Ruby Anniversary

I was asked by the florist if I could make a Ruby Anniversary card for one of her customers. I've used Bazzil Bling cardstock in string of pearls and diva. The pp is a download from Shabby Princess. The image was kindly given to me by Maria, many thanks again Maria. Ive coloured the image using distress inks and a touch of stickles glitter glue. Ribbon is from my local textile store.

Well another weekend is upon us, then the kiddies go back to school...yeeee haaaa!!!....oh that means I go back to work too..booooo hoooo. I must admit, despite the weather being dreadful, I've really enjoyed having the kids home, we've had lazy days and no routines, just go with the flow I am going to miss that. How on earth I'm going to be able to get up at 6.30am Monday morning is beyond me...pmsl!!!!

I hope you all have a great weekend, ttfn xx vicki xx

Kerry's 10,000 hits challenge

Kerry has some delicious candy up for grabs in celebration of reaching 10,000 hits, huge congrats Kerry. To be in with a chance of winning all you have to do is make a card using one of her favourite embellies, ribbon, then leave a link to her blog on yours. So here's my effort. I decided to stick with a bright colour scheme and love pink/orange together. The pp is a recent purchase from qvc, cardstock is DCWV, the 'sassy 'n' sweet' image has been coloured with a mix of water coloured pencils, copic markers and H20's, not to sure about the ribbon thingy but wanted to do something a bit different, the charm is from What!!!, pearl brad is Papermania.

Thanks for stopping by my lil oasis, hope you all enjoy your bank holiday despite the dreadful weather, we're off bowling then the cinema, again, well not many places to go in the rain. Take care, love and best wishes to you all xx vicki xx

Cute Card Thursday challenge

The challenge this week over at Cute Card Thurday blog is to create a card using bright colours. So here's my contribution. I've used this cutie image by Penny Black and coloured him using twinkling H20's and stickles. Cuttlebug embossing folder. The patterned paper is from the new Papermania Naughty and nice Christmas pad. Sentiment stamp is HOTP and has been embossed with silver embossing powder.

So sorry I've not been around lately, I've had a busy week at home. My mil has very kindly had my daughters for most of the week for me to get on with my housework and ironing. To be honest I've not felt in the mood for making cards as my 'mojo' just up and went. I really struggled to make this card, every time I go into my little craft room, I find myself looking at all my stash and wondering where on earth to start, then just walk back out again. I really need a boost of crafting confidence at the mo. I'm sure my mojo will come back, perhaps once the kids have gone back to school I'll be more in the mood, mind you can't believe how quick these hols have gone to think the children will be back to school next week, oh my goodness!!! I hope everyone is keeping well, I shall try and visit everyone throught the evening, love to you all

xx vicki xx

space chimps....

..just a quick post to say that I took Georgia & Yasmin the cinema today and we saw Space Chimps...gotta say one of the best kiddies films I've seen in a long time, it was brilliant. So if any of you mums/grandmas were thinking of going, please don't hesitate I'm sure you will enjoy it. We saw WALL.E last week, it was good but not as good as Space Chimps, well that's just our opinion maybe. okay better get on, hope your all ok, luv 'n' hugs to you all xx vicki xx

Facebook

Well I've had my friend Leigh nagging me for weeks now to join Facebook but I kept saying NO because blogging is keeping me busy as it is. Well last night I stayed up until silly o'clock signing myself into.....yep Facebook, I must be mad. I'm so glad I did though, as I have come across sooooo many friends from my schooldays that I've not seen or heard from in years. Leigh rang me about an hour ago screeming down the phone so excited, she had just logged onto her homepage and saw the message that I left her. She has been trying to leave comments on my blog but because she's not a member she hasn't been able to. This techno cyber thingy is so addictive and to think that just over a year ago I hardly bothered with the computer...lol!!! So if any of my blogging buddies are members of Facebook and you want to get in touch, I'm logged in as Vicki Smith Cody. xx vicki xx

Stamp Something Challenge

This weeks challenge over at Stamp Something, is a colour challenge using the colours pink, blue and green. So here's my contribution. The paper is Pink Petticoat, DCWV pink & green cardstock, as for the image it's one of my favs by kerryjo and has been coloured using water colour pencils and H20's, Sakura jelly roll pen for the necklace, ribbon from my local textile outlet, sentiment stamp is HOTP and Papermania gems. Whilst I had my kerryjo stamp set out, I thought I would make a card using this fabby image. She has been coloured using my sons Karisma pencils and a Derwent blender pencil. Papers are Doodlebug, purple cardstock is DCWV and has been embossed using my Cuttlebug 'traffic jam' embossing folder then a little sanding with my nail file

Yay!!!! finally had a little time to myself to post these cards which I made last week. Hope everyone is keeping well, thanks for taking the time to visit my 'lil oasis xx vicki xx

Christmas in August

I made the card above for last weeks Papertake Weekly Challenge following their sketch, but silly me forgot to post it. The papers are all Hot of the Press. The stamp is a new one that I bought from The Glitter Pot and is by Penny Black, it's been coloured using Derwent pencils and Sansodor and H20's. The glitter paper is DCWV and has gone through my Big Shot using a cuttlebug embossing folder, sentiment stamp is also HOTP.
This card has also been made using another new stamp from The Glitter Pot, again it's a Penny Black, papers also HOTP, as is the sentiment tag and brad. The skate stamps were from a box of stamps I got from QVC yonks ago.

Well here's my first lot of Christmas cards, I saw so many other people start theirs I thought it was about time I took the plunge, scary how quick these months are going by it will soon be here. xx Vicki xx

Just a few piccies of my girlies..

We all had a lovely day at Roath Park, Cardiff, recently. It's beautiful park just outside Cardiff city centre with a huge lake in the middle. We often go there to feed the ducks. Yasmin was a bit scared of the ducks this time but Georgia wasn't a bit frightened, nothing new there...lol!!!
This photo was taken the same day, at Dare Valley Country Park, Aberdare, a lovely place to go for countryside walks. We popped into Boarders just at the right time, as they were about to read the story of the Gruffalo, which my daughters love.
Back at Roath Park, Cardiff. Gosh we crammed in such a lot in one day, even managed to dodge the rain showers.
Georgia asked me to pop this card on my blog as she made it herself using a Penny Black image kindly given to me by Michelle. I just helped Georgia with the Nestabilities in my Big Shot, she matted a layered them herself, well infact she did everything herself. Well done hunnybunch, I think you've done really well xxxoooxxx.
I shall be back with some other cards I've made soon. Thanks for popping by. Hope this dreadful weather isn't getting you done too much. xx vicki xx

An award and my apologies

I have received this lovely award from Natalie, for which I am so touched and very grateful, huge thanks Natalie.

The rules are:

1. The winner can put the logo on her blog.

2. Link the person you received your award from.

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4. Put links of those blogs on yours.

5. Leave a message on the blogs of the girls you have nominated

It's always a difficult decision to choose only a certain few blogs to pass awards onto, as I have come across so many wonderful ladies with amazing blogs but I the 7 I have chosen are:-

Caroline, Denise, Jenn, Jilli, Julie, Katy and Sarita.

I also wanted to apologies for not being around much lately. I've been so busy playing Mum to my four scallywags. Tom & Ryan have been wanting taxiing everywhere. As the weather has been so bad, I've been trying to keep Georgia and Yassy entertained by going different places each day and blogging has really gone on the back burner. We've also got loads of things planned everyday this week, so apologies in advance as I won't be around much this week either. I was hoping to put some photos on my blog, BUT my ****** hubby has only gone and changed the format for our camera and I can't upload anything.....aaarrgghhhh why couldn't he leave things be. I will try to visit everyone asap. Thanks for popping by, hope everyone is happy and well, take care and hope you all are having fun xx vicki xx

Wedding card & box

Well yet another wet Wednesday, hope you've had better weather where you are. Despite the weather we've had a really lovely day. My friend Leigh came over with her two lads, Connor and Callum, I've not seen them for a couple of weeks and it was great to spend some time together, while the kids played Leigh and I chatted non stop, we had dinner together and they went home around 9.30pm .

This card has been made for a lovely lady Jean, who usually buys my cards from the florist but just recently has started to ring me direct. So far I've made her four wedding cards/boxes and a new grandmother card/box. I gave them all to her without taking any pics, so this time I remembered to take a photo beforehand.

For this card I've used, Bazzil bling cardstock 'string of pearls', Papermania wedding words paper. I did make a paper bow just like the one in the post below, but didn't quite turn out as good, due to the paper being thicker. I tried to do the same using ribbon and that didn't turn out as planned but I thought it looked ok..ish. The stamped images have been heat embossed. The satin ribbon is from my local textile outlet. The stamps are a mix of Woodware, Anitas and Stampendous which I bought from from Handy Hippo and Stamps.co.uk I am now looking forward to making some cards for fun and catching up with some challenges that I've not done lately. Thanks for popping by, take care, have fun and happy blogging xx vicki xx

Mom card & box

Hello everyone, hope your all keeping well. We've had some awful weather the last couple of days, especially today, it hasn't stopped raining....aarrgghh!! Well looking on the bright side, it has given me chance to make this card. One of the guys in work with my hubby asked if I could make a card for his 'Mom', I love to hear the different ways we call people/things around the country, I always called my Mam, Mam, my children have always called me Mum, which I prefer, I know quite a few of you call your Mum, Mom, which is so lovely.

Anyway, sorry for the digression, the card above has been made using papers from QVC recent craft day, it was one of the hot picks. Some of the papers are double sided, which is exactly what I needed to create the paper bow on the box. I spent quite a bit of time over at Split Coast Stampers the other evening and saw the tutorial for the bow and decided to use that to decorate the box. The image is Penny Black and was very kindly given to me by Michelle, many thanks again Michelle. Cardstock is Amercian Traditional Designs. Cuttlebug Swiss Dots and Stylized Flowers embossing folders, Nestabilities and the verses were from the net.

I've now got to get started on another wedding card and box, so will be back maybe tomorrow or the day after. Take care and thanks for visiting my 'lol oasis xx vicki xx

Michelles blogoversary round 3

Michelle has some delicous candy up for grabs as part of round 3 of her Blogoversary. So when you get chance nip over and pay her a visit, her cards are simply stunning.


I would also like to thank Caroline for passing on the Wylde Woman award to me. I have already received it but just wanted to say many thanks to Caroline for thinking of me. If you haven't already, please pop by her blog and say 'Hi'.

xx vicki xx

Different occasions

I just wanted to make a selection of cards for different occasions for the florist. The card above has been made using papers from Craftwork Cards, Rubber Romance image with a little paper piecing, I've added glossy accents and glitter to the chipboard numbers, ribbon from my stash with some beads I won from My time to Craft challenge blog a while back.
I thought I would make a similar card to the previous one with different colour scheme. This proved to be trickier than I thought as I didn't have any teal coloured card stock to mat and layer the image so I cheated and used my teal Dauber Duo to ink the edges, papers again from Craftwork Cards. The brown ribbon was from a box of Thorntons choccies, teal ribbon from American Crafts, beads from my stash.
Now I don't know if anyone else is the same but I find it really difficult now to make a card without a stamped image. So I thought I would set myself a little challenge and do just that. My photography seems to be getting worse as these cards look much better in real life. Anyway I've used for the above card paper from Papermania Exquisite pad, the die-cut flower is Sizzix flower layers #4, the swirly thing is Sizzix decorative accents #2, which have been embossed through my Big Shot using Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder, sentiment has been stamped and heat embossed.

The card above is just a variation from the previous again using papermania exquisite paper, DCWV cardstock, Sizzix flower layers #4, Sizzix decorative accent swirl, ribbon from WHAT!! and a few AB gems from papermania, sentiment stamped and heat embossed.

Well I hope everyone has a lovely weekend, we've had awful rain this morning, but it looks like the sun is coming out.....yay!!! but for how long I wonder. Thanks for taking the time to visit my 'lol oasis, ttfn xx vicki xx

For our God Daughter

My cousins daughter will be celebrating her 14 birthday next week, she just so happens to be our only god-daughter and is very special to us. These are the cards I've made for her. The first card is off myself and hubby, the second is off our scallywags. Papers, ribbons and brads are all Bo Bunny, I bought this kit from QVC a few months back and it's been sitting in my drawers waiting to use for scrapbook pages but still haven't got around to those, yet!!!!! I saw the kit the other evening on QVC and decided to dig it out again. Images are Sweet & Sassy, Sweet Art Ebony and Kerryjo's, which have been coloured with water coloured pencils and touches of glamour dust and stickles but that hasn't shown up. Sentiments printed on my pc using 'girls are weird' and 'rickles' fonts. Sorry about the dodgy pics, should have waited til morning me thinks to photograph them. Thanks for stopping by, love to you all, take care xx vicki xx