Paper Piecing - A Challenge for Kath

Hi everyone,

Last week when I had my experimental “inky playtime” with distress inks I actually made two splattered background panels … the first I used for a birthday card here, and I put the second aside as I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. However when I saw this week’s challenge at Allsorts, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

The lovely ladies at Allsorts have this week a Challenge for Kath - in memory of their friend and fellow team member who has sadly recently passed away. Having just come back to crafting and blogging in the past couple of months after doing none for the past three years (and to be honest very little since 2015 when my dad passed away), I didn’t know Kath; but I have been moved by how her crafty friends have pulled together to honour her memory with a challenge on her favourite themes, and even generously donated prizes themselves for the challenge winners … so it seemed only right to join in.❤️ So here it is.

The challenge theme is Favourite stamps with the option of paper piecing. I only have a limited number of stamps that are suitable for paper piecing and it isn’t something I do very often as I’m so cack-handed with the scissors, but I had a beautiful piece of abstract patterned glittery DP in my stash in the same colour scheme as my previously splattered background, so I thought I’d give it a go.  Also Penny Black stamps were my first love when I first started cardmaking, so that also ties in with “favourite stamps”. 

 I stamped my flowers onto my inky background, then again onto the glittery DP and fussy cut the main flower heads. I did a little text shadow stamping onto the inky panel before adhering my paper pieces, then mounted the panel onto some glimmery card stock. I then adhered the lot onto a larger piece of my DP, attached some twine and a heart shaped button, and attached to my card base. Quick sentiment and again the job was done. 

Even though this is a simple card it was not without its challenges. I have been away for this weekend and I took with me a mini craft tote to enable me to do a bit of basic crafting and/or colouring … but this included only 1 DP and wood mounted stamp (for this card),  a couple of clear stamp sets, very few ink pads and NO dies or die cutting machine.  Part way through making this card I realised I had no acrylic block to stamp my clear stamp sentiment (doh!) so I had to mount it on the top edge of a wooden stamp, stamp and pray! Let’s just say it took quite a few attempts before I was reasonably satisfied😀

Stamps: flowers - Penny Black “Whispers” (3377K); text shadow stamp - Butterfly kisses clear set; sentiment - unknown;

Media: Tim Holtz distress inks - Scattered Straw and Dried Marigold (spattered background).

Challenges I would like to enter: 

A Perfect Time to Craft (September) - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Allsorts #641 - A Challenge for Kath - Favourite Stamps with option of Paper Piecing

Colour Hues (September) - Yellow and Orange

Crafty Sentiments (September) - Anything Goes

Creative Moments #222 - Anything Goes

Penny Black Saturday Challenge (September) - Anything Goes

Simon Says (Monday) - Stamp It! (2nd entry)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Sparkle and Shine

Sweet Stampin’- Colours of Autumn

The Paper Funday Challenge (September) - Anything Goes

That’s all from me for today - take care, and thanks for visiting. 

Hugs,

Watering the Flowers

 

Good morning, and happy Bank Holiday Monday to everyone in the UK. The weather is definitely not looking as good as the past couple of days, but at least it's not raining - yet!

 

As I mentioned previously my crafting and blogging efforts are a bit hit and miss at the current time due to family circumstances, but at the moment cards are like buses ... none for a while and then two come along in quick succession! I managed to make two cards during my sesh yesterday, so here's the second one.

 

 

Stamps: LotV "Watering The Flowers" and "Everyday Grungy Sentiments";

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Papers: LotV "Perfect Pair";

Supplies: ribbon from The Ribbon Girl; gems and pearls from The Hobby House; daisy and blossoms from Wild Orchid Crafts; berries and baby's breath from local craft shop; doily from my stash;

Tools: Magnloia "Heart Swirl Branch" die; X-Cut small butterfly punch.

 

 

Challenges:

Papertake Weekly - If the Paper Fits (paper-piecing)

Creative Creations #11 - Paper Piecing

Creative Craft #10 - Just Checking

OSCC #230 - Furry Friends

Ooh La La - Inspired By Nature

Ready Teddy Go #22 - Spring Has Sprung

Gem Of A Challenge #81 - Bring On The Sunshine

Charisma #20 - Here Comes Summer

Passion For Promarkers #199 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

Sunday Sketch & Stamp #158 - Sketch

 

 

Thanks very much for visiting today.

 

 

Hugs,

Lili's Little Fairies Team B - Top Of The Pops!

 

Good evening Lili fans, and welcome to the latest Lili's Little Fairies Team B challenge.  Sorry I'm running late today as I was up very late last night making two very special cards ... but more of that later .. so I didn't have time to write this post ahead of time. I also see that the main challenge blog hasn't gone live .... not sure what has happened but please do bear with us!!

 

Thanks so much for joining in last week's challenge - gorgeous creations as always.

 

This week's challenge theme is

 

Top Of The Pops

 

We would like you to be inspired by a pop song - do tell us when you enter which song has inspired you (just in case it's not obvious lol!!)

 

Don't forget in order to be eliigble for our prize you need to use a LotV stamp or die cut topper as the main focus of your creation.

 

The rest of the DT have created a real hit parade of inspiration samples for you ... here's my card inspired by Blondie "Hanging on the Telephone" :-)

 

 

Stamps: LotV "Telephone Ted", sentiment from "Words for Scroll" set;

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Papers: LotV "Nitwits - Country Lady";

Supplies: flowers by Wild Orchid Crafts; pearls from The Hobby House; jute ribbon from The Ribbon Girl; red ribbon, lace and checked ribbon from my stash;

Tools: small, large and lacy circle nestabilities; Martha Stewart "Eyelet Lace" PATP punches; Leone Em "Ash Branch" leaf punch.

 

 

Challenges:

Incy Wincy - Things That Begin With F (Flowers)

A Gem Of A Challenge #70 - Floral Frenzy

Fussy & Fancy #84 - Flowers

Crafts & Me #124 - Ribbons & Lace

Fab 'n' Funky #162 - Add A Sentiment

 Cute Card Thursday #260 - Anything Goes

 

Looking forward to seeing your creations this week!

 

I'll be back over the next couple of days with my darling husband's birthday card, and a very special card I made for my parents .... 'til then :-)

Hugs

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - January Blues!

Good morning everyone, and welcome to the first Penny Black Saturday Challenge for 2013. Sorry I'm late this morning, but last night my blogger went funny and I couldn't upload any pictures to my post from my PC - anyone else having this problem?? Luckily my dear fellow teamies have suggested a temporary "workaround" but this post is a bit picture-lite this morning - hope it sorts itself out soon!

Updated: I've now managed to add pics via my html editor but still hope this situation doesn't persist for too long !! :-)
Anyhoo ... hope you Penny Black lovers had a great Christmas and New Year, and that you're raring to go with a whole new year of challenges. Thanks also to everyone who took the time at a very busy time of year to enter last month's challenge - gorgeous creations as always ... and don't foget to check the main challenge blog to see if you're a winner.

So on to the first challenge for 2013, and it is

January Blues

Pretty apt you may say following the excitement of Christmas and New Year ... but what we would really like to see is a creation that features primarily the colour blue ... and of course a Penny Black image stamp, large sentiment or stickeroo if you want to be eligible for one of this month's prizes.

And talking of prizes we have a fab selection on offer as usual for lucky randomly-drawn winners -


$20 store voucher






 The other ladies have made fabulous inspiration cards as always... Here's my card for this month's challenge.

Stamps: Penny Black "Whispers"; LotV "Everyday Grungy Sentiments";

Papers: Papermania "Blueberry Pie";

Supplies: flowers by Wild Orchid Crafts; ribbon from Hobbycraft; pearls from The Ribbon Girl;

Tools: large floral oval nestabilities; Simon Says "Harringon Vine" die; Cheery Lynn "Lace Deco Corners".

Challenges:

Cheery Lynn #61 - Friendship

Simon Says - New Something
(new SS "Harrington Vine" die)

Wild Orchid Crafts #66 - Anything Goes

Thanks for looking, and hope you will be able to join us for this month's challenge.

Hugs,

What A Wash-Out!

I'm looking out of the window this Bank Holiday Monday and what a surprise! .. it's tipping down with rain! Luckily I didn't have any plans for trips or outings ... I hope those of you who do will still manage to enjoy yourselves today despite the abysmal weather.

The prevailing climate made me start thinking about the numerous "April Showers" challenges that are out there at the moment - I think today is the perfect day to get stuck in to them lol! I always struggle with these as I somehow feel strange putting images of eg. umbrellas onto birthday cards; but then I had a bit of a brainwave based on another card I made quite a long time ago.

This is really a very simple card, but I'm quite pleased with it :-)  Unfortunately it's so dull that it was difficult to get a decent picture, but i hope you get the general idea!

Stamp: "Me To You";

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers; rain created with lines of glamour dust;

Extras: computer-generated sentiment; gems from my stash.

Challenges:

Crafting For All Seasons #24 - April Showers

Little Red Wagon - April Showers Bring May Flowers

Oldie But A Goodie - April Showers

Passion For Promarkers #143 - Whatever The Weather

Stampin' For The Weekend #7 - Ready Teddy Go!

Crafter's Companion #23 - Four Legged Friends

Incy Wincy #141 - Cute Critters

Crafty Catz #127 - Clean and Simple

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Off now for an afternoon of crafting while my dear husband is at the football ... come on you Blues!!

 

Off Centre

Well, I guess we can all come out from behind the sofa now, as the dreaded acetate challenge over at Less is More is over lol!  This week’s challenge theme is much more amenable .. in fact I found ideas were starting to whirr around in my head as soon as i saw the challenge post :-)

I absolutely love Tatty Teddy, so I was thrilled to discover that Papermania have brought out a new range of “From me To You” stamps and accessories. I actually went into my local craft shop for something different altogether, but two stamps and a paper pad somehow fell into my basket and I had paid before I know what had gone on lol! When I got home, I knew straight away that I wanted to use one of the stamps for this week’s Less Is More theme of Off Centre – he naturally sits to one corner of the card :-)

I decided to paper piece teddy’s umbrella – I’m not sure whether it was entirely successful as the stamp has dots on it as well as the dots on the paper … but I still think it looks ok. I felt that my Whiff of Joy sentiment was perfect for this image; but the part that has made me feel really pleased with myself is the idea I had after I had already completed my image and sentiment stamping … I drew some lines of fine dots and dashes with my glue pen and dusted them with glamour dust, to create a shower of sparkling rain from the sentiment to the umbrella. I so hope that you can see it in the pics! For some reason even though I have photographed this card in bright sunlight it still looks really grey!

Now I know that Chrissie and Mandi will probably say I should lose the gems in the corners … but there is actually a  reason for them being there this week. I stamped onto very smooth cardstock so i could get a good image and use Promarkers without experiencing “bleed through”, and then mounted it onto a fine border of coloured card.  However the card is so smooth that it shows every lump and bump of the tape beneath – a bit like putting a flimsy dress on if your figure isn’t fully toned lol! I found that the teeny gems just drew the eye away from any imperfections in the cardstock mounting.  I could tell you that there is an arty reason for having my single gem in a different colour from all the rest – but actually I was one gem short and determined to go ahead anyway … so i decided to use a clear one for my single!

Recipe:
Main image: Papermania “From Me To you”, coloured with Promarkers and paper pieced with paper from same range;
Sentiment: Whiff of Joy;
Supplies: Papermania pink and clear gems.

Challenges:
Less is More #12 – Off Centre
Allsorts #100 – April Showers
Totally Gorjuss #77 – Bling It On!
ABC – S is for Sparkle

Back later with a card covered in paper / flowers / ribbons / pearls ;-)

Creative Card Crew #47 - Going Dotty!

Hello everyone and welcome to another Creative Card Crew Challenge. Wow!! ... what an amazing number and quality of entries for last week's "celebration" challenge - it was brilliant that so many of you could join us. Don't forget to check back later to see who has won my three LotV stamps blog candy :-), and who has won the prizes on the main challenge blog.

This week we have another great challenge - we'd like to see you all

going dotty!
and we have another fab prize sponsored by

which is this adorable House Mouse stamp.

The rest of the DT has been really going dotty so I hope you'll call by their blogs to check out their creations. Here's mine .... a few firsts for me as it is my first paper-pieced card and my first use of the fab Bazzill jewel templates to create my pearly flourishes :-)

I used the fab sketch from this week's Simon Says Challenge

and would also like to enter the card for the following challenges:

ABC - P is for Paper-Piecing
One Stop Craft Challenge #71 - Spots & Dots
Crafty Cardmakers #16 - A Feminine Celebration

Kaboodle #26 - Happy Birthday!


Recipe:
Main image: WOJ "Willow Shopping" coloured with watercolour pencils, edges sponged with Versamgic chalk ink, and bags paper-pieced;
Sentiment: Craftwork Cards;
Papers: MME "Pretty Please";
Supplies: pearls, spacers and pearl brads from The Hobby House; flowers from my stash;
Tools: "Labels four" nestabilities; Bazzill jewel templates "Flourishes and flowers".

Look forward to seeing all your creations!