Getting Behind.... Why are there not 8 days in a week?

I have been super duper busy, there are so many birthdays this month, plus Stampin Up! Training in High Wycombe and I had to make 70 swaps..... the new Stampin Up Catalogue is also out on 1st October so have been busy deciding what to buy and also making some examples using the new sets I do have. I have also just finished a Wedding Album for my sons Godmother who is getting married on Saturday, so it is all coming together very slowly.

So here are a few cards I have made recently, this one was for my Church Order.... I used Stampin Up Soft Suede, Bella Bleu Papers, Melon Mambo Ribbon and the background writing is the Stampin Up En Francais Background Stamp, so glad they are not retiring this one.

The next one was for a birthday, the image is from Whiff of Joy Stamps, the paper is I think, Cosmo Cricket, the cardstock is Stampin Up Real Red and the Ribbon is from Papertrey Ink, a real mixture on this one. The image is coloured in using copic markers.

This next card was for Father's Day, have I already shown this.... not sure, but incase I haven't here it is. Stamp Set is Papertrey Ink, as are the Cloud die cuts, the background stamp is also from Papertrey Ink, the Cardstock is Stampin Up Real Red and the Ribbon is also Stampin Up Real Red Striped Grosgrain which IS retiring at the end of this month. If you would like to see the current Stampin Up retiring list, some items are more than 50% off.... just drop me an email at LindaLloyd@gmx.net.

This card was also for my Church Order, the Patterned Paper is the Sweet Pea Paper Stack, the Ribbon is the Old Olive Satin Ribbon, and the butterfly is a Martha Stewart Punch.

And here is the inside....... made to match the front.

Hope you enjoyed looking at these cards, keep checking back as I hope to post more soon.... take care everyone xx

Happy New Year Everyone

Well I just wanted to wish all my blog readers a very Happy New Year, hope this year is filled with everything you hope for, that you will fullfil your dreams and you will all have good health.

Me and DH held a New Year's Eve Party at our church and everything went really well, no catastrophes, everything went to plan, there was enough food and drink and it even snowed whilst we were taking my son and girlfriend home afterwards and I just love the snow..... so definately a brilliant evening had by all....

Anyway, today I want to finish up with my Christmas things, this time it was a gift for my Mum, pennies were very tight this year and I wanted to make special things for special people. I used to make jewellery a few years back and my mum used to love my earrings so I decided to make her 3 pairs for Christmas.

I decided that I would use 3 different colour metals and stones so they would all be completely different and would match with more of her outfits. The first pair (I did make 2 although there is only 1 in the picture) I made in gold using brown and cream coloured stones.

The second pair were made using silver and more cooler colours of purple and blue, in fact I think these are my mums favourites as she was wearing them when she popped round on Tuesday...

This pair I used antique copper wire and turquoise stones, I wasn't sure if they were a bit longer than my Mum would normally wear, so I offered to shorten them but she said she likes them just the way they are, so I think they were a hit. In fact I like this pair so much I may have to make myself some similar.

And of course I had to make a box to put them in... unfortunately I underestimated the length of the long ones and they hung slightly below the edge of the box, though not to worry, once the box was shut you couldn't see. I used Bordering Blue and Kraft coloured cardstock from Stampin' Up! and Bella Bleu Patterned Paper also from Stampin' Up!

On the outside of the box I used Very Vanilla Grosgrain Ribbon and the Scallop Oval and Oval Punch and the Oval All stamp Set all from Stampin' Up! and Bordering Blue, Kraft and Not Quite Navy Cardstock.

If you would like to purchase any Stampin' Up! items from me, for the next 2 months for every £45 you spend you can order a free limited edition stamp set. With a choice of 4 to choose from there should definately be at least one that you would love to own. Click on the Saleabration Leaflet on the left hand column to find out more details or email me on LindaLloyd@gmx.net.

Have a great evening all xx

A Not Quite Christmassy Post.... lol

Well as the title says it isn't really Christmassy, except that I gave this album to my daughter and partner for their christmas present. He is South African and they visited there back in June/July, I stole the photographs from his Facebook page and made them an album so that they would remember their time there.

The above is the box I made for them to store the album in.... I wanted it to say Memories Are Forever, but didn't have enough "e"s to do this, so Memories Are Precious it had to be...

The papers I used are Scenic Route Ashville, my daughter should be honoured as I wouldn't have used these papers for just anyone, they were one of my favourite Scenic Route papers and now Scenic Route doesn't exist any more, so even more reason to cherish the papers you have.

The pages above had 3 tags hidden behind the photographs, one of them you can see says Special Day, these also had journalling lines on them so they could write their own memories of the day on these.



The photograph with the giraffe had 2 hidden tags behind the photograph with more photographs of a zebra and some kind of deer, there wasn't enough room in the album for them so just added them as an extra. There is also a tag behind the man with the champagne to write their memories on so they dont forget in years to come.

After vowing to do some crafting today, I never got round to it as we went to the Cinema to see Sherlock Holmes, we took 3 of our boys with us, and even though 2 of them were under 12 (it is a 12A) they loved it (or was it the popcorn they loved... lol). Must say I think I am addicted to Stampin' Up!, during one shot in a house I was totally sure they had Bella Bleu Patterned Paper on the walls.... ha ha!! After the cinema my 8 year old son wanted to buy an MP3/4 player with his Christmas money, we had checked out some the other day and went in to buy it... not only did he change his mind on the one he wanted but they had neither in stock!! He was so disappointed, but another shop not too many miles away had one left in stock so we paid and ordered it instore and then went off to pick it up.... He is so pleased with it, it is so heart warming to see them so happy with something they have saved their money for.

Have a great evening all xx

Another Day, Another Card......

Here we have card number 3... definitely fallen behind as I really wanted to make the 12 by Sunday, but that is looking unlikely now, plus I have had another card request added to the order too, will just have to be a week late, the lady never minds when she gets them, I just like to make it 4 weekly, so no rush really.

Life just keeps on getting in the way... unfortunately last night we had to have our 2 year old cat put to sleep as he had tumours and leukemia... my little boy was devastated and would only go to bed last night with the cats collar on his wrist. Anyway, on to todays card.

Today I haven't decorated the inside, mainly because a lot of these cards are used to write letters in and if I was to decorate, there wouldn't be enough room to write, so some I decorate inside and some I don't... here is today's card...

I used the new Stampin Up Bella Bleu Patterned Paper, Kraft, Brocade Blue and Very Vanilla Cardstock, plus Stampin Up Grosgrain Ribbon in Brocade Blue. The pearls are from my stash and the sentiment is from Our Daily Bread Stamps in US. I never used a challenge today, so no challenge to enter either.

A lot of my Stampin' Up! colleagues have travelled to Germany today for the very first European Conference, unfortunately I was unable to go due to lack of funds, plus not having anyone to look after the 5 children still at home, maybe next year it will be in the UK so there is more chance that I will be able to go.... I hope they all have a really good time and send lots of photos for me to drool over.

Have a great evening everyone, take care xx

A couple of Challenges...

I know, I have managed to post twice 2 days running, I think this is a record for me, but I just wanted to get this card entered for the Stamp With Us Challenge here and the Sketch Saturday Challenge here.


The Stamp With Us Challenge needed me to use 3 patterned papers, 3 brads, 3 coloured cards and 3 different stamps, which I have managed. The patterned papers are a new Stampin Up Set called Bella Bleu, and I used 3 different papers from this set. The 3 brads are from Stampin Up and are at the bottom of the Flower Image. The 3 coloured cards I used are Brocade Blue, Very Vanilla and Kraft which you can just see poking out from underneath the image. And the 3 different stamps are the sentiment stamp which comes from the Stampin Up Say It With Scallops Set, the little blue stamped circle just underneath the flower is from the Stampin Up Circle Circus Set and the flower image itself is from the Stampin Up Bloomin' With Beauty Set. The border punch is also the new Stampin Up Eyelet Border Punch and I used the 5-Petal Flower Punch for the flower. To finish it off I stuck a Kraft Taffeta bow onto the flower stem and layered the middle of the sentiment with dimensionals. Oooh one last thing, the holes around the edge of the image is made using the Tool Set from Stampin Up, although you can now buy the Template, Mat and Sticky Tool seperately.


And again I decorated the inside to match the outside.... If you click on the images they will be shown larger and will be much clearer.

And just so that you can see the how deep it is and how I have raised the images to give dimension...

The Sketch Saturday challenge looked like this...



Hopefully I have fulfilled this sketch too, the 3 circles I have used as a flower and 2 sets of leaves... hope this counts. Everything else is in order though.

Thanks everyone for the challenges, I have had great fun making this card today.

Take care all xx