Springtime........I hope!

Nope, this is no April Fool........I am really here, on my blog! Has it really been a week since my last post? Yet again I'm wondering where the days went. Anyhow, I am really seriously willing Spring to arrive, as I'm really tired of the persistent dregs of snow still loitering. To help things along I have a yummy card for you, using as always, a superbly cute image by Lori Boyd, which you can find over at the Lollipop Shop. Full of the joys of Spring, here's Puddle Jumper Tabitha.......... Suhweet! I've coloured again with Copic's, and papers are from a 6"x6" My Minds Eye (Stella and Rose) pad. A touch of ribbon, a button and some baker's twine, and we're done! I'll be back later with some challenge hopefuls, but for now, have a very 'Springlike' day! Jayne.x.

You're A Star!

Well that was a fun week..........March break at home with the kiddies and an unwelcome stomach bug! Think I must have upset someone in a previous life. Anyhow, things picked up toward the end of the week, so we got out to burn off a little of that energy.

I'm finally here to post my Lori Boyd creation that's been sitting on my desk for a while. Do you remember the card I made for eldest DD in honour of the dance recital? (You can check it out here if you feel inclined) Well today I have the younger version, for my youngest DD.........here's Ballet Mouse.........

You can find 'Ballet Mouse' over at the Lollipop Shop of course.

I've coloured today with Prisma pencils and papers are a mixture of October Afternoon (Campfire) and Martha Stewart, both embossed. So, you may guess that DD's favourite colour is 'red', hence the overdose of said colour. Also, you can't really tell from the photo, but this little mouse is covered in plenty of sparkle. Thought I'd also use some Tulle for a change to liven things up.

Well, that's about it for today......short and sweet!

Enjoy the weekend and I'll see you tomorrow.

Jayne.x.

New Year......New Challenge.......and a great big 'Hi'!

Hello......I'm back! Today's an exciting day.........the first ever by Lori Designs 'Challenge'! To kick things off, we're starting with a colour challenge so here are our first contenders.......... Now, I'm not all that technical when it comes to colour terms.......the closest I get to being anywhere near name specific is when I'm forced to picked a new 'wall' colour from Benjamin Moore paint swatches! So, that said, the colour challenge this week, in my terms (and no offense to the Stamping Up fraternity out there!) is dark pink, light pink, turquoise blue and an olive green. If you have all these in your challenge entry, you're on the right track.

Here's my effort..........

Now, I know I've used a fair bit of white on here ie. the background, but I had an idea of what I wanted to do, and every time I put a PP behind there, the images got a little lost. I made sure I included all the colours in the images and embellies instead.

These two cuties are of course Lori Boyd creations, which you can find over at the Lollipop Shop ......... 'Lollipop Abby' and 'Sugar Stick Dog'. I paper pieced Abby's outfit and coloured the rest of her, and the dog with Copic markers. Oh, almost forgot, I did use a little Prisma pencil on her cheeks. The banner/bunting is hand cut from scraps, which I embossed using a Cuttlebug folder, then added chipboard letters. I used a little olive green embroidery floss as the 'rope', and the sunshine cloud is actually the top of a Maya Road chipboard tree, which I covered again with a Cuttlebug embossed scrap and inked. I stitched around the edge of the card using two different coloured threads and............Voila.......done!

I hope you get a chance to join in this weeks challenge, so hop on over to the Lollipop Shop and take a look at the other DT creations, for some awesome inspiration.

I'll be back here later with some challenge entries, so till then........have a great day!

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Challenges entered:

Simply Create - #34 I'm the Boss.........embossing

CES Challenges - #17 Anything Goes

Catch The Bug Challenge Blog - Anything Goes

I Did It Creations Challenge Blog - #36 Favourite technique.............I'm undecided between embossing or stitching!

Aly's Sunday Sketch - #32 Anything Goes

Scrappy Frogs Challenge Blog - Sentimental

Kaboodle Doodle Challenge Blog - #48 Anything Goes

Tuesday Throwdown - #30 Embossing

Crafty Sentiments Designs Challenge Blog - Anything Goes

Ready for a challenge?........

Hi everyone..........I'm still here I promise! Just dropping in to hope you all had a lovely Christmas, and wishing you a very Happy and Healthy New Year.

I need to get my crafting mojo in motion, as I've been too busy enjoying the festivities to get anything else done and, oh did I mention working!

Hopefully I'll be back soon with a few projects to show you, but for now I just wanted to share a little of the exciting stuff going on at byLoriDesigns.

First up........are you ready for a challenge (or two!)..............

Yep, starting January 6th we all get to jump in feet first and play along with those Lollipops and Sugarsticks so be sure to check it out at the Lollipop Shop.

Secondly........can you handle the excitement......could there possibly be more? Oh yes..........if you're up to the challenge, and ever wanted the chance to play with the cutest Lori Boyd creations on a weekly basis, then here's your chance..........

Be sure to hop over to the Lollipop Shop and check out all the details and I'll see you there.

Happy New Year!

Baby No.3 !!!!

Good morning all. Hope you're having a good week. Only 1 more day until the mini adults start their Christmas vacation, so if you're anything like me, I'm frantically running around trying to tie up loose ends ie. scouring the stores to find those last few stubborn gifts that do not want to be found!

Thought I'd visit again today with the last of my triplet of baby cards. This one, again for another pink bundle, but......it's not pink, and I'm not awarding prizes for anyone who can guess which colour it is! Here's Baby Olivia...............



Another sweetie designed by Lori Boyd, which as usual you can find over at the Lollipop Shop.

So, of course I went with lilac..........apart from it being the other obvious colour for babies of the girlie variety, I'm informed by the expectant Mom that the nursery is being painted in 'said' colour.

DP's are again from Martha Stewart, and I cut and embossed the 'stroller stamp' from white cardstock using the folder included with my Cuttlebug. Couldn't resist adding those button wheels - cute! The scalloped circle is cut using a Nestie and I obviously threaded white ribbon through and added a charm. The white rick rack is from my stash and lastly, I stamped 'New Baby' directly on there. Sweet!

I was originally going to give these cards upon the babies arrivals, but since seeing the beautiful new baby girl drawings created by Mo Manning recently, I'm thinking these will be given at the baby showers, and 2 new cards will be made!

I'm off to hunt down some challenges for this sweetie.........pickings are a little slim right now as everything is geared toward Christmas, but.......... I shall persevere!

Remember, don't get swamped by the gift shopping. I'll leave you with the words of 'the Grinch' which I used on a card recently (and which I am trying to abide by......really!)...........

"Maybe Christmas", he thought "doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps means a little bit more".

Have a great day.

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Challenges entered:

Other Lovelies - Thoughtful Thursday #37 The letter 'N' (New Baby)

Crafty Sentiments Designs Challenge Blog - Anything Goes

Sweet Stampin Challenge Blog - Recipe, 3 papers, 2 embellishments, 1 image.

CES Challenges - #16 Anything but a Christmas card

The Crafty Pad Challenge Blog - #101 Embossing

The Crazy Challenge - #45 Use at least 3 DP

Karber Weekly Challenge - #18 Anything Goes using a Digi

Congrats for Grandma!

Good Monday morning......at least it would be if we hadn't had a huge dump of snow throughout last night, and still persisting this morning! I certainly have no intention of heading out today, so I thought I'd make the effort and visit 'blogland'.......2 days in a row! I will try to be a more frequent visitor this week, especially as my scrapping friend Dee is probably getting tired of sitting with coffee in hand every morning, waiting for little old Miss No Show here!

On to business......a card no doubt. Remember a while back, I mentioned I had to make 3 baby cards - 2 for colleagues expecting pink bundles early next year, and the other for a first time Grandma, who's bundle of 'boy' arrived last month? Anyhow, so far I've only ever posted one card, which you can check out here if you really feel the urge to. Today, I'm here with the second......Grandma's 'Congratulations' card...........


This is another sweet image designed by Lori Boyd called Sugar Stick Girl with Stroller, and you can find her of course over at the Lollipop Shop. I thought I'd do some paper piecing on here and I really love this digi paper, which I picked up as a freebie from Pop"N"Stick a while back. I thought it would work perfectly for a Grandma type of card.....not too 'babyish'.

I coloured what was left of the image using mainly Copic's and a touch of Prisma's. Now don't examine her face too closely (I know that's exactly what you will now do!) but this is what happens when your E000 marker is practically dried out, and you are desperately trying to coax the last dying dregs from it..............a girl with a far from satisfactory spray tan session! Never fear, I've recently purchased a new marker.

I added a couple of brads to serve as wheels, a ticket with a rub-on, doodled around the edge of the DP, added ribbon and a safety pin........done. I like this card, but then again, I do have a 'thing' for plaid!

This little lady will be wheeling her way into the following challenges:

Karber Weekly Challenge - #18 Anything Goes

Creative Card Crew Challenge - Anything Goes

Delicious Doodles - #4 Recipe.....use 1 image, 2 DP's, 3 embellishments

Totally Papercrafts Challenge - #46 Paper piecing

Marks Finest Papers - #33 Paper piecing

CES Challenges - #16 Anything but a Christmas Card

Bye for now.

Baby it's cold outside.........

Hi, it's me dropping in to say a quick hello with a card that has been sitting waiting to be 'blogged' so to speak, for over a week. I don't have much time, so let's get to it.
Here's another Lori Boyd creation.......I will be back with a different variety of digi soon (I promise!), it's just that I had a little colouring frenzy recently will all the new releases from byLoriDesigns - they're addictive! So, as I was saying .......here's Winter Dana and Penny...........

You can obviously find these sweet Puddle Jumpers over at the Lollipop Shop. I decided to go with a non-traditional colour scheme, mainly because I couldn't wait any longer to cut into this beautiful line of Christmas papers from Bo Bunny...........they've been burning a hole in my stash for a few weeks now and the colours are so pretty.

Dana and Penny were coloured this time around with..........Copic's, yep the Copic markers made an appearance once again. I'm getting quite attached to them.....it's like revisiting an old friendship! lol Ribbon and embroidery floss is from my stash, and the cute snowflake button is one of a bunch I picked up from my favourite local scrapbook store TSF, not sure of the make. I used a Fiskars punch to create the border and the extra snowflakes have been punched from the paper, layered and glittered. Oh, almost forgot, the Christmas tree is cut from another sheet of paper and 'popped' and the sentiment is printed directly onto this using my PC.

That's about all for now, except of course the challenges this will entered into. I'll be back later after hunting some down.

Have a great day......keep warm!

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Challenges being entered are as follows:

The Creative Cottage Challenge Blog - #28 Untraditional Christmas

Crafts and Me Challenges - White Christmas (snowflakes)

Totally Papercrafts Challenge - Untraditional Christmas

Fairy Fun Fridays - #40 Buttons and Bows

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge - #60 Christmas

Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge - Christmas with No Red and Green

Stampin' for the Weekend - #51 Winter

Stamp It Crazy - #15 Christmas

Stamps R Us - #10 Holiday Cards

The One Stop Craft Challenge Blog - #108 Christmas Cuties

Sweet Pea..........

Tis' the season......for babies that is! I'm caught in the middle of a slight baby boom right now.........not my own offspring of course, but from a number of work colleague's. Card requirements are.........2 'girlie' cards for EDD's in Feb and 1 'boyish' card for a brand spanking new, first time Grandma, who's 'Grand' bundle arrived on Saturday! Hmmmm, maybe I should make that one, as I haven't even started it.........but I have made a girlie card so here's the first...........Sweet Pea Baby Addy.........

Now, who do we think of for baby images..........Lori Boyd of course! Sweet Pea Baby Addy is, I think, a little preview I was fortunate enough to be allowed to play with, so I don't think she's available yet. However there are plenty more cuties available at the Lollipop Shop...........super sweet if I say so myself. I did crop the original image slightly, purely because I was determined to use my lacy 'square' Nestie with ribbon threaded through, and Baby Addy is actually slightly rectangular, with a frame around her.

So, did ya notice something......AGAIN! No pencils, only Copic's, am I on a roll or what? I'll let you into a little secret.....it's not the last........there are more to come! Can you stand the suspense and anticipation? Yes, I'm sure you can, so let's move on.

DP's here are from my trusty Martha Stewart pad, and that embossed postage stamp, some of you Cuttlebug owners may recognize, was included within the 'Starter' package when I first bought it. There are also a few $$ store finds on here........white lace, pink ribbon and that really cute little girl charm (or maybe doll, I'm not quite sure!). Lastly I used a Fiskars punch for the trim.

I'll be back with my second 'girlie' card at some stage, and guess what......it's not pink. Any wild ideas as to what colour it might be?

One last thing..........there are more 'new' digi's available from byLoriDesigns at the Lollipop Shop Christmas ones! Woooohoooo! Here's a little glimpse..........

They are awesome and I've been lucky enough to get to play with them the last few days, so I'll be back at some point with those too.

Addy will be entered into the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Cut It Out

A Spoonful Of Sugar - #131 Anything Goes

Artful INKables - #34 Use punches and/or Die cuts

Charisma Cardz - #46 Babies

Allsorts Challenge Blog - #79 Recipe......lace, ribbon and a charm

Crafty Emma's Store Challenges - #13 Lovely Lace

Karber Weekly Challenge - #15 Use 2 or more DP and a Digi

See ya later.

A 'Sweet' New Release and Blog Hop.

This is my second post of the day, so if you're looking for my OSAAT DT creation please scroll down.

Now, today is pretty exciting as we are graced with another deliciously sweet release of new digi's from By Lori Designs. They are awesome as always, so to celebrate, we are having a little blog hop with the chance of winning the whole new release.........that's George and Tammy, Sugarstick Cat and Dog and Lollipop Princess! Wow!

My offering today, isn't actually using one of the new releases, as I have been playing catch up, trying to create 2 New Baby cards for 2 ladies within my scrapping circle (who's babies are now 3 & 6 weeks old!). Now, you can't make baby cards without a Lollipop immediately springing to mind, so here are my bundle(s) of joy, using Baby McCoy..............

............in green..........

...........and in blue...........

Too cute, and I'm quite proud of the fact that I only used Copics...........what, no Prisma's! Maybe it's the fact that I only had to colour faces, tummies and a fraction of a diaper! I paper pieced various parts of the babies, and DP's are from Martha Stewart. The cards are also based on a sketch over at Inspired Crafters.

So, if you would like to be in with a chance of winning some goodies, hop on over to The Lollipop Shop, then visit each of the other DT girls. Don't forget to leave a comment on each blog ( you have until midnight Tuesday) then one lucky winner will be drawn randomly and announced at the Lollipop Shop on Wednesday. Here's a link for the rest of the girls, together with our guest designer for this month, Cara:

Lori B. Andrea G. Arielle G. Hannah B. Jane B. Jayne M. Linda L. Sheri G. sherryann Vera R. Cara E.

Happy Hopping!

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These little cuties will be crawling into the following challenges:

Paper Sundaes Challenge Blog - #39 A Change of Season

Pixie Dust Studio Challenge - #43 Sweet Baby

Tellen's Place - Use 2 patterned papers

Craft Your Days Away - #5 Babies

The Pixie Cottage - #39 Sketch and/or embossing

Are you smarter than a 2nd Grader?...........

............hmmmmm..............good question, well if we're talking about my dd, and I'm having a bad day..........possibly 'No'! (heehee) But I can make cards better than a......a.......oh I don't know, but I can make cards OK! So here's today's offering............



Isn't she a sweetie? There are at least two reasons for making this card, maybe more if I can get my act together and hunt down some challenges to enter this into. The first goes like this.........remember the Good Luck card I made the other day to mark the occasion of my youngest starting Kindergarten? Well, I showed it to my eldest and was rewarded with the phrase we all love to hear......."Where's my card.....I want one!" So the (one sided)(on my part) conversation went something like this.........

"But you don't need a card, you're a big girl"......."It's not your very first day of school"........"You don't need any Good Luck to find your way around"........"You're in 2nd Grade"..........................."OK, I'll make you a card!"..........Get the picture?


So here's the deets. I used the 'schoolgirl' digi image from The Lollipop Shop, created by of course, Ms Lori Boyd, and I'll be getting into that more in a moment. I paper pieced her dress, sweater and hair bow, and I coloured with the usual, Prisma's and a touch of Copics. I finally used the 'numeric' tape I've been holding onto for so long I can't remember who makes it (Making Memories I think) and my new Fiskars punch.......now I know it's not quite straight......don't be 'hatin'.....it was after midnight when I created this! DP's are from Queen Martha and I do like the DIY chalkboard I threw together, after I decided I really needed one on there. Did I mention it was after midnight when this decision was made! Not a good idea, but after hunting down a chipboard frame, a scrap of black cardstock, a white pen and another scrap of woodgrain effect DP.......hey presto.......a chalkboard!


So, onto my second reason for making this card. Today marks the official launch of the brand new By Lori Designs 'Lollipop Shop', where you can now get a hold of all your super sweet digi images, created by Lori Boyd. "Oh Happy Day!" As I have been fortunate enough recently, to be included in the company of her sparkling, new, talented Design Team, we're all going to celebrate the occasion by having a little fun. It's time to get hopping for your chance to win a nice little fix of sweet treats! If you hop on over to The Lollipop Shop you'll find the full instructions, but basically, you need to start at the store, then visit each of the DT's blogs (in no particular order) and leave a comment in order to qualify. You have until midnight on Saturday and the winner of the sweet stash of digi's will be announced around 10am on Sunday.


Just in case you've arrived here....... mid hop.......so to speak, thanks for visiting and don't forget to leave a comment. Here's a list of the other gals you need to visit:


Lori B
Andrea G
Arielle G
Hannah B
Jane B
Linda L
Sheri G
Sherryann
Tanja H
Vera R

So........what ya waitin for?

Enjoy!


PS. I may be back later after I've scouted for challenges.

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OK, time has passed, I've scoured 'blogland' and this little baby will be entered into the following challenges:
Die Cut Dreams Challenge Blog - #65 Digital - Sweet Little Girl

Daisy Doodles Creative Challenges - #17 Keep It Simple - 1 digi image plus 1 embellishment

Critter Sketch Challenge Blog - #31 School

Karber Weekly Challenge - Challenge 5 - Card for a Girl


Fingers crossed!