New Christmas Hero Arts has landed

Monday again and I seem to have missed the weekend somewhere.

All the best laid plans and all that...........very little crafting but an awful lots of pupsicle loo runs. Both girls had their first inoculations this morning and the big weigh in, Daisy is 4.75 kg and Lily 3.85 kg, pretty much as we expected as Daisy is a bit of a hefty unit...........sorry folks, that's a real Fen saying for those of us that are shall we say a little way off a size '0'............compared with delicate Lily.

So just the two cards, but at least one of them allowed me to break out the new Christmas Hero Arts delivery from Sir Stampalot that I need to get creating with for the BIG Christmas Demo Weekend at the end of the month.

The first easel card is using this absolutely gorgeous Hero Arts S5449 Fabulous Flourish. It's a bit of a biggie at 5.5" x 4.5" but just lovely and a joy to work with. Me thinks there will be a few samples going Peterborough way with this one.

I created a background with Tim Holtz broken china and tea dye, inking a non stick craft sheet, spritzing liberally with water and Glimmer Mist pearl and swishing the card about it in. When dry I stamped with Hero chalk ink soft pool using good old trusty Hero H2365 old French writing. Next I inked the flourish stamp with TH tea dye and spritzed with water before stamping. The DP is October Afternoon, the border Martha Steward double loop, some punched leaves, two ribbons, a beaded pin, pearls and Magnolia flowers.

This card is for the following challenges:

Friday Sketchers - I promised Claudia I would make an effort to enter as it's been far too long since I joined in.

The Stamp Man - Easel Card

Cupcake Challenge - A recipe for their second birthday - 2 DP's, 2 ribbons and 2 flowers (there are two different ribbons on the bottom but hard to see)

My second card uses a favourite stamp from Sweet Pea called dandelions. Stamped simply with Versafine black and embossed with detail clear twice, cutting a spotlight with a Nestie and colouring just that section with Copics. The DP is Kaiser, the border punch Martha Stewart embossed scallop, sizzix swirls and Magnolia flower and pearls to embellish.

This card is for the following challenges:

Stamp for Fun - Sketch

Sweet Pea Stamp Challenge - Swirls and flourishes

Crafty Cardmakers - Spotlight

By the Cute and Girly - Animal Antics - hope the moggy on here is having enough antics with the fairy to fit the theme, if not sorry girls

By the Cut and Girly April Challenge

Update: Thank you all for your kind comments and mails about Anysia. The op was more complicated than they envisaged and she was in surgery a good part of the day and needs another op, but when she is stronger. She is receiving transfusions and like a robot with all the machines she is linked to, but when we left last night had come round and recognised us all......and asked where her mobile phone was, so we saw that as a positive move in the right direction. Am away to the hospital again now, as although visiting is restricted they are allowing us pretty free access to be with her.

This month at By the Cute and Girly we have several new DT's, so welcome to you all. The theme this month is "Fairytales", a chance for you to get all those fairy any mythical stamps and products out.

Still in 'box' mode I have created yet another box/easel project and a really mystical card with a unicorn. Both use a selection of stamps from Lavinina (link on sidebar), including the unicorn and steps which are amongst their new releases.

The background for the box card was created with Tim Holtz distress inks marigold, sage and mustard seed and the stamping done with versfaine sepia and Big and Juicy spice. The fairy image has been stamped twice and embossed with iridescent powder, cut out and decoupaged. The flowers and leaves are all from Magenta CS043 set and the toadstools are from the Magnolia Tilda range. DP's are My Minds Eye.

The unicorn card has a brayered background using eggplant and Big and Juicy Spice, more Lavinia stamps for the trees and leaves plus a few Art Impression ones and the fence has been drawn in with a fine line black marker pen.

By the Cute and Girly January challenge

Happy New Year everyone and wishing you a really crafty and inspirational 2010.

Although this post is being scheduled, when it pops up on my blog it will be time for our new challenge at By the Cute and Girly with the very apt theme of New Beginnings. A pretty open theme really, baby, wedding, new job, interpret as you wish. And the Inspirational Team have again come up with some wonderful work to help get your creative juices flowing so you can get your creations entered to be in with a chance of winning one of the three great prizes on offer this month. The theme this week at Stamping for the Weekend is also New Beginnings and this is my entry for that challenge.

The first of my projects are the wedding invitations I made for our second eldest son and his French fiancee who are getting married in Saint-Gilles, Croix de Vie on the west coast of France in May. Preparations are well under way now and the whole family are beginning to get excited, especially the four girls who are all being bridesmaids. In addition, two friends of the bride are being Maids of Honour (that's what they call the older bridesmaids in France), so there will be six in total. I was so thrilled to be invited to the wedding dress fittings and have seen the design of 'the' dress. The next appointment with the seamstress is in a couple of weeks when the bridesmaids are also having their first fittings.

I created six sample invitations for them and this is the one they selected. I used white linen cardstock, ran the embossed panel through the Bug using the hearts folder, the flowers and leaves have all been created with various punches and luxury finishing touches of Swarovski crystals and silk organza ribbon to carry the colour theme. The wording was stamped with Hobby Art GR201 MC using versafine black and detail clear embossing powder.

In line with French tradition, the invitations went out in November, much earlier than we send them in the UK, with the wording in both French and English. Now all I have to do are the Order of Service cards and Menu's, which will follow the same theme, but be slightly less ornate.

By the Cute and Girly month 3

By the Cute and Girly and Sir Stampalot Big Demo Day reminder

What a brilliant month it's been at By the Cute and Girly with some absolutely fabulous projects, cards, scrapbook layouts, gift boxes, some knitting all proving what a talented bunch you are.

The host for this month is our teamie Julia who has come up with the great theme of "Lets go to the Movies". Well all of the Inspiration Team really have pulled out the stops here so please do go over to the challenge blog and take a look. There are links to all their blogs so you can check our how they made the creations.

The first one I am sharing with you is my take on my all time movie favourite Gone With the Wind. A adore this movie and watch it at least once a year and often tuck the book in as well.......what a sado I hear you say, but afraid it's never lost it attraction for me and I find it incredible how a movie made in 1939 has such fantastic colour and remains so popular even to those of us who were not even born until years later. I also have a wonderful illustrated book based on the making of the movie which my daughter gave me years ago when she was small and the picture below shows my card laid on an open page of that book where you can see the same picture as the Stampsmith stamp I have used, proving it's creative authenticity.

The main image is 'that kiss ' famous amongst all GWTW fans which they will recognise, with Scarlett still mortified at having to wear mourning black in respect of all those lost at war. But Rhett had just bought her a jaunty little green hat with a feather to cheer her up, which just happened to match the curtains in the background, hence the inspiration for the colour theme of my card.

The image has been simply stamped with black stayzon onto gloss cardstock and a very light colour wash added with Marvy pens. The sentiment, also authentic from the movie to the word is of course what Rhett said to Scarlett just prior to 'the kiss'.........slush, slush I know, but what a love story this one is.

The swirls were cut from Cricut Home Decor, the DP is I believe Fancy Pants and the roses made from the same DP, then lace and cord added.

The rose tutorial I promise is on it's way, I did all the prep work and pictures, but due to my eye op and limited time on the computer have not been able to sit in the glare long enough to bring the post all together. But I promise it won't be long and for anyone able to come to Sir Stampalots Demo Day Saturday, I will be making them all day long.......what a wonderful way to spend the day.

By the Cute and Girly challenge 2

Did you all have a good Halloween night ? My goodness, my night was busy to say the least, it was 3am when I got home and by the time I had dusted off my broomstick and put it away ready for the next full moon it was almost time for breakfast.........if you are still with me, then yes of course I am talking drivel........but such a sad lot we are here in the fens that we take our witchery very seriously and the myths hold strong especially at this time of year.On to serious stuff, first I must tell everyone that I won Sally's fabulous blog candy, I was so thrilled to get her message, so thank you so much. Please do pop over to Sally's blog, she does some wonderful inspirational work.

And as it's the first of a new month, there is another challenge starting at By the Cute and Girly. We had a fantastic start to our new challenge with so many of you joining in with some wonderful projects. It has been really fun visiting you all and seeing your creations.

Our second challenge theme has been set by Debbie and is Winter Wonderland. The DT have all come up with some really inspirational work to set those creative juices flowing and we are so looking forward to see what this great theme means to you. For me Winter Wonderland evokes images of frosty blues and silvers and these are the colours I have chosen for these first projects.

I have been having so much fun making roses lately and tried out lots of different styles here, inking the edges with versafine blue and frosting with irridescent embossing powder and stamping on the larger ones with Hero H2365. The penguins on the card were stamped from Hero Arts K5260, masking the other two so I got just the one either side of the gatefold card which then cut round to achieve the shaped top. The borders on the inside have been punched with Martha Stewart embossed snowflake and the cut outs have been used as stars of the front of the card.

The candle is decorated with the same penguins stamped onto tissue, as have the snowflakes which are punched with Martha Stewart single snowflake from tissue paper which I inked with brilliance ink and embossed with iridescent powder before punching and then heating onto the candle along with the penguins. The DP is all from stash.

By the Cute and Girly reminder

Well, it's halfway through the month and what a fabulous response we have had to our first challenge at By the Cute and Girly . We are thrilled how many of you have already entered, but for those of your that have not had a look yet you can do so by clicking here. The Inspirational Team came up with a fantastic selection of projects for this months theme of Autumn Glory and being that this challenge is about ALL crafts we hope it will allow more of you to join in and show us what you make in your spare time. And of course there are prizes on offer and not just the one either, but three.

This is one of my projects where I tried to capture the three phases of the day, morning, noon and night. The image is JudiKins 2633G and the cobble path Art Impression L3297. The background on all three images was created with Glimmer Mists and masks and touches of Tim Holtz distress inks here and there. The words on the front were cut on Cricut Stretch Your Imagination and the leaves are from Inkadinkado 97513 inked with Brilliance and the tiny ones have been stamped with the same ink onto Shrink Plastic. The border is Martha Stewart Arched Lattice.

By the Cute and Girlies goes live

Today sees the start of the brand new monthly challenge By The Cute and Girly. And no ordinary challenge either as we want to see all your crafty projects from cardmaking, scrapbooking right through to needlework and cookery. The are prizes on offer for the different categories from some wonderful sponsors.

Fittingly the first challenge is "Autumn Glory". All of the wondeful and varied DT's creations are on the main challenge blog, but we will individually be sharing our own with you throughout the month. You will also find links to free downloads, tutorials and other useful information.

The first of my DT projects I am sharing is a frame card using Inkadinkado 97513. The frame was cut on Cricut Plantin Schoolbook which I then stamped randomly with the single leaf stamp using Brilliance Crimson, Thyme, Copper and Chocolate. Three more leaves were stamped onto card, cut out and decoupaged in the corner with some raffia. The background for the inside of the frame is watercolour card inked with Tim Holtz Spiced Marmalade, Peeled Paint and Scattered Straw - my preferred method of doing this is to dab each inkpad onto a silicone sheet several times, spritz well with water and then rub the card into the colour wash. The leaves are from the same set and the bird from Inkadinkado 98396 all embossed with detail copper.

News........By the Cute and Girly

Well, what exciting news I have, been itching to tell you all but wanted to check first that I can share my excitement. Yesterday I was asked by the lovely Jane to join her DT........she has been working very hard preparing her new challenge By the Cute and Girly - what a great name. And she has some great candy on offer as well, so you really should go over and check it out.

Jane has some great ideas and really has been doing her homework and I think this one is going to offer the opportunity for all types of crafters to join in. She has invited a wonderful talented team to join her and I feel very privileged to have been asked to work alongside the other girls. More information will be posted very soon so do keep an eye open for details as they unfold.

No card this morning yet, too excited still, so instead a picture of one of the beautiful dahlias in the garden. My husband informs me this variety is called Kelvin Floodlight and I have to say I think these are the largest dahlia blooms I have ever seen, each one is much larger than an outstretched hand - must be all the rain this year because they have grown like triffids.