Woo hoo - Papertake Weekly Guest DT Spot!

Good morning everyone - hope you're all well and coping with whatever weather extremes you're having in your part of the world. It's freezing cold here again, though at least where I am we haven't got snow at the moment!

I was really thrilled and excited when Sharon asked me if I would like to do a Guest DT spot on Papertake Weekly for the months of February and March ... woo hoo yes please!! I love PTW, it really is one of my favourites and I enter it most weeks when I can. Indeed the only downside I can see is that i won't be able to enter for any of the yummy prizes for the next 8 weeks lol!

This week our theme is

Hearts &/or Flowers

Pretty easy peasy methinks with Valentine's Day just around the corner, and hopefully we should get loooooads of entries !

Don't forget to check out the main blog for details of this week's sponsor, and to see all the gorgeous creations by the rest of the DT - here's mine for this week.

I think it's probably fairly self-evident that I majored on the hearts lol!! Indeed I shouldn't really be posting this yet at all as it is my husband's Valentine card ... but I know he doesn't look on here and in any case I don't have multiple husbands to make multiple cards for!!

This card is quite unusual for me in a couple of ways ... firstly the fact it is a stepper card (I recently bought a pack of 5 pre-cut ones, and so enjoyed making my first one here that I thought I'd have another go). Also there is the fact that the main image is not stamped but is decoupaged with cute teddies that were free in a craft magazine :-).  I rather like the fact that stepper cards allow you to showcase intricate border punches - this is especially true with the extravagant Memory Box ones.

Image & Valentine sentiment: decoupage from kit free with craft magazine;

Sentiment: Penny Black transparent set

Papers: Craft Creations;

Supplies: papermania heart gems; ribbon and heart-shaped doily from my stash;

Tools: classic hearts nestabilities; Memory Box "Cherish" border die.

Challenges:

Dream Valley #50 - Valentine's

Cutie Pie #37 - Valentine's

Allsorts #193 - Valentine's

Kaboodle #158 - Valentine's

Craft your Passion #149 - My Valentine

Fab 'n' Funky #157 - Valentine / Hearts

Gem Of A Challenge #66 - Valentine / Hearts

Totally Papercrafts #153 - Valentine / Love

Ready Teddy Go #19 - Love Is In The Air

One Stop Carft Challenge #215 - Love Is In The Air

Crafty Catz #169 - Love Is In the Air

Daring Cardmakers - Love Is In The Air

Sentimental Sundays #141 - Love Is In The Air

Ooh La La - Love Story

Cute Card Thursday # 255 - Love Struck!

Totally Gorjuss #170 - Love

Paper Crafting Journey - Love

Top Tip Tuesday - Let Me Call You Sweetheart

Simon Says - Have A Heart

Penny's Paper Crafty #113 - Ribbons and Bows

My Time To Craft #208 - Decoupage

Wow - I  think the whole of blogland must be loved-up at the moment!!

That's all from me today - look forward to seeing your creations for PTW.

Hugs

Happy Easter :-)

Oh bliss! I've had an extra day off from work today for Easter, so I've had chance to potter about and catch up with one or two things. Didn't have time for any crafting, but here is my last Easter teddy card which I made at the weekend. Unfortunately I didn't manage to make enough Easter cards to send to all my friends as I have been working late recently, but even so I'm quite pleased with the value I got out of this free decoupage pack ... I think I'm all teddied-out now lol!

Image: Forever Friends decoupage pack;

Sentiment: Penny Black;

Papers: Papermania "Forever Friends - Springtime";

Supplies: flowers by Wild Orchid Crafts; pearls from The Hobby  House; ribbon from my stash;

Tools: Martha Stewart edge punch; Cuttlebug "daisy pattern" embossing folder; Leone Em "ash Famiily" leaf punch.

Challenges:

Creative Inspirations #157 - Easter

My Mum's #51 - Easter Creations / Animals

Hooked on Craft #19 - Easter
Forever Friends (April) - Embossing

Fab 'n' Funky - Emboss It!

Craft Your Passion #104 - Dots & Stripes

Simon Says - Use Your Favourite Tool (Cuttlebug)

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Divas By Design #29 - Anything Goes

Hopefully I'll get a bit of time to craft tomorrow .. if not I'll be back on Saturday with another Penny Black Saturday Challenge :-)

Cutie with cupcakes :-)

I'm still patiently working my way through my free decoupage kit for Easter ... I'm determined to get some good value from a magazine gift for once instead of letting it all go to waste lol!

Here's an adorable Forever Friends teddy peeking at some  Easter cupcakes ... I can't quite decide but they look to me like chocolate cornflake "bird's nest" cakes - yummy!! I so remember these from when I was little and indeed I could scoff one right now :-)

Making this card gave me opportunity to use up some more of my yummy "Me To You" Easter papers ... I even cut out some little eggs from the paper and decoupaged them along with the teddy image! Here's the result.

Image: Forever Friends decoupage kit;

Sentiment: Penny Black;

Papers: Papermania "Me To You - Spring Chic";

Supplies: gems and ribbon from my stash.

Challenges:

One Stop Craft Challenge #176 - Easter

Craft Your Days Away #42 - Easter

Crafty Cardmakers #65 - Easter

Totally Papercrafts #110 - Easter

Charisma #12 - Easter
Paper Sundaes #114 - Happy Easter

Crafty Pad #164 - It's Egg-Tastic!

Simply Create Too #10 - Eggs &/or Bunnies

Simon Says - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

Sketch 'n' Stash #84 - Sketch (rotated)

I still have enough decoupage cut out to make two more cards ... I'll have to get a wriggle on though if I'm to get them done, dusted and posted in time for Easter; and I think I'll be ready for a change by then!

 

Mmmmm choklit!

Just a quick post from me this afternoon, to show you another Easter card I have made with my Forever Friends free decoupage kit. This time the darling bear is holding an Easter egg ... wish someone would buy me one as big as that lol!  Couldn't get a very true colour pic of this card for some reason, so here is the best I could manage.

Image: Forever Friends decoupage;

Sentiment: Penny Black;

Papers: Papermania "Forever Friends - Springtime";

Supplies: Flowers and pearls from Wild Orchid Crafts; lace from The Ribbon Box; ribbon from my stash.

Challenges:

Wild Orchid Crafts #45 - Bingo!

(gems / flowers / ribbon & lace)

Pollycraft Monday #133 - Mmmmm Choklit!

Papertake Weekly - sketch

That's all from me for today - enjoy the rest of your weekend :-)

 

Hot cross teddy!

Hi there. It's been such a long time since I did any regular crafting that I thought I would try something a little bit different in an attempt to get my mojo back.

In a recent craft magazine the free gift was an Easter-themed decoupage pack of Forever Friends images. (I'm afraid I can't remember which magazine and the pack doesn't say on it!!) I don't normally do decoupage, but these images were so sweet I thought it would be a shame to completely waste them, and here's the result of my first attempt.

I have to confess that I started this card thinking it would be quick, but it took me hugely longer than I originally anticipated - decoupage is clearly not a quick option lol!

Image: Forever Friends decoupage;

Sentiment: Penny Black "Happy Easter";

Paper: Forever Friends "Springtime";

Supplies: Flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts; ribbon from Hobbycraft; lace from John Lewis; gems from The Hobby House;

Tools: Marianne D doily die; Cheery Lynn "Art Deco" corners; Leone Em "Ash Family" leaf punch.

Challenges:

By The Cute & Girly (March) - In The Kitchen

Forever Friends - 3D and/or Decoupage

MAWTT #142 - Cute & Cuddly
Scrapbook Sisters #77 - Easter

Top Tip Tuesday #73 - Easter &/or Animals

Penny's Paper Crafty #76 - Easter

Paperplay #13 - Easter
Paper Shelter #57 - Easter 
Try It On Tuesday - Easter
Crafty Boots - Easter
Cute Card Thursday #210 - Happy Easter
Sentimental Sundays #95 - Easter or Spring

Creative Card Crew #7 - Spring

Sparkles #30 - Spring

Marianne's Design Divas - Spring into Spring

Truly Scrumptious #77 - Use Lace

Totally Gorjuss #124 - Spots & Stripes

Simon Says - Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting - I'll be back on Saturday with a new Penny Black Saturday Challenge.

  

Spoon Full of Sugar #17 - Christmas is Coming!

Well, we cardmakers all know that fact only too well, don't we?? So this week's Spoon Full of Sugar Challenge is really perfect for anyone at the moment.

This card is something different for me. On a whim I bought the new Forever Friends paper pack "Winter Snow", but wasn't sure what to do with the papers that had a large character image on them.... . I completely covered a card blank with a 6" x 6" sheet and decoupaged the teddy, then for my stamping I introduced a large text stamp by Crafty Individuals, inked with various shades of Colourbox Queue pigment inks set "dark sea". I also decoupaged a paper snowflake and decorated it plus the paper with random Papermania gemstones. Simple but I quite like it .. hope you do too!

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!