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 :-)

Oldie But A Goodie #21 - Where In The World?

Hi there, and welcome to another Oldie But A Goodie challenge. Thanks so much to everyone who entered our Lots of Layers challenge - there were some fabulous entries. Don't forget to check the main challenge blog to see if you have won the prize.

Before we get on to this fortnight's challenge we have a bit of news ... we have a new DT member joining us, so hope you will give a big welcome to Sara  :-)

This time it is Laurie's turn to pick the challenge theme, and she has chosen

Where in The World?

We would like to see something associated with a particular country ... maybe the colours of a flag, holidays, national flowers etc ... you can interpret this however you like, but in order to be eligible for our prize you should submit a new piece of work that uses a stamped image (no digis please) which is at least six months old ... that's why we're called An Oldie But A Goodie :-)

Laurie has also donated the prize for this challenge ... it is this yummy Oriental selection.

Hope you will have a look around the other DT ladies' fab cards and see if you can guess where in the world they are trying to represent .... I have stayed right here in England with English roses.

Recipe:

Main image; Elusive Images "Script Rose", heat embossed with detail gold, coloured with Promarkers and highlighted with Twinkling H2O's; matting distressed with "Victorian Velvet" distress ink;

Sentiment: Elusive Images;

Papers: Andrea James "Pampered Pets";

Supplies: pink and ivory roses and lace from Crafts4U2Do; green roses from Wild Orchid Crafts; pearls from my stash;

Tools: deckle edge blade used on image matting and papers; Leone Em "Ash Family" leaf punch.

And here's a closeup of my delicious new flowers which are mostly from Crafts4u2Do.

Challenges:

Simon Says Stamp and Show - Distressed / torn edges

Kaboodle #71 - Floral Showcase

Totally Gorjuss #84 - Flower Power

Stamp With Fun #115 - Pearls and Flowers

Shabby Tea Room #66 - Pink Lemondade

(Pink + green + neutral + flowers, with the following gorgeous inspiration picture)

Totally Papercrafts #70 - Summer

Scrapbook Sisters #39 - English Country Garden

CES #40 - Saturday Night At The Movies

(The Name of the Rose)

Crafty Pad #125 - Just Because You Can

Thanks for stopping by :-)

For Dad

It's my dear dad's birthday this week, so last night I sat down to make him a card so that I could pop it in the post at lunchtime today. My dad hasn't been at all well over the past few months plus he is the main carer for my mum ... he's a real rock so he definitely deserves a card that gives it my best shot!

I bought this darling LotV stamp specially when I went to Port Sunlight 3 weeks ago, and here is the card I made for him. it is deliberately not too fussy but hopefully has enough detail that he will know I made an effort :-)

Recipe:

Main image: LotV "Cheers Bear", coloured with Copics (bear) and Promarkers (clothes and gift), and edges distressed wtih "Vintage Photo" and "Walnut Stain" distress inks;

Sentiment: LotV sentiment circles, distressed wtih "Antique Linen" and "Walnut Stain" distress inks;

Papers: BasicGrey "Capella";

Supplies: pearls from The Hobby House; ric rac and peel offs from my stash.

Challenges:

Papertake Weekly - Sketch #56 (rotated)

Creative Inspirations #61 - Father's Day / Card For Dad

Simon Says Stamp - Father's Day / For A Male

Craft Your Days Away #21 - Father's Day / Special Man

Fussy and Fancy - A Card For a Man or a Boy

Stamp Man #24 - Boys and Men

Scrapbook Sisters #38 - A Man's World

BasicGrey #45 - Shabby Chic (2nd entry)
Copic Creations #51 - Vintage / Distressed

Crafty Pad #124 - Stripes

Craft Your Passion #61 - Anything Goes

Gotta dash ... been at home studying today and I want to do a bit more before I sit down for dinner.

Magical pearls and swirls

Well I had a brilliant day out yesterday. For quite a while I have been getting friendly online with the lovely Katina, and we had been meaning to meet up since last autumn at Port Sunlight craft fair. However Katina wasn't well that day, and since then time has flown by and we have never managed to meet up ... until now :-) We both live in different parts of Liverpool, and I had the idea of us going on a little jaunt to a large craft shop with coffee shop I know in St Helens called Crafts4u2do, so we could chat over coffee and cake and get to know each other.

Woke up yesterday morning with the sun cracking the flags, so it was a perfect day for a litle drive. We met late morning and before we knew it we were chatting for England over tea and chocolate cake (which Katina INSISTED on buying despite my protests .. thanks hun :-) We have both had a few trials and tribulations recently but it didn't feel at all awkward talking about what's happening in our lives, and time flew by.

Eventually we thought we ought to have a look around the craft shop and we certainly weren't disappointed. I hadn't been over there for about six months and was very impressed with their new stock - especially their own new range of flowers which could give well known online flower retailers a run for their money!! Katina was very good as she is trying to save at the moment and only had a very moderate spend ... I didn't get too carried away, but quite a few of the flower packs did fall into my basket along with some lace, card, a couple of distress inks and just the one rubber stamp.

By the time I got home mid-afternoon I was in cheerful mood, having made not only a few new craft purchases but also hopefully a new friend :-) The whole thing put me right in the mood for crafting, so I made a couple of cards in the late afternoon and evening - here's one of them which I made for a few challenges.

Recipe:

Main image: LotV "Freedom" coloured with Promarkers and decorated with Glamour Dust;

Sentiment: free with craft magazine;

Papers: BasicGrey "two scoops";

Supplies: yellow roses by Sweet Lilac (from Crafts4U2Do); other flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts; pearls from The Hobby House; lace and ribbon from my stash;

Tools: small, large and lacy circles nestabilties; Marianne D Creatable swirly leaf die; Magnolia doohickey "vintage tag" die; Cuttlebug "swirls" embossing folder.

Challenges:

BasicGrey #41 - More Than One Fold

Magical Mondays #19 - Magical Pearls and Swirls

Anything Goes #38 - Pearls

Passion for Promarkers #94 - Yellow and Pink

Simon Says - Spring Colours (2nd entry)

Crafty Pad #116 - Spring Is in the Air

Flutterby Wednesday's #149 - Open Theme with Butterfly, Fairy or Angel

Dream Valley #4 - Things With Wings (2nd entry)

Freshly Brewed (April) - Flowers

Stamptacular #106 - Girls and Swirls

Back tomorrow with another very different card I made with a couple more of my new purchases :-)

Penny Black Saturday #146 - Say It With Flowers

Good morning all, and welcome to another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Thanks very much to everyone who rocked Domi's sketch last week - don't forget to check the main prize blog to see if you are a winner. I'm still struggling mightily with blogger and my recent attempt to install Windows Live Writer crashed and burned ... so I'll get straight to business ...

This week's theme is

Say It With Flowers

Easy peasy!!

And we also have a fantastic prize as always - this week it is a $20 online store voucher from our sponsor 1-2-3 Stitch.

Do check out the other ladies' lovely floral arrangements - here is my card for this week.

Recipe:

Main image: Penny Black "Hedgehog Bouquet" (1444K) coloured with Promarkers;

Sentiment: Craftwork Cards;

Papers: Papermania "Forever Friends - Springtime";

Supplies: flowers by Wild Orchid Crafts; ribbon from my stash;

Tools: large circles and lacy circles nestabilities; Martha Stewart "wild flowers" PATP edge punch; Leone Em "Ash Family" leaf punch.

Challenges:

Wild Orchid Challenge #20 - Sketch (flipped horizontally)

Crafty Pad #115 - Flowers

Paper Sundaes #63 - Spring Blossoms

PaperPlay #14 - Critters Galore

Creative Inspirations #106 - Punches & Dies

Pollycraft #87 - Old / Neglected stamp

Corrosive #110 - Pastel Colours

Craft your Passion #52 - Anything Goes

Hope you can join us this week - look forward to seeing what you create :-)

Coffee and cream (cakes)!

The challenge this week over at Simon Says is coffee and cream ... and I was determined to enter for two very good reasons - not only have they got a fantabadozie prize as always, but this week they're also having a DT call - woo hoo! However I felt less sure when I started thinking about the theme ... coffee and cream are not two colours I normally craft with, so not only are they WAY out of my comfort zone, but what to do about supplies?? So this is hardly my best week to put my best foot forward for the DT ... but hey, you've got to give it a go, haven't you?? So, I started riffling madly through my stash in search of something suitable. Here's what I came up with ... I already had this darling image stamped up, so I decided to give her a "coffee and cream cakes" makeover!. I agonized for some time over papers, and this was really the best combo I could come up with, but I hope the soft script-printed paper adds to the overall vintage feel. I was also a little concerned initially about what I would do for embellies as I have never purchased flowers in brown shades and only a few cream ones .... but that's where I really got lucky!! I recently won a yummy little candy from Dawny P ... and not only had she included a yummy selection of WOC flowers in shades of cream and terracotta, but also some really vintage looking deep cream lace - yippee!! I also found a few coffee coloured roses knocking around in my stash which were a present some time ago from my bloggy friend Sue, and remembered that I had a teapot charm lurking in the depths of my charm box ... things were finally starting to come together! (Some of you may think that you can detect a peach coloured rose on the card ... but given that it really gave the overall scheme such a "lift" I would argue that it is in fact cinammon ...y'know ... the stuff you get sprinkled on your coffee. That's my story and I'm sticking to it ;-) ) Recipe: Main image: LotV "Hello Cupcake", coloured with Promarkers and Copics; Sentiment: Penny Black transparent set "Salutations"; Papers: various from stash; Supplies: pearls from the Hobby House; all flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts (with thanks to Dawny P and Sue); lace from Dawny P; ribbon and charm from stash. Challenges: Simon Says - Coffee and Cream (+ DT Call) Secret Crafter #123 _ Sweet Treats Crafty Pad #110 - Something Yummy For Your Tummy Raise the Bar #55 - Mug Shots Paper Sundaes #58 - How Charming Rainbow Lady #141 - Shabby Chic Sweet Stampin' - Oh So Girly Craft Your Passion #47 - Girly Girl My Time To Craft #129 - Hats Creative Inspirations #100 - Stripes Stampin' For The Weekend #4 - Monochrome Wild Orchid Challenge #18 - Anything Goes Sentimental Sundays #44 - Anything Goes Friday Sketchers #143 - sketch

Think I'll go and have a cup of tea and a cupcake now lol (only kidding)!!

May All Your Wishes Come True

I have been desperate to play with my cute new LotV "dandelion clock" fairy ever since she arrived over a week ago, and finally I got round to it on Friday afternoon, in an attempt to perk myself up. Good job I did really, as my cold has gone absolutely streaming since then to the point that I have now given up on crafting altogether until I'm feeling better!

I absolutely love dandelion clocks, and everything about this darling stamp made me think about soft shades of lilac and lavender. I don't seem to be able to put down my FF "Spring Time" papers at the moment, and I think I went a bit crazy with the flowers lol!

Recipe:
Main image: LotV "Dandelion Clock" coloured with Promarkers and sprinkled with glamour dust;
Sentiment: Craftwork Cards;
Papers: Papermania "Forever Friends - Spring Time"; glitter dot cardstock from local craft shop;
Supplies: all flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts; pearls from The Hobby House; ribbon from my stash;
Tools: Fiskars "Victorian" cutting blade.

Challenges:

I followed the sketch for this week's Lili of the Valley #81


and would also like to enter for

Flutterby Wednesdays #138 - Open theme with butterfly, fairy or angel
CES #20 - Angels & fairies
Stamp Something - Cute Somethings
Crafty Pad #105 - Something Girly
Wee Memories #40 - Anything Goes

Hope you're having a great weekend ... I'm off now to dose myself up some more lol!

Hello baby!

I rarely have the need to make baby cards, but I made a couple last week for "New Beginnings" challenges - one for a girl and one for a boy. No sooner done than a colleague's wife had a baby girl, and next minute another colleague asked me if I could make a card for another baby girl ... I was actually quite thrilled as I don't very often get asked to make one.

So here's another card for a baby girl - my second within two weeks!


Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Basket of Joy (2075F), coloured with Promarkers;
Sentiment: LotV sentiment circles;
Papers: checked paper by Deja Views; glitter dots card from local craft shop;
Supplies: wild rose and cherry blossoms from Wild Orchid Crafts edged with Stickles; blossom stems from local craft shop; ribbon-threaded lace from my recent winning prize pack from An Oldie But a Goodie Challenge;
Tools: large, small and lacy circles nestabilities; Martha Stewart "eyelet lace" PATP.


Normally when I send cards that have raised elements such as flowers, I put them in a padded envelope (top tip - Wilkinsons padded white CD mailers - decent looking and 70p for four!!) ... but in this case I didn't feel it would be appropriate to provide a padded envelope to the girl who is giving this card as it would rather spoil the ambience. So I got a bit carried away and made a box for the card :-)

I made the base from normal white linen cardstock, and the lid from the same pearlescent pink bazzill that I had used for matting the image on the card. I told myself I wasn't going to spend too long decorating it, but came up with the quick but (I hope) effective idea of plonking a fancy tag on the top ready to write the baby's name and date of birth. This also had the added advantage of allowing me to use my brand new "Magnolia vintage" tag which I have been itching to do for the past couple of days :-)


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

Passion for Promarkers #82 - Baby Cards
Crafty Creations #101 - New Beginnings
Crafty Pad #104 - Something New
Penny Black At Allsorts (January) - All You Need is Love
Totally Gorjuss #63 - Cuddly
Corrosive #99 - Lace and Pearls
Incy Wincy #76 - Go Dotty
The Ribbon Girl #4 - Pink & Green
Top Tip Tuesday # 17 - Anything Goes
(I have also left 2 tips linked to this post)

Paper Sundaes #52 - Favourite Challenge of the Past Year
(I really like the Paper Sundaes Challenges, and have chosen #40 "For Someone Little" - I am a bit late entering with this as I was a bit confused what was required [doesn't take much!!] but now I've looked again at the challenge i would like to enter ;-) )

I have also used (and flipped) the sketch for January's Crafters' Companion Challenge #8 for a second time - not sure if two entries are allowed but I'm giving it a go :-)

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

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.