Magnolia vs Stampavie Challenge Week 12

Week 12's challenge over on the Magnolia vs Stampavie blog is a colour challenge: to use only the colours cocoa, pink, sage and white. I have just the paper for this challenge, which came from Auscraft before it closed down - it could have been made for this challenge :).

I coloured Tilda with Copics, I'm getting on better with these now I have a supply of glossy cardstock to use. Quite a few of the colours used came from the pens that I won in the Christmas/ New Year Magnolia/Stampavie Challenge - thanks! Tilda's wings are glittered with clear Stickles. She's sitting on a plain sage oval with the dark brown flip side of the stripy paper edging it.

The flowers are from the Stamp Attic and again, I think they are just right for this challenge.

Sketch & Stash Challenge 2

Having seen from the rules that it's ok to enter more than once, I couldn't resist a second entry to this challenge as this card fits it so well ; it's a perfect mix of new and neglected stash :).

The champagne bottle is from a new design plate by Elusive Images that I found irresistable, it's painted with some H2Os that I keep forgetting I have. The little tag is from a bag of tags I was given in '07 as part of a 12 Days of Christmas swap on UKATC. The "Celebrate" comes from a pack of tiny clear stamps that I got at Ally Pally last autumn and haven't used. To my surprise they are clear but they don't self-cling. Hmm, perhaps that's why there were 3 sets for £1! The paper with the bubbles on is from the Stamp Attic. Finally, the fibres that are wrapping the card come from a pack I bought in the US called Adornaments, some years ago, that I've never used. I found them when I was looking for something else and decided they would be great to use on my cards.

The card is for a fellow UKATC member who had a cancer scare and has just got the all clear - yay!

Papercraft Planet

I recently discovered the Papercraft Planet online community. I've barely scratched the surface of all the discussions and information on it, but I have found a group called Every Challenge You Can Think Of, which neatly lists all the current challenges and their days of the week - a great idea. Karin, the group's hostess, held a challenge last night. At lunchtime (UK time) she gave us a list of basic requirements and at 8pm we all sat down to make a card, following her directions.

It was great fun and Karen did a really good job of keeping us all together with our cardmaking. I admit that I found it difficult, I'm a real control freak and I don't like to cut into my paper without knowing what it will be on a card :).

My card has ended up very busy! It was a fun exercise and it was really interesting to see how everyone's cards were different, and yet the same. I didn't colour my image until the card was ready to assemble, which gave me a little chance to co-ordinate it with the rest of the card.

Stamp Attic papers, stamp from Shirley2Girls.

Magnolia v Stampavie Double Trouble

This week's challenge is to use at least two Tilda/Stampavie stamps. I've used three and made a bookmark for a young lady called Laura, who I think bears more than a passing resemblance to studious Tilda :). She has her dog, Tiffin, sitting beside her as she thinks about what to read next. Bookmark is from Bazzill Bling paper, overstamped with little flowers from Stamps by Judikins, with paper from the Stamp Attic behind Tilda. Tilda and images were watercoloured, her spectacles have glossy accents on them.

Debbie's Challenge :)

Debbie challenged six people to got to the 6th folder of photos, pick the 6th photo and upload. Tell us about the photo, pass the challenge on to another 6 bloggers...

Phew, that's a fairly uncontroversial photo :). Three summers ago we stayed in a cottage in the Vendee in France, very off the beaten track, gas lights, generator to run washing machine. Not another house in sight, it was down 1/2 mile of killer dirt track :). It was a lovely, peaceful place to stay. We'd sleep with the doors to outside open and wake up to look across the river to the fields the other side. Lovely! Oh, I made the dress from silk I bought when we went away for the weekend for our wedding anniversary.

Who to tag?

1. Vanja
2. Sharon
3. Cheri
4. Stepher
5. Deby and
6. Viv

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #16

http://thesecretcraftersaturdaychallenge.blogspot.com/ has a recipe challenge this week: 1 image, 2 papers and 3 embellishments. I used a Stampendous stamp, clear embossed with Adirondack olive green powder and painted with Marvy le Plume pens. The two papers were a Glimmer Misted yellow/gold that I sprayed at the weekend and an olivey paper from the Stamp Attic. The sentiment is Hero Arts, part only inked up, embossed as before. The three embellishments are all silk ribbon in the most beautiful autumn shades. There is glue behind the knots, it's so fine and slippery that it won't stay done up otherwise. Ask me how I know this!

Glimmer Mists & Buttons

I've no completed cards to upload to my blog today.

So... here are the stamps that my friend Marion brought home from the US before Christmas.

Today I had lunch with my friend Kandy, who is a quilter and textile artist. After a delicious lunch, with a pasta sauce involving vodka :), she brought out a big bag of polyester organzas and satins and her soldering iron and we made buttons. The scraps or solid pieces of fabric have a piece of template plastic placed over them, then use the soldering iron to trace round a metal template. If you look at the first heart I made I was a bit heavy-handed with the soldering iron when I made holes for my thread to go through! Fun embellishments and totally unique.

Finally, my parents bought me some Glimmer Mists which I played with yesterday. Usually I just use all the sprays I have at random, but here the only added spray was Gold to the candy apple red on one page. Some are left sprayed, some are wiped across with kitchen roll to even out the colour. One of the blues has bubble wrap applied to it and several have cling-film spread across, which is one of my favourite ways to use them. Aren't they gorgeous?

IsMaki Challenge 09/03 & SBS25 Challenge

I found a gorgeous card by Mumur using a sketch from a new-to-me blog, http://ismaki.wordpress.com/and had to make a card using it. Mine is not in the same league and also, I have missed the deadline for the Challenge! However, I made it using EIGHT embellishments (Janet challenged us to use seven!) and I have at least made the deadline for this.

The image is stamped using an image from an Inkadinakao set that Marion brought home from the US for me, using Sepia ink and watercolored. The gold embossed sentiment is from Elusive Images (who are having a BRILLIANT sale at present, take a look at the Graphicus site http://www.graphicus.co.uk/brokerage.asp?SubCatID=103 ). The gorgeous papers are from Stamp Attic, as are the flowers. The gems from Auscraft make up the rest of the embellishments.

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.

Birthday Cards & ATCs

I had some gorgeous handmade cards for my birthday: Tilda is from Emily at UKATC group and Especially For You is from Sara L, another UKATCer. The Martini Bella is from my stamping "sister" Janet.

I also got a bunch of ATCs from the UKATC group: thank you Chris L, Helen, Sandra, Roz, Gerry, Hope and Sara J.

Still haven't got over this chest infection, the cards were a lovely lift, thanks everyone :)

Sketch & Stash Challenge 2

Today is my birthday, I had the day off work and travelled across to Stamp Addicts near Bedford, with DH driving and handing across the credit card when I brought my goodies to the counter:). I've an absolute LOAD of new craft stash which I'll post on here when I've better light to photograph it by.

But also I met my friend Marion at the weekend, who had brought some stash back from Virginia with her before Christmas - more stamps!

One of them was from a company called Shirley's2Girls which I just had to use straight away :). I've used it for the Sketch & Stash Challenge, but as you can see the sentiment is under the image on the stamp, so that is a slight variation. Purple embossed, coloured with my Copics. Trimmed with a postage stamp trimmer that I've not used before, lace behind the image. Isn't the stamp brilliant?

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.

ATC Time

The theme swap for UKATC this month is Ladies. I used a clear stamp set called Unruly Girls Club by Stampington. They are coloured with chalks, masked and the background stamped with a background stamp of handbags from Hero Arts, using Versamark, then chalks rubbed over the ink. Chalks are set with cheap hairspray then some peel-offs, flowers and a sentiment added.

Sketch Saturday - Sketch 34 - Bathing Bella

This week's Sketch Saturday uses a large circular image. I've got some Bella images and decided that the bubble bath one would be great to use for this, with circular bubbles and some pearls that would again look like soap suds. I watercoloured the image and used my Nestabilities to cut it out and add a scalloped border to it.

I don't have a scallop punch so I used lace for the lower border. The sentiment is from a very useful Hero Arts clear stamp set. As it's clear I was able to shape it round the circle. There is space at top right on the card to add another sentiment if I need one when the card is used.

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.

Friday Sketchers 34 - Sparkle

This card is made to show off the gorgeous Prima flowers that I bought a while back in the Stamp Attic. I got them home and realised that I couldn't find anything in the bright, clear acid colours to use them with. Having seen that Friday Sketchers used a 3-flower sketch this week I was determined to use them. http://fridaysketchersblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/friday-sketchers-34-sponsored-by-scrapp.html

I eventually found the two-sided paper in my stash, which came from Auscraft when it went out of business last year, in colours that I thought worked ok with the flowers.

I decided to use a Rubber Romance stamp and had a try at colouring her with my new Copic pens that I won on the Magnolia/Stampavie Challenge. As you can see I need to work on my blending! She's also rather more tanned than I intended... :) Cotton ties are hand-dyed German thread that I bought years ago to braid with.

Spoonful of Sugar Challenge 34 - Paper Piecing

http://aspoonfullofsugarchallenge.blogspot.com/ has paper piecing as its challenge this week. I used my new Elzybell dog stamp again, cutting him from a distressed paint background, which is a 2 sided paper by 29th Street Market, called Spirit Bright. I love the words :). The rest of the papers used come from the same set, I bought 3 sheets of it at the Stamp Attic a couple of weeks back, it has a lovely warm, golden tone to it, lovely in the dead of winter. Collar coloured with Copic pens.

Angel ATCs

Collage angels for a swap at ATCsforall.com. The images are mostly from a set by Crafty Individuals. Backgrounds are Glimmer Misted then overstamped with text in copper and clear embossed.

Blog Awards

Thanks so much to Steph and to Vanja who have both kindly passed on this award; I have to pass it on.  I hope you'll forgive me not doing so yet, I'm still not feeling too good :(  

Take a look at their sites, there's some great work to inspire you there:   http://stippleshapes.blogspot.com/  is Stepher's site and here is Vanja: http://justheather-valems.blogspot.com

And thank you to Janet for her Blog award too, check out Janet's site and beware the loud music :0)  http://corrosivecreationsbyjanet.blogspot.com/

Sketch & Stash Challenge #1 - buzzin by to say hi

http://sketchandstashchallenge.blogspot.com/  is a brand new challenge blog, there is a sketch to follow and you use your new/unused stash to create with.  This card was nearly finished before I went down with the lurgy and I wanted to add it so as not to miss out on week one.  Now I've checked the site it is a fortnightly challenge!

Stamps are all Elzybells; I had to order some for Janet, my SBS25 "sister" as she had kindly bought some stamps for me that I couldn't get in the UK.  Of course, I added a couple in for myself ;).

The Nestabilities dies are also new, a kind Christmas present from my FIL (with thanks to my DH who knows what to buy me!).

More about card method etc. later.