All Things Bright And Beautiful

I always try to enter the monthly By The Cute and Girly challenge if I can, as they have both brilliant challenge themes and also fab prizes :-), but this month has just flown by what with holidays and one thing and another. However I have been confined to barracks for the past couple of days due to this stinking cold, so I thought I would make a bright and beautiful card to cheer myself up!!  I found this cute stamped Forever Friends image lying around so decided to colour the flowers using some of my new funky bright tones of Flexmarkers (I always colour fur using Copics, but I'm looking out for what new Flexmarker shades appear later to see if I can get some fur colours from Letraset too!!).

Here's the result of my efforts, which is attempting to address the theme of "bright and beautiful" in 2 ways - "each little flower that opens" (from the hymn lyrics) and bright colours (which I always find a bit scary, but I made myself do it lol!).

I also decided to use one or two neglected bits & bobs from my stash ... the flowers that teddy is holding are daisies, so I dug out some flat flowers from my stash plus some metal spacers .... not been near them for quite a while!

Recipe:

Main image: Forever Friends, coloured with Copics and Flexmarkers;

Sentiment: Craftwork Cards;

Papers: Papermania "Forever Friends - Springtime";

Supplies: pearls and spacers from The Hobby House; ribbon and daisies from my stash;

Tools: large circle, large scalloped circle nestabilities; Martha Stewart "doily lace"edge punch; Leone Em "Ash Family" leaf punch.

Challenges:

Sketch Saturday #174 - Sketch

Cute Card Thursday #184 - Animal Crackers!

Crafty Purple Frog - Lots of Layers

Deep Ocean #9 - Happy Birthday

Cupcake #161 - If You Go Down to the Woods Today ...

Sentimental Sundays #74 - Step Out of Your Comfort Zone (bright colours!)

Corrosive #133 - Punches &/or Dies

Ooh-La-La #89 - Punches / Dies

Wee Memories #69 - Patterned Paper

By The Cute & Girly (September) - All Things Bright & Beautiful

Simon Says - Anything Goes

Southern Girls #28 - Anything Goes

Sweet Stampin' - Anything Goes

Lollipop #50 - Anything Goes

Anything Goes #50 - Anything Goes

Creatalicious #26 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

That's all for now ... back tomorrow with a new Penny Black Saturday Challenge ;-)

All You Need is Love

Crikey!! I don't know where the past week has gone to ... been very busy what with work and one thing & another , so didn't get any crafting in last week at all. Luckily I was able to have a really good sesh on Sunday, although being the slow-coach that I am I still didn't exactly make a mountain of cards lol!!

Anyhow, as there are still so many romantic themed challenges about, I decided to get ahead of myself (unusual for me!!) and make my mum and dad's wedding anniversary card, although their anniversary is a month away.


I followed the fab sketch for this fortnight's BasicGrey challenge #13 - I stretched it a bit to make a C5 card but the basic elements are still there.


I would also like to enter this card for the following challenges:

Simon Says - What's Love Got to Do With It?
Cute Card Thursday #99 - In the Name of Love
Totally Gorjuss #17 - Feel the Lurve

Tree House #36 - Say It With Love
Pixie Cottage #9 - Love
Penny's Paper Crafty Challenges - Valentine/Love

Daring Cardmakers - Have a Heart
My Time to Craft #78 - Hearts & Kisses
Polka Doodles #6 - Hearts & Flowers

Sassy Susie's #8 - Hearts & Flowers

Quixotic #13 - Tag It
Fussy & Fancy #4 - Dazzle Us!
Pile it on #6 - Flowers

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Long-Stem Cuties" (1648K) (an RAK from the lovely Squirrel), coloured with watercolour pencils and Cosmic Shimmers, and the rose dusted with glamour dust;
Sentiment: rub on from stash;
Papers: BasicGrey "Sugared" (roses) and "Two scoops" (plain);
Supplies: lace from Quixotic Paperie; roses from Hobbycraft (decorated wtih diamond Stickles); pink heart gems by Papermania; pearl spray from my stash;
Tools: curved rectangle nestabilities; Leone Em "Ash branch" leaf punch.

Penny Black Challenge #86 - Someone Special

Good afternoon everyone ... sorry I'm rather late today - I only managed to make this DT card this morning!! So I guess I'd better get straight down to business, and tell you about this week's Penny Black Saturday Challenge #86.

The theme this week is

Someone Special

As always you can interpret this however you like so long as you use at least one Penny Black stamp or sticker on your creation.

This week's prize is a fabulous LIFETIME discount 15% voucher from our regular sponsor, Dick at

So without further ado, here's my card.

As I was so behind with everything I was able to follow the sketch for this week's Friday Sketchers #87.


I would also like to enter this card for the following other challenges:

Crafty Cardmakers #13 - Hearts & Romance
Cute Card Thursday #97 - Blooming Gorgeous (2nd entry)
Fussy & Fancy #3 - Hearts
Secret Crafter #68 - Hearts

Recipe:
Main image; Penny Black "Teddy & Co." transparent set, coloured with watercolour pencils and edged with aqua and green Versamagic chalk inks;
Sentiment: Penny Black "Teddy & Co.";
Papers: My Mind's Eye (free with this month's Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine);
Supplies: Prima, Woodware & Papermania flowers; spacer from The Hobby House; Doodlebug sugar coated brad; pearl spray, pearls and charm from my stash;
Tools: "Labels 3" nestabilities; Martha Stewart "Valentine lace" edge punch and "scallop lace heart" punch.

Looking forward to seeing all your creations this week. Don't forget to check whether you have won last week's prize, and to cehck out the other DT members' fab creations.

Have a great weekend.

Roses Grow on You - & sweet 17

I've had a few things going on this week, which means I'm moving towards the end of the week feeling a tad sleep-deprived and my mojo has been all over the place!! Not managed to do too much crafting, but luckily I managed to make one card which fits quite a lot of challenges :-) In fact I reckon I've managed 17 ... so I've beaten my personal record - yay!


First of all, I followed the fab sketch over at Papertake Weekly #33

I really love this adorable LotV teddy with bouquet (waiting right now for the postie to come with my new LotV stamps ... can't wait!!) and meanwhile this stamp just had to have an outing. I'm also currently loving my Papermania "Blueberry Hill" paper pad ... even though it's not newly released, I bought it for the first time this week. I've also suddenly discovered paper roses - now I know I've not exactly been quick out of the blocks on this one ... but I'm suddenly seeing and buying them in all sorts of places lol!!

I think I also managed to complete the following challenges:

BasicGrey #12 - Animals ... now I bet you're wondering where there's any BasicGrey items on this card .... hmmm? Well actually there are two ... the butterfly is cut from BG "Two Scoops" pink paper, and all the pearls on the card are BG "Opaline" demi-perles.
Die Cut Dreams #32 - Bears
Just Cute Bears Challenge #1 - One for the Girls
Creative Inspirations #45 - Feminine!
Pile It On #3 - Warm Wishes
Crafty Creations #52 - Celebrate!
Raise the Bar #2 - The Gift that Keeps On Giving. I chose my image both for the bear challenges, and also because it was part of my "Secret Santa" Christmas gift from a crafty friend :-)
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday #51 - Inspired by the letter P. That would be Papermania paper, pink, pearls and petals.
A Spoon Full of Sugar #88 - Freestyle (anything goes)
Cute Card Thursday #97 - Blooming Gorgeous!
Dutch Dare #70 - Summer in Winter
My Time to Craft #76 - Elegant Rose
Quixotic #11 - Flutter By
Flutterby Wednesdays #94 - butterfly, fairy or angel
Your Next Stamp #8 - Anything That Sparkles
Cooking It Up With Katie #9 - "non human" image + texture + a product you've never used before. My texture is from the Stickles, and my new products are the roses and white pearly flower.


Recipe:
Main image: LotV "Teddy with bouquet", coloured with watercolour pencils and decorated with Stickles;
Sentiment: Craftwork Cards "Oh! My Words";
Papers: Papermania "Blueberry Hill"; BasicGrey "Two Scoops" (pink butterfly);
Supplies: Pink/cream roses from John Lewis, decorated with Stickles; white satin/pearl flower from Edwin Allen; BasicGrey "Opaline" demi-perles;
Tools: Martha Stewart large monarch butterfly punch; large circles, small circles and large classic scalloped circles nestabilities.

I think I may be taking a couple of days' break from crafting and blogging to recover from the stresses of the past few days ... but I hope I may get chance to play over the weekend :-)

New Beginnings

I hadn't managed to get a desk calendar for this year, but I hadn't thought of making one until I was inspired by seeing this fab easel card calendar on my lovely friend Helen's blog. After that I suddenly seemed to see quite few lovely ones, such as these by Carol and Sharon. Whilst musing on what style of image, colours etc. to use I saw a beautiful easel card in my local craft shop Edwin Allen, and that convinced me that a butterfly image was the way to go... plus they had some little packs of Anita's calendars in stock - so I couldn't resist any longer. So yesterday afternoon I sat down for a session, and decided to make one each for me and two of my female colleagues. Here's the results ....


Hope you'll excuse the poor lighting ... strange isn't it that there is so much sparkling white snow out there, but the light conditions are still so terribly grey.

Here is a closer view of two of the calendars ... the only reason they aren't totally identical is that I only had enough paper to make two cards with a "border" of paper on the base, so on the third I used some lace instead; also I didn't have enough iridescent pink card for the matting, so used a mixture of pink and white.



I would like to enter these for a few challenges, namely

Stampin' for the Weekend - New Beginnings
Papertake Weekly - New Beginnings (2nd entry)
Pile It On #31 - Welcome 2010
Fussy & Fancy #1 - New (2nd entry) - I have used a new rubber stamp + new die cut shapes for my matting;
Cute Card Thursday #94 - All New
Flutterby Wednesdays #91 - New + a fairy, butterfly or angel
Everybody-Art-Challenge #72 - Favourite colour combo ... I definitely think mine is pink + green.
One Stop Craft Challenge #62 - A Night at the Movies. Well I think these calendars would fit any of the following films .... "Papillon", "The Butterfly Effect or even "2010". :-)
Paperplay - Precious Metals
Crafty Ann's Challenge #5 - New Year, New Inspiration
Your Next Stamp #7 - Embossing

Recipe:
Main image: buttefly by "Autumn leaves" from Edwin Allen, heat embossed with silver and coloured with Twinkling H2O's;
Papers: Kaisercrafts;
Supplies: hydrangea flowers by Prima; pearl brads from The Hobby House; mini "Anita's" calendars from Edwin Allen; ribbon and various spacers from my stash;
Tools: scalloped circles (matting) - dies by Nellie Snedden (from Edwin Allen); Leone Em Ash Branch leaf punch.

I've been battling a stinking cold for the past couple of days, and i think today it has really taken hold, so i doubt i'll get any crafting done this afternoon ... I'll just have to snuggle up and chill out! Hope you're having a good weekend and keeping warm.

At last ... a non-Christmas card :-)

It's my dearest schoolfriend's birthday tomorrow, so despite having been somewhat run off my feet this past two weeks i thought I'd better sit down and make a bit of an effort ... and here's the result. The light here is really terrible today, so the pictures are pretty awful but alas i think this is as good as they're going to get .... roll on spring!!

As usual I did my best to take inspiration from a few challenges. I used the fab sketch from this week's Sketch Saturday Challenge #80, which I thought really suited the fairly large stamp I had in mind.


I also made it with the following challenges in mind:

Stamp Something - Glitzy Somethings. I have coloured my flowers with Twinkling H20's and decorated liberally with glamour dust; and have also used iridescent pink and holographic silver cardstock - it's such a pity the light is so poor that the photo doesn't really show it up very well lol!
Charisma Cardz #48 - Dreaming of Summertime. Summer makes me think of flowers, so hopefully the DT will agree!
Cute Card Thursday #89 - Swirly Girly. Well ... I mean ... how girly is this pink & silver & sparkly card hmmm? rofl!!
Everybody-Art-Challenge #68 - Stitching.
Pile It On #27 - Tinsel Town ... yes I know that sound like it should be a Christmas card ... but it actually says use glitter .... and i have sure done that lol!
Etsy Inspired #65 - So Stinkin' Sweet -I discovered this blog when i visited Pile It On ... this week's theme is to make a creation inspired by one of their soaps. So I have chosen "Pink Sugar Type" which you can see here - they describe it as "a girly girl's soap for sure".

Here's a very poor attempt to show the glitz and sparkle ...

And the inside ...

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Fantasy", heat embossed in detail silver and then coloured wtih Twinkling H20's and decorated wtih glamour dust;
Sentiments: penny Black (inside and out);
Papers: Crafty Creations (I think!);
Supplies: brads and spacers from The Hobby house; silver lace from Bunny Zoe's Crafts; prima flowers; pink iridescent card, silver holographic card, dragonfly brads and pearls from my stash;
Tools: Martha Stewart "doily lace" edge punch; Leone Em "Ash Branch" punch.

Just off to do some jobs around the house now .. hope you're enjoying the start of your week.

How many "Snowflakes" make 11 challenges?

Answer ..... just the one lol!!

I really do love "Snowflake" by Sugar Nellie - I know she isn't one of the latest stamps but she is so pretty ... hadn't inked her up for a little while so I thought I would use her for this week's Sketch Saturday sketch #77.

Now when I first saw the sketch I was a bit flummoxed by the large circles on it .... couldn't quite picture any of my flowers or snowflake dies filling those spots on the card - inspiration just wasn't coming to me. But after rootling around in my Christmas papers, I found a Bo Bunny one with large and small snowflakes in circles ..... and hey! they fitted my nestie circles so I could cut them out perfectly :-) (I actually tried cutting out the paper circles by hand at first, but we'll draw a veil over that lol!) And as luck would have it the colours co-ordinated with another piece of Christmas tree paper (I think it is by MME but am open to correction on that) ... so off I went!

Here's the result ....

I also did my best to make this card tie in to the following challenges, making 11 altogether - yippee!

Secret Crafter #58 - Seasons ... now it is clearly snowing on my card, so at least if you're in the UK you can interpret that as any season of the year lol!!
Crafty Calendar Challenge #2 - Weather. Oops! I forgot the pearls (not like me! ... I LURVE pearls) so it's a good job they're optional lol!
Charisma Cardz #45 - Merry & Bright. As I'm quite a pastel kind of girl I think this card is quite bright anyway, but the sentiment was specifically chosen to tie in with this challenge :-)
Hand Full of Stamps #5 - Getting Ready for the Holidays
Cute Card Thursday #86 - Glitter Me Silly! Well I don't need asking twice when it comes to sprinkling the glamour dust liberally around!! Hope the poor light conditions can pick it out on the snowflakes and "Snowflake's" cosy muffler!
Creative Inspirations #36 - Sparkle!
Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #8 - Clear as Day. I used sticky back clear gems on the centres of my snowflakes ... a cop out, I know!
Frosted Designs - Bling It On.
Dutch Dare #64 - Felt like it - I have used Papermania white felt ric rac ribbon across the top of the card.
Kraftin' Kimmie Challenge #6 - Lotsa Circles - hope this is self explanatory!

Here's a pic to try to show the sparkle a bit more clearly - not easy given the prevailing weather conditions and shockingly poor light levels even in the middle of the day!

Recipe:
Main image: Sugar Nellie "Snowflake" coloured wtih watercolour pencils and white gel pen, and decorated with glamour dust and polar white Flowersoft (bit difficult to see ... I used a different glue from the norm and not much of the Flowersoft stuck!!);
Sentiment: Craftwork Cards "Oh! My Words";
Papers: MME (trees) and Bo Bunny (circles and pink matting);
Supplies: white felt ric rac by Papermania; snowflake brads by Dovecraft;
Tools: small and large circle and scalloped circle nestabilities.

Thanks for looking :-)

There must be an angel ...

This week is the first anniversary of Friday Sketchers, and they have got a really fabulous sketch this week (#51). It's got lots of layers, which gave me the perfect opportunity to pull out my new double sided K&Co paper pack which I bought at Port Sunlight last Saturday :-)

I also decided to make a Happy Mail card for this week's Cute Card Thursday challenge #59. I started out to make a card for Postpals, but this one kinda turned into something else. I will definitely do my best to make Postpals cards in future as it's a fantastic and heartbreaking cause; but I have decided to send this card to my mum, and here's the reason ....


My mum is seriously ill, and although she isn't ultimately going to get better she is being very resilient and getting on with life as best she can - she really is amazing! I so love this image of Melinda, and it makes me feel very warm inside to think of sending the love of a guardian angel to someone close. I was first inspired to use a feather with Melinda when I was sent a challenge kit by my friend Kaz (who has a new blog .. so I can link to it now :-) ) ... but now I want to adopt the feather idea as a special way of sending love and best wishes. I bought myself a pack of white feathers, but as luck would have it Kaz also sent me some gorgeous coloured feathers with my birthday card :-)

Here's the inside ....

Recipe:

Image: WOJ "Melinda with Bouquet" coloured with watercolour pencils and dusted wtih Glamour Dust, cut out using nestie labels and edged with Colorbox Q ink;

Sentiments: WOJ "Swirls" set (front); penny Black (inside);

Papers: K&Co "Wild Raspberry" pack;

Flowers: Prima hydrangeas and small green Floradoodles;

Brads: Doodlebug sugar coated.

Feather: John lewis

Lastly I would like to enter this card for this week's Secret Crafter Challenge #31 - brads or eyelets.

Thanks for looking :-)

Thanks a bunch!

As soon as I saw the fabulous sketch by Sharon over on this week's Creative Card Crew Challenge #8, I knew I had to have a go ... and the fact that there is a gorgeous cutie PB stamp on offer to one lucky winner was definitely a further incentive :-)

If you know me by now you will know that I also get inspired by trying to combine a few challenges - for this one I have tried to combine 5, including the CCC and also

Charisma Cardz #17 - Thankyou

CCT # 58 - Mirror Mirror (I have used mirri card behind my ain image)

Cupcake Challenge #37 - 5 different embellishments - I have used raffia lace, ribbon, buttons, die cut heart, and dragonfly brad.

Secret Crafter # 30 - Flowers

Recipe:
Image: Penny Black "Hedgehog Bouquet";
Sentiment : WOJ;
Paper: Melissa Frances (floral), free with Creative Cardmaking magazine #1 (pink - just seen);
Supplies: Raffia lace & ribbons - Hobbycraft; buttons - Doodlebug; die cut heart free with Creative Cardmaking magazine #1; brad from my stash.

Still trying to keep on decorating the insides ... MSDP had a little workout as usual :-)

Still resting up from my nasty head cold, and pretty angry to read this morning in the paper that people are using swine flu as "an excuse" to take sickies from work - hmmph! Just off now to do abit of chillin' :-)

7 challenges - well knock me down with a feather!

Every month a group of crafty friends and I get together for a little "bits & pieces" challenge where one member sends out a kit .... and all 16 of us then have to make a card using some part of each item from the contents. This month I received a kit from my crafty friend Kaz, which contained:

1 piece or green cardstock embossed with leaves

1 piece of pale yellow handmade paper

1 piece of white Japanese silk paper

1 large green jewel brad

1 length of white/silver ribbon

1 white feather

OMG!! I thought .. this is all very pretty and nice, but what am I supposed to do with a feather ??? And just to add a bit more brain ache, the other element of the challenge was to make our own flowers ....eek!

Time was passing by and inspiration wasn't coming to me, but as the deadline had passed and I also needed to make a "get well" card for my other friend Squirrel who has just had a big knee op, I thought I'd better get to it!! As usual I also cast around for other challenges to inspire me, and here is the result ....

I bought my new WOJ Melinda on Monday and she struck me as very apt for a get well card; and then it occurred to me I could tie her in with the theme of a white feather ... thank the angels for that! I was still struggling with the handmade flower theme, but I had seen another fab card by my friend Samantha featuring a gorgeous flower for which she has put a great tutorial on her blog, and decided to give it a go! So finally I was up and running.

I would like to enter the card for the following challenges:

Stamp With Fun - I have laid out the card in line with this week's sketch

Stamp Something - yellow, green and blue - which I have reflected in the cardstock and papers

Cute Card Thursday #56 - Floral Fantasy

One-Stop Craft Challenge - Decorative Cuts (my greeting is Cuttlebug diecut, and I have punched the edges inside and out)

Creative Card Crew #7 - Round and around - I have made a circular flower, used a circular brad, and punched a border of circles using my new MS "Scallop Dot" punch

Dutch Dare #44 - Favourite Things - well I have so many ... but at the moment my Melinda stamp is right up there, as is my new MS punch.

...and of course I have made the card for my friends' challenge, making a total of 7 :-)

Recipe:

Image: WOJ "Melinda with bouquet", coloured with watercolour pencils and Sakura glitter pen (flowers), and wings deorated with Glamour Dust;

Papers: BasicGrey "Oh! Baby Boy" collection;

Supplies: papers used for flower, green cardstock, brad , ribbon and feather from my friend's kit; raffia lace from Hobbyraft; flowers inside by Prima and Floradoodles; edging created using MS "Scallop Dot" punch (from ebay); large gold beadcaps (flower centres) from the Hobby House; pearl gems from my stash.

In the end I'm actually pretty pleased with how the card turned out, and think I may well use the idea of a white feather with Melinda again in future :-)