Sending Love At Christmas

Yesterday evening I sat down to a bit of a colouring session, and completely outdid any previous attempts at batch colouring as I completed EIGHT images of this gorgeous FF Santa teddy. Or to put it another way ... over the next week or two you are likely to see this image featuring on my cards a LOT lol!

Stamps: Forever Friends Santa teddy; Pink Gem sentiment;

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers; glamour dust on coat and hat;

Papers: Dovecraft "Holly Jolly";

Supplies: flower by WIld Orchid Crafts; pearls from The Hobby House;

Tools: large oval and large scalloped oval nestabilities; Cheery Lynn "holly flourish" die.

Challenges:

Crimbo Crackers #3 - Santa

Kaboodle #96 - Colours of Christmas

Sparkles #26 - One You Love At Christmas

Daring Cardmakers - December Flowers (Holly)

Crafts & Me #63 - Pearls & Swirls

My Mum's #34 - Keeping Warm

Paper Sundaes #98 - Sundae Bar

(I used red + stripes + die cuts)

Craft Your Passion #87 - Anything Goes + Glitter

Simon Says - Anything Goes
Totally Gorjuss #109 - Sketch

The weather here has been absolutely freezing today, t hough we haven't had any snow (YET!!). Hope you are all keeping warm .. I'm just off for a cockle-warming cup of tea now :-)

Penny Black Saturday #177 - Christmas Gold + Presents

Good morning to you all, and welcome to another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Last week we gave you the chance to start really cracking on with those Christmas cards with our silver + snowflakes theme, and as aways you didn't disappoint with some fabulous entries.

This week we are continuing with our November month of Christmas challenges, and this time the theme is

Gold + Christmas presents

We also have a fabulous prize on offer for a randomly drawn winner, in the shape of a $20 online store voucher from our sponsor 1-2-3 Stitch.

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

The rest of the DT have provided some inspirational samples as always - this is what I did.

I have to admit I was struggling with this theme at first, as I didn't think I had any PB Christmas stamps available which included gifts ... nor any gold papers or ribbons! After a bit of a trawl I remembered I had this adorable little hedgie dozing by his Chrimbo stocking,a nd I also found the remnants of an old paper pad with gold foil patterns on it. I alsod ecided to go for a change from my usual method of glittering wtih glamour dust, and glittered the fur cuff ont eh stocking with Pee Wee Art Glitter in "crystal" - it gives a fine but slightly denser coverage than glamour dust which I think works very well with fur :-)

Stamps: Penny Black transparent set "Christmas Critters";

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers; stocking decorated with Pee Wee Art Glitter in "crystal";

Papers: Papermania "A Silent Night";

Supplies: flowers from Prima Christmas bubble; gems from The Hobby House; sentiment by Craftwork Cards; brads, spacers and ribbon from my stash.

Challenges:

CRAFT #128 - Cute

Christmas Inspirations #36 - Bows
Crimbo Crackers #2 - Make It Sparkle

Daring Cardmakers - Bejewelled
Penny  Black Blog Challenge - Enhance Your Image With Gem Accents
Totally Gorjuss #106 - Christmas Traditions (Santa's stocking!)

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

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 couple of cuties

Yesterday afternoon I felt like pulling out an image from my image wallet to colour rather than getting out my stamps and ink; and I settled on this cute pair of Penny Black bunnies. I couldn't quite decide whether to make them into a love themed card, but then decided with the spring-like flower they are holding I would make them into an Easter card instead.

I followed this week's Papertake Weekly sketch #52 (had to fiddle around slightly with the position of the sentiment, or poor bunny's whiskers would have been trapped behind it and we coudn't have that, could we?)

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

Daring Cardmakers - Year of the Rabbit
Dutch Dare #97 - 3 papers + 3 flowers + 3 sparkly things + 1 ribbon
Ooh-La-La #72 - Three of a Kind (3 sparkly gems)
CES #21 - Bold & Bright
Paper Play #4 - Layer It Up
My Time To Craft #125 - Embossing
Pile it on #5 - Punch it!
Stamptacular Sunday #96 - Whateva!

Copic Creations #42 - What's New?

( daisy & yellow cherry blossoms from WOC)

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Daisy Bunnies" (3108K), coloured with Promarkers and Copics;
Sentiment; Penny Black;
Papers: papermania "Forever Friends - Spring time";
Supplies: large daisy and cherry blossoms from Wild Orchid Crafts; ribbon and gems from my stash;
Tools: small classic circles and lacy circles nestabilities; Martha Stewart "Wild Flowers" PATP corner punch; Leone Em "Ash branch" leaf punch; Cuttlebug "daisy pattern" embossing folder.

Must dash now to work - catch you later!

Pretty in Pink (+ silver + white)

Here's another card from my latest Christmas batch .... quite a few challenges were winking at me from my blog roll when I logged on this morning so I decided to make this one into a quick post. I would like to enter this card for: Wild Orchid #13 - Pink, Silver and White

Cupcake#121 - Non-Traditional Christmas

Incy Wincy #72 - Non-Tradional Christmas Colours

Stamp With Fun #89 - Christmas

Pollycraft #74 - White Christmas

The Pink Elephant #90 - Winter Wonderland

Catch the Bug - Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Stamptacular #89 - Winter Wishes

Keep It Simple - Season's Greetings

Sentimental Sundays #33 - Let It Snow

Totally Gorjuss #60 - Snow!

Daring Cardmakers - Snow Much Fun

Alphabet Challenge - G is for Glitter

Bunny Zoe's #7 - Sparkle & Shine

Stampalicious - Stampaliciously Simple

Recipe:

Main image: Penny Black "Snowy Park", covered in crystal Fine Art glitter;

Sentiment: Penny Black;

Paper: pearlescent white card embossed with Cuttlebug;

Supplies: small roses from Wild Orchid Crafts; silver gems and ribbon from my stash;

Tools: Cuttlebug "snowflakes" embossing folder.

That's all for today :-)

Penny Black Challenge #104

This week has fairly flown by, and it's time once again for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Thanks as always to everyone who joined in last week - I really enjoyed looking at all your fabulous "in the garden" creations.

We are doubly fortunate this week, as we have got not one but TWO fabby prizes for randomly drawn lucky winners...

Firstly our regular sponsor Clair at Valentine's is donating this brilliant prize of a selection of PB stamped images ....


... and secondly we are really thrilled and excited to introduce our new regular sponsor Julia from

who is donating a prize of

a Penny Black stamp of the winner's choice

Woo hoo!

I'm sure many of you will be familiar with Julia as she has not only the online store and a shop in Rye, but also she has a stand at many of the craft fairs, which is always totally awash with Penny Black stamps .. not to mention the fammous "bargain bucket" - heaven!!

So what do you have to do to get your hands on one of these prizes, I hear you ask?? Well just create a project for this week's theme which is

Swirls

... and interpret it however you choose so long as you use a Penny Black image, large sentiment or sticker as the main focus of your project.

The other DT members have all gone swirly whirly so I hope you'll check them out ... here's mine.

This was primarily inspired by the fact that I was lucky enough a couple of weeks ago to win a blog hop prize on the Allsorts challenge, which was a PB transparent stamp set - "Flowers and Wishes". They are really pretty and a little different from what I generally use, so I couldn't wait to give them a go. I also took the opportunity to try out something I'm sure I've seen elsewhere, which is to stamp some swirly scrolly edges using another PB stamp I've had hidden in my stash forever, called "Scrolling along".

Of course I had to bring a swirly paper out to play for this challenge theme ... I'm just loving the Papermania papers this season, and "Henbury Lane" is no exception. And just in case anyone had failed to spot the swirls on my card I also went for a bit of dry embossing and finally a jewel template swirl - just couldn't help myself lol! Having done all that I decided not to complicate things any further by adding any paper flowers (even though I have just taken my first small delivery from Wild Orchid Crafts ... so watch this space!)

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Flowers and Wishes" transparent set, coloured with Promarkers; edges stamped using Penny black "Scrolling along" stamped in brilliance pearlescent orchid ink;
Sentiment: Penny black "Salutations" transparent set;
Papers: Papermania "Henbury Lane";
Supplies: pearls from the Hobby House; silver beads from my stash;
Tools: large classic ovals and large classic scalloped ovals nestabilities; Bazzill jewel template "fantasy flourishes"; Cuttlebug embossing folder "birds and swirls".

As always I would like to enter this card for one or two other challenges, namely

Charisma #22 - Flowers
Ooh La La #55 - colours of the challenge blog
(lilac, pink, green and a little lemon .. well I managed 3 of the 4!!)
Our Creative Corner - Summer Inspiration
Daring Cardmakers - String of Pearls

Have a great weekend whatever you're doing!

Penny Black Challenge #98 - Recipe!

Wow - don't know where this week has gone to ... no crafting and not a single post since last Saturday ... but at last the weekend is here again and it's time for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge.

Thanks very much to everyone who entered last week's "monochromatic brown" challenge - not an easy one but you definitely rose to the challenge with some fab creations.

This week we have a really great challenge for you - a recipe. What we would like to see is projects that incorporate

3 flowers
2 buttons
1 bow

How easy is that??

And we also have a brilliant prize as usual for one randomly drawn winner - this week it's a Lifetime 15% discount voucher for the online craft store of our regular sponsor


Don't forget to check out this week's gorgeous samples from the rest of the DT - here's mine.


I must admit that the whole thing revolved this week around the fact that I had finally managed to get my hands on a Marianne D Creatables "ribbon flower" die set ... and was just soooo excited!! I have to say though - after I had cut it the paper was an absolute pig to get out of the die - even my pokey tool wouldn't shift it - so if anyone has any handy hints and tips as to how to do this without ripping three fiogernails I'd be very grateful ;-) Also I feel that it would be easier to thread wtih soft organza ribbon as thicker ribbon fills the central hole too much ... but I guess it's a case of experimenting. I don't think I've quite got the finished flower perfect yet, but I'm still pretty pleased with the result (when I eventually got there ! :-) )

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "A Tender Hug", coloured with watercolour pencils;
Sentiment: Craftwork Cards;
Paper: My Mind's Eye "Pretty Please";
Supplies: pink roses from Hobbycraft decorated with Stardust Stickles; large spacer from The Hobby House; large jewel brad, buttons and ribbons from my stash;
Tools: large classic circles and large classic scalloped circles Nestsbilities; "Fancy Tags" Shapeabililties; Martha Stewart "garden trellis" edge punch.

As usual I would like to enter this card into a few challenges .....

Paper Sundaes #14 - No people
Stamp With Fun #55 - Animals
Pile It On #15 - Spring
A Spoon Full of Sugar #100 - Happy Birthday
Daring Cardmakers - Die Cut Crazy

One Stop Craft Challenge #77 - Metallic (chunky spacer on my flower)

S2G Challenges - Spring has Sprung with a Twist (flowers)

Our Creative Corner - Blooming Blossoms

I should be out at the Aintree craft show today - will try to restrain myself and not buy too much stash ;-). Have a great weekend whatever you're doing.

All You Need is Love

Crikey!! I don't know where the past week has gone to ... been very busy what with work and one thing & another , so didn't get any crafting in last week at all. Luckily I was able to have a really good sesh on Sunday, although being the slow-coach that I am I still didn't exactly make a mountain of cards lol!!

Anyhow, as there are still so many romantic themed challenges about, I decided to get ahead of myself (unusual for me!!) and make my mum and dad's wedding anniversary card, although their anniversary is a month away.


I followed the fab sketch for this fortnight's BasicGrey challenge #13 - I stretched it a bit to make a C5 card but the basic elements are still there.


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

Simon Says - What's Love Got to Do With It?
Cute Card Thursday #99 - In the Name of Love
Totally Gorjuss #17 - Feel the Lurve

Tree House #36 - Say It With Love
Pixie Cottage #9 - Love
Penny's Paper Crafty Challenges - Valentine/Love

Daring Cardmakers - Have a Heart
My Time to Craft #78 - Hearts & Kisses
Polka Doodles #6 - Hearts & Flowers

Sassy Susie's #8 - Hearts & Flowers

Quixotic #13 - Tag It
Fussy & Fancy #4 - Dazzle Us!
Pile it on #6 - Flowers

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Long-Stem Cuties" (1648K) (an RAK from the lovely Squirrel), coloured with watercolour pencils and Cosmic Shimmers, and the rose dusted with glamour dust;
Sentiment: rub on from stash;
Papers: BasicGrey "Sugared" (roses) and "Two scoops" (plain);
Supplies: lace from Quixotic Paperie; roses from Hobbycraft (decorated wtih diamond Stickles); pink heart gems by Papermania; pearl spray from my stash;
Tools: curved rectangle nestabilities; Leone Em "Ash branch" leaf punch.

A Time for Celebration!

Well here we are, almost at the end of 2009 already ... where on earth has the year gone to??

In anticipation of the New Year's party I'm hoping to get to on (weather permitting!) I have made a New Year celebration card for the hostess.

I followed the excellent sketch at this week's Create4Fun Challenge #52, which I rotated 90 degrees to the left. I tried for once to be a bit imaginative and get a bit of artistic licence going (!?!). It's the first time I have cut out a figure and placed her over a background shape .... I know people do this a lot with Tildas but I don't have any of those .. thought I'd try it with Annie, and I'm pretty pleased with the result :-) I also went in for a bit of criss-crossing with some cord ... hope this is close enough to the original sketch!

This card was also made with quite a few other challenges in mind:

Cupcake #71 - A Time for Celebration

Everybody-Art-Challenge #71,
Stamp with Fun #39,
Stamp with Stampavie #75,
and
Lili of the Valley #43
all have the theme this week of
Happy New Year

Simon Says Stamp - Party!
(well, it's for a New Year Party, and I have to say Annie looks like she's started already lol!!)

Daring Cardmakers - New Beginnings
Our Creative Corner - Celebrate Food or Drink
One Stop Craft Challenge #60 - recycled
(my silver star holographic card is recycled from an Asda tissue box!!)

My Time to Craft #72 - Anything Goes
Creative Card Crew #41 - Anything Goes (3rd entry!)

Blimey! I've just counted up and that's 12 ... just about my best effort yet lol!! I actually also made this for 2 more challenges but alas due to poor lighting conditions today for taking phots plus going out for the day .. I've missed them - never mind!!

I love easel cards but am finding them very difficult to photograph (and the miserable daylight conditions don't help lol) ... so here are a couple more closeup shots - first of the "front" of the card ....

... and also the "base" part of the easel.

Recipe:
Main image: Sugar Nellie "Fizz", coloured with watercolour pencils;
Papers: free with issue 10 of Creative Cardmaking magazine;
Supplies: silver gems and stars, silver cord all by Papermania; silver/white ribbon from my stash; recycled silver holographic card from Asda tissue box!;
Tools: large classic circles and large classic scalloped circles nestabilities; numbers cut using Cuttlebug "Hippie Chick" alphabet dies.

I'd just love to wish everyone who visits my blog, end everyone who I visit a

Happy New Year!

Take care, have fun, and here's to more fab blogging and crafting in 2010 ! :-)

Butterfly Kiss

I thought I would have a little break from making Christmas cards, so instead I sat down to make my November Docrafts friendship card for Karen (CarrieAnne). It was actually really invigorating to get away from the pressure of the Chrimbo card production line, as I have started to feel my mojo slipping away lol!


I followed this week's Stampin' for the Weekend Challenge #25 sketch .....


... and would also like to enter the card for the following challenges:

Daring Cardmakers - Initial thoughts. They would like to see at least 3 things on your card that begin with the first letter in your name. Well I'm quite lucky in that respect ... P is not only for Pauline, but is also for ....
- Penny Black stamps (* 3)
- Paper
- Pearls
- Petals
- Pearlised card
- Punched flowers
- Pricked holes (for the stitching) ....

... and also for Phew!! (lol!)

Stamp 'n' Scrap Hawaii - stitching
Flutterby Wednesday #84 - open theme featuring a butterfly, fairy or angel
Simon Says - Animal Antics. This is my second card for this challenge but i kinda get the impression that they are ok with multiple entries - hope so :-)
Corrosive Challenge #39 - Let's Go to the Movies! I have used the little known movie title Butterfly Kiss - ok so I had to look that one up on IMDb ... but it's there I promise you lol!

I used one of my all-time fave stamps, Penny Black "Bunny Bath" - I never tire of his cute little face looking so loved up with the butterfly :-)

I also decorated the inside, which I haven't been doing with Christmas cards as there just isn't enough time in the world when I have to make so many lol!



Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Bunny Bath", coloured with watercolour pencils with a little doodling around the edges;
Sentiments: Penny Black "... second self" (2386D) (front); Penny Black "Everything's ..." (2733E) (inside);
Paper: My Mind's Eye "Bloom & Grow";
Supplies: lace and charm from Quixotic Paperie; large pearl brad and spacer from The Hobby House; Woodware flower; pearl gems and dragonfly brad from my stash;
Tools: large oval and large scalloped oval nestabilities; Martha Stewart "Ash branch" punch.

Don't forget that if you enter this week's Penny Black Saturday Challenge there are loads of fab prizes on offer on our blog hop, plus I am offering some DT candy if you enter the challenge and visit my DT card here - plus all the other DT members are offering candy too :-).

Melinda does the combo

This is the first time I've been able to post any of the cards I made on Sunday afternoon, as there was no decent light yesterday to photograph anything! It really was one of those afternoons ... first I found that the piece of paper I NEEDED for one of the challenges had mysteriously disappeared (or been used up), and then I spent an hour watercolouring and decorating an image, only to smudge the flowersoft (furry edging) and glue before it was dry ... back to the drawing board!! Eventually though I did manage to make three cards ... so here is the first one.



Here is "Confirmand Melinda" - not really a Christmas image, but I think she works on Christmas cards if teamed with the right papers and embellies. I would like to enter this card for the following 9 challenges:

Whiff of Joy #53 - red, cream and one other colour (in my case ... brown)
Daring Cardmakers - getting punchy with it ... the challenge asks you to use your latest craft punch purchase. Well that's easy for me - my latest is the gorgeous Martha Stewart "Arctic Snowflake" punch. In fact, I've also used my last-but-one craft punch purchase, which was the Martha Stewart "embossed snowflakes" edge punch.
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday #39 - border punches
One Stop Craft Challenge #53 - newspaper/text - I have used a piece of red paper covered with Christmas words.
Saturday Spotlight with Hidden Potential (SSHP05) - In So Many Words - again I have used the text-covered paper.
Our Creative Corner - Vintage Style
Crafty Cardmakers #7 - Stamp Something . The "optional" extra is to use a stamping technique you haven't used before or for a while - I coloured in my image using Twinkling H2O's which have been sitting in my stash unloved for a while!
Flutter By Wednesday #81 - open week ... fairy/butterfly/angel
BasicGrey #7 - photo inspiration. As you can see below - the colours are a deep red, winter white and brown.

Recipe:
Main image: Whiff of Joy "Confirmand Melinda" coloured with watercolour pencils and Twinkling H20's, distressed on the edges using distress ink, and decorated with glamour dust;
Papers: BasicGrey "Wassail" (background), BasicGrey"Figgy Pudding" (across middle), and text paper from my stash;
Supplies: BasicGrey "opaline" pearls; sentiment rub on, brads and lace from my stash;
Tools: Martha Stewart "Arctic Snowflake" punch and "embossed snowflakes" edge punch - from The Hobby House.

Here's an angled shot to show up the iridescent gold twinklies on melinda's dress ...


Back tomorrow with a couple more of my weekend efforts :-)

Update Tuesday: Simon Says Challenge has just posted that they are ENCOURAGING multiple entries for their all that sparkles challenge in an attempt to reach 300 entries. I had already entered this challenge, but as this is a pretty sparkly card I have made whilst the challenge has been open, I'm entering it as a THIRD entry :-)