4 challenges in 1 card .....

Long time no see...... I had a fabby birthday on Thursday and been busy since then.
I've not managed much crafting but squeezed in a spot of craft shopping with Christmas shopping!
I finally managed to get into my craft room yesterday to make my DT card for Creative Card Crew, check back here tomorrow to see it. I thought I would make another card for my Christmas box and here it is....



One of my favourite Magnolia stamps - had you noticed that? it is appearing on a lot of my Christmas cards this year... thought it was about time I cut up some of the Basic Grey Figgy Pudding papers I bought last year and couldn't bring myself to cut up until now. Image coloured with Promarkers finished off with a bit of bling, Art Institute glitter, I love this rich chocolate brown one, added a bit of lace and another card for the pile.
I am entering this card for 4 challenges
Passion for Promarkers - vintage theme - any colours
A Spoon Full of Sugar - brown base colour with blue or pink
Simon Says Stamp - Winter Love
Creative Inspirations - sketch.

Woo Hoo - I'm in the Top 3 at Susie's Sassy Challenge

What great news, I discovered I had come in the Top 3 at Susie's Sassy Challenge - thanks Susie, sorry it's taken me a couple of days to collect my badge, had a couple of busy days as yesterday was my birthday, I had lunch out with Barry, Mum & Ellie, saw lots of my friends and rounded the day off with a few drinks at the local!
Hope to catch up on card making and bloggging over the weekend, especially if the weather forecast is to be believed!

I haven't forgotten my promised blog candy, I will be back with it over the weekend.
Hope you have a relaxing, crafty weekend.

A bit of beading.... and some blog candy on its way

This project has been a long time in the making! One of my Mum's friends bought a beautifully beaded bauble last year. I just had to have a go at making one, but not having a pattern, it was a case of trial and error and adding my twist to the design.



It has taken about 3 attempts, the second one was nearly finished, as I was tightening the thread it snapped, so I cut it up and started again with Fireline, a lot stronger thread. This is the third version which ended up somewhat different, when it came to adding the beads at the bottom I didn't have enough in the right colour, so a quick dash to the local beading shop was in order yesterday. I finally finished it last night! I've got lots more designs buzzing round in my head now and ideas on how I would do it differently next time, so watch this space....

Sorry about the glare on the photo, it was the best I could do, will try to get a better shot later.

In celebration of my birthday tomorrow and recently reaching 10,000 hits I will be back with some blog candy later.

Better go and get ready for work now, have a great day .....

Gingerbread man with bling!!

The challenge this week at Creative Card Crew is sponsored by Digital Delights and the theme of 'Favourite Things' has been chosen by Paula. We were all provided with a choice of digi images to use - I'm not usually one to use digi images, more of a rubbah girl but its very easy and I can see myself using more of these images in the future.



I chose to work with the gingerbread man image, which I printed on to SU! Whisper White cardstock, sprayed with hairspray to seal the image and coloured with Promarkers. The papers are from a DCWV stack, ribbon from the Range and snowflakes made using MS punch. I made an easel style card - really liking these!

Another Christmas card made and I know just whose mat this card is going to be dropping on!

Looking forward to seeing your entries this week.

Finally a card.....

I spent a couple of hours sorting my craft room yesterday evening and as usually happens I got sidetracked and ended up making this card.



I was given this image as part of a RAK, thanks Paula. I chose the papers first, from my current favourite, MME Magnolia stack, then chose the colours for the image.
The layout is the sketch at Papertake Weekly this week, and I am also entering it for the My Time To Craft challenge 'Under My Umbrella' and Crafty Creations challenge of 'Metal/Metallic Finishes, hope my lil' brolly charm qualifies for this.
What a faff it was getting the links together and trying to get the charm to dangle how I wanted it to!

Blue Tilda & Edwin

Another card using one of my favourite Tilda & Edwin images. I have followed the sketch at Just Magnolia and used the colours blue, white & silver as per the challenge at Colour Create.
I coloured the image with Promarkers, dug out an old DCWV Christmas stack. A bit of distressing on the turquoise cardstock, snowflakes from various punches. Ribbon and brad from stash. I ended up using a small peel off greeting here, as I didn't have a text stamp small enough to put in the space I had left! Nearly forgot to add a lil' bit of Glamour Dust on the edges of Tilda's coat, well a girl's got to have a bit of bling hasn't she?

Has anyone received their Christmas Magnolia kit yet? Hope they get a move on, otherwise won't have time to do it justice.

Am off out for something to eat this evening, day off tomorrow, so should be able to fit in some crafting.... Have a great evening whatever you are up to.

My first easel card

The challenge at Creative Card Crew this week is 'Strings Attached' Linda who has chosen this challenge would like to see fibres on your card.



Having seen lots of easel cards around in blogland recently I decided to give one a go. Really enjoyed making this, can see I'm gonna be making a few more of these, they are so effective and easy to make. Just what I needed after my hectic weekend...
I used some more of those lovely paper from the MME Magnolia stack, Edwin & Tilda skating, such a cute image, coloured with my copics. If you look closely you can just about see fibre on my card - yes it is there, tied through the button in the middle of the flower.

The prize this week is a $20 gift certificate from Simon Says Stamp, so lets see your fibres....

Miss Anya in the Pink and Lilac

Woo hoo, I can enter this card for 6 challenges.....



I dusted off my Cricut for this card - I used the Accent Essentials cartridge to cut the giant snowflake, which I put on top of the circle of pink glittery paper and dots of purple stickles on each circle although these haven't come out too clearly in the photo. Miss Anya was coloured with copics, loving the grey shades, and icicle stickles on the fur in the image. just in case you hadn't noticed! Paper is from DCWV paper stack, would you expect anything else these days?
Greeting is a Cuddly Buddly stamp on punched circles using SU! punches. Charm and gems from stash.
Photo is pretty bad but try as I might I can't get one without any glare, please click on the image for a closer look.

I can feel a night in my craft room coming on, as I can hear the rain lashing against the windows and its nice and snug in my lil' room.

The challenges are :-

1. the sketch from Friday Sketchers
2. Christmas theme from Roses on Paper
3. Use punches for La La Land
4. Christmas theme at Stamp with Us
5. Merry & Bright at Charisma Cardz
6. Glitter Me Silly at Cute Card Thursday

Do A Doodle

It's Donna's turn to set the challenge this week at Creative Card Crew and she has chosen the theme of 'Do A Doodle' I am a bit of a scaredy cat when it comes to doodling, but took a deep breath and gave it my best shot!



Thought I would give Miss Anya Rain a bit of an inking up as it was raining when I started to make the card. The papers are from an MME, Magnolia paper stack, loving these papers, they are all delish.
I had fun and games with the image, had coloured Miss Anya with copics, just thought I would add a little shading and the ink bled all over the edges of the stamped image so that ended up in the bin - in little pieces.

When I had sorted out all the layers and stuck them together I put them on the card base the wrong way round, grrrrr..... so off came the card front and stuck it to another. Boy is this card heavy now, even more so as I have decorated the inside, just glad I used papers not cardstock, otherwise the poor old postie would be getting a workout ;-)



The sponsor of this week's challenge is the lovely Nikki at Bunny Zoe's Crafts, lots of lovely stash at wonderful prices, why not pay a visit and do some online shopping, my kind of shopping these days, don't have to put a foot out of the door or even get dressed!

I've followed the recipe at Anyone for Anya this week which is to use 3 papers, 2 buttons and 1 bow. The buttons are tiny but they are there, just about visible under the bows.

Happy 18th Birthday Scott

Just a quick card tonight, after my early morning crafting session this morning. I can hear my bed calling but had to make a card for the son of a friend who is 18 tomorrow - I know, talk about leave it till the last minute!
Card from stash, stamps from Cheers to You set and circle and scalloped circle punches from SU!

Late night crafting

I was having trouble sleeping last night so after laying awake for 30 minutes, I decided to get up and make a cuppa. While the kettle was boiling, thought I would do a quick tidy of my craft room, as its next to the kitchen. I got sidetracked, as you do when you go into a craft room and began to make a card for an image that had been coloured.



I broke into a new paper stack from DCWV for this one (last years) had to have it but didn't use it - does that sound familiar? The papers just matched the blue on the image. I fiddled for ages as the snowflake was too big and kept covering Charlie's cute lil' face. The starry shiny paper is from stash, bought when I first started making cards. The sentiment is from an SU! kit.
I used the sketch from A Spoon Full of Sugar challenge this week and am going to enter it into Susie's Sassy Challenge.



Even managed to decorate the inside of the card again.....

Distressing - the card and me!!

I've had a distressing evening in my craft room - you can see the result below.....



I've just got the hang of using distress inks around the edge of my papers and images, can do the sandpaper bit but using the blade of the scissors filled me with dread..... I came out in a hot sweat but had to give it a go as per the tutorial at Just Magnolia this week.
Image was RAK, coloured with copics as per the colours this week at Copic Colour challenge and layout is from Sketch & Stash challenge. Papers are old stash, Papermania I think and textured card is DCWV.

Should be off to bed now but maybe I could fit a bit more colouring in before I go...
Have a good weekend whatever you are up to, wish I was off up to the NEC but gotta get my eyes tested, getting to that funny age, and then bathroom shopping :-(
Still there's always Sunday....

Finally ...... Just Magnolia

I love the challenges set over at Just Magnolia, but for the last few weeks just don't seem to have managed to get a card in on time, so I am really pleased to have got this card made in time for this weeks Monochrome challenge.



I've made a few monochrome cards lately using copics, just got a good selection of greys in one of the sets. I think Tilda looks 'all dolled up with nowhere to go' in this image. Backing papers from stash and a DCWV glitter stack I've had forever. Sparkly brad is a Papermania one, ribbons and blooms from stash.

I've used the sketch from Papertake Weekly and the scallops on the sentiment mean I can enter it for My Time to Craft challenge - 3 challenges in one card.

I'd better go and get the dinner on now, else I'll have 3 hungry teenagers after me.

WOYWW - a mess!!

I know its Thursday but here's a photo of my workdesk when I had finished playing last night - I was too tired to tidy up so this is what I was faced with this morning. Why not join in the fun and show us your workspace, go and have a nosy at other people's workspace at The Stamping Ground



Its my day off today, so I've done a few chores, met a friend for coffee and hope to make a card or two this afternoon.
I've found my missing copic, I hate losing things and don't rest till I've searched high and low to find them. Was purely by chance I took out one of my hanging folders to dig out some patterned paper and the lil' devil rolled out! Must have got caught up when I was crafting last week. Lesson to be learned here - must keep my workspace tidy!!

Baby Sleeping Door Hanger

A while ago I got some door hangers from my blogging buddy Susie's shop Die Cut Dreams. I made one when I first got them but the other 2 have been buried on my desk, was beginning to think I would never see them again!! Anyway they resurfaced yesterday so thought I would decorate another one up....



Wasn't quite sure what I was going to put on this hanger when I spied the Bubbles and Squeak stamps poking out from a pile of stash. These stamps haven't been inked up in a while so thought it was about time. The door hanger was blue so that was another decision made. Image stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa, I love this colour, its not so harsh as black and just great for this bear image which I coloured with copics.
Background papers from a DCWV Nursery stack, love these, there's such a lot of glitter on this paper, not that you can see much of it here... Added ribbon from stash and a couple of die cuts I've had for ages. I wasn't sure how many s's you have in ssh, but didn't have space for any more or an exclamation mark.

Am off now to have a little tidy up, have lost one of my copics in the mess - oh no..... whats a girl to do?

Happy Birthday Dad

It's my Dad's birthday today, I always struggle for cards for him as he doesn't have any of the usual 'male' hobbies such as football, drinking, DIY.
I was browsing through some old magazines recently when I saw this design so thought I would give it a go.



The card is A5 folded in half. Paper is from a Papermania stack, cardstock at the top was run through CB embossing folder. DAD cut with Cricut, think it was Birthdays and Beyond cartridge, too lazy to go and look!



And this is how it looks when you flip the top back on its hinge - the hidden greeting. This design is very versatile, I can see lots of girlie cards made using this style with handbag or shoe toppers on!

Creative Card Crew - Ribbons and Gems

It my turn to set the challenge this week at Creative Card Crew......ribbons and gems sprang to mind with Christmas racing towards us!



I've had this blue ribbon in my stash since I started card making years ago, it has been much stroked but never cut and put onto a card until now! With my colour scheme set all I had to do was decide what stamp to use. I heard Maggie calling from the cupboard, the stars on her dress fit in pretty well with the stars on the ribbon so all I had to do then was pick my papers - mmmmm, so many papers but only 1 pack that would fit in nicely with my colours, last years Dovecraft Christmas pack. Image coloured with copics and gelly roll pens and MS punch used on some of the borders. Added a tag with greeting on, a few gems and there we have it!



Trying to keep on decorating the inside of my cards, so far so good, but you will have noticed that it has slowed down the number of cards I've made recently ROFL - most like brought it to a standstill!!!
I've just noticed that I haven't put a white panel inside this card for the greeting etc to be written, must do that before I seal it up.

The challenge this week is sponsored by The Creative Cottage, not sure what the prize is so you'll have to visit the CCC blog to find out more....