Forget the comfort zone!

  

Here I am out of my comfort zone once again, although I suppose that's what a challenge is all about really!

This is my DT card for Crafty Cardmakers whose theme this week is - yes you've guessed it is Step away from the square. For me shaped cards are usually avoided like the plague - I love other people's but usually always plump for square for my own ones. 

I decided to use my latest digi stamp for this week's challenge and printed it out onto card, cut it out, coloured it with distress inks and Twinkling H2Os and added some ultra fine glitter. I then stuck it onto a piece of folded blue cardstock and cut round the butterfly shape again. The flowers are from Petaloo and they are held together with some mini brads which I added some extra fine glitter to, the lovely sentiment is Stampin Up.

I'm entering my card for these challenges:

Cowgirl's Sunday - Anything goes

Gingerloft - All that glitters or blings

Stampin' Sisters in Christ - Nature

Catch the Bug - Anything goes

Cooking it up with Katie - Use a digi, add some yellow, finish with a little sparkle
Stamps R Us - Nature

I'm back

Well the last three days have been pretty exhausting but I've had a great night's sleep and I'm ready for some challenges! Today's is Creative Inspirations challenge which has been set this week by my lovely teamie Cheryl, she has chosen Get Well Soon as her theme. We are lucky enough to have two sponsors for this challenge - Fantastic Ribbons and Ellephantastic with fab prizes from both.

 My card, because I've been so busy this week, is a quick and simple one. The image is Bird on Branch by Softpencil which I coloured with Promarkers  and used some pearl glass outliner paint on the berries. I've framed the image with brown cardstock using a Nellie Snellen die, then used the same cardstock to make a backing using a Cuttlebug embossing folder and Whisper White ink from Stampin Up. My punches are also from Stampin Up.

The challenges I'm entering this for are:
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - Open theme
Sweet Stampin - Punches
Alphabet - W for Wings
Totally Papercrafts - The great outdoors
Pixie Dust - Swirly swirls

Craft Fair Fatigue!

I'm exhausted after 2 very long days at the craft fair I'm doing this week, have been out for 11 hours both days and am back for more tomorrow although not for so long. Anyway just have time to post a card I made earlier in the week before heading up to bed.
Sorry too tired for all the details but if there's anything you want to ask about please do :o), image is by Tiddly Inks.

This is for:

Shirleys 2 girls - Critters (bat), purple & orange

Stamps R Us - Halloween

Totally Stampalicious - Halloween

Gingerloft - Happy Haunting

Paper Garden Projects - Halloween

The challenge this week at Crafty Creations is Owls and our design team were lucky to have been given a choice of some brilliant owl digi images from our sponsor Blackleaf Studios who are very generously offering 10 digi papers to this week's lucky winner!

Sorry, no time to hang around today - have to go and set up my stall at Let's get Krafti in the North Kirk, Penicuik - will be there for the next 3 days so may not have much time for blogging, unless of course they have wi-fi!


I'm entering my card in the following challenges:

Paper Sundaes - Things with wings

Craftilicious - Harvest festival/Autumn

Stamptacular Sunday - Fall colours

Our Daily Bread - Wing it

Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - Stitching

Stamp Something - Fall Colours

Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight challenge

Today's card is my DT card for the Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight challenge and this week the spotlight spotlight is on everything Oriental. My teamies have come up with some gorgeous projects so pop on over and have a look if you need some inspiration. The prize for this challenge is an Oriental cardmaking kit from The Stampman.

I  used an unmounted stamp which I've had for years and have long forgotten from whence it came and started by using two colours of Distress inks on my card then stamping the image in black Versafine, I used a post-it note to mask the image and stamped the bamboo to frame the left side of the image and while the mask was still in place I spritzed on some green Altered Originals ink. The backing is some handmade oriental paper which I've had kicking around for a long time and I used some Mizuhiki cords to tie a knot which the instructions called Felicitatieknoop (not sure which language the instructions are in - just as well there were diagrams!). The greeting translates as Love.

I am also entering this in:
Corrosive challenge - Masking
ABC challenge - Distressing  - oops too late for this one!
and
Spoonful of Sugar - Anything goes

Glad it's Friday and I'm feeling better although my elder teenage son is poorly and I had to take half an hour off work this afternoon to go and collect him from Macdonald's, where he works and take him home - can't believe they wanted him to stay at work and sent him to the chemist for something to stop him vomiting, fortunately the chemist had more sense and told him to go home to bed and take paracetamol to bring his temp down. Hope he'll be feeling better soon too.

I made this card a couple of days ago but the light wasn't good enough for a photo either before or after work until this morning. The image is a freebie from a very generous and talented crafter called Anne Bodil who regularly shares her lovely digi stamps. This one was coloured with Promarkers and I added a little glitter with a gel pen and a water brush for a subtle sheen. The flowers are from Petaloo and the sentiment is a rub-down which I've had on my desk for ages. Backing papers are from Making Memories.

Entering this one for:

Digital Tuesday - It's all about the girls

Anything Goes - Cute

Tuesday Throwdown - Paper pleating

Sunday Sketch & Stamp - Sketch

Ai Factory - Anything goes

Charisma Cardz - Anything goes

Halloween is coming

Stitchy Bear Stamps have just released a collection of new digi stamps just for Halloween including 3 from my alter ego Cardmadfairy.

Jessica - dressed for the Halloween disco

a Cat Costume for the fancy dress parade

and Ghostly - perfect for Trick or Treating

Falling Leaves

Falling Leaves is the theme for this week's Crafty Creations challenge and I have used one of Mo Manning's gorgeous new illustrations for my DT card. I coloured the image with Promarkers and inked round the edges of the white card then mounted it onto a nice russet coloured cardstock. The fabulous backing papers are from an Autumn/Halloween 12x12 pack by Max Bringmann KC which a friend picked up for me from Lidl of all places!

Our sponsor this week is our own DT Jaime who is offering this gorgeous stamp set to our winner - pity I'm not allowed to enter!


Other challenges this is appropriate for:
Paper Playtime - Autumn
Paper Sundaes - Fabulous fall
Stampin Sisters in Christ - Fall colours
Totally Gorguss - Wild Thing -Animals
Going Grey with Scrap Creations - Fall
Creative Card Crew - Autumn

I'm feeling a bit off colour today and when I've finished this post I'm off for a sit or maybe even a lie down for a little while, I have to work for the next 5 days so need to be feeling better by tomorrow.


So today's card has been a little bit of a challenge - firstly I decided to make something other than the usual square card then, because a couple of the challenges were asking for hand made flowers, I made the flowers by cutting round a template that I got a long time ago from Kirsty Wiseman's blog then colouring the patterned paper with Broken China distress ink and spritzing with some pearl pigments, next I ran them through the big shot with a Cuttle embossing folder and then creased each petal to add some dimension, adding some aqua coloured Stickles round the edge of each petal before finally stamping some gold swirls on a piece of cardstock and punching out circles which I topped with some very underused Page Pebbles which have been languishing in my drawer for ever! Crickey that was a long sentence - you deserve a medal if you stuck with me through that lot :o)

The backing paper is from Papermania, the sentiment from Funky Kits and the swirly frame was one I won in a challenge a few weeks ago. I also used some alcohol inks on the acetate butterfly to make it a little more interesting.

The challenges I'm entering today are:
Pink Elephant - the colour Aqua, DP & embellishments
Corrosive - Clean up the dust - unused craft stuff (the Page Pebbles)
Cowgirl-Up - Anything but a square card
Paper Play - All shapes & sizes
Scrappy Frogs - Make your own flowers
Passion for Promarkers - Make your own flowers

What I made today

Today's card is a Christmas card for several different Christmas challenges. I am quite late in getting started with the Christmas cards this year - I've usually done quite a few by this time but this is only about my third. I'll have to try to find a few more Christmas challenges to get me into gear!
Anyway for this one I've used a Pollycraft image which I stamped and then coloured with Promarkers, using a little glue pen and ultra fine glitter on her bobbles and a touch of Glossy Accents on her buttons and holly.
The backing papers are SU as is the snowflake stamp I've used to make the baubles. The sentiment is Papermania. Apologies for the photo - I left it a bit late in the day and the light wasn't too good.

I'm entering the card in these challenges:
Glitterbabe's - Anything goes
Aimee's - Christmas
Just Inspirational - Christmas
MAWTT - Christmas
Fussy & Fancy - Christmas Colours

Creative Inspirations challenge 43

Pink and black is the colour combo for the new challenge at Creative inspirations, and I love the vibrant feeling to all the DT cards this week. We are being sponsored by Bugaboo Stamps who are offering 7 digi stamps to the winner.

My image is Pinky (appropriate name don't you think!) from Tiddly Inks and I really enjoyed colouring her - especially that long hair! The backing papers are from DCWV - (the black with pink dots) and Making Memories. I stamped the little flowers on the pink paper and used a scrap of left over pink ribbon and some seldom used fabric flowers from my stash held together with glittered brads to ebellish. I'm afraid I've forgotten where the sentiment stamp came from but I think it works perfectly on this card.

I'm entering the card for these challenges:
Cinema Saturday - Use metal
Secret Crafter - Anything goes
Creative Belli - Embellishment starting with B (brads)
and last but not least
Papertake weekly - Inspirational Photo

Another card to share using one of Meljen's cute images which are only available at Whimsy Stamps, unfortunately Whimsy are having some trouble with their site at the moment but are trying really hard to get things up and running again as quickly as possible.

Sorry no time to chat today - have to rush off to work as soon as I've had my toast!

Today's card was made with all these challenges in mind:
Crafty Catz - Chocolate & green
Fairy Fun Friday - Embossing
Sew Many Cards - Embossing & digi
Stamp Something - Digi stamp
Stampman - Distress
Cute Card Thursday - Birds or butterflies
Daring Cardmakers - Things that fly