August Desk Calendar

Today, I'm sharing my desk calendar page for August. As it's my birthday month, I picked a cute image from the Penny Black 'Good Times' set of two celebrating pups. I stamped it onto a snippet of watercolour paper, coloured it using watercolour pencils, then cut it out using one of my oval Nesties. For the background, I used snippets of papers from the 'My Girl' pad by American Crafts...I distressed the edges a little, then added some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a black gel pen.

Challenges for this calendar:

• Allsorts - Anything Goes
• Creative Fingers - Anything Goes
• Krafty Chicks - Anything Goes
• Pixie's Snippets Playground - Use Snippets
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes
• Sweet Stampin' - Stripes or Chevrons

Birthday Monkeys

Today's card features an old Rachelle Anne Miller/Stampavie stamp called 'Birthday Monkeys', which, according to a search on my blog, I last used in 2014! I stamped it onto watercolour paper, along with a sentiment, using a stamp from the 'What This!' set by Anita Jeram for the Colorado Craft Company, then coloured it using watercolour pencils. I paired it with green and blue papers from three different pads: the light green one is from the 'Here + There' pad by Studio Calico; the light blue one is from the 'Shoreline' pad by American Crafts; and the darker green one is from the 'Party Day' pad by Crate Paper. I lightly distressed all of the edges before adding it to a kraft card blank.

Challenges for this card:

• 2 Crafty Critter Crazies - Anything Goes
• Crafty Gals Corner - Anything Goes (Optional 'Make It Green')
• Gem of a Challenge - Anything Goes
• Seize the Birthday - Mainly Green
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - A Bit O'Green

PBSC January - Anything Goes (Optional 'Something New')

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

'Something New'

(New Year, New House, New Job, New Baby, New Stash...)

We are currently without a sponsor, so this challenge is just for fun.

My 'Something New' is the 'New Year', and I'm sharing the 2026 calendar that I made for my Mum for Christmas. Every year, I decorate a couple of the blank A4 calendars from Paper Mill Direct to give as gifts, and use only Penny Black stamped images. If there's a special event in a particular month, I try to find an appropriate image...it's a great project for using stamps that don't often get inked, and also for using up lots of snippets of papers! 

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

• A Perfect Time to Craft - Anything Goes
• Everybody Art - Christmas and/or New Year
• Gem of a Challenge - Anything Goes

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

PBSC January - Anything Goes (Optional 'Something New')

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

'Something New'

(New Year, New Craft Stash, New Baby, New Home, New Job...)

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

Prize - a $20 voucher!

Now, if you saw my original 'Something New' challenge post a couple of weeks ago, you would be forgiven for thinking that I'm posting the same project...but this is a different calendar! This is the one I made for my Aunt for Christmas. The blank calendar is from the Paper Mill and I used a different assortment of Penny Black images on this one. I stamped all of the images on to watercolour paper, coloured them using watercolour pencils, then cut the circle and oval shapes using some of my Nesties. Again, I used lots of snippets of older papers to decorate each page...I distressed the edges of all of the papers, then added some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a black gel pen.

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

• Crafts Galore Encore - Anything Goes
• Crafty Calendar - Anything Goes
• Fab & Funky - Stamp It
• Penny's Paper Crafty - Anything Goes
• Sparkles Forum - New Beginnings (New Year)

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

PBSC January - Anything Goes (Optional 'Something New')

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

'Something New'

(New Year, New Craft Stash, New Baby, New Home, New Job...)

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

Prize - a $20 voucher!

For my 'Something New', I went with 'New Year' and am sharing one of the Penny Black calendars I made for Christmas gifts. I've been decorating some of these Paper Mill calendars for Christmas gifts since 2009, and each year use an assortment of Penny Black images, and lots of snippets of older papers to decorate each page. I stamped all of the images on to watercolour paper, coloured them using watercolour pencils, then cut the circle and oval shapes using some of my Nesties. I distressed the edges of all of the papers, then added some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a black or white gel pens.

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

• Krafty Chicks - Stamps
• Little Red Wagon - What's New?
• Simon Says Stamp (Mondays) - A New Start
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Something New

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

Birthday Dog

Today's card features one of my oldest (and most loved) Penny Black stamps...'Birthday Dog'. I stamped it directly on to the card blank, then coloured it using watercolour pencils. I cut a wave in the edge of a snippet of paper from the 'Yes, Please' pad by American Crafts using one of my Lawn Fawn 'Stitched Hillside Borders' dies, then added that to the top of the card. I added a sentiment using one of the stamps from the 'Anytime Messages' set by Hero Arts, and a few pieces of pink Card Candi using 3D foam pads.

Challenges for this card

• Allsorts - Anything Goes (Optional 'Mood Board')
• CAS on Friday - Design Paper
• Crafty Catz - Anything Goes
• Creative Fingers - Anything Goes
• Gem of a Challenge - Anything Goes
• I Spy with My Little Eye - A Sweet Treat
• Incy Wincy - Food and/or Drink
• Just Us Girls - Mood Board
• Polkadoodles - Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Four-legged Friends

Hello World Treat Bag

Happy Easter!

I have one final Easter treat bag to share today...this one features a Penny Black stamp called 'Hello World!'. I stamped it on to watercolour paper, along with a sentiment from the 'Egg-cellent Easter Sentiments' set by C C Designs, then coloured it using watercolour pencils. I paired it with papers from the 'My Girl' pad by American Crafts...distressing the edges a little, then adding some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a black gel pen.

Challenges for this bag:

• Creatalicious - Anything Goes (Optional 'Easter')
• Creative Knockouts - Two or More Papers
• Incy Wincy - Easter Wishes and/or Gifts from the Easter Bunny
• Little Red Wagon - Spring or Fall
• Polkadoodles - Easter
• Use Your Stuff - Easter
• We Love Stamping - Anything Stamped (Optional 'Real Birds/Animals')