A Towering Inferno!

Just had to share Ruby's halloween necklace, all set for the halloween party in my Mum's!  (...yes, Greg did think I've lost the plot!)  Though poor Ruby'll be glad when Halloween's all over as she turns into a nervous wreck at the sound of a banger!

This card started out as another one for my Uncle, but then I decided it was a bit 'girlie' so made him another much the same but in red, blue and green and looks much more butch!

One Stop Craft #104 - Anything Goes

Secret Crafter #107 - things that fly .... now I know technically chickens can't fly, but they do have wings!!

Wee Memories #29 - free for all

SUPPLIES
Stamp: Penny Black
Paper:
Accessories: copic / promarkers; smooch illuminate on icing on cake; Tim Holtz edge die; silver peel off sentiment

Tic-tac-toe Halloween Style

I've seen a few of these tic-tac-toe games in blogland so thought I'd have a go and make one for my nephew.... it'll probably give him minutes of endless amusement (he'd rather be up and wrecking about!)
I just kept my base nice and simple and hand-drew some webs and spiders.

Sarah Hurley challenge #15 - Halloween

S2G TT challenge #80 - trick or treat

The Treehouse Thursday challenge #73 - things that go bump in the night

Daring Cardmakers - trick or treat

SUPPLIES
Stamps: Shirley's 2 Girls
Accessories: copic markers; nestabilities

Uncle Alwin's Birthday card

Oh dear, its midday and I'm still in my PJ's .... and its all the posties fault for delivering my Lili of the Valley goodies!  I was lucky enough to win £10 voucher in the LOTV challenge blog but of course I ended up spending a few more pennies as well!  And I treated myself to some of their cardstock, and can definately recommend it - the copic markers blend beautifully on it.

Anyway, there's loads of Autumn/Fall challenges out there this week - I don't have any autumy or leafy stamps so I thought I'd use the colours of Autumn for my Uncle's 80th Birthday card. 

ETA: We finally got up and got washed and headed down to our local park, though after all the rain we've had the paths were in total gutters!  Poor Ruby is in the bath as we speak (no bubbles or candles for her!)

The ducks were having a quacking time  ...

Ruby loved sniffing the leaves (strange dog ?!!!!)

Sketch from Card Patterns #88

Polka Doodles #43 - Autumn

Easy Craft Projects #24 - Autumn or Fall

Crafty Creations #91 - Autumn or Halloween

Party Time Tuesday #18 - a birthday card with orange, brown & white/ivory as the main colours

A Spoonfull of Sugar #127 - Lets get punchy

SUPPLIES
Stamp: Main image from Lili of the Valley; little anchor from Little Claire Designs
Papers: Daisy and Dandelion
Accessories: eyelets; copic markers; smooch illuminate on little flag and the anchor; silver peel off letters and sentiment; martha stewart punch; dimensionals (for greeting and anchor)

Simon Says ... Punch 'em

Whoo Hooo ....
I have DST!
... let the card making begin again!!
 Though it's been

one of those weeks

in work, so it probably wasn't a bad thing just to sit and vegetate in front of the telly!

This is one of the cuties that I won from High Hopes a while back,
but my colouring is a bit pants

 .... I'll blame it on the terrible lighting in my kitchen!

 High Hopes challenge #94 is Birthday

Simon Says Stamp challenge this week is to get your punches out

I've used my Martha Stewart punches - the little picket fence and the drippy goo punch for the grass.

Colour combo from Stamptacular Sunday #82 -

Orange, Lime Green, White/Cream and Plum Purple

Creative Card Crew - Let's Punch It

SUPPLIES

Stamps: Little mouse from High Hopes; sentiment from Elzybells

Paper: Basic Grey

Accessories: purple gems; copic markers; martha stewart punches; purple ribbon from stash

Just sharing some love ...

... for my fabulously talented sister in law, Andrea, who made this cuuute Halloween card!  'Apparently' the vampire is Greg and of course Ruby is there too!  Ha Ha Ha!  (I couldn't get a good photo, but the lettering on his banner spells 'Lynne's Fang Club')
I keep telling Andrea to get her own blog but (so far) she's resisting! ... one of these days though I'm betting she's gonna cave in and join the rest of us addicts in blogland!

Halloween Treat Box

My cardmaking came to a bit of a standstill this weekend as my craft shop had run out of double sided tape and so had I! 

But I made a start on my Christmas cards for my work mates and also had a go at making one of these little treat boxes - Create4Fun have a good sketch HERE and there's a Splitcoaststampers tutorial HERE (and if I can make one anyone can!)  Though originally my box was just covered in spiders, and then I thought it needed 'something', so I added the little spider in the jar and now I wish I'd just left it alone!  Oh well, I'll know for next time to plan it out a bit better!

Create 4 Fun #43 - make a milk carton gift box
Corrosive Challenge #87 - halloween

Crazy 4 Challenges C4C60 - halloween

Sweet Stampin #49 - Anything but a card

Splitcoaststampers Friday Free for All F4A35 - put a flap in it

Stampin for the Weekend #49 - Halloween

CRAFT challenge #73 - Spooky

Fab'n Funky #45 - things that go bump in the night

Creative Inspirations #83 - spooky

A Spoonfull of Sugar #126 - Boo!

Stamp with Fun #81 - Halloween

SUPPLIES
Stamp: Spider from High Hopes; little jar from DoCrafts
Accessories: little purple metallic bats from Tescos (table confetti); martha stewart drippy goo punch

Are you playing along?

Wee Memories has a new challenge every Saturday morning ... check it out HERE

X-mas Card #29

I had the afternoon off work today and spent it .... making Christmas cards!  Much more enjoyable that that work nonsense!!   I stopped in the craft shop on the way home to buy some DST and ended up buying this lovely Christmas pack instead (well that resolution to use up all my old stuff first didn't last long!)  And they didn't have any DST in stock(!!) so I'm gonna have to go back again on Saturday and test my willpower to not buy anything else!

High Hopes challenge #92 is a recipe - 1 circle, 2 squares and a scalloped edge

This mad colour combo of orange and hot pink came from Die Cut Dreams #70, but I love how it turned out!

Sweet Stampin #48 - Ribbons

The Craft Garden October challenge is to use Pink Ribbon - this gorgeous ribbon was one of my purchases today, but I kinda wish I'd used the bigger bow on the Bow Easy as its a wee bit odd looking!

Sarah Hurley challenge #14 - Make a Something for Christmas BUT Red and Green must NOT be seen!!!


SUPPLIES
Stamp: High Hopes
Papers: Dovecraft
Accessories: Ranger glossy accents on his hat and nose; copic markers; circular nestabilities; Smooch Illuminate; snowflake button and dew drops from stash

Simon Says ... Give Thanks

This is another of the lovely Gorjuss girls Dotty Jo stamped for me, sorry for the bad pic - one of these days I'm gonna make a light box or something!

I found this little heart brad in my stash (don't you love it when you come across goodies you'd forgotten about!) and jazzed up the ribbon with some red stickles.  Stamped the little swirl in the red BP with versamark ink.

Simon Says challenge this week is to Give Thanks

Sketch from Card Positioning Systems #189

Colour combo from Crafty Creations #90 - red, brown, green

Little Red Wagon #51 - Hearts

Crafty Cardmakers #32 - use a freebie (mine is my image)

One Stitch at a Time #35 - Embellish It (I used my favourites - ribbon, gems and stickles!)

Top Tip Tuesday #7 - Anything goes

SUPPLIES
Stamp: Gorjuss Girl image courtesy of Dotty Jo!; bg flourish from Daisy Bucket Designs
Paper: Basic Grey
Accessories: Martha Stewart butterfly and scallop edge punch; green gems; red stickles; copic markers; red ribbon and heart brad from stash; Stampin Up corner punch

Lil' pink puppy

Oooh my little tootsies are freezing tonight - think I'll go and have a bath and get warmed up or poor Greg will have my cold feet planked on him tonight - we all have our crosses to bear and one of his is my cold feet!  And I see that Scotland has some snow forecast for this week ... BRRRRR! ... time to get out the winter woolies me thinks!

Anyway Posh Designs challenges are back and this was one tough sketch challenge - I studied it for ages, and I'm still not convinced I got my layers right!  But it was a great sketch for using up all those purdy scraps that are just too precious to throw out!

Colour combo from Colour Create #55

Supplies
Stamp: Penny Black
Paper: Basic Grey
Accessories: Marianne creatibles flower dies; pink gems; eyelet from stash; black stickles on his nose

Sniffy Doggy

Just a simple little card - added some BG text stamped in Versamark and some embossing for a bit of texture.  Coloured with copics and some Smooch Illuminated added to his nose and to the little bones.

Sketch from Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #89 (though I've just noticed that I forgot about the little bit to the right of the image ... oh well, too late now!)

Corrosive Challenge #86 - get rid of the white (I added Antique Linen distress ink to my main panel to take away the whiteness)

Colour combo from Color Throwdown #114

SUPPLIES

Stamps: Puppy from Stampin Up; bg text stamp from Where Memories are Created

Accessories: Copic markers; Smooch Illuminate; cuttlebug embossing folder; rectangular nestabilities; dimensionals (for bones)

Floating Kitty

I've had another really lazy crafty day ... lucky me!!  This one uses some papers that I've had in my stash forever, but I always find them really hard to use!  But I'm determined to use up some of my stuff before I buy any new goodies!

Colour combo from SPCC #69  (though I wish I'd added some darker colour to my slate ribbon)

ABC challenge - F is for Flowers

Sketch from Sketch and Stash #46

SUPPLIES
Stamp:
Papers: from the English Heritage Company (I think)
Accessories: copic markers; dew drops coloured to match; flowers coloured also with copics to match; Ranger Glossy Accents on balloon; silver peel off greeting

Xmas Card #28

I've had a lovely chilled out day today and as you may have guessed I did very little today other than cardmaking!  And now I'm just sitting with my feet up watching X Factor - though its not as good as it used to be ... I think the judges are being too nice!  And the instant a contestant says they want to be a legend or start whinging and crying, there should be a big trap door opens and they just automatically disappear!!

High Hopes challenge #92 is Red and Green

Our Creative Corner - at least 3 embellishments (I used white flowersoft, red gems, snowflake die)

Little Red Wagon #50 - something old (my DP) something new (my stamp)

A Spoon Full of Sugar #125 - Winter Wonderland
SUPPLIES
Stamp: snowman from High Hopes
Paper:
Accessories: cuttlebug embossing folder; copic markers; Ranger Glossy Accents with white flowersoft dropped in it; Marianne creatibles snowflake die; smooch illuminate on snowballs; red gems

Katrina and her kitty

I was asked to make a card for a girl who loves cats, and I hadn't tidied away this LOTV stamp I used recently, so out came the ink again.  The little cat charm was originally a bronzey colour, but I think Katrina's cat is black so I just coloured mine in with a dark grey copic marker. 

Sketch from Lili of the Valley #69

Wee Memories #27 - Celebrate Good Times

Sarah Hurley challenge #13 - Colouring In

Cute Card Thursday #134 - bugs

Colour inspiration of turquoise, kraft and pink from Moxie's Fab World Trigger Tuesday

SUPPLIES
Stamp: Image from Lili of the Valley
Accessories: copic markers; martha stewart butterfly and lattice edge punches; nestabilities; blue gems; cat charm from stash; nestabilities

We are sailing...

This is one of the quickest cards I've made for a long time... maybe about 10 minutes flat!  The image is a little digi which I've had in my file for ages but have never used him before.  Coloured him with copics, added some clear gloss to the sail and Bob's Your Uncle!

Sketch from Clean and Simple Stamping FTL112

CES Challenge #8 - male birthday card

OSAAT Challenge #34 - use a digi

SUPPLIES
Image: I think the little sailor is from Hambo
Accessories: Paper is oldie stuff from my stash; Ellison embossing folder; Ranger Glossy Accents; copic markers; red gems; silver peel off sentiment

3 little fishies

Caardvarks challenge this month is to CASE one of the DT cards - I chose this sweetie by Lucy:

So thanks Lucy!

SUPPLIES
Stamps: Stampin Up 'Fishy Friends'
Accessories: Ellison embossing folder; orange watercolour pencil; orange gems; smooch illuminate (on fish)

Betty's Birthday card

ETA: I got top 3 at Kaboodle Doodles for this card

Just a quickie post as I hear my bed calling me!...



Lili of the Valley's challenge this week is the colours of Autumn, so I thought these papers from Daisy and Dandelion were just perfect for the job.

Charisma Cardz challenge #40 is also Autumn colours

Kaboodle Doodles #41 - Fall is in the Air
SUPPLIES
Stamp: Lili of the Valley
Paper: Daisy and Dandelion

Accessories: Martha Stewart butterfly punch; blue gems; smooch illuminate on her wee top and on the flowers; copic markers; silver peel off sentiment / letters

Up, up and away...!

ETA: Top 3 at Unscripted Sketches!

Apologies ... its the usual Sunday blogger overload this evening!

I took the colour inspiration for this one from Color Throwdown #113, but added in some red to brighten my card a bit, and then completely forgot myself and coloured his shirt green!

Daring Cardmakers - Office blocks (use something you'd find in an office - I used staples)

Sketch from Unscripted sketches #76

SUPPLIES
Stamp: Mouse from High Hopes
Accessories: swiss dots embossing folder; copic markers; Ranger Glossy accents on balloon; martha stewart scallop punch; purple gems; silver peel off greeting

Happy Bird-day

Hope you've all had a fab weekend - we had a lovely one, really bright and sunny.  We got the gardens weeded, lawns mowed, and all the pots sorted and ready for winter.  And I got loads of washing done and dried on the line ... but before you get the impression I'm some sort of Domestic Goddess, there's a mini Mt Everest of ironing growing in the kitchen ... I keep hoping the elves will pop in and it will magically disappear!

I think this stamp is from one of the first Stampin Up sets I ever bought - I'd even forgot I had it and only came across it by accident!  How bad is that!!
Coloured him with copic markers to match the dark green birdies in the DP, then covered him in Smooch illuminate for some glitz, added clear gloss to his beak and then red stickles on the heart to finish. 

Sketch from i{heart]2stamp

Sweet Stampin Challenge #47 - Diamonds are a Girl's best friend

Oldie but a Goodie #3 - All creatures great and small

SUPPLIES
Stamps:  All from Stampin Up
Paper: Basic Grey
Accessories: Smooch Illuminate; copic markers; Ranger Glossy Accents; red stickles; diamond gems

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man

Stamping Vacation's When I Grow Up challenge is Baker ... and there's nothing nicer from the bakers than cake ... mmmmmmmm! 

In case you're wondering about my post title its from an old nursery rhyme:

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man.

Bake me a cake as fast as you can;

Pat it and prick it and mark it with B,

Put it in the oven for baby and me!

Colour combo from SPCC #68 - I don't have any Razzleberry so used some rich purple paper I had instead (though it looks bluer in the pic than it is IRL)

A Spoon Full of Sugar #124 - Sparkle and Shine - I added clear gloss and diamond glamour dust for the icing

SUPPLIES
Stamp: cake from Art Gone Wild, bg text stamp from Where Memories are Created
Accessories: nestabilities, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, Ranger Glossy Accents, Diamond Glamour Dust, green gems, Bow Easy, copic markers

The Birdie Song .... aaarrrrggggghhhh!

Allsorts challenge #73 is to be inspired by a song .... so how about The Birdie Song by the Tweets - it was the most awful instrumental tune in the early 80's but EVERYONE knew (and probably still does) all the silly 'dance' moves that went with it - and I'm sorry I even thought of this song as it'll be stuck in my head all day now!

Right, its a beautiful breezy day here so I'm off to hang the sheets up on the line, nothing nicer than fresh bed linen that has been dried outside!

Sketch from Mojo Monday #159

Creative Inspirations #81 - Birthday theme

Oldie but a Goodie challenge #3 - All creatures great and small .... I love this challenge blog as it really makes you look at all your old stamps and use them again!

Colour combo from The Play Date Cafe PDCC50

SUPPLIES
Stamp: Very old birdy stamp from Magenta; sentiment from Elzybells; bg text stamp from Where Memories are Created (but doesn't really show up in pic)
Supplies: green Promarker and red copic marker; blue chalk for sky; sewing machine; martha stewart scalloped edge and butterfly punches 

Ryan's Birthday card

It's my nephew's 7th birthday this week (where does the time go?!) and he's totally football crazy so hopefully he'll like this card!  He plays in a junior football team so I've coloured this dude in Ryan's team colours.

Sketch from Splitcoaststampers SC301

Party Time Tuesday #15 - Anything Goes Birthday

Stamp Something - something Punchy

Crazy 4 Challenges C4C58 - birthday card

SUPPLIES
Stamp: footballer from Sugar Nellie; bunting from Practicing Creativity
Accessories: Martha Stewart fence and drippy goo punches; copic markers; blue chalk for sky

Simon Says ... Halloween

Just a quick post tonight as I'm sooooo tired ... we've a huge mailout going on in work this week

.... only 35,000 bits of information to sort, count and get ready for distribution!!!

Mind-numbingly

B-O-R-I-N-G !

Simon Says challenge this week is Halloween.  I haven't got ANY Halloweeney type papers so just stuck to a plain yellow/black combo with this bit of DP that I found in my stash.  The little bats are from a bag of table confetti I bought in Tescos last year and the little black brad holding the two embossed stars used to be orange, but looked totally wrong so I coloured it black instead!  Used my quickie glue on the little spider and dropped in some glitter.

High Hopes challenge #91 is also Halloween, so it was perfect to ink up this cute spider from their latest new release

One Stitch at a Time #33 - Spooky Halloween

Layout from Sketch Saturday #123 - though I had to move the sentiment as mine turned out too big!

CES #6 - Get ahead, get a hat

Cute Card Thursday #132 - Tic Toc

(Well for this being a quickie post, I've rambled on rightly!)

SUPPLIES

Stamps: Spider from High Hopes; sentiment from Stampin Up; little jar from DoCrafts

Accessories: Sizzlits stars die; ellison stars embossing folder; cuttlebug spiders web embossing folder; copic markers; gold and orange glitter; peel off numbers and month; yellow gems and brad from stash

A Pink Celebration

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and Stamp and Create's challenge for this month is:
Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness
 
I actually got my watercolour pencils out for this one for the first time in ages - I kept my brush quite dry when I was adding the darker highlights to try and get a bit of texture into her hair.  I also pulled out my sewing machine - though it very nearly went in the bin after it took me about 20 minutes to thread the darned thing!  There must be some scientific reason why the hole in the needle has to be smaller than the thread you're trying to force through it! Grrrr!  (Apologies for the rubbish photo too)
 

My sketch is (kinda) from The Sugar Bowl #44, but my frame turned out a bit big to fit!
 
Also for Sarah Hurley challenge #11 - All Sewn Up
 
SUPPLIES
Stamp: Image from Sugar Nellie; sentiment from Practicing Creativity
Paper: Papermania
Accessories: watercolour pencils; nestabilities; blue chalk for BG on image; little shapes from Sizzlits die; little tiny blue and pink gems; ellison stars embossing folder; smooch illuminate