsby and is right on the mouth of the Humber Estuary. Now when the tide goes out they mean its out! By around a mile or so! So I think that is definitely out! The first photo shows the tide in almost fully out level. You can just make out the martello towers in the estuary. I can remember visiting Cleethorpes as a child and there being horse and carts to take you to the sea edge when the tide was out!


Now this is a couple of rides - yes the tide comes and laps round them! I'm not sure what happens if they have an extra high tide!

And yes your eyes don't deceive you - people are swimming in the sea. Now me personally didn't stick a toe in the water but I reckon seeing as its the North Sea it would be pretty cold. these kids are obviously made of sterner stuff than me.


I felt shivery just looking at them! Oh and yes we had fish and chips.... again! I know I'll be reaching barrel proportions soon;)) I'm not sure if there's many seaside towns reachable late on a Sunday afternoon. Which is probably a good thing for my waistline.

Oh and now for my bit of news.... Stampotique have invited me to be their Guest Designer for July over on their Designers Challenge blog. If you've time pop over and laugh at the spectacularly scary photo of me! Oh and there'll be challenges and stuff too.

Its me!

Hiya there!

Yes those pesky time thieves have struck again! I mean where do they come from? I never ever see them coming....

I seem to have been really really busy but I haven't got an awful lot to show for it. Well there was lots of cooking but that's gone to customers.... Oh and the weather! Blimey I thought we'd been transported to the tropics, minus the warm temperatures, with the amount of rain we had the other day! I only dashed 3 yards to the bin and was drenched. Trust me I chucked the next bag of rubbish on the step and waited till it stopped!

Now I love feeding the wild birds in the garden. The starlings are thanking me by scoffing all the cherries on my tree! Cheeky buggers peck all of them %-( I think they do that to make sure we don't eat any of them to be honest. Now I put meal worms out for the birds (they're weird they look like they're wriggling even though they're dried ugh!) and I noticed the other night we have another visitor who likes them.

I'd like to introduce....

Hedgie! He ate a huge pile of them. Yup all that pile which I put out when I saw him were scoffed!

Cute isn't he? I hope he returns the favour and attends to the slugs and snails!

Now a new challenge has launched.... I make it sound like a rocket, over at Totally Gorjuss This week we'd like you to use ribbons and lace on your entries. This weeks sponsor is Fantastic Ribbons

I've used one of the last boy releases from Lili of the Valley I managed to include ribbon and lace on a boy card! A first for me ;))

Teddy has been coloured with Copics and the papers are a mix of Basic Grey Pyrus and Kraft.

Back again!

Yay!

Its me! Again and so soon! Now is that a good thing or a bad thing..... hmmm??? I'll let you decide..... ;))

Now I thought I'd share a few pics with you. Over the weekend the OM and myself had a little 'don't know where we're going but we'll go anyway' trip. Basically I pointed the car up the M18 and drove. Eventually we came to the North Sea and so I thought it would be a good idea if we stopped! Anyway we were at Withernsea... oh my! It was.... how can I describe it? Er.... brown! Sorry to any Withernsea residents who may be reading! Please don't think the sky is blue, they're actually grey rain clouds! So we hopped back in the car - pointed it again and.....

went to Hornsea! It was slightly less brown! The OM took a quick pic of me (don't be scared!) Yes it was as breezy as it looks. The joy of an English summer, yes jeans, jumper and a coat!

Can I think of a nice thing about Hornsea?.... Well if you're ever there I can recommend the seafront chippy - the fish and chips are wonderful! Made the trip worthwhile. They did make the car pong a bit but hey ho. Totally delicious!

So a little make to share with you. While I was on my jollies I happened, by accident, to acquire a couple of quilting magazines. Now they have some rather fabby makes in them, other than quilts.

One of them being a needle case.....

So.... taaaa daaaaaaaaaa! The needle case! Its actually easier than the instructions! I have to say they weren't worded terribly well, unless..... unless I'm thicker than I think I am that is..... well anyway its a good make for fabric scraps. The strips on the front are made from pieces 1" x 5" so with seam allowances they're 1/2" wide! Its really dinky.

The front.....


The back....

The inside, the needle 'holder' bits are felt

Its even got a pocket on the inside for...'stuff'

So that's my latest little make. Now I'm acquiring fabric and saving all the bits I reckon I can make one or two more!

Return from the time warp!

~creeps in with a snigger~

Hi there its me again! Yup the time thieves have been here again! Pesky things sneaked in and stole loads of time and I never noticed....well hardly..... er OK I did but I've had a mixture of being busy/poorly/busy/poorly and well that just whipped the time away from me. Oh and the God awful weather doesn't exactly help does it? I mean what month is it? Its like April! Sun one second and then a torrential downpour.... then more of the same. Its been so cold too - my poor old joints don't like it one bit :(( I feel like a creaky door and I swear I can hear my joints creak!

So enough moaning, unless you want more? I can moan real good..... OK enough then. I thought I show you a couple of pics of something I made the other day. Pork ribs - my word I have to say they were absolutely delicious! First of all I put them in a roasting tin and put about an inch of water in and covered with foil. Into a slow oven - 160c for just over and hour. This way the sort of steam slowly. While they were doing that I made a glaze. In a bowl 2 tablespoons of honey, same of mustard, dash of Worcestershire sauce, two glugs of balsamic vinegar and a good squirt of tomato ketchup and then a teaspoon each of ground cumin and coriander. Mix together and then brush liberally over your ribs... pork ribs that is. Return to the oven and turn up to 180c for about another half hour. You can brush the glaze on as much as you like. When the ribs are tender they're done.

Then they look like this - they are absolutely delicious! The OM said they were the best he'd ever had! Even in the States! Trust me from him that's high praise indeedy ;))


Now I made these little babies the other day.... these are blueberry crumble tarts. Pastry, a spot of jam, fresh blueberries and some crunchy crumble on top. Were they nice? They were absolutely gorgeous!


I'm sorry if I've made you hungry....

So enough food I'll show you the card I made for the new challenge at Totally Gorjuss This week we want to see flowers on your entries. So I inked up this sweet little Tilda and broke into the new basic grey Hopscotch pad. these colours are a new thing for me.... took me ages to decide what colour papers to use as a backing and what colour to use for her dress! Take me away from my usual shades and I'm all a dither - haha!

Over at Just Magnolia and hAnglar sTanglar they have a sketch and flowers challenge. So I've entered this into that too - I'm not sure if I've 'over-tweaked' the sketch though!

Then I discovered I didn't have the exact colour flowers I wanted..... by then it was almost all stuck together so I improvised. I think it kind of looks OK..... I echoed the butterfly on Tildas hand with this Martha Stewart butterfly border punch.


My close up.... now I do have an arty shot...... Blogger doesn't like it and will not let me load it! How dare he? Very easily it seems ;)) Oh this week the challenge is sponsored by Crafters Companion - some lucky person gets £10 to spend - good huh?