Hearts and flowers

Although I am a huge fan of their cute hedgies, teddies and meeces, I also really love Penny Black brushstroke flowers. I hadn't used one for quite a while so decided to ink up the beautiful and very versatile "blush" stamp ... or rather watercolour up, as I used various shades of Marvey brushstroke marker (how long is it since I got them out of their packet??) to produce a soft impressionist effect.

I followed the sketch for this fortnight's BasicGrey Challenge #29 - I did employ rather a lot of "artistic licence" with the shapes for the different elements of the sketch as I was stuck on using the heart doily which has been sitting in my stash since I received it as a birthday RAK from Paula :-). So I hope it's ok for the challenge!! Still, it also gave me opportunity to break out my heart shaped nesties which have been sitting naughtily unused in my stash for quite a while!

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

A Pocket Full of Posies #7 - Lavender & Old Lace
Challenge Up Your Life #28 - Lace & pearls
CRAFT #70 - Fancy Floral
Creative Card Crew - Bloomin' Marvellous

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Blush" (2666K) stamped twice and coloured with Marvey brushstroke markers;
Sentiment: Penny Black "Happy Birthday" (2912D);
Papers: BasicGrey "Wisteria";
Supplies: Papermania lilac flowers; large pearl brads, pearls, lilac ribbon and lace from my stash; heart doily was an RAK from Paula;
Tools: classic hearts nestabilities; Marianne D Creatables "leaf swirl" die.

Just time before I go for a quick sneaky peek of this week's card for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge - don't forget to join us then :-)

Penny Black Saturday #120 - Indian Summer

Good morning everyone, and welcome to week 120 of the Penny Black Saturday Challenge. You all certainly rocked last week's sketch and the team really enjoyed looking at your entries - don't forget to check whether you are one of last week's lucky winners.

We have a theme for you for this week's challenge

Indian Summer
... and as always you can interpret this however you like so long as you use a Penny Black image, sentiment or stickeroo as the focus of your project.

Once again we have some fabulous prizes on offer - this week we have not one but THREE prizes for 3 randomly drawn winners.

Dick at Penny Black Stamps is offering one winner a 15% lifetime discount voucher for his online store ...

Fantastic Ribbons is offering 4 rolls of ribbon of one winner's choice


and Valentine's is offering one winner a SU paper piercing tool.


The rest of the DT have made some really stunning sample cards this week so I hope you will pay them a visit.

Here is my card .. I don't know what the term "Indian Summer" makes youi think of, but for me it conjurs up the idea of lush colours, along with a profusion of flowers, butterflies and dragonflies in the garden.

The basis of my card was really the piece of paper covered in flowers and dragonflies in lush colours, and that guided me towards which image I would use; and I also bought several new assortments of flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts this week so I couldn't help myself .. I just had to go to town with them!!


I also love this Martha Stewart "garden trellis" punch for creating a garden feel .. this time I punched it out twice, and then cut the looped edging from one piece to stick to the other punched piece so it would have looped edges on both sides (if that makes sense!!)

Main image: Penny Black "Day-dreams" (3947K) coloured with Promarkers;
Sentiment: Penny Black "Critter Party" transparent set;
Papers: Papermania "Summer Bloom";
Supplies: large curly wild rose, assorted cherry blossom and amll roses all from Wild Orchid Crafts; pearls and ribbon from my stash;
Tools: Martha Stewart "garden trellis" edge punch and small "monarch butterfly" punch.

I used the sketch (which I flipped vertically) from this week's Simon Says Challenge:

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

By The Cute & Girly (September) - Indian Summer
Stamptacular Sunday #77 - Grid
Flutterby Wednesday #123 - Open Theme - Any Winged ThingAn Oldie but a Goodie #2 - Pink & Girly
Penny Black At Allsorts (September) - Punch Away (3rd & final entry)
Charisma #38 - Anything Goes

Looking forward to seeing all your entries for the PBSC. have a great weekend.

Contemporary Christmas

Good evening everyone - just a quick post from me tonight.

At the beginning of the week I got so involved with using my new LotV Christmas stamps with my new vibrant and funky (and very unlike me) Bo Bunny paper, that I inadvertently got a ahead of myself and made a card for last week's LotV Challenge that would have been perfect for this week lol!

So for this week's LotV Challenge #66 which is non-traditional Christmas , I just had to make another one with the same paper ... but thistime I returned to James the Bear for my image.

This has to be a short post because it is a last minute entry using the sketch at this week's Create4Fun #38, which closes tonight.


I would also like to enter this card for

Papertake Weekly - Animal magic
Teddy Stampers #20 - Bear Acrostic

(B is for Bear/Bo Bunny/Bauble; E is for embossed edge punch/embellishment; A is for alcohol markers; R is for ribbon)

Pollycraft #62 - Cute & Cuddly
Delightful Challenge - Make it Sparkle

Little Red Wagon #47 - Glitter

Just Cute Bears #35 - Punch it
Spoon Full of Sugar #122 - Anything Goes

Recipe:
Main image: LotV "James the BEar with Tinsel" coloured with Copics and Promarkers, and tinsel decorated wtih lime green Stickles;
Sentiment: Craftwork Cards;
Papers: Bo Bunny;
Supplies: pearls from The Hobby house;
Tools: Martha Stewart "Embossed Snowflake" edge punch and "Arctic Snowflake" punch; Shapeabilties "Make A Flake 2".

Back tomorrow with a new Penny Black Saturday Challenge :-) ...here's a sneaky peek!

LotV Sketch

Before my holiday I ordered a few new LotV stamps, but when they arrived ... quelle horreur ... I found I didn't have enough mounting foam to mount them all - eek! So having got back this week I just had to sort that out as a matter of priority, so at last I can start inking up the little cuties that were sitting in my drawer looking forlorn.

I also paid a visit to a nearby craft shop last Friday and was very taken with the new Bo Bunny Christmas papers ... I don't normally go in much for bright colours, but these really appealed to me and I really love this colour combo.

The net result of all this is my card for this week's LotV Challenge #65


I have followed this week's sketch .... I was a bit puzzled initially as to how I could incorporate the larger circles, but then I hit on the idea of using one of the larger snowflake dies from the Shapeabilities "Make A Flake 2" set.

Recipe:
Main image: LotV "Bringing Gifts", coloured with Promarkers, and decorated with glamour dust and Star Dust stickles;
Sentiment: Craftwork Cards;
Papers: Bo Bunny;
Supplies: pearls from the hobby House;
Tools: Shapeabilities "Make a Flake 2" (large white snowflakes); Martha Stewart "Arctic Snowflake" punch; Cuttlebug "Snowflake 2" die.

Now for once I have made a card which is only for ONE challenge - not like me at all lol!

Bye for now!

We Have a Winner!

Thanks very much to everyone who entered my summer and winter candy ... I hope you enjoyed visiting my blog and will continue to visit me again :-)

Alas there can only be one winner, so I have used random.org ... sorry I don't know how to print out the results but it came out with number

55

and that is

Hanna

So if you please email me your address I'll get your goodies in the post for you during the next few days :-) If I don't hear from you by next Saturday (25th September) I will draw another winner.

hugs

Penny Black Saturday #119 - Sketch!

Good morning everyone, and welcome to another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. I was away last week on my hols in sunny Crete, but I'm back now and all caught up with things. Thanks as always to everyone who took part in last week's men/boy's card challenge - don't forget to check the challenge blog to see if you are a lucky winner.

This week we have a sketch for you by our very own Joey - the ladies on the DT really enjoyed working with this one and we hope you will too.


And this week, not only have the usual DT suspects worked their special Penny Black magic, but we are also joined this week by guest designer Kathy Racoosin, who is a designer for Penny Black Inc.

Penny Black has just launched its new Penny Black Blog, and also has a new Facebook fan page - even a new Flickr Group .... total heaven for all serious PB fans. In honour of these new launches and Kathy's guest spot, Penny Black Inc. is offering one lucky randomly drawn winner this week a stamp of the winner's choice from the 2010 Hallowe'en catalogue.

And as if that isn't enough inspiration to get you into the crafty mood, we also have a second randomly drawn prize donated by our own lovely teamie Carole - thanks hun!


40-034 Carolling Penguins


So what are you waiting for? Here's my card for this week ....

Yes, the Christmas production line is now cranking into gear lol!

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black image from "Christmas Critters" transparent set, coloured with Promarkers and Copics, edged with sponged green ink, and decorated with polar white Flowersoft and glamour dust;
Sentiment: Craftwork Cards;
Papers: Magnolia Christmas 2009 collection;
Supplies: flowers from Wild orchid Crafts (decorated with Star Dust Stickles); pearls from The Hobby House; iridescent gems by Papermania;
Tools: small and large classic circle nestabilities; Nellie Snedden shaped circle die; Martha Stewart "embossed snowflake" edge punch; Leone Em "Ash Family" leaf punch.

This card is actually quite sparkly .. here's a closeup which is a fairly lame attempt to show the sparkle on the "snow" and the flowers ...


As usual I would like to enter this card for a couple of other challenges:

Moving Along with the Times #64 - Christmas

Penny Black at Allsorts (September) - Punch Away (2nd entry)

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long #64 - Border Punches
Paper Sundaes #35 - minimum 3 types of embellishment (flowers, pearls, sparkly gems)
Stamp Man #5 - Distress
(I have sponged ink around edges of my image, torn my music sheet paper, and deckle edged all my other papers)

Totally Gorjuss #48 - Wild Thing

Have a great weekend - hope you will check out the Penny Black blog and groups, and look forward to seeing your creations!

Home from my hols .... and one stamp, two ways

Just got back in the early hours of yesterday from a week's holiday in Crete. Sitting here today looking out of the window at the teeming rain, it's already difficult to remember the fantastic weather we had most days, but here are one or two pics both to show you and to remind me of the great time we had :-)

Our hotel - the Minos Beach in Aghios Nikolaos - really was right on the beach ....

.... but also had a lovely pool area ...


Me squinting into the camera whilst standing beside the "bottomless lake" in the centre of Aghios Nikolaos ....


... and raring to go for a night out!

Anyhoo, I have the rest of this week off both to catch up with my laundry and to get a little r&r - it is the first time for several years I have had a full 2 weeks holiday from work and I'm loving it! So today I have had a rare full on craft sesh, and having sorted out my DT work I also managed to make 2 very different cards using the same darling LotV Christmas image. Yep ... now the holidays are over the Christmas rush really does start here lol!


I made my first card using an image I actually coloured about 2 weeks ago ... it's the first time I have tried a "tatty teddy" look in shades of grey and I'm rather pleased with it so I think you will be seeing some more like this.

This card is for the following challenges:

Cupcake #108 - Sketch

Crafty Cardmakers #29 - Clean & Simple
ABC - D is for Distressing
(I have distressed the edges of my image with smokey blue and lilac ink)

... and here's a closeup. The Stickle I have used actually has both blue and purple sparkles so is pretty handy for Chrimbo tinsel.


Recipe:
Main image: LotV "James the Bear with Tinsel", coloured with Promarkers and decorated wtih "blueberry ice" Stickles;
Sentiment: Peel off from my stash;
Papers: main background is white pearlised card embossed with Cuttlebug "Snowflakes" folder; blue snowflake paper by Crafty Creations (I think):
Supplies: silver gems by Papermania;
Tools: large and small circle and large classic scalloped circle nestabilities; "decorative photo corners" shapeabilities; Martha Stewart "embossed snowflake" edge punch.

My second card is a more traditional colour scheme to give a totally different kind of look ...

I made this card to fit this week's Sketch Saturday #120

and also for the following challenges:

Fussy & Fancy #19 - Christmas Colours
Totally Gorjuss #47 - Flower


Recipe:
Main image: LotV as before - coloured with Copics & Promarkers, and decorated wtih burgundy Stickles;
Sentiment: Craftwork Cards;
Papers: Papermania "Silent Night";
Supplies: flowers and gold leaves from Prima Christmas bubble; pearl brad, gold spacer and pearls from The Hobby House; ribbon from Hobbycraft; lace from my stash;
Tools: large classic scalloped square nestabilities.

That's all for now ... hope I can manage to make something else in time for tomorrow!

Summer & winter candy

This candy is now closed - thanks for entering!

The past few weeks seem to have flown by what with one thing and another, and I haven't really been a very good blogger with all that's been going on.

I totally missed celebrating my second blogoversary back at the end of June, and then I blinked and missed my hit counter passing 50,000 last week :-) Also I have got very nearly 300 followers ... so all in all I thought it's about time I have a little bit of a candy celebration.

So being as we're just at the change of the seasons, I thought I'd offer some

summer & winter candy

for one of my followers.

So what's that?? I hear you ask ....

Well, I will put together a li'l candy parcel with both summer and winter elements .

Summer
- LotV stamp "Fairies - on Tiptoe"
- Papermania "Summer Bloom" 8" x 8" paper pad

Winter
- LotV stamp "James bear - Pile of Presents"
- Papermania "Silent night" A5 paper pad.

All seasons
I will throw in a few flowers, ribbons, charms etc ....

If you fancy winning, here's what you need to do ....

1. Become a follower if you're not already
2. Post a pic of my candy on your blog to spread the word (sidebar is fine)
3. leave your name in Mr. Linky with a link to your blog.
4. Keep your fingers crossed!! :-)

I will keep this candy open until Saturday 18th September midnight BST (GMT +1) , and pick a random winner on Sunday 19th.

Good luck!