Christmas competition winners!

I didn't think you would want to see pictures of the bowl (you seen one bowl you seen 'em all lol)again so decided just to show you the winning names pulled. If you see your name send me an email with your details and the 5 stamps you want from the new release. Congratulations to all of the winners and thank you to everyone who took the time to tell me their Christmas stories. I'm sure I'll have another competition in the not to distant future so make sure you check in!

I've still not made a dent in the list of cards I have to make so I'm off to do that just now. With a little luck and the stopping of time I might just manage lol. I've a few things I want to run past you and another exciting announcement that I'm bursting to tell!

Catch ya later x

Pre-Order and Competition

This is going to stay at the top so make sure you scroll down to see new posts!

Remember you can pre-order any of the new images for the special price of £5.50 until Monday 26th July and you can check them all out here.

Also don't forget to leave a comment about your favourite Christmas memory, either a recent one or from when you were little. There will be 5 winners and they'll be able to pick 5 of their favourites from the new release. Again it's world wide so don't be shy! Contest closes Friday 30th July with the winners picked at the weekend :-D

**AND... if you want to win the 5 new Christmas Nikki's leave a comment explaining how you found me/blog/stamps and or why you visit me!**

Good Luck!!

Last Day!

Remember today is the last day to pre-order the new release for the special price of £5.50. Don't miss out on a bargain :-D

I'll be back later x

Lucky to be alive...

I suppose the title is a slight exaggeration of last nights events but I did get a heck of a fright! I took Rocky and Ruby up to Cathkin Braes and once there was told that someone had lost one of their Springer Spaniels...usually if it gets separated from it's owner she heads up to the car park and waits at their car. I said I'd keep an eye out and set off. About 10 minutes in I heard yelping coming from the swamp area so headed off. I wasn't too concerned about the wet ground as I had my wellies on but as I got closer to the yelping I was getting deeper and deeper. Rocky had gone off somewhere and Ruby was following me and I was a bit concerned having only three legs that she might get stuck too! The yelping kept changing directions so I kept following them. I did comtemplate calling my friend Suzy Q but knew she was at home with her kidlets and carried on. Anywho, I was calling Molly and getting closer but in my next step I sunk down in the muck to about hip level. OMG....I got such a fright and got a bit panicky. Somehow dragged myself onto terra firma bringing half the swamp in my wellies lol!! I just managed to get on solid ground when my phone goes (Not sure how it came out unscathed!) and guess who it is??? Suzy Q!!!! She managed to make it after all and was looking for me. I quickly told her what happened and she asked me to describe Molly. When I told her she said that Molly was right beside her!!! The little madam had managed to make her way out of the swamp and was looking for her mom!!! So there I was...soaking wet...smelling like a dumpster and Molly was no worse for her ordeal lol. I squelched back to where Suzy Q was to find her, her three poodles and the 2 Springer Spaniels waiting for me. We put leads on the dogs and went looking for their owner and when we eventually found her she was mortified at what I had done!

We tried to salvage our walk but I was getting a bit uncomfortable so we headed up to the cars...me squelching all the way lol. On hindsight I probably shouldn't have taken the risk but I really didn't think about it and I certainly didn't think the swamp was that deep. You really don't know what you would do until you find yourself in the situation. I'm so glad Suzy Q called when she did...ok she didn't really do anything as far as pulling me out but just her being there made me feel much better :-D

I took this picture when I got home....

Here are my wellies drying out after their traumatic ordeal lol. I had a shower straight away and scrubbed till I was sore but I still smelled like the swamp :-S The good news is I didn't get swamp fever or have any nightmares :-D

I've had this image coloured up for ages now but couldn't decide what to do with her. I wanted to try something without pp so grabbed my brand spankin' new stamp set from Papertrey Ink and set to work making my own background with Elzybells Sugar Candy pigment ink and some SU! kraft cs. Boy is that inkpad great...a lot of white inkpads stamp bright then fade but not this one.

So do you like Ruby Fairy sitting on a log with her birdie friends? LOLOLOL....don't worry, that's not what she called!

I've used 2mm Siam Swarovski crystals on her coat.

So that's another Christmas Ruby for you...I think another one to go :-D

Good news is I'm expecting delivery of the new release either tomorrow or Monday. They're working really hard to get it to me on time after last months release disaster. As soon as they're in I'll get them out to you. Don't forget tomorrow (30th) is the last day to order the new release at the special offer price of £5.50 saving a £1.

Thanks for stopping by.

Catch ya later x

And the winner is...

I'm soooooooooooooo sorry this has taken so long. I don't know what happened to yesterday and I don't even want to talk about today lol!!!

I cut and folded up all the entries...I loved EVERY story...

I grabbed Ryan before he ran out the door...

And the winner is.....RONI!!!!!

Yaaaay.....send me an email with your details Roni :-D

Gotta run....will post something tonight.

Catch ya later x

Oops, I forgot

Ok...how exciting was yesterday's post?? Magnum seemed to be a hit on Jeanie's blog...a few more cat converts me thinks lol.

So exciting were the last few days I forgot about the Blogaversary candy that was up for grabs on Sunday!! I'm home alone (ahhhh) so as soon as someone comes in I'll get them to pick a name out of the hat/bowl/cup/tin and post the winner.

In the meantime here is another Jack for you to feast your eyes on!

Somehow I don't think Jack is going to catch the frog! I used Bo Bunny pp that I picked up the other day along with double dot cs. I moved away from my usual square diecut image and thought the Nestabilities long rectangle would be a nice change. It allowed me room to put a co-ordinating i-tops brad in the corner. Then I got all crazy and put another bigger one on :-D

Jack is all puffed out and Mr Frog doesn't look the least bit bothered lol

Since frogs usually look wet even when out of water I used some Glossy Accents to get the effect. Don't look too close lol.

And it wouldn't be one of my cards without a bit of glitter so the net and 'bounce' got the glitter treatment :-D

Let me know what ya think...I think he's a fab addition to the Jack family!

Catch ya later x

The Chick is in the house!!!

Ok folks...here it is...my first Guest Designer card courtesy of the fabulous Jeanie Witmer aka

The Spotted Chick!!!!

I love everything about this card..the pp, the giant brads and ribbon (I believe I have some of that...surprise surprise), even the stamp Jeanie used LMAO.

Don't you just love how Jeanie's coloured Magnum's fur

Emails having been flying through cyberspace over the weekend between the top chick and myself. She is so lovely and has THE best sense of humour :-DD

I can't tell you how excited I am...I feel like a proper blogger now...I'm all growed up LOL

Thank you Jeanie for the fabulous card :-D

Make sure you check out Jeanie's blog to see more of her fantastic cards.

Catch ya later x

ps have you noticed my new buttons?!

Stuck in a rut

So how's your weekend been? Do anything exciting? I've been pretty busy with the usual weekend stuff. I headed over to CW yesterday to deliver some stock and to see if there were any new goodies. I bought some new Bo Bunny papers and some Bazzil cs as well as a stamp pad, Quickie Glue pen and Glamour Dust. While I was paying a shoplifter had been caught leaving the store!! June was trying to call the police while Gail was putting my stash through the till, bagging it and trying to find out what was going on. I didn't look at my stash until well after I got home and when I did I got a bit of a surprise. First thing I spotted in the bag was an Original Nikki stamp which I know I didn't want to buy as I have one or 100 at home lol. I looked at my receipt and sure enough I'd been charged for one of my stamps!!!

My friend Karen in Dubai was 40 yesterday and although I sent flowers I hadn't made a card for her so I got to work on that today. I used the new Bo Bunny pp and the double dot cs but stupidly I only bought one sheet of each and I ran out of the double dot cs I was using. I would have taken it apart and used another colour but I'd already done the sewing and stuck on the crystals so as a temporary measure....just so I had a card to post...I used another colour to mount the image. Now I'm not too thrilled with it the way it is but once I get more of the cs I'll change it over.

I wasn't very happy with the colouring...I think I was in a rut today...but once I glittered up Nikki's blouse and the pillow it was a bit better.

The turquoise scallop just doesn't work for me.

I'm still persevering with my Pro Markers and some days are better than others. Today I wanted to throw in the towel and get my Prisma's out!!

I haven't shown you Skating Nikki for a long time so thought I'd show you one I recently received from Ann. She's a friend of Gaynor's who does the other 3'D cards you've seen on here. I love the green shimmer of her sweater and hat.

There's going to be an extremely exciting post tomorrow so make sure you stop by. Have you noticed anything new on my blog tonight? Hmmmm...one of them might be a clue!

I'll also post the winner of the 5 Christmas Nikki's so you've a little bit longer if you want to post a comment.

Thanks for stopping by.

Catch ya later x

I've expried!

When I logged on to my blog this morning it looked very different than it had been...it's back to plain ol' green....my background had expired! I didn't know you only got them for a short time so I guess I'm gonna hafta start looking for another one. Mind you this one is a bit more calming than the other one!

Thought I'd give you a couple of more sneak peeks for the Blogaversary prize of the five new Christmas Nikki stamps.

I've a bit of running around to do today but hopefully I'll get to make a sample for you later.

Don't forget to leave your comments....doesn't matter where.

Enjoy your weekend.

Catch ya later x

Back to summer

Before I launch into today's card I'd like to thank all of you for your comments in both the Christmas and Blogaversary competitions. Your stories in both have left me laughing and all warm and fuzzy inside :-D

I thought I would give Christmas a break today and maybe that would help improve the weather :-D We've had a alot of rain lately...but that's usually typical of a) school holidays and b) Fair Fortnight! Today's supposed to be ok but from tomorrow...rain :-S

I promised you more Jack's and here is one of them....Jack and the Worm (me thinks a competition is in order to give my stamps a bit more exciting names lol)

And if you'll notice I moved away from the same layout that seemed to be planted in my brain for the last few cards.

Look what you find when you open drawers that haven't seen the light of day in years....cork!! I thought it would be perfect with Jack and the Worm (inward groan heehee) I noticed on the price sticker I bought it in Nash's .... Nash's is responsibe for all of this as it's where I took my very first beginner's stamping class (I won't bore you AGAIN with the details). My class was 10 years ago this December and it's been closed for about 8 years so that's how long people!!

Poor Mr Worm...looks like he got a right big shock when Jack pulled him from his nice warm home!

I couldn't get the sand (you could also colour it in as dirt :-D) to look textured enough so I thought my yellowy glitter would do the trick...yes or no? I used a small silver nailhead for the bucket handle screw and a big of GA on the shovel and rubber of his running shoes for a bit of effect.

I'm meeting up with Moira and her daughter Chloe this afternoon for a Ruby/Magnum/Lily catch up and possibly bounce some ideas around :-D

Hope you all have a great weekend. Don't forget to leave your comments for a chance to win the gorgeous new stamps.

Thanks for stopping by

Catch ya later x

Blogaversary!

I looked at the calendar yesterday and had a thought....when did I start my blog last year?? So I had a bit of a check and it's actually a year ago today I made my first post!!! OM word...how time has flown and what a journey this last year has been. I never would have thought in a month of Sunday's that I'd be where I am with my little business and how much fun/hardwork it would be :-D

So to celebrate I had a right good thunk and came up with this....leave a comment telling me how you came across me/my blog/stamps and or why you visit my blog and the winner will receive some blog candy.... the 5 new Nikki Christmas stamps being released next month! Just to whet your appetite I've given you a little sneak peek below...

This blog candy is an extra to the Christmas comment one so if you love Nikki and her furry friend Buttercup you will want to enter this one! I'll keep this one open until this Sunday :-D

Gotta run

Catch ya later x

The Saga Continues....

As I'm typing this it's Tuesday night and I'm in The Bean Scene. You can guess my internet is still not working and I'm still bearing the scars of today. I really thought I had lost the will to live...dramatic I know when there's so much horrible stuff going on so forgive me if I've offended anyone. Here's what happened...

Pierce dropped me off at the mall at 9am so I could use you-know-who's wi-fi. For some reason it wouldn't let me log on so I ended up buying another £5 card so I could sign in with it. I managed to after about 15 minutes phaffing about but it was soooooo slow. I got quite a bit done before it decided to time out but do you think it would let me sign back in? Once you're registered you can use sign in as many times as you like but it wouldn't let me with either card. I decided to pack up and I got the train home. I saw I had a couple of messages on the answer machine. One was my 5pm up-date call from TalkTalk.....at 9:20 am!! The message said they were calling for an update but since I wasn't in another call would be booked within the next 48 hours.....48 HOURS!!!! If that wasn't bad enough they had strict instructions that if I wasn't home to call me on my mobile which didn't happen. Up to this point I have been pretty laid back but I saw RED so I called up and spoke loudly to someone for 39 minutes. She started to go through the whole thing from the beginning ie resetting the router etc etc. (I'd done this with 3 other people by this point) tried to set her straight ended up doing what she told me and ended up back at square one. This is when she informed me that she would be sending off a report to BT and someone would be contacting me withing 6 days......6 DAYS!!!!! This is when the tears of frustration started stinging. I hung up and called back and got someone who was somewhat sympathetic but reitterated what she had said....6 days! I then got a call from the guy I spoke to on Tuesday of last week to report the problem saying not to worry it will only take 3 days!!!

This is where the phrase 'it's not what you know but who you know' comes in handy. We have a friend who is quite high in BT so in desperation I called him. You're probably wondering why I didn't call him earlier but I really don't like to ask for favours unless it's an absolute emergency and at this point it is!!! He was en-route home from England so I'm to call him in the morning and fingers, toes, eyes and anything else you can find, crossed he might be able to get it fixed.

If all this wasn't bad enough, and don't ask me how this happened, as I was rushing into my workroom to get something to reset the router, my back pocket on my linen trousers got caught in the door handle and the button popped off!!! I know I'm tall (5'8") but surely not that tall. Hmmmm...maybe it's reassuring that my butt isn't sagging as much as I thought lol.

So that's my sorry tale and I'm sorry I'm boring you with it on a daily basis but hopefully tomorrow will be the last you'll hear of it :-D

In all the frustrations of the day I managed to make this card. I can see I'm in a design rut as it's just a variation of most of the cards I've made lately! Must try harder tomorrow lol.

This is Tom and his friends Snowman & Reindeer (another original name lol) and he's just the cutest little guy.

Mr Reindeer is not too happy Tom is using him as a ladder

I've used Swarovski crystals (jet) for Tom's buttons as well as Mr Snowman

I told you I'd be using this tag and stamp again :-D

I've loved your favourite Christmas memories so far....keep them coming!

Thanks for putting up with my whinging these past few days.

Catch ya later x

PS I keep forgetting to say.... Hayley is having a giant clearout to make room for some new goodies so make sure you go and pick up a bargain or four! She's got some Bo Bunny and MME in the sale so get there quick before I do lol.

Christmas competition...

I'm surprised I have any hair left on my head! I'm not even going to bore you with my on-going lack of internet saga. Suffice to say I'm 'you-know-where' and I'll know more at 5pm when I get my 'update' call. Thank you for all your offers to use your wi-fi and I would love to take you up on your offer Elaine but I don't think I'd get any work done...we'd be yakking all the time!

Also thank you for your comments on the new release .... I'm glad you're loving the new images. I've had a sneak peak at some new Christmas Nikki's which I think you'll all love too :-D They will probably be ready for the end of August early September but if I can get them sooner I'll let you know.

I'm particularly happy with this new Christmas Ruby sample....Letter to Santa. I think the colours are so calming.

I've just had a mental block re the pp (my brain is about to implode!) but I'm sure it's MME. If not I'm sure you'll put me right! It might come back to me by the time I've posted this lol.

Do you like the snow? I love this glitter from Judikins and I use it alot on my Christmas cards. It's perfect for snow :-D

I wonder what is on Ruby's list??? I've used loads of glitter and Swarovski crystals on her coat.

I dug this snowflake charm out of one of my drawers...hoarding as usual. I'm sure I got these on ebay last year (or was it the year before??? lol)

So do you like? I love....but then what else is new!

Ok, I think it's competition time. What I'd like you to do is leave me a comment about a favourite Christmas memory ... it can be from recent years or when you were growing up. I think I've mentioned mine before but it was when Tracey and I were about 8 and 9 (Shelly was just a twinkle then!!!) and we had our Christmas tree in the basement. When we got down the stairs there in front of us were shiney new bikes. Mine was purple (because I loved Donny Osmond and that was his favourite colour too and we share the same birthday Dec 9 {sigh}) with a banana seat, a bar to lean against and streamers in the handle bars. Oh how I loved that bike :-D But then there was the Christmas where Tracey and I each got a big (and I mean huge) box and inside were lots of little presents wrapped up. We each got the same but my favourites were the cassette tape recorder and a Cheerful Tearful doll that when you gave her her bottle then pulled her arm down she cried tears!!! Did any of you have one of those?

I guess you want to know what the prize is huh. Well, how about 5 of you get to choose 5 stamps of your choice from the new release. The closing date will be Friday July 30th and I'll pick the winners over the weekend. Like the last time the competition is open to anyone, anywhere in the world. The big winner from the June release was from New York...hi Beth!!...so make sure you leave your comment.

Ok, that's it from me today. I hope and pray that I'll be posting tomorrow from the comfort of my own house :-D

Catch ya later x

Guess where I am...

Answers on a postcard....No, I'm not at home in my cozy little workroom watching the rain come down in buckets. No, I'm not in Starbucks either....I'm in Bean Scene a couple of villages from me. I didn't want to outstay my welcome in Starbucks so on Saturday I thought I'd go to a different mall with a Starbucks (are you fed up reading Starbucks as much as I am typing it???). Silverburn is probably the newest mall in Glasgow so off I go, park and lug my laptop et al into said place I'm fed up typing, place my order and ask to use their wi-fi. I was told I had to go to the information centre to get a password. Off I trek only to be told there isn't any wi-fi in the whole mall and if I wanted to use the internet I'd have to get it from Cloud. Where do I get that I ask?....you buy it online says she. So there I was back to square one! As I had placed my order you know where I asked them to tip it into a takeaway cup and off I went in search of wi-fi. I remembered Bean Scene had it so I ended up there for a couple of hours. They don't have the best coffee in the world but their nachos are fab though I didn't have any...just a peppermint tea and a muffin and at the rate I'm going my muffin top will be spilling over and then some!! Yesterday I was at *** and today back at BS (that doesn't stand for what some of you might be thinking!!)

When will my interntet be up an running?? I wish I knew. I'm with TalkTalk and they have been really good at keeping me informed. The problem is that when someone signs up for internet with TalkTalk, BT have to go to the exchange and do something with the wires. Apparently mine wire has been hooked up to someone else's phone number and I have to wait for BT to send someone (you know those Open Reach vans?) to go back to my exchange and switch my wire back. A call yesterday told me the instructions sent hadn't been followed properly so now I'm expecting a call tomorrow at 5pm giving me an update. I'm hoping that by keeping all my receipts for coffees etc that I'll get a refund!!

Enough of that...I'm getting bored with it and you must be bordering on unconsciousness so how about a card?

This is another fabulous design from Moira (Ruby, Magnum, Tracey & Reindeer). I'm calling this one Christmas Pudding Attack!

I'm really loving this style of illustration....a little bit less polished than Ruby.

He looks pretty determined to get the pud and I really hope it's worth his efforts lol

Yuuuuuuuuummmeeeeeeee!

I bought these buttons Downtown when I was home a few years ago. I think I have about 30 because I didn't want to run out!!!

I probably told my Big News about Jeanie too early but I was so excited and I just couldn't keep it to myself any longer. Four days was a record for me lol. I noticed that she did see her card but I'm not too disappointed because she loves it :-D

I forgot to mention when I posted yesterday about pre-ordering the August release that I haven't made samples with all the images yet (I am trying!!) so if you want to see them all you can here. I'll keep posting samples until they're all done. The special pre-order price of £5.50 will be available up to an including Monday 26th July so you still have a week to order.

Thanks for stopping by

Catch ya later x

ps look out for another competition this week!

pps Why didn't anyone tell me it was a Bank Holiday today??

Pre-order

This is another quick post from Starbucks. Hopefully will get my internet sorted by tonight...fingers crossed otherwise I'm going to have my name on my booth!

Just wanted to let you know that I have added all the new stamps to my website for pre-order at the special price of £5.50. Stamps will be arriving with me (I've been double promised) at the end of the month and I will as usual ship straight away :-D

Getting my hair done in 15 minutes so must dash....

Catch ya later x

ps this is the second post today so scroll down for my exciting news!!

pps if there's no post tomorrow you'll know I'm still internet-less and I sick of Starbucks...not!

Big News!

I opted for a piece of Apple & Sultana cake yesterday...it said low fat but I think they were lying cuz it tasted full fat to me lol.

Ok folks...I'm gonna let you in on my Big News! I follow a few blogs and like many of you I have my favourites. Top of my list is The Spotted Chick...Jeanie has the best sense of humour which show in her cards and what she writes. I often wondered what it would be like for someone like Jeanie to design a card using one of my stamps. I've procrastinated for months now on contacting the Queen of Chicks...what if my email went straight into her spam folder? What if she didn't like my stamps? What if she said .....NO?

Well....last weekend I did just that. I took a brave pill and emailed Jeanie asking her if she would be interested in designing a card/cards using my stamps and blogging them and guess what??? SHE SAID YES!!!! Oh my word....I can't tell you how excited I was when I got her email (think dancing around the room and whooping). I am still in shock and sooooooooooooo excited. So officially from the end of this month Jeanie is going to be a Monthly Guest Designer and I can't tell you how honoured I am.

I quickly rustled up a package and mailed it off to her before she could change her mind. Her favourite is Magnum and Lily and I can't wait to see what she does with them. I couldn't just send the stamps so I made her this card to go in the package.

This is one of 4 Christmas Magnum & Lily images

Poor Magnum...I don't think he's having much fun....on the other hand....

Lily is lol!

I made the snowflake with felt and my Cuttlebug snowflake dies and added a 7mm Swarovski crystal to the middle.

What do you think? Will Jeanie like it?

I think I've outstayed my welcome in Starbucks so I'm going to pack up and head home. Hopefully my internet will be up and running at home this week....if not I'll have to force myself to take another trip to the mall.

Thanks for stopping by.

Catch ya later x

More Christmas Ruby

Happy Friday...I mean Saturday lol! I'm still in Starbucks and thunking I might need a muffin and another coffee to wash it down with. So the big question is Blueberry or Lemon Poppyseed?? Don't you hate decisions like these lol.

Here is the third of 6 Christmas Ruby's.

No surprises here...I love this one!! I'm sure Ruby was hoping for more than a Robin when she sat under the mistletoe heehee. The pp is Bo Bunny that I've had for a while...

I coloured her with my Prisma pencils and Pro Markers...I'm getting the hang of them now :-D

Lots and lots of glitter and Swarovski crystals for the baubles...

I don't know what I've done today so I can't tell you lol...probably taken the dogs to CB and coloured in an image or two. Stay tuned because I'll be announcing the pre-order of all the new images next week! More good news...I've another Jack completed and 5 more in the works. If you loved the first two I promise you will not be disappointed!

Catch ya later x