Waltzing Mouse Sketch Challenge

It's a beautiful day here, after a long walk and some gardening I'm back with another clean & simple card, this time for the Waltzing Mouse Sketch Challenge.  I've used the chrysanthemum stamps, inked up with an array of small ink pads, adding a tiny bit of clear Stickles here and there.  The squares were cut out with Nesties and popped up on Pinflair glue.  The card is textured linen, I've added one of the new sentiments from WM as well as the Frame-It stamp.  I really like the look of this, hope you do too!
My card is also for:
Allsorts - say it with flowers
Totally Papercrafts - my favourite things (I love purple and I'm also loving my WM stamps at present)
Charisma Cardz - ribbon, ribbon, ribbon

Phindy's Place Challenge #92 - round & round

 Again I am late posting my card for this week's fabulous Phindy's Place Challenge, which is to use circles this week.  The only good thing about being late is that I saw a fab layout at Sketch Saturday that uses lots of circles and was able to use it for my card!

The image is called My Baby and I chose to use it for Easter though it also makes a brilliant new baby card. It's coloured with Copics, Distress Ink and Glossy Accents, the DP is Basic Grey, mostly Marjolaine with a background from the Neutrals.  The lacy ribbon is from Stamp Attic.

My card is for the following challenges:
Sketch Saturday - sketch
Allsorts - free and easy February
Simon Says - love.  I've not entered the multitude of Valentine challenges, but this shows a mother's love, at least I think so!
Papertake Weekly - anything goes
One Stitch at a Time - anything goes
Scrappy Frog - diecuts - lots of diecut circles here!
Drunken Stampers - texture - love this ribbon for texture

Charisma Cardz - things with wings
Moving along with the Times - cute critters

Take a walk on the wild side

One Layer Wednesday is challenging us to make a birthday card for a guy.  This Darkroom Door stamp set was bought back in November and put away as a Christmas present, it doesn't say Happy Birthday but I would be happy to give it as a guy card.  I first tried it unadorned, but it needed the rusty brown brads.  I did a lot of faffing about to make a mask for the inking and match it with the stamping, I really must learn how to use my stamp positioner! 

My card is for:

One Layer Wednesday - odd birthday

Charisma Cardz - clean & simple

Crafty Pad - something for the boys

Craft a Scene - anything goes

Let's Ink it Up - anything goes

Combination Headache

This week's CAS-ual Fridays has a black & white challenge with the very stern admonition "no other colours will be allowed, not even a speck!" lol!  I thought it would be fun to see if I could combine it with this week's Less Is More challenge, which turned out to be an aperture card.  Hmm...  it would have been far quicker to make two cards, but I got there in the end.

I have a Memory Box Christmas tree die and I remember Mustavacoffee, a LIM regular, making a gorgeous card where she had cut the aperture with her die and then added the swirly bit.  So I faffed and fiddled about and cut numerous trees with my die to no avail.  In the end I cut an aperture through the card and then through black card and lined them up and attached the tree to the inside so you can see it.  The false start here was when I sprayed the tree with glue but no matter how hard I tried it would not line up how it should.  Note to self:  if something is not totally symmetrical, always check which side you should be spray glueing...
I've added some punched snowflakes with black or white gems, a piece of lacy net and an Indigoblu sentiment.

I'd like to show you a couple of LIM related photos.  This week I was lucky enough to win the December prize from Lots of Lovely Ribbons, thank you to Mandi and Chrissie and also of course to Lots of Lovely Ribbons for this brilliant prize that came this morning.

 Also, Chrissie came to see me on Thursday and we enjoyed some retail therapy, she brought me these beautiful roses.  I love all flowers, but I do particularly love yellow flowers, these are really brightening my day.  Thanks Chrissie!

I'm entering my card for:
Less is More - cut it out
CAS-ual Fridays - penguin day (b&w)
Charisma Cardz - clean & simple

Lots of layers

 

I bought some new House Mouse decoupage from Joanna Sheen and have been cutting out while my mojo is missing.  There is a lot going on with the image so I've kept the rest of the card pretty simple, with a couple of layers, a border punch and some ribbon.

My card is for:

House Mouse & Friends - something new (the decoupage pack)

Charisma Cardz - anything goes

Simon Says - new something

Papertake Weekly - anything goes (option of new)

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

Gnome Sweet Gnome

I've been using a new stamp set from Stamp Addicts called Gnome Sweet Gnome which is very different from the Trees and Scenics I've been working with, they are really fun images and here's the first card I have to show you.  I love the way he's putting his feet up on a toadstool!  Chair is paper pieced with some Basic Grey from Sweet Threads, the last scrap of it is in a strip across the card.  Mr Gnome is coloured with Copics, some Glossy Accents on his spectacles and Distress Ink in Pine Needles on both backgrounds.  I've gold embossed toadstools from the set to make the  background and embossed the sentiment too.  Hope you like my Gnomie:).
My card is for the following challenges:
Squirrel & the Fox - hats and flowers - not a Melbourne Cup hat but definitely a hat!
Aud Sentiments - make us laugh
Charisma Cardz - cutesy
Sarah Hurley - use more than two images - gnome + lots of toadstools
The Paper Variety - laughter is the best medicine
Whimsical Wednesday - anything goes
Stamp'n'Doodle - emboss it

Phindy's Place Challenge #79 - Paper Piecing

Thank goodness it's Friday, this week has felt like painting the Firth Bridge at times:).  Nearly the weekend and this morning I'll be glued to the telly watching Stamp Addicts at 10am...  Friday of course also means a new Phindy's Place Challenge and this week our challenge is an old favourite:  paper piecing.  I used Flower Top Fairy Violet, her dress and her wings are paper pieced.  It's hard to tell under that thick coating of Stickles but the wings are the same soft yellow as the flowers I added!  DP is Basic Grey Wisteria, sentiment is LOTV and the punch added to the lines in the layout is Martha Stewart Pansy.
My card is for the following challenges:
Sketch Saturday - sketch
Charisma Cards - anything goes
Crafty Purple Frog - sparkle
Digi Doodles Shop - anything goes
Hannah and Friends - glitter
Paper Crafting Journey - use a digi

Black & Gold

Here's one more card using those fabulous Tree stamps from Stamp Addicts; today I posted all the sample cards of to Sarah and Vicki to hopefully appear on this Friday's TV programmes at 10am and 1pm on Create & Craft.  This is extremely simple, I think I spent longer trying to take a decent photo of this than I did making it!

The trees are gold embossed onto mountboard, the edges of the tiles embossed too.  They were then sponged with Soot Black Distress Ink.  The gold mirri card has an EK Success border and some ribbon with knots in it.  I think this could be a Christmas card or something else again, whichever I like it:).

My card is for the following challenges:

Paper Sundaes - sundae bar I used black, distressing (ink) and sparkle

One Stop Craft - no designer paper

Fussy & Fancy - black, border punch and bling

Charisma Cardz - embossing

Paper Play - use black

Prairie Fairy - wet embossing

Simply Create - shades of black

Christmas Village

Good morning!  Today I've a fairly clean & simple Christmas card to show you, made with one of the sets sent to me by the girls at Stamp Addicts, called Snowy Village.  It has lots of extras to it  that you'll see cropping up on my blog over the next few days, snowmen, sleigh and reindeer in the sky, great fun to play with!  I've stamped it in grey here and coloured with a few Copics and lots of Prisma Glitter on Quickie Glue.  The stars in on the embossed frame have also been glittered.  OK, most my house has been glittered, the stuff certainly goes a long way!  The silver embossed sentiment is from the set, I used a MS punch on the ends of it.  Tree is from the Snowy Village set.
My card is for the following challenges:
Charisma Cardz - glitter it
Freshly Brewed Challenges - emboss it
Clear it Out - glitter it (stash is the embossing folder)
Deep Ocean Challenge - light blue
Paper Cupcakes - let's make a scene
Christmas Card Challenge - glitter
Christmas Inspirations - clean and simple

Less is More - things that move

We've had a lovely weekend with friends from Shropshire visiting, very busy with no time to craft.  On Saturday Shona wore a t-shirt with a bicycle image on it and it bugged me all day as then I knew the stamp I wanted to use for this week's Less is More! This is a Little Claire stamp that I bought at Newbury, it has little extras that can fit into the basket but I left it unadorned.  I'm trying to build my skills and collection of One Layer cards, so this is is coloured with watercolour markers not Copics.  The sentiment is a little heavy on the RH side but not enough to cover it up with a second layer with it re-stamped - or at least that's what I think!
My card is for the following challenges:
Less is More - things that move
Challenge up your Life - no patterned paper
Charisma Cardz - negative space
Shopping our Stash - weakest link - I struggle with one layer cards
Little Claire - wedding/anniversary - I think this sentiment is perfect for this

It's all in the detail

This beautiful image comes from A Day for Daisies, at first glance it looks like a pretty flower with a fairy perched on it...  then you see the bees, the ladybirds, and there are snails and  even a tiny worm on there too!  Mine are quite hard to pick out as I've used fairly natural colours.  I've used hot summer colours for the flower, added Stickles in lots of different colours to my image and brushed Distress Inks onto the background.  The DP is Basic Grey, sentiment from Craftwork Cards and the flowers centres are shadd with Copics to match the image.

My card is for the following challenges:
Sweet Sketch Wednesday - sketch
A Day for Daisies - mystery ingredient (glitter)
Crafty Catz - no pink or blue
Your next stamp - 3 embellies, 2 DPs, 1 image
Flutterby Wednesday - open, use fairy or butterfly
Crafts & Me - add a flower
The Colour Dare - real red, peach parfait, pear pizzazz
Little Miss Muffett - summer
Charisma Cardz - summer colours
Fussy & Fancy - summer
Fairytale Challenge - summer sun

Fabulous Phindy Phriday - anything Phindy goes

 It's here!  Our first Phindy Fabulous Phriday Challenge is today.  Anything Goes -so long as you use a Phindy's Place image on your project.  There are some great images in the shop and there are always some Freebies to be picked up on the Phindy's Place PCP Group if you don't yet have any of these  fabulous images.  The first Friday of each month will be Anything Goes with a Phindy's Place image, so have have plenty of time to plan ahead each month.

I was really keen to use one of the new Skinny Sale, one of the new Plump 'Uns images, there have been some fab cards floating around blogdom that use this image, with some very clever sentiments too!  I've picked a sentiment from Create with TLC and coloured it to match my tape measure, which is a Clarity Stamps stamp I forgot I had, I've embossed it with black on my cardstock and it looks really dimensional in real life.  Image is coloured with Copics and Distress Inks, flower is also coloured to match with Copics.  DP is Prima and I've turned the sketch from Sweet Sketch Wednesday on end.

My card is for the following challenges:
Sweet Sketch Wednesday - sketch
Charisma Cardz - favourite ice cream colours - coffee and strawberry and vanilla (ok there's a touch of blueberry on my card:))
Digi Doodle Shop - anything goes
Ai Factory - use favourite embellishment (flower)
Secret Crafter - embossing (ruler)

Summer Hummer

 Whatever happened to summer?  We went away at the weekend and there was heavy rain and hail!  To compensate I've been making some summery cards, here's the first.  I've used some bright Basic Grey DP teamed with a pre-coloured Humming Bird image from Fred She Said, these are lovely to colour but the the pre-coloured make very quick cards.  I printed it twice and cut out and popped the bird and flower centre up on Pinflair Glue, to give lots of dimension.  Sentiment is an Elusive Images stamp, the offeset panel is embossed and inked.
My card is for the following challenges:
 Simon Says - let's play bingo(3 down flowers, brads, sentiment)
Charisma Cards - pink and green
Papercrafting Journey - our feathered friends
Creative Inspiration Paint - bright colours
One Stitch at a Time - things with wings
Sweet Stampin' - things with wings
Delicious Doodles - things that flutter
Polka Doodles - all of a flutter
Simply Create - fly with us
Stamp Something - with pretty papers

Air Mail

This is a true one layer card; I needed a postcard to send and couldn't find any in the drawer that I liked.  So I cut some cardstock and brushed Distress Inks over it, then stamped a very old Clarity Stamp and an Elusive Images sentiment onto it.  I brushed a bit more blue ink onto the balloons and used it to edge that postcard.  That's it, finished!

I'm entering my (post)card for the following challenges:
Charisma Cardz - something that flies
Shopping our Stash - oldies but goodies, oldest stamp or digi.  I don't think I even have my oldest stamp but this is certainly one of the very very earliest I bought...
Digi Design House - One layer wonder
Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight - try something new - I've nver made a postcard before but now I plan to make lots!

Too Much Candyfloss!

Loved this new image from Mo Manning and knew it had to be pink candyfloss, remeber how sticky everything got, hair, face, clothes?  Mo's challenge this week is Distressing, I used Distress Inks on the background and distressed the edges of the brown mat outside the deckled edging.  The DPs are Papermania and Stampin' Up, sentiment is LOTV (circle) and Hero Arts (yum).  I've based my card around this week's layout at Sweet Sketch Wednesday.

My card is for the following challenges:
Sweet Sketch Wednesday - sketch
Mo's Challenge - distressing
Charisma Cardz - birthdays in pink
Tuesday Throwdown - stripes (Stampin' Up paper)
Make It Monday - anything goes

Phindy's Place Challenge #53 - Glitter, Glamour and Glitz

Good Morning and welcome to this week's Phindy's Place Challenge.  This week we're putting on the glamour, with a Glitter, glamour and glitz challenge.  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!  You may think that I've slightly lost it by making a gardening card for this challenge, but all I can say is that the Phindy's Place digi image Pretty Blooms is an amazingly glamorous gardener without a speck of dirt anywhere on her and high heels too lol!  I've made a step card and added in some Gardening Lil Gems .  All are coloured with Copics, I've added a bit more glitz with Glossy Accents, Stickles and gems as well as some Bazzil Bling grass cut with a Martha Stewart punch.  The sentiment is computer generated; I have the perfect stamp that says this, but it's too big for my card.  The DP is Memory Box Brioche.

My card is also for the following challenges:

Amber's Craft & Stuff - use a digi

My Mum's Craft Shop - flowers

Simon Says - anything goes

Charisma Cardz - April showers/May flowers

Paper Sundaes - sundae bar (yellow, sparkle)

Magic in the Air - multi-fold cards

Stamptacular Sunday - at least 5 layers

Easter Daffodils

 We're home after our four days at the races, what a wonderful time we had, though sadly neither of us won enough to give up the day job:).  And how exciting for the Gold Cup to be won by a Lambourn horse (my home village) for the first time in over 10 years.

OK, back to cardmaking and at last Spring is here and the daffodils are in flower, which prompted me to make an Easter card using one of the Fred She Said Spring flower images, you can buy them here in the shop.  I've followed Sonjas' sketch at Spoonful of Sugar, adding some Basic Grey Sugar Rush papers, a touch of embossing and some yellow ribbon.

My card is for the following challenges:
Spoonful of Sugar - sketch
Stamping with the Dragon - bring on Spring
Wags 'n' Whiskers - Spring
Charisma Cardz - to die for (2 ovals and a deckle edged rectangle used)

Creative Cottage - Spring has sprung
Scrapbook Sisters - Spring flowers
Sweet Stamps - think Spring

Phindy's Place Challenge #45 - Oh Baby!

Good moring, it's Friday so today is the double bonus of being nearly the weekend and also time for another Phindy's Place Challenge.  This week we are challenging you to make a card or project for a baby or small child, or use a baby or small child image on your card.  Don't forget to check out the arrival of the adorable Wee Babbies in store at Phindy's Place, they are arriving every few days, rather than all at once, just like real babies!  My little charmer isn't part of the Wee Babbie set, but he easily could be, this image is called Nap Time.

I've used Copics to colour, including the background and I decided to make a tri-fold card.  The Nestie is new stash that I treated myself to from Bunny Zoes, after being lucky enough to win a voucher, I popped it up on tape  above the green square but wish I'd added more height again:).  Sentiment is Joanna Sheen, DP is Stampin' Up and the buttons are Papermania.

My card is for the following challenges:
Pile It On - Tri-fold
Peachy Keen - sketch
Charisma Cardz - Four legged friends
Crafty Sentiments - birthdays
Meljens Challenge - U R such an animal!
Shelley's Images - lots of layers
Creative Belli - animals
Do You Stack Up - use green in it
Dutch Dare - who's who in the zoo

New stash...

I've broken my stash diet over the weekend, but I made this tonight, using the new stash so maybe that mitigates it:).  I've combined making a "Less is More" card with the make your own embellies that Simon Says Challenge calls for this week.  Embellies and C&S don't necessarily go together but I think I've pulled it off, what do you think?

Embossing folder with sentiment is Papermania.  Flower is a Hero Arts stamp, stamped onto scrap DP and with a touch of green Copic colouring it in.  Yellow and green are what Spring is all about, to me.  So what's with all the grey blah weather outside??  I've added some Glossy Accents and beads to the centre.  The leaves are made with a Woodware punch and I've scored veins onto the leaves.

If anyone can suggest how to minimise the lines at the edge of the embossing folder I'd love to know, however they look less prominent in real life:)

My card is for the following challenges:
Simon Says - make your own embellishments
Less is More - Spring
Incy Wincy - punches or dies
Charisma Cardz - Spring has sprung
Spoonful of Sugar - birthday wishes