Silhouettes

Just a very simple card today which I made for this week's Less Is More Challenge - Silhouettes.

I stamped this gorgeous silhouette wildlife scene by Crafty Individuals - this is another stamp I'm ashamed to say I've had for a long time (about 3 years I reckon!!) and has never seen ink until now! I cut it out and distressed it using Milled Lavender, Dusty Concord, Faded Jeans and Chipped Sapphire distress inks; then added a sentiment and another silhouette of two wildflower stamps - all by Lavinia Stamps ... job done!

Challenges:

Less Is More #42 - Silhouettes

Crafts & Me #61 - Simples!

Flutterby Wednesday's #180 - Open Theme (with butterfly)

Thanks for looking :-)

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 :-)

Quick Card Made Easy

Nowadays I don't generally buy craft magazines, but I just had to rush out to get this month's Quick Cards Made Easy when the lovely Dawny P mentioned that the free gift was an incredibly pretty Pink Petticoat paper pack. I actually went out specially at lunchtime on Tuesday when it went on sale ... and boy I wasn't disappointed, the papers are really yummy!

So I decided that for my first card I would go with the theme of quick card made easy. I was further encouraged by the fact I bought a doily die yesterday, which struck me as a fabulous but easy focal point for the card. I cut the shape out using a fabulous pearelescent white card, but unfortuantely the poor light doesn't really show that up in the pictures.

It is unusual for me to use a sentiment as the focal point of my card; but I thought this fancy PB sentiment would work with the papers and a liberal sprinkling of flowers plus a punched butterfly. This card really was very straightforward - I won't lie, it still took me over an hour, but that was primarily because I sat riffling through my bag of flowers for about half an hour with a daft smile on my face lol!

Recipe:
Sentiment: Penny Black "To You ..." (2908F);
Papers: Pink Petticoat "Vintage Rose", free with this month's Quick Cards Made Easy;
Supplies: all flowers from Wild orchid Crafts; pearls and double ended pin from my stash;
Tools: Marianne D Creatables doily die; Martha Stewart Monarch Butterfly punch.

Challenges:

Winter Wonderland - My Sentiments Exactly
Penny Black At Allsorts (February) - Say It With Flowers
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes With Flowers
Top Tip Tuesday #20 - Girlie
Flutterby Wednesday #140 - Open with Angel, Fairy or Butterfly

Thanks for calling by.

Penny Black Saturday #121 - Don't be Square!

Woo hoo! The weekend is here again, and that can only mean one thing ... it's time for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Thanks so much for all your beautiful entries for last week's "Indian Summer" challenge - don't forget to check the main challenge blog to see if you have won one of our 3 fabby prizes.

This week we have a theme for you .. and it's

Don't Be Square!

As always you can interpret this however you like so long as you use a Penny Black image, sentiment or stickeroo as the main focus of your project.

The rest of the DT have created some stunning and original shaped cards ... this was actually a bit of a challenge for me as I don't really do unusual shaped card so I just got out my trusty circle nesties and hoped for the best lol!


I found this project quite interesting, as the card is fairly teeny tiny so there wasn't a lot of space to work with. It was rather fun though finding one of my smallest images (this was one of my very early PB stamps and I still think it is really sweet!) , paper with a tiny pattern and dinky embellishments - hope you like it :-)

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "A Tender Hug" (3614F) coloured wtih Promarkers and decorated with teeny gems;
Sentiment: Craftwork Cards;
Paper: Papermania "Rose Garden";
Supplies: flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts; papermania gems; lace from my stash;
Tools: large and small classic circles and large classic scalloped circle nestabilities; Leone Em "Ash Family" leaf punch; Papermania small butterfly punch.

As always I would like to enter this for one or two other challenges:

Stamp Something - Something to Celebrate
Flutterby Wednesday's #124 - Sparkle & Shimmer
Sentimental Sundays #22 - Let's See Some Dimension
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday - Non-standard shape card

This week there are 2 fab prizes on offer from our regular sponsor Penny Black.

Don't forget to pop over to the main challenge blog for full details, and hope you'll join in !

Have a great weekend.

Penny Black Challenge #116 - Summer Lovin'

Woo hoo! Welcome to the weekend .. and not just any old weekend but a Bank Holiday here in the UK :-) So here's hoping you'll find plenty of time to join in with this week's Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Many thanks to everyone who joined in last week - there were some fabulous interpretations of the sketch ... and don't forget to check back to the challenge blog to see if you have won a prize. So on to this week's challenge - and we have a theme for you ... Summer Lovin' You can interpret this however you like so long as you follow the one and only golden rule if you wish to be eligible for this week's prizes - we need to see a Penny Black image stamp, large sentiment or stickeroo as the main focus of your project. And talking of prizes ... this week we have 2 fab prizes on offer to randomly drawn winners, from 2 of our regular sponsors. First up, Fantastic Ribbons is offering this selection of black and white buttons ... ... and Dick at PB Stamps is offering a 15% lifetime discount voucher - lovely! The rest of the DT have all been getting loved up and producing some stunning creations ... here's my effort. I really adore this stamp though I don't own it - the image was kindly sent to me by Squirrel. It struck me as perfect for this challenge as it kinda incorprates both summer and lovin' in the one cute image ... awww!! (It was only afterwards when I looked up the stamp details I realised it is called "Sharing Spring" lol!!) Recipe: Main image: Penny Black "Sharing Spring" (3613J), coloured with Copics and Promarkers, and decorated with Stardust Stickles. Sentiment: Papermania; Paper: BasicGrey "Urban Prairie" and MME "Quite Contrary"; Supplies: large rose from Hobbycraft; small roses, cherry blossoms and rosebuds from Wild Orchid Crafts; pearls from The Hobby House; lace from my stash; Tools: Spellbinders small circle, large circle and large scalloped circle nestabilities; Martha Stewart "Valentine lace" edge punch; Marianne D Creatables "swirl leaf"; Fiskars "Victorian" paper cutting blade.

As always I would like to enter this card into a few other challenges ... I'm finding recently my crafting time is so limited I have to make the most of it Wild Orchid Challenge #4 - Make It Sparkle Penny Black At Allsorts (August) - Glitter & Glitz Creative Card Crew - Sparkle & Shine A Pocket Full of Posies #5 - Winged Things Flutterby Wednesday #119 - Open (angel, fairy or butterfly) Crafts & Me #11 - Petals & Pearls Kaboodle Doodles #38 - Lovely Flowers & Lace Alphabet Challenge - R is for Roses Flourishes Timeless Tuesday #81 - Lace Stamp With Stampavie #105 - Swirls Crafty Emma's Store #1 - Anything Goes

Have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing your creations :-)

Penny Black Challenge #103 - In the Garden

Well, it's not only Saturday again ... but for those of us in the UK it's also a bank holiday weekend so yippee ... and it's time for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge :-)

Thanks as always to everyone who entered last week's challenge - you are truly a really dotty lot .. in the nicest possible way! Don't forget one lucky prize winner will have won the PB stamp I donated last week ... so please do visit the main challenge blog and see if it's you!

Onto this week's challenge, and I guess we're living in hope of some summery weather as our theme is

In the Garden

As always you can interpret this however you choose, so long as you use at least one Penny Black image, sticker or sentiment as the main focus of your project.

As always we have another fab prize - this week it is from our regular sponsor Dick at

and is a 15% lifetime discount voucher for use in his online store - lovely!

Here's my card for this week .... don't forget to check out he other DT members' gorgeous samples.


I used the excellent sketch from Papertake Weekly challenge,

and also made this card specifically to fit with the following challenges:

Simon Says - pink or blue with green & brown
Crafts and Me #5 - Distressed
(I have deckle edged all my papers and matting, and sponged the edges of my image)
Creative Inspirations #62 - Distressed
Flutterby Wednesday's #111 - open theme with butterfly, fairy or angel
Paper Play #21 - Up in the air (things that fly)
>Totally Gorjuss #32 - Wings!
Cooking it Up with Katie #18 - Wing It You Pink Petal!
Stamp With Stampavie #96 - Happy Birthday for a Girl

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Teddy and Company" transparent set, coloured with watercolour pencils;
Sentiment: Penny Black "Salutations" transparent set;
Papers: BasicGrey "Sugared";
Supplies: Prima hydrangeas; pearls, spacers and pearl brads from The Hobby House; ric-rac ribbon from Paula.

Hope you all have a great weekend playing "in the garden" !

Promarkers - my latest passion!

There's not been a lot going on with me on the crafting front this week, as I've been laid up with a real stinker of a head cold ... I have been off work sick for 4 days and had the whole days to myself but not felt up to making a card ... it must have been bad lol!!

Today though I thought I'd give it a go, and with good reason ... I mentioned last week that I had bought my first Promarkers and I had a little "dabble" insomuch as I managed to colour in Daisy the cow's hooves and horns. Since then though I have bought some more pens and a blender (naughty!!), so I at last felt up to tackling colouring in an image full on!


Lucky for me that the theme this week at Passion for Promarkers #52 is fantasy/ mythology - as I don't have a huge number if images suitable for colouring with the selction of pens I've got, but I do have this dainty LotV fairy ... and I have been eagerly watching the fab colouring tutorials on LotV's brilliant new Ideas to Inspire blog. I'm very pleased to be able to enter my first ever Promarker card into the Promarker challenge - well, it would be rude not to ;-)

I also followed the sketch from this week's Create 4 Fun Challenge #42



... and would also like to enter this card for

Flutterby Wednesday's #110 - butterfly, fairy or angel + flowers

Charisma #20 - 3D (roses)

Stamp Something - 2 of something ... I have used 2 main colours (lavender and blue), 2 papers, 2 punches, and 2 types of embellishment (flowers and pearls)

Recipe:

Main image: LotV "Fairy on Tiptoe", coloured with Promarkers and decorated with "Blueberry Ice" Stickles;

Sentiment: Craftwork Cards;

Papers: Papermania Henbury Lane";

Supplies: Mixture of roses from my stash and birthday gifts from Helen and Paula; pearls from The Hobby House; lilac ribbon from my stash;

Tools: large standard circles, small standard circles, large scalloped circles nestabilities; "fancy tags" shapeabilities; Martha Stewart "woodland bough" edge punch; Leone Em "Ash branch" punch.

Back tomorrow with another Penny Black Saturday Challenge .. and I've got one or two more promarker efforts waiting in the wings :-)

Penny Black Challenge #94 - Butterflies & bees

Hello and welcome to another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Thanks to everyone who played along last week with Carole's fab sketch, and don't forget to check the challenge blog to see if you have been randomly picked as our winner.

This week our thoughts are turning once more to spring themes, so our challenge is

butterflies & bees

Yes ... we would like to see at least one butterfly or bee (or both!!) on your creation. Don't worry if you don't have any PB images of these flying creatures - you can always use a punch, patterned paper or anything else you can think of that depicts a butterfly or bee - so long as you follow the one golden rule of having a Penny Black image on your creation too :-)

This week we have another fab prize for you from our regular sponsor, Dick at PB stamps - which is a lifetime 15% discount for his online store. With what is probably the largest stock of PB stamps in the world, that's a brilliant prize for all PB lovers!

The DT have all been as busy as bees ;-) making their gorgeous samples, so hope you will visit them and check them out. Here's mine .... this theme gave m a perfect opportunity to crack on with my Easter cards.

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Bees & Bunny" (2305H) which was an RAK from Cathy - coloured with watercolour pencils;
Sentiment: Penny Black "Happy Easter" (2855D);
Papers: Papermania (background), BasicGrey "Oh! Baby Girl" - Hannah (discontinued) (panels);
Supplies: flower - Woodware; large pearl brad and green sparkly gems by Paper Company Studio; large spacer from The Hobby House; floral ribbon and small pearls from my stash;
Tools: large circle, large classic scalloped circle, large oval and large classic scalloped oval nestabilities; Martha Stewart butterfly punch; Leone Em "Ash Family" leaf punch.


I followed the sketch over at this week's Creative Inspirations #53

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

Simon Says - Easter with Glimmer (I have used glitter card for my butterflies, plus sparkly gems and a shiny pearl brad)
C.R.A.F.T. #43 - Easter
Paper Play #12 - Easter
Fussy & Fancy #7 - Easter
Charisma Cardz #12 - Spring has Sprung
Cute Card Thursday #105 - Dimensions (I have used fluttering butterflies and layered flower with a big spacer)

ABC Design - Spring is in full bloom

Colour Create #41 -Your choice of pastels + Spring or Easter
Flutterby Wednesday #102 - fairy, butterfly or angel
BasicGrey #16 - tutti frutti (I have used orange, lemon & lime colours, with an obscure discontinued BG paper).

Looking forward to all your creations :-)

Penny Black Challenge #92 - Spring Colours

Wow another week has flown by, and it's time already for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Thanks to everyone who entered last week's easel card challenge - there were some amazing creations. Don't forget to check if you are the lucky winner of last week's prize.

This week our thoughts are turning to spring ...... I keep thinking that surely it must be round the corner now that Easter is nearly here?? So this week's challenge is to create a project using

Spring colours

Now I have interpreted that as yellow and green, but of course you can interpret it however you like so long as you use a Penny Black stamp or sticker somewhere on your creation.

This week we have a fab prize from our regular sponsor

which is a $20 spending spree in their online store - nice!

Here's my card .... I decided to go for an image and colours that would work for Easter .... and I felt that this wonderful "Spring" sentiment worked so well with the magical image of the butterfly on bunny's nose!

As I've had no crafting time this past week apart from producing DT cards I did my best to also tie this card in with a few other challenges:

Stamp With Fun #49 - Spring
Stampin' B's #49 - Spring
Tanda Teaser #137 - Simply Spring
Rosie D's #66 - Think Spring

By the Cute & Girly - Spring is in the air
Sassy Susie's #10 - Easter
CRAFT #41 - Citrus

There She Goes #45 - Yellow Spring Flowers
Charisma Cardz #10 - Beautiful butterflies
Flutterby #100 - butterfly, fairy or angel
Magical Crafts #10 - Things with Wings
Aimee's Challenge #3 - Things with Wings
Cupcake #81 - Flower Power
Creative Inspirations #51 - Charms
Papercutz #32 - Anything Goes!

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Bunny Bath" (3616J) coloured with watercolour pencils;
Sentiment: Penny Black "Spring Magic" (2852C);
Papers: Crafty Creations;
Supplies: pearl brad, pearl gems and spacer from The Hobby House; raffia ribbon from Hobbycraft; butterfly print ribbon, flowers and enamel charm from my stash;
Tools: large classic scalloped rectangle and large classic scalloped square nestabilities; Crafts Too "butterflies" embossing folder.

Hope you will call by the other DT members' blogs as spring has really sprung with all their fab efforts! Look forward to seeing all your crafty creations :-)

Penny Black Challenge #87 - Pins & Pearls

Hi everyone - hope you're all having a great weekend and are feeling ready to go with the latest Penny Black Saturday Challenge. It was wonderful to see last week how so many of you were able to make a card for someone special ... awww! If you entered don't forget to pop over to the challenge blog to see if you have won the fab discount voucher from PB Stamps.

This week's challenge is

Pins and pearls

As always you can interpret this however you like, so long as we can see at least one Penny Black stamp or sticker on your creation.

To help get your creative juices flowing we have got another fab prize on offer for one randomly chosen winner - from our regular sponsor Valentine's - a PB clear "Robust" alphabet set.

The other members of the DT have created some really fabulous samples this week, so do go and check them out, including our fab new Guest Designer for February - Janneke.

Here's mine ....


Now I have to confess that I struggled with this a bit initially, as I was very nervous about the prospect of using pins on a card. All the fancy head pins I've seen seem to be proper sharp pins without any guards for the point ...and I'm very puzzled as to how people keep them safe and what they do about posting them?? Anyhow, I resolved this dilemma when I saw some double-ended "bar" type pins in Hobbycraft .... so that's the route I went down.... and now I'm unexpectedly pleased with the finished result so I'm glad I did lol!

I'm having a real roses and butterflies phase at the moment ... here are a couple of close ups of those embellies - I gave the roses a good dusting with diamond dust Stickles lol!

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "...dreams..." (2711F) inked with Brilliance pearlescent ink;
Papers: Kaisercraft "Wish Upon" (from The Hobby House);
Supplies: large two-tone rose from John Lewis; smaller roses from Hobbycraft; baby's breath pearl flowers from Edwin Allen; white lace and pearl gemstones from my stash; double ended pearl pin from Hobbycraft;
Tools: "Labels Four" nestabilities; Craft-Too "butterflies" embossing folder (used on green matting); Martha Stewart large "monarch butterfly" punch.

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

Pollycraft #33 - Things with Wings
Flutterby Wednesdays #95 - butterfly, fairy or angel
Crafty Creations #53 - Wings
Pile It On #4 - Enough of Winter Colours
The Pink Elephant #52 - It's All About Pink (not sure whether this is pink enough ... but I hope so :-) )
Crafty Calendar #5 - Love & Friendship (I see this as a friendship card)
ABC - N is for New. Well ... that would be my two tone and cream roses + my pearly pin ... and the nesties have only been used once before lol!

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

Roses Grow on You - & sweet 17

I've had a few things going on this week, which means I'm moving towards the end of the week feeling a tad sleep-deprived and my mojo has been all over the place!! Not managed to do too much crafting, but luckily I managed to make one card which fits quite a lot of challenges :-) In fact I reckon I've managed 17 ... so I've beaten my personal record - yay!


First of all, I followed the fab sketch over at Papertake Weekly #33

I really love this adorable LotV teddy with bouquet (waiting right now for the postie to come with my new LotV stamps ... can't wait!!) and meanwhile this stamp just had to have an outing. I'm also currently loving my Papermania "Blueberry Hill" paper pad ... even though it's not newly released, I bought it for the first time this week. I've also suddenly discovered paper roses - now I know I've not exactly been quick out of the blocks on this one ... but I'm suddenly seeing and buying them in all sorts of places lol!!

I think I also managed to complete the following challenges:

BasicGrey #12 - Animals ... now I bet you're wondering where there's any BasicGrey items on this card .... hmmm? Well actually there are two ... the butterfly is cut from BG "Two Scoops" pink paper, and all the pearls on the card are BG "Opaline" demi-perles.
Die Cut Dreams #32 - Bears
Just Cute Bears Challenge #1 - One for the Girls
Creative Inspirations #45 - Feminine!
Pile It On #3 - Warm Wishes
Crafty Creations #52 - Celebrate!
Raise the Bar #2 - The Gift that Keeps On Giving. I chose my image both for the bear challenges, and also because it was part of my "Secret Santa" Christmas gift from a crafty friend :-)
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday #51 - Inspired by the letter P. That would be Papermania paper, pink, pearls and petals.
A Spoon Full of Sugar #88 - Freestyle (anything goes)
Cute Card Thursday #97 - Blooming Gorgeous!
Dutch Dare #70 - Summer in Winter
My Time to Craft #76 - Elegant Rose
Quixotic #11 - Flutter By
Flutterby Wednesdays #94 - butterfly, fairy or angel
Your Next Stamp #8 - Anything That Sparkles
Cooking It Up With Katie #9 - "non human" image + texture + a product you've never used before. My texture is from the Stickles, and my new products are the roses and white pearly flower.


Recipe:
Main image: LotV "Teddy with bouquet", coloured with watercolour pencils and decorated with Stickles;
Sentiment: Craftwork Cards "Oh! My Words";
Papers: Papermania "Blueberry Hill"; BasicGrey "Two Scoops" (pink butterfly);
Supplies: Pink/cream roses from John Lewis, decorated with Stickles; white satin/pearl flower from Edwin Allen; BasicGrey "Opaline" demi-perles;
Tools: Martha Stewart large monarch butterfly punch; large circles, small circles and large classic scalloped circles nestabilities.

I think I may be taking a couple of days' break from crafting and blogging to recover from the stresses of the past few days ... but I hope I may get chance to play over the weekend :-)