Christmas? Ha!

Can't begin to think about Christmas yet! It's only September! Oh, wait, I actually bought my first Christmas present today (not for myself either!). So, with that in mind I have also made my first Christmas card :)
I am a huge fan of the crafty magazines here in the UK, and the freebies are pretty good every month, and the two (yes, two) I subscribe to, inspired this card.
The first one I read had an article about Scandinavian style cards, lots of red and white stamping, which looked so effective. The second magazine came with a free set of Hot of the Press stamps, which I used to make a Scandinavian inspired card. I generally don't like mosts of the cards I make, but I do quite like this one, and it was very quick to make.

50 Shades of Grey

Ok, so I bet that got your attention, didn't it? Well, I'm afraid to say, this is not a book review! I had a go at monochromatic colouring today (during my lunch break at work!) - needed a card for a soon to be teenager, and being the organised (yeah, yeah) person I am, I bought the digi last night from Kenny K, printed it off and took it to work today along with my entire horde of Promarkers. Just a little bit over enthusiastic though, as I only used 5 of them and a blender pen!
Must admit I got a bit confused with the whole thing when it came to the skin tone on his arms, let's hope teenage boys don't notice things like that.....

A Cupcake a day keeps the cravings at bay.....

Apparently it's Cupcake Day! Does it count that I made cookies yesterday? No, didn't think so. I must confess to being slightly in the crafting doldrums, again. I seem to find so much other randomness to waste my spare time on, and then notice I haven't done any cardmaking for days.

However I can confirm crafting did occur yesterday and whilst I can't show that card off yet, I can show off one I made "earlier" ;)

I made it for my friend's little boy, Finn, who's recovering from leukemia, and had yet another a hospital appointment for treatment, the image is a rubber stamp from the now defunct Angel Company, coloured in with Promarkers, and mounted quite simply on red and blue card stock. The sentiment was a quick self made digi. 

Hopefully, the crafting will continue!

I flunked the Steampunk class

I may have mentioned before that I suck at "vintage", well it turns out I pretty much suck at "steampunk" too! I'm not too concerned by this as it's probably not a style I will use often, but as it's hubby's birthday this week, I thought I may as well give it a bash.

The sentiment is a bit maudlin for a birthday card perhaps, but that's kind of how things are in the house at the moment - Hubby's BFF died suddenly two weeks ago at age 51, and Hubby is still reeling from the shock of it.

Anyhow, here's the card - the pocket watch, sentiment and hot air balloon stamps are all by Clarity Stamps, and they really are lovely to stamp with. Random ribbon, brads and paper from who knows where.....

Pink or Blue revisited....

Pink or Blue returns to my cardmaking shenanigans. So many baby cards, so little time.... This one just so happens to be a "Blue", and once again I'm late! Baby William was born on June 6th, but I figure his parents will be so delirious from lack of sleep and near poisoned from noxious nappies, that they won't notice.
I made another new baby card very similar to this a few months ago (didn't reach the old blog though) for a Grandma, and liked it so much I made another! The digi is definitely from Bugaboo  and he's been coloured in Promarkers. Background papers were magazine freebies from a Nitwits collection of papers, as were the hearts, one of which got stamped with "New Baby". All in all, very simple :)

Satisfied now, Pammie Lou? Two posts in 12 hours, I hope you noticed.....

Better late than never....

Sadly, this seems to be a phrase occurring more and more in my life when it comes to sending out birthday cards. I seem to spend far too much time playing Words with Friends and not enough time making cards (and blogging, for that matter!).
Tonight's card (or should I say "this month's card") was made (late) for my friend's daughter - her first birthday was a couple of weeks ago. Oh ok, I confess, it was 31st May, so it's really late. She's one year old, she's not going to know! She'll probably just eat the card anyway.
Anyway, back to reality - the digi was a freebie and it escapes me as to who drew it, I'm tempted to say it's bu Dustin Pike, but really it could be from anywhere so don't quote me on that!
Coloured in with my incredibly large collection of Promarkers (I really didn't buy all those markers, Dear, honestly.....) and mounted up with some freebie papers from one the the craft magazines from last year, the bunting included - it was a background paper so I just cut it out, and mounted it on 3D foam.

Just the one challenge today, and that's OSAAT - Use a Digi

See you in August! :D

Pink or Blue?

Oddly (and I find a lot of things odd), it seems that nowadays when people speak about new babies they ask whether it's pink or blue, rather than whether it's a boy or girl, surely all new babies are kind of bright red and slimy? Or was that just mine?
One of the ladies I work with became a first-time Grannie last week, and then promptly went on holiday for two weeks (was it that stressful?), and the new baby is apparently "pink".
I took my time making a card for Grannie (well, she is sunning herself in Spain) and here's what I came up with:

The digi is from the nice lady at Pollycraft, who sadly, has decided to shut up shop on June 8th. I've used this digi before for a "blue" and it works marvellously well for either. She's coloured with Promarkers (which for some reason look a little orange in the photo, but they really were pink) and the star has been covered in Flitterglu and then gilded with flakes so it's lovely and shiny and very tactile. Other than that, very clean and simple, with just a piece of stripey paper behind.

A couple of challenges today:
Less is More - for a baby or child
Cute Card Thursday - a touch of sparkle
Pollycraft Monday Challenge - pinks, reds or creams