Kaboodle Challenge No. 5

The theme this week at Kaboodles was "not a card" so I've made a little pyramid gift box instead. I've used Kaboodles papers for the pyramid and the sentiment is also from a Kaboodle download, the image on the front is an SU stamp from the set Fun & Fast Notes, which has been coloured with Sakura Stardust pens for a bit of sparkle. The ribbon on the top is from my stash

Pink Gem Stamp Giveaway

Pink Gem are giving away four of their brand new April release stamps on 6th April, pop over to their blog for the details

3 Challenges - Penny Black, Sketch Saturday & Charisma Cardz

Made this card yesterday which I can use for three challenges this week.

The sketch is from Sketch Saturday's Challenge No. 44, which I really liked.

Penny Black's Challenge - No. 42 was the theme Think Spring, and I thought this little mouse throwing out his flowers had a lovely Spring feeling to it.

And finally, Charisma Cardz were asking for us to use our favourite things on a card, which for me at the moment are definately my Nestabilities, in particular the nested circles & nested scalloped circles, I use these so much and wonder how on earth I managed without them, they certainly make my life easier. I'm now saving up to buy some more of the nested die sets as they're just fab.

So the image is Penny Black as is the sentiment and I've coloured the image in using SU's watercolour crayons, Lavender Lace; Almost Amethyst, Bashful Blue (for the basket) and Apricot Appeal for the mouse. I've put some diamond glaze over the balloon to give it a bit of shine.

The DP's are from a FunkyFairy's set called Funky's Garden, I only bought the set yesterday (as they're having a half price sale) and wanted to use it straight away and the cardstock is SU's Whisper White and Tempting Turquoise. The ribbon is from my stash.

Creative Card Crew - Challenge No. 3

The theme for this week's challenge was to use warm colours and I've really enjoyed making this card & am pleased with the finished result.

I used my brand spanking new SU Playful Petals stamp set, I've coloured it using SU inks Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie & Summer Sun with a blender pen, then I've cut out the image and decoupaged it - oh yes & the leaves are done with Garden Green. The sentiment is also SU from a set called Cheer & Wishes & if you can't read it clearly (not the best photo I admit) it says "Warm Wishes" which seemed rather appropriate for this card.

I've used SU cardstock Summer Sun, and the layer underneath the flower has been cut using an X Cut die. I don't know where the DPs came from as I was given a stash recently but have no idea whose papers they are and I've embossed a strip of the paper with a Cuttlebug folder and chalked over the raised image so it shows a bit more clearly.

My entry for Karen's awesome Copic Markers Candy

For a chance to win an incredible 72 Copic markers, Karen from Charmed Cards & Crafts has linked up with Graphics Direct & all you have to do is show a card where you've coloured in the image, either stamped or downloaded. If you use a Charmed download, then you get two entries! So of course that's what I decided to do as it's a fab prize and two entries are better than one!

I used one of the Girls About Town images, which I've coloured in with Sakura glaze pens and a Stardust pen on her scarf and jumper for a bit of sparkle. I've coloured a couple of the boxes with watercolour pencils and attemped a shadow down one side of the image with watercolour pencils, but I don't think I've done it very well!

I've used Pebbles Ink DP's and a couple of buttons from my stash to finish it off.

Forever Friends Challenge - A Card for Mum

I decided to go for a general female card, rather than a mum card, as Mother's Day has gone and so went for cheery lilac and yellow.

The image is a stick-on, which I've put onto card & cut around and layered up with sticky pads to raise it off the card. The backing papers are from a stash I was given, so I don't know where they're from - sorry and I've layered the papers with yellow card, the flower & brad is from my stash.

It's quite a simple, straightforward card but it took me ages, I kept playing around with different backing papers and couldn't find any I was happy with, I'm quite pleased with the finished result but I'm still not sure about the papers!

Tag! You're it

I've been tagged quite a few times recently & have been very lapse in posting my tags & tagging back! So first of all a couple of photo tag games, the first one is from Collette at Noodlefish (and I thoroughly recommend a look at her work, her button jewellery is fantastic). So the rules are go to your photo's stored on your 'puter, find the 6th folder then the 6th photo in it & post. So here's photo no. 1

Now I don't make a habit of dressing like this, but it's from my Amateur Dramatics folder and this was taken a couple of years ago for a play I was in called "An Inspector Calls"

For the second game, I was tagged by Heather and her game is to find the 4th picture in the 4th folder and here it is:

This a picture of me & my gorgeous girlie Georgia taken in 2006 in Tenerife.

So I now have to pass the tag on and I'm going to tag:

Sarah

Ruth

Charlotte

Gail

Mandy

Rita

Get those pics out girls, as I've chosen 6 then you'll need to play the 6 game I reckon

Creative Card Crew - Challenge No. 2

This is my entry for this week's challenge which was to keep it clean, i.e no designer papers. A couple of weeks ago this would have filled me with horror but since I've been Stampin' Up! I've started making more cards without any dp's on them, and finding to my surprise that I like the clean look.

I've used all SU products on this one:

The image is from the hostess set "A Little Bit of Happiness" which is one of my fav's, and I coloured it with a mixture of SU watercolour crayons and a couple of my own watercolour pencils (ooh so not all SU then! LOL).

The sentiment is from the set "Cheer & Wishes" and I've stamped this with Old Olive ink.

The cardstock is Old Olive and Cameo Coral, and the ribbon is Whisper White

Blog Candy Alert

For everyone who loves Magnolia's stamps, this is a must. Claudia is giving away 6 sets of Magnolia stamps here and you have until 2 April to enter

Blog Candy Alert

Jennifer is giving away a fab candy over at her blog so pop on over & take a look at how you can enter to win all these amazing goodies:

I've won a challenge

Ooh I'm so excited you wouldn't believe it, but I just had a little tip off to check Funky Fairy's Challenge Blog and to my delight discovered I'd won the doorhanger challenge! Not only do I get a fab FF download but a bag of crafting goodies and the fantastic doorhanger that Joanne has made - now doesn't that make me one lucky crafter (please insert big cheesy grin here!!)

Jan x

Charisma Cardz Challenge No. 11

I really liked this sketch and so thought I'd give it a go, I've kept my card very simple and have used Stampin' Up! products completely as they all co-ordinate and make it very easy to put colours together.

The image comes from the set "Simply Said" I've used Pumpkin Pie ink and decided not to colour the flowers in, again to keep it simple against the flowery background. The sentiment is from the same set and has been stamped with Chocolate Chip ink and I've attached both the image & the sentiment with silicon to raise them off the card. The DP is from a gorgeous set of papers called Sweet Always and I've folded the corner over to show off the back of the paper. The three small flowers have been stamped out onto Pumpkin Pie cardstock, which I've used throughout, with Chocolate Chip ink, and just cut around and attached with silicon.

A very simple colour scheme, but I think it gives quite a fresh look.

Driving Test Congratulations

My stepdaughter Katie passed her driving test this week and after quite a struggle to find the image I wanted, I finally came up with this card to send her.

The image is a Forever Friends stick on, which I've mounted onto card, cut around & attached with silicon to raise it slightly off the background, the ripped in two L plate image I found on the internet and again mounted onto card & raised. The map background was an idea I "borrowed", with permission, from my friend Laura, who had used the idea on her own cards which I thought was very clever and I used the Swindon area because that's where Katie lives. The pink sentiment is cut out using a Cuttlebug die, from SU Pink Passion card which is the same as the layer underneath the map. So it's definately a girl's card and I think she'll like it!

The good, the bad & the possibility

The good - was my first ever Stampin' Up! workshop which I held on Friday, I really enjoyed doing it (although was soooo nervous beforehand) but I think it all went down well, the evening was fun & the guests seemed to enjoy themselves. They all liked the SU products and all bought something, so I very excitedly sent off my first order to SU on Saturday.

The bad - was the craft fair I did on Sunday at Cosford - what a let down. I don't know if it was advertised beforehand but there was not a single poster or sign indicating the fair was on, not even for visitors already coming to the museum for a day out, nothing to tell them there was a craft fair on. Results, plenty of people mooching about, but very few seemed to have come with a purpose to look (and buy) from a craft fair. Sales were very poor and talking to other stall holders there, it was the same for everyone. Will be letting the organisers know my disappointment!

The possibility - is that some good may come from the Craft Fair as I had a SU enquiry, I put a notice about hosting a workshop on my table along with a catalogue and had an enquiry from someone who did seem genuinely interested. If this comes to fruition, then it will at least make yesterday worthwhile.

Seeing Red!

Well not really, but thought it made an eye-catching title LOL. But it is a red card, another demo for my Stampin' Up! workshop on Friday using the lovely SU Garden Whimsy set, the more I use this set, the more I love it. I wanted a card using a few of the stamps and came up with the idea of punching circles down one side so you can see the image stamped onto the inside of the card and then mat & layered the front image and sentiment onto white card that I stamped around the edges with the sweet little pair of bugs. Decided to keep the colour scheme simple, red & white and with no colouring in to do, quite a quick & simple, yet eye-catching card.

Funky Fairy's Door hanger Challenge

I just had to take part in this challenge as I already had a door hanger waiting to be decorated! My hubby made some of these from clear plastic a while ago for me to decorate with funky foam, but I never really liked the results I got and so they were put away. When I saw the Challenge over at Funky Fairys Challenge Blog I knew it was time to dig out the hanger and have a go at decorating it, I'd never thought of decorating it with papers before, but now I'm glad I did and will definately make some more.

I used FunkyFairy Doodlementals papers, I put a spotty one behind the door hanger and then stuck the welcome & flowers on the front using silicone to give a raised effect.

2 challenges for the price of 1

One card for two challenges today, the first is for mojomonday which was a sketch, I really liked the layout of the sketch so I decided to use it for this card.

The second is for PinkElephant's Challenge which is a colour challenge to use pink, green & brown.

I decide to combine the two and make a Mother's Day card as it's just around the corner.

The papers and letters are from Funky Hand's Paper Blossom download, the circle and edging has been cut with a Nestability die and the flower embellishments are from my stack.

Quite a simple, straightforward card but I'm pleased with the result.

It's a Boy! It's a Girl!

Two cards made using an SU stamp, can I just say though it's the pictures that are wonky not the cards! They're perfectly straight - honest!

The image and the sentiment are both SU from the "Fun & Fast Notes" set, which I love, it covers so many different occasions and this is such a simple, sweet image. The background papers were a freebie from Sketching Stampers blog and I've used a Cuttlebug embossing folder on the white background. Ribbons and button brads from my stash.

Charisma Cardz Challenge No. 9

The theme was to make a pretty card for mum, I love these papers from Pebble Ink and after using them on a card decided to use what was left to make this card as they definately come under the category of pretty. The image is a Tilda stamp, which I've watercoloured to keep it soft, the sentiment is from the SU set "Garden Whimsy" which I thought worked as your mum is your best friend, the brad is from my stash.

Truly Scrumptious Challenge No. 2

The theme for this week's challenge was to follow a sketch and to use handmade buttons somewhere on your design.

The image is from the SU stamp set "Garden Whimsy" which I've stamped and then embossed, the gorgeous papers are Pebble Ink and the sentiment is also from the same SU set. One of the buttons is made of felt, I just cut a circle from felt and punched in two small holes, the other is from a Button Stamp I have which has been coloured with a Sakura glaze pen & diamond glazed over the top for an extra shiny finish and some dimension. I've also added a sparkly embellishment for a bit of bling!

Blog Award

I've been given this lovely award by Heather, so thanks so much for thinking of me Heather.

I'd like to pass it on to:
Sarah
Nic and
Raspberry Cupcake

Thanks for all your lovely comments on my blog
x

Mega Blog Candy alert

Sassy Designs by Susie has an enormous candy to giveaway, recommend you check it out here

My first Stampin' Up! Cards

I've been having a lovely play with my starter kit and made a few cards ready to demo at my first party next week. Not having papers to play with has been quite challenging, but once I got used to it, I've really enjoyed the challenge of thinking differently and creating cards very simply.

So here's the first batch:
Stamp from "Fast & Fun Notes", and the underneath layer has been stamped with one from "Frames With a Flourish", the ribbon is Whisper White grosgrain ribbon. I think this would make a good man's card.

I love this little bird from "Fun & Fast notes", the background to the card & tag done with a stamp from "Seeing Spots" set & I used my Crop-a-dile to add an embellishment (SU sell the Crop-a-dile so I figured it was ok to use!) to the card & in the tag also and put some Whisper White grosgrain ribbon through the tag.

I love this card but I have to confess that I got the idea from Crafter's Kitchen blog, she has some gorgeous monochrome cards & I adapted this one with SU stamps & am really pleased with it. The image is from "Garden Whimsy", the circle & border have been done with my Nestabilities (but again it looks v. similar to SU punches) and the ribbon is from my stash.

This one is also a copy but this time it's from the SU samples idea, I loved the bright & jazzy colours together & I think I'll use this one for my "Make & Take". The flower stamp is from "Seeing Spots" and the sentiment is from "Cheer & Wishes"

The stamp is from the "Garden Whimsy" set, as is the small bug stamp used as a background, I stamped it onto the "lovely lilac" card with Versamark & then embossed it, added Whisper White grosgrain ribbon & doodled some "stitching" around the edges of the frame.

Another adaption from SU, flower & thank you stamp from "Seeing Spots" and "You're invited" from "Cheers & Wishes"

Pink Gem's Blogoversary Candy

Pink Gem is celebrating her Blogoversary & nearly 50,000 visitors to her blog with a great Candy, a choice of one of her lovely stamps, visit here

My starter kit's arrived

How excited am I? Very! My Stampin' Up! starter kit has just arrived and it's now unpacked and taking up most of the lounge. So many gorgeous stamps to play with, I don't quite know where to begin! I think I'll go and make a card - will post pic later x

Birthday Wishes

I made this card for my gorgeous little step-grandaughter, who is 1 today! Happy Birthday Sophie.

The image & backing papers all came from a Crafters Companion CD, I've coloured the image with Sakura Stardust pens & H2O's, the sentiment is a peel off I've coloured and the number came off my computer, I coloured it with H2O's and used Diamond Glaze on the top of it.