Playing a bit more with My Memories Suite

Good morning,

I'm like a child with a new toy and can't stop playing with the My Memories Suite software. This morning, I made up a quick page using some photographs from my son's football presentation day last year.

This time I used papers that were already stored on my computer, rather than ones that came with the software.

The fabby star paper and the football are from the new Polka Doodles "Pretty Tuff" CD which is available for pre-order HERE. I love this collection, it's great for all those boy projects!

I'm not a scrapbooker, but I want to record memories as my son is growing up. I've got a presentation folder and I'm going to add the above layout to it and hope to make many more. It's a shame for the photos of him to sit on a hard drive and hardly be seen.

I have a copy of the My Memories Suite software

to give away to one of my readers.

Click HERE to find out how to enter (it's easy!).

Before I go, a quick reminder that the Sir Stampalot Challenge and the Penny Black and More @ Allsorts challenge will both be starting on 6th November this month, instead of the 1st.

Now I had better stop playing and get on with making some sample cards from the Polka Doodles Pretty Tuff collection (although that's still playing isn't it!!!).

Hugs and best wishes, Clare xx

My Memories Suite GIVEAWAY

Good evening,



My Memories  has asked me to review their My Memories Suite digital scrapbooking software and host a giveway which means you could win your own download of the software. This software isn't just for scrapbooking, you can create layouts, photo books, cards, videos, you name it!

I will work a bit more on this layout, but I wanted to show what could be achieved in the first ten minutes of opening up the software. You can use ready-made layouts or start from scratch as I did.

Already I love how easy this software is to use (and, believe me, I would not say that if I didn't mean it). I can use the digital kits from My Memories who have a huge selection of designer digi kits, and I can also use digital images and papers that I already own.

All you need to do to be in with the chance of winning a downloadable copy of the My Memories Suite software is to visit the My Memories website and then leave me a comment on this post telling me which digi kit or layout you like the most.

I will draw a winner on Saturday 12th November.

As a special offer for my blog readers, My Memories has given me a unique Share the Memories code that provides a $10 discount off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbooking software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store - $20 value!

My unique code is:

STMMMS58076

Just copy and paste this code into the promotional code field during the checkout process.

I will keep you updated on my progress with the software.

Hugs and best wishes, Clare xx

Polkadoodles Challenge 43

Good morning,

It's time for the Polka Doodles week 43 challenge. This week's challenge has been set by Claire and she has chosen the theme of:-

A magical world - an element of magic.... fairies/wizard/dragon/unicorn

I chose this beautiful backing paper from the Polka Doodles Pretty Sweet Mini Collection. I wouldn't normally choose a colour like this, especially for fairies, but it called out to me and I love it! I coloured the Lili of theValley fairy with Letraset Alcohol Markers using yellows, browns and greens. I've added some sparkle with Gold Glamour Dust and added some machine stitching around the edge. The sweet sentiment is also from the Pretty Sweet Mini Collection. 

I do hope you can join us!

Hugs and best wishes, Clare xx

My exciting news!

Good morning,

I mentioned some exciting news I had to tell you and now I can reveal all.

Nikky at Polka doodles has chosen 12 new people to join her Design Team and I am delighted to be one of them!

Yipee!!

Hugs and best wishes, Clare xx

Penny Black at Allsorts "THE DT CHALLENGE"

Good morning,

Brenda, our lovely leader at Penny Black at Allsorts, set the DT a challenge this month.

Brenda sent us all a matching kit to create our project (some of us got different papers but they were from the same pack).

Here's what I made:-

I used the Penny Black stamp "Mixed Media" 4037K.

This is the first time I have used seam binding and I loved it! I inked mine up with Tim Holtz Distress Ink and slip-stitched along one side and then pulled the stitching to make the first frilled layer of my flower. I also inked the white flower to make the centre.

The butterfly is cut from the backing paper and coated with glossy accents. I backed the gap the butterfly left in the paper with a leftover piece of the main stamped image.

Thank you Brenda for setting the DT this challenge, it was great fun!

I hope you are all having a great weekend.

Hugs and best wishes, Clare xx

Fudge - "A Card for You"

Good afternoon,

There are some new Czes Pachela images available at Cuddly Buddly. I couldn't resist this cute little bear called Fudge.

The image I have used is called "Fudge - A Card for Me".

I shall keep this short and sweet as I need to be at school in ten minutes.

Hugs and best wishes, Clare xx

Info about changes to the Sir Stampalot Challenge start/end dates

Good morning,

This is a quick post to let you know about a few changes to the Sir Stampalot Challenge.

As from November the starting date of challenges will be the first Sunday of the month which means that most months, our challenge will run until the end of the month................unless the first Sunday falls on the first of the month............... a list of exact dates will be put on the challenge sidebar.

Apart from that everything remains the same, fun themes, great prizes from Sir Stampalot, our monthly Top 3 and of course inspiration from the Design Team.

This month's challenge will run until midnight GMT on 31st October and the next challenge will start on Sunday 6th November.

Hugs and best wishes, Clare xx

p.s. I have some very excited news I am bursting to tell you, but I've got to wait :(

Penny Black at Allsorts - news of some exciting changes

Hello everybody, I have some exciting news to share with you.

• There are going to be a few changes to the Penny Black at Allsorts challenge, but Penny Black and the Design Team think they are going to make it even better than before and allow lots more of you to join in.


• We are opening up the challenge entry criteria and starting with our November challenge you will be able to use any stamp on your work, although strictly no digi images.

• There will still be lots of prizes on offer and all eligible entries will go into the draw, plus there will be an additional prize each month for entries using a Penny Black stamp or stickeroo.

• And if that's not enough, we are having a “Who’s in the Spotlight” feature every month. The DT will be keeping an eye open as they go on their rounds and about the 20th of each month we will feature two entries which stand out to us. Those entries will be able to display our special logo and will be invited to write a short bio about their crafting journey which will be published on our blog.

• There will be a slight change to our name to take account of these changes and in future we will be know as ‘Penny Black and more at Allsorts’.

Over the next couple of weeks the information on the challenge sidebar will be updated to list dates of the next few challenges so you can easily check what is happening when, but I can tell you that the next challenge will start on 6th November and the current one will run until midnight GMT on 31st October. 

Now you may wonder why we are making these changes and think we have fallen out of love with our precious Penny Black stamps, but nothing could be further from the truth and the DT will all continue to use them on their DT work.

But we do realise that not everybody is lucky enough to own Penny Black stamps and has been prevented from joining in previously.So we hope the changes will make it easier for more of you to join in the fun and also have the opportunity to win the stamps on offer from Penny Black and our other sponsors so you can start your very own Penny Black collection.

I will be back in a few days with another post showing you a special project I have made. All the DT were set a special challenge to see what we would come up with.

Hugs and best wishes, Clare xx

Sir Stampalot October challenge "Food Glorious Food"

Good morning,

It's time for a new challenge at Sir Stampalot. Our theme for the month of October is "Food Glorious Food". 

The image is Nellie's Choice "Dawn with Cake #3". I've coloured the image with Alcohol markers and added dollops of Glossy Accents to the flowers and various parts of the cake. For the sentiment, I coloured pearlescent white card candy with alcohol markers and stamped the letters on top.

Sir Stampalot are offering this yummy food themed prize to one lucky winner:-

Wow! I wish I could enter!

I hope you can join us this month and, as usual, I can't wait to see all the fabulous entries.

Hugs and best wishes, Clare xx

Penny Black at Allsorts October Challenge "Photo Inspiration"

Good morning, It's first October and time for another challenge at Penny Black at Allsorts.

This month we have a photo inspiration challenge for you.

Just looking at this photo makes me feel good!

Here's my interpretation of the theme.

I have used Tim Holtz Distress Inks to colour the background and also for the stamping.

The tree is Penny Black "Fantasy" 3880K, the blue leaves on the background are Penny Black "Foliage" 30-024. The sentiment and the green leaves at the bottom are both from the Penny Black clear set "Enjoy".

I hope you are inspired to join us and I look forward to seeing your creation if you do.

Hugs and best wishes, Clare xx

Ready-Teddy-Go October Challenge "Punch it Out"

A very early (scheduled) good morning to you.

Thank you for all the fabulous entries into our Ready-Teddy-Go challenge last month. I hope you are inspired to join us again this month for our

 "Punch it Out" challenge.

I've used a Martha Stewart Border Punch and an X-cut flower punch on my card. The image is "Grown with Love" from Cuddly Buddly. I've coloured the image and flowers with colouring pencils. I think the majority of pencils I used were Prismacolor. I use these on their own without any blending spirits.

I used a rubber stamp for the image but you can get the digi image FREE OF CHARGE from Cuddly Buddly HERE.

I'm looking foward to meeting all the teddies who are entered into this month's challenge!

Hugs and best wishes, Clare xx