Striving for perfection

I'm always striving to improve my colouring, particularly when you have such beautiful big dresses like the one in this Kraftin' Kimmie stamp Marie Antoinette. I find it difficult to leave some white and get it right. I think this is my best effort yet, which was helped by an article in January's Craft Stamper by Kim Costello.


I would like to enter this into the pearls and lace challenge at Totally Gorjuss and Anything Goes at Kraftin'Kimmie.

Image - Kraftin' Kimmie
Medium - Letraset Promarkers, Sakura clearstar and rosestar pens
Papers - Papercellar Victorian Burgundy and Papermania Blueberry Pie
Tools - MS Border punch
Flowers - Wild Orchid with silk leaves from Joanna Sheen
Embellishments – lace from stash, pearls from Crafty Emma's store

Teddy Bear's Picnic

Does anyone else have problems sometimes with pop ups being blocked on blogger? I set it to allow pop ups but sometimes it just bongs when I want to add an image or leave a comment. Then suddenly it works again. This morning I was visiting many of you and it just wouldn't let me leave a comment which is very frustrating so apologies if I haven't left a comment for a while. I've used one of my new LOTV stamps here. I just couldn't resist this cute teddy image.

Challenges:
Teddy Stampers Fab sketch
Simon Says Happy Birthday
Penny's From the kitchen

Image - Lili of the Valley
Medium - Letraset Promarkers
Papers - Forever friends Pink Parfait
Tools - MS border punch, Sizzix swirl, Circle Nestie
Flower - chipboard flower from the Range
Sentiment - Craftwork Cards
Other - card candy

Say cheese

I've had a lovely day out today with my friend Lynsey. We visited 2 great craft shops and had lunch. Lots of lovely crafty chat and a few purchases of course. Why don't we have any good craft shops in Norwich? So a quick post from me tonight as I want to see the last of Gok's programme tonight at 8pm.

This is my hubby's Birthday card which he loved. He's always been a keen photographer so this Pollycraft digi image is just perfect and was a great image to 3D. I decoupaged the face, camera, camera bag and strap and shoes and then added glossy accents to his glasses, camera lens and flash.

Challenges:
Papertake Triple Tastic (3 of something (buttons)
Moving along with the times Card for a male
CES Men only
Sweet Stampin Favourite movie (It's a wonderful life (well it is a wonderful life with my hubby))
Kaboodle Doodle Happy Birthday
Incy Wincy For the boys
Creatalicious Two tone

Image - Pollycraft
Medium - Letraset Promarkers
Papers - Dovecraft
Tools - MS Zigzag punch and Dovecraft star punch
Other – Glossy accents, Buttons from stash

It's launch day

Yes, 9pm tonight on Ideal World will see the release of the new Fairyopolis range of Flower Fairies from Crafter's Companion so I am sharing a last sneak peek with you. This is another stamped image with papers from the CD. The sentiment is also on the stamp set. I added some gems, ribbon, Sizzix cut swirls and flowers from Crafty Emma's shop and Wild Orchid.

This really is a lovely set of stamps and CD and I've enjoyed bringing you these sneak peeks.

Mother's Day Fairy

This is my third post today, this time with an LOTV fairy. I've loved this image for ages and when I bought a couple of the new stamps last week she flew into my basket too.

I would like to enter her into the following challenges:
Truly Scrumptious Fab sketch
Lili of the Valley Say it with Flowers
ABC P is for Pearls
Crafts 4 Eternity Scrummy colour combo of Purple, aqua, pale green
Cupcake Up in the air, option green

Image - Lili of the Valley
Medium - Letraset Promarkers, Sakura clearstar pen
Papers - Papermania Capsule Aqua
Tools - Label Nestie, MS doily punch, Marianne flower die
Pearls - The Hobby House
Sentiment - PC generated with faux stitching

Happy 3rd Birthday

Hasn't this little boy got two lovely big pressies to open on his Birthday. The image is one of the LOTV cute squares. I love the muted colours on this image which I have teamed with MME Wild Asparagus papers. As you can see the MS zigzag punch has been hard at work here. What did I use for male cards before I had it I wonder? I added some card candy and a Sizzix cut 3 to finish.

Challenges:

Paper Sundaes Keep it simple
The Pixie Cottage Fab sketch
Cute Card Thursday Birthday, option 3

If you're looking for today's Fairyopolis sneak peek please check post below.

Sneak peek 4

Time for another sneak peek of the gorgeous new Fairyopolis range from Crafter's Companion. This time I used one of the toppers from the CD and sprayed it with CC's Spray and Sparkle. It's quite an unusual colour scheme for me to use for a Birthday card but is so lovely and bright and would make a great card for a Winter Birthday in particular. I backed the topper with a die cut doily, added MS die cut butterflies, a Flora Doodle butterfly and Sizzix cut leaves with a silky Prima flower to which I added a lovely gold spacer. I would like to enter this card into the challenge of shades of green at Paperplay.

Sneak peek 3 - snowdrop

I hope you are enjoying these sneak peeks from me and the rest of the Crafter's Companion DT. This is probably my favourite card I made using the fairy, snowdrop and sentiment stamps. The paper is from the CD.

As you can see I coloured her very delicately with Promarkers and added glitter. This was my first heat embossed card. About time I made one as I bought the embossing powder (WOW white glitter) and the heat gun at the NEC last November. I stamped the snowdrop and then heat embossed and then coloured using Distress Ink Broken China. I then stamped 3 snowflakes and cut them out and added to the bottom of the easel card. The first showing of this range will be on Ideal World at 9pm on Tuesday. There are then loads of programmes on Wednesday as it is the pick of the day. I've set my recorder for all of them!

I would also like to enter this card into the challenge of easel cards at Charisma, make it girly at Fab'n' Funky and shaped cards at Totally Papercrafts.

We're off out shortly to do some bits and pieces and then going to the theatre tonight so I'll catch up with my commenting and bloghopping tomorrow. Enjoy your Sunday.

Sneak peek 2- Primrose

Here I am back again as promised with my second post for today and my second peek of the new Fairyopolis range from Crafter's Companion. This is Primrose and she features on the set of Spring stamps. I stamped her twice so that I could 3d the primrose and leaf. Papers are from the Fairyopolis CD. I added lots of glitter, some ribbon and Prima flowers with punched leaves. The sentiment is also from the stamp set and I added some doodled faux stitching. These fairies are so pretty. I'll be back tomorrow with another sneak peek.

I would also like to enter this into the challenge of Spring colours at Magical Monday and flowers at Sarah Hurley.

Easter eggs and daisies

What an exciting week I'm having. As some of you have spotted I am featured as the subscriber of the month in this month's subscriber issue of Cardmaking and Papercraft. I won the challenge at Sarah Hurley and was in the top 3 at CES. On top of all that there is the exciting release of the new Fairyopolis range next week at Crafter's Companion. I'll be back later with a lovely sneak peek number 2. And not forgetting the fab new LOTV stamps. I bought 2 of the new ones and 2 of the older ones which I have wanted for ages along with some of the cute squares. I only ordered them Wednesday lunchtime and they arrived yesterday! Can't wait to play with them but ironing calls first.

I bought some Forever Friends decoupage to make some Easter cards as I thought the images were so cute but that the stamps wouldn't get much use. It's not like buying stamps which you can use for lots of cards. I teamed the decoupage with K&Co Daisy papers and 3D daisy, used my MS simple scallop punch and some ribbon. I would like to enter this into the monochrome challenge at Forever Friends and lemon zingy at Papertake.

Sneak peek number 1

This is the first sneak peek of the new Crafter's Companion Flower Fairies Fairyopolis range which is launching on 15th March. There are 4 stamp sets, one for each season and a fabulous CD with decoupage, pyrimage, some beautiful backing papers and much more. In fact all that you have come to expect from Crafter’s Companion. My card was made using backing papers and pyrimage from the CD. The colours are so deep and I printed it A5 so I didn't need much to embellish the design just some Sizzix cut swirls and Prima flowers. There is a fantastic bloghop going on too where you could win £100 worth of Fairyopolis goodies. If you want to play along you need to start at Crafter’s Companion News, Views and Inspirations. So leave me a comment and then hop over to start the blog hop.

Good Luck Teddy

This is my third and final post for today. I used the lovely sketch with lots of layers at Create 4 Fun. The papers are Dovecraft Piece of Cake and Forever Friends Pink Parfait. I'm really into adding charms at the moment and sorting through a bag of mixed charms I was pleased to find this four leaf clover which matches the good luck theme. It's not easy to know what to put on a good luck card but I thought that Teddy Bea with her magic wand would be lucky. I also distressed some of the edges for this one, something I haven't done for ages.

I would also like to enter this into the following challenges:
CES Good luck
Paper Sundaes Stripes
Cupcake Pink polka dots
Stamptacular You lucky duck (Good luck/congratulations)
Simon Says Anything Goes
DYSU Layers

Sending anniversary wishes

This is my second post for today which is my friend's 49th Wedding Anniversary and this is the card I gave them. I can share it now I know they have opened it. This was the second WOJ stamp I won at I love Promarkers a couple of weeks ago and thought it would be good for so many occasions. I used the fab sketch at Totally Gorjuss and would also like to enter it into the challenge of Fly me to the moon at Pollycraft.

Image - Whiff of Joy
Medium - Letraset Promarkers and white gel pen
Papers - Country Companions Lover's Lane
Tools - MS heart border punch
Embellishments – charm and pearl hearts from Quixotic Paperie

Raining daisies

There's lots of Spring themed challenges out there and for my inspiration for the colour scheme for this card I chose the lovely lilac crocuses and the purpley blue hyacinths that are just coming into bud. This is one of my favourite Penny Black images and of course aother thing about Spring are the April showers. If all the showers were flowers that would be OK.

Challenges:

Penny Black at Allsorts Welcome Spring
Elephantastic Cute with a butterfly
Basic Grey Wings
The Crafty Pad Ribbon
Incy Wincy Pastel colours
Ladybug Crafts Ink Spring colours
Sketch Saturday Fab sketch
Delightful Challenges Butterfly

Image - Penny Black Raining Daisies
Medium - Letraset Promarkers, Sakura clearstar pen
Papers - Basic Grey Wisteria
Tools - Nestabilities, MS butterfly and fern punches
Flowers - Wild Orchid Cherry Blossom and Papermania roses
Other – Raffia lace from Quixotic Paperie, green ribbon

Baby boy

Firstly welcome to my new followers. After I drew my last candy I lost 5 followers but have since gained another 3, so welcome ladies, hope you'll hop by as often as you can. I haven't made a baby card for ages and need some for stock and as there are a lot of baby and new beginning challenges decided to make a baby boy card today. I've just realised that the punched border and ribbon hardly show now the card is finished.

These are the challenges I am entering:
Whiff of Joy Blooms and buttons
Just Tracy's New beginnings
Dream Valley New beginnings
Crafty Creations Baby blue
I love Promarkers Babies
Everybody Art Baby
Stamp with fun Monochromatic blue
Friday Sketchers Rach's fab sketch

Image - Whiff of Joy
Medium - Letraset Promarkers
Papers - Papermania Blueberry Pie
Tools - MS border punch
Flowers - Prima
Other – heart doily coloured with Distress Ink
Sentiment - Lili of the Valley

Sweet 16

A quick post from me today as it is Hubby's Birthday. We had a lovely day out with friends at the coast. The weather was beautiful, lots of sunshine. I have just managed a little bit of time on the laptop while he watches a programme he recorded last night. I made this card fro a friend's granddaughter's 16th Birthday. It's my first stepper card and I shall definitely be making more of these as I think they are really effective. Her favourite colour is purple, like mine, and she loves cupcakes so this LOTV image was perfect.

Challenges:

Aud Sentiments Birthday card
Crafty Catz Special Birthday
Wags 'n' Whiskers More than one fold
Allsorts Card for a teenager
Passion for Promarkers Food and drink

Image - Lili of the Valley
Medium - Letraset Promarkers
Papers - Papermania Henbury Lane
Tools - Nestabilities, MS punches
Flowers - K & Co
Other – K & Co silver adhesive border, organza ribbon

Ink cartridges for sale

This post will stay at the top for a while so please scroll down for new posts.

Does anyone have an HP printer that takes 363 cartridges? My new one takes 364s and I have 12 363 cartridges (11 genuine, 1 compatible), every colour but black. Any offers?

Two Christmas cards

Well it certainly has been a gorgeous sunny day here today so of course I made 2 Christmas cards!!!! The first is using a sweet Sugar Nellie Manga image coloured with Promarkers with lots of glitter flocking. I used snowflake and swiss dots embossing folders with punched snowflake Forever Friends Cosy Christmas and Papermania Classic Christmas papers. The adhesive border at the bottom is from K&Co. The snowflake was made with a Marianne die and MS punch.

Challenges:
Sugar Bowl sketch
ABC Christmas E is for embossing and 3 different types of embellishment (Border, snowflake, pearls)
Fussy and fancy Embossing
Let's ink it up Embossing
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Embossing
Bah Humbug Embossing

I have some 5" square cards which I never use anymore so thought I would use them for some Christmas cards. I used this cute image from Lili of the Valley with Forever Friends Cosy Christmas papers. Flowers are Wild Orchid with Prima leaves. A strip of Papermania ribbon, some glitter and silver embellies to finish.

Challenges:

Lili of the Valley Bev's great sketch
Sarah Hurley Four legged friends
Dutch Dare Who's who in the zoo (I know he's a teddy but you find bears in the zoo)
Sparkles Forum Christmas Red and green
Kaboodle Doodles Go Green

Gone fishin'

The sun is shining today for a change and should be out tomorrow too, hooray, as it is Hubby's Birthday and we plan a day out at the coast. I've used another Digistamp Boutique image so will enter this card into their monthly challenge. The papers and ribbon are the old Dovecraft men's papers. I used the MS zigzag punch, so good for male cards. When I use buttons I stick them on with 3d glue available from Crafter's Companion and last time I used these tiny buttons I added the glue to the buttons and they were really fiddly to stick on. This time I added the glue to the paper and then stuck the buttons on top, much easier. I would also like to enter this into the challenge of water at Cards for men and Birthday at Crafty Sentiments.

Tags

I'm back with my second post today with a couple of tags to show you. The characters are part of the Country Companions Lover's Lane paper pad. I rarely use the characters as part of the paper on a card but though they would be perfect cut out and mounted onto tags. Papers are scraps of the same pad for the hedgie and Henbury Lane for the mouse. I would like to enter these into the challenge of Tags at A Spoon Full of Sugar and Tag you're it at The Creative Cottage.

In the Garden

It's another cold gloomy day here in Norfolk so perfect crafting weather. The image is from Little Claire and makes me think of warmer days. I decided to use a PATP MS set but use the corners on one paper the border punch on the other.

This card is for the following challenges:
Die cut Dreams Spring Garden Scene
Bling it on Anything goes with the option of charms
Crafty Purple Frog Fly away with us
Simon Says 1 image, 2 papers, 3 types of embellishment
Little Claire Flowers

Charming flowers

This is my second post for today. See below re blogger problems last night. Will try to catch up with you tomorrow as need to get dinner ready after posting this.

This card is for the following challenges:
Digistamp Boutique Monthly challenge
ABC P is for Pink
Paper Sundaes How charming
Stamp Something March digi day
Totally Papercrafts Lace and pearls

Image - Digistamp Boutique
Medium - Letraset Promarkers
Papers - Country Companions Lover's Lane
Tools - Nestabilities, Go Kreate dies
Raffia lace- from Quixotic Paperie, pearls from Crafty Emma's Store, bow from Wild Orchid, charm from stash

Spring Garden

Isn't blogger annoying sometimes. I stopped crafting last night in order to visit lots of you and comment and what happened - commenting was blocked or I typed a comment and got an error, typed it again, same thing, sometimes the third attempt worked. Grrr, gave up in the end, just visited. So apologies if I didn't leave a comment yesterday. I did lots of visiting and saw some gorgeous work out there.

Here's another yellow and green Easter card using one of last year's Spring images from Digistamp Boutique where I would like to enter this into their monthly challenge using one of their images. The blank card is from Craftwork Cards, Papers are Wild Rose, flowers are Prima with a sweetie brad and the crystal is also Prima. I would also like to enter this into the following challenges:
Sir Stampalot Spring is in the air (Yellow, green and/or blossom pink)
Cute Card Thursday Signs of Spring
Delightful ChallengesWelcome Spring
Die Cut Dreams Spring Garden Scene
Cupcake Anything but square

Christmas Love

As promised I'm back with my second DT post for today. Last time was Spring, this time it's Christmas for Jane's challenge of snowflakes at Winter Wonderland. We are sponsored this week by Pollycraft and the winner will get their choice of 5 digis from her fab store. I used a new stamp from Whiff of Joy, coloured with Promarkers and a Sakura clearstar pen for added shine. The papers are some I bought in America. They are called Fair Isle Christmas from Deja Views. I love the way the paper looks like tapestry and is very glitzy. I used my new Marianne icicle die and the snowflakes are made from white glitter card with a Marianne die and an MS punch.

I would also like to enter my card into the following challenges:
Try it on Tuesday Card inspired by a song (Wherever I lay my hat, that's my home by Paul Young)
Top Tip Tuesday My Favourites (stamping, Promarkers, die cuts, snowflakes, glitter, Christmas)
Christmas Stampin' all year long How much bling can you bring

I can't believe what a beautiful day it turned into today, cold but sunny. Hope you all have a good weekend.

Spring is in the air

Well we saw the sun for about a minute this morning, which is about the most we have seen it all week. It has really been a dreary, cloudy week for weather here. Hopefully it will brighten up soon. At least we have a few miniature daffodils in flower in the garden. At least my card has plenty of flowers. It's my DT card for Stampin’ for the Weekend where we have a nice easy challenge of Spring for you and the winner will receive a voucher from Simon Says so well worth playing along.

I would also like to enter my card into the following challenges:
One Step Craft Spring flowers
Incy Wincy Spring is in the air
The Pixie Cottage Spring
Bee Crafty Spring florals
Sir Stampalot Spring is in the air (green, yellow and/or blossom pink)
By the Cute and Girly Springtime
Everybody Art Spring
Penny's Going for the green
Card Makin Mamas Something green

Image - Pollycraft digi
Medium - Letraset PromarkersPapers - Wild Rose
Tools - Go Kreate die, MS border punch, Sizzix swirls
Flowers - Prima
Other – sweetie brad

I'll be back later with my DT card for Winter Wonderland.

Petunias

This is my third post again today. Please scroll down for a couple of sweeties.

This image was sent to me last year by my lovely and talented blogging buddy Christine from Canada so I'm afraid I don't know the make of the image. I have teamed it with some Basic Grey Euphoria and Wisteria papers, organza ribbon, Prima flowers and pearls. I used the sketch at Basic Grey and would also like to enter this into the In the Garden challenge at Creative Inspirations

You're a star

This is my second post today and a really quick visit for now as I have a pile of ironing waiting.

I've been admiring these bears and when I popped into The Range the other day just had to buy one. They are so cute and isn't Fizzy Moon just a fantastic name. The papers are Papermania Blueberry Pie and Boysenberry (more lush names). I am loving these new papers so much. Flowers are Wild Orchid again. I added some faux stitching around the image. I used the fabulous and rather complicated sketch at Sketch Saturday and would also like to enter this into the challenge of stitching at Ladybug Crafts Ink and four legged friends at Charisma.

More Mother's Day cards

I'm on a roll, this is my third and last post today. These are the two cards I made last night. I bought some Forever Friends decoupage for a change. Papers are my new Country Companions Lovers Lane, roses are Papermania, butterfly Flora Doodles. I used an MS border punch and then covered most of it up! I would like to enter this into the flowers and flutterbys challenge at CES and Anything Goes at Papertake.

The second card uses Forever Friends Pink Parfait papers. I added some doodling to the computer printed sentiment. I made the flower using Fizzy Moon paper flowers and Crafter's Companion spray and sparkle. I got the idea for the flowers from Bev who signposted a tutorial which you can find here. I would like to enter this into the challenge of make your own flowers at Allsorts.

From Easter to Christmas!

Well I'm all over the place with my seasons. Yesterday I had an Easter card to show you and today a Christmas card. I am determined to keep making them all year as it was so much easier last year when I didn't have to make them all in just a couple of months. I was making my DT card for this week's Winter Wonderland challenge and whilst I had the Christmas cardmaking stash out thought I may as well make another. They are some of my favourite cards to make.

Challenges:

Lili of the Valley Circles
Passion for Promarkers Sugar rush (girly)
Sweet Stampin Oh so girly
Dream Valley Anything goes

Image - Lili of the Valley
Medium - Letraset Promarkers, Sakura souffle pen
Papers - Forever Friends
Tools - Nestabilities, Marianne doiley die, Sizzix holly leaves
Flowers - Prima
Sentiment - K & Co border
Other- Glitter flocking, sweetie brad, ribbon

Happy Easter

As today is the first official day of Spring it seems appropriate to be showing you my first Easter card which is my DT card for this month's challenge at Crafter’s Companion. We're having themes rather than sketches for our challenges at the moment and this month is Easter. You don't have to use a CC product but if you have one we would love to see them. I've used one of the cute SWALK images with papers from the SWALK CDs. I used an MS border punch and daisy punch for the flowers with added pearls.

I would also like to enter this into the challenge of sugar rush (girly cards) at
Passion for Promarkers, punches at Wags 'n Whiskers and make your own flowers at Allsorts.