"Born in the USA"...

This card really reminds me of that Bruce Springsteen song! Not really surprising seing as the papers came from an Independence Day digi scrapping kit- 'Freedom' by Summertime Designs. I made this card ages ago for my son's birthday but never got around to posting it on my blog. The layout matches the sketch at Papertake Weekly so I thought I would post it and enter this.

My first easel card...

...I know I'm miles behind everyone else to try this one but now I have I can see me making more!I have recently joined a housegroup at church and we were sharing out roles- one was to remember birthdays and get a card and cake so I volunteered! This is for Rachel as she mentioned getting some new plants for her garden at our last meeting.

It fits in with lots of challenges:

I have followed the great sketch at One Stop Craft. The colour combo of 'green + one' comes from My Time To Craft, my plus one is pink. The theme at Spoon Full of Sugar was 'springtime' and the papers I have used are called 'Sweet Springtime', also I think the little flower hints at the start of spring. The papers also fit with 'something old that's new' at OCC because I downloaded them from Summertime Designs months ago and have only just used them. The card is easel style which makes it multifold- the challenge at Secret Crafter. Finally, the ribbon is Pink Elephant's challenge and the brads fit with Cute Card Thursday's 'metal mania'.

Two Valentines for the men in my life...

...don't get excited! I mean my husband and my son!

This cheeky little number is for my husband. I thought I might be pushing it with the image AND the sentiment but it made him laugh when he opened it this morning! You see he is rather 'cuddly' and this Murray and Ethel image reminded me of him- in the nicest possible way! I love that Murray and Ethel sentiment too. We have always said "Do you love me?" and replied "I'm still here, aren't I!" so you get the picture of what we are like! The papers are a free (for personal use) download from Shabby Princess.This is for my son so it had to be boyish rather than the traditional Valentines colours. I found the right papers in a recent download which was a free collaboration called Dr Love from Collies Corner and Sweet Digi Scraps. 'Billy' images from Pink Cat Studio are perfect for him right now and this set has mini stamps for the center of the heart- I chose 'Hug me' because I love hugs from him and dread the day when he decides he is too big for them!

Not surprisingly, quite a few of the challenges have Valentines as their theme this week so I am entering these cards for My Time to Craft, Cute Card Thursday and Dutch Dare. Charisma Cardz has 'male' as their theme so I am also entering them both for this.

With Love...

I am mortified to see how long it is since I last put a post on here! December got mad busy at school because Year Two take the lead in the KS1 performance. It snowed on the last day of term and we don't seem to have really got rid of it properly since! You'd think that would have given me loads of crafting time but it put a real 'spanner in the works' in lots of ways, too numerous and boring to go into here. I love looking at snow through the window of a cosy house when I do not have anything that I have to do, but I am a real snow-wuss when it comes to driving on it or on ice. Like many of you, I'm sure, I am so glad that it is starting to go!

I have, however, found out that I am going to be working full time until at least Easter- I love my class and the extra money certainly comes in handy, but I cannot wait to get back to part-time and even my husband is realizing the advantages of me being part-time!
Anyway, enough of that and on to my card! Cute Card Thursday have 'pink and grey' as their colour combo this week so I printed off these Pink Petticoat papers to get me going. They have been on the side for a couple of days but I was determined to use them! I based my card on the sketch at Sketch Saturday and am quite pleased with how it came out, considering how rusty I am feeling! I just wish I had used the oval for the greeting the other way round or used a circle instead- it looks too tall like this. Oh well- never mind, it will have to stay like this now!

Singing in the rain...

My Time to Craft had 'Under my umbrella!' as their challenge so I dug out this Woodware clear set that I have not used for ages. I painted the image with a combination of watercolour pencils and pearlised watercolours, taking my colour pallette from the free download papers from Papercraft Inspirations. The layout comes from Friday Sketchers and was great for this card- giving me the perfect opportunity to use the umbrella charm.

Karate Kid!

This card has been made using the sketch at Charisma Cards this week. Cupcake Craft asked us to use either digi papers or images- all the DP for this card are from the lovely free download 'A year to shine' by Summer Driggs. 'Teen Terrors' was the challenge at Cute Card Thursday- I thought this image by Sugar Nellie would work for a teenager and that the star could have silver peel off numbers in it if needed.

Skateboard birthday...

Some of you may have read in my recent posts that I have just changed from working 2 days a week to full time teaching. Because my son has just gone back to school he had a couple of party invitations with very little notice because they were early September birthdays. I managed to find a card in my stash for the first but did not have a card for the second so *Shock, Horror* I decided that we would just have to buy one from Morrisons- well, the choice was dire and I just could not do it!!! So out came my stuff and, after saying I would keep it very simple, I got carried away and was still at it at 11.45pm! Sorry the photo is a bit dark but I took it at about 7am so he could take the card with him to school today!

This card hits loads of challenges, which is a good thing due to my lack of crafting time right now! The layout is from the Spoon Full of Sugar sketch and it was a really nice one for these papers and this card. The papers are from Shabby Princess and are a free download so long as you are not using them to make cards to sell. These papers cover:-
Cupcake Craft- red, white and blue
My time to craft- polka dot party
Our Creative Corner- stars and stripes (with the die cut star from the red paper)
Stamp Something have 'Favourite Stamp' as their challenge- hard one because I love all my stamps but Jolly Nation are some of the first stamps I bought and I still keep coming back to them. I love the simplicity and how they just seem to look like people you know! (They also had an option of die cuts which I hit with the star.) The image is coloured with watercolour pencils and a brush. The ABC challenge this week was 'D is for Die Cuts' so that is the sizzlet star! Last but not least, Allsorts had 'Something for the boys' which I was fine with because having a son I do have the stamps and get lots of practice. I think I will need to build up my stash of boys cards again to avoid more midnight crafting!

Cricketing Birthday card...

I needed a card for my cousin's son's birthday which is next week so decided to follow the Sketch Saturday sketch. I used the little cricketing teddy from Personal Impressions Clear sets as he is cricket mad. I coloured him with watercolour pencils, keeping the colours quite plain and matching the brown to the line in the argyle paper.

The design papers are all from a free download set called 'Fathers and fedoras' by Summertime Designs. Even the 'ribbons' are from there! I finished each one with a brad for boyish embellishment! I used a peal off for the greeting because I wanted it to stand out on the navy, unfortunately the 13 gets a bit lost on the patterned paper.

I decorated the inside simply with another piece of printed ribbon, a couple of die cut stars and a pocket to hold some money

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!

Something Yummy!

Charisma Cards have 'something yummy' as their theme so it gave me the perfect excuse to use this great Elzy stamp and Papermania's Scrumptious paper together. I followed a sketch from Friday Sketchers which was perfect for this wide, rather than tall, stamp. This card is 'A' style, by mishap not design!!! I realised I must have rotated it before sticking on the papers, luckily only once so the sketch still works. Now it's done I'm really pleased with it as it really suits the card and it's ages since I've done one like this!

Cute Card Thursday have 'quotations' as their theme. I'm not sure if this counts as it is not attributed to anyone but I like the message so I will enter it and see.

Yellow and Green Easter.

It's amazing how similar lots of the challenges are this week! I made this one for:-
Dutch Dare, Easter theme. Cupcake Craft #33, a sketch. PTW, a recipe- 1 circle, 2 ribbons, 3 stamps.
The image stamp is Elzybells from the pack I have just got in the post- expect to see more Elzy cards! The sentiment stamp is from a little Studio G set. The pattern on the circle is done with a large Whispers background stamp. The ribbons are both by Anita's. I left out the extra embellishments at the top left of the sketch because I wanted to keep the card clean and simple.

Blue Easter.

I made this card for my son. It also fits with 2 challenges. Pink Elephant have 'Easter' as their theme this week. Elzybells have a recipe- 1 piece of ribbon, a circle and an embellishment. I love this Elzybells stamp that I have just bought and so did my son which is why it is on his card! The gingham and polkadot cardstock are from a Pay-per-box. The ribbon and button are both Papermania. I was so chuffed when I found the button because I was beginning to struggle over the embellishment- I find it hard to know what to put on boys' cards. Hope he likes it!

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 :(

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.

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!

A winter birthday card.

I made this winter themed birthday card with a set of personal impressions clear stamps that I got for Christmas. They were a little bit 'sticky' to start with and it took me a few goes to get a clear print but I got there in the end and hopefully it will be better next time because I love the image. I teamed her up with some paper I got from Partners ages ago- still keeping that New Year's resolution! The strip is pearly purple and the mirror board has a leather like embossing which I thought added to the frostyness. The nesty is quite square and she looked a bit 'lost' in the middle so I made it snow by stamping snowflakes in pale blue and embossing them with holographic powder. The final touch was some ostrich wool that has some clear strands in it which pick up the light. It has just occured to me how like Dawny's sketch on PTW this is but I actually made it a few weeks back!