SCACD new release hop and my internet woes!!!

nCan you believe it, my bloomin' internet is down again!!!!  As soon as it gets a little hot, the exchange box (still no idea what that is) melts.  So, apologies I haven't been round to visit you all - will do hopefully in a few days when it is back up and running!

So, I am quickly doing this from work and just wanted to let you know there is a new SCACD release and we are celebrating with a hop!  Unfortunately I couldn't join in the hop (bloomin' internet...) but wanted to show off my card anyway!  Here it is...

The stamps are all in the Susana Loves Stamps range and you can buy this cute monster called Monster Flirt in Quixotic Paperie's Susana Loves Stamps section here or if you are outside Europe, from SCACD here!  I matched her up with My Minds Eye Darling Dear papers.

Others in the new release are the Oddly Sweet Curiosities Set which harbors the cutest little Curiosities with matching sentiments and the second set comprises four wonderful little ladies known as The Little Sassy Crew - definitely full of sweetness and attitude. If you want to see these and more gorgeous inspiration, join the beginning of the hop with Danni!

Okay, gotta go now - hope to *see* you soon!

 

A right royal knees up over at A Spoonful of Sugar!

Happy Tuesday everyone!  I wouldn't normally be saying that on a Tuesday but I'm off work this week, yay!  Today over at A Spoonful of Sugar it was time for me to set the challenge and I chose "A Right Royal Knees Up"!  Of course, the royal wedding is this Friday but you don't need to make a wedding card - anything royal that inspires you!  Princesses, frogs, crowns - you choose!  This is what I made...

 

 

This image always makes me laugh - that frog's surprised face is priceless!!  She is called Kiss a Prince Tia - I have my fingers crossed for her that he'll turn into a prince for her, lol!

And do you see that gorgeous label?  It's a newbie from Spellbinders called Shapeabilities Grommet Tags and I bought mine from Bunny Zoe's Crafts here.

 The other DT makes are as gorgeous as ever and you can see them all here.  I hope you get a chance to play along with us!


I am entering my card into the Stampavie and More challenge for birthdays, Dare to be Sassy for pastels, Cupcake Craft challenge for fresh and new and Crafty Emma's challenge for Spring colours.

Paper/cardstock: Bazzill cardstock, Imaginisce Enchanted paper pad

Stamps: Some Odd Girl Kiss a Prince Tia, Elzybells sentiments

Mediums: Copics

Accents: ribbon and beads from stash

Tools: Nestabilities label dies, Fiskars border punc, My Favorite Things mini rolled scalloped rose dies

Hang in there!

I hope you are all having a lovely week so far!  I spent Monday and Tuesday with this thing attached to me to monitor my blood pressure over 24 hours - fun!  It's just like how the doctor does it - the bag gets wrapped around the upper arm and then pumped up to get the blood pressure reading - all by it's lonesome - clever machine!  

Unfortunately, it's a big clumpy thing and every half hour it pumps up whilst making a weird, loud whirring noise!  I got some very funny looks when I went to buy some lunch, lol!!  And then it goes off on the hour every hour during the sleeping hours - guess how much sleep I got?!!  So I was a very sleepy bunny yesterday.  Luckily I was awake enough last night to finish a card I've been playing with for the past few days...

 

 
I just love those Some Odd Girl images!  This little monkey is called Hang Out Ollie - look at those saucer sized eyes! Their current challenge is to create your own embellishments so I cut out the two smaller clouds (the largest one is from the My Favorite Things Die-namics trio cloud die (from Dies to Die For in the UK here) but they were the wrong sizes and shapes for my card!).   I used my trusty kraft cardstock and NO design papers again!  Instead I used a Hero Arts cloud background stamp - this is one of my all time favourite stamps!  I used some bakers twine - this stuff is fabulous, I have it in all of the colours!

I based my design on last week's CPS #206 sketch - as soon as I saw it I knew I had to make a window!

Enjoy the rest of your day and I hope you can join me tomorrow with my DT card for Quixotic Paperie!
 

Paper/cardstock: Bazzill cardstock

Stamps: Hero Arts cloud background, Elzybells sentiment

Mediums: Copics, Versamagic chalk ink

Accents: BasicGrey button, bakers twine (you can get here from Quixotic Paperie)

Tools: My Favorite Things Die-namics cloud die, Nestabilities circle dies

 

Anything but a card at A Spoonful of Sugar!

As most of you know, making anything other than a card is completely out of my comfort zone! But I do like to try new things and that's exactly what the challenge over at A Spoonful of Sugar made me do this week!  I umm'ed and ahhh'ed and couldn't decide what to make!  But after much procrastination, I decided to make a Valentine's cookie box for Steve (and me, if I'm honest, lol!).

 

 

I used that super sweet Elzybells teddy with heart and the new CC Designs Swiss Pixie Key & Heart stamp set (you can get from Bunny Zoe's here) - super cute aren't they?!!  And here is the inside of the box with yummy gingerbread heart cookies...

I really enjoyed making something other than card but I'll need more practice to speed up the process cos this took me aaaaages!!  I am entering this into Michelle's wonderful Make It Monday challenge where you just share your creativity!

That's it from me today - take a look at the other DT's gorgeous creations over the ASOS challenge blog. 

Paper/cardstock: Doodlebug white cardstock, My Minds Eye Alphabet Soup (buy here from Quixotic Paperie)

Stamps: Elzybells bear with heart, CC Designs Swiss Pixie Key & Lock set (buy here from Bunny Zoe's)

Mediums: Copics

Accents: Stampin' Up striped ribbon, gingham ribbon and crepe paper from stash

Tools: Fiskars border punch, My Favorite Things label die (buy here from Dies to Die For)

Doggie wishes

A quick one today!  You know, I own far too many dog stamps, but I love them all including this little fella from Lili of the Valley - isn't he to die for?!  He's a little cutsy for most people I send cards to, but there are a few children in my wider family that he is still suitable for - just!  I used this week's Lily of the Valley's sketch.

Back tomorrow with Totally Ladybug Tuesday and a very special announcement - that's all I'm gonna say now so you'll have come tomorrow and find out all about it!

I am also entering this card into the Papertake Weekly challenge of 3 of a kind.



Paper/cardstock: Bazzill cardstock, BasicGrey Max & Whiskers paper pack

Stamps: Lili of the Valley Party Pup, Elzybells sentiment, CC Designs sentiment (inside card)
Mediums: Copic Sketch markers
Accents: velvet and jute ribbons from stash, BasicGrey buttons
Tools: Tim Holtz distressing tool, Nestabilities circle die and rectangle die (inside card)

Flutter by butterfly

Before I get onto today's card, thank you all, my lovely blog friends, for your encouraging and kind words about my new job (and the bad ones about the horrid lady, lol!).  I don't complain much so it was very therapeutic writing it down and then getting such a great response from you all!

So onto today's card that does NOT use a stamp - no kidding!  I used this week's Paper Sundae challenge to use stuff from your stash - and boy did I - chipboard, crackle paint (never opened), crochet flower, ribbon!   I came up with this....

I really must use my old stock up so I am going to try to use some for each card I make from now on.  I did say "try", don't hold me to it!

Don't forget my blog candy to inspire me to create a card using banners, birds, trees, etc -you can even link up (in the comments section here) an old post ) - I just need some inspiration!  Off to do a pile of ironing {{hmmmph}}, back tomorrow with the Ladybug Crafts Ink blog hop!


Paper/cardstock: Bazzill cardstock, BasicGrey Nook & Pantry paper pad

Stamps: Elzybells sentiment
Mediums: Distress Antique Linen ink, acrylic paint, Distress crackle paint (for the chipboard scallop circle)
Accents: crochet flower, ribbon, button and lace from stash, butterfly and scallop circle chipboards from stash
Tools: Magnolia doily and border dies, Nestabilities label die (inside), butterfly punch

Another Totally Gorjuss challenge!

Yay, it's Saturday! And that means another Totally Gorjuss challenge today to include flowers on your creations! It's sponsored by Wild Orchid Crafts so get your submissions in to win some more gorgeous flowers (because we just can't get enough of that, right?!).



I haven't been using flowers as much recently so this was a good excuse to use some of my tools that are gathering dust! I created these flowers using Woodware flower punches and just did some curling on the petals to give them lots of dimension.

Enjoy today and hope to **see** you tomorrow!




Paper/cardstock: Bazzill cardstock, BasicGrey Kioshi paper pack
Stamps: Elzybells sentiment
Mediums: Copic markers
Accents: ric rac ribbon from stash, BasicGrey brads
Tools: Nestabilities label dies, Martha Stewart lattice deep edger border punch, Woodware flower punches, corner chomper, Fiskars apron lace border punch (inside card)

Ladybug love!

I created today's card is in hope of winning Lisa Jane's celebration candy for reaching 150 followers! I personally would follow Lisa Jane anywhere cos she makes me laugh in her wake! In my stash I found these little ickle ladybirds in this stamp...

Not major ladybug, but really cute nonetheless! I haven't done the inside yet as I'm running late already today! I am submitting it into Cute Card Thursday's challenge to use materials (my fabric heart!). I bet you wanna win this candy too so go find your ladybug mojo!

Paper/cardstock: Bazzill cardstock
Stamps: High Hopes Toadstool Buggies (you can buy from Bunny Zoe's here), Elzybells sentiment
Mediums: Copic markers
Accents: ribbon and fabric heart from stash
Tools: Cuttlebug swiss dots embossing folder

Totally aqua!

Hi all! This week's challenge at Totally Gorjuss is to use aqua shades and is sponsored by Lili of the Valley. I love aqua but I always get confused on how green or how blue it should be! So I made my first card and it turned out far too blue (I used it for yesterday's post instead so not wasted)! Anyhow, I checked out my Copic pens and found one called aqua and managed to match up some cardstock to it.

I made this card for my assistant who has just bought her first home and is about to finalise. I remember when I bought my first flat nearly 13 years ago - all that responsibility and not being able to walk away from a six month rental contract - scary! I'm so excited for her - she's becoming a grown up!

I hope you can play along this week! Have a super duper weekend all.

Papers/cardstock: Bazzill cardstock, Stampin' Up whisper white cardstock
Stamps: Elzybells bye bye birdie and brighter tomorrow (cloud stamp), Lizzie Anne Designs sentiment, Hero Arts houndstooth background stamp
Mediums: Copic Ciaos, Glamour Dust on bubbles
Accents: American Crafts ribbon

Tools: Nestabilities scallop circle and circle dies, Fiskars scallop border punch

Oh arrh matey

That's enough, I'm not even going to attempt to to write in pirate speak! My lovely blog mate, Nikki, and provider of [far too much] stash gave me a free gift recently - the very cute Magnolia Pirate Tilda. And then, coincidently, this week's Simon Says challenge is 'pirates'. So I just had to make a card, didn't I?! I went for a distressed look, which I rarely do and I think I went a bit mad with the fab Tim Holtz paper distresser...!

I wasn't sure what I would use a pirate image for, but that CC Designs sentiment from the new Summer sentiment set is just perfect - I seem to be always thanking someone for something!

Papers/cardstock: Elzybells kraft cardstock (bit darker than Bazzill's kraft), DCWV travel stack
Stamps: Magnolia Fairytale Pirate Tilda (from Bunny Zoe's Crafts here), CC Designs sentiment
Mediums: Copic Ciaos, Distress ink in Antique Linen
Accents: buttons from stash, garden string, jute ribbon in light brown (from Bunny Zoe's Crafts here)
Tools: Corner Chomper, Tim Holtz paper distresser (from Craft Barn here)

i {heart} 2 stamp - I sure do!

Here is my submission for this week's i {heart} 2 stamp sketch. I love this lovely Sweet November Coriander fairy - she's just so adorable! I've matched her with those beautiful Crate Paper Brook collection - gorgeous colours!

Another busy week at work, but I have a lot of prepared coloured in stamps - just need to make some cards with them so hopefully I'll have more to share later in the week. ttfn!

Papers/cardstock: Elzybells kraft cardstock, Crate Paper Brook paper

Stamps: CC Designs Sweet November Coriander

Mediums: Stickles glitter glue, Copic Ciaos

Accents: dew drops, American Craft ribbon

Tools: none

Happy birthday to .... who?!!

Have you tried the Embellish Magazine Color challenge yet? You have to use pink, blue, green and brown with a birthday theme. Goodness, I found it really, really hard! I've been mulling for days what to do and then I was browsing Cath's Moxie Fab World and she has a challenge to use floss - ping! A light bulb went off in my head and I immediately thought of this design...

I'm still not convinced I colour combination! But it was a good opportunity to use a couple of fav techniques - embossing the spots on the banner, using my Scor Pal to emboss the lines on the brown card and using the floss (of course!).

That ribbon does actually match the pink cardstock really well, but the photo makes it much lighter. I chose that sentiment because it's in a wave which I thought would go well with the banner (flying the breeze an' all that!). I do like this design and think it would look great with sorbet or pastel colours.

Anyhoo, not in a very good mood at the moment - got another very busy week at work that I'm dreading. It's very unlike me - I'm one of those people who usually get on people's nerves for being so upbeat all the time! No doubt I will find my mojo soon! ;)

Papers/cardstock: Bazzill cardstock

Mediums: Elzybells Sugar Candy pigment ink pad, blue ink pad

Stamps: Hero Arts background dot stamp, Hero Arts Wavy Wishes

Accents: American Crafts ribbon, Bazzill floss
Tools: Woodware triangle punch, Fiskars Apron border punch, Scor Pal

Oh yummy, gingerbread man...

Can you believe that it's been over two weeks since I've managed to make a card?!! I have been so incredibly busy at work and when I get home I have to take over from my hubby to look after the puppy. And then yesterday I realised that I hadn't made him a xmas card so panic kicked in!


Anyway, to cut a long story short, I couldn't for the life of me come up with a design for Steve - I'm just so "doggone" tired (sorry - had to be done!). I browsed through some magazines and found a really cute gingerbread card topper. I re-created it and popped it onto a Kraft card base and added some hand doodling and sentiment. I enjoyed making it so much, I ended up making three cards...






The creator who inspired me is Jo Kill, who designs for Papercraft Inspirations (a UK mag). Jo has the most fantastic fresh eclectic style. I couldn't find the exact topper she made, but click here to see a card she made with her handcrafted gingerbread man. So cute, isn't he! Anyway, a huge thanks to Jo!!!



Papers/cardstock: Elzybells Kraft card, Bazzill vanilla and blue cardstock, October Afternoon Good Cheer (red striped paper), Tinkering Ink Yuletide paper pad
Stamps: none!
Mediums: White gel pen, brown pen (for sentiment), Distress Ink in Tea Dye
Accents: ribbon and eyelets from stash, Bazzill buttons and brads
Tools: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Martha Stewart Dot border punch, star punch

Mojo Monday Madness! Challenge 111

At last, I've managed to do a Mojo Monday challenge. And by coincidence there's goodies to be won too! What a bonus! So here is the sketch...

And here is my entry...

Yes, another Xmas card! Getting bored of making these, I can tell you!! Luckily I've got a lot of birthdays and occasions coming up that I need to make cards for so I can put my festive spirit in a drawer for a bit!!

Papers/cardstock: Papermania white cardstock, Papermania red cardstock, "T'was the night before Xmas..." cardstock - can't remember, sorry!!

Stamps: The Greeting Farm Angel Anya, Hanna Stamps Ski Bunny (snowflakes on red card)

Mediums: Copic Caios, Stickles Star Dust (on snowflake), Elzybells White pigment inkpad (sugar candy), Inkssentials white gel pen, Deco Just Glitter pen in Gold Glitter

Accents: Maya Road chipboard snowflake, Bazzill Just the Edge scallop border, Robins Nest Dew Drops
Tools: Nestabilities Labels One

JUGS challenge - 3D flower

I recently found this great blog called Just Us Girls Challenge from one of the designers, Kristin Bueter. Well, I had a double whammy smile on my face after finding Kristin! First because I love Kristin's designs (look at one of my favs, her Very Tweet Thank You card here) and secondly because the JUGS challenges are a little different. A great way to start stretching my cardmaking skills now that I'm more confident since first starting my blog!

This week's challenge is to create a 3D flower. Unfortunately, I didn't have any tissue paper to create their pretty fluffy version so I had to improvise. Hhmm, not my greatest crafting skill. Instead, I used my Nestabilities Blossom 2. I die cut three sizes and then used a pen with a wide rounded end to shape the back of them. I then layered them up, reversing the side of the middle size to create a bit more interest. Not as clever as those fluffy flowers, but I liked the way the paper got creased - a look that goes well with that paper! Here it is...


Actually, there was a third smile from meeting Kristin. She directed me to Picasa where it was so simple to fix the awful lighting in my cards - by simply clicking on 'feeling lucky' it freshed them up and it doesn't leave that awful glare you get after using MS Office Picture Manager. A HUGE thanks and HUGS to Kristin!! You're a super cool generous girl!


Papers/cardstock: Bazzill vanilla cardstock, Cosmo Cricket Little Girls paper collection
Mediums: Elzybells White Pigment inkpad in Sugar Candy (this is fabulous stuff!!), detailed white embossing powder
Stamps: sentiment from Gel-a-Tins Mini-Fancy Flakes & Sayings
Accents: BasicGrey buttons, Crate Paper Blue Hill pink trim, string from stash
Tools: Nestabilities Blossom Two, end of a pen!

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #15

Have you seen Dawn McVey's blog yet? She has a really professional and contemporary style - there isn't one card of hers that I don't like! She also has a very popular colour challenge that I've never done before but this week's one is sooo tasty I couldn't resist it...



As soon as I saw the colours I thought of ice cream! Specifically, those in an ice cream parlour my husband and I visited last year at the harbour in Auckland, New Zealand - they had melon flavour and then I thought of vanilla, pistachio, raspberry... nearly the colours of Dawn's challenge! I had my theme but I really struggled to come up with a format. Luckily, I knew I had the image I wanted to use straight away - an ice cream image from Elzybells. I just love their cute stamps! Surprisingly it took me 3 hours to come up with the design and complete the card - that's pretty quick for me! I'm never going to make any money making cards if it takes me that long to create just one! Anyhoo, here it is, what do you think?



The photo shows up the colours far brighter than reality which are pretty close to Dawn's colours. I just can't get the lighting right - must create that light box asap! Anyway, I didn't have any printed paper that matched so I used my fav Hero Arts raindrop background stamp with Versamark and cream embossing powder to give a little interest. I was also going to use my Copics to colour in the ice creams, but decided that I loved the 'linen' effect by using my colour pencils instead. To give it a little pop, I put glitter on top of the ice creams, think you might be able to see it here...



I'm really getting into these challenges and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next week! Caio for now!


Papers/cardstock: Bazzill Basics cardstock in vanilla, light olive green and raspberry (don't know actual colour)
Stamps: Elzybells Mini Messages Summertime, Lizzie Anne Designs Sketched Sentiments
Mediums: DecoArt Glamour Dust, colour pencils (assorted brands), VersaMagic Chalk Ink in Spanish Olive
Accents: ribbons from my stash
Tools: Fiskars Apron Lace border punch