Last card of the year

Well we're at the end of 2010 and it's been a pretty rough year for me and my family so I'm not too sad at all to put this year behind me and look forward with hope that 2011 will be a better year for us.
I wish the same for friends, followers and visitors to my blog - a peaceful and happy new year to one and all.

My last card for this year is for the DP2 challenge, I used A Thousand Stars which I coloured with a combination of Promarkers and Distress Inks. The edges of my cardstock were distressed with scissors and mounted on papers by DCWV and Basic Grey, the sentiment and the punched label are Stampin Up and the stars are from Making Memories.

I'm also entering the challenges at:
CRAFT - Thank you
Cute Card Thursday - Thank you
Sassy Studio Designs - Thank you
Papertake Weekly - Be thankful
Cupcake Craft - Thank you
Bee Crafty - Digi stamp & rough around the edges
Phindy's Place -  Thank you

Crafty Creations 100th challenge hop

This week on Crafty Creations it's our 100th challenge and we're celebrating with a blog hop!

You should have hopped here from Jeanet's  blog, if not pop on back to the beginning of the hop
at Amy's. As you will see our 100th celebration challenge is not just an ordinary challenge...
we've spiced it up!

Please stop by all of the design team blogs and leave each member a friendly comment and finally

leave us a comment on the Crafty Creations Challenge blog when you finish, so we know you've completed the hop! We have great prizes for two lucky winners from a variety of sponsors.

There are 3 parts to this challenge:

First follow Jaime's Sketch

then follow this Color Combo

finally USE A RECYCLED ELEMENT in your creation!!

I have used one of my favourite Gorjuss Girls from Suzanne Woolcott, coloured with promarkers, backed with papers from K&co, and finished with a sentiment from Stampin Up. My recycled element is the ribbon (which has Starbucks printed on the other side) - it came from one of my son's Christmas gifts from his girlfriend!

You don't want to miss any of our DT's blogs; you will find inspiration and some giveaways along the way, and we will be giving 3 lucky blog hop participant winners one sponsored prize each at the end of the hop, too!!
I will be giving 2 digital images from my other blog Cardmadfairy's Creations to one of my commentors.

 Now after leaving your comment pop on over to the next stop on the blog hop at Melissa's blog.

Also entering this for the following:
Incy Wincy - Distressing
Gingerloft - Distressing
There She Goes - Recycle it
Die Cut Dreams - How girly can you get

Really the last this time!

Every time I've thought I was finished with Christmas cards for this year I realised I needed another but this one really will be the last - no time left for any more! I saw these fabulous digi images at Tickled Pink the other day and just had to have a couple, these ones are called Lil Christmas Willow and Lil Christmas Luca. My backing paper is from Kars and the black cardstock is Core'dinations. I've had the ribbon sitting unused in my stash for a long time but knew it was perfect for this card as soon as I started it. Image was coloured with Promarkers.

Wishing all followers and visitors to my blog a Very Merry Christmas!

Entering this in these challenges:
AiFactory - Anything goes
Digi Doodle Shop's Best - Anything goes
Crafts & Me - Anything goes
Hanna & Friends - Just a little Christmas
Paper Playtime - Christmas
My Sheri Crafts - Christmas
Purple Frog - Christmas
Freshly Brewed Christmas

Crafty Creations Angels challenge

Our new challenge this week at Crafty Creations is Angels - just use an angel on your card to enter. Wink Wink Ink are our sponsors and provided us with some cute angel images to use on our DT cards.

I used Angel Kitty and coloured the image with Promarkers in soft grey shades. I die cut the oval card in white and silver and tried to create a fluffy cloud background on the white card - not sure how well that worked ;o), I used backing paper from Kars adding some lace, flatbacked pearls and a feather from my stash. The sentiment is an Elzybells one which I die cut then added a little piece of siver ribbon from one of last years Christmad crackers and a little pearl heart which I received in a swap earlier this year.

I'm entering this for the following challenges:
I Love Promarkers - Anything goes
Digi Stamps 4 Joy - Anything goes
Creative Craft - Anything goes  
Papertake Weekly - Anything goes
Crafty Sentiments - Anything goes
Simon Says - Anything goes
Artful Inkables - Punches and die cuts

Money holder cards

Another last minute job this week - I had to make some of these money holder cards for my mother to use to give some Christmas money to her grandchildren, these ones I've made for the boys so I kept them clean and simple and without embellishment. I used stamped images from Whiff of Joy, Stampabilities and Rubber Stampede and coloured them all with promarkers. I think the boys will like them but they'll like the money even more!

 

Entering these for the challenges at:
Stampin for the weekend - Christmas
2 Sisters - Christmas
A Spoonfull of Sugar - Christmas
Digis With Attitude - Anything Christmas
CES - Anything goes
I did it Creations - Anything goes
Aly's - Anything goes
Crafty Pad - Anything goes
Passion for Promarkers - Anything goes 
Crafty Catz - Your choice

A nice change

Yesterday when I got back from Christmas shopping and had a little time to craft I felt like doing something completely unrelated to Christmas and decided to make a card with this little Tilda who has been sitting all coloured up on my desk for a few weeks now. Only trouble is I was really hard pushed to find a challenge which wasn't a Christmas one!

Entering this for the Anything Goes challenges at:

Allsorts

Fluttterby Wednesdays

Sugar Sweet Paper Treats

Crafty Ann's

Creative Friday

and

CES

Left it so late!

Time has really run away from me the last few weeks and I've left it to the last minute to make my own Christmas cards for posting tomorrow - the last day for second class post. Talk about cutting it fine! Well they really did have to be quick and simple to produce so I had a little browse around various galleries for some ideas and borrowed and simplified one from a gallery on Splitcoast Stampers to make this very easy but effective card. I managed to make 15 in around an hour and would have made another 15 if I hadn't exhausted my stock of white card!

 

Entering this for these challenges:
Fab n' funky - Quick & easy does it
Kaboodle Doodles - Clean & Simple
Penny's Paper Crafty - Christmas
Crafty Catz Weekly - Anything goes

Blue Christmas

It is snowing again here this morning and I'm getting worried:  a. I've not got any presents yet - am I going to be able to get out to the shops over the next couple of days? b. Will the family be able to get here for Christmas? c. Will the post office be able to deliver the gifts etc already ordered - better not order any more! d. Last but definitely not least, will we be able to bring Mum here from the care home?  Oh dear, although it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas the snow can really make it stressful!
Hopefully this will be the last Christmas card for this year - but I'm not making any promises! This card does kind of suit the day today lol - the image is a stamped one from Heritage rubber stamps which I coloured with watercolour pencils and the paper is Basic Grey. The snowflake brads came from Woodware and the sentiment was a freebie from Bizzy Becs.

I'm entering this for the following challenges:
Create with Connie & Mary - Inspiration photo
Freshly Brewed - Merry Christmas
Stamp with Fun - Christmas
Top Tip Tuesday - Christmas
Pear Tree - Christmas
Bunny Zoe - Sparkle & shine
AiFactory - Anything goes
Pollycraft - White Christmas
Catch the Bug - Winter Wonderland
Stamptacular - Winter Wishes
Daring Cardmakers - Snow much fun

Pretty in pink

Sorry, another very brief post today - have to get off to work!

This week's challenge at Crafty Creations is a photo inspiration -

My card was made with a Greeting Farm image coloured with Promarkers and embellished with Sakura Gel pens.

Entering this for these challenges:
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - Monochromatic
Some Odd Girl - Girly
Creative Card Crew - Anything goes
Mami Doodles - Anything goes
Passion for Promarkers - Anything goes

Just a quickie

Just a short & sweet post this morning - have a stained glass order to complete today and must get on. Today I'd like to share a quick and easy gift box, it is based on a mini pizza box tutorial over at Splitcoast Stampers. I've used a non-traditional bright pink for this one with a Stampin Up 'Do not open until Christmas' sentiment on the top.

Thanks so much for looking and for all the very kind comments I've received over the last few days, I appreciate each and every one!

I'm entering this in the challenges at:
Crafty Emma - Anything but a card
Craft your Days Away - Punches or die cuts
No Time to Stamp - Quick & easy gifts
Charisma - Christmas Gift
Sugar Sweet Paper Treats - Anything goes
Incy Wincy - Non traditional Christmas colours
Cupcake Crafts - Non traditional Christmas colours

Something different!

We're having an extra special challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers for the next 4 weeks and its something a little bit different and a lot of fun! We'd like to see your Latest or greatest creation so anything you like or a particular favourite & here's the important bit, we'd also like to see your First or the Oldest one you have a photo of! Pop on over to the challenge blog to see the rules for this challenge.

We have a whole load of great sponsors for this challenge with lots of winners  too!  The prizes on offer are...

£10 voucher from Joanna Sheen

£10 voucher from The Stampman

$10 voucher for Stitchy Bear Stamps

Pack of 5 promarkers from Letraset

£10 voucher for Crafts & Me

£10 worth of stamps of your choice from Stamping all day

Like many of the other DT girls I've been crafting in one form or another for as long as I can remember but I started making cards on a regular basis when my youngest son was at playgroup (he's 15 now) and I remember taking a box of cards in to show the other mums my Mother's Day creations and having them snapped up there and then. Well that really got me going and when I think back to how simple and unsophisticated they were it makes me blush that I asked for money for them! Unfortunately I didn't take photos of any of my early cards and it wasn't until I joined an online forum and wanted to start sharing my work that I began to record what I was making.

The first card that I uploaded to the forum was mid-2008 and as you can see I wasn't very good
with the camera back then. The papers was free with a craft magazine and the bird was cut by hand out of coloured cardstock.


My latest card is a Christmas card, finished yesterday, using a digi stamp from Stitchy Bear Stamps.
I coloured the image with Promarkers and added the sparkly strands on her hat using Glossy Accents.
Apologies for my picture - I has to scan this one as it was too dark by the time I'd finished yesterday to get a photo and for some reason I'm having technical troubles with my memory card this morning - the latest in a long line of things going wrong round here!

Please join in the fun with this challenge, we're all looking forward to seeing to see your oldest and your latest or greatest projects!

I'm also entering my card in the challenges at:

The Character Cafe - Glitter

Lots to Do - Glitz

One Stop Craft - Sassy Christmas

Stamping with the Dragon - Make it sparkle

Cooking it up with Katie - Christmas, red & layers

One Stitch at a Time - Surprise us

Happy Sunday

It's Sunday and I'm happy because our little world is becoming green again - yes the snow is melting fast :o) - and I've done my last craft fair for this year so, apart from a couple of orders I still have to complete, I can pack my things away and concentrate on Christmas for my own family.

 

Today's card is my DT card for Creative Inspirations and is just about the last of the Christmas cards I intend making, I will just finish off one I'm working on for tomorrow's Crafty Cardmakers challenge and hopefully no more! My image is one I won recently from Di's Digi Designs (see link on my sidebar) and the backing paper is from Kars.

Our theme this week is Anything goes Christmas and it is our final challenge for this year, we are lucky to have 2 great sponsors, Stamp & Create & Softpencil so pop on over and join in the holiday fun :o)

My card is entered for these challenges:

AiFactory - Holiday/Christmas

Digis with Attitude - Anything goes

Stamp Something - Anything digi

Ellephantastic - Christmas/winter

Catch the Bug - Winter Wonderland

Allsorts - Last minute Christmas

Tiffany Doodles - Christmas

Alphabet - G is for glitter

One for the boys

With a husband and two sons at home you'd think I'd be inclined to make more masculine cards but no it's entirely the opposite - I hardly ever make cards for boys and only have a few boy images which I've been given from crafty friends. I really like this one although I don't know what it's called (?).
I coloured the image with Promarkers and mounted it on blue pearlescent card and tied some sparkly green fibre down one side. The snowflakes are glittery paper die cuts and are held together with dinky Basic Grey brads. The sentiment is Stampin Up.

This is for the following challenges:
Dutch Dare - Christmas
Pixie Dust Studios - Let it snow
Sassy Studios Designs - Non traditional Christmas colours
Shirley2Girls - Holidays using glitter & bling
Freshly Brewed - Sparkle & shine
Little Red Wagon - Die cuts
Cards for Men - Masculine & Christmas
Stamptacular Sunday - Blue Christmas

Baby's First Christmas

Today's card is a request for a friend who I'll be scrapbooking with tonight - hope you like it Alison!

The image is by the fabulous Mo Manning and as soon as I saw it I thought it would be perfect for this card, I coloured the image with Promarkers and used Nestabilities to cut the cardstock, cutting round the star and the baby's hands before using the die so that they would overlap the frame. I didn't have a suitable sentiment so I borrowed my Crafty Creations teamie Claire's (Hope Jacare) style of handwritten sentiments and doodling to add the greeting. The snowflake was a Cuttlebug die cut which I cut from white cardstock and added glitter to and a little pink brad to attach it to the card.

Entering this for the following challenges:
Gingersnap Creations - White glitter
Penny's Paper Crafts - Christmas
Scrapbook Sisters - Snowflakes
Simon Says Stamp - Christmas - no red or green
Fab n Funky - Christmas for children
Creative Belli - Christmas embellishments
Stampavie & More - Christmas
Papertake Weekly - Christmas - non traditional colours
Tuesday Throwdown - Clean & simple

Crafty Creations challenge

This week's new challenge over at Crafty Creations is a Beary project - in other words you can do anything as long as it includes a Bear. My image for this card comes from our sponsor this week Kayla of  Purple Panda Designs, Kayla is only 16 years old and has some lovely digi stamps in her shop and our winner will be able to choose 3 of them.

I coloured my image with a mix of Promarkers and watercolour pencils, cut out the circle and scalloped circle with Nestabilities, I then drew round my circle Nestie on my white cardstock and cut a semi circle on the top half of my square card which I mounted the image on. The backing paper is PaperArtsy and the snowflake brads are from Woodware.

Entering it at these challenges:

Crazy - All I want for Christmas is you

Paper Playtime - Snowflakes

Stamping  Scrapping - Christmas

City Crafter - Let it snow

Pear Tree - Winter wonderland

A Spoonfull of Sugar - Christmas

Digital Tuesday - Digi & Baby it's cold outside

Stamps R Us - Holiday card

CCEE - Snowman

The Paper Players - Christmas

Lollipop Craft - Welcome winter

From the Frozen North

This week in Scotland we've been given a bit of insight to what it might be like to live in one of the Scandinavian countries, it has snowed for eight days out of the last ten and the snow is now up nearly to the level of our windows. The trees look gorgeous all covered in white and when the sun shines, as it is now, our world looks stunning but sooo cold! Schools are back after a full week off (Evan is very grumpy - he would prefer to be tucked up in bed all morning!), buses are running again after a complete stoppage yesterday so Owen will be able to get into town to see his girlfriend, and the pavement outside our house has been cleared by one of the little snowploughs so at least we can get out and about a little more easily. I have been happily staying in and crafting for days but am beginning to feel the need to get out and about again.

Now for today's card, the Edwin image is one I received from a friend and has been coloured with Promarkers. The backing paper from is from Kars and I've punched some of the snowflakes from it to make the baubles. I've kept it pretty simple as I don't like to embellish male cards too much. I'm entering it in the following challenges:

Corrosive Challenges - Red & white

Crafty Ho's - Any religious holiday

Wags n' Whiskers - Snowflakes

Sew Many Challenges - Snowflakes

Christmas Card Challenge - Christmas/monochrome option

Crafty Pad - Anything goes

Catch the Bug - Anything goes

Crafty Cardmakers spotlight challenge

This week at Crafty Cardmakers the spotlight  is on Tags and the team were lucky enough to have been given some images from our sponsor Prairie Fairy to play with.

I used Prairie Fairy's Mistletoe Kisses for my tag and coloured the image with Promarkers, for the furry borders on her coat & pompom I used some of a puffy snow product from Woodware and added some glitter whilst still wet then puffed it up with my heat gun. I added glossy accents to her glasses and to the holly on the greeting. I used a Nellie Snellen die to cut the oval, edged it with ink and added a narrow ribbon to finish. The tag itself I cut from a piece of white cardstock and inked the edges with Peeled Paint Distress ink, spritzed with gold pearl pigment mixed with water then stamped holly leaves right around the border. I added a little piece of Stampin Up patterned paper edged with a Martha Stewart border punch and finished off with three small brads. Finally added an eylet and some ribbon to complete the tag.

I'm joining in with the following challenges:
Really Reasonable Ribbon - Anything but a card - winter theme
Dutch Dare - Christmas Card, tag or ornament
Secret Crafter - Christmas
Paper Garden Projects - Tag you're it
Simon Says Stamp & Show - Holiday Greeting
Delicious Doodles - Use a digi
Bunny Zoe's - Christmas but not a card
Little Red Wagon - Christmas tag or bag
Mark's Finest Paper - Red & Green
Stamp Something - Christmas colour combo
Paper Romance - Winter
Pile it On - It's all in the wrapping
Creative Belli - All the Rs - Ribbon, red etc 
Fussy & Fancy - Anything but a card

Fed up & Frustrated

With Saturday's Craft Fair cancelled, due to the arctic conditions here in Scotland, I'm so frustrated that all the crafty items I've spent weeks working on are going to be staying in boxes and not earning me any money to buy Christmas presents,  so if anybody out there has got any bright and practical ideas on how I can sell some of them over the next couple of weeks I'd be delighted to hear them!

Today's card uses on of my Christmas digi stamps Pogo - half price at the moment over at Cardmadfairy's Creations,  I coloured the image with Promarkers and added glitter on his earmuffs, the papers are from PaperArtsy and the snowflake stamp, which I heat embossed with holographic embossing powder, is from Stampin Up.

I'm entering this for the challenges over at:

Artful Inkables - Die cuts or punches

Digital Tuesday - Digi stamp and animals at Christmas (hope my penguin counts?)

Karber Weekly - Digi stamp & sparkle

Stamps R Us - Holiday cards

Crafty Pad - Snowflakes

Scrappy Frogs - Christmas

Woodware USA - Anything goes

Crafty Little Place - Anything goes

Scrap-Creations - Anything goes

A gift card holder

Our new challenge this week at Crafty Creations is to create a Gift Card Holder - not necessarily a Christmas one but we'd like to see fun and creative ways to jazz up a gift card present. Pop on over to the blog for some great ideas!

I found this Beanie Cap Gift Card Holder by Carolina Buchting on Splitcoast Stampers and had made one already to show my scrapbooking group a couple of weeks ago so decided to make another for this challenge - I think it's a great design and will definitely be using it again!

 

The papers I used are from Kars and the gorgeous rose is from Wild Orchid.

Entering this for the challenges at:
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Christmas but no cards
Corrosive - Something that moves
Daring Cardmakers - Spots & stripes
Paper Romance - Add a tag
Our Creative Corner - Tag, you're it
Little Papershop - Funky Edge
Cardvaarks - Gift card or money holder
Kaboodle Doodles - Tag, you're it