Birthday Blog Candy - Winner!!!!!!

Evening All! Sam and I have had great fun this evening, picking the winner of my birthday blog candy! Thanks everyone for taking part and a big welcome to my new followers but an even bigger thanks to those of you who have stuck around for a while!! I'll be doing another lot of candy again soon - in the hopes of pushing my followers up above the 100 mark (only 5 more to go!!) OK - well, here's the pics of the 'grand draw'! (Nothing technical in my house!)

I'd already checked that everyone had done what was asked and then we put all the names in a bowl. Then Sam picked one out!

And the winner is................

CONGRATULATIONS!!

Edna/Rosietoes!

Please e-mail me at marieb1976@hotmail.co.uk and we'll sort out getting your candy to you!! Congrats again! Look forward to hearing from you.

Sunday Sketch & Stamp DT Card

Good Morning all and a Happy New Year to anyone I've not said it to already!! Do you like my new look blog? I did try changing it the other day but it all went a bit pear shaped, so I had to use one of the boring blogger templates until I had some time to mess about with it last night!
Now that all the festivities are behind us, it's back to my regular Design Team responsibilities and our first challenge of 2011 at Sunday Sketch and Stamp is a fabby sketch by the most lovely, Claire and here's my card:

I've used a beautiful digital image from The Stamping Boutique and coloured it with promarkers - and a bit of stickles on the wings!! The DP is Doodlebug Designs and has been in my stash for ages. I've used my cuttlebug and nesties to die cut the image panel and mat and I've also used a brand new marianne design 'designables', which, if you haven't already seen them are embossing folders which also cut some of the shapes out of the paper/card. Lastly, I've added a border cut with a Martha Stewart punch and a Craftwork Cards sentiment.
Before I go, I just wanted to update you on my Birthday Blog Candy!! Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to do the draw on Sam's birthday as we were too busy doing 'birthday things' and then that night he went to stay at his nan and grandad's (I think the lure of the xbox they bought him from christmas was too strong!!) and he only got back last night. So - everything permitting - the draw will be done later on today.
Right, well - I hope you've liked my first card of the new year! I'd love to hear if you've made any resolutions!! Bye for now......

Lili of the Valley card.....and some news!!!!

Afternoon peeps. Just a quick post, as I made this card quite a few days ago and I've got to share it with you today otherwise I'll miss the deadline! Here's a card I made for Lili of the Valley's Sketch challenge #77.......

I LOVE this image - it's coloured with distress inks. All the papers are from Cupcake Cards and Crafts. The sentiment is Craftwork cards and the ribbon and bows are Papermania. Quite a CAS card from me again.
And on to my news.....you may have noticed that alot of my recent cards have been made using Cupcake Cards and Crafts papers and I did mention that I'd discovered this digi store recently and it had rapidly become a huge favourite of mine.....well, Mandy, the designer has asked me to join her DT. I had a think to make sure that I'd be able to fit it in with all my other DT commitments and decided that I could make it work, so I can't wait to get started!!! Right, well I've gotta go, we're meant to be going out shopping!! Bye for now......

My Top 10 of 2010......

Believe it or not, I'm back AGAIN!! I hadn't been planning on taking part in this 'Top Ten of 2010' but it seems like everyone's been getting in on the action and I've really enjoyed looking through other people's, so in the end, I thought 'heck why not?'. Until it came to trying to whittle the 130 (!!!!) odd cards that I've made this year down to 10 - how on earth did I make so many??  In the end, I decided not to pick anything too recent and I also decided to try not to pick more than one card made using the same stamp company (although in the end, that didn't work and you can tell I've got my favourites!!). I also couldn't quite get it down to 10 - I managed 14 (oops!?!) OK - here goes (in no particular order!)......

This is the only card I've ever done just using tones of the same colour. I used distress inks and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. IRL - I also sprayed it with perfect pearls, so the image has got a shimmer to it. And it was one of the first cards I put on my blog!

This was the card I made my dad for his birthday and it's one of the first that I used my prismacolour pencils and sansodor on. I like the paper/colour combo.

This was the first easel card I ever  made and threw caution to the wind and made it a round one too. I was quite surprised that it actually worked!! It's quite a different colour scheme for me and I love the sentiment 'The best is yet to be'.

I discovered Elzybells just as they were closing down so I bought up the store (I've still got loads I  haven't inked up yet!!) I picked this one for my top ten cos again, I love the sentiment.

This is one of my Paper Cupcakes DT cards. I owe alot to Nina, she was the first one to take a chance and let me be on her DT and she's got some fabulous images - this is one of them and I love the bright, happy feel of the image and the papers.

This stamp is from one of my favourite releases from the whole of 2010 - the 'Bon Voyage' collection (I've still got quite a few stamps I've not made cards with yet - so naughty!!). And I've also used one of my favourite paper collections - Basic Grey's Kioshi.

This is the first side stepper card I've ever made and it was one of those cards that just 'evolved'. I'd already stamped and coloured Tilda, the house and a couple of trees but didn't have any plans of how I was going to use them. Then I decided to make a stepper and I just kept adding things to it.

I love this Lil Lolita image - so cute and fun and I really enjoyed making this bright 80s inspired card!

I love this image from another one of the wonderful DTs I'm on - The Stamping Boutique (I'm sure Tracy's images just keep getting better!!) This image is so easy to use and on this card I've combined it with my favourite papers from this Christmas - Basic Grey's Jovial and the snowflake 'flowers' that I became so fond of making this chrimbo!!

I've loved this image from the first time I saw it and then when I was lucky enough to be appointed to the Digital Delights DT, I couldn't wait to make something with it. The card that I started making was nothing like how it finished up - sometimes they're the best ones. But I felt quite proud of myself the way I mirrored the ladybug's spots in the image with Craftwork Cards card candy!!

I was asked to make this card for a friend to give to her cousin who'd had a baby and I always think baby cards should be keepsakes too. This Magnolia stamp is one of the cutest ever and although I find it hard using lots of flowers on my cards, I gleaned help from some other blog's and was pleased with how it all turned out.

I made this card for my DT turn at Sunday Sketch & Stamp and it was the week of my sketch, so I had to make it a good one. I love, love, love Willard - he is just the best Kraftin' Kimmie character and again, my fave BG Jovial papers and snowflake flowers!!

The first card I made with my ultimate favourite stamp range - Simply Sassy. I love everything about these stamps, so, so gorgeous!!!

I discovered Some Odd Girl images this year and they've rapidly become a favourite. I've put this card in my top ten because it's different from anything else - I diecut hearts and used them as masks when I sprayed the background with mica mists. Then with some paper that I mopped up the excess mica off the craft sheet with, I made this flower - and my DS helped me by screwing up the paper!!

I hope you've enjoyed looking at my Top 14 (ahem!) and I'd love to hear what you think of them too! Bye for now............

Scrap Creations DT Card

Evening Everyone. Here I am, back again, with my DT card for Scrap Creations - and this week, the theme is 'Happy New Year'. Here's my card:

The image is a freebie from Tiddly Inks called 'Baby New Year', so I thought it was appropriate. The papers and rub-on lettering is DCWV. It looks a bit better IRL because I made sure that an element of the pattern was central on the card and then I cut the same element out from another piece of paper and mounted it at an angle using foam pads, then I mounted the image using foam pads on top of that, so it's more dimensional than it looks here.
I'm also going to enter it into Paper Playtime's challenge #31 - New Year's and also Sweet Stampin's Celebrations challenge. Hope you like it!! Back later with my top ten!!

Papertake Weekly GDT!!!!!

Hi Everyone. I hope you all had wonderful Christmases (is that a word!?!?) and that you were thoroughly spoilt - not just with material goods but with time spent with family and friends and those that you love - that's what I think Christmas is all about. It seemed over all too quickly - I said to Sam last night - 'can you believe that Christmas was only two days ago' and both of us felt like it was days away. You go through months of preparation and then it's all over.......oh well, I've got Sam's 10th birthday on the 30th to look forward to - and he's looking forward to picking a winner for the candy - and New Year!! What are your resolution's going to be this year?
OK - my card for today is very exciting!! Before Christmas, the lovely Dawny (aka Pink Piggy) asked for people to contact her if they were interested in taking part in a very special GDT (that's Guest Design Team for those of you who don't like talking in acronyms!!) over at the Papertake Weekly Challenge blog. As it's one of my favourite challenge blogs, I thought I'd get in touch and guess who was picked to take part - yes, lil ole me!!!! So - this week, the regular DT have got the week off and the GDTs have taken over (mwah, ha, ha). Here's my card:

I've used Magnolia's Tilda with Bee and Beehive, which I coloured with distress inks. I've mounted it onto DCWV card (which I've sanded) and Magnolia peachy dots paper. Then I've added a doily cut with my new MFT die, rolled flowers (another MFT die), flowers cut with a marianne design die, buttons, ribbon and bow - all from Papermania, a sentiment using Hobbycraft lettering and a Bee charm from Bunny Zoe's. I'm loving my new MFT dies - and I've got some others too - so expect to see a fair bit of them in the near future!!!!
You really must pop over to Papertake and check out the other GDT's projects - man, there's some talented people out there!!!! And join in with the challenge, which is 'Be Thankful', it's sponsored by 'Simon Says Stamp'. Hope you likey.......please leave me a comment, it's make me sooooooo happy when you do! TTFN.....

It's Christmas Day!!!!!!!

I just wanted to wish all my friends in Blogland a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! I hope Christmas brings you everything you wish for and that the year ahead is happy and healthy for you and your families.

Here's a little pic of our Christmas tree this year. See you in 2011!! Hugs,