An Anniversary Card and the dangers of drinking tea!

I hate making special commission cards, but this is one for a friend in work, and it had to be a biggie as she's from a largeish family and it had to have enough room for them all to sign.

I had a bit of a disaster when I was making this card, when I managed to drop my gorgeous baker's twine into my tea instead of my ribbon bag!  I hadn't even noticed until I went to take a swig of tea and got hit up the face with my soggy twine!

I don't really have many suitable stamps for an Anniversary card, so it was back to my old faithful Lili of the Valley stamp.  Popped him up on dimensionals, and then another layer for the central flower, his hand, and the arm holding the envelope.  And I didn't have any lovey-dovey themed DPs so went with this stuff from Echo Park.  Added loads of silver bling (though I suppose they should have been rubies!) and silver peel offs for the sentiment and lettering.  Coloured with promarkers and black enamel added to the little bear's nose.

• Colour combo from Our Creative Corner #30 - Red and Aqua
• Allsorts #114 - free and easy
• Speedy the Cat's challenge #66 - anything but ribbon
• Totally Papercrafts #77 - Bling it up
• I turned the sketch from Lili of the Valley #107 to fit my card
• Papercraft Star #55 - anything goes
• Crafty Cardmakers #50 - butterflies
• Little Claire's Designs monthly challenge- things with wings

Paper Smooches....

Just a heads up that there's a Paper Smooches blog hop on at the minute and you could win one of their fab new releases! 
Click HERE for more details (ends midnight MT on Friday, July 29th)

High Hopes Challenge #114

Time for a new challenge over at High Hopes, and it couldn't be any easier! 
Make a Birthday card using High Hopes stamps and you could be in with a chance of winning a couple of new HH stamps!

Just remember, you must use a High Hopes stamp in order to be entered into the challenge.
If you are in need of some High Hopes stamps, why not check out the Diva's Stores:
Lacey Stephens - Stamp and Create based out of the US
Nikki Fairbairn - Bunny Zoe's Crafts based out of the UK/Europe
Amy Wegener - Stampin' Stuff based out of Australia
High Hopes Website

For my card I've used this cute Duckie Flying Kite - coloured with promarkers and popped up part of my image and the little kite.  Added some flower soft for grass and some stickles on his bow and a little bit of bling.  Sentiment from Paper Smooches. Echo Park DP.

Other challenges:

• Creative Card Crew - animal antics
• Pink Elephant #109 - fun in the sun
• By the cute and girly (July challenge) - things with wings
• Your next stamp #47 - 3-2-1: 3 embellishments (I used flower soft, gems and card candy), 2 DPs and 1 image
• Do you stack up #29 - wings

On the high seas

Wouldn't you just love to be out on this wee boat with that gorgeous sun beating down, though the water looks a wee bit choppy maybe!!

This card is a case of Jennie's card HERE (this week's featured stamper over at Splitcoaststampers).

I used my new Taylored Expressions waves die (which I love!) and stamps from High Hopes, and doodled a nice smiley face on the sun.  Popped the little boat and cloud up on dimensionals and added clear gloss to the sail.  I also added a mini-safety pin to the bow, but it doesn't really show up in my pic.

• Paper Sundaes #79 - beachy / summer
• Totally Papercrafts - one for the boys
• Wee Memories #62 - Clean and Simple
• Craft your days away #25 - summertime

Oh, by the way Paper Smooches have a fun hop on at the minute with prizes to be won, but you'd need to be quick as winners are announced tomorrow!

Dream Valley Challenge #12

Our new challenge over at Dream Valley is to make a card (or any project) with a Surprise element, so anything hidden or a pop up or whatever ... just surprise us!  You've a fortnight to play along with our challenge and you could win yourself a wee prize from Digis with Attitude!

I thought I'd have a go at making one of these flower pot cards with the hidden sentiment for my sister's birthday card - here's the link to the Splitcoaststampers tutorial if you fancy having a go yourself!

Other challenges:

• Make it Colourful #27 - colour your own embellishments - I coloured my white card candy with a red marker and then topped it off with red glitter, and also coloured my clear rhinestones with a red marker
• Allsorts #113 - free and easy
• Paper Cutz #101 - anything goes
• Kaboodle Doodles #76 - embossing

A love-ly monkey!

Whoo hoo I'm back!  I changed my broadband supplier so was totally off-line there for a few days, but hopefully that's me sorted now. 
I'm still on a High Hopes roll, how cute is this little monkey!  Coloured him with Promarkers, and then popped his body up on dimensionals and then his mouth again.  Added clear gloss to his eyes and stickles to the little heart. 

• Sketch from Sketch n Stash #66 - my new stash is my little monkey stamp and this gorgeous Echo Park DP
• Creative Card Crew - animal antics
• Stamp Something - embellish it
• Allsorts #113 - free and easy
• One Stitch at a Time #71 - flowers
• Die Cut Dreams #94 - animal antics
• House of Gilli - anything goes

A magic froggy

I hadn't really thought out my image when I had stamped my little High Hopes froggy, and he's magically sitting on top of the water!  Sky is chalked with clouds but doesn't show up in pic, its a horrible dark evening here and I've no hope of getting a decent photo ... end of July and we had the heat on tonight and my cosy coat on when we took Ruby for a walk.  Brrrr!

• I flipped the sketch from Card Patterns #124 
• Die Cut Dreams #94 is 4-legged animals
• Use it Tuesday #11 - animals (my old stash is my green Basic Grey paper and my gems)
• Simon Says Stamp - anything goes

Xmas card #05

(Oops, didn't realise I had my wonky eyes in till I went to upload this pic!)

As you can see, my Paper Smooches stamps haven't quite made it off my table yet, so I thought I'd play along with their July SPARKS challenge.

(Hopefully I've done this right!)  I used the centre sketch from the July drafts and this colour combo from February's selection.

Coloured with promarkers, added loads of stickles and bling; cuttlebug snowflakes embossing folder; martha stewart drippy goo punch (I thought it kinda looked like icicles); silver peel off border; dimensionals; pink star ribbon brad.

Other challenges:

• Paper Sundaes #78 - Christmas in July
• The Crafty Pad #130 - Christmas
• Simon Says Stamp - anything goes
• Winter Wonderland - embossing
• Stamp Something - Christmas in July

A Birthday Fish

ETA: top 3 at Unscripted Sketches!

Well its STILL raining, way too wet and yeuchy to go anywhere!  ... and its sooo dark too, we've had the kitchen light on since lunchtime!  Even wee Ruby has just spent the day snoozing, and getting up now and then for a peek out the door to see if its dried up, and then going back to her cushion!

We had a challenge a few weeks back at Dream Valley Challenges sponsored by Crafty Ribbons ... and this lovely ric rac ribbon was the result of a wee shopping trip!  Coloured my fishie with promarkers, added frosted lace stickles to the bubbles, covered the whole bowl with clear gloss, and then popped his wee fins up on dimensionals.  Fish from High Hopes stamps, sentiment from Paper Smooches.  Echo Park DP.

• Sketch from Unscripted sketches #115
• Simon Says Stamp - anything goes
• Stampavie and more #147 - birthday
• Allsorts #112 - free and easy

When life give you lemons ...

...make lemonade!  (Don't think I've ever had home made lemonade though!!)  This is another of my new High Hopes stamps, doesn't it just scream summer!  (High Hopes blog and Dream Valley Challenges both have 'summer' themed challenges this fortnight ... still a week left to play along)
I coloured my image with Promarkers and added some sparkle to the straw and then covered the glass in clear gloss.  I also touched my clear gems with a purple marker and then some purple stickles.  I think my sentiment (from Paper Smooches) gets a bit lost in the top corner, so I might stamp it again in the bottom corner.

• Sketch from Sunday Sketch and Stamp #63
• Simon Says Stamp - anything goes
• Fussy and Fancy #41 - summer
• Polka Doodles #28 - long hot summer
• Your Next Stamp #46 - buttons

A three-eyed-alien!

ETA: Joint Winner at Catered Crop!

I got a new supply of High Hopes stamps this week, so of course I couldn't wait to get some ink on them!  And its been the perfect weather for crafting this weekend, rain, followed by showers, then drizzle and then pouring! 
So how cute is this little alien!  I coloured him with promarkers and then dotted a blender pen to give a wee bit of texture.  Added clear gloss and glitter to his microscope.  I couldn't think what embellishment to use, and then remembered these wee brads I bought ages ago, not sure if a mad alien scientist would use scissors, but hey why not!

• Sketch from Mojo Monday #199
• Catered Crop Recipe Challenge FTR16 - from the recipe I used circles, gingham, faux stitching, markers, fancy borders
• Crafty Creations #127 - boyz to men
• Simon Says Stamp - anything goes
• Cute Card Thursday #173 - going round in circles
• Sweet Stampin - one for the boys

Thanks Duckie!

Well the almost unbelievable happened today ... I headed off to work on the bus with my sandals on, no coat, no umbrella, bare arms and not even a cardigan!!! I think that's possibly an all time first!   But don't panic, its back to normal tomorrow as the rain is due back again (just in time for the weekend!) LOL!

This wee card features DP from Echo Park, a little duck from an oldie Woodware set and the sentiment is from Paper Smooches.  Simple, quick and I love it! 

• Sketch from Stamp TV Mix it Up Monday
• Do You Stack Up #28 - sewing
• Creative Inspirations #120 - no flowers
• Simon Says Stamp ... anything goes
• My time to Craft #148 - Bird Watcher

Xmas card #04

 

I was going to promise that this is my last Christmas card for a while .... but since I've started making them, the weather has been lovely!  Hmmmm, is it coincidence, or have I just reminded our weather that we haven't had much of a summer yet?!!  (BTW Brenda, it hit 68 degrees today ... phew!  .... are you jealous LOL!)

• A Spoonfull of Sugar #160 - pink and brown
• Sketch from Splitcoaststampers SC340
• Cupcake Craft #150 - your favourite challenge - I chose #54 Snow Much Fun
• Allsorts #111 - free and easy

High Hopes challenge #113

Our new challenge over at High Hopes is Summer Fun! 

I used this cute Sunflower Buggies stamp (check High Hopes blog for your nearest supplier) for my sister's birthday card, but decided it would now be a lovely pink flower instead of a sunflower ... my sunflowers have decided not to emerge this year, though the fact that Ruby chose that spot to bury her bone may have something to do with it!! 

My little pink bugs at the bottom are wee buttons that I bought ages ago and have never used before.  Coloured with Promarkers and the flower centre and little bees popped up on dimensionals.

You must use High Hopes stamps to be eligible to play along with our Summer theme - if you're lucky you could win 2 new High Hopes stamps of your choice! ... and that's never an easy decision LOL!

Other challenges:

• Sketch from Sketch Saturday #163
• Charisma Cardz #27 - flowers
• Stamp Something - bugs or butterflies
• Stampin for the Weekend #12 - wings and things

Xmas card #3

I can't believe that the sun is actually shining, and I'm making Christmas cards (though to be fair we have been out and about all morning, and had Ruby down to the park for a dander too). 
My new Paper Smooches stamps arrived today, and I really wish I hadn't bought any .... cause I seriously LOVE them, and will only have to buy more!!! 

This wee CAS card took aaaaages to make as I had to layer up my images (can't remember the proper name for that!) so had to cut out templates of all my snowpeople (but I always keep these with the stamps so at least I'll only have to do it once).  I also cut out another little snowbaby and popped her up on dimensionals.  Coloured with Promarkers and added loads of stickles so there's plenty of sparkle and black gems as their buttons; also clear gloss to SnowDad and SnowBoy's hats, and white flower soft to SnowMum's hat!  Don't they make a lovely wee family!

Apologies for blogger overload recently ... and there's more to come tomorrow too with my GDT card for the next High Hopes challenge (and don't forget to play along with Dream Valley as well with our 'summer' theme)

• Bling it On #5 - anything goes
• Simon Says Stamp - A Stitch in Time (I hand stitched my bottom border)
• I love Promarkers #73 - CAS
• Kaboodle Doodles #75 - use your scissors
• House of Gilli #11 - lots of sparkle

Xmas Card #02

ETA: Top 3 at ABC Xmas!

I saw a wee card in blogland a while back with snowy hills and a black sky, but can't remember where ... so if it was you, thanks for the inspiration!  There's a few Christmas challenges about this week, so thought I'd get cracking on my second Christmas card of the year!

Card Details: Penny Black sheep - ppeed up on dimensionals and loads of stickles added to his wee Santa hat.  Also added some stickles to the red gems.  Cuttlebug embossing folder.

• Penny Black Saturday Challenge #159 - Christmas in July
• Repeat Impressions DCC76 - Christmas in July
• ABC Xmas - N is for No Nonsense
• Tuesday throwdown #56 - Christmas in July

Dog tired!

I went a bit embossing crazy on this wee card, if it didn't move it got zipped through my cuttlebug!  And also had a near disaster when my inky fingers touched the top of my image - that's why there's a wee knot there!  I got some of the silver balls stuff as a freebie with some ribbon and didn't really know what to do with it, so just stuck a bit under my ribbon.  Corners of image paper pieced and sofa and doggy coloured with copics.

• Sketch from Card Patterns #123 (though I took my eye off the sketch and forgot there should have been 4 panels at the bottom)
• The Pink Elephant TPE106 - red, white and blue
• Paper Sundaes #77 - paper piecing
• The Crafty Pad #129 - texture

Go fly a kite!

This lovely dp reminded me that I hadn't used my Stampin Up set for aaaages - of course I managed to cover most of it up with my image Doh!  Coloured my little guy with copics and popped the kite up on dimensionals.

Card Details: boy and kite from Stampin Up 'Kids at Play'; sentiment from Simon Says Stamp; Echo Park DP; Martha Stewart drippy goo edge punch; silver peel off borders.

• Inspirational Card Sketches challenge this week is take your pick ... I chose sketch #67 and flipped it
• One Stop Craft #139 - summer time
• Papertake Weekly - anything goes
• One Stitch at a time #70 -anything goes

Dream Valley Challenge #11

Time for another new challenge over at Dream Valley, this time it's Summer!
Now so far this summer in Northern Ireland we haven't needed too much sun cream, and we would have been lost this week without a raincoat! But its an extra-extra long weekend (it's a Bank Holiday here on Monday and Tuesday) so fingers crossed things get a bit better and we get a wee day out somewhere. 
Don't forget you've a fortnight to play along - so get your summery goodies out, and you could win a fab prize from One Stop Card Crafts. 

Card Details:  Stamp from Lili of the Valley; dp from Echo Park 'Summer Days'; copic markers; clear gloss on base of boat, smooch illuminate on sails; green pearls from stash; silver peel off sentiment; cloud dies.

Other Challenges:

• Sketch from i{heart}2stamp (July)
• Crazy 4 Challenges C4C95 - summer fun
• Really Reasonable Ribbon #27 - picnic / summer fun
• Copic Creations #53 - white clothing (I used C1 and C3 on the wee boy's shirt)
• Sir Stampalot (July) - anything goes

Bonetastic!

Hee Hee, bit of a bone-overload going on here!  I started off by versamarking my bg, and then thought my purple strip looked a bit boring, and then as if that wasn't enough, I cut out another couple of bones in purple and added them as the flower centre! 

Sorry I've been a bad blogger recently ... its HECTIC in work as my team mate is off for a fortnight, and I've been too tired in the evenings to hop!  Ah well, at least its the weekend and it's movie night in ours as we haven't seen the last Harry Potter yet, and we're hoping to go to see the new one in 3D sometime soon (preferably when the hoards die down!)

Anyway, see you tomorrow for the next Dream Valley Challenge!

Card Details: Stamps from Shirley's 2 girls; promarkers; google eyes; purple and red stickles

• Sketch from Mojo Monday #198
• Oldie but a Goodie #22 - anything goes
• Try it Tuesday - flower power
• Allsorts #111- free and easy
• Bling it on (July) - anything goes

A sparkly typewriter

ETA: Top 5 at Creatalicious!

This wee card kinda looked better in my head, but I think it turned out OK ... I can only blame it on the sunshine overload we had today!  Such a gorgeous relaxing day, I just sat in the garden with my mag, then when I started to overheat I'd come in for 10 minutes and cool down making cards, then back out again.  Lovely!  And makes a nice change too, to have a sunny weekend (instead of when you're stuck at work with no air conditioning counting the minutes to 5 o'clock!)

Card Details: Image and text digi from Pink Petticoat; coloured with Promarkers and stickles added to the keys and spacebar; lovely papers from My Minds Eye; card candy coloured to match; bling touched with orange stickles; orange bakers twine.  Apologies for crappy photo, not sure what happened my exposure there!

• Sketch from Creatalicious #23
• Bling it on #5 - anything goes
• Cute Card Thursday #171 - a technological discovery, though I must say I'm delighted we don't use these any more!!
• Top Tip Tuesday #40 - T is for ... Typewriter.  My Top Tip is to colour clear gems with copics and then touch them with some stickles - helps to match them better to your colour combo and really makes them zing!

Red-Rubydoo!

ETA: I got top 3 at Unscripted Sketches!

Another wee outing for my Ruby-dooby-doo stamp!  Though these Ruby's are happier looking than ours looked earlier ... we'd been up at the forest for a wee walk and on the way home a huge herd of cows came past the car.  And as if that wasn't terrifying enough for a little doggy, the big bull dared to look at her as he sauntered past!!!  Poor wee Ruby was trembling, she's such a coward!

Card Details - stamp from Little Claire Designs; Martha Stewart fence border punch; woodware flower punch; tim holtz embossing folder; copic markers; clear gloss on bowl and dog collars; red gems; paw print DP freebie download from scrapbookscrapbook.com

• Sketch from Unscripted Sketches #113
• The Corrosive Challenge #123 - Red and White
• Paper Sundaes #76 - stitching
• The Fuzzy Wuzzy challenge (July) -get punchy + critter
• Totally Papercrafts - Bingo - I used Punches, embossing and ribbon

Anniversary Mice

Ohh its been a lovely warm day today, the sun even peeked out this afternoon ... gasp!  must be summer!  So in honour of our 'summer' I thought I'd use my pretty

sunflower stamps from High Hopes.  I was late getting my sunflowers planted this year, so they haven't even peeked through the surface yet.  Instead, here's a wee pic of my lovely Delphinium which was covered in busy bees this morning ....

Card Details: High Hopes stamps, sentiment from Elzybells.  Images coloured with promarkers.  Yellow sunflowers all popped up on dimensionals.  Pretty papers from Echo Park.  Added some yellow gems and clear gloss/glitter to her bow and little heart.

• Sketch from Sketch and Stash #64 (my new stash is my DPs and my neglected stash is my mouse stamp)
• Oldie but a Goodie #22 - anything goes
• Sir Stampalot (July challenge) - anything goes
• Stampavie and More #146 - more than 3 layers

(By the way, if you fancy your chances at some Christmas candy check out Claudia's blog, and Katharina has some lovely Whiff of Joy summer stamps in her giveaway too!)