Tilda & Co - wishing you well

The Tilda & Co challenge this week is to make something to cheer up a sick friend or relative. I hope this card will do just that!



I've been itching to use my new Magnolia 'Rainy Edwin' stamp since he arrived last week. I mounted the coloured image on top of the blue mat with foam pads, the three tiny buttons are brads by MM (I think? - I threw the packaging away). The centre of the large silk flower is a circle of card, raised up on foam pads and I used a Minimarks rubon in the centre of the large white brad.

Scrummy Stash Cafe - numbers

This weeks challenge at the Scrummy Stash Cafe is to use numbers. I thought I may as well get organised and make this birthday card, even though it's not needed till April!



I used the Sporty Edwin stamp by Magnolia, but cut off the studs on his football boots. Instead of holding a ball, Edwin is now holding a cupcake! The chipboard numbers are painted with pearlescent paint and grunged up with brown paint. The sentiment is a Pebble Inc. rub on from Crafts U Love. I bought several packs of these with different greetings and colours - they are fantastic!

Sweet Sugar - dress up your Nellies!

The challenge at Sweet Sugar had me stumped for a while, but here's the card I came up with.


I was lucky enough to win this lovely Luca stamp on the Sugar Nellie blog, isn't he a cutie! He is totally paper pieced from textured and patterned papers and the buttons on his waistcoat are teeny weeny jewel peeloffs. Luca is definitely ready to party! All the papers used are by K & Co.

Caardvarks - friendship

Throughout February, Caardvarks have been holding a 'Lovefest'. This week's challenge is to make a friendship card.


I decided to make a kick stand card for this challenge. I stamped the fence panels and cut them out after colouring, then added some tiny flowers with Stickles centres for a bit of glitz. The larger flowers are attached with small brads and the sentiment is computer generated and printed onto cardstock. it looks very pretty standing open!

Papertake - blue and green

The challenge this week at Papertake is to use blue and green.

I've used Magnolia stamps for this card, coloured with watercolour pencils. I also used watercolour pencils for the water and added some shimmery Stickles to the fish.

Planning ahead

I know it seems strange to be making Christmas cards this early in the year, but I'm trying to avoid the last minute scramble to get them all finished in time. I'm aiming to make a few each month, that way I should have a fair amount by the time December rolls around. I've used this weeks sketch from ISMAKI for this one, it's a really nice sketch and I'm sure I'll be using it lots for other cards.

Arty Girlz challenge #22 - Green

The challenge this week at Arty Girlz is to use the colour green.


I've used one of my new Lola stamps by Sugar Nellie for this card. She has been coloured with Caran D'Ache Supracolour pencils and mounted onto pale pink card, then attached with foam pads. The papers are by K&Co from the Brenda Walton 'Small Wonders Girl' range, I love this fresh green check pattern. The Prima flowers have had a light dab of Stickles to give them a bit of shimmer.

Easter card

This weeks challenge on the Papertake blog reminded me that I needed to make a start on my Easter cards!


The rooster and picket fence stamps are by Magnolia, I stamped and coloured these with watercolour pencils before cutting them out and attaching them to the base card. For the grass, I used a piece of green cardstock cut with the wavy blade on my trimmer then added the ribbon and a few Prima flowers. The sentiments were printed on my pc directly onto the cardstock. This was a fun card to make!

Busy busy busy....

Back again.. Had a really busy and productive day yesterday. Managed to get in a full day crafting and here are the cards I was able to complete..

First one.. the shapes challenge over on Scrummy Stash Cafe . I chose circles as my shape as I really wanted to use some new circular stamps and nestabilities.
Stamps Magnolia and See D (circle words)
Flowers are from crafts U Love



The next card is for a friend's birthday, (not for a few months, but I'm trying to get organised)! This challenge is on until friday over at Daring Cardmakers. Papers are K&Co, stamp is from SeeD 'Celebration messages'.




Over on Artygirlz the challenge is stamping. I'm not the world's best stamper... I get ink everywhere, and on anything lying around. Am really pleased I was able to get the ink just where it was supposed to go! Stamp is by Clevercut, flowers are from Crafts U Love, papers from K&Co.



I'm off now to tidy up... a bit and to see what else I can make before tomorrow comes. :)

It's much to early to start!

This is just not normal... Up at this hour in a Sunday!! Ready to start again!! I should still be lounging in bed having a lie in, taking it really easy.... but no. Soon as one eye opens my brain kicks in and plants a card idea in my head. Can I get back to sleep after that???? Not a chance... so here I am... finishing off blogging what I should have uploaded yesterday but didn't because my brain and I had yet another idea.

I hope this card is in time for the challenge over on Tilda & Co . The challenge was to make a Mother's day card whilst using something recycled. The coloured background was first put through a cuttlebug embossing folder and then I attacked it with my trusty supracolour II pencils, to make it a bit more interesting. For the 'Recycled' part I used some ribbon cut of a tshirt (from the annoying hangy bits they put in the shoulders)! and a button from something, not sure what.



This gorgeous anniversary card was completed for the challenge over on Caardvarks . My brain and I had a bright idea whilst completing this card. I've seen somewhere, on some other cards, part of the stamped image has been done on patterned paper and the carefully stuck on... so I had a go. I really like the result too. Paper is from K& co.




Now... I'm off to finish my first morning cuppa and wake up a bit more, I'll be back later with some more cards I finished yesterday. Have a good morning :)

Challenges are fun!!

What a week I've had! Since discovering the card challenge sites I just can't stop! Every night after work I no longer just sit and veg out infront of the TV, now I'm off upstairs cutting and colouring. It's so much fun.

The first card you will see is for the challenge over on ISMAKI . I normally can't keep to sketches, so I tried really hard to keep to the plan! I'm pleased with the result. The stamped image is from Magnolia (love them to bits)! Ribbon, flowers, button and some stickles to give it some sparkle!




There is a challenge over on the Sweet Sugar blog to use stars and stripes. This had me thinking... for quite some time. Stars is one of the things I haven't used a great deal of in the past so I really had to think outside the box to complete this challenge. My inspiration came from some free papers in a card magazine Simply cards and Papercraft. Stars - well star flowers and star flower papers, from the magazine and the stripes, well strips of cardstock!! The image is a Sugar Nellie stamp (another of my faves)!




Well thanks for looking I'm off now to look at what else I can do... have fun!! I know I will :)

Thinking outside the box...

The new challenge went up today at Papertake 'Simply Stripes' - use stripes on your project. I thought I'd do something a little different than reaching for the striped paper, so for this card I used a striped house and some striped ribbon!



It's good to think outside the box now and then, it didn't hurt too much :)
Paper by Brenda Pinnick, stamps by Magnolia, tags cut with Cuttlebug.

a few more cards...

It's been a busy week workwise, but the arrival of new stamps had me itching to get back home and start inking and stamping! I'm finding that the challenges give me a good kickstart instead of just staring at papers and wondering what to do :)

This week's challenge at Papertake was to use floral embellishments. I have several huuuge flowers so I've used one of them on this thankyou card. The big green button has 2008 embossed on it and it's held in place with two shades of narrow purple grosgrain ribbon.


This is one of the new Magnolia stamps I received this week - I just couldn't wait to get her stamped and coloured in! The card fits this weeks 'Love' theme at the Scrummy Stash Cafe and also the current Tilda & Co theme of 'Romance' and use of a buckle.




Here's another of my new stamps, isn't she gorgeous! This one is from the new 'Lola and Simon' range by Sugar Nellie. I've been wanting to try a kick stand card for a while and I'm really pleased with how it turned out! This card was made for the February cardmaking challenge over at UKScrappers - create a Valentine's card in non-Valentine colours.

This weeks cards

Well, I've had fun today. This first card fits 4 current challenges. Papertake - Hearts Desire, Arty girlz - pockets, Daring Cardmakers - Red and White and UKScrappers February challenge of a non valentine card in valentine colours.



I had the idea for the pocket from a magazine I bought the other day... Papers are DCWV christmas stack, stamps are studio G and Magnolia.





Another card for a UK Scrappers challenge, this time for the use your stash K & Co. Papers are from a Brenda Walton mat stack, cuttlebug strip and see d stamp along with a magnolia.