Strawberry Cutie...

Cute Card Thursday have 'Let's get Fruity!' as their theme this week. I knew I didn't have any fruity stamps so I went to my paper downloads and found this lovely freebie which I got from Papercraft Inspirations which sparked loads of ideas. (This same set helped me out ages ago when Cute Card Thursday had bright citrus colours as a theme and I made this card.)

I loved the colours, scallops and dots so I decided to base my card on these. My scallop scissors have never seen so much use! The little girl is Jolly Nation and has been coloured with brushmarkers- it would have been so much easier to do the dots red but I tried both out on a test stamp and this looked so much better that I knew I had to go for it! The flower and leaves are cut from felt using my Sizzix and echo the flowers in the paper and on her hat.

Making this reminded me so much of when I was a little girl. My parents loved strawberries and we used to go to a fruit farm in Lydiate right from the start of the season when they just had a few punnets on sale from the back porch of the house. When the season started properly they sold the strawberries from an ancient stone barn with a really low doorway. No matter how warm it was outside it always felt cool in there.

A Harry Potter birthday card...

I bought this Woodware 'Wizardry' clear set ages ago, it was something I really wanted at the time but when I got it I just was not inspired about how to use it! We went to see The Half-Blood Prince at the weekend and it got me thinking about this set!

Stampin' for the Weekend have masking as their challenge and I decided to try masking this set to make a scene. I used the Post-it note method which took a bit of thinking about! You have to stamp the foreground first then cover them with masks cut from stamped post-it notes to stamp objects behind. So I stamped and masked the cauldron and the yellow bottle, then stamped the other two bottles behind. Finally I added the wand and stamped the owl on a scrap to cut out. It has all been watercoloured with brushmarkers. The outside sentiment came from the same set and the inside one was a clear stamp I had made from a Potter type font.

The layout comes from the Pink Elephant sketch and was a nice clean one to work with. The papers are another of the fantastic free downloads from Summertime Designs. They come from the Happy Halloween set and I put them with Burgundy cardstock to give Gryffindor colours! The inside is actually a label design which is part of the download and just needed sizing, printing, stamping and cutting out!

Hello

Cupcake Craft have 'green, pink and brown' as their colours and 'animals and flowers' as a theme. I took a look at all the free download kits I have been getting from Summertime Designs and chose these fab papers from her Angel Mother set which include all these colours and flowers. The little dog image is Elzybells and is coloured with prismas and sansodor. The photo does not pick it up but the nose and the little caterpillar have been picked out with glossy accents.

I made the felt flowers with a Sizzix Originals die and some felt from the market- bargain! Chrisma Cardz have 'Tag it!' as their challenge so the greeting has been stamped onto a tiny tag, also cut with my Sizzix.

I followed the lovely sketch at Spoon Full of Sugar. I hope it was ok to take a few liberties with it- I used an oval because it fitted my stamp better and grouped the 3 flowers.

I am going to send this card to my lovely friend Helen with some new home images she needs inside so I made a simple pocket to hold them in the post. When I printed my papers I forgot to put in my special paper so it started printing on out cheapy standard stuff- much pressing of 'cancel' and a few naughty words later I had a little strip of paper which came in handy for decorating the inside!

Inspired by some fab free download papers!

I don't remember where I found the link to this fabulous blog, sorry, but you have to have a look at these fabulous free downloads by Summer Driggs at Summertime Designs, they are just gorgeous and she has provided them all free for personal use- Thank you for sharing these fantastic designs Summer.

I have downloaded lots of sets but was particularly drawn to this Limeade set because they are colours that I would not normally use but look fantastic together on these papers. Now I am no IT expert and my husband gets sick of sorting out things related to cardmaking! But where there's a will there's a way, so I set about trying to work out how to size the quilt paper perfectly for the front of the card- I used Photoshop and changed the image size to 14.5cm and printed! I have to admit I was quite pleased with myself and can just hear him saying 'see you can do it if you just have a go'!

I decided to follow Secret Crafter's Saturday Challenge recipe which was: 3 buttons, 2 design papers and 1 ribbon. I knew I had this black spotty grosgrain ribbon in my stash which was perfect but I thought I would struggle to find suitable buttons. Could not believe my luck when I came across these fab buttons in just the perfect colour in a sample pack from an old goodie bag! I decided to stitch them on because I did not want to see any glue with them being see through- don't tell the family, you can wait an age to have a button sewn on in this house normally!

I used black as a card base so needed to line the inside to give me somewhere to write. I had used 2 design papers on the front so I used a piece of pearlised white paper and stamped the edges to create a border.

Yellow and black- not colours I often put together!

Papertake Weekly have a take-your-pick colour combi as their challenge this week. I have been looking at the colour choices for a few days now and then it suddenly struck me- I made this card a couple of weeks ago to thank the man who has run a Multi-skills club at my son's school but not posted it before! It did not fit any challenges at the time and I was beginning to wonder if it ever would! I am entering this because it is YELLOW and BLACK.

I painted the Jolly Nation football boy with brushmarkers using the colours of the school PE kit, adding the school logo to the top! He is 3D over a chalked background, mounted with some textured yellow and some mirri embossed with stars. I then stamped some more yellow with the 'You're a star!' sentiment and the two stars from the Playtime clear stamp set from Woodware. The sentiment is from my ever-trusty Elzybells clear greetings.

Butterfly wings- and a pigeon!

I love this paper so much, and had printed off more than I needed for my last card, so I decided to use it again today. The paper is a free download from Raspberry Road and as Stamp Something had 'bugs, butterflies and other winged somethings' as their theme I started with the gorgeous butterfly paper. The image is a Gorjuss Girl from Sugar Nellie and I think you can just tell from the picture that she is cut out and popped on 3D foam, with her hands and the bird stuck flat.

I rotated the 'X on a sketch' layout from ABC and put it together, using mainly offcuts from the last card along with some ribbon and jewels from my stash.

It is a lovely sunny day here so I took this out to take the photograph. I use a mini tripod and the timer setting on my camera to avoid camera shake, however, a breeze got up as I had set the timer and my first photo was of the easel only!

Another 'Dancing Maggie' card!

After making Mary's retirement card I could not help myself from using this lovely Sugar Nellie stamp again! While finding the papers for my last card I also printed these out. They are a free download from Raspberry Road Designs and are great for this stamp because most sets include at least one tartan!

Pink Elephant have red, light blue and darker blue as their challenge this week and I am entering this even though my red is rather orangey! Hope I'm still allowed!

Cupcake Craft Challenges have 'blossoms and butterflies' as their theme. The large butterfly is cut from some of the paper I printed out and I can't believe the camera has actually picked up the sparkle I added with a stardust pen! The tiny flowers and the butterflies inside are made with punches. It has been a feature of my cards for a while now that I add a little stamped element to the back of my envelope if I have anything suitable. I was having a clear plate made up a while ago so I added lots of tiny stamps taken from dings to fill in any spaces- waste not want not! This butterfly is one of those.

I followed the sketch on Friday Sketchers for this card, drawing around a side plate for my circle!

Stampin' for the Weekend had some song titles for inspiration this week. I chose 'Tangled up in Blue' for this card because it fits nicely with my colour scheme.

This card is now on its way to my dear friend Helen who I've known since college and had to leave in Kent when we moved to Yorkshire. Happy Birthday Helen! Hope it gets there on time!

Scottish dancing retirement card.

I have been at the school where I work part time for four years now and it will be all-change next year because two of the three teachers that I work with are retiring. When I saw this stamp I had to have it for Mary's card- even though she has lived in Huddersfield for years now she is still a strong Scot and enjoys Scottish dancing which we had great fun trying to teach the children once! The place won't be the same without her.

I have never played along with The Sugar Bowl challenge before because I have only just bought my first four Sugar Nellies, but I have been dying to get the chance because I have been really busy with school stuff since I got them! I finished school on Wednesday with being part time so was able to have my first real crafting session in ages and this is what I made from the sketch with the 'please include' of ribbons and/or bows.

The design papers are all from a free download by Raspberry Road Designs. I paper pieced the kilt then coloured the rest of her with brushmarkers. The sentiment is made from my favourite Elzybells clear set which covers so many occasions!

A card for my Husband.

I am such a last minute merchant sometimes. The only reason I am able to post this card is because I photographed it after I gave it to him this morning! I have been making other cards since I last put one on here too, but they were all for immediate posting or they would have been late! I will try to make similar ones to put up over the next couple of weeks as I was quite pleased with them.

The light blue leather effect cardstock has been stamped with a fish and the sentiment from a CDs set using Versamark to give the tone on tone effect. Love that sentiment- it was why I bought the set! I also sponged darker blue ink around this layer and the oval mat.
The image is Personal Impressions clear and is coloured with Prismas and Sansodor. I had a bit of trouble with the Stazon smudging into the colours when I used the Sansodor which, I think, was caused by the card I stamped on- Any ideas?
The stamp already had some stitching detail on the pockets so I carried this on with faux stitching so I am entering this into Cute Card Thursday as their theme is 'A stitch in time'.
I followed Papertake Weekly's sketch so am making a very late entry into this challenge also!

Told you I was a last minute merchant!!!

Can I pick your brains ?!!

Can you recommend a UK supplier of custom clear stamps from your own designs?

A couple of years ago I got some custom clear stamps made by a company in Scotland and have been really pleased with them. Sadly my 'Handmade by Tillymint' has become damaged as it has been heavily used- on every card I make! When I went back to the company's website tonight they had stopped trading, so I was wondering if any of you could recommend a company that makes clear stamps to your own designs in the UK? Please leave me a comment if you can help.

Thank you.