The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #163 - W is for Water

Poor Edna, she looks remarkably calm considering she's about to get her hair really, really wet!

We're all about W is for Water for the next fortnight over at The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers.

For my card I went with watercolouring for the background and a simple, water conservation slogan. The gorgeous cocktail images are from Jane's Doodles.

I added a few diamantes to the sentiment circle as it looked like it needed a little extra something.
My sistahs have gone to town with this theme, so please head on over and join the watery fun!

Let's Hop - Game 2 at Card Chain Challenge

Hi there cardmakers, I hope you are all keeping well and finding some happy moments in all the current strangeness.

We're having a blast with the Card Chain Challenge Blog Hop this month and the response has been brilliant. You guys are amazing!

I thought I'd play along in Game #2 today and share a few of my favourite cards that I've sent. I always think that my CCC makes are some of the most unusual and atypical of my cards as the themes vary so much from challenge to challenge and push me to try new things.

Back in May 2019 I sent this card to Dawn in NZ. I'd won this stamp set from the lovely Donna Mikassa and couldn't wait to get it inked up and on it's way as I know how much Dawn likes butterflies.

Another card I enjoyed making was this one from October 2018 which I sent to Hilary. I was delighted to see it featured in her post for Game #4. I especially like that this one came out looking just like the version in my head!

June 2018 was a fun challenge, and gave me the opportunity to ink up some cute monkeys for Arlene!

I love MFT products and am a HUGE fan of the very talented Yoshi who creates the Birdie Brown range. This little dog crossed the miles to Marga in Spain in August 2017. I think that ribbon was still damp when I photographed the card as it looks so juicy.

In June 2014 Dawn was my recipient and this little card reached her in record time as it felt like just a few days after I posted it, Dawn emailed to say it had reached her!

I'd like to say a very big thank you to Deborah for starting the challenge all those years ago. It's always been a favourite challenge and one that gets right to the heart of why I enjoy making and sending homemade cards. I'd like also to thank Gail for stepping in and offering support when things got tough for Deborah. It's been a joy to be so closely involved in this challenge over the last few years, and being a part of this little community of friendship, kindness and crafting just means the world to me!

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #32 - Mid Month Reminder

It's reminder time at Christmas Kickstart!

We're all about tags this month and who better to have as elf then the lovely, and very talented, Tracey from In My Creative Opinion.

Tracey made this lovely card to launch the challenge...

and I couldn't resist making this little cutie as my 'Inspired by' creation.

The image and sentiment are from Mama Elephant set Cool Penguins. The pretty DP is some I found in my stash and must of cut for another project.

Rudolph is offering a very appropriate prize for his Random Raffle! 

All entrants will go into the hat for the chance to win these lovely dies.

Keep safe, and keep crafting!

Seize the Birthday - Watercolouring!

It's my final appearance as Surprise Party Guest at Seize the Birthday - boo hoo!

I want to thank Nancy and the guys for inviting me as I've had a blast and loved every minute.

The challenge for the next two weeks is 'Watercolouring'. To be honest, I haven't yet produced a water coloured card that I like. 😢 It's a technique I love but need to practise, so I decided to 'cheat' and go for a smoochy, watercolour background for my little Kraftin' Kimmie bookworm. After stamping the sentiment I ran the background through the Cuttlebug.

I very much hope you'll play along with this challenge and leave lot's of love for the DT crew when you visit.

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #162 - T is for Technique

Hi there, it's time for a brand new challenge over at The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers. Our theme is 'T is for Technique' and we're sharing some of our favourite ways to create new or unusual looks on our cards.

My technique is a fun one which involves inking and stamping with the reverse of your cling stamps to create an outline. This is such a quick and easy way of adding colour.

I'm not sure where I first saw this method of stamping but it's one I use from time to time. The stamp that you pick has to be symmetrical and it works brilliantly with a Mysti as you can build up layers of colour before switching the stamp around and using the side with the impression. It feels counterintuitive to work like this, and you have to think about what you are doing to avoid mistakes, but other then that it's a doddle! 

In this picture you can see the stamp upside down waiting to have the raised side adhered to the Mysti. I made a few different cards in a batch using this technique as it's so easy.

My card is 'snark free' this week, but if you need a little injection of sarcasm and wit to get you through please head over to the blog and enjoy the fabulous creations of the sisterhood and Queen Jenny.

Take care and stay safe. 

Seize the Birthday - All About Summer!

I'm thrilled have reached my third outing as Surprise Party Guest at Seize the Birthday! We've had heavy rain here in the UK for the second day running, so a nice sunny, summery card is just what we need!

The idea for this popped into my head as I was falling asleep and thankfully I remembered it well enough to make it the next day. As you can see, I grabbed the toppings for this challenge with both hands!

The stamps are from Jane's Doodles and the 'smile' die is from Simon Says Stamp. This was very quick and easy card to make and I really enjoyed positioning the happy crab infront of the other items.

I hope you come along and play over at Seize the Birthday for some Summer fun!

Card Chain Challenge - May Reveal and a BLOG HOP!

We've hit something of a milestone over at The Card Chain Challenge!

3,000 cards exchanged  

How awesome is that?!!  3,000 times spreading love around the world one card at a time.  

We think this calls for a celebration and we want YOU to come and join the fun!!!!   

We'll be having a series of games on the blog during June and you'll need to follow us and keep checking back to make sure you don't miss anything.  Psssst, don't tell anyone but there will be prizes...   Oh, OK, tell everyone!!  Let's have fun and party like it's 2021...  

Anyhoo, onward to the May Reveal and we have decided to turn it into a blog hop!!  So enjoy the cards, hop over to the sender's post and please leave a little love. Gail and I will be randomly selecting 3 comments left between today and the 28th June to win some prizes.  

There were 24 participants who exchanged cards across the globe during May and I'm amazed that so many cards have made it through despite the current problems across the world. Let's hear it for the world postal service!

Our options were:

Colour Palette Option

or

Sketch Option

Orient as required

or 

Theme Options: Repeat (more than one of something)/Fruit/ friendship

or 

Product / Technique Options: Stickers/Brushos

Here's the card I sent to Karen in Virginia - she's the next link in our hop, so please drop by her blog and say 'Hi'!

I sort of followed the sketch and the colours however, I was bang on the money with the theme of repetition! I stamped some Clearly Besotted apple blossom images and the masked them so I could colour and stencil the background. 

At the time of writing this post my card from Lucille in Colorado is still in transit; I'm looking forward to seeing it and keeping my fingers crossed it arrives safely!

There are still a few days left to sign up for the June exchange and you can always play along in our blog hop (did I mention there are prizes???).

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #32 - Care to Tag Along?

Hello, I hope that you are all hanging in there during these weird times. Just to add a little extra touch of surreal to the proceedings let's make Christmas cards on the hottest days of the year so far!
I'm still enjoying escaping to my craft room, losing myself in 'cardland' and building my stash of Christmas cards.

There's a fab new challenge for you this month and an equally fab new elf! Our theme is all about tags, so who better to have on board then Tracey M from My Creative Opinion AKA the Queen of Tags!

This month we're playing...

Challenge #32 - Care to Tag Along?

And you are going to love Tracey's adorable tag card, so why not head on over and take a look!

Here's my card:

Oddly, this card is taller and slimmer than it appears in this picture. It features some lovely MFT die cut numerals and a beautiful die cut wreath from Simply Graphic. I decided that I wanted to use some of my Christmas DP and found the perfect pad: Keepin' Cozy from Echo Park. The silver twine is from packaging and in fact all the elements of this card (except for the base) came from my box of leftovers!

Rudolph had done us proud and found a pair of lovely tag dies for his Random Raffle Prize!

Please come and join the fun!