Sweet Christmas bears

This final card for BF 25th club February is based on The sweetest thing sketch 57:

This was a good sketch for using up offcuts.

It's also another one for Sparkle creations 12: 'any winter sport'.

A prize

I've received this prize from Ann (Ann's Creative Nook) for her challenge 76, for this card.

Thank you, Ann.

What if ...

This is a card for Taylored expressions 101 sketch:

It's also for Divine diva inspiration 22:

I mainly picked up on the deep bright blue of the pool, with a hint of the yellow in the writing.

I used a piece of double sided paper from the K & Co rough and tumble pad - as I only used one piece of paper, it's good for ABC O is for one paper.

I'm also linking for:

Quixotic 15: 'one for the boys'
My Grafico 37: 'chipboard' - the car circle is chipboard edged with dark blue chalk ink
Creative inspirations 49: 'monochrome'

Where do the days go to?

It's Wednesday again - and that means WOYWW on Julia's blog.

Considering I made eight cards, a set of inchies and a set of ATCs yesterday, which involved lots of cutting, sticking, using the cricut, getting messy with inks ... perhaps my workspace isn't as bad as it might be. I try to put things back where they belong when I can, but it's inevitable that things get littered around me, including the floor.

So far today I've made one card (the only below this post), but I had three attempts at it and more rubbish went in the bin or on the floor!



Now I'm going to have a tidy up and then I can start playing again! But first I must go and prepare some veg etc for tonight's meal.

Oh Alice!

A new challenge blog has just started - devoted to Alice in Wonderland - Oh Alice!

The first challenge is Chapter one: down the rabbit hole: the beginning ...
'Alice gets glam inspiration challenge' - In anticipation of the upcoming Tim Burton remake, let's GET GLAM with Alice! Jessica recently scored this UBER fab makeup palette by Urban Decay (thanks honey!) and fell in love with the awesome colors, the NAMES of the eyeshadows (all after Alice, of course ;) and the pop-up mushroom mirror!

'We wanna see how YOU get Glam using this amazing little piece as your inspiration! Show us your style, put on the glitz, and GET GLAM!'

I looked up the make up set on the internet and printed out the palette of colours. I then found a copyright-free picture of Alice to put in the middle. Having printed this out, I then used four favourite mini stamps with versamark and then embossed with gold detail (I wish it showed up better on the photo, but it's a dull day again, so had to resort to flash). The first three stamps on the top row are Magenta and the righthand corner one is Stampendous 'african flower'.

It so happens that the new challenge launched today on Wednesday stamper is 'Alice in Wonderland' - what a happy coincidence! - so I'm linking for that.

It's another entry for Sophisticat 23: 'embossing'.

I really enjoyed this challenge (even though I had three attempts before I got it right - kept getting the wrong stamps in the wrong places).

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.

Gatefold Easter card

Jacksonbelle this week asks us to 'try a new fold' - well, I was all set to try making a 'joy fold' card - found a video on You Tube that had good ratings ... and then found that You Tube didn't want to play properly. When I can get You Tube to play nicely, I might have a go at the joy fold card, even if I'm too late for the Jacksonbelle challenge - and there's one also on Project Tuesday.

So I've resorted to an old favourite (that I admit doesn't take any thinking about) and have made a gatefold Easter card, which fits fine for Doodle Palace 'create a card using more than one score line with an Easter theme'.

It's also for:

Kaboodle 25: 'fancy folds' (although it's not really fancy, but a bit different to the norm) - I'll try to do something more fancy for this challenge before the deadline
Corrosive 52: 'wings' (the butterfly)
Die cut dreams 36: 'Easter'
Another for Spoon full of sugar 91: 'spring is in the air'
Another for Belli 85: 'butterflies or dragonflies to celebrate the coming of spring'
Cupcake inspiration 47: As you can see from the picture inspiration, the cupcakes are decorated with pale pink and blue - I know that my card has other colours, but it was the pastel look that inspired me
All supplies, except the irridescent card blank, are from Poundland.

Flowers for Cute Daisy May

For this card I've used sketch 16 on Delightful sketches:


For this week's Cute Daisy May 'flowers' challenge, I used a CDM image from sheet 62, changing the colour to purple within Picture It and using a clone brush to take off the purple on her face, arm and hair, which I then coloured with copics after printing out.

It's also for:

Quirky cards 22: 'cute'
Incy wincy 31: 'touchy feely' - the glitter card mat behind the image has a lovely texture feel and the flower has an almost suede feel to it
Lexi: 8: 'anything goes'
There she goes 43: 'birthday sparkles' - the purple glitter card and the flower centre
Digital Tuesday 46: 'all things girly'
Practical scrappers: 'stamps' - can be digi, so this is OK
Etsy inspired 76: 'enchanged beehive' - I chose:

Picture perfect creations: colour combo 1:

The papers are BG wisteria (I must buy another pad of this because I love it and most has gone now) with a little turquoise BG lime rickey behind the image mat.

BF February ATCs: flowers

The topic for the February ATC swap on BF is flowers. I've simply used one of my favourite flower stamps by Anita - it was one of the first stamps I owned and I still love it. I used textured card that I don't think would have taken too kindly to colouring with copics, so I decided to give them a rest and get the Sakura pens out - I used to use these a lot, but they've taken a back seat with copics being so popular.I dotted some crimson metallic on the petals and then blended with a white pen. The blue background to the blocks was done with an ordinary colouring pencil.

I felt tempted to make these more elaborate, but in the end I felt that they looked right as they are.

Paper piecing for spring

This card is for Sketch & Stash 29:

The idea of Sketch & Stash is to use new or neglected stash - I'm still trying to use up some of the offcuts that have accumulated over the months - I spy a piece of BG paper there from quite a while ago.

I've used some offcuts of green and yellow to paper piece the stamped image and added a bit of colouring with the copics which are designated for this week's Copic colour challenge.

It's also for:

The treehouse 37: 'paper piecing'
Our creative corner: 'try a new technique'
SPCC 35: 'green galore, only orange, summer sun'
Copic colour 52: 'C-3 cool gray No. 3, R11 pale cherry pink, G21 lime green'
Your next stamp 10: 'spring colours'
Cutie stampers 43: 'yellow + birthday'
Stamp something: 'touch of spring somethings'

Please share my umbrella

That title takes me back to the 1960's with the song 'Bus stop' by the Hollies - loved it!

This card is for Crafting life's pieces sketch 21:

It uses the colours for ColourQ 20:

It's also for:

Dottie's World: 'hearts' - using the Charmed download 'puddle love' from the Love and Marriage collection
Quirky crafts 21: 'Valentine's'
Another for Ooh-la-la 47: 'love'
Another for Papertake weekly: 'check this out - gingham or checks'
Flutter by Wednesday 97: 'hearts' - I've included butterflies
Another for Pixie cottage 9: 'love theme'
Tanda teaser 134: 'these boots are made for walking'
Dutch dare 71: 'Valentine's day'
Another for Susie's sassy 8: 'hearts and flowers'
Totally Gorjuss 18: 'flower power'
Incy wincy 30: 'punch it out' - don't know whether this is cheating because the heart shapes were made on my cricut (I don't own many punches because of using the cricut)

I cut the heart shapes on my cricut using Make the cut software. The papers are out of my offcuts box.

Another prize

I was privileged to win this gorgeous stamp that arrived today, for challenge 9 on Sketchy colors:


It was for this card. I look forward to using this super stamp.