A little birdie told me ....

This fab CAS sketch is this week's challenge over at the Sweet Sunday sketch challenge #66.  It was all going so well until I splodged the edging .... grrrrr!

I love these Shirley's 2 Girls stamps and am also entering it into their Twisted Thursday challenge #53 to add flowers to your card - now mine aren't entirely obvious but I promise you there are 2 flowers!

Supplies: copic markers, stamp from Shirley's 2 Girls, sentiment from Simon Says, clear gloss (on birdie, branch, heart and dots on image BG); red, green and blue gems; dimensionals

Good Luck Cluck

Crazy 4 Challenges C4C34 is one with a difference - this week you get to CASE one of their DT. 

I chose this gorgeous card by Lynda Benden

I hadn't quite intended to paper pierce my edge, but I'd changed the tension on my sewing machine and the thread broke .. so I just carried on! 

Supplies: brown ink pad, green flower soft, copic markers, stars and dots from SU Nice and Narrow set. I'm not sure what make my stamp is (possibly Toodles and Binks?)

I'm also entering this card into the Stamp with Fun challenge #55: Animals

You've Passed!

This cute little car is a freebie download from Meljen Designs but I wish I'd printed it a bit smaller as its way too big for the sketch I was working to! 
Coloured with copic markers and then clear glaze added to the whole image.
The little L-plates and sentiment are oldies from OneFourZero.

Sketch from Clean and Simple Stampin FTL #87

Stamptacular Sunday #56: Sew Simple

My colour combo is taken from the inspiration pic at The Treehouse Thursday challenge #46

Good enough to eat!

It was a gorgeous sunny day today - I spent most of it hanging out washing and weeding, and Ruby spent it sunbathing ..... its definately a dog's life!   Hope you had a great day too!
(Don't forget to pop over to the Paper Sundae's site for their blog hop)

High Hopes challenge #72 is good enough to eat so I pulled out this HH cutie that I won a while ago.  Coloured her with copic markers and popped up the watermelon on dimensionals.  Doodled round borders with a black fine marker and added a few red stickles to the scalloped edge.

Sketch from Sketch and Stash #33 - my stash is this Basic Grey paper.

A Spoonful of Sugar #100 - Happy Birthday

Simon Says ... Things with Wings

I found these fabric sparkly butterflys when I was tidying my stash that my Mum bought me ages ago, they're so pretty IRL (in fact that's probably why I haven't used them up ... I sometimes hate using my really nice goodies!)

Sentiment is also an oldie stamp from onefourzero.

  My stitching went seriously wonky when I was outlining the little side tab, but this was my third attempt ...you should have seen the state of the other two!  (Though now my card is on screen it looks worse than I thought it was so I think I'll take the tab off and have a 4th attempt!)

Simon Says challenge this week is Things with Wings

Butterfly inspiration from Allsorts challenge #49

Easy Craft Projects #11 is Orange

Polka Doodles #16 : Monochrome

Wanna win a hÄnglar & stÄnglar stamp?

To coincide with their thirteenth challenge, Paper Sundaes is having a celebration to feature their sensational sponsor calendar - packed full for 2010! They want to thank all of their sponsors, followers, challenge participants, and visitors to Paper Sundaes, by giving you all the chance to win a little prize!  ... one of the new hÄnglar & stÄnglar stamps from their spring release. If you are not familiar with hÄnglar and stÄnglar stamps, they are adorable but elusive.  Girl with a letter as seen in their blog hop blinkie (on my sidebar) will be awarded to one lucky winner!

Get on over to their blog (before 30 April) for all the deets

My first stitched card!

Sorry, I know this is my 4th post of the evening but I've been M.I.A. for a week with no mojo, so I'm making hay while the sun shines!

OK, so I know the lines aren't the straightest, but I think it looks pretty good for a first attempt!  Took us a while to suss out how to thread the machine, and in the end we discovered that we should have ignored the written instructions and threaded it how common sense would tell you to thread it! 
Anyway, this stamp is yet another of my new stamps from Little Claire Designs (Thanks Minnie!)  Doesn't really show up in the pic but the green BP has little anchors versamarked and the red paper has the little life rings.  Added clear gloss to the clouds, boat and sails and popped up the little rings on dimensionals.
Hope you all had a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Sketch from Sunday Sketch and Stamp #26 - its their Birthday so you can pick which sketch you'd like to use (I chose sketch 5)

The Secret Crafter challenge #79 is A Day Out (well I'd love a day out on a yacht, wouldn't you?!)

And luckily for me there's a few sewing challenges this week:

• Allsorts #48: In Stitches
• Your Next Stamp #14: Stitching Real or Faux
• Sweet Stampin #22: In Stitches

Cold Snowman!

Aww, bless... how cute is this poor cold snowman!  Its another of my new goodies from Saturday (from the Little Claire Designs stall), along with the lilac liquid pearls which I'd never tried before.  Coloured with copics and stickles added to pink bits on the image and to the snowflakes.  Ear muffs and carrot nose popped up on dimensionals.

There's a new Clean and Simple challenge blog - CAS-tastic Wednesday challenge - this week CWC001 is an open CAS theme

Little Red Wagon #24 is Dry Embossing - I used my cuttlebug snowflake folder

Paper Sundaes challenge #14 is to make a card with no people (well a snowman's not a 'person'!)

Sketch from Splitcoaststampers SCS 276

Version 2!

Same stamp as previously, same papers, same butterfly, different sketch!  This one is for the Sugar Bowl challenge #33, which comes with the added extra of flowers.

My girls are usually brunettes for some reason, but the Copic Creations challenge #26 is to colour black hair, so I had a go!

Supplies: Sugar Nellie Elisabeth Bell 'Bird House'; copic markers; clear gloss on flowers; green flower soft; sentiment from Simon Says; gold gems

Version 1!

Well we made it to the Belfast Stitch and Craft Show on Saturday, and my 'big' purse is now a very lightweight one!  Got loads of goodies and actually managed to find a dinky sewing machine - it only does running stitch, but hey, you get what you pay for!

So anyway on to my cards!  I've had a large Sugar Nellie Elisabeth Bell stamp (Bird House) for ages, but I rarely use it as its just a tad too big....so today I took the scissors to it and cut off the bird house part of the stamp! 

So I had to use some of my new goodies on this card - the green flower soft for grass, the pretty 3-d butterfly (Thanks Mum!) and my scrummy papers!
Copics: Jeans: B97,95,93; Hair E31,37,57,77; Skin E00, 02; Shirt Y00, 02; Flowers R27; Patch R27, YR20

Sketch from A Spoonful of Sugar #99

Creative Card Crew #48: Happy Birthday

One Stop Craft #76: Things with wings

Our Creative Corner: Beautiful Butterflies

Colour Combo from Copic Colour Challenge #60 -I didn't have any Y23, so I thought YR20 kinda looked like it (the little tiny bit on the patch!)

Too late for cake?

Just a simple fun little card! 

Supplies: stamps from I Brake for Stamps (I think!); copic markers; purple stickles; purple gems; swiss dots embossing folder

Sketch from Moxie Fab World

Colour combo from Colour Create challenge #42 - lilac, grey and white (admittedly there's not much grey, but I did outline my little girl with a pale grey marker!)

Christmas Teddie

I managed to make another Christmas card today - a gorgeous sunny warm day and here's me making Chrissie cards!  Something seriously wrong there!

Supplies: papers and tag from Daisy and Dandelion; little snowballs were won in some candy last year; copic markers; white flower soft; Martha Stewart punch; snowflake ribbon brad; will add in brand of stamp later (my table seems to have eaten it as its nowhere to be found!)

Crafts 4 Eternity #28 recipe is 1. use the sketch; 2. add a tag; 3. use some foil (I used some silver mirror card as I don't have any foil)

Colour combo of Blue and Silver from Susie and Vicki's Christmas challenge #12

Poor sick doggy

Oooh, its been such a lovely day - nice and bright and sunny!  Ruby spent most of it out sunbathing!

Did you have any luck on the Grand National?  As usual we backed a couple of big donkeys again, but at least it was good to see our local lad, Tony McCoy, FINALLY winning the big race!

Supplies: stamp from Heidi Cuppleditz (think thats how you spell it), copic markers, Martha Stewart punch, clear dew drops, Stampin Up corner punch

Sketch from Papertake Weekly #38

Creative Inspirations #55: Blue, Green, Brown

Crafty Creations #62: Paper Piecing (I paper pieced the little cushion and the slippers)

The Secret Crafter #78: Get Well Soon

Here Chickie, chickie, chickie....!

I was going through my stash and came across these freebie papers from Sugarplum Paperie, so coloured my chickies with copic markers to match and added some diamond ice stickles accents and beaks.  (I think its a whipper snapper stamp?)

Sketch from Card Positioning Systems #161

CRAFT Challenge #45: Buttons

Our Creative Corner: Bows

Simon Says ...A Card for a Child

Simon Says challenge this week is to make a card for a child - luckily enough this little Manga stamp had just arrived courtesy of some blog candy from The Secret Crafter!  I'm not too hot on my football team strips, but I think this might be sort of Liverpool or Manchester United colours.  I stamped the football out a few times and added it to the side so it sort of matched the sketch from Inspirational Card Sketches #61. 

I think it might need something - not too sure if I should add some red gems in the bottom RH corner.
Anyway, TGIF!  And it's supposed to be half decent weather this weekend too (for a change!)

Additional supplies: Martha Stewart picket fence punch; dimensionals (for a couple of the footballs); copic markers: gold peel off greeting and peel off gold line (for under checked DP); white gel pen

Another Andrea special...!

Nothing from me tonight, but I thought I'd share this cracking cross stitch Easter card made by Andrea (my SIL)  Don't ya love their conversation .... "Get Cracking" and the reply "Peep!"
She doesn't have a blog (yet!) so on Andrea's behalf I'd like to enter it into the following:
Easy Craft Projects #9: Easter
Fussy and Fancy Friday #7: Easter
Cute Card Thursday #106: So Egg-citing

Sick as a Cat...!

You'll be glad to hear this is my last post of the day - well it did nothing but rain all morning so it was perfect crafting weather!  (but not good weather for little white dogs with very short legs!) 
I had a go at the 'dirty rag' technique on this little kitty (or in my case kitchen roll), but he kinda ended up looking like he's got some strange tropical disease! Also coloured a little piece of card (for the greeting) with my copics to match the kitty's bandage .

Supplies: Whipper Snapper stamp, dimensionals, copic markers, purple gems, silver peel off greeting, SU corner rounder, black glitter on nose, purple glitter on collar
.

I love this colour combo from SPCC #42, dont think I've ever used it before (though my photo makes it look more bluey purple)

Right, the sun's out now and its a beautiful evening, so I'm off for a walk with Ruby and then down to Mum's to watch the next installment of LOST (.....has anyone else wasted the last 6 years watching it or is it just me and Greg are addicts?! It had better have a good ending, or at least one that explains what on earth its all been about!)

I just don't get it!

I keep trying to love the Tilda stamps, but they just look too sad to me!  The hAnglar and stAnglar stamps are similar, but I'd LOVE to have a stash of them!  I can't put a finger on why I don't like the Tildas, maybe its the actual shape of her head?  Actually now I think of it, she looks like a human Moomin (don't hate me all you Tilda fans out there!)

Found this lovely paper in my stash so coloured her to match, and punched little flowers out of a leftover bit. 

Sketch from The Corrosive challenge #58

Colour theme from CRAFT #44 - Purple and turquoise

Happy Bark-Day!

Took me a while to get my head round this week's sketch from Monday Lunchtime challenge #116, but this is what I ended up with!  The little dog is a Penny Black Stamp and the sentiment from a Shirley's 2 Girls set.  All are stamped with brown ink and the central panel slightly sponged with the brown too.

A Spoonfulof Sugar #98 is One for the Boys
Sweet Stampin #20 is Its a Man's World

Cheeky penguin!

Stampin B's challenge this week is to make a funny card, so I immediately thought of my Shirley's 2 Girls stamps.  I'd promised myself last Christmas that I'd make a couple of Christmas cards every month (so I think this is only No.6, not looking too promising to have them all done in plenty of time!!)

Simon Says ... It's so Distressing!

I've come to the conclusion that distressing makes me stress!  I love the raggedy torn look and sponged distressed look on other people's cards, but I just can't do it!  Doesn't help either that my mojo has gone walkies ... typical, a couple of days off when I could be crafting and I can't be bothered!

Supplies: image from High Hopes; copic markers; red gems; Martha Stewart punch; white and silver ribbon; silver peel off greeting; Tim Holtz Antique Linen distress ink

Simon Says challenge is Its so Distressing
Bonus sketch from 2 Sketches 4 You
Polka Doodles #13 - Birthday
ABC challenge - R is for Red

Quilted Baby Card

Moxie Fab World has the challenge to use up your paper pieces, so I thought I'd have a go at a quilted BG.  But it takes such a long time to hand stitch all the edges.... I've my pennies saved for a little sewing machine so hopefully the craft show in Belfast in a few weeks will deliver!

Supplies: Stamp from Kars and Co; copic markers; pink embroidery thread; pink dew drops; mini safety pin

Caardvarks challenge this week is to make a baby card (and there's a fab blog hop on too!)
One Stitch at a Time #7 is Anything Goes
Crafty Creations #61 is Anything Goes
Papertake Weekly challenge this week is also an open theme
One Stop Craft challenge #74 is Paper Piecing
Stamptacular Sunday #53 - Sugar and Spice and all things nice

Candy Ads....

Wow, Kellie is giving away the entire Spring Swiss Pixies Kit (Copyright to All That Scraps)…as a candy to celebrate 100,000 hits on her blog - get more details HERE

Lorraine also has this fabulous Happy Hoppers stamp up for grabs, in fact she has gorgeous goodies up for grabs most weeks.  AND her cards are always amazing ... get more candy details HERE

And what about these goodies from In2Stamps who are celebrating their upcoming 5th release!  More Details HERE

What's in your garden?

(Unfortunately my Mum has quite a few of these visitors to her garden!)  I kept my design super-CAS but it still took me ages to make!  And, gasp, I've just realised that I've made a card with no bling, ribbon or glitter! 

Supplies: Stamp from Shirley's 2 Girls; green and blue embroidery thread; silver peel off greeting; copic markers; dimensionals; Martha Stewart border punch; white gel pen

Shirley's 2 Girls challenge #50 is Anything Goes
 and sketch from Splitcoaststampers SC274.
Also for Susies Sassy Challenge #11 - Spring Garden

High Hopes ... Little Gems

Phew, I almost didn't make the High Hopes challenge #69 this week - use gems or pearls ... I used both!
I always think little Watson looks better coloured with watercolours (and it gives my copics a break too!)

Also for Allsorts challenge #46 - no DP's
Stampin' for the Weekend #36 - ribbons and bows
Charisma Cardz challenge #13 is Animal Magic