Oh Deer!

 I got my Tim Holtz Christmas stamps out to have a try at a Christmas card for a man, which is the challenge at Winter Wonderland.   First I used a textured card which I think looks a bit messy where the deer is overstamped.  The next card is on a regular, smooth card and I prefer it.  Background has Distress Inks in Weathered Wood and, I think, Stormy Sky.  Sentiment is a freebie from this month's Do Craft magazine.

One in a Million

My DH's birthday was last weekend.  Shamefully, I had not made a card for him in time as family events overtook us and I did not have the time or inclination for much crafting.  This card is not really a birthday card, but it is for him.  And yes, he is 1 in a million.

This was inspired by a card in this month's Craft Stamper.  I've used number stamps from Dimension Fourth that have been sitting in my stash and Basic Grey Sugar Rush DP, the stick-on letters and hearts come from the BG pad.
My card is entered for the following challenges:

Paper Sundaes - Something from your stash
Creative Belli - Numbers
Stamp, Scrap and Doodle - Anything goes

DT Post - Phindy's Place Friday Challenge#25 - Anne-Marije's Sketch

It's Friday and it's time for another Phindy's Place Challenge.  I love sketches and this week we are having our first sketch challenge, I hope you come and join us, just remember to use a Phindy's Place image and enjoy following the sketch.  We have a great sketch made by the talented Anne-Marije and I chose to use one of those adorable Christmas Cuties for my card, this is the adorable Delivery Man.  

My colourscheme came from the gorgeous Jovial DP by Basic Grey, LOVE this collection!  The sentiment is Joanna Sheen, gems are Hobby House and snowflakes are cut with Spellbinder dies.

I'm also entering my card for:
Charisma Cardz Challenges - Christmas  Crafting
Incy Wincy Designs - Anything Goes
Creative Inspirations - Christmas in September
 One Stop Craft - Snowflakes in September
Two Sisters Challenge Blog - Christmas
Totally Gorjuss - Christmas

Fred She Said Favourite Things Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to the Fred She Said Blog Hop, to introduce the new Design Team - which includes me - hurray! If you've arrived here from the very talented Shelly's  blog then you're in the right place.  If you've just happened across the hop then you need to start it at Tracy's Fred-She-Said Blog.  

FSS designs have long been one of my favourites and I'm so excited to be on the team!  We have a great prize to be won for our blog hop: $20 CAD to spend at the Fred She Says Store AND $20 GC for CropStop)  - wow!  This prize will be awarded at random to one hopper who has visited eveyone's blogs, left a little love along the way, collected all the mystery words and made a sentence. You'll get the instructions for how to enter your sentence in the hop when you've completed it.  You'll have to read on to find my word (evil grin!).

For our hop we chose our favourite FSS image and used it in our favourite style.   Now I can't possibly pick a favourite image so I've chosen the new sunflowers because I love flower cards and I especially love sunflowers.  I've based my card on this week's sketch at Card Patterns Challenge.    I've used a combination of ready coloured images from Sunflowers and Thankfulness (the decoupaged flowers at the top) and the Sunflowers and Pumpkin digi coloured with Copics and Distress Inks.  I wanted to make an interesting frame for the image so I used a labels Nestie and then added some scrolls cut with a punch.  Large ric-rac came from a ribbon shop, border punch is Martha Stewart.

I ddin't want to stop there so added a little gift bag that is a simplified version of a tutorial by Leigh O'Brien on SCS.  Do check out the tutorial, her bag is much better than mine:).  The giftbag is from the same K & Co DP I used on the card and it has two layers of pre-coloured sunflowers decoupaged onto it.  I think this is a great size to give someone flower seeds for their garden... 

OK thanks for reading all this, my word for the blog hop is "hopping".  Your next stop along the way is Tracy's gorgeous blog where you can see another stunning FSS project.  Thanks for joining the hop and enjoy the eye candy:).

I'm also entering my card and tote in :

 Craftalicious Challenge - Harvest Festival/Autumn

Mark's Finest Paper - Pumpkin

Stamp Something - with Fall colours

Crafty Little Place - Autumn Daze

Simon Says - It's Autumn

DT Posting - Cooking it up with Katie #31 - sparkle, yellow and digi

This week at Cooking it up With Katie the recipe is:  use a digi, some yellow and some sparkle. We had fun digi images from Sassy Studio, this week's sponsor, to use for the challenge so that was the digi part sorted.  I paper pieced the armchair with Basic Grey DP in a bright yellow.  The other DP is a freebie from a magazine, they are meant to be masculine colours but I think they work great for this card!  The entiment is from Joanna Sheen, the flowers are Papermania and I used a Woodware punch to make the big flower that has Stickles on it.
The card is based on this week's Friday Sketchers Challenge.  I'd like to claim to be clever and tell you I set it at an angle.  But the truth is I didn't glue the blue DP to the yellow mat and I started to stitch the spotty bits down.  When it started to shift I realised what I had done...  Didn't have any more of the yellow cardstock so I "chose" the artistic interpretation :).  The yellow cardstock has been distressed at the edges.
I'm entering my card for:
Scrappy Frogs - Flower Power (make your own flowers)
Friday Sketchers Challenge
Stamp Scrap & Doodle - stitching real or faux
Crafty Catz - stitching
Paper Romance - make your own flowers

Top Tip Tuesday #4

It's time for Top Tip Tuesday again!  This week it's Carol's turn to show some tips and she has some brilliant ideas for recycling.

Don't forget to check out the blog and see what Carol does with the "rubbish" in the photo - amazing!  There are 3 great sponsors, Joanna Sheen, Sunshine & Giggles and The Crafty Pad, so be sure to leave a link to your Top Tip and you could be a winner!

DT Posting - Corrosive Challenges - #83 - Masking

This week at Corrosive Challenges the theme is masking.  You can mask your images and create a scene, as I've done, or you can mask off areas of your card and create a frame.  I've used Hobbyart Scene-It stamps and both snowman and tree were masked when I stamped the houses and the tree.  I've used Aquamarkers and Marvy le Plume watercolour pens on watercolour cardstock, I've also added a bit of glitter to my snow and to the snowflake embossed card.
I'm entering my card for these challenges:
One Stop Craft Challenge - snowflakes in September
Totally Gorjuss - Christmas
ABC Christmas - T is for Tree

DT Post - Phindy's Place Friday Challenge#24 - Give Thanks

 

Good Morning and welcome to Friday and to this week's Phindy's Place Challenge.   This week's Challenge is something I love about making my own cards - saying Thank You with a card.  It's easy to email or phone to thank someone after having a meal with them or after they have helped out.  But if you give them a card that is so much more special!  I hope you'll join us and use Phindy's images to  make a card and stock up your Thank You card stash.

I've chosen to make 3 cards which are all fairly quick and easy, I'm struggling a bit to get going on anything crafty, just hope my mojo comes back after I get the next few days out of the way.  The images I've used are called Lil' Garden Gems, you can buy them here.   They are designed to be used small scale and they colour in moments, thanks to the shading that is already there.  In August I took a stall at a local fete and tried selling my cards and it was interesting that every single card made with this set sold out...

First card uses Basic Grey Green at Heart papers, 2 Martha Stewart punches and computer generated sentiment:

 

Second card has  Papermania Henbury Lane DP, a ribbon and a charm of a garden trowel (doesn't show up too well in the photo but that's what it is!).  Sentiment is Elusive Images.

 

Final card uses 2 Nestability shapes, some more masculine tape instead of ribbon and a Personal Impressions sentiment.

 I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

Craftalicious Challenges - Thanks

A Spoonful of Sugar - Anything Goes

Charisma Cardz - Anything Goes

Creative Inspirations - 2 or more stamped images

Autumn Landscape

I made this scene a few weeks back, using the Hobbyart Scene-It stamps.  It is very heavily based on a class sample that Jenny Mayes showed us when I took the class with her.  I've been looking for a sketch to fit it to but have decided that it's too big and won't work on a busy sketch, so I've simply matted it onto cardstock that I've embossed with a grid using my scoring board.  The ribbon is gorgeous silk ribbon, can't think why I bought it but it is a lovely Autumn shade:).  I've coloured it with Aquamarkers and Marvy le Plume pens.

My card is for the following challenges:
Stamptacular Sunday - grid challenge
Crafty Creations - falling leaves
Charisma Cardz Challenges - anything goes
Creative Inspirations - use 2 or more stamped images (I think I've used 7 stamps in here, some multiple times!)
Paper Sundaes - fabulous Fall
Pile It On - red, yellow, green and brown (are all in there!)

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

Who ate all the cookies?

I was so sad not to be part of the Phindy's Place Blog Hop to celebrate the launch of the Christmas Cuties.  I've been trying to give myself a metaphorical kick to get a few nearly finished cards together and here is one of them.  Delivery Man who is one of the Christmas Cuties is totally adorable, isn't he, just look at his cheeky expression.

I've followed Tara's sketch from this weeks Basic Grey Challenge, the DP is Jovial.  I also tried out a background technique from Copic Creations current challenge of shading on and around images.  As a quilter I spend a lot of time teaching people how to stitch random, meandering lines which they often find difficult.  Well now I know how they feel LOL, I find it very hard to make random dotty backgrounds:).  The felt snowflake border came from Stamp Attic last Christmas.  I'm also entering A Spoonful of Sugar's Anything Goes Challenge , the Fussy & Fancy Christmas Colours theme and as my little Cutie has his Santa hat on I'm entering ABC Christmas Challenge of S is for Santa, hope that's ok.

Don't forget, there's still time to enter the Phindy's Place Blog Hop!

Top Tip Tuesday #3

It's Top Tip Tuesday and we have a new team member - welcome Maggie!  Maggie has a marvellous grunge paper flower tutorial - check it out on Top Tip Tuesday.   There are prizes to be won - share your tips with everyone and play along.

Take It Easy

This is one of the Joanna Sheen unmounted stamps, I've had it for a while but for some reason the poppy gave me a real colouring headache:).  I'm much happier with this one which is watercolour pencils and Aquamarkers.  The DP is Basic Grey Sugar Rush and I've followed the sketch from House Mouse Challenge, they are having  a birthday blog hop at present.
My card is also for:
Totally Gorjuss Challenge - Wild Thing
Pixie Dust Studio - Fur or Feathers
Shirleys2Girls - Critters and Birthday

Christmas Cutie - surprise

I'm not feeling very creative right now, for obvious reasons.  But I have a few cards to post on here and crafting is a great distraction from life, so I may have a few things to blog over the next few days - or I may not.  One day at a time and all that...
Here's one of those adorable Christmas Cuties from Phindy's Place, this one is called Surprise.  I wonder what's in her stocking?  She's coloured with Copics, there is Fluffy Stuff and Stickles on her stocking, which is paper pieced.  The papers are Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses apart from the stripe, that may be Stampin' Up, not too sure.  The snowflakes are cut with Nesties, the tags are cut freehand and the sentiment is from Craftwork Cards.
I'm entering my card for:
Stampin' for the Weekend's Tag It challenge
Secret Crafter's Anything Goes theme
Stamp Something's digi challenge
Aly's Sunday Challenge - Sparkly and Glittery

Phindy's Place Christmas Cuties Blog Hop

Today is the unveiling of Phindy's Christmas Cuties - the most adorable bunch of images you'll set eyes on!

Don't miss the blog hop! 

I'm not taking part in the hop for very sad reasons; my Dad suffered a stroke last week and I have been travelling to the hospital and to see Mum.  Sadly Dad died yesterday and my crafting is not on the list of priorities at present.

Cooking it up With Katie #29 - Autumn embossing and folding

This week's recipe at Cooking it up With Katie is a really fun one:  your ingredients are:  a fancy fold, embossing and Autumn.  I CASED my blogging friend Sylvia and made a zig-zag card which was easier to do than I expected!  Those HobbyArt Scene-It stamps came out again and I created an Autumn scene on watercolour paper,  using a mixture of Aquamarkers and Marvy le Plume pens.  Our trees haven't really changed colour yet but apart from that it is just how Lambourn looks in September.  I used a Crafts Too embossing folder and added a bit of raffia and a tree charm, just for fun.   Here's a side shot so you can see the shape of the card better:).
 I would like to enter my card for the following challenges:
Creative Card Crew Challenge - Autumn or Fall  
A Spoonful of Sugar - Autumn into Fall    
Allsorts Challenge - Colours of Autumn
ABC Challenge - C is for Charms
Incy Wincy Designs - Autumn Colours
Mark's Finest Papers - Autumn Colours
Fairy Fun Fridays - Embossing
Charisma Cardz - Try Something New (zig-zag card)
Digi Doodle Shop - Charm Me
Paper Play Challenges - Autumn

Top Tip Tuesday #2

It's time for a new tip at Top Tip Tuesday and this week it's Moriah giving tips about making an altered clipboard - not to be missed - be sure to call in at the blog for the details.  We've a new twist to win this week:  you can either share a tip with us or you can make an altered object.  There are 2 great sponsors this week, I can't wait to see your tips and/or your projects:)

Home for Christmas

This is a tiny Christmas card, just 4" square, with another Hobby Art scene from the Jenny Mayes stamps.  I've matted and layered a few times and then simply used some embossed white card to follow this week's Challenge at Inspirational Card Sketches.  There's a HUGE holidays challenge and blog hop at Simon Says this week and I'm entering my card for their challenge.  Bah Humbug Christmas Challenge asks for a card using your favourite medium - mine is stamping and watercolouring.

Scene uses just 2 stamps and is watercoloured with some glitter added to the snow.

DT Posting - Corrosive Challenges - #81- Sketchtime

Welcome to another Corrosive Challenge; this week we have a great sketch for you to follow.  I've used one of the Mrs Comfy images from Phindy's Place, you can buy her here.  I've gone with a red and green colourway but I couldn't make her into a Christmas card somehow, though I have seen some brilliant Christmas cards made from this image, including some by the very talented Annika. Sentiment is from Stampinbella, embossing folder is a Cuttlebug.
Mrs Comfy is also for the following challenges:
Fussy & Fancy Challenges - red and green but not necessarily Christmas
Fairy Fun Challenges - embossing
Cute Card Thursday - play on words

The Great Escape

Cards just don't come much simpler than this one, made when I needed a card in a hurry:).  My younger son was 17 last week and asked for money for driving lessons.  With just minutes to go, DH pinted out that "we" should give him a suitable card with the promise of lessons inside it...

After ransacking my small stash of masculine cards and realising that I had NOTHING suitable, I remembered that Fred She Said had a truck digi image - miraculously there is even a coloured version - phew!  I grabbed some My Minds Eye DP and used both sides of it, following the sketch at Midnight Madness.  The words are a clear sticker from a travel set, I have no idea where it came from, it's been sitting in a drawer for years!  The brass brads are from stash.

I'm also entering:
Charisma Cardz Challenge - Try Something New (ready coloured digis are new for me, also have never used sticker sentiments)
Crafty Creations Blog - Transportation
Paper Pretties Challenge - Brads or eyelets

Phindy's Friday Challenge - Going Green

Welcome to Friday and welcome to this week's Phindy's Place Challenge.  This week we are Going Green.  You can interpret this two ways:  you can make a cad using the colour green or you can make your card green by recycling, which is what I've chosen to do.  As long as you use one of Phindy's fabulous images then either or both theme is great!  The gorgeous chocolate swirl paper was part of the wrapping for some chocolates.  I'd hoped to paper piece onto it but it has a shiny finish and that didn't work.  The ribbon was part of the packaging for some card blanks that I bought, it was plain white and I've coloured it with a Copic.  The embossed DP is a small scrap that I found, that's not really recycling though:).

I've used the sketch from Mojo Monday for my card.  The image is, of course, a Phnidy's Place image called Sooo Good, that mouse looks like he's having a good time!  The background is coloured with chalks, image with Copics and Glossy Accents on the cakestand and the berries.
My card is also for the following challenges:
A Spoonful of Sugar - Animal Crackers
Paper Sundaes - Mixed Media

Summer is not quite over!

We're back to sunshine and blue skies today, hurray!  I love Autumn but I'm not sure I'm ready for it yet...  To celebrate here is a summery image of a wheelbarrow overflowing with exuberant flowers, in fact the whole card is full of flowers:).

The wheelbarrow image is from Fred, She Said, and can also be bought as a coloured version.I've coloured with Copics and added some Glossy Accents to the flowers.  The DP is a gorgeous Prima sheet with large impressionist-style daisies on it.  The white background has been embossed with a Tim Holtz brick wall folder and the bottom punched with MS daisies.  The flowers and butterfly are punched and the tiny dotty buttons are Papermania.  I've added a wide piece of netting ribbony stuff, not sure what you'd call it:) 
This card is for the following challenges:
Sketch Saturday - sketch
Gingersnap Creations - use punches
Pile it On - pile on the layers

All through the city

A few weeks back I entered a favourite song challenge.  Having watched Oil City Confidential and rediscovered Dr Feelgood I had "All through the city" on the brain and made a watercolour card of a jetty.  Fast forward and I STILL have the same song on my mind, here is the same song, different viewpoint, for the Charisma Cards Challenge of favourite song.  "I've been searching all through the city, see you in the morning down by the jetty".  This is another card from the Sarah Anderson class I took at the Stamp Attic.  It's a Hero Arts stamp ( I need this stamp LOL!), image stamped onto card sprayed with Adirondack Inks, blended with a wet wipe.  Further images stamped onto paper coloured with the same wet wipe.  Sentiment is Wendy Vecchi.
My card is also for the following challenges:
2 Sisters Challenge - Monochromatic
Bunny Zoe - Distress It
Paperplay Challenges - In Stitches

New Blog for Challenges - candy too!

I've found a new blog called Feline Playful, it lists the challenges for each day of the week.  There are a few helpful sites that do this, but Karen's is the first one I've come across that actually lists what the current challenge is, plus restrictions if any.  To spread the word, Karen is having a blog candy giveaway too, drawn on 1 October.  What more could you ask for!

Pearls and Lace from Sarah Anderson

If you have looked at my friend Val's blog today you may think that you are seeing double:).  We both went to a workshop at Stamp Attic with Sarah Anderson and we both used the very sweet Moon Girl stamp for our second card of the day.  This one was meant to be a quick card but I think mine took the longest to put together of all the cards I made:).   It was a really fun day and I came back with suitably inky fingers.  We went straight out to a concert and I got stamped all over again at the door.  Waste of time scrubbing all the Distress Ink off really LOL!  Great concert though... the one and only Wilko Johnson.

Anyhow, back to the card:  Adirondack ink sprayed in the corner.  Shrink plastic cut out roughly, shrunk and with many layers of clear embossing added, then text from an old book glued on to it and more embossing.  Moon Girl also embossed many times, music from an old book torn and added as well as lace and pearls.

My card is for the following Challenges:
Simon Says Pearls & Lace
Stamptacular Sunday - Distress It
Crazy4Challenges - Anything to do with Books
Fairy Fun Fridays - Lace & Pearls

Top Tip Tuesday

A fun new blog, Top Tip Thursday, launches today.  Instead of being a cardmaking challenge blog it aims to share tips and techniques. Today's tip is a great photo tutorial on how to make a flower out of doilies created by Leanne .
As its our first week we have 3 fabulous sponsors, who are:

 Whiff of Joy

Wild Rose Studio
Stitchy Bear Stamps 

The Design Team is:  Leanne, Carol, Dawn, Moriah and myself. 
Please be sure to stop by at Top Tip Tuesday , leave us your tip and be in a chance to win one of our fabulous prizes.

Autumn on the way

Yesterday was cold, wet and windy; we don't seem to be in for an Indian Summer sadly.  Last night I sat down and played with my Hobby Art stamps and made a large scene, also  finished up this card using a scene that I made the other week on Jenny Maye's course.  I really like the sketch at Card Patterns Challenge this week, but chose to flip it on its side as I wanted to use my grass and fence punches.  It's not a card that I wanted to add a lot of embellishements to, mainly because it's another masculine card for the stash, so I used an idea Jenny sugegsted for watercolour scenes that go wrong:  highlight an area and punch a shape out of it.  Except I haven't got any reject scenes (yet!) and stamped and painted a scrap to get my circles...  However I did have a smudge on my card, hence the cows "escaping" from my scene:)

   DP is by Flair Designs, brown cardstock was Cuttlebugged with a twiggy design, turned on its side.  My card is for the following challenges:
The Wild Flower - Fall colours
Clearly I Stamp - Owls and their habitat - this looks like perfect Barn Owl territory to me!
Cowgirl Up Sunday Challenge - Anything Goes
Card Patterns Challenge - sketch

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

DT Posting - Corrosive Challenges - #80- Old Olive & Real Red

The Corrosive Challenge this week is to use olive and red on your project, which gives you the chance to get ahead on those Christmas cards:).  I've made my first Fred-she-Said card for it since being lucky enough to be accepted for the DT, I've used the Christmas Poinsettia pack, which is already coloured.  I really enjoyed layering it up and creasing the leaves and bracts (no flowers on a poinsettia, did you know that?), added some gold glitter too to make it even more festive.  I used a MS border punch on the dotty strips that came with the image and mounted it onto gold card.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - Christmas
Crafty Emma - flowers
Anything Goes Challenge - say it with flowers
Alphabet Challenge - S for Scallops