Waltzing Mouse Sketch Challenge

Good morning again, here's a second posting for today.  I had fun making this card for this week's Waltzing Mouse Challenge, using the Chrysanthemum stamp and sentiments from Say it out Loud.  I stamped the flower using purple chalk ink and clear heat embossed it, doing the same for the sentiment, then I popped it up on Pinflair glue, doing the same for the sentiment.  The DP is Prima, there's lots of stitching on the card, seam binding, pearls and a new Nestie for the sentiment that I got at Make-It last week.  I added some Distress Ink to the diecuts and to the image.
My card is for:
Waltzing Mouse Sketch Challenge - sketch
Dilly Beans - in stitches
Top Tip Tuesday - stitching
Corrosive Challenge - another dimension
The Ribbon Girl - pink, brown & cream

Red Robins in the Round

 

 This pair of robins from Fred She Said is a favourite traditional Christmas image for me.  Here it is coloured with Copics, edged with Distress Inks and added to Memory Box DP and a couple of scrolls from my Memory Box die.  This card is for the following challenges:

Sketch'n'Stash - sketch

Corrosive Challenge - with a flourish

Scrappy Frog - something that flies

One Stitch at a Time - Christmas

Little Claire's - Christmas

Bah! Humbug - diecuts

Crimbo Crackers - anything Christmas

Simon Says - anything goes

Phindy's Place Challenge #70 - make your own embellishments

Thank goodness it's Friday - and a long weekend too, can't wait!  Fridays are Phindy's Place Challenge days, and this week we are challenging you to make your own embellishments.  I've made my own flowers, using two different methods.  The image I used is called Summer Blossom, isn't she adorable?  Does anyone remember Holly Hobbie?  This little cutie reminds me of her...  The stamped flowers are a Stampin' Up stamp inked with two shades of Distress Ink, with punched suns added for centres and I tried something new and glued some tiny seed beads into the centres as well.  What do you think?  The other flowers use a Little Claire die, then they are rolled up.  I used 2 shades of blue but they look very similar in the photo.  DP is Memory Box Minuet, I paper pieced her little romper suit from one of the papers. 

My card is for the following challenges:
Digistamps4Joy - add a handmade flower
The Papershelter - diecuts and punches
Sisterhood of Crafters - flower power
Creative Card Crew - hand made flowers
Digital Tuesday - cute and girly
Papertake Weekly - dies to die for
Karen's Doodles - punch it out
Paper Creations Ink - show us your flowers
Victorine Originals - summer
Woodware USA - try something new (adding beads)
Corrosive Challenges - girly

Congratulations to Will (gulp!)

I've been absent from my crafting for a few days, we've had some difficult things to get through.  Today I've done a little bit of crafting and I've taken a photo of this card which was made at a Jenny Mayes workshop.  It had its finishing touch today, when I wrote W1LL on the number plate for older son, who passed his driving test yesterday.  The car is a Butterfly Kisses stamp, it was stamped in the middle of the card with Memento and coloured with Copics.  Another 3 layers were coloured and decoupaged on with Pinflair Glue when the card was completed.  The background stamps were various Hobby Art Scene-It stamps, these were stamped with Versafine and then watercoloured.

Big congratulations to Will, my car insurance has now gone up to over 5 times as much, yikes!

My card is for these challenges:
For Fun Challenges - anything goes
Papertake Weekly - anything goes
Heidi's Hobby - card for a man
Corrosive Challenges - manly

Summer sunshine - I wish!

I'm sneaking in a second posting today because I wanted to enter the Sweet Sketch Wednesday Challenge and I'm fast running out of time.  I knew I wanted to use some gorgeous Basic Grey Sweet Threads DPs that I bought, when I saw a card made by Debby for the Everybody Art Challenge I decided to distress my papers.  There are a lot of layers to this sketch and I worry about them all staying stuck so I decided to stitch them as well!  The good thing is that I know all my layers will stay put, the bad thing is that where I made a mistake with my layout I can't change it.  Hmm...  more haste less speed and all that:).
Image is the totally inspired Tender Tootsies from Phindy's new Plump 'Uns range, isn't it lovely sometimes to just kick off those shoes and feel the grass under your feet...  She's coloured with Copics and lots of Distress Ink, extra Copics in the corner to cool things down a bit and give an impression of some trees.  Flowers are punched from the DP.

Before I go I'd like to tell you that Phindy is about to become a grandmother and she is running a fun competition on PCP, guess the date the baby arrives and guess the weight.  Do check it out, link here, I think the granny to be is a bit sad that she's not had more entries yet and tha baby could be here any day now!
My card is for the following challenges:
Sweet Sketch Wednesday - sketch
Basic Grey - shabby chic
Everybody Art Challenge - distress
A Spoonful of Sugar - here comes summer
Corrosive Challenge - summer colours
Pile it on - summer heaven
Sweet Stampin' - playing in the summer sun
Fairy Fun Fridays - summer fun
Papertake Weekly - anything goes
Wags'n'Whiskers - stitching

Less Is More - off centre a second attempt

This is something I've wanted to try for a while and I think it fits this week's LIM Challenge perfectly - hope the LIM ladies think so too:).   I've used my Hobby Art stamps and watercolours to make a Spring landscape with lambs growing in the field and I've extended the scene into the white space around it.  The card for the white space is from the back of a card I messed up, so it is exactly the same as the card.  I've matted both onto black and decided to leave the sentiment off in case it ends up too busy.

My card is for the following challenges:
Less Is More - off centre
Crafty Creations - white space
Party Time Tuesday - anything goes
Corrosive Challenges - use animals
Sparkles Forum - anything goes

Lily of the Valley - more Fred flowers

 I keep turning to flower images for my cards at the moment, Spring must be on the way!  Thank goodness we've had a bit of sunshine, even if it.s still pretty cold.  This card uses another gorgeous Fred She Said image, this time it's Lily of the Valley, which you can buy in the shop here.  I've coloured with Copics and edged with Adirondack dye ink, which I've also sponged onto the bubble embossed border.  The DPs are Basic Grey Marjolaine, border uses a Martha Stewart String Lace punch and there are some gems in the corners of the Nestie Labels cut image.

My card is for the following challenges:
Card Patterns - sketch
Gingerloft Challenge - use those flowers
Corrosive Challenges - Going Green
Catered Crop - follow the recipe (used plaids, spring colours, Copics, flowers)
Creative Inspirations Paint - Gone Green
Easy Craft Projects - Green
Little Claires - flowers
Card Making Mamas - something green
Card Cupids - anything goes

Phindy's Place Challenge #39 - Lace and Pearls

 Hooray for Friday - it's the weekend, my crafty friend Val is coming over to play and I have 2 all day crafting workshops scheduled for the weekend - and today is Phindy's Place Challenge!  I've been looking forward to showing you this image for ages, I got muddled up and was making it for last week by mistake lol!  Hope you think it's worth the wait:).
I used the beautiful Spring Dress Emma, I've seen so many lovely projects using this digi and decided it was time I tackled her!  I've baed my card on the Sketch'n'Stash Challenge layout.  She's coloured with Copics, cut out and decoupaged onto a Marianne Die that's been Cuttlebugged and then inked with Tea Dye Distress Ink.  The DP is Bearly Mine Designs from Simply Dots (new stash that I was lucky enough to win at Incy Wincy), the sentiment is Craftwork Cards, a lovely deep lace that is very old stash and sweet pearls from the Hobby House.  The little chocolate coloured ones are stuck where the lace points are; do you remember the beads on lace covers for food?
My card is for the following challenges:
Sketch'n'Stash - sketch
Simon Says - Bingo! (lace, flowers, embossing)
Corrosive Challenge Blog - lace and pearls
Copic Creations - what's new (new DP)
Creative Belli - letter P (pink, pretty pearls)
Do it With Digis - pink, girly
Paper Sundae - first birthday choose a challenge - Cut it Out

Phindy's Place Challenge #37 - Distressing

  

Welcome to Friday and welcome to this week's Phindy's Place Challenge.  Last week was the first time we opened up the challenge to all-comers and boy did we get a response - nearly 150 entries!  This week the challenge is Distressing.  You can use Distress Inks, distress paper edges, tear paper, interpret it your way, I can't wait to see your entries!   I used one of my all-time favourite images, Spring Breeze, a useful one for Mother's Day, new baby, all sorts of occasions really.

I've coloured with Copics and edged with Dusty Concord Distress Ink.  The DP is Basic Grey Wisteria and I've distressed the edges, then inked them.  There is stitching around 2 of the papers.  I used my new Martha Stewart punch that DH bought me for Christmas to mat the image.  There are tiny Papermania buttons on the corners of the image and eyelets in the plain card, which is also inked.  The flowers are made from a Little Claire die and the leaves are punched.  I added a nice big bow and decided that there was so much going on that the sentiment can go inside the card!  One more thing that you probably can't see is that the card has the fold at the LH side.  I noticed that quite a few of the landscape layout commercial Christmas cards that we received had the fold to the left, not at the top, and they stayed upright much better.  So I cut this from A3 cardstock.

I'm entering the following challenges with my card:  

Polka Doodles - sketch and self coloured image

Delightful Challenges - buttons

Digi Doodle Shop - buttons

Dutch Dare - new beginnings

Moving Along with the Times - old stash, new stash (new MS punch, old DP, eyelets, buttons)

Stamp Insanity - use metal (eyelets)

Stampin B's - something old, something new

Simon Says - new beginnings (new baby, Spring)

Secret Crafter - buttons & bows
Creative Card Crew - new beginnings
Paper Crafting Journal - lets get digital
Crafting Your Passion - anything goes
Corrosive Challenges - purple & yellow
Crafty Ho's - babies
Ellephantastic - new beginnings
One Stop Craft - new beginnings
Do It With Digis - new beginnings

Baubles and bling!

Yesterday we put the Christmas tree up, it never goes up until after DS's birthday on the 18th.  In celebration I managed to finish this superbly blingy card using one of Fred, She Said's Christmas Ornament digis, you can buy them here.  I coloured this a few days ago and was really chuffed with the "shine" I got on it with my Copics.  I added some Stickles and some gems to it as well as Glossy Accents on the holly berries and then combined it with one of the last sheets from my Basic Grey Jovial pad, I LOVED this DP!  I finished it off with gold mirri card and Martha Stewart lattice punch, some blue snowflakes with gems and a Craftwork Cards sentiment.  What do you mean I can't have blue snowflakes?  I think it's cole enough for blue snowflakes LOL!
This card is for the following challenges:
Create4Fun - Anne-Marije's sketch
Corrosive Challenge - non traditional Christmas
Copic Creations - sparkle
Digital Tuesday - sparkling digi
Digis with Attitude - anything Christmas

DT Posting - Corrosive Challenges - #85- Sketchtime

 This week at Corrosive Challenges we have a fun sketch for you to follow.  Sadly I have decided to step down from the Design Team for Corrosive, life is getting in the way of my crafting a bit at present:).  Janet who runs the challenge is one of the first blogging friends that I made online and I'd like to thank her and all the gals at Corrosive for the fun times I've had being part of the team.

My card uses an image from this month's sponsor, Robyn's Fetish.  I've coloured using Copics teamed it with Basic Grey Indian Summer DP and a few Prima flowers.  Leaves are cut with a punch and sentiment is a new one that I bought from Elzybells, who have sadly closed down.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

The Stamp Man - Autumn

Charisma Cardz - Autumn Colours

Paper Romance - Halloween or Fall

DT Posting - Corrosive Challenges - #83 - Masking

This week at Corrosive Challenges the theme is masking.  You can mask your images and create a scene, as I've done, or you can mask off areas of your card and create a frame.  I've used Hobbyart Scene-It stamps and both snowman and tree were masked when I stamped the houses and the tree.  I've used Aquamarkers and Marvy le Plume watercolour pens on watercolour cardstock, I've also added a bit of glitter to my snow and to the snowflake embossed card.
I'm entering my card for these challenges:
One Stop Craft Challenge - snowflakes in September
Totally Gorjuss - Christmas
ABC Christmas - T is for Tree

DT Posting - Corrosive Challenges - #80- Old Olive & Real Red

The Corrosive Challenge this week is to use olive and red on your project, which gives you the chance to get ahead on those Christmas cards:).  I've made my first Fred-she-Said card for it since being lucky enough to be accepted for the DT, I've used the Christmas Poinsettia pack, which is already coloured.  I really enjoyed layering it up and creasing the leaves and bracts (no flowers on a poinsettia, did you know that?), added some gold glitter too to make it even more festive.  I used a MS border punch on the dotty strips that came with the image and mounted it onto gold card.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - Christmas
Crafty Emma - flowers
Anything Goes Challenge - say it with flowers
Alphabet Challenge - S for Scallops

DT Posting - Corrosive Challenges - #78 - drinks are on us!

Welcome to this week's Corrosive Challenge, if my scheduled post works.  If not, then sorry but I can't welcome you LOL!  This week's theme is drinks.  I've chosen a great image of two ladies catching up on some tea and scandal, you can interpret it any way you please, cocktails, scrapbook layouts of party photos maybe, can't wait to see your entries:).

My image is Mrs Comfy and Rose do coffee, a fabulous digi from Phindy, you can buy it here.  The gingham digi papers that I used to paper piece the tablecloth and for background papers are freebies from the lovely Bev Rochester.  If you visit her blog they are available as downloads, check out the RH column and you'll find a link.  My card fits the sketch at Card Patterns Challenge this week . The background to the card is embossed with a Tim Holtz folder, image is cut out and popped up on silicon glue.  Sentiment is Joanna Sheen.

DT Posting - Corrosive Challenges - #77 - Faux techniques

Oops this is a late posting - sorry!  This week's Corrosive Challenge is to use a faux technique.  I've taken the easy route here and opted for a little faux stitching.  The punch of the bird and branch is Stampin' Up, the sentiment is Whiff of Joy.  The colours are navy and white, doesn't show up too well in the photo.

Down by the Jetty

This week at Corrosive Challenges we are following Janet's sketch and I've used it to make a card that's been on my mind for a few days, while I'm trying to increase the number of cards suitable for men in my stash.  This week's Simon Says Challenge is Sing It Baby.  After watching Oil City Confidential about Dr Feelgood and their Canvey Island beginnings  I have had All Through the City on the brain:

"I've been searching all through the city
See you in the morning down by the jetty"

Now admittedly the jetties there are no doubt for huge oil tankers and my jetty is rather a romanticised version but it is a jetty:).

My card is heavily inspired by an article by Karen Kerr in Cardmaking & Papercraft, who demonstrates using the Hobby Art stamps to build a scene.  The sentiment is from Craftwork Cards and the watery DP came from Stamp Attic.

My card also fits Totally Papercraft's By the Sea Challenge and  Secret Crafter's Saturday Challenge of It's a Man's World

DT Posting - Corrosive Challenges - #75 - All About Babies

This week at Corrosive Challenges is All About Babies, we'd love to see your baby cards, your scrapbook layouts, gifts, anything baby!  There are some very cute projects from the DT, check out Janet's scrapbook layout:).  The theme at the Totally Gorjuss Challenge is Baby Baby, so I'm also entering my card for their challenge,

I've based my card on this week's Friday Sketchers Challenge   and used DP that came free with, I think, Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine this month.  My friend has just become a granny to Alicia, yesterday morning, so the pink colourscheme was ideal for a card for the new Mum.  I've used Contentment, a digi image from Phindy's Place that I really love, colouring it with Copics and Distress Inks for the background.

The ribbons are from the blog candy I won from Kath earlier ths week (thanks Kath, I'm loving going through the ribbons!) and the sentiment is from Craftwork Cards.  The "bow" at the bottom is from the free DP and I should really tell you why it is there.  Late at night, when trimming a matted part to you card, if the rotary cutter is reluctant to go through the layer of card, do NOT continue.  This happens when there is so much stuff scattered about the desk that the main piece of the card is underneath the one you thought you were cutting, with the result that a large slice is taken out of the background.  Not good.  Luckily it's hidden under the bow LOL...

DT Posting - Corrosive Challenges - #73 - Cartoon Time

Good morning and welcome to Sunday - with a not-so-welcome look ahead to Monday LOL!  This week on Corrosive Challenges we are using cartoons on our projects.  I've used a Stella cartoon from Bugaboo Stamps - don't you just love Stella and her attitude to life!  Stella is coloured with Copics and some Glossy Accents for her spectacles.  DP is Basic Grey, scraps from various different 6x6 pads, I've used a Cuttlebug folder on a blue bit.  The scrolls are cut with a punch and I've used a Marthas Stewart punch on the pink DP, with organza ribbon tied round it too. 

I've followed the sketch from the Create4Fun Challenge and the colourscheme is from One Stop Craft Challenge, who have the theme of pink, blue, green and a hint of red flowers and bling!  OK I think I've got that covered).  I'm also entering my card for Stamp Something's digital challenge. 

DT - Corrosive Challenge #72 - Sketch Time

This week at Corrosive Challenges we have a simple sketch to follow.  I've made a card using DP called So Sophie, by My Minds Eye in rich purples and golds - looks better in real life than in the picture - sorry.  I've stamped Elusive Images Wild Meadow flowers onto the notepad background DP and gold embossed some highlights, using an embossing pen to match the embossed sentiment, which is Papermania.


I've used lots of layers and matting for my card, so I'm entering it for Paper Sundae's layering challenge.

We got home from holiday late last night after a wonderful, relaxing week.  But why is that that, after seven hours of driving on French roads, where the speed limit is adhered to, the traffic keeps in the RH lane unless it's overtaking, the M25 STILL has bottlenecks and jams even at nearly 11pm... welcome back to Blighty LOL!  I'll bore you with some photos when I get the chance...

DT Posting - Corrosive Challenge - Christmas TmeB

I know, you've seen this image before and you'll see it plenty more times before Christmas LOL! The Corrosive Challenge this week aims to get you started with your projects and cards for Christmas, you know how it goes, all of a sudden it's upon us and then there's the shame of having shop-bought cards because we ran out of time!

My favourite image, ever, is the Fjord horses pulling a sled, you can buy it here from Phindy's Place. I've coloured in traditional colours, no glitter or Flowersoft snow for once. The sentiment is from Craftwork Cards and the DPs are both Basic Grey - one Wassail and one Eskimo Kisses.
I'm entering my card for Fussy & Fancy's Christmas in July Challenge and Dareu2Digitamp's Great Outdoors Challenge.