For mum

I'm busy today trying to catch up with preparing for tomorrow's Tearfund sale (was held up by a bout of sickness and diarrhoeal - fortunately, feeling better now), but just had to stop and make sure I've done a card for mum for Sunday. Shhhh, don't tell mum (lol!), but this card was made out of snippets, recycled card and leaves and flowers that I received as a prize from Hooked on Crafts.

This is the first side stepper card I've made. I used my hougie board with its instructions - went very well for a first attempt (thank goodness!).

The main picture has been recycled from a card received - it's embossed - too good to put into the recycling bin. All pieces of cream and green card and papers used are from my offcuts box. Why is it that the purple/plum paper on the stepper matches with the flowers on the lefthand card, but don't look matching on here?

I've used at least three of the colours from the picture given or The shabby tea room 105: spring is near - and have included embossing:

This has got a fair bit of green on it, so I'm entering it for Liz's Birthday challenge 3 on Crafts for Carolyn - a super forum that is celebrating ten years this week - do go over and have a look and join in the fun.

I'm linking this for:

Stamp, scrap & doodle: fancy fold
Hooked on craft 18: more than one fold
Little Miss Muffet 30: easel, shaped or step card
Crop stop March challenge: shaped card
Sentimental Sundays 93: go green or recycle
Scrap it girl March: go green & recycle
The crafty pad 161: mum's the word
Delightful: someone special
Moving along with the times: special lady
Dream valley 27: mother's day
Sparkles 30: mother's day or spring
PanPastel UK 9: girly/mother's day
Lexi 60: mother's day
Papertake weekly: for the girls or mum
My mum's craft shop 48::mum's the word
Crafty bloggers network 17: floral
Willow sketchie: sketch and or theme - embellish it with flowers
Crazy 4 challenges 127: spring brings new life
Gingerloft 35: spring
House of Gilli 28: colours of spring
Paper creations ink 20: spring is in the air
Little darlings 19: colours of spring
Crafty Ann 61: spring into spring
Simply create too 9: it's spring???
2 sisters 82: spring colours
Just some lines: spring cleaning - use at least two items at least 6 months old (everything except the Hooked on Crafts flowers/leaves)
Crafty calendar March: spring clean - scraps, old stash
Allways something creative 26: spring awakening
Joanna Sheen 4: spring is in the air
Crafter's companion March: spring
Cupcake craftroom March: spring bouquet
Phindy's Friday 97: spring has sprung
Crafting for all seasons 22: green and yellow
Pixie's crafty snippets 11
Hiding in my craftroom 37: super scraps Saturday
Shelly's terrifically thrilling Thursday: show us what you got
The poodles parlour: anything goes
Creative Mondays (always crafting) 3: anything goes
Make it Monday 80
Inspire me Fridays 50
52 cardpick up week 11

Guest Designer on Playing in Paradise

I was fortunate enough to win challenge 56 on Playing in Paradise and was invited to join the team as a Guest Designer for challenge 58: hug a tree:

Updating this post to show the prize I received this morning from Playing in Paradise for winning challenge 56:

The brief for this challenge is to use wood as an element in your creation.

When faced with this challenge I was thinking of using some wooden letters or numbers that I bought ages ago and then I remembered that I had some white woodgrain effect card somewhere ... so I found it and swiped it all over with tea dye distress ink. I then thought about some jigsaws that I'd bought cheaply on a recent visit to Hobbycraft (they are sort-of-like wood - lol!) and distressed the edges with the tea dye, stamping with part of a large stamp that I love, Keys to music by Troy Crisswell, Stamps Happen, colouring just the piano and the black keys with copics. The wording was generated on computer and printed on to some more of the woodgrain card, distressing the edges with brushed corduroy DI.

This is also for:

Party time 59: monochromatic
Dare to be sassy Thursday 116: monochromatic
Mad for markers: monochromatic with copics
Guylou's inimitability: monochromatic
Create me pink 8: tear it up - tearing and/or distressing
Prairie fairy Fridays 74: distress it
Craft room: vintage
Creative card crew: vintage
The stamp man: vintage theme
Bunny Zoe 22: shabby chic/vintage
LiaStamptz 13: anything goes + add a sentiment
Shelly's terrifically thrilling Thursday: show us what you got
The poodles parlour: anything goes
Creative Mondays (always crafting) 3: anything goes
Make it Monday 80
Inspire me Fridays 50
52 cardpick up week 11

50th birthday for an Arsenal fan

I've had an awful night of sickness (won't give too much information!), so I hardly got any sleep, so stayed in bed till late this morning to try and make up for it. A slice of dry toast and a cuppa later, I'm just beginning to feel OKish, which is just as well because I am so behind on preparations for my sale or Saturday.

The first thing I needed to do is a commissioned 50th birthday card for an Arsenal fan. I got the photo of the player from Arsenal's website.

I've used the sketch given for Playing in paradise 57 (I'm scraping in at the last minute for this ... and watch this space for tomorrow, because I have the privilege of joining Playing in paradise 58 as their Guest Designer).

This is an A5 card. The background Kanban grass card is an offcut, the black and white football paper is from PDA, the band across the middle had Happy birthday repeatedly printed on to vellum and then stuck over the striped paper - all these were from my offcuts box, so another entry this week for Pixie's crafty snippets 11 and Hiding in my craftroom 37: super scraps Saturday.

This is also for:

The sisterhood of crafters: let's celebrate birthdays
Crafty ribbons 15: birthday
Cute card Thursday 208: happy birthday
Anything goes 62: boyz to men
The paper shelter 55: for the boys
Polka doodles 10: let's hear it for the boys
Paper pretties Monday challenge: stripes

Garden green notebook

Another notebook - this time with a piece of striped card from my offcuts box and a few 3D stickers that have been in my stickers box for ages (good way to use them up - knew they would come in handy one day - lol!).

As this has lots of green I'm entering it for Liz's Birthday challenge 3 on Crafts for Carolyn - a super forum that is celebrating ten years this week - do go over and have a look and join in the fun (thanks for the heads-up for this, Liz).

This is for:

Pixie's crafty snippets 11
Hiding in my craftroom 37: super scraps Saturday
Party time 59: monochromatic
Gingerloft 35: spring
House of Gilli 28: the colours of spring
Paper creations ink 20: spring is in the air
Little darlings 19: colours of spring
2 sisters 82: spring colours
Joanna Sheen 4: spring is in the air
Crafter's companion March: spring
Card caravan (the hybrid chick) 14: lucky green
Pile it on 11: St Patrick's day and/or shades of green
Critter 106: use green
Kaboodle 110: show us some green
Sassy Cheryl 106: wearin' of the green - use some green
Use it Tuesday 27: green
Papercraft star 88: green
Simon says: a bit o green
Do you stack up 62: go green
Phindy's Friday 96: monochromatic green
Raise the bar 95: go green
Creative Mondays (always crafting) 3: anything goes
Make it Monday 80
Inspire me Fridays 49
52 cardpick up week 10

Bicycle notebook

Another altered notebook, this time with an offcut of Basic Grey cupcake bicycles with some stickers from the 99p store. This is for Crazy amigo: bicycle challenge.

It's also for:

Pixie's crafty snippets 11
Hiding in my craftroom 37: super scraps Saturday
Anything goes 62: boyz to men
The paper shelter 55: for the boys
Polka doodles 10: let's hear it for the boys
Creative Mondays (always crafting) 3: anything goes
Make it Monday 80
Inspire me Fridays 49
52 cardpick up week 10

Girlie pink notebook

In preparation for my sale on Saturday I've managed to alter a few notebooks today, so here is one of them, inspired by this photo inspiration on Just inspirational challenges - it spoke to me of fashion:

The background card is from my offcuts box, so another visit to the playground at Pixie's crafty snippets 11 and Hiding in my craftroom 37: super scraps Saturday.

The images are Sassy girl rub ons by Royal & Langnickel - I've had these for ages and ages and didn't actually expect them to rub on so well - so thankful that they did.

This is also for:

Just some lines: spring cleaning - all items are much more than 6 months old
Papertake: for the girls or mum
Crafty purple frog: pink and girly
Ladybug: 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 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.