Penny Black Saturday Challenge & The Pink Elephant Challenge

Hello everyone. This week's challenge over at Penny Black is Spring. I've been longing for this stamp as soon as it came out so jumped at the chance to buy it when I saw it at The Glitter Pot over the weekend. These are also my new papers which I think are so pretty! I coloured the image with watercolour pencils and then cut out with rectangle scalloped nesties and added some dots round the edge. The 3 papers are from My Mind's Eye and the sketch is taken from my sketch book I got for Christmas.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Penny Black); Watercolour pencils; Nesties; Paper (My Mind's Eye); Assorted cardstock; Flower & brad (Poppicrafts); Sentiment (Craftwork cards); Black fine liner

Another Penny Black stamp I got at the weekend. This is for The Pink Elephant Challenge who's theme this week is Easter. I'm still making my Easter cards and now I've just got some orders from my Mum and sister so will be busy making these this week. The stamp is coloured in with watercolour pencils and highlights added with Crystal Stickles. I then cut out with circle nesties and layered on scalloped circle. The papers were free with a magazine yonks ago and I layered on some cardstock. The blue card is run through my Big Shot with Stylized Flowers embossing folder. The sentiment is Elzybells.

Stamps (Penny Black & Elzybells); Watercolour pencils; Crystal Stickles; Nesties; Assorted cardstock; Papers (free); Gem (Joanna Sheen); Embossing folder (Cuttlebug)

Thank you

I just wanted to say a huge thank you to those of you who left such kind messages to me on my last post. I really was touched. It's still very early days and sometimes I feel very confused because part of me still doesn't believe he's not here. I don't know whether that ever leaves you. Lots of you who've been through the same thing say that you never stop missing your Dad and that you always feel sad but that the intensity of pain will ease. That's such a comfort to me because I don't ever want to get over my Dad- how could I? My Dad was my hero, my role model, my counsellor and protector. He was such a loving father who always put us first. I adored him.

Trying to cheer myself up- personal stuff

Hi. Regular followers of my blog will know that I don't tend to post personal info about myself, I just tend to stick to the stamping but I've had such a terrible week this week. I'm missing my Dad so much, I'm finding it so very hard at the moment. One minute you think you're vaguely coping, the next the grief hits like this huge wave and knocks you over. I flit from being in floods of tears to being so angry I could scream, I feel rage boiling inside of me. In some pathetic attempt to cheer myself up, I got my husband to take me to the Glitter Pot yesterday. I've never been there before and I thought it was the best craft shop I've ever been to. I spent an obscene amount of money in there buying the above. Lots of different papers- Doodlebug, Cosmo Cricket, My Mind's Eye etc; Stamps- Penny Black, Hero Arts, watercolour ones; corner punch; Craftwork Cards messages; happy birthday transfers.

One Stop Craft Challenge

A bit of a change in style for me this one. This is a card for my Auntie's birthday. The One Stop Craft Challenge this week is bling. I thought instead of the usual glittery idea of bling, I'd bling it up with some pearls instead. This whole creation is pretty much Laura Ashley. The paper and chipboard embellishments are from Laura Ashley and the background underneath the lace is stamped with lilac ink with a Laura Ashley clear stamp. The lace and beading I got from a local haberdashery shop I was at with my Auntie.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Laura Ashley); Paper (Laura Ashley); Assorted cardstock; Chipboard (Laura Ashley); Lace & beading from stash

Forever Friends, My Time to Craft & Cute Card Thursday Challenges

Forever Friends Challenge this week is to make a card for your Mum so here is mine! The image is coloured in with watercolours and I highlighted the flowers with Crystal Stickles. I cut round the image and mounted on an oval scalloped nestie then double mounted on labels nesties. The background on the label nestie was stamped using a Laura Ashley stamp from a set I got at Christmas. The butterfly was from a clear set by Stampington which stamps just beautifully with lots of detail. The 2 ribbons were from Laura Ashley too. Hope you like it, I tried to go for mixing cute with glamorous! Hope it worked! x

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Forever Friends, Laura Ashley & Stampington); Watercolour pencils; Crystal Stickles, Assorted cardstock; Nesties; Ribbon (Laura Ashley); Brads (Poppicrafts)

I've combined 2 challenges with this card. Cute Card Thursday's Challenge is "A family affair" making a card for any member of your family and My Time to Craft is "It's raining men" so I made this card for my brother from my Mum. I don't usually make cards like this ie without stamping but my Mum really wanted me to make a football one and I don't have a football stamp. Still, I think this is a really good image from Lili of the Valley. Quite a simple card really, layered up on different coloured card- one of which is run through my Big Shot with the Spots and Dots embossing folder. The ribbon I chose as I thought it matched but looked quite footbally (if that's a word!) The sentiment is also Lili of the Valley.

Crafty stash used: Image (Lili of the Valley); Assorted cardstock; Embossing folder (Cuttlebug); Sentiment (Lili of the Valley); Ribbon (Poppicrafts); Brad (Poppicrafts)

Crafts 4 eternity, Cutie Sunday and a surprise prize!

The challenge over at Crafts 4 Eternity is the above sketch. I'm carrying on my theme of making Easter cards (mainly using my lovely new green paper!)

So here is my take on the sketch. I have used this fun Penny Black duck coloured with watercolour pencils. I cut out with scalloped circle nesties and have added a little doodling to the edge and then mounted on green card. The 3 green papers were from my Papermania pad and doubled mounted on assorted green cardstock. The sentiment is Pink Petticoat again with some doodling. Finally I tied round a sheer yellow ribbon.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Penny Black); Watercolour pencils; Paper (Papermania); Assorted cardstock; Nesties; Black fine liner; Sentiment (Pink Petticoat); Ribbon (recycled)

Another sketch, this time over at Cutie Sunday. This is my first time on both these blogs!

Another Easter card but this time not green though this was from another new set of Papermania paper I got. I really love the colours on this one! Stamp is cute Penny Black hedgie coloured in with watercolour pencils, cut out with nesties, doodled around and triple mounted with cardstock. For the horizontal strip, I ran some blue card through my Big Shot with the Stylized Flowers embossing folder and then mounted on brown card. Sentiment is Pink Petticoat with some added doodling and flowers and gems to finish. I changed the sentiment's place as I thought it went better on the right with my image.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Penny Black); Watercolour pencils; Paper (Papermania); Assorted cardstock; Nesties; Black fine liner; Embossing folder (Cuttlebug); Sentiment (Pink Petticoat); Flowers (Ebay); Tiny gems

Finally a big surprise arrived yesterday! Back in August of last year I filled out an online questionnaire for Craft Stamper (I vaguely remember doing it!) Yesterday a box of crafting goodies arrived saying I had won but due to an admin error I was only getting my package now!! I was really chuffed. This is just some of the stuff I won but there were some other bits like chipboard and colour sprays too! I never win anything so I was really pleased!

Elzybells Challenge & ABC Challenge

I needed to make another Easter card so I wanted to use this cute Elzybells image and luckily it fitted in with 2 challenges: Elzybells' Challenge is to use polka dots and ABC Challenge is to use flowers.

So I coloured the Elzybells image with watercolour pencils and added highlights of Crystal Stickles to the flowers. To fit in the polka dots challenge, I ran a piece of white card through my Big Shot with a dots embossing folder and then restamped the sheep and cut their fluffy bits out and stuck onto the original image. Don't they look cute and fluffy?! I then cut the image out using rectangle scalloped nesties and added some dots (more dots!) around the border. I then layered with 2 colours of green card. The background papers are again from that Papermania set I bought the other week. The sentiment is from Pink Petticoat cut out with oval nesties and double mounted on oval nesties with a dotted border. The ribbon is from Poppicrafts.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Elzybells); Watercolour pencils; Assorted cardstock; Paper (Papermania); Nesties; Black fine liner; Ribbon (Poppicrafts); Sentiment (Pink Petticoat); Crystal Stickles

Have a great weekend and enjoy the sunny weather!

Penny Black Saturday Challenge & another card!

Hi. I meant to post this a few days ago but my camera was out of batteries and I'd left my charger at my Mum's- doh! This week's challenge at Penny Black is the above sketch. I needed to start making some Easter cards so I thought this sketch lent itself very well to spring like images.

So here is my entry. I love this cutie hedgie! I coloured him with watercolour pencils and added some glitter to the daffodil using Crystal Stickles. I cut around the image using scalloped nesties to which I added a doodled border. I then mounted on some yellow card using a circle nestie. The 3 different papers are all from a Papermania green set which I got for 99p from Artymiss! Bargain or what?! I mounted 2 halves of paper matching yellow and green card fastened with mini brads. I then used the 3rd paper mounted on a piece of green cut with my Fiskars border punch. The sentiment is a Pink Petticoat mini mounted on a scalloped oval. Finally I added some flowers from Poppicrafts.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Penny Black); Watercolour pencils; Crystal Stickles; Paper (Papermania); Assorted cardstock; Sentiment (Pink Petticoat); Nesties; Border punch (Fiskars); Flowers (Poppicrafts); Brads (Woodware & Poppicrafts); Black fine liner

This second card is a really quick card I did for my sis. She's been on holiday this week and I wanted to send her and her partner a silly card to welcome them home. I just threw it together really as it needs to get in the post!! I chose this particular stamp as my sis was craft shopping with me and she wanted me to buy it to make cards for her and her partner as she said they have a little sign in their bathroom to hang their bathrobes from that looks just like this stamp! Just a shout out to my friend Linda as she gave me these lovely hot pink brads!

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Smirk & Elzybells); Watercolour pencils; Paper (free); Assorted cardstock; Fine liner; Nesties; Ribbon (Poppicrafts); Brads

Cupcake Craft Challenge

The challenge over at Cupcake Craft Challenge is to use brown in combination with either pink, blue or green. I needed to make a card for a friend so decided to use brown and blue (with a splash of yellow!)

The image is a Stamping Bella fella called Beerafella. I coloured it in using watercolour pencils and highlighted the ice in the ice box with Glossy accents to make them shine a bit. I cut round the image using rectangle nesties and mounted on blue and then brown card. The 2 backing papers are from Banana Frog (not sure of the make) and I mounted the main background one with blue card. The sentiment stamp is by Hero Arts. I cut out using circle nesties and then mounted on a scalloped nestie circle of blue card. I added a button with yellow thread and a couple of matching photo turns.

Thanks for looking, hope you enjoy the sunshine today! x

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Stamping Bella & Hero Arts); Watercolour pencils; Paper (Banana Frog); Assorted cardstock; Nesties; Photo turns; Button (free); Thread (free); Glossy Accents (Ranger)

Cupcake Craft Challenge & My Time to Craft Challenge

This week's challenge over at Cupcake Craft Challenge is Spring themed. Spring always makes me think of getting back into the garden and as my Mum is an avid gardener, I wanted to make her a gardening card for Mother's Day (from my sister) so I thought this would be a great challenge to enter.

The stamp is Stamping Bella coloured in with watercolour pencils. I then cut it out using oval nesties and doodled around the edge and stippled olive ink onto the background. I then mounted it on a red scalloped oval. The 3 papers I've used here are all Laura Ashley which I've individually mounted on either red or olive card. I tied a ribbon around the main panel and added some layered primas covered with Crystal Stickles. The brads I coloured with copics to match the colour scheme. Finally I added a sentiment by Hero Arts which I cut and mounted using circle nesties.

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Stamping Bella & Hero Arts); Watercolour pencils; Assorted cardstock; Paper (Laura Ashley); Flowers (Poppicrafts & Ebay); Black fine liner; Crystal Stickles; Nesties; Copics; Brads (Woodware); Ribbon (Laura Ashley); Olive ink and stipple brush

The theme over at My Time to Craft Challenge is "Woman". I needed to make a birthday card for my Auntie so I decided to go for the vintage theme. I've made one fairly similar to this before but I just loved the papers and this stamp so thought I'd go for one again. This beautiful stamp is by Stampsmith. I mounted on 2 layers of metallic card. The papers are all from a kit by Papermania as are the 2 sentiments. The flowers are from Poppicrafts: the beige crocheted flower was actually white and I dyed it in a cup of tea!

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Stampsmith); Paper (Papermania); Assorted cardstock; Sentiments (Papermania); Flowers (Poppicrafts); Teabag (!); Brad (Woodware)

Elzybells Challenge & new stash

This is my first go at the Elzybells Challenge. I've just bought some new Elzybells stamps (see below) so I thought I'd try the sketch set by Michelle.

So I decided to make a Mother's Day card for my Mum using the Flower Girl stamp. I coloured her in using a mixture of copics and watercolour pencils and paper pieced her dress to match the background paper. I added highlights of white gel pen and Crystal Stickles on her. In place of the stamped flowers, I added tiny Prima flowers to which I added Crystal Stickles and tiny gems. I cut the whole image out using rectangle nesties and then mounted on green and red card.

The papers are all by American Crafts. The long rectangular piece I mounted on American Craft cardstock. The polka dot orange horizontal piece I punched with my Fiskars daisy border punch and added a strip of sticky lace. Finally I put together 2 Prima flowers with Crystal Stickles and a tiny brad and added 2 Boss-kut swirls.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Elzybells); Copics; Watercolours; Paper (American Crafts); Assorted cardstock; Nesties; Boss-Kut; Flowers (Ebay); Brad (Woodware); Crystal Stickles; Tiny gems (from stash); White gel pen (Sakura); Daisy punch (Fiskars); Lacy sticky ribbon

So here is my recent (mainly Elzybells) new stash. I've been wanting some more nesties and loved the shape of the Labels sets so I bought one of those and then I bought a couple of the clear sets from Elzybells (they're just the cutest aren't they?) and 2 rubber ones- Girl with Flowers and In the Dog House. Can't wait to use them all!

Colour Create Challenge and Ooh La La Creations Challenge

Another couple of challenges today but I'm really late with them! This card fits both the Colour Create Challenge which is one of my favourite colour combos- blue and brown plus Ooh La La Creation Challenge is stripes! This is my first time on both of these challenges.

So the stamp is by Lili of the Valley coloured in with copics. I then cut the image out using my decoupage scissors and a craft knife. I cut a circle using nesties and sponged on 2 different blue inks and then glued the image to the top. I then layered up 2 scalloped circles. The stripey paper was from Banana Frog which I cut into a square. I then added 2 triangles of blue card to give the quartered look. I then layered the whole lot on brown card. The button are are Sizzix die which I'm really into at the moment and the sentiment is Lili of the Valley.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Lili of the Valley); Copics; Paper (Banana Frog); Assorted cardstock; Nesties; Buttons (Sizzix); Sentiment (Lili of the Valley); Blue inks; Blue ribbon (recycled)

Cute Card Thursday Challenge

The challenge today over at Cute Card Thursday is "Wine and dine" and your card must feature food or drink on it. I thought I'd use this fabulous Hanna stamp that my lovely friend Linda gave me for my birthday. I kept the card quite simple as the stamp is HUGE! I coloured it in using copics and double mounted on pink and green cardstock. The 2 background papers are from a Papermania kit. I then added a fabric brad and some pink Liquid Pearls. Hope you like!

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Hanna Stamps); Copics; Assorted cardstock; Paper (Papermania); Brad (Poppicrafts); Liquid Pearls

Sketch Saturday Challenge, blog candy & an award

I've done a sketch from Sketch Saturday for a friend's birthday card. I thought the sketch was a little unusual but really enjoyed doing it. My friend is a bit of whizz in the kitchen and we call her a "yummy mummy" so I thought this would be a good stamp to use.

So here is my card. I used a Rubber Romance image (I love Rubber Romance!) which I coloured in with watercolour pencils and added some Crystal Stickles to the icing on the cake. I cut round the image with rectangle scalloped nesties and added some doodling. The four matching papers I used are by Making Memories and I chose these because the green gingham reminded me of a checked tablecloth. The sentiment is by Lili of the Valley and the little lilac brads were a free gift when I bought some stash from Stamp Addicts.

Crafty stash used: Image (Rubber Romance); Watercolour pencils; Crystal Stickles; Paper (Making Memories); Sentiment (Lily of the Valley); Brads (Stamp Addicts); Black fine liner
Now on to my award the very lovely Natalie has sent me. I'm chuffed to receive this from Natalie as her blog is fab. I visit it a few times a week to see all her lovely makes and she has loads of followers so to receive it from her is an honour. Plus she's always kind enough to leave messages on my blog so a big thank you Natalie. I know I said this last time but I really will be passing on this award soon. I think I said last time that I was going to surf for some new blogs because I've passed around my awards quite alot to the same people but unfortunately I've not had time to surf for new blogs yet!! Watch this space!

BLOG CANDY

I'm so chuffed I won £5 voucher to spend at Elzybells because a card of mine was featured on Elizabeth's weekly showcase! Coincidentally I'd just bought some stamps from Elzybells which I'll post later in the week so you can see them but you can never have enough stamps can you??!

Truly Scrumptious Challenge

Truly Scrumptious is a new challenge blog I thought I'd have a go at entering. I had a birthday card to make for a friend so I thought I'd have a go at this fab sketch. I'm really pleased with how this turned out (if I do say so myself!!) as I really like the bright zesty colours.

I used this beautiful stamp by Stamping Bella which I coloured in with watercolour pencils and did some paper piecing. I then added highlights with Crystal Stickles. If you click on the image, you can really see the detail. I then cut out the image using oval nesties and stippled the background using my stipple brush and Peony ink. All the papers are from the Bella Moda range by American Crafts which I mounted on matching card from Am Crafts. The sentiment is by Pink Petticoat and the flower, brad and ribbon are from Poppicrafts.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Stamping Bella); Watercolour pencils; Crystal Stickles; Paper (American Crafts); Assorted cardstock; Ribbon (Poppicrafts); Flower (Poppicrafts); Brad (Poppicrafts); Nesties; Sentiment (Pink Petticoat); Peony ink and stipple brush

Hope you like it and enjoy your weekend! x