It Must be Love

I've played along with the sketch challenge at Waltzing Mouse this week and used the Nordic Spring set to make my card.  There's the most amazing stitch detail in the stamps and I used WOW superfine embossing powder to show it off.  The sentiment is also Waltzing Mouse, I added some gems and a bit of dry embossing.

My card is also for:
Bearly Mine - embossing
Papertake Weekly - a stitch in time (the stitches are knitted ones on the stamps!)
Deep Ocean - song inspiration (Madness, It Must be Love)

Phindy's Place Challenge #98 - animal planet

Good morning and welcome to Phindy's Place Challenge, this week we have the brilliant theme of Animal Planet.  Phnidy has so many gorgeous animal images that it was tricky to choose which one to use, but in the end I settled for Puppy Pile, which I've used before for a Christmas card, but is making a lovely birthday card here.  I've followed the layout from Sketch Saturday, added some stitching as it looks a bit like patchwork, and used Basic Grey Marjolaine DP.
My card is for:
Sketch Saturday - sketch
Dutch Dare - cute & cuddly
Freshly Brewed Challenges - lots of dots (on my DP)
Sisterhood of Crafters - birthday cards
Bearly Mine - dots
Use it Tuesday - green and hoarded supplies (Marjolaine has been "maturing" in my stash lol, also the card blank is almost vintage I've had it so long!)

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

Don't be gnomeless!

Today I have a monochrome card to show you, using the Gnome Sweet Gnome set from Stamp Addicts, I've decided tto leave the sentiment off for now, really he could be used for all kinds of things.  As usual, he's coloured with Copics, edged with Distress Inks.  The DP is, I think, My Mind's Eye for the large square and some Stampin' Up in front of it.  I've stitched round all the DP and added a MS punched fence in kraft paper, with some twine around it.  And that's it, this little chap doesn't need too many embellies...

My card is for:
Sketch'n'Stash - sketch (new stamps, old DP)
Ooh la la - stitching
Totally Papercrafts - stitch it
Anything Goes - stitch it
Bearly Mine - one for the boys - Get Well Soon Donna!
Craft Your Passion - anything goes + brown
House of Gilli - monochromatic
Incy Wincy - stitching

Wintry treescape

I was driving north yesterday and enjoyed a glorious wintry sunrise, this easel card is an attempt at the stunning colours, all using Distress Inks in Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Worn Lipstick, Weathered Wood.  Trees and Dottiness stamps are from Stamp Addicts, I used the dotty cloud to create the card base.  Sentiment is from Pink Petticoat and lacy ribbon from Stamp Attic.  I drew in the birds with a permanent marker - even I can draw these!

My card is for the following challenges:

One Stop Craft - no designer paper

Bearly Mine - easel does it

Raise the Bar - orange and black

Aud Sentiments - sentiment and a winter theme

Tuesday Taggers  - taking to the skies

Best Friends

Well that weekend did not go to plan!  I had a fun day at the Berkshire Show on Saturday, though I thought it wasn't as good as it has been in previous years.  Sunday was scheduled for garden tidy up, watching Stamp Addicts on TV and lots of crafting to get ahead.  So it was not helpful to trip over a low piece of trellis and fall - hard- onto the stone patio around the pebble fountain.  In the end, all I get done was the TV watching and some pruning before I fell :(.  Nothing is broken but I am bruised and very sore...

Anyhow back to cards and I made this for my Mum, Friday was the first anniversary of Dad's death.  The ribbon is navy and the DP pale blue, can't seem to get the colours quite right on this one.  The boy and his dog are an image from A Day for Daisies, DP is Memory Box.
I'm entering my card for;
Sweet Sketch Wednesday - sketch
Cute Card Thursday - anything goes

Aly's Sunday - add a bow
Card Cupids - anything goes
Crafty Emma's - embellish me more (ribbon & bow, button, twine, brads)
Papercraft Stars - anything goes
Bearly Mine - button it up

Less is More meets Tiffany Doodles

There's a lovely sketch at Less is More this week, I love putting things in threes, must be the gardener in me, I always plant in threes where I can:).  Tiffany Doodles has a new release of a beautiful set of seashells, which I can't wait to play with properly.  In the meantime I used just one shell and coloured with Glimmer Mists, cut out and popped them on to Pinflair glue.  I masked and sprayed the card and added an Elusive Images sentiment.  And that is it!  Only one reject card this week, where the ink bled under my mask, which will be fine for another layout...

My card is for the following challenges:
Less is More - sketch
My Partner in Crafting Crime - let's hit the beach

Bearly Mine - summer is here
Sparkle Forum - at the beach

Less Is More - monochrome

 

The less is more style does not always come easy to me, I find it easier to keep adding rather than take it away:).  This card is an exception and I'm really pleased with it.  I bought the Hero Arts flower stamps with the idea of doing lots of paper pieced flowers with them and remembered some orange cardstock I have.  I won a challenge for the first time ever, probably a couple of years ago and my prize was lots of Stampin' Up paper cut into 6" squares.  I've used lots of it but not the orange.  Don't get me wrong, I do like orange but it does need a lot of space around it and less is definitely more wth it!  The sentiment came from a Papermania set and I've added a big blob of Glossy Accents rather than a brad in the middle of each flower, which makes it a card that won't need extra postage.  The paper is double sided the even the underneath of the blooms is orange.

Challenges:

Less is More - monochrome

Bearly Mine - anything goes

Crafts & Me - stamp something

Clear it Out - paper piecing

Mark's Finest Papers - flowers

Phindy's Place Challenge #58 - Sketchtime!

Good Morning and welcome to a new Phindy's Place Challenge.  This week we have a lovely sketch by Anne-Marije for you to interpret.  I've gone with a vintage/shabby chic version that started out with a new DP pad called Butterfly Collection, by Pink Paislee.  My month's stash diet has finished and I just *happened* to be in my local craft shop that day when I saw the papers lol!  The Little Swinger image was perfect for my papers, I paper pieced her dress and used soft colours in my Copics.  I stamped some random text in grey around the image and then burshed Distress Inks on.  The lace, printed tape and flowers all happened to find their way into my basket when I was shopping too...  I've added lots of stitching, distressing of edges and cut outs of some of the images from the DP, which have Glossy Accents to stiffen them.

My card is also for:
Paper Sundaes - vintage/shabby chic
Copic Creations - Distressing with Copics (though I have also used DI on the background, hope that's ok)
Spoonful of Sugar - flower power
Stamptacular Sunday - bugs or boys (plenty of bugs!)
Bunny Zoe - lace
Bearly Mine - diecuts and lace
Anita Be Stampin - lots of layers
Paper Creations - ribbon or lace
Ai Factory - distressing
Crafty Purple Frog - things of beauty
Wags'n'Whiskers - stitching

Fred She Said May Blog Hop

Good Morning and welcome to the Fred She Said May Blog Hop!  You should have arrived here from Vickie's blog, if not you need to hop back to Tracey-Lynn's blog to start at the very beginning 'cause we've got some fantabulous Fred cards to show you, not to mention a HUGE prize.  One lucky winner will receive a Grand Prize of: a £15 gift voucher from Bearly Mine Designs ,a prize package worth $15.00 from Pizzazz APlenty , 3 digital downloads from CustomCreations from Carolivy  AND a $30 Gift Certificate to the  FSS Store!!!  Whew that's some prize!  To win, all you need to do is collect a word to make a sentence from each blog that you visit, when you get to the end of the hop you'll be able to enter your sentence.  Hop closes 3rd June at midnight.

I've coloured one of the new releases from Fred to show you today:  this is a cute hummingbird with petunias, you can buy this image in the store here.  You can also buy a realistic hummingbird and pre-coloured versions of both images.  There are a lot of images coloured in on Kraft paper at the moment and I wanted to give this a try so I got out some Koh-I-Noor pencils that I bought a couple of years back.  I'm quite pleased with the blending that I got from my pencils; when I tried before I could not get results I was happy with, however I think getting to grips with Copics and blending them has helped a lot:).  Dotty DP is from Bearly Mine, one of our sponsors, the stripe is by My Mind's Eye, sentiment is from Whiff of Joy and the string lace and ribbon are from stash.

Your next stop along the Blog Hop is with the really talented Robin and before you leave you need to know my word:  it is arrive.  Hope you enjoyed your visit!

My card is also for the following challenges:

Sweet Sketch Wednesday - sketch

Bearly Mine - diecuts and lace

Jac-Inks Papercrafts - warm colours

Sweet Stampin' - in the garden

Creative Craft World - 3 or more flowers
Spoonful of Sugar - things with wings

Oh Baby!

Here's another card using that Memory Box Brioche DP, honestly this one was never intended to have Brioche DP but I saw that the plaid worked perfectly with the image and I had to use it for the background layer!  The image is one of the very generous freebies from A Day For Daisies, matted onto some dry embossed and inked Basic Grey DP from Porcelain.  I added some Prima flowers, which works for the Midnight Madness Sketch and sneaked in some ribbon which doesn't!  Zig-zag stitching secures the two layers.
My card is for the following challenges:
Midnight Madness - sketch
A Day For Daisies - oh baby
Bearly Mine - beautiful babies
Stamping Vacation - very vintage sewing
Card Creations & More - embossing
Sketchy Colours - pink, blue & green
 The Cheerful Stamp Pad - little girls with curls

Phindy's Place Challenge #50 - Easter Time

Good Morning and welcome to this week's Phindy's Place Challenge, this week we'd like to see your Easter projects, if you don't celebrate Easter it's fine to make a spring card.   You don't have to use one of Phindy's images, but we love it when you do - and you get a second entry into the prize draw!

I've used the fun image "Just Saying Hi" from Phindy's Place, I've also used some Scene-It stamps to create a bit of a background.   Image is coloured with Copics and scene with Distress Inks.  I think giraffes look great with spots and stripes, so I've added in a dotty paper from Bearly Mine as well as a My MInd's Eye stripe.  Frame is a Nestie, text is computer generated.

My card is also for the following challenges:

Bearly Mine - sketch

One Stop Craft - spots and dots

Little Claire's - spring celebrations

Craft Your Days Away - spots and stripes

Creative Cowgirls - spring or Easter

Card Cupids - dots and/or stripes

Stamps R Us - Easter

Stamp with Fun - Easter

Pink Elephant - Easter

Ooh la la - Easter

Golden Years

 This is a very clean and simple anniversary card, made using the new Fred She Said Hearts & Roses digi set.    You'll see that I have removed the wording "I love you" from the image and added my own wording.  It's the first time I've ever tried this and really, it couldn't be easier!  I've used the pre-coloured digi but there is also a set for your own colours available.   I've printed out, cut out and layered 2 further rose sprays onto the heart.  The heart was put through my Swiss Dot embossing folder and then inked with Scattered Straw Distress Ink.

The sketch is from this week's Midnight Madness.  The DP is Bearly Mine, one from the Simply Dots download and one from the Designer Extreme I CD.  Donna at Bearly Mine has a new  challenge blog and I'm hoping she'll accept this as an entry to the recipe challenge this week:  3 flowers, 2 papers, 1 image.  The image IS the flowers, though, so fingers crossed lol!  I was lucky enough to win the CD in a recent challenge, thanks Donna!

I've gold embossed an Elusive Images swirl in the corner of each DP and added some pearls, if you click on the picutre you can see them better...    There still seems quite a bit of open space, don't know if I will tinker about with this card a bit more...

I'm entering the following challenges with my card:
Midnight Madness - sketch
Bearly Mine - recipe
Flourishes - go big (this is a 5 x 7 card)
My Time to Craft - spots & dots
Papertake Weekly - ribbons and pearls
Diecut Dreams - use a digi and a rubber stamp

Come Back Summer!

Goodness it's turned really cold here, whatever happened to Summer?  I've made a summery, warm card to try and forget how chilly it is outside, this is a cute Belles & Whistles image called "Lemonade Anyone?", isn't she adorable?

I've based my card on this week's Friday Sketcher's Challenge,  I'm also entering it for the Belles & Whistles Challenge of Anything Goes, Dutch Dare's Vintage Summer Challenge as well as Charisma Cardz' Challenge of Hot, hot hot!

Image is coloured with Copics, with Glossy Accents on the jug and glass.  The background has Distress Inks on it.  The left hand piece of DP is a magazine freebie, the rest is Basic Grey Nook and Pantry.  Punch used is Martha Stewart Doily Punch, sentiment is by Elusive Images, and the flowers are Prima.

A Truly Scrumptious Scene

I'm home from the Quilt Festival but have found it hard to get going again with my crafting, 3 1/2 days of partying, children's classes and quilt gazing have taken their toll LOL! 

I've a few of the Hobby Art Scene-Its stamped out into little pictures so I watercoloured a simple one of two yachts at sea, so at least I've made something!  Watercoloured using Distress Inks, sentiment from Craftwork Cards, DP is a digital paper from Bearly Mine Designs.

The card follows the sketch at the Truly Scrumptious Challenge, though not the optional extra of Brads, buttons and bows.  It's blue & green for Cupcake Craft Challenge's theme this week and it's another man birthday card for my stash so it fits Create4Fun's birthday card theme.

Twisted Thursday Challenge #32

It's Twisted Thursday Challenge time again! Shirleys2Girls challenge you to follow a sketch - with a twist! Here's what you have to do: Create a card, following this week’s sketch and then “Twist” by using Kraft paper or a paper bag somewhere on your project. You are not required to use Shirley’s 2 Girls stamps, but if you've got them, we'd love to see you use them!
Upload your card to your favorite online gallery and/or your blog. If you upload to SCS or PCP, please use the keywords S2GSC31 AND shirleys2girls. Post a direct link to your card using Mr. Linky on the Challenge Blog, here. The deadline for uploading your card is Wednesday, 11 November, 2009 at midnight PDT.The winning card will be chosen by Random.org, the lucky winner will get to choose a stamp from the Shirley’s 2 Girls product list, and their winning card or other project will be showcased on the Shirley's 2 Girls Challenge Blog Please do visit the other Ladies with Attitude, check out their amazing creations and leave them some love:
Karolyn
Debbie
Joy
Justine
Pat
Erin
I had so much fun making my card! I used the scarecrow image from the Thanksgiving collection, you can buy him here. I stamped him out twice and coloured him with Copics. I cut round Mr Scarecrow and glued him over the background image, with yellow embroidery floss glued under him where the straw is escaping from him. The bird is stealing some more straw from his innards. The image is layered onto Kraft paper and then stitched onto a dark brown card mat. There's a very pretty autumn DP behind this, stitched again (Sorry don't know whose DP it is) and then the main DP is from a Bearly Mine Designs cd, with a very wide orange ribbon added, which came from a box of chocolates. Pretty ribbon, but not as good as the choccies were ;).

Close up of "straw":

Whiff of Joy Santa

I've just finished this in time for this week's Whiff of Joy Challenge, which is to use red, cream and one other colour of your choice. I've picked the easy option of adding green and making a Christmas card; I've used the sketch from this week's Mojo Monday Challenge.

Santa's coloured with Copics and I've used Fluffy Stuff to trim his coat and hat, the cream edging is Scattered Straw Distress Ink. The sentiment is from a Creative Expressions set, image is matted onto Bazzill Basics card. The red DP is from a Bearly Mine Designs CD and the green berried DP is Fancy Pants. Gems and ribbon from stash.

Copic Colour Challenge #36 - Join me for a spell

I was lucky enough to be invited to be a Guest Designer for Copic Colour Challenges for this week. This week the colours to use, if you have them, are Adele's choices: G99 Olive, V17 Amethyst and YR68 Orange. If you don't have them, use the closest you've got, as long as you use Copics :).

The colours just shouted out Halloween to me, so I reached for a Jinx stamp from Shirleys2Girls, you can buy them here and, even better, they are on special offer, 25% off until 31 October. Jinx is, of course, coloured with my Copics, there is some Glossy Accents on her hatband and the bubbles. The background to the image is painted with watercolor paint in a blotchy olive.The cobweb DP is a free download from the generous Summer Driggs, purple and green are from a Bearly Mine Designs CD. The ribbon is white organza that I coloured with my Amethyst Copic, it's stiched down with a decorative machine stitch, as are the other papers.

Hope you like my card and that it's inspired you to join in this week's Copic Colour Challenge.

To meet your prince, you've got to kiss a lot of frogs

I've not had much time for crafting this weekend, but I did get this pretty Diane Duda image coloured and made into a quick card. The image comes from a Splitcoaststamper's swap and I can see that it's another Sugar Nellie that needs to go on my wish-list :). It's the first image I've used where there's scope to colour in the eyes, which makes a lot of difference to the way the face looks. Hmm... don't have that on the Girl Thing stamp I bought, yes I need some more stamps :).

I've used Jeanette's sketch from this week's Friday Sketchers and I've followed the colour recipe on the Corrosive Challenge blog of green and pink.

Image is coloured with Copics, edges inked with Peeled Paint and Pine Needles Distress Inks. Stickles added to the crowns and Glossy Accents to the frog. Papers are Stampin' Up, matted onto green Bazzill card. Ticket comes from a Bearly Mine Designs download and flower is cut 5 times with a Big Shot die to give it lots of layers.

Pink & green jazzy angel

Here's the Lili of the Valley jazzy angel again, this time in pink and green to fit Cute Card Thursday's Challenge, strawberry mint julep (pink & green). The card is based on Jacqueline's sketch from this week's Friday Sketchers Challenge.

Image coloured with a mix of Promarkers and Copics, Shabby Shutters Distress Ink is sponged around the edges of the circle. The scalloped edged octagon is a Nestabilities die, which I don't think looks quite so dominant as in Jacqueline's sketch, so I've lopped off the corners of my DP to give another octagon shape. DP is a download from Bearly Mine Designs' Country Collection, ribbon is from stash and the snowflakes are the supermarket ones coloured with Copic again.