Sprout!

 Here's another card using one of the fab fundraising digis that Jak Heath has organised for Help For Katie.  If you don't know about this, or you've not yet donated and bought your digis, you need to click here, find out more and most importantly, donate!  My card is for Jak's Thank You competition. 

Sprout is a Mo Manning digi, I've coloured her  using Copics, edged with Distress Ink and added a little Stickles to the seedling, which was in danger of being invisible!  The DP is Basic Grey from Sugar Rush, with peach card embossed with the Tim Holtz brick wall, a MS leaf border punch, some raffia and a little scroll punch added in.

My card is also for the following challenges:
Friday Sketchers - sketch - I've not added a sentiment, will do that when I use the card
Basic Grey - flower power (paper and of course that seedling!)
Crafty Calender - new beginnings
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - get punchy
Digis with Attitude - use a digi person
Moving Along With the Times - spring

Fishing you many happy returns

This is a quick card for DH to use next time he needs a card in a hurry for one of his fishing friends.  I saw Wendy on CD Sunday using the paper with the lovely net design, it's off the Times Gone By CD and I've teamed it with a topper from the Thomas Kincade CD, both are by Joanna Sheen.  The sentiment is gold embossed, got it from a craft show, no idea what company made it, sorry!  And that's it.
Card is for:
CD Sunday - Where waters meet
Sew Many Cards  - Green
Alphabet Challenge - M is for men
Ali Factory - for the boys

Phindy's Place Challenge #40 - Sketchtime

Good morning and welcome to a new Phindy's Place Challenge.   I'm really excited to tell you that we have 3 talented new Design Team ladies who have joined the team:  Christine, Dorcas and Kathy.  They will be showing off their creations starting next week.  This week we have a great sketch from Anne-Marije to follow. As you can see, I've taken a few liberties with the sketch, I wanted to use the fun Plundering Pirate image and needed a few less embellies:).

I coloured with Copics, added Distress Ink to the background and also inked the embossed circle.  The knotted cord is Roman Blind cord, the sentiment from Craftwork Cards, the charm from Quixotic Cards and the spotty paper from Stampin' Up.

My card is also for the following challenges:
Creative Belli - anything beginning with P - plundering pirate!
Fab 'n' Funky - delight in your digi
Simon Says - animal antics
Allsorts - man/boy card
Creative Card Crew - show us the colours of your country - red/white/blue but minus the skull & crossbones lol!

Fred She Said Valentine Blog Hop

Welcome to the Fred, She Said Valentine Blog Hop!  We've got two great prizes to be won:  one $25 certificate to the Fred, She Said Store and one $25 certificate to CropStop.  If you've arrived here from Danielle's blog then you've come to the right place.  If not, you're going to want to go back to Tracy-Lynn's blog and hop along from the start!  Tracy has come up with some gorgeous new ideas for Valentines Day, quite a few of them are great for all sorts of occasions, not just Valentines.  I hope you're enjoying the hop so far.

I've got a couple of projects to show you; the first is a clean & simple card made with a Cuttlebug folder that cuts and embosses a 5 x 7" card.  The DP inside the frame is from Bearly Mine Designs.  I've used the pre-coloured Hearts and Roses set of digis and added Distress Ink to the heart so that it shows up against the white card.  I decoupaged an extra layer of roses onto the heart and put one half under and half over the frame and added some Stickles to both.
The second project I've got to show you is close to my heart - because it contains chocolate! I made a treat holder from a great tutorial at Splitcoaststampers by Beate Johns, using the pre-coloured "Better than chocolate" set from Fred, She Said.  The main image has the text added to it and it's matted onto a Nestie and then attached to the band around the gift box, which has a border punched with my new MS punch.



Pull on the ribbon, without undoing it, and out comes the chocolate, which has the punch line on it.
 I layered 3 copies of the image to decoupage it, you can see the layers here:








 Thanks for looking at my projects, I need to give you your word to make the magic phrase so you can enter the draw - my word is life.  Now it's time for you to see what fabulous creations the talented Marlena has to show you.  You have until midnight on Friday, 4th February to complete the hop.
My card and/or my gift box are for the following challenges:
Delightful Challenges - have a heart
Meljen's Designs - create something with hearts
Paper Play - layer it up
Charisma Cardz - Valentine/love
A Spoonful of Sugar - Valentine
Cupcake Craft - food for thought
Craft Your Passion - use 2 patterned papers (chocolate treat box)

Abso-Bloomin-Lutely Love You

Here's another card from the excellent Sheena Douglass workshop I did at the weekend, this was learning how to get shading with only one colour of Distress Ink.  The background paper with the embossing isn't black; we inked it heavily with Black Soot Distress Ink, it also has a double stamped flower swirl that is then embossed.  The flowers have Cosmic Shimmers on top of PVA glue.  The original version shown to us had a pristine white sentiment that stood out nicely on the card.  Unfortunately I got a big black fingerprint on mine so it ended up being inked LOL!

This card is for the following challenges:

Crafts & Me - monochrome
Crafty Creations - heat embossing
A Spoonful of Sugar - Valentine
My Time to Craft - embossing
Crafty Cardmakers - floral
Pile it on - love is in the air
Sugar Creek Hollow - black, white and a splash of colour
Alphabet Challenge - L is for Lady

Just Walkin' the Dog

 

I couldn't resist sitting down last night and playing with some of my lovely new stash; this card is the result.  The Faye Whittaker stamp from Joanna Sheen is one I just couldn't resist when I saw the release, there are so many lovely stamps in this series and I managed to hold back and just order one (oh and a decoupage set!).  The Basic Grey Curio DP and the MS border punch were both presents from my DH, he's very good at stash shopping:).I added apunched flower and leaves and a butterfly, there is one pearl among the Stickles on her hat and more on the image and the border.  She's coloured with Copics and the background uses Distress Inks (Shabby Shutters, Victorian Velvet).

My card is for the following challenges:

Card Patterns - sketch

Truly Scrumptious - brown, pink and green

Stamps R Us - animal magic

Simon Says - animal antics

Simply Create - use your punches

Tuesday Throwdown - distressing

Paper Sundaes - distressing

Determination

 I've seen so many great cards made with this image from Phindy's Place and decided I'd better make one too! I got a bit stuck on the sentiment and opted for one from Paulette at  Create with TLC. Phindy has designed several of these images, you can choose girl, boy, glasses, Afro American, Caucasian, I chose Big Boots girl. 

The card is based on this week's challenge at Friday Sketchers, the large circle is cut freehand then embossed and inked with Distress Ink.  I used brads to attach the sentiment, then I took silver card candy and scored lines in it from the wrong side to make more screws, which kept the weight of the card down.
My card is for the following challenges:
Friday Sketchers - sketch
Woodware USA  - anything goes
I Did It Creations - card for a child
Stamp Fairy - Circles and more circles
Cute Card Thursday - 1-2-3 recipe - 1 image, 2 cardstock circles, 3 sets of "screws"
Critter Challenge Blog - Distressing and circles

Little Boy Blue

Back from a very busy crafty weekend, I have a few things to blog.  On Friday my friend Val came over and we had a day crafting together.  The Saturday was my birthday and I went on a Stampin' Up workshop.  Sunday was ANOTHER workshop which was brilliant.  I made my card at a Sheena Douglass workshop which was really good fun, I met some lovely people and learnt a lot from Sheena.  Towards the end of the afternoon Sheena demoed her next big thing, which I think will knock your socks off; it's a new way of doing something traditional and crafty, using stamps as an aid to achieve it.  I was lucky enough to be given one of her two demo pieces, as a birthday present (or was it because of the brownies I made lol?).

This easel card was our afternoon project, using Distress Ink and distressing Coredinations cardstock.  I was a bit bothered about a blue baby but I'm quite pleased with the end result.  The sentiment is free hand cut, the dandelions on the base are popped up on dots.

I'm entering the following challenges:
Paper Sundaes - distressing
Mami Doodles - mostly blues
The Stamp Man - distress
Crafty Purple Frog Challenge - distress
Stamp Insanity - Shades of You

Phindy's Place Challenge #39 - Lace and Pearls

 Hooray for Friday - it's the weekend, my crafty friend Val is coming over to play and I have 2 all day crafting workshops scheduled for the weekend - and today is Phindy's Place Challenge!  I've been looking forward to showing you this image for ages, I got muddled up and was making it for last week by mistake lol!  Hope you think it's worth the wait:).
I used the beautiful Spring Dress Emma, I've seen so many lovely projects using this digi and decided it was time I tackled her!  I've baed my card on the Sketch'n'Stash Challenge layout.  She's coloured with Copics, cut out and decoupaged onto a Marianne Die that's been Cuttlebugged and then inked with Tea Dye Distress Ink.  The DP is Bearly Mine Designs from Simply Dots (new stash that I was lucky enough to win at Incy Wincy), the sentiment is Craftwork Cards, a lovely deep lace that is very old stash and sweet pearls from the Hobby House.  The little chocolate coloured ones are stuck where the lace points are; do you remember the beads on lace covers for food?
My card is for the following challenges:
Sketch'n'Stash - sketch
Simon Says - Bingo! (lace, flowers, embossing)
Corrosive Challenge Blog - lace and pearls
Copic Creations - what's new (new DP)
Creative Belli - letter P (pink, pretty pearls)
Do it With Digis - pink, girly
Paper Sundae - first birthday choose a challenge - Cut it Out

Smooth sea never made a skilled mariner...

This is one of my favourite sentiments, it's from Elusive Images (sadly now defunct) and sums up life, doesn't it!  This is a fairly c&s masculine card, using my Hobby Art Scene-It stamps and coloured with Aquamarkers.  The blue map DP is from Joanna Sheen's Thomas Kincade CD and the others are My Minds Eye.  There are no embellies at all, I have some boat charms but they make it less of a masculine card to me.

My card is for the following challenges:
Sunday Sketch & Stamp - sketch
Creative Card Crew - for men
Let's Ink it Up - anything goes (no digi)
C.R.A.F.T. - martial arts/sport (yachting)
One Stop Craft - card for a male
Paper Sundaes - birthday celebration favourite theme - I always love Make A Scene challenges

Golden Years

 This is a very clean and simple anniversary card, made using the new Fred She Said Hearts & Roses digi set.    You'll see that I have removed the wording "I love you" from the image and added my own wording.  It's the first time I've ever tried this and really, it couldn't be easier!  I've used the pre-coloured digi but there is also a set for your own colours available.   I've printed out, cut out and layered 2 further rose sprays onto the heart.  The heart was put through my Swiss Dot embossing folder and then inked with Scattered Straw Distress Ink.

The sketch is from this week's Midnight Madness.  The DP is Bearly Mine, one from the Simply Dots download and one from the Designer Extreme I CD.  Donna at Bearly Mine has a new  challenge blog and I'm hoping she'll accept this as an entry to the recipe challenge this week:  3 flowers, 2 papers, 1 image.  The image IS the flowers, though, so fingers crossed lol!  I was lucky enough to win the CD in a recent challenge, thanks Donna!

I've gold embossed an Elusive Images swirl in the corner of each DP and added some pearls, if you click on the picutre you can see them better...    There still seems quite a bit of open space, don't know if I will tinker about with this card a bit more...

I'm entering the following challenges with my card:
Midnight Madness - sketch
Bearly Mine - recipe
Flourishes - go big (this is a 5 x 7 card)
My Time to Craft - spots & dots
Papertake Weekly - ribbons and pearls
Diecut Dreams - use a digi and a rubber stamp

Top Tip Tuesday Challenge - Use a sentiment

Good morning and welcome to this week's Top Tip Tuesday Challenge!  Over on the main blog we have a fab tutorial on making a WordArt book from the talented Carol and the challenge is to use a sentiment on your project, or of course play along using Carol's tutorial.
I've made an easel card with no less than 4 sentiments on it!  Yes, I'm still playing with the Fred She Said empty pocket shruggers set, you can buy them here.  This set just makes me smile every time I reach for it.  I've coloured with Copics and used Distress Inks for the background, the DP is Basic Grey Sugar Rush, ribbon is from stash and I used Card Candy on a ribbon raised on foam tape to prop up my easel. Oh, there are red and orange Stickles on the exploding cake!  A birthday just isn't a birthday without an exploding cake...

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:
Pile it on - anything goes
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - anything goes
Totally Papercrafts - birthday
Fairy Fun Fridays - Happy Birthday
Sew Many Challenges - birthday
Craft Your Days Away - anything goes
Basic Grey - dots and spots
Stamp Insanity - let it all hang out!
Delightful Challenges - easel card
Paperplay Challenges - cutie patootie

House Mouse and a lesson learned

I've had a light bulb moment today, which is probably a really silly one, but is a lesson learned anyway!  I have been a little unhappy with my Copic coloured House Mouse stamps and coloured this one in to persevere.  It is ok, but no more than that, the colour has bled a little.
I was watching Sheena Douglass on telly yesterday and nodding away when she said that using the right cardstock was so important.  This evening the penny finally dropped:  I use superfine cardtock for digi images because my printer doesn't like thicker cardstock and they colour like a dream.  These days, I don't have so many rubber stamps that are "colouring in" images and I did what I do with most stamps, stamping out onto the thicker cardstock.  Which explains a lot!  I've stamped onto the fine cardstock and will make this again tomorrow, hopefully the problem will be solved!

Card also has Distress Ink on the sky, Glossy Accents on the berries.  The stripe DP is MME, can't remember who made the leafy one.  The sketch is this week's Sketch Saturday Challenge.
I'm also entering:
The Cheerful Stamp pad - let's relax
Stamp Scrap & Doodle - anything goes

A truly scrumptious winter scene

 I love tree stamps and think this trio of scenes from Crafty Individuals is gorgeous.  I stamped it onto glossy cardstock and made a mask for each rectangle then used Distress Inks to get a winter sunset/sunrise colour.  I added some DP from Crafty Individuals, some ribbon and rhinestones and based my card on the Truly Scrumptious sketch.
My card is for the following challenges:
Truly Scrumptious - sketch
Papertake Weekly - cold and frosty morning
Stamp Something - anything!

Phindy's Place Challenge #38 - Valentine or loved one

Good morning, it's Friday - hooray - so it is time for a new Phindy's Place Challenge.  This week we're making cards for Valentines Day or for a loved one. I've used the adorable image "We meet again" from the Phindy's Place store.  This image is very evocative of my marriage:  two people with a terrier constantly doing its best to get between us lol!  Don't forget we also have a Design Team Call at Phindy's Place, you need to let us know by 22 January if you'd like to joni the fabulous Phindy team, check out the details here.

I tried something new with my digi, printing onto glossy cardstock so that I could try brushing inks around to get shading to the ice.  I found my image printed just fine onto glossy cardstock but it was tricky to get the ink really dry so it didn't smudge.  I used the heat gun for ages on this one before I inked it with Distress and Memento inks in a variety of colours.  Then I was worried it looked too grey, so I gave it too coats of iridiscent glitter spray and now it's full of sparkle:).  The figures are decoupaged onto the glossy card, after colouring with Copics.  I didn't have big enough pieces of mirri card to mat my scene so I rubbed my embossing inkpad over the deges and covered them with silver embossing powder, it doesn't look the same but it's a really nice effect.  I saw this on Stamp TV first and it's a great idea, thanks Gina!  The red DP is from an Artylicious CD, elegant brocade I think,  the background is Cuttlebugged and the sentiment has been inked, it is from Craftwork Cards.

My card is for the following challenges:
Card Patterns -sketch
Papertake Weekly - cold and frosty morning
CD Sunday - something new - 2 new to me techniques.  Also THANK YOU for my prize from last week!

Meljens Designs - square or round cards
Do you stack up? - distress it
Pals Paper Arts - Valentine
Some Odd Girl - embossed
Bunny Zoe - love is in the air
Woodware USA - hearts
One Stitch at a Time - love and Valentines
Wags n Whiskers - with love
Crafty Cardmakers - red and a die cut
Cupcake Craft  -something new - techniques
Sweet Stampin - try something different

Simon Says - is it time to play ball?

 
When I saw this digi at Gingerloft I fell in love!   There's an odd mixture of arty, almost photographic images like this in their store and also cartoons that are not my cup of tea.  But there are some gorgeous images I couldn't resist and I took a few minutes the other night to colour this chap in with watercolour pencils.

I've roughly followed the sketch at Simon Says this week to make my card, though the image is out of proportion.  The DP is Crate Paper, I've punched out rudbeckias and given them black brad centres; the rudbeckias in the images have black Stickled centres.  Ribbon was white coloured with a honey Copic.
My card is for the following challenges: 
The Crazy Challenge - animals
Fuzzy Wuzzy - anything goes, use an animal
Creative Cowgirls - something new (digi)
Simon Says  - sketch

Stitched with love

    I've made this card with one of the digis from Jak Heath's wonderful fundraiser Help for Katie - if you haven't bought your set  yet - why not?
The card is fairly simple, I have some Cosmo Cricket papers called Material Girl that just HAD to be combined with the image:).  The tape measure is part of one of the papers, the buttons are Papermania and, of course, I've added some stitching.
I'm entering my card for the following challenges:
Sketch & Stash - sketch.  Digi is new stash, DP is old stash
Oldie but Goodie - bright and cheerful
Fab 'n' Funky - warm toasty colours
Stamp Fairy - layers and buttons
Delicious Doodles - new
Stamp Something - use a digi
Dare to be Sassy - use something new
Cupcake Craft Challenges - something new

Rainbow Lady - it's all new to me

Top Tip Tuesday - Open Challenge

Welcome to the Top Tip Tuesday Challenge again!  It seems like ages since I've had a DT posting for TTTC, however we now have new DT members and a new rota so I'll be posting projects every other week.  This week we have an open challenge, you make make whatever appeals to you, couldn't be easier!

I've made a card with a Phindy's Place image called Summer Post Office, you can also buy a Phindyville Post Offic, isn't this a fun idea.  I hope Phindy's going to build us a whole town:).  I coloured with Copics and edged with Distress Inks.  The script DP is Basic Grey and the corrugated card is recycled card bought from Stamp Attic, which is also where the twine came from.  The sentiment is Joanna Sheen.  I feel really silly, I based my card on a sketch, where two squares were offset and there was an embellie on a ribbon at the base of the card, but I cannot now find the sketch to link my card to!  I really am losing my marbles lol...  Hooray!  I found it, it is at Sweet Stop Sketches.

This card is for the following challenges:
Stamp Something - digi day
Crafty Sentiments - anything goes
Craft Your Days Away - anything goes
Sweet Stop Challenge - sketch

I missed your birthday...

 Here's another card I made using Fred She Said's Empty Pocket Shrugger Set, this card uses the girl image, you can buy the set here.  They colour like a dream and I do love the sentiments that come with them :).  I followed the Friday Sketchers layout, used Basic Grey Sugar Rush DP and stickers and added stitching to my card.  The embossing is good old Swiss Dots folder.  This is for a friend's little girl, we never did get to meet up to exchange gifts (she has a Christmas Eve birthday) due to all the bugs and sickness that we had and they had!

My card is for the following challenges: 

Friday Sketchers - sketch

Basic Grey  - spots and dots

Incy Wincy - go dotty

One Stop Crafts - card for a child

The Crafty Pad - happy birthday

Pile it On - cute children

Kaboodle Doodles - do it with digis

Charisma Cardz - birthdays and celebrations

Help for Katie

The entry below is copied from Jak Heath's blog:  Please help her with this brilliant fundraising idea, I hope to blog some cards made with this set later....

 

Monday, 10 January 2011

Help for Katie

It is with a saddened heart that I am writing to ask for your help.

If ever you have drawn inspiration or ideas from my work, downloaded the many freebies that I give away I am now giving you the opportunity to give something back and do some good for a very dear family.

I would be thrilled if you would tell everyone about this fundraising be it blogs/facebook/twitter/forums or anywhere that will allow it

Katie Emmerson Renz married to Kevin with 3 beautiful boys the twins Nate & Will aged 5 and Hunter aged 10 had some news just before Christmas that has rocked their world as they know it.

Katie has been diagnosed with stage 4 Stomach Cancer and is currently undergoing her only option which is Chemotherapy.

Katie is a fellow crafter and is loved within the crafting community.you can read Katie's story on her own blog here but before you leave me I want you to see what all of the dedicated talented artists have designed for the Help for Katie cause.

Listed below is all of the digital designs that you will get for donating £15 as you will see you will receive far more in goods value than your £15 donation.

Paypal

We are collecting to help with Katie's Treatment and to give her lovely boys a treat too.

You will receive all of this for your donation.

Paypal

We also have some prizes

firstly Letraset have donated a full set of 148 markers over £200 in value.

Paper Temptress has donated

5 Silver Lustre Packages and 1 $25 Gift Voucher

Every time a donation is made they will be entered into a draw for the prizes if you donate twice you will get 2 chances to win one of the prizes.

The draw for the prizes will be made on February the 10th

Katie and her Family would like to say a very special thank you to all of the artists that gave up their time to help make this happen

All of the company badges below are linked to their sites just click on the badge to visit them.