Waiting for Santa's Sleigh

Looks like I'm feeling Christmassy this week, here comes another card! This card is a CASE of a card I saw at Made by You last week that Pat, the owner had made. I saw the card and HAD to get the stamp set :). Oops how many times has that happened? The stamp set is by Creative Expressions, they have a set of Stylish Christmas stamps, I think this is number 3. A Spoonful of Sugar's challenge this week is Christmas, so this is my challenge entry.

I folded an A4 piece of card into three and then cut it down into a square to make a concertina card, I used the rest of the cardstock to cut 3 squares to stamp onto and then matted them onto silver Mirri card. I embossed the three different sizes of tree onto the squares, as well as the sleigh and heat embossed them with black sparkle. I used a post-It to cut out a mask for the moon and used watercolour Stargazers paint on the background. I love this card, I just need to find a small square envelope for it!

Simon Says Red & Green

It must be getting closer to Christmas... Simon Says has Red & Green as their challenge this week. There's the chance to win their challenge, but also don't forget that Lorraine gives away weekly candy to those who enter the Challenge, as do several of the other Design Team members.

My card is one I made at Made By You's Macmillan Coffee Morning last week, I hope they raised lots of money for cancer care. It's a simple card that I can make easily, it's always hard work getting all those Christmas cards made, so one that's straightforward is always welcome :). I've embossed cardstock with the holly Cuttlebug folder and sponged three shades of green Distress Ink across it: Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint and Pine Needles. I wonder who gets to think up the names, aren't they evocative? The berries are coloured with a red Tombow pen. I used a glue pen on the berries and the stems and added Glamour Dust to them. The embossing is mounted onto dark green card. The organza ribbon is stuck to a wide piece of double-sided tape and more Glamour Dust gives it a sparkly margin.

I think I'm going to make a few of these, they look good for minimal effort :)

PS Last day to enter my Blog Candy! I'm adding in a mystery extra candy, make sure you've entered.

Tuesday Morning Sketches meets My Grafico Challenge!

This week My Grafico Challenge is joining forces with Melissa's Tuesday Morning Sketch Challenge, which gives you the chance to win TWO prizes! At My Grafico you can win a sporty car set of digi-stamps and at TMS there's another set of My Grafico digi-stamps up for grabs; this time an adorable girl set.

I used a lovely freebie image from My Grafico for my take on Melissa's sketch, printed onto Graphicus Guild paper. The other papers are also Graphicus Guild, the sentiment is Elusive Images. I've matted image and sentiment onto gold card and used card candy from Craftwork Cards to finish off my card. Please forgive the brief description; today should have been a day off work to deal with my beef for the next year or so, with the help of a local butcher, however an ill husband, a work meeting that couldn't be re-scehduled and a long piece of English coursework to be checked and discussed from my older son, as well as my elderly Kenwood Chef blowing up part way through mincing 50lb of stewing beef have made it a long day :).

Don't forget to make a card and enter both challenges - after all you've got to be in to win!

To meet your prince, you've got to kiss a lot of frogs

I've not had much time for crafting this weekend, but I did get this pretty Diane Duda image coloured and made into a quick card. The image comes from a Splitcoaststamper's swap and I can see that it's another Sugar Nellie that needs to go on my wish-list :). It's the first image I've used where there's scope to colour in the eyes, which makes a lot of difference to the way the face looks. Hmm... don't have that on the Girl Thing stamp I bought, yes I need some more stamps :).

I've used Jeanette's sketch from this week's Friday Sketchers and I've followed the colour recipe on the Corrosive Challenge blog of green and pink.

Image is coloured with Copics, edges inked with Peeled Paint and Pine Needles Distress Inks. Stickles added to the crowns and Glossy Accents to the frog. Papers are Stampin' Up, matted onto green Bazzill card. Ticket comes from a Bearly Mine Designs download and flower is cut 5 times with a Big Shot die to give it lots of layers.

Happy Birthday Geoff

Today is my DH's birthday and this is the card I made him; he's a keen fly fisherman. I'm ashamed to say I can't remember where these stamps are from; I bought them at Ally Pally this time last year, from a stand that has lots of unmounted rubber stamps, especially sentiments. The bullrushes are a Clarity stamp and the grasses are Creative Expressions. Image is watercoloured, mounted onto green and then dark bronze, DP was in a bargain pack and looked suitably masculine. And that's it, pretty plain and simple, no frilly bits on this masculine card :)

Oh, I'm entering this for Charisma Cardz' Challenge, Getting Sporty.

Christmas Teddybear

Here's another of the new release Lili of the Valley stamps that I got, cute isn't he? I had fun colouring him with my Copics; normally I really work hard to keep the colouring even but on the teddy I had a great time scribbling to get a furry look :).

I've covered several challenges here:

• The sketch is Lili of the Valley's challenge this week

• One Stop Craft Challenge has Beary Nice as its theme
• Simon Says want stitching - real or faux and
  
• Pile It On calls for us to use our punches

Image is coloured with Copics and Promarkers, the background has Adirondack Denim ink sponged onto it. There is faux stitching around the edges and I've used a corner punch on the image and its mat. The papers came as a magazine insert and are all matted onto plain navy; the snowflakes are punched from pink card tha I've coloured with a Copic to match the teddie's presents. I've added Perfect Pearls to the snowflakes and some of the papers. Sentiment is from a new Woodware set of clear stamps that I bought today at Made By You.

I had a lovely crafty morning at Made by You today; workshops were running all day in aid of the Macmillan Cancer Nurses Coffee mornings. I made some simple Christmas cards, ate cake, had fun and did some shopping :). Almost makes up for not going to Ally Pally this year :)

Simon Says Stitch!

Simon Says are trying to get 200 entries for their blog challenge this week. If you enter a card, check out the extra candy sponsored by Simon Says on some of their DT's blogs.

Lorraine is offering a Magnolia stamp of your choice here
Chris is offering a fun set of clear stamps here
and Jo has Basic Grey candy here for those who enter Simon Says and Basic Grey.

I've made my Simon Says card, how about you???

Twisted Thursday #25 - I tried to do Hallowe'en - honest!

I've just managed to finish a card in time for Shirleys2Girls' challenge this week, which is to use their simple sketch, adding a Hallowe'en embellishment. I found this a tricky card to make, simply because like most Brits I don't really "do" Hallowe'en. We have sweeties for trick or treaters, though now the kids are older there are less visitors, and that's about it. I had a think and remembered that I have the Creative Expressions village set of stamps, which includes pumpkins, so I got to work :).

I masked off the large pumpkin and then a lamp post behind it, before adding the village, offset with some of the street stamped off the edge. A few grasses and clouds completed the picture, though I'm not totally happy about the pumpkin, it looks a bit like it's floating in front of the lamp post; which I suppose only happens on the 31st October :). Another couple of pumpkins are added as my embellishment, on foam pads. I stamped and painted in Distress Inks, the images use Black Soot and, with the exception of the sky (Adirondack denim), everything uses the inks and a paintbrush. The papers are K & Co, matted onto navy card. I tried black to go with the Hallowe'en look but it was too harsh and the navy worked much better.

It's unusual for me not to use one of my Shirleys2Girls stamps for their challenge; sorry girls but this one was tricky for me; it doesn't even look very Hallowe'en :).

My first House Mouse stamp - and doing the happy dance

Tonight I'm doing the happy dance :). Over a year ago I took on a large textile project that had all sorts of problems. The poor thing had been designed by a committee, started and stopped by several groups of people and one individual, all of whom had wildly different styles. A dear friend begged me to complete it as her last resort. I'm sure there are less appealing projects to work on, but I can't think of them off-hand. Anyhow, deadlines came and went and I kept finding every excuse not to work on it. This October is a major anniversary for the chapel it's destined for and for the past month I've been gritting my teeth and working, and working and working on it. When you're thread painting a background it's hard to know when to stop and I phoned for it to be inspected today. I'm so happy to report that it greatly exceeded expectations, luckily my friend understood the limitations and problems. She was delighted with it and took it away to trim it to size and complete it in time for the celebrations. Hooray! I forgot to take any pictures before it went, I was working on it until the last minute, but I'll get photos of it in situ I'm sure. I'm a happy bunny with a weight off my shoulders now it's completed :)

Now back to stamping... Anyhow, I've had a hankering for a House Mouse stamp (or two) and last week I managed to get Peppermint Tails on Ebay for a reasonable price. Since then I've found a couple more and look forward to them arriving. I wanted a soft effect and wasn't confident enough to use Copics on the image, so I used good old watercolour pencils, edging the image with Distress Ink. When I looked at the House Mouse Challenge site they are reviewing the year and you can choose one or several of the challenges they've had over the last year. I've combined their very useful sketch from Challenge #48 with #32, Something Sweet (peppermint tails) and #14 All About Christmas.

I bought the yummy Christmas papers at Stamp Attic last night (they're Fancy Pants), the velvet ric-rac came from Festival of Quilts and the sentiment is from Imagepac I think. Love the classic colours of the papers and the image :)

Funky Flamingo

It's time for the My Grafico Challenge again, which I found quite a tough one to work with :). We are using a very cute set of flamingos having holiday fun at the beach and the theme is retirement! Hmm... I've also made my card to a recipe for this week's Simon Says Challenge, which is is a 3-2-1 with 3 embellishments, 2 papers and 1 image.

Image coloured with Copics, yellow Stickles added to the hat and necklace. The background was painted from a Stonewashed Adirondack ink pad. The image was cut out using Rach's out of the frame technique and mounted onto golden sand coloured Bazzill card. The two papers came from a huge K& Co box that I got when I went to Graphicus. The ribbon is from stash and the 2 flowers are Prima from a pack I chose when I was lucky enough to win the Simon Says challenge in July. I thought I had a Happy Retirement stamp somewhere from an assortment of stamps I bought on Ebay but I couldn't find it, so I opted for an Elusive Images sentiment: "Enjoy Yourself" which fits the theme but could also work for other occasions too. The colour scheme is meant to be hot and sunny, hope you like it!

Christmas birdhouse

Passion for Promarkers this week doesn't call for specific colours to be used, which is useful for me as I don't have too many; the Challenge is to use polka dots so I began by unearthing the soft blue and biscuity double sided paper; don't know who made it, there's nothing printed on the margin. It goes nicely with the holly paper from My Mind's Eye that I bought last year. If the holly wasn't single sided I'd say they came from the same collection, they go almost too well together :).

I decided to work with the sketch from Inspirational Card Sketches' Challenge this week, which really appealed to me with the square on point. I'd like to be able to say that I decided to flip the sketch to make it more unusual, the honest answer is that I stuck my on-point square round the wrong way!

The birdhouse is a pretty Christmas stamp that I got at Lili of the Valley, I coloured the house using vanilla and pastel beige together. I remembered to keep out the pens I'd used and photgraph them for posterity :). The birdhouse is cut out and decoupaged with silicon glue, as are the bird and the stockings. I've used fluffy stuff for the snow and Glossy Accents on the berries. The background for the image and the sentiment have Distress Ink in tea dye and denim Adirondack ink rubbed in. Everything is mounted onto a navy card, the ribbon is from stash.

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).

Daisy for Danni

Danni has a great blog, she runs the Flutterby Challenge each Wednesday and always has lots of interesting cards to show. Earlier this month it was her 40th and here's the card I sent her.

Daisy from Sugar Nellie, one of my favourite images, is coloured with Copics and Promarkers, the edges of the image coloured with Distress Inks. The second circle has a Creative Images stamp embossed onto it and the numbers are from Dimension Fourth, glued with silicon to give them shape. All papers are Basic Grey.

Danni's celebrating her landmark all month, so have a great day, Danni!! :)

Falling for Grace

The lovely Shirley's2Girls held a Digi-day on the SNR Card Universe at the weekend and generously gave away this fab image called Grace does Fall. Join their group and you can also get the image. They challenged everyone to make an Autumn card (OK probably they called it Fall :) ) using the image and adding some Kraft paper. I didn't quite get my first effort finished in time for their challenge, but here it is below:
Grace is coloured with Promarkers and Copics, I've added Glossy Accents for the leaves and her specs. I didn't have any Kraft paper so I used some brown wrapping paper, torn at the edges, on the card. The DP is K & Co Que Sera, which has delicious Autumn shades and the ribbon with leaves on was bought by my DH last Christmas for me. The background looks a bit washed out, it is a stronger blue than the scan shows, from painting with Adirondack Deninm ink.

Having seen that Digital Tuesday's Challenge this week is to create a clean and simple Fall card I decided to have another play with Gracie. I've made the colours as vibrant as I could this time.
Isn't the photo I've added beautiful? It's from some junk mail for a garden centre's sale that I got through the door. It's far too pretty to throw away so I mounted it onto yellow card and added it to my card. On my first card I felt the leaves looked very insignificant. This time I cropped them from the image and enlarged them. They show up much better and they're not so tricky to cut out! A Spoonful of Sugar also has Fall into Autumn for its challenge this week, so this card fits a second challenge.

My Grafico Challenge #16 - Autumn

It's challenge time again at the My Grafico Challenge Blog! This week you have the chance to win this beautiful set of Autumn digi-stamps:
All you need to do is to create a card, a layout, whatever creative project you'd like to make for Autumn, using a 3-2-1 recipe: One image, two design papers and three embellishments. I've used the girl and leaves image, coloured with Copics and cut out with a Nestabilities die. The two DPs are either side of a piece of K & Co Que Sera paper and my three embellishments are leaves cut out from paper, with veins marked on using my scoring board.

It feels very Autumnal here, though the leaves haven't changed colour. There are lots of lovely stubble fields to ride across on the farms and there is a real nip in the air, I do like this time of year...

Happy Purplicious Birthday Morag

This rather OTT card is for my friend Morag, who loves anything as long as it's purple :). I've taken inspiration from several challenges:

• My starting point was Charisma Cardz's Patchwork Challenge; I've been wanting to use the patchwork shaped chipboard for ages
• The purple colour scheme uses Dutch Dares' photo inspiration challenge again - love this photo
• I got really carried away with Stamp Something's use your favourite embellishments challenge! Too many embellies! LOL
• The sketch that I put it all together with is from Corrosive Challenges

The image is one of my favourite Leanne Ellis stamps from Sugar Nellie, Stitch. She's coloured with Copics and the background watercoloured from Dusty Concord Distress Ink. The main background paper was Glimmer Misted, then silver embossed with two different Elusive Images scrolly corners, aren't they beautiful. The silver embossed sentiment is also from Elusive Images. Now the embellishments: the patchwork pieces are covered in Artylicious paper and edged with the Distress Ink, there are two ribbons, one cream that was coloured with copic and one mauve, my favourite Prima flowers and a delicious little sewing machine charm from Quixotic Paperie.

Maybe there are rather too many embellishments, what do you think? I reckon it's purple enough, at least :). Oh, don't forget to enter my blog candy, will you?

Pink & green jazzy angel

Here's the Lili of the Valley jazzy angel again, this time in pink and green to fit Cute Card Thursday's Challenge, strawberry mint julep (pink & green). The card is based on Jacqueline's sketch from this week's Friday Sketchers Challenge.

Image coloured with a mix of Promarkers and Copics, Shabby Shutters Distress Ink is sponged around the edges of the circle. The scalloped edged octagon is a Nestabilities die, which I don't think looks quite so dominant as in Jacqueline's sketch, so I've lopped off the corners of my DP to give another octagon shape. DP is a download from Bearly Mine Designs' Country Collection, ribbon is from stash and the snowflakes are the supermarket ones coloured with Copic again.

Jazzy angel in mauve

It's that time of the year again; I need to try to make some Christmas cards as I take part in challenges, so it's not too daunting a task as December gets closer...

I'm only just in time, but I did want to use Coco's very pretty sketch on Sketch Saturday's Challenge. There seem to be lots of colour inspiration challenges this week; this is based on the photo inspiration from Dutch Dare's Challenge of a vase of flowers against wallpaper.

I've used my new angel stamp from Lili of the Valley and coloured her with Copics. I've christened her the jazzy angel, she looks like she's enjoying playing the trumpet :). The image is edged with lilac ribbon, the main DP is from Artylicious and the green circles are cut from free paper that came with a magazine; the green scalloped circles are from paper that I've Glimmer Misted. The tiny sentiment is from a Penny Black clear set and the snowflakes came, I think, from a supermarket. I've coloured them with pink Copic, the were a very feeble shade of pink before :)

Get well soon Paige

This card is for Paige Welsh. I don't know Paige, however Erin, a member of the Stamp Something Design Team has asked for cards to be sent to her. Paige is Erin's neighbour's daughter. Check out Erin's blog for the details, but Paige, who is 13, suffered a serious accident while boating and has had to have part of her arm amputated. Erin is kindly offering blog candy to one of those who sends a card and many other generous stamp companies have joined in with sponsorship. If you are able to, please send a card to Paige.

This is a second entry for the Simon Says Challenge this week: the team are trying to get over 200 entries, so I thought I'd put a second one in :), following Iris' sketch. It's also my entry for Janet's Corrosive Challenge this week, which has Cats as its theme.

I've used a Sugar Nellie image kindly sent to me by my blogging friend Vanja. All the papers are Sparkly Sweet from K & Co, I cut the flowers out from the DP too. Image coloured with Copics and edged with Mustard Seed and Worn Lipstick Distress Inks.

Papertake Angels meet Friday Sketchers

This is another of my new stamps from Lili of the Valley, isn't she pretty? I've used Heidi's sketch from Friday Sketchers challenge, flipped onto its side, to make a card that will also fit Papertake's Angels and Fairies challenge this week. I hoped that this stamp would arrive in time to use it and enter and I've made it - just :).

Image stamped in Cocoa Memento ink, coloured with Promarkers and Copics, Stickles added to holly berries and wings. Image mounted onto Bazzill Basics card, all other DPs Dovecraft, bought last year, Felt snowflake from the Stamp Attic, Noel is a clear stamp from Imagepac.

Back to School notebook

I've used an image from the very cute digi-set that is the prize for this week's My Grafico challenge: School Kids , to decorate a notebook for the new school term. Enter your card or crafty creation and you could be the winner of this adorable set. Back to School is also the theme at Cute Card Thursday this week.

My notebook is pretty simple, I've paper pieced the coat and boots from a piece of Artylicious DP and coloured the rest of the image with Copics. The edges of the image have been distressed with Dusty Concord Distress Ink and it's been mounted onto the same purple DP. Two more Artylicious DPs and a piece of ribbon from my stash make up the rest of the decoration. Oh, I rounded the corners of the papers with a punch.

Many Heidi Returns

It was Heidi's from the Simon Says stamp company's birthday last week and in celebration the Simon Says Challenge blog is aiming for at least 200 entries for this week's challenge, which is to follow Iris' sketch. If the DT manage to get over 200 entries then Heidi will send each of them an extra present. I've been lucky enough to win candy from Simon Says, thanks to Heidi's generosity, so here goes with my entry for the challenge, I hope to enter a second time if I can :).

I had some beautiful new stamps arrive from Lili of the Valley on Friday, a shared order between myself and my blogging friend Vanja. I mostly got Christmas stamps but I couldn't resist this girl and her dog sitting on a swing. The image is coloured with a mixture of Copics and Promarkers, I've used Adirondack Lemonade ink sponged onto the background. I used Pea Green Copic pen on the flower centres and the organza ribbon, as well as edging the sentiment. The papers are Basic Grey Porcelain, the large blooms are Hero Arts with plain white flowers used for the green coloured centres. Thinking of You is a Craftwork Cards oval white card sentiment, again I've used my Copic (skin white) to colour it. The cream edged ribbon and the green organza ribbon are from stash. Love the new stamp, it took longer than expected to arrive but it was worth the wait.

Happy Birthday for last week Heidi!

Indian Summer

As soon as I saw the theme at Truly Scumptious this week - Indian Summer - I thought of these two Elzybell's stamps and knew I wanted to use them with Michelle's sketch. Sunflower Fun is stamped onto the card with the Sunflower used around the edge at random to make a border. I've then stamped the sunflowers separately and cut them out, adding silicon glue to attach them to the card with their petals curling up.

The images were coloured with a mixture of Promarkers and Copics (still undecided about which to opt for) and some yellow Stickles on the sunflowers. The image and the DP were mounted onto brightly coloured Bazzil card, the yummy DP stripe is by On a Whimsy, the ribbon is from my stash. I hope my card makes you feel a bit more like the sun is shining :).

Bronte Goes Ice Skating

This is the first Christmas card I've made with Mo Manning's wonderful digital art. It stars Bronte, the grumpy sort-of cattle dog that Mo's family gave a home to. The image is coloured using that classic, favourite colour combi of red and green, to enter Copic Creation's challenge this week. I used Woodware Fluffy Stuff for the fur trim on the hat and muff, just squeeze it on and heat it to make 3d, fluffy snow. Or, in this case, furry trim :). Isn't this a fabulous image to use? I love it...

The Merry Christmas is a clear stamp I've had in for ages, added to one of the Creative Expressions circles that are designed to fit Nestabilities. I've embossed with brown ink that isn't intended for embossing and didn't like the cool, metallic grey-brown that I ended up with. So I coloured it with my brown Copic - much better. All the DP is Basic Grey Infuse, which is not a Christmas set as such, but I think it works really well on a Christmas card. I cut along the wiggly design lines for the centre strip, added a narrower piece of pink stripe and then the most beautiful velvet ric-rac that I bought at the quilt show. I couldn't resist it but it was quite pricy, so it'll be on special Christmas cards only :).

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.

My Grafico Blog Hop Winner!

I used random.org and the winner of the digi image of the ice cream is comment number 10:

Lailani said...
Wow!! Adorable!!Lailani

Congratulations Lailani! If you let me have your email address I will send the digi-image across to you, have fun with it:)

Don't forget to look in at MyGrafico's Challenge blog throughout this week and join in the fun, there are lots more prizes to be won.