Smiling sketch

This is Sue's sketch for challenge 14 of the CBC Birthday Bash:

I've included a glittery rub on of a smiling girl, as the topic on Arty Girlz challenge 76 this week is 'smile'.

I'm also linking for the 'flowers' challenge on Theme Thursday - the other cards I've made today would also fit the bill for this one.



The main paper is another offcut of DCWV Pocket full of posies, with smaller offcuts of Anna Griffin and HOTP. The spirally bits are rafia.

Gift bags

I put together some gift bags for my sale on Saturday - forgot to show them - although quite honestly there wasn't much crafting involved - just folding and sticking together the right bits. I bought a couple of books of ready templates for bags by K & Co in one of those mad moments when I thought they would be useful for times like this, but tbh they were so fiddly, I'd rather have made my own from scratch - ah well, we live and learn!

And this is one that I've put together for Sue's Birthday Bash challenge 12 on CBC (at least with this one I added a few bits to it!)

Rays of sunshine

For ages now I've been meaning to play along with the CBCC081 template:

So here it it as last - a card that is just right for today's 365 cards challenge 16: imagine this 'sunshine'. I hope the card is sunny enough!

The paper with big daisies is K & Co, the others are unknown offcuts (think the roses at the bottom are HOTP) - I've cut the big bloom on the corner.

CBC Birthday Bash challenge 19

A few weeks ago I found some instructions to make a squash book, but only got as far as cutting and folding some copy paper to see how it went.

Over on CBC as part of the Birthday Bash celebrations, Jackie has given the instructions for a squash book for challenge 19. Jackie's instructions are so clear that it was fairly easy to make.

Mine is for Mum for Sunday - she always likes it referred to as 'Mothering Sunday' rather than 'Mother's Day' so I usually try to remember this. She loves violets - they remind her of her mum whose name was Violet (mum used to give her mum a little bunch of violets).

The card I've used is DCWV textured and the stamping has been done with Brilliance pearlescent purple and embossed with clear detail. Unfortunately, the stamping on the darker purple card doesn't show up here too well, but is better irl. The stamps are Dawn Bibby design Personal Impressions.

Front:

Back:

Inside:

Insideleft:

Inside middle:

Inside right:

Thank you, Jackie, for a great challenge with such clear instructions.

There are so many flowers on this that I'm also linking for Theme Thursday.

Sketch & Stash 5

This is sketch 5 on Sketch & Stash: The pad of K & Co Roam papers that these came from has been in a box waiting to be used for ages - couldn't get any ideas how to use them - but just right for this sketch and photo:

Forever Friends: sketch

This week's challenge on FF was a sketch:


The background paper is HOTP. I swung the sketch round:


Yet another 'one for the guys' (Charisma Cardz)

Sport report

This is Laura's sketch 21 on 2 sketches 4 you this week:

I've made a card that fits another couple of challenges - another one for Charisma Cardz 10: 'one for the guys' and also Awfully Big Art Adventure: 'newsprint'.

I've used part of an article written pre the England rugby win today. The 'grassy' background paper is Kanban, the rugby paper is Jolly Nation:

365 day 15: super sketchy Sunday

Today on 365 cards is challenge 15: super Sunday sketch: I'm also linking this card for Charisma Cardz challenge 10: one for the guys.

And also for Sue's Birthday Bash challenge 18 on CBC, which is to use scallops.

The background paper is actually called Snow !! (mogals) by Wubie Prints, but I thought (hoped) it looks enough like sea to use on this card.

Another mother's day card

This time the card is using Jackie's sketch on Dewdrop Craftz which is the first of fortnightly challenges (just scraping in at the last minute!): My card is also for Rosie's challenge 25, to make a card for a special lady in your life.

The turquoise papers are DCWV Pocket full of posies and the pink ones are various offcuts. The image is another glittered rub on (irl the turquoise glittering shows up much more than here - better view if you click on the picture).


And it's another one for CBCC089 on CBC, also for this week's Lili of the valley challenge.

Seven green and blue gems

This weekend is a special one on CBC, because the forum was seven years old on Thursday 12 March. Sue has arranged a series of birthday bash challenges. This is the first opportunity I've had to make anything for these, so this is a birthday card for challenge 1: 'I need a BIRTHDAY CARD with 7 items the same on there – happy for them to vary in colour BUT the item MUST be the same.'

So I've chosen gems as my seven items - six blue and one green.

The overall theme of the card is green and blue combo, fitting with this week's challenge on Createdbyhand.

The image is a glittered rub on - this is for My Time to Craft challenge 52: Woman!

The main paper is K & Co Addison, which itself is glittered, although the photo doesn't pick that up.

I just used a craft knife to cut into the swirl to slot in the image.

This is also good for Inspire Me Thursday swirl challenge this week, as the cut into swirl is quite a feature of the card.

365 day 14: DIY

Today's challenge on 365 is DIY: make a flower embellishment out of paper.

I've seen hand torn flowers before, but never tried to make one, but took the plunge. I roughly tore 'circles' and randomly cut into them around the edges - you can see what I've done much better if you click on the picture. Considering it was a first attempt, I'm fairly pleased with the way my flower has turned out. I was going to cut flowers on the cricut, but I thought that was cheating.

The pink spotted paper is Anna Griffin and the dark paper is HOTP.

365 day 13: Festive Friday

Yesterday's challenge on 365 was to make a birthday card with the colours red, blue and yellow. 'so go to it and show us your primary colors'.

Supplies for this card are all Basic Grey:

Orange delights!

I received two sets of super orange inchies today from the March swap on BF, organised by Karen. I was fortunate enough to have set sets because I joined in twice to make up the number. So look what I received:

Salt: Friendship (sponsored challenge)

There is a very special challenge today on our Salt blog - you can find out all about it here. It's lovely to see the contributions, especially from the new team members. Please pop over and have a look and perhaps join in the challenge.

I wanted to make a LO for this, but I just couldn't find the photo I wanted to use, so in the end I ade a card and now I'm glad I did.

The background paper is Sandylion Friendship word and speaks for itself.

I printed the verse from Proverbs (it's The Message version) - oh what fun I had with getting that printed in the right place - I should have done it before I stuck the paper to the card, but I didn't, so I had to feed the whole card in and get it in the right place - a few sheets of paper later!

The quotation: 'of all the gifts life could send ...' is a stamped image - the stamp was kindly sent to me a while ago by a Salt friend - so very appropriate to use it here.

Simple Easter cards

I made batches of simple Easter cards this evening - all on white or ivory hammered card - the wording is computer generated and printed.

These ones have silver or gold crosses that I bought a couple of years ago and found so fiddly I didn't know why I'd bought them - so now I've used them all up (made 7 altogether):

And these have stamped images from the Easter See-Ds:

I'm linking again for the Crazy Amigo 'simplicity' challenge and some more for this week's ABC.

Post it note holders

Just a few more bits made for tomorrow.

You can see them better if you click on the pictures.

Cutie Sunday sketch: Easter cards

I needed to make some more quick Easter cards - I found this sketch on Cutie Sunday:

This was just right to make a batch of similar cards. The background papers are a mixture of PM and Making Cards, with some Poundland blingy 3d stickers.#

Easter is also the theme this week on ABC, so I'm linking there.

Here come those fairies again ...

... or are they sprites? Anyway, whatever, I seem to have loads of pictures similar to these, so here are three very quick cards that incorporate 'wishes', fitting into the TGIF challenge 75: make a wish.

Sympathy cards

I needed to make some more sympathy cards for my box, so I found a piece of vellum with lillies - I cut into four so that I could make the four cards and ran it through my xyron, but the cartridge run out just before the end of the vellum, which is why two cards have shorter pieces and I've filled the gap with a 'with sympathy' peel off.

Challenge 19 on One Stop Craft this week is 'sorry', so I'm linking these to that.

A couple of the cards are a pale green background, one is an ivory colour and the other cream, so the vellum looks a bit different on each, but not much different on here.

Simplicity: a big move

Saturday is now creeping up on me and I'm not feeling like crafting (with other things going on in the background and just generally not feeling up to another much).

However, I have a few gaps in my boxes and one of them is for 'new home' cards.

It so happens that today's challenge on 365 is 'a big move' and so I've made two cards that are appropriate for this.

They are very simple, so I'm also linking for Crazy Amigo's challenge: 'simplicity'.

The more I look at this one, the more I realise that the copics have smudged - I thought I'd used the right ink pad, but may be not (I'd already stamped the image a week or two ago). I think I might replace it tomorrow before the card goes into the box, but you get the general idea of what it will look like.

I need to make some sympathy cards next.

How come?

How come I received this birthday present a few days ago, with instructions not to open it until today?

It's because it's the forum birthday today on Crafts by Carolyn - the forum is seven today! Happy Birthday to everyone at CBC and a big thank you to Carolyn, Paul, the mods and everyone who makes it a great forum.

And this is what I received inside the package from my secret Birthday fairy:

Lovely papers, ribbons and brads - and different to anything else I've already got. Thank you Birthday fairy!



If you've never visited CBC before, why not do so today - what a great day to join a forum - on its Birthday!