Where Did November Go??!!

Today’s post is all about the new challenge over at Sentimental Sundays!  We have been sponsored by 2 Cute Ink and our new theme is “Heartfelt Thanks“.

Before I carry on though, I need to apologise for going AWOL – I really don’t know what happened to the last three weeks!  I haven’t had much time to craft or blog as we have been having the loft boarded and I’ve also been preparing my bedroom for replastering this week, and then there was my son’s birthday (although I do have some cute projects from his birthday to share with you later this week!)….

Anyway, back to today!  Here’s my card:

I’ve decided to go back to my comfort zone with my projects for a while.  I love CAS – and while I’ve enjoyed developing other areas of my hobby, this is where I craft happiest!  With this in mind, this card is super simple – just the cutest image, coloured with ProMarkers, mounted on a co-ordinating mat….et voila!

As we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in the UK – so my card is just a thank you card, I like to always keep a couple to hand!

Make sure you pop over to Sentimental Sundays and have a peek at the other DT makes – you won’t be disappointed!  And you could also pop over to 2 Cute Ink for a little retail therapy……..why not, eh?!

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New Challenge At Crafting From The Heart

Time for a new challenge over at Crafting From The Heart!  We are lucky to be sponsored by The Doodle Garden and Bugaboo this week and, as always, it’s Anything Goes!  Sadly, The Doodle Garden closed last month, but you can still win the lovely images we used for our DT makes!

I used Flight Lesson for my card – it’s such a sweet little image!  I coloured it with ProMarkers with a very slight touch of Wink Of Stella on the wings and hairclip.  I made the background with some Distress Inks and a water spritzer – I was a little heavy handed with the DI, so I needed the water to lighten things up a bit!

Don’t forget to head over to Crafting From The Heart to have a peek at the other DT makes.

I’d like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Kitty Bee May Spotlight

It’s that time again – the days are just flying by at the moment, life really seems to have stepped it up a gear…

Anyway, for today’s Kitty Bee spotlight card, I used the adorable Best Friend Buns stamp.  It’s my 13th Wedding anniversary in a few days, so I chose the image with an anniversary card in mind.  As my regular followers may remember, my better half prefers his cards CAS, which is good for me as that’s my comfort zone!  Even so, I was delighted with the finished card:

I printed the image and used my Silhouette to cut the image with a slight border.  I coloured the bunnies in a variety of Cool Grey ProMarkers, using a selection of reds for the heart and bow.  The sentiment is actually a freebie cut file from Amanda Robinson Studios, but I chose to print it directly on the card base instead of cutting it (love the script style!).  I popped the bunnies up on 3D pads, added some grey/white twine and a heart that I cut from red cardstock and smothered in Glossy Accents.  Couldn’t get much simpler 🙂

Pop over to Kitty Bee’s store now if you’d like to add Best Friend Buns to your collection!

I’d like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Fantastic Tuesdays – CAS

 Inky Chicks – CAS

Ruby’s Rainbow – Animals

 

Blue Hydrangeas

Blue Hydrangeas are one of my all-time favourite flowers – just to be clear, I have lots of favourites and absolute faves vary depending on day, mood, season…..  But blue Hydrangeas are definitely up there!  Which is why I chose the Hydrangea stamp from Aurora Wings for the new challenge over at the Crafty Girls.

I kept the style of the card simple, in order to focus more on the gorgeous flowers.  I coloured the image with Pro-Markers, going back afterward the ink was dry to add in a little definition where needed in the centre of the flowers.  A framed sentiment, echoing the blue hue and a couple of gems finished off this very simple and quick make!

Make sure you pop over to the the Crafty Girls to have a look at the other DT makes and enter the challenge – the theme is Anything Goes and there are some great prizes from our sponsors QKR and Aurora Wings!

Splendid!

My son is the biggest fan of Jack Skellington from A Nightmare Before Christmas!  So I couldn’t resist picking Jack the Pumpkin King by Sassy Designs for my latest DT card for Crafting From The Heart!  Our new challenge starts today; the theme is Anything Goes and we’re sponsored by Sassy Designs and Angi’s Digi Stamps.

I stuck to a CAS design, to keep the colour palette mainly black and white.  I’ve used Pro-Markers to colour Jack (Cool Grey 1 – 5 and Black) – the majority of his clothing is actually the two darkest shades of Cool Grey, with a smudge of Black for emphasis.  I still try to avoid colouring black (and red!) as I find it a little tricky, but I’m pleased with the result on this card.  The sentiment was added in Silhouette Studio before printing the image, using Chiller font.  Finally a black mat beneath the image, and it’s good to go!  Now I just need to keep it safe until November…..think I may have been a bit premature this year 😉

Don’t forget to head over to Crafting From The Heart to look at the other DT makes!

I’d like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Lexis Creations – For the Man/Boy In Your Life

My Craft Spot – Black/White + One Colour

Without Words – Gentlemen Only

Digi Haven – Black/White + One Colour

Jellypark Friends – One For The Boys

That’s Crafty – Black/White and A Splash

Dragonfly Dreams – Make It For The Boys

Clean And Simple

Join the new Clean and Simple challenge at Sentimental Sundays!  Our new challenge starts today and is sponsored by 2CuteInk stamps – possible the cutest stamps I have ever seen 🙂

The DT were offered a choice of three stamps for this challenge (I’m glad I didn’t actually have to make a decision from the whole collection, I never would have been ready on time for this post!!).  I chose to use Balloon Birdie, and could see the card before I even put ink to paper 🙂

I love clean and simple designs, they really are my happy place!  I knew that I wanted to pop this cute little birdie on a cloudy sky background, but wanted to keep the number of layers down.  So I traced and detached the image in the Silhouette software, which allowed me to pop him into a centre panel background with blue sky and fluffy white clouds.  when I printed the image, I just had to colour the birdie and balloon using Pro-Markers.  I wanted to create a little depth, so I printed another copy of the bird’s body and the balloon, then coloured them and added it to the card with 3D pads, along with another layer of clouds cut from a hammered card for texture.

For the base mat, I embossed a piece of white cardstock with the Darice clouds folder and popped this layer behind the main centre panel.  The sentiment was simply printed onto white card and mounted on a layer coloured in with a Crimson Pro-Marker to match the balloon.

Is Clean and Simple a style you love or hate? Style does tend to divide opinions!  Either way, whether in or out of your comfort zone, make sure you head over to Sentimental Sundays for a peek at the other DT creations and share your CAS makes with us – don’t forget the sentiment!

I’d like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Tok Bobok – CAS

 Addicted To Stamps – Things With Wings

Suzy Bees – Wings

Crafty Calendar – Things With Wings

The Sisterhood Of Crafters – Things With Wings

A Little Bit Crafty – Birds And The Bees

Get Doodling!

I doodle on scraps of paper whenever I’m sat with a pen and paper, waiting out my time on hold to various companies.  But, it has never been something I felt brave enough to add to my cards, just in case I go wrong….!  However, doodling is a must for the new challenge over at Sentimental Sundays, so this week, I doodled on a card!!

We were lucky to be sponsored by Scribbles Designs for this challenge – I have to admit I struggled to pick just one stamp!  Her designs are so cute and a pleasure to colour 🙂  But, bearing in mind that my doodles are usually stars or paws, I thought this little fox would be the perfect companion to my paw print doodles!

I coloured the image with Pro-Markers as usual, even colouring the background with Cool Grey 1 to help it stand out.  I then cut a circle aperture in the front of the card and mounted the image inside the card, allowing the fox to “peek” through.  The sentiment is in Minya Nouvelle font, cut straight from black cardstock and mounted directly to the front of the card.  And then it was time to doodle…..  I kept it simple, drawing a light pencil line to keep my paws in a straight-ish line, and just used my black Pro-Marker (after checking that it wouldn’t bleed too much on a scrap of paper).  Have to admit, I’m delighted with the results!  I like the fact that the footprints are not all the same size, or even straight and evenly spaced.  I don’t think this will be my last attempt at doodling on a card!!

I’d love to see your doodled projects – make sure you head over to Sentimental Sundays with your entries, and take a look at the other DT projects while you’re there too!

I’d lie to enter this card into the following challenges:

Less Is More – Round and Round

Charisma Cardz – CAS

Crafty Calendar – Animal Antics

Creative Card Crew – Animals

The Crafter’s Cafe  – Doodling

A very quick, last minute post…

I promised to share my three special family cards with you, and here I am with the last in the trilogy….

This card is for my husband; we’ve been together since our late teens and celebrated our 12th anniversary earlier this year!  I chose “Christmas Together” by Sami Stamps as it reminded me of that moment, before we tiptoe up to bed on Christmas Eve, when we just take a look around and count our blessings…

I kept the style of the card very simple, as that is the card style that he prefers – the bright reds and greens bring the tree to life, while the doodle frames it all off nicely.  I paper pieced the jumpers from the Harper Finch Sweater Weather paper collection and coloured the rest of the card in with Pro-Markers, not a spot of glitter in sight on this card!

Anyway, I’ve got brownie mince pies in the oven, so I’d best hustle on…  Best wishes to you all for Christmas and the New Year!

I’d like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Tuesday Throwdown – What Christmas Means To Me

Try It On Tuesdays – Trees

Top Tip Tuesday – Christmas

Scribble And Scrap – Anything Goes

Partytime Tuesdays – Challenge #152: Merry Christmas

LEJ Designs – Challenge 84: Anything goes

Ladybug Crafts – CAS

The Squirrel And The Fox – Merry Christmas

Thanks for reading x

Poinsettia Wreath

Happy weekend everyone!  After the madness of Halloween and Trick or Treating, we’re rounding off half term with a firework display at our local Scout group – unlike the big displays, they don’t feel the need to include explosions that make your chest feel like it is going to implode, so the little ones (and slightly bigger ones!) don’t get scared!!  I can smell the sausages on the BBQ already 🙂

The card I’m sharing today is another crisp, simple Christmas card.

This time, I’ve made poinsettia flowers using one of the Tonic Petal Punches, using three layers (1 green and 2 red layers of leaves) and then popping some gold seed beads into the centre for the flower. These have to be the best punch investment I have made this year – they’re so flexible, I’ve been able to create a variety of flowers, simply by changing the paper or popping beads in the centre or combining different petals together!  I mounted the completed poinsettias on a kraft ring, cut using the Silhouette, to retain the circular shape.

The wreath was mounted on the textured white card background with 3D foam pads.  For the sentiment, I combined print and stamp – I only had the word Christmas as a stamp but felt that it needed a little more than that.  So I printed “with love at” on a tag shape, then used the print and cut option on the Silhouette, adding “Christmas” by hand afterwards.  I recut the outline of the tag in a contrasting colour, to frame the sentiment, then added it to a strip of festive red satin ribbon.

I’d like to enter this card into the following challenges:

CAS On Sunday – Sketch challenge

Addicted to Stamps – CAS

Festive Friday – Element: Wreath

Curtain Call – Welcome Home

The Paper Nest Dolls – Anything Goes

Silhouette Challenges – Anything Holiday

Thanks for reading x

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday everyone!!  I don’t know about you, but I am very pleased to see the weekend rolling up again!  Not that it’ll make a jot of difference to the time that the children will have us up and about, but hey ho!  Long gone are the days of sleeping in til noon and partying til dawn…..!

Anyway, today I’d like to share a card I was asked to make for a friend’s father in law, inspired by a love of the seaside!

Both the banner and “Dad” were cut using the Silhouette.  Originally, the banner had lovely shapes cut out of it, but for some unknown reason, I couldn’t get a clean cut 😦  I was a little short on time, so after trying everything I could think of to sort the problem, I ended up “tweaking” the banner a little!  I ungrouped the image, removed the detailing from inside the pennants and cut a much simpler image.  I then cut some small hearts, using a hand punch, from glittery white card, stuck them to the banner and added a little Stickles sparkle.  The two background papers were both random pieces of cardstock from my stash, along with some baker’s twine and an old shirt button to finish!

Thanks for reading x

Challenges:

4 Krafty Girlz – Anything Goes

Seize the Birthday – Anything Goes

Through the Craft Room Door – Anything Goes

Brown Sugar – Challenge 64: Blue, Gray and White

Keeping It Simple: KIS #25: Be Inspired