Penny Black Saturday #179 - Christmas with Red & Embossing

Good morning all and welcome to another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Thanks as always to everyone who entered last week's challenge - those of you who are keeping up with our month of Christmas themed challenges should be getting to grips with your Chrimbo makes by now lol!

Before we get on to this week's challenge I need to offer a mahoosive congratulations to my teamies Helen and Nat, who have both won prizes in Cardmaking and Papercraft's Cardmaker of the Year 2011 .... full details here. In Helen's case her prize was in the Penny Black category - woo hoo!!

This week we are continuing with week 4 of our  Christmas themed challenges, and would like to see

Christmas + Red + Embossing

This week's gorgeous prize for a randomly drawn winner is from Fantastic Ribbons,

and is 4 ribbon reels of the winner's choice - lovely!

There are loads of fab sample cards from the rest of the DT on the main challenge blog - here is my effort.

Stamps: Penny Black "Royal Mail" (3766J); sentiment unknown (I've lost the packet!!);

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers; polar white flowersoft with glamour dust on the snowy areas;

Papers: Dovecraft

Supplies: flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts; pearls from The Hobby House; ribbon from my stash;

Tools: Crafts Too embossing folder "snowflakes".

Challenges:

Crafty Pad #148 - Festive Cheer (Red + green + gold or silver)

Kaboodle #94 - Baby It's Cold Outside

Fun With Shapes and More #97 - Cold As Ice

Deep Ocean #13 - C is for ...
(Christmas, cute, circles)
Pile It On #47 - Anything with a "P"
(Postbox, papers, pearls)
Charisma #46 - Snowflakes

Crazy 4 Challenges #115 - Snow
Totally Gorjuss #108 - Sparkle
Papertake Weekly - Christmas Crackers

The Ribbon Girl - Jingle All The Way To Christmas

Scrapbook Sisters #61 - Christmas Time

Totally Papercrafts #94 - Christmas

Forever Friends (fortnight) - Christmas Is Coming

Penny Black & More at Allsorts - All Creatures Great & Small (3rd and final entry)

Creative Craft - Free For All

Hope you can join in with us this week - have a great weekend whether you're crafting or braving the Christmas shopping crowds :-)

A Cutesy Day At The Zoo

Good morning everyone - here's another card I made during my Saturday craftathon. I really do think this Wild Rose Studio stamp is totally adorable :-) Unfortunately the light wasn't great when I was taking the pic so it is a little dark ... but I guess that's winter for you!

I have been entering the Penny Black At Allsorts monthly challenges since they started, and have spotted that they have now opened up the challenges to other makes of stamps ... so I am entering this card for the November challenge. Feels really weird entering a card that doesn't have a Penny Black stamp on it ... but as they allow three entries per challenge I'm sure I'll be back with a PB card before the month is over !! ;-)

Stamps: Wild Rose Studio "Pickle With Sledge";

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Papers: Dovecraft "Jolly Happy Christmas";

Supplies: gems from The Hobby house; sentiment by Craftwork Cards; ribbon from my stash;

Tools: Cuttlebug "ice crystal" cut 'n' emboss set; Crafts Too "Snowflakes" embossing folder.

Challenges:
Penny Black & More at Allsorts (November) - All Creatures Great & Small

Passion For Promarkers #124 - A Day At The Zoo

Fun With Shapes & More #95 - Animalistic Christmas
CES #60 - Song Or Film
("March of the Penguins")
Charisma #44 - Cutesy!

Card Makin' Mamas #32 - Cut It Out (die cuts)
Cuttlebug Spot - Anything Goes

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes + bling (3rd entry)

Thanks for looking!

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.

Happy Anniversary Darling!

This week it is my wedding anniversary .... 27 years - blimey where did the time go to?? We will be out and about on the day, so I think I'm safe in posting this card I made for my darling husband a couple of days in advance as he never looks on here!!

I struggled a bit with this as I couldn't think at first what image to use ... all the ones I have with cute couples on he has seen already, and there's only so many new stamps you can buy for one use only (maybe I'm starting to get a bit sensible at last !!??!!) Anyhow, I did have this gorgeous romantic elephant image by LotV which I bought back in May and have never inked up yet (blush!!) , so I thought that would be suitable so long as the layout and colours aren't too girly. Here's the result.

Recipe:

Main image: LotV "Blowing Bubbles" coloured with Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Sentiments: LotV sentiment circles  on front (I masked "your" to make "our"); Penny Black transparent set "Every Which Way" (inside);

Papers: Craft Creations (gingham) and Papermania "Henbury Lane" (glittered dots);

Supplies: heart buttons from my stash;

Tools: large, small, scalloped and lacy circle nestabilities; Marianne D Creatables heart dies; Martha Stewart "valentine lace heart" edge punch.

I also decorated the inside of this card to make it a teeny bit more special ...

Challenges:

Ooh-La-La #88 - Anniversary

Totally Papercrafts #83 - Cute With Buttons

Paper Sundaes #86 - Finishing Touches

Charisma #36 - Inspired By A Song

("I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles")

That's all for today .. hope everyone is having a good week :-)

Penny Black Saturday #167 - Make A Scene

Hi everyone, and welcome to the latest Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Loved all your interpretations of Nat's sketch last week - don't forget to check the main challenge blog to see if you've won the yummy prize from Fantastic Ribbons.

Onto this week's challenge, and this time we would like you to

Make A Scene

No ... we don't want you to fall on the floor and throw a diva-ish fit as per Kerry on Celebrity Big Brother lol! What we have in mind is more a charming scene that incorporates your PB's in a delightful manner !! :-)  Take a peek at the wonderful creations by my fellow teamies and you will soon get the idea.

This week we have fantastic prizes (you can always rely on us for that!) for 2 randomly drawn winners:

First - from Penny Black

This delightful stamp - 3905K Christmas Fairy

and second ... from The Ribbon Girl

this yummy Green Mini Ribbon Kit.

Don't forget to check the main blog for the rules if you want to be eligible for either of these delish prizes!

This was a bit of an adventure for me as it isn't something I normally do,  but here's the result of my efforts.

Recipe:

Main image: Penny Black "Christmas Critters" transparent set, coloured with Promarkers and dusted with glamour dust;

Sentiment; Pink Gem Designs;

Paper: Craft Creations (blue snowy sky);

Tools: white pearlised card embossed with Cuttlebug "Snowflakes" folder (then ripped and edged with glamour dust); Marianne D Creatables trees (in 2 slightly different card shades to give a bit of dimension); Cuttlebug "snowflakes 2" die.

Here's a quick closeup to show some of the glamour dust  on the cute hats!

Challenges:

Penny Black at Allsorts (September) - Get Ahead for Christmas

Crafter's Companion #16 - Christmas Wishes

Rainbow Lady #168 - Emboss It

Fab 'n' Funky #88 - Go Mad With Embossing

Charisma #35 - Anything Goes

Simon Says STAMP-tember Blog Hop - Anything Goes

Passion for Promarkers #115 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

I ♥ ProMarkers #81 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Hope you can join us this week!

I Love Pickle!

No, this isn't an exhortation to "bring out the Branston's", but a declaration of adoration for this cute little guy who features on Wild Rose Studio's latest release of stamps - isn't he the cutest ever?? As soon as I saw these stamps I had to order two ... I'm currently waiting for the lovely ladies at The Glitterpot to send me the second one as some naughty person must have popped the last one into their basket at the same time as me, but I'm sure it will soon be here. Meanwhile I just HAD to make a card with this adorable stamp "Pickle With Presents".

This stamp is really quite big, so I decided to keep the whole thing simple and make a card for this week's Less Is More challenge - Things That Move. I'm sure you'll agree that Pickle is putting his best foot forward dragging along that sleigh, even though the vehicle would also move of its own accord if it was given just the teeniest push downhill in the snow !  I know that the general LIM style is arty rather than cute but I thought this one ticks the boxes, so I couldn't resist!

I'm very pleased with this stamp as it is very simple to colour, which I'm sure will be a godsend when it gets nearer to Christmas!!

Recipe:

Main image: Wild Rose Studio "Pickle With Presents", coloured with Promarkers and dusted with glamour dust on his hat :-);

Sentiment: Pink Gem Designs;

Supplies: dotty ribbon from a box of Christmas goodies sent to me by Helen;

Tools: background white pearlescent card embossed with Cuttlebug "snowflakes" folder.

Challenges:

Less Is More #29 - Things That Move

Totally Gorjuss #94 - Cute and Cuddly

Passion for Promarkers #114 - No Patterned Paper

Ooh-La-La #87 - No Backing Paper

Charisma #34 - Glitter It!

That's all for now ... back on Saturday with another Penny Black Saturday Challenge.

Beary special mum ... with roses

It's my mum's birthday this coming weekend, so I decided to make her a card that would fit with this fortnight's Wild Orchid Challenge Beary Special and LotV Roses. I always like to go to town on my mum's cards ... the more flowers and details the better .. and this one is no exception lol!

I had a bit of a dilemma with this card actually, as I have to post it mid week, but mum is not at all well and is waiting for some test results which won't come until after I post it but before her birthday. So I have gone for a sentiment that I hope will hit the spot whatever.

For some reason I can't get a big picture of the A5 size card that fills the width of my blog post .. so here's a closeup of the cute teddy.

Recipe:

Main image: LotV "Teddy Bouquet" coloured with Promarkers and Copics;

Sentiment: LotV Sentiment Circles;

Papers: Best Creation Inc. (sparkly swirly paper) and Papermania "Henbury lane" (sparkly dots);

Supplies: roses and lace from Wild Orchid Crafts; blossoms from Crafts4U2Do; Papermania heart gems;

Tools: large circle and large lacy circle nestabilities; Martha Stewart floral edge punch; marianne D Creatables swirls (from ribbon flower set); letters cut using Cuttlebug "Hippie Chick" alphabet.

Challenges:

Wild Orchid Challenge #29 - Beary Special

Lili of the Valley #108 - Roses

Charisma #31 - Bingo!

(flowers / gems / circles)

That's all for today ... back tomorrow with a new Oldie But A Goodie DT card :-)

Oldie But A Goodie - Ribbon and Lace

Good morning everyone - hope it is sunny where you are ... we had a lovely day here yesterday :-)  It's time for another Oldie But A Goodie Challenge - thanks so much to everyone who entered our Anything Goes challenge last time - fab projects as always !

This fortnight we have a theme I'm sure you'll love - I definitely didn't need any encouragement to get going with this one! It is

Ribbon and lace

Ooh! my favourites (along with flowers, pearls etc... etc... lol!!)

This fortnight we are sponsored by Poppy's Cabin - do be sure to check the main blog for further details and all the other ladies' gorgeous ribbony and lacy samples :-) And just a reminder ... in order to be eligible for the prize you should link to a new piece of work that features a stamped image (NO digis please) that is at least 6 months old ... that's why we're called An Oldie But A Goodie ;-)

When I got to thinking about my DT card for this challenge I decided to ink up a stamp which is both old in terms of initial release (1996!!) and also old in terms of the physical stamp in my hand ... but it is new to me. My local craft shop sells a few second hand stamps, and I spotted this pre-loved (but very well cared for as there was hardly a mark on it) vintage Penny Black stamp .... and they were asking £2 for it - that's got to be one of the best crafty bargains I've ever had!! I also got some new summery papers by Prima so I couldn't wait to get started ... the final element of inspiration was this week's Sketch Saturday sketch, which had perfect elements to incorporate as ribbon and lace.  I felt this created a really fresh summery feel, especially when I piled on the flowers :-) Here's the result .... I'm actually rather pelased wtih this one for once :-)

I also noticed that there are a number of stitchy challenges around right now ... and as the image itself has a bit of stitching on it I thought I'd get down to a bit of faux stitching as well (I don't do real stitching lol!!) Unfortunately it doesn't show up too well (my pink marker was running out!!) so here's a closeup just to prove it is there (along with the distressed paper edges)  ...

Recipe:

Main image: Penny Black "A Gift of Flowers" (586K) coloured with Promarkers and Copics;

Sentiment: LotV sentiment circles;

Papers: Prima "Sparkling Spring";

Supplies: flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts and Crafts4U2Do; lace from Crafts4u2Do; ribbons and pearls from my stash;

Tools: pokey tool used to make faux stitching; Tim Holtz distressing tool used to rough up the paper edges.

Challenges:

Sketch Saturday #163 - sketch

Simon Says - A Stitch in Time

Simon Says Stamp and Show - Stitching

One Stop Craft Challenge #139 - Summertime

Totally Gorjuss #88 - Summertime

Crazy 4 Challenges #95 - Summer

Pile It On #28 - Favourite Technique

(colouring with Promarkers)

Penny Black Challenge - Favourite Distressing Technique

(distressing paper edges with TH distressing tool)

CES #44 - Recipe: 1 image, 2 ribbons, lace or twine + 3 DP's

Cute Card Thursday #172 - Lace

Penny Black at Allsorts (July) - Flower Power (2nd entry)

Charisma #27 - All About Flowers

Creative Craft - Pretty Blossoms

Crafty Pad #129 - Lots of Texture

Kaboodle #75 - Use Those Scissors

(my vintage image wasn't a perfect rectangle so I cut it out by hand rather than with a  paper cutter)

Craft your Passion #66 - Just For You

ABC - Y is for Yesterday

Cupcake #150 - Your Favourite Challenge

(wow I could choose so many ... but howzabout 1. Flowers, 11. Vintage, 36. Summer, 61. Going Girly, 69. Flower Power, 103. Lace, 138. Lots of Layers ... all great themes in my opinion :-)  )

Hope you can join in the challenge this fortnight - look forward to seeing your creations.

Penny Black Saturday #141 - More Than One Fold

Hi everyone - it's Saturday, and also the first Saturday of the month ... that means it's time for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge, and also for a new monthly Crafty Calendar Challenge.

I'd like to start off with this week's Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Thanks so much to everyone who joined in with last week's "pearls and lace" theme - I'm sorry to say that due to work I didn't manage to get around all my commenting this week so apologies for that - but don't forget to check the main blog to see if you are a winner!

This week's challenge is

Cards With More Than One Fold

Any shape or size of card is allowed as long as it has more than one fold ... don't forget the only rules are that you should submit a new piece of work (no backlinking) and that you should use a Penny Black image, large sentiment or stickeroo as the main focus.

This week we have two fab prizes for randomly drawn winners - firstly a stamp from the one and only Penny Black Inc (check the main blog for details)

and secondly a yummy prize from The Ribbon Girl:


The winner can choose one colour selection which includes ribbons, seam binding, button twine, divine baker's twine, buttons, pins, lace, a charm and even a roll of 3mm ultra sticky tape!!

Wow!!

The other members of the DT have gone fold crazy so please do check them out ... here's mine.


I decided to make an easel card, even though they are always so difficult to photograph lol!! Another reason was that I really wanted to use this adorable kitty image, and it is so large that it almost fills a standard square card - so it was good to have a little more space to decorate with the sentiment etc.

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "You're The Bestest" coloured with Promarkers;
Sentiment: Whiff of Joy;
Papers: Papermania "Forever Friends - Spring Time";
Supplies: flowers and pearls from Wild Orchid Crafts; ribbon from Hobbycraft;
Tools: Shapeabilities "Fancy tags"; Martha Stewart "Floral Vine" deep edge punch; Leone Em "Ash Family" leaf punch; Cuttlebug "Floral Fantasy" embossing folder.

Challenges:
Creative Inspirations #101 - In the Garden
Die Cut Dreams #84 - Spring Garden Scene
Cooking It Up With Katie #51 - Spring + Yellow + Flowers
Penny Black at Allsorts (March) - Welcome Spring (1st entry)
Daring Cardmakers - Jonquils and Daffodils for March
Creative Belli #112 - Animals
Charisma #9 - Four Legged Friends
Fussy & Fancy - Embossing and/or Paper Piecing
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Spoon Full of Sugar #141 - Tags
(Spellbinders "Fancy Tags" used to mount my sentiment)

Hope you can join in this week and look forward to seeing your creations. I'll be back later with another card for this month's Crafty Calendar Challenge.

A Special Day

I have been so behind with everything recently that I decided yesterday to get ahead of myself for once! So I sat down and made card for my oldest friend, who will turn 50 on December 8th. I think I'm quite safe publishing it on here though, as she isn't a cardmaker or blogger (I sure hope that's the case right now!!)

I had been thinking vaguely about this card for a while and had already decided that I would just have to use this darling LotV image "Thomas with Champagne", but when I received my new LotV calendar stamps last week it struck me that one of them is also perfect for milestone birthdays such as this. Here's the result of my efforts ....

Recipe:
Main image: LotV "Thomas with champagne" coloured with Promarkers and Copics;
Sentiments: LotV "calendar stamps" and Penny Black transparent set "Salutations", both heat embossed with detail gold powder;
Papers: make unknown;
Supplies: large rose from Hobbycraft; cherry blossoms, small roses and lace from Wild Orchid Crafts; pearls from The Hobby House;
Tools: large cicrcle and lacy circle nestabilities; numbers cut using Cuttlebug "Hippie Chick" alphabet; Cuttlebug "Floral Fantasy" embossing folder.

I used Bev's excellent sketch from this week's Lili of the Valley Challenge #75


and would also like to enter this one for

Charisma #47 - One for the Girls
Cute Card Thursday #140 - Blast from the Past
(I have chosen Challenge #112 - Someone Special)
Passion for Promarkers #79 - Old & New
(I have had Thomas + my embossing folder for a while, but my calendar stamp is brand new)
I ♥ ProMarkers #42 - Anything Goes
Fab 'n' Funky #50 - Going with the Flow
Craft Your Days away #9 - Texture
Alphabet Challenge - E is for Embossing

Have a good Sunday and keep warm!