Cats R Best

The latest challenge over at As You Like It is pick your favourite animal and say why - clearly I couldn't sit this one out and clearly there is one obvious choice - well in my case anyway!

Cats win hands down, they are loving and cuddly, cute and funny, loyal when they want to be and easy to look after/co-exist with!

Currently I have two cats, Femo a 6 year old female and Merlot a 2 year old male.  Love them to bits and could never be without a feline companion...or two!

Anyway back to the challenge and my card,

It uses a Sami stamp, two sided papers and some die cuts.

Challenges;
As You Like It - Favourite animal - CATS - see above!
City Crafters - Balloons
Crafty Sentiments - Birthdays
Lemon Shortbread - Anything goes
Passion for Prpmarkers - Digital
ShowUsYour Pussies - Furrything goes
Sami Stamps - Add pearls or beads - pearls on hearts
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes
Jx

And finally just so there is no doubt, this is why I like cats best...

 Meet Merlot

 My one eyed cat!

 Here as a kitten before his op!

& my senior lady, Femo

Love ya lots Merlot & Femo xxx

Good Luck

What's this??? A card and it's not DT work!!! Unheard of this year I know as there has been a lot going on in my little life, but I wanted to make a card for my son's girlfriend who is just starting University and I wanted to wish her all the best.  Like me, she loves her cat, so this All Dressed Up image seemed perfect for the job.

So, my card again uses that amazing stepper template, a sheet of Ooh La La printed paper and LOTV tags.  Colouring is by Promarker & the letters are Doodlebug.

Challenges;
All Dressed Up - Challenge 41 -Anything Goes
Creative Craft Cottage - Anything goes
CCC Digi Creations - Anything Goes
Cute as a Button - Anything Goes
The East Wind - For Little Ones
Crafting For All Seasons - Layer it Up
Creative Moments - Anything Goes + Sentiment
Paper Shelter - A card with many folds
Simon Says Stamp - Die Crazy

All the best Christy, I hope you enjoy your course and living in Aberdeen as much as Colin does.  Jx

Birthday Girl

The other week, I was delighted to read that Funky Kits and All Dressed Up had teamed up to bring us more gorgeous stamps.  I've been a big fan of Sugar Nellie for several years, & I also now have a few lovely Dressie images - although they haven't all seen my Promarkers - yet.

The image used today however jumped to the top of the pile as she is the current freebie and is the one required for the current challenge.  Not that that was a problem - she's lovely and has made a perfect girly birthday card - perfect for little nieces I'd say!

If you like her - grab her now from here - the challenge is almost over and I don't know how long she'll still be availabe without charge!

Challenges;
All Dressed Up - Birthday Girl
Sketchtanten - Another lovely sketch
Come & Get It - For a Child
Dragonfly Dreams - Mainly Pink
4 Krafty Girlz - Anything Goes

Finally - Merlot...he's doing fine post op, back outside and just getting on with things!

Merlot

No card today, but instead a progress report on Merlot - yup that gorgeous kitten I showed you the other week beside the mouse.

Unfortunately he was badly injured on Wednesday and had to be rushed to the vet.  Still don't know if he was hit by a vehicle or attacked by an animal, but his injuries were extensive - to horrid to share.

Anyway he was in the vets till Fri and as he was managing to eat they let him home.  He has to go back this coming week to be assessed.

He has nasty facial injuries, a horrendous eye and a squint jaw.  He now goes about dribbling and with his tongue out so goodness knows what's wrong.  Hopefully as the swelling goes down some of the above will correct, just have to wait and see.  Our main concern however is his left eye, it is considerably calmer, but unfortunately he hasn't seen through it since the accident and it's not looking as it should.  Fingers crossed my little kitten makes a full recovery.  Rest is a great healer and he's getting plenty of that along with much love.
Jx

Cats!

Well anyone that follows my blog will know I'm a cat person - I realise not everyone is, but loads of you crafters are, that's why I chose

Cats

as the current challenge over at Moving Along With The Times .

I hope you can join us on this one, there are loads of cat stamps out there - the hard bit is deciding on which one to use!  The prize this time around is this is this wooden Hampton Art Stamp

So I went with a new PB called It's Your Day, I got it from Sam as she won it in a prize from Laurie when she did an earlier MAWTT challenge - so I guess it's thanks to both of them that I now have this little beauty!

Papers again are LOTV, as is the sentiment and the card is decorated further with ribbon, glossy accents, pearls and heart diecuts.

Challenges;
Hobbycutz - Lots of Layers
SSW2 - Another beautiful sketch to follow
Deep Ocean Challenge - Birthdays
Shopping Our Stash - Winter Blues
Cutie Pie Challenge - Cute & Blue
Kaboodle Doodles - Use Blue
Make It Monday With Kraft Outlet - Kraft & Winter Blue
Make My Monday - Kraft Card
613 Avenue Create - Winter Blue


And now a story that happened a few months back, which made this stamp so perfect.  When Merlot had only been with us a few weeks, he followed me about like a shaddow - still does when he's in the house!  Anyway, one night I went for a bath and you know whats coming... little Lotty jumped up on the side and was happily patrolling the perimeter when the inevitable happened and he went for a dip.  Strange thing is he wasn't that phased, just soaked thru!

And this is my shaddow before his op as I upload cards!

Christmas Cats - Card 2

Quick post today to try and keep going with Christmas 2014.  This card uses a Day For Daisies stamp and the Sketch Saturday sketch and lots of embossing.

Challenges;
Sketch Saturday - 293 - Lovely CAS sketch
Simon Says Stamp - Emboss it.

Your Favourite Style - CAS

Today see's another new challenge begin over at Sweet Stampin, and Abi has chosen the theme this time.  Today we are being asked to create using;

Your Favourite Style

Now after thinking about this, I decided on CAS - I never seem to manage to pull off the mega embellished look without my card looking cluttered, so instead I prefer the other extreme!  A good sentiment and a bold well coloured image &...that's it!

So here is my card for the occasion;

Sponsoring us this time are Stix2 who are giving away a goodie bag to our lucky winner,

and as well as this we have the monthly sponsor of Cuddly Buddly who offer the overall monthly winner a £10 voucher to use in store.

Challenges;
As You Like It - Favourite C&S design & why.  One image one sentiment and a border - simple as! I love this style as I'm not really into cards with loads on them - mine look to busy when I try.  Plus these cards are perfect to post and don't need a large stamp!
One Crazy Stamper - Anything Goes
The Paper Shelter - Winter Blue - got the blue, not sure about the Winter - but I guess people move house in winter too?
Top Tip Tuesday - CAS
Brown Sugar - Anything Goes

For more details & inspiration head back to the main Sweet Stampin page.

Finally, a tale of woe... Merlot Mogs is poorly!

He went for his "little boy" op on Thurs only things did not go to plan.  His bits weren't both to be found so he needed a much bigger operation with his tummy opened up.  Eventually things were located and removed and he's now home recovering poor love.

Girly But NO Pink...& THAT CAT!

Hi everyone, Saturday again and the second of my post's for Sweet Stampin.  Hope you are all well and settling back in to the normal routine of things.  Yesterday I took my eldest son back to Uni, so I have to say I'm a bit sad at the moment. That's him in 2nd year now and it's still hard to say bye as he heads off for another term.  Glad he's only an hour away though as I can always visit!

Right' back to Sweet Stampin business, today the theme is;

Girly but no Pink!

Not too hard a theme for me as I quite often don't do pink girly cards.  That said, because I was told not to this time, it kinda made me want to use it - how bizzar!

So, here's my card -

My card uses a fab Bugaboo image, MME Be Amazed papers and dies - Die-namics Retro Squares again for the middle strip and I think, a Marianne Flower.

Again there are a few sponsors for this challenge - Cuddly Buddly are offering the monthly winner a £10 voucher whilst the weekly prize winners will get a £10 voucher from the Ribbon Girl.

Challenges;
Polkadoodles - Anything goes - girly
Charisma Cards - Birthday
Digi Galore - Girly
Natalie & Amy's Challenge - One for the girlies
One Crazy Stamper - Anything Goes
Fab n Funky - Lets Celebrate
Fantastic Tuesday - Anything Goes
Krafty Girls - Anything Goes
Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Blog - Cute & Sweet

Finally, a couple of cat pics.  For those of you that follow my blog you will know I have a 6 month old kiten called Merlot who loves to climb trees.  So, the latest adventure, my neighbours tree, here he is,

... he was up there for over an hour jumping about on the stumps till I eventually got the ladders out - again.  How many times does he need to get stuck in trees before he'll learn? Jx

Anything Goes @ Diva's

Morning everyone, before I tell you about the new challenge at Diva's by Design, I want to share with you a picture of  Merlot - now outside and climing trees.  He loves climbing trees - the higher the better, only problem is he's rubbish at getting down and invariably falls.  We had the camera out at the weekend hoping to get a nice shot of him sitting in my newly pruned tree, but just as the shutter clicked - he fell!

That aside, I now want to tell you about the latest challenge over at Diva's by Design, a nice easy one this time around, and it runs till 7th Jan, so plenty time to craft.  What we want is

Anything Goes

And sponsoring us this time are the super Flat Friends  by Emma Canning who are giving the winner digi's of choice.

For my card, I went with not one, but 2 Flat Friend digi's to create a living room scene all Christmassy and warm with a cat sat on the window ledge - this is where Femo my 5yr old cat likes to be. ( Santa's Been & Winter) Not outside falling out of trees!

 

Now the silicon glue and the glossy accents were both out in force here, the glue to raise tree layers & the cat and the accents for the double glazing!

Papers are Fancy Pants - Winterland and colouring by Promarker - and that's about it!

Challenges;
Little Miss Muffet - You've been framed - does the window frame count - sorry if it doesn't?
Papertake - Christmas Creatures - The cat
Krafty Hands - Anything Goes
Holly Jolly Christmas - Anything Goes
Kaboodle Doodles - Non Traditional Christmas Colours
Card Crafters Circle - Celebrations
Crafty Sentiments - Christmas
Deep Ocean - Santa is coming

Fairy Kittens

Over the weekend, I came across another super freebie from A Day For Daisies, called Fairy Kittens - as you can imagine, I fell in love with it straight away as it reminded me of all the new born kittens we had to visit in the Summer before we settled on Merlot.

So this card simply celebrates my love of cats!

Challenges;
Sketch Saturday - No 284 - made into a square card rather than the rectangle of the sketch
Cute Card Thursday - Animal Magic
I Love Promarkers - All That Glitters
Simon Say's Stamp - Keep It Clean & Simple
Make It Monday - Anything Goes
The Corrosive Challenge - Fur or Feather - went for fur

Miley Mouse!

This morning, little Merlot, or Lotty as he has already become was at the vets for his second round of vaccinations.  All went well and he has been given ear drops as he has mucky lugs, but apart from that he is fine and this time next week he will be allowed outside at last!  Today however he is zonked after his meds - it was the same last time and he slept pretty much the rest of the day after the vet.

So, this gives me time to craft, with a new digi - another super one from Wee Stamps, coloured with Promarkers them given a little bit of glitter here & there.  Papers are Craft Creations then I finished things off with die cut & punched snowflakes, a ribbon and blobs of liquid pearls.

Challenges;
Papertake - Anything Goes
Stamping Sensations - November - Christmas
SSW 230 - Lovely sketch

A Gem of A Challenge - Christmas is Coming
One Crazy Stamper - Christmas

Here's Merlot, a couple of weeks back when he had a day trip to visit Alan in his flat, which you will be pleased to hear is still tidy!

Spooktastic MAWTT

Morning everyone, hope you are all ok and managed to make the most of the good weather we had at the beginning of the week. (Gone now!)  I've had a good week, not done as much gardening as I might have, but there is a reason for this...

Before I tell you that bit of news, I'll have to tell you all about this weeks challenge over at Moving Along With The Times.  It's a seasonal theme that Hazel has gone for with

"Spooktastic Times"

A great theme as there are so many fabulous Halloween stamps out there so I really can't wait to see what you all come up with.

For my card, I went with this new release from Bugaboo.  Added lots of glossy accents, a nice bold ribbon & that my dears was it! Abra-ca-Dabra, job done!  Now it's over to you! (PS Thanks to everyone who entered last week, we had a brilliant response to that challenge so hopefully you'll come out in force again for this weeks one too.)

Challenges;
Kaboodle Doodles - Pumpkins
City Crafter - Trick or Treat
Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes
Party Time Tuesday - Pumpkins
My Craft Spot - Trick or Treat
Without Words - Pumpkins
Hobby Cutz - Halloween
Catch The Bug - October Anything Goes

Which now leaves me my other tiny bit of news... everyone, Meet Merlot!

Magical Cat

Today sees us flipping back to DT Team A over at MAWTT and a new challenge sponsored by Rick St Dennis.

One lucky winner will get 3 digi's from Rick's shop as their prize.  

The challenge this time has been set by Kelly as

Fairies and Fantasy

We were all lucky enough to be given some images to play with to make our cards, (Thanks Rick), one of the images was this cat called, Magical Cat For Miranda available here.  Clearly as soon as I saw it, I knew it would be the one for me, and here's what I made.

The layout is quite simple as the image & papers (Craft Creations) are quite busy.  My fear now is that Femo has magical powers and will cast an evil spell on me - as well as biting me periodically!!!

Now take a look at what the rest of the design team made this time around with the brilliant images from Rick.  Hope you can join us, Jx

Challenges;
Sketch n Stash - Sketch .  This time it's a new stamp company for me and a new image.  Papers, ribbon & candi from stash.
Craft Your Passion - Adorable Animals...CATS!!!
Sparkle n Sprinkle - Use a digi
Cards For Men - Anything goes
Eureka Stamps - For The boys
Gingerloft - For The Guys

Angel Eyes

This is the second time I've used this Bugaboo digi for a Christmas card. Again colouring by Promarkers and papers by Craft Companion. This time though, I've raised the angel and made her stand out from the rest of the card. I've also used the CCWS sketch.

Challenges;
CHCC - Angels or fairies
CCWS - Brilliant sketch Jx

PS - Tommy is now licked clean! (See previous post for the before!)

Bugaboo Bauble Rudolph

Hope Valentines day was enjoyable for you all yesterday. We had a lovely day - didn't do much as the weather wasn't great. Then at night, we were going to eat out, but when it came down to it, we just stayed in and watched a DVD instead. the DVD was a gift from Craig - Crazy Stupid Love - a very enjoyable film with a romantic happy ending - perfect foe Valentines night really.

Todays card is another Christmas one using a super cute Bugaboo reindeer. He's coloured with Promarkers & glazed in a few places. Papers are old Dovecraft off cuts off the off cut mountain! The sketch used is last weeks CCWS - only I was too late for a 2nd entry. Great sketch though for using scraps!

Challenges;

ABC Christmas - C Charming - The silver heart charm
Cupcake Craft - Entwined - Use twine Jx

Finally I have to share this one with you - Tommy our cat must have been fighting last night - this is what jumped on my bed just after midnight!

Glad to report he's ok though - can't imagine what the other guy looks like! Jx