Anything Goes @ Diva's

Good Morning Guys oh boy do I have a project (and a story) to share today!

First things first lets get the challenge and theme out of the way!

Today is a brand new challenge at

DIVA'S BY DESIGN

and this week Rebekah has given us

Anything Goes

It was Anything but a card when I made these but I guess as the owner Rebakah has the right to change her mind lol

Michael (my husband) is chairman of his 'Fridaymans' club this year (15 businessmen go out to lunch on the last Friday of each month and once a year they take their wives!!) And as chairman he (read me) have to come up with a present for the ladies. I was told they were having a 'spring' theme and to wrap it in 'springlike' paper.

I decided I could do a bit better than that and made gift boxes!!!

I googled 'Origami box' and found some instructions. I had to alter the fold a bit as the top of the box was as deep as the bottom and I wanted mine to finish half way down the box if you know what I mean??

I already had an idea what I wanted to put inside them as I'm a 'Clarins' fan and love all their products, Beauty Flash Balm is a miracle cream as far as I'm concerned but a tad pricey - so imagine my excitement when I was flicking through the craft channels and saw the very product I wanted at almost HALF PRICE on the Deal Channel!!

You might want to go and get a cup of tea as I haven't got to the good bit yet!!!

After ordering and receiving my bargain and feeling pretty smug with myself for coming up with a fab present at an even fabber price I was totally surprised to get a phone call from Joanne from Ideal World, (yes 'THE' Joanne from Create and Craft) Curiosity had got the better of them as to why I wanted 15 bottles of Beauty Flash Balm! I had such a lovely chat with her, and they had googled my blog (they took a punt it was connected to my email address) and I was grinning all day after that!!
Little Darlings have a fabulous competition on which I thought I'd try and enter too.

Anyway after that rather long (but I hope not tedious) story you might want to actually see what I made!! Warning I have gone overboard with the photo's as I'm so pleased with them

and inside

all 14 (I didn't need the 15th as I didn't go)

From the side

A close up of another

And finally 2 more group photo's

As they have now been received I can tell you all the ladies were chuffed to bits with the fab presents and the unique boxes which were designed towards them (hair colour, glasses etc) I had so many thank you cards/flowers etc I was quite emotional!!

Back to business!! Head over to the main challenge blog for all the details of this challenge, the prize on offer and some fabulous inspiration from my teammies.

That's all from me today, after that marathon post I think I need a lie down lol

Edited: OMG were we busy at the seaside this weekend! I don't think I've ever worked so hard or so long. Crafting and blogging has taken a back burner for me and I'm not sure how much time I can devote to it at the minute all I can say is I'll  try!!

Love 'n' Hugs Laurie xx

I'd like to enter these into the following challenges
Wild Orchid Challenge - 3 or more different flowers
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Saturated Canary - All things bright and beautiful

Snowflakes @ Ladybugs Craft Ink

Ho Ho Ho it's getting close to that time of year and I have so many lovely things planned first!

This is scheduled because I'm away in London, as last night I was lucky enough to get tickets to go and see the Royal Variety Performance! I'll let you know with my next post how it was.

I'm back today with a new challenge at

LADYBUGS CRAFT INK

and this week the very lovely Diane has set us a theme of

Snowflakes

That was the easy bit! Queen Ladybug went and made it more of a challenge for us (no resting of our little ladybug wings for her team!) and sent us all a plastic box to alter for this challenge and boy did I find this a challenge!!

At first that was!! I got really into this after an awful lot of stressing.

I filled mine with candy canes that were just £1 from the local supermarket and trimmed it up to match the colours. I also stuck on lots of sparkly Nailheads that are available from LCI  HERE. 

They come pre glued and I used my Kandi Kane to stick mine, don't look too close - I slipped twice and melted my box a bit!!

The boxes are also available at following sizes and price

4 1/8" x 4 1/16" x 1" - 45p each

5 5/8" x 5 1/2" x 1" - 60p each

4 7/8" x 6 5/8" x 1" - 60p each

6 1/8" x 6 1/16" x 1" - 70p each

4 1/2" x 5 7/8" x 1" -  60p each

These are the perfect size to fit standard size cards in if you wanted to use them as a gift box for a set of homemade notecards too!

Head over to the main challenge blog for lots of inspiration from the very talented bunch of girls and check out all the details of this weeks challenge while you're there.

That's all from me, thank you for stopping by

Love 'n' Hugs Laurie xx

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges

Bearly Mine - Snowflakes

Craft Room - Punches and Dies

RRR - Anything But A Card + Ribbon

Creative Card Crew - Anything Goes

Allsorts - It's A Gift

Too Cute To Spook @ MAWTT

Morning bloggers, my what is it with this FOG! I can barely see over the road from my house and it's been like that for 3 days now! I'm meant to be driving to my Mum's today, I hope this lifts a bit first!

Time for a brand new shiny challenge at

MOVING ALONG WITH THE TIMES

and this week the very lovely Debs in charge with

Too Cute To Spook

I'm still a bit behind so it's quick makes for me till I get on top of it all again and that meant my Simply Shelly Stickers came into play again LOL

I wanted to make a couple of treat bags for my friends Grandchildren who I went on Holiday with so this challenge was the perfect opportunity, I hope Chloe and Charlie like them!

Pop over to the main challenge blog for all the details of this challenge and some gorgeous inspiration from my teammies.

We have a fabulous sponsor this week

Dis Digi Downloads
http://disdigidownloads.blogspot.co.uk/

 

who are offering the winner 3 images from the store.

I hope you will all find time to join us.

That's all from me, thank you for stopping by

Love 'n' Hugs Laurie xx

I'd like to enter these into the following challenges:

Sparkle & Glitter with Rick - Sweet or Spooky

Creative Inspirations - Happy Halloween

Crafty Creations - Halloween Spooks

The Pink Elephant - Halloween

Totally Stampalicious - Green, Purple & Black

The Paper Shelter - Halloween

My Mums Craft Shop - So Spooky

Dream Valley - Halloween

Sweet Stampin' - Boo...Its Halloween

Crafty Catz - Halloween

Heck of a Spooky Challenge

Good morning guys its the start of a brand new month and that means a brand new challenge at

HECK OF A CHALLENGE

and this month Carrie came up with 

  Spook It Up!

oooooh scary scary lol

This is Lisa's all time favourite theme as she is an absolute Halloween nut!!

I thought I would stretch myself and NOT make a card this time

and I used a chipboard door hanger I got from the Craft and Hobby Store when Pam and I went up to visit Lisa's earlier this year.

 I covered the hanger with last year's Halloween papers from Echo Park 'Apothecary collection' and the little ghost and Frankenstein are 'Simply Shelley' stickers that I stuck on acetate, they have been in my stash for an age! The blinged up bat branch is also one of last years purchases from Prima and was in my opinion the perfect addition to the hanger! The die cut fence is a memory box gate that I cut out 3 times and stuck together.

Head over to the Heck Of A Challenge blog for all the details of this challenge and some seriously spooky makes from my teammies - they have really pushed the boat out this month!! While you are there don't forget to see if you were the lucky winner of our first challenge or maybe one of the TOP PICKS.

That's it from me today I have lots of organising to do before I head up north to meet my favourite girlies!

Thanks for stopping by
Love 'n' Hugs Laurie xx

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes
Creative Craft - Anything Goes
The Corrosive Challenge - Something Wicked
Fab 'n' Funky - Something Beginning With 'F' - Frankenstein, Feather & Flowers
Great Impressions - Fall Inspired
Anything But A Card - Fall Theme

Christmas Gifts @ MAWTT

Well did I go into a panic when I read this challenge theme or what!!!

I'm still really scared by anything that isn't a card and Christmas too - I'm still in summer season here at Hunstanton!

MOVING ALONG WITH THE TIMES

new challenge hosted by Kim is 

Christmas Gifts

Panic not lovely people - the MAWTT DT have some wonderful inspiration for you, I on the other hand have a humble little gift box!

Well 2 actually! Made with the Stampin' Up Bigz Die. It's really cute and tinchy, I should have put something next to it so you can see the size.  You can get it from the lovely Zoe Tant Stampin Up independent demonstrator (contact details in my side bar) I thought I could fill these up with ribbons, brads or buttons and such for my blog friends. The paper (well its more like card) is from a DCWV Christmas stack and the little image tags are from this weeks sponsor

http://digimyworld.com/

Head over to the main challenge blog for all the details and lots of fabulous idea's.

I'm off to visit my Mother - I haven't been able to get over for quite a few weeks and she has a list of jobs for me!
Thanks for visiting today and a big Hello to all my new followers I hope to get to visit all my old and new followers shortly!!

Love 'n ' Hugs Laurie xx

I'd like to enter these into the following challenges:
Bearly Mine - Anything But A Card
Anything Goes - Early Christmas
Creative Card Crew - Christmas
Totally Stampalicious - Anything But A Card

Heck Of A New Challenge Starts Today

Hello my lovely lovely friends I'M BACK!!! Or at least I should be after this weekend, we are still open so I will be working but it will be more like normal hours from now onwards, which means I'm hoping to find time to create and comment again!!

Today is the start of a brand new challenge blog

HECK OF A CHALLENGE

and I'm super excited to be a part of this from the beginning

Please please please head over there and join us for our first challenge of

Anything Goes

I've been to the shop in Heckmondwike and the Mandies are lovely, I hope you will all support them.  On October 6th we are all meeting up again for a blog girls day in the shop, if you can make it book in FAST! Details on the blog.
This is a monthly challenge so that should give everyone plenty of time to enter, the challenge will close at 8pm on the last day of each month and a new challenge will begin on the 1st of each month.

I was still really busy when it came to making something for this challenge and was about to show you a picture of some cupcakes I'd made a while back for my DT contribution, lol, when I remembered I'd made this album from our trip to Italy and not blogged it!

Huge sign of relief!!!

I covered the chipboard album with the most gorgeous G.C.D. papers called 'Ella Blue'

I made all the pictures black & white then added a couple of colours back into them in Photoshop

We stopped at the 'Blue Train' restaurant on the way in Paris and it was AMAZING!!

We were with a fabulous bunch of characters - I never stopped laughing

Lake Garda is a beautiful place but Verona was my absolute favourite!

This year we went to the English Lakes and I've yet to make an album for that, maybe now I have a bit more time I'll get on with it.

Head over to the main challenge blog HERE to check out what the fabulous DT have created for some inspiration, there really is a complete collection of styles for you there! All the details can be found there including the winner of the opening candy that was up for grabs!
 The prize this month is a £10 voucher to spend in store or in the online sister shop Every Crafts A Pound  HERE

Thank you for stopping by and checking me out today, don't forget to enter my 'Birthday Candy' before you go, it really is a special one!

Love 'n' Hugs Laurie xx

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges
The Stamp Man - Alter It
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes
Try It On Tuesday - Travel
Allsorts - Anything But Square
 Anything But A Card -  Anything But A Card

Anything But A Card @ MAWTT

Hello again I hope you all enjoyed the Jubilee and have fully recovered from any parties you may have had to celebrate! I've been working non-stop over ther weekend but managed to get this made a couple of weeks ago in preparation!
Its time for a new challenge at

MOVING ALONG WITH THE TIMES

and this week my lovely Lisa is cracking the whip and has given us the challenge of

Anything But A Card

Now Lisa knows this theme throws me into total panic normally but as I'm going through a 'finally use my equipment that's collecting dust' phase I got to use my Zutter binder it all for the first time and I must have bought it at least 3 years ago!!

So my 'anything but a card' is a birthday book!

I know I know it's still square but give a girl a break!
All my flowers are from WOC, I totally love that shop! I can't remember where I got my butterfly! it was from somewhere that Rebekah told me! The ribbon is American Crafts and has been collecting dust for years too lol and the image was given to me to play with by this weeks sponsor

http://stitchybearstamps.com/shop/

 You can find all the details at the MAWTT challenge blog along with some fabulous idea's from my lovely team mates.

I have another update from China to share too. Raegan went to see the Panda's and said they were amazing, you can have your photograph taken with them but at £130 she declined! (trust me that is not like her) She wasn't allowed through the path she originally chose, apparently sometimes Westeners aren't, so she backtracked to Kunming after going to the Face Changing Opera in Chengdu. This is a quote from her email
" I think I walked round the whole of Chengdu yesterday. I didn't want to go to bed and waste a day when time is running out so dragged myself to a monastery here then just walked around. I saw the bugs on sticks waiting to be ate...I just couldn't bring myself to do it! There's a massive statue of chairman Mao here so I walked to that as well and actually came across an Irish pub! So thought why not! Ha! Not very Chinese I know! Oh I ate Yak momo's in Shangri-la. Which is yak dumplings...they were good! They served them with this chili sauce and because my chopstick skills  are a little weak I kept dropping them in eating more chilli sauce than I would have liked!"
It goes on quite a bit more but I don't want to bore you all! She is now on her way to Xi'an (pronounced Sang I'm told)

That's all from me for today folks, thank you for coming by
Love 'n' Hugs Laurie xx

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:
MMCS - Bingo (flowers, pearls & die cuts)
Truly Scrumptious - Flower Power
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Lollipop Crafts - Flowers In Bloom
Secret Crafter - Anything Goes
RR Ribbons- Flowers and Ribbon
TIOT - Anything Goes