OSAAT CHALLENGE - NO 271 - ANYTHING GOES WITH A SPECIAL DAY (birthday, anniversary etc. )

Hi there fellow bloggers - it's time to post my next card for the OSAAT challenge and our theme this fortnight is 'A Special Day' which could be birthday, anniversary, birth, christening, Father's Day, Mother's Day - you get the gist.  Anyway I thought back to when I took my early retirement and I was as happy as Larry to be able to 'do my own thing' at last.  This image just made me chuckle and as she looks loads like me (cough cough!) I thought it was just perfect for a retirement occasion.

I thought the sentiment below was just so apt for this card so I printed it off and used some pink foil over the top and popped it through my favourite piece of equipment, my Minc machine.  I know it looks black on here but irl it blends beautifully with the rest of the colours on here.

Ingredients

7" x 7" White card blank - Anna Marie Designs
Digi - 'Please Drink Responsibly' by Stitchy Stamps at Stitchy Bear Digi Outlet
Best of K and Co Too - 12" x 12" paper pad
Crea-Nest-Lies XXL Dies - Stitched Ovals No 43
Crea-Nest-Lies XXL Dies - Stitched Circles No 41
Tonic Studio Dies - Frond Finesse die set
Graph-it Markers
Spectrum Noir Pencils
White Gel Pen
Sparkle Gems - The Range
Stardust Stickles
'Life' sentiment - Typed and foiled using Minc machine
Doily - coloured with Distress Ink pad - stash

We'd love to see your creations on the OSAAT blog there's a $10 gift coupon for our winner!

Check over on the blog - my DT teamies have made some wonderful creations to inspire you all.

Whilst I'm here I would like to thank you so much for all your support over the loss of Blossom (or Dirty Gertie as she was lovingly nicknamed), we really do appreciate your kind thoughts and understanding.

Big hugs to you all and I hope you are keeping well - I trust all the youngsters got back to school OK!

Love Sue xxx

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges - 

Bit More Time to Craft Challenge No 28 - Anything Goes (2)

Classic Design Team Open Challenge No 6 - Anything Goes (2)

Crafty Awesomeness Challenge (SEP) - Anything Goes (2)

Crafty Girls Creations Challenge No 25 - Anything Goes (2)

Digi Choosday Challenge Wk 37 - Anything Goes (2)

Ellibelle's Creative Moments Challenge No 7 - Anything Goes

Lemon Shortbread Challenge No 24 - Anything Goes (2)

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge No 42 - Anything Goes

Little Miss Muffet Challenge No 146 - Anything Goes

Love to Craft Challenge No 2 - Anything Goes (2)

CHRISTMAS CARDS ALL YEAR ROUND - SEPTEMBER - SHABBY CHIC AND/OR MONOCHROMATIC

Hi there everyone it's the mid month reminder for the CCAYR September Challenge and our theme is 'Shabby chic and/or Monochromatic' for your Christmas/Holiday creations.  I bought some gorgeous images a while ago from a wonderful artist Toni Arthurs, she has a group on FB ("My Art By Toni" Digital Stamps Sharing Group) and her images are varied and very pretty!

Ingredients

7" x 7" white card blank - Anna Marie Designs

Image - Birdhouse with Robins by Toni Arthurs (FB)

Embossing Folder - Free with a Craft Magazine

Crea-Nest-Lies XXL - Stitched Rectangle Ref 44

Core-dinations 'Ebony and Ivory' 12" x 12" pad

Anna Marie Designs - 'Blissful Teal' 7" x 7" paper pad

Flexmarkers

Stardust Stickles

Ribbon - The Hobby House

Charm - stash - bought from Ebay

Sentiment - printed and then 'Minc'd' with silver foil

We are being sponsored this month by Elizabeth Bell

and she is offering the two sweet digis below as a prize

Prize no 2 is the following 

 So there we have it - two prizes on offer when you enter our challenge.  Don't forget we love seeing your creations and we hope you can find the time to drop by and check out the DT work on our Challenge site (here).

I do have some sad news to tell you about and that is that we lost our gorgeous Blossom on Monday 6 September.  On the Sunday night she came up the stairs to bed in my craft room and I noticed that she was out of breath but guessed she must have been cavorting with Donny in the garden before she came in.  She'd been absolutely fine up until then, however in the morning she was no better so we popped her to the vets and they said they would x-ray her and give us a ring when she was ready to pick up.  Apparently they gave her a small sedative and she had a seizure.  The x-ray showed a large amount of fluid on her lungs and the vet said she couldn't be sure whether it was her heart or the return of the cancer.  She said she could try to drain her lungs but couldn't risk giving her a full anaesthetic and even then she couldn't guarantee anything.  After consideration we thought it best to let her go and join her other furry brothers and sisters over what I think is beautifully described as 'the rainbow bridge'.  We were both with her and she was so dignified bless her.  I'm keeping her little bed in my craft room, I know the other two are missing her, Biscuit was looking for her for two days, whilst  Donny seemed to be like my shadow for a while.  Sorry to end on a miserable note but I know that many of you will understand how we're feeling at the moment.

Big hugs to you all


Love Sue xxx

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges

Bit More Time to Craft Challenge No 28 - Anything Goes (1) 

Classic Design Team Open Challenge No 6 - Anything Goes (1)

C.R.A.F.T. Challenge No 381 - Christmas

Crafty Awesomeness Challenge (SEP) - Anything Goes (1)

Crafty Girls Creations Challenge No 25 - Anything Goes (1)

Digi Choosday Challenge Wk 37 - Anything Goes (1)

Ike's World Challenge No 72 - Things that Fly

Lemon Shortbread Challenge No 24 - Anything Goes (1)

Love to Craft Challenge No 2 - Anything Goes (1)

Paper Creator's Crafts Challenge No 51 - Christmas

CRAFTY CALENDAR CHALLENGE - SEPTEMBER - BACK TO SCHOOL

Hi there everyone - now I feel really guilty for telling you this because I know there are lots of peeps out there who are either poorly themselves or their other halves are poorly but I am in absolute agony with my back.  We did our training session on Monday morning with the Wii machine thingy and thoroughly enjoyed it and then on Tuesday evening I got out of the bath and bent slightly to pick up me jim-jams off the bed and I felt a sort of pop in my back and have been in pain ever since - it's the sort that makes you feel sick all the time!  Graham talked me out of swimming on Wednesday and I didn't need talking out of it on Friday.  

Anyway huge apologies to you all for having a whinge, here's my card for the Crafty Calendar Challenge this month.  Our theme is 'Back to School' so I've taken it upon myself to use a few embellishments that took me back to my school days - with a little poetic licence!   I'm just a tad too young to have had a slate at school but we did have a chalk board!  I'm still using my school dictionary with my name and Form IIA written in it and then there's the skipping rope which I loved and a few daisies 'cos making daisy chains was one of my favourite pastimes!  Oh and our summer dresses were in different coloured gingham, mine were blue.

Ingredients

7" x 7" White Card blank - Anna Marie Designs

Digi image - 'Katie Reading' - Robyn's Fetish Digital Stamps & More

Paper - LOTV 'Sunny Side Up' 8" x 8" pad

Spellbinders Dies - Labels Forty Six die

X-Cut Large Dies - Tags and Bookplates dies

Marianne Design Craftables Dies - Daisy CR1272 dies

Flexmarkers

Beads for skipping rope handles - stash

'Piece of chalk' - broken tip off a Chinagraph pencil (one of those gem 'pick up' pencils which have never worked properly!!)

I made the little 'slate' with a piece of semi-black paper and a coffee 'stirrer'.  I chopped the stirrer into pieces to fit around the edges of the paper, glued them on and then sandpapered the edges to smooth them,  adding the words using a white gel pen.  I found a couple of beads plus a teeny bit of toothpick to make the skipping rope handles and must admit I was pleased with the results for both of these items.

Anyway the sponsor for this month's challenge is Robyn's Fetish and they have some fabulous images so do try and enter our challenge competition.

Lots of big hugs to you all and please take care.

Love Sue xxx

I would like to enter my card into the following 10 challenges  -

Aloha Friday Challenge No 79 - School
Brown Sugar Challenge No 214 - Back to School
Colour Crazy Challenge Wk 21 - Anything Goes
Colour Throw Down Challenge No 408 - Colour Inspiration 
Crazy Challenge No 230 - Getting Ready for School
Glitter n Sparkle Challenge No 203 - Back to School
Going Grey with Scrap Creations Challenge - Back to School
I Love Promarkers Challenge No 316 - Use a Die Cut
Make it My Monday Challenge No 29 - Back to School
Pattie's Creations Challenge No 126 - Back to School