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!

Totally Gorjuss Sketch

It's Ann's birthday next week, a dear friend, who I probably won't ever meet again in person, but is Totally Gorjuss! So obviously I had to make her a card to match. I decided to use the sketch from this weeks Totally Gorjuss Challenge and spent a good hour browsing the Gorjuss Website, and bought a couple of the individual downloads. Here is my card and the sketch:

The one I've used here is called "Toadstools". I've done everything on the PC using the free software Serif Drawplus Starter Edition and used various background images which I've "colourised" to match the Gorjuss Girl. I do still cut everything out and layer them up, although if you were in hurry you don't necessarily need to, especially if you use the "shadow" tool within the program. It does exactly what it says on the tin!

I've found I'm a bit over enthusiastic with my silicone glue - I'm squashing it down so it's almost flat, which kind of defeats the purpose, probably a good thing with this card though as it's going through the mail. Maybe I'll go back to my 3D foam, peeling the backing off is quite therapeutic you know.

Saturday Challenges

Today I'm having a go at two challenges - Sketch Saturday and Saturday Challenge, the first is a sketch (the name kinda gives it away?) and the second needs to be an easel card. I decided to combine the two, and bizarrely, even though I have never made an easel card before, I decided to make a circular one. And this is me with my lack of diecutter and hatred of freehand circle cutting.

Here is the sketch I was following:

And strangely enough it's not even circular. What was I thinking???

Here is the card I made

I have gone a bit grunge mad with it, the image was a freebie from Pollycraft called Luna's Happy Haunting, and as they are the sponsor of this weeks Sketch Saturday, it seemed appropriate to use it! I've coloured her in using promarkers, and inked the edges with a Brilliance ink pad, I've torn a bit of bright orange paper into a vague rectangle and mounted her on that.

The background was scrunched up and then inked in Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink, and then stamped with an Anna Griffin flourish stamp. I printed the sentiment off the computer and tinted it with chalks, along with the other tab, which also has a stamped flourish. I stuck some ribbon onto the background and stuck Luna down with some silicone glue.

For the base of the easel card, I covered it in parcel paper and cut a strip of some Papermania green flourish paper,and to make the little medallions to hold the card upright I punched 3 one inch circles of card. I'd gone into the craft shop in Perth on Thursday and bought some clear embossing powder, but she had no heat guns in stock, but she gave me a tip and said I could do it over the toaster! Worth a bash! You've never seen anything quite so ridiculous in all your life! There I was with my three little circles on a fish slice, holding it over the slots on my toaster, all was going well until the toaster popped! I jumped about 3 feet in the air and my little circles ended up in the toaster! Oh well it needed cleaning anyway....

The circles actually recovered from this traumatic experience really rather well, and I've coloured them in with my Spice promarker for a "resist" effect. Inked the edges a bit then stuck them on with silicone glue. Job done.

Now to sweep all the toast crumbs off the kitchen floor. And it rained on my washing.

CraftyCatz Birthday Bloghop

Just been hopping around some Craftycatz blogs in search of candy! I've also made a card for their weekly challenge and this week it is a card for a child with sparkle, well the little girl I've made this card for certainly sparkles! According to her Mum it's usually at 5 in the morning! We're off to Sophia's 4th Birthday Party on Sunday and here is her card:

I've used some Nitwits background papers and the fairy digistamp came as a free download in this months Cardmaking and Papercraft mag. I've coloured her in with promarkers and glittered her wings - although this hasn't shown up too well on the photo.

Hope everyone has had a good day!