New Addition to the family

hmmm ok I've been rubbish at keeping this up yet again! Can't believe its nearly a year since my last update. a lot has happened in that time, but the most important thing was very recent. I became a Grandmother!!!!



My beautiful daughter Rebekah gave birth to her beautiful little girl Rachael Lily Annabel on 8th February 2011 and she weighed in at 7lb 8oz. Mother and baby are both doing well. Rachael is gorgeous!!! But then I am just a little biased in that opinion.
Here are a few photos to show how the family are all besotted with her.

this is her with Mum, it's so weird to think that my baby now has a baby!!


Grandad is in love again! lolHere is a very proud uncle Lewis trying hard to look cool, but you can tell she has melted his heart too.

Rachael was just 4 hours old when this was taken! I was in awe of the miracle of new life yet again!



Another very proud uncle. this is my Greg he is totally besotted with her! Can't you tell?

My favourite cards made in last 3 months

This is a wedding card made for my friends mum and Stepdad. She asked me to make it after she saw the birthday card below.
This was made for my best friend Emma. shes an awesome friend so only the best for her.
I made this when Jean left our school for a job elsewhere. She will be greatly missed. I really love how her card turned out although that hydrangea cut is sooo fiddly to do lol.
Im loving using peeloff butterflies on acetate to make the wings transparent. I think the shadow cast adds such a lovely dimension to the cards.
And this is my absolute favourite so far. I used the hibiscus corner feature on Storybook cartridge, cut it three times and cut the centre flower out alone for the top layer. Cuttlebug border embossing, cut'n'emboss butterfly and liquid pearls finished it off perfectly.


lol do you see a theme?

More Easel cards

I like this one I did the decoupage ages ago but had no inspiration to use it. The easel cards seemed the right way to use it.

the greeting on the holographic panel says "Birthday Wishes" that stuff is so hard to photograph!
Jennie loved this almost as much as I loved making it.
Another lovely butterfly from the Indie Art cricut cartridge.

Easel cards - my new addiction

I got the inspiration for these cards from the cicut message board and now I've tried them I can't make any other style lol

I made this card to use up the dimensional stickers which I have had for a while. they look very effective on this card.

this is a Mothers day card made for the grandma of a colleague at work.


Mothers day cards. I made 7 of these for colleagues at work, in varying colour schemes but all to similar designs to the next two cards.
I had forgotten how much hard work the hydrangea cut was so I only made one of those, the rest were roses.

creative February

February was a busy month crafting.
I made this sympathy in soothing black, white and silver.
There are lots of layers, silver peel off stickers and embossing, finished off with a stamp to say
"thinking of you at this difficult time" Inside is another stamp reading *Praying for you"


Another sympathy card again in black and wite.
I embosssed the birdsong folder on shiny white card and added white pearl drops to the grasses. I also embossed a black piece and cut out the bird to add contrast.

these butterflies are made of acetate and spring out when taken from the envelope. I left this one blank so it could be used for any occasion.

This is my favourite card made this month. It is for my husband on our 25th Wedding Anniversary which is on 2nd March. I just love the backing papers I used on this, they are so textured and pretty.

Daisies

This is a Dasiy made for a lady whose surname is Teal, the detail inside is posted above. I loved the colour combo on this one.


Gold daisy on an embossed black background. this was very dramatic and sold within five minutes of getting to work lol.
this is the same card despite lookin ga very different colour.

Fab card made by Emma

This is a fab card that my mate Emma made (under some instruction).

She did such an amazing job of it, lol she really has caught the craft bug.

more Winter Crafts

And here are some more cards (Told you I had some catching up to do)

The folowing pics are all of the same card but it's so detailed it needs to be viewed from several angles.

Catching up

I have a lot of catching up to do so here are a few cards I have made.
above is a Joy fold card, which is actually like a large card with a smaller one attached to the front overlaping its fold. It makes an interesting and unique design.

I love this lily decoupage and especially the torn paper effect i used to layer it.

More of the goodness of God

Me and Christine my wee pal from Edinburgh. Ooh we had a giggle. Love ya loads Christine. one of these days we will go see Cliff together!!!
Lisa and Steve. Steve's a scouser and it shows. What a nutter!!!! He's a bringer of fun and laughter but also has a serious side. Steve I will never forget how God used you to bless me this weekend.
Graham the mad weegie (He's from Glasgow)
Carl came over from Ireland to join the madness on the mainland. Carl you are a joy to know. a real inspiration.
hmmmmm they were hearing voices! Adrian you do make me laugh and I love ya loads bro. and Steve my wee pal from over the water in Liverpool. I so needed a good giggle that weekend and you made sure I got it!!! thanks.

This is the third photo Lisa has shown up in so I wont say any more about her lol.

The goodness of God

Well its been an eventful summer.I have been blessed with great friends in my life. Many of them unfortunately live a long way from me. However a couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of meeting up with a lot of them for an awesome weekend of fun and fellowship in Manchester. We laughed, we walked, we talked. We laughed some more and enjoyed good meals together. We chatted well into the night before retiring in our hotel and then enjoyed worshipping God together in church.

Many of these friends I had never met in person before (we are interneet chat pals). and yet that weekend it was like we had known each other for years a reunion between long standing friends. Some had burdens to share and we shared freely and bore each others burdens. This brought more love and freedom than we could have imagined. It has deepened our friendships.

We even had the privilege a few days later to see two of our friends finding a deeper assurance of love in Jesus as they gave their lives to Him. since then God is continuing to work on me. I am a complicated person lol he has a lot of work on His hands, but I am rejoicing that He is not shying away from the workload and has begun a new work in me.

He is an awesome God, and no matter how soiled I am, He loves me and He has cleansed me ready for His work. It will never cease to amaze me how God can use even me for His Kingdom. He is so powerful, so wonderful, so loving, so merciful.

WOW what can I say?? I love Him and I always will.

Here are some photos of the weekendSammy and Jon. A lovely couple who are looking forward to marriage next January. God bless you both, you are a beautiful couple.

Ritchie, Emma and Stacey. three wonderful friends who bring fun and laughter into my life as well as reminding me how great God is.

Dan and Lele - another lovely couple preparing to start their marriage next year. You can't help but giggle when these two are around they are such fun. Beautiful and loved children of God! what a joy to know them.

Lisa is a Mighty warrior for God. Satan watch out when this girl is around.
John is a well loved friend who loves God and shares that love with all he meets.

This is me and Emma. I thank God for sending me such an incredible blessing on my llife in this girl. She rocks. For my cricut friends. the card that got a mention in the Chirp (Give your troubles to God, he'll be up all night anyway) was for Emma.

more summer crafts

I'm enjoying decoupage again. this pansy decoupage is quite deep with 7 layers.


another decoupage. not quite as deep as the pansies but very calming and beautiful.
this one is much more girly than my usual style. the baasket ws salvaged from a shop bought card, and I added all sorts of flowers, including rhinestone flowers and sequins.
I had these odd shped panels in a card kit and it took a while for me to figure out how to use them. this layout is growing on me andi really like the stamped butterfly which I cut out and mounted on pop dots.
Finally this is the Cross Key holder I made for Emma, to accompany the card which was in the previous post. the cross is cut several times on my cricut machine. Glued together to give depth and then embossed with glossy embossing powder to make it look like a ceramic tile. the top layer of card has a marble pattern on it for extra effect, and the torquoise backing is glittered.