Whiff of Joy Challenge #41

I had a text from a friend yesterday to say that her baby boy has arrived!  I know her through the National Childbirth Trust classes we attended when I was pregnant with Thomas and we’ve kept in touch since then.  Her eldest is just a few days older than Thomas and I have to admit that having two children under the age of two sounds like extremely hard work!!

I love the WOJ wedding and baby collection and as we have a few friends who are expecting this summer it was the perfect excuse to buy this one image.   I mixed my distress ink colours again, using mustard seed and tea dye for the dress and dusty concord and faded jeans for the swaddling.  The challenge is to use flowers – easy peasy as I love my flowers!!  My big flower is made with 5 punched retro flowers and I curled the petals around a paint brush and then spritzed it with glimmer mist.   The papers are BG wisteria and I’ve just added some lace, pearls and dew drops. 

You will probably see this image again very soon as another friend is expecting a girl at any time!

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Blue & green should never be seen…..

unless there’s beauty in between.  Well I think this Mimosa image is very beautiful and I’m having so much fun as a guest designer for these gorgeous Bildmalarna stamps.  I’ve tried mixing my distress ink colours for this card and I’m pretty pleased with the result.  The fantastic layout is from this weeks Sketch Saturday challenge and this card also qualifies for the Secret Crafter challenge (recipe: 3 buttons, 2 papers, 1 ribbon) and the Creative Card Crew challenge (one for the girls).

Here’s a close up of the lovely Mimosa;

 

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Mimosa’s 2 flowers from Bildmalarna, Papermania sentiment

Colouring medium: Distress inks: Dress – Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Pine Needles; Skin – Tattered Rose, Tea Dye, Worn Lipstick; Flowers – Broken China, Worn Denim; Leaves – Shabby Shutters & Peeled Paint

Papers: Kanban Vintage Poppy card, My Minds Eye

Embellishments: Punched flowers, buttons, pearls, Cuttlebug corner die

Tools: Labels nesties, medium & small retro flower punches

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Whiff of Joy 1st Anniversary Blog Hop

Woo hoo, its Whiff of Joy blog hop time and I was so excited to be chosen by Katharina as one of the guests to take part in this blog hop.  If you've come here from Shaz's blog then yay... you're on the right track and you're very nearly at the end of the hop.  If not, then visit Katharina's blog to make sure you start of the blog hop from the very beginning.  I'd hate for you to miss any of the fabulous creations with these adorable new stamps.

And isn't this little fella just the cutest?!  I thought he would be perfect for a thank you card as soon as I saw him.

 
He's been coloured with distress inks and tombow pens and then I added a border with an Autumn Leaves border stamp.  All my cardstock is Coredinations but I'm sorry, I just can't remember the make of the DP as it's been in my drawer for such a long time.  The flowers are a mixture of Prima, paper roses and punches.  I made the opening a bit different after getting the idea while blog hopping.  And as this is a special occasion I decorated the inside too using the same paper and adding a pearl to the flower instead of a rose so that the card will close!!

Here’s a close up of this cute little elephant

I hope you’ve been leaving comments as you hop around the blogs because one pre-selected blogger will draw a random winner from the comments on her post and the winner will receive the complete new stamp collection!

So now you need to hop across to the next blog which is Nicole’s blog and you’re in for a treat when you get there because her work is stunning.

I hope to catch up with you at the PaperCraft Planet party later on!

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Just Magnolia

It’s been one of those weeks where I feel I’ve been so busy my feet haven’t touched the ground but at the same time I don’t seem to have got anything done!   So it was nice to have a couple of hours this evening to make a card.  I’ve used Tab’s lovely sketch on this weeks Just Magnolia challenge.  I think I’ve only used this image once before so it was definitely time to ink her up again.  She’s coloured with my usual distress inks and I used Tattered Rose and Worn Lipstick to add colour to the background. 

 

Here’s a close up of this sweet little Tilda;

We had a shopping trip to Bluewater yesterday where I bought these gorgeous Papermania Regency papers and the flowers, buttons and lace are from my stash.  I’m also going to enter this card in the Creative Card Crew challenge (polka dots) and Papertake Weekly (pink & green colour combo).

Don’t forget the Whiff of Joy blog hop tomorrow evening, you’re going to love the new stamps!

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Truly Scrumptious DT Card

A big thank you to everyone who took part in our challenge last week.  I really enjoy visiting so many blogs and its fantastic to look at cards that have been made with one of my sketches!! 

Our challenge this time is a fab sketch by the lovely Heather.

 

The extra challenge this time is to use beads on your card.  I made this card last week as we went to a wedding at the weekend and guess what, I forgot the beads!  And the card has already been given to the happy couple so I wasn’t even able to add them on after.  So a slapped wrist for me but the rest of the DT have done a fantastic job so do pop over to the TS Blog and take a look.

I just love this WOJ stamp, its so much fun to colour.  I used my usual distress inks for most of the image but used Tombow pens to colour the foliage and I think I chose the wrong shade of green as it doesn’t complement the paper very well.   The paper is Anna Griffin and I used pale grey Bazzil card for the base and Bazzil Bling to mat my DP and image onto. 

I hope you’ll be able to join in our challenge!

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Whiff of Joy Blog Hop & Anniversary Party

The 1st anniversary celebrations start on Katharina's blog at 7pm on 25th July with a blog hop which will finish at Papercraft Planet with a party. There will be prizes to be won along the way and Elizabeth Bell and Alison Acton will be joining the party to answer your questions.

So make sure you put the date in your diary and we'll see you at the party!

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The hardest cards to make

We had some bad news earlier  this week; my uncle died suddenly of a heart attack.  He had suffered with Parkinsons disease for the last 5 years but was coping well.  Last weekend he was taken into hospital with a chest infection and they kept him in as a precaution.  He was due to come home on Wednesday but died suddenly and unexpectedly in the early hours of Tuesday morning.   The funeral is next Thursday but I won’t be able to go so I’ve made my cousins a card each to let them know my thoughts will be with them.

I find it so hard to find the right words at times like this but I hope these verses will be a of some comfort to my cousins.

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A Just Magnolia card and my new look blog

What do you think of my new look?  My ‘old’ blog was looking very dull compared to everyone elses in blogland so I spent Saturday evening downloading this new template (link at the bottom of the blog) and reloading all my widgets.  I’m really pleased with it but I just need to find out how to amend the horizontal menu bar under the header.

We had a lovely weekend .  The weather yesterday was lovely (not what they forecast) so we went for a lovely walk with my parents, fed the ducks and enjoyed a huge ice cream. 

This card is for my mum (from Thomas).  I’ve used Mina’s fabulous sketch for this weeks Just Magnolia challenge.  There are a few new stash bits  on this card; flower soft and dew drops both of which I love and will be using a lot more of in the future.

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Magnolia, Papermania sentiment

Colouring medium: Distress inks (glitter pen on her wings)

Paper: Anna Griffin and Imaginisce (I think!!)

Embellishments: Prima and punched flowers, ribbon, dew drops, flowersoft, gem stickers

Tools: Oval nesties, MS lace doily punch

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A DT card and some exciting news!

The news first because I’m so excited I could burst! I’ve been chosen as one of the lucky 15 to be part of the Whiff of Joy Anniversary blog hop!! I did a little dance around the living room when I saw my name on Katherina’s blog. Now I can’t wait to receive my stamp!!

OK, deep breath and back to earth – this is a DT card for the gorgeous Bildmalarna Stamps. Isn’t this Mimosa just adorable? I’ve used this weeks sketch at Friday Sketchers to make a card for my Mums birthday. I’ve used one of my new Autumn Leaves border stamps which arrived this morning. These are fantastic, there are 9 stamps in the set and I’ve used one of the narrowest ones for this card.

I’m also going to enter this card in this weeks Next Level challenge which is buttons & bows.

Card Recipe:

Stamps – Mimosas Summer Day from Bildmalarna, Autumn Leaves border stamp, Papermania sentiment

Colouring Medium: Distress inks and tombow pens

Papers: Crate Paper Katlin collection

Embellishments: Prima flowers, Quickutz ‘Marisa’ alphabet, buttons and thread from stash

Tools: Quickutz Squeeze, corner rounder punch

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Stampavie DT Call

I really should have been doing some housework this lunchtime but Thomas tested my patience to the limit all morning so while he took a nap I decided on a bit of ‘me’ time and finished this card. I have an anniversary, a family birthday and a wedding all coming up in the next week so I’m on a mission to get all the cards done in time.

This is for my sister and brother-in-laws wedding anniversary this weekend. The layout was a lovely one to use – I definitely seem to prefer symmetrical sketches. There’s plenty of embellishments on this card, don’t think I could have fitted anymore on! And what a difference photographing the card in natural light! I really must try and do this every time.

I’m going to enter this card into several challenges:

Stampavie DT call, Creative Card Crew (Ribbons), Papertake Weekly (My Favourite Things), Spoon Full of Sugar (Hearts), Stamp with Stampavie (sketch)

Card Recipe:

Stamp: Sarah Kay “A Kiss for Chloe”

Colouring Medium: Distress Inks: Tattered Rose (skin), Worn Lipstick (Chloe’s dungarees), Tea Dye, Brushed Cordroy, Walnut Stain (hair, hats and boys dungarees)

Paper: Basic Grey Bittersweet

Embellishments: Paper roses (Wild Orchid Crafts), dress pins with added beads, ribbon, pearls

Tools: Oval nesties, MS lace doily punch, Leon-Em branch punch

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Truly Scrumptious Challenge

It’s time for another Truly Scrumptious challenge. It’s another sketch from me this time and the added theme is to make a card using only black, white and one other colour (excluding hair & skin).

This is the sketch

And here is my card

This card didn’t turn out exactly as I had pictured it in my head but I like it nonetheless! Daisy is coloured with distress ink and I used H2O’s for the flowers in her hair and the patches on her jeans. The rest of the card is very simple, I just added some ribbon and tulle under my flower as an embellishment.

I hope you will visit the Truly Scrumptious blog to see all the fab DT cards and join in our challenge.

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Whiff of Joy Guest DT Call

Katherina is looking for 15 people to become Guest DT members for a blog hop to celebrate WOJ’s first birthday.  To enter you need to make a card following the sketch on her blog. 

This is an unusual shape but I really like how its turned out.  I love this WOJ image, she is my all time favourite (so far!) and I’ve coloured her with distress inks.  I’ve layered the butterflies using card and vellum.  I wanted to spritz them with glimmer mist but it made the vellum go all curly so I started again and added some sparkle using a glitter pen. 

 

 

I’ve tried to show the dimension of the butterflies by taking a photo from a different angle.

 

 

 

 

My peel off markers came in handy again to colour the pearls and brad.

Now don’t fall off your chair but I’ve decorated the inside too!  I needed to really because of the shape of the front.  I kept it simple and added another butterfly.

 

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Whiff of Joy (Papermania sentiment)

Colouring medium: Distress inks – Pine Needles (trousers, belt and hairband) Spiced Marmalade (top), Fired Brick (flowers), Tea Dye & Walnut Stain (hair, shoes & basket)

Paper: My Minds Eye

Embellishments: Quickutz butterfly, Quickutz tag, pearls, silver dragonflies, Cuttlebug corner die

Tools: Circle & oval nesties, MS scallop punch

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Blog Candy Winner

Hi everyone, I'm pleased to announce the winner of my blog candy (chosen by Random.Org) is No. 37...................

Lovely Linda (Lovely Linda's Craft Central)

Congratulations Linda, please contact me with your address and I will send your goodies to you.

Thanks to everyone who joined in!

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BLOG CANDY!!!!

This post will stay at the top of my blog until 1st July.

Well my first blog candy giveaway is long overdue.  My plan was to post about this candy on my blog-anniversary which I thought was the end of June but when I checked it was actually 10th June!!  So its a few days late but better late than never eh?

So this is what I’ve got to give away to one lucky winner:

6 x 6 K & Co Sparkly Sweet pad

Sarah Kay ‘First Kiss’ stamp

A selection of ribbons & charms

A selection of paper flowers including some roses (cream, pink, lilac, blue, red) and cherry blossoms

If you’d like a chance to win these this is what you need to do:

Post about my candy on your blog with a link back to my blog

Tell me the three favourite embellishments you like to use on your cards

You don’t have to become a follower of my blog but if you would like to then that would be great!

I will post internationally so everyone can enter.  The deadline to enter is Wednesday 1st July, 5pm GMT.

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