Three Challenges, One Card

Challenges

Sketch Saturday (39) - Sketch

Penny Black (37) - Get Well Soon

Colour Create (4) - Pink & Grey (Cute & Cuddly)

This one took a bit of thinking about and I'm not sure I like it, especially as it was done in a rush. I have never done pink and grey together either as I'm not a big fan of grey.

Card Recipe

Stamps - Penny Black/Kars/Whimsey/Tapestry
Everything Else - Stash

Thanks for looking.

Lili's Fairys meets Funky Fairys

Challenges

Lili Of The Valley (20) - Sketch
Funky Fairys (5) - Swirls

This one was a bit of a challenge as I was asked by my friends to make a card for their Goth daughter's birthday whose favourite colours are black and purple, I hope she likes it.

By following the great LOTV sketch by Donalda I first placed a piece of backing paper over the front of the card. I then cut and embossed the three squares using the cuttlebug, embossing folders and nesties and placed them diagonally using D/S tape. I then cut the rectangles the same way. I coloured the image using Sakura Stardust pens and decoupaged it onto the rectangles which I secured in place with foam pads. To this I added a few black gems. The sentiment is a peel-off on offset pieces of card. I finished it off with flowers, ribbon and some filigrees to which I added some gems.

Card Recipe

Cardstock - Scrapbox
Paper - Funky Fairys
Decoupage Image - Hobby Tool
Everything Else - Stash

Thanks for looking.

Two Challenges/One Card + Two More Challenges

Challenges

ABC - C is for Child's Card
Creative Inspirations (3) - Numbers
Plus these two challenges...
Charisma Cardz (8) - Animals
Cute Card Thursday (49) Animal Magic

This fun 'waterfall' card is simply made with a bit of backing paper and some stickers. These cards are great for children as they love to pull the ribbon at the bottom and see the square panels flip over.

Card Recipe

Dinasaur Stickers - Craft Work
Paper/Peel-Offs/Ribbon/Eyelet - Stash

Thanks for looking.

A Spoonful Of Sugar Challenge (40)

This week's challenge is 'Shape Shifters', in other words to make a card in any shape other than the normal square or rectangle.

I chose to do a card that rocks. If you look carefully you will see that the bottom of the card is curved (should have put a darker colour behind it when I scanned it then it would have shown up better) which enables it to rock. The template can be downloaded from the Lili of the Valley website. After cutting the base card I then cut two smaller shapes from co-ordinating papers and layered then on the card. I edged each of these with peel-off borders. The rocking horse was added using foam pads and I finished it off with some peel-off wording. A very quick, easy card to make.

Card Recipe

Cardstock/Peel-Offs - Stash

Image/Papers/Template - Lili Of The Valley

Thanks for looking.

Charisma Cardz Challenge (7)

The Charisma Cardz challenge this week is 'Hugs & Cuddles' so I thought this card fitted the criteria.

I started off by covering the base card with a daisy paper. I then decoupaged the image and layered it onto co-ordinating card before attaching it to the card. I did the same with the 'Mother's Day greeting. The 'sister' greeting is a peel-off that is also layered up.

Card Recipe

Cardstock - Scrapbox

Paper - Freebie download (can't remember where from)

Decoupage Image - Penny Black magazine freebie

Thanks for looking.

Three Challenges, One Card

Challenges

Friday Sketchers (40) - Sketch
ABC - B is for Blue & Brown
Stamp Something - 3D

Firstly, I made this card for my son Nick as it is his birthday today and he is a keen fisherman. HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICK!

Although I have followed the sketch I turned it upside down as I felt the eyelets might not show up on the diamond patterned paper. I first placed the blue paper over the front of the brown card and then cut a triangle of the diamond paper and placed this on top. I stamped and coloured the image using MLP pens and then layered it using nesties. I 3D'd this onto the card using foam pads. I then stamped the greeting, layered it and stuck it at the bottom with DS tape. I finished it off with the eyelets.

Card Recipe

Cardstock - SU
Papers - Summertime Designs
Stamps - Penny Black & See D's
Eyelets - Stash

Thanks for looking.

Lili Of The Valley Challenge (19)

Sorry I'm late posting this card but I have been having problems with my blog....it disappeared for a few days. Don't know where it went, perhaps it went 'blog hopping'.

This week's challenge at LOTV is a recipe of 3 brads, 2 papers and 1 flower.

I started off by deciding that Fairy Sky should be holding the 1 flower so I decoupaged her up, made a hole in the top layer and popped in a little flower that I coloured with MLP pens. I layered three squares using my nesties and placed her on the middle one having previously coloured her dress and wings with a Sakura Stardust pen to add a bit of sparkle. I added her name at the top and three flower brads (oops! more flowers!) to the side.

Card Recipe

Decoupage Image/Papers - Lili Of The Valley

Brads/Flower - Stash

Thanks for looking.

Keo - My Beautiful Boy

I never meant to put personal bits on this blog but I wanted to pay tribute to my beautiful boy Keo.

20 years ago my son Nick brought me home a present in the shape of a 6 week old kitten who we thought was a girl and promptly named Cleo. We soon discovered that she was in fact a 'he' so changed his name to Keo. Shortly before this I had rescued a beautiful female German Shepherd called Kirei. Kirei instantly decided to adopt Keo as her puppy and the pair were devoted to each other. Keo firmly believed he was a dog and showed the world he wasn't afraid of anything. In fact he became 'King Pin' in the neighbourhood and nobody 'messed' with him. Sadly after a couple of years Kirei got so ill we couldn't do anything for her and poor Keo grieved for his mum for a very long time. Eventually he started to enjoy life again and his favourite pastime was to sit in the middle of the 'T' junction at the back of the house and defy anyone to run him over....after all he 'ruled' the neighbourhood. He also used to go 'walkabout' and disappear for days on end (I suspect he adopted someone else on these occassions), but he always returned home. This habit stopped not so long ago when an old lady in the adjoining road died, mystery solved... He started to feel his age a little while ago and started to stay in for longer periods of time, curled up on the sofa with my son's dog Ume for most of the time. Sadly, I came home from work at the beginning of the month and he had some kind of attack, which I thought might have been a stroke. I took him to the vets only to find out he had a tumour behind his eyes, kidney failure and an infection. He was put on medication for his kidneys and infection and was slowly getting better. Then, on Thursday I came home from work to find him laying on the sofa not being able to move much and blind, I guess the tumour had 'attacked'. My lovely friend and I rushed him to the vets where I made the hard decision to let my beautiful boy go to be with his beloved mum...

He lived a long and happy life and was well loved and although I miss him terribly I know he is in a better place with his beloved mum.

Thank you all for listening.

ABC Challenge

The ABC challenge this week is 'A is for Anniversary' so I thought this Bookatrix suited it very well.

Using the Bookatrix embossing board I made four pages using, from the bottom to the top, red pearl card, ivory glitter card, red mirri card and parchment paper. On the parchment one (before embossing it) I printed a computer generated verse which I heat embossed before the ink dried. I then used peel off borders and corners to decorate all the pages, curled them and layered them. I then added a decoupage image to the left side and a ribbon and bow down the middle. I finished it off with some more peel offs and gems. I then made a box and stand for it.

Card Recipe

Bookatrix Embossing Board - Keepsake Crafts
Card/Paper - Craft Creations & Kingfisher Crafts
Decoupage - Sorry, can't remember
Ribbon/Peel Offs/Gems - My Stash

Thanks for looking.

Papertake Challenge

This week's Papertake challenge is to make 'A Matching Set' so I thought I would enter this little set of cards I made as a than you to a friend recently.

As you can see all the cards are made in the same way with slight variations. I started by covering a piece of card with paper and adding a tied ribbon to the bottom, this was then attached to the base card with foam pads. Next I stamped and coloured the images and layered them with my Nesties (no suprise there then!!!) and again attached them with foam pads. I left them open so that they could be used for various occassions.

Card Recipe

Stamps - Forever Friends

Papers - Monti's Pixel Playground

Cardstock - My Scrapbox

Ribbons - My Stash

Thanks for looking.

Sketch Saturday & Secret Crafter Challenges

Challenges

Sketch Saturday (38) - Sketch
Secret Crafter (19) - Spring Has Sprung

I seem to be in a 'keep it simple' mood lately so I have kept this card simple. I started by placing a square of backing paper to the card followed by two rectangles in contrasting papers. The images are stamped and coloured with my watercolour pencils and then layered using my Nesties and attached with foam pads. [TIP: When placing one image over another image using foam pads don't put foam pads under the part that will overlap, this will keep it the same height] I finished it off with a flower and button.

Card Recipe

Stamps - Penny Black & Magazine Freebie
Papers - K & Company
Cardstock - My Scrapbox
Flower & Button - My Stash

Thanks for looking.

Four Challenges - One Card!

Challenges

Penny Black (36) - Sketch
Stamp Something - Something Chocolate
Charisma Cardz (6) - Cupcakes or any other cake
Dutch Dare (35) - Buttons & Bows

This was a great sketch to follow with lovely themes to work with, I really enjoyed doing this one.

I started with a chocolate coloured base card to which I added a piece of paper with pink spots on, which if you look very carefully, you can see a couple of the spots at the bottom of the card. I didn't realise until I had finished the card that most of the spots would be covered up, duh! Never mind, I then cut some rectangles from various pink papers and layered them on top following the sketch. The image was stamped and coloured using my watercolour pencils and cut out using my Nesties. I then cut a frame with my Nesties and added some brads to the corners and put it on top of the image using foam pads. I then attached it to the card with more foam pads. I finished it off by adding the ribbon, buttons and bows.

Card Recipe

Stamp - Penny Black
Papers - Summertime Designs
Cardstock - SU
Ribbon/Buttons/Bows/Brads - My Stash

Thanks for looking.

Magnolia V's Stampavie Challenge (14)

This week's challenge is a 'colour challenge' using the colours above.

This is not a colour combination that I would not normally think of using so I had to really think about this one - a challenge in itself!!! First I layered two pieces of paper onto a navy card blank. I then cut a strip of chocolate card and glued some matching ribbon to it before attaching it to the bottom of the card. The image was stamped and coloured using my watercolour pencils and using my Nesties and Cuttlebug I layered it onto navy card. I attached this with foam pads. To finish it off I added a double flower and button (re-coloured with alchohol inks).

Card Recipe

Stamp - Sarah Kay
Papers - Summertime Designs
Cardstock - My Scrapbox
Ribbon - Hobbycraft
Button & Flowers - My Stash

Thanks for looking.

Cute Card Thursday Challenge (47)

Cute Card Thursday challenge this week is 'Music And Dance'.

I have made this card for my nephew's birthday as he is teaching himself how to play an electric guitar. It is a very simple decoupage image.

Card Recipe

Decoupage Image - Jolly Nation

Paper - Scrapbox

Peel Offs - Stash

Thanks for looking.

Paperplay Challenge (5)

This week's challenge is to do a monochrome card in black and white but we can add a touch of other colour as well. I have kept this card very simple by stamping the dress image straight onto the card blank together with the corner stamp. To this I have added the floral paper border. I then coloured the bows pink with MLP pens and added pink gems to the flowers on the dress.

Card Recipe

Stamps - Stampendous & Clarity Stamps

Border & Gems - Stash

Thanks for looking.

LOTV Challenge (18)

This week's challenge is a lovely sketch by Jo and I loved following it so will use it many more times.

For my card I have used two different papers on the base card and run a ribbon across the middle and added the gem stars to it. I then stamped a design either side of the ribbon using a border stamp and an Adirondack inkpad. The image is layered using my nesties. I cut a slider using my cuttlebug, stamped the sentiment onto it and added the ribbon. The sentiment the dragon is holding has been stamped and cut out and slipped under his hands. I finished it off by using Sakura Stardust pens on the dragon's wings and scales. I also used them on the border to add a bit of sparkle.

Card Recipe

Diecut Image/Papers - Lili Of The Valley
Stamps - Hero Arts, Studio G,
Ribbons/Gems - Stash

Thanks for looking.

Whiff Of Joy New Release

This cute little fella is one of the new stamp collection being released on February 14th by Whiff Of Joy. The collection of 10 stamps is a fun medieval theme designed by Alison Acton featuring the characters Charlotte and Charlie. For more info visit Katharina's blog at:-

http://katharina1704.blogspot.com/

What did you do in the snow???

What did you do in the snow? Make a snowman, have a snowball fight?

I thought you might like to see what one of my sons was doing. BARMY or what...

Five Challenges In One Again!

Challenges

Friday Sketchers (38) - Sketch
Creative Inspirations (2) - Thrifty (Nothing New)
Secret Crafter (18) - Recycling
Charisma Cardz (5) - 3/2/1 (3 papers/2 flowers/ 1 ribbon)
A Spoonful Of Sugar (38) - Doodle Doo

I loved making this card as I am a great believer in recycling what I can. I started by covering the card with a spotty paper. The green rectangle is a piece of handmade paper glued to a scrap of card of the same colour as it didn't show up very well. I then added the border and the doodling. I then cuttlebugged a piece of foil and layered that on top following the lovely sketch from Friday Sketchers. I cut out the main flower and added it by using D/S tape in the centre and putting foam pads under each petal to raise them up. I punched out the smaller flower from scraps and added a gem. The greeting was cut out and placed either end of the design and a bow added.

Card Recipe

Spotty Paper/Ribbon - Magazine freebies
Handmade Paper - From bouquet of flowers
Green Card/Base Card/Gold Flower - Scrapbox
Gold Foil - Butter spread lid
Main Flower/Border/Greeting/Gem - Recycled cards

Thanks for looking.

Five Challenges In One

Challenges

Sketch & Stash (3) - Sketch/New Stash = Stamps
Cute Card (46) - Metallica (Add something made of metal = heart charm)
Stamp Something - Valentine
Dutch Dare (34) - Love (NO pink or red)
Cutie Sunday (28) - Valentine

I started this one by layering onto the base card a blue patterned paper and a lilac script paper. I followed this with a strip down the side cut from the base card and inked along the edges with lilac. I stamped the image and coloured it with MLP pens and layered it using my nesties. (This is where I took the liberty of turning my oval shape around to accomodate the image). I also stamped and layered the greeting. Each were inked around the edges with lilac. To finish I added some lilac gems to the blue strip and a silver heart charm to the image.
Card Recipe

Stamps - (NEW) Free gift on a magazine this month
Base card - Craft Creations
Papers - Making Handmade Cards/Magazine Freebie
Gems - Stash

Thanks for looking.

Sketch Saturday (37)/Penny Black (35) Challenges

This card was made by following the lovely sketch on Sketch Saturday challenge blog this week. I enjoyed working with this sketch as I needed a rather simple Valentine card for a man and this sketch seemed to fit the bill.

I started by putting some plaid backing paper onto the black base card. I stamped and coloured the image using my MLP pens. I then layered it onto black card, gold mirri card, red card and black card using the nesties. I finished it off by punching out some gold mirri hearts and adding these to each corner.

Card Recipe

Stamp - Penny Black
Card/Papers - My scrapbox

Thanks for looking.

LOTV Challenge (17)

This week's LOTV challenge is 'Men' so here is a card for a husband's birthday that I have made for a friend at work.

I have made a gatefold card and used the 'romance' embossing board from the glitter girls to do the edges. The decoupage computer image is layered using my nesties. The verse inside is computer generated onto parchment and then heat embossed with gold EP before the ink dries. Then I finished it off with peeloffs.

Card Recipe

Cardstock/Gold Paper - Craft Creations
Decoupage - Wekon
Parchment - Create & Craft
Romance Board - Keepsake Crafts
Peeloffs - Stash

Thanks for looking.

Spacing

Don't know what's going on with this silly blog but whenever I write a post (even though I am putting in the relevant line spacing) it ain't showing when I publish the post. I don't know about you but I find it is harder to read without the spaces. Oh well I shall keep trying...

Charisma Cardz (4)

The challenge this week at Charisma Cardz is Black, White and One Other Colour.

For this one I used some freebie download papers from my scrapbox, I can't remember where I downloaded them from but if you recognize them please let me know and then I can acknowledge them on here. As you can see I used the positive and the negative papers and added a border down the middle. I then stamped the image onto white card using an Archival inkpad. I layered this onto black and red card. I then used a Sakura Stardust pen to colour the hair bow and flower centres and added a bow to finish it off.

Card Recipe

Papers - Freebie download

Stamp - Whispers

Bow - Stash

Thanks for looking.

Five In One Challenges

As my time is being taken up at the moment with a very poorly 20yr old cat I have made this card combinig five challenges. The challenges are:-

Friday Sketchers (37) - Sketch

Cupcake Crafts (25) - Colour Combination

Paperplay (3) - Fairy Tales

Dutch Dare (33) - Thank You

Papertake - Hearts or Flowers

To make this card I first decoupaged the gorgeous image and added a touch of glitter (wings and background) using the clear Sakura Stardust pen and then layered it onto white card. I glued some of the lovely paper to the bottom of the base card and added a piece of white card which I scalloped with my SU punch. Stamped the greeting using an Adirondack dye inkpad and finished it with the flowers and brads.

Card Recipe

Decoupage/Paper - Making Cards Magazine Free Papers

Base Cardstock - SU

Stamp - Hero Arts

Prima Flowers/Brads - Stash

Thanks for looking.