Toot Your Own Horn!

Today's card features one of the 'Jazzy Cats' by Penny Black. I coloured him using watercolour pencils, then cut him out using one of my Nesties. The music backing paper is actually from a Christmas pad ('Mistletoe' pad by Craftwork Cards), from which I cut a larger circle, then distressed all of the edges, then added some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a black gel pen. The sentiments are from the 'Critter Concert' set by Lawn Fawn.

Challenges for this card:

• Always Fun - Dogs or Cats
• Aud Sentiments - Any Sentiment (Except Happy Birthday)
• Dream Valley - Kraft
• Incy Wincy - For the Men & the Boys
• My Time to Craft - Cats and/or Dogs
• Penny Black & More - Going Round in Circles
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesday) - Cute
• Simply Create Too - Anything Goes (Optional For a Male)
• Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

Watercolour Butterflies

Today's card features more butterflies...this time from the 'Butterfly Birthday' set by Happy Little Stampers. I stamped them using Versamark Ink off the edge of a piece of watercolour paper, then heat embossed them using white embossing powder. I stamped one of the sentiments from the same set in black, then heat embossed in in clear, before watercolouring loosely over the top of the butterflies using Distress Inks (Picked Raspberry, Wilted Violet & Mermaid Lagoon). I distressed the edges of the watercoloured panel, then added it to a kraft card blank.

Challenges for this card:

• CAS on Friday - Embossing
• Crafting from the Heart - Anything Goes
• Happy Little Stampers (Watercolour) - Anything Goes
• Less is More - Take Three (Butterflies & Colours)
• Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes

Pile It On! Challenge - Your Favourite Colour and/or Rainbow

I'm back with some more inspiration for this month's Pile It On! Challenge where the theme's are:

'Your Favourite Colour'
or
'Rainbow'

Our sponsor this month is The Paper Shelter

Prize - Three Digital Stamps of the Winner's Choice!

I went with the whole rainbow this time...stamping a kaleidoscope of butterflies using Distress Inks (Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade, Festive Berries, Lucky Clover, Broken China, Chipped Sapphire & Wilted Violet). The butterfly stamp is from the 'Social Butterfly' set by Penny Black, and the sentiment stamps are from the 'Everyday Sentiments' set by Happy Little Stampers. I distressed the edges a little, then added some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a black gel pen.

Here are the challenges I've piled on:

• Pile It On! - Your Favourite Colour and/or Rainbow
• Daring Cardmakers - Stitch It
• Fab 'N' Funky - Butterflies
• Gem of a Challenge - Anything Goes
• Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anything Goes
• Moo Mania - Close to Nature
• Moving Along with the Times - Bugs
• Stamping Sensations - Somewhere Over the Rainbow
• Stamps + Fun = Creativity - Butterflies

For more inspiration from my lovely DT buddies, please pop over to the Pile It On! Challenge.

PBSC March - Anything Goes (Optional 'CAS')...More Inspiration!

It's the third Saturday of the month, so that means it's time for some more inspiration for this month's Penny Black Saturday Challenge...where the theme is:

'Anything Goes'
or
'Clean & Simple'

As usual, we are sponsored by the awesome 1-2-3 Stitch:

Prize - a $20 voucher!

I used three of the bunnies from the 'Bunny Friends' stamp to make a really simple card. I coloured the bunnies using watercolour pencils, then carefully cut them out...removing them from their flowerpots too. I cut a fence for them to gossip over using my 'Picket Fence' die by Die-namics from plain white card, added it to a kraft card blank, then popped the bunnies peeking over the top using 3D foam pads. The sentiment is from the 'Sending Sunshine' set by Simon Says Stamp.

I'm also entering this card into the following challenges:

• Animal Friends - Rabbits
• Crafty Catz - Anything Goes
• Happy Little Stamper (Dies) - Anything Goes
• Polkadoodles - Anything Goes

For more inspiration from my lovely DT buddies, please pop over to the Penny Black Saturday Challenge.

Chicky Nights!

Today's card features lots of snippets of glitter card (from a pad by American Crafts). I had lots, but all of different widths, so glued them on to a snippet of white card at an angle to make a sort of glitter rainbow. Inspired by the array of colours, I picked a Penny Black stamp called 'Chicky Nights'...they're coloured in pretty pastel shades on the woodblock stamp, but I went a little bolder to match the glitter. I coloured them using watercolour pencils, then added a sentiment (from the 'Anytime Messages' set by Hero Arts), and doodled a simple border.

Challenges for this card:

• Crafty Creations - Anything Goes
• Cute Card Thursday - Celebrate
• Penny's Paper Crafty - Anything Goes
• Pixie's Snippets Playground - Use Snippets
• Stamping Sensations - Somewhere Over the Rainbow

House Mouse Hurray!

I was the lucky winner of a House Mouse stamp set on a blog hop for the House Mouse & Friends Challenge a few weeks ago...so when my prize arrived at the weekend (thanks Lols!), I couldn't resist inking it up right away. I picked this wee mouse to use first...just look how much fun he's having with those ribbons! I stamped on to kraft card, added a sentiment from the same stamp set, then coloured the image using watercolour pencils...but didn't add any water. I picked some papers from the 'Let's Celebrate' pad from Poundland to go with it...and added some faux stitching to everything using my CutterBee Bug and a black gel pen.

Challenges for this card:

• House Mouse & Friends - Anything Goes (Optional Stripes and/or Dots)
• Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes
• Use Your Stuff - Stitching

Rainbow Snowflakes

I have a Christmas card to share today...featuring a rainbow of snowflakes. The stamps are a mixture of Happy Little Stampers (from the 'Let it Snow' set) and Hero Arts (from the 'Winter Wishes' set), and I stamped them using Distress Inks (Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade, Festive Berries, Lucky Clover, Broken China, Chipped Sapphire & Wilted Violet) on to watercolour paper. The sentiment stamp is also from the Happy Little Stampers 'Let it Snow' set. I distressed the edges a little, then added some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a black gel pen.

Challenges for this card:

• Corrosive - Anything Goes
• Crafting with an Attitude - Anything Goes
• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes
• Stamping Sensations - Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Concert Critters

I was the lucky winner of a Lawn Fawn giftcard recently, and used it to get a couple of their adorable stamp sets. I used some of stamps from one of those sets (called 'Critter Concert') to make a simple set of little 4x4 inch notecards. I stamped the critters, added some musical notes, and a sentiment from the same stamp set, then doodled a simple border. I coloured the critters using watercolour pencils.

Challenges for these cards:

• Crafty Catz - Anything Goes
• Creative Moments - Anything Goes
• Cute Card Thursday - Anything Goes
• Gem of a Challenge - Anything Goes
• Little Red Wagon - Wild Animals
• Penny's Paper Crafty - Anything Goes
• Polkadoodles - Anything Goes
• Sweet Stampin' - Anything Goes

ABC Christmas Challenge - E, F & G are for?

We have another fun ABC Christmas Challenge starting today...Carol is the host, and we have three wonderful themes this month:

'E is for Embellishments'

'F is for Fabric'

&

'G is for Glitz'

Carol has donated these two awesome Hunkydory card kits as prizes for two lucky winners:

I know that I probably could have combined all three of the themes on one card, but I couldn't resist making a separate card for each one...so that's three more Christmas cards for the box!

I tend not to embellish my cards too much (especially Christmas ones that I may ending up paying to post!), but I found some simple little adhesive gemstones that I used on my first card. The image is 'Xmouse Ornament' by Penny Black, which I coloured using watercolour pencils, then carefully cut it out and added the gemstones to his snowflake. I made a simple background by embossing a piece of white card using my Tim Holtz/Sizzix 'Snowfall' embossing folder, adding a Lili of the Valley sentiment along the bottom. I popped the little mouse on top using some 3D foam pads.

Challenges for this card:

• Addicted to CAS - Fluffy 
• Allsorts - Your Favourite Season (Winter!) 
• Crafty Friends - Gemstones/Pearls 
• Happy Little Stampers (Christmas) - Anything Christmas Goes
• Simon Says Stamp (Mondays) - Whatever the Weather 
• Winter Wonderland - Fuzzy Wuzzy 

I'm also not one for using fabric on my cards...despite having quite the collection of ribbon, lace and other trims! I picked a snippet of cream coloured lace, and found a vintage-looking Lili of the Valley image (from a really old sheet of pre-coloured die cut images), and some vintage-looking papers (from the 'Mistletoe' pad by Craftwork Cards...picked up as a total bargain in a charity shop recently) to go with it. I inked around the edge of the image using 'Old Paper' Distress Ink, to take the edge off the whiteness of it and make it blend in better with the papers, then distressed all of the edges and added some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a black gel pen.

Challenges for this card:

• As You Like It - Layers...One or Many (Ooh, this is tough, but I'm going to go with many...more opportunity to use up those pretty papers!)
• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - Anything Goes (Optional Vintage) 
• Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper - Anything Goes 
• Creative Knockouts - Lots of Layers
• Sparkles Forum Christmas - Vintage 
• The Sisterhood of Crafters - Red

The 'G for Glitz' theme is right up my street! I have a fairly sizable collection of the embossing glitters by WOW...and love how sparkly they are, and can make a really simple stamped image look really pretty (and impressive!). I sued a new stamp on this card...it's called 'Connor's Crown Jewels' by Indiglo Blu and I found it in the 'Bargain Bin' of a lovely 'Aladdin's Cave' of a craft shop a couple of weeks ago. There are two elements combined in the stamp...some beautiful hanging baubles and a snowy border, so I decided to try to use two different embossing glitters. I stamped the image on to a piece of black card using Versamark Ink, then carefully poured 'Sparkling Snow' embossing powder on to the snowy border part of the image, removed the excess, then covered the middle portion of the stamp with 'Metallic Gold Sparkle' embossing glitter. The sentiment stamp is from a set by Lili of the Valley.

I'm also entering these cards into the following challenges:

• Artistic Inspirations - Anything Goes
• Crafting from the Heart - Anything Goes
• Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes
• Love to Scrap - Anything Goes
• Merry Little Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes
• The Holly & the Ivy - Anything Christmas Goes
• Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

For more inspiration from my lovely DT buddies, please pop over to the ABC Christmas Challenge.

Carolers

I have a simple Christmas card to share today...there are a few 'Music' themed challenges around at the moment, and I couldn't resist inking up my 'Carolers' stamp by Penny Black. I coloured the chickens using watercolour pencils, added a sentiment (from a Lili of the Valley set), and pierced a border using one of my CutterBee Bugs. The strip of music patterned paper is from a Craftwork Cards pad called 'Mistletoe' that I picked up in a charity shop recently.

Challenges for this card:

• Crafter's Cafe - Birds
• Fab 'N' Funky - Music
• Jingle Belles - Music
• Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes
• Stamps + Fun = Creativity - Music

Pile It On! Challenge - Your Favourite Colour

We have a fun new Pile It On! Challenge starting today...with a nice and easy theme:

'Your Favourite Colour'

Our sponsor this month is The Paper Shelter

Prize - Three Digital Stamps of the Winner's Choice!

My favourite colour is blue...I love all shades of blue, but particularly greeny-blues...like teal. So, I made a teal card blank, and stamped my design on to another piece of teal card...I used a Penny Black floral stamp (called 'Blossom Branch') and a sentiment from the 'Fabulous Birthday' set (by Hero Arts), stamping them using a white pigment ink, then heat embossing them in white to get a really crisp image. I lightly distressed the edges, then matted it on to a piece of white card (distressing those edges too), before adding it to my card blank.

Here are the challenges I've piled on:

• Pile It On! - Your Favourite Colour (Teal)
• A Bit More Time to Craft - Anything Goes
• A Perfect Time to Craft - Anything Goes
• Cards Galore Encore - Anything Goes
• Catch the Bug - Anything Goes
• Crafty Cardmakers - Flowers
• Crafty Catz- Anything Goes
• Inkspirational - Use Your Stash
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes

For more inspiration from my lovely DT buddies, please pop over to the Pile It On! Challenge.

PBSC February - Anything Goes (Optional 'CAS')

It's the first Saturday of the month, so that means it's time for a new Penny Black Saturday Challenge...where the theme is:

'Anything Goes'
or
'Clean & Simple'

As usual, we are sponsored by the awesome 1-2-3 Stitch:

Prize - a $20 voucher!

I went with the CAS option, and picked a cute hedgie image (called 'To Cake Moment') for my card. I coloured it using watercolour pencils, then carefully cut it out. I stamped a sentiment from a set by Lili of the Valley, then doodled a simple border before adding my hedgie popped up on some 3D foam pads.

I'm also entering this card into the following challenges:

• 2 Crafty Critter Crazies - Anything Goes
• Crafting with Friends - Anything Goes
• Creatalicious - Anything Goes (Optional CAS)
• Polkadoodles - Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes

For more inspiration from my lovely DT buddies, please pop over to the Penny Black Saturday Challenge.

Christmas Robins

Today's card features a couple of recent charity shop finds...a cute Wild Rose Studio stamp called 'Christmas Robins' and some papers from a pad by Craftwork Cards called 'Festive Chalkboard'. I coloured the image using watercolour pencils, then added a Lili of Valley sentiment, before distressing all of the edges, and adding faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and black and white gel pens.

Challenges for this card:

• Christmas with the Cuties - Something Beginning with B (Birds)
• Crafty Creations - Anything Goes
• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes
• Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes
• Crimbo Crackers - Anything Christmas Goes
• Penny's Paper Crafty - Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes
• Sweet Stampers - Stitched (my stitching is faux)

Guest Designer - Through the Craft Room Door Challenge

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to be a guest designer for the Through the Craft Room Door Challenge, and today I'm sharing my card for their new challenge, which starts today. As always, the theme of the challenge is:

'Anything Goes'

Their sponsor this week is STAMPlorations

I used a STAMPlorations freebie image on my card called 'Framed Holly & Pine Cones' (you can find it here). I printed it on to watercolour paper, then watercoloured it using Distress Inks. It looks fairly simple, but it took a lot of colours: Old Paper (Background), Evergreen Bough, Pine Needles & Forest Moss (Pine Branches), Mowed Lawn, Lucky Clover & Forest Moss (Holly Leaves), Festive Berries & Aged Mahogany (Berries), Tea Dye, Brushed Corduroy & Gathered Twigs (Pine Cones). Once coloured, I trimmed the panel down, lightly distressed the edges a little, then added it to a kraft card blank.

For more inspiration from the design team, please pop over to the Through the Craft Room Door Challenge.

Snowy Stars Twofer

I'm sneaking in under the wire into this month's Twofer Challenge, where the theme is 'Stars'...I picked up a new (to me) die set...called 'Snowy Stars' (by Tim Holtz for Sizzix) this week in a lovely little Aladdin's cave of a craft shop, and couldn't resist! I used it to make a birthday card and a Christmas card.

For the birthday card I used the large circular die on a piece of navy card, then backed it with some yellow so that the stars would 'shine' through. I used it as a background for my 'Cat on the Moon' stamp by Penny Black...I coloured the image using watercolour pencils, then carefully cut it out. I added a star cut using one of the single star dies from the same set, and heat embossed a sentiment made up of stamps from the 'Wish Upon a Star' set by Lawn Fawn.

For the Christmas card, I cut the same circular die into a piece of paper from the 'Mystery Marbles' pad by Craft Sensations. I distressed the edges a little, then added some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a white gel pen. I added a die cut sentiment ('Folk Merry Christmas' by Poppy Stamps), then added the panel to a white card blank.

Challenges for these cards:

• Aud Sentiments - Bingo + a Sentiment (Die Cut - Pencils - Favourite Colour (Blue)) (First Card Only)
• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - Anything Goes (Second Card Only)
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - No Stamps Allowed (Second Card Only)
• Twofer - Stars (Birthday & Christmas)

Doodled Flowers

I have a Mother's Day card to share today...this one is for my Mum to give to her Mum...she's 99 and her eyesight is not so good, so I went for nice bright colours with an 'easy to read' sentiment. The stamps are all by Happy Little Stampers (from the 'Doodled Flowers' and 'Everyday Sentiments' set). I stamped on to watercolour paper, coloured the flowers using watercolour pencils, then distressed the edges a little, before matting the panel on to a piece of kraft card to act as a buffer between the not-so-white watercolour paper and my white card blank.

Challenges for this card:

• Crafty Catz - Anything Goes
• Crafty Sentiments - Spring is Springing
• Happy Little Stampers (Watercolour) - Anything Goes
• Penny's Paper Crafty - Anything Goes
• Polkadoodles - Anything Goes
• Stamping Sensations - All Things Bright & Beautiful

Sparkly Snowflakes

I have a Christmas card to share today...inspired by the 'All that Glitters' challenge over at Jingle Belles. I picked three different embossing glitters (by WOW) Metallic Silver Sparkle, Metallic Gold Sparkle & Fool's Gold and a piece of navy card, then stamped and embossed my Stampendous 'Delicate Snowflakes' along with a sentiment (from the 'Letter It Christmas' set by Ranger).

Challenges for this card:

• Crafter's Cafe - Embossing
• Dream Valley - Sparkle & Shine
• Fab 'N' Funky - Christmas
• Jingle Belles - All that Glitters

Toot the Flute!

I have an ultra simple card to share today...I couldn't resist using one of my Penny Black 'Jazzy Cats' stamps for 'One Corner (Optional Music)' themed challenge over at AAA Cards. I had hoped to add a 'Just a note' sentiment, but I'm away from home with limited stash and hadn't brought a set with that one in (and didn't trust myself to hand write it!), so added a little 'for you' from the 'Cheerful Critters' set (also by Penny Black). The image is coloured using watercolour pencils.

Challenges for this card:

• AAA Cards - One Corner (Optional Music)
• Corrosive - Anything Goes
• Crafting from the Heart - Anything Goes
• Everybody Art - Animals
• Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anything Goes
• Sweet Stampin' - Love Your Pet
• Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

Pile It On! Challenge - Pretty in Pink and/or Feelin' Blue

I'm back with some more inspiration for this month's Pile It On! Challenge where the themes are:

'Pretty in Pink'
and/or
'Feelin' Blue'

We are sponsored for this challenge by All Dressed Up

Prize - 2 Digi Stamps of the Winner's Choice!

I went blue this time...it's my favourite colour...and decided to make a Christmas card. I picked a Penny Black chicken image called 'Snowboard Ride', which I coloured using watercolour pencils. I added in a slope for him to snowboard down, then carefully cut around the top of the image. I added a snippet of snowy sky paper (from the 'Mystery Marbles' pad by Craft Sensations) behind him, them matted it all on to a snippet of navy card. The sentiment stamp is from the 'Scribbly Christmas' set by Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous).

Here are the challenges I've piled on:

• Pile It On! - Pretty in Pink and/or Feelin' Blue
• A Bit More Time to Craft - Anything Goes
• Crafting with an Attitude - Anything Goes
• Crafting with Friends - Anything Goes
• Crafty Catz - Anything Goes (Optional Keep It Simple)
• Crafty Creations - Anything Goes
• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - Anything Goes
• Cute Card Thursday - Wings 
• Cutie Pie - One for the Boys
• Gem of a Challenge - Anything Goes
• Love to Scrap - Anything Goes (Optional 'Monochrome')
• Penny Black & More - Anything Goes
• Pixie's Snippets Playground - Use Snippets
• Polkadoodles - Anything Goes
• Sparkles Forum - Include an Animal
• Stamps + Creativity = Fun - Your Favourite Colour (Blue)

For more inspiration from my lovely DT buddies, please pop over to the Pile It On! Challenge.