Red Robins in the Round

 

 This pair of robins from Fred She Said is a favourite traditional Christmas image for me.  Here it is coloured with Copics, edged with Distress Inks and added to Memory Box DP and a couple of scrolls from my Memory Box die.  This card is for the following challenges:

Sketch'n'Stash - sketch

Corrosive Challenge - with a flourish

Scrappy Frog - something that flies

One Stitch at a Time - Christmas

Little Claire's - Christmas

Bah! Humbug - diecuts

Crimbo Crackers - anything Christmas

Simon Says - anything goes

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

Chocolate, coffee and cream sounds like a perfect Christmas!

Don't know what's happened to the colour on this card, IRL the background is cream and the trees are gold embossed onto dark brown card.  No matter what I do, my photo seems determined to be black and white!
This is another c&s Christmas card using the Stamp Addict trees, as well as the dottiness stamp in the sky.  The lacy ribbon is from Stamp Attic, sentiment Elzybells and image was cut out with a deckled edge Nestie.
My card is entered for:
Come & Get It - anything goes
Fashionable Stamping Challenges - coffee, chocolate and cream - colours not favourite things I mean!!
One Stitch at a Time - Christmas
Simon Says - anything goes

Phew that's better!

 

 My second posting today is a Less is More card that I'm much happier with.  This is a mixture of stamps:  Bethleham is an Art Impressions stamp I've had for some years, my Wise Men are from Stamp Addicts and the hillside is a Hobby Art from one of the Scene-It sets.  Oh and the sentiment is Kaisercraft.  I tried inking my desert and didn't like the look, so I stamped just the village onto my card and then put it again onto textured sandy-brown paper, adding the dunes and the wise men.  Cut it and and stuck it down, trimmed the card and added some gold glitter to the star.  Not quite a one layer card but still not going to need more than a standard stamp, another Christmas card done:).

I'm also entering the Simon Says - anything goes challenge.

One Layer Wednesday - red and white

Susan's simply stunning OLC inspired me to play along at this week's OLW Challenge, to use only red and white or cream.  I have longed for the Stampin' Up Lovely as a Tree set ever since I saw it and finally treated myself to it; ironically it arrived a day after the gorgeous Stamp Addict trees, so it has been waiting for an airing.  As I found I didn't have a bright red ink I took the scary option of red embossing onto white cardstock, this is the second attempt:).  Sentiment is Elzybells, the shaped card shows a narrow strip of red card under its border.
My card is also entered for:
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - monochromatic
Krafting Kimmie - monochromatic
Crafty Ann's - clean & simple
Prairie Fairy - wet embossing
Floweret - Christmas again
Winter Wonderland - clean & simple Christmas card
Simon Says - anything goes

Less is More - stars

This is a first attempt at today's Less is More challenge and I am the first to admit it does not look great.  I'm full steam ahead on Christmas cards, preferably one layer, and wanted a star  for my Wise Men to follow.  So far, so good.  Then I stamped and masked the Artemio star before inking the background.  I found the little stars and wanted to add them in gold, made the mistake of using an embossing pen to fill in the big star, which now looks like a potato print.  We were down at Mum's today trying to sort out lots of little niggles for her and just got home, I shall ty and turn in a better card tomorrow:)
Wise Men stamp from Stamp Addicts, little stars a magazine freebie, sentiment Elzybells, big star Artemio, a bit of a mixed bunch!

Winter whites

I can't seem to leave my new tree stamps alone, this is a clean and simple Christmas card based on this week's CPS sketch.  I started off wanting to keep it as Kraft and white but decided I prefer it with the red added in.  Don't know whether to top the trees with a tiny gem, what do you think?

Stamp Addict Trees are embossed in white, as is the sentiment.  White card has Cuttlebug embossed snowflakes.  I've distressed the edges of the Kraft card with a bit of Brushed Corduroy.

My card is for the following challenges:

CPS - sketch

Crimbo Crackers - anything goes

Craft Your Passion - let's get crafty

Meljen's Designs - Christmas

Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps - no colouring

Karen's Doodles - emboss it

One Stitch at a Time - emboss it

Simon Says - anything goes

Phindy's Place Challenge #79 - Paper Piecing

Thank goodness it's Friday, this week has felt like painting the Firth Bridge at times:).  Nearly the weekend and this morning I'll be glued to the telly watching Stamp Addicts at 10am...  Friday of course also means a new Phindy's Place Challenge and this week our challenge is an old favourite:  paper piecing.  I used Flower Top Fairy Violet, her dress and her wings are paper pieced.  It's hard to tell under that thick coating of Stickles but the wings are the same soft yellow as the flowers I added!  DP is Basic Grey Wisteria, sentiment is LOTV and the punch added to the lines in the layout is Martha Stewart Pansy.
My card is for the following challenges:
Sketch Saturday - sketch
Charisma Cards - anything goes
Crafty Purple Frog - sparkle
Digi Doodles Shop - anything goes
Hannah and Friends - glitter
Paper Crafting Journey - use a digi

Some skeins for Sketch Saturday

I usually try to enter the challenge at Sketch Saturday and I found the shapes on the layout were best cut from 2 squares of DP, which left me with two sets.  I have a card for tomorrow that uses the first set, but I made a second card which I am blogging tonight.  The DP is Basic Grey Wisteria, I have just a few sheets of this beautiful DP left to play with.  The image is one of Phindy's new Two Seven Oh  series, called Skeins, I coloured with Copics and used Distress Ink for the background.  The sentiment comes from Paulette at Create with TLC, I've added yarn and some buttons.  I began with adding buttons the corresponded to the sketch but they looked very lonely so I kept adding them till it felt right:).  I'm happy with the look but know I need to give this card to someone rather than post it, it is quite heavy now!
My card is for the following challenges:
Sketch Saturday - sketch
Digi Doodles - anything goes
Papercrafting Journey - use a digi
Simon Says - anything goes
Whimsey Stamps - button it
Digital Tuesday - buttons & twine
Going Grey with Scrap Creations - going digi
Nettie G's digital gems - anything but a rectangle

Looking out onto Autumn

Autumn has arrived with a vengeance, the rain is coming down heavily and the leaves are falling this morning.  I have a rather sunnier autumn scene to show you today:  I used the new window stamp from Stamp Addicts, masked, to frame a watercolour autumn scene using the Scenic stamps and a tree from the new Trees set.  I've put a lot of Glossy Accents onto my window panes.  Not sure what you'd call this shape of card:  I've made a zig-zag fold and then added a card blank to it for my image, attached to the first and last fold, along with some pearls and ribbons.  I've had this DP forever and I though it looked a bit wallpapery for my window:).
Tomorrow, my sample cards including this one will be on telly, Stamp Addicts have 2 programmes, at 10am and  1pm.  If you're around I hope you'll watch, the rest of the DT have come up with some awesome projects:).

My card is for the following challenges:

Charisma Cardz - anything goes

Simon Says - anything goes

Paper Shelter - anything goes

Scrapbook Sisters - anything goes

Celebrate the Occasion - fall

Shopping our Stash - autumn colours

Crafters Cafe Progressive - fall, brown, yellow, orange, leaves (on my tree) fancy folds - phew think I got 'em all!

Crafty Boots - autumn/Halloween

There she Goes - autumn/Halloween

Victorine Originals - Fall

A wreath for Wednesday

 

Today's card is a fairly simple Christmas wreath, I wanted to keep things fairly plain to show off the gorgeous DP (Memory Box) as well as the stunning image.  Image is from Fred She Said and available as a digi or pre-coloured.  I chose to colour mine, adding Stickles to the berries, and perched a Christmas chickadee, pre-coloured this time on the wreath.  My birdie is less than 1" high, pre-coloured was definitely what I needed here!  The leaves are from a Martha Stewart punch, the sketch is from Papertake.  

Enjoy your Wednesday and remember, we're over half way through the week, not long to the weekend...

My card is for the following challenges:

Papertake - sketch

Partytime Tuesday - anything goes

Christmas Stampin all Year - sparkly

Christmas Inspirations - punches/diecuts (branch punch, scalloped and circle dies)

Flourishes - trees and leaves

Up up and away

Today I have a simple  watercoloured card of an Autumn scene to show you.  For once, I have no tree stamps in it, instead I've used a hot air balloon from the new On the Water stamp plate, combined with an older set, Scenic stamps.  The image was too long to use my brayer to mirror it in the water so I stamped it onto acetate and pressed that to the card.  I've added Glossy Accents to the balloon, oh and a bit of that dotty stamp in the sky.  DP is Memory Box, I have scored my card 1/2" outside the angled mat.
My cad is for the following challenges:
Corrosive Challenge - flying things
Scrappy Frog - something that flies
Stampin' B's - score on a card
Little Red Wagon - fall project
Wags'n'Whiskers - fall colours

Black & Gold

Here's one more card using those fabulous Tree stamps from Stamp Addicts; today I posted all the sample cards of to Sarah and Vicki to hopefully appear on this Friday's TV programmes at 10am and 1pm on Create & Craft.  This is extremely simple, I think I spent longer trying to take a decent photo of this than I did making it!

The trees are gold embossed onto mountboard, the edges of the tiles embossed too.  They were then sponged with Soot Black Distress Ink.  The gold mirri card has an EK Success border and some ribbon with knots in it.  I think this could be a Christmas card or something else again, whichever I like it:).

My card is for the following challenges:

Paper Sundaes - sundae bar I used black, distressing (ink) and sparkle

One Stop Craft - no designer paper

Fussy & Fancy - black, border punch and bling

Charisma Cardz - embossing

Paper Play - use black

Prairie Fairy - wet embossing

Simply Create - shades of black

Wintry treescape

I was driving north yesterday and enjoyed a glorious wintry sunrise, this easel card is an attempt at the stunning colours, all using Distress Inks in Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Worn Lipstick, Weathered Wood.  Trees and Dottiness stamps are from Stamp Addicts, I used the dotty cloud to create the card base.  Sentiment is from Pink Petticoat and lacy ribbon from Stamp Attic.  I drew in the birds with a permanent marker - even I can draw these!

My card is for the following challenges:

One Stop Craft - no designer paper

Bearly Mine - easel does it

Raise the Bar - orange and black

Aud Sentiments - sentiment and a winter theme

Tuesday Taggers  - taking to the skies

A bit of dottiness

I'm a bit late with my Less is More card for this week as I had to take younger son to look round one last university open day today, at Leicester this time, I think we've covered the length and breadth of the country this October!    OK home to find the challenge this week is polka dots.  I decided to use my rainy day little girl, from a set called April at Stamp Addicts and paper piece her coat in a lovely dotty DP from Memory Box brioche, which I thought would look very "mini Boden".  It didn't work, it looked just too dotty so, not to be deterred, I paper pieced her hat and brolly from it instead.  The underside of the brolly is shaded with W1 Copic and the rest of April is coloured with Copics.  Having paper pieced her, I just had to use another matching DP from the set for the background.  The sentiment is from Stampinbella and I think it goes perfectly with this image.

I'm entering my card for:

Less is More - polka dots

CAS-ual Fridays - just add colour

Crafty Ann - clean and simple

Whomping Willows

Here's um, a rather different card I made today:).  I love the new willow stamp in the Tree set from Stamp Addicts, however having read Harry Potter with the boys as they grew up I remembered the Whomping Willow and somehow the willows took on a sinister new look.  I made a background with Distress Ink, a misting of water and the Dottiness stamp, added my willows, a die cut bat and letters.  It needed something else - yes - googly eyes!

I'm entering my weird willows into the following challenges:

Crazy Challenge - Halloween

Addicted to Stamps - Halloween

Corrosive Challenges - flying things

Paper Sundaes - Halloween or Fall

Creative Stamp Friends - Halloween 

Crafty Boots - Autumn or Halloween

Hooked on Craft - something spooky

Do You Stack Up - trees

Papertake - spooky hues

Divas by Design - something spooky

Phindy's Place Challenge #78-Blue Christmas

Welcome to this week's Phindy's Place Challenge, this week our challenge is "Blue Christmas" - a colour challenge, we hope you will not be blue this Christmas!  I'm thrilled that Phindy has produced a winter version of her In the Field image and rushed to the shop to buy it for this challenge; isn't it gorgeous?  You can buy In the Winter Field here.  I coloured with Copics and went a bit mad with Sparkle & Shine iridescent spray, it has taken a day for it to really dry out!  I've had the DP for years, I think it's Dovecraft.  The scroll dies are Memory Box, I added some seam binding, dotty buttons and a beautiful blue lace braid that came from an embellie shop in Hay-on-Wye that I visited when we took older son back to uni.

My card is for the following challenges:

Cupcake Crafts - buttons & bows

Bunny Zoe - lace it up

Forever Friends - anything goes animals

Ooh La La - let it snow

Lollipop Crafts - no sentiment allowed

The Crafty Pad - monochromatic

Catch the Bug - animal antics

Little Claire's - Christmas

Crafty Ribbons - ribbon & lace

Southern Girls - stripes & polka dots (dotty buttons, stripy DP)

Christmas Kitty

 Today I have a Christmas card to show you, using a new image Kitty & the Ornament from Fred She Said that is available pre-coloured or as a digi.  I chose to colour mine to match some soft, pastelly Memory Box DPs.  Kiity is coloured with Copics and Glossy Accents, I put lots of Glossy Accents on the bauble and dropped 3 tiny red gem stars on for even more sparkle.  The sentiment is on the Papermania ribbon which I turned wrong side out lower down the card.  The flower centres are eyelets that I set in to make them look like poinsettias - I hope!

My card is for the following challenges:
Sweet Sketch Wednesday - sketch
Stamptacular Sunday - anything goes
One Stitch at a Time - shape up (shaped card base)
I Did it - animals
Crafting Whenever- Christmas
Christmas Inspirations - die cuts or punches
Forever Friends - anything goes animals
My Time to Craft - punches and dies
ABC Christmas - unused stash - unused image, and eyelets, and the card blanks!

Autumn Tree

Today I have another card made with those stunning tree stamps to show you, a fairly masculine card, I never seem to have enough cards for men:).  I've followed a many-layered Sketch Saturday layout, with Stampin' Up DP, embossed card, Kraft card with a stamp from the Scenic set stamped onto with, with just the trees coloured, some recycled raffia from a present and a few gemstones.

Main image is stamped onto glossy card and coloured with Distress Inks.  Background uses masking, inking with dottiness stamps, I drew in my birds with a permanent pen.

My card is for the following challenges:

Sketch Saturday - sketch

Cute Card Thursday - tree-mendous

Sweet Stamps - lots of layers

Top Tip Tuesday - layer it up

Incy Wincy - recycle (raffia)

Paper Sundaes - Halloween or Fall (Fall colours)

Lia Stampz - use 2 stamps

O Christmas Tree

I've a quick Christmas card to show you today, again it's using Stamp Addicts new Tree stamp sheet with the dottiness stamp for shadows.  Trees and sentiment stamped in Olympic Green Versafine, background has Distress Inks brushed onto it, I've added some silver glitter with a glue pen.  Matted onto mirri, a bit of a Memory Box die cut added and a MS punched border.

My card is for:

Stamps R Us - nature's gifts

Crafting Whenever - Christmas

Christmas Inspirations - Christmas die cuts/ punches

Bling it On - no patterned papers

Sparkles Christmas Challenge - Christmas song

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

Tree-mendous stamps

 

 There are new stamps at Stamp Addicts and, as a tree stamp addict I was so excited to get the tree set, among others, to work with.  This is the willow, I've brayered the reflection onto the water and used the dotty stamp to extend the bank of the river.  Ink is Olympia Green Versafine and Distress Inks were used to coluor the tree and brushed on to the background.  Used the dotty stamp again in Memento Sand on hammered card for the background paper.  Sentiment is from Pink Petticoat.

My card is for:

Cute Card Thursday - Tree-mendous (great challenge name!)

Dutch Dare - sketch

Wags'n'Whiskers - Fall colours

The Artistic Stamper - Autumn colours

Stampin' for the Weekend - colours of Autumn

Less is More - cocktail

Mandi and Chrissie are challenging us to make a cocktail today at Less is More and I've played along with this girly happy card which is intended for an amazing young lady, Alice P who, as well as her sister Milly won an award at Inspirational Awards for women, they have raised a HUGE amount for charity and raised awareness of the bone marrow donor list.  I've been writing to Alice via Post Pals for a couple of years, please Limettes check out the link and think about sending some of  your cards to children who are ill. 

Anyhow, getting off my soap box, my card started with a DP, Basic Grey Out of Print.  Normally I avoid patterned papers when I'm trying to do LIM cards, but this paper reminded me of cocktail olives so in it went.  The image is matted and framed as I wanted to colour with Copics, it is a Stampinbella.  The sentiment is from Elzybells.  The ribbon and bow (colour matches fine in real life) just seemed to find their way on to the card, hope it's not too much for a LIM card:).  I've played along with the cocktail quiz and I am made up of uniqueness, wit and magnetism.  I only hope that is unique in a good way.

Finally, thank you everyone for their good wishes for Red-dog.  I'm sorry to say that yesterday we took the difficult decision to have him put to sleep; he had responded to treatment for a spinal cord infection at first  but things then deteriorated from Wednesday and he went downhill by the hour until it was clear it was not fair to him to carry on trying. 

Phindy's Place Challenge #77 - Halloween!

Welcome to this week's Phindy's Place Challenge; this week we are challenging you to show us your spookiest cards and creations for Halloween.  I've used a couple of fun images from Phindy's shop: the main one is Trick or Treat and I've added Boo in front of it just for fun.  The tin man has Glossy Accents on his costume, colouring is Copics, Distress Ink background and Stickles.  The little fence is a Memory Box die, the DP is My Mind's Eye.  Hope you like my Halloween scene:)
My card is for the following challenges:
Sketch'n'Stash - sketch
Sarah Hurley - Halloween Horrors
Shelly's Images - show us your layers
Crafts & Me - orange - lots of orange in here:)
House that Stamps Built - Halloween
Simon Says - Halloween /goth
Stamps & Fun = creativity - Halloween
Victorine Originals - Halloween
Come and Get It - purple, orange, black
Quirky Crafts - something spooky
Sparkles Forum - Halloween

Happy Howl-oween!

There are so many Halloween Challenges around this week, I thought I'd better join in and picked this very cute and rather un-scary Halloween Rosey from Fred She Said, you can buy her here.  Rosey is also available pre-coloured but I chose to get my Copics out and do some colouring, then cut her out and gave her some dimension with Pinflair.    The DP is mostly Memory Box, I've sponged a background for Rosey and used Stamp Addicts Dotty stamps in the background.  Some brads and lots of stitching finished off my Halloween card, which is based on this week's Sketch Saturday.  Sentiment is computer generated.

My card is for :
Sketch Saturday - sketch
Charisma Cardz - in stitches
Simon Says - Halloween/goth
Shopping our Stash - Boo! spooky or orange/black
Cupcake Craft - Halloween
Fussy & Fancy - fall or Halloween
Scrapalicious - black, purple, orange
Paper Pretties - Halloween
The House that Stamps Built - fall/Halloween
Clear it Out Challenge - Halloween (DP and image both from last year!)
Everybody Art Challenge - Halloween

National Chocolate Week

Did you know this is National Chocolate Week?  I shall of course be attempting to eat my own weight in chocolate this week but nothing new there:).  I have a suitably chocolately card to show you today, which was started months ago but didn't look right as it was.  I had die cut a scroll that was too large for the space below the image and trimmed it down which ended up with it looking unbalanced.  Last night I rescued the card by gently prising off the scroll and adding card candi, also I decided to add a little colour to my image with Copics.  Darkroom Door stamps were used with Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink, sentiment is torn and distressed a little, DP is Basic Grey I think.  I'm much happier with the card now:)

My card is for the following challenges:
Tuesday Throwdown - think pink
Woodware USA - anything goes
Truly Scrumptious - distressing
Cute Card Thursday - time for cake
Stamptacular Sunday - so distressing
Paper Sundaes - favourite colour combi - LOVE pink and brown together

Red robins

I was lucky enough to win a random draw at A Day for Daisies' PCP group this month and I chose this stunning scene - trees, robins, landscape, it could have been made for me:).  If you enlarge the photo you can see I used my blender pen to give a snow falling look to the sky.  The Day for Daisies Challenge this week is texture and I added embossing, raised the image above the card with Pinflair Glue, added Card Candi and twine.  DP is Basic Grey Jovial.  The robins have Glossy Accents to give them a bit of dimension and to make them stand out.

My card is for the following challenges:

A Day for Daisies - texture

Card Patterns Sketch - sketch

Floweret - Christmas again!

Crafty Ann - Christmas song (Let it Snow)

Little Claire - Christmas

I Did It - anything goes

Creative Inspirations Paint - embossing

Crafty Cardmakers - anything goes

Card Mad Fairy - too early for Christmas

Have a heart

After a grotty week I was hell bent on having a quick Less is More fix before I went out today.  Ack the LIM ladies chose hearts!  Didn't think I had ANY heart stamps for one layer week and Mandi's card even showed you don't need heart stamps so that was no excuse!  I had a quick look round and got out this gem of a stamp which, after my first foray to a stamping show that saw me come home laden with Lavinia stamps, was the first one I ever bought.  I went to a free taster class at a shop that is now sadly closed, had a wonderful time and loved this Hero Arts stamp, which we used with another spiky one.  I still have both stamps but they have been uninked for ages.  Can you see the heart shaped petals?  Sentiment is Hobby Arts, I stretched one layer by adding some tiny pearls to the flower centres.

I'll be back later to hop around and check out the other heart cards, in the meantime our beloved greyhound, Red-dog is very poorly with a spinal infection and your positive thoughts would be appreciated.  Thanks!

Phindy's Place Challenge #76 - Anything Goes Using a Phindy's Place image

Welcome to this week's Phindy's Place Challenge.  As this is the first Friday of the month, this is an Anything Goes image - however you MUST use a Phindy's Place image, which is no hardship given that fabulous images that Phindy draws:).  I've added to my Christmas card pile with Christmas Kitten, which is perfect for our cat loving friends.  Image coloured with Copics, Glossy Accents, Distress Inks.  DP is Basic Grey Jovial, flower and sentiment from Craftwork Cards and leaf punch is Martha Stewart.
My card is for the following challenges:
Sweet Sketch Wednesday - sketch
One Stitch at a Time - use a digi
Crafty Boots - zoo or animal
Papertake - anything goes and Happy Birthday to them!
Crazy Amigos - animals
My Mum's Craft Shop - all creatures great and small
Crafts and Me - use a digi
Paper Crafting Journey - dies and/or punches - leaf punch, scallop die for sentiment
Delightful Challenges - make it dimensional - layered flower
Forever Friends - use a sentiment with your animal

Black and White Bling

 It's ages since I played along at Mojo Monday, but I happened to see this week's sketch and really liked the look of it, so decided to think about combining it with Cupcake Craft's black and white Christmas challenge.  I bought these black, white and silver sheets of paper some years back, very early in my cardmaking and thought they would be great for this.  I just hope all the silver is allowed!  I stamped the Mini Snowy Village from Stamp Addicts and brushed a bit of Black Soot Distress Ink onto the sky.  Then I sprayed iridiscent glitter spray and left it to dry.  Following that I added some Viva white pearl to rooftops and snowdrifts.
It's interesting that the papers, the cardstock, the ribbon, the sentiment and the pearl pen are all slightly different whites though you have to look closely to realise.

I'd like to enter my card for the following challenges:
Mojo Monday - sketch
Cupcake Crafting - black & white Christmas
Kelley Kids - black and white
Simon Says - sparkle and bling
Little Claire - black and white
Sparkles Christmas - Christmas song - In the Bleak Midwinter, my favourite carol fits the stark colouring
The Ribbon Girl - Christmas
Paper Sundaes - lots of layers
Dream Valley - monochrome
Papertake - anything goes and Happy Birthday to them!

Finally please can I ask for your positive thoughts for Red-dog our much loved greyhound who is very ill with what is thought to be a spinal cord infection.  Here he is patiently wearing a paper crown:)

 

Indian Summer

  We've been enjoying lovely hot sunny weather and a beautiful end to summer, something that certainly keeps going into autumn is the weeding, everything is growing like mad!  With this in mind, I've made an autumn card using Flowertop Fairy Dandelion Puff from Phindy's Place, I've seen a lot of gorgeous cards made with this image but not used it before myself.  I was aiming for deep, saturate colours after reading some of the links from this week's Copic Colour Challenge, but I'm not sure if I've achieved it - or not - what do you think?  The DP is Basic Grey Indian Summer, sentiment from Stampin' Up and punch is EK Success.
My card is for the following challenges:
Sketch Saturday - sketch
Stamps RUs - autumn/fall
Stamptacular Sunday - photo inspiration
Copic Creations - saturated colour - I think I got it for the hair, not sure about the dress?
Simon Says - anything goes - trying for 1,000 entries
Rainbow Lady - autumn flowers
Crafty Catz - things with wings
Basic Grey - nursery rhymes and fairy tales - anyone remember the rhyme when you blow the seeds from a dandelion clock?
Woodware USA - anything goes
iCopic - all about Fall
Daisy Doodles - fall colours
Creative Stamp Friends - autumn colours

Pink Peony

 

I love using the pre-coloured Fred She Said images for decoupage and the Peony works so well, I printed the sheet out, cut out the 5 layers and added them to a Marianne Creatables die.  The sketch is Midnight Madness, the DP Basic Grey and I've added some brown pearls and a Craftwork Cards sentiment.

My card is for the following challenges:
Midnight Madness  - sketch
One Stitch at a Time - use a digi
Crafter's Companion - pink & green
The Emerald Faeries - punches & dies
My Sheri Crafts - think pink
Deep Ocean Challenge - happy birthday
Everybody Art Challenge - pink & brown
Paper Sundaes - lots of layers
Simon Says - anything goes - trying for 1,000 entries

Less is More - eye colour

 

 Happy World Cardmaking Day!  This week's Less is More theme caused some consternation; I never can decided what colour my eyes were.  In the end, OH and I agreed on greeny-blue - or was it bluey green?  The red tinge is only temporary after a late night, I've left that one out:).  This card is not particularly original, I have partly CASED a card by Chrissie like this before, but it is such a useful one to have that I've done it again. The text background makes it a bit different from when I made it before.  I've masked and inked a 4" card with Bundled Sage and Chipped Sapphire DI, overstamping it with my Impression Obsession big text stamp, using the Sage ink again.  Then Artemio trees, in Pine Needle and Olympia Green  Versafine were added after removing the Post-it notes.  The Craftwork Card sentiment, added to a Nestie scalloped circle in green, hides a sentiment that did not stamp clearly.

My card is for:

Less is More - colour of your eyes

Simon Says - anything goes

One Stop Card Challenge - just for men - I think this is a great masculine card

Oldie but Goodies - one for the boys - tree stamp is at least a year old if not two!

Partytime Tuesdays - anything goes

Oh deer I'm falling! Phindy's Place Challenge #75 - Autumn

 It's Friday and time for a new Phindy's Place Challenge, this week along with many other blogs our challenge is Autumn/Fall.  In the Field is an image I've not used before, I really like it now I've coloured it up and I can see some snowy, Christmas deer coming up too:).  I printed the image twice, colouring with Copics and lots of Distress Inks, then decoupaging my deer so they stand proud of the image.  If you're wondering about the very dramatic dark sky, it was first coloured with blue DI and then I saw it didn't work with any of the autumn colours I wanted to use for DP:).  I used my blender pen to get the dappling on the deer's backs, really like the effect.  The card is based on this week's Sketch & Stash, though I have left off the sentiment for now and in fact have no room for it in the right place as I added a load of punched leaves across the bottom:).
My card is for the following challenges:
Sketch'n'Stash - sketch
Woodware USA - happy Fall
Hobbystuggu - autumn
Stempelsonne - autumn is here
Stamping with the Dragon - autumn is here
Crafts 4 Eternity - autumn days
Just Some Lines - fall colours
Corrosive Challenges - punches or dies
CR84FN - fall colour challenge photo
Scrapbook Sisters - leaves
Little Darlings - fall or autumn
Inky Impressions - punches or dies
The House that Stamps Built - animals
Fresh Brewed Challenges -autumn/fall
Crafting for all Seasons - fall colours
 Simon Says - anything goes
Totally Papercrafts - autumn