Crazy Bunny!

I was lucky enough to recently win a set of stamps from Paper Smooches and they arrived in the post today ... I've been doing a bit of painting round the house, but of course this evening my new stamps took priority!

I paper pieced my crazy bunny using some Echo Park DP scraps and then paperpieced his teeth and eyes too. 
Sentiment is an oldie from Stampin Up.

• Sketch from Papertake Weekly
• Simon Says Stamp - anything goes (they have a fab hop on this week with an AMAZING stash of goodies for the winner!)
• The Pink Elephant TPE114 - paper piecing

Xmas Card #09

(Last post of the evening.. I promise!)
This is another wee High Hopes image ... 'South Pole Pals' and it certainly didn't use up too much ink!  Though I wish I'd used a bigger nestie for the panel behind these pals, but I'd stuck it down before I thought, and once its stuck, its stuck for good!!  No re-positionable glue for me!

Old DPs from Dovecraft and sentiment from Paper Smooches.

• Creative Inspirations #126 - text me (there's Christmassy text on my pink panel behing the pals)
• Divas by Design #09 - Christmas in August

• Sketch from Midnight Madness #118
• Stampavie and More #150 - Christmas in summer
• Crafts 4 Eternity R#34 - Christmas

Flowery Doggy card

What do you think?  Too many colours and patterns?  I'm not sure yet!
Stamp is an oldie from Penny Black and Echo Park DPs.
Popped my purple panel up on dimensionals and then the doggy popped up again.

• Sketch from Penny Black Saturday Challenge #166
• A Spoon Full of Sugar #162 - Happy Birthday
• Penny Black at Allsorts (August) - free and easy

Quickest card EVER!

Apologies in advance for blogger overload tonight ... other than Sunday lunch and taking Ruby to the park, I've done diddly-squat all day!  Hee hee, its been great!

This wee card was one of those that kinda made itself!  CAS-ual Friday challenge #17 is to use stickers on your project (I used silver peel offs), and once I combined it with the Square Sketch Challenge in the Moxie Fab World that was it basically done!

Though I later changed my mind about the yellow bits in the flower and added some clear and purple bling instead.

Party robot

I'm on a mission to get ink on all the stamps that I already have, and hadn't quite got round to this little High Hopes robot.  Coloured him with promarkers and added these wee metallic silver stars from last year's Christmas stash.  Basic Grey 'Oliver' DP.

BTW, haven't made it to the Balloon Festival yet, its a bit wild and windy this afternoon, but the forecast is better for tomorrow.  So we're just having a nice lazy Sunday afternoon instead, and hoping to get to see the balloons tomorrow!

• Sketch from Fussy and Fancy Friday #44
• Paper Cutz #106 - stars
• Basic Grey #51 - anything goes
• Crazy 4 Challenges C4C102 - male
• Top Tip Tuesday #48 - masculine. .... my top tip is to keep your 6x6 paper pads in a resealable sandwich bag, that way you can also keep your little tiny scraps with the matching papers, and it keeps them nice and tidy too!
• Cards for Men #17 - anything goes

High Hopes Challenge #116

Time for a new challenge over at High Hopes, and this is my last one as GDT  :o(
But I've had a lovely summer colouring all of their gorgeous images, so thanks for having me on the team!

Anyway our new theme this fortnight is
Autumn colours
... play along and you could win some new High Hopes stamps of your choice!  (Don't have any HH stamps? ... check their website for your local supplier!)

I think maybe I've gone a wee bit dark in my colour choice and I should have had a bit of orange or something in there to lift it.  Plus my copics conspired against me (again) and my light grey markers decided to run out just as I started colouring my little ellie.  Popped her head/trunk up on dimensionals, added clear gloss to her pretty nails and Smooch Illuminate to her bow.

I also had a wee go at making a frame for my image and popped it up on dimensionals too.

Other Challenges:

• One Stitch at a Time #76 - bling it up
• Allsorts #117 - you've been framed
• Sketch from A Gem of a Challenge #28

Stripe overload!

Quick post tonight ... I'm knackered after a long day at work and then spent this evening down in Mum's with the family and my 7yr old nephew.  We had a very interesting chat when I learnt that apparently Croatia is just down the coast of Northern Ireland (we then got the atlas out!) and he baked us some 'delicious' cookies with the help of my SIL (...anyone got an indigestion tablet LOL!)

Anyway, this wee card stars a fab digi that Paula at Pjay Scrap-Art designed a while back .... coloured her with promarkers to match my dp and popped her up on dimensionals.  The purple strips at the bottom are ribbons.  Birthday Wish List stamp from Whimsy Stamps.

• The Ribbon Girl - use ribbon
• The Corrosive Challenge #130 - Girlie

• Colour combo inspired by Color Throwdown #155, though I added in some purple too
• Sketch from Sketch Saturday #169

Happy Flowers and Happy Roses!

This is just a wee CAS card ... paper pieced some flowers from the Stampendous 'Happy Flowers' set, added some card candy, bling and googly eyes and that was it done!
(scroll down for challenges I'd like to enter this card into...)

We had a very mixed bag of weather today, but the rain mostly stopped while we went for a visit to our local agricultural college's garden open day this afternoon....

Here's my Mum among the roses, which unfortunately have been beaten down a bit by the rain!

And there were loads of stunningly beautiful dhalias too ....

• Really Reasonably Ribbon August Challenge - CAS + ribbon
• Creative Card Crew - hand made flowers
• Try it on Tuesday - anything goes
• Fussy and Fancy Friday #43 - use at least 3 of your favourite embellishments ... I've used bling, bakers twine and card candy

Dream Valley Challenge #14

Our new challenge at Dream Valley  is this gorgeous zingy colour combo .... Beautiful hot summery colours, but I thought these colours would also work well as autumn colours, so I inked up this wee image from Hambo stamps .... I hadn't even realised until I went to colour it that there was a wee boy hiding in the middle!

You've a fortnight to play along, pop over to Dream Valley Challenges to upload your card and have a wee look at the fab creations from the rest of the DTwhile you're there!  Oh and you could win $10 to spend at Stitchy Bear Stamps just for playing along.

Popped my image up on dimensionals, and coloured with a mixture of copics and promarkers.

I used the cloud template from Bev's blog and loved the effect when I chalked it up, much better than the one I was using before! 

Echo Park DPs.

• Other Challenges:
• Make it Colourful #31 - 'ground' your subject
• Wee Memories #64 - masculine
• Sketch from Cupcake Craft

Amy's mega givaway ....

If you love your DP as much as I love mine, then you need to pop over to Amy's blog as she's got a THOUSAND sheets of paper to split between 5 lucky winners and some gorgeous stamps are in the pot too!  Wow! 



Scrapbook Page #2

This is my second effort at a scrapbook page - how anyone manages to make one of the big 12x12" pages is beyond me, these wee 6x6" ones are scary enough!  Sorry for the really rubbish pic but its pouring with rain and a horrible dark old evening.  Oh yes ..... Summer!

I had imagined to get the whole song title in the pic, but ran out of room!  (You'll be singing Chick, chick, chick, chick, chicken, lay a little egg for me the rest of the night now LOL!)

The star of the photo is my gorgeous wee niece Alex in my Uncle's garden with his stone chicken - it used to live in my Granda's garden and I loved it when I was a kid too!  I'd used this chicken stamp just recently and it hadn't quite made it off my table, but I thought it would be good to use with the photo.  Popped my chick up on dimensionals and added clear gloss and glitter to the balloon.

• The Crafty Pad #134 - cute and girly

• Sketch inspired by Midnight Madness MMSC116 (I flipped the sketch and had my chicken to the bottom corner instead of the top)
• Stampavie and more #149 - girly
• Sweet Stampin - down on the farm
• Bling it on #6 - A (Alex), B (Balloon), C (Chicken)

Xmas card #08

Ohhh, how can it be Sunday evening already!  not fair!
I'ts been a funny old day, some very heavy showers and inbetween gorgeous sunshine.  I thought I would power hose my front driveway this morning, got a couple of feet done and then the blasted thing sprung a leak, and that was the end of that!  So back to my crafty table I went, my mojo's been MIA all week, so it was good to turn out something that I actually liked!

This one uses another fab High Hopes image ... Ski Bum Monkey - coloured him with promarkers and copics, added glitter to the trim of his hat, and white flower soft to his bauble.   Sentiment from Paper Smooches.  Tied my double bow using my Bow Easy.  Marianne Creatibles snowflake die and Taylored Expressions scalloped edge die.  Very old DP from DCWV (I think).  Purple bling from stash.

• i{heart}2stamp August sketch
• One Stitch at a Time #75 - anything goes
• Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #147 - Christmas

High Hopes Challenge #115

Our new challenge over at High Hopes Stamps is an easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy one ...

Anything Goes!

... so you've no excuses not to play along!  (You must use a High Hopes image to be eligible to win the fabby prize of some new High Hopes new stamps of your choice - check the blog for your local suplier)
Upload your card at High Hopes, and see the fabulous creations from the rest of the DT.  (If you get a chance you should scroll down the posts as there's some great tutorials between challenges too)

For my card I used this cute Couples Cruise, and thought it would be perfect for a new baby card.   Coloured with a mixture of Promarkers and Copics, and popped a few layers up on dimensionals.  Echo Park DP.  Added stickles to the giraffes and to the wave, and clear gloss on their eyes - I very nearly gave them googley eyes, but I was one short!  Chalked clouds in the BG.

Thanks cherry much!

(Sorry, couldn't resist it!)
I won some of these glittery chipboard fruits aaaages ago and had no idea what to do with them ... but when I saw the sketch from CPS they immediately came to mind.  Wish I could get a better pic, they're fabulously sparkly!

• Sketch from CPS #230
• The Crafty Pad #133 - gone fruity
• Stampin for the Weekend - spots and dots

Xmas card #07: Distressed by Distressing!

Our new challenge at Dream Valley is Distressing!  I'm a total neat freak on my cards (pity that didn't extend to housework LOL!) and find it nearly impossible to distress my cards!!  I'd say it doesn't help that I probably don't have any appropriate inks to distress with, so I'll have to go shopping sometime - any recommendations on what ink pads you find most useful to distress with? 

Anyway, I managed to slightly distress round my main image and roughed it up a bit with my scissors and then kinda dabbed round it with some pale blue ink.  I guess I should have distressed my sentiment too.  Ah well!

So come and play along with us ... you can't do any worse than me!!!  And you could win some fabby prizes from Digi Doodles and One Stop Card Craft.  You've a fortnight to upload your card at Dream Valley Challenges #13 ... check out the gorgeous creations from the rest of the DT while you're there.

Other challenges:

• Layout from Sketch n Stash #67
• Simon Says ... Christmas in August
• Fussy and Fancy Friday #42 - Christmas
• Totally papercrafts #78 - Holidays

Xmas card #06

Oh I'm soooo lovin these Paper Smooches stamps!  Pity I've a bit of a spending freeze on ("about time" Greg would say LOL!) or I'd have their entire stash!

I paper pieced his scarf and hat, added a bit of glitter, some dots of Smooch Illuminate, a snowflake brad and some bling and pink pearls, and that's it. 

(Still took me aaaaages to make though, I really don't know what I be faffing about doing sometimes!)

• Colour combo from Paper Smooches August Sparks challenge
• Fab'n'Funky #84 - friendship

• Simon Says Stamp ... Christmas in August
• Papertake Weekly - anything goes + added option of metal (I used a metal snowflake brad)
• Cute Card Thursday #176 - no designer papers
• Sketch from Mojo Monday #202

Have a mice day!

Thought I'd share a pic of the sky on my card against our real sky!  It's been a very warm and humid day today, most definately a fuzzy hair day  ... I'm always very envious of people with lovely hair, the slightest hint of moisture or wind and my hair develops a mind of its own!! 
I've a couple of days off work, so have been busy sorting out the garden and we're off to see Harry Potter tomorrow in our swanky new cinema - apparently its the biggest, most modern screen in Ireland, so we can't wait!

Coloured my sky using chalks and my image with promarkers.  Popped my High Hopes mouse and balloon up on dimensionals and added clear gloss to the balloon.  My sewing machine has given up stitching, so used it instead to mark the holes and then hand stitched with embroidery thread. 

• Sketch from Unscripted Sketches #117 (and it was a great one for using up these pretty Echo Park scraps)
• Colours inspired by Get Hippity with Ippity August challenge GHWI#4 - I used red, blue, orange, green and white
• Paper Sundaes #80 - clouds and skies
• Sir Stampalot August challenge - anything goes
• Die Cut Dreams #95 - holiday fun

Frogtastic!

Isn't this such a cute image and sentiment, but seriously, if I found frogs in my underpants you'd hear me scream right the way across the Atlantic!!

Coloured with a mixture of copics and promarkers, clear gloss added to his eyes and the pegs, and Smooch Illuminate added to the dots on his underpants.  Taylored Expressions scalloped border die (which I love!).

• Sketch from CPS #229
• House of Gilli - Polka dots
• Stamp and Create August challenge - Critters
• Your Next Stamp #48 - beautiful borders

• Colour combo from Play Date Cafe PDCC93 (I didn't have any watermelon so used red instead)