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.

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.

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!

Mothers Day Card

For the second part of the March catch-up, here is the Mothers Day card I made for my Mum:

I started off with a large 8" x 8" square card from Craftwork Cards. The image is a Lili of the Valley rubber stamp, it was coloured with Lyra Polycolour Pencils and was cut with an Oval Nestabilities Die. I then cut a mat for it with a Scalloped Oval Nestabilities Die. The pattered paper is from the Forever Friends Pink Parfait pad and the card is Bazzill Dotted Swiss and textured. The pearls are Prima e.line and the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts (they were white and I coloured them to match the card).

Valentines!

I made this card yesterday but added a touch more colour to the image today as it looked a bit lost on such a bright card! It is a Valentines card, but the "Happy Valentines Day" sentiment is on the inside as I had to use the sentiment on the front that worked well with the image.

The Stamps are all Penny Black. The main image is from a new Penny Black clear set called "Piece of My Heart" from The Glitter Pot and is coloured in with Lyra Polycolour Pencils. I used a 6x6" card and used a mat of black smooth cardstock with some Karen Foster "My Heart" 12x12" paper from Whoops a Daisy. I then used some more Bazzill 12x12" smooth card in red and black which was just 35p, again from my local craft shop called Whoops a daisy.

The mat for the image was cut with a circle Nellies Multi-Frame Die and the heart borders were cut with a Martha Stewart Valentine Lace Border Punch. I added Prima e.line pearls in red and black and a heart pin from my blog friend Jane (thank you Jane!) that is threaded through hearts which are cut with a Martha Stewart Scalloped Heart Punch.

This card hopefully qualifies for two blog challenges this week (I am on a roll for me!!)... First of all, the challenge this week on Penny Black Saturday Challenge is to use "Pins and Pearls". Secondly, on the Lily of the Valley Challenge Blog, the theme is Valentines, unfortunately I didn't own a LOTV stamp that was suitable for my husbands Valentines card, but luckily it's not essential.

I found out four days ago that we are moving house in three weeks time! Plus on top of that the whole house needs re-decorating and carpeting before we move in. Therefore I have been flat out trying to organise things and today I'm concentrating on Christmas! I need to get all my Christmas cards done in the next few days and get presents wrapped then packed for moving. I made these cards a few days ago:

For this card I used the Eskimo and wording stamps from Elzybells. I coloured the Eskimo image with Lyra Polycolour Pencils. The papers are from a Papermania 8x8" paper pack from last year and the snowflakes were punched with a Martha Stewart punch.



For this card, I used a Whiff Of Joy stamp of Henry Mouse, coloured with Copics. The wording stamp is Magnolia. The papers are from Daisy & Dandelion.

This stamp is from Elzybells and is so sweet! I coloured her with Copics ans used a blue chalk pencil around her to add a bit of sky. I added some Snowflakes punched from Glitter Card using a Martha Stewart Punch and then for speed, used a die-cut greeting from a Daisy & Dandelion paper pack.

A bit of a late post...

I'm sorry I am being a bit of a bad blogger, I've been pretty exhausted so haven't had much time for crafting or blogging. This card I made a few weeks ago but had forgotten to put it on my blog!

The stamp is from Magnolia and is called "Tilda with Lilacs" and was coloured it in with Lyra pencils. The backing paper was from Pink Petticoat called washed damask. The punch used at the side is from Martha Stewart and called Doily Lace. I then used some small Pearls bought from Quixotic Paperie on the main image and in the centre of the punched flowers. The sentiment is a Craftwork Cards "Oh My Words" Birthday Circle.

Twins 1st Birthday Cards

Today I had to make 1st Birthday cards for twins, a boy and a girl. I was stuck at first and wasted £12.99 on a Giraffe die as I thought I could use a giraffe but I then thought it would be too plain. I went through my stamps and found two Elzybells stamps that I thought would be perfect as they both had two bears on which could each resemble the twins.

I used large 8"x8" square cards so I had lots of room as the images are quite big. Both images are from Elzybells and have been coloured with Lyra Rembrandt Polycolour Pencils, blended with Sansodor. The wording was done on the computer so I could personalise it. The patterned cardstock is DCWV from an 8x8" glittered mat stack. I used a Quickutz Die for the photo corners on the top card and added Papermania gems/dots to the cards too.

I had to make a thank you card a few days ago so I decided to use my Elzybells Sunflower Girl stamp for the first time. I also used the sunflower for the background. I really enjoyed colouring this in, it was so nice!

The image was coloured in with Lyra Rembrandt Polycolour Pencils and blended with Sansodor. The girl and sunflower images are Elzybells stamps and the "thanks a bunch!" wording is a Penny Black stamp. The green card in the background is from a DCWV pad and it was cut with a Nestabilities Scallop Rectangle Die.

Another Whiff Of Joy Card!

When I used my new Whiff Of Joy stamp two days ago, I coloured in two images (because I loved it), they are very similar but have different colour aprons.

After I made the lilac card yesterday, I started to make this one then finished it off this afternoon.

I used an A5 white card and cut the edge with a Martha Stewart punch. I then put the green paper on the front with a tiny strip of it inside the card so it would show up the punched detail. The Whiff Of Joy image was coloured with Lyra Polycolour pencils and mounted onto pink Creative Memories card which I used a corner punch on to create the photo slits. I used a ribbon tag cut with a Spellbinders die and stamped on the sentiment using the Elzybells Family Messages set and added the Prima flowers to cover up the end of the ribbon as I couldn't work out where to end it!!

Big card...

A couple of weeks ago, I made this card, but hadn't quite finished it off with a sentiment, so I finished it off today. I'm not 100% happy with this card as I now think the paper may look a bit strange how it is, and I don't really like how I finished the sentiment. I think I was a bit guilty of finishing this quickly.

The image is Whiff Of Joy, coloured in with Lyra Polycolour Pencils. The card is Co'redinations, which has been cut with a Martha Stewart Edger Punch. The flowers are Prima with a Craftwork Cards "Card Candy" dot in the middle.

Whiff Of Joy Card

Yay.... I got round to making a card today!! I coloured in two Whiff Of Joy images last night and I made this card today. I put it on a 6x6" square card with some lilac card and spotted paper from a very old Provocraft paper pad. I made the photo corners from the lilac card, added punched flowers from the Spotty Paper then punched leaves from Bazzill Swiss Dotted Card. The image was coloured in with Lyra Rembrandt Polycolour Pencils that my lovely husband bought for my birthday a couple of weeks ago. They are so lovely to use as they are nice and soft, but are also very fine, unlike the Derwent Coloursoft pencils.