Warm and Cosy Christmas

Our theme for this week's challenge on Cute Card Thursday is - #180 'Pinch and a Punch - and the prize Sponsor is The Stamp Shoppe.

I've used the Whipper Snapper 'Snowmen with Scarves' stamp for my DT project, I do so love this image, these little chaps have such rascally expressions, you  just know they get into mischief at every opportunity!  I've coloured the image with my Copics and added Stardust Stickles for the snow and Glossy Accents on thier noses, twig arms and buttons.






Kraft card is very popular at the moment and I've some 7 x 5 kraft basecards in my stash so I thought I'd use one for a Christmas case with a different style.  I cut the tree shape using a set of nestie pennant dies - so you could say I 'pinched' the pennant shape to use as a Christmas tree shape - and the snowflakes were punched from white card using a Martha Stewart Punch, with Stickles plus a crystal gem in the centre to bling them up a bit.

The different layers were cut with plain and scalloped oval nestie dies and the sentiment is from Lili of the Valley.

I hope you like my fun Christmas card and that you'll enter the CCT challenge this week.  Thanks for visiting my little bloggie today.

Sharing a Biscuit

I just couldn't wait to ink up this gorgeous new stamp from Nellie Snellen - Dawn 'Sharing a Biscuit' is so cute, so thought I'd use her on my DT card for this week's I Love Promarkers Challenge #81 as the theme is 'Anything Goes'. 
Our prize sponsor this week is Secret crafter. 

This project adds yet another card to my Christmas card stock for this year too - result !

The background paper is a scrap I had in my stash and is one of the Graphicus papers I received as a Guild Member a couple of years ago. 

I coloured the image with my Promarkers and Letraset Flexi Pens, adding Stickles dusted with Glamour Dust on her hat and scarf and the snow on the branch on the right. 

I cut the snowflakes using a couple of sets of Crealies flower dies, I think they work well as snowflakes don't you?   Here's a close up shot to show the larger layered snowflake flower. There's a touch of Glossy Accents on the biscuits/cookies Dawn is sharing with her sweet little pal to give them some dimension and Stardust Stickles around the outside edge of the image layer which I've added at an angle over a layer of plain cardstock, both layers cut using square nestie dies.

You can check out all the details for this week's challenge over on the I Love Promarkers Blog, I'm looking forward to seeing your 'Anything Goes' creations.

A Gift For You

I've got something different to share with you today, this is the project I've posted over on the Dark Ink Sorority blog. 

I've used one of the sentiments from QKD on a chocolate/candy bar wrapper, turning it into a special and pretty gift. The monthly stamp kits always include lots of sentiments which are so useful for many occasions. This project is a great idea if you need a small gift in a hurry, we all have pretty papers in our stash and you can add any embellies you wish to finish it off.

My wrapper was created from a piece of 12 x 12 heavy weight patterned paper, cut long enough to wrap around the chocolate bar of your choice and wide enough to cover the length of the bar. I used a Martha Stewart punch to give a pretty lacy edge to both ends of the wrapper, then attached a narrow band of cardstock around the centre.

The rosette was created from a strip of the paper 12 x 1 inches, scored on a scoreboard and a couple of small circles punched out of the same cardstock as used for the narrow centre band. I added a pretty wooden button from my stash in the centre to finish it off. The sentiment was stamped on to a scrap of cream cardstock and cut out using a nestie pennant die.

I hope you've enjoyed today's project, thanks for stopping by today.

Dad meets new friends in Essex !

Hope you are having a lovely Sunday, I'm away from my stash for the bank holiday weekend, so no new projects to share with you today. 

We had hoped to visit Cressing Temple Barns yesterday, when we arrived, however, we discovered it was closed to visitors while they are setting up for the Essex Guild of Craftsmen exhibition which is being held there this weekend.  We may well go back today to try again to get in as we have my Dad with us and he hasn't visited there before.  I found it to be a really fascinating place when I visited the first time a few years ago and am more than happy to make a second visit. 

So, with our plans for the afternoon thwarted, we decided to visit a nearby garden centre for a browse around and try to dodge the showers !   Of course we had to sample the delights of a cup of tea and a teacake while we were there and quite delish it was too. 

Here's Dad meeting some of the locals, they seem to be a friendly bunch !!

This evening we are meeting my lovely crafting pal BlueBertie (Lauren) and her OH at the Jack and Jenny pub for a nice meal and a catch up.   I haven't seen her since our craftathon in Bristol in June and I'm sure we'll have lots to talk about !

That's all from me for today folks, I may well have more piccies to share from this evening.  Have a great bank holiday, whatever you get up to.

How many crafting days til Christmas?

.... scarily few and I've just realised there aren't anywhere near enough if I don't get a wiggle on and add to my stock of Christmas cards soon. 

Sooo..... I decided to use this week's Cute Card Thursday Challenge #179 - sketch to get one finished to add to my stock.   The prize sponsor this week is Ktraftin' Kimmie Stamps.

I've had this sweet Whiff of Joy image stamped up for at least a couple of years and languishing in the bottom of my box of Christmas images awaiting colouring and turning into a cards.  The lovely tartan background paper has also been lying around in my cupboard for a long time.  So today's project is helping me to clear out some of my older stash too - result !

The image is coloured with Copics, sentiment is by Lili of the Valley and cut out using plain and petite scallop circle nesties.  Flowers were punched using my pal Annie's die from plain red and metallic red card and the leaves were cut with a Martha Stewart holly punch.  I added touches of Stickles and gold coloured half beads to finish off the flowers.

This is a really nice sketch to work with and I know I'll use it again and again, hope you enjoy using it too.  The details of the challenge and sketch are on the CCT blog here if you'd like to check them out.

Have a great day.

Sail Away

I always think there's something quite tranquil about an image of a small sail boat on the ocean.  This lovely digi image called 'Sail Away' from Digi Doodle Shop captures that tranquility perfectly I think.  I've used it for my DT card for this week's challenge over on the I Love Promarkers Blog as DDS are sponsoring the prize.  The challenge this week is to use Paper Piercing (not paper piecing!) on your projects.

I created a stepper card using my Hougie Board and the background paper is by Papermania.  I pierced around all the edges and used a blue Spica Glitter Pen to join up the holes and create faux stitching to the design.  I deliberately didn't prick the holes in straight lines as I wanted the faux stitching to look a little uneven and hand sewn. 

The sentiment elements were cut using dies from a nestie set which I adhered to a scrap of SU! Night of Navy card and cut round leaving a navy border around the shape.   The image is layered over the same navy cardstock.  Blue gems from my stash completed this clean and simple design.

Hope you've enjoyed today's project, the full details of the challenge and the DT projects are on the I Love Promarkers blog if you'd like to take a look.

You're Invited

Time for another Tuesday Dark Ink project from me, and I've used 'Messenger' designed by Terra Bidlespacher which is one of the new stamps released this month by Queen Kat Designs.

I created an ATC sized card cutting out just part of the whole image with a rectangle nestie before adding it over a slightly larger layer.

I coloured the image with Copics and added Glossy Accents on her goggles and the clasp on her mailbag. The ribbon for the loops was from my stash, as was the brown gem in the centre of the flower on the sentiment.

The sentiment is from a QKD Myka Jelina monthly kit and stamped using Memento Rich Cocoa ink and cut out with a nestie die. A length of thin brown ribbon tied around the card and into a knot, finished the design.

Hope you've enjoyed today's project -  that's it from me for today, hope you'll drop by again soon.

Zen

As the Guest Design Team Member for August on the Craft Mad and Loving It group on Craftbubble, it's my turn to set the Sunday Theme Challenge and I thought I'd do something a little different this week. 

There just seems to be so much stress and unhappiness around at the moment, in the UK, globally and especially amongst my lovely friends and family.   So my theme for the week is 'Zen' and the following is what I've asked everyone to do.  You might like to join in and try this for yourself, I'd love to hear what your experiences are if you do and please include a link to any project you create, I'd be fascinated to see what you've made.

Take a moment, sit down in a lovely quiet place, relax and take a nice deep breath and let it out slowly, clear your busy mind and just let the word 'Zen' float through your consciousness.  Relax and let your creative imagination run free to create a project (anything you like) inspired by whatever the word Zen brings to mind.

Relaxation and meditation are a great way to help reduce stress and anxiety, but not always easy when we are busy, sad, in pain or just restless and ill at ease.

I chose the lovely image by ArtKure to create my card. Just looking at this scene calms me and I can just imagine sitting there looking out towards Mount Fuji and breathing in the clean mountain air.  The ray of sunshine slanting across the top of the card does make it look as if the top is angled, it isn't IRL but I didn't want to block off the sun as we've seen so little of it here this year.

Enjoy your Sunday and do try to find a little calm space in your day just for You, to relax and re-charge your batteries - it need only be five or ten minutes but you will feel the benefit.

Special Friends

I'm lucky enough to have been invited to be the Guest Design Team Member for one of the challenges in August over on the Craft Mad and Loving it Group on Craftbubble.  I got to design a sketch and select a theme and it's my turn to set  today's new sketchie.   My theme is 'Special Friends.

I used this cute set of stamps from Kanban to create a scene for my card design, coloured with Copics and touches of Spica Glitter Pen.  There's Glossy Accents on parts of the images too.

The lovely background paper is by SU! and I had a go at making my first rosette with a strip of the same paper.  The smaller layers you can just see peeking from under the image are cut from the same paper but with the other side pattern uppermost.  The lacy edged pennant shaped layer was cut from SU! cardstock using a nestie die set.  The flower gem in the centre of the rosette was from my stash.

I'm excited to see what other members of the forum make using my sketch this week, and tomorrow I have a theme in mind for the weekly Sunday Theme challenge which I believe will get everyone putting their 'Thinking Caps' firmly on !! 

Here's the sketch if you'd like to use it yourself

Thanks for dropping by today, hope you enjoyed your visit.

Happy 60th Birthday

It was a pal's 60th Birthday recently and I wanted to create a special card for her to celebrate this milestone birthday, so today's post features her card.

I do love these elegant lady sketch images by Penny Black.  You can either colour them or just stamp and leave the design as simple line art.  I decided to add just a touch of colour to the image and I know my pal likes blue. 

I wanted to add a very discrete number rather than a 'in your face' large one, so stamped the tiny 6 and 0 on to two of the balloons.  My first instinct was to stamp the numbers on the two balloons in the centre of the bunch, but decided to add them to the right hand side as I felt it would better align with the image.  In this position the eye is drawn from the numbers in a lefthand diagonal line down to the the flower on her bag and is more balanced (in my view anyway!) what do you think? Answers on a postcard please!  or better to just leave me a comment !!!!

The 'Congratulations' sentiment along the bottom is from a set by Dark Room Door - I love and use this set a lot.

There's Glossy Accents on the balloons, the flower on her chic handbag and her shoes and also touches of Spica Glitter Pen on the strings of the balloons and her dress.

As it was a special birthday card I decided to create a specially embelished envelope to hold it, You can just see the envelope under the card in the piccie.  I stamped a calender image, added the month and her birthdate, with a tiny pearl star to highlight the date on the front of the envelope.  The base card I used is a large 8x8 scalloped edge, so the card has a great deal of 'presence'.

Hope you enjoyed today's creation and that you'll drop by again soon.

With Love on Your Wedding Day

Today we have a new challenge posted up on the Cute Card Thursday blog and #178 this week asks us to created a Wedding card.  Our prize sponsor for this challenge is Michelle's Scrapbooking and More.

I've used three gorgeous stamps from Whiff of Joy and one from Magnolia to create the design for my card.  The rose swing, bride and dove are all WoJ and the lacy heart is from one of the older Magnolia collections. 

I coloured the images with Copics, adding clear Spica Glitter Pen to give a subtle sparkle to her veil and the tiny white flowers on her headress and in the bouquet. 

The background paper is from Pink Petticoat and the tag was cut using a Magnolia Doo Hicky die.  The larger flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the tiny white ones were in my stash.  I curled the flower stems around a pokey tool to create the little swirls and the fronds were cut using a Martha Stewart punch.    The bride and dove were popped up using Pinflair glue and I added Stardust Stickles around the image layer and the heart and also touches on the flowers. 

Here's a close up view which shows the dimension of the Glossy Accents on the roses in her bouquet and the flowers in her hair a little more clearly.

I'm looking forward to seeing your entries for this challenge, you can get the full details and check out the fabulous DT creations on the blog.

Thanks for checking out my card today.

Maisie's Balloons

We've got a new challenge starting today over on I Love Promarkers and our prize sponsor is Stampezee.  You can check out the full details and see all the DT projects on the blog here.

Challenge #79 this week is to create an easel card and I selected the cute 'Maisie Two Balloons' stamp from Lili of the Valley for my DT sample.

I stamped Maisie on to a triangle/penant shape which I cut using a nestie die, then coloured her using Promarkers and my newly acquired Letraset Flexi Markers.  The pale shades of the Flexi's work well for blending with the original colours of the PM's.  There's Glossy Accents on the balloons, her hair ribbon and shoes.  The image layer is attached over a slightly larger penant shape with a lacy edge, also cut using a nestie die.

The background papers are from my stash and flowers and foliage cut using various Marianne's dies.   For the sentiment inside I used a stamp from Little Claire's, attached over a lacy layer cut with a Nellie Snellen die.  This was attached using foam pads to raise it up as the 'stop' for the easel.

That's it from me for today, thanks for visiting.

Fairy Hanger

Happy Tuesday folks, hope you're having a great day. I've got another project to share today featuring the lovely Venus Moon by Myka Jelina which is a new release stamp for August by Queen Kat Designs.
Rather than a card I decided to make a fairy hanger so cut out the base shape using a nestie die, one piece from patterned heavy weight paper and another from cream pearlescent card for the back.

I coloured the image with Copics, added some Spica Glitter Pen, Stickles and Glossy Accents before attaching over a fancy layer cut using a Nellie Snellen die. The leafy swirl was cut using a Marianne's die and the butterflies cut with a Martha Stewart punch for the large one and a set of punch and emboss punches by Nellie Snellen for the small ones. I've added pearls and gems from my stash and tied on a length of silky twine for the hanger.

I hope you've enjoyed today's project - do come back soon as I've lots more to share with you.

Have a great day !

Congratulations..... Rosie !

Recently we had a little fun running a caption contest over on Craftbubble.  We asked for suggested captions for a photo taken during a fabulous crafting weekend I spent with my pals Kathy and Lauren.   I selected the winner using a random number generator and the lovely Rosie's name was picked as winner of the wee prize I offered.

Before mailing Rosie's prize I made this congratulations card to include in the package.

A simple design using a set of SU! stamps and a couple of colours of ink.  I am sure it will have arrived by now and hope that Rosie likes both the prize and the card.

Thanks for checking out my project today.

Cards for Ryan Appeal

Firstly, I'd like to welcome my new Followers, welcome on board it's great to have you join us.  I hope you'll find the time to drop back now and then to check on what I've been up to in my crafty space !

Now on to today's project.  I received an email from a lovely crafting pal of mine in the USA Meredith Winston detailing an appeal for cards.  I won't repeat all the details as you can read more here if you wish to join in and send a card.  Suffice it to say that a friend of Meredith's brother was involved in a serious accident and is currently undergoing rehabilitation.  My card today is the one I am planning to post to Ryan at the hospital and I hope that in some small way it helps him along the way to recovery.   If you have a card lying around that you could send, that would be so lovely, apparently the staff read all the cards to Ryan and it is positively impacting his rate of recovery to know that so many people are thinking of him.

I decided to create a CAS card as, being just one layer, it will be more reasonable to post to the USA than one with lots of embellies on it.   It's a C6 base card with the Get Well sentiment by Dark Room Door stamped along the lower edge with Memento Paris Dusk ink.  The cute teddy from a Nit Wit Collection set of stamps was also stamped with the same ink and coloured with Copics.  I added Glossy Accents to the ribbon and the heart on the top left and considered it done. 

I don't know where the grey spot has appeared from on the upper left of the piccie, it certainly isn't on the actual card, so apologies for the less than perfect quality of the pic.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this post.

Ink Spots

For too many reasons to go into, I'm soooo... happy that the weekend has finally arrived.  One of the reasons is the new Less is More challenge as I've missed taking part in these over the past few weeks. 

I was on vacation for a couple of weeks with no internet access and then last week was so manic I didn't get the chance to create an entry until the end of the week.  I also struggled to find the time to leave comments on more than just a handful of the other fabulous entries and for this I apologise.  This week I hope to get around to you all to check out your creations and leave you some lurve !

Chrissie and Mandi have asked us this week to create a one layer card and use Ink, preferably utilising a style or technique we either haven't tried before or haven't used much. 

I have all the colours of the Tim Holtz Distress Inks in my stash and use them a great deal, but using a craft mat and water spritzer with them is something I haven't tried more than a couple of times.  Soooo.... I thought I'd have another try at this technique for my card today. 

The DI colours used are Forest Moss and Broken China for the water spritzing/craftmat technique on the background and Rusty Hinge over stamped with Walnut Stain for the image, with Walnut Stain for the sentiment.  The image was created using a set by SU! which my pal Annie gave to me recently, and the sentiment from a set by Dark Room Door. 

I think I need a lot more practice with this technique and I'm going to enjoy trying it with lots of other colour combos as I like the effect.

Thanks for checking out today's project.

Red, White & Blue

Challenge #27 on the Less is More blog asks us to create a project using the colours of our national flag.  Mine of course are the Red, White and Blue of the Union Jack as I live in the United Kingdom. 

I created a clean and simple design using a stamp and sentiment from a lovely set of stamps by Inkadinkado. I stamped them using Memento Danube Blue ink and coloured the flowers with Copics.  I also added Glossy Accents to the flower heads to give them dimension.

After layering the image over red card then blue card, I added red Stickles around the edges, then attached the whole topper to a C6 base card.

That's it for today folks, hope you like today's creation and thanks so much for dropping by.  Have a great day whatever you have planned. 

CAS Thinking of You

We've a Clean and Simple (CAS) theme for this week's Cute Card Thursday challenge #177 and the prize is kindly sponsored by Michelle's Scrapbooking and More.

I used the adorable 'Sorry Shanna' by Mo Manning for Stampingbella for my DT card and coloured her with Copics.  The sentiment comes with the image stamp as a set and I stamped it with Memento Cottage Ivy ink on to a scrap of SU! Pretty in Pink cardstock before cutting out with a Spellbinder banner die. 

The tiny pink pearl heart was from my pot of gems and as a final touch I added Glossy Accents to her hair ribbons and the flowers in her little bouquet.

The layers were cut using plain oval and petite scalloped oval nesties and the base card is C6 deckle edge.  I'm really loving the CAS style at the moment, although I do still find it difficult not to add too many elements and embellies !

Hope you've enjoyed seeing today's card and that you'll have a go at the challenge this week.  Just hop on over to the CCT blog to check out the rest of the DT projects and get all the details.

Snow Matey.....

The new challenge starting today over on I ♥ Promarkers is sponsored by Di's Digis and we have a sketch to work with.  Pop on over to the challenge blog to check out the details.

For my DT card I was planning to use a great DD digi but sadly my printer just decided to stop working and nothing I've tried will make it spring into life.  Looks like I'll have to get some technical help in.

So, as I was planning to create a Christmas card, I thought I'd just go ahead but use a stamped image instead.  I found this cute snowie pals image in my box of stamped images and I'm sorry I have no idea where I got it.  I believe it is by Whipper Snapper Designs but it may be a really old stamp as I can't find it anywhere online.  If anyone can confirm this or tell me who it's by, I'd be very grateful ! (thanks to Paula I can now confirm that the image is indeed a stamp by Whipper Snapper Designs called Snowmen with Scarves, and as she was kind enough to give me a direct link to the stamp in her comment, I just had to hop right on over and somehow this stamp - plus a couple others - just jumped into my shopping cart - oopsie !!)  So you may just see these cheery little chappies appearing on some of my cards at a later date.

I coloured the image of course with my Promarkers then added Crystal Stickles dusted with Glamour Dust for the snow and around the edges of the image layer and the sentiment.  I embossed the background layers in my Cuttlebug using a couple of different embossing folders.  The sentiment is from Cuddly Buddly and there's a little Stickles and GD on the snowflakes in the design.  Here's a close up shot to show the embossing a little clearer.  There's Glossy Accents on the hat and their noses to give them some dimension.

That's it from me for today, I'm looking forward to seeing what you make of this week's sketch.  Just post a link to your entry on the I ♥ Promarkers blog and we'll hop over and check it out.

Bringing you Messenger

Happy Tuesday !  For today's card I've used 'Messenger' designed by Terra Bidlespacher for Queen Kat Designs, to create a card.

I've coloured her with Copics and added some touches of gold Spica Glitter pen on the rings holding the ropes of the balloon and basket.

I thought this sentiment was perfect to go with the image as  I can just imagine her delivering lots of 'missing you' letters. There's a little Glossy Accents on her goggles to give the impression of glass too.

The stamp is quite detailed so I kept the rest of the design simple, I just doodled a freehand frame around the outside edges of the C6 card, added the sentiment and considered it done !

Thanks for looking

Happy Anniversary Kathy & Steve

It's the Wedding Anniversary of my dear friends Kathy & Steve today and I made this card especially for them.  I hope they like it and have a wonderful day. 

I know that Kathy loves anything purple, so I get a tick in the box for my colour scheme and she is also a fan of CAS cards - another tick I think.

The flower was created using stamps and matching punches from SU!.  The petals were stamped using Memento Paris Dusk and Potter's Clay inks, punched out and assembed into the flower shape.  The sentiment is from a set by Dark Room Door and again stamped in Paris Dusk directly on to the white base card.  The finishing touch was a purple gem in the centre of the flower.

Thanks for stopping by to check today's project.