Anything Goes Challenge- Cutting Corners

Hello!! Happy Tuesday! Today's challenge over at Anything Goes Challenge is "Cutting corners" so we want to see your decorative corners please!! Check out the DT's gorgeous makes!!!

I don't know about you but I am well and truly over making Christmas cards for this year!! I only have 7 to make now which may not seem like a lot but I seem to have totally lost my mojo- have you seen it??!!

Anyway here is today's card. This is an order request from my Mum. She wanted me to make something using this cute Molly Bloom window stamp. FAO- your Molly Bloom stamps can be purchased from Lynne at The Craft Den!

I stamped the window twice and used one as the background where I coloured the nightsky using copics and adding Liquid Pearls for the snow. The second one I used for the window frame which I cut out and then stuck acetate behind to look like glass. I raised the frame with foam pads. I paper pieced the blind and the little heart. These gorgeous papers are by Prima called North Country. I did a bit of die-cutting on this one. The big snowflake and holly are Papertrey Ink. The swirls in the corners are a Boss Kut die. I also ripped some paper in the right hand corner to add a bit of interest. Sentiment is Papertrey Ink.

I'd like to enter this into:

Pollycraft- Christmas Fun

Stamptacular Sunday- Anything Christmas

Crazy 4 Challenges- snow

Dutch Dare- recipe- image, papers, ribbon, layers, pearls

Truly Scrumptious- Christmas project with pearls or vintage

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Molly Bloom, Papertrey Ink); Papers (Prima); Copics; Assorted cardstock; Snowflake & holly dies (PTI); Swirl (Boss-Kut); Button (PTI); Pearls; Nailheads; Liquid Pearls; Ribbon (PTI)

Back from chillin....

Hello folks!!! I've been scheduling posts for the past few weeks as I've been on my hols! Hubbie and I went to The Maldives and spent an amazing 2 weeks chilling out and snorkelling. It was so wonderful and much needed after another really tough year. I'm so hoping 2012 will be a better year for us all.

Anyway, thought I'd just show you this amazing photo hubbie took of our beautiful little island! Breathtaking, no?!

So I thought I'd post some more of my Papertrey Ink cards I did before I went on hols so you don't get too bored with my blog!!

This card is inspired by Debbie Olsen here. I used my new Damask snowflake die again but this time used both parts of this. I then stamped a tree from the Love Lives Here Holiday set and assembled on top of the snowflake. Also added plenty spots of Crystal Stickles. The stripey piece of paper is by Pink Paislee which I cut out using the PTI Half and Half die- loving the scalloped end. The sentiment is from the Photo Finishers set and cut out with the matching die which I LURVE!

Crafty stash used: Stamps (PTI); Paper (Pink Paislee); Assorted cardstock; Inks (Stampin Up); Dies- snowflake, tree, sentiment (PTI); Button (PTI); Crystal Stickles

The second card is another simple one inspired by Michelle Wooderson here. I used the Holiday Photo Finishers set for this and stamped and die cut the little star from the Love Lives Here Holiday set.

I'd like to enter both these cards into the A Passion for Papertrey challenge this week which is a Christmas card.

Crafty stash used: Stamps (PTI); Papers (Stampin Up); Button (PTI); Twine; Gems (K & Co)

Hope you've enjoyed dropping by today! Hugs x

Anything Goes Challenge- a real sweetie!

Yep it's Anything Goes Challenge time again!! This fortnight's challenge is "a real sweetie!" Think cakes and sweets for birthdays or Christmas puds, candy canes for Christmas- let's see what you can come up with!

It's unintentional the similarity between this week's sample and last time's sample!!!!! If I have time, I like to get ahead with my DT work and will make cards early if they fit in with someone's birthday, anniversary etc. I guess I just must've thought that this paper pad works so well with these LOTV images!!

Sorry the photo is a little dark but I hope you can see that the nailheads are brown, as is the heart shaped button!

So I've used this cute Lili of the Valley image and have coloured with watercolour and lyra pencils and then simply outlined with a warm copic. I shaded the background with some pale pink ink whilst still in the nestie. I'm loving using nesties to matt and layer with more interesting shapes. The heart border is a Magnolia Doohickey die and the sentiment is Stamping Bella. Papers are Honey Cake by MME purchased from The Craft Den.

I love her cupcake stand and her cute little tutu-style dress!

I think she looks very elegant for afternoon tea!! Smarter than me with my glass of water and chocolate digestives!!! ha ha.

Crafty stash used: Stamps (LOTV, Stamping Bella); Watercolour pencils; Copics; Papers (MME); Nailheads (Josy Rose); Button; heart Doohickey die (Magnolia)

PTI Christmas cards!

Hi everyone!! I'm not going to be able to do much crafting at the moment so I thought I'd schedule this post so that you've all got something to see whilst I'm busy!

I did a BIG Papertrey Ink purchase about a month ago (sorry, forgot to photograph!) and purchased a couple of their new Christmas sets. I'm being very good cos I'm keeping a couple of the other sets to use in the New Year- aren't I good?! Anyway, I wanted to get moving on my Christmas cards so over a few days I made 10 cards which is good for me. I'm loving doing a different, less is more, style. I think from now on, I'll do half my Christmas cards as cute, lots of colouring, sketch based cards (ie my usual style) and then the other half as a sort of PTI stylee!

So here are 3 cards to show you...

With this first card, I'm channelling Dawn McVey here. She gave me the idea of using the swirls from the Holiday Photo Finishers set in this way. The circular sentiment is also from this set which I cut out with a nestie and mounted on the new Damask snowflake die (I LOVE this die!!) I then put Crystal stickles around the sentiment and added nailheads. I popped up the snowflake to add some dimension.

Just as a variation, I added some Poppy PTI ribbon. This time I didn't mount the snowflake up as this is a card order from my Mum and she likes me to do some cards that go through the normal post rather than having to pay extra because I add too much gumpf to my cards!!!

Crafty stash used: Stamps (PTI); Snowflake die (PTI); Nesties; Crystal Stickles; Ribbon (PTI); Nailheads (Josy Rose)

Finally I took my inspiration from Lisa Johnson here on this card. She used some gorgeous swirls as a background so I dug out these swirls from Inkadinkadoo and used Versamark and clear glitter embossing powder. The purple is not quite as dark as it appears on this photo. I used the Peace and Joy sentiment from the Photo Finishers set but I only wanted these 3 words (I think the whole sentiment says something like "... to you and your's this holiday season") in this format so I just masked the rest off so it fitted into a nestie circle. Purple ribbon is PTI.

Crafty stash used: Stamps (PTI, Inkadinkadoo); Embossing powder; Nesties; Ribbon (PTI); Nailheads (Josy Rose)

Hope you enjoyed popping by today and are not getting too stressed about Christmas card making!!! I think I've only got about 12 to make now!!

Anything Goes Challenge- Stitching!

Hello! Hello! It's Tuesday so that can only mean one thing- it's time for another Anything Goes Challenge! The theme this fortnight is "Stitching"- real or faux. As ever, the DT have really outdone themselves again with gorgeous samples so pop over and check them out.

My card this week is for a friend's 10th wedding anniversary. I don't normally do anniversary cards for friends but as this is a special year, I really wanted to do something special.

I love this cute image, so perfect for anniversary and valentine cards. I coloured with a mixture of copics and watercolour pencils- basically dipping in and out of mediums pretty much willy nilly! I added a generous amount of Crystal Stickles around the image. I used my new nesties to matt and layer the image with some contrasting shapes. These totally gorgeous papers are Honey Cake by MME which I bought at The Craft Den- Lynne has papers at a fabbie price!

The "10" was cut out using my new Die-namic By The Numbers set. The "th anniversary" are stamped using the matching MFT stamp set. The flowers are made using the rolled flower die from MFT and the swirls are a Boss Kut die.

As you can see I stitched around the edge using pink thread. I would've done more stitching but my sewing machine seems to have totally lost it so I was somewhat restricted!!! :0)

I'd like to enter this into:

Pollycraft- anything goes

Sweet Stampin Challenges- anything goes

Dutch Dare- Pearls and swirls

Charisma Cardz- anything goes

Totally Papercrafts- Glitter it

Simon Says- anything goes

Close up!! The cute little heart was a leftover piece from using the Doohickey heart border edge die.

Crafty stash used: Stamps (LOTV, MFT); Watercolour pencils; Copics; Papers (MME); Nesties; Flower dies (Dienamics MFT); Pearls; Swirl die (Boss Kut); Number dies (Dienamics MFT); Sewing machine; Heart (Doohickey die, Magnolia)