My friend Nicola has very kindly given me this beautiful award.

In turn, i would like to award it to

Rozzy, to recognise her big heart on this, her birthday.

I have also received this lovely award from my friend Maxine, who is Trimcraft Cardmaker of the Year. Thank you Maxine. I appreciate it very much.

The latest pages for my smirk album feature my beautiful little niece, Kirstie. The smirk range is perfect for pictures of little girls. She looks very angellic but she is a real live wire and full of mischief. you can tell she likes to pose for the camera. My brother says its the only time she sits still.

I did this card for the Ceative Inspirations blog challenge. to enter you have to make a valentine card which must cotain the colour black. Link it to the challenge and post it in your blog. leave a comment on the blog with a link to your card.

The clolours have not scanned well. The cuttlebug border and hearts are antique gold card, one heart has lace added. Before cutting it I used spray adhesive to attatch the lace and cut with lace against the die as it cuts better doing it that way round. the copper circle, cuttlebug die again, has "be mine" written using sakura pen, attatched to copper ribbon a double strip of which has been used on black card as a mount for the central heart.

The tag set me off down memory lane and I decided to post some pics of the pets. First we had Sunny the Sheltie who was the most beautiful and happy dog ever, If ever a name was appropriate it was his. He adored cats and was overjoyed when Lucky arrived.

Lucky set the pecking order straight away, as you see he was the boss right from the start. Next came the beautiful Misty. she was an abused kitten and was terrified of children.My youngest was 15 but the local kids understood and used to visit singly until she was used to them all and cured of her fear. Sunny mothered her, he was an old dog by then and she missed him dreadfully when he died. That night I was in bed crying and she came and laid every toy she had on my pillow. She died of a brain tumor about 2 yrs ago when she was 14.

Next came Ben. The cats were very wary of this little black tornado who couldn't have been more different to the lovely laid back Sunny. They soon got used to each other and Lucky and Ben were inseperable for the later part of Luckys life. Now Ben is the old man and is almost 15 and blind.He has become very nervous since his sight deteriorated and from being extremely friendly to both humans and animals he has become nervous of all strangers. He misses his cats and its sad to see him so nervy. He is our last pet and we shall miss him dreadfully when his time is up.

I have been tagged by Sandra.
The rules are that you go to your photo albums on your pc, open the 6th album, choose the 6th picture and explain what its about. This is mine and it just happens to be a favourite picture of my cat Lucky. He died last January age 16. We miss him a lot.
He was named Lucky by my daughter as she said we were lucky to get him as he was originally going to someone else. he was such a feisty kitten that the rest of us said he was lucky we kept him.
He was such a beautiful cat. We had 2 dogs during his lifetime and they both adored him. Ben, our only surviving pet, misses him still.
Anyway, I now have to tag 5 others.
1 Claire
2 Julie
3 June
4 Nicola
5 Siobhan
I have also been tagged for this by my friend Pattie. If you have not visited her blog, go look, its a real treat. Pattie was an artist by profession and it shows, her work is outstanding.

I decided to make a girlie album with my smirk prize from Trimcraft. These are the first three pages.

I love this range, its very easy to work with. Girlie things are a nice change for me. I grew up with only brothers and my eldest is a boy, not strictly true as he is now in his mid 30s,lol. Even my daughter was a little daredevil as a child. I am glad to say she became much more girlie as she grew up. However, her only child is ....a boy! So this makes a refreshing change from fishing pages and Dr Who.

I recently bought a Panini collectors card album. it was made for football cards but is perfect for ATCs. The covers are slide in so I removed them and replaced them with this digitally produced A4 sheet of photo paper with some of my own (now swapped) ATCs. The albums are sold in most newsagents for just under £4. Have a look, I am very pleased with mine.

A big hug and Thanks to my dear friend June for this cute little fellow.It is given in appreciation for your lovely and witty comments and for knowing just the right thing to say. How nice is that!

I now have to pass it onto 10 friends. Difficult, as I have so many wonderful friends, all of whom deserve it. I will have to give it some thought. I know some of us find the awards very time consuming so if its OK, I would like any of my friends reading this to accept the award with my best wishes and a hug. I have also received this award from Anne. thank you so much Anne.

Thank you very much to Doreen for these two awards.It was very sweet of you to think of me.

The lemonade award is passed on to 5 people who have shown great attitude or gratitude this week. they in turn should pass it on and also follow the usual form and link it. I think you all know the drill,

The Kreativ award does what it says in the title. award to 5 creative people and say how they inspire you. Again, make the usual links.

I would like to nominate

Julie for her wonderful attitude in spite of her health problems and for her inspiring creations.

Rozzy for being herself and inspiring and encouraging so many people.

Val for her wonderful creativity.

Andrea for her friendship and inspiration.

June for her beautiful work and her much valued friendship and inspiration.

Ladies, I value you all very highly, please pick up both awards with my Love and Thanks.

Thank you to the lovely Nicola for this award. I now have to pass it on to 7 people. i would like to pass it to

Rozzy

Claire

Julie

June

Katie

Deborah

Siobhan

cards for Marie Curie apeal

A couple of simple cards for the Marie Curie apeal.

2008 Trimcraft Awards.

The Trimcraft Awards were announced on friday. I am delighted to say that I was voted General All Round Crafter of 2008. To say this was a surprise would be an understatement. I have been on cloud nine ever since I heard the news. It is a huge honour to be chosen by my fellow members for this wonderful award. I would like to say a big Thank You to everyone who voted, and to Trimcraft for not only giving the awards and prizes, but for providing the wonderful craft site that Trimcraft is. A lot of us who now have blogs would not have them without the help, support and encouragement that we have received as members of Trimcraft.
It was a double celebration in our house as my husband received the award for Scrapbooker of 2008.
Congratulations to Maxine for Cardmaker of 2008, Cheryl for ATC maker, and to Rozpoz for the award of Outstanding Contribution to the site. All very well deserved, and I know they are all as thrilled as we are.

I have been playing with alcohol inks on stardream card and decided that they would look good with butterfly stickers.

I was inspired by the beautiful butterfly which is currently living in my kitchen. We discovered her clinging to the glass on the back door 3 days ago. Goodness knows how she got here, but we are afraid it would be too cold to let her out.

Fantasy card

I would like to enter this card in Leanne's fantasy challenge on charisma cardz blog.

The lovely Jude is offering blog candy. To enter you have to make a card for Marie Curie. Pop over to her blog and check it out

Before I forget

Oh, I almost forgot, for the Encouraged award I have to list five things I am addicted to.
1 ATCs
2 Scrapbooking
3 Smoking (hangs head in shame!)
4 trimcraft challenges
5 Blogging

I have also received this award from my friend Jude. Thank you so much Jude.
Thank you also to Donna who has also awarded me.

Wow 3 Awards

Many thanks to the lovely Andrea for this award.I have also recieved this award and a further two from my good friend Julie

I would like to award them toClaire

Pattie

Julie

Leanne

and Val

Bev is offering some fabulous blog candy to be drawn on the 17th, so pop over and have a look

I would like to enter my scrapbook page in Leannes challenge

This is a scrapbook page of my neice at my daughters wedding. Leanne has a pink challenge going and I thought I would enter this.

I have been having fun with magnolia stamps and cuttlebug folders. Rather than ink the inside of the folders I laid them down and gently pressed an inkpad (or 2) over them so that just the embossed areas were inked. Less messy than inking the folders and easy if you do it as if you were reinking a stamp.

Pop over to Kims blog for some wonderful blog candy. Her blog is well worth a visit anyway.

For a chance to win some lovely blog candy on Carlz blog, follow the link

My friend June is offering a wonderful piece of her jewellery as blog candy on her site to launch her new range of beautiful items. pop over and be amazed at her wonderful work.

A Very Happy New Year to everyone. I hope that 2009 brings you all happiness, prosperity and friendship. Oh, and creative inspiration so you can post many more wonderful projects to brighten even the dullest of days. Best Wishes to you all. Love, Mayxx