Hearts all a flutter

I was mooching about trying to find some inspiration and failing miserably. I started to think and look back at all my old posts and realised that none of them show any of my own art work! So I set off to rectify that and sharpish...and here is the finished result. This little lady is all my own, its a pencil drawing on water colour paper. I did think of using water colours but I like the texture the paper gives the pencils so I stuck with it. She will be spending some time on my mantelpiece over the lovey dovey valentine period. I've done a few more of these since, and have kinda fallen in love with her. However at the moment she's nameless, which is a little bit sad!.... So any ideas ???

Happy New Year

Happy New year to all, was Santa kind to you??? I must have been a very good girl last year as got lots of crafty lovelies under my tree, but more of that later. I thought I'd show you the pics of my Christmas cake and some cookies I made. the idea of the cake was to have the snowflakes o wires to give the effect of the snow falling. Unfortunately my crappy photography doesn't show this at its best as you can't see that the snowflakes actually sparkle like frost, the cookies were just a quickie to have a go with the new cutter I've been waiting an absolute age for, It came all the way from Hong Kong you know!!, so I'll probably be a bit more adventurous with this next Christmas. I did make cards too which I'll show you in the next post.

So what did Santa bring...well I had some new cookie cutters, a gorjuss girls cross stitch kit (which I'm not allowed to start until I finish my other one) some air drying clay and some delicious felt in some really funky patterns. I think he also gave me a new waft of inspiration as I have so many ideas I don't know where to start.

And Inspired by the red pepper relish I made as gifts for people, which went down a storm, I've decided to set myself a challenge. For Christmas this year I will not buy any one anything, I'll make everyone something, apart from Jack of course, I don't think he would appreciate Jam, chutney, or pickled onions in his stocking!! Xxx

People are strange

I made this card for the Allsorts challenge blog, whose theme this week is inspired by a song. Brilliant I thought right up my street.....then it took me ages to settle for just one song, and then to convey that song in a card. For me it's about what a song, its lyrics or piece of music says to you, rather than just the title. See why it was so hard? Anyway I had almost given up when I found myself randomly singing People are strange by The Doors, and there it was. This song was also covered by Echo and the Bunnymen for the film Lost Boys, one of my Faves. The lyrics to this song really ring true to me, when your strange, no one remembers your name, People considered to be strange by society always seem a little lonely even though they're actually far from lonely or strange. They might just look a little different, although I have to say its getting better and more accepted. So this card was inspired by the lyrics, when your strange faces come out of the rain. I wanted the girl to look a little lonely and as if she was in the mist or rain. I used this stamp of a gorjuss girl and the trees I did free hand. The rain or mist is made from tracing paper which I scrunched up. I'm really pleased with it considering I made it twice as I wasn't happy with the first! Mmmm I may just have to watch Lost Boys this weekend... any excuse. lol Xxx

Pink Squeaky frog

Hey guys, Just a quick one today to show you this card I made for the Cute Card Thursday challenge which was 'make your own' embellishment. So I made this quick little card with some let overs from my stash. The image is Pink petticoat and the flowers I made with some left over card and vellum and little pink diamonds which unfortunately don't show up too well on the pic. I wanted the flowers to be very contemporary, hence no petals, but i love them and think they look quite funky! See Ya later Xxx

Dont be late

I made this for the Papertake weekly challenge, Choose your fave challenge from the past 3 years. So I went with Monochrome madness. I wanted to do an Alice in wonderland style card but didn't want to do a traditional card or Alice. So I thought this image from sugar nellie on a Save the date card was perfect. the clock paper I made myself by photocopying lots of clock pics and then coloured using pastels for a vintage feel. I'm really pleased with the result, and these, or a similar version of them may make a reappearance in the future for something I'm planning. But sshh that's a secret!!! XX

How Does your garden grow ? .................

Well Lucy's grows like this! This cake was for my friends daughter, who I'm told is a real girly girl and loves pink and thats all I had to go on. So this is what I came up with and I have to say I Sooo enjoyed making this cake, I just love it. I love the springy flowers and pink ladybirds and the way the green looks with the pinks. and the best thing?...... no stressin, no not once did I stress. Bring on more cakes like this, I like em. ;)

Birthday Treats

I know, its a bit sad to make your own birthday cakes. But I couldn't resist! I was going to go the whole hog and make a proper birthday cake but Gary said that really was sad, so I settled for some fancy cupcakes instead. I feel much better about these than the last disasters, the butterflies stayed put and I actually managed to make some half decent roses which didn't look old fashioned or like big blobs. Then sods law my mom bought me a birthday cake and Jack got me a Hello Kitty cake, bless him. So now I've got cake coming out of my ears, It will be such hard work to eat it all ;) Xxx

Rubbish Cupcakes!!!

Ok so I decided to blog them after all, and we all make mistakes!! These cupcakes are quite frankly rubbish. What went wrong?? Well firstly the icing was meant to be black but it just wasn't happening, then after spending loads of time hand painting the butterflies they wouldn't stay in shape and are still soft even now, must be because I mixed the sugar paste with fondant. Any way we learn from our mistakes and as I'm determined to do these cakes ( I've been dreaming about them for ages) next time I'll use fondant to cover the cakes, and colour the sugar paste by hand, a longer process but better results me thinks, and even though they look a bit crap they did taste good and jack loved them...bless him he's biased Xxx

This weeks secret crafter challenge is right up my street..Plain and simple is the theme, I love the less is more approach and hate to overcrowd my cards with things that may draw attention away from the focus piece. I've been camping for a few days with my husband Gary and our little boy Jack, and only got home last night, so wasn't planning on doing any crafting but they both went out shopping for my birthday leaving me with a few hours to myself..what luxury!!! So I whipped up this little card, using a stamp from rubber romance and some left over papers from my stash. I inked the edge of the card to give it a vintage feel and water coloured the image giving her some funky bright red hair for a little bit of rock n roll!! I did also have time to make some cupcakes this morning, however they didn't turn out as I wanted and are a bit rubbish so I'm still debating whether to blog them...we'll see Xxx

Christmas come early

I made a few cards with these stamps from pink petticoat last Christmas and loved them, so as I had a few images left over I thought I get a head start and combine it with this weeks secret crafter challenge. Even though I've made this card so early you can guarantee that I'll still be there a few days before Christmas frantically making last minute cards. I have got some ideas for mini cakes to give away as presents though and will be making a start on those in the next few weeks. And today I've had a bit of a card mad day today so I'll be posting those in the coming days. Xxx