Yes I just had to share peeps – couldn’t even wait until the morning!!
Emma delivered my second granddaughter at 22.49 this evening. She weighs 6lb 14oz but I’m not sure of her name as yet - Lauren is in the frame but nothing confirmed.
Pics to follow as soon as I’ve been and had a cuddle :)
Huggiest of hugs to all xxxx
Morning lovely peeps and I hope that you are all OK today :)
So there’s a few things going on here today - my card, a BFTP, a birdie pic and also a jumper update.
So I’ll start with the card first :)
Over at the Lili’s Little Fairies Challenge this week our theme is
Anything But A Square
so time to dig out the shaped cards or maybe make one of your own.
The prize for one lucky winner this week is 2 stamps of your choice from the Lili Of The Valley website.
So this is what I did and I made the base card by putting the edge of the round nestie over the fold of the card to make the hinge, running it through the Grand Calibur then chopping some of the bottom off!!
I quite like how it came out :)
The image is Close Your Eyes and I coloured it with these Copics -
Skin – E000, E00, E11, E21, R00, R20
Hair – E25, E29, E33, E43, E50, E81
The rest – C00, C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, C7, G99, R02, R05, R17, R27, R59, YG0000, YG01, YG03
I also added some pencilling detail with polychromos pencils. Sorry but I have no clue where the paper is from peeps – it was in my bits and bobs box but it’s just plain old black and white gingham.
Nowt plain about this die though …..
It’s a Memory Box Cherish Border die from Simon Says Stamp and I just added a bit of good old Pritt Stick to the back of it and stuck it straight down onto the card base. The sentiment is from the LOTV Set 24 tags and the little hearts were the bits that were left from the border die.
It seemed a shame to chuck them out!!!
The bow is made from some red 25mm Red No 15 Large Spot satin ribbon from The Ribbon Girl and the pins were from my stash.
So that’s the card done.
And now for a jumper update.
When I first did the appeal, I knew that you would help, cos I know that you are such lovely peeps but I wasn't expecting how this would catch on and the response has been totally amazing. I am just about to take my third lot to the lady who is collecting them :) I did start off taking a pic of every single one that I received but there have been so many coming in that it would simply take too long so please forgive me re this. But I am going to put a running total in the sidebar and I’ll update this so that you know how we’ve all done. Hope this is OK and once again hugest of thanks to every single person who has either knitted or spread the word.
So are you ready for the latest up date peeps? Drum roll please …….
The grand total so far is ………
225
Can you believe that!!!
It’s awesome and I get a tear in my eye every time I think about this. There is a lot wrong in this world that we live in but things like this restore your faith in human nature and it serves to remind me that the majority of people are good and oh so kind. Major pats on the back to you all xxxx
Ok before we get to this weeks BFTP, I just wanted to share this pic of our latest hatching, awww. This is our first year with these little birds and the chicks are so tiny – about 4cm long and nearly half of that is it’s head. It’s an American Kestrel which is smaller than the UK variety that we see hovering in our skies.
I have to say as well that Rich has quite small hands so you don’t really get the full impact in this pic of how tiny they really are. Nor are his hands sweaty as they look here – unless he thinks I am off shopping with the credit card of course!! He had in fact just washed them before he handled the chick – I had to say that cos I would hate you to think he was a minger lol!!!
I know only it’s Mother could love it right now but ….
Hi there peeps and hope you are all OK on this lovely sunny day :) I have a very bright and sunny card to share so mind the retinas in a sec!!!
Over at the Simon Says Stamp Challenge, this week it’s all about the boys and our theme is
Father’s Day / For a Special Male
As always Heidi is giving away a whopper of a …
... which our lucky winner will get to spend ….
.. here :)
So (mind yer eyes lol!!) ….
... this is what I did.
I used Edwin in Miami and coloured him with these Copics -
E000, E00, E11, E21, R00, R20
Hair – E43, E50, E81
The rest – E25, E29. E99, R02, R05, R17, R27, R59, YR0000, YR23, YR31.
(I also added a bit of clear glitter to look like sand on the starfish and by his feet).
Do you like the gorgeous sunny papers peeps? They are from this pack …
.. here - the Bazzill AVALON 6 x 6 Paper Multi-Pack.
What you can’t see from the pics is that these papers are a really nice weight and have a lovely texture to them.
No flibberty gibberty lightweights, these bad boys :)
It’s been a while but I thought that the old Magnolia leaf and swirl die (well the swirl bit) had had enough of a rest so back to work it went!!! I also used a Spellbinders CLASSIC SCALLOP Edgeabilities die and some SAFMAT Self-Adhesive Printing Film (love that stuff!!).
And there we are all done and a bit later than I usually am today, but my internet went AWOL. Don’t you feel cut off from the world when that happens?
I better be off and sort out dinner etc etc. I’ll see you back here tomoz but till then, have a fabulous and sunny evening and huggiest of hugs to all xxx
Hi there peeps and I hope you are all enjoy this beautiful weather.
Doesn't it make a pleasant change to wake up and have the sun shining on us instead of the usual grey bleak UK sort of day :)
So as it's Tuesday, it's time to head over and check out what's happening at Papertake Weekly and this week we have a very patriotic theme which is
True Colours
And all we want you to do is to use the national colours of your country - or you can use red white and blue in honour of our Queen's Jubilee if you would prefer.
The UK has gone red white and blue mad and the shops are awash with flags and bunting and that sort of stuff. It promises to be a really good summer, especially if the weather holds out.
But being British,we never count our chickens!!!
Anyway back to the challenge and this week we are sponsored by are very own Mary and Andrea from The Ribbon Girl
… and look what’s up ….
…. for grabs :)
Also, as it's the third Tuesday of the month, my regular visitors will know that it's time for this month’s Gorgeous Giveaway, which has been very kindly donated by The Ribbon Girl – thank you chicksies xxxx - and this month it’s a gorgeous Red Mini Ribbon Kit ……
… and isn't it fab :)
So if you want to be in with a chance of winning it, all you have to do is to leave me a comment and then leave your name with Linky at the end of the post. And that's it!! I'll announce the winner next Tuesday when I do next week’s Papertake post.
So back to this week, and this ….
… is what I did.
The image is Sweet Princess Tilda and I coloured her with these Copics -
Skin – E000, E00, E11, E21, R00, R20
Hair – E42, E43, E50 E81
The rest – R02,R05, R17, R27, R59, Y000, Y11, Y21, Y28
And the papers are Portobello Road - these are everywhere at the moment :)
The bow was made using 38mm red faux silk ribbon from The Ribbon Girl of course.
I love this ribbon :)
And I'm still loving these little sentiment tags from Lili of the Valley - They are from Set 24.
Mustn't forget the Tilda lace - that would never do!!
So that’s the old card done.
It's been a funny old day today. We got up this morning and one of the newest batch of chicks was looking very poorly indeed. We sort of knew what the outcome was going to be and my heart sank every time I went into the hatching room to check. And sure enough at 11 o'clock I found him dead. Poor little thing. We know each year that were going to lose some of them but we do our very best to keep each and everyone of them alive. So it's really upsetting when one of them dies. Richard has a saying that where there is livestock, there is dead stock and he's right of course. Mother Nature generally knows best and only the strongest make it. This is our first loss this year, and I do hope that it's our last, but realistically it won't be. On balance though, there are other new ones hatching so the life cycle continues. It is fascinating to watch them breaking out of the shell and you'd wonder how they could ever possibly survive because they look so helpless. But it only takes a few days and they completely change.
On the pregnant daughter front, there were minor rumblings yesterday but as yet no news. I do hope that she doesn't go on much longer because she is so uncomfortable, and I'm sure this warm weather won't be helping her much. Her due date is this Friday so it is imminent and Kyla is beside herself with excitement!!! I pity the the poor baby when she arrives cos she will just want to mother her all the time. It’s funny how maternal they are, even at that age. She has carefully packed the baby box and cotton wall, cotton buds, nappies, bibs etc etc have been put in and taken out so many times they must be dizzy. But she had to have it right for her baby sister and quite right to!!
Right I better go and finish off. My ‘to do’ list is still as long as your arm and I am in ‘one thing at a time’ mode today. But I seem to have gotten nowhere fast today. Never mind, we will get there ……. eventually!!!
Enjoy the rest of your day and have a great evening and see you tomorrow.
Huggiest of hugs to all xxx
PS don’t forget to leave a comment and your name if you want to be in with a chance of winning the ribbon kit :)
Hi there lovely peeps and a very Happy Sunday to all xxx
Today sees a brand new colour challenge over at The Ribbon Girl Blog and it is ;;;;;
… an absolute cracker - one of my faves in fact.
We used the following pic as a source of inspiration ….
… and isn't it pretty :)
We have 2 fab prizes for you as well. Firstly there is a
from Lili of The Valley,
plus …..
… this beautimous lavender ribbon kit from the Ribbon Girl.
So…
.. this is what I did and I think you’ll agree that this is not a bit like my usual style.
But I am always really envious of the gorgeous cards that people like the lovely Kim Piggott and Debbie Dolphin make, so inspired by them and with a bit of shameless casing of the amazing layout that my LOTV teamie June used on one of her fab cards, plus a bit of kraft card that I got from the NEC and which has been sat on my desk for aaaaages, I had a bash. Not quite up to Kim & Debbie’s standards I know, but I have to say that I really do like this. So perhaps this is a taste of things to come ;)
I used Tilda Catching Stars and coloured her with these Copics -
Skin – E000, E00, E11, E21, R00, R20
Hair – E41, E43, E50, E81
The rest – E04, RV0000, RV00, RV35, RV95
The papers are all from Grin n Bear It collection from Nitwits
Ivory Pleated 5/8" Satin Ribbon, 12mm Cream Picot Cotton Lace and 32mm Cream Fine Vintage Style Straight Edge Flower Lace – gorgeous, and all from The Ribbon Girl :)
And talking of gorgeous, I am still loving these sentiment tags - Set 24 from Lili of The Valley
More from the same tag set plus a bow made from 25mm Mauve (Old Rose) No 977 Berisford Satin and topped with a button from the Pearl Button Mixture pack
Here I used a 30mm Pink Two Tone Mulberry Paper Open Rose, two Pink Two Tone 15mm Pretty Blossoms and a couple of 25mm Green Rose Leaves – all from The Ribbon Girl of course :). And there’s a couple of leaves punched from kraft card using a Martha Stewart Frond Leaf punch from Simon Says Stamp.
Three Sugar and Spice self adhesive pearls from The Ribbon Girl to finish off ……….
and we’re done!!
And on that note I’m off to finish the hoovering etc (booooooooring) and then his Lordship has a tennis match this afternoon which means that I get 5 hours to sit and craft – ohh what bliss!!! I don’t even have to do his dinner because he will get that at the tennis club after he has finished the match - woohoooo!!!! I should really be mopping the floors but it’s too good an opportunity to pass on - I can always do the floors later!!!
So I hope that you have a nice afternoon doing whatever you are doing and I’ll catch up with you again soon as soon. Take care and huggiest of hugs to all xxx
Good morning lovely peeps and I hope that you are all okay today.
It's the middle of the week and time to nip across and check out what's been happening at the Simon Says Stamp Challenge, and this week our theme is
Clean and Simple
So a bit like me really!!!!
As always, the lovely Heidi is giving one lucky winner a whopping ….
… to spend ….
… right here :)
The DT are showcasing LA LA LAND and LAWN FAWN stamps this week and there are LOTS of amazing stamps and stamp sets to choose from! PLEASE check out the huge selection at Simon Says Stamp Superstore!!!
Of course you don't HAVE to use LA LA LAND or LAWN FAWN stamps to join in but if you have them we would love to see them used :-)
So ….
… this is what I did.
I really love this colour combi - it always looks striking and even though black is a dark.colour, I think when it's used with plenty of white, it somehow manages to look clean. Sounds weird, but I hope you know what I mean lol!!!
The image is by La-La Land and is called Heart Balloon Marci. I coloured her with these Copics -
Skin – E000, E00, E11, E21, R00, R20
Hair – E42, E43, E50, E51, E81
The rest – Black, C04, C07, R02, R05, R17, R27, R59
And the paper is from the Bo Bunny Crush 6 x 6 paper pack.
Where would I be without me SAFMAT Self-Adhesive Printing Film!!!
I love using it because you can add text directly to your cards and it's practically invisible.
The punched mat is made from the Martha Stewart PATP Deco Fan Shells set btw :)
So that’s me done for today.
This card is actually for somebody and I need to get in the post tonight, even though it's late already!! I won’t say who it's for but to be honest, if I’d sent it to her on time, she would probably have fainted with the shock and we can’t have that!!!!
So take care me darlins and I’ll see you back here tomorrow.
Have the fabbiest of days and huggiest of hugs to all xxx.
Hi there lovliest of peeps and I hope that you are all OK.
It feels like it’s been ages since I last posted so I’ll get the card bit out of the way and then we can have a good old gossip!!! But firstly, thank you for all your lovely e-mails wondering where I got to and checking that I was okay – how sweet and kind you are, bless ya little cotton socks, mmmwaaahhhh xxx
It’s a wet and windy Tuesday here today (nothing to do with me!!) but nothing like it was yesterday when we had a hailstorm with mahoosive hail stones, lightening and the loudest thunder I think I’ve ever heard. Our house literally shook and so did I!!! But wet and windy aside, it’s time to nip over and check out what’s been happening over at Papertake Weekly and this week we are
In The Garden
Well not literally of course – it is far too wet and windy of course :( - but we want to see anything floral or to do with the garden included in your work.
We are sponsored by Bugaboo Stamps and there is a fab prize up for grabs so if you get a sec, nip and check it all out peeps.
So this is me card and I’ll run through all the stuff I used really quickly so I can get to the goss :)
The image I used is of course from Lili Of The Valley and she is Milly Me & My Dog, I coloured her with the following Copics -
Skin - E000, E00, E11, E21, R00, R20
Hair – E43, E50, E81
The rest – E43, E50, E81, R85, RV0000, RV000, RV00, YG0000, YG00, YG03
and all the papers are from Nitwits - FQB Butterfly Kisses and FQB Confection collections.
Ohh I am LOVING these new LOTV sentiments – they are from Set 24.
You can use them to make up your own sentiments and there are 36 different ones in the set which makes them pretty darn good value in my book.
The bow was made using some gorgeous 15mm Shocking Pink No 72 Microdot Ribbon which is of course from my fave Geordie girlies at The Ribbon Girl (fab to chat today Mary xxx).
I topped it with a sweetheart blossom from Wild Orchid Crafts ……..
… and this little arrangement was made using various bloomage which was also from Wild Orchid Crafts.
Delish :)
So that's the old card done.
It's been a mad couple of weeks putting it mildly. Basically I had a few problems with my router and therefore had trouble connecting to the Internet, but eventually it got sorted.
Then there was a real crisis here.
You may or may not know but we breed birds of prey here and this time of year is our busiest as we have eggs and chicks coming out of our ears - not literally of course!!! But there are eggs hatching all the time and chicks that need feeding. Then there’s equipment that needs sterilising, food that needs preparing etc etc and on it goes. Amongst all this last week, we had two very poorly chicks and to be honest, we really thought they were going to die. We were up for two nights solid with them and of course we were both pretty knackered by the end of it. I really didn't have any energy left to craft to be fair.
But the good news is that they survived. How they pulled through I honestly do not know, but they did and they are both healthy and strong, so a happy ending there – phew!!!!. But as we have new chicks being hatched all the time, it gets a bit like Groundhog Day!!
So with all this going on, I didn't get chance to post anything on here really last week. But of course the weekend before, we had the open weekend at Lili of the Valley and what a fabulous two days it was. I got to meet lots of lovely crafters, including some of my lovely blog buddies and I hope they will forgive me for not mentioning each of them by name, but they know who they are and it was fabulous to meet up with them all.
But the was one special crafter who I just have to mention because he just about stole my heart!!!
And here he is ……
… meet my little friend Bobby.
He is the son of the sweetness that is Tracy over at the Country Mouse blog and Tracy, I hope you don't mind me nicking this pic of him chick xxx This kid is amazing, he really is. We chatted for ages about crafting and how he loves his Pro Markers (I think they are Mum’s really lol !!) and by the end of it I just wanted to take him home. I mean, how could you resist that little face!!! He is going to be a real charmer when he grows up for sure, and hugs to him from Aunty Piggy xxx.
And then last weekend we had the craft fair at Port Sunlight. As always, the show was really busy and again it was wonderful to see all the lovely crafters, even if we didn't really get chance to have a proper chat as we were sooo busy. I have to say that this is one of my favourite craft fairs, and it has a special atmosphere all of it’s own :) It’s nice to see familiar faces there and of course, working with Richard from LOTV (Laila’s brother) is guaranteed to be a good laugh cos he is soooo funny. And he is Liverpool supporter as well, yayyyy :)
In between the open weekend and Port Sunlight, I met up with Rosemary Merry. You’ll know Rosemary from Create & Craft and she has a gorgeous craft shop ( Crab Apple Crafts) in Frodsham which isn’t too far from here.
Well I have some FAB news to share cos I'm going to be doing classes at the shop, starting in July and I am soo excited. I’ll let you know more details soon as soon :)
Right well I think I’ve probably waffled enough but before I go, I have to say the biggest
THANK YOU
to everyone who has sent me jumpers for the babies.
I cannot tell you how thrilled I have been with the response. I expected a few but I think we are over 100 now. I will get around to sending out thank you emails but as per the above, the last few weeks have been crazy. I have lots of pics of them and I’m working out where to put them on here because I want to share them all. I didn't dream that so many of you would send them to me so I am a bit behind with me emails etc. But I will sort it and get them on here. Maybe I could put them in the sidebar (she says as a light has just come on in the pea brain – it is a shame sometimes!!!).
I’ll be back tomoz and thanks for bearing with me through this looooooooon post peeps. I’ll get off now and leave you with a sneakie peekie …….
… and all will be revealed in the morrow.
Huggiest of hugs to all and it is so nice to be back xxxxx
