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

A Lovely Day..... thank you to my children...

I just wanted to thank all my children who came to my house (or still live here) who made yesterday a great Mother's Day for me.... I got some gorgeous prezzies and my son and daughter in law made me a very large cake, it tastes absolutely gorgeous. Another son bought me a Mini Albums book that I wanted and a photo frame, and 2 of my other daughters bought me a Mad Hatter purse and notebook which I so desperately wanted, my son also bought a nice roast dinner that we cooked at home and another son supplied the dessert as I did not know about the big cake, we then visited my mum and delivered her card and a bottle of wine. It was my daughter's wedding anniversary also, and she also bought me a massive big bunch of flowers, really gorgeous, and we bought them a Slow Cooker for their present. It is also her birthday today and I have been there for lunch and then we popped to my sons place to see his new tattoo that he had done this morning, and guess what? I forgot to take photos of any of this.

So you are stuck with a card totally unrelated to any of the above..... lol

I used Rose Red and Taken With Teal Cardstock from Stampin' Up!, the patterned Paper is from the Green Stack and the flowers and bling are from my stash... nice and quick recipe today, just as well as I need to get on and make 30 swaps for Saturday when I am off for some Stampin' Up! Training... have a great evening all xx

Tackle it Tuesday Colour Challenge....#1

I have decided to do a fortnightly Tackle It Tuesday Colour Challenge, I will post some Stampin' Up! colours that I have seen that have inspired me and you can make a card, 3d object, mini album, anything with these colours.... when the fortnight is up, I will pick my favourite card and send out a little prize.... nothing major but just a small thank you for entering my competition. It would be good if we could get a lot of entries, more inspiration for all of us, so if you enter please mention this Challenge on your blog please and possibly a link...

So without more ado here is this weeks colours.

I thought I would make it a bit easy to start with so only 3 colours to play with, my card is shown below.... I think the colours go lovely together..... please enter via Mr Linky at the end of this post.

The Patterned Paper used is Nouveau Chic by Stampin Up, and I used the 5 Petal Punch and the Boho Blossoms Punch for the flowers. The sentiment is computer generated.

I look forward to seeing all your entries.... and thanks for playing along.

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

A Little Something For a Challenge

Right, well I have decided to totally turn around my life and everything I do (not that I have much time after being a mum to 10 children and running them around to various appointments etc), but I need to get on and do something instead of being in front of my computer all the time. I also want to keep all the weight off that I have lost and being more active will do that hopefully. The plan is to also have a bit of a sort out in my craft area and put away stuff not used so often and take out stuff that is used whenever I craft like cardstock.... I also intend to have a major bloghop and find a challenge for each day of the week, which will hopefully inspire me to get things made in advance instead of making cards at the last minute.... lol Which reminds me, must get on and make some halloween gifts....

Anyway, here is my first Christmas Items of the year... and made for the Stamp With Us Challenge, which is a Stampin Up based website run by some brilliant demonstrators whose work I greatly admire. The challenge was to make something that wasn't a card, and since I received my new catalogue stash this week I decided instead of stroking it I would use it... (see I said I was turning my life around, I would normally have stroked it for weeks)...

I made a small box with a flap using the new Stampin Up Simply Scrappin Kit "Christmas Jingle", you get everything you need to make some brilliant scrapbook pages, cards or mini albums and it all co-ordinates including the cardstock, stickers and paper. And inside this little box I made is a mini folding album which I intend to fill with pictures from Christmas this year. A brilliant little gift to give to a loved one this Christmas so that they can save their own memories.... and here is the mini album out of the box...

Not yet filled as I want to put some photos from this year in it, and will make sure I take some really good ones especially for this album as I have never had an album before. It is also a good size to carry around in your handbag so that you can brag about the excellent Christmas you had, or just to remind you of the good times you had once, the cold, snowy, dull new year comes round.... have a good day all. xx

Look What I Made With The Pre-Order Stamps.....

Is it too early to make Christmas stuff, although I must admit the photographs are from last Christmas, so perhaps I am just a bit behind....


After seeing all the Nativity Plays last year and having so many photographs from them I decided to make a little mini album with my favourite photographs, we attended our Church Nativity which was on 24 December 2007 and we also watched both the small boys in their Nativity at school, as usual they were both in different ones...


I also received my pre-order stamps from the new Stampin Up Catalogue (:0) <---- insert cheesy excited grin here) and thought I just HAD to make something using them, so here is my quick attempt made in 1 day (normally a mini album would take me much longer)... there is a stamp from the new "Season Of Joy" stamp set on every page, even the front and back covers... check out if you can see them. (Stamp sets preview is in a couple of blog posts down).









I have used Old Olive, Always Artichoke, Real Red and Brocade Blue cardstock, the retiring Dashing Patterned Paper, Brocade Blue, Old Olive, Real Red and Always Artichoke ribbon in both 1/4" and 5/8" widths. The Stamp Set was "Season of Joy". I cut out the shape with my long rectangle nestabilities, I also cut cereal packets with the same to make it more sturdy and I bound it together with my bind it all.

Have a few more ideas with the other pre-orders set, so watch this space....

Have a good day xx