Magnolia Down Under

It's my second week as guest DT member on the Magnolia Down Under blog and this week our challenge is 'Sepia Tones'. Now these colours are a bit out of my comfort zone but I bought this DP by Graphic 45 at Crafts U Love a few weeks ago which is perfect for this card. I kept the layout simple, using my nesties for the mat behind Tilda. She has been coloured with distress inks (vintage photo, tea dye and spiced marmalade) and I'm afraid I clipped her wings! The strip along the bottom is the reverse side of the DP and the flower is punched from card which has been stamped with a Crafty Individual text stamp. The sentiment is from Paper Mania.

All the edges have been distressed with my fingernail - if anyone knows where I can buy a distressing took please let me know - and then sponged with vintage photo distress ink.

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Friday Sketchers

Wow, what a busy week! My feet have hardly touched the ground which means little time for crafting. Which might not be a bad thing as my mojo seems to have gone on holiday! I finished an anniversary card for my husband today but its awful (too bad to post on here) so its back to the drawing board.

The weather here has been pretty miserable this afternoon. My friend and I took our dogs for a long walk through the woods and we all got pretty wet and muddy - its a bit of a joke that it always rains when we get together for our walks; we seem to jinx the weather!!

This card is for the Friday Sketchers challenge - a lovely sketch drawn by Jacqueline. I've used my gorgeous Mimosa stamp which I've coloured with distress inks and then added some paper flowers edged with stickles. The paper is by Magenta. I cut two slits in the pale green card and slid the paper through to create a green background strip for my ribbon. Every three months I take our dog to Tunbridge Wells to be clipped and just along the road from the 'pooch parlour' is a huge sewing shop where I stock up on ribbon and I found this pretty one there yesterday. The swirl is a Sizzix die cut from the reverse of the Magenta paper and the sentiment is Paper Mania.

And I am a very proud mummy as Thomas (aged 17 months) has made his first card! He made it at nursery this week. He's not keen on finger painting but loves sticking things. He even used DCWV paper - I gave the nursery an old matstack I hadn't used in years!!

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Sugar Sugar

I made this little gift box for this months Sugar Sugar challenge. I was searching for a while to find a box template that made a box big enough for me to add a stamped image and some embellishments. I found this one on Katie Renz's blog and it was so simple to make. I used Bazzil cardstock for the box, the DP is by The Paper Company and I cut it so the pattern continues around the box.

The gorgeous SN stamp is coloured with Tombow markers. I still need lots of practice to get used to these as the colours are stronger than distress inks and they bleed more too. I added some Quickutz leaves, Prima flowers and paper roses to the top and threaded some beads onto the stem of one of the roses. On the back I just added a punched flower to hide where the two ribbon ends join.

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Magnolia Down Under - First Guest DT Card

When Kellie emailed me with the theme for my first Guest DT card, 'A Child is Born', I panicked as I don't have any baby related Magnolia stamps. I had a frantic scramble through my stash and found the Woodware set I used to make our baby announcement cards. Bingo!

The announcement fits nicely inside my largest labels nestie and I've inked the edges with pink Versacolor. Tilda is coloured with distress inks and the DP is from Making Memories. I rummaged through my drawers to find baby embellishments and came up with a pink safety pin and some tiny buttons.

Please visit the Magnolia Down Under blog and take a look at the fantastic DT cards and join in the challenge.

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Truly Scrumptious Challenge #4

Wow, we're up to challenge #4 already! This week Mina has created a lovely sketch and the theme is flower power:

Our sponsors this week are Whiff of Joy and the winner of this weeks challenge will win an adorable stamp.

I've used the gorgeous Daisy from Sugar Nellie for my card as she fitted perfectly in my circle! I've used my Nesties for all the circles and added circles cut from mesh to tuck in behind Daisy. She has been coloured with distress inks and twinkling H2O's and I used a pale grey Tombow pen to create a shadow outline around her. The DP is from Fancy Pants. For my flowers I used a Quickutz leaf die, my favourite EK Success retro flower punches and some of my new paper roses. Daisy thought these were really pretty so I gave her one to hold!

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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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