Simply skinnies 12: children's stories + RaInbow lady challenge 42: green and black

I came across this stamped image of a quote from Alice in Wonderland (or perhaps it's from Alice and the Looking Glass) that I received in a swap on CBC.

This is my first time of doing something for Simply skinnies, challenge 12 being to make something to do with children's stories, so this seemed to be very appropriate - the skinny has to be 3" x 5":


The skinny was chalked with shades of green and black and green and black gems added, mounted on to a piece of BG paper.

I then used it on a simple card, using a strip of BG two scoops down the side - this is for Rainbow lady's challenge 42: green and black:

Our Creative Corner sketch + Created by hand: flourishes

I'm hoping to be able to have a card day again some time at the beginning of March to raise some more money for Tearfund, so I'm gradually building up my stock and having a bit of fun doing challenges at the same time.

This card is for two challenges. Firstly, it's for this sketch on Our Creative Corner (I just spun it round):


As the stamped image has a flourish under the glass, I thought it qualifies for the challenge on Created by hand this week.

The stamped image was one I received in a swap on CBC and I used copics to colour. The papers are again BG Scarlet's letter, plus a Papermania sticky ribbon with wavy edges for the scalloped part of the sketch.

I thought this could be a versatile card - for Valentine, wedding, anniversary, including silver or ruby.

One Stop Craft 10 + Stamp Something: no stamping allowed

This card is for two challenges.

Firstly, it is for the sketch by Shelley on One Stop Craft challenge blog:

The card had to include brads or buttons, so I included buttons, because they were already printed on the oval that I used ( K & Co Brookfield), so I just stuck some real buttons over them. The papers used are HOTP and K & Co. The lily image and the 'thinking of you' are vellum.

The challenge this week on Stamp Something is 'no stamping allowed', so I'm submitting this card for that too.

Secret Crafter Saturday challenge 13 + Dutch Dare 30

Challenge 13 on Secret Crafter Saturday challenge is a sketch:

I hope you can see it in this simple card (with a little bit of imagination!):

This also includes three triangles, so it OK for the new Dutch Dare challenge 30 'to use at least three triangles on your card'.

The tie is a tag that came with a sheet of wrapping paper, so this was a very easy card.

Sketch Saturday 32 + Lili of the valley: anything goes

This card is for Sketch Saturday 32:

and for this week's Lili of the valley challenge: anything goes.

I've used some of my favourite BG papers from Scarlet's letters and a stamped image that I got in a swap on CBC.

I have to laugh - I carefully cut circles into quarters and matted and layered in the corners of the card, as per the sketch - and then covered them up with the blooms!!

The red and black paper in the square in the middle is much more vibrant irl.

I guess that this could be my first Valentine card made, although it could be used for an anniversary or whatever.

BG 16: first sketch of 2009 + Cute Card Thursday 42

This week's challenge on BG is a sketch - the first for 2009:

I've used BG two scoops papers and a Forever Friends stamped image, coloured with copics, and with a piece of pink raffia tied around the card:

I'm also submitting this for the challenge on Cute Card Thursday, which is: 'This week we would like to see you use something you got for Christmas on your cards (if you didn't get anything suitable for Christmas then you can use something that you bought yourself over the holidays)!' I received a set of 36 copics and I have used six of them to blend on the image. The stamped image was received in the candy I blogged about yesterday.

2008 Top Ten

While blog hopping I've found that quite a few crafters have shown their Top Ten makes for 2008 - I eventually traced the idea back to this lady's blog

I found it quite an experience to look through my crafting for 2008 and very difficult to choose my 'top ten' because some crafting is special because of the technique involved, whereas other makes are special because of the purpose for doing them.

These are my chosen highlights of 2008 (but I really wanted to include more):

1. Card and exploding box made for mum for Mothering Sunday:

2. Book of vouchers made for John for Easter - the first time I used my BIA(you can see the rest of this project here

3. A card made for a competition on Tanda Stamps, using alcohol inks on acetate (I love using alcohol inks):

4. This was a match book I made for John for our wedding anniversary in May - more pictures and info here

5. I just love this stamp and used it on a piece of evenweave for a change:

6. No 'top ten' would be complete without one of my LO for Salt:

7. This tin was made for the Think Pink project - more pictures and information here

8. This card uses one of my favourite stamps (you will have seen those trees quite a bit if you are a regular visitor). In fact, mum bought this from me to give to John for his birthday:

9. One of my favourite Christmas cards of 2008 - I do love that stamp!

10. A simple card, but I love the sentiment and the photo:

Why not have a look through your own crafting for 2008 and show your 'top ten'? If you do, please leave me a comment to tell me and I'll come and have a look.

Look what postie brought me!!

Wow!! You may remember me posting to say that I'd won some blog candy from Claire on Claire's Crafty Corner - well, postie's just been and this is what's in the package:



I have to admit that I'm not feeling up to much today, so this has come at a good time. Thank you so much, Claire - what a super selection of goodies.

Salt: self control

Because of the New Year holiday, we delayed this time's Salt challenge till today. Ruth chose the subject of Self Control and you can read what she wrote here.

There are many areas in life where self control is needed. When I was younger I was the typical stereotype redhead with a quick temper that sometimes let me down. James in the Bible warns of the danger that can be caused by the tongue and this is the basis of my LO for this theme. Self control is one of the fruit of the Spirit that Paul talks about in Galatians 5, so it isn't something that comes naturally to us, but is God-given.

For my LO I chose a simple white handmade paper 12 x 12 , using another one to print my journaling and the scripture verses.

You can read what I've written if you click on the image - and you will also be able to see that I used some delicate white flowers and leaves down the sides of the writing.



Unfortunately, during the year two of our DT on Salt have had to stand down and we are now looking for others to join us, so part of today's post is a call for DT members - please have a look and see whether you could consider joining us. I count it a real privilege to be part of the team of such talented Christian crafters.

Yummy card

I used sketch 29 on Dutch Dare for this card )I turned the sketch upright):



The papers are Steffi Tutti Frutti by craftwork cards (sorry that the photo makes the papers look as if they're not stuck properly, but they are really! - very difficult to get a photo especially as there is glitter on the ice cream sundae).

This week's challenge 43 on My time to craft is 'food, glorious food' and on This Thursday it's all about ... 25: naughty or nice (think this qualifies for both!):

Four New Year challenges in one

I needed to make another New Year card, so I used the current Di Hickman sketch:



The new challenge on Papertake Weekly is 'seeing spots', so the papers and ribbon I've used qualify this card for that challenge. The papers are American Crafts the goods confetti and cummerbund.

Challenge 12 this week on Lili of the valley is to make a New Year card - and I also promised to make a new one for the RosieDee challenge.



That's one I can get into the post tomorrow!

Experimenting with something new!!

Saturday's Workout 36: salted backgrounds

DCM 'giving thanks'

Rainbow Lady 41: new ideas

Theme Thursday: something new

The challenge this week on Saturday's workout is to make and use salted backgrounds, a technique which is explained here.

I thought that if I tried out a new technique I could also use the result for the challenges this week on Rainbow Lady and Theme Thursday, both of which were asking us to try something new.

Now, I'm willing to try anything once (or perhaps twice!), but, oh dear, this wasn't exactly a success (to put it mildly) - I used dye ink pads as instructed and tried to follow the tutorial, but this is what I ended up with:

I realise that I should have been bolder with the original dyes before applying the salt.

And then I had an idea to try Adirondack Color Wash, cranberry, lettuce and stream, instead of dye ink pads - well, they are water-based dyes, after all! And I did have better success with these:



However, I don't like wasting anything, so I decided to try and rescue my first pathetic attempt. With a bit (well, OK, a lot of imagination), it suggested a seascape background to me. So I swiped over the disaster area with some chalk ink pads - blue iris, yellow citrus and a touch of tangerine. This has then formed the basis of the background of this card:



I then used some of the color wash background on this card, just adding the 'thanks' sentiment and K & Co 3D flower stickers:



As I added 'with special thanks' this card is suitable for this week's DCM challenge: giving thanks.

Please click on the various links to see these wonderful challenges that inspire us to try new things (even if they don't turn out as expected!)

Created by hand: chalks

This week's challenge on Created by hand is to use chalks or pastels.

Everything I've used for this card is from the Laura Ashley Contemporary range - the random stamped flowers were done with versamark and chalked:

Caardvarks Becky Fleck pagemaps sketch

This is my first time of taking part in a Caardvarks challenge - a sketch provided by Becky Fleck of Pagemaps:



The papers are DCWV Pocket full of posies and the little 'Thank you' clear tag was bought from CBC:

Inchies challenges

It's a long while since I've made any inchies (in fact, I've just signed up for a swap on BF), but this past week I found two challenge sites that incorporate inchies:

Inchy by Inch - this week the theme is 'gifts' and

Small World of Inchies and Twinchies - this week's challenge is to make a collage.

So I combined the two and used them for this card:



The backgrounds are BG Scarlet's letters and I've used various epoxy stickers on foiled gold for the inchies, using sticky ribbons to make some of them look like 'gifts'.

As always, difficult to get a photo because of having to use flash - might replace if light is better in the morning.

Papertake challenge: Dawny's sketch 5 + Cuttlebug 12: sand the embossing

This is the sketch on Papertake this week:



I decided to combine this with Cuttlebug challenge 12: sand the embossing.

And, having made a few very quick cards, this one took me quite a bit longer!

As you can see, I used two different Cuttlebug embossing folders and inked them before I then sanded (have often done it the other way round, but quite like the effect of this). The strip across the bottom is DCWV pocket full of posies and the embossings are mounted on HOTP papers. The flower stamped image is a Dawn Bibby one, stamped with Brilliance pearlescent purple and embossed, as are the edges of the 'Happy Birthday' flower. The base card is a pale lilac.

My Time to Craft challenge 42: easy elegance

Having made a very quick card last night for the Dottie challenge, I seem to be into quick cards, because I've made three for the 'easy elegance' challenge on My Time to Craft.

These were made with some of the concept card range that I got from QVC - good for when you're not feeling very creative, but just want to make a couple of cards:

BubblyFunk Crafty Calendar

You will see that a new picture has been added to my sidebar - please visit the BubblyFunk Crafty Calendar blog and see the delightful calendar and monthly projects that have been designed by members of BF - such a lot of hard work has gone into producing this - thanks to all those who contributed. Please use the Just Giving link to donate to Action for ME.

The quickest card ever!

I wanted to do the challenge on Dottie's World this week - get well wishes - but time ran out. So this is the easiest, quickest card on record - a download of Dottie at work, ready coloured picture of nurse and words added - and still in time for the deadline of the challenge (I sort of promise that I'll spend more time on the next challenge!):



Dottie's downloads are terrific - if you haven't seen them yet, why not follow the link and try some for yourself - but be warned: you'll want more!

Sunday Stamper 41 + Mixed Media Monday

Following on from the last post, I used the same background and stamp for this card for Sunday Stamper and Mixed Media Monday (links as below) - both of which challenged to make something using favourite things - in this case, using alcohol inks. I used some stickles on the trees:



As is often the case, I'm not happy with the scan (and a photo looked worse) - the sky doesn't look as good as it does irl (looks somehow softer and more blended).

Sunday Postcard art

I found Sunday Postcard art today and thought I'd combine this with some stamping challenges - I ended up making one postcard and one square card, using the same background and stamp - which I'll submit for Sunday Stamper and Mixed Media Monday.

I used alcohol inks for the sky background. a mixture of denim, silver, slate and red pepper. And, of course, I've used the trees stamp again that I used earlier today, seen in a post below.

Becuase the trees were stamped on to shiny card I must have moved the stamp slightly and it became a bit blurred, but I thought that it gives a more shadowy look which might even suggest a hint of frost or snow, so I decided to keep it as it is.