Bunnies and Butterflies

ETA: Top 3 at Unscripted Sketches!

I must admit I was a bit stumped by Color Throwdown's challenge this week - blues and browns are my favourite colour combo but I've no dark brown paper so, after spending aaaaages trying to find some in my stash, I gave up and just coloured in a border round my image with a copic marker. I also couldn't find any of this bright blue, so had to go with a more duck egg blue tint.  Then I couldn't figure out how to get the pale yellow in, until I remembered this wee High Hopes sun.  So in the end, this simple wee card took such a long time to make, way more faffing about than crafting!

• Colour combo from Color Throwdown #162
• My Mum's Craft Shop - all creatures great and small
• One Stop Craft #152 - anything goes
• One Stitch at a Time #83 - anything goes
• Paper Sundaes #90 - favourite colour combo (blues and browns)
• Speedy the Cat's challenge #76 - no designer DP
• Sketch from Unscripted Sketches #127

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!

Just a simple note

Just a very simple little card ... flowers from Stampendous 'Happy Flowers', Tim Holtz border die, card candy coloured with grey marker and bit of glitter added, and that's about it really!

• Layout inspired by Clean and Simple FTL146
• Stamp Something: Red, white and blue
• CAS-ual Friday CFC8 - add a fancy edge
• Play date Cafe PDCC87 - slate blue, barn red, grey

High Hopes for my Birthday!

Its my birthday today, so I've prescheduled this post as I'm hoping to be at the seaside in glorious sunshine (....hmmm, the sunshine bit might be a bit dodgy judging by the weather this past week!)  I got a lovely birthday pressie when High Hopes challenge blog asked me to be a guest designer over the summer!  Eeeeeek!  So exciting! 
As you probably know I luuurve their images, and think one of my first stamps I ever bought was a High Hopes stamp (now its just one of the many!)  and I've always loved their challenges.  

So if you have a High Hopes stamp come and play along in this fortnight's challenge....
Stars and/or Stripes
Upload your card HERE
If you don't have any High Hopes stamps pop over to the blog anyway just to see the fabulous creations from the DT ... I think my card will stand out a mile as their's are sooooo much better than mine!!

I've used an older stamp called Cheeky Sean ... whaddya mean you've never seen a blue monkey!  Coloured with a mixture of promakers and copics; clear gloss added to his eyes and teeth.  I also popped his body up on dimensionals and then this nose (chin?) popped up again.  I embossed some stars into the plain BP and cut the larger ones with a sissix die.  Monkey DP from Basic Grey.  Silver peeloff sentiment and stars to finish.

I'm also entering this card into these challenges...

• Layout from Sketch Saturday #159
• Make it Colourful #22 - blue
• The Crafty Pad #125 - 'Just Because'
• Wee Memories #59 - anything goes

Jam Jar Flowers

Well, as predicted, the Bank Holiday weather was decidedly average!  We took ourselves off to the garden centre earlier and it lashed out of the heavens, couldn't even get out to look at the plants!  So we came home and I made some cards in between tackling the mountain that had become my ironing stack!

This is another oldie image from Cornish Heritage Farm - coloured with promarkers and clear glaze added to the jam jar.  Central pink flower popped up on dimensionals.  Pearls coloured with promarkers to match.

• Layout inspired by sketch from Midnight Madness #105 (though my central image ended up a wee bit big for the sketch)
• Colour combo from Color Throwdown #143
• Get Hippity with Ippity #2- flowers
• Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #136 - Clean and Simple
• I Love Promarkers #67 - pearls

Wish I was there!

ETA: I got Top 5 at Crafty Cardmakers

It's been a really yeuchy day here ... started raining this morning and barely stopped all day.  So I was pleased to see that there's a few summery challenges out there in blogland, cause it certainly is NOT summer here IRL!

Coloured this wee image from Your Next Stamp with promarkers, popped it up on dimensionals and then popped Ellie up again.  I don't think you usually get dragonflies at the beach, but I had a big empty space that needed something !
Added orange stickles to the little starfish, smooch illuminate to the bottle, clear gloss to the sunglasses, Tim Holtz embossing folder, dragonfly buttons, clear gem to the flower on her hat.

• Allsorts #104 - picture inspiration
• Stamp Something - beachy
• Stampin for the Weekend #9 - blue, buttons and bling
• Your Next Stamp #42 - pop it up
• Creative Card Crew - cute and girly
• Crafty Cardmakers #46 - embossing

Dream Valley Challenge #06

Our new challenge at Dream Valley is Flowers ... and there's a fab prize up for grabs from One Stop Card Crafts!  So play along and you never know your luck!  Check out the gorgeous creations from the rest of the DT when you're uploading your card HERE.

Can you tell the sun was shining and there was a bit of heat in the air when I made this card ... all those lovely hot colours!  I've used a stamp set from Stampendous 'Happy Flowers' and coloured with copics.  A couple of the flowers are popped up on 2mm dimensionals, and the flower centres on 1mm.  I had intended to add some frosted lace stickles to the flower centres, but my tube ran dry, as did my pink marker - I only just managed to scratch enough out of it to colour the flower centres ... I think my crafty supplies are conspiring against me again!!

Other challenges ....

• Simon Says Stamp .... anything goes
• Paper Cutz #89 - anything goes
• My Mum's Craft Shop #3 - flowers
• Sparkles forum challenge #10 - anything goes
• Do you stack up #17 - make it pop

Quirky Qwerty

Well I had a lovely time at the craft show today, and managed not to use any of my new goodies on this card! (And I forgot to take a pic before I had them all tidied away Doh!)  There wasn't too many 'bargains' about, though I still managed to give my big purse a bit of a hammering!  Hopefully I'll get a wee play tomorrow and show you some of my new goodies.

I learned to type on one of these many moons ago ... it was always a total nightmare if you made a mistake, (especially if you were making a copy with that horrible carbon paper)  Though I'm convinced that NOT having spell check wasn't actually a bad thing!
 
This wee typewriter is a digi from Pink Petticoat and the paw print DP is a freebie from Scrapbookscrapbook.com  
Typewriter popped up on dimensionals and the little sheet with the sentiment partially popped up too.  Coloured with copics, clear gloss added to the keys and red stickles to the accents on the typewriter and the centre of the flower.  Red gem on sentiment from stash.

• Sketch from Clean&Simple FTL136
• Use it Tuesday #5 - ribbon
• Tuesday Throwdown #44 - sparkle and bling
• Bling it On - use a digi and bling
• Copic Creations #48 - what's your favourite paper to stamp on? .... at the minute I'm lovin the super smooth stamping card from Lili of the Valley

Easter Lillie

Ohh booo hooo, I think the Toothache Fairy has stolen my mojo ... this wee card took AAGES to make and looks nothing like what was in my head!  Roll on Tuesday for my dental appt is all I can say! 

This cute duckie is one of Stitchy's digis ... get your Easter Lillie HERE.  Though I'd started with my red theme so coloured the flowers as if they were tulips.
Image popped up on dimensionals and coloured with copics (butterflies and flower centres coloured to match too).  Woodware flower punch embossed with swirls and BG embossed with swiss dots folder.  Sentiment from Simon Says Stamp.  Clear gloss added to Duck's beak, feet and little bow.

• The Crafty Pad #116 - Spring is in the air
• Secret Crafter #129 - feathered friends
• Daring Cardmakers - draw or stamp a bird (well there's no chance of me drawing a bird, so I've used a digi instead!)
• Crafty Catz #77 - embossing
• Tuesday Throwdown #43 - Spring
• A Spoon full of sugar #146 - use at least 2 different textures

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

Simon Says ... Bingo!

(Click HERE for my Sweet Stampin GDT post)

Ohhhh I can't wait for Spring!  Its been another dampish, dullish, coldish day, and I just would love a wee bit of heat!  At least it was a much better day than yesterday ... Greg made a gorgeous Sunday dinner, then a wee afternoon's crafting and now just sitting watching telly!  And yes, the smell of nailpolish eventuallly did go away LOL!

• Sketch from Card Patterns #99
• Stampin for the weekend #2- Getting warmed up (use a warm image or warm colours)
• Our Creative Corner - Three Musketeers Colour challenge - I used yellow, pale orange and dark orange
•  Simon Says .... Bingo - I used Punch/Die cuts, embossing and ribbon (I'm assuming that twine can be classed as ribbon?!)

A girly girl card...

I won this cute hÄnglar & stÄnglar stamp a while back from Paper Sundaes challenge blog and this is the first chance I've had to put ink on her!  Coloured with copics and some pale purple liquid pearls and purple stickles added for some bling.  I've seen these twirly bits on the flowers on loads of blogs so thought I'd have a go too (of course its been so long since I used my wire that it took about half a day to find it at the back of the kitchen cupboard!)
The brads in the two smaller flowers were pink but they didn't look quite right so I just covered them with my purple stickles.

Sketch from Jen's blog I {heart} to stamp

Bunny Zoe's new challenge blog's first challenge is to make a Nice and Girly card

Colour combo from Crazy 4 Challenges #41

Kaboodle Doodle #33 is Anything goes with a splash of purple

Supplies:
Stamps: hÄnglar & stÄnglar
Paper: K&Company
Accessories: Martha Stewart punch; purple stickles; copic markers (for image and flowers); pale purple liquid pearls; heart brad and flowers from stash; Stampin Up corner rounder

PBSC 100th challenge

We had another bright sunny day today, got loads of planting in the garden sorted and Ruby is exhausted with all her sunbathing!  On the down-side there's a gazillion midges out this evening and we got ate alive when we were out for our walk!

Penny Black Saturday Challlenge is on their 100th week and have loads of goodies up for grabs so I'm definately playing along! 

I used the colour combo from Creative Inspirations #59 - orange, hot pink and purple.  Luckily I found this pink and orange DCWV paper in my stash which was perfect!   I paper pieced my welly boot, flower and snail shell with leftovers to match.  Added some bling and a purple ribbon to finish.

And Totally Papercrafts #15 is stitching, so it was a good excuse to get my wee sewing machine out for a play!

"The only reason for being a bee that I know of is making honey..... "

I lost my mojo for ages recently, so I love it when a card comes together!  My little bear/bee is from High Hopes, the honey DP was from some candy I won and the little bee charm has been in my stash for years!  It's so honey-ish that it reminded me of Winnie the Pooh!.... don't ya just love him!

Supplies: Stamp from High Hopes, coloured with watercolours and gold stickles added to honey pot, black stickles to his nose, clear gloss added to wings.  Sentiment from Simon Says.  Martha Stewart punch.  Gold gems.  Dimensionals used on main image.

High Hopes #67 is Flutterbys - winged friends - butterflies, bees, birds, ladybugs, dragons, angels, fairies etc...

Sketch from Carol's Sketch Fun #22

Saturday Spotlight SSHP22 is to be "so slick" as in slick card stock, embellishments, acetate paper, crystal lacquer, etc.   (I used clear gloss on my wings)

Creative Inspirations #51 is Charms

Lil' Ducky

I received this sweet little ducky in a set from my Mum for Christmas (Peeking Over by Woodware) and thought it would make a cute Any Occasion card.  Coloured with copics and clear glaze added to his beak and feet. (Actually I'm now wondering if he's actually a goose, oh well!)

Card Positioning Systems challenge this week is to use one of their old sketches from 1-147; I used #63

Treehouse Thursday #30 is paper piercing

And the colour combo is from Colour Create #35 - Lemon and Lime, with the optional extra of spring or summer flowers.

Hey Mr Postman!

Oh I wish the Postie would call at my door with something nice ! I've been waiting for AGES for some challenge winner goodies and some blog candy that I won to arrive, and Mr Postie just keeps delivering rubbish and bills! The delivery from America is really pants!

I got this little Penny Black stamp a while back - coloured with watercolour pencils and made my own little extra envelopes in co-ordinating paper.

Sketch from Sketch and Stash Challenge #18. My 'unloved' stash is my ticket corner punch - I'd hankered after one for ages and when I eventually won one on ebay I hardly ever use it! I must have more money than sense eh?

Popped up Magnolia

Popped this little girls dress up using a tutorial I saw on someone's blog, but can't remember who it was ... sorry! You stick the top part of each layer with glue and then pop up the lower parts and it gives a really great effect!

Coloured with watercolour pencils and a white glaze pen used to colour the daisies in the basket. Also used my watercolours to colour the large prima flower, so its the same pink as her dress.

Sketch from Just Magnolia #15

CRAFT Challenge #10 - pink and green

Also for Scrappy Frogs #9 - make a card with a Magnolia stamp.

Lovely Blue Wellies!

I treated myself to a couple of Magnolia stamps and I just love this little girl! I also 'rediscovered' my Sizzix flower dies and ran them through a cutttlebug folder to give a bit of dimension.

Sketch from Just Magnolia #11- Bev's sketch. I had everything stuck down before I remembered I was supposed to put some text at the bottom, so squeezed in a little peel off greeting.

Supplies: Magnolia stamp 'Cherry Tilda'; swiss dots embossing folder; dimensionals (for main image); sizzix flower dies; white gel pen; stickles (for baubles on her hair and the cherries on her top); copic markers

Sugar Nellie Flowers

This is the first time I've played in the Sugar Bowl challenge - luckily Pat has sent me a couple of Sugar Nellie images, and she also sent me this lovely chipboard flower, amongst loads of other goodies! It wasn't quite the right colour, so I gave it a touch with my copic markers and hey presto, a matching flower!

The Sugar Bowl challenge #13 is a sketch, and you also have to use the clour Kraft (which I think is a brown colour)

Supplies: Sugar Nellie Flowers, Copic markers, cuttlebug embossing folders, gold gems and multi coloured gems (for the flowers in her hat), brown ribbon, gold peel off greeting

Pink Ellie

Made this little card for the Stamp with Fun sketch challenge #8 - you can win a fab Scrapmagasinet stamp!

Over at Creative Card crew the challenge is 'Pretty Flowers' - and up for grabs is a set of Cuttlebug Scallop Square Dies.

Supplies: High Hopes elephant stamp; pink and purple primas, purple and pink Stickles; watercolour pencils; white gel pen