A Time for Celebration!

Well here we are, almost at the end of 2009 already ... where on earth has the year gone to??

In anticipation of the New Year's party I'm hoping to get to on (weather permitting!) I have made a New Year celebration card for the hostess.

I followed the excellent sketch at this week's Create4Fun Challenge #52, which I rotated 90 degrees to the left. I tried for once to be a bit imaginative and get a bit of artistic licence going (!?!). It's the first time I have cut out a figure and placed her over a background shape .... I know people do this a lot with Tildas but I don't have any of those .. thought I'd try it with Annie, and I'm pretty pleased with the result :-) I also went in for a bit of criss-crossing with some cord ... hope this is close enough to the original sketch!

This card was also made with quite a few other challenges in mind:

Cupcake #71 - A Time for Celebration

Everybody-Art-Challenge #71,
Stamp with Fun #39,
Stamp with Stampavie #75,
and
Lili of the Valley #43
all have the theme this week of
Happy New Year

Simon Says Stamp - Party!
(well, it's for a New Year Party, and I have to say Annie looks like she's started already lol!!)

Daring Cardmakers - New Beginnings
Our Creative Corner - Celebrate Food or Drink
One Stop Craft Challenge #60 - recycled
(my silver star holographic card is recycled from an Asda tissue box!!)

My Time to Craft #72 - Anything Goes
Creative Card Crew #41 - Anything Goes (3rd entry!)

Blimey! I've just counted up and that's 12 ... just about my best effort yet lol!! I actually also made this for 2 more challenges but alas due to poor lighting conditions today for taking phots plus going out for the day .. I've missed them - never mind!!

I love easel cards but am finding them very difficult to photograph (and the miserable daylight conditions don't help lol) ... so here are a couple more closeup shots - first of the "front" of the card ....

... and also the "base" part of the easel.

Recipe:
Main image: Sugar Nellie "Fizz", coloured with watercolour pencils;
Papers: free with issue 10 of Creative Cardmaking magazine;
Supplies: silver gems and stars, silver cord all by Papermania; silver/white ribbon from my stash; recycled silver holographic card from Asda tissue box!;
Tools: large classic circles and large classic scalloped circles nestabilities; numbers cut using Cuttlebug "Hippie Chick" alphabet dies.

I'd just love to wish everyone who visits my blog, end everyone who I visit a

Happy New Year!

Take care, have fun, and here's to more fab blogging and crafting in 2010 ! :-)

Christmas Sugar

Seeing as I'm on holiday from work this week I managed to sit down for a daytime craft sesh yesterday ... yippee!!

One of my makes was this card for Sugar Bowl Challenge #25 - Lilian's sketch ... with the request to "please include" your favourite colour.





My fave colour - at least when it comes to cardmaking - has to be

pink

Dunno why really ... it's not a colour I wear overmuch or have in abundance around the house... but I do like it on cards :-). And this week over at the Sugar Bowl there is plenty of reason to get inspired as they have a totally fabulous prize on offer of 12 - yes, 12! - SN stamps .. now I only own a very small number at the moment so I'm hoping that on the 12th day of Christmas my present will be 12 SN stamps a-dropping through my letter box lol!

Anyhow, I thought I would give it a little bit of a different twist today, so I teamed it with black to give a slightly less girly-whirly feel.

Recipe:
Main image: Sugar Nellie "Daisy", coloured with warecoloru pencils and decorated with li'l pearls.
Sentiment: Penny Black transparent set "Salutations", inked with Brilliance "Starlight black" ink;
Papers: Bo Bunny "Alissa Kissable" and "Unforgettable";
Supplies: Pink flowers by Prima; pearl brads and large spacer from The Hobby House; dragonfly brad by Dovecraft; raffia lace from Hobbycraft; small black gems by Hero Arts (thanks Domi); small pearls from my stash;
Tools: Nestabilities - large classic circles, large classic scalloped circles, labels three; large black flower punched using EK Success extra large flower punch & small black flower using X-Cut flower punch.

... and here's a quick peek at the inside ... Please excuse the photo quality but the light levels are really shocking here today - totally dull and miserable weather!


Hope you are all enjoying the Christmas break, whatever you're doing.

ABC Christmas Challenge Blog Hop

The ABC Challenge has a new baby sister blog ... the ABC Christmas Challenge - which will post a challenge every alternate Wednesday from 30th December to help us get a head start on those Christmas projects, based on the letters of the alphabet.

To get us in the mood, the fab ladies on the DT have organised a Christmas blog hop with some great inspiration and fab prizes on offer .... so why not check it out?

Merry Kissmas!

For some reason I always leave my husband's Christmas card 'til last ... and usually until the last minute too!! This year I managed to make it yesterday, which is pretty good going for me lol!! I also like to "save " it and not post it on here until at least Christmas Eve just in case he should happen to peek!

Anyhow, here is my romantic card for him .... I'm actually pretty pleased with it this year, mainly because I think this image is so gorgeous and these Magnolia papers are just fabulous!

I would like to enter this for the following challenges:

ABC Challenge - K is for Kissing
Creative Card Crew #41 - Anything Goes (second entry)
Stamp Something - Holiday Somethings (second entry)
Corrosive Challenges #43 - Blingy (hope the sparkly snow, green gems and Twinkling H2)'s are enough lol!)

Here's an angle shot to show the glimmer and gleam .... I coloured both the cute meece's clothes and my mistletoe with Twinkling H2O's ....


Luckily I had enough paper to make a bit of an effort with the inside .....


... and here's a closeup of the mistletoe image inside the card.



Recipe:
Stamps: main image - Gillian Roberts "Mistletoe and Mice" coloured with watercolour pencils and Twinkling H2O's, and decorated with polar white Flowersoft and glamour dust; mistletoe - Elusive Images, heat embossed wtih silver detail powder and coloured with Twinkling H2O's;
Sentiments: Ezybells (front); Elusive Images (inside) - both heat embossed with detail silver powder;
Papers: Magnolia "Under the Mistletoe" collection;
Supplies: silver ribbon, siilver holographic card, pearls and green gems from my stash;
Tools: Nestabilities "Labels One"; Fingerguard trimmer "deckle" blade; lettering cut using Cuttlebug "Hippie Chick" alphabet;

So with that it's time to say

Merry Christmas

&

Happy New Year

to everyone who visits my blog ... thanks so much for your lovely comments during the year, and for providing me with so much inspiration through your own blogs. Here's to happy crafting in 2010!! :-)

Christmas joy with Penny Black and Popcorn

Well ... it's now officially less than one week to go to Christmas ... hope you're all calm, relaxed and in control (unlike me lol!!) I've got two cards to show you today ... mainly because I had to make 2 "special" cards for close relatives so I thought I would make them similar to save time ... one is my PBSC DT card, and the other I can use for a few challenges :-)

First up is my DT card for this week's Penny Black Saturday Challenge #80. This week's theme is

Christmas charms

... so if you've still got the odd item left to make, now is your perfect opportunity before the big day. In fact this is the last PBSC challenge for 2009, so you have actually got a full two weeks to enter - the next challenge will be on Saturday January 2nd 2010!

As always we have got a fab prize on offer for you .... one lucky winner will win a £10 gift voucher from The Crafty Garden


AND....

.... as if that's not enough, they are also giving all PBSC readers a 10% discount for life - just use the code Penny Black at checkout!!

So why not pop over to the challenge blog to see the rest of the DT's wonderful creations (including our fab GDT member Liz), check whether you have won last week's prize, and then get crafting with charms (which are amongst my fave of all crafty things!!)

Here's my card for this week ...


Now then, I hear you say ..... I'm sure that's not a Penny Black image!! Ha! Indeed the cutie carolling bears are Popcorn ... I just had to use them to tie in with the darling Magnolia papers I had bought for my special cards including the "Silent night" hymn sheet paper .... however the sentiment IS by Penny Black ... so it's job done lol!! My spin on this is that I am "ringing the changes" to show how well PB fits with all other makes of stamps ... or I could just put my hand up and say it was the best I could manage!!

Here's an angle shot to show Popcorn's fluffy hat :-)


Recipe:
Main image: Popcorn the Bear, coloured with watercolour pencils and Marvey markers, and hat/snow decorated wtih polar white Flowersoft and glamour dust;
Sentiment: Penny Black "Merry Christmas" heat embossed in gold;
Papers: Magnolia "Under the Mistletoe" collection;
Supplies: flowers and leaves from Prima red Christmas bubble; pearl brad and gold spacer from the Hobby house; "joy" charm from my stash.

So it's a big

thankyou

to everyone who has joined us in the Penny Black Saturday Challenges this year .. hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy new Year ... look forward to seeing this week's creations, and joining you again for a new year of challenges starting January 2nd

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OK ... onto my second card which is the "version" I would like to enter into a few challenges. Most of the details are as per the card above, except that I have replaced the PB sentiment with some red ribbon from my stash and a sentiment by Craftwork Cards.



I would like to enter this for the following:

Simon Says - Merry Christmas
My Time To Craft #70 - Yuletide Wishes
Stamp Something - Holdiay Somethings

Crafty Calendar #3 - Winter sparkle
Creative Card Crew #41 - Anything Goes
Kaboodle #20 - Sparkling Winter

Hope you're all keeping safe and warm in this freezing weather and maange to get a bit of crafting done before Christmas ;-)

Last Christmas stocking ...

... at least for the time being lol!! I guess you're all getting rather over-familiar with this little fella by now!! Though having said that, who could possibly resist his cute little face ??

Whilst making my little batch of Chrimbo cuties I specifically followed the sketch over at this week's Friday Sketchers #82 for this one.

... and here's the result. I would also like to enter it into The Pink Elephant Challenge #45 - Winter/Christmas.

Recipe:
Main image - Penny Black "fur collared" (3763H) coloured with watercolour pencils, and decorated with polar white flowersoft and glamour dust;
Sentiment: Stamps Away;
Paper: from stash;
Supplies: Snowflake ribbon from Warrington market; flowers by Floradoodle;
Tools: scalloped rectangle nestabilities

I still have a few more Christmas cards to make, but that's definitely the end of the current production run lol!!

1 card - 12 challenges!

Well ... here's the cute little fella again ..... this time I have made a card using non-traditional colours, in line with the requirements of this week's Creative Inspirations Challenge #38. I have also used the colours from this week's Color throwdown #72, which were actually inspired by BasicGrey "Eskimo Kisses" papers, which I have used ...

... and that also puts it in the frame as my second entry for this week's Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #9, which is Alternative Christmas

I'm not sure whether this card really fits, but encouraged by the fact that some of the DT cards also include greens and browns, I would like to enter it for the current BasicGrey Challenge #10 - pink, cream and blue.

Here's the card that I made .....

My card is also fairly frosty/sparkly what with the Cuttlebug glitter card ice crystal, glitter card snowflakes, glamour dust on the fur collar and sparkly lace, so I would also like to enter it into the following challenges:

Simon Says - Let it Snow
Incy Wincy #21 - Snowflakes
Fun with Shapes and More #33 - Snowflakes
Secret Crafter #62 - Snow
Kraftin' Kimmie #10 - Sparkle, Baby!
Frosted Designs - Happy Holidays
Our Creative Corner - The Holidays are Here!!

... and last but not least, Totally Gorjuss #9 is free and easy - ie an open theme. As I don't own any GG stamps, I guess this is my best chance to enter lol!

Woo hoo! That makes 12 challenges altogether .. not bad for 1 little hedgie :-) Here's a close up to show his sparkly fluffy collar and the sparkly snowflake.

Edited: just found another challenge that was open when I posted this card :-) So I would like to enter it for Kaboodle #20 - Sparkling Winter. Hope challenge #13 will be lucky for me :-)


Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "fur collared" (3763H) coloured with watercolour pencils and decorated with polar white Flowersoft and glamour dust, and the edges distressed with "tattered rose" distress ink;
Sentiment; Craftwork Cards "Oh! My Words";
Paper: BasicGrey "Eskimo Kisses";
Supplies: BasicGrey "opaline"pink & cream pearls; large blue pearl brad by The Paper Company Studio; small pearl brads from The Hobby House; spacers and white sprkly lace from my stash;
Tools: Cuttlebug "ice crystal" die; Martha Stewart "Arctic Snowflake" punch.

Rightee... I sneaked off from doing the housework for a quick "tea break" to make this post .... err .... that was almost an hour and a half ago!! So i guess I'd better get back to it ..... hope you're all enjoying your weekend!

Cute hedgie does the Christmas combo!

I have been on holiday from work this past week, but due to the schedule of jobs I'd set for myself, yesterday afternoon was the first time I managed to sit down for a good crafty session. I stamped out a few of this adorable PB image "fur collared" and made a few cards for various challenges, so you will be seeing more of this cute little fella over the next couple of days ....

Here's my first card:

I have followed the sketch for this week's Corrosive Challenges #41


This card also fits a number of other Christmas challenges, namely

My Time to Craft #69 - Christmas Foliage
Everybody-Art-Challenge #69 - green & red
Stamp with Stampavie #73 - red & green
Charisma #49 - green & red plus white or silver
The Pink Elephant #44 - Your favourite Christmas colour combo. Well mine is generally whatever I happen to be doing right now ... and at the moment green & red seems to be right up there lol!


Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "fur collared" (3763H) coloured with watercolour pencils, and decorated with polar white flowersoft and glamour dust;
Sentiment; Stampendous;
Paper: Reminisce "Snowflake Spots";
Supplies: Flowers by Floradoodles; gems from my stash;
Tools: scalloped rectangle nestabilities; Cuttelbug "Snowflakes" embossing folder.

Here's my second card. I have deliberately made this card for just the one challenge as they don't allow us to combine - it is for this week's Stamptacular Challenge #36 which is Let it shine. I have got sparkle on the fluffy fur, holographic silver card on my matting, shiny silver snowflakes on the ribbon, and sparkkly gems in the flowers.

Recipe:
Main image - as before;
Sentiment: Stamps Away;
Paper: from stash;
Supplies: Snowflake ribbon from Warrington market; flowers by Floradoodle;
Tools: scalloped rectangle nestabilities.

Back tomorrow with a couple more of these cuties :-)

Penny Black Saturday Challenge #79 - Red & Gold

Good morning everyone, and welcome once more to the Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Here we are at week #79 already .... the weeks are flying by as Christmas approaches. I should start by saying sorry I have been such a naughty blogger the past 1-2 weeks - like most of us I have found there is just sooo much to do and so little time at this time of year ... but I hope to get back on track, certanly once Christmas is over. In the meantime, like all the DT I really appreciate all the support of everyone who enters the challenges :-)

This week we have the perfect theme for those of you who (like me!) are still struggling to complete a few last minute Christmas cards, although it's not necessary to make a Chrimbo card is you don't want. This week we would like to see cards using the colours

Red and Gold

As always the DT has made some stunning examples - hope you'll go to the challenge blog and check them out (including this month's fab guest DT member, Liz), and while you're there do check to see if you have won last week's prize.

Again this week we have another fab prize - a $20 online shop voucher for our regualr sponsor 1-2-3 Stitch.


Here's my card. Having used my new slapstick stamp last week for a very "girly" theme, I thought I would ring the changes with her this week and show her in these more traditional colours. I'm actually pretty pleased with the result :-)

I would also like to enter this card for the fab Quixotic Paperie challenge #6 - seeing stars - this card is sucha perfect firt for the theme that the opportunity was too good to waste :-)

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black slapstick "Winter Swing" - coloured with waterclour pencils, and the stars decoratd with offcut stars from my ribbon;
Sentiment: Stamps Away;
Supplies: metallic stars paper and stars ribbon from my stash;
Tools: Fiskars Fingerguard Trimmer with "deckle" blade ( a wonderful prize I won from Wendy at The Secret Crafter); Cuttlebug "Christmas Stars" embossing folder.

Hope you have a fab weekend and manage to get some quality crafting time amongst the Christmas mayhem!!

Kellie's yummy candy

I absolutely adore these personalised stamps, and the maker, Kellie, is offering one lucky winner a choice of one of the above 3 stamps personalised to your own liking. gorgeous ... and well worth a visit. Kellie's candy is open on her Magnolia Down Under blog until December 19th.

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.