Hand Crafted Memories

I know it looks like I haven't been doing much but believe me I've done tons! Sorry but you can't see any of it, its all top secret. I can give you a clue, I took delivery of a box of goodies from Craftwork Cards , it was choc full of yumminess! Check out some of the other design team blogs, you can see how tight lipped they are, we're all on the same mission and it was one I accepted with both hands.  To keep you all happy until the reveal, here is a sketch challenge from Craftwork Cards and here is my card, do you love those Vintage Rose papers as much as me?  Go ahead give it a go, there's a great prize in store. Go here for the details.

Here was another opportunity to combine two challenges. Daring Cardmakers are looking for layers on the card, they are sponsored this week by Teri's Delicious Doodles .  Allsorts are looking for a baby or child's card and they are sponsored by wink wink . No excuses needed to use my favourite from Craftwork Cards , their colour me ovals , although these are not on the website, I know they have them in stock. Contact them if you want some. I also like to pair of cards if I'm making them for my stock, that way all bases are covered when the new little one arrives.   

It's kind of weird making Christmas cards with scorching weather outside. This week I've combined two challenges for this card. Winter Wonderland have a yummy sketch challenge and Penny Black Saturday Challenge are using the theme Christmas in July .Of course my favourite Penny Black snowman stamp had to come out again.Here is the sketch Here is my card.

Last Sunday the challenge from Madeline over at the Sunday Creative Challenge was traditional. There's a lot of tradition in the UK but one thing for sure is fish and chips by the sea. Unfortunately I wasn't by the sea but here are my fish and chips. I had the chance with this lovely weather to sit in the garden with them and use my lovely new lens, I'm really loving this purchase. Have you seen the fantastic blog candy Brenda has on offer at Floral Fantasies , she has a guess where I am theme running during her holiday. Go over and have a go, she has put so much work into this with great prizes, I'm so jealous of her holiday.

I flit between scrapbooking and cardmaking like a butterfly. I've recently had a run of card making but during my week off I did a bit of scrapbooking again. I'm following Shimelle Laine 's Document 2010 project on UK Scrappers . Over the months this is developing into a fabulous record of this year, good and bad events. I know it will become a treasure in the future. These are the pages I've made to record June in my world.

Don't you love it when a plan comes together? Don't you love it even more when there isn't a plan, you just start messing and it still comes together? Yeh! me too, that's exactly what happened here.

I haven't bought any new stamps in a while, I have hundreds and they don't get used anywhere near as much as they should. On Saturday I spotted this lovely stamps and just had to have it. Its well documented that I need lots of ideas for male cards and this one is going to fit the bill perfectly. It was so easy I just used my sepia Marvy Le Plume pen and then dragged the colour into the image. I haven't used these pens since I got my Copics , but they were perfect for this card.

I had a great day on Saturday, Craftwork Cards had a day of summer fun. We made a total of five cards, using the Vintage Rose and Blossom collections. I also spied some of the lovely products that will be launched for Christmas, watch this space, because I will definatly be having some of that, it is gorgeous. Here are the cards we made, not althoug it is my work the designs are all from the desk of Julie Hickey . Everything on these cards can be purchased from Craftwork Cards.

My friend had a new grand daughter arrive a couple of weeks ago, so I made her a nappy cake and card. For some reason I forgot to post it. I'm getting quite a reputation for the nappy cakes now, I have to say I love making them and they are always gratefully received. I love this image from an old Woodware set that I have. I have had it for so long it is yellow but still stamps beautifully.

I posted recently that I had won a prize over at the Penny Black Saturday Challenge with this card. I received my prize this week and it was one of those stamps you have to do something with immediately. It's not really my normal style of stamp but I love it. Here is the card. Thank you to the Penny Black Saturday Challenge Team, I love it!

The challenge over at Winter Wonderland this week is Glittery Angels and at Christmas Stamping it is to bling it up .  I've made so many cards using red, white and blue that I have decided to go with a different colour combination. I also didn't want to use predictable Christmas colours, so here I go with greens & blues. Unfortunately the photo doesn't show the glittering angel, I used a Brilliance inkpad and stardust embossing powder on her. I also edged each of the matts with stickles. I have often said we need a camera that shows the glitter, this one really sparkles, even the green card base is pearlesent.

Where did this week go? I had great plans to achieve all sorts this week and here we are on Friday already. I think when I speak to the police about the stolen 24 years I need to mention this week as well! Daring Cardmakers have set We are Sailing as the challenge this week, the Design Team have come up with some lovely cards. I have used my current favourite red, white and blue theme, it does suggest nautical or patriotic whenever it is used. Hope you like it.

Well its happened, today I turned 50! I feel like phoning the police because last week I was 26, somebody has stolen 24 years from me! Seriously it hasn't bothered me, I have this week off work and nothing planned for today but I'm happy with that. I can craft all day and contemplate life. A parcel was delivered to me yesterday and I was out so I'm kind of stuck until they bring it back today (or not as is their habit!). I am expecting a visitor this afternoon from my best friends daughter in law. She is collecting a canvas I've made for her daughters bedroom. Its not commissioned work, I offered to make it because she wanted a picture for the wall. This is what I came up with, I hope she likes it.

I'll be back a little later with a crafting project but I wanted to let everybody I could know about a scam currently going on. Last month I had a call from somebody with a very heavy Indian accent claiming that he was calling me from a Microsoft partner. He had noticed that my computer was running slowly and this was because I had a virus.  I knew immediately this was a scam and started to question where he had got my details from. I do as much as I can for my own security, I ALWAYS tick the box on any paperwork to say I don't want contacting, I subscribe to the telephone preferential service , so there are no calls from withheld numbers (mainly call centres use this). Anybody who needs to contact me from a withheld number has my mobile and then I can choose whether to take it or not. I NEVER enter competitions where they need my e-mail address and telephone number, NEVER send for catalogues and so on. I am on the shortened electoral role where my details are not available to

A quick catch up with the Sunday Creative Challenge, the prompt for this week is connect . There were many things that could have fallen into this category but I have chosen a picture of a mobile phone. What did we do before we had them? I have to confess to hating them, nothing annoys me more than a phone ringing either with a call or text during a conversation. Even worse when the person just takes the call, how rude! I don't use mine very often but as much as I hate them I am lost if I go out without one.I somehow feel vulnerable, even if I don't use it, there's a feeling of security in having it there. Here is my photo for this week.

They think its all over, it is now! As the world cup finished last weekend, Craftwork Cards are holding their last sketch challenge, as always there is a fabulous prize on offer. Go here to see what the design team have created. Just make your card based on this sketch when you've got the card just e-mail a photo to info@craftworkcards.com. Here are two that I made for the challenge. I'm loving the Vintage Rose papers the colours are gorgeous.

I had the most fabulous day yesterday. I got the spend the whole day with Kirsty Wiseman, yes THE Kirsty Wiseman . I arrived very late (about 1 and half), I'd gone with the AA directions and my goodness they took me up hill and down dale. I eventually got there and she was extremely gracious about it. We gt a coffee and headed of into her craft space, well that was it I could have stayed in there to play all day. It is a great space and packed, I mean packed with delicious goodies, but that's not what I was there for. I had booked a day with Kirsty to learn more about my camera. I have a Canon EOS 400D , which had never been out of automatic. Well whats the point of that? Kirsty has coached me off using my automatic and I am now semi automatic/manual AAAGGH! it is a bit scary but I just now need to practice. I have my camera ready and I'm off to do a little bit of shopping and then I am calling at the park on the way home to 'have a go'! The morning was full of tech

I'm so excited that I just can't hide it! Today I have an appointment, any guesses?  I'll have to keep you in suspense until tomorrow, but I am so looking forward to today. While you are guessing have a look at this sketch. This is the challenge set by Penny Black Saturday Challenge for this week, it didn't take me long to decide what to do. I have to say I find the sketch challenges the easiest, its probably because that's one of my favourite methods of getting my scrapbook pages going. I also decided to use bright summer colours that were suggested for the Penny Black at Allsorts Challenge .This looks like its gearing up to be a great challenge blog, with some fabulous prizes on offer. Here is the card I came up with, there's no greeting on it because sometimes you need a card for no reason at all!   Edited to add: Forgot to link this to the challenge. Learn from my mistake and always link if you've entered a challenge. I only just made it.

This week the the challenge over at Winter Wonderland is titled Twas the night before Christmas . I had so much fun with this one. A few years ago I started to collect the stamps for the poem from Clarity Stamps . When I had the full set I made loads of little books to give out as Christmas cards. I made another of the little books yesterday and really enjoyed all the colouring. I am also entering this into the free challenge over at Christmas Stamping. Hope you like it.

I'm not really missing, I have just had a couple of busy days. I went out with my friends from work yesterday to celebrate my friend Vicky's and my birthday. I didn't come home until 2 this morning. SO not like me but we had a lovely evening and the weather was perfect so nobody wanted to go home.I was driving so no drink was involved but my goodness today I am shot! I checked the blogs for challenges this morning and I've done it again, I have won one of the prizes over on Penny Black Saturday Challenge with this card . I'm doing well at the moment, its not the fact that I get anything more that people actually like my work. So for all my craft followers I'll post a couple of cards that I absolutely cased from Paula Pascual . I hold my hands up they are NOT my idea, but when I saw her version here I fell in love with it. Paula does the most beautiful work, very simple in design but with huge Wow factor, if you don't know her already you have to go and che