Top Tip Tuesday open challenge AND Fred, She Said Digi of the Week

I've made one card to fit two postings this week:  first of all we have an open challenge on Top Tip Tuesday and we'd love you to join in.  Check out the blog for the details and the rules, my card fits the open challenge ;).

Secondly, Tracey at Fred, She Said, has an offer of 30% off the digi of the week.  This week I got to choose - hooray - and I picked the Christmas Robins which are available in both digi and precoloured version.  Tracey has gone one better though - the offer is on all the Christmas bird series - if you don't already have them then this is a great time to get them! You can buy them in the Fred Shop, here , if you look through my blog you will see more cards made using the robins as well as the other Christmas birds in the collection:  chickadees and cardinals.

 I used traditional colours for my card, printing the digi onto heavyweight watercolour card and using Aquamarkers to colour it in.  The DP is Papermania, the sentiment is Craftwork Cards and I've used two Martha Stewart punches together.

My card is for the following challenges:
Friday Sketchers - sketch

One Stop Craft Challenges - Christmas Cuties - I think the robins are cute:)

Sew Many Challenges - red & green

Stampin' B's - holiday card

Pile it On - feathers 'n' fur

One Layer Wednesday

My blogging friend Chrissie has introduced me to One Layer Wednesday via her blog and I have entered their challenge this week for the first time.  The challenge is to take inspiration from a page of cards designed by Walther Erhard and my starting point was the ornament card to the left.  I bought some cheap-as-chips but very good Viva Christmas stamps from Stamp Attic, my local shop a couple of weeks back and I gave them an outing for the challenge.  I embossed using 4 different powders and managed to keep the textured card pretty clear of irritating embossed specks:).
That led on to a second one-layer card not related to the first.  Same Viva holly flourish, but this time I've brushed Distress Inks onto a centre strip after clear embossing a large Viva text stamp.  I planned to gold emboss the text but decided I like it best as it is.

 

My cards are for the following challenges:
Ornament Branch:
One Layer Wednesday - inspiration
Paper Pretties - clean & simple


Distressed Text:
Paper Sundaes - adorn those corners!
I Did It - surprise me
Crazy 4 Challenges - script paper or folder (hope the stamped text counts!)

A Chilly Chickadee

It's absolutely perishing here but at least we only had a light dusting of snow.  It's a day to be indoors crafting and I didn't enjoy doing the outdoor chores at all!  I've made a card using one of Fred, She Said's lovely pre-coloured images from the Christmas Bird Series.  This is the Chickadee, I've printed him 3 times and decoupaged him as well as the pine branches.  His head and wing markings are highlighted with Glossy Accents and I've added some "snow" to the snow Tracey already drew, using Liquid Pearls.
I've turned this week's Midnight Madness sketch on its side and followed it, adding lots of stitching, snowflakes punched from pearlescent card, ribbon, a sentiment from Craftwork cards and a few more branches.  It's hard to see but there's stitching around the image on its frame too.
My card is for the following challenges:
Midnight Madness - sketch
Craft Your Days Away  - texture
The Crafty Pad - snowflakes
Bah Humbug! - feeling the blues
Crafty Sentiments - Christmas
Simon Says - let it snow!

Poppy Days

 

Here's a reminder of summertime on a cold winter day, we have a light dusting of snow outside.  Both the scene and the poppy are Sheena Douglass stamps and she has made some lovely cards by leaving the scene sepia and giving the poppies vivid colours.  I used Aquamarkers and I did colour the background but kept it soft and subdued.  The frame is Nellie Snellen, background DP My Mind's Eye, sentiment from Craftwork Cards and I've used a little of my precious red velvet ric-rac.
I'm entering the following challegens with my card:
 Card Positioning Systems - sketch
Digi Doodle Shop's Best - red and green
Delightful Challenges - flower power
Paper Playtime - thank you

DT Post - Phindy's Place Friday Challenge#32 - Metal

Good Morning and welcome to Phindy's Place Friday Challenge.  This week we are challenging you to use metal in your project, so this can be an opportunity to catch up on another Christmas card - or it can be something different, as long as you use a Phindy's Place image!  I knew just what I wanted to use:  some brads that are shaped like screws, I bought them from Joanna Sheen and they are in 2 sizes, also standard and Phillips screws.  I used Mr Brown's Hobby, one of the fun Phindy images and stuck to a very restricted colour palette to make a card for a friend who will be 90 just before Christmas but who is always busy making something!  The stripy DP is Basic Grey from Scarlett's Letter, the sentiment is Whiff of Joy and I used a Tim Holtz embossing folder and some ink on brown card.  The sketch is from  the Paper Sundae Challenge.  I'm also entering Cute Card Thursday's Blast from the past challenge - this is their 9 September theme of Play on Words.

  

A Cool Yule

I've a friend who loves everything purple and the several non-traditional Christmas colour challenges around inspired me to make a purplicious card for Morag.  I started with one of Fred, She Said's pre-coloured Christmas wreaths.  Now I love to colour but sometimes, especially when there are a lot of Christmas cards to get finished, it's great to have the work done for me:).   I added in a pre-coloured Chickadee, again from Fred, She Said that I mounted on Pinflair glue on my cut out wreath.

The main card is white pearlescent that I embossed and then Distress Inked and the smaller embossed circle is Bazzill Card.  It's hard to see but I added holographic clear embossing powder to the bird and to the berries.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:
Cards Patterns - sketch
Fresh Brewed Designs - winter/Christmas
Creative Cottage Challenge - untraditional Christmas
Crazy4Challenges - circles
Scrappy Frogs- Merry Christmas
Crafty Sentiments - Christmas

Shabby Chic Trees

I was browsing through a Joanna Sheen CD, Times Gone By, and came across this totally stunning tree background paper, really far too beautiful to be a background and decided it was perfect for the sketch at Cute Card Thursday this week which gives it a chance to be seen.  The image uses Inkylicious stamps and Distress Inks in Pumice Stone and Vintage Photo to get as close as I could to the DP.  Sentiment is Craftwork Cards and I've added raffia.  That's it, no extra embellies...
This is for the following challenges:
Cute Card Thursday - Susan's gorgeous sketch
CD Sunday - shabby chic
Cards & Things - marina mist, early espresso, soft suede
Gingerloft - great outdoors
Crafty Calender Challenge -winter

PS I've added to my candy, as promised:)

One Layer for Woodware

I'm enjoying playing with One-layer cards still, having been inspired by my blogging friend Chrissie.  I happened to notice that Woodware's challenge this week is a One Layer Card and I got out my lovely clear set of Woodware deer and winter trees.  I think these may be discontinued now, they are a couple of years old, but they do make lovely sccenes!  I masked off the top & bottom of a long thin card and used inks and duster brushes as well as a torn paper mask for hills and sky, then I stamped the deer and trees in Paris Dusk Memento ink and the fence in Adirondack Aubergine.  The sentiment is a Kaisercraft one.
I'm also entering A Spoonful of Sugar's Anything Goes Challenge and  Cards for Men - Christmas Cards.

Top Tip Tuesday Challenge #11 - paper piecing digis

It's Top Tip Tuesday Challenge again, where you can win either by giving a tip for other crafters or by playing along and using the tip from the tutorial posted by one of the DT.  There are no less than THREE sponsors this week, Softpencil, Daisysdigidoodles and Sunshineandgigglesstamp, so lots of prizes to be won!

This week I have done the tutorial, I hope you will find it useful.  I used a fun Softpencil image for the tutorial and here is the card I made with it:

One layer card - City Christmas

Here is my one layer card, at least here is the version that I'm happy with, there are a few rejects on the desk:).  This has a Distress Ink background, masked with Post-Its.  The city stamp is Hero Arts, the Santa is Sheena Douglass.  The sentiment is heat embossed.  Fun to do and definitely not a traditional card!
Entered for the following challenges:
Totally Gorjuss - not so tradtional Christmas
Ellephantastic - Christmas and/or butterfly
A Spoonful of Sugar - distressing

A Country Christmas

This is almost the opposite of my earlier city card, this is, for me, a real country feel card.  I've used the cardinal from Fred, She Said's Christmas Bird Collection, I'm really enjoying using these, both pre-coloured and not.  The sketch is from the CPS Challenge and I've added lots of stitching which works well with the plaid DPs from Basic Grey Jovial.

My card is for the following challenges:
Digital Tuesday - anything with wings
Flourishes - Christmas
I Did It Creations - traditional Christmas colours
Stampin' for the Weekend - Winter

A City Christmas

I've a couple of cards to show you today, here's the city one, country card coming up later.  This card began life as a one layer card, inspired by my blogging friend Chrissie's awesome card here.  It's just the most beautiful card I've seen for ages, however while I love tree stamps and have a whole forest of them, I wanted to do things a little differently.  So I decided to use the Hero Arts city stamp I bought a while back which hasn't yet got inky.  But you don't need to look too closely to see that this isn't a one layer card...

I masked off the card, used my duster brushes and Distress Inks, stamped the buildings.  It looked gorgeous.  Then I took off the Post-Its and saw that my gorgeous scene was upside down on my card!  I have now done one that I'm happy with but the next few had silly mistakes on them.  So I trimmed this with a little of the white  either side and gold embossed a Sheena Douglass star on it.  Hmm... looked like the stable in Bethlehem was now a skyscraper... rapidly added Santa in his sleigh:).

The DP is Artylicous from the Spirit of Christmas CD, the sentiment Craftwork Cards and the lacy MS punch was a present from my very kind friend Val.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:
CD Sunday - lavender and lace
Wagsnwhiskers - lavender and lace
Truly Scrumptious - sketch
Stamp scrap and doodle - no flowers at all
Fussy and fancy - non-trad Christmas colours
Bah Humbug - lovely in lilac

Leigh's candy in memory of Amanda Mary, a crafting friend

Leigh is running a memorial blog candy for Amanda Mary, who was a fellow crafter of Leigh's on UK Scrappers.  I've put a photo of some of the candy here, but there is much more, please check out Leigh's blog for the full details.
Leigh says:   we all really want Amandas spirit to reach others who will now not get to meet her............
What a lovely gesture, this candy ends 26 November.

Autumn Skies Part 2

Here's the second card I made this afternoon, again this was inspired by the Papertake Weekly Challenge of Autumn Skies.  The Memory Box DPs almost eclipse the stamping, aren't they beautiful?  The stamps, DPs, Distress Inking are all the same ones I used on the previous card, though the image and layout are different and this is not a sympathy card.  The silk ribbon has 3 small knots tied onto it.

The sketch is from Midnight Madness   and I'm also entering it into One Stitch at a Time's favourite colours challenge, I do love the autumn shades...

PS Don't forget to enter my candy:)

Autumn Skies - part 1

We have had a mad busy few days with different visitors on different nights, needing taking and collecting from different railway stations, culminating in me managing to lock myself out of the house when the plumber needed to sort out the leak from the work he did last week and the electrics for the whole house fusing multiple times thanks to a cold weather problem to the garage supply... !  Today I escaped into my craft room for a very welcome hour playing:).

I saw the theme for this week's Papertake Challenge, Autumn Skies and it inspired me to play with my new duster brushes and Distress Inks.  I am so pleased with these brushes, love the effect I'm getting.  This is the first card I made inspired by the theme.  I used Scattered Straw, Worn Lipstick and Spiced Marmalade and the stamps are from Inkylicious, the people I bought the duster brushes from.  The sketch is from Stamptacular Sunday, the DP is Memory Box and I've Cuttlebugged a piece of bronze card with leaves.  This is a sympathy card for a friend whose Dad died at the weekend.
I'm also entering the followng challenges:
Crafty Hos - fall colours
Charisma Cardz - sympathy/sorry
A Spoonful of Sugar  - distressing

PS Don't forget to enter my candy:)

Double embossed Christmas

 

We've had a hectic weekend, two days at the races and a house full of visitors, so no crafting has been done at all since Thursday!  Here's a fairly quick card I've made for Christmas that I finished last week.  It uses a Papermania stamp that I bought at the NEC which is much in demand.  It's HUGE!  I used Distress Inks to make a background then heat embossed it with purple hologram powder called WOW that was another NEC purchase.  It's matted onto black then added to a dry embossed background with some ribbon and a lattice punch strip adding.

My card is for the following challenges:

Truly Scrumptious - sketch

Totally Papercrafts - black & purple

Paper Sundaes - pick your toppings (embossing, punches, ribbon)

No Time to Stamp - non-traditional Christmas colours

Dutch Dare - clean & simple

DT Post - Phindy's Place Friday Challenge#30: Christmas is Coming!

Welcome to my second posting of the day and welcome to another Phindy's Place Friday Challenge!  This week we are getting a few more Christmas cards made and ready to send.  I've opted for my all-time favourite Phindy's Place image, Sleigh Ride.  I hope you'll join us and make a Christmas card, just remember to use a Phindy's Place image.

This is such a stunning image, it doesn't need much in the way of embellies; I've used Leonie's sketch (again, I really like this one) from Sketch Saturday, adding some Marianne Creatables swirls and leaves as well as some red gems for berries, the bottom RH gems are Dew Drops.  DP is Papermania and sentiment is Craftwork Cards.  I've die cut my image with the tree from the sleigh over the edge.

My card is for the following challenges:

Sketch Saturday - sketch

Scrapbook Sisters - Christmas colours

Caardvarks - holiday die cuts

A Spoonful of Sugar - snow

PS Don't forget to enter my blog candy draw!

Fred She Said Christmas Blog Hop

Good morning and welcome to the fantastic Fred She Said Christmas Blog Hop!  If you've arrived here from Tracey-Lynn's blog you've reached the next stop on the hop, if not you're going to want to call back there and check out her project and, of course, pick up a word to complete the magical sentence.  Why would you want to do that?  Well...  how about TWO prizes to win:  a $25 gift certificate to the Fred She Said store or a $25 gift certificate to CropStop.  There is some awesome eye candy on this hop too, Tracey has come up with some cracking Christmas designs, both digi and pre-coloured. 

I've decided that, this Christmas, Fred is going to be my friend for getting simple but effective cards made using the pre-coloured designs and I've come up with a couple of cards that I plan to make several times with just small variations.

 The first card uses one of the pre-coloured Christmas wreath designs, cut out and with Stickles added to the berries.  It's mounted onto a Marianne Creatables die cut shape that's been run through a Cuttlebug folder.  The sentiment is gold embossed and the DP is Basic Grey Jovial.

I had great fun with the second card.  I found a fab Digital Faux Postage tutorial over on Crafter's Digital Art Centre, thank you Pat!  Each year it's fun to see what Christmas stamps are on sale and I thought that the FSS Christmas Birds Series would make some fab stamps.  I followed the tutorial and added them to my postage grid, then I masked out the margins and sponged some Distress Ink on to make a background colour.  Each stamp is less than 2" so the pre-coloured digis were just what I needed, my colouring skills are not up to miniature designs!  They are added to some card with script embossed onto it with a Cuttlebug folder, some Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses DP, a big bow and a few gems.  fitting my designs to the grid took a few minutes, but I now have the design ready to print off for as many cards as I want, another quick and easy card to make.


Thank you for looking at my cards, I hope they have given you some inspiration.  Before you move on to Carol's gorgeous blog you need to collect a word from me:  the word is THE.
Enjoy the hop, and while you're here please do enter my blog candy :)

A Place to Pause

I have completely fallen for the new image from Phindy's Place, called A Place to Pause, very beautiful, very serene.  I found it didn't need much colouring, I made the stained glass windows as vibrant as I could and added Glossy Accents to them and to the lamps on the bridge.

I saw some lovely cards on sale with notched corners but was too stingy to buy them :), so I've used a small circle punch to make my own version, measuring out on the back and marking lightly with a pencil.  I like the effect, what do you think?  The DPs are Magnolia ones that I bought last year and loved so much I didn't use them.  I've since decided this is a daft idea, stroke them, love them, then USE them is what I should do!  I've added a Craftwork Cards sentiment, some snowflakes and sprigs of leaves cut with my new MS border punch.  And that's it, pretty simple.
My card is for the following challenges:
Sketch Saturday - sketch
A Spoonful of Sugar - snow/snowflakes
ABC Christmas - winter wonderland
Creative Cottage Challenge - someone special at Christmas
ABC Challenge - H is for Holidays
Cute Card Thursday - anything goes
Sassy Studio Designs - anything goes
Paper Sundaes - let it snow

DT Posting - Cooking it up with Katie #37 - food/drink, sentiment and tag

 Good Morning and welcome to Cooking it up With Katie!  This week's fun recipe is to include sentiment, tags and food/drink.  And oh GOOD GRIEF!  I just realised I forgot the tag - what an idiot!  Oops, the sentiment was meant to be on a tag...  Katie is currently having a DT Call, it's such a fun challenge to work with, why not give it a go?  Sadly this is my last card for the DT, life is very full at the moment and I am still trying to put Dad's affairs in order for my Mum.  It's been a fun team to be part of, thanks Katie!

My card uses a House Mouse decoupage from Joanna Sheen, some Cuttlebugging and a Dimension Fourth sentiment stamp.  I couldn't find any DP to match my image until I printed a page off from Essence of Nature, an Artylicious CD.  You can't see much of it but it's there I promise! Because of it, I'm making a second entry into CD Sunday Challenge.  I can't believe this doesn't get more entries, at the NEC last week I saw so many people buying CDRoms - come on gals and get entering!
My card is for the following challenges:

CD Sunday Challenge - the natural world
Totally Gorjuss - sketch
House Mouse & Friends - you gotta have friends
Anything Goes - emboss it
Crafty Cardmakers - dry embossing

Hmm.. now can I unstick that sentiment and turn it into a tag without trashing the card?...

PS I have candy, do please join in:)

Delightful donkeys

 

We've had many pets over the years, but one that Geoff has always held out against is a donkey :(.  I think a donkey would look perfect alongside my Norwegian Fjord horse (and of course the Welsh pony) but hey, sometimes you can't get everything in life!  So of course I fell for the donkey image on the new Joann Sheen DVD by Glynn Williams and had to make a card with it!  There are special decoupage images on the CD but I simply printed out 3 times and made my own decoupage.  I followed the sketch at Pear Tree Designs, adding a leaf border cut with my new MS punch that I bought at the NEC.  The sentiment is a Personal Impressions stamp, DP is Papermania and I used my first ever MS punch to make a scalloped border underneath, I think it's called Baroque and it doesn't have the markings to line up that are on the current punches.  A piece of raffia and some green gems finished it off, hope you like my donkey card.

My card is for the following challenges:

Pear Tree Designs - sketch

Cards for Men - animals, I've kept it un-fussy and used raffia not a ribbon bow so it can be a man card

CD Sunday Challenge - the natural world

Craft Your Passion - 2 of anything (2 donkeys)

Lexi's Creations - anything goes

Crazy4Challenges - square cards

Raise the Bar - scallops and curves

Stamp Insanity -punch drunk - used 2 border punches

PS I have candy - do please join me and play along here

Top Tip Tuesday Challenge

Good Morning and welcome to another challenge from the Top Tip Tuesday Team!  This week have have a great Copics tutorial for you from Dawn, be sure to check it out!  I've used my Copics to colour a card using an image from this week's sponsors, Whimsy Designs.  It's a shaker card, with flowersoft inside the acetate panel for snow, the background that I've glued my image to is brayered with dye ink to make a scene.  Sorry for the poor photo, we seem plunged into dark and gloomy days at present.  The frame is some blue card flecked with white that I bought at the NEC, the DP is a magazine freebie and the swirl is a Marianne Creatables die.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:
Creative Belli - use flocking or Flowersoft
Paper Sundaes - let it snow
Charisma Cardz - with love @ Christmas
Creative Inspirations - create a shaker card

PS I have candy - do please join me and play along here

I'm Nearly All White!

This started out when I saw the challenge at Simon Says Challenge, which this week is to make a card which is all white, with the exception of colour on any image that is used.  Gulp!  I found this really tricky and I will admit that I have cheated a little and my card may not be eligible.  I have two white dry-embossed pieces of card on here and it was just impossible to tell one from t'other, so I edged the snowflake embossed piece with Weathered Wood grey Distress Ink and ever-so-gently sponged some onto the diagonal grid that I'd put onto the larger piece.  In my defence, it took ages to make the grid with my Scor-pal and I couldn't bear it if all that hard work was invisible LOL!
The stamp is by Sheena Douglass and is one I bought at the NEC, stamped in Distress Ink.  I've used a brush and a little water to shade with the ink.  The snow on the rooftops and in the sky is Liquid Pearls and I've sprayed the whole image with iridiscent Spray & Sparkle by Crafter's Companion.  I suspect this is one of the aerosols one is not supposed to inhale, it smells just like Pear Drops - mmm! LOL.  It gives a lovely soft shimmer, hard to show it in the photo.  The gems are from stash, the sentiment is Craftwork Cards and the snowflakes were from a Woodware punch and a Spellbinder, both have clear Stickles on them.
I'm entering the following challenges with my card:
Simon Says Challenge - are you all white ?
Sketch Saturday - sketch
Paper Sundaes - let it snow
Pile it On - Christmas with animals (reindeer in sky!)
One Stitch at a Time - winter wonderland
Allsorts Challenge - the night before Christmas
One Stop Crafts - embossing
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge - dry embossing
The Creative Cottage - embossing
Winter Wonderland - sing a Christmas carol (Silent Night)

Craft Your Days Away - all white
CCEE Stampers - create a winter scene
Patty's Creations - Christmas card

Tree tag

I was really thrilled with some soft duster brushes that I bought from Inkylicious at the NEC, they give a soft effect that looks like very skilled brayering.  I have a brayer and can brayer reasonably, I have sponges, cut and dry foam, stippling brushes, but these give a different finish that I love.  I'm having a few problems with the stamps I bought with the brushes, they don't seem to want to cling to the blocks, but I managed to stamp this out as a card for a man, fairly unembellished.  The sentiment is Kaisercraft, from a set, stamps are all Inkylicious.
This card is for the following challenges:
No Time to Stamp - tags
Alphabet Challenge - B is for Bird
Dutch Dare - clean & simple
Papertake Weekly - cards for men (penny for the guy)
Crafty Emma - forever Autumn
Stamp, scrap and doodle - Fall
Digi Doodle Shop - Fall for me

Ali Factory - anything you'd find in the garden

The Loot

Here are my purchases from my visit to the NEC on Thursday.  I'm really pleased with the soft brushes which give a lovely effect when you use them with inks.

DT Post - Phindy's Place Friday Challenge#29: 3-2-1-Go!

Welcome to Friday and welcome to another Phindy's Place Challenge.  Thank goodness it's nearly the weekend, I had a fun but tiring day at the NEC yesterday with my blogging freiends Val and Chrissie, meeting up with Viv and Maureen too.  We all went home with laden with goodies, had a fab time - at least I know I did!

OK back to the Challenge:  this week it is a 3-2-1 recipe in which you can choose your own ingredients.  I've used 3 x card candies as well as 3 x DP, 2 x sets of 2 ribbons, 1 x image and 1 x sentiment.  I've used the Saturday Sketch Challenge layout again, that must be a record for me to use the same sketch 3 times in a row!
I've used the adorable Jingle Bear image from Phindy's Place, colouring, cutting out and mounting him onto DP with a lovely snowflake pattern.  The sentiment is from Craftwork Cards.
I'm entering my card for the folloowing challenges:
Saturday Sketch Challenge - sketch
Charisma Cardz - with love at Christmas
ABC Christmas Challenge - W is for Winter Wonderland