Thank you

This week at Crafty Creations we would like to see your Thank You projects, there are often many people to thank at the end of the school year - teachers, coaches, classroom assistants, friends so say thanks and join in our challenge! We are grateful to be sponsored by In2Stamps who are offering the winner 2 stamps of their own choice from the store.

I have used a Teddy Bea digi stamp for my card which I coloured with my Promarkers

Entering this for the following challenges:
Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Challenges - Use A Recycled Item on Project (string from gift tag)
Bows 'n Berries - Thankyou/Appreciation
Make it Monday - Anything Goes 
Pile It On - Going Round In Circles 
Challenge Up Your Life - Circles 
Phindy’s Place - Use circles
Pals Paper Arts - Stars
Rainbow Lady's - Use a digi

Sonny Honeycloud for a DT Call

There is a DT call going on at Pollycraft just now and Paula has very generously shared two of her fab digis for anybody wanting to take part, the one I chose is called Sonny's Party and she was, like the rest of the digi images I have from Pollycraft, fabulous to colour with my Promarkers. I used Funky Vintage from Dovecraft for the backing paper and also some scraps left from a 12x12 page from K&Co which I also used to make the roses. The sentiment is from Stampin Up.

Would also like to enter this for the following challenges: 
Crafty Pad - Bold and bright or soft pastels 
Dream Valley Challenges - Ribbon
Our Creative Corner - Your Style 
Digi's With Attitude! - Anything goes challenge
Art Impressions Stamps Challenge - Handmade flowers
Little Miss Muffet Challenges - Red, orange, yellows

Oh no - just went to link up and have found I'm too late for the DT call, hope Paula doesn't mind me entering this for the other challenges anyway :o(

Little gift box

It was my younger sister's birthday last week and I made this little box for her birthday gift but I've not been able to blog about it before today because I hadn't given it to her until now. I could have posted it I suppose but I really didn't want the box to get squished in the post and it's always good to have an excuse for a get together even when it's as brief as today! I had to take my youngest, Evan in to Edinburgh as he's off to Mull for a week with the school which also entailed dropping Neil off at work first then I had to rush back in time to see Karen and her family very quickly before going to work myself. Image coloured with Promarkers.

 

 

Entering these challenges:

Teddy Bo Challenge - Bling it On

AiFactory - Teddy bears

Divas by Design - Anything but a card

Ruby's Rainbow - Flowers

Anything Goes Challenge  - Here Comes Summer 

Deep Ocean Challenge - Flowers

 Cheerful Stamp Pad - Things with Wings

Hooked on Crafts - Anything goes 

Bloggers Challenge - Things with wings

Simply Create - Wings

a taste of the Orient

Our new challenge over at Cardmadfairy's Digi Days is a Taste of the Orient and I've added a few new designs to the Digi Stamp Shop including the one I've used for the card I have to share today. The lanterns were coloured with Promarkers and Sakura Gold pens and cut out individually and then 'hung' from a piece of satin cord. The sentiment was printed out from my iMac and the strip of dp I've used is by Dovecraft.

I'd like to enter my card for the following challenges
Scrapbook Sisters - Anything goes
Everybody-Art-Challenge - Anything goes
Clear It Out! - CAS
Gingerloft - Asian Inspiration
Crazy 4 Challenges - Add Twine, Floss, String etc to project 
Inspire Me Fridays - Always anything goes 
4 Crafty Chicks - Clean & simple (no more than 2 layers)
Dutch Dare Card Challenge - Clean & simple
Moving Along With The Times -  Clean & simple 

I also made another card as a sample for the new images, this image (Li-Ann) is my favourite from the latest batch and I wanted to colour her again - she does colour up beautifully with my favourite Letraset Promarkers even if I do say so myself! 

Entering this one for:
Rainbow Lady's - Use a digi
Amber's Crafts and Stuff - Summer
Crafting for all Seasons - Summer
Fab 'n' Funky - Summer Lovin'
I Love Promarkers - Anything goes

Let it shine

It is very wet and grey here this morning and I'd like to know what happened to the sunshine - we seem to just get one sunny day followed by several wet & windy ones, very disappointing! Actually the garden is loving it - the weeds are rampant, next dry day I'm going to have to spend some time sorting that out ;o)

 

There is a pretty simple challenge for you this week at Crafty Creations, all you have to do is Let it Shine. All that means is to add anything sparkly, we'd like to see lots of sparkly things! We are sponsored by Wags 'n Whiskers who are giving away 4 digi stamps to our winner.

Challenges entered:

A Spoonful Of Sugar - Ribbons & bows 

House of Gilli - Ribbons & bows

Corrosive Challenges - Ribbons & bows

Make it Monday - Anything goes

Simon Says Stamp and Show... - Some metal

Stamps R Us - 1 image, 2 patterned papers, and 3 embellishments

Everybody-Art-Challenge - Anything goes

Designed 2 Delight - Orange & pink

Let's get Sentimental

It was my turn to set the theme for the Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight Challenge this week so Let's get Sentimental is the theme I've chosen - it's about making the sentiment do all the work and keeping it as the main focus of your project.

For my card I wanted to make a big deal out of a very simple sentiment and to make it the main focus. I stamped the Thank You sentiment and used a Nestie die to cut it and the backing card. I also stamped the other words and cut out the individual letters, inked round them and stuck them onto the cardstock, making a pennant out of the first two. I used backing paper from DCWV, the bird was cut out from another paper from the same set and the flowers and brads were from my stash. The thank you stamp is an old retired Stampin Up one and the rest of the words are from a Hero Arts 'Great Big' set.

Challenges:
Crazy 4 Challenges - Add Twine, Floss, String etc to project 
Our Daily Bread Designs - Thank You Card/Gift 
Sweet Stampin - Things With Wings 
Simply Create - Wings  
Scrapbook Sisters - Bunting and banners 
Pile It On - Metal (Brads)
Sentimental Sundays - Summery or Sparkly

Believe

The new challenge at Creative Inspirations has the theme Stitching - real or faux, so I have created a kind of patchwork effect using faux stitching - (left it too late to get out my sewing machine and set it up...), for the background to the fabulous image from The Emerald Fairy Garden.

The image was, of course, coloured with my Promarkers and a touch of added ultra fine glitter to give it some sparkle. This week's challenge is sponsored by Quixotic Paperie.

Challenges entered:
Delicious Doodles - Things that flutter
Fairy Knoll - Sparkle
Polkadoodle - Pretty things with wings
Simply Create - Wings
Digi Doodle Shop's Best - Stitching
For Fun Challenges - Summer or bright colors
Sweet Stampin - Things With Wings

Fabulous Friend

I made a card yesterday for the Sugar Bowl challenge following this week's great sketch by Marlene and using a stamp I won in an earlier challenge. It is called Fragile Beauty and this is the first time I have inked it up. It was coloured with Promarkers and the die cut oval was coloured with distress ink and spritzed with a little water to give a dappled effect. The pretty backing papers are from First Edition,  I distressed the edges and also doodled round them before mounting them on pink cardstock which I also distressed round the edges. The butterfly and sentiment are both from Stampin Up and the flowers from Wild Orchid.

Other challenges entered:

Card Makin' Mamas - With a child/For a child

Fairy Knoll - Sparkle

Inspire Me Fridays - Always anything goes

Just Add Ink - Add colouring

Sew Many Cards - Punch it (punched sentiment)

Stampin With The Dragon - Friendship

Stamp Something - Pretty papers

Aud Sentiments Challenge - Summertime

Charisma Cardz - Pink & green

The Rubber Cafe - Summer

Welcome baby & Secret Sale at Letraset

The card I have to share today was requested by an ex-colleague who has just become Grandma to a new baby boy. I used the cute digi stamp Bouncing Bundle from Squigglefly and coloured it, of course, with my Promarkers.

The makers of my favourite pens, Letraset, are having one of their brilliant secret sales today, Friday17th. They are offering packs of the fantastic Tria pens at a massive 65% discount! To take advantage of the offer simply enter the Coupon Code: SHH-0611 during the checkout process. I couldn't resist such a fantastic offer and ordered a couple of packs - they're going fast so if you want some don't waste time, some sets are already out of stock!

Entering the following challenges:
Paper Shelter Challenge - Punches and dies
Crazy Challenge - Monochromatic
House of Gilli - Buttons
Make it colorful - Colour with Blue
Art Impressions Stamps Challenge - Buttons and/or bows
Dutch Dare Card Challenge - For the boys
Southern Girls - Anything goes  
Delightful Challenges - Anything goes

Li-Ann

My newest bunch of digi stamps available now at Cardmadfairy's Creations include this sweet little image. Li-Ann is what I've named her and I've coloured her with Promarkers with just an added touch of Sakura sparkle on her jacket. The oriental papers are (I think) from Dovecraft and the flowers are from Wild Orchid. I made the little tag/charm from a swing tag from a new shirt of Evan's, I just punched a small circle from the dp and stuck it on the little black plastic bit and added some glossy accents - cute!

Challenges I'm entering:
Lexi's Creations - No sentiment
Karens Doodles - Frame It
Aly's Sunday Challenge - All About Kids
Bearly Mine - Anything Goes
Going Grey With Scrap-Creations - Anything Goes
Top Tip Tuesday - Open Challenge
Totally Gorjuss - Flower Power

Arabian Nights

Just imagine is this week's theme for the challenge at Crafty Creations, we are sponsored by Pattie's Creations, the designer of Pattieboop a pre-teen who loves dressing up, you can see her in my card dressed up as a genie with her bottle! I have used backing papers by Brenda Walton for K&Co and added a bit of extra gold with a Sakura Gold pen, the die cut frame is a Nellie Snellen one. Hope you will pop over and join in the fun this week.

Challenges entered:
Top Tip Tuesday - Open Challenge
Craft Your Passion - It's Magical
KB Cute Monday - Bright colours
Make it Monday - Always anything goes
There's Magic in the Air - Pick 2 from: Flowers, Ribbon, Pearls/Gems and/or Die Cuts
Crafty Pad - 'Just Because' - no birthday or congratulations etc
Gingerloft - Asian Inspiration
Paper Sundaes - Girly Girl

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 48

Our challenge set by Sarah this week at Crafty Cardmakers is to alter a food carton, box or container and our sponsor Joanna Sheen is offering a £10 voucher for the lucky winner!

I chose a soup can for my altered food container project, after having the soup for my lunch :o), I washed and dried the can then painted the rims top & bottom with alcohol inks. I then cut a strip of K&Co DP to cover the can and stuck it on with double sided tape. I added a punched border at the bottom and then made 6 grunge paper roses with leaves using a Marianne Creatables die which I painted with Twinklin H2O's. After sticking the roses on I coloured the Meljens image with my Promarkers and die cut the cardstock and a piece of grungepaper, coloured to match the leaves, to mount the image on. I distressed the edges of both before sticking them together on the tin. A few random Wild Orchid flowers, some binding ribbon and other odds and ends together with some flowers from the garden finished it all off.

Entering these challenges:
Totally Gorjuss -  Flower Power
Poodles Parlour - Anything goes
Shelly's Images - Anything goes
4 Crafty Chicks - Handmade flowers
Clearly Inspired - Distressing
Scrapbook Sisters - An English country garden
A Spoonful Of Sugar - Summer - Colours, images etc
Card Cupids - Animals

An old favourite

This Miss Anya image is one of a set of three stamps which I've had in my collection for a couple of years now, I never get tired of these images - they are great to colour and I usually have a few coloured up and ready to use for when I need to make a card in a hurry. This one wasn't for anything particular but I wanted to use the gorgeous Stampin Up papers and she matched them so well! I have also used my new Tim Holtz die for the first time on a card and love the effect it gives - in this case it reminds me of a summer parasol.

Challenges entered:
AiFactory - Use something new (Tim Holtz die)
Do You Stack Up? - Birthday
Dutch Dare Card Challenge - 3 patterned papers, 2 embellishments, 1 image
Just For Fun - Use at least one Tim Holtz product (Tim Holtz die)
Crafts and Me - Stamp something
Going Grey With Scrap-Creations - Happy Birthday
Oldie But Goodie Challenge -  Lots of Layers
Partytime Tuesdays - Summer Birthday Cards
Passion For Promarkers Challenge -  Pink/Brown or Blue/Brown

Under the Sea

Under the Sea is the theme of the new challenge at Cardmadfairy's Digi Days, we have added a few new underwater images to the digi stamp shop and I've used some of them to create my card for the challenge. We are lucky to have Stitchy Bear Stamps sponsoring the challenge so pop on over and take part for your chance to win some fabulous digis!

I made my background using distress inks and glimmer mists, adding some colour to the images with my Promarkers. I used a Sakura Glaze pen and added some Glossy Accents for the bubbles and Sakura glitter pens for sparkle. The sentiment I used was a freebie digi but I'm afraid I can't find where from.

Entering these challenges:
Crafty Sentiments - Add some sparkle
Little Red Wagon - Mists
My Mum's Craft shop - Punch it
Deep Ocean Challenge - Anything Goes + Optional - Use a Sea Image
Everybody-Art-Challenge - Distress
Quirky Crafts - Under the Sea

A corsage for the Prom

My eldest son Owen accompanied his friend Rebecca to her school-leavers' prom on Tuesday evening (he finished the same school last year) and asked me to order and collect a corsage for his date. The really pretty corsage came in a very plain, boring box so I decided to make one myself to make it a nicer gift. I used 350gms white card for the basic box and covered the sides and top with green paper from DCWV, on the top I cut a smaller square of white card which I edged with some pink inks after rounding the corners with a Bind it All punch, I topped that with another green paper from the same DCWV set and then added the flowers and embellishments, (the flowers are from Wild Orchid and Hobbycraft). I then finished it all off with some wire edged organza ribbon.

There is a pic below of Owen & Rebecca before they set off in the limo, don't they look happy and excited - looking forward to the fun? Unfortunately the evening didn't end too well - Owen landed badly on his ankle before all the dancing started and ended up spending the rest of the night in A&E waiting for an X-ray. Fortunately it's not broken but badly sprained so he's not going anywhere fast for the next few weeks!

 

Entering this for the following challenges:
Craft Room Challenge - Anything Goes
Top Tip Tuesday -  More Than 1 fold 
Creative Stamp Friends  - Gift Package
One Stitch At A Time - Graduation or Schools Out
Creations by Gill M - Green & Pink Plus Flowers
Divas by Design - Florals
Paper Shelter Challenge - Celebrate

Over the Rainbow

Peggy is hosting the challenge at Crafty Creations this week and it's an inspirational challenge,

because of all of the rain we've had in different areas of the globe, she has decided to use the classic song Somewhere over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz movie as inspiration for your creations.

Our sponsor this week is Whimsy Stamps who provided us with a couple of images for the DT projects, mine is called Emma Swinging.

 

Entering the following challenges:

Crafty Pad - Stripes

Sentimental Sundays - Inspired By A Song

Craft Your Passion - Anything goes

Make it Monday - Always anything goes

Stamp-N-Doodle - Use more than 1 die cut/punch plus circles

Corrosive Challenges - Summer Colours

Creative Cowgirls -  Summertime Fun

Stamp Something - Use a digi

Inspire Me Fridays - Always anything goes

Fairy Fun Fridays - Summer fun

Today's card is a bit of a change of style from my recent ones, the new challenge at Creative Inspirations is Fathers Day or a card for Dad, and I prefer to stay away from cute when it comes to men! I used a PaperArtsy image which I stamped over a distress inks background which I had spritzed with water for the mottled effect. I kept the rest of the card very simple adding just some brads and a charm from my stash together with some string from some packaging which I recycled.
Our challenge is sponsored by Simon Says Stamp this time.

I'm entering it in some of this week's many male oriented challenges:
Craft Your Days Away  -  Fathers Day/Special Man
Designed 2 Delight - Masculine card, without flowers  
ECP Challenges - For Dad
Fussy and Fancy - Card for a male
Simply Create - Father's Day
Stamp Man - Boys & men
Some Odd Girl - Masculine
Crafting for all Seasons  - Father's Day
Freshly Brewed - Masculine
Paper Shelter Challenge - Father
Simon Says Stamp - Father's Day/for a male

Things with Wings

This month's challenge at Crafty Calendar has the theme Things with Wings and our sponsor Whimsy Stamps provided us with a few images for our DT cards. Mine is a Meljen's image called Dragon's Little Friend. The image was coloured with Promarkers and the backing paper and handmade embellishments are from K&Co Hopscotch.

Entering this in the following challenges:
Charisma Cardz - Something that flies
Little Miss Muffet Challenges - Metal embellishments
Shelly's Images - Seeing spots
Crafts and Me - Punch it out
Digistamps 4 Joy - Wings
Flutterby Wednesdays - Open
My Mum's Craft shop - Wings
Tuesday Throwdown - DIY  Embellishments 
Crafty Catz - Lots of circles
Inspire Me Fridays - Always anything goes

Bea Happy!

Summer has finally arrived here in South East Scotland - well at least for a couple of days anyway! The sun is shining and not only that, it's actually warm too - these things don't often go hand in hand here :o)

Today I'd like to share a card that I've just finished, it was inspired by the new Teddy Bo challenge where the theme is shaped cards and as it's something I seldom do I wanted to challenge myself to see what I could come up with. Well I'm quite pleased with the result if I say so myself lol. I used papers from DCWV and First Edition, flowers from Petaloo and Wild Orchid and of course the fabulous Teddy Bea image which I coloured with Promarkers.

Entering the challenges at:
Teddy Bo - Shaped Cards
Paper Crafting Journey - Anything goes and/or favourite whatever (Colouring technique)
Paper Play - Summer citrus splash
Stamp Insanity - Anything goes 
By the Cute & Girly -  In the garden
Paper Creations Ink - Ribbon or lace
The Paper Variety - fruity fun
Top Tip Tuesday - Wrap it Up with Ribbon
Pollycraft - Teddy Bears

Pink & Orange Combo

The theme of today's new challenge at Crafty Creations is a sassy colour combo - we'd like to see pink and orange on your cards and projects. Our sponsor this time is  2 Cute Rubber Stamps who supplied some cute images for the design team samples.

I have used Thank You Cat for my card along with papers from the DCWV Cafe Mediterranean stack. I used Promarkers to colour the image and the gorgeous flower embellishments are from Wild Orchid.

Entering these challenges:
House of Gilli - Flowers
The Outlawz - Anything goes with a sentiment on the card front  
Crazy Challenge - Pets
Stamps R Us - Pets
Word Play Weekend Challenge - Scallops
A Spoonful Of Sugar - Flower Power
Anything Goes Challenge - Anything Goes
Bearly Mine -  Die-cuts and Lace
Digital Tuesday - Animal Friends