WORKSHOP CANVAS

Today was my first day at work (new job)...very enjoyable but bit of a culture shock after being out of work for 5 months! I may not have time to do much crafting and/or posting this week so I thought I would show a picture of the canvas I made at Sue Roddis's workshop on Saturday (at Paddy's Stamping Place). It was great fun to do as I have never worked with copper before and I love my finished canvas thanks to Sue's fabulous design ideas. I am looking forward to using the techniques I learned at the workshop in my cardmaking and maybe to make another canvas.

Good Luck Card

Today I made this card for my friend who has just got a new job and it is also my entry for the current Cute Card Thursday 'Metallica' challenge. The girl stamp is from the Kerri Jo set by Debbie Moore Designs, the word stamps are by HOTP, the small flower and frame stamps are by Papermania (Sweet Nothings set). For my base card I used Ranger Nick Bantock yellow and pink inks and Versafine black for the rest of the stamping. I coloured the girl with brush marker pens and fastened her to the frame using a Tim Holtz Ideology swivel clasp from Paddy's Stamping Place. I finished the card off with floral gems and fibres.

Blog Candy - New Elusive Images Stamps

If you pop over to the Elusive Images Design Team blog and leave a comment under the blog candy alert post you could win one of these lovely new themeplates.

Colour Create Challenge Card

I thought it was about time I made another card and here it is....not sure I like it now but it's my attempt at Colour Create's first challenge (pink, green & brown + butterflies). I made the stripey ink background with Stampin Up Sage Shadow & Close to Cocoa, plus Pearl Orchid Brilliance and Cactus Green Stazon. The tree is Paper Artsy Squiggly Ink and the cute fox is by Imaginisce and he is coloured with Promarkers. The scallop frame is made from chipboard stamped with a text print and inked with green and pinky brown. I finished my card with eyelets and ribbon.

AWARDS

It's lovely to receive awards but oh so difficult to select just a few fellow bloggers to pass them on to as my list of favourite blogs grows each day.

Thanks so much to Ann for passing on the Kreativ Blogger 2 award....your blog is a constant source of inspiration and wonder Ann. The rules for this award are to list your 7 favourite things and pass the award on to 7 people (lots of thinking involved there!) so here goes.....

1. Family & Friends
2. Crafting
3. Dogs
4. Birds & Wildlife
5. The Sea
6. My PC
7. Ice cream

I would like to pass this award on to the following people who have some stunning creations on their blogs:

1. Sandy
2. Annie
3. Chris
4. Jenny
6. Lana
7. Rubymay

I was also lucky enough to receive the Beautiful Blog award from both Cynthia and Jane. The rules for this award are to pass it on to 5 people who have inspired you and made your blog what it is. I just wish I could give it back to Cynthia and Jane as they fall into that category. However, after much thought, I would like to pass this award on to:

1. Wendy (for inspiring me to set up a blog and explaining how to do it!)
2. Phree

3. Janette

4. Anesha

5. Marlene

GRAPHICUS JANUARY CHALLENGE

Well I have finally had some time to relax and craft as the pressure is off a little since the job offer on Thursday. Hopefully I will get written confirmation soon. Here are the items I have made for the new Graphicus monthly challenge, using inks, stamps and embellishments from the Graphicus online store.

The colour scheme challenge is plum and gold and my entry is a pendant and bracelet set made from stampbord. I have used various inks in shades of plum and gold (Black Cherry Glimmer Mist, Pearlescent Purple & Galaxy Gold Brilliance, Colorbox Cats Eye, Royal Purple Stazon) with stamps from the new Elusive Images Harlequin Rose themeplate, plus ribbon, wire and beads from my stash.

For the Celebrate challenge I decided to make a new baby card in vibrant colours as a change from the traditional pastels. The mother and child is from the Elusive Images Madonna & Trees themeplate (minus the halos!) stamped onto white card using a Kaleidacolor Baby Powder inkpad. I then rubbed Glimmer Chalks over the stamped image and mounted it onto a piece of card, which also started off white before I spritzed it with Black Cherry, Sunflower and Candy Apple Glimmer Mists, and ran it through the Cuttlebug with the D'Vine Swirl embossing folder. The stamped image and mats are fixed to the base card with foam tape to add dimension.

To make the flowers I again took white card and used Versamark ink to stamp patterns from the Elusive Images Texture Blocks themeplate and heat embossed them with clear powder. I sprayed the stamped patterns with Glimmer Mists (previously mentioned colours plus Jazz Blue and Meadow Green) and when dry I removed the clear powder with an iron to leave a flat surface on the cardstock. I then used my Cuttlebug to die cut the flowers on the right side of my card. These are layered and differ in height but it's difficult to tell from my photo.

To finish off my card I added a Creative Acrylics new baby sentiment coloured with Glimmer Chalk, threaded onto Maya Road Soho Candy ribbon together with a Candy Paisley slide.

HOUSE MOUSE ATC

Unfortunately I haven't had much time this week for crafting but I did manage to squeeze in an ATC, which I hardly ever make due to struggling with the smaller format. Luckily this House Mouse stamp is a good size for an ATC and fits in nicely of course with the latest House
Mouse challenge, which is to make an ATC!

DOTTIE'S WORLD 'AVE A LAUGH CHALLENGE CARD

Here is my card for Karen's challenge at Dottie's World, which this week is to use something funny on your card or project. Hopefully the sentiment is legible....handwriting isn't one of my talents! I used Coredinations and Papermill Shop cardstock, Poppicrafts ribbon and We R Memory Keepers eyelets. I made the stage background with a graphics programme and Dottie (downloads available from Charmed Cards & Crafts) is coloured with Promarkers. Sorry the scan isn't that great but the writing was blurred on the photos I took.

Caardvarks Sketch Challenge Card

Well this has to be a first for me....TWO posts in one day!!!!! After doing a looooooong job search online and applying for 2 more I had some time on my hands and decided to make a card. I spotted a great sketch on Caardvarks latest challenge and just had to have a go. I enjoyed making this and used Coredinations & Papermill Shop card stock, Pink Petticoat paper, a flora doodle wild rose, Doodlebug letters, Papermania & Poppicrafts ribbon. I can't remember where the round silver frame is from. It did have parchment inside but I took that out and fastened the ribbon around it. The butterfly brad is also from Poppicrafts and I think the silver flower was a magazine freebie. The button brad is from HOTP, that much I do know! The embroidered flowers were my colour inspiration for this card. I have had the embroidered swatch for ages and found it by accident when unjamming a craft drawer!

Quick Post!

I am really disappointed that I haven't been able to visit my favourite blogs and see what everyone is up to lately but I haven't been on the PC much due to hurting my back last Friday. I am really supposed to be online now applying for jobs but I couldn't resist opening another window and posting on here. It's just a quick post but when I have finished with the boring but necessary stuff I am looking forward to seeing everyone's latest creations. In the meantime here is a card I made for a friend's Christmas birthday.

I got the beautiful Stampsmith Ophelia stamp from Graphicus. She is stamped with Sepia Versafine and matted onto Artylicous butterfly paper. I just added blue organza ribbon threaded through some white paper lace which I inked to make it look more vintage.

At least I have some good news.....just got a letter confirming a job interview on 22nd January. I am really pleased as that is only the 2nd interview in spite of all the job applications I have sent out in the past 3 1/2 months since I was made redundant!

More Roses!

Here are my final 2 (for now) harlequin rose cards....this time minus the glimmer as these are coloured with various inks and paints after clear heat embossing the stamped image. I have used Coredinations cardstock again as I love it, not just for the novelty of the paler core, but the wide range of colours is excellent and they are all fabulous shades!

More Glimmer!

Here is another card using glimmer mists and the Harlequin rose stamp by Elusive Images. The frame on the sentiment is also an Elusive Images stamp, I just added the words. The embossing is courtesy of my Cuttlebug and the green cardstock is Coredinations. I think the ribbon is by Anna Griffin. This card is for a friend's birthday and I must make the insert NOW! (hate doing inserts).

GLIMMER MIST ROSE

Today I was bored and fed up to say the least so I got out the papers I sprayed with glimmer mist last week and used some of them to make cards. Here is one I made from paper sprayed with Creme de Chocolat and thanks to Wendy for reminding me to enter the new Craft Stamper Challenge - Get Glam with Glimmer!

The image is stamped in Sepia Versafine and it is from the lovely new Elusive Images Harlequin Rose themeplate which I believe will be generally available soon (this was a Graphicus Guild member's offer).

I used a very weak solution of pink and green glimmer mists to paint the petals and leaves, matted the image onto purple cardstock and tied matching ribbon around and used foam pads to stick it to my cream card blank.

The coffee coloured cardstock is Coredinations run through the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and I used the same coffee and purple card for the sentiment, simply cutting the lower edge with scallop scissors and adding 3 lilac gems. Sorry that I haven't done a very good job of capturing the glimmer mist shimmer in this photo (hence the 2 shots)!

New Baby Card

Here is a card I've just made for someone who has had a baby girl which is a good excuse to make a pink card! I used markers to colour in the stamped image, Glossy Accents, heart punch and various ribbons to make the bows, oh and Safmat for the sentiment!

CHRISTMAS WISHES

Wishing all my friends a very happy and peaceful Christmas whatever your plans are, whether you are surrounded by family or spending time alone. My thoughts are particularly with anyone who is missing a loved one at this time of year.

Baby Boy Card

Just made this card with Louly's wonderful new Girls About Town collection . I used the ready coloured image for the shop and coloured Adele, her pram and the punched teddies with Promarkers. The blue dotty paper is by Anna Griffin and the sentiment was made with one of the tags from Artylicous Damask Delights simply by typing in the sentiment and colouring over it with the pastel yellow marker.

Late As Usual!!!!

I do it every year.....leave my Christmas cards until the last minute as I really find it a chore making and sending them out, don't know why, I just do! Most of my cards this year were made either using the same vintage Santa stamp (black ink embossed in clear on white card or Versamark embossed in white on black cardstock), I really love this stamp!!!! or with the Cuttlebug tree folder, heat embossed with holographic powder. The black and white papers are by Kanban and the green & red is HOTP.

The odd one out isn't a Christmas card at all.....it's a birthday card for my brother in law made with Glimmer misted paper, Cuttlebug maple leaf die and Anna Griffin papers.

Arty Girlz Challenge - Favourite Medium

Here is my take on the latest Arty Girlz challenge #64. My favourite medium is definitely ink and I used it both direct to paper and to stamp onto this little house.

The chipboard house is by Crafty Secrets and, inspired by Helen Chilton's decorated house in Craft Stamper earlier this year, I decided this would be a fun thing to make for friends who have just moved house.

I used various shades of yellow, green and blue ink on the outside of my house (Colorbox cats eye chalk & Versacolor) and stamped over the top with black using an unknown tree stamp, text by Lost Coast Designs, and swirls by HOTP. The flower stamp was free with Craft Stamper and the leaves are from a set by Sassafras Lass. The house number sign was made with a bottletop, number stickers on a circle of inked cardstock covered with Ranger Glossy Accents.

I used the same stamps inside on top of a background created with shades of pink, yellow and lilac inks (Ranger Nick Bantock and Colorbox chalk inks).

Hearts

Today I made a card for the latest Cute Card Thursday Challenge which was to use hearts on your card. The cute stamp is from Sugar Nellie and it's from the new Leanne Ellis range entitled 'choose.' I used Versafine Purple ink to stamp and various Sakura and marker pens to colour in. I cut round the image with stamp edge scissors and matted it onto a slightly larger piece of purple card. The card and foam hearts were made with the Cuttlebug, as was the butterfly and the sentiment is by Papermania. I couldn't decide whether or not to add some gems to the hearts but thought maybe less is more!

New Pink Petticoat Papers

I recently bought the gorgeous new Pink Petticoat Big Swirls papers in the cream option and couldn't resist using the Milk Chocolate and Mocha on this card for a friend's birthday. It was also an excuse to submit another entry for Liz's prize draw to win a new Slice die cutting machine!

You also get the plain colours in this download so it's an easy way to get perfectly co-ordinated papers on a card. I used the plain Mocha paper as a frame for my fairy image, which is from Joanna Sheen's Pamela West CD. I printed it out in Sepia to go with these papers, added Doodlebug alphabet tiles in pink and a matching organza bow and finally edged the card with a gold Permatouch pen.

Family Birthday Cards

Here are my 2 latest cards. The woodpecker card is for my son's birthday (he is 28 today) and the red and white doggy card was for my husband's birthday yesterday.

The woodpecker image is a Joanna Sheen stamp coloured with lyra crayons. The tree pattern paper was made using Glimmer Mists over a Glimmer Screen.

The dog stamps are by various companies (2 unknown but the two on the right are by Magnolia and Penny Black). The only colour I used on the images was black marker and red Stickles as I wanted to keep it fairly simple.

Anniversary Cards

Today I made 6 cards and here are 3 of them, took ages as everything that could go wrong did go wrong!!!!! I am happy with these but there was a fair bit of waste due to stamping and embossing problems.

The cute little hedgehogs are from a set of Penny Black clear stamps and the celebrate stamp is from a Stampin Up set. The red dots were created using a small roller stamp. It was the first time I have used the wheel and oh boy did I make a mess, just couldn't get a straight row of dots without patchy bits for the life of me ....maybe there's a knack to it and I don't have it yet!

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.