Birthday Flowers and an Xray

Waaaa, Sunday night already!  It's got quite chilly here, there's a definite feel of Autumn about today.  I've got my cosy socks and fluffy dressing gown on, and all ready for the next expisode of Poldark.  A whole hour of drooling over Aidan Turner ;)  He's even nicer in 'real life' with his lovely Dublin accent.

Anyway, my first card is for an old lady who has sight problems, so I tried to keep it to nice clean lines.  I popped up a few of the flowers for a bit of dimension and added a matching butterfly - on purpose, it's not even covering a splodge! ;)
My stamp is from an oooooold Stampin' Up set that hasn't seen the light of day for quite a while.  coloured with watercolour pencils and some clear gems added to the flower centres.
I stamped the BG with an old text stamp, but can't remember the make.

• My layout was inspired by Gail, this week's featured stamper over at Splitcoast.  Here's her original.
• Less is More #294 - diamonds (in my flower centres)
• CASual Fridays #156 - dimension and bling
• Love to Scrap #85 - flower power

Here's another golden oldie stamp, this time from High Hopes.

Ha, I usually go through a phase of using my old stamps if a crafty shopping trip is in the pipeline, but honestly I'm not!

For this get well card, I coloured my image with watercolour pencils and went over his bones and the fish with my clear glitter pen.

• The Craft Barn Alpha challenge - X - "X-Ray: an electromagnetic wave of high energy and very short wavelength, which is able to pass through many materials opaque to light."

• Pixie's Snippets Playground #247
• Layout from MFT #298
• Crafting When we can #128 - your favourite colouring medium (mine's watercolour pencils)
• Penny's challenge #295 - anything goes

Don't drink and fly

Hahaha, I love this witchy image, guess she's been at the old G&T!!

I wish we were more into our Halloween cards in Northern Ireland as I think they may be my favourite type of cards to make!

My daft witch is from Eat Cake Graphics of course ...
1076-S Don't Drink and Fly Witch
8037-F Witch auditions sign (text)

Coloured with watercolour pencils - clear glitter pen added t othe falling leaves and her broom, and clear gloss to her eye / specs and her shoes.  I used an old embossing folder on my background - it looks blue here but it's definitely purple in real life!

This card is also posted over at A Sprinkling of Samples and Techniques blog, where you'll find lots more loveliness from Eat Cake Graphics

• Fab'n Funky #318 - go outside
• Penny Black and More September - add a sentiment
• Creatalicious #99 - anything goes
• Addicted to Stamps #211 - anything goes
• Penny's challenge #295 - anything goes

Food or Drink ... Naughty or Nice

Wow we're half way through September already, time is flying ... though that means I'm closer to my holidays yippppeeeee :)

This month's challenge at Naughty or Nice is for food and/or drink.  Hope you'll play along :)

For my card I've used these naughty critters from Eat Cake Graphics:
3058-M Where the Milk and Cookies go pets
There's a great sentiment that goes with this stamp that I really must get:
8212-F Where the milk and cookies go (text)

• Retro Rubber #47 - anything goes (my stamp is just over a year old)
  
• CRAFT #381 - Christmas
• ABC Christmas - S for Sew What
• Layout flipped from Creative Inspirations #257
• Sweet Stampin - cute and cuddly
• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - September

October calendar page

Here's some fab stamps from Eat Cake Graphics ... Count Bitesalot is definitely not a scary vampire, and even his bats are cuties!   I've coloured The Count with my watercolour pencils and added some clear gloss to his eyes and to the little bat.  I masked him off, and then stamped the Skully Flowers several times.  I hand wrote the calendar dates and stamped Bert Batula just above.  Then I just chalked in a few clouds along the top edge, doodled a stitched border and added a few coloured enamel accents.

I must confess that this is version #2 ... I managed to write in the wrong dates for my first effort Doh!

1175-J Count Bitesalot

5033-D Bert Batula

7077-E Skully Flowers

This card is also posted over at A Sprinkling of Samples and Techniques blog, where you'll find lots more loveliness from Eat Cake Graphics

• Simon Says Stamp Monday - at the movies - Bram Stoker's Dracula
• Classic Design Team Open September #06
• Love to Craft #02 - anything goes
• Crafty Catz #337 - anything but square

Rainbows and Goldfishies

It was a bit of a draughty showery old day today - definitely not one for a nice hair do and even more so when it's in dire need of a cut!  It definitely doesn't look as good as my Tiddly Inks girl ;)
Coloured with watercolour pencils - her dress does match my pink backing in real life but it seems to be another colour my camera won't do!   Sparkle added to her bows and balloons with my clear glitter pen - what did I do before I had one of these? I seem to use it on almost every card!
Couple of snippets of colourful DP from my stash - you'd laugh at the little tiddly bit I have left but don't want to chuck!

• Layout from Tiddly Inks #190
• Pixies Snippets Playground #246
• The Card Concept #57 - the rainbow connection
• Crafty Cardmakers #172 - layer it up

I still haven't got round to tidying my desk so these Avery Elle stamps are still knocking around and when I saw this beauiful goldfish card in Tracey's gallery - this week's Featured Stamper over at Splitcoast - I thought they'd be perfect for my nephew's birthday card!

Coloured with watercolour pencils, lots of sparkle added with my clear glitter pen and then clear gloss added to their eyes and teeth.  Birthday die from Simon Says Stamp.  Coloured enamel accents and a doodled border to finish.

I know there's a lot of 'girlie' sparkle on it, but I'm hoping the expression on their faces cancels that out!

• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - Stampember Stamp It
• Share Joy #52 - clean and simple
• Penny Black and More September - add a sentiment
• Penny's challenge #294 - anything goes
• Stamping Sensations September - one for the boys

Baby Girl cards

Phew, busy weekend!  I had a good old raid out of our cupboards upstairs, all sorted out for the charity shop and some for the dump.  It's always great to get it started, though it always looks worse before it gets better!

Anyway, I got lovely news today that my friend in work is now a Grandma!  Wasn't expected for another couple of weeks, so it was a bit of a surprise to them all!  So I spent a few hours making baby cards :)

This first one uses a never-before-used one that I found when I was looking for another - it's still lost :( but I'm sure it will turn up eventually.  This little duckie is from Suzy's Zoo - it's not an image I would have thought of using for a baby card, but I think it looks OK.

• Layout from Share Joy #52
• Sweet Stampin - cute and cuddly
• Simon Says Stamp Monday - Stampember Stamp It
• Cuttlebug Mania - use die cuts

My little elephant is an oldie from Wild Rose Studio, and added some pink and blue splatters to the background - doesn't it kinda look like that exploding confetti!  I covered my balloons and little Ellies toenails with my clear glitter pen so there's lots of sparkle.

• CAS on Sunday #91 - pastel
• I flipped the sketch from CAS Colours and Sketches #190
• Cute Card Thursday #442 - animals / creatures

And finally, here's one for Grandma herself :) 

I don't normally make 'white' based cards, but I quite like how it turned out.  My little bear is an oldie from Penny Black; text from Paper Smooches.

• Layout from Freshly Made Sketches #253
• Stamp Ink Paper #64 - clean and simple
• CAS-ual Fridays #156 - dimension and bling
• Just Us Girls #360 - sequins

A blue lighthouse for Uncle Derek

Just a quickie visit to blogland tonight, I'm watching the Bake Off on telly and need to make a cuppa and try to find something 'nice' in the cupboard ;)  Our lad Andrew is doing really well!

I would LOVE to live in a lighthouse, all that wild weather would be fab!  Don't know how happy my knees would be with all those stairs, so now I think of it maybe an overnight stay would be enough!

I'm not so sure if this card works or not ... I thought I'd go for a monochrome look with this card, but I think maybe it would have been better if I'd just painted my lighthouse the traditional red
.  I did google it and you do get blue lighthouses!
Coloured with watercolour pencils; clear gloss added to the windows and the blue strips on the lighthouse covered with my clear glitter pen.
Stamp from Eat Cake Graphics: 6025-O Lighthouse

• Stamping Sensations September - one for the boys
• Dream Valley #139 - monochrome
• Simon Says Stamp Monday - Stampember Stamp It
• Layout from MFT Wednesday Sketch Club #297
• Word Art Wednesday #246 - anything goes

Dogs 'n' Cats

This card was inspired by one I saw in my local supermarket, what a fab sentiment!   Hopefully Tesco's won't be serving me with a writ ;)
I've used one of my Tim Holtz dogs again, I promise to have a tidy up and not to make a doggy card for a day or two!  Alpha set from Paper Smooches.  Die-namics star dies.

• Tic-Tac-Toe #17 - critter / faux technique / gemstones
• Layout from Share Joy #51
• Word Art Wednesday #246 - anything goes
• Penny Black and More September - add a sentiment

And here's a quickie for this week's Featured Stamper challenge over at Splitcoast - here's Marg's original.  I kept her kitten in the window theme and general layout, but changed mine to a birthday theme and used this stamp from Eat Cake Graphics:
2048-L Kitties in the Window

• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - anything goes
• Retro Rubber challenge #46 - critter time (my stamp is just over a year old)
• Crafting When We Can #127 - Happy Birthday
• Classic Design Team Open - September

Birthday Birdie and more calendar pages

 Sunday evening again, we'd a lovely day today, great for getting the washing out on the line, though the obvious down-side is the dreaded ironing ;)  Ah well, only a couple more weeks and I'm off on my jollies to Portugal, can't wait :) :) :)

This card was inspired by the CASE the Designer challenge over at Happy Little Stampers.  I used the same Tim Holtz stamp as Asa, but coloured mine to look like a robin, and kept the same layout of sentiment.

I also combined it with the Try a new technique challenge at AAA Cards.  I embossed some text in my background and then covered it with watercolours.  I'm not sure why some of the text went a bit blurry, maybe I had too much water on it?  Don't know.  Don't mind, I like how it turned out :)

• CRAFT #379 - embossing
• Penny Black and More September - add a sentiment
• Crafting When We Can #127 - Happy Birthday

I've also been cracking on with my friend's calendar for next year.  I have to keep them CAS as it's a tight enough squeeze to get them in the holder so there's no option to add in any layers or raised embellishments.  

January uses these Avery Elle fishies - covered them with my clear glitter pen and then added clear gloss and extra glitter to the bubbles and to their fins and the date too, so there's lots of sparkle on this!  I thought the 'hello' sentiment went well to welcome a new year! 

• Allsorts #379 - new beginnings
• Colour theme from CAS Colours and Sketches #189
• Tuesday Throwdown #309 - clean and simple
• Polkadoodles #35 - beginning with F (fish!)

My friend usually goes on her hols in August, so that was the theme for the calendar page!  My images are from MFT - I should have stamped my tree a tad more to the left as the cocktail is a bit lost in it.  For my background, I chalked in some sand and some sea, and then added some chalked clouds.  

• Inspiration Destination #101 - anything goes
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - anything goes

Christmas Calendar

I thought I'd make a friend one of my calendars for her Christmas pressie.  My card stash is rightly filled up at the minute, so I'm cracking on with the calendar while the going's good.
For March I've used this Penny Black stamp that I got a year ago or so - coloured with watercolour pencils and some blue and purple clouds chalked in the background.  I'm getting a bit better at writing my dates in a straight-ish line ;)

• Less is More #292 - peacock colours
• Stamp Ink Paper #63 - wonderful wings
• Retro Rubber challenge #46 - critter time
• Penny Black Saturday September - nature

April uses one of my Tim Holtz doggies, and this lovely flower stamp from Eat Cake Graphics:

7005-I Coneflowers

Coloured with watercolour pencils and the flower petals covered with my clear glitter pen so it's lovely and sparkly.  Clear gloss added to the dog's nose and eyes, and to the flower centres.

• Simon Says Stamp Monday - it's a stitch up
• ABC - O is for Open
• Crafty Creations #323 - use a number
• Penny's challenge #293 - anything goes
• Creative Kockouts #157 - sparkle and shine

Naughty or Nice?

Aarrgh it's September already, where has this year gone?!  Anyway, the first of the month means a new challenge at Naughty or Nice, and our new theme is 'food or drink'...

This card is so me ... there's nothing better than a secret bar of chocolate in your bag to be scoffed in your PJs in front of the telly with a nice cup of tea ;)  Any chocolate is good with me, don't care whether it's milk or dark, plain or 'bits' in it!  By the way, the Dairy Milk bar with the Dime bar bits is DELISH!! Yummmmm

My stamps are from Eat Cake Graphics:
1167-H Eloise (with her handbag)
8166-E In her handbag

• .Crafting when we can #126 - dies and punches
• Simon Says Stamp Monday -it's a stitch up
• CASology #213 - stitch
• Die Cuttin Divas #281 - anything goes