Anything Goes at Digi Doodle Shop

This week's Digi Doodle Shop Challenge is Anything Goes - so no excuses not to enter!  I opted for some watercolouring, using the Foxgloves image printed large so I could paint in the gorgeous detail on the image.  I added some My Mind's Eye DP (which matches much better in real life!) and some lacy white ribbon.  The sentiment is Craftwork Cards mounted onto a diecut circle and that's it - another fairly clean and simple card...
My card is also for: 
Paper Pretties - flowers
Simon Says - birthday
Crazy Amigos - flowers
Crafty Sentiments - spots or stripes (stripy DP)
Shopping our Stash - anything girly
Sassy Cheryls - May flowers
Tuesday Throwdown - in the garden
Use it Tuesday - April showers bring fourth May flowers (using hoarded DP and ribbon)
Hooked on Craft - flowers
There she Goes - May flowers
Victorine Originals - flowers
Whoopsidaisy - pile on the flowers

Digi Doodle Challenge #104- April Showers

Welcome to this week's Digi Doodle Shop Challenge, which is April Showers.  This means to use water in one form or another on your project and I have been rebellious and frozen my water:).  I loved the Sliding Penguins image the moment I saw it and had so much fun making this card.  The image is coloured with Copics nd some Stickles, I've cut it out and added a background of brayered ink that was sprayed with water and then had some "snow" added.  The DP is glittered, the ribbon has metallic wording and I added some snowflake brads.  Hope you like my winter scene:). 

My card is also for the following challenges:

Cute Card Thursday - metallica

Shopping Our Stash - water related

Oozak - anything goes

ABC Christmas - H is for Hardware

Crafty Sentiments - use a digi

Waltzing Mouse and the Nice List

  

 I'd like to show you a card made with Waltzing Mouse stamps and I'd like to tell you about Claire Brennan who owns it, and her "Nice List". 

Claire asked people to leave a comment on her blog before Christmas for a giveaway of stamps, asking for the person who would be top of your Nice List.  She told us about her lovely neighbour who has done a great job of restoring a kitchen dresser.  I'm having a sad time at the moment and was moved to leave a comment about how helpful my friends have been, especially my friend Morag.  Claire picked her random winner of a prize but also picked my comment for a spot prize.  The twist with this giveaway was that it was for both the commenter and for the Nice Person.  I am so lucky to have beautiful sets of WM stamps and also a sumptuous treat for Morag who is not a stamper.  

So this card is saying a big THANK YOU to friends everywhere, all my kind crafty friends who read my blog and a Thank You to Claire who I have never met but who is clearly a generous and kind person.  Oh and by the way her stamps are pretty amazing too!

Card uses Large Dainty Doilies stamps and sentiment from Say it Loud.  I've based it around this week's Waltzing Mouse sketch challenge.  Lace, gems and white heat embossing.

My card is for:

Waltzing Mouse - sketch

Shopping our Stash - lace

Craft your Passion - no patterned paper

Stampin' for the Weekend - embossing

Allsorts Challenge - free and easy

Drunken Stampers - something new (my gorgeous new stamps!)

Fair Isle and Bling

 

It was time that I inked up my Nordic Winter stamps with something other than red, so I decided to follow this week's Waltzing Mouse Sketch and make an icy blue card for it.  The vertical stripes are some paper I won from Paper Temptress, a lovely satiny paper.  I just meant to put the larger bling in the corners and maybe a scattering on the snowflakes, but the card told me it needed more and I used up my small bling:).  There's a lot of sparkle in real life...

My card is for:

Waltzing Mouse - sketch

Shopping our Stash - glitters, sparkles or shines

Stamptacular Sunday - texture (twine, gems)

Use it Tuesday - all about winter (used up gems)

Tuesday Throwdown - baby it's cold outside

Sweet Stamps - hearts (middle border)

I Brake for Stamps - clean & simple

Secret Crafter - anything goes with blue

Simon Says - spots and/or stripes this one is stripes:)

Fred She Said Christmas Challenge

 Fred She Said is having a fun little Christmas Challenge! The theme is " Make a Christmas Tag OR Share a favorite Holiday Recipe " How do you enter? You have lots of choice here: you can make a Christmas Tag, a recipe card, or share a favorite Holiday recipe on your blog, linking to our challenge.  You don't have to use Fred She Said designs, but we love it when you do!
The PRIZE is a $25 GC to the Fred She Said Store.  There will be one winner chosen randomly.  Entries will be accepted until Friday DEC 30th midnight EST.  ... more details at the Fred She Said BLOG :) 

I used a lovely snowflake medallion from Fred She Said, which is pre-coloured, ideal for a quick and easy tag for a gift.  It really sparkles and shines; I gave it two coats or iridescent sparkle before I assembled the three layers and added Stickles and Perfect pearls to it.  You can find the snowflake here on the Fred She Said Blog - it is a freebie!

I also have a holiday recipe to share with you, which was given to me by a lady who took a quilting course with me.  I don't know where Barbara got the recipe from, but I do know it is delicious!

 

Lemon-frosted pistachio cake.

250g butter

250g caster sugar

3 eggs

100g shelled pistachio nuts (un salted)

100g ground almonds

1 orange

1 teaspoon rosewater 

60g plain flour

Crystallized rose petals and shelled pistachio nuts to decorate (optional)

Preheat the oven to 160 C Gas 3 and line the bottom of a non-stick 22cm/ 9 in. cake tin.

Cream the butter and sugar in food mixer until very light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating between additions

Blitz the pistachios to fine crumbs in food processor and then add them with the ground almonds, to the butter and sugar.

Finely grate zest and squeeze orange and then stir in with rosewater.

Lastly fold in flour with a large metal spoon.

Scoop mixture into lined baking tin and bake for fifty minutes, covering top lightly with foil for last 10 minutes.

Check the cake by inserting metal skewer into centre. It should come out fairly clean, without any wet mixture stuck to it. Leave to cool in the tin and then turn it out.

To make the icing

100g unrefined icing sugar.

 2 tblsp lemon juice.

Mix sugar and lemon juice till smooth. Pour over the cake and decorate with rose petals and pistachio nuts. Leave till icing is set.   

I'm entering my tag for a few challenges: 

Drunken Stampers - glittery holiday

Designed2Delight - tag you're it

Whimsical Wednesday - tags

Heart Song Inspirations - snowflakes and/or doilies

Cupcake Craft - look at the light (sparkly, shiny)

Everybody Art Challenge - blue & white

Digital Tuesday - winter wonderland

Shopping our Stash - tag it krafty

Do You Stack Up - winter photo inspiration

Try it on Tuesday - gift tags galore

Anything Goes - anything but a card

Craft Your Passion - tag you're it
Colour Create - blue, silver and white

Tagged

The Nordic Winter stamp set from Waltzing Mouse was love at first sight for me, unfortunately I'm waiting for a full set of the stamps as the supplier sent out a faulty batch, including my set.  However Claire the owner of WM emailed all who had bought the sets to track down and make sure that any faulty stamps were identified and replaced.  Mistakes happen, to me it is how they are dealt with that shows the quality of a business.  Full marks to Claire for reacting like this, it certainly gives me faith in her as a customer.

Anyhow, I used the stamps that were ok, or short lengths of them, to make this tag for the Waltzing Mouse Challenge.  The white on red sentiment is a better match to the ink in real life!  I stamped 3 little squares and made a 3D shape for the bottom, attached with a jump ring, also added some red gems.  Beautiful, detailed stamps that really don't need anything adding to them.

My tag is entered for:

Waltzing Mouse - Christmas Tag Challenge

Craft Your Passion - tag you're it

PanPastel UK - gift tags

Designed to Delight - tag you're it

Shopping our Stash - tag it crafty

Phindy's Place Challenge #85 - clean and simple

Welcome to this week's challenge, a great one for those of us who are struggling to get last minute cards made for Christmas!  I have made an almost one-layer card;  I embossed the card with a Nestie and then die cut my image and placed it inside the embossed lines.  The image is called Winter Bird and it is really quick to colour, so effective too.  There's some Glamour Dust on the snow and some Glossy Accents on the robin.  I added a sentiment from Butterfly Kisses in red and some red twine to accent the red in the image.
My card is also for the following challenges:
Shopping our Stash - lights, whites or Meljen - I chose white
Simon Says - Christmas photomontage inspiration
Stamp, scrap & doodle - holiday card

Kraftin' Kimmie - embossing
Designed2Delight - snow
Crafty Calender - cold and frosty
Dream Valley - sparkle
Truly Madly Crafty - Christmas images & colours
Hooked on Craft - winter wonderland
Crafty Bloggers Network - shades of winter
Craft your Passion - anything goes + glitter
Top Tip Tuesday - let it snow
Celebrate the Occasion - Christmas no green
My Mum's Craft Shop - traditional Christmas
Crafts & Me - winter snow
Creative Belli - winter & Christmas
Pixie Dust Studio - glitter and bling
Papercrafting Journey - Christmas
Crafty Purple Frog - it's cold outside
Aud Sentiments - winter holiday sentiments

Phindy's Place Challenge #84 - anything goes

 This is the first Friday of the month, which means we have our Anything Goes Challenge at Phindy's Place - anything goes as long as you use a Phindy's Place image that is:).  I'm very behind with making Christmas cards so I've used the gorgeous In the Winter Field image, colouring with Copics and a bit of Glamour Dust.  I used my blender pen for the snow in the sky and the markings on the deer's back. I've loosely followed the Sketch Saturday sketch for my card, which has a Craftwork Cards sentiment and a Nestie frame, snowflakes are also a Spellbinders die.  I do hope you'll join us at Phindy's Place this week!
My card is also for the following challenges:
Sketch Saturday - sketch
Simon Says Stamp - anything goes
Hooked on Craft - winter wonderland
Gingerloft Challenges - Christmas and winter
Shopping Our Stash - digital image
Whimsical Designs - layers
Delightful Challenges - let it snow

Santa Tag

I'm enjoying a visit from my mother, not much time to craft but last night I sneaked a few minutes to play with new stash from the NEC and made this tag. I'm very into red and white for Christmas at present, what do you think?   The top is shaped with a new label Nestie, the white embossed Santa and sentiment are from a Butterfly Kisses stamp set, again bought at the NEC and unused till now.  The tag was a little flimsy so I added a white back, punched a border to show the white, punched a few snowflakes and gave them red gem centres and added some baker's twine.
My tag is for:
CAS-ual Friday - tag you're it
Stamptacular Sunday - punch it
Cute Card Thursday -reds for remembrance
Pile it On - traditional Christmas
Fabulous Friday - embossing
Christmas Stampin' All Year - stamp never seen ink
Shopping our Stash - never been inked
Pink elephant - embossing
Hooked on Craft - something punched
Bows'n'Berries - tags

Nautical Knots

Here's one of my cards using the new Stamp Addicts set On the Water, which also uses the dotties for the clouds.  Image was coloured with watercolours, the red sail was coloured directly to make it as bright as possible, I also reflected the red in the water.  I tied what I hoped look like nautical knots on my cardstock on the front panel of this stepper card.  This set was really fun to use, though DH says the perspective is all wrong on my scene, never mind I like it!
My card is for:
Papertake - anything goes
Shopping our Stash - sports
Try it on Tuesday - unusual card shapes
Card Cupids - more than one fold
One Stop Craft - no sentiment
My Sheri Crafts - sports
Our Creative Corner - fancy folds
Sweet Stampin' - anything goes
Poodle Parlour - let's hear it for the boys
Crafty Sentiments - more than one fold
Craft Room Challenge - for a man
Stamps R Us  -masculine theme

It's all falling into place - I don't be-leaf it - no trees!

This evening, instead of trees, I have leaves to show you:).  By good fortune this card fits the challenges for several of my favourite blogs, where I try to play along as often as I can.  Midnight Madness has a fab prize of House Mouse stamps this week and since the lovely America is also part of House Mouse Monday she suggest combining the sketch with their Fall challenge.  This little chap is a Joanna Sheen stamp, never seen ink before and I think I've had him for about a year - shameful!  Cupcake Craft is where I won my first ever blog hop candy; I also one one of my first ever Top 3/5 awards from them so I love to join their challenges and this week they have leaves as their theme.  Add to that Anything Goes at Basic Grey and Simon Says and I cover almost all my favourite challenges in one here.
About the card:  coloured with Copics and Distress Inks.  DP is Basic Grey, border punch EK Success, leaf and button punches Woodware. Sentiment is Dimension Fourth, strip ribbon from Stampin' Up.
This has been the strangest autumn for weather, we had that lovely sunny hot Indian summer, now it's mild but damp and we have a second bumper crop of mushrooms in the field where we keep out horses - unheard of so late in the year!  Tonight I took my hat off and filled it with mushrooms in the absence of a clean container!
Challenges for my card:
Midnight Madness - sketch
House Mouse Mondays - Fall
Cupcake Crafts - take a leaf out of my book
Simon Says - anything goes
Basic Grey- anything goes
Creative Inspirations Paint - inspired by Fall
Quirky Crafters - autumn leaves
Stampin' Sisters in Christ - Fall colours
Craft Your Days Away - autumn
Pattie's Creations - Halloween or Autumn colours
Whimsical Wednesday - Fall cuties
Shopping our Stash - autumn colours
Crafty Creations - fall and leaves

Ten minute make

 

This card was so easy it feels like I cheated, it came together in moments:).  I'm really getting into my clean & simple cards, but for me they involve lots of agonising, and usually several rejects before I am happy.  Today, I saw that Shopping Our Stash have a black white and one other colour challenge and remembered some stash that has been sitting unloved for ages and put it to use with Less is More's sketch...

Craftwork Cards had a sale earlier this year which included mystery boxes or goody bags, whichever it was I am a sucker for it lol!  But have I used my stash?  Have I heck, it's still sitting on the desk where it landed.  Included was a set of flowers printed on to pearlised white card, saying that they just needed colouring.  Well if you look there's not a lot needs colouring either!  I love black, white and red so I coloured the flower with my Copics, matted it twice and added some ribbon and a gem.  The sentiment is from Pink Petticoat, love the font.  Ten minutes, card finished!

My card is for the following challenges:
Less is More - sketch
Shopping Our Stash - black, white and one other colour
Allsorts Challenge - clean & simple
Simon Says - anything goes
Celebrate the Occasion - must use ribbon

A Touch of Red

I really couldn't resist the new Christmas release at A Day for Daisies and this robin on a fence is gorgeous, isn't it?   I've used Copics, inks and Liquid Pearls to colour it, which sounds like a lot but really I just used a few colours.  The DP was a magazine freebie ages ago, sentiment is from Craftwork Cards and I've used a Cuttlebug folder to emboss the snowflakes on the white card strips. 

The builders are hard at work and there is little space in the house anywhere to craft, but hopefully they are on target and will be through by the weekend, though the floor has to dry out fully before we can carpet, so no sitting room for at least another month:(.

My card is for the following challenges:
A Day for Daisies - a bit of holiday & a bit of red
Stamp Something - digi (sorry to see this challenge closing)
Paper Sundaes - Lisa's sketch
Papertake - anything goes
Shopping our Stash - birds bugs or beasts (no people).  Hmm it's stash but I just got it at the weekend... hope this counts

Less is More - things that move

We've had a lovely weekend with friends from Shropshire visiting, very busy with no time to craft.  On Saturday Shona wore a t-shirt with a bicycle image on it and it bugged me all day as then I knew the stamp I wanted to use for this week's Less is More! This is a Little Claire stamp that I bought at Newbury, it has little extras that can fit into the basket but I left it unadorned.  I'm trying to build my skills and collection of One Layer cards, so this is is coloured with watercolour markers not Copics.  The sentiment is a little heavy on the RH side but not enough to cover it up with a second layer with it re-stamped - or at least that's what I think!
My card is for the following challenges:
Less is More - things that move
Challenge up your Life - no patterned paper
Charisma Cardz - negative space
Shopping our Stash - weakest link - I struggle with one layer cards
Little Claire - wedding/anniversary - I think this sentiment is perfect for this

Shopping Our Stash meets Less is More

As soon as I saw this week's Shopping Our Stash Challenge - buttons, blooms and bananas - I knew what I wanted to make and, barring the sentiment, it's all neglected stash. I went to Make It at Farnborough last year and was really pleased with a set of clear stamps - the name on them is G Studio - stalk and 2 flowers that I bought for £1.  I had all sorts of ideas for using them but you guessed it, they've been languishing in the drawer unused.  I just used the stem from this and the flower stamp is from an Elusive Images set that I've not used for ages.  The button is from my button tin and the flower is really cool.  A few years back a quilting friend showed me how to use a metal template (this was a charm I think) with a soldering iron to cut out shapes from nylon organza.  Great idea but the flowers have been maturing in the stash too:).   Hope you like my clean and simple card.

Shopping our Stash - buttons, blooms and bananas
Less is More - buttons and ribbons
Paper Pretties - no markers
Anything Goes - pick of the bunch (flowers)
Come and Get It - make your own flowers

Crop Circles?

 

This card solves a dilemma: I was dying to play with some lovely new stamps that arrived when I was away on holiday and I also wanted to enter this week's Less Is More, which has a circles theme.  The stamp set is Stampin' Up and came from the Lady LIM herself, Mandi, gorgeous stamps Mandi, thanks!  I made a circly background for my card by using masking tape to punch out circles and also to mask off the top and bottom.  I've been using Post-Its but decided to get my masking tape out and give it a go.  Even on the glossy cardstock it worked fine, will definitely keep it out now!  I punched the circles into tape stuck onto paper, it glues the punch up otherwise.  Ask me how I know this...  :).  Sentiment is a Sheena Douglass stamp, inks are Spiced Marmalade and an Adirondack Lemonade. images use Sepia Versafine.

My card is for the following challenges:

Less is More - Circles

Shopping our Stash - turnback technique (masking tape)

Allsorts Challenge - free and easy July

Cute Card Thursday - going round in circles

Jac-inks Papercraft - monotone

SOS - Scrap Attack

This is a quick posting as I do want to get in an entry for Shopping Our Stash Challenge, it makes me feel a bit less guilty about all my stash:).  This week it's Scrap Attack or recycle.  I saw a gorgeous card by Julie, which I have partly CASED, with Julie's kind permission.  My scraps are those forlorn, cut into sheets from a Basic Grey 6x6 pad that I don't want to throw away because I love the DP but aren't good for much.  I stamped flags using Lindsay Mason stamps that I bought at the recent Craft Barn Extravaganza and then stamped them onto the tiny scraps, the sentiment is from the set too.  The paper pieced flags are highlighted with a blue marker and a white gel pen.  Although the papers are all from the same set, the scale is small and it is hard to see that they are related.  I prefers Julie's colour coordinated card and will try something similar another time.

My card is for:
Shopping Our Stash - scrap attack
Cupcake Crafts - single layer card
Kaboodledoodles - celebrations
2 Sisters - birthday - and Happy Blogaversary to them too!
Ellephantastic - birthday and another Happy Blogaversary!

PS Grrr...  DH thought they were pants.  I mean underpants rather than being rude about the card as such.  Definitely need to try another version...

Here comes the sun - or does it?

I've picked bright summer colours for today's card and I'm hoping the weather will follow suit, at the moment the sun is shining but it's raining too.  This card uses some lovely new Flower Doodledallions from Fred She Said, which have a choice of sentiments for the centres as well as a blank.  I've followed quite an unusual sketch from Truly Scrumptious which uses eyelets.  Now I always shy away from eyelets when I can, so this was a great sketch to make me reach for the eyelts and the hammer, which also fits this weeks Shopping Our Stash, where the challenge is to use neglected tools of the trade.

My flower is coloured with Copics and lots of Glossy Accents.  The DPs are Stampin' Up, Artylicious and Basic Grey, I've used a MS bubbles punch, gems and lots of stitching.  Oh, the ribbon is coloured with Copics too.  Hope the sun shines wherever you are today.

My card is for the following challenges:
Shopping Our Stash - tools of the trade
Truly Scrumptious - sketch
Papertake Weekly - here comes the sun
CRAFT - stitching
Annabelle's Stamps - yellow, orange, turquoise

Shopping our Stash - UFOs

I had big plans when I saw that this week's Shopping Our Stash Challenge is UFOs, because I've got plenty - unfinished objects that is:).  I love to sit and cut out decoupage while I'm watching tv.  Sometimes I glue the layers on, sometimes they sit in plastic bags, but as you can see the decoupage rearely makes it into a card!  Back to reality and I have at least made up one card with an adorable House Mouse image. 
I finished this one ages ago and then realised that I had missed a couple of layers out when I was glueing!  I've added the missed out meeces to one side, used some backing paper that matches from the Joanna Sheen CD, stamped a LOTV sentiment and punched out a lacy border with a MS punch.  I've added gems to the middles of some of the asters and also put some down the RH side.

My card is for the following challenges:
Shopping our Stash - unfinished objects
House Mouse Monday - adorn with jewels
Simon Says - let's get fruity

PS Thank you to Shopping Our Stash for my Top 3 badge, I hope more of you will join me in shopping my stash:)

Air Mail

This is a true one layer card; I needed a postcard to send and couldn't find any in the drawer that I liked.  So I cut some cardstock and brushed Distress Inks over it, then stamped a very old Clarity Stamp and an Elusive Images sentiment onto it.  I brushed a bit more blue ink onto the balloons and used it to edge that postcard.  That's it, finished!

I'm entering my (post)card for the following challenges:
Charisma Cardz - something that flies
Shopping our Stash - oldies but goodies, oldest stamp or digi.  I don't think I even have my oldest stamp but this is certainly one of the very very earliest I bought...
Digi Design House - One layer wonder
Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight - try something new - I've nver made a postcard before but now I plan to make lots!