My first challenge this year!

I was inspired to enter a blog challenge after seeing a sketch on a blog that I subscribe to with email updates. The sketch was for Papertake Weekly Challenge and was this:

I loved the sketch as it was simple with nice clean lines so I set to work and came up with this:

The image I used is a beautiful rubber stamp from Lili Of The Valley and I coloured her with Polycolour pencils. The background papers were in a download kit from Nitwit Collections and the sentiment and "Word Window" punch are from Stampin' Up! The punched border was made with a Martha Stewart border punch called Eyelet Lace.

I really enjoyed the challenge and being in time to enter it too!

Thanks for dropping by, Claire.

It's been sooooo long...

It's been so long since I updated my blog. It's partly because of my M.E./CFS as I live in two-hour time blocks between rests and when I'm feeling really shattered, this is too much effort! It's also partly because I wasn't entering any challenges because of a lack of time and therefore I didn't feel as if anybody would come to my blog so there was little point.

Anyway, I have recently started to make cards for my childrens special school. They are sold in the staff room and all of the money goes to the "Friends of" charity that pays for trips, toys and equipment etc. I find it a real honour that people find my cards good enough to buy and am thrilled when I need to make more to stock-up the box!

I have got lots of cards to update my blog with so they will start to filter through soon I hope!

Thank you for visiting my blog.
Claire
x

Another birthday...

I'm still not getting any free time to make cards for fun yet and still haven't inked up my new Magnolia stamps yet, but I did have to make time to make this birthday card a few days ago:

For this card I followed a sketch from the Papertake Weekly Challenge blog:

As the image was quite large, I used an 8" x 8" card blank. The image is a House Mouse stamp that I bought from the Big Stamp Show at Alexandra Palace, it was coloured in with Lyra Polycolour Pencils. The papers are all from Pink Petticoat and I printed them all in the same colour. The blue circles are Card Candy from Craftwork Cards, as is the sentiment.

Lili of the valley challenge!

I am back with another card as it was my nieces birthday this week. I bought the Lili of the Valley stamp of a horse and girl especially for her card as she loves horses. I decided to follow the sketch of the Lili of the Valley challenge blog to make the card as it saved me having to plan it first! I haven't entered a challenge for a while so it's nice to get the chance.

The stamp is from Lili of the Valley and it was coloured in with Promarkers. Unfortunately the sketch had an oval image but I wasn't able to get this image into an oval so I hope the rectangle will be okay! I mounted the image onto pink pearlised card cut with a scallop rectangle Nestabilities die. The patterned papers are from a 6"x6" Making Memories pad and the scalloped border was cut with an X-Cut Border Punch. The flowers are all Prima with a small yellow brad in the middle and the pink dots are Craftwork Cards Card Candy.

Finally, here is the sketch I (mostly) followed:

I do have an excuse...!

I am so sorry (again) that it has been far too long since I updated my blog. I have really missed my craft things in the last few weeks and I have several new Magnolia stamps to play with too! I shall share my excuse with you in a minute, but first I have one more card to share from April.

I made this card for my Mum and Dads Anniversary. It was a bit rushed so I kept it quite simple. The stamped image is a Penny Black rubber stamp called Good Cheer that I bought from The Glitter Pot. I coloured the image with Lyra Pencils and blended the pencil with Zest-it. The lilac and blue cardstock mats are Core'dinations card, the hearts edge was made by a Martha Stewart border punch called Valentine Lace, and the purple dots in the corners are Craftwork Cards Card Candy. The patterned paper is unknown I'm afraid as it came with a scrapbook kit. Finally, the sentiment stamp is also a Penny Black one.

Now, here is my reason for being so busy lately...

Meet Harry, our 11 week old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Puppy! He is wonderful but it's like having a toddler, we have to watch what he's up to all of the time! This photo is him eating grass in the garden, usually he tries to eat stones in the garden or dirt. I am from a family of cat lovers so owning a dog is a new experience for me. We looked into different breeds of dogs that could be a companion for our children and were amazed once we found out about Cavaliers, they are so friendly and were bred to be companion dogs so they are perfect!

"Dad" Birthday Card

Two weeks ago it was my Dads birthday and I hadn't made the card in advance so I had to make it on the day. There was a bit of pressure as I had to make it by a certain time but I soon decided on the Chef and Cake stamps and they were luckily easy to colour quickly so it wasn't too bad in the end. When I look at the card, I feel as if it's missing something, but then again, my Dad isn't really into pretty things so I couldn't add flowers or too many gems!

The stamps are Magnolia Chef Edwin and Cake. I stamped them and coloured them with Promarkers before cutting them out. I mounted them with foam tape to a background cut with a Nestabilities die, which I coloured with a blue distress ink pad. The harlequin background is a piece of blue Core'dinations Whitewash cardstock which I embossed with a Sizzix Texturz Plate then sanded to reveal the colour. The mat of blue cardstock under it is Core'dinations. The letters that spell "dad" were cut with a Sizzix Embosslits Pink Lemonade Alphabet die and the sentiment is a Craftwork Cards message. Finally, the glitter dots are from a Papermania pack.

Boys Football Card

Finally for the cards I made in March is one for my nephew who loves football:

I used a 6x6" square card and used an Elzybells rubber stamp for the footballer, which I coloured in with Copics. I matted the image onto red and black pearlised paper which I embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder. I used a Martha Stewart rings border punch to cut a decorative strip for the middle of the card, which I wrapped striped ribbon around. I used a football sheet of 12x12" paper (cut to size!) for the background but this is quite old so I don't know who made it! I then finished the card with an "8" candle cut with a Quickutz Die, corners cut with an EK Success punch and a Craftwork Cards "Oh my Words" Sentiment.