Jane's present

Ok, so I bought some little folders from Asda about 2 years ago - I made myself a pirate one to keep scrapping notes, quotes, my things to do list in and another one for my friend Louise who has 7 children - in hers I made 9 dividers and stamped on each one to suit her, her husband and each of her children. I know that she loves this little folder and uses it to keep all bits and pieces of information for each person such as phone numbers, school numbers, vaccination dates etc. Well for the past 2 years she has had to hide it from our other sewing buddy Jane as Jane's has been a work in progress..... Well I am pleased to say that today I have finished it!! its only taken me a weekend too!! Obviously all the bits and pieces that I had in it before have now been redone and replaced with Magnolia's coloured in with Promarkers and, yet again, I have used the papers from the My Minds Eye Colourful Christmas set - honestly I have made so much out of this pack of paper its unbelievable - makes it such good value for money and I will definately buy packs like this again in the future as they are so easy to put together as it all coordinates. Anyway here are the pictures of her folder book:

The front cover:
Jane and Marks dividers:
Hannah and Cassie's dividers:
The back cover:
The folder is just a simple ring binder with lined paper - useful for all sorts of things. Anyway am off to wrap it up now ready for her birthday tomorrow - just need to make a tag - its all go isn't it!

Thanks for looking :)

Girl on a Swing

Just had to play with two of my new stamps! I would like to enter this card in to the following challenges:

http://www.abc-challenge.blogspot.com/ M is for Masking

http://www.stampwithfun.blogspot.com/ whose sketch I have followed

http://www.creativeinspirationschallenge.blogspot.com/ distressing

http://www.promarkerchallenge.blogspot.com/ Girls, Girls, Girls - my second entry into this challenge - whoo hooo!


The promarkers used are ivory, saffron, blush, yellow, pastel yellow, tan, sunkissed pink, tea green, cool aqua, pastel green, apple, cinnamon, spice, grass, grey green, terracotta, ginger, cocoa, duck egg and berry red.

As always thank you so much for looking :)

So excited!

I made the top 5 in the abc-challenge and have a blinkie!! Its for the blue and brown card under the post "More Challenges" - this has been sent to my other half's cousin for her birthday last week - cant wait to tell her when she gets back from her Caribbean cruise (its alright for some isnt it!!). Whoo hoo this has spurred me on now and I am going to spend the day making some more cards - dont tell the other half as he thinks I am doing the housework! tee hee to be fair though my car is off the road and I have a man coming round sometime today to fit a new battery for me so I have to stay in, honest.

Have just found a competition to name two cute boy stamps - entries have to be in by the 26th - see link on the sidebar ---->

Card for Jane

I would now like to enter another card for two more challenges (yes its true I am officially addicted!) - I made this one yesterday for my friend Jane who's birthday it is next week - then this morning I finished it off with white pen and then suddenly realised, shock horror, that all the cards I have made recently havent been finished with white pen! oh well - its because I have moved where I store the white pen (its now in a pocket in my bucket rather than my little desktop pen holder) but I cant believe I have forgotten - the white lines really make all the difference as the images "pop" more. Anyway I am waffling..... The first challenge I would like to enter is http://www.mojomonday.blogspot.com/ which is a sketch - I had to elongate the sketch in order to fit it onto a square card and I changed the ribbon for a flower as the colour matched so perfectly I just couldn't resist using it (plus I haven't used any of these flowers since I bought them last May in California!). The second challenge is at http://www.pollycraftchallengeblog.blogspot.com/ - challenge 32 which is Fire and Ice.




Am now off to find another challenge to make my sister-in-laws card - whoo hoo! Also I have updated the crop website www.whathousework.co.uk with our latest workshops - please pop over to have a look!

Thanks for looking :)

Angelina's card

Hi, again I have been working on a sketch and have come up with this card for my cousin:


The sketch is from www.stampinfortheweekend.blogspot.com. I would also like to enter it into a few other challenges, these are: www.pileitonchallenge.blogspot.com - this challenge is to use 3 ribbons on your card - I don't know why but as soon as I saw that I thought of a plait - so I have plaited my 3 ribbons - bearing in mind I have never made a plait before I think I have done quite a good job! shame my two boys have such short hair tee hee!

The next challenge is www.promarkerchallenge.blogspot.com which is for something girly, girly, girly and this card is very girly for me!

The next is www.creativecardcrew.blogspot.com - this challenge is to use a punch on your card - on this card I have used a Martha Stewart punch (courtesy of Julie - thanks Julie *waves madly*) and my corner rounder.

I was also going to enter it for creative inspirations but then I have reread the rules and you need to have bought something new since New Year and used that on the card - all of this was bought before New Year although it is the first time I have used most of it! Still I did buy 5 new Magnolia's last week so I still have time to enter this with another card! The link for that challenge is www.cinspirations.blogspot.com.

Thanks for looking :)

And there is more!

Here are the other cards I have been working on this week - you can tell I have been treating myself to a week of crafting cant you! considering each card takes me on average about 5 hours to make I am not sure myself how I have fitted it all in and the house is clean too! (although it probably could be tidier but with 2 little children you cant have everything can you!).

First off I would like to enter this card into the http://www.liliofthevalleythursdaychallenge.blogspot.com/ challenge which is for a thank you card - again I have used a Christmas theme for these next two (my last two Christmas thank you cards which are from my children to Grandma and Grandad and also to Great Grandma for all their lovely presents) as I just love the My Minds Eye Christmas papers and I am getting so many cards out of the one pack - what a bargain investment that was!

Grandma and Grandads card is again based on a sketch from stampchallenges that I am too late to enter!

and here is the inside:

and Great Grandmas card based on the other sketch I keep on using at the moment for thank you cards which is from charismacardz:

and the inside:

then again using the sketch from stamp challenges here is the card I made for my goddaughter (the one who got the handmade doll on the previous post) who's birthday it is today!! Whoo hooo Happy Birthday Jessica

I actually made the other card (the cool aqua and cocoa one that was entered into passion for promarkers challenge) for her initially but decided it was a bit too old for a 5 year old so I made this one in a similar fashion using Basic Grey Cupcake papers.

And also last but certainly not least here is the class layout that I have prepared for my crop tomorrow - more details can be found here: www.whathousework.co.uk

Thanks for looking :)

What a busy week!

Have spent most of the week crafting! how lovely! have prepared a couple of classes for my crop on Sunday and also some new workshops for the next couple of months - and I have done some more challenges too - the first one is:
which I want to enter for http://www.promarkerchallenge.blogspot.com/ which is to use the colours cool aqua and cocoa. I used this sketch: http://www.stampchallenges.blogspot.com/ which I was going to enter the card for but have just realised that it should have been in by yesterday - bit annoying since I have had the card sitting on my craft table for 3 days! ho hum lesson learnt though and I will now put due dates on all my challenges!! I would also like to enter this card into the challenge at http://charismacardz.blogspot.com/ which is for "Anything New" the anything new on this card is the lovely prima painterly petal which I bought at Hobbycrafts at the NEC in November - so see I can use "new" stash within two months!!!

For all those interested the lovely booty used from my treasure chest of stash is:
Promarkers:- blush, saffron, sunkissed pink, pastel yellow, ginger, cocoa, cool aqua, duck egg, turquoise, almond, soft peach and ivory.
Frayed burlap distress ink, vanilla breeze glimmer mist, prima painterly petals morning silk #524159, My Minds Eye Colourful Christmas papers, card from Craftwork Cards, brown bazzill, blue cardstock, white cardstock from Stampin Up, coffee bean brilliance ink, studio g alphabet, bling, flower centres (cant remember what they are called!), some leaves and my lovely new stampin up border punch. Phew am worn out now!!

Another card I have made is: for a little boy who's party my little boy is going to on Sunday. Quick and simple card using Cosmo Cricket Cogsmo papers and diecuts.

Have made more cards but they are on my main pc which I cant access at the moment so will have to post again later!

Thanks for looking :)

More challenges!

I actually have quite a lot of birthdays to make cards for in January so I am doing some sketches and entering challenges at the same time! Much easier than normal as I usually end up leaving the cards until the day before, rushing them and then, even though everyone I send to are different ages (ranging from 5 to 50ish this month) they are all basically the same as I am normally so worn out after Christmas I lose my mojo - anyway now I have finally "clicked" with sketches I am well away and making lots of different cards and really enjoying myself in the process - which lets face it is the main thing!

Here are my first two for the month:

This one is based on an old sketch from Lili of the valley - I liked it so much I keep on using it! however I want to enter the card into the My Time to Craft challenge - link is: http://mytimetocraftchallenge.blogspot.com/2010/01/challenge-73-blue-brown.html

Their theme is blue and brown - my favourites! I would also like to enter it into two other challenges - they are: http://abc-challenge.blogspot.com/ whose challenge is L is for Layering and I have used quite a bit on this card and also for the challenge at http://creativecardcrew.blogspot.com/2010/01/challenge-42-distressing.html - but lets face it I love layering and distressing so why wouldnt I!

The other card I have made is for a bloke so I have kept it quite plain and simple, again I have based it on an old sketch that I had a note of but I have lost my slip of paper and cant find what challenge its from - if I find it I will update the post. Here's the card:

Even though its a bit plain I would like to enter this card into the randomly drawn challenge at http://cutecardthursday.blogspot.com/ after all you have to be in it to win it!

Thanks for looking and hope you all have a nice day - apparently its going to snow loads later today again so maybe we might have a couple more snow days this week! Anyway off now to create my next two cards for two five year olds - always fun!

Happy New Year everyone

Hi, sorry I havent been blogging but my pc has broken :( am writing this on my laptop (which is really slow compared to my main pc) just so that I can enter the competition over on Just Magnolia. Have made lots of cards and things recently but havent uploaded them onto this pc as soon as other half finishes building my new one I will!

Here are my latest two cards though:

This one is based on the sketch at http://justmagnolia.blogspot.com/2009/12/week-38-sketch-for-you.html which I have entered for their competition and I would also like to enter it for the competition at magnolia down under as its a card using Christmas images for a Thank You card - the link for that one is: http://www.kelliewinnell.com.au/magnolia/?p=1034

Here is the other Thank You card I have made:

Just need to make another two and I am done. Anyway must dash now as its a snow day here - yippee! - and we are off to go tobaggoning in the park. Thanks for looking :)

She's done!

Took me a little bit longer than I thought (almost a whole day more!) but I managed to have her finished and wrapped up for my lovely little goddaughter who came over for lunch today - and here she is - I am proud to introduce you to Jessica:



Now I just need to finish both my Mom and Nan's calendars and make 9 Christmas crackers -what fun!

New challenge

Ok here is my challenge card for lily of thevalley - it makes a nice change for me to do a card in pinks! think I will be giving this one to my Grandma on Christmas Day too.

Have made a few other cards but havent got time to upload them at the moment - need to finish the wrapping and table decorations whilst children are at school - its all go isnt it!

Thanks for looking.

What a busy few weeks!

Sorry I havent blogged for awhile - I helped organise a school Christmas Fayre a week ago, helped out at one last week and had DS1's 9th Birthday yesterday so its all been a bit hectic!

I have actually done a layout though! I know my first in about 3 months!

Thanks Julie for the inspiration at the last crop - as we both said "oval" and then "a planet" at the same time meant this just had to be done using lovely crate papers and some creative colour sprays I treated myself to at Hobbycraft (as you do!). Have also made quite a few cards recently too - might enter one into this http://liliofthevalleythursdaychallenge.blogspot.com/. Am off to have a little play today as I need to catch up with craft things for Christmas and my crop on Sunday and as I have a cold I have decided to put my feet up rather than go out and about running around as usual! I will be back soon I promise!

I've done some challenges!

For the first time I have decided to enter two challenges - how exciting are these! both cards are based on sketches and for the first time ever its finally "clicked" with me! I found them fun and easy to do not like scrapbook sketches whereby I seem to spend hours and hours on sketches and then never like the end result as they are never really "me" but these two cards fell straight into place, were quick and fun to do and, most importantly, I love the end results!! Hope you like them too.

Heres the first for

http://trulyscrumptiouschallenges.blogspot.com/2009/11/challenge-20.html

Ok so I know Halloween was three weeks ago but when I saw the sketch with five lines down it I just straight away imagined five spiders hanging down a card - dont know why but there it was and the image just wouldnt go away so it had to be done! plus I also used the new Edwin stamp that I bought about a month ago and still hadnt used!!

Card uses imaginesce Halloween papers, quickutz spiders, making memories ribbon and pumpkin sticker and, of course, the lovely Magnolia stamp! Texture is added by using ribbons and mounting all spiders on 3d foam.

The second is for

http://liliofthevalleythursdaychallenge.blogspot.com/2009/11/challenge-41.html and uses some lovely My Minds Eye Colourful Christmas papers and diecuts and the lovely Magnolia Tilda stamp.

I have so enjoyed making these - am off to look for more challenges to enter after little one has been to a friends Wacky Warehouse party this afternoon (wish me luck - Saturday afternoon in a crowded room full of 4 and 5 year olds!!).

Its been a busy few days - not least because Hobbycrafts has been at the NEC - yes I went twice and yes I spent a small fortune! Have been busy playing today not with all new goodies though but trying to catch up with some bits and pieces (such as the thank you cards for B's birthday presents which were received 5 weeks ago! oops, and they still arent finished - double oops!).

Anyway here are the other bits and pieces:

A lovely little boy I know is one soon so this is for him:

Here I just had to have a play with a new magnolia I discovered - Edwin with Mushrooms!!! I so had to have him didnt I!!

Here is the front:

and here is the inside - apologies for poor photograph!

A very quick 50th Wedding Annivesary card - I say quick its still taken me hours to do despite been quite simple - but this uses a new spray I bought yesterday - its a Crafty Notions one and really rather lovely! Rest of card is just cardstock cut from nesties and then sizzixed numbers finished with a bouquet of flowers - as I said very simple - have no idea why it took so long....

And then this is for a workshop I am teaching in a couple of weeks time - its called Tildas Garden:

The Edwin is another option if students want to do a boy instead - but I bet they dont!! tee hee.

Thanks for looking!

Its that book again!

Just a quick post - I have just applied to be a part of the fabulous Buzz and Bloom design team - wish me luck! Anyway here is hoping that they come over to my little space to view the dinosaur book I created earlier this year:

page one

pages two and three

pages four and five

pages six and seven

pages eight and nine

the last page

thanks for looking!

Phew end of week!

Just a quick card that I made for a lady who is 80 this weekend - I know its a bit masculine but I only have the Edwin celebrating and didnt think that the papers were masculine until after I had made it! still I am sure she will love it:

Birthday Cake!

Just a quick post as we are still celebrating Little Ones fifth birthday for yesterday - here are the pictures of the cake I made him - I am rather pleased with the final result particularly as I havent baked a cake in years! All the children at his party yesterday were well impressed too.

Up early

2am in fact! couldnt sleep and had lots of thoughts running through my mind - not so good ones either so in the end I got up at about 5am and finished off this little card:

Thanks for looking!

Promarker Day!!

Ooooohhhh have had a lovely day today spending this morning at a Promarker class at Stampeezee in Coventry.

Here are a couple of the images I coloured in: This is peachy Tilda - I have coloured the peaches in red though so that they look like apples.

This boy is my little Oliver - I am really pleased how I have managed to capture his beautiful red locks:

Am really pleased with the techniques learnt today so guess what I will be doing tonight! Thank goodness my workshop packs are all packed up and ready for tomorrows class!

Ok this is it!

This will now be my little space out there on the big world wide web - if you do want to see any of my old ramblings please go to:

http://nicolagrice.spaces.live.com/

Hello there

Its no good - have been using my website blog and my live spaces blogs for ages now but have never really got to grips with them so I am returning to good old blogspot. I so wanted to write some funky code and backgrounds to make my blog stand out from the crowd but lets face it I just dont have the time and energy so I am back on here for ease of use!

Lately I have been working on:

All photos taken by Morag - her photography skills are soooo much better than mine. The cards are all for a "Cards for Christmas" workshop I am running on Wednesday 30th Sept and Tuesday 6th October - for more details see http://www.whathousework.co.uk/

Cards are made using some lovely Stampin Up! stamps and papers.

Here is the flyer for the workshop (told you Morag was good didnt I!)

I have also just become addicted to Promarkers - its the new Hobbycrafts fault (you know, the one thats opened up just up the road from me - yes honestly! I can walk there if necessary!) anyway they were selling four packs of five pens for £4.50 so I thought I would try a pack - I got them home and immediately loved them so that I had to go back that same day and buy another two packs - I then left it a few days before I went back for the fourth pack - I didnt want to seem too keen did I! Anyway since then I have bought a few more online and on Tuesday I am going to a Promarker class at Stampeezee in Coventry! Am so excited - watch this space for what I create!!

Long time no blog as usual!

Lots going on over the past few weeks - have been busy enjoying spending time with my two boys before they both headed off to school fulltime last Monday. Have also been busy making a few things although they havent been photographed yet. Here is a layout I will be teaching at our next crop on 20th September 2009:

honestly I thought when both children went to school fulltime I would have time to catch up on all these little jobs however its now my fourth day and I still havent managed to put the duster around let alone do nice bloggy things! Lets hope that that changes soon.....