It's a Boy!

This is a just-in-time (I hope!) entry to Friday Sketchers, I loved Beatrix's sketch but have kept running out of time to finish the card I began. The card is for Alison Acton, the designer for Whiff of Joy who creates all their beautiful animal stamps. Alison is expecting a baby boy, who is due tomorrow! I don't know if it's a planned birth or if he could keep her waiting... Whichever, Alison was a big part in the blog hop party that Whiff of Joy held in July to celebrate her new stamp release. She chatted online with everyone for hours and was so friendly and fun to "talk" with. Katharina from Whiff of Joy came up with the lovely idea of getting as many crafters as possible to send cards to Alison and her husband Jim, check out her blog here for the details.

The very cute Dexter Bear is from Sugar Nellie, he's coloured with watercolours, he and his frame are cut out with Nestabilities. The paper is a freebie from a magazine, overlaid with torn vellum. The paper strip with "It's a boy" is also from a magzine freebie and I've cut strips of ribbon for the bow and the flower in the sketch. The photo is not great but it's dark and I've only just finished the card, hope to replace it with a better one tomorrow...

Best wishes to Alison and Jim!

Falling for Autumn

Stampin' for the Weekend has made a welcome return to the list of challenge blogs; this week there is a colour challenge to use orange, brown and leafy green, which also fits the challenge at the Secret Crafter to use autumn colours. I think this Whiff of Joy image epitomises Autumn, it was sent to me by my generous blogging friend Vanja.

Image was coloured with Copics and edged with Distress Ink in Peeled Paint. Image was cut out with Nestabilities, the border in the striped DP uses a Woodware punch. Apart from the plain orange cardstock, all papers come from Summer Drigg's generous free download sets. The sentiment is the centre of a Hero Arts stamp with the border trimmed off, the ribbon and brad are from stash.

Precious Moments

I've finished this card just in time for Stampin' for the Weekend's challenge this week: Anything Baby Goes. I've used the lovely sketch by Bev from Whiff of Joy's Challenge to make my card. This week's challenge at Spoonful of Sugar is to use Distressing; I've used my Distress inks to give a soft, vintage look to Willow on the card. Last but not least Pile It On has a Round and Round challenge that is covered by the dotty paper.

I do love the Willow and baby stamp from Whiff of Joy, I'm saving up to get some of the other stamps in this series, they are just beautiful. Willow's coloured with Copics and edged with Worn Lipstick and Mustard Seed inks. All the papers are Stampin' Up. The dotty border has been punched with my Martha Stewart flourish punch, the ribbon is from stash. The Precious Moments ticket comes from the Bearly Mine country designs CD - I must print some more from this collection, they're brilliant. The flower is a Prima one with a punched dotty flower in the centre and a spacer from Quixotic Paperie. I cut the leaves free-form from a scrap and gave them veins using my scoring board, I'm really pleased with the way they look.

Patchwork Birthday Girl

I've made this card for a quilting friend's birthday, when I saw the patchwork papers with faux stitching I couldn't resist the download from Bearly Mine Designs, aren't they pretty? I also saw that Simon Says is having a colour challenge at their Paper Craft Planet group, to use light brown, light green, blushy pink, coral pink and white. This set of papers could have been made for the challenge! The card is based around Sketch Saturday's sketch.

I've used one of the Autumn collection Whiff of Joy images, thank you to my blogging Sistah Vanja for sending me some. It's coloured with Copics and the background shaded with Distress Inks in Worn Lipstick and Shabby Shutters. I've used a Woodware border punch on the papers and cut out another of the cute tickets from the same paper set. The flower was part of my Simon Says shopping from winning their challenge a few weeks back and the silver centre to it is from Quixotic Paperie.

I used more of the papers for inserts to the card:

Just Because...

I've blinged up the pretty Melinda Blowing Kisses image to enter this week's Whiff of Joy Challenge and I've based it on the sketch at Papertake Weekly.

Melinda is coloured with Copics, she's an image I coloured while we were on holiday. I've added lots of Stickles to her wings and also to the hearts and the embroidery on her jeans. The background has been shaded with Distress Inks in Scattered Straw and Worn Lipstick.

The octagons are cut with Nestabilities, as a slight variation to the sketch; the papers are all K & Co. I love the little ticket sentiment, which comes from a new download at Bearly Mine Designs called Country Collection. I've another card to post later using papers from this collection, I really didn't buy the whole set for one ticket :). Hmm, I see it's called Collection A, sounds like even more temptation in the pipeline...

The bling has continued with pearl gems in the corners, a lovely shimmery ribbon that I bought at Festival of Quilts, liquid pearls round the scalloped edges and a lovely snowflake charm from Quixotic Paperie hanging from the bow. It's meant to be a Christmas charm but really it's so versatile it fits lots of themes, I think. The card I'm posting later is in similar colours, though with soft green in it. I don't want to get into a colour rut, the next one will be totally different colours I've decided!

Chocolate and strawberry birthday

I've made a birthday card using Vicki's pretty sketch from this week's challenge at Stampin' for the Weekend, using one of my favourite colour combinations, pink and brown, which is Whiff of Joy's challenge this week. I'm also entering it into a third challenge, a new one called Crafty Cardmakers; their first challenge is called Blossoms.

The card uses a Whiff of Joy stamp, Melinda blowing kisses, an old favourite of mine, I've coloured her with Copics, pink Stickles and Glossy Accents (lots on her wings). The image is edged with Worn Lipstick Distress Ink. Melinda is matted on to gold mirri card then onto card sprayed with pink Glimmer Mist. The two brown patterned papers are Basic Grey and the background pink is from a Bearly Mine Designs cd called Extreme Inserts. It's the first time I've used any of them, I've been drooling over them but not printing them out. I've also used them inside the card, which I've left plain apart from the papers. Lovely, aren't they?


The dark brown card behind the circle has been dotted with white, the flowers are Prima with pink foliage that was cut with a Halloween punch and trimmed, the sentiment is from Craftwork Cards.

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.

Bundle of Joy - five challenges

Bizzy Bec's is a new challenge blog launching on 15 August (see my earlier post for candy details). They have an opening for two Design team members and have asked those interested to make a card using their sketch. I've stretched the card a tad into a rectangle, I wanted to use my new Elizabeth Bell stamp and didn't have a large enough square card to make my idea work :)

I've used masking on my image and am entering it for the Stampin' for the Weekend Challenge, as well as Pile It On, whose extra challenge this week is watercolours. My Time to Craft has the theme Floral Frenzy, which fits the flowers in the image and the lovely Prima flowers added on. Lastly Papertake has a colour combi challenge - I've used yellow, pink, green from their list.

So... I caved in and bought one of the exquisite new Women's stamps from Whiff of Joy. I kept passing them over as I didn't have any weddings/new mums/babies to make cards for but in the end I had to get one :). I wanted to give Willow some background so I masked her off and added trees from Elusive Images, grass from Stamps by Judith and flowers from Craftwork Cards. The sentiment is from a big squashy stamp that I was given when I began stamping, looks like a magazine giveaway stamp. The trees and grass use Versafine Olmpic Green ink and I've used Antique Sepia Versafine for Willow. She's watercoloured with Distress Inks and a waterbrush, baby's gown is Worn Lipstick, Willow is Scattered Straw and Mustard Seed. The Scattered Straw and Worn Lipstick are both used around the edges.

The papers are Basic Grey's Porcelain collection, just so soft and pretty. I've shaped the image, papers and card with my Martha Stewart Flourish punch. To get things to line up I measured and drew pencil lines on the back! The flowers are Prima and the brads Papermania. Love the image, I'm wishing I bought more of the collection, even if my credit card isn't :).

Lucky weekend & heads-up WH Smith watercolour pencils

I've got a summer cold and feel quite miserable, though it's not the dreaded swine flu I'm sure :).
I've not been up to much, craft-wise, but I've had a real lift this weekend. I took part in Whiff of Joy's blog hop on Saturday, good thing it's virtual and all those lovely crafters couldn't hear me sniffing and sneezing :). The new release is lovely, as you expect from Whiff of Joy, but there was a real bonus at the end of the blog-hop at Planet Patchwork: long "chats" with the two very talented designers, Alison Acton and Elizabeth Bell. I was lucky enough to be one of three who won a new Christmas stamp from Elizabeth Bell, isn't he sweet? I'm a big admirer of Elizabeth Bell and even before I won I was excited to "talk" with her, this was a real bonus. The icing on the cake came this afternoon when I learnt that I've won one of the new release from Shirleys2Girls, one of my favourite companies. Their trademark is framed rectangle or square designs with a fun image and a saying. They've recently starting adding several appropriate sayings to each stamp, making them even more versatile to use. They're not anything like as well known as Whiff of Joy (yet!) but they deserve to be better known, their stamps are unusual and a little unexpected, a lot of fun.

Thank you to both Shirleys2Girls and Whiff of Joy for their lovely blog candy, it has cheered me up :).

Finally, when I looked at the magazines in Smiths today I found their watercolour pencils were half price - £7.49 for 36 lovely colours. I have some of their set of 24 left over from when the boys did art at school and they're really nice quality. They're different from my Derwent Inktense, of course, but as good as any watercolour pencils I've tried. So if you need any pencils, try WH Smith - and yes - I did buy them - did you need to ask ? :)

Whiff of Joy Blog Candy

Katherina at Whiff of Joy is giving away a very generous blog candy: the Elizabeth Bell Autumn Release stamp kit. Closing date is 26 July, if you haven't yet visited her be sure to look out for the anniversary blog hop tonight, from Katherina's blog.
See you there :)

Whiff of Joy Challenge #38

For this week's Whiff of Joy challenge, which is a lovely sketch by Katherina, I've used a very cute image sent to me by my blogging sister Leslie, who is a big Whiff of Joy fan. I'm getting the hang of my Copics now, as well as the Promarkers, which I'm still finding easier to use, and I've coloured Melinda with them. Her wings and bangle have Glossy Accents on them and there is red Stickles on the hearts on her jewellery. The Distress Ink on the edges is Scattered Straw.

The gorgeous papers are Basic Grey porcelain and I've used a Woodware punch to make the diamond border to the spotty brown paper. The flowers are Prima and the "foliage" is a Halloween tree punch. No idea who made the sentiment stamp, it belongs to my friend Marion and has no manufacturer's name on it.

Willow in three challenges

This week's Whiff of Joy challenge is to use paper piecing. I love paper piecing and I think it works really well with "Willow with hot chocolate". I've used papers from a K&K collection called Que Sera Sera, which has beautiful rich, saturated colours. The only parts of Willow that are not paper pieced are her hands and face; I've paper pieced her armchair as well, giving it a metallic bronze frame.

I've followed a great sketch by Beatrix for the Friday Sketchers challenge this week, that worked really well, there's enough room on the card to show off the papers.

Cute Card Thursday's challenge is to use a tag somewhere on a card; I've cut down a small tag for the sentiment and added it to the card. The flowers are a mixture, mostly Prima, with faux brads from Craftwork Cards in their centres.

I love these papers and I think Willow has to be one of my all-time favourite stamps, I'm going to have a hard time giving this card away :).

An English Summer? Whiff of Joy Challenge #34

Challenge #34 at the Whiff of Joy blog uses a lovely sketch by Bev. It's been a lovely sunny day here, I hope I'm not tempting fate by using this Willow with Umbrella image :), which was sent to me by my generous SBS "Sister" Vanja. I've coloured her with Koh-i-Noor pencils and added Glossy Accents to the raindrops as well as a bit of Stickles on the emboridery on Willow's jeans.

All the papers used are from a Basic Grey pad called cupcake, that I bought at Stamp Attic. The sentiment is from an Inkadinkado floral set, I've cut the flower circles with my smallest Nestie dies. It's a fairly simple card, the papers are quite busy and I don't think it needs anything more...

Whiff of Joy Challenge 31

This week's Whiff of Joy challenge is a pretty sketch from Heather. I've used it with an image sent to me by my blogging "Sistah" Leslie. Thanks Leslie (waving!), I know you have a lot going on just now, hope you're enjoying the holiday weekend :).

I've coloured with my new Koh-i-Noor pencils, I'm quite pleased with the effect I'm getting using them on clothes, the background needs some practice though...

I've used Stickles on her wings, belt buckle and jewellery with Glossy Accents on the hearts. The sentiment is from a Hero Arts cupcake set of clear stamps. Papers are from the Stamp Attic, aqua and chocolate are one of my favourite combinations. The embellishments came from Hobbycraft's sale.

Whiff of Joy Challenge 39 & Cute Card Thursday Challenge 59 - Happy Mail

I haven't used my Willow with cocoa stamp from Whiff of Joy for a while and I decided to use her for this week's Whiff of Joy Challenge, a lovely sketch by Katharina. She is mostly paper pieced, I decided to use the K & Co pad that I bought at Ally Pally, called Que Sera Sera, which is full of rich, saturated colours. I started off just cutting out her jumper, but then I found just the right shade for her hair and then I had to paper piece the mug as well :). The mug is highlighted with Glossy Accents, jeans are coloured with watercolour pencil and the embroidery is coloured with gel pens and then more Glossy Accents.





Wish Upon a Star is an Elusive Images stamp, it's gold embossed. I've used a decorative cutting blade for the bottom edge of the background, the faux brads are from Craftwork Cards.

The sentiment is appropriate for this card, it's also in response to the Challenge on Cute Card Thursday, which is to make a card for a child at Post Pals. The site says:



"I run Post Pals, we feature seriously ill children (most have cancer or are going through transplants) and their siblings on our website www.postpals.co.uk and invite members of the public to log on from around the world and send a card to a child. The aim is to make the child smile, but we have found it also helps their self esteem and parents often open them with a child during a procedure to distract them.At the moment we are helping 120 children but they aren't getting much post.I was wondering if you would do a challenge, instead of people just scanning in their card for the theme but they actually make one for a Post Pal child and send it off."

I had a look at the website and was very moved by the kindness behind this idea. I plan to make a some more cards for the site; I hope as many people as possible can join in.

Whiff of Joy Challenge 13

Challenge 13 is a nice sketch from Katherina. I used some co-ordinating 6x6" papers that I bought when I first started making cards. Willow with hot chocolate is leaning against the main circle and I have used blue tape and blue ric-rac on the card. The "Hold Fast to your Dreams" sentiment comes from Lisa's Altered Art Images.

Whiff of Joy Challenge 14 - Green & Purple

This week's Whiff of Joy Challenge is to use green and purple. I was lucky enough to be sent some WoJ images by my blogging "sister" Vanja, which included Melinda blowing kisses. I painted her with watercolours and added a sentiment by Elusive Images. It's not easy to read in the photo, it says "Joy is not in things, it is in us". Papers are from the Stamp Attic and the base card is a deep purple colour. This wouldn't be my choice of colours but it's worked surprisingly well, I think.

Friday Sketchers - Sketch 35

Murielle of France has a pretty sketch to work with this week on http://fridaysketchersblog.blogspot.com/ . I've used Willow from Whiff of Joy, added to a Glimmer Misted background. The scrolls are Elusive Images from the Ruby Tuesday set and the Be Happy is also Elusive Images. The smaller flowers, I think, were a freebie with a magazine and the larger, blue flower came from Auscraft when it closed. Background paper is a Grpahicus Guild paper.

ATCs - something from nothing

On Friday, I finally changed over from my old, slow computer to a shiny new one.  At least, my younger son, who was IT consultant for the day, did the changing over.

As I needed to stay out of his way, I made some ATCs from the ice cream tub that has bits and pieces in it that didn't quite work for another project or weren't quite right.  Also, I have bought images from http://www.lisasalteredart.com/ and will sit and cut them out when I'm watching TV and add them to the tub.

So, in no particular order, we have:

 It Was Her Destiny - leftover piece of Glimmer Misted paper that I decided to  emboss with a Cuttlebug paisley folder.  I added a painted Bella image that I bought in a batch of images from Ebay, mounted it on a scrap of cardstock and added left-over flowers punched from scraps.  Message was from a page of one-liners from Lisa's Altered Art.

Hoot - background was a reject experiment:  Glimmer Misted background with a Clarity Stamp from stamp of the month stamped on it, repeatedly clear embossed to make a thick, cracked glaze.  Owl was clear embossed using assorted pigment inks to give him shading, he was a try-out for Mum's birthday card.  Leftover Hallowe'en ribbon and some brads finished this off.

Autumn - a spare Willow with hot chocolate (Whiff of Joy) painted image was mounted in front of an oval I cut from a Glimmer Misted tree scene that didn't quite work (Elusive Images stamp).  Buttons were bought nearly a year ago, ribbon from my stamping "sister" Janet.

Odd Man Out - experimenting with the Paper Artsy stamps I got for renewing my Craft Stamper subscription.  French script gold-embossed on bronze paper, image of man and pen decoupaged on beige cardstock, torn around the edges.  The ribbon that doesn't show up well is Laura Ashley, the other is from Janet again.  Sentiment from Lisa, as before.

Chocolat - same background as Destiny.  The oval image is from an Obsession Impression stamp set, I spent ages colouring and glittering it to decided I didn't like the colours I used!  The Hotel Chocolat ribbon is from Christmas chocolates, the flower ribbon behind I bought on sale in the US last summer and the little flowers came from my DH for Christmas.

In the bag - I spent ages last year masking off a white margin and brayering over Versamarked handbags (Hero Arts stamp) only to reject it for whatever project I had in mind.  I think the Clarity stamp handbag was from the same project.  I combined them with the image and message from Lisa and at last they worked!  Used Stickles around the margin.

Lesson learned:  sometimes a part-made, reject project needs to mature.  When in doubt, put it away for another day :).  Until of course you are disappearing under a landslide of paper!

Sketch Saturday - Sketch 32

http://sketchsaturday.blogspot.com/ has a really sweet sketch this week by Emma (Happy Birthday for this month Emma!).  I cut the circles with Nestabilities and found that my central square had to be quite small due to the size of card I was using.  So I decided to use my Willow with hot chocolate stamp from WoJ and have her sitting against the square.  I bought the fabulous flowers just before Christmas from a shop I've not visited before, called Once Upon A Time, on Cricklade.  They are by Hero Arts and they just shouted out to come home with me :).  Papers are from the Stamp Attic.