It's Me, Sarah

Simply Does It

Whilst making cards I have realised that - usually - the simpler the design, the better they look.  I do love some of the beautifully intricate cards I see on other peoples blogs (Amy Sheffer for example), there is no doubt they are stunning (and I may attempt some of those one day) but, for me, its all clean and simple because I am making them to have a stash ready for those moments when you need one and I would never get them done if I went all elaborate about it.

Here are a couple more I have made lately :)

The houses are cut from some Fancy Pants Kraft card and the sentiment was printed

Just paper, button and string (sentiment is printed onto Kraft Cardstock)

 

The flowers on this card are from a lovely little Hero Arts stamp and the 'Thanks a Bunch' stamp is from a SeeD's thank you set

My nephew Jason, who has just moved in with his girlfriend, phoned me to say how much he loved the New Home card which was just lovely - especially coming from the male of the species who don't usually care to much for home made stuff :)

I have been scrapping as well but nothing I can share at the moment, I can say that my layout for The Scrapbook Magazine (out on 11th February) will be gracing the cover. 

We are thinking of getting a little fish tank for the kids so I am going to pop to the tropical fish shop today to look at the tanks (will be a small one!) so that it can be set up ready to take the kids to the shop for fishes tomorrow.

Getting the Card Bug!

I have been struck by the cardmaking bug!  I really want to make a big batch of cards so that I have them on hand for peoples birthdays instead of stressing that I need to make one when birthdays are looming.  I never seem to get around to it and end up buying one which is disgusting considering the amount of 'stuff' I have here to make them.

Here are a couple I have done over the last few weeks.

 

 

We are having a very lazy weekend!  Mark was duty on Friday and got home on Saturday morning, we spent the day watching DVD's and snoozing on the sofa - lovely :)  Today we gave the kids a belated Christmas present.  They had so much at Christmas that we decided to save their didicars for a later date so they were very excited this morning to receive a surprise present.  It's amazing how the cars propel themselves along just by turning the steering wheel, I have to admit that Mark and I had a go on them (well a few gos!) in the kitchen.  Ben and Charlotte have been outside this morning screaming up and down the path on the cars - definitely a good buy, they love them.

Happy Birthday Mum

It's my Mum's birthday today and I don't have anything to give her because her present hasn't arrived yet :)  I have ordered her some gorgeous embroidery scissors by WASA but they are coming from America.  She knows that they are on the way and I did make her this pretty card so I hope she is happy.

The stamp is one of the Gorjuss Girls stamps from Funky Kits, she's adorable.  The flowers are from the Hero Arts Nice Little Border stamp I just cut them outand adhered them with dimensional tape.  Everything is coloured with Prisma's and the papers are, again, from the Making Memories Just Chillin' girl range (6' x 6" pad).  Other supplies are Bazzill card, Hero Arts sentiment, Quickutz Silhouette, Nestibilities and Stampin' Up ribbon.

Right, I am typing this at 7.30 am but not publishing until Mum has received the card, must go and get the kids ready for school :)

Just Chillin'

Well, yesterday was a bit of a washout!  Mark came home from work on Sunday morning and said that he would take us all out for lunch - woo hoo!  I went upstairs and got changed out of my 'Sunday lounging around the house' clothes and put on a bit of make-up.  On the way to 'lunch' we needed to stop at Halfords so that Mark could have his bike fixed.  The kids and I stayed in the car (for about 40 minutes!) whilst this was being done.  I began to feel very sick and had to get out of the car - just in case.  Mark came back, smiling because his bike was fixed and got in the car, we were on our way NOT!!  The car wouldn't start, it has one of those card key things so we were a little confused as to what to do, Mark doesn't know anything about cars and the dashboard was going beserk.  Anyway, the upshot is that the day was then spent getting towed home by Geoff (Geoff to the rescue once again!) who then helped Mark to sort the car out (needed a new battery) whilst I cooked our dinner.  I then collapsed on the sofa and slept for a few hours so perhaps going out for lunch wouldn't have been such a good idea anyway. 

Just so that I have a picture in my post, here is a card I made last week using Making Memories gorgeous Just Chillin' collection.

It features that lovely Hero Arts birdy stamp too.

I did a layout this morning using the same range of papers, I will upload it tomorrow when I have scanned it.

Happy Easter

We are having a very lazy Easter Sunday and it is lovely!  Amy went down for a sleep and Ben and Charlotte were being nice and quiet so I thought I would quickly whip up a birthday card - I haven't been scrapping much lately due to my craft room being built (update on that tomorrow) so it was nice to do something crafty.

I stamped part of the image on the inside of the card to match the front and just added a little bit of selective colouring with my Copic markers.

Phew!

It has been one of those months were I have had loads to blog about but just haven't had the time to do it!

We have had Bens birthday, he is now a big boy seven.  He got the Heelies that he has wanted forever!  He even had enough birthday money to buy himself a new big boys bike!  Lucky boy :)

I have had the Plymouth crop and had a lovely day.  I have just tried to take some photos of the layouts I did but the light is awful so I will post those another day.

Work is still going on for my craft room and the kitchen wall now has a large hole in it ready for a doorway.  It is a mess in the kitchen.  It is beginning to look like a room and the electrics are being laid so I am getting even more excited.  It should be finished by the end of April.

Oh *#*?*#!

Here is a little card that I made recently, I love the Sugar Nellie stamps but this is my favourite one!  Coloured with copic markers and the papers are from the Once Upon A Time stack by DCWV.

Paper Love

I have just taken a trip over to the Indigo Mill website, I love the new look, so clean and fresh looking and it all works beautifully (I use firefox).  Anyway, I saw the Jillibeans 'Cream of Mushroom' papers and after a brief shudder at the name (I am allergic to mushrooms!) I fell in love with the papers!!  I had to order them and I can't wait for them to arrive. 

Soooo, being the nosey person that I am I went on a googling adventure to find the Jillibean Soup website and I just love it all!  I really need some of their 12" x 12" kraft cardstock, I must find out where to get some of that.

Here is a card I made yesterday for Afton's 19th birthday - Happy Birthday Afton :)

Supplies: Basic Grey  Urban Prairie; KI Memories Lace Cardstock; Organza Ribbon; Karen Foster Princess Brad; Papermania Adhesive Gems; Copic Markers; Penny Black Cinnamon Stamp; Anita's Happy Birthday Handwriting Stamp

Charlotte has had a bit of a cough for the last week (it's getting much better now), I snapped these photos of her sitting on the sofa feeling a bit sorry for herself the other day!

I am so glad she is feeling a better now.

Cards and other Thank You things:)

I am almost there - almost feeling better! 

I even - finally - managed to make some Thank You cards for the kids to send out for their Christmas cards.  I know it is a little late but better late than never and I vow to make them BEFORE Christmas this year!

They are just little notecards that I made by cutting a card blank in half.  I had to make the envelopes for them though!  I ended up just creating a little template for the craft robo and cutting them out like that, it was so much quicker and they look so neat!  I only used one sheet of Bo Bunny Double Dots paper, a little bit of Bazzill to stamp the butterflies onto and a couple of Papermania adhesive gems (I love them!).  The butterflies and 'Thank You' sentiment are from a little Studio G set which cost about £1.50 and they are coloured with my beloved Copic markers :)

Thanks to Beckie for awarding me this lovely blog award :)

Here are the rules:

"Pay It Forward":

1. The winner may put the logo on their blog.
2. Put a link to the person who sent you the award.
3. Nominate 5 blogs.
4. Provide links to their blogs.
5. Leave a message for your nominees.

I am going to award this to the following five lovely people.

1. Jaimie
2. Leah
3. Paula
4. Laura
5. Carol

and I just remembered (I have got a mind like a sieve lately) that Sandie had awarded me this one:

it is The Marie Antoinette, A Real Person, A Real Award. In order to share this award I must: Nominate 7 or more real PERSONS. Link to the person who gave me the award. Link to the nominees. Let the nominees know.

I am going to award this to the following seven bloggers.

1. Jaimie
2. Leah
   
3. Paula
4. Laura
5. Carol
6. Fiona
7. Scrapdolly

We keep getting a little visitor in the house and he is making himself very comfortable!!  I think he is looking for Noodles.  Needless to say, I keep kicking him out again, he won't find any food here!

If you live near me, is he yours??

Happy New Year

I hope everyone had a very happy new year.  We ended up spending time with family, playing cards so there was nothing wild here!!  We did have a little buffet and quite a few glasses of wine so we were sufficiently fed and watered to welcome in the new year.  Personally, I can't see what all the fuss is about, I am a miserable old git really - I must get it from Mark!

This is a layout I created for the Creativity Life slot on QVC, I love the Doodlebug flock that I have used to do the pink and green heart - it is so easy to use and feels lovely!

 

This is another one that uses the Doodlebug flock - this time on the title.  I love this photograph!

 

Here are some little cards I have also made recently.  You have got to love Basic Grey Urban Prairie, it is gorgeous!

 

Look at the Papermania bauble stamp from the Naughty and Nice acrylic stamp set, I love it and I am sure it will be making an appearance on next years Christmas cards. The set also has a gorgeous dotted background stamp,

The 'Smile' card uses the Doodlebug Stick With It stickers for glitter and flock - they are amazing!

We are getting ready for Ben and Charlotte to go back to school this weekend and Mark is going back to work on Monday after his THREE MONTHS adoption leave - it's going to feel very quiet around here on Tuesday with just me and Amy!!

More Cards for Christmas

I just love these October Afternoon papers and they were great for Christmas cards this year - I love the little sliding snowman too, he was a little stamp by imaginisce and I have used him loads this christmas. on these cards I have coloured him with copics and pencils.

This little frame was one of the classes that I taught the Mum's down the school and they really loved it - if you want instructions I have uploaded the class notes here.

These cards look so much better in real life, they are really simple but very effective. The images I have used on them are by Kate Hadfield at The Lilypad (Just print and cut!).

This gift card holder is just brilliant, I am not being big headed I saw the idea to create the card slot on Jennifer McGuire's fantastic blog,  and I love it!  I only found her blog recently and I am becoming a bit of a stalker (I get really disappointed when she hasn't updated it!).

And finally, this is a little booklet I made to show the ladies at the school how to create folders for notes and receipts.  Actually, most of them made this as a gift voucher holder :)

We had a lovely evening yesterday.  My nephews went out for a drink with Mark during the day and then they all came back to sample my Chicken Tikka Masala (thanks Jamie Oliver) before we were descended on by my sister and brother-in-law and Mum and Geoff - it was a really nice get together.

Well the kids are sat watching 'The Santa Clause' and Mark is still recovering from a few too many Christmas drinks last night!  I am going to join them on the sofa now before I go and get all the final things sorted out for tomorrow :)