Green again!

Hello!  This post is a bit late, sorry... we had a surprise 'lunch with guests coming' sprung on us this morning on the boat and we have all been scrambling to get the boat ready and food prepped.  So this will be a quick one... I need to keep prepping.

The news for the day:

- We have a new challenge starting over at Little Miss Muffet stamps and the challenge theme is Rainbows, Clouds or Wings!  Super easy and a fun one!   Do go and check out what my fabulous teamies have come up with!  There are so many ways to use this theme!

- Even bigger news!!!  Barbara is branching out and is releasing her first metal die for die cuts!  It's very cool... It's called the Park Glen Door.  Head over to the challenge blog to check it out!  

I have a Little Miss Muffet stamps card to share with you today using the adorable Jasmine who is now available as a rubber stamp!

Ooh look!  Another of Maria's lovely doilies and I used green!  Sarah I'm stepping out of my comfort zone for you!   The papers are from American Crafts and Simple Stories.  The green in the Simple Stories papers wasn't quite the right shade, so I adjusted it with my YG13.

The ribbon and twine is from The Ribbon Girl and the sentiment is a sticker from SRM.  The corner flourish is from Make it Crafty.

Here's a close-up:

Here are the copics I used:

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Divas by Design: Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp: Anything Goes

Stampavie and More: For a Girl

Have a lovely day!

I'm off to do some more food prep!

Arabella in Athens

Beach Babe

Good morning! I haven't got long... I need to start doing some food prep for the boss's dinner party this afternoon.  Since it's Tuesday, I just wanted to share a Tiddly Inks card I made last week using the new Wryn Beach Babe.  She's adorable... and just in time for summer!  We have a super easy challenge running at Tiddly Inks this fortnight... we want to see flowers on your Tiddly Inks creations.  Easy right?  No excuses not to join in!  

Here's my Wryn Beach Babe card:

Don't you just love her frilly bikini!  The papers I have used here are from October Afternoon (the old Boardwalk collection I think).  The ABC's card is from Pink Paisley and the sentiment is a stamp from Amy R's Summer Sentiments.  The charm and brad are from my stash.  The ribbon is from The Ribbon Girl.

Here's a close-up of Wryn:

And here are the copics I used;

I used an interesting combo of BG's and a YG to get her bikini the right shade to match the paper.  I really love finding new copic combos!

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Crafty Boots Challenges: Anything Goes and bowtastic
Love to Create: Add a sentiment
Fashionista Challenge: Simply Summer

And in other news... as many of you know already, Pollycraft will be closing on the 8th of June.  Paula is holding a farewell to Pollycraft linky party over on her blog... no prizes, just sharing your favourite or latest Pollycraft card with everyone.  We would love you to join in.  I've got a card I'm going to post for it tomorrow.

Don't forget to make use of the fabulous closing down sale!  You couldn't get a better deal on digis than this:

Ciao for now!

Arabella in Athens

Another doily!

Good morning!  It's Monday!  I'm trying to sound a lot more cheerful than I am about it... why does the weekend always have to come to an end?!   No bank holiday for us here in Greece!   Actually we have a busy couple of weeks coming up... I'm cooking at the boss's house for a dinner party tomorrow night, then we have a trip with them on the boat this weekend, then on Tuesday next week we have 20 guests on board the boat for a lunch trip!!!  Eeeek!  I think it's going to be a bit like this from now until the end of summer.

Anyways, I have a Little Miss Muffet Stamps card to share with you today using the adorable Vanilla who is available as a foam mounted red rubber stamp.  Head over to the Little Miss Muffet stamps blog to see some more Monday Little Miss Muffet inspiration!  And don't forget to grab the news badge for your blog and add your name to the Linky as we have a fun New Release coming up soon!

The papers are a mixture from my stash... the brown one and the one with the pinwheels are both from Simple Stories and the background paper is from Cosmo Cricket.  The pretty doily is from my lovely blog buddy Maria Therese.   The seam binding ribbon is from The Ribbon Girl and the swirly bling is by Prima.  The little dangle charm is one I made (actually I got my sweet husband to help... I'm rubbish at bending wire).  The sentiment is an SRM sticker.

Here's a close-up of Vanilla:

And here are the copics I used:

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Great Impressions: Anything Goes

Di's Digi Design Challenges: Bling

Totally Gorjuss: Something new (the doily and the Cosmo Cricket paper)

That's it from me for now!  Don't forget there is still time to enter our current challenge at Little Miss Muffet Stamps!  It's a good one... Anything Goes plus become a follower and add the news badge to your blog.  The prize is 3 rubber stamps and the Hatty Birthday sentiment!

Ciao!

Arabella in Athens

Raggedy Anne

Happy Saturday!  I'm having a lovely Saturday... BB and I have just been shopping at our favourite Greek designer boutique and we both spent more than we planned on spending, but we had a lovely outing!  I think between us we must have tried on half the store!  Good thing we actually bought some stuff or we might not be invited back!

Anyway, I have a quick card to share today using one of the recent digital releases from Little Miss Muffet Stamps...  Paprika as Raggedy Anne.  When I was little I used to love reading Raggedy Anne and Andy at my Granny's house.  It was one of my favourite books there.  I'm hoping Barbara is going to draw an Andy to go with Raggedy Anne : )

Here's my card:

Yep, she's officially adorable and so much fun to colour up!  The papers are from my stash... not sure who they are by and the lovely doily was a gift from my bloggy friend Maria Therese of Me, Myself and Scrapping.  Thanks Maria!  I have just used three of these doilies in a row!  The ribbon is from The Ribbon Girl and the crochet flower is one I made.  The buttons are from my stash.  The sentiment is another SRM sticker (they seem to be my thing at the moment).

Here's a close-up:

And here are the copics I used:

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Alphabet Challenges: H is for Handmade Flowers (I used a crocheted flower)

Joyful Stamper Inspire Me Fridays: Anything Goes

Sweet n Sassy Digis: Thank You

Cropstop: Use a doily

That's it from me this weekend!  I'll see you back here Monday with some more Little Miss Muffet Stamps inspiration. 

I'm off to make some cards, maybe go out for dinner and the movies (so that I can wear some of my new clothes) and hopefully make some more cards tomorrow!

Ciao!

Arabella Chickie in Athens

Angel Accessories

Good morning!  I hope it is (or was) a lovely morning where you are!  It's a bit grey and blah here in Athens this morning, but still warm.  It seems that the nasty hayfever season is in full swing here!  

If you have the Little Miss Muffet Stamps News Badge on your blog you will know that we have New Releases being showcased today over at the Little Miss Muffet Stamps blog!  It's a bit of a nature release this week... we have animals, angel accessories and a new baby to show you.  Head over to the challenge blog to check out the fabulous samples from the Design Team!

I decided to use the new Angel Accessories for my card today:

I used my rubber stamp version of Jasmine and printed the angel wings and the cloud separately.  I fussy cut all of them and stuck them down where I wanted them.  The papers are a mixture... the only one I recognise is the pink one from Crate Paper.  The bling is by Prima and the ribbon (and probably the lace as well) is from The Ribbon Girl.  The sentiment is an SRM sticker.

Here's a close-up:

And here are the copics I used:

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Ruby's Rainbow Challenges: Things with Wings

Ladybug Crafts Ink Challenges: Something with wings

Have a lovely day!

Arabella Chickie in Athens

Summer holiday

Good morning!  I'm back with my second Tiddly Inks card to share with you this week!  Did you meet the new Wryn-Beach Babe yesterday? Isn't she gorgeous?! Christy is bringing out new images so fast I can barely keep up!  

This one is using Wryn - Joy Ride... she was released a few weeks ago, but I didn't get a chance to colour her up straight away.  The instant I saw her I thought she would be perfect for a summer holiday card...

How cute is she?!  I really wanted to use some purple again as I feel the purples are some of my least used colours and yet I love the colour purple.  I also had some fab purple blings (by Prima) and buttons (by Doodlebug) to use, so I coloured the card in a shade of purple to match those.

The papers are a mixture from my stash.  The green one is from Crate Paper, the other two I'm not sure about.  The tree is wooden (maybe balsa wood???) from a local craft shop here and I cut the 'sun' using my Slice machine. The charm is from my stash.  I added Glossy accents to the windows of the car and to the hub caps.  I wrote (in tiny lettering) on Wryn's luggage labels... hard to read, but one says 'Holiday' and the other 'Road Trip'.   I also added Stickles to the car's headlight.  The two stickers are from October Afternoon.

Here are the copics I used:

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Bearly Mine Challenges: Anything Goes
Twisted Tuesday Challenges: Word inspiration: Vacation; The Twist: Keep it Simple
Simon Says Stamp and Show: A summer holiday
Phindy's Place Challenges: Summer is coming

That's nearly it from me today!  We were planning to take the boat out for a spin today and getting in the water (not me... I'm not a big fan of baring my non-bikini body, although I have lost weight recently... I'm down to 2kg heavier than when we my husband and I got married 9 years ago and 4kg heavier than when we met... so 5kg to go to get to a happy place) to clean the jets and hull, but it has turned out to be quite a bit windier than expected and it wouldn't be very pleasant at all, so maybe tomorrow.

Ooh and in other news, my lovely husband has agreed to let me purchase the remaining copics on my list so that I can almost complete my collection!  It's a belated birthday prezzie... he made it a good one since he forgot my birthday on the day (in his defence he was super busy and stressed at work at the time).  I decided that I don't need the fluorescent ones just now and also some of the greys, but I might get them in the future.  I can't wait for them all to arrive!  

Which reminds me... I have a handful of copic original markers and one or two sketch markers that I purchased accidentally (double ups) that I don't need anymore.  I started my collection with copic originals, but switched to the Sketch markers pretty early on.  Would anyone be interested in taking them off my hands?  I'll update this post with a picture when I get home tonight.  I think they are mostly browns and blues.

Updated:  Here they are:

Updates Update:  These copics have now found a new home.


Have a lovely day!

Arabella Chickie in Athens, Greece

Tiddly Tuesday - Flowers

Good morning!  I can't believe two weeks have gone by already and it is time for a new challenge at Tiddly Inks!  I feel like I only just wrote my post for the Mother's Day card challenge!

Our challenge theme for the next fortnight is Flowers!  We would like to see any kind of flower on your project...  paper, silk, flowers on your design paper or even a Tiddly Inks image with a flower in it.  Head over to the challenge blog to see what my fabulous teamies came up with!

I went shopping in Christy's bargain basement for my card this week and I found this adorable little fellow called Cavy Love.  I couldn't resist him... he's so cute!  The image is titled Cavy Love - For You, and guess what?  This little piggie has just been rescued from the basement and sent to live in the shop!  Yay!  You can read about it HERE.

The papers are from the Basic Grey What's Up 6x6 paper pad.  I cut the flowers using my slice machine and added Doodlebug buttons.  The ribbon and twine is from The Ribbon Girl.  The bling is from Prima and the sentiment is a sticker from SRM.  I added Stickles to the coloured flower.

Here's a close-up:

And here are the copics I used;

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Bunny Zoe's Crafts: Anything Goes
Hooked on Craft Challenges: Flowers
Ooh La La Creations: Ribbon or Twine or both

Ooh and guess what?!  There's a new Wryn out today... just in time for summer!  Head on over to Christy's blog to check her out!  She's adorable (of course)!

See you later!

Arabella Chickie in Athens, Greece

Sage and her crayons

Good morning!  I hope everyone had a lovely crafty weekend...  I certainly did!  We had an unexpected weekend off work, so I got stuck in and did some colouring in front of the TV.

Shelby and I are sharing our mid-week rubber stamp inspiration over at Little Miss Muffet Stamps today and I decided to use Sage for my card.

The papers are from Crate Paper and Cosmo Cricket and the ribbon is from The Ribbon Girl.  The thickers are from American Crafts (I think) and the sentiment is a sticker from SRM.  I added Stickles to the heart on Sage's shirt  and Glossy Accents over the top of the Stickles and on her glasses.  I also Stickled the thickers.

I'm not all that happy with how this card turned out and I think it is because of the colours I have used.  I really love purple, but it somehow never looks right on a card when I use it.  I'm not very fond of green at all, so I don't really know why I used green.  

Here's a close-up:

And here are the copics I used:

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

One Stitch at a Time: Anything Goes

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge: Let's hear it for the girls

Great Impressions: Anything Goes

We have a new challenge running at Little Miss Muffet Stamps this fortnight with a fabulous prize!  The theme is Anything Goes and become a follower and add the news badge to your blog and the prize is three rubber stamps and the Hatty Birthday sentiment!

And if you have the news badge, you will know that we have a new release coming up this Thursday!

That's it from me this morning!   Have a great day!

Arabella Chickie in Athens, Greece

Guess the Blog Buddy and a prize for the winner!

UPDATE UPDATE:  We have a winner!!!!  Evy guessed correctly on her second guess!  Yay!  Thanks everyone for playing along!  Evy, I will send you an email to get your address : )

Good afternoon!  I have a little game for you to play today!  But first, did you know it is Facebook Fun Day over at the Some Odd Girl page on Facebook?  We have chats, tutorials, videos and some sales on all day!  Don't miss out on the fun... head over and check it out!

UPDATE:  Lol!  This is fun!  No-one has guessed it correctly yet, but thanks all for trying!  Feel free to try again anyone who has guessed already.  Here's a new hint:
- there is only one blogger who has more than one card on the board and five of the cards are hers

I have made some awesome blog buddies in blogland and just lately I have received some lovely cards from them.  I have a little pinboard up above my desk with their gorgeous cards on it to inspire me.  I love them all! 

I have a couple of rubber stamps and a paper pad to give away, so I thought I might have a little fun... I'm going to show you a photo of the pinboard and then let you guess the blogger.  I will list the blogs the cards have come from below the photo and you just have to tell me which card came from which blogger.    *HINT* There are several cards from the same person.

Here's my pinboard:

And here is the blog list:

Christy from Tiddly Inks

Bookie Bird from Chickie Chirps (BB blogs here occasionally, but mostly it's me)

Magda from Detalles Hechos a Mano

Barbara from Forgotten Scraps

Angela from In My Quiet Time

Maria Therese from Me, Myself and Scrapping

So, what you need to do to win is leave a comment telling me who you think made which card... (It might be best to treat them as 4 columns and start at the top of each column).  I will give the following prize to the first person to get it right!

The prize is one 6 x 6 Cosmo Cricket paper pad (Tea for Two) and two unmounted red rubber stamps from Little Miss Muffet Stamps as pictured.

Have fun!

Arabella

Sad news for Pollycraft Fans...

Good afternoon!  I have some sad news for all the Pollycraft fans out there... Paula has some big changes on the way in her life (a new baby in just under 12 weeks time!) and has decided to close down Pollycraft at least for now.   On the upside, she has some fabulous bargains available and some lovely freebies!  Read all about it over HERE on Paula's blog.

The shop will close on the 8th June

There are some fabulous bargains to be had though!

There are also some brand new never before seen digis including this little fairy:

Isn't she sweet?!  Her name is Sapphire Bloom - Toadstool, and you can get her HERE.   I have coloured her with copics (see details below) and added stickles to the toadstool.  The bling is by Prima and the papers are from Bo Bunny, My Little Shoebox and somewhere else as well.  The ribbon is from The Ribbon Girl and the charm is from The Secret Garden on Da Wanda.  

Here's a close-up:

And here are the copics I used:

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Charisma Cardz: Use a metal charm

Cute Card Thursday: A touch of sparkle

Delightful Challenges: Add ribbon

Sundays with Chrissy: Things with Wings

I would just like to say that I have had a wonderful time on the Pollycraft team and I love working with Paula's gorgeous digis.  I'm going to miss Pollycraft a lot!  We have great team though and I'm sure we will all keep in touch and of course I will use my Pollycraft images lots!  Thank you Paula so much for the opportunity to be one of your girls!

Sniff, sniff...

Arabella