Halloween card.

Hi again, I managed another card but I think three was being too optimistic - life has a way of encroaching!!!!!!
For this card I used the sketch at Sophisticat Challenge Blog as shown below - luckily the flower was optional!!
I then chose a great digi image freebie from Digital Delights - they have a freebie every Friday, check out the Ghost and tomb stone which is there at the moment. I coloured the image with watercolour crayons but as they are - no water- using black, orange and green. I put the image on a black glitter sheet shaped into an oval scallop. The squares in the corners are orange angel hair. The sentiment is from the Pumpkin and Aubergine Clear stamp set. Finally the felt shapes were made using the "Frightfully Fun" punch from McGill Craftivity.

The backing paper is from Funky Hand - "Funky Seasons" - Autumn collection.

I am also entering this card in the following challenges:-

Lots To Do - Black, orange and one other colour (green),

Allsorts Challenge - Autumn Days,

Crafty Creations - Autumn/Leaves,

Creative Card Crew - All that sparkles, and

Dare U 2 Digi stamp - Punched or Die cut shapes.

As ever please leave me a comment however short or long I always enjoy reading them.

Oh Happy Day - Mooooo!!!

Hi everyone, hope you are all happy and well. I have had a couple of days off work so am hoping to do two cards (three if I'm really lucky). My first one is using the sketch at Friday Sketchers and is shown below. As you can see I have turned it on its side.

The cow and grass is from the Clear Magic "Farmyard Animals" set and the bee is from the Clear Magic "Lazy Days" set. The image is coloured with watercolour crayons and Sakura stardust pens (on the bee and bell), there is also some glitter on the bees wings but it has not shown up in the picture.


The flower is three punched (Woodware punches) flower shapes on top of each other and shaped. There is one of Anitas gems on top. The tag was from another set of clear stamps but I do not know who by - sorry. I have put gold glitter glue on the dots and chalked around the edge with yellow chalk as I did on the main image.

The whole thing is mounted on Black Magic Core'dinations cardstock - "Hocus Pocus" - and torn around the edge to let the yellow core show through - more distressing!! The ribbon is again from Anita. The dotty paper is from Summer Driggs and is called "Fangs for the Memories".

I am also entering this card in the following challenges:-

Cute Card Thursday - Black and Yellow,

Paperplay Challenges - Spotty things,

Saturday Challenge - Animal Antics,

The Pink Elephant Challenge - Dots, punch and tag and finally,

Cupcake Craft Challenge - Cute as a Bug

Funny really I wasn't enjoying this card until the end when it all came together.

Please let me know what you think, your comments are what makes this all wothwhile.

Jude's Alzheimers Mega Candy

Good Morning crafters,

I am here to spread the word for Jude who has been giving candy away for most of September to raise awareness about Alzheimers.
This time she is doing a Mega Candy which will run until 29/10/09. Please check out her blog here to see all the rules and ways to win.

Simon Says, Crafty Cardmakers, Alphabet and Penny's Challenges

This is a very quick post as I am off on a mini holiday in a few hours. Simon Says Challenge this week is stitching, real or fake. I have chosen to do the fake/faux around the picture. They are trying to get 200 entries this week so why not give it a go. The prize of $25 is well worth it as the postage is paid for you. The shop is packed full of goodies.

I have decoupaged this picture from the Joanna Sheen Messy Rabbit CD.

The flowers were a candy win from Liz some time ago and finally I have managed to use them.

I would also like to point out that there are yachts sailing around and lots of seagulls!!!!!

The challenges I am entering are:-

Alphabet Challenge - Y is for .......Yachts

Crafty Cardmakers - 3D,

Penny's Challenges - Birds

As ever I look forward to your comments.

BIG THANKYOU... for the candy

The first candy I received in my lucky streak was from LilSis at Beccy' Bits and included an item on my wishlist - The Fairy Doodles stamp set. I have also already used some of the flowers on a couple of my cards. Thanks

I then won three candies in one day. I received this one from Teri and again received an item that is on my wishlist (not any more) the Smirk stamps and again I have used it already!!. BTW please check out Teri's digi shop - Delicious Doodles - the images are really great.

Then today I had two packages, one of which was at the post office. The first one my daughter and I wrestled with for a while because it was so well sellotaped up!!!! Thankyou Sarah, I think you had a little help from your Mum!! Have a look ay Sarah's blog, you will be amazed at her work.

Then I opened the candy from Lyn which was amazing. She had (maybe on purpose I'm not sure) sent loads of diecut shapes - as most of you know by now I don't have a die cutting machine!!!- so that was great.

Lyn had also made the most gorgeous card come container (can't think of the right word) full of stamped images (none of which I have). As you can see it is fantastic.

If you fancy a laugh then this is the blog to hop to.

Once again to you all thank you so much for your generous candies.

Christmas shocker!!!

Hi crafting buddies, hope you are all well. Bit overcast here today!! Here is the card I was making last night after receiving Teri's candy. I couldn't wait to use the Smirk "Christmas Celebrations" stamps and here it is. I have used the sketch from CardPatterns shown below.

It is quite a nice simple one with not too many layers - if you want of course!!!! I also decided that as there were a couple of challenges involving pink (one of my favourites) and brown I would do those. The papers I used were from Funky Fairys - Chocolate Covered Christmas and Simply Brushed - I have used these several times now. Another favourite is the hot pink glitter card I have mounted the image on.

The ribbon was a freebie from one of the crafting magazines. I have coloured the images with my C'Aran D'Ache watercolour pencils and added crystal glitter to the hats - again it doesn't show up well but is there honest!!!

So then onto the challenges I will enter this card in.

Our Creative Corner - Hot Pink, Light Pink, White and Chocolate Chip,

Cute Daisy May - texture - that will be the ribbon,

C.R.A.F.T Challenge - Pink and Brown,

Stamp Something - favourite colours or papers and

Christmas Stamping All Year Long - Christmas card with non traditional colours.

Do you know - well you probably won't believe me but I don't set out to do lots of challenges. I do check a lot and write them all down. It just sort of happens that way.

Anyways up, as usual please send me your happy thoughts.

Friday Sketchers, Pile It On, Scrappy Frogs, Charisma Cardz, Cupcake Craft and Penny's Challenges.

Hi happy crafters everywhere. I am particularly bemused today because I have won a total of three Candies today. I know amazing isn't it!!! I have never been a lucky person but since I started blogging that would appear to have changed.

Lets see if my card can win me something too!!! I have used the sketch at Friday Sketchers shown below.

I have used another digi stamp from Dustin Pike called "Hanging Around" - I seem to be using a lot of his stuff lately but they are so versatile. I then teamed this up with a green scallop surround from Polka Doodles Sugar Birdies CD Rom. I have also used some I my new found favourite Core'dinations Whitewash cardstock. I used one of the shades of green and sanded it down all over and particularly around the edge to let the colour show through - more distressing!

The other papers I used were a new purchase from Funky Fairys called Simply Brushed (huge range of colours) and a freebie from them called Green Christmas - this is the patterned paper with the circles.

I then punched out some flowers from green glitter card and used some of my candy flowers to build up the flowers around the edge. The punches I used were mainly woodware and one Xcut.

The frog is coloured in using Sakura Stardust gel pens and some of the water too, the rest is done with watercolour pencils. I found out something useful (well I though it was anyway), when using the watercolour as crayons I softened the crayon strokes by going over the colours with the white crayon. Experimenting is the way to learn as you all know and I did some for once!!!!

Anyway I think that just about covers it. The other challenges I have entered are as follows:-

Cupcake Craft Challenges - Distressing techniques,

Pile It On - punches,

Scrappy Frogs - Frog on it!!

Charisma Cardz - Flower Power and

Penny's Challenge - Scallops.

Please let me know what you think. Your comments are read with interest.

The Sunday Seven.

Happy Sunday everyone. The OH is out in the garden chopping wildly about. The little Dragons are playing happily ( for now) in their bedroom and I am crafting - ideal!!
This card fits seven (Yes) seven challenges and as ever I am starting off with the sketch which is from Moving Along with the Times and is shown below.

My card all started with the challenge at Crafty Creations - Coffee or Tea. I remembered I had a Dustin Pike image I had bought recently which is called teatime.

So I coloured it in using my C'Aran D'Ache watercolour pencils. The background paper came from a Cardmaking and Papercraft freebie which I cut to make two panels and then tried out some faux stitching - not entirely sure I have done it very well!! I also used something I have only just bought - Core'dinations Whitewash color core card - it is fantastic but very subtle and unfortunately doesn't show up too well here. I tried to show it in the picture with the flower. I sanded it off a bit to get more of the light blue colour through, more so around the edges - a bit of distressing (that's a first for me!!). The flowers were in my candy winnings recently from Beccy and a while ago from Liz. As you can see I topped them off with a lovely gem which is one Anita's.

I also put one of these gems on the bears watch. The ribbon is some I bought recently from Handy Hippo - I do love the polka dots!

Finally , the sentiment was another freebie stamp from Papermania. So this is my Beary Nice Birthday Tea card.!!

The other challenges are:-

La La Land Crafts - Three different embellishments - ribbon, flowers and gems,

Papertake Weekly - Faking it - faux stitching,

One Stop Craft Challenge - Beary Nice,

Daring Card Makers - Shabby Chic - Faux stitching and distressing and

Simon Says Challenge - is a recipe, 3 embellishments, two papers and 1 image.

Phew!!! The kids are still playing nicely and hubby still gardening - must be a record.


As ever please let me know what you think.

A Spoon Full of Sugar, Mygrafico, Cupcake, Digital Tuesday and Corrosive Challenges.

Hi everyone, what a wonderful day it has been - even better because I won some candy today from Beccy's Bits. I only found out when I got to work and even better was one of the bits of candy is a Fairy Doodles stamp set I have on my wishlist - thank you so much Beccy.
Now to the business of my latest card, not so soft and fluffy as my usual cards. The sketch for this one is from The Corrosive Challenge Blog and is shown below.


I felt this sketch was perfect for the challenge at Digital Tuesday where they have asked for a "Clean and simple Fall Card" with a digi image. The image I have used is one I bought from Scrapbookingmad (link on my sidebar), they have quite a few Halloween images out at the moment.

The papers I have used are from the Funky Seasons and It's Funky Too CDRoms from Funky Hand. The swirly paper has some half pearls stuck on to make it more interesting. Coincidently this happens to be the challenge at Cupcake Craft - Swirls and Pearls!

I have then punched out some Halloween shapes using the McGill Craftivity Frightfully Fun punch. They have been punched on a pale yellow glitter card.

I think this card can also qualify for the Mygrafico Challenge which asks for an Autumn card with one digi image, two patterned papers and three embellishments.

Fianlly I am also entering this card in the "Fall into Autumn" challenge over at A Spoon Full of Sugar.

Once again my blogging friends please leave a little comment for my delectation!!!

Tuesday Taggers Guest Design Spot!

The big day has finally arrived and here I am at 5.30am writing this post because I have to go to work at 6.45 am!!! My debut is at Tuesday Taggers and this is the card I made for their Punches and Diecuts challenge. As regular visitors here will know - I DON'T HAVE A DIECUT MACHINE!!!!!! So I used my punches. My favourite one at the moment is the 7.5" Scallop Circle by Woodware. I also used various flower punches from Woodware too. The circle punch is an X Cut which I got from The Range.

Pink Cat Studio, Fairy Friends and Q.T Hooty Owl. I bought mine from Nikki Fairbairn, her shop is here. I ordered one day and received them the next - excellent service.They were coloured in using my C'Aran D'Ache watercolour pencils and Sakura Stardust gel pens, for a bit of bling(can't really see this from the piccies though!).The ribbon is one of Anitas Everyday ribbons - purple polka dot. Most of the punched shapes are from glitter card - my favourite!!

The card was made using the Lavendar and Lace CD Rom from My Craft Studio. Using the graphics package included I was able to create this word book. I could try to do a tutorial of sorts if there is enough interest!

I made the card for my daughters 3rd birthday which was last week and she loved it. Particularly the fairy characters.

The flowers on the page above are from the Sugar Birdies CD rom from Polka Doodles .

On the last page there were some gems from my craft stash.

So there you have it. I hope it goes down well!!!! Comments gratefully received as always.

Dare U 2 Digistamp, Our Creative Corner, Pile It On and Pollycraft Monday Challenges.

Not sure if I will finish this post tonight so here goes.

I followed the great sketch at Dare U 2 Digistamp which is shown below. I had to photo my card twice because I forgot to put on the embellishments on the left side!!!! Doh!!!

I am loving everything Halloween at the moment, there is so much out there especially on the American sites. So I have used this fantastic image from Dustin Pike, called Pumpkin Bear. I have used watercolour pencils to colour him in.

The papers I have used are from Summer Driggs called Happy Halloween Kit. I have also matted these onto a piece of black card which has been glittered using Crafters Companion Gold Sparkle - which unfortunately doesn't show up very well in this photo. The embellishments are made using a McGill Craftivity Punch called Frightful Fun - sorry haven't a clue where I got it from. I punched into some coloured craft foam.

The other challenges I have entered this card in are:-

Pollycraft Monday Challenge where they would like you to use Black, White and one other colour,

Pile It On which has a similar challenge Black, White and one other colour and

Our Creative Corner where they would like Fall/Autumn cards.

My other colour is Orange and Halloween is in the Autumn. I think just about covers things and I did it before bedtime!!!.

As always I would be grateful for your comments, they are very valuable to me.

One Stop Craft, Alphabet , Rainbow Lady and Penny's Challenges.

Hi everyone in Craftland. What a difference a day makes, it was brilliant yesterday and I got loads of gardening done and today it is overcast.
Anyway I have just about managed some more crafting, in between reading books to little dragon and cleaning her up after her stamping efforts. Not yet printable as she is only just 3 and she smudges all her stamps. She also refused to colour them in!!!!!

This card was inspired by the Owl theme at Rainbow Lady's Challenge Blog, I do so love them and there are some fantastic images out there. I have chosen to use one of the stampies from my new puchase - Jingle Jangles CD Rom from Polka Doodles. The background papers and border are all from this CD. I have glittered the trees and used white glitter card for the snow.

The only extra was the three snow flakes in the corner from my stash.

I have chosen to follow the sketch at Penny's Challenge this week and you can see it below.


There is also a Christmas theme at One Stop Craft Challenge where they want you to Let It Snow!!! I have also got rather a lot of trees in my picture mmmmmm that would make a wood then!!! As luck would have it the letter at The Alphabet Challenge Blog is W is for..............Wood!

Phew another card done and guess what ......... I won the challenge at The Corrosive Challenge Blog, my prize is some Taylors Tiny Twinkles. This was for their challenge "Here Kitty Kitty"!!!

Once again I would love to hear what you think.

Stamp Something, Cute Daisy May, Lots To Do and Paperplay Challenges.

Warning please read the whole blog rules otherwise you may make a mistake!!!!! Well, I did!!!
At Peachy Keen you can only enter their challenge, no combining so although I used their sketch I will not be entering it because I fit the card around the other challenges - I will hopefully learn from my mistake!!
The sketch I used is here and pretty simple.

I originally chose to do the challenge at Cute Daisy May some time ago because I love pink. You could add any other colour so I chose black because I think it is quite striking. I then decided to try the no patterned paper challenge at Paperplay Challenges. I chose various shades and textures which unfortunately do not show up well in the picture. The square and rectangle at the top are pearlised paper and at the bottom I used glitter card. The scallop circle was done on black card sprayed with Crafters Companion Spray and Sparkle - silver.
Then Stamp Something have asked you to use your favourite embellishment. I love flowers and these are from Just Pots Funky Flowers, and I have put two together to give some height.

The image is one of Soft Pencils, it was a freebie which you can pick up from her blog, and is absolutely gorgeous. I coloured it using my C'Aran D'Ache watercolour pencils. The challenge at Lots To Do is using watercolours so I am entering this card.

I nearly forgot the sentiment, this is from my Clear Magic Lazy days set.

Well, there it is. Please feel free to leave comments they are always welcome.