Digi Doodle Challenge #104- April Showers

Welcome to this week's Digi Doodle Shop Challenge, which is April Showers.  This means to use water in one form or another on your project and I have been rebellious and frozen my water:).  I loved the Sliding Penguins image the moment I saw it and had so much fun making this card.  The image is coloured with Copics nd some Stickles, I've cut it out and added a background of brayered ink that was sprayed with water and then had some "snow" added.  The DP is glittered, the ribbon has metallic wording and I added some snowflake brads.  Hope you like my winter scene:). 

My card is also for the following challenges:

Cute Card Thursday - metallica

Shopping Our Stash - water related

Oozak - anything goes

ABC Christmas - H is for Hardware

Crafty Sentiments - use a digi

Less is More Music

I have been colouring an image from Mo Manning this week, all in E tones, and realised that it works for this week's Less is More.  I don't often use colored images for LIM but the colours are restrained and I like it on the white card.  I have no idea if the music is right way up or not, all I can say is that it is the way it is shown on the stamp:).  Main image is Mo Manning, music is Prima, sentiment is Indigo Blu.
My card is for:
Less is More - music
Heidi's Hobbystuggu - Christmas
Fairy Fun - Holly Jolly no red or green
ABC Christmas  - anything goes

Phindy's Place Challenge #86 - Scraps

Welcome to the last Phindy's Place Challenge of the year.  The DT is having a well deserved break and this challenge will run until 6 January, so you have plenty of time to get your entries in.  We are asking you to be frugal and use up all your scraps of paper and anything else you have lying around your craft space.  Now I accidentally cheated, as the bits of paper are meant to be no bigger than 3" square.  I got carried away followed the Saturday Sketchers layout and found one of mine is bigger, oops!  The snowflakes are punched from the leftovers when I used my Nestie circle on the main image, both bits of ribbon are short lengths that I've finished and used up on here.  The DP is My Mind's Eye, which was out on my desk.
The gorgeous image, great for a teen card, is called Snow Glory. 
My card is also for the following challenges:
Sketch Saturday - sketch
Digital Tuesday - winter wonderland
Papertake Tuesday - favourite colour Christmas (purple!)

One Stitch at a Time - use a digi
Charisma Cardz - last minute Christmas make
4 Crafty Chicks - Christmas
Creative Stamp Friends - Christmas
ABC Christmas - yipee anything goes
Crafting for all Seasons - Christmas
Bearly Mine - non traditional Christmas colours

Traditional scene, non traditional colours

This is a Stampington stamp on loan from my dear friend Val.  I've gold embossed it and inked the background.  It is mounted on some scrap card that has been edged with embossing ink all round and then embossed with the same powder, which makes a perfect match.  I've moved away from traditional Christmas colours but I realised as I added some green contrast it doesn't fit some of the non-trad challenges; oh well.
This card is for:
Sketch Saturday - sketch
Sarah Hurley - Christmas
Cute Card Thursday - anything goes
Joanna Sheen - Christmas Wishes
Crimbo Crackers - embossing
ABC Christmas - anything Christmas goes
Crafty Cardmaking - heat embossing
Kraftin' Kimmie - heat embossing
Incy Wincy - non traditional Christmas colours
StampsRUs - emboss it

DT Post - Phindy's Place Friday Challenge#31 - Anne-Marije's Sketch

Good Morning and welcome to Friday which is of course time for a new Phindy's Place Challenge!  This week we are challenging you to work with a lovely sketch from the very talented Anne-Marije.  Please do check out the DT's work, I know I'm always saying this, but they have produced some fabulous cards this week and I love the "same but different" look when we all use the same sketch.

My card is quite straightforward, I wanted to use the lovely image Place to Pause again, but this time make it into a night time scene.  I couldn't find any DP that I liked for this in my stash, so I used white pearlescent card and a navy flecked with white heavy card.  The image has lots of silver dusted on and I've used silver mirri card for my snowflakes.  The wide lacy ribbon is from Stamp Attic, my local shop, which is also where the sentiment came from.  Sentiment is a Viva clear stamp from a HUGE set for well under a fiver - cheap as chips and very nice!
I'm entering my card for the following challenges:
Totally Papercrafts - snow and snowflakes
Fussy & Fancy- Christmas with no red & green
ABC Christmas - X is for Xmas
Simon Says - sparkle!
Delightful Challenges - winter weather
Paper Play - let it snow
Anything Goes - let it snow
Wild Orchid - blue Christmas

PS I'm adding more goodies to my blog candy today, if you haven't already entered please check it out:)

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

Who ate all the cookies?

I was so sad not to be part of the Phindy's Place Blog Hop to celebrate the launch of the Christmas Cuties.  I've been trying to give myself a metaphorical kick to get a few nearly finished cards together and here is one of them.  Delivery Man who is one of the Christmas Cuties is totally adorable, isn't he, just look at his cheeky expression.

I've followed Tara's sketch from this weeks Basic Grey Challenge, the DP is Jovial.  I also tried out a background technique from Copic Creations current challenge of shading on and around images.  As a quilter I spend a lot of time teaching people how to stitch random, meandering lines which they often find difficult.  Well now I know how they feel LOL, I find it very hard to make random dotty backgrounds:).  The felt snowflake border came from Stamp Attic last Christmas.  I'm also entering A Spoonful of Sugar's Anything Goes Challenge , the Fussy & Fancy Christmas Colours theme and as my little Cutie has his Santa hat on I'm entering ABC Christmas Challenge of S is for Santa, hope that's ok.

Don't forget, there's still time to enter the Phindy's Place Blog Hop!

Q is for Quick & Easy - or not!

This week's ABC Christmas Challenge is Q for Quick & Easy.  A sketch is provided and the optional extra challenge is to make more than 1 card using the sketch.  I love this sketch, but every time I try making a card with a grid system on it I measure, I cut, I lay out my DP and find that somehow my carefully cut and measured pieces aren't level and the tiny differences really irritate me!  So this is not a quick card for me:).

It was a great one to try out my Katzelcraft stamp which I think will be a good one for Christmas cards, so I stamped it with Versafine black on a piece of Glimmer Misted cardstock.  There's a bit of glitter added to the flourishes using a glue pen.  I mounted it on mirricard (how do you photograph mirricard without all the reflections?LOL) and used metallic DP from Craftwork Cards for the background.  The sentiment is also from Craftwork Cards and the gems are Hero Arts. 

I may have another go at this challenge using something else to mark the divisions, maybe thin ribbon.  In the meantime, it's another card ready for December:).

DT Post - Phindy's Friday Challenge #5 - Christmas in Spring

I'm breathing a big sigh of relief here that it is Friday, it's been one of those weeks!

It is of course also time for Phindy's Friday Challenge, which is to create a Christmas project using one of Phindy's images. You might well have expected me to use my favourite image, Sleigh Ride, but I thought I'd do something different this week and opted for Jingle Bear. When I say different, if you check out the challenge blog you can see that no less than four of us elected to use Jingle Bear! It's worth looking and seeing just how versatile the image is:). I'm entering him for the ABC Christmas Challenge, which is J is for Jingle Bells, as well as Pile It On, who have Cute & Cuddly as their theme. It's also entered for the ABC Challenge of U is for unused stash, for reasons that will become clear:)

My card began with the background. I was trying to make Distress Ink backgrounds and this was meant to be a soft purple/grey shaded paper. I was too heavy handed with the grey inkpad and ended up with the shape of the ink pad all over. So I turned it on point, added some white gel pen to the "peaks" and voila, a wintry background appeared from my "failed" background. It's fun how sometimes you can end up with something great that is totally different from the effect you were trying for, if a bit frustrating:).

I coloured my image with Copics and cut some snow ridges from leftover white cardstock, then mounted him onto the background. There were some odd bright blue flecks on the card which got covered up with mopre white gel pen, making snowflakes. I found the perfect piece of Artylicious digital paper in my stash, which I've had for years, to go with the background, added some snowflake embossed white card and a ribbon. Sentiment is from Craftwork Cards.

On showing the card to DH he duly admired it but tactfully asked why the image wasn't central on the card. AARRGGHHH! How could I do that? I only had one piece of the stripy DP, and a one-off background, there was no way the card would come apart without tearing something. I looked through my stash and found some peel-offs at the bottom of the drawer - haven't used them in years! A few stars scattered down the RH side of the image, with one in the sky, make it look like the image was meant to be off-set - I hope! So the unused DP worked with the background that I'd made and the unused peel-offs saved the day!

I asked DH if he could see any other problems on the card, somehow I always knew he was always going to say no, regardless of how it looked... ;)

Enjoy your weekend and I hope you find time to make a Christmas card of two with us this week.

J is for Jingle Bells - ABC Christmas Challenge

I made this card at the weekend for the ABC Christmas challenge, because in the list of blogs I follow was the title "J is for...". But when I clicked on the link it had vanished and I guess Blogger had got confused between scheduled and draft, as has happened to me before now:). Anyway the challenge is here today and so is my card:).

I used my much-loved Fjord horse image, called Sleigh Ride, from Phindys Place again, this time I really stuck to a limited palette, I was determined to use the DP, which is from Magnolia. The sheet music is Silent Night. I saw the DP at the NEC last November and only wish I'd thought to buy more than 1 sheet, it's been so hard to cut into this! I've used a little gold glitter for the bells on the harness and a few places on the image, which is coloured with Copics. The sentiment is from Craftwork Cards, the flower is a Prima and I punched the leaves with a Woodware punch, which happens to fit the optional extra challenge.

It's the Elf and Safety reindeer

I've ended up making two Christmas cards for this week's ABC Christmas Challenge as the first time I didn't read the challenge properly and I forgot to use red and green:). The Challenge is E is for Elf, but happily Whiff of Joy gnomes are allowed too! So here is version 2, for the Challenge.

I've based it on Claudia's pretty sketch from Friday Sketchers and I'm also entering it for Cupcake Craft Challenge, who have the theme Round and Round, I've got lots of circles on my card and although they're not true circles, the DP looks quite rounded too.

Whiff of Joy image is coloured with Copics and Stickles. DP, card candy, sentiment and ribbon are all Craftwork Cards.

Decorating the Tree

This card is to add to the small but growing stack for next Christmas, the theme on the ABC Christmas Challenge is D for decorations, a perfect reason to ink up one of my Whiff of Joy Christmas stamps of a boy decorating the tree. ABC Christmas also wanted a ribbon on the card; mine has a metal Christmas tree charm on it, from Quixotic Paperie, which fits the theme at Cute Card Thursday of Metal Mania. Papertake Weekly's Challenge is Check This Out to use checks in your project. I've used some Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses paper that is checked; it's the only DP I've used so I'm entering it for the other ABC Challenge which is O is for One Paper.

Whiff of Joy Elizabeth Bell stamp is coloured with Copics and Stickles; sentiment is Paper Artsy, stamped in grey and with Stickles added.

Jingle Bells in January

I'm keen to take part in the ABC Christmas Challenge, but I was a bit stumped by B is for Bells - until I remembered that there are tiny bells on the harness of the Fjord horses in the image - phew! If you click an enlarge the image you can just make them out :). I've based the card loosely around the pretty sketch at Truly Scrumptious this week, though I've not gone with their optional extra challenge of stitching, it just didn't seem to work with this card...

Image is digi art by Phindy O'Neill, coloured with Copics, glitter and Stickles. I've used a Martha Stewart punch on the border, which is bronze pearlescent paper. The DP is Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses, the flowers are Prima and the sentiment and flower centre are both from Craftwork Cards.

Turn it off Candy!

The ABC Christmas Challenge is campaigning against Word Verification on blogs, it makes leaving comments when visiting blogs so much more fiddly and time consuming. To encourage us all to turn off Word Verification they are offering blog candy, which closes at midnight tonight.

There's just time to enter if you hurry on over to the blog, but more importantly please check your settings and turn off word verification :).

No cards to post today, just more flippin' snow pictures, there we were again back to square one with 4-5", hardly any roads gritted, no school, papers did get here by lunchtime, but mopst roads very treacherous. Got the car stuck for the first time today but managed to push it out of the snow - phew!
Icicles on the wisteria...

A is for Angel

I'm playing along at ABC Christmas Challenge, with the intention of having a good amount of Christmas cards done in good time for next year! The first Challenge is A for Angels, with the added option of a charm. I've left off the charm as I had a real shock when I posted a lot of cards this year as so many needed extra postage thanks to my embellishments :). I've based the card on a sketch challenge by Caz at Cute Card Thursday. Caz says it's only her second sketch - great sketch Caz, thanks.

The angel stamp is a Lili of the Valley stamp. I stamped it onto watercolour paper with the intention of using Distress Inks, but when I coloured it this morning I reached automatically for my Copics. They are meant to be best used on smooth paper, but I found they were ok on the textured paper though the colours were much brighter and stronger than usual. The angel is cut out with a deckle-edged Nestie and her wings painted with Glossy Accents. The music paper in the background is another Magnolia Christmas DP that I didn't cut into before Christmas, isn't it beautiful? Sentiment from Craftwork Cards, ribbon from stash.

ABC Christmas Challenge Blog Hop

ABC Challenge is launching a new blog challenge - the Christmas Challenge Blog - here's why:
"After speaking to many people it seems to be a common problem that Christmas creeps up on us every year! So this challenge will run on a fortnightly basis, on alternate weeks to our Sister blog ABC Challenge. The Idea is to have fun and create 25 cards or Projects in time for Christmas 2010 your projects will be based on a theme or technique using the letters of the alphabet in turn. We ask that you create a new piece of work for the challenge,Please do not add items published before the challenge date."

To spread the word about the new Challenge there is a blog hop, starting at the Challenge Hop and open until 29 December, with lots of prizes to be won. Check out the Challenge blog for all the details :)