Die Cuts R us challenge 9 award

I was picked as one of the 3 top cards for challenge 9 on Die Cuts R Us for this card.

Christmas circles

This card is for sketch 46 on Just Birthdays and Christmas:


Today's challenge on Dottie's World is 'going round in circles', so I thought the PM paper with the Christmas greetings in circles was just right - and even the little dots on the other paper are circles ... and perhaps even the dots on the cuttlebug swiss dots embossing could be classed as circles - probably pushing it a bit far! lol!

The digi image is, of course, a Charmed download.

Kaboodle 14 calls for a recipe: 1 solid cardstock (the green core'dination embossed card), 2 patterned papers (the PM ones). 3 embellishments (the ribbon, wreath and 3D sentiment) and a digi image (the Charmed Christmas tree).

As I've used a digi image, it's another one for this week's CCEE. And the use of red and green again is another one for this week's Simon Says challenge.

Rainbow lori

This is the inchie I made for the BF September swap - have received it back with the others that I showed here - thought it would be appropriate the Paperminutes 82: birds. Sorry for the grainy look to the photo - it's because of the magnification.

Cutie Sunday 61

This card is for the sketch on Cutie Sunday challenge 61:



It's that Santa stamp again - you'll begin to think I haven't got any other Christmas stamps - not true, have got lots - must start using some of the others.

Another win

Yay! my name was drawn for challenge 10 on Paper Cutz: 'The winner of challenge # 10, drawn at random, is Hazel. Congratulations Hazel! Please send me your addy to the email address on the sidebar, and I'll get your Keepsake Essentials Back to School 3-D Die Cuts out to you.'

Grungy rumpled flowers - not sure!

This card is for sketch 51 on Crafts4eternity:

As part of the WCD on BF, Caroline gave us a top tip of how to make grungy rumpled flowers (hers looked lovely in the example she showed us).

Well, I tried ... I really did ... and this is how mine turned out ... think I'll be replacing with 'regular' flowers.

WCD on BF - Kaz's sketch

To celebrate World Cardmaking Day, there is a mini crop on Bubbly Funk Forum - a lot of the lubbly girls on there have given us projects to do (so far I've only taken some photos and taken part in a hilarious game of online bingo in chat!).

Anyway, this is the sketch that Kaz provided:



The stamped image is a Daisy & Dandelion one - this is Daisy coloured with copics - (was free with a magazine) and the papers are all BG wassail. I had to cheat a bit because my image was bigger than the space on the strip down, but, hey, sketches are for cheating, aren't they?



It's another one to link for Stampavie 63: animals, and another one for A Spoon Full of Sugar 71: Christmas.

BF WCD photos

As part of the WCD mini crop, Caroline asked us to take a photo of some unusual flowers in our home. These aren't unusual, but they had just arrived with my online groceries when I saw the challenge, so I took the picture:



You couldn't call these 'flowers', but they are quite unusual - I bought them for display last Christmas and liked them, so they are still around now:



And we were asked to find some spots - there didn't seem to be many spots here, until I thought of these towels:

Here's Santa again

This card is for the sweet Sunday sketch challenge 37 on The Sweetest Thing:



It is very similar to the last card I showed, using similar PM papers and stamped background - this time the background was stamped with Versamark and embossed with clear powder.

As for the previous card, I'm linking for 365 cards day 217 and a Spoon full of sugar 71, also for Christmas stampin' 36.

Santa was here

I've made this card for the Sketch Saturday challenge on My Creative Clutter:



It's also for today's Stampin' Saturday challenge (day 217) on 365 cards - '
Today's stamping challenge is to stamp a background pattern that is the same color as your card stock.'

Papers are Papermania A wonderful Christmas time and I used my favourite Santa stamp. The 'Santa was here' and 'Be jolly' stamps I used randomly for the background are Dovecraft. I stamped with Stazon blazing red.

This is another card for Spoon full of sugar 71: Christmas. Also another one for the colour combo on Simon Says - red and green.

This also fits challenge 36 on Christmas Stampin' to use two stamps.

Toot the flute

I've just changed the title of this post - I originally put 'on the fiddle' and, of course, it's a flute! D'oh!

Sketch 135 on CPS is simple, but just right for the card I want to make, giving centre stage to a newly acquired Penny Black stamp:



Today's challenge 69 on Penny Black is 'autumn breezes' - 'If you don't have any Autumny Penny Blacks......don't worry....just go with autumn colours' - that's what I've done, using copic cadmium orange to colour the back of the music book and autumnal colours for the papers.

Similarly, today's challenge 49 on One Stop Craft is 'autumn inspiration', where it says 'So I would like you to be inspired by Autumn, this could be the beautiful colours of Autumn or trees, leaves, whatever your heart desires', so I've gone for the autumn colours (I've recently made quite a few 'autumn' leaves cards, so this makes a change).

It's another one for Ooh la la 37 'shades of autumn', this time concentrating on the 'shades' rather than an autumnal image.

The current Mixed Media Monday challenge is 'meaningful music', so this is good for that

Day 196 on 365 cards called for 'just a touch' - 'Using a stamped image (ink or digi), use black on white, and just add a touch of color somewhere.' - this stamped image is perfect (or should I say purrfect) for that.

Dottie is ready for school

This card is for the sketch on Sunday Sketch and Stamp challenge 12:



I've used a Dottie download digi stamp - Dottie goes to school - this week's Dottie's World challenge is 'charmed, I'm sure', which is why I've put the bag charm over Dottie's arm - she looks quite loaded, doesn't she?

On the new challenge blog Crafty Catz, the first challenge is a colour combo: green, blue and brown, with the option of adding a charm, which is there.

Whimsy this week for challenge 21 is: the eyes have it - use eyelets (there is one on the top of the tag, set with my big bite).

Pink Elephant 34 calls for something with dots (that's the base paper surrounding the card), a punch (using the big bite) and a tag.

This week's CCEE challenge is 'let's go digital' - the digi stamp of Dottie.

Stamp Something this week asks for something to do with apples/teachers/school (I hope it's OK that I've used a digi stamp)

The colour scheme for 365 cards day 109 is there on my card - and it needs to be a feminine one, so Dottie is OK for that.

As the card has a charm, it's another one for Dutch Dare 61,

The background paper is BG, the 'school books' paper is Poundland, the brown paper for the tag is Be Blessed. ABC rub ons and school stickers are from Poundland.

Pile it on ... and on ...

Challenge 17 on Pile it on this week is 'let them eat cake', so I remembered that I'd got a cute Penny Black stamp with a birthday cake on it.

I used Card Patterns sketch 34 - this was lovely to work with:



The idea of the Pile it on challenge blog is to see how many other challenges you can combine with theirs - so here goes:

Penny Black 68 Colour challenge: chocolate, lemon and pink
Secret crafter Saturday challenge 51: animal antics
365 cards day 189: charming - add a charm
Cooking it up with Katie challenge 2: Recipe - metal (I used a charm, border punch (scalloped edge)and make the image be of something alive
Dutch Dare 61: so charming
3 Clovers 33: think pink
Colour Create 28: hot pink, dusky pink, ice chocolate
Die Cut Dreams 16: ribbons and trims
ABC: E for embossing (Cuttlebug swiss dots)
Stampavie 63: animals
Cute Card Thursday 80: a pinch and a punch - celebrate a 'first' (the cake has one candle, making it suitable for baby's first birthday)
Die Cuts R Us 9: Possibility city - use two products sold in DCRU shop - swiss dots cuttlebug embossing folder and copics

BF September inchies swap

I've receivd my fab inchies today from the BF swap, hosted by Leigh - thank you, Leigh. They are smashing, girls - all so different, but totally on theme: rainbow:



Mine is on the bottom right.

Serendipity Christmas

This card is for the sketch on If the shoe fits ... Fashionista Friday 2 (the one that I wanted to do a few days ago and followed a wrong card instead!):



This week on Fab's Big Christmas Cards challenge the topic is 'green and more green' (I think there's enough on this card to qualify).

It's also another one for Simon Says: red and green - and this time there is some stamping - the two squares of Christmas greetings (btw why do colours sometimes show differently in scans?)

The theme on Rainbow Lady atm is 'Christmas with the stars' - there are quite a few on these serendipity squares.

There are stripes as well as stars on those red, green and white squares, so I'm also linking for one of the Rosie-Dee challenges that I missed: week 53 'stars and stripes'.

Stars are also featured on GC24 Gingersnap Random Redhead challenge, so it's good for that.

Lastly, this is for challenge 71 on A spoon full of sugar: 'Christmas'.

Kewl colours for autumn

This card follows te Friday Sketchers 71 sketch:



And the colours used are for Easy Breezy Kewl Colours challenge: more fall colours:



I think these are unusual colours to have together and I found just the right papers - they are by imaginisce (some sent to me by Annmarie) and the autumn tree stamp is one of a set of seasons by Whispers. TGIF has the topic this week of 'wonderful trees', so I'm linking there, although I've just noticed that they already have their new challenge up and it's still Thursday evening. Tuesday Taggers this week also has the theme of 'trees' - there is a voucher to be won there to spend at The Craft Barn.

I'm editing this because I've just found the new monthly challenge blog 'By the cute and girly' with 'autumn glory' as the first topic, so I'm linking this card there as it was made after the challenge was launched.

Tartan it up

The challenge this week on DCM is 'tartin it up' - Sue said, 'I would like you to use some sort of tartan on your cards, fabric, ribbon, paper, even a piece of an old tartan rug(!)etc.'

I've used Kathy's sketch 11 from her sketch file. Kathy's sketch is called 'Simple eliptical' - she called it this because of the shape of the prominent sentiment on the sketch. I actually used a rectangular sentiment, but kept it quite large so that it is a central focus of the card.



Having said earlier in the week that I had some ribbon suitable for this challenge, in the end I didn't use it, but used a tartan paper from BG June bug. The green paper is also from that range.

This card also fits the challenge on 365 for day 156 which had an ad-inspired picture with green and red quite prominent.

Simon Says this week asks us to use red and green for a colour combo challenge.

Pumpkin time?

Day 213 on 365 cards on Tuesday was 'In Pieces': 'We have done a paper piecing challenge before, but this one is specific. If you complete this challenge, you must use this image:



It seemed at first as if we were being asked to make a halloween card - and I don't hold with halloween, so I thought I couldn't take part. However, when I asked I was kindly told: 'If you wish to use only part of the image - for example, just the pumpkin body, that's just fine :) If you don't celebrate Halloween, it's not a requirement, just an idea for those who do.'

So I incorporated the image into a card, together with my autumn ATC that I did for the 'ribbon' swap on BF.


I'm editing this because I've just found the new monthly challenge blog 'By the cute and girly' with 'autumn glory' as the first topic, so I'm linking this card there as it was made after the challenge was launched.

You can see here how I put the ATC together. The background of this card is K & Co Brookfield paper. The pumpkin was coloured with various shades on copics orange - which is just right for today's challenge 13 on Copic Creations: colouring a pumpkin.



This is another entry for 'shades of autumn' on Ooh-la-la 37, also for challenge 35 on Crafty Creations: leaves/autumn theme, another one for Allsorts 20: autumn days, another one for If the Shoe Fits ... Fashionista challenge 4: fall themed - it must contain leaves.

Salt: Growth

It's Salt challenge day - and I'm afraid that I'm a little late with posting my LO today, but here I am at last.

It was Esther's turn to choose the topic - and Mona last Thursday chose a meditation on growth for her 'in between' slot - neither Esther nor Mona knew what the other was choosing, so it's quite clear that they were both led in the same direction.

You can read what Esther said here and if you didn't manage to stop by Salt last Thursday you can read what Mona wrote in her meditation here.

When reflecting upon this topic to seek to decide what I should craft, it struck me that physically our growth is dependent on many things, but primarily on food for our bodies; so it is in our spiritual life, we need food to sustain our souls and for us to grow in maturity in the faith. Jesus said, 'I am the Bread of Life' - we need Him in our lives and to regularly seek His plan and purpose for us to grow spiritually.

So my LO meditates upon the passage from John 6 where Jesus talked about Himself as the Bread of Life - well worth looking up that chapter and reflecting on it.

The photos of bread were royalty-free ones found on the internet. The textured card is DCWV, the background paper is K & Co McKenna and the patterned strip of paper is K & Co Brookfield.

As always, if you click on the picture you can more easily read what I've written.



If you get time, why not pop along to Salt and read what Esther has to say and see the lovely crafting of the rest of the team - we would appreciate any comments you wish to leave us.

Just for Karen

Karen left a comment on my WOYWW picture from last night, asking if I'd show more of the stamps that were at the top of the picture.

So here they are - difficult to see what's there really because they are squeezed behind and on top of one another to use the available space. Once upon a time I said that I wouldn't buy any more wood mounted stamps because they take up too much room, but I seem to have forgotten that I ever said that. And I do happen to have a few (!) acrylic and unmounted rubber ones too.

A better view if you click on the pictures - oh, and please excuse the teddy's paw on the top right of the second picture - all teddies etc live up on the top shelf.

BF September ATCs swap

Postie's brought me my BF ATC swaps for September this morning - they are all so lovely. The theme was 'ribbon' - and it's amazing how different each one is and yet they all stick to the theme.

Thanks, girls - and thanks to Ali for once again organising.