Paper Smooches

Just to give a quick heads up that Paper Smooches new release blog hop is on till Friday eve, with the new stamps available to buy tomorrow.

Sick chicks?

Heee, I'm not too sure how healthy my chickens look - blue or spotty red?  I think a swift trip to the vet is called for!

Our heat seems to be breaking now and the clouds are brewing, thank goodness - my hair doesn't do this heat and is a total fuzzball!  And the hotter I get, the more my fringe seems to shrink!  What's that all about??!!!

I was surfing last night and came across this tutorial by Nancy on how to give your flowers texture, so thought I'd give it a go.  I've never been overly happy with my flowers, and I love how just nipping in the petals really changes the flower .. thanks Nancy!

• Simon Says ... anything goes
• Polka doodles #21 - doodle a border / happy birthday
• Craft Your Days Away #46 - red, white and blue
• The Crafty Pad #172 - colours of your flag (Union Jack)
• House of Gilli #33 - die cuts / punches

High Hopes challenge #138

My last post as GDT with High Hopes :( but this week's challenge is super easy ...

Anything Goes

(as long as you use a High Hopes stamp!)
You'll want to pop over to High Hopes anyway for sneak peaks of their new release!

Doesn't this whale look lovely and cool, I'd love to have my tootsies soaking in the Atlantic Ocean right now, we're still cooking in the sunshine here!

Coloured my whale with pencils and added some glitter to the water.  Sentiment from Paper Smooches alphabet.  Wave border die from Taylored Expressions.

• I flipped the sketch from Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge TESC160 
• Creative Inspirations #164 - anything goes
• Charisma Cardz #20 - no flowers allowed
• Hotshot Craft challenge #8 - die cuts
• Totally Gorjuss #133 - something new (my new bakers twine and corner punch)

Summer time!

Where have I been? .... Well mark your diaries, because IT'S BEEN TOO HOT to craft!  Not too often you'll hear me say that!  We've had glorious scorchio weather all week, and its looking like we're going to get another few days of it.  Mind you, don't think I could stick it all summer long, I'm more of a jumper and cosy socks type girl!

So in honour of our beautiful weather, here's a wee summery card!  Brenda, my corner punch came and I LOVE it ... thanks for the link!  Though you should have seen the HUGE box that it took to post 1 medium and 1 small punch, hilarious!  (Though I did have a wee moment of panic on behalf of my visa thinking, what have I ordered?!)

Coloured my wee girl with my markers.  Martha Stewart grass border and butterflies.  Embossed stars on the pink panel using a very old Ellison mini folder. Paper Smooches sentiment.

• Sketch from Taylored Expressions TESC158 - I'm so disappointed that this is the last sketch challenge as I always found them very inspirational :(
• Totally Gorjuss #133 - something new (my new corner punch)
• Allsorts #156 - Birthday
• Creative Inspirations #164 - anything goes
• Tuesday Alchemy #15 - beautiful butterflies
• Top Tip Tuesday #77 - dig out the old (my embossing folder)
• Stamp Scrap and Doodle Saturdays - stars and stripes

High Hopes Challenge #137

I'm one of the Guest Designers at High Hopes, and this week's new challenge is ....

May Flowers

(You'll need some High Hopes stamps to play along and win the prize of a new stamp of your choice - there's a list of retailers on their website)

Now, I'm not a 'flowery' person (except in my garden ) and most of my High Hopes stamps are all of cute animals and figures and very few flowers, but I managed to find this sweet little couple in my stash.  I got my pencils out for another practice ... but I can't get them to photograph well, they look better IRL!

• I flipped the sketch from Willow Sketchie Challenge plus added option of 3 DPs
• Hotshot Craft #8 - die cuts

Sympathy Daisies

Another lovely day today, still a wee bit nippy, but I took a chance and finally got my pea seedlings planted.  Just hope our hungry slugs don't have a good munch!

I usually have a really tough time making sympathy cards but this one came together really easily for some reason!  This is a super old stamp and I don't know who the maker is.  (Actually, now I think of it, it might be from Cornish Heritage Farms) Coloured with copics to match my DP, most of which I managed to cover up!  Gold peel off sentiment.

• Sketch from Sketch Saturday #208
• Die Cuttin Divas #65 - flowers
• Hot Shot Craft #08 - die cuts
• Alota Stamps #83 - tic tac toe - I chose ribbon, flowers, gems
• Bunny Zoe's challenge #24 - anything goes

Xmas Card #06

Well the weather men actually got it right today, we've had a beautiful afternoon and you could 'almost' feel a bit of heat in the sun.
So of course with the sun shining I made a Christmas card!
I love this wee stamp from Pixie Cottage .... look at the size of poor Rudolph's nose!!

My card was inspired by this card for Stamp TV's challenge to case Michelle's gallery.
Coloured with promarkers, and clear glaze and sparkle added to his nose and baubles.  I love this snowball ribbon, wish I'd bought more if it!

• I love Promarkers #117 - anything goes
• Simon Says .... CAS
• Card Crafters Circle #23 - sparkle
• Craft Your Days Away #45 - all creatures great and small
• Bunny Zoe's crafts #24 - anything goes

Pink Chicks!

TGIF!  And its supposed to be half decent weather this weekend, which will make a nice change as it's been pants for ages!


I was blog hopping the other day and came across this fab card on Jenny's blog (I know, its bad for my visa when I go blog hopping, though usually its Brenda's fault when things drop into my shopping basket. Ha!)  I've no idea why, but I just LOVE chicken stamps.  How random is that!

• Sketch and general design inspired by Stamp TV's case the designer challenge STVFRICT19 - here's Michelle's original 
• Paper Sundaes #120 - Things with wings
• Pile it On #20 - CAS
• Simon Says ... clean and simple
• Totally Gorjuss #131 - pink and green

High Hopes challenge #136

I'm delighted to be joining the High Hopes team as Guest Designer.
The new challenge is to make an easel card  ... if you've never made one before Tanya has a fab tutorial on the High Hopes blog (trust me, if I can make one, anyone can!!)
(You need to use High Hopes stamps to play along - there's a list of retailers on the High Hopes blog)

I used some of my new Lily Bee Designs DP and coloured my wee fisherman with promarkers.  Then I went looking for some ribbon and couldn't believe that this fishy ribbon was hiding at the bottom of my box and was a perfect match!
Don't ya love it when that happens!   

• Other challenges:
• Bunny Zoe's challenge #24 - anything goes
• Cards 4 Men #10 - kicking back
• Joanna Sheen challenges - Happy Birthday
• Allsorts #154 - card for a man
• Totally Papercrafts #116 - no girls allowed

Time for Tea

No, don't fall off your chair, those are pretty flowers on my card!  I think that pink rose has been in my stash for about 4 years!  Nicola very kindly sent me a wee parcel which included this LOTV stamp, gorgeous DP and pretty purple flowers, so I was determined to try and use them!  (I kept my flowers quite small as I didn't want to be bothered making a card box)

I also got my pencils out again for another practice, and I quite like how this turned out.  Its a bit brighter in real life, but I couldn't get my camera to co-operate!

• Sketch from Card Patterns #165
• Stamptacular Sunday #163 - butterfly kisses
• Paper Sundaes #120 - things with wings
• Sweet Stampin' - flower power
• CES final challenge - anything goes
• Lili's Little Fairies -  your favorite craft tool (easy peasy ... mine's my cuttlebug)!
• Cute Card Thursday #216 - food or drink
• Stamp and Create May challenge - one for the ladies
• Going Buggy May challenge - things with wings

Fairies and frogs

Well I think I can definitely say that I'm so not in love with my Spectrum Noir pens ... they send my ink a wee bit fuzzy and it also changed colour when I went over her wings with some clear glaze.  Think I'll stick to my copics or promarkers from now on!

The background to my image was inspired by the Moxie Fab World: Card Creations - splatter technique. I'd never tried this before and I must confess, I LOVE it!  Cheers Moxie Fab!

I've used a few of My Favourite Things goodies on this card ... the wee tab dies have been one of my best purchases and I love the effect of the notebook edge die too.

• Sketch from MFT Wednesday Sketch Club MFTWSC71 
• CES #85 - anything goes
• Charisma Cardz #18 - pink and girlie
• Do you Stack up #71 - use a flower
• Hotshot Crafts #8 - die cuts
• Paper Sundaes #120 - things with wings
• Going Buggy May challenge - things with wings

A blue Bird ... oh and blue grass too :)

Brrr, its a wild and rainy evening here... definitely a crafty day!  I'm just back from a very windy walk with Ruby, it took us twice as long going up the hill and half as long to come back!  I was glad I had my cosy hat and winter coat on .... it's half way through May for goodness sake!  Sooooo ready for summer!

The wee birdies at the feeder in our garden are getting blasted about by the wind too, it looks a bit calmer here for my wee blue birdie.  Think I got carried away with my monochrome look, not sure if blue grass works or not!!

• Took my sky and clouds theme from this weeks Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge
• PolkaDoodles #19 - monochrome
• One Stop Craft - monochrome
• The Crafty Pad #170 - doodle it (I doddled my musical notes)

Peek-a-boo

I won this fab goose from a recent High Hopes challenge.  Isn't he hilarious!  I decoupaged a couple of layers - first the whole image and then the next layer of his butt and legs and then his beak.  Wish I hadn't added the sparkle to his legs though - I'd coloured my sentiment panel and flower with the same markers and they were exactly the same shade, but now his legs are too dark.

• Sketch from Clean&Simple #190 
• Casual Fridays CFC52 - feathered friends
• Top Tip Tuesday #76 - clean and simple - my top tip: if you use dimensional pads to decoupage, cut them in half and you can give support to the bits that are too small for a full pad.  
• CES final challenge #85 - anything goes

Lindsay's Birthday card

Its a Bank Holiday Monday here, and weather has been typical ... bucketing rain all day!  We went to the garden centre but it was sooo cold we just popped in and straight back out again.  Brrr!  Finally got my pea seedlings bought, but there was no way I was venturing outside to plant them!  I felt sorry for the poor souls running the Belfast Marathon ... at the point we saw them they'd been running for nearly 4 hours in the rain and they looked pooped!  Fair play to them though, I couldn't run to the end of the garden!

I delved into my Tilda collection (which consists of 2 stamps!) for this card - coloured with Promarkers / Spectrum Noir and loads of bling added.  Wish I'd cut my image a wee tiny bit wider though to fit her name better, though I rarely plan my cards properly!  I had to cut the centre out of my Martha Stewart heart die as I'd nowhere else to stick her age!

• The Crafty Pad #169 - girly girls
• Sketch from Totally Gorjuss #130
• Craft your Days Away #44 - just for children
• A Gem of a Challenge #45 - pink, blue, green
• Speedy Fox and Friends #106 - 3 of something (I used 3 different dies, 3 sets of black sparkly stickers and 3 sets of square bling)
• One Stop Craft #181 - celebrations
• Simon Says Stamp - birthday
• Crafty Catz #131 - May Flowers
• Papertake Weekly - anything goes

Birthday Bat

In celebration of National Scrapbook Day, Paper Smooches have a special challenge to make a card stock only card.  I paper pieced my wee bat and then his eyes, and chalked the sky.  Star and fence dies from Taylored Expressions, Martha Stewart grass punch.

I hope we have clear skies tonight, we're supposed to have a sooperdooper moon - though usually when there's anything fun happening in the heavens our weather conspires against us and we get to see nothing!

• Sketch from The Sweet Stop SSS157 - I took a few liberties and added the fence/grass detailing at the bottom!
• One Stop Craft #181 - celebrations
• The Stamp Man - your favorite technique - mine is a chalked sky using this template from Bev.
• CAS-ual Friday CFC51 - CAS Birthday
• Willow Sketchie Challenge - dies and punches
• Simon Says Stamp - Birthday
• Papertake Weekly - anything goes
• Catered Crop Recipe Swap - B is for .... Birthday Bat!

ETA This card was spotlighted over at the Sweet Stop!

A Sugar Nellie Sweetie

Hooray for Saturday!  And it's a Bank Holiday here on Monday too, so its a lovely long weekend!  Though it's a bit brrr chilly, definitely not 'outside' weather!

I 'lost' this stamp aaaaages ago, maybe even a couple of years ... she belongs to a larger stamp with a tree and bird house, but was too big for me so I chopped it down!  And promptly lost the wee girl.  And where did I find it?  In the very same pack I keep the tree, but behind the picture of the image, so I just didn't see her when I was flicking through my stamp box.  Doh.

Coloured with promarkers.  Dies: Die-namics tab; Taylored Expressions fence; Marianne leaf.  Martha Stewart butterfly punch.

(Don't know what's wrong with my photos tonight, they're a bit blurry)

• Sketch from The Sugar Bowl #83 
• Tammy's Scrapin Corner #8 - anything goes
• The Crafty Pad #168 - April Showers bring May flowers
• Joanna Sheen challenge - flower power
• Oldie but a Goodie - dies and punches
• Tuesday Throwdown #96 - in the garden
• Papertake Weekly - anything goes
• Simon Says ... Birthday
• Stampin for the Weekend - at least 4 layers