Penny Black Challenge #56 - Red, White & Blue

Happy Saturday, and welcome once again to week 56 of the Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Hope you have all been enjoying the hot weather, but was glad to see that so many of you wisely stayed out of the sun for long enough to get to grips with Nat's sketch last week - there were some fab entries.

Many thanks also to those of you who visited my blog last week to enter for my belated PBSC birthday mini candy - I really enjoyed looking at all your creations and I'll be back later with the winner.

Onto this week's challenge, which honours the fact that today is Independence Day in the USA ... yes, you've guessed it, we would like you to use the colours

red, white and blue

As usual, you can interpret this however you want, so long as we can see a Penny Black image or sticker somewhere on your creation. The DT have been busy as usual, so please do go check out their blogs to see their inspiring creations.

Here is my card ... now I have to hold my hand up and say I struggled a bit with this as I don't really "do" red (unless it is teamed with green for Christmas lol!), so I had to raid my stash to find some suitable materials. I think I used my one and only piece of red, white and blue paper in the house ... so everything else really fell out from that.


Recipe:

Main image: Penny Black transparent set "Every which Way", coloured with Twinkling H2O's;

Sentiment: Penny Black;
Papers: DCWV "Pocket Full of Posies" stack;
Supplies: image and matting cut with "peony" nestabilities; white glitter card punched with MS Doily lace punch; Papermania red gems; Doodlebug sugar coated brads; charm from The Hobby House; various flowers and fibre from my stash.

This week we have a gorgeous prize kindly donated by our new sponsors - Clair and Sharni who are Stampin' Up demonstrators at Valentine's

One lucky winner can win this gorgeous stamp.

Have a great weekend, and look forward to seeing all your creations !

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!

Penny Black Saturday Challenge #48

Good morning everyone, and welcome to week 48 of the Penny Black Saturday Challenge. It's been a quiet week on the crafting front from me as I had a stinking head cold for the first half of the week, and I've also been on holiday from work (typical!) trying to get some household jobs done and support my husband's efforts at decorating (bless him!). However I've still managed to peek at most of the fab entries for last week's challenge and have to say everyone really shaped up! (sorry!!) Don't forget to check the blog to see who won the fab gift voucher to spend at PB Stamps.

Onto this week's challenge which is to use three colours .....

black, white and 1 other

This week we have another gorgeous prize for one lucky entrant donated by our very own Carole .. namely these yummy flowers and ribbons. Don't forget that to be eligible for the prize the only rule is that you must use at least one Penny Black image or sticker on your creation.

Here is my card. I struggled a bit at first as I very rarely use a black and white colour combo. The whole thing started to come together when I started to think about colouring just one flower, and it occurred to me to pair the image with the sentiment "To brighten your day" - that's when I decided to use a pale yellow. I've kept things quite simple and have left quite a bit of "white space" on the card - I think I like it!

Recipe:

Image: Penny Black "Wind Caressed" - one flower coloured with Sakura sparkle pen;

Sentiment: Whiff of Joy (from the "Swirls" collection);

Paper: Doodlebug;

Supplies: lemon pearlised cardstock punched with Martha Stewart "scalloped dot" punch; black pearlescent cardstock from Papermania "gemstones" pack; adhesive ribbon by DCWV; flowers from my birthday gift from my lovely friend Carol; white sparkly brad by Doodlebug; leaves punched from "gemstones" cardstock using Leone Em Ash Branch punch; black gems by Hero Arts gifted to me by Domi.

Thanks for looking! I'm off to Port Sunlight today (Saturday) so hope to be back soon with some yummy new stash :-). Look forward to seeing your creations this week.

Penny Black Saturday Challenge #34 - Circle Card

Well, here we are at Saturday again before we know it, so it must be time for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Wow - what a fabulous response last week to our "frame it" challenge - many thanks to everyone who took part. Don't forget to pop over to the challenge blog to see who won last week's prize.

This week we have another fab prize kindly donated by Paula at

It is the following two downloads - how fab is that?

So what do you need to do to be in with a chance of getting your hands on this great download?

This week's challenge is to make a circle card - I had never made one before but when it came down to it I found it easy enough to do. I just cut two circles from card using my X-Cut shapecutter (nesties would do just as well but your card would be smaller), and scored a line about 1.5 cm from the top of one - then I stuck them together so that the scored line would form the "hinge" when the card is opened.

Recipe:

Main image: Penny Black "Duckling" (kindly given to me by my friend Kaz), coloured with watercolour pencils.

Sentiment: Penny Black "Think Spring"

Paper: DCWV "Pocket Full of Posies", cut into a fancy circle using papermania Multishaper punch "Spring Garden"

Supplies: Flowers - WH Smith & Cardology; brads - Doodlebug sugar coated; charm - from my stash.

Thanks for looking and hope you all have a great weekend. Don't forget to check out the other DT cards for this challenge as they have made some really adorable circle cards :-)

PBSC #32 - Let's Get Dotty!

Happy weekend everyone and welcome again to another week of the Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Thankyou so much to everyone who entered last week's pink & brown challenge - obviously a lot of you are lovin' that colour scheme and the entries were amazing! As ever, don't forget to pop over to the challenge blog to check who won the prize.

This week we would just like to say

Let's get dotty!

Now this may be easier for some of us than others - in my case it was difficult to notice the difference lol!! We look forward to seeing your interpretations, and as usual the DT have been dotting the i's and crossing the t's (sorry, couldn't resist that!) to produce an amazing set of cards, so please do check them out.

This week we have another super prize kindly donated by Kath: a 6 x 6 paper pack by Paper Cellar, and a pack of Black Magic by Core'dinations.

Here's my card for this week.

The main image is PB "Light the Night" coloured with watercolour pencils and decorated with glamour dust and Papermania gems; sentiment is PB "..To you" with part of the message masked so it would fit on my nestie shape; paper and pearlised black card were cut with my new "Curved rectangle" nesties and the card then embossed wtih Cuttlebug Swiss Dots; dotty sticky ribbon is by DCWV; flowers are all Prima except for the large pink one which was part of a gift wrapping (I think from Lorraine); sparkly brads by Doodlebug and charm from my stash. I'm still trying to decorate the card insides ... will try to get a bit more adventurous as I get into it! (the sentiment inside is also by PB)

One card - six challenges

Here's another card I made two nights ago, but naughty Blogger wouldn't let me upload my pics for most of last night so I didn't manage to post. So at last, here it is ....

This week's Forever Friends Challenge is your favourite colour .... when it comes to making cards mine is undeniably pink, which is strange cos it's not a colour I wear a lot (but maybe that's just due to my advancing age LOL!). I originally received this FF image from my friend Kaz and liked it so much I went out just before Christmas and bought the stamp!!

This brings me on neatly to the second challenge this card covers, which is Stamp Something - where the theme is something new. This card has definitely got that covered- it is the first outing for both my FF stamp and for the Penny Black sentiment stamp; my spotty ribbon was purchased half price from WH Smith in the January sale, and the background papers were a scrummy Christmas present from a Secret Santa swap amongst a group of my crafty friends :-) ... which also fulfils this week's CCT#42, to use something you got for Christmas.

Fourth, the brand new challenge over at Charisma Cardz is launching today, with my talented friend Sharon as the first guest designer (congratulation, hun!). Their opening theme is pink ... woo hoo, need I say more??

Fifth, over at Papertake Weekly they are seeing spots. Now this isn't an uber-spotty card but they are definitely there ... one of the background papers is a bit dotty (like me lol!), the ribbon has spots and circles, and the sentiment has some dotty letters ... plus there are little pearl gems dotted around :-)

Finally, Lili of the Valley is starting the New year by saying that anything goes ... a nice easy challenge to ease us into 2009!

Recipe:
Main image - FF coloured with watercolour pencils and Sakura sparkly pen on the flowers
Sentiment - Penny Black
Background papers - Papermania "Exquisite"
Adhesive ribbon - DCWV
Flowers - Prima
Pearl brads - Papermania
Pearl gems from my stash

BasicGrey and shades of sepia

I needed to make an image wallet for friend, and was inspired by my new Penny Black "vintage" stamp called "Rain or Shine Friends". As luck would have it, when I rooted around in my stash, the paper that came to hand to best fit with this theme was a BasicGrey sheet from the "sugared" collection; so I'm entering it for this week's BasicGrey Challenge #8 which is shapes - I have used offset rectangles for my image and matting, plus squares on the inside covers. I am also entering this one for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge DT call - I know it will be up against a lot of awesome talent, but fingers and toes crossed!!

I decided to try something new so did my best to create a sepia coloured image, using a Marvey brushstroke pen watered down to form different shades, and I stamped the image with brown Stazon rather than black. The paper with hearts on is BasicGrey "sugared" and the other front cover paper is by DCWV - I have done some faux stitching to compliment the vintage feel, and slightly ditressed the edges of the DCWV paper. Inside I have used more of the BasicGrey paper and a beautiful "friendship" paper that was hiding in my stash. Lace is from Hobbycraft, flowers by Prima and tiny pearl gems on the umbrella from Create & Craft.

Two for the girls!

The Penny Black Saturday Challenge this week is One for the Girls ... now on Saturday I bought the cute "Uplifting Occasion" stamp from the Papermill Shop, so I just had to have a play yesterday ... and I ended up making two!

My first card is a birthday card for my crafting friend Uma - I coloured the stamp with watercolour pencils, trimmed the bra with the cute new Papermania sparkly trim and a tiny bow from the Papermill Shop (I bought both of these at the same time as the stamp, with this technique in mind LOL!), and mounted on white and lilac glitter card and DCWV "Pocketful of Posies" glitter accented paper. The sentiment is from PB transparent set "Bubbly", the lace is from my friend Cathy, and the flowers are Making Memories (large), WH Smith (medium) and Prima (small).
I also notice that this card falls in nicely with the theme for this week's TGIF Challenge #49 which I almost missed but which is Birthdays ... so I'd like to enter it into that challenge too.



The second card is very similar, but instead of lace I used more Papermania sparkly trim (white) and I edged the DCWV paper with my Multishaper punch. The sentiment is a rub on from my stash. This card is to cheer up my mum, as she is currently in and out of hospital and I hope this card will make her smile!

Three challenges in one

I'm in luck! I saw this morning that this week's Penny Black Saturday Challenge is "Down on the Farm" ... I don't own any stamps of pigs, cows or geese, but this week Evelyn C from Docrafts sent me a monthly friendship card which kindly included a lot of lovely stamped images .... including a PB cow!! So I was champing at the bit (or should that be chewing the cud??) and thought I would incorporate a couple of other challenges, namely Papertake Weekly - Katharina's Sketch #7, and a non-blog challenge I do over on Docrafts entitled "C for clashing colours!!" The flowers actually look the same deep pink as the ribbon and card in real life!

Anyway ... I used: Penny Black stamp "Bundle of Wishes", matted onto matte pink metallic card (first use of my new Nestabilities!!); sentiment stamped in Brilliance copper ink from PB transparent set "Salutations"; background papers from DCWV, with semi circle cut using X-Cut Multishaper punch; flowers by Prima; brads and small crystal gems by Papermania.