Fa la la la la la la la la

Well, just look at me managing to fit in some card making time amongst everything else that's going on! 

The Jingle Belles are looking for Christmas Music and Lost Coast Designs would like us to Make it Funny this month. 

 

I think my card should fit the bill for both challenges...

I always enjoy playing with the Katzelkraft cats and thought it would be fun to pair this little caroler with Fa la la Bold Prints from Hero Arts. I'm sure the neighbours are delighted! 

I hope your day is going well and, like mine, has involved some lovely crafting fun!

The Card Chain Challenge Reveal July 2025

 It's Reveal time once again over at The Card Chain Challenge!

We had 20 participants who exchanged cards across the globe this month, bringing our total number of cards exchanged to a rather amazing 4,727. A big thank you to Gail for all she does to keep this challenge going.

 

All the cards exchanged this month used at least one of the following options:

 

Colour Palette Option

(Exact matching is not required.)

 

 Sketch Option

(Orient as desired.)

Theme Options:  Doors or Windows / Reading / Friendship

Product / Technique Options: Mirror Card / More Than 3 Folds

Just look what Gail sent me...

Isn't this just a work of art! Thank you so much, Gail. 

I sent this little card to Daja in Germany. The girl and her cat are from a magazine set. I'd love to know who the artist is, but have never managed to track them down.

If you'd like to play at Card Chain Challenge here's a little info to help: our sign ups run in advance, from the 7th of the preceding month to the 6th of the exchange month.  All reveals happen on the 2nd of the month after the exchange is complete.

Hope to see you there!

I'm linking my card to the following challenges:

Lost Coast Challenge #200 - Cats and Dogs

Big congratulations to the team for reaching Challenge #200!

Show Us Your Pussycats Challenge #114

Get well soon, Fiki. 

Where's My Hat?

I can finally share this card as I know it's arrived safely with it's recipient in Norway!

Doesn't this little VLVS guy have the sweetest face. I wanted to create a fun background, so got busy with some Distress Inks and torn paper. I wish I'd plucked-up the courage to doodle a border, but I didn't want to spoil the card. It's so often those last little decorative touched that can make or break a project!

I'm sharing this card over at Lost Coast Design, and also at Seize the Birthday where the theme for the current challenge is Stenciling.  

It's a lovely sunny day here in the UK, so I'm off to 'play' in the garden. I hope your day is happy too!

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #260 - G is for Green

 

The word on the street is 'It's not easy being Green...' but, The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers and our fabulous guest, Rachel, seem to have found it very easy to create cards using Mother Nature's favourite colour.

Here's what I made for Challenge #260:

A little The Ink Road snarkiness and a sweet AALL and Create image jumped onto one of my gelli prints to create this card. The sisters would love it if you came and joined the fun!

It's International Women Day on March 8th and Lost Coast Designs are celebrating with a fabulous month long theme of Woman. I had to play along. 

I'm also dropping this sweet gal into the gallery over at Sweet Stampin as their new theme is Special Women, again to celebrate on March 8th. 

Happy crafting everyone - I hope Saturday is good and kind to you all. 

Now where's my cake?

 Another day, another card...I know, it surprised me too. 

Just look at this little cross-patch from Visible Image - so cute! I paired him with a sentiment from Purrfect Sentiments by Waffle Flower plus a stenciled and splattered background so I could play a few different challenges. 

AAA Birthday are playing Background Focus for Game #65.

Time Out Challenges are getting Snarky! 

And the lovely folk over at The Lost Coast Portal to Creativity would like to see Animals.

BTW, there are some fabulous new Animal images at Lost Coast - you can find them here.

Here's hoping your Thursday is going well and like mine, includes some crafting time.
 

Cute and Fluffy!

 

 

Hi all, I've finally found sufficient time, and mojo, to make a little 'thank you' card. Isn't this little cat from the Waffle Flower set 'Smiling' adorable!

The sentiment is an oldie from Simon Says Stamp called 'Thanks'. This set is similar, as the one I used is no longer available. I had fun colouring this sweet image, and then decided to create a cheery, stripey base layer with my Promarkers. 

I'm linking my card to LCD Challenge #184 Cute and/or Fluffy, and at Show Us Your Pussycats for Challenge #99. 

Fiki has big plans to celebrate Challenge #100 at SUYP next month, so please remember to head over and join the fun!

Card Chain Challenge Reveal - February 2024

We had 34 participants who exchanged cards across the globe for our February Challenge.

 

All the cards exchanged this month used at least one of the following options:

 

Colour Palette Option

(Exact matching is not required.)

Sketch Option

Theme Options: Balloons / Flowers / Friendship

Product / Technique Options:  Twine / Stencil

Here's the card that I sent winging it's way around the planet to Suze in New Zealand. 

 

I do love this cute little duo from Taylored Expressions - Gus and Gertie. To make this card I used the colours, the sketch (after a bit of juggling with the elements), balloons, stencil and friendship options. One of these months I might just manage them all!

I picked up an email from Suze this morning telling me that my card had just reached her. I thought I'd share the pic of the envelope she sent me...

It looks like the card has had quite the adventure getting to her! 

My sender for this month was the lovely Kath. Doesn't she make the loveliest CAS cards!

I'm going to link up this card over at Lost Coast Design where they are playing Let's Fly for the whole of March. 

If you'd like to see the full Card Chain Challenge Reveal in all it's glory, please head here. 

Lost Coast Design Challenge #182 - For the Men

 

There's another fabulous challenge on offer over at Lost Coast Design for the whole of this month: For the Men. They have new challenge guidelines over there, so just take a look before you link up. 

One of the things I love about this challenge is how the DT drop by throughout the duration of the challenge with additional inspiration pieces. I always find cards for the blokes to be really quite tricky, so any help I can get is very much appreciated!

This card is for my cousin who lives in France. Both he and his wife are cat lovers, and so I know this card will be well received. The cat is Kitty Watching by Technique Junkies and I thought it would be funny to have him looking over the edge of a table and to pair him with Do I Smell Cake? from Carmen's Veranda. The background is a Gel Press print.

I also made a pink version of this card:

Hope you are all having a happy Wednesday!

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #246 - N is for New

 

We're celebrating all things NEW over at the Sisterhood with our January Challenge! 

New Year, new techniques, new crafting goodies... If it's new then link it up!

Just before we get going, did you notice that Sister Lee has worked her magic again for our challenge graphic? Our NEW Edna is in a Barbie box. So clever!

My NEW creation uses a fun Mary Engelbreit image and sentiment, one of my Gel Prints, a new-to-me Sheena Douglas die cut - Make Time, and some gorgeous golden numbers by Mama Elephant. 

This is the first time I've inked-up this Mary Engelbriet set, and it was great fun to work with! You can buy these stamps from Rubber Moon, and I'd probably buy more if they weren't so difficult to purchase for a UK-based crafter. Thanks to Sister Chris for helping me get my hands on the one's I have!

In addition, I'm linking my card to The current ANYTHING GOES Challenge at The Lost Coast Portal to Creativity. They have a few changes taking place and their challenge has gone monthly. Also, they have a few changes to their rules: 

• You can enter the challenge 2 times using any named brand of rubber or clear stamps and can combine your entry with a maximum of 5 other challenges (total 6 challenge links).
  
• If you use Lost Coast Designs or Carmen's Veranda stamps on your project you can enter the challenge as many times as you want and link up to as many other challenges as you want. Remember to mention in your post which Lost Coast Designs or Carmen's Veranda stamps you have used.

This is a great site with an amazing DT and a store chock full of fabulous stamps, so why not head on over and check it out!

Meanwhile, back to The Sisterhood who are ready and waiting for you to come and play along! Our challenges are now monthly to give you guys plenty of time to join the fun.

In the Deep Midwinter...

 

Happy Winter Solstice to you all.

Thankfully, it's fairly mild where I am today as we have no central heating at the moment! Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! I am currently wearing four layers.

I'm delighted to be joining the fun at LCD today with a fun card featuring a fabulous Jane's Doodles image which I've stamped, coloured and paper pieced. 

This was very fiddly to make, but great fun. I'm sure this is how modern reindeer cope with a deep midwinter.

I used up quite a few little bits of pretty patterned paper for this card just so I could play along in The Snippets Playground Challenge! 

Hope you're having a happy Christmas eve - eve - eve! 

Round and Round...

 

I'm sneaking in again at the last minute over at Lost Coast Design! The challenge ends this evening, but I couldn't share this card until today!

I do love these old Silent Movie images from Viva Las Vegas Stamps. Rather than colour her, I decided to stamp and mask, and have her 'pop' against a circle of Distress Inks to match the painty, stenciled background layer. 

The Lost Coast Portal to Creativity is such a fab challenge blog AND they offer prizes from their AMAZING online store. This really is a great little site and deserves more support, so why not head over and take a look!

Last Minute dot Com

 

I'm just coming in under the wire for the current challenge at The Lost Coast Portal to Creativity.

I've had plenty of time to come up with something for this fun challenge, but after trying a few different ideas this was the only thing I liked! 

Doesn't this good boy from Jane's Doodles look fabulous in his Christmas jumper? 

I used a tiny piece of leftover paper for the jumper, so am linking up for Challenge #467 in The Snippets Playground.

I'm also linking to another new-to-me challenge called Peace On Earth Christmas Challenge. They are currently on Challenge #51... So I'm obviously a little slow on the uptake!

Hope you all have a happy and creative day! 

Playing at Some Cat Challenges...

 

I've had a little time for yet another play with that gorgeous Penny Black set I bought on eBay. Isn't this little sorcerers apprentice the cutest?

I wanted to put him on a purple background, but am nearly out of purple cardstock (😱😱😱). It's ok, I've ordered some more. 😌 I sorted through my snippets box and found some lovely bits of card which I cut to size and then ran through my Cuttlebug using a favourite embossing folder.  Phew, what a lifesaver snippets can be! 

I'm entering my card at The Snippets Playground Challenge #465, because... well, SNIPPETS rock!

And I'm also linking at Lost Coast Design where they're supporting The Cat Lovers Christmas Challenge with a fabulously, fun Cat Themed Challenge. 

My little wizard will also be able to cast his spells at Show Us Your Pussycats Anything Goes and Meow-Loween.

And also at Crazy for Cats Challenge #12...

Have a happy Thursday!

Hocus Pocus one last time...

Hi guys, I've been having such a blast playing with the Penny Black Spooky set I bought recently on eBay. Isn't this guy so much fun! I'm so sorry I cant find a store to link to that still sells this set.

I'm going to link this little chap at the following challenges:

There's so much spooky fun on offer at LCD for the whole of October!

I don't think this little vampire will be scaring anyone at AI Challenge #362, 

but I'll link him anyway!

What a great little challenge this is! Please check out 

Challenge #12 - Anything CAT Goes or Meow-O-Ween

And another fab, feline-themed challenge - Show Us Your Pussycats

CHALLENGE #93 FURRYTHING GOES-MEOW-LOWEEN

All this and it's only Tuesday! Have a good one, Peeps!