Sugar Nellie

I've just been told by the Hubster that tomorrow is the planned day that we change internet providers. At some point during the day we will lose the internet connection with our current supplier, but will be transferred to the new provider later in the day. The last time we changed we had no internet for a week!
So if I'm not around and about you'll know why.
I've no new cards to show, I am working away on stuff which can't be blogged just yet. So instead I thought I'd show an older card. I tend to show only the cards that I'm relatively happy with, but I've got plenty that I don't like and haven't shown. I suppose this card illustrates how we change and develop, how our own tastes alter.

Image is of course a Sugar Nellie Manga, I adore this image! I was quite new to colouring with DI's when I made this card so it's not the best attempt. The DP is MME, and I do like most of the papers in this range, but the gingham one looks blurry and out of focus - and not just in my photo! I have a big box full of these flowers, I bought them because everyone else was using them - I must've been going through a "sheep" phase and following along behind everyone else - but the truth is that I don't really use them much anymore.
I've seen some amazing floral arrangements on other peoples cards and I love them, but I just don't like them on my cards.

It's my boys birthday in a couple of weeks, sweet 16 and never been kissed? Yeah right! So I've planned a followers/commentors candy in honour of the occasion, I'm just waiting for a couple of bits to turn up yet.
Hopefully I'll be popping by your blogs tomorrow, but if I'm MIA at least you'll all know why.
Thanks for looking and any comments you may leave.
Love Elaine xx

WOYWS and Guess Where I've Been This Weekend!

I know it should be WOYWW, but it's Sunday today and I thought I would show you my workdesk.
Now my little crafty space is normally clean, tidy and shipshape. The working area of my desk is empty unless I'm actually working on it. So there wouldn't be a lot to look at if I took a photo of my desk on a Wednesday. Today, however, my workdesk is full and looks like this:

(Sorry about the rubbish photo!)

So, can you guess where I disappeared to for the weekend?

Harrogate! I only attend the Harrogate shows each year, one in March and this one, as I do enjoy this show the most. As always it was jam packed full and very, very hot inside the showroom.

As you can probably tell, I did manage to find a few things to buy! It's not ALL for me, some of the goodies are for gifts - it's a friends birthday in a couple of weeks so I took the opportunity to buy her present whilst I was there. I had a thoroughly enjoyable day shopping, if a little tiring

As always, I had to go and see the lovely Jill from The Hobby House.  Jill is such a sweet person and of course she does sell the best stuff ever, it's my favourite stall and I always keep a stash of money seperately just to spend there.

I do need to say a really big THANK YOU to someone very special. My dearest Hubby drove me to Harrogate to the show and then went back home. Then drove back to collect me. The poor love spent 6 hours of his Saturday being my personal chauffeur! On top of that, he donated a very large sum of money to the cause (my crafting addiction) otherwise the workdesk wouldn't have been half as full.

Thank you Philip, you've always been my star.

So now you all know why I've not been around in blogland this weekend - having too much fun shopping!

Thanks for looking.

Love Elaine xx

Sugar Bowl Challenge 43

Good morning everyone. It's Thursday, so time for another fabulous Sugar Bowl Challenge. The sketch for this challenge has been provided by Sweetie Judy and the option is buttons.
Now I thought this was a lovely sketch. Nice and easy, just the way I like them, and surely everyone has a stash of buttons? Except me it seems. I hunted high and low to find a few humble buttons.
Then I had such a hard time trying to make this card, it was definitely one-of-those-days. I scored my card to make the base, using my trusty Scor-pal, and I managed to make a crooked card. In the bin it went and I started again. After the base was made I cut the DP with my guillotine. Is there only me on the planet who can cut paper wonky on a guillotine? In the bin in went. The next DP I cut too small arrrrgh!
Walk away, make a brew and start again. Cut the paper straight and the correct size and stick it down..........skew-whiffy! (For those who don't know, skew-whiffy means cock-eyed, crooked, wonky etc).
It took me 8 hours to produce this card, and that really is no exaggeration. 8 hours, 6 cuppas and one felled tree with all the paper I wasted. Not a good or productive day and not a favourite card, but I do love this image.

The image is a Leanne Ellis called "Catch a falling star" available to buy HERE. The DP is Kaiser Crafts 'Wish Upon' range, the sentiment is from Elzybells, the beautiful doily was a gift from my buddy
Gayle - thanks luv. Four buttons, three pearls and a bit of ribbon. She's coloured as always with DI's.

Another amazing prize is on offer for one lucky person. Either the 4 new Christmas Manga stamps OR the 4 new Christmas Country Cousins stamps plus two sets of Personal Impressions word stamps and a Papermania Black and White embellishment set  from the Capsule Collection which includes bling, buttons, glitter and bows. How's that for a wowzer of a prize?
All the details are on the Challenge Blog and don't forget to visit the other Sweeties for some inspiration.
Before I sign off, on my last post I did mention that Gayle is running a competition to find some new Sweeties. Rules of entry are easy peasy, so what are you waiting for? Pop over HERE for all the details and get your entries in.
Thanks for looking and for any comments you may leave.
Love Elaine xx

Sweet News, Blog Candy Winner & Chubby Fairies.

I've lots to tell you, but I'll try and keep it short rather than my usual long and waffling posts!
Firstly, thank you so much for all your lovely comments on yesterdays Sugar Nellie blog hop. I was more than a little nervous never having done a hop before but I think it all worked out splendidly and I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did.
Secondly, Gayle is running a competition to find some new Sweeties for the Sugar Bowl. The rules of entry are very, very simple. You need to be a Sugar addict, own several Sugar Nellie stamps (available to buy Here ) and most importantly enjoy using them. You must have an active blog, be it a new blog, or an older one, no age discrimination at the Sugar Bowl! And lastly you will need the time to make one card per fortnight, comment on Sugar Bowl entries and submit the occasional sketch.
Now I know how many talented crafters there are out in blogland, I visit your blogs! So pop over HERE and get your entries in, I'll be checking up on you all!
Thirdly, I totally forgot to post my blog candy winner. I think it was with all the excitement yesterday.
The boy did his job and picked a slip out of the jar, and so the winner is:

Congratulations Christine (aka Nana Seaside's) if you can email me and I will get your stamps posted off to you.
Lastly, if you're still awake, a card. Now if you're a regular visitor you'll know I don't care much for these particular stamps, but then I found these and I am in lurrrrrve!

Every time I open the packet to take one out they start singing to me, and they all sound just like the walrus of love himself Barry White. That's how much I love them!
I'm not sure what they are called apart from kit 7, but I call them Chubby Baby Fairies and I do love them - did I say that already?
So you know the image is a hAnglar, DP is Memory Box, a few pearls and a punched flower. I kept it simple as she is a rather Chubby stamp and there wasn't much room left on the card.
I guess it's turned out to be a long post again blah blah blah.
Thanks for looking and for any comments you may leave.
Love Elaine xx

Sugar Nellie "A Recipe for all Seasons" Blog Hop.

Good morning everyone and welcome to my little contribution to the Sugar Nellie "A Recipe for all Seasons" Blog Hop. If you arrived here from Denas blog then you're on the right path.
So, I flicked through my recipe book and decided to pick one of Lilians beautiful recipes, which is also the current challenge on the Sugar Bowl. I wanted to show you that they can be used for any occasion and any season. Now I'm no Nigella or Delia in the kitchen, so I picked a nice and easy recipe. When you first bake a cake you start off with a plain victoria sponge, then you can add your own flavourings, fillings and toppings as you fancy. This recipe is no different. A beautiful and simple recipe that you can add your own toppings to, as plain or as fancy as you choose.
Lets start by gathering the ingredients. You will need:
1 card blank.
1 sheet Bazzill cardstock.
2 sheets of designer paper, I chose Basic Greys Eskimo Kisses.
1 suitable sentiment.
1 Prima poinsettia flower.
1 pearl brad.
A pinch of glitter (to taste) and lastly
1 sprinkling of love, always makes my cakes that bit sweeter.

Method:
Start in the kitchen (craft room), make sure all the work surfaces are clean, turn on the oven to heat up (turn on my laptop and go on the Sugar Bowl blog) and find the recipe (challenge) I want to bake.
Next, turn on the radio (Ipod) and spend a lovely hour creating a cake I hope everyone will enjoy, all the while singing very loudly and very badly!
I don't have a very sweet tooth (unless it's the Scottish calorie free sugar) and I prefer my cakes to be plain and simple, so there's only a little icing on top.
Cooking time is approximately 1 hour excluding preparation (stamping and colouring the image).
If your not sure if the cake is ready or not, I advise walking away for a little while, make a coffee, tidy up the kitchen and more often than not when you go back and peek in the oven you'll see the cake doesn't require any more baking!

I hope you've enjoyed my culinary lesson, and I hope you like my cake.
Your next stop along the blog hop is to the lovely Janiels blog. This is Janiels last project on the DT, so I hope you'll all wish her a fond farewell and good luck in her new ventures.

Thank you for looking and for any comments you may leave.
Love Elaine xx

Blog Candy, Hubbys Birthday Card and Waffle

ETA THIS CANDY HAS NOW CLOSED.
This post will stay at the top, so please scroll down for any new posts.
It's going to be a long one, so grab a cuppa or even take a nap first! Feel free to scroll down and miss out the waffle, I won't be offended.
Darling hubby flew off this morning to sunny Spain, to spend some time with his sister, her hubby and two little ones. So peace reigns supreme in our household. Just me, the boy and two cats. Feels kinda quiet already! I think Hal is looking forward to a Dad free week. Phil was off work last week too, and Phil being related to Bagpuss has the philosophy of "I'm up so everyone's up", hence he was waking Hal up each morning. I, on the other hand, have a different outlook on life. My view is that Hal has a lifetime ahead of him when he'll have to get out of bed in the morning (as opposed to 2pm!) to go to work, so I leave him to snooze. Plus when he's asleep he's no trouble whatsoever!

I have made cards this week but couldn't post them until after the occasions.
I'll just show one today, don't want to shock you all by showing two in one day!

I'm sure you all know by now that I just don't do men's cards. But I needed a card for my hubby so out came this little guy by Mo Manning. I adore the look on his face,he's having a right old tantrum! The verse inside is an old Penny Black stamp that says "It's your birthday whether you like it or not". I know it's a strange image to use on hubby's card, but he loved it. Image available Here, DP is my all time favourite Cosmo Cricket Early Bird. Toby's been coloured with Di's as always. No embellies whatsoever!!
So hubby asked if I would be doing a blog candy in honour of his birthday? I think he's feeling left out.
Believe me, he's never left out. My bestest buddy Gayle sent hubby the most amazing chocolate brownies in the world. She really knows the way to my hubbys heart, it's a direct link through his stomach.
Now I can take or leave chocolate, cakes, biscuits etc I'd rather have a bag of crisps anyday. But I tell you no lies, those brownies are surely the work of the devil, they are so yummy. Hubby was definitely NOT for sharing them around.
I'm waffling again, back to the candy.
Anyone fancy some new rubber from Scotlands finest rubber stamp company?
My little candy is 4 New Christmas Mangas from Sugar Nellie plus whatever else I find in the meantime.
Candy is open to UK residents only, just leave me a comment after this post saying you want to join in the candy. It will close at 8am on Saturday 4th September.
Have you read todays post on the Sugar Nellie Blog? They're having a blog hop next Saturday so I'm looking forward to seeing that.
I hope I've not sent everyone to sleep?
Thanks for looking and for any comments you may leave.
Love Elaine xx

Flying Visit!

I'm on a flying visit, I've got a pile of jobs to get done before I crawl into bed tonight!
I just wanted to say that my Sugar Nellie blog candy ends tomorrow morning at 8am. The boy will do his usual job of drawing a name from the hat/jar/bin etc, but I know it will after lunchtime as he doesn't get out of bed before then!
Have you all been over to the Sugar Nellie Blog? Karen has a fab candy on offer, 4 new Manga Christmas stamps and 1 new Mary Hall Christmas stamp but of course, you've got to be in it to win it!
Tomorrow morning sees the Sugar Nellie "Recipe for all seasons" blog hop, it all kicks off at 9am bst, and I hope you'll all join in the blog hop, especially as I'm a guest.
Don't tell anyone but I've never done a blog hop before! My other snippet of good news, and I know some of you know this already and thank you for your good wishes, is I'm now a member of the Sugar Nellie DT. You can probably imagine how excited, thrilled, delighted and honoured I was to be asked by Karen (and terrified too!) and I am very much looking forward to it, and I hope you will like what I have to offer.
I have had a sneaky peak at some of the new artwork, ready to be made into rubber stamps for release later in the year, and it is absolutely amazing! I can't wait to get my inky mitts on it.
Right, I'm off to get the rest of my jobs done, and hopefully I will see you all tomorrow.
Love Elaine xx