DT Post - Phindy's Place Friday Challenge - Favourite Image

Thank goodness it's Friday, it's been a long week! Friday means it's time for Phindy's Place Friday Challenge, which this week is simply to use your favourite Phindy image. I thought this was a really easy theme - until I began to think about it and wonder how I could possibly, ever choose just one favourite! Mostly the favourite is the one I just bought or am about to buy, what about you? In the end I had to opt for Sleigh Ride, with its pair of Fjord horses. When Phindy designed this perfect image (perfect for me because I have a much loved Fjord horse) I was completely overwhelmed and couldn't wait to colour it and use it. I think I've made more cards with this than any other Phindy image, because I love it so much.

I printed my image as a grey rather than black, did you know your digis don't have to be black? Insert your image into a Word document and the Picture Tools menu should come up. This gives you the option to re-colour, there are seven options under light variations.

This time I tried to make it a very neutral coloured card ,with the intention of using a DP that I bought and love so much I don't cut into it. However with the green for the tree it didn't quite work and I opted for some Magnolia DP that I bought at the same time and also spent a lot of time dithering about using, isn't it gorgeous?:). The image is coloured with Copics, snowflake brad is Papermania and has some Platinum Stickles on it. Branch is cut with an EK success punch, Picket Fence was made using my new Martha Stewart punch, sentiment is Craftwork Cards. I've used the sketch from Sketch and Stash Challenge to base my card on, hope you like it.

DT Post - Twisted Thursday #54 - It's all about Mother

It's Twisted Thursday and this week the Shirley2Girls Challenge is "All About Mother". I've based my clean & simple card on a great sketch at the CPS Challenge. The image isn't a standard Mother's Day one but I am in love with the April in Paris digis and wanted to use La Promenade for my card, you can buy it here. Sentiment is also from S2G, both are coloured with Copics. I've used plain cardstock for once, not a sniff of a patterned DP! Swiss Dots are Cuttlebugged onto the yellow cardstock and the blue is edged with a Martha Stewart lattice arch punch. The card candy is from Craftwork Cards and the ribbon from stash.

Please check out the challenge blog for full details and be sure to 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, Jana, Jane,Jeannie, Jennifer, Judy and Lisa.

ABC Challenge Guest DT - T is for Thank You

This is my second card as Guest Designer for the ABC Challenge, this week they are up to the letter T - is for Thank You. I've combined all sorts of images and sentiments here and had a lot of fun:). I've based my card on the Sketch Saturday Challenge and decided I was in a cupcake frame of mind:). I'm entering my card for A Spoonful of Sugar's Challenge to 3D something, and also to Pile It On, who have the theme "Make It Sweet" - think I've got that one covered:).

You can see the 3D layers here:The main image is It's All Yours, a fun digi from Phindy's Place, I've also used little cupcake stamps from Elusive Images, popped up on silicon glue. "Thanks" is a clear stamp for Dovecraft and "You Make Life Sweet" comes from Impression Obsession, I've combined them on an acrylic block to make my own sentiment. The papers are of course Nook & Pantry from Basic Grey on Bazzill Bling. I've coloured my images with Copics and Glossy Accents, there are 3 layers to my main image and the punch used on the bottom of the image is Martha Stewart.

There isn't a problem that can't be solved...

I've a second card to blog today; I really didn't have time to make another card but I just couldn't resist this image from Isabella's Sketchbook, though I wonder whether the wording is quite right, maybe it should be a little bit of coffee and a lot of chocolate LOL! But really, isn't it perfect! This week Isabella's Challenge is to use a food related image in your project, just got this one in before the deadline:).

I've based it on Jo's pretty sketch at Sweet Stampin' and I'm also entering it into A Spoonful of Sugar, where the challenge is to 3D something. The theme at Charisma Cardz is "Quote me" and you can quote me on this one any day:).

Image is printed onto Basic Grey DP from the Kioshi pad, which is used for all the card. Cup and ribbon coloured with Copics and Glossy Accents, cut out and stuck with silicon glue to give dimension. Ribbon and gems from stash, Martha Stewart lattice arch punch used. I put the swirl on top of the coffee with my Copic blender pen, I'm pleased with the way this looks.

April Showers bring May Flowers

It's time for my weekly Designed2Delight digi card. Make a card with this week's image and blog it, get the next image free, you know the form by now, if not check out Faith's blog:). This week's image is a cool chick out in April showers, I've coloured with Copics and Stickles and edged the image with Distress Inks. The DP is Basic Grey's Green at Heart, sentiment from Craftwork Cards, ribbon from stash. The punch is a Martha Stewart border punch.

I've followed the sketch at Midnight Madness Challenge for my card. The Creative Card Crew has April Showers bring May Flowers for their theme and the Simon Says Challenge this week is Things with Wings, which is both the ladybird and the chick :).

Rocking Ronnie Relaxes

Emma Wood is having a fundraiser in memory of her Dad, Ronnie Wood. Emma hopes to raise £1,000 for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance. Living where I do, in a remote village, with racing as its industry, the Oxfordshire air ambulance is out in Lambourn several times most weeks and it's truly a life-saving service, if you can support Emma please do. Pollycraft has designed a Ronnie Relaxing digi stamp, all proceeds go directly to the fund, check out Emmas' blog for details. She also has a fun challenge to enter, using the image, with great prizes from sponsors.

I've made my card for the Friday Sketchers Challenge, with Ronnie sitting on a paper pieced armchair. Colouring is with Copics, DP is Basic Grey Indian Summer. As a huge Rolling Stones fan, having the image in memory of (another) Ronnie Wood is quite disconcerting, I gave mine a musical sentiment from Elusive Images, that seemed to fit the relaxing theme.

Hope you like my card, more importantly, if you haven't already, hope you're rushing off to buy the image from Emma!

DT Posting - Corrosive Challenge #61 - Charms

This week's Corrosive Challenge is to use a charm somewhere on your project. I don't have many charms and the ones I do are Christmas ones, so what a great excuse to get a Christmas card made to add to the small collection. One Stop Craft Challenge has the theme Metallic and Stamp Something has a Charmed Somethings Challenge so I'm entering my card fror their challenges.

The image is from Phindys Place, as I have a Fjord horse, the breed she's depicted here, this is just an all-time favourite image of mine! The charm of a sleigh is from Quixotic Paperie , the DP is Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses and the sentiment from Craftwork Cards. Image is coloured with Copics and Liquid Pearls.

Nothing grows in our garden, except washing. And babies.

Every time I think I've identified a favourite image from Phindy's Place, along comes another to usurp the previous favourite and this is no exception! Called Spring Breeze, it's a pretty, retro image that can be used for Mother's Day. We've already had Mothering Sunday in the UK but this card is certainly destined for my Mum. Mum always quoted and then misquoted Dylan Thomas about our garden when I was growing up. She changed the quote from Under Milk Wood to "Nothing grows in our garden, only washing. And puppies." I'm an only child, Mum far preferred puppies to babies and, to be fair, she bred some very good show dogs:). She's also no gardener, to put it politely.

Having finally steeled myself and cut into my Basic Grey pad of Kioshi, out it came again for this easel card, I am loving the soft colours of it. The flowers were bought at MakeIt in February, leaves are punched from scraps, ribbon and brads are from stash. Image is coloured with Copics and Distress Inks.

There are a couple of literary challenges to enter my card for: Stampin' for the Weekend has "Getting to know you" using one of your favourite books for inspiration, Under Milk Wood is one of those wonderful pieces of writing to come back to again and again; Charisma Cardz Challenge has "Quote me" for their theme. Dutch Dare's challenge is an easel card with something repeated; I've repeated the ribbons and the flowers. I'm also entering Totally Papercraft's Recipe Challenge, which is 4 embellishments, 3 papers, 2 ribbons, 1 image. I've got 4 types of embellie: flower, leaf, brad and ribbon, but more than 4 in total, hope this fits the bill:)

Blog Candy Giveaways!

The wonderful and creative Glenda Waterworth is giving away sets of her new stamps here, winners to be drawn at the end of the month. Picture is of just one of the sets...

Rach has set up a new blog and a new start, she has candy to celebrate here, winner to be drawn 2 May. Rach's candy:
Jak Heath has some amazing Promarker candy to give away here , you need to be quick, this one closes today, Saturday!

DT - Phindy's Place Challenge #2 - Use Ribbon

It's Friday, so hooray it's nearly the weekend! It's also Phindy Friday, time for the second Phindy's Place Challenge. This week we have the super-simple challenge of using ribbon. You need to use one of Phindy's adorable images, but just add ribbon and you're in! I've made my card for a few other challenges too, Sweet Stampin's and Allsort's Challenge both have the theme theme is "In Stitches", and Secret Crafter has "A day out" for their challenge; my little would-be ballerina is having a day out watching the big girls:).

My image is called The Big Girls' Class and it's one of my all-time favourite images. It's coloured with Copics and Stickles, edged with Distress Inks and stitching. There's more zig-zag stitching round the edge of the square, I like the texture it adds to my card. The two ribbons are from stash (organza was coloured with Copics) and the paper is Basic Grey Kiyoshi. I got the pad more than a week ago and fell for it big time. But it's no good just stroking it, so here it is in use for the first time :)> DH suggested I bought a second pad, one to stroke and one to use, what an understanding man I married 22 years ago today!

Twisted Thursday #53 - Spring has Sprung!

At last, the sunshine is here even if we're getting killer frosts each night. To celebrate Spring, the S2G DT is showing off the many gorgeous Spring digi images for this week's Twisted Thursday Challenge. The twist for this week's Challenge is to use flowers. Any colours, any sketch, any image, just flowers! Please check out the challenge blog for full details and be sure to 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, Jana, Jane,Jeannie, Jennifer, Judy and Lisa.

I began my card by using Dawn's lovely sketch from Papertake Weekly Challenge, Pile It On's Challenge is "Spring finally here", Totally Papercraft's theme is Spring, so I'm entering my card into these challenges too. I used Basic Grey Sugar Rush DP, I love this pad, think I need to buy another before it's all gone:), the images I've used are Domino from S2G and Spring Fever. Spring Fever is coloured with Copics and Stickles, Domnio is paper pieced.

First Foray into Stampin' Up

I went to my first Stampin' Up workshop/evening last night. Stampin' Up's not nearly as big in the UK as it is in the US, I've seen the catalogues and like the names they give colours:), but never been to a sales evening before. I was lucky enough to win some of their DPs and a set of stamps on a challenge blog, but that's been the full extent of it so far. I made this card as a Make & Take, the demonstrator was very good, and of course I ordered some things LOL!

All DP, stamps, brads are Stampin' Up, the card is a nice Z-shape that is an easel on its side, the little scalloped circle to the right it stuck down with foam tape and holds the fold in place pefectly.
I'm entering the cards for Charisma Cards' Monochrome Challenge, hoping I'll get away with a tiny bit of green text and the 2 leaves:). I'm also entering it into Paper Sundae's "No People" challenge.

Bears love spring flowers

Here is this week's Designed2Delight challenge card, as before it's a progressive freebie: make and blog a card with the free image and receive the next image free. I will admit that I had a problem with this image, until I went back to Faith's email, where she points out that she left the bear's mouth "as is", so you can add his expression. Once I drew a smile in, he looked like a happy bear rather than a "sorry I messed up" bear:).

I used a lovely sketch from Card Patterns that seemed to work really well with the Basic Grey papers that I just got and wanted to highlight. I'm also entering my card for Paper Sundae's Challenge of making a card without people on it.

Image is coloured with Copics and Stickles, DP is Basic Grey's Green at Heart. Flower is made with scalloped circle Nesties and some Stickles, the thread is hand dyed perle from my stash. I've not added a sentiment to my card, I can add one on a label from the thread when I'm ready to use the card, it's a versatile image.

DT - Corrosive Challenges #60 - Paper Piercing

This week's Corrosive Challenge to to use Paper Piercing on your project - which is not something I've tried before. I looked at a few designs that are sold with it on and decided to do it myself - with the help of my sewing machine. I set it to a long stitch and used it with no thread in to get perfectly even holes. Then I used my poky tool to enlarge the holes as they were barely visible. As this is a new technique to me I'm entering my card for the Crafty Cardmaker's Challenging Challenge. The Creative Card Crew Challenge is to make a Happy Birthday card, Quixotic Challenge's theme is Heavy Metal (I've used HUGE gold brads that are too large scale for much of my work) Cute Card Thursday's challenge is Touchy Feely (lots of textures and interest here) and Totally Papercrafts has a Spring theme that fits these lovely big flowers to perfection.

The flower and the sentiment are both Elusive Images, sentiment is gold embossed and flower is coloured with Copics, Glossy Accents and Stickles. DP is K&K, it set the colourscheme for the card, ribbon from stash, ferns cut with a punch.

Making A Scene

Struggling a bit to get my mojo going again after having a cold, I've reached for those little harbour stamps again that I bought from Hobbyart at the NEC last month, Paper Sundae's Challenge is "Making a Scene" and I just have time to get my entry in. I've tried to make a larger scene this time and not included any boats. Again I've masked the individual stamps to make my scene and I've used Distress Inks to colour them. DP is My Mind's Eye, I thought it looked like fishing nets (as opposed to fishnets LOL).

The sketch at Crazy4Challenges is ideal for my card, it's very simple and doesn't have to have lots of embellishments; this is a man's card and I've stopped myself adding anything extra to it :). The sentiment is from Elusive Images. I've used a Cuttlebug folder on the blue card with wave-like embossing. I'm also entering Stamp Something's Layered Challenge; there are lots of layers of masked images, also lots of layers and matting to the main card.

Blog Hop Mini Candy Winner!!!!

I'm late in drawing my candy winner from the Phindy's Place Blog Hop - sorry!

Without more ado, the number selected by Random.org from the comments was Number 21 - which is Annie who said:

"aawwww, Anne, this is really sweet - love the choice of those soft colors (and the image is adorable too).

Oh, and my favorite Phindy image is probably a Flower Top Fairy - so cute!"

Congratulations Annie! Please send me an email with your contact details and I'll get your rhinestones in the post on Monday. I see you're in the US. Since the UK and most of Europe is cut off from the US by air at present thanks to that pesky volcano in Iceland they may take a little longer than usual to arrive:).

Don't forget to check the main challenge blog to see if you are a winner, as well as the DT blogs for mini candy winners. Also, the first challenge is up with the super easy theme of "Anything Goes".

Phindy's Place Challenge #1 - Anything Goes

The Phindy's Place Challenge blog launches its first challenge today - which is "Anything Goes", a nice easy theme that I hope encourages lots of you to pop across and enter! You do have to use one of Phindy's images, if you don't have any yet there are some freebies generously provided on the PCP group. I've used the sketch from this week's I Love Digi Challenge Blog for my card.

I've a bit of a Phindy addiction and am lucky enough to have quite a few images to choose from, with the result that I took forever to make up my mind what image to go with:). In the end I settled for "I've Got You Covered" which I think is such a beautiful and serene image for a card. I've coloured with Distress Inks and some Glossy Accents, the sentment is Elusive Images, stamped in blue Versamark. I coloured a couple more leaves to go beside the flower I added. The Bazzill Bling has been embossed with the Swiss Dots folder, the DP is My Mind's Eye. Good thing the text on the DP isn't legible, it's only this morning that I've noticed I managed to turn it on its side when I stuck my image down:).

Hope you like my card and I hope to see your entry for the challenge!

Please click here if you're looking for the Shirleys2Girls April in Paris Blog Hop.

Please click here if you're looking for the First Phindy's Place Blog Hop.

Twisted Thursday # 52 - photo inspiration

Hooray, it's Thursday, so it must be nearly the weekend, and also it must be Twisted Thursday Challenge time!

This week we're giving you a snapshot of a scene

that takes us back to one of our favorite little villages in France.

We'd love you to take a look at our 'oh so french'

picture and let it guide you for this weeks...

Shirleys2Girls Twisted Thursday !

Whether it is the color palette, the sunflowers,

or anything else in the photo...

JUST GO FOR IT!

So the TWIST for this week is to use the photo below...

All we're giving you is some inspiration!

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 S2GSC50 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, 21 April 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, Jana, Jane,Jeannie, Jennifer, Judy and Lisa.

My card uses the achingly chic image Tres Francais, available from S2G here. I've coloured with Copics and Stickles, matting my image onto a Nestie oval and scalloped oval "out of the box" with the Eifffel Tower against the Cuttelbugged background. The DPs aren't easy to see, they are both Stampin' Up. I've added some stitching for texture and a further dry embossed line to pand bottom, using my Scor-Pal, for a bit of interest. I'm also entering the card for the Simon Says Challenge, movie time and dry embossing (there are lots of films based in Paris, all I can think of with the Eiffel Tower is the Lavender Hill Mob!), and also for Stamp Something's Stitch Something theme and Sew Many Challenges also appropriately shares the same theme of stitching.

GDT - ABC Challenge - S is for Sparkle

I was really excited to be invited to be a guest on the ABC Challenge blog for 2 challenges and here is my card for this week's challenge which is S is for Sparkle. Sparkle is such a fun challenge but for me, I find the really challenging part is taking a photo of a card with sparkles in it, they always seem to look better in real life:). Hopefully I've caught all the shimmer and sparkle here...

The image is the cute Baguette's Accessories yorkie dog from Shirleys2Girls, coloured with Copics and Stickles, head and paws popped up on silicon glue for extra dimension. The DP is all Craftwork Cards metallic papers, with shiny gold stripes, the image is matted onto gold mirri card. The little sparkly pearls came from Hobby House and match the DP papers perfectly.

Cutie Pie

What do you think of this very cute Stampavie stamp that I bought at the NEC? I fell for it at the Hobby House stand as soon as I saw it. It's a boy, but I bought it with a view to sending a card to my Post Pal, who is a teenage girl who is dog mad but cannot have a dog due to infection problems and all the time spent in hospital:(.

I began making this when Simon Says had the challenge to make a card for a child and to send it to a Post Pal, but I've had a cold and just didn't get it finished in time. Papertake Weekly's theme this week is Cutie Pie and I think that fits to perfection! I've used a great sketch from Card Positioning Systems (I love things in threes, they always look good) and MyTimeToCraft has On the Spot as its challenge.

Image is coloured with Copics and Distress Inks, cut with a deckle edged Nestie. The ticket is from Bearly Mine, a download sheet, card candy from Craftwork Cards. The DP wih dots is Basic Grey Porcelain and the script is My MInds Eye. The image and cardstock is layered onto brown parcel paper which worked best with the colours I used.

Announcing The First Phindy's Place Challenge Blog Hop!

Hello and welcome to the first Phindy’s Place Challenge Blog Hop! If you've arrived here from Anne-Marije's blog you're in the right place, if not you might want to head to the Challenge Blog to check out the details of the hop. There's a full list of the blog hop on the challenge blog in case you get lost. The bloghop winner (chosen by random) will receive candy from Phindy – a $15 gift certifcate to her shop! Not only that, you will also find some small individual pieces of candy hidden along the way by the DT! All you have to do to win is to sit back and enjoy the wonderful projects from the Design Team, be sure to leave comments at each blog and you will be entered into the candy draw. The Blog Hop Draw closes on Thursday 15 April at midnight GMT. The theme for the Blog Hop is "New" and Phindy designed a darling new baby image for the launch, which is available in her shop from Friday 16 April. I made a baby girl card with mine, colouring with Copics and adding tiny pink pearls. There is lace, Martha Stewart doily lace punch and DP with lace on it (Basic Grey).

I have candy on offer: leave a comment on my blog, let me know your favourite Phindy image and I'll enter you into a random draw to win a pack of Rhinestones to add some bling to your projects.

Now it’s time for you to continue hopping, you're nearly at the finish. You need to visit Ann's blog next. Have fun and see you at the end:)

One more thing, don't forget to come back on Friday and take part in our first challenge on Friday the 16th April.