Anya dressed up warmly

This card is for Paperplay week 7 - a sketch by Sandie:

It's also for:

Wild card Wednesday: 'paper piecing' - using Anya in autumn digi download from Greetings farm - I paper pieced Anya's boots and scarf - the rest was coloured with copics
Anyone for Anya: 'something completely different' - until a day or so ago I hadn't tried paper piecing (wanted to do it first for this challenge, but couldn't find Anya in autumn when I wanted to do it)
Another for Paperminutes 102: 'polka dots'
Copic creations 22: 'colouring embellishments with copics' - I coloured the flowers
Another for Penny's: 'birthdays'
Another for Tellen's place 6: 'birthday'
Daring cardmakers: 'winter birthdays' - I think Anya is dressed up warmly enough for winter
Stamping 411 colour inspiration 111:

The papers are out of my offcuts box.

Black and white flowers

For this card I've used Sweet sketch Wednesday 37 sketch:


I cut the circles on my cricut, so I'm therefore linking this for Just Buggin' 25: 'black and white'.

It's also for:

Pile it on 7: 'get well soon'
Another for Paper cutz 29: 'get well'
Another for Creative card crew 45: 'get well soon'
Another for Stampavie 82: 'get well soon'
Another for Hand full of stamps 17: 'sending you wishes'
Stamptacular 46: 'going in circles'
Another for Sophisticat 23: 'embossing'
Another for Flourishes timeless 55: 'flowers'
Another for Jacksonbelle: 'anything with flowers'
Paperminutes 102: 'polka dots'
Fun with shapes and more 41: 'spotted' - the cut items are the circles that were cut on the cricut

The middle was stamped and embossed with detail black using the lovely Magenta stamp (one of my favourite flower ones)

CBC February ATCs

The topic for the ATC swap on CBC for February is 'postal'. Tim Holtz has been on QVC today - no, I didn't give in and buy the TSV, but I was prompted to get the distress inks etc out and have a play for these ATCs.

I started off by sponging the edges with brushed corduroy and then I sprayed with a mini mister that has a mixture of perfect pearls, milled lavender and shabby shutters re-inkers (they muddied together to make a browny colour) and water. Having dried this I then turned the cards over and blotted on to my craft sheet where there were droplets from where I sprayed. I stamped Timeless memoirs with brushed corduroy and then sponged the edges again, brushing a little of the ink on the pen and some tattered rose on to the stamp.

I'm also sharing this with:

Stamping sisters for Christ 27: 'time' - which is another theme this stamp can be used for
Dewdrop craftz 8: 'time'
Tuesday taggers: 'getting messy hands' - this is being sponsored by the Craft Barn - a £15 voucher is up for grabs! It so happens that I didn't have time to do the previous challenge at TT, which was time - covered by this one as well.
Another for Creative Inspirations 48: 'say it in sepia'
Saturday Spotlight 19: 'doing the mess around' - distressing with ink etc

Unfortunately, it's typical of flash photography that the parts that have picked up the perfect pearls from the misting look more emphasised here than irl. I had to abandon the idea of scanning instead because none of the distressing really showed.

Music to my ears

This card is for the skethc on Diva coffee break 165:

It's also for:

Play date cafe 17: 'colour challenge - red, brown, linen'
Crafty Ann 8: 'if music be the food of love'
Creative craft 7: 'music to my ears'
Another for Stampin' royalty 7: 'masculine cards' - this time I used a stamp
Sunday stamper 92: 'nowhere man ...'
Sophisticat 23: 'embossing' - the trumpet was stamped with versamark and heat embossed with gold detail

Love is ....

.... sharing your umbrella!

The theme for the inchies swap on BF this month is love/Valentines/romance. I have to admit that I was a bit stumped as to what to do - some ideas seemed a bit obvious and I didn't have the right materials for other ideas.

On Sunday I saw this week's challenge on Dottie's world is 'it's a small thing' (something smaller than you would normally make), which, of course, needs to include a Charmed download. I know I've used it quite a lot on cards, but I decided to use one of my favourite Dottie digis 'puddle love' from the Love & Marriage range and shrink it digitally to fit on an inchie - I opted for using the coloured-in version as there was no way that I could have coloured that tiny picture.

I only had room to put 'Love is' so the picture itself has to complete the phrase. I added some clear gloss on to the umbrella and the puddle using a Sakura glaze pen - hard to see on the photo because of the flash, although the third one looks as if the couple have really been caught in a shower (flash light).

I'm also sharing this on Creatalicious for challenge 7: 'create a little something'

and here is a single one using Gez's 'universal ink pad measure':


As I've used a red pen to put faux stitching around the edges, I'm linking for Bee crafty 24: sew cute (and, of course, I used a digi); also the colours of Whimsical Wednesday 23 are here - light olive/avocado, rose/pink, sky blue/light aqua hot pink/raspberry.

Sweet treat for someone special

For this card I've used the sketch for Charisma 7:

The card also uses the colour combo - maroon, lemon, pink - for Basic Grey 14 - I've used BG Indian summer papers.

The colours are also OK for Just us girls colour challenge 21:


I used an image from the pink frosting digi set from Nutcrafters, coloured with copics - so I'm entering the card for Nutty nutshells 9: 'sweet' challenge - I think this was supposed to be a Valentine card, but it's a bit late for that now, but it's still one that's for someone very special.

It's also for:

CCEE: 'Sweet' - incorporate a sweet treat
Stamp dreams 19: 'magenta/pink'
Paper sundaes 6: 'distress' - the 2 torn ovals
Another for CDM: 'flowers'
Another for Flourishes timeless 55: 'flowers'
Another for Quirky crafts 22: 'cute'
Res-Q 33: 'you are what you eat' - use anything that is edible
Quixotic 14: 'something for mum'
Secret crafter Saturday 71: 'mother's day' - I know it doesn't specifically say 'mum', but I think this would be fine for a mother's day card
Magical crafts 9: 'something for mum'
Digital Tuesday 47: 'a card for mum' - the image is a digi

The pearls are Prima.

Pocketful of posies revisited

I haven't used any DCWV pocketful of posies for ages, but found some in my offcuts box and thought they were just right for the Color Dare 56:


I've used the sketch currently on Pink Persimmon and linked to Samantha's blog as part of the blog hop give-away for this challenge:

In addition to the DCWV papers, there's a colourful rub on and also a Craftime glittered sentiment.

The card is also for:

Flourishes timeless 55: 'flowers'
Jacksonbelle: 'anything with flowers'
Another for There she goes 43: 'birthday sparkles' - the background card is glittered and so is the birthday sentiment

Scraping in with another sketch card

I'm scraping in at the deadline with another sketch - this time it's ICS 54:



It's another masculine card, made with similar offcuts to the last couple of cards. A lot of crafters shy away from making cards for men, but, tbh, I like making them and don't find them that difficult - it obviously helps if you get some good guys' papers!

Tuesday catching up

This was the sketch for Tuesday morning sketch 33 (just scraping in with this one before the new one is launched today):

Same papers as the last card - Guy's thing and BG and the middle bits are from the free magazine sheet - a quick card.

Another for 'masculine' on Stampin Royalty 7 and the colours are good for today's Picture Perfect colour combo 2:

Along for the ride

I've used the colours from Dancing in Pajamas TCP 97:
and the sketch from Carol's sketch fun 20:

It's also for Stampin' royalty 7: 'masculine cards'

The background paper is Guy's life (still using up some of this, although, unfortunately, not much left now - has been very useful), the striped paper is a BG offcut and the car was free with a magazine - it has almost a canvas texture to it. The labels that look like dymo are actually rub ons.