Rainin' Daisies

The Everbody Art Challenge is celebrating it's first anniversary this week with a fabulous sketch. I've used it to make a 'Friendship' card to send to my swap partner over on the Docrafts forum...which also fits the themes for a couple of other challenges: the 'Friendship' challenge of Creative Inspirations; the 'Animal Somethings' of the Stamp Something Challenge; and the 'Cute & Cuddly' theme of the One Stop Craft Challenge. The image is 'Rainin' Daisies' (by Penny Black), which I've watercoloured to match these yummy '29th Street Market' papers by My Mind's Eye. The sentiment stamp is by Whiff of Joy, the flowers are from Poppicrafts, the pearl brads are by Papermania, and the ribbon, card candy, and adhesive glass squares are from my stash.

Celebration Chicken!

This card uses the sketch from Carol's Sketch Fun Challenge...although I did substitute the hexagon for one of my Nestie labels...didn't trust myself to be able to cut a neat hexagon! lol I've used 'Celebration Chicken' (by Whipper Snapper)...and as he has wings, I'm also going to enter this card for the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge, where the theme is 'Flights of Fancy'. The papers are by Prima, the sentiment is Hero Arts (from the 'Anytime Messages' set), and the background was embossed using the Cuttlebug 'Spots & Dots' folder.

More simple cards...

I had a bit of a production line going yesterday and made some more simple cards for charity. I kept the layout the same, but used different colours and papers by My Mind's Eye, Daisy D's and K&Co.


I used three different Cuttlebug folders: 'Victoria', 'Textile' and 'Moroccan Screen'...trying to match them to the paper designs. The flowers and ribbons are all from Poppicrafts, and the sentiment was cut using the Cuttlebug 'Olivia' alphabet.

Sweet Little Award

I received this sweet Friendship Award from my lovely friend Pauline earlier this week...thanks for thinking of me :0)


I'm not sure if there are any rules for passing this on, but I'd like to give it to my lovely ABC Design Team buddies: Cathy, Dawn, Fiona, Jane, Jennifer and Vicky.

Snow Ride

Here's my card for this week's Penny Black Saturday Challenge, where the theme is 'Christmas'. I followed the sketch from the Papertake Weekly Challenge, although I did use some of my label Nesties to cut out the image & mat, rather than use a square. The image is from the 'Holly-Jolly' set, and, if you look closely, you may just be able to see the Woodware 'Fluffy Stuff' on the snowman's hat. The papers are by BasicGrey ('Figgy Pudding'), the sentiment stamp is also by Penny Black, and the ribbon and adhesive pearls are from my stash.

Sugar Bowl Challenge #18

I decided to use one of the lovely Gorjuss Girl images that my friend Cathy stamped for me at our craft retreat a couple of weeks ago for this fortnight's Sugar Bowl Challenge. I watercoloured her to match these yummy My Mind's Eye papers ('Adore'), then distressed all of the edges. I added some faux-stitching using a red pen and my Cutter Bee Bug, added a piece of red crocheted ribbon (that I bought on the retreat) and a few buttons.

Clean & Simple

Now I'm not usually a 'less is more' kind of crafter, but I thought I'd have a go at making some 'clean & simple' cards. These are going to a charity that my Aunt works for...I've already donated a box of cards...but she asked for some 'non-cute' ones. I embossed a couple of squares of plain white card using my 'Victoria' and 'Swiss Dots' folders, leaving a channel for the ribbon (from Poppicrafts). Then I stamped the sentiment (from a little Studio G set) on to a circle, which I matted a few times on to alternating plain and scalloped circles. To finish off, I tied a bow around the length of ribbon I'd attached around the embossed card.

I'm going to make a few more of these...in some different colours...but am off to have a browse for design ideas first...

Christmas Star

There are a couple of challenges to make 'Shape Cards' at the moment...I've made quite a few 'Circle' cards, so I thought I'd try something a little different. I used the largest of my 'Star' Nesties to cut the card (I cut two separate stars, then glued the tip of one of the points together to make a hinge), then layered alternating silver and blue stars, which I embossed with my 'Swiss Dots' folder, finishing off with a couple of snowflakes cut using a Cuttlebug bug die in the centre. This was so quick and easy to do, I'm sure I'll make a few more before Christmas.


Here's a view showing the 'hinge'...the card will also stand with the hinge at the top.



I'm entering this card for the Cupcake Craft and the Christmas Stampin' All Year Long challenges...which both challenged us to make 'Shaped Cards'.

Sugar 'n' Spice...

..and 'All Things Nice'...that's the theme of the first Anyone for Anya Challenge...now I don't actually own any Anya stamps, but I do have a few Miss Anya images, that my lovely blogging friends have gifted to me, so I thought I'd have a go. The 'Sugar 'n' Spice' theme made me think of all things yummy...and what could be more delicious than BasicGrey 'Bittersweet' papers? lol I followed the Midnight Madness sketch, adding some Poppicrafts flowers, and a few pieces of Craftwork Cards card candy.

Pickles or Onion?

I'm busy trying to get ready for next term...so I've been limiting my crafting time this week, but I found a little time last night to use one of my new Daisy & Dandelion stamps (from the 'Birthday' set)...but I'm not sure if this cute little heffalump is Pickles or Onion? I used the Pink Elephant Challenge sketch...so I guess I should really have coloured him pink...lol...but I'd already coloured him in the 'Pink & Grey' colour combination of the Stampin' for the Weekend Challenge. I couldn't find any grey card...so I tinted the edges of some plain white card using a chalk inkpad...and used some plain pink papers I found in my BasicGrey 'Bittersweet' pad...embossing one with my 'Spots & Dots' and 'Swiss Dots' folders. Th sentiment is from the same D&D set, the flowers are from Poppicrafts, and the ribbon was part of my birthday RAK form my lovely ABC DT mate Vicky.


No more crafting for me today...I've packed all my stash to take away for the weekend...so it's back to work for the rest of the day :0(

ABC Challenge - C is for...

Wow...we had another bumper week for entries again last week! I do hope that you'll find time to join us again this week...in fact we're running this challenge for two weeks...it's a busy period with a Bank Holiday this weekend here in the UK, and schools starting back again (eek!) after the long summer holiday...so we're giving you a little extra time to join in.
Our theme this week at the ABC Challenge is:

'C is for Circles'

This week we all very excited...because we're being sponsored by Whiff of Joy stamps...who have given us this cute Niki Racoon stamp as a prize for the winner of this challenge...not only that, but we've also been joined by one of their design team...the lovely Rach...who is our guest designer for this challenge.

So, on to my card...I created a circle card using the largest of my large scalloped Nesties. I layered a plain circle, embossed with the 'Snow Dots' Cuttlebug folder on top of that, before adding adding this cute little mouse...from the 'Holly-Jolly' set by Penny Black...it doesn't show up too well in the photo, but there's a touch of Woodware 'Fluffy Stuff' on the white bits of his Santa hat. I thought I'd try something a little different, and keep my card all white, to make the image really stand out...so to help define the layers, I distressed the edges of the plain circles.

Don't forget to stop by the ABC Challenge blog, for more inspiration from our design team...and our guest designer...and also to see who made it in to our Top 5 from last week's challenge.

Teddy Bear Christmas

This card combines three challenges: the Allsorts Challenge sketch & 'Torn Edges' theme; the Secret Crafter colour combination of 'Turquoise & Brown'; and the Roses on Paper Challenge to use punches with a sketch of our choice. I've made a Christmas card...although the colour combo doesn't scream Christmas...I found these gorgeous papers amongst my BasicGrey 'Figgy Pudding' pack, and I coloured my 'Teddy Bear' image (by Rachelle Anne Miller for Stampavie) to match. I went for a snowflakes theme...embossing the brown paper with my Cuttlebug 'Snowflakes' folder, punching three small snowflakes (using an X-Cut punch), and using a Cuttlebug die for the larger snowflakes. The sentiment is from the 'Holly-Jolly' set by Penny Black, I used my Fiskars 'Deckle' tearing ruler on the snowflake paper, then distressed the edges of all of the other layers to match.

Christmas Candle

When I saw that the theme for this week's Winter Wonderland Challenge was 'By Candlelight'...I knew straight away that I was going to make a stamped candle...which also fits in the 'Anything BUT a card' theme of the Truly Scrumptious Challenge. I made a few of these last Christmas to give as gifts, but I used watercoloured images then, so I thought I'd try something a little different, and do some heat embossing. I stamped my images (Hero Arts 'Flourish Tree with Stars', and some snowflakes from a set by Lakeland) with Versamark, on to white tissue paper, then embossed them with silver powder. I then cut carefully around the images (cutting as close to the edges as I dare!), and laid them on to my candle, using a small amount of PVA glue to help hold them in position. I wrapped a piece of grease proof paper tightly around the candle, then moving fairly quickly across the images, used my heat gun to 'fix' the images into the wax...it only takes a few seconds...the image appears clearer through the grease proof paper when it's done.


I wasn't sure whether it would work using heat embossed images, but I'm really pleased with the way it turned out...and it's certainly a lot less fiddly than trying to watercolour on tissue paper!

Lazy Days

When I saw the 'Lazy Dayz' theme of this week's Cute Card Thursday Challenge...I just knew I had to use this Penny Black hedgie image...rather appropriately called 'Lazy Days'. I also followed the Sketch Saturday sketch, used the Charisma Cardz colour combo of 'Lemon, Green & Pink' and the 'Summer' theme of the Pink Elephant Challenge. The papers are from the 'Lemonade' pad by BasicGrey, the sentiment stamp was a freebie with a Docrafts mag, and the flowers were a birthday RAK from my lovely friend Carol, who also stamped the image for me. As I've used three flowers, three brads and three papers, I'm also going to enter this card into Pile It On's 'Good Things Come In Threes' challenge.

Popcorn

I finally got round to mounting my new Popcorn Bear stamps ('Thinking of You' set onto EZ Mount this morning...and I couldn't resist using him straight away. I followed the Midnight Madness sketch (#15)...and used the BasicGrey Challenge colour combination of 'Brown, Yellow & Pink'. The paper is BasicGrey 'Blush' and the ribbon is from Poppicrafts.

Aftermath!

I love this image ('Aftermath' by Penny Black)...I borrowed my friend Uma's stamp at the retreat last weekend to stamp a few images. I followed this week's sketch from the Inspirational Card Sketches Challenge to make a birthday card for the Stamp Something 'Birthday Somethings' challenge. The papers are from the 'Sweet Nothings' pad by Papermania, and the sentiment was a freebie with a Docrafts mag.

Penny Black Paper Bag

At last weekend's craft retreat, my friend Cathy presented us each with a brown paper bag...it was her turn to set our friendly challenge, and she challenged us to create something using the paper bag...the rule being, that it could still be used to put something in. I decided to have a go at making a paper bag card...and started working on it while I was at the retreat. I used Penny Black hedgehog images (from the 'Wonderful' and 'Hugs' sets) and My Mind's Eye '29th Street Market' papers...keeping the same layout throughout. The brads, flowers and ribbon are all from Poppicrafts. I borrowed my friend Samantha's distressing tool at the retreat to distress all of the edges...liked the effect so much I had to get one! lol That kind of made it look like material, so I then used my Cutter Bee Bug to make the holes for the faux- stitching.

*Warning* - there are a LOT of photos! lol

Front View:

Inside Left:

Inside Right:

Back View:

Inside 'pages' together:

Front & Back 'pages together:

I've decided to give this to my Nan for her 90th birthday...so I've made a little tag with the sentiment on to put inside the bag. I used the same label Nesties to make this...the sentiment stamp is from the CCSR set by Papermania (stamped as two separate words), and the numbers were cut using the Cuttlebug 'Olivia' alphabet dies. I added a ribbon tab (to make it easier to remove from the bag), and have added a plain white panel to the back to write my message on. I'll probably be adding a few more things to the bag...but her birthday's not 'til November...so I've got plenty of time to sort all that.


I'm going to enter this for a couple of challenges: the Penny Black Saturday Challenge to use 'Stitching' on our cards; and the Pollycraft Challenge, which this week asked us to use our 'Favourite Things'...my favourite things are: Penny Black stamps, these My Mind's Eye papers (love them so much...I've just got some more!), and flowers.

Thanks Cathy for a fab challenge...I really enjoyed making this! ;0)