Penny Black Challenge #91 - easel card

Woo hoo its Saturday, so it's time again for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. It was fabulous to see last week's interpretations of Carole's fabulous sketch - don't forget to pop over the the challenge blog to check if you have won last week's prize.

This week we have another great challenge - we would like you to make an

easel card

The only other rule is that you need to use a Penny Black image or sticker somewhere on your creation.

This week we have another great prize from our regular sponsor Clair at

- an SU corner rounder punch.

The DT has been busy making some really gorgeous creations - hope you will pop over to their blogs and check them out. We also have a brilliant new guest designer for March - Nadine - so please do go and say hello!

I really love easel cards as they are so easy to make and give you a bit more "display" area than a standard card .... so I have taken the opportunity to make my mum's Mother's Day card.

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

Simon Says - Mother's Day
C.R.A.F.T. #40 - Mother's Day / Flowers
Totally Papercrafts #6 - Mother's Day / Special Lady
Magical Crafts #9 - Something for Mum
My Time to Craft #81 - Just for Mum
Lili of the Valley #48 - Easel Card
Kaboodle Doodles #25 - Fancy Folds
Stamp Something - Something Girly
Crafty Calendar #6 - Flower Power

Spoon Full of Sugar #93 - beads (hope the little pearl beads on the flower stamens count ... they're all I've got lol!)

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Wind Caressed" (3818J) heat embossed wtih detail gold powder and coloured with Cosmic Shimmer paints;
Sentiments: peel offs and Cuttlebug "Hippie Chick" alphabet lettering;
Papers: BasicGrey "Wisteria";
Supplies: roses from Hobbycraft decorated with stickles; large pearl brads from The Hobby House; floral ribbon and flowers with pearl bead stamens from my stash;
Tools: Fiskars paper trimmer "deckle" blade; Martha Stewart "doily lace" edge punch.

Looking forward to seeing all your creations and have a great weekend :-)

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.

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 :-)

Cute hedgie does the Christmas combo!

I have been on holiday from work this past week, but due to the schedule of jobs I'd set for myself, yesterday afternoon was the first time I managed to sit down for a good crafty session. I stamped out a few of this adorable PB image "fur collared" and made a few cards for various challenges, so you will be seeing more of this cute little fella over the next couple of days ....

Here's my first card:

I have followed the sketch for this week's Corrosive Challenges #41


This card also fits a number of other Christmas challenges, namely

My Time to Craft #69 - Christmas Foliage
Everybody-Art-Challenge #69 - green & red
Stamp with Stampavie #73 - red & green
Charisma #49 - green & red plus white or silver
The Pink Elephant #44 - Your favourite Christmas colour combo. Well mine is generally whatever I happen to be doing right now ... and at the moment green & red seems to be right up there lol!


Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "fur collared" (3763H) coloured with watercolour pencils, and decorated with polar white flowersoft and glamour dust;
Sentiment; Stampendous;
Paper: Reminisce "Snowflake Spots";
Supplies: Flowers by Floradoodles; gems from my stash;
Tools: scalloped rectangle nestabilities; Cuttelbug "Snowflakes" embossing folder.

Here's my second card. I have deliberately made this card for just the one challenge as they don't allow us to combine - it is for this week's Stamptacular Challenge #36 which is Let it shine. I have got sparkle on the fluffy fur, holographic silver card on my matting, shiny silver snowflakes on the ribbon, and sparkkly gems in the flowers.

Recipe:
Main image - as before;
Sentiment: Stamps Away;
Paper: from stash;
Supplies: Snowflake ribbon from Warrington market; flowers by Floradoodle;
Tools: scalloped rectangle nestabilities.

Back tomorrow with a couple more of these cuties :-)

Penny Black Challenge #72 - and an 11-into-1 combo

Yippee! It's the weekend ... so it's time for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge! Thanks to everyone who entered last week's challenge using Nat's fab sketch ... sorry I didn't manage to get round to look at everyone's entries, but I'll try my best this week :-) Don't forget to check out the blog to see who won last week's fab prize!

Now hold onto your (witches') hats ... this week we have a very scary challenge for you, which is

Hallowe'en

Yes ... we want to see all your spooktacular creations with lots of scary spiders ... ghosties and all things spooky! As always the only rule is that you use at least one Penny Black image or
sentiment.

I'll 'fess up straight away that this was a totally scary challenge for me , for a number of reasons - not least of all the fact that I had NO Hallowe'en images, NO sentiments, NO suitable papers ... ribbons ... charms ... embellishments ... EEK! You start to get the idea lol?? Add to this the facts that I'm terrified of spiders, ghosties and ghoulies freak me out, and I hate the colour orange ... and it wasn't looking too good! Luckily my fab PBSC teamie Domi came to the rescue with some cute rather than scary Hallowe'en images and sentiments, and I managed to download my first ever paper (a free one!) so I was at least able to cobble something together .... and although I don't normally use peel offs much nowadays I thought the spiders webs were a cheap and convenient way to hit the spot!

As usual we have got a gorgeous prize for you .. it is this fabulous PB stamp "Cozy" donated by our very own Carole - thanks hun, it's wonderful! :-)

So here's my card ..... spookily it was very sunny when Itook this picture which is totally inappropriate for a Hallowe'en card I know ... strange how the sun never seems to come out when I want a bright picture lol! The rest of the DT has also woven lots of Hallowe'en magic, so don't forget to peek through your fingers at their scary offerings!

As this is almost certainly going to be my one and only Hallowe'en card this year, I'd like to also enter it into a few challenges .....

Corrosive Challenges #34 - Spooky Times

Pile It On #19 - Ready for Hallowe'en

Kaboodle Doodles - It's a spooky challenge

Cupcake Crafts #62 -Things that Go Bump in the Night

Stamp with Fun #29 - Hallowe'en

Creative Inspirations #32 - Hallowe'en

My Time to Craft #82 - Hallowe'en Colours

Everybody-Art-Challenge #62 - Hallowe'en

Stampavie & More #66 - Hallowe'en

Stamp Something - Hallowe'en Somethings

Stampin' for the Weekend #21 - A Haunting Good Time

(11 - a new personal best lol!!)

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Pup-o-lantern" (2538J), coloured with watercolour pencils and the pumpkin decoupaged;
Sentiment: Penny Black "Trick or Treat" (1906E);
Papers: "Super-Spooks" - free download by Marie Stones from Free Digital Scrapbooking
Supplies: Black & orange sparkly brads by Doodlebug; black dotty ribbon and spider's web peel offs from my stash;
Tools: Martha Stewart "Scallop dot" edge punch.

Looking forward to seeing all your spooky creations ..... sleep well, and don't have nightmares ha ha!

Flowers, lace and sparkle galore!

Well, having got back from a week's holiday yesterday evening, I've had one more day off work today before getting back to business tomorrow ... so inbetween feeding the washing machine all day long I have been getting back to the business of cardmaking! I've been at it all day long and yet somehow have managed to make only 2 cards ... I'm normally pretty slow but not sure what's happened today!

The first card I made must stay behind the scenes for now as it is my PBSC DT card; but here's the second one I made, using stash both old and new including one of the stamps I bought last week on my visit to The Glitterpot.

For this card I followed the sketch over at Secret Crafter Challenge #43 ... it would be rude not to seeing as I found out this morning I won their monthly random draw whilst I was away ... woo hoo and thankyou!!
I would also like to enter this card for

One Stop Craft Challenge #40 - Swirls and Pearls: my floral stamp and paper both have swirly elements in the design, and my background embossing is using the Cuttlebug "Birds and Swirls" folder (first time out even though I've had it quite a while .. tut tut!!) I have used pearls both in the flower centre and edging decorations.
My Time to Craft #71 - floral frenzy
Dutch Dare #57 - lace on your card
Creative Inspirations #14 - Bling! and
Daring Cardmakers - Bejewelled Bliss! Both of these would like to see bling or sparkle - well I have got a few iridescent gems on the corners of the card, and it is also quite sparkly as I coloured my stamp with Twinkling H2O's and Cosmic Shimmer paints. Also my embossing is done onto iridescent pink card - fabulous how it changes colour when it catches the light!

And here's a close up to try to capture the iridescence and sparkle!

And the inside....

Recipe:

Main image: Penny Black "Day-Dreams", heat embossed with detail gold powder and coloured with Cosmic Shimmers and Twinkling H2O's;
Sentiments: Craftwork Cards "Oh My Words!";

Paper: Magenta; iridescent pink card from Edwin Allen;

Supplies: gold lace from Quixotic Paperie; gold spacer from The Hobby House; Papermania iridescent gems; flowers, pearls and dragonfly brad from my stash.

( Main image stamp, sentiments and paper all from The Glitterpot)

Well having done all this washing I guess I'd better get down to some serious ironing ... work tomorrow (sigh!). Have a good evening!

All challenges lead to Christmas!

I've been too busy to make any cards this past week, so I haven't entered any challenges. I'm also very aware that the time for Chrimbo card preparation is drawing near, and I was inspired to start making an effort after going to a Christmas launch event at a nearby craft shop "Crafts4u2do" in St. Helens. So ... from now on I'm going to be looking at tying in some of my challenge cards to Christmas card making .. starting now!

This week's My Time To Craft Challenge #26 is Cats; Cute Card Thursday #23 is Soft Furnishings (you can use fabric, ribbon, stitching, buttons etc, anything you can find on the soft furnishings in the home ie curtains, cushions, sofas etc.); and Penny Black Saturday Challenge #10 is Ribbons - as you can see I have incorporated both ribbons and a button into my design, plus a scalloped edge with brads that you could imagine is the shape of a pelmet with studs.

Main image: Penny Black "Holly Jolly" coloured wtih watercolour pencils & Twinkling H2O's

Sentiment: E-Z Rub On Transfers

Paper: Carol Wilson Fine Arts

Ribbon: The Paper Company Studio

Button: Doodlebug

My Time To Craft #25 - Christmas!

The My Time to Craft Challenge this week is to make something for Christmas ... clearly this theme is now ramping up to encourage us to prepare for Dec 25th in good time! This card was a bit of a quick experiment this evening and I'm not entirely happy with how it turned out, but here it is anyway! Apologies for the poor photo - I finished after dark!
I stamped the new PB Christmas stamp "Fantasy" straight onto royal blue cardstock and embossed using "snowflake tinsel" powder, and then decorated the tree with my new blue Ice Stickle. The sentiment is from Make My Mark in York, and the ribbon is from my stash.

My Time to Craft #24 and Stamp Something Challenges

My Time to Craft Challenge #24 is to produce a card using the colours RED, BLACK and WHITE. This wasn't an easy one for me as it isn't a colour combo I ever use, but I thought I'd give it a go... I also combined it with the Stamp Something Challenge to make a "thankyou something"; and lastly I am also submitting this card for the Docrafts open stamp challenge "D", as "D" is for "dandelions".

I used main image stamp "Dandelions" by Lavinia, inked with Brilliance black and white inks and embossed with holographic powder; "thankyou" stamp free from a craft magazine, masked so that the centre was blank, and Prima flowers from my stash pinned with a Making Memories jewel brad.