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.....

Lots going on!

As usual its been busy, busy, busy here - have finally managed to grab a few mins (well ok all of this morning!) to edit a few pictures I have taken. Here are my new creations during July:

So had to scrap this funny picture of B receiving his new Nintendo - he still cant say that word properly now and its been a year now!

Love this layout - still needs a bit more bling though if you ask me - might have to remedy that this week.

A layout with me on! see I really do exist!!

Fairly basic layout yet again - there seems to be theme with these last four layouts but still I have been concentrating more on cards and workshop classes lately and have had limited time to scrap - however there is still a lot to be said about quick and simple layouts isnt there - its very satisfying to get them completed quickly occasionally. Lets not talk about another layout I have been working on for a few days now......

Cant believe I have left it so long to add to this again!

well actually yes I can really. May was a busy month with lots of running around and a trip to California thrown in! yes really we went there again this year. Had a fabulous time but it did mean that my birthday was spent flying back so it entailed 12 hours on a flight, hanging around Heathrow (terminal 5 - very nice!) for an hour or so and then a 2 hour drive back home but all in all it was ok! Managed to get to our first evening crop on the Saturday too although I wasnt good for much and just sat there staring really!

June was a hectic month as we had the school summer fayre so lots of organisation and running around going on there - we had a fabulous day in the end and our Pirates and Princesses theme was well received - we managed to raise a whopping £1300 which considering how much we spent on new stalls etc. was amazing - thanks to everyone who came along and supported us.

And just dont ask me where July went - have no idea about that at all! Did manage to squeeze in some scrapping though and will upload the pictures later.

Solihull Craft Club

Had a lovely crop today – I spent hours completing just one layout but then managed to finish off 3 that were already half done and also teach the class for My Stars (piccy below) so all in all quite a productive day for me. It was also nice to hear the Villa score of 5-1 as I knew the mood at home would be a happy one too!

My Soccer Mad Son

What a fab day we all had today – Big One was invited, along with his football club, to the Aston Villa Training Ground to play a match against their Year 2 teams and have some coaching. He played very well and I was so proud when his coach came over to tell him so after the game! He also had some coaching by the Aston Villa coaches themselves – something I don’t think you can really put a price on!

Well not much is happening today - Big one has gone out with Daddy to look at some cars so I am watching Little One whilst cooking the dinner and uploading all of my latest layouts to my website. I am still not sure how to do slideshows on here without sending all of my personal information here there and everywhere so these few will have to suffice for now. Blast Off needs finishing - need to put a date on it somewhere on the top rhs but not quite sure what to do yet - if you have any ideas please let me know! My Stars is for a class I am running at my crop next Sunday.

I've been spotted!

I was on the telly again today! whoo hooo how exciting! Me and the big one got picked out of a long line of people queuing up for tickets on the Severn Valley Railway - I hadnt got the heart to tell them that I had actually won my tickets in a raffle and was just queuing up to verify them! Anyway it was all very exciting and we were on Central News - Oliver however was most put out and is going to be very cross if any of his friends saw him! I however was most excited so please let me know if you saw us!! Will try and get it on YouTube soon!

Well today I was hoping to take myself off to a crop - havent been to one since September last year but instead had to spend the morning in casualty with the little one. Apparently him and big one had a ding dong yesterday morning - according to one he was kicked and according to the other he accidently trod on the other one - your guess is as good as mine! anyway all is well - little one still cant walk very well and is limping along and falling over quite often but there are no fratures and his hips are fine which is good. Why when everyone tells you that parenting is hard you never understand till you are in the thick of it?? Anyway big one has bought little one a nice little train to say "sorry" and all is well. Till tomorrow.

Well today my baby started school! bless him he looked so cute and grown up in his little school jumper and went running into his new classroom without a tear in his eye or a backward glance at me! I was relieved too - he needs more interaction and I got a coffee morning!!

Hopefully I will now get more time to fill up my blog - oh and scrap of course! you never know I might start working again too! - the world is my oyster - at least for the next four weeks!

Oh my god I cant believe its almost a year since I last posted on here - good job I kept the site name in a document as I would have forgotten it completely!

Anyway my new year's resolution (yes I know, late as usual!) is going to be to try and post on here at least once a week - after all I should get time shouldnt I - only have two small children (three if you count OH too) and a house to look after!

Its the first week of the school holidays here which has been fab this week. OH had two days off so we pottered about on trains, trams and buses (DS2 chose that!) and then DS1 has been at Grandma and Grandads since Wednesday, it was my Nans 85th Birthday yesterday so that was a lovely meal out and today I have the whole day to myself - yippee as children are been looked after elsewhere. How exciting! now what to do with myself?? I have housework, some tv to watch and obviously scrapping - wonder which one I will do??