Sunday, 28 November 2010

Blog Candy Update

Hi Everyone

Just a quick post from me. Welcome to Melissa, Pami (a new team mate over at MAWTT),  Michelle and Katy, it is lovely to see you as new followers and I have passed the 100 post - amazing in less than 12 months of blogging - thankyou to all my following friends

I have just checked on the comments for my blog candy as we are one week away from the draw. 15 people have left comments, 14 are followers and 5 have put my candy on their side bars (I can't see posts on the other blogs), so 5 people are eligible for the draw. Please let me know if you have posted and you think I haven't seen it. I want everyone who thinks they are taking part to be sure they are.

Sorry I am not around at all at the moment, my Mum is in hospital and this is now taking up even more of my time. I am sooooo looking forward to being back and in touch.

Take care everyone - have a great week and keep warm.

luv {brenda} xoxox


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Friday, 26 November 2010

Stylish Blogger Award

Look 1 award and given to me twice this week.

How fantastic -  Thanx Kathy and thanx Rebekah who have both given me this award. I love it.


So to receive this award I need to
-thank the person who gave it to me (done above)
- share 8 things myself
- pass award on to 8 other bloggers
- contact them to let them know

It's hard to think of things I haven't already said before - but -
1. I have my nails 'gelled' regularly as I like the polished look
2. I just love Christmas and decorate the whole of the downstairs and have a tree in the living room and in the conservatory (and often have one on the front door step too).
3. I have just found out my job role disappears with the new education white paper so I may well be out of work by Easter next year.
4. I am going to New York for New Year.
5. I have invites to a wedding in Cyprus and another in Italy next year.
6. I have already booked tickets for the Isle of Wight Festival next June - yay Kings of Leon are playing.
7. I only drink coffee - I hate tea.
8. I need to lose weight.

Eight lovely people I am passing this on to -

Georgie, June, June, Annette, Sarah, Edith, Susie, Sue.

Hooray it's the weekend and Ella's school Christmas Fair tomorrow.

Have a wonderful weekend whatever you are doing.

luv {brenda} xoxox

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Thursday, 25 November 2010

MAWTT Challenge 74 - More than one fold

Sorry this is late - Mr Blogger didn't play ball with the schedule - but here we are.

Well I can't believe that not only is it the next MAWTT challenge but it's my turn to host again.

We were lucky to be given some images to play with from Robyn's Fetish who are our sponsors this week. I chose this lovely fairy to make my card with and I chose the theme more than one fold,


I had seen this design on a blog quite a long time ago and thought it would be ideal as it has 4 folds.

I had to spend some time working out sizes and I have designed it so that you can make 2 from a piece of A4 card. If you would like the sizes please email me and I will send you a rough design I made in Powerpoint with sizes and a bit of a tutorial on it.

This card also gave me the ideal opportunity to use my new TH rosette die, I think it is just perfect for the front of it and I love the pinks, greens and lilac colours. I haven't made a sentiment for it yet as I want to wait and use it for something special.


Have a fantastic week.

I will look for challenges to have fun with later.

luv {brenda} xoxoxox

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Special Message over at the Stamp Man

I just had to post this - the DT at the Stamp Man have had a message from the great man himself.

Wow, wow, wow!!!

"amazing projects. bravo everyone - i'm truly in awe of the talents shared here. thank you so much! happy holidays... -tim"

Amazing - Tim Holtz visited us and left a message, I just can't believe he did that.

Thankyou Tim.

xoxox


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Monday, 22 November 2010

Winner and My Blog Candy

Woo hoo I am a winner at A crafty Little Place with my tin of tags.





I still hadn't decided what to do with them  -  so I have decided that I will offer them as Blog Candy as I said I would give something when I got to 100 followers and I am almost there. See the post here to look at the tags individually as well.

If you would like a chance to win my little offering, - and I will ship worldwide,  - then please become a follower if you aren't already, post the candy on your blog on your side bar and leave me a message below with a link that I can contact you if you are the winner. The winner will be chosen by the Random Number chooser thingy.

I will add some other bits and pieces to this when I ship it out.

This will remain open until Monday 6th December so that hopefully the lucky recipient will get it before Christmas.

Have a good week.

luv {brenda} xox



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Sunday, 21 November 2010

Joy to the World

I know I haven't really got time for this BUT.... I had bits left from my CCC earlier in the week and I just wanted to use them up and I saw the red, black, white and yellow challenge at Just Us Girls which fitted perfectly with the alcohol ink splatter pieces I have got. I also found this great sketch at Create 4 Fun - I will definitely be using the splatter technique again (it reminded me of when I used to make a similar pattern with paint and straws when I was teaching eight and nine year olds) -.................  so here is my card.



The image of the angels is another from a Gaby Braun collage sheet and the frame is stamped from Invoke Funky Frames set. The ticket is from Stitchy Bear digi stamps. The coloured papers are a very old set of Christmas Brights from HOTP and the black and white is from an un-named stack pack. The only other bits are a pin and beads and star dust stickles.

I hope you have a good Sunday.

Luv {brenda} xox


Other challenges to have fun with.
A Spoonful of Sugar - Distressing
Tuesday Taggers - Peace, love or joy
Frosted Designs - Distressing
Stamp and Create - Tis the Season
Studio L3 - Alcohol ink splatter





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OSATT Challenge 40 - Any season or event

It's Sunday and do you know that in 5 weeks time it will be Boxing Day - WHAT you ask? Can't be! But it is and I have so much to do.

So on to my challenge card this week for the OSAAT -  anything goes for any season or event. I chose this racing car by Hope Jacare, (which can be found at Stitchy Bear Digital Stamps) as my image this week, knowing I have men's birthdays coming up and I still don't have enough cards in my collection to cope with them all.

When making this card I had several challenges in mind particularly the sketch and birthday card from Truly Scrumptious.


The image has been coloured using promarkers and everything edged with faded jeans and/or vintage photo.

and stickles. The papers are from my box of bits and the sentiment is from Lynne at Sentiments 4 You. The little hinges are Sissix die cuts and I used the TH on the edge scallops die.


A fairly simple card - but one that will be great for several birthdays coming up.

Other challenges to have fun with -
Creative Belli - Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.
Stampavie - Monochrome
Something completely different - Numbers

Enjoy the rest of the day and the week ahead.

luv {brenda} xox

Saturday, 20 November 2010

Compendium of Curiosities week 22 - Christmas Bookmark

Another week for the CCC and this week Linda is challenging us to use the alcohol ink splatter technique on P.52 of the fabulous TH book. You know I would never have had a go at all of these techniques without these challenges - so thankyou Linda for keeping me inspired and wanting to try out all these fabulous techniques. Just the motivation I need.

I also want to say hello to Annette and to Sue and Lisa (Teamies from the Stamp Man) who have joined me lately. It's lovely to share your work with others isn't it? I will have more fabulous blogs to go and visit.


I have to admit I had several goes at this until I found a piece I was happy with and I made it into a Christmas bookmark. I stamped a frame from the Invoke small funky frames set, printed off Santa Claus and angel from a freebie Gaby Braun Christmas collage sheet. The true story sentiment is from a 7 Gypsies stamp set and I finished it off with some Christmassy bits and ribbon and mounted it on corrugated card from some packaging.

I usually have friends and family round on Christmas Eve for dinner and have Christmas Eve presents wrapped on the table. This year I hope they will all be handmade. This is one to start the collection.

Pretty neat.

Challenges to have fun with
Studio L3 - Alcohol Ink Splatter
Simon Says Stamp and Show - What makes you happy - being pleased with a piece of art you have created.
Ink on my fingers - Santa Claus
Flourishes - Get on with it  I have made a number of cards - but not many little gifts so I thought this would fit
Flutterby Wednesday - Anything Goes with a butterfly, angel or fairy
Theme Thursday - Faces

Well I think I am having the girls later today, I shall enjoy that.

Have a great day.

luv {brenda} xox


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Friday, 19 November 2010

Stamp Man ATC Swap - 'Tis the Season

This is my first contribution for the Stamp Man ATC swap. I have not made an ATC for years and I have had so much fun playing with these again.



This is my snowflake design. I covered a white ATC with antique linen DI and edged it with vintage photo. I sprinkled water over it to get the falling snow effect. I used TH stamps from the Reindeer Flight and Letter to Santa collection using aged mahogany and forest green DIs. Lastly I embossed the snowflakes with Cosmic Shimmer embossing powder to get that shimmery effect and added them to the ATC with red brads and put some cranberry alcohol ink on them to deepen the colour more. 'Tis the season was made in a word document inked with antique linen and vintage photo and edged with stickles.

Great fun and I had forgotten how quickly you can get pleasure and a feeling of accomplishment by making these.

Come and join us in the swap. All you need to do is make a set of three of the theme for the month and send your swaps, with the correct postage on, in a stamped addressed envelope to arrive by the due date given. See the full instructions HERE. You will then get three swaps back at the end of the month and there is a winner too. Couldn't be simpler. I think I will be joining in with the swap, I would really like to get some little art back from other people.

Have fun.

luv {brenda} xox




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The Stamp man - All things Tim - Christmas tags and tin

This is my first project for the Stamp Man DT and of course I chose the best theme ever - all things Tim and Christmas.

This is a small tin and small tags, really miniature when compared to the tag size TH uses. I think they work ................................ but have a look for yourself.

Tags all coloured using the wrinkle free technique and edged with DIs. Different coloured threads have been added to them.

Snowflake tag - stamped with TH snowflake and  covered in perfect pearls. Maya road chipboard snowflake - covered in art glitter glue, before dried pressed onto paper and pulled off to give textured look. Then painted in acrylic paint mixed with DI. When dry covered with turquoise stickles.

Tree and star tag - water droplets added the splodged look. Wooden tree edged with pine needles DI and little gold stars added.

Tree charm and bow tag - torn music paper glued on and stamped over with TH tree branch. Metal tree charm with green alcohol ink over it linked to a pin.

Angel tag - tag stamped with TH text. Wooden angel painted with gold ink and antique linen distress stickles added.

25th December tag - covered with snowflake patterned vellum paper and creased to look old. Edged with vintage photo DI and stamped with snowflake and perfect pearls added to them. The 2 and 5 are peeloff numbers covered in alcohol ink. A dome sticker was put over the calendar from TH Lost and Found stack.



Silver stars tag - distressed background using stream and silver alcohol inks (just love the veined look of the silver - what a great experiment). Stamped with Merry Christmas and silver stars  tied on with wire.








The little tin has been covered in alcohol inks with distressed papers added to the bottom and lid inside. I stamped the lid with the tree branch using brown stazon. The top has been decorated with some collage pieces, stickles and another silver star.


I am really pleased with the effects and just don't want to give them away now.

Challenges to have fun with.
2 Sisters - Christmas
Crazy 4 challenges - Christmas
The Crafty pad - Christmas sparkle
Cupcake Inspirations - Christmas
Sunday Stampers - Santa Claus
Bunny Zoes Crafts - Christmas anything but a card
Stamp and Create - Tis the season
Really Reasonable Ribbon - Christmas Theme  Not sure if this counts but I have used a bow made of ribbon on one of the tags.
Simon Says Stamp and Show - What makes you happy
A Crafty Little Place - Alter It
A spoonful of sugar - Distressing
The ABC Challenge - Holidays
Papercraft Star - Christmas Tree or Ornament
Penny's Paper Crafty - Alter It
Paperplay - Let it snow
Stampin' Bs - Snowflakes
Frosted Designs - Distressing
Totally papercrafts - Snow and snowflakes
Fairytale Challenge - Anything Goes
Enjoy.

luv {brenda} xox

Thursday, 18 November 2010

MAWTT Challenge 73 - Sketch - Christmas card

Happy Thursday to you, I hope things are going well

Today over at MAWTT, the creative Heidi is hosting with a sketch and Christmas theme, so here's a chance to add another card to your collection. Honestly it won't be long before we have to start writing them all and posting them out.



The sponsor this week is Little Claire's and we were each given a stamped image to wotk with. This is a real cute one and with Heidi's sketch I have kept it fairly clean this time. I painted the image using DIs and a little silver alcohol ink. The DP and matching vellum paper were a freebie from a magazine last year - I honestly don't know which one. I have edged with DI and stardust stickles. The snowflakes were cut on photograph paper on the cricut and glamour dust added to the top layer & a green gem sticker added to the middle.

A simple card, but I really like the end product.

Challenges to have fun with -
2 Sisters - Christmas
Craft Your Days Away - Christmas Trees
Mark's Finest papers - Snowflakes
Secret Crafter - Sparkle and Shine
Sweet Stampin - Snowflakes
Elephantastic - Christmas theme
Cupcake Inspiratins - Christmasy
Fairytale - Anything Goes
The Crafty Pad - Christmas Sparkle
The Paper Players - Red, green and neutral
Pollycraft - Glittery Christmas


Enjoy the weekend coming up.

Luv {brenda} xox

Sunday, 14 November 2010

Compendium of Curiosities week 21 - Perfect Distress

Wow, didn't think I was gonna make it this week (still a heavy workload at the moment) but here is my entry for the fabulous TH challenge at Studio L3. I have just been catching up on Linda's blog and she supports some amazing people - love it Linda, keep rocking us with your fab work and interesting news.

So this week turn to P.38 in the great book to find out how to do the technique this week, it is quite simple but so effective.



I also made this to fit the challenge at Simon Says Stamp and Show, which this week is to use your favourite TH stamp. Mine is the flourish stamp from the Shabby French collection and has been so well used. The paper is Basic Grey for another challenge and the moths (butterflies?) are from Scrolls Work. I have just received an order from them of some small stamps and I love them. Next June I am going to be GD for a month with them woohoo. The layout is Sketch Saturday although I have flipped it. There are some other challenges I had in mind which are listed below.

I thought I would also just show you a card Ella made for me yesterday - she's four and loves to make things - just like her Mum and her Granny.


I hope you are well and having a good day. It's raining here and I now must go and do some real work to keep up to date with paperwork I have to get emailed out. Have a great day.

luv {brenda} xox


Challenges to have fun with -
Basic Grey - Wings
Sketch Saturday - Sketch
The Crazy Challenge - Things with wings
Timeless Flourishes - Use glitter
ABC Challenge - H is for Holidays
Cute Card Thursday - Anything Goes

Thursday, 11 November 2010

MAWTT Challenge 72 - Nice and bright - New Home card

Well folks it's the talented Hazel who has set the theme at MAWTT this week and she would like to see something Nice and Bright which has a recipe to it - Summer colours lovely and bright and add some flowers and ribbon too to wash away the autumn blues.


I have been steering more towards the vintage and shabby in my designs and so I challenged myself to match that style with this challenge. I think it has worked, but of course it depends on how you look at it. I wanted to have a go at the sketch on the Basic Grey challenge blog and although I have changed it slightly to suit my image and use of the picket fence die, it still follows the basic shapes and layout. My backing paper is from a Basic Grey DP stack.

I have used red, yellow and green as the main colours which definitely gives the card a brightness, but then I've also toned down some areas by using vintage photo.

We were given some images to play with from the Stitchy Bear shop and I chose this one called 'Home Tweet Home' and created by Stitchy herself.

I printed out the image and decided to paint it. Firstly I used DIs but wanted a more vintagy look so I went over it with a mix of DIs, Pearlidoodles and paint dabbers. Just what I wanted, the colours look older and there is a pearly shine to it.


The butterfly and flower are from Dezinaworld and the bird in flight is by Ruby Robinson. The bird on the fence is a TH die. Can you see how the butterfly was created? I thinks it's fabulous - yes it's cogs and I just added some gem stickers to it.


Please pop over and see June at Dezinaworld - she has the most amazing challenge at the moment and everyone - yes EVERYONE who enters will get a prize. Can't believe it? Click here.

Challenges to have fun with -
Basic Grey - Sketch
Alphabet challenge - B is for birds
Easy Craft projects - Red
Raise the Bar - Curves
Something completely different - Houses
Lexi's Creations - Anything Goes
Crazy Challenge - Things with Wings
Inktegrity - Ribbon / flowers

Have a great day. Luv {brenda} xox

Monday, 8 November 2010

My Blog has Attitude

I have been given this 'I got Attitude' award  by Margreet, and I feel flattered and deeply honoured to receive it. With it comes a $5 gift certificate from The Digi's with Attitude Store .


To be eligible for the Certificate you must state 3 things that makes you different from everyone else and you must nominate 5 other lovely blogs to receive it. Lastly, you must display the Blog Award Badge (above) in your sidebar and link it back to the Digi’s With Attitude! Challenge Blog.


So these are the 5 blogging friends who I spend alot of time chatting to and who give me alot of support - and they are my MAWTT team mates. Shell, Hazel, Lisa Jane, Heidi and Kelli.

The 3 things that make me different from anyone else???????
1. I am much older than the other four!!!!!!
2. I am slow at creating my cards and pieces of art.
3. I am easily distracted from what I am doing - so that's why I'm slow eh??

Enjoy girls.

Luv {brenda} xox


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Sunday, 7 November 2010

Surprise Firework Party

Having been out with the girls shopping all day yesterday it was lovely when the family came with boxes of fireworks and packets of sparklers last night and we had a surprise firework party for the little ones. They have not got used to fireworks yet and are still frightened by them, but they enjoyed seeing them in the garden and built much more confidence with the noise (although these weren't particularly noisy). They loved holding the sparklers too. Just couldn't resist posting these.