Lose yourself in a book

I've been teaching today (quilting not cardmaking) and feel pretty tired out, but this is a quick posting I want to do before I sit down with a large glass of wine...    I have new stamps to play with, but I haven't broken my stash diet, they were a prize for winning the challenge at The Cheerful Stamp Pad, who were sponsored by Rogue Redhead Designs.  Vicki posted my stamps last Saturday from the US and they arrived here on Thursday, which was a really nice surprise.

As an only child, I have always loved to read and to lose myself in a book, so this stamp (one of the 3) is right up my street and I made a quick card with it.  It's based on the sketch at Truly Scrumptious, I've coloured with Copics and added some cardstock embossed with script as well as some Crafty Individuals DP and a Craftwork Cards sentiment. Thank you to Vicki at Cheerful Stamp Pad Challenge and thank you to Sharon at Rogue Redhead Designs!

My card is for the following challenges:

Truly Scrumptious - sketch

Sew Many Cards - anything goes

Charisma Cards - no embellies

Paperplay - stamp it out

Phindy's Place Challenge #41 - Embossing

 It's Friday, thank goodness, nearly the weekend and time for another Phindy's Place Challenge.  This week we welcome 3 new Design Team members, their work is just gorgeous, do have a look and leave them some love.  This week we have a very simple theme:  embossing.  You can dry or heat emboss, or even do both as I did!  I used Pretty Blooms, a lovely digi that has me hoping for spring:)

I saw an interesting new tutorial on Splitcoaststampers this week, called Pressed Flowers.  Anne Haralda shows how dry embossing flower embellishments can press them into a project, they lose their 3D element and look like pressed flowers.  This is a new look to me and also means the card doesn't end up needing extra postage on it!  The DP was quite thin and I liked the almost distressed look I got on it when it was embossed, not sure how well it shows in the photos...

The card is based on this week's Sketch Saturday layout, rotated around a bit.  I've paper pieced her top from the DP I used for the little border, which is Basic Grey Marjolaine.  Her hat and scarf are popped up on gel glue and there is Glossy Accents on the scarf and the watering can, as well as Stickles on the flowers, butterflies and rain and of course she is coloured with Copics.  The gold embossed sentiment is from Stampin' Up and I edged the die cut with PVA glue and embossed the edge too.  MS punch is String Lace and the Nestie is a Labels die.

My card is for the following challenges:
Sketch Saturday - sketch
CCEE Stampers - punches
Delightful Sketches - come fly with me (butterflies)
Southern Girls - dry embossing
For Fun  - spring or winter
Anything Goes - butterflies
Papertake Weekly - anything goes + flowers
Totally Papercrafts - friendship - perfect sentiment for this one!
Pile it On - punch it
BasicGrey - flower power
Copic Challenges - we're cool!

A Cheerful bunch of hearts

Here are some of the cards from the Stampin' Up workshop that I enjoyed on my birthday, all using a heart shaped treat cup.  This gave me a few problems as each time I tried to make the one filled with water and glitter, my card leaked!  With help from Zoe and Natalie, who were running the day, it was established that it was the cups that were faulty, not me - phew!  With a new batch of cups I was able to complete the set.
First card has water and glitter inside it, second card is a birthday card filled with sweeties.  Happily there were some left over so we got a sugar boost while making this one ;-).  Last card has some glitter confettin inside.  All stamps, DP and embellies are Stampin' Up.  While the cups don't really do much for me and can only be used for hand-delivered cards, I do like the birght cheerful papers, of which we had plenty left over.
I'm entering my cards for the following challenges:
Creative Craft World - love 
Penny's Paper Crafty - hearts a flutter
Simon Says -  love is in the air
A Spoonful of Sugar - photo inspiration - perfect colour match for these!
Craft Your Passion - bling and hearts
Paper Sundaes - Valentine

Blog Hops and Challenge Cards

Looking for the Fred She Said Blog Hop?  Click here.
Looking for the Phindy's Place Friday Challenge?  Click here.
Looking for the Top Tip Tuesday Challenge?  Click here.

One Layer Wednesday - and a stash diet

I hope I've just crept in under the wire with my card for One Layer Wednesday, using the sketch.  I've been stalking this set of discontinued Stampin' Up stamps for some time now on Ebay and managed to get hold of them last month.  They finally arrived yesterday, unfortunately with the sting in the tail of customs charges due to the postage being added to the value of the stamps.  Oh well, you win some, you lose some and I am delighted to have this set at last.  The sentiment is from a Joanna Sheen House Mouse set.  Sentiment and image are stamped in Memento London Fog, the background has Distress Inks brushed on and the image is coloured with Copics.  Usually my OLW cards involve silhouettes not colouring, I'm quite pleased with this one.

I've been lucky enough to get some lovely goodies for Christmas and for my birthday.  I've had a few more things come in the post that I've ordered and decided that February is to be the month of no new stash - well almost!  We have a weekend away near the end of the month that is close to two big craft shops and I'm sure my resoloution doesn't count when I'm away from home :-).  So today is the first day of my stash diet...

Top Tip Tuesday Challenge - using up ribbon/make it girlie

Welcome to another Top Tip Tuesday Challenge!  This week Dawn has a great tutorial about using scraps of ribbon, be sure to check it out at the challenge blog.  You can either follow her tutorial or make a girlie project - oops I misread the challenge and simply used ribbon!  I've used a piece of wide lacy ribbon as well as a small piece with unusual dots on that I've been hoarding for my card.
I used a Jayne Netley Mayhew stamp from Joanna Sheen, masking it and stamping out 3 times.  The sentiment is from a Sheena Douglass stamp set.  The only colouring I've done is to use watercolour pens then Glossy Accents on the puffin's beaks, so it is virtually monochrome.  The dotty paper came from my recent Stampin' Up workshop, it was a spot prize (pun intended).
I'm entering the following challenges with my card:
Card Patterns - their 100th sketch
Stamps R Us - animals
Gingerloft - things that fly
Stamptacular Sunday - whatevah (must stamp)
Easy Craft Projects - black & white
Delicious Doodles - spots or stripes
Crafts and Me - monochrome
Simon Says - animal antics

Sprout!

 Here's another card using one of the fab fundraising digis that Jak Heath has organised for Help For Katie.  If you don't know about this, or you've not yet donated and bought your digis, you need to click here, find out more and most importantly, donate!  My card is for Jak's Thank You competition. 

Sprout is a Mo Manning digi, I've coloured her  using Copics, edged with Distress Ink and added a little Stickles to the seedling, which was in danger of being invisible!  The DP is Basic Grey from Sugar Rush, with peach card embossed with the Tim Holtz brick wall, a MS leaf border punch, some raffia and a little scroll punch added in.

My card is also for the following challenges:
Friday Sketchers - sketch - I've not added a sentiment, will do that when I use the card
Basic Grey - flower power (paper and of course that seedling!)
Crafty Calender - new beginnings
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - get punchy
Digis with Attitude - use a digi person
Moving Along With the Times - spring

Fishing you many happy returns

This is a quick card for DH to use next time he needs a card in a hurry for one of his fishing friends.  I saw Wendy on CD Sunday using the paper with the lovely net design, it's off the Times Gone By CD and I've teamed it with a topper from the Thomas Kincade CD, both are by Joanna Sheen.  The sentiment is gold embossed, got it from a craft show, no idea what company made it, sorry!  And that's it.
Card is for:
CD Sunday - Where waters meet
Sew Many Cards  - Green
Alphabet Challenge - M is for men
Ali Factory - for the boys

Phindy's Place Challenge #40 - Sketchtime

Good morning and welcome to a new Phindy's Place Challenge.   I'm really excited to tell you that we have 3 talented new Design Team ladies who have joined the team:  Christine, Dorcas and Kathy.  They will be showing off their creations starting next week.  This week we have a great sketch from Anne-Marije to follow. As you can see, I've taken a few liberties with the sketch, I wanted to use the fun Plundering Pirate image and needed a few less embellies:).

I coloured with Copics, added Distress Ink to the background and also inked the embossed circle.  The knotted cord is Roman Blind cord, the sentiment from Craftwork Cards, the charm from Quixotic Cards and the spotty paper from Stampin' Up.

My card is also for the following challenges:
Creative Belli - anything beginning with P - plundering pirate!
Fab 'n' Funky - delight in your digi
Simon Says - animal antics
Allsorts - man/boy card
Creative Card Crew - show us the colours of your country - red/white/blue but minus the skull & crossbones lol!

Fred She Said Valentine Blog Hop

Welcome to the Fred, She Said Valentine Blog Hop!  We've got two great prizes to be won:  one $25 certificate to the Fred, She Said Store and one $25 certificate to CropStop.  If you've arrived here from Danielle's blog then you've come to the right place.  If not, you're going to want to go back to Tracy-Lynn's blog and hop along from the start!  Tracy has come up with some gorgeous new ideas for Valentines Day, quite a few of them are great for all sorts of occasions, not just Valentines.  I hope you're enjoying the hop so far.

I've got a couple of projects to show you; the first is a clean & simple card made with a Cuttlebug folder that cuts and embosses a 5 x 7" card.  The DP inside the frame is from Bearly Mine Designs.  I've used the pre-coloured Hearts and Roses set of digis and added Distress Ink to the heart so that it shows up against the white card.  I decoupaged an extra layer of roses onto the heart and put one half under and half over the frame and added some Stickles to both.
The second project I've got to show you is close to my heart - because it contains chocolate! I made a treat holder from a great tutorial at Splitcoaststampers by Beate Johns, using the pre-coloured "Better than chocolate" set from Fred, She Said.  The main image has the text added to it and it's matted onto a Nestie and then attached to the band around the gift box, which has a border punched with my new MS punch.



Pull on the ribbon, without undoing it, and out comes the chocolate, which has the punch line on it.
 I layered 3 copies of the image to decoupage it, you can see the layers here:








 Thanks for looking at my projects, I need to give you your word to make the magic phrase so you can enter the draw - my word is life.  Now it's time for you to see what fabulous creations the talented Marlena has to show you.  You have until midnight on Friday, 4th February to complete the hop.
My card and/or my gift box are for the following challenges:
Delightful Challenges - have a heart
Meljen's Designs - create something with hearts
Paper Play - layer it up
Charisma Cardz - Valentine/love
A Spoonful of Sugar - Valentine
Cupcake Craft - food for thought
Craft Your Passion - use 2 patterned papers (chocolate treat box)

Abso-Bloomin-Lutely Love You

Here's another card from the excellent Sheena Douglass workshop I did at the weekend, this was learning how to get shading with only one colour of Distress Ink.  The background paper with the embossing isn't black; we inked it heavily with Black Soot Distress Ink, it also has a double stamped flower swirl that is then embossed.  The flowers have Cosmic Shimmers on top of PVA glue.  The original version shown to us had a pristine white sentiment that stood out nicely on the card.  Unfortunately I got a big black fingerprint on mine so it ended up being inked LOL!

This card is for the following challenges:

Crafts & Me - monochrome
Crafty Creations - heat embossing
A Spoonful of Sugar - Valentine
My Time to Craft - embossing
Crafty Cardmakers - floral
Pile it on - love is in the air
Sugar Creek Hollow - black, white and a splash of colour
Alphabet Challenge - L is for Lady

Just Walkin' the Dog

 

I couldn't resist sitting down last night and playing with some of my lovely new stash; this card is the result.  The Faye Whittaker stamp from Joanna Sheen is one I just couldn't resist when I saw the release, there are so many lovely stamps in this series and I managed to hold back and just order one (oh and a decoupage set!).  The Basic Grey Curio DP and the MS border punch were both presents from my DH, he's very good at stash shopping:).I added apunched flower and leaves and a butterfly, there is one pearl among the Stickles on her hat and more on the image and the border.  She's coloured with Copics and the background uses Distress Inks (Shabby Shutters, Victorian Velvet).

My card is for the following challenges:

Card Patterns - sketch

Truly Scrumptious - brown, pink and green

Stamps R Us - animal magic

Simon Says - animal antics

Simply Create - use your punches

Tuesday Throwdown - distressing

Paper Sundaes - distressing

Determination

 I've seen so many great cards made with this image from Phindy's Place and decided I'd better make one too! I got a bit stuck on the sentiment and opted for one from Paulette at  Create with TLC. Phindy has designed several of these images, you can choose girl, boy, glasses, Afro American, Caucasian, I chose Big Boots girl. 

The card is based on this week's challenge at Friday Sketchers, the large circle is cut freehand then embossed and inked with Distress Ink.  I used brads to attach the sentiment, then I took silver card candy and scored lines in it from the wrong side to make more screws, which kept the weight of the card down.
My card is for the following challenges:
Friday Sketchers - sketch
Woodware USA  - anything goes
I Did It Creations - card for a child
Stamp Fairy - Circles and more circles
Cute Card Thursday - 1-2-3 recipe - 1 image, 2 cardstock circles, 3 sets of "screws"
Critter Challenge Blog - Distressing and circles

Little Boy Blue

Back from a very busy crafty weekend, I have a few things to blog.  On Friday my friend Val came over and we had a day crafting together.  The Saturday was my birthday and I went on a Stampin' Up workshop.  Sunday was ANOTHER workshop which was brilliant.  I made my card at a Sheena Douglass workshop which was really good fun, I met some lovely people and learnt a lot from Sheena.  Towards the end of the afternoon Sheena demoed her next big thing, which I think will knock your socks off; it's a new way of doing something traditional and crafty, using stamps as an aid to achieve it.  I was lucky enough to be given one of her two demo pieces, as a birthday present (or was it because of the brownies I made lol?).

This easel card was our afternoon project, using Distress Ink and distressing Coredinations cardstock.  I was a bit bothered about a blue baby but I'm quite pleased with the end result.  The sentiment is free hand cut, the dandelions on the base are popped up on dots.

I'm entering the following challenges:
Paper Sundaes - distressing
Mami Doodles - mostly blues
The Stamp Man - distress
Crafty Purple Frog Challenge - distress
Stamp Insanity - Shades of You

Phindy's Place Challenge #39 - Lace and Pearls

 Hooray for Friday - it's the weekend, my crafty friend Val is coming over to play and I have 2 all day crafting workshops scheduled for the weekend - and today is Phindy's Place Challenge!  I've been looking forward to showing you this image for ages, I got muddled up and was making it for last week by mistake lol!  Hope you think it's worth the wait:).
I used the beautiful Spring Dress Emma, I've seen so many lovely projects using this digi and decided it was time I tackled her!  I've baed my card on the Sketch'n'Stash Challenge layout.  She's coloured with Copics, cut out and decoupaged onto a Marianne Die that's been Cuttlebugged and then inked with Tea Dye Distress Ink.  The DP is Bearly Mine Designs from Simply Dots (new stash that I was lucky enough to win at Incy Wincy), the sentiment is Craftwork Cards, a lovely deep lace that is very old stash and sweet pearls from the Hobby House.  The little chocolate coloured ones are stuck where the lace points are; do you remember the beads on lace covers for food?
My card is for the following challenges:
Sketch'n'Stash - sketch
Simon Says - Bingo! (lace, flowers, embossing)
Corrosive Challenge Blog - lace and pearls
Copic Creations - what's new (new DP)
Creative Belli - letter P (pink, pretty pearls)
Do it With Digis - pink, girly
Paper Sundae - first birthday choose a challenge - Cut it Out

Smooth sea never made a skilled mariner...

This is one of my favourite sentiments, it's from Elusive Images (sadly now defunct) and sums up life, doesn't it!  This is a fairly c&s masculine card, using my Hobby Art Scene-It stamps and coloured with Aquamarkers.  The blue map DP is from Joanna Sheen's Thomas Kincade CD and the others are My Minds Eye.  There are no embellies at all, I have some boat charms but they make it less of a masculine card to me.

My card is for the following challenges:
Sunday Sketch & Stamp - sketch
Creative Card Crew - for men
Let's Ink it Up - anything goes (no digi)
C.R.A.F.T. - martial arts/sport (yachting)
One Stop Craft - card for a male
Paper Sundaes - birthday celebration favourite theme - I always love Make A Scene challenges

Golden Years

 This is a very clean and simple anniversary card, made using the new Fred She Said Hearts & Roses digi set.    You'll see that I have removed the wording "I love you" from the image and added my own wording.  It's the first time I've ever tried this and really, it couldn't be easier!  I've used the pre-coloured digi but there is also a set for your own colours available.   I've printed out, cut out and layered 2 further rose sprays onto the heart.  The heart was put through my Swiss Dot embossing folder and then inked with Scattered Straw Distress Ink.

The sketch is from this week's Midnight Madness.  The DP is Bearly Mine, one from the Simply Dots download and one from the Designer Extreme I CD.  Donna at Bearly Mine has a new  challenge blog and I'm hoping she'll accept this as an entry to the recipe challenge this week:  3 flowers, 2 papers, 1 image.  The image IS the flowers, though, so fingers crossed lol!  I was lucky enough to win the CD in a recent challenge, thanks Donna!

I've gold embossed an Elusive Images swirl in the corner of each DP and added some pearls, if you click on the picutre you can see them better...    There still seems quite a bit of open space, don't know if I will tinker about with this card a bit more...

I'm entering the following challenges with my card:
Midnight Madness - sketch
Bearly Mine - recipe
Flourishes - go big (this is a 5 x 7 card)
My Time to Craft - spots & dots
Papertake Weekly - ribbons and pearls
Diecut Dreams - use a digi and a rubber stamp

Top Tip Tuesday Challenge - Use a sentiment

Good morning and welcome to this week's Top Tip Tuesday Challenge!  Over on the main blog we have a fab tutorial on making a WordArt book from the talented Carol and the challenge is to use a sentiment on your project, or of course play along using Carol's tutorial.
I've made an easel card with no less than 4 sentiments on it!  Yes, I'm still playing with the Fred She Said empty pocket shruggers set, you can buy them here.  This set just makes me smile every time I reach for it.  I've coloured with Copics and used Distress Inks for the background, the DP is Basic Grey Sugar Rush, ribbon is from stash and I used Card Candy on a ribbon raised on foam tape to prop up my easel. Oh, there are red and orange Stickles on the exploding cake!  A birthday just isn't a birthday without an exploding cake...

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:
Pile it on - anything goes
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - anything goes
Totally Papercrafts - birthday
Fairy Fun Fridays - Happy Birthday
Sew Many Challenges - birthday
Craft Your Days Away - anything goes
Basic Grey - dots and spots
Stamp Insanity - let it all hang out!
Delightful Challenges - easel card
Paperplay Challenges - cutie patootie

House Mouse and a lesson learned

I've had a light bulb moment today, which is probably a really silly one, but is a lesson learned anyway!  I have been a little unhappy with my Copic coloured House Mouse stamps and coloured this one in to persevere.  It is ok, but no more than that, the colour has bled a little.
I was watching Sheena Douglass on telly yesterday and nodding away when she said that using the right cardstock was so important.  This evening the penny finally dropped:  I use superfine cardtock for digi images because my printer doesn't like thicker cardstock and they colour like a dream.  These days, I don't have so many rubber stamps that are "colouring in" images and I did what I do with most stamps, stamping out onto the thicker cardstock.  Which explains a lot!  I've stamped onto the fine cardstock and will make this again tomorrow, hopefully the problem will be solved!

Card also has Distress Ink on the sky, Glossy Accents on the berries.  The stripe DP is MME, can't remember who made the leafy one.  The sketch is this week's Sketch Saturday Challenge.
I'm also entering:
The Cheerful Stamp pad - let's relax
Stamp Scrap & Doodle - anything goes

A truly scrumptious winter scene

 I love tree stamps and think this trio of scenes from Crafty Individuals is gorgeous.  I stamped it onto glossy cardstock and made a mask for each rectangle then used Distress Inks to get a winter sunset/sunrise colour.  I added some DP from Crafty Individuals, some ribbon and rhinestones and based my card on the Truly Scrumptious sketch.
My card is for the following challenges:
Truly Scrumptious - sketch
Papertake Weekly - cold and frosty morning
Stamp Something - anything!