Wishes and dreams

This week's House Mouse & Friends Challenge is about making wishes come true.  I think this gorgeous bunny and friend  are wishing for summer, I know I am!  The decoupage is Joanna Sheen, I've added some ribbon, a Lili of the Valley sentiment stamp and DP by Prima.  I'm sorry now that I used the DP, it is so pretty and you can see so little of it!
My card is also for Do You Stack Up's Lots of Layers Challenge,  Stamp Scrap & Doodle's more than 2 layers challenge and Allsorts Challenge Anything Goes.

One Layer Wednesday - red and white

Susan's simply stunning OLC inspired me to play along at this week's OLW Challenge, to use only red and white or cream.  I have longed for the Stampin' Up Lovely as a Tree set ever since I saw it and finally treated myself to it; ironically it arrived a day after the gorgeous Stamp Addict trees, so it has been waiting for an airing.  As I found I didn't have a bright red ink I took the scary option of red embossing onto white cardstock, this is the second attempt:).  Sentiment is Elzybells, the shaped card shows a narrow strip of red card under its border.
My card is also entered for:
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - monochromatic
Krafting Kimmie - monochromatic
Crafty Ann's - clean & simple
Prairie Fairy - wet embossing
Floweret - Christmas again
Winter Wonderland - clean & simple Christmas card
Simon Says - anything goes

Ooh La La - Guest Designer - Challenge #82 - Father's Day/ someone special

Welcome to this week's Ooh La La Challenge, which is to make a card for Father's Day or for someone special.  This card is for my father-in-law who has had several holidays to the Yorkshire Coast, so when I saw this scene on the Ooh La La Watercolour Memories CD I had to make it for him.  I printed it onto heavyweight watercolour paper which makes it look even better.  My printer doesn't like such heavy card so I printed the scene out a little way down a sheet of thin copy paper, then I used spray glue to attach cardstock cut to size.  Somehow this kids the printer into co-operating:).  I extended the picture using my Hobby Art Scene-It stamps, computer generated a sentiment and used a backing sheet from the same CD that goes with a different scene, Aldborough I think.
My card is for the following challenges:
Mark's Finest Papers - Father's Day
Delicious Doodles - Father's Day
One Stop Craft- Father's Day
Secret Crafter - masculine card
Stamp Scrap & Doodle - Father's Day
Polkadoodles - something for Dad
Simply Create - all about you Dad
Fussy & Fancy - man cards
Crazy 4 Challenges - masculine cards
Stamptacular Sunday - Dads or Grads

"Once upon a time there was a train...

who was afraid of a few drops of rain.  He went into a tunnel, squeaked through his funnel and wouldn't come out again."  Yes, we were big fans of Thomas the Tank Engine and the Reverend Awdry's books when my DSs were small, every night we had Thomas stories at bedtime!  I've not looked that up but I'm pretty sure it's word for word from the start of the book about Henry the Green Engine:).  Thomas seems bit more politically correct these days, Annie and Clarabelle the silly carriages are no longer the only females on the rails lol!  But the boys loved their Thomas stories every night, the videos and the Brio track too.  So this image from Mo Manning was a compulsory buy when I saw a card using it.  I coloured it and it's been sitting on my desk waiting to made into a card.

DP2 has a sketch challenge this week which was the push I needed to get the image out of the sidings and into the platform.  I've given it Card Candy red, yellow, green signal lights but can you believe I've got 97 varieties of card candy but no yellow!  So my signal is orange.

The card is very simple, even though it's for a small boy I like to keep masculine cards uncluttered.  The colouring is Copics, I've let my image spill over the edges of the Nestie die, sentiment is Lily of the Valley.  I've no idea where the geometric paper came from, it's a single sheet of 6" paper, but it worked fine with a white railway fence made with a MS punch.  My card got a thumbs up from older DS, all 6'4" of him, he remembers his Thomas days:).

My card is for the following challenges:
Digital Pencil Too - sketch
Fussy & Fancy Friday - card for man or boy
Delightful Inspiration - masculine, no flowers
Stamp, Scrap and Doodle - what's on your work desk right now - the image was!
Some Odd Girl - manly challenge

Phindy's Place Challenge #56 - Christmas in May

Phew thank goodness it's Friday!  Good Morning and welcome to this week's Phindy's Place Challenge. This week we are celebrating Christmas in May and it's a really timely wake-up call for me.  Last year I made a few cards for Christmas each month, shamefully this year this is my first card - ack!   So our challenge to you is to make a Christmas card or project - or two!  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!

I've opted for my all-time favourite image ever, the Fjord horses pulling a sleigh.  Today is my Fjord horse Barney's 18th birthday, how could I not use this image that Phindy drew!  I hoped to take Barney to the pub today as he has come of age, but he's a little bit lame so we'll have to postpone that for another day lol!  You can buy Sleigh Ride from Phindy's Place here.

My card is pretty simple really, I've coloured with Copics and given my image a heavy coating of iridisceent spray and sparkle.  DP is Fancy Pants, the ribbon, Crafty Cardworks sentiment and card candy are all silver to add to the sparkle.  OK now I'd better get cracking on some more Christmas cards, how about you?

My card is for the following challenges:
Paper Play - sparkle galore
Some Odd Girl - make a scene
Simon Says - sparkle & shine
KB Cute Monday  - anything goes using digi
Crafty Emma - holidays
Little Claire - sparkle
Stamp Scrap & Doodle - old supplies (digi and papers both from 2 Christmases ago!)

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

Top Tip Tuesday Challenge - Use a sentiment

Good morning and welcome to this week's Top Tip Tuesday Challenge!  Over on the main blog we have a fab tutorial on making a WordArt book from the talented Carol and the challenge is to use a sentiment on your project, or of course play along using Carol's tutorial.
I've made an easel card with no less than 4 sentiments on it!  Yes, I'm still playing with the Fred She Said empty pocket shruggers set, you can buy them here.  This set just makes me smile every time I reach for it.  I've coloured with Copics and used Distress Inks for the background, the DP is Basic Grey Sugar Rush, ribbon is from stash and I used Card Candy on a ribbon raised on foam tape to prop up my easel. Oh, there are red and orange Stickles on the exploding cake!  A birthday just isn't a birthday without an exploding cake...

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:
Pile it on - anything goes
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - anything goes
Totally Papercrafts - birthday
Fairy Fun Fridays - Happy Birthday
Sew Many Challenges - birthday
Craft Your Days Away - anything goes
Basic Grey - dots and spots
Stamp Insanity - let it all hang out!
Delightful Challenges - easel card
Paperplay Challenges - cutie patootie

A City Christmas

I've a couple of cards to show you today, here's the city one, country card coming up later.  This card began life as a one layer card, inspired by my blogging friend Chrissie's awesome card here.  It's just the most beautiful card I've seen for ages, however while I love tree stamps and have a whole forest of them, I wanted to do things a little differently.  So I decided to use the Hero Arts city stamp I bought a while back which hasn't yet got inky.  But you don't need to look too closely to see that this isn't a one layer card...

I masked off the card, used my duster brushes and Distress Inks, stamped the buildings.  It looked gorgeous.  Then I took off the Post-Its and saw that my gorgeous scene was upside down on my card!  I have now done one that I'm happy with but the next few had silly mistakes on them.  So I trimmed this with a little of the white  either side and gold embossed a Sheena Douglass star on it.  Hmm... looked like the stable in Bethlehem was now a skyscraper... rapidly added Santa in his sleigh:).

The DP is Artylicous from the Spirit of Christmas CD, the sentiment Craftwork Cards and the lacy MS punch was a present from my very kind friend Val.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:
CD Sunday - lavender and lace
Wagsnwhiskers - lavender and lace
Truly Scrumptious - sketch
Stamp scrap and doodle - no flowers at all
Fussy and fancy - non-trad Christmas colours
Bah Humbug - lovely in lilac