Suzie's 365 day 74: unusual camera angle

Not much time today, so here is my Suzie's 365 day 74: unusual camera angle:

It's Wednesday, so ...

... that means that it's WOYWW 145 - if you don't know what I'm talking about, click on the link and have a nosey and, hopefully, join in the fun. I missed last week's - there was just so much going on, not just crafting, but family-wise, so I had to give it a miss.

I've got a Tearfund sale here on Saturday, so I need to be busy making more cards, notebooks etc for that, so I apologise in advance to all WOYWW-ers that I might well be very late in visiting your blogs and commenting.

To the left of where I sit you can just about see a box of Easter stuff, boxes of distress inks, doilies and a box of sticky notes that need to have covers on them - that reminds me that I also need to get out some notebooks to alter ready for Saturday.

To the right of me are some cards that have been made but need inserts, labels, bagging, also a prize from Hooked on Crafts -  - talking of prizes, I have won so many lately that I just had to do a blogpost earlier in recognition of my gratitude for all the lovely teams and sponsors - I even won the biggie at Simon says stamps - $50 to spend (trouble is that atm I'm too busy to browse the online shop to choose - so much to choose from - but after Saturday I'll enjoy spending ... and also all the other prizes that I've won. If you want to see what a lucky bunny I am, then just have a look here

You can also see a box of all sorts of things that might be useful over the next few days. At the back by the ATG gun you can see the remnants of supplies that I used for a guest designer slot that will be revealed on Friday.

I have a nice clear space in front of me ready to get on with everything I need to do for Saturday ... so why am I sat here doing other things?!! I'm going to have a break for some lunch and then, hopefully, get down to some serious crafting - mustn't forget that I've also got a commissioned card to get done by Saturday and also need to do a Mothering Sunday one for mum. A crafter's life is never dull!!

I'm on a winning streak!!

I'm supposed to be getting prepared for my Tearfund sale for Saturday, so I mustn't spend too long doing other things, but I just had to do a blogpost about the lovely prizes that I've been fortunate enough to win over the past couple of weeks or so.

I received a package yesterday from Hooked on Craft for winning their 'hearts' challenge with this card. Aren't these lovely?

I've also won quite a few digital images for various challenges in the past couple of weeks, including 2 sisters, Crafts 4 eternity, Love to create, Mami doodles, Paper makeup, Paper sundaes, Sassy Cheryl, Scrap-creations, Totally stampalicious,

I've also won a Paper Pretties sentiment sampler, Classic calico 3 different chipboard die cuts and a journaling book, value $26 from Playing in paradise,  a $34 gift certificate to spend at Stamp and create from Critter challenge, $20 to spend at Designs on Cloud 9 from Friendship's garden, $15 to spend at Simon says stamp from Pile it on, a FREE seat in ANY of the classes at My Creative Classroom for winning The craft garden challenge, a £10 voucher to spend at Joanna Sheen from The crafty pad challenge, and $50 to spend for winning the Simon says challenge - yay!!!

In addition to the prizes, I've been given Guest Designer slots with For Fun (last week and today), Mad for markers (for the month of March), Playing in paradise (for 16 March) and Paper creations ink (for 2 April),

I'm am so grateful to all the teams of these challenge blogs and their sponsors.

We we go looped de loop ...

... here we go loop de la ... This is my second week as a Guest Designer on For Fun. The new challenge today is Circles. Please click on the link and join in the fun - it would be great to see you there. I have so enjoyed joining with the team for this fortnight- thanks to For Fun for the opportunity.

'Let's see circles' is the topic for Crafts and me 75, so this is also for that.

The paper is Bo Bunny 'tis the season fa la la, on to which I stuck various image circles and sentiments.

I'm also linking this for:

52 Christmas card throwdown colour challenge 3: blue, red, green
Paper crafting journey 4: anything goes
Creative Mondays (always crafting) 3: anything goes
Make it Monday 80
Inspire me Fridays 49
52 cardpick up week 10

Purple/pink and black

I love crafting with purple and am very fond of pink as well, particularly vibrant pink, so this was another excuse to use one of those doilies that I got this morning (at this rate they'll all be gone soon - lol!). This is for Stampotique 49: purple/pink and black. I used Janet Klein's butterfly stamp, colouring with a selection of copics: V04, V09, V15, V17, BV04, BV31 and RV 10. This is good for the V family challenge this week for iCopic lover 73. Flowers with pearls and the black paisley shapes from the 99p store. The card blank is a stardream pearlised light purple.

This is also for:

My time to craft 175: doilies and flowers
Crafts and me 74: things with wings
The pixie cottage 111: things with wings
Flutter by Wednesdays 193: spring time + butterfly
Little darlings 18: pearls
The crazy challenge 110: no designer paper
Tanda teaser 192: no designer paper

Doiley and flowers

Another card, using the back of the striped pink card, with one of the Poundland doileys and a few flowers built up and held with jewelled brads.

This is for:

My time to craft 175: doilies and flowers
Crafty bloggers network 17: floral
CCEE 1210: flowers, flowers, flowers
Allsorts 145: say it with flowers
Paper sundaes 111: feminine flair - think flowers, girly
Quirky crafts 6: a recipe for a special lady - circles, flowers and gems/pearls for a special lady

Bright pink for Easter

I had an appointment for a dental check-up this morning (all was fine, thankfully) and on the way back home I needed to get some cheap envies from Poundland for everyday use (bills and things - not worth using the good stuff for those - lol). Anyway, I happened to have a quick browse in Poundland and came across a pack of 30 doileys - 10 large blue ones (don't think they'll ever get used), 10 white and floral about 7" across (might be useful one day) and 10 bright pink ones about 5.5" across. I decided to use some of these straight away, so here is my first card with the doiley mounted on to a pink and white striped card. This was actually half of a card blank that was the same back and front, so I cut it to be able to make two cards by mounting on a white blank.The other bits and pieces were all bought on a previous visit to Poundland.

This is for:

My time to craft 175: doilies and flowers
Gingerloft 35: spring
Paper creations ink 20: spring is in the air
My mum's craft shop 47: spring is springing
2 sisters 82: spring colours
Crazy 4 challenges 127: spring brings new life
Joanna Sheen 4: spring is in the air
Crafter's companion March: spring
Robyn's fetish 98: Easter
Crafty bloggers network 17: floral
CCEE 1210: flowers, flowers, flowers
Unstampabelles 9: Easter
Paper pretties Monday challenge: stripes
Crafty creations 160: stripes
The paper shelter 54: anything goes
Paper crafting journey 4: anything goes
Creative Mondays (always crafting) 3: anything goes
Make it Monday 80
Inspire me Fridays 49
52 cardpick up week 10

Suzie's 365 day 73: shapes in nature

I'm afraid it's a bit of cheat for Suzie's day 73: shapes in nature - this was taken a year or so ago, but I still think it's worth showing. If I have any light bulb moment of inspiration later I might add something new. Meantime, here it is:

Mad for markers Guest Designer slot

I was invited to be a Guest Designer on Mad for Markers for March, where the topic is 'monochromatic'.

My card is for Easter, although it doesn't have a greeting on the front, the insert says 'Happy Easter'.

The card blank was ready edged with the swirly pattern and I distressed it a bit with dusty concord and chipped sapphire distress inks.

The image is a Papermania Moments of Faith stamp, coloured with the following copics: BV 00, BV 23, BV31, V00, V04, V12, V91,Y11, BG93.

I'm also linking this for the following challenges:

iCopic lover 73: V family
Divas by design 25: favourite things - stamping, colouring with alcohol markers, purple
Totally papercrafts 107: my favourite things - stamping, colouring with alcohol markers, purple
Fashionable stamping 17: bingo - chose this diagonal: flowers, distressing, words
Prairie fairy Fridaays 74: distress it
Gingerloft 35: spring
Paper creations ink 20: spring is in the air
My mum's craft shop 47: spring is springing
2 sisters 82: spring colours
Crazy 4 challenges 127: spring brings new life
Joanna Sheen 4: spring is in the air
Crafter's companion March: spring
Stampavie and more 164: spring/Easter
Stempelsonne 58: Easter
Card a day March: Easter
Penny Black and more at Allsorts March: springtime
Robyn's fetish 98: Easter
I brake for challenges 19: I brake for Easter
Let's ink it up 21: show us some flowers
Crafty bloggers network 17: floral
CCEE 1210: flowers, flowers, flowers
Allsorts 145: say it with flowers
The paper shelter 54: anything goes
Paper crafting journey 4: anything goes
Papertake: anything goes
Creative Mondays (always crafting) 3: anything goes
Make it Monday 80
Inspire me Fridays 49
52 cardpick up week 10

Seeing double - positive and negative

City crafter 99 is 'seeing double' using the positive and the negative of a die or punch. I found up a Quickutz die that I haven't used for years (in fact, I have a box of them that haven't been touched for ages) - it produces a circle with the flower cut out, so there is also the inside of the flower to use separately. I used scraps of yellow card to cut the flowers, so it's another chance to play in  Pixie's crafty snippets 11 playground and Hiding in my craftroom 37: super scraps Saturday.  I've used a cream shaped card blank that I sponged with mustard seed distress ink - for Prairie fairy Fridaays 74: distress it. The chick is a sticker from a pound shop.

This is also for:

Little Miss Muffet 30: easel, shaped or step card
Gingerloft 35: spring
Paper creations ink 20: spring is in the air
Deep ocean 20: spring
Tuesday throwdown 88: new life
My mum's craft shop 47: spring is springing
2 sisters 82: spring colours
Crazy 4 challenges 127: spring brings new life
Joanna Sheen 4: spring is in the air
Crafter's companion March: spring
Robyn's fetish 98: Easter
Unstampabelles 9: Easter
I brake for challenges 19: I brake for Easter
Crafts and me 74: things with wings
The pixie cottage 111: things with wings
Crafty bloggers network 17: floral
CCEE 1210: flowers, flowers, flowers
Allsorts 145: say it with flowers
The crazy challenge 110: no designer paper
Tanda teaser 192: no designer paper
The paper shelter 54: anything goes
Paper crafting journey 4: anything goes
Papertake: anything goes
Creative Mondays (always crafting) 3: anything goes
Make it Monday 80
Inspire me Fridays 49
52 cardpick up week 10

Suzie's 365 photos day 72: garden

Gosh, day 72 of the year already! And I'm still up to date with Suzie's 365 photos!

Today, Suzie is asking 'what's happening in your garden?' To be honest, the answer is 'not a lot really', although when I really look there are signs of spring. We have a large back garden and because we can't manage to do it we have to pay a gardener, so we had lots of shrubs put in years ago to keep cost down and eliminate weeding as much as possible, so there's lots of green and not much else at the moment, but these are a few patches of interest that I clicked as I walked around in the lovely sunshine this afternoon.

Suzie's day 72: garden:

Love script

This card is for the sketch for Technostamper Monday lunchtime 211:

It's also for Less is more 58: script - a one layer card.

The heart stamp is an old one that was a freebie with Craft Stamper, stamped with stazon blazing red (I know, it looks more like pink) and masked three times. These were then all masked to stamp the new Tim Holtz script stamp over that using memento tuxedo black. So I'm also linking for Incy wincy 136: something old/new, also Kort o mania 58: something old.

This is also for The squirrel and the fox 13: love

Howzat!

I need to make a few more men's cards before my sale next Saturday, so I'm glad of any inspiration I can get from challenges to help me get on with them.

This card is for Cards for men 5 sketch:

The cricketer is a stamped image from the Papermania nostalgia pastimes set designed by John Byars. This was coloured with copics, although not much colouring was required. All papers were from my offcus box, so another opportunity to play on the swings in Pixie's crafty snippets 11 playground, Hiding in my craftroom 37: super scraps Saturday and Crafty calendar March: spring clean; 'spring cleaning' is also the theme for Just some lines - to use at least two items that are at least six months old - not only all the offcuts are old, but the stamp set is well over six months old (and I confess that until now un-inked!)

This is also for:

Birthday sundaes 47: use green

Suzie's 365 day 71: hiding

This is a tough one, but I suddenly thought about my wood mounted rubber stamps (I can't really miss them because the shelves are above where I'm sitting). They are housed on the shelves one behind the other, so some of them are 'hiding', but I know what's there! So this is Suzie's day 71: hiding:

Jolly holly

The theme for today on Facebook Sunday's with Santa is 'holly', so out come the Anna Griffin supplies again for a simple card.

This is also another one for my own challenge CHNC 63: glam it up with glitter, as the red and white paper is very glittery - also Crafty boots: glitter and Dilly Beans: I love glitter.

And ABC Christmas challenge is E for evergreen, which includes holly.

Christmas ski girl

This card is for Sally's challenge for the Christmas Card Club with a 'winter sport' theme, so I chose a Squiggle Stamps digital image called 'ski girl', colouring her with copics. I've used the sketch given on Christmas challenges with sketches 21, which also has the theme 'baby it's cold outside' - please click on the link to see the sketch.

All card and papers used are from my Christmas offcuts box, so this is my first venture into the playground this week for Pixie's crafty snippets 11 (and, boy, do I need a time in the playground ... life is a bit difficult atm, so crafting and playing on the swings with friends is very welcome) - also for Hiding in my craftroom 37: super scraps Saturday and Crafty calendar March: spring clean; 'spring cleaning' is also the theme for Just some lines - to use at least two items that are at least six months old - not only all the offcuts are old, but also the 3D stickers and sentiment too. I was crafty today and even used a piece of card to back the image that had previously been used to punch out some snowflakes - the holey bits are well hidden.

I coloured her hair red for iCopic lover 72: red hair colouring.

This was one of those 'difficult to photo' cards because of all the shine on the foiling and mirror card behind the image.

This is also for:

Crinbo crackers 10: female

Love to create 5: monochromatic

Sweet stamps 56: monochromatic

Imagine

This is something a bit different to my norm - all elements for this were taken from The My Craft Studio Tinkering with Steampunk CD. This is for The CD Sunday challenge: imagine:

It's also for:

Crafts and me 74: things with wings
The pixie cottage 111: things with wings
My Craft spot 47: for the birds
If the shoe fits fashionista Friday 100: aquamarine
Chocolate, coffee & cards 8: feathers and fur
The paper shelter 54: anything goes
Paper crafting journey 4: anything goes
Papertake: anything goes
Creative Mondays (always crafting) 3: anything goes
Make it Monday 79
Inspire me Fridays 49
52 cardpick up week 10

Lion notebook

This is a notebook with an offcut of paper for the background (can't remember where it came from - think it might have been free with a magazine), so this is another one for Pixie's crafty snippets 10.

A note to self: must alter more notebooks before next Saturday!

The stickers, which have an almost woven texture to them, came from the 99p shop. I know that the lion is a BIG cat, but he doesn't look at all fierce, so I think he's OK for the For fun 'woof woof meow!' challenge (I have the privilege of being a Guest Designer on For Fun for this week and next - it would be lovely if you could join in the fun there with a dog or cat creation).

This is also for:

Crafty Ann 60: anything but a card
Chocolate, coffee & cards 8: feathers and fur
Card crafters circle 13: orange and green
Blog a doodle: kids (I'm sure a child would love to receive this notebook)
The paper shelter 54: anything goes
Paper crafting journey 4: anything goes
Papertake: anything goes
Creative Mondays (always crafting) 3: anything goes
Make it Monday 79
Inspire me Fridays 49
52 cardpick up week 10

No image, just words

Todays Secret crafter Saturday 176 challenge calls for 'no image, just words', so here are a couple of quick Christmas cards using some Basic Grey eskimo kisses paper and sentiment panels from a Kanban kit. These are over six months old, so this is also for Just some lines: spring cleaning - to use at least two items that are at least 6 months old.

Btw the cards aren't crooked, it's the photos - lol!

These are also for:

Sentimental Sundays 92: words of encouragement (the second card)
CAS-ual Friday 43: for sentimental reasons - CAS with a sentiment as the focal point

Suzie's 365 photos day 70: plant

This is for Suzie's day 70: plant (or, in my case, it ought to be 'neglected plant'!).

I was given this African violet plant some time ago - it had some lovely flowers, but for quite a while now hasn't shown any sign of any new ones, which is perhaps my fault as I tend to neglect it. It sits on the corner of the window sill normally and only gets watered when I think about it.

CHNC challenge 63: glam it up with glitter

Saturday's come round again with amazing speed, so it's time for a new challenge on my CHNC blog. Challenge 63 is 'glam it up with glitter' - a little or a lot. To find out more just click on the link - it would be lovely to see you there and for you to join in with your Christmas creations.

Today's challenge is being sponsored by Bugaboo stamps (more info on CHNC) and I've been joined by two of their team with their lovely glittered Christmas cards: Cely Smith and Sandye Curry - please go to their blogs and have a look at their lovely cards.

My card is based on Jill's sketch for Sketch n stash 82:

I used the Bugaboo digital stamp 'Cupcake Xmas Lights' colouring with copics and a Papermania glitter pen and mounting on a red and gold foiled panel. I've used an A5 sized card covered with an offcut of My Minds Eye glitter book paper - another wander into the playground at Pixie's crafty snippets 10. The red glittered panel across the bottom is recycled from a Christmas cracker the Christmas before last (yes, you've seen some of this before and I still have some left), edged with a glittered trim from Poundland. The Happy Christmas foiled sentiment and the red and white ribbon are from stash.

This is also for:

One stitch at a time 103: reuse or recycle
PaperPlay 10: recycle it
Scrap it girl March: go green & recycle
Party time Tuesday 58: riches at the end of the rainbow - lots of bling
Art impressions 54: sparkle & bling or embossing
Crafty boots: glitter
Catered crop: ravenous about ribbon
Hotshot craft 5: ribbon
Perfect sentiments 22: Christmas trimmings
Sweet stampin: let's see those layers
Totally papercrafts 107: my favourite things - making Christmas cards with glitter
The paper shelter 54: anything goes
Paper crafting journey 4: anything goes
Papertake: anything goes
Creative Mondays (always crafting) 3: anything goes
Make it Monday 79
Inspire me Fridays 49
52 cardpick up week 10