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Friday 29 April 2011

The Stylish Blogger Award

Evening everyone,
I'm back again as promised to finish what I started. I received my award (yippee!!) from my lovely new follower Lolis at the beginning of the week and have only just had time to respond(sorry! I feel bad leaving it so long) Anyway better late than never, here goes....



To receive this award the rules to be followed are:

Step 1 Make a post linking back to the person who gave you the award.

Step 2 Share 8 random things about you.

Step 3 Award 8 recently discovered bloggers with this award.

Step 4 Contact these bloggers and tell them they have won the award.


Eight random facts about me, OMG where to begin! Lol

1. For the last two years I have been Chair person for the preschool that all three of my children
have attended.

2. May be crafting and blogging in France in the near future, if my husband has his way.

3. I would love to be on a challenge blog design team, but so far this has eluded me. (I will keep trying and never give up hope)

4. I love chocolate a little too much and really should start exercising more!

5. My husband and I honeymooned in Mexico where we swam with dolphins and rode horses in the sea.

6. I would love to own a dog again, our two boxers died three years ago and miss them sooooo much.

7. I'm blessed to have had three wonderful children that bring me happiness every day.

8. I'm a Christian and although I don't go to church, I do try and read the Bible to better understand the faith I have.

One of the reasons I took so long with this post is because I had to do a little bit of what blogging is all about and go out there and visit new blogs. This to some is second nature but I somehow never have the time for this part of it. However, a few blog hops later and after a bit more searching and delving, I found loads of new blogs I never knew existed and wondered why I'd never took the time to do it before-it was great! Anyway, the long and short of it means I have eight recently discovered bloggers to give the award to, and they are:

1. Magali

2. Jane

3. Tiara

4. Jenny

5. Chris

6. Ashlee

7. Becca

8. Pat

Thanks for bearing with me and now I'm off to do the last thing on the list. Check out Lolis' blog and all those I've listed if you get a minute, they are all fantastic!
Thanks for stopping by and wading through all that!
Love Nicola xxx




Thursday 28 April 2011

Modified Easter Tilda

Hello,
I hope everyone has had a wonderful week and are ready for the Royal Wedding tomorrow!
This post is a little on the late side, easter being over, but I just couldn't let it pass before showing you how I gave an 'alternative' look to one of the Tilda images on my big easter card. I couldn't afford anymore easter Magnolia stamps and I really wanted Tilda dressed as a bunny. Sooooo, I found a pair of bunny ears in a stamp set I've had a while, and made an Alice band for Tilda. I thought it looked so sweet but I didn't put it on my original blog, probably because it was a modification and I didn't want to enter it for any challenges like that. Anyway, here is Tilda, uncensored!

Sorry it's not a new creation, been busy this week with other (boring) things, much to my dismay! However, my fingers are getting restless and I feel a project coming on. Watch this space, hopefully will not keep you waiting too long. In the meantime I will be back tomorrow with a post to complete my side of the bargain for receiving a blog award earlier in the week.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look, I'm humbled by all your wonderful comments, they mean so much!
Love Nicola xxx

Saturday 23 April 2011

A Very Special Birthday Card

Hello, and Happy Easter!
Hope everyone is enjoying the sunshine, I love it! Yesterday we went with my mum and dad to Sandringham, had a picnic and chilled out, it was brilliant! Got to make the most of the good weather while it's here, you never know when you might see it again with the typical British summer! Tonight I'm showing you the card I've been very busy with for the last week. I do love my big projects but it means the blog does go quiet if I haven't got several things on the go simultaeneously! This card is for my mum's seventy-fifth birthday which is tomorrow - a very special day! Can't wait to see her face when I give her it :0)
The first challenge I had in mind while creating was Sir Stamp-a-lot - Ladies and Fashion. I thought LOTV 'Coffee break' summed up a well earned rest after a shopping spree.
I created my card out of two Go Kreate card dies stuck together and covered in Basic Grey Origins papers. On the front I stamped Magnolia's romantic window and cut an aperture following the window line, then decoupaged the shutters and added plenty of stardust stickles.
You can just catch a glimpse of the girls having their cuppa in the 'coffee shop' through the window!
Here's the card opened out.
First two sides inside. I 'window dressed' the inside of the window to complete the illusion of inside a cafe. The tiny gold blob is a little heat embossed leafy sprig as I found myself with a bare corner and couldn't leave it without something!
The image was coloured using SU inks and TH Distress inks. I ruffled the ribbon that I threaded through the SU buttons.
I used Nestie Lacey Squares here, threaded ribbon through the holes around the edge and tied in a bow at one side. Used a smaller lacey square without the lacey edge for the middle to write a message on.

The last side has diagonally contrasting papers, a tag and pocket with a little flower arrangement and more ruffled ribbon ( love the effect this has and really easy to achieve too). The picture on the tag is of mum with my three children, I took it yesterday on our day trip.

Other materials used: Nesties Labels 2
SU- scallop punch, stem/leaf punch, designer buttons, butterfly stamp, embossed flower stem, mini tags
LOTV Sentiment
Jewelled Gold embossing powder
Flowers, pearls and ribbon from stash

A couple more lovely challenges: Spoonful of Sugar - Let's Celebrate
Flutterby Wednesdays - #151 Open challenge, include a butterfly, fairy or angel
Cupcake craft Challenge - Layers(beneath the LOTV image)


Thanks for taking the time to look, please leave me a comment to let me know you passed by this way, you're my inspiration and reason for doing this after all! Until the next post......
Love Nicola xxx

Wednesday 20 April 2011

New skill challange/blog hop

Hi to all,
hope you are enjoying the sunshine, it's just perfect for the easter hols, plenty of opportunity to get out in the fresh air with the kids. Going on a teddy bears picnic now to a woods near us, still got lots to fit in, don't know if we will manage it all now. The time is slipping through our fingers and I'm just glad we have a few extra days at the end of the month to look forward to.
The project I'm posting today is a gift box I made for my friend Fleur for her birthday. I didn't use a template it just evolved and I made it up as I went along! I originally made it for a Basic Grey challenge but I couldn't enter because it would have been on my blog before I gave it to Fleur and would have spoiled the surprise! Anyway, I digress, it was obvoiously meant to be and I was sure there would be an opportunity to put it on my blog at some stage. The opportunity came the other day in the form of a comment someone kindly left for me from my gift box I made for my mum's birthday. A lovely lady called The Crafting Misfit (Rebecca) asked if I would like to enter her blog hop (and I think it's her first) for the challenge New skills, the link is HERE! I love this kind of challenge as it entices us out of our comfort zone and invites us to try something new. This gift box fit the bill perfectly as I've never done anything like it before, but I can't see it being the last as I love making things like this!







I drew out the shape I wanted the box to be on card, cut out and made it up. Covered in Basic Grey Curio papers and made a pocket for the front out of corrugated card. The tag is made out of recycled kichen roll tube (cut to size).
Image and sentiment are SU and coloured the image with SU inks. All brads except flower one are SU. Ribbon was from stash. Used Spellbinders Blossom nestie for making the flower and Lacy square nestie for under the sentiment.

Challenge: Crafting Misfit - New Season/new skill


Thanks for looking, leave a comment to let me know you passed this way, you know I love to read each and every one and I always try to return the favour, even if it takes me a while.
Love Nicola xxx

Wednesday 13 April 2011

Birthday Princess

Hello everyone,
How the time flies, can't believe it's over a week since I last posted anything. I'm totally lost with the days of the week when the kids are off school too. Done so much that it feels like they've been off for two weeks already, took them to Sacrewell Farm on Saturday and they had fun with the easter bunny! Sunday was really warm so we had family round for a barbeque, eight adults and six children made for quite a gathering. Never had big family get-togethers when I was growing up because there was only mum, dad and me.
My daughter will turn three on Monday and I think we shall take her out for the day (weather permitting). Jasmine is very girlie and loves pretending to be a princess so with this in mind I came up with the card I'm posting tonight.



I layered up the Blossom Nesties so it's a teeny little card! Finally got around to using my SU Tiny tags stamp for the name tags and just know that the birthday girl will love Magnolia's Fairytale Tilda! I made Tildas wings glittery with Stardust Stickles, and painted her with a mix of SU inks and Tim Holtz DI's.
Other stuff used: Magnolia Paper - You are so special Lace Flower
Gems and ribbon from stash

The challenges that I want to enter this week are:
Allsorts-Anything but a square
Fussy and Fancy Friday - Card for a child


Thanks for stopping by, your comments inspire me!
Love Nicola xxx

Monday 4 April 2011

Easter Surprise

Hello everyone,
Hope all you mums had a wonderful day yesterday, I did! My mum was over the moon with the card I made for her, it makes it so worthwhile when someone special appreciates your craft. Got a lovely card to show you today, I'm really pleased with how it turned out, could have added a lot more but didn't want to ruin it!
It's two shutter cards joined together and I had such a lot of fun creating it! As it's an easter card I thought I would give it to my children whilst still keeping it at a safe distance! They would tear it apart if I literally 'gave' them it but they can look!

This is what the card looks like closed up:



A shot of it opened out:


A close up of the middle image:






It was great fun to make as I got to use some new stash, my new stamps and only bought the doo hickey on Saturday! I plaited some of the ribbon and overstamped the layers behind the spring background.

I used the following to make my card:
Magnolia Stamps: Spring Background, Tilda with eggs in apron, Tilda with newly hatched chick
Magnolia Doo Hickey - Antique Lace
Tim Holtz Distress Inks
Basic Grey Curio Papers, cardstock from stash
brads, buttons, ribbon and silver gel pen from stash
SU: inks, blossom punch and leaf/stem punch, swirl/bee stamps
flowers given to me by my friend Fleur (thanks so much xx)
nestability labels 9


I had the following fantastic challenges in mind while I was making this card:
Magnolia-licious Highlights - Easter Spring Extravaganza #1 Catagory Full size image on easter themed card
Just Magnolia and hAnglar & sTanglar - WK100, Simon says Stamp Special Monthly Challenge and DT call - Anything Goes plus buttons (optional extra)
Basic Grey - Challenge 41 Use more than one fold
A Spoonful of Sugar - Easter



Thanks so much for stopping by and taking a look, your comments are always appreciated.
Love Nicola xxx
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