All Things Bright and Sparkly

Hi there and hope you are all well. Today I would like to share another card I made at the weekend using one of my latest LotV Christmas stamps. The whole concept of this one was to tie in to the theme of bright and sparkly over at this week's LotV challenge.

I had so much fun with this, cutting out trees and snowflake flourishes from glitter card and dusting glamour dust around ... again the pic was taken in a fiarly poor winter light but I can tell you that irl this card is REALLY sparkly !!

Stamps: LotV "Shine A Light";

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers; glamour dust on coat and snow;

Papers: Bo Bunny;

Supplies: gems from The Hobby House; Craftwork Cards sentiment; button from my stash;

Tools: Marianne D Creatables "Christmas Tree" (LR0136); Memory Box "Frosty Border" die.

Challenges:

Lili of the Valley #119 - Bright & Sparkly

Marianne's Design Divas #2 - Dying To Die Cut (2nd entry)

Simon Says - Buttons

PaperPlay #44 - Button up!

Crafty Calendar (November) - Winter Wardrobe

Top Tip Tuesday #59 - Anything Christmas Goes

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - Use Your Favourite Sketch Challenge (see  below)

Sketch Saturday #180 - sketch

At last I'm starting to make some real inroads into my Christmas card makes, though it's still a long way to go!! ...

Penny Black Saturday #162 - Penny Black-Ground

Yippee, Saturday's here, and time for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. I'm hoping that things are finally settling down for me after the distractions of the past few weeks, and I'm raring to go with a card for this week's theme. Thanks to everyone who entered last week's challenge - don't forget to check the main challenge blog to see if you have won.

This week our theme is

Penny Black-ground

... which is a not very subtle pun lol, to ask you to use your PB stamps for your background as well as your main image. There are lots of options for this and the DT have come up with some brilliant examples.

Our prize this week is a guest DT spot on the PBSC for September - woo hoo!!

So if you would like to join our happy band during that time, you know what you have to do ... just ensure you submit a new piece of work for the challenge, uisng a PB image, large sentiment or stickeroo as its main focus, and also following the theme.

This is what I did for this week.

I decided to go for a shabby chic look so that I could do a bit of background stamping onto a distressed background. First I cut a deckle edged square of paper, and distressed it with Tim Holtz distress inks in "Antique Linen" and "Vintage Photo". Then I stamped my main flower image (Penny  Black "Quite Dandy" (3623K)) off-centre using "Peeled Paint" and "Tumbled Glass". I stamped a few background lines in "Vintage Photo" using a stamp from the transparent set "Salutations", and overstamped with tiny dragonflies from the same set. 

My sentiment is PB "friends matter" (4073F), stamped in a blend of "Tumbled Glass" and "Faded Jeans". I finished my background stamping with some random dotty areas using Penny Black "fantasy" (3880K). Finally I assembled the card by tying some loopy trim from my stash, decorating with die-cut sparkly butterflies and pearls from my stash, and mounting onto crackle distress gold card.

I actually managed to use FIVE separate PB stamps on this card - think that's pretty good going lol!

Challenges:

Simon Says Stamp and Show - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

PaperPlay #30 - In the Garden

By The Cute & Girly (July) - Things With Wings

Crafty Cardmakers #50 - Flutterbies

Cupcake #152 - Shabby Sparkle

Hope you will join us this week - have a great weekend!

Penny Black Saturday #155 - One For The Guys

Hi everyone ... another week had flown by, and here we are again at Saturday, which means it's time for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge.

Thanks to everyone for your doodletastic entries into last week's challenge - don't forget to check the main blog to see if you have won either of last week's yummy prizes.

This week we guess many of you may be gearing up for Father's Day ... or if not, then maybe you need a card for one of the men in your life. So this week's challenge theme is

One For The Guys

As always you can interpret this however you wish; but to be eligible for this week's prize you should submit a new piece of work which features a Penny Black image, large sentiment or stickeroo.

And to tempt you this week we have got another delish prize ... it is from our lovely ex-teamie Carole

and is this delish PB stamp "Love Nip".

The other ladies have conjured up some fabulous masculine cards - here is my effort for this week.

Initially I thought I would really struggle with this theme, as I have loads of PB stamps but hardly any "masculine" ones .. and those few I do have have already been seen by the only two male family members I need to make cards for! When I started scrabbling around amongst my stash I found these couple of images in a tranparent set called "Bubbly" - masculine and sight unseen by my nearest and dearest - but ... they are absolutely TINY and no way would they make a focal point of a card. I therefore decided that I would make my text big and artfully (?) place the images around it ... but then came the next problem - my die cut alphabet isn't big enough, and I don't have any templates for letters .... so I ended up making some letter templates using Wordart, and then cutting out the letters by hand from patterned paper. If you look closely they are a bit rough and ready, but the thought's there!

Recipe:

Main images: Penny Black transparent set "Bubbly", coloured with Promarkers and Copics;

Sentiments: computer generated, with "Dad" cut out from Wordart templates;

Papers: All My Memories (double sided paper), distressed with Vintage Photo distress ink;

Supplies:  buttons from stash;

Tools: Martha Stewart "scalloped dots" edge punch.

Challenges:

PaperPlay #23 - Father's Day / Man's Card

CRAFT #106 - Father's Day

Sparkles #13 - Father's Day

Alphabet Challenge - F is for Father's Day

Sew Many Challenges #56 - Father's Day

Creative Inspirations #115 - Card For Dad / Man's Card

Fab 'n' Funky #76 - Magnificent Men

Crazy4Challenges #91 - Masculine Card

Wags 'n' Whiskers #56 - One For The Boys

Everybody-Art #145 - Distress

Stamp Something - Something Punched

My Mum's Craft Shop #9 - Punch It

Passion For Promarkers #103 - Blue and Brown ( with accents of green)

Crafts and Me #38 - Stamp Something

Crafty Ann's #42 - Use More Than One Image

Cupcake Crafts #145 - Things With Tails

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Hope you can join in with us this week - have a great weekend!

Penny Black Saturday #153 - One For The Girlies

Yippee! It's a Bank Holiday weekend again here in the UK, and time for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. So sorry I haven't been able to get round and comment on your wonderful creations for last week's Fussy and Fancy challenge due to the problems we've been having with Mr. Blogger - but they were all wonderful! The stamp I donated last week will be winging its way to one lucky winner - do go and check out the main challegne blog to see if it's you!

This week our challenge theme is

One For The Girlies

Brilliant theme for me this week, as I love all things girly - dresses ... pink ... flowers ... gems ... ribbons ...lace - ooh fab! And if you think it's a great theme too you could be in with a chance of winning this week's lovely goodies, to be awarded to 2 randomly drawn winners!

Firstly ..... 4 rolls of ribbon of the winner's choice from Fantastic Ribbons

and secondly, a 15% lifetime discount voucher from PB Stamps

Here is my girly creation - the other DT ladies have gone girly too so don't forget to check them out.

I decided to go for a freindship card, as I so love this cute vintage PB image. Normally I tend to use this image with vintage colours and papers, but I was feeling girly so decided to go for a fresh summery pink and green colour scheme - i think it is my favourite colour combo.. A different look for this image, but I'm quite pleased with it :-)

Recipe:

Main image: Penny Black "Rain or Shine Friends" (312K), coloured with Promarkers;

Sentiment: Penny Black "Second Self" (3386D);

Papers: Pink Petticoat "Vintage Rose" and Papermania "Forever Friends - Springtime";

Supplies: cherry blossoms and lace from Wild Orchid Crafts; roses from Sweet Lilac (Crafts4U2Do); papermania pink heart gems; ribbon and pearls from my stash;

Tools: Marianne D Creatables doily die; Leone Em "Ash Family" leaf punch.

Challenges:

Papertake Weekly - Pale, Pretty Pastels

Stamp With Stampavie #143 - Pink

Totally Papercrafts #68 - Pink and Girlie

My Mum's Challenge #7 - Favourite Colours

(pink and green as a combo)

Crafty Catz #84 - Pink and Green

PaperPlay #21 -  Blossoms and Blooms

(I have actually managed to incorporate both cherry blossoms and rose blooms on this card :-) )
All Ways Something Creative #6 - Flowers

I ♥ ProMarkers #67 - Pearls

Crafts and Me #36 - Gems and Pearls

Passion For Promarkers #101 - All The Twos

(2 girls, 2 roses, 2 cherry blossoms, 2 trims, 2 heart gems)

Stamp Something - Something Sentimental

My Time To Craft #142 - Use A Die Cut

Creative Card Crew - Anything Goes!

Hope you have a great Bank Holiday weekend!

Penny Black Saturday #146 - Say It With Flowers

Good morning all, and welcome to another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Thanks very much to everyone who rocked Domi's sketch last week - don't forget to check the main prize blog to see if you are a winner. I'm still struggling mightily with blogger and my recent attempt to install Windows Live Writer crashed and burned ... so I'll get straight to business ...

This week's theme is

Say It With Flowers

Easy peasy!!

And we also have a fantastic prize as always - this week it is a $20 online store voucher from our sponsor 1-2-3 Stitch.

Do check out the other ladies' lovely floral arrangements - here is my card for this week.

Recipe:

Main image: Penny Black "Hedgehog Bouquet" (1444K) coloured with Promarkers;

Sentiment: Craftwork Cards;

Papers: Papermania "Forever Friends - Springtime";

Supplies: flowers by Wild Orchid Crafts; ribbon from my stash;

Tools: large circles and lacy circles nestabilities; Martha Stewart "wild flowers" PATP edge punch; Leone Em "Ash Family" leaf punch.

Challenges:

Wild Orchid Challenge #20 - Sketch (flipped horizontally)

Crafty Pad #115 - Flowers

Paper Sundaes #63 - Spring Blossoms

PaperPlay #14 - Critters Galore

Creative Inspirations #106 - Punches & Dies

Pollycraft #87 - Old / Neglected stamp

Corrosive #110 - Pastel Colours

Craft your Passion #52 - Anything Goes

Hope you can join us this week - look forward to seeing what you create :-)

Starry, starry night

I have never gone much on distress inks, probably because I have spent the past year building up my marker pen collection, and I didn't want to get embroiled in yet another money pit obsession. However the advent of the "Less Is More" style has sparked my interest in distressed and shaded backgrounds, and I was further inspired when I saw Debby's wonderful distress backgrounds with resist and stamped images using the fabulous Unity wildflower stamps here (I am as we speak eagerly waiting for a set to arrive from America!)

Anyhow, I pulled out the very limited collection of distress inks I own (grand total of 7!) and decided to have a go at a "nightime sky" background as a precursor to some silhouette stamping with my beautiful but neglected Lavinia stamps (again, the only ones I own).

This exercise, in conjunction with some very kind tips and comments I received from Debby and Lisa, taught me that I needed several things:

a) a non-stick craft mat (bought one today :-) )

b) some more distress inks (likewise ... bought 4 new ones today ;-) )

c) a blending tool - haven't managed to get my hands on one yet, but in the meantime I have bought some cut'n'dry foam to keep me going.

Here's a card I made BEFORE buying my new bits & pieces ... watch this space for my experiments in the near future with my new stash!!

I actually made his card for this week's Less Is More Challenge - masculine - and then I felt foolish when I looked on the blog and saw no one else had used a flower!! I think my mind was full of the drama of silhouette flowers against the masculine colours of a night sky ... though I can see the overall effect isn't necessarily masculine in the sense of giving the card to a man. However it's done now, so I might as well blog it and move on lol!!

Recipe:
Main image: various stamps from the Lavinia "dandelions" set;
Sentiment: Penny Black;
Background: "Dusty Concord" and "Faded Jeans" distress inks;
Supplies: Papermania "sparkly trims" black frayed ribbon; pearls from The Hobby House;

Challenges:
Less Is More #7 - Masculine
PaperPlay #12 - Distressing
Spoon Full Of Sugar #144 - Ribbon + Pearls/Rhinestones + Flowers
CES #28 - Inspired By A Song

Crafts & Me #27 - Anything Goes
Scrapbook Sisters #28 - Anything Goes

That's all for now. Hope to have chance to play with my new toys and get my fingers inky later ;-)

Oldie But A Goodie #15 - Colour Combo

Good evening all, and welcome to a new Oldie But A Goodie Challenge. I'm running a bit late today, and I have to confess that the reason is very simple ... I got my weeks wrong and didn't make my card in time - oh the shame!! had to rush my card out last night and then take a photo this morning before rushing out the door for work ... so hope you will all be kind!! Thanks so much to everyone who entered last fortnights's OBAG challenge - fab entries as always. Don't forget to check the main challenge blog to see if you are a winner. So onto this fortnight's challenge, which has been chosen by Liza, and is a colour combo Pink/Blue & Brown We also have a fabulous prize by our new regular sponsor Stämpelkällan which is these darling stamps ... Don't forget that in order to be eligible for the prize you should submit a new piece of work and use a stamped image (not a digi) that is at least 6 months old ... so have a little riffle through your stamp box to find an old but loved stamp ... and of course have fun!! :-) The other DT ladies have made some gorgeous samples - here's mine (at last!) Now I have to confess that I am not big on brown when it comes to crafting, so I immediately thought of incorporating the brown through an animal, with most of the decorative elements being pink and blue. So what better than this adorable LotV bear ... would you look at his little face?? I think this little guy was released in either spring or summer last year, so he's just nicely old enough for the rules of this challenge :-) Recipe: Main image: LotV "Bear and Butterflies" coloured with Promarkers and Copics, and butterfly wings dusted with glamour dust; Sentiment: Penny Black "Birthday Dreams" (3849E); Papers: Pink Petticoat "Vintage Rose"; Supplies: cherry blossoms and lace from Wild Orchid Crafts; Dovecraft dragonfly brad; ribbon from my stash; Tools: "Labels 3" nestabilities; Marianne D Creatables doily die; Cuttlebug "birds and swirls" embossing folder (on the doily). Challenges: I used this week's Sketch Saturday #147 sketch Simon Says - Happy Birthday (2nd entry)

Everybody-Art #134 - Happy Birthday

Stamp Something - Something Sweet (I think this is an adorably sweet image!)

Passion For Promarkers #92 - In The Garden

Paper Sundaes #61 - Embossing

Teddy Stampers #32 - Embossing PaperPlay #11 - Embossing

Wild Orchid Crafts #19 - Dieing to Punch It Out (2nd entry)

Shabby Tea Room #54 - Bingo! (2nd entry)

(This time I have used lace, flowers and embossing) Now I've finally caught up with myself i'm off to get my feet up with cup of tea lol! Have a great week!

Penny Black Saturday #140 - Pearls and lace

Eek!! I'm running a little late this morning and am a little late with today's offering .... Saturday again already, which has to mean it's time for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Thanks so much to everyone who got to grips with making the dreaded male cards last week - stunning entries as always! Don't forget to check out the main challenge blog to see if you are lucky winner.

This week we have a rather more girly theme for you ... we would like to see

Pearls and lace

on your creation. You can interpret this any way you like so long as you submit a new piece of work and use a Penny Black image, large sentiment or stickeroo as the main focus of your project.

This week we have two more yummy prizes for two randomly selected winners -

Firstly. Dick at PB Stamps


is offering a 15% off lifetime discount voucher, and

Fantastic Ribbons


is offering one winner 4 reels of ribbon of the winner's choice.

Yummy!

Do go and check out the fabulous creations by the rest of the DT - here's my card for this week.


Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Cheesecake Wish" , coloured with Promarkers and Copics and decorated with Stickles;
Sentiments: "It's Your Birthday" from PB transparent set "Salutations"; "make a wish" from PB transparent set "Critter Party";
Papers: BasicGrey "Wisteria";
Supplies: large and small flat gardenias, pearls all from Wild Orchid Crafts; lace from my stash;
Tools: leafy swirls - Marianne D Creatables ribbon flower die set; Martha Stewart doily lace edge punch.



Challenges:
I used Papertake Weekly Sketch #53 (I flipped the sketch left to right);



Fuzzy Wuzzy #6 - Birthday Wishes (must feature an animal)
Little Red Wagon - Animals
Top Tip Tuesday #23 - Bling It On
Truly Scrumptious #51 - Swirls and Pearls
Scrapbook Sisters #24 - Lace and Pearls
Crafty Creations #107 - At The Bottom of My Garden Lives .... (a mouse!)
PaperPlay #8 - Let's Get Sentimental
Crazy4Challenges #76 - Use Flowers

Hope you can join in the fun over at PBSC this week - have a great weekend!

Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall ...

I have decided to try to keep up with the new Less Is More Challenge each week - I find it really interesting as when working with white space the main challenge is to keep finding something "different" as the main focus. This week the theme is a one layer card (eek!!) with flowers or trees ... so I decided to try a "four seasons" friendship card, to convey the idea that friendship lasts forever.

Now although I say so myself I was pretty pleased with the concept, though I'm not so sure about the execution. It doesn't help that for some reason this card was very difficult to photograph, and the light here is really dull today. But never mind - today's the last day of this week's Less is More challenge so I thought I'd better bung it up here and hope for the best :-) I'm really hoping that my "white space" cards will improve as the weeks go on!

Recipe:
Main image: Art Impressions bare branch tree, stamped four times. First three trees coloured by stippling with watercolour ink from Marvey brushstroke pens, last tree decorated with Art Institute Pee Wee Fine Art glitter;
Sentiment: Penny Black "Salutations" transparent set;
Supplies: coloured gems from my stash.

Challenges:
Less Is More #2 - One Layer Card with Flower or Tree
Creative Card Crew - Friendship
Dutch Dare #100 - Sparkle, Glitter and/or Bling
Cute Card Thursday #152 - Shiny Happy Cards
PaperPlay #7 - Add Shine

That's it for today :-)

The World is Full of Beauty When the Heart is Full of Love

Having attempted a CAS card the other day I think I felt really inspired by some of the other entries I saw, and i also noticed that the Penny Black blog has been showcasing "crafting with white space". So I think I got a bit over-excited as I have made another CAS card. This time it really is CAS because I actually (sharp intake of breath) stamped or coloured everything directly onto the base cardstock - eek!

My flower is from the Penny Black "Flowers and Wishes" set, and the gorgeous sentiment is by Lavinia Stamps. I made my sun by die cutting a circle from card to make a stencil, and then sponging through it using Versamagic chalk inks. The only embellishment is a row of teeny weeny gold heart shaped gems by Papermania. Job done!

Challenges:

Penny Black - Crafting With White Space
Totally Papercrafts #53 - Clean & Simple
Penny Black At Allsorts (February) - Say It With Flowers
Paperplay #6 - Hearts and Flowers (but not Valentine)
Cute Card Thursday #151 - Hearts and Flowers
My Time To Craft #127 - Hearts and Flowers
Papertake Weekly - Have A Heart
Rainbow Lady #139 - It's All About Love
My Partner in Crafting Crime #19 - Love - No Red or Pink

Back tomorrow with a new Penny Black Saturday Challenge :-)

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!