Spring blossom

This card is based on the sweet stop sketch 47:

It's also for:

Cuttlebug be inspired 76: 'ring in spring' - I used the swiss dots embossing folder for the green paper
Stampotique 3: 'spring has sprung'
Crafty catz 24: 'spring'
Pink elephant 58: 'spring'
Another for Rosie-Dee 66: 'think spring'
Our creative corner: 'colour challenge - yellow, pink, green, brown'
Little red wagon 20: 'copics' - the trees image was stamped with memnto rich cocoa and green, yellow and pink colour added with copics, with the addition of some stickles
If the shoe fits Fashionista Friday 27: 'trees' - I used one of my favourite Inkadinkado stamps
Glenda's random amusing challenge 58: 'spring'
Digi shack: 'Erin go'bragh!' - use green
In style stamps month's challenge: 'yellow and green'
Sophisticat 26: 'new beginnings' - the newness of spring blossom
Pollycraft 36: 'sparkly things' - the stickles blossom
The craft garden March challenge: inspiration from the photo:

It was difficult to get a photo because of the sheen on the piece of Craftwork tutti fruitti that I used across the middle of the card and also the glint on the stickles that I added to the tree blossom, but you can get the general idea - it looks much better irl.

Picturing wonderland

This card is for the sketch on Oh, Alice! 4: 'picturing wonderland':

It's also for:

Charisma cardz 11: 'something for the kids'
The cottage studio digi rumble 1: 'quick birthday card using digi' - made within 15 minutes (once I'd googled and found the picture I wanted to use and chosen my paper etc)
Cricut cardz 17: 'child's birthday' - the scalloped frame was cut on my cricut using Make the cut software
Loonie 84: 'use a die cut shape in your design' - I hope the cricut-cut frame counts
Little paper shop 59: make something old new again' - I used my cricut that I've used many times, but it's the first time I've cut this frame
Fab n funky 15: 'it's all new' - use something new - the cricut frame
Die cuts R us 30: 'colour challenge - use one of the MME lush collection colours' - I chose blue
Penny's challenges: 'birthdays'
Lucy's cards 7: 'clean and simple'
No time to stamp? 131: 'clean & simple texture' - the card is DCWV textured
Totally Gorjuss 21: 'sweet'
Cute Daisy May: 'anything goes'
Dancing in pajamas TCP Tuesday: 'use your piercing tool' - although the scalloped frame was cut on the cricut I had to pierce the holes, which were hardly visible without doing so

The background paper is K & Co Addison.

Salt: penitence

As part of her reflections during Lent, Lythan chose the topic 'penitence' for today's Salt challenge. This is what Lythan said:

'IN my tradition we follow the season of Lent - a time of reflection and preparation for Jesus death and resurrection. It lasts for 40 days (not including Sundays) to echo the time that Jesus spent in the desert preparing for his ministry. I have chosen one of the themes of Lent as our next challenge -

Penitence

Which I would put simply as "being aware of what we have done wrong and seeking God's forgiveness" or having a sense of regret for sin and wanting to make a sincere change. The focal reading for me is this one 1 John 1:8-9
"If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

Which comes before the prayer of confession in some orders of worship. What does it mean to be aware of our wrong doing and of the forgiveness we receive through Jesus Christ? How can we sincerely make a change in our lives? There are many ways that the word and the reading may take you.'

I reflected on the words in the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples, usually called the Lord's Prayer:
'Matthew 6:12: Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.'

And then my thoughts went to Psalm 51, a prayer of penitence written by David, and I particularly focused on verse 10. Of course, unlike David, we have the privilege of living after the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and His salvation is open to all those who believe and repent of their sin.

As Christians, we have the assurance of forgiveness - but today's topic is a reminder of the need for awareness and confession of our wrong-doings.

I used Bo Bunny papers for my LO, together with Bazill cardstock. The main background paper is Delilah you and me and the paper with trees is Delilah here's 2U. I wouldn't normally put pink and orange together, but I'm loving these papers.

The shapes were cut on my cricut using Make the cut software - I'm loving being able to use my cricut with my computer as well as with cartridges (which I hardly use now, because using Make the cut is so good).



Please take a little time to hop over to our Salt blog and have a look at the beautiful creations of the rest of the team - and perhaps join in and create something for this theme and leave us a comment so we can come and have a look.

I'm also linking this for:

Challenge up your life 16: 'flower compliment'
Jacksonbelle: 'show us your new stuff' - the Bo Bunny papers
Crafty calendar 6: 'flower power'

Going green in more ways than one

This is for Saturday sketch 142 on 411:

and also for their colour inspiration 114:

The background of my card was taken from an envelope I received:

so it's good for the recycling challenge on Inky impressions 32, although I apologise that there's no actual stamping, but the edges of the quotation have been inked.

It's also for:

Creative card crew 46: 'going dotty ...'
ABC: 'Q for quotation' - the friendship quote is a rub on
Penny's challenges: 'another birthday challenge'
Fussy & fancy 6: 'green'
La -la land 30: 'recycle'
Simon says: 'a splash of green' - use BG papers if you have them - the spotty papers are BG June bug
Another 'happy birthday' card for Kaboodle 26
Another for Cupcake 82: 'going green'
Another for Incy wincy 33: 'green'

Dream

This card is my interpretation of the sketch for Don't waste your Thursdays 24:

The current colour challenge on Design Dollies is 'red, orange and one neutral, so these are the colours I've used.

The spots are good for Crafty creations 59: 'spots and dots' and the same topic for One stop craft 71; also Creative card crew 46: 'going dotty'.

It's also another for Humble pie on Town scrapper: 'three buttons' (not easy to see red on red paper, but they are there in the lefthand corner) Crazy 4 challenges 28: 'masculine cards', Creative inspirations 29: 'male card' and Crafty catz 23: 'something for the boys'

The spotty paper is BG June bug and the other two pieces are from my scraps box. The dream circle is a rub on, but it didn't rub on well, so I had to touch it up with pen (doesn't look brilliant, but will have to do now).

WOYWW - well, it is still Wednesday

It's been a day of interruptions. I was going to take some photos for WOYWW much earlier in the day, but one thing led to another and time went by.

If you haven 't come across WOYWW yet, it's to be found on Julia's blog 'stamping ground' - it's lovely to browse the comments and visit other blogs to see what's on their workspace today. And why not show your workspace too?

There isn't much to see today. I'm showing the end of work surface where my paper rack is housed. Earlier today I was looking for paperss to do my LO for tomorrow's Salt challenge - I couldn't find what I wanted - and ended up taking quite a few of the papers off the rack - and now they need sorting - The two or three bottom shelves that you can't see are OK - they are particular manufacturers, but I never know whether to sort according to type, colour, manufacturer ...


I didn't find what I wass looking for, but chose some papers in the end that I was happy with, so my LO is done, but can't be shown till tomorrow. There's just a bit of evidence here of some cut outs from my cricut:

Anyone for rugby?

This card is for Color dare 59:

also for the sketch on My grafico 39:

It's also for:

Created by hand: 'Are you wearing green?'
Humble pie (town scrapper): 'three buttons'
Another for Crazy 4 challenges 28: 'masculine cards'
Another for Crafty catz 23: 'something for the boys'
Cards for men 6: 'happy birthday'
Kaboodle 26: 'happy birthday'
Artful inkables (think ink Tuesday) 16: 'birthday'
Sunday stamper: 'bits and pieces' - the card is very much made up with various 'bits'

The background paper is K & Co Addison and the piece of paisley paper is a last piece from a sheet free with a magazine - pity it's all gone now, really liked that paper and have loved using it for masculine cards. The rugby stamp was coloured with copics (stamped on to a scrap from my box).

Pink Persimmon blog hop prize

Recently Pink Persimmon organised a blog hop and I won these stamps on Samantha's blog - you can see the prize winners here - and they have now arrived in the post - I look forward to using them - what a lucky girl I am!

What a thoughtful RAK

What a lovely surprise when we got back from Guy's hospital today - postie had brought me a big package with all these cards and papers from a dear crafting friend, with a note saying the had got a few left over aperture cards and can I use them for my fundraising?

Thank you so much, Paula, for such a thoughtful RAK - yes, I can indeed use them - I'll enjoy doing so.

Frosty the snowmen

The current challenge on ABC Christmas is 'F for frosty' with the optional extra of 'snow'. It's also another one for Gingersnap GC46 spicy supply challenge 'frosting'.

And on Bah! humbug challenge 9 is 'cool combos ...' - combine at least three of the themes from previous challenges - so I chose glitter, snowmen and trees.

It was very hard to get a photo because of the reflection on the background cards with the trees - it looks gold on here, but it actually has a very pale green sheen. - the shine is right for Squigglefly 40: 'let it shine' and is sparkly for Pollycraft 'sparkly things ...' The shine on the background paper and the glint on the white glitter card makes it look 'wet', so I'm also linking for Saturday spotlight 22: 'you're so slick'

I tore white glitter card for the snow and the snowmen are chipboard, which makes it good for Practical scrappers current challenge.


It's also an extra card for March's BF 25th club and also for Christmas cards all year round for March.

A host of golden daffodils?

For this card I've used the sketch on Papertake 36:

This week's challenge on Daring Cardmakers is 'a host of golden daffodils' - my apologies to the team that, because I used one of my favourite spring stamps, my card has only one daffodil and not a host of them! I hope I'm forgiven.

As spring (we hope),St. Patrick's day and Easter are on the horizon, there are quite a few challenges around still that are asking for cards reflecting spring colour, particularly green, so I'm linking for:

Rosie-Dee 66: 'think spring'
Pink elephant 58: 'spring'
Stampotique designers 3: 'spring has sprung'
Tanda teaser 137: 'simply spring'
Stampin' B 49: 'spring or Easter card'
Theme Thursday: 'spring'
Susie's sassy 10: 'Easter'
Sew many challenges 7: 'Easter'
Cupcake 82: 'going green'
Incy wincy 33: 'green'
Kelly Jo colour chef 43: 'dark green light green, cream or white (I hope I'm forgiven for the yellow daffodil! - I'll try and do another one later with just green and white/cream)
Inky impressions 31: 'think green'
Penny's: 'green for St Patty's day'
Pixie cottage 11: 'the colour green'
Clearly I stamp 9: 'think green'
Raise the bar 8: 'go green'
Crafting pot 14: 'let your sham rock!' - gold, green or combo
Cupcake inspiration (Hope stamps eternal) 50
Crafty angels 25: 'butterflies'
Flutter by Wednesday 100: 'open - include butterfly, fairy or angel'
Charisma cardz 10: 'beautiful butterflies'
Magical crafts 10: 'things with wings' - butterflies on the left hand paper

The paper on the right hand side is BG urban couture and the other papers are Craft creations. The daffodil stamp is funstamps coloured with copics, label made on the Dymo letratag.

Bon voyage

For my final CBC birthday challenge 'another recipe' I've made a bon voyage card. The recipe is to include string, a tag and felt.

The papers are K & Co and the brown felt background behind the map was cut with the Sizzix parchment die (a long time since that's been out of the box).


I can't believe that in the end I've managed to do all the challenges. Thanks, Sue, for a good time, particularly in getting me doing some more scrapbooking.

This also fits the challenge this week on Kelly Jo 42: colour chef: 'yellow, green, brown, cream'. Also linking for Little red wagon 19: 'fabric' (hope felt counts - missed the previous week) and for Alphabet: 'T is for tag'. I think this could also be 'something for the boys' for challenge 23 on Crafty catz and Crazy 4 challenges 28: 'masculine cards'.

My favourite colour

This LO is based on Sue's sketch for 'a bit sketchy' - I'm getting near to the end of the birthday challenges on CBC - just one more to go after this (I think - need to check).

This is a photo of Faye taken in September (same occasion as the last two LOs shown). Faye wasn't even four at the time, but wanted to join in the stamping and colouring that her bigger sisters were doing. I think you can see what her favourite colour is. Just like Chloe, Faye is really concentrating to colour the stamped image of the 'gracious lady' by Hero Arts.

Papers are DCWV. Once again the naked chipboard arrow has been swiped with versamark and heat embossed with hot pink powder.

The large oval at the bottom was cut on my cricut using Make the cut and the scalloped edges were cut on my rotatrim. I then added a Craftime black blossom. Writing is computer generated and the labels Dymo letratag.

Once again, you can see the image enlarged if you click on it. Sorry about the angle of the photo.


I'm linking this for:
Created by hand: 'you GO girl'
Dutch dare 73: 'photo colour inspiration'
Allsorts 43: 'pink, black and white'
Crafty ho colour challenge: 'pink and black'

I'm concentrating on my crafting!

Sue set a challenge on CBC - a recipe: a brad, an arrow and some doodling. This LO depicts Chloe crafting on the same afternoon as Dani in the previous post.

The arrow was naked chipboard coated with versamark and embossed with hot pink. The white flowers are Pergamano rub ons. I did some white pen doodling around the pictures and added a few Dovecraft jewel black brads.

Chloe was crafting with one of my favourite stamps, 'gracious lady' by Hero Arts.

Sorry I had to take the photo at this angle - got too much glare if I tried to take it head on.

Please click on the picture to enlarge to see the writing, which was computer generated.


As I've used a white pen for doodling, I'm linking for Practical scrappers: 'white pens/white markers'; also linking for Wednesday stamper: 'doodling' - and I've used a stamp (the 'gracious lady'. It's also another for Crafty ho colour challenge: 'pink and black'.

Life in pictures 2

Another CBC challenge - this time 'Life in pictures 2'.

My LO sums up winter 2010. The background paper is My Mind's eye Andrea Victoria 'wishing flowers' paper - I know it's flowers, not snowflakes, but it seemed to go OK - and the MME journaling piece says it all!

The labels were made on my Dymo letratag. I would like to say that the snowflake was cut on white glitter card by my cricut, but in reality it was half-cut and I had to finish off the cuts (didn't have it set the the highest, so gave myself more work to do) - it was from the Christmas cheer cartridge. The gem in the middle of the snowflake is Prima.

Please click on the picture to read the journaling.

Life in pictures 1

Thanks to Sue and her challenges this weekend for the birthday celebrations on CBC, I'm doing some scrapping - something I intend to do more often, but don't seem to get around it - and what I like about it is that I get to keep the crafting for myself.

This LO is for Sue's 'Life in pictures 1' challenge.

Last September, Paul brought the grandchildren over. It was quite a nice day, so they spent some time in the garden, but then they came in and decided they would like to do some crafting, so here is Dani at work (or should I say, play). Paper is Imaginations 'family' and the circles were cut on my cricut with K & Co papers.


The colours on ColourQ 23 are on this LO, so I'm linking for that. There's also some orange for Stampavie 85.

Book it!

'Book it!' is another of Sue's challenges on CBC - 'I need a book of any type - the catch is you need to make the book'.

This is a notebook made with my BIA. Papers are K & Co, letters are American crafts remarks: runway, the rose is a DCWV epoxy sticker from their Princess range and the little owls were from Paperchase.




I'm linking this for One stop craft 71: 'spots and dots'

A diamond couple

Well, another day when plans have altered - mum was coming over here to have lunch, so we stayed home from church this morning as I was feeling tired after yesterday and to get ready for mum coming - she's not feeling up to it, so we'll be going over to see her this afternoon now.

While lunch was cooking, I thought I'd tackle another of Sue's spring and birthday CBC challenges - this time 'numbers' - Sue asked for anything with numbers and an extra option to personalise.

When I was making mum's mini-book yesterday I looked through hers and dad's Diamond wedding pictures and so thought that it would be good to do a LO for this.

I'm grateful to Sue for these challenges because I don't very often scrapbook and I love it when I do, although I still don't consider myself to be a scrapper.

I've used K & Co paper: BW Madeline pink textiles, a couple of My mind's eye journaling pieces and the scalloped border and some BG bling it designer rhinestones.



Challenge 14 on Fab n funky is 'weddings', so I'm linking for that, also for 'celebrations' on Cute card Thursday - I hope a LO is OK for this. And also for Polka doodles week 10: 'a special birthday or milestone' - I think a diamond wedding anniversary counts as that!

Mini maze book

One of Sue's birthday challenges on CBC is to make a mini-book - well, actually, it's three challenges - the idea was to start a mini-book and then add to it.

I've made a mini maze book. I started with a 12 x 12 piece of American Crafts French vanilla, folding it into 16 squares and then cutting to make the concertina maze - resulting in a little book that is 3" square.

The style is simple - I haven't done any inking of edges or distressing or anything because my mum doesn't really 'get' any of that (she'd probably think I'd used old stuff!).

On the left is a Laura Ashley flocked rub on - it feels lovely - and on the right, of course, is mum:


A picture of mum and I out for a meal:


There is a rub on here, but it didn't rub on well - grrrrr - so I had to add the butterflies and the ladybird to disguise the ragged bits. The quote came from a HOTP book:


A photo of mum and dad on their diamond wedding day - with their card from the queen. The flower is a raised 3D rub on:


and this is the only photo I've got taken in recent years of us as a family - but my brother's head was cut off, unfortunately! (but I still wanted to use the photo because it has all four of us on). You wouldn't have thought then that dad was in his 80s and already battling with dementia - soon after this he had to go into a nursing home, where he died over six years ago.


These pages speak for themselves:


and this:


a K & Co butterfly and another Laura Ashley flocked rub on:


And this is the finished book, with covered and decorated chipboard covers which hide the ribbon that's wrapped around the inside.


Thanks to Sue for her challenge that prompted me to make this as a little extra for mum for tomorrow.

I'm also linking this for the following challenges:

Lily-boo too for March: 'mother's day'
Teddy stampers 6: 'to mother, with love' - mother's day - and there is a teddy in the book
Secret crafter Saturday 74: 'anything goes'
Apron strings: 'stickers, stickers and more stickers' - plenty used here
Totally papercrafts 7: 'things with wings' - a few butterflies here

Folding heart card

A few days ago I made a 'never ending' card as part of Sue's birthday challenge on CBC 'clothes that crease' - we had to make two cards that had more than one crease, so here is my second one.

I followed (sort of!) the instructions I found here for a folding heart card.

I don't know what was the most difficult - making the card or taking photos of it!

Papers are 7 gypsies - edges inked with stazon blazing red - and the stamp is Hampton art 'corset'.

This was a trial version really, so I would hope that another one would turn out better than this.

The ribbon was recycled - it came with some flowers from Ocado - so it's another one for Spoon full of sugar 94.

Pretty in green?

The next challenge that I've tackled for Sue's birthday challenges on CBC is 'I feel pretty'. Mmmm I'm not sure how pretty this is in green ...

I've used Bev's sketch for Just Magnolia 46 and, of course, have used a required Magnolia stamp - I chose one of my favourite Tilda stamps and coloured her with copics - mmmm I used a scrap piece of BG paper to stamp her on (trying to keep with the green theme) and found that copics bled with it, so I've had to have a green haze all the way round Tilda - not the most successful colouring ever, but, hey ho, these things happen.

With St Patrick's day coming up very soon, there are still lots of 'green' challenges around, so I'm linking for these:

Copic creations 23: 'a wee bit o' green'
Moxie Tuesday trigger: 'lovely on the green'
Inky impressions 31: 'think green'
Nutty nutshells 10: 'shades of green in honour of St Patrick's day' (I've used a required stamp)
Pixie cottage 11: 'the colour green'
Stampin' royalty 10: 'green'
Clearlyistamp 9: 'think green'
If the shoe fits Fashionista Friday 26: 'green, white, black
Prairie fairy week 9: 'lucky green'
Raise the bar: 'go green'
Stamp something: 'something green and cream' - there's cream in the strip across the bottom with the watering cans
Pals paper arts 33: 'colour challenge: garden green, certainly celery, kraft'
The play date cafe 20: inspiration picture:

Papers are My minds eye and some freebie bits from a magazine (the strip across the bottom) - oh, and, of course, the piece of BG that bled the copics! (perhaps it adds to the 'water coloured effect' ... although, perhaps not! lol!)