Greg's Birthday card

Here's one hot off the press - for Greg's birthday which is tomorrow!  Me?  Last minute? Never! ;)

I've used my new dies from Elizabeth Craft Designs - I've wanted square stitched dies for aaages, but didn't want to spend the £££s - so I blew a Christmas gift voucher from my friend with relish!!

My critter is a Gummiapan stamp from Swedish House Crafts
Coloured with watercolour pencils, sparkle added to the balloon and clear gloss to his eyes, teeth and feet. Centre panel popped up on foam pads. Green and red stars from stash.

• Layout from Freshly Made Sketches #322
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - anything goes
• Happy Little Stampers Feb watercolour challenge - add a heart

Daily Marker 30 day colouring challenge

Oh and I was lucky to win a Lawn Fawn shammy from Di at Pixie's Crafty Workshop - OMG - it's amazing!!
I've used this birthday stamp for years'n years and have never cleaned it ...

A quick wipe with a shammy and it turned into (sorry for blurry pic):

Thanks Di!  I promise to be a much cleaner girl ;) LOL

Girly pinkness

Only one more day at work for me and then I'm off for a nice loooooong weekend.  Roll on!!  It will be heavenly not to have to drudge through the traffic for a couple of mornings.  There was a report last year that Belfast is the UK's most congested city and I could well believe it!  Outside of peak traffic is fine though, in case you're thinking of visitng ;)

I've had an oldie LOTV stamp out tonight and found a wee scrap of this gorgeous DP in my stash.  Coloured with watercolour pencils.  Clear gloss added to the ribbon, glitter to her space-boppers (well that's what we always called them!), and then I went over her tutu with my sparkle pen.

• Tuesday Throwdown #377 - favourite colour - I wasn't sure what to pick but when I looked at my  watercolour pencils, the pink was by far the shortest!!
• Inspiration Destination #142 - anything goes
• Time Out #101 - inspired by words - 'gift'
• Through the Craft room door - anything goes

Daily Marker 30 day colouring challenge

Christmas doggies

So for tonight's card I just had to use my long lost doggy stamp!!  And Vicki's card over at the Muse Challenge was the perfect inspiration too!

My doggies are an oldie from Simon Says Stamp that I oogled over for ages - every time I went to buy it, it was sold out, and then when I did get it I promptly lost it!  Coloured with watercolour pencils and popped up on foam pads. Glitter added to the white bits on the hat and to the antlers, and then I went over the scarf and the pink hat with my clear sparkle pen.  Paper Smooches snowflake dies.

• General layout and 3 critter theme inspired by The Muse Challenge #251
• Merry Monday #275 - pastel colours
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - layer it up
• ABC Christmas - A for Antlers
• Creative with Stamps January - snowflakes

Daily Marker 30 day colouring challenge

Pink Get Well

I was a good girl today and finally tidied my crafty stash.  And it was a proper tidy up too, not just a 'shovel it all together' type tidy!  I found a lost Christmas stamp that I've been looking for this past 6 months, and a flower die that I'd misplaced so long ago I'd forgotten I'd lost it ;)

This pretty DP was in my forgotten pile, I've paired it with my cutie from Whiff of Joy. Coloured with watercolour pencils.  Sparkle added to her flowers, and clear gloss to the flower pot.  Sentiment popped up on foam pads.  MFT  wonky stitched circle die.

• Crafty Creations #359 - anything goes
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - layer it up
• As You Like It - fave die - this is my favourite circular die, I love the extra bit of interest from the stitching
• Happy Little Stampers January anything goes with dies

Daily Marker colouring challenge

Two-fer Sympathy cards

It's been a bit of  brrrr chilly day today, but at least it stayed dry to get for a walk in the park with Rubydoo and for me to get the car cleaned.  It's a bad sign when there's algae growing on your car!!

Anyway, sorry folks, I'm still playing with my new Concord & 9th flowers ;)

Couldn't get a decent pic of this blue effort.  I got my pencils out for a change, don't know why, I'm never happy with my colouring with them!!   They're decent pencils, I think they might be Derwent, but they're very rough feeling on the card and it's hard to get colour out of them.  Maybe they're just duds, or maybe I need different sort of card?  Or maybe I'll just donate them to my little niece to play with!

My lines came out quite dark as I stamped my image again after colouring.  Nothing much else to say about this card, other than I added a few bits of bling for a bit of sparkle.

• Crafty Cardmakers #203 - bling's the thing
• Addicted to Stamps #276 - anything goes
• CAS on Friday #125 - colour me pretty, use pencils

This one I definitely prefer, back to my trusty watercolouring pencils! 

And I think I prefer the stamp twisted sideways too!

Clear gloss added to the little flowers and then a few glossy dots added too.

• Penny Black and More January - something new
• Word Art Wednesday #318/319 - anything goes
• Moving Along with the Times #63 - clean and simple

Daily Marker colouring challenge

Floral Congrats

Just a quickie post tonight.  I'm knackered!!  It's been a busy week in work, so I'm going to spend tonight chillin and watching telly instead of faffing about on the internet!

My lovely postie kindly delivered this beauty from Concorde & 9th yesterday.  I'd been oogling it for ages but thought it was a tad pricey, so then when my friend gave me a voucher for Christmas I finally gave in and bought it :)  And I love it!!
I'd say you'll be seeing this one again for sure!

When I added my sentiment I went round it with a white pen, then used my Tim Holtz stamper to stamp it again with Versamark and then heat embossed it.  Embossing is great fun, but my card kinda warps a bit, there's bound to be a tutorial on YouTube so I'll have to see what tips they have.

• Simon Says Stamp Work it Wednesday December 2017 - something new
• Penny Black and More January - something new
• Simply Create Too #134 - embossing
• Through the CraftRoom Door - anything goes

Daily Marker Colouring Challenge

Lilac sympathy

This one looks {marginally} better in real life!  I couldn't get the lilac colour to photograph properly.  And I ALWAYS struggle with this old Papermania stamp, I've no idea why!  Coloured with watercolour pencils and popped up on foam pads.  Clear gloss added to the butterfly and then bling added to the flower centres.
I'll have to have a wee think about what I could do to jazz this up and make it less drab, it needs something.  I might recolour the flowers and see if that helps.  Ah well, sharing it with blogland anyway!

• Layout from CAS(e) this Sketch #255
• Creative Knockouts #229 - in stitches
• Moving Along with the Times #63 - clean and simple
• Allsorts #451 - butterflies

Daily Marker Colouring Challenge

Leaving Card

I was asked to make a leaving card for a colleague in work - normally I hate special requests (especially short notice!) but Kim's beautiful card over at the Muse challenge was the perfect inspiration.

Stamps from MFT - coloured with watercolour pencils and some popped up on dimensionals.  Inside the card reads 'from the whole herd'.
Little blue stars from stash.
I started off just giving the pig some googly eyes, but then figured the rest of the critters needed some too ;)

• Muse challenge #250
• Tuesday Throwdown TT376 - anything goes
• Cute Card Thursday #513 - something fun
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - add a sentiment

Daily Marker Colouring challenge

Hanging on the telephone

It's been a bit of an icky damp drizzly grey day today - though I know we're lucky that we escaped the worst of the snow and the rain, so I should be thankful really!

A good day to keep up with the Daily Marker colouring challenge though, and tonight I've got a card with a really old stamp from Susana's Custom Art and Design - I think the shop's closed now though :(
Do you remember the days when the phone was like this? ... it took forever to dial a number!  I saw a programme recently where they gave one to a bunch of young kids and they'd no idea how to use it!

Here's the link to a tutorial I looked at for skin colouring - it's the first time I've been happy with how it turned out! :)
I've popped her up on foam pads and added clear gloss to the telephone, and used my clear sparkle pen on her shoes, lips and ribbon.  The scribble dies are from MFT.  I had an Oops with my white marker so covered it with a little pink heart sequin.

• Layout from Sugar Pea Designs Mix it Up #39
• Pixie's Snippets Playground #317/318
• Crafty Cardmakers #203 - bling's the thing
• Craftaholics #3 - anything goes
• Fab'n'Funky - girly

Whale of a birthday

Here's another olide High Hopes image for you ... I sometimes forget how many fab stamps I have in my stash, so I've really no need to be oogling new ones and waiting impatiently for postmen!  Hahahahahaa ...  Reckon I could have a room full and still fancy more ;)

Coloured with watercolour pencils, sparkle added to his water fountain and the spalshes.  I kinda wish I hadn't added the googly eyes, it's made it a wee bit busy round those eyebrows!

• Addicted to CAS #128 - ombre
• CASology #283 - glimmer
• Through the Craftroom Door - anything goes
• Love to Craft #18 - January anything goes

Daily Marker colouring challenge

Frogs in pants

I didn't get a chance to make a card yesterday, and I'm determined to try and keep up with the Daily Marker colouring challenge, so I've made 2 today!

Unfortunately I've no mojo and that white page seems huge when you've no idea what to put on it!  So when I'm like that I turn to blogland - this one is inspired by this fab card that Teri shared on Simon Says Stamp :)

I've used an old froggy stamp from High Hopes - coloured with watercolour pencils and popped up on foam pads.  My sentiment is a newbie from Gummiapan stamps at Swedish House Crafts

• Less is More #363 - OLC cute
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - add a sentiment
• AAA Cards #106 - something new

Baby balloons

Just a quickie post from me tonight - I'm trying to keep up with the daily colouring challenge at the Daily Marker!
This one uses an oldie from LOTV.  I found this pretty DP in my stash so coloured the image to match. I took a bit more time over my balloons than I usually do, and tried to get the hint of colour where the balloons merge.

• Layout from Sketch Saturday #496
• As You Like It - favourite die - this embroidered frame from MFT is definitely my most loved and most used - it's the right shape for most of my cards and I love the added bit of interest with the stitching
• Happy Little Stampers January - anything goes with dies
• 613 Avenue Create #205 - anything goes / something new
• My Time to Craft #362 - something new

Purple sympathy

Well the snow was a bit of a hoo-ha over not very much.  I know it was worse in other parts of the country, but I nearly laughed yesterday when my bus passed a snow plough (in full ploughing mode) with about half an inch of slush on the road.  Boys and their toys eh? ;)  Anyway, it's raining now, so hopefully it will be gone by morning.
ETA oops, just looked out the window and the place is white again!

Tonight's card is just a quickie based on this one I made earlier in the month, but this time in monochrome.  You wouldn't think it but I've used 4 different shades of purple here!  Clear gloss and sparkle added to the long grapey looking flowers whatever they are!

• Simon Says Stamp - add a sentiment
• Less is More #362 - purples
• Love to Scrap #105 - anything goes

Day 3 of the Daily Marker 30 days colouring challenge

Bath time!

Oh brrrr, we'd a fall of snow today!  So far it's not as bad as the weather men were getting excited about, so hopefully the buses will be OK for work tomorrow.  And if they're not I'll quite happily have a crafty day at home!  Though the last 2 Snow Days I got from work, the first day the entire town's electric was off for most of the day, and the second day we ran out of oil!  Reckon I'm better in my work ;)

For Day 2 of the Daily Marker Colouring Challenge I've another baby card.  I picked this stamp to practice my skin colouring after studying a few videos on YouTube.  I reckon I need to invest in some watercolour paper - I'm always put off buying it as any 'white' stuff I've bought before always has a creamy tint to it.  I'll have to have a proper look.  Or if anyone has any recommendations ....!

Old stamp from Art Gone Wild.  Bubbles covered in clear gloss and glitter. Soap covered with my clear glitter pen.  I managed to accidentally wipe the pink across the bath when I was colouring the soap, but I didn't try to fix it as I thought it kinda looked like a reflection!

I recently won a Tombow sand eraser from Di at Pixie's Crafty Workshop -  Di, your eraser is amazing!! I managed to smudge in the Y of the baby stamp with my inky fingers and your eraser worked like magic! :)

• Pixie's Snippets Playground #315/316 - I used the snips from my die cut to brighten my boring blue base card.
• Layout from Stamp Ink Paper #133
• PINspiration #207 - baby
• Cardz 4 Guys #186 - January Blues
• That's Crafty - feeling blue

Naughty or Nice?

Fancy winning this gorgeous die set?
Well play along at Naughty or Nice and you could!  This month 'It's a celebration' is our theme, so it's a dead easy one, and you can be either naughty or nice.
I'm the nice one of the bunch hahahahahaaha ;)





For my card I've used this cutie from LOTV -
one of my 'go to' stamps for new babies!
Coloured with watercolour pencils and baby image popped up on dimensionals.  My DP is super old stuff that had been in my Too Nice To Use pile, no more of that nonsense for me ;)
My little heart sequin is pink but it didn't photograph well.

It's the first day of Kathy's 30 day colouring challenge over at the Daily Marker, so I'm definitely going to try to play along - perfect timing as my card stash is so low!  And I'm really going to try to concentrate on my colouring instead of just firing them out!!  I'm still not overly happy with her skin colour, she needs to be a wee bit pinker and fresher!

• Happy Little Stampers watercolour challenge January - sequins
• Layout from CAS Colours & Sketches #254
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - use patterned paper
• Daisy Chain challenges #15 - something new

Some new techniques

I've decided that I've become boring and hardly ever try anything new ... so here's 2 new techniques from me tonight!

I loved Yana's card from a recent Simon Says Stamp hop using lots of little stamps, so thought I'd have a go.  I've had these bitty faces from The Alley Way Stamps for years and have never had a clue what to do with them!  I stamped one daft face in black, and added clear gloss and googly eyes.

• AAA Cards #106 - let today be the start of something new
• Allsorts #450 - no patterned papers
• As You Like It - anything goes

Hmmmm not sure about this one! If I'd remembered I actually had a pink ink pad I might have used it instead, it's a bit wishy washy or something.  Or maybe it's the embossing that's not rocking my boat.  I can't put my finger on what's annoying me with this one!  

Anyway, I've not tried this stamping with a solid image before, so that's another first racked up for me ;)

Stampin Up images

• Simply Create Too #134 - embossing
• Simon Says Stamp - Winter Blues
• Make My Monday #62 - blue and white
• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas challenge #368 - Christmas, feature a creature

Got the blues

Hi strangers!  I've just noticed I haven't posted anything for a whole week.  I need to get myself sorted!  No excuses, just busy in work and then can't be bothered when I get home.  Thankfully we've managed to miss the flu (so far!) which is going round like wildfire along with a nasty stomach bug too

Anyway, just a couple of quickie cards this evening. I've been using some oldie stamps again ... I've a voucher from Christmas burning a hole in my pocket that needs spending on some new crafty goodies but I can't decide what's top of my list ;)

My sympathy card is coloured with watercolour pencils and clear gloss added to the little pink flowers.  I also chalked up the BG with my chickenwire stencil in pale pink and blue but it doesn't show up on my photo.

• Simon Says Stamp Monday - Winter blues
• Word Art Wednesday #317 - anything goes
• Allsorts #450 - no patterned papers

Looking at how this card photographed, I've decided that my immediate crafty goal is to study how to colour faces with my watercolour pencils.  Mine always end up either a bit pale and pasty or a sludgy brown!

Clear gloss and glitter added to the balloon and to the cat hat's nose.

I saw someone outlining their card recently like this, so thanks if it was you!

• Tiddly Inks #209 - anything goes
• Addicted to Stamps #274 - clean and simple
• CASual Fridays #190 - all that glitters
• Through the Craft Room Door - anything goes

Bunny Birthday

Just a wee CAS card from me this evening, I've had a busy old day.  It's been BRRRRRR chilly, but lovely and sunny.  The only downside was the Winter sun streaming through the windows and forcing me into some early Spring cleaning ;)

I've used my little LOTV bunny for this one - coloured with watercolour pencils.  I added about 4 layers over the balloon and the icing with my clear glitter pen, so it's nice and sparkly.
I bought a few new watercolour pencils yesterday and my new pink card was a perfect match :)
Paper Smooches sentiment

• Layout from Freshly Made Sketches #318
• Paper Smooches January - anything goes
• AAA cards #105 - sparkle
• Simply Create Too #134 - embossing
• Love to Scrap #105 - anything goes

Some Sympathy Cards

Tonight we have Storm Eleanor visiting, and it's certainly blowing a gale out there and lashing rain too.  Hopefully it calms down a wee bit for the morning, it's back to the grindstone for me after my Xmas hols.  Boo Hoo  :(

I've no sympathy cards in my stash, and hate making them, so thought I'd have an evening of it!

This first one, was a bit of a surprise to me!  I was looking for the flower stamp and came across this lovely sentiment.  I think I might have won it in some blog candy or a challenge, I really don't remember!!  I love how this one turned out.
Prima flower stamp; pink sequins from my stash.

• Happy Little Stampers January watercolour challenge - sequins
• Simon Says Stamp Work it Wednesday December - new stash

This one uses an older LOTV stamp and Paper Smooches sentiment.  I fancied doing it in a lilac colour but only had a little snippet left - so rather than adding a whole strip I just cut the little side panels.

• CRAFT #448 - anything goes
• Pixies Snippets Playground #313/314
• Stamp Ink Paper #131 - emboss it

And lastly another oldie from Whipper Snapper - I went over my flowers with my clear glitter pen, I thought the sparkle made it look sort of wintry. 

• AAA Cards #105 - sparkle
• Through the Craft Room Door - anything goes

Naughty or Nice - It's a Celebration

Happy New Year!  Hope there's not too many sore heads about today .... I've pre-scheduled this post so can't comment on how mine is!  hahahaha

My first post of 2018 is for the Naughty or Nice challenge - and it's a celebration theme this month!  Hope you'll play along too :)  There are some gorgeous dies up for grabs this month too!

I'm on time (for a change) with Mum's calendar page!  I swear these get harder every month instead of easier!  Though it's taken a looooong time for me to be able to write my numbers in a straightish line ;)
My kitty is an oldie Penny Black, not sure of the make of the houses but they're ancient too.

• Moving Along With the Times #61 - anything but a card
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - anything goes
• Crafty Creations #357 - anything goes
• Creative Inspirations #284 - winter