Pedal through the flowers

Last one for today as I think I'm going down with the flu or something :( This one is for the challenge at Addicted To Stamps and More where the theme is Spring, in honour of our crafty friends in the Southen hemisphere.  It was lovely, making a card filled with flowers and spring colours.

I used Pedal Presents and my promarkers. I have also used lots of small scraps of my most favourite spring like DSPs to make a patchwork piece and  by die cutting an aperture I made it into a frame. I masked off the top of the card and brushed Lucky Limeade at the bottom and then reversed the mask and brushed Pool Party to make the sky. The sentiment is from my much used set Happiest Birthday Wishes. 
Going to climb into bed now, with a hot water bottle and some painkillers...no spring in me I'm afraid!

Kraft Circles

I have wanted to make a card using kraft for a long time now, and this morning this is what happened

I have made a tent fold birthday card and the design was inspired by the sketch challenge at Simply Stamping.  I used a new stamp set too, Reason To Smile and stamped in Indigo Island and poppy Parade. It is more difficult to stamp on kraft card than I had thought.The main eyecatchers are the fabulous brads and I just love that DSP.  The beauty of using a tent fold card is that not all the paper is hidden by the circles and so I also stamped a birthday banner, using a sentiment from the Sweet Cake set.

Christmas Tree Candy Box

It's the fifth Saturday in September and that means that ANYTHING GOES!! at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown, decorations, albums, jars, boxes, banners anything, anything except a card that is. I was cruising blogland when I can upon this design for a candy box, which I thought I could easily adapt for a Christmas theme.  What do you think?

It's made from a square sheet of card, folded into 9 equal squares and then folded inwards.  I lined the inside of the box with polka dot paper, and threaded silver ribbon through the points to pull the top together. I decorated the sides with glittery tree paper and silver glitter card and used Christmas Tree sequins inside and out! The white greetings are on every side and the liquid pearls are supposed to be snowflakes.  I finished it off with lots of coordinating ribbon, tied into bows.  Now, all I need to do is fill it with yummy Christmas chocolates and give it to someone special.

A Couple of Lovebirds

At last I found a little time to enter this month's challenge at St Luke's Charity Card Blog.  I do like to do this challenge as it's for such a good cause. Well, with one day to go here is my card featuring a couple of lovebirds. I first sponged the edge of my card with Lucky Limeade and then I stamped the little lovebird image and coloured them with my Promarkers.  I masked off the birds and stamped the cage from Nature Walk behind them. I doodled on the lines and added a green organza ribbon.  Finally I lined the inside of the card. The tiny sentiment is from SU's Outlined Occasion set and says 'Be Mine'

Autumn Sympathy

What I love most about Autumn are the colours of the leaves.  They've only just started to turn where we live, so the beautiful reds, browns, yellow and orange are not yet in full flow and yet, when I saw the challenge on Cas-ual Fridays this week was a clean and simple project inspired by Autumn I knew that it was the colours that I most wanted to feature.

I chose Autumn Days (not very original, I know) and used the leaf and the wheat stems.  I stamped the leaf onto a peachy card blank in several Autumn shades to make a background for the sentiment, which I trimmed with a couple of gold embossed wheat stem images. I think that 'white space' means empty space, rather than 'white', so I hope my card is acceptable as CAS. I thought that this card would be suitable for a With Sympathy sentiment as it is calm and reflective and Autumn, for me is always a little bit sad as the summer has gone and another year will soon be over.

LIM Bauble

Whilst making my last card I got to thinking about what a good LIM card it would make, with a little tweaking of course.  When I looked at the LIM Challenge Blog this week they are asking for projects which combine three of their previous challenges, and it's very simple to work out as the past challenges are all listed on the blog.  Thank you, DT ladies!
Here is my card for the LIM challenge:

The three challenges I have used are
Week 75 Gold
Week 55 Punches or die cuts
Week 43 Bit of Bling.
As before, I cut out the bauble using my Stampin' Up Ornament punch, embossed the remaining panel and mounted it onto gold mirri board.  A little piece of satin ribbon, and a gem for a bit of bling.
So which card do you prefer? I'm not sure myself, although less is more is a style I could get into!

Baubles in White

Well. the Sunday roast is in the oven, it's raining outside and the family are all busy..perfect time to make a card.

At Casology this week the theme is white,- how many shades of white are there!! I have taken the liberty of adding gold card to this design but there is no other colour in sight.
I used my Ornament punch from Stampin' Up, which I absolutely love, and a star embossing folder, I also used gold mirri board and some white satin ribbon and the ornament stamp from Contempo Christmas, Aidirondack Snowcap ink and clear embossing powder. That's it, clean and simple. This may become one of my 'signature' designs, as I think this is the third card I've made recently with 3 baubles.

Poinsettias and Pinecones

It's week 4 at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown and that means embellishments... you know you love 'em!  This time it's something which I never use..eyelets. I thought you needed special tools, which as a rule you do, but I've cheated and used false eyelets, which look a bit like brads. I know we use eyelets in punched holes to attach ribbons and bows but I wanted to use them in a more creative way and so I thought about the centres of flowers.  Unfortunately, I don't have any Christmas flower stamps so I borrowed this set from another member of the DT and used an eyelet in the centre of the flower.  You can see what I mean on the close up. For better effect I think you would need a few more flowers, but crafting is often about trying something out and then improving on it later.

The card itself is a slider card and I made it at a workshop.  By the clever use of a strip of plastic bag the middle bit slides out to reveal the sentiment and space for you to write your message. Neat!
Do have a look at the other creations over at 52 CCT by clicking here - they've got some great ideas to get you started. Happy Christmas crafting!

Pocket Hello

Popped over to my friend Jacqueline's this evening for a bit of crafting as she had promised to show me how to make a Double Diagonal Pocket card.  Very unusually for me I was quite organised and took the correct papers, card and stamps to make a card for this week's Simply Stampin' colour challenge.

and here it is! You can find the instructions for making this card at The Craft Club Blog, where Jacqueline has put a very easy to follow tutorial - it's amazing, just made out of a single piece of card.

I used three stamp sets for my card; Confetti, Hello My Friend and Bright Blossoms, all from SU, of course.  I used the Stampwrite markers and some small paper flowers with red gem centres and a small piece of purple ribbon.  There is a piece of Stampin' Up DSP, I think it's from the Twitterpated range, but I could be wrong!
This was such fun to make, most of the work is in the decoration. Got to go now..bed time!

Piles of Presents

The gifts of the season , or, as it is known in my house, piles of presents!

I must admit I have made a card similar to this one before, only it wasn't a Christmas card but when I saw the theme on 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown was gifts this week it immediately came to mind, especially as I remembered some beautiful DSP  from Stamping Up - Holly Berry Bouquet.  You only need small 'scraps' for this card too, which is a bonus!

I have used various 'ties' on my gifts; organza ribbon, bakers twine and some satin ribbon that I brought back from Turkey (what a bargain less than £1 for 10 metres and such fun hunting down the haberdashers in a foreign country!) and I used a gate fold card blank and peeloffs for the greeting banners.  I am also entering my card in The Christmas Cards All Year Round Challenge where September's challenge is to feature Christmas presents.
A quick, simple and, hopefully, effective Christmas card -It had to be quick as my daughter is off to University tomorrow in Loughborough, which is about two hours away from where we live. It's been a stressful September, trying to sort out accommodation, finance and do all the shopping for the things Ellie needs 'for the start of my new life' as she puts it! A few tears will also be shed, rest assured. Can't wait 'till Christmas now, because she'll be home again!

CAS Cupcakes

So you've seen the cats, now here's the cupcakes.... I think it's my first post with a cupcake card although not my first card with a cupcake! I love to work on the CAS style and this card has loads of clean white space, even though it's embossed with cupcakes , because embossing, dry or heat, is what they are looking for this week at CAS-ual Fridays.

I am playing with new stuff again today - the Sweet Cake stamp from SU.  I inked it and heat embossed the image and then added the sentiment in a contrasting colour.  I coloured in the cherry and the heart to accentuate them and added a banner to complete the shades of pink. I think I will be doing more with this stamp, I really love it...great for teenage girls, crazy friends,  small children,even Valentines.Watch this space!

Bicycle Birthday

Here's a card I made as a challenge... a challenge against the clock! When I went over to the Addicted To Stamps Challenge Blog I had 48 minutes to create and upload my card! ( I had already thought about the design so it wasn't too bad!) This is the first time I've been able to play with my new hostess stamp set from SU - Pedal presents and I wanted a birthday card for my son so I gave it a go. I don't think rushing is my forte, in my haste I have loaded the wrong picture onto the challenge blog and I'm not sure how to correct that and I'm only doing this write up after I posted.  Oh well, if I've missed the challenge at least I have a card for Oscar!

Colour Challenge Rudolph

So, I'm back from my travels and trying to get the creative juices running again! My mission - to create a colour challenge card for the DT at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown . 

These colours were whispering 'robins', 'cakes' 'snowmen' whilst I was away so what did I come up with when I got home.....

a reindeer, Rudolph to be precise! I used a pearlescent red card blank and overstamped it with the sentiment block stamp from SUs Season Of Joy set. I used Chocolate chip ink for all the stamping on this card, the main image is also from SU - they call him Dasher but he's become Rudoloph with the addition of a red gem nose and a tiny black pearl eye. I must admit I 'gutted' the Chocolate Chip scalloped edge ribbon to save on my stock before matting the image and the flower is from the same stamp set as the sentiment, I stamped it three times and layered them up to add some dimension to what was otherwise quite a flat card.
Do have a look at the cards from the rest of the girls at 52 CCT, it really is time to get cracking with those Christmas cards, if you haven't already!

Christmas Cat Sketch

As many will know I'm definitely a cat fan, but when I first saw Mynnette's sketch challenge for September it was not this card that came first to mind. However, this is what evolved and, whilst it is quite a liberal take on the sketch I think you will find all the elements there - take a look and see what you think!

I used a piece of freebie paper for the window scene and cut a window frame out of off-white card stock. I stamped the cat outline, coloured it with Promarker and snipped it out.  The tiny heart shape is from SU's Owl Punch.  The oval chipboard shape I first covered with red glitter, before making the sentiment banner, using another freebie, this time from a Forever Friends set. The beautiful 'wallpaper' is actually from SU's DP set Hollt Berry Bouquet.
At 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown you will find some fantastic other cards from the DT,  and hopefully they will inspire you to have a go too. A sketch is just a starting point after all, I wonder what fabulous ideas will come out from this one!