PBSC May - Anything Goes (Or Use Your Favourite PB Stamp)...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
'Use Your Favourite Penny Black Stamp'

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

Prize - a $20 voucher!

I couldn't resist using my favourite PB stamp again...'Birthday Dog'! This time I used more masculine colours, colouring him using watercolour pencils to match the shades in the 'Prairie Hill' papers by Pink Paislee. I distressed the edges a little, then added some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a black gel pen. The sentiment stamp is from the 'Big Messages' set by Paula Pascual, and I used Nesties to cut the circles and scalloped circles.

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

• Always Happy Birthday - Anything Birthday
• Cut It Up - Cats or Dogs
• Crafting from the Heart - Anything Goes
• Give a Crafter a Cookie - Photo Inspiration
• Heartful Stamping - Anything Goes
• Penny Black & More - Anything Goes
• Stamps + Fun = Creativity - Animals
• Sweet Stampers - Birthdays
• Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

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

PBSC October - Autumn/Fall Colours

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

'Autumn/Fall Colours'

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

Prize - a $20 voucher!

I used a cute little hedgie speeding on his bike called 'Hedgie Delivery', and coloured him using watercolour pencils. The papers are from the 'Prairie' pad by Pink Paislee...I distressed the edges a little, the added some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a black gel pen. The sentiment stamp is from the 'Cupcakes' set by Hero Arts.

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

• Aud Sentiments - Anything Goes with a Sentiment
• Crafting When We Can - Your Favourite Medium (Watercolour Pencils)
• Cutie Pie - Birthdays
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes
• Stampavie & More - Autumn Colours

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

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - New

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

'New!' 
(New Year...New Home...New Job...New Stash)

As usual, we have some fabulous prizes on offer from our lovely sponsors:

The Ribbon Girl:

1-2-3 Stitch!:

Prize - a $20 voucher

I went with 'New Year' and am showing you the calendar that I decorated for my Mum...it's become a kind of tradition that I make a few of these for Christmas gifts...I get the blank calendars from the Paper Mill Shop (if you fancy making one of these for yourself...they're now half price):

Of course I used all Penny Black stamps...but the papers are a real mixture (American Crafts, Crate Paper, First Edition, My Mind's Eye, Penny Black, Pink Paislee, Raspberry Road & We R Memory Keepers!):

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

• Crafting When We Can - Countdown or Calendar
• Crazy Challenge - Happy New Year

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

Favourite Five Cards of 2013

Happy New Year! 

I hope that 2014 treats you all well! :0)

I thought I'd start this year by playing along with the lovely Debby, and show you my favourite five cards of last year:

Most of them seem to be CAS in style...I made plenty of non-CAS cards too...but it was the CAS ones that leapt out at me as I went through last year's cards. As with my Favourite Christmas Cards, I've linked all of the photos to the original blog posts so that you can click through for all the info should you want.

The first one uses one of my favourite Penny Black stamps ('Bunny Friends')...I cut them out of their flower pots on this one...I love that this stamp is so versatile!

I had lots of fun making the second of my choices...I don't like ice cream, but this card still appeals to me!

The next card was also a bit of an experiment...and I love how it turned out!

My final CAS card is similar to one of my favourite Christmas cards...love the watercolour effect background...it's a Christmas stamp ('Snow Dust') but I masked off the snow before stamping.

And I had to include a non-CAS cute card somewhere in the mix...this one is quite recent (from last week in fact!)...but I just love this cute chappie...and the bright colours.

I'm sneaking in a cheeky sixth creation...I think that this nappy cake that I made for a friend is my favourite thing I've made this year...it was a labour of love, but it was worth it as my friend loved it so much that she didn't dismantle it for a couple of months after her daughter was born!

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Masculine

It's a new month, so it's time for a new Penny Black Saturday Challenge...and this month our theme is:

'Masculine'

As usual, we have some fabulous prizes on offer from our generous sponsors:

$20 voucher

It's my Dad's birthday in just over a week, so I thought I'd get ahead and make his birthday card for this challenge. I've used a stamp from the 'Hello Friend' set...which I coloured using watercolour pencils, and papers by Pink Paislie (from the 'Prairie Hills' pad). I doodled the borders, and added a Hero Arts sentiment (from the 'Anytime Messages' set) - I inked and stamped the 'happy' and 'birthday' separately, then added the 'dad' in handwriting to match. The Baker's Twine is from the Ribbon Girls.

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

• Created with Love - At Least 3 Layers
• Cupcake Craft - Boys
• Loves Rubber Stamps - Bows
• Papercrafting Journey - Masculine
• Sunday Sketch & Stamp - Sketch (liked the sketch so much I made another card!)

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

Bunny Friends

I'm done with my Easter makes, but couldn't resist using my Penny Black 'Bunny Friends' stamp again to make a CAS birthday card. I coloured just the bunnies on the image, then carefully cut them out so that I could have them peeking over the strip of paper (from the 'Prairie Hill' pad by Pink Paislee). I distressed the edge of the paper a little before adding some faux stitching (using my CutterBee Bug and a black gel pen), and a Hero Arts sentiment (from the 'Anytime Messages' set). I layered it on to another piece of kraft...scalloped edge done using my EK Success 'Scalloped Diamonds' punch...and popped everything up on 3D foam pads.

Challenges for this card:

• Charisma Cardz - Happy Birthday
• Delightful - Hippity Hoppity (Bunnies)
• Dutch Dare - CAS
• Gem of a Challenge - Make it Cute
• Less is More - Scallops

Garden Visit

I've used another Christmas present on today's card...the 'Puffy Clouds' die by Memory Box. The image stamp ('Garden Visit' by Penny Black ) and papers ('Prairie Hill' by Pink Paislee) aren't new...just neglected, as are the Prima flowers - can't remember the last time I used bought paper flower on a card! Not much else to say...I doodled a little, and stamped the sentiment (from the 'Critter Party' set by Penny Black) on to the clouds.

Challenges for this card:

• Forever Friends (Fortnightly) - Anything Goes 
• Kaboodles Doodles - Anything Goes
• Sweet Stop - Sketch
• Totally Gorjuss - New! (The cloud die is new)

An Apple a Day

Today's card features a Happy Hopper stamp called 'An Apple a Day', which I thought would be perfect for some of the autumn themed challenges around around at the moment. I coloured the image using watercolour pencils to match the PinkPaislie 'Prairie Hill' papers. I distressed the edges of the papers, then added some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a black gel pen. The stamp sentiment is from the 'Fabulous' set by Hero Arts, the flowers were cut using my Tim Holtz 'Tattered Florals' die, and the brads are by BasicGrey.

Challenges for this card:

• Card Makin' Mamas - Autumn Colours
• Crafty Catz - Autumn Colours
• Crafty Creations - Colours of Fall
• Crafty Sentiments - Happy Birthday
• Crazy Challenge - Handmade Flowers
• House Mouse & Friends - Harvest/Autumn (oops...missed the deadline)
• Joanna Sheen - Down in the Garden
• Kaboodles Doodles - Autumn Colours
• Sisterhood of Crafters -Birthdays
• Stamp with Fun - Autumn
• Sweet Stop - Sketch
• Top Tip Tuesday - Food

Prairie Hills Hedgies

I had a play with some new goodies yesterday...these gorgeous papers are from the 'Prairie Hills' pad by Pink Paislee...which I won in Carissa's candy a little while ago. The hedgies are from the 'Hugs' set by Penny Black, the flowers were cut using my Tim Holtz 'Tattered Florals' and Cuttlebug 'Olivia' alphabet dies, with a litttle pearl for their centres. I used Nesties to make the frame, and the smallest of my circles to make the faux 'Card Candy', shaping them with an embossing tool, and popping them on with foam pads. The sentiment stamp is from the 'Anytime Messages' set by Hero Arts.

Challenges for this card:

• Allsorts - CASE It (I 'borrowed' lots of elements - layout, colours, PB hedgies, scalloped edge card)
• Inky Impressions - Dies or punches (I used dies to cut the flowers & faux Card Candy)
• Papertake Weekly - Make Your Own (Flowers & Card Candy)
• Penny Black & More @ Allsorts - Summer Blooms
• Shopping Our Stash - Something New (I won the papers a few weeks ago...and this is the first time I've been able to bing myself to cut into them!)
• Sir Stampalot - Your Crafty Passion (PB stamps, pretty papers, flowers)

Patriotic CAS

Here's my attempt at this week's Less Is More challenge, where the theme is 'Colours of your Country'...I'm from the UK, so my colours are Red, White & Blue. My card is very simple...a couple of 'snippets' of '360 Degrees' paper by Pink Paislee (it's 2 smaller pieces mounted together on a strip of card...the join is hidden behind the flower), a flower cut from wrapping paper (it's a 'handmade' type of paper that I got from Ikea years ago...) using my 'Blossom' Nesties held in place with a Papermania brad, and a Wild Rose Studio stamped sentiment.

Challenges for this card:

• Ellephantastic - Layers (the flower has 5 layers)
• Less is More - Colours of your country (I'm in the UK, so Red, White & Blue)
• Jules' Crafty Snippet Challenge - although using just these tiny snippets is not going to help reduce my snippet mountain!

Pile It On! Challenge - Stay Cool!

This week's Pile It On! Challenge is to:

'Stay Cool!'

We are sponsored for this challenge by the Stamp Fairy.

This wee mouse (very imaginitively called 'Mouse Holding Ice Cream' from Stampavie)  has obviously been enjoying hotter weather than we have here in the UK, and is cooling down with a gigantic ice cream sundae. I coloured him using watercolour pencils, then added Glossy Accents to the cherry and his sundae glass. The papers are a mixture of BasicGrey 'Cupcake' and 'Kioshi', and Pink Paislee '360 Degrees' pads - I distressed the egdes, then added faux stitching with my CutterBee Bug and a white gel pen. I used my Cuttlebug 'Swiss Dots' folder for the embossing, sanding over the raised areas to reveal the white core, then added a sentiment from the 'Cupcakes' set by Hero Arts.

Here are the challenges I've Piled On!:

• Pile It On! - Stay Cool
• Allsorts - Free & Easy
• Card Makin' Mamas - Food & Drink
• Craft Your Days Away - Summertime
• Crafty Ann's - Summertime, and the living is easy
• Creative Inspirations (Sundays) - Summertime
• Delightful - Summer
• Digi Doodles - Anything Goes
• Hooked On Craft - Cute & Cuddly
• If the Shoe Fits ...Scrap It - Summer
• Papertake Weekly - Sketch
• Pink Elephant - Fun in the Sun
• Sew Many - Anything Goes
• Stamp Something - Summer Fun
• Stampavie & More - Summer
• Totally Stampalicious - Anything Goes

For more inspiration from my lovely DT buddies, please stop by the Pile It On! Challenge.

Meet Spike

Today's card is a bit of a 'monster'...I used one of the Pollycraft 'Critters'...he's called 'Spike' and although he only has one eye...I think he looks quite friendly. I coloured him using watercolour pencils, then added Glossy Accents to his eye. The papers are mostly from the 'Offbeat' pad by BasicGrey, but the stripey one is from the '365 Degrees' pad by Pink Paislee. I (lightly) inked all of the edges, and added a couple of stars cut using my Nesties.

Challenges for this card:

• Charisma Cardz - Jokes/Laughter (well...I think he's funny! lol)
• Crafty Catz - Children's Cards
• Creative Inspirations (Sundays) - Digi Day
• Stampavie & More - Birthdays
• Stamptacular Sunday - Pile It On
• Sweet Stop - Sketch
• Totally Stampalicious - Include some Food