Whoop Whoop!! It's Blog Hop time!!!

I've been looking forward to this, I've never actually been in a hop before so it's all rather exciting!

Firstly, I want to welcome all the new teamies and Guest teamies to the Challenge Blog this week - we're very excited to have them all on board and I can't wait to see the inspiration they all offer up! yeehah! If you applied for the team check out the new members - we have loads of news and inspiration this week!

Over £400 of Blog Candy up for grabs and nabs!!!

Now, if you've never done a blog hop either, here is what you need to do for ours.  Hidden on the Polka Doodles Design Team blogs are letters which make up a special word - you need to visit each blog and collect the letters then leave your answer in the Comments section on the Polka Doodles Challenge Blog under this week's post. 
Make sure you leave a comment on each blog page you visit because 10 of us have BLOG CANDY to win - but you MUST leave a comment to be in with a chance of winning that bloggers Candy! In theory you could win 12 times! And to win you MUST leave the final word on the main blog too! Easy peasy!(the comments will not be published and will be moderated so there can be no cheating or accidental cheating LOL). You have until 12noon GMT on Sun 28th Nov to complete the Hop.


As well as winning all the fabulous Candy, you can also take advantage of a special offer over at the Polka Doodles shop - enter the code HOPPITYHOP10 and you will get 10% off your order (only applicable during the blog hop).


Now, if you've reached this blog from Fliss's blog then you're in the right place! And the next place you need to go from here is back over to here to leave your final answer - after you've found my letter of course, which you can find further down the page!! (you didn't think I was going to make it easy did you?)...


So this week on the Challenge blog we've chosen the theme Give Thanks. This has double meaning at the moment because it's Thanksgiving in the US next week, but it does us all good to stop and say thanks now and then I think...


...this sentiment design just popped in my head the other night while I was on Twitter so I decided to draw it and I've given it to you this week as a FREE DOWNLOAD - if you're entering the challenge then you need to use the download on your entry. I hope you like it (you can change it if you want to for the challenge)...
Here's the free download....(this is a .PNG file & will take a second to download)
and here is what I made with it...

I printed the download onto Kraft card (aren't we all just in love with that at the moment!) and then I did faux stitching using a paper piercer and a white Sakura pen around the text to add some definition (I just realised mine is pre-coloured brown but I made yours white so you can colour it how you wish). I then layered randomly cut strips of polka dot and kraft onto an 8 x 8" card to make the background. The sunflowers and leaves are from Sundae of Seasons and the button is one I made myself from Fimo when I was in a bit of a button frenzy a few months ago. I love using string on cards and together with Kraft it gives a nice rustic feel. I then just added a little bit of bling with gems and Liquid Pearls. I recently bought the We R Memory Keepers Sew Easy tool and I wanted to use that but to be honest it only really works well on paper, not card. However I did use my WRMK Rotary blades to cut the scallop edges - again you have to really press hard to make it go through card but I really like it, nice and handy and a lot easier than faffing about with a big rotary trimmer or having to change blades on a hand rotary.

I was going to send this to someone in the US to let her know I was thinking of her as she's going through a hard time at the moment but I didn't realise Thanksgiving was so close - I don't think it will get there in time but I'm going to give it a go!....

....And here is my Candy to giveaway - 2 CD's, 2 stamps, 2 ribbon packs, 2 Dewdrops, Prima Daisies, Bazzill Giant Brads and tape - all worth almost £60!

And the letter you need to complete your Blog Hop word is *P*!

So I have a really really busy schedule at the moment which is a bit of a pain considering that I keep getting these flaming cluster headaches which knock me for six for the whole day because I end up having to take Imigran. So I'm getting further and further behind but I think I must thrive on a good deadline!I'm back on Create and Craft on Fri 26th at 8am (ungodly hour, means I have to get up at 5 - and thats IN the hotel, if I had to drive down I'd be setting off at 2am!eek!) and I'm excited because I have some lush new products which will be launching...sneak peeks...

...tee hee, ok it's a really really sneek sneek peek, but you'll have to tune in at 8am on 26th to see these beauties, I think they will fly out and we don't have massive stocks - even the DT havent had their mitts on these, I've only just got them today myself and I can't wait to have a good play.  So it's been a busy old week on the news front but I think I'm all newsied out now for a while at least! As always there is tons of stuff going on in the background which is all very exciting but that will have to keep for later dates!  So enjoy your blog hop and have a great weekend and a positive week! See me here in a fortnight to find out if you won my candy or not!! ttfn xx


p.s. Don't forget you have to leave me a comment below if you want to win the Candy! x

Lovely day...

I had loads of "stuff" to do today - stuff which meant actually *leaving* the house, wahey!!

Anyone who knows me well knows I am stuck here most of the time and being a lazy mofo I dont go out much. I actually pretend it's cos I'm such a workaholic but it's not really,it's cos I cant be bothered to do my hair. My hair is the bane of my life. It was great in the 80's and 90's when I sported a curly bob aka Madonna and Cybil Shepherd without trying. People actually used to come up to me and ask where i got it done, fawning over the loveliness of my curls and ringlets. And roots. Serious. It used to make me blush it was so embarassing. But then I met the OH and he hates my curlytop and being blessed with curls is not something I ever relished myself. I didnt eat crusts until I was 18 cos my grandad always said crusts make your hair go curly and I didnt want any more.  All my life I've been trying to straighten these locks and the longer it gets the bloody curlier it gets! Yes, my hair is freakish. But today I GHD'd within an inch of my life (it takes me about 30mins to do my shoulder length locks, can you believe that grrr). I'm not a pamper puss me, as you can probably tell.

Anyway, I had to go to the opticians to pickup my new gegs. They're not much different to the old ones it has to be said but I do like 'ems...narrower sides and anivory colour on the inside, as opposed to my lovely Prada's...

these are 4 years old now (bad bad girl I am) and it was nice to see they were still in the shop and were the most expensivo ones they had (nice as in it made me feel better that I hadnt wasted my money 4 yrs ago!)! The newies are DKNY and were mucho cheaper. I dont go in for labels or designer, I just pick what I like but 4 yrs ago was prob the only time I will ever be able to afford anything Prada ever!! So I'm hanging onto 'em and if I win the lottery I might get the lenses updated. Yes, I could've done that instead of newies but it was almost as much to do that as getting new ones and I fancied a change.

Anyway, so after impaling my leg on the dumbass tailbar on the back of the car which I always forget is there, I headed off to the office to sort some stuff out, namely samples and a few bits and pieces to send off.
And I rooted this little cache of stash out...

hmm...what is this you might ask?? This is a sneak peek of something you could win...

...starting this Friday over on the Polka Doodles challenge blog we are hosting our first ever Blog Hop

You need to check in on the Polka Doodles challenge blog on Friday to find out what you need to do and what you could win - but basically you can win over £400 worth of goodies! Whooooop whooooop!!
As this is our first Hop we're going to town - no miserable little free digi image here from us - over £400 worth of stash and 13 different chances of winning!! It's going to be FABULOUS dahlings!!

Anyway, on with the day...I got back home after sorting all my errands out to find a pile of post...and at the bottom of the pile was a card envelope...

with the sweetest little wax seal on the back which said *hugs*....

so I was wondering who it was from...I've been getting loads of samples from the Design Team through the post this week as we have some new products about to launch...

...so I opened the envelope (sadly broke the seal which I was mad about)...and inside was this...

a lovely pink and girly card from Josie using one of my Fairy Stamps.

...Just Because...

she wanted to make me a card to tell me how much she loved the stamps and felt inspired.

....Bless! And that made my day SO special, right there, in that little moment when I opened it up and read what she'd put. Thankyou so much Josie, it was such a sweet sweet thought and I love it. 

I love how sometimes you can do the smallest little thing and it can affect someone else's life in a huge way. And you did that today, Josie, you made me feel all warm and fluffy inside, bless your kindness 

for taking the time out of your own day to make me such a lovely card.  I didnt think I knew Josie but it turns out I know her from Twitter which made it even nicer to know who it had come from!!

And now she's inspired me to do the same - I never make enough cards for me any more and now I'm determined to make more of an effort. I actually designed this stamp ages ago just for this very purpose...

and it's one of my all time favourite sentiments. I will use it over the next week. A lot!

Right, I've rambled enough for one day! See you back here Friday for the blog hop! (forgot to say watch out for a special offer connected to the hop too, it just gets better and better!!)

xx