Bats and Betty's Birthday Card

Simon Says Stamp had a good challenge this week and it really made me think!  The challenge was to portray your local cityscape.  I live in a town of about 20,000 people and some of the buildings are really old - the courthouse was built in 1726 and there are still a couple of the historic buildings left.  What we don't have is a skyrise!  I can't think of any building in the town that's more than 2 storeys high.  
So then I started looking round Belfast at some of the old buildings and some of them are fabulous - surprisingly quite a few survived the Blitz during WW2 when Belfast was badly bombed  and The Troubles when we spent all our time trying to blow each other up!  But even in Belfast there aren't that many 'high rise' buidlings though the new ones are definitely getting taller! Me, I like my feet on the ground, no sky scrapers for me!  But thanks SSS, for making me look up!

Anyway, enough waffle!  I used an MFT Town die and my bats are oldies from The Alley Way Stamps.  I die cut and embossed my moon, but its a wee bit lost in my cloudy sky.  I do have a 'happy Halloween' stamp somewhere in my stash, but at the minute it's not to be found.

• Simon Says Stamp - your cityscape
• The Library Challenge #18 - Dracula - I was inspired by the little bats on the cover
• Cute Card Thursday #551 - Halloween

This one uses some of my recent purchases from Swedish House Crafts - the pretty heart die and the yummy cake.  I added some blue to the background but it doesn't show up the best here.  Cupcake coloured with watercolour pencils, sparkle added to the icing and clear gloss/glitter to the tiny stars; popped up on foam pads.  I used one of the little hearts from the die cut as an extra embellishment.

• Pixies Snippets Playground #337
• Cutie Pie #128 - going girly
• Word Art Wednesday #356/357 - anything goes

Pink Poinsettias and colourful stars

It's been a horrible old wet day today, I think it maybe stopped raining for 10 whole minutes!  Rubydoo has been having a super lazy Saturday and has hardly shifted off the sofa all day!   It's a dogs life.

Mr Mojo has been on the missing list for a while now, so I'm taking my inspiration from blogland and pinterest - I fell in love with Trina's card a while back so bought the same sentiment die and used it here with some shiny silver card. My poinsettia stamp is an oldie (from Art Gone Wild I think). I added some pink stickles to the flower centres and some white enamel dots.  Coudn't get it photographed right, it's very drab looking here.

• Layout from CAS(e) this Sketch
  
  #293
• As You Like It - CAS or fussy and fancy - I'm definitely a CAS girl.  It took me many years and lots of unused and unloved stash to find this out though! 
• CRAFT #486 - Christmas
• The Flower challenge #25 - add sparkle

This one's a specical request - I don't know anything about him other than he likes football, but I don't have any grown up football stamps so just went for a starry theme.

• JUGS #462 - celestial elements
• Time Out #120 - ccolourful
• Moving along with the times #82 - for a man

Two-fer Christmas

It's definitely time to get cracking with Christmas!  I reckon I've maybe less than a third of the cards made that I need, and I'm absolutely determined, for the first time ever, to have no last minute makes!  We'll see how that goes.  I wouldn't be holding my breath if I was you ;)

I've used this Whipper Snapper stamp for both these cards.  I LOVE their stamps but they're so expensive so I don't go shopping for them very often.

On both cards I've coloured with watercolour pencils, added clear gloss to their beaks, and then gloss/sparkle to the dude with the hat.
I've since added some white enamel dots to this first one for falling snow.

Both cards were inspired by this week's featured stamper at Splitcoaststampers, but I'll add the links tomorrow.

• Happy Little Stampers October Christmas challenge
• Addicted to Stamps #312 - make your mark
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - get ready for Christmas
• Creative Knockouts #266 - lots of layers

Leaves and Hedgehogs

Happy World Cardmaking Day!  Just a quickie visit to blogland tonight.  I've still got a stinker of a cold, just can't get it shifted, but had a couple of projects I needed to get made.

I'm already a few days late with Mum's calendar page this month, oops ;)  I used an oldie from High Hopes and then cut out another few of the leaves as extra embellies.  I'm thinking I should have chalked in a few clouds or something, it's a wee bit boring.

• Love to Scrap #114 - fall back
• Creative Inspirations October - Autumn glow
• Crafty Calendar October - Autumn
• Allsorts #488 - leaves

 And here's another wee quickie, using an oldie Penny Black.  Coloured with watercolour pencils.  Clear gloss and glitter added to the snail's shell and the flower centre.

• Penny Black Saturday October - spooky colours
• Crafty Animals #19 - any animal
• CASology #315 - gratitude
• CAS on Friday #143 - thank you card

Doggy Birthday

Just a quickie post tonight, Bake Off is on telly and I need to get a cuppa made and check the cupboards in the hope of 'something nice' hiding there.  Could be slim pickings as I didn't actually buy anything nice at the weekend haha ;)

This is based on Chrissy's card over at the Splitcoaststampers featured stamper challenge.
I used my old Katzelkraft doggy and MFT heart die, and I'm not entirely sure of the sentiment make.

• Make my Monday #81 - animals
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - anything goes
• Creative Knockouts #265 - anything goes

Two-fer Christmas

It struck me today that Eeek, it's the end of September already and I'm way behind with my Christmas card stash.
So Chriss's card over at Muse Christmas Visions #109 was the perfect inspiration.  I used her bear theme, snowy sky and snip of holly  My bear is an oldie from Stamplorations (I think - 'Vanity Fair' is on telly at the minute otherwise I'd get up and check!)

For my sky I used a stencil from Simon Says Stamp and just coloured through with a white pen.

And while I was on a roll I made another with silver sparkly card instead.   That's 2 off the list now :)

• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - anything goes
• Sweet Stampin - spots
• Addicted to Stamps #311 - anything goes

I think I prefer the one with the coloured sentiment.

Visiting Librarian at the Library Challenge.

I'm delighted to be the 'Visiting Librarian' for the new challenge over at The Library Challenge - one of my favourite challenges ... books and stamping, what's not to like!

Anyway I was the lucky one who got to choose this week's book and I've gone for The Woman in the Window.  Have you read it?  It would be great if you played along in the challenge - you can be inspired by the cover or the story or the title, whatever takes your fancy!

As you can see I took my inspiration from the lit window and the bricks on the cover.  I've stenciled up a brick background and then used my cute kitties from Eat Cake Graphics.  I used sparkly card for my sentiment and then finished with some gold star sequins.

• Fab'n Funky #409 - all creatures great and small
• Crafty Creations #375 - anything goes
• Word Art Wednesday #354/355 - anything goes