Follow your dreams...

Hello all - I hope that your week has been going well?  I've had a mixed week really - it's been lovely having our daughter home for a few days, so plenty of girly chat, lunch out, etc.  But I've also had a rather poorly Grumpy Poppy the Cat to deal with.  She was diagnosed with kidney disease over 2 years ago, and has stayed pretty stable on medication. But she seems to have suffered something of a rapid downturn this week, hasn't been eating or drinking and has had a couple of visits to the vet. I'm not sure how much more they can do, but she may well pick up a bit again. I just wish I could get some food into her - but she's always been a stubborn madam!  Thankfully she doesn't seem to be in any pain, and I'm hoping that she'll improve a bit. We've to take her back to the vets again shortly - at the moment she's laid out in some sunshine in the garden so I'll have to sneak up on her with the cat basket and prepare to do battle!

Sadly my daughter has headed back down south on the train, so as a consolation I've been playing with my craft stuff and got a new card to share

I've used a gorgeous digi stamp from Mo Manning, coloured with copics

The backing papers and sentiment stamp are from LOTV, with some added stitching. I've also added a Memory Box tree die cut and the Doo Hickey fence die cut. 

I quite like the soft colours on this - but it's hard to go wrong with the cute images. 

The card will be going on sale in my Etsy shop.

I'm hoping for some 'blog time' over the weekend to catch up with what everyone is up to.

You may also have noticed the link on the sidebar - I've joined the world of Twitter (assisted by my daughter lol!) and I'd love to know if any of you are also on twitter. Please let me know and I can 'follow' you! 

Back soon,

Kim x 

A 'special friend' card !

Hello all - hope you're having a good weekend?  Not too busy here thankfully!  I've had a busy week and so it's nice to have a more relaxed weekend, chance to 'chill' a little bit and recharge the batteries before I'm back at work on Monday!  My youngest son has now finished school - well, gone onto study leave and going in for exams.  I can't believe that my "baby" is now sitting his GCSE exams and will shortly be going into the Sixth Form at school!  The years just seem to fly by!  I know he thinks he's all grown up, and admittedly he does tower over me a bit (I'm 5'4" on a good day, with a following wind, if I stand up straight, and he's now about 6'1" not to mention the added height from the natty hairdo!) but to me he'll always be the baby of the family lol!  It's quite scary sometimes when we look at our offspring and see them with jobs, homes, etc., - surely that can't be right? I'm still 21 inside!  Lol!

Anyway, as I had chance to have a relax this afternoon, I made a cute card using one of my favourite LOTV stamps (well, I love them all really)

I've coloured the stamp with a mixture of copics, Graphit and promarker pens

The papers are from LOTV, as are the sentiment tags. I've added some die cut flowers using the DooHickey doily flower die, with pearl centres, and finished with some stitching.

And the inside has been decorated to match! 

Hope you like it.  I was quite pleased with the colours, I think they work well together. 

I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend, whatever you have planned.  And I hope that we all have a little Spring sunshine! 

Back soon,

Kim x

I've added this card to my Etsy shop - HERE

Adding Texture

Yes, I'm back again - and it's time for a new challenge over at CraftyCatz!  And guess who's chosen the theme for this week? Yes, it's yours truly!  So, as I always enjoy adding lace, ribbons, twine, etc., to my creations I picked the theme of 'Add Texture'!

We're sponsored this week by The Stamp Fairy, and I've used one of their images for this creation. 

I've coloured him with promarkers and added stickles to the snow - not sure what I'd do without stickles on my Christmas creations lol! 

The backing paper is from LOTV 'KraftyChristmas'. I've added some glittery netting and the fence is made using Doo Hickey die. The sentiment is from LOTV. The snowflakes were made with a Tonic punch and a bit of added bling. The white satin ribbon is from my stash and the cute wooden star button is from CraftyEmblies. 

So have a rummage in your stash for all your lace, fabrics, twine, etc., and then join us at CraftyCatz! 

Kim x 

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:-

Fab'n'Funky - diecuts/punches

DeepOceanChallenge - sporty&outdoors

DieCuttinDivas - anything goes

EurekaStamps - buttons & bows

In The Garden - JS Design Team

Good morning all and what a lovely way to start a new week! Blustery winds & driving rain! Sigh.
Hope that your weekend went well and that you have some nice things to look forward to this week?
Just a quick post from me today you'll be pleased to know - after the long rambling one yesterday lol!
A few weeks ago there was a DT call over on the Joanna Sheen Challenge Blog and so I thought I would give it a try. And I'm thrilled to report that I have been shortlisted to the final 12 from which 3 new DT members will be chosen. When I first started paper crafting (a fair few years ago now...) the first website I ordered from was Joanna's - and still do on a regular basis! I have collected quite a few of her cd's and love all the ribbon supplies, embellies, etc., and swear by the Elegance Satin card for stamping and colouring - works so well with promarkers, etc.

Anyway, onto the card! All the prospective DT members were sent some images & papers to work with from the JaneShasky 'heart of the garden' cd- a decoupage project! - so completely out of my comfort zone! I'm definitely more of a stamps & colours sort of girl! We could use plain cardstock & any die cuts we wished, but to keep to the JS images & papers. So this is what I came up with!

I decided to make an easel style card, as I thought it fitted the image and layout quite nicely

I used an A5 pearl card base, with coredinations card for matting and layering. I added the Memory Box 'arboscello tree' die cuts with the DooHickey 'lovely fence' which I sanded back slightly to give a 'weathered' look (and most of our garden is definitely on the 'weathered' side today lol!).  I've also added some Marianne 'ivy' die cuts and a Memory Box 'buckle' which has been coated with Glossy Accents.  The sheer ribbon is from Joanna Sheen and the small flowers are from WOC. The watering can was from my stash in amongst my cross stitching paraphenalia, but I was so pleased I found it as it just fitted in nicely! 

I only used 3 layers of the decoupage as I'm personally not too keen on the very raised images, but I did love the subtle shades on these papers. 

Sorry, bit of an overload of pics there, but I hope you like the finished product! 

All the projects from the shortlist are on the JS Challenge Blog HERE and there are some fantastic creations! There isn't a 'vote' as such, but the Design Team are looking for comments and opinions about the projects and will base their final choice on that. So I do hope that you will pop over and have a look at the creations - and if you liked my card I do hope that you'll be able to add a positive comment for me to the challenge blog! (I'd never make a politician - I feel so uncomfortable asking for votes lol!).

I know that they will have received many applications to be part of the DT and I'm delighted to have been shortlisted! So do go across and have a look at all the work. And thank you so much for all your support! It's only from the positive & supportive comments I receive on my craft creations on here that I've had the confidence to try other things - so a big thank you! 

Back soon, Kim x