Greg & Chris's birthday card

 HI all!  Just popping by to post Greg's birthday card, last minute as per usual!  I think I'm in Penny Black mode at the minute, though I've always loved their stamps from the moment I started card making!

I watercoloured the background though it doesn't show well here, and added some splatters.  I hadn't intended to add the gems but my black enamel dripped on the one to the left and I needed an emergency coverup!  Image another one similar for my brother-in-law.

Layout inspired by Janneke's beautiful card over at Global Design #328 case the designer challenge

Try Stampin on Tuesday #540 - monochrome

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - anything goes

Pupdate..

Best purchase of the day was this wee pink rubber ball!  Molly is in love!  She grabs the ball, throws it up the kitchen, hares after it and does it all again LOL. So funny to watch.  And so different to Ruby - she would just have eyeballed you if you threw a ball for her as if to say "you can go fetch that yourself" 😉

She's starting to look like she'll soon be needing her 1st haircut.

Love Balloons

 Hi all!  Hope you're all safe and well.  Its a wild, wet and windy evening out there as Storm Corrie passes over but I don't think we're getting it as bad as other parts of the UK. 

So this evening I have a wee quickie using this cutie from Penny Black.  Coloured with my polychromos and clear gloss added to the balloons.  I reckon I'll be using this one again soon for Greggy's valentine.  I've quite a few cards on my To Do list, good job I've a couple of days off work now 😁

Layout based on CAS Colours and Sketches #454

Simon Says Stamp Monday - furry friends

Penny Black Saturday January - something new (my new stamp)

Christmas baubles

 Hi All!  I was very lucky to win one of the Christmas draw prizes over at lovely Di's Snippets Challenge and couldn't wait to get colouring!  This gorgeous stamp is from Sweet Dixie, a new-to-me brand.  Coloured with my polychromos and lots of glitter added to the highlights on the baubles.  My sentiment is a blue sparkly card but I'm not sure if this shows up or not, and the embossing folder from the January Simon Says Stamp kit.

Christmas Kickstart #58 - rainbow Christmas

Addicted to Stamps and more #421 - make your mark

ABC Christmas - B is for baubles

Along with my new stamps, Di had included a lovely little notelet, and a challenge to upcycle it, so here you are...!!! 

I had a tiny strip of blue leftover, but it was the perfect size to cut this little stitched die (from Simply Graphic I think) - it was just that little something needed to finish the card 😁. And of course it means it's perfect for the latest Snippets Challenge #420, which is the penultimate Ruby's Memory challenge.  Theres a bumper set of prizes, so thank you to the lovely ladies who donated and as usual all you need to do to play along is to use up some leftover scraps.  

Pinks and purples

 Hi all.  I've just noticed that both my cards this evening have a similar colour theme.

This first one uses an old LOTV stamp and some DP I bought a while back and have struggled to use!

Layout from Global Design #326

As You Like It - favourite colouring medium - I love my polychromos .  It can take a while to build up the layers of colour but they blend beautifully.  I also prefer them over markers as they don't unexpectedly run out on you!! 

Sparkles Monthly Challenge #148 - ribbon, raffia or twine

And this second uses another old favourite from Whipper Snapper, this time coloured in watercolours for a change - it's definitely quicker to colour with them than pencils... or maybe I just didn't put in as much effort 😉   I might actually go over the centre of the purple flowers and make them a bit darker.

My time to Craft #473 - floral

CAS Mix Up January - loose watercolouring

Pupdate...

Miss Molly got a parcel delivered from Amazon today, took her about half an hour to get into it and get her new ball out!  And after chasing it round the kitchen for another while she's now fast asleep.  Money well spent hahaha.  Supposedly it's puncture and chew proof, so we'll see!!

Blue Christmas

Hi all!  For my Christmas present to myself I gave in to these sweet snow people from the Simon Says Stamp January kit.  Not something I normally purchase as the shipping costs are just silly but I couldn't resist! So I've no excuse whatsoever to be rushing to make Christmas cards this year 😉  My only niggle with the kit is that I would have loved to have had some Christmassy sentiments in the stamp set, but the papers, stencil and embossing folder are all lovely.

MFT Wednesday sketch #576

Cut it Up  #243 - anything goes with a die cut

Papercraft challenge #77 - winter wonderland

Snippets Playground #419 - Di has a beautiful new blog for the snippets challenge and it's so easy to play along, just use up a scrap!  For mine my snowflakes are cut from little scraps and my snowpeople use up the leftover bits when I cut my cardstock base down to size

Pupdate ... 

We think Molly has almost all her teeth through now, poor soul lost 3 in one afternoon!   Here she is in one of her favourite spots - her towel on the kitchen floor... she often prefers it to her nice comfy bed!  Think she maybe afraid of us making something tasty and forgetting about her permanently hungry tummy 😉

60th pink roses

 HI All!  Just a quick post to share a card I've made for a niece of my Aunt.  No apologies for it starring my gorgeous new Penny Black flowers again, I think it might be my favouritest stamp ever.  Though I've just taken delivery of some lovely snowpeople from the Simon Says Stamp latest kit, my Christmas pressie to myself 😉, and can't wait to get them inked!

Layout based on sketch from Try Stamping on Tuesday #537

The Flower Challenge #64 is monochrome, but my green leaves might disqualify me 

Penny Black Saturday January - anything goes

Moving Along with the Times #138 - for a lady

Sympathy Daffodils

 Hi all!  Gosh that's such a cold evening out there, reckon our mild Christmas spoiled us!  Definitely cosy hat and scarf weather.  We'd a wee skiff of snow the other night - Molly didn't really pass much comment on it until it froze and then it was great fun.  Daftie.

I've no sympathy cards in my stash and like to have them on hand so need to get a few made.  This one uses this lovely daffodil stamp from Clearly Besotted - coloured with polychromos and some sparkle added to the blooms.  Stencilling added to background.

Layout from MFT Wednesday sketch #575

Word Art Wednesday #525-526 - anything goes

Miss Molly is teething, so far we've found this little tooth and one of the bigger back ones.  Poor wee mite.  Sore gums hasn't affected her appetite though, she loves her grub.  I'd love to be as excited as she gets at dinnertime LOL 

Card for Marlene

 HI All and a very Happy New Year!!  That's Christmas done and dusted for another year - we spent ours down in Mum's and then New Year just ourselves.  Back to work now on Tuesday, the break has been lovely and has flown in.  

I've been busy tidying my craft stash while I'm off, a job that's needed doing for a while and even more so since Molly arrived as everything needs to be out of the reach of curious puppies!!!  No longer (in theory) should the search for a stamp drive me crazy... It's all indexed into a couple of boxes, and stamped into my record book along with the name of the brand.  And I fully intend to keep it up for the future!!!

Anyway, this card is for a friend of my mum's, using my new Penny Black stamp which is a pleasure to colour.  I stencilled some text into the background and then proceeded to do my usual stunt of covering most of it up. 😉  I think that die is from Gummiapan: some green liquid enamel to finish.

Inspired By #IB200 - I was inspired by Joan's beautiful floral card (left) where she had text in her background and then overlaid a die cut beneath the flowere

Tuesday Morning Sketches - annual anything goes challenge

Stamping Sensations January - a/g with stamping and option add a die

Hi

And what's Miss Molly up to?... Well she was lucky and made it onto Santa's Nice List.  We did have our doubts LOL. Today we had a very exciting time down at our local Lough shore meeting lots of other puppies and plenty of interesting sniffs around!  It was a gorgeous bright morning but was blowing an absolute gale!