Life Is Like A Box Of Chocolates!

I had a flash of inspiration when I made this card for the Cute Card Thursday challenge:



I cut some squares and circles with my slice machine, then cut the squiggles on top by hand and mounted them on foam pads in a "chocolate box" made from brown card and cadbury's purple tissue paper. Yummy!

Hand-Drawn Eeyore Card

It is ages since I did any challenges, but I was inspired by the Stamptacular Sunday Challenge this week, so here is my entry:

I drew the Eeyore by hand (I had a lot of time on my hands lol!) and coloured him with prisma pencils and sansodor.

I didnt have any paper that did him justice so I cut strips of pastel paper and made my own zig-zag stripey background.

I love eeyore! And its good to see him looking happy for a change!

Rosebud Mosaic Table

My latest mosaic creations:



I have to admit, this is my favourite so far, it is so pretty and fresh and girly!

"Summer Meadow" Mosaic Table

This flowery garden bistro set is quite different to the others I have made up until now, it is more of a scene rather than a random pattern. Im not sure if I like it really, but it was nice to make.


My inspiration was a painting of a flower filled meadow I saw in a magazine, I loved the colours especially the pinks and greens together.


I've used quite a few gorgeous little jewel-like crystal tiles as flowers in the grass, and the foxgloves and part of the butterfly and bee are made using gold-veined tiles for a bit of sophisticated sparkle

Some AMAZING news . . and Marshmallow Flumps!!!

Well, I am so high I am in the clouds!!!!

Yesterday I sold my mosaic table to someone through Misi, my first sale on there! I had forgotten it was on there to be honest, and was concentrating on putting smaller things on etsy instead!

But then I checked my emails and nearly collapsed in shock! I just sat there saying OMG, OMG, OMG until my brother said that if I said that again he would smash the table up!

They have paid and everything, so just got to get it delivered to them by courier and pray they like it! (and that none of the pieces fall off!!!)

So I guess that maybe now I can call myself a proper "mosaic artist"?!

I have another pretty green table and lots of ideas for my next design! I couldnt make another one until that one had sold or I may have ended up with so many tables I couldnt sell that I could start a cafe!

I have also been busy with my fimo and sculpey, I think I was craving sugar because I made lots of yummy treats! My favourite is this flump bag charm, I already have a comission from my sister to make her one!

Mosaic Heart Bag Charm / Keyring - "Lemon Sherbert"

This is the first of my latest flurry of mosaic projects - pink and blue versions to follow!

Naughty Bunny!

I have been very busy but I havnt got any pictures of my latest projects to put on here yet, I will have to keep you in suspense!

I just wanted to name and shame my naughty rabbit, who I caught red-handed standing up to steal leaves from my mini weeping willow tree:

It is costing me a fortune to keep replacing all the plants she has been munching her way through!

Iv been busy mosaic-ing!

Sorry I have neglected my blog and havnt been visiting any of my fellow bloggers creations lately, I've not been very well.

I just wanted to share a project I have been working on and am really pleased with - a flowery mosaic table which I have called "Country Garden".

I hope you like it! It took me hours and hours to make!

Quilled Daffodils For The Cupcake Craft Challenge

The challenge this week at Cupcake Craft Challenges was an inspirational picture, which you can use as a theme, or as a colour scheme, or in any other way you like. The picture is of yellow flowers, which made me think of daffodils, probably because I noticed this morning that I have one daffodil out in my garden!

So I decided to go with a daffodil and spring-like theme.

I made some quilled daffodils, mounted them on pale yellow dotted swiss Bazzill, then pale green pearlescent paper then the Bazzill again. I played around with various ribbons etc but decided that it actually looked better with less on it, so just added a small dot of Eucalyptus stickles to the inside corners to finish it off.

Glass Painted Candles for Mojo Monday!

I found these candles I painted onto acetate a while ago, and thought they would be perfect to use for the Mojo Monday challenge sketch this week. I felt like making something bold and bright for a change as I tend to use more pastel shades.

The paper was a magazine freebie a month or two ago, the candles are done with glass paints, everything else from my bottomless stash-pit!

A Yummy Cupcake Card For Sketch And Stash Challenge #5!

I have been busy today! I made this delicious cupcake card using this fortnight's sketch from the Sketch and Stash Challenge. I used one of the gorgeous Dovecraft Retro Floral papers from a recent stash shopping spree! It matched my partly quilled cupcake perfectly!

Everything else - ribbons, pearlescent paper and pink foiled banner from stash.

40th Birthday Card

I havnt made anything for a while, not been feeling very inspired, but I needed to get motivated as a special friend of mine is going to be 40 in a couple of weeks.

Background paper was a freebie from a magazine a while back, cupcake is a stamp from Hero Arts, sentiment is a foiled banner, ribbon from stash, stickles on cupcake frosting(cotton candy, frosted lace, waterfall). Everything else (eg candles) is made from various cardstock and patterned papers.

And this is what I found in my sack of potatoes when I went to make my dinner:

A heart shaped potato!!! I wonder if it is an omen?!

Thank-you Pink Feather Paradise For The Lovely Award!

I am so touched, the lovely Pink Feather Paradise has given me an award!

But not just any award - she has designed one especially for me!!!! (and it even has a cupcake on it!)

This is what she says:

Help a friend Award

This award is given to someone who gave without being asked and if you pass it on to someone in the future it cannot be given lightly.... they must have given you something wonderful without being prompted, be it a supportive word in an hour of need or a wonderful gift through the post or some technical help that was beyond your ability..... a deed that gives you back some hope that the world is not as bad as the media and press would lead us to believe.

Thank-you so much Alex, you have made me smile and made my day!

Something Chocolate Challenge - Another Cupcake Of Course!

He he he, another chance to use my lovely new cupcake stamps as the theme for the
Stamp Something challenge is "Something Chocolate"

I have kept these cupcake cards fairly simple as I dont want to overshadow the gorgeous cupcakes!

This one has bright pink cardstock and pale yellow swiss dots Bazzill with yummy chocolate coloured embossed paper from a pack I bought in The Works! The image is on watercolour paper for texture, coloured with watercolour pencils and twinkling H2Os, cotton candy Stickles for a bit of glitter and a printed sentiment in bright pink and chocolate.

Cupcakes! I Knew There Would Be A Cupcake Challenge Eventually!

I was so excited to see the theme for the Charisma Cardz challenge this week is CUPCAKES!

It just so happened that I had bought some lovely new Hero Arts cupcake stamps at the weekend too, so it was a perfect opportunity to get them dirty!

So here are my TWO offerings for this challenge (I got a bit carried away!!!):


Spotty paper is K & Co, sentiment is a giant peel-off from The Stamp Attic, image is coloured with watercolour pencils, the sprinkles on top are Stickles - cotton candy and waterfall.

Background paper is from a mini paper stack I bought in Tesco, pale yellow Bazzil (swiss dots) from the Stamp Attic, sentiment is printed, white ric rac is from my local fabric shop (14p a metre!!!!), image is coloured with watercolour pencils and twinkling H2Os, and the icing is sparkled up a bit with cotton candy Stickles.

The Aliens Have Landed!!!!

I have finally got round to taking a photo of a few of my little alien friends!

They are made from clay then painted with acrylics, and are meant to go on top of garden canes.

They are so fun to make, I think I have found my vocation in life lol!

And the Winner is . .

I used random.org to choose who will be having a blog makeover - and the result is - NUMBER 5 - Murano Silver !!!

Well done! Please get in touch and let me know your ideas and I will see what I can come up with!

Sketch and Stash Challenge #3

I saw this week's sketch on the Sketch and Stash challenge blog and decided to have a try at it this week - a day late!

The gorgeous background paper is from a K & Co Mat Stack I bought yesterday - called Small Wonders Girl. I just couldn't resist! And the embellishments etc I cut by hand from some sheets of felt.

**Don't miss your chance of a blog make-over - see previous post!**

Give-away Time!!! Does Your Blog Need a Makeover?!

I enjoyed designing my pretty cupcake blog so much that I have decided that I am going to offer my services as a blog make-up artist to one lucky blogger!

Just leave a comment after this post, and I will use a random number picker to choose which one of you it will be!

PLEASE NOTE

* I will design a blog background for the winner. This does not include a header.
* I will customise the background to suit you eg colour, preferences etc but I do ask that you are reasonable with your requests and allow me to exercise some design choice!
*You can of course choose not to use the background that I design!!!!
*If you want pictures on the blog (like my cupcakes) then you need to provide these pictures and it is your responsibility to make sure they are either your own or are copyright-free.

YOU HAVE UNTIL MONDAY 9th FEBRUARY AT 18.00PM (GMT) TO LEAVE YOUR COMMENT AND BE IN WITH A CHANCE OF WINNING.

Good Luck!

edit: I can only do blogger/blogspot backgrounds at the moment although if you are a user of a different blog and know how to install a background then I am happy to design it for you!

Time For The Sketch Saturday Challenge Again!

I've managed to make a card for this week's Sketch Saturday

This week my effort is on time!!!



I used a glass painted butterfly, and some lovely bright coloured ric rac. The flowery backing paper is from a pack of Origami paper I bought a couple of years ago!

Make-Over Time! And Another Card . .

I have finally managed to design my very own blog background!!!! I am so unbelievably pleased with myself, I really enjoyed doing it as well once I knew what to do!

I hope you like my new look!

Carrying on with the glass-painted card theme, here is another made in the same way:

I mixed the glass paints with irridescent medium to make pastel colours with a lovely glimmer!

My First Attempt at The Sketch Saturday Challenge!

I have decided to try and do some of the fun card-making challenges in blogland, I think they will give me some much needed inspiration and motivation!

So here is my effort for the Sketch Saturday challenge:

It's nowhere near as good as the other entries, but I enjoyed doing it! I used one of the free stamps from this month's Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine, stamped it onto acetate then went over the lines with relief outliner and coloured it in with glass paints.

A Summery Flowery Bag - inspired by Cath Kidston!

I bought Cath Kidston's book - "Make!" a while ago, and felt inspired enough by it to make some bags as Christmas presents. I got a job lot of cotton shopping bags from Ebay, and spent hours cutting out piles of flowers! And even longer sewing round them once I had ironed them on!


Some of them had less flowers on than this, in a diagonal stripe across the front, because I was running out of time and got fed up of cutting and sewing! But it worked quite well like that too.

A Cute Little Fish Mobile

Another busy day crafting for me today!

A friend of my Nan's is related to someone who works at a very poor orphanage in Russia. They do a great job looking after the children who either have no family or whose family cannot look after them, but they have very limited funds. For quite a few years my Nan's friend has been sending out big packages to the orphanage, which we have contributed to. My Nan knits loads of bright, cheerful jumpers for them, my Mum knits, crochets and also makes them patchwork blankets. And we buy bits and pieces, clothes etc to send to them too. They are so pleased to get these parcels, they always email loads of photos of the children trying the jumpers on, sleeping under the blankets etc. It is heart-warming!

Well, anyway, I was flicking through the Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine yesterday and there was a gorgeous mobile to make in it, using die-cut circus animals. You might have seen it? And I thought, wow, it would be lovely to make some of those for the little Russian children.

And here is my first attempt, with lots of fish and starfish on it!


I am planning to make a few different ones, but this has taken me all day!!!! I had to make the fish templates for my robo to cut first, then cut it, then stick it all together. But I am really pleased with it!

Cupcake Paintings

We have recently decorated our kitchen, and one of the walls looked a bit bare but we didnt have anything suitable to put there. So I decided to get creative and paint my own pictures!


I found some pictures of cupcakes on the internet to use as a guide (I can copy but not paint from real-life or memory!)and painted them with acrylics onto thick acrylic paper.

In the meantime I covered some squares of MDF with a dark cream emulsion (I got a tester pot of the colour I liked). Once this was dry I marked out a border and painted this dark brown with acrylics. I probably should have used masking tape to get a neater edge, although I quite like the slightly uneven look, kind of rustic!

Once the cupcakes were dry I outlined them with a black colouring pencil, cut them out and stuck them to the boards with PVA glue. A few coats of clear varnish and they were done!

Anyway, apologies again for the poor quality pictures, still no batteries for my camera! But I will be swapping these pictures for better ones once I get it sorted!

Cards with felt

Just a quick post this time, to add pictures of the cards I made on Sunday with felt flowers on them. I love felt at the moment! It is so nice to use something with a different texture on my cards.

I have heard that you can cut felt with a sizzix / big shot machine - I havn't tried it yet but I think I will have to give it a go! My big shot has been a bit redundant since I got my lovely robo, so it will be good to find a use for it again!

Hmmm, I need to get to grips with this blogging stuff, the pictures won't do what I want them to do (eg sit next to each other instead of underneath). I have seen some lovely backgrounds on other blogs too, I will have to investigate how to do that as well!

Anyway, the green and purple card is my favourite of the two, I am usually a pink lover but I just love the way greens and purples go together and look so spring-like!

A productive weekend - cards, quilling and of course cupcakes!

I have been busily making a few cards today. I am planning to give them to a local charity shop to sell once I have a nice big pile as I am not selling anything myself at the moment.

Firstly, I had made some cute little quilled fish but I needed a suitable home for them! I printed out a fish bowl shape, gave it a quick wash of colour with my gorgeous twinkling H2Os, and they soon settled in!

(Sorry, the pictures arent brilliant, I had to use the camera on my phone as my "proper" camera has run out of batteries and I didnt have any replacements!)

After the fish had been sorted out, I came across a partly quilled cupcake that I made a while ago, and matched that up with paper and ric rac to make a quick but pretty card. Ooh, forgot to say, I made the spotty blue paper myself too in Paint Shop Pro, I always feel especially proud when I use background paper that I have created myself!

I also made some cards with felt flowers on, but I think this post is getting a bit long so I will add them tomorrow!

Chinese Brush Calligraphy . . it's harder than it looks!

Today I have been lucky enough to have a go at the ancient Chinese art of brush calligraphy. In the east, calligraphy is viewed as an art form which unites body and mind, and the strive for artistic perfection is seen as a never-ending learning curve.



It looks so effortless, but it is amazing how difficult it really is to form each character correctly! We used watered down black acrylic paint, printer paper and common garden kid's paint brushes and the results were pretty effective, if nowhere near perfect!



Unfortunately I managed to smudge mine while it was still wet so I dont have a picture of my happiness symbol to show you, but to give you an idea this is an example of the Chinese character meaning beauty, and googling brings up hundreds of others if you are interested!






I think there are seemingly endless opportunities for Chinese characters to be used in crafts - mounted on cards, made into backing papers, I can even picture an idea for a lovely calligraphy mosaic. And above all, it is relaxing, absorbing and a very pleasant art to participate in.

A new blog is born . . .

Well, this is my very first blog post and I am quite excited!

I am hoping that this will be somewhere I can show off my creations, ramble about all things crafty and hopefully connect with lots of mad, crafty people who share my interests!

I will start by sharing a photo with you of the mosaic table I made as a Christmas present for my sister. It wasnt perfect but I thought it was pretty good for a first attempt! I cant wait until the garden furniture hits the shops again as I have a couple more tables planned but can't get hold of any cheap garden tables at the moment!