Safe Harbour

Here's another card made with those gorgeous HobbyArt stamps that I bought at the NEC. As soon as I saw this week's Inspirational Card Sketches I knew I wanted to use it with this scene. Cute Card Thursday is calling for Dimensions or lots of layers; I've got plenty of layers here as well as dimensions in the dry embossing. Papertake's theme this week is Anything Goes so I'm entering that too with my little card:).

Striped DP is My Mind's Eye, I've Cuttlebugged Bazzil Bling card for the squares. The Cuttlebug folder is called Branches, I've turned it around to make waves. I've masked and stamped my scene stamps and coloured with Distress Inks.

Every Garden Needs an Angel...

This week's Designed2Delight image is of a garden angel. After the winter we've just had my garden is in dire need of some help, hopefully she can sprinkle a little magic... I've made my card using the sketch at Card Patterns Challenge , Secret Crafter's theme is pink, green and flowers, so that's the colourscheme sorted, Charisma Cardz' Challenge is Spring has Sprung and that gives my theme.

My angel has a paper pieced dress and is coloured with Copics, with Distress Inks stippled onto the background. DP is K&K, picket fence punch is Martha Stewart. Flowers are made from Little Claire's die, raffia was left over from the flower arranging class on Satuday. I've added Stickles and Liquid pearls to the image and the flowers.

Corrosive Challenge # 57 - Easter or Spring - plus a few more challenges

This week's Corrosive Challenge is an Easter or a Spring Challenge, I've used one of Shirleys2Girls cute Easter images for my card. I based my card on the sketch at Friday Sketcher's Challenge . I'm also entering it for the Easter Challenges at DareU2Digistamp and Fussy & Fancy and also Creative Card Crew's theme of Going Dotty.

Image is coloured with Copics and Glossy Accents. DP is K&K, flowers are die cut and assembled from a Little Claire die, fern is die cut, gems from Hobby House.

Yesterday I went to a day class with a florist and made an Easter wreath for the table. The wreath is beautiful but I don't see this as a future hobby, I now know my limit is cutting off stems and plonking flowers in a vase :).
When I got home I had the most AMAZING present in the post from my blogging friend Viv, who has made me a shoe from paper. How astonishing and exquisite is this! Thanks so much Viv, there's even a little present inside that co-ordinates, and a heel - wow and wow!

Scene It!

At the NEC yesterday, one of my purchases was a gorgeous little set of clear stamps by HobbyArts, their designer, Jenny, was very friendly and helpful and she had loads and loads of artwork made using the set. Although I had challenged my blogging friend Val to see who could make the first card with the Cupcake stamps we both bought from Graphicus, I just HAD to have a play with the harbour scene last night. I made masks for the individual stamps so that I could make scenes with them and this is what I came up with for my first attempt:
I'm entering Stamptacular Sunday's Scene It challenge with this. They stress that it's not for stamps of a ready-made scene and here's a photo of the set, so you can see it isn't one image - it worked so well that it looks like one stamp to me :).

I stamped and masked the boat, added cobbled harbour wall, houses, waves and gulls, all stamped in Versafine black (oh, used grey for the waves). Coloured with Distress Inks, trimmed and matted onto black to fit the centre of the embossing folder frame. Stripy DP is My Mind's Eye and sentiment is Hero Arts. The card's going to my Dad today, he's retired from the Merchant Navy, loves boats, the sea and everything about them, he's not too well at present.

I've only just managed to photograph the card as, during the night, our greyhound Red managed to fall UP a step inside the house(!) and cut his leg open, badly bruising the bone. He's stitched up, home from the vets and still very stoned, so instead of being at work I'm here looking after him. Goodness I would have spent less yesterday had I known the vet bill that was coming today, oh well it's only money :).
Here's the wounded soldier convalescing with a very manly camo bandage on:I've one last thing to show you today; Maureen who I met yesterday at the NEC for the first time handed out brown envelopes to us all with a word on them. I got "Imagine" which had this stunning bookmark inside it, isn't it beautiful? A real surprise and so beautiful, thanks Maureen!

The NEC - or shop till you drop :)

I had a wonderful day at the NEC today, spent too much, got lots of inspiration and a few bargains too - I'm still in disbelief about buying most of the new Distress Ink colours at £3 each - woo hoo!
I travelled up with Val, met Viv and Maureen and had a great time, here are the three desperadoes taking a short break from saving the economy by selflessly buying as much stash as could be carried:
Of course I did all I could to help them in their mission...
I got some amazing Hobby Art stamps of seaside scenes, some calorie free cupcake stamps from Elusive Images and a few other things I just couldn't do without. Towards the end of the day I saw this lady sitting in the aisle near Stamp Addicts. She was taking a well-earned rest, I have no idea who she is but I like her style, that looks like some serious shopping LOL!

Twisted Thursday Challenge #49 - buttons

Today is Thursday and it's time for Shirleys2Girls Twisted Thursday Challenge again. The challenge this week is to use buttons somewhere on your project. Yes, it really is that simple:).

You are not required to use Shirley’s 2 Girls images for the challenge, but if you've got them, we'd love to see you use them:). Upload your card to your favorite online gallery and/or your blog. If you upload to SCS or PCP, please use the keywords S2GSC49 AND shirleys2girls. Post a direct link to your card using Mr. Linky on the Challenge Blog, here. The deadline for uploading your card is Wednesday, 31 March 2010 at midnight PDT. Not one, but TWO winning cards will be chosen by Random.org, the lucky winners will get to choose an image from Shirley’s 2 Girls, they'll get a "Winner" blinkie to display on their blog and the winning cards or other project will be showcased on the Shirley's 2 Girls Challenge Blog.


Please do visit the other Ladies with Attitude, check out their amazing creations (and their four-legged friends) and leave them some love, here's the team: Ann, Anne (me), Carlie, Cat, Deanne, Debbie, Georgia, Gina, Jana, Jane,Jeannie, Jennifer, Judy and Lisa.

Here's some detail of the teeny buttons on my Easter Bonnet card and here's the full card, details of how I made it are on my last blog entry.

Easter Bonnet takes in a lot of challenges

What do you think of my lovely Easter bonnet? It's a gorgeous digi from Shirleys2Girls.

I've printed and coloured it twice, popping one up on silicon glue to give it dimension. Image is coloured with Copics, Stickles, Glossy Accents and two tiny flower buttons. Sentiment is also Shirleys2Girls, comes with the digi. The image is mounted onto a piece of Cuttlebigged cardstock that has been distressed around the edges (doesn't show up too well in the photo). The punch is a Martha Stewart pansy punch, with Liquid Pearls on the flower centres. All the DP is Basic Grey Cupcake, ribbons, buttons and thread are all from stash.

This card is for these challenges:
Papertake Weekly for a brilliant sketch
Just Us Girls for the colourscheme of light brown, light blue, yellow and light green
I Love Digi Challenge - Easter
Allsorts Challenge - Spring is in the Air
Crafty Cardmakers - Spring into Spring
Secret Crafter Sat Challenge - Spring has Sprung
Digital Tuesday - Happy Spring
Stampin' for the Weekend - Easter
Stamp Something - Distressed
Your Next Stamp - Distressing
Fussy & Fancy - Green
Simon Says - Easter or Spring with some Glimmer
Everybody Art Challenge - Easter
Incy Wincy Designs - Easter or Spring
Ooh-la-la Creations - a Button, a Bow and some Bling
Stamp with Fun - Easter
Crazy 4 Challenges - Spring
Sweet Stampin' Challenge Blog - Spring is in the Air
Totally Gorjuss - Ribbon
Daring Cardmakers - use a bird (check out the bonnet!)
Paper Garden Challenge - Spring or Easter card

Dogs... make our life whole

This is the second card I've made with the same digi image from Phindy's Place, for the multi-tasking challenge over on PCP, I hope you can join us and play along.

I've used the sketch from Saturday Sketchers Challenge for my inspiration. There is a lovely quotation on it that is a free download from Ann at Raindropecho, I'm entering my card in the ABC Challenge Q is for Quotation. Pile it On's challenge this week is Furry Friends and Cupcake Craft Challenge's theme is Food and Drink.

Image is coloured with Copics, Peeled Paint and Tattered Rose Distress Inks around the edges. All papers are Basic Grey porcelain, sentiment from Raindropecho's blog.

Happy Bark-Day

This is one of two cards I've made using "Just a wee bit" - a gorgeous digi image available here from Phindy's Place. Image is coloured with Copics and edged with Distress Ink in Mustard Seed and Fired Brick. All DP is Basic Grey Nook & Pantry, card candy is from Craftwork Cards.

I've based my card on the sketch at Midnight Madness this week, they've a really fun brick sketch too but I took the easy option:). I'm also entering the tutti-fruitti challenge at Basic Grey that seems to really fit the colours of this card.

I'll be posting another card using this image later; it's part of a challenge on Phindy's PCP group to use one image for several projects, I'd love it if you could join us...

Corrosive Challenges #56, paper piecing, meets a few other challenges

This week's Corrosive Challenge is one of my favourite techniques, paper piecing,so I reached for my Whiff of Joy spring stamps and chose this beauty, her dress is perfect for DP. Paper Sundaes also have paper piecing as their theme. My colourscheme came from Papertake Weekly, lilac and lemon, and I used the sketch from Friday Sketchers for my card. I've distressed the edges of my image which fits the Distressed Something theme at Stamp Something.

Whiff of Joy image coloured with Copics and paperpiecing, edged with Distress Inks in Dusty Concord and Antique Linen. All papers Basic Grey Wisteria, card candy from Craftwork Cards and flower punch from Woodware.

Spring Primroses in Bloom

I'm home again from a wonderful week at the Cheltenham Festival where we saw a new Champion crowned in Imperial Commander. Shame I didn't back him as I'd intended to all week LOL! It's rained all day today so it was a good day to catch up on some crafting, so I began with my image from Faith at Designed2Delight. As ever, if you make a project with the image before the deadline, you get the next image free to play along. I noticed after I had finished my card that Faith drew them after seeing some spring pansies when the snow melted. I've made mine into primroses, but they are still spring-like:).

My card is based on the sketch at Card Patterns, I keep missing great sketches here when I run out of time, I've got in promptly with this week's sketch. Allsort's Challenge theme this week is Spring is in the Air and that fits this card just fine, as does the Secret Crafter's Saturday Challenge with Spring has Sprung. Pile it On has the challenge of pastel colours and One Stop Craft Challenge's theme is to Let it Shine. The only shiny part of my card is the Liquid Pearls in the centres of the flowers but I think the colours are like spring sunshine, and I think it works for the Challenge.

Designed2Delight image is paper pieced, decoupaged with silicon glue and coloured with Copics. The flower centres have dots of Liquid Pearls. The sentiment is from Craftwork Cards and all DP is Stampin' Up.

Twisted Thursday goes pastel

It's time for the Twisted Thursday Challenge again, this week the twist is simply to use pastel colours. How easy is that! I've used Bunny Hop, one of S2G's great Easter images. I've paper pieced the bunnies, overlapped them and given them fluffy Flowersoft tails. All DP is Stampin' Up, sentiment comes with the image and punch is Martha Stewart Lattice.

You are not required to use Shirley’s 2 Girls images, but if you've got them, we'd love to see you use them:). Upload your card to your favorite online gallery and/or your blog. If you upload to SCS or PCP, please use the keywords S2GSC47 AND shirleys2girls. Post a direct link to your card using Mr. Linky on the Challenge Blog, here. The deadline for uploading your card is Wednesday, 24 March 2010 at midnight PDT. Not one, but TWO winning cards will be chosen by Random.org, the lucky winners will get to choose an image from Shirley’s 2 Girls, they'll get a "Winner" blinkie to display on their blog and the winning cards or other project will be showcased on the Shirley's 2 Girls Challenge Blog.

Please do visit the other Ladies with Attitude, check out their amazing creations and leave them some love, here's the team: Ann, Anne (me), Carlie, Cat, Deanne, Debbie, Georgia, Gina, Jane,Jeannie, Judy and Lisa.

I'm also entering my bunnies in a couple of other challenges: A Spoonful of Sugar's theme this week is Easter and to celebrate St Patrick's Day Simon Says Add a Splash of Green to your project, my Easter card has quite a bit of green, maybe it's the green shoots of recovery rather than shamrocks:)

It's Good to Talk

This card was made primarily for a challenge at Phindy O'Neill's PCP group where the challenge was to combine two or more of Phindy's images. I worked with the sketch from the Midnight Madness Challenge, rotating it sideways. I also made my card as an easel card, which is the theme at Lili of the Valley.

The two teenage images are from Phindy's Place and coloured with Copics. The colourscheme is set by the DP, which is My Minds Eye Christmas paper. No, I don't think it looks that Christmassy either which is why I snapped it up in the sale :). Ribbon is from stash, card candy from Craftwork Cards, sentiment is computer generated.

I've a few cards scheduled to publish this week for DTs, but I will not be around in blogdom much this week otherwise. We are off to the Cheltenham Festival for four days of the best racing in the world, with drama and emotions running high. I hope we'll be better off at the end of the week, not worse, but I know that we'll be rich in memories and stories that will keep us going until next year:).

Corrosive Challenges #55 - Be Lucky

This week's theme at Corrosive Challenges is "Let's get Lucky" - use something to signify good luck. This is a really unusual card for me, it has no stamping on it! The sentiment is computer generated and uses a Nestie Labels4. The DP with four-leaf clovers on is by Kaisercraft. I've used my Martha Stewart hydrangea punch on green card, I think it makes a good four-leaf clover:). A few lucky green gemstones complete the good luck.

I made the card for my Dad who has some health concerns at the moment and who is waiting for the results of tests. I hope you can take a moment to wish him luck.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you Mums out there, I hope you're enjoying your day:). Here's the card I sent to my Mum in the end, I took a while agonizing over the right choice, as you do:). I came across an adorable free digi from Alison Spelman's Stretch'n'Bubbles blog, Alison has some lovely designs and is very generous with her freebies too. There are endless ewe and baa wordplays to use with sheep, I love this image!

I followed the Friday Sketcher's sketch by Jacque for my card, a lovely layout to use, I've another in the pipeline already using this sketch. The colourscheme of green and cream fits Stamp Something's theme this week perfectly.

I've paper pieced my sheep with DP called Catherine's memoir by Sandylion, just colouring her nose and hooves. The green is an Artylicious paper. Sentiment was computer generated, I downloaded a couple of free fonts to use for it. Ribbon from stash, flowers punched from the DP. The centres are white gel pen, I didn't want to add brads and risk it arriving late.

Life's a Balancing Act

Quite a few fellow bloggers have been playing along at the Designed2Delight blog and I have succumbed and joined them, the image this week is too cute to resist:). Here's how it works: Buy the current challenge image, make a project with it, receive the next week's image free. Next week, same again, if you play along you get the image, and so it goes on.

I've used Papertake Weekly's sketch, as ever this challenge blog has really useable sketches and I've followed Paper Sundae's Colour Challenge of crystal blue, hollyhock and sweetleaf.

Image is printed twice, coloured with Copics and Glossy Accents and popped up on silicon glue. There's an extra bird on the sentiment :). My Mind's Eye DP were a magazine freebie, gems and gem flowers from stash. Sentiment is computer generated.

Twisted Thursday - with a FREE digi

It's time to play the Twisted Thursday Challenge again with Shirleys2Girls, this time there's a really exciting twist - a free digi from the new Alice in Wonderland release. Why is there a free digi? Last week we had a record SIXTY - count 'em - entries to the challenge, so to celebrate and thank all the players, the Girls decided to give away an image to encourage you all to play along this week. Can we break the record again this week? I hope so! Go to the blog to download your freebie image of the Cheshire Cat.

The twist for your project this week is to use stripes. Of course our Cheshire Cat already has stripes, so the twist takes care of itself, how easy is that? If you'd like a sketch to get you started there's one on the challenge blog, but you don't need to use it...

I've used one of my favourite DPs, My Minds Eye, for my card, aren't the colours lovely and summery? And the stripe is purrfect :). Cat is coloured with Copics and edged with Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink. Sentiment is also from Shirleys2Girls, border is a Martha Stewart lattice punch.

Have fun with the freebie, I can't wait to blog hop and see everyone's cards:)

A Future Star?

This beautiful digital image from is Phindy O'Neill, he's called Little Star.
Allsort's Challenge this week is to make cards for men, something I always find tricky. I've kept the decorations to a minimum here with a piece of string instead of ribbon and a few brass brads:).

This is also my first entry to the Incy Wincy Challenge, when I saw their theme of Horses, in honour of the Adelaide Cup, I couldn't resist it. I'm not a huge follower of flat racing, but my own highlight of the year happens next week - the Cheltenham Festival - four days of the best jump racing in the world. We'll be there all four days and by the Saturday we'll be exhausted, emotional and either better or worse off financially LOL! Win or lose we will have another year of riches in the memories and the magic that are Cheltenham.

Oh, yes, the card! Sorry, getting carried away about my racing there, have you all backed Advisor each way for the Triumph?:) Digi art image from Phindys Place, coloured with Copics and Distress inks. DPs are Stampin' Up, string from the kitchen drawer LOL, brads from my stash.

Off with their heads!

Today brings the final image release from Shirleys2Girls' wonderful Alice in Wonderland collection. You can buy the Queen of Hearts here . Deanne and Debbie have wonderful creations made with the Queen, don't forget to check out their blogs for inspiration.

Look away now Mum....

Here's a card that may - or may not- end up as my Mother's Day card :). This week's Simon Says Challenge is to make a Mother's Day or Girly card, Totally Papercraft's challenge is to make something for Mother's Day or a special lady and Stamp Something's theme is Something Girly, this is girly for sure, with beautiful soft colours, pearls and flowers, will it be Mum's card this year? Wait and see :).

I've followed the Sketch Saturday sketch by Maya. At first I couldn't think how to make this sketch work but once I decided on an image it all came together. This week's Cupcake Crafts theme is Flower Power, I've used beautiful Basic Grey Wisteria DP which is bursting with blooms, as well as the flowers in the image. Crafty Cardmakers are calling for a Feminine Celebration, finally Basic Grey has a photo for their theme, which is the basis of my colour choices.

Image is Stampin' Up, another image from my inky day with a crafting friend a few weeks back, stamped and coloured twice using Copics, popped up on silicon glue. All papers are Basic Grey Wisteria, ribbon is from stash, coloured with Copics. Pearls are from Kaisercraft, leaves and girl's hat have Glossy Accents on them. No sentiment - yet...

Shirleys2Girls new release - Mad as a March Hare!

Today's release from Shirleys2Girls' is Mad as a March Hare and today it's my turn to show off a card made with the new image. Ann also has a fabulous project made with this image to look at, be sure to check out her blog too. I've used cheerful, spring colours, heaven knows it's time spring arrived! The Hare is coloured with Copics, all papers are Basic Grey, I've added lots of stitching for interest, including along either side of the ribbon. Punch is Martha Stewart and I've used a rectangle Nestie to frame the image.

Is it the end of Winter?

I seem to be going through a monochromatic phase at the moment, here's a purple card I've made. I bought a lovely set of Inkadinkado clear stamps of winter branches from Stamp Attic and I've been waiting for the right moment to use them, they've been sitting on my desk for a few weeks :).

My card is based on the sketch at Card Pattern's Challenge, Crafty Creations has One Colour as its theme, as do Stampin' for the Weekend and Pile It On. The Quixotic Challenge theme is Leave It Out, to include leaves. I began this card with this challenge in mind, then panicked that there were no leaves on the branches. However on closer inspection there are leaves in the images - phew :).

I sponged Dusty Concord and Weathered Wood Distress Inks onto glossy card and overstamped the branhces and birds onto it. I added some berries with Stickles. The DPs are all Artylicious, I used a Big Shot die to cut the flower from the DP. The sentiment is from Craftwork Cards and I used some hand-dyed variegated thread from my sewing stash. It's a very cold looking image, but although the ice is solid on the horse's water the sun is shining and hopefully chilly scenes like this will sooon be just a memory...

The Mad Hatter himself

The image everyone's been waiting for is out today: the Mad Hatter from Shirleys2Girls, in their exciting new Alice in Wonderland release. Cat and Lisa are showing off their projects using the new image, be sure to check out their blogs. You can buy the image, along with the others in the release, from Shirleys2Girls.

Corrosive Challenges #54 - sketch time

Corrosive Challenges has a great sketch to work with this week. I've used one of my favourite Phindy's Place images, the flower top fairy rose, she's such a dream to colour:). I've been predictable and coloured her in pink, though I plan to make her a golden yellow like my favourite rose, Teasing Georgia, next. The wings are heavily covered with crystal Stickles. I cut out the image using Rach's method for Nesties, where the image goes over the edge of the die, an effect I really like. The paper is by Daisy Bucket and Stampin' Up, the sentiment and card candy are from Craftwork Cards. Leaves are cut with a Woodware punch, ribbon is from my stash. Phew, I think that's it :).

Don't forget to check out the rest of the DT's blogs, and I can't wait to see everyone's entries for the challenge!

Curiouser & curiouser...

Here's "Drink me Alice", Sunday's new image from Shirleys2Girls in their exciting new Alice in Wonderland release. Jeannie and Georgia are showing off their projects using the new image, be sure to check out their blogs. You can buy the image, along with the others in the release, from Shirleys2Girls.

Also, don't forget to play along at Twisted Thursday, the challenge is to use some green, somewhere on your project - how easy is that - there are quite a few "green" themes around the challenge blogs this week that you could combine your challenges with...

It's the Elf and Safety reindeer

I've ended up making two Christmas cards for this week's ABC Christmas Challenge as the first time I didn't read the challenge properly and I forgot to use red and green:). The Challenge is E is for Elf, but happily Whiff of Joy gnomes are allowed too! So here is version 2, for the Challenge.

I've based it on Claudia's pretty sketch from Friday Sketchers and I'm also entering it for Cupcake Craft Challenge, who have the theme Round and Round, I've got lots of circles on my card and although they're not true circles, the DP looks quite rounded too.

Whiff of Joy image is coloured with Copics and Stickles. DP, card candy, sentiment and ribbon are all Craftwork Cards.

Well I've often seen a cat without a grin, but a grin without a cat?

Today, as part of the exciting new Alice in Wonderland release, Jennifer and Gina are showing off their projects using the new image, be sure to check out their blogs. You can buy the image, along with the others in the release, from Shirleys2Girls.