Wednesday 30 March 2011

Bunnies

Today our challenge is all about bunnies at Crafty Creations, any kind of project will be fine as long as it involves bunnies! Our winner will receive this lovely little package of crafty goodies so hop on over and enter this week's challenge :o)


I have used the very cute Waldorf from CGS Artstamps, who looks as if he's stuffed himself with too many carrots (or possibly easter eggs!) and coloured him with Promarkers. I cut a scalloped circle with a Nellie Snellen die to mount the image on, the backing paper is K&Co and was lightly inked around the edges, the flowers were die cut with a Marianne Creatables set and topped with Prima blooms and flatbacked pearls to finish them off. The sentiment was computer generated.


Entering these challenges:
Kaboodle Doodles - Spring has sprung
Karens Doodles - Easter
Paper Playtime - Anything goes
Creative Inspirations Paint  - Flowers
Sparkles Forum  - Springtime
Totally Gorjuss - Spring has sprung
A Spoonful Of Sugar - Easter
Sweet Stamps - Easter

Tuesday 29 March 2011

More birthdays


I'm still working on stocking up my birthday card collection and today's two are a couple of quick cards I made the other day with these gorgeous papers from Stampin Up, the stamp set I have used are from Clare Curds signature collection from Papermania because I thought they worked particularly well with the papers.
I'm now off to top up my stock of stained glass suncatchers - or at least make a start before I have to go to work at lunchtime :o)

Entering the following challenges and the Blog Hop at Creative Cowgirls:
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Happy Birthday with lots of Pearls
Creative Craft Friends - Spring
Make it Monday - Anything goes
Stamp with Fun - Spring
Stamps R Us - Spring
Aly's Sunday Challenge - Spring
Creative Cowgirls - Spring or Easter

Sunday 27 March 2011

Mother's Day


This fortnight's challenge at Creative Inspirations is all about Mum - show us your Mother's Day cards or gifts for a chance to win a £10 voucher from our Sponsor Joanna Sheen.

I decided to have another attempt at the clean & simple style and used a Stampin Up stamp which I stamped first in blue and then in brown creating a shadow effect which I was quite pleased with, I then added some Stickles for a little sparkly bling. I matted the stamped image on blue cardstock and stamped the sentiment to match. A little lace is the only embellishment.

Entering the following challenges:
Just Add Ink - Use just stamps & cardstock
Stampin For The Weekend - Mother's Day
Creative Craft World - Mother's Day plus bling
Creative Craft Challenges - Lace
Simon Says Stamp - Mother's Day/girlie
Paper Take Weekly - It's a Mum thing, or just be girly
Allsorts - For a special lady
Craft your days away - For Mum or a special lady
ECP Challenges - For Mum




Friday 25 March 2011

Stocking up

I realised recently that my stock of birthday cards was running a bit low so today's card had to be a birthday one, I also needed to work quickly as I've had to work at the library a lot more than usual and have only had one day off since last Tuesday and I'm now struggling to be ready for a craft fair in a fortnight's time.

I looked for an image which I had already coloured up with my Promarkers as a starting point and then looked for a few challenges to inspire me. I chose this Tilda image which I've had waiting to be used on a card for quite a while and then looked for papers to work alongside the colours I had used. These ones from Doolicraft seemed to fit best and looked good with the metallic cardstock I have used to die cut the scalloped circle and punch the tabs.

Entering my card for these challenges:
4 Crafty Chicks - Eyelets 
Delightful Challenges - Pastels and Ribbons 
Digi Doodle Shop's Best - Ribbons & Bows 
Dutch Dare Card Challenge - Celebrations
Meljens Designs - Punches
Stamp Insanity - Punch It Out 
Amber's Crafts and Stuff - Use diecuts

Wednesday 23 March 2011

In Stitches

Do you feel like sewing on this week's project for the Crafty Creations challenge, or are you in need of a good laugh? Two options for our In Stitches theme this week and you can choose either if you'd like to enter! For my card I managed to combine both a fun image and sentiment with some stitching which I actually did on the machine this time as I had it out to make a batch of sock toys for an upcoming craft fair.

I'm afraid that product information is sadly lacking on this project - the image was one I got in a grab bag of unmounted rubber stamps from the US some years ago and the paper was part of a swap so no info on that. The Happy Birthday sentiment and the large felt flower are from Stampin Up and the tiny buttons are Docrafts. The other fabric flowers are part of a garland from Hobbycraft which I pulled apart for my card.

 

That's enough from me this morning - back to the machine now for some more monkey mayhem!


High Hopes Stamps - Use Fabric
My Partner in Crafting Crime - 3 or more buttons
Squigglefly - Buttons
Totally Gorjuss - Button It
Totally Papercrafts - Buttons
ABC - Quilting or sewing 

Tuesday 22 March 2011

For a change

Just for a change I thought I'd have a shot at a Clean & Simple card. Not at all my usual style of late but fun to do although a little bit of a challenge getting it all lined up reasonably straight!


I'm entering it for the following challenges:
Lawnscaping -  Colour Splash
Woodware USA - Black, white and one other
Sugar Creek Hollow - Anything Goes
Make it Monday - Anything goes

Monday 21 March 2011

Special birthday card

Happy Monday everyone, hope this will be a good week for all! I'm having to work again, for 6th consecutive day, covering for a sick colleague so not getting much crafting time unfortunately. Hoping she might be well enough to return to work tomorrow ;o)

The challenge this week at Crafty Cardmakers is Special Birthdays - I didn't have anyone in particular in mind when I made this card but but I used a few different challenges for inspiration (listed at the bottom).


The papers I used are Basic Grey Lime Rickey, I took some chipboard numbers and covered them with one of the papers, sanding the edges to define them, I also added glossy accents and a touch of extra fine glitter to the spots to make them stand out a bit - the Stampin Up punched bird got the same treatment. The Happy Birthday banner was stamped then  coloured with Promarkers and cut out, I made the little holes with a sharp pointy tool (don't know what it's called!) and added some linen thread to string it all together.
This week's challenge is sponsored by Joanna Sheen

Inspired by some of these challenges and my card fits in with others:
Fabulous Friday - Banners
Fairy Knoll - Birthday or thank you
Guylou's Inimitability - Dots
Paper Cutz - Your choice
Phindy’s Place - Hot stuff/warm colours/sunshine
Birthday Sundaes - Anything goes birthday card 
Hello Cuties - Photo inspiration (took inspiration from the colours and the little bird)

Friday 18 March 2011

Back to Nature

Back to Nature is the theme of our new challenge over at Cardmadfairy's Digi Days, the change of season, growth and new life are the things we're looking for this time so that is what my card is based on today.

I used a great image by Bugaboo - our sponsor for this challenge - which I coloured with Promarkers. The papers are Bloom & Grow from My Mind's Eye  and I used punches to cut the leaves and flower around the sentiment, I added some paper ribbon which was recycled from some packaging and a felt flower with a little Basic Grey brad in the centre to finish the card off.

I'm entering my card for these challenges:
Creative Cottage - Spring
Stampavie and More - Spring/Easter
By the Cute & Girly - Springtime
CCEE Stampers - Use an image coloured or wearing green 
Delightful Challenges - Show us some Green
Pixie Dust Studio - Go Green

Wednesday 16 March 2011

A cupcake for Mum

Our challenge this week at Crafty Creations is Mother's Day, we want to see something gorgeous for your Mum. This one is for my own lovely Mum who has really developed a sweet tooth these days - I think she's becoming addicted to fudge, my sisters and I take her some almost every time we visit her in the Care Home then have to hide it from her so that she doesn't eat the whole packet in one go!

I have used a digi stamp from our sponsor The Stamping Boutique which I coloured with Promarkers, adding some Stickles for a bit of glitz and a white gel pen for some added highlights. The backing papers are Classic K McKenna from K&Co and I added some faux stitching around the edges. I used ribbon roses at either end of the pennant to finish the card off.


I'm entering my card for these challenges:
Bearly Mine - Mothers Day
Going Grey With Scrap-Creations - Anything Goes
Paper Take Weekly - 3 of something (page pebbles on pennant)
Die Cut Dreams - Mother's Day or Special Friend
Sparkles Forum - Mothers Day
Stamp Man - Mother's Day/floral
The Secret Crafter - Flowers for Mum

Monday 14 March 2011

A new home for the spotlight


Our Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight challenge now has it's own new home and a brand new challenge today. We also have a bunch of lovely new DT members dying to get involved and show you how they interpret the challenges both on the regular Crafty Cardmakers blog and on the new Spotlight one.

This week we are challenging you to make your own backing papers - you can do this with inks, stamps, paints or you can do what I did and create papers digitally.

I have used the digi stamp She who Paints the Forest provided by this week's sponsor  The Stamping Boutique and coloured the image with Promarkers to match the backing papers I created digitally when I was experimenting with designing papers to work alongside some of my own digi stamps. These ones were all based on a leaf design, I used Adobe Illustrator CS5 and drew a leaf shape which I copied and pasted into repeat patterns - very laborious - I'm sure there must be easier ways!!

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:
Cheerful Stamp Pad - Spring
Stamp, Scrap and Doodle - Spring has Sprung
Craft Us Crazy - Anything that reminds you of nature
Aly's Sunday Challenge - Anything goes
Freshly Brewed - 3 or more patterned papers
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes
Getting Kricky with K Andrews - Anything Winged

Sunday 13 March 2011

Easel Cards

The theme for this fortnight at Creative Inspirations is Easel Cards - fun to make but tricky to photograph! I've made mine as a straightforward easel but there are many twisted and shaped versions out there so why not join in with the challenge and show us your favourite style. There are two sponsors this time: Simon Says Stamp and Bunny Zoe's Crafts.

I have used a cute Mo Manning digi stamp which I coloured with Promarkers and used green papers from DCWV to fit with many of this week's challenges.

 

Entering my card for these challenges:
Delicious Doodles - Use green
Crafty Catz - Yellow & green
Card Makin' Mamas - Something green
AiFactory - Luck of the Irish - Green or St Patrick's Day
Fairy Tale - Something for a child or with a child's image 
Craft Us Crazy - Anything that reminds you of nature
Crafty Purple Frog - Things with wings
Shelly's Images - Something Green in honor of St Patrick's Day
ECP - Green

Thursday 10 March 2011

Cor's Anniversary Candy

I have made this card especially for my teamie Cor's special 2 year anniversary whopping  candy, she has a sketch which I have followed (pretty loosely to be fair!) so Happy Anniversary Cor!  

I have used another of the fabulous LOTV stamps my lovely sister gave me recently and coloured it with Promarkers. The papers are K&Co because I love the vintage feel these ones have. The large flower and the tiny ones were from ebay and the others I got at Hobbycraft, the sentiment and the punches I used for it are Stampin Up.

 

Challenges:
Promarker Challenge - Food & Drink
A Spoonful Of Sugar - Anything Vintage/Shabby
Crazy Challenge - Lovely Ladies (2nd entry)
Fab 'n' Funky - Girly 
Paper Sundaes -  Stripes (2nd entry)
Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes
Gingerloft  - Use flowers
Sentimental Sundays - SENTIMENT and Pearls & Lace
Paper Pretties - Ribbon 
Lili of the Valley - Say It With Flowers

Wednesday 9 March 2011

Baby Blue

Have to get off to work in a minute but before I go I just want to share my card for this week's Crafty Creations challenge. My teamie Jeanet has chosen the theme Baby Blue - make a project for a baby boy or just use the colour baby blue.

My baby boy image is one of my own digi stamps, available here on my Cardmadfairy's Digi Days challenge blog. The image was coloured with Promarkers, the backing paper is from Doolicraft and the stamped hearts are from a Blonde Moments stamp set. The sentiment is from MSE and has been punched with my new Stampin Up label punch.

This week's sponsor is Simon Says Stamp


I'm entering my card in the following challenges:
Everybody-Art-Challenge - Baby
Digital Tuesday - Welcome little one 
Flourishes - Real or faux stitches 
Stamp with Fun - Monochrome Blue
Phindy’s Place - Oh Baby
Dream Valley - New beginnings
Your next stamp challenge - Blue
I Love Promarkers - Babies



Tuesday 8 March 2011

A just because card


This card was made with a free image I picked up fromA Day for Daisieswith the intention of joining in with their challenge but by the time I had finished my card the challenge had ended - doh! I really liked the image though and wanted to share the card anyway so I spent some time looking around for some other challenges which might suit.

These are the challenges I found:
Crazy Challenge - Lovely Ladies
KB Cute Monday - Use pink
Paper Playtime - Anything goes with a digi
Aly's Sunday Challenge - Anything goes
Crafty Pad - Use Ribbon
Digi's With Attitude! - Anything goes
Stamp Something - Something digi 
Cupcake Craft - Pink polka dots (on ribbon!)

Sunday 6 March 2011

Sassy Birthday

Happy Sunday everyone, I've had a lovely lie in this morning and the sun is shining - what more can you ask for a Sunday morning! Was up early for my first craft fair of the year yesterday but it wasn't really worth the bother - I was stuck in a corner of the village hall surrounded by home baking, jams & chutneys and smoked salmon and only a few brave souls fought their way to my corner to buy a handcrafted card or two! Never mind, there's a new venue to try next month so I'll keep my fingers crossed for that one :o)

Today's card was made with one of the stamps I won the other week from the Sugar Bowl challenge, Hippie Chick is one of the Simply Sassy range by Krista Smith and is my favourite one so far. I coloured the image with Promarkers adding a few little highlights with a white gel pen, my lovely sunny backing papers are Spring Fling from Blonde Moments and I added faux stitching and a handwritten greeting. Ribbon, flowers, brad and buttons are from my stash.

 

Entering the card in these challenges:
Allsorts - Card for a Teenager
Little Claire's - Flowers 
Catch The Bug - Anything Goes
Alphabet Challenge - "R" is for ribbons 
Crafty Ann's - Birthday card 
Fun with Shapes & More - Happy birthday 
Simply Create - Power of flowers 
4 Crafty Chicks - Stitching 
Stampin' for the Weekend - Springtime
Creative Inspirations Wednesday - In The Garden
Tellens Place - Embellish embellish embellish

Saturday 5 March 2011

Crafty Calendar - Spring

It's time for a new challenge over at Crafty Calendar and this month our theme chosen by Kim is Spring
I have used an image from our sponsor Robyn's Fetish and coloured it with my Promarkers adding a little bit of yellow Stickles to the flower centre - having a senior moment - is there a common name for the centre of the flower?? The paper is K&Co Sparkly & Sweet and the sentiment is from Personal Impressions.


Entering my card for some other Spring challenges:
Cooking It Up With Katie - Spring, yellow, flowers
For Fun Challenges - Purple, green, yellow
I Love Promarkers - Use Promarkers & green & purple
Scrapbook Sisters - Spring
Pixie Cottage - Sketch and/or spring 
By the Cute & Girly - Springtime
Everybody Art Challenge - Spring
Cute Card Thursday - Signs of spring
Delightful Challenges - Welcome spring
 

Wednesday 2 March 2011

Crafty Creations 108

For the Crafty Creations challenge this week we want to see a Feminine Birthday card in Blues & Greens. Our sponsor is Digis with Attitude and they supplied the DT with a couple of fun images for us to work with - this one is called Shopaholic.

I printed the digi stamp out and guess what - no black lines - this printer is driving me mad but can't afford to buy a new one just now. Left it too late to nip out to the library to print it there so just had to make do with a very faint green line! I coloured the image with a mix of Promarkers and Karisma Colour pencils adding a little detail with fine liner pens. The papers I used were from Stampin Up and K&Co and the sentiment is My Sentiments Exactly. I added the little purse charm as you can't go shopping without one!!


Entering this for the challenges below:
Bearly Mine - Birthday card
Digital Tuesday - Celebrations
Promarker Challenge - Sugar Rush (girly, fluffy & pretty)
KB Cute Monday - Anything goes using a digi
Paper Playtime - Anything goes with a digi
Paper Sundaes - How charming
Dream Valley Challenges - Anything goes (second entry)
Fairy Knoll - Feeling a little green (second entry)
Stampin With The Dragon - Birthdays 
Digi Doodle Shop's Best - Spots/Dots

Tuesday 1 March 2011

New stamp :o)

I made this card mostly because I wanted to use one of the fabulous LOTV stamps that my lovely sister Gillian gave me as a late Christmas present when we finally all got together for  family Christmas meal on Saturday - yes I know it was the 26th Feb and not 25th Dec - what can I say except blame the weather!! 

I had a look around for some challenges and found a few girly and birthday ones which I thought the image would work for. I coloured the stamped image with Promarkers and also a little clear Sakura Stardust sparkle here and there. I found some lace with a bit of sparkly glitter through it which is really pretty and added a few flowers from my stash. The lacy die cut is from a Nellie Snellen set and the leaves are from a Marianne Creatables set.


Entering the card for the following challenges:
Craft Your Passion - Girly
Stamps R Us - For the Girls
Woodware USA - Anything goes
Creative Inspirations Paint - Birthdays
I Did It Creations - Punches or Dies
Sweet Stampin - Oh so Girly
Card Makin' Mamas - Happy birthday 
Crafty Ann's - Birthday card 
Fashionista Friday - Purple 
Dream Valley - Anything goes 
and last but not least -
Lili of the Valley - Circles