Guest Designer - 52 Christmas Card Throwdown!

Today, I'm excited to be sharing a Guest Designer card for the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, where the theme this week is:

I combined snowmen from the 'Jolly Friends', 'Snow Much Fun' and 'Holly-Jolly' sets by Penny Black for my card. I stamped them onto watercolour paper, then used a black gel pen to add some lines for the snowy ground. I coloured them using watercolour pencils, then carefully cut around the top of the image. I layered the snowmen over a snippet of snowy paper (from the 'Snowscape' pad by Woodware), added a sentiment (using a stamp from the 'Snow Bunnies' set by Anita Jeram for the Colorado Craft Company), then matted it onto a snippet of blue card before adding it to a DL card blank.

For more inspiration from the fabulous DT, please pop over to the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown.

Guest Designer - Allsorts Challenge!

Today, I'm excited to be sharing a Guest Designer card for the Allsorts Challenge, where the theme this fortnight is:

'Spring'

(Or 'Anything Goes')

The prize is some Penny Black stamps from Buddly Crafts.

I picked a cute Penny Black cat stamp to use called 'The Bestest!', and stamped it onto watercolour paper, then coloured it using watercolour pencils. For the background, I used snippets of papers from the 'Bright Freshness' pad by Craft Sensations. Only the two edge snippets are long strips, the others are teeny tiny, but the image covers the gap in the middle. I distressed all of the edges, then added faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a black gel pen before mounting them, and the image, onto some yellow card.

For more inspiration from the fabulous Design Team, please pop over to the Allsorts Challenge.

Guest Designer - CAS on Friday Challenge!

Today, I'm excited to be sharing a guest designer card for the CAS on Friday Challenge, where the theme this fortnight is:

'Spring'

(Don't forget to keep it CAS)

I picked stamps from the 'Happy Day' set for my card, and stamped the bunnies and sentiment onto a piece of smooth white card. I coloured the image using watercolour pencils, then matted it onto yellow and lilac card, distressing all of the edges, before adding it to a white card blank.

For more inspiration from the fabulous design team, please pop over to the CAS on Friday Challenge - thanks for having me!

Guest Designer - AAA Cards Challenge!

Today, I'm excited to be sharing a guest designer card for the AAA Cards Challenge, where the theme this fortnight is:

Here's a closer look at the elements:

I picked 'Lambs' to go along with the 'Spring' theme, and used a cute Penny Black stamp called 'Butterflies & Ewe'. I stamped it directly onto a kraft card blank, then made a mask for the sheep, before stamping the flowers (another Penny Black stamp called 'Spring Flowers') behind. I coloured the image using watercolour pencils, then added a Spring sentiment using one of the stamps from the 'Happy Day' set by Anita Jeram for the Colorado Craft Company.

For more inspiration from the wonderful design team, please pop over to the AAA Cards Challenge. Thanks for having me!

Guest Designer - Seize the Birthday Challenge (Anything with Wings)

I'm back with my final Surprise Party Guest card for the Seize the Birthday Challenge.

The theme this time is:

Anytime I see a 'Things with Wings' theme, my thoughts immediately go to Penny Black chickens - ha ha! I'm rather partial to those stamps, and picked 'Cluck, Cluck, Cluck!' for my card. I stamped it onto watercolour paper, along with a sentiment using a stamp from the 'Go To Words' set by Visible Image, then coloured it using watercolour pencils. I paired it with papers from the 'Prince Charming' pad by Recollections/Michaels (found at TKMaxx). I distressed all of the edges, and added some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a black gel pen.

For more inspiration from the wonderful Design Team, please pop over to the Seize the Birthday Challenge. Thanks so much for inviting me to the party - I've had lots of fun!

Guest Designer - Seize the Birthday Challenge (CAS + Dies)

I'm back with another Surprise Party Guest card for the Seize the Birthday Challenge.

The theme this fortnight is:

Any regular visitors to my blog will know that I'm a stamper at heart, but I do have a little collection of dies, and this theme was the perfect excuse to dust off a set of cupcake dies (by Marianne Designs) that I have had for a very long time! I cut the 'cupcake case' from a snippet of spotty paper from the 'Happy Colours' pad from The Works, and the 'frosting' and 'cherry' from snippets of papers from the 'North Country' pad by Prima Marketing. I assembled the cupcake on a piece of kraft card using 3D foam pads of varying thickness to add dimension, then added some adhesive pearl 'sprinkles'. I added a sentiment using a stamp from the Hero Arts 'Cupcakes' stamp set, then distressed the edges of the kraft panel before adding it to a matching kraft card blank.

For more inspiration from the fabulous Design Team, please pop over to the Seize the Birthday Challenge!

Guest Designer - Seize the Birthday Challenge (A Rainbow of Colours)

I'm back with another Surprise Party Guest card for the Seize the Birthday Challenge.

The theme this fortnight is:

I used my set of Die-namics 'Party Balloons' dies to cut balloons from snippets of card in rainbow colours. I doodled some 'strings' onto a white card blank, then added the balloons on top. I stamped a sentiment (using one of the stamps from the 'What This!' set by Anita Jeram for the Colorado Craft Company), onto a snippet of white card, then added that over the balloon 'strings'.

For more inspiration from the fabulous Design Team, please pop over to the Seize the Birthday Challenge.

Guest Designer - I Spy with My Little Eye Challenge

Today, I'm excited to be sharing a Guest Designer card for Ellie's I Spy with My Little Eye Challenge.

The theme this month is:

'I Spy with My Little Eye...New Beginnings'

I went with 'New Baby' for my card, and picked a cute Penny Black stamp called 'Baby Hammock'. I stamped it onto some watercolour paper, coloured it using watercolour pencils, then used one of my Nesties to cut the circle shape. I paired it with papers from the 'Bumblebee Dance' pad from The Paper Boutique. I distressed the edges a little, added some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a white gel pen, then matted all of the layers onto some lilac card. The sentiment stamp is from a set by Art Impressions.

For more inspiration from Ellie and Pauline, please pop over to the Eye Spy with My Little Eye Challenge.

Guest Designer - Seize the Birthday Challenge (Make Your Own Snowflake Background)!

Today, I'm excited to share the first of my Surprise Party Guest cards for the Seize the Birthday Challenge, where the theme for the next two weeks is:

This theme is optional, so there's always the option for 'Anything Goes' as long as it's a Birthday card!

For my card, I used a sweet polar bear stamp from a Kanban set that I picked up in a charity shop just before Christmas. I stamped him onto watercolour paper, doodled a line for the snowy ground using a black gel pen, coloured him using watercolour pencils, then cut around the top of the image. For my snowflake background, I embossed a piece of watercolour effect paper, from the 'Mystery Marbles' pad using a Craft Tonic embossing folder, then gently sanded over the raised areas to reveal some of the white core. I added a stamped sentiment, using one of the stamps from the 'What This!' set by Anita Jeram for the Colorado Craft Company, then layered the bear over the snowflake background. I matted it onto some navy card, then added it to a white card blank.

For more inspiration from the fabulous Design Team, please pop over to the Seize the Birthday Challenge.

Guest Designer - The Male Room Challenge

Today, I'm excited to be sharing a Guest Designer card for the Male Room Challenge, where the theme this month is:

'For a Baby Boy'

I picked a cute Penny Black image called 'Baby Hammock', stamped it onto watercolour paper, then coloured it using watercolour pencils. I cut the circle shape using one of my Nesties, then cut a matching scalloped circle mat from kraft card. The papers are from the 'Vintage Dreams' pad by Craft Sensations...I embossed the plain one using my Cuttlebug 'Swiss Dots' embossing folder, then distressed all of the edges, before adding faux stitching using my CutterBee and a black gel pen, and matting the layers onto more kraft card.

For more inspiration from the wonderful Design Team, please pop over to the Male Room Challenge. 

Guest Designer - C.R.A.F.T. Challenge

Today, I'm excited to be sharing a Guest Designer project for the C.R.A.F.T. Challenge, where the theme this fortnight is:

'Back to School!'

The prize for the lucky winner is three digi images from Colour of Love.

I'm a music teacher (teaching one to one instrumental lessons), so I've decorated myself a notebook (bought from Hobbycraft many years ago in a post-Christmas sale for 50p!) to keep myself organised in the term ahead! I picked a cute Penny Black image (called 'Literally Giant!'), for the front of the book, stamping it onto watercolour paper, and colouring it using watercolour pencils. For the background, I used snippets of papers from the 'Fresh Florals' pad by Craft Sensations...distressing the edges, and adding some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a black gel pen.

I decorated the back in a mirror image of the front, but used a musical Penny Black stamp this time called 'Suspenseful Music':

Here's a better view of the back:

For more inspiration from the fabulous C.R.A.F.T. Challenge Design Team, please pop over to their blog. Thanks so much for letting me join you for this challenge!

Guest Designer - Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge

And, I'm back with another Guest Designer post...this one is for Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge, where the theme this fortnight is as always:

'Anything Goes'

I started with a piece of paper from the 'Ink Drops Vivid' pad from Craft Consortium, then stamped my 'Floral Garden' stamp from Simon Says Stamp onto it using Versamark ink, and then heat embossing it in white. I added a sentiment using a stamp from the 'Brushstroke Expressions' set by My Favorite Things', heat embossing in white to match. I distressed the edges, then added it to a white card blank.

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

• Everybody Art - Birthday
• Love Those Pretty Papers - Anything Goes (Optional 'Florals')
• Stamps + Fun = Creativity - Flowers

For more inspiration, please pop over to the Penny's paper Crafty Challenge blog.

Guest Designer - I Spy With My Little Eye Challenge

Today, I'm excited to be sharing a Guest Designer card for Ellie's 'I Spy With My Little Eye Challenge', where the theme for this month's challenge is:

'I Spy With My Little Eye...At Least One Butterfly'

I have a number of butterfly stamps, and picked my 'Big Butterfly' stamp by Stampendous, and a set of stamps from Papermania's 'Urban Stamps' range simply called 'Butterflies' to use for my card. I stamped them onto watercolour paper using Versamark ink, then heat embossed them using metallic gold embossing powder from WOW. I added a sentiment using a stamp from the 'Signature Greetings' set by Memory Box, heat embossing it in gold to match. I used (quite a lot of ) Distress Inks to watercolour the butterflies (Mustard Seed, Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade, Crackling Campfire, Festive Berries, Dusty Concord, Chipped Sapphire, Broken China, Peacock Feathers, Cracked Pistachio, Salvaged Patina & Gathered Twigs), then splattered it with a little gold mica pigment (from a Cosmic Shimmers set) mixed with water. Once dry, I matted it onto some gold mirror card, distressing the edges, before adding it to a white card blank.

It's always tricky to capture the shine in a photo, but the gold is really pretty in real life:

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

• AAA Birthday - Anything Birthday Goes
• AAA Cards - Birthday
• Aud Sentiments - Watercolouring + a Sentiment
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Things with Wings
• Stamping Sensations - Feminine

For more inspiration from Ellie and Pauline, please pop over to Ellie's 'I Spy With My Little Eye' Challenge.

 

Guest Designer - I Spy with My Little Eye...

Today, I'm delighted to be sharing a Guest Designer card for Ellie's 'I Spy with My Little Eye' challenge, where this month the theme is:

'Christmas'

Any regular visitors to my blog will know I love making Christmas cards (I make them all year round), so this theme is right up my street! I picked a cute Penny Black image to use (from the 'Wintertime Cheer' set)...stamped it on to watercolour paper, coloured it using watercolour pencils, then carefully cut it out. For the background, I heat embossed my Simon Says Stamp 'Falling Snow' background stamp on a kraft card blank using white embossing powder. I trimmed a snippet of white card to the width of the card blank, tore the top edge to give a soft 'snow' effect, then added a sentiment using a stamp from the 'Christmas Hats' set by Anita Jeram for the Colorado Craft Company. I placed that along the bottom edge of the card, then added the critters on top using 3D foam pads.

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

• Crafty Catz - Anything Goes
• Krafty Chicks - Christmas
• Peace on Earth - Anything Christmas
• Simon Says Stamp (Mondays) - Embossing
• We Love Stamping - Anything Goes (Optional 'Christmas')

For more inspiration from Ellie & Pauline, please pop over to the 'I Spy with My Little Eye' Challenge - thanks for having me ladies!