Penny Black Saturday Challenge & an Update

Wanted to take part in the Penny Black challenge blog this week and the theme for week 103 is "in the garden". If you would like to take part hop over HERE to be in with a chance of winning a 15% lifetime discount voucher at P B Stamps and to join in the fun.

Here is my card; 

Im sorry i have not been around for a while but i have been going through some personal crap which i am not going to bore you with but has given my mojo a bit of a knocking as i have not had the time to do much.

The hedgies, the field mouse, the fox & the stray cat is still around & being spoilt by me! little Minnie has been back a couple of times to visit although she must have a nest elsewhere as she disappears into next doors garden. Lola is definitely a "Lola" as i managed to gently roll her slightly to her side the other evening to take a peek and im 99% sure that it is her inhabiting the cabin at the moment. I am keeping everything crossed that hoglets are on their way!!!

Will be back very soon. Have a wonderful bank holiday weekend everyone xxx

I Love Imaginisce!!!.......Oh & Minnie Came to Visit Last Night!!!

Yep, I LOVE IMAGINISCE!!! i think they have the most wonderful ranges and there is not one that i have not liked. I do find that a lot of their products are hard to get hold of in the UK. I have been searching everywhere for their Twitterpated range. You may beable to find the odd product but never the full package!!!

So i was overjoyed when i managed to find some yummy "Lucy Bird" 12x12 patterned pages from a local craft shop, although that was it. My loverly sister Helen from OZ sent me some products from this range for my birthday including pp, ribbon pack, rub-on & jelly stickers. I managed to use one of my pages to cut out the flowers to 3D as Helen had sent a spare set with my pressie. I am finding though that i do not want to use it all up though as i am so in love with this stuff!!!

I have managed to pick up the odd Snag-em clear stamp thankfully so know they are for keeps. WAKE UP BRITISH CRAFT SHOPS, WE NEED IMAGINISCE!!!!

I made this card last night & just love the vibrant colours. The flowers are nice & easy to cut out too.

Go check out the Imaginisce site & follow their blog, they are always running give-aways & have a fantastic monthly sketch competition.

YAY, MINNIE THE HEDGEHOG HAS VISITED!!! Last night when i went on hogwatch with the cats little Minnie was munching away at the food. I know it was her as she has a patch of pale coloured spikes on her back. She let me stroke her & when she had done she disappeared under the gap in the fence into next door. I figure she must have a little nest there as it is nice & overgrown. Good to know she is still around.

Anyway i am off to bed & will be back very soon. Thanks for popping by & i really love reading your comments.

Love & hugs Clare xxx

HOUSE MOUSE CARD & A HEDGIE PIC!

Good morning!!! well i have finally been playing with my new House Mouse stamps which i am totally in love with.

Instead of colouring by hand i stamped the image out on different coloured papers and layered them instead (apart from the bath tub). I really love this technique and gives the image some nice dimension too. The background pp is by Papermania Hugs & Honey & i used my Martha Stewart punch to make the lace ribbon from brown Bazzill card. I added a bit of bling & a tiny peel off sentiment to finish it off.

well it is a beautiful sunny warm day down here in Eastbourne. So much so that even the hedgehogs are out sunbathing today!!!

So, so beautiful. They have the most gorgeous little eyes. Not sure if this is Stan or Lola but he/she seemed totally at ease with me being there.

Thanks for popping by & have a great day.

Lots of love & hugs Clare xxx

A Wild Rose Studio Card & Hegieville Memoirs News

This is the first time i have used this very cute stamp from Wild Rose Studio. I really love their stamps as they stamp out so beautifully & their images are so clearly defined.

I have used some really cute papers from Papermania which is the co-ordinating paper collection of Honey & Hugs.

I have stamped the whole image onto plain coloured papers and used my embossing tool to mould the papers to give it dimension. I have used my trusted silicone, thank heavens it is repositionable!!! I have added some bling & Glossy Accents to finish the card off.

HEDGEVILLE MEMOIRS 

Sorry it has been a while since my last update but sadly it looks like Ernie & Minnie have moved on to another habitat. All had been fairly quiet but, cue Stan & Lola!!!.

Ok i know you will all be asking, how the hell does she know these are two new hedgies? well for starters they are about half the size of Ernie & Minnie & those two had a few defining features. I also know these are definitely male & female with the amount of humping that has been going on betweek the two most evenings!!!.

A few nights ago hubster went to the loo and came out saying he could hear strange noises outside the toilet window. The toilet is right next to the front door so we both sneaked outside with torch in hand and this was what we found.

LOLA WAS THE FIRST SIGHT WE SAW WHEN WE OPENED THE FRONT DOOR

 LOLA

 POOR LITTLE LOLA WITH HER FACE PRESSED TO THE GROUND, CAN'T THINK WHY!!!

 THIS IS STAN WHO HAD LEGGED IT TOWARDS THE BACK GATE UNTIL HE FOUND HE COULD NOT GET UNDER IT!!!

 STAN FANCYING HIS CHANCES AGAIN, TYPICAL BLOKE!!!

So it is definitely mating season in hedgieland. Aparently it all starts up again in July after the first litter of hoglets have arrived. Just found out there are two mating & birthing cycles in a matter of 6 months for our little spikey friends!!!. Oh boy i would imagine 9 months is bad enough for women but hedgies give birth between 35-40 days! The funniest thing i did find out though is that the female hedgie can play hard to get for days & even has her suitors fighting over her and then she may just walk away! the good news is also that if she changes her mind she can just raise her spikes, that's what i call hedgie girl power!!! 

Will be back soon with more creations. Thanks for popping by.

Lots of hugs Clare xxx 

I am so Blonde Sometimes!!!

Me and Martin on our Wedding Day

Ok so i wanted to get both the layout & card done for the Scrapville monthly sketch challenge and knowing i had until 25th May i had finished my card & almost finished my Layout. WRONG!!!! Janet announced the winners yesterday, 15th May!

So i thought i would share & admit that i am totally blonde at times!. For some reason though everytime i load the pictures they keep going to the top of my post, oh well.

These are the awesome sketches the beautiful Melinda created;

In the end my Layout turned out more like the card sketch as i did not end up adding a title. I just felt the picture & embellies were enough. I know that i can always add something when i find something appropriate.  Thankyou so much girls. I am so sorry i was so late.

Back tomorrow for more pics & news.

Lots of love Clare xxx

Another Card!

Hi dolls, hope you are all having a great day. On Saturday i went to the South Stamp Show in Worthing & it was amazing. I went to my first in September & although that one was good it was not a patch on Saturdays!!! They have them on twice a year & the next one is on 4th September so may want to note it in your diary if you are local. It is nice & manageable for me as there were 17 exhibitors including Hobby Art, Stamposaurus, Stamp Addicts, Crafter's Companion, Stampin Up......

Me & my mate Amanda went, took our lunch as our logic is that food money is craft stash money!!!. I did not have very much money as it was the wrong part of the month & i had not had time to save, so bless their hearts hubby handed me £20 which he had saved in his wallet hoping not to have to spend it all week, then Dad gave me £20 & told us to go & have a super time.

I managed to get a few new crafty bits of stash, a pack of 10 new Promarkers (including a great fine liner), a Big & Juicy Inkpad for brayering, 2 new TH distress pads (Milled Lavendar & Crushed Olive), a gorgeous Penny Black tree stamp & lots of odds & sods that Amanda & i went halves in to share (sentiments, Heat friendly Acetate etc).

It was good as we managed to park right outside the venue so at lunchtime i could go have my meds & lay down for half hour.

So i have had a play with my new stamp & Milled Lavendar ink pad & came up with this;

Just a very quick & simple card to start with. I just love the image. I added some stickles to decorate the tree. Sorry it looks a bit wonky guys, my fabulous photography!!!

I received an amazing parcel today from my sis in Australia. Enclosed was some very yummy craft stash, some of which she got for me from my Scrap Therapy voucher for my card win. I will share this with you all tomorrow along with a Hedgeville Memoirs update.

Love & hugs Clarey xxxx

Some Cards Atlast!

Hi everyone, hope all is well in blogland on this Monday evening. So sorry i have not been around, ive had a busy few days. I will admit that my mojo has dipped a bit as i have not been as consistent as normal with my cardmaking over the last few weeks.

I have made 4 cards over the last few days. I was asked by a friend to make 3 girlie cards for her grandaughter. When i say girly i mean little girl stamps which i do not usually do!!! i have not even got any stamps like that as such but my lovely mate Keryn had done some recent stamping for me & had included some images that fitted the bill. They are not my best creations but my friend loved them so that's the main thing.

Oooops im a daft bugger! i forgot to put details about the cards!!! all are coloured with Promarkers, I have used various nesties & used a CB folder one the first one (Fantasy Flourishes), i have used card candy, & the flowers on the last card are handmade with Woodware punches, the pp is all used up scraps so not sure now who they are by!!!, the stamps are by Sugar Nellie.

Thanks for dropping by & have a great evening in UK & morning in OZ!!!

Hugs Clare xxx

MARTIN'S CHARITY SKYDIVE!!!!

On Saturday my lovely hubby Martin did a 12,000ft freefall tandem skydive to raise money for St.Wilfred's Hospital which is where Mum was looked after during her final days before she passed on 17th December 2008.

He managed to raise £450 for the Hospice and i am so proud of him. Here are some pics i would like to share.

Martin all togged up. He looks like an extra from the "Cone Head" Movie!!!

A pic with the trainer called Dave, he was a really cool guy!!!

All boarded up!!!

Too late to bottle out now!

Definitely too late to bottle out now!

Just going from freefall to parachute

Martin & Dave

Yay!!! they made it!

Hope he did not keep his eyes closed all the time!!!

I know that Mum was watching over us on Saturday & sharing the day with us. When we got back to the car & started driving off one of Mum's songs came on the radio, Leanne Rymmes "How do i Live Without You". That was her sign to let us know.

IN MEMORY OF OUR BEAUTIFUL MUM XXX

HEDGIEVILLE UPDATE!!!

Well Little Ernie & Minnie are still around which i am seriously amazed about. We get the odd day when i go check that there is just one of them in the cabin & one morning where they were both absent but overall they are always here which is fantastic.

So to keep you going i have a selection of pics for you all. The funniest one is a pic of Minnie in an old plastic storgage shelter i made up last year which i was going to throw away as we now have the second cabin. They have never seemed to settle in this one & thinking perhaps it is because it is plastic i went to throw it away. I noticed that Simone kept going near it & sniffing around. I opened the lid and there was Minnie curled up amongst the paper & straw!!!

This was Simone sniffing around which made me look in the box!!!

She is amongst the straw!

There she is!

And not to leave out Ernie!!!

This was the area before but i have had to now place the plastic box where the new cabin is.

I managed to get this pic of Ernie a couple of night ago. Minnie had gone off wandering!

So at the moment i just have to finish off the hedgie area in the garden. It has been cleaned up (as much as can be) & i have managed to get all fresh straw into the origional cabin the day they were absent & there are now 3 shelters for them & any other little visitors we may get in the future.

As soon as the area is finished i promise to post pics for you all. So hoping we get some baby hoglets!!!

Lots of love Clarey xxx

IM BACK!!!

So sorry i have not been around this week. It has been very busy in the "Earl" household & have not even had a great deal of time to even create this week.

The only crafty news i have is that i just found out that i won Lisa's fab "Something Old" challenge. This was the card;

And the pic below is all of the yummy craftiness that Lisa put up to win!!! Thankyou so much little Lisa. If you would like to go participate in the challenges over at Scrap Therapy click HERE it is a fantastic scrap & crafty site.

So what i have i been up to? there has been a big, big springclean in the bungalow & loads of gardening. This has been the first gardening of the year now that the sun has decided to make a long awaited appearance. I have been very limited on what i can do obviously but being the stubborn head that i am i do like to contribute. I seriously pay for it but it just makes me feel useful. Martin & Dad get cranky with me but they do realise that i love gardening. Martin has done all of the mowing & loads of weeding so i have done a lot of pruning & i have now been able to arrange the hedgie cabins & clean up & make it all noice for them. I have managed to get hold of the logs, rocks & shrubs which i am gradually adding so i will be posting pics as soon as it is done.

Another reason i have not been around is because my lovely hubby has gone and suprised me with a new laptop!!! he was given a bonus at work after 5 years of being there & being promised for about the last 3 years. It finally happened & he spent it all on me! He got me a yummy pink Dell Inspiron and here it is;

And here is my baby girl showing her approval. So i have been setting it up which has taken forever!!! i am not the most computer minded person i am afraid. 

Martin said that i really needed my own one as he has one which he got last year for his Birthday with the money he was given so i feel kind of guilty as i use it more than him!!! especially now i have joined "blogland". His view was that his bonus was money we never expected to get & it would only be spent on bills if we put it away for a rainy day.

I love him!!!!

More posts to follow.

Lots of love & hugs & i would like to send a special message to Esme to let her know that i am thinking of her & sending lots of love, she will know what this means.

Best wishes Clare xxx