Pink Santa

This decoupaged card was from a freebie set from a magazine think its Crafters Companion either last Christmas or the year before but as I seem to be a bit stuck where Mr Mojo and Christmas are concerned thought I'd give it a try.

Normally it wouldn't bother me but as I know November is going to be a busy month as we will be spending time with visiting family who live in Tenerife and then my son has some surgery coming up and also his recently fitted Baclofen pump isn't working quite as is expected so we have the worry that the catheter has become dislodged or will need testing to solve the problems with the worst case scenario being the pump needs replacement so that would be another major surgery. 

Anyway the reason I need Christmas cards early is because my brother and family will be visiting early December so unfortunately I have to try and get organised.

The card I used a white base card and simply added elements from the kit, its a bit strange not colouring but its good to do something different for a change.

The sentiment is simply a pink peel-off but I think it worked well.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges;-

Bizzy Bec's - anything goes

Nana Seaside - anything pink

OLLCB - in the pink

Crafty Sentiments - pink

Through the craft room door - always anything goes

Clean and simple merry Christmas

This card is for my youngest nephew and I decided as I have been having problems with my mojo I decided to keep it clean and simple.

The image is a digi ,the farewell image from pollycraft and I thought it would be good for my nephew. I coloured it with promarkers and then fussycut it out.

I used a square white base card and stuck it to the bottom right corner. The 'merry' I decided to make as a banner on the left upper corner. The papers were scraps from a forever friends paper pad cut into triangles and the letters written on in black pen.

A simple card but it will do its job.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges;-

that's crafty - boys will be boys

The paper shelter - for the man in your life (well one of the many in my family)

creative inspirations - C+S or fussy and fancy

A snowflake promise - winter/Christmas

Creative moments - spots and or stripes or anything goes

Artbymiram - anything goes

My first Christmas card

I know many crafters

 have started making Christmas cards ages ago but I like the rush of making all mine last minute when its cold and dark outside often wet or snowy. I have had real problems getting my head into gear to make this Christmas card and it has taken me 3 weeks to actually put it together, and I now have a couple more to make early too as we have family visiting soon and we send them home with all their Christmas gifts and cards so I have to get organised.

This card is for a teenage boy such an awkward age when making cards as they are neither young nor adult. I decided to go down the line of masculine colours on a fun generic winter image.The stamp I think is Whimsy and I coloured with promarkers and cut out onto a circle with a docrafts X-cut die. 

The papers are from Lili of the Valley and I love the black snowflakes it just gives it a more masculine feel . I used a kraft base card and followed a sketch from Atlantic hearts. The brads are from craftworks and the sentiment strip is from a set by Kanban eons old and only the dregs of the set survives like this strip now.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges;- 

Stamp and create - brown or kraft

Christmas card challenge - anything goes

Atlantic heart sketches - layout

A snowflake promise - anything goes with winter 

Inky impressions - make it krafty

fab n funky - make it square

crafty creations - don't be blue

addicted to stamps - anything goes

Julia spiri - die cuts and punches

2 crafty girls - dies

A tag to match wrapping paper

My mum is getting organised and has already started buying Christmas presents and although she has wrapping paper she wanted some tags that would match the paper. The paper is quite cute and has tatty teddy on it and although I don't have a tatty teddy stamp I do have a stamp that is just as cute.

The wrapping paper Mum used is this,

I decided to pick up on the beat and the fairy lights and although my teddy stamp doesn't have a Christmas Santa hat on I think it works.

I coloured the bear with coloured pencil and I hand drew or doodled the lights using a black pen and Sakura gel pens.

The sentiment is also Sakura gel pen, I made 8 in total to match each of the gifts Mum has wrapped in this paper.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges;-

Allsorts - no designer papers

Sweet stamps - anything goes

The Craft Barn - light

Craft your passion - anything goes

Artistic Inspirations - anything goes/Halloween

Crafting from the heart - anything goes

613 Ave Create - anything goes or use free sentiment

Cupcake Inspirations - forest friends

Passion for promarkers - doodle

Little red wagon - tags

From Himalayan poppy to Californian

A little while ago I was lucky enough to be a random winner at Aurora wings and got to choose some of Mitzi's wonderful images in digital form. I love this one she is just so pretty, and is called Himalayan Poppy. I love blue as a colour but decided the poppies would work well in other colours too and as its autumn and I have had some Californian poppies in my garden this summer as well as some pink and purple ones,who knows what other colours she will end up.

I coloured the images with promarkers and decided to keep to autumnal colours, I have decided I would love hair like hers with tones of rich chestnut and pink and burgundy too but not sure how brave I would really be. The ribbon was white but I used the pinky colour trick or treat to compliment the colours I used in the image.

The papers are some I got from a computer fair years ago still not sure what they had to do with computers though but I do love the embossing and sheen they have.

The layout is simple and although I didn't add a sentiment is based on the Sketch Saturday layout.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

Little miss muffet - anything goes

As you like it - colours or monochrome

( personally I love colours all the way as they can just change your mood, but monochromes are great for males and for making clean fresh looking cards and often classy)

crafty gals creation - anything goes

Crafty catz - embossing

creative fingers - anything goes

crafting with friends - anything goes

colouring crazy with graphit markers - autumn or christmas colours

my time to craft - autumnal colours

sketch saturday - layout

the daily marker - 30 day colouring challenge

fussy n fancy - autumnal colours

come and get it  - happy fall y'all

catch the bug october theme- fall

The ribbon girl - any image challenge

The Pencil case - D for dark autumn or halloween

Guest designer for Quirky crafts

I was lucky enough to be one of the winners at quirky crafts a short while ago and was given the chance to be a guest designer on this challenge.

Cazzy provided me with 2 digi images provided by their sponsors and the challenge is to use only 2 colours,with the exception of hair and skin. 

My first card uses digital delights jumping jemima, and the 2 colours I chose to use were purple and green. I think the image is such a fun one and it made me think of my young neighbour jumping on her trampoline in her garden, not that she looks anything like this though.

I decided it would make a fun Halloween card for her and so decided to keep to Halloween type colours and use orange for her hair. I coloured her with promarkers, I know it looks like I used dark grey on the trampoline but winter spruce and frosted leaf are actually greens, as is the khaki I used for her boots and the purples I used are all different shades too.

The papers are from bird's free digital papers and are scraps from my bits folders.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

A bit more time to craft - anything goes

My whimsical little world - anything goes

Julia spiri - anything goes

Crafting by designs - anything goes

Not just cards - anything goes

papertake weekly - anything goes or Halloween treat holder

crafty sentiments - anything goes

through the craftroom door - anything goes

fan-tastic tuesday - use 2 different pattered papers

penny's - anything goes

CRAFT - autumn/Halloween/thanksgiving/bonfire night

simply create too - Halloween colours

Creative corner - Halloween

The pencil case- autumn or Halloween

My second card uses Sweet pea stamps fairy on a stool image. The 2 colours I chose this time are pink and brown again there are so many shades of each it becomes easy to complete an image using only 2 colours and this time that included my images skin and hair too.

I also added some clear glitter gel pen to the fairy wings, well you can't have a magical fairy without a little magical glitter sparkle can you?

The papers are again from my scraps folder and I think they are both digital papers from a set at stitchy bear.

I finished the card by adding some rich brown pearls to the corners of the layout.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

Inky chicks - think pink

Live,love crafts - pink again

MAWTT - fairy nough

artbymiran - anything goes

unicorn challenge - think pink

Crafting when we can - whimsical with wings

the daily marker -30 day colouring challenge

Crafty friends - gems and or pearls

craft your passion - anything goes

Beccys place - anything goes

clear it out - things with wings and glitter

simply papercraft - anything goes

Deep Ocean - fairies/angels

fab and funky - sassy ladies

Autumn leaves for retirement

There are many autumnal challenges around at the moment and recently I was lucky enough to be a top 3 winner at a bit more time to craft and won some fab digital papers to go along with their freebie Friday papers.

 These autumn leaves are one of those and I decided they would work so well with this lovely stamp from Sugar Nellie.I coloured the image with promarkers and then fussy cut the image before sticking directly onto the card base.

I decided to keep the card quite clean and in keeping with autumnal colours I used a Kraft card base.

 I added the leaves paper in a band and edged it with gold strip peel-offs. I added a sentiment of 'on your retirement' again a gold peel-off. card finished.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

The sugar bowl - anything goes

one sweet challenge - fall or all souls day

simon says monday challenge - autumn is in the air

come and get it - for the boys

Allsorts - nature

IDIC - leaves real or faux

whoopsi daisy - hand coloured image

stamping sensations - colours of autumn

the craft barn - people

Eureka - autumn leaves/fall colours

crafts 4 eternity - woodland

cute card Thursday - masculine

Noor!designs UK - Halloween/autumn

Time out - quote for inspiration

scrap and craft - colours of autumn

Paradise of stamps - Boy

Starsstampz - add a sentiment

Karleigh Sue challenge - Kraft

Patchwork potted mouse

Happy Friday all hope the sun shines upon you all again at some point today, unless you are really desperate for rain of course. 

Today I have an anything card as depending on what sentiment I add I think I could use it for quite a few occasions. I used my 3rd  house mouse stamp that I treated myself to when I bought Martini mouse to make hubby's birthday card well it meant I didn't pay p+p so made them cheaper my excuse anyway. I just think this wee one is so cute and I love daisies so even better.

I coloured the image with promarkers and used a die cut oval to cut it out. The scrap of card I stamped it on wasn't quite long enough to fit the whole oval on but a happy accident as I actually quite like the two flat ends as I think it makes it look just that little bit different.

The base card is white and I used some squares of ready cut papers that came in a scrap-booking set from one of the TV craft channels not sure which as I've had it quite a few years and am down to odd bits from the set. I simply cut them to size to make a patchwork effect and it reminds me of a thick winter bed-quilt that you could snuggle under and instantly feel warm particularly with the rich colours,though that wasn't intentional either just the squares I chose randomly.

I wanted to add something but wasn't sure what as it didn't quite look finished, I did contemplate adding stitching to the squares to look like over-sewing but decided that might make it look too busy , so I opted for adding some cross stitch around the image using a purple sakura gel pen.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

Polkadoodles - favourite card shape

(must be my favourite as I make more this shape than any other ,guess I ought to make an effort to try some other shapes)

catch the bug - autumn colours

quirky crafts - sewn with love

House mouse - fall/halloween/anything goes

die cutting divas - anything goes

passion for promarkers - patchwork

papertake weekly - take your pick colour theme

Simply papercraft - anything goes

crafty girls - anything goes

crafting with dragonflies - anything goes

The craft garden -autumnal colours

fussy n fancy - autumn colours

Metalic wings

I was lucky enough to be made the random winner at aurora wings challenges which meant I had $20 to spend in their online shop so although it was a very hard choice I decided to choose some of the fab digi stamps on offer and even that took a lot of work as my short list was over 20+. 

The nice thing though is that Mitzi has her art work there too so it was easy for me to take inspiration from them as to how to colour the images I chose. Now please don't get me wrong I am no where near as talented as Mitzi but I was extremely pleased with the results I achieved and having her art work as reference gave me the courage to choose some images that I wouldn't normally dream of choosing like the one I used here.

I got this fab steam punk owl in a set with a steam punk angel and as you may have guessed stream punk isn't something I've ventured into before mainly as I wasn't really sure what it was or how I could make it work. I am so pleased I chose this image as it makes such a great masculine card and different from the usual male cards of sports , alcohol relaxing in one way or another or eating as so many male cards including those I make do.

I had recently treated myself to some gears dies so timing was meant to be. I cut them out in gold mirri card and used them to accent the card. The base card is kraft and I sprayed with a gold and tawny silver spitz from moonglow, well even boys can have a bit of sparkle.

The owl I coloured with promarkers and then fussy cut it out , I didn't think I'd done a bad job until you look close up in the photos and I can still see bits of white card around the edges ,but of course now its all stuck down its a bit late.

That's it really quite a simple card once all the elements are prepared.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

Tuesday throwdown - clean and simple

Timboscrapmania - use some metal

Aurora wings - anything goes/things with wings

The stamping boutique - no designer paper

Simon says - no designer paper

That craft place - mixed media anything goes

Sweet stampin - use non white card base

crafty boots - gold or silver

OLL creations - use kraft

creative card crew - masculine

cardz 4 guys - something beginning with M
(metallic mirri- card)
The male room - autumn /fall
(I chose the colours and that you are more likely to see owls)

Chocolate coffee cards - animals

I love promarkers - masculine

Harvest festival stateside style

In the UK when it gets to this time of year many schools and churches will be starting their harvest festival collections to be later distributed to those in the community in need or the elderly. In the USA they do have a similar celebration in November but for a slightly different reason and they have a national holiday to celebrate and they call it thanksgiving.

Mum has friends in the USA and so I made this card for her to send to them. I think the image is from Beccy's place but am only guessing as it was another that I never got around to using when I received it in a stamp image swap and again there was no name or company on the reverse.

I coloured the image with promarkers , then fussy cut the image. I layered the image on 3 different bird's cards free papers which I cut to shape using one of the free templates from Lily of the valley. I used a square base card which I made into a shaped card using the same templates.

The sentiment is hand written.

I would like to enter this chard into the following challenges:-

Stempelmagic - don't be square

Deep Ocean - autumn

QKR - cats or dogs

Simply create too - autumn splendor

If you give a crafter a cookie - happy fall yall

A gem of a challenge - autumn

HIMCR - any holiday

Make my monday - autumn colours

Try it on tuesdays - autumn

Crafting for all seasons - autumnal hues

creative moments - autumnal colours

crafty creations - autumn colours

Noor design Uk - shaped cards