Birthday Fishes!

Click HERE for my Sweet Stampin GDT post - Try something New

This is another of my new High Hopes stamps ... isn't he just fabulous!  And I'd found this lovely swirly paper in my stash that looked like water ... then I proceeded to cover it all up Doh!  Coloured him with copics and popped up his hat, hands and fish on dimensionals.  The little arrow might look a bit odd but I was down in the craft shop (for the last time ... boo hooo) and bought it so was determined to use it!  I managed to get stocked up with loads of coloured papers, so I should be OK for a while! 

The ribbon is old stuff from my stash and I gave it a ripple by stapling the ribbon - to do this put a strip of DST along your DP, stick the first part of the ribbon down, flip the ribbon back on itself, then staple, then fold the ribbon back for the ripple ... does that make sense?  I saw it done on a tutorial somewhere but can't remember where!

• Sketch from Inspirational Card Sketches #96
• Really Reasonable Ribbon #15 - something new (my stamp and arrow punch) + ribbon
• Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
• Stampin for the Weekend #1 - New and Blue
• Make it Colourful  #1- warm or cool colours (I used the cool blue range)

Sweet Stampin GDT: Try something new!

ETA: I got Top 3 at Monday Lunchtime Challenge with this card!

Sweet Stampin's challenge this week is to Try Something Different.  I've fancied making a pocket card that incorporates a bookmark for ages but hadn't got round to it .... so this was the perfect excuse to try one!  It was sooooo easy that I'll definately be trying it again!

I used a little mousely stamp from High Hopes for my bookmark - coloured with copics and clear gloss and glitter added to the balloon.  I've also added some of this DP to the back of the bookmark to make it a bit sturdier.

So what new technique have you been meaning to try? Get your thinking caps on as we'd like to see you try a new technique, a different colour combo than you would normally play with, whatever you like .... then upload your new creation to Sweet Stampin and check out the DT's fabulous creations while you're there!

• High Hopes #99 - Party Animal
• Sketch from Monday Lunchtime #155
•  My Time to Craft #122 - up in the air
• Charisma Cardz #1 - Birthday / celebrations
• Cute Card Thursday #146 - out with the old (my DP is old stuff from my stash)

What's on Your Workdesk

I haven't shown you my messy table for a while, but I got some new goodies from High Hopes today and thought I'd share them with What's on your workdesk Wednesday! Here's a wee close up ... I was lucky enough to win 3 of these stamps in a recent weekly challenge and I think the others are from their new release.

So of course I couldn't wait to get some ink on these! And first up was the little Xray dude .... coloured with copics and popped up his head and the little mousey.  (The little hanging silver star was a recycled embellie from one of my Mum's Christmas cards)

• Sketch from Splitcoaststampers SC314
• Top Tip Tuesday #16 - add some metal
• Tuesday throwdown #30 - embossing
• Fab'n'Funky #54 - anything goes
• Colour combo from Color Throwdown #123

Super CAS doggy card

Sigh, here we are, the last day of my Christmas hols, back to the grindstone tomorrow.  Oh well, at least its a nice short week. 
Oh and some awful news today from my local craft shop ... THE PAPER MILL IS CLOSING! Felt so sorry for the girls who've worked in the shop for years. I always used them for all my basic white and coloured card stock and wee bits and bobs, so now I'm a bit stuck.  If you're a Northern Irish / UK crafter I'd love to know where you get your card from!

Not much to say about my wee card .... they don't come much more clean and simple than this!  No idea where the DP is from, I've been trying to use these scraps up.  Stamp - Penny Black

• Sketch from Clean and Simple FTL121
• Kaboodle Doodles #48 - anything goes
• Cupcake Craft #123 - mainly white card

Sizzling hot....!

Its such a cold day today (and its sleeting at the moment yeuch!) so I thought I'd make a card that made me feel a wee bit warmer!

I think my Martha Stewart butterfly punch was the best investment of 2010 (I could almost use it on EVERY card I make LOL) and these nestabilities were definately the worst ... I don't know what it is about this shape that I find so hard to use!

Image is a Gorjuss girl from Sugar Nellie.  I've no idea what make this paper is, its sooo old that the cover has long since fallen off! 

• Daring Cardmakers - At The Beach or use Sunny colours
• Craft Your Days Away #10 - Punch it out
• Marks Finest Papers #36 - Use something new (I've been very good recently so my baker's twine from a few weeks ago is probably my newest purchase)
• Crazy4Challenges C4C68 - celebrate something
• Sketch from The Sugar Bowl #50, with the added challenge of embossing

Etsy Inspired Snail

(Click HERE for my Sweet Stampin GDT post)

This wee card was inspired by the Etsy Inspired challenge this week ... look at these cute minatures!  I find crochet tough enough without doing it on that scale!

This little snail is another oldie from my stash, but I think I might change his 'face' into a smile, he looks a bit sad!  I hadn't intended to have a seagull in the middle of my cloud, but I smudged some ink on it that then needed disguised!  Added clear gloss to his popped up shell and to the balloon.



Thanks a million

Click HERE for my Sweet Stampin GDT post

Another oldie stamp rediscovered in my stash ... possibly from Inkadinkado but I wouldn't swear to it.  Just kept it nice and simple and used my Tim Holtz edge die for a wee bit of interest, and some of my new bakers twine (from The Twinery)which I seriously LOVE!

• Cute Card Thursday #145 - Thank You
• Winter Wonderland - Thank You
• Phindy's Place #36 - Give Thanks with scraps (i've had this bit of blue DP knocking round my scraps tray for such a long time!)
• Allsorts #84 - Thank You
• Sketch from Sketch and Stash #51 - I reused sketch #6

New Year's Resolutions!

(I've had a lovely crafty day ... so apologies in advance for the blogger overload!)
My New Year's resolutions are to eat less cake (not sure if this one's possible!), to make better use of my crafty stash and to re-ink some old stamps!  I'd actually forgotten about this cutie until I looked back on old cards.  And my little flower punch is also an oldie ... I think it was the first punch I ever bought.

• Papercraft Star #27 - New Year's Resolution (begins 5 Jan)
• Sketch from Monday Lunchtime #154
• Creative Card Crew - Birthdays
• Splitcoaststampers Friday Free for All F4A45 - what's your New Year Resolution
• One Stitch at a Time #43 - Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp ... Party time / Celebrate
• Top Tip Tuesday #15 - Get Embellishing .... my top tip is that you don't need any fancy gadgets to pick up your little gems and fidgety bits with  - just use a cocktail stick with some blutack on it

And while I had this little girl stamp out, I made another....

I've used a much unloved cuttlebug folder on this one (not sure why I don't really like it!) and my ribbon was originally packaging on my Christmas PJ's from my sis.

• Sketch from Oldie but a Goodie #9

My Best Crafting Project 2010

(Click HERE for my Sweet Stampin GDT post)

Ok, so you've seen my top 5 Christmas projects, my top 10 general projects and now The Stamp Man want to see your Best Crafting Project ... how difficult is that!
Eventually I settled on this one as it kinda incorporates everything I love ... clean and simple style, cute image, colouring with copics, a bit of bling, and a lovely ribbon!

Sweet Stampin Guest Designer

Happy New Year! 

I'm starting 2011 on a high as I'm lucky enough to be this month's Guest Designer at Sweet Stampin!  This week's challenge is to be inspired by your favourite song.  Mine is Chasing Cars by a local band Snow Patrol ... have a wee listen HERE (give it a minute to get going!) - there's a line in it show me a garden that's bursting into life ... so this is my garden bursting into life!  (in fact I wish my garden had some flowers at the minute, everything is a bit wilted and dead looking after all that snow and ice - don't think I've any blue flowers hibernating in my garden though LOL!) 

I got this High Hopes image a while back and then bought a little pack of ladybugs for the specific purpose of using them with this stamp ... oh dear, I think this is maybe the second time I've used one!  Coloured with copic markers, some Smooch Iluminate on the bees' wings and a silver peel off sentiment to finish.  Papers from Basic Grey

Hope you've liked my wee card ... don't forget to play along with your favourite song over on the Sweet Stampin challenge blog (it's a tougher challenge than it sounds!)

• Sketch from Sketch and Stash #51 (my stash is my little wooden ladybug)  Its a free choice of sketch so I've used #30
• Cupcake Craft #122 - Thank You
• Papertake Weekly - Be Thankful
• CRAFT #83 - Thank You