HAPPY BIRTHDAY

HAPPY NEW YEAR FOR 2025

Welcome to my blog.  I hope that everyone had a very 

Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year. 

I’m typing this post from my iPad so I’m a little slow.   I forgot my laptop as I’m at our beach house for our New Zealand summer.  The weather has been rather changeable so far as we haven’t been able to take the boat out yet.  

I hope you enjoy my sketches for 2025, they are coloured so you can see the layers as they are easier to follow.  I can’t wait to visit your blog entries. 

Sketch #295

A quick look at the inside of the card. 

Challenges I’m Entering:

1. Critter Crazy Challenge # 94 Anything Goes with a Critter *

2. Crafty Animals Challenge # 90 Animals *

3. Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday Challenge January Anything Goes *

4. Pearly Sparkles Challenge #103 Something Old, Something New   TOP 3

Old is Meljen's image 

and the New is the Plaid design paper from American Crafts. 

5. Digi Choosday Challenge Week #50 Anything Goes *

6. Double D Challenges Birthday Celebrations *

7. Polkadoodles Challenge Week #50 Anything Goes *

8. Gem of A Craft Challenge #1 Anything Goes *

9. Love To Craft Challenge #84 Anything Goes *

10. Mix It Up Challenge # 75 Anything Goes/ Monochrome*

Card Recipe:

1. Base: White French Linen 

2. Coloured card: American Craft Lipstick

3. Design Papers: Gingham Pink is computer generated and the Pink Plaid paper is by American Crafts.

4. Image: Sew Country Bunny by Meljen’s Designs

5. Colour Medium: Copic’s

6. Sentiment: Computer Generated

7. Dies Used: Spellbinders Large Petite Ovals and Beaded Ovals

 

8. Tools Used:

9. Embellishments: Flat-back pearls.

 

10. Inside and the back of the card:

Wishing you all a great 2025 and I'm so looking forward to visiting your blogs and commenting on your creations.

 

Fluffy Bunny

Good morning and welcome to my blog.  Today is the most wonderful Autumn's morning here in New Zealand and the sun is shinning. The temperatures have dropped a little in the evenings but our days are still beautiful.  The water temperatures are still very warm as the boys were thinking of going swimming at our beach house on Saturday, thank goodness they both have waterproof casts on their broken bones.  My boys and the other boys in their boarding dorm at school have been fund raising for Cancer and last night and today is the big day for having their heads shaved.  The last time I saw them bald was when they were born and they did have a little bit of hair then.  Watch this space in the next couple of weeks for their bald photo's.

Congratulations to our winner and to our top three cards I'm sorry if I haven't commented on your blog this week but I've had a lot of computer issues.  My laptop crashed last Friday morning and I lost everything that was on it and on Saturday morning my desktop crashed and it won't re boot.  I have someone coming out to look at them tomorrow.  I do have a back up with an external hard drive for my desk top it has all my wonderful images that I've stored over the years I'll cry if I can't retrieve these images and my husbands financial accounts for our business. I'm currently typing this post on my son's old Think pad, it's so tiny especially the key board but beggars can't be choosers at the moment.

This week Sally is using a sketch a blast from the past

Sketch #183

Here's my card using this cute image that's great for a babies card or for Easter.

This week I rotated the sketch by 90 degrees to the left to fit my image in.

Here's my blast from the past and isn't it funny Meljen's Designs were our sponsor that week as well.

This week Melissa Jenkin's the owner and illustrator of Meljen's Designs is our sponsor, thanks Melissa so much I love working with sweet designs.

  

MelJen's Designs

Melissa's Bio:  My name is Melissa Jenkins, and I am a homeschooling mommy and wife to my best friend. We have two children, two cats and three hermit crabs. When I'm not drawing, I love spending lots of time with my family cuddling on the couch, playing games, going for walks, fishing, visiting the park & the zoo, collecting postage stamps, or just plain watching movies.

I've been an artist as long as I can remember - and I am inspired by everything around me. All of my digital stamp designs are inspired by my children (and husband!) and things they do, our cats, things we see on nature walks and daily 'adventures', or memories I have of my childhood. Animals too - I love animals! Art is an uplifting thing for me, and I love designing cute tidbits of art that makes people smile.

I draw all of my little creations by hand. A lot of love goes into my art! Each of my designs is sketched in pencil, inked with a black Micron pen, then scanned in and lightly cleaned up so it will look crisp when you print it.

I LOVE inspiring crafters. I am not very talented at making cards myself, so I LOVE seeing all of the beautiful things that you make with my digital stamps. I couldn't ask for a better blessing!

This weeks prize is

Prize:  4 images (non-colored)

Melissa has so many amazing images to choose from.

Don't forget to drop by the rest of the design team and see what they've created for you with her wonderful images over at Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2.

Challenges I'm Entering:

Cheery Lynn Designs Challenge #177 Anything Goes (Daisy Die)

Crafting from the Heart Challenge #52

Craft Your Passion Challenge #254 Anything Goes

Creative Corner Challenge For A Boy Challenge

Sentimental Sunday Challenge #251 Buttons,Brad, and or Bling

Crafty Sentiments Challenge Inspired By A Song  Art Garfunkel – Bright Eyes

Card Recipe:

1. Base white SU

2. Coloured Card: Navy Blue American Craft Card

3. Design Paper: Lullaby Collection New Arrival by Kaisercraft

4. Image: Fluffy Bunny by MelJen's Designs

5. Colour Medium: Copics

6. Tools: Cuttlebug, Dies  by Culture Creations, Martha Stewart Lace punch, Cherry Lynn Daisy die, pop dots.

7. Embellishments: Daisy made using Cherry Lynn die, Navy and white brad unknown source, Martha Stewart Lace and frilly ribbon from my stash.

8. On the other side in my card, I used the poem Monday's Child seeing it's for a new born babies card.

9. Lace punch, ribbon from my stash and daisy embellishment.

10. Daisy created using the Cherry Lynn Daisy die.

11. Sentiment: PC generated using Papyrus font. 

12. The back of my cards finishing touch.

Take care everyone wishing you all a wonderful week and happy crafting and hopefully next week I might have one of my computers fixed or even a new one.

Happy Holiday

Good morning and welcome to my blog and to
 Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2.

Congratulations to our winner and to our Top 3 cards, great work everyone and it was lovely to see so many more cards.

This week I've used an image called Happy Holiday by our sponsor Meljen's Designs.

Sketch # 37

This week our sponsor is Meljen's Designs and I've used Happy Holiday.  Such a great image for those Holiday cards.

                          

I've tried to make a positive and a negative card by using the one die which I'll show you soon.  I bought the die some time ago but haven't had to opportunity to use it as I didn't have the right sketch but I feel that this sketch worked perfectly for this die. 

                                         

This week our sponsor is 

Melissa's Bio:

My name is Melissa Jenkins, and I am a homeschooling mommy and wife to my best friend. We have two children, two cats and three hermit crabs. When I'm not drawing, I love spending lots of time with my family cuddling on the couch, playing games, going for walks, fishing, visiting the park & the zoo, collecting postage stamps, or just plain watching movies.

I've been an artist as long as I can remember - and I am inspired by everything around me. All of my digital stamp designs are inspired by my children (and husband!) and things they do, our cats, things we see on nature walks and daily 'adventures', or memories I have of my childhood. Animals too - I love animals! Art is an uplifting thing for me, and I love designing cute tidbits of art that makes people smile.

I draw all of my little creations by hand. A lot of love goes into my art! Each of my designs is sketched in pencil, inked with a black Micron pen, then scanned in and lightly cleaned up so it will look crisp when you print it.

I LOVE inspiring crafters. I am not very talented at making cards myself, so I LOVE seeing all of the beautiful things that you make with my digital stamps. I couldn't ask for a better blessing!

Melissa is offering our very lucky winner 4 (non coloured) digital images of the winner choice from her online store.

http://meljensdesigns.com/

Don't forget to take a moment and check out what our wonderful design team have created for you this week using Melissa's images over at Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2.

Challenges I'm entering:

Whoopsi Daisy Challenge Anything Goes

 Hazelnut's Creations Challenge #206 Bright Colours

ABC Challenge Y is for Yuletide

Through The Craft Room Door 

Sentimental Sunday's Challenge#236 Embossing Wet or Dry

Crafty Sentiments Christmas Challenge

Holly Jolly Anything Goes Christmas Challenge

Crafty Boot Challenge Christmas 

Inky Chicks Challenge #44 Winter Wonderland

Meljen's Designs Challenge #239 Holiday  

Card Recipe:

1. Base: White SU

2. Coloured Card: Bazzill Ruby Slipper and Pondarosa Green

3. Image: Happy Holiday by Meljen's Designs

4. Colour Medium: Copics and Silver Gel Pen

5. Tools: Cuttlebug, Embossing folder, Nestabillities Die, Lace Circle and  Irnamental Lace Die from theMadiline Collection, Pop Dots, Glue Dots.

6. Embellishments: Red ribbon, Silver Gems, and Red Gems.

7. This is the die that I used from Couture Creations Madeline Collection Lacy 8.  When you use it, it cut two pieces the outside piece which I use from my first card with a Lacy Circle from Spellbinders and the middle circle I used in my second card and it was the inner circle and I just used a spellbinders classic circle.

Here is the die.

8. Inside card number 1 with the use of the our square shape and circle inside and I used a lacy circle and a plan classic circle.

9. Inside my second card, using the inside of the die with a classic circle.

Take card everyone wishing you all a wonderful week and happy crafting.

Flowers In My Pocket

 

Welcome to another wonderful Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2.  Life has been a little chaotic in my home in the last 4 days with the boys finishing their school holidays and getting them ready to go back to boarding school.  My head is down and my bum is up for a couple of days to make sure they have everything and its ticked off my check list.

Congratulations to our winner and our top 3 cards there were some really lovely cards this week and it was nice to see that you had a go at the 

Tic-Tac-Toe for our end of the month Twist.

Happy Mother's Day to all the counties that celebrate Mother's Day this coming Sunday.

This week Sally has another wonderful sketch which is just so easy:

Sketch #13

Here's my card using Flowers In My Pocket.

I tried to make it look like an old pair of faded jeans.

This week our sponsor is Melissa Jenkins the creator, artist and owner behind these wonderful images at

Meljen's Designs

Melissa's Bio:  My name is Melissa Jenkins, and I am a homeschooling mommy and wife to my best friend. We have two children, two cats and three hermit crabs. When I'm not drawing, I love spending lots of time with my family cuddling on the couch, playing games, going for walks, fishing, visiting the park & the zoo, collecting postage stamps, or just plain watching movies.

I've been an artist as long as I can remember - and I am inspired by everything around me. All of my digital stamp designs are inspired by my children (and husband!) and things they do, our cats, things we see on nature walks and daily 'adventures', or memories I have of my childhood. Animals too - I love animals! Art is an uplifting thing for me, and I love designing cute tidbits of art that makes people smile.

I draw all of my little creations by hand. A lot of love goes into my art! Each of my designs is sketched in pencil, inked with a black Micron pen, then scanned in and lightly cleaned up so it will look crisp when you print it.

I LOVE inspiring crafters. I am not very talented at making cards myself, so I LOVE seeing all of the beautiful things that you make with my digital stamps. I couldn't ask for a better blessing!

Melissa is offering our very lucky winner 

Prize: 4 images (non-colored) 

from her online store which you can visit here

http://meljensdesigns.com/

Don't forget to drop by the DT's over at Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2 and check out what they've designed using Sketch #13 and Melissa's images.

Challenges I'm entering:

Love to Create Challenge #114 Say it with flowers
Through The Craft Room Door Anything Goes
Card Mania Challenge #46 Emboss It
(Dark blue circle is embossed)
Dream Valley Challenge #81 Anything Goes
Crafty Sentiment Anything Goes
Challenges 4 Everybody Anything Goes
Chocolate, Coffee and Cards Challenge #64 Circles & Squares
Brown Sugar Challenge #92 Patterned Paper
Milk Coffee Challenge Use Those Bright Colours
Inky Impressions Challenge #158 Mother's Day 
Crafting for all Seasons Challenge #76 Lots of Layers

Card Recipe:

 1. Base: White SU

2. Coloured Card: Blue and Apple Green American Craft card.

3. Design Paper: K & Company

4. Image: Flowers In My Pocket by Meljen's Designs.

5. Colour Medium: Copics, Blue Gel Pen

6. Tools: Cuttlebug, Spellbinders Square, Circle and Lacy Circle, Pop Dots, Real Tacky Glue. 

7. Embellishments: White and Blue Grey flowers from Wild Orchid and some green gems for the centres of the flowers.

 

 8. Inside my card which I've left blank.

Take care everyone thanks for visiting my blog during the week, wishing you all a safe and happy week and have fun crafting and I'm looking forward to visiting your blogs.