Rachel is running the Berlin Marathon

My daughter, Rachel, is running the Berlin Marathon in September to raise money for the British Heart Foundation in loving memory of my Dad who we lost earlier this year.

She has already raised quite a lot and it looks as though she will easily reach, if not exceed, the £500 target she has set herself. This is her first marathon but she has put a lot of training in so far and I have every  confidence that she will run fantastically on the day.

I'm sponsoring Rachel to reach her target. For more information on Rachel's race or to sponsor her yourself, please visit her fundraising page: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/Stanley_Walker

I am a now on the Anything Goes design team!

I am delighted to say that I am now a Design Team member over at Anything Goes in association with the Craft Den! I love their challenges and the projects created by their fabulous design team and it is an honour to now be a part of their team!

The challenges run fortnightly on Tuesdays and I will be posting my first project on Tuesday 6th September.

Beetle Juice - commissioned card

I was commissioned to make a card for a little boy's 9th birthday by his Dad. It had to have cars on and his favourite car is the Volkswagen Beetle and fortunately, I have the John Byers cars set of stamps with two sizes of the VW included

This is the card I designed and my colleague is really pleased with it and says Alex will be delighted with it.

I am going to enter this into the following challenges:

sendasmile4kidschallenge - Use die cuts / punches for kids
onestopcraftchallenge - Bold and bright
thestampmanchallenges - Anything goes with summer colours
ellephantasticchallenges - Add layers
designed2delight - Anything goes
paper-craftingjourney - Anything Goes
aspoonfullofsugarchallenge - Happy Birthday
craftuscrazy - Anything goes

Crafting for all Seasons Bingo Challenge

My first challenge as a DT member for Crafting for all Seasons! 

The challenge this week is Bingo and we had the chance to play with Digi Stamps from Sliekje and The Stamping Boutique - Check the sites out if you are unfamiliar with them, there are some great images available. 

The winner of the challenge will receive 3 digis or 1 digital paper of their choice from The Stamping Boutique!

I used the little princess digi stamp from Sliekje and decided to go for a princess theme using buttons, embossing and ribbon.

Good Luck everyone.

Away with the fairies

This week's challenge at Willow Sketchie Challenge was to add sparkle/shimmer, something floral, use the colour yellow and follow the set sketch.

This is my card:

I decided to use yellow as my main colour theme and use papers from Funky Hand. I downloaded the cute fairy from Willow Designs, I've never used a fairy image but I particularly like this one!

I sparkled the wings of the fairy using Cosmic Twinkles.

I'm really pleased with the finished result and this card is now for sale at B'dz, Todmorden.

A few other challenges:

dreamvalleychallenges - Use lemon, lime and orange
sendasmile4kidschallenge - Use die cuts / punches for kids
onestopcraftchallenge - Bold and bright
thestampmanchallenges - Anything goes with summer colours
sweetstampinchallengeblog - Babies and little ones
ellephantasticchallenges - Add layers
designed2delight - Anything goes

At the Seaside

As you've probably realised, I absolutely love All Our Yesterdays designs and have made another card using a stamp by Joanna Sheen.

I think this is a really cute card and I love the colours I settled upon. I decided to make this a very simple card, finishing it off with a ribbon, a handmade flower, a little sentiment and some sparkly stick-on gems.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

stlukescharitycardschallenge - Oh I do like to be beside the seaside!
thestampmanchallenges - Anything goes with summer colours
reasonableribbon - Keep it clean (with a ribbon)
bythecuteandgirly - The Sea
elphinehouse - Fun in the sun

Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History

I made this card for my daughter's friend for her 21st birthday. I particularly like this elegant lady stamp by Creative Expressions and like the colour theme I settled upon. I thought that this stamp would lend itself well to black and white and liked the papers, the ribbon and the sentiment!

I'm entering this into the following competitions:

paperplaychallenges - Recipe challenge

paperplaytime - Anything goes

anythingchallenge - Birthday / Celebration

ribbongirls - Use ribbon

stampavie - Card for a girl

shellysimagesblog - Anything goes

craftuscrazy - Anything goes

paper-craftingjourney - Anything goes

makeitmonday - Anything goes

joyfulstamper - Anything goes

papercreationsink - Show us your flowers

tuesdaytagger - Anything goes

lothiancrafts - Anything goes

fussyandfancychallenge - Celebrate

mytimetocraftchallenge - G is for Girl

Whoopsi Daisy Challenge - Anything Goes

theshabbytearoom - Polka dots

How does your garden grow?

I've had in mind for some time to create a canvas which depicts a garden scene using grungey flowers and the Tim Holtz Bird Cage. I had the basic design in my head but it evolved as I went along. This was my finish product:

I'm really pleased with the end result. I used scrunched up tissue to define the sky at the top and the grass at the bottom which I applied with Gel Medium (matte), I coloured using the Eco-Friendly acrylic paints. Using stencils and moulding paste I created the crown and floral flourish and painted these using the Eco-Friendly acrylic paints. I used cordinations paper for the flowers and the branches which I sanded down. The flowers were made using spiral dies. The large yellow flower was made by scrunching tissue paper and dictionary pages which I had sprayed with Cosmic Shimmer Mist and glued together. The white flower was hand painted and I added a flower button in the centre to finish it off.

Grunge paper was used for the birds, bird cage and the bracket. I finished my canvas off by using jump rings, steam punk jailers keys and pearls.

I am going to use this for a future workshop so watch this space!

A few competitions:

craftyourpassionchallenges - Anything but a card

allsortschallenge - Anything but a card

creativecardcrew - Handmade flowers

paperplaytime - Anything Goes

cottagecrafts.ie/fashionablestampingchallenges - Handmade flowers

craftsandmechallenges - Anything Goes

craftuscrazy - Anything Goes

paper-craftingjourney - Anything Goes

creativecraftchallenges2 - Anything but a card

shellysimagesblog - Anything Goes

dreamvalleychallenges - Distressing

pollycraftchallengeblog - Distressing

makeitmonday - Anything Goes

scrapbooksisters- Blue

I can't see no ships!

Another day, another challenge! This is a card I made for my husband for his birthday. He absolutely loves boats and is at his happiest when we are on our boat in Largs, Scotland and he is the Captain and I am the Gally Slave (or so he thinks).

I have used All Our Yesterdays decoupage for this easel card and a few embellishments to finish the card off. My husband was delighted with the card and it stands in pride of place in his study.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

bunnyzoescrafts - Easel cards
craftsandmechallenges - Blues or blue/green
onestopcraftchallenge - At the beach
paperplaytime - Anything Goes
craftuscrazy   Anything Goes
bythecuteandgirly - The Sea
paper-craftingjourney - Anything Goes
alphabetchallengeblog - Navy
anythingchallenge - Birthday / Celebration
aspoonfullofsugarchallenge - Happy Birthday
scrapbooksisters - Blue
divasbydesignchallenge - Birthday

Time Machine Wall Hanging Workshop

 I am  a bit late posting this blog about the Time Machine Wall Hanging Workshop I held recently. I had so much else to blog about that this sort of ended up on at the back of the queue! Sorry to those who attended.

All the ladies and gentleman attendees were all delighted with their efforts and considering only one of the ladies had ever stamped before and no-one had ever embossed or used distress inks etc their finished projects were amazing!

I think that all would agree that anyone with a mind to can craft once they have been shown the techniques and they want to learn. Everyone at the workshop was very happy with their projects and were interested in coming back for future workshops which was very encouraging.

Here are some samples of the wall hangings that were produced. I think you will agree that the standard for newbies at mixed media crafting is brilliant!

I think this really does demonstrate that we all have it in us to create we just need someone to show us how!







My next workshop is on Friday 2nd September at "B"dz and I now have a regular slot every 1st Friday in the month. This time I will be teaching how to decorate a mirror with the paint fusion technique. This is a follow on to the bookmark workshop last month. You don't need to be an artist to paint it is all in the technique!

I really enjoy teaching the workshops. Every one who comes along are keen to learn and it is so rewarding  showing people how to do something who may not have done anything like it before to see what they produce and even more so when they are so pleased with the end result.

I am now a design team member for Crafting for all Seasons!

I am delighted that I am now a design team member for Crafting for all Seasons! I am looking forward to the set tasks in the next few months, working with like-minded ladies and having a nosey at all the entrants!

I'm excited to use products, colours and themes I may not have chosen to play with, taking me out of my comfort zone.

I've already started work on my first project for Challenge 8 and will blog about it later in the month.

Molly's 3rd Birthday

My gorgeous Granddaughter was 3 last Sunday and we spent some time on the beach watching the Red Arrows display team who had come 'specially for her birthday!

One of the things she loves to do when she comes to her Nana's is 'help' to cook. When I saw this Molly Bloom stamp I knew I had to make her birthday card with it.

As you can see from these photos, Molly had to keep tasting the chocolate krispies to make sure they were right!!
Yep! They taste fine now Nana!

We also made mint creams to send to her daddy in Afghanistan.

Isn't she cute in her chef's hat and apron? Of course I know I'm biased but hey, she is just a little sweetheart and she loves being with her Nana! Nobody else gets a look in if I'm around!

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

trulyscrumptiouschallenges.blogspot.com/ Buttons and Bows
craftsandmechallenges.blogspot.com/ Anything Goes
lollipopcrafts.blogspot.com/ Monochromatic
papertakeweekly.blogspot.com/ Anything Goes
craftuscrazy.blogspot.com/ - Anything Goes
sendasmile4kidschallenge.blogspot.com/ - Anything Goes (for kids)
aspoonfullofsugarchallenge.blogspot.com/ Happy Birthday
anythingchallenge.blogspot.com/Happy Birthday

Crafting for all Seasons Design Team Call

Here are my 3 entries for the DT call over at Crafting for all Seasons..

This one is a favourite and features an All our Yesterdays Stamp -  I love Faye Whittaker's paintings and have cross stitched lots of her designs.
The image reminds me so much of my darling 3 year old Granddaughter, she just loves pink, everything has to be pink!







This card is a John Byers stamp from the Nostalgia range.
I particularly like it as it is reminiscent  of my school days particularly because of the satchel - it's just like the one I had for school! The image just had to be grunged and I think the backing paper and cordinations card compliment the image.








This stamped image is a Sarah Kay design. He is so cute and has a look of my little Grandson who loves being out in the garden.

I was very happy with this card and think that the funky papers go really well together.

Sheena's blog candy

Sheena is launching her new Paint Fusion Christmas stamps on C&C this Friday it will be the Pick of the Week. However she has a blog candy to win a full set of the stamps plus her new DVD and a Sheena original. All you have to do is post about it on your own blog and then link to Sheena's blog here

Anne-Marie's collection

My daughter in law has admired the bookmarks I have made using Sheena's paint fusion for some time now and has been dropping many un-subtle hints that she wanted one for herself. However, little did she know that I had already decided to make one for her as part of a matching set.


Her birthday card was designed so that it could be framed later and I painted a tissue box holder, mirror frame and a bookmark to match all using Sheena's paint fusion stamps and pebeo paints. All were crackled beforehand using the pva glue technique.

She was thrilled to bits with them and now understood why I hadn't responded to her hints and made her one previously!!