PBSC #50 - Buttons galore!

Good morning everyone - hope you'll be able to make the most of the long Bank Holiday weekend (at least if you're here in the UK) by joining in with this week's Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Thanks to everyone who entered last week's recipe challenge - you were all really cooking with gas!! - and don't forget to check who won last week's fab cute teddy stamp!

This week the challenge is buttons galore - yes we would like to see you all use buttons on your creations, as well, of course, as a Penny Black image or sticker.

As always we have another fab prize on offer this week - an adorable cutie PB sheep stamp donated by our own lovely Tracie. Well you've got to be in it to win it, so what are you waiting for?

For the second week on the trot I have been inspired by a vintage PB image sent to me by my lovely fellow teamie Debbie. This week it is this cute little girl doing some sewing and trailing buttons behind her ... what could be more appropriate?

Although I adored this image when I received it I couldn't quite imagine what occasion I would use it for .... but this week I needed to make a Get Well card for my crafty friend Sue who has been seriously unwell, and to whom I wanted to send loads of loving wishes. Suddenly the image came together with some threaded buttons and a computer-generated sentiment (which I rarely do) to hope she is soon "on the mend" :-) I also found some papers that look like vintage needlepoint and vintage style lace, and then it was just a case of putting it all together.

Recipe:
Image: Penny Black birthday RAK from Debbie (sorry again I don't know what it is called) - coloured with watercolour pencils, cut out using nesties and edged with distress ink in "antique linen";
Papers: Cosmo Cricket, all edged with "antique linen" distress ink and faux stitching;
Supplies: flowers punched with EK Success "whale of a punch" retro flower, and X-Cut medium flower; spacer from The Hobby House; pearl brad by Papermania; charm from Dolls Made Up; lace from Cathy; buttons and thread from my stash.

Look forward to seeing all your creations this week.... enjoy the weekend!

Yummy!

Whilst blog hopping earlier I was looking at my great friend Samantha's blog when I noticed that she had found a new challenge .... I hopped straight over there and found good news and bad news on the new Allsorts Challenge Blog. The good news was that I really loved the challenge and there is a fab prize this week (Penny Black stamps .. my favourites !! :-) ) .. but the bad news was that the challenge ends tonight ...yikes!

So I got stuck in to Allsorts Challenge #1 - sweets. I found two sources of inspiration for this .... my cute PB stamp "Sweet Slumber", plus the fact that the postie brought me my latest order of charms from Dolls Made Up today, which included some incredibly cute choc bar charms!! So off I went ....



I coloured my image using a mixture of watercolour pencils (mouse & chocs) and Twinkling H2O's ( the chocolate box) - I even managed to incorporate sweetie H2O colours of "cherry sorbet" and "jade mint" lol! The image was cut using my label nesties, and mounted on a slightly larger layer cut from the fab new Core'dinations "whitewash" cardstock which I embossed with my Cuttlebug "Perfect Paisley" folder and then sanded to reveal the pink core. I threaded some Hobbycraft raffia lace with narrow pink & green ribbons from my stash, and also used a little bit of lace peeking out from behind the "whitewash" cardstock given to me by my friend Cathy. Flowers are a mixture of Cuddly Buddly, birthday prezzies (from Kaz) and my stash; pearl brads are by Papermania and spacers from The Hobby House. The sentiment is also by Penny Black, decorated with a couple of tiny Papermania heart gems. Paper is by Flair Designs.
Here is another angle, which gives a bit better idea of how shimmery the chocolate box is.
I have also managed to fulfil a few other challenges with this card:

2. Sketch & Stash #10 - I have followed the sketch, and used the following new items of stash - choc bar charm, flower spacer, pink flowers, core'dinations "whitewash" cardstock. ( Details of where all these are from above)
3. Charisma Cardz #20 - Flowers, Lace & Pearls
4. Dutch Dare Challenge #49 - bling-bling/glitter : can you see those tiny heart gems lol??
5. Stamptacular Sunday #7 - pink, green and brown
I have now realised that I was in such a hurry to finish this before the end of the sweetie challenge that I have forgotten my little greeting on the choc bar tag .. never mind, I can sort that out later, along with the (currently blank) inside!!
I'll be back tomorrow with my Penny Black Saturday Challenge DT card :-)

A little cutie!

This week's Creative Card Crew Challenge #11 is shape it - ie. make an unusual shaped card. This is rather outside my comfort zone and not something I do very often, but I fancied a change (and I must confess I could also fancy the fab prize of 2 WOJ stamps that is on offer this week :-) )

I have previously made a circle card using my X-Cut Shapecutter system, and have read about people making small circular cards with their nesties ... so it struck me that I could follow the same principle with my new Peony nesties. As well as creating an unusual shaped card, the peony shape also has the beauty of standing up easily without "rolling".

The card itself is very simple, not least of all because it is so dinky in size that there is not a lot of space to play with! I stamped the PB image "A tender hug" then watercoloured it and decorated it with a few Papermania gemstones. I then cut both the image and a piece of patterned paper using my nested peonies, and inked all the edges with blue Colorbox Q pigment ink. I finished off the card very simply with a couple of diecut butterflies and a heart which matched my paper - (all were free in issue 1 of Creative Cardmaking magazine), and just found enough room for a Cuttlebug diecut greeting.

The inside of the card is very small, but I managed to use up another co-ordinating diecut from the magazine which I thought fitted quite nicely!

I have also found another new challenge blog called Fun with Shapes and More, which requires the use of something cut with either a punch or diecutting system ... and this week Challenge #3 is flowers .... so I hope that a hedgie holding flowers sitting on floral paper and a diecut peony will cover that lol!

Finally, I just spotted that this week's Cuttlebug Be Inspired Challenge #32 is butterflies and hearts - ideally using the CB butterflies and hearts cut'n' mboss combo die, but otherwise any dies you have to hand. Well I did cut my sentiment using a Cuttlebug cut'n'emboss die and the card does have diecut butterflies and flowers ... so I hope it qualifies !

Hello Friend!

I love taking part in the monthly Docrafts friendship swap, and this month there is an additional twist as we have a sketch to follow, courtesy of my fellow Penny Black lover and bloggy buddy Carol. The optional element of the swap is to follow the sketch AND use some of the colours on it (different shades of the colour are acceptable!!) I used paler pink, yellow and green.

Here is the card I have made for Jackie. I would also like to enter it for the following challenges:

Whiff of Joy Challenge #30, which is Friendship - my main image isn't WOJ but I have used WOJ swirls and sentiment.

Secret Crafter #32, which is Glitter.

I used:

Main image: Daisy & Dandelion "Marshmallow" coloured with watercolour pencils, and the daisy decorated with diamond Stickles , image edged with Colorbox Q ink and stamped with WOJ swirls;

Sentiments: WOJ (front) - I believe this came as an "extra" with the Everyday Sentiments set - can anyone confirm this??; Great Impressions (inside);

Papers: BasicGrey "Two Scoops";

Supplies: image and sentiment cut to shape using new "Peony" nesties; flowers by Papermania & Prima; large spacer from The Hobby House; Doodlebug "sugar coated" sparkly brad; feathers were a birthday RAK from Kaz; pearls from my stash.

Here's the inside ....

Hope Jackie will like this as much as I loved the beautiful card she sent me :-)

Sugar Bowl #10 - Marlene's sketch

This fortnight's challenge over at the Sugar Bowl is a fabulous sketch by Marlene - I just knew I had to have a go.

I received this fab image of Annie as a birthday RAK from my friend Helen .... I decided to use it as she is holding flowers and I needed to make a "get well" card. However once I had found papers and embellies to suit I didn't think that the colour scheme really looked suitable for a get well card - so I have turned it into a birthday card and will be making another one for the original purpose! I must also admit that I overlooked the need for buttons until the last minute .. and the only space that was suitable for buttons on the card demanded TINY ones ... luckily I managed to find some that I received in a freebie card pack in my stash - phew!


I also made the effort with this one to decorate the inside ... it makes a card look so much more finished off somehow, and the other thing I like is that it gives me much more opportunity to use some of my sentiment stamps that only rarely make it onto the front of cards. :-)

Recipe:

Image: Sugar Nellie "Blossom" coloured with watercolour pencils and decorated with Stickles glitter.

Sentiment (inside): Hero Arts;

Papers: Papermania Creative Tones "Venetian Skies";

Supplies: flowers by Papermania (large blue), Cuddly Buddly (grey), Floradoodles (small blue); pearl brads by Papermania; charm from Dolls Made Up; spacers from the Hobby House; buttons from my stash.

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend!

Penny Black Challenge #49 - Recipe 3-2-1!

Good afternoon everyone - time again for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Actually it's rather past the time, because I'm a teeny bit late with my DT card this week - oops sorry! Won't bore you with the various reasons why I didn't get round to it in time, but thank goodness I'm getting caught up with myself now lol! Thanks as always for last week's fantastic entries, and congratulations to the winner of last week's prize :-)

This week we have a recipe for you .... what we would like to see on your creations is

3 flowers, 2 papers and 1 charm/brad

Don't forget that you can make anything you want - so long as it features at least one PB stamp or sticker.

We also have a new sponsor for you this week. Last week I went to Port Sunlight, and managed to meet Wendy from Stamps & Memories.

Stamps & Memories is both a shop and online store, selling a fabulous range of products including lots of stamps (inc. PB's of course) and other goodies including Copic pens and Martha Stewart punches - due soon! Wendy was kind enough to donate this gorgeous stamp as a prize ... "looking at You". How cute is that? (I want it lol!)

Here is my card, featuring a gorgeous image that was a birthday RAK from my lovely friend Debbie.

Recipe:

Image: Penny Black "Birthday Angel" (1130K) coloured with watercolour pencils and dusted with Glamour Dust;

Sentiment: See-D "Celebration messages";
Papers: K&Co "Wild Raspberry" (the papers are double sided; so you can actually see three out of four patterns from 2 papers - one is on the large flower);

Supplies: large flower punched using my new EK Success "Whale of a Punch"; medium flower by Prima; small rose from Hobbycraft; charm from ebay shop Dolls Made Up; lace from Edwin Allen.

I have every intention of decorating the inside of this card, but seeing as I'm so late I thought I'd better get a picture up here!

Hope you all have a great weekend.

There must be an angel ...

This week is the first anniversary of Friday Sketchers, and they have got a really fabulous sketch this week (#51). It's got lots of layers, which gave me the perfect opportunity to pull out my new double sided K&Co paper pack which I bought at Port Sunlight last Saturday :-)

I also decided to make a Happy Mail card for this week's Cute Card Thursday challenge #59. I started out to make a card for Postpals, but this one kinda turned into something else. I will definitely do my best to make Postpals cards in future as it's a fantastic and heartbreaking cause; but I have decided to send this card to my mum, and here's the reason ....


My mum is seriously ill, and although she isn't ultimately going to get better she is being very resilient and getting on with life as best she can - she really is amazing! I so love this image of Melinda, and it makes me feel very warm inside to think of sending the love of a guardian angel to someone close. I was first inspired to use a feather with Melinda when I was sent a challenge kit by my friend Kaz (who has a new blog .. so I can link to it now :-) ) ... but now I want to adopt the feather idea as a special way of sending love and best wishes. I bought myself a pack of white feathers, but as luck would have it Kaz also sent me some gorgeous coloured feathers with my birthday card :-)

Here's the inside ....

Recipe:

Image: WOJ "Melinda with Bouquet" coloured with watercolour pencils and dusted wtih Glamour Dust, cut out using nestie labels and edged with Colorbox Q ink;

Sentiments: WOJ "Swirls" set (front); penny Black (inside);

Papers: K&Co "Wild Raspberry" pack;

Flowers: Prima hydrangeas and small green Floradoodles;

Brads: Doodlebug sugar coated.

Feather: John lewis

Lastly I would like to enter this card for this week's Secret Crafter Challenge #31 - brads or eyelets.

Thanks for looking :-)

Creative Card Crew #10 - Minimal

The Creative Card Crew have been setting some brilliant challenges and have also had a blog hop going on with candy ... I have followed the clues around the DT members' blogs, and now all I have to do to be eligible for the yummy prize is complete 2 out of 3 challenges. I completed challenge #8 but alas didn't manage to do challenge #9 as I was ill all week ... but no matter - now it's time for challenge #10!


The theme of this week's challenge is minimal ... hmmm .. just how minimal are we supposed to go lol?? I used my brand new PB stamp "Fanfare" which I bought on Saturday at Port Sunlight, having been inspired by a birthday card I received last week from my lovely friend Sue. It struck me as a fairly simple and elegant design. I watercoloured the stamp with Marvey brushstroke pens and then dusted liberally with Glamour dust, as this was going to be my one and only decoration on the card. i still felt the need to use some paper, but just one simple piece. I stamped the sentiment straight onto the base card, and voila! ... no brads, flowers, feathers, ribbons, lace, gems, swirls, punches - I think I need to lie down!

Recipe:
Image: Penny Black "Fanfare"
Sentiment: Lavinia Stamps
Paper: BasicGrey "Sultry"

OMG I've been chosen!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was really thrilled when Dick from PB Stamps (formerly HM Stamps) agreed to become a new sponsor for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge. If you're not familiar with it the site has all catalogues for PB stamps going back to 1997 .. and has recently added catalogues going back even further + the exclusive ability to source retired stamps direct from Penny Black.

What I didn't know until last night was that Dick has had a look at our blogs, and he asked if he could feature one of my cards made with a vintage stamp as his "card of the month" for May. Wow! how chuffed am I?? I'm absolutely over the moon and haven't come back down to earth yet!

If you click on the logo below you will see the home page of PB Stamps, with links to every PB stamp catalogue and ordering info your heart could ever desire ...... plus my card :-)

And here is the card, which I first published a couple of weeks ago. The stamp is Penny Black "Rain or Shine Friends" #312K.

Hugs

Penny Black Saturday Challenge #48

Good morning everyone, and welcome to week 48 of the Penny Black Saturday Challenge. It's been a quiet week on the crafting front from me as I had a stinking head cold for the first half of the week, and I've also been on holiday from work (typical!) trying to get some household jobs done and support my husband's efforts at decorating (bless him!). However I've still managed to peek at most of the fab entries for last week's challenge and have to say everyone really shaped up! (sorry!!) Don't forget to check the blog to see who won the fab gift voucher to spend at PB Stamps.

Onto this week's challenge which is to use three colours .....

black, white and 1 other

This week we have another gorgeous prize for one lucky entrant donated by our very own Carole .. namely these yummy flowers and ribbons. Don't forget that to be eligible for the prize the only rule is that you must use at least one Penny Black image or sticker on your creation.

Here is my card. I struggled a bit at first as I very rarely use a black and white colour combo. The whole thing started to come together when I started to think about colouring just one flower, and it occurred to me to pair the image with the sentiment "To brighten your day" - that's when I decided to use a pale yellow. I've kept things quite simple and have left quite a bit of "white space" on the card - I think I like it!

Recipe:

Image: Penny Black "Wind Caressed" - one flower coloured with Sakura sparkle pen;

Sentiment: Whiff of Joy (from the "Swirls" collection);

Paper: Doodlebug;

Supplies: lemon pearlised cardstock punched with Martha Stewart "scalloped dot" punch; black pearlescent cardstock from Papermania "gemstones" pack; adhesive ribbon by DCWV; flowers from my birthday gift from my lovely friend Carol; white sparkly brad by Doodlebug; leaves punched from "gemstones" cardstock using Leone Em Ash Branch punch; black gems by Hero Arts gifted to me by Domi.

Thanks for looking! I'm off to Port Sunlight today (Saturday) so hope to be back soon with some yummy new stash :-). Look forward to seeing your creations this week.

Thanks a bunch!

As soon as I saw the fabulous sketch by Sharon over on this week's Creative Card Crew Challenge #8, I knew I had to have a go ... and the fact that there is a gorgeous cutie PB stamp on offer to one lucky winner was definitely a further incentive :-)

If you know me by now you will know that I also get inspired by trying to combine a few challenges - for this one I have tried to combine 5, including the CCC and also

Charisma Cardz #17 - Thankyou

CCT # 58 - Mirror Mirror (I have used mirri card behind my ain image)

Cupcake Challenge #37 - 5 different embellishments - I have used raffia lace, ribbon, buttons, die cut heart, and dragonfly brad.

Secret Crafter # 30 - Flowers

Recipe:
Image: Penny Black "Hedgehog Bouquet";
Sentiment : WOJ;
Paper: Melissa Frances (floral), free with Creative Cardmaking magazine #1 (pink - just seen);
Supplies: Raffia lace & ribbons - Hobbycraft; buttons - Doodlebug; die cut heart free with Creative Cardmaking magazine #1; brad from my stash.

Still trying to keep on decorating the insides ... MSDP had a little workout as usual :-)

Still resting up from my nasty head cold, and pretty angry to read this morning in the paper that people are using swine flu as "an excuse" to take sickies from work - hmmph! Just off now to do abit of chillin' :-)

Penny Black Challenge #47 & Exciting News

It's Saturday and it's Week 47 of the Penny Black Saturday Challenge - where do the weeks go to?? Not long before our challenge blog will be a whole year old - woo hoo! And the support we are getting each week just gets better and better - so thankyou!! Sorry I haven't visited too many of your entries for last week as I've had a stinking head cold the past few days, but I'm sure they're all up to their usual fab standard! Don't forget to check out who has won the fantastic transparent set of stamps which was last week's prize.

Onto this week's challenge which is

Shapes

We would like to see three different shapes on your card (not including the card itself). The DT has been busy creating some fabulous samples so please do go and check them out via the challenge blog.

Before I show you my card, we have some exciting news .... yes we have a fantastic new sponsor - not just for this week but the last Saturday of every month!

Penny Black Stamps (formerly HM Stamps) is a huge online Peny Black retailer which has more than 1800 Penny Blacks in stock, covering everything from vintage stamps from the 1990's through to the very latest releases (yes, the new May 2009 releases are all there!) I'm sure many of you will already be familiar with them, but if not I suggest you rush on over, but wait until you have a bit of time 'cos you'll be browsing their catalogues for hours!

This week's prize is a $15 voucher to spend in store - so what are you waiting for?

My card is pretty simple this week due to not feeling my best, so I hope it passes muster. In honour of our new sponsor I have used a stamp that PB Stamps features in its "soon to be retired" section - where you can get stamps which are in short supply. I think they currently have approx 45 of this stamp left. I have to confess I have owned it for months and never inked it up before - naughty!

My three shapes are rectangle (the image), stars and balloon ... I have decoupaged the balloon on the image although the pic doesn't catch it that well.

Recipe:

Image: Penny Black "Cake Dance";

Paper: Papermania "Sweet Nothings";

Supplies: Papermania "Gemstones" cardstock punched with X-Cut corner star punch - used without corner guides in X-Cut border system, alternating direction - and matted onto silver holographic mirri card; Papermania star gems; ribbon from my stash.

Have a great weekend, and looking forward to seeing your creations :-)