Happy Birthday Janet Blog Hop!

When I first began blogging, I joined a group of stampers from SBS who got together as a goup. Among them was Janet Rossi from Canada, who has become a good cyber friend. It's Janet's birthday today and, just for fun, we have a birthday hop among a few blogging friends of Janet's.
Here's the hop if you'd like to play along:

Karen: http://paperplayhouse.blogspot.com/

Joan: http://scrapmum.blogspot.com/

Dana: http://danashouseofcards.blogspot.com/

Mary: http://mbryt1.blogspot.com/

Nancy: http://cardworthy.blogspot.com/

Anita: http://www.hoveyhut.blogspot.com/

Michelle: http://micheldesigns.blogspot.com/

Anne: http://stargrovesblog.blogspot.com/

But please don't forget to call into Janet's blog and wish her a Happy Birthday!

I made my card as part of another celebration - the 100th Penny Black Challenge. That's a lot of challenges! They are also having a hop, but this time with lots of prizes, be sure to hop over there too. The sketch is from their challenge and I've followed it pretty closely.

My card uses a cute PB cat stamp with sentiment built in. Coloured with Copics, I've used Daisy Bucket DPs that I've had in for a while. It was fun to make a non-Christmas red and green card, Janet you have a Purrfect Day:)

Big & Bold

This card is, hopefully, to remind me that spring and summer are just around the corner. Yesterday there was snow on the ground again but thankfully it has gone again and the weather is milder. I noticed a Bigger is Better theme at Saturday Spotlight which gave me the idea for this card, which uses all 6 Nesties to make one giant flower. This started out life as a small rectangular card but then the pretty DP was swallowed up by the flower, so I added another panel of it and used a larger card. The only stamping on this is the Penny Black sentiment, so an unusual card for me, I normally love to stamp lots of images on my cards. I also added lots of Prima flowers and Papermania brads. Sorry, no idea who made the DP, it's one of the first packs I ever bought...

I'm also entering this card in Dutch Dare's Summer in Winter Challenge, Cute Card Thursday's Blooming Gorgeous theme, Spoonful of Sugar's open theme and Pile It On's Enough of Winter Colours.

Thank you - old and new working together

I was lucky enough to get a Martha Stewart round-the-corner punch set from my parents for my birthday and, of course, I was dying to try it out. This week's Simon Says Challenge is to use punches, so this was the ideal time to give the set a try. I have a few sets of Tapestry stamps, the tiny ones on dowelling that were all the rage a while back and I remembered that one set was of violas, which would go perfectly with the new punch. Quixotic's Challenge this week is to ink up an old stamp, so this also worked for the card :).

I had a quick try-out with the punch on a square of card and it worked perfectly first time. Moved on to a rectangle and made a dreadful mess of things, however this was user error I think and my next effort was fine :). The next problem was that the 3.25 x 5" rectangle wasn't really big enough to take a wreath of pansies so I sarted again and just stamped leaves and flowers around the edge of the card, with space for the sentiment, another old stamp, in the middle.

I really liked this as a very simple card and didn't want to add lots of embellishments to detract from it. So I added a bit of Stickles to the sentiment and the pansies and left it be. When I looked this morning I decided it just needed something else on the white card, so I used my Scorpal to give it a 1/2" raised border by scoring from the back. You can't see this too well in my photo, but I'm really pleased with it in real life. So the new punch and the old stamps make a great combination here, I think :).

Jazzy angel in mauve

It's that time of the year again; I need to try to make some Christmas cards as I take part in challenges, so it's not too daunting a task as December gets closer...

I'm only just in time, but I did want to use Coco's very pretty sketch on Sketch Saturday's Challenge. There seem to be lots of colour inspiration challenges this week; this is based on the photo inspiration from Dutch Dare's Challenge of a vase of flowers against wallpaper.

I've used my new angel stamp from Lili of the Valley and coloured her with Copics. I've christened her the jazzy angel, she looks like she's enjoying playing the trumpet :). The image is edged with lilac ribbon, the main DP is from Artylicious and the green circles are cut from free paper that came with a magazine; the green scalloped circles are from paper that I've Glimmer Misted. The tiny sentiment is from a Penny Black clear set and the snowflakes came, I think, from a supermarket. I've coloured them with pink Copic, the were a very feeble shade of pink before :)

Soft & Sweet

I've been looking at the Copic Colour Challenges for a few weeks, now I'm getting to grips with my pens, but I've not entered until now as I've not had anything like the right colours. This week I'm in luck, Challenge #22 is to follow a sketch. I've flipped the sketch on its side and I've used my Copics, mainly in the skintones, to colour in a new Penny Black stamp that I got at Newbury. The theme over at the Penny Black Saturday Challenge this week is "Soft & Sweet", which fits the image perfectly, I think.

The image is stamped with Cocoa Brown Memento inks and coloured with Copics, with the exception of the grey around the image, which is a Promarker. The chocolate and gold paper and the butterfly sentiment are from Craftwork Card's Chocolate Goodie Bag, the two patterned pink papers are K&K and the flowers are Prima.

The Button Tree - Penny Black Sat Challenge Week 50 & Sketch and Stash 11

I've just finished this in time for Penny Black's Saturday Challenge; I knew what I wanted to do right away but haven't had a chance to do it :). The challenge is Buttons Galore and I've gone to town using craft buttons and ordinary buttons from my sewing box.

I've used the great sketch from Sketch & Stash for my card; the buttons are all neglected stash :). The little yellow craft buttons came from one of the first cardmaking shows that I went to and have been maturing in my stash until now, while the other buttons are from the button tin and have been there who knows how long! More neglected stash: I don't have a border punch to make a scalloped border, but I did have a circle punch sitting in the drawer that I don't think has ever been used - oops! It makes a great border, I've poked holes in the scallops for interest.

The stamp is my lovely Penny Black tree that my DH bought me for Christmas. I've clear embossed it onto white card and used white detail embossing powder. Then I've used chalk inks to colour the background. Circles were both cut out with Nestabilities, all papers are Crate Paper from the Stamp Attic. Paper flowers and brads are from stash, not sure but they are probably Stamp Attic too...

Penny Black Challenge 48 - black, white and one other

Week 48 on the Penny Black challenge is to use black, white and one other colour. I've tried to break out of my rut of using red or pink as the other colour and I've gone for gold :). This card is quite simple; the image has a dress paper pieced from My Mind's Eye patterned double sided paper bought from the Stamp Attic; the other side of the paper is used at the side of the card with gold ribbon around it. Gold glitter highlights the chair legs, necklace and earrings, the shoes have Glossy Accents on them, they're meant to look like shiny patent high heels :).

The black scroll, gems and flowers are rub-ons that I bought when I was just beginning with cardmaking and I had no idea how to apply them. Many of them are spoiled, but I found a few that were still whole and I liked the look of them of the plain white card. The card is quite plain and simple, I think this image works well like this.

Harvest Moon - Penny Black Challenge Anything Goes

Week 46 on the Penny Black Challenge Blog is "Anything Goes". I thought it's be fun to make an ATC for this and got out my wonderful Nature's Dance stamp that featured on most of my Christmas cards last year. I white embossed it onto white card and decided to change the season by sponging it with Distress Inks in all 3 colours that I have :). The moon was masked off with a little bit of a Post-It note and then a little of the straw coloured ink rubbed across it.


The bronze card behind it is wrapped with silk yarn in Autmn colours and some gem flowers that my DH bought me at Christmas are to the right of the ribbon. I'm wondering whether to add anything else...

Springing into ATCs

The Stamp Attic's ATC swap for March was Spring. I made this rather uninspired ATC using some Penny Black clear stamps onto glimmer misted paper. As the 8 ATCs were made Mon afternoon for Mon evening I soon regretted having to cut round the sheep's body and four feet :)

Luckily the rest of the group were more inspired, here's their lovely work:

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ICSketches #6 & Secret Crafter #22

I found this lovely sketch by Dawn on ICSketches to use. I've been playing with my Gorjuss Girls stamps and combined two challenges - The Secret Crafter's Challenge this week is to use masking.

I stamped the sitting down girl and, having masked her, added a Penny Black tree and foliage from Craftwork Cards stamps. She is coloured with watercolour pencils and I used watercolours to paint in the sky, the white card looked a bit harsh otherwise. The blossom on the tree uses a stubby from Stamps by Judith.

Penny Black Saturday Challenge #37

This week's Penny Black Saturday Challenge is to make a Get Well Soon card. I've used a very pretty PB stamp that my older son bought me for Christmas from the Stamp Attic of an iris. I've coloured it with Marvy le Plume pens and blended them a little with a wet brush. It's mounted onto Glimmer Misted papers, first mauve, then a goldy colour. The main paper is from a Graphicus Guild paper pack. I found the perfect co-ordinating colour to go with this paper - and then realised that it matched so well that it was invisible!

So the second paper was left out and I used the gold paper to give contrast :). The Get Well Soon stamp and the Prima flowers are, again, from Stamp Attic. The ribbon came from some Christmas chocolates and the "brads" on the flowers and the image are Card Candy from Craftwork Cards.

Magnolia vs Stampavie Challenge Week 13

The sketch at http://magnoliameetsstampavie.blogspot.com/ this week looked deceptively simple, but had a lot of elements to play with. I watercoloured Tilda with chrysanthemums and matted her onto tan card and then onto a green print. The white background looked a little stark so I used tapestry stamps around the edges and a Stamps by Judith grass stamp at her feet to soften it. The brown lace is from my sewing stash, no idea where it came from!

The sentiment is a Penny Black stamp, copper embossed and the swirly embossed images are from Paper Artsy stamps that were free with my Craft Stamper subscription. I used an embossing pen to put a line of dots above the image, all the patterned papers are from the Stamp Attic. Oh, I added some Stickles to the centres of the chrysanthemums and the flowers at the edge of the paper, as well as to Tilda's hair ribbons and hat.

Blooming Thanks - The Sugar Bowl Challenge 4

This week's Sugar Bowl challenge is to only use one piece of patterned paper, which can be double-sided if needed. Well this paper is double-sided but I only used one patterned side :).

I used my Leanne Ellis Bloom stamp, watercoloured in spring colours, mounted onto mauve Bazzill paper and put onto the lovely Crate Paper from the Stamp Attic. "Thanks a Bunch" is a Penny Black stamp, I've used it across a Kaleidocolour greens ink pad to make it a little different. I've used some little flowers and some grosgrain ribbon to finish it off.

We still have quite a bit of snow on the ground and it snowed again tonight - thankfully not much. I'm fixated on spring colours at the moment, I wonder why? ;)

Winter Tree - Sketch Saturday #37

Jeanette has created a lovely sketch for http://sketchsaturday.blogspot.com/ that I just had to use with my Penny Black tree stamp. I've not put a sentiment on it as I think it could be a winter birthday card - unless it becomes the first of my Christmas 09 cards that is :).

I embossed the tree onto white card using clear ink and white powder. I then took chalk inks and a sponge and rubbed them into the card to create a grey/pink/blue cold sky background. The ink doesn't stick to the white areas, if it does at all just wipe it gently with a baby wipe.

Cut it into a circle with Nestabilities die and gave it some colour with Stickles. The two patterned papers I used are both from Graphicus Guild's paper packs.

Sukkersott Sketch #6, Penny Black Week 30 - Embossing

Sukkersott has a very pretty sketch this week which I used to make this very mauve card :).  I also dry embossed it, making it also eligible for Penny's Black's embossing challenge.

The Penny Black stamp used is called Rainbow Flower, it was a Christmas present from my older son (Ithink they were both force marched to the craft shop by my DH :)).  It's coloured with Marvy le Plume markers and some Stickles added at the centre of the flowers.  

It's mounted on a piece of pearlescent purple card that has Swiss dots embossed on it, using my friend Janet's Cuttlebug folder - let me know when you want it back Janet! - the card has torn edges inked with Tim Holtz tea-dyed ink and then pink chalk ink. 

All the papers are from Graphicus Guild.  The butterfly crystal was given to me over a year ago after a card swap.  His trail is marked with a Pigma pen and holes put through the paper with my prongy tool to make faux stitching.  The other crystals came from my DH.

Christmas Craft Goodies

I was so lucky to get lots of lovely craft goodies this Christmas. Most were from my DH and my sons, also I had some craft presents from my FIL, which I know is thanks to my DH's organising :).

I need to find some tutorials for the Copic markers, I had a little play and made a dreadful mess of an image!

Finished with Christmas - I hope!

Last night the last few cards got finished up and delivered through doors. Unless I realise that I've forgotten someone, that's it for another year :). Last year I made cards with a photo on and some minimal stamping, this is the first year I've made cards from scratch. Next year I'm starting earlier!

Here are 3 more Penny Black images, all stamped onto a Glimmer Misted background and with Stickles on the robin and the berries. The background papers are all Artylicious from the Season's Greeting cd - at least the red was sent as a Graphicus Guild paper and I think it's on the cd...

The last card is a Penny Black image. I forgot I have a set of Twinkling H20s, used them to paint this, embossed the greeting onto another Graphicus Guild paper, added some Stickles.

Penny Black Challenge 28 - multifold

Here are a couple of gatefold cards I made yesterday, also for twins Sam and Colleen. Both have Penny Black hedgehog images on.

The background paper is from the Atylicious Seasons Greetings cd, which has been a real lifesaver when I've looked for something to co-ordinate with an image.

A confession: inside the pink card I stamped the greeting upside down. When I realised, I stuck the backing paper inside - and promptly made the same mistake again! Unstuck the paper, put it right way up without wrecking the card - phew! Think I spent too long making last minute cards yesterday, the mistakes were coming thick and fast by then end of the session :)

Penny Black 3:2:1 Recipe & Stamp Something Challenge

This week Penny Black's Challenge is to use a recipe: 3 flowers, two papers and one ribbon. I decided that the recipe would work well with Stamp Something's Challenge for this week, which was "Something red, gold and green".

I used a tiny set of clear Penny Black stamps called Christmas Treasures that I bought with ATCs in mind. I gold embossed two small and one large poinsettia, cut them out and coloured them in with a Marvy le Plume red pen. The flowers were mounted on foam pads, on an oval cut from Artylicious Season's Greetings paper. I used a lovely red Artylicious paper with it but decided it was too much to cover the whole card, so I added a plain green background. I hope the "two papers" only meant patterned papers :). The ribbon is a green sheer ribbon I've had in for ages and I finished off the card by gold embossing the curved sentiment round the edge of the oval and adding some Stickles to the middles of the flowers. Hmm... the sentiment is a bit blurred, I may have another go at mounting this card...

Not many Christmas cards left to make now :)

Penny Black Challenge 26 - sketch by Beth

At last I've shaken off the cold that's been hanging around for weeks and I'm back making cards :).

Beth gave us a nice straightforward sketch to work with this week at Penny Black and I made two fairly quick cards with it. Yet again my Nature's Dance stamp came out. I've even found out it's name, this stamp deserves a medal for versatility.

Card one has Stickles on the berries, a Glimmer Misted background and some shimmery ribbon I bought in a sewing shop. The Merry Christmas is a tiny stamp from a clear PB set.

Card two has blue tape in place of the ribbon and Woodware Pearly Stuff for golden berries. I find the Pearly Stuff tricky to work with, it seems to leave a greasy kind of halo behind it on the paper... There's a gold shade in the paper I used and I wanted to accent it, hence the Pearly Stuff.