Sugar-sweet snowman

It's been a while since I've taken part in the Sugar Bowl Challenge, but I very much liked this week's sketch and my card came together quickly.

The Sugar Nellie snowman is coloured with Copics and Stickles. All the background papers are Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses, matted onto Bazzill Basics card in blue and burgundy. The snowflakes are white card used in a Woodware punch, I've added glitter to them with more Stickles. The Challenge also requires ribbon or ric-rac, I've added a thin red organza ribbon to my card.

Sweet as Sugar Cherub

This very cute Leanne Ellis Cherub image is one of three stamps that Sugar Nellie is selling to raise money for "It's a Girl Thing" breast cancer fundraiser. The stamps are lovely and you'll be donating to a good cause if you buy them. If you can't, don't forget you can win them as blog candy to celebrate my blogaversary this month! No, I didn't use the candy stamps to make this card, I bought my own stamps too :)

I've used Marlene's pretty sketch to enter this week's Sugar Bowl Challenge, the challenge is to use the sketch and make the card pink and brown. Cherub was coloured with Copics, and with lots of blingy pink Stickles on her wings and the hearts. I added somehighlights with a white pen. The papers are Basic Grey Porcelain except the bright pink scalloped circle. Ribbon is from my stash, flowers are Prima and there is card "candy" from Craftworks Cards (also with added Stickles).

A Stitch in Time Saves Nine...

This week's challenge at the Sugar Bowl is to follow a nice, usable sketch by Gayle, adding ribbons and bows. Ribbons and bows sounded like a good excuse to use Stitch, my gorgeous Leanne Ellis stamp. And just look at the paper I found at Stamp Attic last week - just had to bring it home to meet Stitch :).

I kept the card fairly simple, the image and the DP are both quite busy. Stitch is coloured with Promarkers and Copics, and a little yellow Stickles on her buttons and the knitting needles. The sentiments is Elusive Images, mounted onto Bazzill card and the ribbons are from stash.

Sugar Bowl Challenge #14

This week's Sugar Bowl Challenge is to use Judy's fun sketch and to include sparkle. I've delayed making this a bit as I've been playing with my new Mary Hall images that I didn't want to "bling up" :). So I went back to my trusty Leanne Ellis Annie with birdhouse image (can't see it on Funky Kits at present, I'm sure it'll be back on there soon).

She's stamped with cocoa brown Memento ink and coloured with Promarkers and Copics. The edging is done with Worn Lipstick Distress Ink. Papers are mostly K&K, apart from the green nearly vertical one behind Annie, which is from Basic Grey's Porcelain papers and worked well with the others. The flower is Prima. I've added the sparkle in green gems that are on the papers and the sentiment, Stickles on Annie's dress and the flower centres and Stickles on the brad in the flower.

Tea Dyed Daisy - Stampin for the Weekend #3 & Sugar Bowl #13

I'm having a second try at Lilian's sketch for this week's Sugar Bowl Challenge; I'm not totally convinced by the colours on my earlier card :).

I've often thought that Daisy, who is such a lovely Sugar Nellie to colour in, would look good as a monochrome image. So I've stamped her with Tea Dye Distress Ink and dragged some of the ink into her clothes and hair. I suppose the answer is that you can't go wrong with such a great stamp, but I think this looks good.

With Stampin for the Weekend's Challenge #3 in mind, I've kept to the soft neutral colours, she's A Whiter Shade of Pale, which fits their Rock'n'Roll 60s Challenge. The papers are Antique Cream Creative Tones from Papermania, I've added some Stickles to the flowers in Daisy's hair and to the daisies in the paper. The images are mounted on Kraft paper to fit the Sugar Bowl Challenge. There's ribbon in Daisy's hair and on the card, and that's it, a pretty clean and simple card.

The Sugar Bowl Challenge #13

This week's Sugar Bowl Challenge has a very useable sketch from

Lilian, which must include some Kraft paper/beige colours. I've some Kraft paper that I bought from Stamp Attic a few weeks back with patterns on it, the wrong side is ideal for a background.

I've used one of my gorgeous Leanne Ellis designs, A Little Hug, I've stamped her onto the WS of the kraft paper and coloured her with Inktense watercolour pencils. The sentiment is from Elusive Images. The papers are Dovecraft papers that I've had in my stash for ages, since I first began cardmaking, their soft colour fits the image well I think. The Kraft paper is used right side out for the backgroud to the card, with a Prima flower on it and I've used some ribbon that has a vivid pattern on its right side, reversed so it works with the colourscheme.

Sugar Bowl Challenge 12 - Lia's Sketch

This has been a busy week, however today I'm settling down to craft and catch up on some of the serenity of cutting up paper and stamping...

I used Lia's very pretty sketch from the Sugar Bowl's Challenge and coloured my Leanne Ellis image to match the gorgeous new Basic Grey papers that I got from the Stamp Attic a while back.

The colours are soft peaches, green and yellows, I got my Copics out (must persevere with them) and coloured Annie accordingly, adding some Distress Ink round the stark white edges. A flower punched from the papers and some peach lace from my sewing stash finished it off nicely - till I read the Sugar Bowl Challenge again and saw that I should have included green and blue! Ack! Luckily I found some pale blue ric-rac that I've attached on top of the lace that doesn't upset the colour scheme too much. Note to self: RTFI. Read the flippin' instructions :)

Imagine - The Sugar Bowl Challenge 11

The Challenge this week at the Sugar Bowl is to use Kathy's sketch and to add pearls to it. I was glad to see that the sketch is ideal for using with my new Leanne Ellis stamps, and just right for adding pearl buttons to Dreamer's coat.

I used a Basic Grey paper pack called Cupcake and paper pieced quite a few of the elements in the image. The Imagine stamp is part of an Elusive Images stamp that says "Imagine the possibilities". The flowers are from the Stamp Attic and the ribbon was bought when we were on holiday in Florida last year. I like the sentiment, I'm sending it to a Post Pal and I thought it was just right for this.

Detail of coat

Daisy Chain - The Sugar Bowl Challenge 10

This week's challenge at the Sugar Bowl is to use a lovely sketch from Marlene, with the added challenge to include buttons. Yesterday, when I came home from work I found a lovely package in the mail from Annabelle of Split Coast Stampers. Annabelle organised a swap of Sugar Nellie images that I took part in. Daisy grabbed me right away and I dashed off to colour her at once, I think the stamp will be part of my next Sugar Nellie order somehow!

Daisy is coloured with watercolour pencils, the background is shaded with chalks. There's a little bit of Stickles yellow in the flower centres and I've added some to the DP flowers too. The daisy ribbon came from a sewing shop and the lace from my sewing stash. DP is Daisy Bucket, would you believe, from the Stamp Attic. I've used both sides of the same paper, checks on one side and the borders on the other. The border paper has torn and inked edges. The button is sewn with perle thread onto a flower.

Sugar Bowl Challenge #7 & Secret Crafter Challenge #24

Secret Crafter's Saturday Challenge this week is to base a card on your favourite colour scheme. I love yellow and made a Spring card. Of course I realised it needed other colours to work and I added in a spring-like yellow-green and some orange.

Spring/Easter is also the latest Challenge at the Sugar Bowl, I've used a Leanne Ellis stamp and am entering it for this challenge too.

I've stamped Annie Talking to the Birds several times and paper pieced her onto a yellow background. Her skirt uses the same print that's in the background, the dots on it and the flowers are coloured with Sakura 3D glaze pens, Annie is coloured with watercolour pencils and the birdhouse is paper pieced and mounted on a foam pad. The papers I've used are various free ones that came with magazines, the yellow flower was a magazine freebie and the orange centre is a white flower coloured with a Copic pen - brilliant tip for any shade of flower you need! Spring is in the Air is a clear stamp from Dovecraft and the button next to it was bought at a craft show over a year ago...

Friday Sketchers #43 & Sugar Bowl Challenge 6

The latest Sugar Bowl Challenge is to make a card that doesn't have to be a Mother's Day card, but is something a mother would love. I don't want to post a Mother's Day card on here until it's been received :), so here I've tried to make an elegant, monochromatic card that I hope would be well received. I've used the latest Friday Sketcher's sketch, by Carol, which is a really nice one that was very easy to use.

The Gorjuss Girl and bird are coloured with watercolour pencils; to be monochromatic she really should have had dark hair but I think she looks great as a redhead :).

The tree is an Art Impressions stamp that I use a lot, paper from the Stamp Attic, printed butterfly sentiment, ribbon and faux brads from Craftwork Cards.

The Sugar Bowl Challenge 5 - Christmas

This month's challenge at the Sugar Bowl is to make something for Christmas. I've bought some lovely grungey Basic Grey papers from Stamp Attic with the intention of using them with a Gorjuss Girl this afternoon, as I'm waiting in for the Aga man.

No Girls in the post, no Aga man yet, so I've used Wish by Leanne Ellis as an angel. She's coloured with watercolour pencils with a tree stamped behind her, with an embossing pen used to add gold detail. There's some more embossing on the paper, of a Paper Artsy swirl, not too visible. The greeting is from Elusive Images. The flowers are from Stamp Attic again. All the shapes are cut with Nestabilites.

I've seen some beautiful artwork inside cards, where I usually have spent all my inspiration on the outside and just stamp a cursory greeting :). So I've made an attempt to decorate the inside, with the greeting framed with some of the paper. I want room to be able to write inside the card, any ideas what else I could add in the way of decoration?