Snowflake in the Sugar Bowl

This fortnight over at the Sugar Bowl, Challenge #11 is a fabulous sketch by Kathy. As soon as I saw it, the unusually drawn flowers made me think of poinsettas, and from there it was only a short leap of the imagination to pull out my current favourite SN stamp "Snowflake" and start making a Christmas card. As I am currently VERY behind on the "one Christmas card a week" vow this was an ideal opportunity!

I coloured "Snowflake" with watercolour pencils and sprinkled (liberally!) with glamour dust, and then matted her using my deckle rectangle nesties, which I edged with pearlescent ivy Brilliance ink. The sentiment is from a Woodware clear set, stamped onto card cut using my labels nesties. The green paper is by Daisy Bucket, but I have no clue what the red striped paper is as it was a scrap. White snowflake felt ribbon and silver gems are by Papermania, poinsettas and leaves are from the Prima Christmas Bubble. Finally the white swirl was cut from white glitter card using my swirls shapeabilities.

Here is a closer view which shows up the sparkle a bit better :-)

Now I must finish with a plea for mercy ... I copied down the sketch and realise I copied it down slightly incorrectly .. but I spent ages on the card and did it in good faith so I hope you'll be kind!

Hope you're all coping with being back at work after the bank holiday ... only 3 months to August bank hol, and then we'll all be thinking about Christmas cards lol!!

A little cutie!

This week's Creative Card Crew Challenge #11 is shape it - ie. make an unusual shaped card. This is rather outside my comfort zone and not something I do very often, but I fancied a change (and I must confess I could also fancy the fab prize of 2 WOJ stamps that is on offer this week :-) )

I have previously made a circle card using my X-Cut Shapecutter system, and have read about people making small circular cards with their nesties ... so it struck me that I could follow the same principle with my new Peony nesties. As well as creating an unusual shaped card, the peony shape also has the beauty of standing up easily without "rolling".

The card itself is very simple, not least of all because it is so dinky in size that there is not a lot of space to play with! I stamped the PB image "A tender hug" then watercoloured it and decorated it with a few Papermania gemstones. I then cut both the image and a piece of patterned paper using my nested peonies, and inked all the edges with blue Colorbox Q pigment ink. I finished off the card very simply with a couple of diecut butterflies and a heart which matched my paper - (all were free in issue 1 of Creative Cardmaking magazine), and just found enough room for a Cuttlebug diecut greeting.

The inside of the card is very small, but I managed to use up another co-ordinating diecut from the magazine which I thought fitted quite nicely!

I have also found another new challenge blog called Fun with Shapes and More, which requires the use of something cut with either a punch or diecutting system ... and this week Challenge #3 is flowers .... so I hope that a hedgie holding flowers sitting on floral paper and a diecut peony will cover that lol!

Finally, I just spotted that this week's Cuttlebug Be Inspired Challenge #32 is butterflies and hearts - ideally using the CB butterflies and hearts cut'n' mboss combo die, but otherwise any dies you have to hand. Well I did cut my sentiment using a Cuttlebug cut'n'emboss die and the card does have diecut butterflies and flowers ... so I hope it qualifies !

Hello Friend!

I love taking part in the monthly Docrafts friendship swap, and this month there is an additional twist as we have a sketch to follow, courtesy of my fellow Penny Black lover and bloggy buddy Carol. The optional element of the swap is to follow the sketch AND use some of the colours on it (different shades of the colour are acceptable!!) I used paler pink, yellow and green.

Here is the card I have made for Jackie. I would also like to enter it for the following challenges:

Whiff of Joy Challenge #30, which is Friendship - my main image isn't WOJ but I have used WOJ swirls and sentiment.

Secret Crafter #32, which is Glitter.

I used:

Main image: Daisy & Dandelion "Marshmallow" coloured with watercolour pencils, and the daisy decorated with diamond Stickles , image edged with Colorbox Q ink and stamped with WOJ swirls;

Sentiments: WOJ (front) - I believe this came as an "extra" with the Everyday Sentiments set - can anyone confirm this??; Great Impressions (inside);

Papers: BasicGrey "Two Scoops";

Supplies: image and sentiment cut to shape using new "Peony" nesties; flowers by Papermania & Prima; large spacer from The Hobby House; Doodlebug "sugar coated" sparkly brad; feathers were a birthday RAK from Kaz; pearls from my stash.

Here's the inside ....

Hope Jackie will like this as much as I loved the beautiful card she sent me :-)

7 challenges - well knock me down with a feather!

Every month a group of crafty friends and I get together for a little "bits & pieces" challenge where one member sends out a kit .... and all 16 of us then have to make a card using some part of each item from the contents. This month I received a kit from my crafty friend Kaz, which contained:

1 piece or green cardstock embossed with leaves

1 piece of pale yellow handmade paper

1 piece of white Japanese silk paper

1 large green jewel brad

1 length of white/silver ribbon

1 white feather

OMG!! I thought .. this is all very pretty and nice, but what am I supposed to do with a feather ??? And just to add a bit more brain ache, the other element of the challenge was to make our own flowers ....eek!

Time was passing by and inspiration wasn't coming to me, but as the deadline had passed and I also needed to make a "get well" card for my other friend Squirrel who has just had a big knee op, I thought I'd better get to it!! As usual I also cast around for other challenges to inspire me, and here is the result ....

I bought my new WOJ Melinda on Monday and she struck me as very apt for a get well card; and then it occurred to me I could tie her in with the theme of a white feather ... thank the angels for that! I was still struggling with the handmade flower theme, but I had seen another fab card by my friend Samantha featuring a gorgeous flower for which she has put a great tutorial on her blog, and decided to give it a go! So finally I was up and running.

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

Stamp With Fun - I have laid out the card in line with this week's sketch

Stamp Something - yellow, green and blue - which I have reflected in the cardstock and papers

Cute Card Thursday #56 - Floral Fantasy

One-Stop Craft Challenge - Decorative Cuts (my greeting is Cuttlebug diecut, and I have punched the edges inside and out)

Creative Card Crew #7 - Round and around - I have made a circular flower, used a circular brad, and punched a border of circles using my new MS "Scallop Dot" punch

Dutch Dare #44 - Favourite Things - well I have so many ... but at the moment my Melinda stamp is right up there, as is my new MS punch.

...and of course I have made the card for my friends' challenge, making a total of 7 :-)

Recipe:

Image: WOJ "Melinda with bouquet", coloured with watercolour pencils and Sakura glitter pen (flowers), and wings deorated with Glamour Dust;

Papers: BasicGrey "Oh! Baby Boy" collection;

Supplies: papers used for flower, green cardstock, brad , ribbon and feather from my friend's kit; raffia lace from Hobbyraft; flowers inside by Prima and Floradoodles; edging created using MS "Scallop Dot" punch (from ebay); large gold beadcaps (flower centres) from the Hobby House; pearl gems from my stash.

In the end I'm actually pretty pleased with how the card turned out, and think I may well use the idea of a white feather with Melinda again in future :-)

Sketch Saturday #45 - Easter bunny

I really love this week's Sketch Saturday sketch which was produced by my friend PBSC DT friend Tracie; and Icouldn't wait to use it for one of my Easter cards .. in fact I like this sketch so much I'm planning another card with it as well.

This is my last Easter card - I haven't managed to make as many as I would have liked this year, but I have still enjoyed doing them.

For this one I used a gorgeous RAK image that I received in a Docrafts friendship swap with Margaret (Arum Lily) - it is PB "Bunny Bath" - I think I may need to buy it lol! I coloured the bunny using watercolour pencils and a little glitter on the butterfly, and sponged the edges with Colourbox Q pink ink. I matted the image onto lemon pearlescent card using my brand new large deckle rectangle nesties, which I found a couple of days ago in my local craft shop Edwin Allen, despite them being out of stock in all the major online stores - yay! I also embossed the lemon card using the Cuttlebug D'vine Swirls folder, and mounted the lot onto paper from the Papermania "Sweet Nothings" pack. I finished off with raffia lace from Hobbycraft threaded with narrow ribbon from my stash; a mixture of Papermania and WH Smith flowers pinned with a Doodlebug sugar coated brad; and charm, spacer and pearl brads from my stash. The sentiment is also by PB.

I'm on holiday from work today so I'm chillin' .. just need to decide whether to do some cardmaking or go shopping .. or then again maybe I could go craft shopping lol!! Actually I received a little package of yummy spacers from the Hobby House today, so maybe I'll just stay in and play!

Thanks for looking!

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.

Chrissy Marie's Friday's Fable - Midsummer's Eve

Chrissy Marie's inspirational blog contains a beautiful picture and/or poem each Friday to inspire us to create something wonderful; and she has a challenge to win blog candy open til this Friday (August 1st) based on the picture Midsummer's Eve by Edward Robert Hughes (1908) and the following poem by an unknown author ...

If you see a fairy ring
In a field of grass,
Very lightly step around,
Tip-Toe as you pass,
Last night Fairies frolicked there
And they're sleeping somewhere near.
If you see a tiny fairy
Lying fast asleep
Shut your eyes
And run away,
Do not stay to peek!
Do not tell
Or you'll break a fairy spell.

The challenge is to make anything taking inspiration form the picture, poem, or a word in the poem. I have made my first ever "flower fairy" card with a sentiment about keeping dreams in the heart. I used: main image free with craft magazine, coloured with watercolour pencils and Twinkling H2O's, and wings decoratedwith Stickles, mounted onto silver holographic card; lilac pearlescent card embossed wtih Cuttlebug "stylised flowers"; sentiment stamp by Penny Black; flowers by Prima; small charm with butterfly image and "inspire" on reverse from my stash. Hope you like it!

More Challenges - CCT #20 and Whiff of Joy Designer Call

Got on a bit of a roll this afternoon, and thought I'd enter a couple more challenges. Cute Card Thursday Challenge #20 is "Things that grow", so I found a PB stamp with hedgy holding a flower growing out of a plantpot. I am also entering this for Katharina's "Whiff of Joy" Designer call which is running until Wednesday 30th July. She is about to launch her fabulous new stamps and has asked for cards submitted using her sketch: don't know if I have the right idea as i don't have any of the existing cute little girl stamps such as Sarah Kay or Sweet Ebony, but this is my take on the sketch.

I used: main image is PB "Greetings" coloured with watercolour pencils, and the flowers with Twinkling H2O's and Cosmic Shimmers (they are actually quite twinkly!). Sentiment stamp was free with a craft magazine; papers are by Making Memories (I think!), lace from Hobbycraft and flowers by Prima. Today is my first day using my new Nestabilities so they have to be incorporated everywhere! I should mention that the green matting for the striped paper does acutally match the paper - just hasn't photographed well for some reason (I didn't enter this one for the "clashing colours" challenge LOL!!)

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.