Hayley's card: made with My Mind's Eye papers Pretty Please, Cricut, glossy accents and ribbon. Amy's patchwork card: My Mind's Eye - Pretty Please papers, large and small square hole punch, black pen (faux stitching), cricut, glossy accents, ribbon. Hello fellow bloggers! Well well ... I am totally sticking to my new year's resolution - making sure my friends and family not only get their birthday cards but get them ON TIME too!!!! It's brilliant! I feel chuffed with myself as I have done just that so far and made 99.9% of them. The 0.1% is for the humorous cards I have taken to ordering off moonpig.com and boy, do they do some funny cards! New for 2010 I have something in the pipeline that may be good for all those people emigrating abroad, especially Spain and the Med where there are no card shops. Watch this space!!! Daren is also doing well with his newly formed website www.smartcarz.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk where he is transforming every day ordinary cars to personalised modified fantasy cars. He is really working hard and has some great ideas for 2010. Well here are a few cards I have made for this week: Firstly, it was my second cousin's 18th birthday and the girls' fellow dancer, Hayley's 16th birthday so here are their cards. I am also going to give you a little peek of my lovely friend and fellow crafter, Andrea's birthday card but have patience, that will come after her birthday which is Wednesday of this week. So it's party time .... my lovely craft friends are coming for a buffet lunch on Friday for mine and Andrea's birthdays and I am really looking forward to seeing them all :-))))) The birthday hats and balloons will be out and hopefully nothing will spoil the day - not even a drift of snow!!!! Cross fingers, touch wood etc etc ......!!!! So I'll bid you all farewell and leave you with the piccies I promised.

New Year's Resolutions ...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Better late than never as I always say ...! A new year's resolution of mine is to definitely craft more but to actually make my cards on time and for the recipients to actually receive them on time also (whoops!) I am so terrible at remembering birthdays, I usually remember them weeks before and then the date comes and goes and I forget thinking that when I did remember them weeks before, it was far far too early. It just goes out of my mind. So I suppose this is an apology really to all my friends and family who have had their birthday cards late in the past (and that's probably 99.9% of them) and hopefully, I will stick to my guns and make and send well in time for 2010.

An 80th birthday card

At last I'm back! As you can see I haven't posted in a while. It's been a very busy summer for us .... I thought I was going to have to work all summer but we have been up north visiting relatives in the first part of the summer hols, we have just returned (sadly) back to Kent from the most loveliest place in Cornwall where we stayed in a cottage for a week and next week, we are off again to West Sussex to dog and house-sit for relatives. Cornwall was lovely though. It was just minutes from the gorgeous Daymer Bay where we laid on the beach every other day. Aaaaah bliss .... how I wish we were back there. There's always next year! :-) We visited lots of nice places in Cornwall, places we have been before but we cannot resist another visit .... Port Isaac, Padstow, Boscastle, we went in some lovely shops and ate in some brilliant restaurants.

When we went up north, we stayed just outside Uttoxeter in a converted barn, for bed and breakfast. We were made to feel very welcome, the rooms were gorgeously decorated, the beds were very comfortable, I would definitely go back again. It was a great place http://www.bandbthegrangestaffs.co.uk/and just a couple of miles from Alton Towers with all the stunning countryside.

Before I went to Cornwall, I was asked if I would make a 'wine' card for a male 80th birthday. Mmmmm .... I was challenged on this one. I remember one of my girls used wine papers for her French project last year but thought she didn't have any left. I was stumped. So off I went to visit my lovely friends in http://www.scrapbooksisters.co.uk/ for inspiration and a helping hand and I wasn't disappointed. There was nothing to be had at that time in the form of 'wine' in the shop, but the most beautiful new papers in, with colours you would like to eat so of course I had to spend a little whilst I was there ..... how could I possibly resist???!!!! One of the girls so kindly gave me a wine card from which I took my inspiration for this card. A million thank yous girls ...... I will return the card very soon when no doubt, I will find even more lovely things to buy!!!!

Luckily, after a little search when I got home, I managed to find the rest of the 'wine' paper that Lianne had used for her project so I set to work. The card is made with a Basic Grey background and the bottle and glass is decoupaged, although it is not clear in the photo. I marked faux stiches round the edge of the card and printed the greeting on my computer, then inked it in a matching green color box ink. I finished off with some green gro-grain ribbon.

My first Magnolia!

I never have enough time for crafting. A year ago, I purchased quite a few Magnolia stamps after having seen Andrea's stamps and the lovely cards she made with them. http://www.inkingfeeling.blogspot.com/. So this is my first Magnolia card. June is a very busy month for me in the way of birthdays and this is for my second cousin Emily. I have to say a huge thank you to Andrea - she has been absent from crafting for a while and she kindly lent me her cuttlebug and bits and bobs to go with it. Thank you Andrea! And this is the first result, hopefully of many.

Happy Birthday Hels!

I cannot believe a year has passed since I made the last card for Hels, but it certainly has - HAPPY BIRTHDAY HELS! I know I am a day late but I really wanted to blog your card. I love it, cupcakes, iced cakes and any cakes are just my kind of thing, I am sure you will find it easy to agree with me ;-) Yet again I have used my beloved Joanna Sheen cupcake stamp with cake stand. I coloured them all in using sakuras but used them as water colours, so they weren't so vivid. Some of the cakes are also covered in glossy accents to give them a bit of a sheen. I matted on candy pink glitter card, matted again on gorgeous striped paper by doodlebug designs and wrapped an organza ribbon underneath before laying the cakes on top. I printed out a greeting on the computer, matted it on candy pink and placed. I added a few lilac glittered bubble circles and edged in white glamour dust to finish it off. Yummy scrummy!!!

I am sorry the card doesn't photograph very well, the splatterings of glitter have reflected back from the flash.

Wishing the very best of luck to Andrea & Sophie!!!

It's the 26 mile Moonwalk, Walk the Walk on Saturday from midnight and my friend Andrea, who has, in the past 10 months, lost a staggering 5 stone, is going to take part with her daughter Sophie. Nathalie and I decorated the said bras as a gesture as they are doing it for a very good cause and together have been sponsored for nearly £2,500. We wish them very best of luck and cross fingers it does not rain. xxx

Happy Birthday Mummy!!!

My beautiful dear ole Mum will be ** on Sunday! Better not reveal her age, but I am sure some of you remember her special birthday :-) Anyway, this is her card from us .... the most used stamp in my collection, a Joanna Sheen stamp. I love cupcakes yummy and I just love the whole theme of cupcakes, cake stands, scones & cream on white linen table cloths with a nice cup of earl grey! It's that time of year again and it reminds me of my holidays spent in Dorset, Devon and Cornwall. I've spent many a summer eating Clotted cream, homemade jam and scones in a cosy little tea shop not far from the sea, among my favourite places being Lyme Regis, Polperro, Padstow, Port Isaac and Mevagissey. Oh gosh ... my imagination is wandering - if only I could be there now, come rain or shine.

Well that's your mind wandering as well by now ....! I haven't blogged for a while so I thought I would blog my Mum's Birthday card. I've used K & Co Sparkly Sweet papers with Sakura pens, water-coloured onto the cupcakes themselves. I printed out a greeting on my computer and inked round the edges with chalk inks. Hope Mum likes my card. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM!