40th Birthday

Today's card is the one I've made for my brother's birthday...it's not until next Friday, but he's not likely to see it on here. He likes cars, so I picked a Penny Black image (from the 'Hello Friend' set) of a pup driving a sports car. I stamped it on to watercolour paper, coloured it using watercolour pencils, then carefully cut it out. I used snippets of coloured card, to create a country road scene for him to drive through...cutting a grassy verge using one of my Die-namics 'Grassy Edge' dies, and adding a white line down the centre of the road using a white gel pen. I made a '40' speed limit sign using more snippets of card, and some Nesties, adding the numbers using stamps from the 'Birthday Bears' set (also by Penny Black). The clouds were cut using my Memory Box 'Puffy Clouds' dies, and the sentiment is from the 'Anytime Messages' set by Hero Arts.

Challenges for this card:

• 2 Crafty Critter Crazies - Anything Goes
• A Bit More Time to Craft - Anything Goes
• Crafty Calendar - Masculine
• Crafty Catz - Anything Goes
• Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes
• Creative Moments - Anything Goes
• Cute Card Thursday - Anything Goes
• Love to Scrap - Anything Goes
• Polkadoodles - Anything Goes
• Stamps + Fun = Creativity - Cars, Planes & Boats

ABC Christmas Challenge - J & K are for?

It's the first Wednesday of a new month, so that means it's time for a new ABC Christmas Challenge! Dorte is the host, and the themes are:

'J is for Jewels'

&

'K is for Kids'

There's a fab prize on offer from Dorte for the lucky winner of this challenge:

I picked a Woodware stamp called 'Trio of Trees' for my 'J is for Jewels' card. I stamped it on a kraft card blank, using Versamark Ink, then heat embossed it gold, along with the sentiment from the set. I paper pieced the trees, stamping and embossing in gold on to snippets of green card. I then added lots of adhesive 'jewels' to decorate the trees.

On my 'K is for Kids' card, I used one of the Lili of the Valley 'Christmas Kids' pre-coloured die cuts...trimming it down into a circle shape using one of my Nesties. I paired it with some vintage-y papers from the 'Jingle All the Way' pad by First Edition...distressing the edges a little and adding faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a white gel pen. The snowflake was cut using a Memory Box die, and is held in place using an old BasicGrey brad.

I'm also entering these cards into the following challenges:

• Christmas Craft Creations - No Stamping (Second card only)
• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes
• Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper - Use Patterned Papers (Second card only)
• Creative Fingers - Anything Goes
• Dream Valley - Embellish It (First card only)
• Merry Little Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes
• Penny's Paper Crafty - Anything Goes
• Pixie's Snippets Playground - Use Snippets (First card only)
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes
• Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

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

Birthday Fishes

I have a very clean and simple card to share today, featuring stamps from the 'Birthday Buddies' set by Paper Smooches. I stamped the fish on to snippets of watercolour paper, coloured them using watercolour pencils, then carefully cut them out, then added them to my card blank using some 3D foam pads. The sentiment is from the same stamp set.

Challenges for this card:

• AAA Birthday - Happy Birthday
• AAA Cards - Up to One Third
• Crafty Catz - Anything Goes
• Less is More - Sea Creatures
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes

PBSC May - Anything Goes (Optional 'Clean & Simple')

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
'Clean & Simple'

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

Prize - a $20 voucher!

My card features a couple of cute hedgehogs from the 'Christmas Hugs' set...stamping them on to watercolour paper and colouring them using watercolour pencils. I used a piece of snowy sky paper from the 'Mystery Marbles' pad by Craft Sensations for the background, adding a snowy mound for the hedgies to stand on cut from a snippet of white card using one of my Lawn Fawn 'Stitched Hillside Border' dies. I added a sentiment from a set by Lili of the Valley, and matted it on to some silver mirror card.

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

• Always Fun - CAS Cards
• C.R.A.F.T. - Christmas
• Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes
• Fab 'N' Funky - Christmas
• Gem of a Challenge - Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes

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

Man's Best Friend

I have a birthday card to share today, featuring one of the stamps from the 'Man's Best Friend' set by Penny Black. I stamped the image on to watercolour paper, then coloured it using watercolour pencils, before carefully cutting it out. I made a simple background on a kraft card blank by stamping a bone (from the 'Crazy Dogs' set by Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous), colouring it using waterolour pencils, then added the pup on top. The sentiment stamp is from the 'Birthday Buddies' set by Paper Smooches.

Challenges for this card:

• Always Fun - CAS
• Aud Sentiments - Birthday Sentiment
• Seize the Birthday - Anything Birthday (Optional 'Furry Friends')
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes
• Time Out - Pets

Festive Circle

I have another Christmas card to share today...featuring rather a lot of Christmas trees. The main image is called 'Festive Circle' by Woodware Stamps...I stamped it on to green card using a white pigment ink, then heat embossed it using 'Diamond White' embossing glitter from WOW. I cut it out using one of my circle Nesties, then matted it on to a scalloped circle cut from green glitter card. I made the background, by stamping my Simon Says Stamp 'Mod Trees' background stamp on to more green card using Versamark Ink, and heat embossing it in more sparkly white.

Challenges for this card:

• Christmas Card Throwdown - Stamping
• Crafty Catz - Anything Goes
• Creative Fingers - Anything Goes
• Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anything Goes
• The Holly & the Ivy - Anything Christmas Goes
• Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

Three Trees

I have a Christmas card to share today...using a Christmas tree stamp from a Hero Arts set called 'Three Trees Christmas'. I stamped it on to kraft card using Versamark Ink, then heat embossed it using 'Metallic Gold Rich' embossing powder by WOW. I also heat embossed one of the sentiments from the set on my kraft card blank, then added the tree panel above, matting it on to some gold mirror card.

Challenges for this card:

• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes
• Everybody Art - Use Kraft
• Rudolph Days - Anything Christmas Goes
• Sparkles Forum Christmas - Trees

Dawn Loves Her Doggie

I was the lucky winner of a recent Pixie's Snippets Playground challenges...it was one in the memory of Ruby, and the prize, rather appropriately, was this fabulous Stamping Bella 'Dawn Loves Her Doggie' stamp. It arrived yesterday, and I couldn't resist inking it up right away! I stamped it, along with the matching sentiment, on to a snippet of watercolour paper, then coloured it using watercolour pencils. The papers are a mixture of snippets from a couple of different pads. The polkadot one is from the 'Refreshing Basics' pad from The Works, and the heart & fabric texture ones are from the 'Vintage Dreams' pad by Craft Sensations. I used my Cuttlebug 'Concentric Hearts' die to cut a little heart shape, then distressed all of the edges and added some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a black gel pen.

Challenges for this card:

• Crafty Catz - Anything Goes (Optional 'All Creatures Big & Small')
• Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes
• Cute Card Thursday - Green
• Happy Little Stampers (Dies) - Anything Goes
• Pixie's Snippets Playground - Use Snippets
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Sending Hugs
• Sweet Stampers - Lots of Layers

Agapanthus Clusters Sympathy

Today's card is a simple one layer number. I used some deep burgundy card for the base, and heat embossed my Stampendous 'Agapanthus Clusters' stamp, along with a sentiment from the 'Sketched Flowers' set by Simon Says Stamp, using 'Metallic Gold Rich' embossing powder by WOW. I used a gold gel pen to doodle a simple border.

Challenges for this card:

• Addicted to CAS - Flower
• Incy Wincy - Spring and/or Embossing
• Penny's Paper Crafty - Anything Goes
• Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

Big Blue Butterflies

Today's card features my 'Big Butterfly' stamp by Indigo Blu. I started by stamping my sentiment (from the 'Sketched Flowers' set by Simon Says Stamp) in the centre of my watercolour paper, then stamped the butterfly off the edge a couple of times using Versamark Ink, then heat embossed them using 'Metallic Gold Sparkle' embossing glitter by WOW. I watercoloured the butterflies using a few different shades of blue Distress Ink (Broken China, Mermaid Lagoon, Peacock Feathers & Chipped Sapphire), then distressed the edges a little before adding the panel to a teal card blank.

Challenges for this card:

• Allsorts - Anything Goes
• Crafty Catz - Anything Goes (Optional 'Embossing')
• Fab 'N' Funky - Embossing
• Seize the Birthday - Anything Birthday
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Clean & Simple

PBSC April - Anything Goes (Optional 'Cute')...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
'Cute'

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

Prize - a $20 voucher!

I used some of the cute pups from the 'Man's Best Friend' set. I started by cutting a snippet of green patterned paper (from the 'Spring Freshness' pad by Craft Sensations) using one of my Lawn Fawn 'Sticthed Hillside Border' dies, and adding it along the vottom of a kraft card blank. I then stamped the pups dirctly on to the ktaft card, then coloured them using watercolour pencils. The sentiment stamp is from the 'Doggone Sweet' set.

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

• 2 Crafty Critter Crazies - Anything Goes
• Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes
• Creative Knockouts - Add a Sentiment
• Cutie Pie - Raining Cats & Dogs
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Clean & Simple

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

Hoppy Birthday!

I have another birthday card to share today...this one features an old Lili of the Valley image called 'Spring Bunny with Daffs'. I stamped it on to watercolour paper, then coloured it using watercolour pencils and cut it out using one of my circle Nesties. I paired it with some papers from the 'Spring Freshness' pad by Craft Sensations...distressing the edges a little and adding some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a black gel pen. The sentiment is from the 'Anytime Messages' set by Hero Arts...I didn't ink up the 'a' in 'Happy' so that I could replace it with an 'o' after stamping, using a black gel pen.

Challenges for this card:

• Dream Valley - Springtime
• Little Red Wagon - In the Air
• Love to Scrap - Spring Forward
• Simply Create Too - Stitching
• The Sisterhood of Crafters - Mellow Yellow
• Use Your Stuff - Spring or Easter
• We Love Chocolate Baroque - Springtime

Happy Birthday Mum!

It's my Mum's birthday today, and this is the card I made for her. It features one of my favourite floral stamps ('Sketched Flowers' by Simon Says Stamp), stamped on to black card, along with one of the sentiments from the same set, using Versamark Ink, and heat embossed in metallic gold. I coloured the flowers using metallic watercolours, then splattered some metallic gold paint over the top. Once dry, I added the black panel to a gold DL card blank. 

The paints are only a really cheap set from Hobbycraft, but are beautifully shiny in real life...tricky to phogograph, but you get a better idea in the photo below.

Challenges for this card:

• As You Like It - Favourite Embossing or Stencilling (I don't have any stencils, but love embossing...especially heat embossing - it's just magical watching the dull powders melt and turn into something beautifully metallic or glittery!)
• Aud Sentiments -  Anything Goes + Sentiment
• Crafts Galore Encore - Anything Goes
• Crafty Creations - Anything Goes
• Creative Moments - Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Happy Birthday
• Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

Merry & Bright

Today's card features a stamp from another new set...this cute penguin is from the 'Happy Winter' set by Crafter's Companion. I stamped him on to watercolour paper, coloured him using watercolour pencils, then carefully cut him out. I added him to my card blank using 3D foam pads, and added a sentiment from the 'Scribbly Christmas' set by Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous.

Challenges for this card:

• CAS Christmas - Rainbow
• Crafter's Cafe - Anything Goes
• Crafty Catz - Anything Goes
• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes
• Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes
• Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anything Goes
• Moving Along with the Times - Animals/Birds
• Polkadoodles - Anything Goes

Three Bees

I have a really simple card to share today featuring a lovely collage style stamp from Woodware, called 'Three Bees' that I received for Easter. I didn't really know what to do with it, so stamped it on to watercolour paper, then coloured it using Distress Inks...a light wash of 'Dusty Concord' and 'Rustic Wilderness' for the background, and 'Wild Honey' for the bees and sun. I distressed the edges a little, then added it to a kraft card blank.

Challenges for this card:

• Corrosive - Anything Goes
• Creatalicious - Anything Goes
• Cute Card Thursday - Wings
• Daring Cardmakers - Bees
• Happy Little Stampers (Watercolour) - Anything Goes
• Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

ABC Christmas Challenge - H & I are for?

It's the first Wednesday of a new month, so that means it's time for a new ABC Christmas Challenge! Lynda is the host, and the themes are:

'H is for Houses/Home'

&

'I is for Icicles'

There's a fab prize on offer from Lynda for the lucky winner of this challenge:

On my 'H is for Houses/Home' card, I used dies and punches to create a wintry scene on a DL card. I used lots of snippets of white card (so glad I keep all those offcuts when making square cards!) to cut the snowy slopes...mainly using my Lawn Fawn 'Stitched Hillside' border dies, alhough the one at the top with the little trees is a Clearly Besotted die called 'Tree Landscape'. To add a little definition to the edges, I distressed the edges before I layered them up. The little house was cut using a Woodware punch, from a snippet of kraft card...adding an even tinier snippet of navy card behind for a coloured door. The snippet of snowy paper is from the 'Mystery Marbles' pad by Craft Sensations, and the sentiment stamp is from the 'Scribbly Christmas' set by Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous.

I used lots of dies on my 'I is for Icicles' card too...repurposing one of my Die-namics 'Grassy Edges' dies to cut some 'icicles'. I cut them from white glitter card, then trimmed along the top with scissors to create a more 'organic' edge, then placed them on top of a 'wooden fence'...made by inking a snippet of kraft card with 'Gathered Twigs' Distress Inks, before embossing it using a woodgrain embossing folder from Sizzix/Doodlebug. I made a cheeky reindeer to pop over the top of the 'fence' using dies from the Tim Holtz/Sizzix 'Winter Critters' set...using lots of snippets of card...inking the edges with more 'Gathered Twigs' ink. I used a snippet of snowy sky background left over from making this card, then matted it all on to kraft card, before adding it to a card blank. The sentiment stamp is from the 'Celebrate Everyday' set by Hero Arts.

I'm also entering these cards into the following challenges:

• Christmas Cards All Year Round - Something Beginning with G or H (House)
• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes
• Happy Little Stampers (Christmas) - Anything Christmas Goes
• Jingle Belles - Dies
• Merry Little Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes
• Pixie's Snippets Playground - Use Snippets
• Simon Says Stamp (Mondays) - Layer It
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes
• The Holly & the Ivy - Anything Christmas Goes

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

Birthday Bookmarks

I have a couple of simple stamped bookmarks to share today. They're to go with a couple of books I'm giving to a friend for her birthday. The first uses lots of the stamps from the Hero Arts 'Cupcakes' set...stamped on to kraft card, using a little masking to make a tower of cupcakes, and coloured using watercolour pencils. This one is to go with a baking book...she's a keen baker too, and this is a copy of my most used cake cookbook...I've made a note on the back of the bookmark of the page numbers of my favourite recipes.

She became a 'dog Mum' last summer to an adorable cockapoo called Benji, so that's the 'why' for my second book choice. This time I used pups from the Katzelkraft 'Chiens' set on another kraft bookmark...again masking and stamping them one on top of another, and colouring them using watercolour pencils.

Challenges for these bookmarks:

• A Bit More Time to Craft - Anything Goes
• A Perfect Time to Craft - Anything Goes
• Crafty Catz - Anything Goes
• Polkadoodles - Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! 

Today I'm sharing some little Easter treat boxes I made for my family. I used papers from the 'Bright Freshness' pad by Craft Sensations, and my We R Memory Keepers punch board to make the boxes. I cut co-ordinating tags from snippets of brightly coloured card using an old Sizzix die, stamped an Easter greeting on one side (from the 'Everyday Sentiments' set by Hero Arts), them toed them around the boxes using some multicolour twine (from TKMaxx). I forgot to take a photo of them before I parcelled them up to post, so my Mum took this photo for me upon their arrival.

Challenges for these boxes:

• Crafty Calendar - Spring or Easter
• Everybody Art - Easter
• My Time to Craft - Easter
• Simon Says Stamp (Mondays) - Easter or Spring
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes
• The Sisterhood of Crafters - Easter or Spring

PBSC April - Anything Goes (Optional 'Cute')

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
'Cute'

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

Prize - a $20 voucher!

 Friend of mine gave birth to a baby boy last week, so I made a card using the 'Birthday Bears' stamp set to send to her. I stamped them on to watercolour paper, coloured them using watercolour pencils, added some letting for his name, then carefully cut them out. I made a simple background by layering up papers from the 'Prince Charming' pad by Recollections/Michaels...distressing the edges a little, then adding some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a black gel pen.

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

• Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper - Anything Goes
• Cute Card Thursday - Anything Goes
• Penny's Paper Crafty - Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes
• Sparkles Forum - Babies

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

Gift Wrapped

Whilst looking for the bunny stamp I used on this card earlier this week, I came across another adorable Lili of the Valley bunny stamp, and couldn't resist inking it up too. It's called 'Gift Wrapped', and I stamped it directly on to a kraft card blank, along with a sentiment from the 'Go To Words' set by Visible Image. I used watercolour pencils to colour the image.

Challenges for this card:

• Addicted to CAS - Happy Birthday
• Allsorts - Anything Goes
• Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes
• Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anything Goes
• Perfectly CAS - Birthday
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes
• Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes