Penny Black Challenge #96 - buttons galore!

Hello there and welcome to week 96 of the Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Thanks to everyone who entered last week's challenge - sorry I wasn't about as I had a week off to concentrate on some jobs around the house over Easter, but hopefully I'm now back in the saddle.

This week we have another great challenge theme for you .... we would like to see

buttons galore!

Yes ... we would like to see buttons on your project - don't forget that the only other rule is that you must use a Penny Black image or sentiment prominently on your project.

As always we have a grat prize for you - our regular sponsor

is offering one lucky randomly drawn winner a $20 voucher to spend in their online shop - lovely!!

Talking of lovely, the DT has been busy as always creating some gorgeous samples - hope you'll check them out. Here's my effort ....

I really do adore this cute hedgie from the "Tiny Wishes" set, and think she goes perfectly with the yummy new Papermania "Rose Garden" papers. I decided to challenge myself so that I could enter a few other challenges with this card, so I made my own paper flower following this tutorial on YouTube .... now I have to say I found the whole thing pretty tricky as the papers are quite stiff and therefore didn't want to crumple daintily, but I think I got there in the end!!

As a result of all this endeavour I'd like to enter this card for the following challenges:

Cupcake #85 - make your own flowers
Crafty Cardmakers #18 - A Challenging Challenge
(mine was the flower lol!!)
Allsorts #47 - Petals and Pearls
Cute Card Thursday #107 - Mono Mania!
... my card is almost exclusively pink, apart from the "natural" elements such as skin, fur and leaves :-)
Meljen's Designs #2 - Let's See Some Girly Colours
Stamptacular Sunday #53 - Sugar & Spice & everything nice
Daring Cardmakers - If the Shoe Fits (don't you just love those cute oversize trainers?? lol!)
Inky Impressions #33 - charm it!
C.R.A.F.T.#45 - buttons
Totally Gorjuss #25 - Texture
Magical Crafts #12 - Animal antics
Simple Doodles #15 - Inspire others

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Tiny Wishes" transparent set, coloured with watercolour eoncils and decorated on rose with Stickles;
Sentiment & papers: Papermania "Rose Garden" pad;
Supplies: large pearl brad, large spacer and pearl gems all from The Hobby House; "Made with love" heart charm from Bunny Zoe's Crafts; lace was an RAK from Ruby :-); pink ribbon and buttons from my stash;
Tools: "labels 3" nestabilities; Leone Em "Ash Family" leaf punch.

Hope you can join us this week - look forward to seeing your creations.

Creative Card Crew #46 - Celebrate! ... and DT candy!!

Good morning everyone, and welcome once more to the Creative Card Crew Challenge. This is a very special week for us, as CCC is on year old - yay! So it's

Happy birthday to CCC :-)

So this fortnight we have got the perfect theme in honour of the occasion .... yes, we would like you to

Celebrate!

You can interpret this theme however you like ... perhaps you would like to create a project to celebrate a birthday, friendship, Mother's Day, wedding, anniversary ... the list is endless :-)

And to help us get into the party spirit, boy do we have some fantastic prizes for you! Not just one, but FOUR prizes for lucky entrants .... I think the DT all wish they could enter too lol!! Feast your eyes on this little lot ......

1. A $20 gift certificate from


2. 3 digi images of your choice from

3. A fab prize from Nichola at

which is these 2 darling stamps

4. Last but not least, a one month GDT spot on the Creative Card Crew Challenge :-)

AND that's not all ......

We are also celebrating with

DT candy!

Most of the DT members are celebrating by offering a little candy for entrants to this fortnight's challenge ... if you want to be in it to win it, here's what you need to do ....

- Enter a project for this fortnight's challenge, using Mr Linky on the Creative Card Crew Challenge blog in the usual way.
- Visit each of the DT member blogs (you may like to show a little love for their fabulous cards whilst you're there :-))
- If you would like to enter for a particular candy, leave a comment according to each DT member's instructions
- Cross your fingers and wait for the winners to be announced after this fortnight's challenge is finished!

I am offering the following candy :

3 Lili of the Valley stamps
INCLUDING
2 from the new release due out 10th March!!

In order to enter for this all you need to do is leave me a link in Mr Linky directly to the project you have entered in this fortnight's challenge (please make it direct to your post, not to the whole blog). One entry only for my candy please so as to make it fair for everyone !! I haven't used Mr Linky before, so if he should take a holiday, please just leave me a comment with a direct link to your card and I will include you in the draw :-)

Update: please ensure that if you are entering for my blog candy that you have entered your card in this week's CCC Challenge and that it is a NEW project - any backlinks or projects not entered in this week's challenge are ineligible and I will delete the entries from Mr Linky so as to be fair for challenge entrants - thanks.

If you would like to leave me a comment about my card as well please feel free ;-) I will choose a winner randomly at the end of the challenge.

Don't forget to visit the rest of the DT's blogs to see their fab cards and find out what gorgeous candy they have got on offer.

Janna
Linda
Linda C
Maria
Paula
Pauline (me)
Sam
Victoria

... and for one week only, Sharon has rejoined us with her fabulous celebration cake!! :-)

After all that .... at last, my celebration card


I always think that this cute hedgie looks so joyful ... and no wonder, he is called "Hedgehog Joy" lol!

I followed the fab sketch for this fortnight's Sunday Sketch & Stamp #22 and would also like to enter this card for Cupcake Crafts #80 - round & round & FTTC #56 - scallops

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Hedgehog Joy" (1436K) coloured with watercolour pencils, edges sponged with Versamagic chalk ink, and decorated with Papermania gems;
Sentiment: Penny Black "Critter Party" transparent set;
Papers: MME "Pretty Please";
Supplies: large pale blue pearl brad by Paper Company Studio; large spacer from The Hobby House; Papermania iridescent gems; ribbon and flowers from my stash;
Tools: large classic circle and large classic scalloped circle nestabilities; Shapeabilities "fancy tags"; Martha Stewart "garden trellis" edge punch (just seen); Leone Em "Ash Family" leaf punch.

Really looking forward to seeing you celebrate with us - have a great week!

Creative Card Crew #44 - Valentine

Hello everyone, and welcome to another Creative Card Crew Challenge- my second as part of the DT. Wow what an amazing set of entries this past fortnight - there were a whole lot of punches flying and it was all in a good way :-). Don't forget to visit the challenge blog to see whether you have won last week's prize.

This week we have a challenge for you in keeping with the time of year ... yes, it's

Valentine

So it's time to get lovey-dovey, and see if you can be the lucky randomly picked winner of this week's fab prize which has been donated by

and is this adorable stamp.

So without further ado, here's my card.

I always struggle with Valentine's as my husband doesn't like the colour red, and I can hardly make him a card with pink hearts on it, can I lol!!??!! I already knew I was going to use this darling image which was an RAK from my fab friend Squirrel, and as I cast around amongst my papers I suddenly spotted this BG "Porcelain" sheet and decided to go for green with red accents ... like the green tree with li'l red hearts growing on it ...aww! I kept the card reasonably unfussy as it is for a man.

I would also like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Paper Sundaes #3 - Valentine
Lexi's Creations #6 - Valentine
Double Dutch #36 - Be My Valentine

Challenge Up Your Life #13 - Valentine with Hearts
Stampavie & More #79 - Love/Valentine

Magical Crafts #7 - Valentine
Sophisticats #20 - Love
Corrosive Challenges #49 - All You Need is Love
Creative Belli #83 - Hearts
Caardvarks - Red Hearts
Cupckake # 76 - 4 legged and furry. Now I know that hedgies are renowned for being a bit prickly, but I bet their tummies are furry lol!!
BasicGrey #12 - Animals (2nd entry - wow have they got a fab prize on offer this time :-) )

Stamp, Scrap & Doodle #25 - Open theme

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "T.L.C." (3924K)(RAK from Squirrel), coloured with watercolour pencils and Gelly Roll red sparkle pen;
Sentiment: computer generated using "Gina" font;
Paper: BasicGrey "Porcelain" (green); My Mind's Eye (red);
Supplies: Papermania silver heart gems;
Tools: Martha Stewart "lace scallop heart" punch; Fiskars paper trimmer "deckle" blade.

Look forward to seeing your romantic creations, and don't forget to check out the lovingly created cards form the rest of the DT.

Steaming hot chocolate!

When I saw that the challenge theme this week over at Simon Says Stamp and Quixotic Challenge #8 is Hot Chocolate, my first thought about what I would most like to make was a cup of this ....

I bought this dinky stocking filler for my husband for Christmas, and what with all the snow, the bitterly cold temperatures plus the fact that I have been confined to the house for the past 4 days with a stinking head cold (this afternoon is the first time for a few days I have felt vaguely human!) it just seemed like the obvious choice!

However I soon realised this wouldn't really cut it in blogland, so I managed to make a card. Willow on the front looks pretty much how I feel ... desperate to keep warm and soothe herself with hot drinks lol! Excuse the electric light photo but there has never really been any decent daylight today all day long.

I tried to follow the hot chocolate theme both in terms of the image and colour scheme, and I also followed the sketch (which I rotated) for this week's Secret Crafter #65.


I also made this card to fit with the themes of the following challenges:

Charisma Cardz #1 - colour combo pink, brown, cream and toffee
Crafty Calendar #4 - Keeping Warm (image associated with keeping warm, plus optional extra of texture)
Cupcake #73 - Going Girly
Creative Inspirations #24 - Distressing (I sponged the edges of the image, and also lightly distressed the embossing on the two plain pieces of paper).

Recipe:
Main image: WOJ "Willow with hot chocolate", coloured with watercolour pencils, and edges sponged with Versamark chalk ink;
Sentiment: Craftwork Cards "Oh! My Words";
Papers: BasicGrey "Bittersweet", "Sugared" and "Two Scoops";
Supplies: flowers - Prima and Petaloo; pearl brads and spacers from The Hobby House; ribbon by American Crafts; heart charm from Jackie's Charms and Crafts Shop;
Tools: large classic ovals and large oval scalloped nestabilities; Martha Stewart "doily lace" edge punch; Cuttlebug "Perfectly Paisley" embossing folder; X-Cut distressing tool (for lightly distressing the embossed paper).

Off to keep warm now with more hot drinks!

Hats on for a green and red Christmas!

I'm back again with the second card from my craft session. I really do adore this Forever Friends teddy stamp - it is just soooo dinky and cute, and when I saw that this week's Saturday Spotlight Challenge (SSHP09) is Hats On!, it was the perfect opportunity to ink up the little fella!

I also followed the sketch from Creative inspirations #22

... and picked the colours red and green for this week's Corrosive Challenges #40, Cupcake Craft Challenge #68 and Incy Wincy #20.

Finally, Kraftin' Kimmie's Challenge #8 is Touchy-Feely ... asking us this week to use textures. I liberally sprinkled around my fave product of the moment - polar white Flowersoft mixed with glamour dust. Hopefully the following pic highlights the texture and dimension it adds to the card :-)


Recipe:
Main image: Forever Friends, coloured with watercolour pencils and Marvey "old English red" marker, and decorated wtih polar white Flowersoft and glamourdust;
Sentiment: Craftwork Cards "Oh! My Words!";
Papers: BasicGrey "Eskimo Kisses";
Supplies: Flowers form Prima "Christmas bubble"; pearl brads and gold spacers from The Hobby House; Papermania gems; pearls and ribbon from my stash;
Tools: small circles, large circles and large scalloped circle nestabilities.

Popcorn & cupcake

Just a quick post from me this evening .... please excuse the dodgy photo but I spent the whole afternoon with several cards on the go at once, and by the time anything came together it was already dark! I could have waited until tomorrow I guess, but I wanted to post this card as it is just skidding in by the seat of its pants to the deadline for Cupcake Craft Challenge #64, which is the following sketch.


I inked up my Popcorn Christmas bears for the first time today ... really gorgeous but boy, are they big! This does have one advantage though when trying to make a few Christmas cards, insomuch as there isn't a lot of room left on the card for too much other fancy work (that's my excuse anyway lol!)

I would also like to enter this card for Allsorts #26 - bring out your bling - I hope you can see the sparkle on the bear's hat and the glitter card snowflake ;-)

Recipe:
Main image & sentiment: Popcorn the bear "Beary Merry Christmas" - bears and surrounding musical notes. Bears coloured with watercolour pencils and doecorated with polar white Flowersoft and glamour dust.
Paper: Kaisercraft; "ice gold" pearlised white card from Edwin Allen;
Supplies: sparkly red brad by Doodlebug; spacer from my stash;
Tools: Cuttlebug "embossed snowflakes" folder; Martha Stewart "Arctic Snowflake" punch.

Gotta go now and get sorted for the working week ahead .. no rest for the wicked, so they say!

I'm on a roll!

I'm definitely getting into the swing now with some Christmas card makes, and last night I made a couple more to add to my slowly growing pile. Again I started by colouring a few of the same image - I actually coloured three of this adorable little mouse, but only managed to get two cards made up in the end .. but at least I've got a head start on another card!

For my first card, I followed the sketch over at Cupcake Crafts Challenge #63


I flipped the sketch and substituted snowflakes for flowers, so I would also like to enter this card for Creative Card Crew Challenge #34 - snowflakes.

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Thinking of You" (1517E) watercoloured, and decorated with polar white Flowersoft and glamour dust on the Santa hat;
Sentiment: Craftwork Cards "Oh! My Words";
Paper: Kaisercraft (from The Hobby House);
Supplies: sparkly brads by Doodlebug; ribbon from Hobbycraft; pearl gems from my stash;
Tools: Martha Stewart "embossed snowflakes" edge punch and Arctic Snowflake punch (from The Hobby House).


For my second card I used the sketch at Sketch and Stash Challenge #22


I don't actually have any new stash on this card (pretty unusual for me lol!!) but I do have a a few neglected items .... the gold star is from a Prima red Christmas bubble - I often use the flowers but the stars seem to just sit there!! My matt gold mirri card is also somewhat neglected as i don't normally go much for gold on cards throughout the year, but I do seem to bring it out a bit more at Chirstmas. Finally, at the last minute I spotted a neglected piece of gold ribbon with stars in my box, which I thought complimented the other star reasonably well.

I would also like to enter this card for Simon Says Challenge - All that Sparkles - it's by no means the most sparkly card I have created, but I hope it qualifies with the sparkly star and the sparkly fluffy effect on the hat!


Recipe:
Main image and sentiment as before;
Paper: BasicGrey "Wassail";
Supplies: gold star from Prima red "Christmas bubble"; gold star ribbon from my stash.

Hope I can keep up this productive streak! :-)

Summer fruits

Here is a "Congratulations" card I made for a lady at work who has got a fantastic new job - I think hedgie looks so joyful he is clearly celebrating!

I made this card for this week's Simon Says Stamp Challenge, which is to use any two or more of the colours lemon, orange, apple green and pink: well my paper is lemon, apple green and pink so I kind of took it from there and tried to co-ordinate the rest of my embellishments etc.

The summery papers also made me think of entering this card for a few other challenges - Cupcake Crafts #46 and A Spoon Full of Sugar #58 both have summer as their theme this week, and One Stop Craft Challenge #35 is fruity colours (I have used lemon, apple green and raspberry pink!!).

Here's the inside .... I've been getting a bit lazy and short on time to keep up with this tradition, but I do like it when I get round to it!

Recipe:

Main image: Penny Black "Hedgehog Joy" coloured with watercolour pencils and decorated with little pearl gems;
Sentiment: diecut using Cuttlebug cut'n'emboss folder;
Papers: K&Co "Wild raspberry", cut with MS doily punch;
Supplies: flowers, ribbon and pearls from my stash; Doodlebug "sugar coated" brads in the centre of my flowers; charm from The Hobby House; leaves punched with Leone Em "Ash Branch" punch.

For my dad

It's now almost two weeks since I have made a card, and I'm sorry to say I have hardly done any blog-hopping at all, so I am sure to be missing out on a lot of fabulous creations! I'm still up to my eyeballs with my job application, presentation and interview preparation; but at least the deadline is now looming and by next Tuesday it will all be over (unless of course I am unsuccessful, in which case I will have to go through it all again for however many jobs in the organisation I choose to apply for until I get one.... but let's not dwell on that!!)

Anyhow, last night I just NEEDED a break, and in any case how I could possibly fail to make my dear dad a Father's Day card?? I decided from the start to ensure I incorporated this week's theme over at Stamp With Fun #11 which is dots - cos boy, have they got a fab prize on offer! (Penny Black - my favourites!) but I have also managed to tie the card in with the following challenges:

Cupcake Craft Challenge #44 - Father's Day

Cuttlebug Be Inspired #36 - Father's Day

Paper Blooms #12 - Men of Influence.

I used:

Main image: Penny Black "message from above" coloured with watercolour pencils, matted using nesties labels, with the edges inked with Brilliance "pearlescent ivy" ink.

Sentiments: Woodware "Tiny Greetings" (front); Whiff of Joy - from "Swirls" collection (inside);

Papers: BasicGrey "Boxer";

Supplies: punched edges made with MS "Scallop dot" punch; adhesive ribbon by DCWV.

Here's the inside.....

Now this card is safely in the post I guess I'd better get my nose back to the grindstone! hope to be back next week lol!

Thanks a bunch!

As soon as I saw the fabulous sketch by Sharon over on this week's Creative Card Crew Challenge #8, I knew I had to have a go ... and the fact that there is a gorgeous cutie PB stamp on offer to one lucky winner was definitely a further incentive :-)

If you know me by now you will know that I also get inspired by trying to combine a few challenges - for this one I have tried to combine 5, including the CCC and also

Charisma Cardz #17 - Thankyou

CCT # 58 - Mirror Mirror (I have used mirri card behind my ain image)

Cupcake Challenge #37 - 5 different embellishments - I have used raffia lace, ribbon, buttons, die cut heart, and dragonfly brad.

Secret Crafter # 30 - Flowers

Recipe:
Image: Penny Black "Hedgehog Bouquet";
Sentiment : WOJ;
Paper: Melissa Frances (floral), free with Creative Cardmaking magazine #1 (pink - just seen);
Supplies: Raffia lace & ribbons - Hobbycraft; buttons - Doodlebug; die cut heart free with Creative Cardmaking magazine #1; brad from my stash.

Still trying to keep on decorating the insides ... MSDP had a little workout as usual :-)

Still resting up from my nasty head cold, and pretty angry to read this morning in the paper that people are using swine flu as "an excuse" to take sickies from work - hmmph! Just off now to do abit of chillin' :-)