Dream Valley Challenge Blog Launch

Hooray...its here!  The launch of the brand new challenge blog co-ordinated by my bloggy buddy Melly...Dream Valley Challenges!
And our very first challenge is an easy peasy one ... Anything Goes
There's some fab prizes up for grabs too....

1st Prize £10 voucher for Lili of the Valley

2nd prize is Fashionista and Dude Simply Sassy set

and 3rd prize is wee Windswept Simply Sassy

So get yourselves over to Dream Valley, check out the fab cards from the rest of the DT and upload your Anything Goes card - normally challenges will run for a fortnight but this first challenge is just for a week, so be quick!

I'm also entering this card to:
Spoon Full of Sugar #140 - birthday wishes
Tuesday Throwdown #37 - pop it up (I popped up my monster)

Anyone for a round..?

I've never had a go at golf ... just never had the inclination!  I think a round or two of crazy golf was about the height of my golfing skills! 
This wee cutie is from High Hopes - coloured with copics and some bling added for her buttons.  (Mind you, she looks like she needs to lose a few pounds and would be better going to the aerobics class, rather than a dander round the golf course LOL!)

• High Hopes #103 - female birthday
• Top Tip Tuesday #23 - bling it on.   My top tip this week is to use suitable paper for colouring your image ... watercolour pencils will look a million times better on watercolour paper, and copics blend beautifully when you use paper which will soak the ink through (I've been using c/s from Lily of the Valley and its just lovely)!
• Colour Create #65 - use fruity colours .... I've used apple, strawberry and lemon
• Stamp Something - flowers

A Kenny K effort!

I visited Linda's blog recently and stayed a fraction too long, drooling over her fab Kenny K cards, and before I knew it a couple had dropped into my shopping basket!  Though next time I'll print her onto better cardstock as it took ages to try and get the colours blended.  I still think this card needs something but I had flowers on and off, butterflies on and off, arrows on and off, and nothing looked quite right.  So it might just have to do the way it is!!

Sketch from Kenny K's Crafty Girlz Challenge #34
Use it Tuesday #2 - cut into your pretty DP ... I got this a while ago and have been 'saving' it for a rainy day!
Creative Inspirations #100 - stripes

Buzzin' By....

Just a quickie post from me tonight .... we've Toy Story 3 ready to play and a wee beer chillin' in the fridge!
This cute little bee was a freebie a while back from Bugaboo - coloured him with copics and added clear gloss and glitter to his wings. 
(I'll have to take a pic of this card in daylight to see if the purple photographs any better.... it always looks more bluey in the evenings. )
Also used some of my new card candy for the flower centres, again coloured with copics to match.  And the purple and orange ribbon was a freebie at a craft show ages ago, at the time I thought YEUCH, but whaddyaknow, its perfect for this card!!

(Don't forget to pop back tomorrow for the launch of Dream Valley Challenges!)

• Sketch from I{heart}2Stamp (February)
• Bunny Zoe's February challenge - spring flowers
• Colour combo from Copic creations #44 - warm colours
• Stamp with Fun #99 - 3 papers, 3 flowers, ribbon
• Crafty Creations #107 - At the bottom of my garden lives..... bees!  I have a bushy thing growing up the fence that the bees just adore!

Some Exciting News and a Sympathy card ... Moxie style!

So, my exciting news is that I made it onto Melly's DT for her new challenge blog .... Dream Valley challenges! 
  Whoo Hoo! 
Our first challenge starts this Sunday (27 Feb) and it will run for one week, but normally challenges will be fortnightly ... and there's some fab prizes to be won too!  So I'll see you back here on Sunday (if not before hee hee!) for deets on the very first challenge at this brand new challenge blog!

I've just realised I don't have any sympathy cards in my stash, so here's one inspired by this gorgeous cushion, this week's Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab World.  My flower is from http://www.onefourzero.co.uk/ and I think it's one of the very first stamp sets I ever bought!  Coloured with copics (though I wish I'd coloured the purple slightly lighter) and added some clear gloss and glitter to the flower centres.  Silver peel off sentiment and purple gems to finish.

Also for Lexi's Creations challenge #34 - flowers

Hurrah for comfy slippers!

I had a huge clear out of my crafty stuff and got it all nicely arranged ... though it will probably be as bad as ever this time next week!  I've been looking for this Penny Black stamp for weeks (I think she loves her comfy slippers almost as much as I love mine!) and rediscovered these pretty flowers and loads of other stash too! 

Colour combo from SPCC 87 - pacific blue, pumpkin pie, pale pink

Sketch from Sketch'n Stash #55
Alphabet challenge - P = Paper Piecing
Crazy 4 Challenges C4C75 - use dies (I used the Whimsy ticket die)

Birthday Bunnies

My mojo went walkies today and it took me aaaaaages to make this simple wee card!  Coloured my Penny Black bunnies with copics; not sure where I got that sentiment stamp.

I flipped the Sketch from CPS #206
Allsorts #91 - inspired by nature
Stamp Something - Funky

Dodgy Foundations?

When I showed Greg this card he said, "Is it supposed to look wonky like that? ... looks like that house has a bit of subsidence!  Hahahaha!"

Isn't he hilarious ... not! 

 <- <-  ...what Greg needs ...hee heee!

• Wee Memories #44 - who's your inspiration .... well I get loads of inspiration from the Featured Stamper challenge over at Splitcoaststampers.  Here's the original I cased this card from - Mary Rose was the Featured Stamper a few weeks ago, but I didn't get a chance to play along then
• Sweet Stampin - red, white and blue

Lazy dog

Here's just a wee quickie using a Shirleys2Girls stamp .... coloured my little doggy with promarkers and paper pieced the chair.  Also coloured my bling with a marker to match these gorgeous papers ('Fresh Print' from Deja Views)

• Cards 4 Men #4 - recipe: 1 Image; 2 Design Papers; 3 Embellishments
• I love promarkers #53 - paper piecing
• Crafty Catz #70 - one for the boys
• CES #24 - spots and stripes
• Your Next Stamp #36 - paper piecing

Love TV!

Ohhh its been a beautiful sunny calm day ... much better than last night when it was blowing a gale and lashing rain!  I think the sun gave me a bit of oomph round the house today ... I was like a Whirling Dervish and if it wasn't nailed down it got cleaned or tidied!  And I even squeezed in a bit of crafty time too!  I won this fab Unity stamp ages ago and its the first time I've used it - coloured with promarkers and the bottom TV popped up on dimensionals.  The little heart stamped in the BG is from an old Stampin Up set, but no idea which one!

The Crafty Pad: #108 - Hearts
Stamp and Create February challenge - Love
Sketch inspired by Midnight Madness MMSC91 (though I tilted the central panel)
Colour Create #64 - chocolate, strawberry and cream
Cupcake Craft #129 - I ♥ You

Holy Carrots Batman!

Ohhh, Spring is most definately almost here - I noticed it was bright enough when I got home to actually see how badly my garden needs weeded!  Hopefully the rain will keep off till the weekend as the grass is an absolute quagmire and needs a few days drying out before I can tramp over it to get to the weeds! 

Anyway, my card stash is rightly full, so I thought I'd have a bit of fun with this Shirleys2Girls stamp that I bought last year and promtly forgot about ... tsk, tsk!  Coloured with copic markers and then popped the little carrot up on dimensionals.  I liked how it turned out, so I cut out another couple of carrots, added loads of stickles and used them as my embellishments in the bottom corner. (oh, and I see there's the usual blob of un-dried glue ... one of these days I'll wait till its dried before I take the pic !!)

Simon Says Stamp ... make your own embellishments (I hope my sparkly carrots count!)
Sarah Hurley #30 - food and drink
Charisma Cards #7 - Spring has sprung
The Pixie Cottage #57 - use their sketch and/or embossing
Alphabet challenge - O is for Orange
Stamping Vacation 'No No' challenge - no flowers

Little Lottie

So, did you have a good Valentine's Day?  I had a lovely evening with Greg .... he had a big plate of steak'n chips and all the trimmings waiting on me coming home from work AND a big bunch of flowers ... he knows how much I hate arranging flowers so he'd even put them in the vase for me!!
Speaking of love, I got this lovely award from Paula (from Pjay Scrap Art)...

So Paula, this wee card is in your honour!  In case anyone in blogland doesn't know Paula, she drew this little cutie!  (She's recently started a facebook store for her gorgeous digi images ... have a wee look at the sidebar on her blog for the link.)
I'm sorry I didn't do Lottie justice ... I think I had my wonky eyes in at the time and I either stuck her down wonky or cut her wonky, not sure which! ... and excuse my blobby glue which isn't dry yet!

• Paper Sundaes #56 - I chose pink and flowers from the sundae toppings bar
• One Stitch at a Time #49 - bling it up and make it pretty (BTW its their birthday celebration and there's a big hop on with loadsa prizes to be won!)
• Sketch from Friday Sketchers #141 (though I kinda got carried away with my clouds LOL!)
• Colour combo from Crafts 4 Eternity R6 - pink and chocolate
• Cute Card Thursday #151 - hearts and flowers

Supplies
Digi image from Pjay Scrap Art
Stampin up sentiment

A little snail, a Cheeky Monkey and a Valentine!

Hope you've had a great weekend ... I've just had a lovely evening at my wee niece's first birthday party!  We'd plenty of lovely grub and Birthday cake and Pass the Parcel with pressies for everyone! I haven't got any birthday pics yet, but thought I'd share this one of my nephew ... do you think he looks like an angel or a cheeky monkey??

(in case you're wondering the red 'thing' is a wee plastic fortune telling fish that was in a Christmas cracker!)

Oh, and before I forget to show you, look at this lovely Valentine card I received from my fab bloggy buddy Benzi ... its the first Valentine's I've received in over 20 years that hasn't been from Greg!  Sorry about the really pants photo, it doesn't do it justice!  Thanks Benzi!  I love it!

Anyway, on to the details of my wee card .... the snail image is an oldie digi from Sweet'n Sassy, but I think it's maybe been retired.  Coloured with copics and the shell and the butterfly both covered with clear gloss and purple glitter.

• Sketch from Clean and Simple FTL127
• The Catered Crop Recipe Challenge FTR5 - (I haven't played this recipe challenge before so hopefully I'm doing this right!)  I used the following elements ... copic markers, embossing folder, swirls
• Sweet Stampin - Bugs (there's an ickle tiny butterfly in my image)
• Totally Papercrafts #53- Clean and Simple
• Fab'n Funky #59 - texture
• Tuesday Throwdown #35 - buttons
• Critter Challenge #51 - have a critter on your card

Shopping!

I think I must be entitled to some sort of medal .... its been 2 months since I last bought a new stamp!
(Though I've been lucky enough to win a couple of challenges and got some new images that way)  And YES, it has nearly killed me not to go shopping .... I always love it when the postman drops some new goodies through my letterbox!

So in the spirit of using my older stash, here's a wee digi image that has never before seen ink - do you think she has treated herself to a huge crafty stash in those boxes??
Coloured with my very limited supply of Promarkers and the pressies popped up on dimensionals.

• I flipped the sketch from Sketchy Thursday #117
• I love Promarkers #52 - Birthday
• Creative Inspirations #98 - pink, red, white
• Use it Tuesday #1 - use an image you haven't used before
• Cupcake Craft #128 - seeing red

Supplies
Image was a freebie from Bugaboo
Promarkers: cocoa, putty, red, berry red, pale pink, silver
Woodware daisy punch; martha stewart butterfly punch

Say Cheeeeeeeeese!

Oh I love this cheeky little monkey with his fabulous smile!  Just what you need on a horrible windy and wet evening!  I couldn't wait for my glue to dry as I have to take this wee card into work tomorrow, so please ignore the white blobs!
 
Coloured with copics, and part of his face (or is it his nose?) popped up on dimensionals; clear gloss added to his eyes and teeth.  Added some green stickles to the leaves and to the hearts.  Used some of my new Marianne Design papers (from a Christmas stack) for the BG.

• Sketch from Midnight Madness #90
• Cute Card Thursday #150 - Banish the Blues - use a funny sentiment or image
• Crafty Catz #68 - tartan/plaid
• Polka Doodles #5 - use hearts
• Crafty Cardmakers #39 - hearts
• My time to craft #127 - hearts and flowers
• An Oldie but a Goodie #12 - add a heart

Supplies:
Cheeky monkey from High Hopes; paper from Marianne Design; copic markers; green stickles; daisy and heart punches; bakers twine; Tim Holtz edge die

Goal !

Well it was the expected shitty day in work today!  And it looks like the interview process is going to be dragged out till at least mid March!  Its such a shame as it was always such a fab place to work, but at the minute as you'd expect, everyone is sooooo fed up.  Ah well, que sera que sera.

Anyway, I'm glad I'm a crafter as I was able to totally switch off when I came home and got stuck into this wee footballer card.  Buying new card making goodies is definately cheaper than therapy! LOL!

• Sketch from Mojo Monday #177
• Fab'n funky #58 - chocolate and blue (though a little bit of green slipped in there for the grass ooops!)

Supplies:
Footballer stamp from Sugar Nellie - coloured with copic and promarkers
Football from Elzybells
Tim Holtz embossing folder
Martha Stewart fence and grass punches

Summery Birthday card

Urgh, Sunday night again ... back to work in the morning.  Don't get me wrong, I love my work, but we've just gone through a merger and I just heard on Friday that me and my colleagues will have to sit an interview for our own jobs.  Not much fun! 
Anyhoo, here's a wee simple Lily of the Valley birthday card.  The DP looks a bit bland here, but its actually a nicer orange IRL.

• Sketch from CPS #204
• Colour combo from A Spoon Full of Sugar #137 - orange, yellow and pink (though my pink should have been a darker shade!)

Up, up and away!

I think this little rocket took my mojo with him when he took off, I've been a bit stuck with my cardmaking all day!  Some of the stars have photographed as black, but they're all silver.  The blue swirly bit was a leftover scrap that I'd normally just chuck out.

• Sketch from Sweet Sunday #103
• Wee Memories #42 - use your scraps
• Winter Wonderland - reach for the stars

Simon Says... I Woof You!

I know this time last week I was raving about spring just being around the corner, but there was definately no sign of it today!  Its been horrible dark and drizzly all day, we've had the lights on since lunchtime!  So this wee card had no mission of getting photographed in daylight ... the DP is more purply than it looks here and the doggy is greyer.  The doggy and sentiment are ones I printed out ages ago from Sweet'n Sassy, and my little bit of doggy print paper has been knocking about my scraps box for yonks.

• Sketch from Midnight Madness #89
• Wee Memories #42 - dust off your scraps
• Simon Says Stamp - Love is in the Air
• Stamp Something - use a digi
• Stampin for the Weekend - Valentine
• Allsorts #89 - It must be love, love, love
• Secret Crafter #120 - Valentine
• Crazy for Challenges C4C73 - Valentine

More bubble bath!

I had another bash at making a card for little Alex, and this time remembered to leave enough room to put the sentiment!!   I found this little duck button in my stash, so coloured my duck in the image to match.  Slightly decoupaged the bath and the duck by sticking the base of the image down and then popping the top bit up on dimensionals.

• Sketch from Citter Sketch Challenge #50
• Kaboodle Doodle #52 - make it monochrome
• ABC - N is for Nesties
• Sarah Hurley challenge #27 - Die Cuts

A very bubbly bubble bath!

Do you remember when you were a kid and the best thing about having a bath was the bubbles, the more bubbles the better!!
This was going to be another card for little Alex, but I kinda ran out of room to put her name so turned it into a 'Smile' card instead.  Coloured my High Hopes image with copics, clear gloss on his nose and the little ducky, and LOADS of stickles on the bubbles.

• Sir Stampalot February challenge - All creatures Great and Small
• Crafty Catz #67 - Flowers
• Colour combo from Helen's January challenge
• Try it on Tuesday - feel the Luuurrrrvvee!
• Papertake Weekly - anything goes + flowers

Alex's 1st Birthday card

Ohhh, I can't believe my little niece is going to be 1, that year just flew in!  She's a little Valentine's baby, so I had planned to have some hearts on this card somewhere, but then I kinda ran out of room to put one!  In fact, now I think about it I might have a little blue heart gem that I could stick to the top of the roundabout. 
These papers are part of a Christmas stack from Papermania, but I've hardly any pink girlie papers so thought they'd do just as well!
Image is an oldie from the Little Paper Shop.

• Sketch from Wee Memories #41
• Corrosive #101 - use a button
• Crafts 4 Eternity R#4 - polka dots
• Top Tip Tuesday #20 - Girlie
• Copic Creations #43 - use colours from the 'cool' part of the colour wheel

David's Birthday card

Hooray for Tuesday .... I've the rest of the week off work!  But of course it was beautiful and sunny today, and the forecast for the rest of the week is wet'n'windy - Typical! 
This wee card is for my brother's birthday .... he's a bit of a doggy lover, so I thought I'd use Watson from High Hopes and stamped the ground as if there was a birthday cake buried there amongst his bones!
Coloured with copics and chalked some clouds in the sky.  Banner from Practising Creativity.

• Sketch from Card Positioning Systems #203
• The Crafty Pad #106 - one for the boys
• Stamptacular Sunday #96 - Whateva ... anything goes!
• Tuesday Throwdown #34 - stitching real or faux

Oh, and before I forget, I've a couple of awards to upload...

 from Pat at My Work in Progress ... Pat was one of my first followers and I was one of hers, and its always a pleasure to nip across and see Pat's latest fab creations!

And

from Melly at Mels Craft Room - I can't remember where I 'met' Melly, but she makes the most amazing exploding boxes (and the rest!)   Melly is starting her own challenge blog Dream Valley Challenges, so mark your diaries for 27 February!
Thanks for the awards girlies!  Now I know I'm supposed to choose 5 blogs to pass it on to, but I can't choose from all my favourite blogs .... but if you'd like to help yourself to one of these awards please do so .... And let me know so I can pop over to your blog and share the love!!!