Elegant Maribel

This is a stunning Stempelglade stamp called Maribel that my friend brought across when we had a crafty day last week, isn't she beautiful, she needs very little adding to make a gorgeous card. I've used her for Sketch & Stash's Challenge. As ever, they want to know neglected and new stash: I've used new Basic Grey Capella DP, new Prima flowers bought from Quixotic Paperie and the sparkly adhesive ribbon across the card is neglected stash; a Laura Ashley set I bought and haven't used. Sentiment is an Elusive Images stamp.

I coloured Maribel with Copics and sponged Distress Ink all around the image. Couldn't find a Nestie that fitted the image so I used the deckle edged rectangle and kept moving it till I had the size and proportions I wanted, working on one side at a time. I'm entering this for the Basic Grey Challenge to use a punch (hope the Nestie counts?)

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.

Aged to Perfection

One of my favourite images from the recent Indulgence release by Shirleys2Girls is the image Friends - could there be any better indulgence than the good company of friends - with the added bonus of a glass of wine. I've made several cards using the image, which can be bought here, this one uses Ria's pretty sketch from Sketch Saturday. I'm also entering it into Stamp Something's theme of Love Something, we all need and love our friends :).

The image is coloured with Copics and also paper pieced. The pen highlighting the border is a gold metallic which looks better IRL. The papers are free My Mind's Eye papers that came with a magazine, the big chrysanthemum is part of the pack. The sentiment is from Craftwork Cards and I tied the ribbon with a Bowmaker which I bought from Quixotic Paperie. I'm not the best in the world at tying bows, yes I was one of the last to learn in my class at school :). I watched the online videos of the bowmaker and was not convinced by them. But I gave it a go and I'm delighted with it. It truly makes tying perfect, even bows so simple. Right from the very first practice bow they have worked every time - I love it!

Twisted Thursday Challenge #33

It's Twisted Thursday Challenge time again! Shirleys2Girls challenge you to follow a sketch - with a twist! Here's what you have to do: Create a card, following this week’s sketch and then “Twist” by using wire somewhere on your project. You are not required to use Shirley’s 2 Girls stamps, 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 S2GSC31 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, 18 November, 2009 at midnight PDT.The winning card will be chosen by Random.org, the lucky winner will get to choose a stamp from the Shirley’s 2 Girls product list, and their winning card 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:
Karolyn
Debbie
Joy
Justine
Pat
Erin
Now onto my card. I've used the Pilgrims stamp from Shirleys2Girls, available here, I've paper pieced the pumpkin and Stamped two full images: one onto DP and one on white card that I've coloured in with Copics. The DP is Basic Grey Indian Summer, apart from the main background which is from a Bearly Mine CD. I've used a Martha Stewart punch and added a pretty tree charm from Quixotic Paperie (you can see the charm better if you click on the photo to enlarge). The charm is added to the ribbon with a piece of wire but I decided that wasn't much of an adventurous twist and I wrapped pink beading wire round the image. Maybe I should use this more on my cards, I loved beading but I was absolutely useless at it :).

Blog Candy Update

Thank you all for entering my blog candy. I'm afraid I haven't yet done the draw, I've got bogged down in counting names, followers etc. as well as having a busy week. I did promise that if over 50 people entered there would be a bonus prize. Well I've ended up with 73 comments, though some are duplicates, so I've added in this cute set of owl charms, from Quixotic Paperie, just in time for those Hallowe'en cards :).

I'll be back later to announce the random winner - I hope :).

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?

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.

Patchwork Birthday Girl

I've made this card for a quilting friend's birthday, when I saw the patchwork papers with faux stitching I couldn't resist the download from Bearly Mine Designs, aren't they pretty? I also saw that Simon Says is having a colour challenge at their Paper Craft Planet group, to use light brown, light green, blushy pink, coral pink and white. This set of papers could have been made for the challenge! The card is based around Sketch Saturday's sketch.

I've used one of the Autumn collection Whiff of Joy images, thank you to my blogging Sistah Vanja for sending me some. It's coloured with Copics and the background shaded with Distress Inks in Worn Lipstick and Shabby Shutters. I've used a Woodware border punch on the papers and cut out another of the cute tickets from the same paper set. The flower was part of my Simon Says shopping from winning their challenge a few weeks back and the silver centre to it is from Quixotic Paperie.

I used more of the papers for inserts to the card:

Just Because...

I've blinged up the pretty Melinda Blowing Kisses image to enter this week's Whiff of Joy Challenge and I've based it on the sketch at Papertake Weekly.

Melinda is coloured with Copics, she's an image I coloured while we were on holiday. I've added lots of Stickles to her wings and also to the hearts and the embroidery on her jeans. The background has been shaded with Distress Inks in Scattered Straw and Worn Lipstick.

The octagons are cut with Nestabilities, as a slight variation to the sketch; the papers are all K & Co. I love the little ticket sentiment, which comes from a new download at Bearly Mine Designs called Country Collection. I've another card to post later using papers from this collection, I really didn't buy the whole set for one ticket :). Hmm, I see it's called Collection A, sounds like even more temptation in the pipeline...

The bling has continued with pearl gems in the corners, a lovely shimmery ribbon that I bought at Festival of Quilts, liquid pearls round the scalloped edges and a lovely snowflake charm from Quixotic Paperie hanging from the bow. It's meant to be a Christmas charm but really it's so versatile it fits lots of themes, I think. The card I'm posting later is in similar colours, though with soft green in it. I don't want to get into a colour rut, the next one will be totally different colours I've decided!

Blog Candy Tilda

OK I'm back in my craft room after Festival of Quilts and normal service should be resumed shortly - with a card :).

The lovely Rach has been giving away lots of blog candy over the last couple of weeks, it seems like each day there is the chance to win a stamp from her. A couple of weeks back I was lucky enough to be the winner of a Tilda with kitten stamp. I'm not a cat person, I'm a dog person, but isn't she cute? I have quite a few friends who are cat lovers and this is an ideal stamp for cards for them. THANK YOU Rach!

When I saw that the Just Magnolia challenge this week uses a sketch by Rach I knew I HAD to use my new stamp :). Now, could I find any other challenges to enter? There's another, sister blog to this called Just Magnolia Two, which uses a very helpful 3D tutorial by Debby Yates to inspire its monthly challenge. The Roses on Paper challenge is to use punches and Stampin' for the Weekend's challenge is to use pink & grey. One more: Pile it On's combi challenge this week is Good Things Come in Threes.

Tilda and her kitten (oops, nearly went a bit Mrs Slocombe there!) are coloured with Copics. She's cut out with a Nestie, using Rach's out of the frame technique and edged with Distress Ink. I've stamped her several times and layered the kitten, her right arm and face, and her hair ribbon into 3 layers.

I struggled to find any grey paper and eventually found the pretty grey print in a K&K bargain paper pack. I used a Woodware punch along the paper's bottom edge. I've used a pink DP with grey-ish blue flowers on and then used Distress Ink to stamp tiny flowers over pink pearlescent card for my third paper, adding some Stickles to the flower centres and to Tilda's scarf. The sentiment is by Elusive Images.

There are three pale pink ribbons attached to the card, three brads and three flower petals on the Prima flower. I've used a spacer charm from Quixotic Paperie on the flower centre, the first time I've used one. It won't be the last time, I really like the effect this gives (see close-up) and can see me using these a lot, though I now know I *need* the larger size too :).

I found the colours hard to work with and get enough contrast, but I think I've got there in the end...