The Open Gate

This is a "just because" card, made with a stamp from my new NEC stash.  It's made from very lightweight white plastic, feels really odd to use but stamps like a dream, I think the make is called La Blanc.  I've stamped it in Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink and sponged more ink on.  The DP is Basic Grey Curio, the sentiment from Craftwork Cards and I've Cuttlebugged a panel and added some ribbon.  I've watercoloured a version but prefer this monochrome image, looks quite vintage.
My card is for the following challenges:
The Sweet Stop - sketch
Make It Monday - anything goes
The House That Stamps Built - make a scene
Dutch Dare - distressing

New Releases and Great New Sales from Tiffany Doodles!

Spring has sprung and Tiffany Doodles has all kinds of exciting ways to celebrate, including a stunning new release in the Granny’s Yard series, the latest release is Cherry Blossoms, available from Friday 1 April.  There’s a special offer until 7 April:  buy the cherry blossom set plus 2 more flower sets, get 10% off your order.


There’s a further Spring sale in store for the weekend!  Buy 3 or more & get 15% off your order!  Click on the picture to see all the babies in the Spring Babies Sale!

And there’s more....  we’re having an Easter Egg hunt this weekend in store, starting Friday - Monday.  Find the eggs and you could be the grand prize winner of a Level 3 Membership, a $30 value, to Tiffany Doodles for 1 year that includes 6 freebies, an avg $18 value, PLUS 20 Doodle Soup Rewards points, a  $2.50 value.  Click on the Easter Egg picture to view the Contest Rules and start playing:

And finally, throughout April, we have a Spring Birds and Flowers April Sale for you!!  As well as a Buy 10 Get 20% off sale too!!


So, what are you waiting for?  See you at Tiffany’s!

Spring Cherry Blossom

I've made my card for Mothering Sunday using Tiffany Doodles' new release,
Cherry Blossom, available in store from Friday 1 April.  I've followed the sketch from Pink Elephant.  Image is coloured with Copics, Stickles and edged with Distress Ink.  There are a couple of Dew Drops on the image, ribbon is recycled from a box of chocolates, text computer generated, DP is Basic Grey Porcelain and the white panel is Cuttlebugged with script.
I'm entering my card for the following challenges:
Pink Elephant - sketch
Amber's Crafts - April flowers
Scrapbook Sisters - Mother's Day
Cupake Crafts - flowers for Mum
Ooh la la - Mother's Day
Dream Valley Challenges - Mother's Day
Creative Inspirations - Mother's Day

Oh Deer!

This is a card for a good friend and I really have no excuse for its lateness, life has been a bit frantic lately.  I've used an image from Tiffany's Doodles called Sleeping Fawn, this is such an adorable Spring baby!  I've followed Card Pattern's sketch and kept things fairly simple, I've recycled some ribbed brown card for the Cuttlebugged circle and to mount the computer generated sentiment.  The DP is a My Mind's Eye Christmas one from a few year's back, there are snowflakes in the background of that neutral stripe.  Colouring is Copics and Distress Inks, twine came from Stamp Attic.
My card is for the following challenges:
Card Patterns - sketch
Stamptacular Sunday - no kids allowed - birthday! 
Totally Gorjuss - spring is sprung - here's a spring baby!
Totally Papercrafts - cuddly & cute
Stamp Something - spring
Creative Cowgirls - spring/Easter

Stash enhancement at the NEC - and a decoupage card

I've little to show you in the way of cards this weekend, however I've had a fun day at the NEC with Chrissie of Less is More fame.  Here's my stash:  a beaded necklace kit (didn't mean to buy this but it called my name!), 3 Sheena Douglass stamp sets plus 2 free embossing powders for a bargain £12, a set of Jenny Mayes stamps, a weird white lightweight stamp with gorgeous detail, a couple of stencils, a Big'n'Juicy stamp pad, a guillotine, a couple of sets of Nesties, a punch around the page set and a few odds and ends of sticky tape etc.  Great haul, if only I could stay home to play with them lol!

I've a very simple card I made with House Mouse decoupage to show you.  It is simply matted onto purple card, some punched flowers, a ribbon and a sentiment added.  I like to cut out when I'm watching TV but I'm not so good about making them into cards, here's a finished one, more cards to blog tomorrow...

Phindy's Place Challenge #48 - All About Animals

Welcome to a new Phindy's Place Challenge, this week the challenge is to use an animal image on your card or project. While you don't have to use a Phindy's Place image, why wouldn't you?  There are so many adorable and awesome iamges in the shop, why not check them out and acquire a new animal:).
I've used one of the Mrs Comyfy series of images, this is called Mrs Comfy and Pogg,I do love these images and find them such fun to colour up and use.

I've used a bit of a quilter's trick here because I've taken my colour palette from a multi-shaded piece of DP, from my Prima Madeline pad.  However in the end I've only used the tiniest scraps of the paper on the card.  But I knew that if the colours worked on the DP they would work together on the image.
I found the sentiment online and computer generated it.  Image is coloured with Copics, Glossy Accents and Stickles, I've added tiny pink pearls and blue gems to her coat buttons.  Ribbon, and buttons are from stash, background cardstock is embossed.

My card is for the following challenges:
Midnight Madness - sketch
AiFactory - under the weather
Southern Girls - add an animal
Creative Card Crew - no stamps (digi and computer generated used)
Spoonful of Sugar - ribbon, pearls/rhinestones and flowers
2 Sisters - furry friends

Fred She Said Spring Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to the Fred She Said Spring Blog Hop!  If you've come to my blog from Nancy's marvellous blog then you're in the right place, if you've just happened across the hop you're going to want to start at Tracey-Lynns' blog to be in with a chance to win.  We have an awesome prize for one lucky winner. The winner scoops THREE fabulous prizes: a $25 FSS Gift Certificate, a $25 CropStop Gift Certificate and 2 Digi Paper Sets from Bearly Mine Designs.  

I've got a sweet Spring card to show you that combines two Fred, She Said images sets.  The adorable Emma with her Frills On image comes with some flowers that can be used with her, but I have chosen to  add flowers from the Pink Blossoms kit, I LURVE these, they look like the big Nelly Moser type clematis blooms that come in Spring.  There's no DP on my card, the background is dry embossed with a wall folder, I've used my Martha Stewart wide punch on each side of pearlised white cardstock to create a trellis for the flowers and I added gems and pearls to the centres of the flowers. 

Before you move on to your next stop on the hop, the talented Marlena, you need to collect a word from my blog.  In case you haven't guessed, it's Fred!  Enjoy the hop and good luck with the draw:)

My card is also for the following challenges:

Little Miss Muffet - brads, gems or pearls 

The Rubber Cafe - embossing

Pals Paper Arts - embossing

Paper Sundaes - embossing

Stamp Insanity -punch it out

Creative Cottage - spring has sprung

Simon Says Stamp - Mother's Day or girlie (I've opted for girlie)

Papertake Weekly - it's a Mom thing or just be girlie

High Hopes

 I've got some bright cheerful colours in my card for a bright and sunny Spring day, the sun is shining and I wish I didn't have to go to work :).  This is another of Phindy's adorable Wee Babbies series, this is called High Hopes and you can buy it here. For some reason I thought of this as a girl babbie, but I see others think this is a boy, so I think the answer must be that it all depends on the colours you use and the card you make:).

The sentiment is Stampin Up and it shows how reliant I am on my beloved digis, I had several attempts before I got it to stamp out perfectly - oops!  This is a fairly simple card, the DP is from Basic Grey Marjolaine, the nearly plain paper from the pack is dry embossed and inked, I made tiny flowers with an EK punch and gave them gem centres.

My card is for the following challenges:
Sew Many Cards - sketch
Going Grey with Scrap Creations - spring has sprung
Tuesday Morning Sketches - K.I.D.S. - keep it delightfully simple
KB Cute Monday - babies
Make it Monday - anything goes
Stamp With Fun - spring
I Did it Creations - welcome spring

Top Tip Tuesday Challenge - Show Me Those Buttons

Good Morning and welcome to this week's Top Tip Tuesday Challenge!  This week Samantha has a fabulous tutorial on altered buttons for you, be sure to visit the blog and check it out.  I learnt lots from it and can't wait to try out some of the ideas.  You can alter buttons for this week's challenge or you can simply use buttons, as I've done here.  I used a Pink Petticoat digi and sentiment, combined with Cosmo Cricket Material Girl DP.  The tape measure is part of a DP striped with multiple, coloured tape measures, how cool is that?  I've followed the sketch at Sketch Saturday but also made my card into an easel card, which is so easy to do with buttons to prop it up.  A couple more buttons threaded with baker's twine are at the foot of the card too.  Only drawback to all the buttons, which are "real" buttons rather than tiny craft ones, is that I had to pay extra postage to send this yesterday:).

My card is also for the following challenges:
Sketch Saturday - sketch
Kaboodle Doodle - yellow, blue, pink & green (all in DP!) 
My Partner in Crafting Crime - 3 or more buttons
Squigglefly - pushing my buttons
Crafty Pad - use a digi
Creative Inspirations -easel cards
Totally Papercrafts - add buttons
Digital Tuesday - all buttoned up

Hoppy Easter

Sweet Stop Sketches are celebrating their 100th sketch with extra prizes and a twist to the sketch of "How sweet".  I've recently discovered Tiffany Doodle's digis, many of which are very realistic drawings, as soon as I read of the twist I knew which image I wanted to use:  this is Shy Bunny.  I was unsure how such a realistic drawing would work with my Copics but all I can say is it is one of the easiest images I've ever coloured; all the work is done for you with the shading and I just reached for some earth colours and warm greys.
I cut round the image and used Pinflair to give it dimension against some stone coloured card that I dry embossed with a grassy pattern and sponged with Distress Ink.  The brown flowery DP is Prima Madeline, the background is an Artylicious paper from the Essences of Nature CD.  I used a MS punch on more of the stone card, made some flowers with a tiny sunflower punch and flower punch and computer generated the sentiment.
My card is for the following challenges:
Sweet Shop Sketches - sketch and twist
Paper Sundaes - embossing
CD Sunday - wild thing
Stamp Something - something sweet
2 Sisters - furry friends
Card Making Mamas - animals
Crafty Sentiments - animals
Sassy Studios - make your own embellishments

PS Tiffany Doodles also has a DT call out - if you're quick you can apply :)

 

Easter Daffodils

 We're home after our four days at the races, what a wonderful time we had, though sadly neither of us won enough to give up the day job:).  And how exciting for the Gold Cup to be won by a Lambourn horse (my home village) for the first time in over 10 years.

OK, back to cardmaking and at last Spring is here and the daffodils are in flower, which prompted me to make an Easter card using one of the Fred She Said Spring flower images, you can buy them here in the shop.  I've followed Sonjas' sketch at Spoonful of Sugar, adding some Basic Grey Sugar Rush papers, a touch of embossing and some yellow ribbon.

My card is for the following challenges:
Spoonful of Sugar - sketch
Stamping with the Dragon - bring on Spring
Wags 'n' Whiskers - Spring
Charisma Cardz - to die for (2 ovals and a deckle edged rectangle used)

Creative Cottage - Spring has sprung
Scrapbook Sisters - Spring flowers
Sweet Stamps - think Spring

Phindy's Place Challenge #47 - Hot Stuff

I hope this scheduled post works as I will be at the Cheltenham Festival for a fourth day's racing today, Friday:)  At Phindy's Place Challenge this week we're anticipating a lovely long hot summer to make up for the hard winter so many of us have had, with our theme of Hot Stuff.  You can interpret this with warm colours, summer image cards, it's up to you.   I've taken the opportunity to use Mr Brown On Vacation, this image is available in the shop here.    It's such a fun image that I wanted the card itself to be very simple, this week's CPS layout is perfect!

Image is coloured with Copics (do you like the touch of sunburn on Mr Brown's nose and legs?) and I used some Stickles on his fishing line and beercan.  The string lace is from Bunny Zoe's, DP is My Mind's Eye and the sentiment is a Joanna Sheen House Mouse one.
My card is for the following challenges:
CPS - sketch
Incy Wincy Challenges - for the boys
Paper Pretties - masculine card
Ooh la la Creations - It's a Man Thing

Ballerina Girl

 

Tonight's is a quick posting, we are off tomorrow for four days of the best horse racing in the world, plenty to drink and eat and lots of highs and lows, hopefully more highs!  Yes, Cheltenham starts tomorrow...  See you when we return.  But now back to card blogging:)

This feminine card uses an image from A Day for Daisies, their current challegne is to make a Girly Girl card, they kindly provided this image free to use for the challenge.  My colours are a very girly pink, lemon and aqua that you can see in the 3 DPs from a Crafty Individuals pad.  My little ballerina is coloured with Copics and poppsed up with Pinflair glue on an embossed and inked circle.  I added pearls to her dress and across the card, some lace from stash and flowers from stash, as well as a Martha Stewart lacy outer border.  No sentiment as I'll add one when I send to card...

My card is for the following challenges:

A Day for Daisies - girly girl 

Crafty Ann's - sketch

Totally Gorjuss - pearls & lace

Papertake - lemon zingy

Art Impressions Stamps - embossing

Paws for the important things in life

Here's one of Phindy's adorable Wee Babbies, used with a matching sentiment from the Create with TLC set.  Each month Paulette and Phnidy have a collaboration and this one is irresistable as it has several sentiments that will be perfect to use with dog images.  This little fellow is called Resistance.  I used my new Prima DP pad again and matched his T-shirt stripe colours to those in the paper.  I also got some stripy twine from Quixotic Paperie that I used on the button and around of the the matted papers.  It arrived less than 24hrs after ordering, which I think is pretty impressive:).  I followed a sketch at ICS which is unusual, really like the effect it gives.

My card is for the following challenges:
Inspirational Card Sketches - sketch
Creative Inspirations Paint - inspired by animals
The Crafty Pad - buttons
2 Sisters - oh baby
Alphabet Challenge - stripes
Fairy Tales - children/babies
Creative Belli - animals and old stash (button)

Phindy's Place Challenge #46 - Get Well Soon / Thinking of You

Welcome to Friday and another fun Phindy's Place Challenge. This week we're making Get Well Soon or Thinking of You cards.  I've kept mine failry clean and simple, using a boy image called Bug Buddy, with a computer generated sentiment that I think fits it down to the ground:).  Image is coloured with Copics and I've echoed his strip top with the DP and the ribbon.  The DP came in a bargain bundle and I'm afraid I've no idea who made it, shame as I'd have liked more of this stripe!

My card is for the following challenges:

I Did It Creations - sketch

Crafty Purple Frog - things with wings (ladybird)

Paper Crafting Journey - things with wings

Moving Along With the Times - for a male

Paper Sundaes - stripes

The Paper Variety - get well soon

Creative Card Crew - no flowers (blimey I don't make many cards that fit this theme!)

Paper Playtime - anything goes with a digi

Fred's Flowers meet Friday Sketchers

With spring well and truly on the way I've been using lots of flowery images, including this gorgeous, precoloured peony from Fred She Said, you can buy the image in an assortment of colours here or you can buy it to colour.  The precoloured made a really fun and fast card, I just used lots of Glossy Accents for the jar.
The DP is Basic Grey Curio, which is rather darker and more grungy than I usually pick, thought it worked well with the image though.  I distress inked the DP edges with Brushed Corduroy and also sponged the dry embossed circle.  I added a bit of lace and a few pearls and that's it.
My card is for the following challenges:
Friday Sketchers -sketch
Do You Stack Up - layers
Southern Girls - use flowers
Simon Says Stamp - anything goes
A Spoonful of Sugar - shabby, vintage (DPs, distressing)

Sentimental Sundays - sentiment, pearls and lace

Welcome little one

 

A work colleague of  DH and his wife have had a baby girl and would you believe I didn't have a girl card to hand!  There are several boy cards in the card box and no pink ones at all...  So I opted for this old favourite from Phindy's Place, called Contentment, it is one of my all time favourites, so serene, also it colours quickly and easily lol.  I used this week's sketch from Card Positioning Systems and grabbed my Basic Grey Kioshi pad for an easy colourscheme.  Coloured with Copics, the Basic Grey plain DP was run through an embossing folder, the punch is a Martha Stewart.  Don't forget you have until Friday to enter baby projects at Phindy's Place Challenge too!

My card is for the following challenges:  

Card Positioning Systems - sketch

Digital Tuesday - welcome little one

Everybody Art Challenge - baby

Paper Playtime - anything digi goes

Dream Valley - new beginnings

Time for Teddy

When I was deciding what image to use for this week's Phindy's Place Challenge, Oh Baby, I was spolit for choice and coloured up several images, including this one, Time for Teddy.  Isn't this adorable, look at that well-loved teddy:).  I've used my Basic Grey Marjolaine DP pad again, and I've paper pieced the cushion she's sitting on.  The sketch is from this week's Sweet Stop, I really like this one, will save it for future use.  The sentiment is from Craftwork Cards, I punched the flowers from green and white cardstock, colouring the centres with my Copics, the border punch is Martha Stewart.

My card is for the following challenges:
The Sweet Stop - sketch
Stamptacular Sunday - Best Wishes card
Fairytale - something for a child
Fussy & Fancy - paper piecing and/or embossing
Floweret - play/birthday
Stamp Something - digi
Crafty Creations - birthday in blues & greens

Lily of the Valley - more Fred flowers

 I keep turning to flower images for my cards at the moment, Spring must be on the way!  Thank goodness we've had a bit of sunshine, even if it.s still pretty cold.  This card uses another gorgeous Fred She Said image, this time it's Lily of the Valley, which you can buy in the shop here.  I've coloured with Copics and edged with Adirondack dye ink, which I've also sponged onto the bubble embossed border.  The DPs are Basic Grey Marjolaine, border uses a Martha Stewart String Lace punch and there are some gems in the corners of the Nestie Labels cut image.

My card is for the following challenges:
Card Patterns - sketch
Gingerloft Challenge - use those flowers
Corrosive Challenges - Going Green
Catered Crop - follow the recipe (used plaids, spring colours, Copics, flowers)
Creative Inspirations Paint - Gone Green
Easy Craft Projects - Green
Little Claires - flowers
Card Making Mamas - something green
Card Cupids - anything goes