Sweet Summer Sun - and 8 challenges!

It's been a lovely hot day today, in fact it's been hot for a few days and I've been drawn to making a hot summer sunshine card. I've begun with the very simple, very usable sketch from the CPS Challenge blog this week. I've used some lovely images from My Grafico, a set called Garden Elements and I've coloured them with Koh-i-Noor pencils in hot pinks and oranges to match Michelle's Summertime theme on the Digital Tuesday Challenge. This is also the theme at Cupcake Craft Challenges so I'm entering it for this Challenge too. Sadly Cupcake Craft is closing down as a challenge, it will be their last challenge next week. A Challenge blog is a big commitment and a lot of work, thank you to all the Cupcake gals for running their challenges for so long :). There's yet another Summer Challenge to enter at A Spoon Full of Sugar this week!

The challenge this week at One Stop Craft Challenge is to use Fruity Colours, so I'm entering my orange and raspberry card, though it has no actual fruit on it, it still fits the bill. Charisma Cards has an open challenge that you can enter up to four times, that they've called Rubbernecker Week after their sponsor, so here's entry #2 to their challenge. And last but definitely not least, my blogging friend Danni has a Flutterby Wednesday theme of creating an outdoorsy card with a butterfly of fairy. OK I make that SEVEN challenges in one card - yippee! :).

PS My Grafico has a Summer/4th July challenge which Martha has reminded me about (see my post below). So that makes it a record EIGHT!

Now, on to the card...

Digi images from My Grafico were printed twice and coloured with Koh-iNoor pencils. Flowers were cut out and added to the image with 3d sticky dots. The image was edged with Distress Ink in Worn Lipstick and matted onto pink card. The DP is an Artylicious printed paper from my Graphicus Guild membership. The Hero Arts sentiment is stamped onto orange Bazzill card and the whole of it matted onto pink. The butterfly from the set was then stuck down, some Glossy Acents and Stickles blinged it up a bit and I added two butterfly brads from a special offer pack I bought at Made by You. Enjoy the summer and I hope you enjoyed looking at the card!

Happy 4th July - My Grafico Challenge #7

This week's challenge at My Grafico is a 4th July or a summer card. Do go and check out the Design Team's cards, they've done a great job. If you enter the challenge you can win two of the images from from the Fourth of July stamp set. I chose to use a great stars and stripes image from it. I coloured the image with Inktense pencils, added some Perfect Pearls to the start and cut round the image. I mounted it onto some lovely papers that are a free download from Summer Drigg's blog called Freedom. The text is computer generated, 4th of July cards and stamps are not big business in England :)

Truly Scrumptious Challenge #10 & Charisma Cardz Challenge #25

This is the first time I've entered either of these challenges: The Challenge at Truly Scrumptious this week is to use Sharon's great sketch and also to use some neglected stash. I was playing with some new stash, the Retro Vases stamp plate from Elusive Images, when I used some very old and very neglected stash - one of some tiny pigment ink pads that I bought before I even knew there were stamp shops :). I'm also entering my card for Charisma Cardz' any theme challenge; the sponsor rubbernecker is allowing up to four entries, so here's #1 :), I wonder how many more I'll get done...

I wanted to make a glossy vase for the flowers and as I don't have lots of colours of pigment ink I went back to the old ink to use to clear emboss. The ink was very poor quality and the glimmer misted background showed through very badly. So I added more embossing powder - twice - until I got a thick, glossy vase that you can just see the background through - like a real vase. I stamped a bit of a shadowe under the vase and added some of the flowers to it. The vase has crackled slightly and it looks much better in real life than in the photo :). I used another Elusive Images stamp for the sentiment.

The DP is Que Sera Sera from K&K. I've gold embossed the sentiment onto it and also two more flowers from the themeplate, which I've cut round and mounted on foam pads. There are a lot of different colours going on on this card, but that's just how the garden is in June :). It's been a busy but fun few days, more creative blogging tomorrow...

Twisted Thursday #16 - one challenge 2 cards!

I've run out of time for Shirley's2Girls Challenge the last couple of weeks and really didn't want to miss it again. This week the challenge is a sketch with the twist of adding something sparkly. I've made a card ready for this week and then made a second one. Why ever would I do two? OK, there is a reason!

This month I took part in an orphan stamp swap at the Stamp Attic group: we each brought a stamp that either we'd bought and not got used, or one we'd bought and used a lot and can't think of any more ideas for it. The stamps went into paper bags, anonymously, and we all took a different stamp home. We have to make three cards with the stamp, adding other stamps or whatever we want and give them back to the owner, complete with cards for inspiration. Of course we can stamp the images for ourselves if we want while we have the stamp.

I came home with a very uninspired stamp of a bunch of violets which actually works ok with S2Gs sketch, so that's one of my orphan stamp cards out of the way:).
The stamp is coloured with Derwent Inktense pencils and the background washed with colour from the pencils. It's mounted onto purple pearlescent card and then onto a larger circle. The main DP is the reverse of the strip paper used for the circle. To add the glitter I've put Stickles in the centres of the violets and onto the brads in the corners. Paper is from the Stamp Attic, I have no idea where the stamp came from!

Now onto the fun card, which was made with a Shirleys2Girls stamp called Domino's Amusing. Isn't it brilliant? I love the dog and I love the sentiment!

I've paper pieced Domino onto a blue circle and then onto a beige circle from the DP he's pieced from. The sparkle is in the main DP which has glittery bits all over it, I've also used some blue Stickles on his hat and Glossy Accents on his nose. Although it's not part of the sketch I've added the sentiment, it's too good to leave off :)

Take Time to Smell the Flowers - Sketch & Stash #13

This week's Sketch & Stash Challenge has an optional challenge of using animal themed stash. This made my mind up as to what I was going to stashbust this week :) - a lovely dog stamp that my friend Anne bought me from Little Claire's stand at Ally Pally. I fell for 2 dog stamps and have coloured the larger one several times and not been happy with the effect I've got.

For this card I pulled out the little terrier stamp and inked it up at last. I masked it off and stamped an Elzybell's flower stamp onto the background. I coloured the images in with Koh-i-Noor pencils and blended them, adding some Distress Ink around the edges.

The gorgeous papers are Basic Grey from their Porcelain 6x6 pad, fairly new stash from the Stamp Attic, and the two flowers are new stash. I've bought the most beautiful stamp plate from Elusive Images called Retro Vases, with, I think, 40+ images to it. It's taken me a while to cut them out and now I need to start to use them :). This hardly gives much idea of their potential, but I stamped the little star flowers with pink chalk ink, cut them out with a circle punch and shaped the edges. They looked too white so I rubbed more Distress Ink across them and painted the flower middles with it.
I think the dog looks a bit like Sweep, our terrier, but those who know her may think it looks rather better tempered than Sweep :)

Exciting News - I've made the My Grafico Challenge DT!

I'm really excited to be able to tell everyone that I've been accepted as a member of the My Grafico Challenge Blog Design Team. I've been using some of their images for a few weeks now; they are a great way to dip your toe into the digi-image pond as there are lots of freebies and special offer sets on their site.

I'm really looking forward to working on their challenges, watch this space :). In the meantime, why not check out this week's Challenge: Weddings.

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.

Bird Song - Midnight Madness Challenge

I came across the Midnight Madness Challenge blog when following a comment left by Jeni on my blog. The Challenge is running for June; for each week you can enter once. The grand prize is cash - the more people enter the bigger the prize. Sounds fun, wish I'd found it sooner :).

The sketch is an interesting one, that could use either thin strips of paper, lace or ribbon, depending how you chose to interpret it. I've used a favourite line of double sided paper by Crate Paper, that I've bought from the Stamp Attic. Each time I use it up, I buy some more, it's so versatile.

The focus of the card uses a Basic Grey clear stamp from a set that also came from Stamp Attic. I've gold embossed the cage, but the cage door is open and my birds are flying free :). The wording comes from an Elusive Images stamp and the edges of the sentiment and the image are inked with Distress Ink. I love this stamp set, I think it'll get some heavy use.

Fathers Day - My Grafico & Dare you to Digistamp

I've made this card for Fathers Day, my Dad made his living from the sea, sailed for relaxation and still lives by the sea, while we live as far from the sea as its possible to get in England :). Before I go any further, I should explain that this card pinches someone else's idea, though I've tried to tweak it a bit from how I remember the other card layout. I've gone through my browser history and hunted high and low, but I can't find the other blog to give credit for the idea. Apologies and if anyone knows who made a card on these lines, please let me know so I can acknowledge them.

My Grafico has a challenge this week to make your best summer/sea card or layout. They have a lovely free set called baby silhouette stamps which I downloaded because it's got a great owl in it to use. The boat is in here, I've resized it into varying sizes and cut round it. Dare You To Digiatamp has a challenge this week to make a scene. Of course for scenes the Sketchingstamper has fabulous images, what a great excuse to buy one :).

I coloured the scene with a mixture of Inktense and watercolour pencils. Because I wanted to superimpose the boats on top of it, which are not to scale, I stylised the background scene by cutting it into three segments and matting them onto navy card. Then I used some silicon glue to attach the boats onto the split image. The background card is a world map double sided paper that I bought from Stamp Attic last year and the greeting is a peel-off. I'm really pleased with the way this card has turned out, Happy Father's Day Dad!

Happy Bark-Day! - Inspirational Cards Sketches #21 meets Shirleys2Girls

I got my prize stamp from Shirleys2Girls in the post earlier this week and I used it for this week's Inspirational Card Sketches Challenge. It's a great stamp with several alternative sentiments included; I've used two here. I love this stamp, it's going to be so useful, thanks Shirleys2Girls!The circular birthday sentiment is a Hero Arts clear stamp.

I've paper pieced the stamp and coloured it in with Koh-i-Noor pencils, the papers are Basic Grey cupcake, which are bright and summery, with some blue Bazzill card as the base to the card.

The card is for Dad's birthday, Happy Birthday Dad!

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 :).

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.

Old Bikers Don't Die, They Just Get Exhausted - Corrosive Challenge #16

Here's my entry for this week's Corrosive Challenge; Janet has given us a great sketch to work with this week. The card is for a great friend of ours who is 80 next week and it has a vintage Matchless motorbike on it. You probably think this is because he used to ride Matchlesses in his heyday. Well nearly right. He did - but he still does ride - though he has given up competing in sprints a couple of years back after a hip replacement.

The Matchless stamp came from Dimension Fourth, DH also has a couple of Matchless languishing in the garage now he's riding his Triumph, so the stamp will get used again :). It's black embossed onto white card and watercoloured, then cut out and mounted onto red cardstock. The number stamps are also from Dimension Fourth, stamped with white pigment ink onto black. The silver metallic papers are from a pack I got from Craftwork Cards, which work well with the bike. I've used plain red and black cardstock to mat and layer the images and I drew a border round the red card behind the bike with a Pigma pen, it looked a bit plain without it.

In case you were wondering, part of the engine is gold and the rest is chrome, I'm told this is an image of a 7R :).

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...

Purple & Pink for Alice

Dutch Dare's challenge this week is one close to my heart, they are asking for cards to be created for Post Pals. Post Pals is something I already support, I send cards to Alice, who currently undergoing chemotherapy. Her favourite colours are pink and purple, so that's what I've used for my card.

I've used the gorgeous sketch from Sketch & Stash Challenge this week and I've used butterflies on my card, which is this week's challenge for A Spoonful of Sugar . I love Danni's butterfly challenges and this week she gave us the very straightforward challenge of using a challenge sketch and including butterflies (or fairies) so I've covered that one too :).

This is, of course, a stashbusting card as it's for Sketch & Stash :). I began with something new: the lovely butterfly stamp from last month's Graphicus Guild themeplate, which I hadn't used yet. It's stamped onto Glimmer Misted paper, the butterfly stamped again and coloured with Koh-i-Noor pencils then with Glossy Accents on top. The sentiment stamp is part of this month's Graphicus Guild themeplate, again I've not used it before.

The pink pearlescent card came from a box of paper that I filled at one of the first craft shows I ever went to, this is neglected stash, as are the two DPs, which are both from my Graphicus Guild membership papers. The pink background is obescured by the images, but it is a lovely large-scale flower print, and of course the butterflies had to go onto this card :). Butterflies diecut with a punch that I've had for a while and just begun using, ribbons and flower from stash.



Post Pals is a lovely organisation, please join in and send cards if you can :).

One Bird, Three Challenges

I've been playing with digital images again today. My Grafico has a challenge blog up and running and to take part, you get a freebie image from them to use. So you've actually "won" before you've even entered! The image is one of four from a set called Little Birds. I love birdimages so I had to give this one a go :). Thank you to Martha for the free image :)

Friday Sketchers has a lovely sketch by Jeanette for its challenge this week, that I used for the card. Finally the colour scheme has come from this week's DareU2DigiStamp challenge, which is to use chocolate and orange. So that's image, layout and colourscheme all decided for me, no decisions, just cardmaking :).

I found the Terry's chocolate orange colourscheme quite tricky, much more so than eating one :). I printed my bird image out onto a sheet of brown paper from a Funky Fairy kit called Justabit, he's lovely but quite a challenge to cut around that splendid curly tail, I shall colour him on a plain background if I'm in a hurry to use him next time. The orangey-brown swirly paper is a freebie from Funky Fairy's blog that comes in lots of colours, very useful.

I've used an Inkessentials white pen on my bird's eye and wing for a highlight. There's some metallic bronze paper behind the oval and thin brown and orange ribbons. The flowers are white flowers coloured with Copic pen, with more of the bronze paper behind them. It's quite a simple card; I've left the sentiment off as I think this is quite a versatile card and I'll add the wording as I need it.

The bird image is fab and I will definitely be using it some more, do check out My Grafico when you get the chance.

Can't see the wood for the trees - Corrosive Challenge #15 & Stampin' for the Weekend #2

Janet's Corrosive Challenge this week is to make a card for Father's Day. Unless I rename this post "Look away now Dad" I can't post my Father's Day card, Dad is a regular reader of my blog :). So here's a card I've made for my Father-in-law as he isn't online, so won't see this card ahead of time!

I've used a free Digi-image from MyGrafico, a great site that has plenty of freebies as well as lots of items included in their sale. It's well worth checking out what they have. As I've used a digi-image, I've also entered my card for Stampin' for the Weekend's second challenge, to use a digi-image. The sentiment is computer generated, the background paper from Stamp Attic and the little buterfly is cut with a punch, I found it on my desk and decided to add it to the card :). Oh, I've used Distress Ink (tea dye) around the edges of the paper.

Leslie's Blog Candy

My SBS "Sister" Leslie has some awesome blog candy to give away for her 42nd birthday. Check out Leslie's blog and her guidelines, the more entries there are, the more blog candy is up for grabs.

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 :)

Twisted Thursday #13 - bring a friend

This week's Twisted Thursday Challenge has a great sketch to use, with the twist that paper piecing must be used. There's a further fun twist though: "BONUS OPPORTUNITY TO WIN: If you play this week's Twisted Thursday challenge, AND you bring a NEW friend to play along, AND you both leave Kristine and Deidre some love on the Shirley's 2 Girls Challenge Blog, then you are eligible to win another FREE stamp!" Well that sounds fun, Shirleys2Girls also has a brilliant new release of dog stamps, that I LOVE, so I contacted my blogging "Sister" Vanja who is always up for a challenge :) and she agreed to play along too.

My Chairman at work and his wife are due to move back into their rebuilt home just as soon as the floors have dried out and I decided to make a card for them. I used my S2G stamp Home Sweet Home, stamping it onto Glimmer Misted paper and paper piecing the birdhouses. There's a little glitter on the centre star too. The wording with the stamp is "Home Sweet Home" but I couldn't fit that onto the card; I just inked up one word and centred it beneath the image.

The papers came with a magazine; I mounted a piece of the house paper onto Bazzill card, and did the same for the stamped image. I cut out another house from a greeting on the free papers and silicon glued it on instead of a flower; the "new home" strip across the bottom comes from the papers too. It's quite a simple card, I feel sometimes that cards for non-cardmakers look better without everything but the kitchen sink added to them :)

Dusk till Dawn

New Challenge blogs seem to be popping up every day and there is more and more choice of challenges to take part in. If only someone could sell some more hours for the day so I can keep up with them all... :)

Stampin' for the Weekend is a new one, with my friend Vanja as one of the Design Team, having seen her lovely card and their great theme - From Dusk until Dawn - purple and yellow - I wanted to be sure to take part in this one. I went with a really nice sketch by Dawn from Inspirational Card sketches challenge #19 . I also included the Secret Crafter's challenge #35 for this week, which is bling, using some glitter, some gemstones and some Glossy Accents. Cute Card Thursday's Challenge #63 is to use punches and die cuts; I've managed to include this on the card too. Phew! I think four challenges in one card is my record, I'm always in awe of those who manage to fit umpteen challenges into one card, which takes some multi-tasking! OK that's the challenges, now on to the card :).

I have used all Elusive Images stamps for the card; the Graphicus Guild stamps this month include the bird and birdhouse, the brilliant "Best Wishes" stamp is from another, older, Guild stamp set. The papers are all from the papers included with the Guild membership. The birhouse is embossed with Adirondack Eggplant onto patterend paper, with a gem on top of it. The bird is stamped onto pale yellow Bazzill card and then again onto a pale yellow patterned paper, in Eggplant dye ink this time. I've used the birdhouse stamp around the edges for the leaf pattern. The bird is mounted onto the card using silicon glue and then painted with Glossy Accents, which seem to have turned the Eggplant a bit blue.

When I assembled the card I was going to use the thin piece of the sketch to the left for the sentiment, until I remembered the pearlescent card that I used a butterfly punch on a couple of days ago, the negative shapes were just too pretty to throw away so it went into the scrap box. I think it fits the sketch really well.

I stamped the "Best Wishes" onto the card when it was assembled, in Eggplant again, and added faux brads to the corners and gemstones below the butterflies. I've coated the brads in Glossy Accents and dropped some Prisma Glitter on them to give them a bit of bling. I also used a tip from a workshop I went to at MadeByYou last week for the ribbon: I used double sided tape wider than the ribbon, with a narrow sticky border each side of the ribbon and again, coated it in the glitter more some more bling. I think this is a great idea, may come in useful for any accidental sticky tape left showing :) .

Love the Dusk Until Dawn theme, great one to work with and it came together with the other themes quite well, I think.

Summer Garden - The Next Level

The Next Level is a new Challenge Blog with lots on interesting articles and tutorials. It's first challenge is to create an aperture card, which must have a lollipop flower on it. I hadn't come across lollipop flowers before but there's a full tutorial provided on the blog so that was no excuse not to take part :).



I bought some sumptuous Basic Grey papers earlier this week in the Stamp Attic and was keen to use them, so that set my colour scheme as pinks, greens, browns and apricot. I chose papers for the flower and made it first, leaving it to dry, then I went on to make the card. I haven't made an aperture card before so I kept it simple and chose to cut a circle. I wanted the circle to be off-centre to make room for the flower and other embellishments, so I used a Nestie to cut a scalloped circle and stuck that in the right spot, then cut into that with a smaller circle.



The sitting Gorjuss Girl from Sugar Nellie works really well sitting at the edge of a circle, so I coloured her with watercolour pencils and a little bit of opaque white pen and placed her on the card, with some ribbon behind to make a stem for the flower. I filled the RH corners of the cards with flourishes from Elusive Images, stamped in green, and added a die-cut butterfly to the edge of the circle to balance out the sitting girl.



Then I moved on to the inner of the card. I used some lovely blotchy green paper and began with some grass, using a Stamps by Judith stamp and with a Penny Black tree. I gave the tree leaves and flowers with Tapestry stamps and added some flowers with Craftwork Cards clear stamps.

So far so good... until I decided to spray some iridiscent Glimmer Mist over the scene, to match the lollipop flower. The non-waterproof inks all began to run and I hastily dried it with a heat gun! I also learnt that I should have cut a large square of background, not cut the circle as of course it was a pain to line up and the white around it spoilt its look. I mounted it onto a dark square of paper, only to find that it wasn't quite parallel with the card edges and looked crooked. I solved this by cutting some lace borders from the papers and covering the top and bottom of the square.



I really enjoyed making the card even if the aperture was a steep learning curve :).

ATCs in the post

These are the ATCs that I made for last month's UKATC swap: Dahling, Chocolate Cake and Retro Girl. I was late sending but then I've not received my swaps either, so I'm not the only sinner :). Stamps, left to right, are: Rubber Romance, Hero Arts and Tim Holtz.

In the post from my SBS Sistahs

Yesterday I got a couple of great pieces of mail from my "Sisters" Janet in Canada and Vanja in Serbia.

Janet sent my a lovely ATC, soft greens and browns, with a cute leaf charm, and quite out of her usual rock chick style :). It's so pretty Janet, thank you!

Vanja sent me some fab stamped images, including some from the Whiff of Joy Summer collection and this beautiful, elegant card in my favourite Autumnal colours.

Thank you so much both of you!

Three Challenges, one card

I'm combining three challenges here on one card. My starting point was with some digital download papers that I got which fitted the them on The Secret Crafter's challenge for this week perfectly: pink, turquoise and a hint of brown. I got an email about a birthday sale at Funky Fairy and saw a really sweet set called Just a Bit, which is based around pink, blue, green and brown. I've printed off a floral, an almost plain blue and a dotty pink. There is some brown in the trails on the floral but I added brown centres to my circles from some Basic Grey paper too.

Because the paper was digital, I decided to use the sketch from Digital Tuesday Challenge and found a beautiful free digi-image on Nina's blog, created in honour of her daughters. Due to lack of room I've cropped the text from the bottom of the image. Nina has a brilliant blog, do check it out if you get a chance. The image is coloured with Koh-iNoor pencils, with Stickles blinging it up a bit. The image was cut out with a Labels Nestie and mounted onto turquoise Bazzill card. The circles have small brown and turquoise circles overlapped on the smallest scalloped Nestie size.

Danni's Flutterby Challenge this week is an open one, to use butterflies or fairies. I've used a punch to cut out a butterfly that is sitting on the ribbon and a couple more on the sentiment. I had a lot of fun making this card, I just hope it's not too busy :)

Hey Cupcake - Ismaki 01/06 Delphine

The challenge at Ismaki this week is to use Delphine's sketch, as well as at least one button and one flower. Oh, and a white background too :). I found it quite challenging to fit all the elements onto it, Delphine designed it as a 12 x 12" scrap layout and I've fitted it all onto a 6" square card. There won't be many more challenges from Ismaki and I didn't want to miss one even though I don't scrapbook.

I went to Stamp Attic today and saw a card, in the flesh, that Wendy has posted on her new blog, using the Hero Art cupcakes. It jogged me to get my cupcake stamps out and use them with the most gorgeous set of double-sided papers that I bought there a few weeks back. They're called On A Whimsy and made by Fancy Pants in lovely soft vintage ice cream colours, but the designs are ever so slightly edgier than the pastels imply.

I paper pieced the cupcake and mounted it onto the co-ordinated back, with the sentiment stamped at the top. The candle has a Stickles flame. I've followed the layout using the papers and some yellow Bazzill card, the border is cut with a Sissix die. The flowers are from Stamp Attic and the button is from my button box. :). Ahem I found some equally lovely paper from Basic Grey on my visit but a card from that will have to wait for another time...

Stampavie Challenge #5

This is the first time I've entered the Stampavie Challenge, I've used Jay Jay's pretty sketch to make a Get Well card. I've used some lovely two-sided paper from the Stamp Attic, with the shabby gingham for background and the big roses for the circle. The image is coloured with Koh-i-Noors in soft pinks and greens and mounted onto green Bazzill Bling card. The flowers are also from Stamp Attic.

Incidentally Stamp Attic now has a Blog - check out where my wages go to each month ;)