Postcard from Paris

For Sunday postcard I was going to do something different and then decided that I could cut down what I did for this post - so now this one is 6" x 4":

Spring birthday

This card is for the Taylored expressions sketch 108:

It's also for:

Curtain call 25: 'only orange, green galore, yo yo yellow, pixie pink'
Cutie stampers 50: 'orange/green'
Creative card crew 48: 'happy birthday'
Gingersnap GC49 chestnut theme: 'the good earth'
Paper cutz 36: 'use three patterned papers' - the birthday paper is DCWV, the paper on the right is K & Co and the bottom paper was free with a magazine
Raise the bar 13: 'let's spring for it'
Lily-boo too April challenge: 'spring colours - yellow, pale green and blossom'
Pollycraft 39: 'pink and brown + green'

Dream

This was supplied for the Soartful 'embossed on white' challenge this week :

I decided to use a couple of clipart pictures from Publisher and layer them on to the white embossing, using transparent fade and diffuse glow to show through the layers in varying degrees. I then printed it out so that I could stamp with the Chinese 'dream', scanned it back into the computer and then digitally added the 'dream' text.

I'm also linking this for:

Rainbow lady's 98: 'red, black and gold + a touch of oriental' - I know this challenge has really finished, but today's isn't up yet, so perhaps I'm just squeezing in with this.

Frosted designs: 'dream'

Salt: What is home?

It was Ruth's turn to choose the topic for today's Salt challenge - you can read what she wrote here and also see the lovely handiwork of the rest of the team.

One of my memories of childhood is the framed version of this statement over the mantelpiece in my grandparents' front room:

'Christ is the head of this house, the unseen guest at every meal, the silent listener to every conversation'.

Thinking through this challenge, this seemed to be a good response, hence this LO. I tried to find a picture of John and me eating, but the only photos I could find were taken in restaurants or on holiday, which would defeat the purpose of doing the LO about 'home', so I've had to make do with a photo of us just sitting together (which was actually taken in my mum's home, but at least it's not a restaurant background).

The background paper is SEI Madera Island, which I scalloped around the edges with my rotatrim and the smaller papers with the photo are BG ambrosia. The flowers are Craftime ( seem to be using these quite a lot atm - I'll need to replenish stocks).



Why not go over to Salt and have a look at this fortnight's challenge and perhaps it will prompt you to make something that you can share with us by leaving a comment and a link to your creation.

Merci for Paris in purple

Some time ago I won the Viv la France digi collection from Dezinaworld and have used a couple of the items to create this for a few challenges:

Twisted Thursday 51: 'adventures in Paris' - use the word 'merci'
Hand full of stamps 23: 'digi it'
Dare U to digi 35: 'metal' - the Eiffel Tower is one of the most spectacular metal constructions in the world
Charisma cardz 14: 'thank you'
Hanna and friends 39: 'scene'
Paper sundaes 13: 'make a scene'
Cooking it up with Katie 15: 'use a digi, add some purple, use something 3 times' - the 'merci bien'
Penny's challenges: 'anything goes'
Incy wincy 38: 'something magical' - Paris is such a magical place and hopefully this LO is too

Keep it simple sweetie

This card is for the inspiration challenge for Divine Diva 25:

and using this sketch for Don't waste your Thursdays 28:

It's also for:

Stampin' royalty 15: 'keep it simple sweetie'
Crafty creations 63: 'limited edition challenge' - only 1 designer paper (Anna Griffin), 1 image (PM coloured with copics), 1 embellishment (gold ribbon - yes, it's gold, but doesn't look it here)
Fab n funky 19: 'use a neglected stamp' - this hasn't been used for a long time

Best friends forever

'Best friends forever' is the name of the Sarah Kay stamp that I've used for this card - it's one that I was part of my prize from Sunflowers & Dragonflies, which you can see here.

The card is for these challenges:

Nutty nutshells 13: shaped card - 'doiley card' cut from my cricut wild card cartridge
Copic colour 59: YR16, BG49, E18
Copic creations 25: 'flowers'
C.R.A.F.T. 45: 'recipe: a free hand plus buttons'
Corrosive 59: 'textures'
Crazy challenge: 'don't call me flat'
Cuttlebug spot: 'bling bling' - I used my cuttlebug to cut the die buttons
Mixed media Monday: 'hello dolly'
Paper popsicles Mossetrack Monday: 'stitching' - faux stitching around the scallops
Papertake weekly: 'cutie pie'
Creative cottage: 'buttons and bows'
Delightful sketches: 'buttons and bling'
Pals paper arts 37: 'flowers'
Stampin' royalty 14: 'tempting turquoise, so saffron, taken with teal'
Fun with shapes and more 48: 'extraordinary card' - a different shape - the cut pieces are the glittered die cut buttons (Ellison thin die)
Sew many challenges 10: 'let's see some stitching' - faux stitching around the scallops
Simple doodles 15: 'inspire others' - any project, any stamps
Something completely different week 46: 'letter B' - bling, buttons, bow
Stamp something: 'stitch something' - faux stitching around the scallops
Our creative corner: 'bows'
Totally Gorjuss 25: 'texture'
Paper jewels 3: 'sewing and buttons'

The papers are Anna Griffin, the flowers are Craftime and the buttons were cut from Craftime glittered paper.

Point to the stars

I actually made this card a couple of days ago, when it was still in time for SPCC colour combo 42: 'whisper white, elegant eggplant, basic black', but, unfortunately, didn't get round to blogging in time for the deadline.

It's also for Cards & Things sketch 27:


It's also for Stamp scrap & doodle 35: 'birthdays'.

I've used another of the images from the QVC music and dance kit and the base card is Majestic night club purple from PDA, which is a fabulously rich aubergine colour that reflects hints of blue in certain light.

A note of thanks

This card uses the colours for Easy breezy Kewl colour challenge 19: 'soft suede, kraft, bordering blue, bashful blue'.

It's also for Corrosive 58 sketch (unfortunately, this is another one that I've missed the deadline for - I'd made the card in time, but haddn't got round to blogging it):

I'm also linking for Charisma cardz 14: 'thank you'.

I can't remember what the background music paper is (it's a piece from my offcuts box - still trying to keep to one of my crafting resolutions) - the other items used are again from the QVC music and dance kit:

Time for Christmas again

Being April, this is the fourth Christmas club challenge on BF forum and for this Janice has supplied us with this super sketch:

My aim is to make 10 cards for the BF Christmas Club every month, so here goes with my April offerings (I didn't make them all today - just one of them and added finishing touches to others.

I had to resort to scans because a lot of the cards were reflecting too much with the flash, but you can get the general idea.

Supplies are a mixture of Kanban, Craft Creations, DCWV, PM papers and various embellishments, including DCWV and Dovecraft.

These cards are also for:

Crafty angels 30: 'my favourite things' - making Christmas cards! and Tellen's place 12: 'it's all about you'.
Practical scrappers challenge this week: 'glitter and/or bling -quite a few of the cards have reflective mirror card and/or glitter
ABC Christmas 'G is for glitz, with the optional extra of silver' - particularly the silver mirror card with layered glittered poinsettia
Alphabet: 'X is for Xmas'
The cards with snowmen and teddies are for Simon says: 'a card for a child'.


This card is also for Cupcake 86: 'childhood memories' (carol singing); also the next three cards are for Fab's big Christmas week 14: 'brads' - the big brads are either Dovecraft or DCWV - I can't remember which. They are also for Creative card crew 47: 'vintage' (there's no 'aging' to the card, but the images are vintage). Susie & Vikki's Christmas club 8 called for 'presents & gifts', which are here:


This one is also for Loonie 87: 'black, white, turquoise':



And the next two are for Fab's big Christmas week 13: 'tone on tone' and also Cute card Thursday 107: 'mono mania':



This one is also for Crazy challenge: 'don't call me flat' - the poinsettia is built up with four layers. Unfortunately, the scan doesn't show the reflective nature of the silver mirror card - and I tried to take a photo, but got myself and the camera reflected!

This last card is also for treehouse 44 colour challenge: yellow, lavender and a neutral:

Wreck this journal

Lots of my crafting (or should that be 'crafty'?!) friends on Bubbly Funk forum have recently bought a 'Wreck this journal'. Having been brought up to respect books and look after them, it kind of went against the grain to think of getting a book and wrecking it ... but I ordered one and it arrived this morning.

I didn't think to take a photo of what it looked like to begin with. Since it arrived, I've broken the spine of it - that's one of the instructions, I chewed the corner of a page and I took the book into the shower with me - and then put it out in the sun to dry so that the pages have wrinkled a bit.

I now have no issues with wrecking this journal because that's the purpose of it. On the inside page it gives this warning:

'During the process of this book you will get dirty. You may find yourself covered in paint, or any other number of foreign substances. You will get wet. You may be asked to do things you question. You may grieve for the perfect state that you found the book in. You may begin to see creative destruction everywhere. You may begin to live more recklessly.'



If you haven't seen one of these yet, I'd recommend it (I think I'm already a bit 'hooked' on it - you can get it from Amazon - and if you have seen it and have been hesitating, then I'd suggest you get one and begin to wreck a bit ...

And here's another ...

I've used yet more of those die cuts from the 'music and dance' kit I bought from QVC (thinking it was a good idea at the time ...).

Anyway, Paperminutes challenge 108 is 'film and television' so this is a card for any fan of Strictly Come Dancing.

It's like a gatefold card, but overlaps in the middle, which was just right for the two panels of dancing couples (excuse the paperclip on the first photo)

Just like buses ....

I hadn't shown a card for over a week and then ... two come along at once! Again, this one is very simple - nothing much involved except sticking!

This is another card made with some of the die cuts from a kit - irl you need your sunglasses on for these because, not only are the colours very bright, but are irridescent and very shiny. The background yellow card is pearlised.

I ddon't remember wearing any outfit quite like that in the 1970s but I do remember teetering around on platform shoes, despite saying that I'd never wear them when they first appeared on the fashion scene.

Boots and shoes are the theme for challenge 42 on Die cut dreams and also this week on Daring cardmakers the challenge is 'if the shoes fits'.

It's another one for Allsorts 46: 'no DPs'.

Challenge 2 for Meljen's designs is 'let's see some girly colours' - I think these are girly enough - well, they were in the 1970s. And Paper play 14 calls for 'shiny happy people' - this card is really shiny and the girl seems to be happy!

Crafty Ann's 12 is 'let the sunshine in', so this seems to fit that - calls up images of lazy summer days.

There's nothing creative about this or the card shown below, but, hey ho, at least I've done something today.

PS: Lol! thanks to Joanne for pointing out that I had made a big typo and put 1070 insteadd of 1970 - glad it was only on here and not on the actual card!! (I've changed it now).

At last ... here I am again

It's been a week since I shared any crafting. I've done very little this past week, partly because I just haven't felt like it. A few days ago I decided I'd have more of a sort out of my craft stuff, but that hasn't amounted to much really - and most of it is already sorted anyway.

Sometimes I give in to temptation and buy kits from QVC thinking that they will help me make some quick cards for when I need them for selling for charity - and, tbh, they do sell quite well because the quality is good. The only thing is that you get sheets of die cut shapes that have to be taken out and they have all those annoying little bobbles that have to be snipped off - and by the time you've done that you could have stamped and made a few much more individually styled cards. So during the week I've been cutting bobbles off die cuts and bagging them up in the hope that I might just actually use them, although I'd far rather be playing with stamps.

In the thick of all this yesterday, I came across a challenge that was asking for a silhouette and I had just the right die cut set that fitted that, so this is for CCEE: 'silhouettes on the shade'.

As no patterned paper was used, it's also good for Allsorts 46: 'no DPs'.

I know that there is a blue mat beneath the main image and a bit of red for the waistcoat, but the rest is mainly black and white, so I'm linking for Lots to do 13 and it's a 'scene' for Hanna and friends 39.

And as this was part of a kit that was originally bought to use, but remained in the box, it's right for Flourishes Timeless 61 challenge.

Mind you, I can't really explain why he's holding an umbrella up when the moon is so full and the stars are twinling - a bit of poetic licence I think!

Altered Easter egg box

I finished my Easter cards, so decided I would do something else for the remaining Easter challenges that are still around.

These challenges all call for something to do with Easter, eggs or spring (more details by clicking on the links):

Corrosive 57
Magical crafts 11
Crafty angels 28
One stitch at a time
Mixed media Monday
Created by hand
Creative craft 10
Moxie Tuesday trigger
Fab n funky 17
Little red wagon 22
Penny's challenges
Cute card Thursday
ECP 9
Fussy & fancy 7
If the shoe fits Fashionista Friday 29
Res-Q
Challenge up your life 17: 'Easter - anything but a card'

and this also fits these:

Allsorts 45: 'rags to riches' - alter or recycle something
Creative inspirations 30: 'anything but a card'
Pink elephant 60: 'pastels'
The craft garden: 'pastels'
Crafty Ann 11: 'make something for someone special'
KL stampin n scrappin 23: 'boxes-n-baskets'

I altered an Easter egg box (I bought this for mum for Sunday). This is the original:



I opened out the box to make a template:



and used the template the cut around some Easter wrapping paper:



I then stuck the wrapping paper on to the original box template and did it up again, adding a few flowers (originally from Early Learning - a long while ago).

Sorry to hear you're under the weather

I bought the Funstamps Puddle Duck stamp last week and have been itching to use it. I've based the card on Friday Sketchers 95:

When I saw the Get Funky challenge for this month: 'April showers' I knew I was going to use the Puddle duck stamp. I've used a couple of the freebie download papers from Funky Hand, as well as some bright pink DCWV textured card and a couple of fabric flowers.

It's also for:

Pile it on 12: 'Animal-riffic!'
Charisma cardz 13: 'animal magic'
Sunday stamper 97: 'and your bird can sing'
Alphabet: 'U is for umbrella' (I'm behind with these challenges, but still want to cover the whole alphabet)
Alota rubber 32: 'recipe: 3 of something (papers), 2 of something (flowers) and 1 of something (stamped image)
Sophisticat 28: 'raining cats and dogs' - no cats and dogs, but there's rain!
Cricut cardz 19: 'anyhing goes' - the circles were cut on my cricut using 'Make the cut' software
The colours are right for Stamping 411 colour inspiration 117:

This is the weekend for chocolate

Having made all my Easter cards now, I'm concentrating on 'chocolate' - no, not the calorific kind, although that would be most welcome, but the colour.

This card is for sketch FTL84 on Clean & simple (I love their sketches):

It's also for:

Daring cardmakers: 'how egg-citing!' - we were asked to use egg shapes or chocolate, so I chose the latter
I think this colour could also count as 'coffee' for Saturday Spotlight 24 inspirational challenge
And my favourite drink for Creatalicious 8 would have to be cocoa (particularly Green & Black'ss - lovely and rich and dark)
Crafty angels 28: 'Easter' - I went with a chocolate theme
Cupcake 84: 'lot of chocolate'
Another for Fiskarettes Monday challenge: chocolate/brown
Squigglefly 42: 'flower power'
Crafty creations 61: 'anything goes'
Cooking it up with Katie 14: 'something new' (the papers - got them today), 'something old' (the birthday sentiment), 'something sweet' (chocolate)
Simon says: 'it's so distressing' - edges were inked with chestnut chalk ink
Handfull of stamps 21: 'you're a sweet one' (chocolate)
Artful inkables (think ink Tuesday) 17: 'use any book or CD cover for inspiration' - the marvellous story 'Chocolat' (if you haven't read it or seen the film, you must - a good one to watch over Easter):

I used Daisy bucket papers - Newbury Court brownstone square and cut the flowers and scallops (3 x half of a flower) with nestabilities. In the centre of the flower is a prima 'say it in studs'.

Lovely prizes

I've received these lovely stamps today as prizes for a couple of challenges on Sunflowers & Dragonflies challenge blog - aren't they super - I am so fortunate:

BF March inchies and ATCs

Yesterday, both the BF ATC swaps and the inchies swaps arrived and they are wonderful - thanks to the ladies who took part and those who hosted the swaps.

The theme for the inchies was 'spring':

and for the ATCs we were given a sketch to work from:

Salt: Gethsemane

It was Pauline's turn to choose the topic for today's Salt challenge - you can read what she wrote here.

When I pepared my LO, I hadn't seen Pauline's and only discovered when I uploaded to Salt that we had both used the same picture of Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane - I got the picture from here. It's interesting too to read the reflections of Linda who used the picture on her blog.

I based my LO on the worship song 'the Servant King' by Graham Kendrick:

From heaven you came
Helpless babe
Entered our world
Your glory veiled
Not to be served
But to serve
And give Your life
That we might live

This is our God
The Servant King
He calls us now
To follow Him
To bring our lives
As a daily offering
Of worship to
The Servant King

There in the garden
Of tears
My heavy load
He chose to bear
His heart with sorrow
Was torn
'Yet not My will
But Yours,' He said

Come see His hands
And His feet
The scars that speak
Of sacrifice
Hands that flung stars
Into space
To cruel nails
Surrendered

So let us learn
How to serve
And in our lives
Enthrone Him
Each other's needs
To prefer
For it is Christ
We're serving

For me, this song sums up the surrendering of Jesus to His Father's will and also reminds me of the earlier time on the same evening as he prayed in the garden, when he washed the disciples feet. As we approach Good Friday tomorrow, let's remember the tremendous sacrifice made by Jesus, the Servant King.

I used BG periphery papers and elements for my LO and thickers chipboard letters.

Easter easel card

Yes, I'm still making Easter cards! (Only one more to do after this, I think - otherwise it will be too late anyway!)

This card is for the sketch on Moving along with the times 39:

It's an easel card, so the front has been done using the sketch.

It's also for:

Stampotique designers 4: 'hippity hoppity Easter's on it's way!' - I used the lovely Stampotique 'grow' stamp
Gingersnap G48 random redhead challenge: 'growth'
Prairie fairy week 12: 'easel card'
Stampin' for the weekend 35: 'Easter'
Town scrapper: 'Easter'
Ann's creative nook 82: 'Easter'
Corrosive 57: 'Easte/spring'
Magical crafts 11: 'spring/Easter theme'
Stamp dreams 24: 'Easter'
Going grey (Scrap-creations) 3: 'Easter' - I used BG lemonade papers
Moxie Tuesday trigger 'hippity hoppity Easter's on its way' (inspiration picture with bright colours)
Papertake weekly: 'open'
Cuttlebug be inspired 76: 'Easter' - the strip across the bottom was made with a Cuttlebug embossing border
Simon says: 'Easter or spring and some glimmer' - the centres of the Craftime flowers and the ribbon
Dutch dare 74: 'spring card with fabric' - the ribbon
C.R.A.F.T. 43: 'Easter'
Hanna and friends 37: 'Happy Easter'
One powerful hour: 'Easter'
Paperplay week 12: 'Easter'
ECP 9: 'Easter'
Fussy & fancy 7: 'Easter'
No time to stamp? 132: 'Easter'
Paper cutz 34: 'Easter' - no bunnies or chicks (not one in sight!)
Crafty angels 28: Easter
Stamptacular 52: 'flower power!'
Everybody art 84: 'spring'
Wednesday stamper: 'spring'
Charisma cardz 12: 'spring has sprung'
Susie's sassy 11: 'Sally's spring garden'
Secret crafter Saturday 76: 'pink, green & flowers' (some of the pink is within the base underneath the stand up piece - will be the area to write on
Cupcake inspiration 52 (Hope stamps eternal)
Quirky crafts 24: 'flowers'
Squigglefly 42: 'flower power'
Paper popsicles: 'ribbon'
Stampin' royalty 12: 'get glitter happy'
Paper garden projects 4: 'embossing' - the cuttlebug border embossing folder used along the bottom of the base of the card
Raise the bar 11: 'April fool' - show us a style you don't normally do - this stamp is not my usual style, but I love it and will be buying more Stampotique stamps (in fact I have another on order)