Penny Black Challenge #103 - In the Garden

Well, it's not only Saturday again ... but for those of us in the UK it's also a bank holiday weekend so yippee ... and it's time for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge :-)

Thanks as always to everyone who entered last week's challenge - you are truly a really dotty lot .. in the nicest possible way! Don't forget one lucky prize winner will have won the PB stamp I donated last week ... so please do visit the main challenge blog and see if it's you!

Onto this week's challenge, and I guess we're living in hope of some summery weather as our theme is

In the Garden

As always you can interpret this however you choose, so long as you use at least one Penny Black image, sticker or sentiment as the main focus of your project.

As always we have another fab prize - this week it is from our regular sponsor Dick at

and is a 15% lifetime discount voucher for use in his online store - lovely!

Here's my card for this week .... don't forget to check out he other DT members' gorgeous samples.


I used the excellent sketch from Papertake Weekly challenge,

and also made this card specifically to fit with the following challenges:

Simon Says - pink or blue with green & brown
Crafts and Me #5 - Distressed
(I have deckle edged all my papers and matting, and sponged the edges of my image)
Creative Inspirations #62 - Distressed
Flutterby Wednesday's #111 - open theme with butterfly, fairy or angel
Paper Play #21 - Up in the air (things that fly)
>Totally Gorjuss #32 - Wings!
Cooking it Up with Katie #18 - Wing It You Pink Petal!
Stamp With Stampavie #96 - Happy Birthday for a Girl

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Teddy and Company" transparent set, coloured with watercolour pencils;
Sentiment: Penny Black "Salutations" transparent set;
Papers: BasicGrey "Sugared";
Supplies: Prima hydrangeas; pearls, spacers and pearl brads from The Hobby House; ric-rac ribbon from Paula.

Hope you all have a great weekend playing "in the garden" !

Wonderful LotV new release blog candy

Wow!!! The LotV Challenge blog is celebrating the new release of 12 stamps on June 1st by giving away a complete set to one extremely lucky winner!! You've got to be in it to win it, so I suggest you get over there fast ... and fast is the operative word as it is only on offer until Saturday 29th May. As they say .. when it's gone, it's gone!

Creative Card Crew #51 - Pink & Green

Thanks very much to everyone who rocked Emma's sketch last time on the Creative Card Crew - there were some fabulous entries! One lucky winner has landed a $20 spending spree with Simon Says Stamp ... so don't forget to pop over to the main challenge blog and see if it is you!
It's my turn to set the challenge this fortnight, and I have chosen one of my favourite colour combos -

pink & green

We have another fab prize this time to help get your creative juices flowing .... our regular sponsor

has donated these scrummy packs of flowers.

The rest of the DT have made some gorgeous samples for this challenge so I do hope you will visit them. Also Janna has made her card in response to a very special request for terminally ill lady and hopes other people might join in. Unfortunately I had made my card as a birthday card before I read about this but it's a very worthwhile cause - do check it out and hope you can participate.

Here's my card ... at the time I set the challenge I had absolutely LOADS of pink & green papers .. but I'm not sure now where they have all gone to lol!! And as I was off work sick most of last week I couldn't go out hunting and gathering. In a way though it turned out to be a good thing, as it made me look at what I've actually got with fresh eyes, and I pulled out some really old paper but was actually pretty pleased with the final result.

The one thing that did strike me was that it would be hard to find a more apt image for a pink and green theme than this cute froggie lol! And I love the way he looks so joyful - always makes me smile :-)

I used the sketch from this week's Friday Sketchers #103,

and would also like to enter this card for

Crafty Creations #68 - Encouragement / celebration
Stamp with Stampavie #95 - Flower Power
Charisma #20 - 3D (3rd and final entry)
Spoon Full of Sugar #105 - Celebrations!

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Jump for Joy" (3702J), watercoloured and the daisy decoupaged;
Sentiment: Craftwork Cards;
Papers: pink/green check from Paper Pzazz, green diamond paper free with "Making Cards" magazine about 2 years ago!
Supplies: spacers, pearl brads and pearls all from The Hobby House; flowers from my stash;
Tools: "Labels Four" nestabilities; Martha Stewart "garden trellis" edge punch.

So looking forward tos eeing all your pink & green creations!

Say it with flowers

I have had this adorable LotV kitty stamp for about two months now, but shame on me I haven't made a card with it until now. But this week there are a number of flowery challenges for which I thought this image was just perfect (or should I say purrfect!)

I followed the great sketch for this fortnight's Lili of the Valley Challenge #53 ...

... and would also like to enter this card for

Papertake Weekly - Say It With Flowers
Sir Stampalot May Challenge - Butterflies and blossoms
Cupcake #91 - Blooming Charming
C.R.A.F.T. #51 - Birthday / celebrations
Charisma #20 - 3D (2nd entry)

Here's a closeup of the charm I used .. it's one of my favourites. I'm also really loving the Papermania paper pads this season ... I can't decide which one to pick up first lol!!


... and here's a closeup of my flowers. Nope the rose isn't from Wild Orchid Crafts - it's actually from Hobbycraft!

Recipe:
Main image: LotV "Thomas - Big Bunch of Flowers", colorued with Promarkers;
Sentiment: See-D "Celebration messages";
Papers: Papermania "Rose Garden";
Supplies: rose and blossoms from Hobbycraft; pearls from The HobbyHouse; charm from Bunny Zoe's Crafts;
Tools: "Labels Four" nestabilities; Martha Stewart "Valentine Lace" edge punch and small "monarch butterfly" punch.

Penny Black Challenge #102 - Lots of Dots!

Woo hoo! Saturday again, so it's time for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Thanks to everyone who played along with the "flowers" challenge last week - there were some really beautiful creations. Don't forget to check the main challenge blog to see if you have won last week's adorable teddy stamps prize.

This week our challenge theme is

Lots of Dots!

Yes I know you may think we're all dotty enough already, but let's draw a veil over that ;-)

We have another gorgeous prize for you this week ... I would say that because this week I'm the one who has donated it :-) It is this fab Penny Black vintage style stamp called "Letter and Daisy".

I decided to take this theme in a slightly unusual direction, as I was inspired primarily by a piece of the new Papermania "Henbury Lane" paper which is a soft aqua colour with glitter dots. It somehow put me in mind of falling snow, so before I knew it I was inking up my latest PB stamp "Snowy Park" and also adding more dots with dry embossing, ribbon and a gem flourish. Here's the result....

I would like to enter this one for just a couple of other challenges, namely:

Kaboodle #31 - monochromatic card

Totally Gorjuss #31 - Bling It On!

Recipe:

Main image: Penny Black "Snowy Park" (3231K), inked with Colorbox "Peacock" ink and heat embossed with holographic powder;

Sentiment: Rubber Soul;

Paper: Papermania Henbury Lane", outer background is pearlised white cardstock;

Supplies: silver and blue gems - Papermania "Henbury Lane"; dotty ribbon from my stash;

Tools: Bazzill Jewel template "Fantasy Flourish" from The Hobby House; Cuttlebug "Snowflakes" embossing folder; Fiskars cutter deckle blade.

The other DT members have all gone completely dotty so I hope you'll visit them to check out their fab creations.

Have a great weekend, and don't go TOO dotty lol!

OMG - oops!

Was just footling around editing my blog list and suddenly comes a li'l blip ...yikes I've lost the lot!!

I have started a new blog list but Mr Blogger seems to be playing silly beggars at the moment and has just thrown me out when I'd added a whole new lot back in ... so i think I'm going to have to come back to it later.

So if I normally come to visit and suddenly don't i'm not ignoring you honest ... I probably am just totally lost and can't find you!! Hopefully I will get back to where I was before too long ... sigh!

Promarkers - my latest passion!

There's not been a lot going on with me on the crafting front this week, as I've been laid up with a real stinker of a head cold ... I have been off work sick for 4 days and had the whole days to myself but not felt up to making a card ... it must have been bad lol!!

Today though I thought I'd give it a go, and with good reason ... I mentioned last week that I had bought my first Promarkers and I had a little "dabble" insomuch as I managed to colour in Daisy the cow's hooves and horns. Since then though I have bought some more pens and a blender (naughty!!), so I at last felt up to tackling colouring in an image full on!


Lucky for me that the theme this week at Passion for Promarkers #52 is fantasy/ mythology - as I don't have a huge number if images suitable for colouring with the selction of pens I've got, but I do have this dainty LotV fairy ... and I have been eagerly watching the fab colouring tutorials on LotV's brilliant new Ideas to Inspire blog. I'm very pleased to be able to enter my first ever Promarker card into the Promarker challenge - well, it would be rude not to ;-)

I also followed the sketch from this week's Create 4 Fun Challenge #42



... and would also like to enter this card for

Flutterby Wednesday's #110 - butterfly, fairy or angel + flowers

Charisma #20 - 3D (roses)

Stamp Something - 2 of something ... I have used 2 main colours (lavender and blue), 2 papers, 2 punches, and 2 types of embellishment (flowers and pearls)

Recipe:

Main image: LotV "Fairy on Tiptoe", coloured with Promarkers and decorated with "Blueberry Ice" Stickles;

Sentiment: Craftwork Cards;

Papers: Papermania Henbury Lane";

Supplies: Mixture of roses from my stash and birthday gifts from Helen and Paula; pearls from The Hobby House; lilac ribbon from my stash;

Tools: large standard circles, small standard circles, large scalloped circles nestabilities; "fancy tags" shapeabilities; Martha Stewart "woodland bough" edge punch; Leone Em "Ash branch" punch.

Back tomorrow with another Penny Black Saturday Challenge .. and I've got one or two more promarker efforts waiting in the wings :-)

Penny Black Challenge #101

Wowee!! What an absolutely PHENOMENAL response we had to last week's PBSC Challenge #100 and blog hop!! What a totally amazing set of entries and brilliant interpretations of the sketch - I really enjoyed visiting you all, and also thankyou so much for your many kind comments on the rather "different" DT card I challenged myself to produce last week :-)

There will be quite a few lucky winners in our prize draw this time, so be sure to check out the main blog to see if you are one of them. Also don't forget to visit each DT member's blog to see if you have won any yummy candy .... I had a really hard time picking a winner as there were so many stunning entries ... but I made myself do it and I chose

Brenda

Congratulations!! If you would like to email me your details hun then I can get your prize in the post :-)

Before we get onto this week's challenge, we have loads of news this week.

First of all, Jackie has sadly decided to step down from the DT - we'll really miss her beautiful cards but wish her the best of luck.

...but on a brighter note we have decided to expand the team, and four of our recent guest designers have agreed to become permanent members of the DT ... so hope you will all give a big warm welcome to

Debby
Janneke
Joey
Liz

... not forgetting that we still also have Janiel as our GDT member for the rest of May.

... and last but not least, our lovely teamie Domi has the most special news of all, as she is getting married today to her fiancee Uli!! - Woo hoo!! Congratulations hun and best wishes.

Onto this week's challenge - we thought we'd be kind this week so it's an easy peasy one that I'm sure you'll all love. What we would like to seee this week on your project is

Flowers

As always you can interpret this however you wish, so long as you're sure to use a Penny Black image, sentiment or sticker as the main focus of your project.

Talking of yummy candy, we have an absolutely adorable prize for you this week, donated by our very own Carole - it is these 2 unbearably cute PB teddy stamps :-)

The talented DT ladies have pulled out all the stops as usual with their cards, which you can of course see if you visit the main blog.

Here's mine ... I'm back in the cutesie groove this week, although for some reason my mojo wasn't quite firing on all cylinders when I made it. But never mind - at least it does create one new first, as it is my first ever Promarker card. I started my collection 3 weeks ago at Aintree craft fair, and up to now I have only a v small selection of colours so I couldn't be too ambitious in my choice of image - indeed I'm not sure whether I will really move to colouring PB hedgies and mice with Promarkers as I love the soft effect of watercolours. However despite a little bit of colour bleed on Daisy's nose (not sure why as I did use Memento ink), I'm actually quite pleased with the blending I achieved on the hooves and horns (it's actually so subtle the camera scarcely shows it lol!!) On that basis I am already planning future Promarker purchases!!

Recipe:

Main image: Penny Black "Bundle of Wishes" (2612H), coloured with Promarkers;
Sentiment: Craftwork Cards;
Papers: Bo Bunny;
Supplies: large spacers and daisy charm were amongst my yummy birthday gift from
Cathy; coloured pearls and butterfly charm from The Hobby House; Doodlebug sparkly brads; flowers and silver gems from my stash;
Tools: "Labels 1" nestabilities; Martha Stewart "floral vine" deep edge punch.

I would just like to enter this one for the following challenges:

Crafty Catz #32 - Petals and pearls
My Time to Craft #91 - Toooo Cute!
ABC - U is for Unused Stash
... that would be the paper I've had lurking in my stash for quite a while!
Allsorts Challenge #52 - Birthdays
Secret Crafter #83 - Metal

Looking forward to see your floral creations ... have a great weekend!

Creative Card Crew #50 - Emma's sketch

Wow another fortnight has whizzed past, and it's time for another Creative Card Crew Challenge. Thanks so much to eveyone who joined in the April Showers Bring Forth May Flowers challenge last time - don't forget to check the main blog to see if you have won the fabby prize!

Onto this fortnight's challenge which is a superb sketch by Emma - I really enjoyed working with this and hope you will too.


The DT members have been working their magic - do pop by their blogs and leave a nice comment :-)

To help get your creative juices flowing we've got another great prize this time ... it's a fabulous $20 gift certificate from

Here's my card for this week ...

I'm still happily working my way through recent purchases, and playing with yummy gifty things I received for my birthday - I've brought a few of them into play on this card.

Recipe:

Main image: Lili of the Valley, coloured with watercolour pencils and decorated with glamour dust on the bubbly bubbles !
Sentiment: Craftwork Cards;
Papers: Papermania "Blueberry Hill";
Supplies: large two-tone roses were a birthday gift from Sue; small pink roses from Hobbycraft; miniature white roses from Paula; pink gems from Angie;
Tools: large standard circles and large standard scalloped circles nestabilities; Bazzill Jewel template "fantasy flourishes" from The Hobby House.

As usual I'd like to enter this card for a few challenges:

Paperplay #18 - Stamp/digi and bling
Pile It On #18 - Cute & cuddly

Stamp Something - Birthday Somethings (2nd entry)

Simon Says - Birthdays / Celebrations (3rd entry)

Looking forward to seeing all your interpretations of the sketch!

Lovely in lavender

When I saw the sketch for this week's Sketch Saturday #102, the large area of the image made me think immediately of this darling Penny Black image that I received from the lovely Paula as part of my birthday gift (thanks hun!). I really do think it is adorable so I really wanted to make the most of it :-)

I'm very lucky at the moment, as not only do I have a number of items from my trip to Aintree that I haven't played with yet, but also I received some delicious gifty bits & bobs from various crafty friends - you're all wonderful!! I'm just hoping that when it comes to giving credits I will be able to remember accurately who gave me what ... if I get confuddled (particularly between various yummy flowers!!) please do excuse me as dopiness does tend to set in when you get to my age lol!!

Recipe:

Main image: Penny Black - gift from Paula, so sorry don't know what it's called, coloured with watercolour pencils and Sakura sparkle pens (roses);

Sentiment: Craftwork Cards;

Paper: Craft Creations (lilac gingham), Bazzill plain card;

Supplies: lace from Bunny Zoe's Crafts; lilac pearls from The Hobby House; large two-tone rose from John Lewis; medium lilac rose and tiny lilac/cream rose - Hobbycraft; tiny lilac/pink rose - gift from Helen (guess it is from Wild Orchid Crafts ); all roses decorated with Stardust Stickles;

Tools: Martha Stewart "doily lace" edge punch; Leone Em "Ash Family" leaf punch.

I would also like to enter this card for

Stamp Something - Birthday Somethings

Inky Impressions #34 - Summer Creation

Crafty Calendar #8 - The Great Outdoors

(this cute hedgie is literally outside the door lol!!)

Simon Says - Birthdays / Celebrations

(2nd entry - my first was "celebrations")

Spoon Full of Sugar #102 - Furry Friends

Creative Belli #90 - Birthday Cards + something old ....

well I bought the lace some time ago, and I haven't used my doily lace punch in quite a while !!

Hope you're having a great weekend!

Penny Black Challenge #100 and Blog Hop with Candy!!

Woo hoo!! This week is a very special week, because the Penny Black Saturday Challenge has reached challenge #100!! We think that's a wonderful reason to celebrate, so this week we have got a

brilliant challenge

with

fantastic prizes

and a

blog hop

with

candy at each step of the way!!

Back to that in a moment, but first thanks as always to our loyal supporters who entered the let's get punchy challenge last week - brilliant projects as always, and don't forget to check back on the challenge blog to see if you won last week's prize.

So onto the big event , which is this week's challenge and blog hop....

Our challenge theme this week is a fabulous sketch developed by Kath & Carole, which I'm sure you can see incorporates shapes to represent the number 100 - how brilliant is that??

We have a fantastic array of prizes this week from a number of our regular sponsors and one or two new ones .... too many to mention here (and a few being added even to the last minute lol!!) so you just have to pop over to the Challenge blog to check it out!! Don't forget ... to be eligible for the prizes the only rule is that you must use a Penny Black stamp or sticker as the dominant feature on your card (no teeny weeny PB sentiments hidden in the corner please, lol!!)

This week the DT has really gone into overdrive to produce some brilliant samples, including our lovely guest designers from the past few months who have been invited back for a "one off" guest appearance in honour of the event :-) Their cards are not published on the challenge blog this week ... oh no!! if you want to see them you will need to take part in our blog hop.

To find out how to take part, please see the bottom of this post ;-)

So here's my card for this week .... I decided once again to try something different - partly in honour of the special nature of this week's challenge, and partly to try out some new stash I bought at Aintree craft show. I decided to go for a "vintage" look (we are 100 after all lol!!) and felt inspired to try making my own background and a vintage scripted panel using a clear set of stamps and techniques I had seen on the Butterfly Kisses stall, plus one of my new Distress inks. I have made this card for a crafty friend who is going through a bit of a hard time at the moment, just t let her know she is in my thoughts :-)

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Blush" (2666K), inked using Tim Holtz "Dusty Concord" distress ink;
Image panel: Butterfly Kisses "Clear 2 Collage" set - script and blotch stamps;
Sentiment: Penny Black "Friends matter" (4073F) (masked);
Papers: centre panel by Paper Pzazz; top and bottom is lilac linen card stamped with Butterfly Kisses set as above - crackle, swirl and blotch stamps - all paper edges distressed with distress ink;
Supplies: pearls from The Hobby House;
Tools: "peony" nestabilities; Fiskars paper cutter "deckle" blade.

I would just like enter this one for the Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #20 - distressed.

So - onto our Challenge #100 blog hop.

We have a blog hop featuring all the DT plus guest designers who we have invited back - each DT member has a little yummy candy along the way. If you want to enter for any of the blog candies, here's what you need to do:

1. Enter a card into this week's challenge - leave a Mr. Linky link on the main challenge blog in the normal way. This enters you for all this week's challenge prizes on the main blog.

2. Hop around each DT member's blog - follow the instructions on each blog to leave a comment if you want to enter for their candy. If you are hopping you should have arrived here from Nat's blog ... if not please go back to make sure you don't miss anything and visit the following blogs ....

Beth
Carole
Domi
Jackie
Jacqui
Janiel
Janneke
Joey
Kath
Liz
Nadine
Nat

... before finishing back here with me :-) I am the last stop on the blog hop so when you've been here you're done - just make sure you have entered your card on the main challenge blog.

3. To enter for my candy, leave a link in Mr Linky with a direct link to your card. If you enter the challenge more than once you can enter my blog candy more than once, but you must leave a separate direct link to each card.

4. Candy entries close at 9pm BST next Friday 14th May. I will pick and announce a winner sometime over the weekend.

So here's my candy ... hope you like it ....

It includes an A5 paper pad from the new Papermania "Henbury Lane" range (very lush and sparkly!!), a matching set of gems, and an assortment of Prima flowers.

I think that's about it for now!! have a great weekend, happy crafting and happy hopping!

This blog candy is now closed - many thanks to everyone who entered.