Penny Black Saturday Challenge #125 - Zig Zags or Triangles

Good morning everyone and welcome to another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. I've just about come out now from behind the sofa where I was hiding after looking at all your spooky Hallowe'en creations - absolutely fabulous as always! Don't forget to check out whether you have won last week's prize !! :-)

I'm running a little late this morning so straight to business ... this week we have a theme for you which is

Zig Zags or Triangles

Yikes! This wasn't a very easy one for me as I couldn't find much that was ziggy zaggy amongst my stash, but the other ladies on the DT have rocked this challenge as they always do, so please do go and check them out.

Here's my effort ......

I decided to use some Christmassy felt ric-rac, and also put my hand on some sparkly monotone Christmas paper which looked beautiful in the shop, but I wasn't quite sure what to do with it when I got it home (a common problem I find lol!). The end result was something quite unusual for me - a very understated monotone style Chrimbo card - the main interest comes from the texture and sparkle (there is LOTS of sparkle on this card but the dull autumn days aren't very helpful for capturing it on camera).



Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Fantasy" (3880K) heat embossed with white glitter powder and decorated with silver gems;
Sentiment: Stamps Away;
Papers: from my stash (make unknown);
Supplies: Papermania ric rac; pearls from The Hobby house; silver gems from my stash;
Tools: large classic circles and large classic scalloped circles neatabilities; Fiskars "Victorian" cutting blade.

Challenges:
Stamp With Stampavie #114 - Christmas
CRAFT #74 - Monotone
CES #10 - Chocolate Caramel
Our Creative Corner - Photo Inspiration
Totally Papercrafts #40 - Bling It on ..

Hope you will be able to join in with this week's PBSC - we have a fab prize of a 15% lifetime discount voucher from Dick at PB Stamps.

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

Papertake Weekly Guest DT spot - woo hoo!

I was absolutely thrilled and delighted when the lovely Dawny P emailed me to ask if I would like to be Guest Designer on Papertake Weekly for the next 4 weeks. Would I?? er .... yeah ... PLEEEEASE!

And for my first challenge I had the pleasure of working with this fabby sketch from Miss Pink Piggywiggy herself - hope you can join in this week's challenge too ... don't forget to visit the challenge blog to check out the other DT members' gorgeous samples and this week's prize.

So here's my first GDT card - bit of a scramble this one as I had a bizzy weekend, so I hope it's up to scratch!! I found myself feeling autumnal again for the second time in just over a week - not like me at all as my cards are usually a festival of pinkness! However I do really like the versatility of this stamp - it is really a Christmas stamp but I can see all sorts of possibilities for using it across the seasons :-)

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Fantasy "(3880K), stamped using "Vintage sepia" Versafine onto pale stone coloured card, and decorated with small punched flowers and pearls;
Sentiment; See-D "Celebrations";
Papers: Bo Bunny "Olivia";
Supplies: large turquoise pearl brad and silver spacer from The Hobby House; brown pearls - BasicGrey "Opaline"; flowers, white pearls and silver beads from my stash;
Tools: small and large classic circles & lacy circles nestabilities; Martha Stewart "Woodland Bough" edge punch; small flower Papermania punch.

With its autumnal feel I would like to enter this card for the following challenges:

The Stamp Man #7 - Autumn

Crazy4Challenges #59 - Autumn
Stampin' for the Weekend #49 - Hallowe'en or Fall
BasicGrey #31 - Autumn / Harvest Time
(note the papers aren't BG but some of the pearls are :-) )
Penny Black at Allsorts (2nd entry) - Colours of Autumn
Corrosive #86 - Get Rid of the White

(don't stamp onto white card)

Our Creative Corner - Embellishments - the more the better

ABC - F is for Flowers

That's all for today ... look forward to seeing your interpretations of Dawny's sketch.

A Time for Celebration!

Well here we are, almost at the end of 2009 already ... where on earth has the year gone to??

In anticipation of the New Year's party I'm hoping to get to on (weather permitting!) I have made a New Year celebration card for the hostess.

I followed the excellent sketch at this week's Create4Fun Challenge #52, which I rotated 90 degrees to the left. I tried for once to be a bit imaginative and get a bit of artistic licence going (!?!). It's the first time I have cut out a figure and placed her over a background shape .... I know people do this a lot with Tildas but I don't have any of those .. thought I'd try it with Annie, and I'm pretty pleased with the result :-) I also went in for a bit of criss-crossing with some cord ... hope this is close enough to the original sketch!

This card was also made with quite a few other challenges in mind:

Cupcake #71 - A Time for Celebration

Everybody-Art-Challenge #71,
Stamp with Fun #39,
Stamp with Stampavie #75,
and
Lili of the Valley #43
all have the theme this week of
Happy New Year

Simon Says Stamp - Party!
(well, it's for a New Year Party, and I have to say Annie looks like she's started already lol!!)

Daring Cardmakers - New Beginnings
Our Creative Corner - Celebrate Food or Drink
One Stop Craft Challenge #60 - recycled
(my silver star holographic card is recycled from an Asda tissue box!!)

My Time to Craft #72 - Anything Goes
Creative Card Crew #41 - Anything Goes (3rd entry!)

Blimey! I've just counted up and that's 12 ... just about my best effort yet lol!! I actually also made this for 2 more challenges but alas due to poor lighting conditions today for taking phots plus going out for the day .. I've missed them - never mind!!

I love easel cards but am finding them very difficult to photograph (and the miserable daylight conditions don't help lol) ... so here are a couple more closeup shots - first of the "front" of the card ....

... and also the "base" part of the easel.

Recipe:
Main image: Sugar Nellie "Fizz", coloured with watercolour pencils;
Papers: free with issue 10 of Creative Cardmaking magazine;
Supplies: silver gems and stars, silver cord all by Papermania; silver/white ribbon from my stash; recycled silver holographic card from Asda tissue box!;
Tools: large classic circles and large classic scalloped circles nestabilities; numbers cut using Cuttlebug "Hippie Chick" alphabet dies.

I'd just love to wish everyone who visits my blog, end everyone who I visit a

Happy New Year!

Take care, have fun, and here's to more fab blogging and crafting in 2010 ! :-)

Melinda does the combo

This is the first time I've been able to post any of the cards I made on Sunday afternoon, as there was no decent light yesterday to photograph anything! It really was one of those afternoons ... first I found that the piece of paper I NEEDED for one of the challenges had mysteriously disappeared (or been used up), and then I spent an hour watercolouring and decorating an image, only to smudge the flowersoft (furry edging) and glue before it was dry ... back to the drawing board!! Eventually though I did manage to make three cards ... so here is the first one.



Here is "Confirmand Melinda" - not really a Christmas image, but I think she works on Christmas cards if teamed with the right papers and embellies. I would like to enter this card for the following 9 challenges:

Whiff of Joy #53 - red, cream and one other colour (in my case ... brown)
Daring Cardmakers - getting punchy with it ... the challenge asks you to use your latest craft punch purchase. Well that's easy for me - my latest is the gorgeous Martha Stewart "Arctic Snowflake" punch. In fact, I've also used my last-but-one craft punch purchase, which was the Martha Stewart "embossed snowflakes" edge punch.
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday #39 - border punches
One Stop Craft Challenge #53 - newspaper/text - I have used a piece of red paper covered with Christmas words.
Saturday Spotlight with Hidden Potential (SSHP05) - In So Many Words - again I have used the text-covered paper.
Our Creative Corner - Vintage Style
Crafty Cardmakers #7 - Stamp Something . The "optional" extra is to use a stamping technique you haven't used before or for a while - I coloured in my image using Twinkling H2O's which have been sitting in my stash unloved for a while!
Flutter By Wednesday #81 - open week ... fairy/butterfly/angel
BasicGrey #7 - photo inspiration. As you can see below - the colours are a deep red, winter white and brown.

Recipe:
Main image: Whiff of Joy "Confirmand Melinda" coloured with watercolour pencils and Twinkling H20's, distressed on the edges using distress ink, and decorated with glamour dust;
Papers: BasicGrey "Wassail" (background), BasicGrey"Figgy Pudding" (across middle), and text paper from my stash;
Supplies: BasicGrey "opaline" pearls; sentiment rub on, brads and lace from my stash;
Tools: Martha Stewart "Arctic Snowflake" punch and "embossed snowflakes" edge punch - from The Hobby House.

Here's an angled shot to show up the iridescent gold twinklies on melinda's dress ...


Back tomorrow with a couple more of my weekend efforts :-)

Update Tuesday: Simon Says Challenge has just posted that they are ENCOURAGING multiple entries for their all that sparkles challenge in an attempt to reach 300 entries. I had already entered this challenge, but as this is a pretty sparkly card I have made whilst the challenge has been open, I'm entering it as a THIRD entry :-)

Sketch Saturday does Christmas in August

I've not been to work today as I've not been too well with stomach ache - pottered lazily around the house for most of the day, but later on I tried to make a card to take my mind off it (it didn't work lol!!)

I have made this card using the fab sketch for this week's Sketch Saturday Challenge #64.

It's also good for me that there are so many Christmas challenges around at the moment, as I'm very behind with my Christmas cards. There are also some fabulous prizes on offer right now! I'd like to enter this card for the following:

Christmas in August - this is the theme over at Our Creative Corner, Creative Card Crew #24, Simon Says Stamp and Dutch Dare #58

Papertake Weekly - this week they have reached their 100th challenge (well done ladies!) so have challenged us to take your pick from the previous 99 challenges - I have chosen Let It Snow... Let It Snow... Let it Snow (17/11/2008).

Pollycraft #22 - Favourite things ... I have used a Penny Black image - PB's are of course my all time favourites (as you will see all too well in my labels list!) , plus my nesties which are something else I can't manage without!

Pile It On #11 - oh boy! ... well it is blue and it's a snowman lol!

Woo hoo - that's 8 altogether!!

Recipe:

Main image: Penny Black (sorry don't know what it's called as it was an RAK) - coloured with watercolour pencils and decorated with diamond Stickles;

Sentiment: Craftwork Cards "Oh My Words!";

Supplies: snowflake papers, pearlised and holographic card, organza snowflake ribbon - all from my stash; sparkly brads by Doodlebug;

Tools: martha Stewart embossed snowflake edge punch; small snowflakes die cut using Cuttlebug snowflakes die.

Off to put my feet up now - hoping I feel a bit better tomorrow!

DC Combo Six-Pack

Today DC is for Docrafts, as this is my Docrafts July friendship card for Wakey Susan; and DC is also for "Daisy Chain", which is the name of this darling Penny Black stamp which I have had in my collection for some time (having paid WAY OVER the odds on ebay as it was supposedly retired ... and now it's not!!) ... but I have never inked it up until now.

I always knew that I wanted to team the stamp of the cute miceys making a daisy chain with this sentiment stamp - a friendship card is just the perfect opportunity.

So to square the circle I also looked out for some challenges to incorporate - no way could I use a sketch for this as the stamp is so big; but I managed to tie my card in to the following six:

Secret Crafter #41 - spots and stripes - which inspired me to use these yummy MME papers;

Our Creative Corner - triple play - which invites us to use at least 3 types of embellishments. Well for me that's not too hard to do lol! - and I have used flowers, brads, spacers, charm and crocheted ribbon ... so I guess that should just about cover it!

Dutch Dare #56 - using dies and/or or punches: again I have covered all bases with die-cute nestie shapes for my matting, punched leaves and my MS doily lace edge punch.

The Pink Elephant #24 and Lili of the Valley #32 - Animals

Paper Blooms - Animal Fun - well I think these li'l animals are having a lot of fun lol!

Here's a peek at the inside ....


Recipe:

Main image: Penny Black "Daisy Chain" (1690K) coloured with watercolour pencils, matted onto "Gemstones" cardstock cut using mega scalloped rectangle nesties;
Sentiments: Penny Black "Everything's ..." (2733K) (front); Penny Black "...second self" (3386D) (inside);
Papers: My Mind's Eye;
Supplies: crocheted ribbon and "friends" charm from Quixotic Paperie; spacers from The Hobby House; Papermania pearl brads; dragonfly brads and Prima flowers from my stash; green leaves punched using Leone Em "Ash Family" punch; edging punched wtih MS "doily lace" punch.