Blue and green should never be seen?

That's the theme of this weeks challenge over on the Papertake blog. I often use blue and green together, I think it's a lovely colour combination!



The patterned paper is from the K&Co 'Small Wonders Boy' range and the main image is a Magnolia stamp. I cut down the Magnolia stack of gifts to make a smaller stack and mounted them on foam pads - the stamped definition is on foam pads too.

I think green and blue look pretty cool together!

Look - no patterned paper!

There's no denying it, I love my patterned paper! It is very, very rare for me to make a card without using at least a little bit... but this card has none at all! If I'd sat down yesterday and tried to do that deliberately, I'd still be sitting here now! This card is one of those that just came together and I really love it. I'm thinking that it would make a great Christening or Confirmation card. I followed this week's ISMAKI challenge sketch..


The central panel is white card, embossed with Swiss Dots on my Cuttlebug. The lace, ribbon, flower etc are from my stash. I had this new church stamp from Magnolia last week, I thought it would be perfect for wedding cards. The church building I coloured in a very pale grey. The windows I watercoloured first, then I went over the individual panes with a clear Sakura Glaze pen. It gives them a nice 'glassy' look. I drew the little hearts with a Zig pen and coloured them in then added a little Stickles to the flower. The church panel is raised from the background on foam pads. I am really pleased with this card!

Look - no patterned paper!

There's no denying it, I love my patterned paper! It is very, very rare for me to make a card without using at least a little bit... but this card has none at all! If I'd sat down yesterday and tried to do that deliberately, I'd still be sitting here now! This card is one of those that just came together and I really love it. I'm thinking that it would make a great Christening or Confirmation card. I followed this week's ISMAKI challenge sketch..


The central panel is white card, embossed with Swiss Dots on my Cuttlebug. The lace, ribbon, flower etc are from my stash. I had this new church stamp from Magnolia last week, I thought it would be perfect for wedding cards. The church building I coloured in a very pale grey. The windows I watercoloured first, then I went over the individual panes with a clear Sakura Glaze pen. It gives them a nice 'glassy' look. I drew the little hearts with a Zig pen and coloured them in then added a little Stickles to the flower. The church panel is raised from the background on foam pads. I am really pleased with this card!

It's that time again..

Gosh, the 25th has soon come round.. which means that once again it's Rudolph Day! Over on the Cardmaking Forum at UKScrappers, some of us are aiming to make a few Christmas cards on the 25th of each month, hopefully this will avoid the last minute panic in December!

While I was blog-hopping earlier, I noticed that Fabrizio has also issued a monthly Christmas card challenge. Why not pop over to his blog to see what it's all about?

I showed you one Christmas card in my last post, that one was made for the challenge at the Scrummy Stash Cafe, but here are two more I've made.


I wish I'd made note of who this paper is by before I stuck it down.. and I wish I'd bought more of it too! The Tilda and Edwin stamps are by Magnolia and the Dec 25th stamp is by Stamps Away. I've added a bit of Stickles for some snowy sparkle!



Another Magnolia stamp for this one, I just love all their stamps! I've used a torn strip of glitter spot vellum over the background paper for a bit of sparkle, The snowflakes were cut on the Cuttlebug from Doodlebug sugar-coated cardstock, so they are very sparkly too! The greeting is from the See-D's 'Christmas Greetings' set, stamped and heat embossed in silver.

Two cards today!

This week's challenge at the Scrummy Stash Cafe is to use numbers. As I don't have any special age events coming up, I decided to use my new 25th Dec stamp and make a Christmas card. Well... 25 is a number, so it does fit the challenge yes?

The sparkly background paper is from the DCWV Christmas stack, the stocking stamp is by Magnolia and the tiny tags and 25th Dec stamp are by Stamps Away. As you can see, I've been playing with my new Nestabilities dies again!

Now for the second card. This weeks challenge at Tilda & Co is to make a Get Well card - here's mine.

The Magnolia teddy bear is perfect for sending a hug, I've mounted him on foam pads to make him stand out. Paper is from the K&Co Hopscotch Boy range and I added a bit of bandage, a safety pin and a small tag to finish off the card.

Arty Girlz - Green

I made another card yesterday, this time for the challenge at Arty Girlz. The postie brought a couple of new Magnolia stamps, including the wrought iron fence.. perfect for a green outdoorsy card!

The paper is from the 'Fresh Linens' range by Front Porch, the fence, grass and blossom stamp are all by Magnolia. I used a Sugar Nellie stamp, coloured with watercolour pencils and mounted on foam pads. The sentiment stamp is from the SeeD's set 'Circle Words', mounted on circles cut with Nestabilities dies.

I'm way behind...

I'm way behind with my challenges this week. Earlier in the week, I had this daft idea to spend a couple of hours tidying the shelves in my craftroom. Hours?? It took days... really it did. I found stash I'd forgotten I'd bought, stash I'd meant to put away after using but had just pushed into any empty space, there was stuff everywhere! Sound familiar? It really was in desperate need of a good sort out, and I'm so glad it's done... but it's put me way behind with this weeks challenges!

I've just finished this card using the ISMAKI sketch #7


The papers are Blonde Moments 'Sugar Dumpling' and the wedding cake stamp is from Studio G. I added two rosebuds I found lurking in a box, some Prima flowers, a bit of sparkle with Stickles and a metal heart charm.

Hopefully I'll be able to catch up on a couple more challenges over the weekend... if I can find things after my tidy up!

String-Aling!

There's a great card challenge this week on the Tilda & Co blog, it's called 'String-Aling'.
'String, I would like to see the use of string on your Art Work, be it a bit of tying holding the project together, or what about it being the main focus of the work? Or even could be used as a hanger to hang your project up. there is many uses of string on artwork , so please get exploring and see what you can come up with.'
I'm like a magpie with string, I have a little jar full of bits saved from parcels, wrapping etc.!



Here's the card I made for this challenge. I used some knotted parcel string on the edge of the matting under the stamped image of Edwin fishing. After I'd inked the stamp, I wiped off the fishing line and float before I stamped the image. My idea was to use very fine string for the fising line, but I'd used it all up, so I had to make do with some fine black thread instead. I cut three hearts from cardstock and stuck them together, trapping the thread inside them before colouring the heart red. The other end of the thread is stitched through the paper at the end of the fishing rod, so that the heart swings freely. I coloured the fish with Sakura Glitter pens and they look very shimmery! I created the sentiment in PaintShop Pro and printed it directly onto the background paper.

This was a really fun card to make... I really must keep my eye out for some more fine string :)

Love and friendship

This week's challenge theme at Daring Cardmakers is to 'make a card in the theme of love and friendship for one of the special people in your life.'
Here's my birthday card for a special friend :)



I've no idea who the background papers are by, I've had them in my scrap box for so long! I used Nestabilities dies for the ovals and a stencil template to cut the hearts down the right hand side. Tilda is mounted on foam pads. Stamps are by Magnolia, SeeD's and Stamps Away.

Two posts in one day....

now there's a first LOL I just finished another card and managed to get a photo of it before the light starts fading.

This card is for the 'Stamping' challenge at Arty Girlz. I know I use stamps on all my cards, but they are usually watercoloured and I wanted to do something different for this challenge. The background is a muted swirly blue/lilac/green and I used the same paper to stamp my two images on before matting them on pearlised card. The lace background stamp is by Inkadinkado and the hydrangea stamps is by Anna Griffin. I used denim blue Adirondack ink for the stamping. The velvet ric rac is in fact deep purple, though it doesn't look very purple in the photo!

yummy stripes

I'm a bit of a sucker for stripey paper, if there's a new line of papers out I always seem to pick up the stripes and dots papers before anything else. So when I saw this weeks 'Simply Stripes' challenge over on the Papertake blog, well... I knew I had striped paper aplenty!

I bought this lovely Christina Cole paper ages and ages ago, it's one of the few papers I bought several sheets of as I love it so much. I don't have much of it left now, so I'm getting a bit miserly with it! I'm still playing with my new Nestabilities dies... I'm using them in a Cuttlebug machine and they are brilliant! So far I have ovals and circles - next on my list will be rectangles :)

Kissing frogs...

I've been playing with my oval Nestabilities dies that arrived yesterday!
This card is for this weeks sketch challenge over at ISMAKI The sketch was just perfect!


Background papers are from a Brenda Pinnick stack, stamps are by Magnolia, I home printed the greetings , ovals cut with Nestabilities dies and a Queen & Co sparkly flower and brad. The felt flower is from a pack at my local pound shop. The frogs crown has three bright yellow glittery Stickles dots at the top (I love my Stickles!) I used a white Uniball Signo pen to mark the white dots on the large green oval.

Two challenges in one day...

Yesterday was so nice, the sun was shining in my craftroom and I had time to play! I ended up making these two cards for challenges...

The first one is for this weeks challenge at Daring Cardmakers -this week we had a sketch to work from. The background paper is from a stack by Brenda Pinnick and the birthday cake stamp by Magnolia. I used a super duper punch for the white scallop circle and finished it off with gel pen and Stickles.




And this card is for the challenge at Scrummy Stash Cafe. The theme this week is Love, and I decided that rather than make a mushy card for 'im 'indoors, I'd make a birthday card for my special friend 'cos I love her to bits :) This is a kickstand card so I've added an extra photo to show how it looks both closed and standing open. I'm really pleased with it, I can see me making more of these kickstand cards. The background paper is from my scraps box, the main stamped image is by Sugar Nellie and the swirl stamps are part of a floral set by Rhonna Ferrar (Autumn Leaves). The tag stamps are from a set by Stamps Away. I really enjoyed making this one :)

Baby love

I am spending far more time lately visiting other blogs. There are so many talented cardmakers out there whose work I admire, I love to see their latest challenge cards and I can only wonder at the thought process that ends in these wonderful creations. For me, I guess that's what blog surfing is all about... picking up inspiration, seeing how colours work together and how other people interpret a challenge. Many times I've looked at a card and thought 'how come I didn't think of doing something like that?' But that's what makes us all different... my cards are my cards and I enjoy making them using the supplies I have to hand.

So yes, I do enjoy blog hopping... it beats channel hopping on the tv hands down and I always find something interesting to look at! I like to leave a comment on the blogs I visit - I know how much I appreciate it when someone takes the time to stop and comment on mine. Remember when the teacher gave you a gold star for your homework? Yep... it's that sort of feeling :) So a big thankyou for all the lovely comments I've had in the few weeks since I set this blog up.

Ok.. enough waffle. The point of this post was to say that I found yet another challenge as a result of my blog hopping. I came across the caardvarks card challenge blog - and here's the card I made for this week's challenge - Baby Love.

The background paper is by Sandylion, the stamps are Magnolia and See'D-s and I used a little
Stickles glitter glue on the soap bubbles.

la la la la Lola!

My first card using one of the gorgeous new Lola & Simon stamps by Sugar Nellie, available from Funky Kits Isn't she absolutely gorgeous!!! The designer is a very talented Canadian illustrator, Rachelle Anne Miller, you can see her lovely work on her website

There's a new bi-weekly card challenge blog started up this week,Sweet Sugar. I made this card for their very first challenge which was to use a Sugar Nellie stamp, with stars and stripes. I used a diagonal stripe background paper and incorporated the stars element by using three brads I found lurking in a box :-)

Turn it around...

Last night, I decided to try the ISMAKI challenge again, this time using the brown/turquoise colour option as well as the sketch. Ok, so I could tell you I got all creative and looked at the sketch from a different angle.... but the truth is I had my card the wrong way round when I stuck the papers on LOL! It's ok for you to laugh at me... really it is... I laughed myself when I realised what I'd done!

But hey.. I think it looks good this way round too and it's taught me that I don't have to follow a sketch too closely, turning it around IS an option! And it taught me to double check the card orientation before I stick anything down!

Lost week...

I've had a really nasty cold for the last week and haven't felt much like doing anything crafty. I feel like I've lost a week! I hate that feeling and missed taking part in all the super challenges out there! Thankfully, my head feels a bit clearer now and I'm able to concentrate on cards without having a wad of tissues firmly clamped to my nose! It was so nice to sit down yesterday and make these two cards :)

This one was made from the sketch challenge at ISMAKI but then I realised it fits in with the Papertake 'flowers' challenge too! The background paper is by Paper Adventures... it's sparkly, though it doesn't show up in the photo. I handcut and punched the scallop strip behind the magnolia stamped image. I've had these huge flowers for ages so it was good to use them at last! I added extra sparkle to the flowers with dots of bright yellow stickles.

I needed something for this cute little Magnolia bear to sit on, so the frames challenge at Artygirlz was perfect! The white oval scallop frame was cut on the Craft Robo and I added some sheer ribbon with baby feet on and three pretty fabric daisies. The blue frame inner and greeting were printed on my pc. Don't you just love those cute weeny button brads!!!

Black, pink and white

This week there is a one off challenge over on Maisymary's blog.
Thanks for inviting me to join in Pearl :-)

Here's the card I made card using black, pink and white, it was fun and I've used up some paper scraps, which is always good!

I love new challenges!