Bee happy

Hi all,

It's been thundering today, but luckily we've been inside. Daisy had her dance lesson today and then we went to the library. Daisy loves to choose books for her and Martha and is allowed to choose one DVD too. This week she chose a cartoon about Theseus and the minotaur and although I wasn't sure what she would think of it, she loved it. Martha is desperate to crawl and has managed one mini crawl today, but still doesn't quite know what to do once she gets on hands and knees.

Onto my card. Stamp Fairy have a wonderful photo for inspiration this week. It is of a very floral apron in bright colours. So, I have used bright florals and a Lenny Bee image as bees love flowers. Also, I thought that it would be cool to use the apron as a kind of sketch, if you see what I mean. I used three papers, like the three different fabrics on the apron and then used the waistband and pocket and bottom hem as a sketch. I found some great ricrac to mirror that used on the apron. I quite like how this has turned out.

Curl up with a book

Hi all,

It's Tuesday so it's time for another challenge at Creative Craft. This week we would like to see bookmarks. I find I never have enough as I always seem to lose them or Daisy borrows them for her books. One of our sponsors, Bugaboo Stamps, kindly let the DT have some images to play with. I chose this fab bath image as I love to relax in the bath with a good book. The paper is by We R Memory Keepers. I glittered the bubbles and the sentiment is computer generated.

For my second bookmark, I used this perfect image from Robyn's Fetish and made a corner one, which I have never made before.

Check out the other fab makes on the blog.

Sparkle and shine

Hi all,

Well, Monday is nearly over and the girls went to kindy as they felt much better. It meant I could get all the usual jobs done, which was handy.

There is a new challenge at Incy Wincy, which is sparkle and shine. Our sponsor this week is

and the winner gets to choose three digis from the store. The DT were lucky enough to use some Heart song images. As we would like to see sparkle and shine on your cards, I went a little mad with mine! I used pink holographic card, glittered the edges of the butterfly and used some gems. Hop over to the blog and check out the rest of the DT's fab work.

Yes it really is a Christmas card!

Hi all, I hope you are having a good weekend. Hubby was away all weekend on a camping trip with some friends (us girlies are going away in a month's time - but not camping!), so I had loads of things planned for us to do. However, Daisy and Martha were ill from Wednesday and then half an hour after hubby left on Friday, I got the bug. So, we stayed in most of the weekend and watched TV. I think we are now recovered, but it was great timing.

Onto my card. I was planning to make loads this weekend until I became ill, so this is the only one I did. ABC Christmas Challenge's theme is F for Freebie and a sketch and the sponsor, who is the wonderful Stamp Fairy, has given a free image that can be used. I have used it and have gone for a mainly white card, which really isn't me, but I thought I would give it a go. The embossing was done with my big bite on the eyelet setting and the sparkly ribbon was from my recent trip to the craft fair.

A few flowers

Hi all,
It was still raining for most of the day. I just hope I can get Daisy's ballet dress dry for her lesson tomorrow. Martha now has four teeth and so hopefully she will have a few weeks without pain.
The Stamp Fairy blog has a fab sketch this week. The image is Betty perfect day by Stamp fairy. I had her all ready and waiting for the perfect card, and here it is! The paper is by My Mind's eye and I have used a circle punch to creat the scalloped border again. You might see this quite a bit as I really like the effect.

A bit of embossing

Hi all,

My second post of the day and this time there's a card for you. The girls were at kindy all day and Martha actually had smiles for people, so I think she may be starting to settle in and enjoy it there. It's been horrible and wet all day here, and my washing is wetter than when I hung it out.

It's another Incy Wincy challenge. This week we are sponsored by:

who are offering a $10 voucher for their store. The theme this week is embossing - dry or heat and the DT were given some wonderful digis and papers to play with. As I don't have the machinery to dry emboss things, I went for heat embossing, and used some wonderful flower stamps from woodware. This image is called Daisy, which is why I had to use it! I went quite simple for this one, but I am still getting used to the amount of empty space and lack of layers. Head on over to the blog to check out the fab creations by the rest of the DT.

A few awards

Hi all,


I hope you had a lovely weekend. It is a wet and horrible Monday morning here. This is a quick one as I should be working when the girls are in kindy, not blog hopping! I was given these awards a while ago and have only just got around to posting them - sorry.


The first two were given to me by the fantastic Susan. Thank you so much.


Here are the rules for this one: 1. You must accept it, write a post about it and display it. 2. Pass it to 3 - 5 fab blogs and tell them that they have been given the Love Blog Award. 3. Link back to the person who passed it to you. The aim of this award is to showcase great but not well known blogs, so don't tag anyone with 3,000 + followers.

For this one I need to tell you 5 things about me.

This award was given to me by the wonderful Annette.
Thank you so much.

The conditions of this Award are . . .
Make a post linking back to the person who gave you the award!
Share 7 random things about yourself
Award 7 recently discovered bloggers with this award
Contact these bloggers and tell them they've won the award.

Now, that means that I would be sharing 12 things about me, and I don't think I have 12 interesting things to say, so I will do as many as I can!

1. I have grade 8 clarinet, but I haven't played it for years so have forgotten a lot.

2. I lived in France for a year as part of my degree and taught English in two high schools.

3. Purple is my favourite colour.

4. I read a lot (or used to before Daisy and Martha) and can't bring myself to get rid of any books I have, so keep having to buy more bookcases to store them.

5. When I was younger I used to ask for Star Wars toys for my birthday, especially the millenium falcon, but I never got them.

6. My first car was a black metro, which was scrapped 4 years later when a mechanic said it was the most dangerous car he had ever seen on the road.

7. I always wanted to be a teacher since I was very little, even though my teachers tried to put me off!

8. Daisy named Martha. She was making up a story with Martha as a main character. Hubby and I decided we liked the name and used it. I have no idea where Daisy heard it from.

As for choosing people to send this to, I hope it is okay if I say if anyone wants them, take them, as every blog I follow is amazing and I am finding it hard to choose just a few. I know this is a bit of a cop out and if I am lucky enough to receive other awards I will try and choose people - I promise.

Good luck

Hi all,

Yes, it's nearly the weekend. We had some of Daisy's friends around this morning for a play and then we saw more at the park this afternoon. We didn't go further as the car was in for a service. Martha and Daisy are now safely tucked up in bed, so I can have a little blog hop.

I found this wonderful sketch at The Sweet Stop and thought I'd have a go. As there are a few green challenges this week, I thought I would use this super cute image from Stamp Fairy called Herb and used lots of scraps of green paper. The sparkly ribbon is one of my new craft fair pruchases. The scalloped border was made by punching lots of circles and attaching them together. I quite like the effect.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

Stamp Fairy -Show us your green

Delightful challenges - green

Creative Card Crew - green

Fab n Funky - All things green

Allsorts - Luck of the Irish

Lovely lace

Hi all,

I'm feeling a bit better today and decided to go to my fitness class this morning. I now think I should have stayed home as I am aching more and I don't know if it's illness or exercise related. Martha has finally got another tooth, so that may explain why she has been so grumpy. Only 17 more teeth to go. Yippee! Anyway, enough waffle as I'm sure you get bored by the daily goings on in the Bee household.

This fortnight on Creative Craft, the theme is lace. It can be real lace or lace doilies/punches. We have some fab sponsors this week - Create with TLC, imag'e'nation and Robyn's fetish. I made two cards this week as I love working with lace at the moment. The first card uses an image by Robyn's Fetish. The papers are by Prima. The second card uses an image and sentiment by TLC Creations. I love this cute birdie.

Let's hear it for the boys!

Hi all,

The girls were in kindy all day and I should have been getting lots done. Unfortunately, I've been feeling a bit under the weather, so didn't get everything done. There's always tomorrow!

This week at Incy Wincy, we are sponsored by Aspire to Thrive, who are offering $10 to spend in their store. The theme this week is 'One for the boys', so we want to see your projects for males. For my card, I used this great dog image from ATTCC. The papers are from Hot off the Press and the newsprint is from SU. Hop over to the blog and check out the fab makes from the rest of the DT.

I have finally used some snippets!

Hi all,

I hope you have been enjoying your weekend. Today, we went to a birthday party in the local park of one of Daisy's friends whose parents are also good friends of ours. The sun was shining and it was a fab day. Then, I managed to go to a craft fair about 30 minutes drive away. Daisy wanted to come too, but I thought she would get bored, so I went first and hubby took the girls to a nearby farm and then delivered Daisy to me later so she could have a look around. She decided she wanted some beaads, so chose them herself and has already threaded some onto elastic to make a necklace. I didn't go too mad, but bought some wonderful stamps from stampscapes and I can't wait to have time to use them.

Anyway, the lovely Jules has set herself a personal challenge to use up some scraps (or snippets as she calls them) and so only uses snippets to make cards on a Sunday. I've been meaning to play along for a while as I have so many snippets but I have only just found the time to do so. So, all of these papers and cards are snippets, as is the lace. The digi image is by Digistamp boutique, called Shelly and cake and I love it, but haven't used it before. I distressed the papers and paper pieced the spots on the shell. I did think I might lose some of the scraps in the printer. Over at the Creative Card crew challenge the theme is no flowers, so I thought it would be a challenge to do a girly card with no flowers, but I think I did okay.

A little bit sketchy

Hi all,

I hope you are having a good day. Both girls went to kindy today. Usually Martha stays at home with me on a Tuesday, but she is finding it a bit hard to settle into kindy so as there was a space this week on Tuesday we decided to send her as she might get to know the people better. It worked a bit as she had a good day and had lots of smiles for Daisy when they played outside. As for me, it wasn't a rest as I went to my exercise class (boxing again - I love it!), did loads of housework, did some tutoring and managed to make some DT cards. I also squeezed in a little non-DT make and here it is.

Over at the fab Stamp Fairy blog, they have a great sketch this week. I decided to go with Toby Spring fairy - isn't he adorable? I paper pieced the wings and dress. The DP is from a RAK so I don't know who made it, but I love it. Go and check out the challenge and the images. They are all so cute.

Meet Barnaby

Hi all,

Well, Monday is here and nearly over for me. It has been a normal busy Monday. The girls were at kindy and I'm glad Daisy is going back tomorrow as she somehow managed to come home wearing one of their fairy dress up dresses. How I didn't notice is beyond me!

Onto a new challenge for Incy Wincy and this week we are sponsored by:

who are offering the winner 3 digi stamps. The theme this week is pastel colours and the DT were lucky enough to have a play with some Digital Delights images and I chose Barnaby Bunny. Now, I'm not a big fan of many pastel colours as I feel they can looked washed out, but I quite like this one. I put Barnaby in a frame and added some Wild Orchid flowers. Hop over to the blog to check out the fab makes from the rest of the DT.

A bit of black and purple

Hi all,

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday. We had a kindy get together at our local park this morning, which was great fun and it was nice to meet the parents of Daisy's friends. We then went to a friend's house for dinner and although it was a late night, Daisy behaved very well. (Martha slept all the way through, so behaved well too!)

Onto my card. Over on Creative Card Crew, the theme is gothic and it brought me back to my youth. In my late teens, I used to dress in only purple and black. I would wear many layers of clothes, often including black lace tops, stripy tights and always accessorised with purple DM boots! So, I thought I would have a go at a card. The girl image is from The paper shelter and the tree and moon are from Tiddly Inks. I have used purples and blacks. The lace is from an old top and the bat charm is from one of my earrings I used to wear.

I would also like to enter this into Allsorts - a card for a teenager and One Stop Craft Challenge - black, white + one other colour.

My 15 minutes of fame?

Hi all,
I hope you are having a good weekend. After Martha recovered from her bug, Daisy got it, so I spent all of Friday trying to keep her sat on the sofa to recover, but as soon as she felt a little better she wanted to be up doing things. She isn't one to loaf in front of the TV all day, but I actually wished she was yesterday so she could recover completely. She seems to be better today, which is good.
On Wednesday, Daisy went to her dance class and I went to have a coffee with a friend and Martha while we waited. Anyway, a film crew approached me to interview me about the government's new idea to publish information about possible GM food in baby and child food. Well, I knew nothing about it, but managed to to talk about it for a while! So, Martha and I might be on our local news and current affairs programme soon. Hubby is now watching it every night and I am desperately trying to avoid it.
Onto my make, at Stamp Fairy this week the theme is anything but a card. I decided to make a popcorn style box with a handle to give Daisy for Easter with a couple of eggs in. The front and back are decorated the same. The images are Easter Clementine from Stamp Fairy. I love this cute bunny! I pleated ribbon around the images to frame them. The daisy paper is by Allison Ellis design. I also made a tag which has a homemade lace flower on it. I really enjoyed making it and will now have to come up with a little Easter box to hold a soft toy for Martha as Daisy has a great sense of fairness and will want Martha to have something if she has eggs.

Giving thanks at Creative Craft

Hi all,

I went to my training today and as I missed last week through illness I found it really hard. It's amazing how missing one session just messes everything up. Martha was home today while Daisy was at kindy. Martha is desperately trying to crawl, but I'm not sure whether it's a good idea or not. At least I know where she is at the moment.

Well, it's time for another Creative Craft challenge. This week we are sponsored by Stitchy bear and for another prize we are offering a 1 month GDT spot. We also have more prizes available, but check the challenge blog to find out more! The theme is Thank you and as we have so much to be thankful for (and therefore to make a card for), I hope you can find the time to join in. I have made two very different 'Thank you for being you' cards. The first one uses an image by Stitchy bear. I love it as it reminds me of my youth. I wasn't a punk, but I did dress alternatively and found myself being judged solely on this many times so a thank you for being you would have been appreciated. The papers are by dovecraft and I used some safety pins as embellishments as I thought they completed the look.

The second card uses an image by Di's digi downloads and I thought it needed a sweet and girly type of card. The paper is by prima and the flowers are by Wild Orchid.