Goodbye Granddad

My lovely Grandfather, Frank Tayler, passed away in his sleep at home this morning. He was 94 years old.

If you watched the three part series "The Long March to Freedom" which was shown on the "Yesterday" channel earlier this month, you would have seen him talking about his experiences during World War II.

I am very sad that my Grandfather has gone but I know that he was ready and it was what he wanted.

Milton Christmas Cards

Good morning,

I recently bought a card making magazine (Papercraft Essentials 73) and with it came a free paper pack from Wild Rose Studios called "Milton & Co Christmas Paper Pack".

Here are some cards I made using the pack:-

 I've teamed the papers and images up with Penny Black sentiments stamps, base cards from Craftwork Cards and Marianne Poinsettia dies and snowflake dies. As, with most of my Christmas cards, I've added lots of Glamour Dust too.

Have a great week!

Hugs and best wishes, Clare xx

Polka Doodles Challenge - Week 47 "Italian Christmas"

Good morning,

It's time for another challenge at Polka Doodles. This week's theme of "Italian Christmas" has been set by Miria and she would like to see a Christmas project made using the colours RED, WHITE AND GREEN,  the colours of the Italian Flag.

I have used the gorgeous pre-coloured Elfie image from the Polka Doodles Magical Winter CD and glittered and glossed her with Glamour Dust and Glossy Accents. All other embellishments are from the Polka Doodles Christmas Boutique pack which was issued by Practical Publishing. Unfortunately copies sold out very quickly but I was able to get one recently from ebay.

I hope you can join us this week.

Hugs and best wishes, Clare xx

Candy at the Craft Barn

The Craft Barn have candy to celebrate over 600 followers of their blog.

This is what the Craft Barn says about the candy:-

"over £200 of crafting goodies !! 

What kind of goodies? well, I'm not going to list everything (we need to keep it a bit of a surprise...), but there are products such as Tim Holtz, Sizzix, Cuttlebug, Impression Obsession, Cosmic Shimmer, Dreamweaver DVD, some wooden goodies to alter, gilding flakes, tissue tape, embossing folders, dies, inks, paints, embellishments etc. etc. etc..... "

Wow, what an amazing selection of goodies, they are bound to get someone's creative juices flowing.

You have until 25th November to enter for your chance to win.

Hugs and best wishes, Clare xx

Penny Black Stamps for Sale

Good morning,

If you love Penny Black stamps you might want to take a look at Tab's blog, Tabby Craft Designs. She is selling loads and loads of brand new Penny Black stamps at very reasonable prices. They are all left over stock from when she ran Tabby Crafts last year.

Here's the link:-

http://tabbycraftdesigns.blogspot.com/p/for-sale.html

Hugs, Clare xx

Polka Doodles Challenge - Week 46

Good morning,

It's time for another Polka Doodles Challenge. This week's theme has been chosen by Ruth and she would like to see:-

Something Christmassy and HAS to be a shaped card - NO squares or rectangles!

I've made an easel card and cut out images from the Polka Doodles Magical Winter CD to give it a different shape. The sentiment is also from the Magical Winter CD and the paper is from the Pretty Sweet mini CD.

I've coloured the images with Letraset markers and added lots of glamour dust. The sentiment was pre-coloured on the CD.

I hope you can join us this week.

Hugs and best wishes, Clare xx

Penny Black & More "The Christmas DT Challenge"

Good morning and welcome to the second DT challenge at Penny Black and More. Our lovely leader Brenda sent each of the Design Team two almost identical kits (just the papers differed, although they were from the same packs) to make up into cards.

We showed your our first cards on 16th October (you can see mine here). Today we are showing you the cards we made with the Christmas Kits. You can see the kit we were sent on the main challenge blog.

I have used a Penny Black image called "Gathering" 3882K. I stamped it directly onto coloured paper so that it matches in with the colour theme of the card.

We have added a special prize to the challenge blog:-

A winner will be selected from all new followers joining up between 17th and the next challenge on 4th December.

Don't forget, you have until 30th November to enter our current challenge where the theme is "All Creatures Great and Small". You no longer have to use a Penny Black image (although there is an extra prize draw for those of you who do), just make sure you use a rubber stamp. We have a brilliant selection of prizes this month which you can see here.

Hugs and best wishes, Clare xx

My Memories Suite Winner

Hello,

Sorry I am a bit late, but I have a winner for the My Memories Suite Digital Software giveaway.

Out of the hat was number 3 which means that the winner is .........................

 ZEL

Please email me with your details so I can arrange for you to download your prize.

Thank you to everyone who took part, I wish you all could have won.

Hugs and best wishes, Clare xx

p.s. If the prize is not claimed by Saturday 19th November I will draw another winner.

Blog Candy

This post is a sticky, please scroll down for new posts.

(Click picture to go to my Blog Candy post)

Clare xx

Blog Candy reminder

Just a quick reminder that I have blog candy. I will be drawing a winner tomorrow. If you fancy the chance to win your own copy of My Memories Suite digital software then click HERE to enter.

Polka Doodles Challenge - Week 45

Good morning to you,

It's time for another Polka Doodles challenge. Our host this week is Daniele and she has chosen the theme:-

"Swirls and Pearls and Pretty Pastels"

I couldn't resist cute "Amelia" from the Polka Doodles Pretty Sweet mini CD and I've teamed her up with papers and a sentiment from the same collection. She's coloured with Letraset marker pens.

I'm not really a pearly, swirly person but I really enjoyed this challenge.

I hope you can join us.

Hugs and best wishes, Clare xx

Polka Doodles Colour Studio Workshop

Nikky from Polka Doodles has arranged some Colour Studio workshop days, to find out more, click on the details below.

Hugs and best wishes, Clare xx

Penny Black and More at Allsorts November challenge

Good morning,

Welcome to the November Penny Black and More at Allsorts challenge. Not only do we have a new name, we also have a new start date for the challenge which will be the first Sunday of each month.

The "AND MORE" which has been added to the challenge name means that you can now use other images as well as, or instead of, Penny Black images, although there will be an extra, special prize for entries which use Penny Black images. The DT will continue to use Penny Black images on their inspiration projects.

Ooh, I nearly forgot, don't forget to watch out for our "Who's in the Spotlight" feature each month - it could be you!

Now, onto our theme for November which is:-

"All Creatures Great and Small".

I have used a cute hedgehog from the Penny Black clear set called "Tiny Wishes" 30-036 and the sentiment is from the Penny Black clear set called "Enjoy" 30-024.

We have an awesome array of prizes this month:-

I hope you like the changes we have made to the challenge and that you are inspired to join us this month.

Hugs and best wishes, Clare xx

Sir Stampalot November challenge - Blue and Green

Good morning,

It's time for a new Sir Stampalot challenge. We are now starting our monthly challenge on the first Sunday of each month, instead of the first day.

Our theme for November is "Blue and Green".

I have used a cute Teddy Bo fishing bear and coloured him with Prismacolor pencils. I've added glossy accents to the fish to make it look all slimy!!

The little fish embellishment is made from Fimo and is covered with irridescent heat embossing powder, this looks lovely and sparkly in real life, but on the photo it doesn't look too good at all!

This month we have a fabulous secret prize from our generous sponsors Sir Stampalot.

I do hope you can join us.

Hugs and best wishes, Clare xx

Polka Doodles Challenge - Week 44

Good morning!

It's time for the Polka Doodles weekly challenge. This week's theme, which has been set by FLISS, is:-

"A shaped card/project for any occasion

(not square, rectangle, etc, etc!)"

I used pre-coloured images from the brand new Pretty Tuff CD which is available as a pre-order from Polka Doodles. If you are going to the NEC this weekend it will be available from the Polka Doodles stand.

I did a bit of computer manipulation with the images to get the sizes I wanted before printing the elements out. The only extra I have added is Sakura Stardust pen to the white bits of the football strip and around the edge of the sentiment.

I think I will be making quite a few more cards like this for the boys in my family. I will  have to make sure I get the strip colours right!!

I hope you are inspired to join us this week.

Hugs and best wishes, Clare xx

p.s. If you would like the chance to win a copy of My Memories Suite digital software which is ideal to use with your digital images and papers, please see my blog candy HERE.

Ready-Teddy-Go November Challenge

Good morning to you.

It's the first of November which means it's time for another monthly challenge at Ready-Teddy-Go. Thank you to everyone who took part in last month's challenge and congratulations to the winner.

Our theme this month is:-

"Take it Easel"

We want to see your teddy bear easel cards this month.

Here's mine:-

I have used "Butterfly Bear" by Penny Black (3696H). The beautiful papers are from the Echo Park "Country Drive" 6" x 6" pad. The large butterfly is from a Cuttlebug diecut and emboss set and the smaller butterfly is from a Martha Stewart punch.

I do hope you can join us this month. I love to see all the gorgeous teddy bear creations.

Hugs and best wishes, Clare xx