Special Event 12th September

There is going to be a very special event at OSAAT on the 12th September when we will be hosting a charity challenge for the awareness of autism and especially one little boy called Cameron. There will be lots of prizes for this one and even some blog candy might be available. So keep watching here and the OSAAT challenge blog for more details.

Luv B xxx

Another blog award

I can't believe I have received this award again. Thankyou Lisa, it doesn't matter how many times I receive it - each time it is special from that person, which means alot to me.

As I have already kept to the rules for receiving it and sent it onto 10 others I will keep this one all for myself. I think I will go and make a coffee and have a little treat with it. How good is that??

Have a great day Lisa and thankyou for being such a good blogging friend.

Luv B xxx

Blog Award received with pride

Hi to all my friends,

What a surprise to get two messages today and  find I have been given this award twice. How lovely to have blogging friends who think of you and what you do and take the time to let you know.

My thanks to Hazel and Kathy who have both thought of me today and made me feel special, you don't know how you have helped lift me today, thankyou so much.

Well there are conditions in receiving this award and things I need to do.

1. Thank the person that gave it to you - duly done above and on their blogs.

2. Post it with pride on your blog - again done above.

3. List 3 things you love about yourself - why is that always a difficult thing to do? Ok here goes - I love being a part of people's lives and giving where I can. I love my art and craft, having the time has rekindled a passion for experimenting, creating and designing. (Thanks Hazel for noticing it). I love that I am a very forgiving person and always look for the best in people and situations.

4. Post a picture you love.

I thought I would choose this one as it is Ken and I with two great friends, Margaret and Bill, taken last year.

5. Tag 5 other people for the award - I guess as I have received this award twice I should tag 10 others.

These are people whose blogs I visit regularly because they inspire me and because they encourage me in what I do. (And hey girls, I know I need to get over to you but I have been away on holiday and I am still catching up, but promise I will get you asap). I have purposefully chosen new people to those I gave an award to earlier in the year.
In no particular order -

Rebekah,  Nataliya,  Margreet,  Lorraine,  Sarah,  Zoe,  Clare,  Debby,  Shell,  Josephine 

I am in the process of making again and will be posting two cards on Thursday for the DT on MAWTT challenge blog. In the meantime I will visit more of my friends and say hello.

Have a good week, enjoy all you do and take care.


Luv B xxxx

25th Anniversary - MAWTT challenge 60

Hi everyone - wow do these Thursdays come around quickly.

But of course Thursday is a new challenge day over at MAWTT and this week the lovely Hazel has set the  theme - All That Glitters. No sketch to follow this week but with such a fab focus for creating glittery and shiny cards - who needs one?

The sponsor this week is my friend Stitchy from Stitchy Bear Stamps and I have used a digi that I won on a One Stitch at a Time challenge blog, before I became a DT member for them. It is called Miss Wings and I just love this cute bear with it's little wings, even my husband commented on what a great image it is (and he's never done that before!!!!), so it was great fun to colour her up and use it on this card. Do go take a peep at what she has in her store.

I made the card for some friends who have recently celebrated their 25th Wedding Anniversary and sadly we couldn't go to their celebration as we were on holiday, but we hope Donna and Jimmy had a wonderful party and wish them every happiness in their next 25 and more years together.

As you can see I have gone quite shiny and glittery with this card but I am so pleased with the effects. I started by choosing my DPs which set the colours for me and in many ways it is quite monotone. I have used a MS punch, Nestabilities labels 2, embellishments from my stash. The ticket is one from Lindsay's stamp stuff and I actually changed the words using Photoshop Elements so that it fitted for my card. I decorated the inside but kept it very simple to contrast with the outside. All the DPs and the ticket are edged with stickles and the wings, feet and ears on the image have been glittered. I also used stickles on the bubbles of the champagne.

Hope you like this one.

Luv B xxxx

Precious punches - OSAAT challenge 26

Happy Sunday

That's why I'm easy
I'm easy like Sunday morning
I wanna be high, so high
I wanna be free to know
The things I do are right
I wanna be free                          
Just me, babe!

That's why I'm easy
I'm easy like Sunday morning             Lionel Ritchie

So how's your Sunday going, easy I hope and free to do the things you wanna do.

Well Sunday is OSAAT day and there's another great challenge for you to enter called Pack a Punch (not literally of course), but to use punches on your projects.  Today the challenge is sponsored by Ididitcreations who are going to give the lucky winner 3 digis of their choice.

The designers are using digis from the creators at Stitchy Bear Stamps so pop on over and take a look at their fabulous creations.

I have used a digi called 'Precious' by Beary Dust Stamps and it is a gorgeous image which I have loved to work with. Precious is standing in front of a fence so I wanted to give it a garden them and use my punches for the flowers, leaves and trellis.

I coloured her using promarkers and I punched the leaves on her hat and stamped and coloured the flower. The large rose flower I made using a MS edge punch and layered it round a circle of card. The little flowers are also a MS punch and a small one from my collection. The trellis is the MS punch that was a TSV at QVC a few weeks ago, I thought it fitted the bill perfectly as I don't have anything else that looks like one. I have used various stickles on edges and distress stickles on the centre of the pink flower. The backing paper is making memories boho chic pad.

Have a great day and a good week ahead.

Luv B xxx

Follow your heart - limited resources

Hi everyone - hope your weekend is going well.

This is another of my cards I made whilst in Swanage with Mum at the beginning of the summer. I took just a few supplies with me so that I had something to do in the evenings, it was great working like this. It challenged me quite a bit, but it was good fun.

This card I used some backing papers from my box of bits and the main part is from my gorgeous Mariposa matstock - you know the stack that I just love looking at and don't want to use. It is already glittered so I just edged it with pumice stone DI and gold stickles. The embellishments are a butterfly from my downloaded collection and covered in crackle accents, some seam binding tape, a little flower made with dictinary paper and a little cream ribbon rose with ealnut stain Di on it; some punched leaves, a flourish from a TH die and two tiny punched hearts with pearls. I edged the whole of the main background with antique linen and gold stickles. In the top left hand corner you might just be able to make out three of my glass glintz's with th pink circle shape stuck to them from the bottom DP. The sentiment is from a box of die cuts.

Hey ho - it's just amazing what you an do when you challenge yourself.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend. Have fun.

Luv B xxx

Maya blowing bubbles - MAWTT challenge 59

Thursday greetings to everyone. Hope all is well with you.

This week at MAWTT we have another great sketch from Hazel and there isn't a theme to go with it so anything goes. There is inspiration from the design team so go take a look at their wonderful creations. We so love coming to look at your amazing cards and projects.

Our sponsors this week are Whimsey Stamps and I have chosen this one called Maya Blowing Bubbles. I have coloured her using promarkers and edged the image with tumbled glass DI and crystal stickles. The papers are from my box of bits and I wanted to stay with the bubble theme so I chose two with circles on. I have also used lilac pearlidoodles round the edge of the purple paper and clear rock candy distress stickles over the bubbles on the image. This didn't need alot of embellishing but I added beads to give the impression of more bubbles and the sentiment in the top right corner.

I hope the week has gone well, and you are enjoying the summer holidays particularly if you have children home and on holiday from school. Have fun over the weekend.

Luv B xxx

Vintage Eiffel Tower - limited resources

Hello everyone, how is your week going?

This is another one of my collection of cards made with very few resources whilst down in Swanage with Mum at the end of June/beginning of July. It is a slow week, when we go, as she can't move far but we enjoy sitting outside of the beach hut and we enjoyed lovely weather. In the evenings after we have been out for a meal I made cards with the bits and pieces I took with me.

This is quite a simple card, with images downloaded from the internet and the rose cut out and edged with vintage photo DI. The Eiffel Tower image I also edged with gold stickles. The papers were bits from my box and I had added the buttons to my pack. The butterfly again is one of my collection and covered in sepia accents. I had also taken the little pink corner piece with me.

Enjoy the rest of the week and the weekend when it gets here.

See you again soon.

Luv B xxxx

Cream Tea - Limited Resources

Hello everyone, I promised to show you the cards I made while I was on holiday with Mum in Swanage earlier in June/July.

This is one of the cards.  I had taken very limited resources with me, but I had put some of my own 'packs' together each one in a separate bag which included the image, some papers and some embellishments. I had picked up a new paper pack the day before I left and put it in a tub wondering if it might come in useful. It is the Papermania Rose Garden paper pack and the designs are lovely and very shabby chic. I had been looking at postcards (as you do when you are on holiday) and I found this one which was called 'West Country Cream Tea'. I hadn't taken any plain coloured papers with me and there is a very small craft shop in the town where I bought some pearlised papers which included the pink at the bottom. I cut and distressed the postcard and added cosmic shimmer aqua twinkles and mounted it onto a piece of green left over from another card which I edged with shabby shutters crackle paint.  

I made the embellishments with bits I had taken with me and the little ribbon roses were a last minute add in before I left, but the colours didn't look right, so I painted them with some white acrylic paint I had bought in Swanage and added the cosmic twinkles to them. The change is just perfect and made the card look so much better.

 I had great fun making the little embellishment with wings - just shows how creative you can be when you have so little to play with.          

I love the pennant lace, my Mum wasn't sure it fitted but I think it does, especially with the little gems in between each piece.

I hope you enjoy this.

Luv B xoxox

Vintage Christmas - MAWTT challenge 58

Hello everyone and happy Thursday to you all.

Being a Thursday means it's another great challenge over at MAWTT and this week it's Shell's turn to host her first blog here. The sponsor is Foilplay  who have lots of scrummy things for you to look which includes a bargains section. They stocks a huge selection of toppers, decoupage and other craft goodies, many of which you may have seen on QVC or Create and Craft TV. Foil Play lets you pick the individual designs of your choice, so you don’t need to invest in a huge kit and p&p is free on orders over £5.00”.

Shell set us the theme of Christmas for this week and no sketch. So come on over and have a go the winner receives a £10.00 voucher to spend in the Foilplay store. Now there's an incentive.

So onto my creation. I have this gorgeous little vintage image I downloaded (can't remember where from) and I used the colours from it for the papers which I found in some Christmas theme stacks.  I have used stickles but NO DIs (wow can you believe that??) and I have used a Quickutz die to make the snowflake.

I would love to know you have visited me so please leave a short message, I don't want you to take alot of time doing it 'cos we would all rather be getting inspiration and creating instead.

Take care and have a great weekend.

Luv B xxx