Going dotty about bears

I read recently somewhere that a fair proportion of British adults still sleep with their teddy bears ... I don't actually sleep with mine as sadly he fell to pieces years ago due to an over abundance of love and cuddles .... but I think I must be having a "bear moment" as I made three cards yesterday and coloured in an image for a fourth ... and yep, they were all teddies!!

For this card I followed the sketch at this week's Everybody-Art-Challenge #106

.. and I also made the card for

Lili of the Valley #62 - Let's Go Dotty for Circles
Passion for Promarkers #67 - Teddy Bears' Picnic
Papertake Weekly - Just the one (just one bow)
Pollycraft #59 - Add a Little Nature

Recipe:

Main image: LotV "Teddy with bouquet" coloured with Promarkers;

Sentiment: Craftwork Cards;

Papers: Papermania "Summer Bloom";

Supplies: flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts; ribbon from my stash (rescued from my mum's birthday cake!!);

Tools: small circle, large cirlce and large classic scalloped circle nestabilities; Martha Stewart "scalloped dot" edge punch.

Gotta go ... way past my bedtime .. but by the time I get home from work tomorrow I would have missed the LotV challenge .. and that would never do would it lol!?!

Penny Black Challenge #103 - In the Garden

Well, it's not only Saturday again ... but for those of us in the UK it's also a bank holiday weekend so yippee ... and it's time for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge :-)

Thanks as always to everyone who entered last week's challenge - you are truly a really dotty lot .. in the nicest possible way! Don't forget one lucky prize winner will have won the PB stamp I donated last week ... so please do visit the main challenge blog and see if it's you!

Onto this week's challenge, and I guess we're living in hope of some summery weather as our theme is

In the Garden

As always you can interpret this however you choose, so long as you use at least one Penny Black image, sticker or sentiment as the main focus of your project.

As always we have another fab prize - this week it is from our regular sponsor Dick at

and is a 15% lifetime discount voucher for use in his online store - lovely!

Here's my card for this week .... don't forget to check out he other DT members' gorgeous samples.


I used the excellent sketch from Papertake Weekly challenge,

and also made this card specifically to fit with the following challenges:

Simon Says - pink or blue with green & brown
Crafts and Me #5 - Distressed
(I have deckle edged all my papers and matting, and sponged the edges of my image)
Creative Inspirations #62 - Distressed
Flutterby Wednesday's #111 - open theme with butterfly, fairy or angel
Paper Play #21 - Up in the air (things that fly)
>Totally Gorjuss #32 - Wings!
Cooking it Up with Katie #18 - Wing It You Pink Petal!
Stamp With Stampavie #96 - Happy Birthday for a Girl

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Teddy and Company" transparent set, coloured with watercolour pencils;
Sentiment: Penny Black "Salutations" transparent set;
Papers: BasicGrey "Sugared";
Supplies: Prima hydrangeas; pearls, spacers and pearl brads from The Hobby House; ric-rac ribbon from Paula.

Hope you all have a great weekend playing "in the garden" !

Say it with flowers

I have had this adorable LotV kitty stamp for about two months now, but shame on me I haven't made a card with it until now. But this week there are a number of flowery challenges for which I thought this image was just perfect (or should I say purrfect!)

I followed the great sketch for this fortnight's Lili of the Valley Challenge #53 ...

... and would also like to enter this card for

Papertake Weekly - Say It With Flowers
Sir Stampalot May Challenge - Butterflies and blossoms
Cupcake #91 - Blooming Charming
C.R.A.F.T. #51 - Birthday / celebrations
Charisma #20 - 3D (2nd entry)

Here's a closeup of the charm I used .. it's one of my favourites. I'm also really loving the Papermania paper pads this season ... I can't decide which one to pick up first lol!!


... and here's a closeup of my flowers. Nope the rose isn't from Wild Orchid Crafts - it's actually from Hobbycraft!

Recipe:
Main image: LotV "Thomas - Big Bunch of Flowers", colorued with Promarkers;
Sentiment: See-D "Celebration messages";
Papers: Papermania "Rose Garden";
Supplies: rose and blossoms from Hobbycraft; pearls from The HobbyHouse; charm from Bunny Zoe's Crafts;
Tools: "Labels Four" nestabilities; Martha Stewart "Valentine Lace" edge punch and small "monarch butterfly" punch.

Penny Black Challenge #97 - monochromatic brown

Good afternoon, and here we are again with week 97 of the Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Sorry my posting is a bit late this week but circumsatnces intervened and I was only able to make my card last night, finishing well after dark lol!

Anyhow, thanks very much to everyone who got out their button boxes and made such fab creations last week - don't forget to check out whether you have won the prize.

This week we have decided to move onto a colour theme - we would like to see a project using

monochromatic brown

that is to say the predominant colours are any shades of cream, coffee, mocha, chocolate etc ... sounds good enough to eat!! The rest of the DT have been making some delicious creations, and to whet your appetites even more we have a yummy prize from Kerry at


which is this beuatiful pack of Prima "shabby chic" vintage style flowers - fab!!

Here's my card, which strangely uses the same imiage as last week ... but hopefully creates a very different look. I was trying to go for a vintage/sepia type of theme ... hope you like it!!


Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Tiny Wishes" transparent set, stamped using sepia Versafine, coloured using watercolour pencils, and edged with "Antique linen" and "walnut" distress inks;
Sentiment: Penny Black "Salutations" transparent set;
Papers: Papermania "Exquisite", deckle edged and distressed using Tim Hotz "walnut" distress ink;
Supplies: printed flowers and small brown flowers by Prima; cream and champagne tea roses form Hobbycraft edged with gold Stickles; "chocolate heaven" pearls from the Hobby House; lace from my stash.



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

Charisma Cardz #15 - Monochromatic
Sophisticats #29 - So distressing
Papertake Weekly - Cutie Pie
Secret Crfter #79 - A Day Out

Gotta rush to grab my lunch before going out to the hairdresser's gotta get that grey covered somehow.

Old Crock!

Good morning - hope everyone reading this has had a Happy Easter! I am on holiday from work this week ... but alas very little time for cardmaking and/or blogging as i am taking the opportunity to catch up on various jobs and support my husband in decorating and refurbishing our study. It also means that the normal desktop computer is disconnected so I am doing my best with the laptop ... working out how to load a photo was a bit of a challenge this morning lol!!

Anyhow, regardless of the fact that I haven't even managed to make my DT cards over the past week I needed to make this one, as it is for my best friend's husband who will be 50 this week. Fancy calling him an old crock, I hear you say ..... in fact that is the name of the stamp I've used!!

It is only the second time I've ever used this stamp, and I love the way you can decoupage it so it seems to "drive off the page" .... the other time I used it was for my dad's 80th birthday card, which was actually the first card I ever posted to this blog .... here :-)

I made this card to fit with this week's Simon Says Challenge which is it's so distressing ... I don't know if he will find the prospect of being 50 distressing lol, but I thought the general aged and vintage feel was kinda appropriate!! I edged my papers and image with Tim Holtz distress ink in "Antique linen", deckle edged my papers, and also used papers that had a distressed look about them to start with.

I would also like to enter this card for the following other challenges:

A Spoon Full of Sugar #98 - One for the Boys
Sweet Stampin' Challenge #20- It's a Man's World
Crafty Ann's #11 - For Someone Special
Simple Doodles #14 - Add Some Layers
Pollycraft #38 - Anything Goes
Crafty Creations #61 - Anything Goes
Meljen's Designs #1 - Anything Goes
For Fun - Anything Goes
Just Add Ink #11 - Anything Goes
One Stitch at a Time #7 - Anything Goes
Papertake Weekly - Open Theme

Recipe:
Main image: Butterfly Kisses "Old Crock", heat embossed, coloured wtih Twinkling H2O's and USArt Quest pearlescent paint, edges distressed wtih Tim Holtz distress ink, and Glossy Accents used on car windscreen and headlights;
Sentiment: See-D;
Papers and vellum postcard: K&Co;
Supplies: vinage style brads from stash;
Tools: Cuttlebug "Hippie Chick" alphabet used for numbering; Fiskars papercutter deckle blade.

Just off now to get on with some more jobs ... hope to get a little more cardmaking in some time this week :-)

Pink Anya

Just a quick post from me this afternoon with my first ever Anya card - I love these images, which I was sent by the lovely Marcea ... I've been meaning to use them for ages but I just felt this one was right for this sketch and paper combo today. I ahve to say that i think these images are probably much more suited to being coloured with Copics or Promarkers, but as I ain't got any of those yet I had to do my best with my old faithful watercolour pencils. Not entirely pleased with the results, but hey! it's done now lol!

I used the sketch from this week's Papertake Weekly #35

and would also like to enter the card for this week's Stamp. Scrap & Doodle Saturdays #29 - Sparkle, and One Stop Craft Challenge #69 - Optimistically Pink

Recipe:
Main image: Greetings Farm "Anya" coloured with watercolour pencils;
Sentiment: Craftwork Cards;
Papers: Bo Bunny;
Supplies: Prima & papermania flowers; spacers from The Hobby House; Doodlebug sparkly brads; sparkly gems from my stash;
Tools: large classic scalloped rectange nestabilities.

Hope you're all enjoying your Sundays!

Diamonds and roses

This coming Thursday it is my aunt & uncle's diamond wedding anniversary - wow, 60 years of marriage - what an achievement!! And of course, a perfect opportunity to really go to town and make a "special" card. For this one I did actually go out and buy paper, matching bazzill, ribbon and some red paper roses specially, and I hit on the idea of using spray diamantes (rather than spray pearls) to represent the "diamond" in diamond wedding.

Luckily with Valentine's Day just around the corner, there is no shortage of romantic themed challenges that I could enter with this card. First and foremost, Simon Says this week has a photo inspiration which is a picture of a red rose - how perfect is that for this theme?? I would also like to enter this card for the following:

Papertake Weekly - Love Actually
Charisma Cardz #5 - Love
By the Cute & Girly - Love

C.R.A.F.T. #36 - Valentine or Love
Stamp Something - Love Somethings
Paper Play #5 - Love Notes
Ginger Snaps #41 - Romance

Raise the bar #4 - Hearts
Stamp With Fun #45 - Hearts
Die Cut Dreams #34 - Have a heart
Creative Belli #84 - ribbons
Cooking It Up with Katie #10 - home/family theme (uncle & aunt's diamond wedding); punch something, and stickers (hope my silver rub ons and peel offs count?)

Sweet Stampin' Challenge #12 - Floral Frenzy


Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "You're a Treasure" (1589F) coloured with watercolour pencils and gelly roll sparkle red pen;
Sentiment: rub ons and peel off for "60th";
Paper: make unknown - from Craft In Time;
Supplies: paper roses and diamante spray from Hobbycraft; lace from Quixotic Paperie; ribbon from my stash; Tools: large and small circle nestabilites; Nellie Snedden scalloped circle dies; shapeabilities tag; Martha Stewart "Valentine Lace" edge punch and "scalloped lace heart" punch.

Thanks for looking !

New Beginnings

I hadn't managed to get a desk calendar for this year, but I hadn't thought of making one until I was inspired by seeing this fab easel card calendar on my lovely friend Helen's blog. After that I suddenly seemed to see quite few lovely ones, such as these by Carol and Sharon. Whilst musing on what style of image, colours etc. to use I saw a beautiful easel card in my local craft shop Edwin Allen, and that convinced me that a butterfly image was the way to go... plus they had some little packs of Anita's calendars in stock - so I couldn't resist any longer. So yesterday afternoon I sat down for a session, and decided to make one each for me and two of my female colleagues. Here's the results ....


Hope you'll excuse the poor lighting ... strange isn't it that there is so much sparkling white snow out there, but the light conditions are still so terribly grey.

Here is a closer view of two of the calendars ... the only reason they aren't totally identical is that I only had enough paper to make two cards with a "border" of paper on the base, so on the third I used some lace instead; also I didn't have enough iridescent pink card for the matting, so used a mixture of pink and white.



I would like to enter these for a few challenges, namely

Stampin' for the Weekend - New Beginnings
Papertake Weekly - New Beginnings (2nd entry)
Pile It On #31 - Welcome 2010
Fussy & Fancy #1 - New (2nd entry) - I have used a new rubber stamp + new die cut shapes for my matting;
Cute Card Thursday #94 - All New
Flutterby Wednesdays #91 - New + a fairy, butterfly or angel
Everybody-Art-Challenge #72 - Favourite colour combo ... I definitely think mine is pink + green.
One Stop Craft Challenge #62 - A Night at the Movies. Well I think these calendars would fit any of the following films .... "Papillon", "The Butterfly Effect or even "2010". :-)
Paperplay - Precious Metals
Crafty Ann's Challenge #5 - New Year, New Inspiration
Your Next Stamp #7 - Embossing

Recipe:
Main image: buttefly by "Autumn leaves" from Edwin Allen, heat embossed with silver and coloured with Twinkling H2O's;
Papers: Kaisercrafts;
Supplies: hydrangea flowers by Prima; pearl brads from The Hobby House; mini "Anita's" calendars from Edwin Allen; ribbon and various spacers from my stash;
Tools: scalloped circles (matting) - dies by Nellie Snedden (from Edwin Allen); Leone Em Ash Branch leaf punch.

I've been battling a stinking cold for the past couple of days, and i think today it has really taken hold, so i doubt i'll get any crafting done this afternoon ... I'll just have to snuggle up and chill out! Hope you're having a good weekend and keeping warm.

I spy ... with my little eye ....

.... Something beginning with "B" ... That's what we were asked to use for this week's One Stop Craft Challenge #61, so I couldn't resist using my brand new Lili of the Valley Teddy Bear with Bouquet, BasicGrey paper, BasicGrey opaline pearls and pearl Brads :-)

I also spied several other challenges that I tried to incorporate into this card. I followed the fab sketch for this week's Sketch Saturday #84

I also used a few of my favourite things ... as Crafty Cardmakers #11 wants to know what were our fave new products and/or techniques for 2009. Well I have lots, but would have to include use of multiple flowers with spacers and Leone Em punched leaves - it just adds so much more dimension and interest to the card (as well as postage charges lol!!) Also during 2009 I discovered Hobbycraft raffia lace, which I just love to weave with narrow ribbon to co-ordinate with my papers!

I also used some new items of stash for this card, which puts it into the frame for a few more challenges. My LotV teddy stamp was a Secret Santa gift from a group of crafty friends (awww!); and I bought my "labels 4" nesties several weeks before Christmas but bizarrely have never used them until now! So I would like to enter this card for
Stamp Something - New Somethings
Fussy & Fancy #1 - New
Papertake Weekly - New Beginnings (can include something new on the card :-) )

I also decided to make a Thankyou card to enter for Totally Gorjuss Challenge #11, now that cards don't have to always contain a Gorjuss Girl stamp. Last but not least, I have done a bit of smudgy distressing on the edges of the image, in line with the challenges from Corrosive #46 and from Creative Card Crew #42 ... and yay!! I've just popped over there and discovered I've been picked for their DT call - woo hoo! So I guess I'd better enter this challenge whilst I still can lol!

Edited: Thursday morning (7/1) I have spotted that the new LotV challenge #44 is Thankyou. Now I know that backlinking is naughty and I never normally do it .... but seeing as this card was posted only a few hours before the challenge started, it is my first ever LotV card using my adorable first ever LotV stamp (first of many I hope!!) , and LotV is a "fun" rather than a "prize" challenge this week ... I hope they'll let me share it ;-)

Recipe:
Main image: Lili of the Valley teddy with bouquet, watercoloured and decorated with Stickles and BasicGrey pearls;
Sentiment: Penny Black "Salutations" transparent set;
Paper: BasicGrey "two Scoops";
Supplies: Flowers by Petaloo and Woodware; raffia lace from hobbycraft; pearl brads and spacers from The Hobby House; dragonfly brad , ribbon & corner peel-offs from my stash;
Tools: nestabilities "labels four"; Leone Em "Ash Family" punch; Fiskars paper trimmer "Victorian" blade.

Teddy and robin (2)

Just a very quick post from me this evening ... here's another card I made on Saturday but haven't really had chance to post until now. it's another outing for my new darling Gillian Roberts stamp.

For this one I followed the sketch at this week's Lili of the Valley Challenge #41 - I thought I may have missed the moment with it, but thankfully I've discovered it is on for 2 weeks - phew!

I would also like to enter it for the following challenges:

Pollycraft Monday Challenge #29 - Wonderful Christmas Time
Everybody-Art-Challenge #67 - Christmas
Papertake Weekly - Christmas Crackers
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday #43 - Christmas
Simon Says - Winter Love. Maybe I'm imagining it, but I think the teddy is looking very lovingly at the robin bearing the dinky gift!!
Cuttlebug "be inspired" #59 - Glitter
Fun with Shapes & More #30 - Gifts as an imprint ... I think this means a pic of a gift somewhere on the card ...and can you see what the little robin is holding??
Incy Wincy #19 - Anything Goes

Here's a closeup to try to prove there is actually some glitter on there .. not very successfully I fear lol!

Recipe:
Main image: Gillian Roberts "Bear & Robin" coloured with watercolour pencils and decorated with polar white Flowersoft & glamour dust;
Sentiment: Craftwork Cards "Oh! My Words";
Papers: Kaisercraft;
Supplies: pearls and red ribbon from my stash;
Tools: Cuttlebug "snowflakes" folder embossed onto white glitter card; Martha Stewart "Arctic Snowflake" punch used on white glitter card.

Mum's birthday combo

Last night I made my mum's birthday card .. her birthday isn't until Thursday, but as she doesn't own a computer I think I'm fairly safe posting it on here lol!

This card is actually very similar to one I made about three weeks ago ... I love this particular stamp (whch I've never yet used to make my mum a card!) and these papers, also I thought my mum would like this kind of design;so I just went with it with a few small differences from my previous effort.

I'd like to enter this card for a few challenges:

Stamp With Fun #19 - Birthdays
Secret Crafter #44 - cute as a bug - well my paper is covered with dragonflies, and I have used a couple of cute dragonfly brads and a li'l silver butterfly charm :-)
Stamp Something - Charmed somethings - I'm really crossing my fingers with this one, as the prize is sponsored by Quixotic Paperie which has THE most fabulous lace and charms ... I was lucky enough to win some another time, but they're so lovely I'm quickly working my way through them lol!
Papertake Weekly - Four Seasons - this card makes me think of summer with the wisteria, dragonflies and butterfly ...

Here's a picture that tries to capture the shine and sparkle of the embossing and glamour dust, but sadly there wasn't a lot of light this morning.

And the inside ...

Recipe:

Main image: Penny Black "Fanfare"(3946K) embossed in detail silver, coloured with Marvey brushstroke pens and decorated with glamour dust;

Sentiments: Craftwork Cards "Oh my Words!"; letters cut from pearlescent white card using Cuttlebug "Hippie Chick" alphabet;

Papers: BasicGrey "Wisteria";

Supplies: mulberry paper flowers & pearl brads by Papermania; charm from Dolls Made Up; punched borders using Martha Stewart "doily lace" edge punch; dragonfly brads & ribbon from my stash.

Hope everyone is having a good evening, and thanks for looking :-)