Phindy's Place Challenge #57 - Summer Living

Good morning and welcome to a very summery posting for today's Phindy's Place Challenge.  DH has reminded me that this cannot possibly be summer as there doesn't seem to be a hosepipe ban in force.  This little girl would probably be hauled off into jail by Thames Water in real life!  This little cutie is called Splashy Sienna and I've challenged myself to make her a redhead, which I find tricky to colour in, I'm quite pleased with the result; her dress is paper pieced.  The DPs were magazine freebies, I've dry embossed the little squares.  The sentiment is LOTV and I've mounted it on a Prima flower, the big brads are Papermania I think.

My card is for the following challenges:
Tuesday Morning Sketches - sketch
Jac-Inks Papercrafts - warm colours
My Time to Craft - use a die cut
Truly Scrumptious - anything goes
Make it Colourful - colour a water scene
Crafting for All Seasons - anything goes
Totally Gorjuss - water, water
2 Sisters - use a digi
Sweet Stampin' - in the garden
StampsRUs - going digital
Squigglefly - paper piece your digi

Wish you were here?

  I got some new Jenny Mayes Hobbyart stamps at the NEC and here's the first card I made with them.  They are slightly bigger than the Scene-It sets and they are on unmounted rubber, not clear.  I found them a bit more of a challenge to use, I think I was trying to combine too many at once!  I masked the deckchairs and stamped the boats out once and used them again for a partial image and added the gulls.  I watercoloured my scene using Aquamarkers and made it up using the sketch at Midnight Madness.  I like the way the corners give it the look of a photo in an old album.  DP is flairdesigns.inc.

My card is for the following challenges:

Midnight Madness - sketch

Delightful Challenges - sun, sea and sand

Challenge Up Your Life - masking

My Time To Craft - nautical

Abso-Bloomin-Lutely Love You

Here's another card from the excellent Sheena Douglass workshop I did at the weekend, this was learning how to get shading with only one colour of Distress Ink.  The background paper with the embossing isn't black; we inked it heavily with Black Soot Distress Ink, it also has a double stamped flower swirl that is then embossed.  The flowers have Cosmic Shimmers on top of PVA glue.  The original version shown to us had a pristine white sentiment that stood out nicely on the card.  Unfortunately I got a big black fingerprint on mine so it ended up being inked LOL!

This card is for the following challenges:

Crafts & Me - monochrome
Crafty Creations - heat embossing
A Spoonful of Sugar - Valentine
My Time to Craft - embossing
Crafty Cardmakers - floral
Pile it on - love is in the air
Sugar Creek Hollow - black, white and a splash of colour
Alphabet Challenge - L is for Lady

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

That post- Christmas feeling...

This House Mouse stamp sums up that "Why did I have that second helping of..." Christmas feeling!  I'm sure I can't be the only one who feels a bit like this....  LOL!
I've coloured him with Copics and Glossy Accents for the chocolate icing.  I used my new Nestie Labels die to cut an aperture behind him.  The DP is Basic Grey Cupcake, the gems and ribbon are from stash and I used my new inverse corner punch, though I've just noticed it's not lined up perfectly on the layers - drat!

My card is for the following challenges:
Simon Says Challenge - time to party/celebrate - I reckon this little chap has done plenty of partying!
House Mouse Challenge - aperture
Crazy Challenge - punch it
Paper Sundaes - cut it out
My Time To Craft - brand, spanking new - new Nesties and new punch used
Anything Goes Challenge - letter C - is for cake!
Freshly Brewed Challenge  - celebrate

In the bleak midwinter

OK the title of my favourite Christmas carol probably isn't too popular with the poor people stranded in snow up and down the country!  We had a tiny amount of snow and have no problems, apart from having to carry water up to the horses as the supply has frozen. 
This card is something of a departure for me; as a die hard stamper I've bought several CDs lately for the backing papers.  This one, Joanna Sheen's Thomas Kincade, is quite pricy to treat as just a backing paper source as it's a triple CD (though great value as a papercraft CD!).  So, for once, I have printed off an image and here's my first attempt at a simple image card.  I've printed it onto acetate (another first) and backed it with pearlised white card.  I used sticky dots in the corners to attach the acetate to the card and didn't like the show through, so I coveed one corner with punched snowflkaes and stamped a Christmas tree for the other corner.  The remaining dots show more in the photo than in real life.  I've lightly stamped text onto the card and added a check ribbon.  The tree and the text are both Atremio clear stamps.

My card is for the following challenges:

Stamp Insanity -try something new (images, acetate)
CD Sunday - white Christmas
Christmas Stampin' - anything goes
Ooh la la - Christmas song
Paper Playtime - Christmas carol
My Time to Craft - vintage card

Today is the last chance to join in my blog candy giveaway - please do enter if you haven't already:)

Cutie Pie

What do you think of this very cute Stampavie stamp that I bought at the NEC? I fell for it at the Hobby House stand as soon as I saw it. It's a boy, but I bought it with a view to sending a card to my Post Pal, who is a teenage girl who is dog mad but cannot have a dog due to infection problems and all the time spent in hospital:(.

I began making this when Simon Says had the challenge to make a card for a child and to send it to a Post Pal, but I've had a cold and just didn't get it finished in time. Papertake Weekly's theme this week is Cutie Pie and I think that fits to perfection! I've used a great sketch from Card Positioning Systems (I love things in threes, they always look good) and MyTimeToCraft has On the Spot as its challenge.

Image is coloured with Copics and Distress Inks, cut with a deckle edged Nestie. The ticket is from Bearly Mine, a download sheet, card candy from Craftwork Cards. The DP wih dots is Basic Grey Porcelain and the script is My MInds Eye. The image and cardstock is layered onto brown parcel paper which worked best with the colours I used.

Nearly there!

I finished the first Christmas card list and now I'm finishing the second list - the ones I forgot first time round or got cards from someone I didn't expect to - am I the only person disorganised enough to have two lists? LOL! This is a quickie card for our new neighbours, the stamps are Artemio clear stamps that I bought from Made by You in Swindon. Papers is DCWV and the sentiment came from Craftwork Cards, as did the scalloped card.

There are a few last minute Christmas challenges around so this is entered for:

• Stamp Something Challenge - Holiday Somethings
• My Time to Craft Challenge - Yuletide Wishes
• Simon Says - Merry Christmas
• Crafty Creations - Traditional Christmas (red green and gold)
  

Four challenges, one card

I've made another card with the beautiful Elizabeth Bell image for Whiff of Joy - Willow holding baby - despite not knowing anyone who's about to have a baby, this image is just so gorgeous, it calls out to be used :).

The card is made for this week's Whiff of Joy challenge, which uses Jacqui's very pretty sketch. I've used double sided paper from Stamp Attic, with roses on it, which fits this week's challenge at One Stop Craft Challenge, to use roses. I've added lots of embellishments to the card and the paper isn't too visible, but it really does have lots of roses on it :). A Spoonful of Sugar's challenge this week is Floral Fantasy; I've used the roses paper and I've made lots of extra flowers from Bazzill Basics and a Cuttlebug die set. The die set has sat, barely used, since I bought it in Florida last summer, so it's use fits the "forgotten or neglected stash" challenge at My Time To Craft this week.

Willow is coloured using mainly Promarkers, with a couple of Copics as well. I used Rach's great tutorial to cut her "out of bounds" in an oval Nestie. Thanks Rach, it worked a treat! The two sided paper is flipped over to make the lower border, which is shaped with a Martha Stewart Flourish punch, the Bazzill Basics behind it. Ribbons came from my stash, the flowers die cut and have accents of Liquid Pearls. Sentiment is an old one with no maker's name on it.

My Time to Craft - no patterned papers

My Time to Craft has a challenge this week to use no patterned papers. This is a card using June's Dimension Fourth Project Club stamps, very slightly modified from the suggested project.

I've cut away the right hand side of the card and used the long thin piece of card from this to stamp and silver emboss the border. It's mounted onto silver and then lilac card. I used a border die cut to make a bright pink border and stuck it to the card. The flapper girl is watercoloured (she's brighter in real life). I've added some Stickles and a gem to her, also some gems to the RH border, and tied a ribbon round the image, after mounting it to silver card. She's then matted onto the lilac card. The greeting is an Elusive Images stamp, matted onto the bright pink, the silver and then the lilac card.

There are two girls in the set, Grace and Serenity. This one is "Serenity" though I think she might be better named Patience, she looks like some who has been waiting a while for something or someone!

Mojo Moday Week 84 & My Time to Craft #59 - Black & White +1

I bought this lovely, large-scale black, white and red paper from Stamp Attic ages ago and have never found the right project to use it - until now! I decided to use it with this week's Mojo Monday challenge sketch.


I coloured my Leanne Ellis Sugar Nellie stamp very simply, with black, red and some Glossy Accents on the flowers and the bubbles. It's mounted onto red Bazzil paper with black brads beside it. The DP is used behine the image in a border and as a centre to the circle. The other DP is also from Stamp Attic, as is the ribbon.

When I'd finished it I realised that it fits in with My Time To Craft's challenge for this week: Black and white +1.

Friday Sketchers - Sketch 37 & My Time To Craft Challenge 47

It's snowing again outside, the perfect excuse for lots of crafting, as you see from the number of cards I'm making this week :). So, on to the next card...

Friday Sketchers http://fridaysketchersblog.blogspot.com/ has a very useable sketch by Carole this week. Also, My Time to Craft http://mytimetocraftchallenge.blogspot.com/ has the theme "A Little Birdie Told Me" which also fits this card. Here is my entry for both challenges.

I've stamped an Inkadinkado bird, using Staz-on ink, timber brown, onto a Glimmer Misted background. Then I've used Tapestry stamps that I've had for some time and not really used much, around the edges to frame the bird. Where there are acorns and berries I've added some Stickles for interest.

The image is layered onto a bronze paper and then two papers from Scribble-Scrabble (Hollie's Collection), from the Stamp Attic, layered behind it. I think the very pretty sheer ribbon is also from the Stamp Attic, it came from my DH at Christmas and is printed with leaves.

I'm really pleased with this card, the shimmery Glimmer Mists don't show up as well in the photo as they do in real life, the colours are lovely.