LotV - Anything But a Christmas Card

What with the Christmas rush I don't seem to have made anything other than Chrimbo cards recently. However my best friend from school has her birthday coming up this next week; so this week's LotV challenge gave me the perfect opportunity to use my fave LotV fairy, and also some very girly but slightly eclectic papers I bought at Port Sunlight craft fair a couple of months ago and haven't yet had chance to use yet!  :-)   I also decided to follow the fab sketch at this month's Quixotic Paperie challenge - I flipped it vertically as I felt that was more appropriate given the way the fairy is facing,  but I hope you can still see the basic layout :-)

I absolutely adore this pretty fairy and never tire of colouring her - probably because I also adore fluffy dandelion clocks. As this card was for my oldest friend I did rather go to town on it, so I hope you'll excuse the large number of photos.

I also decorated the inside which is rather unusual for me nowadays - here's a pic.

Stamps: LotV "Dandelion Clock";

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers; glamour dust on dandelion clocks and fairy wings;

Papers: Crafty Individuals "Springtime";

Supplies: flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts and Crafts4u2Do; lace from The Ribbon Box; pearls and large pearl brad from The Hobby House; sentiment by Craftwork Cards; two-tone organza ribbon from my stash.

Tools: Martha Stewart "wildflowers" PATP edge punch; X-Cut small butterfly punch; Leone Em "Ash Family" leaf punch.

Challenges::

LotV #123 - Anything But A Christmas Card

Penny Black & More At Allsorts (December) - Happy Birthday
Hotshot Crafts #1 - Promarkers

DYSU #48 - Ribbon (2nd entry)

Simon Says - Anything Goes
The Ribbon Reel #16 - Anything Goes
Quixotic Paperie #2 - Sketch

Crafty Pad #150 - Give It A Punch (at least 3 punched shapes)
(not sure whether this meant 3 different shapes ... I have 2 small butterflies, 2 larger leaves, 1 smaller leaf, and 1 edge punch flower ...)
Thanks for visiting. Hope you're having a great day :-)

Penny Black Challenge #99 - Let's Get Punchy!

Woo hoo! It's Saturday ... it's a Bank Holiday weekend ... and it's time for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge :-)

Many thanks to everyone who entered our recipe challenge last week ... you were certainly cooking with gas on that one!! I must apologise that I haven't really been commenting much lately ... we have been refurbing our study over the past few weeks and so our main PC has been disconnected - for some reason the laptop has been very slow in connecting to each new site which has made multiple commenting very difficult. ... but now the normal PC is up and running again so I'm hoping to get back on track !! :-)

So onto this week, where our theme is

Let's Get Punchy!

Yep!! we'd like to see you break out those punches - border, corner and/or individual punches - the more the merrier! The only other rule is that you must use a Penny Black stamp or sticker as the main focus of your creation.

This week we have got another fab prize for one lucky randomly drawn winner, from our regular sponsor

It's this cute and versatile transparent PB set of numbers - lovely!!

The rest of the DT have sure been punching above their weight with some stunning samples - hope you will go and check them out - not forgetting our brand new GDT member for May - Janiel.

Here's my card for this week - I'm getting rather addicted to punches (especially Martha Stewart ones) so I didn't need asking twice, and in fact you might say I got a bit punch drunk, as I used four different punches on this one!

Once again I focussed on the idea of a garden trellis covered in summer foliage and wildlife - I used my MS deep edge "garden trellis" punch, and edged it with my new MS "woodland bough" punch (to create the trailing greenery) which I bought at Aintree last weekend. I then decorated the trellis with small MS monarch butterfly punched shapes, and tiny Papermania punched flowers.

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Dream a Dream"; coloured with watercolour pencils, edges distressed with Colorbox Queue ink, and flowers decorated with tiny Papermania gems;
Sentiment: Hampton Art stamps;
Papers: Papermania "Rose Garden";
Supplies: papermania translucent gems; small pearls from my stash;
Tools: large classic oval and large scalloped oval Nestabilities; MS "garden trellis" and "woodland bough" edge punches; MS "Small monarch butterfly" punch; Papermania small retro flower punch.


I would like to enter this card for a few challenges too ...

Paper Play #17 - Pretty Pastels

Lili of the Valley #52 - Here comes summer!

Sweet Stampin' Challenge #24 - It's Summer Time!

Allsorts #50 - Animals

Crafts & Me #3 - Sparkle

(my flowers and butterflies are cut from glitter card, and my flower centres are sparkly gems!)

Quixotic #23 - How distressing!

(edges of matting distressed with smudged ink, and paper edges cut with "Victorian" blade);

Gingersnap #51 - Botanical

Everybody-Art-Challenge #88 - Song Title

("Dream a Little Dream of Me" - various artists over time lol!)

Hope you're having a great bank holiday weekend - no work for me now til next Wednesday cos I've got Tuesday off for my birthday:-) Looking forward to seeing your creations.

The observant ones amongst you will notice this is challenge #99 ... so next week we will be reaching our first century with challenge #100 - woo hoo!! It will be a very special week, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for fun and games on the challenge blog next week :-)

Creative Card Crew #49 - April Showers bring Forth May Flowers

Good morning everyone, and welcome to another challenge from Creative Card Crew. Unfortunately I haven't been able to take part for the past 2 challenges .. 4 weeks ago was semi-planned, and then 2 weeks ago I was rushing round to make my card last minute before going away for the weekend, and I walked into the stair riser and brained myself good style... maybe I knocked a bit of sense into myself lol ... but it still hurts if I press my forehead two weeks later! Also many apologies that I have not been leaving comments - we have been refurbing our study so the PC has been disconnected for about 3 weeks and I have been working on the laptop - it was going v slow when i tried to connect to other blogs and i figured I didn't really have 10 hours to spare to complete all my commenting :-(.

Anyhow .. enough blather and onto this fortnight's challenge, which is a real corker.

April Showers Bring forth May Flowers

Now you can interpret this any way you wish ... you may want to focus on rain, flowers or both!!

To help get you in the mood we have a gorgeous prize for one randomly drawn winner from our regular sponsor

... and it is this gorgeous cute rachel Anne Miller stamp called "Bundle of Joy".

The rest of the DT has truly "made a splash" so I hope you'll go and check out their creations. Here's my effort - I didn't really have any stamps showing rain, so I immediately thought of this darling image of a teddy sheltering from raining flowers :-)

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Rainin' Daisies" (RAK from one of several crafty friends!) - coloured with watercolour pencils, edges distressed with Color Queue "Thistle" ink, and flowers decorated with tiny Papermania gems;
Sentiment: Whiff of Joy;
Paper: Crafty Creations - all edges inked with Brilliance pearlescent ink;
Supplies: Doodlebug "sugar coated" lilac brad; large spacer and butterfly charm from The Hobby House (bought at Aintree last Saturday - met Jill on her stall - how lovely :-) !!); lace was an RAK from Ruby; Papermania lilac jewel gems; lilac plain and gingham ribbons from my stash;
Tools: large scalloped rectangle Nestabilities; Marianne D Creatables "ribbon flower 3" die; Leone Em "Ash branch" leaf punch; Cuttlebug "daisies" embossing folder.

And here's a closeup of the flower. Thanks for the hints and tips people have given me on how to get the paper out of these dies ... I managed rather more successfully this time :-)

I followed the fab sketch at this week's Friday Sketchers #99

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

Quixotic #22 - Make a Splash
Raise the Bar #15 - Colour Me Happy (one main colour - mine is lilac. Can't say whether it is really my favourite but I'm favouring it right now lol!)
Creative Belli #89 - Die Cut Shapes
Simon Says - Things With Wings (butterfly charm)
Stamp Something - Charmed Somethings
Kaboodle #29 - Embossing
Pollycraft #41 - Make your Own Flowers
A Spoon Full of Sugar #101 - 3D (hope my ribbon flower qualifies)

Hope you're having a good week. Hope to be back later in the week if I have time to play properly with the stash I bought on Saturday at Aintree ;-)

All You Need is Love

Crikey!! I don't know where the past week has gone to ... been very busy what with work and one thing & another , so didn't get any crafting in last week at all. Luckily I was able to have a really good sesh on Sunday, although being the slow-coach that I am I still didn't exactly make a mountain of cards lol!!

Anyhow, as there are still so many romantic themed challenges about, I decided to get ahead of myself (unusual for me!!) and make my mum and dad's wedding anniversary card, although their anniversary is a month away.


I followed the fab sketch for this fortnight's BasicGrey challenge #13 - I stretched it a bit to make a C5 card but the basic elements are still there.


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

Simon Says - What's Love Got to Do With It?
Cute Card Thursday #99 - In the Name of Love
Totally Gorjuss #17 - Feel the Lurve

Tree House #36 - Say It With Love
Pixie Cottage #9 - Love
Penny's Paper Crafty Challenges - Valentine/Love

Daring Cardmakers - Have a Heart
My Time to Craft #78 - Hearts & Kisses
Polka Doodles #6 - Hearts & Flowers

Sassy Susie's #8 - Hearts & Flowers

Quixotic #13 - Tag It
Fussy & Fancy #4 - Dazzle Us!
Pile it on #6 - Flowers

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Long-Stem Cuties" (1648K) (an RAK from the lovely Squirrel), coloured with watercolour pencils and Cosmic Shimmers, and the rose dusted with glamour dust;
Sentiment: rub on from stash;
Papers: BasicGrey "Sugared" (roses) and "Two scoops" (plain);
Supplies: lace from Quixotic Paperie; roses from Hobbycraft (decorated wtih diamond Stickles); pink heart gems by Papermania; pearl spray from my stash;
Tools: curved rectangle nestabilities; Leone Em "Ash branch" leaf punch.

Roses Grow on You - & sweet 17

I've had a few things going on this week, which means I'm moving towards the end of the week feeling a tad sleep-deprived and my mojo has been all over the place!! Not managed to do too much crafting, but luckily I managed to make one card which fits quite a lot of challenges :-) In fact I reckon I've managed 17 ... so I've beaten my personal record - yay!


First of all, I followed the fab sketch over at Papertake Weekly #33

I really love this adorable LotV teddy with bouquet (waiting right now for the postie to come with my new LotV stamps ... can't wait!!) and meanwhile this stamp just had to have an outing. I'm also currently loving my Papermania "Blueberry Hill" paper pad ... even though it's not newly released, I bought it for the first time this week. I've also suddenly discovered paper roses - now I know I've not exactly been quick out of the blocks on this one ... but I'm suddenly seeing and buying them in all sorts of places lol!!

I think I also managed to complete the following challenges:

BasicGrey #12 - Animals ... now I bet you're wondering where there's any BasicGrey items on this card .... hmmm? Well actually there are two ... the butterfly is cut from BG "Two Scoops" pink paper, and all the pearls on the card are BG "Opaline" demi-perles.
Die Cut Dreams #32 - Bears
Just Cute Bears Challenge #1 - One for the Girls
Creative Inspirations #45 - Feminine!
Pile It On #3 - Warm Wishes
Crafty Creations #52 - Celebrate!
Raise the Bar #2 - The Gift that Keeps On Giving. I chose my image both for the bear challenges, and also because it was part of my "Secret Santa" Christmas gift from a crafty friend :-)
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday #51 - Inspired by the letter P. That would be Papermania paper, pink, pearls and petals.
A Spoon Full of Sugar #88 - Freestyle (anything goes)
Cute Card Thursday #97 - Blooming Gorgeous!
Dutch Dare #70 - Summer in Winter
My Time to Craft #76 - Elegant Rose
Quixotic #11 - Flutter By
Flutterby Wednesdays #94 - butterfly, fairy or angel
Your Next Stamp #8 - Anything That Sparkles
Cooking It Up With Katie #9 - "non human" image + texture + a product you've never used before. My texture is from the Stickles, and my new products are the roses and white pearly flower.


Recipe:
Main image: LotV "Teddy with bouquet", coloured with watercolour pencils and decorated with Stickles;
Sentiment: Craftwork Cards "Oh! My Words";
Papers: Papermania "Blueberry Hill"; BasicGrey "Two Scoops" (pink butterfly);
Supplies: Pink/cream roses from John Lewis, decorated with Stickles; white satin/pearl flower from Edwin Allen; BasicGrey "Opaline" demi-perles;
Tools: Martha Stewart large monarch butterfly punch; large circles, small circles and large classic scalloped circles nestabilities.

I think I may be taking a couple of days' break from crafting and blogging to recover from the stresses of the past few days ... but I hope I may get chance to play over the weekend :-)

Steaming hot chocolate!

When I saw that the challenge theme this week over at Simon Says Stamp and Quixotic Challenge #8 is Hot Chocolate, my first thought about what I would most like to make was a cup of this ....

I bought this dinky stocking filler for my husband for Christmas, and what with all the snow, the bitterly cold temperatures plus the fact that I have been confined to the house for the past 4 days with a stinking head cold (this afternoon is the first time for a few days I have felt vaguely human!) it just seemed like the obvious choice!

However I soon realised this wouldn't really cut it in blogland, so I managed to make a card. Willow on the front looks pretty much how I feel ... desperate to keep warm and soothe herself with hot drinks lol! Excuse the electric light photo but there has never really been any decent daylight today all day long.

I tried to follow the hot chocolate theme both in terms of the image and colour scheme, and I also followed the sketch (which I rotated) for this week's Secret Crafter #65.


I also made this card to fit with the themes of the following challenges:

Charisma Cardz #1 - colour combo pink, brown, cream and toffee
Crafty Calendar #4 - Keeping Warm (image associated with keeping warm, plus optional extra of texture)
Cupcake #73 - Going Girly
Creative Inspirations #24 - Distressing (I sponged the edges of the image, and also lightly distressed the embossing on the two plain pieces of paper).

Recipe:
Main image: WOJ "Willow with hot chocolate", coloured with watercolour pencils, and edges sponged with Versamark chalk ink;
Sentiment: Craftwork Cards "Oh! My Words";
Papers: BasicGrey "Bittersweet", "Sugared" and "Two Scoops";
Supplies: flowers - Prima and Petaloo; pearl brads and spacers from The Hobby House; ribbon by American Crafts; heart charm from Jackie's Charms and Crafts Shop;
Tools: large classic ovals and large oval scalloped nestabilities; Martha Stewart "doily lace" edge punch; Cuttlebug "Perfectly Paisley" embossing folder; X-Cut distressing tool (for lightly distressing the embossed paper).

Off to keep warm now with more hot drinks!

Penny Black Saturday Challenge #79 - Red & Gold

Good morning everyone, and welcome once more to the Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Here we are at week #79 already .... the weeks are flying by as Christmas approaches. I should start by saying sorry I have been such a naughty blogger the past 1-2 weeks - like most of us I have found there is just sooo much to do and so little time at this time of year ... but I hope to get back on track, certanly once Christmas is over. In the meantime, like all the DT I really appreciate all the support of everyone who enters the challenges :-)

This week we have the perfect theme for those of you who (like me!) are still struggling to complete a few last minute Christmas cards, although it's not necessary to make a Chrimbo card is you don't want. This week we would like to see cards using the colours

Red and Gold

As always the DT has made some stunning examples - hope you'll go to the challenge blog and check them out (including this month's fab guest DT member, Liz), and while you're there do check to see if you have won last week's prize.

Again this week we have another fab prize - a $20 online shop voucher for our regualr sponsor 1-2-3 Stitch.


Here's my card. Having used my new slapstick stamp last week for a very "girly" theme, I thought I would ring the changes with her this week and show her in these more traditional colours. I'm actually pretty pleased with the result :-)

I would also like to enter this card for the fab Quixotic Paperie challenge #6 - seeing stars - this card is sucha perfect firt for the theme that the opportunity was too good to waste :-)

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black slapstick "Winter Swing" - coloured with waterclour pencils, and the stars decoratd with offcut stars from my ribbon;
Sentiment: Stamps Away;
Supplies: metallic stars paper and stars ribbon from my stash;
Tools: Fiskars Fingerguard Trimmer with "deckle" blade ( a wonderful prize I won from Wendy at The Secret Crafter); Cuttlebug "Christmas Stars" embossing folder.

Hope you have a fab weekend and manage to get some quality crafting time amongst the Christmas mayhem!!