Penny Black Saturday #171 - Down On The Farm

Good morning everyone and welcome to another Penny Black Saturday Challenge! Sorry I'm a bit late - messed up my scheduled post again (blush!!). Alas I didn't join in last week as I was just on my way home from my holiday in Greece and hadn't managed to get that far ahead in my DT makes (though I managed to schedule a post for the week before :-)  ). Anyhoo I've had chance since I got back to look at the entries for last week's monochrome challenge, and they are fab as always! Don't forget to check out the main challenge blog to see if you have won!

Now I'm back to reality and have managed to get myself geared up to join in with this week's challenge which is

Down On The Farm

Yes, it's time to break out all those cute PB creatures you may find down on the farm ... don't you just adore the PB cows, pigs, geese, hens etc? I think they just make such fun cards!

And to help you get in the mood we have two fabulous prizes for two randomly drawn winners :

From Penny Black, this gorgeous stamp: 3888K "Winter Glitter"

and from The Ribbon Girl, this gorgeous mini-kit in lavender

The rest of the DT have been happily singing "Old MacDonald" this week and have come up with some adorable creations. Here is my attempt.

Recipe:

Main image: Penny Black "bundle of wishes" (2612H) coloured wtih Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Sentiment: LotV;

Papers: ??;

Supplies: flowers by Sweet Lilac; ribbon, lace and pearl brad from my stash;

Tools: Scalloped square and lacy circle nestabilities; Martha Stewart "garden trellis" edge punch.

Here's a closeup of the sweet image. I'm still getting to grips with my new Flexmarkers - I used the Blue Grey 1 and Glacier Blue for shadowing but they are incredibly faint ... can you see them??

Challenges:

Papertake Weekly - Sketch

Crafts & Me #54 - Flowers

Allsorts #123 - At Least 5 Flowers

(hope the ones on the image and paper count lol!)

Stampin' For The Weekend #17 - What A Cutie!

Charisma #39 - Love

Simon Says - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Paper Sundaes #88 - Anything Goes

Creatalicious #26 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

I am also entering this into the Penny Black Blog Guest DT post for World Cardmaking Day - they are asking for your best new PB card between Saturday morning and Sunday evening ... well this is actually my ONLY PB card that I have managed to produce over the weekend lol! I have uploaded it onto Flickr but am mentioning it here also :-)

Hope you can join in this week! Have a great weekend.

Hugs

Penny Black Saturday #147 – Easter Extravaganza

Good morning everyone, and welcome to another Penny Black Saturday Challenge.  Thanks once again to everyone who entered last week’s Say It With Flowers challenge –what a frenzy of fabulous florals you came up with!! Don’t forget to check out the main challenge blog to see if you are a winner.

Anyhow, this week our challenge theme is seasonal .. yes it is

Easter Extravaganza

So it’s time to seek out those cute bunnies and chicks, spring flowers or any other suitable PB images you may have to hand. You can interpret the theme however you like, but remember that to be eligible for the prize you must submit a new piece of work that uses a Penny black image, large sentiment or stickeroo as its main focus.

This week’s fab prize is from our former teamie Carole, and is this gorgeous PB slapstick stamp, “Hedgehog Birthday”

 

The other ladies have made some fabulous and adorable Easter creations – here’s mine.

Recipe:
Main image: Penny  Black “Jonquils” inked with Marvey brushstroke pens;
Sentiment: See-D “Easter”;
Paper: Craft Creations;
Supplies: daffodils and pearls from Wild Orchid Crafts;  raffia lace from Hobbycraft; ribbon from my stash;
Tools: classic large ovals and large scalloped ovals nestabilities; Marianne D Creatables swirly leaf die.

Challenges:
Penny Black Blog Challenge -  flowers (use a floral PB stamp)
Creative Inspirations #107 – Easter
Die Cut Dreams #87 – Easter
Stampin’ For The Weekend #7 - Easter
Pollycraft Monday #88 – Easter
CRAFT #98 – Easter 
Daring Cardmakers – Spring Fling (Spring or Easter)
Top Tip Tuesday #29 – Spring Has Sprung
Rainbow Lady #148 – Springtime
Totally Papercrafts #62 - Springtime
Papertake Weekly – Truly Dimensional

Hope you can join us this week – looking forward to seeing your creations :-)

Coffee and cream (cakes)!

The challenge this week over at Simon Says is coffee and cream ... and I was determined to enter for two very good reasons - not only have they got a fantabadozie prize as always, but this week they're also having a DT call - woo hoo! However I felt less sure when I started thinking about the theme ... coffee and cream are not two colours I normally craft with, so not only are they WAY out of my comfort zone, but what to do about supplies?? So this is hardly my best week to put my best foot forward for the DT ... but hey, you've got to give it a go, haven't you?? So, I started riffling madly through my stash in search of something suitable. Here's what I came up with ... I already had this darling image stamped up, so I decided to give her a "coffee and cream cakes" makeover!. I agonized for some time over papers, and this was really the best combo I could come up with, but I hope the soft script-printed paper adds to the overall vintage feel. I was also a little concerned initially about what I would do for embellies as I have never purchased flowers in brown shades and only a few cream ones .... but that's where I really got lucky!! I recently won a yummy little candy from Dawny P ... and not only had she included a yummy selection of WOC flowers in shades of cream and terracotta, but also some really vintage looking deep cream lace - yippee!! I also found a few coffee coloured roses knocking around in my stash which were a present some time ago from my bloggy friend Sue, and remembered that I had a teapot charm lurking in the depths of my charm box ... things were finally starting to come together! (Some of you may think that you can detect a peach coloured rose on the card ... but given that it really gave the overall scheme such a "lift" I would argue that it is in fact cinammon ...y'know ... the stuff you get sprinkled on your coffee. That's my story and I'm sticking to it ;-) ) Recipe: Main image: LotV "Hello Cupcake", coloured with Promarkers and Copics; Sentiment: Penny Black transparent set "Salutations"; Papers: various from stash; Supplies: pearls from the Hobby House; all flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts (with thanks to Dawny P and Sue); lace from Dawny P; ribbon and charm from stash. Challenges: Simon Says - Coffee and Cream (+ DT Call) Secret Crafter #123 _ Sweet Treats Crafty Pad #110 - Something Yummy For Your Tummy Raise the Bar #55 - Mug Shots Paper Sundaes #58 - How Charming Rainbow Lady #141 - Shabby Chic Sweet Stampin' - Oh So Girly Craft Your Passion #47 - Girly Girl My Time To Craft #129 - Hats Creative Inspirations #100 - Stripes Stampin' For The Weekend #4 - Monochrome Wild Orchid Challenge #18 - Anything Goes Sentimental Sundays #44 - Anything Goes Friday Sketchers #143 - sketch

Think I'll go and have a cup of tea and a cupcake now lol (only kidding)!!

My first ... my last ... my everything

This year I have made quite a lot of cards using the snowy scenes theme with swirls and flowers, and today I would like to show you the last and fanciest (though still relatively easy to make) card from the production line, which is this year's card for my mum and dad. Most similar cards I have made have had a totally white background; but as this one is bigger (C5) I have added a gorgeous piece of sparkly snowflake paper I found earleir this week in a local craft shop (they only had one piece so that was lucky!!) Once more this card is actually MUCH more sparkly than the photograph suggests!!

Recipe:

Main image: Penny Black "Snowy Park", covered with crystal Fine Art glitter;

Sentiment: Pink Gem Designs;

Paper: frorm local craft shop - no manufacturer details on the paper!

Supplies: hellebores and cherry blossom flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts covered with stardust Stickles; small glittered roses from Hobbycraft; silver gems from my stash;

Tools: Marianne D Creatables "Flower swirl" die; Cuttlebug "snowflakes" embossing folder.

I have made this card to fit the following challenges:

Simon Says - Silver, blue & white

Dutch Dare #93 - Winter
Fussy & Fancy Friday - Show Us Some Snow

Stampin' for the Weekend #53 - Christmas

Additionally, Crafty Cardmakers #36 is asking this week to see a latest card along with one of your earliest creations. Well, this is one of my earliest cards, and is the Christmas card I made for my mum & dad back in 2006! It makes me quite nostalgic, because back then I had very little equipment, only a handful of stamps and a small amount of papers and embellishments. Peel offs ruled the day to save costs on making different sentiments for different cards, I don't think I had got my Cuttlebug, and I had not yet heard of nestabilities, Wild orchid Crafts, Lili of the Valley or many other of my current favourite stores and supplies. As you will see though I HAD heard of Penny Black already - this is the first PB stamp I ever bought and is called "Winter Snuggles!" - awww!

Just off to do some ironing now before getting ready for my works Christmas party ... so I sure hope that the weather is going to hold and things won't be looking like the picture on my first card!!

Edited: by 7pm Friday the scene outside our house was well on the way to looking pretty much EXACTLY like the pic on the top card, so no Chrimbo party night for me :-( I definitely made the right choice ... my husband had to walk home over 2 miles from our local rail station after his afternoon party in thick snow ... if I had tried it in a sparkly dress and platform shoes I don't think I'd have made it lol!!

Papertake Weekly Guest DT spot - woo hoo!

I was absolutely thrilled and delighted when the lovely Dawny P emailed me to ask if I would like to be Guest Designer on Papertake Weekly for the next 4 weeks. Would I?? er .... yeah ... PLEEEEASE!

And for my first challenge I had the pleasure of working with this fabby sketch from Miss Pink Piggywiggy herself - hope you can join in this week's challenge too ... don't forget to visit the challenge blog to check out the other DT members' gorgeous samples and this week's prize.

So here's my first GDT card - bit of a scramble this one as I had a bizzy weekend, so I hope it's up to scratch!! I found myself feeling autumnal again for the second time in just over a week - not like me at all as my cards are usually a festival of pinkness! However I do really like the versatility of this stamp - it is really a Christmas stamp but I can see all sorts of possibilities for using it across the seasons :-)

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Fantasy "(3880K), stamped using "Vintage sepia" Versafine onto pale stone coloured card, and decorated with small punched flowers and pearls;
Sentiment; See-D "Celebrations";
Papers: Bo Bunny "Olivia";
Supplies: large turquoise pearl brad and silver spacer from The Hobby House; brown pearls - BasicGrey "Opaline"; flowers, white pearls and silver beads from my stash;
Tools: small and large classic circles & lacy circles nestabilities; Martha Stewart "Woodland Bough" edge punch; small flower Papermania punch.

With its autumnal feel I would like to enter this card for the following challenges:

The Stamp Man #7 - Autumn

Crazy4Challenges #59 - Autumn
Stampin' for the Weekend #49 - Hallowe'en or Fall
BasicGrey #31 - Autumn / Harvest Time
(note the papers aren't BG but some of the pearls are :-) )
Penny Black at Allsorts (2nd entry) - Colours of Autumn
Corrosive #86 - Get Rid of the White

(don't stamp onto white card)

Our Creative Corner - Embellishments - the more the better

ABC - F is for Flowers

That's all for today ... look forward to seeing your interpretations of Dawny's sketch.

Penny Black Challenge #117 - colour scheme

Saturday again already, so it must be time for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge! Thanks very much to everyone who got all loved up and joined in last week's challenge - fabulous entries as usual.

This week we have a colour scheme for you ... we would like to see your projects featuring predominantly the colours

purple, cream & brown

As always we look forward to seeing your interpretations - just remember you need to use either a Penny Black image, large sentiment or stickeroo as the main focus of your creation.

This week we have 2 fabulous prize stamps on offer to randomly drawn winners from our regular sponsor Penny Black

"Hedgie Gift"

"Join the Party".


Ooh I want to enter ! :-)

The rest of the DT have worked their PB magic so I do hope you will pop over to check them out. Here is my card for this week.


The starting point for this card was obviously the existence in my stash of a piece of purple, cream and brown paper by BasicGrey ... plus the overwhelming urge to use a burgundy/cream coloured rose that was winking at me from my collection. These 2 items suggested to me a kind of vintage theme, so before I knew it I had inked up my one and only non-Christmas vintage style PB stamp. I managed to resist the urge to use any glitter or sparkle on this card (unusual for me!!) as I didn't think they would look quite right with the vintage concept.

Now it's confession time ... I only narrowly avoided disaster with this project. I stamped out the image on a large-ish piece of card, and whilst taking a full hour to colour it in I kept idly scribbling strokes of several new Promarkers I had bought in honour of the occasion, on the side of the card ... or so I thought!! When it came to time to cut out the image I realised that my scribbles had encroached within the minimum boundaries for cutting out a rectangle... and I don't think this pic is condusive to cutting close the image. Eek!! All I will say is that thank goodness the sentiment looks right on the card where it is placed lol! (phew!)


Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Rain or Shine Friends" (312K) coloured with Promarkers and edges distressed with "Antique linen" distress ink;
Sentiment: Penny Black "...second self" (3386D);
Papers: BasicGrey "Wisteria";
Supplies: large rose and small roses from Hobbycraft; middle rose from Wild Orchid Crafts; lace from Bunny Zoe's Crafts; pearls from the Hobby House;
Tools: Martha Stewart "floral vine" deep edge punch; Leone Em "Ash Family" leaf punch;

I would like to enter this card for

Penny Black at Allsorts (September) - Punch Away
Stampin' for the Weekend #46 - Shabby or Vintage
Dutch Dare #85 - Vintage Summer (2nd entry)
Bunny Zoe's #3 - Vintage

Simon Says - Pearls & Lace (2nd entry)
Ooh-La-La #61 - Elegant ladies
Belli Challenge #99 - Old Stamps

Double Dutch #51 - The Easy Challenge

(I have chosen previous Challenge#4 Pick & Choose with the techniques stamping, distressing and punching)

Have a great weekend and look forward to seeing your creations.

>

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.

Butterfly Kiss

I thought I would have a little break from making Christmas cards, so instead I sat down to make my November Docrafts friendship card for Karen (CarrieAnne). It was actually really invigorating to get away from the pressure of the Chrimbo card production line, as I have started to feel my mojo slipping away lol!


I followed this week's Stampin' for the Weekend Challenge #25 sketch .....


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

Daring Cardmakers - Initial thoughts. They would like to see at least 3 things on your card that begin with the first letter in your name. Well I'm quite lucky in that respect ... P is not only for Pauline, but is also for ....
- Penny Black stamps (* 3)
- Paper
- Pearls
- Petals
- Pearlised card
- Punched flowers
- Pricked holes (for the stitching) ....

... and also for Phew!! (lol!)

Stamp 'n' Scrap Hawaii - stitching
Flutterby Wednesday #84 - open theme featuring a butterfly, fairy or angel
Simon Says - Animal Antics. This is my second card for this challenge but i kinda get the impression that they are ok with multiple entries - hope so :-)
Corrosive Challenge #39 - Let's Go to the Movies! I have used the little known movie title Butterfly Kiss - ok so I had to look that one up on IMDb ... but it's there I promise you lol!

I used one of my all-time fave stamps, Penny Black "Bunny Bath" - I never tire of his cute little face looking so loved up with the butterfly :-)

I also decorated the inside, which I haven't been doing with Christmas cards as there just isn't enough time in the world when I have to make so many lol!



Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Bunny Bath", coloured with watercolour pencils with a little doodling around the edges;
Sentiments: Penny Black "... second self" (2386D) (front); Penny Black "Everything's ..." (2733E) (inside);
Paper: My Mind's Eye "Bloom & Grow";
Supplies: lace and charm from Quixotic Paperie; large pearl brad and spacer from The Hobby House; Woodware flower; pearl gems and dragonfly brad from my stash;
Tools: large oval and large scalloped oval nestabilities; Martha Stewart "Ash branch" punch.

Don't forget that if you enter this week's Penny Black Saturday Challenge there are loads of fab prizes on offer on our blog hop, plus I am offering some DT candy if you enter the challenge and visit my DT card here - plus all the other DT members are offering candy too :-).

Penny Black Challenge #72 - and an 11-into-1 combo

Yippee! It's the weekend ... so it's time for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge! Thanks to everyone who entered last week's challenge using Nat's fab sketch ... sorry I didn't manage to get round to look at everyone's entries, but I'll try my best this week :-) Don't forget to check out the blog to see who won last week's fab prize!

Now hold onto your (witches') hats ... this week we have a very scary challenge for you, which is

Hallowe'en

Yes ... we want to see all your spooktacular creations with lots of scary spiders ... ghosties and all things spooky! As always the only rule is that you use at least one Penny Black image or
sentiment.

I'll 'fess up straight away that this was a totally scary challenge for me , for a number of reasons - not least of all the fact that I had NO Hallowe'en images, NO sentiments, NO suitable papers ... ribbons ... charms ... embellishments ... EEK! You start to get the idea lol?? Add to this the facts that I'm terrified of spiders, ghosties and ghoulies freak me out, and I hate the colour orange ... and it wasn't looking too good! Luckily my fab PBSC teamie Domi came to the rescue with some cute rather than scary Hallowe'en images and sentiments, and I managed to download my first ever paper (a free one!) so I was at least able to cobble something together .... and although I don't normally use peel offs much nowadays I thought the spiders webs were a cheap and convenient way to hit the spot!

As usual we have got a gorgeous prize for you .. it is this fabulous PB stamp "Cozy" donated by our very own Carole - thanks hun, it's wonderful! :-)

So here's my card ..... spookily it was very sunny when Itook this picture which is totally inappropriate for a Hallowe'en card I know ... strange how the sun never seems to come out when I want a bright picture lol! The rest of the DT has also woven lots of Hallowe'en magic, so don't forget to peek through your fingers at their scary offerings!

As this is almost certainly going to be my one and only Hallowe'en card this year, I'd like to also enter it into a few challenges .....

Corrosive Challenges #34 - Spooky Times

Pile It On #19 - Ready for Hallowe'en

Kaboodle Doodles - It's a spooky challenge

Cupcake Crafts #62 -Things that Go Bump in the Night

Stamp with Fun #29 - Hallowe'en

Creative Inspirations #32 - Hallowe'en

My Time to Craft #82 - Hallowe'en Colours

Everybody-Art-Challenge #62 - Hallowe'en

Stampavie & More #66 - Hallowe'en

Stamp Something - Hallowe'en Somethings

Stampin' for the Weekend #21 - A Haunting Good Time

(11 - a new personal best lol!!)

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Pup-o-lantern" (2538J), coloured with watercolour pencils and the pumpkin decoupaged;
Sentiment: Penny Black "Trick or Treat" (1906E);
Papers: "Super-Spooks" - free download by Marie Stones from Free Digital Scrapbooking
Supplies: Black & orange sparkly brads by Doodlebug; black dotty ribbon and spider's web peel offs from my stash;
Tools: Martha Stewart "Scallop dot" edge punch.

Looking forward to seeing all your spooky creations ..... sleep well, and don't have nightmares ha ha!