Easter Blooms

I have two cards to show you today, this is made using an Imagination collage stamp that I got at the NEC, I've coloured it with watercolours and decoupaged the crocus so that they stand out.  There's a swirly dry embossed background and the label came from a Nestie set.
My card is for:
Catch the Bug - Easter/Spring
Craft your Days Away - Easter
Di's Digi Designs - embossing
Sweet Stampin' - Spring/Easter
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - spring
Alphabet Challenge - D is for dry embossing
Just Add Ink - Easter
4 Crafty Chicks - Easter
Aud Sentiments - Happy Easter
Totally Papercrafts - Easter
One Stop Craft Challenge - Easter

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

The one that got away?

Another card using new stamps from Stamp Addicts, this time a  masculine one that uses the background and the boat from the On the Water set, with a tree from the new Tree set sneaked in as well.  The detail fisherman at bottom left is also from On the Water.  The scene is mounted onto brown card embossed with a Tim Holtz tree bark folder, the edges are torn.  DP is from a Joanna Sheen CD Rom, Times Gone By I think.
My card is for the following challenges:
Midnight Madness - sketch
Kenny K's - autumn colours
Pile it On - Fall is for fun - my fisherman is having fun, but it must be an early Autumn, I think salmon fishing finishes 1 October!
Sweet Stampin' - go masculine
Stamptacular Sunday - anything goes
Creatalicious - distressed edges

Aspirational new home card

 I love my Design Team work, don't get me wrong.  After a few early forays I know to restrict it to using artists whose work I love, in fact even calling it "work" is wrong, it's playing really isn't it!  But just occasionally something else reaches out and grabs me, in this case it is stamps by Lindsay Mason who I met at Craft Barn's Extravaganza at the start of the month.  I loved the way Lindsay created and this is really an attempt to copy her style.  If you check out her blog you'll see it's a bit of a pale imitation, she's seriously talented and was also so friendly and generous with her tips and ideas.

I've used Distress Inks on glossy card for the background.  I smudged my sentiment slightly so stamped again on the lower part of the card and matted it over the smudge.  Just the edge towers are glued down on the big castle so it has lots of dimension but it can still be squished down to post.  Background stripe is My Minds Eye, DIY style brads are Joanna Sheen and I've used Swiss Dots embossing on the frame.  The screw brads are because everyone ends up doing some work to their new home, even if it's a castle:).
 Enjoy your day.

My card is for the following challenges:
Midnight Madness - sketch
The Paper Shelter - anything goes
Totally Papercrafts - spots and stripes
Sew Many Cards - dry embossing
Sweet Stampin' - something old (swiss dot folder), something new - Lindsay stamps
Secret Crafter - embossing

Bluebirds

 What beautiful weather, I'm enjoying the sunshine but wondering whether my mojo has melted in the unaccustomed warmth.  I have managed to finish up this card which began life as something a little different.  It's based on Sweet Sketch Wednesday.  If you look under the centre panel there is another Basic Grey Curio DP, I attached the panel with a large decorative stitch on my sewing machine that went slightly off its line, which didn't look great.  So I cut it in half, reattached it under a new piece of ribbon and salvaged it.  The image is from A Day for Daisies, beautiful isn't she.  Colouring is Copics and Distress Inks, some doodling and dotting on the ground line.  Sentiment is Elusive Images, I've cut a large scroll in half to fill the corners and used flowers with card candy centres.
My card is for the following challenges:
Sweet Sketch Wednesday - sketch
Basic Grey - stitching
Southern Girls - anything goes
Sweet Stampin' - something old, something new (sentiment is old, digi is new!)
Simply Create - fly with us
The Poodle Parlour - come fly with me

Phindy's Place Challenge #61 - Going Round in Circles

 Welcome to this week's Phindy's Place Challenge, this week we are challenging you to use circles in your project.  I've used the image "Birdie" and made a vintage style card, following this week's sketch at Simon Says.  I hope you'll play along with us, don't forget you get two chances to win if you use a Phindy's Place image.
My image and sentiment are circles and the flowers I've added are all circular in shape.  Image is coloured with Copics and Distress Inks, sentiment is LOTV, the flowers were Blog Candy from the lovely Bente at Sketch Saturday.  I used Tim Holtz tissue tape pleated under the card, lace is from stash and DP is Pink Paislee Butterfly Garden.  Lace is from stash, scroll is Mairanne Creatables die, I've added lots of stitching to my layers. 
My card is for the following challenges:
Simon Says - sketch
Crafts & Me - stitches
Crafting for all Seasons - summer
Creative Inspirations - stitching
One Stitch at a Time - things with wings
Challenge up your Life - circles
Sweet Stampin - things with wings
Forever Friends - 3 design papers
Rainbow Lady - digi day

Summer Hummer

 Whatever happened to summer?  We went away at the weekend and there was heavy rain and hail!  To compensate I've been making some summery cards, here's the first.  I've used some bright Basic Grey DP teamed with a pre-coloured Humming Bird image from Fred She Said, these are lovely to colour but the the pre-coloured make very quick cards.  I printed it twice and cut out and popped the bird and flower centre up on Pinflair Glue, to give lots of dimension.  Sentiment is an Elusive Images stamp, the offeset panel is embossed and inked.
My card is for the following challenges:
 Simon Says - let's play bingo(3 down flowers, brads, sentiment)
Charisma Cards - pink and green
Papercrafting Journey - our feathered friends
Creative Inspiration Paint - bright colours
One Stitch at a Time - things with wings
Sweet Stampin' - things with wings
Delicious Doodles - things that flutter
Polka Doodles - all of a flutter
Simply Create - fly with us
Stamp Something - with pretty papers

Summer sunshine - I wish!

I'm sneaking in a second posting today because I wanted to enter the Sweet Sketch Wednesday Challenge and I'm fast running out of time.  I knew I wanted to use some gorgeous Basic Grey Sweet Threads DPs that I bought, when I saw a card made by Debby for the Everybody Art Challenge I decided to distress my papers.  There are a lot of layers to this sketch and I worry about them all staying stuck so I decided to stitch them as well!  The good thing is that I know all my layers will stay put, the bad thing is that where I made a mistake with my layout I can't change it.  Hmm...  more haste less speed and all that:).
Image is the totally inspired Tender Tootsies from Phindy's new Plump 'Uns range, isn't it lovely sometimes to just kick off those shoes and feel the grass under your feet...  She's coloured with Copics and lots of Distress Ink, extra Copics in the corner to cool things down a bit and give an impression of some trees.  Flowers are punched from the DP.

Before I go I'd like to tell you that Phindy is about to become a grandmother and she is running a fun competition on PCP, guess the date the baby arrives and guess the weight.  Do check it out, link here, I think the granny to be is a bit sad that she's not had more entries yet and tha baby could be here any day now!
My card is for the following challenges:
Sweet Sketch Wednesday - sketch
Basic Grey - shabby chic
Everybody Art Challenge - distress
A Spoonful of Sugar - here comes summer
Corrosive Challenge - summer colours
Pile it on - summer heaven
Sweet Stampin' - playing in the summer sun
Fairy Fun Fridays - summer fun
Papertake Weekly - anything goes
Wags'n'Whiskers - stitching

Phindy's Place Challenge #57 - Summer Living

Good morning and welcome to a very summery posting for today's Phindy's Place Challenge.  DH has reminded me that this cannot possibly be summer as there doesn't seem to be a hosepipe ban in force.  This little girl would probably be hauled off into jail by Thames Water in real life!  This little cutie is called Splashy Sienna and I've challenged myself to make her a redhead, which I find tricky to colour in, I'm quite pleased with the result; her dress is paper pieced.  The DPs were magazine freebies, I've dry embossed the little squares.  The sentiment is LOTV and I've mounted it on a Prima flower, the big brads are Papermania I think.

My card is for the following challenges:
Tuesday Morning Sketches - sketch
Jac-Inks Papercrafts - warm colours
My Time to Craft - use a die cut
Truly Scrumptious - anything goes
Make it Colourful - colour a water scene
Crafting for All Seasons - anything goes
Totally Gorjuss - water, water
2 Sisters - use a digi
Sweet Stampin' - in the garden
StampsRUs - going digital
Squigglefly - paper piece your digi

Fred She Said May Blog Hop

Good Morning and welcome to the Fred She Said May Blog Hop!  You should have arrived here from Vickie's blog, if not you need to hop back to Tracey-Lynn's blog to start at the very beginning 'cause we've got some fantabulous Fred cards to show you, not to mention a HUGE prize.  One lucky winner will receive a Grand Prize of: a £15 gift voucher from Bearly Mine Designs ,a prize package worth $15.00 from Pizzazz APlenty , 3 digital downloads from CustomCreations from Carolivy  AND a $30 Gift Certificate to the  FSS Store!!!  Whew that's some prize!  To win, all you need to do is collect a word to make a sentence from each blog that you visit, when you get to the end of the hop you'll be able to enter your sentence.  Hop closes 3rd June at midnight.

I've coloured one of the new releases from Fred to show you today:  this is a cute hummingbird with petunias, you can buy this image in the store here.  You can also buy a realistic hummingbird and pre-coloured versions of both images.  There are a lot of images coloured in on Kraft paper at the moment and I wanted to give this a try so I got out some Koh-I-Noor pencils that I bought a couple of years back.  I'm quite pleased with the blending that I got from my pencils; when I tried before I could not get results I was happy with, however I think getting to grips with Copics and blending them has helped a lot:).  Dotty DP is from Bearly Mine, one of our sponsors, the stripe is by My Mind's Eye, sentiment is from Whiff of Joy and the string lace and ribbon are from stash.

Your next stop along the Blog Hop is with the really talented Robin and before you leave you need to know my word:  it is arrive.  Hope you enjoyed your visit!

My card is also for the following challenges:

Sweet Sketch Wednesday - sketch

Bearly Mine - diecuts and lace

Jac-Inks Papercrafts - warm colours

Sweet Stampin' - in the garden

Creative Craft World - 3 or more flowers
Spoonful of Sugar - things with wings

Ooh La La - Guest Designer - Challenge #79 Tres Chic

 I was honuored to be asked to be a Guest Designer for Ooh La La Creations Challenge for May and June and here is my first card for them, this week's challenge is Tres Chic and I have used a pyramage with two papers from their Passion for Fashion CD.  It's a detailed image that called for a fairly simple background, I decided to frame it with a Marianne Creatables Die and this inspired me to try something new and finally get to grips with embossing a die cut shape, as the frame looked nothing much at all until I embossed it.  I used my Big Shot, with the following layers:  grunge paper, platform with one leaf folded back, cutting plate, die, rubber sheet, black plastic plate.  Hoorah now I just have to remember the combination :).

Other embellishments are:  Hero Arts sentiment stamp gold embossed, gemstones and roses.

My card is also for the following challenges:

One Stitch at a Time -embossing

Sparkles Forum - anything goes

Sweet Stampin' - try something new (embossing diecut, pyramage)

Sugar Creek Hollow - embossing

Do You Stack Up? - make it pop (3D)

A Big Wedding? A big card, anyway

This is a first for me:  DH asked me to make an A4 card, one of his staff is getting married and he asked for a card big ebough for everyone to sign.  I've never made a card bigger than A5 before.   He also asked for it to be fairly simple.  Thank heavens for digis that can be resized easily!  This is a Shirleys2Girls digi, coloured with Copics and Distress Inks and lots of Stickles for bling.  It's matted onto gold mirri and then bronze pearelscent card.  I've used a Martha Stewart punch on the RH side and trimmed the card back to expose a strip of gold.  Didn't intend to, but when I saw I'd put the image slightly off-centre I had to do something!  Sadly we can't go to the wedding, DH is away that weekend, but I hope she'll like her card...
I'm entering the following challenges:
Create4Fun - use a digi
Allsorts - song title (White Wedding, Billy Idol)
Sweet Stampin' - diamonds are a girl's best friend

Autumn Splendour

The very talented Tracey at Fred She Said has a gorgeous new Autumn design of sunflowers and pumpkins, you can buy it here.  I've challenged myself to colour it, but if you don't want to the set includes a ready-coloured design that I plan to use printed multiple times for some decoupage cards, can't you just see those sunflowers popping off the page?
I'm not totally pleased with my card, I spent a long time fussing with the background, dotting and swirling Copics.  Didn't like it, sponged some Rusty Hinge Distress ink on top!  Also, I don't seem to have my image quite centred, I wonder if my Nestie sandwick slipped or maybe I just wasn't looking.  Oh well...
Background paper is from Artylicious Essence of Nature CD, I've added a bronze ribbon and some brown lace, sentiment is from Cratwork Cards.  I've followed the sketch from Midnight Madness Challenge, flipping it onto its side.
My card is also for the following challenges:
Everybody Art Challenge - Autumn
Creative Card Crew - Autumn
Your Next Stamp - Give Thanks (Thanksgiving)
Sweet Stampin' - Stitching
Paper Sundaes - Fabulous Fall
ABC Challenges - D is for Distressing

Clean & Simple Poinsettia

I've been playing with the Poinsettias from Fred-She-Said again:).  This time I wanted to try a clean & simple card that I could make quickly and easily to help with the mountain of Christmas cards that needs making.  I've used a textured card and stamped the swirl (a clear set from Personal Impressions that I've had for ages) directly onto the card in Olympia Green Versafine.  The poinsettia is only 3 layers, with a little Stickles in the middle.  That's it.  Card done!  What do you think? I really like it but it's hard to leave it alone, I keep wanting to add more swirls...
This card is for the following Challenges:
Weekly Christmas Card Challenges - Clean & Simple
Crafty Cardmakers - Clean & Simples
Secret Crafter Challenge - Clean & Simple
Sweet Stampin' Challenge - Winter Wonderland

Phindy's Friday Challenge #18 - Pretty in Pink

Good Morning!  It's Friday the 13th but no need to worry about that, just enjoy the fact that it's nearly the weekend and it's also time for a new Phindy's Place Challenge.  This week the challenge is to be Pretty in Pink.  So it's time to make an unashamedly girly card!  Don't forget to use one of Phindy's gorgeous digis and enjoy being pretty in pink:). 

I've used one of those adorable Summer Cuties, this is Bye-bye Butterfly.  There is a beautiful, to scale butterfly included in Phindy's digi, of course.  However my card is so busy that I chose to add a little punched butterfly instead.  I wanted to add lots of flowers and swirls so I made an easel card, basing it on the sketch at Spoonful of Sugar Challenge this week.  Image is coloured with Copics, cut out and popped up onto silicon glue on top of an embossed circle.  The DP is a freebie from My Mind's Eye that came with a magazine.  The left hand flower is a Prima, with a metal spacer from Quixotic Paperie added.  There are metal butterfly charms added to the computer generated sentiment.  All the leaves, swirls, butterflies and flowers are punched and there are Liquid Pearls centres to the flowers.

I am entering my card for the following challenges:

Spoonful of Sugar - sketch

DareU2Digigstamp - blooms and charms

Flutterby Wednesday - open theme with butterfly

Paper Sundaes - metal

Charisma Cardz - easel

Digital Tuesday - butterflies or lace

Sweet Stampin' - pretty in pink

One Stop Craft Challenge - summer fun
The Pink Elephant - summer fun

Crafty Cardmakers - spotlight on punches

Flowery vintage - look no Copics!

I LOVE using my Copics and the wonderful detailed stamps and digis that we can get these days are perfect for them.  But last week I fancied a change and decided to have a go at a watercolor-style look.  I used a Phindy's Place image, Birdie, which is one of my favourites.  I changed the digi to a soft brown to print (in Word) and used a very heavy watercolour cardstock.  I simply coloured with Tea Dye Distress Ink, which gave a soft vintage look.

I followed Deb's fun sketch from Cute Card Thursday and I picked a monochrome colourscheme to go with the image.   There are lots of flowers, Prima and handmade, attached to the card as well as a flowery Papermnia DP on the card so I am entering Stamp Something's Flowery Challenge  as well as Create4Fun Challenge's flower theme.  The Sweet Stampin Challenge has a Vintage theme this week and I'm also entering their challenge.

Image from Phindy's Place, sentiment from Joanna Sheen.  DP is Papermania.   Flowers are:  Prima vintage, rosebuds made from Little Claire die, tissue paper flower cut with Nestie from flowery tissue paper and edged with Distress Ink.

DT Posting - Twisted Thursday #62 - Something New

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue... Over at Shirleys2Girls Challenge we're still enjoying the joyful June bride images and for this week the challenge is to use something NEW on your card. We've used a wedding theme but you can make any card or proect you want to, as long as it has something new on it. I've made a very clean and simple wedding card, using the adorable Bride & Gifts image which you can buy here. I'm entering my card for the Sweet Stampin' Challenge theme this week, which is Clean & Simple and also for Cupcake Craft Challenge's Strawberries and Cream challenge. Secret Crafter's Challenge for this week is Weddings and Anniversaries, I'm entering their challenge too.The image is new to me, and I used a pretty bird and bloom new Cuttlebug folder. My pretty in pink bride is coloured with Copics and Stickles, love that pink champagne she's drinking :). Image is matted onto Bazzill Bling and added to a scalloped card with just the embossed card and a pink rosebud.
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, Debbie, Georgia, Gina, Jane,Jeannie, Judy and Lisa.

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.

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!

The Keeper of the Light

Hooray for Bank Holidays, I've got two cards to blog in a day! This week's freebie from Faith at Designed2Delight is a lighthouse scene which makes a great card for a man. I have taken some artistic licence with my card as you will see; the lighthouse is working on a bright sunny day:). I've coloured my image with Copics and added Glossy Accents to the wave tops and the windows on the lighthouse. I've added a charm from Quixotic Paperie to my scene. 2 DPs are Basic Grey from Cupcake and the background one is My Mind's Eye. Brads are from stash, card candy from Craftwork Cards.

My card is based on the sketch at this week's Card Positioning Systems Challenge. and I've followed the recipe of 3 papers, 2 brads, 1 embellishment at I Love Digis. Sweet Stampin's Challenge this week is It's a Man's World, I think this is a great man's card image. Crafty Creations has an anything goes theme week and so does Anything Ink. Simple Doodles has the theme of layers, plenty on here:).