PBSC #55 - Sketch! .... and some candy!!

Hello everyone, and welcome to week 55 of the Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Some of you may just about have noticed that I've not been around for the past couple of weeks ..... I had to take a little bloggy break due to the fact that my department at work was having a re-org and I have had to apply for my job. After a lot of sweat and heartache, preparation, interview & presentation, the result is finally known ... and I'm very relieved to say I still have a job. However some of my colleagues are less fortunate right now and have got to go through the whole rigmarole again to try to secure a different job ... so right now I'm rooting for them.

Anyhow, I'm now trying to put all the stress behind me and get back in the bloggy saddle .. so here we are with a new card..... and what better way to start than with this week's PBSC, which is a fab sketch by Nat??

I'm sure you will love this sketch as much as the DT did .... and to be sure they have produced some wonderful cards to inspire you, so do pop over to their blogs for a look. Don't forget, to enter the challenge all you have to do is produce any project using the sketch, so long as we can see at least one Penny Black stamp or sticker somewhere on it!

As always we have got a great prize this week ... Dick at PB Stamps is giving a 15% off voucher to one lucky winner.

Before I get down to my card, I should say that I was gutted to miss the challenge's first birthday party two weeks ago ... so I have decided to have a belated celebration of my own!! I am offering a

mini candy

to one lucky winner which will consist of this week's card along with a small package of goodies .. now the contents are a secret but I can tell you that they include similar colours to the card -

pink and green

yay!

All you have to do to enter my candy is the following:

1. Enter this week's PBSC in the normal way, leaving a comment on the challenge blog with a link to your work.

2. ADDITIONALLY, leave a comment on this post with a link to your work, to let me know you would like to enter my candy :-)

I will choose my favourite entry next Saturday and post the results on my blog.

So without further ado, here's this week's effort!

Recipe:

Main image: Penny Black "Bundle of Wishes", coloured with watercolour pencils and decorated with Papermania gemstones, cut out using labels nesties and matted onto pink cardstock;

Sentiment: Whiff of Joy "Everyday Greetings";

Papers: BasicGrey "Sultry";

Supplies: Papermania patterned ribbons; Prima hydrangeas; sparkly brads by Doodlebug & Making Memories; green leaves cut from pearlised cardstock using Leone Em "Ash Family" punch

Here's another view of the card, in a lame attempt to show the sparkly gems and brads a bit more clearly.

Hope you all have a great weekend; and I look forward to seeing all your creations this week and entries for my candy!

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.

4 into 1 does go!

I needed to make a "get well" card for a close friend who is having a knee op done next week, so looked around for some challenges to help me with some inspiration. I think I managed to fulfil 4 challenges with this card:


1. Colour create #4 - pink & grey, with the optional theme of cute and cuddly (well I think Ellie is exceptionally cute and cuddly, don't you?)
2. CCT # 49 - animal magic
3. Charisma Cardz #8 - Animals
4. Cupcake Craft Challenge #28 - sketch.


This is my first go at the Colour Create Challenge which I thought was Sunday, but I'm now hoping I'm not too late !! (eek!)

Recipe:
Main image and sentiment (inside) : Penny Black
Sentiment (outside): Cuttlebug diecut
Supplies: flowers - Prima; brads - Doodlebug sugar coated; charm - Dolls Made Up; paper and pearl gems from my stash.
Silver card border cut with my new Martha Stewart doily punch.

The inside follows the outside layout fairly closely.

I hope that this will cheer my friend up while she is laid up and that she'll soon be back to full fitness.

Have a good weekend and thanks for looking.

Penny Black Challenge #37 - Get Well Soon

Hello again ... welcome to the weekend, and the latest Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Already we are at week 37 - where does the time fly? As ever the DT would like to thank everyone for their amazing response to Nat's fabulous sketch challenge last week - don't forget to look out for the prizewinner.

This week's challenge is Get Well Soon - your chance to send a hug to a loved one who is under the weather. As always you may interpret this any way so long as you include one or more PB stamps or stickeroos in your design.

We have another amazing prize kindly donated by Carole - a selection of fab buttons and ribbons to jazz up one lucky winner's future creations.

I thought I would interpret this as sending a bouquet of good wishes to someone , and that I would make the card in cheerful and spring like colours.

I inked up one of the cuties from the PB "Hugs!" set for the first time, and also used some cheerful spring papers that came free with the first issue of a new craft magazine - Creative Cardmaking. I don't normally go much on the free papers in craft mags, but I liked these sufficiently that Iactually bought the mag because of it!

I am still decorating the insides and am loving using my new personalised stamps on the back - I particularly like this one as I can colour the 3 flowers to match the colour scheme of the card.

I used:

Main image: Penny Black transparent set "Hugs!" coloured with watercolour pencils & decorated with Stickles.

Sentiments: "For You" by studio g clear stamps; "A Bouquet ..." by Hero Arts; "Hugs & Kisses.." (inside) by Inca.

Papers (inc. printed disc): free with issue 1 of Creative Cardmaking magazine.

Supplies: flower by WH Smith; brad by Doodlebug sugar coated; charm from Dolls Made Up. Leaves punched using Leone Em Ash branch punch.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Penny Black Challenge #36 - Sketch by Natalie

Hello everyone, and welcome again to the Penny Black Saturday Challenge - week 36. Well I have to say what a fantastic response to last week's challenge of romance ... and what a romantic lot you all are!! We were thrilled by the wonderful array of romantic cards, so don't forget to pop over to the challenge blog to see who has won the prize

This week's challenge is a brilliant sketch by Natalie - the DT loved working with this and we hope you will too. You can see the fantastic DT examples on the challenge blog as well as details of this week's prize - hope you will take a peek. Don't forget that the only rule is that you must have PB image (stamp or stickeroo) somehere on your creation.

Here is my interpretation.

Recipe:

Main image: PB "Crossing bridges" coloured with watercolour pencils;

Sentiment: PB transparent set "Salutations";

Papers: Imaginisce;

Flowers: Prima hydrangea petals ;

Ribbon: Hobbycraft;

Brads: Papermania and Doodlebug sugar coated;

Charm: Dolls Made Up.

You won't see any interior pics of this card for two reasons: I only finished the outside at gone midnight, and I hadn't a scrap of the paper left (though I really NEED to get some more LOL!)

Have a great weekend, and looking forward to seeing all your creations.

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)

BasicGrey meets Friday Sketchers in the snow

I always look out particularly for what's going on over at Friday Sketchers and BasicGrey Challenges, and find they are often great to combine. This week the Friday Sketchers #29 is particularly fab as it is multi-layered, and so encouraged me to break out a number of co-ordinating BasicGrey Christmas papers ... so while I was about it I embossed my card greeting in silver so that it could fulfil this week's BasicGrey Challenge #12 which is embossing.

Of course with Christmas looming so fast there are a number of Christmas themed challenges on the go right now, which means I was able to tie this card in to three other challenges, namely

• Papertake Weekly, which is Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow
• Cute Card Thursday #37, which is snow and snowflakes
• Rainbow Lady #40, which is snowman

I used: main image - Sugar Nellie snowman kindly given to me by Cathy (I really must buy a ccouple of these stamps!); sentiment - Rubber Soul; papers - BasicGrey "figgy pudding"; white sparkly ricrac and coloured gems by Papermania; snowflake diecuts by Cuttlebug; sparkly white brad by Doodlebug.

A li'l bits & pieces challenge ... dotting the "i"s.

I'm part of a small group of crafting buddies who set each other a monthly challenge ... we all wait with baited breath for the dreaded envelope to land on our doormats, and then we have to conjure up a creation with the contents! This month I got a wee kit containing the following:

• 1 small square card with matching envelope
• 1 piece of brightly coloured (!) flowered paper
• 1 jewel gem
• 1 gold photo clip
• 1 length of white organza ribbon edged with gold (not in the photo as I temporarily lost it ... but luckily found it before making the card LOL!!)
• A pack of epoxy bubble stickers.

The deal is that we have to use at least something of each element..... well! Here is what I made ... I couldn't envisage using a stamped image with this little lot, so I went down the fabric flower route. This is truly very different for me! I covered most of the front of the card with papermill black/gold lustre cardstock with punched corners, cut a band of the paper and punched it with my Papermania multishaper punch, fixed the making Memories, WH Smith and Prima flowers together with a Doodlebug sparkly brad, cut out a paper flower to lodge under an epoxy sticker, cut a sentiment from my Cuttlebug "Everyday Greetings" cut'n'emboss set (and used the gem to dot the "i"), and finished off with a couple of green swirls cut with my new shapeabilities. perhaps it's not my best effort but 'tis done now LOL!

Now I noticed that Poppicrafts has also got a li'l blog competition which incorporates both no images plus has to consist of the colours black, pink, green and/or white. I think this card is a pretty good fit ... if you think you can see a bit of purple on there, it's just a trick of the light ROFL!!
Thanks for looking!

Sketch Something

This week's Stamp Something Challenge is Sketch Something - use the fabulous sketch by Katharina - and even better, there is a wonderful WOJ stamp up for grabs as a prize - so I suggest you pop over there to take a look.

I wanted to make a card for my dear friend Steph, as she has been selected to go out to the Sudan to help the government there set up a new Trading Standards department - what an achievement! I already had to hand a wonderful Penny Black image gifted from my friend Samantha, which brought to mind the fact that Steph's truly flying high with this amazing opportunity. So I just laid out the card in line with the sketch - its a bit simpler than my usual style of cards, but I'm not sure whether that's a good or a bad thing (I tend to get flower withdrawal symptoms LOL!) Anyhow, here's the finished result.

I used: Penny Black image "Frequent Flyer" coloured with watercolour pencils and glittered wtih a Stickle (though that doesn't show up on the photo very well); papers by Melissa Frances; pink pearlised card embossed with Cuttlebug swirls and flowers; sentiment diecut with Cuttlebug; Doodlebug sugar coated brads; ribbon from my stash.

Three Challenges in One

Whilst trying to make the most of my craft weekend I decided to make a card for one of my fabourite challenges - Penny Black - but also to tie it in with a few other challenges that are currently in progress.

First: Penny Black Saturday Challenge #16 is Seasons - so I have made a Christmas card.

Second: My Time To Craft #30 is Blue, which ties in nicely with the Christmas theme.

Last but not least: I have laid out the card in line with Friday Sketchers #21 , though I should mention I didn't have internet access and a friend drew it out for me ... the sketch I followed was slightly different from the picture below, but I did my best LOL :-).

I used: Penny Black "Snowy" stamp inked and edged with Colour Box queue ink from the "deep sea" set (this idea was devised by Mand, who tried it cos she hadn't got her waterbrush to colour in a Versafine image!!); sentiment stamp from "Make Your Mark" in York; snowflake brads by Dovecraft; white sparkly brad from Doodlebug "sugar coated" range; flower by Cardology; blue star gems by Papermania; ribbon and papers from my stash; white glitter card embossed with Cuttlebug snowflakes folder.

Stamp Something Challenge - Dazzle!

I found the Stamp Something Challenge for the first time this evening, asking crafters to "dazzle us with something that sparkles, shines, shimmers, or glitters!!" As they are celebrating official summer over there with the 4th July, I couldn't resist sharing my most recent sparkly shiny card that is ... wait for it .. an early CHRISTMAS card!! Hope you like it!

The main stamp is Penny Black "Xmouse ornament!" coloured with watercolour pencils then matted and layered onto pale blue sparkle card and then silver holographic card embossed with Cuttlebug Snowflakes folder. The snowflake is glittered using a Stickle; and the background paper, ribbon and rub-on greeting are from my stash. Snowflake buttons are by Doodlebug.