Penny Black Saturday Challenge #125 - Zig Zags or Triangles

Good morning everyone and welcome to another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. I've just about come out now from behind the sofa where I was hiding after looking at all your spooky Hallowe'en creations - absolutely fabulous as always! Don't forget to check out whether you have won last week's prize !! :-)

I'm running a little late this morning so straight to business ... this week we have a theme for you which is

Zig Zags or Triangles

Yikes! This wasn't a very easy one for me as I couldn't find much that was ziggy zaggy amongst my stash, but the other ladies on the DT have rocked this challenge as they always do, so please do go and check them out.

Here's my effort ......

I decided to use some Christmassy felt ric-rac, and also put my hand on some sparkly monotone Christmas paper which looked beautiful in the shop, but I wasn't quite sure what to do with it when I got it home (a common problem I find lol!). The end result was something quite unusual for me - a very understated monotone style Chrimbo card - the main interest comes from the texture and sparkle (there is LOTS of sparkle on this card but the dull autumn days aren't very helpful for capturing it on camera).



Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Fantasy" (3880K) heat embossed with white glitter powder and decorated with silver gems;
Sentiment: Stamps Away;
Papers: from my stash (make unknown);
Supplies: Papermania ric rac; pearls from The Hobby house; silver gems from my stash;
Tools: large classic circles and large classic scalloped circles neatabilities; Fiskars "Victorian" cutting blade.

Challenges:
Stamp With Stampavie #114 - Christmas
CRAFT #74 - Monotone
CES #10 - Chocolate Caramel
Our Creative Corner - Photo Inspiration
Totally Papercrafts #40 - Bling It on ..

Hope you will be able to join in with this week's PBSC - we have a fab prize of a 15% lifetime discount voucher from Dick at PB Stamps.

Have a great weekend and looking forward to seeing your creations.

Pastel roses and pink champagne

I needed to make a 30th birthday card for my lovely PBSC DT teamie Joey, so I thought I would use this adorable and cute LotV kitty as this image strikes me as being perfect for a special celebration. I also had my first go with my new MS "eyelet lace" PATP, which I was primarily inspired to buy after seeing Dawny P's fab efforts with one.

Unfortunately the bright sunlight has rather bleached out the photo so the colours are a bit off kilter, but I've popped the card in the postbox now :-)

Challenges:
A Pocket Full of Posies #9 - Champagne & RosesWild Orchid Crafts #8 - PastelsCreative Card Crew - Let's Punch It!Simon Says - Punch 'Em
ABC - G is for Glitter

(I used pink glitter card for matting and numbers, and Stickles on my flowers .. photo just doesn't show it up very well!!)

Incy Wincy #65 - Lace & Pearls

Recipe:

Main image: LotV "Thomas with Champagne" coloured with Promarkers and Copics;

Sentiment: Craftwork Cards;

Paper: Creative Inc.

Supplies: all flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts decorated wtih Stickles; pearls from The Hobby House; gems from my stash;

Tools: MS "Eyelet Lace" PATP punch; Cuttlebug "Hippie Chick" die cut numbers.

Joey, hope you have a lovely day!

Papertake Weekly GDT card ... and a dee-ZAR-stah!

Hello and welcome to another Papertake Weekly Challenge, where I'm lucky enough to have reached week 2 of my stay as a guest designer. Thanks to everyone who entered last week - check out the main challenge blog to see if you have won the WOJ stamp!

This week we have another fab challenge theme for you ...

Sparkly & Bright

Now I'm sure most most of you will love this one - it certainly worked for me, and got me feeling all Christmassy (which can't be a bad thing as the Big Day is now less than 2 months away!) In fact I tried to go for a whole variety of sparkly and shiny effects .... glamour dust on ted's hat and snowflakes; glitter card for my snowflakes and greeting; silver gems; blue paper with glittered effect; and white paper with shiny self-coloured snowflake pattern (not very easy to see in the photograph).

I couldn't resist using my brand new LotV "James Bear" stamp, which I was lucky enough to be able to choose following my win on the LotV challenge a couple of weeks ago. I totally adore these bears - their faces are just so lovable!

The way James is standing in a shower of snow kinda reminded me of a snow globe for some reason, so it fitted in very nicely with this week's Just Cute Bears #38 sketch by my fab bloggy friend Helen - cos that kinda reminded me of a snow globe too!!
Recipe:
Main image: Lili of the Valley "James Bear - In the Snow" coloured with Promarkers and decorated with glamour dust;
Sentiment: peel off from my stash;
Papers: from my stash;
Supplies: ribbon and silver gems from my stash;
Tools: large classic circles nestabilities; "Fancy Tags" shapeabilities; Martha Stewart "Arctic Snowflake" punch and "Embossed Snowflake" edge punch.

But before I get on to the rest of my challenge entries with this card, I must admit that I had a bit of a dee-ZAR-stah with it (as Craig Revill Horwood would say). Due to various circumstances I was a bit last minute making my card, so I had to take it to work to photograph in daylight before bringing the camera home to load my photo onto the PC ... so I was already in the last chance saloon photography-wise. However I noticed that I had somehow put a mark onto the matting circle ... I think I must have scratched my face in "thoughful work mode" and put some makeup onto my fingers - oops! But that wasn't the worst of it ... my attempts to clean it off with a soft tissue and pencil rubber just took part of the surface off the card !! :-(

Something tells me that whoever eventually receives this card will be overwhelmed by the abundance of punched snowflake shapes around teddy lol, but for now this is as good as it gets ;-)

Other challenges I would like to enter:

Lili of the Valley #70 - Winter Fun
Fussy & Fancy #22 - Winter Wonderland
Crafty Pad #94 - Christmas
Delighful - It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
Wee Memories #28 - Cute Holidays
Totally Gorjuss #53 - Sparkle
Frosted Designs - Die-Cuts
Spoon Full of Sugar #127 - Let's Get Punchy
Teddy Stampers #22 - Anything Goes
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday #90 - Anything Goes but Buttons and Bows

Hope you will be able to join in with this week's PTW challenge - don't forget to check out the other DT members' fabby creations for more inspiration.

Penny Black Saturday #124 - Spooky Nights!

Hello and welcome to another week of the Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Thanks so much to everyone who joined in last week with Debby's fabby sketch - there were some beautiful interpretations ... and don't forget to check the challenge blog to see if you are a randomly drawn prize-winner.

Before we get onto this week's challenge a little bit of news .. we have a new teamie so would like to give Jenny a great big welcome. Her cards are awesome so you are in for a real treat!

This week we are getting into the spirit of the dark autumnal nights when witches and ghosties creep abroad ... so we have a Hallowe'en theme for you.

Spooky Nights

... and we have a fantastic prize this week from Fantastic Ribbons of four rolls of ribbon of the winner's choice - as always the winner will be drawn randomly. Don't forget to be eligible for the prize you need to use a Penny Black image, large sentiment or stickeroo as the main focus of your project.

The rest of the DT have been scaring themselves (and each other!) silly with their fab spooky creations - here's mine.

I decided to take the theme "spooky nights" rather literally, and created a pearlescent white moon in a purple sky by inking a cut out mask with Brilliance ink; and as I am so short of Hallowe'en supplies I created some bats using downloaded clipart.



Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Witchy Mouse" (2253K) cloured with Promarkers and Copics;
Sentiment: Penny Black "halloween web" (3902K);
Papers: Bo Bunny;
Supplies: pearls from The Hobby House; lace and spider's web corner peeloff from my stash;
Tools: large classic circles and lacy circles nestabilities.

Naturally there are quite a lot of similarly themed challenges out there right now, so I would like to enter a few ....

Stamp With Fun #81 - Hallowe'en
Really reasonable Ribbon #10 - Hallowe'en

Crazy4Challenges #60 - Hallowe'en

Creative Inspirations #45 - Hallowe'en or Fall
Baby Bud #1 - Hallowe'en or Fall

Creative Inspirations #83 - Spooky!
CRAFT #73 - Spooky...
Spoon Full of Sugar #126 - Boo!
Ooh-La-La #65 - Scary Stuff
Dutch Dare #89 - Hallowe'en, or Purple, Black, Orange and Green
Kaboodle Doodles - Let's Go Batty!
My Time To Craft #111 - Hallowe'en - Ghosties, Ghoulies & Long Legged Beasties
Raise The Bar #41 - Orange, Black & Purple
Top Tip Tuesday #7 - Anything Goes

My "top tip" for Top Tip Tuesday is to dowload clipart or templates for simple block-coloured shapes, resize them on your computer and then just print and cut out. this is especially appropriate for silhouette shapes (such as bats), and is both time and money saving for shapes you won't use very often.

Hope you can join in with the PBSC this week, and I promise to come out from hiding behind the sofa to look at your spooky creations ;-)

Papertake Weekly Guest DT spot - woo hoo!

I was absolutely thrilled and delighted when the lovely Dawny P emailed me to ask if I would like to be Guest Designer on Papertake Weekly for the next 4 weeks. Would I?? er .... yeah ... PLEEEEASE!

And for my first challenge I had the pleasure of working with this fabby sketch from Miss Pink Piggywiggy herself - hope you can join in this week's challenge too ... don't forget to visit the challenge blog to check out the other DT members' gorgeous samples and this week's prize.

So here's my first GDT card - bit of a scramble this one as I had a bizzy weekend, so I hope it's up to scratch!! I found myself feeling autumnal again for the second time in just over a week - not like me at all as my cards are usually a festival of pinkness! However I do really like the versatility of this stamp - it is really a Christmas stamp but I can see all sorts of possibilities for using it across the seasons :-)

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Fantasy "(3880K), stamped using "Vintage sepia" Versafine onto pale stone coloured card, and decorated with small punched flowers and pearls;
Sentiment; See-D "Celebrations";
Papers: Bo Bunny "Olivia";
Supplies: large turquoise pearl brad and silver spacer from The Hobby House; brown pearls - BasicGrey "Opaline"; flowers, white pearls and silver beads from my stash;
Tools: small and large classic circles & lacy circles nestabilities; Martha Stewart "Woodland Bough" edge punch; small flower Papermania punch.

With its autumnal feel I would like to enter this card for the following challenges:

The Stamp Man #7 - Autumn

Crazy4Challenges #59 - Autumn
Stampin' for the Weekend #49 - Hallowe'en or Fall
BasicGrey #31 - Autumn / Harvest Time
(note the papers aren't BG but some of the pearls are :-) )
Penny Black at Allsorts (2nd entry) - Colours of Autumn
Corrosive #86 - Get Rid of the White

(don't stamp onto white card)

Our Creative Corner - Embellishments - the more the better

ABC - F is for Flowers

That's all for today ... look forward to seeing your interpretations of Dawny's sketch.

Penny Black Saturday #123 - Sketch!

Welcome to this week's Penny Black Saturday Challenge - the past week has just flown by! Thanks to everyone who entered last week's 2 or more images challenge - there were some fab imaginative ways of putting different images together :-)

We know that you love your sketches, so this week we have a fab one for you by Debby - it's her first ever sketch, so we're all really excited. In fact I got so excited that I have now started drawing one or two myself, but I really need a bit of advice on or two elements of putting them together lol!. So watch this space .....

Of course as usual we also have a fab prize to whet your appetite - this week it is a yummy stamp donated by our generous teamie Carole.
... and it is this gorgeous cutie "Christmas Dreams"

And another treat for all you PB lovers (nothing to do with this challenge) .... don't miss the fab

Penny Black BLOG CANDY

that is being given away by the very talented PB designer Kathy Racoosin - pop over to her fab blog before November 8th to enter for this fab selection of stamps. I can't wait to enter - I would really love these :-)

Anyhoo ... back to the challenge. . The other members of the DT have certainly rocked this week's sketch - here's my effort.


Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Holly Jolly!" (1869J), coloured with Promarkers;
Sentiment; Craftwork Cards;
Papers: Papermania "Silent Night" - I distressed all the edges (fairly cautiously!) with my brand new Tim Holtz distressing tool, and then inked with TH "antique linen" distress ink;
Supplies: raffia lace from Hobbycraft; pearls from The Hobby House (coloured with my Promarkers!); holly leaves from Prima Christmas bubble; ribbons from my stash;

Here is a close up to show my ever-so-slightly fluffy and inked edges, and my faux holly.


Of course my card fits a few challenges ...

A Spoon Full of Sugar #125 - Winter Wonderland
Papertake Weekly - Three of a Kind (3 papers and 3 holly berries)
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday # 88 - Ink & Edge

Have a great weekend and look forward to seeing your entries

Hugs,

Simply scary

I don't really "do" Hallowe'en, so I'm not exactly over-burdened with supplies when this time of year comes around. However, as a Penny Black lover and PB Saturday Challenge DT member I considered it my duty whilst at Port Sunlight last Saturday to snap up one or two of the bargain PB Hallowe'en stamps which were on half-price-or-less offer - it would have been rude not to!!

Here's the result of my first playtime - the card is relatively simple as I have very little in the way of Hallowe'en embellies and I'm not really prepared to splash out on them - I just bought a couple of pieces of Bo Bunny Hallowe'en paper and a bit of cobwebby lace.

I followed the sketch at this week's Sketch Saturday #124, which I rotated by 90 degrees to the right, and also interpreted the 3 dots at the top fairly liberally with my hanging spiders lol!

This card is also for

Fussy & Fancy Friday #21 - Hallowe'en
Everybody-Art-Challenge #112 - Hallowe'en
Crafts & Me #15 - Hallowe'en
Creative Cottage #25 - Hallowe'en

Stampin' Royalty #41 - Hallowe'en
Aly's Sunday #23 - Hallowe'en

Double Dutch #54 - Boo to You!
Cupcake # 112 - Scary Creatures
Creative Crafts - Trick or Treat
Creative Belli #102 - Pumpkins
Cute Card Thursday # 134 - What's Buggin' You!
Tuesday Taggers - More Than Two Legs
Passion For Promarkers #73 - Orange, Black, Green & Purple + option of Hallowe'en

Let's ink It Up #4 - Hallowe'en Colours
Simon Says - Recipe - 3 types of embellishment, 2 patterned papers & 1 image
(I have used lace, pearls and peel off embellies, 1 striped and 1 mottled Bo Bunny papers {it does have a subtle pattern - honest!!} )
Ooh -La-La #64 - Nothing Floral

I've managed to stop just short of 13 challenges - how scary would that have been?? Edited ... I just found 6 more open Hallowe'en challenges .. and I just couldn't resist ;-)

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Frightful Flight" coloured with Promarkers;
Sentiment: Penny Black;
Papers: Bo Bunny;
Supplies: pearls from The Hobby House; lace and peel offs from my stash;
Tools: Labels nestabilities.

Don't have nightmares and sleep tight lol!

Penny Black Saturday #122

Good morning and welcome to another Penny Black Saturday Challenge! Hope everyone is having a good weekend - all being well I will be at Port Sunlight craft show today, so by tonight I may well be feeling inspired but broke lol!

Thanks to everyone who joined in last week's don't be square challenge - it was great to see so many imaginatively shaped cards ... and don't forget to check whether you have won one of last week's prizes.

This week our challenge is for you to use

at least 2 Penny Black images

on your creation - now that means any combo of PB images, large sentiments or stickeroos as the main focus of your project - but doesn't include any small sentiment stamp you may want to use.

To help get your creative juices flowing, this week's prize is a $20 online store voucher from our regluar sponsor


I really enjoyed this challenge, though the images I ended up using were nothing like what I anticipated originally lol!! I decided to go in a slightly different direction, so instead of using 2 separate flower or animal images or doing masking (whch I'm not great at anyway), I decided to use one main image and my very pretty but neglected swirly stamp to produce a decorative edging.

Having decided to go down that route I did my best to pick out papers which I thought would compliment the swirly vibe, and then it struck me that my recently delivered WOC flat gardenias also had a similarly swirly shape to them ... so voila!
The other DT ladies have produced some fabulous efforts so hope you will pay them all a visit.

Recipe:
Main images: Penny Black "Cheesecake Wish" (1652J) coloured with Promarkers and Copics, and decorated with glamour dust on the dandelion clock; Penny Black "Scrolling Along!" (3812J) stamped around edges of circle using Brilliance pearlescent ink;
Sentiment: Penny Black "Birthday Dreams" (3849E);
Papers: Kaisercraft;
Supplies: large flat gardenia and cherry blossoms from Wild Orchid Crafts, dusted with glamour dust; lace and iridescent gems from my stash;
Tools: large classic circle and large classic scalloped circle nestabilities; Martha Stewart small "monarch butterfly" punch; Fiskars "Victorian" cutting blade.
Here is a closeup to try to capture the glamour dust ... my glue pen was running dry when I ran it over the WOC flowers so unfortunately a lot of the sparkle fell off!!

As always I would like to enter this card for a few challenges:

Firstly, I would like to both enter and give a toot to Papertake Weekly who are having a third birthday blog hop. Not only have they got fab inspirational samples and a choice of making a card for any previous challenge, but also a jaw-dropping selection of prizes - well done ladies! I believe this card fits either Animal Magic or Blooming Gorgeous (floral embellishments)

Oldie but a Goodie #3 - All Creatures Great & Small
Spoon Full of Sugar #124 - Sparkle & Shine
Incy Wincy #62 - Sparkly Glitter
Creative Inspirations #81 - Birthday
Crazy4Challenges #58 - BirthdayI ♥ ProMarkers #35 - Think Pink!
Colour Create #55 - Pink, Green & Cream
(with optional extra of frosted)
Stamp Something - Something Punchy
Flutterby Wednesday #125 - Open theme with fairy, angel or butterfly
Pollycraft #64 - Anything Goes
Crafty Creations #88 - sketch (below) -
I have rotated it 180 degrees


I guess you could say I have tried to make the most out of my time, having only had opportunity to make one card this week lol!

Look forward to seeing all your multi-image creations ... I'll be back hopefully with some new stash to inspire me!

Fall into autumn

I needed to make a birthday card for a friend; and although I don't normally tend to use autumnal colours in my crafting, there are so many autumn-themed challenges around this week that I thought I would give it a go.

Having broken out one of my Penny Black brushstroke stamps the other day I think it had put me in the mood, as I decided to use another of my neglected brushstroke stamps but watercolour it in autumn shades. I don't actually have all that many suitable shades of Marvey watercolour markers; but I'm quite pleased with the effect now it is done.

I decided to get much of my autumnal effect by sponging my mat with various colours of Versamagic chalk ink from the "autumn" Colorbox Q set, gradually getting darker towards the edges. I deliberately kept the background fairly simple as I didn't want the watercolouring and sponged inks to be overwhelmed.
Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Aspire" coloured with Marvey watercolour markers, and background sponged with Colorbox Q chalk inks;
Sentiment: Stamps Away;
Papers; My Mind's Eye "Wild Asparagus";
Supplies: Flowers by FloraDoodle; pearls from The Hobby House; lace and large pearl brad from stash;
Tools: curved rectangle mega nestabilities; Marianne D Creatables "Flower swirl" die.
I made this card to fit quite a few challenges:

Simon Says - It's Autumn! - photo inspiration (above)

Crafty Calendar (October) - Autumn Birthdays
Tuesday Taggers - Here Comes Autumn
Penny Black at Allsorts - Colours of Autumn
Sentimental Sundays #23 - Autumn
Stampin' for the Weekend #48 - Autumn Inspiration
Our Creative Corner - Beautiful Fall Colours (below)

Catch the Bug - Anything Goes
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - Anything Goes

Well the weather has definitely turned autumnal with all the wind and rain ... I guess it will be coats and umbrellas at the ready from now on!

Cute kitty and multi-congratulations

One of my closest friends has just recently finished some important post-graduate exams for which she had been working hard all year, and she told me yesterday that she had passed them all - yippee! So I decided to make her a card to congratulate her , and this cute LotV kitty came straight to mind. I also decided to attempt a multiple challenge card with it ... so here we go :-) I followed the sketch for this week's Papertake Weekly, as it seemed perfect for the image and colour scheme I had in mind. I also made this card for Creative Craft - What a Glamour Puss BasicGrey #30 - Sparkle! (kitty and mousey are drinking sparkling champagne, and I have glamour dusted the bubbles, stickled the flowers, and added pink gems) Creative Cottage #24 - Bling it On!

One Stop Craft Challenge #100 - Congratulations Stamp Something - Something to Celebrate (entry #2) Wild Orchid Challenge #6 - Ribbons & Bows Craft Garden (October) - Pink Ribbon, Lace or Yarn

I love Promarkers #34 - Pearls & Swirls (my paper is swirly, and I have added swirl die cuts to the sides of the flowers instead of leaves) Paper Sundaes #38 - Something From Your Stash (that would be the ribbon) Stamptacular Sunday #79 - Layer it on (at least 5 layers ) ... I reckon at its thickest point mine has got ten ... base card/pink card/paper/raffia lace/ribbon/pink card/paper/pink card mat /pink paper/image card. Sew Many Challenges - Anything Goes

Incy Wincy #61 - Anything Goes

... and here's a closeup of my WOC flowers stickled to within an inch of their lives lol!

Recipe: Main image: LotV "Thomas - Champagne", coloured with Promarkers & decorated with glamour dust; Sentiment: die cut using Cuttlebug cut'n'emboss set "Everyday greetings"; Paper: BasicGrey "Two Scoops"; Supplies: flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts; raffia lace from Hobbycraft; pearls from The Hobby House; ribbons & gems from my stash; Tools: Cuttlebug cut'n'emboss set "Everyday greetings"; Marianne D Creatables "Ribbon flower" set used for leaf swirls.

Just off now for another little crafty sesh .. hope everyone is having a good weekend. >

Penny Black Saturday #121 - Don't be Square!

Woo hoo! The weekend is here again, and that can only mean one thing ... it's time for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Thanks so much for all your beautiful entries for last week's "Indian Summer" challenge - don't forget to check the main challenge blog to see if you have won one of our 3 fabby prizes.

This week we have a theme for you .. and it's

Don't Be Square!

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

The rest of the DT have created some stunning and original shaped cards ... this was actually a bit of a challenge for me as I don't really do unusual shaped card so I just got out my trusty circle nesties and hoped for the best lol!


I found this project quite interesting, as the card is fairly teeny tiny so there wasn't a lot of space to work with. It was rather fun though finding one of my smallest images (this was one of my very early PB stamps and I still think it is really sweet!) , paper with a tiny pattern and dinky embellishments - hope you like it :-)

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "A Tender Hug" (3614F) coloured wtih Promarkers and decorated with teeny gems;
Sentiment: Craftwork Cards;
Paper: Papermania "Rose Garden";
Supplies: flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts; papermania gems; lace from my stash;
Tools: large and small classic circles and large classic scalloped circle nestabilities; Leone Em "Ash Family" leaf punch; Papermania small butterfly punch.

As always I would like to enter this for one or two other challenges:

Stamp Something - Something to Celebrate
Flutterby Wednesday's #124 - Sparkle & Shimmer
Sentimental Sundays #22 - Let's See Some Dimension
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday - Non-standard shape card

This week there are 2 fab prizes on offer from our regular sponsor Penny Black.

Don't forget to pop over to the main challenge blog for full details, and hope you'll join in !

Have a great weekend.