Penguin Fun

I absolutely adore this cute Pickle stamp from Wild Rose Studio - he looks like he is having so much fun delivering his sleigh full of presents. This image is one of several I coloured in a few weeks ago and I have been gradually working my way though them since. A few days ago while having a bit of a crafty clear out I found several squares of embossed pearlised white card sitting ready to make up into cards ... so I quickly put the two together to make another Chrimbo card. I tried to add a bit of interest with these yummy poinsettas from my local craft shop Crafts4U2Do, who are now stocking their own fabulous brand of flowers called "Sweet Lilac", and finished off with my new Cheery Lynn die which is just sooo gorgeous and I'm really pleased with it :-)

Not the best light for photos again ... for some reason I have a real problem getting a true colour when photographing red, as  it always comes out far too bright. I have photo-edited it to calm it down although it is still too light, but that has made my green go a bit off-kilter lol!

Stamps: Wild Rose Studio "Pickle with Sleigh";

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers; glamour dust all around!

Supplies: poinsettas by Sweet Lilac dusted wtih Stickles; gems from The Hobby House; ribbon and peel off my stash;

Tools: Cheery Lynn die "holly flourish"; Cuttlebug Snowflake folders.

Challenges:
Joanna Sheen Challenge #1 - It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Pollycraft Monday #120 - Christmas Fun

Stamptacular #140 - Anything Christmas

Craft Your Passion #86 - 'Tis The Season

Ooh-La-La #94 - Lots of Sparkle

Dream Valley #21 - Sparkle
Colour Create #85 - Red, White and Green
Cooking it Up With Katie #86 - Anything Goes

Simon Says - Anything Goes

The Ribbon Reel #16 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)
Scrapbook Sisters #62 - Anything Goes
Crafty Creations #146 - Picture inspiration

(I was inspired by the red for the flowers, the green holly wreath, and the wood for the sleigh)

Thanks for looking - have a great day.

WRS Candy Showcase - and a reminder

I'm currently offering some Christmas candy until midnight Saturday (details of how to enter are here) ... so I thought I would make a card using my version of the adorable Wild Rose Studio Pickle stamp (my candy winner will of course get brand new one!)

I actually coloured a few images from this stamp - he suits both contemporary and traditional colour schemes. Here he is in a vibrant funky colour scheme of lilac and green (made specially for the Ribbon Girl colour challenge !! :-)  ).

Stamps: Wild Rose Studio "Pickle with Sledge"; LotV Christmas Sentiment Circles;

Medium: Promarkers and Flexmarkers; Pickle's hat decorated with Polar White flowersoft mixed with glamour dust;

Papers: Bo Bunny;

Supplies: sparkly gems from The Hobby House; ribbon from my stash;

Tools: Memory Box "Snowflake Border" die from Dies To Die For.

Challenges:

The Ribbon Girl - Jingle All The Way To Christmas!

The Ribbon Girl #12 - Lilac and Green

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - Sparkly!

Ooh-La-La #91 - Let It Snow!

Secret Crafter #157 - Wrap Up Warm

Christmas Card Challenge #47 - Recipe: 2 DP's 1 ribbon and a bird

Simon Says - Anything Goes
(with optional use of Bo Bunny)

Here's a close up of my fabulous new Memory Box die - when I bought it last week I also received some little die cuts of others in the range (no doubt to tempt me to further purchases lol!) and they really are amazingly intricate. This pic also tries to capture some of the sparkle of the glitter card ... the whole card is very sparkly but alas the poor light hasn't shown that up at all well.

And talking of candy .... Charmed Cards and Crafts is giving away this absolutely AMAZING mega candy here .... you don't want to miss this!!

They are asking people to follw their blog and link back to one of your own projects where you have coloured an image - well this card shows an image of mine coloured using my latest pens - I'm quite pleased with the blending :-)

That's all for today - hope you will hop over to my candy post and enter. Thanks for visiting. 

All Things Bright And Beautiful

I always try to enter the monthly By The Cute and Girly challenge if I can, as they have both brilliant challenge themes and also fab prizes :-), but this month has just flown by what with holidays and one thing and another. However I have been confined to barracks for the past couple of days due to this stinking cold, so I thought I would make a bright and beautiful card to cheer myself up!!  I found this cute stamped Forever Friends image lying around so decided to colour the flowers using some of my new funky bright tones of Flexmarkers (I always colour fur using Copics, but I'm looking out for what new Flexmarker shades appear later to see if I can get some fur colours from Letraset too!!).

Here's the result of my efforts, which is attempting to address the theme of "bright and beautiful" in 2 ways - "each little flower that opens" (from the hymn lyrics) and bright colours (which I always find a bit scary, but I made myself do it lol!).

I also decided to use one or two neglected bits & bobs from my stash ... the flowers that teddy is holding are daisies, so I dug out some flat flowers from my stash plus some metal spacers .... not been near them for quite a while!

Recipe:

Main image: Forever Friends, coloured with Copics and Flexmarkers;

Sentiment: Craftwork Cards;

Papers: Papermania "Forever Friends - Springtime";

Supplies: pearls and spacers from The Hobby House; ribbon and daisies from my stash;

Tools: large circle, large scalloped circle nestabilities; Martha Stewart "doily lace"edge punch; Leone Em "Ash Family" leaf punch.

Challenges:

Sketch Saturday #174 - Sketch

Cute Card Thursday #184 - Animal Crackers!

Crafty Purple Frog - Lots of Layers

Deep Ocean #9 - Happy Birthday

Cupcake #161 - If You Go Down to the Woods Today ...

Sentimental Sundays #74 - Step Out of Your Comfort Zone (bright colours!)

Corrosive #133 - Punches &/or Dies

Ooh-La-La #89 - Punches / Dies

Wee Memories #69 - Patterned Paper

By The Cute & Girly (September) - All Things Bright & Beautiful

Simon Says - Anything Goes

Southern Girls #28 - Anything Goes

Sweet Stampin' - Anything Goes

Lollipop #50 - Anything Goes

Anything Goes #50 - Anything Goes

Creatalicious #26 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

That's all for now ... back tomorrow with a new Penny Black Saturday Challenge ;-)

Happy Anniversary Darling!

This week it is my wedding anniversary .... 27 years - blimey where did the time go to?? We will be out and about on the day, so I think I'm safe in posting this card I made for my darling husband a couple of days in advance as he never looks on here!!

I struggled a bit with this as I couldn't think at first what image to use ... all the ones I have with cute couples on he has seen already, and there's only so many new stamps you can buy for one use only (maybe I'm starting to get a bit sensible at last !!??!!) Anyhow, I did have this gorgeous romantic elephant image by LotV which I bought back in May and have never inked up yet (blush!!) , so I thought that would be suitable so long as the layout and colours aren't too girly. Here's the result.

Recipe:

Main image: LotV "Blowing Bubbles" coloured with Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Sentiments: LotV sentiment circles  on front (I masked "your" to make "our"); Penny Black transparent set "Every Which Way" (inside);

Papers: Craft Creations (gingham) and Papermania "Henbury Lane" (glittered dots);

Supplies: heart buttons from my stash;

Tools: large, small, scalloped and lacy circle nestabilities; Marianne D Creatables heart dies; Martha Stewart "valentine lace heart" edge punch.

I also decorated the inside of this card to make it a teeny bit more special ...

Challenges:

Ooh-La-La #88 - Anniversary

Totally Papercrafts #83 - Cute With Buttons

Paper Sundaes #86 - Finishing Touches

Charisma #36 - Inspired By A Song

("I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles")

That's all for today .. hope everyone is having a good week :-)

I Love Pickle!

No, this isn't an exhortation to "bring out the Branston's", but a declaration of adoration for this cute little guy who features on Wild Rose Studio's latest release of stamps - isn't he the cutest ever?? As soon as I saw these stamps I had to order two ... I'm currently waiting for the lovely ladies at The Glitterpot to send me the second one as some naughty person must have popped the last one into their basket at the same time as me, but I'm sure it will soon be here. Meanwhile I just HAD to make a card with this adorable stamp "Pickle With Presents".

This stamp is really quite big, so I decided to keep the whole thing simple and make a card for this week's Less Is More challenge - Things That Move. I'm sure you'll agree that Pickle is putting his best foot forward dragging along that sleigh, even though the vehicle would also move of its own accord if it was given just the teeniest push downhill in the snow !  I know that the general LIM style is arty rather than cute but I thought this one ticks the boxes, so I couldn't resist!

I'm very pleased with this stamp as it is very simple to colour, which I'm sure will be a godsend when it gets nearer to Christmas!!

Recipe:

Main image: Wild Rose Studio "Pickle With Presents", coloured with Promarkers and dusted with glamour dust on his hat :-);

Sentiment: Pink Gem Designs;

Supplies: dotty ribbon from a box of Christmas goodies sent to me by Helen;

Tools: background white pearlescent card embossed with Cuttlebug "snowflakes" folder.

Challenges:

Less Is More #29 - Things That Move

Totally Gorjuss #94 - Cute and Cuddly

Passion for Promarkers #114 - No Patterned Paper

Ooh-La-La #87 - No Backing Paper

Charisma #34 - Glitter It!

That's all for now ... back on Saturday with another Penny Black Saturday Challenge.

Duckling and daffs

I decided I needed to get a wriggle on if I were to get a reasonable amount of Easter cards ready in time now that the season is looming up on us, and I felt inspired by the couple of sunny days we've had plus the lighter nights since the clocks went forward last weekend.

I absolutely love this Penny Black duck - I've had him a long time but he still always makes me smile, and of course think of spring.

Recipe: Main image: Penny Black "Duckling" (3347H), coloured with Promarkers; Sentiment: Penny Black; Papers: Papermania "Forever Friends - Springtime" (I've actually bought two packs of this paper, I love it so much!!) Supplies: pearls from the Hobby House; ribbon and small silk daffs from my stash; Tools: Martha Stewart "woodland bough" edge punch (just seen); "Decorative corners" Shapeabilities.

Challenges:

I followed this week's sketch for Sketch Saturday #149

Dutch Dare #107 - Spring Has Sprung

Simon Says - Spring Colours / Easter

I ♥ ProMarkers #60 - Easter

Everybody-Art-Challenge #136 - Easter

Stamp With Fun #105 - Easter

Ooh-La-La #77 - Happy Easter

The Pink Elephant #97 - Easter

Dream Valley #4 - Things With Wings

Crafts and Me #29 - Glitter

Spoon Full of Sugar #146 - At Least Two Different Textures

(glitter card and silk flowers)

My Partner in Crafting Crime #24 - Layer it Up

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

The Crazy Challenge #61 - Just Add Flowers

Still keeping the posts short as blogger is still runing all my text together unless I put all my div separators in manually. I'm looking to maybe install Windows Live Writer soon, in which case I will be able to get back to my chatty self :-)

Let Them Eat Cake!

Happy Friday everyone! I've been working such long hours recently that I have more than made up enough time for a flexi day from work ... so today I am having a rare day of r&r and playtime!! I decided to make a card using the adorable LotV "Rosie with Cake" - another stamp I'm ashamed to say I've had since last autumn and not inked up before ... all the stamps I bought back then had to wait until after the Christmas rush!! Anyhow, I decided to go ultra girly today, and here is the result. Recipe: Main image: LotV "Rosie with Cake" coloured wtih Promarkers and Copics; Sentiment: LotV Sentiment Circles; Papers: Pink Petticoat "Vintage Rose"; Supplies: all flowers from Wild orchid Crafts; pearls from Wild orchid Crafts & The Hobby House; pink raffia lace from my stash; Tools: nestabilities small circles, lacy circles and "Labels One"; martha Stewart "Valentine lace" edge punch. Challenges: I followed the sketch for this week's Wild Orchid Challenge #17 Cupcake Challenge #130 - Cake 'n' Ice Cream One Stop Craft Challenge #119 - Birthday Card - With Cake LotV #85 - Circles Ooh-La-La #74 - Pink, Pink and More Pink Stamp Something - Something With Flowers Spoon Full of Sugar #140 - Birthday Wishes Flourishes Timeless Tuesday #106 - Birthday Card Crafty Ann's #35 - Birthday Card Incy Wincy # 81 - Use Punches or Dies Crazy4Challenges #75 - Use Dies Just off now for the afternoon cardmaking session :-) Oh I wish every Friday could be like this!!

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!

Oh Christmas Tree!

More miserable weather yesterday, so I decided to stay in and do a bit of crafting. Every now and again I like to bring out this huge tag-shaped stamp by Inkadinkadoo as I think it makes a lovely traditional card, especially when teamed with BasicGrey paper. Also it has struck me as particlarly apt fo this week's SImon Says Challenge, which I was particularly keen to enter this time as they are offering a whopping $50 prize - how fabulous! I'm sure I'm not alone in suffering from winter-itis when it comes to taking card pics though - the light is so dull here this morning that everything looks decidedly dreary and all the sparkle and glitter is lost in translation :-( Can you just about make out the glitter on the snowflakes and roses in this closeup?? Recipe: Main image: Inkadinkadoo Tin Can Mail, inked with Brilliance pearlescent ivy ink; Sentiment: LotV Christmas sentiment circles; Papers: BasicGrey "Figgy pUdding", and a white self-coloured snowflake paper from my stash; Supplies: pearls from The Hobby House, ribbon and glittered roses from my stash; Tools: small classic circles and lacy circles nestabilities; "Make A Flake 2" shapeabilities. I would like to enter this card into the following challenges: Simon Says - Sketch Wild Orchid #11 - An Old Fashioned Christmas

Ooh La la #68 - Christmas Song ("Oh Christmas Tree")

Wee Memories #34 - Christmas Song (as above)

Challenge Up your Life #33 - Christmas

Raise the Bar #46 - Trees

Alphabet Challenge - F is for Foliage

Creative Craft - Tag It!

Dutch Dare #92 - Christmas Card, Tag or Ornament

Colour Create #59 - Green, White & Grey

Paper Play #48 - Monochrome Top Tip Tuesday #12 - Anything Goes Gotta decide now whether to do more crafting today or whether to tackle the long overdue pile of ironing .... hmmm.... :-)

Penny Black Saturday #124 - Spooky Nights!

Hello and welcome to another week of the Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Thanks so much to everyone who joined in last week with Debby's fabby sketch - there were some beautiful interpretations ... and don't forget to check the challenge blog to see if you are a randomly drawn prize-winner.

Before we get onto this week's challenge a little bit of news .. we have a new teamie so would like to give Jenny a great big welcome. Her cards are awesome so you are in for a real treat!

This week we are getting into the spirit of the dark autumnal nights when witches and ghosties creep abroad ... so we have a Hallowe'en theme for you.

Spooky Nights

... and we have a fantastic prize this week from Fantastic Ribbons of four rolls of ribbon of the winner's choice - as always the winner will be drawn randomly. Don't forget to be eligible for the prize you need to use a Penny Black image, large sentiment or stickeroo as the main focus of your project.

The rest of the DT have been scaring themselves (and each other!) silly with their fab spooky creations - here's mine.

I decided to take the theme "spooky nights" rather literally, and created a pearlescent white moon in a purple sky by inking a cut out mask with Brilliance ink; and as I am so short of Hallowe'en supplies I created some bats using downloaded clipart.



Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Witchy Mouse" (2253K) cloured with Promarkers and Copics;
Sentiment: Penny Black "halloween web" (3902K);
Papers: Bo Bunny;
Supplies: pearls from The Hobby House; lace and spider's web corner peeloff from my stash;
Tools: large classic circles and lacy circles nestabilities.

Naturally there are quite a lot of similarly themed challenges out there right now, so I would like to enter a few ....

Stamp With Fun #81 - Hallowe'en
Really reasonable Ribbon #10 - Hallowe'en

Crazy4Challenges #60 - Hallowe'en

Creative Inspirations #45 - Hallowe'en or Fall
Baby Bud #1 - Hallowe'en or Fall

Creative Inspirations #83 - Spooky!
CRAFT #73 - Spooky...
Spoon Full of Sugar #126 - Boo!
Ooh-La-La #65 - Scary Stuff
Dutch Dare #89 - Hallowe'en, or Purple, Black, Orange and Green
Kaboodle Doodles - Let's Go Batty!
My Time To Craft #111 - Hallowe'en - Ghosties, Ghoulies & Long Legged Beasties
Raise The Bar #41 - Orange, Black & Purple
Top Tip Tuesday #7 - Anything Goes

My "top tip" for Top Tip Tuesday is to dowload clipart or templates for simple block-coloured shapes, resize them on your computer and then just print and cut out. this is especially appropriate for silhouette shapes (such as bats), and is both time and money saving for shapes you won't use very often.

Hope you can join in with the PBSC this week, and I promise to come out from hiding behind the sofa to look at your spooky creations ;-)

Penny Black Challenge #117 - colour scheme

Saturday again already, so it must be time for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge! Thanks very much to everyone who got all loved up and joined in last week's challenge - fabulous entries as usual.

This week we have a colour scheme for you ... we would like to see your projects featuring predominantly the colours

purple, cream & brown

As always we look forward to seeing your interpretations - just remember you need to use either a Penny Black image, large sentiment or stickeroo as the main focus of your creation.

This week we have 2 fabulous prize stamps on offer to randomly drawn winners from our regular sponsor Penny Black

"Hedgie Gift"

"Join the Party".


Ooh I want to enter ! :-)

The rest of the DT have worked their PB magic so I do hope you will pop over to check them out. Here is my card for this week.


The starting point for this card was obviously the existence in my stash of a piece of purple, cream and brown paper by BasicGrey ... plus the overwhelming urge to use a burgundy/cream coloured rose that was winking at me from my collection. These 2 items suggested to me a kind of vintage theme, so before I knew it I had inked up my one and only non-Christmas vintage style PB stamp. I managed to resist the urge to use any glitter or sparkle on this card (unusual for me!!) as I didn't think they would look quite right with the vintage concept.

Now it's confession time ... I only narrowly avoided disaster with this project. I stamped out the image on a large-ish piece of card, and whilst taking a full hour to colour it in I kept idly scribbling strokes of several new Promarkers I had bought in honour of the occasion, on the side of the card ... or so I thought!! When it came to time to cut out the image I realised that my scribbles had encroached within the minimum boundaries for cutting out a rectangle... and I don't think this pic is condusive to cutting close the image. Eek!! All I will say is that thank goodness the sentiment looks right on the card where it is placed lol! (phew!)


Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Rain or Shine Friends" (312K) coloured with Promarkers and edges distressed with "Antique linen" distress ink;
Sentiment: Penny Black "...second self" (3386D);
Papers: BasicGrey "Wisteria";
Supplies: large rose and small roses from Hobbycraft; middle rose from Wild Orchid Crafts; lace from Bunny Zoe's Crafts; pearls from the Hobby House;
Tools: Martha Stewart "floral vine" deep edge punch; Leone Em "Ash Family" leaf punch;

I would like to enter this card for

Penny Black at Allsorts (September) - Punch Away
Stampin' for the Weekend #46 - Shabby or Vintage
Dutch Dare #85 - Vintage Summer (2nd entry)
Bunny Zoe's #3 - Vintage

Simon Says - Pearls & Lace (2nd entry)
Ooh-La-La #61 - Elegant ladies
Belli Challenge #99 - Old Stamps

Double Dutch #51 - The Easy Challenge

(I have chosen previous Challenge#4 Pick & Choose with the techniques stamping, distressing and punching)

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

>