Something new with my Cuttlebug

Took delivery late last week of my first Cuttlebug Cut'n'emboss folder, so I just had to have a play yesterday. The mojo wasn't with me for any blog challenges plus I had a little challenge to do with a group of personal friends (can't post that yet as the result has to stay secret for a while LOL!) , so when I'd done that I sat down to play with the new Cuttlebug folder ... here is the result.

These folders are so fab - I decided to chalk my flower using Dovecraft glimmer chalks I have had for ages but hardly ever use, also some cute little coloured flower brads that have been sitting in my box forever. So I've decided to log this card with this week's Verve Diva Challenge over on Splitcoaststampers, which is to:

make a card using some of the stamping goodies that need some love!! You know, take out that stamp set that has never seen INK! Bust open that pack of brads that somehow LANDED in your shopping cart and are at the bottom of your drawer! Cut into that FABULOUS designer paper that you HAD to have and are afraid to use!!

Hope you like it!

Kerry's blog candy competition

Kerry has got herself a right fabulous Load of Old Pickle and is celebrating 10,000 hits by hosting a brilliant blog candy competition - closing tomorrow 29/8. All she requires you to do is to link to her blog candy and to create a crafty project using her favourite craft essential - ribbon.

Well, when it comes to making cards using ribbon I don't need asking twice LOL! Last week I made my first Christmas card that used multiple new Chrimbo ribbons I'd bought, and I was so pleased with the effect I thought I'd make another using a different colour scheme! .... after all, if you can't use multi-ribbons in a ribbon competition, when can you?? So I got out pack of Papermania ribbon I bought last year but never opened (!) and got busy. Here is the result - hope you like it !

I used: main image Penny Black "Holly Jolly" coloured with watercolour pencils and Twinkling H2O's; Papermania ribbons; paper and glitter card from my stash; E-Z Rub on sentiment and holly; Dovecraft corner holly punch.

Double whammy ... and a birthday

Whilst making a birthday card for my crafting friend Shaz whose birthday is on Saturday, I constructed it in such a way as to fit with two of this week's challenges: Papertake Weekly is A Stitch in Time (to use stitching on the card), and Arty Girlz Challenge #49 is Summer - so here we see hedgy relaxing in a deckchair in the middle of a summer garden full of flowers!

I used: main image and sentiments by Penny Black - image coloured with watercolour pencils and Twinkling H2O's with the daisy decoupaged; papers by Melissa Frances; flower by Prima; pearl brad and gemstones by Papermania. Iridescent card panel is embossed with my Cuttlebug.

Penny Black Challenge #11 - No Cards Allowed!

This week's Penny Black Saturday Challenge #11 is an interesting one for me , as cards are all I ever make! However as luck would have it I needed to make my first ever image wallet for a Docrafts image swap, so I've had a go. I used a technique from a Youtube video here: I made the base wallet from Bazzill bling card, decorated with two double-sided foiled and pearlescent papers from the s.e.i. "Poppy" range. The wallet wrapper is decorated with prima flowers pinned with a Papermania pearl brad, and the sentiment and tiny dragonflies are from the PB transparent set "Salutations".

Docrafts August friendship card

Made this tri-fold card during the week to send to JanAng from the Docrafts forum .. I love doing monthly friendships swaps - it's great when the postie comes with a card!! I have posted further down the fab summer card she sent to me.

I used : PB stamp "Quite Dandy" which I coloured with Marvey brushstroke pens and spritzed with water to get the watercoloured effect; sentiment by Hero Arts stamped onto a nestie shape with the edges chalked with lilac and blue Colorbox Queue inks; background paper by Karen Neuberger for Paper Adventures, with the edges punched using the Multishaper Punch "Flower Garden"; flowers by WH Smith pinned with Making memories sparkly silver brads; gorgeous fluffy fibre given to me by a non-crafting friend Jean who picked it up at a car boot sale !! :-)

Happy birthday to Christine

It is my good friend Christine's birthday tomorrow, so this morning I got busy to make her card. When I sat down I didn't really know what I would make, but was inspired when I found this cute image in my stash that was gifted to me by Evelyn C from Docrafts - it seemed to fit with some K&Co papers that I bought yesterday!

Having finished the card I looked around to see if I could enter it into any challenges ... this week's new Stamp Something Challenge is birthday somethings ... so that's a good fit!! And Cute Card Thursday #24 is bright colours ... well this card's colours are pretty bright for me compared with my usual pastels! Really hope Christine likes it and has a fab day!

I used: Penny Black image from Evelyn C, Penny Black sentiment, K&Co papers, lace from Hobbycraft, Prima flowers, Papermania pearl brads. I also had another good go at faux stitching - I'm really getting into it!

Summer Friendship

Over the past months I have received some lovely cards from crafting friends and I don't usually publish them on here, but would love to share this one with you all for a couple of reasons: it is so sweet and summery (given the awful weather we have been having) and it is perfect for a challenge that is ending today. This is my August Docrafts friendship card from Jan (JanAng) who doesn't have a blog as far as I know .. I think this card is the perfect "summer something" for the Stamp Something Challenge, and if it wins then I will send her most of the blog candy (and just keep a little bite for myself LOL!) Hope this is ok! This card really made me smile - hope it does you too :-)

All challenges lead to Christmas!

I've been too busy to make any cards this past week, so I haven't entered any challenges. I'm also very aware that the time for Chrimbo card preparation is drawing near, and I was inspired to start making an effort after going to a Christmas launch event at a nearby craft shop "Crafts4u2do" in St. Helens. So ... from now on I'm going to be looking at tying in some of my challenge cards to Christmas card making .. starting now!

This week's My Time To Craft Challenge #26 is Cats; Cute Card Thursday #23 is Soft Furnishings (you can use fabric, ribbon, stitching, buttons etc, anything you can find on the soft furnishings in the home ie curtains, cushions, sofas etc.); and Penny Black Saturday Challenge #10 is Ribbons - as you can see I have incorporated both ribbons and a button into my design, plus a scalloped edge with brads that you could imagine is the shape of a pelmet with studs.

Main image: Penny Black "Holly Jolly" coloured wtih watercolour pencils & Twinkling H2O's

Sentiment: E-Z Rub On Transfers

Paper: Carol Wilson Fine Arts

Ribbon: The Paper Company Studio

Button: Doodlebug

An award!

I was really thrilled today to see that Jennifer over at Phoenix Crafts has given me this award .. given how lovely her blog is this is a fab surprise!

Here are the rules of the award:

1. The winner can put the logo on their blog.

2. Link back to the person you received your award from.

3. Nominate at least 2 other blogs.

4. Put links of those blogs on yours.

5. Leave a message on the blogs you’ve nominated.

Now choosing 2 (or a few more) of all the talented bloggers I visit is a nightmare task as there are so many!! But I would like to narrow it down to 4, and nominate

- Mandxxx (Manda's Bloggy Blog)

- Cathy (Ellieskeeper's Creations)

- Emma (Elf Creations)

- Dawny P (Pink Piggy)

Enjoy ladies!

Two more challenges

I decided to play around to see what I could come up with to satisfy two challenges with the one card ... Penny Black Saturday Challenge #9 is a sketch, and Cute Card Thursday #22 this week is "The Two of Us".

I have made a romantic card, using a PB cute mouse image gifted to me along with a friendship card by Evelyn C on Docrafts, coloured with watercolour pencils. for the three embellishments on the sketch I have used die cut Cuttlebug swirly hearts, and the sentiment is by ge studio clear stamps. I adore the background paper which is a pearlescent silk screen paper by Papermania, and the lace is from my local craft shop Edwin Allen.

My Time To Craft #25 - Christmas!

The My Time to Craft Challenge this week is to make something for Christmas ... clearly this theme is now ramping up to encourage us to prepare for Dec 25th in good time! This card was a bit of a quick experiment this evening and I'm not entirely happy with how it turned out, but here it is anyway! Apologies for the poor photo - I finished after dark!
I stamped the new PB Christmas stamp "Fantasy" straight onto royal blue cardstock and embossed using "snowflake tinsel" powder, and then decorated the tree with my new blue Ice Stickle. The sentiment is from Make My Mark in York, and the ribbon is from my stash.

Birthday card for my special mum

This afternoon's main task was to make a birthday card for my mum - she has been very unwell, so I wanted to make a good effort. Had in mind before I started broadly how I wanted it to look, so it's fortunate that I think it fits in reasonably well with this week's Arty Girlz Challenge #46 - vintage. I'm pretty pleased with how it has turned out so hope she will like it!

My image stamp is by Inkadinkado "Tin Can Mail" and is coloured with Cosmic Shimmers and Twinkling H2O's. The sentiment is by Hero Arts, flowers by Prima, and letters Cuttlebug "Hippie Chick" alphabet; paper is by Melissa Frances and lace is from my stash.

Need to pop this in the post tomorrow morning, but now it's done i feel I can relax a bit more and hope to try one or two more challenges whilst the light holds!

Happy birthday to Heffa

My crafting friend Helen (aka Heffalump) will be 30 on Sunday; so to mark the occasion I've made her a card. Helen makes some fab and inspiring cards, and is also very into her Penny Blacks so we were bound to bond as friends!! Whilst I was about it I thought I'd allow myself to be inspired by a sketch, so I laid it out in line with Papertake Weekly Challenge - Katharina's Sketch #8. I also notice that this week's ABC Challenge is "E for Embellishments" - well as always my card has a few .. in this case flowers, a pearl brad and some lace.

I used: main image by Penny Black; sentiment stamp free with August 08 "Craft Stamper" magazine; Sandylion background papers and lace trim from Edwin Allen; hydrangea petals by Prima and Papermania pearl brad. Die cut numbers are Cuttlebug "Hippie Chick" alphabet, and yet again I've brought out my new nesties to play with! I also had another go at faux stitching almost everywhere on this card!!

Hope Heffa will have a great day!

Thanks so much to Mand

Would just like to say a real big thankyou to Mand who forwarded me this award today even though I have already received it and said some lovely kind words about me and some other of our crafting friends on her blog. Mand is a real star who I met through a lil crafting friendship club, and we bonded straight away evn though we were total strangers! She's laid up with a bad back at the moment .. so Mand hope you're soon back on your feet and back on top form!

I previously passed this on to my blog's most frequent visitors, so would just like to say thanks again to those who take time to peek at my blog and leave such kind comments :-)

(((Hugs)))

My Time to Craft #24 and Stamp Something Challenges

My Time to Craft Challenge #24 is to produce a card using the colours RED, BLACK and WHITE. This wasn't an easy one for me as it isn't a colour combo I ever use, but I thought I'd give it a go... I also combined it with the Stamp Something Challenge to make a "thankyou something"; and lastly I am also submitting this card for the Docrafts open stamp challenge "D", as "D" is for "dandelions".

I used main image stamp "Dandelions" by Lavinia, inked with Brilliance black and white inks and embossed with holographic powder; "thankyou" stamp free from a craft magazine, masked so that the centre was blank, and Prima flowers from my stash pinned with a Making Memories jewel brad.

Post-holiday catch up: 6 challenges in 1!

Having been away for a few days I haven't made any cards since last weekend, so today I have sat down to have a catch up. Looking at the current challenges I thought I could make one card that could fit 6 challenges, so here we go!

First: Papertake Weekly challenge is COOL YULE - to make a Christmas card.

Second: Arty Girlz #45 is BLUE - to make a card where blue is the predominant colour.

Third: Rainbow Lady's Challenge #24 is SWIRLS AND FLOURISHES, so I have used a swirly background paper.

Fourth: I always feel inspired if I've got a sketch to follow, so this card is my interpretation of Friday Sketchers #13.

Fifth: Penny Black Saturday Challenge #8 is NO PINK! ... well I promise Snowy's nose and cheeks are red (honest!).

Last but not least: Michelle's Blogoversary Challenge is to make a MONOTONE COLOUR card - all one colour group plus white .. as you can see I have gone for blue (except Snowy hasn't yet got a blue nose LOL!).

I used: main image is PB "Snowy", coloured with Twinkling H2O's and Marvey markers and decorated with Stckles glitter glue. Sentiment is by "Make Your Mark" (a great one-off stamp shop I came across whilst away in York) inked with blue pigment ink and embossed with silver pearl powder. Flower is Prima decorated with stickles and pinned with a Making Memories sparkly silver brad. Snowflake brads and background papers are from my stash.

6 in 1 ... is this a record ??