Brown, Blue & Cream

I think this is a lovely colour combo and it's been set by Tasha over at Sophisticats for our latest challenge.

I decided to (finally) ink up my new HouseMouse stamp I bought at the NEC and made this baby boy card, how sweet is that mouse? He's stamped with grey Memento ink, which gives a lovely soft image & I've coloured him with Koh-i-noor pencils.

Stampin' Up! used:

Sentiment - Whimsical Words (SAB set)

DSPs - Bashful Blue Designer Series

Cardstock - Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip

Other:

Martha Stewart punch; card candy from stash.

I'm one of those "odd" people that adore rodents, I know some people hate them, but I think they're gorgeous, in particular rats & mice (I can see you shuddering at the back LOL). Last year my daughter and I got ourselves two cute little ratties and called them Morris & Milo, like all animals they had very distinct personalities, Morris was the leader, the greedy boy & more adventurous of the two, whilst Milo was quieter, more cuddly & not as daring as his brother. Sadly we had to have Milo put to sleep last week, as although he was only 8 months old he'd developed a brain tumour, which is fairly common in rats, but it was so upsetting for us, and he will be sadly missed. We didn't want to leave Morris on his own as rats are sociable creatures, they live in colonies and shouldn't be kept on their own, so on Saturday we got ourselves two new little fellas, who have been named Seymour & Bertie. Seymour is very shy, and keeping himself to himself at the moment, whilst Bertie is Bold Bertie and very bright & very nosey - I think he's going to be a handful! They're in a separate cage at the moment as they have to be introduced carefully to Morris so there's no fighting and so far they've sniffed each other through the bars. So although we still and always will miss Milo, these two new boys have helped to cheer us up & hopefully Morris too.

Anyway that's enough of my rattie waffle, hope you can join us at Sophisticats again this fortnight! And looking forward to seeing your blue, brown & cream creations.

TFL x

Sophisticats DT Card - For a Child

This is my DT card for Sophisticats this week as our theme is "Card for a Child", we're being sponsored by Cardmad Fairy and she very kindly gave us some images to use on our cards, and I used this sweet little girl called Sally, coloured with PM's.

Rest of the card is Stampin' Up! as follows:

Sentiment - Fun & Fast Notes

DSPs - Sweet Always (retired)

Cardstock - Pixie Pink, Whisper White

Eyelet Border punch.

I've made another card for this week's challenge:

Last week at my Stampin' Up! class we made a whole bunch of cute & cuddly animals using SU! punches, some of these were cased from the very talented Julie, including this monkey which I thought would be great to use on a child's card.

Yesterday my two fab and talented SU! downlines Kaz & Loraine came over and we made more of these animals and I borrowed Kaz's Fox & Friends and made this card, using the monkey from the stamp set to do the background, along with the circle from Trendy Trees.

Rest of the details (all SU!)

Monkey - made with various SU! punches and Chocolate Chip & More Mustard cardstock

Stamps - Fox & Friends; Trendy Trees

Ink - Chocolate Chip; More Mustard

Cardstock - Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip

Ribbon - Chocolate Chip

Hope you can join us for our challenge this fortnight & TFL x

Oops guess what I forgot!

I was so pleased with myself yesterday, I got back into the blogging hotseat, I caught up with a zillion posts and left comments, I posted the new challenge & the winners post on Sophisticats and totally forgot to post my DT card on here - D'uh!!!

So here it is, better late than never! Gina set the challenge this week & it's distressing so hopefully you can see where I've distressed the edges of the cardstock & paper using my trusty SU distressing tool. For the bird I have shamelessly nicked the idea from my very talented friend Kaz, I've used the gorgeous new two-step bird punch as a template and chalked in the image which gives such a lovely soft effect.

Rest of the details:

Sentiment - SU! Fresh Cuts in Chocolate Chip ink

Cardstock - SU! Bravo Burgundy & Whisper White

Chalks - SU!

Paper,rose & lace from stash

Hope you can join in with the challenge this week

TFL x

Sausage Dog

Isn't he a cutie? Cut on the Cricut from a cartridge I borrowed from a friend (and is on my wish list) I loved this little fella and have been waiting to use him so I set the challenge on Sophisticats this week with him in mind - "It's raining cats & dogs" and you can use cats, dogs and/or rain on your entry.

The rest of my card is all Stampin' Up! as follows:

Sentiment - Fun & Fast Notes

Cardstock - Pixie Pink; Real Red; Only Orange; Ballet Blue

DSPs - Sweet Always (retired)

Ribbon - Chocolate Chip

Word Window punch, slot punch (not available in UK)

Other - Nesties

Hope you can join us this time around, we're running this challenge for two weeks & I'm sponsoring the prize, which is a mixed pack of 6x6 SU! double sided papers.

TFL x

Mint & Lilac

This is my DT card for Sophisticats where our challenge this week is a colour combo - mint & lilac plus one other of your choice and we'd like to see some flowers on your creations too.

Our prize this week has been donated by our lovely leader Lisa and is:

2 downloads of the winners choice from

http://allissaspapertown.blogspot.com/

Lisa's currently trying to raise money to put towards a much needed hip operation, please visit her blog above for more details or click on the banner on my right hand column - thanks x

Here's the details on my card:

Image - Pollycrafts digi

Rest all SU!

Sentiment - Oval All, ink Almost Amethyst

DSPs - Tea Party

Cardstock - Almost Amethyst; Gable Green; Whisper White

Flowers - stamp One of a Kind; Boho Blossoms punch

Ribbon - Almost Amethyst

I'm entering my card into the following challenges:

Bee Crafty - Spring

Fab n Funky - use something new - the sentiment is from a new stamp set, first time I've used it

Sweet Sketch Wednesday - sketch

Hope you can join us at Sophisticats this week

Love Birds and a DT Call

Good morning from a snowy Shropshire, it snowed yesterday and again overnight so back to the right pain of having snow again, it's only a few inches but enough to be a nuisance! My hubby had to fly to Frankfurt yesterday, but luckily the airport wasn't affected and he got there ok, he doesn't normally go abroad, I don't like him being so far away, and even though it's only until tomorrow I'm missing him loads.

So while he was gone yesterday I made this card for my Sophisticats DT, as it's my challenge this week & I've set the theme of "Love" nice and easy at this time of the year, but it doesn't have to be Valentines, although I'm going to give my card to Kev for Valentine's as he's not seen it.

We've got some exciting news over at Sophisticats this week, not only do we have a new DT member Mandy, who's gorgeous blog can be seen here, but we're also having a DT call as Lisa feels it's time to expand our little team.

Lisa has the details on her personal blog here so pop over for a look here if you fancy joining our team.

So onto the details for my card, quite straightforward as it all comes from a digi kit from Pink Petticoat, apart from the ribbon & the button, which are from my stash; the border was punched with my SU Scallop Border, the oval border done with a nestie and the image coloured with ProMarkers.

I'm entering my card into the following challenges:

Willow Sketchie - Sketch

Fab n Funky - any digi image

DU2DS - Hearts/Valentine

Bee Crafty - Love (using digi image)

Hope you can join us this week & don't forget to check out the DT Call!

Sophisticats Week 19

Good morning and welcome to Monday, didn't that come around quickly! I've finally caught up on the 753 unread posts - that's what happens when you go awol for a few days, so should get round to leaving some love & comments again now!

It's Challenge no. 19 over at Sophisticats and it's a bit of special one this week as Lisa has set the theme and it's in honour of her mum who passed away three years ago, so your challenge is to make a mum/miss you/or tribute project.

I've used the beautiful A Rose is a Rose stamp on my card, I don't have this set yet but I stamped this image when I visited my SU Granny Rachel a while ago and I thought it was just right for a Mum card, I've kept the rest of the card quite simple so the rose is the highlight, with a bit of distressing for added texture.

Here's the details - all Stampin' Up! unless stated otherwise:

Stamps - A Rose is A Rose; Flight of the Butterfly

Inks - Barely Banana, Apricot Appeal, Certainly Celery, Mellow Moss

DSP - Tea & Crumpets

Cardstock - Apricot Appeal; Certainly Celery

Ribbon - Apricot Appeal

Button - Playground Designer Buttons

Cutter kit - for distressing

Sentiment - from stash

Hope you can join us this week & TFL x

Happy Moments

Good morning, it's time for another challenge over at Sophisticats and the theme this week has been set once again by our Guest Designer Teri, and it's "Spring" so looking forward to lots of pretty colours & plenty of flowers no doubt.

I've used one of the new free (yes I did say free!) stamp sets the Stampin' Up! are giving away at the moment (for details see Sale-A-Bration post at the top of my blog), I've inked up the stamp using SU! markers and then water coloured them in. I also recently bought myself a paper piercer and mat pack from SU! and I really enjoyed making all my little holes in my card, very therapeutic and the alignment tool in the pack ensured I got a straight line!

Here's the details - all SU! unless otherwise stated:

Stamp & Sentiment - Happy Moments

Markers - Regal Rose; Rose Red; Bravo Burgundy

Ink - Chocolate Chip

DSPs - Sweet Always (retired)

Cardstock - Regal Rose; Chocolate Chip; Whisper White

Ribbon - Chocolate Chip

Paper Piercer; Mat Pack; Word Window Punch

Other:

Nesties, Pink ribbon from stash

I'm entering this card into the following challenge:

Allsorts - Brown & Pink

Hope you can join us this week - have a good day x

Sophisticats Challenge #17

Ooops, a day late posting this, had 'puter problems yesterday and I didn't get onto my computer at all yesterday - thank gawd for my iPhone at least I could still access the internet, I'd have gone nuts if I couldn't access my emails but blogging's not easy on the phone, so I had a bloggy day off.

So here's my DT card for this week's challenge we're setting you at Sophisticats, we've been joined by the fab & talented Teri this week and she's set our challenge - "Doth the North Wind Blow" rather appropriate for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, who all seem to be shivering in unison! So interpret that how you like and hop over and join us if you can, we love seeing all your entries and we've another lovely prize donated by Lisa this week and have a look at the fab cards the rest of the DT have produced.

I went for a warm cup of hot chocolate as a way to keep warm when that cold wind blows, ooh I could just drink that right now, with a pile of choccie biscuits - shame I'm on a diet!!

Here's the details:

Stamp - digi from Alison Spelman

Sentiment - Stampin' Up! Trendy Trees, stamped in SU! Chocolate Chip

Papers - from FunkyHand CD

Cardstock - Stampin' Up! Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip

Other - SU! Word Window Punch

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Simon Says - Hot Chocolate

Get Funky! - Spots & Stripes

Crafty Calendar Challenge - Keeping Warm

TFL x

Sophisticats Week #16

Good morning! It's a cold one here in Shropshire with the threat of snow again this week - brrrr. Sophisticat Challenges are back again after our little Christmas break and the theme this week has been set by our boss lady Lisa and it's "Fancy Borders" so get out your punches and dies and see what you can come up with! We've a lovely prize on offer too - so pop on over here for a look!

My card is all Stampin' Up! and here's the details:

Stamps - Out of the Box (Level 1 Hostess); sentiment from Flight of the Butterfly

Ink - Pretty in Pink; Certainly Celery; Barely Banana

Cardstock - Pretty in Pink; Certainly Celery; Barely Banana

Ribbon - Barely Banana

Punch - Eyelet Border punch

I'm also entering my card into CRAFTs challenge, which is Thank You

Have a good day & stay warm!

Sophisticats Week 14

Good morning all, it's a wet and windy one here, yuck what a start to the week. However it is a new challenge week over at Sophisticats. A HUUUUUGE thank you to everyone who joined in with my challenge last week, we had our highest number of entrants, over 60, which is fantastic, the winner will be announced tomorrow.

This week our lovely boss Lisa has chosen the theme and she's gone for:

No image - verse & flowers for any occasion

You may have spotted a distinct lack of flowers on my card, that's because I forgot - oops, was so busy on Saturday making all my DT cards for the week ahead and I missed out the flowers, but I've been forgiven - phew!

I used the sketch from this week's Funky Fairy Challenge, so I'm entering my card in there, and also at Cards for Men, as I think this card has a masculine feel to it.

I've used all SU products on my card as detailed below:

Stamps - Silent Night, chalked with SU pastels; SnowBurst (stamped with Versamark)

Cardstock - Whisper White; Chocolate Chip; Real Red

DSPs - Merry Moments

Ribbon - Chocolate Chip Grosgrain

Hope you'll join us again this week, our prize is two week Guest DT spot next year.

Have a good day!

Sophisticats Week 13

It's my turn to set the challenge over at Sophisticats this week and I've gone for "Snowflakes & Sparkle" as I've still got loads of Chrissy cards to do. Lisa our boss, is giving away a parcel of stamped images as a prize, so well worth entering!

Bit of tearing, and lots of glitter on my card, I've done a close up so you can see how sparkly the snowflakes are - even though it's a bit blurry, you get the idea!

Hope you can join us this week, I'm looking forward to seeing all the lovely entries, and don't forget to check out the rest of the DT's fab creations too.

Here's the info:

Stamps - Stampin' Up! Sparkling Jumbo Wheel, Little Paper Shop Tree & Sentiment

Ink - SU! White Craft; Old Olive; Night of Navy

Cardstock - Night of Navy; Old Olive; Whisper White

Other - SU! Heat & Stick powder; Dazzling Diamonds

TFL x

ATC for Sophisticats

An interesting challenge over at Sophisticats this week, in honour of our departing DT member Cheryl (missing you already hun!) who is an ace ATC'er, Karen has set the challenge of doing an ATC or an ATC sized topper for your card. I found this harder than I thought, I'm used to doing card sizes and when I looked at this little bit of card I didn't want to overfill it, but didn't want to leave it looking empty either!

I've used SU! products throughout, apart from the brad & ribbon as follows:

Stamps - from Forest Friends, inked up with SU! markers

DSPs - Haiku (retired)

Cardstock - Chocolate Chip; Whisper White

With a bit of tearing for added texture and there we go, one ATC done!

Hope you can join in with us this week, we've a lovely prize donated by our boss Lisa of a set of her gorgeous sentiment rounds.

TFL x

Sophisticats Week 10 & Lily of the Valley

Good morning, it's time for another challenge over at Sophisticats, we had our highest number of entries last week, so thanks to everyone who entered and hope you can come back again this week.

We've a very versatile theme this week - "Wings" which gives you plenty of options, I took the easy one and went for a fairy! I bought this lovely stamp last week at the NEC, it's a Lily of the Valley and I'm going to enter my card in their challenge, which is a recipe - 3 papers, 2 stamps and 1 embellishment.

Recipe:

Stamps - Lily of the Valley; SU! Stem Sayings

Cardstock - SU! Basic Black; Pale Plum

DSPs & Butterfly - from my stash

Sophisticats - Week 9

Time for a new challenge over at Sophisticats and this week the theme has been set by Cheryl, she wants to see ribbons & buttons on your creation.

I've only got 1 ribbon & three buttons, so I think I'm ok - put it this way she hasn't told me off! Yet!

I've used my new Stampin' Up! set Trendy Trees, in three of the SU! Earth Element colours, More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie & Really Rust and have used good old Stamp a ma jig, to line them up as well as line up the tree trunks, which are stamped in Chocolate Chip. The sentiment is from the same set, also stamped in Chocolate Chip, the buttons are Earth Elements too. I've used a bit of SU! chalk around the edges of the image just to soften the white.

I've used one of my Charisma DT buddies - Vee's sketches, she has a great blog if you're ever stuck for a sketch to use and you can pop over here for a look - thanks Vee, I just needed a push in the right direction and your sketch got me going!

The papers are from a FunkyHand CD - Seasons and I'm also entering this card into the Get Funky monthly challenge, which is Autumn Woodland, along with Crafty Creations, who are looking for Thanksgiving/Gratitude cards.

Cardstock is SU! More Mustard and Whisper White, the ribbon is from my stash.

Hope you can play along with us at Sophisticats this week, we were thrilled with the number of entries we had last week & hope we can better it this week.

TFL x

Sophisticats Week 7 meets Crafty Creations and Paper Blooms

First of all thank you all so much for the wonderful messages of support you've left me regarding our break-in, I'm really touched and appreciate the support & love you've all sent - thanks so much. Feeling ok this morning and determined to put it all behind me, Kev's sorting us a house alarm today, which we didn't have because we thought we were safe here! Obviously not, but it's onwards and upwards and thanks again for all your support.

It's week 7 over at Sophisticats and this week we've got a great sketch set by Lisa.

I'm also entering my card over at Paper Blooms, their theme is Monochrome and also at Crafty Creations as their theme is Blue and my card is done using Stampin' Up! Bashful Blue cardstock and Bashful Blue DSP's, which are gorgeous, I'm not normally a blue kinda gal, but I love Bashful Blue and use it again & again. My cute little mouse is from DigiStamp Boutique and I've just coloured his paws using PM's, a bit of grey around the outline and blue on the snowflake which I've then added glitter to. I've also added a tiny bit of blue chalk around the edge of the circle, which isn't too clear from the pic.

The sentiment is SU! from the set Circle of Friendship (you'll be seeing a lot of this one on my Christmas cards!), layered onto a circle of Bashful Blue, which I've also glittered. I've added some snowflake brads from my stash and that's it!

Hope you can join in the fun this week at Sophisticats.

Cupcake Craft Challenge

Finally got around to entering the Cupcake Craft Challenge, I aim to every week, but somehow never seem to get around to it, I'm only just in the nick of time now as it closes tomorrow. So here's my entry, the theme was Thanks & I've used the sweet little bird from the Stampin' Up! set Fun & Fast Notes, the rest is all Stampin' Up! too, except for the punch for the flower.

Stamp Sets - Fun & Fast Notes; Simply Said

DSP's - Washington Apple

Ribbon - Certainly Celery

SU! Markers - Apricot Appeal; Certainly Celery

Cardstock - Certainly Celery

Off to walk the dog now, as the sun's shining for the moment, but it's a bit in & out & showery today!

TFL x

Sophisticats Week 5

Week 5 already over at Sophisticats and we've a lovely sketch by Cheryl to follow this week and this is my card.

I've used a stamp by Pink Gem Designs, and I'm going to enter it into the Pink Gem's monthly challenge too. I love the hand drawn quality to this stamp and I coloured it with Stampin' Up! Watercolour crayons to keep the whole effect soft, apart from her crown & wings where I've used a Sakura Stardust pen for a lovely glittery look. The sentiments is from the SU! set "Fun & Fast Notes" and I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to place it on the card. I've used SU! DSPs Sweet Always, which are now sadly retired but I still love 'em, SU! cardstock Pretty in Pink and the bling, charm & chipboard corner are all from my stash. I decorated the inside too as I'd already cut out the Princess die-cut and then realised it was far too big for the outside, so put it on the inside instead!

Hope you can join in this week, there's a gorgeous Robin stamp up for a prize donated by Lisa.

TFL x

It's week 4 at Sophisticats

This is my DT card for this week's challenge over at Sophisticats, we're on week 4 already, blimey how did that happen? And this week the Sketch has been provided by the wonderful wacky Stef. It's a great sketch, interesting without being too complicated I think so I hope you'll join in & you can win one of Lisa's own CD's that she designs, which is full of gorgeous backing papers.

I had an absolute nightmare trying to photo this card, no matter what I did I just couldn't get the colours right, they're still not right now, but as good as it's going to get, I'm seriously considering getting myself a small light box for photography, as now the days are drawing in & the good weather surely won't last much longer, I think it'll come in very handy. My hubby (who hates paying for anything as he says he can make it himself (and he's usually right!) cobbled together a light box inside a cupboard when I mentioned I needed one! He rigged it up with white boards, a light, sheeting and all sorts, but I did get better results than I got outside).

Anyway, I've gone for another Christmas card, and it's all Stampin' Up! A couple of weeks ago I visited my SU! granny (my upline's upline in other words!!) and stamped out some images from the lovely Scandinavian Season set (and have now added this to my never-ending wishlist!).

Recipe:

Stamp Set - Scandinavian Season

Ink - Always Artichoke, Real Red

Stampin' Write Markers - Real Red; Pumpkin Pie

Cardstock - Always Artichoke; Real Red, Whisper White

Plus Dazzling Diamonds glitter

Other - Cuttlebug embossing plate.

Hope you'll join us this week.

Sophisticats Week 3

Morning all, bit of a dull day here in Shropshire, but the promise of some sunshine later.

This is my DT card for our challenge over at Sophisticats this week, Karen really stretched us with her theme of "no stamping!" After I picked myself up off the floor and stopped panicking I actually really enjoyed making this card, it just felt so odd not stamping my image - I almost felt like I was cheating - how daft is that?? Karen has also given us a lovely sketch to follow, so maybe give yourself a challenge & a stretch & perhaps do something different this week.

My lovely owls & sentiment came from a scrapping set that a friend gave me, so I'm afraid I don't know where it's from, the DSP is by We R Memory Keepers, and I've punched the flowers out of the same papers to make the flowers, with some brads from my stash. The ribbon is Stampin' Up! and is from the retiring set Fairy Tale Originals which is 50% off - bargain!

Hope you can play along with us this week, we've a fab prize up for grabs from our Sponsor JB Crafting Supplies

TFL x