A card for two challenges

                  Hi guys, sorry for another lapse in blogging - struggling to find time to do anything a the moment - hope things will be better now the nights are drawing in and the garden is less demanding.  I have whipped up a card at the last minute to join in with the Less is More Challenge - here's what it is this week:

                  Less is More has a Lucky Dip Challenge and it is to use

                                 Sprays/Mists 

and I also want to enter into

Time Out challenge for this week which is to 'Make your Mark' which calls for you to use any kind of marker on your card. 

                                     
Here's my card:

Sorry if the picture is a bit dark - a bit of a dull afternoon.

I used this little tool that I've had in my stash for years and not used much to spray ink from a Whispers Watercolour Pen through a stencil.

The die cuts are Memory Box and the banner is a snippet of paper from Pink Petticoat.

The Hello was printed out with my Dymo embossing tool.

Thank you for dropping by.

Sue

Less is More Challenge - Use Designer Paper in a CAS Way

This week's theme for the lessismore challenge is to use designer paper in a CAS way.  A great challenge as always from Chrissie and Jen and it gave me the opportunity to use my new Fairy Lights papers from Pink Petticoat, which is currently on offer at half price from the boutique (a bargain as it's stuffed full of papers, christmas tree images and sentiment).  

Here's my card:

While I'm here I thought I would just add this card I made using the Sizzix Flip-It die I bought at the NEC.  It was such a bargain - £16.99 for 11 dies in the set.  I used some HOTP paper and some other dies to try a Vintage style - a look I really love but I'm not very good at.  I used several different stamps including Kaisercraft Music sheet, HOTP holly and Paula Pascual number:

I'm sure I'll get lots of use out of this set and may even invest in other shapes. I'm sure they'll be just as good with a CAS look.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

Sue.x

Less is More - String or Twine

Hope you're all well on this wet and windy day.  The weather has given me the opportunity to get a card done early for this week's lessismoore challenge.

I'm going through a bit of a Pink Petticoat phase again (I love Liz's designs and her C&S style).  I've loads of papers and images that have sadly now been retired that I really need to start using again as they're so fabulous.  I think we all get swept away with moving onto the next must have items we forget the great stuff we probably have stashed away.  

The DP on this card is from the Daisy Daisy set which was retired some time ago and the image is Lola Rose Bubbly, which is still available.  I did the sentiment on the computer and added some baker's twine and some sequins.  I used watercolour pencils to colour the image. Hope you like it:

(click on the image for a close up)

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Sue.x

Merry Little Christmas Tree

I've dug out a Pink Petticoat digi image for the two challenges I'd like to enter this week:

http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/week-142-theme.html

http://letscreatechallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/challenge-81-trim-tree.html

Here's my card:

Here's what I used:

Pink Petticoat digi (Pom Pom Trees)

Watercolour Pencils

Pink pearls

Glitter

Circle Nesties

Sheer ribbon

Sorry for the short and sweet post - this week has just passed me by. My OH has ruptured his Achilles tendon and is in plaster and on crutches so I'm running around like a headless answering to his beck and call (as I'm sure you can imagine).

Hope you have a good weekend.

Sue.x 

Four cards in a day - wow!

I've a few cards to share with you today! Each a different style.  I find that C&S is my usual favourite but now and again I do like a play.

My first card is definitely C&S and was made using some fab new stamps I bought from the Great British Craft Festival on Saturday.  You can find them here.  I haven't seen them before but loved the style straight away. I'm sure more of their stamps will find their way into my stash at some point.

For this card I used stamps from two different sets:

Ornamental Frames and Dressed to Kill.  The frames are fabulous and will have endless use I'm sure.

I just used Prismas to add a bit of colour and a ribbon and that's it for a very C&S card.

Next, also from the GBCF I saw Ali Reeve demonstrating and loved to see her cards in the flesh, so much better than on screen when I've watched her on Create and Craft.  I decided to have a go at the card sample she had on display (and on her blog). I enjoyed doing it but not sure it will be my Christmas card to family and friends this year (probably a bit to grungy for non crafters).

You can't see from the photo but the holly frame is embossed in black and gold.

Next:

I love the new Twill Stripe papers from Pink Petticoat so decided to use them for my niece's birthday card, the modern look is perfect for her.  I made a version of the card Liz made which you can see here on her blog - I always admire her style.

The doily and butterfly were cut out with my Cameo.  The sentiment ribbon is also from Pink Petticoat and the other scallops are Spellbinders Edgeabilities and Stampin Up Scallop Border punch which I punched on both sides to create my own border.

Finally, a bit of CD crafting.  A simple Forever Friends image with a sentiment done in Digital Designer, some background paper, flower embellishment and a few pearls.

  

There you go, lots of different ways of crafting - it's never dull is it! Have a great day and thanks for dropping by.

Sue.x

Hooray

At long last I have my desk back for good.  No more snatching a bit of time here and there to make a card. My daughter has finished her studies after a long and gruelling 10 months, so my long forgotten crafting goodies are being dusted off ready to start playing again.


Here's my card for today:

And I'm entering it into the following challenges:

http://ilovepromarkers.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/challenge-174-colour-combo.html
Use the colour combo pink and blue (I hope I can get away with that strip of green at the bottom).

http://abc-challenge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/p-for-pretty-in-pink.html
Pink has to be the main focal colour

and

http://charismacardz.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/challenge-25-recipe.html

My recipe for the challenge is:

3 ribbons (from stash)
2 crystals (in the centre of the flowers - the blue flower has a black dot done with a Promarker)

1 punch (Stampin Up scalloped edge punch)

The stamp is from the Pink Petticoat Pretty Potties collection which were free in the May copy of Quick Cards Made Easy.  I coloured in with Promarkers and added a bit of glitter which you probably can't see from the picture.  The background paper is also from Pink Petticoat.

Hope you like it. I'm off to carry on playing - ohhhh where to start!

Sue.x

Less is More week 106 One Layer

Hi everyone! Hope you're well!

 

Whoa! Where did those two months go?  It's been a long time since I last posted and tbh I haven't really missed it - it does makes you realise how much time is taken up by the whole blog thing and how much more time could be used doing other things. 

 

Anyways,I've gotten a new laptop and connected my little Epson printer to it so I've been able to get crafty again this weekend using the dining table in the lounge - not ideal really but better than nothing. (My daughter is still hogging my desk, computer and craft area to study - bless).

 

Here's a couple of cards I've managed to do today.

 

First my Less is More entry:

 

(I hope my flower is acceptable as a minimal embellishment.)

 

The musical script is a Kaisercraft stamp and the sentiment is from Paula Pascual.  The rose is cut from felt using a My Favourite Things die and the leaves are a Sizzix die.

 

Next:

 

I really liked the Fashion Divas cds Debbi Moore brought to Create and Craft as a Pick of the Week and actually ordered them - never bought from them before as I've seen so many bad comments about them on forums, but to give them their due - the price was good and it took just over a week to arrive so I'm very happy bunny.

 

Here's my first quick card:

 

 

  

And I made a box too:

 

 

Finally, a little card I made following a tutorial from Liz Armstrong at Pink Petticoat:

 

 

 

 

I used Pink Petticoat plain paper and cut the butterflies out on my Cameo.  I did the sentiment on the computer and my Sew Easy machine to do the stitching and added a bit of twine to finish.

 

I hope you like them as much as I enjoyed making them.  It's so nice to get creative again.

 

Have a nice weekend and I hope the snow keeps away for you.

 

Sue.x

Bind it all post it notes

FIRSTLY CAN I SAY HELLO TO MY NEW FOLLOWERS.  

THANK YOU FOR DECIDING TO FOLLOW MY BLOG AND I HOPE YOU'LL ENJOY POPPING BY NOW AND AGAIN.

I've been playing with my Bind it all again today and found a great little youtube tutorial HERE to make these lovely little Post It Note holders. They're so easy to do and my daughter will just love this (she's a bit of a stationery fanatic and just loves notebooks, highlighter pens, etc - no wonder she stayed in education until she was 21 - lol).


I used Pink Petticoat papers to cover the chipboard.  The ribbon is from my stash.  That's all there is to it really.  another fun little project to make.

Dig out those dusty BIA machines girls and give it a go. 


Have a good evening.

Sue.x

Papertake challenge - A stitch in time

Edit: I wasn't really happy with my first card; I wanted the rosebud paper to look stitched to the background card so I had another go at printing directly onto the card.  This time I was a bit more successful, but got it a bit too far to the right so I just added a bit of ribbon down the side to camouflage the wide margin and moved the bobbin to the bottom corner  - I think it's better.*

Thought I'd have a go at this week's Papertake Weekly challenge, stitch-in-time as I have this cute little digistamp from pinkpetticoat to go with the theme of stitching on your card (faux or real).  I also used Pink Petticoat Vintage Rose collection paper for the background.  

*This was my first card:

I opened the rose background paper in Craft Artist and used one of the brushes in the software to do my stitching. I messed up when it came to printing directly onto my card blank so had to cut it down and mounted it onto a scalloped edge card instead.  The little button was one I cut from one of hubbie's old shirts he was throwing out.  I will remove the pin before sending it to anyone though - don't want to cause them any more pain.lol

Sue.x

Happy New Year

I've been having a bit of a blogging break over Christmas - I was in two minds to give up and delete my blog. I'm sure you've all had times when you think 'I haven't got time for this', especially when you have other hobbies you like to spend time on.  I was really questioning whether the time I usually take trying to get a decent photo of my card, uploading to blogger and then fitting in a visit to other bloggers who have been kind enough to leave a comment was really worth it.  Anyway, after nearly pressing the delete button a couple of times (it's the Libran in me) I decided against it.  

I really do enjoy trying to take part in various card challenges and having a lovely bunch of people dropping by regularly to leave a lovely comment so I decided I would miss it too much and here I still am.

Anyway, after all that waffle I hope you are all well and had a really smashing Christmas and you're now rearing to go with some new creations.

Talking about new - I've actually done the opposite and dug out a very old stamp for my first card for this year.  The very lovely Miss Anya has been tucked away in the dark for too long so I decided to use her for my niece's birthday card.  

I cased an idea of Kerry's for the background.  I used a http://summertimedesigns.blogspot.com/ background paper from this free download kit and cut out the flowers and stuck them onto the base card.

Miss Anya has been coloured with Promarkers and mounted onto black card.  The ribbon is from American Crafts and matches perfectly.

The sentiment is from pinkpetticoat who incidentally, have a sale on at the moment so if you've had your eye on any of Liz's products, take a trip over there to grab a bargain.

Well that's it. I hope you like my first card for 2012 and thanks for any comment you may leave - it's very much appreciated.

Sue.x

Oh, how I love my Cameo

You know how much I loved my Silhouette, but my new love -  my incredible new Cameo is even more fabulous. And to think I was dithering about whether or not to change my Silhouette and wait until it went kaput to get the new Cameo because I didn't think it would be that much better - how wrong was I.

Here's a couple of cards I made yesterday - very CAS:

This one I used the Print and Cut feature for the sleigh so now colouring required.  I just added a couple of liquid pearls for the holly berries and mounted onto linen card.  The fabulous sentiment is from Pink Petticoat which was printed directly onto the card and finally a punched snowflake.

The next card is a regular cut and I used DCWV textured card to cut the bauble out and added some crystals and some Do-craft ribbon.  Again, I used PP sentiment.

Sorry about the photo, it's a bit blurry - I just couldn't get a decent shot.

I'm off to play some more

Sue.x

Charisma Cardz - Inspired by a song

Good evening all! Hope you're well.

Here's my first shaped card using my new Grand Calibur and Grand Scalloped Circles dies.

For my card I've used:

Largest Grand Nestie scalloped circle
Petite Scalloped Circle
Fizzy Moon Stamp
Promarkers
Marianne Creatables die
Pink Petticoat paper
Silhouette Machine - plain circles, daisy, tag, fancy border
Do-Crafts ribbon
Craftwork cards candy


I'm going to enter this into the charismacardz challenge for this week which is entitled 'Inspired by a song'.  My song is 'You don't bring me flowers' by Barbara Steisand and Neil Diamond.

Thanks for dropping by.

Sue.x

More digi crafting

I based this card on a similar one my daughter received for her birthday.  I found some lovely free chandelier digi stamps on the internet so wanted to have a play around with Photoshop (I'm completely clueless with this program).

You may recognise the background as a Pink Petticoat paper. I positioned the chandelier stamp onto the background paper and then added some text - I think it's a bit far to the left so will move that over a bit if I use this again.

The only other thing I did was add some black crystals and some gold glitter and a ribbon.

I really enjoyed doing this even though it took a bit of messing about. I've learnt a bit more about Photoshop though, which is a bonus. 

Thanks for stopping by and for any comments you might leave.

Sue.x

Less is more week 25 - Recipe - Button or ribbon

Hi all, hope you're well. 

Sorry I've been MIA recently.  I think it must be something to do with the summer months when my mojo goes on holiday and I lose all interest in crafting and blogging and my garden wins my attention, hands down.  After a lot of grafting this weekend my garden is looking beautiful.  I'll put some piccies on for you to see when I get a minute.

Anyway, I have managed a little card for the  lessismore challenge this week (I've missed a few weeks recently).  The theme is a recipe of button or ribbon to feature on your card.

Here's mine:

I've used my free Tatty Ted stamp from last month's Creativity magazine. Isn't he cute? 

The background paper is Pink Petticoat and my buttons are a Cuttlebug embossing folder and the heart shaped button is a Sizzix Sizzlet die which I covered in Anita's 3-D gloss.

I don't usually make A6 size cards, but the reason behind it was I found an envelope inside the Creativity magazine asking for a donation of a card to the Cancer Research charity,  so this is my donation. I'm a keen supporter of this charity as we lost our beloved dad to cancer 15 years ago at the age of 57.

Thanks for dropping by and I hope to be back with Mr Mojo soon.  Take care and have a good week.

Sue.x

Treat yourself

A really quick post. I'm trying to get some gardening done and I'm just dodging a really heavy shower at the moment.

I used Pink Petticoat image for this card.  I thought the gingham paper looked a bit like a tablecloth (Pink Petticoat paper).  The sentiment is also part of the cakestand package.

Again, I used my Silhouette to cut around the shape and coloured it in with Promarkers. I used foam squares to mount it onto the card.  

I used Stamping Up punches for the sentiment and the scalloped edge.

Ok, it's stopped raining so I'm off back to the garden.

Sue.x

My first LOTV

The roses are really lilac and not the pinky shade they look in the photo - my camera skills not at their best yet again.

As promised, here is my first LOTV (I'm sure it won't be my last). I bought her at the NEC a couple of weeks ago. I didn't know which one to choose as there are so many gorgeous stamps, but I thought this would be a nice one for Mother's Day.

I coloured the image with Faber Castell pencils (dusted off as I haven't used them since being bitten by the Prisma and then Promarker bug).  I thought this image would look nice in watercolours, but I think I will go for Promarkers next time.

The papers are Pink Petticoat, again I thought they were pretty enough for my mom.

I also used Nesties labels two, some Anita's Grosgrain ribbon and computer generated sentiment. The roses are from Hobbycraft and are a matching shade of lilac, but for some reason look pinkish in the photo. The leaves were cut out on my Silhouette.

Mom really loved her card and told me that she'd been disappointed at Christmas to receive a shop bought card (I ran out of time - shameful I know I should have done Mom's first, but I wanted to do her something special, but couldn't get the inspiration and then panicked that I wouldn't get it to her on time).  It's so nice to have your cards appreciated - I have read on some forums of people receiving comments like 'don't be so tight, why don't you buy a card instead of making them'. If only they realised how much more it costs to buy all our craft stuff not to mention the time and effort we put into all our creations.

Sue.x

Baby Boy

Hi all. Hope you're well.  We have a lovely, sunny, spring like day here in the Midlands today - at last!  Not sure it's here to stay - rain forecast for tomorrow. Oh well!

For today I've another quick and simple card and here's what I used:

Eline's baby digi download from Cuddly Buddly

Prismas and Promarkers

Pink Petticoat paper

Sentiment done on the computer using Bookworm font

Papermania brads

'Cause my Promarkers seeped through to the back of the card a little bit, I've cut my card to 5 x 5 and mounted onto 6 x 6 card - problem solved.

Bye for now

Sue.x

Two posts in one day

Two posts in one day - very unlike me, but I have managed to get another card done that I want to enter into the next few challenges:

http://sketchsaturday.blogspot.com/2011/03/week-145-5th-march-2011-sponsored-by.html

http://charismacardz.blogspot.com/2011/03/challenge-9-four-legged-friends.html

http://movingalongwiththetimes.blogspot.com/2011/03/challenge-88-anniversary-theme.html

The gorgeous image is a colouring page, sorry but I haven't a clue where from.

The papers are Pink Petticoat

I used Promarkers to colour

Quickutz Silhouette for the border

Crafts too flower punch

Little pearls from stash

Paula Pascual sentiment

Circle Nesties

Here's a close up:

Ahhh, ain't they cute!

Right, I really must crack on with making my daughter's scrapbook.  She's 21 in a couple of weeks' time and I only done 2 pages so far.

Sue.x

21st Birthday

You know one of those cards you wish you hadn't started and gone out and bought one instead, this is said card!

Because it's my niece's 21st I wanted to do her something different to my usual square cards.  No problem with the constructions of the base card.  The problems came with the rest of the card, I couldn't make up my mind where to position things, whether to mat the 21 onto a Nesties rectangle and then position it onto the base card or stick it directly on, etc.,etc, etc. It's been a nightmare.  Anyway, hope she likes it, especially as it took soooo long to make.

I've decided to enter this into the following challenges:

http://papertakeweekly.blogspot.com/2011/03/anything-goes.html

http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.com/2011/02/allsorts-week-92-make-your-own-flowers.html
http://promarkerchallenge.blogspot.com/2011/03/week-89-theme.html

My optional additon of something old to my Papertake card is my Bella image - she is one of the first ones I bought some years ago.

Sue.x

Another valentine

Afternoon folks, hope you're enjoying the weekend!

I've another Valentine's card to share with you - I know I said I didn't have many stamps that fit into the love theme, but I thought I this Forever Friends stamp would fit the bill.

These are the ingredients I used:

Scalloped heart and hear shape cut out on the Silhouette
Heart paper - Pink Petticoat
Cuttlebug heart embossing folder
Forever Friends stamp
Promarkers
Sizzix label
Do craft word stamp and Vintage photo distress ink
Versafine red in
Ribbon from stash

I'm going to enter this card into the aspoonfullofsugar challenge.  The theme is - you guessed it - Valentine's!

I'm off now to start the dinner - yummy. Looking forward to Sunday lunch!

Bye for now and thanks for stopping by.x