Sweet Stampin' - Mother's Day / Special Lady

Happy Saturday! It's time for a new challenge at Sweet Stampin', and as it's Mother's Day in the UK next week (26th March) our theme is Mother's Day or for a Special Lady. Don't forget to include some stamping to bee lili gable for our top 3.

I used stamps by Polkadoodles for my card this week, from the Stamp Soup and Stamp ME sets. I stamped a load of the flower building elements with versafine on Sheena's stamping card and coloured them with my zig real colour pens and a waterbrush, before fussy cutting them and adding a black marker round the edges to hide the cut white edge.

On a 6x6 card blank I stamped some stems, curving the stamps a little on the acrylic block and coloured them in. I then built up my flowers and leaves on the stems. I stamped the beautiful from the stamp soup set in the bottom left corner and found a Mother's Day sentiment from Clearly Besotted to stamp in the top right corner. Of course, I was too lazy to get my MISTI out and messed up the stamping! Fortunately, the Stamp Me set contained s large butterfly, so I stamped and cut this out and hid, the mess. It didn't quite cover it all, so I doodled around it a little. There was also a small butterfly in the stamp set so I stamped a couple of them on the card to balance it out. A doodled border and job done!

The Flower Challenge #6 Reminder

We're halfway through March and so it's time for a reminder of our challenge over at The Flower Challenge

I made my reminder card whilst I was staying at my parents, and reverted back to my "safe" colours. I used the Happy Little Stampers Doodled Flower stamp set, stamped in versafine black and coloured in with my zig clean colour pens and a waterbrush. I'd ventured out to the local craft shop by this time and bought a white gel pen, to add some highlights to the flowers. I fussy cut them out and arranged them on a 6x6 card blank (right way up this time!), added a sentiment from the set and doddled a border. Simples!

Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge #319

Wednesday again, where is the time going? Isn't it lovely that the days are getting longer? I can actually go to work in the daylight and get home in daylight now!
Back to business, Wednedsay means a new challenge over at Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge. It's another "Anything Goes" challenge and we have two great sponsors, Crafty Sentiments and Connie Fong.

I used this cute image from Crafty Sentiments for my card this week. I coloured her in with my copics and coloured her hat purple to tie in with the dotty paper behind her and then covered all the purple dots. Doh! The papers are a freebie from a craft magazine a while ago. I used tattered lace circle and decorative circle dies for my image and die cut the pink paper with a Sara Davies die (sorry, packaging has gone AWOL so no further details). The pale green card is adorable scorable and I die cut Sue Wilson's Bold scrolled vines, I didn't emboss them, but the debossing showed perfectly with just the cutting sandwich. A couple of flowrs from Wild Orchid Crafts, some glamour dust on the bubbles and a little faux stitching to finish. Simples!

Ugly Sweater - Part 1

After making the wreath and train for my family at Christmas, I've got back into the habit of sewing again. My next project was a set of six Christmas decorations, from a kit called Ugly Sweaters by Bucilia. The main body of each sweater is about the size of of my palm. I started this kit on Boxing Day whilst drinking mulled wine, which may have something to do with why the Christmas trees either side of the main house have sequins on them, rather than French knots! I'll share the other sweaters later. I'm currently on my third felt project and have a stack of ones to do (darn those bargains on Amazon) so card making may take a backseat this year! 

Thanks

So, I decided that as it's the 30 day colouring challenge at the moment, I'd do some more colouring whilst at my parents. I stamped out lots of flowers and leaves and settled down with a lap tray in front of the telly and coloured them in with my zig clean colour pens and water brush. I decided that I really did need a white gel pen and so we headed out to their local craft shop to buy one. The shop was recently taken over by papermill direct and so there was lots of lovely paper and card to stroke. I was very restrained (only because Mum was with me!) and bought a small box of paper and card, two white gel pens, a new quickie glue pen and I splurged on a woodware globeflower stamp. So after adding some white highlights I made this card too.
I'd been struggling to photograph my makes recently as the house is so cluttered and untidy that finding a suitable background is tricky. After reading a post on I think it was Lime Doodles blog I splashed out bought two photo board backgrounds from Lyndsey James. One 40cm square and one 60cm square. They arrived this morning, beautifully wrapped, less than a week after ordering them and I have to say I love them. They are very sturdy and such a crisp image on them. I photographed today's card on the smaller of the two. Instant background, fabulous! 

Right, off to get the washing sorted before going back to work tomorrow, have a fab day x

The Flower Challenge #6

I've been totally neglecting my DT commitments for the Flower Challenge Blog recently, but I'm back on track now (thanks to my lovely teamies for putting up with me!) Anyway, it's the 4th of the month and so time for a new challenge, which is...

I managed to set myself an extra challenge as I needed to make a card, but didn't have time before I went to stay with my parents for a few days. Rather than take my entire crafting stash (which would require a fleet of haulage lorries) I actually packed light and grabbed one set of stamps (The sadly unused until now, Happy Little Stampers "Doodled Flowers"), a black versafine ink pad, an acrylic block, my pot of zig clean colour markers and waterbrush, 3 6x6 card blanks (you always need a spare), two A4 sheets of stamping card, a black fine liner pen, my scissors and some glue gel.

I stamped out lots of flowers and foliage, coloured them with my clean colour pens and fussy cut them out. I jiggled them about on the card blank to create a pattern I was happy with and then decided where yo stamp the sentiment. After stamping the sentiment upside down and sideways on (yes, really) I got it right on my second attempt. I added the images with my glue gel and a cadged cocktail stick from my parents and of course I couldn't resist adding some faux stitching to finish. I think the flowers would have benefited from some highlights with a white gel pen, but I hadn't packed one, Doh!

Sweet Stampin' - No designer paper

Saturday again, and time for a fresh challenge over at Sweet Stampin'. Our theme this week is "No designer paper", so time to dust off your stamps and get creative!

I used Stampendous, Whisper Friends and Mushrooms stamp sets from the Pink Your Life range. Apologies for the dodgy photo, the weather and lighting has been terrible this week. I stamped the images on Sheena Douglass stamping card in versafine and coloured then with my zig clean colour pens and added some white gel pen highlights. I fussy cut the images before arranging them in my 6x6 card blank. It doesn't show too well in the photo, but the blue background is embossed with a recent Marianne clouds embossing folder and I cut a strip of green card to fit for the grass. The usual faux stitching border to finish!

Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge #318

Wow, Wednesday again and time for a new challenge over at Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge. I've sadly stepped down from the design team, but am still helping out for week or two, whilst we find some great crafters to join the design team, so head over to Penny's if you want to apply!

This week our theme is "Anything Goes" and we have to fab sponsors, Sprinkle and Sparkle and Dr Digi. I choose this beautiful image from Sprinkle and Sparkle to make my card this week. I thought it was so pretty coloured with my copics, that I made a really simple 6x6 card to show it off. I found this Dreamees sentiment which fitted in the wreath perfectly to finish the design. As usual, I couldn't resist adding a little faux stitching to finish.