House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge - multi fold card

Here's my second card as a Guest  Designer for House Mouse Challenges, the challenge this week is to make a multi-fold card.  I decided to have a go at a spring card which was easier than I expected and I found this great fun to make, using Sandy Hulsart's great tutorial from Splitcoaststampers. I used My Mind's Eye cardstock which is very heavyweight and I made it slightly taller by adding a circle cut with a Marianne Creatable die and then embossed.  There are Glossy Accents and Stickles on the flowers and yes, I have used peel offs in the corners of the card, hardly anyone uses them these days but they fitted the space perfectly!  The mice are from a Joanna Sheen unmounted sheet, aren't they adorable!

I've really enjoyed the chance to be part of the HM Challenge Team, they are a very friendly bunch.  If you get the chance, be sure to hop on board:).

My card is also for the following challenges:

Incy Wincy Designs - Spring is in the air

Cupcake Crafts - anything but square

Card Cupid - shaped card

Paper Cutz - Spring 

Cafe au lait

 OK the Simon Says Challenge this week is Coffee & Cream but I like the sound of cafe au lait:).  The additional option is to use a Whiff of Joy stamp.  I've not got any of these inky for a while and it was good to use Willow with her recipe book, a much loved stamp.  Willow is coloured with Copics and the image sponged with Distress Ink and Memento Ink.  The DP is Basic Grey Capella.  I've made flowers with punches and added in a large Prima flower from a pack I got from Simon Says.  The sentiment is from Craftwork Cards and the lacy ribbon from Stamp Attic.

I'm entering the following challenges with my card:
Simon Says Challenge - coffee and cream
Corrosive Challenge - distressing
Stamptacular Sunday - you've been framed
Crafty Catz - for a friend - I'm sending this to my Mum
Ali Factory - monochromatic

Spring is in the Air!

You know, I thought a few days away would leave me full of ideas and energy for crafting, but it has turned out to be quite the opposite and I have been trying to find my mojo:).  I've finally managed to finish up a card with a Fred She Said crocus image that I coloured a week or so back.  I't's part of the Spring Flower set with paper pricking frames, a really useful set that you can buy here. 

I've used a fun sketch by Christine, from Cute Card Thursday with some of that gorgeous Basic Grey Kioshi paper, I'm now using up my second pad of this:).  The crocus are coloured with Copics, Stickles on the stamens and Glossy Accents on the flowers.  The 3 layers of circles are each popped up onto pads to give lots of dimension, I've made the flowers from 3 different punch sizes and a leaf punch and that big thick velvet ribbon is from stash, no idea where or when it was bought!
My card is for the following challenges:
Cute Card Thursday - sketch
Allsorts - make your own flowers
One Stop Craft - spring flowers
Crazy4Challenges - flowers
Stamp Something - with flowers
If the Shoe Fits - purple
Wags'n'Whiskers - punches
Creative Cottage - fabulous florals
Bunny Zoe - flowers everywhere

Phindy's Place Challenge #43 - sketchtime

 Good Morning and welcome to a new Phindy's Place Challenge!  My goodness I am so glad it's Friday and nearly the weekend!  We had a lovely time away but I'm finding it very hard to get back into the swing of things, hence the lack of blogging!

Anyhow, on with the challenge, which is to use one of Anne-Marije's fab sketches.  For once I've stuck quite closely to the sketch.  My image is Little Star, no prizes for guessing that this long legged beauty is one of my all time favourite images:).  He's simply coloured with Copics, all the DP is My Mind's Eye very heavy weight cardstock, the punch is Martha Stewart Picket Fence.
My card is for the following challenges:
Crafty Sentiments - Spring - what could be more spring-like than the new crop of foals?
Digital Tuesday - use punches
Crazy Challenge - baby love
Gingerloft - furry friends
Paper Sundaes - masculine colours
Allsorts - inspired by nature

New stash...

I've broken my stash diet over the weekend, but I made this tonight, using the new stash so maybe that mitigates it:).  I've combined making a "Less is More" card with the make your own embellies that Simon Says Challenge calls for this week.  Embellies and C&S don't necessarily go together but I think I've pulled it off, what do you think?

Embossing folder with sentiment is Papermania.  Flower is a Hero Arts stamp, stamped onto scrap DP and with a touch of green Copic colouring it in.  Yellow and green are what Spring is all about, to me.  So what's with all the grey blah weather outside??  I've added some Glossy Accents and beads to the centre.  The leaves are made with a Woodware punch and I've scored veins onto the leaves.

If anyone can suggest how to minimise the lines at the edge of the embossing folder I'd love to know, however they look less prominent in real life:)

My card is for the following challenges:
Simon Says - make your own embellishments
Less is More - Spring
Incy Wincy - punches or dies
Charisma Cardz - Spring has sprung
Spoonful of Sugar - birthday wishes

No one diets on holiday, do they?

 

We had a lovely weekend away, though it was over all too quickly.  Of course my stash diet didn't survive trips to the Glitter Pot and the Craft Barn:)  Also I found some wonderful storage at the Futon Shop:  this storage has 40 pockets on each side and cost £4 in their sale; looks ideal to keep unmounted stamps in as well as other goodies. 

 Rye was so beautiful with many small cobbled streets, the Mermaid Inn with its sign that it was rebuilt - in 1420 - after a fire.  So, not original then lol!  And of course the Town Gate, the only one left standing of four that surrounded the town.

Now I've been to work and also done some house cleaning I hope to get to the craft room later, I've missed it!

Phindy's Place Challenge #43 - Monochromatic

Good Morning and hooray it's Friday!  We are off for a long weekend in East Sussex, leaving Mum to hold the fort at home!   But first, here's my card for this week's Phindy's Place Challenge, which is to make a monochromatic project.  My card has a teenage boy image on it, called Connected Boy, so my card is not just monochromatic, it is most likely monosyllabic too lol!

His top looks brownish, but this was Warm Grey Copics rather than Cool or Toner, I used all my grey pens for this image I think, also Black Soot Distress Ink to edge it.  I based my card on a great sketch from the Pixie Cottage Challenge which is sketch and/or embossing this week.  The black square is Coredinations with a grey background, embossed with a Tim Holtz wall and then distressed, the DP is Stampin' Up.

Hope you like Grumpy George and his grey card:).

My card is for the following challenges:
Pixie Cottage Challenge - sketch and/or embossing
Claudia & Company - about a boy
Totally Papercrafts - do it with digis
Stampin' for the Weekend - monochrome

Less Is More - one layer card

If I had time I'd photograph and blog all the failures that came before this:  First card, liked but messed up the sentiment.  Second attempt, changed colour of one of the inks, disliked it.  Then I remembered challenge used tree or flower, so first two had a lighthouse and some sand dunes.  OK...  Out with some pretty Artemio flowers and a butterfly, but they looked very clunky and too busy.  First try at this, just in green, was BEAUTIFUL.  So how exactly did I get a big green blob above the birds, just left of centre?  This is the final try before giving up and getting stuck into the blackcurrant gin, thank goodness it worked!  Fifth time lucky...
Paper Artsy border and sentiment stamped in green Versafine, I masked and added some Distress Inks because too many of the same cards with the same silly mistakes get tedious lol!  You know I've just thought...  would these be very understated flowers or very twiggy trees??  Whatever, it is late and we go away tomorrow, it is what it is!

My card is for the following challenges:
Less Is More - One layer, flower or tree
Charisma Cardz - Spring has sprung
Crafts & Me - Wings (birds)
Forgotten Scraps - Spring

On the subject of orchids...

For Valentine's Day I got a bee-yootiful orchid along with a tiny heart shaped fishing fly from my DH which reminded me that there is a free digi of an orchid on offer from A Day For Daisies, provided you enter their challenge.  I love these designs which are a little different from so many others out there, when my stash diet is over I plan to do a bit of shopping there:).   The challenge is Heavy Metal Rocks and I used mirri card and 3 different metallic ribbons do give this element as I tried adding metallics to the orchid and didn't like the effect.  

The card is fairly clean and simple, it follows Saturday Sketcher's layout.  Image is coloured with Copics, DP is Basic Grey Porcelain and the rhinestones are Stampin' Up.

My card is for the following challenges:

A Day for Daisies - heavy metal rocks

Sketch Saturday - sketch

Papertake Tuesday - putting on the glitz

Craft Your Passion - use pink

I Did It - bling it up

Paper Sundaes - toppings - I used pink and flowers

Top Tip Tuesday Challenge - Get Stitching

Good Morning!  It's time for another Top Tip Tuesday Challenge and this week I've done a tutorial on one of my favourite techniques, using the sewing machine.  I hope you'll check out the tutorial over on the challenge blog and I hope you'll find some hints and ideas to help you sttich on your card projects, whether you're a beginner or an old hand at sewing.  I did an enormous amount of sewing at one point and I still teach quilting, my obsession with cardmaking began when I went into the wrong Hall at a big craft exhibition and found rubber stamping lol!

OK on to my card and the snowdrops are flowering their hearts out at the moment, a little later than usual.  It's good to know that spring is coming!  The image I used is from a Fred She Said set called Spring Flowers which come with a paper pricking frame as well as digi images of crocuses, daffodils and tulips, which pretty well sets you up for all spring eventualities!
I've based my card on this week's Friday Sketchers Challenge and stuck to a cool green colour palette.  The snowdrop is coloured with Copics, I've inked the embossed circle with Pine Green Distress Ink, DP is Prima, border punch Martha Stewart and flowers made from a Little Claire die.  I've sttiched a double border round the image and then a straghit line around the DP.  Can't wait to see all the sttiched creations, hand, machine or faux, on this week's Top Tip Tuesday Challenge!
My card is entered for:
Friday Sketchers Challenge - sketch
Digital Tuesday - use a die cut
Bunny Zoe - flowers everywhere
Challenge up your Life - monochrome
Digi Doodle Shop's Best - nature

Guest DT Posting for House Mouse & Friends Monday - your favourite stamp

I was really excited to be chosen as a Guest Designer for February at House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenges, it's been very hard not to to let the news slip:).  Thank you so much to the HM & Friends Team for their friendly welcome:).  I found the theme really challenging; it is to use your favourite stamp.  Deceptively simple and yet so tricky LOL!  I looked over my stamps and coloured several images (you may have seen them blogged recently) and ended up with one of my new stamps as my current favourite.  This is from a Joanna Sheen unmounted Spring set and it is just adorable!

It's coloured with Copics and Glossy Accents.  The sentiment is also from the set, the green DP is Basic Grey Sugar Rush and  I've embossed white card, sponged Mustard Seed Distress Ink over it and stitched it down.  Add in a bit of bling, a bit of sunny yellow/orange ribbon from stash and that's my card!

I'm also entering my card for the following challenges:
Woodware - embossing
Incy Wincy - colour me wonderful - favourite colouring method is Copics!
Simply Create - bold and bright
Aly's Sunday sketch - bling bling
One Stitch at a Time - make it pretty

A little more lurve

There are so many love/Valentines challenges around that I couldn't resist making just one more card...  Still looking through the box of stamped images I found this adorable House Mouse image.  I've coloured it lightly with minimal shading because I'm fairly sure it isn't stamped with a Copic friendly ink, I've had it for longer than I've had my marker pens I think!
The hearts have Glossy Accetns on them, the DP is more of the Bearly Mine CD DP.  Wide lacy ribbon came from stash and I twisted the 3 green ribbons when I stuck them down.  The sketch is Midnight Madness.
My card is for the following challenges:
House Mouse & Friends &Totally Gorjuss Love
House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge - all about hearts
Midnight Madness - sketch
Crazy4Challenges & Stamping Royalty & Crafty Cardmakers - hearts
Crafty Emma Challenges - cute and cuddly
Stamp, scrap & doodle& Dutch Dare & One Stop Craft & Paper Crafting Journey & Bunny Zoe's - love is in the air

Crafty Ann's - love is all around
Crafty Catz -& Crafty Sentiment & Stamps R Us - Valentines/ love
Fabulous Friday - use the word love
Fairy Knoll & Sew Many Cards  & C.R.A.F.T. -  & Tiffany Doodles & Everybody Art Challenge - Valentines

Really Reasonable Ribbon - pink, red, white
Papertake Weekly - have a heart
Pink Elephant - be my Valentine

Pretty Poppies

I made this photoframe at a recent Sheena Douglass workshop, it's a great idea for presents or as an idea for something to sell at fundraisers.  Take one cheap IKEA photoframe from a 3 for £1.60-something pack.  Gold emboss swirls onto it.  Use a sponge to rub lots of Distress Ink (walnut I think) into the wood.  Don't forget the inner and outer frame!  Create a picture for your unique frame.
We used Distress Ink in a pale colour for the landscape and water on a brush to soften the outline still further.  Then we stamped the poppy and coloured in vibrant watercolour pencils and clear embossed over the petals.  Sit back and admire your work of art:).
Simon Says Challenge this week is anything but a card and Secret Crafter's theme is a stamped flower.

Everyone needs friends

 

I'm still clinging to my stash diet, aided by the many lovely crafty things I got for my birthday last month.  One of them was this lovely Lili of the Valley stamp that my friend Val gave me.  I've quickly put it together in time (I hope) for CD Sunday's Friendship Challenge.  Val is the one of the kindest people I know (stop blushing Val!) and I had to put this together, hence the rather unusual sentiment for a friendship card!  The stripy DP is from Bearly Mine Designer Extreme Vol 1, a prize I was lucky enough to win on CD Sunday.

I'll be back later to edit my posting and enter a couple more challenges...  after the very sad and distressing equine deaths at Newbury Races we are struggling with normality.

My card is for the following challenges:

CD Sunday Challenge - friendship

Lili of the Valley - sketch

Phindy's Place Challenge #42 - Spring is on the way!

It's Friday and it's time for another fun challenge at Phindy's Place.  This week's challenge is a bit of wishful thinking on my part:  it is called Spring is on the way!  So many of us have had our fill of snow and ice and cold, but the days are beginning to get longer and my card is celebrating this.  I've used no less than three - count 'em - three Phindy's Place images and I have combined them in Photoshop, which was a very steep learning curve.  When I say "I", that means "We" as DH was far more patient than I am and was a great help with this card:).  Left to right, the images are Spring Dress Mei Mei, Spring Dress Emma and Spring Dress Kulla.  I wanted to ground my images using more than just Distress Inking, so I made an attempt at drawing in some paving at the edge of the grass they are dancing on.  

The sentiment is from a Joanna Sheen House Mouse set, the corner punch is Martha Stewart Pansies.  There are tiny tiny flower buttons scattered on the grass, bling in the corners and the DP is Basic Grey Sugar Rush.  I've moved the sentiment across a little on the CPs sketch..

My card is for the followng challenges:

CPS - sketch

Paper Sundaes - two or more images

Crafty Creations - 3 little words

Craft your Passion - anything goes

Pile it On - bright and breezy

Little Claire - anything goes

Less is More

Like so many people, I love C&S cards but find them hard to do.  I admire other people's cards but view mine as a bit of the "emperor's new clothers" syndrome - don't they look like 5 minutes of quick work? Isn't it cheating not to spend hours colouring, shading, punching, matting, embellishing to within an inch of the card's life?  OK this is something I need to work at:), I've been playing along with some of the OLW Challenges and now my friend Chrissie has set up Less is More with her friend Mandi.  First challenge is pink and black, not a favourite colour combi for me, I hope I'll be forgiven the touch of yellowy ink behind the butterfly!

I've boxes and bags of stamped out images, some mine, some traded with friends and when I looked through them last night trying to find some general inspiration, I found 2 or 3 of this stamp, just plain black on white.  I'm pretty sure it's a Hero Arts stamp, it may belong to my friend Anne, who lives in the village, but in truth I can't remember.  I've used my ink duster brushes and Worn Lipstick Distress Ink, sneaking in a touch of Wild Honey.  Matted onto black and just added a tiny punched butterfly where I thought about bling or a ribbon.

My card is for the following challenges:
Delightful Sketches - come fly with me
Digi Doodles Best - nature
Pile it On - bright & breezy
Less Is More - pink, black & white
Totally Papercrafts - clean & simple

Flying

Phindy has a great new set of digis coming up, called the Wee Babbies.  Earlier this week the first of the set was launched and here is the latest little charmer, who is called Flying, he is new in the Phindy's Place shop today and you can buy him here.
I've made a very simple card to show him off, based on the Sketch Saturday layout.  The background is dry embossed with the Tim Holtz brick wall folder and the DP is K&K Hopscotch.  Buttons are Papermania spotty buttons, turned wrong way up!
My card is for the following challenges:
Sketch Saturday - sketch
Flourishes - button up
Tuesday Throwdown - buttons
One stitch at a time - use a digi
Stamp Something - use a digi

You've got to roll with it...

Here's the second House Mouse card I have finished up.  It's a lovely stamp from one of the unmounted sets but I'm not altogether happy with my colouring.  I've used watercolours and Distress Ink and I find it hard to pick out the meeces; any suggestions to get them to be more prominent on this busy image would be very welcome!
I've followed the sketch at Midnight Madness.  The mat has "paper piercing" which I did with the  sewing machine, the background DP is Basic Grey Indian Summer and the sentiment is also House Mouse.  The silk ribbon comes from a cone that I fell in love with and bought a few years back and the wide lacy ribbon from Stamp Attic.

My card is for the following challenges:

Midnight Madness - sketch
Fab'n'Funky - tempting texture (silk and the lacy ribbon)
Crafty Cardmakers - use water (watercolours)
Scrap Creations - animal antics
Critter Sketch - critters
Corrosive Challenge - red, orange, yellow

Stacks of Strawberries

I have a couple of House Mouse cards to show you today, this is the first one, a Joanna Sheen decoupage.  I've teamed it with a freebie sentiment stamp that came with the DoCrafts magazine sometime last year which is great for all those fruit/veg images.   I've put it together using the very simple sketch at CPS, which works really well for a big complex image like this.  The DP says DaisyD's, I think it was in a bargain bin at a craft show.

My card is for the following challenges:

CPS - sketch

Scrap Creations - animal antics

Cupcake Craft - seeing red

Gingerloft - use red

Craft Your Days Away - photo inspiration

If money doesn't grow on trees, what about love?

Everyone with teenagers will be familiar with money not growing on trees, but this Phindy's Place image shows that, just maybe, love does:).  The image is coloured with Copics, Glossy Accents and some Forest Moss Distress Ink around the edges.  The card is based on this week's Sketch'n'Stash Challenge, my old stash is the octagon Nestie which I always forget about ans the Indian Summer pad which I found in the drawer.  I've stitched around the die-cut shape and also round the dry embossed stripes behind the image.  The zig zag stitching helps show the strips as I realised that they are quite a low contrast against the DP which is Basic Grey Indian Summer.  The pink card square is torn to add a bit of texture.

I had a bit of a wobble with my stash diet when I had to go to Wantage with DH who asked me if I needed to go the the craft shop (he's very well trained lol!) but I managed to hold out:).

This card is for some of the many Valentine challenges around, including:

Basic Grey - all heart

Sketch'n'Stash - sketch

Allsorts - it must be love, love love

Bee Crafty - digi and hearts

Crazy4Challenges - valentine

Secret Crafter - valentine

Do it with digis - romance

Raise the Bar - hearts

Stamp Something - digi

Stampin for the weekend - St Valentine's day

Simon Says - love is in the air

Tuesday Throwdown - stitching

Tuesday Taggers - feel the lurve

Flourishes - valentine

Here comes the Spring - maybe!

Isn't this House Mouse adorable?  He is from a Joanna Sheen unmounted sheet that DH bought me for my birthday.  I'm sticking to my stash diet and enjoying using the things I have, so out came this lovely spring image for colouring.  I've used the sketch from Create4Fun for my card, colouring with Copics, Stickles, Glossy Accents and some Distress Ink for the background.  The dotty paper is a Bearly Mine digi download, the green DP is Prima.  I've used a Cuttlebug folder then Distress Ink on white cardstock cut our with a Marianne Creatables die.  The sentiment is computer generated, I like this one for Get Well cards.
My card is for the following challenges:
Create4Fun - sketch
Quirky Crafts - dots, embossing
Sweet Stampin' - spring flowers
Cupcake Craft Challenges - McDonald had a farm - OK this may not look like a farm animal to you, but have you ever known a farm that doesn't have mice? :)
C.R.A.F.T. - roll of a die
Cute Card Thursday - banish the blues
For Fun Challenges - spring or winter
Papertake Weekly  - anything goes + flowers
StampsRUs - animals