Crafty Creations ... cakes and cream!

This is the last card that I will be doing for my guest DT stint at Crafty Creations...thanks for inviting me Shelly!

 This week's challenge is to make a card featuring cakes or ice cream.  Claire at Stitchy Bear Stamps very kindly let me use this gorgeous cupcake and hearts from Magical Fairy Birthday.  Come and play along with the challenge HERE ... you could win four digi images from Stitchy bear stamps!

Sorry for the dark photo, but its a horrible damp dark evening here, in fact its rained almost all day (...but hey, it saves me having to water the garden!)

It doesn't really show in the pic but the hearts are all popped up on dimensionals, and the cupcake wrapper is sort of popped up too (I stuck the bottom of the wrapper with DST and then popped the top bit up on dimensionals ... does that make sense???)  Coloured with copic markers and Glossy Accents and Dazzling Diamonds added to the cupcake frosting.

Sketch from Sketch Saturday #109

Supplies:

Image: Magical Fairy Birthday from Stitchy Bears; sentiment is stamp from Simon Says

Paper: Papermania 'Sweet Nothings'

Accessories: Pink Gems; dimensionals; copic markers; Glossy Accents

I got scammed today...

...so if you got an email from me with a link to a viagra site, I promise it wasn't me sent it!

Grrr, have people nothing better to do with themselves 

Gorjuss, Girly and Feminine

The theme this week (and sketch) at The Sugar Bowl is Girly&Feminine, so I used my Sugar Nellie Gorjuss girl (I stuck her down slightly wonky though, and my photo isn't straight either so you'll have to trust me that she looks worse here than in real life!)

I NEED a lesson in 'flower arranging', I love the look of flowers on a card but I always think mine just look like they've been plonked there! And the little flower in the bottom corner hadn't been planned, but I hit my patterned DP with the embossing folder and had to do an emergency cover up!

The butterflies and gems were recycled embellishments from a wedding invitation (...bet we've all done that!) and I just coloured my fabric butterflies with my markers.

It's a beautiful bright'n breezy morning here, so I'm off for a dander with Ruby to blow the cobwebs away. Hopefully get a bit of crafting done later but unfortunately there's some housework and a pile of ironing with my name on it!

Sketch from the Sugar Bowl #37

Cute Card Thursday #118 - Reuse, renew, recycle

Allsorts #58 - Embossing

Colour combo from the Play Date Cafe PDCC35

Supplies:
Stamp: Sugar Nellie Gorjuss Girl
Paper: DCWV Pocket Full of Posies
Accessories: Copic markers; lace ribbon; ellison stars embossing folder; marianne d flower dies; prima flower; stickles; gold peel off greeting

High Hopes ... anything goes!

ETA: I won the High Hopes challenge with this card)

This week's challenge at High Hopes is 'Anything Goes', and I need some male birthday cards so I pulled out this golfer that I bought ages ago.  Added some flower soft for the grass and some blue fuzzy felt stuff for the doo-dah's on his shoes.

My wonky eye syndrome struck again when I was stamping the sentiment - yes I know I should probably have stamped it first and then cut out the tag but I'm too lazy to do it again and that was the very last piece of that DP anyway!

Sketch from Mojo Monday #144

Charisma Cardz #25 is One for the Boys

Our Creative Corner - Blues and Greens

Sweet Stampin #32 - Brown, Blue and Green

Supplies
Stamps: High Hopes
Paper: blue dp from Daisy & Dandelion Christmas pack; rest from stash
Accessories: copic markers; glossy accents (on golf ball); fuzzy felt stuff; martha stewart punch; buttons; moss green flower soft; green gems; blue chalk (on sky)

Crafty Creations ... We want to see you shine!

This week's challenge at Crafty Creations is to bling it up!  I used this fun owl from Fresh Brewed Designs and popped his sombrero up on dimensionals.  For my shine I added LOADS of Diamond Glamour Dust to the owl and to the brad in the flower and then blinged it up with some little gems in pink, white and pale blue.  There's also a lovely shimmer off the DP.  

If you'd like to play along, pop over to Crafty Creations - the more the merrier!  (We're being sponsored by Fresh Brewed Designs this week and the winner of the challenge will get to choose three images of their choice.)

We're all going on a summer holiday...!

I made this for a friend who's heading off on her holidays soon but who has been going on for months about how she's going to go on a diet for her bikini (but who was still first in the cake queue!)  Unfortunately she's now run out of time!
ETA: I later added some faux white stitching round the edge of the dark pink BP to lift it a bit as I thought it just looked a bit odd!

SUPPLIES
Stamps: Creative Expressions
Paper: sorry, no idea!
Accessories: Copic markers; pink gems; brads; prima flowers

Took my sketch from Cute Card Thursday #117

Crazy 4 Challenges C4C42 is to use paper flowers - I coloured mine to match my colours




And my colour combo is from Just Us Girls #38 (but I kinda forgot myself and added in some zingy pink!)

Cute as a bug

So what were we up to today? Here's a photo (just to make all you poor folk who don't live near the seaside envious!) Just an hour and a half up the road to Portrush and you get all this....

Sunshine, peace and quiet, lovely!
And the fish'n'chips after were delicious too!
And yes, Ruby had a blast as well!
(note how nice and clean she is after her bath yesterday ... there's usually a tide mark of dirt/dust around her with her wee short legs!)

I managed to squeeze this 20 minute thank you card in before we left....

I got these cute butterflies from Hambo stamps retiring sale section, $1.25, a bargain if you ask me.  And for UK crafters, I've used Hambo a few times and the shipping has always been very reasonable (though I usually get the unmounted stamps)

I've heat embossed them onto paper that I'd coloured with H2O's - I just really wet the page and dropped pools of the paint into them and then let the colours run together.  There's a lovely shimmer on the butterflies IRL.  And because I was too lazy to cut round the antennae I just stamped the image again onto my CS and then stuck the pretty ones over the top.

Sketch from Get Sketchy #42

Sweet Stampin #31 is Clean and Simple

Stamptacular Sunday #64 - Cute as a Bug

A dirty dog and a pink kitty!

Just a quick post - unfortunately for Ruby its bath time!  I think she knows and she's hiding at the bottom of the garden at the minute - I'll have to get something tasty from the cupboard to lure her in and then do a surprise snatch and grab!  

I won this Basic Grey paper in some candy way last year and was determined to use some today!  Though it took me 3 efforts to get my image coloured so that it sort of matched - so far today my cat has been  light brown, blue and now pink!

S2G Twisted Thursday #61 challenge this week is to use something old (my paper)  (BTW S2G have a fabulous wedding card blog hop on at the minute)

Sketch from Paper Sundaes #22

Your Next Stamp challenge#18 is buttons

Charisma Cards #24 is Bling

Supplies

Stamp: Shirley's 2 Girls

Paper: Basic Grey

Accessories: copic markers; Glossy Accents (on flowers); black stickles (cat's nose); Martha Stewart punch; ribbon and pink gems from stash; Bow Easy; brown chalk (for distressing round edges); dental floss (to tie on button)

A girly girl card...

I won this cute hÄnglar & stÄnglar stamp a while back from Paper Sundaes challenge blog and this is the first chance I've had to put ink on her!  Coloured with copics and some pale purple liquid pearls and purple stickles added for some bling.  I've seen these twirly bits on the flowers on loads of blogs so thought I'd have a go too (of course its been so long since I used my wire that it took about half a day to find it at the back of the kitchen cupboard!)
The brads in the two smaller flowers were pink but they didn't look quite right so I just covered them with my purple stickles.

Sketch from Jen's blog I {heart} to stamp

Bunny Zoe's new challenge blog's first challenge is to make a Nice and Girly card

Colour combo from Crazy 4 Challenges #41

Kaboodle Doodle #33 is Anything goes with a splash of purple

Supplies:
Stamps: hÄnglar & stÄnglar
Paper: K&Company
Accessories: Martha Stewart punch; purple stickles; copic markers (for image and flowers); pale purple liquid pearls; heart brad and flowers from stash; Stampin Up corner rounder

Thank You, Teacher

I was asked to make a thank you card for a teacher and was a bit stumped until I remembered this cute image from Sweet'n Sassy.  Coloured with copic markers and to the leaf I've added some fun flock stuff that I found in the £1 bargain bin!  (If you click on the pic to zoom in you'll see it better.)

Sketch from Our Creative Corner Sketch Challenge #20

Stampin B's challenge #63 is An Apple a Day - use red, green and a circle (I almost forgot about the circle bit, so just embossed some into my BP)

Treehouse Thursday #54 is Tool Time - use your favourite crafting tool.  Mine is of course copic markers and the Cuttlebug, I think I use them on 90% of my cards!  But I also have to give a big shout out to the Quickie Glue pen, it just makes crafting sooo much easier and I'd hate to be without it now!

  Right, the sun is shining and I'm away to get my spade and do a bit of rearranging in the garden - some of my plants have grown a bit bigger than expected and some were casualties after the hard winter so there's a few gaps to fill as well

Thanks everyone for your birthday wishes on Monday, I had a lovely lazy day, in fact the sun has shone for most of the week too.... poor Ruby is just exhausted sunbathing!

Supplies
Image: Sweet'n Sassy Cocoa digi
Accessories: Cuttlebug; ellison embossing folder; nestabilities; adhesive ribbon was a freebie from DoCrafts ages ago; fun flock; Glossy Accents (on mouse's nose); brown chalk for BG on image; bling from stash; silver peel off sentiment and letters

Another High Hopes release...

High Hopes have another new release on Friday - Melissa Jenkins (aka MelJen's Designs) has joined the HH team so I can't wait to see what she's created as I love her digis!  Click HERE for more deets and sneek peeks!

Crafty Creations ... add some stitching

This week's challenge over at Crafty Creations is to add some stitching (real or faux) and as Guest Designer for June I was lucky enough to get to play with this cute cow pic from Whimsey Stamps - dont'ya just love the expression on the Mummy cow's face!

There was very little effort required to colour the image - just scribbled in some grass, sponged some clouds for the sky, coloured the hooves and added a little grey for a bit of shadowing on the cow.  Embossed a little side panel, doodled round the edges and added a bit of faux stitching and ... Ta Da, Done! Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!  So if you have 20 minutes to spare why not play along with the Crafty Creations challenge too! 

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Other challenges ...

Took my sketch from One Stop Craft #84

Creative Card Crew #52 is to make a Thank You Card

The Cuttlebug Spot this week is to use embossing

Just Us Girls #37 is to use a digital image

Supplies

Digi Image: Whimsey Stamps

Paper: Rubber Soul

Accessories: cuttlebug embossing folder; Marianne creatable flowers; buttons from stash; copic markers

High Hopes .... Smile!

Hope you're having a fab Sunday!  I'm off work for a whole week - it used to be I just took a day off for my birthday, now its a week .... and I'm hopin by the time I'm 50 it will have escalated to a month off work (well I can but dream, might as well throw in a lottery win there too Ha Ha!!)  Looks like the weather might pick up, so hopefully we'll get a wee outing to the beach sometime during the week.

I won this cheeky monky from one of the High Hopes challenges a few weeks ago and I love 'im!  (Whaddya mean you've never seen a blue monkey!?)  Used my cuttlebug to emboss the BG and popped the main image on dimensionals and then his cheeks popped up again.   Coloured a plain cream ribbon with my green promarker to match the leaves and doodled a border round the edges.

This week's High Hopes challenge #80 is a colour combo - Blue, Kraft/Brown and cream

Sketch from Sweet Sunday SSSC73

Sweet Stampin Challenge #30 is Doodling

Supplies
Stamps: image from High Hopes, sentiment from Simon Says
Paper: I'm not sure as its soooo old but its possibly from the English Heritage Co
Accessories: copic markers and promarkers; cuttlebug embossing folder; green gems and ribbon from stash (not quite the right shade so coloured with my promarker to match); dimensionals; clear gloss pen used on his teeth for a dazzling smile!

Simon Says ... A Recipe

The Simon Says challenge this week is a reicpe - 1 image, 2 patterned papers and 3 types of embellishments (I used ribbon, gems and little seed beads on the cupcake icing)

Sketch from Little Red Wagon (though I was using up some scraps for my BG and didn't have a piece big enough to make a square!)

Totally Papercrafts #20 is Animal Magic

And colour combo from Colour Throwdown #96

Supplies
Stamp: WOJ Henry and sentiment from Simon Says
Papers: Milton and Co
Accessories: copic markers; blue gems; blue ribbon; Bow Easy; Glossy Accents on icing; seed beads on icing from stash

Crochet Flowers

This might look like a Clean & Simple card but it took AGES to make!  Can you guess which of these crochet flowers were made by my fair (or should I say 'inkstained'!) hands ... yes, the two very dodgy looking ones!

Took my layout from the sketch at CPS #171
One Stitch at a Time #17 is celebrations
A Spoonful of Sugar #107 is Floral Delight

Supplies
Stamp: sentiment from Simon Says
Accessories: Pink pearls from some recent blog candy; sewing machine; pink brads

High Hopes new releases

Go hopping tomorrow (14 June) at High Hopes blog with their new relase of stamps ... I loved the last batch so can't wait to see what's in store this time!  And you can win the entire new release - visit their blog HERE

Andrea's Birthday Card

Just a quick post as Desperate Housewives is coming on!  Made this for my SIL's birthday which is the same day as mine!

Sketch from Lili of the Valley #54

Colour combo from Allsorts #55 - strawberries and cream

Cupcake Craft challenge #94 is Dazzle Us, so I've used loads of bling on this card!

Supplies
Stamp: Lili of the Valley
Paper: (I'll get back to you!)
Accessories: Clear, red and green gems; sewing machine; cuttlebug; ribbon from stash; copic markers; Glossy Accents

Its Child's Play!

Crafty Creations challenge this week has the theme of Child's Play and as Guest Designer for June I got to play with this cutie from Meljen's Designs.  Isn't she just the sweetest dolly ever!  I coloured her with copic markers and hand doodled a border to match the 'stitching' in the image.

I took my sketch from Sunday Sketch and Stamp #29 and used a bow instead of a sentiment so that this could be an 'any occastion' card.

Colour theme of baby pink and pastel blue from Colour Create #46

Kaboodle Doodle challenge #32 is 3-2-1 ... 3 papers, 2 embellishments and 1 image.

Supplies
Image: digi download from Meljen's Designs
Papers:
Accessories: Bow Easy; ribbon from stash; pink and turquoise stickles; blue gems; copic markers; dimensionals; cuttlebug; nestabilities

Horsey Happy Birthday

I do believe my copic markers are conspiring against me!  I only just received 3 markers in the post today to replace ones that had run out, I sat down to make this card and my Brick Beige promptly bit the dust!  Grrrr!

Anyway, I was asked to make a card for a young teen with a horse on it .... and this is the only horse stamp I have!  I decoupaged his hooves so that they popped over the edge a bit and added some stickles to his nose band for a bit of bling

Sketch from Fussy and Fancy Friday challenge #12

Critter Sketch Challenge #17 is to make a card for a child / young teen

Copic Creations #29 is colouring animals

Supplies
Stamp: Woodware 'Peeking Over'
Paper: Dovecraft
Accessories: Copic markers; pink stickles; silver peel off letters; Martha Stewart Punch; fems and flower ribbon from stash

Leanne's 7-day giveaway

Leanne is celebrating June with 7 days of giveaways with loads of goodies up for grabs from beautiful paper stacks to gorgeous stamps ... they don't close till 21st June so you have a bit of time to enter!
Visit Leanne's lovely blog HERE

A Thhhhick Thhhhnake

Here's one of my Hambo stamp bargains ... he's only little, but soooo cute!?
I think my mojo is having a wee sleep somewhere ... I'm putting it down to having 'too good' a time yesterday at our niece's wedding!  ;o)    I think I got my colour combo wrong - the grass doesn't really look right against the blue and yellow, oh well!

I flipped the sketch from Jen's I{heart}2stamp

Sir Stampalot's June challenge is to use punches

Supplies
Stamp: Hambo stamps
Accessories: Cuttlebug swiss dots embossing folder; glossy accents (on snake); gems and ribbon from stash

Simon Says ... male card

I was shopping recently at Hambo stamps - they've loads of retiring stamps at a fab price, but I also couldn't resist this hilarious flasher! 

Sketch from ICS whose challenge this week was to use one of their old sketches - I chose ICS #49

CAS-tastic challenge CWC006 is to focus on the sentiment

And there's a few male themed challenges this week:

• Simon Says ... Male card
• One stitch at a Time #16: Boys to Men
• Stampin B's #61: make a masculine card

Supplies
Stamps: Hambo Stamps
Paper: Basic Grey 'Sugared'
Accessories: sewing machine; button from stash; dimensionals; copic markers

Bling-CAS-tic Wedding!

Here's another last minute card, this time for a wedding this weekend ... and I've no excuses as we received the invite weeks and weeks ago!  I tried ever so hard to keep it clean and simple as the little wedding couple are sooo cute on their own, but I ended up being a bit heavy handed with the bling on her dress!  Oops!

Took my colour combo from the Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab World

Also for One Stitch At A Time #15 - use something new (I used my new Lili of the Valley Stamp)

And of course, it would also fit the Black and White with a splash of red theme over at Crafty Creations - there's a fab prize of $10.00 gift certificate to Eat Cake Graphics!

Supplies
Stamp: Lili of the Valley
Accessories: copic markers; ickle tiny pink, red and green gems; Bow Easy (the best gadget EVER invented!); ribbon from stash

Footballing Dude

If you've been over to the Crafty Creations Challenge blog, the eagle-eyed among you might have noticed that I'm their guest designer for June ... how cool is that!  I hope you'll play along with us - there's some really fab challenges this month.

This week's challenge is to use Black and White with a splash of red.  I usually find black and white cards so difficult to make but I'd just received this little footballer and thought he'd be perfect for the challenge.  He's supposed to be in this season's Manchester United colours, though their shorts are white with a red stripe and they just didn't look right, so I just re-designed their kit for them!

(If you'd like to play along with this challenge click HERE to add your link to your project)

I'm also entering this into Friday Sketchers #104 and Allsorts #54: Black, white and one other

Supplies
Stamp: Sugar Nellie 'Sporty' from Funky Kits
Paper: from DCWV ... possibly the first DP I ever bought! 
Accessories: Copic markers; red stickles on jersey; black stickles on centre of circles paper; dimensionals; silver and red gems; silver peel off sentiment; black eyelets; ribbon from stash