Lovely Miss Rosie Posy

Isn't this cute little girl from Lilli of the Valley just gorgeous?

She is called Rosie Posey and was just so easy to colour.

This picture is nearer to the actual colours than the one above, even though the photograph is a little dark. This is the first real blond that I have coloured with Promarkers. I must say a big thank you to Wendy for all her help with picking the right colour pens to achieve this!

I made this card for one of the ladies who comes to our older person's friendship group at the library where I work. Poor Mary recently fell and broke her hip, but thankfully seems to be doing well now following her surgery. Like so many of the ladies and gents who come to the 'Friends' mornings Mary always has a twinkle in her eye. It'll be good when she is able to come back to the sessions and join in the fun again.

This week the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge is stitching. My stitching on this card is a bit wonky, but actually looks much better in real life than you would imagine from the photo!

I've learnt alot from making this card and would happily try this technique again. When I bought the paper piercer from Wendy's I hadn't thought about the fact that I would need a soft surface to pierce into. I hope my hubby doesn't turn over his treasured Halesowen Town Football Club mouse mat anytime soon...

Over at the Cupcake Challenge the theme is 'Friends' and the Creative Card Crew Challenge 45 is 'Get Well Soon', so I think my card for Mary fits in nicely!

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday everyone!

Don't you just love digi's!

You know how it is... you make a card and then spoil it when your hand slips as you stamp the sentiment!

I said 'drat' and 'bother' a few times over today's cards. However, I decided to go ahead and post them simply because I like the images and want to spread the news about the work of two very talented illustrators.

This first card is such a fun image.

I love this little girl in her crazy cat hat!

And don't you just love that cat????

This little piece of wonderfulness comes courtesy of Kim Toohey. I went digi-hunting over on Etsy and was delighted to find Kim's shop, which is called 'Kimprints'. In addition to a modest selection of very cute digital stamps you will also find some of her stunning artwork.

This little digi is called 'Kitty Cats' and was a bargain at $1.50!

Next, I am sharing a sweet Squiggle Stamps digi by Lauren Beard.

This is from the Lilliputs range over at Squiggle Stamps and is called 'Gifts Galore'

I printed her twice so that I could make two different versions and get a little colouring practice.

Digi-phobes will be glad to discover that the Lilliput images are also available in rubber!
I'm sorry about the quality of the pictures, but the light isn't good here today.

Finally, for anyone who wants to take part in Deborah Nolan's next Card Chain Challenge take a look at this post in which she gives all the details for the March Challenge.

Hope you all have a great weekend. I am at work tomorrow, but am doing something really worthwhile as I'll be helping a group of local 'Looked after Children' pick a selection of books for their home.

Happy crafting everyone!

More blog candy from Vanessa!

The lovely Vanessa from 'Wings of a butterfly' is so generous!

Can you believe that she has yet more candy on offer over at her blog?????

This time she is offering a selection of Cosmo Cricket's Boyfriend Collection and Earth Love Collection.

Each follower posting about Vanessa's candy and leaving her a comment will be eligible to win.
You have until Wednesday 3rd March... so what are you waiting for?

Good luck everybody!

February Card Chain Challenge

Each month the lovely Deborah of The Society of Stamp and Scrapaholics runs a Card Chain Challenge. I love receiving cards from fellow card makers so decided to play along!

The idea is that you receive a fellow card maker's snail mail address, make her a card, and send it off. The next person on the list does the same thing with you, and so on. Each person makes a card for the person immediately above her in the chain, and the first person in the chain makes a card for the last person in the chain.
Everybody gets a hand-crafted card so everybody wins!

Deborah organises all the administrative side of things and it couldn't be easier!

To take part in the February Challenge you had to choose from three card making options. (You could combine all three if you wanted to).

The options for February were:

1. A colour palette of Citron, Cucumber, Violet, Mauve, Lilac

2. Deborah's template

3. A themed St Patrick's Day or Friendship card.

I love mauves and greens so I decided to use Deborah's colour palette, but I think my card was friendly too!!!

I sent this card to Cassi in Vienna, VA, USA...

...and was thrilled to receive this sweet card from Yvette in Belgium!

Deborah will be showcasing all the February Challenge cards on her blog at the beginning of March. She will also post the details for the March Card Chain Challenge.

If you've yet to discover her excellent blog why not go take a look as Deborah is one bright, funny lady, and a fabulous card maker!

Happy crafting everyone!

Just rip it up!

I just thought that I would share this 'thank you' card that I made earlier in the year. Again, it is a little bit different to my usual style, but I wanted to experiment with torn vellum as it gives such an interesting effect.

The flower silhouette is a free digital stamp, but I can't re-find the site to give the link. If I do find it I will edit this post and add it. The other stamps are all old favourites from Hero Arts.

Hopefully this card has a slightly masculine feel as it was a 'thank you' for a male friend for his Christmas gifts to myself and my hubby.

... and if you want to see a Masterclass in torn vellum take a peek over at Jill's fabulous blog 'Inspired by...' to see Jill and Carole in action!

Happy crafting everyone!

'Nuts' to nuts!

It's the final day of 'multi-fold' week over at The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge!

O.kay, so I've only added one additional fold but I think this still counts....

I love this cute digital stamp from Squiggle Stamps and thought it would be perfect for a simple concertina card. It's called 'Squirrel Picnic' and although the image is available in rubber, I liked the idea that I could flip and re-size it, so opted for the 'digi' version.

I coloured with Promarkers and then distressed with Versacolour inks.

Love those bees!

Oh so cute...

The gorgeous bee and flower stamps are from Elzybells and have been sitting in my stash for far too long! I carried on the tea theme with yet more Elzybells stamps, and if I say it myself the Versacolour ink (Green tea) looks great against the lime green Bazzils card. The text stamp is the bottom half of a very old friendship definition stamp from Hero Arts.

I set each panel at a slight angle for a touch of whimsy. The words were printed on my PC and again added at a jaunty angle! The idea was for them to look cute, but I am a bit worried that the middle panel has the look of a ransom note! (We are holding your squirrel. Please pay.... etc etc)I really enjoyed making this card, even if it did take all morning!

I'm taking Mom to Wendy's tomorrow so that she can finally spend the voucher that I gave her for Christmas. Wendy has a sale on at the moment so why not check out her website!

Happy crafting everyone, and have a great weekend!

Totally out of my comfort zone!

Well, we all have to do it sometimes don't we?

One of my crafting resolutions for 2010 was to spread my wings a little and try some new techniques and styles. I've certainly achieved a complete change of style with this card!

The stamped image is a fabulous freebie from the March edition of Craft Stamper Magazine.

It was created for the magazine by the amazing 'Art Journey' who are based in the Netherlands.

I printed the Hero Arts digi-stamp 'Old Writing' onto some Basic Grey paper and then stamped the image of the girl. I distressed with black Versacolour ink. I stamped and clear embossed Hero Arts butterflies onto some matt black card, then added the Inkadinkadoo 'dream' stamp in the corner. The central panel is lifted on dimensionals.

I really like this stamp so will be experimenting with a few different ways to use it.

Happy crafting everyone!

Spike and Spikette!

Hi everyone, and a happy Valentine's day!

I just wanted to share the card that I made for my hubby using Jane's cute digi-stamp 'Spike'.

I had sooooo much fun paper piecing these little monsters.

Jane has plenty more cute stamps available to buy over at Squigglefly, and she released a fabulous new collection yesterday. Check out her blog, and those of her rather fantastic DT for details of the new stamps and a chance to win a free set!

Have a great Sunday!

Yet more kissing!

Okay, so I might not be 100% happy with this card but I know that I love the technique that I used to make that centre panel!

This is another card where I have used the 'kissing technique' of stamping that I used a few posts back. I'm sorry about the poor quality of the photographs but the light here is terrible today.

Kiss, kiss, kiss - part 2

This is a great technique to enable you to get a completely new look from your existing stamps.

You will need an outline stamp with plenty of 'flat space' and a patterned stamp. For my outline stamp I used a flower, but I can imagine this would look great using a heart design. The design on your patterned stamp must be quite dense. Make sure that the pattern on your second stamp is not so spread out that you only get a small part of it on your plain or outline stamp.

I used a stamp from the English Stamp Company called 'Fab Flower' for my outline stamp. I inked it up well with Lapislazuli Versacolour as this technique requires a 'juicy' ink.

For my pattern stamp I used the gorgeous Antique Brocade Cling from Hero Arts, which is such a favourite around Blogland. I inked patches of this stamp using a brown Versacolour ink for contrast. As you can see from the photograph above I experimented to see which colour effect I liked best.

I 'kissed' the flower stamp to the Antique Brocade and then stamped my card stock.

As I hope you can see on the finished card below the outline is still a flower but the inside takes on some of the Antique Brocade pattern, giving brown highlights within the blue.

BTW, make sure that you clean your plain stamp before re-inking to avoid spoiling your inkpad. Also try to use a different part of your pattern block for each 'kiss', or again clean and re-ink to avoid ink transfer.

I cut the panel that I had created to size and matted it on blue scrapbook paper before attaching it to my card. The 'Hugs and kisses' sentiment is from Hero Arts and was stamped in brown Versacolour, and then embossed. The ribbon is from my stash and the button is from Basic Grey. I plan to round the corners as I think this card needs a little something to finish it off.

I would urge you to give this technique a try as I think you will be amazed by the results!

As always if you have any queries please get in touch.

Happy crafting everyone!

Vanessa's blog candy!

Vanessa, from Wings of a butterfly, is a real sweetheart and a very talented card maker.

Anyone who is a follower or a regular visitor to her blog will not be surprised to learn that she has now passed 30,000 hits.

To celebrate this achievement she has a lovely rainbow selection of ribbons, buttons and flowers on offer as blog candy.

These are Vintage Buttons in every color available at Papertrey Ink, ric-rac ribbon in yellow and green, different flowers made of fabric and paper (some with prints), three Chipboard frames (Tattered Angels) and 1 metre of Vanessa's favorite 15 mm satin ribbon in different colors.
To be eligible to win this, become a follower (following publicly), post about this candy and leave her a comment!

This candy offer will close on Wednesday 17 th February. It is the first of many candies that Vanessa will be giving away over the next few weeks. The more followers, the more candy!

I'll be back later with a card....

Black and white and gorgeous...

Hi everyone, I'm dropping by to quickly share this little layered nesties card that I made on Sunday.

This lovely heart image was the very first stamp that I ever bought. It is from 'The Heritage Rubber Stamp Company' in Scotland, and was just perfect for my wedding invitations. I am amazed to see that the company still has it in stock. They also have some wonderful Charles Rennie Macintosh stamps that are too tempting!

I took this stamp to work about four years ago so that the children could make Valentines and Mother's Day cards. It was very popular! I rescued it last week as I knew I wanted to use it again myself. The wood block looks like it has been in a pink ink war zone, but as you can see it still stamps beautifully!

The polka dot paper is from the Daisy Bucket 'Little Black Dress Collection' and I think it is called Cocktail Party.

The little red 'Love you' is from the clear design 'Essential Sentiments' set from My Favourite Things, that I bought recently from the excellent Sir Stampalot.

I'm entering this card for The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #69 - Monochrome tones of one colour and white and Lucy's Cards Challenge #5 - Polka Dots.

As I am on the subject of 'black and white and gorgeous' I thought I'd share this photograph of Custard.

During the day he likes to sit in his 'big bed' in my craft room and keep an eye on things. If this picture needed a title I think it would have to be 'Paws for thought'!!!!

Happy crafting everyone!

You truly warm my heart!

I am constantly delighted by the kindness of the card making community!

You are such a sweet and generous 'bunch', so I decided to make a little card to let you know how I feel!

There's also three of you lovely people who each deserve a special thank you...

First of all a big thank you to Jane for all those lovely giveaways. I have now been lucky enough to win Spike! He will be perfect for a cute valentine for my hubby.

Next I want to say a big thank you to the adorable Donna for sending me a huge parcel of goodies - you are soooo kind! This is one of the lovely Pure innocence images that she sent me, coloured with Promarkers and gleaming with diamond glaze.

Finally, I'm going to say thank you to Vicky for a really lovely day of stamping and friendship on Wednesday. Such fun ... and lots of nice cups of tea too! Thank you Vicky, and see you again soon!

So this card is to say thanks to them and to everyone who follows my blog or drops by.

... and what do you know, this card is also a good fit with the theme of 'Hearts' for The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #86 and 'Heart-to heart' over at Raise the Bar Challenge #4.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Meet Sasha!

I fell head over heals in 'stamp love' when I saw Olga and Sasha over at Jane's blog!

These gorgeous digi-stamps were Jane's new release over at Squigglefly on Saturday and I was thrilled to win the set at Sanne's blog .

This image is 'Sasha' (Olga is just as cute). I decided to paper piece her using Cosmo Cricket Mini-Deck Early Bird.

I am entering this card for Virginia's 'Beat the winter blahs' Challenge. I love these cheery colours and think they are a great antidote to all the miserable weather that we have been having recently. The 'wow' factor on this card is the gorgeous Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection stamp. Such a stunning image.

This card is for my dear friend Eileen. She is such a kind and supportive friend, and I feel blessed to know her.

Happy crafting everyone!