Dottie's World Challenge - Wishing You Well

Hi folks, did you have a good Christmas??????

For those of you who don't know I've lost 32 pounds in weight since the summer with the help of Slimming World but I have a sneaky suspicion that over the past three days I may have put on 32 zillion pounds! Oh well, I had fun doing it! LOL

It's my turn to set the challenge this week over at Dottie's World and I've decided that a card wishing someone well could be in order, here's what I came up with.....

The image is from my new download collection 'Girl about town' I paper pieced it and mounted it onto this simple bag with foam pads.

I made the bag template with auto shapes on MS Word, it did have a handle but I chopped it off to replace it with the ribbon. If you would like to have the template (below) just click on it to enlarge it, right click and click 'save picture as'

Why don't you pop on over to Dottie's World and play along for you chance to be chosen as GUEST DESIGNER FOR JANUARY!

Di Hickman - Card Sketch 4

Well, I've nearly reached the end of my stay with Di Hickman and though I haven't played a very big part in visiting participants blogs due to my other commitments I really have enjoyed making my example cards. Here's this week's sketch

And here's my card ( a little dark I'm afraid - blummin English weather!)

I printed the sentiment straight onto the background paper and then went over it with glossy accents, I think it worked quite well. The star was cut on my Silhouette. Again, we have a bit of machine stitching, because I think I might be addicted!

Thank you for looking xxx

Dottie's World Challenge - Red Green & Gold

Hi folks,

Not many sleeps to go now eh! I'm starting to panic now so I must do some relaxation exercises .............................................................................................................right that done, here's my card for this week's Dottie's World challenge.....

OK so I know it's supposed to be red green and gold but Santa HAS to have black boots! Oh and the colour of that holly paper... don't be mistaken into thinking it's yellow, oh no no no! The actual name of that colour is golden mist! (am I convincing?)

I used snow writer for the fur on Santas coat and for the snow too. I like how it brings the card to life.

Thank you for dropping by, oh before I forget I'll be drawing out the winners of the Dottie's World Blog Candy on Tuesday so make sure you've got your name down!

My New Collection

Good Morning,

I'm sure there'll be some of you that visit this blog but not my other so I thought I'd show this card here too. It's using some of the images from my latest collection of downloads; 'Girl About Town' I hope you like it...

The characters, backgrounds and sentiments all come separately coloured and in black and white and are all sold in one big bundle at Charmed Cards and Crafts.

We do plan on getting some of these made into stamps for all those stampaholics out there (you know who you are!) Personally, though I love stamps, I like the versatility of downloads, you get them instantly when you buy them (no waiting for postie) and you can re size them to fit your project. Not only that! You can also print onto different mediums, I'm really into printing onto iron-on cotton at the moment then applying it to aprons. It looks fab!

Have a lovely day

Louly xx

Di Hickman Sketch#3

It's my 3rd week as guest designer for the wonderful Di Hickman here's the sketch she's very generously giving everyone this week....

I love simple sketches, the results are often farr more effective because you don't feel like you have to cram too many elements in. Here's the card I came up with...

The papers are Basic Grey Fruitcake. I've really got into machine stitching recently, can you tell?
Pop over to Di's blog to play along with this week's sketch challenge.

Award Time!

OMG! How bad am I with these awards?!!! My problem is, I put them aside to do later and then I forget and then when I remember I forget who gave them to me!

I guess the most important bit is saying thank you to the people that gave them to me and telling them how much I appreciate it. So, big thank yous go to these sweethearts;

Sarah C

Lea
KraftyoolKat

For giving me;

There seems to be a butterfly theme here.

The award has such a great sentiment behind it and here is what it says:This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind blogger’s aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight blogger’s who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

So now I have a choice, to rack my brains thinking of the people who deserve these awards most or go and feed my kids! Well I always was a rebel so the kids win I'm afraid so if you'd like to display these fab awards, please help yourself.

Onto another! This one was designed by our lovely guest designer on Dottie's World, Claire, isn't it cute?

I think it's great that Claire found my blog helpful, thank you Claire, I'm proud to display this award.

So now I pass it on to somebody who has a helpful blog, well it just has to be.....

Maddy

Maddy's blog is amazing! She does amazing tutorials and her projects are jam packed full of inspiration. You must check out her blog.

Mega Blog Candy!

Oh wowee! I've just been over to Karen's blog (owner of Charmed Cards andd Crafts) and she's giving away....wait for it.....£130 worth of scrummy yummy blog candy!!!! Go and take a look you will not believe your eyes!

Dottie's World Challenge-Tags

It was my turn to set the challenge over on Dottie's World this week. We're all so busy organizing the frenzy that is Christmas that I decided to set a nice and easy one; all we have to do is make a tag using one of the downloads.

I decided to use toy soldier George and in my opinion Toy soldiers have to be standing in a row, so here we are, a row of tags....

As I'd spent the whole day trying to finish off the new collection I needed to do something quick and easy for the challenge so I printed the toy soldiers out already on tag shapes from MS Word plus an extra five soldiers. I sat and cut them all out whilst watching a bit of the X Factor final then quickly mounted the soldiers onto the tags (which I'd embossed) with foam pads then finished off with some glossy accents, eyelets and tinsle. Voila! Done.

One week left at work YAY!!!! Then I might be able to get my life back in order.

Di Hickman - Sketch#2

Hi folks,

Well it's the second week of my December stay on Di Hickman's design team and may I say that so far I've enjoyed every minute of it. I decided to use my new Bo bunny papers and stickers for this one, they really made me feel cheerful.

Here's the sketch...

Here's what I came up with.....the sketch is in there somewhere!LOL (I got a bit carried away)

The Bo Bunny Stickers did all the hard work for me and handily enough I discovered that I had a lot of the embellishments that were pictured on the stickers so I added them on top for a 3D effect. As you can see, I've done a little hand doodling too.

Have a lovely day

Lou xx

Dottie's World Challenge - Ribbons and Lace

Hi everybody,

I'm planning on doing some blog hopping at some point today, I have seriously neglected all my blogging buddies lately, I even have a few awards to show that I haven't thanked people for yet, I need to get my a**e into gear!

Anyhow, It's Adele's turn to set the challenge over at Dottie's World this week. She wants us to use ribbon and/or lace and lots of texture in our creations.

I had it all planned in my head but it didn't turn out right at all I'm afraid. My mojo has been a bit vacant lately. On the left you'll see the gorgeous detail on the ribbon I've been saving for this challenge, the trouble is, it didn't quite 'go' with the rest of the card.

I used the Angel and the Christmas tree from the Christmas Download collection from Charmed Cards and Crafts for this one (linked blinkie in my sidebar). I gave it some bling with gems on the tree then some texture with my Christmas CB embossing folder.

Here's the close up- I've just noticed that the glue is still wet! No surprises there I hear you cry!

If you'd like to play along visit Dottie's World for more details and lots of inspiration from my fabulous team.

More pressies!

You know I'm such a lucky girl to have so many fantastic friends, just look at what came to my door today!......

This lovely, thoughtful gift was from my good friend Nicloa, isn't she just the sweetest! It's the second thing to make me cry today but this one was happy tears, thank you so much Nicola, I love you to bits.
Don't go away, there's more!........

I have another card too! This one's from Mellie....

Isn't it ace? Thank you Melllie, it's gorgeous! But then I wouldn't expect anything else from you hunny.

Di Hickman Sketch

I was such a lucky girl recently, I was chosen to be Di Hickman's guest designer for December! I love Di's work and she's been a real inspiration to me for a long time now so this is a real treat.

This is the first sketch I had to work with......
As always it's a fabulous sketch, I think you'll agree.

You know how I like to turn sketches around so I decided, instead of having hanging stars I would have some floating balloons...

I was a bit disappointed with this card and would have made another but time being what it is, it just had to do. If I did it again I think I would use coloured paper for the balloons instead of colouring them as that didn't turn out too good. Not to worry, we live and learn eh? My next sketch card is much better so I'll be back next week with pride. LOL

Thanks for having me Di xx

Happy Birthday to Me

Hi everybody,

You may have guessed by now that IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!

I'm having a quiet day and have no gifts to tell you about yet (apart from my scrummy chocolate from Sarah) BUT who needs gifts when you have cards like these.....

I was so thrilled to receive this fabulous works of art, it really has made my day.
Thank you.....
Karen, Juliet, Sarah, Carmen, Shell and Lea xxxxxxx

Dottie's World Challenge- Photo

Hi folks,

I've been a bad Blogger just lately because I've been decorating and haven't been able to have much 'me' time (nor have I physically been able to get into my craft room!) So please accept my apologies.

On to the challenge. It's Karen's turn to set it this week an she wants us to use a photograph on our creation along with one of the Charmed downloads. I panicked a bit at fist because I couldn't think what to do but isn't it funny how the more challenging challenges always seem to stretch us and make us produce something great? It's not often I say good things about my own work, I suppose I love it because it has my lovely daughter all over it! Thanks for a fantastic challenge Karen.

Do you think I might have had someone in mind when I drew his Dottie? Holly is 13 now but still just as beautiful, I guess I would say that though wouldn't I?

EVERYBODY Who plays along with the challenge this week gets emailed this free Dottie, it isn't available to buy so the only way you can get it is by playing!

Karaoke Dottie really makes me giggle.

Pop over to Dottie's World for more details.

Dottie's World Challenge

Crikey what a week I've had! We're getting a new bathroom fitted this coming week and we've spent the past week gutting it. Yesterday I spent most of the day up a ladder stripping wood chip and about 100 layers of paint off the ceiling! Uuuuurgh! I'm aching a wee bit today I can tell you! I was glossing the woodwork at 11pm last night but then I realised that the flippin paint takes 16 hours to dry! I have sanding to do today but won't be able to do it until the paint dries, how annoying.

Any how, on to the card.... It was my turn to set he challenge this week at Dottie's World and I decided to go for the good old saving grace of many a crafty project - Flowers!

Here's the card I came up with....

I printed Hippy Dottie on a free digi background which I added before printing (saves on cutting out!) and added some Bo Bunny stickers and a flower I made for yesterday's Dottie's World tutorial. As luck would have it I had some ribbon to match the one on the sticker so it all matched up quite nicely.

As usual I put glue in the centre of all the flowers ready for glitter and then forgot to add the flippin glitter! So try to use your imagination! LOL

Thanks for looking

Louise xx

Ruby Ribbons

Hi folks,

I have a new little lady to show you today. I was recently comissioned by Crafts Beautiful magazine to design a character exclusively for them. I knew it was going to have to be traced from their pattern pages so I wanted to go for crisp and simple. I ended up going for a 50's style domestic goddess! The full project and all the instructions, and templates is now on sale at a store near you!

The professional photogropher always makes my stuff look miles better but you'll just have to make do with my quick pics that I took before sending them off I'm afraid- there are more items in the magazine.

I hope you like her!

Thanks for looking.

Louise xx

Dottie's World Challenge- Fur or Feather

It's Nicola's turn to set the challenge at Dottie's World today and she's challenged us to use fur or feathers either literally with one of the downloads or by using an animal or bird Charmed Download.

I couldn't decide so I made two.

I always have to sneak some glossy accents in there!

Nicola thought I was going mad when I said Ellie elephant would be good for the fur or feathers challenge. She said " Call yourself a teaching assistant? Elephants don't have fur or feathers!" I nearly did actually PMSL! I was giggling all day. Do you see what I mean now Nicola? ROFL. Only joking hunny, you know I love ya!

Paper Take Weekly - Dawny's Sketch

I popped over to the PTW blog today to see what they've been up to. Dawny has produced a fabulous sketch and, well, I just had to have a play.

Here's what I came up with....

I was feeling lazy so I printed off the coloured version of the Scruff image - well that's what they're there for! The papers are Bo Bunny. Yet again I've done some stitching - I'm really into it at the moment.

I went for a variation on the decoupage by just having the feet attached with pads and the tops of the legs just stuck down flat, that way it makes it look a bit more real.

I hope you like it, thanks for looking. x

DCM- Bling!

Ok I,m in a mega rush this morning, I hav to outt ofthhedooin15 minutes and I arn't evenddssed yet! That is I don't have my wrk clothes on, I'm not naked PMSL......Moving swiftly on, I'm going to show you my challenge card and disappear. The challnge is to use bling, Karen and I have Sponsored it this week so the DCM blog is all Dottie ATM.

My bling is in the form of glitter and black gems. I don't really like this card very much but I guess we can't be happy all the time.

Thanks for looking.xx

Dottie's World Challenge-Colour

It's Juliet's turn to set the challenge on Dottie's World this week. She was inspired by all the fireworks so has asked us to come up with something colourful.

I fancied a change so, as I haven't done any paper piecing for ages I thought it was time I did.

I chose the Peggy Pig download fom the Animal Magic collection and printed her out four times onto my four colour choices, cut out, pieced together and whizzed it all through my sewing machine before adding the finishing touches.

I like the layering I've done on the flower, you might be seeing some more of those frrom me. You know that Sizzix flower die must be my most used die of all time, it's so handy!

I forgot to say, I cut the scalloped background on my Sillhouette- but only just managed it as my sticky mat has finally lost it's stick, I had to tape it down!

Thanks for looking.

Lou xx

Two More Challenges!

Blimey what's got into me! You see this is what happens when I get a bit of time on my hands, there's just no stopping me!

For today's card I've used this week's Di Hickman sketch, to celebrate her card sketch Anniversary Di has given us her very first ever sketch to play with, it holds a special place in her heart and I can see why-It's ace!

I've combined the sketch with this week's Paper Take Weekly challenge which is to use sparkle in you card.

Here's what I came up with......

I've used BG Fruit Cake papers for this one, I don't think I'll ever go off them. The happy chappy is called Donald and he's from the new download collection at Charmed Cards and Crafts, it's called Animal Magic.

I've made him Christmassy by adding the sparkly hat and the sparkly snowflake, oh yes and the snow is made with snow writer (which I LOVE)

I hope you like it, thanks for visiting. xxxx

Cute Card Thursday- Cheers

I haven't done any challenges other than the Dottie's World ones for ages! I decided it was time for a change.

Over at Cute Card Thursday this week's challenge is to make a drinks themed card.

Hmmmm....which image could I use?....Well it had to be one of the new Charmed downloads just as it had to be some of my new Bo Bunny paper too, put them both together and what do you get?..

.....Peggy Pig slowly marinating herself with a gorgeous cocktail!

I wanted her to be holding a glass but the only one I could find was too big so I put it in the corner instead, take a look...........

Here's the arty shot.......

Thanks for looking.xxxx