Crafty Kitty in the garden.

Colour Create have got some fabulous Blog Candy this week- Miss Anjas and lots of other goodies. They have asked us not to combine this week to be in with a chance of the candy so this card just follows their 'lilac and blue' theme. I was looking through my papers when I came across this little flower one from Partners which immediately made me think of this Crafty Kitty from Pink Cat Studio that I stamped out ages ago but had not used. The blue panel is Core'dinations which I sanded lightly and the ric-rac is from my stash. I put a button with my felt flower for a change (money saving tip- felt flower cut with my Sizzix from some cheap felt from the market!). Not sure about the gingham mat- looking back I think it would have been better plain lilac, but it's stuck now!

My son is having a really rough time at the moment- on top of the tonsillitis we had to take him to the out of hours doctor yesterday evening with really bad earache and his eardrum perforated in the night.

A fisherman's birthday.

I seem to be doing well on hitting lots of challenges at once at the moment. This card follows the sketch at Stamp Something with a few tweaks because I used panels from a colour blocked paper in the Dovecraft Masculine pack. The colours are from the OCC challenge- don't know if they are quite right because I don't have any Stampin' Up- they are blue, navy and mustard (the mustard I have used is rather more Dijon than English I know, but it was all I had)! Saturday Challenge is 'stitching- real or faux'- these papers already had the stitching printed on them and I doodled some around my image too. Finally, Carisma Cardz asks you to use your favourite things- I love watercolour pencils and have used them to colour my image.

Getting lots of crafting done at the moment because we are stuck in. The rally from my poorly son yesterday was only a temporary one- he has tonsillitis and all he wants to do is flop around the house :(

A girly birthday card.

One of my colleagues at work asked me to make a card for her daughter's birthday. I followed sketch #8 on Stamps and Smiles but extended it because she wanted an A5 card. It was a great sketch to work with and one that could look very different depending on the image/papers. The brief was 'girly' and it had to have on her name and age. I used a really useful alphabet set which, I think, is by Do-craft for this then embossed the other two panels with the Bloom Dots folder.

ABC challenge was 'G is for glitter'. The image is partially painted with sparkly watercolours. I made my own glittery brads by using a glue pen on the head then dipping them in glitter. The fibre down the fold has silver tinsel pieces in it (I say 'fibre' but this is actually from a ball of wool which I got 2 for £1 from the pound shop- bargain!).

I was making this card quite late last night because I had had a poorly son who was not at school yesterday. He is better today than yesterday but I have kept him home again because he really didn't want to eat yesterday so was still looking a bit pale and wobbly this morning. Breakfast and lunch later he is now looking much more like his usual self but better to be safe than sorry!

Stop Press!

Elzybells Stamps are having free postage from Sat 28th to Monday 30th March. See Elizabeth's blog for more details.

4 Challenges in one card!

I did not set out to do 4 challenges in one- it just worked out that way! I often need time to mull over challenges before I know what I'm going to make. When I first looked at Colour Create #8 on Sunday (navy,turquoise & lime) it did not immediately spark any ideas. Then on Monday I saw that the theme on Cupcake Craft was 'Monsters' and I remembered my Woodware Clear set 'Little Monster' and the mojo began to flow! I then looked at Creative Inspiration and their theme was 'Humorous' and I thought of the sentiments in this set. Finally I had the images stamped and coloured and the Core'dinations chosen and I thought I would look for an old sketch to prod the creativity- forgetting that I had not seen this week's PTW because it was not up when I looked before- and *bang* I was suddenly up to 4 challenges!

Colour Create had the extra option of 'no designer papers'- this was good for me because I don't have any in these colours *lol*. The turquoise is embossed with Cuttlebug's 'spots and dots' and sanded, the navy has a debossed dot border from 'With Love' and I have stamped monster feet from the set up the side of the card. I have to say I am really pleased with how this card has turned out and my son said, "Wow Mum that is so funny, can I have it?" when he saw it this morning!

I love purple!

I could not believe the trouble I had getting a decent photo of this card! Our house is north/south facing so it was extremely bright in the front and rather dull in the back. I know I should not complain about the sun (even though it was combined with very strong winds) but the living room was out because the leaded windows were casting lines, the hall is not great but it was the best I had so I set up the camera and then the sun kept going in and coming out because the wind was moving the clouds so fast! I use a mini tripod and timed delay to avoid camera shake and each time the time came the sun went in or came out so brightly that the silver miri glared!

Anyway on to the card! I followed sketch #43 at Sketch Saturday which was all squares and really came together easily. The ABC Challenge is 'flowers' this week and my bunch of flowers stamp is another from the Ebay shop which is, sadly, not there anymore. Saturday Challenge #24 is to use your favourite colour- well it is a close run thing between pink and purple so I chose to make my card purple so I could use more of the lovely checked cardstock and purple pearlised paper I got from the Mill Shop Pay-per-box a while ago. The embossed flowers have been done with just the very top of the 3 flower posy border from the Cuttlebug 'With Love' borders then I flattened the extra bit with the back of my nail and tucked it behind the main image.

OCC Sketch Challenge Easter Card

I liked this sketch challenge at Our Creative Corner but was getting a bit lost with my papers again! Then I scrolled down and found Robin Willis' card and it got me on track! I decided to use the colour of my card instead of another pattern to back the sketch and used two papers from a free download at Papercraft Inspirations. When I layed it out it still looked a bit bare so I stamped and clear embossed the little flowers on the base card and was really pleased with the effect. Stamps and colouring as in my last post and ribbon from my stash.

My first Easter Card of 2009!

I followed the sketch at Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge #60 for this card. It is a lovely simple sketch and I kept it really clean by not doing some of the extra mats- I know where trying to over complicate cards gets me!

I inked up this Personal Expressions clear stamp for the first time for this card. When I used some of the others they were a bit tricky to start with because they were quite 'sticky', even after the usual trick of giving it a wash with a bit of washing up liquid. This time I used a little Stazon Cleaner on it and rubbed it on my stamp scrubber and it stamped perfectly! I have done a couple of extra images to send to my friend.

The paper is from an old pack from Partners and I took my colours from this. I coloured the image with my favourite watercolour pencils and I used the Swiss Dots embossing folder and some scallop scissors to do the mat. I used a tiny piece of the paper for the band with the sentiment on to keep the design simple. The sentiment is from my Elzybells clear set.

Mother's Day cards.

There were things I liked about my last card and things I struggled with. I don't usually put so much on my cards! I made these to take into work and am much more pleased with them. The strip across the card has been embossed with the flower border from the Cuttlebug 'With Love' borders. The card base is made from pearlised card. The images and papers are the same as before. The sentiment comes from a Woodware clear set called 'Family Christmas'. Hope they like them at school!

Pink Mother's Day.

I followed a sketch on Sketch Saturday for this card. When I saw the sketch I really liked it and wanted to join in but I struggled a bit with this card! It has ended up very pink and I had to move the sentiment to the other side to make it work- Oh well!!

The text paper is from a DCWV stack. The image is from a stamp I got from an E-bay shop which is, sadly, no longer there. The felt flower and card leaves are both cut with a Sizzix original die called 'Flowers and Vines'.

Fighting against fading light when taking this photo- sorry it is a bit dark.

"You Passed" card.

I have a box of cards at the school where I teach part-time and there has been a test congratulations card in there for ages. Suddenly, last week, it sold and someone else asked where it was because she wanted to buy it too! Typical!

I managed to restock on pearlised paper to print onto at Holmfirth Mill and was really pleased because it can be hit and miss there and I had almost run out. The paper was printed from a Crafter's Companion CD that I got as a Christmas present and the red is also from the mill shop pay-per-box. The image and sentiment are from a Woodware clear set that I have had for ages and I water coloured it using Whispers pens scribbled onto an acrylic block and painted on. I particularly like to do this when using black because it gives a less solid colour so you can still see the detail of the stamp. The bumper and wing mirrors have been coloured with a silver gel pen. I followed a sketch on Mojo Monday week 77. Sorry the photo isn't very good, I had to take it in the early evening and the light was going.

Cupcake Birthday.

This card all started from the patterned paper-I don't know who makes it but I think the design is a Strawberry Shortcake one. The paper has some green flowers on it so I made my base card from some pearlised lime green card. The stamp is another of my Personal Impressions clear set and I painted the image with a mix of watercolour pencils and pink and lime Twinkling H2O's. This was my first go at embossing and sanding Coredinations cardstock and I'm really rather pleased with the effect! I made the felt flower with a Sizzix originals die and some felt from the market then found the perfect lime green brad in my stash.

I found this High Hopes Challenge while blog surfing and Challenge #20 was to 'get that fuzzy feeling' on your card! I'm entering this card because of the felt flower.

Blue and Brown.

Colour Create challenge #5 is to make a brown and blue card. This is a very simple card that I made a couple of weeks back that I think fits the bill. The paper panel is from a Dovecraft Masculine pack and the image is mounted onto some mirror board which is embossed with stars to pick up on the paper. The base card is not as plain as it appears here because it has a fine 'cord' texture which the photo does not really pick up. The image is from a Personal Impressions clear set and I have coloured it with watercolour pencils which I love because they are so controllable for shading. I gave him some grubby patches like a real mechanic!

Saturday Challenge #21 and Cupcake Challenge #57

Secret crafter Saturday Challenge was to make a card featuring 'Transport'. Cupcake Challenge was a sketch which I have rotated and made square- very square in fact! The stamp is Jolly Nation and the patterned paper is BasicGrey. I had fun experimenting with sponging ink around the edge of the rust card which is something I have not tried before but will definitely do again. I'm not a huge peel off fan but I think the 'Happy Retirement' works here because it matches the other gold elements. A square punch to fit these letter stamps was a good investment!

I'm very excited to say that one of my cards is in the showcase on Elzybells blog today- thanks Elizabeth.