ABC, Stamp Something, Allsorts & Friday Sketchers

I've been a bit off cardmaking, and everything else really, for the last couple of days, as I've had a rotten cold. I'm still not feeling much better, but I really wanted to do something so I've made a card for 4 challenges - ABC Challenge (C for circles), Stamp Something (animal somethings), Allsorts Challenge (no stamping) & Friday Sketchers (a sketch & optional blue + orange).

I have a big circle sentiment, hopefully that will be ok for ABC, a mouse which covers Stamp Something, my image is a digi stamp from Lily-Boo's Boutique and my sentiment is computer generated, so no stamping for Allsorts, followed the sketch and there is a bit of blue and orange in there too lol.

Materials/ Tools Used

• Image from Lily-Boo's Boutique, coloured with promarkers. Computer generated sentiment, cut out with nestabilities plain circles.
• My Mind's Eye 'bloom & grow' papers. Image, sentiment & papers edged with distress inks in antique linen & tea-dye.
• Woodware button, Bazzill In'Stitchz thread tied in bow through button & wrapped around paper.

Stamp Something challenge

Bit last minute with this one! It's the first time I've entered, noticed this challenge earlier and thought I could enter the birthday card I've just finished, but the cut off time is 7pm... eek! It's for Stamp Something and the theme is 'birthday somethings'. My layout is based on an old Mojo Monday sketch.



Materials/ Tools used

• Penny Black stamp from the 'bubbly' clear set, coloured with promarkers. Background of stamp and sentiment has been done with distress inks.
• K&Co papers and coredinations cardstock
• Gems, flowers & charm from stash
• Martha Stewart scallop dot border punch
• Nestabilities plain circles
  
  

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 2

Here's my 2nd DT card for Crafty Cardmakers. The challenge this time is complimentary colours, and you can see examples of these on the Crafty Cardmakers blog. I was actually aiming for orange & turquoise, but I think my turquoise is more aqua - so my colours are tangerine and aqua (thanks Vix, lol). I really struggled to get a good photo this time, I tried all over the house and ended up in the garden! I should have cropped it really before I sent it to Vix but I didn't think, so I've done it now. I'm still learning when it comes to taking good photos!

I've used a Stampavie stamp, a new design by Tina Wenke, I absolutely love these stamps! I have 2 but I'm sure I'll be collecting more of them. The papers are from the My Mind's Eye 'bloom & grow' pack, with coredinations cardstock. I've coloured the image with promarkers and then added a little glamour dust here and there. My flowers are Green Tara, held together with a little brad and I've sprinkled them with glamour dust too - I love a bit of sparkle! I've had a big bag of these little star charms sat in a drawer for ages so I decided to use one - I've threaded the charm and some beads onto silver jewellery wire, made a loop and fixed it onto the back of the flowers with the brad - not perfect but I quite like it. I've also added a strip of tulle, coloured with an orange promarker, I've never tried this before but I think it works. I've got a huge bag of tulle that I bought when I was making my wedding favours (2yrs ago!), so I'm sure I'll be using lots more of it on my cards from now on!

Lots of holiday pics

Some pics from our holiday, well lots of pics really lol!

First go on a bouncy castle

Morgan posing!

Beach baby Dex

Morgan & 'sprout' from the Skyline Gang, he loves Sprout!

A rare pic of me with a grumpy Dex!

Back from holiday to bad news

Well we're back from our holiday in Skegness - the weather was fab nearly the whole time, only one morning with a couple of rainy showers. We've had a great time and the kids have loved it, I'll post some holiday pics later.

Unfortunately we came back home to some very bad news. My MIL's cancer has returned - she had breast cancer a couple of years ago, the prognosis at the time was quite gloomy but following a mastectomy and chemo etc, she's been doing well. She'll now have to go through the whole thing again, I feel so bad for her. It's made more difficult for her because she's Polish and therefore doesn't understand half of what's going on around her, and she has twin boys who are severely autistic (Pav's half brothers) and unable to cope with any change to their routine. Last time she had treatment, they would go on a rampage if she wasn't there as usual when they returned from school, smashing everything they could get hold of and screaming, and they were terrified of her when she lost her hair. It's just horrible for her, knowing she's going to have to go through it all over again.

I'm off to a barbeque with the kids tonight, while Pav goes out with some friends, but hopefully I'll get chance to update with some pics when I get back, and make a start on some cards. I took all my distress inks and promarkers with me to colour some images while I was away but didn't get chance to do much.

If I can find the time I think I'd like to have a go at making a small scrapbook for my MIL, with pics of the kids in - we won't be able to visit her often while she's having treatment, because her immunity will be low and we can't risk passing on any bugs, and she'll be too exhausted for proper visits anyway. I know how much she'll miss the boys, so I'd like to do something like that for her - never done any scrapbooking before though so I'm not sure where to start!

I think I've probably rambled on enough for now, be back later!

Sketch Saturday 64

My last post for a few days - we go on holiday tomorrow, just to Skegness but the weather reports are good so fingers crossed!

Anyway, here's my card for Sketch Saturday following their sketch obviously. Mum asked me for an anniversary card for my auntie & uncle and this sketch fitted nicely I think. I've used some of the tips on Crafty Cardmakers and added some glamour dust to my flowers, don't they look pretty lol?

Close up

Materials/ Tools used

• Teddy stamp from Elzybells, coloured in with promarkers
• Some of the paper is My Mind's Eye, but not sure of the make of the others sorry
• Green Tara flowers with roses from Hobbycraft & leaves using a Woodware punch, sprinkled with glamour dust
• Self-adhesive lace from Cuddly Buddly
• Sentiment is a Pink Petticoat download
• Martha Stewart scallop dot border punch & nestabilities ovals - plain & scalloped
  
  

Sketch Saturday & Secret Crafter

Bit last minute with both of these but hopefully not too late! This card is for Sketch Saturday and Secret Crafter, following the sketch from Sketch Saturday and the theme from Secret Crafter, which is cute bugs - I have a little ladybird on there for my 'bug'!

This is supposed to be for my uncle's birthday but I'm not totally sure it's 'grown up' enough - my new Stampavie stamps arrived yesterday and I just couldn't wait to play with them!

I've also experimented a little bit with this one - it's my first attempt at hand stitching on a card and I'm also trying to improve my photos. Normally I take them with the flash on but I've tried to get a bit of natural light and take them without flash - need some practise with this though I think!

Materials/ Tools used

• Stampavie 'Mouse-Bird-Ladybird-Cupcake' stamp (new Tina Wenke design), coloured with promarkers
• CCSR sentiment stamp
• My Mind's Eye 'wild asparagus' papers with coredinations cardstock
• Craftwork Cards card candy dots & Bazzill In Stitch'z thread
  
  
  

A Spoonful of Sugar challenge 64

Here's my card for A Spoonful of Sugar following their sketch. This is one of those very frustrating cards that just wouldn't do what I wanted it to do! And I've just noticed my peel off (still haven't got a 'happy anniversary' stamp, must get one) is a bit wonky so I'll have to sort that out. I've coloured a little row of tiny flat back pearls pink with the rose pink promarker, for the two corner sections, but I'm not sure if it shows up properly in my pics. The image is a download from Cuddly Buddly and I've edged everything with tattered rose distress ink.



Close up
Materials/ Tools used

• Digi stamp from Cuddly Buddly, coloured with promarkers
• Paper is a Pink Petticoat download, cardstock is Bazzill
• Flowers - 2 layered fabric flowers from stash, Green Tara paper flower & rose from Hobbycraft. Flatback pearls from stash. Happy Anniversary peel off from Little Claire
• Tim Holtz distress ink in Tattered Rose
  
  

2 awards

I've had 2 awards from the lovely Kat this week, but I've been so busy trying to get cards finished (and get packed & stuff!) before we go away on Monday, I've not had time to do anything with them - just wanted to say a huge thank you though hun, you always leave such sweet comments and you make gorgeous cards :o)

Friday Sketchers week 64

Here's my card for Friday Sketchers, following their sketch obviously! I'm not totally happy with this card, I don't think the colouring is very good - he looks better as a grey tabby this little cat, but it's one that mum's asked me for, and she wanted him ginger!

Materials/ Tools used

• Penny Black stamp from the 'bubbly' clear stamp set, coloured with promarkers
• K&Co papers with a panel of coredinations cardstock embossed with cuttlebug 'happy birthday' folder (in the big shot), I've sanded the coredinations a bit
• Nestie circle (cut for me by a friend as I still don't have the circles), mounted on a scalloped circle bought in a pack from a craft fair
  

Sugar Bowl challenge 16

Here's my Sugar Bowl challenge entry, which was a sketch and had to include some doodling - I'm hopeless at doodling so I've just added some dots around the image! I love this image and used it for the last Sugar Bowl challenge too! The papers are all CCSR with cardstock and ribbon from stash. The flowers are Green Tara with a flat-backed pearl in the centre that I've coloured with a black promarker.



Close up

Materials/ Tools used

• Sugar Nellie 'custard' stamp from Funky Kits, coloured with promarkers
• Papers are all CCSR with cardstock and ribbon from stash
• Sentiment stamp from Cuddly Buddly
• Green Tara flowers with flat-back pearl centre
• Martha Stewart scallop dot border punch
• Nestie circle cut for me by a friend (I must get round to buying circle nesties - thanks Sarah!)
  
  

DT card - Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 1

Well here it is, the very first Crafty Cardmakers challenge! And here's my first Design Team card. The theme for the challenge is Blossoms, so I thought this stamp was appropriate - she's called Blossom and she's a Sugar Nellie stamp from Funky Kits. I've used promarkers to colour in the image, and then used a small matching flower stamp that I got in a Funky Kits lucky bag to make the backing paper - I've just stamped it randomly over plain white card, coloured with promarkers and then added diamond stickles to give it a bit of sparkle. The image is cut out with nestabilities scalloped ovals and I've edged the oval and the backing paper with distress ink. I've finished it off with a strip of self-adhesive lace.

Please check out the work of the rest of the fab design team and join us for the first challenge! Can you tell I'm a bit excited?



Close up

Materials/ Tools used

• Sugar Nellie 'blossom' stamp & little flower stamp from Funky Kits, coloured in with promarkers
• Self-adhesive lace from Cuddly Buddly
• Diamond Stickles glitter glue
• Tim Holtz distress ink in Fired Brick
  
  
  

Card for 4 challenges

This card is for A Spoonful of Sugar (floral fantasy), Papertake Weekly (4 seasons - mine's supposed to be spring, not sure if I achieved that though!), Passion for Promarkers (a sketch, any colours) and Pollycraft challenge (buttons & bows). I've used my new Sugar Nellie manga stamp from Funky Kits, the pink paper & green paper are Sandylion, not sure of the make of the diamond pattern paper though. I've used a chipboard flower covered in paper, instead of the circle that was in the PFP sketch, hope that's ok!



Close up

Materials/ Tools used

• Sugar Nellie manga girl stamp from Funky Kits, coloured with promarkers
• Papermania CCSR sentiment stamp
• Green & Pink papers by Sandylion, diamond pattern paper - don't know!
• Green Tara flowers with Woodware button centres, Bazzill In Stitch'z thread tied in a bow through one of them
• Chipboard flower from Craftwork Cards
  
  
  

I won Just Magnolia!

How exciting, my first blog challenge win! I have a biiiiig smile on my face now. I couldn't remember what the prize was, so I've had a look and it's some cute stamps - I'll have fun with those. Ooh that's made my day, I never win anything!

Card for 3 challenges

I've made this card to fit 3 challenges - Papertake Weekly (a sketch), Cute Card Thursday (fruity) and Just Magnolia (distressing). I really don't like this card! It just doesn't look right and I wish I'd put the image a bit higher up on the card, might fiddle around with it later and see if I can move it. I still won't like it though!

Materials/ Tools used

• Magnolia Tilda image, coloured with promarkers
• Cherry paper & sentiment are Pink Petticoat downloads, bazzill cardstock
• White ricrac ribbon from stash
• Martha Stewart scallop dot border punch
• Tim Holtz distress ink in Shabby Shutters

Colour Create challenge 24

The challenge at Colour Create this week is pink, orange & green, with the optional extra of hearts. I thought I might struggle with those colours, but I like how this one's turned out. A friend's little girl will be 4 in a couple of weeks and this will be her card. It's the first time I've used this gorjuss girl, only bought it last week (along with a few others!) and I love it. I bought the paper from a local craft shop (Craft Haven), but I'm not sure what make it is as there are no labels - I want some more though!

close up

Materials/ Tools used

• Sugar Nellie gorjuss girl stamp from Funky Kits, coloured with promarkers
• Paper from local craft shop (Craft Haven), don't know the make, cardstock from stash
• Downloaded sentiment from Pink Petticoat
• Green Tara flowers & heart buttons from Mad About Cards

1st card with distress inks

I've been playing with my distress inks today, seen as I now have some watercolour paper (how expensive?!!) and some more colours (and I've ordered another 4, so that will be 12 altogether lol). I've made a very quick card up to put one of my images on, I know the card's not very good! I still need loads more practise with the inks, can't quite get them right but I'll persevere because I do like using them. I still love my promarkers so I'll probably use them most of the time, but it's nice to have something different to use.

Anyway, here's my first attempt - hopefully my next one will be better! (tried to get a close up pic but the light's rubbish, so I might try and get a better one tomorrow)

Materials/ Tools used

• Sugar Nellie Gorjuss Girl stamp from Funky Kits, coloured with distress inks - scattered straw & brushed corduroy (hair), tattered rose & worn lipstick (skin), faded jeans & scattered straw (dress, tights & flowers)
• Downloaded sentiment from Pink Petticoat, gems from stash
• Green Tara flowers, rose from Hobbycraft
• Gingham paper is a Funky Fairy download
• Labels 4 nestie (cut for me by a friend - thank you Sarah!)