Welcome Little One

Sketch 'N Stash had a great challenge this week to pick any of their past sketches to make a card - as I only recently found this challenge blog, it was a great excuse to dip into all the sketches I'd missed.

I picked sketch #49, which you can see below:

I also combined this with a few other challenges:
C.R.A.F.T Challenge - #139 Recipe: A Digital Image, Some Ribbon, Some Buttons.
The Pink Elephant - #133 Recipe: 1 Image, 2 Pattern Papers, 3 Buttons.
My Time To Craft - #172 A is for Adorable
Passion for Promarkers - #134 New Beginnings
Party Time Tuesday - #53 Anything Goes

I used 2 different patterned papers from Papercraft Inspirations Magazine. The image is a gorgeous digi from Pollycraft 'Moon Lullaby 2 - Closed', coloured with promarkers - Blush, Duckegg, Cornflower, Poppy, Buttercup and Canary.

The sentiment was a pre-printed freebie - I forget where from. I used yellow and blue card from the Paper company and ran the blue card through my cuttlebug with the swiss dots folder. I then sewed in the ribbon - which is brand new stash, just bought from of all places, the local discount book store a few days ago! - and 3 buttons and added some glitter glue to the cloud for a bit of sparkle.

Freshly Made Sketches #19

Freshly Made Sketches #19 this week was this sketch:

And this is the card I came up with:

I used Spring Things - Bumble Bunny digi stamp from Pollycraft and coloured it with pencils (I know, not promarkers, feel free to be shocked). The paper is Daisy and Dandelion. The card is from the Paper company. The ribbon, pearls and lace came from my stash and the Sentiment was hand written.

I'm also going to enter this in this weeks Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #170 - Ribbons!

Just for You

I used this weeks Skipping Stones Design sketch #112 and combined it with Totally PaperCrafts Pearls and Lace challenge to come up with my card today.

This is the sketch:

This is my card:

The papers are Papermania Birdson and the card is from the paper company. I got the stamped image as a freebie in Cardmaking and Papercraft Magazine it is from the Margaret Sherry collection and is coloured with promarkers - caramel, buttercup, canary, amber and lime. The sentiment is stampin' up - stamped with papermania ink - and the lace and pearls came from my stash.

I'd also like to enter it for this weeks PaperPlay Challenge '12 - Week 4 - Lovely Lace.

Less Is More: Week 52 - Sketch

It's Saturday which means Less is More - yay! this is fast becoming a favourite challenge of mine! when it's not driving me crazy, lol! - this weeks challenge is a sketch...

We would like the card to be:
* rectangular
* in landscape orientation
* with the band remaining in a vertical position
As it's a very simple sketch, we would like it to remain as is without any rotation of either the card or the vertical band

I used a 3.5x8 inch base card. Then took some scraps I had from my Papermania Birdsong pack mounted on card and then onto my base card. The stamp was a freebie in Homemade magazine - it's inked in papermania ink. I was a little uncertain of it at first, but actually I think I like it. I'm starting to feel much more comfortable with leaving white space :)

Hello Hello

Oh-la-la Creations challenge #97 was 'seeing double'. I combined it with the new Fussy and Fancy Friday challenge #55 to use polka dots and came up with this little card.

I cut the cardbase to 4x4 and cut a square of white card and Bo Bunny designer paper with my nesties. I'm afraid I don't know where the stamps came from, they were part of a set I was given as a gift a couple of years ago. They were coloured with promarkers. The flowers are papermania and I finished it out with a bit of ribbon and pearls from my stash.

CAS-ual Fridays CFC37

It's Friday again - yay - so that means CAS-ual Fridays and another great excuse to practice my CAS cards. This weeks challenge was a sketch.

I combined this with Craft Catz Weekly #117: Things with Wings.

The digistamp is from Pollycraft, coloured with promarkers - Amethyst, Cornflower, Duck egg, China Blue, Skyblue, Blush, Buttercup, Lime Green, Dusky Rose and Caramel. I can't remember where the sentiment is from, but it's inked with papermania ink. The card, ribbon and pearl heart came from my stash.

That's What Friends Are For

Sunday Sketch and Stamp had a lovely simple sketch this week by Donna.

And this is the card I came up with...

I used Papermania Hempstead papers and papermania ink to stamp. The stamp is from Lily of the Valley coloured with promarkers - mustard, spice, marsh green, cornflower, caramel, sandstone, blush, ruby, slate and black. The sentiments is from Woodland folk. All mounted on card from the paper company and a few pearls added from my stash to finish it off.

I'm also submitting this to My Mum's Craft Shop challenge #41: Flowers and Moving Along With the Times challenge #133: Blooming Marvellous.

Mojo Monday #225

I a birthday card for a male friend, but the ones I've currently got in my box are all for either older, or younger boys so I naturally turned to some of the challenge blogs to help me and decided to use the Mojo Monday sketch #225.

This is the Sketch:

This is my Card:

After using the fabulous Luna Bitterfrost Guitars Rock digistamp from Pollycraft on Monday, I immediately thought to use the Rock Star Ethan digistamp that's also from Pollycraft to do this card. I coloured it with my promarkers mounted it on some black card, then mounted four squares of paper from K&Company on the same black card and put it all together with a button and a cut circle with my again hand written sentiment.

I'm also submitting this for this weeks Creative Inspiration #147 Anything Goes and this weeks Simon Says Stamp challenge 'Simon Says... Anything Goes'.

Fringe Flower

This weeks Totally Paper Craft challenge was to make your own flowers. Never done it before, but I saw a new (to me) technique in a magazine this week so I thought I'd give it a shot. I combined this with the One Stop Craft challenge #166 'Under the Weather' and made a get well card.

I used the Provocraft Birds and Swirls folder to emboss the top part of the card. The paper (both for the bottom of the card and the flower) are from Papermania's Birdsong pack, the ribbon is Laura Ashley and the sentiment is Stampin' Up.

I confess, I'm not 100% happy with the flower... but for a first attempt, it's not terrible, lol.

Apple of my Pie

The Sweet Stop had a sketch with a spin this week, where they were looking for Non-Traditional Valentines cards. I coupled this with Daring Cardmakers Kitchenalia challenge, Secret Crafters Saturday Challenge #169 Food and Drink and Crafty Catz Weekly #116 Buttons and Bows, to come up with my card.

This is the Sketch:

This is my card:

I used Papermania Birdsong Papers and a digistamp from Beccy's Place coloured with promarkers. The sentiment is computer generated. And it was completed with some ribbon, a button and wool from my stash.

I'm not sure I could have gone much more 'non-traditional' and I am actually really pleased with how this turned out, especially since I had about a million interruptions and it took me around 4 hours to make!

Surf's Up

This card is for The Crafty Pad Challenge #154: Let's See Something for the Boys and Card Positioning Systems #252 sketch.

This is the sketch:

This is my card:

I used We R Memory Keepers Travel Light papers. The digi stamp is from Pollycraft, coloured with promarkers. The sentiment I *think* is from Daisy and Dandelion. The ribbon and gems are from my stash.

Freshly Made Sketches #18

Freshly Made Sketches had this sketch by Linda Callahan to work from this week.

This is what I came up with:

The stamp is a pollycraft digistamp coloured with promarkers - amber, amethyst, lime green, slate, black, vanilla, maroon, mustard, chestnut and henna. The card stock is from the Paper Company and the design paper is from the Born to shop range. I used ribbon and a button from my stash, cut a small circle with my nesties and wrote the sentiment by hand.

Creative Inspirations #146/Cardabilities #47

Creative Inspirations Challenge #146 this week was to use only your favourite colour + white. I decided to combine the Creative Inspirations challenge with Cardabilities Sketch #47. I'm also submitting it for Charisma Cardz #2 Clean and Simple.

This is the Sketch:

This is my card:

The sketch lent itself beautifully to something clean and simple and I always like a chance to practice my CAS cards because it's not something I'm hugely confident with.

My favourite colour has changed over the years... but for the last year or two, it's definitely been teal so that's what I've used here. The sentiment is stampin' up. The gift stamps came from a £1 store bin, but I'm not sure where the other one came from. The ink is Papermania. And I cut the circles with my spellbinders nesties with card from my scrap box and the gems are Mark Richards.

My Handle Broke

This card was made for Less Is More challenge #51: Cut it Out and Passion for ProMarkers challenge #132: Humour.

I was still watching challenge blogs earlier in the week even though I was too busy staying as still as possible after my fall, to craft (I'm clearly a glutton for punishment, looking at them just made me want to get up and do them!) and when I saw the Passion for Promarkers challenge my first thought was 'does sarcasm count?' because that's pretty much my mainstay... luckily, unlike a lot of my cards lately which haven't been made with any special person in mind - I know exactly where this one is going! - and the Born to Shop stamp I eventually decided on couldn't have been a more perfect choice for the person in question!

Then the Less is More challenge came up and gave me an excuse (as if I needed one) to use my nesties to create an aperture - I've been wanting to try this since I got them so it was a great chance to do so! I also used my nesties to create a scalloped frame for my aperture just to make it stand out a little more.

The image is coloured with promarkers Amber, Mustard, Buttercup and Blush - and I added a few gems to give it a little extra sparkle.

CAS-ual Fridays: CFC36

*clings to craft stash* an unfortunate disagreement with the floor (and magazine rack) left me in a fair amount of pain this week so crafting has been out of the question because there was no way I could handle sitting at my desk for any period of time.

I probably shouldn't today, since I'm still a bit sore and my back doesn't like me right now after some of the positions I had to contort myself into to avoid further hurting my leg/hip, however having piled some extra cushions on my chair for something resembling comfort, I'm determined to do at least a couple of cards today!

The first one I've done is for this weeks CAS-ual Fridays challenge.

CFC36: Create a Clean And Simple Project that is only black and white.
*no other colors will be allowed-not even a speck

The sentiment is from Stampin' Up. The Butterfly is from a small set I got ages ago at a £1 store. The card is from the Paper company. The gems are Mark Richards and the ribbon is from my stash.

I wouldn't usually use black/white for a sympathy card, I prefer to use soft pastel colours, but I rather like the effect and it's very simple, just as I like a sympathy card to be.

Devil Woman

When I looked through my new Pollycraft Digi stamps yesterday I came across a particular one that I was just dying to use and my first thought was a halloween card but honestly, I'm not waiting that long to use it! So today I turned to the various challenge blogs I've become addicted to and combined a couple of them together to come up with this:

The challenges I used to inspire me were:
Creative Card Crew #2: Seeing Red.
My Time To Craft #171: Your favourite embellishment. (Gems!!!)
The Crafty Pad #153 New Year Sparkle.


The Pollycraft Image was coloured with promarkers - slate, ruby and blush. The paper is from Papermania's Hempstead pack. The black card is from the Paper Company. The ribbon and gems are from my stash (actually I think the gems are Anita's...) and the sentiment is Stampin' Up.

Die Cut Dreams Challenge #106 - Sympathy

Die Cut Dreams had a challenge this time for Sympathy Cards - not a card anyone enjoys having to use, but we all need them sometimes and it makes sense to keep a few handy.

I modelled this on one I did a few weeks ago (here) using the same basic layout and design and the same papers (K & Company), embossed the upper part with swiss dots, but instead of using petaloo flowers I used the lovely image of a calla lily from birds cards coloured with promarkers. I used the same stampin' up sentiment stamp and some ribbon from my stash and added a small bow.

I like this design for sympathy cards - it's very simplistic just like I like a sympathy card to be. I never see the sense in being 'showy' or over the top with a sympathy card - in fact I may make a few more like it in different colours at some point.

Bee Mine

I suppose it's inevitable with valentines day coming up next month that some of the challenge blogs would be running challenge for romantic cards - well I won't be sending any this year but it didn't stop me making any!

Paper Creations Ink challenge #17 is 'Love/Romance' and Digital Tuesday Challenge #143 is also for a Romantic Card.

I contemplated a wedding or engagement card as I need to make some anyway - I have none in my card box! - but I had this cute image from yesterdays little naughty moment on Pollycrafts and some paper from Papercraft Inspirations Magazine that just looked at me and begged to be used.

The Pollycraft's digi stamp (baxter and bridget sweethearts) is coloured with promarkers. The paper was printed from Papercraft Inspirations, as was the 'Bee Mine' topper and I finished it off with a few gems from my stash.