My Favourite Things from September.......

The end of September is here, it doesn't seem 5 minutes since I wrote my August favourites. The highlight of September for me has got to be our holiday in Cornwall.

 

The girls first surf lesson, outdoor eating overlooking gorgeous views, hot chocolate on the beach, quality family time which sadly doesn't happen often enough.

Also Kerry and I went for a woodland walk at Bodenham Arboretum to take some autumn photo's, the weather was perfect to start off with then the heavens opened and chucked it down. I knew there was a summer house so we went off to look for it to shelter in, I couldn't find it so we sat under a tree until the rain knocked off, ate our lunch and had a flask of coffee.

I really enjoyed eating our little picnic under the tree in the rain and laughed so much when a pear fell off the tree straight onto Kerry's head, it nearly knocked her out,lol.
The rain didn't last for too long and the sun popped out again so we headed back to take some more photo's, when we went back to where we were, the summerhouse was just behind the hedge, I think Kerry called me all the names under the sun, in a nice way, she was laughing too. Here's a collage of some I my photo's

Have a great weekend, let's hope the sunshine here in the U.K. lasts for a while longer. I'll be back tomorrow with my LO for Scrapbookers Anonymous October challenge and don't forget to check out all the mini challenges in celebration of our first birthday, you still have a week left to enter.

xxxxDebxxxx

More Masculine Cards.................

It's Jodie's boyfriend's birthday tomorrow, 'Happy Birthday Dan', so I've had to make two men's cards, it's getting quite a regular thing lately.The first one is from Jodie and the second one is from us, he likes to play poker so went for the playing card theme using Crate Paper Restoration

Look what his parents have bought him for his birthday, how cute, he's a little Labradoodle, I met little Yogi yesterday and he is such a sweetie,he loves lots of cuddles.

Here's another couple of masculine cards,still with a 'keep it simple' theme.

This was my brother's birthday card which was on Tuesday, we went out for a lovely meal to celebrate,I used some of the new stamps from the Stampin'Up 2011/2012 catalogue for this card

My sister asked me to make this card for her nephew's 18th birthday, I used Crate Paper Restoration 6x6 pad again.





I've been tagged by the lovely June and I have to tell you 10 things about me, so here goes...

1: I have 2 girls, 21 & 16 who are my world and they both have boyfriends named Dan,lol.
2: I got married when I was 20 and have been married for 23 years
3: They say life begins at 40 and it sure has for me. I had my children quite young so now they're more independent, I'm going away weekends and socialising more, though I do miss them been little and enjoyed every minute of their childhood.
4: I want to renew my wedding vows in Las Vegas.
5: My favourite T.V shows are X Factor, Home and Away, Glee and Criminal Minds.
6: I've never been to Scotland and would like to visit sometime next year.
7: My favourite singer is Bruno Mars
8: I like to watch old movies especially Audrey Hepburn and Elvis,you may laugh but he was so cool.
9: I enjoy seafood.
10: I have to read before I go to sleep, I love books and read anything from the classics to a good chick lit. The only books I don't read are the tragic life stories.

I would like to tag Lisa, I love reading her blog Recklinghausen Musings, her LO's are always beautiful and she takes some gorgeous photo's.

Click here to enter my giveaway.

I'll be back tomorrow with a round up of My Favourite Things from September.

xxxxDebxxxx

One a Day......week 4

I now have 28 African Flower hexagons, I'm sewing them as I go, it doesn't look a lot different from last week, I'm loving how it's coming together though.

I've just finished the Swishy Scarf from the Cute & Easy Crochet book, I used Rooster Almerino DK and this will go to my sister as part of her Christmas present (she doesn't look at my blog so it will be a surprise). It feels lovely and soft to the touch,I hope she'll like it.

Thanks for looking and don't forget to enter my give-away HERE.

xxxxDebxxxx

Blog Candy.........Giveaway...

I would like to thank everyone who takes the time to read my little blog, I have made some wonderful blog friends along the way and love been part of the blog community.
I wrote my first post on 25th January 2010,who'd have thought 20 months later I'd be writing my 260th today and have over a hundred following me,which I'm thrilled with and really appreciate.
Anyway, I thought it was time I did a Blog Giveaway so to be in with a chance to win the blog candy below all you have to do is leave me a comment telling me what your favourite hobby/ pastime is.
If I could only pick one ,it would be card making even though I do love crochet and taking photo's nearly as much.

Blog Candy 

 my handmade pin cushion,a piece of pretty fabric,crocheted flowers,

notebook,paper flowers and a sweet metal hanging bird.

BTW, you don't have to become a follower to enter, if you want to spread the word though about the giveaway,please do.You have until next Monday, 9pm GMT+1. I am going to have a go at using a number generator to pick a winner but if I can't work out how to do it, I will go the old fashioned route and write all your names down on a piece of paper and get my baby niece to pick one on Tueday.

xxxxDebxxxx

Bright Pink,Black & Grey...............CR84FN 38.

The weekend is nearly here,any plans? I started a 10 week photography course on Wednesday with my friend Kerry, so we're going for a woodland walk to practise our camera 'skills', lol. Hopefully in the next few weeks you will see an improvement in my photo's. Watch this space !!!!!
Well, CR84FN have done it again,another gorgeous colour combo. I love to use grey on my cards,so much softer than using all black.

My first project using this fab colour combo is a pin cushion using the new Stampin'Up Timeless Portrait and Flirtatious fabric which co-ordinates with the papers and stamps.I made the fabric flower by ripping a length of fabric,folding in half and making a running stitch along the bottom edge,pulling tight to gather the fabric into a circle and adding a grey button to the centre.

I've used hot pink on the back.

Here's a card to co-ordinate with the pin cushion.

I love this stamp set Forever Young from the new Stampin'Up catalogue, the silhouette and frame are just a small part of this set, I will be showing you more cards in the next few days using the other stamps,the papers and ribbon are also SU.
I hope you all have a good weekend,back soon, I may even have some great woodland photo's,lol.

xxxxDebxxxx

Scrapbookers Anonymous Mini Challenge......Stamping.

Happy Thursday,I hope your week is going well, this month Scrapbookers Anonymous are celebrating their first anniversary,there have been lots of fun challenges set by some of the DT over the last three weeks and today it is my turn to host a mini challenge. I've decided on stamping as this was how I got into papercrafting many years ago and is still my favourite technique. When I make a card I nearly always have some stamped image on it but I never seem use them on my LO's,so I thought I would challenge you all and myself to do some stamping on your project whether it's a LO,card home decor or a 3D project.
First I stamped and heat embossed a 12x12 piece of white card to make my own background paper,most of my ink pads are dye ink and to use embossing powder you should use a pigment ink so to get around that I inked my stamp first with clear Versamark ink and then a coloured dye ink on top of the Versamark. If you then stamp onto card and immediately cover with clear embossing powder,the powder will cling to the ink,then heat it with your heat tool to set. You will end up with a lovely raised,glossy image.

 

I wanted some stamped embellishments on my LO so I stamped some bunting/pennants to put along the bottom of the photo,another idea is to stamp some plain paper flowers or stamp and decorate a tag.

I don't know about you but when I cover bare chipboard in paper it takes me forever and then it never looks neat so a really quick way to alter them is to stamp on them.

I used a background stamp to cover my chipboard title,it is so much quicker !!!!!!
I look forward to seeing your stamped projects,if you pop over to Scrapbookers Anonymous you can add your project to the link and check out all the other challenges going on,you still have plenty time.
Everything I've used on this LO is from  Stampin'Up including some of the new products which are available from the 1st October.

Happy Crafting
xxxxDebxxxxx

A Masculine Card...............

It is Paige's boyfriend's birthday today so she asked me to make her a card for him,eekkk!!!! They have been friends for years but they have only just recently started going out so she didn't want anything lovey dovey.
I don't have a lot of male orientated stash so I really do struggle,my theory now though is to keep masculine cards simple so that's what I did.
I saw this cute sketch over at Cardabilities and decided to use that as my starting point.

Here's my finished card:

All the papers are from my scrap box, the stamped sentiment and clip are from Stampin'Up. Nice and simple,just hope he likes it !!!!!

xxxxDebxxxx

One a Day..........Week 3.

It's now 3 weeks since I started 'One a Day' and I have 22 African Flower hexagons, I'm trying to get as many different colour combo's that I can and when I got to 14 joined them together and have carried on joining each one as I finish.
I can get 12 hexagons from one ball of the cream yarn and I have 6 balls so I should be able to make 72, I might go bigger if I can buy more of the same yarn so watch this space.
Check out everybody else's progress over on Carole's blog, Gingrebread Girl and it's never to late to join in if you fancy starting that big project you've been putting off.

Today,Libby, Rach,Baby Mya and Lisa came round for coffee,it was good to see the girls and have a cuddle off Mya,she has grown so much since the last time I saw her. It was Libby's birthday yesterday so we got to sing 'Happy Birthday' and give her the presents from Rach and I.
We don't get to see Lisa very often as she lives in Germany so it was good to catch up and the conversation mostly revolved around crafting,lol. Lisa is GD over at Counterfit Kit Challenge this month and has convinced me to give next month's challenge a go,I will probably make more cards with my kit than LO's but Lisa said that is fine.
Look at these cupcakes that she bought round to have with our coffee,yummy !!!!!

Thanks for stopping by........
xxxxDebxxxx

Happy Ist Birthday.......

Today is my baby niece's 1st birthday,this last year has whizzed by,I look after her one day a week and boy had I forgotten how time consuming they are especially now she's walking but she is adorable and so affectionate,she loves a cuddle.

Breakfast at Aunty Deb's

Here are the cards I've made for her birthday....one off her Mummy and Daddy and one from us.

The papers are from MME paper stack and the cute little lamb was Papermania Honey & Hugs which I embossed with white embossing powder.

This card was made using Stampin'Up Crazy for Cupcakes and SU papers. I blatantly scrap lifted this card from the SU catalogue so all credit goes to them but I thought it was so cute I couldn't resist.

Have a great weekend,my friends,whatever you're up too.We're at a Race Afternoon on Sunday,raising funds for Athletico FC,my daughter's boyfriend plays for them,they are always good fun so I look forward to that.

xxxxDebxxxx

B is for..................Bo Bunny

It's the 15th of the month today which means it's time for the A-Z challenge over at Scrapbookers Anonymous and this month is the letter B. I shall be using papers with the letter corresponding to the manufacturer for these challenges,so I can use up some of my paper stash but it can be anything from embellishments,the title,photo a technique,what ever you fancy as long as you include something with the letter B.
I used Bo Bunny Deliah for this LO,I've had these papers for a year now and have never used them,why do I do that !!!!

I used this sketch #173 from Creative Scrappers.

These photo's were taken walking around Bodenham Arboretum last Autumn,it's so pretty at this time of year with all the leaves turning those rich shades of red,gold and orange and I was thrilled to see the red toadstool's,I'm sure if you look carefully there will be fairies and pixies living under them !!!!

I did lots of tearing and distressing on this page with some zig-zag stitching around the edge,I used 'That Special Touch' leaf mask and sprayed some Suede TA,then layered some Prima flowers and a Tim Holtz 'wander' metal token,the wood effect alpha's are from Sassa Fras.

I hope you get chance to play along and don't forget our challenges aren't just for scrapbookers,it could be cards or altered art as long as your using up all that stash you have,don't forget to check out all the mini challenges this month in honour of our first birthday with lots of prizes up for grabs, I shall be hosting a mini challenge on the 22nd so look out for that.Also our main challenge is still running until the end of the month,we ask you to use some chipboard on your project and you could win a bumper pack of chipboard pieces.

Happy Crafting !!!!!

xxxxDebxxxx

One a Day.....................Tuesday's Tally

While I was  blog-hopping a few weeks ago,I came across Carole's blog, Gingerbread Girl, and she was just about to start a group over at Ravelry called One a Day. The idea is to pick a blanket you'd like to crochet or knit ,made up of smaller shapes and just make 'one a day' until you have the size blanket you want,not such a daunting task and you can carry on with other projects too, perfect !!!!!
I was on holiday last week so couldn't take part in the first Tuesday's Tallie so this is my first official post.

I decided to make an African Flower Hexagon Blanket which I saw on Heidi Bears  blog,I bought loads of Sirdar Sublime baby cotton kapok when it was half price so decided to use that rather than buying some new yarn.I don't know how big the blanket will be,I will just keep making hexagons until I run out of yarn. I did one practise one and then started my 'one a day' on the 1st September so I now have 14 hexagons.

 I love been part of this group,there are so many wonderful blankets and throws that people have started for One a day, Carole has a Mr. Linky every Tuesday so you can check out everybody else's project's and their progress.Why not join in,if you've been thinking about starting a large crochet or knitting  project but are put off by how much time it would take up or an unfinished one that you have got bored with,it's a great way to get it finished.
While I was on holiday,I popped into a wool shop called Buttons and Beads in St. Austell and bought some Manos del Uruguay Lace to make the Summer Evening Shawl from Cute and Easy Crochet book,as soon as I start it I will give you a little peek but here is the wool.

I also bought this wool at a bargain price of £1.50 a ball.

I didn't just buy wool, I couldn't resist these cute shoes from Joules which were reduced from £49.50 down to £15.00, I love a bargain !!!!!

Thanks for looking.............til next time.... Happy Crafting.

 xxxxDebxxxx

Easy as 1-2-3................

I think I've found my mojo !!!!! When I got back from Cornwall I saw this week's challenge over at City Crafter Challenge Blog and had lots of idea's buzzing through my head of what I could do,which for the last few weeks I've struggled to come up with anything. Also I had a parcel waiting for me with some new products from the new SU catalogue 2011/2012 which is available from 1st October,to say I'm excited about the new products is an understatement.I know I say it every year but I think it's the best to date,with lots of scrummy goodies.
So now with my creative juices flowing,back to this week's challenge,my lovely blog friend Linda is hosting this week and has gone with  Easy as 1-2-3 so you need to use:

1 ribbon

2 or more words

3 or more butterflies

Here's my card using the new SU Flirtatious papers which includes the laser cut doily: 

 Supply List: all products are Stampin'Up !

Papers:  Flirtatious, Subtles Paper Stack

Stamps: Happiest Birthday Wishes (hostess)

Punches: 1 3/8 circle,Scallop Circle

Card Stock : Melon Mambo,Pretty in Pink

Other: Pretty in Pink taffeta ribbon,Pretty in Pink ink,Beautiful Wings embosslit die.

Check out what the designers have created this week over at CCCB for some great inspiration and this week's Guest Designer is my fellow team member Lynnda from Scrapbookers Anonymous.

Thank for taking the time to look,until next time......hugs.

xxxxDebxxxx