House of Cards - July Challenge

Hi everyone, just take a look at my shiny new badge!

Yes, I'm proud to announce that I am now a House of Cards DT member. Sadly, I haven't covered myself in glory with my new role thus far as I missed the posting deadline for the July Challenge. This was due to a whole bunch of things happening during the last fortnight which I could have done without! Nearly loosing this little guy

has to be the worst but the attempted car-jacking wasn't great either. Thankfully Mynn and the team (and my adorable Naughty Or Nice buddies) have been very understanding. So, without further ado here I go with my latest crafting adventure...

The July Challenge for House of Cards is to create a card with a food theme and/or using the colours in this totally yummy inspiration picture. Strawberries and mango... a real taste of summer don't you agree?

I decided to break out my brand new Stamping Bella stamp and get colouring with Promarkers and pencils. I just can't get enough of these pretty stamps right now.

I'd planned to include a 'Happy birthday' or 'Seize the cake' but after trying a whole bunch of different sentiment stamps I finally opted to leave this card sentiment-free.

When I played along with the previous HOC Challenge I was blown away by the range of different styles and techniques on offer over at HOC HQ. This month is no different, so why not head on over and check out the creations of this oh, so talented crew!

June Card Chain Challenge

Hi everyone, this is a super-quick post to share the total gorgeousness that is the June Card Chain Challenge reveal.

I felt very pleased and privileged to be sending this little card to Queen of the Card Chain Challenge: Deborah. Deborah works so hard to pull together all of the fun and friendship that is the CCC, so it was good to say an extra special 'thank you' to her. This month I used Deborah's pretty colour palette to combine with the theme of friendship.

I also added this card for Deborah's daughter, Gigi. The lovely Gigi pirouetted her way to a broken leg a few weeks ago so I wanted to send her some get well wishes.

To see all the other cards in the chain go here... Its a truly FABULOUS reveal this month!

Happy birthday, Lynne!

Happy birthday to you. 

Happy birthday to you. 

Happy birthday dear, Lynne. 

Happy birthday to you!

Its good to know my card reached my sweet blogging buddy, Lynne, in time to celebrate her birthday today. I've been working on this, and other Stamping Bella images, as part of Kathy's Colouring Challenge as I'm so fond of these pretty stamps.

Mmmmm, Stamping Bella, a simple sentiment, a stencil and a dash of summer sunshine... What a lovely combination!

Colouring Challenge and House of Cards

Happy Saturday to you all!

So, hands-up everyonewho is playing along with Kathy R's second Colour Challenge? Thought so... Its great isn't it! Kathy is so talented and I've found myself positively drooling over her creations from the first few days. I'm also picking up useful tips: I've already started to give my Promarker coloured images a quick blast with my heat gun to avoid the colours spreading into each other as per Kathy's advice.

Over the last few days I've been colouring a different Up Town Girls image from this one but can't share it until I know its reached its destination. With that in mind, here's what I coloured today!

I really do love Opal the Optimist and that sweet sentiment! This wasn't my original layout plan but I had a small mis-hap with my die-cutting so went for off-centre layering for a change!

I've chosen my colours from the gorgeous inspiration picture over at House of Cards blog.

I never need much incentive to work with a pink and green palette as its one of my favourite colour combos.
The House of Cards girls have their end of term blog hop and a DT call-out on offer so I decided to join in the fun!

May Card Chain Challenge Reveal

I'm finding it hard to believe its June. The weather here in the UK is chilly, very windy and not even vaguely summery... if the trees weren't so green I'd be thinking it was October!

Ok, I'll quit the weather watch and share my latest Card Chain Challenge offering which I sent to Marga in Spain. The stamp, which is called 'Girlfriends' by Stamps Happen, was a lucky find over on the lovely Julia's sale page. I'd seen this gorgeous image used before but as its no longer available, had given up all hope of ever tracking it down. You can imagine the whooping and hollering when I spotted it for sale and at a bargain price!

I heat embossed in white and watercoloured with Distress Inks, then matted and layered on white card. Its not the easiest stamp to work with but I love the image and know I'll be using it again and again. I purposefully left the image without embellishment as I wanted the pretty illustration and limited colour palette to take centre stage.

If you'd like to see the card I received from Christi please go here as she's got great pictures and a step-by-step guide to how she made it on her blog. And if you'd like to sign up for Deborah's June Card Chain Challenge you can follow the links to join in all the fun.

Happy crafting everyone!

Sketch time!

It's sketch time over at Naughty Or Nice Challenges today!

Ok, it's time for a wee crafting confession from your's truly: I find sketch challenges very, very tricky.

However, my final effort (yes, this card has a predecessor) doesn't look too bad. As always I've gone very literal with my 'take' but with this sweet and simple sketch from Tobi I think this works just fine. This is because in my head the cat is lying on a little green rug! Are you with me?

   

I did a little happy dance as I once again inked-up this cute kitty from BB Knead You. I love this set and am seriously in awe of my talented teamie, Torico, who is the designer/illustrator of the Birdie Brown range. The pretty papers are from the Here and Now Collection by Echo Park.

The little 'dot' to the side of the kittens head is a speck of pollen which drifted on while I was photographing the card in the garden. I didn't notice it until I had come back into the house but thankfully it blew away quite easily... Phew!

Once again the Troublemakers have created some gorgeous cards to inspire you. Head Troublemaker, Tobi, has been crafting-up-a-storm using this sketch and if you love Snoopy you'll adore the cards she's made for her students!  So head on over to NON #16 and take a look.