Karens Doodles UK - 4th challenge

It feels like I haven't blogged for ages! I know it looks like I've not done anything lol, but I've been making DT cards that will go on here over the next couple of days. Today it's a new challenge at Karen's Doodles UK and this week we have a lovely photo inspiration challenge - such pretty colours to work with, I love pink and green. Hope you'll join in with us :o)

I've used one of my favourite Karen's Doodles images (aren't they all?!), this is Nutsy the squirrel carrying his present and he's available in a set of 6 images here. I've coloured him with promarkers with a touch of sakura clear stardust pen on the present's bow. I've used one of the nestie label dies to cut the image out (can't remember which number label this is, sorry!). The papers are Sandylion with plain white cardstock, flowers are Green Tara with a white button centre from my stash. Finished off with a Craftwork Cards sentiment and a couple of Papermania spotty buttons. Excuse the odd angle and slightly blurry photo - I really need a new camera soon!

I'm also entering my card for the following challenges:

• Pink Elephant - pastel colours
• Secret Crafter - pink, green & flowers
• Colour Create - pastel colours + easter or spring
• Charisma Cardz - spring
• Totally Papercrafts - pink & green
  

Fairy Fun Fridays week 12!

Wow I can't believe we're already on week 12 of Fairy Fun Fridays, that doesn't seem possible! This week our challenge is to make an easel card - a great one for me because I LOVE making them! I had a hard time choosing which image to use for this one though, because Roberta has been busily drawing all sorts of gorgeousness and I want to use them all lol. Hope you'll find time to join in with us :o)

I finally decided on this cute cake image, from the new Gerry's Birthday Set - I've coloured the image with promarkers and then added some flat back pink pearls and some sakura clear glitter pen (you can't see the sparkle on this pic, but you can on the extra pic below). The patterned cardstock is from my local craft shop, plain cardstock is DCWV, ribbon from my stash, Papermania spotty buttons and a Craftwork Cards sentiment. I've left the bottom of the easel plain because I'm not sure who this is for yet, so I might add a name or message there later.

I'm also entering my card for the following challenges:

• Moving Along With The Times - such a cute sketch!
• Cute Card Thursday - dimensions
• Cupcake Craft Challenges - food & drink
• Totally Gorjuss - ribbon
  
  

Karens Doodles UK - 3rd challenge

It's sketch time this week at Karens Doodles UK! Hope you'll join in and have a go, it's a fab sketch and you have a great chance of winning a prize as there are 3 winners each week :o)

I've used a super cute Easter image available here, coloured with promarkers. The spotty paper is a download from Printable Heaven, text paper is actually a DCWV card blank that I've cut up, cardstock is Papermania. Flowers are from my stash, with Papermania button centres, the zig zag edge was made with an MS punch and the sentiment is from a Pink Petticoat download.

I'm also entering my card for the following challenges:

• Lexi's Creations - Easter
• Pile It On - furry friends
• Incy Wincy - Easter/ spring
• I love Digi - Easter
• Passion For Promarkers - spring + animals
• Everybody Art - Easter
• Digital Tuesday - spring
  

Crafty Cardmakers challenge 17 - spring

Time for another challenge at Crafty Cardmakers and this fortnight we'd like to see your spring creations. I've been busily creating for an order that was mainly for Easter cards, which is why I've been a bit absent from my blog! So I have a few cards for this challenge - Vix chose the 1st card for Crafty Cardmakers, and they're all for the same order (so apologies for the long messages on the front but it's how the customer likes them!).

I've used images from Digistamp Boutique, coloured with promarkers. The first 2 cards are basically the same, I just made one mostly lemon and the other mostly lilac. The gingham papers are from a funky fairy download, lilac cardstock is bazill bling, lemon is papermania. MS scallop dot border punch used to make the border and computer generated sentiments.

My 3rd card features another Digistamp Boutique image, again coloured with promarkers. The paper is a Sweet Shoppe Designs download, with brown bazill cardstock. Lace from my stash and computer generated sentiment. They're all really simple cards, but I've had so many to make they've had to be!

I'm entering my cards for the following challenges:

• Stamp With Fun - Easter
• Our Creative Corner - Easter
• Stampin For The Weekend - Easter
• Allsorts - spring is in the air
• Crafty Catz - spring
• Secret Crafter - spring has sprung
• Sketch Saturday - sketch (first 2 cards)
• Papertake Weekly - lilac & lemon (first 2 cards)
• Sweet Sketch Wednesday - sketch (3rd card)
• Caardvarks - lace (3rd card)
  
  
  

Fairy Fun Fridays week 11

Time for another Fairy Fun Fridays challenge and this week it's 'complimentary colours' - I chose blue and orange. It's a bit easier than last week's challenge, so hopefully lots of you will join in :o)

I've used this gorgeous Lenny lion image - one of my favourite Prairie Fairy images, but somehow I can never quite do him justice with my colouring - I'm going to keep trying until I'm completely happy though! The papers are DCWV, with some shimmery orange cardstock from my stash. Nestie plain circles and Nellie circle frame dies used to cut out and frame the image. Raffia lace from Bunny Zoes, Papermania buttons, Doodlebug letter tiles and a Craftwork Cards sentiment.

I'm also entering my card for the following challenges:

• Inspirational Card Sketches - fab sketch
• Charisma Cardz - something for kids
• Creative Inspirations - male card

Some of you might remember me posting last year about my MIL's breast cancer returning... well everything seemed to have been treated ok until earlier this week when they discovered yet another lump - this time the cancer has spread to her lymph glands and they have to operate next Tuesday. I'm so worried, my MIL is a lovely woman and she's so good to us and adores the boys. The thought that she might not be around to see them grow up is awful. I cried most of last night and hardly slept at all, but today have tried to pull myself together and get a bit more positive - she is Pav's mum after all, not mine, and he's going to need me to be there for him. Please keep her in your thoughts.

Karen's Doodles UK 2nd challenge

We're onto our 2nd week at Karen's Doodles UK and this week we'd like to see your Easter creations - Karen has released some gorgeous new Easter images this week, so there are lots to choose from :o) You can see them all here.

I've used the super cute Bunny Girl image, love this one. I've coloured the image with promarkers and used lots of glamour dust on the easter eggs for some sparkle. The papers are a Sweet Shoppe download, cardstock is DCWV. The flowers were cut with Woodware and xcut punches from some bright pink dotty Bo Bunny paper, with little green pearl centres. The bright pink butterfly ribbon was a market stall find and I cut the little green butterflies from a green strip of the same ribbon. My card didn't quite end up how I wanted it, but that seems to be the way lately - I think Mrs Mojo has gone for a bit of a break, hope she's back soon!

I'm also entering my card for the following challenges:

• KL Stampin n Scrappin - fab sketch
• Crafty Creations - spots & dots
• Flutterby Wednesdays - use green and/or shamrocks (+ butterflies, angels or fairies)
• Simon Says - a splash of green
• Creative Card Crew - going dotty
• A Spoon Full of Sugar - easter
• The Pink Elephant - spring
• Totally Gorjuss - something sweet
• Charisma Cardz - butterflies

Cards For Men 6th challenge - happy birthday

A nice simple theme for you for this fortnight's Cards For Men challenge, it's simply 'happy birthday' - so you can enter any male birthday card. We're sponsored this time by Roberta from Prairie Fairy - I'm lucky enough to be on her design team and her digi stamps are really lovely, and you could win 3 of them :o)

I've used one of the images from the Cuppycakes set - this wasn't how I originally planned the image to look! I tried to glaze and glitter the image but the lines went all blurry and it just looked terrible, so I printed it off again onto orange cardstock, cut out the top of the cake and layered it up instead. I've added a bit of glamour dust to the stars on the cake.... I'm not happy with it though, doesn't look quite right to me! The papers are MME, cardstock is a mix of DCWV and some green pearlised card from my stash. I embossed a piece of the green card with the cuttlebug spots and dots folder, added some stars (cut with nesties), MME buttons and a Craftwork Cards sentiment.

I'm also entering my card for the following challenges:

• Sunday Sketch & Stamp - great sketch, although I might have played about with it too much - sorry!
• Cupcake Craft Challenge - going green
• Saturday Spotlight - so slick
• Crazy 4 Challenges - male cards
• Crafty Catz - something for the boys

My mum's mother's day card

Yay, I've finally finished my mum's mother's day card! I've been wanting to make it all week, but I've got too many cards to make and not enough time at the moment!

I've used another sweet Coco bear image from Digistamp Boutique - my mum loves daffodils so hopefully she'll like this. I've coloured Coco in with promarkers and used a Woodware inverted corner punch on the corners. The papers are from a Pink Petticoat download that I've had printed off for ages and not used, cardstock from my stash. Green Tara flowers, Papermania button and ribbon, the sentiment is another Pink Petticoat download.

I've also decorated the inside because my mum likes them like that. I've used a lovely new Prairie Fairy daffodils image and kept it very simple. The photo of the inside isn't very good unfortunately - the card is a large 8x8 square and it was a bit hard to get a decent pic of the whole inside.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• Sweet Sketch Wednesday - another lovely sketch
• Secret Crafter - anything goes
• One Stop Craft Challenge - spots and dots
• Challenge Up Your Life - flowers
• Bee Crafty - spring
• Teddy Stampers - to mother, with love
• Daring Cardmakers - a host of golden daffodils

I actually started this card intending to enter it for the Just Cute Bears challenge which was mother's day, but I'm too late by a couple of hours - oops!

Fairy Fun Fridays week 10 - tissue paper

Time for a new challenge at Fairy Fun Fridays and this week we'd like to see what you can do with tissue paper! I've made a flower, which is probably not the most imaginative use of tissue paper, but I'm sure you can all come up with something fabulous :o) I had fun making my card anyway!

I've used one of my favourite Prairie Fairy images from the Prima Ballerina set, coloured with promarkers - isn't she sweet? The papers are DCWV, orange flower ribbon was a magazine freebie - I've added some Papermania buttons to each little flower. Those little... umm... I've got no idea what they're called lol, but the orange things held on with brads down the side of the image, are Papermania - they started out cream and I coloured them with a promarker. I bought the cute little sentiment tag stamp in a stamp set from a local craft shop, no idea what brand they are but there's lots of cute little tags with different messages and they stamp so nicely. My flower was made with lots of layers of tissue paper cut with nestie peony dies, I then used a few different pink ink pads because I couldn't get it quite the right shade (it's still not quite right!) and got in a big pink mess, then scrunched each layer and cut them to make petals. Finally I used a light spray of adhesive and sprinkled on some glamour dust and added an orange button from my stash.

I'm also entering my card for the following challenges:

• Midnight Madness - fab sketch (I flipped it so I could use my sentiment tag, hope that's ok!)
• Crafty Creations - make your own flowers
• Die Cuts R Us - bouquets of papers
• Stampavie - use some orange
  

75th Birthday

Hmmm, not happy with this card! I don't even know why really, it just doesn't look quite right - it was one of those cards that seemed to take forever to come together and in the end I just had to finish it! It's for an order, and the customer wanted a fairly long message on the front so I thought an easel card would work best, but I think I'd probably be happier with the card without the easel bit.

I've used a lovely little Coco Bear image from Digistamp Boutique, coloured with promarkers. The plain circle was cut with nesties and the scalloped circle is a nellie snellen frame die. Papers are K&Co, with DCWV and coredinations cardstock. The fancy corner is a sizzix die, sentiment is computer generated and cut out with another nellie snellen die. I've used more of my bargain lace, roses from Wild Orchid Crafts, pearls from my stash and the MS doily lace border punch for the bottom edge of the easel.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• Sketch Saturday - fab sketch
• Crafty Calendar - flower power (+ optional pastel colours)
• Totally Papercrafts - mother's day or special lady (possibly cheating slightly, but I'm sure she's special to the customer!)
• Cute Card Thursday - celebrations
  
  

Karen's Doodles UK 1st challenge!!!

Yay, it's time for the very first Karen's Doodles UK challenge, can you tell I'm a bit excited?! Lol! For our first challenge, we'd simply like you to use your favourite Karen's Doodles image, which should be easy but it took me AGES to choose one. In the end, I had my mind made up for me because I needed a card for my friend's little girl who will be 3 at the end of this week.

So you may have noticed that my card is VERY PINK :o) Well, she's a typical 3yr old girl and loves all things pink! I've used the gorgeous fairy fun image, and coloured her with promarkers with glamour dust for her wings and the flowers on her shoes. The pink cardstock is from my stash, white cardstock is coredinations, papers are from my local craft shop so I'm not sure of the brand. The white ribbon is from Wild Orchid Crafts, with a Papermania button. The letter tiles are Doodlebug. I've done lots of paper piercing with my pricking tool, which has worked better on the plain cardstock than it did on the patterned paper I think. Right, I think that's enough about my card - I hope you'll join in with our first challenge, there are some fantastic prizes to be won and don't forget Karen is having a sale at the moment if you need to stock up on some of her lovely images :o)

I'm also entering my card for the following challenges:

• Create4fun - fab sketch
• My Time to Craft - kids cards
• Delightful Sketches - kids
• Digital Tuesday - piercing
• Crazy 4 Challenges - piercing
• Stampin For The Weekend - monochrome
• Charisma Cardz - fairies
• Flutterby Wednesday - open theme (must include a butterfly, angel or fairy)

Karen's Doodles 1st challenge starts tomorrow & Karen's having a sale!

So are all you Doodledivas ready for our first challenge tomorrow?! The first UK challenge goes live tomorrow morning at 10am - sooo exciting!

Also, Karen is having a Sale over at KAREN DOODLES ONLINE SHOP in celebration of our Challenge Blogs openings this week, so do pop along and buy some of her fantastic images in readiness for the challenges, she has a great offer on :o)

Mother's Day card

I've made this card for my MIL for mother's day - I love making cards for MIL because she's always really pleased with them :o) My mum is slightly more difficult - haven't made her card yet!

I've used a sweet Elizabeth Bell digistamp, coloured with promarkers (surprise surprise lol). Cream scalloped card blank from Craftwork Cards, red cardstock from my stash and Cosmo Cricket paper. The lace was a recent bargain find from a local market stall - 3 metre lengths for 50p! I bought a few different ones and would've bought more but hubby was with me! Buttons from Bunny Zoe's, Papermania flowers with pearl centres from stash, downloaded sentiment from Pink Petticoat.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• Truly Scrumptious - fab sketch + 'good enough to eat'
• Simon Says - mother's day/ girly
• Pile It On - 1 colour + neutral (I have used a bit of extra colour on my image, hope that's ok!)
• K L Stampin n Scrappin - buttons
• C.R.A.F.T. - mother's day/ flowers
  

Crafty Cardmakers challenge 16 - a feminine celebration

Time for a new challenge at Crafty Cardmakers and this fortnight we're going all girly :o) We'd like to see you use female images, and these could be actual girls, female animal images, whatever you like as long as you have some sort of girl on there!

I've used a neglected Sugar Nellie stamp - I love Leanne Ellis images but for some reason I haven't used them for a while. This one is 'fizz' and she's coloured with promarkers and cut out with nestie circles. Large 8x8 card blank, papers are Papermania capsule collection, with coredinations cardstock. Raffia lace from Bunny Zoe's, Papermania flowers and buttons and a computer generated sentiment. I've made this card for an order - I don't have any brothers or sisters, I always wanted some but my mum just isn't the 'maternal' type unfortunately!

I'm also entering my card for the following challenges:

• Cupcake Craft Challenge - flower power
• Sweet Sketch Wednesday - lovely sketch
• Stamp With Fun - spring
• Stamp Something - girly
  

Wedding card

Another very different card for me today - what do you think? It's for an order for a 'non-cute' wedding card lol, hopefully this will be ok!

The hearts were cut from greyboard (similar to chipboard I suppose?), then embossed in the big shot with the cuttlebug divine swirls folder. I then sprayed them with silver acylic paint, left them to dry and then added some tiny pearls. Used silver mirri card and some paper from my stash, pearlised paper embossed with the swiss dots folder, and then added some roses and pearl/ heart pins from Wild Orchid Crafts. I also ran a silver shimmery gel pen around the edges of the roses just so they fit a little better with the silver theme.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• Quixotic - leave it out (leaves on roses & on the paper)
• Tuesday Taggers - swirls & curls
• Creative Card Crew - celebrations
  

Fairy Fun Fridays week 9 - green

At Fairy Fun Fridays this week, the challenge is to include some green in your creations - this can be a card for St Patrick's Day if you like, but doesn't have to be. I hope you'll find time to join in with us :o)

I've used this cute Little Miss Mousey image, coloured with promarkers. I then cut the image and a scalloped oval using nesties, and experimented with a fab little tutorial that you can see here - how to make your MS border punches even more useful! The blue doily edge around my image was made using an ordinary MS doily punch, and the tutorial's very simple if you fancy having a go yourself! I've used downloaded papers from Sweet Shoppe Designs, coredinations cardstock, Green Tara flowers, button from my stash and the little butterflies are the punched out bits from the MS butterfly border punch.

I'm also entering my card for the following challenges:

• Cute Card Thursday - lucky green
• The Pink Elephant - green
• Stampavie & More - spring
• By The Cute & Girly - spring is in the air
• Get Sketchy - spring
• Digital Tuesday - scallops
• Passion For Promarkers - back to nature
• Midnight Madness - lovely sketch

Cards For Men 5th challenge & exciting news!!

Time for a new challenge at Cards For Men and this fortnight we'd like to see your paper pieced creations. I'm not over the moon with my efforts, but the rest of the DT have made beautiful cards! Hope you'll join in with us :o) Thanks to everyone who's left get well wishes for me - I'm now over my tummy bug (hurrah!) but I seem to have put my back out while re-organising my craft room (which looks fabby with lots of new units and storage but I'm still 'settling in' lol) so I'm in a bit of pain! I still managed to take Dex to soft play this morning though, so it's not too bad!

Our sponsor is The Stamping Boutique who kindly provided the DT with the images we've used - I've used this fantastic 'AJ the race car driver' image, such a great one for boys' cards! I've coloured him with promarkers and paper pieced the car - I stuck one patterned car piece down flat and then cut another one out slightly smaller and shaped and layered it with some pinflair glue, it doesn't show up very well on the pic but in real life the car has a bit of a rounded look. I thought I'd carry on the 3d look and used some big sparkly gems for the headlights. The papers are MME and I added some rainbow drops to finish.

I'm also entering my card for the following challenges:

• Papertake Weekly - fab sketch
• Crafty Creations - cut it out & pop it up (hopefully my layered car will fit this one)

And now for my unbelievably exciting news.... You should have heard me last night when I got the email telling me I'd made the DT for Karen's Doodles UK Challenge, oh my goodness I was soooo excited! Hubby had a glass of wine poured for me before I'd even properly told him lol. The rest of the team are amazingly talented, so I've no idea how I made it in, but I'm very very happy :o)