Guest Designer Ooh La La Challenge #83 - Summer Flowers

Here is my last card as a Guest Designer for Ooh La La Challenge, I've really enjoyed my time creating for them and would like to thank the Ooh La La ladies for letting me play along.  This week's challenge is Summer Flowers which is a really easy theme.  I got completely hung up on this gorgeous background paper, from the Floral Extravaganza CD, which looks so much like my English roses that are flowering their hearts out at the moment and I decided to make the paper as big a star of the card as I could.   I added a watercoloured Crafty Individuals stamp, which is a stamp I got when I renewed my Craft Stamper subscription.  The image has been lying on my desk a while and it nearly worked with the paper, but it was a bit yellowy.  Inspiration struck and I sprayed it with Glimmer Mist, something I used to use a lot and have neglected for the past year or so.  I like the way it looks on this vintage style stamp.
I followed the Sketch Saturday layout, adding some little bits of ribbon a lacy ribbon, decoupaging some of the roses from the Ooh La La toppers and adding a Sheena Douglass sentiment stamp.
My card is also for the following challenges:
Sketch Saturday - sketch
CD Sunday - mixed bouquet
Craft your days away - vintage
Totally Gorjuss - ribbons & lace
Shopping Our Stash - tools of the trade (Glimmer Mist)

The birthday card that changed its sex...

Hmm... I wrote the title to this quick blog entry, looked again and realised that it made more sense when I added "its" lol!  Hope you're all enjoying the lovely weather and the Easter weekend.  We had our Open Day yesterday with most of the racing yards open to the public, there was a record crowd who all seemed to be enjoying themselves.  We took a quick trip up to Seven Barrows before we did our volunteering stint at the Car Parks, here's the Gold Cup Winner, Long Run, receiving his visitors:

The ribbons on his door are his racing colours.  My card is for CD Sunday's Birthday Challenge; I'd like to wish them a very Happy Birthday!  I used the Joanna Sheen House Mouse backing papers CD and began with the idea of making a masculine birthday card, adding the sentiment.  But when I added the decoupage with the pink waterlily I'm afraid I had a change of heart  and out came the ribbon to match the goldfish!  I put Glossy Accents on to the bubbles and also the fishes eye and to make them even more "bubbly" I dropped tiny crystal seed beads onto them, I hope you can see them in the photo.

I hope to link up to another challenge or two later, but we are off out for a celebratory meal soon, it's our 23rd wedding anniversary today:).

Happy Easter everyone :)

Hoppy Easter

Sweet Stop Sketches are celebrating their 100th sketch with extra prizes and a twist to the sketch of "How sweet".  I've recently discovered Tiffany Doodle's digis, many of which are very realistic drawings, as soon as I read of the twist I knew which image I wanted to use:  this is Shy Bunny.  I was unsure how such a realistic drawing would work with my Copics but all I can say is it is one of the easiest images I've ever coloured; all the work is done for you with the shading and I just reached for some earth colours and warm greys.
I cut round the image and used Pinflair to give it dimension against some stone coloured card that I dry embossed with a grassy pattern and sponged with Distress Ink.  The brown flowery DP is Prima Madeline, the background is an Artylicious paper from the Essences of Nature CD.  I used a MS punch on more of the stone card, made some flowers with a tiny sunflower punch and flower punch and computer generated the sentiment.
My card is for the following challenges:
Sweet Shop Sketches - sketch and twist
Paper Sundaes - embossing
CD Sunday - wild thing
Stamp Something - something sweet
2 Sisters - furry friends
Card Making Mamas - animals
Crafty Sentiments - animals
Sassy Studios - make your own embellishments

PS Tiffany Doodles also has a DT call out - if you're quick you can apply :)

 

Everyone needs friends

 

I'm still clinging to my stash diet, aided by the many lovely crafty things I got for my birthday last month.  One of them was this lovely Lili of the Valley stamp that my friend Val gave me.  I've quickly put it together in time (I hope) for CD Sunday's Friendship Challenge.  Val is the one of the kindest people I know (stop blushing Val!) and I had to put this together, hence the rather unusual sentiment for a friendship card!  The stripy DP is from Bearly Mine Designer Extreme Vol 1, a prize I was lucky enough to win on CD Sunday.

I'll be back later to edit my posting and enter a couple more challenges...  after the very sad and distressing equine deaths at Newbury Races we are struggling with normality.

My card is for the following challenges:

CD Sunday Challenge - friendship

Lili of the Valley - sketch

Fishing you many happy returns

This is a quick card for DH to use next time he needs a card in a hurry for one of his fishing friends.  I saw Wendy on CD Sunday using the paper with the lovely net design, it's off the Times Gone By CD and I've teamed it with a topper from the Thomas Kincade CD, both are by Joanna Sheen.  The sentiment is gold embossed, got it from a craft show, no idea what company made it, sorry!  And that's it.
Card is for:
CD Sunday - Where waters meet
Sew Many Cards  - Green
Alphabet Challenge - M is for men
Ali Factory - for the boys

Phindy's Place Challenge #38 - Valentine or loved one

Good morning, it's Friday - hooray - so it is time for a new Phindy's Place Challenge.  This week we're making cards for Valentines Day or for a loved one. I've used the adorable image "We meet again" from the Phindy's Place store.  This image is very evocative of my marriage:  two people with a terrier constantly doing its best to get between us lol!  Don't forget we also have a Design Team Call at Phindy's Place, you need to let us know by 22 January if you'd like to joni the fabulous Phindy team, check out the details here.

I tried something new with my digi, printing onto glossy cardstock so that I could try brushing inks around to get shading to the ice.  I found my image printed just fine onto glossy cardstock but it was tricky to get the ink really dry so it didn't smudge.  I used the heat gun for ages on this one before I inked it with Distress and Memento inks in a variety of colours.  Then I was worried it looked too grey, so I gave it too coats of iridiscent glitter spray and now it's full of sparkle:).  The figures are decoupaged onto the glossy card, after colouring with Copics.  I didn't have big enough pieces of mirri card to mat my scene so I rubbed my embossing inkpad over the deges and covered them with silver embossing powder, it doesn't look the same but it's a really nice effect.  I saw this on Stamp TV first and it's a great idea, thanks Gina!  The red DP is from an Artylicious CD, elegant brocade I think,  the background is Cuttlebugged and the sentiment has been inked, it is from Craftwork Cards.

My card is for the following challenges:
Card Patterns -sketch
Papertake Weekly - cold and frosty morning
CD Sunday - something new - 2 new to me techniques.  Also THANK YOU for my prize from last week!

Meljens Designs - square or round cards
Do you stack up? - distress it
Pals Paper Arts - Valentine
Some Odd Girl - embossed
Bunny Zoe - love is in the air
Woodware USA - hearts
One Stitch at a Time - love and Valentines
Wags n Whiskers - with love
Crafty Cardmakers - red and a die cut
Cupcake Craft  -something new - techniques
Sweet Stampin - try something different

Another "Just because" card

Here's another "just because" card.  The stamped image has been lying on my desk for ages waiting to be made into a card.  It's a Hero Arts cling stamp that was inked with 3 Distress Inks and then spritzed with water.   The flower was made with a Marianne Creatables die set (I can't tell you how hard that stamen was to extract from the die!) that was then inked with Distress Inks.  The blue tape is from stash.  The sentiment is Elusive Images and the check background was printed from Joanna Sheen Times Gone By CD for yesterday's card.  Oh, there area few tiny gems on the image.
This card will fit the following challenges:
CD Sunday - check it out
Aly's Sunday Sketch - anything goes
Craft Your Days Away - punches or die cuts
Fab'n'Funky - quick and easy does it - the card was quick and easy to make - as long as you don't count the time lag between stamping the image and assembling the card LOL!

Don't do New Year Resolutions...

I don't do crafting New Year Resolutions; my crafting is my relaxation and pleasure, not something to beat myself up over.  However I've made this card to scratch an itch!  I love my landscape stamps but don't get them out to play with as often as I'd like.  I don't have as many masculine cards as I'd like and it's not often that I make something without one or another challenge in mind.  This cards fits all of those:  I used my Jenny Mayes Hobby Art stamps, the background and scene together make a card that is more masculine than not and this followed no particular challenge.  The sentiment is a new Craftwork Cards one that was part of my Christmas present, the scene is watercoloured, the DP is from the Joanna Sheen CD Times Gone By and the card candy is also Craftwork Cards.

Of course now I've made it I've found a few challenges that it fits LOL!
CD Sunday - check it out
Paper Sundaes -  something new (sentiment)
Catch the Bug  - anything goes
Crafty Emmas - anything goes
Sew Many Challenges - new things

Happy New Year to everyone - and a Thank You card

 

Here's my last card to blog for 2010, a Thank You card.  I'd like to say something clever  about 2010 but I'm all out of clever sayings, so I will just remind you that our Challenge at Phindy's Place is now open to all-comers and the Thank You Challenge runs for two weeks, until 7 January.  Oh, and I'd also like to wish everyone a healthy, happy New Year!  I've stuck with a caramel and chocolate colourscheme for my card, do you think I've overindulged on the choccies over Christmas LOL?

The image is part of It's All Yours, a fun image from Phindy.  I've coloured it with Copics and mounted it onto a  gold pearlised circle that is stitched to a bronze pearlised square.  The DP is from a Bearly Mine CD called Designer Extreme Vol III and the sentiment is Craftwork Cards.  The circle and the DP are stitched on my sewing machine.  I should tell you that my hamster is far lower than I intended; I stamped Thank You onto the circle so that it was the centre of the card and all the stitching was shown off.  But the Versafine ink didn't set on the cardstock and when I stitched it the sentiment smudged under the sewing machine.  Grr!  Oh well, at least it was able to be rescued with a change of plan.

My card is for the following challenges:

Cute Card Thursday - Thank You

Papertake Weekly - be thankful

CD Sunday Challenge - in stitches

Cupcake Craft Challenge - Thank you

Woodware Challenge - anything goes

C.R.A.F.T. Challenge - Thank You

Phindy's Place Challenge #36 - Give Thanks With Scraps

Welcome to the latest Phindy's Place Challenge, it's Christmas Eve and I'm sure you're all rushed off your feet, but don't worry you have two weeks to enter our challenge, to give the DT a bit of well-earned time off!

We have made a few changes to the challenge, to shake things up a bit!  We have decided to open the challenge to all-comers and you will no longer need to use a Phindy's Place image to enter. However, what we love best of all is to see your projects that use Phindy's Place images! If you enter using a Phindy's Place image, you will get two entries to the draw to win a gift certificate. To do this, enter your project as usual to Inklinkz. Then, make a further entry (you won't be able to link to the same blog entry) and, this time, leave your name with "Phindy image" added.

The winner of the Challenge will be chosen by Random.org and will receive an $8 Gift Certificate to the Phindy's Place store. As it says above, entrants using a Phindy's Place image will get a second entry to the draw. The Pick of the Week wins a 20% off voucher for the Phindy's Place store. Don't forget that once a month we will choose an overall winner from the weekly winners and they will be offered a Guest position on the DT - and of course a free image from Phindy's Place to use for that week's challenge!

OK now on to the Challenge... This week we are making "Thank You" cards and projects, everyone needs Thank You cards after Christmas! There is an additional, optional challenge to use up your scraps. 

My project is a Thank You tag.  This has been a sad week for crafting in the UK, Graphicus, a big and much loved retailer and wholesaler has gone into liquidation.  I decided to print off some of the lovely tags on their Essence of Nature CD and based my Thank You on this.  The gold embossed sentiment is Elusive Images and my Flower Top Fairy Rose image, from Phindy's Place is printed twice: the second print is onto vellum and I've used the wings from this, lightly coloured and glued down to the fairy's body but left free of the tag above her.  I've added lots of Stickles to the fairy and the tag.  

You're probably wondering where the scraps are...  OK I got a bit carried away with my tag and realised I'd neglected the scrap part LOL!  So I went to my ribbon bag and pulled out some little lengths that weren't enough to make a bow for a card and threaded them through the scallops at the bottom.  Sorted!

My project is for the following challenges:

Simon Says - anything goes

Paper Sundaes - cut it out

Papertake Weekly -  anything goes

Cupcake Crafts - thank you

CDSunday - tag it

Stamp Something - with a tag or pocket

Paperplay Challenges - anything but a card

Winter Wonderland - Thank You

Red robin and holly - totally traditional!

I managed to get hold of the discontinued Cuttlebug holly folder on Ebay and made a very traditional card with it.  The decoupage is a Joanna Sheen from the Times Gone By CD.  I haven't used the whole of it, there is a cottage and a winter scene behind the full decoupage sheet.  The embossed holly is on gold pearlescent cardstock, I've used Distress Ink sponged on the leaves and Stickles for the berries, there are Stickles on the decoupage leaves too.  Sentiment is Craftwork Cards, swirl stamp is Personal Impressions.
This card is for the following challenges:
CD Sunday - Christmas sparkle
Allsorts - last minute Christmas
Cupcake Craft Challenges - little red robin

In the bleak midwinter

OK the title of my favourite Christmas carol probably isn't too popular with the poor people stranded in snow up and down the country!  We had a tiny amount of snow and have no problems, apart from having to carry water up to the horses as the supply has frozen. 
This card is something of a departure for me; as a die hard stamper I've bought several CDs lately for the backing papers.  This one, Joanna Sheen's Thomas Kincade, is quite pricy to treat as just a backing paper source as it's a triple CD (though great value as a papercraft CD!).  So, for once, I have printed off an image and here's my first attempt at a simple image card.  I've printed it onto acetate (another first) and backed it with pearlised white card.  I used sticky dots in the corners to attach the acetate to the card and didn't like the show through, so I coveed one corner with punched snowflkaes and stamped a Christmas tree for the other corner.  The remaining dots show more in the photo than in real life.  I've lightly stamped text onto the card and added a check ribbon.  The tree and the text are both Atremio clear stamps.

My card is for the following challenges:

Stamp Insanity -try something new (images, acetate)
CD Sunday - white Christmas
Christmas Stampin' - anything goes
Ooh la la - Christmas song
Paper Playtime - Christmas carol
My Time to Craft - vintage card

Today is the last chance to join in my blog candy giveaway - please do enter if you haven't already:)

Shabby Chic Trees

I was browsing through a Joanna Sheen CD, Times Gone By, and came across this totally stunning tree background paper, really far too beautiful to be a background and decided it was perfect for the sketch at Cute Card Thursday this week which gives it a chance to be seen.  The image uses Inkylicious stamps and Distress Inks in Pumice Stone and Vintage Photo to get as close as I could to the DP.  Sentiment is Craftwork Cards and I've added raffia.  That's it, no extra embellies...
This is for the following challenges:
Cute Card Thursday - Susan's gorgeous sketch
CD Sunday - shabby chic
Cards & Things - marina mist, early espresso, soft suede
Gingerloft - great outdoors
Crafty Calender Challenge -winter

PS I've added to my candy, as promised:)

A City Christmas

I've a couple of cards to show you today, here's the city one, country card coming up later.  This card began life as a one layer card, inspired by my blogging friend Chrissie's awesome card here.  It's just the most beautiful card I've seen for ages, however while I love tree stamps and have a whole forest of them, I wanted to do things a little differently.  So I decided to use the Hero Arts city stamp I bought a while back which hasn't yet got inky.  But you don't need to look too closely to see that this isn't a one layer card...

I masked off the card, used my duster brushes and Distress Inks, stamped the buildings.  It looked gorgeous.  Then I took off the Post-Its and saw that my gorgeous scene was upside down on my card!  I have now done one that I'm happy with but the next few had silly mistakes on them.  So I trimmed this with a little of the white  either side and gold embossed a Sheena Douglass star on it.  Hmm... looked like the stable in Bethlehem was now a skyscraper... rapidly added Santa in his sleigh:).

The DP is Artylicous from the Spirit of Christmas CD, the sentiment Craftwork Cards and the lacy MS punch was a present from my very kind friend Val.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:
CD Sunday - lavender and lace
Wagsnwhiskers - lavender and lace
Truly Scrumptious - sketch
Stamp scrap and doodle - no flowers at all
Fussy and fancy - non-trad Christmas colours
Bah Humbug - lovely in lilac

DT Posting - Cooking it up with Katie #37 - food/drink, sentiment and tag

 Good Morning and welcome to Cooking it up With Katie!  This week's fun recipe is to include sentiment, tags and food/drink.  And oh GOOD GRIEF!  I just realised I forgot the tag - what an idiot!  Oops, the sentiment was meant to be on a tag...  Katie is currently having a DT Call, it's such a fun challenge to work with, why not give it a go?  Sadly this is my last card for the DT, life is very full at the moment and I am still trying to put Dad's affairs in order for my Mum.  It's been a fun team to be part of, thanks Katie!

My card uses a House Mouse decoupage from Joanna Sheen, some Cuttlebugging and a Dimension Fourth sentiment stamp.  I couldn't find any DP to match my image until I printed a page off from Essence of Nature, an Artylicious CD.  You can't see much of it but it's there I promise! Because of it, I'm making a second entry into CD Sunday Challenge.  I can't believe this doesn't get more entries, at the NEC last week I saw so many people buying CDRoms - come on gals and get entering!
My card is for the following challenges:

CD Sunday Challenge - the natural world
Totally Gorjuss - sketch
House Mouse & Friends - you gotta have friends
Anything Goes - emboss it
Crafty Cardmakers - dry embossing

Hmm.. now can I unstick that sentiment and turn it into a tag without trashing the card?...

PS I have candy, do please join in:)

Delightful donkeys

 

We've had many pets over the years, but one that Geoff has always held out against is a donkey :(.  I think a donkey would look perfect alongside my Norwegian Fjord horse (and of course the Welsh pony) but hey, sometimes you can't get everything in life!  So of course I fell for the donkey image on the new Joann Sheen DVD by Glynn Williams and had to make a card with it!  There are special decoupage images on the CD but I simply printed out 3 times and made my own decoupage.  I followed the sketch at Pear Tree Designs, adding a leaf border cut with my new MS punch that I bought at the NEC.  The sentiment is a Personal Impressions stamp, DP is Papermania and I used my first ever MS punch to make a scalloped border underneath, I think it's called Baroque and it doesn't have the markings to line up that are on the current punches.  A piece of raffia and some green gems finished it off, hope you like my donkey card.

My card is for the following challenges:

Pear Tree Designs - sketch

Cards for Men - animals, I've kept it un-fussy and used raffia not a ribbon bow so it can be a man card

CD Sunday Challenge - the natural world

Craft Your Passion - 2 of anything (2 donkeys)

Lexi's Creations - anything goes

Crazy4Challenges - square cards

Raise the Bar - scallops and curves

Stamp Insanity -punch drunk - used 2 border punches

PS I have candy - do please join me and play along here

No stamping, no embellishments!

 

I've bought a very pretty cd from Joanna Sheen, it's called Times Gone By,  mainly for the gorgeous horse paintings on it by Glynn Williams.  Sadly none of his hunting scenes have made it to the CD :(.  There are also some lovely Christmas things on the second CD and I had a play with some decoupage.  When it's printed out as standard this pretty robin scene is too large for me so I halved it in size and put it all onto 1 A4 sheet, which is a bit too small, need to find a happy medium for me to work with... 

I'm entering it for the CD Sunday Challenge of No Embellishments - phew that is a tough one for me with no stamping either LOL!  So I followed the sketch from Midnight Madness Challenge and added some Papermania DP.  The background is more of the DP, embossed and with Vintage Photo Distress Ink sponged over the notes to make them stand out.  Sentiment is from Craftwork Cards.
Here are the layers:

No Stamping... just a lot of folds

After I made the double display card on Friday, using Paola's template (THANK YOU Paola!), I realised that these aren't difficult to make, just a bit fiddly.  On Joanna Sheen's forum she is challenging members to make a card using a new CD, Giordano Christmas and there is an image available for those of us who don't yet have the CD.  I printed it so that it would fit into the double display card and added a free downloadable paper from Summer Driggs called Believe.  I've added some silver glitter to the image and the DP with a glue pen as well as some silver ribbon.  I didn't decoupage anything in the image or the card wouldn't have folded properly, so I put a couple of them on the front panels with Pinflair glue.

I've found a new-to-me challenge blog called CD Sunday Challenge, which says it has lots of followers but few challenge entries.  But there are plenty of us using DP if nothing else!  This week's challenge is Monochrome and while I have to admit that I can't complain if they disqualify my card, it's main element is greeny/brown but with a couple of bits of colour...  so I'm entering it and wishing them lots of luck getting more entries:).

Back later with some stamping...