Bling day challenge

"Use BLING and Christmasy/Wintery paper to create a card." Now for some reason I alsways think of red and gold based papers when I think of Christmas although I have been known to use most colours and non specific papers too.

The poinsettia was stamped twice, coloured with Sakura pens and decoupaged and mounted onto gold card. I added gold coloured crystals to the centre. I think the stamp is from Tanda Stamps but not 100% sure. The frill was cut from red card and wrapped with ivory ribbon threaded with a really sparkly gold thread.

Technique Challenge....

can be seen at CCAYR and it is a really good idea for gift cards as so many shops are now using credit style cards instead of gift vouchers. Have a peep it's really easy :)

New challenge blog

I was pointed in the direction of Christmas Cards All Year Round one day last week by Adrienne and I finally got round to having a look and have taken part in some of the challenges today and will hopefully do the others tomorrow. "The purpose of this blog is to get you creating CHRISTMAS cards , as it says, ALL YEAR 'ROUND!There will be ONE monthly challenge posted and you will be required to create 5 cards based on that challenge. The cards can be all the same, or you can make 5 different ones, but they all must follow the challenge. For everyone who finishes the 5 cards each month, their names will be put in a draw for a small prize (of probably some sheets of Stampin' Up cardstock, something easy and not too expensive to mail)

The first challenge was a sketch

Kazan's sketch 11

Another one off the list :) When I first saw this sketch at 2 Sketches 4 You I wondered what on earth to do with it but it just sort of fell into place.............not only do I like sketches, but I also love cards which don't need thinking about (doesn't happen very often though LOL)

All the papers on this card are from The Christmas Multi Stack from DCWV. This is another pad I inherited from my mum. She bought the pads and then decided that she wasn't making any Christmas cards. I'm still trying to use the DCWV Christmas papers that I bought about three years ago ;) The other bits are from my stash and the sentiment is Studio G again.

Santa Claus is coming to town

...........but not yet!! Managed a few more Christmas cards today as well as a seating plan :) I spent far to long on t'internet this morning but my excuse was that I was searching out challenge and sketch sites. It obviously worked because I managed another six cards :)
The first one was for Friday Sketchers ok I'm slightly late but it's the taking part that counts!

Paper is from Anita's Classic Christmas Blue 6x6 pad, background square was swiped with a pale blue ink pad and Cuttlebugged, the snowman was part of the same RAK as before, ribbon is from Ribbon Oasis and the sentiment is from a Sizzlit die.

Guest DT member

..........over at Dewdrop Craftz Nikki asked me a while ago if I would be the guest for October and of course it took her a while to persuade me :)) The stamp and my cards are now live on the Dewdrop web ite and can be seen by clicking the link above. There is a little bit about how the stamp came to be and £1 from each stamp sold will be donated to the Macmillan nurses who do a fabulous job.

Here is one of my cards

Two more

..............Christmas cards but not using a challenge this time.


Papers as before, ribbons from Ribbon Oasis and the images are both from Love to Doodle. The top image is a rubber stamp and the Father Christmas is another download along with the little mouse and the pair of snowmen used below. The little tag on the first card is from Craftwork Cards and the second sentiment is fom a sheet of vellum stickers by Papermania.
Right that's it for now, I'm off to look for some more challenges :)
Take care. x

Sketch Saturday

The next sketch is from Sketch Saturday, another great one.I decided to flip this one on it's side. Paper from the same pad as before. The small stamps at the top were a freebie from Sally-Ann when she was selling her stamps and the large stamp is from Cornish Heritage Stamps He is one of my favourite Christmas stamps and is suitable for all ages. I've coloured him very lightly with a very pale blue water colour and his scarf and sledge using Sakura pens and added a bit of Stickles glitter glue to the snow..

Secret Crafter 1

When I posted my cards last night I forgot that I had done the first Secret Crafter's challenge too so they are posted back to front :) I made two cards for this challenge also.

Papers again are from the Anita's Christmas Red 6x6 pad. I found Christmas pud ingredients paper when I was clearing out my My Documents folder :) Christmas pud and holly were part of a RAK and the image on the second card is again a download from Sally-Ann and the sentiment on both cards is a rubber stamp from a cheap set from Readicut!

I would love to hear what you think.

Secret Crafter

My next challenge is a card sketch challenge from the new Secret Crafter's Blog - in fact I did two cards for this challenge.Papers are Papermania and one of last years 6x6 pad from Dovecraft (I am determined to use up what I have this year instead of buying for the sake of buying! Will it work-well that remains to be seen LOL) The image on the first card is Lola Rose by Pink Petticoat and Rudolph on the second card is a stamp by Stamps Away at Clever Cuts and I've just noticed, I forgot to add my bling to the second card!
Off to bed now, will do the rest tomorrow.
Take care

Challenge corner!

Cor crikey, talk about catch up at great speed! I have actually started putting Christmas cards together today and the challenges are such a great help. I've managed 10 cards today and done seven assorted challenges :)

The cards below are all for challenges on the Just Bex forum
The first one is for
October Challenge 1 - On the Straight and Narrow
Make a LO or card please using blocks, squares, grids or and lines.
The backing paper used is a striped one from one of the older K & Co boys bads (how's that for a description!?!) The embossing was done using a set of Christmas Cuttlebug folders and mounted onto the striped paper then onto silver mirri card. The sentiment is a small Studio G Christmas stamp.
FRIDAY CHALLENGE 3rd October 2008
SING LOUD and while you are singing craft a LO or a card or an altered item whatever BUT the song you are singing MUST influence your design

The image is one of the downloads from Sally-Ann's site

I coloured the image with Sakura Glaze glitter pens and used Debbi Moore's Rainbow Special glitter (is gorgeous and fine) for the snow. Cuttlebugged background again and another Studio G sentiment stamp which actually says "let it snow" which I stamped three times.......it's a wonder you didn't hear me singing as I was making this card :)

October challenge 3 - The White Stuff I've had a LO in mind for some time. My pic was printed, my journaling written and was just left to paper shuffling. I just couldn't feel happy with it though and kept sticking it back on the pile again. Then during a 'QOTD' discussion, Lythan mentioned about liking white space on projects and this was exactly what I was wanting to achieve on my LO. Great idea for a challenge I started thinking and suddenly the same afternoon, the LO was finished and a card was made too.... My wedding anniversary card below fits that challenge ;)

Friday Night Challenge - 10th October - Animals
Anway, back to the plan A challenge. Quite a simple one, no twists....simply make a LO or card featuring at least one wee animal please. How tough can that be eh??!!!

The paper used on this one is from the Anita's Classiic Christmas Red Papers pad. There are some lovely papers in this pad and best of all it was free...........my mum gave it to me :) Rudolph was in a RAK I received from a friend a while ago, I just added his googly eyes and nose.

I'm going to upload each challenge in it's own post as I don't know how to make the post title "clickable" so I can place a link on the relevant blog, so that's it for this one!

All things bright..............

.....and I'll let you make up your own minds as to whether it's beautiful or not! LOL The DCM Dare this week want us to make a bright card (it sure made a change from making Christmas card toppers :)) Bright! Clashy is good, hot colours are good, anything super duper bright is good too. I had to make a leaving card so decided to make this my bright card. I will apologise in advance for the 'dull' image but the lady in question is in hotel management so I decided to put the image in a business suit!
The image is Pink Petticoat New Job which has been coloured with Prisma pencils and Sakura Jelly Roll Stardust pens. I've used assorted papers from my 'left overs' box (and still haven't made a dent in the pile!) the ribbon is from my 'end of roll tub' and the sentiment was done on the laptop.

The next four cards were really quick makes. DH was dj'ing last night at a 50th birthday party and has a 60th birthday party tonight but the hotel didn't know whether the party 'persons' were male or female so I made two of each.

I used assorted bits from my left overs box and ribbon tub. Numbers are cut using Curlie Wurlie alphabet, sentiments are computer generated and MSE rub ons and the flowers used are all Prima.
My last card is for my mum and dad's 51st wedding anniversary tomorrow.

I used a rub on from a quote pad but can't remember who made it as I've lost the front cover! The hearts are Sizzix and everything has been mounted onto silver mirror card and the white satin ribbon is from Ribbon Oasis and I just finished it off with a couple of clear diamantes.

It was my brother's 40th yesterday and he loved his album he said it was "the best present ever" :)

Today I have a seating plan to make and tomorrow we are going to York to meet up with MIL. She is up this weekend on a coach trip so as we don't see her all that often (she lives in Somerset and DH works most weekends which makes visiting a problem) we said we would go through for a couple of hours for lunch.

I hope you have a good weekend whatever you are up to and would love to have you comment on my blog. :)

Take care.

Wedding Journal

This is a first for me as I've never made an 8x8 book before using the Bind It All. Come to think of it, I haven't made much at all with it (I'm ashamed to say) and I've had it about 12 months now *blush* Anyhow, after going to a couple of wedding fayres last Sunday with my daughter and future son in law, I decided to make them a journal so they could keep everything together. Their chosen colour scheme is burgundy, gold and ivory and she doesn't like fussy, frilly things at all which is why I've kept the book uncluttered!

As well as the guest lists and budget planner I have added a section each for wedding dress details etc and each page has a pocket to keep pictures of the stuff they like.

I need to make my parents a wedding anniversary card for Sunday, they will have been married 51 years! They fly back from Malta this evening so they will probably be over tomorrow :) Then it's back to the Christmas cards ;)

Would live to hear from you, take care.

TFL

Papertake Weekly

I received a phone call at 8.30 this morning asking if I could make two 'special' cards for tomorrow and of course didn't say no :) This makes 5 special cards I've made for the same lady in a week! My brief was "one of them to have a 'cartoon style cat' and the other to be pink and girly. Penny Black's cats instantly sprang to mind but as I only have one PB cat stamp it had to be that!! I just love this image - Uplifting Occasions.

Image was coloured with watercolour pencils. Flowers are Prima, pearl brad is Papermania, assorted card and burgundy ribbon finished this card off.

Now the pink girly one

I decided to make a handbag style card as I haven't made one for a while and went with the well known Scottie dog style :) Again the flowers are all Primas this time with diamante centres, the sentiment was printed from the laptop and the ric rac and ribbon was from Ribbon Oasis

This card fits this weeks Papertake Weekly challenge (which I only found out about half an hour ago when I went to check if the challenge was up :) It was PTW's 1st birthday on the 1st of October so this week we have a choice of 2 challengesFirsts - first birthday, Christmas, anniversary etcORNo Stamping! - embellishments, papers, die cuts, paper folding, stitching, encaustic, doodling? etc etc

I'm hoping to use challenges a bit more now as I really need to get stuck in with some quick Christmas cards..............I have the grand total of 2 as I sent all my others for the SOS appeal! I need to stock my web site, a local shop and DH's box for work as well as making all my personal ones, ho hum LOL
Right, back to colouring images

BFN

Acetate card

I meant to show this one yesterday and got ever so slightly side tracked! I moved some of my plants down to the greenhouse as the weather turned horribly cold and did the ir**ing. DHwas working yesterday evening so I watched Strictly Come Dancing (just how good are Austin Healey and Tom Chambers and Gary Rhodes really needs to go out tonight!:)), the X Factor (I wish they would all stop crying and saying they want it so bad. Surely if they didn't want it bad they wouldn't have applied!) and Casualty.......I am just so sad LOL I spent the rest of the evening (and from 7.30 this morning) colouring images ready to start my Christmas cards on Monday.

I love making acetate cards and this one was a commission for a lady whose wedding party thank you cards I made last year...................I can't believe their first wedding anniversary is coming up.

The only problem is that they are a b***er to photograph :) If anyone can give me any tips I will be very greatful.

I'm going to do a bit more colouring before I get DH up as we are taking DD1 and son in law to be to a wedding fayre. I've exhibited at dozens with my business but have never been to one as a mother of the bride (and I get to check out the opposition at the same time ;))

Enjoy whats left of the weekend and tfl.

Blush!

I've just had a quick leap over to Emma's blog and not only is she offering the most fantastic blog candy, she has also featured my blog as her "Blog of the Week!" How fab is that!!!!! :)

Pink Petticoat

I seem to be using these images loads at the moment, thanks Liz!! I had a request for another one of the 50th birthday cards I made the other day but without the 50 and this is what I came up with

The same but different! Image and backing paper is Pink Petticoat again coloured with Sakura sparkly pens, spotty ribbon is from Ribbon Oasis bag is Quickutz, flower is Prima with added bling and the plaque is from Craftwork Cards The card also fits with the Friday dare over on the Daring Cardmakers blog which I didn't realise as I was making it :) Here is this weeks brief "It's Keryn here and it's my turn to set the dare this week.I'm just loving all the new scallop punches that are out at the moment, circles, ovals, squares, edges etc, etc and then there's the corner rounder and slit punches that can be used to scallop edges as well.Use your imagination, your scallop punches, your corner rounders, your cricuts and cuttlebugs to create any card to fit any style as long as it shows scallops."

Now to make an acetate card.............and I might add scallops to that too :)

TFL

Quick Cards Made Easy-Children In Need

I came across the Papertake Weekly challenge this morning whilst having a quick blog hop and decided to take part for the first time. I then had a look at the Quick Cards Made Easy web site to see what it was all about and read the following........

"Quick Cards is doing something BIG and exciting, to help raise money for BBC Children in Need, and we want you to join in! We’re attempting to break the world record for the biggest handmade card, at the Hobbycrafts show at Birmingham’s NEC on 13-16 November. We know you love to make cards for charity, so come along and support us by making a card that we can use as part of a giant Pudsey Bear patchwork that will appear on the front of our card."

So I started making my card and got slightly carried away! LOL I made twelve :)

I've used elements I already had stamped, printed or pre cut and all the papers are from my left overs box :) The stamped images are from stamps made by Sally-Ann and they are fab! The printed images and some of the papers are by Pink Petticoat The images have been coloured using a mixture of Sakura sparkle pens, H2Os, and cheapy pearlescent paints from the works, flowers are Prima and the brads and gems are from my stash mountain. The large flower is from Craftwork Cards, button is Papermania and ribbons are from Ribbon Oasis

I made a quick card last night as DH needed a leaving card for work this morning and decided at about 9.30 that he couldn't think of what he wanted on it!!! This is what I came up with but I'm not happy with it at all :(

The map was downloaded from t'internet and the train is Cuttlebug. The sentiment was printed using the Toy Train font and the wording on the front says "We took a vote in the office and 90% of us are sorry you're leaving..." and the insert read "5% were off sick, 4% have never heard of you and 1% couldn't wait to see the back of you!" Apparently it was well received by the staff who signed it! :)

I'm going to get the QCME cards packed ready to send in the morning and still have two commissioned cards to make so I may be back tomorrow ;)

Take care and TFL