At last an improvement!

We are finally having a lovely sunny day here - maybe I shouldn't be saying this so early in the day, after all there is time for it all to go downhill but it's so nice to see the sunshine and no strong winds that it definitely seems worth a mention!

Today's card is using an image I coloured a while ago and I pulled it out the other night and left it sitting on my desk while I went off to think about what I wanted to do with it, while I was lying in bed I came up with this idea which I must have seen somewhere, sometime on a blog so here is my version! The image is by Dustin Pike, the paper is K&Co and the ribbon came from One Stop Card Crafts.

Entering it for the following challenges:
KB Cute Monday - Anything Goes
Make it Monday - Always anything goes
Card Cupids - Ribbon and/or Fibres
Doodle Dragon  - Shades of Green
Emerald Faeries - Anything Goes
Bee Crafty - Birthday for Little Ones

Wet Sunday

It's wet and windy yet again here in Scotland and I'm preparing for a visit from my sister & brother in law who are arriving from the South of England tomorrow - make sure you bring something warm and waterproof with you Gill! Tonight we're off to Fife for a farewell party for Neil's brother who is heading to Gibraltar to buy himself a boat in which to set off round the world - his lifelong ambition!

First though I have a card to share, it's not for anything in particular I just wanted to use the image which I had coloured earlier in the week so I looked around at the challenges and used a mixture of them as the basis for the card. The image is LOTV, the papers are Seven Gypsies, the sentiment is Hero Arts, the flourish stamp is from Personal Impressions and the various embellishments are from my stash.

These are the challenges I chose for inspiration:
Delicious Doodles - Lovely lace.
Totally Papercrafts - Pink & girly.
AiFactory  - Pretty in pink
Paper Romance - Distressing
Sassy Studio Designs -  Pearls, lace & elegance
Southern Girls - Lace & pearls
I Love Promarkers - Pearls
Stampavie and More - Pink
Inspire Me Fridays - Always anything goes

A sketch challenge

Today's card is for the new challenge over at my other blog Cardmadfairy's Digi Days where this time the theme is a sketch with a twist - pop on over there to see the sketch and join in the fun!

I have used a couple of recently released images which can be found here in the digi stamp shop, and I have coloured them with Promarkers and a little bit of paper piecing on the bird's wings. My papers are from Papermania and the organza roses are from MeiFlower. The die cut frame is by Nellie Snellen.

I'm entering this for the following challenges:
Digi Doodle Shop's Best  - Anything goes
Paper Play - Blossoms & blooms
I Love Promarkers - Pearls
Paper Shelter Challenge - Anything goes
A Spoonful Of Sugar - Things With Wings
House of Gilli - Flowers
Stamps & Fun = Creativity - Flower Power

Get well soon

Well the gale force winds have finally died down here and although it's a little cloudy, the weather is much nicer today which makes me happy because I'm not working today and have a load of errands to run! 

Before I get to it though I have a card to share: Get Well Soon is this week's challenge theme at Crafty Creations, we are sponsored by Digis with Attitude who supplied the team with a couple of their images - the one I have used for my card is called Grumpy Gretchen - Sicky Pooh! I coloured the image with Promarkers and used backing paper which was free with the recent Papercrafting Essentials.

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Lace
Incy Wincy Designs - Lavender and Lace
Lexi's Creations  - Spots and/or stripes
Make it Monday - Always anything goes

Stamps R Us  - Goin Digital - use something digi

Everybody-Art-Challenge - Sketch

Bearly Mine - Die Cuts & Lace

Paper Take Weekly - Pale, Pretty Pastels

Creative Inspirations challenge 60

 The challenge this week at Creative Inspirations is:

No cooking Cupcake Recipe

 Your creation must include a cupcake, ribbon or lace, 2 flowers and pearls.
We are sponsored this time by Robyn's Fetish  and our winner will get to choose
5 Digital stamps, or 4 digi stamps and 1 paper set.

I have used one of my own digi stamps, available here, and have paper pieced the image with  gingham and plain pink paper, I added white dots using a Sakura glaze pen and Glossy Accents to the cherry on the top. I used  Nellie Snellen dies to cut the circle and the sentiment and added the ribbon flowers and pearls to finish, the sentiment is from Pink Petticoat.

  

Entering the following challenges:
2 Sisters - Use A Digi
Our Daily Bread Designs - Plaid or Gingham 
Send a Smile for Kids - Sweet Treats
Alphabet Challenge  - "C" is for CAS - clean & simple
Inspire Me Fridays - Always anything goes  
Crazy Challenge - Green & pink
Incy Wincy Designs - Clean & simple 

It's only Rock & Roll but I like it!

I'm really in the zone as far as mens/boys cards are concerned at the moment although if you check out the last few posts you'll see that they are pretty much on a similar vein, however with several musicians in the family I don't think I can go wrong with a rock'n'roll theme!
This time I've used one of the fab Teddy Bo images I won a couple of weeks ago - I just love these digi stamps :o)

Entering these challenges:
Digistamps 4 Joy -  Boys/Men
Paper Shelter Challenge -  Distress
The Paper Variety - Use Stars in Project
Digital Tuesday - Seeing Stars 
Teddy Bo Challenge - Teddy Bo Only

Crafty Creations & Tiffany Doodles - Flowers

This week the challenge at Crafty Creations has been set by new DT member Donna who wants to see  flowers combined with patterned paper and ribbon. Tiffany Doodles is the sponsor for the challenge and has supplied some great flower images for the DT to use.

This card is entered for the following:
Paper Take Weekly - Bloom & grow
Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Challenges - May Flowers
Paper Pretties - Flowers 
Penny's Paper-Crafty - Anything Goes

Coincidentally I was delighted to be asked to make a special guest appearance this week by Tiffany Doodles and was sent the beautiful Camellia image, a new release, to work with. I used Photoshop to repeat and overlap the image and to put a frame around it and then printed it onto my white cardstock. I used distress ink to shade the background and stamped onto it, then coloured the flowers with Promarkers. I printed the image a second time and coloured and cut out the cental flower and used foam dots to pop it up and give it a bit of added dimension. Lastly I added some Glossy Accents to look like rain or dew drops and stamped a sentiment from Stampin Up.

I'm going to enter this one for these challenges:
Crazy Challenge - Green & pink
Incy Wincy Designs - Clean & simple
Stamp with Fun - Green and Pink
Card Cupids - No patterned papers
Cupcake Craft - In the garden

The one that got away

Last week's blogger problems meant that my post sharing today's card disappeared soon after posting so if you think it looks familiar you may just have had a glimpse of it before it was gone :o)

It is my husband Neil's birthday today, music is very important to him so I've created this birthday card for him, he mostly plays acoustic guitar these days but I love it when he occasionally gets a shot on his old electric one which is now Evan's and cranks up the volume for a bit of rock - making the floors vibrate in the process!

The image is one of my new set, available here, it has been coloured with Promarkers and finished off with a touch of Glossy Accents here and there. I edged the cardstock with some distress ink and stamped a couple of flourishes then cut out the guitar and stuck it to the card. The backing paper is Basic Grey Oliver and the sentiment is also from my new digi set.

Challenges entered:
Cards For Men - for Someone Special (my husband)
Pollycraft - Music
Stamps R Us - Going Digital
Creatalicious Challenges - Flourishes
Desert Island Crafters  - Choose 3 or more from the list (square card, digi stamps & designer paper)
Creative Cowgirls - Anything Goes 
Dream Valley Challenges - Dig out the old to use with the new (old flourish stamps, new digi stamps)
Make it Monday - Always anything goes 

Butterflies & Rainbows

This is the first card I've done recently just for fun and not for anything specific other than that I just got the new butterfly embossing die from Stampin Up this week and was desperate to have a shot of it - today's card is the outcome. The design is really simple - I've relied a lot on the backing paper which is a small part of a 12 x 12 sheet of scrapboooking paper by K&Co and the fabulous sentiment which is a rubber stamp from Inkadinkado. To finish it off I inked the edges of the butterflies and added some tiny iridescent crystals from MeiFlower, popping them all up with foam pads.

These are the challenges I am entering:
Divas by Design - Anything goes
Paper Pretties - Texture
Penny's Paper-Crafty - Anything Goes
Your Next Stamp Challenge - Pop It Up
Claudia & Co - Butterflies
Paper Take Weekly - Punches Or Die-Cuts 
Sweet Stamps - Butterflies
Tuesday Throwdown - Die-cuts 
Paper Play - Celebrating summer

For the Boys

I've just managed to get our new challenge over at Cardmadfairy's Digi Days posted after waiting all day for Blogger to sort itself out - very frustrating but hey, what can you do? Our theme this time is For the Boys and we're looking for male cards/projects. My card has been made using my digi stamp Joey who is available here.

I coloured Joey with my Promarkers them cut him out and mounted him on a white die cut circle which I edged with a stone coloured inkpad and added some white dots to tie it in with the Basic Grey Oliver backing paper. I added the eyelets and a stamped sentiment to finish the card off.

Entering the following challenges:
Going Grey With Scrap-Creations - Circles 
Promarker Challenge  - For A Teenager
Try It On Tuesday  - One For The Boys
Pollycraft - Boyz to Men
Crazy Challenge - Anything Goes
Make it Monday - Anything goes

Craft Creations - Free for all

This week's challenge at Crafty Creations is Anything goes - yes whatever you like goes this week :o

I have used one of Sugar Nellie's Simply Sassy girls for this one and have coloured her with my Promarkers, (see if you can spot the not so deliberate mistake!!), to work alongside the great backing paper from Max Bringmann KC and the fab bright Prima Hydrangea petals. The buttons came from  a charity shop and the ribbon from Making Memories.

Challenges entered:
Everybody-Art-Challenge - Flowers
Flourishes - Anything Goes
Promarker Challenge  - For A Teenager
Crazy Challenge - Anything Goes
Get Hippity with Ippity - Flowers
Stamping Scrapping Central  - Birthdays
Cheerful Stamp Pad - Girls with curls 
One Stop Craft - Birthdays

Inchies in the Spotlight

Today's card is my DT card for the Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight challenge which this fortnight is to use at least 3 Inchies on your project - if you're not familiar with the term there is a great tutorial by Hero Arts here which shows one technique although there are many other ways to use them.

For me, using inchies was a challenge. Although I've had the Inkadinkado Butterflies & Birds stamp set for a couple of years I've hardly used them before. I have to admit I found it difficult to make them the main focus of my card and really had to keep going back to them before this layout came together!
I have used Distress Inks for the stamping and for edging the inchies, I also spritzed the background grasses image with mica spray which gives the whole background a lovely glimmer which is hard to photograph. I added faux stitching round the image then stamped and die cut the bird, image and die are from PaperArtsy.

I also stamped directly onto the backing paper from 7 Gypsies, again the stamps are PaperArtsy. I used linen thread and a sentiment from Stampin Up to finish the card off.

Entering this for challenges at:

2 Sisters - Distressing

Allsorts -  Use at least 3 Different Stamps

Creations by Gill M - Birds in the garden

Creative Cowgirls - Anything Goes

Scrappy Frogs - Anything goes 

Catch The Bug - Anything Goes

Creative Inspirations Glitz & Bling

For the second of today's two posts I'd like to share my DT card for the Creative Inspirations challenge where the theme this fortnight is Glitz and Bling, I have used this gorgeous fairy digi image from The Emerald Fairy Garden which I coloured using my Promarkers with a lot of use of the blending pen to keep the colour really soft and subtle. I used Stickles to add glitter to the image and to the flowers (which came from Wild Orchid). The backing paper from First Edition was already glittered and I added a bit more bling with tiny crystals down the embossed edge of the pearlescent cardstock.

 

Entering this one for the challenges at:
Card Creations & More By C - Must Use Embossing
Catch The Bug - Anything Goes
Wee memories - Use any/or all of - colour, Ribbon, Acrylic, Floral, Twine and Stamp
Bloggers Challenge -  Nature
Delicious Doodles -  Fantasy/mythical
Fairy Fun Fridays - For the girls
Phindy’s Place - Embossing
Stamp Something - Use a digi

Crafty Calendar - Teddies

This is the first of two posts today as I completely forgot to do my card for the Crafty Calendar challenge which is always on the first Saturday of the month, I had the day off yesterday and had a lazy kind of day until about 4.30 when I logged on the computer and discovered that I'd missed the challenge going live! As we were going out I didn't manage to complete the card last night so have just been putting it together this morning - if you look closely enough you will see that the glue is nowhere near dry and the bottom one of my organza roses has actually slid a little down the card while I was taking the photo!!

Anyway it was Caroline's turn to set the challenge this month and as her dad's birthday is coming up and everyone calls him Ted, Caroline would like to see Teddy Bears on your cards. For my DT card I decided to colour up one of my brand new Teddy Bea images - an absolute joy to colour! - with my Promarkers, I used backing paper from Making Memories, lace from my stash, a sentiment from Personal Impressions and organza flowers from Jasmine's Cards. The tiny flowers came from Wild Orchid.

Entering these challenges:
2 Sisters - Distressing
Bee Crafty - Birthday for Little Ones
Catch The Bug - Anything Goes
Crazy 4 Challenges - Lots of Flowers
One Stop Craft - Birthdays
Crafty Ann's - Happy birthday
Mami Doodles - Let's get girly

One for the boys

It's a while since I drew a new digi stamp for boys cards but I had a special request from one of my design team for a boy with a guitar so of course I had to oblige and this is the result. I also drew the Fender and added a couple of sentiments to use along with the images - all are available now at Cardmadfairy's Creations.

Papers are from DCWV Rockstar stack and the stamped sentiment is Kaisercraft.

Entering the card for the following:
ABC Challenge - T is for two or more images
Pixie Cottage - Sketch* and/or masculine
Paper Take Weekly - Anything goes
Use It Tuesdays - Fasteners - buttons, brads, eyelets etc
Crazy Challenge - Male cards

Lovecats

Today's new challenge at Crafty Creations is Anniversaries - pretty apt as today is teamie Claire's 15 anniversary - congratulations Claire! As it happens my own anniversary is in a couple of weeks so I have made this card for Neil (only don't mention it to him and spoil the surprise!). Our sponsor Just Some Lines provided the sweet image which I coloured with Promarkers, I used a tiny bit of braid to embellish, which I've had in my stash forever because the colour was perfect, and my brand new Marianne Creatables die to cut the paper roses and leaves. I also cut an extra couple of leaves and turned them into hearts edging them with stickles for a little bit of glitz. The sentiment is handwritten.

Entering these challenges:
Try It On Tuesday  - A Card using Something older than 6mths and something newer than 6mths
Cupcake Craft - Something beginning with C (Cats of course)
Top Tip Tuesday - Anything Goes 
Creative Inspirations - Embossing
DigiStamps4Joy - Celebration
I Love Promarkers - Song title (Lovecats - The Cure)

Another Teddy Bo Card

I took advantage of last week's sale at Teddy Bo and bought a few new of these fantastic images - they are so great to colour I just couldn't resist. I chose this one because I wanted to enter the Passion for Promarkers challenge where the theme was dinosaurs although because of all the holidays (even though I had to work for most of them) I have got my days a bit confused so may actually be too late for the challenge ... doh! Anyway I enjoyed doing it and have made this one more masculine than my usual style, always good to have a few cards put by for the boys :o)

I was very excited to see this morning that my last Teddy Bo card has won last week's Teddy Bo challenge - I'm so pleased especially as I wasn't going to enter it until being given a nudge in that direction!

I coloured the image with Promarkers, of course, and used backing papers from K&Co Hopscotch, the tabs are punched with a Stampin Up punch, and the dots/circles are Candi from Craftworkcards - I bought a pack of these the other day at the craft show I went to and after standing looking at all the packs of different colours and trying to decide which ones to go for, I suddenly realised that the plain white ones could be any colour I wanted thanks to my trusty Promarkers! I die cut the circles and distressed the edge of the white one with ink and my scissors. I also inked the edges of the backing paper for a distressed look.

Entering my card in these challenges:
Passion for Promarkers - Dinosaurs
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - One for the boys
Cards For Men - Circles
Stamps R Us - Masculine
Wags 'n Whiskers - Use die/punch
Little Miss Muffet Challenges - Die cuts and punches
4 Crafty Chicks - Distressing
Delightful Challenges -  Distressing
Scrappy Frogs - Anything goes
Moving Along With The Times - Anything goes

New images at Cardmadfairy's Creations

I have made today's card with a couple of my brand new images now available at Cardmadfairy's Creations, this new set is perfect for paper piecing which is what I've done here using papers from Making Memories, the sentiment is from Stampin Up.

The weather here has been gorgeous this weekend and yesterday Neil and I took a drive over to the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena where the Sincerely Yours Papercraft Show was taking place, I had a good potter around, bought a few goodies and bumped into a couple of Forum buddies while Neil went and watched people climbing and using the amazing arial assault course. We then went to the Canal Centre at Ratho which is just 5 minutes up the road from the Arena. The Canal Centre was where we got married 21 years ago this month and we enjoyed a drink in the sunshine while watching a barge set off with a party having a celebration of some sort. It did bring back some happy memories of our own big day.

Me watching Neil coming up to meet me in the glass lift

My new stash

Barges at Ratho

Entering the card in the following challenges:
Catch The Bug - Pastels & Flowers
Wee memories - Paper Piecing
Fairy Fun Fridays - April showers bring May flowers (showers or flowers)
Fashionista Friday - Things with wings
Just Add Ink - Just add a flower
Stamp Something - Things with wings 
Less is More - Thankyou