Dies and punches

Pollycraft are one of my favourite stamp and digi stamp  suppliers and their latest release has some great new images, one of which is Luna Bittersweet Stars and she is featured on my DT card for this week's challenge at Crafty Creations. The theme of the challenge is dies and punches so I used some purple handmade paper which had flower shapes punched out of it, my Tim Holtz rosette die and I also used a corner rounder punch on my sentiment. The image was coloured with Promarkers.

Entering the card into the following:
Daisy Doodles Creative Challenge - Anything goes
Heart Song Inspirations - Anything goes and/or use your favorite colour combo
Happileigh Scrappin - Birthday card
Lia Stampz - Birthday
Make it Monday - Anything goes
My Craft Spot - Sewing, stitching, faux stitching
Stamps R Us - Anything goes 
Opus Gluei - Roses or rosettes
Pile It On - "Girls just wanna have fun"  
Sparkles Forum - Punch it

Meet Imogen and see my special bank holiday weekend offer!

Imogen is my newest digi stamp and she's available now over at Cardmadfairy's Creations and also at the Cardmadfairy challenge blog here, where I am having a special Buy One Get One Free offer this bank holiday weekend. For every digi stamp ordered you can choose another one completely free - a real bargain!
The pretty backing papers I have used for my card are from the Cloisonne set from GCD Studios, I also punched the handcrafted flowers from the same set and added buttons and sparkly thread to finish them off.

Entering my card for the following challenges:
Craft Us Crazy - Anything goes in August (Again) 
Digi Doodle Shop's Best - Anything Goes 
Paper Crafting Journey - Anything Goes
Crafts and Me - Lace
Creative Belli - Gingham
Digistamps 4 Joy - Handmade flower
Paper Shelter Challenge - Diecuts/punches
Scrapbook Sisters - Flower, ribbon, gem
Truly Scrumptious - Mostly pink
Digital Tuesday - Cute & girly
Creative Card Crew - Handmade flowers
Truly Scrumptious - Mostly pink
Make it Monday - Always anything goes

Glitter It

This week's new challenge at Charisma Cardz is Glitter It, I have used a sweet digi stamp from Pink Cat Studios Pretty Birds in Tree and after colouring it with Promarkers I added lots of glitter (although I'm not sure how well it shows up in the pic). The glittered backing paper is from First Edition and the punched bird and tab, which I thought resembled a little birdhouse, are from Stampin Up.
There are three prizes up for grabs this week so pop on over to Charisma and join in the fun!

Challenges entered:
Clear It Out! - Glitter it!! 
Die Cut Dreams - Colours: pink, green, coffee  (I like my coffee very milky!)
Hooked on Crafts - Wings
Kaboodle Doodles - Ribbons 
Karens Doodles - Use your punches and die cuts
Make it Monday - Always anything goes
Catch The Bug - Birds and bees
Paper Shelter Challenge - Diecuts/punches

My inner animal

Show us your inner animal is the theme of this week's Crafty Creations challenge and it shames me to say it but my inner animal is a little sleepy dormouse! I'm always tired and love my bed more than anywhere else (apart from my craft desk of course!), I am also fond of tea (green) and never say no to a cupcake so this image from Mo Manning seemed to suit me very well! I colored it with Tria markers and used some lovely Basic Grey papers, flowers from Wild Orchid, a sentiment from Stampin Up and some binding ribbon I bought on Ebay.

Entering the following challenges:
Paper and Such Design - Use a farm animal - all farms have some mice don't they??
Shopping Our Stash - Red or Ribbons Or Roses
Kaboodle Doodles - Ribbons
Make it Monday - Always anything goes
Stamps R Us - Anything goes
Birthday Sundaes - Colors: pink, green, white 
Pile It On - Sweet treats
Craft Your Days Away - Cup cakes
Designed 2 Delight - Anything goes 
Inspire Me Fridays - Always anything goes 

Evan is 16

My youngest son Evan turned 16 on Friday and this is the card I made for him, he got a shiny new guitar for his birthday so I used my Fender digi stamp available here coloured with Promarkers, along side the hand cut numerals. I distressed the edges of the backing paper and stamped some music sheets in pale blue (hard to see in the pic) and used a roller stamp to stamp some inspirational words. I used some sequin waste and a paint dabber from Jenni Bowlin to create the texture on the numbers and rub on's from Making Memories for the  word Birthday, happy was written by hand. Finally I added the  cable from the guitar which was a rub down from Basic Grey.

Entering this for the following challenges:
Designed 2 Delight - Anything goes
Twisted Sketches - Handmade anyhow anyway
Inspire Me Fridays -Always anything goes 
Simply Create - Distress 
Pixie Dust Studio - A tween/teen's dream
Stampin' B's - Distressing
Divas by Design - Birthdays
Gingersnap Creations - Teens

Buttons and a DT call

The new challenge at Cardmadfairy's Digi Days has the theme Buttons this week, all you have to do to join in is use buttons on your project, there is also a DT call so if you would be interested in joining our happy team pop on over and have a look at the details. We are sponsored by my blogging buddy the fabulous Miss Hope Jacare who will be treating the winner to some of her gorgeous digi doodles - thanks so much Claire!

I have used the digi stamp Jessica available in the digi stamp shop and also at Cardmadfairy's Creations.

Entering these challenges:

Stampavie and More - Girlie

The Paper Variety -  Use thread

Try It On Tuesday - Anything goes

Incy Wincy Designs - Recipe: 3 embellishments, 2 papers, 1 image

Make it Monday - Always anything goes 

AiFactory - Anything Goes

Art Impressions Stamps Challenge - Anything Goes

Paper Crafting Journey - Anything goes

Shelly's Images - Show Us what you got

Stamp Insanity - Anything goes

3 Colours

The new challenge today at Crafty Creations is all about colour - three colours to be precise: Red, Orange and Green. Our design team were given a couple of images to play with from our sponsor for this week's challenge - 2Cute Rubber Stamps.

I used Promarkers to colour my image and teamed it with backing papers from Blonde Moments and some sparkly tetured handmade paper which came from a mixed pack my daughter gave me a while ago - so no manufacturers I'm afraid. I used a flower punch to create the petals for the big sunflower and cut them all out individually adding faux stitching with a white gel pen. I used the same pen to write the birthday greeting.

Entering my card for the following challenges:
Crazy Challenge - Movies (Bee Movie)
Heart Song Inspirations - Animal image or incorporate pleated ribbon
Make it Monday - Always anything goes
Pink Elephant - Stitching
Stamping Scrapping Central - Summer 
One Stitch At A Time - Anything goes
Fabulous Friday -Animals
Stamp Something - Dog days of summer
Stampin For The Weekend - Spots and dots

Proud Mum!

Have had a great weekend, crafted all day Saturday while the family were all off doing other things then yesterday went into town to see my beautiful and very talented daughter Lynsey May performing a reading of two of her fab short stories in the Spiegletent at the Edinburgh Book Festival as one of Edinburgh's up & coming new writers ( see http://www.edinburghcityofliterature.com/august14.html.) The audience loved the stories and we were so proud of her when people were overheard raving about the reading!

The card I'd like to share today is not for anything particular - not a dt card, not for anyone I know - just made it because I felt like it!  The lovely image is from Make it Crafty and has been coloured with my Promarkers to work with the backing papers which are from Doolicrafts. 

I chose a bunch of challenges and made the card to fit in with them:

Craft Your Days Away  - Birthday celebrations

Creations by Gill M - Believe in the magic

Totally Gorjuss -  Round and round 

Card Makin' Mamas - Birthday cards

Clearly Inspired - Things with wings

Digi Doodle Shop's Best - Shaped card

Moving Along With The Times - Fantasy

Divas by Design - Birthdays

Flutterby Wednesdays - Open

Crafty Ann's - Scallops and or fancy borders

Recycled truffle box

As I mentioned in a previous post I have been taking an online She Art workshop with Christy Tomlinson and have been enjoying it so much I decided to use what I've been learning to alter an old chocolate truffle box - I actually made it as a dt project completely forgetting that we had decided to put the challenges on hold for a few weeks - doh! - never mind, I was needing a new home for my earrings anyway.

I covered the original box with a coat of Gesso, added some book paper then painted it with acrylics. I then stamped, sponged and stencilled before adding my girl. I decorated it with flowers, beads, gold braid, rub ons and a good coating of Mod Podge to seal it all.

Entering this for the following challenges:
Allsorts - Anything but a card
Challenge Up Your Life - No patterned paper
Crafty Purple Frog - Anything but a card
Delightful Challenges - Things with wings 
7 Kids College Fund - Anything but a card
Pollycraft - Recycle

A new appointment!

I'm really excited today to announce my appointment to the Charisma Cardz design team, I know I recently said that I am trying to cut back a little on my dt commitments but you know what they say - a change is as good as a rest!! I will be a part of Team Gem and will be taking part in the challenges every other week starting today with challenge 32 which is - Distressing. 

The team were offered images from either of this week's two sponsors Some Odd Girl or The Stamping Boutique and I chose to use this really cute SOG image Roller Mae which I enjoyed colouring with my Promarkers. I used Basic Grey papers again - this time from the Hello Luscious set. I made the flower embellishment quite a while ago and have just been waiting for a project to use it on - the flower was cut from card and covered with patterned paper then glued to a large paperclip, a circle of card covered with microbeads finished it off. Pop on over to the Charisma Cardz challenge blog to see all the fabulous cards my new teamies have made - they're well worth a visit!

Challenges I'm entering this card for:
Stamps & Fun = Creativity - Sketch  
Creative Craft Challenges - Summertime
Paper Minutes - Turquoise/dark pink/lime
Paper Take Weekly - Grow your own- use hand made or altered flowers 
Die Cut Dreams - Holiday fun 
KB Cute Monday - Anything goes using a digi 
Make it Monday - Always anything goes  
Dream Valley Challenges - Distressing

Crafty Creations - one for the guys

Today at Crafty Creations there is a brand new challenge - to create a male birthday card based on a great sketch by Tami Mayberry.

The design team were supplied with digital images from our sponsor for this week - Delicious Doodles and I chose to use In the Harbour for my DT card which is quite loosely based on the sketch, the backing papers are Basic Grey, the image was coloured with Promarkers and the sentiment is from Stampin Up.

 

Other challenges I'm entering:
Craft Your Passion - Under the Sea or Your Favorite Season
Paper Playtime - Water 
Dream Valley Challenges - Distressing 
One Stitch At A Time - Use a Digi 
Crafty Emma - Water it
Ellephantastic - Add some layers
Just Some Lines - Outdoors/Summer 
Marks Finest Papers - Make a card any shape or size other than the standard 4 1/4" x 5 1/2"
Card Makin' Mamas - Birthday cards
Just Add Ink - Tearing/distressing
A Spoonful Of Sugar - Happy Birthday
Anything Goes Challenge - Happy Birthday/Celebration 
Deep Ocean Challenge - Sea 
Digital Tuesday - I Love The Sea
Tuesday Throwdown - Birthday

Teddy Bea

Here is a quick card I made yesterday just because I felt like it :o) 

I'm still loving the gorgeous Teddy Bo images which are great fun to ink and I decided to use some colours that I'd not worked with for a while, then of course finding backing papers to work with is always tricky if you don't work out which ones you want to use before you start colouring! I love the Basic Grey Marrakech one that I eventually chose but felt it needed something to break it up a bit so I added the text one from Making Memories, still not quite sure whether the card needs something else - any suggestions??

Entering it for these challenges:

KB Cute Monday - Anything goes using a digi
Make it Monday - Always anything goes
Card Cupids - Buttons and/or ribbon   
Sparkles Forum - One for the girls 
Alphabet Challenge - N is for navy plus one other colour
Clearly Inspired - Things with wings
Inspire Me Fridays - Always anything goes
Stamp Something - Use a digi

Something different

Well today I have something new to me to share - I have been taking an online class with Christy Tomlinson, the She Art workshop can be found here and I'm just lovin' it!

Although I have been drawing fairly regularly over the last couple of years and crafting on an almost daily basis for many more, it has been a very long time since I have put paints on canvas, probably when I was at college over 30 years ago was the last time :o)

Anyway I thought I'd like to share what I've been doing to see what you think. It is not necessary to be good at drawing or painting to get something out of this course and I would recommend it to anyone who fancies spreading their wings and trying something new.

My first attempt

...and my second

First Saturday

The first Saturday of the month means a new challenge at Crafty Calendar and this month it was my turn to choose the theme for August which is Hot Colours - well we still could get some hot weather don't you think?  I have used one of Pollycraft's Sonny Honeycloud images, and coloured her with Promarkers, the backing papers are a mix of different maufacturers - Papermania, DCWV and Basic Grey I think - I wanted to get a good hot mix! The fabric flowers are from MeiFlower and the sentiment was a free one, also from Papermania.

Entering this in the following challenges:

4 Crafty Chicks - Colour
Craft Us Crazy - Anything goes in August
Freshly Brewed - Hot images and/or colours
Kelley Kid's - Anything goes
Penny's Paper-Crafty - Watermelons (the fruit or the colour)
The Craft Garden - Bold, bright & loud
Fabulous Friday - Color in an image
Inspire Me Fridays - Always anything goes
Phindy’s Place - Anything goes
Raise The Bar - Anything goes

Summer holidays - I wish!

Our new challenge today at Cardmadfairy's Digi Days has a Summer Holiday theme and although I haven't been on holiday the weather has actually been quite summery here this week, warm and sunny with the odd heavy shower or two - well it is Scotland what else would you expect?? 

I have used my Cardmadfairy image Young Love available here, and coloured it with Aqua markers for a change :o) I made the seaside scene with Distress inks and a glimmer spray then added a couple of stamped  images - the boat, the rocks and grass.

Pop on over to the challenge blog to see what the rest of the design team have done to inspire!

Entering my card for the following challenges:
Craft Room Challenge - Summer Holidays
Creative Craft Challenges - Summertime
Deep Ocean Challenge - Sea
Sweet Stamps - Hot time in the summer
Try It On Tuesday - Beach-related card
Tuesday Throwdown - Summertime
Crafting for all Seasons - Beach/ocean
Stampavie and More - Summer
Divas by Design - Summer
Crazy Challenge - The Sun is out
Critter Sketch - Summer fun
Paper Playtime - Summer
Paper Pretties - Lazy days of summer
Stamp-N-Doodle - At the beach
There She Goes - Summer

By invitation only

Sorry only time for a very quick post today - other family members are needing to use the i-mac so I'm having to rush!

This week at Crafty Creations the challenge theme chosen by Deena is By Invitation Only, I have used my new Gorjuss stamp, coloured it with Promarkers and teamed it with a sentiment from Stampin Up.

Entering it for these challenges:
Make it Monday - Anything goes
Paper Creations Ink - Stitching 
Woodware USA - Anything goes
Come and Get It Challenges - Anything goes
Lollipop Crafts - Celebrations
Little Claire's  -  Things With Wings
Inspire Me Fridays - Always anything goes
Sew Many Cards - Anything goes
Craft Us Crazy - Anything goes
Digi Doodle Shop's Best - Anything goes
Going Grey With Scrap-Creations - Buttons and/or Bows 
Paper Take Weekly - Anything goes with optional metal 

Stencils in the spotlight

The spotlight challenge at Crafty Cardmakers is all about stencils this week and as I had just bought some new templates to use on the art journal I'm working on at the moment I was able to use one for my dt project, it is a Crafter's Workshop Template - Mini Birds of a Feather.
I have used Distress ink with my stencil applying the ink using some cut & dry foam. I have kept the card quite simple to try to make the stencilled image the main focus however the brightness of the ribbon is kind of defeating that purpose and I think I should maybe have used something a little less vibrant!

Challenges entered:
Card Cupids - Birthday 
Come and Get It Challenges - Anything goes 
Sentimental Sundays - In the garden 
Stampin' Sisters in Christ - Use any type of creature from tiny to very large
Stamp Man - Stitching
Stampin' B's - Use ribbon
Paper Pretties - No markers
Deep Ocean Challenge - Ribbons
Kaboodle Doodles - In the garden
Lawnscaping - Distressing