Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

Just a quick post this morning as I'm going to be out and about all day. Yesterday I managed a fairly mega crafting session and made a grand total of 4 cards which is mahoosive for me (yep ... I'm a very slow worker lol!).

This is the first one, which I made to catch the end of two challenges - Wild Orchid Crafts and Sketch and Stash. I know there are those who may say that Santa isn't a teddy bear, but here's what I say ... I don't have much in the way of stamps with an old fashioned Santa on, and in any case when it comes to Santa it's a matter of what you believe lol!! .. and last but not least, if you look very closely you will see that one of the images on my background paper is actually Santa (he is just about disappearing off the edge of the paper, and his little helpers must be hiding behind the other papers  :-)  lol!)

Stamps: Forever Friends Santa bear; LotV Christmas Sentiment Circles;

Media: Promarkers, Flexmarkers, Copics, glamour dust on coat and ground;

Papers: Dovecraft "Jolly Happy Christmas";

Supplies: Flowers by Wild Orchid Crafts; Ribbon by Papermania; pearls from The Hobby House.

Challenges:

Wild Orchid Crafts #35 - Santa Claus is Coming To Town!

Really Reasonable Ribbon #35 - Christmas

Sketch & Stash #73 - Sketch

(old stash is the stamp and ribbon, new stash is the flowers)

Gotta dash - enjoy the rest of your weekend :-)

Sunlight and Snow

I had a happy afternoon on Saturday wandering around the stalls at the Happy Stampers North West craft fair at Port Sunlight.

By far my biggest splurge was with Jill on the Hobby House stall where I worked on a “needs and wants” basis – ie. I visited early to buy the things I “need” such as Neenah card and a whole variety of pearls, gems and charms ... and then I called back later for my “wants” in the form of some Whimsy ticket stamps, a couple of sweet Fizzy Moon stamps and two yummy paper pads!

I also managed to call by the Lili of the Valley stall where I had a nice little chat with the lovely Dawny P, and I was really good as I managed to come away from there with only two stamps in my basket (how did that happen lol??!!).

Finally I said hello to the lovely Jayne from Stamposaurus, who had given me very quick and personalised service when I NEEDED a new set of newly released Flexmarkers to arrive quickly before my holiday .. she had an excellent show offer on including a couple of free Ellie stamps, and when I mentioned  I must have been her first phone order on the day of release she very kiudly let me have one free Ellie stamp - fab!

However I couldn’t wait to start inking my LotV purchases (even though I realised when I got home that I was out of EZMount and had never thought to buy any at the fair – doh!).

Here’s the resulting card I made for this week’s LotV challenge – very pleased as this stamp is actually not too intricate and therefore reasonably quick to colour :-). I deliberately chose the papers to fit with the theme at Paper Sundaes of “favourite colour combo”. Mine is pink and green – admittedly I would normally use more pastel shades, but the concept is still there!

Stamps: LotV "Shine A Light" and "Christmas Sentiment Circles";

Media: Promarkers, Flexmarkers, glamour dust and a li’l bit of polar white Flowersoft forming snow on the ground;

Papers: Wild Rose Studio “Milton’s Christmas”;

Supplies: sparkly gems and large gem brad from The Hobby House; pearls and ribbon from my stash;

Tools: Martha Stewart “eyelet lace” punch; Marianne D “miniature poinsettas”.

Challenges:

Lili of the Valley #115 – Let It Snow

Wild Rose Studio – Festive Frolics (+ blog hop!)

Paper Sundaes #90 – Favourite Colour Combo (Pink & Green)

Jingle Belles – I’m Dreaming of a Pink Christmas

Marianne’s Design Divas #2 – Bloom & Grow (2nd entry)

Top Tip Tuesday #55 – Use DP’s & Make Your Own Flowers

Simon Says – Sparkle & Bling (3rd entry)

Pretty Little Ribbon (October) – Anything Goes

By The Cute & Girly (October) – Anything Goes (+ blog hop!)

Sketch & Stash #72

Well that's me done for today - off to catch up with some ironing now, but hope to colour some images later :-)

I'm on a roll!

I'm definitely getting into the swing now with some Christmas card makes, and last night I made a couple more to add to my slowly growing pile. Again I started by colouring a few of the same image - I actually coloured three of this adorable little mouse, but only managed to get two cards made up in the end .. but at least I've got a head start on another card!

For my first card, I followed the sketch over at Cupcake Crafts Challenge #63


I flipped the sketch and substituted snowflakes for flowers, so I would also like to enter this card for Creative Card Crew Challenge #34 - snowflakes.

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Thinking of You" (1517E) watercoloured, and decorated with polar white Flowersoft and glamour dust on the Santa hat;
Sentiment: Craftwork Cards "Oh! My Words";
Paper: Kaisercraft (from The Hobby House);
Supplies: sparkly brads by Doodlebug; ribbon from Hobbycraft; pearl gems from my stash;
Tools: Martha Stewart "embossed snowflakes" edge punch and Arctic Snowflake punch (from The Hobby House).


For my second card I used the sketch at Sketch and Stash Challenge #22


I don't actually have any new stash on this card (pretty unusual for me lol!!) but I do have a a few neglected items .... the gold star is from a Prima red Christmas bubble - I often use the flowers but the stars seem to just sit there!! My matt gold mirri card is also somewhat neglected as i don't normally go much for gold on cards throughout the year, but I do seem to bring it out a bit more at Chirstmas. Finally, at the last minute I spotted a neglected piece of gold ribbon with stars in my box, which I thought complimented the other star reasonably well.

I would also like to enter this card for Simon Says Challenge - All that Sparkles - it's by no means the most sparkly card I have created, but I hope it qualifies with the sparkly star and the sparkly fluffy effect on the hat!


Recipe:
Main image and sentiment as before;
Paper: BasicGrey "Wassail";
Supplies: gold star from Prima red "Christmas bubble"; gold star ribbon from my stash.

Hope I can keep up this productive streak! :-)

Triple challenge - and my first D and D

I bought two sets of the yummy new Papermania "Daisy & Dandelion" stamps when they came out about a month ago, but haven't had chance to play with them until now. Here is my first D&D card using the cute bunny "Candyfloss", who I think really is as sweet as candy! These stamps really are so cute that I think I will definitely be using them some more!

I made this card for 3 challenges, namely

Daisy & Dandelion #4 (of course!), where the theme is two by two - 2 papers, 2 brads/eyelets and 2 embellies. I have used two papers from the Papermania "Sweet Nothings" pack, and 2 brads holding the 2 flowers which are also from the new Papermania range.

Sketch & Stash #7 - which was a great unfussy sketch very suited to these bright busy papers. What's new?? Well - pretty much everything on this card as described above - the stamps, paper, flowers and Doodlebug "All Mixed Up" rub ons for the greeting, were all bought from the Papermill Shop.

Last but not least - Secret Crafter #26 has a theme of Stripes.

Thanks for looking!

Penny Black Challenge #41 - Let's Doodle!

Happy Saturday everyone and welcome to this week's Penny Black Saturday Challenge . I'm sure you'll agree Tracie's sketch last week was a stunner, and the result was some brilliant entries for last week's challenge. As always details of the prizewinner will be posted on the challege blog this morning.

So onto this week's challenge, which is

Doodling!

Now if like me you get nervous at the thought of doodling, I hope you will be tempted to try by this week's prize ..... I'm particularly excited as I chose and donated it so naturally I think it's adorable! It is the PB stamp "Dream a Dream" ... this cute li'l bear even features in my blog header!!

Please don't forget to check out the other DT members' blogs for some brilliant inspiration - there are some much more artistic efforts than I could manage lol! Sadly our dear friend Tracie cannot join us this week as she has received the sad news that her granddad has passed away - our thoughts are with you hun and we hope you will be able to face rejoining us soon.

On a happier note, here is my card for this week. Now I will hold my hand up and say that originally I wanted to make a card using the bear above, but that went a bit pear shaped when I unexpectedly had to make mum's Mother's Day card a day earlier than anticipated..... so I had to incorporate some doodling as I had no time to make two cards! Doodling isn't my forte I have to say, but hey it's done now! However I tried to make up for it by introducing a whole new element - I used Penny Black papers!! :-)

Recipe:

Stamps used: Penny Black "Blush"; Woodware clear sentiments ("On Mother's Day"); WOJ sentiments ("From the Heart" & "Wishing You the Perfect Day").

Colouring media: detail gold embossing.

Papers: Penny Black gold embossed papers - inside cut with MS doily punch.

Lettering: Cuttlebug "Hippie Chick" alphabet.

Supplies: lace from Hobbycraft; Prima flowers; ribbon and brads from my stash.

And the inside .....

Now I would also love to enter this card into the current Sketch & Stash challenge #6, as I was inspired by the sketch which I have rotated by 180 degrees. What's new?? Well ... the flower stamp, WOJ sentiments (first inking), ribbon, and gorgeous PB papers which I got from a visit to Horseshoe Crafts in Shropshire whilst on a country break last weekend.

You have probably noticed by now that I have been on a bit of a roll with this new flower stamp. I'm really loving its versatility, but promise I will try to go for a change on my next cards!

Looking forward to seeing all your creations - have a good weekend.