Funky Fairies & Bee Crafty

A great sketch to follow over at FunkyFairies this week and I've combined it with Bee Crafty's fortnightly challenge, which is Love & Marriage and a freebie digi-image to use. I've coloured my image with PM's, apart from the word Love, which I've paper pieced to get the right shade of pink, I've also chalked around the edges with SU! pastels. The papers are from FunkyFairies "Paisley Love" set, the cardstock is SU! Pixie Pink and the hearts have been cut out with a die (X-Cut I think) using my Cuttlebug. It's a very pink card, but "Lurve" should be!!

Digital Tuesday & Papertake Weekly

Well after days of not making much at all, I seem to be on a bit of a roll today, and this card is for two challenges - Digital Tuesday who were asking you to use your scraps (got plenty of those) and Papertake Weekly asking you to use a digital download.

The image is a Digi-stamp called Libby from Digi-Stamp Boutique and I've coloured her with ProMarkers and a bit of Sakura Stardust pen on her skirt; the papers are digi-papers from Funky Fairy; the c/s is Stampin' Up! Barely Banana; the ribbon is SU! Whisper White coloured with a Barely Banana marker to match; the sentiment is also SU! from the ever useful set "Fun & Fast Notes" - I use this sentiment a lot as it's nice and slim, and the very sweet little chipboard flower is from my stash.

I seem to have taken the photo at a funny angle as the card looks curved and so does the ribbon, but in reality it is straight - honest!!

TFL x

Tuesday Taggers No 6

Stamp It is this week's challenge at Tuesday Taggers, I've been meaning to do an entry for this all week & have, as usual, left it to the last minute, but this morning a stamp set arrived that had I swapped for my Playful Petals and straight away I wanted a play and knew exactly what I wanted to do - for a change!

The stamp set I've used is Stampin' Up! "In The Stars" and first of all I stamped three of the stars onto shrink plastic using SU inks - Green Galore, Tempting Turquoise & Only Orange, my intention was to stick these onto the bookmark but then decided against that as you don't want a bumpy bookmark and decided to put them onto the ribbon (which is SU! Whisper White coloured with an Apricot Appeal marker to match), the bookmark is made using SU! c/s Green Galore on the back with some of the Rainbow Sherbert paper on the front, I've stamped out some of the little stars directly onto the bookmark & another three onto c/s, cut out and stuck on along with the sentiment that comes with the set

TFL

The Pink Elephant & Pollycraft Challenges

I've used this week's sketch over at The Pink Elephant and combined it with Pollycraft's theme, which was bling. Now I know there's not an awful lot of bling on this card & the reason is I was so busy deciding on the Pollycraft image to use, finding the papers and putting the card together, I totally forgot about the "bling" factor and when I'd finished and realised my error I felt that the card wouldn't look right with loads of bling on it, so I added the little diamante heart as it fit with the theme of the card and hopefully is enough for the theme of the challenge too!

I've coloured the image in with SU! markers in Bashful Blue and Certainly Celery, to match the cardstock & also used Promarkers, the DSP's are from Summertime Designs and the sentiment is SU! from the set "Cheer & Wishes"

Kaboodle Challenge #7

It was a colour challenge this week and I used my brand new Bella stamps I was lucky enough to win in a blog candy which arrived from Canada this week. The colours were all SU! and I've used SU! products throughout except for the heart button and flower punch as follows:

Apricot Appeal - cardstock, DSP - Rainbow Sherbert, marker on her belt

Sage Shadow - cardstock, marker on dress

Lovely Lilac - cardstock (flowers), marker on her bag

Real Red - DSP - Washington Apple, marker on her bag & boots

Only other colours used - Summer Sun marker on her hair, Cosmic Shimmer paint on centre of flowers.

Charisma meets Rubbernecker

There's a fab challenge over at Charisma Cardz this week with some lovely goodies to win from Rubbernecker Stamps who from today are now shipping their gorgeous stamps to the UK.

There will be four winners this week & you can enter up to 3 times, so hop on over & have a look at the fab designs by the rest of the DT, and get your thinking caps on!

I used the "Party Time" set to make my two cards, which is a fab set with 20 different stamps on it & a great range of sentiments.

For the first card I stamped out two of the present stamps using SU! Pixie Pink & Tempting Turquoise ink, cut out circles & scallops using Nesties on the same coloured card, I used another of the stamps to make the background and used a couple of sticky "ribbon" strips down the side of the card (which are from my stash).

For the second card I went for a more subtle look as I think the champagne glass has a lovely "hand-drawn" look to it & I stamped it out with SU! "Apricot Appeal" ink, which I thought worked quite well for champage. The DSP's are SU! from the set Rainbow Sherbert, the c/s is SU! Bashful Blue and Apricot Appeal and the little diamond bits of bling are from my stash.

Hope you'll join us at Charisma this week & have a go at getting your hands on some of these great stamps.

Polka Doodles Challenge No. 5

I was thrilled to bits when my new Stampin' Up! stamp set "Fresh Cuts" arrived this afternoon. I've had my eye on it for a while and ordered it last week, had to ink it up straight away & decided to use it with the sketch for Polka Doodles challenge. The sentiment is from the same set, I've used SU! cardstock in Very Vanilla & Chocolate Chip, the ink is Chocolate Chip and the flowers, buttons & pearls are all from my stash.

I'm really pleased with this card, and once I had the idea of what I was going to do, it didn't take very long at all.

CRAFT & Papertrey Challenges

Made this card for two challenges this week, a fab sketch at CRAFT (I just love a patchwork look on cards) and have combined it Papertrey's "Flower" theme.

The image is Stampin' Up! from the set "Tea & Crumpets" and I've coloured it with SU markers. I fell in love with this stamp set when I saw it in the mini cat, but every time I use it I'm disappointed with my results, I still see other people use it & think it's fab, but I never like how I use it - if that's makes sense. I may do a "swapsies" on ILWS forum for another SU set as I just don't think I'm making the best use out of this one!

On to the rest of the card then, the papers are Papertrey's "Green Tea", which has such a lovely delicate pattern, the c/s is SU "Certainly Celery" and the sentiment & circle are both SU! from "Circle of Friendship" and "Frames with a Flourish" - another underused set, which I could make more of! The small flowers are also from "Tea & Crumpets" which I've cut out & stuck on with SU Dimensionals.

I'm just not sure about this card, something about the main image (and I think it's the colours I've used) isn't right, but I love the rest of it! Hmm, back to the drawing board!!

DCD Challenge No. 1

Die Cut Dreams have launched their new challenge blog and this week's challenge is Green Fingers.

I don't do much decoupage these days, but I had this sweet potting shed image (sorry the pic is a bit blurry) from Buzzcraft along with the papers, so I thought I'd make it up for this challenge.

Create4Fun - awesome candy

Create4Fun are giving away this amazing candy - a Cricut machine, so if you fancy getting your hands on this baby, head on over to their blog here

Pink Petticoat Flowers

I made these flowers for a Pink Petticoat challenge using PP papers, I simply die-cut hearts out of the negative & postive Pretty Doodle papers in Sunshine, stuck them together and added a button with some thread tied through - simples! Now I need to make a card to put them on!

Today's Class

These are the cards we made at my Stampin' Up! Class today, I wanted to show the versatility of one stamp set to make two very different cards, I have to admit though that both are cased, the first one is a variation of a card in the SU Catalogue and the second is from a very talented SU Demo Julie, who very kindly said I could use her design.

Both cards use all Stampin' Up! products, except for the button brad on card no. 1

Recipe:

Cardstock: Mellow Moss, Bashful Blue, Very Vanilla

Ink: Mellow Moss, Bashful Blue, Versamark

Stamp Set: Simply Said

Recipe:

Cardstock: Only Orange, Pixie Pink, Whisper White

Ink: Only Orange, Pixie Pink, Basic Black

Stamp Set: Simply Said

Plus Scallop Border Punch

Stampin for the Weekend & Digital Tuesday

Made this card for two challenges - Stampin' for the Weekend, which was asking for digital-stamping this week & Digital Tuesday, which had a recipe of blue, brown & bling!

The gorgeous image is from Digi-Stamp Boutique and I've coloured her with ProMarkers, the DSPs are Stampin' Up! from the Bashful Blue set (I'm not normally a blue person, but I LOVE this colour!) and the cardstock is also Bashful Blue, the bling bits are from my stash. I know it's more blue than brown, but I'm really pleased how this came out.

3 Summery Challenges

I haven't cropped this image as it's quite ironic, I take my pictures in the porch and you can see on the window the rain lashing down - yep it's Summer alright!

Anyway, onto the three challenges I'm entering this card for, the first is Stamps & Smiles - The Fresh Batch, which was a sketch, the other two are Nutshells and Scrappy Frogs, both of which had a summery theme this week.

The image is one of the gorgeous Nutshells stamps, I really love their stamps, they're great fun and all have a fab summery feel and I've coloured her with ProMarkers, the papers are from FunkyHand's Seasons CD, the c/s is SU! Tempting Turquoise and I've added two little butterfly stickers which I've put first onto acetate and then just stuck them in the middle to give their wings a bit of lift.

Right let's hope this summery card brings the sun back out again - please!

Blog Candy Alert!

This is one of two gorgeous stamps that Marie is giving away on her blog, you've got until 4 July to enter.

Victoria Case Challenge No. 3

This rather mischievous looking fairy is called Tara and is a free download from Victoria Case stamps, so I've used her for this week's VC Challenge, which was a sketch.

I've coloured her with ProMarkers apart from her wings where I've used Sakura Clear Stardust on them for a bit of sparkle, the gorgeous DSP's and swirl are freebies from Raspberry Road called Rose Garden (I think) and I've layered them onto SU! Certainly Celery cardstock. I haven't added a sentiment yet and may do that when I come to use her.

An origami box for 2 challenges

First time I've made one of these and it wasn't as complicated as it first looked, the hardest part (for me) was cutting a piece of 12 x 12 into 11 x 11 - sounds easy but I'm so rubbish at measuring and then I cut the same end twice so ended up with a 10 x 10 piece! My husband came to my rescue as I was about to have a paddy, took over & I ended up with a lovely, straight square. The upshot of this is that I NEED a ScorPal!! The good thing about this box is you can make it any size you want (phew) as long as the piece for the lid is ½" bigger, so mine's a tad smaller than I originally intended!

The box was the project over at Stamps & Smiles this week & Digital Tuesday's Challenge was also to make a box or bag, so the two challenges went really well together.

I used Stampin' Up! DSP as it's double sided and quite thick, thick enough to make a box and easier to manipulate than cardstock, the paper is from the set Tea & Crumpets. I've also made a band to go around the box and have secured that underneath with a velcro fastener so it's easy to remove & open the box.

The image is a digital image from the Digi-shack and I've coloured it with SU! markers in Barely Banana, Apricot Appeal & Certainly Celery, I've also used some SU matching Barely Banana cardstock to mount it on.

One little card for 3 challenges

I made this little circle card for A Passion for Papertrey's Challenge and have incorporated Simon Says which is pink & brown & The Pink Elephant which is pink, brown & white.

I like to have little "thank you" cards in my stash, so this will come in handy at some point in the future I'm sure.

I've just cut out the largest Nestie circle using SU! Chocolate Chip c/s & scallop circle using small squares of Papertrey's Chocolate Remix papers, the flowers have also been cut out of Papertrey papers, from the Rasberry Fizz mix using a Cuttlebug die, the sentiment is SU! from a "Circle of Friendship" and it's layered onto some more Raspberry Fizz cut out with a small Nestie circle, the button brads are from my stash.

I made the Fave Five

Whoop, whoop, my wedding card was picked as a Fave Five over at Stamp With Us this week, it's such a great feeling and I'll be smiling all day - really gives the old confidence a boost too!

Pollycraft Challenge No. 17

A recipe challenge over at Pollycraft this week:

3 embellishments, 2 papers, 1 image

The image is Pollycraft's Cherry Kisses and I've coloured her with ProMarkers, I printed the papers out a while ago & I've forgotten where they're from! The cardstock is Stampin' Up! Orchid Opulence and Chocolate Chip, the sentiment is also SU! from the set "Circle of Friendship" stamped in Chocolate Chip ink & layered onto a chipboard circle, the 3 chipboard flowers are from my stash. I'm not counting the sentiment as an embellishment which I hope is ok!

Stampacular Sunday No. 10

For the Boys is this week's theme at Stampacular Sunday and so I've done another Father's Day card & this one is going to be for my dad as it's very apt and could so easily be him behind that paper!

The image is another great one from Digi-Stamp Boutique which I've coloured with ProMarkers, I've kept the card very simple, I've stamped up the background with a Stampin' Up! stamp from the set Seeing Spots using SU Brilliant Blue ink (and used the matching cardstock), the brown paper is SU Tea & Crumpets the sentiment is from Elzybells and the brads are from my stash.

Lily of the Valley Challenge 29

Summer Fun was this week's theme which I thought this card would suit. I bought the digi-image this week from Digi-Stamp Boutique, a set of three "Jim" images which will come in very handy for those difficult male cards. I've coloured him with ProMarkers and I've used a Sakura white pen to add highlights but it's come out a bit thicker than I'd like and not as opaque as it's supposed to be, so I'm a bit disappointed with that - back to the drawing board!

The rest is all Stampin' Up! the papers are Rainbow Sherbert, the cardstock is Green Galore & Tempting Turquoise and the sentiment is from "Fun & Fast Notes" I use this sentiment a lot as it's quite slim and fits on mosts cards quite easily, really handy.

Stamp Something & Stamp With Us

Two challenges for this Wedding Card, Stamp With Us has a theme of Congratulations and Stamp Something has a Wedding theme, which combined very well.

I've gone for a simple and hopefully elegant card, which is a bit different from my usual style but I think it works.

I've used a Stampin' Up! stamp and sentiment from the set "Fun and Fast Notes" which is such a useful set, stamped in gold ink & then embossed with SU clear embossing powder, the cardstock is a lovely pearlised cream colour - not too clear in the pic and I've embossed some of the same cs in my cuttlebug and layered with some gold cs, all from my stash as is the ribbon.

Stamps and Smiles & Dottie's World

Another two challenges combined but these two work so well together, I couldn't resist. Stamps & Smiles had a sketch to follow, which I've turned around & Dottie's World was to make it holey, so I cut out the circles that were on the sketch.

I've used a Charmed download "Holly in the USA" but I have to say it's not my colouring in (sadly as it's so good!) I've used a coloured image as the colours went with the papers perfectly so it made sense. The gorgeous papers are digi-papers from Summertime Designs and when I came across them I immediately thought of the Holly image as I knew they'd work well together. The paper on the inside of the card is like a patchwork quilt, so sweet and I thought it'd be fun to have it showing through. I've added some chalks to the edge of Holly, it was too white otherwise and have used an SU sentiment from my much loved & used "Circle of Friendship" inked with Ruby Red & the cardstock is also SU's Bashful Blue

Funky Fairies Challenge No. 19

A recipe to follow this week at Funky Fairies:

1 ribbon

2 flowers

3 buttons

4 patterned papers

I wasn't sure how I was going to fit it all on but as you can see I did!

The image & the papers are Funky Fairy downloads and I've coloured the image with ProMarkers, the sentiment I've done on the computer.

Cardstock is SU! Tempting Turquoise, the two turquoise flowers are K&Co stickers and the ribbon and buttons are from my stash.

Digital Tuesday No. 9

A sketch to follow this week at Digital Tuesday. I've used an image from Inky Impressions that was a giveaway ages ago & it's been in my box waiting to be used. I've coloured her with ProMarkers, the papers are some Papermania I've also had unopened for ages, so it was good to finally use them, the flowers are from my stash & the sentiment is from SU! set Birthday Best, cardstock SU! Apricot Appeal

Tuesday Taggers No 3

The challenge this week was to alter a clothes or similar label, I really liked the idea of this challenge but wasn't sure what to use didn't really think I had anything suitable. Then last week I just happened to be in Costa Coffee (for a change!) and I sat at a table that hadn't been cleared up yet, so I did the usual thing of taking the tray of dirties & putting it onto the next table (also uncleared) and there on the table was a tag off a bag of Costa mini muffins, it was just calling to me, so I picked it up & surreptitiously put it into my handbag, it was destined for the rubbish bin otherwise!

I forgot to take a before picture, but it was just a light brown label with the words Mini Muffins on the front, I inked it up with SU! inks Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip & Summer Sun using a sponge dabber. The picture & word is from some fabric I bought ages ago at a craft fair when I was going to try making fabric cards, (made one & the rest of the material is still in my craft room) so I dug that out, stuck it onto some sticky backed plastic, cut it out & raised onto the tag with SU dimensionals. I've kept the original ribbon on so the coffee theme all ties in. That's my first ever altered item & I'm really rather pleased with it! LOL

Whoops! Too late

It had to happen sooner or later, I totally missed the deadline for this week's Stamp With Us Challenge! I've really got behind with my challenges and I'm making cards right up to the deadline, I did this one yesterday afternoon, then got involved with something with my daughter and totally forgot to a) photo the card & b) enter it onto my blog & into the challenge - D'uh!

So lesson learned - hopefully and I'll try & get ahead of the game again this week.

As I'd made the card anyway, thought I'd still blog it, although it's not a very good pic, I scanned it rather than photograph it, which has worked really well on the last couple of cards, but not this one, the light's a bit wobbly. Anyway all SU & the recipe is:

Stamps - both from Seeing Spots

DSP - from Patterns in Bashful Blue (I'm not normally a blue person at all but I just love Bashful Blue)

Cardstock - Whisper White & Bashful Blue

Ink - all Soft Subtles - Perfect Plum, Pale Plum, Pretty in Pink, Bashful Blue, Almost Amethyst & Lavender Lace

TFL x

Lovely blog candy

Pop over to True's blog for a chance to win this lovely candy - yes it's a ScorPal - ooh I want one of these!

Another last minute entry for 3 challenges

I've used the sketch for Sketch Saturday (which needs to be by Friday morning this week), I'm also entering it for One Stop Craft - "Let's hear it for the boys" and C.R.A.F.T which is Father's Day and a colour theme of blue & brown.

The image is a freebie I've had on my computer for ages, can't even remember where it came from now, the papers are from Summertime Designs and the brads are from my stash.

DU2DS & Digi-Stamp Boutique

This is my card for two challenges, a sketch for DU2DS and using one of the fab Olive stamps from Digi-Boutique, which I was lucky enough to win from last month's challenge. This is my favourite of the three Olive images, but they are all really sweet. I've coloured her with ProMarkers, used SU papers from the set Washington Apple and c/s Summer Sun & Whisper White. The sentiment is Penny Black.

Need to be quick (hence the daft picture & not having time to edit it as my entry for DU2Ds needs to be in by tomorrow & it's now 10.00 pm! Where has today gone?

Stamps and Smiles Challenge No. 17

A lovely simple sketch this week, which gives a nice clean look I think. I've kept the colour scheme simple as well and used all SU! (except for the Gorjuss Girl of course) to keep it all co-ordinated.

Image - Gorjuss Girl coloured with SU markers - Regal Rose; Old Olive

Papers - From the set "Tea & Crumpets"

Cardstock - Whisper White; Old Olive

Ribbon - Whisper White coloured with Old Olive markers

Sentiment - from the set "Circle of Friendship"

My exciting news

Whoop, whoop, I've been asked to be a member of Charisma Cardz DT, and to put it mildly I'm chuffed to bits (insert big, cheesy grin here!).

One of things I love about blogging is the amazing challenges and I really enjoy taking part and get so much inspiration from seeing all the DT's & challengers entries and for a while I've really fancied the idea of being on a DT myself. And now I am! (insert second, bigger, cheesier grin here). I'm really honoured though, it's such a great feeling to be asked & a real confidence boost too.

So I hope you'll all join me over at Charisma, my official start date is 18 June and I'll be setting my first challenge not long after that. See you all there!

Blog Candy Alert!

Ida is giving away a great candy on June 15 to celebrate 7500 visitors to her blog and I'd recommend popping over to her blog for a look

Simon Says.....Animals

Well a worm's an animal albeit a very little one! This very sweet image was a freebie from Victoria Case stamps and I was going to enter him into the VC challenge, but having coloured him in a few days ago, I merrily put the card together today and then realised I should have been following a sketch! Oops! Oh well, I can still him into Simon Says challenge.

I've coloured Willy Worm with ProMarkers and used SU! cardstock in Green Galore & Whisper White, the DSP's are free papers from Summertime Designs, the sentiment is SU! from Circle of Friendship, the flowers are also from Summertime Designs and the little bit of bling in the top flower is from my stash.

TFL x

Blog Candy

This fabbie selection of candy is being given away by The Stamp Man and ends 22 June so hop on over to their blog for details