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.