Birthday cake

I had a lovely birthday yesterday. A big thank you to everyone for the gorgeous cards and good wishes which I received. I'm looking forward to spending some birthday money at Stamp Magic on Sunday!

My daughter made me a birthday cake, and my two grandsons (aged 7 and 3) decorated it. I thought they did a brilliant job, and must show you a photo! Their idea for the decoration came from some pictures I have on my craft room wall. They are by an artist called Sue Fenlon, whose work I really like. Here's a link to her  website gallery . Please have a look at it, then you will see why I think the boys did such a good job imitating her style.

I loved the little ladybirds at the bottom! The plaited edging is made of marzipan, done by Ewan (the 7 year old) all on his own. He said he decided on that for the edging because I recently taught him how to plait. The single candle was a "token" one, as there wouldn't have been room for the number of my age, Or, as my son-in-law put it, "One candle for every 59 years!"

Oh, and the cake part was delicious too!

Happy Birthday Stampalot Challenge!

It's a rather special month at Stampalot Challenge. It might be April Fools day, but we're not joking -  you really are going to be spoilt rotten this month! There are absolutely loads of prizes to be won, because it's our Second Birthday! Naturally the challenge theme is

Happy Birthday

You can make absolutely anything you want as long as it's to celebrate a Birthday and as usual there's a fantastic prize from the lovely people at Sir Stampalot for this month's lucky challenge winner:

But it does not stop there, as in time honoured tradition we are having a Blog Hop and what fab prizes Sir Stampalot are offering in addition to the challenge prize above: one at each of the DT's blogs and another for the winner of the correct blog hop answer. I know lots of you are familiar with what you need to do, but as we are seeing so many new crafters joining our challenge, here are the details:

Visit each of the DT's blogs listed below.

Leave each one a comment to be sure you are in the draw for the prizes on each of the DT's blogs.

Pick up a letteR fRom each DT blog you visit. (You might have to look foR a clue to the letteRs!)  My letteR should be faiRly obvious!

Assemble those letteRs into two words - each word has four letteRs, and there's a clue in the prize! - and send youR answers to brenda@ibas.co.uk by noon GMT on 30th ApRil.

All correct answers will go into the draw for this super prize, some rather yummy Hero Arts goodies!

Here's the list of names you need to follow, each one will tell you where you should have arrived from and where you need to go next, but if you get lost you can always go back to the Challenge Blog and start again and don't forget you need to leave a comment at each blog, otherwise you won't be in the draw for all those prizes.


Sally

Pinky

Clare

Brenda

Ruth

Tracy

Lynne - You are here!

Francesca

To get here you should have come from the very talented Tracy and your next and final port of call will be the fabulous Francesca. Then you will have collected your eight letters and rearranged them into the two words to send off to Brenda.
This is the prize you can win on my blog:

And there are yet more prizes, because as this is a special month for us, this month Top 3 challenge entrants will also receive a little prize rather like this which Brenda has put together...........

Amidst all the excitement, I almost forgot to show you my card for our birthday challenge!

I've been making Mothers' Day and Easter cards with some of my classes at school, and they were mostly based on punched flowers. Being in a punch mood, I thought I'd do something with them for my challenge card. I've also just learned how to make crochet flowers (thanks for the lesson, Mairi!) and this one seemed to be the perfect embellishment for the card.

The background paper is from Crafty Individuals, and the flowers are punched from the same paper. The little butterfly is a Nellie Snellen punch. Not sure what all the others are, but they and the Nestie (Blossom 3) I've mounted them on are all available from Sir Stampalot.

Anyway, that's about it for now. Don't forget to go and have a look at the DT's gorgeous samples on the Challenge Blog, where you will also find all the details of the challenge and blog hop, and I look forward to seeing your entries.

A birthday and a secret!

It's the first of the month again, and time for me to let you in on the secret I've been sitting on for the past few weeks! I'm now a member of the Sir Stampalot Challenge Design Team! Sadly, Lorraine has had to step down, and while she'll be a very hard act to follow, I'm thrilled to bits and very honoured to have been asked to join the team.

April the 1st marks a special day for the Stampalot Challenge because it's our 1st Birthday! It has been a brilliant year, and with fantastic support from everyone in blogland, it's become one of the best challenges around.

Now, not only is it our Birthday, it's also April Fools Day !! So this means as well as a brand new challenge we've got something extra special lined up with a twist or two. But let me tell you about the April challenge first. The theme has been chosen by our very own Lady (Janice) Stampalot who has decreed it will be:

"LADIES AND FASHION"

For one lucky winner, this is the fantastic prize on offer from Sir Stampalot:

So now for the real fun bit.........this month the Design Team will be displaying their Challenge work on their own blogs only. And on the Challenge Blog we have a collection of pictures and pieces of artwork.............a picture of each DT member along with a piece of their work with they have selected which they think best depicts their style of crafting.

Have you guessed what you need to do? That's right, you have to decide which of our Design Team fits which pairing of picture and artwork! Hop over to the Stampalot Challenge Blog for all the details of what to do. When you think you have the answers, email Brenda brenda@ibas.co.uk with your list. There will be a couple of prizes on offer selected from those with all or the most correct pairings that reach her before 25th April. Any received after that date will not be included.

Anyway, here's my card for the “Ladies and Fashion” theme.

Stamps by Hero Arts (the sentiment is part of a larger stamp), coloured with Promarkers, background paper by Basic Grey (sadly discontinued), lace and recycled button from my stash.

I'm so looking forward to seeing everyone's entries, and hope you all enjoy our first birthday challenge!

Out of my comfort zone

This week, the  fabulous Allsorts Challenge Blog is one year old! So their challenge for the week, is, naturally, birthdays. Here's my entry.

It's quite different from my usual style. Generally speaking, I don't do cute, and I don't do fruit! Nor do I do hot colours. I much prefer cool or muted tones - blues, purples, greens, and my work tends to be nature, arty or vintage inspired. However, I thought that for such a celebration something a bit more lively was called for!

The background paper (which includes the flourish & the trims at the bottom) was a freebie from Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine a while ago. The cake and sentiment stamps are from a set by Impression Obsession. It took me about 10 minutes to make, which again is unusual for me! Normally I like to take my time, and often get part way through a card, leave it & come back to it later, to see whether I'm still happy with the direction it's taking, or whether I've changed my mind, before I finish it off. That's because I hardly ever have a plan in mind before I start! I just collect a few things together and see where they lead me.

Anyway, you'll gather that this card was some way outside my comfort zone, and that being the case, I'm also entering it for this week's Tuesday Taggers, whose theme happens to be "Step out of your comfort zone"! Funnily enough, now I've done it, I actually quite like it! And I managed to use up a bit of old stash too!

Tuesday Taggers 19 01 10

The theme for this week's Tuesday Taggers is "Leftovers". I've only just started doing their challenges, and didn't know about saving things from Christmas for this week's, so I hope this will count.

I've made a card for my younger grandson for his first birthday next Thursday, and apart from the lettering, it's made entirely from the packaging from a set of children's reward stickers. Very plain and simple, but the bright colours will appeal, and he loves animals, so I think he'll like it.

Here's the original packaging:

And here's the card:

I think I'm safe posting it now - I don't think he'll be reading my blog before next Thursday! (Although [proud grandma alert!] he has been walking since he was 10 and a half months old, can say quite a few words and does great impressions of sheep and lions!)

PS. Is anyone else unable to see their followers at the moment? Since yesterday Blogger Dashboard tells me I have 39, but on my blog there's just a blank space where they should be. And I can't see anyone else's. I've had a couple of new ones today - thank you and welcome to my blog, but I can't see who you are! Please leave me a comment and say hello, so I can come and visit you!

PPS. When adding my entry to Tuesday Taggers I inadvertently put the wrong link in Mr Linky, & had to post another saying ignore the previous one. Hands up all those who looked at it anyway!