My First Blog Candy

CANDY NOW CLOSED

UPDATED 26 OCTOBER

I'VE REACHED 100 FOLLOWERS SO I WILL ALSO BE OFFERING A SECOND PRIZE, WHICH WILL BE A SURPRISE.

THIS POST WILL STAY AT THE TOP UNTIL THE CLOSING DATE OF 12PM OCTOBER 31ST. WINNER WILL BE DRAWN ON NOVEMBER 1ST. PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR NEWER POSTS.

I'm so excited to be giving away my first blog candy. I only started my blog on 6 June this year and I can't believe how much I enjoy it. I never would have thought it was something I would get into doing on a regular basis. I enjoy the challenges and think my cardmaking is improving by using the sketches and visiting your wonderful creations. You have made me so welcome and I have been lucky enough to win 3 lots of blog candy and several challenges and been invited to be a guest DT for 3 blogs. I want to return some of that love.

Here is what you have to do to enter:

1) If you are not already one of my lovely followers, then you need to become one.

2) Publish a short post about my candy, with a link, on your blog.

3) Post my candy in your sidebar with a link.

4) Leave me a comment.

Entry is open to bloggers everywhere.

One lucky winner will receive the following goodies, some of which I've never seen in British shops.

Lili of the Valley Rubber Stamp Lili's Fairies - Iris
Lili of the Valley Rubber Stamp Wedding - Just Married
Martha Stewart Glitter Set - 3 blue glitter pots and glue
25 K & Co Layered and jewelled flowers
Pack of white/ivory fabric flowers
Pack of purple fabric flowers
6 yards of pink fancy edged ribbon
6 yards of purple fancy edged ribbon
25 purple mini brads
63 self adhesive pink and blue star gems
48 self adhesive red rhinestones
Pack of pink birthday balloon and star stickers
12 pink rosebuds
24 red rosebuds

Snow Anya in purple

This is Christmas card number 51 and my favourite so far. I just love these rich colours of pinks and purples. The image is Anya, coloured with PMs with glitter for fur and layered onto glitter card.

No idea where the background paper came from but the others are Basic Grey and DCWV. The strip has been punched with my MS star punch. Snowflakes are Sizzix and Cuttlebug and the large swirl is Sizzix. All of these were cut from glitter card so she certainly sparkles. Spacer, brad and bling from stash.

Hope you are all getting on well with your Christmas cards. I've got the day off on Monday so looking forward to a whole day of cardmaking. Have a good weekend.

Challenges
Anyone for Anya Sketch
Winter Wonderland Open theme
Creative Card Crew Snowflakes
Simon Says All that Sparkles

Rabbit angel

I was feeling rather down at work today and then came home and did some ironing (yawn). Just had time to make this card before getting the dinner ready and it really cheered me up. Who could be down when looking at this cute little rabbit dressed as an angel from Daisy and Dandelion. Coloured with PMs including my new Dusky Rose and some Shimmerz on the wings and Sakura Stardust on the halo and star. The gorgeous papers are Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses. Aren't those little reindeer sweet on the base paper. I added some gold brads, a Hero Arts poinsettia with a gold spacer and red shiny brad. Holly leaves cut from glitter card using a Sizzix die. A gold sentiment and star complete the card.I'm so pleased with the way this card turned out.

Challenges

Sketch and Stash Sketch (new items - Dusky Rose Promarker, poinsettia, spacer, Sizzix die, papers)

Allsorts Furry Friends

Crafty Catz Buttons or brads

Passion for Promarkers Animal

Let it Snow

My second post for today and a much more complicated Christmas card this time. It's the first time I have used this Pink Gem image, which I love. She is coloured with PMs. I added some glitter flocking to her ear muffs and Art Glitter faux snow around the log and her feet. Yes, I am sparkling too now as it is nice and messy.


The background paper was in a scrapbooking kit, the holly paper is Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses and the blue snowflake is FF cut with an MS doily punch. The sentiment and silver glitter snowflake are Sizzix and the blue snowflake is Me and My Big Ideas. It's only the second one I have used as they are so yummy I don't want to part with them. I added a snowflake brad and highlighted some areas with my Sakura Stardust pen.

At Sassy Designs by Susie Susie is looking for a DT for a new monthly challenge. Let's hope Susie likes my entry. All you have to do is create a Christmas card and enter by 27 October.

There' a great competition at Pink Gem which I am also entering. Make a card using a Pink Gem stamp for the chance to win 6 PG stamps. There's also the chance to be a guest DT.

I used the fab sketch from Willow Sketchie. I'm also entering it for Winter Wonderland where they have an open theme this week so you should all join in this week.

2 Christmas cards

A quick post with 2 simple cards today. I really need to get on and make some more. The first one is for Moving along with the times who had a lovely simple sketch plus using paper with text. I added some Sizzix swirls and snowflakes to this little snowman image. The second challenge was orange plus another colour at Secret Crafter.

The second was made using the sketch from Papertake. Both the image and paper are Forever Friends. Ribbon is Anita's from last year. I love the way the top bear looks as though he is writing the message on the ribbon.

Happy Thanskgiving

A very good friend and my best customer asked me to make a thanksgiving card for a young couple. The girl is American and over here until January. I had no idea what thanksgiving cards look like as we don't have them over here so I trawled through a few blogs and found they have trees pumpkins, leaves etc. I remembered I had this image from my first blog candy win which turned out to be perfect for this card. All of the papers I used were also from this win. The leaves are from an Autumn die cut pack I bought in Michaels in the US, mainly for my scrapbooking. I made the flowers from scraps of paper using my new EK Success retro punches and MS punch. I printed the sentiment from the PC. This card is for several challenges which are:

Sketch and Stash Sketch and use something new

Crafty Cardmakers Autumn

Crafty Calendar Autumn

Creatalicious Use scrap DP and handmade flowers

Craft Garden Flowers

My Time to Craft Halloween Colours

Kraftin Kimmie Shades of Autumn brown, rust and green

One Stop Craft Celebration

By the Cute and Girly Autumn Glory. This is a brand new monthly challenge.

I've only had time to make one card this weekend, despite having an extra hour today. Must get back to Christmas cards tomorrow.

It's Fall Y'all

That's the challenge this week at Stamptacular Sunday and my last week as guest designer. I have really enjoyed these challenges and this week I was much more in my comfort zone. The image is Kars, coloured with PMs. I rounded the corners with an X cut punch and added a scalloped circle and oval behind the image. The flowers are Hero Arts and Prima. The branch is Sizzix and I added 2 leaves again cut with an X cut punch. The sentiment is Craftwork Cards, sparkly flowers and brad from stash. Please pop over to Stamptacular Sunday and have a break from making all those Christmas cards.

Not a Christmas Card!!

I can't believe what a beautiful sunny day it has been today. I have been moaning about trying to get a good photo when it has been so dismal some days this week and today it was hard to get a photo cos it is so sunny. You just can't win.

Just for a change I have a Birthday card to post. A friend asked me to make this for her 3 year old niece. Having looked through some of my work she wanted this image with balloons, so here we are, oh and it had to be pink. The image is a Gorjuss girl from Sugar Nellie, coloured with PMs and layered onto pink glitter card. I cut up part of a Sizzix swirl for the string and the balloons are also Sizzix. Sentiment is from the PC, papers are Papermania Sweet Nothings. I added some sparkly stars and really, really sparkly flowers. All little girls love pink sparkle don't they. The card is for 3 challenges, sparkle at La La Land and babies and children's cards at Creative Card Crew and a new one I've just found Alphabet Challenge B is for, which in my case is balloons.

Hope the sun is shining where you are and you all have a good weekend. The clocks go back in the UK on Sunday morning so that's another hour we get to craft on Sunday.

Christmas Stocking

Hope you're not fed up with my Christmas cards yet, there's lots more still to be made. This came out as a very non traditional Christmas card, which I really like. The image is of course Forever Friends and isn't he cute. Coloured with PMs and glitter added to the fur. Paper is DCWV. I added some K & Co daisies with pink buttons just for a change. They somehow look right on this card. That's 2 cards without a snowflake in sight, what's going on?

Challenges

Sunday sketch and stamp Sketch

Winter Wonderland Christmas Stocking

Charisma Delightful Daisies

Crafty Catz Black, white plus one colour

Kraftin Kimmie Buttons

Forever Friends Christmas

Chocolates for Christmas

This little teddy with the box of chocs was a free stamp with a magazine a couple of months ago. I used my new peony nesties, should have inked the edges I think. Too late now, I'll make a mess. I bought a long Sizzix swirl with holly in America and used this for the holly leaves, to which I added veins wit a glitter pen and some red gems. You can win some of these in my candy. I added some glitter to his hat. Now here's a tip, don't add the glue and glitter and then put the image through the die cutting machine, duh. I ended up with glue and glitter on my cutting plate and he has an interesting glitter shadow on his hat, which is quite effective, but I won't be doing that again. Papers are Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses.

Challenges

Basic Grey Green, red and blue

Cute Card Thursday Candy Corns (sweets/candy)

Pink Sugar Bowl

I absolutely love the Sugar Bowl's sketch challenges. They are some of my fave stamps and their sketches are always so gorgeous and this one is no exception. She is coloured with PMs, I added glitter flock to all the fur on her outfit and gave her sparkly tights by colouring them first with a Blossom Pm and then my Sakura Stardust pen. The star paper was a freebie, the semi circle Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses and the others DCWV. The lovely flowers are Prima with a little Shimmerz added. I kept the star theme going with the sentiment and some tiny pink star gems on the tabs. I got to use 2 of my new punches from my hols on this one, both MS, the fern and the star border. Click on her to enlarge her and you can see how well she shimmers and sparkles.

Another Christmas Card

This little girl is a freebie from Pollycraft. I love these Cherry Kisses girls. She has been coloured with PMs based on the Pollycraft challenge of tangerine, turquoise and chocolate and I added white glitter to the trim on her coat and hat. I wasn't too sure about trying these colours on a Christmas card but I rather like the effect. It is a shame the glitter doesn't really show onthe photo as she looks lovely and sparkly. She has been cut with nesties labels 4 and the layered card has been put through the Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder. The background paper is Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses, the brown paper has been cut with a MS doily lace punch. Some sparkly snowflakes and a sentiment complete the card which is also for Die Cut Dreams Winter Wonderland and Whimsy Stamps Emboss-abilities.

Snow Lady and Baby

A quick post as I have spent so long making Christmas cards I can't believe where the time has gone this afternoon. I bought this image a little while ago and have been longing to use it. Coloured with PMs and highlighted with Sakura stardust pen. I added glitter to her bobble on her hat and cut the image and layer with nesties. I wanted to keep the background soft so I use some snowflake paper and vellums from last year's stash. The snowlakes are cut with a Sizzix die and small blue star gems added. Some pale blue lace, a snowflake charm and a silver greeting complete the picture.

Challenges

Passion for Promarkers Sketch

Whiff of Joy Die Cuts

Stamp Something Bling It

Fun in Florida

Over at Moving along with the Times this week their challenge is anything but a card. There are some great creations from the DT and I've seen some marvellous makes from some of you. Now I've never tackled anything with paper other than cards or scrapbooking. So here's another scrapbook page. I really want to get this Florida scrapbook finished so I can start a new one of other trips to the States. One of my New Year's resolutions, along with the annual losing weight of course, lol, must be more scrapbooking and learning new skills. Maybe next year when the challenge is anything but a card I will amaze you with a beautiful creation.

This page is very orange which was inspired by the colour in the photos of 3 rides you won't find me on. I once went on Big Thunder Mountain, the bottom right hand photo, and screamed all the way round, and that's a small but hairy roller coaster. I don't know what I'd do if I went on one of the really big ones. They are great to watch though and all part of a day's excitement in Florida. I used some free papers, stickers bought in Florida, a rub on and Sizzix corners. A fairly simple layout but I'm still getting to grips with scrapbooking.

SPOOKY

This is my first ever Halloween card for my 3rd week at Stamptacular Sunday. This proved to be yet another challenge but I hope you like my effort. The haunted house was a free digi image from Digital Delights. I coloured it with PMs and added some stamped stars. The pumpkins were cut from another free digi image from Pollycraft. The paper was a free download and the swirl is a Sizzix die cut. I hope you will be entering this week's challenge.

Katharina's WOJ candy

Katharina is celebrating the release of the new winter stamp kit with a blog candy. See my sidebar for the link.

Anya in Autumn Colours

This little beauty was one of the images from my blog candy win which made paper piecing her hat a challenge. As I don't have the stamp I had to cut the hat from one image and draw around it on the spotted paper and then cut that out. I think it's the first time I've ever tried paper piecing and I really like the result. I added a gold padded bow from my stash, drew faux stitching around the image, coloured with PMs, papers are Papermania and Craftwork Cards, as is the sentiment.

Challenges are:

Sketch Saturday sketch

One Stop Craft Birthday

Anyone for Anya Paper Piecing

Cupcake Buttons and stitching

Roses on Paper Use another sketch and orange, green and brown

Creative Card Crew Scallops

Paperplay Favourite embellishment (Flowers)

CRAFT 1 ribbon, 2 buttons and 3 papers

Christmas Cards

Well I did manage to get a lot of the ironing done yesterday but there is still a pile to do. However I gave myself a bit of time off to make a couple of Christmas cards. Went back to work today, which wasn't nice but I have reduced my hours to 30 worked over 5 days so am glad to be home. The first card was made using a Lli of the Valley die cut, which I coloured with Ms and added Angel Wings Shimmerz to her wings, appropriately enough. I used one of my lovely new MS punches on the strip of paper, aren't those stars fab. I also used my new Sizzix snowflake die to cut 2 snowflakes and fix together with a snowflake brad. Added 3 sparkly snowflakes and a sentiment. Challenges are Lili of the Valley Christmas card for a child and Cute Daisy May Fairy-nuff and ABC F is for Flying.

The second card is also for 3 challenges. The challenge at Penny Black is buttons and bows, Our Creative Corner provided the sketch and La La Land have a theme of Winter/Christmas.

All of the papers I used were free with magazines last year.

Pink Dahlia

I made this card for my very good friend Lynsey's birthday but couldn't use it for any challenges until she had opened her card. Now it is for Crafty Cardmakers who are looking for ribbon, lace or fibers and for Whimsy Stamps challenge to use punches or die cuts and lastly My Time to Craft whose challenge is Quick and Cute. Well it wasn't quick to make, what card is, but it sure is cute.

Image - Greeting Farm Dahlia
Coloured with Letraset Promarkers
Paper - Papermania
Die cuts - Nestabilities, Sizzix branch
Embellishments - sparkly flowers, gorgeous sparkly ribbon and brad from stash
Flowers - Prima, highlighted with Shimmerz

Autumn colours

I made this card just before I went on holiday and am now using it for 2 of this week's challenges. It's so nice to be back entering challenges but dont get me wrong I'd rather be on holiday. Last day off today and back to work tomorrow, oh no. The first challenges if to use brown plus other colours at Stamp Something and the second challenge is Autumn Colours at Secret Crafter. The cute image is Pink Gem, papers are Papermania. Corners are Sizzix.

Back from holiday

Hi everyone, I'm back from a lovely holiday in New England. As I've been to Salem and seen lots of pumpkins and Halloween decorations I thought I would change the look of my blog to match. Had a great time. the weather was mostly good and warmer than I expected. We saw some of these, though not as much as the previous 2 visits.
We went a week earlier this time and didn't visit as far north as usual so the foliage wasn't at peak when we were there unfortunately. After Salem, we went to Maine and then down to Cape Cod, which is just gorgeous, and finished up with 3 days in Boston, where I celebrated my birthday. Along the way I managed to fit in some craft shopping. The shops there are so big and the prices so much better for a lot of items. The price we pay in £s is what you pay in $s there and as the $ is about 65p that means big savings especially on items like MS punches, which I have been wanting for a while but decided to wait until we went to the US. I'm glad I did as I got more for my money. I also downloaded some 50% off one item vouchers. As it was one per person hubby had to take one of the more expensive items to the till with a voucher and I followed behind so we could use 2 vouchers in one shop. It's also great to be able to buy stickers for the American states for scrapbooking. Here's what I got, well it was my birthday.
My lovely hubby bought me the punches and I had some money from my Mum plus some saved. Graham was also going to by me some nesties but I couldn't find them. They have them online but not in the shops so I will be ordering them today. The best bargain I got was a scrapbook for £4. You can see it at the back of the picture. I wanted an American themed one and found this one on offer.

All of the hotels, which were fab, had computers for guests to use so I managed to check my e-mails and blog a few times in the evenings. I was so lucky to win the Die Cuts blog candy of 100 images. Thanks so much, Susie. Susie asked me what images I liked and was amazed when I said I don't like Tilda. I know she is a great favourite out there but I just don't like her. Here's a sample of the images Susie sent me.

I've missed blogging an am itching to start making some cards today but the ironing is calling, and what a lot of it there is after so long away. I'll catch up with you all over the next couple of days and will be posting my promised blog candy so keep an eye out for that.

Character Counts

That's the title of this week's challenge at Stamptacular Sunday Challenge where I am guest Dt this month. I didn't have any character stamps but used this Mickey Mouse sticker which was part of a pack I bought for scrapbooking our Florida holidays. Of course you must use stamps on your project somewhere so I stamped the blue background with a star border stamp, inked the edges of the yellow oval and stamped the sentiment. The star was cut with a Cuttlebug die cut and the red stars are from stash.

First guest DT for Stamptacular Sunday Challenge

Well I hope I have scheduled this correctly, and if I have you will be reading this whilst I am on holiday in New England. Today I will be on Cape Cod. This card is for the my first guest DT spot at Stamptacular Sunday Challenge where the challenge is pull out. I must admit this was a real challenge for me as I have never made a card like this before. However that is what entering challenges is all about, isn't it. A friend asked me to make a wedding card for her so I thought this was perfect for this challenge. I kept the papers, ribbon and flowers soft pinks and white to complement the brighter Whiff of Joy image. Papers are pink petticoat downloads. The pink paper is punched with an X cut border punch. I added a few pink sequin flowers to the image and some lovely sticky ribbon down the edge which matches the papers perfectly. You can just see the pull out in the bottom right hand corner. Here's the detail.

Sharon's birthday candy

Sharon is celebrating her birthday on 10 October by giving away this fabulous candy. Click on the picture to enter. Happy Birthday Sharon. I'll be giving away my first candy when I'm back from holiday so make sure you check back here to enter.