Snowed in!

Can hardly believe it - British Summer time starts and we're snowed in, what's going on?? School was closed by mid day and Neil couldn't get to work. I was supposed to go and clean up my mother's study to let the painters paint it but my little Polo ain't built for the snow and wasn't going anywhere. The buses gave up about 5 miles away so what did I do - yep you guessed it I went and crafted :o)


I checked out a couple of challenge blogs and was inspired by Simon Says Stamp's It's so distressing challenge so went and hauled out my distress inks and made this card. I used the ink to color my circle which I then masked with a couple of die cut flourishes and then sprayed with Tattered Angel Glimmer Mist before stamping the Fairy House image from Lavinia Stamps, I then added some colour with Promarkers and Sakura glitter pens. The flying fairies are also from Lavinia Stamps, i edged them with distress ink and used Stickles on their wings. The backing papers are K&Co and the flowers are Prima.

Entering the following challenges:
Simon Says - It's so Distressing
Crafts & Me - Fairies/Wings
Passion for Promarkers - 2 images
Truly Scrumptious - Fly Away
Crafty Creations - Anything Goes
Sketch Saturday - Sketch

Monday morning

Another new week and the house is very quiet this morning, just me and two sleepy cats in the house just now. I am just going to share today's card with you before getting on with some (very necessary) housework.


I had several challenges in mind when I made this card and I started with this image which I am using for the first time, she is Willow in the Summer Breeze from Whiff of Joy - doesn't she make you think of summer? The butterfly and flower border stamps are from Clare Curd's Doodles from Papermania. My backing papers are also Papermania. I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder on my punched circle and a Nestability die for the scalloped circle. My sentiment stamp came from Funky Kits. Hope you like my card for today - now I'm off to get down to some serious tidying!

Secret Crafter - Pink, Green & Flowers
Totally Gorjuss - Hearts
Totally Paper Crafts - Pink & Green
Flutter by Wednesday - Open
Colour Create - Your Choice of Pastels
Fun with Shapes - Faux Stitching
and finally
Hand full of Stamps - You're a Sweet One

Scrap the Art

It's our 4th challenge over at Scrap the Art and this fortnight's inspirational piece of art is Larry Rivers Rainbow Rembrandt, 1977. You can use the colours, the artist, the subject or anything else that the work suggests to you as your inspiration. I have to say it took me a long time to decide what to do but with the help of another couple of challenges I decided to use the colours to base my card on this time. The cute digi stamp came from Kimprints our sponsor for this challenge.


The other challenges I found to inspire me were:
Raise the Bar - April Fool (the stitching is way out of my comfort zone - I usually just fake it!)
Saturday Spotlight - Coffee (the colour scheme)
Pile it On - Furry Friends
Your Next Stamp - Distressing

Cold & wet again

It's really not nice today here in Scotland, pity my husband started working outdoors this week - it's probably been the wettest week here since it stopped snowing! I, however, have been stuck indoors with only evening shifts at the library so what's a girl to do but craft?!


Today's card is again using fresh springlike colours and follows the sketch at Papertake Weekly. I was lucky enough to win a few Softpencil images a couple of weeks ago and this one Butterfairy is my favourite of the bunch. I coloured her with Promarkers and Sakura glitter pens then used a waterbrush to spread the shimmer around on her dress and wings. I added some doodles to the left side of the lilac paper and also doodled on her dress and added a little more glitter with Stickles.
The backing paper is K&Co Sparkly Sweet, the flowers are Primas and I added sticky backed gems for extra sparkle.

The challenges I'm entering:
Papertake Weekly - sketch
Simon Says Stamp - Spring with glimmer
Creative Cottage - Sparkles
Stamp Something - Doodle Somethings
Totally Gorjuss - Ribbon
One Stop Craft - Let it Shine
Crazy 4 Challenges - Spring
Crafty Cardmakers - Spring into Spring

I've changed my mind...

...it's nothing like spring today!!! It is wet and so misty I can barely see across the street and I've just had to put the heating back on as my hands are so cold I'm having to blow on them to warm them enough to craft, I also have forms to fill in and letters to write so I hope they warm up soon! Anyway today's card is more about spring and Easter which is just around the corner now. Following the sketch at I Love Promarkers, I've used my own digi stamp Chickadees coloured with the trusty old Promarkers and Basic Grey Lime Rickey papers. Lovely bright Prima flowers and BG brads to make this one. Sorry just a short post today - have to make my boys some lunch, they'll be home in 15 minutes, thanks so much for looking :o)


Entering the challenges at:
Digital Tuesday - Spring
Basic Grey - Tutti Frutti
I love Promarkers - Sketch
Going Grey - Spring
C.R.A.F.T - Easter
and
Charisma Cardz - Spring has sprung

It feels like spring

Yes the sun is shining, the crocuses are out, lambing is in progress - it must be spring. I love being able to look out to the fields to see the new little lambs taking their first look at the world and being able to hear their mothers calling to them, it's such a great time of year. Today's card is a spring offering, I think it would be suitable for a spring greeting, for Easter or even a birthday - what do you think?


The image is a Messy Rabbit one from Joanna Sheen, coloured with Promarkers and finished with Glossy Accents on the tulips and Stickles on the cotton-tail for a bit of shine and sparkle. My backing paper is K&Co Hopscotch and the border punch I've used is from Stampin Up. I've had the ribbon for a long time and this is the first time I've used it - I like the way it ties the colours together. Finally I added three dewdrops for balance.

Hope you like my spring offering which I'm entering for challenges at:
Passion for Promarkers - Spring + Animal
Allsorts - Spring is in the Air
Our Creative Corner - Easter
Stamp Something - Distressed Somethings
One Stop Craft Challenge - Shine
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - Tearing
Sketch Saturday - Sketch

What - no card?!

Creative Inspirations challenge this fortnight is anything but a card and the design team were asked to make two items for the challenge. It was hard to choose what to make and I thought about plumping for the fairly obvious Easter gift basket or bag but I wanted to do something a little bit different. So firstly I recycled an old, round chocolate box by covering it with K&Co Classic K papers, Brenda Walton Ribbon, Prima flowers and half pearls. I then made the centerpiece flower for the top by cutting 6 scallop circles with my smallest Nestability die, snipping between each scallop with a pair of scissors (about 1 cm), spritzing the circles with water and scrunching them up. I then straightened them out enough to layer them up and poked a hole in the middle adding a brad to hold the whole thing together. I was then able to tease the scallops into shape and stick the flower on top of a few stamens to finish off my box.

My second creation is a paperbag album, only the second time I've tried making one of these and I really enjoyed doing this one. I've used Basic Grey Marrakech papers and very little else - a few odds and ends of buttons and ribbon, Basic Grey brads and a fabulous grommet (I think that's what it's called) on the front which my husband gave me along with the Big Bite he bought me last Christmas. I have left the insides of the album fairly blandk because I'm not sure yet whether to keep it, give it as a gift or even to sell it. The first one I made sold on Ebay and I was quite pleased with what I got for it - maybe I could buy some more BG papers with the money...??

Don't Forget

There is still a little over 24 hours left of my 2 for the price of 1 offer over at my Cardmadfairy's Creations Digi Stamp blog, they have been selling really well today and I hope that tomorrow will be just as busy. Thanks to everyone who has stopped by and ordered digi stamps, I hope you are all enjoying some time to play with them!

Saturday Spotlight challenge

This week's Saturday Spotlight challenge wants you to design a birthday card using your own birthstone colour, as my birthday is in April (yes folks 2 weeks today!) my birthstone is a Diamond or White Topaz so I made a white card. I've never made a card in all one colour before and it was a bit of a challenge (!) for me but I'm quite pleased with the result. I used a cuttlebug embossing folder for the central panel, wrapped some black cord around the page and tied it in a bow, I made a flower using different sized punches, a Prima flower and half pearl for the middle. I covered the flower in Stickles to make it sparkle, added some small Prima flowers, 3 dewdrops and a pearl hat pin which I found in an old jewellery box. Finally I stamped the sentiment on a small piece of card, doodled round the edge and hey presto a card is made!
The half pearl and the sentiment are both from Stampin Up.

I'm also entering the card for the challenges at:
Stamp Simply #131 - CAS Texture
and
Die Cut Dreams - Pack a Punch

All my digi stamps - 2 for the price of 1

Yes that's right it's two for the price of one all weekend over at Cardmadfairy's Creations, for every digi stamp that you buy for only 99p you will be able to choose another - totally free of charge - and if you buy 3 you will get six images for only £2.97 - what a bargain!!
Go and have a look at all the great images there are over there. Just add the items you want to pay for to your Paypal basket and when you complete the payment process just add the free images you would like in the comments window - easy! If you complete the process and forget to add the free images you want just email me to let me know your preferred free images and I will send them to you.

A way to calm down

KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON - the iconic wartime poster phrase is something I have to keep reminding myself of at the moment. Who knew life could get so stressful?? My way of keeping calm is to find some time to go off and make a card in my small corner of my youngest son's bedroom. Things are going to have to change round here over the coming months and I may well lose my little oasis for a time but will have try to find a way to carry on with my crafting if only to preserve my sanity!


Yesterday's therapy was based on a sketch on the Passion for Promarkers challenge, Miss Anya was coloured with my Promarkers and mounted on blue card. I used Sparkly Sweet papers from K&Co, edging the layers with blue ink to lift them a bit from the base layer. I made the flowers by making a running stitch along a 3" length of lace and tying my thread in a knot to gather the lace into a circle, I then fed the thread through the holes in a button and tied another knot - simples! Hope you like my card, thanks so much for stopping by :o)
Challenges I'm entering this card for:
Passion for Promarkers - Sketch
Anyone for Anya - Spring Fever
Pink Elephant - Spring
Crafty Cardmakers - Feminine Celebration
Pile It On - Pastels
Pixie Dust - Buttons and Flowers

Scrap the 'Pop' Art

Hi everyone, hope you're all enjoying a nice weekend, the sun has been shining all day here but unfortunately I've been stuck behind the desk at the library so didn't see much of it. Today's card is my DT card for Scrap the Art, the inspiration this fortnight is the pop art classic Andy Warhol's Marilyn

and we had a couple of fun images from our sponsor Jessica from JW Illustrations to work with

My card was partly done on the computer, I drew up the squares and dropped in the image x 4 and coloured it up in colours to echo the Warhol print, I then printed my coloured image out and mounted it up on some bright orange cardstock and stamped a few flowers around the edges of the cardstock. I decided to make an easel card so that I could add a sentiment without having to add it to the illustration and destroy the symmetry, I think it works quite well - what do you think?


My sentiment is from Stampin Up and the button and ribbon from my stash.
I am also entering the card into the challenges at
My Time to Craft - Kids Kardz
and
Dare U 2 Digi Stamp - No patterned paper

Going grey - new challenge

I found a new challenge today - "Going Grey challenge" at Scrap-Creations, it will be a weekly challenge and if you want to enter a card it has to feature Basic Grey paper. The theme of the first challenge is Celebrations.

I followed a sketch from Simon Says Stamp after seeing a card my sister Gillian had made for their challenge - go and have a look, she's done a fabulous job with my digi stamp Lucy's Ted which can be found on my other blog Cardmadfairy's Creations.

I used BG Lime Rickey papers on my card and coloured my Tilda image in citrussy colours to match, I then used a Nellie Snellen die to cut my oval and the sentiment tag which I've attached with ribbon. Most (if not all) of my flowers are Prima.

I'm entering the card for these challenges:
C.R.A.F.T. - Citrus:
Simon Says Stamp - Sketch (and Magnolia image):
Going Grey at Scrap-Creations - Celebration:
My Time to Craft - Kids Kardz:
and Creative Inspirations - Charms

Creative Inspirations Challenge 29

It's a new day for the Creative Inspirations fortnightly challenge, from now on it will now be going live on Sunday instead of Monday. So here is my DT card for the new challenge which is to create a male card (can be for man or Child as long as it is on a male theme).
I've used an image from the uber talented Dustin Pike for this one, coloured as always with Promarkers. The papers are K&Co, the sentiment is from Studio G and the buttons are from my local Oxfam shop - I used to go and rake through their button box quite regularly until someone came along and bought the lot! Grr - will have to wait a while for them to build up a new collection....
Also entering this for:
Allsorts challenge - Just for men
Double Dutch - Boys Only
and
Sew Many Challenges - Let's hear it for the boys

Friday again

Where on earth did the week go?

Spent a lot of time on family matters this week so it was a relief to be able to sit down at my desk to make a card this morning. I was expecting to be doing a craft fair tomorrow so intended to spend today sorting all my stock - cards, stained glass and jewelery, but had a call to say it was canceled because of all the snow we still have on the ground here, I'm disappointed as I was counting on making a little bit of money and now have nowhere to sell all the Mother's Day and Easter cards I've been working on. Anyway as I said, I managed to get a card done this morning and I think this will be for my own mother who is having some issues with her health at the moment.


I decided to follow the colour combo at Mo's Digital Pencil challenge which is Blue, Brown and a neutral (white or cream) - had no blue patterned paper so used one of my Stampin Up rollers to create a pattern on some plain blue, I used Whisper White ink and the Forever Flowers border wheel. The brown paper was again a plain one so I stamped a couple of swirls to add a bit of interest to it. The image is, of course, one of Mo's - AM Sweet Tooth - which I coloured with the trusty Promarkers. To embellish I used several blue blooms which came from various places, and I finished it off with a stamped sentiment which was much too big for the card but I stamped it onto shrink plastic and shrunk it with my heat tool to make it fit better.

Also entering for challenges at:
Totally Papercraft - Mother's Day/Special Lady
I Love Digi - Sketch & A Card for Mum
C.R.A.F.T. challenge - Mother's Day/Flowers
and
My Time to Craft - Just for Mum

Easter Bunnies!

Today's card is my DT card for Your Special Delivery March challenge, the image - Anna & Bella - and the backing paper from Gina are free for you to take and make your own card for the challenge. You have until the end of March to add your project.

Also entering the card to the Pink Elephant challenge - which is add Green to your colour scheme and to Cute Card Thursday who are looking for ribbon on your project.