It's so her

This card was done for my niece.  As soon as I saw the image "Rae with Journal" by Mo Manning I knew I had to have it.  My niece is called Rachel and the sketch looks just like her.  Trisha over at MSE very kindly provided me with the image.  I have fallen in love with My Minds Eye Penny Lane papers and even though you can't see it very well the skirt on the stamp has the same pattern as the backing paper with circles on.  I added a bit of stickles to the card candy just to tie in with the backing paper.  My next problem was where to put the sentiment as it seemed to throw it off balance, I therefore decided to put it inside the card and just added a butterfly sticker to keep it company. 

Now I also should be showing you pictures of the two cards I made at a challenge class I went to.  Unfortunately I haven't got my brain in this week and I have posted them both off without photographing them, oops!

Blog Update

I've had such a busy time this last week and finally the children have broken up today and I can breath a sigh of relief, well I will when the five 7 year old boys I have for a sleepover are all asleep.

I have had a very busy time with birthday cards and thank you cards and so am just going to do one major post I'm afraid.

The first is the cross stitch I did for OH's Great Aunt for her birthday.  It is many years since I did a cross stitch and this kit was kindly sent to me by the lovely Sarah from MSE.  My OH's Aunt bans us from buying her presents so OH always does her garden for her but I like to get her a little extra.  This year I can honestly say none of it was bought for her.  The kit was provided by Sarah, the frame won on school tombola and the box that it went in made with existing supplies.

The following card was a very quick card that I threw together.  I realised that I hadn't made a card for a friend of my daughters and thought I would have to resort to a bought one.  I couldn't face doing this and so had a rummage.  The inspiration was all taken from the butterfly chipboard stickers and I just raided my supplies for papers etc that went with it.  For a quick make I was very pleased with it.

The following are the birthday cards that I have so far made this week and I still have another three to go.

Lastly this is one of the Thank You cards I made for the teachers.  I love this image and sentiment that was sent to me again by the lovely Sarah, it was very apt for my DS's teacher who had had quite a stressful time with his Year 2 class in the last couple of weeks of term.  Very annoyingly I forgot to take photos of the other two cards I made, one of which I loved and was made with some of my lurverly papers.

Out of my comfort zone

For this card I had some sunflower type buttons that I wanted to use and it sort of went from there.  I also wanted to use colours and papers that I have not used before to try experimenting.  I am obviously very new to card making so am finding out what does and does not work.  I wanted to follow a sketch as I am enjoying trying these out and found one that I thought would work.  I made the mistake though of colouring the image before I had sorted out papers so am not overly sure on the colours I have used on the image.  Definately need some more promarkers!  I realised once I'd coloured the image that I had printed it out too large but was not prepared to start again by this stage.

I would like to enter this card for the following challenges:-

Critter Sketch Challenge 20

Alys Sunday Sketch 20 Flower Power

Magical Crafts Fortnightly Challenge 18 Flower Power

Ooh La La Creations Challenge 57 Simply Summer

Corrosive Challenge 70 Flowers Flowers Flowers

Creative Cottage Challenge 17 Summer Surprise

Pocket Full of Posies Challenge 1 One for the Girls

Bunny Zoe's Crafts Challenge 1 Nice and Girly

Delightful Challenges It's All About Summer

I'm on a roll

Even though I'm having a manically busy week I am still somehow managing to fit in some crafting.  Thanks to the wonderful Melissa on MSE I am now managing to find my way around challenges and am having so much fun.  The following card was inspired by a colour theme challenge and then I found a suitable sketch.  I had the image in mind and think it worked.  The covered notepads I have tried once before and am trying to perfect them, believe me there is still alot of room for improvement but I am happy with the outcome and certainly love the overall effect.  The backing papers on both the card and notepads are DCWV Sweet Glitter stack and on the card I added stickles and Crystal Effects to the image.

I would like to enter these into the following challenges please:-

One Stop Crafts Challenge 86 Colour Combo

Pollycraft Challenge 50 Pinkalicious

Friday Sketchers Blog Challenge 108
Buuny Zoe's Crafts Challenge 1 Nice & Girly
Quirky Crafts Challenge 31 Ribbon
Crafty Creations Challenge 74 Ice Cream/Cakes - Notepads

The Crazy Challenge Make It In an Hour - Covered Notepads

Flower Power

I urgently needed to make a card today for Sue aka Skiergirl on MSE.  Somehow time has disappeared this week so it is a good job I didn't need to post it!  Due to lack of time I decided not to do something that required colouring and decided to use the lovely Papermania Rose Garden papers for inspiration.  I am really pleased with how the card turned out and hope Sue is as well.  I wanted to give her a few little bits and learnt how to make this box at a make and take and it literally takes minutes it is so easy, I would in future use slightly thicker paper (double sided) as if you put slightly too much in the box it gapes a bit at the bottom.

I would like to enter these in the following challenges please:-

Aly's Sunday Sketch Challenge 20 - Flower Power

Magical Crafts Fortnightly Challenge 18 - Flower Power

Corrosive Challenge 70 - Flowers, Flowers, Flowers

A Pocket Full of Posies Challenge 1 - One for the girls

Pollycraft Challenge 50 - Pinkalicious

The Crazy Challenge - Make it in an hour

It's a Boy

Here is the card and nappy cake I have made for a close friend.  The card had card candy at the bottom until this morning when they finally decided on a name.  I felt that the card needed something else but a bow didn't seem right so I have left it as it is, less is more.  The image was kindly stamped for me by the wonderful Sarah aka Rainmac and coloured with Promarkers.

I have never made a nappy cake before but the ever helpful Tams aka Rusty at MSE sent me some instructions which were great to follow and I must admit the hardest bit was the cellophane.  I am really pleased with it so hopefully my friend will be.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:-

Polka Doodles Challenge 25 Boy's Birthday

Gingersnap Creations Colour Challenge 60 Shades of Blue

Bling Castle

Ok perhaps I may have overdone the glitter somewhat but my excuse is it's for a four year old and they love that sort of thing.  This is the first Digi Stamp I have bought and I love it, it is called Candyfloss Castle and is from Stitchy Bear Stamps.  The quality is amazing and it is so useful to be able to size it to suit your card.  I love making easel cards and think they are great for children's cards.  I must admit though that I very much coloured this in rather than doing any shading due to lack of time, and colours.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges please:-

MSE Lilac/Purple Challenge set by Melissa

Sew Many Challenges 19 Anything Goes

Creative Card Crew Challenge 53 Easel Card

Crafty Catz Challenge 38 Let's Go Digital

Isn't She Such a Princess

How can you not like the beautiful Princess Tilda.  Choccy over on MSE very kindly stamped me some of these and I must admit I don't think my colouring justifies her.  I felt as a Princess she wouldn't object to the extra stickles I added though.  Roll on my birthday so I can get a Bigshot/Cuttlebug and then I won't have to do handcutting for layers.

Materials used:

Card Blank - Craftwork Cards

Papers & Sentiment - Papermania Rose Garden

Ribbon - From stash

Stamp - Princess Tilda coloured wiht Promarkers and accented with stickles and crystal effects.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges please:-

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 19 Stars/Stripes

Bunny Zoe's Crafts Challenge 1 Nice and Girly

Crafts and Me Challenge 7 Birthdays

Digi Doodle Shop Best Challenge 13 Anything Goes

New Home

This card is for a close friend.  We were given the bird and cage at a card making class so I'm afraid I do not know the origin.  I coloured the bird with promarkers and realised that I should have done him in brighter colours as it actually looks more like a wild bird, never mind.  The corrugated paper is from stash but the rest of the papers are Stampin Up including the lovely Sweet Pea stack.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges please:-

I Did It Creations Challenge#10  3-D

Kards And Clay Free For All

ABC Challenge Xtra Dimension

In Sympathy

This is the card I have made for a close friend's mom on the loss of her brother.  They are not religious and I wanted to keep it simple which was one of the hardest things to do.  Both the image and the sentiment were super freebies that I was directed to by some of the wonderful ladies over on MSE, thank you.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenge:-

Craftalicious challenges No. 2 Monotone

Go Diego Go

Below is the card I made for the cute Maddison, daughter of Rusty on MSE.  She was having a Go Diego Go themed party so I went with that for the design.  The photo is one Rusty showed us when she let Maddison loose with her make up bag - Very brave!  I had a play with my new MS Score Board when making the card base which I really enjoyed.  The animal print paper isn't quite right as my printer is running out of ink and I couldn't find my pack of animal print paper anywhere. 

Fun Blog Award

The wonderful Craftygranny has passed this award on to me for a bit of fun.

For this award you have to think of 6 fibs and 1 truth about yourself or 6 truths and 1 fib , thank & link the person who nominated you, pop the award on your blog and nominate 7 others. So here are my 7 - fact or fiction?

1.   I spent 12 months living in South Africa

2.   I'd love to do Teacher Training

3.   I have curtseyed to the Queen

4.   My DD was born 10 minutes after arriving at the hospital

5.   I always tell my husband when I have bought something crafty

6.   I'd never heard of Glee till the weekend

7.   My parents have sung with Brian May 

It's all black & white

This is the card, envelope and gift voucher wallet I have made for my friend's wedding tomorrow.  I haven't really used black and white before but rather liked the simplicity of it.  I decided to have a go at a Joy Fold Card having seen them on people's blogs previously.  The envelope was made using the MS Scoring Board Envelope Maker and lined with co-ordinating paper.  I also made a card for the vouchers to go into inside the wallet out of the same embossed card as can be seen in the bottom photo.

I would like to enter the following challenges please:-

Craft Challenge 51 - Celebrate/Birthday - Wedding
Stamp Something 2 of Something - 2 Birds
Sew Many Challenges Wk 15 Anything Goes
One Stitch at a Time Challenge 14 Furry Friends - Birds
Magicial Crafts Challenge 15 Black, White & One More - Black , White & Silver
Choccy's MSE Challenge - Homemade Flower on Gift Voucher Wallet

Supplies used:-

Cardstock - Papermill

Embossed Card - Craftwork Cards

Backing Papers - Craftwork Cards

Bird Punch - Stampin Up
Envelope Paper - Doodlebug Design & lined with Craftwork cards paper

Flower - Stampin Up Scalloped Punch & Card Candy

Let there be music & money

Over on MSE ScattyJan set the latest challenge with the theme of musical.  Having been racking my brain for the last fortnight for the theme for a card for a friend's birthday Scatty offered it to me as my friend plays Viola in the Orchestra.

My next problem was I couldn't find a digital picture of a violin (gave up on Viola as I kept getting plant pictures) and the craft shops I went to didn't have a stamp or peel off of one either.  I therefore ended up printing a picture of one off and using it as a template onto some of the backing paper.  Once layered I realised this didn't look right so out came the promarkers. 

I'm pretty pleased with the card overall.  If I'd had more chance to get supplies I would have got a stamp of a violin and some shimmer type paint to use.  Hopefully my friend will like it as she is certainly not into "pretty and pink" so this is much more up her street.  The paper seemed to have notes both ways up but this way had the wording the right way up so I am hoping I got it right, please don't tell me if I didn't!

I would like to enter this card into the following challenge:-

MSE Musical Challenge set by ScattyJan

As it is said friend's 40th, not something she wants reminding about thus the lack of numbers, we have got her some John Lewis vouchers.  I wanted to fancy them up and so decided to make an envelope.  I decided to set myself the challenge of only using one piece of paper for the lot. 

I wanted something to go with the Gift Voucher card itself and also something not pretty and girly.  The paper was double sided so I used the reverse side for one strip of the "ribbon" effect.  For the paper flower I alternated which side of the paper I used.  I will certainly be doing more of these for money or vouchers as they were really easy and I think quite effective.

I would like to enter this into the following challenge:-

One stitch at a time Challenge 13 Anything But A Card

Stampin Up Cards

I had fun last week at another card making class where we were making a variety of cards. 

The first card we made was using stamps out of the mini catalogue and I love this set and colours.

This next card is a really cute card, again using stamps out of the mini catalogue.

The last card was just to show another use for the butterfly punch i.e to make the pansy.  It was good to practice using different items but certainly isn't a card I would find myself making again.  The colours are certainly not ones I'd use but they are retiring stock from Stampin Up so she is using up supplies, think this is definately one for the great aunt!