Monday 22 February 2010

Pink and green!

Hi everyone. Hope you're all OK and recovered from half term!! I've made a couple of relatively quick cards today as I've been busy continuing with my big clear out this week in preparation for moving. Who knew one tiny house could harbour such a load of old clutter?!

This first card is for a friend of mine who has twin girls. They're still only very young so I figured I could get away with sending one card! This cute koala is by Whipper Snapper stamps and I coloured with copics. The big balloon is by Woodware and I masked it and overstamped to get 2 balloons. The sentiment is from the "Tags and Tickets" clear sheet by Hero Arts. I did a bit of doodling around the edge and finished with a ribbon slider.

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

Allsorts- "tag, ticket or label"
Crafty Catz- "charming bear"

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Whipper Snapper, Hero Arts, Woodware); Copics; Doodling; Nesties; Papers (Making Memories); Ribbon slider (Poppicrafts); Ribbon (recycled)

This second card is for... wait for it... .Mother's Day!! lol. I coloured my PB hedgie with copics and cut out with labels nestie. The papers are all by Papermania, as is the sentiment, from their Mother's Day kit from a few years back. These beautiful flowers are from an Ebay shop in the US.

I'd like to enter this for the following challenges:

Sketch Saturday- "sketch"
Penny Black- "pink, green & yellow"
Secret Crafter- "Mother's Day"
Stamp Something- "Spring"

Crafty stash used: Image (Penny Black); Copics; Papers (Papermania); Sentiment (Papermania); Nesties; Flowers (Ebay)

Hope you're all having a good start to your week. Hope you enjoyed your visit! x

Saturday 20 February 2010

Bumper blog candy!

*** BLOG CANDY NOW CLOSED***
Thanks so much for all your entries. I'm looking forward to checking out all my new followers' blogs, hopefully all of those who are new will enjoy visiting me!!

Now to the winner....picked by Random.org random generator, the winner is no. 20...

MYZDAMENA'S WORLD

Congratulations!! Please email me your address and I will get your candy posted asap!


PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR NEWER POSTS

To celebrate my little blog having its' very own blog makeover, I've decided to give away some gorgeous candy to one lucky follower. Here's what you need to do to be in with a chance of winning:

1. Advertise my candy on your blog with a link back to my blog
2. Become a follower if you're not already
3. Leave a comment here letting me know what you think of my new makeover!

Here's what you could win:
  • over 25 12"x12" sheets paper- some glittered
  • assortment of handmade papers
  • Sizzix die
  • Jolly Nation Lads & Dads 3D Decoupage sheets in a book
  • Sheet of tags
  • 2 sheets of stickers
  • chipboard shapes
  • wooden stamp
  • Sparkles
  • Beads
  • Pack of cards and envelopes
  • Maya Road chipboard album
So what are you waiting for? You've got to be in it to win it! Candy will close at 12pm Saturday 20th February 2010. Winner will be drawn shortly afterwards. Good luck! x

Monday 15 February 2010

3 cards and a premiere!

Hi everyone! Hope you had a lovely weekend and Valentine's Day! Thanks to all of you who left kind comments about my new job and about me feeling ill. I'm feeling a bit better this week though still am not really firing on all cyclinders.

I had my first proper shift at my new job on Saturday which went OK but I really I hate being new and not knowing what I'm doing!!! I had a very exciting day on Thursday which I dragged my butt out of bed for!! ha ha. We went to the premiere of Valentine's Day in Leicester Square. It was really fun as we got to walk up the red carpet and we saw some Hollywood stars like Ashton Kutcher, Jessica Alba and Topher Grace! The film is really good, basically a US version of Love Actually so I'd recommend it if you love a good romcom!

Anyway, onto some cards. I'm really pleased with this one as I was worried I'd lost my mojo a bit but I like how this has come together so maybe it's not as dire as I thought!!

This card is another card for my Auntie's 81st birthday, this time my Mum asked me to make her one. I've used the sketch from Sketch and Stash and have used this gorgeous Stampington stamp which is one of the first stamps I bought and I hardly ever use. I stippled the background with paprika ink and embossed with glittery clear powder. It's quite a nice effect as I covered the whole image with powder so the bits that were still wet from stippling got glittery too! The frame is a Sizzix Bigz die which I could've embellished more but as I'd used quite funky paper, I didn't think it needed it. All the papers were Ambrosia collection from Basic Grey. The little butterfly is stamped on the paper and is by Hero Arts from one of their "Friend" sentiment set.

I'd like to enter this for the following challenges:

Pile it On- "Flowers"- does a dandelion count or is it a weed?!
Our Creative Corner- "Something you haven't used/used for ages"
Fussy and Fancy- "Dazzle Us"
Paperplay- "Birthday card for someone special"

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Stampington; Hero Arts); Papers (Basic Grey); Glitter clear embossing powder; Paprika ink and stipple brush; Assorted cardstock; Sizzix die; Punch (EK Success)

Onto my second card. This is an anniversary card for my friend who will be celebrating her 1st anniversary this week. I didn't want to do a girly girly card for her as she's not that sort of girl so I thought I'd use hearts but with a strong colour theme. The image is Stamping Bella coloured with lyra pencils. The stamped sentiment (words and heart) are by Elzybells, the heart I clear embossed. I also clear embossed the 3 hearts using an Elzybells heart from the Valentine's Tag sets I won recently. The paper is DCWV from their Love stack and then I just used assorted cardstock. I quite like the colour theme as it uses a mixture of red, pink and black which I think is quite unusual together.

I kind of got the inspiration for this card when I was having a strawberry bellini at the weekend with friends to celebrate our forthcoming house move!

I'd like to enter this for the following challenges:

Sketch Saturday- "Sketch"
Lots to Do- "Love is in the air"
Daring Cardmakers- "Have a heart"
Simon Says Stamp- "What's love got to do with it?"
CCEE Stampers- "Use inspiration"

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Stamping Bella; Elzybells); Paper (DCWV); Assorted cardstock; Nesties; Lyra pencils; Embossing powder; Photo corners and brads

And finally a very personal card to finish. My Aunt wanted me to make a birthday card for her friend using some old photos she had of them together as friends in the 1940s would you believe! I scanned in the photos and changed the colour to sepia as I thought it would go better with the papers I wanted to use. All the papers and little tags are from a Papermania vintage set I've had a couple of years. I printed out 3 little signs on my PC which say "Happy Birthday" and then the names of where the photos were taken and the year, 1948. Sorry the photo is a bit rubbish, the light seemed to bounce off the photos so I couldn't really get a good shot but you get the general idea!!

Crafty stash used: Papers (Papermania); Embellies (Papermania); PC generated sentiments; Photos

Hope you've enjoyed stopping by today. I am aiming to get round to see all of you this week now I'm feeling a bit better! Can't wait to see what you've been up to! x

Wednesday 10 February 2010

What a star!

Hi everyone! Hope you're all OK. Just a quick post from me today and only one card as I've not been feeling too well this week and have had no energy. This card I made at the weekend but have only felt well enough to post today. Also, I just wanted to say how pleased I was that so many of you have entered my blog candy, I'm really pleased you like what I've put up for grabs. I will get round and visit all of you who have become followers as I'd love to see your blogs but it might not be til the end of the week when I'm feeling a bit better.

Anyway, enough rambling and onto my card. It's a birthday card for my friend's little boy. The image is of course Forever Friends and I cut off the sentiment from the main image and used separately. I coloured the image with watercolour pencils and paper pieced the cake. The papers are by Piggy Tales I think. I used the sketch by Unscripted Sketches which I thought was quite an unusual one so I had fun using it- thanks, girls! I was really pleased with the little star embellishment which I decorated to match the background papers. The top star was actually pink but I coloured it brown with my copics to match! Then I finished off with a little trail of gems to represent a shooting star.

Here is a little close up of my FF bear and the little bit of paper piecing around the cake. I hope to be back with a few more cards next week when I'm feeling a bit better and, if I'm feeling well enough to go, tales of a very exciting night out!!!!!

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

Kaboodle- "Spots and stripes"

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Forever Friends); Papers (Piggy Tales); Assorted cardstock; Watercolour pencils; Copics; Star (The Works); Gems (Ebay)

Tuesday 2 February 2010

Hero Arts, Stamping Bella and Changito Monkeys!

Hi everyone! Hope you're all doing OK. I had a very exciting weekend picking up my new car and showing my Mum and sis round our (hopefully) house-to-be! I don't know about you but I think this cold weather is really starting to drag! Borrrrr-ing!! Roll on Spring, please!

So this card I've made for my other Auntie who was 80 last month. I've made it using these beautiful papers I got for Chrimbo in the DCWV Summer stack. I just love them! The two large flowers and the group of flowers in the left hand corner, I cut out of some paper within the stack to make them focal points of the card rather than just leaving them as paper. The stamp is a Hero Arts one from one of their large messages sheets. The butterfly would you believe was actually pink but I experimented by colouring black with copics- it worked! I then added a flower gem for contrast. The silver baubles were rescued from a Christmas cracker and I then trimmed the wire and twisted them around the ribbon.

I'm going to enter this for Cute Card Thursday who's theme is "Blooming Gorgeous".

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Hero Arts); Paper (DCWV); Assorted cardstock; Ribbon (recycled); Baubles (Recycled); Butterfly (?); Gem (Joanna Sheen); Copics

Onto my second make, a Valentine's card for my hubbie. I love this stamp from Stamping Bella as I thought it would be quite versatile. I thought you could mask out the hearts at the top and stamp different sentiments above her but for this one I thought I'd use her as she was intended! I coloured her with Lyra pencils and paper pieced her top, skirt and all the little hearts she is juggling. A bit fiddly and time consuming but I wanted the colours to match the paper exactly. The papers are by American Crafts. I then used 4 different stamps from the Elzybells Valentine tag sets I won (see last post). These sets are mega useful. I white embossed the decorative heart on pink paper and mounted on the "secret admirer" round stamp. The message at the bottom is 2 separate stamps which I stamped to form a sequence. Hope hubbie likes it!

I'd like to enter this for the following challenges:

Mojo Monday- sketch
Fussy and Fancy- "Hearts"
C.R.A.F.T.- "Paper piecing"
Pink Elephant- "Pink"
Sophisticat- "Love"
Secret Crafter- "Hearts"
One Stop- "Make it personal"
Papercutz- "Use pink on a male card"

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Stamping Bella; Elzybells); Paper (American Crafts); Lyra pencils; Assorted cardstock; Nesties; White embossing powder

Here is a little close up of my paper piecing. I also added some Lyra pencils to her skirt to add some depth

And lastly, my last post is for my friend's little boy who's birthday is up and coming. I got this Changito Monkey stamp and matching sentiment for Chrimbo and have coloured with Lyra pencils. I then used an embossing pen and clear glittery embossing powder to emboss the bubbles. The paper I think is Artic Frog (?) and the letter stickers are by Basic Grey. I embossed the brown strip to be reminiscent of bubbles.

I'd like to enter this for:

Cupcake Craft Challenges- "4 legged and furry"- do monkeys count? They walk on all fours??!!!
One Stop- "Make it personal"

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Stampendous); Lyra pencils; Paper (?); Assorted cardstock; Embossing folder (Cuttlebug); Stickers (Basic Grey); Clear glitter embossing powder