TLT - Sue's Challenge - Spring Colours

Hiya! It's Tuesday and that can only mean one thing...another TLT! This week's challenge comes from my partner in crime Thelma, I mean Sue. On a side note I never did tell you that Sue went above and beyond her duties (not that she had any duties lol) and drove me back (out of her way I might add)to BFF's after Stitches finished. Karen text the directions so I was the official 'map' reader. We were doing really well...even came to the round about with the big statue I remembered from being out with Karen. I checked the directions on my phone and instructed Sue accordingly. All the while we were chatting and chatting and well, chatting. We'd be driving for quite a while when I realised we should have been well at Karen's so I gave her a quick call. Apparently when we were at the statue we were less than 5 minutes from her house!!!! If Thelma Sue was annoyed she hid it well lol. I'm sure after the 2 hour plus drive to Stitches and the 2 long days working, the last thing Sue needed was an extra half hour added on to her journey going home and I'm sure if there was a cliff nearby she might have been tempted to drive off it... jumping out first and letting me carry on to the bottom rofl.

As I was saying before I rudely interrupted myself....It's Sue's challenge and her theme is Spring Colours. I think it's perfect coming into March when hopefully spring is around the corner. Before I show you my card I'd like to thank everyone who entered last week's challenge. We had plethora (no I didn't swallow a dictionary, it just popped into my head! I will admit I did google it to make sure it meant what I thought it did lol...I know....I'm a malteser!!!) of flabulous entries and I know it was a hard one to choose the winners. Make sure you check out to see if you're one of those winners. I'm still waiting to hear from Barbara who won the blog hop and the 4 new BFF sets and Bea who won one of the stamp sets. If anyone knows Barbara or Bea, could you give them a nudge in my direction!

Now my card. I made this card using the same image as last week, Phoebe and Olivia and the sentiment 'You make me smile' for a good if not sad reason. I found out last November that my best friend from high school was very ill. Although we didn't exchange many phone calls or emails I always saw her or called her when I went home and we would pick up where we left off. I was looking forward to seeing her when I go home this May but sadly she passed away February 1st. To say I am devastated is an understatement. We were joined at the hip for four years and I couldn't imagine not having her in my life...she was only 46 years old. So this card is for Sandra...my BFF.

We lead such busy lives these days and I know it's hard to stay in touch but but don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today. Make the time...even if it's 5 minutes and call the person you've been meaning to...you won't regret it.

Catch ya later x

A Wedding Venue, Liam Gallagher and Ribbon!!

I have been MIA....again! I thought the hard work finished once the shows were over but it seems it just starts lol. I've been busy getting orders gathered and shipped and now have just loose ends to tie up before I can get back to my normal routine, though I've forgotten what that was lol. My tv room is starting to look like a tv room again and it's nice to see I have a brown couch and cream carpets!

Nicole hasn't talked much about the wedding since she got engaged last year. I almost thought she was having second thoughts then I thought it was all about getting the ring lol but finally talk of venues came up and Nic, Ben and I went to see one on Thursday. Luckily it was a beautiful day so we got to see it at it's best. It certainly was lovely and Nic was ready to sign on the dotted line lol but we're going to see a few more and look at our options. Here are a few pictures from our afternoon....

The Happy Couple!

Bride and MOB!

I'm sure this should have been Nic and Ben and not me lol. Get me having champagne at 3 pm!!

Here he is...the lucky guy :-D

We had afternoon tea and it was yummalicious!

This strawberry tart was a-m-a-z-i-n-g!!

We were taken around the hotel and as we were waiting for the Wedding Hostess Sharon to get the keys to some of the rooms, Liam Gallagher walked past us! For those of you who are scratching their heads and asking Liam who??? he's the bad boy of the now defunct band Oasis. He was in Glasgow to play a couple of gigs (get me and my rock lingo lol) at Barrowland with his new band Beady Eye. We didn't see his wife Nicole Appleton (former All Saints) though it says in today's paper she was there getting pampered. We did get a look around the spa and it was so inviting and would have been wonderful to get a treatment {sigh}. We've got an appointment to see another venue next Saturday so I'll let you know how we get on.

I told you the other day that I had ordered ribbon when I was at Stitches and it was arriving soon ie Thursday. Well it did but I was blowdrying my hair at the time and didn't hear the door bell so I had to wait another agonizing day to get my hands on it!!! As it was I had made plans with Annette to go to the SECC on Friday so I left the card for the ribbon to be left in a secret location (not telling just in case I have to do it again and get raided lol) We arrived back home to a box of the most lush ribbon EVAH!! I decided to choose ribbon that was a bit different from the normal check, grosgrain, satin, organza so there's a bit of suede, ruffle, lace, velvet to name but a few. I didn't go wild with my first order as I wanted to test the water first but if the ribbon is popular I will add more ranges and colours. I spent last night loading it up onto the website so you can check it out here now. It has already proved popular this morning which makes me think I made the right choices :-D

Now all that's left is for me to get my bahookie into my work room and get playing. I know exactly which ribbon I'm going to use with this weeks TLT card. Ooooooh...I'm so excited lol.

Hope you all have a great weekend...thanks for stopping by.

Catch ya later x

TLT - Anita's Challenge - Stitching Faux or Real

TLT???? Are you sure...but didn't we just have one like...yesterday???!!! You don't need me to tell you that time is whizzing on by...March 1st...no way!!

But it is and we've another flabulous challenge for you. First let me start by thanking everyone for their lovely comments on the new release, BFF's. There's a firm favourite with Phobe & Olivia but the other's aren't far behind. How can they be...they're all so darn cute! As you know there were prizes galore for the hop....There was the regular challenge prize of a stamp of your choice, then there were the top 3, THEN there was the biggie...the whole enchilada...that's right all 4 sets of BFF's to one lucky winner and finally 4 winners of a set of BFF's of their choice. Phew...aren't I good to you lololol. If you haven't already checked skiddaddle on over to the Challenge Blog to see if one of them was you! Don't forget you can purchase the BFF's for the special pre-order price of £5.99 until March 8th!

We've re-written the rules of the challenges slightly and it's good news....anyone can win a prize, not just those using an LCI stamp!! How's them apples?

It's all good news today and I've one more little bit for you...our Guest Designer for March!! The extremely talented Amanda has made it by the skin of her teeth as she will be our last GD for a little while. Make sure you check her blog and see her wonderful work,  leaving some Ladybug Love while you're there :-D

Ok on with the challenge. This week is our megamazing Ladybug, Anita's turn and she's chosen Stitching - Faux or Real. {Whoop whoop!} this was a real hard one....NOT lol!! I don't seem to be able to make a card any more without some kind of stitching on it and I prefer the real deal. A real challenge for me would be NOT to have any stitching... {gulp} I hope I haven't given those Ladybugs any ideas :-s

My niece in Ireland bought a new car a couple of weeks ago and I had planned to make her a card before I left for Stitches. Unfortunately I ran out of time but since my motto is 'Better late than never' I made it for this weeks challenge. Can you guess what stamp I used? Yup it's none other than Roadster Nikki. Here she is...let me know what you think....

I had a vision of Nikki driving on a road so used pp from one of my new MME pads I got from Hayley last week. Amazingly one of the sheets looked like tire treads ... see ... I KNEW I needed this pad lol ... and it worked perfectly IMHO! As the theme was stitching and roads have lines on the side I stitched along the edges of the 'road' and also around the main card.

I inked her up with my new Indian Ink pad (loving it!) and coloured her with Copics.

I can't get enough of these rolled flowers and think I might have gone a bit overboard but hey...you can't get enough of a good thing right? I went a bit pearl mad as well but it's a nice change from crystals for a softer look. I used GA for the windscreen so it kinda looks like glass although Nikki's has bubbles in it!

I thought the 'Saw it, loved it, bought it' sentiment was the perfect choice :-D

I must apologise for the poor quality pictures. Neither my main card reader or the spare was working so these are taken with my phone...bit of a contrast from yesterday's ... it must prefer taking outdoor pictures!!

So that's my card...I hope Ellyn will like it and that her car is red!

That's me for today. Make sure you check to see if you're a winner (if you are email me to let me know what your choice of stamp is) and see what the rest of the DT have come up with for you. You are gonna LOVE every one of them! Good luck for this week's challenge and I hope to see plenty of flabulous entries.

Thanks for stopping by.

Catch ya later x

Grab a coffee...this a long one!

Did you think I went back to Birmingham??? LOL..you wouldn't believe how much work goes into preparing for these shows. You have the prep before the shows and all I can say is thank goodness for my amazing DT because there was no way I could have done it all myself. It's bad enough having one show to prepare for but two within a month is pretty crazy. I don't know how some of the retailers do as many of the craft shows that they do. They must not have any kind of life!!

I'm just about caught up on all the orders from Stitches. The new BFF's should be coming Tuesday/Wednesday which is quicker than I thought :-D I've also been catch up with the washing...I don't think the machine was turned on once while I was away lol. The main thing I've been catching up with is sleep! You're on your feet for 9 hours so it's physically as well as mentally exhausting as you want to make sure everything is just right.

I did manage to catch 40 winks on the 3rd leg of my journey home. Karen dropped me off at Rugby train station just before 11am and I got home at 5:30pm!! I had 3 trains with only 6 minutes in between the 2nd and 3rd. I didn't dare fall asleep until I was on that last train in case I woke up in Wales or something lol. (I know you're going to say Wales was in the opposite direction!!) A lovely little old lady came and sat beside me on the 2nd train and we chatted for a bit. I told her about my 6 minute change over and we were waiting for the announcement for my stop but it never came....I think she started to worry before I did lol. When they finally called my stop I started collect my bags and headed  for the door. The LLOL called me back, rummaged in her bag, pulled a bag of Minstrels out, gave them to me and said they were so I wouldn't get hungry! How lovely was that...It felt like when I was a kid and my grandma gave me candy lol.

As you know apart from selling my stamps on  my website I dabble in a few embellishments. This is mainly because of storing so much stuff and I'd probably want to use it all and won't have any left to sell! Well, I had to make an exception. One of the stands I wanted desperately to visit at Stitches was May Arts. Like a lot of us I believe I have an addiction so what better way is there to indulge it? There were so many beautiful ribbons and there was no way I could justify buying rolls of 25 yards for my own personal use so I took an executive decision and ordered some to sell on the website!! I'll have the best of both worlds..I can snip some off any time I want and share it with you. I've gone with ribbon that was a little bit different so I hope you'll like it... I cannot wait till it arrives!

I mentioned I was going to add felt to the website and guess what? I did it last night! It's 100% wool (none of that acrylic stuff nope), super soft and I've got 10 stunnalicious colours to tempt you. You can check them out here. If there's a colour not there that you'd like me to stock just let me know.

It was a beautiful day here in Glasgow today. I took the pups to CB this morning and it was mobbed to say the least. Well, the carpark was but the place is so big you'd never know it. Believe it or not I took these pictures with my phone! I love this first one...it actually felt like spring was on the way...

And look at this lushalicous stash. I ordered the 8 x 8 pads and dotty ribbon from Hayley which she brought to Stitches. I bought the Copics from Wendy and Stamps and Memories and she also brought them to Stitches...great service girls, thank you!

They don't look very exciting but I felt I was lacking in E's and believe it or not some of these E's are used for blonde hair which is something I struggle with. I came across a flabulous website called Copic Creations and not only do they do great tutorials they also have a section where they group colours that go together in bundles of 4 or 5 so if you've not quite got the hang of Copics it's a huge help.

Hmmmm...I think I've waffled on for long enough. I haven't had any crafting time but I'll need to get organised for this weeks TLT or I may just get sacked!

Thanks for visiting my blog even though I've not posted much this last while but hopefully things will get back to normal this week. I'm glad you enjoyed the Blog Hop and the new designs. They have been a HUGE hit and although the stamps are coming this week, you'll still be able to get them at the discounted price of £5.99 until March 8th. We've had some wonderful entries for last weeks challenge and lots of answers to the mathematical question so good luck to everyone who has entered.

Anywho, I'd better get these pups walked and get to my bed. Hope you have a great week.

Catch ya later x

TLT - Dominique's Challenge - It's a Blog Hop and a new release!!!

Hellooooooo!!! I'll apologise right now if this post is in anyway disjointed and confusing lol. I made my card last week and have waited till the last possible moment to write up the post as things have been a bit hectic at Stitches. The days have been long and our legs aching by the time the show finishes at 6 so it takes all our effort to walk to the car. Karen was feeling much better after getting an early night so she was in great form for the opening day. Sue arrived around 3 on Sunday and it's been brilliant meeting and getting to know her. She's doing a great job chatting to the customers...she's definitely got the gift of the gab lol!!! Hayley and her hubby arrived yesterday and here's the proof ....

We only need the other 8 Ladybugs and we'd have a swarm lol.

Anyway lets get going with this challenge. Today is our Guest Designer Domi's challenge. Her challenge was a recipe which is 3 flowers, 2 papers and 1 image. At this point I'd like to thank Domi for being our guest for February...today is her last challenge and what a way to go out...a blog hop! And speaking of which you should have arrived here from Mary J. If not head back to the Challenge blog to start from the beginning

I was feeling quite smug that I managed to get my card done then panicked thinking I'd not followed the recipe. A quick check and realised I'd got it right...phew...don't you hate it when you start doubting yourself!

Now the rules of this hop are each Ladybug has been assigned a number and once you find them all (some you'll be told the number, other's you might have to search a little) add them up and email your total to lcichallengeblog@aol.com The winner will receive the whole of the new release (4 sets) and then there will be 4 winners each winning one of the new sets.

The new release is called BFF's (Best Friends Forever) and I hope you will like them. Each set consists of a main image, 2 small coordinating images and 3 sentiments. Each set will retail for £6.99 but you can pre-order them from today until March 8th for the special price of £5.99!

Ok...enough of the chat...here's my card...

 

Meet Phoebe & Olivia...they come with the sentiments BFF, You make me smile and So happy we're friends and two smaller images of a trio of daisies and a butterfly which can be used to make backgrounds.

So what do you think? Aren't they just the cutest little girls! I loved designing these images with Baby Baby's very talented illustrator Laura Murray.

As I'm the last on the hop make sure you get your calculator's out, get adding and email your answer in.

You'll also find out if you're a winner from last weeks challenge if you go to the Challenge Blog. We had some amazing entries and I'm sure the Ladybugs had a hard time choosing a winner.

Make sure you leave some Ladybug Love...we all love to read your comments!

Thanks for stopping by.

Catch ya later x

Here we go again!

I arrived safely at BFF's on Thursday night with little mishap. In fact the journey was quite uneventful so I've no stories to tell  :-( It's great seeing Karen again and as usual it was verbal diarrhoea all the way to her house lol.

Yesterday we went to Ikea to pick up a tall table with a couple of drawers for the stand. I don't know about you but I LOVE Ikea. We spent a couple of hours there adding things to our wish list. After Ikea we went to Costco where we got the most amazing chicken pizza and Ceasar salad for dinner. The pizza was huge and we were sure we would have loads left over for breakfast....ummm nope lol! The rest of the night we spent getting last minute bits and pieces done for the show then Karen coloured her hair and we both put a face mask on. I had every intention of posting the pictures but when I saw them decided they were a bit too scary lol.

Today we headed to the NEC with all our loot, rolled up our sleeves and set to work on the stand. This is what met us when we arrived....

A little bit different from the stand at CHA wouldn't you agree!! I had ordered a 3 x 1 metre stand but a week ago I received an email from the organisers saying they've had to shuffle the stands around and would it be ok if I had a 5 x 1 metre stand instead at no extra charge. Yes please!! It's just as well because it wasn't long before it walls were filling up.

You won't find a picture of Karen or I in these...we were definitely camera shy and besides you know what we look like anyway lol.

Almost there

We tried as best we could to get it like CHA without our Creative Director (Tracey) and I think we did a pretty good job .... I'm sure she'll let me know lol. We are going to create character headings on the PC tonight and laminate them as the black letters were all stuck together.

The hall was absolutely freezing and we're both still like blocks of ice. Karen's not feeling so great...she's got all the symptoms of flu so we're going to try and have an early night and hopefully she'll feel better in the morning. If she's not I've told her she's staying put and I'll carry on...Sue's arriving mid afternoon so she can start her shift early!!!! I'm looking so forward to meeting Sue and seeing Hayley again on Monday.

Dinner's almost ready so I'll head. Thanks for taking the time to stop by and make sure you come and see us at BS12 if you're going to be at Stitches.

Catch ya later x

I'm in Stitches...

Actually, I'm heading to do the trade show Stitches in Birmingham this afternoon. I'm all packed with just a few last minutes things to do then I'll be getting the train to Central then the 2:00 train to Rugby where BFF will pick me up at 7:15!! I LOVE going on the train. I find it so relaxing...providing I remember where I put my tickets, but that's a story for another time lol. I've got my magazines, lunch is packed (Gregg's Tuna Crunch Bloomer on brown, mango and pomegranate cut up and maybe a cheeky choccie to keep my strength up lol) and my laptop to do some commenting (providing the wi-fi is working this time....another story to go with the first one!) Oh...funny story from this morning. When I was in Gregg's at the mall paying for my sandwich I saw one of the stores aross the way had a cracked window. There were 5 or 6 men gathered round trying to cover it up with that plastic stuff to prevent it shattering everywhere. One was on the ladder, 2 were stretching the plastic out (kind of like a roll of cling film [saran wrap]), and the other two/three were standing watching. Both the girl at the till and I were watching and I turned to her and said....'how many men does it take to fix a window?' with that we both errupted in fits of laughter lololol. It was like those light bulb jokes. I told her I was sure if it was up to women either the two of us could have done it or even one of us alone. Men...ya gotta love 'em!

Thank goodness I mailed the card samples to Karen the other day because there's no way I'd have enough hands or strength to haul everything behind me. You'd think I was going for a month instead of a week but I NEED everything. Tomorrow we're heading to Costco or Ikea or both to get a tall table with drawers for the stand...it works out cheaper to do that then rent from the organisers. Set up day will be Saturday with the show starting on Sunday until Tuesday. Karen will be helping me on Sunday but on Monday and Tuesday I will have a very special helper which I'm sooooooooooo excited about. My lovely DT Ladybug Sue has been offering her services for this show since October and once the cheque finally cleared I said yes!!! LOLOLOL...ok, I'm just yanking your chains...she didn't pay me to help... Sue's giving up her valuable time and leaving the hubster with her kidlets to lend a hand. It's not often (I don't think) that DT's meet as can be all over the world so this is super special (although we're trying to arrange for the UK Ladybug's to come to the SECC in October). Also Ladybug Hayley will be coming to the show on Monday so there will be a infestation of ladybugs lololool.

OMG...I've just noticed the time!! I've got to get going but I'll be keeping in touch with pictures etc. If you're coming to the show come by and say hi...My stand is BS12 (that's Bright Sparks...nothing else lol)

Catch ya later x

PS...don't forget to grab the banner ... top right...for the upcoming blog hop and new release...you won't want to miss it!!!