Happy Birthday Lewis!

Today is my son Lewis' 2nd birthday, I can't believe where the two years have gone! Frightening! I have been so busy recently as we have been getting organised for his party yesterday and tonight we went for a birthday tea with his best friend Paul. His party went extremely well yesterday despite the horrible weather and Lewis had a great time which was the most important thing. He absolutely loved his birthday cake which had Roley and Scoop from Bob the Builder on it. He is a massive Bob fan and got lots of Bob the builder pressies which he'll have great fun with. A very lucky boy! Last night after tidying up the debris of the party, I finally got around to making his birthday card. I made another train like the one I made for his friend Paul's birthday but adapted it by making some animals to be the passengers of the train. Now I just need to busy myself making thank you cards for all of the presents which he got and I must try to make some scrapbook pages of the big event and the birthday boy!

Blog Hopping again!

I really must stop this! I am full of good intentions to get lots of crafting done, particularly as it is a bank holiday weekend and once again have gotten a bit carried away in visiting blogs! Is it just me??? I start by visiting my fellow stamping sisters to see what they have been getting up to first of all, then I see lots that I like and begin travelling all over the place and before I know it, I have spent a good hour doing no crafting! Anyway on my travels this evening, I have come across lots of fabulous blog candy and just have to tell you all about it.

First of all, my SBS 15 sistah Sammi @ stuffbysammi is giving away this fantastic candy in celebration of reaching 1000 hits on her blog. All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is to design a card or scrapbook page with a French theme or to post a link to her blog on yours. Go and check out her blog now!










Kitty @ Kitty's Krafty Blog is giving away another lot of fab candy to celebrate 20,000 hits on her blog. All you need to do is to visit her blog and post a comment that links her blog to yours and to post her giveawy on your blog. You have until the 7th May to enter.

Mother Ila @ Artfully Ila and daughter Trina @ Timeless Treasures are giving away brilliant candy to celebrate Ila's birthday on the 6th May. To enter you need to visit Ila's blog and either tell her what your favourite stamp is and leave a link to it or spread the word about her blog candy on your own blog. Then you need to visit Trina's blog and tell her what your favourite card verse or sentiment is or to post a link to her candy on your blog.

Susie @ White Ribbon Cards has another great giveaway on her blog to celebrate her reaching 10,000 hits. You have until midnight on Sunday 4th May to enter and this is what you need to do. First of all add Susie's blog to your blog roll, secondly write a post about her candy on your blog and thirdly leave her a message so that she can see that you have done both of these things. You only have until tomorrow night so get cracking!

I'm going to stop hopping now and go and attempt to make a birthday card for Lewis' 2nd birthday which is next Monday. The earlier I start the better as I know that my week will run away and his birthday will be here before I know it! Enjoy your weekend.

Sugar Nellie

My new sugar nellie stamps arrived this morning and before too long they were inked up and well used. At last I got some crafting done today in between beginning my class' reports, but only because I am off work with conjunctivitis. I'm hoping to go back to work tomorrow if the doctor says that I can. Fingers crossed! I'm really pleased with how these cards have turned out - a good purchase! Also spent some time in the garden with Lewis this afternoon enjoying the sunshine as we haven't seen much sun so far this year.

Great candy!

I have received some fabulous candy from Kath at the end of last week but unfortunately with Lewis being ill haven't gotten around to posting it. She also sent me such a sweet card - it's gorgeous! Thank you! I can't wait to get a bit of time to myself to experiment!

Kath has a fantastic blog candy giveaway at the moment to celebrate reaching 5000 hits on her blog. All you need to do is to visit her site and leave a comment and you'll be in with a chance of winning one of three fabulous prizes. You have until the 10th May to enter - so don't delay!





























Some more fabulous candy arrived from Tracy on Thursday. I can't wait to get tinkering with my prismas and sansador on all of the lovely stamped images she sent me, amongst other things. A very generous package. Thank you!

I am in the process of packaging my pif candy winners goodies at the moment, so they will be in the post tomorrow. I'm so sorry for the long delay ladies but hopefully they'll be worth it when they arrive!

My new stamps from Panduro arrived also last week and I have been tinkering with those this morning so will be posting some cards made with those soon. They are so cute!

I purchased some of the new Sugar Nellie stamps on Friday from Funky Kits so hopefully they will arrive some time later in the week!

I've been tagged!

I can't believe that more than a week has passed since I last posted and I haven't had a minute to do any crafting, despite being full of good intentions! Lewis has been ill a good part of the week which started off with a trip to our local hospital last Friday evening due to having an extremely high temperature and other not so nice symptoms. They put it down to a viral infection but I have a sneaky suspicion that back teeth have been playing a helping hand! He seems to be back to his usual cheery self now, thank goodness! So hopefully I may get round to posting something this weekend.

While I have been missing in action the past week, I've been tagged by the lovely Zoe. I haven't been tagged before so I was intrigued as to what I would find on Zoe's site when I arrived and thankfully discovered that the questions weren't too tricky to answer as I think my brain might have a bit of difficulty coping after the frantic week I've had!

1. If a movie was being made of your life who would you like to be cast to play yourself? and why? I would chose Michelle Pfiffer as she played a teacher who tried her best to give her students a great start in life in the film Dangerous Minds and I'd like to think that that's what I do most days!
2. You are spending a whole month on a dessert island for charity and you have to choose your favourite celebrity to spend the first two weeks with & your least favourite celebrity to spend the second two weeks with, who would they be & why? I would chose George Clooney first of all to spend the first two weeks with as he is great eye candy and I wouldn't get bored looking at him. My second two weeks would be spent with ........... I can't seem to think of one at the moment!
3. What are your three favourite crafting products? That's a difficult one! I'd have to say prismas, goregeous papers and ribbon at the moment!
4. If you could invent something to do anything what do you think it would be?
5. What are the last three books that you read? It has been a while since I have read any book as I don't get the time unfortunately, unless I am on a long holiday from work but the last book I read was The Timekeeper's Daughter which was fantastic. I couldn't put it down and recommend it to you if you haven't already read it yourself. I spend my time reading books to Lewis instead who adores books particularly ones featuring trains from Thomas the Tank or Bob the Builder!
6. Qvc or create & Craft? QVC although to be honest I have only seen it a few times!
7. Docrafts or Dovecraft or DCWV? It has to be DCWV.
8. What is your claim to fame? Dancing with Wayne Sleep quite a number of years ago at a Teacher's Day of Dance. He was amazing to watch!


Now I need to pass this on to 5 others...so many people to choose from. I'm going to choose some of my SBS 15 sisters:

Sammi
Joanna
Kelly
Robyn
Monica

I'll look forward to reading your answers.

Hello there!

I can't believe that it is a week since I last posted!! I have been so swamped at work - lots of marking and planning! The joys of being a teacher, particularly at the start of a new term. Anyway, enough of my moaning! I hope to be able to get some cards and perhaps a scrapbook page or two done over the weekend - that may just be wishful thinking. Tonight I decided to have a wee break from work and do some blog hopping to catch up with my sistahs and their great creations and also to visit some new ones. This is more addictive at the moment than actually crafting!

I have discovered that I have won some more PIF candy! This is a great idea and it is such a lovely surprise when the postie arrives at your door with the package that someone has very kindly sent to you, just for visiting their blog and leaving a comment. If you haven't taken part, you really must try it! I have been lucky enough to win some candy from Kath who was the very first person to visit my blog and is a very talented fellow Scot. You should go and check out her work as she has just been selected for the Funky Hand Design Team so huge congratulations to her. I have also won some candy from Sharon and Richelle, two other great ladies with brilliant blogs. I am in the midst of preparing my own PIF candy for the six lucky ladies who won on my own blog. Don't worry ....... I haven't forgotten about you and it should be with you soon. I will be doing some more PIF candy soon as a result of winning this new candy so keep checking back!

I have also discovered some great giveaways on other blogs I have visited tonight and thought I'd let you know about them so you can visit and enter yourself. That is, if you haven't done it already! You can win the complete set of the very latest studio G stamps, 15 in total, and a rather nice set of Rhona Farrer flower and butterfly to celebrate 15,000 hits on Enfys' blog, just by leaving a comment on her blog by the 23rd April.

Tracie-Jane is offering some Pink Cat Studio stamps to celebrate her birthday. All you have to do is visit her blog and leave a comment and then provide a link from your blog to hers. You have until the 30th April to enter.

Katharina is offering an original Hänglar and Stänglar stamp as well as some other stamped images to celebrate her 30th birthday which is today. These stamps are so cute and very hard to come by! You'll no doubt have seen some wonderful creations on other people's blogs who are so lucky to own these! All you have to do to enter is to subscribe to Katharina's newsletter, link her blog to your blogroll, leave her a comment on her blog and write a post about her blog candy on your own blog. So don't delay, go and visit and wish her a very happy birthday! You have until 25th April to enter.

PIF Candy Winners!

Congratulations to Kath, Tracey, Sharon, Monica, Robyn and Lisadwb who are the winners of my PIF candy. Please could you email me with your addresses so that I can post your candy out to you. My stamping sisters, Monica, Robyn and Lisa don't need to do this as I already know your addresses. My email address is in my profile. I look forward to seeing what you do with it.

Bob the Builder - can you fix it?

This is indeed a question I had to ask myself tonight as I had a major cardmaking disaster. I started to make another birthday card for my son's friend Paul but it didn't quite turn out the way that I had expected or hoped! So this was the end result, not as good as I'd hoped that it would be but never mind. Hopefully he'll like it as he is a Bob fan.

PIF CANDY!

I would like to say a huge thank you to Tracey who sent me this wonderful card and blog candy yesterday. I am really looking forward to having a play with them, especially the stamped Magnolia images as I have been looking to buy some of these recently. As I have been lucky enough now to win two lots of PIF (Pass It Forward) blog candy as I won some from another Tracy a few weeks ago, I am going to offer some PIF candy to the first 6 bloggers who comment on this post. If you are lucky enough to win some candy from me, you then have to offer some PIF candy on your own blog in return.

All aboard the birthday train

Have been busy this morning making a birthday card for Lewis' friend Paul who will be two on Wednesday. Paul absolutely loves Thomas the Tank just like Lewis and probably any other boy that age so I decided that I would try to make a train card and it took me a lot longer than I expected! I am very happy with the end result and it was very different from any other card which I have made so far.

Nikiki’s Card Creations: 15,000 hits Blog Candy!

Nikki is offering the chance to win fab blog candy to celebrate 15,000 visits to her blog. What do you need to do to have a chance of winning I hear you ask? It’s very simple ………. All you need to do is visit her blog and leave a comment and then provide a link from your blog to hers. The winner will be drawn on Monday 7^th April! Go on……….. Good luck!

Nikki's Cards and News

Double whammy!

I've received the Arte Y Pico (Art & More) award from my SBS sisters Emma and Sammi. I can’t believe it, what a nice thing to wake up to. I’m thrilled. Thank you both of you! You should definitely go and check out their fabulous blogs if you haven’t already done so. Sammi lives in Australia and her blog can be found here: Sammi
Emma at the moment lives in Gibraltar but will soon be making her way to Scotland. Yipee! Her blog is here: Emma
I now have the opportunity to choose ten top bloggers ……… a difficult decision due to the amount of talent I spot on a daily basis ……….

The rules of this award are....
1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity,design,interesting material,and also contributes to the blogging community,no matter what language.
2. Each award has to give the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
4. Award winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of Arte y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5. To show these rules.

All of my blogging sisters have had this award already so I have chosen ten others who I'm passing it onto...

Simply Jools
Stash, stash and more stash
All that glitter
Doodles and swirls
Patterned Paper
Moonlight Inker
Natalie's Creative Corner
A Personal Touch
Cindersmcphee's Random Blog
Carpe Diem

All of their blogs are fantastic and have provided me with lots of inspiration, so go and check them out quickly!