Bon voyage

For my final CBC birthday challenge 'another recipe' I've made a bon voyage card. The recipe is to include string, a tag and felt.

The papers are K & Co and the brown felt background behind the map was cut with the Sizzix parchment die (a long time since that's been out of the box).


I can't believe that in the end I've managed to do all the challenges. Thanks, Sue, for a good time, particularly in getting me doing some more scrapbooking.

This also fits the challenge this week on Kelly Jo 42: colour chef: 'yellow, green, brown, cream'. Also linking for Little red wagon 19: 'fabric' (hope felt counts - missed the previous week) and for Alphabet: 'T is for tag'. I think this could also be 'something for the boys' for challenge 23 on Crafty catz and Crazy 4 challenges 28: 'masculine cards'.

My favourite colour

This LO is based on Sue's sketch for 'a bit sketchy' - I'm getting near to the end of the birthday challenges on CBC - just one more to go after this (I think - need to check).

This is a photo of Faye taken in September (same occasion as the last two LOs shown). Faye wasn't even four at the time, but wanted to join in the stamping and colouring that her bigger sisters were doing. I think you can see what her favourite colour is. Just like Chloe, Faye is really concentrating to colour the stamped image of the 'gracious lady' by Hero Arts.

Papers are DCWV. Once again the naked chipboard arrow has been swiped with versamark and heat embossed with hot pink powder.

The large oval at the bottom was cut on my cricut using Make the cut and the scalloped edges were cut on my rotatrim. I then added a Craftime black blossom. Writing is computer generated and the labels Dymo letratag.

Once again, you can see the image enlarged if you click on it. Sorry about the angle of the photo.


I'm linking this for:
Created by hand: 'you GO girl'
Dutch dare 73: 'photo colour inspiration'
Allsorts 43: 'pink, black and white'
Crafty ho colour challenge: 'pink and black'

I'm concentrating on my crafting!

Sue set a challenge on CBC - a recipe: a brad, an arrow and some doodling. This LO depicts Chloe crafting on the same afternoon as Dani in the previous post.

The arrow was naked chipboard coated with versamark and embossed with hot pink. The white flowers are Pergamano rub ons. I did some white pen doodling around the pictures and added a few Dovecraft jewel black brads.

Chloe was crafting with one of my favourite stamps, 'gracious lady' by Hero Arts.

Sorry I had to take the photo at this angle - got too much glare if I tried to take it head on.

Please click on the picture to enlarge to see the writing, which was computer generated.


As I've used a white pen for doodling, I'm linking for Practical scrappers: 'white pens/white markers'; also linking for Wednesday stamper: 'doodling' - and I've used a stamp (the 'gracious lady'. It's also another for Crafty ho colour challenge: 'pink and black'.

Life in pictures 2

Another CBC challenge - this time 'Life in pictures 2'.

My LO sums up winter 2010. The background paper is My Mind's eye Andrea Victoria 'wishing flowers' paper - I know it's flowers, not snowflakes, but it seemed to go OK - and the MME journaling piece says it all!

The labels were made on my Dymo letratag. I would like to say that the snowflake was cut on white glitter card by my cricut, but in reality it was half-cut and I had to finish off the cuts (didn't have it set the the highest, so gave myself more work to do) - it was from the Christmas cheer cartridge. The gem in the middle of the snowflake is Prima.

Please click on the picture to read the journaling.

Life in pictures 1

Thanks to Sue and her challenges this weekend for the birthday celebrations on CBC, I'm doing some scrapping - something I intend to do more often, but don't seem to get around it - and what I like about it is that I get to keep the crafting for myself.

This LO is for Sue's 'Life in pictures 1' challenge.

Last September, Paul brought the grandchildren over. It was quite a nice day, so they spent some time in the garden, but then they came in and decided they would like to do some crafting, so here is Dani at work (or should I say, play). Paper is Imaginations 'family' and the circles were cut on my cricut with K & Co papers.


The colours on ColourQ 23 are on this LO, so I'm linking for that. There's also some orange for Stampavie 85.

Book it!

'Book it!' is another of Sue's challenges on CBC - 'I need a book of any type - the catch is you need to make the book'.

This is a notebook made with my BIA. Papers are K & Co, letters are American crafts remarks: runway, the rose is a DCWV epoxy sticker from their Princess range and the little owls were from Paperchase.




I'm linking this for One stop craft 71: 'spots and dots'

A diamond couple

Well, another day when plans have altered - mum was coming over here to have lunch, so we stayed home from church this morning as I was feeling tired after yesterday and to get ready for mum coming - she's not feeling up to it, so we'll be going over to see her this afternoon now.

While lunch was cooking, I thought I'd tackle another of Sue's spring and birthday CBC challenges - this time 'numbers' - Sue asked for anything with numbers and an extra option to personalise.

When I was making mum's mini-book yesterday I looked through hers and dad's Diamond wedding pictures and so thought that it would be good to do a LO for this.

I'm grateful to Sue for these challenges because I don't very often scrapbook and I love it when I do, although I still don't consider myself to be a scrapper.

I've used K & Co paper: BW Madeline pink textiles, a couple of My mind's eye journaling pieces and the scalloped border and some BG bling it designer rhinestones.



Challenge 14 on Fab n funky is 'weddings', so I'm linking for that, also for 'celebrations' on Cute card Thursday - I hope a LO is OK for this. And also for Polka doodles week 10: 'a special birthday or milestone' - I think a diamond wedding anniversary counts as that!

Mini maze book

One of Sue's birthday challenges on CBC is to make a mini-book - well, actually, it's three challenges - the idea was to start a mini-book and then add to it.

I've made a mini maze book. I started with a 12 x 12 piece of American Crafts French vanilla, folding it into 16 squares and then cutting to make the concertina maze - resulting in a little book that is 3" square.

The style is simple - I haven't done any inking of edges or distressing or anything because my mum doesn't really 'get' any of that (she'd probably think I'd used old stuff!).

On the left is a Laura Ashley flocked rub on - it feels lovely - and on the right, of course, is mum:


A picture of mum and I out for a meal:


There is a rub on here, but it didn't rub on well - grrrrr - so I had to add the butterflies and the ladybird to disguise the ragged bits. The quote came from a HOTP book:


A photo of mum and dad on their diamond wedding day - with their card from the queen. The flower is a raised 3D rub on:


and this is the only photo I've got taken in recent years of us as a family - but my brother's head was cut off, unfortunately! (but I still wanted to use the photo because it has all four of us on). You wouldn't have thought then that dad was in his 80s and already battling with dementia - soon after this he had to go into a nursing home, where he died over six years ago.


These pages speak for themselves:


and this:


a K & Co butterfly and another Laura Ashley flocked rub on:


And this is the finished book, with covered and decorated chipboard covers which hide the ribbon that's wrapped around the inside.


Thanks to Sue for her challenge that prompted me to make this as a little extra for mum for tomorrow.

I'm also linking this for the following challenges:

Lily-boo too for March: 'mother's day'
Teddy stampers 6: 'to mother, with love' - mother's day - and there is a teddy in the book
Secret crafter Saturday 74: 'anything goes'
Apron strings: 'stickers, stickers and more stickers' - plenty used here
Totally papercrafts 7: 'things with wings' - a few butterflies here

Folding heart card

A few days ago I made a 'never ending' card as part of Sue's birthday challenge on CBC 'clothes that crease' - we had to make two cards that had more than one crease, so here is my second one.

I followed (sort of!) the instructions I found here for a folding heart card.

I don't know what was the most difficult - making the card or taking photos of it!

Papers are 7 gypsies - edges inked with stazon blazing red - and the stamp is Hampton art 'corset'.

This was a trial version really, so I would hope that another one would turn out better than this.

The ribbon was recycled - it came with some flowers from Ocado - so it's another one for Spoon full of sugar 94.

Pretty in green?

The next challenge that I've tackled for Sue's birthday challenges on CBC is 'I feel pretty'. Mmmm I'm not sure how pretty this is in green ...

I've used Bev's sketch for Just Magnolia 46 and, of course, have used a required Magnolia stamp - I chose one of my favourite Tilda stamps and coloured her with copics - mmmm I used a scrap piece of BG paper to stamp her on (trying to keep with the green theme) and found that copics bled with it, so I've had to have a green haze all the way round Tilda - not the most successful colouring ever, but, hey ho, these things happen.

With St Patrick's day coming up very soon, there are still lots of 'green' challenges around, so I'm linking for these:

Copic creations 23: 'a wee bit o' green'
Moxie Tuesday trigger: 'lovely on the green'
Inky impressions 31: 'think green'
Nutty nutshells 10: 'shades of green in honour of St Patrick's day' (I've used a required stamp)
Pixie cottage 11: 'the colour green'
Stampin' royalty 10: 'green'
Clearlyistamp 9: 'think green'
If the shoe fits Fashionista Friday 26: 'green, white, black
Prairie fairy week 9: 'lucky green'
Raise the bar: 'go green'
Stamp something: 'something green and cream' - there's cream in the strip across the bottom with the watering cans
Pals paper arts 33: 'colour challenge: garden green, certainly celery, kraft'
The play date cafe 20: inspiration picture:

Papers are My minds eye and some freebie bits from a magazine (the strip across the bottom) - oh, and, of course, the piece of BG that bled the copics! (perhaps it adds to the 'water coloured effect' ... although, perhaps not! lol!)

Thoughts of butterflies ... spring is on the way

This is for another of Sue's birthday challenges on CBC - this time it's another sketch (haven't done the first one yet, but it's on my list!):

I used the extra option of a butterfly - stamped with versamark and embossed with silver detail - and a rub on - the corner swirl.

The pearls on the butterfly are Prima and so is the 'say it in studs'. There's a bit of a glimpse of BG Scarlet's letter (that's still one of my favourite BG ranges, even though I know it's old now).

It's also for:

Secret crafter Saturday 73: 'shades of grey'
Pile it on 9: 'the one you must' - one colour + a neutral
Another for Flutter by Wednesday 100: 'open challenge - include butterfly, fairy or angel'
Another for magical crafts fortnightly 10: 'things with wings'
Loonie stampers 83: 'use your favourite stamp' - this butterfly stamp is one of my all-time favourites
Paper cutz 32: 'anything goes'
Another for Sophisticat 25: 'flourishes and bling'
Another for Charisma 10: 'beautiful butterflies'
Theme Thursday: 'spring' - butterflies really make me think of spring being on the way
Another for Rosie-Dee 66: 'think spring'
Another for Stamp with fun 49: 'spring'
Stampin' B 49: 'spring or Easter'
Tanda teaser 137: 'simply spring'

Clean & simple from me to you

This is for FTL81 on Clean & simple:

It's also for:

Curtain call colour challenge 20: 'real red, certainly celery, bashful blue, whisper white
Treehouse 40: 'clean and simple'
Bee crafty 25: 'embossing' - the rub ons are embossed - and the background paper is from a digi download

The spotty paper was a download from somewhere (unfortunately, I can't remember where because I printed it a long time ago - it was in my offcuts box). The flowers are embossed rub ons.

Aquamarine

It's Friday tomorrow and that means there will be a new DCM challenge, so I'm last minute again with this one for March's birthstone 'aquamarine'.

One of Sue's birthday challenges on CBC is to make a card using brown and turquoise. I even managed to find a pin to use for additional points - this would have to be given to someone very special, as it's gold with an Australian opal in it (I bought it on the plane on the way back from Australia in 1989 - about time it was put to good use, as I've never worn it).

I've used the sketch for Friday sketchers 92:

It's also for:

Pile it on 9: 'the one you must' - one colour + a neutral'
Cutie stampers 45: 'recipe: butterfly, flowers, blue'
Polka doodles week 9: 'wings'
The crafty pad 61: 'charm' - I'm hoping that my special pin will count as a charm
Magical crafts 10: 'things with wings'
Creative craft 8: 'thanks a bunch' - not a 'thank you' card as such, but definitely has a bunch of flowers 'just for you' which could be for any occasion
Spoon full of sugar 94: 'recycle' - the inside of an envelope used for the image to be stamped on
Creative inspirations 51: 'charms' - here again, I hope the special pin will count as a charm
Cricut cardz 16: 'spring' - use flowers, birds or butterflies - and the circles were cut on my cricut with Make the cut software - hoping that cutting the glitter card won't have clogged the blade
Flutter by Wednesday 100: 'open - include a butterfly, fairy or angel'
Gingersnap GC46 spicy supply challenge: 'frosting' - the glitter papers
Charisma cardz 10: 'beautiful butterflies
Rainbow lady 93: 'mother's day'
Another for Ooh-la-la 49: 'anything goes'
Paper jewels 2 (March challenge): 'inspiration: choose piece of jewelry from 'gotta have bling' and design card' - I chose 'aqua splendour' (for shape and colour):

The background paper is BG blush and the inner circle is BG offbeat. The glitter papers and flowers are Craftime and the image paper is from the inside of an envelope; the 'just for you' stamp is Anita's. I didn't have the right colour butterfly (a Spellbinders die cut), so I coloured a silver one with a turquoise copic.

Cut it out

This card is for Sue's spring and birthday challenge on CBC: 'cut it out' -

'I need you to CUT IT OUT!!! easy
Cut something out more than once can be PP (patterned paper) a stamped image a digi download'

So I made some big flowers by very roughly cutting some 'circles' (deliberately didn't make them perfect circles), using 7 gypsies classic paperie and sushi journey. The centre of the middle flower has a prima 'say it with studs'.

I based the card on sketch 157 on CPS:

It's also for:

Die cuts R us 29: 'bouquets of paper' - create paper flowers
Crafty creations 58: 'make your own flowers'
Another for Cupcake 81: 'flower power' and the same topic on Crafty calendar 6
Another for Res-Q 35: 'use text in a prominent way on your card'
Mixed media Monday: 'it's not all black and white'
Simple doodles 11: 'paper piecing' (can jusst be lots of layers)
ABC: 'P for paper piecing' - hope this is OK for that too

Button it!

This is another challenge by Sue for the CBC birthday celebrations:

Button it!! so guess what you HAVE to use here? Yup buttons AT LEAST 6

I decided to alter one of my Green & Black's cocoa tins - I love their cocoa and I like the tins too, very handy. I used offcuts from DCWV pocket full of posies, a couple of sticky ribbons, a couple of Craftime blooms and, of course, some buttons on the lid.




As I've used 2 papers - the patterned one round the tin and the textured one within the lid, 2 flowers and at least 2 buttons, I'm linking for the recipe on Everybody art 81. Also, Little paper shop 58 colour challenge calls for 'turquoise, white and dark purple' - they are all here. 'Buttons and flowers' is challenge 12 on Pixie dust studio, so I'm also linking there. And another one for Quirky crafts 23: 'buttons' (perhaps you can tell that I love buttons!).

And it's now joining some of my other 'Green & Black cocoa tins':

Son's card

I don't think Paul ever looks at my blog so I'm sure it's safe to show the card I've done for his birthday. If you happen to look, Danielle, please don't tell your dad!

I used the sketch this week on Willow Sketchie, cheating a bit because I didn't have an oval to use:

It's also for:

Creative inspirations 29: 'male card'
Allsorts 42: 'just for mn'
Double Dutch 38: 'boys only
Sew many challenges 6: 'hear it for the boys'
SPCC 38: 'soft suede, dusty Durango, bashful blue'
Kaboodle 26: 'happy birthday'
Another for Quirky crafts 23: 'buttons'
Die cut dreams 38: 'no flowers allowed'

The background paper is English paper company 'men at work'. Sentiment is computer generated.

WOYWW today? another week gone

In fact, it's not just another week gone by, but two, because I didn't show anything for WOYWW last Wednesday.

Anyway, here is my workspace atm, which isn't bad considering I made a ruby wedding card and also ten Christmas cards yesterday (I suppose I must have tidied a bit last night - I tend to do that! - so quite a few boxes had already been put away).


I thought I'd also show my offcuts box - why is it that however many bits I use there still seem to be the same amount in the box?


Why not go over to Julia's stamping ground and have a nose around hers and others' workspaces and perhaps join in and show yours - you know you want to!!

Marty Snowman

Today I've made ten Christmas cards. One of Sue's challenges for the birthday celebrations on CBC '10 from 1' is to choose a stamp, diecut, embellishment, digi download, whatever and use it at least 10 times on 10 different cards - and I mean different!!! Use different papers etc.'

So I stamped Marty snowman ten times and coloured with copics - all different, of course.

Marty is one of the Stitchels stamps designed by Hels Sheridan and sold by Jennie at The Artistic Stamper.

So I'm entering all of these cards for Sue's '10 from 1' challenge and also for the 25th club on BF, where the subject for March is 'snowmen and sparkle'.

Some of the cards are also suitable for the March challenge on Christmas cards all year round, but only the ones that are mainly green, because the theme is 'to use mostly green on your card and one of my favorties...snowmen!' In the individual posts below I've identified the five that are for Christmas cards all year round.

All the cards have Marty snowman on them with faux stitching around the clothing, so this is OK for Bah! humbug 8: 'stitching'. And challenge 6 was for snowmen, so it's also good for that.

Week 13 on Sparkle creations Christmas was an open theme, so I'm linking these cards there (this means I've now done all of the challenges on there up to date).

Here they all are:

But I'm putting this message at the top of the individual cards so you can then scroll down if you wish to see each one and the challenges that they are linked to.

The sweetest thing in green and beige

This is for the sweetest thing sketch 59:

Also for the photo inspiration on CCEE (I've concentrated on the colours)
The swirly card was from a QVC kit and the Christmas trees have been cut from some Brenda Pinnick paper.

I'm also linking this card for Sophisticat 25: 'flourishes and bling' and also Crazy amigo: 'swirls'.

The card is also for CBC challenge '10 from 1', BF 25th club and Christmas cards all year round March challenge - all as outlined in the post above.