A huge thank you to Sem

I would like to post a very special thank you to my wonderful blogging buddy Sem http://www.semsee.blogspot.com/ who made me these very special and beautiful gifts for my birthday, I felt really choked up when I opened the package. Not only had she taken the time to make this gorgeous trio, she also enclosed a beautiful whiff of joy stamp in the lovely wallet and flowers, gems and charms in the beautiful box she made, in the card are beautiful stamped images too, it must have taken her ages, the photo really does not do these beautiful items justice, I will treasure these forever.

If anyone would like to see how she has made these items she has kindly put tutorials on her blog http://www.semsee.blogspot.com/ whilst there look at the wonderful cards she makes, she gives me so much inspiration, her cards are always stunning.

Thank you so much again Sem, I cannot describe how much your thoughtful and stunning gifts touched me. Good luck in your DT entry! Huge hugs Julie x

My blog candy winner is

I am very sorry for the delay in posting my blog candy winner.

I would like to thank everyone that entered and to those that have become new followers and thank you also to my existing followers, your comments mean so much to me.

Without further ado, the name my 12 year old daughter Freya chose was Teri http://teriscraftspot.blogspot.com/. Congrats Teri, please email me your addy so I can send the goodies out to you on Tuesday.

I hope everyone is having a fantastic bank holiday weekend, thanks for looking Julie x

Birthday Blog Candy up for grabs please scroll down for newer posts

Tis post will remain at the top of my blog until 27th August so please scroll down for newer posts.

In celebration of my birthday and my wedding anniversary in 30 days (27th August) I am offering some blog candy, I would also like to try and get 5000 hits by then which would be utterly amazing . I am also sure there are lots of blogs I have not stumbled across yet as I have only be blogging since April so it will give me an opportunity to take a look at all your fantastic and inspirational blogs. I will add another photo as soon as I can as I am still waiting for some bits to arrive.

All you need to do to enter is leave me a comment on this post, it is not a requirement to become a follower to enter but anyone that is already a follower or who becomes a follower will get a second chance and if you add a link to my candy on your blog you will get a third chance.

Closing date and time is 27th August Midnight BST

I will get one of my children to draw a winner on 28th August and will post the winners details the same day.

Thanks for looking x

Character Cafe Blog hop

Just to let everyone know that the Character cafe http://www.sweeteez.webs.com/designteam.htm are having a blog hop, with a free image to collect along the way and a chance to win images for leaving comments. There is also a code to collect which entitles you to 30% off orders upto 25th August so what are you waiting for head over here http://www.sweeteez.webs.com/designteam.htm Have a great weekend everyone x

Truly Scrumptious Challenge

I recently lost my mojo and haven't been making any cards but over the last coupkle of days I have been making up some 3D Projects, the other day I did the picnic baskets which I have already posted. This time I have made the beautiful Pretty petty pocket basket and the Get a handle on it box.

These are both made from the Papertrey http://www.papertreyink.com/ templates I bought over the last few days. The card is from Stampin Up, I bought this card about a year ago at a party and then forgot about it so have been making the 3D projects with the two colours. The templates are really easy to use and go together very nicely. I am really pleased with the results.

I am entering these projects into this weeks Truly Scrumptious challenge http://trulyscrumptiouschallenges.blogspot.com/2009/08/challenge-14.html which was to make anything other than a card. Thanks for looking x

Another post from me today - Picnic Baskets

I bought the Papertrey http://www.papertreyink.com/ timeless template picnic basket some time ago but had never got round to using it until the weekend. I was really pleased at how easy it all went together so much so I ordered some more templates from them as I am in a making 3D object mood at the moment. Its great that they are downloads so you receive them immediately particularly good for last minute gift ideas . I think I need to add something to them but not sure if to go for a stamped image or a large flower. I thought I'd come back to them after I have done another one of their templates.

Thanks for looking x

Henrys Birthday Card

Here is the card I have made for the son of some friends we met when we were on honeymoon in the Maldives. I have used a free template found here http://timelesstreasuretrunk.com/freetemplates/freetemplates.html and used my nesties to make the circles for the wheels, I have cut out his name and age with my Cuttlebug Olivia alphabet and used Sizzix dies to make the driver. Henry is train and tractor mad but his parents asked me to make a tractor card from them so I had to do a train, I hope he likes it. Thanks for looking x

My second post of the day

On 7th August I was very lucky to have received an award from my lovely blogging friend Sem http://semsee.blogspot.com/2009/08/kreativ-blogger-award-from-juls.html Thank you sooooo much Sem!

I have only just got around to posting it now as to accept the award I had to think of 7 interesting things about me that was really really hard lol, hence its taken me a week!!!

So to offically accept the award I have to do the following .

1.Thank the person who nominated you for this award
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog
3. Link the person who nominated you for this award
4. Name seven things about yourself that people might find interesting
5. Nominate seven Kreative Bloggers
6. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate
7. Leave comments on all seven blogs letting them know you nominated them

Okay, so 7 interesting things about me that you might find interesting....hmmm...

1. I had two breech babies, (unusual I am told), all three were malpositioned

2. I organised 2 petitions both of 4,000 signatures against an Orange mobile phone mast being erected so close to our residential area - they never went ahead with it

3. I went to Meerufenfushi in the Maldives for my honeymoon - only 3 months before the tsunami so I am glad we saw it before the devastation -I would love to go back one day

4. Hank Marvin (From The Shadows) sent me a letter to congratulate me on my second wedding all the way from Australia

5. I invited the Queen to my birthday party (when I was much much younger of course - how embarrassing is that) and I received a reply from Balmoral (I still have it somewhere!!!)

6. I have met the following well known people Sir John Mills, Cyril Smith, Ian Ogilvy,

Bruce Welch, Gloria Hunniford, John Redwood, Frederick Forsyth, Michael Dobbs,

Gary Rhodes, Lloyd Grossman, Anthony Worrall Thompson,. Brian Turner,

Mary Berry, Paul and Jeanne Rankin, the chefs have also signed all my recipe books with personal messages in them for me too :-) can't think of any more at the moment

7. I have eaten dinner in The Churchill Room in the Houses of Parliament on 4 occasions. Margaret Thatcher was the guest of honour at one of the dinners and I had a conversation with her (My hubby put the world to rights with her for ages !!!)

I would love to give this award to Sem as well but not sure if you can give it back to whoever gave it to you so the 7 lovely blogging friends I would like to pass this award onto in no particular order are

Clare

Alex

Chrissie

Debby

Donna

Andrea

Avril

Thank you again Sem, means a lot, thanks for looking and have a great weekend everyone x

I've made some lovely little boxes - Hurray

As I said in an earlier post, I've lost my mojo recently, we have a very stressful situation at home at the moment and I have not been in the right frame of mind to make anything, that was until yesterday when I saw Alex's wonderful blog http://eisbaerentraeume.blogspot.com/ She had made herself a template and had made some lovely little boxes from it, I commented on her lovely project and she very kindly sent me the template, thank you so much Alex and also thank you for all your help since. Here is the link to that particular post http://eisbaerentraeume.blogspot.com/2009/08/i-am-still-alive-honest.html I have made the boxes above from her template . I have just used white embossed card and some patterned 12 x 12 scrapbook paper that my daughter was given at work. I added a Prima flower with a brad in the middle and some leaves from my Leone-Em punch. I am really pleased with how they turned out, so much so that I am going to make some other lovely 3D projects I have seen but never got round to making yet and its all thanks to you Alex :-) Thanks for looking x

I am entering these into Simon says stamp challenge this week http://simonsaysstampschallenge.blogspot.com theme is anything but a card

Ross's passing out parade card

I haven't posted many cards recently as I haven't made any or entered any challenges recently as I feel I have lost my mojo a bit. Here is the first card I have made in a while, its for my best friend Ju's 17 year old son Ross who has his passing out parade tomorrow, so she is on her way to Harrogate as I write this. I have kept it pretty simple, the image is a free from the Edupics website which I have printed onto some free background camouflage paper which I found through google. I then cut around the camouflage and stuck the bits onto the plain image I had already printed onto the card base and coloured the other bits in with Promarkers. I hope he likes it. Thanks for looking x

I have won some blog candy and an award !!

I have been very lucky in the last few days, I have been lucky enough to win Nina's blog candy http://theresmagicintheair.blogspot.com/2009/08/small-blog-candy-give-way-goes-to.html, thank you Nina, if you haven't already taken a look at her blog here is the link http://theresmagicintheair.blogspot.com and also an award from my blogging friend Semsee http://semsee.blogspot.com/2009/08/kreativ-blogger-award-from-juls.html which I will post about later as I have to think who to pass the award onto. Sem has a fantastic and very inspirational blog so take a look here http://semsee.blogspot.com she is currently updating her blog and its looking really good. Have a good weekend everyone, thanks for looking x

My entry for Simon Says stamp challenge

Here is a card I made today that a friend ordered for her boss, I followed a sketch for this weeks Simons says stamp challenge http://simonsaysstampschallenge.blogspot.com/ so I will enter their challenge. The image is a digistamp from Modern Sugar Boulevard which I have left uncoloured as we were going for a black grey and white theme. You can't see it really well but there are two different designer black, white and grey papers from paper cellar 6 x 6 pads which do follow the sketch. I have added the sentiment as per the layout sketch but also added a round computer generated sentiment. The flowers are primas with a brad in the middle. Thanks for looking x

I've made another card at last

I'm having a bit of a low time at the moment and have not had the motivation to make any cards but I thought I'd have a go at entering a challenge this week so here is the card I made for the following challenges. Digital Tuesday http://digitaltuesdaychallenge.blogspot.com/ where you have to use a digi stamp, Creative Card crew http://creativecardcrew.blogspot.com/ where the theme was Girls just wanna have fun and Passion for Promarkers http://promarkerchallenge.blogspot.com/ The papers are from a 6 x 6 paper pad from Crafts too, the image is a digistamp from Modern Sugar Boulevard which I have coloured in with this weeks colours for the Promarker challenge, Cool aqua and Pastel pink. I have also used vanilla to colour her hair. I have used 3d foam pads on the back to raise the image fron the card.The flower is an aqua prima flower with a pearl brad in the centre. The pink spotty ribbon is from Hobbycraft and the ribbon tag has been cut with one of spellbinders ribbon tag trio dies. The girls just wanna have fun text has been done on my laptop, which Donna http://granniville.blogspot.com/very kindly told me how to do some time back, thanks again Donna . Thanks for looking x