Doodle Palace challenge

My crafty friend Jude , as winner of last week's Doodle Palace challenge - congrats Jude! - has set this week's new challenge which is: a Christmas Card using the color combo: Traditional Green and Red. She would also like everyone to use: 2 PAPERS, 3 BRADS, 4 FLOWERS and 1 RIBBON.
My card is below and I've just noticed having read the instructions again that she says 4 flowers - not 3 - but actually my 3 flowers are made up from 6 different ones stuck together - so does that then count??

The papers I've used are from DCWV, the image is one of my new range of stamps available here and the other bits and pieces are all from my stash.

Mega candy giveaway

Jude has a mega - candy giveaway today go and check out her blog here for your chance to win all this -

Thank goodness it's Monday!!!

I have been working at the library every day recently including Saturday and Sunday and have had very little time for playing. So I'm glad that it's Monday and I have the next few days without work and have time to catch up with some challenges and with my other crafts - stained glass and jewellery. I have quite a large stained glass order to fulfill so that will keep me busy for a few days but at least I'll be at home and able to sneak in the odd card here and there!

Today's card is for Carol's Sketch Fun challenge and I flipped the sketch so it also works for the Papercraft Weekly challenge, I've used papers from Kars, a sentiment from Pink Petticoat and of course the image is Magnolia, I received this one in an image swap so don't know what it's called I'm afraid.

Fliss also has a new range of stamps.....

.... and she is offering the full range as candy on her blog. Congratulations Fliss I'm sure the new stamps are going to go down a bomb!

A new home for my Stamps and Digital Images

I have just created a new blog from which I can sell my stamps and images direct, please go and have a look and say hello to me at Cardmadfairy's Creations!

Stamp Something Challenge

This week's challenge concludes the month of Favourites at Stamp Something, it's the turn of Favourite Layout or Sketch. As I'm kind of in Christmas mode at the moment what with the arrival of all my own Christmas Stamps I decided to continue with that theme but I used an image from Pollycraft for this week's card, my backing papers are Basic Grey and DCWV.
I love the warm colours on this card and really enjoyed doing all the distressing which, I notice from all the blogs I've visited in the last few days, seems to be very popular at the moment!

My new stamps are here!!

Took delivery of my first batch of clear, unmounted Christmas stamps yesterday and have been busy trimming them and packaging them up ready to sell to anyone who is interested. They are priced at £4 each and I will post free of charge within the UK. Happy to post overseas but will have to charge for that I'm afraid. They are all available to buy direct from my new blog.


They have been tested to make sure that they stamp well and I can honestly say that they stamped perfectly - I'm delighted with the quality. I also have shown the images coloured although it was the digi images I used - no time to colour the stamped ones yet as I'm working a lot of hours this week, but anyone who follows my blog will have seen a few sample cards already as I've been using the digi images quite a lot recently!

DT card for Creative Inspiration

Had such a long day today - it was local holiday here but I had to work from 12 - 8.30 and it was really quiet at the library - most people thought we'd be on holiday too! Anyway I didn't have time this morning to post my Design Team card for Creative Inspirations and it was my challenge this week - a sketch!
Anyway here is the sketch followed by my card, the papers are from Southfield's new Christmas range and the felt snowflakes are from The Pier. The sentiment is part of a Stamps Happen Christmas stamp.

Top Five

I was really pleased yesterday to see that I'd been chosen as one of Basic Grey's Top Five in last week's challenge so I felt quite inspired to have a shot at this week's challenge which is Embossing. I used a Sugar Nellie stamp which also makes my card eligible for the Sugar Bowl challenge where there is a great sketch and colour scheme of Pink and Brown, finally I also used the theme Fall into Autumn which is the theme of this week's Spoonfull of Sugar challenge.


I used Basic Grey Sugared paper for my backing and also to paper piece Nellie's heart, the embossing was done with my Cuttlebug D'Vine Swirl folder and I coloured the image with Promarkers. Have to say I was quite pleased with the result of combining the 3 challenges!

Favourite colours

Stamp Something's challenge this week is Favourite Colours or Papers and the sponsor for this challenge is the Doodle Palace who are offering 3 images from their shop as the prize for this week's randomly chosen winner.


My card was made with a digital image from Spiral Whisper and coloured in my favourite shades of turquoise, I then couldn't find a paper to work with the image until I turned up this free downloaded one and unfortuately I've forgotten where it came from - I will do a trawl through my computer folders and add that info as soon as I can find it! I finished the card off with some organza ribbon from Hobbycraft and a sentiment from Creative Cafe.

Whiff of Joy - a sketch

Had a good morning today teaching a workshop on Paper Jewellery, the ladies really enjoyed themselves and there was lots of good chat while we all got busy making various kinds of paper beads. Got home just in time to fit a card in before the family came home from school and work - all in all a good day! Full day on my feet at the library tomorrow though so no time to craft : (

This weeks Whiff of Joy challenge is a sketch by Heather:



I have used Kneeling Willow and coloured the image with Promarkers. The backing papers are from K&Co, the flowers are Prima Artful Collage and the sentiment is Heidi Swapp. Again not happy with my photograph - don't know what I'm doing wrong but I'm really not getting good results at the moment.

My card for Paige

Made this card last week for Paige, a young girl who had a very serious boating accident and has lost part of her arm as a result. If you'd like to send her a card all the details can be found here on Erin's blog. My card will be in the post today.

Meet Skipping Debbie

Skipping Debbie is my latest Digital Image and I think she's pretty cute. I wanted to make a bright, cheerful card with her so I checked around the blogs and found that the Passion for Promarkers challenge for this week is Any Colours and Polkadots so decided make my card to suit, the photo has a bit of a strange blue tint to it so I'll try taking another one if the light is better later.

The paper is Basic Grey Lime Rickey, the flowers and ribbon are from my (ancient) stash and the sentiment is from Woodware. Hope you like Debbie look out for more images coming soon :)

Thanks for popping by today.

Distressed

No not me - just the card! I wanted to make a card with distress inks after teaching a workshop on Stamping with Distress Inks on Saturday morning so was looking around for a challenge I could enter when I found this great new challenge blog: La-La Land Crafts blog where the challenge this week is Distressing - perfect! This card is the result and I was really pleased with how it turned out.

I stamped my Gorjuss girl using distress ink and with a water brush just went round the outline to create a bit of shadow, I then worked into the image a bit just spreading the black ink around a bit, I added the red with a Promarker. I then edged the card with black distress ink and stamped some swirls with Versamark spritzed with water. I then masked my image and spritzed the whole piece of card with Glimmer Mist. My backing paper is from K&Co Classic K Mckenna stack. I had made the flower previously and was waiting for a project that it worked for - this was it!

Passion for Promarkers

There's a great Blog Hop going on over at Passion for Promarkers just look at the fantastic prize up for grabs!

Favourite Embellishments

This week's challenge at Stamp Something is to create something using your favourite embellishments and is sponsored by the fabulous Quixotic Paperie who are offering the lucky winner 100 lovely charms to use on their cards.



For my own Design Team card I used my favourite (at the moment) embellishments which are any kind of handcrafted flowers, the ones I've used here are very simple ones which have been cut from coloured card by hand, stamped on, then finished with a brad. The little bird is also done in the same way.

Basic Grey week 3

The challenge at Basic Grey is to take inspiration from the photo below. Now I don't have too many Basic Grey papers although I do love the ones I have and it takes me a long time before I can bear to actually use them for something but when I saw the photo I knew that I had a paper which would be was perfect for today's card. I think the paper is called Jack Frost but I could be mistaken, the image is Skating Josie, one of my digital images which is at the moment off being made into a rubber stamp along with the rest of my Christmas images. I made the flowers with punched circles crumpled, distressed with ink and held together with teeny brads. The sentiment is from Papermania.

Whiff of Joy - Orange and Teal

I've been busy for the last couple of days preparing for two classes I'm doing at Southfield Stationers, firstly on Stamping with Distress Inks on Saturday (12th) and then Making Paper Jewellery next Thursday (17th). The results of my labours - the jewellery at least - proved tricky to photograph, I could not, no matter how many times I tried, get them in focus, I will have to try again another day!

So I then made a card for this week's Whiff of Joy challenge where the theme is Orange and Teal. I used my Sitting Farmer Oakley stamp combined with the Large Mushroom accessory stamp then coloured them with Promarkers. The backing papers are from Crossed Paths and Cherry Arte. The sentiment and the grass stamps are from Studio G and the button is a Sizzix die cut.

Creative Inspirations challenge 16

I'm really excited today, I sent off my first lot of designs (see sidebar) to be made into clear polymer stamps and I'm dying to see them - should be around a week or so before they arrive back to me so watch this space!

Today's card is my Design Team offering for Creative Inspirations challenge no 16 where the brief this time, chosen by Louise, is Lilac/Purple & Grey. I have used my Promarkers (surprise!) to colour Geisha Anya and mounted her onto lilac and then metallic grey card.
The lilac backing paper was a scrap leftover from something so I have forgotten where it cams from, the ribbon and button came from my stash.



Got to rush off now Lynsey is coming over for her tea tonight and I have to get cookin'!

Jude's Daily Giveaway

Every day this week Jude has been giving away some candy, today is day 6 and she has some Magnolia stamps and a pack of Quick Rockers. Go and have a look over here and leave her a comment to be in with a chance of winning.

Favourite Somethings - a challenge with a cause!

This week's Stamp Something challenge is to use your favourite stamp - harder than you might think! There are so many gorgeous stamps it is very difficult to choose just one. Anyway I decided to go for Pen Pal from Sugar Nellie because I really love colouring this stamp. I used my Promarkers (natch) - I've been gradually increasing the number of colours I have to choose from and I'm looking forward to the new range coming out later this month :)

This week's challenge is sponsored by Christian Paper Crafts who are offering the winner a set of Nestabilities Labels of their own choice! Great prize - pity I can't enter this one!! There is also a special request with this challenge, it would be wonderful if you could make your card for a young girl called Paige who has been involved in a serious boating accident, while on holiday, which you can read all about on Erin's blog, you can post your card direct to Paige in hospital or sent it to Erin who will deliver it herself, the addresses are on her blog.



My backing papers are from Papermania Exquisite set and I used my Nesties for the scalloped circles, the flowers are made from Cuttlebug die cuts.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Anya + Promarkers

After a very busy few days - preparing for and teaching a stamping class in between two shifts at the library, making 11 Thankyou Cards for a wedding party and tidying up my crafting space which left me with little time for playing but I finally got round to making a card this morning before going to work.

I'm combining two challenges with today's card, Passion for Promarkers challenge where the theme this week is 'Girly & Glittery' and I followed the sketch from the Anyone for Anya challenge.

Miss Anya is coloured with Promarkers: Dusky Pink, Coral and a touch of Berry Red, Ivory & Blush for the skin, Sandstone, Henna and Cocoa for the hair and finished off with some Black for the boots! The backing paper is from Kars' new Christmas collection.