Happy Christmouse

Good afternoon and thanks for dropping by my little blog. It's been a couple of weeks since I posted, just don't know where the days go!  Last night was the Nelson Wheeler's 100th celebration dinner dance and presentation evening which we were invited to as guests, Kevin rides with a different cycling club, The Bronte Wheelers but they join together for some of the cycling events that they hold.  It was a great evening, with good food, friends and an entertaining guest speaker.  

I took the Halloween Treat bags and a card each to my friend's boys last Saturday, they loved them, although the eldest was away in Italy representing England in Martial Arts and he didn't get his until he returned home.  On Sunday we went along to the Firework display held in a local park which was fabulous although we were starting to feel quite chilled by the time the display began :)  The weather has certainly dropped a few degrees over the last week and winter seems to sneaking up on us!

Anyway, on to the card that I have to show today...
It's a Christmas...sorry 'Christmouse' card :)  I used a sweet little mouse image from a Paper Smooches set called Santa Paws.  I stamped the plain image onto a stitched die cut tag that I made using a Waltzing mouse die.  I then stamped the mouse image again and coloured him in with Copics and fussy cut him out and mounted him with foam tape onto the plain image.  The striped paper I chose is from Doodlebug designs 'Frosty Friends'.  I layered onto another stitched rectangle cut using a Lawn Fawn die and then popped them all onto a white card blank.  I embellished with enamel dots, sequins and some baker's twine.   I have made several of these in one go so I am well on my way with my Christmouse cards now :)

Hope you have all had a good weekend, thanks again for taking the time to read and for those that comment thank you very much.

Until next time...
Dawn x

Rockin' Robin!

Good evening folks!  Hope you have all had a great weekend and enjoyed the extra hour in bed this morning :)  We have had a busy day catching up with the dreaded housework and then Kevin had a cyclocross race at Ilkley this afternoon so I went to support him, it was nice to be in the fresh air even though the wind was wild :)  

I have another Christmas card to show today this has been made using a cute little new stamp set from Clearly Besotted called Rockin Robin.  I have stamped one of the Robins from the set with Memento Rich Cocoa and coloured his red breast with a Copic pen.   I cut him out with the matching die and then popped him onto a die-cut pierced circle from Spellbinders.  I then cut a piece of 6x6 Doodlebug Santa Express paper with the larger pierced circle and added the music notes, sentiment and some Doodlebug glitter sprinkles to complete the card.

Hopefully I can keep up the momentum with my Christmas cards and I'll soon have them all done :)  Thank you for dropping by and enjoy your evening.

Dawn x

First Christmas Card...Yipppeee

Hello and hope you are well, I am suffering with a dreaded cold and a bit of a fever so taking things easy today, had a bit of a lie in and then I've been sat nice and cosy in my craft room making a few Christmas cards.  Here's the first of my cards....

This little card has been inspired by a lovely young lady, Lizzy, you can find her blog here, although not a craft blog, her book review blog is an interesting and informative read.  I had the pleasure of working with Lizzy this summer before she went off to uni and she made a sweet little sample one day using a stamp set that wasn't designed as a Christmas set but was perfectly adapted, so thanks on two accounts Lizzy! One for giving me inspiration and two for making me buy two sets of stamps to make this card ;) 

The animal stamps are from an Avery Elle set, Story Book.  I stamped them, coloured them with Copics and then die cut them out.  I have used Lawn Fawn, Stitched Hillside borders for the snow drifts and then added a couple of cute tiny snowmen from a Memory Box die set.  The tree is a Heartfelt Creations stamp which I have stamped using a Memento ink pad, Bamboo Leaves.  I made a background using Tim Holtz Distress Markers onto Water colour card and blended them through with a damp paint brush.  The sentiment is from a Paper Smooches stamp set.  I have added some tiny diamante stars to sparkle in the sky.

Thanks again for dropping by, take care and keep crafting :)

Dawn x

Trick or Treat

Good morning, hope you are all well on this October Monday Morning. How was your weekend?  I had a really busy day at work on Saturday as we had the Great Little Craft Festival, a two day event including papercraft demonstrations on Saturday and Fabric and knitting on Sunday.  It was lovely to meet the wonderful Jo Austin who was demonstrating Tonic dies, Sarah McCrossan who demonstrated the We R Memory keepers punch boards, Diane Whitehouse who made some wonderful creations with Crafter's Companion products and Samuel Taylor's own Sue Hobbs who made some beautiful cards using Dreamweaver and Sweet Poppy Stencils.  There were fabulous Christmas decorations on display made by Leanne Fitzpatrick from Habico and to top it all, Leanne brought with her some amazing home-baked cupcakes :)  

Today I have plenty of time on my hands as I have to prepare for my hospital visit tomorrow, I am not allowed to eat anything so I am trying to keep my mind off food which is almost impossible when you have been told not to eat anything :) I am sure crafting and blogging will help me through the day :)  I made another little Halloween card yesterday and a couple of treat bags.  The card I made using a stamp set from Mama Elephant 'Bootastic'  I stamped the images of the cat and witch and then coloured with Copic pens.  I used papers from Doodlebug ' Ghouls and Goodies' and a stitched tag die from Waltzing Mouse.  The spider's web is a Memory Box die 'Spider Web border' and the cute little spider sticker is from K & Company.  The baker's twine I used on the tag was a great find from TKMaxx at Keighley. They have had a few crafting products lately and this time when I went I found some rolls of baker's twine at £2.50 per roll and each roll has 125 meters! 

The treat bags were made using some pre-made paper bags which I have decorated with pieces of paper from the Ghouls and Goodies collection.  The ghosts have been die cut using the Lil' inkers stitched ghost die and then stamped with different faces from the co-ordinating stamp set.  The 'Boo!' and 'Open if you dare' sentiments are from the same stamp set.  Again, I used the small stitched tag from Waltzing Mouse.  I have filled the bags with some Halloween sweeties, there are giant eyeballs, brains and pumpkins...all made of chocolate of course :)  (mmm..feeling peckish now! oh well perhaps a glass of water will take the edge off!)  

Thanks for calling by and taking time to read and comment.  

Dawn x

Boo!

Good morning crafty folks, well it's nearly Friday and for some the weekend is beginning, sadly I have another two days at work before I get my day off, but really looking forward to a day of either crafting or perhaps a visit to GNPE Harrogate, not sure yet which to do, was a little bit disappointed with the Harrogate paper show last time so might spend my day resting up and crafting, just see how I feel on the day :)

I have another quick Halloween card to show today, really got the 'bug' for Halloween, not quite sure who I will send this to yet but had loads of fun making it :)

I have used a die set from Li'l inker designs, it doesn't seem to have a name, the dies are separate from the stamp faces, there are three different size stitched ghosts and different faces to stamp onto them.  I used a Dienamics die, Peekaboo Trio and papers from Doodlebug 'Ghouls and Goodies' and cardstock from Papermania capsule collection.  The 'Boo!' sentiment was in the same set as the ghost face stamps. 

Well that's all for now, hoping to start doing a few Christmas cards over the next few days.  
Take care and enjoy the weekend.
Dawn x

It's October!

Good evening crafty folks!  Hope you are all well, I have a couple of cards to show you today, they are both Halloween themed.  

I don't usually make Halloween cards but I have two someones in mind for these as a little surprise ;)  I've used a stamp set from Mama Elephant to make these cards.  The set is called 'Bootastic' and of course I had to get the matching dies to go along with the stamp set.  I stamped the Frankenstein and Dracula image with memento black ink and then coloured them both with Copic pens.  I cut out the spider web frame which is a Dienamics die set and then it occurred to me to make the card a shaker card.  I don't think I have made a shaker for years and years!  I remembered way back into my early days of crafting that I had purchased a packet of black orange and white spiders......Well the hunt was on to find them :) (That will be the one and only time I will be tracking down spiders as I really really don't like them!)  Well without too much trouble I located the colourful spiders at the back of my cupboards and thought just how perfect they were for my cards.  The paper I have used is by Doodlebug 'ghouls and goodies' and the stitched rectangles are by Lawn Fawn.  The Happy Halloween is from a really versatile set by Clearly Besotted called 'Sweet Little Sentiments'.   I have really enjoyed making these Halloween cards, it's most unusual for me to use such bright colours but it's good to do  things out of your comfort zone from time to time :)

Thanks for popping by and happy crafting.

Dawn x

Back to school, new school, a marathon run and coast to coast ride :)

With such a long title comes quite a long post :)  So here goes....

The first couple of cards I made for my friend's two boys.

Simon has just started his first year at Secondary School and Steven is starting a new year at his Junior school so I thought I would make them a little card to let them know I was thinking of them and to give them a little reminder to work hard but also have fun at school.  I used a stamp set from Paper Smooches called 'Smarty Pants'.  I stamped and coloured the images and then cut them out using the matching dies.  I used a stitched panel that I cut out using Mama Elephant 'Femme Frame' die set and then added 'Just a note' from Clearly Besotted 'Sweet Little Sentiment' stamp set.  I mounted them onto a plain white card blank.  

Simon's Card

Steven's Card

The next card I have to show is one that I made for Simon and Steven's mum, my wonderful friend Valerie.  Val is a fantastic mother to her boys and an amazing friend to me. Val has a full time job, ferries her boys to and from their out of school activities, is a school Governor, involved with church activities, arranges get together meals with her friends, takes her mum shopping amongst many many other things that just make my tired writing about :)  This year Val has given some of her precious time, energy and commitment to run the Great North Run in aid of The British Heart Foundation and I could not be more proud of her.  I made a little card to wish her Good Luck for the run and to let her know that I would be thinking of her.  The great news is that Val completed the run in one piece and is proudly wearing her medal :)

Val's Card

This card was made using a digital image that I bought and downloaded from Mo Manning.  I printed it out and coloured it with Copic pens and simply cut it out using the stitched Femme Frame from Mama Elephant.  I added a Good Luck sentiment from the same set as I used in the previous two cards and two little pink pearls to embellish it.

And Finally ....


....Kevin and his friend Nick rode Coast to Coast on Sunday, they set off from Bowness-on-Solway and rode across the country to Whitley Bay, it took them 7 hours with stops so not a bad time at all!  The weather was just perfect, dry and sunny but not too warm.

Kevin and Nick on the west coast

As they start the journey

Kevin and Nick on the East coast

Nick's girlfriend and I acted as team support and back up driver, although they didn't really need us except to pick them up at the end :)  We had a lovely day driving along the route, stopping and having cream teas, coffee and cake and a wonderful view of the scenery.  We also managed a visit round one of the Roman Forts along Hadrian's Wall which was fascinating.  The boys actually arrived at Whitley Bay an hour before we did :)  The end of the day was marked by a feast of Fish and Chips followed by award winning ice-cream....Well what else should you eat at the seaside :)

Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to read my blog.

Until next time....

Dawn xxxx