Sending Love At Christmas

Yesterday evening I sat down to a bit of a colouring session, and completely outdid any previous attempts at batch colouring as I completed EIGHT images of this gorgeous FF Santa teddy. Or to put it another way ... over the next week or two you are likely to see this image featuring on my cards a LOT lol!

Stamps: Forever Friends Santa teddy; Pink Gem sentiment;

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

Papers: Dovecraft "Holly Jolly";

Supplies: flower by WIld Orchid Crafts; pearls from The Hobby House;

Tools: large oval and large scalloped oval nestabilities; Cheery Lynn "holly flourish" die.

Challenges:

Crimbo Crackers #3 - Santa

Kaboodle #96 - Colours of Christmas

Sparkles #26 - One You Love At Christmas

Daring Cardmakers - December Flowers (Holly)

Crafts & Me #63 - Pearls & Swirls

My Mum's #34 - Keeping Warm

Paper Sundaes #98 - Sundae Bar

(I used red + stripes + die cuts)

Craft Your Passion #87 - Anything Goes + Glitter

Simon Says - Anything Goes
Totally Gorjuss #109 - Sketch

The weather here has been absolutely freezing today, t hough we haven't had any snow (YET!!). Hope you are all keeping warm .. I'm just off for a cockle-warming cup of tea now :-)

Christmas Angel

Good morning - here we are again with (surprise ... surprise ...!!) another Christmas card! For today's card I have used this darling LotV angel stamp which I bought last month at Port Sunlight.

I managed to find some very girly Christmas papers with delicate stars in pastel colours, which I hope tie in quite nicely with the little stars on the image :-)  I really do think this particular image is just soooo pretty !!

Stamps: LotV "Little Trumpet";

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers; Stickles on angel wings and flowers;

Papers: Kaisercraft;

Supplies: ribbon from Hobbycraft; lace from Wild Orchid Crafts; flowers by Sweet Lilac; sparkly gems from The Hobby House; small wooden star from John Lewis; peel off greeting from my stash;

Tools: Marianne D Creatables "Bauble/Star" (LR0183).

Challenges:

Sparkles Christmas #10 - Angels

Colour Create #83 - Turquoise, Deep Pink & Ivory

The RIbbon Reel #14 - Hot Pink, Turquoise and Cream
My Time To Craft #165 - Sun, Moon and Stars

Secret Crafter #159 - Flowers, Ribbon and Lace
Marianne's Design Divas - Dying To Die Cut (3rd entry)

Papertake Weekly - Christmas

Totally Gorjuss #105 - Sketch

This is the last of the cards I made in my mega crafting sesh. I haven't done any crafting this week as I've had a bit of an upset tummy, but touch wood I'm feeling quite a bit better now so hope to be back with some more cards by the weekend :-) Thanks for visiting.

I Love Pickle!

No, this isn't an exhortation to "bring out the Branston's", but a declaration of adoration for this cute little guy who features on Wild Rose Studio's latest release of stamps - isn't he the cutest ever?? As soon as I saw these stamps I had to order two ... I'm currently waiting for the lovely ladies at The Glitterpot to send me the second one as some naughty person must have popped the last one into their basket at the same time as me, but I'm sure it will soon be here. Meanwhile I just HAD to make a card with this adorable stamp "Pickle With Presents".

This stamp is really quite big, so I decided to keep the whole thing simple and make a card for this week's Less Is More challenge - Things That Move. I'm sure you'll agree that Pickle is putting his best foot forward dragging along that sleigh, even though the vehicle would also move of its own accord if it was given just the teeniest push downhill in the snow !  I know that the general LIM style is arty rather than cute but I thought this one ticks the boxes, so I couldn't resist!

I'm very pleased with this stamp as it is very simple to colour, which I'm sure will be a godsend when it gets nearer to Christmas!!

Recipe:

Main image: Wild Rose Studio "Pickle With Presents", coloured with Promarkers and dusted with glamour dust on his hat :-);

Sentiment: Pink Gem Designs;

Supplies: dotty ribbon from a box of Christmas goodies sent to me by Helen;

Tools: background white pearlescent card embossed with Cuttlebug "snowflakes" folder.

Challenges:

Less Is More #29 - Things That Move

Totally Gorjuss #94 - Cute and Cuddly

Passion for Promarkers #114 - No Patterned Paper

Ooh-La-La #87 - No Backing Paper

Charisma #34 - Glitter It!

That's all for now ... back on Saturday with another Penny Black Saturday Challenge.

Oldie But A Goodie - Ribbon and Lace

Good morning everyone - hope it is sunny where you are ... we had a lovely day here yesterday :-)  It's time for another Oldie But A Goodie Challenge - thanks so much to everyone who entered our Anything Goes challenge last time - fab projects as always !

This fortnight we have a theme I'm sure you'll love - I definitely didn't need any encouragement to get going with this one! It is

Ribbon and lace

Ooh! my favourites (along with flowers, pearls etc... etc... lol!!)

This fortnight we are sponsored by Poppy's Cabin - do be sure to check the main blog for further details and all the other ladies' gorgeous ribbony and lacy samples :-) And just a reminder ... in order to be eligible for the prize you should link to a new piece of work that features a stamped image (NO digis please) that is at least 6 months old ... that's why we're called An Oldie But A Goodie ;-)

When I got to thinking about my DT card for this challenge I decided to ink up a stamp which is both old in terms of initial release (1996!!) and also old in terms of the physical stamp in my hand ... but it is new to me. My local craft shop sells a few second hand stamps, and I spotted this pre-loved (but very well cared for as there was hardly a mark on it) vintage Penny Black stamp .... and they were asking £2 for it - that's got to be one of the best crafty bargains I've ever had!! I also got some new summery papers by Prima so I couldn't wait to get started ... the final element of inspiration was this week's Sketch Saturday sketch, which had perfect elements to incorporate as ribbon and lace.  I felt this created a really fresh summery feel, especially when I piled on the flowers :-) Here's the result .... I'm actually rather pelased wtih this one for once :-)

I also noticed that there are a number of stitchy challenges around right now ... and as the image itself has a bit of stitching on it I thought I'd get down to a bit of faux stitching as well (I don't do real stitching lol!!) Unfortunately it doesn't show up too well (my pink marker was running out!!) so here's a closeup just to prove it is there (along with the distressed paper edges)  ...

Recipe:

Main image: Penny Black "A Gift of Flowers" (586K) coloured with Promarkers and Copics;

Sentiment: LotV sentiment circles;

Papers: Prima "Sparkling Spring";

Supplies: flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts and Crafts4U2Do; lace from Crafts4u2Do; ribbons and pearls from my stash;

Tools: pokey tool used to make faux stitching; Tim Holtz distressing tool used to rough up the paper edges.

Challenges:

Sketch Saturday #163 - sketch

Simon Says - A Stitch in Time

Simon Says Stamp and Show - Stitching

One Stop Craft Challenge #139 - Summertime

Totally Gorjuss #88 - Summertime

Crazy 4 Challenges #95 - Summer

Pile It On #28 - Favourite Technique

(colouring with Promarkers)

Penny Black Challenge - Favourite Distressing Technique

(distressing paper edges with TH distressing tool)

CES #44 - Recipe: 1 image, 2 ribbons, lace or twine + 3 DP's

Cute Card Thursday #172 - Lace

Penny Black at Allsorts (July) - Flower Power (2nd entry)

Charisma #27 - All About Flowers

Creative Craft - Pretty Blossoms

Crafty Pad #129 - Lots of Texture

Kaboodle #75 - Use Those Scissors

(my vintage image wasn't a perfect rectangle so I cut it out by hand rather than with a  paper cutter)

Craft your Passion #66 - Just For You

ABC - Y is for Yesterday

Cupcake #150 - Your Favourite Challenge

(wow I could choose so many ... but howzabout 1. Flowers, 11. Vintage, 36. Summer, 61. Going Girly, 69. Flower Power, 103. Lace, 138. Lots of Layers ... all great themes in my opinion :-)  )

Hope you can join in the challenge this fortnight - look forward to seeing your creations.

Oldie But A Goodie #21 - Where In The World?

Hi there, and welcome to another Oldie But A Goodie challenge. Thanks so much to everyone who entered our Lots of Layers challenge - there were some fabulous entries. Don't forget to check the main challenge blog to see if you have won the prize.

Before we get on to this fortnight's challenge we have a bit of news ... we have a new DT member joining us, so hope you will give a big welcome to Sara  :-)

This time it is Laurie's turn to pick the challenge theme, and she has chosen

Where in The World?

We would like to see something associated with a particular country ... maybe the colours of a flag, holidays, national flowers etc ... you can interpret this however you like, but in order to be eligible for our prize you should submit a new piece of work that uses a stamped image (no digis please) which is at least six months old ... that's why we're called An Oldie But A Goodie :-)

Laurie has also donated the prize for this challenge ... it is this yummy Oriental selection.

Hope you will have a look around the other DT ladies' fab cards and see if you can guess where in the world they are trying to represent .... I have stayed right here in England with English roses.

Recipe:

Main image; Elusive Images "Script Rose", heat embossed with detail gold, coloured with Promarkers and highlighted with Twinkling H2O's; matting distressed with "Victorian Velvet" distress ink;

Sentiment: Elusive Images;

Papers: Andrea James "Pampered Pets";

Supplies: pink and ivory roses and lace from Crafts4U2Do; green roses from Wild Orchid Crafts; pearls from my stash;

Tools: deckle edge blade used on image matting and papers; Leone Em "Ash Family" leaf punch.

And here's a closeup of my delicious new flowers which are mostly from Crafts4u2Do.

Challenges:

Simon Says Stamp and Show - Distressed / torn edges

Kaboodle #71 - Floral Showcase

Totally Gorjuss #84 - Flower Power

Stamp With Fun #115 - Pearls and Flowers

Shabby Tea Room #66 - Pink Lemondade

(Pink + green + neutral + flowers, with the following gorgeous inspiration picture)

Totally Papercrafts #70 - Summer

Scrapbook Sisters #39 - English Country Garden

CES #40 - Saturday Night At The Movies

(The Name of the Rose)

Crafty Pad #125 - Just Because You Can

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Hello baby!

I rarely have the need to make baby cards, but I made a couple last week for "New Beginnings" challenges - one for a girl and one for a boy. No sooner done than a colleague's wife had a baby girl, and next minute another colleague asked me if I could make a card for another baby girl ... I was actually quite thrilled as I don't very often get asked to make one.

So here's another card for a baby girl - my second within two weeks!


Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Basket of Joy (2075F), coloured with Promarkers;
Sentiment: LotV sentiment circles;
Papers: checked paper by Deja Views; glitter dots card from local craft shop;
Supplies: wild rose and cherry blossoms from Wild Orchid Crafts edged with Stickles; blossom stems from local craft shop; ribbon-threaded lace from my recent winning prize pack from An Oldie But a Goodie Challenge;
Tools: large, small and lacy circles nestabilities; Martha Stewart "eyelet lace" PATP.


Normally when I send cards that have raised elements such as flowers, I put them in a padded envelope (top tip - Wilkinsons padded white CD mailers - decent looking and 70p for four!!) ... but in this case I didn't feel it would be appropriate to provide a padded envelope to the girl who is giving this card as it would rather spoil the ambience. So I got a bit carried away and made a box for the card :-)

I made the base from normal white linen cardstock, and the lid from the same pearlescent pink bazzill that I had used for matting the image on the card. I told myself I wasn't going to spend too long decorating it, but came up with the quick but (I hope) effective idea of plonking a fancy tag on the top ready to write the baby's name and date of birth. This also had the added advantage of allowing me to use my brand new "Magnolia vintage" tag which I have been itching to do for the past couple of days :-)


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

Passion for Promarkers #82 - Baby Cards
Crafty Creations #101 - New Beginnings
Crafty Pad #104 - Something New
Penny Black At Allsorts (January) - All You Need is Love
Totally Gorjuss #63 - Cuddly
Corrosive #99 - Lace and Pearls
Incy Wincy #76 - Go Dotty
The Ribbon Girl #4 - Pink & Green
Top Tip Tuesday # 17 - Anything Goes
(I have also left 2 tips linked to this post)

Paper Sundaes #52 - Favourite Challenge of the Past Year
(I really like the Paper Sundaes Challenges, and have chosen #40 "For Someone Little" - I am a bit late entering with this as I was a bit confused what was required [doesn't take much!!] but now I've looked again at the challenge i would like to enter ;-) )

I have also used (and flipped) the sketch for January's Crafters' Companion Challenge #8 for a second time - not sure if two entries are allowed but I'm giving it a go :-)

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Pretty in Pink (+ silver + white)

Here's another card from my latest Christmas batch .... quite a few challenges were winking at me from my blog roll when I logged on this morning so I decided to make this one into a quick post. I would like to enter this card for: Wild Orchid #13 - Pink, Silver and White

Cupcake#121 - Non-Traditional Christmas

Incy Wincy #72 - Non-Tradional Christmas Colours

Stamp With Fun #89 - Christmas

Pollycraft #74 - White Christmas

The Pink Elephant #90 - Winter Wonderland

Catch the Bug - Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Stamptacular #89 - Winter Wishes

Keep It Simple - Season's Greetings

Sentimental Sundays #33 - Let It Snow

Totally Gorjuss #60 - Snow!

Daring Cardmakers - Snow Much Fun

Alphabet Challenge - G is for Glitter

Bunny Zoe's #7 - Sparkle & Shine

Stampalicious - Stampaliciously Simple

Recipe:

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

Sentiment: Penny Black;

Paper: pearlescent white card embossed with Cuttlebug;

Supplies: small roses from Wild Orchid Crafts; silver gems and ribbon from my stash;

Tools: Cuttlebug "snowflakes" embossing folder.

That's all for today :-)

Papertake Weekly GDT card ... and a dee-ZAR-stah!

Hello and welcome to another Papertake Weekly Challenge, where I'm lucky enough to have reached week 2 of my stay as a guest designer. Thanks to everyone who entered last week - check out the main challenge blog to see if you have won the WOJ stamp!

This week we have another fab challenge theme for you ...

Sparkly & Bright

Now I'm sure most most of you will love this one - it certainly worked for me, and got me feeling all Christmassy (which can't be a bad thing as the Big Day is now less than 2 months away!) In fact I tried to go for a whole variety of sparkly and shiny effects .... glamour dust on ted's hat and snowflakes; glitter card for my snowflakes and greeting; silver gems; blue paper with glittered effect; and white paper with shiny self-coloured snowflake pattern (not very easy to see in the photograph).

I couldn't resist using my brand new LotV "James Bear" stamp, which I was lucky enough to be able to choose following my win on the LotV challenge a couple of weeks ago. I totally adore these bears - their faces are just so lovable!

The way James is standing in a shower of snow kinda reminded me of a snow globe for some reason, so it fitted in very nicely with this week's Just Cute Bears #38 sketch by my fab bloggy friend Helen - cos that kinda reminded me of a snow globe too!!
Recipe:
Main image: Lili of the Valley "James Bear - In the Snow" coloured with Promarkers and decorated with glamour dust;
Sentiment: peel off from my stash;
Papers: from my stash;
Supplies: ribbon and silver gems from my stash;
Tools: large classic circles nestabilities; "Fancy Tags" shapeabilities; Martha Stewart "Arctic Snowflake" punch and "Embossed Snowflake" edge punch.

But before I get on to the rest of my challenge entries with this card, I must admit that I had a bit of a dee-ZAR-stah with it (as Craig Revill Horwood would say). Due to various circumstances I was a bit last minute making my card, so I had to take it to work to photograph in daylight before bringing the camera home to load my photo onto the PC ... so I was already in the last chance saloon photography-wise. However I noticed that I had somehow put a mark onto the matting circle ... I think I must have scratched my face in "thoughful work mode" and put some makeup onto my fingers - oops! But that wasn't the worst of it ... my attempts to clean it off with a soft tissue and pencil rubber just took part of the surface off the card !! :-(

Something tells me that whoever eventually receives this card will be overwhelmed by the abundance of punched snowflake shapes around teddy lol, but for now this is as good as it gets ;-)

Other challenges I would like to enter:

Lili of the Valley #70 - Winter Fun
Fussy & Fancy #22 - Winter Wonderland
Crafty Pad #94 - Christmas
Delighful - It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
Wee Memories #28 - Cute Holidays
Totally Gorjuss #53 - Sparkle
Frosted Designs - Die-Cuts
Spoon Full of Sugar #127 - Let's Get Punchy
Teddy Stampers #22 - Anything Goes
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday #90 - Anything Goes but Buttons and Bows

Hope you will be able to join in with this week's PTW challenge - don't forget to check out the other DT members' fabby creations for more inspiration.

Christmas in August - just!!

Good evening! I've had an extra day off work today following the Bank Holiday, so I made this card this afternoon before I went out ... but I thought I'd better post it quickly as the title "Christmas in August" won't seem nearly so apt when we get to tomorrow lol!

I have inked up one of my darling new LotV stamps for the first time .. the difficulty is knowing which one to choose first, they are all SOOO cute!

I deliberately set out to make this card fit several challenges ....

Firstly, I used this fab sketch from Teddy Stampers #18 - I have not seen this challenge blog until now, but I'm guessing from the title that it requires a teddy image ;-) ... well that works for me with these LotV cuties!

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

Creative Inspirations #41 - Christmas in August
Totally Gorjuss #45 - Christmas in August
Paper Sundaes #33 - Christmas in August
Secret Crafter #98 - Make a Start on Christmas
Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight - Glitter & Sparkle

.. and talking of gliiter and sparkle, here's a closeup of teddy's tinsel.

Recipe:
Main image: LotV "james Bear Wrapped in Tinsel", coloured wtih Copics & Promarkers, and tinsel effect created with Stickles;
Sentiment; Craftwork Cards;
Papers: Papermania "Silent Night";
Supplies: Flower, leaves and sparkly stars from Prima Chrstmas bubble; pearls, pearl gem and gold spacer from the Hobby House; ribbon from stash;
Tools: small, large and large classic scalloped circle nestabilities; Fiskars "Victorian" cutting blade.

Back to work tomorrow ... but I already have another card made and hope to have a third in the bag by then ;-)

Here comes the bride

My dear crafty friend Samantha is getting married to her fiance Efisio today, so I was delighted to be able to make them a card and I hope they are having a wonderful day. I used this adorable LotV stamp "wedding couple", which I coloured with Promarkers and decorated liberally with glamour dust. Instead of using patterned paper I took some white pearlised card and scored a "quilted" pattern using my Martha Stewart scoring board, and then decorated with little pearls from my stash. I wanted the colours to be soft, romantic and "shimmery" so I also used irisdscent pink card for the matting and hearts, and holographic silver paper for the floral swirl at the side.

Recipe: Main image: LotV "Wedding Couple", coloured with Promarkers, decorated with glamour dust, and edges sponged with pale pink ink; Sentiment: Whiff of Joy "Wedding Sentiments"; Paper: none - used white pearlised card, pale pink iridescent card and silver holographic paper; Supplies: roses and rosebuds from Wild Orchid Crafts decorated wtih stickles; "love" ribbon from local market; pearls from my stash;

Tools: large classic circle and large classic scalloped circle nestabilities; Marianne D Creatables "leaf swirl" die; Martha Stewart heart punch; Martha Stewart scoring board.

I would like to enter this card for the following challenges: Creative Craft Challenges - Here Comes the Bride

Totally Gorjuss #40 - Congratulations!

Crafty Creations #77 - Happy or Sweet

Wild Orchid Challenge #1 - Say It With Flowers

Stamp Something - Something Flowery

Create4Fun #30 - Use flowers

Passion for Promarkers #61 - Distressing

(edges of image sponged with soft ink effect)

Papertake Weekly - Cutie Patootie

Creative Inspirations #39 - Anything Goes

The Stamp Man #1 - Anything Goes

So ... to Samantha and efisio ... here's Wishing you a lifetime OF JOY AND HAPPINESS.

Bunny variations

As I mentioned last week, I got a mini production line going for a few simple Easter cards using this darling freebie bunny stamp. I never make any 2 cards exactly the same, but here's one where the slight variations were made with the following challenges in mind ;-)

Corrosive #57 - Easter

Everybody-Art #84 - Spring
Pile It On #12 - Animal-Riffic!
Ooh-La-La #50 - A button, a bow and some bling
Stamp Something - Doodle Something
The Pink Elephant #60 - Pastels
Totally Gorjuss #23 - Hearts

Recipe:
Main image: free with this month's Quick Cards Made Easy magazine - coloured with watercolour pencils, and edges doodled with Marvey and Gellyroll stardust pens;
Sentiment: free with magazine as above;
>Papers: Craft Creations;
Supplies: heart shaped button by Doodlebug; pearl gems from the Hobby House; ribbon from my stash;
Tools: none!!