It's nearly 2014!...

Good evening, dear Blogger friends and a Happy New Year's Eve to you all!  I can't quite believe where this year has gone to - they seem to get quicker every year!  I wanted to end the year by sharing a card with you as I can, at last, sit at my crafty table once more!

...I was quite happy with this whilst I was making it, but now I'm not so sure!?  (My photographic skills don't do it much justice either - one of my resolutions should be to try and take better pictures!)...

...It is, however, my one and only New Year's card and it is made to say a BIG 'Thank you!' to all of you who have visited me over the last year, despite my very sporadic and often dismal blogging!  I am hoping that the New Year will allow me some more crafty time and have managed to sit and do some colouring over the Christmas holidays - something I have missed doing - there's nothing more therapeutic than sitting down with an image and a bunch of colouring pens!  I wish you all a very Happy New Year and hope that 2014 brings you health and happiness!  I will raise a glass to you all at midnight!  Once again, thanks for being there and sharing in my crafty creations, and I'll see you in 2014!!!!
Big hugs,
Lisa xx

Happy Christmas!...

Good morning and a very Happy Christmas to all you lovely Bloggers!  I hope that Santa brought all that you wished for and that the day brings much happiness and time to spend with family and friends!  Fingers crossed that the turkey is cooked, the sprouts aren't hard and the roasties are crispy, then it's time for a glass of fizz, a boardgame or two and settling down to watch the Dr Who Christmas special!  (farewell Matt Smith!)  Wishing you all a fabulous day filled with fun and laughter, too much food, a little drink and a generous serving of Christmas spirit! (not the liquid kind!?!)  HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERBODY!
Hugs,
Lisa x

Passion for Promarkers Mega Christmas Challenge....

Good morning, dear Blogger friends and a very Happy Christmas Eve to you all!  Can't quite believe that the big day has come around so quick - I hope you are all ready for the man in the red suit's arrival! 

Today is Team 1's turn to show you our card inspiration for our current Mega Christmas Challenge at Passion for Promarkers - the challenge runs for a whole month and ends on January 7th 2014!
Our theme for the Mega Christmas challenge is a nice easy one “include a sentiment”.  You are welcome to make Christmas cards but as the challenge will still be running after the ‘BIG’ day you can of course make any type of creation as long as it includes a sentiment of some kind.  As time is precious for our DT at this time of year we are limiting the number of entries you can make to just 3 for this month long challenge.  Please remember to be eligible for our prizes you must use your promarkers, flex markers, tria markers, metallic or aqua markers...

 

For my card creation, I decided to use the ever so cute Isla fairy from Emerald Faearies.  I love this little imp and thought she would be sweet coloured in frosty colours and hanging from a snowflake instead of her usual dandelion seed head!

...I coloured Isla with my Pro and Flexmarkers and glittered her wings with Crystal Glamourdust glitter...

...I had to put this card together at the end of our last workshop as all my crafty stuff was still at Mum's due to the ongoing work at our house!  We are now able to see the light at the end of the tunnel and are getting things back where they belong and can actually start to live in our house again!  I promise I will post some piccies over the festive holiday (after I've tidied a bit more stuff up!?!) and I hope to be back creating and blogging again in the near future - not to mention doing a bit of crafty shopping in the January sales! 

So now for the exciting bit – the prizes!

Letraset are generously offering one lucky a winner a pack of their Autumn/Winter promarkers Ltd Edition set!

DigiStamp Boutique are generously offering one lucky winner a prize of a £10 voucher to spend in her store.

Bugaboo stamps are generously offering one lucky winner a prize of 10 digis of their choice.

Polkadoodles is offering one lucky winner a prize of a copy of their Bonbon Belles Double CD collection.

Clearly Besotted Stamps is offering one lucky winner 1 stamp set of their choice.

Dies to Die For are offering one lucky winner a £10 voucher to spend in their online store.

Bearly Mine Designs are offering one lucky winner a £10 voucher to spend in their online store. 

Don't forget to hop on over to the Passion for Promarkers blog to see what amazing inspiration my wonderful teamies have to share with you (A very Merry Christmas girls!) and it would be great if you could join in with our fabulous challenge this month!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and that the New Year brings you health, happiness and a lot of crafty time!  Many thanks again for your patience with me during this time of upheaval, your support and kind words make it all worthwhile and I look forward to seeing what inspiration 2014 brings! All the very best, big crafty hugs,

Lisa x

Passion for Promarkers Mega Christmas Challenge...

Good morning, dear crafty friends! I hope you are all enjoying the festive season and are a little more organised than I am for Christmas! I am still trying to get the house decorated and have eventually managed to get my craft/computer/dining room painted and my new desk assembled! With any luck and a bit of hard graft, I should be finished enough by the weekend to get the rest of the furniture in and maybe even the Christmas tree up!

Anyway,  back to business! Today is a very special day over at Passion for Promarkers as it sees the launch of our Mega Christmas challenge which runs for a whole month and ends on January 7th 2014!  Both design teams have worked extremely hard once again this year and so we are having a little break to catch up on our last minute gifts and cards.  However to make up for the lack of challenges we have some fantastic prizes up for grabs.

Our theme for the Mega Christmas challenge is a nice easy one “include a sentiment”.  You are welcome to make Christmas cards but as the challenge will still be running after the ‘BIG’ day you can of course make any type of creation as long as it includes a sentiment of some kind.  As time is precious for our DT at this time of year we are limiting the number of entries you can make to just 3 for this month long challenge.  Please remember to be eligible for our prizes you must use your promarkers, flex markers, tria markers, metallic or aqua markers.

So now for the exciting bit – the prizes!

Letraset are generously offering one lucky a winner a pack of their Autumn/Winter promarkers Ltd Edition set!

DigiStamp Boutique are generously offering one lucky winner a prize of a £10 voucher to spend in her store.

Bugaboo stamps are generously offering one lucky winner a prize of 10 digis of their choice.

Polkadoodles is offering one lucky winner a prize of a copy of their Bonbon Belles Double CD collection.

Clearly Besotted Stamps is offering one lucky winner 1 stamp set of their choice.

 Dies to Die For are offering one lucky winner a £10 voucher to spend in their online store.

Bearly Mine Designs are offering one lucky winner a £10 voucher to spend in their online store.

We have asked both design teams to share some inspiration with you but as it such a long challenge we will be posting the inspiration from Team 2 today and then in two week’s time we will be posting inspiration from Team 1. So here are the links to the gorgeous cards from team 2 (please click on their names to visit their personal blogs):

Andie

Anna

Donna

Jane B.

Kelly

Lotta

Sue

We’re sure you’ll agree that their cards are stunning.  So to re-cap the challenge will run until 7th January 2014 and you can enter a maximum of 3 times.  Unfortunately during the Mega Christmas challenge we will not be choosing a top 5 passionista but this will re-commence for the first challenge in 2014.

We can’t wait to see your creations and look forward to visiting your blogs. We’ll be back on 24th December to share Team 1’s gorgeous selection of cards, so don’t forget to stop by for more wonderful inspiration!

I hope you can find the time to join in with our fantastic challenge and wish you all good luck in the prize draws,  as there are some wonderful prizes to win! We look forward to seeing all your fabulous creations!  

Crafty hugs,

Lisa x

Passion for Promarkers - Check it out...

...Hello, dear Blogger friends!  Well, it's already the middle of November (where did last month go?!) and time for a new challenge over at Passion for Promarkers!  This week, it's my turn to play host and I chose the theme 'Check it out!', so I would like to see some gingham (yee-haw!), checks, plaids or tartans (och aye the noo!) on your projects....easy!!  This week, we are sponsored by the fabulous Digi Stamp Boutique, who are offering one lucky winner the chance to win a £10.00 voucher for their store and with so many amazing digistamps to choose from, I'm sure it will easily be spent! 

 Don’t forget you must use your Letraset products (i.e. promarkers, flex markers, aqua markers, tria markers, metallic markers or neon markers) and of course follow the theme.

...For my card, I had permission from the ever so talented Katina Killey, to case one of her cards!  I saw this fabulous card for her granddaughter Molly and fell in love with the CAS style!  I have to say, I love Katina's cards for her fabulous clean and simple layouts, great paper piecing and brilliant colouring, and I always find some sort of inspiration when I visit her blog!  Thanks so much, Katina!  So, here it is...

 

...I decided to go with a pink and green colour combo and used a green gingham paper from Nitwits Cherry Blossoms papers matted onto pink cardstock...

 ...I added a few embellishments to my design with pink gingham ribbon and bow, metal flower charm, pearls and a hint of glitter on the roses...

 ...The gorgeous image is Whimsy stamp's Wee Florist (I just adore this digi!) and she was coloured using my Pro and Flexmarkers, as usual!  Here's the list of colours I used :

Skin - Satin, Blush, Dusky, Sunkissed Pink & Coral

Hair - Linen, Champagne, Sandstone, Nutmeg

Top - Muted Pink, Tea Rose, Watermelon, Meadow, Leaf & Bright Green

Trousers - Pastel Beige, Soft Khaki, Khaki

Shoes - Antique White, Tan, Shale, Umber

Bucket - Cool Grey 1, 3 & 4

Roses - Pear, Olive Green, Cerise, Vermillion, Burgundy

 ...I cut out my image, leaving a small white border and attached using foam pads for a touch of dimension...

 ...I added an insert inside and decorated it to match with the gingham paper, sentiment and bucket of roses image!  Et voila!

Hope you like my little CAS card and that you can join in with my theme this week - I look forward to visiting you all and seeing your wonderful creations!  And don't forget to hop on over to the Passion for Promarkers blog to see what wonderful inspiration my talented teamies have come up with!  Thanks for dropping by!  

Hugs,

Lisa x

Progress...well, sort of!...

Good morning,  my dear Blogger friends!  As you may have gathered from the blog title,  things are beginning to move forward...in places! I have managed to decorate and carpet the boys' bedrooms,  so they are completely OFF LIMITS to the workmen! We have, however, got the plasterers back again to tidy up the walls, so just as I feel we're moving forward,  we take another step back!  I now have a bathroom suite fitted, though the bath has been put back in the wrong way!  I sort of have a kitchen (without appliances - the fridge and freezer are still in the front room and the washing machine is in the living room!) The tiler came at the end of last week and tiled the kitchen, but they might have to come back off again! I will be so glad when this is all over, though I'm not sure if it'll be finished by Christmas!
Anyway,  I will leave you with the positive pictures of my achievement and try not to think about the rest!...

Thanks for dropping by to see me and I just hope that the pace of progress begins to speed up,  before I go completely stir crazy! Take care and have a great week!  Hugs,

Lisa x

Passion for Promarkers - Geeks...

Good morning, dear Blogger friends!  Today sees the start of another new challenge over at Passion for Promarkers and this week, the lovely Lou has set us the theme of 'Geeks' (images wearing glasses)!  This week, we are sponsored ny the fabulous Letraset, who are offering one lucky winner a 6 pack of Flexmarkers!

 Don’t forget you must use your Letraset products (i.e. promarkers, flex markers, aqua markers, tria markers, metallic markers or neon markers) and of course follow the theme.

Looking through my digistamps, I discovered that I don't have any images wearing glasses, so decided to create my own!  I began by opening Saturated Canary's Hugs and Kisses in my graphics program and pasted the lineart sunglasses (that I found here) on top, resizing them to fit her face.  I printed off, coloured with my Promarkers and fussy cut her out, cutting away the box of hearts, heart frill and cutting out her hands, as shown by the red line in the image below :

...I then made a little book in PS and attached it to her front, then glued her hands into position over the top, so that it looks like she is holding it!

Here's the Pro/Flexmarker colours I used for all you Letraset fans :

Skin : Almond, Blush, Sunkissed Pink

Hair : Sandstone, Caramenl, Cocoa, Walnut, Umber

Glasses: Red, Berry Red

Skirt : Glacier, Dolphin, Denim, Cadet Blues

Tights : Red, Berry, Crimson, Burgundy

Boots : Soft Aqua, Duck Egg, Surf Blue, Muted Pink, Tea Rose, Watermelon, Antique Pink

Book : Berry, Crimson, Burgundy

The cherry paper I used is from Nitwits Cherry Blossom paper set and the others I made myself.  I love this aqua and red combo and added some red satin ribbon loops and a couple of the Memory Box Precious Heart die cuts that were coloured red then glittered with Xmas Red Stickles...

I cut the sentiment using a SB circle die and layered onto SB Eyelet Circle in aqua (all my mats were white cardstock with the edges coloured in coordinating Promarker colours) and created a little arrow shape.  I finished the inside with an insert printed with the words 'Many Happy Returns' and a small pile of books in the bottom right corner.

Don't foget to hop on over to the Passion for Promarkers blog see what my lovely Teamies have created for your inspiration and I hope you can join in with our challenge this week!  Thanks for dropping by, crafty hugs,

Lisa x

Day 7...

Good evening,  dear Blogger friends! I thought I'd write a quick post whilst the broadband is back on! So, today saw the start of rewire - what a messy job!?! We had been warned from the start that this would be the worst part of the job,  but the dust gets everywhere! They'll be back again tomorrow to hopefully finish off, then it'll be plastering and that should then be the worst bit over! We went to Homebase over the weekend to buy ceiling, kitchen and hall paint...I know, ever the optimist! It isn't starting to look any better yet, but I'll post pics when there's obvious progress!
Hope the storm in the South hasn't caused too much damage and that you're all safe and sound - we managed to miss the worst of it, just getting the rain and blustery winds. Take care and thanks for dropping by!
Hugs, Lisa x

Day 5...not much to report!

**  Don't forget there's still time to enter our challenge over at Passion for Promarkers, scroll down to see my DT card  **
After the initial speed of works, stripping out the bathroom and kitchen and knocking walls down, we once again came to a standstill on rewire day due to the fact that the contractors couldn't get any electricians! So we are now minus a little more yet not much further on! The sparkies are hopefully coming on Monday and the plan is that they'll get everything done in a day?! We'll see!
We had a bit of a hiccup with the kitchen plan but I have to say, it was swiftly sorted by the contract manager - despite the delay, the contractors have all been great and do a decent job - I just hope it continues!  I still hope that if the new schedule stays on track, I can be painting ceilings by the weekend!?! Cross fingers!
I can see past the dust and debris and see how lovely it will be when it's done, which is what is keeping me positive! As I walk around, I see my beautiful Laura Ashley wallpaper at the top of my stairs, matching fabric on the shoe bench, ottoman and kitchen pelmets, the soft grey walls, oak finish cupboards, dark worktops and purple splashes of colour in the kitchen...not the reality that is uneven, bare plaster walls, sticky plastic on the floors and dust on every surface!  This has been threatened for the last 3 years, so I've had plenty of time to plan! I still don't know how we're supposed to live in it, but it's just a good job MIL lives up the road, so the boys are sleeping there and she's feeding us all too! I will be glad once the worst is over and things start to get better!
Just thought I would update you on the progress,  or lack of it at the moment anyway!  Thanks for dropping by, take care and if you're in the UK,  I hope that the forecast storm heading our way doesn't cause too much trouble!
Big crafty hugs, Lisa x

Day 1...

*Scroll down a post for my Passion for Promarkers DT card*

Okay, so it's day 1 of our refurbishment works and we are now minus a pantry in the kitchen and have a bathroom and toilet that's been knocked together!  The dust was pretty horrendous and at one point hung like a fog at the bottom of the stairs, but the space is amazing! Thankfully,  I managed to keep the worst of it from the other rooms and am now packing EVERYTHING in anticipation of the rewire! I thought I would share a couple of pics, though they're not the best as they were taken with my tab...

...So this was my little kitchen before, with the picture taken from the door to the hallway...

...and this is the old pantry, taken from by the back door. And now...

...from here, it doesn't look too different, but when you see the view from the back door...

...no more pantry! Thankfully,  they discovered that there was already a concrete lintel supporting the ceiling,  so no need for props and steel!  The new door to the kitchen will go in between the front room and living room doors and I'm hoping to fit as many units as possible in! I have dust up my nose, in my hair and on every flat surface, but apart from that,  things are going great guns and to finish off,  our gas meter was fitted today too, ready for the central heating next week! Let's just hope that the momentum continues and they stick to the schedule - with any luck, I'll be painting bedroom ceilings by next weekend?!
Don't forget this week's challenge over at Passion for Promarkers - Julie wants you to 'Give us a P'...think patterned papers,  punches,  paper piecing and of course,  Promarkers!
Thanks for dropping by to see me and have a great week!  Hugs, Lisa x

Passion for Promarkers - Give us a P...

Good morning, dear Blogger friends! I hope you are all well and ready for a new challenge over at Passion for Promarkers?!  This week, it is our lovely Julie in the hot seat and for her theme this week, she's gone with 'Give us a P...', so anything on your card or project that begins with a P!  This week we are sponsored by the fabulous Dies to Die For, who are offering one lucky winner a £10.00 voucher for their store...awesome!

  Don’t forget you must use your Letraset products (i.e. promarkers, flex markers, aqua markers, tria markers, metallic markers or neon markers) and of course follow the theme.

I decided to go with 'P is for' Promarkers, patterned papers, paper piecing and pearls, but you could always be a bit more adventurous and go for pumpkins, pirates, poppies, parcels, or even parrots!

...The papers I used are all First Edition Boho Chic - I love the different colour tones in this pad as it always makes me think differently with colour (and stay away from pink!)  I went for a quite simple layout and minimal embellishments, to create a CAS look...

...I used the fabulous Saturated Canary Nevaeh image, coloured with my Promarkers and paper pieced with First Edition Boho Chic dotty paper, here's the colours for all you Letraset-ers!

Skin : Satin, Blush, Dusky, Sunkissed Pink

Hair : Rosewood, Auburn, Firebrick, Saddle Brown, Nutmeg

Dress : Nutmeg, Vanilla, Linen, Red, Crimson, Burgundy

Tights : Sea Mist, Tea Green

Shoes : Nutmeg, Vamilla, Linen, Tan

...I added some little ribbon tabs and hand drew a cloud shape to cut out one of my sentiments and SB circle die for the other, then finished with some pearls and a touch of Glamourdust glitter.  Hope you like my little creation and don't forget to hop on over to the Passion for Promarkers blog to see what my wonderful teamies have been up to - as ever, they have some fabulous inspiration!

Hugs, 

Lisa x

P.S. Today is supposed to be 'D' day for the works to start on our house (only 4 months late!) so I will probably be up to my eyeballs in dust and debris!  I have managed to get all my DT cards, orders and workshop cards organised and I'm hoping that the router will be on for as much as possible, so I can still come and visit you all!  I am DREADING the mess and upheaval, but it will all be worth it in the end and hopefully, with any luck, might even be finished for Christmas! (My Christmas will be spent decorating!)  I will be absent between times, but will try to post you some updates if I'm able to get online - I woud also like to thank you all for still coming to see me despite my posts being thin on the ground at the moment, it really does mean a lot and I hope that come the new year, I can get back into crafting and blogging properly!

Aaaagghhhh!!! Mad panic!

Hi there, dear Bloggers!  Another week has flown by and unfortunately, I still have nothing to share with you, though I am being a busy bee!  We had our gas connected last Friday and so things are starting to move forward with our planned housing work.  I am now in panic mode, trying to make sure that I have completed all my card orders, DT and workshop cards up to Christmas and packing up as much of our belongings as possible before next week, as the council are finally supposed to be coming to do the works on our house!! (Only 4 months behind schedule!)  On Tuesday, they'll be coming to do structural work on our kitchen, removing the old pantry, then it's stripping out the kitchen and bathroom, rewiring, gas central heating, refitting and decorating, so we're looking at a whole lot of work!  I hope to goodness that all this talk of freak snow in November and it going to be the worst November in a 100 years is all a bit of hype, else we'll be up a certain creek without a paddle!  It has been a long and somewhat frustrating wait to get to this point and unfortunately, my crafting and blogging has taken a hit with all the uncertainty, so I just pray that things go smoothly and I can get back to some sort of normality by Christmas!  I have been visiting you all  to see your wonderful creations and inspiration and I hope to continue to do so as long as we have internet - my DT cards are all scheduled, so there will be something for you to look at and if I can, I'll be posting updates of the ongoing work!  Thank you all so much for coming to visit me today and I hope you have a fantastic weekend (only one more day to go!)
Hugs,
Lisa x

Passion for Promarkers - Snow is Falling...

Hello again, dear Bloggers!  It's time for another new challenge over at Passion for Promarkers this week and our theme has been set by the lovely Eileen, who has chosen 'Snow is Falling...'  Now I know we all have good intentions at the start of the year that we will make a number of Christmas cards every month and that by now we will have most of them done!  However, the reality all too often is that, it is now the beginning of October and we haven't even managed to make half  a dozen!  So, get out your snowflakes, dust off your snowman stamps and join us in Eileen's challenge of creating something Wintry!  It doesn't have to be for Christmas, but could be a Winter birthday card, or just sending good Winter wishes...whatever the occasion, we want to see the white stuff!  We are sponspored this week by the fabulous Lili of the Valley who are offering one lucky winner, picked at random, a £10 voucher for their store...

Don’t forget you must use your Letraset products (i.e. promarkers, flex markers, aqua markers, tria markers, metallic markers or neon markers) and of course follow the theme.

 ...I decided to go with a white on white theme, using a brilliant sketch from Mojo Monday - #250.  I love this sketch for creating white embossed cards as there are so many layers to create texture.  For the embossing, I used Cuttlebug Random Snow & Swiss Dots and a Snowflake Frame folder which I'm not sure of the manufacturer...

...I used Cloud Blue, Dolphin Blue, Sea Mist and Lilac Pro/Flexmarkers for the coloured layers and added some lilac organza ribbon...

 ...I used a very light colour scheme for the church image, using Meadow Green, Glacier Blue, Pastel Beige, Cool Grey 1, Buttercup and Blender.  I highlighted the fallen snow with Frosted Lace Stickles and sprinkled with Glamourdust whilst still wet so that it gave more sparkle.  

The snowflakes are made from Marianne Designs Snowflake dies and some have been layered for added depth.  The silver scalloped circle is also a Marianne die from one of the doily sets...

 ...I embellished with a double organza bow, pearls, dew drops, pearl effect stars and some Stickles Stardust on the snowflakes, then finished inside with an insert printed with snowflake corners and the sentiment 'Season's Greetings'.
I hope you can join in with our challenge this week and don't forget to hop on over to the Passion for Promarkers blog to see what my fabulous teamies have been up to...
Crafty hugs,
Lisa x

 I'd lke to enter my card into the following challenges :

I Love Promarkers

Songs - Winter Wonderland

Southern Girls Challenge

Sing a Song - Winter Wonderland

Crafty Catz

Anything Goes

Moving Along with the Times

Anything Goes

Passion for Promarkers - One for the Boys

Good morning, Bloggers!  It's time for a new challenge over at Passion for Promarkers and this week's theme has been set by the lovely Marie who has chosen 'One for the Boys'.  Having 2 boys myself, I quite enjoy making boys cards, though don't really seem to make enough of them!
This week we are sponsored by the fabulous Clearly Besotted Stamps who are offering 1 stamp set to the lucky winner picked at random...

Don’t forget you must use your Letraset products (i.e. promarkers, flex markers, aqua markers, tria markers, metallic markers or neon markers) and of course follow 

the theme.

...I decided to go with a space theme for my card and kept the design quite clean and simple...

...The base card is a sideways easel (still love this shape card as it allows you to decorate inside and display the card so that you can see both the front and inside of the card at once).  The image is the space digistamp from Boys2Men CD-Rom and I coloured up 4 of the images using my Pro/Flexmarkers and decoupaged for a bit more depth.  Unfortunately, I forgot to write down the colours I used!  Doh!

...There are 2 panels inside the card, one with the sentiment 'Hope your day is out of this world!' and a writing panel with the rocket line image on...

...I finished by adding the stars back in with a white gel pen, a few small dark blue diamantes and some Stardust Stickles on the moon, flames and UFO lights!  Hope you like my extra terrestrial creation and don't forget to fly on over to the Passion for Promarkers blog to see what my talented teamies have been up to!  Many thanks for visiting me today!  Hugs,
Lisa x