Every snowflake is unique.

How is everyone getting on with their Christmas cards?
There's only 102 sleeps to go!!!   :-)

Here's another card I have made to go on the Christmas pile.

I followed the challenge sketch over at Sketch and Stash.
and my newest stash is these Memory Box papers.. they are just gorgeous 

and if you head over to Crafty Emma's Store you can grab some before they all go!

I have been trying to be a bit bolder with my colouring, using deeper shades of my copics,

but it was a bit tricky with the red, because I only have one deep red pen.

I tried to lighten areas with my blender pen, but I can't get on with that at all.

It just seems to creat an ugly 'water' mark and make the paper look like it's been rubbed too hard!!

Practice, practice,  I suppose!

Stamp - Pink Gem Mimi with Snowman, coloured with Copics. I also added some  Liquid Pearls 'Platinum' to her coat buttons and some Stickles Glitter ' Frosted Lace' to the snowman and ground.

Design Paper - Memory Box 'Spiceberry'.

Snowflakes cut with Slice machine (Fa la la design card) and then covered with glitter.

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Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the Autumn tree. ( Emily Bronte)

Well, Autumn seems to have well and truly arrived. My tumble dryer is working overtime and it won't be long before we have to fire up the central heating!!   I love it!!    It's my favourite time of year, and if I'm very lucky we will have a nice thunderstorm before too long!

Here's my latest card, using some lovely Autumn colours.

I followed Dawny's great challenge sketch over at Just Magnolia - which sent me scrabbling around in the kitchen cupboards looking for something to draw around for the large circle. I eventually found a glass sundae dish that was the perfect size!!
The tag was cut with my slice machine and I added some DP to the centre. Then I cut out my Tilda, coloured her with copics and stuck her on with foam pads. I used a punch for the small flowers, nipped the petals together to give them a little shape and added an adhesive pearl to the centre. I used card candy on the tag and the corners and finished off with some stickles glitter and the birthday sentiment.

I would also like to enter this card for Craft Yours Days Away - 'Girly 'n' Glitter'. ( Is it girly enough?? )
                                                  and  Allsorts - 'Colours of Autumn'

Stamp - Magnolia 'Flower Power Tilda'
Design Paper - Memory Box 'Blackbird'
Tag cut with Slice Machine - Basic Elements
Blooms - XCut punch
Card candy and sentiment from Craftwork Cards
'Diamond' Stickles glitter.

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Carrot cake counts as eating vegetables, right?

I am going to make it one of my 5 a day!!!     :-)

Hubby has been bugging me to make carrot cake for ages, so I finally gave in.

This was VERY easy to make, just throw all the ingredients into a bowl and mix them up.

I also whipped up a batch of cupcakes and decorated them with chocolate butter cream and mini Oreos.

Not very pretty.... but yummy none the less!

Here's the recipe for the Carrot Cake. It's from  'Mary Berry's Baking Bible'.

If you give it a try, let me know how you get on.

Tip: I nearly took the cake out after 45 mins, because it looked ready on top, but I covered it with foil
and gave it another 5 mins, and I'm glad I did.

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Eat, drink and be scary!

Do you celebrate Halloween?
I don't think it every really caught on around here.

I did all the trick or treating when the girls were younger,
but last year, I don't think we had a single caller!

Shame -  I had to eat all the Halloween candy myself!!!

I made a little 'trick or treat' basket using the very easy template from

  Clear and Simple Stamps Blog.
It's only small, but I managed to fit a couple of bags of Mini Oreos inside. These bags are joined together in two's and as I ripped them apart, one split open, scattering Oreos everywhere. It was a mad scrabble between me and the dog to see who could grab the most. I think she won!!

For my card I used the lush memory Box paper 'Blackbird''.
It's so gorgeous that I didn't want to cover it up too much.
I paper-pieced a lot of my stamp and coloured the rest in with Copics.
I added the 'Oct 31st' text and a few adhesive pearls, colouring them black with a copic pen.

I would like to enter this for a couple of challenges, first of all Fab 'n' Funky, where the theme is "What'eva".
This means you can make anything you like!
And secondly Simon Says Stamp - 'Holiday Fun'.  Simon Says are also running a Stamp-tember Hop, that you DO NOT want to miss out on. Check their blog for all the details.

Recipe - 

Design Paper - Memory Box, Blackbird.

Stamp - Pink Gem Designs, Milly with Pumpkin.

Oct 31 cut with Slice machine - Fa La La design card.

Advesive pearls, coloured black with Copics.

Totally Papercrafts #33 Let's Go Dotty

We had lots of  'Charming'  entries over at Totally Papercrafts last week,
pop on over to the blog and see who the lucky winner was
and who I chose for the Top 3.

I am hosting this week's challenge and it's one that everyone will be able to join in -

the theme is

'Let's go Dotty'

I'd like to see dots on papers, dots on stamps, dots on ribbons.

Embossed dots, glitter dots and glossy dots.

You can go crazy, or just add a few!

Check out the fabulous work of my teamies,
and if you visit their blogs, comments are always welcome.

Here's my project...

a dotty birthday card and a box of chocolate, dotty cupcakes!!

The cupcake box and cases came from Sainsbury's - I just covered the box with Pink Petticoat's Digi Papers  - in blueberry. I added a die cut card, stamped the text and put a bloom in the corner.

For the card, I used the same dotty digi paper. I masked my cupcake stamps and also paper-pieced the cases. I added a little, green die cut tag, and an 'it's your birthday' stamp.

Digi Paper - Pink Petticoat 'Big dots little dots'

Die cuts and paper for the paper-pieced cupcake cases - Kaiser Craft La Di Da

Cupcakes, 'treat yourself' and 'celebrate' stamps - Simon Says Stamp, Savor Sweet Cupcakes

It's your Birthday stamp - Cat's life Press.

PS - the cupcakes were yummy!!!   lol**

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A Good Hair Day !!!

How do you like my hair?

I asked for a Jennifer Aniston, 

but hairdressers never listen, do they???

:-)

It's your birthday...celebrate with a bath!!!

This will be my pooch tomorrow ( minus the mice, I hope!!! )
as she goes to the groomers for a bath and a haircut.

I have to keep it quiet though - if she suspects that's where she's going

she will hide under the cupboard and refuse to come out!

This is my card for the House Mouse challenge,
where the theme is 'Make a Splash!'

It was a very simple and quick card.
I coloured the image with Copics and added glitter to the bubbles.
The little doggy is a button - I just used pliers to snip off the shank
and the 'happy birrthday' is lifted with foam pads.

Stamp - House Mouse 'Soggy Doggy'
Design Paper - Basic Grey - Max & Whiskers
Happy Birthday Stamp - Cat's Life Press
(Papers and text stamp available at Crafty Emma's Store )

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Glitter Reindeer

I have been a terrible blogger recently, but in my defense, I have had a new toy to play with. I got a

Making Memories Slice machine for my birthday  :-)

So I have been playing at cutting out shapes and getting used to the machine. I already know I am going to LOVE it!

Here is my first card using it. It's a little bit different to my usual style, mainly because I used no stamping,

but the more I look at it, the more it's growing on me...lol**

My Slice machine cut the reindeer, the large snowflakes and the small tags.
I covered the reindeer with Diamond Dust, and I used a punch for the centre of the snowflakes,
then added a pearl and some stickles glitter.

I would like to enter for the following challenges 

Sketch Saturday - Jeanette's Sketch. (Now I have looked at the sketch again, I have missed out the strip across the middle, so just delete me if I don't qualify to enter!)
A Spoon Full of Sugar - 'Animal Crackers'.

Making Memories Slice - 'Fa La La' Design Card
Xcut Snowflake Embossing Punch
Design Paper - My Mind's Eye, Signature Christmas
Stickles glitter, Diamon Dust and Adhesive Pearls

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It's The Bombe!!

The Ice-cream Bombe!!

Do you love ice-cream?  Then this is the dessert for you. It's so easy to make - just basic assembly, and you can use whatever ice-creams and sweeties you like. I made this for a family meal and it was a big hit. Next time I will use ice-creams that are more of a contrast and try and be a bit neater!

1 litre ice-cream.

750ml ice-cream

500ml ice-cream

chocolates or sweeties

1 loaf madeira or chocolate cake.

white chocolate for decorating.

I used 1 lite of Triple Chocolate, 750ml of Latte Macciato and 500ml Vanilla. Freeze a 20cm, freezer proof bowl. Soften the chocolate ice-cream in the fridge, enough so that it will spread easily. Then, using a spatula spread it around the inside of the bowl. Refreeze for about 30 mins, until the ice-cream is hard again.
Soften the Latte ice-cream in the fridge, then spread this in the same way, making a layer inside the chocolate one. Refreeze.
Soften the Vanilla ice-cream and then stir in your chocolates or sweeties. I used After Eights, broken up, but you could use chocolate truffles, fudge,  or maybe try it with smarties, or broken up crunchies!!
Fill the space you have left with the vanilla ice-cream.
Thinly slice the cake (I used chocolate swiss roll ) and cover the ice-cream completely. This will make a base for your ice-cream and stop it sliding around on the plate when you turn it out. Cover with clingfilm and refreeze.
To serve, melt the white chocolate.  Warm the bowl of ice-cream slightly, by dipping it in boiling water, and turn it out onto a plate. Drizzle with the chocolate and leave to soften slightly before cutting it.
I returned mine to the freezer until we were ready for it, and found that it cut fairly easily while still frozen. I think I used quite soft ice-cream though.

New Baby Boy

Mad, crazy friends of ours are having another baby ( their 3rd ) due in the next couple of weeks.

Hubby said - "it's definitely a boy."   "Well, I think it is... maybe...  it might not be though!!"

So - if it turns out to be a little girl I will have to dash for the pink papers!!

I saw this cute little baby carriage and just HAD to make one.

I downloaded Niki's excellent template - here
I haven't filled mine yet - I need a trip to the sweetie shop -

but I thought a little bag of blue, sugared almonds would be perfect. 

For the card I followed the great sketch by Paola,
over at A Spoon Full of Sugar.

Stamp - Whimsy Digital Stamps, Sweet Little Donkey, coloured with Copics.

'A New Baby Boy' and apron stamp from a     set
Design Paper - DCWV Nana's Nursery, Baby Boy.

Edge paper punch - Martha Stewart Lace 

Buttons, card candy and ribbon from my stash.

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Totally Papercrafts #32 Charming

Morning everyone..

lots of you will be on the final days of the summer hols this weekend.

Hooray!!!

Time to get those last minute uniforms sorted and
put your child's name into everything they posess!!
And, it's also time for a new challenge over at

Totally Papercrafts.

This week, the lovely Joanne has chosen the theme of

''Charming''

We want to see your card or project with an added charm.

These are readily available from most craft stores now -
or maybe you know how to make your own!

!

Pop on over to the challenge blog to see the fab work of my teamies,
and if you stop by their blogs,
don't forget to leave them a lovely comment.

Here's my card -
using a cute image from this week's sponsors - 

Soft Pencil Digital Stamps

I have a stack of these cards (152mm x 104mm )
that I find a bit too small, so to create a more workable area

I have added an extra piece of card to the top of them.
My image is coloured with Copics 

and the mushroom is dabbed with liquid pearls.

The heart charms were in my local craft shop, in the jewellery section,
I used split rings to add them to a  straighter piece (don't know what that's called!)
then threaded it with little beads.
I have rescued a little pair of round nose pliars from my dh's toolbox,

for these fiddly jobs!!!

I will give them a much better home.

:-)

Digital Stamp - 'Ratiny's Mushroom Home Soft Pencil Digis

DP - Kaiser Craft La-Di-Da

Huge thankyou to Faye who sent me this gorgeous paper pad as part
of a blog candy prize.