Bluebonnets

Tiffany Doodles has a new release this week, including a pretty set of Bluebonnets.  I knew they are a Texan flower and I Googled images of them to colour my card, but when Willemien, one of my fellow DT members at Tiffany Doodles explained that they are from the lupin family, that made sense!  I've made a monochromatic card with my bluebonnet, using a MS punch around the page set called Bubbles, as well as a MS picket fence.  The DP is Stampin' Up, I think, sentiment is from Whiff of Joy and I made some tiny flowers with a punch to add in, as well as the punched butterfly.  Image is coloured with Copics.
My card is for the following challenges:
Just Add Ink - add a flower
Wags'n'Whiskers - use punches
Craft Us Crazy - Mums and flowers
Moving along with the times - anything goes
Simon Says - anything goes

Phindy's Place Challenge #53 - Glitter, Glamour and Glitz

Good Morning and welcome to this week's Phindy's Place Challenge.  This week we're putting on the glamour, with a Glitter, glamour and glitz challenge.  You don't have to use one of Phindy's images, but we love it when you do - and you get a second entry into the prize draw!  You may think that I've slightly lost it by making a gardening card for this challenge, but all I can say is that the Phindy's Place digi image Pretty Blooms is an amazingly glamorous gardener without a speck of dirt anywhere on her and high heels too lol!  I've made a step card and added in some Gardening Lil Gems .  All are coloured with Copics, I've added a bit more glitz with Glossy Accents, Stickles and gems as well as some Bazzil Bling grass cut with a Martha Stewart punch.  The sentiment is computer generated; I have the perfect stamp that says this, but it's too big for my card.  The DP is Memory Box Brioche.

My card is also for the following challenges:

Amber's Craft & Stuff - use a digi

My Mum's Craft Shop - flowers

Simon Says - anything goes

Charisma Cardz - April showers/May flowers

Paper Sundaes - sundae bar (yellow, sparkle)

Magic in the Air - multi-fold cards

Stamptacular Sunday - at least 5 layers

Phindy's Place Birthday Blog Hop

Looking for the Phindy's Place Birthday Blog Hop?
Click here

Less Is More - off centre a second attempt

This is something I've wanted to try for a while and I think it fits this week's LIM Challenge perfectly - hope the LIM ladies think so too:).   I've used my Hobby Art stamps and watercolours to make a Spring landscape with lambs growing in the field and I've extended the scene into the white space around it.  The card for the white space is from the back of a card I messed up, so it is exactly the same as the card.  I've matted both onto black and decided to leave the sentiment off in case it ends up too busy.

My card is for the following challenges:
Less Is More - off centre
Crafty Creations - white space
Party Time Tuesday - anything goes
Corrosive Challenges - use animals
Sparkles Forum - anything goes

Less is more - off centre

The new Less Is More Challenge  was a great excuse to use a new stamp I bought from Stamp Attic, by Prickly Pear.  I masked off top and bottom and made a background with Distress Inks, then stamped the painted pony 3 times without reinking.  The sentiment is by Elusive Images, it is straight when you check it against the card, don't know why it looks crooked in the photo!

Picked just for you

What fabulous weather it has been for a holiday weekend!  My tulips have been and gone really quickly in the warmth, so I've coloured a Fred She Said parrot tulip that won't fade in the heat:). I used one of the sheets with extras printed and added a couple of layers of decoupage.   My favourite tulips  are the greeny-pinky ones, so I've added some spring green Prima paper, an embossed die cut circle and a die-cut sentiment, which was a freebie with Do Craft magazine.  There are some Dew Drops and some ribbon and that's it.
Back to work tomorrow, hope you've all enjoyed the weekend as much as I have:).

My card is for the following challenges:
Sweet Sketch Wednesday - sketch
Kenny K - springtime
Crafty Calender Challenge - April showers bring forth May flowers
Crafty Emmas - spring colours or image
Card Making Mamas - spring colours
Prairie Fairies - April showers bring forth May flowers
Fussy and Fancy - springtime
Ai Factory - flowers in bloom
C.R.A.F.T. - flowers

Dotty lady

Happy Easter to everyone, I hope you've enjoyed the sunshine and eaten lots of chocolate:).
I saw some gorgeous Cosmo Cricket DP in the Stamp Attic last week, there is also a big floral paper that goes with these.  Had to make a spotty, stripy card with them and this is what I came up with:).  The image is Corset from A Day for Daisies, this time I have coloured her with Copics,  I tried to give her spots on her bodice using my blender pen but wasn't happy with it so I added some white gel pen spots instead!  The card follows the sketch at My Time Made Easy and has some ribbon, tiny pink pearls and a MS punched border. 
My card is for the folloiwng challenges:
My Time Made Easy - sketch
A Day for Daisies - dots and stripes
Papertake Weekly - spots n stripes
Creative Inspirations - digi day
I Did It Creations - 3 embellies, 2 papers, 1 image
Do it With Digis - 3 embellies, 2 papers, 1 image
Catered Crop - recipe, I included Copics, digi, stripes, pastels, white pen

The birthday card that changed its sex...

Hmm... I wrote the title to this quick blog entry, looked again and realised that it made more sense when I added "its" lol!  Hope you're all enjoying the lovely weather and the Easter weekend.  We had our Open Day yesterday with most of the racing yards open to the public, there was a record crowd who all seemed to be enjoying themselves.  We took a quick trip up to Seven Barrows before we did our volunteering stint at the Car Parks, here's the Gold Cup Winner, Long Run, receiving his visitors:

The ribbons on his door are his racing colours.  My card is for CD Sunday's Birthday Challenge; I'd like to wish them a very Happy Birthday!  I used the Joanna Sheen House Mouse backing papers CD and began with the idea of making a masculine birthday card, adding the sentiment.  But when I added the decoupage with the pink waterlily I'm afraid I had a change of heart  and out came the ribbon to match the goldfish!  I put Glossy Accents on to the bubbles and also the fishes eye and to make them even more "bubbly" I dropped tiny crystal seed beads onto them, I hope you can see them in the photo.

I hope to link up to another challenge or two later, but we are off out for a celebratory meal soon, it's our 23rd wedding anniversary today:).

Happy Easter everyone :)

Phindy's Place Birthday Blog Hop and Paper Piecing Challenge

Good Morning and welcome to the Phindy's Place Challenge 1st Birthday Celebrations!   If you came here from the Challenge Blog you're in the right place, I'm first stop on the hop, otherwise please pop back to the challenge blog and check out all the details:).  Yes, it's one whole year  since we began posting challenges on the blog, I can't believe a year has gone so fast!  To celebrate we're holidng our weekly challenge as usual and we're also having a Blog Hop, I do hope you'll play along:)

Our challenge this week is paper piecing and the usual prizes are up for grabs, however we have a great bonus prize of  a $10 Voucher to use at Phindy's Place which will be won by one of out blog hoppers.  To win the prize you need to collect a word from each posting. When you've got the full sentence, please post it in the comments on the challenge blog (which will be hidden until the hop is over!  Blog Hop is open until midnight (GMT) 28 April.

Now, on to my card:  I made a fairly simple card for a little boy, the image is called Nap Time and he's almost entirely paper pieced. I've shaded the paper piecing with Copics, the papers are from an old Basic Grey pad called Recess.  The buttons are recycled from my old clothes button box, sentiment is a Joanna Sheen stamp and I've added some baker's twine as a masculine embellie:).

Thank you for visiting my blog, I hoped you liked my card.  Now it's time for you to continue hopping and visit the awesomely talented Ann English.  
Oh yes, you want a word from me lol!  My word is Phindy's  :)

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:
The Pixie Cottage - sketch
Aud Sentiments - anything goes
Meljen Designs - masculine
Bunny Zoe - one for the boys
Scrapbook Sisters - use buttons
Try it on Tuesday -recycle
Digi Design House - paper piecing
Creative Card Crew - recycle
Delightful Challenges - paper piercing or paper piecing

Tiffany Doodles - sneak peek

This week's release at Tiffany Doodles includes this pretty crocus image.  I've coloured it with Copics, added some Kioshi Basic Grey DP, a bit of glitzy ribbon, some gems and a MS punch to come up with a Spring birthday card.  I followed the layout at Sketch Saturday.

My card is for the following challenges:

Sketch Saturday - sketch

Paper Sundaes - texture

Simon Says - emboss it (strip under ribbon)

Digital Tuesday - pretty punches

ABC Challenge - S is for sparkle

 

A Duo of Decoupage

 I've not got much in the way of cards to show you this week, I have been so busy at work and at home too.  When I have had a quiet moment the good weather and the garden have called me!  I have finished up another couple of decoupage cards, both use Joanna Sheen's Faye Whittaker seaside designs.  The first one has a cloud DP from Joanna's House Mouse backing papers CD, with some card candy and a ribbon.  The second one has a Stampin' Up sentiment, a shell edged tape, and some ric rac on a My Minds Eye stripy card.

Challenges to enter my cards for:
A Spoonful of Sugar - let's celebrate! (1st card)
Crafty Cardmakers - red white and blue
Cupcake Crafts  - lots of layers
Incy Wincy Designs - bright and bold
Karen's Doodles - lots of layers

Phindy's Place Challenge #51 - purple & teal

 Good Morning and welcome to a new Phindy's Place Challenge:  this week we are challenging you to use purple and teal.  I will admit that I found this a challenge at first, but once I got my DP picked I really enjoyed it and I'm pleased with the results!  I used the image Connected Girl, colouring her with Copics and Stickles.  Sometimes I have a hard time lining up mats, I'd just like to say that I *did* intend this one to be off-centre lol!  The sentiment is Joanna Sheen, the DPs are Bearly Mine, flower is Prima and the scrolls cut with a punch.

My card is for the following challenges:

Sweet Sketch Wednesday - sketch

Fab'n'Funky - all spotty and dotty

Simon Says - card for a child (Post Pals, will send this to my PostPal who loves purple!)

Digital Tuesday - little women

Papertake Weekly - truly dimensional (image raised on Pinflair, flower and sentiment also dimensional)

Card Cupids - two colours only

Stamptacular Sunday - girls and swirls

Forsythia for Spring

It's nearly Spring when the forsythia is laden with its bright, cheerful, acid yellow flowers, which is just what I've used this stunning digi image from Tiffany Doodles for, it comes as a pair with Pussy Willow in a jar.  I based my card around Crafty Cardmaker's Challenge this week, which is a recipe of:  main colour yellow, ribbon, stitching, gemstones.  Some challenges at present aren't, how shall I put it, very challenging, so this made a refreshing change!
Image is coloured with Copics and Glossy Accents, punched leaves added.  Ribbon from Really Reasonable Ribbons, sentiment from Craftwork Cards, DP is Basic Grey and Bearly Mine, corners punched, lots of stitching and some gems.  Card is based on the sketch from Stamp with Fun
My card is for the following challenges:
Stamp with Fun - sketch
Crafty Cardmaker's Challenge - yellow, ribbon, gemstone, stitching
Amber's Crafts - my favourite things - Basic Grey, stitching, digis, Copics, ribbon!
Creative Card Crew - Spring
Crafts and Me - ribbon
Cooking it up with Katie - 1 image, 2 DP, 3 types embellishments
Timeless Tuesday - flowers everywhere
Incy Wincy - flower frenzy
Quirky Crafts - sparkly, punchy Spring

Love and Laughter

I am choosy about my digis, without wishing to cause offence I find there are a lot of images out there, and not many of them are of a standard I like to work with.  There is a newish designer out there who calls her designs A Day For Daisies, her work is different and fresh and I am very drawn to it (pun).  This card is made from an image called Corset and I think it is very typical, with sparse clean lines that make an elegant image.  I think they are crying out for watercolours so that is what I used but I will try a Copic version and see what I think...

I have some Artquest watercolour paints that are metallics and pearlescents that I used a lot in my early cardmaking days, they have long been neglected and were perfect for this.  The flesh uses Distress Inks.  Sentiment is Craftwork Cards, DP is Basic Grey Kioshi and punch is Martha Stewart Bubbles.  I added lots of stitching and stitched down plain yellow grosgrain ribbon.

My card is for the following challenges:
A Day For Daisies - in stitches
Sweet Sketch Wednesday - sketch
Digital Tuesday - little women
Sweet Stamps - for the ladies
Tuesday Throwdown - sparkle and bling (sparkly watercolours, bling gems)
Digi Design House - stitches
Digital Gems - favourite image (it's my newest image, therefore it's my favourite image - today!)
Stamp'n'Doodle - girly
Papercrafting Journey - for the ladies in your life
Shelly's Images - Scrappy's birthday, flowers, bling, stitches

One finished, one nearly finished

 I've not had much time to craft over the weekend, older son home from Uni on Friday, Mum visitng on Sunday and beautiful warm weather haven't been conducive to creating:).  I have put together a House Mouse decoupage card with some raffia ribbon from Bunny Zoe and a computer generated sentiment.  The background paper is from a Joanna Sheen CD to co-ordinate with House Mouse, but it has come out very wishy-washy, think I need to look at the printer settings.  In real life you can see raspberries scattered across the paper.

My other card is a watercoloured Sheena Douglass stamp, with just some My Minds Eye DP and a ribbon added.  It's not finished because I haven't yet added a sentiment.  With a few pearls and odds and ends it could be a wedding card, or it could be a sympathy or thinking of you card.  So it's going to sit, nearly finished, until I need it:).

I've found a few challenges to enter my cards:
Make It Monday - anything goes - church card

Kaboodle Doodles - cute and cuddly
Fairy Tale - Happy Birthday
Totally Gorjuss - fluffy, well House Mouse are fantasy mice and MY mice are fluffy lol
All of these are the House Mouse card.

 

Wishing you a speedy recovery

I didn't have room to use my "Wishing you a speedy recovery" sentiment stamp  on the front of this, so I used a simple Get Well Soon and stamped the inside.  The image is the adorable Speedster from Phindy's Place, coloured with Copics and Distress Inks and I followed the Tuesday Morning Sketchers layout.  DP is Basic Grey, some brads and ribbon came from stash and my card is for the following challenges:
Tuesday Morning Sketches - sketch
Paper Sundaes - childhood memories
Fabulous Friday - brads

Wish you were here?

  I got some new Jenny Mayes Hobbyart stamps at the NEC and here's the first card I made with them.  They are slightly bigger than the Scene-It sets and they are on unmounted rubber, not clear.  I found them a bit more of a challenge to use, I think I was trying to combine too many at once!  I masked the deckchairs and stamped the boats out once and used them again for a partial image and added the gulls.  I watercoloured my scene using Aquamarkers and made it up using the sketch at Midnight Madness.  I like the way the corners give it the look of a photo in an old album.  DP is flairdesigns.inc.

My card is for the following challenges:

Midnight Madness - sketch

Delightful Challenges - sun, sea and sand

Challenge Up Your Life - masking

My Time To Craft - nautical

Phindy's Place Challenge #50 - Easter Time

Good Morning and welcome to this week's Phindy's Place Challenge, this week we'd like to see your Easter projects, if you don't celebrate Easter it's fine to make a spring card.   You don't have to use one of Phindy's images, but we love it when you do - and you get a second entry into the prize draw!

I've used the fun image "Just Saying Hi" from Phindy's Place, I've also used some Scene-It stamps to create a bit of a background.   Image is coloured with Copics and scene with Distress Inks.  I think giraffes look great with spots and stripes, so I've added in a dotty paper from Bearly Mine as well as a My MInd's Eye stripe.  Frame is a Nestie, text is computer generated.

My card is also for the following challenges:

Bearly Mine - sketch

One Stop Craft - spots and dots

Little Claire's - spring celebrations

Craft Your Days Away - spots and stripes

Creative Cowgirls - spring or Easter

Card Cupids - dots and/or stripes

Stamps R Us - Easter

Stamp with Fun - Easter

Pink Elephant - Easter

Ooh la la - Easter

Card for St Luke's Charity Cards Challenge & Tiffany Doodles New Release

 There's a really good new challenge blog out there, the St Luke's Charity Cards Challenge.  OK there are hundreds of challenges out there now but this one is different! Here is what they say:

"Hello you lovely, lovely people who are joining us on this exciting adventure in our little corner of blogland...
We thought we would start off easy, with a challenge that both beginners and those more experienced would be sure to have some materials for - so our inaugural challenge is to "say it with flowers". You can "say" anything you like - Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary, Hello, With Sympathy, Get Well Soon - anything you like, or nothing at all if you don't want to include a sentiment - just include flowers or a floral theme on your card somewhere.

Cards can be any shape, size or colour. If you are going to kindly donate your card to the charity, if you could include a matching blank envelope that would be great - if you can pop it in a protective card bag then even better but we can sort this once we receive them if you don't have them available. Then just pop it all in another slightly larger envelope (perhaps with a bit of extra card or tissue to protect anything delicate) and send it to:

Freepost RSAZ-XHKY-ZXLY
Charity Card Challenge
St Luke's Hospice
Little Common Lane
Sheffield
S11 9NE
IF YOU COULD SPARE THE CHANGE FOR A STAMP AND NOT USE THE FREEPOST ADDRESS, (SAME ADDRESS, JUST OMIT THE FREEPOST LINE) THEN EVEN BETTER AS THIS SAVES THE CHARITY EVEN MORE MONEY - THANKS
SOME PEOPLE HAVE ASKED ABOUT SENDING GENERAL CARDS TO THE HOSPICE FOR SALE - THIS IS FINE - AND ANY CARDS WILL BE GREATFULLY RECEIVED OUTSIDE OF THE MONTHLY CHALLENGES."

 

I have a packet of cards to send and I hope that anyone else in the UK will try to send them some cards too:)

My Say It With Flowers card uses a new release from Tiffany Doodles, available in the shop from 8 April.  This is Pear Blossom, isn't it gorgeous?  I've coloured it with Copics and Glossy Accents, used a Nestie die and some papers from Basic Grey Cappella.  I've kept it fairly simple, the blossom branch is the star here.

My card is for the following challenges:

Totally Gorjuss - sketch

Tuesday Throwdown - spring

Magical Monday - let's use flowers

Paper Sundaes - spring blossoms

Sparkles Forum - springtime

Allsorts - blooming blossoms

Crafty Calender Challenge - April showers bring forth May showers

Tiffany Doodles Challenge - use turquoise

I've lots to blog today so first up I'm starting with this month's Tiffany Doodles Challenge, which is to use the colour turquoise.  I love turquoise, wear it a lot, but found to my dismay I didn't have much DP...   I found a Papermania pad that I bought at least a year ago and had never cut into, and paper pieced the fun image Dancing Dress.  Both layers are paper pieced and I've tried to add some shading with my Copics.  I've added stitching in a blue glittery thread, some organza ribbon and some turquoise gems to bling it up a bit, sentiment is from Craftwork Cards.

Do check out the DT cards, they are stunning and you can see some sneak peeks here on the logo for this month:
My card is for the following challenges:
Sketch'n'Stash - sketch
Creative Belli - think seamstress
Your Next Stamp - stitching
Claudia & Company - monochromatic
Digi Design House - stitches
Karen's Doodles - fancy and feminine
Woodware - monochromatic
Gingerloft - got the blues

A Gal's Best Pal

 
 I've made this card for Alice, my PostPal who is pretty poorly.  Alice LOVES dogs and this image from Phindy's Place, called My Best Friend, makes a great card for her, I've had it for a long time but I'm ashamed to say I've not used it before...  The sentiment is a freebie from Raindropecho.  I based the card on this week's Sketch Saturday, the DP is Wild Rose Studio, I've had it for ages.

My card is for the following challenges:
Sketch Saturday - sketch
Craft your Passion - anything goes
Paper Playtime - digi
Pollycraft - old, neglected image

Top Tip Tuesday Challenge - Thank You!

Welcome to another Top Tip Tuesday, this week Elaine has a fabulous tutorial showing you how to make a little gift box and the theme is Thank You.  I've made a card using an adorable Joanna Sheen decoupage of two little girls at the seaside.  I like to cut out decoupage when I'm watching telly, but I'm really bad about assembling them into cards!  I based my card on the sketch at Crazy for Challenges, adding some My Mind's Eye stripy cardstock, an embossed panel and a sentiment.  It's an unusual card for me, it has neither stamping nor colouring, but I hope you like it:)

My card is also for the following challenges:
Crazy for Challenges - sketch
Crafty Emma - children
Cute & Girly - cute and girly
My Partner in Crafting Crime - layer it up
Crafty Cardmakers - spotlight on decoupage

Less Is More - a touch of red

I have lots of good intentions about playing along at Less is More, agonise over what to make and find the week has sped by!  So this week I was glad when inspiration struck in good time:).  Tracey at Fred She Said has brought out a gorgeous digi of one of my Spring favourites, the parrot tulip, you can buy it here in both precoloured and digi versions.  Tracey is also having a Spring Sale for the next two weeks, check out the details in store. My tulip is coloured with Copics and matted on to a thin border of Bazzill Bling card, as is the sentiment, which is two Papermania stamps combined.
My cad is for the following challenges:
Less Is More - a touch of red
Paper Sundaes - spring blossoms
Allsorts - blooming blossoms
Stamp Something - digital
The Rubber Cafe - spring flowers

Some Neglected Stash for a Sunday

 Happy Mothering Sunday to all Mums everywhere.  I'm having a quiet day without either son as one is still at University and the other has just started a part-time job and is at work.  Before he went he presented me with a large bottle of "Mother's Ruin" - gin - in this case a blackcurrant gin that is my favourite ever tipple:).

I've finished up a card for the Sketch 'n' Stash Challenge, really the only new stash is the baker's twine, but this is a "neglected" card even though it's not stash as such...  I stamped and watercoloured a seaside scene with my Hobby Arts Scene-It stamps but it just didn't look quite right and it's sat on my desk for months.  Yesterday I trimmed out large swathes of scene by using a Nestie circle on it and I'm much happier with it now and it has made it into a card.

The strip is My Mind's Eye 29th Avenue DP, sentiment is Elusive Images embossed in red, baker's twine is from Quixotic Paperie and I dry embossed a swirly white panel.

My card is for the following challenges:
Sketch'n'Stash - sketch
Tellen's Place - embossing
Totally Papercrafts - one for the boys
Stamping Vacation - pick 3 from a list (I chose circle, dry embossing, sentiment)
Sentimental Sundays - let's get wet
Cards for Men - embossing

Phindy's Place Challenge #49 - humour

 Welcome to Friday, which happens to be April Fool's Day today!  To celebrate, we're not playing any tricks on you at Phindy's Place Challenge, but we are making you smile, I hope, with our funny cards.  The DT have come up with some brilliant and witty cards, do go and check them out, they are fabulous.
I've used one of the Mrs Comfy images, they make me smile without even looking for a funny sentiment, this one is Mrs Comfy and Rose do Coffee  and my sentiment is computer generated.  I've based my card on this week's Simon Says sketch and used Basic Grey Kioshi DP.  Image is coloured with Copics, the purple DP has dry embossed swirls, the Baker's Twine is from Quixotic Paperies and the swirl is die cut with a Marianne Creatables die.

My card is for the following challenges:
Simon Says - Domi's sketch
Cute Card Thursday - couples - couple of friends
Colour Create - pastels
Papercrafting Journey - for the ladies in your life
Claudia & Company - use butter, rose, pale green, lavender
KB Cute Monday - food and beverages
Card Cupids - April Fool's day