Elegant or boring?

Well I was going for elegant  but I'm not sure if I achieved it!  And I missed the challenge that was asking for elegance anyway lol...

A5 card blank made from ivory linen card.  I've used a cuttlebug embossing folder on pearlised paper for the tree - I've had this embossing folder for about a year I think, and this is it's first outing!  One of those things I just had to have... Red ribbed paper and gold cardstock from my stash, sentiment from Craftwork Cards, red pearls from stash.  I wonder if it needs something more - what does it need though?

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• Allsorts - gold & cream with a hint of red
• Fab n Funky - clean & simple (2nd entry, hope that's ok)
• Creative Cottage - embossing

Apologies for the awful photo, I can never manage to take a decent pic of anything red.

Simple & sparkly!

Another card for an order - very similar to a quick one I've made before as that's what my customer asked for. Very simply made, I've just added gems to the flowers on the dp (free paper pack with a mag I think), used some shimmery orange cardstock and added a computer generated sentiment... I'm not completely sure about the placement of the sentiments but I moved them around for ages and this was the best I could come up with!

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• Totally Papercrafts - bling it on!
• Fab n Funky - clean & simple
• Papertake Weekly - sparkly & bright
• Totally Gorjuss - sparkle

Thank you to everyone who left get well messages over the last week, I'm finally starting to feel better - hurrah!  I'm such a misery when I've got a cold lol, feel a bit more cheerful now :o)

My favourite hairy monster again!

I had an order for a boy's card, and I was so pleased when my customer chose this monster for me to use - he's such fun to colour :o)  He's from Pollycraft and he's definitely my favourite monster, love him :o)

I've coloured him with promarkers, then added some shading and glow using koh-i-noor pencils blended with sansador.  I then added lots of little pencil lines to make him look all hairy!  The papers are free downloaded ones from Bearly Mine Designs, printed onto linen card.  Cardstock is coredinations, sentiment is computer generated, Papermania spotty buttons, stripy ribbon from stash, MS zigzag punch used for the border.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• Moving Along With The Times - card for a child
• Crafty Sentiments - male card
• Allsorts - spots & stripes
• Die Cut Dreams - stars & stripes for a boy
• Ooh La La - something scary
• Paper Pretties - square card
• Bearly Mine Designs - having a DT call

Anniversary birdies

Well I made it back with a card... and as promised I absolutely will not moan... aaaatchoo lol :o)

I've made this one for an order, using this adorable love birds image from Digistamp Boutique.  I've coloured it with promarkers, and then used koh-i-noor pencils for the sky, and a few touches of glamour dust on the hearts.  The papers are from the lovely 'ella blue' pad by GCD Studio, with DCWV cardstock and Kraft (or crumb cake) card from Stampin Up (bought via the lovely Victoria - thank you hun!).  MS doily lace punch used for the borders and corners, Stampin Up word window punch (another new purchase from Victoria) used to punch out the computer generated sentiments.  Nestie and Go-Kreate circle dies used to cut out and mat the image.  Heart pearls from stash.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge - as long as it flies
• A Spoon Full of Sugar - punches or die cuts
• The Crazy Challenge - tons of shapes
• Creative Craft - anniversary

Ooh, while I'm here I have a quick question - does anyone know where I can get a Sakura clear stardust pen from, ideally with free p+p?  I seem to have lost mine (oops) and they're out of stock at Joanna Sheen.

My mini candy winner is....

*Lisa V*

Well done hun, send me an email with your address and I'll get your goodies sent out :o)

Hopefully I'll be back later with a card, if I can be bothered... I'm sick of this cold now - every night I think I'm bound to feel a bit better in the morning, and then I wake up and feel worse.  I'm so busy, my eldest is off school for half term, and I was supposed to be helping my auntie out with her new baby (her hubby is in the army and is away during the week)... couldn't be a worse time to be ill really!

Oh dear, I'm moaning again!  If I do come back with a card, I promise there'll be no moaning lol.

Crafty Cardmakers spotlight - digi plus

Time for this fortnight's spotlight challenge at Crafty Cardmakers and this time we're doing 'digi plus', so basically we want to see you do something different with digis, something other than just printing a single image and colouring it in... Hope that makes sense - if not, go to the challenge blog where I'm sure Vix will have done a much better job of explaining things!  You'll also find much better digi plus examples from the rest of the DT there too :o)

Now I'm not a very technical type, but I wanted to have a go at this!  My attempts at merging have generally been a disaster, with the occasional flukey success.  Sooo I decided to make my own paper - it's all done in Word, using the 'Cheers' image available from Digistamp Boutique here.  I've just added the image to the page multiple times, making them different sizes and rotating them until I was fairly happy with the result... then I added stars using the shape function on Word, and made them different sizes and colours.  Colouring images digitally is totally beyond me, so at this stage I printed the page onto linen card and coloured the 'cheers' images in with promarkers, adding some stickles for a bit of sparkle.

The main image I've used is also from Digistamp Boutique - this is Alf and Beer, and I've coloured him with promarkers, with some added shading and glow using koh-i-noor pencils blended with sansador.  Cardstock is coredinations and I added some raffia trim to finish.  After spending so long getting the paper right, I didn't want to cover too much of it up :o)

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

• Cards For Men - anything goes
• My Partner in Crafting Crime - in a material world (does my raffia count?)
• Stamp Something - digi (2nd entry)
• Corrosive - orange & black or Halloween
• The Stamp Man - cards for men
• Crafty Catz - black & white + 1 other colour

My 8yr old son thinks this card is hilarious because... in my full of cold and slightly feverish state, I managed to stick everything down the wrong way and my card now opens from the left... oops!

A little candy giveaway....

I've had this Gorjuss Girl stamp for AGES and never used her, which seems a shame... so I thought I'd add some Card Candy and offer her as a mini candy.

There's no need to become a follower (although it would be lovely if you did!) - all you need to do is add a link to your blog below, and add the pic and link to my candy on your side bar.

The draw will close in 3 weeks, on Monday 25th October.  I will post worldwide, so you can enter wherever you are.  Good luck!