I cannot believe that it is New Year's Eve - where did 2009 go?

Here are a few cards that I have been messing around with over the last few days.

I love this little girl by Diane Duda. The image is called Bunny and is from Sugar Nellie. The flowers are Junkitz Clear Stampz. I have to say a big thank you to Beth for both of these as they came as part of my recent candy win over at her blog.

The next card features a Heather Ellis 'Pure Innocence' digital download .

Soooo cute, and sooooo reasonably priced too - especially as Heather has a sale on at her site right now. I must thank the wonderful Donna for the tip off about these images!

I was able to print two images on an A5 sheet and then add the sentiment using a cute font on my PC. The inside sentiment reads '...hope it's happy'.

 

So happy New Year everyone, let's hope its a good one... with lots of cards, creativity and fun!

Little candy gems!

Aren't these cute?

I just discovered them over at Janet's blog Pink Gems!

If you'd like to win 6 Pink Gem Designs stamps of your choice head on over here and find out how! You have until 18th January... but I doubt if you'll want to wait that long!

Stampman blog hop!

Hi, everyone, hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas Day!

I think that I am still full of Mom's wonderful Christmas lunch...

Don't forget that today is the day that the Stampman blog hop begins!

I have just done a little hopping around and have found lots of gorgeous new blogs!

Jill is also offering this little award...

The idea is that we all look back over our past work and pick something that we are particularly proud of, or that we feel is our best work of the year.

I'm going to share this little card that I made back in November.

This was my first attempt at paper piecing and the first card that I made where I managed to really get my act together with using scrapbook papers! I also quite liked the double ribbon effect and those funky, pink Mary Jane's.

I gave this little card to my beautiful niece to celebrate her first Christmas.

Here she is smiling, and being her lovely little self, with my dear MIL.

Isn't she just the cutest, but then I am a teeny bit biased!

Anyhoooooo, why not take a little time out to join in the fun over at The Stampman and share your favourite project of 2009!

Four turtle doves!

So here are the first two Turtle doves on this little card featuring a gorgeous Kraftin' Kimmie/Moonlight Whisper image called Clara.

I bought this stamp a few weeks ago but have been saving her until now. This image of Clara with her birds is perfect for my Sister-in-law and my Mom-in-law's cards as they both keep doves.

This first card is the one that I made for my SIL and her hubby. I got busy with my Promarkers and then cut out the image. The script background is a very old Christmas greetings stamp from Hero Arts that I love. I edged the backing paper with Stickles and added four little pearls. This was a very simple card to make, but I am pleased with the effect. The gorgeous backing paper is from my recent blog candy win over at Beth's.

There are more cards to follow, but first I just wanted to signpost the way to The Stamp Man blog hop that will be taking place between Christmas and the New Year.

Looks great fun, and thanks for the info Vicky, I'll be playing along!

My next two cards feature a cute little turkey that Lynne sent me a few weeks ago.

Isn't he adorable? Just the perfect image for my friend Jacquie and her family, and also for my very dear friend Rob. The brown and blue card, with the slightly more masculine colour combo is for Rob.

BTW, if you want to find out the true meaning of the Twelve Days of Christmas' song please take a look at this fascinating post over on Lynne's blog.

This next card is for my Mom's friend Pat and her husband. I didn't do too well with the light effect on this card, but it's still cute!

This final card is the one that I made for my sweet Mom and Dad-in-law and has the other two of the four Turtle doves on it!

My MIL loves her doves, and I have to admit that there is nothing nicer than sitting in the garden with pretty white doves circling above your head on a summer evening.

There is, however, one problem with keeping doves and that is that it attracts other doves and pigeons into the garden. Last year a new bird appeared on the scene. Although he was quite pretty and 'dove-like', he had some brown patches on his wings which suggested that he also had some pigeon ancestry. He also had a very bad attitude and so we christened him 'Bad Bertie'. Bertie made himself very much at home and took to bossing and bullying the other doves. Eventually things got so bad that my MIL tried to shoo him away, but Bertie took no notice.

My MIL decided that drastic measures were called for so she got a cardboard box, lined it with an old jumper and popped Bertie into it. My In-Law's took a ride out to one of the villages a few miles away and carefully released Bertie, who flew away into a clear blue sky.

They returned home, feeling happy and relieved.

When telling me this tale my Dad-in-law delivered the punch line with relish '... and when we got home Bertie was there waiting for us'.

Yes, who should be strutting around the bird table but Bad ol' Bertie, tired but happy after a great day out. Bertie still has plenty of attitude but is now treated as one of the family!

That's about it for the Christmas cards folks, but I just want to say thank you so much to you all for visiting my blog, and thank you for your kind comments and your friendship, it really means so much to me.

Happy Christmas everyone, I hope it is fun filled and magical!

Well, fancy that!

Ok, first surprise today - lots of snow! Well, actually about 1 -2 inches but it looked so pretty.

I wanted to take a picture of Custard playing in the snow but he wouldn't oblige and just ran off to hide under a bush. I had to dry his feet when he came in as he gets all emotional if they are wet... what a big girl he is!

Second surprise was my little note cards being featured as one of the Digital Challenge Standouts over at Caardvarks! I am thrilled. So glad to see the lovely Sally's gorgeous Christmas tree card 'standing out' too!

My third surprise was to discover that the adorable Victoria had given me a blog award - thank you so much.

Now for today's card...

It's another version of that cute little girl again.

This time she is coloured with Pro-markers!

Yes, as I am sure you can tell this is my first attempt with my new pens. I was lucky enough to have a lovely win over at The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge, so went on a little spending spree at the wonderful Wendy's and came home with a selection of gorgeous colours.

My visit to Wendy's also had a special twist as I had arranged to meet a dear blogging friend for the first time. What a treat to finally meet Vicky of Kip's cards - you are such a sweetheart and such a talented card maker!

I have spent today making my last few Christmas cards and hope to get them posted in the next few days.

Happy crafting, wrapping and rushing around in a pre-Christmas panic everyone!

Anyone for Porridge?

Don't you just love Porridge the pig from Sugar Nellie?

I bought this stamp several months ago as I knew that he would be perfect for my Dad's birthday card. When my Dad was a teenager he worked on his brother-in-law's pig farm. This must have been a really positive experience for him as he has always had a soft spot for pigs!

I wish that I had £700 to spend on a present for my Dad, as I am sure he'd prefer one of these little cuties to the dark green woolen Marks and Spencer's jumper that he'll be getting!

It's 5x5 birthday cards for the Cupcakes Challenge #70 this week so Porridge can trot on over there to get aquainted with Mr Linky!

Another snowy day!

I couldn't believe my eyes yesterday when my colleague Frank called me over to watch the blizzard outside the library. The weather forecast had said 'no snow for Birmingham', but there it was and there was lots of it!
Like the big kid that I am I simply had to go up the road to the postbox as soon as it had stopped. Well, there really isn't anything as pretty as fresh snow!



Here is that sweeeeeet little soul from My favourite things again. This time I paper pieced her from some tiny scraps of pretty paper. The snow is added with some flowersoft, which came courtesy of the lovely Lynne in NI. It is weird to use, but lots of fun!

I am entering this little card for the following challenges:

The Secret Crafters Saturday Challenge #62 - Snow.
Crazy 4 Challenges week 15 - Snowmen or snowflakes
The Pink Elephant Challenge #45 - Winter and/or Christmas
The Sophisticat Challenge #15 - It's Christmas!

In my previous post I mentioned that some local school children were due to visit the library to sing. Several of the children were poorly so only 12 singers could come. Would so few children be able to make themselves heard? I need not have worried as they sang beautifully, and had surprisingly big voices for such small people.
Let me just say 'not a dry eye in the house' and leave it at that!

Once the children had finished their carols it was time for myself and Geoff to sing 'Jingle bells (why do I let him talk me into it every year?) and then everyone joined in 'The twelve days of Christmas'. After mince pies and coffee for the adults and squash and a few naughty chocolates for the children we all sang 'We wish you a merry Christmas' as the they left the library to walk back to school.

Lovely festive fun!

Candy alert!

The wonderful Caz is celebrating her 1000th post with a blogcandy giveaway.


I love Caz's blog! It is always full of colour and fun, and her cards never fail to inspire and delight!

Her candy includes these lovely Anyas and Caz promises that the goody bag will also include bling, pins and a little sample of the things that she uses on her cards!Her candy draw will take place on Christmas Eve, so why not head on over and take a look!

Snowy day!

One more post for today...

I am completely smitten with this little girl from My Favourite Things!

She is the work of the talented Heather Ellis and the range is called 'Pure Innocence'. I have seen this little sweetheart around and about on quite a few blogs recently and am not surprised that she has captured so many hearts!

I coloured her with Versacolour inks and added some puffy snow with 'liquid applique'. If you have never used this product it is great fun. I have to urge caution as the way it grows and expands when you add a little heat with your heat tool is rather scary!

The backing paper and the little turquoise flower are from my 'Beth's blog candy winnings' - thank you so much Sweetheart, I am loving it all!

I have another busy day ahead at work tomorrow, but one that I am very much looking forward to. Each year a group of children from one of the local primary school's in our catchment area come to the library to sing for our older customers. We serve coffee and mince pies and put together a little goody bag for the children. It always feels really Christmasy and festive when we turn the lights off and sing 'Away in a manger' together!

I'm such a big softy!

Happy crafting everyone... not too many sleeps 'til Santa to go now!

Have an ice Christmas!

Hi everyone, I am so sorry that it's been so a bit quiet over here this week... I have been such a busy girl!

Let's jump right in with these sweeeeet little Penguin images from Pink Petticoat. I made 17 cards using them yesterday so feel a bit better equipped on the Christmas card front than before!

The current challenge over at Soft Pencil is to use your favourite Christmas Colour Combo.

I love lime and purple, especially when a dash of turquoise or fuchsia pink turns up to join in the fun!

Aren't these images adorable? I think these last two are my favourites... although the little guy lost in his new Christmas jumper is really cute too!

I ran my new Nestabilities label #3 through the Cuttlebug and was really pleased with the result... glad Santa is bringing me more Nesties to play with!

All I want for Christmas is...

I really hope that my hubby doesn't sneak a peak at my blog and see this picture of his Christmas card!

The 'small print' reads 'But please bear in mind that the addition of a small villa in Sardinia is perfectly acceptable'.

This little card has been a labour of love for the past two days!

The 'mini-me' character from TheGreetingFarm was hand stamped and then paper pieced. The mini-hubby character is a TheGreetingFarm digital stamp which I 'altered'. Yes Donna, this little card really has taken me two days to make!

This is how the little boy should look, but sadly my hubby does not have Soccer Ian's gorgeous flowing locks, so I worked a little 'masking magic' and drew in some more suitable hair. (Not sure my hubby has this much hair either....)
I changed Ian's shorts to jeans again by masking before I printed the image. It was quick and easy to make some little trousers from card and to paper piece them. The shirt is also paper pieced and is in the colours of my hubby's beloved Halesowen Town Football Club.

Girls I have to tell you that I married that football club when I married my hubby!

I printed the sentiment on my PC in 'Juice', which is one of my favourite fun fonts!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and happy crafting everyone!

Digital magic!

... and here I am as promised!

I always like to start my weekend by checking in at the Secret Crafters Saturday Challenge.

I whooped with joy when I saw that Helen had chosen the theme 'Matching Set' for Challenge #61. Then I did a double take as I discovered that 'Dotty' had won the November draw.

A quick email to the wonderful Wendy confirmed that it really was me!

Woohoo, and a very big thank you to the Secret Crafter... can't wait to spend that lovely £20.00 voucher.

Here are some of the five cards that make up my 'matching set' of note cards for my dear Mother-in-law. She loves shoes and fancy clothes, so hopefully she will enjoy these little cards.

The images are digital downloads from Hero Arts. I first saw them over on Lucy's blog and thought they were lovely. They are so easy to use and come ready coloured.

The sentiments are also from Hero Arts and were stamped by hand before I distressed with Versacolour Inks.

I think these two cards are my favourites from the set. I got the idea to pair the shoes from this wonderful card that Lucy made back in September. Being able to manipulate and 'flip' the images is one of the great things about digital stamps.

If you want to see more of Lucy's fabulous digital cards, her gorgeous work is being featured over at Caardvarks today as part of their current Hero Arts Digital Showcase.

I made this cute little 'pizza box' from these instructions by Jenn over on Splitcoast Stampers. She recommends that you use a Scorepal and I think this would be helpful as you need to be really accurate with your scoring to get a good finish.

I made a wrapper in 'cloud' vellum and added another image to the front of the box.

I've made ten cards so far and am planning to make further sets during the week as I think these sets make perfect girly stocking fillers.

A quick hello!

Just dropping by to post the news about Jenn's blog candy!

If you have never visited Jenn's blog 'Created by JB' you really are missing a treat as she is very, very talented.

So why not head on over there now and take a peak at the lovely candy plus her totally gorgeous December Daily Album!

I'll be back later with some cards... honest!

O, Christmas trees!

First I made this...... and then I made these!

Yes, I am officially smitten with these cute little Christmas tree images from Pink Petticoat!

I just love how they look printed on kraft. I coloured them with a mix of Distress Inks and Versacolour inks, and added a tiny zip of white gel pen. The red card stock is from Bazzils and the little dots stamp is from Hero arts.

Quick, simple, sooooo cute and perfect for the Secret Crafters Challenge #60, which is Christmas Trees!

Happy Crafting everyone!

Snow, snow cute!

It's hard to believe that I photographed this card at 2pm this afternoon. If we get any useful daylight tomorrow I will re-photograph and edit this post.

Edited to add:

Here is the same card photographed on Sunday with the help of a little November sunshine!

Hope you can make out the cute sparkle on the lime green bits - I just love Stickles!I love this little penguin from Pink Petticoat! The collection is called 'Have an ice Christmas' and there are a total of twelve super cute images. Liz has only just added them to the site and I think they will be selling like hot cakes in no time at all!

My little penguin card is being entered for two challenges: The ABC Challenge this week is 'I is for Indigo' and over at Flutterby Wednesday #85 the theme is for a fairy, angel or butterfly and circles.
Please believe me that this little card looks a whole lot sweeter IRL!

Happy crafting everyone, and I hope you are all keeping warm as its getting chilly here in the UK!

We all love Lucy!

I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to play along with Lucy's 1st challenge!
I am a huge fan of Lucy's wonderful card making style. Her creations are always so pretty and feminine. I also think that Lucy has a great sense of humour as many of her cards are very witty and cute!

I wanted to make a small card to send to my dear friend Eileen who is off work following knee surgery last week. She is the librarian at another library in my area so I am helping out a bit while she is away. Eileen always dresses really well and has great taste in shoes, so I thought this sweet digital image from Hero Arts would be just right for her!

Once again I must apologise for the poor quality of the photograph. I had to use the flash on my camera and it has bleached the colours.

Happy crafting everyone!

He does exist... I saw him too!

Just can't get enough of this sweet little girl and her look of surprise!

Sorry about the quality of the photograph, I took this picture under my craft lamp and the colours of those beautiful Basic Grey papers have gone all strange.

I used this sweet little sketch from Inspirational Card Sketches as the basis for my card... I just went 'off script' a little bit...

Happy crafting everyone!

He does exist!

Santa does exist... and if the look on this little girl's face isn't proof enough for you take a look at this fabulous, fun post on Elise's blog!

See you again soon, happy crafting everyone!

Ketto cuteness!

A very quick post this morning as it's a Christmas shopping day today for myself and hubby.

I just wanted to share these little thank you cards that I made earlier in the week for my sweet sister-in-law.

These lovely little Ketto images come courtesy of my sweet blog friend Beth. I've been saving them for a special project and it was great to finally get colouring and cutting as they are so much fun.

Sadly this is the last of that sweet 'Poppet' paper, except for a teeny, tiny scrap. Do I use that last piece on a card or sleep with it under my pillow?

The sentiments are from Hero Arts and the other stamps are Hero Arts Raindrops background stamp, that sweet Kelly Panacci clear design set that I love and a fabulous Stampin' Up set! There's oodles of glitter and sparkle on each card, but it doesn't quite show up in the photographs... you'll just have to trust me on that one!

I love the sweet long-legged fairy on my first card, so am going to enter her for Flutterby Wednesday Challenge #84 over at Danni's Dreams. If you haven't discovered this cute site it is worth a look as there is always plenty going on there, including challenges and tutorials.

We have had some very high winds across the UK over the last few days.

How does my daft cat deal with this? He goes and climbs the tallest tree in our garden!

Thankfully my hubby was able to encourage him to come down.

It's official, cats are odd!

Victoria's candy!

Just a quick reminder that Victoria has some gorgeous candy on offer over at her blog until Wednesday 9th December.

For anyone who missed my earlier post this candy call is for a wonderful charity called SANDs.

Here are some of the cards that I am sending...

I was delighted to discover that I can fit ten cards into the padded bag that I bought!

I think that this one is my favourite!

She is a cute little digital image from The GreetingFarm. She was in their digital clearance sale and I am glad that I snapped her up when I did as she is no longer available.

I found that lovely paper in my stash, it is called Poppet and I wish I had more as it is gorgeous. I had just enough for this card, and for some thank you cards that I am making to give to my sister-in-law as a little stocking filler.

It's a digital challenge over at The Cupcake Craft Challenge this week so my sweet little friend fits the bill quite nicely!

Happy crafting everyone!

It started with a hiss...

Sometimes these things just happen...

Anyone who is a regular visitor to InkyFingersRule will know that this little sweetheart has just stolen Beth's heart. Her name is Epiphany, and with her arrival Beth has joined the long list of people who didn't intend to be owned by a cat!


Just over 18 years ago I had made the decision not to get a cat. I didn't want the hassle. I was perfectly happy to enjoy the visits that my neighbours cat, Whiskers, made to my house most days for little snacks and treats. Whiskers began to put on weight - too many snacks perhaps? Then one evening she marched across my kitchen and settled herself in a box of old decorating sheets in the big cupboard under the stairs. I climbed into the back of the cupboard with her and 'held her paw' as she gave birth to three pretty little kittens.
I decided to keep the two female kittens and my work colleague gave a home to the little boy cat.
Cleo, and her sweet little sister Daisy, wobbled out of the cupboard after a few days and hissed, tiny warning hisses at me when I went to pick them up. Truly, it 'started with a hiss'!

Anyhoo, back to that card...
I wish that I hadn't photographed on pink, but hopefully you can still see the outline of the card itself. This cute little image seemed so appropriate after reading about Beth and Epiphany. You may recognise Reeta from GreetingFarm. I decided to paper piece her in some of the tiny scraps that I had as leftovers from my previous card. The little kitten is also paper pieced and is lifted up on a tiny dimensional. The papers are all 'Eva' by Basic Grey and the card stock is Bazzils.


I stamped a favourite Hero Arts background stamp onto one of the plain papers from this pack and clear embossed for added interest. The sentiment is from Hero Arts, and I think that tiny button is from Basic Grey to match the Eva collection. The bling and the ribbon are both stash items.

The theme over at Pink Elephant , is 'So thankful', and there is even more 'thankfulness' going on at the Flutter-by-Wednesday Challenge #83 ! Papercutz are keeping it sweet and simple this week as Challenge #17 is to use a hand stamped or digital image on our card!

Happy crafting everyone!

Pretty in pink...and green!

Here's Twinkle Tot Madelynn out in the snow again!

This time she is wearing a pretty pink coat and a cute scarf, both paper pieced from Basic Grey's beautiful 6 x 6 paper pad Eva. I had so much fun piecing those cute Mary Jane's!

All the other papers are from same pad, and the soft pink card stock is Bazzils.

I really love this little image and wanted to use her again. I wanted to give her a different look to my previous card so went hunting for a sketch. There are so many great sketches at the moment, but I finally settled on this one from Card Patterns as it gave me the chance to use so many of those cute papers.

Rather then stamp snowflakes I decided to have Madelynn lost in a flurry of cute, little snowy pearls!

The Cupcakes are having 'Snow much fun' with Challenge 64 , and the Crafty Catz are going 'dottie' this week so rather amazingly for me this is another three challenge card!

Happy crafting everyone!