Fun at the Summer Fair

It was our village Summer Fair on 11 July and I have been meaning to put this post on since.

This year there were various competitions for various age groups and I encouraged my kids to join in. I thought it would be great if they won something although the taking part is great fun. They both created a 'scene in a box'. My 5 year old daughter is Polly Pocket mad and decided to opt for a beach scene. She made the flag and umbrella and added her own glitter effects to them! We made a little rock pool and she added some Polly Pocket chairs and a picnic box.

My lad is 9 and he went for a winter scene. He decided to use my Penny Black Fantasy tree stamp for the background and added some diamond Stickles for added icy effect! The snowmen were cotton wool and stick on gems.

I was 'challenged' by one of the Mum's at the school to enter the knitting category. A 'small knitted item' was the requirement. I haven't knitted for 15 years but I thought this would be a bit of good fun. I haven't got any of my knitting patterns so I scoured the internet. I have never been good at knitting clothing so I thought I would try and find a small toy or something like that and I remembered I had used Jean Greenhowe's patterns in the dim and distant past. Well! What a treat, I found a free pattern of hers on the internet for some small cakes. You can find it here.

I'd left it all a bit til the last minute but bought my wool etc on the Friday and by Sunday morning I had knitted a small selection of icing topped biscuits and cakes, plus one piece of shortbread that my son asked me to do.

We took all the entries down to the village hall on the Sunday morning as they were all being judged before the start at 2pm.

Well we went down about 2.30pm and boy were we chuffed! My daughter had won 3rd place, my lad had won 2nd place and I had won 1st!. We all had a rosette each and we had a good chuckle as my prize money was £1.50! Not to be sniffed at though. 

We bought some lovely scones and cookies while we were there and had a go on all the other stalls.

There is an Autumn Fair too, so we'll have to see what competition categories come up next time!

Thanks for looking.

Sue x

Red, White & Blue Penny Black Saturday Challenge

Good afternoon and hoorah! I managed to complete a challenge this week.

The weather has been gorgeous again and there is a lovely breeze here today. Haven't seen much of the weather though having been in the shop but the weekend is a-coming. Enjoyed taking the kids swimming last weekend and had a chuckle covering hubby in the shop on Sunday as he went to Santa Pod to a Jap Car Show. I don't usually do Sundays.

Anyway, back to the matter in hand. Here is my card for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge this week:

Scalloped card blank: Craftwork Cards

Pale blue backing paper: cannot remember brand name

Penny Black stamp: Constellations (3867K)

Butterflies: Verve Stamp set - Petals & Stems

Distress Inks: Broken China and Fired Brick

White embossing powder

Versacolor Vanilla ink cube 

Glossy Accents

Red craft wire

Sentiment: no brand name

Red organza ribbon

Now this week I decided to try a new technique for me. I did some embossed resist stamping. I had been looking at Jennifer McGuire's blog and decided to have a go as her cards looked stunning but not over complicated for the likes of myself to try!!

I stamped my image using the Versacolor vanilla ink cube (I don't have any white or I'd have used that) and then covered it with white embossing powder and put the heat gun to it. After cooling I used the Broken China distress ink and just rubbed the ink pad all over it then left it to dry. I have to say I was really pleased with the result and loved the colour. 

To add the red, I attached my image to some red card.

Then I decided to use some of my Verve stamps and stamped a couple of butterflies with the Fired Brick distress ink. I left them to dry and just cut out the wing parts. Folded them up at the centre to give some dimension and made some antennae using some red craft wire which I wrapped round part of a safety pin to get the curly bits. I attached these to the back of the butterflies using Glossy Accents as it dries really well and holds things really tight.

I punched a little hole in my sentiment tag and added a piece of red ribbon. Then, I stuck all the bits on and voila!

Thanks for having a look.

Sue x

Petals & Stems - my first Verve Stamps purchase!

Wow! Hasn't the weather been just fabulous here this week. It's lovely to be able to walk the kids to school in the morning without fear of a heavy shower. It also makes everyone so much happier seeing some sunshine.


Well, I was on that famous auction site the other day looking for bargains, as you do. I spotted these beautiful stamps and it said they were by a company called Verve. 

I had never heard of Verve Stamps but thought they were so pretty. I then found myself on the trails of Verve Stamps and found that they have a website here in the USA. Unfortunately the stamps are not stocked here in the UK at the moment but you can buy online from their website. They are absolutely fab. Right up my street.

Whilst looking I went to their blog which is full of inspiration. I found a challenge called Sketch For You To Try (SFYTT). So, I thought I'd give it a go. I don't get time to do many challenges but I thoroughly enjoy them when I do.

Here is my card:

Colours: Versacolour Cubes Amethyst and Lime Green, and Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink

Sentiment: Craftwork Cards

Ribbon: Lime green satin ribbon

Fiskars Threading Water Punch used on purple strip

Thanks for looking! Have a fab weekend.

Sue x

Happy Anniversary to my hubby!

Happy Anniversary to my husband today! We've been married 14 years now. Gosh! Where does the time go. Actually, alot of people comment as we run the shop together but we do quite well working as a team. I'm surprised we're not sick of the sight of each other!

It's another digi stamp this time from Bee Crafty Downloads called Whimsical Girl Th Kiss. It's such a versatile picture and so clean and simple. I coloured it with Prismacolor pencils.

I used some red card punched with Fiskars Threading Water punch and then used a small heart punch to punch out some Tiny Typed Alphas printed from a Pink Petticoat download. Finished off with some lime green ribbon from Poppicrafts.

Gorgeous weather out there again today. Long may it continue! Have a fab day.

Sue x

Happy Father's Day Pops!

Morning or should I say nearly afternoon. Long time since my last post. We went to Cornwall for a week before half term and then I took the kids down to Mum and Dad's for half term near Worthing. Since we've been back I don't know where the time has gone! Haven't even had chance to pop a Penny Black challenge card together but have enjoyed looking at everyone else's entries.

My sis ordered some more cards for birthdays so have been busy doing some of those, which I enjoyed very much.

I made an A5 card for Dad (also known as Pops in the family) for Father's Day. I was looking on Beth's Little Card blog and from there noticed that there are some digi stamp challenges. Went through and found some fab sites where you can buy digi stamps. As a result I bought this image from Di's Digi Downloads. What a fab blog.

This image is called Back In Ten. My Dad is not into fishing or beer or footie so this was just perfect. All Di's images look great for colouring and of course you can re-size them to your requirements.

Used prismacolor pencils for colouring, MME bloom and grow papers on brown card (similar to Bazzill bling) and the tiny typed alphabets are from a Pink Petticoat download.
Recently had a birthday and my hublets agreed to buy me the Prismacolor pencils. When I told him the price he was quite shocked that I would want some mere pencils for that kind of money and offered to pop to Smiths for some deluxe felt pens! He was happy though as I was happy and he knows I'll use them.

This is my first card with them so hopefully with practice I'll improve somewhat! Have tried out a few ProMarker colours and I seem to be a pencil kind of girl at the mo. Can't get on with the pens.

It's our wedding anniversary on Tuesday so hopefully I will get a picture of the card I am making for hublets and will post it asap.

Have a great Sunday!

Sue x

Penny Black 100th Saturday Challenge

Well, I have finally completed my card for this week's Penny Black Saturday Challenge. You wouldn't believe that I started this last weekend and it has taken me until today to fit time in to put all the bits together! This week's challenge is a special one because it is the 100th challenge set.

I bought a lovely Penny Black stamp last week called 'Greetings' (3706H) and decided to use it for my card this week:



I used a Craftwork Cards blank. The papers are set on Bazzill Basics 'Pirouette' card. Not sure about the paper at the back with small daisies on as it has no brand on the back. The papers to the front and around the image are Bright Grey 'Green at Heart'.

I added some pink gems and the sentiment is an English Stamp Company clear stamp (bought for me by my dear sis).

I'm chuffed I managed to complete another challenge! Thanks to Jackie for the inspiration I got from her beautiful card.

Sue x

How Much Fun Was That!

Do you know, I love to look at the cards made by other bloggers each week for various challenges and some of them really are fabulous. This week I have finally plucked up the courage to join in the fun and have a go myself. I have looked at the Penny Black Challenge this week - Let's Get Punchy and I have made the card below.



Actually, as I type this I'm thinking to myself the first challenge will probably be trying to link this card to the Penny Black Saturday Challenge site so that it can be seen by anyone! If I can't work it out quickly this may take a few days to accomplish!

This was the first outing for my Penny Black Constellations stamp (3867K). I stamped it using Brushed Corduroy distress ink and also distressed around the edge of the card.

The backing paper is K&Co but not sure of the design. I used a Fiskars Threading Water punch on the pink strip behind the image. I punched 2 flowers using an XCut and a Tonic Studios punch and put pink self adhesive gems in the centre.

The Craftwork Cards sentiment has been distressed with Brushed Corduroy and I punched out 10 small pink hearts and fixed them on the back with the points sticking out to look like petals.


For the corners of my image I made 2 pink photo corners and put 2 chocolate candy pieces from Craftwork Cards.

I really enjoyed having a go at the challenge and wish I'd tried one sooner! Let's hope it's the first of many to come. After making the card I felt there was something missing so I added a touch of glitter and then wasn't sure that I liked it with the glitter! Never happy!

Thanks for taking the time to look and have a great Bank Holiday weekend.

Sue x