The word is out!

Hurrah! Finally I can let you know what my 'big venture' is! Sam and I have been working like trojans to come up with new themes for a new challenge blog that we both wanted to get up and running. With our mutual love of beautiful handmade tags we decided to set this up and invite others who love to create their own tags to join in and hopefully find inspiration from our blog. And don't worry if you're wondering what to do with them once you've made them, use them either as a gift tag, or as a greeting card by themselves. I do occasionally send them out as a greeting but I love to keep mine in a collection, and love to watch it grow.

So please check out Tag! You're It! and you will get a teaser taste of what it's all about, and be sure to pop back on 4th April ready to join in and play along!

Now, here's a couple of cards that I sent out earlier this week using a stamp that I bought from Gunhild at Stempelglede - you really need to see this lady's blog....sigh!!!!

The first card was made for Chris who celebrated her birthday earlier this week, and the second one was for Sarah who is celebrating today - so Many Happy Returns ladies!

Arty Girlz Challenge #27 - Chocolate

My lovely friend Sam is the Guest Designer on the Arty Girlz challenge blog this week so if you've not seen it yet, I urge you to take a look, and if you've not tried it yet, dive in because this week's theme is chocolate! Funnily enough I'm not a great fan of chocolate in the munchy bar sense, but I love chocolate products like ice-cream, sauces, cake....Yum. Which reminds me, anyone been following Willie's Wonky Chocolate Factory? OMG! Divine! I gained 3lbs a week just watching it!! LOL!!

Right then, here's my offering and it's a bit personal. I've just embarked on my latest healthy lifestyle regime - I shan't call it a diet because that conjures up images of counting points and buying branded products that cost twice as much and offer to speed up weight loss - tried it a dozen times, didn't work, so it's back to basics for me and I shall be following a sensible balanced eating plan which means I go back to weighing and measuring and writing it all down, just like in the good old days - Hey, it worked that time!!! So, here's my chocolate tag - chocolate is not part of my new regime so I went for the next yummiest thing which is obviously Jon Bon Jovi - this is one of my own stamps which I made a couple of weeks ago and haven't yet used - till now! The text is to remind me to "Keep the Faith" when the kids come in scoffing bags of crisps and cheese on toast!!!

I had the weirdest dream the other night - I dreamt that I was delivering a baby - it was so creepy because this baby came into the world smiling and I remember telling the mother that it was a little boy and he was smiling, even though only the head was visible at this stage???? I told a friend of mine who said "Ooh, how interesting - it means that you are about to embark on a new project...." which I thought was really spooky because she couldn't have been more spot on!!! All will be revealed shortly - watch this space......!

Thanks for popping in!

Happy Easter!

Slightly late, I know, but holidays are always a busy time here and yesterday we took a bag of small Easter Eggs to Berrington Hall in the hope of organising ourselves an Easter Egg Hunt, but Hurrah!!! there was already an organised one in progress so we just handed over our £1.50's and joined in. Along the way we were greeted by this splendid fellow who we childishly nicknamed "Ashley" (we're watching too much Corrie, methinks!! LOL!!) who seemed to be more than happy to pose for us until we spotted the reason why - just behind him, though not visible in this picture, was Mrs Peacock ("Clare" LOL!!) who was sitting on a batch of eggs, and this proud fellow was obviously doing his fatherly duty and protecting his brood! Good boy! :o) Isn't he magnificent!

Also, as it's now officially Spring, I thought I'd show you this card that I made using one of Magnolia's Spring/Summer 2008 stamps. I love this to bits, but I can't help feeling she looks more autumnal than Springlike, but Hey, who cares, she's great fun to play with!

I hope you are all having a great Easter holiday, and the weather is being kinder to you wherever you are - the trouble with Easter being so early this year is that it still feels (and looks!!) quite wintry outside!

Thanks for popping in!

New Magnolia Stamps

Just wanted to show you this that I made with Parisienne Tilda - Ooops, I thought she looked Scottish! As soon as I stamped this image out, heather, thistles and tam-o-shanti's leapt to mind so she got the full tartan treatment - and some!!! LOL!! The ferns and sweet briar are also from Magnolia's new Spring/Summer 2008 collection.

I just decided to edit this post because I've been scouting around looking for a challenge blog and I couldn't believe it when I saw the Arty Girlz challenge this week was doodling - only this morning I made some Moo cards for a forum weekend challenge and 2 of them were total doodling - in case you can't spot them, it's the two Kokopelli's! LOL!!! What brilliant fun they were to do and I think I could easily become addicted!

Hope you like, and thanks for popping in! :o)

Martha with Pearls

Oh I absolutely loved this new stamp from Magnolia - it's one of the new set of Goblin stamps. When I first saw it I was a bit stumped to begin with, till I realised that she is a Goblin, and I looked at the rest of the set of stamps, and the ideas began to flood in.

Hope you like this tag that I made with her - it was a brilliant excuse to go absolutely crazy with the glitter glue!

Thanks for stopping by!

It's a Boy!!!

Hurrah!!! New stamps from Magnolia are now in and I have to say I was really pleased with my DT pack which arrived two days ago and I have been busily beavering away with them having so much fun.

Here's the first of my creations with Sitting Alvin from the new Baby collection - isn't he a cutie?

And I've just realised that my card features a Star which is the theme of this weeks' Arty Girlz Challenge so I'm offering this as my submission for the theme! If you haven't seen this challenge blog yet (where have you been!!!), get over there and take part and meet lots of lovely Arty Girlz (and occasional Boyz too ;o) ) and you could find yourself with a tasty prize at the end of the week!!

Watch this space -the rest are on their way - and thanks for dropping by!

Simply Heaven

Back again!

Just gently easing myself back into the land of blog here with a card that I made for a buddy who had her birthday a few weeks ago. I have been pretty busy with one thing or another, and I have been creating like mad but nothing I can show off yet (all will be revealed shortly!!! ;o) ). Life has been pretty hectic recently but hopefully things are chillin' a bit more now!
So, while I go and see what's happening in blogland, I'll leave you with this for now. Hope you're all having a great Sunday!

Happy Mothers' Day!

I haven't been a very good blogger at all recently because I've been so tied up with personal stuff that's just taking up waaaaayyy too much time and energy. However, I have twice this week been nominated for a "You Make My Day" award by two lovely, lovely ladies, and neither of you could know how much it made my day to have been chosen. First was lovely Deb who's art is just fabulous, and who's blog is just wonderful, and who very kindly flew to my aid when I recently begged for help with collage work. Her advice (and examples!) was brilliant and I am truly grateful. Secondly was my lovely long-time friend Sharon who is just about one of the loveliest people I have ever had the priviledge to count among my friends and who's artwork leaves me breathless!!

Both of you ladies are really special and I Thank You from the bottom of my heart for making my day with this award.

I will definitely pass it on, but right this minute I have to fly off and be treated to a lovely meal by all my boys to celebrate Mothers' Day. So to all you Mothers out there, I wish you a very happy day - I hope you're all being spoilt rotten!!! ;o)