No DPs

This week at Winter Wonderland Danielle challenges us to make a card without any designer papers. Now like most of you I love my papers but a challenge is a challenge and as a DT member the challenge must be taken. I often use embossed card for no paper challenges but decided to try something different this time. I used an old Dovecraft snowflake stamp all over the card. The DT were lucky to get some images from the sponsor this week, Sassy Studios. I don't usually use peach for a Christmas card but really like peach and blue with the gold. I used "Baby it's cold outside"layered onto a glittered gold scalloped oval, added some MS punched glittered gold snowflakes and a couple of gold stars and a gold sentiment.

Less than 5 months to Christmas, scary I know, so if you haven't made a good start on your Christmas cards, maybe this week is the time to get going.

I am scheduling this post as I am spending the weekend in Yorkshire. On Friday we are driving across the moors to Scarborough where we are spending two nights and on Saturday night we have tickets for an outdoor 80's concert so am praying for good weather. As I am away I can't link to any other challenges this week but there are plenty of Christmas challenges at the moment.

Sunglasses needed

Woah, this is a bright one today, unlike the weather which is rather dull. There are some hot and summer challenges out there so I thought I would play along with the hot colours for a change. The image is a digi from Squiggle Stamps, coloured with Promarkers and added glitter. I added some faux stitching with a bright pink pen. Papers are K&Co and Papermania. I used 3 different MS border punches, some glitter ric rac ribbon, Sizzix cut swirls, Prima flowers and buttons with a sentiment from Craftwork Cards.
Challenges
Squiggle Stamps Scallops, stitches
Creatalicious 3D
Paperplay Anything goes
Pear Tree Designs Birthday
The Shabby Tea Rooms 1 ribbon, 2 buttons, 3 punches or dies
Digital Tuesday Dazzle me (think I have done that, lol!)
Crafty Creations Summer Lovin'
CRAFT Hot and spicy
Colour Create Hot pink, warm orange and saffron
Sunday sketch and stamp

Blue snowflake

This sweetie called Snowflake from Sugar Nellie is one of my favourite Christmas images and as there are several Christmas challenges about this week I thought I would make another Christmas card. The elegant background paper is Papermania Aqua capsule collection and the dotty paper I found in my stash. I used Sakura white souffle and silver pens on the dots on her clothes and added silver glitter as a change from white on the snowflakes. The dottie foam snowflakes are from America, blue bows from Wild Orchid. I used silver thread on the buttons for more sparkle.
Challenges
The Sugar Bowl sketch and use blue
Tuesday Taggers Christmas in July
Cupcake Pastel Christmas
Stamptacular Christmas in July
Christmas stamping all year long Buttons and bows
I love Promarkers Christmas in July
Simon Says Dotty
Fab 'n' funky Buttons and bows
Die Cut Dreams Christmas Club Sweet Christmas wishes

DT call

Emma has a DT call out for her new store. The call closes on 8 August. Look out for her new fornightly challenge coming soon. Should be fun.

First Anniversary

I know I used this CC Designs couple a little while ago but I had an order to make and my friend requested this image. I paper pieced her top and his trousers for a change. The papers are Papermania Confetti and the white card is embossed with a Cuttlebug heart embossing folder. Flowers are wild Orchid with some rosebuds from stash with 2 different sized punched leaves and some MS punched hearts. I used the sketch from Simon Says and would also like to enter the embossing challenge at Crafty Sentiments and congratulations at Totally Gorjuss.

Two for Sunday

After a very productive morning gardening and ironing followed by a trip to Sainsburys this afternoon I had time for some crafting. I had coloured both images on Friday and having completed the cards then had a look at e-mails and today's challenges. I was so pleased to find I had won 3 digis at Sunday sketch and stamp and had an e-mail inviting me to be guest designer in 3 weeks time at Christmas stamping all year round. I was also in the top 3 at the 2 Sisters challenge.

A couple of weeks ago I had my card all ready for the Whiff of Joy challenge when my I had computer problems with my antivirus and couldn't upload my card. I was so annoyed as I was really pleased with this card which you can see here. This fortnight there is another fabulous sketch at Whiff of Joy and here is my interpretation. I rotated the sketch to fit the image. Papers are Papermania Rose Garden and Summer Blooms with BG Euphoria. I thought I would use Sizzix cut swirls with the Wild Orchid cherry blossoms for a change from punched leaves. I added some ribbon and some tiny heart gems, glitter to the hearts and wings on the image and some faux stitching.
Other challenges
The Corrosive Challenge Pink and blue
Create 4 fun Flowers
Fussy and fancy Stitches, scallops and sparkle

Last week I flashed my freebie at Tales from Pollycraft and Paula sent entrants this fun image and asked us to make a card with it using green. I used MME Wild Asparagus and a scrap of Hampstead. Sentiment is from Craftwork cards.
Other challenges
Creative card crew sketch
Digital Tuesday Happy Birthday
Crafty Creations Happy or sweet
Creative Inspirations Chocolate and mint
I love Promarkers Buttons
Pollycraft Happy Birthday
Allsorts Something for a baby or child (this would be a great boy's card)
Stamp, scrap and doodle Digi

Thanks for all your lovely comments and welcome to my 2 new followers. One week left to enter my candy above.

A cute little tag

It's my friend Sue's daughter's 20th Birthday tomorrow so we met them both for lunch at Frankie and Benny's today. I made Hannah's card some time ago but as I was wrapping her pressy I thought it would be nice to add a handmade tag. It seemed to funny to be making something so small but I was pleased with the result and she loved it as she said it looked like her. She loves pink and girly and the sun so this Anya image was just perfect. I added glossy accents to the glasses. The papers is Rose Garden and I found some sparkly pink flowers and the bow and ribbon in my stash. I'll definitely have to make some more of these.
Challenges
Quixotic Make it miniature
Charisma Anything but square
Crafty Catz Summertime

The weather has been perfect today and after lunch we walked up to the shops and I bought some fab new shoes and a handbag. Hopefully the weather should be good tomorrow as we need to do some gardening but I am hoping for some crafty time later in the afternoon.

Two pretty girls

Firstly welcome to my new followers. This week Kate has a fabulous sketch for us at Winter Wonderland and I decided to use one of last year's lovely digis from Digital Doodling. I added glossy accents to the bauble and glittered round the edge of the image. The poinsettias were made with a nestie and a flower punch with added gems, Sizzix cut holly leaves and MS punched fern leaves. The snowflake is a Sizzix die with a star gem.
I am also entering into the following challenges
ABC Christmas O is for ornaments, options glossy/shiny
Polka Doodles Christmas in July
Paperplay Blue, cream + one
Aud Sentiments Choose your own Christmas sentiment
One Stitch at a time Digi
Paper Sundaes Make your own flowers
2 Sisters Christmas in July
Stamp Something Something flowery

The second card is in my favourite colour combo and is another of my new LOTV stamps. Papers are Kate Knight and Papermania. I used my MS corner punch for a change on one corner of each of the rectangles. Flowers were made using an MS and X cut punch with MS punched fern leaves.

Challenges
Totally Gorjuss Thinking of You
Sketch Saturday
Papertake Cutie Patootie
Polka Doodles Mega competition - colouring

Don't forget to enter my candy here . Have a great weekend everyone.

Christmas shopping

No don't worry I haven't started my Christmas shopping yet, lol! I ordered 3 of the new LOTV stamps, 2 of them Christmas ones and they were waiting for me when I got home from work today. I just couldn't wait to use one and here she is, isn't she fab.
I used glitter flocking for her fur and the snow at their feet and used some of my last BG Eskimo Kisses papers from last Christmas. I tried really hard with distressing the edges, before inking them all and glittering some of them. What a lovely mess I made. The snowflakes were made with an MS punch with pearls added. I hoped making a Christmas card would cool me down as it is very hot and humid here but it hasn't helped , maybe some ice cream will work.
Challenges
Friday Sketchers
One Stop Craft Pink, blue, green and a hint of red
Crafty Angels Shabby chic
Passion for Promarkers Distressing
Cupcake Cats and/or dogs

Anything but a card and a card

Usually when I see anything but a card as the challenge, I think oh no I can't do that, other than layouts. Some of you are so clever at making other things but inspired by a demo of making a bag out of an envelope at the do crafts desk at the Range on Saturday I decided to have a go. I kept this one fairly simple. I have also been meaning to try covering some notebooks so tried that too. The papers are Henbury Lane and the mice are Penny Black of course. The glittery chipboard flowers on the bag were free with a mag a while ago and they match the paper so well. The glitter strips were bought on Saturday, 110 for £1.99, I think they will be used a lot. I'm quite pleased with this first attempt and the notebook fits perfectly into the bag.

Challenges
Penny Black Anything but a card
Incy Wincy Alter something
Moving along with the times Managed to fit the sketch onto the notebook and meet the animal theme
Crafty Catz Anything but a card

The second card was made using the sketch at Lili of the Valley. Papers are Papermania Amethyst Infusion and Summer Blooms. It's one of those glitter strips again with Wild Orchid flowers and a charm. Birthdays is the challenge at Craftalicious.

Bold and bright bear

I have had a lovely relaxing day today, apart from doing the weekly shop at Sainsburys. I met my friend Lynsey and her little girl Grace, what a sweetie, at the Range where we had coffee and a long chat before heading off to watch a Do Crafts demo and browse the shelves where we both picked up a few goodies, which we absolutely needed of course.

Bold and bright is the challenge this week at Pollycraft so i decided to use Cuthbert with flowers and the sketch from Just Cute Bears. The gorgeous sparkly papers are all Papermania Henbury Lane, the 2 flowers are Prima joined with a spacer and brad with some punched and glittered leaves. I found the ribbon in my stash and then found a little bow which matches perfectly. 3 flower gems to finish it off.
Other challenges
Stampin' for the weekend 3 DPs, 2 flowers, 1 ribbon and some gems or charms
Teddy Stampers As you wish
The Townscrapper Anything goes (last post until Labor Day)
Stamp Something Digital
Allsorts Summer days

Hubby wants to use the laptop now so I don;t have time to catch up with any of you today I'm afraid. Don't forget to enter my candy in the post above.

Glittery angels

I am hosting this week's challenge at Winter Wonderland and my challenge is angels and glitter so we want to see some lovely sparkly cards. You could win a $15 certificate to spend at Whimsy stamps. I am really pleased with my card this week, it is the card I would choose to send to myself. The image is WOJ. I decided to use non Christmas papers for a change. I have so many gorgeous papers, which are suitable for any occasion and I wanted some really rich purples for this card. The papers are Papermania heather capsule collection. I added glitter to her wings and dress and punched some glittery holly leaves to add to to the Prima flowers and brads.

There are a lot of other Christmas challenges this week so I am also entering this card into the following challenges.
Sunday sketch and stamp
Magical Crafts Christmas in July
Paper Sundaes Lots of layers
Pear Tree Designs Glitter/sparkle
The Shabby Tea Rooms Christmas in July
Fab 'n' funky Christmas in July
Cute card Thursday Christmas

I have candy on offer in the post above.

Wishes for Bella blog hop week 4

This hedgie should have gone to Specsavers, methinks! I followed the sketch at Penny Black for this one. Colour Create have a colour challenge of warm pinks, chocolate and white Passion for Promarkers challenge is animals. The butterflies are all punched with X cut punches, papers are Wild Rose and Papermania Raspberry Champagne. I added some crepe paper ribbon and gems to finish.

This card will be going to Bella, whose story you can read here. The last blog hop starts with Denise.

I have candy here.

Flash your freebie!

Paula at Pollycraft is asking you to flash your freebie by creating a card using one of her Friday freebies. This is Flo and I have been longing to colour her since I picked her up a few weeks ago. Papers are Papermania Summer Blooms and Rose Garden. Prima flowers, punched leaves, card candy and glitter finish off the card. I used the sketch from Sketch Saturday and Charisma want pink.

This card is going to Michelle, one of the DT at A spoon full of sugar. Michelle had a horrible car accident and has lost an eye nad has a long road to recovery. The girls at ASPOS are asking us to send her a card to wish her well.

Emma's new shop

Emma has a new shop opening and is giving away a £10 voucher to spend. All you have to do is hop over and visit and post about it on your blog and add her logo with a link on your sidebar, as I have done. She has some fab goodies on her site and is adding more so pay her a visit.

Good luck with the new shop Emma.

Isn't she pretty

Yesterday and today have been unbearably hot. We had a quick clean of the house this morning and then went out for a while. I managed to pick up the new Papermania Summer Blooms papers and a Dovecraft star punch fell into my hand as well. I made this card yesterday evening once it had cooled down a little. This is a quick post from me today as we are going to watch a movie shortly. This gorgeous girl is a Sugar Nellie image, glittered round the edge, and the papers are from various Papermania packs. Flowers are Wild Orchid with some added pink rosebuds I found in my stash. Hope it is cooler tomorrow as we're off to the coast tomorrow and would like to have a nice walk.
Challenges
Sugar Bowl Fab sketch
Paper Sundaes White plus one
Aud Sentiments No sentiment
The Townscrapper Monochrome
One Stop Craft Monochrome

Don't forget to get that card made for Bella and join me in the blog hop next Tuesday.

Waiting for Santa

The theme this week at Winter Wonderland is "twas the night before Christmas". At first I wasn't sure what to make for this but then I found a wooden stamp half price in my local craft shop which would suit the theme. I stamped it twice so I could decoupage the cat and layered it onto red card, then blue card. The image is coloured with Promarkers and chalks. The strip on the right has been punched with an MS star border punch. I added an embossed nellie cut circle and some MS punched snowflakes and pearls.

The number of entries is growing each week as more of you realise the time to get all those cards made is getting shorter so come join in the fun and you could win some fab digi images from Delicious Doodles.

I am also entering my card into the following challenges:
Sketch Saturday
The Corrosive Challenge Christmas time
Cards for men Christmas in July
Crafty Angels Circles and squares
The Shabby Tea Room Embossing
Christmas Stampin' all year round free challenge
Fussy and Fancy Christmas in July part 2

Happy 1st Birthday

I don;t know what is the matter with blogger this week. The other night it said no comments against some blog's posts and when I went into them there were comments there. Wondered where my background had gone, just found out scrappin' blogs isn't working at the moment as they are using too much photobucket space as they are so popular. Photobucket want them to open a business account but as they are a free service they can;t do this so I had to find a new background. Hope you like it.

This cute bear, and you now I love them, was last week's Friday freebie from the very generous Paula at Pollycraft. I printed it twice so I could decoupage the balloons. Good job I have so many pink Promarkers. The striped paper is BG Euphoria and the flowered papers are Rose Garden and MME quite contrary. I kept the embellishments simple with some gems, ribbon and a bow.
Challenges
Die Cut Dreams 1st Birthday (Susie and the team are celebrating the first birthday of DCD with a blog hop)
Pollycraft Sketch
Bee Crafty 3D
Just Cute Bears Decoupage
Penny's challenge 7 of something (mine is gems)
Paperplay Your number's up

Wishes for Bella week 3

Welcome to my 3 new followers. Hopefully most of you will have read the posts appearing all over blogland for sending wishes to Bella. I have sent her 2 girly cards, one pink and one purple so this week I decided to go with something completely different which should make her smile. The sweet cat is of course Penny Black. I added loads of glitter, all around the edge of the blue Laura Ashley paper, on the stars on the bra and the punched leaves. The daisies in the centre of the flowers had yellow middles so I coloured them with a Ruby Promarker to match the colour scheme.
Challenges
Penny Black at Allsorts A burst of summer colour
Stamp something Colours of your flag
Oh Alice Red, white and blue
Penny Black red, white and blue
The Crafty Pad Animal fun
Passion for Promarkers Give us a laugh
Pear Tree Designs Animals

Please make a card for Bella and join the blog hop which starts at Denise. There are so many prizes to be won in the grand draw too. Remember to pop back here next Tuesday when I shall be part of the last blog hop and will have some girly candy to win.

Blowing in the wind

This little Buzzcraft fairy looks like he is blowing very hard. I added glitter to the wings and dandelion head. The backing paper is Papermania capsule aqua, which I treated myself to this weekend along with a couple of other goodies. I love the vintage look of these papers. The border is Rose Garden punched with an MS punch. Flowers are Wild Orchid with punched fern leaves and I added some flower gems, pearls and a butterfly charm.
Challenges
Moving along with the times sketch
Kaboodle Doodle Celebrate Summer
By the cute and girly Warm Summer days
The Craft Garden Fairy
Charisma Metal Mickey
Incy Wincy Punches

A posy

A very quick post from me tonight. A sweet posy from LOTV for this card. The papers are MME quite contrary free with this month's Cardmaking and Papercraft, how fab is that. I added some crepe paper ribbon and some ribbon and a bow, Prima flowers and pearls and sentiment and butterfly from the Rose Garden paper pack.
Challenges
Lili of the Valley sketch
Crafty Creations Ice cream and cake (I've gone with the colour combo of strawberry, chocolate and vanilla ice cream)
Craftalicious Cute
Totally Papercrafts One for the girls
2 Sisters Anything goes
One stitch at a time Lace, ribbon and bow (use one, two or all three)
Crazy 4 challenges 2 or more ribbons

Punch it out

Punch it out is the challenge at Winter Wonderland and here is my DT card. I used one of my new Pollycraft rubber stamps which Paula is selling off. I used 2 MS punches, the star border and the snowflake and added pearls to the snowflakes. I added lots of glitter to the image and backed it with gold card. Quite a different colour combo for me this week.

It is now less than 6 months to Christmas so if you haven't started your cards yet maybe this is the week to start with a nice easy challenge. Our sponsor this week is Bunny Zoe.

I am also entering my card into the following challenges:
ABC Christmas N for Noel
Sketch and stash Sketch (used new stamp)
Incy Wincy Things with Wings
Fussy and Fancy Christmas in July

Off into space

I picked up this free digi a little while ago, sorry don't know where from. As you know I love bears and thought this was so funny. Papers are K&Co Hopscotch which are just great for male cards. I added some sparkly stars and some faux stitching around the image and squares with buttons.
Challenges
Our Creative Corner blue and green
Polka Doodles Something for a boy
Everybody Art Birthday
Papertake In stitches
Simon Says Check it out
Paperplay Card for a child/teenager

Thanks

Welcome to my 2 new followers, great to see you here. Another Pollycraft image for this thank you card I need to send to some friends. I do love bears and this one is so cute. Main paper is Rose Garden, rest are scraps from various packs. I added some gems to the centres of the flowers in the circle which was cut with a Nellie die. I came home yesterday to flowers and ribbons from 2 challenge wins, which was lovely.
Challenges
Just Cute Bears Open theme
Cupcake sketch
I love Promarkers Stripes

Wishes for Bella blog hop weeks 2

As I told you last Tuesday Erin has organised 4 blog hops for Bella. 8 year old Bella developed a serious illness at Easter. Although the survival rate was very low, she was a brave fighter and made it through a 5 day coma. Tragically, she lost her arms and legs to the disease. You can read the story in depth here.

Erin is asking that you make a card and send it to Bella to let her know that people are thinking of her. I will be part of the last blog hop on 13 July and I hope you will all join in as I will be offering a little candy. There are some fabulous prizes every week, details of which are at the end of the hop on Erin's blog. We are such a great community so please show Bella you care by sending a card today. The blog hop this week starts at Denise.

This is my second card for Bella, which features this gorgeous SN girl with her lamb. I cut her out and layered her onto Nestie cut embossed card.The papers are Wild Rose which were a gift from my blogging buddy Lisa. Marlene's sketch at The Sugar Bowl was quite a challenging one but I am really pleased with the result. The border was made with an MS trellis punch. I inked all the edges and the Prima flowers.
Other challenges:
Allsorts Embossing
The Crafty Pad Embossing
Crafty Cardmakers Inky Fingers
A Spoon Full of sugar Animal crackers
Practical Scrappers Border punch

Me and my horse

Firstly welcome to my lovely new followers. It is such a lovely surprise to go onto my blog and find some new followers. I was chosen as one of the top 3 at Die Cut Dreams this week, thanks Susie.

This card reminds my of my friend Bridget as she loves her horse, Gypsy. The image is from LOTV and is the first time i have used it. It was such a lovely stamp to colour and I hadn't noticed the little mouse until I started colouring it. I added glitter around the image and some lovely glittery gold ribbon and bow for a bit of bling.
Challenges
Friday Sketchers sketch
Simon Says friends
Magical Crafts flower power
The Corrosive Challenge flowers

Stars and stripes

Now I don't like to complain but it has been 29 degrees here today, which is too hot for me. I love the sunshine but once it gets over about 24 degrees I find it too hot. We had a lovely day out at a local village viewing the open gardens and scarecrows and then headed up to the coast where we had a meal sitting outside on the pier in the breeze. Had to have another shower when we got home as we were so hot and have just watched last night's Dr Who finale. Wow, that was fantastic wasn't it.

On to my card. I was asked to be the GDT member this week at One Stitch at a time where the challenge is stars and stripes. This usually makes me think of a male card in red and blue but I decided to try something different. I bought this Pollycraft didgi image recently and thought she went perfectly with the theme. Papers are Hamstead from Papermania and MME Wild Asparagus. The Hampstead papers are so sparkly I love them. The blue ribbon is recycled from the inside loops on a cardigan. I used my MS star punch on the edges and added some gem stars and some sparkly foam stars from America. Sentiment is Craftwork cards layered with a nestie.
I am entering this card into the following challenges:
Stamptacular Stars and stripes
I love Promarkers Fab sketch
Oh Alice Twinkle, twinkle
Cute Card Thursday Reuse, renew, recycle
Paper Sundaes Birthday card
Hidden Treasures Ribbon

Three more for Friday

This is my second post for today. Please scroll down for my Winter Wonderland DT card.

This is my last GDT card at Crafts 4 Eternity. There is a gorgeous sketch to follow as always and the theme this week is nursery rhymes and add a charm. I used one of the LOTV bears for "pat a cake, pat a cake". Papers are Papermania Heather capsule collection.Flowers are Wild Orchid and I added some pins and a bear charm.
I am also entering this card into these challenges:
A spoon full of sugar Good luck or best wishes
Creative Craft Stamp it up
ABC X for xtra dimension.

When I saw the challenge at Penny Black was travel or holidays I was stumped for a while as I couldn't think of a suitable image. Then I remembered this girl with her suitcase. I'm a little late as the new challenge starts tomorrow so hope I am not too late with this one as I really like the way it turned out. Papers are Henbury Lane and Rose Garden by Papermania. I added some pearls, Primas, paper roses and sticky ribbon. I used the fab sketch from Papertake. Passion for Promarkers want to see your favourite things on a card. This one features 2 of mine, holidays and reading.

My last card is another of the LOTV bears. I added glossy accents to her sunglasses and some faux stitching around the image. I used my MS PATP for the pink paper. The glitter stripe was made with a strip of double sided tape. Sentiment is K&Co and flowers are Prima with brads.
Challenges
Sweet sketch Wednesday Fab sketch
The Corrosive Challenge Black, white + one
The Pink Elephant Pink and black
Fab n Funky Sew and Sew
Paperplay It's sunny here (sun or sunglasses)

I made the top 3 at Charisma this week and won the 200 followers candy at Craftalicious. Thanks girls. Have a great weekend everyone. Looks like the sun will be shining in the UK.

Strawberry bear

Here is my DT card for this week's challenge over at Winter Wonderland. It is Kate's first challenge and this week she is looking for strawberries and cream. I used this cute digi bear from Stitchy. I ended up with slightly lilac pink but it is pretty isn't it. The papers are some old Papermania I think. I added lots of glitter to the wings and the foam snowflakes and used glitter card for the Sizzix cut corners. Go check out the other lovely DT cards which are more strawberry colour than mine turned out.

I am also entering my card into the following challenges.
Cupcake Strawberries and cream
Just cute bears Monochrome
Crafty Catz Digi
Digital Tuesday Christmas in June
Crafty Creations We want to see you shine

Two angels and a bear

This is my second post for today. Please, please, please read my previous post and send a card to Bella.

Susie certainly set a challenge this week at Die Cut Dreams Christmas Club of all white Christmas. You are allowed to add just a touch of colour so added a little blue to their clothing and inked the edges of the images. I added lots of white gliiter to their wings and used Cuttlebug snowflake and star embossing folders, white ribbon and pearls and a white sentiment. I must say this really was a challenge but I am really pleased with the result. One Stitch at a time's challenge this week is seeing double so I used 2 of the same image. I don't know the make I'm afraid as I received the stamped images.

The colour challenge of blue and yellow to go with their sketch at Stampin' for the weekend was another challenging one as yellow is a colour I rarely use on cards. Papers are K&Co Daisy and Kate Knight. I didn't have any yellow flowers so I coloured white flowers with tulip yellow Promarker. The image is from Pollycraft.
I am also entering this into the following challenges
I love Promarkers Bears
Teddy Stampers Summer bears
Passion for Promarkers Favourite things (bears and flowers)