My Favourite Five Cards of 2014

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope that 2015 treats you all well!

I thought I'd start the new year by reviewing last year's makes...so I'm playing along with my lovely bloggy buddy Debby and sharing my favourite five creations of 2014:

I'm starting with the card I made for my Mum's birthday back in April...I love the papers on this one...and of course those cute LotV bears!

My second card was a bit of an inky experiment...but I like the way it turned out!

My next card features a person...which any regular visitor to my blog will tell you is a rare occurrence...I just find animals so much easier to colour...but I like the bright summery colours on this  card.

My fourth creation is a notebook I made for myself...well, I just to include a Penny Black image somewhere in my selection...and this is by far the most used item I made last year...love the colours & distressing too!

Lastly, I have a piece of wall art I made using lots of bicycle stamps...I share a flat with a bike obsessive and made this to go on our shared office/craft room wall along with some others...but he liked it so much that it ended up in the living room! I had  to include it in my favourites for last year, as I love looking it every day...it was well worth the 3 and bit hours I spent stamping it!

I linked all of the photos to the original blog posts, so please click through for all of the information. I'm off to have a snoop around everybody else's favourites...

Crafty Little Fairies Challenge - Summer Fun!

We have a new Crafty Little Fairies Challenge starting today, with a theme of:

'Summer Fun!'

We have lots of lovely sponsors:

The Ribbon Girl:

Prize - £10 Gift Voucher!

Whiff of Joy:

Prize - Stamp of Winner's Choice!

Delicious Doodles:

Prize - 4 Digis of the Winner's Choice!

Little Claire:

Stamp & Create:

Prize - $20 Gift Voucher!

I picked a Stampavie stamp by Sarah Kay to use on my card called 'Olivia and her Kittens Kiki & Sugar'. Like them, I like to get out in the garden in the summer...not to actually garden...but I do like to enjoy the fruits of other people's gardening efforts! I coloured the image using watercolour pencils to match the My Mind's Eye 'Indie Chic' papers. I distressed all of the egdes, then inked them using 'Brushed Corduroy' Distress Ink, and added some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a black gel pen. The sentiment is from the 'Fabulous Birthday' set by Hero Arts, the flowers are a mixture of Prima and Poppicrafts, the brads are BasicGrey, and the twine is by Papermania.

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

• Allsorts - Summer Girls
• Chocolate Coffee & Cards - Summer Days
• Crazy 4 Challenges - Summer or Winter
• Creative Corner - Flowers
• Cutie Pie - Girls, Girls, Girls
• Fussy & Fancy - Summertime
• Love to Create - 3 or More Design Papers
• Papercrafting Journey - Flower Power
• Pink Elephant - Anything Goes
• Sweet Stampin' - Summer Fun
• Wags 'N Whiskers - Summer Fun

For more inspiration from my lovely DT buddies, please pop over to the Crafty Little Fairies Challenge.

In the Garden

I dug deep into my stash for today's card...using items that haven't seen the light of day for quite some time! The stamp is a Sarah Kay image from Stampavie called 'Olivia & her kittens Kiki & Sugar', the papers are the remnants of my my BasicGrey 'Lemonade' pad, the flowers are by Prima, and the brads are also by BasicGrey. I distressed the edges, and added faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a black gel pen.

Challenges for this card:

• 2 Sisters - Sketch
• 4 Crafty Chicks - Flowers
• Allsorts - Girls
• BasicGrey - Fun in the Sun
• Crafts & Me - Something Old (Everything used on this card is at least 2 years old)
• Crazy4Challenges - Summer
• Cupcake Craft - Summer Scene
• Delightful - Here Comes the Sun
• Gem of a Challenge - Summertime
• One Crazy Stamper - Summer Fun
• Pink Elephant - Summertime
• Stamping Sensations - Summer Blooms
• Squirrel & the Fox - Summer or Winter
• Totally Gorjuss - Flowers

ABC Christmas Challenge - V is for...

It's time for a new ABC Christmas Challenge...and this time...Lacey is our host. The theme this time is:

'V is for Vintage'

We have two wonderful sponsors for this challenge:

The prize from Crafty Emma is a £10 voucher to spend in her fabulous store!

The prize from the Ribbon Reel is this delicious bundle of ribbons & lace:

For my card, I've used a Sarah Kay image called 'Noel Charity' that was sent to me by my lovely ABC Christmas DT buddy Lacey...which I coloured using watercolour pencils. The papers are from the My Mind's Eye 'Festive Frost' collection...and I distressed all of the edges with inks and my distressing tool...adding faux stitching with my CutterBee Bug and a white gel pen. I added some lace, a snowflake (cut using a Marianne Designs Creatables die...then coated with Glamour Dust), some adhesive pearls, and a sentiment (from a Stampin' Up! set).

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

• Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - Sparkly (It doesn't show too well in the photo, but there's Glamour Dust on the snowflake and image)
• Christmas Inspirations - Die cuts & Punches (I used dies to cut the snowflake & circle)
• Critter - Use 3 Patterned Papers
• Jingle Belles - Soft (I used lace)
• Lollipop Crafts - Embellish It (Lace, Pearls & Snowflake)
• Marianne Designs - Vintage Christmas (My snowflake was cut using a Marianne Designs die)
• Marianne's Design Divas - Dying to Diecut (My snowflake was cut using a Marianne Designs die)
• Moving Along with the Times - Vintage
• Paper Sundaes - Sundae Bar (I picked Sparkle & Distressing)
• Winter Wonderland - Vintage Christmas

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

Little Shepherd

After a brief interruption...I'm back with another Christmas card...there'll be quite a lot again this week! I've used an image sent to me by my lovely ABC Christmas Challenge DT buddy Lacey, called 'Noel Little Shepherd' by Sarah Kay (Stampavie). The papers are from the 'Festive Frost' collection by My Mind's Eye, the sentiment stamp is from a Lili of the Valley set, and the star was cut using one of my star Nesties. I distressed all of the edges using 'Old Paper' & 'Pumice Stone' distress inks, and my distressing tool,...then added some faux stitching using my CutterBee bug and a white gel pen.

Challenges for this card:

• Bah! Humbug! - Nativity
• Christmas Challenges (with sketches)  - Sketch
• Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas - For a Male
• Paper Sundaes - Lots of layers
• Sparkles Christmas - Christmas Songs (While shepherds watched their flocks by night)

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - It's a Couple Thing

This week, it's Kate's turn to set the theme of the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge, and she has chosen:

'It's a Couple Thing'

I've used a Sarah Kay stamp from Stampavie called 'First Kiss' on my card...just perfect for a Valentine's card. The papers are all from the 'Lemonade' pad by BasicGrey (available here at the Secret Crafter)...I love this pad...I only have a few scraps left now! I embossed the plainer paper with my 'Flower Fantasy' Cuttlebug folder (available here at the Secret Crafter), then sanded over the raised design to reveal the white core. I used one of my 'Deckled Rectangle' Nesties (available here at the Secret Crafter) to cut out the image, then inked the edges, and used my distressing tool on the papers, before adding some faux stitching with my CutterBee Bug and a white gel pen. I cut the heart using my Cuttlebug 'Concentric Hearts' die, and the sentiment is a stamp from the 'Sending Sunshine' set by Simon Says Stamp.

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

• Fussy & Fancy - Sketch
• Crafty Cardmakers - Pencils (I used watercolour pencils)
• Paper Sundaes - Revisit an old challenge (I chose #3 - Valentine's)
• Simon Says Stamp - Bingo! (I've used the bottom row: Punches/Die cuts - Embossing - Ribbon)
• Totally Papercrafts - Add a Heart
• Wild Orchid Crafts - Sentimental

For more inspiration, please check out the fabulous cards by my lovely Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge DT buddies.

In the Garden...

I've used another of the gorgeous Stampavie stamps ('Olivia & her kittens Kiki & Sugar' by Sarah Kay) I won a while back on this card...I thought it was just perfect for the 'In the Garden' challenges that are around this week: Cuttlebug; Papertake Weekly; and Truly Scrumptious, where it's the optional extra, to go with the lovely sketch. The papers are from the 'Lemonade' pad by BasicGrey, and I embossed the yellow one with my Cuttlebug 'Stylized Flowers' folder. The sentiment stamp is from the CCSR set by Papermania, and the flowers are a mixture of Petaloo, Prima and Wild Orchid Crafts. I'm also going to enter this card into the following challenges: BasicGrey 'Gingham'; Wild Orchid Crafts 'Say it with Flowers'; and Your Next Stamp 'Flower Power'.

Sarah Kay Challenge 11

This week's Sarah Kay Challenge is to use a 'Trio of Papers' on our cards. I picked three different designs from the 'Sweet Nothings' paper pack by Papermania, and based my colours for the image on those. I chose to keep the layout quite simple, as there's rather a lot going on with all the different patterns in the papers.

Hope you like it!

Sarah Kay Challenge 10

The Sarah Kay Challenge this week is a sketch - I love sketches, I find them great for quick cards, as it's usually the layout that I spend ages dithering about! The image I've used on this card was sent to me by my friend Cathy (who also gave me the lace trim), and I've coloured it with watercolour pencils. The paper is by Dovecraft (Amethyst - Floral Prints), and the flowers are by Prima.

Hope you like it!

Sarah Kay Challenge 9

This is the first time I've joined in this challenge, as I've only just started my blog, but I was tempted by the theme of this week's challenge - 'Purple & Green', as it's one of my favourite colour combinations! The image on my card was sent to me by Cathy for my birthday a few weeks ago (who also sent me the lace that I've used on this card). I've coloured it with watercolour pencils, then matted and layered it on to a combination of purple and green cardstock. I embossed one piece using my new Cuttlebug with the 'Birds & Swirls' folder, and then added some small Prima flowers. The sentiment is from a set by Studio G - another birthday gift from Pauline .

Hope you like it!