Christmas in August - just!!

Good evening! I've had an extra day off work today following the Bank Holiday, so I made this card this afternoon before I went out ... but I thought I'd better post it quickly as the title "Christmas in August" won't seem nearly so apt when we get to tomorrow lol!

I have inked up one of my darling new LotV stamps for the first time .. the difficulty is knowing which one to choose first, they are all SOOO cute!

I deliberately set out to make this card fit several challenges ....

Firstly, I used this fab sketch from Teddy Stampers #18 - I have not seen this challenge blog until now, but I'm guessing from the title that it requires a teddy image ;-) ... well that works for me with these LotV cuties!

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

Creative Inspirations #41 - Christmas in August
Totally Gorjuss #45 - Christmas in August
Paper Sundaes #33 - Christmas in August
Secret Crafter #98 - Make a Start on Christmas
Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight - Glitter & Sparkle

.. and talking of gliiter and sparkle, here's a closeup of teddy's tinsel.

Recipe:
Main image: LotV "james Bear Wrapped in Tinsel", coloured wtih Copics & Promarkers, and tinsel effect created with Stickles;
Sentiment; Craftwork Cards;
Papers: Papermania "Silent Night";
Supplies: Flower, leaves and sparkly stars from Prima Chrstmas bubble; pearls, pearl gem and gold spacer from the Hobby House; ribbon from stash;
Tools: small, large and large classic scalloped circle nestabilities; Fiskars "Victorian" cutting blade.

Back to work tomorrow ... but I already have another card made and hope to have a third in the bag by then ;-)

Penny Black Challenge #116 - Summer Lovin'

Woo hoo! Welcome to the weekend .. and not just any old weekend but a Bank Holiday here in the UK :-) So here's hoping you'll find plenty of time to join in with this week's Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Many thanks to everyone who joined in last week - there were some fabulous interpretations of the sketch ... and don't forget to check back to the challenge blog to see if you have won a prize. So on to this week's challenge - and we have a theme for you ... Summer Lovin' You can interpret this however you like so long as you follow the one and only golden rule if you wish to be eligible for this week's prizes - we need to see a Penny Black image stamp, large sentiment or stickeroo as the main focus of your project. And talking of prizes ... this week we have 2 fab prizes on offer to randomly drawn winners, from 2 of our regular sponsors. First up, Fantastic Ribbons is offering this selection of black and white buttons ... ... and Dick at PB Stamps is offering a 15% lifetime discount voucher - lovely! The rest of the DT have all been getting loved up and producing some stunning creations ... here's my effort. I really adore this stamp though I don't own it - the image was kindly sent to me by Squirrel. It struck me as perfect for this challenge as it kinda incorprates both summer and lovin' in the one cute image ... awww!! (It was only afterwards when I looked up the stamp details I realised it is called "Sharing Spring" lol!!) Recipe: Main image: Penny Black "Sharing Spring" (3613J), coloured with Copics and Promarkers, and decorated with Stardust Stickles. Sentiment: Papermania; Paper: BasicGrey "Urban Prairie" and MME "Quite Contrary"; Supplies: large rose from Hobbycraft; small roses, cherry blossoms and rosebuds from Wild Orchid Crafts; pearls from The Hobby House; lace from my stash; Tools: Spellbinders small circle, large circle and large scalloped circle nestabilities; Martha Stewart "Valentine lace" edge punch; Marianne D Creatables "swirl leaf"; Fiskars "Victorian" paper cutting blade.

As always I would like to enter this card into a few other challenges ... I'm finding recently my crafting time is so limited I have to make the most of it Wild Orchid Challenge #4 - Make It Sparkle Penny Black At Allsorts (August) - Glitter & Glitz Creative Card Crew - Sparkle & Shine A Pocket Full of Posies #5 - Winged Things Flutterby Wednesday #119 - Open (angel, fairy or butterfly) Crafts & Me #11 - Petals & Pearls Kaboodle Doodles #38 - Lovely Flowers & Lace Alphabet Challenge - R is for Roses Flourishes Timeless Tuesday #81 - Lace Stamp With Stampavie #105 - Swirls Crafty Emma's Store #1 - Anything Goes

Have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing your creations :-)

Penny Black Challenge #115 - Sketch!

Hello everyone and welcome to another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. I'm thrilled this week to be back in the saddle as I have missed the past two challenges - I had a week's holiday but also I think my mojo went on hol and somehow life just got in the way! Thanks very much to all the other DT ladies for putting up with my tardiness .. but I did at least still manage to pay my visits to see all your wonderful creations over the past 2 weeks. As always, don't forget to check the challenge blog to see if you won last week's prize.

This week we have a fantastic sketch for you by our very own Domi - I love it!

We also have a great prize as always .... this week it is our regular sponsor Butterfly Kisses

who will donate a Penny Black stamp for one lucky randomly chosen winner - fab!
Don't foget that to be eligible for the prize, you must use a Penny Black image stamp, large sentiment or stickeroo as the main focus of your project.
The rest of the DT have made some stunning sample cards - here is my effort, which seemed really strange having not made a single card for almost three weeks .... I just didn't know what my crafting arm was for lol!!
I have used what I think must be my all time favourite PB stamp - the adorable "Snowy". I also got well into the spirit of glitter and sparkle, with glitter card snowflakes and fluffy trimming on Snowy's hat made from polar white Flowersoft mixed with glamour dust.

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Snowy" (2521K), coloured with Promarkers, hat decorated with polar white Flowersoft mixed with glamour dust, and edges sponged with Color Queue ink;
Sentiment: peel off from my stash;
Paper: free wtih "Creative Cardmaking" magazine last Christmas;
Supplies: pearl brads and spacers from The Hobby House; Dovecraft snowflake brads; ribbon and white pearls from my stash;
Tools: large classic oval and large classic scalloped oval nestabilities; "Make a Flake 2" Shapeabilties (large snowflake); Martha Stewart "Arctic Snowflake" punch.

As it is so long since I made a card, I thought I'd better make this one count, so I would like to enter it into the following challenges:

Spoon Full of Sugar #117 - Christmas in August
Penny Black At Allsorts (August) - Glitter & GlitzMy Time To Craft #103 - Glitter & Glitz
Passion for Promarkers #65 - Winter Blue
ABC Challenge - B is for Blue
Sentimental Sundays #16 - Ribbon or Lace
Charisma #33 - Die Cuts

Stampin' for the Weekend #45 - Anything Goes

Well, the Chrimbo bandwagon is now well and truly rolling, and I'm hoping it will be speeding down the highway to make up for lost time :-). Looking forward to seeing all your creations this week.

Cute kitty with sparkle

I always intend to enter the fortnightly LotV challenge, partly because I adore the LotV stamps I already have, and partly because the challenge always has more fab stamps on offer as prizes :-) ... but somehow the last few weeks have run away with me and I just haven't found the time. However this fortnight I was determined to join in ... so here we are, just in the nick of time!

I really enjoyed working with Bev's fab sketch for this week's LotV Challenge #58 :-)

and would also like to enter this card for the following:

The Stamp Man #2 - Take 2 Colours (lilac & pink)
Simon Says - Sing it Baby ("What's New Pussycat?")
Sir Stampalot (August) - Bring on the Bling

... I have used Stickles on all my roses, sparkly gem centres for the flowers, sparkly "Henbury Lane" paper and organza ribbon with a sparkly silver edge ... here's a closeup to try to show them (not bery successfully unfortunately!)

Recipe:
Main image: LotV "Thomas - Big Bunch of Flowers", coloured with Promarkers, edged with lavender coloured ink and decorated with sparkly gems;
Sentiment: Craftwork Cards;
Papers: Papermania "Henbury Lane";
Supplies: pearls from The Hobby House; curly wild roses, small roses and rosebuds from Wild Orchid Crafts; white baby's breath flowers and organza ribbon from my stash;
Tools: "Labels Four" nestabilities; Martha Stewart "Doily lace" edge punch.

Creative Card Crew #56 - Cute & Girly

It's Tuesday again, and time for another Creative Card Crew challenge. Thanks as always to all of you who entered last fortnight's challenge - we really appreciate your support. Don't forget to check out whether you have won last week's prize!

You will see on the main challenge blog that we have a few new DT members following from our recent DT call. Their first official challenge is in 2 weeks time, but some have plunged straight in :-) Either way, it's a warm welcome to

Caroline, Cherie, Chrissie, Denise, Julie , Melly & Peggy

On then to the challenge for the coming fortnight ... we would like to see your

Cute & Girly

creations

We are sponsored this time by Melissa of Meljen's Designs.


... who makes a fab range of digi images, many of which are perfect for this challenge theme :-) . They are currently sold exclusively through Whimsy Stamps online store. Melissa kindly provided the DT with a few images to play with, but as luck would have it I won 4 Meljen's Designs digis a couple of weeks ago, so I used a different one to widen the range of what we are showcasing this week. The other DT members have created some totally cute samples so I hope you'll go and check them out.

I have used a sweet Meljen's image called "Lazy Susan Buggies" - I was a bit nervous to start with as I have to tell you this is my first ever digi image card! I did find it a bit fiddly trying to estimate how to resize the image etc. but I soon started to get into the swing of it. In the past I have tended to steer away from digi images, not least because until recently I only watercoloured which I think probably doesn't work very well with printer ink. However now I'm using Promarkers and Copics I feel much better placed to give digis a go!

Recipe:
Main image: Meljen's Designs digital image "Lazy Susan Buggies", coloured with Promarkers, edged with Colorbox Q sponged ink and decorated with glamour dust;
Sentiment: Craftwork Cards;
Paper: Papermania "Summer Blooms";
Supplies: lace from Bunny Zoe's Crafts; pearl brad, pearls and large spacer from The Hobby House; flower and charm from my stash;

I followed this week's Sweet Stampin' Challenge #37 sketch (which I rotated by 90 degrees),

and would like to enter this card for
Pile it On #30 - Butterflies, bugs & bees
Alphabet Challenge - N is for Nature
Simon Says - Going Dotty (2nd entry)

That's all for today - happy crafting :-)

Penny Black #112 - a very slow cooking recipe!!

Good afternoon everyone, and welcome from me at last to the latest Penny Black Saturday Challenge. I'm sure that most of you will have already seen by now that this week's challenge is a

Recipe

1 circle,2 papers, 3 flowers

Well I guess you could say I cooked mine in the slow cooker lol!!

So seeing as I'm so behind, I'll get straight to business . As always this week we have fab prizes for you - this time we have a 15% lifetime discount voucher from that emporium of all things PB - Dick at Penny Black Stamps

... and we also have 4 rolls of ribbon of the winner's choice from the yummy online ribbon store Fantastic Ribbons.

As always, if you would like to be in line for one of the fantastic prizes all you have to do is to produce a new piece of work using a Penny Black image, large sentiment or stickeroo as its focal point - easy peasy!

Whilst I was patiently waiting for my recipe to come out of the slow cooker the rest of the DT were producing delicious concoctions out of the microwave - yep they were ready to serve long before this lol!! Do hope you will pop over to see them all. But at last - here's mine!

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Message from Above" (2617J) coloured with Promarkers and edges inked wtih Colorbox Q ink;
Sentiment: Studio g;
Papers: Papermania "Summer Bloom";
Supplies: cherry blossoms from Wild Orchid Crafts (one coloured with promarkers); pearls from The Hobby House; ribbon from my stash;
Tools: "Labels One", "large classic circles" and "large classic scalloped circles" nestabilities; Leone Em "Ash Family" leaf punch; Martha Stewart "Doily Lace" edge punch.


As always I would like to line this card up for a few other challenges:

Simon Says - Going Dotty
Creative Inspirations #71 - Animals
By the Cute & Girly (August) - Animal Antics
Charisma #30 - Something with a tail (the little birdy :-) )
Dutch Dare #83 - Anything Goes
Paper Play #30 - Anything Goes

... and not but not least I used the sketch from Sketch & Stash #40 ... and my neglected stash is the cute hedgie stamp ansd the yellow dotty ribbon.

Have a great week - look forward to seeing your recipe creations :-)