Sympathy butterflies

Just a wee quick card from me this eve.  My mojo's missing, so if anyone knows where he is, tell him it's about time he got his butt back here!

I paper pieced my lovely butterfy (Stamps by Judith) and popped my central panel up on dimensionals ...  and that's about it really!!
Paper Smooches sentiment.



PS  Donna at Bearly Mine Crafts has a mega candy giveaway until 30 Nov!

Layout is an oldie from CPS Card Sketches - I used #61
The Stamp Man October challenge - butterflies
Cupcake Craft Challenge #215 - pieced off
Charisma Cardz #41 - clean and simple
Stamptacular Sunday #186 - no rules

Butterfly Sympathy card

Ohhh thank goodness tomorrow's Friday .. it's been 'one of those' weeks in work!  Roll on 4.30!

I needed a sympathy card in a hurry and went with the whole butterfly theme.  Nice and quick, and I even managed to stamp my sentiment straight-ish!

Whimsy butterfly die and Martha Stewart butterfly punch.

• Layout from Sketchbook Saturday #78
• Simon Says ... anything goes
• Creative Card Crew #20 - purple
• Party Time Tuesday #87- anything goes
• Stamptacular Sunday #182 - bling it on

Sympathy tree

Ohhh we've had the most beautiful sunny day today, and went for a scoot up the coast.  I've discovered a website Walk NI with loads of wee walks to places I've never heard of, so off we went to Carnlough to see Cranny Falls.  After a slight delay, when we went the 'scenic' way after spotting a wee cave in the cliff (i.e. we got a bit lost!!) the falls were a lovely sight.  As was the chip shop on the way back to the car.  Fish'n'chips in the sunshine .... lovely, followed by ice cream for dessert!  (ssh don't tell Slimming World!)  We even saw a couple of Red Kites gliding round the cliffs and it was a fabulous sight.

I always have great difficulty making Sympathy cards, but when I saw this card made by Stephanie (today's featured stamper over at Splitcoaststampers) it just kinda fell into place.  I got this old tree stamp quite a while ago from Practicing Creativity - coloured with promarkers and then added clear gloss and glitter to the leaves - it's lovely and sparkly in real life but I couldn't really get a decent pic.

• Pile it On #24 - go outdoors
• Allsorts #158 - ice cream colours ... mine's chocolate and strawberry (at least that's what I had today yum!)
• Papertake Weekly - anything goes
• Top Tip Tuesday #78 - sparkles galore
• Oldie but a goodie - anything goes (my tree stamp)

Here's a wee pic of pretty Carnlough bathed in sunshine...

and wee Ruby, pooped after her day out ....!

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

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.

Super simple Sympathy card

Yippee, I'm off work now for a WHOLE WEEK!  Feels like ages since I've been off!  Didn't do much today, just faffed about and went for a lovely walk down by the Lough shore and made a couple of wee cards.

Kept this one nice and simple - I didn't even need to get my markers out for this one!.  I've used a re-discovered mini embossing folder for the zigzag which I bought a looooong time ago and have rarely used.

• Sketch from Monday Lunchtime #178
• Kaboodle Doodles #71 - flowers as your main focus
• Papertake Weekly - anything goes; added option - white + 1 other

April showers

ETA: I won the Allsorts challenge with this card

April Showers bring May flowers .... but we've had a very dry April so I've been out watering my garden just in case!

This is another Pure Innocence stamp, I think her little umbrella is perfect for an April Showers theme ... coloured with copic markers and her wellies, coat and umbrella covered with clear gloss.    Used a silver peel off and coloured it with the darker blue copic, pearls also coloured to match.  Paper from Basic Grey 'Cupcake'.  Martha Stewart fence border punch and Marianne Design swirl die.

• Basic Grey #42 - Easter / Spring
• Allsorts #100 - April Showers
• Lets ink it up #13 - stitching
• Paper Sundaes #66 - from the Sundae toppings I chose yellow, die cuts and pearls
• Sketch from Card Patterns #112
• A Gem of a Challenge #19 - pearls and swirls

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

Butterfly Wishes

So this was the only effort at crafting today ... think it took about 10 minutes tops!  Took my inspiration from the Featured Stamper at Splitcoaststampers - Mary Rose.  HERE is her fab original.

We had a lovely evening in my brother and Sister-n-Law's house celebrating my Mum's birthday today - this pic is me, my niece, my Mum, and my sis.  Do you like our princess tiaras?!!!
And here's a wee vid of my 7-year old nephew whacking the devil out of a pinata ...!

Quickest card EVER!

Think it took no more than 10 minutes to create this ... thanks to the super easy sketch from Clean&Simple #105, as soon as I saw it I knew which stamp I was going to use.  Stamped the flowers again onto the blue paper, cut them out and stuck down the side, and then coloured the silver peel off sentiment with a brown copic marker to match.

Took my colour combo from SPCC #62

Crazy 4 Challenges C4C52 - lattice

SUPPLIES
Stamp: Stampin Up 'Nice and Narrow' (possibly one of my most used stamp sets)
Accessories: pale orange gems; copic markers; martha stewart lattice punch

Clean&Simple Sympathy

I won this stamp from a Unity blog hop a while ago, and I just love the simple lines of this little tree.  And I think its the first time ever I actually like my distressing!  

Sketch from CPS Card Sketches #180 

Cute Card Thursday #125 and Daring Cardmakers both have the same challenge - Tree-mendous

Colour combo from The Play Date Cafe PDCC42 (just perfect for a tree image!)

Supplies

Stamp: 'Eco Chic' from Unity stamps

Accessories: cuttlebug; nestabilities; antique linen distress ink; green gems; copic markers; silver peel off sentiment coloured with brown copic to match

CAS Sympathy card

(ETA: I was in the top 5 at SPCC with this card)

I do like how this card turned out, but if I was making it again I'd do a couple of things different!  First off I'd have the tree further down the 'grass' (looks a bit odd 'floating') and I would have stamped the whole thing in brown ink to make the sentiment a bit softer.
I stamped the little flowers onto the orange DP and cut them out, and yes it took ages and was really fiddly!

Colour combo from SPCC #56

Sketch from Sweet Sunday #77

Your Next Stamp challenge #20 Flower Power (mine are only little but they're ever so nice! LOL!)

Supplies:
Stamps: Main image from Practicing Creativity Designs Barefoot Summer ; sentiment from Simon Says
Paper: An oldie from my stash
Accessories: copic markers; blue gems and flowery ribbon from stash; martha stewart punch

CAS Sympathy card

And finally for today this very simple sympathy card.  And I'm definately away now ... An Audience with Michael Buble is on and I'm missing valuable drooling time!

CAS-tastic challenge CWC004: One Layer card

Corrosive Challenge #65: Clean and Simple

Charisma Cardz Challenge #20: 3D

Supplies: decoupage flowers from a die cut sheet I bought at the Belfast Stitch and Craft show; gold peel off border and gold peel off sentiment; dimensionals; green and pink gems

Simon Says ... Things with Wings

I found these fabric sparkly butterflys when I was tidying my stash that my Mum bought me ages ago, they're so pretty IRL (in fact that's probably why I haven't used them up ... I sometimes hate using my really nice goodies!)

Sentiment is also an oldie stamp from onefourzero.

  My stitching went seriously wonky when I was outlining the little side tab, but this was my third attempt ...you should have seen the state of the other two!  (Though now my card is on screen it looks worse than I thought it was so I think I'll take the tab off and have a 4th attempt!)

Simon Says challenge this week is Things with Wings

Butterfly inspiration from Allsorts challenge #49

Easy Craft Projects #11 is Orange

Polka Doodles #16 : Monochrome

Simple sympathy card

I bought this stamp years ago from ebay and this is the first time its seen ink!  I'm definately not buying any new stamps (I don't care how much you tempt me!) until I've used all my current stamps at least once.  ... Mind you, I'd need to get a move on as the craft show in Belfast is in April !!

Sketch from The Sweet Stop #SSS47

One Stop Craft #71 is Spots and Dots

Supplies: stamp from Home and Heart, sentiment from Simon Says, brad coloured with copic marker to match ribbon, pink dew drops, clear gloss (on heart)

Not so CAS card!

This was supposed to be a Clean & Simple card from the Fall-to-layout #69 but I got a bit carried away with my lovely peel off stickers! Mounted the larger dragon flies onto acetate - there's a real shimmer on their wings that doesn't really show up in the rubbish photo.

CPS Sparkly Sympathy

Card Positioning Systems sketch #141 just screamed 'clean and simple', so I took the opportunity to use the new peeloffs my Mum got me. The silver layer is stuck to white card; then I stuck another sticker onto acetate, popped up on a dimensional and coloured blue with my copic marker. There's a lovely sparkly glitzy finish to the stickers (click on the pic for a closeup)

Another sympathy

The Pink Elephant's challenge #39 is a colour theme -Brown, Yellow, Neutral and Color of your choice

And Kaboodle Doodles challenge #17 is Fall splendour - make a card using an autumn theme or colours

Stamp from Hobby Art, coloured with copic markers

SCS CAS39: Sympathy

I needed a couple of sympathy cards, so based this one on the Clean & Simple Sketch #39 at Splitcoaststampers.

Flowers from Cornish Heritage Farm, coloured with copics to match DP. The bow is a purply colour too but didn't photo well. I think I need to get myself one of those plastic doo-dahs that help you to tie bows, mine's rubbish!

Also for Creative Card Crew #35 Ribbons & Gems

Strange Sympathy!

I was asked to make a sympathy card by a colleague in work and to put the recipients name on it ... now is it just me, or is that a bit odd? I've never been asked to do it before!

Colour theme from Our Creative Corner

Stamp with Us has a recipe challenge this week - no patterned paper, 2 ribbons and 2 stamps. I versamarked a swirl in each corner, but its hard to see in the photo. Flower coloured with copic markers and pink dew drop added.