Stamp Something Challenge

Stamp Something current challenge is a sketch. A good opportunity to start on the 4 birthday cards I have to send next week. I coloured Tilda with prismas and watercolours. The papers are downloaded from Shabby Princess and Mechelle Conrad. The circular element is two flowers cut from the EK Success retro flower punch and I haven't a clue what the sentment is (a 'freebie' sent when I ordered some stamps from Funky Kits). Ribbon, brads and gems from stash.

The inside of this card has a flower cut with the EK success retro flower punches and leaves with the Leone Em ash leaf punch

Magnolia vs Stampavie & OCC challenges

I have turned the sketch for Magnolia vs Stampavie upside down and incorporated the OCC 'Clear Thinking'. I have had these Magnolia flowers for some time, intending to try stamping on acetate, which fit in perfectly with the OCC challenge. I stamped the flowers on inkjet acetate and tried colouring them with copics - failure!, tried colouring them on the front - failure!! I ended up attaching them to rainbow glitter card. The papers are HOTP, the leaves from the Leone Em punch, the sentiment is A Royal Langernickel stamp and brads and ribbons from stash.

Brillante Weblog Award

I am so flattered that Pascale thought of me and has kindly given me this award - what a great way to end the blogging year - thanks honey. Check out Pascale's wonderful blog - she amazes me with her productivity
(personally I think she crafts 24/7 lol).
Now I should pass it on to seven others, but I am so short of time (back at work - boo hoo) I am going to leave it open - so any one who visits who hasn't got this award - please help yourself.

House Mouse challenge 19

Embossing is this weeks House Mouse challenge. This card has fought back all the way. I had a tidy up before Christmas, so of course I couldn't find anything today - not even my acrylic blocks - a brilliant start I must say !!! I decided I wanted to do a' pretty' card, so out came the lace which ended up covering up the embossed card I mounted it on - you can just about see it if you zoom in. I also embossed the base card with clear embossing powder and heat embossed it with plum pearlized powder, which hardly showed when I photographed it. I had to use flash which leaves the card looking a little washed out, but at least the embossing shows up. The image is coloured with a mixture of pastels and watercolours. I used the cuttlebug vintage corners, the Leone Em leaf punch and SU flowers and sentiment holder (or whatever you call them). The CS is Bazzill and Paper Adventure's Dazzle Purple-Pink Stripe.

Sketch Saturday - 31 - Your Choice

My choice for the sketch is week 17 - it is a beautifully balanced sketch and brilliant to work with. I chose Basic Grey Sugared papers and coloured the Sugar Nellie image - Daisy with prismas. I used the Martha Stewart Lace Doily punch on either side of the center panel and cut the corners with the cuttlebug and 'nesties'. Ribbon, brads, pin and charms from stash.

BLOG CANDY

I've managed to get my blog candy together at last. This is by way of a celebration for being chosen as DT member for the Basic Grey Challenge Blog, so naturally quite a bit of the candy is Basic Grey.

To be in with a chance - leave a comment on this post and a link on your blog.

The candy consists of:
Two Basic Grey Pads - Granola and Sugared
One Sugared element sticker sheet
A tub of pink co-ordinating flowers
Approx. 1 metre of pink spotted, cerise and wide chocolate brown ribbon
Some small spacers and a packet of silver mini brads to fit spacers
Some Made with love heart charms
A Whiff of Joy stamp - Lizzie with Muff

I shall leave the draw open until midnight 23rd Dec. and post the winner on 24th. That will be an extra Christmas present for someone, although obviously whoever wins won't receive for Christmas (Lol).

House Mouse - A Tribute to Joanne

The House Mouse challenge this week is a sketch. but we were asked also to make a card in memory of Joanne (a regular entrant to the HM challenge)
who died suddenly this week her family posted the following on her blog -

"Joanne spread much joy through her card making. If you would like to do something in memory of her, we are sure she would like you to send a card to someone in need."

I personally will miss her blond, bubbly hair, her wonderful smile and the lovely comments she left on my blog.
I used Basic Grey Wassail papers, coloured the image in watercolours. The sentiment is Aud designs and ribbon and the rest from stash.

Papertake Weekly & Stamp with Sarah Kay

Monochrome Madness is this weeks Papertake weekly challenge, whilst
Stamp with Sarah Kay is do anything you like providing you use a Stampavie image. Since I got this stamp by Sarah Kay I've fancied doing something with a 'vintage' look with it as the image itself has a vintage feel. The BP is core-dinations on top of which I used some newpaper paper which I have had forever. I used the snowflake folder on white and mounted the image onto this.

I originally tried stamping the image onto a brown paper bag, but sadly this was too absorbent and soaked up the ink so I used a piece of beigy brown card and highlighted it with a white pastel pencil and a white gel pen. (Note to self - must try stamping on brown kraft paper ). I used the Martha Stuart punch to edge the image and Tim Holtz Tea dye distress ink around most of the edges.The sentiment is Aud designs and brads and ribbon from stash.

Double Dutch challenge - Trim the Tree

The Double Dutch challenge this time is trim the tree. I picked up this bauble case whilst in Germany thinking it might be useful. I also bought some large glittered chipboard snowflakes and used one of these as a center peice. I added sillver mirri cuttlebugged and embossed snowflake to each side and added a smaller white glittered snowflake at the center. I finished it with stick-on silver and white snowflakes on the outside and white ribbon at the top.
I made this 'bauble' last week but couldn't post it as I wanted to photograph actually hanging on my tree, which is black, silver and white. I only decorated last night, hence the delay in posting, which was a little silly as you can't see the rest of the tree anyway.

WOW - WHAT A WONDERFUL AWARD

Thanks Joey, what a wonderful complement this award is.

The rules for this award are:- Link to whoever gave you the award and pass it on and link to 5 others.

You also have to write down 5 things you are addicted to!

1. My Family

2. My Blog and blogging friends

3. Basic Grey & House Mouse

4. Anything Aniseed

5. Coffee!!!!! (I'm afraid to say)

Here goes:-( in no real order)
Dawn (All Pink Girl)
Chrissie
Carolyn
Gisela
Chris D

Tag You're It

Just one quickie post. I made this tag for Tag You're It over the weekend and forgot to post it. The brief was brown and aqua - one of my favourite colour combinations so how could I resist?

I used Basic Grey Obscure papers, pearlized paper for the HOTP fold back swirls flower and the Leone Em leaf punch. The sentiment is a stamp by Royal Langernickel with brads eyelets and ribbons from stash.

No Card - Just an apologie

A quick post just to apologize for my lack of visits and commenting. I am having some PC problems at the moment, which have slowed me down to a virtual halt. When I try to visit a blog I get "Internet Explorer cannot display this web page" once or twice (sometimes 3 times) before I get where I want to be. Once there sometimes it lets me leave a comment, sometimes not.

I left a link on the House Mouse challenge blog - just checked to see if it was OK and it took me to a "World Mega Group for Bible Studies", I tried again and the same happened. I've definitely got Gremlins in my works at the moment. I have ended up on some weird and wonderful blog sites this past couple of weeks, I can tell you, but unlike Eileen at Ikki's Corner it hasn't taken me to any porn sites yet. (Lol)

Daring Cardmakers, - 10 minute Christmas Card

A 10 minute Christmas card is Daring Cardmakers challenge this week.

I think I need to do a good few of these this weekend.

I took an A4 sheet of card, folded it down the middle, cuttlebugged the centre piece with the snowflake embossing folder and layered in onto silver mirri. I used a glittered snowflake (bought in Germany, 12 for 2 euros - how's that for value), added a cuttlebug die cut and embossed snowflake in the middle, with one of the smaller die cut snowflakes in the centre and added them randomly around the rest of the card. I finished it with a blue bow, a rub-on sentiment and a few diamonte gems.

Basic Grey Challenge - Going Green

This week's challenge is Going Green - my green on this card are the snowflakes. I have been experimenting the last week of so with using the cuttlebug and various dies to cut out acetate, glitter or colour it and see what effects I could come up with. This is what I was going to use on this card until I spotted a polystyrene bag that parts of a new fire I've just had fitted came in. I thought that really is so pretty - AAAAHHH!!! - that's what I'm going to try. It cut beautifully, but I found that using double layers it was more effective and it actually stuck together when rolled throught the 'bug'. It didn't photograph too well - but zoom in to get a better picture.

I coloured Lizzie with Prismas, using stickles on her muff and boots.The paper is Wassail and core-dinations and brads, ribbon and charm from stash.

I decided to go for a 'vintage' look and I must say I love Lizzie in sepia, so I'm off now to do her again, or will when I get home from work.

House Mouse challenge 17 - Let it Snow

I've got my 'Silly' head on again. The House Mouse challenge this week is 'Let it snow'. I couldn't make my mind up what image to use - but Hoppy in his bath kept leaping out at me. No - I thought, that's silly, Brrrr - he would be freezing. The picture that sprung to mind tickled me so that was it - poor Hoppy.

I used the Magnolia Winter Night background coloured with Prismas. Hoppy is coloured with mixed media (Prismas and watercolours), cut out and mounted onto Kanban's Twinkle snow paper. The image is mounted onto blue core-dinations to which I added rub-on snowflakes. Ribbon and sentiment from stash.

Magnolia vs Stampavie & Cuttlebug - 6

This week's Magnolia vs Stampvie challenge is 'Tags' - I've been doing 'odd' shaped cards and tags this past few weeks so this suited me down to the ground. The Cuttlebug challenge is 'A holiday item other than a card'.

I used the star shape to make this tag, and used the cuttlebug snowflakes folder on core-dinations paper and sanded it. I've been doing some experimenting over the weekend - using acetate to die cut snowflakes and then adding stickles, I wasn't sure the stickles would stick to the acetate, but lucky me, they did. Unfortunately they don't show up too well on the photograph, but you can see them if you zoom in. I used pencils to colour Tilda and added a large eyelet and ribbon to finish.

Tag You're It

I've been meaning to do this challenge for some weeks now, but never quite got round to it.

What happened to November? I suppose the fact I was away for two of them and arrived home to a mountain of paper work didn't help.

A triangular tag is this week's challenge.The basic cs is Kanban's Twinkle snow. I stamped the PSX snowflake stamp with white Stazon onto acetate and heat embossed it with bridal white powder. I layered the peach poinsetta onto this and finished it with ribbon and pearl brad from stash.

OCC Sketch Challenge

This week's OCC challenge is a sketch one. I had already made the base of this card for another challenge, but decided it didn't suit the image and cast it on one side, so there it was waiting for me for this OCC challenge and all it took was for me to produce an image and decorate it. The papers are Basic Grey's Wassail and

I used The Whiff of Joy snowman Herb and coloured him with a mixture of Prismas and watercolours. I used the Martha Stewart punch (again - lol) for the middle section and the Leone Em branch punch to highlight the poinsetta flower. Ribbon and brads are from stash.

Sketch Saturday - 28

What a super sketch by Mariska this is to work with. I used HOTP papers and coloured the image (Daisy) with Prismas. (Image is curtesy of Cathy - thanks honey - what a dream it is to colour). I used the Martha Stewart Lace Doily punch on the middle section and cuttlebug die cut corners. The sentiment is a rub-on which I attached to a HOTP tag and fastened to ribbon from stash. I finished it with Kay & Co flowers and brads.

Basic Grey Challenge 14 - Oh So Charming

I am so thrilled, and honoured to be accepted as a DT member for Basic Grey Challenges, and am really looking forward to working with the other extremely talented member of the team.

"For this weeks challenge we would like to see some charms on your creations, you can have as many as you like, and of course not forgetting to use at least 1 item from BasicGrey somewhere on your creations. And for your wonderful efforts, one lucky person will win this fabby prize which has been kindly sponsored by Crafty Krafts"

This is my first card as a Design team member and I knew exactly what I wanted to do as soon as I was given the brief. I made myself a 'phone charm sometime ago and a friend, as soon as she saw it said "Ooh, I want one", So I have made her one and attached it to a birthday card.

I used the beautiful Eva papers and attached the charm to a ribbon at the top, The sentiment behind the charm is computer generated and attached to oval cut nesties. The Birthday greeting is a die cut from stash and layered onto a die cut from the cuttlebug alphabet set Harmony. The flowers are frin Prima and the brad and spacer from stash.

A Spoonful of Sugar & Daring Cardmakers challenges

A Spoonful of Sugar challenge this week is a 'Thank you' card, whilst Daring Cardmaker's want us to use something in the house for inspiration.

I have been meaning to use my bedspread/comforter as inspiration for some time so I was thrilled when I saw this challenge. You will see my little green eyed furry friend on the pillow sham - he usually disappears when the camera comes out but I suspect comfort won out this time.

I used Core-dinations, cream linen and Basic Grey paper to create the patchwork effect, and stitched them together. I cut the flowers with the EK Success retro flower punch and mottled them with Prismas and cut the leaves with the Leone Em punch. The sentiment is a Clear Choice Stamps by Royal Langnickel and brads, ribbon and charm are from stash.

Stamp with Stampavie - 22

Star shaped was the theme for this week's challenge at Stamp with Stampavie.

I have done quite a few circular hanging cards this year and was wondering

where to go next, square wouldn't work, I thought about triangular but this

has made my mind up. It wasn't the easiest of cards to make, but now I have made a template it should be easier and quicker to do more and I must say

it was fun to do.

The Basic cardstock is Kanban - Twinkle Snow. My sweet Lil was coloured with Prismas, cut out with Nestabilites and mounted onto mirri card - hence the shine on the photograph. I added a large grommett type brad and threaded some silver chain through it, glittered the edges and added pearls to the image.

The Beautiful Butterfly Award

I have received this beautiful award from Ann, you'll find a visit to her blog well worthwhile. I have to pass this one to ten other 'Cool' blogs ( I could probably pass is on to 1010- if not more) - but these are my chosen 10. Check them out - I really have some talented crafting bloggy. friends
Tara
Alex
Laura
Gina
Ikki
Eija
Cathy
Kirsten
Sarita
Sharon

House Mouse challenge 16 Glitter & Glitz

This week's House Mouse challenge is Glitter and Glitz, not really my thing, but I did manage to find some fabric with a silver cobwebby thread running through it, which I use over red card as a backing for the image. I watercoloured the image, added glaze to the berries and red glittered part of the ribbon. The bp is Basic Grey Wassail and I used rub-on sentiments around the edge of the card. The brads are from stash. I decorated the inside with left over pieces from the front but have not added the greeting as yet.

Inside

I've been tagged

Hi , I have been tagged by Lorraine I have to tell you 7 fascinating facts about myself !!! and pass this on to 7 bloggers , which is not easy, on both counts ! I don't think there are 7 fascinating facts, but lets see what I can come up with.

1. I was born under the sign of Pisces but hate water (well cold water anyway). It's primarily water over my head, have to be forced to take a shower but will stay in a bath forever.

2. My parents christened me Heather Valerie, but called me Val. All official bodies, ie. shcools, doctors, passport peoples etc. call me Heather (which I prefer and use anyway) but family always call me Val - is it any wonder I'm crazy, mixed-up confused person?

3. I have a brilliant sense of direction - I always know which direction I want to be in, but always struggle to get there, especially when driving. I've been lost in every country I've driven in - Fuertaventura, Germany, Belgium, Kenya and believe it or not I still get lost in Blackburn and I've lived here for 30 years.

4. My daughter is forever telling me to 'grow-up' Why? to quote a friend - I just act my shoe size not my age.

I'm stuck here for the moment so will have to come back to this.

Magnolia vs Stampavie challenge - 5

This sketch by Donna was a delight to do. I coloured the Tilda with Prismas and mounted her on circles cut with a die from the Cuttlebug Harmony alphabet. The papers are a download from Free Digital Scrapbooking and the flower cut from some paper bought in Germany. (I had to cut my own - you know what it's like - doesn't matter how much stock you have there's always something you want that you don't have). I finished the card and realised Tilda was 'floating' so had to cut into the image and feed a peice of ribbon for her to 'sit' on - derrr!!!

The eyelets and brads are from stash.

Basic Grey DT request - I GOT IT !!!

How thrilled am I - I've been accepted as a DT member for Basic Grey challenges. There was a mixture of tears (of happiness) and laughter here this morning I can tell you.

By way of celebration I'm going to put together some Blog Candy, needless to say most of it will be Basic Grey products with one of two other goodies thrown in. I just need a little time to get a collection together but watch this space.

Meanwhile, check out the Basic Grey Challenge Site where Martine puts on some great challenges

Basic Grey Challenge - 13 - Aperture (Wassail papers)

Basic Grey's challenge this week is apertures. This posed me a dilemma before I had even started, what shape of aperture, what size, where to put it.
I've been thoroughly 'wishy washy' all week and am putting down to that 'flu bug that's going around. I haven't gone down with it but have been feeling pretty ropey all week. The outcome of this indesiciveness is I ended up with two cards, which is a little silly as they are more or less alike. Still, looking on the bright side - that's another Christmas card done.

I used teenage Lizzie as the main image on the outside and used the Cuttlebug Winter House folder on the inside which I glittered with Stickles. The image is coloured with a mixture of watercolours and Prismas. The use the Snowflake die as centre of the flowers and the rest is from stash.

inside


For the second card I chose Tilda & Edwin's Mistletoe kiss, which I coloured with Prismas. The leaves are cut with a Leone Em punch, the sentiment is a rub-on and the rest is from stash.

Inside

Penny Black & Sketch Saturday challenges

I used the super sketch from Sketch Saturdy and the no patternded paper from the Penny Black challenge.

I used core-dinations cardstock, embossed the darker piece with the cuttlebug snowflake folder and distressed it with a sanding block. My 'choir' is coloured in watercolours. The sentiment is a rub-on and brads, spacers, ribbon and charm

are from stash

Daring Cardmakers, Stamp Something challenges and more

I decided it was time to really concentrate on getting quite a lot of Christmas cards made and to forget challenges for a couple of days. Day 1 - four cards made - one relegated to the bin (how pathetic is that). Day 2 was slightly more successful and imagine my joy when I realized two of these cards fit challenges.

This first card is for Daring Cardmakers whose brief this week is white with a hint of pink (I wondered why I's bought these pink poinsettas). I decided to do some round cards with tags at the top so they could be hung up if desired, although they do stand on their own. The white cs is embossed with the Cuttlebug snowflakenfolder and I used my Leone Em punch on heat embossed silver paper to accent the flower and a rub-on greeting.

This second card is for The Stamp Something challenge - to use something black.

I stamped the PSX snowflake with Versamark ink and used Stampendous Disco black powder to heat emboss it. The white circle is embossed with the Cuttlebug snowflake folder, the bc is from my 'use-it-up' box and the greeting is a rub-on.

These a few more of what I managed to accomplish, I dread to think how many more times I have to do this. None of these cards have photographed well due to my use of mirri card, Christmas being about the only time I use it.

Basic Grey DT request

Basic Grey are looking for DT members, I don't anticipate getting a post, but certainly won't if I don't try and what have I got to lose?

I made this card using Martine's fabulous sketch at the weekend, emailed it to Martine and then forgot to post it (silly me). I used the beautiful Basic Grey Eva papers and used the gorgeous Whiff of Joy Lizzie with muff image. I used my faithfull watercolours, used Stickles on the muff, earwarmers and boots.

Daring Cardmakers

This card is for a Sam, a blogging and SBS21 friends birthday so I couldn't post it before I knew she had recieved it. The BP a is some given to me by a friend, so haven't a clue who they are by. I paper peiced Willow's chair with the same paper and watercoloured Willow . I used the cuttlebug to cut out the Sizzix swirl and the HOTP foldback template to make the flower. The sentiment is computer generated. I kept the whole card in muted colours so that Willow would 'Pop' even though she, herself is coloured in gentle colours.

Note to self: stop photographing cards at night (even though I have a daylight lamp) they lose some of their impact and look faded.

Double Dutch challenge

This Double Dutch challenge is a sketch one, a little daunting I thought when I first saw it, but it turned out to be most enjoyable. I used Basic Grey Granola papers and use the Martha Stewart punch on the middle downwards strip. I thought this looked a little 'bare' so I inked the edges and I must say I love the result and will certainly be doing that again. The Whiff of Joy image is coloured with watercolours, I accented the 'fur' with modelling paste and stickles. Flowers, eyelet, ribbon and gems are all from stash. The sentiment from my use it up box.

WOWEE What a Wonderful Award

Update: I have now been given this award another twice by the talented
TaraG and Kirsten a 'bloggy' mate from Docrafts.

Thank you both Sarah and Sharon, to receive this award twice, from two charming blogger friends (check out their blogs - brilliant!) is double heartening and rewarding.

The sentiment behind this award is truly amazing.

This is it:

This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships!These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind blogger's aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight blogger's who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.What a wonderful sentiment and an elegant award.

Now I have to pass it on to 8 people, so difficult with all the friends I've made out there. Anyway, this is the 8 I chose:

Chrissie
De
Ann
Debbie
Sam
Laura
Tiff
Sarita

I have tried to pass this award to friends who don't already have it. If you have it already - tough - you've got it twice.

Magnolia vs Stampavie challenge

I knew exactly what I wanted to do when I saw this challenge, but could I do it - no. Things would not go together how I wanted them to. The texture I used is mainly embossing. I embossed the background with the cuttlebug 'Winter house' folder on white vellum that had glitter dots on it and the tree onto Basic Grey which I distressed. Behind Edwin & Tilda I used ripped and torn mulberry paper as snow, the 'ice' that they are skating on is glossed with some stuff that is that old it's lost it's label. I used modelling clay on the fur bit of their coats and added Stickles to Tildas. I added some felt snowflakes but didn't like them - so off they came and I finished it with a satin ribbon bow and a small holographic snowflake and a greeting which I'm not happy about. This will come off and replaced when I decide what to use.

House Mouse challenge 15 (Polka Dots)

Another wonderful challenge from the
House Mouse team - Polka dots. I love polka dots and have so many different ones (digital downloads) my only problem was which to use. I used a tried and tested layout but altered it slightly by adding rounded corners. I love this 'Bunny bath' image and decided to paper piece it with some 'wood' paper I have and I used a silver gel pen to colour the metal rings on the barrel (bath). the BP are from Free Digital Scrapbooking and flowers, ribbons and brads from stash.

A card for Cathy's daughter Ellie who is to have her tonsils out a week before her 4th birthday. I used one of the new winter Tildas and use mixed media to colour her (watercolours and copics) - now I can't find my copics (and I haven't got that many). I think this means my crafting space is due for a good old tidying up. I used the Martha Stewart die to edge the papers from
Digital Scrapbook Art added some flowers bought in Germany and brads, ribbons and beads from stash. I cut Ellie's name using the cuttlebug Harmony alphabet and highlighted it with a white gel pen (also missing with copics)