Secondary School

I hated the thought of my sweet girl starting secondary school and now it has happened I hate it even more! We didn't alas get her into the school of our choice (don't know of any who did!) and she isn't faring too weell three weeks into the first term. It is an unbelievable worry!! It is not her ability that is a worry, she has been placed into all the top groups, it is more the interaction with the other girls, so many girls are downright nasty these days!! I am going to be watching her very carefully, any sign of anything untoward and I'll have her out of there quicker than a very quick thing.

Here she is on the morning of her very first day.

Don't you just want them to stay little forever??

Sometimes......

.........when you are feeling low your friends come and lift you right up. Wow, wow wow WOW! Just look what I got from two wonderful friends from my forum.

An beautiful HUGE bouquet of flowers from Petra:

aren't they stunning?

....and an amazing card from Juliet.

Look at the detail and the beautiful stitching!

Thank you so much girls xxxx

I am so lucky to have the best bunch of girls on the forum! :o)

Going for a Song.....

Yep, here is my weekly post. I have become a bad blogger again (oh how easy we fall) but at least I do turn up once a week :o)

This week the challenge on Dottie's World was set by Louise who chose "Going for a song" - "all you have to do is use a line from a song on the front of your card"

I chose Dracula George from the Halloween collection as my subject for both my example cards.

1st Card

2nd card

Halloween Dracula George, K&Co Halloween collection products, Doodlebug Rick Rack, Prima LRibbon, Hot Off The Press Music Brads, Imaginisce Hallloween Brads.

Killing two birds with one stone....

...what a horrible saying "killing two birds with one stone", I apologise to all you vegetarians out there, I didn't really kill two birds. BUT what I did do was combine two tasks into one.

It's been one of those weeks that you are glad to see the back off, a week where I seem to have been flying around like a headless chicken. The only time I had any respite was when I sat down to watch Big Brother (what a disappointing finale). This of course is leading up to my excuse as to why I am late with the Dottie World design team card. I simply haven't had the time! Yesterday was incredibly busy too so I didn't settle down to start making it until 9pm last night, and of course my mojo had gone up and gone so it was a real struggle this week. I think if I had had more time then this card would have ended up in the bin!

Now I have set a new sketch challenge on the Charmed Craft Talk forum and needed an example card for that, so I decided to combine Dottie's World Sunday Challenge with the sketch. The challenge on Dottie's World was set by Nicola and it was a unique and interesting subject:

"AND ALSO......I would like you to make a card or something, which of course is using a download/s from Charmed Cards AND ALSO.....something which can be removed from it,such as a tag,bookmark,notelets"

I decided on a fridge magnet as my "removable part. This was my sketch from my forum (join in please, I would love to see what you come up with):

Members on Charmed Craft Talk wanted the sketch to apply to both cards and LO's so I made a kinda mini LO card. I love the Halloween colours and embellishments, this card shows that they can be used for other occasions, not just Halloween. I think a boy would be very pleased to receive this card.

I used Mummy George from the Halloween collection, plus the broomstick from Flying Witch Dottie. The broomsticks here are 17cm in length so I could almost fly on them myself!

The fridge magnet is in the centre. Here it is on and off (with little Monster Dottie hiding beneath). The wording reads "Happy Birthday .... Have a spooktacular day.... with lots of treats". The writing looks weird here, that's the flash, it's not like that "in real life" (you just can't get the light these days!):

This is a big card measuring 180mm sq so I had to patch up the back to make it the right size. It actually look really really nice inside:

...... and here is the fridge magnet in action:

All other products used here are from the K&Co Halloween collection.

Pop over to Dottie World to join the Sunday Challenge, and Charmed Craft Talk for the sketch challenge :o)

Sunday Challenge on Dottie's World

The lovely Juliet set the challenge on Dottie's World this week: "inspired by Becky's card this week I realised that you wouldn't HAVE to have the Christmas downloads to make a Christmas card with Dottie & George and that is the challenge - a Christmas card, tag, Christmas tree ornament - anything goes as long as it is Christmassy. It's that simple!"

I decided to work with the new Imaginisce Snowy Jo products as well as the Christmas Downloads. This concertina card was a bit of a labour of love but I love the result. This is a large substantial card and would serve as a lovely Christmas ornament on the mantelpiece (over 50cm wide when opened). I made one such card ages ago for the site using the K&Co Berry Sweet range, you can see instructions here.

Front of card when folded (below)

Card Open (below).

The journalling area on the second section from the left is all ready for the senders personal Christmas message. I haven't written anything as I don't know who I am giving this one too ;o)

View of the back of the card (below)

All the background paper on all sections, front and back, has been embossed although it may not show so well here in the pictures.

Pockets and tags were cut on my Quickutz Silhouette using Imaginisce Snowy Jo "Tinsel to the Top" paper. It does look much better IRL I assure you.

Products used:

• Images from the Dottie and George Christmas Download Bundle: Angle Dottie, Christmas Tree, Garland

• Cuttlebug Embossing Folder "Swiss Dots"

• The following from the Imaginisce Snowy Jo range: "Tinsel to the top" paper, small Crystal Snow Flowers, Large glitter and "Santa" epoxy brads, Tinsel Tag Sticker

• Plain Blue cardstock is Basic Grey Blitzen. I also used Blitzen fibres on the tags
• We R Memory Keepers Silver eyelets set with my Crop-a-dile

• Snow writer (snow on the top of the card)

• American Crafts Polka Dot Satin Ribbon

• Liberal use of Glossy Accents

All products used can be purchased from Charmed Cards & Crafts

The trees forming a border at the bottom of all section were cut from the leftover bits of the "Tinsel to the top" paper.

I had made a large scalloped square on the Silhouette when I cut the pockets and tags for the concertina card above so decided to make another quickie card to use it (waste not want not!!).





Products used for this one:

• Santa George Download
• Imaginisce Snowy Jo "Tinsel to the Top" paper (got a lot out of one sheet of paper, eh?!)
• Basic Grey Blitzen Cranberry Cardstock
• Blue Bazzill Bling Cardstock
• Sparkling blue thread for sewing
• Imaginisce Snowy Jo Large glitter Brads and Tra la la la la rub-on (Merry Christmas)
• Red and Gold Dovecraft Christmas brads
• Presents are from the K&CO Adhesive Chipboard pack and the "Jingle" is from the K&CO Peppermint Twist Die-cut pack.
• American Crafts ribbon as before
• Glistening snow writer on Santa George's Beard, coat and hat.

Again all products can be bought at Charmed.

Thanks for visiting.
xx

Summer?

I do believe we have a bit of summer!! What a shame it wasn't like this when my girls went with their dad to Devon for the week! They had a whole two hours surfing in the sea and quoted it as the highlight from the week, bless. Give them a surfboard, the sea, and a warmish climate, and they are as happy as pigs in poo! So this bit of summer came two weeks too late. Just look at this Devon beach in the middle of August, just one of my girls crawling up, totally deserted apart from them. :

When Aimee was buried in the sand in this picture she wore her bodysuit!

Good job they had this absolutely gorgeous villa to relax in - just check out the garden!! There were four patio areas alone! Yes, that little bridge is part of the garden!

It was MASSIVE!!!

The house (and you should see it inside:

Gorgeous eh? The moral of the story is this: make sure you have a gorgeous place to stay if holidaying in Britain as the weather is bound to be totally cr*p the week you go (insert wry smile here).

Changing the subject completely here is a quick example card I just made using one of my baby sentiment circles. Light is rubbish at the moment so I'll replace when I can.

Products used here:

• Imaginisce Baby Powder paper "Tiny Tantrum" (Doublesided and both sides are used here)
• Imaginisce Pink Polished Pebble Brad
• Basic Grey Pink Brad
• Imaginsce Baby Powder Ribbon
• White Acrylic Paint (for around the scallops)
• 3-D Embellishments "Pastel Zoo Animals".

All available at Charmed Cards & Crafts

Thanks for visiting xx

FREE Baby Sentiment Circles

It's been a really hectic week, but I have just had time to create some baby sentiment circles for you (copyright: personal use only). No example cards this time I'm afraid but I'll try and do some over the weekend. Each image comes in two formats: JPG and PNG.

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I hope you like them xx

Blog Candy Winner!

Crikey that took a long time LOL Writing all those names was not a mean task, most of them had to be written twice! Still, it was a pleasure knowing that one of you would be my winner. My girls were very excited and helped write the names (I called them out, they took turns in writing a name). The name eventually drawn was...........

KATTY BELL

Katty for some reason I can't leave a comment on your blog so please email me with your address. Email address is here.

I really enjoyed your daily comments, thank you girls; it wont be long before I have another bundle of candy for you :o)

xxx

Dottie and George on Layouts

I realised earlier that I have never seen any of our downloads used on layouts, yet they present a unique way of adding fun and innovative design to any scrapbook page. I therefore seized the chance to use the new Halloween Collection created by Louise Brigden and two of the designs from there, "Flying with Dottie" and "Ghost George". I keep harping on about this but once again it demonstrates how versatile these downloads are as you are able to create just the size that you want.

Products used:

Images from the Halloween Download bundle

Imaginisce Hallowhimsy paper, Spider sticker and Epoxy brad

Bazzill Cardstock

Basic Grey Red Buttons

K&Co Self-adhesive chipboard (Bat, Cat, "Eek")

By the way, how many pictures do you take of your projects before you are happy with the outcome (if ever you ARE happy with the outcome that is)? I wont tell you how many I took for this one, the light was rubbish and I just couldn't get it right! As always it looks so much better "in the flesh".

Come back tomorrow and I'll announce my blog candy winner.

xxx

Tag, Hearts and Flowers Challenge PLUS Free Word Circle # 5

Adele set her first Sunday challenge over on Dottie's World, and a great challenge it is too. Adele wanted the following:

"I want to see tags, tags of any shape or size. It could be tag shape toppers, gift tags, tag books....and because we have just celebrated our wedding anniversary....I want to see hearts and flowers too!!!"

Well here was the perfect excuse for making another Word Circle Sentiment for you! I made this one into a large tag and embellished with a coloured Mum to Be Dottie from the "Love and Marriage" download bundle. The background is rather generic in greens and yellows; blue and pink have also been used including on the edge of the circle where half is inked pink and the other half blue - assuming this new mummy to be does not know the gender of her child.

Also used:

• Cuttlebug Heart Blocks Embossing folder
  
• Imaginisce Baby Powder Paper , ribbon, large crystal brad and flower
  
• K&Co Berry Sweet Adhesive borders (the monkeys)
  
• Small Pink/Blue/GreenBasic Grey brads in my doodled Heart Flower border and large pink and Blue BG brads

.....and here is your sentiment circle (copyrighted for personal use only).

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I am going to make you a couple of circles for a new baby boy and a new baby girl next week so watch this space.

xxx