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