Christmas Candy - We have a winner!

Good afternoon all, and thanks so much to everyone who took the time to enter for my Christmas candy. I have spent the last half hour fiddling around with random.org to pick a winner .... I can do that easily enough, but alas I have to say that displaying the selection widget and results online has proven to be too challenging for me, even after googling how to do it as best I can (any advice welcome for future occasions!)

So .... unfortunately you will just have to believe me when I say I used random.org and have generated the following number ....

29

and that's you Tracy!

Congratulations!

Please email me hun to claim your prize within seven days and I will get it in the post to you; otherwise I will draw another winner.

Thanks again for all your entries.

Hugs

Penny Black Saturday #175 - Nat's sketch

Good morning, and welcome to another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Thanks as always to everyone who entered last week - how adorable were your spooky cards??

We know you all love sketches, so this week we have got a brilliant one from our teamie Nat.

Plenty of scope for you to make some fabulous creations with this one - can't wait to see what you create!

This week's prize for one randomly drawn winner is 4 rolls of ribbon of the winner's choice from Fantastic Ribbons - woo hoo!

Don't forget to be eligible for this yummy prize you need to submit a new piece of work with a Penny Black image, large sentiment or stickeroo as its main focus.

All the rest of the DT have really rocked this sketch - this is what I did.

Stamps: Penny  Black "Cheesecake Wish" (1652J); Whimsy ticket from "Friendship sentiment tickets" set; sentiment from Penny Black "Party Critters" transparent set;

Media: Copics (fur); Promarkers (flower); stickles on image and flowers;

Papers: ??

Supplies: flowers from Hobbycraft (large rose); Wild Orchid Crafts (cherry blossoms); Sweet Lilac (the rest); lace from The Ribbon  Box; pearls from The Hobby House;

Tools: small, large and lacy circles nestabilities; Marianne D creatables dies LR0130 "Designer Doily" and LR0150 "branch forest"; cuttlebug embossing folder "birds and swirls" (on doily).

Challenges:

Marianne's Design Divas - Dying to Die Cut

Totally Papercrafts #90 - Glitter It!

Simon Says - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Scrapbook Sisters #58 - Anything Goes

Charisma #43 - Anything Goes

Have a great weekend, and hope you can join us this week.

WRS Candy Showcase - and a reminder

I'm currently offering some Christmas candy until midnight Saturday (details of how to enter are here) ... so I thought I would make a card using my version of the adorable Wild Rose Studio Pickle stamp (my candy winner will of course get brand new one!)

I actually coloured a few images from this stamp - he suits both contemporary and traditional colour schemes. Here he is in a vibrant funky colour scheme of lilac and green (made specially for the Ribbon Girl colour challenge !! :-)  ).

Stamps: Wild Rose Studio "Pickle with Sledge"; LotV Christmas Sentiment Circles;

Medium: Promarkers and Flexmarkers; Pickle's hat decorated with Polar White flowersoft mixed with glamour dust;

Papers: Bo Bunny;

Supplies: sparkly gems from The Hobby House; ribbon from my stash;

Tools: Memory Box "Snowflake Border" die from Dies To Die For.

Challenges:

The Ribbon Girl - Jingle All The Way To Christmas!

The Ribbon Girl #12 - Lilac and Green

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - Sparkly!

Ooh-La-La #91 - Let It Snow!

Secret Crafter #157 - Wrap Up Warm

Christmas Card Challenge #47 - Recipe: 2 DP's 1 ribbon and a bird

Simon Says - Anything Goes
(with optional use of Bo Bunny)

Here's a close up of my fabulous new Memory Box die - when I bought it last week I also received some little die cuts of others in the range (no doubt to tempt me to further purchases lol!) and they really are amazingly intricate. This pic also tries to capture some of the sparkle of the glitter card ... the whole card is very sparkly but alas the poor light hasn't shown that up at all well.

And talking of candy .... Charmed Cards and Crafts is giving away this absolutely AMAZING mega candy here .... you don't want to miss this!!

They are asking people to follw their blog and link back to one of your own projects where you have coloured an image - well this card shows an image of mine coloured using my latest pens - I'm quite pleased with the blending :-)

That's all for today - hope you will hop over to my candy post and enter. Thanks for visiting. 

A little Christmas Candy

This candy is now closed & a winner has been drawn - thanks to everyone who took the time to enter.

About a month ago I offered a little candy as part of the Oldie But A Goodie blog hop. I wasn't able to select my winner immediately at the end of the blog hop as I was on holiday, but did so in my next OBAG post when I got back.   Unfortunately the prize wasn't claimed ... and I have now left the OBAG DT due to some upcoming family commitments.

So ... I have decided to offer this candy again - it consists of

1 * Wild Rose Studio stamp - Pickle with Sledge

1 * Dovecraft Christmas paper pack

2 * packs of Christmas poinsettas by Sweet Lilac

The rules are quite simple ....

1. Mention my candy on your blog (sidebar is fine) with a link back to this post

2. leave your name in Mr Linky

3. leave a comment and/or become a follower if you like what you see on my blog (but this isn't necessary to be entered in the draw)

I will leave this candy open for 1 week, until midnight GMT on Saturday 29th October.  I will draw a random winner on Sunday 30th October.

Good luck!

Seeing Stars With LotV

After I had finished my DT work on Thursday night, I managed to make a Christmas card with this adorable image that I had coloured earlier - it is one of the two LotV stamps I bought at Port Sunlight

 :-) 

It struck me as being particularly appropriate for this week's Passion For Promarkers challenge theme of Stars, so I piled on the star patterned paper, teeny star gems and these gorgoues little sparkly wooden embellishments I found when I was out shopping in John Lewis (they also had li'l Christmas trees in store, and when i have just been onto their website there are all sorts of other dinky Christmas embellishments on there as well!!)

Stamps: Lili of the Valley "Little Trumpet";

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers; angel wings and stars dusted with glamour dust;

Papers: Forever Friends Christmas; white pearlescent card embossed with Cuttlebug "Christmas stars" folder;

Supplies: star embellishments from John Lewis; "Joy" charm from The Hobby  House; Papermania teeny star gems; ribbon from my stash.

Challenges:

I used the gorgeous sketch from this fortnight's A Gem of a Challenge #32 (rotated 90 degrees)

Lili of the Valley #117 - Bingo! (Gems / Charms / Emboss)

Charisma #42 - Embossing

Simon Says - Inspired by Rhymes / Fairy Tales

 ("Twinkle Twinkle Little Star")

Passion For Promarkers #122 - Stars

I ♥ ProMarkers #88 - Ain't It Cute!

Top Tip Tuesday #56 - Layer It

ABC Christmas - U is For Unused Stash

(brand new stamp and neglected starry paper)

Totally Gorjuss #103 - Pastel Christmas

Our Creative Corner - Fabulous Faces

Flutterby Wednesday #176 - Open Challenge

 (with fairy, angel or  butterfly)

I really do need to get down to some more serious Christmas card making ... if I could make about 40 more like this I'd be well on the way lol!

Penny Black Saturday #174 - Too Cute To Spook!

Woo hoo! ( or should I say woooooooh!!) It's Saturday, and that means that it's time for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge! Thanks as always to everyone who joined in last week's challenge - adorable entries as always!

It's coming up to that time of year when ghosts and ghoulies are out and about, so we thought we should have a theme to make you hide behind the sofa ... but then we decided to be kind so this week's theme is

Too Cute To Spook!

So it's time to bring out all those cute Hallowe'en stamps and take them over to the dark side lol!

This week's prize is this totally adorable and apt stamp - "Frightful Flight"

Aww!

Don't forget to be eligible for this bundle of cuteness you should submit a new project that features a Penny Black image, large sentiment or stckeroo as its main focus.

The other DT ladies have produced the most adorable selection of not-at-all-scary Hallowe'en cards ... here's mine.

I do struggle a bit with Hallowe'en cards as I don't have a great many supplies (3 stamps to be exact, and no specialist dies or punches) ... so I tend to keep them simple. But as luck would have it, earlier in the year I spotted this scrumptious paper in a nearby craft shop and just knew it would be perfect for a Hallowe'en card - I was well chuffed!! :-) The paper is double sided, so I used the plain side as my outer square and background stamped it with a rather large PB spider's web!  I don't have any Hallowe'en sentiments, but luckily I had this one stamped out from last year, sent to me by the lovely Domi!

Stamps: Penny Black "Witchy Mouse" (2253K), "halloween web" (3902K), "Trick or Treat.." (1906E);

Media: Copics (fur), Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Papers: The Robin's Nest;

Supplies: pearls from The Hobby House; sparkly lace, ribbon and spider's web peel offs from my stash.

Challenges

Sparkles #22 - Hallowe'en

Dream Valley #18 - Hallowe'en

Stamp With Stampavie #154 - Hallowe'en

Allsorts #126 - Hallowe'en

Paper Sundaes #91 - Hallowe'en or Fall

Craft your Days Away #31 - Hallowe'en Colours

PaperPlay #42 - Use Black

Papertake Weekly - Spooky Hues

Hooked on Craft #10 - Something Spooky!

Stampin' For The Weekend #19 - Spooky!

Creative Card Crew - Spooky Fun

Crafty Cardmakers #54 - Cute With A Dark Twist

ABC - B is for Boo

The more eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that I have managed to find 13 challenges for my card to enter - now that really is spooky! Let's hope it's lucky for some lol!

Hope you can join us this week - have a great weekend!

Sorry to leave :-(

After giving it much thought over the past couple of weeks, I am very sad to report that I have decided to step down from the DT on An Oldie But A Goodie challenge ... I have really enjoyed working with all the lovely ladies on the team and I think it is a brilliant challenge concept; but I have a bit of uncertainty coming up in the next few weeks due to close family health issues, and I'm not sure how much impact that might have on my availability for crafting. That being the case I have decided to scale back my commitments for the time being, so I can concentrate during any craft time I do have available on getting any necessary birthday and Chrimbo cards done, using in quite a few cases (whisper it quietly!!) a few stamps that are less than six months old lol!

I will still be on the DT for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge as that was my first love .... but I will really miss the OBAG girls and wish them all the best with the challenge and their own crafty projects {{{group hug }}}.

That's all for now.
Hugs
Pauline x

Penny Black Saturday #173 - On The Move

Good morning and welcome to another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Thanks to everyone who rocked our age challenge last week - brilliant entries as always, and don't forget to check the main challenge blog to see if you are a winner.

This week's challenge is

On The Move

Perhaps you will want to show an image that includes transport (cute critter with cars, bicylcles etc!), or perhaps a card with a moving part - or even a New Home card. You can interpret the theme however you want, so long as you include a Penny Black image, large sentiment or stickeroo as the main focus of your new project.

This week's prize is an adorable PB stamp from our lovely former teamie Carole, called "Roses on the Run".

The rest of the team have really got moving this week ....do go check out their lovely projects.  I felt as if I w as running along behind as I struggled a bit to work out what I would do (I don't have any cute PB critters in cars or riding bicycles!!). Eventually however I settled on a New Home card, and chose this sweet image of a hedgie peeping out of a plant pot which he has quite clearly moved into lol!  As it so happens a lady I'm friendly with in work moved house last week, so I was able to find a new & good  home for the card straight away :-). It now turns out that our teamie Beth is also getting the key of her new house today - that's either a spooky coincidence or synchronicity lol!

Here's the result of my efforts.

Stamps: Penny Black hedgies from transparent set "hugs"; LotV sentiment circle;

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Papers: Prima "Botanical" (includes the sweet little postcard!);

Supplies: flowers by Sweet Lilac and Wild Orchid Crafts; pearls by Wild Orchid Crafts; key charm from Quixotic Paperie; lace and ribbon from my stash;

As you can see, having remembered I had these gorgeous key charms to give Nat the "key of the door" last week, I got on a bit of a roll and decided to give the recipient of this one the key of the new door!!

Challenges

The Paper Shelter #35 - Animals

The Stamp Man - Circle it!

Totally Gorjuss #102 - Bingo! (Lace / Ribbon / Bow)
One Stitch At A Time #83 - Anything Goes

Hope you can join us this week - have a great weekend!

Fall Into Autumn With Fizzy Moon

I don't generally use autumnal colours much in my crafting, but as there are so many autumn-themed challenges around right now I thought I'd better give it a go. It also gave me the opportunity to use one of the dleightful new Fizzy Moon stamps I bought at Port Sunlight from Jill at The Hobby House, as the large flowers are suitable for any colour scheme - not to mention a ticket stamp and some paper I bought from Jill too :-)

Stamps: Fizzy Moon "With Love"; Whimsy blank ticket stamp; See-D "Celebrations" birthday greeting;

Media: Promarkers, Copics, and TH distress inks in Dried Marigold and Vintage Photo;

Papers: unknown (floral); BasicGrey (plain) and Prima "Botanicals" (script);

Supplies: lace gifted from Dawny P; flowers from Sweet Lilac and Wild Orchid Crafts; pearls from The Hobby House;

Tools: Fleur-de-lys square nestabilities; Tim Holtz distressing tool on paper edges.

Challenges:

I ♥ ProMarkers #87 - Autumn Colours

Stampin' For The Weekend #18 - Colours of Autumn

Deep Ocean #10 - Fall Colours

Crafts & Me #56 - Include Orange
Fussy & Fancy - Hallowe'en or Fall

Bunny Zoe's Crafts #17 - Lace It Up

Stamptacular #133 - So Distressing

Crafty Pad #142 - Vintage

Allsorts #124 - Bear With Us

Totally Papercrafts #87 - Animals

Papertake Weekly - Get In Shape (square, rectangle, ticket)

Sketch Saturday #176 - sketch

I noticed after I had done all my colouring etc. that somehow some of my distres ink had splodged onto the corner of my backing paper ... and as it was a birthday gift it was the only piece I  had! Oopsie!! Since I took the pic I have improvised with a couple of gold corner peel offs in the bottom left and top right-hand corners ;-)

Sunlight and Snow

I had a happy afternoon on Saturday wandering around the stalls at the Happy Stampers North West craft fair at Port Sunlight.

By far my biggest splurge was with Jill on the Hobby House stall where I worked on a “needs and wants” basis – ie. I visited early to buy the things I “need” such as Neenah card and a whole variety of pearls, gems and charms ... and then I called back later for my “wants” in the form of some Whimsy ticket stamps, a couple of sweet Fizzy Moon stamps and two yummy paper pads!

I also managed to call by the Lili of the Valley stall where I had a nice little chat with the lovely Dawny P, and I was really good as I managed to come away from there with only two stamps in my basket (how did that happen lol??!!).

Finally I said hello to the lovely Jayne from Stamposaurus, who had given me very quick and personalised service when I NEEDED a new set of newly released Flexmarkers to arrive quickly before my holiday .. she had an excellent show offer on including a couple of free Ellie stamps, and when I mentioned  I must have been her first phone order on the day of release she very kiudly let me have one free Ellie stamp - fab!

However I couldn’t wait to start inking my LotV purchases (even though I realised when I got home that I was out of EZMount and had never thought to buy any at the fair – doh!).

Here’s the resulting card I made for this week’s LotV challenge – very pleased as this stamp is actually not too intricate and therefore reasonably quick to colour :-). I deliberately chose the papers to fit with the theme at Paper Sundaes of “favourite colour combo”. Mine is pink and green – admittedly I would normally use more pastel shades, but the concept is still there!

Stamps: LotV "Shine A Light" and "Christmas Sentiment Circles";

Media: Promarkers, Flexmarkers, glamour dust and a li’l bit of polar white Flowersoft forming snow on the ground;

Papers: Wild Rose Studio “Milton’s Christmas”;

Supplies: sparkly gems and large gem brad from The Hobby House; pearls and ribbon from my stash;

Tools: Martha Stewart “eyelet lace” punch; Marianne D “miniature poinsettas”.

Challenges:

Lili of the Valley #115 – Let It Snow

Wild Rose Studio – Festive Frolics (+ blog hop!)

Paper Sundaes #90 – Favourite Colour Combo (Pink & Green)

Jingle Belles – I’m Dreaming of a Pink Christmas

Marianne’s Design Divas #2 – Bloom & Grow (2nd entry)

Top Tip Tuesday #55 – Use DP’s & Make Your Own Flowers

Simon Says – Sparkle & Bling (3rd entry)

Pretty Little Ribbon (October) – Anything Goes

By The Cute & Girly (October) – Anything Goes (+ blog hop!)

Sketch & Stash #72

Well that's me done for today - off to catch up with some ironing now, but hope to colour some images later :-)

Penny Black Saturday #172 - Age ... is just a number

Woo hoo .. it's Saturday and so it's time for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Thanks very much for all last week's fabby entries - don't forget to check out the main challenge blog to see if you are a winner.

This week we are celebrating, as Thursday was our lovely teamie Nat's 21st birthday ... happy birthday hun!!

So in honour of this momentous occasion this week's challenge theme is

Age ... is just a number

Yes we would like to see any birthday cards with a number on them. It doesn't have to be 21, though many of us in the team took the opportunity to make Nat a card :-)

This week we have another fab prize from one of our regular sponsors - 1-2-3 Stitch has donated a $20 gift voucher for their online store.

Don't forget, to be eligible for the prize you need to submit a new piece of work which features a Penny Black image, large sentiment or stickeroo as its main focus.

All my fellow teamies have really done themselves proud this week - here is my 21st birthday card which I made for Nat.... I masked the PB stamp as she was originally holding a handbag, so that she could hold the "key of the door" instead!

Stamps: Penny Black "light the night" (3687K); LotV calendar circle;

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers; deocration with glamour dust;

Papers: Bo Bunny;

Supplies: flowers by Wild Orchid Crafts and Sweet Lilac; pearls from The Hobby House; lace from Wild Orchid Crafts; heart gems by Papermania; ribbon and charm from my stash.

Challenges:

Simon Says - Sparkle & Bling (2nd entry)

Cooking It Up With Katie #78 - Fabulous, Fun and another F

(feminine, funky, fashionable, flowers!)

Birthday Sundaes #29 - Ribbon

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Look forward to seeing your creations this week!

If you're reading this Saturday morning, I hope I'm trawling the crafty goodies at Port Sunlight craft fair as we speak ... back soon with news of my crafty purchases and hopefully some playtime with whatever I buy!

Deck the Halls with Sparkle and Bling

Over the past week or so since I came back from my hols, I have started to become uncomfortably aware that October is upon us already, and I have made very little progress with my Christmas card makes. It's normally around now that I start thinking about how I can devise an aesthetically pleasing but easy to create card that is relative quick to make in bulk (bearing in mind that my average time to make a card is 2.5 - 3 hours!) ... AND .... if it is reasonably flat so that I can post it with a normal stamp ... result!!

This daunting annual task is becoming somewhat easier with the advent of so many yummy cutting dies, especially from Marianne D. Last year I was very pleased with a quick make I made in batch using one of the Christmas tree dies (see here) ... and this year I have been tempted by the new bauble dies.Originally I just bought the baubles, but found when it came to putting them on a card I was a bit flummoxed as to how best to "anchor" them. I have now resolved this dilemma by investing in a "fir branch" die, and here's the simple result of my playtime.

I felt that the fir branch really benefitted from being cut out in glitter card to give it a bit of texture and depth; and I created a frame by drawing round a deckle-edged nestie using a sparkly pen. The picture isn't the best, but as I said at the beginning, alas October is upon us!

Image: sentiment by Pink Gem Designs;

Supplies: gems from my stash;

Tools: Marianne D Creatables LR0184 (Baubles) and LR0181 (Fir Branch).

Challenges:

Simon Says - Sparkle & Bling

Anything Goes #51 - Dies / Punches

Fab 'n' Funky #93 - Die Cuts / Punches

Sparkles Christmas #9 - Christmas Songs ("Deck the Halls")

Bling It On (October) - No Patterned Papers

Thanks for looking :-)

Oldie But A Goodie - Wings

Good morning, and welcome to another Oldie But A Goodie Challenge.

I didn't take part in the last challenge due to holidays ... so before I go any further I need to announce the winner of my blog candy from the OBAG blog hop 4 weeks ago .... and that is

Pamela

Congratulations!! If you could please email me within 2 weeks (before the next OBAG challenge) I will get your prize out to you  :-)

So without further ado, onto this fortnight's challenge, which has been chosen by Sara and is

Wings

... and Sara has also donated this yummy set of clear stamps + ribbons as a prize for one lucky winner!

Don't forget, to be eligible for the prize you should create a new piece of work which uses a stamped image (no digis please!) that's at least 6 months old - that's why we're called An Oldie But A Goodie ;-)

The rest of the DT have created some fabulous winged creations if you would like to check them out .. here is mine for this fortnight.

Recipe:

Main image: LotV "Dandelion Clock" coloured with Promarkers and Flexmarkers, and decorated with glamour dust;

Sentiments: Penny Black transparent set "Party Critters";

Papers: ?? "Pampered Pets";

Supplies: all flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts apart from teeny blossoms from Sweet Lilac; buttons from my stash;

Tools: Marianne D Creatables dies LR0130 (designer doily) and LR0150 (branch forest).

Challenges:

Lili of the Valley #114 - Button It!

LotV Ideas to Inspire : World Cardmaking Day Candy - Fave LotV (and it's a new one too!)

Marianne Design Divas #2 - Bloom & Grow

Crafter's Companion #17 - Pink and Green

Sparkles #21 - Something That Sparkles

Paper Sundaes #89 - Lots of Layers

ABC - Anything Goes

Simon Says - Anything Goes

Crafty Cardmakers #53 - Anything Goes

Bunny Zoe's Challenge #16 - Sketch

Look forward to seeing all your creations this fortnight.

Hugs