A Tale of Two Challenges

Well not quite a novel, but this card definitely had it's moments, more of that later.
Firstly good evening to you all and I hope you've had a succesful day. Mondays are always a little hectic for me as it's my day for getting my Mum's shopping and then doing her washing and housework. By the time I get home I'm usually trying to catch up with myself all evening.
Tonight's card is for the Dutch Dare Challenge "A Card for A Girl" and also fits the Tanda Teaser challenge which this week is "Pretty in Pink".
Another cute little girl from Hangler and Stangler, this time with her teddy bear. I'm not sure where the backing papers came from but the little green photo corners are K & Co, the sentiment was done on the PC and she is mounted onto Nestabilities. I coloured her with my Pro-Markers but when the card was completed I decided I wanted to shade the sentiment slightly. I used my pencils and Sansador and was just about finished when I knocked the bottle of Sansador over.
I must have lost about half the bottle, everything on my table was soaked with it including the now completed card! I cleared up as best I could, but if you've ever used this you'll know how difficult it is (although it did bring my pine table up with a lovely sheen!) it had covered everything on the table, plus I think the fumes had made me a bit "high". The air was a little blue as you can imagine, and I just left the card on the side. So I was very surprised when I returned from Mum's today to find the card had dried out without a mark on it, hence the reason it's now on the blog as planned.
I hope you like the card now it's recovered from it's little accident and hopefully tomorrow's card will be trauma free! Thank you for visiting and I hope to see you again soon.

Stamp with Sarah Kay - Challenge 9

A second card again tonight, this is becoming a habit! Actually it's because if I don't post 2 cards a day every now and then, I'll never catch up with all the challenges I'm entering at the moment. I'm sure the novelty of having time to enter challenges will wear off soon.
This card is for Wednesday's Stamp with Sarah Kay challenge which was another sketch.
The sweet little image was coloured with pro-markers, the backing paper is K & Co, the Cuttlebug embossing is Swiss Dots with one of their new borders forming a lacey edge to the card and the sentiment is part of a download kit from PC Crafter.
As you can see my animal colouring has not improved since my "lump of toffee puppy", the only difference is this time it's an orange martian posing as a kitten (it was meant to be a tabby!)
Apart from the martian, I hope you like the card and thanks so much for visiting.

A Spoonful of Sugar Challenge 14 - 3 Different Ribbons

Good afternoon, I hope you are all enjoying your weekend, despite the awful weather. Why is it that if it's not raining, it's so humid that you have no energy to do anything? I don't remember our Summers being like this when I was younger, but I suppose that's a sign of getting old!
My card today is for A Spoonful of Sugar's challenge, which is to use 3 different ribbons on your card. I love using ribbons but I have to admit that I found this one quite difficult, not helped by the fact that I only started with a small card. If I'd thought this through I would definitely have used a large card with lots of room on it!
Anyway on to the card, the image is another Hanglar & Stanglar, coloured with a mixture of Pro-Markers, normal colouring pencils and Sansador, finished off with a touch of Stickles on her bag and socks. The backing paper is some HOTP that I've had for ever and a piece of one of Joanna Sheen's lace papers, the ribbons are all from Poppicrafts and the sentiment was done on the PC.
I hope you like her, I think she looks like such a "girly" little girl, the type who has ballet lessons etc. It amazes me how these little characters can have such different personalities when they have no facial features.

Cutie Sunday- Sketch 7

Well that's it, I have made it, all my challenges are now completed for Sunday and not a moment too soon either!
This card is for the Cutie Sunday challenge, which was another sketch and for this one I decided to use this little Tilda with her wooden spoon and cupcake, because I think she's just as cute as a button!
I wanted to do this sketch in a very monochrome colour scheme and when I found this ivory and black K & Co backing paper in my stash I thought it was perfect for what I had in mind. Tilda has been coloured with...wait for it...Pro-Markers! I've used a cuttlebug corner, some black ribbon from Poppicrafts and a little buckle which is also K & Co (and came from QVC in the same kit as the paper) I made the 3 little dots by simply using a hole punch on some black card because I didn't have any black gems and mounted Tilda onto a mat made from some ivory hammered cardstock.
I've just realised that I forgot to use Stickle on her wings, but actually I think I like her just the way she is.
Before I go tonight I'd really like to thank all of you who have been leaving such lovely comments about my cards. It's very kind of you and it really does mean a lot to me, especially when some of the comments come from people that I admire so much.

Sarah Kay Challenge 8 - Sketch

Good afternoon, I hope you are all having a lovely weekend. I'm desperately trying to complete some challenges for Sunday. I know, I know, I'm leaving it till the last minute, as usual!
This card is for the Sarah Kay Challenge Week 8 and is a sketch.
I do enjoy colouring these lovely little characters, especially now that I've got my beautiful Pro-Markers. I'll let you into a little secret, I've just ordered some more! Yes, I know I ordered 3 Manga sets so I already had 30, but I just NEEDED some different shades so I've ordered another 10 pens and they should be here on Monday. I blame Caz myself as she was the one who told me how gorgeous they were in the first place.
Anyway, back to the challenge card, the backing papers are from a scrapbooking kit I bought years ago from QVC, can't remember who it was by now (it's my age!) the sentiment is from K & Co and the cuttlebug embossing strip is from one of their new border folders, and although it looks lilac in the scan it's actually dusky pink IRL and matches the backing mat of the image.
I'll be back later to post my final card for another Sunday challenge and then I'll have just made it by the skin of my teeth again.
Hope you like this card and thanks for visiting.

Ooh-la-la Challenge 13 - Babies

I'm a little bit earlier with tonight's card which is for this week's challenge at Ooh-la-la and their theme is "Babies".
This gave me the chance to use one of my sweet little "Bunny Rhymes" characters (this one is little Bo-Peep in case you hadn't guessed!)
This was one image from many in a download kit from PC Crafter and also included the little matching border.
The backing paper was from my stash, the image was mounted onto some Nestabilities and I attached a K & Co tag sentiment with the jump rings again. I do like these little dangly attachments on cards!
I hope you have a lovely evening and thanks for visiting.

French Chic

Tonight's card is for the Joanna Sheen Challenge, which this week is "French Chic". The images and backing paper are from a download kit called "Ooh La La" which in itself is quite french. I got this kit from Daisie Company ages ago and I realise I don't use it as much as I should, as all the images are very feminine and would be perfect for "friend" cards. The tag is my first ever attempt to attach anything with jump rings and I have also added some "diamond" stickles to the pom poms on the shoes for a little sparkle, although it doesn't show on the scan.

And my secret is......

Good morning, yes I know how early it is for me, but I just wanted to pop on quickly as I can now tell you my secret......I am Guest Designer this week for the lovely Cynthia, aka Rainbow Lady!
I wanted to do something other than a card, so I have done a baby door hanger and I have also supplied a template, so you can all have a try at this.
Please pop over and join in the challenge, I'd so love to see all your creations.
Mine was made using some blue mulberry paper from my stash as backing paper and embellished with a sweet Hanglar and Stanglar image, some paper lace ribbon and little baby sentiments from K and Co, and flowers and brad from Poppicrafts.
I hope you like it and if you do, why aren't you over at Rainbow Lady's challenge blog downloading your template?

Tilda and friends ATC Challenge - Seasons Theme

Good evening, I hope you have all had a good day. I seem to get later each day in posting, however today I can honestly blame my Stickles glue, it just didn't want to dry!
Today I made some ATC's for the Tilda and Friends ATC challenge. I have been wanting to get these done for over a week but other things just kept getting in the way, however I have now completed all 4 seasons, thank goodness as I think the challenge is due to close soon.




The "Summer" image is my stamp but the other 3 images I have used for this challenge were kindly sent to me by crafting friends and I thought this would be a great opportunity to use them.
I hope you like them, I have to admit that I think they all look very sweet but then I am a big Tilda fan!

Penny Black - No Cards Allowed

Good evening, I hope that you all had an enjoyable Bank Holiday weekend. I didn't get to post anything yesterday, another one of "those" days I'm afraid. What with attending a boot sale in the morning, shopping and housework for my Mum, helping hubby with his shop, and finally a visit from our eldest son and DIL my day had ended before I'd managed to make any cards at all. Today has been quite hectic too, but I've managed to achieve an entry for the Saturday challenge from Penny Black No Cards Allowed - I know this is a tricker one than last week, but we want you to get your thinking caps on. You can make anything you like Bag, Note Book, Box, Candle, Tag, Tin etc but NO CARD please, and your creations MUST feature at least one Penny Black Image.
I decided to make a little notebook for shopping lists as my entry for this and I used the "Shop til you Drop" stamp. I've had this for ever and haven't used it in ages, so it was a nice excuse to dig it out of the drawer. The image is coloured with the Pro-Markers again and the backing paper is from the Dovecraft range, completed with some black satin ribbon, a pink flower, some gems and "Grafitti" alphabet letters. I hope you like it, I thought it was a nice, girly book to keep in your handbag.
My apologies for the awful scan, but I tried to get a decent image for ages and this was the best I could do. I really must learn how to use the digital camera!

Cute Card Thursday and Friday Sketchers

Well, the weather seems to have taken a turn for the better now that it's too late to do anything. Not that I mind really it gave me the chance to get some more challenge cards done, there seem to be loads that I want to enter this week!
This first card is for Cute Card Thursday's Challenge 24 - This weeks challenge is to make a card using BRIGHT COLOURS.

I decided to use Paper Nation's cute little girl with her windmill and coloured her with Marvy le plumes (I forgot I had these!) I thought the dotty background paper sort of linked up with the dots on her dress, some bright green ribbon from Poppicrafts, some little yellow flowers and blue brads from my stash and a little sentiment from K & Co and that's about it.

This second challenge is for Friday Sketchers and I decided to use some more bright colours for this one too. The image was sent to me by a friend and I think she's so sweet. I think she may be by Elisabeth Bell but not 100% sure, co-ordinating papers from my stash again, so no idea who they are by, I'm afraid and coloured with Pro-markers.

Challenge card No. 3

Good morning, I hope you have better weather than we do at the moment. I'm not usually here on a Sunday morning as we go to a boot sale, but we haven't bothered, as I'm sure even if it's open the field will be waterlogged from all the rain we had in the night. So an ideal opportunity to post the third challenge card from yesterday.

This is for the ABC Challenge F is for....Fairies!
The funky fairy is by Deby Moore and was a stamped image from my crafting friend, she has been coloured with my beloved pro-markers and liberally sparkled with Stickles "diamond". I'm not sure about the pink backing paper (found in my stash again), the aqua card has been cuttlebugged with "swiss dots", the acrylic letters are K & Co and the gorgeous ribbon is from Poppicrafts
I'm hoping that I'll get the chance to enter some more challenges today, I'd forgotten how enjoyable it is making little cards for these challenges.

Hooray!

Good evening, I'm very happy this evening as I've actually managed to complete some challenge cards! These are 2 cards that I've made today, I have actually made a third one as well, but the glitter is still drying on it so I may post it later, or I may not get to show you it until tomorrow, we'll see how the time goes.

The first card is for the Stamp with Sarah Kay challenge number 8 which is a sketch. I find these quite difficult to follow, that may just be me or maybe that's why it's called a challenge?
I think this is such a sweet little image even though I had to cut her down to fit in the frame. I don't quite know what happened to the puppy, he looks a bit like a lump of toffee and I'll have to do better next time, I'm not an 'animal person' in real life either. I don't know where any of the ingredients of this card originally came from, apart from the corners and pink flower which are K & Co, all the rest was from my stash.

The second card is another sketch challenge, this time from A Spoonful of Sugar The little cutie this time is from Hanglar and Stanglar (I'm sure that's NOT how it's spelt) and I thought she was just divine with her little basket of knitting, again I'm afraid all the bits are from my stash, so I have no idea what make anything is. That's the problem when you've had stuff for ages without using it, but I find it so difficult to use lots of my bits and pieces because they're so pretty I don't want to get rid of them.

Seaside Tilda and Edwin

Good evening, I'm rather late again tonight. I've had "one of those day" today, I had so many plans for different things I was going to do today and ended up getting none of them done, oh well the best laid plans....
I hadn't had time to make any cards today, however I made a couple of cards for some very good crafting friends the other day, and as they have both now received them I can pop them on here, what a blessing or there would have been no cards AGAIN!
I wanted to use my new Tilda and Edwin stamps so both of my friends got the same card, but with different papers and colours used. I hope they don't mind, but I didn't want any arguments, well that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Anyway on to the cards...
I do think this little seaside Tilda and Edwin are so cute, they have been mounted onto 2 different backing papers and coloured with the wonderful Pro-Marker pens again. The cards have been finished off with some little flowers, gems and a sentiment done on the PC.
Both of my friends (you know who you are!) said they liked their cards, so I hope you do too.
Just a quick word about my surprise...I should be able to share it all with you next week, so until then you'll have to keep guessing!

What Katy Did

Good evening, I've been so busy today that I've just quickly popped on to post some cards I made the other day. I can't post what I've been working on recently as they are secret for a few more days yet. Mmmm now I've got you all wondering haven't I?
Anyway these 3 cards were made for no particular reason, other than I love these images, they remind me of some books I read as a child "What Katy Did" and "What Katy Did Next". The images are from Joanna Sheen's "Cardmaker's Year" CD, I love lots of the images on this CD, a lot of them are from the early 1900s and just so delicious.
The pictures were mounted onto backing paper from my "scraps" box that I thought matched the images and that's about it really. When I decide what I'm going to use them for I'll add the relevant sentiments etc. Anyway, I hope you like today's offering.

Reach for the Stars

Well I'm back with another offering today, I know, I know, I go from one extreme to the other!
This one is a little card for Sophie, who will be stocking some of my cards in her shop and it was just to wish her success in her new venture.
The sweet image is from Joanna Sheen's 'Dancing with Shadows' CD and the backing papers are from Dovecraft's black and white set, simply finished off with a sentiment done on the PC.
I hope she likes it (my scanner obviously didn't, it has a white border all around it in real life!)

Little Challenge Card

Good afternoon, I'm really excited today as I've managed to complete a challenge card, how sad is that? The reason for the excitement is that it's the first one I've managed to do in months! I'm really hoping that I'll be able to get back to joining in the challenges again as I've missed it so much.
Today's card is for Tilda and Co's challenge which this week is entitled "Cold as Ice"
The sun is now drifting away very fast and soon it will be as cold as ice....
Using the colours Blue & white Only . Show us how cold your projects can feel this week.

Now for those of you that have visited my blog before, you may be aware that I don't really like christmas cards very much, (not the traditional type anyway) but this card could easily be used as a christmas card. Anyway, it shows little Tilda, deep in thought (maybe wondering what Santa will bring her?) she has been coloured with my fab new pro-markers (I love these) and mounted onto a circle made with my new cuttlebug and nestability dies. The backing paper is sparkly blue and comes from my stash, I have also used some blue lacey backing paper from a 'Papercraft 4 you' paper pad by Mary Hughes, which I have cut out and popped around the edges of the card as a type of frame, at the bottom of the card is some plain, white cardstock that has been through the "swiss dots" cuttlebug folder. Some little snowflakes embellished with crystals are the finishing touch.
If I do decide to use this as a christmas card I'll pop a sentiment on the front.

Good afternoon, I'm afraid I didn't get to make a post at all yesterday. I woke up at about 5.30am with a terrible headache and despite popping pills on and off all day, nothing moved it. It seems I not only had a bad bout of sinusitis but also a migraine, well if you're going to do it, you may as well do it properly I suppose!
Anyway consequently no crafting got done yesterday at all and as I spend Monday's at my mum's I'm no further forward than when I posted on Saturday really.
I got a few cards made last week, so I'll show you one of those today.


This is a birthday card for my best friend's hubby. He loves anything to do with the sea and I thought that these images were quite reminiscent of the seaside and beach huts etc. so he may like them (I know I do!)

Cards are Coming!

Good evening, this post is very late but as I promised that I would try to post each day I wanted to pop something on the blog. I've no cards to share with you today either I'm afraid, but I have been working on a couple of things, so they may be ready tomorrow.
I received my Pro-Marker pens in the post today. I was very impressed as I only ordered them late yesterday afternoon from Silly Monkey Crafts, so that was excellent service. This is the first time I have ordered anything from their shop but I don't think it will be the last, anyway back to the pens. I'd been thinking about getting some for ages as I wanted something different to my usual water colours (I would have liked some Copics but they are just too expensive) and I had seen these used on a few of the blogs that I visit regularly and they were highly recommended by Caz. so I took the plunge and ordered THREE sets of the Manga pens. I've been using them today and they are FAB so thanks for the good advice Caz.
Apart from colouring in, I've also been playing with my Cuttlebug again today and I think I'm beginning to get the hang of it now.
I will try to get something finished and posted on my blog tomorrow, until then I hope you all have a good night (what's left of it anyway).

Playtime

Good evening and thank you for visiting.
There's no card today I'm afraid, I've been too busy playing with my new cuttlebug! I've embossed so many pieces of card with the swiss dots folder that I'll be using them till next year, but never mind.
I've also tried out my round plain and scalloped nestabilities and vintage die cuts (which was quite succesful) and the embossing borders (which wasn't quite so succesful) there's obviously a bit of a knack to these so if anyone has any tips I'd be very grateful!
Tomorrow I'm planning to play again, this time with my Bind It All, although quite what I'm going to make is still a mystery. So there may not be anything to show tomorrow either, but hey look on the bright side, at least you don't have to look at any more images from Fashion Boutique! lol