Less is More 55 Punches or Diecuts.

I've been wracking my brains trying to decide what to do for the challenge at Less is More which is to use punches or diecuts. I've kept it very simple. Or is it too simple? Oh well, I like them!

I used :-

Sentiment :- Hero Arts.

Butterflies :- Martha Stewart punches.

Gems.

Well I'd best go and try to do something useful since I'm going away for the weekend tomorrow night after work.

Thanks for looking.

My First DT Makes for Simply Create.

Hi everyone I thought I'd share with you my first DT makes for Simply Create. Half of us got some goodies from Echo Park and the other half from MME I Believe. I got some of the lovely MME DP, a gorgeous "Wreath of Leaves" Hero Arts stamp, plain card in red and green, buttons, ric rac and lace.

Now to be absolutely honest I would never have chosen that stamp in a hundred years! It's a beautiful stamp but I would have wondered what to do with it. Which I did. I panicked about what to do with it for a full week lol! I had ideas and discarded them without even taking the stamp out of the packaging. But I knew I had to make a start because the other girls were producing lots of gorgeous projects. So since I didn't want to waste any of the lovely DP I made a prototype with my own card to see how it would turn out.

When I was happy with it I made one using my DT kit and the first card is the result. How do you like my "berries?" Yes they are the waste punched out with the edge and corner punches. I added a touch of glitter to the centres with a glitter gel pen. I wasn't being grippy(translation - mean), I just thought it would be different lol! The sentiment is Hero Arts stamped with Distress Ink and embossed like the wreath.

For my second card I got brave and just made it using the lovely DP. This time I added some jewels for berries, a glittery MS snowflake in the centre, some buttons, string, lace and finished off with a Hero Arts sentiment.

One of my first ideas was to do a Christmas hanging. I used some beer mats but you could use some thick card. As you can see from the next two pictures I covered each side with different papers and went round the edges with a cranberry Dabber. The letters were cut out with my Cricut. I had a bit of an issue with my Cricut which was actually my own fault. Luckily I was only using plain paper to see if the font I had chosen was ok for size. Lets just say a certain cutting mat now has a very fetching black overcoat! I added some more of the little snowflakes plus some larger snowflakes, card candy, jewels and stickles. The pieces are joined together using green ric rac.

Lastly I made a little decoration using the plain green card. I stamped both sides and cut out the centre with a nestie. I added Glamour Dust to the scalloped edge and the inner edge. Again I added some red jewels and a piece of green ric rac for a hanger. Then I finished off with a lace bow.

I still have lots of paper left and I was going to do a layout. I've never done one before but one of the papers is just ideal for a layout. But I hit a snag, I couldn't find one of the photos I wanted to use of two of my kids. I wasted the entire morning last Thursday looking for it and a bit of the afternoon. Pity there weren't digital cameras in those days. So I decided to print some more recent photos. Mistake! my photo printer needed an ink cartridge. By that time I wasn't in the mood to find photos to print using my ordinary printer so I gave up. If I can find some photos to use tomorrow I'm still going to have a go at a layout.

If you check out the Simply Create blog you can see samples of some of the other DT member's work that Jacqui has been posting. If you live anywhere near Alford everyone's work can be seen in the shop.

I had a lovely time crafting with my friend this afternoon and now I've got my DT card made ready to write a scheduled post for Totally Gorjuss this Saturday. This is handy because I'm off to Alford on Saturday after work to take this stuff to Jacqui and catch Kath's demo day.

I might even manage to make and post something tomorrow as long as I don't waste my time like last week!

Penny Black meets Simply Create.

I'm not really at the last minute for the Penny Black challenge LOL! I had a card made last night but left it till today in the hope of getting a better photo. But the weather was against me. It was dull and dismal, then by the time I took the dog out it was really nice. By the time I hung up my washing it was dull again. Then it rained. When I went to work it was still not very nice. During the afternoon it turned really nice and it's still bright now! Unfortunately I ran out of time to post this before work. I knew it was a mistake to do all that housework!

Enough waffle though. I loved using that sketch over at the Penny Black challenge that I made another very similar card. Jacqui at Simply Create at Alford (not my local craft shop but not too far away) is looking for red and white cards to sell for Save the Children and she is offering a prize of £50 to spend in her shop. If you can't get there she will post £50 of goodies to you. 4th September is a special day at her shop and I've arranged a day off so I can go!

This is my card for the challenge over at Penny Black. I stamped the image twice and 3D'd the flower and the bud. I also added some black stickles for some dimension too.



And this is a very similar one as I had another image stamped and it was nice and quick to make another one.

I used:-

Image:- Penny Black from clear set flowers and wishes.

DP :- Basic Grey basics white.
Sentiment and card candy :- Craftwork Cards.

Colouring :- Promarkers and Distress Inks.

Martha Stewart edge punch.

Ribbon, string, flowers, pearls and button from stash.

I'm off to enter the challenge now and do my DT commenting and schedule some posts. And then I need to decide what I'm doing tomorrow at a crop at my local craft shop.

Enjoy the weekend, hope the weather improves!

Poppy's Birthday Card.

Hi everyone, it looks as if I haven't been doing very much this week but I have been quite busy! I've managed to make my DT card for Totally Gorjuss and today I made this card for Poppy's 2nd birthday on Monday.

I followed the fabby sketch from Sketch Saturday. The cute image is from Whiff of Joy - aren't these kangaroos cute?
The other challenges I am entering are:-

Quixotic challenge :- Kraft and red.
Allsorts challenge :- For a child.
Simon Says Stamp challenge :- animal antics.

This is a very cute image but I think I need a bit of practice colouring animals with Promarkers LOL!

Materials used:-
Kraft paper from jillibean.
DP - American Crafts.
Colouring - Promarkers.
Flowers - Martha Stewart punch and other daisy punch.
Card candy - Craftwork cards.
Ribbon and peeloff "2" from stash.

Hope Poppy likes her card. My other daughter is just back from visiting Catriona for a few days and she says Poppy loves her "big sister" card!

If you like this card please feel free to let me know. I should be back later to let you see my DT card for Totally Gorjuss.

Kat xx

Two Gorjuss Girls.

Here's my DT card for this weeks Totally Gorjuss challenge. This week we are asking you to use two Gorjuss Girls on your card. You can put them together or separately we don't mind.

I coloured the Gorjuss Girls with Promarkers with an Inkssentials white gel pen for highlights. I finished the image by lightly chalking round to take the starkness away from the background.
DP:- MME wonderful winter - gorgeous and glittery.
Tools:- Martha Stewart flower and snowflake and edge punches.
Jewels and ribbon from my stash. Snowflakes are cut from glitter paper.
Nearly forgot I used the sketch from the Cupcake Craft challenge.

The card also fits a few challenges:-

Creative Card Crew challenge :- snowflakes.

Simon Says Stamp challenge :- all that sparkles.

Papertake Weekly :- spots and stripes.

So there it is another one for my Christmas card pile. I have to admit I did panic a bit about how I was going to do a card with two images on it lol! I haven't done much masking so I practised on a bit of scrap paper first. What I couldn't figure out at first was how I could use two Gorjuss Girls together in a way that would make sense. Once I had thought of a theme ie Christmas I could see which two images to use. I decided that the girl with the letter could have been writing to Santa on behalf of herself and her little sister. So there you have it.

I hope some of you will want to join us at the Totally Gorjuss challenge this week. I'm looking forward to seeing what you all make this time. I've enjoyed looking at your Gorjuss Girl creations during the last two weeks. Nearly forgot our sponsor this week is Hotshot Craft they have lots of lovely goodies at great prices and are always worth a look.

Kat xx

PS I just discovered my lovely teamie Paola has some lovely candy on her blog. I am posting a piccie on my sidebar and if you click on it you can pop over to her blog for a look.

Cute Christmas Card.

I made another Christmas card today to add to my pile. I think I have all of 21 now! Sorry about the weird angle of the photo. It has been very wet here today and the light has been dreadful. The card wasn't finished before I went to work this afternoon but even then the light was too bad to take a decent photo. I haven't used this gorgeous MME merry days of Christmas paper before. It has lovely soft colours and is double sided. I've used red for the base card and for matting...again. I've used red quite a lot so far this year for my Christmas cards. This very happy hedgie from Penny Black has been coloured with Promarkers and the snowflakes and ground beneath his feet has been stickled.

I am entering a few challenges with this card:-

Creative Inspirations Wednesday Challenge:- Sketch.

Cute Card Thursday:- So charming.

Charisma Cardz:- 1 ribbon, 3 flowers, 3 papers and 1 charm.

Penny Black Saturday Challenge:-Buttons and bows.

Creative Inspirations:- Christmas.

Also used:- nesties and Martha Stewart punch. Snowflake charm, ribbon, buttons and string from my stash.

I hope I am not pushing my luck with the ribbon! I have also tied the red string through the button in bows so I think I have added all the ingredients for the challenges I am entering lol !!

This hedgie is so cheeerful - you can't help smiling at him, he is obviously enjoying the snow!!

I will enter the challenges now and then for me it is the pure joy of doing my Tesco online shopping - wonderful.....not.

Then I can plan my first DT card for Totally Gorjuss! Hope we have a brighter day before I have to take a photo of it!! I hope a lot of you are going to check out the new challenge blog at Totally Gorjuss and enter our first challenge which starts on Friday 16th October. I'm looking forward to checking out your lovely creations!!

If I get my shopping done soon I'll have time to check out some of my favourite blogs tonight.

Kat xx

Sketch and Stash 20.

Good afternoon girls, today I would like to show you the cards I finished making at the crop yesterday. This one is for Sketch and Stash Challenge#20.

I coloured the lovely Honey with Present image from Sugar Nellies with my Promarkers. The papers are the gorgeous Bo Bunny Tis the Season. I love them they are so fresh and bright. I have to confess that for some obscure reason I made her hat and scarf and glove yellow and it was horrible - totally out of place, so I went over the top with powder blue to give a green similar to the base card. Iused a new Martha Stewart snowflake punch I bought at the crop and one I already had to punch out the snowflakes from glitter card. I added some Fired Brick distress ink to the snowflakes and finished off with some ribbon from my stash. The sentiment is from Penny Black and nesties were used to cut the circles.

Back soon with another card.

Kat xx

A Spoon Full of Sugar 70.

Hello everyone seems like I've not got much to show for my day off! Probably spent too much time footering (faffing) about. And then it's been quite a dull day here so it was difficult to get a decent photo. At first sight I thought this lovely sketch from a Spoon Full of Sugar was a bit complicated but it was actually quite easy to work with. I used my Promarkers to colour this lovely Christmas Manga Girl from Sugar Nellies. She's really sweet isn't she? This time I used these gorgeous new papers - wonderful winter from MME. The large snowflake is from a Sizzix die and the others are from a Martha Stewart punch and another punch. The buttons are from my stash.This paper is gorgeous, all glittery and really thick and it's really easy to put the different patterns together. Now this is really unusual for me but I quite like this card lol!!

Hope some of you like it too. Please tell me what you think - is it ok? or is it just a mess?

Maybe be back later with another post if I can get another card to work out and get a half decent photo.

Kat x

Sketch and Stash 18 and more.

If you are guessing that I haven't done my ironing yet you would be right lol! I might be too late for the Sketch and Stash 18 challenge but it fits other challenges too and I like the sketch. It was really easy to use. Sorry about the dodgy photo, this time of night is not the best to take a photo. I've discovered that if I take a photo sort of from above it is almost viewable but I will replace it with a better one tomorrow! I watercoloured this sweet Penny Black image. My DP is wild raspberry from K & Co. It is neglected not because I don't like it but because I do!! I'm sure you all understand this. The paler DP has hearts on it which might not be obvious in this photo. Do you like my heart brads - I think they are really sweet. I used the lovely Martha Stewart heart punch for even more hearts. The flowers and jewels are from my stash and I inked round the DPs with Vivid ink pads. Monday morning now and I've replaced the original photo with a slightly better one. You might well wonder how bad the first one was if this one is better!

Challenges for this card:-

Sketch and Stash 18:- neglected DPs and heart brads.
Penny Black Saturday Challenge:- Hearts desire - DP, heart brads and heart punch.
Secret Crafter:- Hearts and Flowers.

This time I really need to do my ironing!! In spite of the fact that I have a day off tomorrow I will be out two evenings this coming week and probably going to my friend's house again on Wednesday afternoon to get some cards done for our sale of work. So I need to be able to do some crafting tomorrow.

Kat xx

Penny Black Challenge 61

This is the card I made for this week's Penny Black Saturday Challenge. I used papers from the lovely DCWV green stack. I watercoloured this lovely Penny Black hedgie. He's very cute isn't he? I love Penny Black stamps. I should start trying to use them to make xmas cards lol. Nesties were used to cut ovals and the flower, brad and pearl are from my stash. I bought 2 Martha Stewart punches from Charmed Cards and Crafts and they came yesterday so I used the Valentine lace one to edge a strip of red which I put across the middle. I had taken the first photo which turned out reasonably well then I discovered that I had forgotten to put the little pearl in the top right hand corner!! Trust me.

I'm off now to see what everyone has been up to today! Have a nice weekend,

Kat x