Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone, and don't eat all the mince pies! Save one for Santa...

Absolutely the last one...

Hello friends, bloggers and snowmen! This is my last Christmas card of the season, I flatly refuse to make anymore. I swear I've been making these darn things since August and it is frankly astounding that I know that many people, but as I have no cards left, then I must.

Just hope there's no last minute cards arriving in the post from people I've missed. I'll just blame Royal Mail and/or the snow. "Did you like the card I sent? Oh it hasn't arrived yet? Gosh, I posted that weeks ago. Royal Mail, tut, sigh"

Anyway, here it is, in all it's glory ;)

I would like to enter it into the following challenges:
Fab N Funky - quick & easy
Pollycraft Monday Challenge - White Christmas
Totally Gorjuss - Snow
Cute Card Thursday - One for the kids

I had a bit of a production line going with these cards and I made 3, and changed the colour of the bears coat, boots, and hat on all of them, and also the colour of the mat, ribbon and sentiment. This was the combo I liked the best.

The image is from Di's Digi Downloads, I was lucky enough to win 5 images in the Fab N Funky birthday blog hop a couple of weeks ago. I've used promarkers to colour him in and then used my Nesties to cut him out, along with a mat of red Bazzill Basics card. A bit of ribbon and a free sentiment from Bizzy Becs Store blog, which has also been coloured with promarkers to match. Very quick and easy. Predominantly white. Contains snow. And cute for the kiddies. Job done.

Hey Jude.....has got blog candy!

Jude aka Crafts International has some birthday blog candy! But it's a secret stash, so you won't know what you get until you win. And don't we all just love surprises? To enter, you have to be a follower, post on your blog about the candy, post a comment and leave your link. And the sit back and relax until 7th Jan when she will announce the winner.....

Lonely, so very Lonely

My poor blog has been sad and abandoned these last couple of weeks, I am a bad, bad blogger. Anyway, I'm back with a birthday card, which fits with a couple of challenges. I've got a surprising number of December birthdays, so there may be more to blog about soon.

This is made for a good friend and former work colleague and he's a HE, which is always a bit difficult for me when card making. Still managed to sneak in a bit of ribbon though!

I got the image from a Google search I did, you can find it here, it does say I'm allowed to copy and share it, though not alter it - does inking it count???? I used Stormy Sky and Old Paper Distress inks, and made a sentiment on the computer and inked it the same way. It's been layered onto a layer of pale grey card and a darker grey card, and the ribbon was white organza until it got distressed. Easy way of co-ordinating the colour.

I would like to enter it into the following:
Hodge Podge Shop - Birthday
Raise the Bar - Trees
Fab N Funky - Birthday

A Quirky Challenge...

The new challenge on Quirky Crafts is all about "Around the World" and I was lucky enough to be asked to be a GDT for this fortnight's challenge. Very nerve-wracking! Anyway, here is my card:

I've used a free BP which came with one of the card magazines in the summer, (not sure which one!), some Kaisercraft rub-ons, kraft card, string, brown ribbon, flowers shaped brads, and the sentiment was generated using MS Wordart.

Stylish Blogger Award

Thanks to Ali at Aqualeiga's Escape for giving me this award, and today I have to list 8 things about me, hmmmm....

1. I have officially abandoned my Farmville on Facebook! Blocked the application and deleted neighbours and everything!
2. We have 4 foot long icicles hanging from our guttering!
3. I love Peanut Butter M&M's
4. Having a constant battle with my 20 month old not to touch the baubles on the Christmas Tree.
5. I don't own (and never have owned) a pair of jeans!
6. I am unnaturally frightened of dolls.
7. When it comes to ice-cream, greed is acceptable.
8. My first GDT spot starts today at 6pm on Quirky Crafts

Now I need to pass it on to 8 bloggers I've recently met:

Firstly Ruby who is a lovely lady from the U.S, then we'll send it to Mel on Papercraft Planet, Petra in South Africa, Shazia also from PCP, Christy hope you feel better soon! Trina who is a very lucky lady, Amy who's blog has been slightly abandoned but then she did have a baby boy about 2 weeks ago! And finally Sam aka Sparkly Moo.

Remember to pass the award on, ladies!

And the winner is....

Taking my inspiration from my last card, I made this one, and I think it is fab! (Even if I do say so myself).

It is supposed to be Tone on Tone to fit with the 365 Cards - Day 258 challenge, but the embossing powder wasn't quite as clear as expected - I just got it yesterday. It's called Vanilla Ice (I hear you singing back there) which thinking on it, does suggest it should probably be white or cream. Ho Hum. I have used two different colours of kraft card/paper which is tone on tone?

I'm also going to be daring and enter it into the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge, which this week is for sparkle and shine - now I know the card probably isn't a typical sparkly card, but even though it's more subtle there is still quite a bit of sparkle from the embossing powder, the silver gel pen I've used to edge the kraft card, the sheen from the ribbon and the gems on the baubles. I've also used some silver mirri paper to mat and layer on top of the other sheet of kraft paper.

Over on Creative Inspirations the challenge is for Anything Christmassy/Winter so I'll go for that one too.

As I've heat embossed the three baubles (from a Personal Impressions stamp set, which I'm doing to death) and the sentiment, I'm also going to enter it into the Anything Goes Challenge as well.

And in second place...

Now I much prefer this card, it's made following the sketch on this weeks Clean & Simple Challenge, using the free Kaisercraft papers which came with the latest edition of Simply Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine. I liked it so much I didn't do anything to it to make it fit with any other challenges.

Oh what a night...

Nothing that exciting, but I did make another 3 cards last night. Couldn't face doing all the photos etc though, and had a wee dram and a bar of chocolate instead! Ample reward for all my "hard" work.

Here's the first of my cards, and I have to say, my least favourite. It's OK, but the background embossing scares me (I never claimed to be sane, now, did I?).

I've made it following this weeks sketch on Sketch Saturday, using the colour palette of Traditional Christmas from Totally Gorjuss and the aforementioned embossing is for the Crafty Cardmakers Challenge.

An Award for Blogs with Attitude!

Note to self - buy a lottery ticket because this is my lucky week! Received a fab award from Dawn at Dawn's Crafting (it's all in the name...) who makes the most wonderful cards.

Apparently there's a gift attached to it too!!!

To qualify for the gift, a $5.00 Digi’s With Attitude! Gift Certificate! I need to tell you 3 things about myself and then pass this on to 5 other lucky bloggers.

Lastly, you must display the Blog Award Badge in your sidebar and link it back to the Digi’s With Attitude! Challenge Blog.

So here goes:

1) Today I made someone cry - with happiness, thankfully!

2) I hate horror movies, can't watch anything scary at all, or I start to cry!

3) Despite my continued best intentions, and copious amounts of planning, I'm late for everything. 

Now to pass on the award:

Samantha aka Sparkly Moo 

Loopy Lindsey 

Leann 

Claire (no, not me) 

Suzanne aka Kraftykid 

Just going to let them know, and do the sidebar thingy... 

Christmas-time, Mistletoe & Wine

I'll just have the wine, thanks...my second offering is surprise, surprise, another Christmas card! This time for the following challenges:
Fab n Funky - circles
Cute Card Thursday - Anything Goes
Totally Gorjuss - sketch

The papers are those Kaisercraft freebies again, and the stamp is again from Personal Impressions and coloured with promarkers. The Totally Gorjuss Sketch was more for a square card, so I'm feeling this one is a bit heavy on the left? I've added a ribbon and some faux stitching to try and balance it a bit. For the Fab N Funky challenge I've got spotty backing paper and also a couple of the sentiment thingys are punched circles.

Let it snow!

Back in the festive spirit (not)! We actually put up Christmas trees at work on Thursday. Madness! Anyway, I've been Christmas card making again and have two offerings for you this evening, the first fits in with the following challenges (which I hope are still current, as I haven't been blogging much this week!)

Fairymoon Crafts - Sketch
Crafty Calendar Challenge - Winter Snowflake
365 Cards - stamping with several colours

The snowman is a clear stamp from Personal Impressions, and I've used some free papers from this months Simply Cards & Papercraft, which were from Kaisercrafts. The snowman was stamped using a black Memento inkpad and then coloured with promarkers.

He's then been surrounded with stamped snowflakes using Broken China Distress Ink, and some Ice Stickles. I've also stamped and water brushed the holly leaves in each corner with Peeled Paint Distress Ink and added some Fired Brick for the berries. The sentiment was stamped using Poppy Brilliance Ink pad, and then embossed with clear embossing powder.

I was also chuffed to bits to win the Star Letter prize in the magazine, and I've won £50 of Hot off the Press craft goodies - can't wait til they arrive!

November Blog Candy

Some lovely Christmas-sy blog candy is up for grabs at Crafts International's blog, much green-ness. And I do like green....

Winter Weddings

I've had to restrain myself from blogging and crafting every night, couldn't get into the bathroom for the mounds of washing pouring itself out of the laundry basket. I managed to get things under some semblance of control today, so as a treat I've made a card (and eaten half a tub of Haagen Dasz).

I used Spyder's sketch from this weeks Quirky Crafts Challenge, which I enjoyed, sometimes I just can't "get" a sketch, but this one was fine. The card is for a friend who is getting married in December, and I decided (in my wisdom) that a white or ivory card is too "cold" for winter, so I picked red! I added a bit of gold too, so it works with the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge.

I've used a digi from the clipart fairy, and it does actually come already coloured, and you can get it in pink too. I printed off an extra set and layered it on top of the first. The background papers also came from a selection on the same site, and I used the computer to generate the sentiment. The ribbon is very cute and is made by East of India, I found a gift shop in Dunkeld selling loads of their things, and I wanted literally everything. My bit of gold paper was white, til I attacked it with a flourish stamp and some clear embossing powder, and again with some gold embossing powder, and again with a gold inkpad. Add a few gems and flowers, and the beast is tamed.....

Bring us some figgy pudding .....

My second card of the evening is another Christmas card, and again I've made use of some magazine freebies, this time a sample pack of papers and images from the Polka Doodles Sundae of Seasons CD, which I have also actually got.

The challenge the other day on 365 Cards was a picture of an advert to inspire us, I chose the colours of green brown and cream, which works well with these images. The challenge on Polka Doodles was to create and quick and easy Christmas card, and this one was very easy and very quick, but I still think it looks better than most shop bought ones! The last challenge I would like to enter is over on Crafty Catz which this week is to include spots and stripes. I could probably have posted just about any card I've ever made for that! However this card does include both spots and stripes so it should be just fine.

"B" is for....

Birthday? Butterfly? Brad? Border? The list goes on...

My first card of the day is a Birthday card, and as it has been raining all day, I decided to use the colour challenge on Fab N Funky to cheer things up a bit, which was pink and lime green! I also used the sketch from this weeks Clean & Simple Challenge and it should also fit the Anything Goes Challenge, which was the letter "B".

Here's my card:

I used a white A6 card blank, and made a mask for the middle of the card, then sponged Peeled Paint Distress Ink all over the edges. I used a pink and a lime green paper from MME paper pack which came free with a card mag in the summer (think it was called Quite Contrary) to make the flower, and used a sequin and a brad in the centre. I think the green butterflies came from an embellishment assortment from one of these dodgy pound shops which sell mostly tat with the occasional bargain.

November ATC's

Evening all! Tonight I've been making my ATC's for Ali's ATC Swap Shop, and coincidentally it also works with the Tuesday Taggers challenge which this week has an Oriental theme. I got the images from Mami Doodles, and I think they are adorable, they're so easy to work with and cut out, which is always a bonus! The Mami Doodles current challenge is to make anything but a card, so I'll enter it into that too.

I've coloured them in with my Promarkers, and layered them onto an oriental type background image of a bird in a japanese maple. As the theme for the ATC's was "Anything Goes as long as it's a Triptych" I've cut the image into three pieces and used all three of the oriental girls that you get in the kit. I found the quote on Google, and then just added a few gems.

I'll be making 4 in this set, (two down, two to go) and they should all be the same, unless I get bored and change the colour of the dresses on the last two!

....please put a penny in the old man's hat.

Does anyone else struggle to make up titles for their blog posts? I do, I'm always rubbish at thinking up slogans and tiebreaker thingies. I've now resorted to lines from Christmas carols. Their should be enough of those to keep me going til Christmas anyway.

My second card of the evening is following the sketch on Fairymoon Crafts, which was nice and straightforward. I have no idea where I got these little images from, they coul dhave been parcel tags from last year? But I thought they made a cute addition to the card.

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat.....

Not that I've ever had goose....but anyway, I digress. Couple of cards tonight and a couple of challenges. My first card was made using some magazine freebies from the Nitwits Still Joyful Hearts Collection. I cut out a load of the sentiments and arranged them onto an A6 sized card blank, some are stuck straight down others are on foam pads to add a bit of dimension. A touch of glitter glue and a couple of gems, and it makes a lovely card. I'd like to enter it into todays 365 Cards Challenge, which is to have your sentiment covering more than 50% of the card. Think I've managed that.

Another day, another Christmas card

Surely I must have enough Christmas cards by now? If not then I must know too many people.....

So, anyway, here's the card of the day:

 I made it to follow these challenges:
365 Cards - Mint (I've gone for the mint/green theme)
Pollycraft Monday Challenge - it's chill time (what's better than relaxing with a steaming hot drink on a cold winter's day?)
Crafty Cardmakers - Stitching (notice the very real and very wonky stitching around my green circle)
Sunday Sketch & Stamp (snowflakes stamped on the stripy paper, and also on the green circle)

I made the card using magazine freebies - Nitwits Still Joyful Hearts for the minty green backing paper, and Polkadoodles Sundae of Seasons for the Mug, the sentiment and the stripy paper. I used some green card from my stash, and cut nearly a full circle with my Nestie, and then stitched it to the backing paper. It's been stamped with different sized snowflakes using an Ivy Brilliance Ink Pad, which doesn't show up too well on the photo. Cut a Nestie Label 1 of the stripy paper and added a stitched line with a green gel pen (I'd fallen out with the sewing machine by this point), and then cut out the mug and stuck it on with some foam pads. Punched out the sentiment and stuck that on with foam pads, added a few teeny tiny gems, and some blue stamped snowflakes, and job done.

Blinded by the Bling!

Well, we've had no Trick or Treaters this year at all, but never mind, all the more sweeties for me! It did mean that I've had plenty of time to make this evenings card without having to be up and down the stairs to answer the door (because, let's face it, even though there are two other perfectly capable people in this house, they won't do it!).

I actually started this card at baby's nap time earlier on, and put it all together this evening. I would like to enter it into the following challenges:
Creative Inspirations Challenge - Glitter, Glamour, Girlie
365 Cards - Super Sketch Sunday 245
and although I have already entered, it says I can enter as many times as I like so I'm entering the Bee Crafty Christmas again.

I followed the sketch for 365 cards, and made this Christmas card, which I hope you'll agree is full of the 3 G's:

The image is a digi stamp from the clipart fairy and for 25p, I don't think you can go wrong! Now the full details of what's been "done" to her. Firstly I coloured her hair and face with promarkers. I printed off the image again onto some MME paper, and I've done some paper piecing on her dress. The spotty part of her dress was coloured in with Blossom promarker, and the dots coloured with a gold glitter gel pen, as is her hairband. Her cuffs and the star are also coloured with the same gel pen. I printed the image off again on copier paper and made a mask of her wings and stamped a gold snowflake randomly on to them, then once dry dabbed versamark ink through the mask and covered with some ultra fine transparent embossing powder, then heated it up (burnt my fingers in the process too). Once that was all done, any bits around the edges of her wings that I'd missed were coloured with the gold gel pen. Cut her out with my Nestie labels 1, then slathered Versamark onto the edges and sprinkled with gold glitter embossing powder and heated it up again (and burnt my fingers AGAIN). After that I need some ice cream.....

Once my chocolate craving had been adequately satisfied, I used some Nitwits Still Joyful Hearts papers for the background and the border, and one of their sentiments onto the scalloped circle of MME paper. The pink ribbon is one of the Dovecraft Christmas range - 99p for 2m.

So all in all, quite time consuming, but not very expensive!

The joys of the Digital age

If you read my last post, you'll know we were without our Internet for nearly a whole day, I was starting to suffer withdrawal symptoms. Never realised before how often I check my emails and Facebook! Also meant that I missed a whole evening of blog hopping, which was most distressing. Anyway, I am back with avengence tonight and have made the following card for a couple of challenges, and also to add to my little pile of completed Christmas cards.....

It's based on this weeks sketch from Sketch Saturday, so obviously I'll be entering that. I also want to enter into the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge which this week is for "Anything that flies". Last time I looked Rudolph and the Sleigh definitely fly. The challenge on Crafty Cardmakers was to use digital images, on my card the reindeer is a digi, as is the background paper but I've stamped the gold snowflakes around Rudolph to add a bit of oooomph. The Bee Crafty Challenge is also to use a digi image on a Christmas card, so that's another one!

Yesterday's challenge on 365 Cards was to make a new card using elements from two of your favourite other creations. In this case it's the gold snowflakes, and the plaid paper. I made a card last week and went mad stamping gold snowflakes on the envelope, and I adore all background papers with ginghams and plaid and use it a lot.

The reindeer digi is available from the clipart fairy and comes with two co-ordinating papers.

Happy Crafting!

We were one of the 20,000 lucky ones who lost their Internet connection last night due to a "node failure in Edinburgh" whatever that may be. And of course it happened just as I was sitting down ready to blog hop. Did make a couple of cards last night but really not happy with them, so I was over the moon when our Internet came back on mid-afternoon. Spent a happy hour deciding what challenges I was going to enter and the cards I was going to make and here is one of them:

This was so quick and easy, and still very effective, and I would like to think elegant! I've used a cream textured base card, and then stamped an Anna Griffin flourish in 3 different colours of Brilliance Pearlescent ink (Poppy, Ivy & Chocolate) and then sprinkled it with ultra fine embossing powder, and then heated it with my brand new sparkly heat gun (well it's not sparkly really) and added a sentiment in the poppy ink.

I would like to enter this into the following:
Clean & Simple Challenge 114
365 Cards - inspired by their blog page - the colours and the flourishes are very reminiscent of their site, it also matches my curtains in the background pretty well!

Sick of Christmas already...

Finding this whole Christmas card making thing a bit tedious. I've literally got glitter everywhere. It's like sand but without the holiday and the sunshine. Anyway, I'm bravely soldiering on. My card this evening has been made for the following challenges:
Paper pretties - square cards
365 Cards - watercolour challenge
ABC Challenge - G is for Glitter

I've used a Personal Impressions snowman stamp and did the whole "masking" thing to get the trees behind him. I've used a water brush and water colours to colour him in, then used my Nesties to make a glittery frame for him to sit behind. I've also used a square of sparkly paper as the BP and a tartan bow to finish.

That'll do for now, cookies and milk are calling me...

3 odd things...

I've had a great evening! Could be the cardmaking or the wee dram of Glenfiddich or a combination of the two! The challenge today on 365 Cards was a scavenger hunt - to use 3 household things on a card, that you wouldn't normally expect to see on a card. That got me thinking. Then I had a brainwave and tipped out the entire contents of my handbag (not a pretty sight) and made the following card:

Can you see what I've used?

Yep, that's right! A whole bunch of shopping receipts which I've stuck down and slathered with Vintage Photo Distress ink. The cardboard to the side is one of those coffee cup holder things you get with takeaway coffees, and even the picture of the flowers was cut out of a gardening catalogue! The ribbon on my little tag is one of those that you get in the shoulders of tops - hate them, always cut them out.

And really quick - the whole thing took about 15 minutes! I also think it should work OK with the Fab n Funky Challenge, which this week is "keeping it clean". Now I know the vintage photo doesn't look particularly clean, but there are very few elements to the card, which is what I take the challenge to mean. If I'm talking rubbish - blame the whiskey!

It's Nearly Fright Night!

Today's humble offering is a Halloween card - we're going to two parties this weekend, and can't go empty handed.

The challenges I would like to enter are Tuesday taggers - deep purple, Fab n Funky - things that go bump, and 365 Cards - I've got it covered, which means the front and inside of the card have to be covered with patterned paper.

Here's my card:

Notice the purpliciousness of the front, and whoever belongs to those eyes definitely goes bump in the night! And the inside of my card is suitably patterned.

The purple papers, the spider, "boo" and the eyes all come from a freebie download from Freesia Scraps, and the green spiderweb paper comes from Crafty Chaos Designs, from a paper pack called "Eye of Newt.

I did cut out an extra pair of eyes and layered them up for a bit of dimension, but you can't tell from the photo. 

Glitter, Glitter everywhere...

So I must have made about half a dozen Christmas cards by now, and here's another to add to the collection, still a long way to go though...

And strangely enough it happens to fit with a couple of challenges! I would like to enter it into the 365 Cards - All that glitters, and as I've used a Digi image from Spyder's Store I should be ok to enter it into her October Digi Challenge.

Here is my card:

I coloured the tree with some Cosmic Shimmer Mica Mist and then piled on the glitter glue, and glitter gel pens. The background papers are from a free download called "Away in a Manger" from Raspberry Road Designs, they have loads of great freebies. The sentiment was a freebie from Pollycraft, and I think it is still available.

As I wanted to get this post uploaded tonight, I took my photo when the glitter glue was still wet - and about 10 seconds after taking this pic, the card fell face down and splodged all the glitter glue!!! I've just abandoned it for now and hopefully it won't be too bad when it dries. The perils of being a crafter...

A Quirky Recipe

Further to my card making exploits this weekend, here is another offering which fits in with two challenges, the first is a recipe from Quirky Crafts

- Two different types of gold (ie paper, card, embellishments, ribbon etc) - I've used gold paper, ribbon and ink

- One patterned paper - red and gold flourishy thing

- One stamped image - little Christams Wreath, stamped in gold then embellished

- Colour scheme red and gold

- One length of ribbon - was once white organza, then magically turned to gold using my Midas Tocuch (or gold ink pad...)

I've made the card using the sketch from todays 365 cards challenge as below:

 I would also like to point out that that is ACTUAL sewing round the edge of my background paper - dragged out my poor neglected sewing machine, which I swear is older than I am, and had a bash. Not very straight, but hey, nobody's perfect! :)

Sparkly Christmas

Here's the second of yesterday's cards, much happier with this one, the glitter glue worked a treat! I would like to enter this one into the following challenges:

Cute Card Thursday - sketch
Totally Gorjuss - Sparkle

Here is the sketch and the card:

The images are the Nitwits "Still Joyful Hearts" which came free with a card mag, love the colours, very refreshing!

Christmas Crackers

Here's the first of my cards for today, did make two last night but had to wait for the glitter glue to dry! I would like to enter this one into the Sketch Saturday Week 126. For some reason I struggled a bit with this sketch, and not sure if I'm particularly happy with it....

Might need a bit more sparkle....

It's Christmas - not!

I have now resigned myself to the fact that Christmas is now only two short months away, so I may as well make Christmas cards for as many challenges as I can find. I figure that way, if I'm following a sketch or a colour scheme, I won't be spending quite so long staring at my Christmas stash, not knowing where to start!

I've made this card just now during baby's nap time (really must get him up...) and it follows the sketch for the Clean & Simple Challenge 113 and also the 365 Cards - Stampin' Saturday, which was to use stamps on a card and a matching envelope. I got slightly carried away with my envelope and it looks more impressive than the card!

The snowflake stamps and the sentiment come from a set of Personal Impressions clear stamps, and the flourish on the envelope comes from a set of Anna Griffin stamps. I've used a Brilliance Dew Drop ink pad in poppy and some Bazzill Card Stock. I did also use some ultra fine clear embossing powder on the three snowflakes on the card, and as I still have no heat gun, I did it in a teeny tiny frying pan on the gas hob! I used my Nestie Labels 1 too.

New baby blues/greys/black/white

Had one of my random moments this evening whilst looking at various challenge blogs, and even as I made the card, I was thinking "what am I doing?". I have random moments a lot in everyday life too....

The blogs I was looking at were as follows:

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge - Monochrome
Polka Doodles Weekly Challenge - New Baby
365 Cards - 5 elements
Anything Goes - Black & White

Now, here's the random bit, when you think of new baby cards do you think of black and white? Not very often I suspect! Well here's one I made earlier....

I actually think it looks quite cool, it seems like everyone I know is pregnant so I'm sure it will come in handy, and to be perfectly truthful I have printed off another Fifi Giraffe so if I need it to be pink, it can be done!

I have used the Friday Freebie from SJ's Little Musings and coloured it in with blue and grey promarkers, I had some aluminium art metal which I've cut with a Nestie Label 1 and then embossed with some swirls (bit hazardous - cut my fingers twice). I made up the sentiment on the computer along with the background paper, and the flower is from the Sunbonnet Girls download, which I use incessantly, but I have changed the colour from blue gingham to grey.

I'm not sure if the card works for a couple of the challenges - not sure if I have to use a Polka Doodles image in theirs. Also in the 365 Cards I have to use 5 elements including the background paper, and by my reckoning it fits:

1. Background paper - 1 layer (although before I printed it off I did add the black border and dotted line)
2. Aluminium Nestie
3. Fifi Giraffe
4. Sentiment
5. Flower

Hope you have a great weekend! x

Spyder's October Digi Challenge

I've been messing about with my idea for Spyder's Challenge for the last few weeks, I knew which images I wanted to use, and had them printed off and coloured nearly 3 weeks ago! I also knew I wanted to make a stepper card, but every attempt was a disaster, I kept scoring my lines wonky and then it wouldn't stand up straight. Not a good look.

However today I bought some templates from the Cardmaking Downloads site, and hey presto, success at last! So then I just had to assemble the card as I had imagined, although I have my reservations about the pink flower, that may have to go.

The images used are from Spyder's store, and I printed them straight off onto an A4 sheet, I've only used 3 out of the 8 images, and the size of this card is about A6.

What's everyone's opinion on the pink flower? Bit garish?

Wow! Check out Pollycraft's candy!

Pollycraft are giving away a HUGE amount of Candy to mark their 1000th follower (plus a few), the link is on my sidebar or here. You've got until 20th November x

Tag, you're it!

Having not had much sleep last night (baby decided to party between 4a.m and 6a.m) rather than be sensible and have a nap this afternoon when he does, I decide to play a bit more with my Cuttlebug and Nesties! Good plan, until I fall asleep in my tea later on.

However, I have made a gift tag for when we go to the Halloween party, mind you, haven't bought the present yet. It also means I can enter another couple of challenges, and why not?! Who needs sleep? It's vastly overrated.

Here is my tag, of course it's not tag shaped, had to use my Nesties labels instead. Got to get my money's worth out of them after all.

I have used images from the Polka Doodles "Sundae of Seasons" CD, tinted the background of the spooky house with green chalk and dusted some orange chalk over the windows to give them a spooky glow. Used some garish green and purple ribbon too, which is a bit of a relief, because it was too bright to use on anything else! I stamped the background of the purple card with an Anna Griffin flourish stamp and some Brilliance "Ivy" pearlescent ink.

I am entering this into the Polka Doodles Challenge - something spooky and also the Pollycraft Monday Challenge which this week is to use purple, green and one other. I suppose my one other is orange, or is it black? Is black classed as a colour? Anyway, better go and wake him up or he'll never sleep tonight!

Fan-tastic?!

Oh, I'm on a roll tonight! Got to get this card posted tomorrow, for a birthday on Tuesday - only found out today, so not my fault! It just so happens to fit in with the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge, which has an oriental theme this week. I got the digi image from Mami Doodles, and she is adorable!

I've coloured her in with promarkers and layered two images on top of one another, the paper is from a Kate Knight 6x6 pad which was also a freebie with a card mag, never found a use for it until now! The fan I made using an off cut of the background paper, which I'm quite chuffed with, took me back to my childhood! The font is a series of jpeg images which I got free from a scrapbook download site here, and then you have to arrange them individually to form your words. Add a bit of ribbon and a couple of flowers, et voila.

Again, not to sure how it'll cope with posting, may have to use a bit of tissue paper or bubble wrap...

Claire's got Candy!

No! Not me! Another Claire! Great collection of Christmas goodies, and it's running until the 31st October if you want to have a go, here's a pic of the candy stash and here's the link to her blog

Incy Wincy Spider ....

My second card of the weekend was fun to make, not sure I've quite got the hang of colouring with my Promarkers, not sure that I've got enough colours yet, and should probably get a blender pen too. Might spend a few moments looking on You Tube for tutorials....

Anyway, I think it's fine if you don't look too closely! I'm going to enter it into the following challenges:

Tuesday Taggers - More than 2 legs
Cute Card Thursday - Whats buggin' you?
Quirky Crafts - Sketch
Crafty Catz Challenge 54 - Nursery Rhyme

And here it is:

The image of Incy Wincy Spider I found on Google, and the sentiment is computer generated. I used some sliver card to mount both, and some Papermania stripey paper as a background. The tartan ribbon came from a present my brother bought for me! Here is the Quirky sketch I was following:

Pretty in Pink

Well my Nesties finally arrived on Friday morning - but so did my brother and his girlfriend! So ended up having to wait a wee bit longer before I could get them out and have a play. Needless to say the house is now covered in circles and scallops! Anyone need a paper coaster? I've got a few birthdays coming up, so it's as good an excuse as any to make some cards which fit with some challenges, and the first one I've made fits rather nicely with the following:

Fab N Funky - yummy, yummy, yummy
Sketch Saturday - week 125
Totally Gorjuss - Pink

And here is my entry

I particularly like the sentiment! Not sure how well those flowers are going to stand up to the rigours of the Royal Mail. (Did you notice the Nestie labels???)
The background papers are both My Minds Eye - Quite Contrary 6x6 (free with card mag a few months ago). The cupcake, flowers and strawberries are all from the Nitwit Collections, one called Hey Cupcake, and the sentiment is computer generated.

Here is the sketch I was following:

Hope you've had a good weekend!

ATC swaps

Still haven't received my new Nesties yet, so I'm sitting on my hands, determined not to make anything until they arrive! I have however received four ATC's from ATC Swappers from the September Swap, which was themed Tea/Coffee Break.
And here they are:

 A big thankyou (from top left, clockwise) to Cathy H, Julie G, Helene & Ali, and also to Paul for organising it.

Fluffnstuff Candy rush!

More delish candy up for grabs from Stampin Fluffstuff, and very nice it looks too! It's up until Wednesday 20th October, so not long to join in!

It's Candytime!

More random bloghopping tonight and more blog candy! A great set of Magnolia and LOTV images, and I want it (STAMPY FEET TANTRUM), mind you loads of people have entered already. It's up until 31st October at Paper, Ink, Color!, and you've got to be in it, to win it!

Bizzy Becs Blog Store Candy

Evening all! Been bloghopping again and I'm after candy! I found this one on my travels, it's called Bizzy Becs Store Blog and they're offering candy, which looks gorgeous. I have to admit to being partial to a bit of Wild Rose Studio!

They're also looking for some DT members if anyone fancies that? I reckon ~Sparkly Moo~ should have a go, her cards are delish!

Blog Candy is running until 10th November

Part Two of Housework Avoidance Strategy

So here is my second card I made today, I should really have entered this one into the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge because it was certainly "Distressing" cutting out all the stems for these acorns! However, I don't think that's quite what they meant, so I'll enter it into the following challenges instead:
Cute Card Thursday - make your own
Polka Doodles - make your own
Can you spot the common theme?

So I'm going on the basis that all my acorn branches are my embellishments, does that work? They and the two birdies came from the Polka Doodles CD "Sundae of Seasons", and beautiful though they are, they are a pain in the bee-hind to cut out! Thanks to Sakura for inventing the Quickie Glue Pen, otherwise I have no idea how I'd have stuck it down properly.

Now it's off to bed, as I have to get up early tomorrow to finish the dratted housework.

Chop, Chop, Busy, Busy, Work, Work, Bang, Bang....

As you will probably guess, I've had a busy day! Brother and new girlfriend coming to stay next week, kindly not told me exactly what day they'll arrive, so thought better get on and clean the house in readiness. Got fed up of that pretty quick and decided to make a couple of cards instead!

Two of the ladies at work are leaving in the next week or so, which is pretty drastic considering that they're only 5 of us in total! However it's all very explainable - one is 18 and off to college in Aberdeen and the other is 70, and she's NOT retiring, she has another job! That boggled my mind completely...

I had a good look at the challenges this week and have made two cards to fit with a few challenges each, here is the first one:

If you haven't guessed already this is for the 18 year old Kathleen, who's heading off to Aberdeen, I would like to enter it into the following challenges:

Sketch Saturday - Sketch
Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - Distressing
Totally Gorjuss Challenge - Not a Square
Fab 'N' Funky - digi image

To make the card, I've used a Gorjuss Girl download, which I thought was quite appropriate for college with the books, I cut out an extra image of the girlie and layered it on top of the base for a bit of extra dimension. I used some Broken China Distress Ink on the edges of my circular base card and patterned paper, then I added a layer of grey card which I've embossed with swirls, then sanded back a bit. The quote "Adventure is always worthwhile" was apparently said by Amelia Earhart. I've used 3 pink pearls and 3 stars as the final embellishments for the sketch, which is here:

As you've probably noticed, I've flipped the sketch and made it a circle. And I've not even got my Nestabilities yet!

A perfect circle. . .

My eternal quest for a perfect circle is nearly complete! My dear parents have bought me a cuttlebug and I've just ordered 3 sets of nestabilities from ebay! Who needs food anyway?

Trick or Treat?

I have a gloriously mad friend who loves to have a party for any and every occasion imaginable, and with Halloween on the way, that's as good an excuse as any! She's asked me if I wouldn't mind making gift bags for the dozen or so children who'll be going, so here is my prototype:

It just so happens to fit in well with a couple of challenges, the Tuesday Taggers Pandora's Box and also the Polka Doodles Fancy Folding (well I did have a fold quite a bit!).

I found the house template on Google and scaled it to fit an A4 sheet, I also found the brick design on Google (it was a demo for bricklayers on how to do English Bond brickwork!). I coloured it in using Cinnanmon, Spice and Caramel (That would make a good muffin) promarkers using the thick end and not being too fussy.

The pumpkins, toadstools and vampire chap are all from the new Polka Doodles CD Rom "Sundae of Seasons", which arrived in the post this morning. They are meant to print out as a full A4 sheet, but I mini-ed them by changing my printer to print "4 on 1" page. I've used some lightweight pearlescent cardstock for the roof, and only stuck it onto the house on one side, it seems to be behaving and staying in place, but this may need to be amended before the final design.

And of course, it has been filled with sweeties for the grubby little mites!