Finally put the tree up!

It's late as usual, but the tree is finally decorated. Unfortunately, there's no room to put it on the floor, so it's a bit crammed!

A baby girl card

Hi all.
Not much to write at the moment... just wanted to share a card that I made for a commission
TTFN
xx

21 with a bit of 'BLING'

Hi everyone!
I hope you're all well.
I was asked to make an extra special 21st birthday card for a girl who likes fashion. I have to say, that I am very pleased with this card- although I wouldn't make too many the same, as I've burned through a large amount of stick on gems!!!
TTFN
x

I can't resist showing you this...

Ok, he's such a gorgeous puppy, I have to show you all.........!!!

Puppy thank You's

Hey everyone.
As usual, I'm up to my neck in commissions. I am currently working for Michelle Marsden at Red Hot Bed alongside the projects I do for Crafter's Companion.
I thought I would share with you a set of Thank You cards I was asked to make. There is a charity that I help which trains dogs in bio-detection. They can be trained to find cancer and recognise when a diabetic needs to take their medication and give a warning, among other things. I am an emergency foster home, so I help out by looking after the puppies when the need arises. The dog I'm currently fostering is a labrador puppy called Dizzy. He is the calmest and most loving dog I have ever had and it's going to be hard seeing him go in a few days!
The local charity co-ordinator asked me to make some thank you cards using a dog image, so I naturally thought of the Wild Rose Studio puppy stamp. I used a variety of thank you stamps and some background paper from the Popcorn Bear CD ROM.
I hope she likes them!

Wild Rose Studio November sketch challenge

Hello everyone.
It's been way too long since I last posted on my blog. Like many people, we are struggling in the recession, so I've been taking on alot of extra commissions lately.
I am pleased that I found a bit of 'Me' time to make a card for Dulcie's November Sketch challenge, that can be found at the Wild Rose Studio blog I was a bit stumped by the sketch to start with, but once I got going, I was pleased with the results!
I have used the 'Louis with Heart' stamp, along with some background paper from the Wild Rose spring CD ROM. The punched flowers were crumpled & flattened out again to add some dimension.
Please go along to the blog & have a go at the sketch- I'll be looking at all of your versions!!
TTFN
Lou
xx

Busy busy busy!!!!

Hi to everyone!
I fully intend to post something arty in the next day or two, but have been rather busy lately. If I saw you yesterday in Worthing at the Great South Stamp show, hello and thank you for your support. We had a phenomenal day on the Crafter's Companion stand.
I spent last weekend at the house of Sara Davies (genius behind Crafter's Companion for those that don't know!). We spent 3 days planning some fantastic products that will be available over the coming months- can't say any more, but there's some exciting new things on the way to you!
Hope you are all well,
back soon
TTFN
Lou
xx

Popcorn for Christmas!

Hi everyone.
I hope you are enjoying this lovely summery day- I know it's hard to believe it's here, so make the most of it!
Anyway, I hate thinking about Christmas when it is so warm outside, but I'm working on some commissions using the new Popcorn Bear Christmas stamps by Crafter's Companion and thought i would share this one with you!
TTFN
Lou
xx

Wild Rose Studio sketch challenge

Hi!

I just wanted to share with you a card that I made for the Wild Rose Studio blog Dulcie provided a great sketch to work with and here is my interpretation of it!
Please stop by & have a go yourself!
TTFN
xx

New baby card and a challenge to boot!

Hello everyone!
I have been VERY busy with commissions just lately. If anyone watched the launch of the Christmas Popcorn the Bear sets on Create & Craft tonight, you'll see what I've been up to!
This baby card is for my cousin and her husband in Germany, who have just had their first baby. I have taken design inspiration from the challenge on the Funky Hand challenge blog for August, so I decided to enter this card for the challenge!
The spotty & the striped papers are both from the V.Funky CD ROM and I have used the same two papers to punch out some of the flowers.
The Popcorn image is actually taken from the new christmas range, but it works extremely well as a new baby image too!
Wish me luck for my first challenge attempt!!
TTFN
xx

Hi all!

Hello everyone!
I have had the busiest couple of weeks... I don't know whether I'm coming or going. I won't bore you with all the details, but I did want to mention a lovely Stampin'Up! workshop that I ran last week. This is one of the two cards that we made on the night. We used the Loads of Love stamp set, which, considering the main image is a truck, is suprisingly versatile!! The hostess fell in love with all of the products, so she signed up to become a demonstrator herself. Can't say I blame her!!
TTFN
xx

Win $1,000 at theCuttlebugSpot.com!

As a huge fan of Cuttlebug embossing folders, I was pleased to read that The Cuttlebug Spot is having a contest - "The Journey to 1,000"! They are trying to reach 1,000 followers by the end of July and need your help. To enter all you have to do is go to their site, sign up as follower and complete a few easy steps and you could win a $1,000 gift certificate to Custom Crops (www.CustomCrops.com)! GO NOW and check it out at www.TheCuttlebugSpot.com
I have just joined as follower number 951, so be quick!!!

Wedding card

Hi all!
Just dropped in to share this card with you. The commission was just for 'a wedding card'! I know the people going to the wedding are in their late 20s, so I guessed the couple getting married are a similar age. I went for a fairly austere colour scheme, but lifted it with some quirky heart stamps, made by Luxe Designs.
Fingers crossed it'll fit the bill!!
xx

Christening card

I used many similar techniques on this card as on the previous one. I'm struggling to take good photos, though. The lighting is the biggest problem. Hopefully, you can still enjoy this card!
xx

Glimmer Mist

Evening everyone!
I've been a busy bee in the batcave just lately. There's been a shedload of work for Crafter's Companion (FAB new products coming soon- can't wait to show you...) so not much time for blogging unfortunately. I did make time for a 40th birthday card that I was commissioned to make. I had a bit of a clear up and unburied my box of glimmer mists. They're now actually within reach, so I think I'll be using them lots. I'd forgotten how lovely they are!
Anyway, this is a 6 inch square card that I embossed on the edges using a clear stamp set by Inkadinkadoo (97633-floral flourishes). I hand cut the numbers from some card, using a set of templates. I did this as I wanted to use a thick, 300gsm card that would take the embossing & the glimmer mist without buckling. Once embossing with a clear hologram powder, I added some pink inks using Cut'n'Dry foam before spraying with pink & green glimmer mists.
The butterfly is a pre-printed embellishment from Craftwork Cards, also treated with the same colours. I added some pink crystals as a final flourish. I love the Prima crystal flourishes, but I wanted to see if a producing a similar, cheaper version was possible. I think it works pretty well,albeit a bit smaller.
It was so nice to be able to make a card using anything I wanted. I love all of the commissioned work I do, but it's nice to let loose every once in a while!
xx

HELP!!!!!

Morning, all!!
I've finally had enough of my Cuttlebug embossing folders & my Spellbinder dies that keep falling out of the folder I've been storing them in, so I've emptied them all over my lounge floor to try & organise them, but I don't have a single clue how to rearrange everything!!
I have a few folders with magnetic sheets inside, to hold the nestabilities, but it's not ideal. How do you all store yours???!!!

R.I.P 'Marmite' the hamster!!

Hi all!
I've not been blogging lately as I've been manically busy with commissions. I've just done some work for Leann Chivers, who will be on Ideal World tonight from 9pm using some of my samples. I've also been doing lots of projects & samples for Crafter's Companion and I had a C.C stand at last week's Great South Stamp show in Worthing. Hi to all of you who stopped by & said hello- we were very warmly recieved and I had a lovely day!!
Anyway, who, you may ask, is Marmite the (ex) hamster?? Well, a very close friend of mine has been having a bit of a hard time lately and ont op of everything else, the family's ageing hamster was on it's last legs. My friend said that she didn't know what to do when it died (She looked pretty horrified when I suggested a burial at sea, via the toilet) so before I'd really thought about what I was saying, I offered to make a coffin!!! My friend was thrilled with this, so I had no choice!! I had intended to make said coffin with time to spare but of course, forgot, so when I got the fateful call to say that Marmite had joined the giant hamster wheel in the sky, I had to get to work PDQ!
Here is the finished coffin- a fitting tribute to a well loved pet!!! (I'm pretty sure that when Sara Davies invented the Top Score & box maker, I don't think hamster coffins would have been on the list of possible projects!!!)
Lou
xx

A 40th Birthday card

Hi everyone!
I just wanted to share a card I have just finished. It was commissioned by my friend who's going to a party tonight. Nothing like doing everything last minute!! I have used a Bella stamp, my oval Nestabilities and a Cuttlebug embossing folder for the background. I stapled the ribbon along the bottom edge and personalised it by printing the words out using the computer and matting onto some silver card.
I hope she likes it!

Are you thinking of becoming an S.U demonstrator?

Hi!
To all of you that I've emailed or spoken to, here are the four, yes FOUR stamp sets I am offering to anyone who signs as an S.U demonstrator with me! You can no longer buy these sets- they were a limited edition range that were only available earlier on this year and were priced at around £16 per set, so that's an additional £64 worth of product. I've only been with S.U since November myself, but I have made some lovely friends through the company. I'd love to sign me first recruit, so if you want more info, please get in touch!

Stampin' Up! mini catalogue

Hi everyone.
For those of you that haven't seen it yet, Stampin' Up! have released a mini catalogue, crammed full of brand new products that will only be available until September. This little card has been made with one of these limited edition stamp sets called 'Playful Petals'. It is a 7 stamp set that costs £25.95. This card is one that I'm going to be teaching at a workshop in Portsmouth on wednesday evening. If anyone local to Cosham would like to come along, please email me your details & I'll contact you!

Update on the bird!!

Well, a total success story!!
I nursed the baby thrush, feeding hourly for 5 days. As you can see from the picture, it gathered strength, body weight, but was also becoming a little too tame! I moved it into the garage into a large cage so that it wasn't focussing on me so much, feeding it mealworms, then I had to leave it for longer periods, hoping that it would begin to feed itself. (The movement of live food stimulates it to peck). Once I knew it was eating enough to live on and was flapping around in the cage, I moved it to an outside area (I was lucky to have my inlaws down the road with a large outdoor cat pen, similar to an aviary) We scatter fed for another 3 days, then left the door open. It took about 24 hours for it to want to leave, but it did so yesterday morning. (Unfortunately, before I'd had a chance to take another photo). My mother in law was a little disappointed that it didn't come home that night, but obviously, we both know this is a good thing!!
(I'm sure I don't need to say that if I had found the bird alone ouside, I would have left it, as parent birds would most likely have looked after it, but deposited on my kitchen floor gave me no other choice!!)

Friends

Happy Easter, everyone!
I have been desperate to write a post, but I've had to concentrate on my commissioned work before doing anything else. This card is for my closest friend who is going through a very tough time at the moment. I figured that this might cheer her up a little. I photographed it inside my new pop up photographic tent, which is going to take a bit of getting used to. I really should have bought the larger one, as I write lots of projects that need step by step pictures and I don't think this will be large enough for that, although, you can see from my photo that my desk there really isn't enough space for anything bigger! But for taking a picture of a single card, it's going to be useful. The stamps used on this card are all from a company called High Hopes at www.highhopesstamps.com based in Canada. I don't usually go for cute images, but I love this company and have a box full of their unmounted stamps! The flowers are Prima and the greeting is printed on the computer and punched out using Stampin' Up! 1 3/8 circle punch, plus the scalloped circle punch. The frond leaf punnch is by Martha Stewart and the patterned paper is from my stash of odds & ends.

Jack is no more....

By this I mean that we can't call HER Jack any more! My vet thinks it's probably a thrush or blackbird, judging by the colouring and is most likely a girl!! This may seem like a big mistake on my part, but from the cold bedraggled, cat spittle covered lump I found on the kitchen floor on monday, to the fluffy, bright, chirping thing sitting in a cage in my workroom today, it's like night & day! I am feeding her every hour, from 7 am till 11 pm and she is putting on weight and is now practicing with her half grown wings, so I'm very hopeful that this will have a happy ending.
Back soon
xxx

Meet Jack!

Well, as if I don't have enough to do today...
my dotty Abysinnian cat, Charlie, deposited this tiny sparrow fledgling in my kitchen this morning. I wondered what the dogs were barking at, so I went to investigate. He was very still and I assumed he was dead. I was about to 'bury him at sea' via the toilet, when his feet moved. A few minutes warming under my jumper and he's looking quite chirpy (excuse the pun...!)
I've mixed up a disgusting concoction from a recipe I found on a website (what DID we do before the internet??) which he's eating and if he survives, I'll make the 20 mile round trip to the bird rescue centre. I've had successes with a baby crow (russell) and a seagull (Atheseus), but neither of these was as tiny and delicate as Jack Sparrow (get it now?).
Hopefully, I'll be able to keep you up to date with his progress, but I really should try & make some cards now!!

Morning, all!

Happy Sunday, everyone.
I hope you are all planning a day of R&R. The weather is looking a bit unsettled, so I intend to spend as much time in the batcave (my craft room) as possible!
I would love to share with you a recent submission of mine to make it into the April issue of Making Cards magazine.
I was showcasing the new Flower Fairy stamps and CD roms from Crafters Companion. Here are the two cards that were in the magazine and here they are in pride of place on pages 8 and 9! I was also lucky enough to have had one of these cards used on the front cover!

Happy Mothers Day!

Hi everyone,
I hope all you mums got a thorough spoiling today! My little treasure & his Dad bought me a gift of some scented candles and I recieved a lovely hand made card that was made at school. The verse was written in his best writing, so I could actually read all of it!
Anyway, I remembered at about 10am that I hadn't made a card for my mother in law, so I got on it & this is the result. Overall, I was really pleased, although my hand writing let it down somewhat. I was just too bloomin' lazy to hunt through stamps, or to print something on the computer! Still- the card was appreciated (I think).
I'll be back soon with some more cards and some news on April 1st for all of you Stampin' Up! fans
xxx

'Wild Rose' Bunny

Morning all!
Dulcie Jackson from the lovely new stamp company The Wild Rose Studio www.wildrosestudio.co.uk sent me some gorgeous easter and spring themed rubber stamps for me to play with. Here is one of my finished cards made using the stamps. It has been made with sturdy A5 acetate scored in half using the Crafters Companion Top Score board. It was decorated first with papers edged with the lovely Martha Stewart doily lace punch. To hide the adhesive, the exact same panel was applied to the reverse of the acetate. I stamped the bunny directly onto the patterned panel using Stazon. I then stamped & cut out another bunny from green card and matted this on top. I coloured the flowers using a Sakura Souffle pen and added a glittery self adhesive dot to the centres. I added a panel of paper inside the card so that there was a place to write a message, but if you have Sharpie pens, it would be quite fun to write directly onto the acetate!