More Jack's and birthday piccies...

Another flabulous challenge week. I know I say it every week but my girl's (not sure where the ' should go if at all to make it plural...anal I know!) done good! Congratulations to the winners...especially to Pami who will be joining us as Guest Designer for two weeks. If you haven't already, check out her blog...she's been making these gorgeous little boxes for Christmas presents and I think anyone on the receiving end of one of these little beauties will be over the moon!

I received a parcel in the mail on Friday from Gaynor and Ann with some more samples. I just love everything they do and they've used one of my favourite pp's. They are so soft and subtly coloured and just so scrumpdillyicious. Take a look....

Embossing the image is just brilliant...I did do one card like this but must remember to do it more often. It adds a bit more interest to the card :-D

Somehow I managed to delete most of the pictures I took from Nicole's birthday dinner on Monday night so this is what I was left with...

It was an M & S cake...it was so yummy and we had no problem finishing it off...the last piece vanished yesterday but not before Suzy Q and I had a piece when she popped in for a coffee :-D

Ruby's getting her stitches out later today...I hope it's not too painful for her. I'm a bit worried as she seems to be favouring her back leg a bit...it sometimes gives way when I've got her in the harness. I hope she hasn't done any damage but climbing the stairs and darting across the room when I'm not looking! I'll see what my local vet says and although Ruby has an appointment next week with the surgeon I won't hesitate to take her earlier if my vet is concerned.

Anywho, that's it for today. I hope you've had a good week so far...TGIF tomorrow!!

Catch ya later x

TLT - Sue's Challenge - Christmas Sparkle

Boy oh boy...these weeks are flying by and I can't believe it's another TLT Challenge. It seems just like yesterday that it was Anita's ribbon challenge!

Today is the lovely Sue's turn and she chose Christmas Sparkle. Well, that's a no brainer for me as I LOVE sparkle! You might be surprised at the image I chose but there's a reason for it. Friends of ours are going to Australia and New Zealand over Christmas and New Year...in fact they're leaving on the 8th of December and as you know while we'll be shivering in the cold here in the UK they will be warm and toasty having barby's on the beach! I wonder if you can cook a turkey on a bbq lol. As they're leaving so early Sal's decided not to send any Christmas cards and hopes people will do the same with them. Me being me I wanted to send one and when I knew what Sue's challenge was set about figuring out what I could do for their card. This is what I came up with....

 Magnum & Lily on Holiday!!! LOL...see I told you you'd be surprised :-D I think it's pretty cool though didn't quite match up to what I had in my head. You're probably wondering where the sparkle is but if you click on the picture you'll see the sand is made of glitter and actual Australian sand that Nicole brought back from her travels. Also the snowflakes are punched from glitter card, the drinks and umbrellas are glittered as are the coconuts on the palm tree and the sails of the boats. I decided there still wasn't enough sparkles so drew lines of glue down the stripes of the paper and sprinkled with glitter and added some Swarovski crystals to the centre of the snowflakes. What I really wanted to do was glitter up Lily's deck chair but thought she might look even more lost on it than she already is lol.

These two look cooler than cool!

Here you can see the glittered lines on the pp and the snowflakes with their crystals.

To see the rest of the Lovely Ladybug DT cards head on over to the CHALLENGE BLOG where you can see their gorgeous creations and see who won the prize of a LCI stamp, badge and a 2 week guest spot!

Thank you to all of you who entered...I'm glad I didn't have to pick the winners!

Have a great day...thanks for stopping by :-D

Catch ya later x

PS This is my 2nd post today so make sure you scroll down to see the first

Birthday Girl!

Happy birthday to my gorgeous Nicole!

I can't believe she's 26 today...she was only 3 weeks old when we moved to Scotland. She's working today but I'm going to take the train into Glasgow and meet her on her lunch break. Ben is the assistant manager (soon to be manager next month!) at Yo Sushi in Fraser's and has invited us there. I'm not a great lover of sushi but I'm sure I'll find something I like lol!

This is her card using Make A Wish Nikki...

There's a post to follow...wonder what it could be lol. Good luck to everyone who entered last weeks challenge...there's some beauties there!

Catch ya later x

Monday Treat!

If I hadn't made a card for a couple of months I think I'd need some jumper cables to get my creative juices flowing again but I don't think Jeanie's 2 months sabbatical has affected her mojo one bit! Maybe it's her new craft studio that has helped? Take a look at this beauty...

This has to be one of my favourite stamps...I just love Tracey decorating the reindeer. As usual Jeanie's colouring is amazing and OMG look at that bow!!! I think she should enter it in the challenge lololololol. Thank you Jeanie for another megamazing card!

Thank you for all your good wishes for Jean. We had a nice visit and Carol managed to make it after her work. Jean liked her card, cupcakes and balloons but was a bit put out I had included a balloon with 70 on it lol. The best bit was I had arranged for my dad and Uncle Jimmy (Jean and my dad's other brother) to call my mobile while I was visiting. Jean hadn't spoken to Uncle Jimmy since before she was hospitalized and she's especially close to him. It was wonderful watching her face when she realised it was him and they had a great chat. She was quite emotional when she said goodbye but hopefully it will spur her on even more to get better. Next came my mom and dad's call and all in all I think I left her pretty happy :-D My dad said to me after the call he couldn't believe the difference and I think he's still in shock.

The winners of the ribbon challenge will be announced tomorrow as well as bringing a new one. Thank you so much to everyone for entering...you've all done an amazing job.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Catch ya later x

Who would have thought it?

I'm going to visit Jean this afternoon. She'll have been in hospital about 14 weeks now and I can't believe it's the same person I visit now from all those weeks ago.

The day my dad left to go home to Vancouver we were told by a doctor there was nothing more they could do for her. Once she had stabilized they would send her down to High Dependency and there she would stay until the end. She was on a 'do not resucitate' order as they didn't think it would be fair on her only for that to be lifted weeks later then reinstated the next day. We (her friend Carol and I) have had 3 calls to say she'd taken a turn for the worse and we rushed to the hospital only to see her rally. She's had a burst bowel, 2 heart attacks, a stroke and umpteen infections. She's had us in fits of giggles with hallucinations from the drugs...she told me the flats outside her window were sh**e because they'd collapsed 3 times in one day!

Well today she's in a normal ward and I'm taking her some balloons, cupcakes and a birthday card because it's her 70th birthday on Tuesday...a day we didn't think we'd see. Until she took ill, Jean and I didn't have a relationship. We never got on for one reason or another and we only ever saw each other if my mom and dad were over visiting or she and I were coincidentally in Vancouver at the same time. When she first took ill I was obviously taking my dad to visit her...he thought he was over to say his goodbyes. When dad went home I continued to visit her for his sake and also because I felt sorry for her. She doesn't have a family of her own and she's always been a bit of a loner so has few friends.

But now I'm finding myself looking forward to seeing her and so happy to see her getting better. We have a laugh and we're getting to know each other. She has a long long way to go ... possibly another 6 months in hospital and even then she'll have to move into sheltered housing...but she continues to surprise everyone with her fight for life and Carol and I swear if she was a cat she'd have very few lives left!

When I was thinking of her card I knew I wanted to use one of my Inky Antics stamps. I love these images and I thought this one was perfect for Jean....

I'm really happy with the way this has turned out though the picture doesn't do it justice. IRL the colours are gorgeous.  

I just love this lady though I can't imagine Jean ever wearing an outfit like this lol.

Her hat was just begging to sparkle :-D

I used some of the 'ribbon' I got at Zoe Bunny's recently and cut a flower (yes Tams, Hayley & Lisa another flower lol) using my Nesties and felt. I added a button and a couple of Swarovski crystals to the centre.

I hope Jean likes her card and her birthday bits and pieces.

Thanks for stopping by.

Catch ya later x

Funny old day...

 ... I had yesterday. I spent the whole morning on the computer and phone trying to organise a business trip for next year (more on that later). I'd forgotten to send in some artwork and text that was due that day for a retail magazine so was kindly reminded to do that. I was due to go to lunch with Nicole as I hadn't seen her since she got engaged last Sunday {did I tell you I was going to be a MIL lol} and was waiting for her to pick me up. While I was waiting Ruby decided she didn't want to lay down all day anymore and climbed upstairs to see me which as a BIG no no. It didn't seem like I got much done but on reflection I did accomplish quite a lot. Do you ever get days like that?

Luckily I had a couple of cards I made during the week waiting in the wings to post. Here's the first one....

Don't be fooled by the date ..it's not a typo...I only got asked to make this baby card just recently lol. It was for my friends brother's new baby. She'd asked me to make a card for the first two and for some reason forgot to ask for the third until her SIL asked her for one!

For all that I love the SU! baby stamps and the Penny Black bears I've been using lately I wanted something different. Digi stamps are all the rage so I did a bit of googling and found this one at Sweet'n Sassy Stamps which I love. It comes with the sentiment 'Welcome Precious Baby' underneath the image but I knew I was going to put my own text and printed it without it. I embossed the base card using my Scor-pal. I love doing this and think it makes the card look soft and pillow-like.

 I love this image...think it's super cute :-D

To add a bit of interest I printed the image out twice and cut out the tree leaves and raised them with foam pads. A bit of glitter here and there ... ok...a bit of glitter everywhere and it's done!!

I'm off to the hairdressers after I've taken Rocky to CB. I really miss taking them for nice long walks though with the weather as bad as it's been I guess I haven't missed it that much! I'm only taking Ruby out for the toilet and back in. It's getting harder and harder to steer her in the direction of the house. She looks up the street and you can tell she just wants to make a run for it lol. The surgeon phoned yesterday to see how she was. I thought she might be able to go for a 5 or 10 minute walk soon but she's got to wait 3 weeks!!! I'm just allowed to take her out in her harness for the toilet breaks. If she could speak I can only imagine what she would say!

I hope you have a great Saturday. I'm hoping my SU! goodies arrive while I'm out so I can start on my Christmas cards :-D

Thanks for stopping by.

Catch ya later x

Hurry hurry hurry quick quick quick

Have you  heard the new song Happiness by Alexis Jordan? I love love love it and find myself humming it all day long :-D

Thank you for all your lovely comments re my impending title of MIL...and yes I can't wait for the grandbabies though I think they'll have to just call me Kerry as Gran, Granny even Grandma sound old lol!

This is a quick post as I've got to fly out the door to Sadie's soon.

I made this card the other week along with Pram Nikki. I absolutely love these colours :-D

That's it...LOL..I know but when I said quick I MEANT quick!!

Catch ya later x

ps don't forget to enter your card in the ribbon challenge...there's some flabulous entries already :-D