Dilly Beans Stamps Challenge

Friday 25 January 2013
Morning everyone, I can just about feel my fingers again after doing the school run today, it must be the coldest it's been so far out there :-(

Today I am showing you my first design for Dilly Bean Stamps and the challenge over on the blog this week is to use metal accents on your projects.

What I love about being on a DT is that is stretches my imagination and makes me use stuff that I never normally do.  I've got brads and allsorts that are just sat unloved in a box and the ribbon slider that I've used on this card must have been in my stash for years.

For my card I have used the For My Friend - Framed digi stamp which is available here and if you visit the shop there is a fantastic offer on from now until Sunday to buy ten digi stamps and get ten free!!



I've coloured my image with Copics and paper pieced the hats and flower with papers from the Tilda Wintergarden pad.  I've also used these on the background.  My metal accents are the pink flower brads and the gorgeous enamel ribbon slider.

If you want to take part the challenge runs for a week and then we will pick a winner.  So do pop over and show us your creations, we love to see what you come up with.

Have a great day :-)

Shelly x

The Exciting News just keeps coming!

Tuesday 22 January 2013
Hi everyone, I've had a fantastic crafty day today after getting an unexpected day off from work because of the snow so I've been creating to my hearts content all day.

I don't know about you but my mind is always buzzing with ideas and I find myself lying awake at night thinking about card ideas.....amongst other things!  The other night while lying awake I got the iPad and started looking for some new digital stamp sites and I came across Silly Dilly Beans stamps.  These digis are seriously gorgeous and I knew I HAD to have some lol.  The next day I bought three (and then another few but don't tell Rich) and made this card....

As we are nearing Valentines Day I thought I would use a lovely pink and red combination and kept the card quite simple in design to let the image stand out.......it was murder not doing all the matting and layering and pricking and stitching and so on !! but I loved how it turned out.



I thought I would post it on Silly Bean's FB page as you do and then guess what.....I bet you will never guess!!!!

Megan, the lady who owns the company and designs the stamps sent me a message saying she loved my card and asking me to join their DT......cue lots of OMG's and happy dancing.....I couldn't believe it.  Of course I had to think about it....not :-) and now here I am one of the newest members of their very talented Design Team.

There is a new challenge on the blog every Friday and I will be showcasing my first card for them this Friday....

Tonight it's a bit of my child psychology course to do then I'm going to have a chill out and probably drop off on the sofa like normal.

Enjoy your evening everyone

Shelly xx

My First Crafty Boots DT Card

Monday 21 January 2013
Well here we go folks, here is my first DT card for http://www.craftyboots.com/.

I am so pleased to be part of this lovely team and I can't wait to show you more of the lovely stamps and goodies that are available.

This lovely is called Gifty Gwen and it's the first time I have ever used a Some Odd Girl stamp....isn't she gorgeous!  I've used papers from Carta Bella's Paris Girl pad and if I could own 100 of these pads that wouldn't be enough lol !



As always I've coloured her with Copics and used the sentiment from the set as well as the extra little gift stamp too.

You can buy this stamp and many others from the Some Odd Girl collection over at Crafty Boots so do pop over and take a look.

You can also visit the blog and see all the other DT girls designs:-)

Have a lovely snowy day...keep safe.

Shelly xx

.... and now the finished card!

Sunday 20 January 2013
Hi everyone.....how did it get to be Sunday night again :-(  Can't believe just how quickly this weekend has gone.  We've had great fun sledging this last couple of days and we are expecting more snow tomorrow so Megs is a happy bunny!

I finally got round to making a card using the image I showed you in my last post.  Rich bought me the gorgeous Carta Bella Paris Girl paper pad for Christmas and it's just LUSH:-)  I thought the papers would be perfect to go with my image and for once didn't go overboard on the matting and layering and let the image 'do the talking' so to speak.



I quite like the finished card and I will probably do some more black and white work in the future....but it will probably be one of those 'must try' things that are stored away in my brain, never finding the time to make it out and become reality lol !

Please pop by tomorrow when I will be showing you my first ever DT card for Crafty Boots, I'm really excited to show you it......although Megan's words to me when she saw it were 'oh mummy that's the worst card I've ever seen, I don't like the girl on it'......charming or what.....hopefully you won't have the same reaction :-)

See you tomorrow

Shelly xx

An Experiment

Thursday 17 January 2013
Hi everyone, have you got snow???  We have still got some lingering and the school run was like dancing on ice but I think we are expecting more tomorrow :-(  I don't mind it as long as I don't have to go out in it lol !

On my to-do list this weekend is to get round to returning comments to the lovely people who have left them and thank you to Sarah who left me a comment about using Google Chrome to be able to insert images into my blog again....thanks hun....it worked !

Next week I will be able to show you my first ever DT card for http://www.craftyboots.com/, I can't wait to show you, I am really pleased with it.  It is using a brand of images I've never used before but it was really fun to colour.

Today I just want to show you a little experiment I tried, not sure if it really worked but I had seen something ages ago in a craft magazine about colouring in black and white and I thought it looked amazing.  The lady had used pencils but I tried it with my Cool Grey Copics (C-1, C-2, C-3, C-5 and C-7) to see how it would work and I'm still not sure.  I decided at the end that it looked a bit flat so I used some RV000 to add a bit of highlighting here and there.  At the moment it is sat in my box of coloured images....it may appear on a card near you sometime soon lol !



BTW it's a Tiddly Inks image:-)

Been thinking about Megs all morning, she has been building up to this morning I think all week.  Started off the week at the school gate, she wasn't keen on going in but didn't cry, Tuesday she ran back to me for another cuddle but still didn't cry, yesterday a couple of times running back to me before she would go in and then today....we just couldn't get her to go in, poor Mrs Gill had a struggle getting her to go in she was crying so bad.  I had to walk away and leave her and it breaks my heart doing it but if I hang around she just runs back to me.  I know she will be fine once she gets in there but I wonder if she will ever get over it :-(

Anyhow have a lovely day

Shelly xx

Even MORE exciting news!

Monday 14 January 2013
Apologies for yet another blog absence:-(  Loads going on personally and just haven't had chance to blog even though I have been crafting away.

Can anyone help me......I've been trying to insert a picture and it won't give me the option to select a picture from my computer any more for some reason.  I don't know if I'm going mad but the only options I have are to upload from phone, Picasa web album (haven't even a clue what that is), from this blog or from a URL.  My blog is no use without pictures:-(

Also, can anyone help me with the codes that I need to put into my blog to show up a 'clickable' link within my post which will take you straight to a site or a product?  I used to have it written down but I got rid of it when I stopped blogging.

ANYWAY........onto my exciting news....I applied a while ago to be a Guest Designer for http://www.mymumscraftshop.co.uk/ and with everything going on I kind of gave up hope.  Well last night I was going about my business as you do on a Sunday night and up pops an email in my inbox inviting me to be Guest Designer for March for them!!!!!   I am over the moon to be picked.....I buy loads of my stuff from there and I love the other DT girls work so it made a crap day a whole lot better.

I've been creating a lot for a market night I'm having over on my FB page, Little Megs Cards, on 27 January so once I can work out how to add piccies again I will post some on here to show you.

Have a great day everyone.

Shelly xx

Exciting News !!!!!!!!!

Wednesday 2 January 2013
Hi all hope you have all recovered from the New Year festivities.  We were boring farts who were actually in bed before midnight!  I have to say I'm not the biggest fan of New Year but I have had a great start to 2013 with some exciting news.......I have been chosen as a Design Team Member for Crafty Boots......huge woooooohoooooooo!!!! 

I'm sorry I can't post a link at the moment because I need to remember from the depths of my memory before having Megs how to put links into my posts again.  Bearing in mind I struggle to remember what day it is most of the time I'm not holding out much hope of that happening.

My first design for them will be during the week of 21 January and I can't wait for my stamps to arrive so I can get creating.

Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to list all the other DT girls blogs on my sidebar (I haven't even had a chance to visit any of them yet) so you can see all their lovely creations.

Before I sign off here is a card I have just made for the hell of it using a Wee Stamps digi image I had coloured in a couple of weeks ago......in fact it may even be in an earlier blog post somewhere.  I dug out these Kaisercraft papers from my stash and thought they worked really well with the colours I had used and I am really pleased with it.



Anyway it's an early night for me tonight, we have been at the beach all day with Megs and all that sea air has made me tired.....nothing to do with the fact that I just can't stay up much past 9.00 these days, sea air or no sea air lol !!

Have a good night

Shelly xx