Rock til you drop!

This is for the sketch on Sketch & Stash 40:


using the colours for SPCC 58:

I've used a Charmed download, '60s George' from the Rock til you drop set - I used the coloured one and then filtered to give an antique look - sorry, but the colour on the scan doesn't look quite right. So this is also for today's challenge on Dottie's world: 'manly with a twist' - the twist is to use ribbon - I've used three different sticky ribbons across the middle of the card. Papers are K & Co and unknown - been in my scraps box for a long while, so definitely qualifies for neglected stash for the Sketch & Stash challenge.


It's also for:

Cards for men 15: 'recipe - one image, two papers and three embellishments (the ribbons - hope it's OK that I've sneaked a button in as well)
Craft your passion 16: 'recipe - three different ribbons'
Stamp with fun 69: 'card for boy/man'
Donna's den of crafts 4: 'we want to see your 'green' cards'
Friends having fun 4: 'pop culture'
Simon says: 'we are all going dotty'
The treehouse 60: 'seeing spots & dots'

Owl always love you

This is a quick card, using some wallpaper for the background - I acquired this years ago and a piece has been in my scrap box for ages. It is a lot more silvery irl - a bit like dufex and changes according to the light shining on it.

The image is 'snowy owl' from Art freebies.


This is for:

Sunday postcard art: 'owls'
Some odd girl style challenge 5: 'so punny' - punny sentiments
ABC: 'Y is for you and me' (sorry this is late)
Cinema Saturday 90: 'star dust' - with a little sparkle - the dufex type background paper - and general silver worn a lot by Victoria
Etsy inspired 99: 'Becky Kazana' - I chose this item for inspiration:

Fleur Anya

This morning I was privelged to receive two Greeting farm stamps in the post from Nutcrafters - I had received a £10 gift voucher to spend with them for winning Nutty Nutshells challenge 18 - you can read about it here. The stamps I chose were Dahlia and Fleur Anya - so I couldn't wait to use one of them.

And mentioning prizes, I was fortunate enough to also win a digi image for Freshly brewed challenge 11 - you can read about it here.

And, as you can see from my side bar, I've been priveleged to be chosen for some top places recently.

By the way, we had a lovely time at the wedding this afternoon - the bride looked beautiful and the groom and best man were very handsome in their outfits. The whole occasion was so lovely and we met a few people who we haven't seen for a long time and one or two unexpected people who we didnt realise had any connection with the bride and groom - it's a small world.

Anyway back to the purpose of this blog post - this is a card for Anyone for Anya sketch time and here is Dawn's lovely sketch:

Papers are BG euphoria and the image, of course, is Fleur Anya, coloured with copics.

This is also for:

Corrosive 74: 'pink and blue'
Ooh-la-la 59: 'birthday'
Totally stampalicious: 'birthday'
Party time Tuesdays 9: 'anything goes birthday'
Paper romance 9: 'birthday/celebration card'
Stampin' B 69: 'make a birthday card'
Stampin' royalty 30: 'keep it simple, sweetie'
Stamp, scrap & doodle: 'CAS'

On your special day

I'm in a wedding mood today - we're going to our friends' wedding at 2:30 (so I mustn't linger on here).

So I've made another quick wedding card. I've recycled something twice for this - I originally used the bride and groom favour boxes from Poundland to create these, using a cuttlebug folder to emboss the bride's dress - and now I've cut them down to flat and put them on a purple Majestic card that I cut the corners with Fiskars nostalgia edging scissors. Just the addition of the sentiment and the card's done. I was tempted to put some flowers on it, but decided to leave it as it is.

This is for the following challenges:

Just scraps 15: 'love is in the air' - wedding card
Sunday stamper 113: 'love of my life' (sorry, no stamping involved, yet again!)
Pollycraft 54: 'love and marriage'
Creative craft: 'here comes the bride'
Paper romance 9: 'celebration card'
Cas-tastic 14: 'bling it up'
Crafty angels 42: 'something old, something new'
Creative cottage 19: 'touchy feely' - plenty of texture created by the embossing, ribbon and gems
Challenge up your life 26: 'celebrations'
Allsorts 63: 'dressing up'
Just us girls 44: 'wild wedding'
Cutie Sunday 102: 'swirls'
Stampavie 103: 'black, white and one more colour'
Stamp, scrap & doodle: CAS - clean and simple

Autumn 3D

Having spent a lot of time recently making Christmas cards, it makes a change to come across a challenge, Hand full of stamps 38, which asks us to create something inspired by September and October. So I've done a simple invertage to give a 3D effect, which is for challenge 30 on Prairie fairy designs.


I'm also linking this for:

Creatalicious 12: '3D'
Simple doodles 23: 'get out of the box' - orange is a colour I rarely use, so this is 'out of the box' for me
Ooh-la-la 59: 'birthday'
Totally stampalicious: 'birthday'
Party time Tuesdays 9: 'anything goes birthday'
Paper romance 9: 'birthday/celebration card'
Stampin' B 69: 'make a birthday card'
Stampin royalty 30: 'KISS keep it simple, sweetie'
Stamp, scrap & doodle: CAS - clean and simple
Alphabet: 'N for nature'

More blue and silver Christmas

This is for Challenge up your life 25 sketch, which also calls for sewing:

The background card is stardream, another piece of the stitched paper across the middle and the silver strips and stars cut from pattered embossed foil card - much more silver than it looks here.

This is also for:

2 sisters 2: 'Christmas in July'
Sundays with Crissy 7: 'Christmas in July'
Christmas cards all year round July: 'anything goes'
Drunken stampers 26: 'Christmas in July'
Stamptacular 69: 'Christmas in July'
Tuesday taggers: 'Christmas in July'
Tuesday throwdown 10: 'Christmas in July'
Little red wagon: 'Christmas in July'
Tellen's place: 'Christmas in July'
Pixie dust studio 33: 'walking in a winter wonderland colour challenge - navy, grey/silver, white/ivory'
Cutie Sunday: 'swirls'
Digi doodle 18: 'punch or cut me' - the punched stars
Anything goes (Craft Den) 9: 'punches'
Polka doodles week 30: 'generic male & female'
Cas-tastic 14: 'bling it up'
Other lovelies thoughtful Thursday 22: 'make your art be related to ... the weather' - winter
Always playing with paper 8: 'inspiration':

Etsy inspired 98: 'EmenGeeDesigns' - I chose this Marie Antoinette mini plus clasp purse in blue for the stitched swirls:

A special day tomorrow

It's a special day tomorrow for two friends at church - it's their wedding day.

I decided to wrap their present in a piece of Creative Imaginations Sonnets paper 'love' and found a piece of textured, sparkly ribbon that went with it. Having done this I discovered I had another piece of the paper, so I made a matching card. The inside message says 'Congratulations on your wedding day'.

I think I'm safe to show this on here today because I doubt that the bride-to-be will be looking at my blog tonight!

I'm linking for these challenges:

Totally Gorjuss 40: 'congratulations'
Just scraps 15: 'love is in the air' - wedding card
Sunday stamper 113: 'love of my life' (sorry, no stamping involved)
Pollycraft 54: 'love and marriage'
Creative craft: 'here comes the bride'
Paper romance 9: 'celebration card'
Cute card Thursday 123: 'texting crazy'
Theme Thursday: 'words'
Cas-tastic 14: 'bling it up'
Crafty angels 42: 'something old, something new'
Creative cottage 19: 'touchy feely' - the ribbon is very textured
Charisma cardz 30: 'something with a tail'
Creative inspirations 71: 'animals'
Rosie-D 76: 'all creatures great and small'
Dutch dare 83: 'anything goes'
PaperPlay 30: 'anything goes'

Fun with shapes for Christmas

This is for Fun with shapes and more 62 sketch:

I've used some more of the stitched paper that I've shown recently on other cards - it has the texture of handmade paper. The image is 'white lady' from Art Freebies.

The piece of stardream blue card was embossed with divine swirls cuttlebug folder. The stars were punched from some of the embossed silver mirror card that backs the image and runs across the card (much more silvery and shiny irl).

This is also for:

2 sisters 2: 'Christmas in July'
Sundays with Crissy 7: 'Christmas in July'
Christmas cards all year round July: 'anything goes'
Polka doodles week 29: 'Christmas in July'
Drunken stampers 26: 'Christmas in July'
Stamptacular 69: 'Christmas in July'
Tuesday taggers: 'Christmas in July'
Tuesday throwdown 10: 'Christmas in July'
Little red wagon: 'Christmas in July'
Tellen's place: 'Christmas in July'
Pixie dust studio 33: 'walking in a winter wonderland colour challenge - navy, grey/silver, white/ivory'
Cutie Sunday: 'swirls'
Annabelle: 'say it with ... embossing'
Digi doodle 18: 'punch or cut me' - the punched stars
Anything goes (Craft Den) 9: 'punches'
Dare U 2 digi 42: 'stitching'
Stamp, scrap & doodle: 'digis'
Other lovelies thoughtful Thursday 22: 'make your art be related to ... the weather' - winter
Always playing with paper 8: 'inspiration':

Etsy inspired 98: 'EmenGeeDesigns' - I chose this Marie Antoinette mini plus clasp purse in blue for the stitched swirls:

Clean and simple Christmas

This is for sketch 100 on Clean & simple:

The background paper is English paper company.


This is also for:

2 sisters 2: 'Christmas in July'
Sundays with Crissy 7: 'Christmas in July'
Christmas cards all year round July: 'anything goes'
Polka doodles week 29: 'Christmas in July'
Drunken stampers 26: 'Christmas in July'
Stamptacular 69: 'Christmas in July'
Tuesday taggers: 'Christmas in July'
Tuesday throwdown 10: 'Christmas in July'
Little red wagon: 'Christmas in July'
Tellen's place: 'Christmas in July'
Christmas stampin all year long 58: 'buttons and bows'
Pixie dust studio 33: 'walking in a winter wonderland colour challenge - navy, grey/silver, white/ivory'
Cutie Sunday: 'swirls'
Cooking it up with Katie 22: 'button me a blue bow'
Fab n funky 33: 'buttons & bows'
Penny's 34: 'recipe - 1 ribbon, 2 design papers & 3 embellishments (the buttons)
Always playing with paper 8: 'inspiration':

Layer it up

This card is for Crafts4eternity recipe 43 and for Daring cardmakers 'layer it up'. This week we are being sponsored by the lovely Teri of Teri's Delicious Doodles.

This is the sketch that accompanied the recipe for C4E 43:

On DCM, Lynda said: 'I want to see at least one extra layer to your stamped, digi or pre-printed images used on your cards this week. I won't accept just layers to card stock or papers - it has to be on the main image of your card.'

I used some pyramage that was free with Papercraft Inspiraions magazine - it had alternate squares and diamonds to build up the pyramage.

Apart from the sketch, the other part of the recipe for C4E 43 was to use marbled paper and make your own embellishments. So I used the shaving foam marbling technique - very messy and great fun, haven't done this for a while. I used distress ink refills broken china and shabby shutters. Here are the three A4 pieces of card I created:



- and used pieces from these for the three layers behind the pyramage one. I then added some die cut fish (one of the original Sissix green dies) using holographic blue and silver paper - these were my 'own embellishments' for the recipe.

If anyone visited earlier, I've now replaced the poor flash photo with this one.

Chocolat, lovely chocolat!

One of my favourite films is 'Chocolat' - if you haven't seen it, I'd thoroughly recommend it - or, of course, you can read the book (by Joanne Harris - no relation , which is such a good read.

This week's challenge on Dottie's world is 'let's go to the movies', so I've used one of the Charmed downloads from the Dottie at home collection - Naughty Dottie - I chose the coloured version to save time. Naught Dottie has been at the chocolate - so reminds me of a part of the Chocolat film. The theme for this week's Crazy amigo challenge is 'film/movie and Hanna and friends 55 is 'favourite movie', so I'm linking for those too.

I've used the sketch for Eat sleep stamp 93:

and I've used the photo inspiration on Off the wall 17 for the colour combo, using raspberry fizz, Hawaiian shores and purple - can also use black, white or cream':

The background paper is Chloe's closet Wonderland, the striped one is a scrap of DCWV lurking in my scraps box - the scalloped circle cut with nestie is DCWV from the garden party stack.

This is also for:

Digital Tuesday 69: 'dazzle me' - the colours are lovely and bright and dazzling and there's turquoise sparkle surrounding the sentiment.
Digi doodle 18: 'punch or cut me' - the scalloped circles were cut using nesties in my cuttlebug
Mami doodles 7: 'anything goes'
Stamp, scrap & doodle: 'digis'
Crazy challenge: 'all about birthdays'
Ooh-la-la 59: 'birthday'
Totally stampalicious: 'birthday'
Party time Tuesdays 9: 'anything goes birthday'
Paper romance 9: 'birthday/celebration card'
Stampin' B 69: 'make a birthday card'
Stampin' royalty 30: 'keep it simple, sweetie'
C.R.A.F.T. 61: 'hot and spicy colours'
Whoopsi Daisy July: 'hot - vibrant colours'
For fun: 'bright colours'
Scrappy frogs: 'are you a girlie girl?'
Paper Play 30: 'anything goes'
Dutch dare 83: 'anything goes'
Creative inspirations 39: 'anything goes'
Sisterhood of crafters: 'funnies'
Paper pretties: 'glitter' (around the sentiment)

CBC July ATC swap

The ATC swap on CBC forum this month is 'fabric'. A couple of years ago I had some fun stamping on evenweave material, so I thought I'd do so for this swap. However, I couldn't find the material I wanted to use, so I've used a high count aida, but it didn't stamp so well. I hope others in the group aren't going to be too disappointed.

I stamped the Laura Ashley flower vibrant violet stazon and the Anna Griffin background stamp with cactus green. As the flower really didn't show up too well, I've added an organza flower to each ATC - well, it is a fabric, isn't it?! I got these flowers ages and ages ago at Early Learning Centre - the lilac ones have all gone now - pity they don't do them any more.

I then frayed the edges and stuck on to rich purple stardream card.



I'm linking this for Mixed media Monday, where this week's challenge is 'a few of my favourite things' - past loves: something you really loved doing but haven't done in a while' - stamping on material

WOYWW 60

Wednesday has come round again - so quickly!

So it's time for today's WOYWW on Julia's blog - why not pop along and have a nosey at lots of lovely craft spaces.

My space today is a bit cluttered (for me!), so I'm going to have a tidy up and put things away before I start any more crafting.





I'm also linking this for Tellen's place who are this week asking us to show our workspace.

For anyone visiting from Tellen's place you can see how my craft room was originally set up here and a bit of a view of some of my shelves here.

Cute as a cupcake

This is for Deb's sketch on Cute card Thursday 122:

The base card is another stardream one - the cupcake and sentiments are from a QVC kit (trying to use it up - only bought it really because I wanted the stamps that go with it and so far I haven't used them!).


It's also for:

Crafty creations 77: 'happy or sweet'
Ann's creative nook 98: 'sweet black vanilla cherries'
Fab n funky 32: 'reuse or recycle' - the spotted doiley

All at sea

This is for Friday Sketchers 112:

Background paper is unknown from my scrap box - the band across the middle is from 'It's a guy thing' - the photos were with a 'men' kit from QVC quite a while ago - these have proved to be very handy for quick cards like this.

The scan has cut the top of the card a bit (if the light's good tomorrow I might replace with a photo).


The colours are those given for Color Throwdown 102:

It's also for:

Tanda teaser 151: 'all at sea'
Alphabet: 'M is for men'
Speedy the cat (Mark's finest papers) 13: 'masculine card'
Pile it on 29: 'stretch that plastic!' - the buttons

Peace on earth

This is for the sketch for Cuttlebug be inspired 93:

The base card is gold stardream, the green and gold foiled frame is from the recent QVC kit, the diamond behind that is a matt pale gold and the gold mirror card across the bottom was embossed with cuttlebug swiss dots - the folder isn't long enough for the width of the card, but it was just right that this strip was hidden by the frame, so no join is seen. It's a pity that a flash photo doesn't do it justice.

The 'peace on earth' stamp is personal impressions, stamped with versamark and heat emhossed with gold detail.

This is also for:

2 sisters 2: 'Christmas in July'
Sundays with Crissy 7: 'Christmas in July'
Christmas cards all year round July: 'anything goes'
Polka doodles week 29: 'Christmas in July'
Drunken stampers 26: 'Christmas in July'
Creative inspirations 39: 'anything goes'
Stamptacular 69: 'Christmas in July'
Tuesday taggers: 'Christmas in July'
Tuesday throwdown 10: 'Christmas in July'
Delightful: 'it's so simple' - no designer paper or embellishments
Annabelle: 'say it with ... embossing' - cuttlebug folder and heat embossing

More Christmas in July

This is for Martine's sketch on Simon says:

There are still a lot of 'Christmas in July' challenges around (I guess it will soon before 'Christmas in August'!) - for this card I've used the Penny Black stamp 'the manger' coloured with copics, as 'It's Christmas in July' is the challenge this week on Penny Black for week 111.

The base card is stardream, which sparkles nicely, the first layer is English paper company, the paper with stitched swirls and stars is unknown as is the piece across the bottom - in my Christmas scraps box from last year.

This is also for:

2 sisters 2: 'Christmas in July'
Sundays with Crissy 7: 'Christmas in July'
Christmas cards all year round July: 'anything goes'
Polka doodles week 29: 'Christmas in July'
Drunken stampers 26: 'Christmas in July'
Creative inspirations 39: 'anything goes'
Anything goes (Craft Den) 8: stars
Stamptacular 69: 'Christmas in July'
Tuesday taggers: 'Christmas in July'
Tuesday throwdown 10: 'Christmas in July'
Stampotique 11: 'Christmas in July'
Bah! humbug 28: 'Christmas scene'
Cutie Sunday 102: 'swirls' - the stitched swirls
Frosted designs: 'songs of our life' - the all time children's Christmas favourite: 'Away in a manger'
Fiskarettes Monday challenge: use a stamp

Chocolate and mint

This is for the sketch on Pals paper 52:

Papers are Fancy pants Antique (double sided). The sentiment stamp is Funstamps, inked with memento riich cocoa and edged with copic burnt umber. The brown 'button' is a thin cuts die.

This is also for:

Creative Inspirations 70: 'chocolate and mint' (ideal paper for this)
Cowgirl: 'anything goes'
Wee memories 15: 'Simon says stamp!'
Fiskarettes Monday challenge: 'use a stamp'
Ooh-la-la 59: 'birthday'
Totally stampalicious: birthday'
Crazy challenge: 'all about birthdays'
Stampavie 102: 'anything goes'
Shelly's terrifically thrilling Thursday: 'birthday'
Party time Tuesdays 9: 'anything goes birthday'
Creative inspirations 39: 'anything goes'
Donna's den of crafts 4: 'we want to see your 'green' cards'
Created by hand: 'green'

What do you do when you've got no ideas?

It's the last possible moment to get my inchies done for the BF forum July swap, which this month is 'America' - I've been thinking about this for days (not all the time, of course, but off and on), trying to rack my brain as to what to do ... and today I still hadn't got a clue.

So, I'm sorry bubbly girls, but I had to cheat and google 'stars and stripes' and this is what I've come up with:


I'll try harder next time, I promise!

Pink and chocolate birthday

This is for City crafter 14 sketch challenge:
and also for Colour create 49: 'warm pink, chocolate and white', with this inspiration picture:

I used an A6 card that already had three squares cut out. I stuck the diagonally striped paper, cut the squares out with a craft knife and then stuck the double sided paper so that the stripes were inside and the plain brown showing through the squares. Lastly, I stuck the pearl pink panel over and added the flowers with the brad centres and the sentiment panel.

This is the inside:

This is also for:

Ooh-la-la 59: 'birthday'
Totally stampalicious: birthday'
Crazy challenge: 'all about birthdays'
Shelly's terrifically thrilling Thursday: 'birthday'
Create4fun week 30: 'use flowers'

Fantasy tree

This is for the sketch for Freshly brewed 12:

I've used Bo Bunny Delilah here's 2U and Delilah stripe, tearing the latter and edging with copic crimson. The stamped image is Penny Black's fantasy (I've usually used this as a winter tree with snow, but thought it would be OK for a blossom one), dotting here and there with Sakura glaze pens.

I'm a bit disappointed that, once I'd put the striped paper and image on, there's no sign of the pink trees on the Bo Bunny paper - wish I'd worked it so that there was a pink one showing - nevvermind.

I chose the colour combo to go with the challenge 41 on Cards & things: 'regal rose, chocolate chip, pumpkin pie, pretty in pink.

It's also for:

Pile it on 29: 'stretch that plastic' - the buttons are plastic
Cowgirl: 'anything goes'
Wee memories 15: 'Simon says stamp!'
Caardvarks: 'my favourite things - birthday card' - one of my favourite stamps and Bo Bunny papers are among my favourites
Fiskarettes Monday challenge: 'use a stamp'
Ooh-la-la 59: 'birthday'
Totally stampalicious: birthday'
Crazy challenge: 'all about birthdays'
Stampavie 102: 'anything goes'
Shelly's terrifically thrilling Thursday: 'birthday'
Practical scrappers Monday challenge: '7 or more items' - base card, 2 design papers, copic, pink card, stamp, memento rich cocoa ink pad, sakura glaze pens, card mat under image, sentiment
Raise the bar 28: 'distressed, torn, ripped, broken'
Creative inspirations 39: 'anything goes'
Our daily bread 22: 'distress it'
Stamping with the dragon 6: 'distressing'