Guest Designing at Christmas Kickstart

I'm delighted to be Guest Designer over at the Christmas Kickstart challenge this fortnight.  Thanks for the invitation Jo!

The theme for the new challenge is to use a bear on your card, so I've gone for little James Bear from Lili of the Valley.  Coloured with watercolor pencils and popped up on foam pads.  I've used a little star stencil just to give some interest to the background and added a few green stars to finish.
Hope you'll play along - upload your creations over at Christmas Kickstart ... there's a wee prize to be won too :)

• ABC Christmas - D is for Decorations
• The Male Room #105 - no DP
• Penny's challenge #418 - anything goes

Aidan's Leaving card

Awww Sunday evening already!  I'd a touch of Spring Cleaning Fever earlier, so you're all welcome to pop over and inspect my kitchen cupboards and sparkling windows ;)

This card is for a good mate in work who's leaving for a new job.  He has a great sense of humor and I'm really going to miss him.  I couldn't possibly make him a sensible / boring one, so this one took a good bit of thinking about before it went into production!

My birdies are an oldie from Whipper Snapper - sparkle added to their wings and clear gloss to their beaks.  Blue stars from stash.

• Word Art Wednesday #374/375 - anything goes
• Your Next Stamp Fun Friday #108 - seeing stars
• Crafty Catz #450 - for a boy
• Papercraft Challenge #31 - all the critters

Home is where your heart is

My sister moved to a lovely brand new house today, so we'd a busy morning giving her a wee hand and this is the card I've made to send her.
I've used my MFT town die, cut in silver mirri card and added in a few heart sequins and some silver stars.

It took ages to make such a simple card!  Effort #1 ended up in the un-salvageable bin pile and then I couldn't decide what DP to use and then what colour to cut my houses.

• Layout from MFT Wednesday sketch #425
• Your Next Stamp Fun Friday #108 - seeing stars
• Addicted to Stamps #329 - clean and simple
• Simply Create Too #146 - hearts

Lady in Red

Bad post title choice ...  I'll have that song going round in my head for the rest of the evening now!  I must check how long this was in the charts for, it feels like old Chris deBurgh was there forever!!

This little lady is from Lili of the Valley.  I love how she turned out - thank goodness, as this is night #3 to colour her with my polychromos and finish the card off.  It's a good job I'm not charging by the hour ;)

• Layout inspired by Try Stampin on Tuesday #396 - I flipped the top panel as it looked better with my image
• Word Art Wednesday #374/375 - anything goes
• Get Creative #77 - lots of red

Daily Marker 30 day colouring challenge

A stork and a Bear

Just a quickie visit to blogland, for a change there's great telly tonight and I just plan to slob on the sofa for a couple of hours ;)

This first card uses an oldie from (I think) Whipper Snapper - I added some gloss to his beak and feet and some sparkle to the black tips of his wings.

• Tuesday Throwdown #425 - falling hearts
• Your Next Stamp Fun Friday #107 - die cuts
• Cute Card Thursday #569 - wings
• Cutie Pie #132 - one for the boys

And here's another oldie from Penny Black, I think it was a purchase when I first started card making

Coloured with polychromos and clear gloss added to the butterflies.  

Gummiapan butterfly and border dies - I'd a slim bit of this purple card in my pile so it was a bit of a challenge to get my dies arranged so they all fit and then with the tattered remnants there was just enough to cut my corners :)

MFT Wonky stitched circles; not sure of make of embossing folder (magazine freebie)

• Layout from MFT Wednesday Sketch Challenge #424
• Word Art Wednesday #374/375 - anything goes
• Pixie's Snippets Playground #346

Sympathy card and a cheeky monkey

Happy Saturday folks!  We'd a lovely dry bright day today, I actually managed to get out to the garden and pull out dead stuff to see what's lurking underneath :)  Lots of buds and shoots and a few slugs and snails.  Yeuch.  No way could I garden without my gloves on, they give me the absolute shudders.

Anyway, I've no sympathy cards left in my stash and I like to have a few already made.  This one uses an oldie from Prima, coloured with polychromos; a few gems and a doodled stitched border to finish.  Nice and easy.  Though colouring with my pencils takes aaaaaaages!

• Through the Craft Room Door - anything goes
• Sweet Stampers #29 - stitching real or faux
• Crafty Catz #449 - keep it simple

And here's a quickie using another oldie, this time from High Hopes.  I've chalked a stencil on the background to cover a bit of a dirty mark - just for a change! I'm not sure why this chalk always looks sludgy instead of green.  Image coloured with polychromos, sparkle added to the vines and clear gloss to his eyes and teeth.

• Cards 4 Guys #213 - wild animals
• Less is More #389 - one layer focus on the sentiment
• Cutie Pie #132 - one for the boys

Daily Marker 30 day colouring challenge

Love is in the air

I do struggle with Valentine's cards, so this set from Stampin Up is an old favourite!

I've coloured my fish with purple and pink polychromos and then blended it out with Gamsol, but I think I prefer the non-blended look.  I added some sparkle to the fish and heart and clear gloss to his eyes.  My wavy background also uses a metallic ink pad so it's lovely and sparkly :)
My scribble swirls are an MFT die.

• Layout from Atlantic Hearts #303
• Creatalicious #156 - love / hearts
• Daisy Chain #27 - have a heart
• Crafters Castle #14 - Valentine

Daily Marker 30 day colouring challenge

And this one is Greg's Valentine card.  I'm not adding it to any challenges as it's 100% inspired by Inge's card here but I just wanted to keep a record so he doesn't get something the same for next year.  

Who am I kidding eh?  He would NEVER remember LOL ;)

Some Thank You Daffs

We'd a gorgeous sunny morning today, but such cold cold air.  Though I've noticed our first daffodils are out, the tulips are growing nicely and lots of buds in the garden.  Spring is maybe on the way!

So to celebrate I got out this oldie from LOTV.  Coloured with polychromos and clear gloss added to the flowers.  My butterfly is a Gummiapan die.
This card is for one of our students in work who's year is up with us - her name is pronounced Bell-en.  I think there's an accent to go on one of those Es but I need to check which one!

• CASology #330 - bouquet
•  Your Next Stamp Fun Friday #107 - die cuts
• 613 Avenue Create #218 - anything goes, option critter
• Crafty Creations #383 - anything goes
• Word Art Wednesday #372/373 - anything goes

Daily Marker 30 day colouring challenge

Christmas Kitty (and a sneaky dog)

My buddy Jo's Christmas challenge this fortnight is Festive Felines, but I had a rummage through my stamps and I couldn't find any Christmas Kitties on their own!  Guess I'm a dog person (Ruby will be glad to hear LOL)

This stamp is an oldie from Keep Cake Graphics - coloured with polychromos.  Glitter added to the serving dish and sparkle to the 'milk' (mines a bit blue as I haven't quite figured out how to 'colour' pure white!)
Snowflake dies are oldies from Paper Smooches and I've no idea of the make of my corner punch.

• Christmas Kickstart #3 - festive felines
• Layout from Stick it Down February 
• Allsorts #506 - winter sparkle
• Addicted to Stamps #327 - make your mark

Daily Marker 30 day colouring challenge

Baby Bear

Here's a quickie using a sweet little baby bear stamp from my 'oldies' box.  She's from Penny Black of course, coloured with polychromos.

I double mounted my Congrats and then covered it with clear gloss and glitter so there's lots of sparkle.

• Layout from CAS(e) This Sketch #307
• CAS Mix Up February - dimensional die cuts + stamping + glitter
• Simply Create #146 - use hearts

Thank You Di!

You probably already know about the Thank You Di hop that Darnell has going on her blog to celebrate Di's 7 years at Pixies Snippets Playground.  Di is such a sweetie that I wanted to say Thank You too!  It's a great challenge and the only requirement is that you use up some of those left over snippets you have lying on your craft table.  And if you're anything like me you'll have plenty!

So this is my card, using my new stamp from Clearly Besotted.  Coloured with polychromos and I've used up the smallest snippet of this lovely navy card that I knew I'd been saving for something! Though I managed to stick neither strip down straight ;)

• Pixies Snippets Playground #345
• Layout from MFT Wednesday Sketch Challenge #422
• Less is More #388 - Navy and yellow
• Stamping Sensations February - all things bright and beautiful

Daily Marker colouring challenge

Greg's Birthday card and a Love Bunny

We'd a big Birthday weekend as my beloved turned 60!  I always struggle with men's cards as 99.9% of my stamps are all cuties, so this was as butch as I was able to go!  My cake and star dies are both from Gummiapan (at Swedish House Crafts).  I smooched the background and then went over the top with a star stencil and then added some silver stars for good measure ;)

• Love to Scrap #118 - monochrome
• Crafty Catz #447 - lots of layers
• Your Next Stamp Fun Friday #106 - colours of winter

And from a blue card to a pink one!  I think this bunny is an oldie Whipper Snapper - coloured with polycromos again and some sparkle added to the heart; clear gloss and glitter added to his nose and the sentiment.  Not sure of the make of the stencil.

• Simon Says Stamp Monday - love is in the air
• Word Art Wednesday #372/373 - anything goes
• Creatalicious #156 - anything goes, option hearts

Daily Marker 30 day colouring challenge

A card that didn't want to be made and Feb Calendar page

I'm starting to love my new polychromo pencils but they take an age to colour something, it's a good job that's my favourite part of card making!  I normally stamp my image using my stamp positioner, colour it in and then stamp it again so that my lines are nice and crisp.

This little dragon didn't want to play ball though, and when I was going for that final stamp it fell off a millisecond before it should have and wrecked a couple of hours of colouring.  GRRRR!
So I started again but I managed to add some dirty marks and had to add those un-planned green stars.
My image is an oldie from High Hopes, not sure of the make of sentiment, MFT stripy DP.  Sparkle added to the flame and clear gloss to the icing on the cake and the dragon's nails. (This is going to be my brothers birthday card)

• Dragon theme from the Library Challenge #25 - The Girls with the Dragon Tattoo
• Through the Craft Room Door - anything goes
• Fab'n'Funky #425 - fantasy figures
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - anything goes

And here's Mum's calendar page for February.  Only 2 days late this time so I'm improving my score this year hahaha.

I've used an old TiddlyInks image and I'm not sure of the make of my stencil.

I added a little heart sequin to Valentine's Day.

• Inspired by - Kissing Booth - I went for the hearts and red colours
• Creatalicous #156 - anything goes, option hearts

Daily Marker 30 day colouring challenge