Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Cute Christmas

Good morning everyone, and welcome to November's Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Yes, it's November already, and Christmas will be upon us before we know it. Made all your Christmas cards yet?? Hmmm ... thought not - me neither!!  In fact I've barely started, but if like me you're squaring up to a last minute panic fear not - here's a perfect opportunity to get one more in the box!  This month's challenge is

Cute Christmas

Easy peasy!

This month we have lost of lovely prizes for randomly drawn winners as always.

From Penny Black

3994K Needles and cones

From The Ribbon Girl

From J&C Creations

and from 1-2-3 Stitch

a $20 voucher for their online store.

Wowee!!

Don't forget to check out the adorable cute creations from the rest of the design team - here's mine.

A pretty simple card from me this month - I really wanted to showcase my yummy new ribbon from The Ribbon Girl!! :-)

Stamps: Penny Black "fur collared" (3763H); LotV "Christmas grungy messages";

Supplies: ribbon from The Ribbon Girl; gems from my stash;

Tools: Marianne D fir branch die; Cuttlebug "Christmas stars" embossing folder.

Challenges:

Really Reasonable Ribbon #59 - Winter Holiday + Ribbon

Divas By Design #59 - Feeling Festive

Crafty Pad #194 - Christmas is Coming
By The Cute & Girly (November) - Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Totally Papercrafts #141 - Twinkle, Twinkle Christmas Star

My Mum's #82 -  Bold & Bright
ABC Christmas - V is for Vibrant Colours

Crafts & Me #108 - Bling it Up!

Dream Valley #44 - Glitter &  Bling

Fab 'n' Funky # 145 - Die Cuts / Punches

I hope you will be able to join us this month, and look forward to seeing your creations. Enjoy your weekend, whatever you're doing.

P-p-p-p-penguins!

Good afternoon everyone, hope you are all well. I'm enjoying a rare flexi day off from work today, so I'm having a play!

I had this image coloured up waiting to be made into a card, so I thought I'd get ahead and get another Chrimbo card done. How sweet are these penguins??

I also used a cute tag from a LotV set I chose when I was lucky enough to win a voucher in the Papertake Weekly third birthday blog hop - woo hoo!

Stamps: LotV "Merry Christmas Penguins" and "sentiment Tags";

Papers: LotV "Frosty Christmas";

Supplies: flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts and The Ribbon Girl; pearls from The Hobby House; ribbon from Hobbycraft;

Tools: "curved rectangle" mega nestabilities; Memory Box "Frostyville border" die.

Challenges:

Sparkles Christmas #22 - Contemporary Colour Combo

Hooked on Crafts #26 - Christmas - No Red or Green

Fussy & Fancy #75 - Pearls & Flowers

Bearly Mine #59 - Flowers Galore

Totally Gorjuss #155 - Things With Wings

Southern Girls #56 - Animal Crackers

Christmas Stamping All Year Long #35 - Anything Goes

Party Time Tuesdays #92 - Anything Goes

Anything Goes #79 - Anything Goes

Sketch Saturday #231 - Sketch

That's all for today - I'll be back tomorrow with a new Penny Black Saturday Challenge.

Hugs

Toot toot for The Ribbon Girl

I always think it's easy to complain when things go wrong, but also easy not to bother to give credit when things go well ... so I'd like to give credit where it's due for the fantastic service I received this week from Mary at The Ribbon Girl.

I'm sure many of you are already familiar with The Ribbon Girl ... I'm probably the last person in blog land to find my way to her shop! I had been aware of the shop but had never visited (maybe I was subliminally frightened of how many yummy goodies I would find in there!!). 

Anyhoo, this week I went online, discovered that I was overwhelmed by choice of yummy goodies, and after a lot of deliberation I managed to whittle down my order to £25 worth and off it went. I put a note in the instructions to label the package not to left anywhere, as our postie has a habit lf leaving packages outside, and since the recent changes to postal regulations they can also leave them with any neighbour and who's to know where they've been left??  Mary emailed me the same evening asking if I would like my order packaged in 2 thinner packages that would go through the letterbox - I was very impressed with that to start with.

When the goodies arrived they were gorgeous - everything I hoped for -  with one teeny exception: a little sprig of berries I ordered had accidentally been replaced with a sprig of similar but different flowers - an easy mistake to make when packaging lots of small things. I emailed Mary and asked politely if she could send the right ones, and she couldn't have been nicer - was very apologetic (she already suspected this mistake had happened) and even sent me a pack of pearls along with the correct goods!! That was really beyond the call of duty -after all anyone can make a slip, but the customer service in dealing with it was really great.

I will definitely be buying from Mary again - the first order barely scratched the surface of the things I wanted (needed??) in the store - and I'd happily recommend it to anyone.

Happy crafting :-)

Lili's Little Fairies - Girly Christmas

Hello everyone, and welcome to another Lili's Little Fairies Challenge. This week it is Team B's turn again to host the challenge - thanks so much to everyone who entered Team A's Challenge last week.

This week our theme is

Girly Christmas

So it's a great  opportunity to pull out your sweet LotV Christmas images, feminine colours and cute embellishments :-)

This week's randomly drawn prize will be

Two LotV stamps - Aimi and Cho (the geisha girls) 

woo hoo!

Don't forget to be eligible for our prize you need to create a new creation and use a LotV stamp or pre-printed image .. and have fun!!

All the girlies on the team have gotten really girly this week with beautiful results - here is my card.

Not a geat pic unfortunately as light conditions were rather dark ... but I guess that is going to be the bane of all our lives for the next 4-5 months at least!! The whole card is actually very sparkly (glitter card and glamour dust everywhere) and the tag ribbon is silver organza (yes I know, it looks grungy and grey on the pic!!)

Stamps: LotV "Dropping The Shopping"; sentiment from "Christmas Grunge messages";

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers; lots of glamour dust on image;

Papers: Pink Petticoat "Nordic Snowflakes" (digi papers);

Supplies: Dovecraft snowflake brad; ribbon and gems from my stash;

Tools: small, large and lacy circle nestabilities; Martha Stewart "Snow Flurry" PATP punch; Magnolia doohickey "vintage tag" die; Memory  Box "Crystal Snowflake".

Challenges:

J&C Creations (October) - Contemporary Christmas

Totally Papercrafts #139 - Christmas
Crafty Ribbons #31 - Christmas
I ♥ Promarkers #140 - Christmas is Coming

Totally Gorjuss #154 - Bling It On!

Hotshot Crafts #12 - Bling It On!
Whimsy #52 - All Things Sparkly
Papertake Weekly - Fireworks (glitter and sparkle)
Christmas Cards #47 - Bows (she has one on her hat too lol!)
Passion for Promarkers #172 - Pets
Crafty Pad #193 - Use An Animal

ABC Christmas - U is for Up To You

That's all from me for today - looking forward to seeing your girly Christmas creations.

Witching Hour

Hi everyone, hope you are enjoying your weekend. Just a short post from me today to show you my only Hallowe'en card so far. I don't really "do" Hallowe'en and I'm well behind with my Chrimbo cards so I really should be getting on with those; but I just had to try to bodge together a card from my (very) limited supplies for all the spooky challenges there are out there!

Definitely not one of my best; but the best I could do with what I had available.

Stamps: Debbi Moore;

Paper: The Robin's Nest;

Supplies: computer-generated sentiment; ribbon, lace and gems from my stash;

Tools: Marianne D lantern die.

Challenges:

Craft Your Passion #132 - Which Witch Is Which?
Sparkles #37 - Hallowe'en
Dream Valley #43 - Hallowe'en
Sentimental Sundays #125 - Hallowe'en

Really Reasonable Ribbon #58 - Hallowe'en With Ribbon
Simon Says - Eerie Inspiration

Heck Of A Challenge - Spooktacular!

Crafty Calendar - All Things Spooky!

Stampin' For the Weekend #19 - Something Spooky
Divas By Design #57 - Something Spooky
Crafting For All Seasons #38 - Spooky
Papertake Weekly - Fright Night
Fab 'n' Funky #143 - Orange, Black + Choice (purple)
Paper Pretties Monday #61 - Orange, Black + 1 (purple)
Crazy 4 Challenges #159 - Orange, Black, Purple
Sketch Saturday #230 - Sketch

Off now to try to  get a bit of Chrimbo colouring done before the light completely fades!

Going Geisha

Hi everyone - no post from me for over a week as I haven't had chance to do any crafting ... but yesterday (Friday) I managed to get a flexi day off work, so after a good old lie-in I sat down to have a play. First of all I had to polish off my DT work, but after that I couldn't wait to get colouring one of the new LotV geisha stamps. I actually bought both the cute geisha girls from Port Sunlight 3 weeks ago while they were still on pre-release, so it's been very frustrating that I haven't had opportunity to play with them until now!

Stamps: LotV "Aimi with Lantern"; scroll and second lantern from Geisha Companion Set; sentiment from geisha sentiment set;

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Papers: LotV "Nitwits" collection - promises;

Supplies: flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts, Hobbycraft, Crafts4u2Do and The Hobby House; birdcage charm from The Hobby House; Dovecraft dragonfly brad; ribbon from John lewis;

Tools: "peony" nestabilities; Martha Stewart "garden trellis" edge punch; Cheery Lynn "Fancy Flourish" die.

Challenges:

By The Cute & Girly (October) - Birthdays

Penny's Paper Crafty #98 - Girls, Girls, Girls

Daring Cardmakers - Don't Worry, Be Happy

A Gem of A Challenge #57 - Flowers
CRAFT #177 - Use Metal

Little Red Wagon #155 - Bow-dacious
I ♥ Promarkers #139 - Anything Goes

Fussy & Fancy #74 - Anything Goes

One Stop Craft Challenge #201 - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp & Show - Your Favourite
(favourite style ie cute but not uber cute; favourite colouring technique ie Promarkers; favourite stamps ie LotV; favourite style of embellishments with lots of flowers).

Hope you're enjoying your weekend.

Lili's Little Fairies Team B Challenge - Classic Christmas

Hello everyone - the past fortnight has flown by since the new Lili's Little Fairies DT split into two fairy wings (Team A and Team B); and already it is time for the first Lili's Little Fairies "Team B" challenge. Thanks so much to everyone who entered last week's "Team A" challenge Christmas Card For the Boys - stunning entries as always.

This week's challenge is  another one to help you get ahead with your festive makes, and is

Classic Christmas

We would like to see classic Christmas colours on your creation - red, white and green or white, silver and gold. Of course, many of the LotV Christmas images lend themselves particularly well to a classic look too, so plenty of scope there we think :-)

This week we are sponsored by the fabulous Ribbon Girl

with a yummy mini ribbon kit (pic on main blog).

Don't forget that to be eligible you need to create a new project (no backlinking please) and use a Lili of the Valley image - that's all there is to it!!

The rest of Team B (and some of team A who just couldn't resist joining in !!) have done themselves proud - here is my attempt for this week.

As always my card started from the image ... from the Christmas stamps I have I thought an angel had the most classic feel. The stars on the image led me to the idea of a pearlised white background with star embossing, which then led naturally to identifying a strip of paper with classic Christmas colours ... and some vintage-look ribbon to go with it.  I had already started thinking about this card when I visited Port Sunlight almost a fortnight ago, which is why I purchased the grungy music stamp to go with the trumpeting angel, and stamped it in a vintage style with ripped edges ... and with a sentiment reflecting a classic Christmas carol, the job was almost done.

Stamps: LotV "Little Trumpet"; "Grunge Music", and sentiment from "Christmas Grungy Messages";

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers; music and sentiment stamped with TH "Walnut stain" distress ink; angel wings decorated with Stickles;

Paper: My Mind's Eye;

Supplies: pearls from The Hobby House, little bells from my great friend Helen; ribbon and lace from my stash;

Tools: "Labels Four" nestabilities; Cuttlebug "Christmas stars" embossing folder.

Challenges:

Sparkles Christmas #21 - Traditional Christmas

Crafty Pad #191 - Vintage

Fab 'n' Funky #142 - Vintage

Pile It on #41 - Vintage / Shabby Chic

Southern Girls #55 - Tie A Ribbon Around It
Crafts & Me #105 - Anything Goes

Divas By Design #56 - Anything Goes

Creative inspirations #184 - Anything Goes

Crafty Mess #19 - Anything Goes

Totally Gorjuss #152 - Anything Goes

Can't wait to see your classic Christmas creations :-)

Hugs,

A Few Of My Favourite Things

Hello everyone, hope you are all having a good week. After manfully battling through the autumnal challenges I'm back in my comfort zone today with delicate pastel colours, butterflies and fluffy bunnies! :-)  I found this image already coloured  in my cupboard - I did it a while ago ready to co-ordinate with my LotV Nitwits papers but never got round to making the card; so all I had to do was decide on a layout and which papers to use from the pad, and I was away ... easy peasy!  Here's what I made.

As I've said before I think this is my all-time favourite LotV stamp; and it goes so well with these gorgeous pastel papers. I have to admit that I splashed out on 2 reels of ribbon (1 lavender, 1 green) and some cherry blossom flowers specially to go with the papers, but I foresee making a LOT of cards using this pad.  I also decided to ink up my new geisha scroll and one of the co-ordinating sentiments that arrived yesterday - I think they look really fresh with this colour scheme and  aren't restricted to being used with the geisha girl stamps.

Stamps: LotV "Patchwork Butterfly"; scroll from Geisha Companions Set and matching sentiment;

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

 Papers: LotV "Promises" by Nitwits;

Supplies: pearls and cherry blossoms from The Hobby House; ribbon from John lewis;

Tools: small, large and scalloped circle nestabilities; Martha Stewart "woodland branch" edge punch; Leone Em "Ash Branch" leaf punch.

Challenges:

Joanna Sheen - Down In the Garden

The Stamp Man - Butterflies, Birds & Bees

Papertake Weekly - All Creatures Great & Small
Top Tip Tuesday #87 - Things With Wings
Crafty Boots - Three 

(papers, flowers and pearls)

Craft Your Passion #131 - Hip To Be Square
Sentimental Sundays - Anything Goes

Deep Ocean #36 - Anything Goes

That's all for today - back on Thursday with my "Team B"  Lili's Little Fairies DT card :-)

Warm Autumn Teddy

Hi everyone, hope you are enjoying your weekend. I have been catching up with some DT work, but I also found the time to make a card for the numerous Autumn-themed challenges that are around right now. As I said when I posted a couple of autumn cards a fortnight ago, this is really out of my comfort zone as I never normally craft with autumnal shades. Last week though, I sent off to LotV for the sentiments to go with the new geisha scroll; and I thought that the stamp might get lonely on its own in the envelope so I also ordered this adorable teddy stamp to go with it :-). I thought straight away that I may be able to make this stamp work with autumnal colours ... so here's the result.

 I also knew I had some yummy orangey-gold and brown shimmery foil flowers in a little tub ... I craft in my dining room, and some time ago I placed the tub on top of a heavy waist-high bookcase and it fell down the back. Well,today just had to be the day that I asked my husband to pull all the books off the shelves to retrieve the packet!

I'm also having a bit of a moment with floppy scrunchy bows. I saw an online tutorial somewhere (sorry I can't remember where to give a credit) about twisting the ribbon into several loops, so I've had a few goes. The results are a little eccentric looking, but luckily I think that's half the point! I topped this one with a little wooden flower button from my stash.

Stamps: LotV "Patchwork bear" and sentiment circle;

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Papers: mixture of My Mind's Eye, Robin's Nest and Dovecraft;

Supplies: pearls, pearl brad and antique gold spacer from The Hobby House; ribbon, button and flowers from my stash;

Tools: large classic square and Fleur-de-Lys square nestabilities; Leone Em "Ash Family" leaf punch.

Challenges:

Crafty Catz #153 - Autumn

Pretty Little Ribbon #15 - Autumn Colours (max 11 challenges)

I ♥ ProMarkers #137 - Autumn Colours

Crafty Creations #190 - Colours of Autumn

Dutch Dare #185 - Fall Is In The Air

DYSU #92 - Warm Colours

Anything Goes #77 - Animals

Penny Black & More at Allsorts - Animal Magic

Cute Card Thursday #237 - Lotsa Ribbon!

Stamptacular #184 - Photo Inspiration

Sketch Saturday #228 - Sketch

Need to go and get my dinner now before sitting down to the X-Factor results and Downton Abbey - lovin' the new autumn TV schedules but they really do eat into my crafting time lol!

Hugs,

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Helen's sketch

Good morning everyone - it's the first Saturday of the month, and that means it's time to welcome you to a new Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Thanks so much to all of you took the time to enter last month - don't forget to check the winners on the main challenge blog post.

The past month has flown by for me - even more busy with work than usual, and I've been away for a lovely week in the Algarve since my last PBSC post; but I've managed to find time to make a card as I so loved this month's challenge theme ... it is a sketch by the lovely Helen, and here it is.

As always we've got some great prizes to give away to randomly drawn winners - to be eligible you just need to follow the challenge theme, submit a new piece of work (no backlinking please!) and make sure you use a Penny Black image, large sentiment or stickeroo as its main focus.

First, from The Ribbon Girl 

a lilac mini makes kit

Second, from 1-2-3 Stitch

a $20 store voucher

and last but not least from J&C Creations

So what are  you waiting for?? The rest of the DT has made some gorgeous cards, so do go and check them out. Here's my card for this month.

You can't really see too well in the photo, but the white card I have used is ultra pearlescent; and Snowy's hat is decorated with Flowersoft mixed with glamour dust to make sparkly fur :-)  The weather has just been so dull here that it has been impossible to get a picture where the sparkle catches the light!

Snowy is one of my most old faithful stamps - I've had him pretty much ever since I started crafting in 2006; but I still bring him out to play every year. This year he has got a whole new "look" in shades of brown to match my new krafty Chrimbo papers; all brought together with my new LotV grungy sentiments :-)

Stamps: Penny Black "Snowy" (2521K); LotV "Christmas grungy messages";
Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers; polar white Flowersoft and glamour dust on Snowy's hat;
Papers: LotV "Krafty Christmas";
Supplies: gems from The Hobby House; ribbon from my stash;
Tools: "Labels Four" nestabilities; Memory Box "Frostyville Border" and "Crystal Snowflake" dies; Cuttlebug "Snowflakes" embossing folder.

Challenges:

Simon Says - Glimmer & Sparkle
Charisma #39 - Bling / Shiny
PaperPlay #40 - Shine On

Oldie But A Goodie - Inspired By A Song
(Frosty The Snowman)
Passion For Promarkers #169 - Card For A Man / Youth
Divas By Design #55 - Texture
(fluffy hat and embossing)
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

That's all for now. I hope you can join us this month over at Penny Black Saturday ... have a good weekend whatever you're doing.