Bits'n'pieces challenge & Cute Card Thursday

My crafting friend Samantha set a little group of us a challenge ... she sent each of us a secret envelope and we had to make a card with the contents ...yikes! This is what she sent:

• Penny Black flower stamped image - "Portraits"


• Penny Black butterfly stamped image


• Pink silk flower


• Silver flower brad


• length of pink sticky ribbon


• Piece of whitecard embossed with Cuttlebug dots


• Pink tag

This what I made.... I based my theme around the piece of brown/pink background paper I had luckily bought just before - so I coloured the flowers and butterfly with pink Twinkling H2O's and used some pink pee wee glitter to mirror the glitter on the paper, then cut them out and decoupaged them. I also used a Papermania brown pearl brad, a silver peel off on the tag, pink Papermania gems and some silver stringed ribbon to add finishing touches.

Luckily enough this week's Cute Card Thursday Challenge #26 is Pretty in Pink ... so I hope the general girly, flowery, sparkly, fluttery nature of this card qualifies LOL!

Kerry's blog candy competition

Kerry has got herself a right fabulous Load of Old Pickle and is celebrating 10,000 hits by hosting a brilliant blog candy competition - closing tomorrow 29/8. All she requires you to do is to link to her blog candy and to create a crafty project using her favourite craft essential - ribbon.

Well, when it comes to making cards using ribbon I don't need asking twice LOL! Last week I made my first Christmas card that used multiple new Chrimbo ribbons I'd bought, and I was so pleased with the effect I thought I'd make another using a different colour scheme! .... after all, if you can't use multi-ribbons in a ribbon competition, when can you?? So I got out pack of Papermania ribbon I bought last year but never opened (!) and got busy. Here is the result - hope you like it !

I used: main image Penny Black "Holly Jolly" coloured with watercolour pencils and Twinkling H2O's; Papermania ribbons; paper and glitter card from my stash; E-Z Rub on sentiment and holly; Dovecraft corner holly punch.

All challenges lead to Christmas!

I've been too busy to make any cards this past week, so I haven't entered any challenges. I'm also very aware that the time for Chrimbo card preparation is drawing near, and I was inspired to start making an effort after going to a Christmas launch event at a nearby craft shop "Crafts4u2do" in St. Helens. So ... from now on I'm going to be looking at tying in some of my challenge cards to Christmas card making .. starting now!

This week's My Time To Craft Challenge #26 is Cats; Cute Card Thursday #23 is Soft Furnishings (you can use fabric, ribbon, stitching, buttons etc, anything you can find on the soft furnishings in the home ie curtains, cushions, sofas etc.); and Penny Black Saturday Challenge #10 is Ribbons - as you can see I have incorporated both ribbons and a button into my design, plus a scalloped edge with brads that you could imagine is the shape of a pelmet with studs.

Main image: Penny Black "Holly Jolly" coloured wtih watercolour pencils & Twinkling H2O's

Sentiment: E-Z Rub On Transfers

Paper: Carol Wilson Fine Arts

Ribbon: The Paper Company Studio

Button: Doodlebug

Chrissy Marie's Friday's Fable - Midsummer's Eve

Chrissy Marie's inspirational blog contains a beautiful picture and/or poem each Friday to inspire us to create something wonderful; and she has a challenge to win blog candy open til this Friday (August 1st) based on the picture Midsummer's Eve by Edward Robert Hughes (1908) and the following poem by an unknown author ...

If you see a fairy ring
In a field of grass,
Very lightly step around,
Tip-Toe as you pass,
Last night Fairies frolicked there
And they're sleeping somewhere near.
If you see a tiny fairy
Lying fast asleep
Shut your eyes
And run away,
Do not stay to peek!
Do not tell
Or you'll break a fairy spell.

The challenge is to make anything taking inspiration form the picture, poem, or a word in the poem. I have made my first ever "flower fairy" card with a sentiment about keeping dreams in the heart. I used: main image free with craft magazine, coloured with watercolour pencils and Twinkling H2O's, and wings decoratedwith Stickles, mounted onto silver holographic card; lilac pearlescent card embossed wtih Cuttlebug "stylised flowers"; sentiment stamp by Penny Black; flowers by Prima; small charm with butterfly image and "inspire" on reverse from my stash. Hope you like it!

More Challenges - CCT #20 and Whiff of Joy Designer Call

Got on a bit of a roll this afternoon, and thought I'd enter a couple more challenges. Cute Card Thursday Challenge #20 is "Things that grow", so I found a PB stamp with hedgy holding a flower growing out of a plantpot. I am also entering this for Katharina's "Whiff of Joy" Designer call which is running until Wednesday 30th July. She is about to launch her fabulous new stamps and has asked for cards submitted using her sketch: don't know if I have the right idea as i don't have any of the existing cute little girl stamps such as Sarah Kay or Sweet Ebony, but this is my take on the sketch.

I used: main image is PB "Greetings" coloured with watercolour pencils, and the flowers with Twinkling H2O's and Cosmic Shimmers (they are actually quite twinkly!). Sentiment stamp was free with a craft magazine; papers are by Making Memories (I think!), lace from Hobbycraft and flowers by Prima. Today is my first day using my new Nestabilities so they have to be incorporated everywhere! I should mention that the green matting for the striped paper does acutally match the paper - just hasn't photographed well for some reason (I didn't enter this one for the "clashing colours" challenge LOL!!)

Happy 50th birthday to Gail

My friend and colleague Gail is 50 today, so I made her this card and gave it to her during the week. I believe she likes fairly traditional colours such as red, gold and green so tried to incorporate them into the design.

I used:

Main Image - Inkadinkado "Tulip Collage" coloured with Cosmic Shimmer paints and twinkling H2O's

Greeting - Hero Arts

Flowers - Prima

Jewel brads - Making Memories

Die cut numbers - Cuttlebug "Hippie Chick" alphabet.

Hope she has a lovely day!

PS. I have also noticed that this card falls in perfectly with 2 challenges that are on the go this week: Daring Cardmakers and My Time to Craft Challenge (# 22) are both for "numbers" cards - so here we are :-)

Penny Black Saturday Challenge 4 - Buttons and Brads

I made this card this afternoon for the PB Saturday challenge, which this week specifies that the card should use buttons and brads. It is also my Docrafts July friendship card for Evelyn C. This was certainly a challenge as I rarely use buttons so had to actually raid my sewing box!

The main stamp is by Inkadinkado, coloured with Cosmic Shimmer paints and Twinkling H2O's, and the sentiment is PB "..second self". Round metallic brads are by Papermania, the dragonfly brad is by Lakeland, and the flowers are by Prima. Papers, ribbon and buttons are all from my stash. Hope you like it!

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Colour

The Penny Black Challenge is what has inspired me to set up my new blog, so having emailed my cards to Tracy and Tracie for the past two weeks I am now finally able to post one here!!

The challenge this week is to make a card using the colours pink, brown and green; so here is my effort - hope you like it.

I have used the PB stamp "Clusters" for the main image, coloured with 2 shades of pink Cosmic Shimmer and "Sea Glass" Twinkling H2O.The greeting stamp is by Hero Arts; papers are all by Heidi Grace Designs for Fiskars, flowers by Prima and pearl brads by Papermania.

A Whole New World!!

Hello and welcome to my new blog ... this is all exciting and new, and I hope an opportunity for me to share my passion for cardmaking with you. I have been inspired by seeing some fab crafting blogs plus the need to join in some fantastic blog challenges!

In order to get some content up and running on this site I thought I would start by sharing some of my crafting activity from the recent past .... and where better to start than with the card I lovingly made to mark my precious dad's milestone 80th birthday on 8th June? it isn't really my usual style but I made it very much with his likes in mind - the main stamp is "Old Crock" by Butterfly Kisses, painted with Olive Vine twinkling H2O (to look like racing green), decoupaged so it "drives off the page" and mounted onto copper pearlescent card embossed with the Cuttlebug. The background papers were free with Making Cards magazine, the setiment is from the "Celebrations" See-D and the numbers die cut using the Cuttlebug "Hippie Chick" alphabet.

Hope you like it!