Sunday 27 April 2014

Chirrpy chirrpy cheep cheep

My baby sis has a couple of chickens which she keeps in her garden so for an Easter card this image from Stitchy bear was perfect. I coloured the image in promarkers and then as I couldn't get the look I wanted I fussy cut the image and cut the 3 chicks from the end and moved them to the front of the image. 






The card base is white and I layered 3 different yellow papers which I used a Martha stewart corner punch on for added interest. The Blue check paper is a magazine freebie . The sentiment is hand written using sakura gel pen on an oval which I edged with blue promarker.



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

polkadoodles-springtime
Craftitude-anything goes or Easter
suzy bees -things with wings
crafting at the weekend-anything goes
osaat-anything goes
Creative fingers challenge-bingo(I used die cut,image and ribbon -on the image basket)
Dream valley-say it with words
613 Avenue-anything goes



Saturday 26 April 2014

baby popcorn? and my sons new baby


I received this image ages ago in a craft rak swap, I think it a popcorn the bear image. I think he's really cute so i coloured him with the palest brown promarkers I could.

I fussy cut him out as I had an idea of how I intended using him.  I found some card blanks I had forgotten about many of them tri fold cards but A6 size and I found a textured cream card I thought would make a perfect baby card.

In the last Docrafts magazine I bought there was a free Cd which had forever friends images, toppers, bits and pieces and papers to print. I just loved this bumble bee paper and thought it would be just right behind an acetate window.

I added the bear image off set to the corner of the window and the position of the bees gave the card balance.

The layout was from catch the bug  stella sketch challenge but I think I've missed that deadline but it just worked as it kept the focus on the image.




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

A gem of a challenge-cute and cuddly
Incy wincy-furry friends
eureka-CAS
craft your passion-pretty pastels


Lastly I'd like to introduce you to Issy my son's new baby, not human but I'm sure she will be as loved and spoilt by my son. He moved into his own home in january and the saying goes new home new baby and as he is just 20 I'm quite happy that his new baby has 4 furry legs and one very cute face and personality.

Meet Issy 



and here with her proud Dad. I always knew my son was a big softie and he is totally smitten with this kitten.





Friday 18 April 2014

Happy birthday LOTV

LOTV are celebrating their 10th birthday next month and they are celebrating big time with parties on and off line.

Part of their celebration is a month long challenge to make a 10th birthday card for them.

I decided to use this stamp of 2 wee cuties sharing a cuppa. I imagine that the idea of LOTV was initially discussed in this kind of situation not that I know but think it would be great if it was.

I decided to go monotone using creams and browns, I even used cocoa coloured momento ink,

I used my new square spellbinder dies to create a fancy square card and layer base and stamped the image onto a go kreate die. I added a scrap of cream pearlised embossed paper and a cream hand tied bow. The sentiments are hand written onto die cut circles using x-cut dies and a sakura gel pen.


Not my usual style of card but I actually enjoyed making it as a change.
I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges;-

LOTV monthly challenge-make a 10th birthday card for them
little claires -lots of layers
sister act-anything goes
art by Mi Ran-anything goes
QKRstampede-spring celebrations
wags and whiskers-lots of layers


Easter egg bunny

Another Easter card, I know many think of pastel colours for spring and Easter cards but I'm a bright and bold colour girl, don't get me wrong I do think pastels have their place but when Spring bursts into life it does it with a bang in my book.

This is a freebie digi from the Prairie fairy and I coloured him with promarkers. I fussy cut him and mounted him on a die cut of textured yellow card in an oval shape  a bit like an egg.

I hand wrote the sentiment using sakura gel pen .

The background paper is made up from more small squares of paper stuck together to make a patchwork effect. I used the sakura pen to add stitching along the seams.

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


Craft your passion-bunnies,chicks and eggs

papermakeups digimakeover- Easter friend

stempelmagie-handmade background

paperminutes-heads only

love ribber stamps-Easter/spring

eureka stamps-easter

Tradtional Easter card

 I made this card for my mum in law, she lives in Tenerife and thinks of Easter in a more traditional way so I felt this image was perfect.

I wanted to make the card bright and spring like so used just bright yellow and white to give a clean fresh look. the white paper is embossed with hearts, the yellow is simply coloured copy paper. The image is from stitchy bear stamps and is coloured with promarkers.

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

ALBC -birds and bees
alphabet challenge-E is for Easter
Open minded crafts-Easter or pastel colours
The pink elephant challenge-Easter
OLLCB-Easter/spring
Everybody art-anything goes
pause dream enjoy-anything goes
sweetstamps monthly challenge-anything goes and embossing
Animals friends-Easter/spring



Monday 14 April 2014

egg head bunnies



I live quite a way from my nephews and won't see them at Easter so i like to send them a fun card. One made so far and I really need to get on with the other but I thought this might appeal to my nephew who's 7.

The bunnies are a freebie digi from Beccy's place and I am quite liking these aperture cards so thought I'd give it a go for 3 on a card. I have these squares of patterned paper from a scrap-booking set from qvc there are loads of them and I've never been sure what to use them for ,so I thought I'd have a go at some paper patchwork.

The stitching is all done with sakura gel pen and the images are coloured with promarkers.


The sentiment is  hand written again in sakura and the banner is an autoshape from microsoft word package coloured in promarkers again.



The bunnies peep through the apertures when the card is stood up.


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

Beccy's place-use a Beccy's image
Just for fun-Easter
Alphabet challenge-E is for Easter
Open minded crafting- Easter or pastel colours





Saturday 12 April 2014

watching the day go by ...

I love this image it so reminds me of lazy warm summer days sitting in the garden  listening to the water tumble into the pond from the waterfall as the bees hum collecting pollen from the lavender and other flowers and the birds sing or feed their babies on the bird table. It is a time when I have the time to sit that i can truely say I am at peace, as i can drift into daydreams and not worry about all the things life throws at us or the housework or even the gardening that I probably should be doing.                                                                                    This stamp is one of many available from sugar nellie  and was among the first I bought from there as I just love her. She is called Daisy  I think and if not I think she ought to be.
I decided I would keep this card mostly white as its a colour i love for summer though don't wear that much as its not that practical especially when lifting wheelchairs in and out of cars or doing the other jobs of life but i can dream.

I stamped her onto a fancy spellbinders die cut circle and coloured her with promarkers and had a try at using a dotty technique for her grounding and sky.

The base of the card I used a die-sire embossing folder and some embossed dotty paper sorry mot sure which folder that one is . I added a die cut swirl and some punched daisies to embellish. To give a fresh feel to the card and add some warmth I added yellow centers to the embossed and punched flowers.




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

The sugar bowl-Easter or spring
craft your passion-no designer paper
sassy studios-make your own embellishments
catch the bug-springtime
A gem of a challenge-spring is in the air
sweet stampin-flowers
Allsorts-spring blossoms





Friday 11 April 2014

A different kind of fast food

 A card for my stock pile of guy cards , I seem to find them easier to make than girly ones guess that's what happens when you have sons and not daughters and hubby and son both work in a place where girls are in the minority big time.

I used this fun LOTV image as the weather has been nice and all the ads on the radio seem to be gearing up for the start of gardening and barbecue season. This cute chappie seems to have made off with the sausages guess they were too good to resist not being charcoal black like many BBQ sausages from my experience. Guess I don't go to the right BBQ parties.

I followed the Saturday sketch from LOTV but not sure if the challenge has closed yet but thought it was a fun sketch. I decided to try and do the challenge at crafty little fairies that was shabby chic or vintage but I've missed the challenge anyway. Have to say I'm not altogether what shabby chic style is when it comes to cards so I went for an aged look with the hope that they will accept it as being vintage.

I used a Kraft base card and add some faded effect dark green patterned paper that I have no idea where it came from as all the bits I used were in my scraps folder. I matted this on some paper that has rusted letters on and distressed the edges with a pair of scissors then added ink to the roughed up edge. I added the plaid paper again roughed and inked edges and the same to the strip of rusted letter paper I layered on top of that.

The sentiment is stamped in momento cocoa ink and stippled with a paint brush using the same ink to soften the white card. I stippled around the image of the dog too for the same reason to age its look. I used spellbinders dies to cut the circles and a sakura pen to add faux stitching as a finishing touch.



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

sentimental Sundays- vintage or steam-punk
As  you like it-stitching real or faux ( this time round faux and although I bought a wee sewing machine just for ding cards I do find faux so much quicker and controllable too even though I love the real thing for embroidery and dress making)
polkadoodles-animal magic
red rubber inspirationals-masculine birthday
time outoptional masculine
fairies challenge blog-vintage/shabby chic


To a special Grandma

A card for a special Grandma who lives in another country deserves to be special too.                                 I decided to use this cute bear from LOTV and try something new for me with my new embossing folders from die-sire. I used a chevron pattern and a daisy pattern to emboss some cram card and then cut a circle from it to make an aperture card. I've seen some lovely ones on the LOTV gallery but I'm quite happy with my first attempt.

The bear is coloured with promarkers (the flower colour inspired by some vibrant wallflowers I have in my garden) and then fussy cut before being stuck to some acetate that I placed behind the aperture, I love the glossy effect it give the backing paper that was a magazine freebie so it isn't the thickest of papers. I have to admit after colouring the bear I had real problems deciding on what colour papers to use for both the backing and the decorative strips I added top and bottom.

I eventually decided that blue would highlight the blue butterflies and the blue and pink paper I punched with a Martha Stewart border punch would tie in the backing paper too think that ones K and co. The sentiment is a tiny peel off that came with a creative nation kit from qvc many moons ago but was the perfect size to add to the envelope teddy is carrying. Hope she likes it. 



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

A creative romance-Eggcellent spring
OSAAT-flowers
papercrafting journey-for a special lady
MAWTT-Easter or spring



For a special mum


We were lucky enough a few weeks ago to have a new The Range store open a few weeks ago so now I have access to even more crafting supplies as the store is next to Hobbycraft and the Range offers competition price wise.                                                                                                           I had a wander around the store and one or two crafty bits fell into my basket and amongst them was this cute stamp which I thought would be perfect for mother's day.                                                                                                                I coloured him in with promarkers and used sakura glaze pens for the tea. I stamped the teddy onto a spellbinders fancy oval and mounted that on a layer of green gingham freebie paper from birds.com and put that on a layer of red copy paper.The sentiments were also something that dropped into my shopping basket and again are from Docrafts at the Range. The roses are from my stash,the leaves are die cut coloured with promarkers.


I decided to make a wee gift box to put my mum's mother's day gift in after seeing a picnic style box whilst having a wander around blogland, with a fab tutorial here. I covered the box in the same red and green gingham and added a die cut butterfly and white ribbons along with more red roses from my stash. The window i added acetate and decorated with a spellbinder fancy circle.









Mum loved both as well as her gift.

I would like to enter these projects into the following challenges:-

brown sugar-mother's day
2 sisters-teddy bears
catch the bug-anything goes
little claires monthly challenge-make a tag
stamping sensations-use dies or punches
crafty hands challenge -anything goes
craftitude-anything goes or add corrugated card or paper
crafty catz-animals
sister act-anything goes






Wednesday 9 April 2014

Lilacs in the springtime

Lilacs in the springtime think that's a song but I thought they would make the perfect image for my mum in laws birthday at the beginning of May. I didn't have a stamp that just has lilac on but I did have this lilac flower fairy. I coloured her with promarkers and added sparkle to her wings with sakura stardust gel pen.

I recently got these grand nestabilities spellbinders dies and I now know why people get addicted to die cutting. i decided to make an easel card using a score pal to make the score lines but decided to keep it simple by letting the image and the fancy edges of the die cuts tell the story so to speak. I used a small fancy circle spellbinder die onto which I stamped the sentiment from LOTV. I finished the front of the card with a hand tie bow.


 The inside of the card I I again used a die cut and covered it with some lilac heart patterned paper and added a go kreate die cut as a place for the message to be written.

I added some flowers and punched leaves as the stop for the card front when opened, I didn't have the exact colours so I changed their colour by using promarkers in the colours I coloured the image in.








I really love the look these dies create you hardly need embellishment and I can already feel another addiction growing-poor bank account.




Sorry about the photo quality but for once the sun was shining but hope you get an idea of how the card looks.

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

passion for promarkers-use a sentiment
paperminutes-more than one fold
whoopsi daisy -things with wings
The ribbon girl april card challenge-spring
Di's digis-spring
scorepal-more than 1 fold and monochrome (hope mine counts as its mostly monochrome
Really reasonable ribbons-flowers or buttons and bows
bearly mine-spring

Sunday 6 April 2014

Bathtime bucket


How could anyone not say 'ahh' when they see this wee chappie, once again from LOTV. This time not only coloured with promarkers but sparkle added with sakura glaze pens. The image base I distressed with brown ink to give extra definition.

I had a plan to increase my stock of male cards so I went with the sludgy end of the spectrum  for the papers and I also thought the browns went well with the bucket colour. The brown dotty papers were scraps from my scraps folder and made a good base for the LOTV sentiment.

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

passion for promarkers-give us a laugh(funny image or sentiment)

cute card thursday-all boy

Allsorts-no flowers

paper crafting challenges-masculine

paper creators-spots and dots

613 Avenue-sights sounds and smells of spring( as spring arrives i see people starting to wash their cars each weekend)

The squirrel and the fox-all creatures great and small

challenges 4 everyone-anything goes

artbymiran-anything goes


Purple fairy

This image by sweet pea stamps is I think a fairy for grown up little girls , well every girl likes some fairy sparkle in their life , she's a little Gothic I think too. I coloured her with promarkers and sparkle added to her wings with sakura glitter pen. She is stamped on a spellbinders die cut oval and added to a white base card on a matt of embossed circles paper. I added two ribbons under the oval. No sentiment as yet as I haven't decided what to add a sentiment on, oval or tag or a simple rectangle banner.








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

Sugar creek hollow-create your own background

my mums craft shop-anything goes

Charisma cardz -anything goes

crafty girls challenge-anything goes

craftitude-anything goes or corrugated paper or card

Art by miran-anything goes

crafty calendar challenges-things with wings

cupcake inspirations-monochromatic

Brown sugar-CAS

Suzy bees bloomin challenge-anything goes

Thursday 3 April 2014

Sweet as cherry pie


Sweet as cherry pie, sitting pretty on the edge of a spellbinders die cut circle. Coloured in promarkers this C C designs cutie wishes a happy birthday with a blue peel off sentiment on a base of birds.com blue gingham and magazine freebie cherry paper matted on a base of red and onto a white base card.

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

4 crafty chicks--colour an stamped or digi image
creative knockouts-for a child
4 crafty girls-anything goes
papertake weekly-anything goes optional Easter treat holder
just add ink-layers

Tuesday 1 April 2014

Puss in boots with a dash of red

This card uses one of the many fab LOTV images but is just so super cute I decided to go for a more elegant look by using shades of grey, black, white and a dash of red.
I used promarkers to add colour and mounted on a black oval cut with a spellbinders die.
I layered the oval on white embossed card that has a quilted effect and layered this onto red pattered mirri-card. i love how the light catches it and gives highlights of gold.
The sentiment is also LOTV just inked up in black and all topped off with a hand tied bow.


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

love rubber stamps-anything goes
allsorts-use those dies
the squirrel and the fox-inspired by a book( more a story but a children's book)
hiding in my craft room- anything goes
As you like it-favourite animal and why( I love all animals from the fish and frogs in my pond to the unconditionally loving pet dogs I have been fortunate to share time with but at the moment I love the cat that decided to live on my patio 2 years ago, when he arrived you could see his ribs and he had lumps of fur missing. He never tries to come in the house and makes me laugh with his laid back attitude. I think if I come back to earth I'd like to be a cat, fed daily and laze in the sun with nothing to do.