Bad things come in Threes…

Well two so far, so I’m just waiting for the third!

Typical really Hubby takes little one out for the day so I can craft in peace and everything is starting to break.  Well everything is maybe a small exaggeration but it feels like it.

First it was a Martha Stewart edge punch but next it’s my CUTTLEBUG…..OMG is it possible to be distraught over the loss of a craft item? Not sure how it broke. I’m not heavy handed with it, don’t put really thick things through it, it just made a funny clicking noise and it looks like one side of the bottom roller has dropped down .

I’m off to make a cup of tea and nurse my sorrows, sob sob…

Less is More – Week 25 take two

Now I’m going to set you a little test with my second try for this weeks LIM challenge….something is wrong with my card, can you spot what? I’ll tell you at the bottom of this post. I must admit I am really annoyed with myself as I really like the way the card turned out.

I’ve stuck with the same patterned paper as my first try. This time I’ve paper pieced the butterfly and raised the edge of the wings up using foam pads (but I don’t think this shows in the pic). I masked and stamped the other two butterflies and coloured them with an Ivory ProMarker and a white gel pen to give them a little bit of definition. Added the ribbon and a sentiment.

Items: Pale grey card from Papermill Direct, First Edition ‘Summer Breeze’ patterned paper, ProMarkers, white gel pen, corner punch, Memento Sweet Plum inkpad, Hero Arts Cling Stamps Butterflies and ribbon from stash.

Did you spot the big boo boo? I stamped the sentiment onto the ribbon and it looked great, but by the time I came back to take a pic the ink had faded and seeped into the ribbon. IRL you can still read it but it doesn’t stand out….oops.

Less is More – Week 25

Time sure is flying by this week and I don’t seem to have found five minutes peace and quiet. I actually made a couple of cards for this weeks LIM challenge on Sunday but only got time to take pictures yesterday let alone find time to blog them.

Anyway enough waffle, the challenge is to use ribbon or buttons here’s my first attempt…

 

I love the First Edition range of pattern papers, so instead of an image I thought I would use a piece of lovely pretty paper. The colours looked a bit pale against a white card blank so I used a pale grey instead and added a lovely double sided ribbon that I think came from a present I was given a long time ago.

Items: Pale grey card from Papermill Direct, DP First Edition ‘Summer Breeze’, Sentiment from Kaisercraft, Memento Sweet Plum inkpad, X-Cut corner punch and ribbon from stash.

ATC Challenge Blog – Challenge 6 Reminder

Just a reminder that the current challenge over on ATC Challenge Blog is:

ANYTHING GOES

(Optional Windows or Doors)

You still have a week to enter, so head on over to ATC Challenge Blog and check out the rest of the details.

PCJ – Challenge 15

I’m here again with another new challenge at Paper Crafting Journey and this time is a sketch and a theme of:

MAKE IT GIRLY

Here’s my card:

 

This challenge we have been sponsored by the wonderful Di’s Digi Downloads and I have used the gorgeous Crown Princess image but please head over to the blog as there are loads more fabulous images.



I used the fab Core’dinations colour core card stock to make the base card which I scored and then sanded to create the diamond pattern. I’ve also seen a few cards lately using DP folded (well more rolled) over at the corner to show the reverse and so I thought I would give that a try, a bit of matting, layering stamping and colouring and voila a very pretty birthday card for my MIL.

Don’t forget to stop by PCJ and see the other fab DT work and also enter the challenge.

I would also like to enter the following challenges:

Ai Factory - Layer It Up

Papertake Weekly - Getting Cute

Allsorts  - Free and Easy July

Paper Pretties - Embossing (mines dry embossing on colour core card)

Craft Your Passion - Use Text on your Project

Totally Paper Crafts - Girly girls

My Time to Craft  - Citrus colours (Hope my lemon base card counts?)

Divas by Design - Pastel Colours

Ladybug Crafts Ink - Summer Birthday

Cupcake Inspirations -

Items: Yellow colour core card from C’Ordinations, ribbed Kraft card from local art shop, DP from a Papermania Forever Friends pad, Tuxedo Black Memento inkpad, ProMarkers, Stickles and Roses from Wild Orchid Crafts.

Craft Barn Alcohol Ink Challenge

I love looking at the Craft Barn Wishing Well posts, but don’t always any of the products to be able to enter the challenge. Well this week it was Alcohol Inks and I have some of those so I’ve had a play…

I was inspired by Andy Skinners technique as I’d never thought of using them in water and onto porous objects. So I gave it a try with a plain white tag, some flowers punched out of copy paper, some white card, some white textured paper and I even tried it on some ribbon and this is what I came up with:




I wanted to stamp some lines but of all the background stamps I have I don’t have lines so I inked a strip of the corrugated card and used it as a stamp. A few extra bits were added, some liquid pearls, some twine, a button, some inking around the edges and some embossing powder and after a nice messy inky play I’m quite pleased with the results.

I’d also like to enter my card in the Simon Says Stamp Challenge of Anything goes.

Items: Alcohol Inks Cranberry, Espresso and Butterscotch, All other items from my stash: button, twine, flower punches, white card, brown corrugated card, ribbon, Perfect Medium inkpad, gold detail embossing powder, Whispers brush marker, sentiment from Little Claire and Ranger Liquid Pearls.

Less is More – Week 24 take two

Feeling a little under the weather today (and we have some pretty miserable weather here today) so I have left the housework and had an afternoon catching up with some computer things, getting posts scheduled and entering a few challenges I made things for over the weekend.

I said in my earlier post for this weeks circles challenge at LIM that I had another idea brewing so here it is…

Items: White C5 card blank, patterned paper from My Minds Eye, Pink Petticoat Digi image Trendy Trees, Woodware 2” Circle Punch, Martha Stewart Zig Zag Border punch, Whispers Brush Markers and sentiment is computer generated.

Critter Sketch Challenge #74

We have a fab challenge over at Critter Sketch Challenge which is to make a card for ourselves…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

Now the sort of card I would like to receive myself is a tricky one as I like lot’s of different styles….CAS, Bling, Glitter, Patterned Papers, Stamping, etc, etc. So I combined a little bit of it all and I’m quite please with how it came together.  Do you think it’s a bit early to give it to Husband for him to give back to me on my birthday….it’s not until March?…lol.

Head on over to Critter Sketch Challenge and see what the rest of the DT have been up too.

I’d also like to enter my card in the Simon Says Stamp Challenge of Anything goes.

Items: C6 White card blank, white card from stash, Striped Patterned Paper from Paper Cellar, Flower Stamps Hobbycraft own make, Sentiment from Pink Gem, Cupcake stamp from a set by Hero Arts, ProMarkers, Perfect Medium inkpad, Pink Cosmic Shimmer embossing powder, Ranger Stickles Glitter Glue and Onyx Black VersaFine inkpad.

ATC Challenge Blog – Challenge 6

Another fortnight has gone by and it’s time for challenge number 6 over on the ATC Challenge Blog and the theme this week is:

ANYTHING GOES

(Optional Windows or Doors)

As you will see from my ATC below I stuck with Anything Goes, I spent ages searching through all my stamps and couldn’t find anything Windows or Doors that inspired me so I used this cute little tree stamp…

I’ve had the stamp so long I don’t know the make but for details on how I made this ATC pop over to ATC Challenge Blog and while your there take a look at the fantastic work by the other DT members

Judie is offering another fab prize of Frames by Darkroom Door.

I’d also like to enter my card in the Simon Says Stamp Challenge of Anything goes.

Items: Card from stash, Tree Stamp (make unknown), watercolour paints, Twinkling H2O’s, brown fine liner pen, Prima Marketing script stamp, Thatched Straw VersaMagic Inkpad, VersaFine Vintage Sepia Inkpad and Clear embossing powder.

Less is More – Week 24

What a funny old day it’s been weather wise today. Awoke this morning to pouring rain, but the good thing was it was 10am and the lovely hubby had let me have a lie in to make up for 6:15am yesterday morning. Later on we went out and we had glorious sunshine, we went to Mothercare as we are on the hunt for a smaller more ‘holiday packing the car friendly’ pushchair for our little boy but by the time we finished it was getting close to tea time (and we still hadn’t bought one) so we decided to have tea out and had a lovely meal in Frankie & Benny’s. When we left the restaurant it was really windy and was so cold walking back to the car. Surely this can’t be summer?

To top off my lovely day I did a spot of crafting when we got home.  This week the challenge at LIM Towers is to use Circles on your card and for once the idea that had been brewing in my head all day actually translated onto my card…

As well as the distressed circle flowers I wanted the layout to form a circle but thought that a whole circle would be too much so moved it so it was off the page……hope I’m not talking rubbish lol and that everyone can see what I mean. To get my sentiment to fit the circle I used a little trick that you can do with clear stamps which is to bend them on your acrylic block so they follow a curve rather than a straight line. This card is a bit different for me, but I like it…what do you think?

I have another idea for a card brewing (all this brain power is making me sleepy lol) so I might be back with another try tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by, any comments you leave are appreciated.

I’d also like to enter my card in the Simon Says Stamp Challenge of Anything goes.

Items: White 5x5 card blank, Forever Friends Patterned paper, Sentiment is from a cheap little set I’ve had years, can’t remember the make but more than likely it’s from Hobbycraft, Papermania Brads, VersaFine Onyx Black, Whispers Brush Markers.

Less is More - Week 23

I made a really quick and quite cheeky card yesterday for this weeks LIM challenge. It’s One Layer week and Chrissie and Mandi have also challenged us to use legs! I was inspired by Chrissies Teddy card and the idea that the legs can be implicit so I have taken it a step and here’s my card……



A very simple card…lol and of course you couldn’t get paw prints with out legs!!. I’ve just stamped and added a little Glossy Accents to one of the paw prints.

Items: C6 card blank, VersaFine Vintage Sepia Inkpad, Little Claire Silhouette Dogs stamp set and Glossy Accents.

PCJ – Challenge 14

Some of you may remember a few weeks back I was a guest designer over at Paper Crafting Journey and the lovely Lisa asked me to join the DT.  Well this is my first challenge where the theme this challenge is:

FOR HIM

We are being sponsored by

I have used one of their digi images, and it reminded me of the Godfather films so I wanted to go for that kind of theme, all the shooting and lot’s of blood so it had to be a red card!
Now head on over to the PCJ blog and see what my fellow teamies have made.

I would also like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Paper Take Weekly -  Anything Goes

Craft Your Passion – Anything Goes

Items: White 6x6 card blank, other card from stash, red leather look backing paper a free digi from Bearly Mine Designs, ProMarkers, crystal gems, Pilot Gold Pen, VersaFine inkpad, Perfect Medium inkpad, clear embossing powder, Sentiment from Pink Gem and Woodware circle punch used on corners.

Less is More – Week 22 take two

Me again…I posted an entry to LIM earlier and I knew exactly what Lady LIM or Diva LIM were going to say when I was typing the post…. “Not quite enough white space” lol.  So now the glue has dried I thought I would share the other two cards I made.  Lot’s more white space…

On the second card as well as the two blues on the snowflakes and the blue on the sentiment there are also two shades of blue ink on the background but it doesn’t shoes in the photograph.

I do have one more card but I need your help. At the moment it’s just a panel and I don’t know whether the finished card should be the same size as the panel or should be mounted onto a larger card base….what does everyone think?

Items: Various white card blanks, other card from stash, Sentiments from Pink Gem, Hero Arts Snowflake Stamp set, Little Claire Christmas Eve Stamp, Martha Stewart snowflake punch, pearl from Wild Orchid Crafts, Perfect Pearls Powder Interference Blue, Dark Blue glitter, clear embossing powder, WOW blue glitter embossing powder, Alcohol Inks Stream and Denim, VersaFine inkpad Majestic Blue, Brilliance Inkpad metallic blue, VersaColor inkpads (various blue)

Less is More – Week 22

The challenge this week over at LIM Headquarters is shades of blue and I have been having a right little play with my stamps and inks.  Here’s my first attempt…

This ones is just lot’s of ink and stamps for the background and then the large snowflake and sentiment have also been embossed. the coloured panel has then been matted onto a white card blank.

Items: 6x6 white card blank, other card from stash, Hero Arts Snowflake Stamp set, VersaColor Inkpads, Versa Magic Inkpads, VersaFine Majestic Blue, WOW Blue Glitter embossing powder and white embossing powder.

PS: Is anyone else watching the Extraordinary Families Programmes on ITV, probably some of the most moving programmes I’ve watched.  As I type I’m watching tonight's episode which is about Sextuplets.

Critter Sketch Challenge #72

This post was scheduled for yesterday but naughty Mr Blogger has not been very kind to me of late.  So better late than never here’s the details of this weeks challenge over at Critter Sketch Challenge.

We have a sketch for you to follow:

Here’s my take on the sketch:

For any of you that pop by blog on a regular basis you may have noticed a few Christmas cards appearing. I know it’s only July but I’m determined to get them done early this year and not leave it until the last minute which is what usually happens. I bought this little beauty of a stamp at the NEC in March and have been wanting to colour her in for ages. The mage is so gorgeous I thought I would keep the rest of the card as CAS as the sketch allows.

Items: All card Papermill Direct, DP from a Papermania pad, Image from Lili of the Valley, ProMarkers, Stickles, Liquid Pearls, Sakura Quickie Glue Pen, Clear Glitter and Memento Tuxedo Black Inkpad

I would also like to enter this card into the following challenges:

• Papertake Weekly: Anything Goes

ATC Challenge Blog - Challenge 5

Monday already? I had quite a hectic weekend and not quite enough sleep but a very enjoyable weekend with the In-Laws celebrating my MIL’s 60th Birthday. Anyhoo it’s challenge number five over on the ATC Challenge Blog and the theme this week is:

ANYTHING GOES

(Optional Favourite Household Item)

As you will see from my ATC below  my favourite household item is a cup as I love a nice brew. I’ve cheated a bit as it’s actually a mug but I didn’t have a stamp of a mug lol.



How cute are the little tea bags and teaspoons on the background? These the cup and the sentiment come from a little Hero Arts sets that I’ve had for quite a while. For more details pop over to ATC Challenge Blog and take a look at the fantastic work by the other DT members

Now onto the prize for this challenge which is a fab A4 Vintage Bag - This bag has an assortment of different Vintage bits and bobs.



As well as the challenge why not swap your ATCs as well....head over to Craftymess and take a look at the Everything ATC group.

Items: Card from stash, Hero Arts Clear Stamp set, ribbon from stash, clear sparkles embossing powder, various green inkpads.

Let’s Eat Cake

Oops forgot to post the picture of the cake I mentioned in my last post.

It was a huge success at the party and at the end of the night there were only a few crumbs left.

Less is More – Week 21

Phew what a hectic week. Been under the weather with a nasty cold and so much to do. Been busy making cards and a cake for my MIL’s 60th Birthday. I can’t share the cards yet as they are also cards for the DT’s I belong to but when the icing on the cake is dry I’ll pop back to share a pic. Anyhoo I’m here to share the cards I’ve made for this weeks LIM challenge. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again I’m just no good at following sketches, I think I focus too much on the sketch and it then squashes Mr Mojo and I dislike most of what I make. Here they are:

Honest feedback please….I do appreciate it.

We’re off to Portsmouth to the In-Laws tonight so I need to get the packing started, will update the post with supplies later.

Bye for now xxx