I didn't get round to making my Christmas cards today as the weather was just too lovely to even be thinking about it1

Instead I have entered a draw for Bev's Blog Candy (along with over 400 other people! lol) - she has lots of fantastic ideas and lots of links to other fab things, why not go and have a look?!

http://bevscrafts.blogspot.com/

I can't believe it...

my 'chocolate and caramel' cake card has won a prize! And even more exciting is that the goodies I have won are going to come all the way from America! I think I need to go and find myself some more challenges to enter now!

The latest card in my collection (which is being given to a friend for her birthday as she has just got married 2 weeks ago) was made for a challenge, following a sketch. More information can be found here ~ http://justmagnolia.blogspot.com/2010/08/week-70-sketch-by-dawny.html on the Just Magnolia blog. I LOVE Tilda stamps and this challenge made me go and get out one of my new stamps that I haven't used yet. I'm really pleased with the result and have used colours I don't often use in my cards. The reason I have used these papers is because they are similar to the colour of bridesmaid dresses they had at the wedding.




Tilda With Flower is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, her hair and skin are coloured with Copics, the rose and trim on the dress are coloured with Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink, I have added Aqua Stickles to the middle of the flowers on the paper (which is Wild Rose Studios Spring Fling), the flowers are Prima paper flowers, the ribbon is from a piece I bought at Hobbycraft and the sentiment has been placed onto the smallest of my petite ovals dies (I think that's what they're called, without going to check!!)

Oldie But A Goodie Challenge Blog

I have just come across this blog and given that over on the MAC forum we regularly have comments about stamps that have been sitting in drawers/boxes/on shelves unused and unloved I thought this might be a good challenge blog to follow!

http://oldiebutagoodiechallenge.blogspot.com/

Hopefully some of you will join me as followers over there!


And given our recent obsession with Lili of the Valley stamps, I thought this might be useful too:
http://liliofthevalleythursdaychallenge.blogspot.com/

Ooooh, how exciting... I have just received my first ever award and hopefully I've added it here! Thank you SO much to Andria at http://iona-rose.blogspot.com/



There are a few rules to go with this award so here goes...

1) Thank the person who gave you this award ~ THANK YOU Andria, I'm amazed you've given it to me, I know I need to keep my blog up-to-date more often and promise I will try hard!!
2) Place the award on your blog ~ Done.
3) List three things you love about yourself ~ I have a fantastic husband, I have lots of friends and I am going to be a mummy in January (that's the thing I love most!!)
4) Post a picture you love ~ this one is easy, I just have to figure out how to get it on here!

The very first time we saw our baby at our 12 week scan on 14th June 2010. We are now 21 weeks and 3 days - 18 weeks and 4 days to our due date!

5) Pass this award onto 5 other people ~
This is also a bit tricky because I don't have many followers and I don't follow a lot of blogs. One of the ones I do follow is Andria's (where the award came from!) and 2 of the others were given the award BY Andria so I'm a bit stuck with this one!
Anyway, here goes...
1. Gemma at http://makedoandgem.blogspot.com/ - I can't remember how I why I ended up following her blog (as is usually the case with me!!) or she mine but never mind!
2. Sandra at http://stamperontheshore.blogspot.com/ - again not sure how she ended up being a follower of my blog but she is!
3. Lisa http://crafty-moments.blogspot.com/who I recently bought some stash from through the DoCrafts forum (even though I'm not supposed to be spending money any more!!)
4. Emma http://emmalouisecards.blogspot.com/who I also bought goodies from via the DoCrafts forum!
and 5. Sarah and who was one of the regulars at our crop here in Chirk until the shop closed. Fingers crossed we will be restarting at Froncysyllte Community Centre in September or October! http://craftamongthelandrovers.blogspot.com/

In the last week or so since my last post I have made a couple of cards - 18th birthday, wedding and birthday, which I will add here later. In the meantime here is a card I started earlier this week and wasn't quite sure what to do with to make it better. A friend of mine is hosting a challenge on scrappers delight http://scrapersdelight.blogspot.com/2010/08/sweet-as-candy.html and this card fits what they're looking for so I'm going to try and link it (this could take a while!!) Anyway, here it is...



It fits the challenge on both counts
1) it features cakes in both the paper and the topper
2) it is made using stash in chocolate and caramel colours

The cupcakes paper is from a Dovecrafts stack; the ribbon is Anita's spotted ribbon in Cream; the embossed paper is Black Magic Coredinations run through my new Sizzix Texture Boutique (I HAD to get it - it was only£17 in the QVC shop and I find I only really use my Big Shot for die cutting, particularly Nesties! and not for embossing, have done more embossing in the 2 weeks since I bought it than I've done all year I think!!) and sanded, with glitter glue added randomly to some of the dots; the cake itself is from a cardmaking kit my mum bought me a few years ago and the brad is from my general stash!

It's something a bit different to my usual cards so perhaps that's why I'm not so sure about it!

Following my posts on Facebook last week and this, I have had 2 orders for A5 size cards - one for my cousin's little boy to give to his nursery when he leaves to go to 'big school' and the other for an old schoolfriend's little boy's birthday...


I have entered this card in 2 blog challenges, my next challenge is to figure out how to link to those challenge pages, here goes with the first one:
and http://ourcreativecorner6.blogspot.com/

A long long time ago

I started my blog... I knew I wouldn't keep it completely up to date but hoped I would manage to update it once a week or so. As you can tell from the date of the last post I really did fail at that! Since the last post on here I have found out I am pregnant, baby Rowlands is due on 2nd January 2011 and we have been very busy getting things organised ready for him / her!

As I am now not working, I am hoping to increase my card sales so I will be making a more concentrated effort to keep my blog up to date in order to show off my cards! If you would like to order any bespoke cards, please email me - tali1981uk@hotmail.co.uk

As well as making my cards, I am still going to be babysitting for as long as I can manage up to Christmas, and when I am ready after the baby is born. The same contact details above can be used for babysitting enquiries!

Not a lot to report!

Hopefully you will forgive me for not posting in 2 weeks - we spent half term in Las Vegas (flying via Philadelphia, where the airport had been closed the week before due to snow and I was very worried we weren't going to get there... but we did!!) and it took us a few days to get back into the swing of things!

6 hours with 31 Reception and Year 1 children on 3 hours sleep is not much fun, but it's what I did on Tuesday - couldn't get to sleep until gone 3am and the alarm goes off just after 6 for Anders to get ready for work!

I have to admit the week flew by and we are now well and truly back into the swing of things.... and counting down the days until the Easter holidays (4 weeks and 4 days in our county; I know some people only have 4 weeks to go!!)

I have been to my scrapbooking crop at Polka Dot Crafts here in Chirk today - the first scrapbooking I have done in 2010! and apart from a few embellishments which need adding to a couple of pages, I have finished my 12x12 book 'A Year In Our Lives... 2009' - I am not going to attempt one that size this year, I may do an 8x8 but I haven't decided yet so the photos are staying safely on the camera/laptop/CDs for now!!

I haven't made any more cards since coming back from America, but do have a few orders to get on with!

My mum has almost emptied my stock of 'stand by' cards for the basket she has at work and sells for me, so I need to get a move on with making some more... I have lots of stamped images which are now coloured in and sitting in a pile on my desk, but instead of using those up and building the collection of cards up again, I have bought a whole load of new stamps and just sat and stamped them so I can do some more colouring with my fab Copics! Polka Dot Crafts have a lot to answer for... Thanks Claire!!! www.polkadotcrafts.blogspot.com if you want to know more about them!!

Cards from January and February 2010

Slowly catching up!

Card for the lady Anders is covering for at work when she had her little boy....



card for my friend's little boy's birthday...



Friend's birthday card....



Birthday card for another friend...


Card for a friend from the MAC forum...



Engagement card for friends of ours...



and a birthday card for my cousin...



That's it for now! lol

And I'm saying goodbye and going on my holidays, with a promise that I will update much more regularly once I'm back!!

Cards from November and December 2009

Cards from Christmas card making class at Polka Dot Crafts (www.polkadotcrafts.blogspot.com)

Shaker card...



Pop up card from the same course....



outside

and...



inside

First birthday card for my friend to give her niece...



Forever friends stickers mounted on Dovecrafts papers

Cards from October 2009

As the title says, here are some more of my cards from October last year!

This is the leaving card I made for the teacher whose job I am covering....



image is a sizzix die-cut, papers are random pink left overs from my rather large paper collection!

A birthday card (A4 size!) for my friend to give her daughter on her 7th birthday ...



Image from an online site, very carefully cut number 7 to cover the flower Tatty Ted was originally holding! Papers again came from my large collection, diamante buckle and pink butterfly were amongst an order I placed with a website which was closing down, the letters were cut on the Big Shot (I forget which alphabet) and glittered individually with Stickles glitter glue. Ribbon from a selection I bought at The Paper Mill, Cheshire Oaks so probably a DoCrafts brand!!

Finally for October, a birthday card for one of my best friends, whose birthday is on Halloween!..



Image is a Greetings Farm stamp, coloured with Copics. Flowers are from a pack I bought at my local craft shop (www.polkadotcrafts.blogspot.com) and charm is from a collection I bought from a website which was closing down. Paper layers were cut using Nestabilities.

I AM useless... I admit it!!

As my last post was in September and it is now the middle of February I think I can safely say I have failed in my attempts to keep my blog up-to-date BUT I am determined to do better so am resurrecting the blog in the hope that I will do slightly better on my second attempt!



I have been making cards (lots of them!!) in the long time since I last blogged. I have also nearly finished my 2009 scrapbook (unfortunately the last 2 attempts at cropping which would've been my push to finish it have both been cancelled due to the snow so it's still not quite done!) but still have a huge pile of books I need to begin/continue with!!



Earlier this week I finally got round to adding some photos of my cards to Photobucket, so I will add them here too!



Going back just a little while to October (oops!!) this is the card I made for our nephew/godson on his christening day (backing paper is the wrapping paper we put his present in, FF image coloured with my BRAND NEW COPICS CIAO PENS!!!)...

Birthday card

This is the birthday card I made for one of my friends on the MadAboutCards forum - the metal charm with the flowers is leo - her starsign.

The embossing on the happy birthday panel has been highlighted with blue ink and also glittered in places with stickles.

The paper flowers are from my new purchases (I lost my original bag of them, which must have contained 100s and am now trying to rebuild my collection!) and the centres are a mixture of brads and gems.

Tilda is coloured with whispers pens and highlighted with stickles glitter and the ribbon is from Hobbycraft

Oh dear!!!

This is a card I made during the summer for the DoCrafts forum Friendship card exchange in August. The challenge was to use something the recipeint said they like... the lady I sent this to likes cats, buttons, red, black and blue - I think I met the requirements! lol

This was the first time I have used buttons on a card or scrapbooking layout and I was actually quite pleased with myself - I CAN sew I just choose not to (as anyone who has seen the bag of badges ready to go on my camp blanket will know!!) but they look really good so maybe this will be the start of something new (when I have used up lots of my stash which is taking over the spare room!!! and got some money! lol)

Well I have definitely failed in the task of keeping this blog up to date!

The summer holidays disappered in a blur of catching up with old friends and people I have not seen for a long time finishing with my high school reunion which I organised and which was fantastic!

The weather was so awful we didn't manage to get anything done that we had planned for the house - namely the drive!!

Tigger has grown loads and is now allowed out in the garden (supervised!!!) as he has had his vaccinations!

I have got a long list of cards that I need to make for orders (and 12 invitations for our nephew's christening to finish - but the new ink cartridge we got for the printer doesn't work!!) so should really be getting on with them!

I have a new job - Recpetion teacher at the school I was at last year, covering maternity leave from October 5th for the rest of the year, been in this week to meet the children, going to be great fun with 10 children until Christmas as the other 18 don't start until January! Really enjoyed being in Reception with them this week, got a 4-day first aid course to look forward to next week (hmmm...!!) then a week in Nursery and playgroup before going back to Reception for the last week before they become my class!

Oh dear, looks like I failed in my task of keeping my blog up-to-date!!!

This is the first year when I have actually had a summer holiday! Until I started teaching I worked every summer holiday. At the end of my first year of teaching I moved to Chirk and spent the summer trying to throw out things I could live without and update my CV to get it out to local schools. At the end of my second year we moved into our own house and spent the holidays doing work on it and last year of course we got married (and I spent the week before the wedding at an international Guide camp!)

So we have spent the holidays doing not a lot - watching tv, doing various jobs around the house, watching tv, rearranging the spare room, watching tv, building bookcases, watching tv, went to the races a couple of weeks ago and I have managed to make some cards (only quick ones, nothing too exciting and certainly not worth posting on here!!) and complete some scrapbook pages... in my DLO per month I am now upto May, have matted the photos and stuck them on to the page, just need to add some journalling and embellishments!!

Anders and I spent a lovely weekend in Devon with Naomi (my best friend from uni, who was my chief bridesmaid), Mark and Luke the weekend of our anniversary and I have been out for meals with various friends which I don't often get time to do when we are at school!

Tonight we went out for dinner with my mum and a family who I used to babysit for when the girls were little (they were like the little sisters I never had but I didn't have to live with them!!) The older 2 were 5 and 3 when I first babysat for them, they are now 18 and almost 16 and their little sister (who was 6 last time I looked after them) is now 11 - they have been living in Indonesia for the last 5 years and I haven't seen them in all that time, managed to get back in touch through Facebook and managed to arrange to meet up while they are all back here for a visit! I can't believe the oldest is now off to uni and the middle one is coming back to the UK to do her A levels! Where has that time gone?! I was amazed at some of the things the older 2 remembered from all those years ago!

Must try harder to update my blog, not done too well so far!!

Wednesday 22nd July

I don't know where the last 2 weeks have gone! Finished school last Friday, Anders took me to see Harry Potter on the Wednesday and apart from that I'm not really sure what I've done!!!

Tigger is growing quickly and is now 8 weeks old. Tilly has not been too impressed with him but the hissing is now down to only when he tries to get in the bowl when she is eating (even though there are 2 bowls of food!!) For a tiny kitten Tigger certainly is brave.... he is the one who starts 9 out of 10 of their fights! Poor Tilly doesn't know what's happened to her lovely, calm, peaceful home!!!

Crafting-wise there is very little to report! Mum asked for some 'thank you teacher' cards which someone in work wanted but far too late. I think she forgets I have to make the cards and then post or deliver them over to her!

I will remember to take a photo of the card I did for an order for my MIL - for someone who has just completed a degree in music. Not the easiest card to make but I think I did quite well with it!

Wednesday 8th July 2009

Today's big news is our latest addition... a gorgeous 6 and a half week old kitten. He was the smallest in a litter of 5 and the last one left! Compared to our other cat, Tilly, age 2, (who was 4 months old when we got her) he SO small!

Just adding some photos of him now. He was temporarily called Spud by the people who own his mummy but we think he's going to become Tigger now!



Tilly investigating the new arrival!

Monday 6th July 2009

9 days until the end of term! Can't wait!

Today was the last session of my scrapbooking after-school club for Year 4 and 5.... next year I'm running the choir!

Yesterday I took part in the Race for Life at Birkenhead Park with 4 of my friends, will put the photos on when I have time! We walked the 5km (ran the last 500m!) and I raised about £150 for cancer research (just got to collect it all in now!)

I've just found out that my local craft shop is having a huge sale, starting on Saturday (they have been promising this ever since they moved out of their old shop into the one opposite - months ago!!) so I will have to be up nice and early to get there for 10 (when it starts) and to school for 12 to run the tombola at the summer fair (how exciting!) Going to the races on Friday night might make that a little bit more of a challenge than it usually is!!!

Jessica's 9th birthday

The card I made for our god-daughter's 9th birthday. Patchwork Tilda sitting on a tag cut from a sizzix die. Banner at the top is also a sizzix die-cut. More paper flowers (I said they pop up everywhere!) and the tag swings from side to side as it is suspended on a piece of co-ordinating thread! Went for the brown and yellow colour scheme as Jess is also one of my Brownies!