Under the Sea - The Corrosive Challenge

This week's Challenge at the Corrosive Challenges blog is "Under the Sea". We're already at week 4! I've used an Impression Obsession stamp that I bought last year when we were on holiday in Florida. It's coloured with Marvy le Plume pens and matted onto sea and sand colours. The sentiment is computer generated. I coloured it at Stamp Club last week; the lighting wasn't great whereI was sitting and I'm a little disappointed with it. Oh, well... hopefully you get the idea from the photo :).

Don't forget to enter the challenge, this week as a great prize of Stampin Up stamps AND chipboard letters from K & Co. You've got to be in to win!

Happy Mother's Day

Here in the UK it's Mothering Sunday, here is the card that I made for my Mum. Mum loves to bake, I thought she'd love this image, spoke with her this morning and sure enough she does :)

I had another go at decorating the inside of the card, for fun. The sentiment is a stamp belonging to my friend, no manufacturer's name on it. The stamps are from Elzybells, new stash from my Cheltenham winnings :) and the papers are free papers that came with a magazine last year sometime. I've used the polka dot paper so it can take part in the Elzybell's Challenge. Images coloured in with watercolour pencils.

I'm enjoying a quiet Mothering Sunday, my elder boy is away on a school field trip so there are just three of us home. I've had a lovely ride across the Downs on my horse and have the afternoon to play in the craftroom and in the garden... Happy Mother's Day to you all.

Cupcake Craft Brown & Pink Challenge & Papertake's Something Edible

I'm enjoying using the brown/pink cardmaking stuff I bought at Farnborough from Craftwork Cards. Here I've combined the papers, faux brad, flowerand printed sentiment with a brown floral from, I think, Stamp Addicts, and an Elusive Images stamp of a knickerbocker glory, coloured with watercolour pencils.

It's my entry into Cupcake Craft's Challenge to use brown + 1 other colour and also the Papertake Challenge to make a card with something edible on it.

Inspirational Card Sketches #8 - a gift tag

I was lucky enough to get a prize from the very generous Aileen on Papercraft Planet for taking part in a Leanne Ellis/Gorjuss Girls challenge. She sent me a pad of Basic Grey paper and some yummy co-ordinating brads. I wanted to put them to use straight away and show Aileen how much they were appreciated.

The sketch I've used is by Dawn from Inspirational Card Sketches. At first I found it quite tricky to work with, I hadn't used a tag shape before and it needed lots of detail on it. I persevered and am pleased with the result, thanks Dawn, I've tried something new :).

All papers Basic Grey from the Infuse pad. Gorjuss Girl coloured with watercolour pencils. Sentiment from Elusive Images, Prima flowers from the Stamp Attic.

Have Your Cake & Eat It

This week there are several food related challenges, I want to make several cards and hopefully not combine projects, you can never have too many cake cards :). Secret Crafter's Saturday Challenge #23 is to use something cake related on a project.

I got out the co-ordinated pack I bought from Craftwork Cards and added in a Hero Arts cupcake. The cupcake is coloured with watercolour pencils, the frame is chalked. Paper, ribbon, frame, tag and faux brads are all Craftwork Cards.

Ismaki 09/11

Ismaki has a very pretty sketch by Kiki this week that I used to make a card for a friend who is not moving house but moving back into her home after nearly a year while it's been extended and had building work. So "New Home" isn't really appropriate and I opted for "Congratulations" instead.

The yellow backing paper came from the new Graphicus Guild paper pack and the butterfly is from a paper that I bought at the Stamp Attic . Both the Congratulations stamp and the lovely birdbath stamp belong to a friend who is not crafting at the moment and lent me a big box of stamps to play with. Neither has a manufacturer name visible on the wooden mount, so I don't know where they came from :(. Marvy le Plume pens used to colour the image and Glossy Accents added to the bluebirds.

Friday Sketchers #43 & Sugar Bowl Challenge 6

The latest Sugar Bowl Challenge is to make a card that doesn't have to be a Mother's Day card, but is something a mother would love. I don't want to post a Mother's Day card on here until it's been received :), so here I've tried to make an elegant, monochromatic card that I hope would be well received. I've used the latest Friday Sketcher's sketch, by Carol, which is a really nice one that was very easy to use.

The Gorjuss Girl and bird are coloured with watercolour pencils; to be monochromatic she really should have had dark hair but I think she looks great as a redhead :).

The tree is an Art Impressions stamp that I use a lot, paper from the Stamp Attic, printed butterfly sentiment, ribbon and faux brads from Craftwork Cards.

Springing into ATCs

The Stamp Attic's ATC swap for March was Spring. I made this rather uninspired ATC using some Penny Black clear stamps onto glimmer misted paper. As the 8 ATCs were made Mon afternoon for Mon evening I soon regretted having to cut round the sheep's body and four feet :)

Luckily the rest of the group were more inspired, here's their lovely work:

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Corrosive Challenges #3

This week's challenge on the Corrosive Challenges Blog is to make a green card to celebrate St Patrick's Day. I've started with a Gorjuss Girl who is coloured with watercolor pencils. The background is Glimmer Misted paper with an Elusive Images tree and Craftwork Cards flower stems stamped onto it for some interest. There's a Good Luck sentiment written onto a label to finish off my St Patrick's Day card.

Good Luck to you all, don't forget to enter the Challenge. The prize includes a great set of stamps - but you've got to be in to win :)

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Dawny's Sketch

I've used Dawny's sketch from Papertake's Weekly Challenge to make a very simple With Sympathy card.

The Dawn Chorus is an Elusive Images stamp, the sentiment is from Hero Arts. They are both stamped onto Glimmer Misted paper which is then matted with a bronze paper I bought ages ago at a Fill-Your-Box stand at a show. The final yellow paper is from Stamp Attic, the flowery bits hopefully don't show too much as it's a card for a man....

A Week at the Races

We're home from four days at Cheltenham watching the best jump racing in the world. I'm so tired that I can't even type words correctly, back to crafting tomorrow :)

In the meantime, here is Kauto Star regaining his crown, the first time a Gold Cup has ever been won back by a horse. In second place is the heroic Denman who has had a heart problem and battled home in second. The jockey is the incomparable Ruby Walsh who has financed a few new rubber stamps...

Corrosive Challenges #2

It's time for the second challenge at the Corrosive Challenges Blog . This week Janet's inspriation is a pair of stripy pyjamas!

I went with the stripe them and chose some Crate Paper from the Stamp Attic that has some gorgeous co-ordinating papers. I watercolored a Leanne Ellis stamp from Sugar Nellie and planned to frame her in a mustard from the papers. But when I saw how well the branches on the reverse worked with the branch on the stamp I had to use it the other way round!

What's The Word Bird is from an Inkadinkado set and the little yellow flower buttons came from the Make-It ~show at Fanrborough last year, no idea which stand I bought them at.

Don't forget to join in at the Corrosive Challenges Blog this week, there is a great prize to win again, including a Stampinbella stamp among the pile of goodies. See you there!

ICSketches #6 & Secret Crafter #22

I found this lovely sketch by Dawn on ICSketches to use. I've been playing with my Gorjuss Girls stamps and combined two challenges - The Secret Crafter's Challenge this week is to use masking.

I stamped the sitting down girl and, having masked her, added a Penny Black tree and foliage from Craftwork Cards stamps. She is coloured with watercolour pencils and I used watercolours to paint in the sky, the white card looked a bit harsh otherwise. The blossom on the tree uses a stubby from Stamps by Judith.

Can't see the wood for the trees

A set of ATCs for the UKATC group's swap. The theme is Trees, which just leaves me with the tricky problem of which of my (too many) tree images to use :)

This is an Art Impressions stamp, used on a Glimmer Misted background, with some snow added to the branches with a white opaque pen. I've tried to add some hill/landscape detail with chalk inks. The ginger card used to mount the trees was part of the packaging for my Sugar Nellie stamp order the other day - waste not want not!

St Patrick's Day downloads

Lisa Volrath has another shareware free download at her site , this time it is for St Patrick's Day.

There are some great images to download, grab them while you can - and don't forget to pass on the info, this is shareware :)

First Gorjuss Card - Cats

Yesterday my Gorjuss Girls stamps arrived! I didn't do the first pre-order due to lack of money :), but when a few extra full sets went on sale at the weekend I snapped one up. They are maybe a little smaller than I was thinking but, as everyone has said who has bought them, they colour like a dream.



Karen from Sugar Nellie has issued a challenge on Split Coast Stampers to make a card using only part of the image, adding some verse or poetry and sending it to a friend. So this card is for our dear friends who until this year were "owned" by Rusty and Jessica. Rusty was a very old gentleman and his loss was not unexpected, but when Jessica was diagnosed with diabetes and swiftly went downhill it was a shock.



Foxy and the two cats are coloured with watercolour pencils. The peom is by Eleanor Farjeon, although not a cat person I've always loved this :). There's some decorative stitching on the cardstock and the flowers are by Hero Arts. The papers are from the Stamp Attic.



The next week is very hectic for me, I hope to find some more time to play with my lovely new stamps :)

Blog Awards

I've been given some Blog awards over the last few days by some kind blogging friends. In no particular order, here they are:

Thank you to Phree for giving me no less than two awards!

Thank you to Vanja for awarding my blog a "Best Blog Comments Award :).

Thank you to Shirley for a lovely blog award:

Please, if you are reading this, give yourself an award, I'm trying not to push people into having to nominate others unless they wish to :).

Thank you so much Vanja, Shirley & Phree.

The Sugar Bowl Challenge 5 - Christmas

This month's challenge at the Sugar Bowl is to make something for Christmas. I've bought some lovely grungey Basic Grey papers from Stamp Attic with the intention of using them with a Gorjuss Girl this afternoon, as I'm waiting in for the Aga man.

No Girls in the post, no Aga man yet, so I've used Wish by Leanne Ellis as an angel. She's coloured with watercolour pencils with a tree stamped behind her, with an embossing pen used to add gold detail. There's some more embossing on the paper, of a Paper Artsy swirl, not too visible. The greeting is from Elusive Images. The flowers are from Stamp Attic again. All the shapes are cut with Nestabilites.

I've seen some beautiful artwork inside cards, where I usually have spent all my inspiration on the outside and just stamp a cursory greeting :). So I've made an attempt to decorate the inside, with the greeting framed with some of the paper. I want room to be able to write inside the card, any ideas what else I could add in the way of decoration?

Mojo Monday #76

Mojo Monday has a fun sketch with a big bow on it this week, I knew just what I wanted to use and this card went together really quickly :).

I used my Leanne Ellis stamp, Wish, from Sugar Nellie, colouring it with a mixture of pencils and watercolour pencils that I've "liberated" from my sons. The teal, green and brown papers are all from the Stamp Attic, the range is called Black Market Paper Society.

Best Wishes is an Elusive Images stamp and the ribbon is the last of the ribbon from Christmas chocolates.

Sketch & Stash Challenge #5

Sketch & Stash's challenge this week has a great sketch that I had to make. The challenge requires you to use something new, that you've either bought recently or had in your stash and neglected.

I've done a bit of both with this card. The stamp is from a new set I got from Elusive Images . So this is new stash. I've used a couple of the stamps but not this one before.

I found some watercolour pencils abandoned by my sons and tried them out for the colouring. I like the effect and the pencils are now commandered stash :).

Finally the papers are giveaways with a craft magazine. Some of these papers are, ahem, better quality than others, these are of decent quality, I think they came from Simply Cards & Papercraft. I've a pile of the papers sitting waiting to be used and thought the colours on these worked really well with my image. So the papers are neglected stash.

No idea where the ribbon came from, the flowers are Prima flowers from the Stamp Attic.

I'm so relieved that I managed to finish the card, I suffered one of those locked room mysteries while making it, thank fully with a happy ending :). How can one small "Congratulations" unmounted stamp vanish without trace in a room where no one and nothing has gone in or out??? It took half an hour and some frantic sorting through the bin before it turned up stuck to a plastic storage box. Phew!