Anne's Magnolia Corner

October's Here!

2011-10-03T08:53:00.000-07:00

Phew! How long is it to half term?? OMGosh, I am soooo tired right now - my body clock is telling me it's time to gather food and go to bed for 3 months, and I certainly wouldn't have a problem with that! The new term only started 4 weeks ago and already I am shattered!

Well what a week I just had. I got a phone call last Tuesday from Middle School asking me to come over to look at my son's foot. He'd apparently had an accident playing cricket and they thought he probably needed to see a doc. So I shot off and sure enough he DID need to see a doc! As soon as I saw his foot I could tell he'd broken something, but when I got him to the Minor Injuries dept, I was really shocked to see a huge lump under the ball of his foot. X-Ray revealed the most horrendous thing I've ever witnessed - his big toe had dislocated and was sitting UNDERNEATH his foot! ARGH! I nearly passed out! He has also got two broken bones and a fracture in the big toe. I've never been a cricket fan, and I can't see him wanting to take it up either! Mind you, he was worried it might impact on his drumming, but thankfully he's managed to keep that up.

Anyway, here is my latest card offering. I made this one for one of the team who's birthday it is tomorrow, and I used the Magnolias Down Under challenge for my inspiration. Their theme this week is Pink, White and Gold - gorgeous colour combo and I loved making this - I hope you like it too!

That's my lot for the moment - see you soon and thanks for stopping by! :o) xx

Autumnal Sunday

2011-09-11T02:44:00.000-07:00

A very happy autumnal Sunday blogland! I think it's time to pack my sandals away once and for all and dig out some of my winter woollies! Brrr.... it's definitely turning a bit nippy out there!

My card today is for three challenge themes. To begin with I was inspired by Bev's sketch on Just Magnolias

and I combined this with TOMIC's Make your own background challenge. The only printed paper I used on this was the leaves on my flowers. I also combined it with Anything Goes's Vintage/Shabby Chic theme this week

Moan alert here.... Does anyone else have the problems that I'm having with blogger at the moment? I see hundreds of gorgeous inspirational cards and projects out there that I would love to leave a comment on, but unfortunately, if the comment box is directly beneath the posting, blogger won't allow me to comment and I have tried pretty much everything to rectify this. I have found that the only blogs I am able to comment on are those who have a seperate pop up comments form which is such a shame!

Well that is my lot for today. I have a few domestic chores to attend to then I am going to have another scout around for more inspiration! Thank you for visiting me, I hope you like what you see :o) Have a great day. xx

Card Giveaway!

2011-09-04T08:52:00.000-07:00

Oh blimey, this last week has just whizzed by and tomorrow I'm back at school! I'm not unhappy about it though as I have a really exciting year ahead of me which I'm really looking forward to.

My card today fits 3 challenges so I'm submitting it to this week's Sketch Saturday challenge - here is the sketch:

And here is my card:

I'm also submitting it to this week's Magnolia Down Under challenge where the theme is Frame It and this week's Simply Magnolia challenge whereby Anything Goes!

Now then, to mark the end of the summer I have decided to give this card away in a random draw, so if you would like to own this card (it's a pretty big one, I tell you!!) then please leave your name in the comments and I will get my kids to draw someone's name (if there are any!! LOL!) this time next week and I'll send it to whoever they draw - blank if you prefer! ;o)

Thanks for stopping by :o) x

Stop the clock!!!

2011-08-31T02:42:00.000-07:00

Argh!!! Time goes way too quickly these days and before you know it, the school hols are almost at an end and it's going to be 'all change' from next week, but I am so looking forward to the challenge. Having just completed my first year in KS2, I am going to go back to working in KS1 in a Y1 class! WooHoo! I feel like a big kid!

It's going to be a pretty big academic year for all of us here. My eldest is about to enter his last year at Middle School (OMG, how did that happen???) and my youngest will be taking his end of KS2 SATS - boo hoo..... my babies are growing up far too fast!

Now then, I have struggled, let me tell you.....! It has been such a long time since I made a card and I really, really have struggled like mad to get back into the swing of it! I needed a challenge to kickstart me off again and I found the TOMIC and Totally Tilda challenges this week just perfect! The task is to create a card or project with a Back to School (+ Metal for TOMIC) theme so I created this:

Trust me, there is metal on there - if you look closely I have used a metal (although painted!) brad to hold my tags together. I have made this card for one of my lovely TA friends, and am about to go off and make a couple more for others!

This Tilda and the rest of the school accessories was actually part of my DT pack when I was a member of the Magnolia International DT and I remember how much I really struggled to use it then, and this time was no exception! The ruler, pencils, blackboard (which I've not used here!) are a dream to paint up, but I have always found this image really difficult to colour! I'm sure we all have a Tilda that we find hard to work with! Anyway, after several attempts, and many different uniforms, I finally decided to go with the green and grey because it's the colour of our school uniform. The graph paper is ancient - I got this in a pack years ago but decided to drag it out again for this project.

While I have not been papercrafting, I have really noticed how many new products hit the shelves on a daily basis, and it's quite astonishing for me to see how people can still manage to keep up with all the latest products! Is it just us who are really feeling the pinch right now? I can't believe that companies are churning out so many new things (dies seem to be the quickest moving!) and people can still afford to buy them in their thousands! I watched C&C on TV earlier this week and drooled at all the gorgeous new Nesties, but sadly my family need to eat and have a roof over their heads so that has to be priority! Nevertheless, if we are to believe the presenters, they were 'flying off the shelves'! Even with the split payments I just couldn't justify picking the phone up. I kept thinking about next term's school trips, music lessons, uniforms, shoes, and Christmas just around the corner, so my sensible side triumphed! Humph! What wouldn't I give for something lovely and new to play with! :o(

Oh crikey, that sounded a bit miserable, didn't it? LOL!! Not one bit of it - I'm going to trawl through all the stash I have and make a dent in those papers I have stored away and hopefully make the most of the stuff I do have!

Well I'm going to go and start on my next Back to School card - I can't just give one out - now that I've made for one friend, I will have to make at least two more! Thanks for stopping by my blog and I wish you all a good day! :o) xx

A shabby little number

2011-02-26T06:31:00.000-08:00

Oh my, where has this week gone? It seems like only 5 minutes ago I was waiting for that school bell to ring so that I could start a long, relaxing and self-indulgent week at home. Well relaxing never came into it - I've spent the week redecorating but it was worth all the swear words - I love my new-look dining room, even if I did have to apply 3 coats of paint to the walls...Grrr......!

However, I have managed to find some time to get my stash out and start playing around again. It feels a bit weird because I'm not getting a daily fix at the moment. I need to organise myself a bit better so that I can get more craft time in. At least it's starting to look and feel a bit like Spring now - that's always a good spirit lifter!

It's absolutely AAAAAAAAAAAGES since I took part in a challenge blog so I decided that I would get myself over to Saturday Sketchers and pick up their gorgeous sketch this week as I knew that would be all the inspiration I needed to get going.

Isn't it fab! Lots of lovely layers there. On my travels I also noticed that Magnolias Down Under and Anything Goes challenges had the theme 'Distressing' this week so I'm entering this for their themes this week too. So here's my card:

99% of the papers are from Donna's gorgeous Bearly Mine collections - mainly the Vintage collection in this instance.

Well that's my lot for today. Thanks for stopping by and wishing you a very happy weekend. :o) xxx

Back in Tech Land

2011-02-23T01:58:00.000-08:00

Happy Wednesday morning to you, and if you are reading this can I just say how happy I am that you popped in. My blogs have been extremely quiet for what seems like a lifetime but it's been out of my control. I don't want to bore you with the details but, fingers crossed, everything should be OK now!

Anyway, I am a little late posting this here - thank you Isaac for finding us another trojan to deal with!!!! This is my DT offering for the current Bearly Mine Challenges theme which is Ribbons and Pearls:

It's been an odd couple of months in many ways. Cash is tight (so what's new??) and stash spending has been non-existent. In the absence of computer technology I have been playing around with other crafts and concentrating my efforts on home decor rather than papercrafts. My sewing needles have had an airing, as has my crochet hook (though I think the less said about that one, the better!!!). My dining room has been desperate for a facelift for about 3 years now - I decorated in there about 6 years ago and loved it up to about 3 years ago but have been putting off the inevitable using lack of inspiration as my sorry excuse. However, I have finally found inspiration and have begun the process of revamping. OMG, it's only a small room but it's taking much longer than I expected. But I can see 'the look' beginning to happen and that's spurring me on. Still a long way to go though as I am painting furniture too...... or rather, I will be once I get get off my backside and make that move!!!

So, that's me so far in 2011. If you fancy winning yourself some goodies, get over to the Bearly Mine challenge blog and play along - there's some fab stash up for grabs and my teamies have come up with some amazing inspirational samples to whet your appetite.

Thanks for stopping by - catch you soon! :o) xx

Oh Joy!

2010-11-28T02:39:00.000-08:00

Happy Sunday all - OMGoodness, isn't it freeeeeeeeeeezing!!!! Now I do love a bit of snow, but sadly, that's all we got - a bit!! But the cold is something else altogether....Brrrr...... It doesn't seem fair to have all this cold with so little snow to show for it! LOL!!

Over at Keep it Simple this week our theme is Joy. Now the idea is to keep it SIMPLE, and that's what I did with my original project. I made a hangy thing using K&Co Die Cut shapes - dead simple and done and dusted in about 10 minutes tops. However, when I left it to dry what I didn't realise is that there was a bit of glue one the Deer and when I lifted it, a big chunk of paper came away with it leaving a nasty looking gash on the bottom die cut. Boooo!!! For the sake of the challenge I played around with my photo editing suite and managed to sort of disguise it, but I wasn't completely happy with it so I quickly customised this card I'd made by adding the tag with 'Joy' on it! Yay!!

The papers I used are from the Bearly Mine Christmas Fun collection and they are so gorgeous to use! There are so many beautiful papers in these kits that there needs to be more than one Christmas a year!!

Well that's my lot for the time being - my fingers are like little blocks of ice and I'm making far too many typo's because I can't feel them - plus I can hear hubby's car engine running which is my signal that he's ready to drive me off to Tesco so we can all eat this week!!!

Have a fab (and hopefully, warm!) Sunday and thanks for popping by! :o) xx

Birthday Sale

2010-11-12T09:23:00.000-08:00

If you've seen Donna's papers and really fancy grabbing yourself a bargain, this is a fantastic week to get over to Bearly Mine Designs! To celebrate her birthday this month, Donna is offering 15% off all digi sets and CD's from today, right through to 19th November! Check out some of these sets

These are just a small selection - there's tons more over at Bearly Mine Designs! Enjoy!

Christmas came early!

2010-11-07T01:33:00.000-07:00

Good morning bloggers. Argh! Someone needs to have a word with the TV Network Controllers - who in the right mind would pitch Bon Jovi against Robert Plant?? Huh? What a dilemma I had to face last night when BBC2 had a Robert Plant evening, and at the same time ITV had Bon Jovi "For one night only"!!! This was one of those extremely rare times that I wished I'd had the foresight to upgrade to Sky+! LOL! Naturally the Golden God himself won, but I did flick across to get a Bon Jovi 'fix' from time to time - and Hey, Thank God for iPlayer!!! LOL!

Well, it really did feel like Christmas had come early for me this week when I arrived home from work on Friday to find my mailbox full of absolutely STUNNING digi papers from Donna and Amy! OMGosh! What a treat! I have used one of the glorious soon-to-be-released Christmas Dreams papers on my Delicious Doodles DT card over on my other blog, and another one right here

I also made this card for the Keep it Simple theme this week which is Shape Up! I used one of the many Simply Dots papers (OMG, the colours of these are just soooooooo delish!!!!) - my favourite shade of blue! Oooooh!!

Well now, that's my lot for today. Please go and check out my uber-talented teamies gorgeous creations!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great Sunday! See you soon. :o) xxx

WooHoo!!!!

2010-11-06T06:13:00.000-07:00

I did it!! I made it onto the Bearly Mine DT and I am SOOOO excited about it! I am dying to show off some of the amazing papers that I have received over the last couple of days but there are so many of them that I have spent my time wisely sorting them out to make them easier for me to access!! So watch this space because I will be back VERY soon with my first offering, with many more to follow over the coming days!

I would like to say a huge Thank You to Donna for having faith in me, and I cannot wait to get to know the fabulously talented bunch of ladies who will also be creating fabulous projects! Take a look at my sidebar to see who they are and please go say Hi to them and marvel at their wonderful creations!

Ooooh..... Spooky!!!

2010-10-31T03:41:00.000-07:00

Wooooo..... it's been a loooooong time since I visited here. Despite my best intentions, I haven't had a lot of chance to play with my Maggies for a while. I've been playing around with other stuff that you can see on my other blog . Then this week I spotted that Donna of Bearly Mine Designs has put out a DT call for her gorgeous papers and I decided to take my chances and use some of her fabulous freebie papers! They are gorgeous and work so well with my Digital Scrapbook kit too!

So, over at Keep it Simple this week our theme is Oooh, Spooky! and, despite how this may look, my project this week was extremely simple!! I got the fabulous Trendy Tote template from My Time Made Easy and I created mine for Halloween. However, I now have Christmas sorted too because EVERYONE is getting one of these filled with some useful goodies! It is so inspiring!! They can be filled with yummies, soaps, tools, craft stuff..... So easy and very, very quick to assemble and customise too, I think this was probably my best buy of the year!

I'm also submitting this project to the Magnolia's Down Under challenge which, this week, is Halloween inspired.

Well that's my lot for here today. Busy day ahead - we've just had a new suite delivered so I want to rearrange my living room a bit before I do the Tesco run! Hope you have a great week and thanks for stopping by! :o) xx

Ahoy there!!!

2010-08-20T07:39:00.001-07:00

Happy Friday from a VERY frustrated me!!! I have spent way too much time today trying to get my pooter sorted out because I couldn't get internet connection. After many, many, many attempts I finally made a phone call to Sky who advised me to unplug my router, leave it 30 seconds and plug in again! Voila! Grrr.....Not impressed!!!!! Why didn't I do that in the first place?

So, here is my latest Magnolia offering - it's my first ever side-step card and I made it for the village show tomorrow but based on Magnolia Down Under's theme for this week which is to use Tilda AND Edwin on your project! So here they are together. Painted with distress inks and stickles, I think I was a little heavy-handed with the ink this week but it was fun! Thanks for the challenge girls! And as luck would have it, I also put a boat on my card and Tuesday Tagger's theme this week wants just that so I am going to add it to their player's list as well! Again ladies, Thanks for the challenge!!! :o)

Also, over on Just Magnolia challenges this week they want you to use a sentiment on your card and I figured my card just about qualifies there also, so I'm going to submit it to their challenge this week as well!

And thanks to you for stopping by - hope to be back soon! :o) xx

Monogram Tag

2010-08-08T01:41:00.000-07:00

Happy Sunday folks! You know when you get an idea in your head but it doesn't always translate properly onto paper? Hmmmm.... well, that's a little bit how my tag went for this week. Our theme over at Tag, You're It! this week is Monogram, and I had this brainwave to make a letter into an entire picture/tag. So rifling through my Magnolia's for inspiration I suddenly hit upon the idea to use this Edwin stamp from a couple of years ago and make the letter 'O' into a lifebelt! LOL!! Not sure if it actually looks how it was meant to look but I thought it was quite sweet anyway, so here is my tag for this week!

And I've just had another brainwave - watch this space..........

Thanks for stopping by! :o) xx

Just..... a card!

2010-07-04T00:54:00.001-07:00

Happy Sunday bloggers! Life is just toooooo busy right now! Loads of stuff going on and no time to stop for breath! It's been another rollercoaster week, lots of laughs and one or two tears but it's starting to feel a bit like the home stretch now and although there's still lots to do at school, you get the feeling that we're winding down a little. Phew!

Two weeks ago my eldest came home from school with a huge tear in the knee of his trousers! Argh!! Couldn't he just not fall over for 5 more weeks??!!! So with a grinding of teeth and a few choice words spat through clenched lips, I had to go and buy him a brand new pair. Then on Tuesday I spotted that his toes were looking really red and quite blistery! I was really bothered by this and figured that it must be the cheapo shoes I tried to get away with buying him from Tesco. Anyway, I couldn't let my boy go round with feet like that, even for only 3 more weeks - no way. So on Wednesday afternoon I went out and bought him a brand new pair of Clarks - OMG, he was 5.5 and the shoes he'd been wearing from Tesco were only 4.5!!!!! No wonder his feet were sore! So that was it - I put my foot down and said ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE! Then he came home on Thursday - OMG, I could have cried for him. He's had ANOTHER fall in the playground but he must have landed really hard because all down his right hand side is cut and bruised and his arm has had a huge slice of skin completely sheared off, his shoulder was swollen and badly grazed and, yes, you guessed it, his knee took another bashing, along with his brand new trousers!!! However, this time they ARE going to be repaired and I'm going to get him one of those baby walkers to stop him from having any more trips before the end of term!!

This is a card I made for a Tilda Challenge over at Docrafts last week and haven't even had time to blog it yet!

Tomorrow is going to be the stress day from hell so if there is a God, I'm desperately hoping I've earned enough brownie points to have him smile on me for a couple of hours! If I make it to lunchtime I'm going to be laughing for the rest of term!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week. :o) xx

A couple of Good Luck cards

2010-06-19T23:35:00.000-07:00

Happy Sunday peeps! I have had the very good fortune to work with two wonderful student teachers this year, both of whom are going to go on and become fantastic teachers and although I'm going to miss them both so much next year, I wanted to wish them both loads of luck when they leave us next week....sob..sob...!! So I made a couple of Good Luck cards for them and decided to use blog challenges to help me! This week over at Anything Goes they have set the theme of Buttons and Bows in Monochrome. Now, something I need to get off my chest.... I hate buttons! I passionately hate using buttons on my projects!!! I look at other people's cards and LO's and think "Oooh, that looks gorgeous" but when I try to use them......pants! grrr!

I came to make the brown tones card and I practically held my breath when I stuck the button on - I thought "There.... it's on - walk away...!" LOL!!! But when I came to do the blue tones card, I just couldn't bring myself to stick another button on - sorry - I faced my fears once, but I couldn't do it a second time! LOL!!!

So there y'go - two Good Luck cards for two lovely ladies - now, which one do I give to who???? LOL!

Have a great Sunday - hope the sun is shining where you are! :o) xx

Anything Goes & Just Magnolia

2010-06-13T08:32:00.001-07:00

Hi folks and Happy Sunday! Very short post from me today.

Over at Anything Goes this week you're asked to make something Pink & Cream and include pearls and lace, and Just Magnolia have this fab sketch by Mina, so I've combined the two challenges and produced this:

Hope you like! Thank you so much for stopping by and I wish you a very happy week ahead!

:o) xx

MDUC Flowers

2010-06-04T00:38:00.000-07:00

Late again!! I had intended to get this photographed earlier in the week but life just keeps ticking by and stuff isn't getting done! I cannot believe it's Friday already and the half term break is almost over :o( I've still so much to catch up with but today is going to be a chill day - it's too glorious outside to be racing around doing work, and hey, I am meant to be on holiday! :o)

So here's my offering for this week's Magnolia Down Under theme which is flowers - can you spot any on this! LOL!!!! The castle is a template which I dug out because that's our topic theme when we go back to school and I was playing with it to see if it was child-friendly enough, and I think it definitely is!

That's my lot for now - thanks for stopping by and to all of you who leave me lovely comments, I cannot thank you enough, I really appreciate them!

A Brand New Challenge Blog!

2010-06-02T01:01:00.000-07:00

Hey, there's a new blog on the block - Anything Goes! Brilliant!! And their first theme is to make something with wings and use the colours Blue, Yellow and Brown! So here is my offering:

It may not look it because my photography is pants, but the spotty bg paper is meant to be the yellow part of this deal - I couldn't go for the really bright 'in-yer-face' stuff because it just doesn't work for me, I'm not a vivid colours person so I hope this is OK for the challenge!

I cannot believe that it's Wednesday already - the whole of yesterday was spent shopping for b'day pressies for my youngest - oops! That reminds me - I need to book a cinema trip..... must dash! Thanks for stopping by and have a great day! :o) xx

Just Magnolia - Hot n' Spicy!

2010-05-29T03:31:00.000-07:00

Happy Saturday folks - OMGoodness, what a contrast to last weekend! It's bucketing down here and it feels more like February outside! Nevertheless, it's bank holiday weekend and we have a whole week off school which is something to sing about. I have a lot of plans for this week so while it will be nice to be at home, I am going to be very busy. I have an old dutch dresser which is currently sitting in my shed because I just went off it, but I have bought some gorgeous off-white gloss paint and I'm going to give it a makeover. I've also got myself a raised vegetable bed so I intend to do a bit of planting this week too - I'm very excited about that, I can tell you!

Anyway, at Just Magnolias this week, the theme is Hot & Spicy so I used some hot and spicy colours on this Pirate Tilda card. I've had the papers for such a long time and haven't done anything with them yet, so when my Pirate stamps arrived on Thursday I got very excited indeed and dragged the papers out. Here's my offering, hope you like!

Well that's my lot for the moment - off for a trawl around blogland now. Thanks for popping in and have a great weekend! :o) xx

Just Magnolia Sketch

2010-05-22T03:56:00.000-07:00

....last one for today - my washing machine is going like crazy and the ironing pile is mounting and experience tells me that I need to get on top of it! (not literally, you understand!!! LOL!) I made this card for this week's Just Magnolia sketch challenge.

Hope you like it. Thanks for stopping by! xxx

Magnolia Down Under - Black & White

2010-05-22T02:16:00.000-07:00

Phew! A real quickie here from me today - talking about 11th hour! I only just managed to finish this this morning though I started it about 3 days ago but other stuff just takes over! This is a card I made for the Magnolia Down Under challenge this week which is Black and White and a touch of another colour, so I went for blue (for a change!!!!!!!).

Busy, busy weekend ahead - both my boys are off on school trips on Monday so I have heaps of packing to do for them and I think I'm going to need to book myself in for Separation Therapy! I can't stand it - it's going to feel like retirement here!!! LOL! And tomorrow I am doing the Race for Life. I am expecting to need a lot of tissues for this one, according to the tales I've heard from friends who've done it in the past.

Have a great Saturday and I hope the sun is shining where you are too, it's glorious here!! Thanks for stopping by! xxx

Sketch Saturday & Just Magnolia

2010-05-15T23:39:00.000-07:00

Hi bloggers! Well finally a couple of the new stamps I have wanted arrived this week - not all of them but enough (two!) to keep me happy for a wee while! This is a card that I made for this week's Just Magnolia theme which is One for the Girls, and I used Sketch Saturday's sketch to help me. Again, my tired braincells can't cope with thinking outside the box and I followed the sketch practically to the letter! This is what happens to me when I'm deprived of crafting time - I find that I am just so grateful to get a paintbrush in my hand that I stick to the rules rigidly in an attempt to finish anything! LOL!

Our annual passport to the Ironbridge museums expires next week so I think we're going to be taking a drive over to use up the unvisited places today. I must say, it was #54.00 well spent! Ironbridge is a beautiful old town steeped in industrial history. Blists Hill Victorian Town and Enginuity were two of the places we visited on our passport and without doubt worth the money paid on their own!

Thanks for stopping by and I wish you a happy week ahead! :o) xx

Just Magnolia and Tag You're It!

2010-05-08T23:45:00.001-07:00

Happy Sunday! My offering for today is for two blog challenges. First of all, Just Magnolia have the theme It Takes Two and you're asked to use more than one Magnolia image on your project - so I used 4! And the theme tied in nicely with the one we have over at Tag, You're It! this week where the title is Key to My Heart! Hope you like!

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog and enjoy the rest of your weekend! :o) xx

Magnolia Down Under - No. 44

2010-05-02T23:47:00.001-07:00

Happy Bank Holiday Monday folks! Not exactly a typical May day I was hoping for - blimey, it's so cold!!!! I bought some bedding plants last weekend. They'd come from Holland and were really well established so I did all my pots for the front of the house - I won't be at all surprised if they've died of frostbite overnight!!! I can't believe how cold it's gone!

Anyway, I've managed to take part in the Magnolia Down Under challenge this week. This is the first time I've taken part in this one and as it was a great sketch, I could hardly resist, could I? I've had these new papers by Tina Higgins from GCD Studios and I absolutely love them. I visited one of my most favourite craft places on Saturday, Paperworks near Alcester and I was really surprised to find it is under new management. The new lady who owns it, Sheila, is just the most lovliest of people you'd wish to meet! She and Pauline (the amazing designer and course tutor) are working really hard to make what is already a fabulous craft outlet into something even bigger and better and I am so excited for them (and for me as it's only 20 minutes drive!! LOL!). I think the website is currently being reconstructed to make it easier to navigate so bear with them. The shop will also have a name change but for the life of me I can't remember what that is - shocking memory. I think it's something like Pink Tulip Crafts???? (eeeek.....sorry if I got that wrong Sheila!!!)

Right then, plug of the day sorted, here is my card based on the sketch - hope you like!

All painted with distress inks (Weathered Wood and Vintage photo) but I made a gaff with her hair because I tried to get clever and paint it with H20's which is what I used to use - hmmmm... I won't be going there again methinks!

Thanks for stopping by and hope you enjoy your BH Monday! :o) xx

Just Magnolia Sketch

2010-04-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Bank Holiday weekend!! Isn't it a wonderful feeling having that extra day to look forward to? Might be nicer if the weather was more compliable and I could get the Barbie out but what the heck, I'm sure I'll find something else to amuse myself with! LOL!!!

At Just Magnolia this week they have a lovely sketch challenge designed by Bev.

And here is my take on the sketch. All those gorgoeus stamps I'd ordered last week have failed to arrive and I'm gutted so I have to go googling again later! In the meantime I'm still having fun with 'old faithfuls' and I made this card into an easel card. It's painted with distress inks and stickles. It's quite a simple card - when it's sat here in front of me it looks very busy, but when I see it on the blog like this, it seems a bit bare to me. I wonder if others feel like that sometimes, that their card looks much better IRL than on-screen?

And here's a side-view showing a glimpse of the inside.

Hope you like and thanks for stopping by my blog. Enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend and have a good week ahead! :o) xx

Just Magnolia - Anything Goes

2010-04-24T07:14:00.001-07:00

Happy Saturday passers by! Goodness me, making this card felt like a blast from the past! Over at Just Magnolia this week they are offering an open theme - anything goes. So I dug out my old Once Upon a Time papers that I used to have so much fun using when playing with my Magnolias a couple of years ago! My lovely bloggy friend Amy was extremely kind and sent me some stamped images this week because I have a load of new stamps on order but because of the Icelandic Volcano cloud, they haven't reached me yet and I really wanted some new images to play with (who doesn't!!)

So here is my offering for this week's Just Magnolia - these images were perfect to use with these papers. Hope you like!

Thanks so much for stopping by and hope you're having a good weekend! :o) xx

Another Matchbox Thingy

2010-04-20T07:50:00.000-07:00

Happy St. George's Day!!! Darn it, I meant to get myself a red rose to wear and I completely forgot - how patriotic am I!!! :o) Happy Earth Day too to anyone who celebrates that (what is it??)

Anyway, I wanted to say a big Thank You to those who have continued to visit my Magnolia's blog and left feedback, I am extremely grateful. I am one of those who is so grateful that the airlines are in operation again because I am waiting for a delivery of new Magnolia stamps that haven't been able to be shipped because of the Icelandic volcanic ash clouds! You don't realise how big an impact it has on us until something like this happens, do you! LOL!!!

Here is another of those Matchbox thingy's that I made at the same time as the pink one. I made this for a lovely, lovely blog friend's birthday and I know that she's recieved it now so it's OK to show.
The image was painted with Distress Inks and Stickles and the paper is SU.

Well that's my lot for today - hope you have a Happy St. George's Day/Earth Day and a great weekend, and Thank You for stopping by! :o) xx

Tracey's Birthday

2010-04-19T08:20:00.001-07:00

Tracey is my lovely friend and colleague who I job-share with and she is sooooo girly and loves all the same things as me. At work we are both in "The Birthday Club" and I was tasked with getting Tracey a pressie. "Just get me a gift/book token" she said. So I did but isn't it dull just handing over a gift card? So I remembered these fab Gift Card holders that I made TONS of last Christmas because they're so quick and effective and make receiving the card a bit more exciting, and I made this one for Tracey

I also made her this little matchbox thingy. I've made one or two bigger ones using 12 or 24 matchboxes, but it never occurred to me to make one with just four until I saw the gorgeous one that Kim had made and I knew immediately that Tracey would just love one of these, and I was right. She was absolutely over the moon with it! Phew!

And I know I've already shown this on my other blog, it actually completes the set because this is the card that I made for her too. She was sooooooo complimentary about it and I'm so glad it went to such an appreciative home!

Well that's today's offering - hope you like them, and thank you so much for popping by! Have a wonderful day! :o) xx

I'm Back!

2010-04-18T00:25:00.001-07:00

Yay!!! And I've fallen in love with my Magnolia's all over again so I decided to re-open my Magnolia's Only blog to keep them all together.

The last card I posted on here before I decided to call it a day with my Magnolia DT commitments was made for my sister. She had battled with Breast Cancer for 3 years and many times we thought she was over the worst. I bought that stamp on that last card to make a card for her, which is the one posted. Unfortunately though she never received it because the day after I'd finished it she lost her battle with the disease. A couple of days later I received a new DT pack to work with and I couldn't do it - I really struggled, understandably, and that is the reason I gave up my DT place.

However, over recent weeks I have been so inspired by some of the works of some lovely blog buddies like Chris and Kim and Marcea that I've got my Magnolia's out again and begun to create with them once more.

Over at Tag, You're It! this week we have a theme of Spring into Spring and I made this tag for my DT sample. The mushroom is my own drawing and the whole lot was coloured with distress inks.

So if you're reading this then I would like to say Thank You for passing by. I hope to post more regularly here now! :o) xx

Thank You.....it's been fun!!

2008-11-07T09:27:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to say a huge Thank You to all those who pass through here, and especially those of you who've been so generous with your lovely feedback, but after 18 months as a DT member, I have decided the time has come for me to step down. My love of the little guys hasn't diminished, and I know I will continue to use my stamps, but I won't be showing any more off on this blog in future and my Magnolia projects will be incorporated with all my other stuff on my main blog.

Thank You to Pauline and the team in Boras for giving me the opportunity to have such a fun time with these stamps and kits, and my lovely DT buddies for your support and inspiration - I shall continue to visit you and wish you continued success!

Hugs to you all, Anne xxx

October is.....

2008-10-27T01:35:00.000-07:00

This is from the 2008 Pink Collection. When you buy these stamps from Magnolia, you also have the chance to donate to this very worthy cause.

Thank You for popping in. xx

I wish it could be Christmas every day...

2008-10-20T06:20:00.000-07:00

These latest stamps from Magnolia are soooo sweet and great fun to play with! My latest kit arrived last week and here's what I made

The DT also received a plain white box to decorate this time, and here's what I came up with:

And using one of my favourite stamps from last year's Winter collection, I made this tag card

All stamps, papers and embellishments are available now from Magnolia's Webshop.

Thank You for popping in! :o)

Green Christmas

2008-10-12T02:18:00.000-07:00

Here's a card I just made for Friday Sketchers - I love these sketches but I keep forgetting to check in for the latest challenge so I think it's time I put a link on my sidebar for them! Here is Bea's fab sketch

and here's my take on it - still practising with distress inks - I've not quite got it yet but oh it's great fun trying! ;o)

Thanks for stopping by!

Santa Claus is coming to town

2008-10-11T07:05:00.000-07:00

You'd better watch out, you'd better not cry, better not pout I'm telling you why

Santa Claus is coming to town......

and I can't wait!!! Keep your eyes peeled on the Magnolia blog for more information about the release of the Santa 2008 collection. Hopefully he'll be dropping through my door any day now too so I can't wait to get some samples up here!!

An Experimental Christmas Card

2008-10-04T08:05:00.000-07:00

OK, bear with me - this was a bit of an experiment that didn't quite work out how I hoped it might. I have been so entranced with Aija's unbelievably stunning artwork that I had to try out her colouring technique for myself - it didn't work! LOL!! Never mind, I had great fun trying and now I've got the bit between my teeth, I can't give up till I've improved substantially!! What I do like is the depth of colour you get with distress inks though I find them less easy to control than ordinary watercolours. Thanks for popping by!

Christmas is coming...

2008-09-27T01:30:00.000-07:00

... and I wanted to show off a couple of pieces I have made using one of my favourite stamps from 2007's Christmas collection. I cannot wait for the new Christmas 2008 stamps to be released, and if you want to pre-order the winter collection yourself, here's a link to take you straight there http://www.dreamcottage.nu/Club/index.html

First of all this is my tag for this weeks' Tag,You're It! challenge which is a sketch challenge,

The next card uses the same stamp along with the star and gifts stamps

And the next card is one which was inspired by a sketch I saw on Chris's blog last week but due to sickness (me AND the pooter!!!) I haven't had a chance to blog it yet, so here goes:

And just for the heck of it, here's a couple of cards I made earlier which I haven't got round to blogging yet.

Well that's all the cards I have for today, but before I go I really have to say an enormous THANK YOU to my lovely friend and Magnolia DT Buddy Claudia who's fabulous work is not only immaculate and fab, but truly inspirational. Claudia is one of the lovliest people in Blogland and has been extremely supportive of me this week, and I would love to return the compliment, so go check out her blog, if you haven't already seen it!! Thank You Claudia, you're a star! ;o)

Thank You for passing by!

Another Halloween

2008-09-21T07:52:00.000-07:00

Here is another card I made this morning using the new Halloween stamps from Magnolia. This card is off to a new home with a lovely buddy of mine tomorrow, but I shan't say who because I don't want to spoil the surprise!! ;o) Hope you like!!

Ismaki Challenge

2008-09-14T00:17:00.000-07:00

Blimey! Two Magnolia posts in one weekend - it must be a record! It's ages since I did one of these - working full time has deprived me of all my Blog challenges time but I noticed yesterday that Ismaki have a swivel card and I had to do it! I used to do these when I first got into cardmaking and then for some reason stopped doing them, and I haven't even considered doing one for goodness knows how long! Then I saw the blog and my mojo was fired up, so Thanks for the inspiration girls - even if I am last minute!!

I think the stamp was from the Christmas 2007 collection but I bought her, not for Christmas but for all-year-round projects because she's so versatile, though she has put in an appearance on one of my Christmas cards already this year!! Thanks for popping in!

Autumn Collection

2008-09-13T09:25:00.000-07:00

Ooh, what a treat - some stamps, papers and embellies from the new Fall Collection dropped through my door on Thursday and I have been having a fab play - here's what I came up with.

I didn't get many stamps to play with this time - just 5, but I do love the ones I did get. I haven't got a clue about the papers but they are all available in the Magnolia shop. The tapestry stamps around Tilda are old one's from my own stash and the text stamp is my own that I made this morning just for these cards.

I love this kitty with it's back to us, and as soon as I stamped it, I just saw it sat on a windowsill looking at the moon, so that it what I have attempted to recreate here. The shelf is from the summer collection and the candy corns are rub-on's - again, the text is my own stamp.

This one is just soooo sweet - I think she's my favourite! I don't know if you can see the bottom of her dress or not but it's all sparkly because I used a tiny bit of irridescent glitter on it.

And finally - hmmm.... jury's still out on this one. You know when you have an idea and you go ahead with it and it's not quite how you imagined it was going to turn out? Well this is one of those times. I wanted to have a go at doing a pop-up card but I don't think I'll be doing very many more of them....! LOL!!!

I stamped the web and text with clear ink and dusted them with silver mica powder. It's tricky to see on photo's but it's really shimmery IRL. Tilda needed some grounding so I used some Flower Soft because I thought it looked like crunchy autumn leaves. Her trick or treat bag is a rub-on and again, the text is my own stamp.

Well that's all for now - I've used up all my DT papers so now I'm looking forward to having a play with some of my own! Thank You for popping in, and to those of you who have left comments, a huge cry of gratitude to you - it means such a lot!

Another sketch card

2008-08-29T05:38:00.001-07:00

Just a real quickie to show off another card I made using the same sketch that I posted last week. This one is destined for another lovely friend who's an absolute gem and whose kindness has got me out of a few holes this summer holiday! Thanks for popping in!

A card for a special friend

2008-08-24T07:13:00.000-07:00

OK, I studied and studied Ila's fabulous tutorial on using Prismas with OMS and, for the first time ever, I was really pleased with how it turned out, so Thank You Ila - your tutorial is FAB!!! And, as I was making a card for my lovely friend Sam I really wanted the technique to work well and I am now addicted to it. Here is the card I made. Thanks for popping in!

A Sketch Challenge for you

2008-08-17T09:12:00.001-07:00

I know, I know, there's loads of them out there but I sat here yesterday making sketches with my PSE and I decided to share my first one with you - please feel free to put your own take on this and leave me a link to your blog so that I can come and have a drool over your creation too!

Here's the sketch:

and here's my card:

and here's a couple of other cards I've made this weekend:

Thanks for popping by - I hope some of you will get your Tilda's and Edwin's out and have a go with my sketch! :o)

New Stamps

2008-08-11T10:15:00.000-07:00

Oooh, some gorgeous new stamps from Magnolia's latest releases landed on my doormat on Friday and here are the samples I have made with them.

The first two are from the new School collection and are soooo sweet

The next two I feel a bit silly about because I cannot find which collection they are from but they are so pretty and girly that I just wanted to play with these all the time. Here are the two samples I created with them and I daresay they'll be available on the site very soon

And the final two (for now!) are my most favourites and they're from the new Travel collection

You can't really see from some of the photos that I have been hotfoiling again, just a touch here and there to add a bit a metallic look in parts, so here's a close up of Edwin's cases so that you can get an idea

And just for now, that's it - these lot are off to Sweden tomorrow, hopefully to arrive in time for Magnolia's conventions. I hope you like them, and Thank You for popping in!

A couple of Sketch Challenges

2008-08-02T10:35:00.001-07:00

A first for me - Friday Sketchers - I've only just discovered this blog so I had to have a go - lots of Magnolia images on display here which is what inspired me. Here is this weeks' sketch:
and here is my take on it:

Unbelivably this fabulous paper by Craft Buyer had almost all of the sketch incorporated into it already, I just played around with it!

Then I found this sketch on Bea's blog (I'm sure it was bigger than this???):

and this was really handy because I needed to make a card for a FB who is in need of a hug right now and I wanted to send her a hug through the post, so I used this sketch to help me and here's what I did:

Thanks for popping in!

More Summer 2008

2008-07-31T16:04:00.001-07:00

I've been a bad Magnolia blogger lately - the reason being that I had to finish off my NVQ training and such a lot was going on at school as we approached the end of term. As our current theme was Seaside, I thought that my stamps were perfect to take into school and let the children use them on their Thank You cards! They had a FABULOUS time with them, and over the space of two weeks, I helped 60 Year 1 children make nearly 80 Thank You cards for their Reading Partners and Helpers. Lots of the children (boys as well as girls) loved them so much that they wanted to stamp out some of the images on seperate sheets of paper so that they could take them home and colour them in there. As a result, I had 3 Mums come to me to ask where they could get these stamps from and I was very happy to oblige and ordered them for them myself! It's so funny though - every house I've been in since the summer holiday started, has a card on it's mantlepiece with these images on!! My own son even brought one home, given to him by his Reading Partner!! LOL!

However I have caught up now and here are some more of my cards from the Summer 2008 collection. Thanks for popping in!!

In the sea!

2008-06-09T09:34:00.000-07:00

Oh, oh, I am LOVING this new set of summer stamps from Magnolia! I have one or two currently as 'Work in Progress' but I finished this one off yesterday morning.

I decided not to use any other papers on this one because I wanted to keep it as simple as possible so I painted the whole thing in watercolours then applied a glittery 'sea foam' and raided my kids sandpit to create a real 'beach'! Here it is close up:

I have a fabby demo evening with my Magnolias lined up for tomorrow and I'm hoping the ladies (first time stampers!!) will let me take some pics of their own creations once they've had a play. Thanks for popping in and please pop back to see the other stamps - I'm onto them right away!! ;o)

Tartan Tilda!

2008-05-31T01:48:00.000-07:00

Isn't it odd the way we see things differently. When this stamp first arrived my first reaction was "Highland Fling" so my Tilda got the full-blown tartan treatment. It was only later I realised that she's meant to be Parisienne!! LOL!! I still love my wee lassie though!

Spring Package

2008-05-31T01:40:00.000-07:00

I was surprised when I received this image in my spring DT package because it has a more autumnal feel to me - maybe our seasons differ a lot??

It's a boy!!

2008-05-31T01:12:00.000-07:00

I LOVED doing this card - it was time consuming but really worth it!

For Becky

2008-05-31T01:10:00.000-07:00

My friend!

Magical Day

2008-05-31T01:08:00.000-07:00

Isn't he just sweet standing here among his pots and potions!

Happy Birthday

2008-05-31T01:07:00.000-07:00

I made this for a friend, but in the end I couldn't bear to let it go - it's still in my collection among my favourites!

Once Upon a Time

2008-05-31T01:05:00.000-07:00

I just LOVE these images with these papers!

Far, Far Away

2008-05-31T01:03:00.000-07:00

When I stamped out this image I just thought "My Little Pony" so that's just what I did and I think he looks perfect on this magical paper!

A Beautiful Princess

2008-05-31T01:01:00.000-07:00

These Once Upon a Time papers helped to make this set my most favourites of all my cards - these were the inspiration I had been looking for for a long time to try and give my cards a unique look and I am soooo pleased with them.

Zipper Charm

2008-05-31T00:59:00.000-07:00

Isn't he just fab!!! This was inspired by my 8 year old son who was stamping my images onto his sheet of shrink plastic - it didn't occur to me till then that Hey, these little guys are soooo versatile!!!

Bling Tag

2008-05-31T00:41:00.000-07:00

I just love tags and this was sent as an actual Christmas Card last year!

Christmas Day Menu

2008-05-31T00:37:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness, I pulled this one out of the hat! I saw the cutlery set and nearly passed out - what on earth was I meant to do with that?? I stamped out the image and kept it in front of me while I was making my other DT cards, and suddenly it came to me. A computer generated menu in traditional Christmas colours, a couple of stamps, a bit of ribbon and flower and Hey Presto!! Of all the DT stuff that I did with last Autumn's kit, this turned out to be my absolute favourite and I will use it again and again!

A Christmas Wish

2008-05-31T00:34:00.000-07:00

I didn't photograph this one very well - it shows the little girl with her magic wand on a double door on the front and then when you open the doors you see this warm and welcoming fireside..... and this has just given me another idea..! ;o)

'Tis the season

2008-05-31T00:29:00.000-07:00

Tra la la la laaa.......

Please grow up...

2008-05-31T00:24:00.000-07:00

Awwww......

Miracle of Christmas

2008-05-31T00:23:00.000-07:00

I was attempting to create a card using non-traditional Christmas colours - not sure if it worked or not??

Brrrr.....

2008-05-31T00:20:00.000-07:00

Oooh, as soon as I saw this paper it immediately conjured up images of blustery snow blowing around the top of a hill and that's the scene I tried to recreate here. I wish she had a jacket on though....brrr.....!

Be Jolly!

2008-05-31T00:18:00.000-07:00

This was my most favourite of the Autumn 2007 stamps - I will be using this one a lot again this year!

Fireside

2008-05-31T00:17:00.000-07:00

Awww..... Moving my cards onto here has made me feel quite Christmassy again!

Silent Night

2008-05-31T00:15:00.000-07:00

I really liked this one, it was a bit different and as soon as I stamped out the image I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it!

A Christmas CD

2008-05-31T00:10:00.000-07:00

I love making these hangies from old CD's - this is one that I made for a Christmas decoration with the Autumn 2007 DT package.

Another DT card

2008-05-30T22:54:00.000-07:00

This is another of my very first batch of DT cards.

Teachers' Thank You Cards

2008-05-30T22:50:00.000-07:00

These two cards were made for my son's teachers when he finished in Y1 - funnily enough, I now work with both these teachers and I was reminded of one of these cards just recently!

Party Invitation

2008-05-30T22:45:00.000-07:00

This is a tag card that I made which used 3 of Magnolia's stamps - I love the centre stamp ~ it's perfect for the inside of cards too! Tilda's wellies, although you can't see that well here, were brilliant! I coloured them using Sakura glaze pens and they looked really 'juicy' and had dimension!

Going dotty!

2008-05-30T22:42:00.000-07:00

I think I may have gone a bit overboard with the dots on this one!

One for the boys

2008-05-30T10:28:00.000-07:00

One of my first DT cards!

They don't all have faces!

2008-05-30T10:25:00.000-07:00

This is a card I made using just one swirl stamp and a bit of artistic license with a white pen!

A card for Ella

2008-05-30T10:22:00.000-07:00

I remember this being a really, really rushed card because my son was invited to a birthday party and I only remembered on the morning! I had to quickly whizz upstairs and make something suitable for a 6 year old and this is what I came up with!

My first acetate card

2008-05-30T10:18:00.000-07:00

This was the first time I ever made an acetate card, and I remember thinking at the time "and my last!! LOL!

Front

Back

Published!

2008-05-30T10:14:00.000-07:00

This little darlin' got me 'Star Letter' status in Beautiful Cards magazine. I got sent a fabulous pack of contemporary Christmas papers, 6 pots of glitter embossing powder and a load of other stuff! Yay!

Before they got hair!

2008-05-30T10:11:00.000-07:00

Aaah, it's like looking through an old family album! I loved these little guys long before they got hair!

Happy Halloween!

2008-05-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

It seems such a long time since I made these! I have hand drawn the 'extras'! :o)

The Village Show winner!

2008-05-30T10:02:00.000-07:00

This one got me 1st prize in the village show last September in the "Handmade Christmas Card" category!! So proud! :o)

Just for you!

2008-05-30T09:52:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my new blog which I've designed soley for my Magnolia pieces. From now on I will be putting all my Magnolia work on this blog as they always appear to get lost on my other. Here's a few pics to be going on with: