Awards!

I am feeling lucky as I have been given 2 awards this week from my crafting friends. I have received the Kreativ Blogger award from Beryl and Ann W who are very talented ladies so it is an honour, thanks!

The rules for this award are as follows:

1. The winner may put the logo on their blog.
2. Put a link to the person who sent you the award.
3. Nominate 5 blogs.
4. Put links to their blogs
5. Leave a message for your nominees.

I would like to pass this on to the following people who inspire me as creations displayed on their blogs are wonderful:



Cazz
Annie
Jane
Deby
Jen



I hope you will accept ladies.

I received the Proximity award from Sue, Ann, Beryl, and Suzanne but I am really struggling to find anyone who doesn't already have this award so I will say if anyone on my blog roll/SBS Group would like the award, please do take it and pass it on!

This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind blogger’s aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight blogger’s who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

Pink Petticoat Christmas Card

Here is my latest card using Pink Petticoat products which are lovely and always print out perfectly with true colours. The image is from the Lola Rose Occasions set and the papers are from the Doodleicious Christmas Rainbow download kit. The pretty colours I used are Duck Egg Blue and Milk Chocolate.

I coloured the image with markers and Sakura glaze and stardust pens. I used a Hot Off The Press snowflake stamp inked with Stampin Up brown ink in the background and on the blue card mat behind the sentiment. The words were cut from the brown PP paper and mounted onto card.

I cut out one of the larger flowers from the blue snowflake paper and layered it with a larger shape cut from the brown cardstock (Coredinations) and a tiny punched flower from the brown text paper, all fastened together with a Poppicrafts brad. I think the brown ribbon was off a present last year. I attached the finished embellishment to my card using Fastenater staples.

Competition Entries

I haven't been in the mood for crafting this week (again!) but quite miss blogging so I have decided to post pictures of 2 items I made recently for competitions.

The arch is for Sugar Lump Studios "Yuletide" Gothic Arch Contest at Gothic Arches. I think the closing date for entries is this weekend. I used Glimmer Mist for the background plus a vintage santa stamp and the cute little boy is from a collage sheet by Lisa's Altered Art.

The card was made using stamps from Elusive Image's Madonna themeplate (madonna & child, star and trees for the corners of my triangular shaped card. I also used sparkly embossing powder, irridescent spray inks, my Cuttlebug embossing folder, jump rings, rub ons and Glossy Accents. This particular card was my entry for the Graphicus Website October Card Competition and although I did not win a prize I enjoyed entering and the winning card is just gorgeous. Here is a link so you can see it.

Silhouette Arch

Here is my arch for the latest Gothic Arches challenge, where the theme was silhouette. I have used the same stamp for the large embossed image and the small image inside the heart - Elusive Images 'Let Your Heart Sing' themeplate. The large image is heat embossed in gold and the small one is stamped with black Stazon and embossed with clear EP. I then rubbed over the heart shape with a stylus inked with gold and blue inks. I finished the arch by threading blue and gold feathers through a gold eyelet.

This Thursday, It's All About Marvelous Metallics

Don't worry it really is Sunday (all day!) not Thursday but this latest card is for This Thursday's challenge (to use metallic elements on your project).

I started with a cream card blank, stamped the image (Chapel Road Stamps) and swirls (HOTP), then added copper Stickles to the hair ornament. I rubbed the card with some Versafine Sepia ink, added a strip of DCWV paper and Dovecraft metallic ribbon down the left hand side.

I stitched round the image with metallic thread to make a frame and finished the card off with a style stone embellishment which was made by rubbing Autumn Gold Rub N Buff onto the frame. I stuck a leftover piece of the DCWV paper inside, which I covered with Glossy Accents.

I have had those style stones for ages but never got round to using them until now!

Owl Get Well Card

It seems like ages since I made a card, just not been in the right frame of mind but OH asked me to make this for someone he knows so it had to be something simple......lovely owl graphic from Joanna Sheen's Jayne Netley Mayhew CD mounted onto Anna Griffin Sierra cardstock with a Sierra bird sticker down the right hand side. I added the words in Photoshop. I have lots of cards I need to do so I hope I get the motivation from somewhere very soon!

Shabby Chic Tilda Card (Joanna Sheen Forum Challenge)

I really enjoyed making this card today for the Joanna Sheen Forum Challenge where the theme this week was 'shabby chic.' I am not sure why but that always makes me think of muted blues and creams so those are the shades I chose for my card.

All the papers and cardstock are Anna Griffin except for the blue ovals behind the frame and Tilda, those are Coredinations which have been embossed with Cuttlebug Swiss Dots, then sanded. I found it quite difficult to distress the lovely blue dotty paper but it was too bright so I got stuck in and found it quite therapeutic! The finishing touches were Anna Griffin gold ribbon and bow to which I added some tiny gold beads, a tiny blue organza bow for Tilda's ponytail and a Poppicrafts daisy and brad. I then added a rub on sentiment and added clear glaze to parts of the flowers on top of the frame.

I watercoloured Tilda with Lyra crayons and some pearly paints.

Mojo Surfing!

When I came across another challenge site which is new to me - This Thursday It's All About - I was intrigued to see their latest challenge was Mojo surfing. That mystified me initially but I read the explanation and clicked on one of the blog links on the challenge site 'Altered Art & Stuff' and followed 5 further blog links, ending up at Dutch Stamptramp's blog. Nellie has some wonderful colourful work on her blog covering a wide variety of styles so I thought I would take my inspiration from her and try to create something using various techniques.

My main image of the vintage lady with Christmas presents is from Joanna Sheen's Fashion Boutique CD. I mounted the image onto a handcut tag made from green cardstock spritzed with Black Cherry Glimmer Mist over a Glimmer Screen. I also added some purple paper embossed with the Cuttlebug Script folder to my tag after inking it with Versafine Purple ink. I used my Cropadile to punch and set the eyelet and threaded through some burgundy ribbon.

I then inked a rectangular piece of cardstock with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Tattered Rose and Versafine Purple, rounded the corners and stuck on a piece of patterned paper I made by spritzing it with Green Glimmer Mist. I distressed this paper with the Tattered Rose inkpad and randomly stamped snowflakes with Versafine Purple ink. I mounted my tag onto the 2 colour mat using foam pads and attached it to my deep purple base card with foam tape.

I stamped the sentiment onto a leftover piece of card I had used for the tag using Versamark heat embossed in Copper to finish off my card.