Wet Easter Weekend Away!

Hi everyone well this weekend I took my youngest daughter back to Lincoln Uni as she is off to Spain today with the ladies football team for seven days and then I travelled across country to Stoke on Trent to stay with my daughter and son in law for four days. Well as usual the weather has been dreadful but we made the best of things. Saturday morning my daughter and I being huge Pride and Prejudice fans went off to Belton House near Grantham, which was used in the  BBC version as Rosings Park. I must say at this point we love the TV version better than the film version. So here we are at Belton House in the drizzle.

We took lots of pictures it was drizzling but we had a fab time just the two of us (excuse the look on my face don't know what I was looking at) as I get very little time to have days out with her. But I was so excited to see the actual bedroom and desk where Colin Firth had actually sat and wrote his letter about Wickham to Elizabeth Bennett, so here is the picture below!

As you can see it doesn't take much to please me but I was one happy bunny!

After that it was only 40 minutes to Lincoln so off we went to drop in on younger daughter to have a cup of tea with her, but being a student we had to take our own milk and cakes in! Saturday evening back in Stoke- my daughter and I  we started crafting and we made lots of cards to do lots of challenges and we continued into Easter Sunday as weather was dreadful. My son in law Steve cooked us a lovely roast dinner while we crafted, how lovely of him-but he refused to do the washing up!

Here is just a couple of  cards that I made as I am afraid my batteries died in my camera so will blog again later in the week and upload the rest of my cards. Here is my first card and this is for three challenges Sketch Saturday  this is my take on their sketch, Allsorts which is bingo, so I have used pink, green and ribbon, and then for Totally Papercrafts Challenge which is also a bingo theme and for that one I have used flowers, lilac and pearls. So I  have used a Flower Fairy stamp called Canterbury Bells and used pinks lilacs and greens for the colour theme. It is a lovely stamp and I think it has turned out really well.

My next card is for Promarkers Challenge this week and the theme is Springtime, so for this challenge I have made an easel card and some nice fresh greens and yellows. The stamp is one of my daughters and think it is a Sugar Nellie stamp called Pip, she is so cute and lovely to colour in. The butterfly on the card is from Prima and just finishes the card off nicely. Colours used are-blush, ice grey1, tan, sandstone, meadow green, soft green, pastel yellow, rose pink, lavender, cornflower and blue pearl.

Hope you have all had a nice weekend whatever you have been up too and enjoy the rest of the Easter hols. Hugs and kisses Arlinex

Christmas Challenge

Hi everyone, just a quick post with my card for the Christmas Crafting Challenge for this month and it was to use gingham on your Christmas card-so here it is.

Must Have Had Hot Flush!

Hi all I have to just apologise for some of my links, I seem to have got very confused over some of the Challenges and must have read last weeks Challenge for  some of my cards I will sort them out tomorrow I blame my age and the hot flushes and the fact that I tried for four hours on Saturday to upload my cards and laptop didn't want to let me do it. I haven't got all of them wrong- just a couple and missed the closing time on one of them sorry! Hugs and kisses Arlinex

Hurrah Crafting Day and Beautiful Weather Too!

Well everyone haven't been on here since Feb gosh where does the time fly too. I am now back at work fully and am finding it hard to fit in crafting as have been on some courses and they have been really long days and have quite frankly been knackered after going back to work after 8 weeks off. Never mind I like my job so am glad to be back.

The weather here today has been gorgeous and I have been busy since I got up at 10am which is rather a late morning for me but I blame the clocks going forward hehe.  I have cleaned my car inside and out and washed it. Then done lots of housework and finally had my lunch. I joined Weight Watchers a couple of weeks ago and had my first weigh in this week and lost 5lbs first week so was thrilled to bits. One of my bestest friends from work goes and she asked me if I would like to go along with her and her future daughter in law. So it was nice to go with someone I knew and not feel like a complete bleb when you go on your own- I have done that before and no one spoke to me in the two months I stayed with the slimming group.

Well here it is my first card for this blog entry and its for two challenges House Mouse and the theme was Sugar and Spice and Cupcake Challenge which was too use a round card. So these items are actually gifts I received from my elder daughter fro Mothers Day along with other items. But the cards she sent me and also these cute House Mouse Stick on images from Joanna Sheen's site I think aren't they adorable. I have kept it quite simple but I love the greens and peach colours on the paper added a sentiment and a little bow to match.

Here is my next card today and it is for three challenges Lili of the Valley which was the sketch, Papertake which is bingo theme where you pick a row to use items on your card and also Promarker challenge which was to use three papers on your card, colours used blush, sandstone, caramel, orchid, carmine, lime and tulip yellow. So I have used a cream coloured paper as my base and then a flowered one and again just some plain pink paper to add for my image to sit on. I have used this cute LOTV image of a cat with his posy of flowers and added him to die cut, added a sentiment and gems around the border and to finish some Prima flowers which I also got for Mothers Day. 

My next card is a fun one made with an digi image from Bugaboo site and they have some real funny images and sentiment's  to pick from. This is for Sketch Saturday challenge and it s my take on it. The sentiment reads "If I was meant to pop up out of bed in a morning, I'd live in a toaster!" Hope you like it.

This is my next card and there are two photographs as you can see the front of the card and the inside and this card is for two challenges Saturday Challenge which was to use doilies and Allsorts which was to include a recipe in your theme. So here I have used an image from Joanna Sheen's digi image DVD of a little girl baking and I have used mainly browns and greens here for my theme. Then I have stuck the image onto two doilies underneath - below you can see the inside of my card which contains a recipe for a lovely chocolate cake which my family are quite partial too.

Well that's it for my challenges so far this week but I am busy at the moment doing a couple of others and will post them later in the week. But just before I dash off and have my bath before the final of Dancing on Ice I thought I would just share some little sweet Easter Cards I have been making also this week. For these I have just kept them really simple- made tiny little easel cards and the image is a little bunny from yeah you guessed House Mouse which I also got for Mothers Day of eldest daughter, you can tell she  is craft mad too!

There you go folks that's all from me just now hope you have all had a great weekend be back soon I hope. Hugs and Kisses Arlinex

So Excited Tonight!

Evening everyone, so excited tonight as my youngest son Daniel is on TV on Friday on the game show The Weakest Link, probably made an ass of  himself but its the taking part that matters, all I know is I had to wait to see the programme as he  never told me anything. Well I have had the all clear to return to work next week thank goodness, only on a phased return gradually building my hours back up but am so looking forward to it, have missed the team of nurses I work with on the community. However saying that could not craft yesterday as my balance was a bit off and making me a little dizzy so have been busy tonight, making some cards for challenges. Some were quite hard this week as I do not have anyone to send Valentine cards to or make them for, so have adapted them to what I hope will count in the challenges.

My first card this week is for Sketch Saturday, Promarker Challenge which was Love is in the air and also for Cupcake Challenge which was to use pink and red. So I have used this cute image of the little girl blowing heart shaped bubbles. added some flowers, sentiment and this is my take on the sketch too. Promarkers used were: pink carnation, antique pink, carmine, rose pink, meadow green, lime green, berry red, poppy,caramel, tan and blush.

My next card today is for Joanna Sheen Monthly Challenge which was also named Love is in the air and also for House Mouse Challenge which was a  love theme and to include more than one heart. So I have used a cute house mouse image of the mammy mouse repairing the teddy bear for the baby mouse, mending it with great love I am sure. I have added some red hearts, used some heart backing paper and also a heart charm and finished off with some flowers.

My last card of the night is for another couple of challenges and that is Allsorts which was free and easy and also Papertake Challenge which was anything goes. So this card is a birthday card for my best friend whose birthday is next week. I have used a Humphrey stamp which is Best Friends and used greens and lilacs to colour it in and kept the theme through the papers and flowers. I have also made up the inside of my card something I don't usually do but thought I would give it  a bash, what do you think? I think it looks okay and I hope my friend will love it.

Well everyone that is all for this blog post thank you all for dropping by and leaving your lovely comments, and I hope wherever you are this weekend you don't have too much of that white stuff called snow they have promised us today in the newspapers. If you do remember to keep warm and keep safe if you are out and about in it. Hugs and kisses Arlinexx

So Excited gift delivered today.

Hi everyone well today I have received my parcel from Joanna Sheen crafts, which is present from my daughter for my birthday. So I have had the new CD which is a cd of digi images can't wait to print some off and use them, they are so cute. I also had a pack of cards and some EZ foam so thank you Arline, I love the CD so glad you told me about it. My brother txt me this afternoon today to say he was on board the cruise ship on his private sun deck, sipping champagne and eating strawberries dipped in chocolate, they had been upgraded last week by the cruise ship to a Presidential Suite free of charge- lucky for them, so everyone near and dear to me is away or going away this weekend, alright for some I am stuck at home and can't afford to go away.

This card is for this months Christmas Crafting as I am a member of the DT. This  month we are sponsored by Paper Pretties, so why not enter and have a go you might just win the prize of some digi images from them. I know its January but you can never have enough Christmas Cards and just think you would have at least twelve made ready for this Christmas, after all there's only eleven months to go haha! That's all for today. Hugs and kisses Arlinex

Keeping Warm Indoors Today!

Good afternoon everyone  from the North East of England- its freezing here today, so haven't ventured out-well only as far as the back gate that is to open it for the window cleaner. So my mum has gone off to my brother  for three weeks so I am just chilling. After being off work for quite a number of weeks after having an operation I was all ready to get back next week but now have UTI and Conjunctivitis so have now been given the 13th possibly to return to work.So as its Wednesday its craft day for me although I will probably craft tomorrow and the next day too. I have been to my local craft shop this week to stock up and bought some of the Portebello Road Papers from Papermania for a project I am going to attempt but will have to keep that under wraps for now!

Well my first card this week is for Lili of the Valley and it was to make a masculine card. I had just recently purchased this stamp of the little boy playing cricket, so came in very handy for this weeks challenge. Being for a male didn't add too much and especially didn't add flowers, which I usually love to do but I did add a little cotton wool ball for his ball and added a cute little ladybird onto the grass.

My next card today is for Sketch Saturday which is of course their sketch, Lollipop which was anything goes and finally for Secret Crafter which was to add ribbons. So I have used Lili of the Valley image and used yellows and oranges -nice spring colours. I have added some checkered orange ribbon and some plain yellow ribbon.

My final card for today is for Penny Black Challenge which was floral frenzy and  Allsorts Challenge which was one or more hearts. So I have used this cute image of the little hedgehogs in the flower pots. I have added some pink flowers and some hearts purchased at my local craft shop and added a PB sentiment too. On the corners I have added some pink pearls. Its quite a girly card being pink but i love pinks on cards.

Well that is it for now. Son has just gone out to work at local cinema so have the night to myself . Pjs on I think and then may sit and cut some decoupage out whilst watching TV. Will be back again soon . Thanks for dropping by have a lovely evening. Hugs and Kisses Arlinex