Manic Monday

I have so much homework to do I don't know where to start.  Not that I'm complaining as it's all paper and glue.  I was at a barbecue yesterday, so I'm having to try and get as much done today as possible.  So much so that I left Wales at 6am to get home!

As it's magazine work and new releases I'm working on I can't share just yet but what I can share is some more recently published magazine work.  These cards were published in Cardmaking & Papercraft for 6 cards made with one stamp.  I loved the challenge of this commission.  It was great thinking or different ways to use the same stamp. The stamp was from Hobbycraft and all the papers were from an 8" x 8" paper pad from Making Memories.

This first one I just stamped onto plain card and cut round the flower.  I'm entering this one into the challenge at:

Allsorts - Park inspiration

For this card I used fusible fibres on the stamp.  I love the texture you get in the flower.  This one is going into the challenge at:

Twisted sketches - sketch #22 - edge

I turned the sketch 90 degrees

Here's the last one for today.  I stamped the image with versamark before chalking over it to bring out the detail.  I'm entering this one into the challenges at:

2 Sketches 4 You - Kazan's sketch #60 - I turned this one 90 degrees

CRAFT - milestone birthdays/anything goes - I'm going somewhere in between, it's birthday but not a big one.

It's lovely having an extra day off.  Steve's away at a stag do, so it's been me, the TV and craft all day - bliss.  I hope you've had a great bank holiday too.

xxx

Super Saturday

A lovely way to start a Saturday is cuddled up on your friends sofa with one of her little people giving you a squeeze.  I headed home after lunch as I've got lots of homework to do - magazine work and preparation for a new launch ;-)  So although I've been busy card making I can't share those with you just yet but I can share the rest of the cards that were made for Papercraft Essentials.   This first one I'm putting forward for the challenge at:
Get Sketchy - sketch #53

CPS - sketch #182
One stop craft challenge - how sentimental

Another thing that made me smile today was making the top 3 at The Crafty Pad.  Thank you.

Good night and sleep well.
xxx

Busy but happy

I've been in a product development meeting all day today.   A long but very productive day and lots of fabulous new things planned for the next 12 months and beyond :D

It meant that there wasn't much time for crafting today but it did mean I got to spend the night at my friends again and aslo can share these cards with you that were recently in Papercraft Essentials.  They were all on the theme of shaker style but in bright colours.  I used papers from My Minds Eye and lots of gingham ribbon and buttons.
To get perfect bows with both tails at the back try using a bow maker.  I use the one that's on the Ultimate Pro from Crafter's Companion.

I'm entering this one into challenges at:

Daring Cardmakers - Thinking of you

Cute Card Thursday - No punches or dies

This card is being entered into these challenges:
Totally Papercrafts - Plain & Simple
Charisma Cards - hot, hot, hot - I used hot colours

This card is being entered into the challenge at:
Dutch Dare Challenges - vintage summer
The hearts were cut with my Slice.

I hope you're looking forward to the Bank Holiday.  I know I am.
xxx

Colour Me Crazy

Today I went to work and learned to colour in! I told you I had the best job in the world. We had some Copic training today which was great to learn some new things (the brush end of the Ciao pens has a grey rim around it - trust me it made my day!) and you can colour your hair with hem - yes I was the guinea pig. It was also great to know that what I'd already taught myself was going in the right direction.

Jayne & Sara

After work, although I don't think you can really call it that, I went to stay with my lovely friend Debbie and we snuck out to go and get some dinner and ended up at Wethersponns.  As it's Thursday night it was curry all round.  Debbie didn't eat all this we shared the plate on the right!  But she is looking lovingly at it!

As always we managed to fit in a trip to Tesco and were more impressed by the kids books than the clothes.  When did we Timewarp back to the 80's!  Shoulder pads, leather trosers, culottes, ra-ra skirt, suede boots, gold in everything!

We were that putstanded by the clothes we even took some photos!

So clothes wise the only thing that landed in the basket were some very pink babygros for gorgeous little Evie.

We did manage some cutting out tonight but I can't share that just yet.  But I do hace a card that was published in Quick Cards made easy.  It's all made on the Ultimate Pro along with the sweet treats embossing board from Crafter's Companion.  I'm entering it into the challenge at:

Meljen's Designs - Happy birthday

A good day all round

xxx

Back to Work

Not much time for anything today as there's lots to catch up on at work.  Lots of exciting things so I'm happy to be back.

I did have time for just one card, inspired by challenges at:

Twisted sketches - sketch #21, staple - I'm not a big fan of staples on my cards (I like them on other peoples!) so insted I used gems which are a staple in my crafting stash

 Chicken Soup - recipe #8 - I found the trigger a tough one this week but went with clean and simple text in bright colours

Stamp with Fun - card for a girl

Nearly all the supplies were from this months Scrap-a-gogo Greeting kit.  I'm really loving the colours this month.

So now I'm off to pack my bags and my Copics as I'm off to the office tomorrow morning.

xxx

Home Sweet Home

We landed back at Gatwick this morning, although remind me not to fly with BA again.  The whole entertainment system failed, they managed to get most people on a single video but I had nothing at all to watch all the way home and to be honest the flight crew looked like it happened all the time, so really weren't interested!  Anyway the journey home in the car was fine and let's be honest I slept for most of that!

After we popped to see Steve's Mum we got home but the great thing about staying in a house while your away is that you can do your washing as you go along, so you don't hace loads to do when you get home.  The up side of that is that you can make a couple of cards with a kit that's been delivered when you were away.  So with this months Scrap-a-Gogo Greetings kit I made a couple of cards.  This first one was inspired by challenges at:

Dutch Dare Challenges - Tamara's sketch

Tuesday Taggers - inspired by a poem

Flutterby,

Buttefly,

Floating flower

in the sky.

Kiss me with your

Petal wings

Whisper secrets

Tell of Spring

I'm loving these big Prima butterflies.  I probably would never have treated myself to them but as they're in the kit they feel like they're free.

This second one was inspired by challenges at:

Inspiration Card Sketches - sketch #80

Papertake Weekly - recipe 3-2-1, 3 stickers, 2 gems and 1 ribbon

Ooh la la - elegant ladies

So I'd better get an early night as it's back to work in the morning.

xxx

Leaving Loviness

Today we're leaving Nokomis, Florida, to head to Tampa for our flight back to the UK.  I love being on holiday so much that it's always sad when it comes to an end.

But to cheer me up, I've won a prize over at Meljen's Designs, so I get to go and choose 3 images as my prize.  Thank girls.

Before we tidied the house and packed I managed to make a couple of cards and catch a couple more episodes of Law & Order.  This card was inspired by challenges at:
Clean & Simple - FTL #104
Cupcake Craft - Blue and green
I used some more of my gorgeous Papertrey Ink supplies and some Making Memories buttons.  I'm loving the blue and green together.

My last card until I get home was inspired by the challenge at:
Card Patterns - Sketch #78
The papers and die cut  are from Le Chateau 6 x 6 pad from Kaiser - these little pads go a long, long way.

It wouldn't be the last day of our holiday if I didn't have some food to share with you!  Today we found an amazing burger bar, called Five Guys, where you got to choose all your own toppings and the fries were like chips - fantabulous.

I've kept up with my steps whilst we've been away but normal Slimming World eating will be immediately reintroduced on my return home.  I'd better pack up my laptop and get ready to board my  flight, unless there's time for a last snack!!
Goodbye Florida.

xxx

Complete Chillout

As today was our last full day we spent it just chilling out at the house.  I think we'd done so much earlier in the week we just needed to chill.  Although the weather was a little iffy we decided to head to Siesta Key to see if the drum circle was on and it was.  As we were there early we got to see the opening dancing and I even got a flower for my hair.  As it began to rain we decided to head into town and for some dinner.

We headed for the Hub and had a great dinner.  We started with the nachos as an appetizer as well as it being gorgeous it was huge!

Fish tacos for Steve and grilled talapia for me to follow -yum.

As it had been a relaxing day I've made a couple of cards:

This first one was inspired by challenges at:

Sweet Stampin Challenge - sketch #40

Saturday challenge - blue and cream

This next card was inspired by the challenge at:

Get Sketchy - sketch #52

Most of the supplies for this card are from the Kaiser Craft Le Chateau 6 x 6 pad - can you tell it's my new favourite.

This last one was inspired by challenges at:

Allsorts - minature 3"

The Crafty Pad - 1 Circle, 2 Squares and 3 Brads or Buttons

Get Sketchy - sketch #52 - I loved the sketch so much I had to use it again but this time turned it 180 degrees.

Back to my Papertrey Ink goodies for this one.

In the morning I'll have to pack up my crafting goodies along with my clothes and get back to reality!  Don't worry I'll still enjoy every moment that's left of my holiday.

So "Cheers" as I raise yet another glass of White Zinfandel.

xxx

Goodbye and Good Day

We said goodbye to Jo and Ian this morning as they are going home but first Steve had to have a quick sit in the Mustang.

So we didn't miss them too much we headed towards Nokomis and Pelican Alley for lunch.  We both started with a cup of seafood chowder, totally yummy

I then had the prawns, scallop and squid in red pepper alfredo sauce over linguine and Steve had Baked Bayou Casserole with rice.  There wasn't much left on our plates.

We weren't going to have dessert but having talked to the waitress it appeared we had ordered a portion of key lime pie!  I'm sorry that's there only a photo of half of it, but we attacked it before I could get the camera out!

We then drove up to St Armands Circle for a wander around the shops.  As there was a Brighton shop there, I came away with a new key fob, featuring 5 hearts and a T-shirt.  On the way back we passed a great sculpture, it's called "Unconditional Surrender" and is 26 foot high!

So with a day filled with food we bought a rack of ribs for dinner, that Steve cooked in the oven before finishing the on the BBQ.  Look at least there's a bit of salad on my plate!

Then it was time to relax with a glass of White Zinfandel and make a couple of cards whilst watching Waterboy on the TV.   This card was inspired by challenges at:
ICS - Sketch #79
Daring Cardmakers - material girl - my card was inspired by my new T-shirt.  I've used the swirl on the main image and also on the layers underneath.

This card was inspired by challenges at:
Charisma Cardz - die cuts
Crazy 4 challenges - sketch #51 
For this card I used another 6" x 6" paper pad from Kaiser, this time it's the Le Chateau Collection.  It's filled with 24 papers, then there's speciality papers that include flocking and vinyl finish and 4 sheets die cuts.

I also had a message from the fabulous Katina Killey, if ever you've bought a UK cardmaking magazine you've probably seen her gorgeous work.  We were buddies on Beautiful Cards and it was great to receive a lovely blog award from her today.

This does mean that I can now pass this award on to 7 people who have lovely blogs, pop over and see what gorgeous things they make.

Debbie
Katie
Jane
Jo
Leann
Nets 
Soo 

So although we started the day with a goodbye we still had a good day.
I hope you had a good day too.
xxx

Cards and Cocktails

Today was chill out day, mainly due to the fact that a rather large amount of alcohol had been consumed by all of us last night.  It did mean I got to make a couple of cards.  This one was inspired by challenges at:

Stamp with fun - sketch # 72

Meljen's Designs - brown, teal and orange

Stampin' for the Weekend - anything goes 
Embellish - quirky, cute, clean style in seafoam, kraft, peach and cream

This one is made with a mixture of supplies from Papertrey Ink and the little Lush paper pack from Kaisercraft. 

This one was inspired by challenges at:

Tuesday Taggers - messing about in boats

Totally Papercrafts - Summer Fun 

It was made with bits left over from the ruffle rainbow card I made earlier in the week.  I love using scraps up.

We managed to gather enough energy to go out at night and headed into downtown Sarasota.  We wanted to go somewhere a little bit special as it was our last night with Jo & Ian.  We spent the evening at Ceviche, where we started the evening on the roof top terrace with a cocktail or two.

We then went downstairs where we had fabulous tapas and an amazing paella.  Our server Dave was great fun and looked after us and even got our British sense of humour.

Even the drive home was fun - it was so warm we still had the roof down on the car even though it was dark outside. 

We did try to have a drink when we got back but generally we all just fell asleep, so headed off to bed.  Thanks for a great week Jo & Ian - we love you lots.

xxx

Busch Gardens

Steve and I got up early this morning and headed off to Busch Gardens.  We didn't have breakfast before we left as yet again we'd bought the tickets that included food - I'm seeing a pattern here!  So the first thing we did when we arrived was have breakfast.  The wheels have completely fallen off the diet wagon and will not be put back on now until we're home!  So it was french toast for me - I did have some strawberries so it must be a little bit good for me!

Although it was hot (96 degrees Fahrenheit) we stayed there all day and had an absolute blast.  There were hardly any queues so we got on all the big rides.  My favourite was Sheikra  - after a 200 foot climb, this cunning coaster takes you just over the edge of a true 90-degree drop. And stops. For 4 seconds, you find yourself looking down - straight down - at the ground below as you're held suspended above it.

Then, you plunge straight toward the ground, racing at speeds of more than 70 miles per hour. An Immelmann loop and a second vertical dive into an underground tunnel end.

 We kept cool with all the water fans that were about.

Even walking between the rides is great as there's all the animals to see.  It's quite weird seeing giraffe, with a rollercoaster in the background!

We spotted the gorillas just as we were leaving for the day.

We had to have one last snack before we left!  When you have the eat as much as you like option, you're obliged!!

 We had a relaxing night in and watched the Hangover and I made a card and a matching tag, all with my Papertrey Ink supplies, inspired by challenges at:

A Spoonful of Sugar - Christmas in August

Papertake Weekly - Sketch Challenge #46

The ABC Challenge - B is for Blue

Caardvarks - Christmas Tags and Minis
Creative Card Crew - Sparkle and Shine

Thanks for popping by.

xxx