The Corrosive Challenge Blog - Week 1

Today is the grand opening of Janet's new Challenge Blog - the Corrosive Challenges Blog ! Here is my first Design Team card for her. The first week has a very straightforward, usable sketch. I chose to use my Elzybells stamps with it. The dog is stamped onto cream paper and mounted onto Glimmer Misted paper. The golden frame is also Glimmer Misted. Both sentiments came from Elzybells, as does the bee. The design paper and the bee ribbon are both from the Stamp Attic, the green ribbon behind was from some chocloate truffles I was given at Christmas. The chocloates are long gone, but there's still some ribbon left :)



Looking forward to seeing lots of entries on the Corrosive Challenges Blog :)

Magnolia vs Stampavie Challenge Week 16 - Lace & Pearls

What a fun challenge this week at Magnolia/Stampavie from Bev: Lace & Pearls. I decided to make a Tilda ATC. I'm not sure how much Tilda is a lace and pearls gal :) , so I kept her to neutral creams mostly. The background has flower stamped onto it, with Pearl Stuff centres. There is heart lace along one long side and two pearls on the opposite corners. Omunted onto bronze shimmery card to frame it.

ATC Time Again

March is going to be very busy; I'm committed to several ATC swaps and want to get them ready without too much panic. So, still on an ATC theme, here is my monthly UKATC swap: three ATCs using Sugar Nellie's Leanne Ellis images.

All use the same Glimmer Misted background. Tweet has a printed paper scrap hill, the birdhouse stamped onto it from the image, a flower in her hair and a bird from Lisa's Altered Images perching on the skewed birdhouse.

Rosey is stamped onto glossy paper and coloured with Copics and with Jelly Roll pens. The flowers have Glossy Acents on them, the background circles are coloured with a white gel pen.

Luvvy has an Elusive Images heart stamped onto the background. Again, she's been stamped onto glossy paper and coloured with Copics. Her skirt is paper pieced. Ribbon came from my blogging "sister" Vanja and the heart that she's holding is made from gold card with alcohol inks used on it.

So there they are: blonde, brunette and almost black haired :)

Drumroll for the Corrosive Challenge Blog

My blogging friend Janet has started a fun new Challenge for cardmakers, the Corrosive Challenges Blog. Janet, who lives at Niagara Falls (on the Canadian side), is a life-long crafter, who makes vibrant, fun cards. She demonstrates for Stampin Up, her other great interest outside papercrafts is in heavy rock. I can't give anything away, I am sworn to secrecy :), but I can tell you that she has some fun challenges coming up for you to take part in.

I'm really excited and proud to be part of the Corrosive Design Team, thanks for asking me Janet. Hope to see you all there tomorrow for the first challenge.

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Dawny's Sketch #9

Papertake has a simple but effective sketch from Dawn this week.

I wanted to use two new stamps I got from Lavinia Stamps last week at Make It and decided to make a brayered background to stamp onto. I used Adirondack Stonewashed and Lemonade inks to colour the card and stamped the thistle and teasel on using Adirondack Aubergine. The background papers are from the Stamp Attic.

Decided the card needed a little extra something and used Stickles. The nozzle was blocked so I squeezed gently. Nothing happened. Squeezed again, nothing. Squeezed it a third time and there was a LOUD pop, the nozzle flew some 10' across the room and left a glitter trail across the card (mark I), the floor and a traumatized greyhound :). Oops... Time to start again...

Sketch Saturday #39

Emma has a very usable sketch this week on Sketch Saturday. Quite why it's taken me so long to come up with something usable I don't know :).

The card uses an Impression Obsession cupcake stand stamp, the wording comes from the same set. I spent a long time watercolouring it perfectly, then managed to smudge some of the ink that edged the papers onto the pristine background, hence the speckled background; I used a natural sponge with some of the offending ink! The papers used are from Craftwork Cards, as are the "brads". Flower cut with a Cuttlebug folder.

Papers are all from

Dogs, dogs, dogs - and a birthday

Dogs, dogs, dogs is a swap at ATCsForAll.com. I've used Glimmer Misted backgrounds and images from

Lisa's Altered Images. Encourage uses Inkadinkado inchies in the background, Smile has an Elzybells sentiment, Art Impressions tree and Stamps by Judith flowers. True Friends has a metal charm wired on and background stamps from Craftwork Cards. Puppy Love has the tree, grass stamp from Stamps by Judith and a Dovecraft sentiment stamp.

The final ATC is for a UKATC birthday and uses Lisa's images again.

Elzybells - new stamps and blog candy

Elzybells have brought out several new sets of stamps today and there is the chance to win them as blog candy.

I have more cup cake stamps than I need, but having seen the tea and coffee stamps I loved them. Then, when I saw the Just Desserts set, they are different again to anything I have. Check out the wording stamps that they have brought out too, they contain many wise words such as "Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we may diet", "A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand" and many others :)

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.

Secret Crafter, Challenge #20

Jill has designed a nice sketch at Secret Crafter this week which is similar to the Friday Sketchers card I made below. Again, I've made it using the card kit that I bought on Friday from Craftwork Cards .

The brighter pink square is from my stash. The two pearelscent triangles, the cards that the Hero Arts cupcake is stamped on and the frame (coloured with chalks and Stickles) are from the kit. I've mounted the flower on a sticky pad togive dimension and used some Stickles, as well as gold peel-offs in the corners. I love the frame!

Friday Sketchers - Sketch 40

On Friday I went to MakeIt, a craft show at Farnborough. I found a new-to-me trader called Craftwork Cards with some really nice stuff. I bought a card kit to make 40 cards, with cards, papers, ribbons, die-cut embossed frames and printed greetings for £10 and decided to use it to make this week's challenge for Friday Sketchers, a very nice sketch from Jacqueline in the Netherlands.

The really interesting product that they had on their stand is an interesting kind of faux brad that they call Card Candy . They are made from cardboard and are stuck down with silicone glue or foam pads. Now I like brads, but... sometimes they make the card so bulky that it costs extra to post, sometimes the "legs" show through tin paper on cards and sometimes I don't know that a card "needs" a brad until I've matted and layered and it's too late to put one on! So I thought this was a great idea and bought a couple of packs in different colours to the ones in the card kit.

Anyway, on with the card :). All papers from Craftwork Cards kit, as are ribbon, "brads" and greeting. I've gold-embossed a Hero Arts cupcake onto their paper, rubbed chalk ink onto the cake wrapper and added a pink gemstone to the top of the cake. It's a nice sketch to use and I love the card kit. I'm not sure it will make 40 for me as I like to layer quite a lot of papers onto my cards, but it certainly makes plenty of quick and easy co-ordinated cards.

Black & White Simplicity

Cards don't come much simpler than this! My younger son is going to a birthday party tonight. Of course, he didn't want one of my home-made cards to give. That is, until we said we'd pay for the present and he could pay for the card from his own money!

There was a swift change of attitude and I made this card, using the Inkadinkado set that my friend Janet sent. It's black embossed on white. And that's it! Nothing more to say...

Sketch & Stash Challenge 4

The latest Sketch & Stash Challenge uses two images side by side. For this card I've really mixed old and new. The two stamps are Hero Arts and are almost the very first stamps I ever got. I used them a lot and still really like them but they've been sitting in the drawer for a while as I have so many other goodies to play with :). I've used Marvy le Plume pens and then added some Stickles from the Stamp Attic to give them a different look. They are matted onto Glimmer Misted green paper and then onto some lovely new paper from Stamp Attic. The "Best Wishes" is an Elusive Images stamp.

The new part of the card is the lovely Prima flowers that I've used. Again they're from the Stamp Attic, aren't they gorgeous?

One Stop Craft Challenge 16 - Sharon's sketch

I've made a card using Sharon's sketch for http://onestopcraftchallenge.blogspot.com/ , which I found quite a challenge to work with :).

The sketch looks great, but I struggled to get everything in without making my card huge! I started with a lovely Crate Paper from the Stamp Attic, a soft almost Japanese style with branches. I had a co-ordinating paper that I stamped my image on, an Inkandinkado bird on a branch. I used tapestry stamps round the edge and mounted it on a piece of Glimmer Misted card.

The reverse of the paper went across the card with some lace behind it, more glimmer misted paper, a co-ordinating paper and a goldy-yellow paper are set at an angle. I've inked up some small white paper flowers for the bottom corner and stamped the sentiment directly onto the card using brown Stazon.

Wishing Gatefold - SBS Challenge

Janet, from my SBS "sisters" has challenged us all to make a gatefold card this week. I've used my Leanne Ellis Wish image again, stamped onto glossy paper and coloured with a mixture of Copics and Marvy le Plume pens. I've cut round her and put her onto a Glimmer Misted background.

There is some silvery prisma glitter (Hero Arts) on her wings. The wings nearly went horribly wrong. I decided I wanted gold shaded wings and coloured them with a yellow Copic pen, using the mauve of her skirt for the splotches. Oh no! Instant leopard-skin Chav wings! Disaster! I rescued them by colouring over them with a blue Copic, making them a grey-green and covering up with the prisma glitter. This was a close escapre, I'd hate to be responsible for the first Chav Sugar Nellie card :0)

The main background paper is from the Graphicus Guild paper packs and the darker purple is from the Stamp Attic. I've embossed a sentiment from Elusive Images and swirls from my Paper Artsy "free" set, using silver tinsel powder.

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.

The Blues

This month's ATC challenge at the Stamp Attic is Music. I had to make 8 cards to trade so chose to keep it fairly simple.

The background is a sheet music image, oversprayed with Glimmer Mists. A blue tape ribbon is behind some painted Stampbord (first time I've used it) with a note copper embossed on it. The note is from an Inkadinkado clear stamp set that my SBS sister Janet was kind enough to ssend to me. I've scratched a smaller note into the surface of the Stampbord. I've added a peel-off in the RH corner and I don't think they need anything else.

Friday Sketchers Challenge #9

This week Heidi from Norway has made a very pretty sketch. As she says, this is ideal weather to be indoors crafting. I imagine Heidi has much more snow than we do, at long last I can see grass, the snow is only a couple of inches thick now!

I've used lots of different stamps on this card. I've started off with a Sugar Nellie stamp, Talking to the Birds, watercoloured, in the oval. "It's Your Birthday" is a Hero Arts clear stamp. The two birds above the oval are by Inkadinkado and the final flourishes are copper embossed, using stamps from Elusivve Image's Ruby Tuesday and Diamante Delights sets.

The papers come from the Stamp Attic, the mauve is the reverse of the pretty flower paper.

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? ;)

Free Downloadable Images for Valentines Day from Lisa Volrath

Lisa Volrath is doing a countdown to 14th February at http://countdown.tentwostudios.com

Click on the images to download, link to the images with your blog or on an email group.

Thank you Lisa!