Blog Candy

I have 50 followers!

I'd first, like to say thank you to each and every person who follows me! I wish I could give you all something special to say thank you, but my bank manager will most assuredly give me the evil eye if I tried...! lol! But, I do want to do something to mark the occasion, so blog candy!

This is my first ever candy and I want it to be available to as many people as possible from around the world so I'm offering up a $20 gift certificate, from the wonderful Bugaboo!

To be eligible for this candy, please:
1. Be a Follower
2. Share the candy! Either in a post, or on the side bar of your blog!
3. Add your name/url to the InLinkz below! (A comment would also be lovely, but isn't required!

This will run for four weeks, until February 26th at 1600/4PM UK Time! I will pick a random winner at some time shortly after that!

Thanks again to my lovely followers and GOOD LUCK!

Out Of This World

I used jillibean papers for this card, from the homemade 6 bean soup pack and the neopolitan bean bisque pack. The sentiment is computer generated (font: rabbit on the moon) and I inked the circle up with yellow and lime zest.

I used a digi from pollycraft coloured with promarkers: bright green, lime green, apple, pear green, canary, yellow, gold and mustard. Added a few star shaped gems and a few small circle gems to finish.

I'm submitting this for:
- Cute Card Thursday #253 - Out of this World
- Card Crafters Circle #59 - Green and Yellow
- Party Time Tuesdays #105 - Anything Goes

In other news, I now have 50 followers! Yay! Keep an eye out very shortly for my first ever blog candy!

Happy Easter

I used the adorable bunny image from Lily of the Valley, coloured with my promarkers: warm grey 1, warm grey 2, cool grey 3, cool grey 4, soft peach, cerise, pear green, marsh green, olive green, canary, butterup and mustard. And papers from Jillibean Soup's Homemade 6 Bean Soup pack. Flowers from petaloo coloured with buttercup and mustard promarkers and added buttons from my stash, tying a bow through one of them with some yellow embroidery thread.

I'm submitting this for:
- Sweet Sketch Wednesday #190 - Sketch
- Tuesday Throwdown #131 - Furry Friends
- Crafting for All Seasons #44 - Buttons and Bows
- Crafty Catz #167 - Cute as a Button

Have A Hoot...

A quick last minute entry in this weeks freshly made sketches challenge, I used papers from Jillibean Soup's Apple Cheddar Soup pack layered on a dark brown base.

The sentiment is woodware, the owl and branch are make and create embellishments and I added a couple of buttons from my stash.

I'm also submitting this for Our Creative Corner, Woody with a Button.

Valentines Hearts

I cut a card base from red card from papermill direct, layered it with purple and then white card. Stamped the hearts, which were freebies in crafts beautiful and the sentiment from stampin' up, adding a few gems to the hearts for bling.

I'm submitting this to:
- Fetch A Sketch #42 - Sketch
- C.R.A.F.T Challenge #191 - Valentines Day/Love
- Hiding in my Craft Room #82 - Valentines Day

Happy Fathers Day

Yes I know... I'm very early for fathers day, but it's what came into my brain so I went with it :)

I cut a 3.5x8 card base in kraft card and layered it with a piece of white card. Masked of a section and inked it in with a yellow-gold ink, before stamping my train from Flonz in brown in. I wanted the train to be rather subtle, so i stamped some of the ink of on a bit of scrap paper first. Added the sentiment from Stampin' Up and a couple of small gems to finish.

I'm submitting this for:
- Less is More #104 - Sketch
- Oh La La Challenge Blog #122 - Wheely Good

With Sympathy Peacock

I don't usually use 'bold' colours on sympathy cards, preferring softer or more neutral colours, but I decided to give it a try with an all teal card and see what happened. I rather like the result, although I'm not sure I'd do a lot of sympathy cards like this!

I cut a card base from card from papermill directed and used paper from jillibean soup's neopolitan bean bisque paper pack. The peacock stamp is from Flonz and the sentiment from craftwork cards. I added white pearls on the peacocks tail feather eyes for some added interest, without over loading the card.

I'm submitting this to:
- Feeling Sketchy #43 - Sketch
- Craft Your Passion #146 - Totally Teal
- Craft Room Challenge - Monochrome
- Creative Creations Challenge - Keep It Simple

The Engineer

I used paper from Authentique's 'curiosity' pack on this card, layered on a black card base, which I cut with card from papermill direct.

The image is a fabulous digi from Mo'd Digital Pencil and I coloured it with my promarkers: blush, vanilla, buttercup, lemon, mustard, warm grey 1, warm grey 2, cool grey 3, cool grey 4, slate, black and caramel.

The sentiment is computer generated and I added two grey buttons, sewed through with some yellow thread, as my only embellishments.

I'm submitting this to:
- There She Goes #191 - Sketch
- Cards for Men #2 - Transport
- Craft Creations Challenge #206 - Just Take Two (2 buttons!)
- I Love ProMarkers #152 - Anything Goes

Thinking Of You

I used some papers and card sent to me by a lovely friend in the US for this, both are from Stampin' Up, Rich Razzleberry card and Razzleberry Lemonade papers - aren't they gorgeous?

I cut the card base from the Rich Razzleberry and layered up some of the matching papers, printed and coloured the image from bugaboo - Dottie Bath - coloured with promarkers: burgundy, maroon, mustard, buttercup, lemon, vanilla, blush, soft peach, pale pink, pastel pink, honeycomb, spice and terracotta.

I hit up against a snag when I wanted to sponge around the edges of the image with some yellow and found I'd run out of useable sponges, but what I did have was a dried out baby wipe laying on my desk from yesterday (I never said I was a neat crafter, lol) and that as it turned out, worked pretty nicely!

I used an x-cut punch to do the lace trim and added ribbon from my stash, made a 'faux bow' (love this tute) to add to it and the sentiment is from Flonz.

Cut a swirl from my sizzix dies, added petaloo flowers, coloured with burgundy and mustard promarkers and finished with pearls on the centers and smaller ones in the top corner.

I'm submitting this too:
- Catch the Bug - Bingo (Sentiment, Bugaboo Image, Ribbon)
- Allsorts Challenge #190 - Flower Power
- Creative Card Crew #28 - Girly
- Creative Inspirations #198 - Anything Goes (+Optional flowers)
- Delightful Challenges - Thinking Of You

Paper Crafting Journey: For A Girl

I was delighted when Wendy over at Paper Crafting Journey asked me if I'd like to do a guest designer spot for their latest challenge 'For a Girl'!

My first GDT and the sponsor this week is the fabulous Kenny K, how could I say no!

I got two fabulous images to work with and this card uses Sweet Melissa!

I cut her out and coloured her with my promarkers: pale pink, pastel pink, soft peach, sky blue, cool aqua, duck egg, rose pink, dusky rose, buttercup, lemon, canary, mustard, gold and blush.

The papers are primarily from Cardmaking and Paper craft Magazine, with a little from crafts beautiful thrown in and it's all layered up on textured sparkly card from papermania.

I cut a flourish with my sizzix dies from the same card and stamped a flower image and the sentiment from Skipping Stones Design.

Then I coloured in some petaloo flowers with my promarkers (mustard and pale pink) and layered them up adding a button. Punched butterflies with my woodware punches, in card and paper scraps left over from the main body of the card and finally, added some pearls to finish it off.

Thank you to the wonderful DT over at Paper Crafting Journey for letting me join them this week! I had a lot of fun with this card! And good luck to everyone entering the challenge!

Just saying Hello

The paper is Jillibean Soup's Neopolitan Bean Bisque, layered on red card. The image and sentiment were fabulous freebies from Birdy Brown and is coloured with promarkers: lipstick red, poppy, ruby, mustard, gold, warm grey 1, warm grey 2, cool grey 3 and cool grey 4.

I'm submitting this for:
- Sketch Saturday 242 - Sketch
- Papertake Weekly - Tie Up Your Loose Ends

With Sympathy

The theme for CAS-ual Fridays #86 this week is 'Long and Short' (Create a CAS card that has one long side and one short side. 3 x 6, 4 x 8, etc. No standard A2's for this week.)

This card base is 3.5x8. I embossed slightly more than half the card with my swiss dots folder, then masked it off and stamped in a variety of blues, with stamps from skipping stones designs. I tied some button twine around the middle and added the sentiment from stampin' up and a few gems.

I'm also submitting this to:
- Twisted Tuesday Challenges #41 - Tic, Tac, Toe, Twist: Use a crafty machine (Twine, Sympathy, Colour Blue + Used Cuttlebug to emboss)
- A Gem of A Challenge #63 - Emboss It

Macaw Birthday

I have officially decided that Jillibean soup is my new favourite brand of papers... so fun and colourful - I will definitely be getting more!

I used their homemade 6 bean soup pack for this card, layered on navy card from papermill direct.

The image is from digi doodle shop and is coloured with promarkers: lipstick red, ruby, poppy, cornflower, denim blue, china blue, yellow, canary, sandstone, caramel, shale, pear green, marsh green, olive green, vanilla and cool grey 4.

The sentiment is computer generated (Font: A A Typewriter) and I kept it very simple with just a few gems to embellish.

I'm submitting this card for:
- Chocolate, Coffee and Cards #30 - For the Birds
- My Time To Craft #205 - Sketch
- Created With Love #25 - Anything Goes
- ABC Challenges #13 - Happy Birthday
- Melonheadz Friends #1 - Use a Digi

Vintage Eskimos

I used freebie vintage papers from cardmaking and papercraft magazine last year layered on pink pirouette card from stampin' up and an image from sweet and sassy stamps coloured with promarkers: cool aqua, duck egg, cornflower, denim blue, mustard, gold, sandstone, caramel, dusky rose, pale peach, pale pink, pastel pink and blush.

Added a few flowers, a sentiment from daisy and dandelion and a few pearls to finish off.

I'm submitting this for:
- Willow Sketchie Challenge - Sketch
- C.R.A.F.T Challenge - Christmas In January
- Winter Wonderland - Vintage
- Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge #108 - Recycle or Use Something Free
- Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Extra - Anything Christmas Goes
- The Cheerful Stamp Pad #52 - Tickled Pink

Sweet Birthday Wishes

I cut a red card base and used white for my layers - which is novel for me! The papers are from Raspberry Road's, Summer Goodness pack and the main image is from lily of the valley, coloured with promarkers: mustard, standstone, caramel, lipstick red, ruby, poppy, cool aqua, pear green, marsh green, soft peach, pastel pink and dusky rose.

I printed the strawberries from beccy's place and coloured them with my promarkers: poppy, ruby, pear green, marsh green and mustard. The sentiment is computer generated. added ribbon from sew sweet and gems.

I also punched a heart from the spotty backing paper, unfortunately, my flash made it kinda difficult to tell that it is the same paper, but it's so dull and grey today I couldn't get a decent picture without the flash!

I'm submitting this for:
- Sweet Sketch Wednesday #189 - Sketch
- Alphabet Challenge - Y for Yummy
- Crafting When We Can #36 - Strawberries and Cream (red and white)

Thank You Deer Friend

A final quick card for the day, I used paper from fancy pants designs the good life pack and an image from pink cat studios coloured with promarkers: sandstone, caramel, shale, blush, pastel pink and soft peach. The sentiment is computer generated (Blooming Grove Bold) and I added a few pearls to finish.

I'm submitting this for:
- Less Is More #103 - Friends
- One Stop Craft Shop #212 - Thank You

On Your Special Day

I cut a card base in lime, added a panel of white over the top. Used paper from Authentique's Fresh collection and stamped the flowers from Marion Emberson Designs in Lime Pastel ink from colourbox - it's not as bold as I'd like, but it was the only lime ink I had and it works pretty well (even more so in person than on the picture).

The sentiment is from the same set and I added three lime gems from my stash.

I'm submitting this for:
- Retro Sketches #47 - Sketch
- Just Us Girls #172 - Lime Green, White and Gray