Purely Stamping

Summer Sun Layout

2011-08-11T16:32:00.000+01:00

For all you budding digital scrapbookers out there, here is a bit of inspiration for you. I made this layout with a kit that is for sale in my shop (www.digitalmonsoon.co.uk)...

Hope you all enjoy it.

Thanks for looking. xx

Has been a while.... I know!!

2011-08-10T21:20:00.000+01:00

Its been a while since I was last here, I know. I have been busy learning, holidaying, exam taking etc. Tonight I really surprised myself by making a couple of blinkies.... I am just so chuffed with myself I had to post them here.... rofl

Okay I am sitting here giggling to myself now.....and if you want a bit of a laugh despite the looting going on, check out this website.... www.photoshoplooter.com. And if you recognise anyone, please tell the police.... thank you for looking.

Have a great evening all... xx

Just a quick one.....

2011-06-23T18:28:00.000+01:00

Well what can I say, dont you just hate it when life takes over and crafting and designing has to take second place..... I have had the dentist (nothing wrong thank goodness, just a polish and clean) and today I had another Life Coaching session with someone new. Then my daughter stayed at my house last night so we went out to Costa for lunch..... yum yum....

I am sure I cased this card from somewhere, but because I made it quite a long time ago I cannot remember who, if anyone, I cased it from.... so if it is you, I am really sorry, just leave me a comment and I will credit you.... used lots of Stampin' Up! stash for this card including the edge punch, the Bliss Stamp Set and Basic Black and Whisper White cardstock. Thanks for looking.... we are off to our pub quiz tonight, so fingers crossed we get a better result than last week....

Life Coaching......

2011-06-21T09:49:00.000+01:00

Did I ever tell you I was becoming an accredited Life Coach..... well I am!! I am off soon to 2 coaching sessions with my clients (read this as guinea pigs...), I have nearly finished my coaching with them and they have achieved so much towards their goals and I am really proud of them both. I am assuming they are pleased as I have been asked to coach someone else too (not a guinea pig this time, the real thing... ha ha). It is really encouraging seeing these people reach the goals they want to in life and to move forward each month towards achieving the ultimate goal.

Anyway, back to my cards. This card was made for a really lovely man who runs the Music Quiz at the pub we go to on a Thursday night (The White Swan in Bicknacre for anyone local who might want to pop along, starts 8.30pm every Thursday). He has some serious medical problems at the moment and has just gone into hospital for an operation (dont worry, someone else has taken over the quiz for now..... 2 guys from our team, so we are 1/3rd down on our members and not doing too well!!). We as a team thought we would send him this card so he would know we were thinking of him at this difficult time in his life. As he loves music I thought I would make a jukebox card for him with a record (vinyl disc that plays music for all you youngsters out there) inside with our message written as you would find titles on a record.

I used all Stampin Up card for this, Cherry Cobbler, Marina Mist, Bashful Blue, More Mustard and Daffodil. I cut it out using my Silhouette Machine... the record I designed online, but made a file to cut it out on my Silhouette as I am not very good at cutting circles freehand.... lol

The next card I made for someone in Church's birthday. He is very good at DIY, so thought these tools were ideal....

I used Crumb Cake, Baha Breeze and Daffodil cardstock from Stampin Up, and everything was cut again using my Silhouette Machine..... why did it sit in my cupboard unused for all those years? Am loving it now. Have plans for when my Grand Daughter is born next month too..... am going to make little bodysuits with Princess on cut from Transfer Paper on the Silhouette..... might even get out my PC Imagine to make some transfers (wow now that would be an achievement.... lol).

So off to my first coaching of the day, hope you liked the cards..... and hope to catch you all tomorrow. xx

Another week......

2011-06-20T14:41:00.000+01:00

This year is just speeding by, it just seems to get faster and faster. The longest day is tomorrow and it is all downhill to Christmas from then onwards. How was your weekend? Ours was good, didn't do too much but did buy a Tefal Actifry.... do you have one? Do you like it? What do you cook in it? We cooked some chips for dinner Saturday night, well you have to try it out dont you, but I am too lazy to peel the chips and they still tasted quite potatoey, if that makes sense. So today I have bought some ready made chips, not oven chips as I dont want all the fatty oil on them and am going to try them again tonight. We dont actually have chips very often at all and twice in a week is a record, guess I had better buy some ketchup next time I go shopping. I do have full intentions of cooking a chilli in it later this week, I am not only going to use it for chips, and chicken drumsticks, 25 mins to make them all nice and crispy and golden..... sounds good to me!!

This was a commission card, I am not sure if I have shown it to you before, but it was a friend's daughters engagement and the daughter loves Winnie the Pooh, could I please incorporate him into the card.... so this is what I came up with..... took me quite a while to sit the letters around the card and this weekend I have found a short cut to do it, would you believe it!!! Well actually yes I would...

The papers are Stampin' Up!, the cardstock is Marina Mist and Whisper White along with Early Expresso. Dont they look good together. The photo above is the inside of the card which I made similar to the outside.

This weekend was also Father's Day, so I did finally get around to making some cards. I used my Silhouette Cutting Machine to make these and because they are reflected I didn't waste any Patterned Paper. The paper is Stampin' Up! and the Cardstock is Baja Breeze, Soft Suede and Not Quite Navy, all from Stampin' Up! also.

The sentiment I drew on my Silhouette using a Bronze Coloured Pen and then also used the silhouette to cut around it..... easy peasy and very quick to make. I then put little pearls where the buttons should be.

What did you do for Father's Day? We were supposed to be having a surprise bbq for DH and daughters husband, but although the weather forecast had said good weather on Sunday, come Sunday it was looking far from good and there was a gale blowing outside...... so after a bit of a palava sorting out a working bbq on Saturday all secretly like, we didn't even need it. Daughter came to my house whilst I was at church and cooked everything in the oven here..... and sod's law the sun came out around 5.30pm, after we had finished and cleared up..... never mind, a nice time was had by all!!! And it warms the cockles of my heart seeing my children (DH's stepchildren) sending him Father's Day Cards, even though they have grown and left home..... thank you to my kind generous children, I love you. xx

More cards.....

2011-06-15T19:06:00.000+01:00

Just a quick post today.... here are 3 more cards that I have made, still haven't made the Father's Day cards that I need to do, not uploaded anything to my computer either but have spent the day fine refining some kits that will appear in my digi shop.....

For this card I used a Verve stamp for the sentiment, Martha Stewart punches for the leaves and butterflies and not sure where the flower came from.... ha ha. The cardstock colour is Certainly Celery and Pink Pirouette and the much used Crumb Cake.... all from Stampin' Up!

For this card I cut out the brackets on my silhouette machine, the butterfly and flowers were again punches.... the cardstock is Bashful Blue and Old Olive and the sentiment is from Our Daily Bread Designs... the ribbon is Old Olive from Stampin' Up! I just love their ribbons....

For this card I used Pink Pirouette, Rose Red and yet again Baja Breeze cardstock. The bird and leaves are a Stampin' Up! punch as is the gorgeous ribbon. The swirl is a punch that I bought at the Ally Pally. Oh yes, the pearls are also from Stampin' Up! too....

Right, I think I have had enough of staring at the computer screen today, off to stare at the tv now instead...... lol. Have a great evening all xx

What is it about owls.........

2011-06-14T14:47:00.000+01:00

I just love them..... one of the first things I drew whilst learning illustrator too... which I might just dig out and show you tomorrow...... this card was made using the Stampin' Up! Owl Punch and the other bits were cut out using my silhouette machine... its wonderful for cutting out unusual shape card blanks. The colours used are Baja Breeze, So Saffron, Early Expresso and Cherry Cobbler.... are you noticing a trend here.... most of my cards nowadays are cut out using the silhouette and contain Baja Breeze.... lol

The second card, yet again was cut out using the silhouette machine, see what I mean about unusual shape cards, this time I picked an owl shape. And is that Baja Breeze I spy on his wings? Also made using Early Expresso, Cherry Cobbler, More Mustard and Sahara Sand, all from Stampin' Up!

And last but not least a flower shaped card, made using Melon Mambo, Old Olive and Pink Pirouette Stampin' Up! Cardstock.... I just love their cardstock, it comes in wonderful colours and cuts easily on the silhouette machine and lookee here, no Baja Breeze, what was I thinking.

I have been to the hairdressers this morning and had my hair cut and recoloured.... about time too, the roots were about 3 inches long. I am so pleased with it this time, I will try and remember to take a photograph of it later to post on here tomorrow.

Okay, so plans for tomorrow are to transfer photos from both my cameras to my computer and get sorted for Father's Day..... plus finish off bits for my new website.... See you all tomorrow, have a great afternoon and evening xxx

Doing well so far......

2011-06-13T14:19:00.000+01:00

Well here we are at the beginning of another week..... how fast is this year going, I cannot believe we are nearly at the years longest day and then it will start to get darker in the evenings from then onwards... how scary is that!!!

We had an awesome evening out on Saturday, me, DH and the 3 boys all went to Pentecost 2011 at the 02. As expected things happened to stop us going, small things like the Blackwall Tunnel being shut and an accident having happened there aswell..... we managed to navigate around that part of London to get to the Rotherhithe Tunnel instead, although it took us 2 hours to travel around 6 miles, but we arrived at the 02 in time to have a really lovely meal in Zizzi (have I ever told you that it is my favourite place with Panetonne bread pudding to die for)..... we then went into the dome and had about a 20 minute wait until it started, so all in all perfect timing, even though it was not planned that way.

I have been playing with my Silhouette Machine a lot lately, and a lot of the cards I have made have used this wonderful cutting machine. I have a subscription to the Silhouette files and so can spend to my hearts content each month for a very small layout. The card above used Marina Mist, Chocolate Chip and Crumb Cake Stampin' Up! Cardstock.... The sentiment is from My Daily Bread stamps.

Next up is a print and cut file which I printed and then cut on my Silhouette, how wonderful is this, almost a whole card without too much thinking..... the Ribbon is from Papertrey Ink, the cardstock is Stampin' Up! Early Expresso and the sentiment is from Verve Stamps.

And yet another Silhouette Design, this time of a butterfly. All the flowers on the butterfly was also included in the design, so again very simple to make. The cardstock is Melon Mambo, Early Expresso, Baha Breeze and Tangerine Tango....

My digi shop is now very close to opening, obviously there will not be much for sale when it first opens but I hope to change that pretty soon...... I am also planning on selling Templates and Hybrid Card kits too, so dont forget to check it out once it opens at www.digitalmonsoon.co.uk.

Tonight we are off to Secondary School with my 10 year old son, the other children have always gone to a different secondary school, but we now feel that our local one offers a better deal for our children, so we are going to listen to a little talk and hopefully have a look around. My son went there for a day last week and I think he enjoyed it..... he wasn't impressed with the dancing though and asked when he could take his options so that he didn't have to do it..... ha ha. He doesn't even start there until September 2012, so quite a while to go yet.

Have a good day, the weather is brightening up here, the sun has just about shown itself and it is getting warmer...... at least for a couple of days..... xx

Thought I had better let you know......

2011-06-09T14:35:00.000+01:00

For those of you that come for a bit of inspiration and to look at my cards, I will not be giving this up... I actually have tons of cards to share with you, so please dont stay away because you think digital is not for you..... in fact here are a few of my cards...

I used PapertreyInk Stamps and Die's for this card with a Martha Stewart Punch. The colours are from Stampin' Up! and are Baha Breeze, Rose Red and Perfect Plum. The ribbon is also from Stampin' Up!

This card was made using a Scrapbook Kit that I used to subscribe to, I cannot remember who made the patterned paper. The sentiment is computer generated from The Bible. The ribbon is from PapertreyInk.

I thought I would also tell you about a couple of books that I have read recently.... I really like Phillipa Greggory books and have been reading The White Queen and The Red Queen, in fact I got so into The Red Queen that I managed to read it in 2 days last weekend. They are both basically the same story but told from the perspective of each of the queen's. I am hoping there will be a follow up to these books as it will make a great read.

On Monday I had the honour of going with my daughter to take my Grandson for his first day at playschool. Mum was very worried about leaving him, but he was so excited that he left us whilst we were still filling out forms. He absolutely loved it and was so excited to go on Tuesday too..... he cannot wait for next week to come around so he can go again.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog..... check back again soon xx

So this is what I will be designing.......

2011-06-08T18:41:00.000+01:00

Hello again, well just about managed 2 days in a row..... today has been one of those days when you seem busy all day but achieve nothing. I was blog hopping trying to find something I liked so I could plan my own website. Which type of header do I want? Want kind of layout would work? But I think I have finally decided so now need to design the papers and elements I need to make it.

In the meantime I thought I would show you a digital kit that I have already designed and packaged which will be for sale in my shop once it opens......

and just to show you how it can be used I made a Scrapbook Layout. I just love the photo that I used, it is of my little boy asleep in the wardrobe beside his sister who was playing on her laptop..... ha ha

But you know what I forgot...... yep a title!!!! So I will be thinking of one and adding at some time.... not sure how I managed that though. Hope you like my papers and elements and what can be made from the kit......

Thats all for today then.... have a great evening. Off now to catch up with the end of the season for Supernatural...... xx

Wow, Didn't realise it was that long since I posted......

2011-06-07T14:15:00.000+01:00

Well would you believe it, how fast has this year flown by. I was so surprised when I realised I last posted in February but so much has happened since then. I have been studying hard and am now a Certified Digital Designer and in a couple of months time I am also hoping to be a Certified Life Coach too, I am already coaching 2 people and am about to start with my 3rd client.

I have also been designing Digital Scrapbook Kits and making my own digital layouts. I got into the final 14 of the UK Scrappers Scrap Factor Competition which I was really surprised by. Since then it has all been design, design and more design. I am very pleased with the kits I have made so far and there are many more in the pipeline. I am in the process of starting up a Website for my new company on which I will be selling my digital creations. Here is my logo, designed by my own fair hands as part of my Certification Course.

I remember last year when I used to do "proper scrapbooking", thinking that digi scrapping was a "cop out" and didn't really show any creative ability at all, all you had to do was put some digital elements onto a page and add your photo..... right? Well I couldn't have been more wrong, I actually find digi scrapping more challenging than the so called proper scrapbooking and you can be so much more creative too.... my handwriting has never been an asset to me so to be able to do my journalling on a computer is an added bonus. I would just like to say to those of you who have never digi scrapped..... just try it and see what you think. My fave company Echo Park even make digi kits for the digi scrapper so I am not missing out in that respect either......

Once I get my website up and running I will be offering some free tasters for you to try so keep checking back here for more information and I will post the website address as soon as possible.

Take care everyone and thanks for checking back with me after such a long time.... xx

Selling Some Retired Stash...... Stampin' Up!

2011-02-14T16:59:00.003Z

I am selling the following set, Stampin' Up! Ink Pad, Reinker and Stampin' Write Marker in the following colours.......

Pale Plum

Orchid Opulence

Lovely Lilac

Lavender Lace

Almost Amethyst

Bordering Blue

Brocade Blue

Ballet Blue

Brilliant Blue

Glorious Green

Handsome Hunter

Sage Shadow

Mellow Moss

Green Galore

Gable Green

Barely Banana

Yo Yo Yellow

Summer Sun

Apricot Appeal

Only Orange

Really Rust

Ruby Red

Cameo Coral

Blush Blossom

Creamy Caramel

Close to Cocoa

I would like £6.50 for each set. These colours are now retired and are no longer available from Stampin' Up! so if you love these colours, get in quick as with the reinker the ink pad and Marker will last for ages. Postage & Packing will be £1, if you want more than 1 set then I will weigh your items and charge you at cost..... email me at LindaLloyd@gmx.net for more information.

Have a great Valentines Day, take care xx

Yay, actually made some cards......

2011-01-28T09:22:00.002Z

So okay, I have CASE'ed these cards but it is better than nothing..... ha ha

I made 4 of these owl cards, the stamp set is from Papertrey Ink, along with the sentiments, the PP is Linen Closet, I just love the colours in this paper pad.... this card will be ideal for teenagers and men in our church, and that is why I made them.....

This card I cased from Jo Dumbleton, I made it in different colourways, aren't they gorgeous, I so love the colours used.... Baha Breeze and Cherry Cobbler from Stampin' Up! are definately my favourites. The stamp set is Vintage Vogue from Stampin' Up! and so is all the patterned paper..... I made 5 of these in different colourways for the ladies birthdays in my church....
And here are a few more of the colourways.

Anyway, need to get off, tons to do today, we are running church on Sunday and next Sunday too whilst the Pastors are away..... no pressure!! Have a great weekend all xx

Blog Candy

2011-01-27T18:53:00.002Z

Just wanted to tell you about a gorgeous bag being given away as blog candy here......

How gorgeous is it....... I will be back tomorrow with some new projects, cya then xx

Illustrator

2011-01-24T18:01:00.003Z

It is my little boys 10th birthday today and so I made a birthday card for him to put on here in Adobe Illustrator. I am learning to use Photoshop CS5 and Illustrator CS5 properly, hence the digital layouts, today I tried with Illustrator and am very pleased with the way it turned out. I also dug out my Wacom Tablet that I got for Christmas about 3 years ago and have set that up with my computer, hence the string on the balloons was done using this..... I will learn this eventually..... lol

Thanks for popping by, hopefully I will be making some cards again tomorrow, so much to shuffle around at the moment. Have a great evening.... xx

I did one.......

2011-01-21T17:38:00.003Z

Yes I have made a card at last, not sure I am very happy with it but I ran out of time so it will have to do. It is for my 9 year olds friend who will be 10, but he decided to tell me today that he wont actually have his birthday until mid February, he is just having his party tomorrow as they couldn't book the swimming pool at any other time... DOH!!! I could have spent more time after all.....

All the Patterned Paper used is Stampin' Up! and all the cardstock also. The Monkey, Happy Birthday and letters are all cricut cartridges (Create a Critter and Base Camp) and the bunting was made using Papertrey Ink dies.

Next up is yet another Digital Scrapbook Page, this is of the time we went to Dublin, I had never flown before and DH had treated me to the trip for Christmas..... since that day you cannot keep me off planes and all the family have been abroad loads of times since.

Hope you like it, have a great weekend all, I am sure we will although tomorrow is jam packed, boys are off to a pantomime in the afternoon so DH and I have decided to have a meal together in Prezzo, has been quite some time since we last went out on our own. Take care. xx

Yes you've guessed it......

2011-01-18T09:58:00.003Z

I have been digi scrapping..... lol. This layout is from our trip to Barcelona in 2007, I love the bright colours of the market and food. I thought they matched the papers brilliantly.

Have a great day, should be back with some cards in the next few days as I have a few birthdays coming up..... see you then xx

More Digi Scrapping....

2011-01-15T20:25:00.003Z

Well I have made more digital scrapbooking pages in the last week than I have made in the last 2 years...... ha ha. Am coming on in leaps and bounds with my learning digi scrapping, can now scrap a page totally from scratch, the only problem I have now is finding photographs, so am going to be taking my camera everywhere with me in future.... any tips on carrying it other than being slung around my neck like a tourist. It is a big Canon 40d so slightly too big for my handbag (which is big but not that big)....

We went out geocaching this afternoon and I took my camera, and then decided to let everyone else get out the car and I stayed in it as there was hardly any walking involved, they were both in supermarket car parks, so still didn't take any photographs. Wasn't sure if people would be upset if I clicked away in Waitrose and Sainsburys so I didn't..... any input on that please would be greatly appreciated.

Have a great Sunday, take care xx

Digital Scrapping

2011-01-13T17:03:00.003Z

Well a Happy New Year to you all..... I have been badly slacking these last few weeks/months as I have been so busy and have been reflecting on my life, where I am and where I want to go and have loads of plans for 2011, this means I may not blog as much as usual as I may not be making as much stuff..... I am training in Graphic Design and at the moment am making digital scrapbook layouts so I can learn how photoshop works properly, I have always learnt bits and pieces and then forgot about them. After photoshop I intend to learn Illustrator so lots of studying etc to do. But I thought I would share some of my digital layouts with you that I have made over the past week, not sure I would print out and save them in an album as I feel Digital Scrapbooking is a bit of a cop out and that there is nothing quite like normal proper in real life scrapbbooking, but I may try a bit of hybrid along the way.

So without further ado, here are my LOs....

Thanks for looking and I hope you all have a good evening..... yummy kebab tonight, I really will get this diet underway at some stage!!

Rose Tutorial

2010-12-01T08:00:00.002Z

I thought I would show you how I made the little rose I used on a recent tag I made.... it is so simple and quick (which was lucky as I made 35 of the tags)....

I used Elegant Eggplant cardstock from Stampin' Up! and punched out a circle.....

As you can see I used the 1 3/8" circle.....

I then took the scallop circle punch and punched around the circle hole that was left in the cardstock, discarding the circle that I had punched out.

I was left with a thin scallop edged frame.....

I cut in one of the scallops to open the circle up....

Using an embossing took, I bent the scallops slightly backwards to give a bit of shape to the scallops as these will be our rose leaves.

Once I had curved all the scallops, I started to wind the thin frame around my embossing tool. Once it started to wind I took it off the embossing tool and carried on by hand, making sure I didn't roll it too tight.

I used Tombow Adhesive to glue the end to the rest of the flower so it didn't unravel.

Next I cut a 1/2" circle and covered that with a light coating of Tombow Adhesive.

I stuck my loosely wound rose onto the 1/2" circle of cardstock.

I punched out a Martha Stewart leaf shape to finish the rose off.

As you will see, on my tag I used the leaf shape punched from the Big Bird Punch in Baha Breeze. Now you can see how easy they are to make please leave me a comment with a link to any projects that you make using these cute little roses.

Thanks for looking, stay safe and enjoy the snow!!

My Son's Birthday....

2010-11-02T08:25:00.000Z

Yesterday was my sons birthday, cannot tell you how old as he is over 20 and dont like to give ages away.... ha ha

The image is from Mo's Digital Pencil, isn't it awesome, and funny thing is when I took it round to him he was actually playing his games console and saying I wont be a minute just have to finish this, he looked so much like this card it was unreal..... lol. Image was coloured using Copic Markers and I used Stampin Up Cherry Cobbler and Whisper White Cardstock and Pacific Point Patterned Paper... hope you like it!!

Anyway, must rush, children are back at school and I have loads to get through... have a great day all xx

Jesus Saves.......

2010-11-01T12:05:00.003Z

As most of you know I go to Church and we decided that we would share our love for Jesus this halloween whilst giving out trick and treat gifts to children coming dressed up as witches and ghouls... this is what I made....

I bought the Patterned Paper online, it was a digital download and printed it out 12 x 12 with my A3+ printer and was so pleased with the results.... I then used Pumpkin Pie, Wild Wasabi, Elegant Eggplant and Basic Black Cardstock....

I made everything so each one was different... inside this pack were maltesers....

This little bag is a die from Papertrey Ink, isn't it cute... there were smarties inside these bags...

And this little bag was made using the new die from Papertrey Ink which I only got on Friday, it is unheard of for me to use stuff on the day I get it.... the spotted circle are the new Papertrey Ink Circle Set of Dies... There were either smarties or maltesers inside this bag.

And an old favourite, these are so easy to make yet so effective, again there were smarties inside this pack.

I then decided to make a cake, I have made one of these before but not for halloween... I cut out the shapes using my Cricut Expression and decorated with left over Patterned Paper...

Inside these were Jaffa Cake Bars and Galaxy Cake Bars.... but you wouldn't know which one you would get.

I first of all took these to church to share out amongst the children there, the children were blessed with goody bags and prizes of money and toys for the best carved pumpkin, but of course no one was left out... and as I still have some left I am sure my boys will dip into them again today.... back to school tomorrow for them... did you hear me say Yippee..... lol

Have a great afternoon, take care xx

The Queen Comes to Town......

2010-10-28T15:44:00.004+01:00

Yep honestly, the Queen came to our little town, in the middle of nowhere to visit Maldon Salt Works and Tiptree Jam Factory..... how awesome..

And we were very close, we were on the barrier until the Queen arrived when we let some little girls go in front of us as they were trying to take photos with their phones and cameras....

I cannot believe how good these photographs came out, especially as it looked like it would rain when she arrived, luckily it held off until afterwards when we were walking back to our car....

When we arrived home we realised that although she flew into town, she would be driving 20 minutes to Tiptree to the Jam Factory and would therefore be going past the end of our road which is a cul de sac and so we have a pull in for cars at the end of our road, so along with some neighbours we took our flags and went and waited for her to drive past.... she was going past at about 35 miles an hour so photos are not very good, but she did wave to the cars that had stopped for her and at us... you can just about make her out in the back of the Bentley.... waving!!

So that was my exciting day, and when I arrived home there were 3 parcels awaiting me, some chain I needed for a cuckoo clock I am altering, my impressions plate from Papertrey Ink and my new ipad cover which matches my handbag, red crocodile skin... and a gorgeous Halloween card from Vannessa..... thank you so much Vannessa, it really means so much to receive cards from people....

Have a great evening everyone... xx

Busy, Busy, Busy, Busy.......

2010-10-19T17:09:00.001+01:00

Have been busy, busy, busy.... Friday night we went to another Church as there was an awesome preacher there, just for the weekend, this guy always preaches what is on my heart and I couldn't pass up a chance to see him again, he is over 70 now and lives in Australia, so just HAD to see him...... So Friday evening we rushed over to Bishop Stortford to The Hub Church and watched this guy, the boys loved him too... then Saturday morning, back to The Hub for Leadership Training, so up again stupid o'clock for a Saturday morning, we arrived back at 6pm, and then Sunday morning stupid o'clock yet again to go to Peterborough to meet with my Stampin' Up! mummy and children and some other friends. We all live far away from each other so really good to meet up every now and again. So as you can imagine I need another weekend to get over last weekend.... roll on next weekend when we get an extra hour in bed.... lol

This is a card I made for my Church Order, I just love it, Papertrey Ink Stamps and Stampin' Up! Cardstock and ribbon..... and the gorgeous Martha Stewart Doily Edge Punch... the sentiment stamp is Verve Stamps..... Now this is not the sort of card I would normally make but I do really like it, watch out, you never know, I may be stepping out of the box more often.....

Have a great evening everyone xx

It will soon be Christmas at this rate......

2010-10-13T09:38:00.004+01:00

How quickly are the weeks going? I think they are speeding by and I haven't even started on Christmas yet.... really do need to but seem to have so much else going on at the moment.... like 30 swaps for Peterborough on Sunday.... ha ha...

Today's card was for my Church Order.....

For this card I used the retired Stampin' Up! Sweet Pea Patterned Paper Stack and I made the top pattern by stamping an image from Delightful Dahlia from Papertrey Ink.... the Sentiment is from Verve Stamps.... the ribbon and cardstock are also Stampin' Up! so definately a mixture again today.... hope you like it, off to get busy... xx

A Bit of A Mixture.....

2010-10-12T15:43:00.003+01:00

Have been a busy bee today and I dont mean scrapping either.... unfortunately. I need a really good day tomorrow, so far there is nothing to interrupt, and I'm hoping to get 2 birthday cards made, 4 thank you cards and 30 swaps for a Training Day in Peterborough on Sunday, and seeing as I am out Friday night, all day Saturday and Sunday is the day, I really need to get a move on.

Today's card is a bit of a mixture, I seem to have used lots of companies stash....

I used Stampin' Up! Basic Black, Very Vanilla and Crumb Cake Cardstock along with some Striped Grosgrain Ribbon. The punches are from Martha Stewart and the sentiment is from Verve Stamps along with the butterfly image. The pearls I had in my stash... I must admit out of all the cards I made this was my least favourite but when I asked my boys which one they liked the best this was it.... so glad someone liked it... ha ha

See you all tomorrow xx

My Grandson's 1st Birthday

2010-10-11T14:59:00.004+01:00

It was my Grandson number 4's birthday on Saturday, and we had a lovely party at his house for him.... but despite trying to coax him to walk he would have none of it, he can stand for endless times but wont move his legs.... but today when he is home with just his mum, he decides that today is the day and walks across the room unaided.

So Cain is not really a little monster but I thought my new stamp set was rather cute.... so just had to use it... you know what its like, get something new and either stroke it or use it, so I opted for the use...... The stamp set is Make A Monster and the Patterned Paper is also Stampin' Up! Don't forget to check out the new catalogue on the left hand side bar of my blog, it is full of awesome stuff. See you all tomorrow..... xx

Due to Requests......

2010-10-10T13:29:00.000+01:00

Please scroll down for more up to date posts.....

I am setting up some shares..... a ribbon share and a paper share, I need 9 people for each ribbon share and 8 people for the paper share.... you can always buy more than 1 share....

This share is for the 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon. You will get 1.5m of each colour and there are 13 colours which means you get a total of 19.5m in total.

The above share will cost £7.25 a share, including shipping to you.

The next share is for the Striped 1 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon. There are 11 Colours and you will get 1m of each colour making that a total of 11m of ribbon.

The cost of the above share will be £13.25 per share including shipping to you.

The 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon is next. This comes in 13 colours and you will get 1.5m of each colour making a total of 19.5m.
The cost of this share will be £11.25 including shipping to you.

And the last ribbon share I have is the 5/8" Satin Ribbon. This comes in 13 colours and you will get 1.5m of each of the colours making a total of 19.5m.

The cost for this share is £10.50 including shipping to you.

If you would like to have a share in all 4 ribbon designs you can have these for £40.00.

The second share is for the new Designer Series Patterned Paper. There are 11 new packs and the share is for 66 sheets of 6x6 Paper. Each share will have six 6 x 6 pieces from each pack. Remember they are double sided so if you want a piece of all the patterns TO USE then you will need to order 2 shares, which means that you will get 2 pieces of each paper so you can use the pattern on the reverse too.

And all the patterns are above for you to look at. If you would like to see them more clearly then please check out the online catalogue by clicking on the catalogue icon on the left hand column. The cost of each share is £12.75 and that includes postage out to you. If you are interested, please email me at LindaLloyd@gmx.net. First come first served, so get your name down quickly.

As soon as I have enough interest I will get them ordered.... this is a great way to get a taster of everything without having to pay for a whole reel of ribbon or pack of paper...

Take care xx

So Where Did The Week Go?

2010-10-07T13:47:00.004+01:00

I am just soooooo happy, my UPS man has bought my second order from the new catalogue and it is full of stamp sets..... cannot wait to play with them, but have really got into a book I am reading and so want to go read that too.... it is called Bomber's Moon by Iris Gower and I am really enjoying it...

May have a play later with the new Make a Monster Stamp Set as I have to make a card for my grandsons birthday tomorrow....

But for today I am showing you a card I made for my Church order this month. I made the rosette using the new Tim Holtz die which is awesome and definately makes it easy to make this wonderful rosette....

The Patterned Paper is retired from Stampin' Up! but the cardstock isn't and I used the new Cherry Cobbler Cardstock and Basic Black, and then the Cherry Cobbler Ink for the cross... I think this is my favourite card of all I made....

Have a great day, the weather is set to be really nice here today, the sun is coming out and it is really warm. Have also bought some Topside Beef and am going to cook roast beef and yorkshire puddings for dinner tonight, yum yum.... see you all tomorrow xxx

Guess What's Coming Today?

2010-10-07T07:03:00.001+01:00

My new Stampin Up Stash..... woohoo!!!!! Am so excited and cannot wait, but whilst I am trying my hardest to wait patiently, I thought I would show you what I made for my neighbours Wedding a couple of Saturday's ago.... I used the Stampin Up Scrappin Kit Love Stories for this and I still have tons left.......

The letters are Thickers...

I used a piece of vellum to seperate each page so that when she adds photographs they wont stick together, I put rub-ons from Stampin Up onto the vellum....

The album was made by cutting chipboard out to 8" x 8" and covering with the Paper and Cardstock that came in the kit.....

And then I put it all together using my bind it all....

It only took me a few hours to make because everything in the kit coordinates perfectly, saving me time hunting stuff down that matches....

And the colours are perfect to go with Wedding Photographs.....

The bride this was for wore an ivory satin dress and her bridesmaids wore gold satin with cream sashes....

And there you have it, I must ask to see it once she has finished putting photographs inside. I guess she will have loads to go through as they put CDs on the tables for people to take home and put their personal wedding photographs onto and hand back to them....

Thanks for looking, UPS man hasn't been yet...... patience is a virtue I understand, shame you cannot buy patience in the SU catalogue... see you all tomorrow xx

ILWS Challenge 4

2010-10-06T08:02:00.001+01:00

And the last challenge was a sketch challenge, I just love sketch challenges as I dont have to think so hard as to what to make..... lol

I did turn the image around.....

And again I used all my new Stampin Up Stash..... Greenhouse Gala Patterned Paper, isn't it lush? Certainly Celery Grosgrain Ribbon, Perfect Punches and Ornate Flowers Stamp Set, Baja Breeze and Chocolate Chip Ink and Choc Chip Cardstock..... why not join in the challenges on ILWS and post your project into the gallery for inspiration for others.... click on the link in my left hand side bar.

Well halfway through another week, am really putting my nose to the grindstone this week, it is my grandsons first birthday this weekend, and after making his invitations last week I need to make him a card.... cannot wait for his party. And tonight me and DH are off to Church again as we are running an Alpha Course and we are running the small groups there, its such a lovely evening as we all have a meal together first (yeah I know anything to get out of cooking... ha ha) and then we have a talk and discussion... better get busy then, cya all tomorrow xx

3rd ILWS Challenge

2010-10-05T07:48:00.003+01:00

The 3rd ILWS Challenge was to make something using limited supplies. We were to stamp on something, anything we liked as long as it wasn't cardstock.... I stamped the Eiffel Tower image onto shrink plastic and shrunk it.... (Eiffel Tower image is from Artistic Etchings Stamp Set)..

I then made the images into earrings, how cute are they.....

And I got so carried away, I made something else... I took the Whisper White Satin Ribbon and stamped it using Baja Breeze and a stamp from the Vintage Vogue Stamp Set.... different ribbon would probably work slightly better as it did seem to soak up the ink quite a lot, but I loved the way the ribbon now matches the bath fizzers in the acetate box that I made.

And then I made something else..... well I know the way to do candles normally is to stamp onto tissue paper and melt it into the candle, but I am not very good at that, I tend to melt the wax too much on the candle, so I stamped onto vellum and then wrapped the vellum around the candle. I then put Real Red Grosgrain ribbon around the top and the bottom of the vellum to hold it securely in place.

Hope you enjoyed looking at the projects today, off to see my Mum now and wish her a happy birthday.... have a good day all xx

Halloween ILWS Challenge....

2010-10-04T07:41:00.001+01:00

The second challenge on ILWS (Just click on the bar on the left hand side of the blog and it will take you to their forum where you can join in the challenges and upload to their gallery), is to make something Halloween....

I made these type of boxes last year but I loved them so much I thought I would make them again this year.... they are full of halloween style sweets, like eyeballs etc.

And this second little bag is from Papertrey Ink, its one of their new dies, and so is the big label which I stuck to the front. The stamp set is Tiny Treats - Halloween.... am definitely loving this set... Couldn't get away with using no Stampin Up product though, so I used Pumpkin Pie and Elegant Eggplant Cardstock..... and Pumpkin Pie Grosgrain Ribbon too, dont these colours go well together.

So here we are, the start to another week, need to get on and make my Mum a birthday card for tomorrow, you would have thought that by now I would have managed to be more organised.... no chance, we seem to have so many birthdays in October.... have a good day all, hope you are more productive than I have been lately... xx

Another Preview and ILWS Challenge

2010-10-03T08:31:00.001+01:00

Its that time of the month when ILWS have their challenges, and this month they are really great ones.... the first challenge was a Colour Challenge, we had to use Real Red, Basic Black and Whisper White.....

So I thought I would kill 2 birds with 1 stone and combine the Colour Challenge with new product from the new 2010\2011 Stampin Up Catalogue.... this set is called Ornate Flowers and the stamp set comes in Wooden or Clear Mount....

And because I really liked this colour combination I thought I would make another card using the same colours, so that is Real Red, Basic Black and Whisper White Cardstock, Real Red Satin Ribbon, Ornate Flowers Stamp Set, image stamped in Basic Black and the Elegant Thank You Stamp Set which consists of only the 1 stamp so perhaps more affordable than a set of more.....

And yes, what am I thinking of blogging on a Sunday again.... lol. I am just so, so excited about this new catalogue, my new order is in and I am waiting on its delivery, I just cannot wait. Have a nice relaxing Sunday, take care everyone xx

Day 2 Preview.......

2010-10-02T08:17:00.001+01:00

Today I thought I would show you a set I made, not sure who will get it yet, but may save it for Christmas, although it is not very Christmassy.... lol

I decorated a ruler and a pen with Patterned Paper called Greenhouse Gala, I then decorated the front of a notebook using the same Patterned Paper, I then cut a coaster in half, covered that in Greenhouse Gala PP and stuck a small pad of Post to it. I then made a box to put the goodies in and put a sliding acetate cover on it, I then made a box band to go around the box. The colours I used are Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, Pear Pizzaz and Daffodil Delight. And can you see the new Large Flower Punch..... how awesome is that. Check out the new catalogue for loads more punches.

After making the little gift I decided that I needed to make a bag to put it in to give away, so again using the Greenhouse Gala Patterned Paper and Choc Chip 12 x 12 cardstock I made this gorgeous little bag. I even made a little pocket on the front incase you want to include anything else and an envelope for your greetings label to go inside. I used a brad for the closure, but this is only for show, I really used velcro to fasten it shut.

And so I thought a matching card was called for, so using the Stamp Set Ornate Flowers I stamped an image and coloured it in using my new Stampin Write Markers.... I also used the new Stamp Set Perfect Punches for my sentiment, and guess what? You can now get all the punches to match the sentiments.... how cool is that.

Hope you enjoyed looking at todays offering..... have a great day xx

Would You Like to Become A Stamping Up Demonstrator?

2010-10-01T14:13:00.001+01:00

Would you like to join my team Linda's Ladybugs as a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator? You could start your own business for just £119 and earn money by doing the thing you love.... stamping and crafting. I will be here to help you on your way with advice and help to help you get on with building your business.....

You may not want to start a business out of Stampin' Up!, but why pay full price for your Stampin' Up! stash when you could become a hobby demo... I started out as a hobby demo but changed my mind and decided to promote my business, I have now promoted to a Silver 2 and was Demonstrator Number 9 of the Year in 2009/2010. The pictures above show what you can get in your Starter Kit and you can chop and change stash to make it personal to you. If you are interested, please email me at LindaLloyd@gmx.net and I will be happy to answer any questions or give you more information... you could even join up now and get all your friends Christmas Presents at discounted prices as a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator. You dont have to live near me, most of my Team live a way away, but we all get along fine.... I look forward to hearing from you.

Its Here.... the waiting is over.....

2010-10-01T07:56:00.001+01:00

I thought I would start off my previews with my favourite stamp set from the new catalogue. If you have a new catalogue you will notice that a lot of the stamp sets come in the normal wooden block mounted or the new clear mount which mount on to blocks. I would just like to mention that the name is misleading, they are not clear but are the red rubber mounted onto grey rubber but you can see the picture through the acrylic block so it is much easier to stamp in the right place without the use of the Stampamajig. You can also add more than one stamp at a time to create images.... The acrylic blocks are also gorgeous (can an acrylic block be gorgeous?) they have grooves around in which your fingers fit nicely and they come in loads of different sizes so that there will always be one to fit your stamp...

This first card I made because I just had to use the stamp set. I had also just grasped brayering, and although you cannot see the gradiation in the reds very much in this photograph, it does go from dark red which is the new Cherry Cobbler, to a light red which is a new "in colour" Poppy Parade. The newsprint background is the new Patterned Paper, called Newsprint. I also stamped the image from the Artistic Etching Stamp Set onto the red and black embossed it, I then stamped some of the other images onto the Newsprint PP in Cherry Cobbler Ink and Basic Black.... More images were used for the Amour and were punched out using the Oval Punch and Oval Scallop Punch. I then finished it off with Black and Very Vanilla Grosgrain Striped Ribbon which now comes in more colours than before....

This tag I made for Stampin Up Training in High Wycombe, I again used the Artistic Etching stamp set, Newsprint Patterned Paper and Cherry Cobbler, Baja Breeze, Very Vanilla and Basic Black Cardstock. I finished it off with Very Vanilla Grosgrain Ribbon. I had to make 70 of these for swaps...... wish I hadn't of embossed the Eiffel Tower image as my whole desk was covered in black embossing powder by the time I had finished.... lol

So there you have it, the first previews from the new catalogue. I will be back tomorrow with some more, hope to see you all then. xx

Stampers 6 Club

2010-09-30T11:53:00.000+01:00

Please scroll down past this post for more up to date blogging.

Stampers 6 Club
My Stampers 6 Club will be running from 15th October 2010 with the last month being 15 March 2011. The benefits of this Club are:-
1. Free new catalogue on October 1st.
2. It will also be combined with my Techniques Club. This is a 6 month club in which you will receive a new technique of stamping each month for 6 months, fully illustrated so that you can try it at home.
3. A jam packed goody bag on your 3rd month which will also be December, so a Christmas Present from me for you.
4. A chance of getting new stash from the new catalogue by spreading out the cost over 6 months.
5. January is normally Saleabration month, so you will also be able to get your free stamp sets with the appropriate spend.
6. During your hostess month, you will receive a free Hostess Benefit of your choice from Level 1 and £15 of free stash from the catalogue.
And all you need to do is commit yourself to spending £25 per month over 6 months. If you were to host a workshop you would normally have to pay 5% postage for Stampin Up to deliver on top of your stash order. I pay this when you are a member of my club. All you pay is the cost of the postage to you each month, from months 2-6 and £3.00 postage for the first month, plus any PayPal fees incurred. You can also pay via cheque or bank transfer.
I am only running the one club, I have 2 places already taken so if you would like a place, please contact me. LindaLLoyd@gmx.net

One More Sleep To Go.......

2010-09-30T08:24:00.001+01:00

One more sleep to go before the new catalogue goes live..... I am just sooooooo excited, there is so much lush stuff in there..... if you would like to buy a catalogue from me, they are £3 including postage, so just drop me an email at LindaLloyd@gmx.net.

Today I am showing you the 2 cards I made for my sons 14th Birthday, the above one was really easy to make, it was just a sheet of Patterned Paper from the Green Stack from DCWV, this is about a year old now so not sure if you can get it anymore.... and then I cut out Happy Birthday using my Cricut Expression..... easy peasy.....

This next card uses an image from The Greetings Farm, I love their images and they are a joy to colour in, I coloured it in using copic markers, the stars I cut out using my Spellbinders Nestabilities Stars.... and the circles were Nestie Circles... Happy Birthday sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

I will be back tomorrow with some previews from the new catalogue, see you all then xx

At least we are halfway through the week already.....

2010-09-29T08:14:00.001+01:00

So glad this week is going so quickly, really need to have a nice relaxing weekend.... I thought I would show you another few cards I have made, cannot show you anything I have made with the new Stampin Up Product until Friday, only 2 more days to go now.

This card I made for my Step Dad's 75th birthday.... we went out for a lovely meal on the Sunday, and had a great family time at their house afterwards.... I made the background by stamping a Papertrey Ink background stamp onto some brown distressed paper, I used a script background stamp. I then stamped another background stamp of squares onto the distressed red cardstock. I used Kraft Cardstock to coordinate with the card and punched out a star using some distressed blue cardstock. The Happy Birthday sentiment is also from Papertrey Ink.

This next card I made for someone in our Church's 30th birthday, I dont really know what he is into so decided that you cannot go wrong with stars. I used a retired kit from Stampin Up to make this card... I love the brightness of the card after the more muted colours of my Step Dad's card.

My daughter asked me if I could make a card for a friend of hers who was having a son, so I love this stamp and it had never seen ink, so I made this for her. I used the retired Bashful Blue Patterned Paper from Stampin Up, the image is from Lili of the Valley Stamps.

Back to work, no rest for the wicked.... have a great day, take care xx

How Did Life Get This Busy........

2010-09-28T08:57:00.001+01:00

So Monday carried on in the manic way that the weekend passed, have so much to do and no time to do it. I have also lost another evening during the week as our church is running an Alpha Course and me and DH are running one of the small groups as we had training a few years ago..... I was hoping to make some thank you cards for some of the people at the wedding on Saturday, 6 cards for my DT on ILWS and another 12 for Church Order. Then I need to make 8 invitations to my grandsons birthday party next week and then birthday cards for all the birthdays this month. I really need to make myself a list I think and organise things slightly better. I have another order from Stampin Up arriving today, really excited about that, so hoping to use some of my new stash for some of the cards, and then hopefully in just over a weeks time my Papertrey Ink order will arrive and I will be able to put another order into Stampin Up from the new catalogue..... woohoo!!!!

So this card was made using colours that I would not normally use, it was really outside of the box for me, but I do really really like it..... Butterfly is Papertrey Ink, as are the buttons and cardstock. The Patterned Paper is Basic Grey.

The card above I made for my daughters 16th birthday from all her friends at church, it was also the card I made for our Papertrey Ink Day last month, where I got together with some really lovely ladies to make lots of Papertrey Ink stuff..... it was a brilliant day, hope we can do it again sometime.

For the card I used all Papertrey Ink Product, including dies, felt, cardstock and stamp sets.

This card I made from us, her family, for her birthday, she was very honoured as I used some of my favourite flowers on her card, the Patterned Paper was from a scrapbook kit and is such a gorgeous vibrant paper. The image I got from the Ally Pally in April as is by Mo, from Mo's Digital Pencil....

Must run, have a great day everyone xx

Yawn.... Monday Again

2010-09-27T08:33:00.001+01:00

Back to the normal routine today then..... had another busy day yesterday... our church was invited to another church for the day, we had morning service with them and then they did a bbq for our church to thank them for all the help we have given them since the new Pastor joined. After that it was round to our Assistant Pastor's house for Coffee and Muffins in celebration of Mr Assistant Pastor's 50th birthday.... so nice easy day with no cooking to do. Thank you everyone for your generosity.

These are the cards I made to send out with a couple of friends Papertrey Ink products that they ordered via me. We sometimes group together because it is cheaper on postage and customs charges... I used the Papertrey Ink stamps, ribbon, Cardstock and Patterned Paper for this card, not forgetting the buttons too, but I did use Stampin Up Little Tag Punch and Stamp set for the little tags. How sweet are they....

So here are the last 2 of the Church Order Cards I have, I will try and be better organised next month and get them out of the way quickly, I didn't post much this month so have had photos building up... again Papertrey Ink Ribbon, they are such lush colours and polka dot ribbon is my favourite.

And more chipboard on this card, it matched the Patterned Paper wonderfully (dont know who made it) but the ribbon is Papertrey Ink, and the little circles were die cut using a Papertrey Ink Die, these are really wonderful. Right need to get my nose to the grindstone, have a great day all xx

Posting on a Sunday..... how about that!!

2010-09-26T08:19:00.000+01:00

So this is novel, posting on a Sunday, yesterday we had a very busy day, we went to the Wedding of our neighbour (who also happens to be sons Godmother) and her fiance (now husband), and a wonderful time was had by all, she looked absolutely wonderful and so happy too!!

Anyway, today is nearly the last of last months Church Order, I have some other photos uploaded and ready to go for the following week, so they will be slightly different. I still cannot show you the samples I have made using the new product from the new Stampin Up Catalogue tho, you will have to wait until Friday for those. This card is slightly different to some of the others, I think the colours are really pretty, I have used Stampin Up Pretty in Pink for the card and the Large Bird Punch for the bird and leaf, how awesome is this.... look out for some new punches from the new catalogue sometime next month when I manage to get them into my greasy little mitts.... lol

I buy a scrapbook kit from the US which is monthly and arrives each month, I use a lot of the papers in that for my cards, hence can never remember what they are called.... sorry

And yet again, this card is different to the ones I have been showing to you lately. I do sit and draw 12 different templates and make the cards according to them, so not sure how they often look similar.... The ribbon on this card is from Papertrey Ink, as are the Sentiment and image, how lush is the colour of the ribbon.... absolutely love it!!

Got a busy week ahead, design team work and church order, what are the chances of making them all by Sunday? Pretty slim I reckon. Take care xx

Wow Wow Wow........

2010-09-25T08:45:00.003+01:00

Well I am so absolutely thrilled, but never has a trip to Lakeside cost so much money....... My desktop computer has been playing me up for a while, it is very very high spec and although nearly 2 years old is still very very high spec, it is super speedy has an i7 processor and I loved it...... but for about 2 months now my screens keep flickering, scrolls through pages etc. At first we thought it was the wireless keyboard, so we swapped it. Still kept happening, so we swapped the mouse (it acts like there is a button stuck down somewhere but obviously there isn't as we swapped keyboards), guess what it keeps happening, then DH saw it happen several times and doesn't understand why it does it, so we reinstalled Windows 7.... did this fix it? Not a chance, it has in fact been worse since then, so we uninstalled all the drivers and reinstalled them, nope as bad as ever, so DH said you need a new computer, but I always said there is nothing out there better than this so of course I dont. Well yesterday he said it to me 3 times, so I thought about it and checked out the Apple website and I saw this gorgeous mega big iMac.

It has an i7 chip but runs at 2.93GHz, and has a 1TB drive.... woohoo..... so whilst buying the boys clothes for a wedding on Saturday in Lakeside last night we popped into the Apple shop to look at the computer..... wow, how big is it? 27" screen.... And we left the shop with it, cannot believe that 1. they had it in stock, coz when I wanted to buy my ipad in there they didn't have the version I wanted.... and 2. The guy gave us a student discount of over £200..... was obviously meant to be... now all I need to do is learn to use a Mac instead of a normal Windows PC...... So today I am posting from my new PC.....

Another card today from my Church order, I am thinking that they are starting to look a bit samey with the design, so when I start the next lot next week I am going to have to try and change them.... I have some ideas..... I love that Chipboard SMILE. I used Papertrey Ink stamps for this card, not sure who the papers are.....

I used Soft Suede Spotted Grosgrain Ribbon for this card from Stampin Up and Matching Soft Suede Cardstock.... the little card is from a die from Papertrey Ink, as is the stamp image on it. The Sentiment is from Our Daily Bread Designs.
And here is the inside of it, all nice and matching.

Have a great weekend everyone... take care xx

3 days in a row.....

2010-09-24T08:58:00.001+01:00

Hi all. Well not sure what happened to the weather today but the heavens opened when it was time to pick the children up from school, I think we have been spoilt the last couple of days with the beautiful sun. My neighbour is getting married on Saturday, I hope the weather is good as I dont have a jacket to wear in the rain that is smart enough. I already stepped outside of my box and bought a dress which I never wear. I never even wore one when my daughter and my son got married (not to each other of course).

This is another Church Order card, I am loving these vibrant colours and the flowers are made out of felt. The cardstock is Stampin Up Chocolate Chip and Old Olive.

And as usual here is the matching inside. I do tend to make all my insides to match, I just dont always remember to take a photograph of them.

This card was for a little girl in our Church's birthday, I liked the princess sentiment because when her mum was pregnant with her baby sister, she said she didn't want a little sister because she wouldn't be a princess anymore.... awwww, the things that go through little one's heads.

Anyway, have to run, have a great day all xx

ILWS September Challenges

2010-09-23T09:23:00.001+01:00

Better late than never and you still have time to take part in the challenges over on In Love With Stamping, if you dont know where this is, follow the link on my right hand list, scroll down and you will find it.

This months challenges were varied. This is the sketch challenge, we were given this sketch and had to make a card using it.....

I did turn the sketch around to make this card. I used the Sweet Pea Paper Stack, Old Olive Satin Ribbon and the Hello Again Stamp Set. The Cardstock is So Saffron.
The next challenge was to make a card using a tone on tone. This means to use one colour but 2 tones of the colour, so, light blue and dark blue, or in my case, light purple, dark purple....

I used Perfect Plum Patterned Paper from Stampin Up and the Blooming With Beauty Stamp Set which is retiring at the end of the month, I will be very sad to see it go.

We also had to make a Children's Party Invitation, I used the Fox and Friends Stamp Set from Stampin Up, glad to see this is not retiring, the Sweet Pea Paper Stack, Brilliant Blue Cardstock, Real Red Grosgrain Ribbon and Old Olive Satin Ribbon.

And last but not least, a masking technique. This means you stamp something, place a mask over the top and stamp another image on top so you dont actually stamp on the bottom image... does this make sense. I used a Saleabration Stamp Set for this card, I love this stamp set, such a shame it was never in the catalogue. Again I used the Sweet Pea Paper Stack and Not Quite Navy Patterned Paper. The Cardstock is Whisper White and Rose Red.

So that is it from me today, off to the opticians in a minute. Went to the dentist yesterday and that cost me a fortune..... will definately be needing new glasses too, I think I must be falling apart.

Have a great day everyone... xx

Getting Behind.... Why are there not 8 days in a week?

2010-09-16T12:37:00.004+01:00

I have been super duper busy, there are so many birthdays this month, plus Stampin Up! Training in High Wycombe and I had to make 70 swaps..... the new Stampin Up Catalogue is also out on 1st October so have been busy deciding what to buy and also making some examples using the new sets I do have. I have also just finished a Wedding Album for my sons Godmother who is getting married on Saturday, so it is all coming together very slowly.

So here are a few cards I have made recently, this one was for my Church Order.... I used Stampin Up Soft Suede, Bella Bleu Papers, Melon Mambo Ribbon and the background writing is the Stampin Up En Francais Background Stamp, so glad they are not retiring this one.

The next one was for a birthday, the image is from Whiff of Joy Stamps, the paper is I think, Cosmo Cricket, the cardstock is Stampin Up Real Red and the Ribbon is from Papertrey Ink, a real mixture on this one. The image is coloured in using copic markers.

This next card was for Father's Day, have I already shown this.... not sure, but incase I haven't here it is. Stamp Set is Papertrey Ink, as are the Cloud die cuts, the background stamp is also from Papertrey Ink, the Cardstock is Stampin Up Real Red and the Ribbon is also Stampin Up Real Red Striped Grosgrain which IS retiring at the end of this month. If you would like to see the current Stampin Up retiring list, some items are more than 50% off.... just drop me an email at LindaLloyd@gmx.net.

This card was also for my Church Order, the Patterned Paper is the Sweet Pea Paper Stack, the Ribbon is the Old Olive Satin Ribbon, and the butterfly is a Martha Stewart Punch.

And here is the inside....... made to match the front.

Hope you enjoyed looking at these cards, keep checking back as I hope to post more soon.... take care everyone xx

Gonna miss the Retiring Stampin' Up! Sets.....

2010-09-03T11:36:00.004+01:00

I sorted out some of my old Scrapbook kits and used them to make some cards, really do need to use up some old stash, and here is what I came up with. The sentiment stamp is from Verve Stamps and I am waiting on some more of them, not sure what has happened to them since leaving US tho....

I am loving these nice bright colours, makes a change from the colours I would usually use too...

Scroll down a post if you are interested in buying from Stampin' Up!s Last Chance List. I am offering free postage if you spend more than £40..... these items are only around until end of September and then you can never buy them again.

Have a great day, take care

Stampin' Up! Retiring List

2010-09-01T15:53:00.004+01:00

Well you have 1 month to buy the retiring stash from Stampin' Up! some of the items have 50% off and I am offering free postage for all orders over £40 until Sunday Midnight, saving you £3.95. Check out the retiring items here and email me at LindaLloyd@gmx.net for all your requirements. Once these items are sold out you will never be able to get them again, so get in quickly..... If you would like to reserve a new catalogue the cost will be £5, place an order from the catalogue with me during October for £50 or more and I will refund your £5. Or better still, join my Stampers 6 Club and get a free catalogue and a way of spreading the cost of your wish list over the next 6 months, plus receive a goody bag in December, plus a different stamping technique each month included in your order.
Have a great evening all xx

Back to Blogging....

2010-08-25T16:08:00.003+01:00

Not much longer until the children go back to school, the small ones go back next week sometime and my elder son goes back on the 6th... not that I am counting down the days or anything. We have had a good day today, we went to Pizza Express for lunch (cheap courtesy of Orange Wednesday) and then went to see Toy Story 3 at the cinema, I know we are a bit late seeing it and everyone else has already been. I thought it was really good, definately an enjoyable film.

Anyway, here is a card that I made for a girl in our church who was turning 12....

Dont you just love these colours... and the image is from Mo, from Mo's Digital Pencil, I bought the stamp at the Ally Pally in April. I have just made my second card using this image for my daughter's birthday tomorrow... she will be 16, so definately an image for her too...

Have a good evening all, off to create now!!

In Love With Stamping Design Team Challenges

2010-08-24T11:55:00.006+01:00

I am lucky enough to be on the In Love With Stamping Forum Design Team for the next 6 months which means I will have to get my act into gear and make some cards each month. The following is from the August Challenge.

The first challenge was to use Basic Gray, So Saffron and Certainly Celery Cardstock as the colour scheme and the card below is what I came up with.

So Saffron and Nouveau Chic Patterned Paper, Whimsical Wings Level 2 Hostess Set and Oval All Stamp Sets. The rose I made myself using Basic Gray cardstock and some Dazzle Diamonds sprinkled on afterwards, the leaves are from the Bird Punch.

This card I also made for the same challenge, again using the Nouveau Chic Patterned Paper, Basic Grey Cardstock stamped with Papertrey Inks Tin Types Stamp set for a bit of pattern. The Praying for You sentiment is from Verve Stamps and the beautiful flower is from the In Bloom Stampin Up Stamp Set.

The next challenge was an inspiration piece, we were shown the picture below and had to make something using inspiration from this sketch.

I made a box using the Groom Speciality Patterned Paper and put little tags into each of the 4 sections using colours from the picture. I tied silver elastic thread so that they can be hung off of gifts. This would make a wonderful little gift for someone.

The next challenge was a sketch challenge using the sketch below.

I used the Sweet Pea Paper Stack to make the strips of paper, stuck them to a piece of Taken with Teal cardstock (that is retiring at the end of next month) and cut around leaving a small border.

I used Trendy Trees stamp set for the images, the scallop border punch for the edging along with a Martha Stewart punch and a Stampin Up button and ribbon to finish it off with.

The next challenge was to use Saran Wrap (or cling film), scrunch it up and dab ink or paint onto your project in some way.

I used the Stampin Up Silver Shimmer Paint and dabbed it onto Night of Navy Cardstock. I used the Season of Joy Stamp Set for the main image and cut out some snowflakes in silver cardstock to make a nice Christmassy card.

I also made a card for this challenge using ink. I dabbed the cling film onto an inkpad and decorated some pale plum card. I then stamped it with the En Francais background stamp. The image is from Vintage Vogue Stamp Set using the Oval All for the sentiment. This was finished off using Old Olive Satin Ribbon.

Have a great day everyone, hope you enjoyed what I have made, if you would like to join in with the challenges visit www.inlovewithstamping.com.

Holiday, new craft room etc.....

2010-08-16T16:27:00.004+01:00

Ha ha, excuses, excuses on why I haven't updated my blog. but really we have been on holiday, and then we had some personal problems when we got back, resulting in my daughter moving out, which meant that I got my own craft room. Wasn't sure about it at first, but now I have moved everything I am really pleased about it, and daughter looked at it this morning and said how good it looks, so dont feel so bad now.

Am off to a Papertrey Ink day on Sunday with some wonderful people from In Love With Stamping forum, some I have met before and some I haven't so really looking forward to meeting them all and spending the day making some wonderful Papertrey Ink Designs. Plus we are all taking our stamp sets so will get to share stamp sets to our hearts content.... How cool!! A BIG THANKS to Val for organising it and being so generous as to let us meet up in her house even if it is 2.5 hours away from where I live.... early morning Sunday then!!

Since swapping my craft room I am unable to get online with my desktop computer until some cable turns up to rewire it up to the router, I know I could have wireless, but cabled speed is about 100 times faster than wireless and I am just impatient with my computer speed.... ha ha So what I am getting at is that I have only one project to share with you today. I cannot show you what I have made for our PTI day as it is a surprise for everyone going so can share next week.

Last week was my nephews birthday and here is the card I made for him....

The Greetings Farm Stamp coloured in with Copics, and the paper is from the Scrapbook Kit I get from America each month. The sentiment is a PTI one, ribbon is Stampin Up, so quite a selection here.

Have a great evening all, will try and get some more cards made and posted in the next couple of days...

My Grandson's Birthday Card

2010-07-20T21:35:00.003+01:00

Ha ha, better late than never.... you've guessed it, this was a while ago and I just haven't posted the pics.... in fact his birthday was in May...

The Greetings Farm stamp of a fireman, Stampin' Up! patterned paper, Summer Sun, Night of Navy and Real Red Cardstock, Real Red Grosgrain Ribbon and a Computer Generated sentiment. The buttons are Papertrey Ink. The star is Papertrey Ink stamp set with Stampin' Up Punch.

The sentiment is also Papertrey Ink

Thanks for looking, have a great evening xx

2010-07-18T19:28:00.003+01:00

Well tomorrow is DH's birthday, so organised a bbq for him today. I told him I thought we should have a bbq for daughter and son who helped out whilst we were in South Afrcia which he agreed, but I told everyone it was a surprise birthday bbq... birthday cake was all ready when we got home for church with lighted candles and everything, I asked if it was a surprise and he said he had an inkling of what I was doing because I was going to so much effort... hmmmm, I am sure I would have taken that much trouble for my children too.... anyway a good time was had by all...

My card today was for my nephew who passed his driving test first time and he is only 17, so a great achievement for him. He has his own car now so he is really pleased with himself.

For this card I used Papertrey Ink car stamp and die and I also used the Star Stamp Set from PTI and the Star Punch from SU... the buttons are also PTI, oh yes and the paper. The sentiment is in the same set as the car.

Have a great evening everyone, off now to relax, think I deserve it after such a busy day. xx

2010-07-17T19:20:00.001+01:00

We are going to our neighbours wedding in September, she is my son's Godmother, so I needed to make a reply to her wedding invitation....

The word "Acceptance" was computer generated, the shape was cut out using Nestabilities and stamped using Waltzingmouse stamps which fit the shapes of Nestabilities...

And again, here is the matching inside.... I thought it all looked very elegant and suddenly didn't want to give it away..... but I did.. lol

Have a great evening, take care everyone xxx

My Dad's birthday card

2010-07-16T19:13:00.001+01:00

So here is my dad's birthday card, and yes I am late posting this too as his birthday was in May.

This card I CASE'd from the PTI Gallery, I was just so pleased with how it turned out and I got to use some of my old papers up too.... and I even did some sewing... how about that!!

And as per usual I decorated the inside to match... so there we go....

Thanks for visiting my blog and have a great evening xx

Father's Day.... (a bit late)

2010-07-15T20:44:00.003+01:00

I know, I know, this post is about a month late, but I did actually make some cards although they were a case from the lovely Jules, why not check out her blog...

Anyway, this is a card from the children to my Stepdad as he only lives about 2 miles down the road, I used the Cheers to You stamp set and the Jackpot Patterned Paper...

and here is a view from the other side, as you can see I forgot to photograph it until after the children had written in it.... ha ha

This card was made using the monkey that the wonderful Jules makes, isn't it cute... this one was for DH from the children. The monkey is made using all Stampin' Up! punches... isn't Julie clever? The cloud is from my Papertrey Ink die and the leaves are from the Stampin' Up! bird punch. I also made a card for my dad, not sure what happened to the photograph, I am sure I did photograph it, so will show you that when I find it... have a great evening all xx

Total CASE.......

2010-07-14T17:41:00.005+01:00

Well before going to South Africa I was having a total mind block and just could not make anything, but needed to make a couple of Thank You cards for my son and daughter. Son took us to Heathrow and picked us up at 6.30am in the morning when we arrived back, and daughter, well she looked after the 4 children left at home....

We brought them back a bottle of Amarula each, which is a South African drink, but they were special World Cup bottles, so they can keep them even after they have finished drinking.... so I turned to Papertrey Ink for my card inspiration, but still drawing a blank I totally copied 2 cards and here they are....

These were made using all PTI stash except for the lace and the edge punch.... dontcha just love the stuff..... have a great evening, take care all xx

Back to Creating then.......

2010-07-13T14:20:00.006+01:00

Well I have decided that my mojo is not going to come back on its own, and I haven't done my card order for the lady in church for a couple of months now, so that is long overdue, and I have loads of new scrummy stuff as well as old scrummy stuff, so really need to use that, so have sorted out some old scrummy stuff to use which is what I made this card with. I was inspired by 2 challenges and so I am going to enter for both of them.... one is the Simon Says Challenge which is a photo inspired one.....
And the second is the Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge

And here is what I came up with..... isn't the blue bazzill a gorgeous blue, probably would never have got around to using it if it wasn't for the photograph....

And as usual, I decorate the insides of my cards, so here is the inside....

Now I cannot tell you what the supplies are as they are so old.... ha ha but the butterfly punch is a Martha Stewart Punch.

I also made a card for another sketch challenge over at CPS......

And here is what I came up with, my first card for my church order too....

These are the same supplies as the last card but I have used PTI Ribbon for this and Our Daily Bread Stamp Set. So I will be back tomorrow with another card, until then take care and stay safe. xx

The World Cup.....

2010-07-12T16:08:00.008+01:00

I have been a bad blogger but have just lost my mojo over the last few weeks.. plus I actually like football and have been watching the world cup too... and.... DH won us a trip to South Africa to see a quarter final match which was actually Ghana v Uruguay and we stayed in a 5* hotel in Pretoria, had hospitality before the match and after the match which included the most yummiest of foods and any alcohol you like and as much of either. We also got a Sony Ericsson bag before leaving hospitality for the match which included an Official World Cup blanket, Official Programme for the match, a seat cushion and 2 hand warmers as it gets very very chilly at night over there and they wanted us to be comfortable watching the match. I will tell you another time what gift we got when arriving at the hotel as I need to photograph it.

10 of us flew out to South Africa together, 8 of us stuck together a lot of the time we were out there, here is a photograph of us all as we were about to leave the hotel for our flight home, can you notice that we are all soooooooooooo tired... they were all really lovely people and we all came from different parts of the UK and we also won the trip in different ways... DH won by answering a question on Absolute Radio, but another guy on there won by buying a shed online..... how strange is that!! ha ha

We travelled to South Africa overnight and this is the sunrise from the plane window whilst we were flying over Africa.....

This is me in the park opposite our hotel, the hotel is the big building behind me.....

OMG I was so so excited when we had these tickets in hand, can you see the price... $300 USD each... how much Papertrey Ink stash could I have bought with that... ha ha

This was our first glimpse of Soccer City, the football stadium where they had the opening ceremony and the World Cup Final, we were still on the coach at this time, it still seems unreal that we were actually there.

Anyone know who the bald guy is? Well he was in our hospitality tent... it was Sepp Blatter the Head of Fifa, the guy who doesn't want goal line technology which would have stopped our England goal being disallowed against Germany.... we were so busy taking his photo we forgot to tell him we wanted the goal line technology and he disappeared quickly.... must have known of our intentions... lol

So we decided we were going to cheer for Ghana, as did most of the stadium, there were not too many Uruguay fans there.... this photograph is me outside Soccer City.

This photograph is the 2 teams lining up for the National Anthems, we really were that close to the pitch, no fancy camera with me this time, just my little pocket thing with hardly any zoom.

A throw in for Ghana during the match.

This was Ghana taking one of the penalties, which is how the outcome of this match was decided after Suarez decided to handball the ball out of the net when Ghana were about to score a goal.... right at the end of extra time.

Do I look tired? That is because it is 2am and we had just arrived back at the hotel....

A view over Pretoria from the park opposite our hotel... you could really see for miles.

Me with a bird of paradise flower, just growing in the gardens.

And now I have finished boring you with my photographs... I will be back tomorrow with some proper crafting ones as I have quite a few bits to show you now. Take care and have a good evening all xx.

Can you guess why I have been AWOL....

2010-06-02T11:56:00.002+01:00

Having really missed our Great Dane who had to be rehomed we decided to get a smaller dog to fill the empty space she left. We have been looking into what breed would fit into our household, because of children, other dogs, cats etc and decided on a boxer.... then of course we had to find one and we did last Friday.... and here she is. We have called her Willow and she is 10 weeks old. She had her 2nd injection today so will be allowed out walkies next Wednesday...... I am sure there will be plenty of people who want to walk her. She is pretty well behaved, has already learnt to sit and to stop when you say no!! like when she starts to chew the carpet or goes down the bin.... but she is learning quickly. She also barked at 5am this morning as she wanted to go into the garden, so couldn't really be unhappy with that... unfortunately during the day when we are all up, she has had the odd accident in the house.....

Isn't she gorgeous.... she has settled down well, likes the other dogs although they dont like her quite so much, but we have bought them a massive pet bed for the kitchen and they do all share it, so cant be too bad....

Will eventually get around to making a card... ha ha

Have a great day all xx

Welcome to the World Little Ones.....

2010-05-21T12:10:00.005+01:00

My daughter asked me to make her 2 baby cards, 1 girl and 1 boy one.... as I didn't have much time last week as it was my Dad's birthday, my daughters birthday, my downlines birthday and then I was looking after my grandson, so I CASE'd a card from the PTI forum and made one in pink and one in blue.... actually DH couldn't see that it was similar but I can...

I used SU Bashful Blue Patterned Paper and Bashful Blue Cardstock and the stamps and ribbons are from PTI..... as are the buttons.

And the pink one is the same.... Except everything is PTI this time.... and I did faux stitching around the edge...

And the insides were made to match too.... how cute is this sentiment.

Have a great evening... xx

A Christening....

2010-05-20T10:47:00.006+01:00

My sister had her baby Christened over May Day weekend, the weather was awful and the marquee in my mums grounds was freezing cold, everyone ended up in my mums bungalow... but the weather is typical of this year I guess, I read in the paper today Whitsun Bank Holiday weekend and half term are going to be washouts too.... when are we going to get some nice sunny weather?

Anyway, I used Basic Grey Papers for this card and another Digital image from Mo's Digital Pencil, these images are all gorgeous and you can normally find something for the occasion you are making the card for. Must admit my niece does not have pointy ears in real life.... lol

And a little gift bag I made for the gift, I even managed to make a rose to go on the bag, no mean feat for me as I just dont seem to be able to make these roses very well....

And because I am so pleased with my rose I thought I would show you a close up of it.... this is made using Rose Red Cardstock.... doesn't it look good on the bag? Right off to be productive I hope, have a great weekend all xx

Bit behind with my posting....

2010-05-20T10:38:00.004+01:00

My daughter was one of the lucky ones, invited along for an audtion for X Factor, unfortunately she wasn't picked, but I just had to make her a good luck card....

How appropriate is this image, I thought it was perfect and she was quietly pleased that I bought the image especially for her (from Mo's Digital Pencil).... The colours were much more vibrant in real life, not sure why it looks so dull in the photograph, I really need to get myself one of those little tents that you can use to put your items in to take photos, the light is often naff here....

My boys are all busy for the next few days, they have school disco's tonight, unfortunately they both go to different ones, so to and from school at least 4 times today, then tomorrow my littlest tribe member goes for a sleepover at his friends and my teenager is off to Thorpe Park on Saturday with the school, so a fun few days should be had by all. Lets hope the sun comes back out, it is very warm but the sun is behind a lot of cloud... Have a great day all xx

Woohoo, guess who I am going to see.....

2010-05-18T14:52:00.007+01:00

Nope, you didn't guess... well we have now got tickets to see Rod Stewart at the O2 on 1st June which is brilliant... I remember my sister going to see him in Ipswich quite a few years ago now and I couldn't go so was gutted... now I finally get to see him, not sure I want him wearing his skin tight leopardskin trousers at his age tho... lol And... on 11 June we are going to see Bon Jovi at the O2 aswell, think we may as wel get season ticket parking there... ha ha

It was my fabulous downline, Caroline's birthday last Friday and here is the card I sent to her. I used some of the new colours from Stampin Up, Melon Mambo and Soft Suede to make this card. I also used the Vintage Vogue Stamp Set, this is probably only the second time I have used this set.. but I do love it anyway!!! lol

And here is the inside, all nicely matching.... hope you like it, and I hope Caroline liked it too....

Have a great day everyone... xx

My Little Grandson.....

2010-05-18T14:26:00.003+01:00

has been staying with me... he will be 2 tomorrow. My youngest grandson has been in the Royal Free Hospital in Whitechapel for the last 2 days with his mum and dad and I have been looking after his brother... my youngest is 7, so haven't had a toddler for a few years now, but we all loved having him to stay and I think he had a great time. My greatest fear was that he would cry for his mum and dad and that he wouldn't understand me telling him when they would be back, but he didn't thank goodness.... at least tomorrow I will be able to sleep until the alarm goes off... ha ha

Anyway I have a card to show you, although I haven't been crafting for 4 days now, hopefully will be back to normal tomorrow, well I will need to be as I need to make my Grandson's birthday card....

This was a card I made for the Church order, I have now taken over the making and sending out of cards to everyone in our church, so hopefully if I can kick myself up the butt I will be making even more cards in the future. Unfortunately things keep happening to stop me..

I used Stampin Up's Sweet Pea Mat Stack for this card and a computer generated sentiment. The ribbon is Pretty in Pink Taffetta and the flowers were also punched out of the Mat Stack. The cardstock is Barely Banana. A very simple and easy to make card using this gorgeous paper.

The inside I made to match, again using the mat stack and barely banana cardstock.

Hope you like it, will be back tomorrow with another one... have a great day all xx

WooHoo, 2 days running.

2010-05-14T09:44:00.003+01:00

Yesterday was my daughter's 17th birthday, I dont think she reads my blog but thought I had better wait until today to post a piccie of her card....

The Patterned Paper is Basic Grey, the image is from The Greetings Farm, the button and leaves are Papertrey Ink and the flower is from my stash, you would not believe the amount of flowers I have.... the swirl is a punch that I got at the Ally Pally....

And the inside is made to match, but this time the edging punch is a Fiskars Border punch.... I also stitched loads on this card.... thought I would give my sewing machine an airing... ha ha

Have a great evening all, I will be looking after my grandson for a few days from Sunday night so wont be making much, but I do still have some cards and will be able to get on my computer so the postings should continue.... xx

I have been AWOL.....

2010-05-13T16:20:00.005+01:00

Not really sure why I have been AWOL, just seemed the longer I left it the harder it was to come back and post... strange eh!! But I have some very exciting news, well exciting for me, not really exciting for you out in cyber space. 2 Fridays ago DH was on Absolute Radio (formerly Virgin Radio) and won a competition for us both to go to South Africa and see a Quarter Final World Cup Football Match, well I for one do like football so this is a brilliant prize and we have 3 nights accommodation too, we fly in overnight and out overnight which means we near enough have 3 full days there too, so there is a theme park, a wildlife park, lots of restaurants and the football match one evening with hospitality included... woohoo... also flights and transfers are included to, so should be awesome. Am a bit worried as it is South Africa, and may yet stay locked in my hotel room but we shall see!!!! Not sure how I can not look like a tourist with an England Football Shirt on... so England Football Team, hear this, you will win all of your matches so that the one we are in South Africa for will be you playing some other team and you must win that one too... would hate to be on the side of losers.

Anyway, back to my post..... have had a few birthdays, giveaways, thank yous, Christenings, Good Lucks lately so will be posting some cards over the next week for all of these. Today's post is about my Daughter in Law's birthday last Thursday. I made a cute little bag to put her present in.

A Kraft Lunch Bag decorated with Real Red Cardstock and Snow White Ink from Papertrey Ink, the butterfly image and die is also from Papertrey Ink as is the Happy Birthday. The Flower is made with Hawaiian Shores Felt and Real Red and Whisper White Cardstock using a die from Papertrey Ink too.... bling from my stash.

I bought this stamp at the Ally Pally, not sure who made it but I coloured it in using Copics... Patterned Paper is Basic Grey, sentiment was from Papertrey Ink....

And I decorated the inside too, using some of my new Raspberry Fizz felt from Papertrey Ink and cutting a really cute flower from it using a die from Papertrey Ink... again paper is Basic Grey and the Punched Edge is an EK Success punch which I also got at Ally Pally.....

Thanks for looking, check back tomorrow for another card. xx

Well What Do You Know....?

2010-04-20T10:56:00.002+01:00

Yay, 2 days running, getting back into the swing of things now... lol

Unfortunately no Papertrey Ink cards as I was so busy yesterday and haven't had time today, but my intention is to make a couple this afternoon.... cannot believe I am so busy after the children have gone back to school... lol

Anyway, todays card is again using the Patterned Paper from the Sweet Pea Paper Stack and Barely Banana Cardstock, the ribbon is Kraft Taffeta, all from Stampin' Up! The little butterfly is from my Papertrey Ink order, coloured to match the paper and cut out using the Papertrey Ink Die.... sentiment is computer generated... how easy is this card to make using this gorgeous patterned paper.

The inside was decorated to match, again using the Sweet Pea Paper Stack and Barely Banana Cardstock. I again used the PTI stamp and punch for the butterfly and the edging is a Martha Stewart Punch.

Thanks for looking, have a great day. xx

Been Absent Haven't I....

2010-04-19T16:24:00.004+01:00

Well I dont think I did too badly during the Easter School Holidays, I managed to post most days, but unfortunately despite a nice big influx of stash I was unable to make anything due to tidying out my crafting space, looking after children, extra food shopping etc.... but I am back and here is today's contribution....

I used Barely Banana, Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink and Whisper White Cardstock. The Patterned Paper is from the Sweet Pea Paper Stack, the ribbon is Chocolate Chip Grosgrain, all from Stampin' Up!. The sentiment is computer generated and the bling is from my stash. And the brown flower is cut from Papertrey Ink Felt, using a Papertrey Ink Die... woohoo... used at last!!

And the inside is decorated to match, Barely Banana, Pretty in Pink, Old Olive and Chocolate Chip Cardstock, Papertrey Ink Dies, Martha Stewart and Stampin' Up! punches.... Patterned Paper again from the Sweet Pea Mat Stack.... you just get so much paper for your money...

And guess what, I picked up my newest Papertrey Ink Parcel from Parcel Force today which contains more new dies which go with some of my Stamp Sets, so watch this space for some cards made from Papertrey Ink soon.... off to give blood this evening, hoping they will take it as out of the last 3 times I have been they have only taken it once.... fingers crossed!!

Take care all xx

PTI Stash and a Card

2010-04-14T17:06:00.004+01:00

Below is my pile of PTI Stash just before I put it into its new home yesterday....

Have stood all the inkpads up, but not sure how I will identify them without having to take each out of the drawer to see what colour it is.... any ideas? Was thinking of a coloured dot on the side coloured in the colour of the inkpad.... still thinking on that one... and guess what, there is another PTI release in the early hours of tomorrow morning which I am thinking of getting up for as I have a longish list yet again this month.... still trying to collect everything so a few more buttons and some new dies and stamp sets that are being released this month. Luckily I am selling some of my stash to fund it.... hopefully they wont take the money from my bank until I get the money through from my sold stash!!! lol

Anyway, still stroking my PTI stash so had to show you a card using more SU goodies. The new Bird Punch which was released in the mini catalogue... how cool is this and the Patterned Paper is from the new Sweet Pea Paper Stack, so is the wing of the bird and the flower... The cardstock used is Taken With Teal, Barely Banana, Whisper White and Chocolate Chip....

And the inside has been decorated too, again Barely Banana, Whisper White and Chocolate Chip and more Patterned Paper from the Sweet Pea Paper Stack, and the leaves punched from the Bird Punch.

Anyway, off to do some ironing and cooking dinner... cya all tomorrow... xxx

Still Tidying Out....

2010-04-13T14:18:00.004+01:00

So still sorting and tidying here so do not have time for the colour challenge, I really do need to make a card tomorrow so desperately trying to finish up here so I can get on with it.

Your card for today is made using the Stampin' Up! Sweet Pea Paper Stack and the gorgeous lush Pumpkin Pie and Very Vanilla Grosgrain Stripey Ribbon.... the Cardstock is Chocolate Chip and Whisper white, plus the leaves are punched out using Barely Banana Cardstock with the Martha Stewart Punch. The sentiment is computer generated....

And as usual I have decorated the inside using more Stampin' Up! Sweet Pea Paper Stack papers, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White and Barely Banana Cardstock and the beautiful Martha Stewart Edging Punch... off to finish tidying now (hopefully...)

Take care and have a great day all xx

Ally Pally Stash and a Few Cards.....

2010-04-12T08:51:00.004+01:00

So here is my stash that I got at Ally Pally, some nestabilities, loads of punches, loads of Stamps including Whiff of Joy and Lili of the Valley, 11 packs of bling, Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher, 6 x 6 Patterned Paper Pad, brads, pins and loads more.... today I am going to start working on my craft area and will be sorting all my stuff out and getting rid of what I no longer use to make room for all my new purchases... I will show you my PTI purchases tomorrow...

Below is a card I made, the sentiment is computer generated, the Patterned Paper is from the Sweet Pea Paper Stack, Cardstock is Old Olive and Barely Banana, with little leaves punched out using Rose Red Cardstock. The ribbon is the new lush Old Olive Satin Ribbon, how gorgeous is this.....

The shapes were cut out using nestabilities and the flowers are from my stash.....

For this card I used the All of A Flutter Patterned Paper, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink and Chocolate Chip Cardstock. The ribbon is the new lush Stampin' Up! Real Red Satin Ribbon and the flowers are from my stash. The shapes were cut out using nestabilities and the sentiment was computer generated. The leaves and butterfly punch are Martha Stewart.... hope they give you some inspiration, I will be back tomorrow with a Colour Challenge and a photo of my stash that I got from Papertrey Ink....

Have a great day, take care xx

Worn out but I do have something to show you...

2010-04-11T09:50:00.001+01:00

Well I did have fun yesterday, whilst Hubby and boys went off Geocaching I spent a leisurely few hours spending money at the Ally Pally.... I must admit I was on a strict budget but I did have a few "necessities" on my shopping list... bling for a start, how can you make cards without bling? And dont forget a girl definately needs some Basic Grey 6 x 6 Pads.... watch this space to see what I do with my new patterned paper.... But for today you have got another church order card to look at, I thought of posting piccies of my stash but I didn't want to make you all jealous so you will just have to wait to see what I make with it all.... lol

The sentiment is computer generated, the Patterned Paper is from the new Sweet Pea Stack from Stampin' Up!, you get 48 lush sheets of double sided heavy quality patterned paper for just £19.99 and believe me it goes a very very long way, I have hardly started on the stack and have already made 10s of cards with it.... definitely value for money. I used Old Olive and Barely Banana Cardstock and new Satin Ribbon in Chocolate Chip... all from Stampin' Up, the flowers are from my stash and the punches are Martha Stewart and Fiskars....

Was definitely a day for decorating the insides of cards, out of 12 cards I have made recently I have only not decorated the insides of 2 of them and that was incase the lady who they were for wanted to write a long message inside of them.... Again I used matching Patterned Paper and Cardstock...

Thanks for looking and I will let you know how I get on with my tidying up this week... you never know I may just give you a little peek at my Ally Pally Stash and also my Papertrey Ink Stash before I put it all away in its new home. Thanks for looking, have a great relaxing Sunday... take care all xx

Wow how did I make so many cards in one day...

2010-04-10T09:38:00.002+01:00

I have finally managed to finish all my cards for my church order this month... not quite sure how but I think it is because I intend to have a big crafty clear out next week and didn't want to have to have an order hanging over my head whilst doing it.... I have had a delivery of Papertrey Ink stash this week and it is sitting in a box waiting for a home, so thought if I could sell some stash I no longer use this would give me room for my new stash and also fund some more stash.... lol

The sentiment on this card is computer generated, the shapes have been cut out using Nesties and the punch is from Martha Stewart. The Ribbon is Stampin' Up! Pretty in Pink Taffetta and the cardstock is Chocolate Chip and Real Red and the corners have been punched out using the Photo Corners SU Punch....

And here is the inside, again Chocolate Chip Cardstock and the pink dots have been punched using the smallest Stampin' Up! circle punch using Pretty in Pink Cardstock and sticking them to the chocolate chip.... and that is about it.... off to Ally Pally in a minute so I know I am going to have a good day. Hope yours is super duper too... take care xx

Wedding Card Season....

2010-04-09T18:26:00.004+01:00

So the season of Weddings is now starting and a lady I met last week asked if I could make her a Wedding Card as she was fed up with the cards she saw in the shops.... the lady just asked what I did and I said I make cards and teach at Card Workshops.... she was thrilled. I made a card for her took it to her house and she was over the moon, so that makes me happy if she is happy.

I used Elegant Eggplant and Whisper White Cardstock from Stampin' Up! and some matte silver card that I had in my stash. I used the Mr & Mrs Stamp Set also from Stampin' Up! and the wheel that matches it for the bottom part of the card. I finished it off with a little pearl from the Pretties Kit.

But then I always decorate the insides of my card too, for this I used the Forever Flowers Wheel again, the sentiment was computer generated and I used a Martha Stewart punch for the lacey hearts... and a few more little pearls from the Pretties Kit....

Off to Ally Pally tomorrow to increase my stash mountain... lol

Have a great weekend, take care xx

Well, Well, Well.....

2010-04-08T11:55:00.004+01:00

Stampin' Up! have really been packing the surprises lately, firstly we get the new mini catalogue packed full of gorgeous, lush new stash, including shimmer paints and satin ribbon along with new stamp sets and patterned paper, but they have just announced that they are changing all the colour families that Stampin' Up! currently have. If you dont know a colour family is a set of 12 colours that will all go together by tone etc so makes it easy to mix and match for your card or scrapbook project... well, they are introducing at least 15 new colours and retiring some of the old ones, so if you love a colour that is retiring, now is the time to stock up on it before they run out.... and here is the colour chart showing you our retiring colours, they will be available until end of September, but once the catalogue comes out on 1st October that will be it!! This will include all inkpads too, so stock up on those too, plus the reinkers. The whole colour families are being shaken up so will not be available as they are now after 30 September 2010.

But dont be too down, they are releasing the most lush new colours and that isn't all, some of you may know about the "in colours" they currently have in US and Australia, well we will be getting those too. Each new colour family will consist of 10 colours in each, plus in October they will give us 5 new "in colours" and these colours will last for 2 years before being retired, the following October we will be given 5 more and they will last for 2 years, after that we will get 5 new colours each year which means not only do we have the 40 colours in the colour family, we will also have 10 "in colours" making a grand total of 50 colours for you to play around with.... how exciting is that... there is a definate lack of purples I must admit, so just make sure you stock up on the current purples that you like before they retire....

So very exciting news for all Stampin' Up! fans.... how will we get through the next 6 months.... lol

Take care xx

This Month's Card Class.....

2010-04-06T14:04:00.004+01:00

Okay, well I have lots to do this week and no time to do it as my Grandson has an appointment at the Royal London Hospital tomorrow and I am looking after my 22 month old Grandson, just not really feeling in a crafty mood at the moment anyway..... pah!!!! Think I am still recovering from having 17 people here Easter Sunday for roast dinner and definitely an overload of chocolate too, so diet starts again today!!! lol

So the above photo was my Card Workshop I did this month, I always find it really hard to judge how long it will take to make a card and I guess we had a bit too much to make this month, but everyone managed to stamp their images and make at least 2 of their cards and I showed them how to make the flowers on their notebooks...

How gorgeous are these colours. This month I decided I would not make everything matching, but use the same stamp set Greenhouse Garden for all of them but use different colourways so that they could see how different each card looked. For the notebook cover I used Perfect Plum Patterned Paper, Perfect Plum and Pale Plum Cardstock and Mellow Moss for the little leaves and the Taffetta Ribbon is also Mellow Moss....

This card is a flowerpot card and the flowers pull up and are attached to some card that you can write your message on. For this card I used Real Red and Whisper White Cardstock, there is also some Old Olive for the leaves and for the inside bit which you cannot see. The ribbon is Night of Navy and the inks are So Saffron, Real Red and Night of Navy.... the insides of the flowers are Chocolate Chip. I also used Jackpot Patterned Paper.

This card uses Pretty In Pink, Almost Amethyst and Certainly Celery Cardstock. The Patterned Paper is Tea Party and the Grosgrain Ribbon is Certainly Celery too....

This time I used Chocolate Chip, Sage Shadow and Whisper White Cardstock. The Patterned Paper is To The Nines, this was probably the easiest card of them all to make. All stash used to make all these cards comes from Stampin' Up! If you would like to order anything, please contact me on LindaLloyd@gmx.net or if you would like a new Stampin' Up! mini catalogue, please contact me at the above email addy and I will get one out to you ASAP.

If you like Magnolia, Sugar Nellie or KatzelKraft stamps you will find some second hand ones for sale here and postage is free too.... bonus!!

Have a great afternoon, take care.. xx

Happy Easter Monday

2010-04-05T10:00:00.001+01:00

Matthew 28:5-6 The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you."

Another Church order card for today, kinda similar to Friday's Card because I used the Same All A Flutter - Wings and Things Patterned Paper.....

I also used Old Olive, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White and Rose Red Stampin' Up! Cardstock and Tempting Turquoise Grosgrain Ribbon. The sentiment is computer generated and is finished off inside of the card. I used the Eyelet Border punch from Stampin' Up! too...

And the inside matches the outside nicely, using the same papers and colours, but using the Scallop Circle Punch, the 1 3/8" punch and the 1 1/4" punch to make the bird embellishment.

Thanks for looking and have a great Bank Holiday Monday... take care xx

Happy Good Friday.....

2010-04-02T10:00:00.001+01:00

1 Peter 2:24 - He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.

Happy Good Friday and what better type of card to show you today than one I have made for my monthly Church order.

I used All A Flutter Wings and Things from My Little Shoebox plus Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise, Rose Red Cardstock from Stampin' Up! and Pumpkin Pie Grosgrain Ribbon, I also made the scallop edge using the Stampin' Up! Scallop Border Punch.

The sentiment is computer generated, I used matching cardstock to the front of the card and used the Scallop Circle Punch, 1 3/8" punch and 1 1/4" punch for the little bird embellishment.

Thank you for looking, have a great Good Friday and dont eat too many hot cross buns.

Take Care xx

Easter Eggs

2010-04-01T16:49:00.004+01:00

Today I had my last card class before Easter and so I made the lovely ladies some little Easter Egg boxes, plus an Easter Card which I forgot to photograph.... Doh!!

I used the new Sweet Pea Paper Stack for the top and bottom of the box, the little stands I put the eggs in were made with Barely Banana cardstock to match the patterned paper and the ribbon and flower on top are Tempting Turquoise. The very yummy eggs are Thorntons....

I also used the new bird punch to punch out the leaves for the flowers on top of the box....

Hope you have a lovely Easter weekend, I have scheduled a post for tomorrow and another one for Easter Monday, so fingers crossed they work...

Take care all xx

New Mini Catalogue Blog Hop...

2010-03-28T10:00:00.005+01:00

Well if you have started this blog hop here, work your way around all 16 of us otherwise you would have come here from Sara's Blog. We have all published projects using stash from the new Stampin' Up! Mini Catalogue. If you would like to get your hands on a copy, just drop me an email.

I made this project for the Demonstrator Choice at Reading last week, which I attended for Stampin' Up! Training... much to my surprise I actually won the Demonstrator Choice Competition.... there were so many stunning entries and many that I thought were much better than mine.

For this project I used Tempting Turquoise and Rose Red Cardstock and the new Sweet Pea Paper Stack.

And can you believe the lushness of these felt flowers and leaves.... how absolutely wonderful are they, you will find these in the Mini Catalogue too...

And here is what was contained inside.... 4 cards, all very different with envelopes to match....

Here are the cards on their own, again using Patterned Paper from the Sweet Pea Stack, all the colours match and co-ordinate and make them so easy to use together.

Here are 2 of the cards and matching envelopes.....

And true to form, I also decorated the insides of the cards. This is the inside of the cards shown in the photograph above this one...

And the other 2 cards with matching envelopes, I am just loving these easel cards at the moment and they are so easy to make...

And again, the insides of the cards.... the colours are just so bright and vibrant...

For this card I used Tempting Turquoise, Rose Red and Old Olive Cardstock. I used the Patterned Paper from the new Sweet Pea Paper Stack and cut some extra flowers out to decoupage on the ones on the front of the card, you can probably see this if you look closely. The ribbon is the Rose Red Stitched Grosgrain and the Tempting Turquoise Grosgrain, and the Old Olive Cardstock has been punched using the Scallop Border Punch....

For this card I used Rose Red, Tempting Turquoise, Old Olive and Chocolate Chip Cardstock, the papers from the Sweet Pea Paper Stack, the birds were punched out of a sheet of the Patterned Paper. The Tempting Turquoise Cardstock was punched using the Scallop Border Punch and the Old Olive Cardstock and Patterned Paper were stuck on top, I then punched three 1 3/8" holes down this stack.... this whole stack was then mounted onto dimensionals to hold if off the card blank. The Scallop Circles were punched and then punched again using the 1 3/8" punch to leave just a scallop frame. These were stuck around the holes punched into the stack and the birds were stuck through the holes and onto the Rose Red Card Blank so that they were lower than the rest of the card to add some dimension... I'm not sure if you can see that looking at this picture.

For this card I used Pretty In Pink, Tempting Turquoise and Rose Red Cardstock, again Patterned Paper from the Sweet Pea Paper Stack, Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon.. The bird was again punched out from the Patterned Paper and I punched 7 Tempting Turquoise circles to place underneath the bird punch out to make a flower shape. I pierced the corners to add a bit of interest.

This project used Tempting Turquoise, Rose Red, Old Olive and Chocolate Chip Cardstock. Again Sweet Pea Paper Stack for the Patterned Paper, punched out bird and I also cut out a bird for the top image. The ribbon is Chocolate Chip Grosgrain... I also used the Scallop Border Punch and the Scallop Circle Punch.

And that is my project completed. I hope you enjoyed looking, now move on to Debbi's Blog where you will find another great project.

I am also selling off a huge amount of my stamps (not Stampin' Up!) if you are interested, check out my blog post here...

Take care all xx

More Sneak Peeks.....

2010-03-26T16:22:00.005Z

I attended a Stampin' Up! Training Day at Reading last Saturday and my wonderful downline Teri had made me this little box using new stash from the mini catalogue.....

and inside was two bottles of Sanctuary lushiousness which I have had my eye on for a while now and despite hinting didn't get any for Mother's Day or Valentines Day, so was doubly gorgeousness for me..

I just want to say thank you so much to Teri, it was a lovely surprise and it was absolutely brilliant to finally meet you at last...

For this set Teri used the new Vintage Vogue Stamp Set and the new Very Vintage Wheel which I haven't actually bought yet.... I wasn't sure I wanted it until I saw this gorgeous box, now it is definitely on my wish list. But I do have the Vintage Vogue Stamp Set..... watch this space...

We all took swaps along too, and here is the swap I made...

I used the new Sweet Pea Paper Stack for the Patterned Paper and the little owl is from the Fox and Friends Stamp Set, all from the new catalogue. I used Whisper White, Taken With Teal and Rose Red Cardstock and grosgrain ribbon in More Mustard and Chocolate Chip... the sentiment is from the Trendy Trees stamp set....

Am sorting out some storage in my craft area this weekend, yet again, I really need to organise my stamps better and my nestabilities.... I also have a load of stamps to sell so keep your eye on here if you love Magnolia, KatzelKraft, Sugar Nellie, Autumn Leaves and a few other stamps.... I am also selling a hardly used Scor Pal which I bought but wasn't sure I liked.

Have a great weekend all xx

Sneak Peak

2010-03-25T12:25:00.003Z

Stampin' Up! have a new mini catalogue coming out on 1st April and I thought I would show you a sneak peak of what is in there.....

The Patterned Paper I have used is the new Sweet Pea Paper Stack, you get 48 double sided sheets of thick paper, and they will all co-ordinate.... but most of all I love the Bird Punch.... don't you think this is just wonderful.... you get to punch out the branch, the bird and the wing... here I have made a card...

and here is the inside... I have used Chocolate Chip, Tempting Turquoise, Elegant Eggplant, So Saffron and Pale Plum Cardstock...

and I made some little co-ordinating bags which I am giving away to my customers who have recently placed an order with me... they are filled with lengths of ribbon....

And here is the whole set, so each customer gets a little thank you card and thank you gift..... If you would like to get your hands on a new Mini Catalogue just ask, and if you place an order who knows what lush little gift you may get enclosed with your order..... there will be another Mini Catalogue Sneak Peak tomorrow and on Sunday there will be a Mini Catalogue Blog Hop for you to go browse all the lush new stash.

Have a great afternoon all xxx and thanks to you all who left such kind comments yesterday or who emailed me, they are really appreciated.

Why?

2010-03-24T12:59:00.003Z

Why are people so cruel in guise of being a kind a helpful person..... this is our Great Dane on the day we got her, she became a valued member of our family, fitting in with our other dogs and cats.....

Unfortunately due to a freak accident when at a year old, she managed to damage our pugs eye and the pug had to have it removed, we had to keep them seperated whilst it healed. Unfortunately I then became worried that it might happen again and they became permanently seperated, and the Great Dane and Cocker Spaniel spent a lot of time in the garden or in the kitchen, but the children played outside and played with the dogs and had great fun together, the boys loved her. Although I must admit it did put paid to them having their big pool our last summer as we were worried she would put her claws through it, and we never had any big family bbqs, as we didn't want other members of the family being worried about the big dog hanging around them, but they were sacrifices worth making.

Unfortunately Faith didn't thrive too well during the winter last year and got skinny, we changed her food several times, wormed her kept her warm and eventually she gained the weight again. As you can see from this pictures she was a picture of health and looked so good last summer she could have won competitions with the way she stood, the size she was and her coat was so healthy.

This winter the same thing happened, again we wormed her, changed her diet, bought more blankets (they had a shed for warmth and dryness and came indoors when there was snow etc and at night time) but she was skinny. Our neighbours have a big problem with our pets, they complain about the sheer amount of cats we have and that they go in their garden (we have 5, only 4 go out of the house), he said that they bought a cat noise scarer and it worked and the cats stopped going in their garden but now the batteries have run out and so it doesn't work anymore.... they didn't like the fact that the dog sometimes jumped up at the fence in the summer when they were sitting out (bear in mind our garden was much quieter last year with no children screaming and jumping in the pool and no family and church bbqs) and so he complained to the RSPCA about the dog.... why could he not have come to us and we could have explained about this problem she had and that we were doing everything we could to sort it, but the children and I were so worried the RSPCA would come in and seize all the animals (although all the others look really healthy etc, it was just a paranoid fear as you hear all these stories)..... we spoke to the Great Dane Adoption Society and they said please, please do not let the RSPCA get hold of the Great Dane, and so for her safety, and to ensure the other animals were safe we had to say goodbye to her and take her to Lincolnshire to the Great Dane Adoption Society. They were really kind, they said she wasn't the skinniest dog they had every had, that is was quite common in Danes and they showed us some of the others that had gone in skinny.... but it was just so hard. Each day it just gets harder having left her there.... I used to sit with her in the garden sometimes and talk to her, she used to put her feet on my shoulders when I crouched down and kind of hugged me when I was sad.... I cried many tears watching her get thin and I looked forward to the day when she gained weight and we could go for our walks again....

Again, why are people so cruel, all it would have taken was a chat to us, I have never been rude when they have complained about the animals, I offered to buy them new batteries for their cat scarer, its not like we brought our animals into the area, I have lived here for 24 years, they have lived here for about 5, we had animals when they moved in....

And here is our final photograph, the boys with her just before they went to school and we had to take her on the long journey to her new home.....

I miss you Faith..... so much!!

Busy Busy Making Swaps....

2010-03-17T17:31:00.004Z

Well I have been really busy, but cannot show you what I have been making, I have made 30 swaps for my Stampin' Up! Training at Reading on Saturday, and I am also taking part in a swap on the forum ILWS, so have been busy making 15 swaps for that, but cannot show you what I have made until after the swapping is over, so I am fast running out of cards to show you.... lol

For this card I have used Barely Banana Cardstock and Chocolate Chip Cardstock from Stampin' Up!, the patterned paper is from the Green Stack, the sentiment is computer generated and the flowers and brad are from my stash.... I have also used the Martha Stewart Punch to punch out the leaves.

I haven't forgotten to announce the winners of the Colour Challenge, have just run out of time yesterday and today, today I spent all morning and then some having my hair done and this afternoon was making swaps... this evening I am out on a course, so fingers crossed I will be able to do it tomorrow. I will also be making something else I cannot show you tomorrow, but hopefully normal service will resume next week.... rofl. I have so many ideas buzzing around in my head, but I need to stick to specific things at the moment, so I hope they keep buzzing until next week at least.

Have a great evening everyone, take care xx

A Lovely Day..... thank you to my children...

2010-03-15T15:46:00.004Z

I just wanted to thank all my children who came to my house (or still live here) who made yesterday a great Mother's Day for me.... I got some gorgeous prezzies and my son and daughter in law made me a very large cake, it tastes absolutely gorgeous. Another son bought me a Mini Albums book that I wanted and a photo frame, and 2 of my other daughters bought me a Mad Hatter purse and notebook which I so desperately wanted, my son also bought a nice roast dinner that we cooked at home and another son supplied the dessert as I did not know about the big cake, we then visited my mum and delivered her card and a bottle of wine. It was my daughter's wedding anniversary also, and she also bought me a massive big bunch of flowers, really gorgeous, and we bought them a Slow Cooker for their present. It is also her birthday today and I have been there for lunch and then we popped to my sons place to see his new tattoo that he had done this morning, and guess what? I forgot to take photos of any of this.

So you are stuck with a card totally unrelated to any of the above..... lol

I used Rose Red and Taken With Teal Cardstock from Stampin' Up!, the patterned Paper is from the Green Stack and the flowers and bling are from my stash... nice and quick recipe today, just as well as I need to get on and make 30 swaps for Saturday when I am off for some Stampin' Up! Training... have a great evening all xx

Card Class.....

2010-03-12T17:15:00.005Z

I thought I would show you what we did at my Card Class this month... the ladies all decided last month that they would like to make a masculine card set this month after seeing my card...

But I thought that maybe the flowers were a bit feminine, so I designed a whole new set to make, and I think they all went down really well, everyone seemed pleased and no one found them too difficult.... Here is a photo of the whole set together....

We even made a little Treat Box, I learnt to do this at a day Monica held in Peterborough, I changed the colour etc, but it was not my template.

The colours I used for this was Elegant Eggplant, More Mustard and Always Artichoke... and a small circle of Really Rust.... the Feather image is from the Nature's Nest Stamp Set and the little leaf is from the Autumn Days Stamp Set... the patterned paper is To The Nine's Speciality Paper... the chocolate bar is now all mine.... he he he

This card used Spiced Cider Patterned Paper, Elegant Eggplant and More Mustard Cardstock and the ribbon is Always Artichoke 1/4" Grosgrain. Stamp Set as above... I used the pricking mat and template to make the holes in the cardstock...

Again for this card I used More Mustard and Elegant Eggplant, the patterned paper is To The Nines and the ribbon is 1/4" Elegant Eggplant Grosgrain.

This last card is an easel card, the patterned paper is from the Perfect Plum Patterned Paper set and everything else is as above....

My little grandson who is 23 weeks old was admitted to hospital again last night, this time the doctor seemed positive that he wouldn't be going home until they found out what was wrong, this included having a gastric team on standby at the Royal London Hospital... they observed him last night, did even more blood tests and today decided that maybe he is allergic to dairy products.... er hello, we said this to them 3 months ago.... anyway this meant that I got to have my 22 month old grandson yesterday evening.... what a shame!! ha ha So small grandson is now home, he has kept his last 3 bottles down apart from the normal baby sick and we have our fingers crossed that this is the problem and finally he will start to put on weight.... the doctors have said he will never be able to have dairy products and the baby milk they have given him is only available on prescription, but hopefully for now everything will be fine... thank you everyone who has asked about him.

Hope you all have a great weekend, and Mums that you have a really great Mother's Day.... (ooops still need to make my mum a card...) Take care all xx

Anniversary Card......

2010-03-11T16:16:00.004Z

This morning I had a Card Class and I think everyone enjoyed themselves, at least they said they did and they all managed to complete some wonderful cards... thank you very much ladies for coming... next months class is going to be made using the Greenhouse Garden Stamp Set, so cannot wait to get experimenting with that set. In the meantime it is my daughters 2nd Wedding Anniversary on Sunday (and it is also Mother's Day, I really need to do something about that too...). So have finally managed to make her and her hubby an Anniversary Card.

I used Perfect Plum, Rose Red and Pale Plum Cardstock with Whisper White for stamping on. The Heart and the Love image is from Love You Much Stamp Set. The heart was punched out using the new Big Heart Punch, it was smaller than the image so gave a really nice pattern on the heart. The Happy Anniversary sentiment is from the Cheers and Wishes Stamp Set, the ribbon is Elegant Eggplant Grosgrain. Oh yeah, the patterned paper is the To The Nines Speciality Patterned Paper. Think that is all....

I decorated the inside to match the front but this time used the Heart to Heart Punch to get the smaller heart shapes..... I hope they like it.

I will be back tomorrow, hopefully with a Mother's Day Card, and I am also going to put some more packs together to give away, but haven't yet managed to do that....

Have a great evening all, take care xx

A Male Card....

2010-03-10T15:37:00.004Z

Well after a truly awful day yesterday and a day of running around after other people today, I did finally manage to make a birthday card for my Son in Law..... my daughter has been warned not to go on my blog until after her birthday next Monday..... lol

Not good at making male cards at the best of times and definitely not when under stress, but I was quite pleased how this one came out, the colours look much better in real life. I used the Groom Speciality Patterned Paper and the Jackpot Patterned Paper from Stampin' Up! The cardstock is Basic Black, Real Red and So Saffron and the Stamp Set is Cheers to You and is awesome for making mens cards..... they always love a pint of beer.... lol The ribbon is More Mustard and the images were coloured in using my Copic Markers.

This is the inside of the card, all nicely matching and with the added benefit of a Martha Stewart Punch.

Have a great evening all, hopefully will be back tomorrow after my card class some time... take care all xx

Cards, Cards, Cards...

2010-03-09T14:51:00.005Z

Yep, another card, I dont make much else nowadays.....

Sentiment is from Verve Stamps, Patterned Paper is The Green Stack, cardstock is Tempting Turquoise and So Saffron from Stampin Up!... the "laughter" is a rub on from Stampin Up! Er... nothing much else to say, having a rather stressful day, even my new Stampin' Up! Stash hasn't lightened my mood unfortunately..... maybe a bar of chocolate.... lol

Have a great evening all xx

Cute Hamster - Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge

2010-03-08T16:01:00.004Z

It is my daughter's birthday next week , it is also my Son In Law's birthday and their anniversary, so 13th Son In Law's Birthday, 14th, their anniversary and 15th Daughter's birthday..... and then my sisters on 24th, so will be pretty busy this week making cards and I also have 2 card classes this week too.... anyway, I thought I would make my daughter's card using the Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge.

I used a digital image from Mo's Digital Pencil, isn't it just the cutest little hamster? I coloured with my copic markers as I have missed using them lately....

I used Stampin' Up! Kaleidescope Patterned Paper, strangely I didn't like these very much when I first saw them, but now I am loving them and could use them all the time, which I often do... ha ha. I also used Taken With Teal and Apricot Appeal, the little Sentiment is from a Saleabration Set which is no longer available and punched out using the Word Window Punch....

I also decorated the inside which I often do, using Taken With Teal Cardstock and Pixie Pink.... the papers are the same, the flowers are from my stash... Hope you like it...

Just an update on the girls bedroom, I have been sticking notes on their door each day with a small job to do each day, so far I have all their dirty washing and am finishing the last lot today, they have clean bedding, there is no dirty crockery and the floor is clear.... today one is clearing off her desk and the other will be sorting out 3 of the blue boxes.... so onwards and upwards, we do get some protesting, but they still seem to do it, so all going well so far...

Have a great evening all, take care xx

A Card To Get Over The Shock......

2010-03-05T16:06:00.004Z

Thought it was about time I showed you another card that I had made.... this is for my Church Order.....

The sentiment is computer generated, the Patterned Paper is from my Green Stack, and yes you guessed it I have used some Stampin' Up! stash, Real Red Cardstock, Gable Green Cardstock and Chocolate Chip Grosgrain Ribbon.... bling is from stash... as are the flowers...

Have a great weekend all and thanks for your comments on the girl's bedroom, I have been given some good advice from a fellow Stampin' Up! Demonstrator and I will be giving her ideas a go.... once daughter has already made a start, just need to see what second daughter says when she gets home from work experience....

Take Care xx

Hmmmmm, just a quick post... will be back later!!

2010-03-05T08:20:00.004Z

Please look away if you are of a nervous disposition, these pictures of my daughters' bedroom are a bit scary.....

The main problem I have is that a lot of money was spent on clothes which are thrown on the floor, never hung up, never put in the washing basket and the room stinks..... occasionally they will come downstairs with 2 loads of washing, which I refuse to do (I will wash their clothes if they are put in the washing basket alongside everyone else's for the daily wash). This has been going on for a couple of years, so now I refuse to my them any new clothes.... they both have part time jobs and are able to fund their own clothes buying...... am I being unreasonable in not buying them clothes to screw up and throw on the floor to be trampled underfoot...? and believe me this happens to newly purchased clothes too, the clothes my daughter bought last weekend are under this pile somewhere.

Yes you can see dirty mugs and empty pot noodle pots.... normally I collect any washing up I can find each day, not sure when that mug crept in.... the pot noodle pot I would leave for them to tidy.

Anyway, last week for two days solid my daughter (she is nearly 17) kept on an on and on (I am sure this would be called mental and emotional abuse if I had done the same to her) telling me I wasn't a proper mother as I didn't buy her clothes. It was my right to look after her and buy her clothes otherwise I was failing as a mother and am useless.... is this true?

Today I have found out that I used to run a t-shirt business and printed t-shirts.... I still have the machine and a stock of T-shirts.... well did have a stock of t-shirts.... she has been helping herself to all my small white t-shirts as she needs a clean white one for her work experience... each day she works.... she worked a whole week a fortnight ago and 2 days this week, she has never put a single white t-shirt in the wash, so that is 7 new white t-shirts she has taken from my stock without asking.... if she had asked I would have given her a couple (I wash most days, so she would always have had a clean one).....

Now I have her dad (my ex) telling me the money he gives me for the children is obviously not being spent on the children and that I am using it to fund my lifestyle.... (er what lifestyle, we are in debt to a ridiculous amount?!) when the 3 older children go to visit their dad once a week on a Friday, me, hubby and 2 younger boys eat beans on toast so that we can provide a proper meal for the others every other day of the week..... I am not looking after the children properly if I refuse to buy them clothes etc etc..... so, I would welcome any comments please because I am obviously doing something wrong and reacting over the top to what is reasonable where teenagers are concerned.... oh yes, just to add daughter spends her EMA each week (the part she doesn't spend on bus fares) on sausages and ice-cream and then complains that she just doesn't have enough to buy clothes. She also has a paper round which she can do 3 times a week, but normally is too busy watching tv to do it and gets her 13 year old brother to do it instead, so he obviously gets paid for it....

Anyway, rant over, I feel like a failure and would appreciate some feedback please, positive or negative, but please put it kindly any abusive emails will be deleted.... email to LindaLloyd@gmx.net. Thank you.

Giveaway Wednesday.....

2010-03-03T07:09:00.004Z

Just a quick post this morning as I am going to watch my 7 year, Malachi's assembly, and then straight from their I am taking my 9 year old, Elijah to the hospital as he has an appointment with the consultant there, fingers crossed they will dishcarge him today as it is not our local hospital and a bit of a trek to get there.... then this afternoon, well, it is total house blitz ahead of my card class tomorrow.... lol. I do clean and tidy my house daily but am always paranoid when people come around incase they can smell my cats and dogs, so splash loads of bleach and cleaning stuff around.....

Oh yes, you are wondering why I am here waffling..... well I have another giveaway as shown below, the first person to comment will win it and if it is early I may even get it in the post later this afternoon (depends how long we are at the hospital for, last time is was just over 4 hours)....
Your comments won't show until I authorise them, so you may think you are first when you aren't, sorry about that, but I will email you or post in the appropriate post if you have won, so look out for that if you think you are first.

Have a great day, cya all later xx

Tackle it Tuesday - Colour Challenge #4

2010-03-02T14:34:00.005Z

Hi everyone, well today is the day that I make the draw for Colour Challenge #3. Thank you for the entries that I have had, it is great to see everyone's interpretations of the colours... I have used Random.Org to select a number and the winner is.....

Vanessa

Thank you very much everyone for taking part. I little something will be winging its way to you as soon as you let me know your address.

Now onto the next Colour Challenge which is #4. These are the colours I have chosen this fortnight.....

Now I know they look quite random, but I have made a card using these colours and I think it looks very good....

I have used the Kaleidescope Patterned Paper which has the Apricot Appeal Colour in it, I then covered a Chipboard Flower in more patterned paper from this set. The card blank is made using Certainly Celery Cardstock and the paper is backed with Pixie Pink and Tempting Turquoise.... the Thanks So Much sentiment is from the Trendy Trees stamp set and fits perfectly in the Word Window Punchout... I stamped the card blank with the little flower from the Level 1 Hostess Set Darling Dots with Versamark Ink so that it didn't give it too much colour.... all these items are from Stampin' Up! You didn't think I could manage not making a card from Stampin' Up! stash 2 days in a row did you.... lol

And here is the inside, again I used all the same stash as I did for the front, except I used a Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch......

Have a good day folk and I will be back tomorrow with another little freebie for the first comment left here.... have a great evening all xx

A Copic Coloured Birthday Card .....

2010-03-01T14:52:00.008Z

The winner of todays giveaway is Amanda Boldy... well done Amanda for being first person to comment on my blog.

Please check back regularly for more freebies...

I always seem to be making cards for something, not just for the pleasure of making cards, so today I thought I would do what I wanted to do, which was colour in using my Copic Markers as I haven't used them in such a long time... I bought this image from Mo's Digital Pencil as my daughter asked me to make a card for a 1st Birthday...

I used papers from my stash, and the border is the new Punch Around The Page Border from Martha Stewart, I didn't realise when I first got it that the cardstock had to be a certain size, but I guess it makes sense, so noted down all the sizes I could make and it worked out brilliantly, so will definately be using this some more from now onwards.

The Cardstock is Brilliant Blue and Whisper White from Stampin' Up! (you didn't think I could make a whole card without using some Stampin' Up! did you?) and I also used a sentiment from the no longer available Saleabration Set Happy Moments and punched it out using the Word Window Punch. the 1 is from a set of Thickers I have had like forever, and the "st" are from a set I bought a couple of weeks ago.... are they Papermania?

Here is a close up of the image I coloured.... I must admit I did enjoy using my Copics again...

and here is the inside.... again using the same stash as I did for the front....

And I thought I would have a little giveaway.... so a couple of Stampin' Up! images from the Nursery Necessities Stamp Set, some of the paper from my stash, Cardstock in Brilliant Blue and Real Red and Stars cut using the same card stock using the Stampin' Up! Star Punch. There is also some Stampin' Up! Ribbon thrown in for good measure and a few buttons also...... phew.. is that it? I think so. Be the first to leave a comment on this post and I will get this little set in the post to you, unfortunately I can only post to UK, sorry.

Have a great evening all, take care xx