Fred's Flowers meet Friday Sketchers

With spring well and truly on the way I've been using lots of flowery images, including this gorgeous, precoloured peony from Fred She Said, you can buy the image in an assortment of colours here or you can buy it to colour.  The precoloured made a really fun and fast card, I just used lots of Glossy Accents for the jar.
The DP is Basic Grey Curio, which is rather darker and more grungy than I usually pick, thought it worked well with the image though.  I distress inked the DP edges with Brushed Corduroy and also sponged the dry embossed circle.  I added a bit of lace and a few pearls and that's it.
My card is for the following challenges:
Friday Sketchers -sketch
Do You Stack Up - layers
Southern Girls - use flowers
Simon Says Stamp - anything goes
A Spoonful of Sugar - shabby, vintage (DPs, distressing)

Sentimental Sundays - sentiment, pearls and lace

Top Tip Tuesday Challenge - Get Stitching

Good Morning!  It's time for another Top Tip Tuesday Challenge and this week I've done a tutorial on one of my favourite techniques, using the sewing machine.  I hope you'll check out the tutorial over on the challenge blog and I hope you'll find some hints and ideas to help you sttich on your card projects, whether you're a beginner or an old hand at sewing.  I did an enormous amount of sewing at one point and I still teach quilting, my obsession with cardmaking began when I went into the wrong Hall at a big craft exhibition and found rubber stamping lol!

OK on to my card and the snowdrops are flowering their hearts out at the moment, a little later than usual.  It's good to know that spring is coming!  The image I used is from a Fred She Said set called Spring Flowers which come with a paper pricking frame as well as digi images of crocuses, daffodils and tulips, which pretty well sets you up for all spring eventualities!
I've based my card on this week's Friday Sketchers Challenge and stuck to a cool green colour palette.  The snowdrop is coloured with Copics, I've inked the embossed circle with Pine Green Distress Ink, DP is Prima, border punch Martha Stewart and flowers made from a Little Claire die.  I've sttiched a double border round the image and then a straghit line around the DP.  Can't wait to see all the sttiched creations, hand, machine or faux, on this week's Top Tip Tuesday Challenge!
My card is entered for:
Friday Sketchers Challenge - sketch
Digital Tuesday - use a die cut
Bunny Zoe - flowers everywhere
Challenge up your Life - monochrome
Digi Doodle Shop's Best - nature

Sprout!

 Here's another card using one of the fab fundraising digis that Jak Heath has organised for Help For Katie.  If you don't know about this, or you've not yet donated and bought your digis, you need to click here, find out more and most importantly, donate!  My card is for Jak's Thank You competition. 

Sprout is a Mo Manning digi, I've coloured her  using Copics, edged with Distress Ink and added a little Stickles to the seedling, which was in danger of being invisible!  The DP is Basic Grey from Sugar Rush, with peach card embossed with the Tim Holtz brick wall, a MS leaf border punch, some raffia and a little scroll punch added in.

My card is also for the following challenges:
Friday Sketchers - sketch - I've not added a sentiment, will do that when I use the card
Basic Grey - flower power (paper and of course that seedling!)
Crafty Calender - new beginnings
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - get punchy
Digis with Attitude - use a digi person
Moving Along With the Times - spring

Determination

 I've seen so many great cards made with this image from Phindy's Place and decided I'd better make one too! I got a bit stuck on the sentiment and opted for one from Paulette at  Create with TLC. Phindy has designed several of these images, you can choose girl, boy, glasses, Afro American, Caucasian, I chose Big Boots girl. 

The card is based on this week's challenge at Friday Sketchers, the large circle is cut freehand then embossed and inked with Distress Ink.  I used brads to attach the sentiment, then I took silver card candy and scored lines in it from the wrong side to make more screws, which kept the weight of the card down.
My card is for the following challenges:
Friday Sketchers - sketch
Woodware USA  - anything goes
I Did It Creations - card for a child
Stamp Fairy - Circles and more circles
Cute Card Thursday - 1-2-3 recipe - 1 image, 2 cardstock circles, 3 sets of "screws"
Critter Challenge Blog - Distressing and circles

I missed your birthday...

 Here's another card I made using Fred She Said's Empty Pocket Shrugger Set, this card uses the girl image, you can buy the set here.  They colour like a dream and I do love the sentiments that come with them :).  I followed the Friday Sketchers layout, used Basic Grey Sugar Rush DP and stickers and added stitching to my card.  The embossing is good old Swiss Dots folder.  This is for a friend's little girl, we never did get to meet up to exchange gifts (she has a Christmas Eve birthday) due to all the bugs and sickness that we had and they had!

My card is for the following challenges: 

Friday Sketchers - sketch

Basic Grey  - spots and dots

Incy Wincy - go dotty

One Stop Crafts - card for a child

The Crafty Pad - happy birthday

Pile it On - cute children

Kaboodle Doodles - do it with digis

Charisma Cardz - birthdays and celebrations

A missing stamp found - but doesn't fit the card!

I made this card following this week's challenge from Friday Sketchers, the multiple layers appealed to me and I made the card before choosing the image to use.  The DP is My Mind's Eye, it came as a magazine freebie, the die cut shape is a Marianne Creatables shape, two ribbons are from Stamp Attic and the stamp is a Stampinbella Ketto.  Embossing folder by Crafts Too I think.

Shamefully, I came across a Ketto, uninked and still waiting to be cut out on a piece of EZMount, put it back where it came from and then decided to use it.  I couldn't find it anywhere!  I turned the shelves upside down and inside out before I found it beneath a storage box of inkpads and got it out to use on this card.  At this point I realised that it is a square shaped stamp that wasn't suited to the layout, which was not what I had remembered!  Oh well, I can make something next time with that one...  here's my other Ketto stamp which has only been used a couple of times before.

Challenges I'm entering:
Cute Card Thursday - out with the old - stamp is old and neglected, DP from last year, pearls so old I can't even remember buying them lol!
Friday Sketchers - sketch
Papertake Weekly - anything goes plus optional lacy (lacy ribbon?)
Pixie Dust Studio - 2 or more ribbons
Fab'n'Funky - anything goes
Tuesday Throwdown - embossing

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

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!

Cooking it up With Katie #35 - a girly lilac bow

This week there's another fun recipe for you to follow at Cooking It Up With Katie:  your ingredients are lilac, girly and and a bow.  The DT had some fun images to use from Robyn's Fetish, the sponsor and I used the cute birdhouse image, colouring it with Copics and some Distress Ink.  The DP is My Mind's Eye and I Cuttlebugged and inked some grey cardstock.  The sentiment is Whiff of Joy.
I based my card on this week's Friday Sketcher's Challenge.

Pumpkin Bouquet

Good Morning!  It's absolutely perishing here with lovely blue skies and frozen ground.  I've a beautiful card to show you this morning that uses a Fred-She-Said digi that is a freebie over on Crafters Digital Arts Centre.  The freebie is part of a purple, green and orange challenge, click here to find the challenge and the freebie.  It's such a pretty image, I didn't want to add harsh bright colours to it so I was pleased to find a few sheets of paper left in my Green at Heart Basic Grey pad - ideal!  Coloured with Copics and some Stickles, I've followed this week's Friday Sketch Challenge.  The leaves are cut with a Marianne Creatables set and the sentiment is Joanna Sheen.
My card is for the following challenges:
Friday Sketchers - sketch
Paper Pretties - green, purple and orange
Creative Belli - pumpkins
Crafty Cardmakers - use a freebie - great challenge idea!
Basic Grey - Autumn, harvest time - asters are always in Harvest Festival flower arrangements, aren't they!

ABC Challenge - F is for flowers

Hope to see you over at Fred She Said and playing along in the challenge, don't forget to grab your freebie!

New stamps, old stamps, guilt and some cards

Yesterday I went for a browse in the Stamp Attic, where Wendy was unpacking a box of the most delicious  stamps from a company called Memory Box, the first time I'd come across this brand.  So many of them had my name on them and with great restraint I came away with just two:  birds on bulrushes and a sentiment with a matching bird as a tiny stamp on one the ends.  They were meant to cheer me up but when I looked how full the drawer(s) of wooden stamps are in my craft room it gave me an attack of guilt.  So before I sat and played with the new stamps I got out an architecture stamp from Judikins that I'd never made a card with and played with it.  Some sort of Catholic guilt thing I suppose...  

I followed the Friday Sketchers Challenge, the stamp was too big for a circle so I used a circle mask to sponge Distress Inks on Barn Door, Corduroy and Wild Honey.  I painted a few details with the ink, added some Prima papers, also from the Stamp Attic and a torn bit of Coredinations card, and stitched round the image a couple of times.  This is also for Wild Orchid's Stitch it up Challenge.  Ooh La La's Challenge is "Nothing Floral" which fits all three cards :).

Now my guilt was a little assuaged I played with the new stamps.    I used the same Prima papers and followed the Card Positioning System's Sketch.  I added a white band of the birds to it as it looked a little empty without it.  The circle image has black Stickles on the bulrush heads, sorry it doesn't show up too well...  Beautiful stamp, isn't it.  Incy Wincy's Challenge this week is to use Sparkly things such as Stickles.

For the third card, I made it "just because" and didn't follow a sketch at all.  I've used the bird either side of the sentiment, the Distress Inks are Scattered Straw, Dusty Concord and Milled Lavender.  This is edged with gold reinker for Archival Pigment pads.

Now... there was an owl in a tree stamp, birds flying up from text, a birch tree trunk stamp... which will find its way home with me next I wonder?

DT Posting - Cooking it up with Katie #31 - sparkle, yellow and digi

This week at Cooking it up With Katie the recipe is:  use a digi, some yellow and some sparkle. We had fun digi images from Sassy Studio, this week's sponsor, to use for the challenge so that was the digi part sorted.  I paper pieced the armchair with Basic Grey DP in a bright yellow.  The other DP is a freebie from a magazine, they are meant to be masculine colours but I think they work great for this card!  The entiment is from Joanna Sheen, the flowers are Papermania and I used a Woodware punch to make the big flower that has Stickles on it.
The card is based on this week's Friday Sketchers Challenge.  I'd like to claim to be clever and tell you I set it at an angle.  But the truth is I didn't glue the blue DP to the yellow mat and I started to stitch the spotty bits down.  When it started to shift I realised what I had done...  Didn't have any more of the yellow cardstock so I "chose" the artistic interpretation :).  The yellow cardstock has been distressed at the edges.
I'm entering my card for:
Scrappy Frogs - Flower Power (make your own flowers)
Friday Sketchers Challenge
Stamp Scrap & Doodle - stitching real or faux
Crafty Catz - stitching
Paper Romance - make your own flowers

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.

DT Post - Phindy's Place Friday Challenge #20- Christmas in Summer

Welcome to Friday and to another challenge at Phindy's Place!  This week we're helping you get a head start on Christmas again, the challenge is to make a Christmas card or project, using Phindy's lovely images.

I used a simple and elegant image called We Meet Again, which could be a Valentines' card image as well as for Christmas.  I wanted to use it as it needs little colouring and as I send a lot of Christmas cards I decided it would be really useful for quick and easy cards.  But I wanted do something a bit more interesting than quick and easy, so I decided to team it with a sheet of Magnolia Christmas paper that I bought last year and haven't cut into yet because it's so beautiful.  Yes, I know, there's a flaw in that logic:). 

Because I wanted to see plenty of the DP I made a card from grey Bazzill, put the DP inside and made a shaped card.  The card is based very loosely on Sketch Saturday's Challenge.  The image is popped up on pads on top of some Cuttlebugged cardstock and then I cut round it to expose the inside.  There arePeel-offs on the red corners, haven't used peel-ofs for ages!  Image is coloured with copics and Stickles, sentiment is from Craftwork Cards.

This card is entered for the following challenges:
Sketch Saturday's Challenge - sketch
Cute Card Thursday - no dies or punches
Papertake Weekly Challenge - 3-2-1 recipe (1 image, 2 triangles, 3 peel-offs on triangles)

DT Posting - Cooking It Up With Katie - String/twine, water, punches

Welcome to another recipe challenge with Cooking it up With Katie!  This week the challenge is to use water, punches and string/twine on your project.  This week we're sponsored by Simply Betty Stamps and I've used Miller, one of her fun digis for my card.  I've based my card on this week's Friday Sketchers Challenge,

Miller is coloured with copics, cut out and stuck onto a blue cardstock background with some torn paper added that has been Glimmer Misted to a sandy shade.  I've used a circle punch to cut a sun from the same paper.  I've used that Summer Daze DP again and I've added some waves with a HobbyArt stamp that are highlighted in white pen as well.  Oh, I faux stitched around the piece of navy card with more of the white pen, it just needed a little extra something:).

Hope you'll join us in Cooking up a challenge this week!

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...

1st DT Posting - Cooking it up with Katie

Good Morning!  My first DT posting for the Cooking it up With Katie Challenge is a bright and summery one, using an image from this week's sponsor, Meljen Designs.  Your challenge is to use the following three "ingredients" as you cook up your card:

 Use something yellow
Use a sketch from any current challenge
Add some stitching, real or faux

Ive coloured with Copics, Stickles and Glossy Accents, using two images to get lots of dimension, I popped up my leaf and flower with silicon glue.  The DP is Papermania, I used my Martha Stewart hydrangea punch down the side of the stripe.  I Cuttlebugged the cardstock, stitched round the image, the sentiment and the embossed card.  The sentiment is a freebie from TLCCreations. 

Oh, the sketch that I worked with is from the Friday Sketchers Challenge.

What's cooking? Corrosive Challenges DT Post

This week's Corrosive Challenge is such a fun theme - What's Cookin'. I used my new Phindy Image, Celebrate with Cake, you can buy her here. The card is based on this week's Friday Sketcher's Challenge and uses My Mind's Eye DP and a scrap of dry embossed cardstock. Don't look too closely at the embossing, the bird on the pattern is turned on its side! Image coloured with Copics, roses are Prima, sentiment is Craftwork Cards. Machine stitched around all DP.

The slice of cake is from a template from Cathie Shuttleworth, I saw her stand at the NEC and bought this just last week, cute isn't it?

My card is also entered for Digital Tuesday's Cute People Challenge, the JUGS Wild Card Dry Embossing Challenge and Polka Doodles' Sew and Sew Theme .

Rocking Ronnie Relaxes

Emma Wood is having a fundraiser in memory of her Dad, Ronnie Wood. Emma hopes to raise £1,000 for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance. Living where I do, in a remote village, with racing as its industry, the Oxfordshire air ambulance is out in Lambourn several times most weeks and it's truly a life-saving service, if you can support Emma please do. Pollycraft has designed a Ronnie Relaxing digi stamp, all proceeds go directly to the fund, check out Emmas' blog for details. She also has a fun challenge to enter, using the image, with great prizes from sponsors.

I've made my card for the Friday Sketchers Challenge, with Ronnie sitting on a paper pieced armchair. Colouring is with Copics, DP is Basic Grey Indian Summer. As a huge Rolling Stones fan, having the image in memory of (another) Ronnie Wood is quite disconcerting, I gave mine a musical sentiment from Elusive Images, that seemed to fit the relaxing theme.

Hope you like my card, more importantly, if you haven't already, hope you're rushing off to buy the image from Emma!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you Mums out there, I hope you're enjoying your day:). Here's the card I sent to my Mum in the end, I took a while agonizing over the right choice, as you do:). I came across an adorable free digi from Alison Spelman's Stretch'n'Bubbles blog, Alison has some lovely designs and is very generous with her freebies too. There are endless ewe and baa wordplays to use with sheep, I love this image!

I followed the Friday Sketcher's sketch by Jacque for my card, a lovely layout to use, I've another in the pipeline already using this sketch. The colourscheme of green and cream fits Stamp Something's theme this week perfectly.

I've paper pieced my sheep with DP called Catherine's memoir by Sandylion, just colouring her nose and hooves. The green is an Artylicious paper. Sentiment was computer generated, I downloaded a couple of free fonts to use for it. Ribbon from stash, flowers punched from the DP. The centres are white gel pen, I didn't want to add brads and risk it arriving late.