Sugar Bowl #3 and an award!

Luckily I had a day's holiday yesterday which coincided nicely with the bad weather .... except that it wasn't really that bad where I live. The result was that I was out for quite a bit of the day, but I still managed to get a bit of a craft session so I decided to focus on this fortnight's Sugar Bowl Challenge, which is Love & Romance.

Now I should start buy saying that I had quite a bit of trouble with this card, though I hope I got there in the end. Firstly, I didn't have any specific "romantic" stamps so wasn't sure whether i could really do justice to the lurve theme, but seeing as the prize on offer this week is so scrummy I was determined to press ahead and make the best of it ... so I found a lovely image of Blossom given to me by Helen, and decided to fit that to the challenge to the best of my ability!!

Secondly, I coloured Blossom using watercolour pencils and Cosmic Shimmers, and decorated the blossoms with Stickles - but the photo doesn't really bring out the shimmer or sparkle. Then I had a bit of a setback when I realised my choc coloured pearlescent card had gone into hiding, but given the prevailing weather conditions I still pressed on with dark brown Bazzill instead - a bit dark really but needs must and all that!

Finally got the card done and took it to work today to photograph.. then realised too late that I had forgotten to take one of the inside which is dinkily decorated with matching papers and a cute sentiment - doh! I will try to remember to add another pic tomorrow. Also I should mention that the pink ribbon actually matches the paper quite well .. it just hasn't photographed right lol!

Recipe:
Image: Sugar Nellie "Blossom"
Sentiment & brown swirls: stamps free with craft magazine
Paper: Bo Bunny
Brown Bazzill cardstock embossed wtih Cuttlebug Swirls folder
Pink & brown hearts cut with Cuttlebug dies
Ribbon: from my stash

I have also been given the following lovely "hug" award by Domi - that's very sweet of you!

The rules are to pass it on to 10 more people .... so i would like to pass it on to all my fellow PBSC DT members :-) Hugs to you all!!

Penny Black Saturday Challenge #34 - Circle Card

Well, here we are at Saturday again before we know it, so it must be time for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Wow - what a fabulous response last week to our "frame it" challenge - many thanks to everyone who took part. Don't forget to pop over to the challenge blog to see who won last week's prize.

This week we have another fab prize kindly donated by Paula at

It is the following two downloads - how fab is that?

So what do you need to do to be in with a chance of getting your hands on this great download?

This week's challenge is to make a circle card - I had never made one before but when it came down to it I found it easy enough to do. I just cut two circles from card using my X-Cut shapecutter (nesties would do just as well but your card would be smaller), and scored a line about 1.5 cm from the top of one - then I stuck them together so that the scored line would form the "hinge" when the card is opened.

Recipe:

Main image: Penny Black "Duckling" (kindly given to me by my friend Kaz), coloured with watercolour pencils.

Sentiment: Penny Black "Think Spring"

Paper: DCWV "Pocket Full of Posies", cut into a fancy circle using papermania Multishaper punch "Spring Garden"

Supplies: Flowers - WH Smith & Cardology; brads - Doodlebug sugar coated; charm - from my stash.

Thanks for looking and hope you all have a great weekend. Don't forget to check out the other DT cards for this challenge as they have made some really adorable circle cards :-)

Tagged & An Award!

Well .... I've been tagged by the lovely Sharon & Beth ... no need (I hope!) on this occasion to reveal any toe-curlingly embarrassing personal facts, as the rules are: go to "Pictures" on your PC, select the 6th album and the 6th picture, upload it to your blog and explain what its about, then select 5 people to do the same!

Now this was a bit of a brain teaser for me as my photos are spread all over the shop according to whether they were taken on digital camera or camera phone, plus the digital camera software is not Vista compatible (I have just discovered lol!) so it is playing up. However after a bit of messing about I think the following picture fits the crteria, and as it happens it is one that makes me smile ...


This is a pic taken in the inner courtyard of the Basilica di San Marco in Venice: the Basilica is on the left and the arches on the right are part of the Palazzo Ducale. It was taken in September 2007 on my wedding anniversary, when I went with my husband for a three day break to Venice - I had never been before and we had a totally fab time :-). I had ALWAYS wanted to visit Venice, so when we first arrived and took a vaporetto along the Grand Canal to our hotel I was so excited I was quite beside myself ! Oh happy days!
Now the hard part ... I have to tag 5 more people to share their pics .. tee hee!! So here we go with Cathy, Dawny, Helen, Sarah, and Tracie.
I have also been blessed this week with another award, and some lovely words from Marcea and Helen. It really means a lot and I'm touched :-)

The rules of this are to pass it on to 5 others .... as ever very hard to choose and many blogs I love have already (rightly!) received it. I would like though to pass it back to Marcea and Helen for being such great friends and inspirational blogs, and similarly onwards to Sharon, Debbie and Carole.

Strictly Come Challenging!

I managed to fit in a bit of a craft sesh yesterday evening, but haven't had chance to upload anything until now as I have just got back from a trip to see "Strictly Come Dancing - The Live Tour" at the M.E.N. Arena - what a fab show!! my feet still haven't stopped tapping, but I'll try to get my fingers into gear to type up this post. I'd also like to start by apologising for the photos ... I have decided to start taking better resolution pics with my digital camera instead of my camera phone , but unfortunately having spent a while loading them onto the PC I encountered some problems with my editing software, so it's back to the camera phone pics for now, so in the meantime please do bear with me ...

My first card was inspired by Friday Sketchers #36 - the whole thing revolved round the need for a slider or buckle, as I had only one suitable thing in the house and it was bright pink!!! (though I must say not as bright in comparison to the papers as it looks in the photo!)

I loved this sketch, and thought I would also like to tie the card in to a few other challenges , namely ....

One Stop Craft Challenge #13 - which this week is charmed - hopefully you can just about see the little heart charm dangling from the flowers. I have been thinking a bout getting into using charms for a while, and last week ordered my first several sets from ebay ... so they will now be appearing regularly lol!

Charisma Cardz Challenge #3 is Love - well this card is really to send love to a friend, so I hope that counts.

I am still feeling enthusiastic about decorating the insides of my cards, even moreso because I have discovered it gives me much more opportunity to use my neglected sentiment stamps.

Recipe:
Stamps: WOJ "Melinda Blowing Kisses" (image kindly given to me by Cathy) - coloured with watercolour pencils & decorated with Papermania gems and Stickles; ge studio clear stamps sentiment(outside); Hero Arts sentiment(inside); distressed swirls stamped with free stamp from craft magazine.
Papers: BasicGrey "Sugared"
Supplies: Prima flowers; Papermania pearl brads; ribbon & slider from M&S; Leone Em Ash Branch punch; charm from ebay.

My second card is for the Sugar Bowl Challenge #2, which is three - you have to use three patterned papers and three types of embellishments. I received this gorgeous new Sugar Nellie image last week from my friend Helen, and when I saw this paper pack I just felt they went so well together... so I decided to make a wallet where I could use two papers on the front and a third different one inside. I was also inspired by the sentiment, which was part of a pack my frined Lil brought me back from America. My three types of embllishment are flowers, brads and ribbon - I was desperate to use another of my charms but managed to resist this time lol!


Recipe:

Stamps: Sugar Nellie "Talking to the birds" - cloured with watercolourpencils, decorated with Stickles; sentiment by Character Constructions
Papers: Papermania "Venetian Skies"
Supplies: flowers & pearl brads by Papermania; ribbon from Hobbycraft.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend - I've already spent so long sorting this post out i've no more time for blog-hopping but will be back tomorrow.

Penny Black Challenge #33 - Frame It!

Well this week has absolutely whizzed by ... unfortunately no time for crafting since last weekend what with one thing and another. One exception ... of course I couldn't miss making my DT card for this week's Penny Black Saturday Challenge.

Thanks once more to everyone who "got dotty" last week - we are all overwhelmed and thrilled by the huge response we are now getting, and love seeing the huge variety of inspirational cards.
This week our theme is Frame It - as usual you can interpret this any which way so long as you include at least one Penny Black stamp or stickeroo in your design. As usual the DT has been busy, so hope you will pop over to their blogs to take a look at their gorgeous efforts.


And we have a fabulous prize for you this week, sponsored by Tab from 7KidsCollegeFunds. For one lucky winner chosen at random a $15 gift certificate to be spent at the online shop, and for each entrant to this week's challenge a 10% discount....use Code PB 10 at checkout. This offer runs from 24th - 31st January.


Here is my card for this week - apologies for the poor picture quality but the light was really bad. Also we have recently bought a new scanner, and I'm hoping to get a grip of that before long so I can get better resolution on the pics. But in the meantime:

Recipe:
Image: PB "Hedgehog Joy" coloured with watercolour pencils;
Sentiment: Stamps Away;
Paper: BasicGrey "Sugared";
Pink cardstock: embossed with Cuttlebug "Bloom Dots" folder;
Flowers: Prima & W H Smith;
Ribbon & charm : from my stash

Inside:
Image: PB transparent set "Hugs"
Sentiment: PB

Have a good weekend everyone !

W is for .... meets Friday Sketchers

Well, fairly obviously W is for Whiff of Joy, where the challenge this week is on the theme of green and purple, and over at ABC Challenge this week W is for Wallet card. And as I do love to have a sketch to follow, I thought I would lay out my wallet card front in line with this week's Friday Sketchers #35, which is a really fab sketch. Also, WOJ is one of the makes of stamp allowed for the Roses On Paper Challenge, which as luck would have it this week is a colour challenge - white, evergreen and grape.


To fulfil the WOJ and RoP challenges I have used the image "Willow with Cookies", kindly sent to me by my great friend Sharon. I coloured her with watercolour pencils and then doodled a little round the edges and decorated with a few purple heart gems. The image was matted onto purple cardstock and green K&Co paper. The paper has a corner swirl in line with the sketch, but I also decided to add a further flourish by punching with a Dovecraft border punch, decorated with more purple gems. This was then matted onto more purple cardstock and purple paper from the FF "Winter Snow" set. The background purple cardstock has been decorated with Cuttlebug Swirls die, and the green edges scallop cut with my new mega nestie rectangles. Hydrangeas are by Prima, charm brad by Dovecraft, other brad and ribbon from my stash. Sentiment is from the PB transparent set "Salutations".


I'm now starting to get enthusiastic about decorating the insides, so had another go. Papers are as before, and the swirl stamp was free with this month's Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine.

Thanks for looking!

PBSC #32 - Let's Get Dotty!

Happy weekend everyone and welcome again to another week of the Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Thankyou so much to everyone who entered last week's pink & brown challenge - obviously a lot of you are lovin' that colour scheme and the entries were amazing! As ever, don't forget to pop over to the challenge blog to check who won the prize.

This week we would just like to say

Let's get dotty!

Now this may be easier for some of us than others - in my case it was difficult to notice the difference lol!! We look forward to seeing your interpretations, and as usual the DT have been dotting the i's and crossing the t's (sorry, couldn't resist that!) to produce an amazing set of cards, so please do check them out.

This week we have another super prize kindly donated by Kath: a 6 x 6 paper pack by Paper Cellar, and a pack of Black Magic by Core'dinations.

Here's my card for this week.

The main image is PB "Light the Night" coloured with watercolour pencils and decorated with glamour dust and Papermania gems; sentiment is PB "..To you" with part of the message masked so it would fit on my nestie shape; paper and pearlised black card were cut with my new "Curved rectangle" nesties and the card then embossed wtih Cuttlebug Swiss Dots; dotty sticky ribbon is by DCWV; flowers are all Prima except for the large pink one which was part of a gift wrapping (I think from Lorraine); sparkly brads by Doodlebug and charm from my stash. I'm still trying to decorate the card insides ... will try to get a bit more adventurous as I get into it! (the sentiment inside is also by PB)

Sale of the Century - a little toot

Short notice I know, but I'd like to give a little toot for Dawny who is helping out with a Sale of the Century (part 2) at Saughall methodist Church tomorrow (Saturday 17th) ... it is to help sell off the hoarded stash of a lady who died. More details on Dawny's blog here.

I dipped my finger in the Sugar Bowl .. and an award

.... and only just in time too :-) So far I have only a couple of Christmas Sugar Nellie stamps, and haven't yet ordered more as the ones I want are out of stock :-( I do have a couple of RAK images around the house, but was thrilled when yesterday I received a load of new ones including this gorgeous "Daisy" from the fabulous Marcea. So .... off I went with Sugar Bowl Challenge #1 which is the following sketch by Tiets.

I also decorated the inside, though only simply as it was already nearing midnight last night as I was finishing off!

Recipe:

Image: Sugar Nellie "Daisy" coloured with watercolour pencils and Sakura sparkly pens. Cuta nd mounted using new nesties - "Labels 2" and "Curved rectangles"
Sentiment: PB transparent set "Hugs"

Flowers: Prima

Pearl brad and gems: Papermania

Papers, buttons and ribbons: from my stash (includes my Secret Santa prezzie papermania "Exquisite" cream paper).

I'm looking forward to joining in this challenge often as these stamps are really growing on me ... I think there will be a credit card surge when they are back in stock lol!

I was also thrilled to receive the following award from Maria - thanks so much for thinking of me! The rules are that you can pass it on to as many people as you want ... well I have already done abit of choosing recently so fell I can't pick any more ... there are so many lovely blogs that I visit. So if you visit me and haven't got this award yet, please consider yourself duly awarded.

Awards update

Well ... I'm gobsmacked and chuffed to say that I have recieved 2 lovely awards in quick succession, though sadly it doesn't make me look like Kate Winslet (or have her money) lol!!

A couple of days ago Domi passed me this lovely award, which I said I would pass on after I had slept on it ...

Well , after a few zzz's I have looked around and seen that lots of you lovely bloggers have not surprisiigly got it already ... there are so many more than 7 who would well deserve it, but I have decided I would like to pass it on to Beth, Dawny, Erica, Sharon, Jackie , Samantha. and Sarah.

Secondly, I was really thrilled to receive this award from Sharon, who said such lovely words about me on her blog.

Sharon is a brilliant and very talented friend who encourages me more than almost anyone, so really i would like to give the award right back to her , however it doesn't work that way as here are the rules:

1) Post a link of the person who gave you this award

2) Nominate 5 other people and give a link to their sites

3) Let your nominators know that they got an award from you

4) Put a logo of the award on the blog

Again choosing 5 people was the exceptionally hard part, but i would like to apss it on as follows:

Helen - as she is one of my earliest crafty friends from pre-blogging days who always makes time to visit my blog and is very kind both with comments, support such as RAK's and also supplies gorgeous Xmas gifts :-)

Tracie & Tracy - as their challenge blog inspired me to set up my blog in the first place, and they invited me to join my first DT

Marcea - whose friendliness and kindness have been such a pleasure!

Dawny - whose cards are inspiring and whose sense of fun encourages me to see the bright side of life!!

Hugs to you all

WOJ Challenge #13

I don't own any WOJ stamps (yet!) so I haven't been participating in the WOJ Challenge too much; but I so love the cute mouse stamp on offer for this week's prize that I was determined to have a go. So I rummaged amongst my RAK's and found this gorgeous "Willow with Cookies", kindly sent to me by Sharon.

This week's challenge is a sketch - I found this really easy to work with and am sure I'll use it again.

I coloured Willow with watercolour pencils and matted onto card where the bootm edge was cut with Docrafts mulitshpaer punch "Flower Garden". Background papers are BasicGrey "Two Scoops", and I have matted the central panel paper onto card scalloped using my new mega-nesties. Flowers are all Prima and I have used spacers for the first time (only just found out what these are!). Buttons are Doodlebug, and pearl brads by Papermania. I cut the sentiment using the Cuttlebug "Friends Forever" folder.

I also had my first go at decorating the inside of a card - kept it fairly simple with co-ordinating papers and a sentiment by Penny Black.

I would also like to enter this card into the My Time to Craft Challenge #43,which this week is Food, Glorious Food .... mmm, those cookies lol!

Penny Black Saturday Challenge #31

Hello again .. Saturday already, so time for the latest Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Many thanks to everyone who joined in last week's first challenge for 2009 - we were overwhelmed by the number and fabulousness of all the entries! As ever, don't forget to pop over to the challenge blog to see who has won the prize.

This week's challenge is a colour scheme

pink & brown

We look forward to seeing all your creations, and have another fab prize on offer this week - 2 sheets of PB stickeroos.

Here is my card ...


Image is PB "Simply Friends Rain or Shine" coloured with Marvey pens and watercolour pencils and the edges distressed wtih "Tattered Rose" distress ink; sentiment is PB "second self"; the main background paper didn't have any make marked on it - the brown paper is by K&Co and the paper with script on is my "Secret Santa" gift Papermania "Exquisite" papers. Flowers are by Prima; lace is from Hobbycraft and all brads and little pearl gems are from my stash.

Hope you are all having a good weekend.