Papertake Weekly/Spoon Full of Sugar

My lovely goodies from Roses on Paper arrived today, all the way from Hawaii!! And it was a lovely surprise to find a few extra yummy things that I hadn't even ordered!! How generous is that!

I had to use my new BG Bittersweet papers for this card. I followed Lim's great sketch from this weeks Spoon Full of Sugar challenge and also followed the Papertake recipe of one circle, two ribbons and three stamps. I mirrored the sketch and was very pleased to find that Tilda just about fits in my largest nesties circle! I coloured her with my new Tombow pens which I also used to create the shading around the circle. I masked the hearts that Tilda is blowing and replaced them with the little butterfly which is coloured with a glitter pen.

My darling husband has just come home from work with a Cadburys creme egg just for me so I'm going to enjoy that with a cup of tea while I do a bit of blog hopping.

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Friday Sketchers

This must be one of the quickest cards I've ever made. I think because it's for a man (it's my father-in-laws birthday at the weekend) I haven't used many embellishments or had to worry about where to put all the flowers I normally want to use! This is the first time this cute WOJ mouse has seen ink and I've stepped away from the distress inks for one evening and coloured him with Prisma pencils; I love the effect of these pencils when colouring animals. The papers are all Crate Paper and the only embellishments are the die cut Cuttlebug corner and three eyelets - don't look too closely the bottom one is wonky)!

And some existing news, Kellie at Magnolia Down Under has asked me to be their Guest Designer for April!

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Bling-tastic!

This card is for two challenges; a new Australian Magnolia challenge blog which I found thanks to Mina, and this weeks ABC Challenge which is on G for Glitter.

I've made this card a bit smaller than normal (14cm x 14cm). The glittery DP is by Imaginisce. I added a punched strip along the bottom for Tilda to sit on. She has been coloured with distress inks and I'ved added one of my new Papermania sentimentswhich just fits on her tag. I remembered to punch out the hole in her tag this time! To make the glittered flourish I stuck some double-sided Aslan to pink card, used my Sizzix die to cut the shape and then covered it with pink glitter. My new paper roses arrived today so I edged some of the petals with stickles and stuck them to punched flowers which I've doodled on with a green glitter pen. Oh, and there are shiney gem stickers in the centre of the punched small pink flowers.

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A card for Easter

Dawny P has created a lovely sketch for this weeks Papertake Weekly challenge and this week the Spoon Full of Sugar girls want to see a card for Easter. I don't have any Easter sentiment stamps but I think this could still be given as an Easter card. I stamped Tilda onto watercolour paper and then cut the square, shaping it around her. She is coloured with distress inks and I used chalks around the edges of the square. I love this butterfly stamp (not only because it cost just 99p!). I stamped it directly onto the watercolour paper and then paper pieced it using the same Making Memories DP.

I'm guilty of a bit more online shopping today. I spent my Roses on Paper gift voucher (although the postage from the US used up almost half the $15)! and then ordered myself some lovely paper roses. But THAT IS IT. I really have to stop spending for a while!!

A quick "wave" to Chris (Dark). It was lovely to see you again on Saturday!!

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Four challenges - one card

I've had the busiest of weeks which has meant no time for crafting. I did however take the day of work on Tuesday to visit the Crafts U Love store. I had a lovely time browsing around and came home with some lovely bits.

I've managed to fit four challenges into this card! I've used this weeks Friday Sketchers layout, added flowers for the ABC challenge, and the colours fit this weeks WOJ and Cupcake challenges. I've coloured my favourite WOJ image with distress inks and used a Tombow brush pen to add a bit of shadow. I got these gorgeous papers at Crafts U Love and are from the Bo Bunny collection. I used my new retro punches for the flowers and added some ribbon loops and skeleton leaves behind them. The sentiment is by Papermania, stamped on a Woodware punched tag.

Tomorrow I'm off to the Craft Barn to spend a bit more money and hopefully get to have a chat with Christine who will be there demonstrating.

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Inky Impressions 1st Design Team Call

Nicole is starting up her own stamp company called Inky Impressions and is looking for a Design Team. The images I have seen are super cute so I'm entering the 'call' with these two cards which are my favourite recent cards.

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Cute Card Thursday - Guest Designer

There is a great recipe to follow for this weeks Cute Card Thursday challenge: 1 item torn or ripped, 2 papers & 4 embellishments. I've used my new Mimosa stamp. I stumbled across these stamps when I was blog hopping and they are absolutely adorable. They are from a Swedish company, Bildmalarna (their website is in English). There is a gorgeous range of stamps available and the delivery was really quick. I stamped her onto watercolour paper cut with my new nesties (love these!) and coloured her with distress inks. The papers are from the BG Two Scoops range and the dotted piece is torn along the top, albeit quite neatly using a ruler! Unfortnately most of it is hidden under the image and flowers. My 4 embellishments are ribbon, buttons, brad and flowers and I went a bit flower mad on this card but it's a card for Thomas to give one of his Nana's on Mothers Day and so deserved a lot of flowers I think!

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Truly Scrumptious Challenge #3

This week DT member Beth has set the challenge. She has designed a brilliant sketch and asked us to put something shiny on our cards.

For my card I used one of my Pink Gem stamps. Janet is sponsoring our challenge this week and the winner will get one of her fab new Fairy Sprinkles stamps. I coloured Mimi with distress inks and then cut her out and mounted her in front of a panel stamped with the new Magnolia Springtime tree. I decided against a solid circle and cut a ring instead using my nesties and then added some punched retro flowers. Each flower has a shiny gem sticker in the centre and I added a butterfly charm for a bit more shine! The papers are Crate Paper and the sentiment is from Woodware.

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Friday Sketchers for Mothers Day

This is my 4th and final Mothers Day card! I've used one of my new stamps from Bilmalarna which I've coloured with distress inks and layered the flowers, watering can and hair bow. The papers are BG Urban Prairie. It's a nice simple sketch on this weeks Friday Sketchers blog which is good because this stamp is quite bit!

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Magnolia vs Stampavie

I haven't done one of these challenge for ages and there is a lovely sketch to follow this week. I used some K & Co papers which I thing go really well with the Sarah Kay images. I've coloured my image with distress inks and used a pale blue Tombow pen to put a bit of shadow around her and also around the edges. To soften the edges of the circle I used stitching with embroidery thread, punched and Prima flowers and a piece of a Sizzix flourish decorated with a few blue gems. The lace and ribbon are from my stash.

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Friday Sketchers

My postman brought me two lovely packages today; my Easter Magnolia stamps and two retro flower punches (thanks for helping me find these Debbie!) I've followed the Friday Sketchers sketch and used just one DP from My Minds Eye with some hot pink and green cardstock. Tilda is coloured with watercolours and distress inks, the sentiment is from Hero Arts and I've trimmed pieces of a large Sizzix die to create the flourishes. I'm also entering this card in this weeks Stamp Something challenge where your card should be inspired by a favourite something and tulips are my favourite flowers.

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Lavender and Lace

This is my entry for this weeks WOJ challenge. While I was blog hopping the other day I came across Anita's blog. If you have a spare minute you must visit and enjoy the gorgeousness of her creations, but be prepared to be there a while! Anita has created a fantastic little box and very kindly has put the template on her blog, so I though I would give it a go. It was third time lucky on cutting it out right (although I'm not sure why because its not that hard!). I had to modify the shape for the top and bottom and used some thin card which I covered in Crate Paper.

I wrapped lace around the box and then sewed on tiny lavender and pearl beads using invisible thread. I stamped my WOJ image onto watercolour paper and then used Dusty Concord distress ink to shade the paper and also to stamp some flourishes in the corners. I coloured her with distress inks, adding a bit of green for interest.

The flowers are all Woodware punches with tiny gems added to the centre and I added some wire and ribbon. My labels Nesties arrived today so I used one for the inside of the lid and another two for the bottom of the box. All tied up with a satin ribbon. I'm really pleased with how this turned out and will definitely make one of these again.

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Cute Card Thursday - Guest Designer

I was thrilled to be asked to be the Guest Designer for this weeks Cute Card Thursday challenge. When I heard the theme was Food & Drink I knew I would use my new Magnolia muffin stamp and after playing around with a few ideas I decided to make this 'box in a bag'. You can get the instructions for making this bag from Splitcoast Stampers - its very straightforward to make. I used bazzil cardstock for the base and my favourite Crate Paper for the bag. I don't have a tag punch so instead I cut 4 circles with my scalloped nesties, punched a hole through them and then stuck them to the top of the bag for the handles.

I also made a matching tag. I used the same DP to paper piece the muffin case, and the reverse of the paper to paper piece the bow. All the colouring is done with distress inks and for the icing I used 'fluffy up stuff' (I can't remember its proper name) and while it was still warm, pressed in some seed beads.

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Truly Scrumptious Challenge #2

I can't believe it's time for our second challenge already! There were so many entries for our first challenge which was very exciting. This week there is another sketch for you to follow but we also want to see some handmade buttons on your card. This is the sketch for you to use:

And here is my card;

Sketching Stamper Digi Stamps (Christine Dark) is our sponsor this week and I've used one of her images 'Pretty Window' for this card. I coloured the image with distress inks and then cut a frame from a scalloped nestabilities rectangle. I cut another frame exactly the same size which I put on top with sticky fixers.

Tilda is coloured with distress inks and stuck to the raised frame. The DP is by Crate Paper and is actually the back of a doublesided sheet. I stamped some Inkadinkadoo flourishes with Versamark and then embossed with silver powder. The buttons are made from fimo clay. I used two colours, one of which has some glitter in. I'm quite pleased with how they turned out.

Remember you have two weeks to enter this challenge so pop over to the Truly Scrumptious blog now and take a look at the fantastic cards that the other DT members have created.

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Some exciting news!

Denise at Whimsy Stamps has asked me to be a Guest Designer for her rubber stamp company. It took me a mili-second to accept!! I'm so excited to be asked and I'm looking forward to working with a fantastic team of talented designers.

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Spring Showers

It's actually blowing a gale outside at the moment but it was a mild spring day when I coloured this image yesterday!! I've followed this weeks Mojo Monday sketch and the card also qualifies for A Spoon Full of Sugar challenge which is torn edges. The colours on this card are VERY bright! the DP is by Bo Bunny and I've used bright pink, purple and green Coredinations cardstock for matting.

The WOJ image is not new but she's new to me and was lovely to colour. I've used distress inks and also layered the top of the umbrella to add a bit of dimension. I then added tiny drops of diamond glaze to the raindrops and umbrella to look like water droplets; they're just visable on the close up picture. I think the paper is too busy to add flowers but I have added a Cuttlebug corner swirl.

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