Climb Every Mountain...

 

The lovely folk of Shopping Our Stash have a new challenge on offer... as they play Challenge #569 I'm Counting on You!

They'd like to see numbers on our cards and for us to use our stash.

This card is a commission for a friend of a friend. Mike is turning 80, but he's still hiking and climbing and enjoying the outdoor life. I hit my scraps box for the black card and my good card for inking and then broke out a favourite stencil for the sun rays. I don't like to charge too much for the cards I make as commissions so often use clipart images and word process a few bits 'n' bobs if I don't have suitable stamps to hand. If I can use off-cuts and leftovers I do that too as it all keeps the cost down. 

The SOS team have created some really inspirational cards to play this theme, so why not head on over and take a look! 

O Christmas Tree, Tree, Tree and Tree...

 

An afternoon of crafting has certainly improved this Monday!

I wanted to make a card to play along over at Jingle Belles with Steph and Lauren, and also a few other lovely challenges I'd spotted.

 

Steph and Lauren's current theme is Die Cuts and I was thinking layered snowflakes, until I pulled out this Happy Christmas die from Creative Expressions and noticed that it had a little 'shelf' after the word 'Happy'. 🤣🤣🤣

I die cut three Christmas trees using Sizzix Stacked Tiles, Triangles and assembled my card. Just three trees just didn't look right, so I added a fourth! 

This was so quick and simple to make and I used up some of my most fiddley, tiny pieces of DP too! 

I'm also going to link to these lovely challenges:

I do love the DT makes over at Just Us Girls. My one other colour is RED! 

The lovely Darnell's NBUS Challenge #60, 

Peace on Earth who are playing with Green for Challenge #59, as prompted by this gorgeous Mood Board...

and, finally, the good folk over at Shopping Our Stash who are looking for mostly green projects for their Challenge It's Not Easy being Green.

What a lot of challenges! I think I'll need a lie down after I've tided up.

I'm looking forward to my friend coming over tomorrow. She did a heat embossing course recently and I couldn't believe they'd had the nerve to charge a fee for just a few scraps of paper with a single embossed image on each. What a cheek! I've promised her we'll make something nice, and that I won't charge for the tea and biscuits!

Happy crafting, folks. 

Santa on the Roof

 Hi there, today I'm playing at CAS Christmas as their theme is:

and also at Shopping Our Stash Challenge #436 where, unusually, the guys want to see something new!

My something new is this adorable die from Dixi Craft. I saw this card on Gail's blog and fell head over heals with Santa on the Roof.

The sentiment is from a set I've had for a while but always enjoy using: Mama Elephant: Puffy Holiday Greetings. 

Hope you have a happy week, keep safe everyone!

The Squirrels are Coming...

It's been a day of sunshine and showers here in the UK. I made use of the extra hour to do a few jobs and then settled down for as little crafting.

There were two challenges I wanted to enter:

Shopping Our Stash Challenge #431 - Happy Fall Y'All

and

Lost Coast Portal To Creativity - Furry Friends Challenge

Here's what I made:

Can you tell I had heaps of fun creating this little piece of lovely, whimsical nonsense? 

I used Basic Grey/Hero Arts Cling stamp Graphic Leaves and Distress Inks to create an Autumnal background, then fussy cut the squirrels and acorns from Bear Hugs (Jane's Doodles) and added the sentiment from Riley & Co. Funny Bones. You'll have to trust me that the gold embossing looks lovely IRL! 

Have a good Sunday!

Shopping Our Stash #415 - Is it Summer Yet?

The lovely people over at Shopping Our Stash are asking a very important question for this challenge: Is it Summer Yet?

Sadly, the answer is not in March, but it's a fun theme for a challenge and I jumped in with both feet!

I couldn't resist shopping my stash and inking up this cute Clearly Besotted Santa. 
I rather like the idea that this is how Santa spends his Summers!

This set doesn't seem to be available any more, but they have plenty of other fun Christmas images to play with.

It really was a case of third time lucky with this card as it took three attempts it get it looking presentable. At first, I wasn't sure how to add interest to the sea. Then I remembered a card I made ages ago, but didn't show (or send) because of the wonky sentiment.

I simply flipped the clouds stencil and voila: waves!

There are some lovely inspiration cards and a gorgeous entries gallery over at Shopping Our Stash for this challenge AND they also have a very tempting DT call...

Why not drop by and take a look!

The Christmas Kickstart Challemnge #12 - The Elves and the Shoemaker

A new fortnight brings a new challenge at The Christmas Kickstart, and it also brings a new elf!

For this challenge I'm delighted to welcome Marina from My Perfect Life and The Library Challenge.

Marina's The Library Challenge quickly established itself as one of my favourites when she launched it February 2018. It's for crafters who love reading (that would be me then) and the idea is that Marina picks a book as inspiration and everyone creates a card on that theme. Here's the cover/title that Marina chose for Challenge #12 - isn't it a beauty?

I'm sure you'll agree there's so much to inspire us cardmakers in this cover! 

Here's what I came up with:

Card #1 features a sleepy VLVS elf leaning on some paper pieced presents - perhaps Santa has been working him too hard in the workshop!

I'm also going to link this little guy to CAS Christmas as their current challenge is Gifts. 

My next two cards are very CAS and not my usual style, but I had fun making them.

I decided that I wanted elf shoes or similar on a card to pick up the shoe-making theme. I was delighted to spot this fabulous elf shoe stencil over at The Stencil Studio and knew I had to get it. I'm going to have so much 'Elf on the Shelf' fun with this at Christmas! The sentiment is from MFT.

I'm going to enter this card over at Shopping our Stash (The sentiment stamp is an oldie!) as the theme for this fortnight is Stencil Me This. 

There's also a lovely stencil challenge over at A Place to Start - Stencil Me In: Use your Favourite Stencil. I think this one is already on my Top 10 of favourite stencils. Thanks for the push in that direction, Chana. 

For my final card I focused in on the pretty, blue bead and the elf to create this very clean, graphic make.

The elf is from Stamping Bella and the sentiment from the fabulous, and much lamented, Waltzingmouse Stamps.

I hope you'll feel similarly inspired by this cover and that you'll come play along with myself and Marina for Challenge #12 at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge. I'm sure you'll also want to visit Marina's The Library Challenge to join her for her latest book-themed outing, which is inspired by a stripey read until June 15th.

Vodka, darling!

Another day and another card... I'm loving this holiday!

Today I'm playing along with the guys over at Shopping our Stash.

I really like the premise of this challenge as I'm trying to cut back on my stamp buying ( Hi, I'm Jo and I'm a stampaholic...) and love the idea of re-visiting the stash I have.

For this challenge we're encouraged to Get Your Drink On, so I hunted out a cute Newton's Nook set (Cocktail Mixer) and teamed it with a MFT Sassy Pants birthday sentiment.

There are some lovely, inspirational DT cards and the gallery is filling up with drink related cards of all kinds, so why not head over and take a look!

Shopping Our Stash Challenge #394 - Hello Cupcake.

Those lovely people at Shopping our Stash have reached Challenge #394 and have picked the fun theme: Hello Cupcake!

I knew I wanted to play along, but wasn't entirely certain which image/images I'd use. I had to complete another card first, so decided to turn the idea around in my head while I worked. I needed a sentiment stamp from the set Bitty Bears by MFT and suddenly noticed that one of the bears was holding a cupcake - problem solved!

This card looks so twinkly and sweet IRL, but has proved almost impossible to photograph.

Edited to add: Here's a slightly twinklier version...

and another.

I love that you get an stand-alone cupcake with this set and couldn't resist adding one to the head of the bear in the middle - he looks so pleased to be balancing it! The lower sentiment was printed on vellum (works so well!) and the HAPPY BIRTHDAY die is also from MFT. I've lost the packaging for the stencil, which is one of my favourites to colour with Distress Inks. I added Wink of Stella to the cupcakes, Glossy Accents to the balloon and the noses of the bears.

The current SOS challenge is open until 6th May and the DT cards are a delight!

Lovely love birds.

I'm currently very much in love with AALL and Create's sweet little set Love Birds! These two snugly cuddled owls are simply adorable and I couldn't resist using them to make my DH a Valentine card. The sentiment and the stamp for the embossed hearts are both included in the set. I created a little ombre effect for the background with Distress Inks. The owls are coloured with Promarkers and and a little definition was added with pencil crayons.

I'm linking up to two lovely challenges with this card:

Shopping Our Stash - Challenge #389 - Make Your Mark (Colouring with markers).

Addicted to CAS Challenge #152 - Birds

Hope you have a romantic and loved-up week!

If you are looking for the Christmas Kickstart post for Challenge #4 you will find it here. 

Shopping Our Stash Challenge #388 - An Ode to Jessi

The guys at Shopping Our Stash have come up with such a lovely challenge this week as they pay tribute to team mate Jessi, who lost her brave struggle with illness in late December.

The girls would like us to create projects inspired by something that Jessi made; you can visit her blog by clicking here. Even if you don't decide to participate in this challenge, why not take a look at Jessi's work anyway: I think you'll be glad you did. She truly was 'One Crafty Mama'.

I chose this card as my inspiration:

I love the sentiment (so typical of Jessi), plus the card's proportions and that cheeky kitty.

Here's my take:

The sentiment is from Sassy Pants B-day Greeting and the cat is from BB I Knead You, both are by MFT.

The Shopping Our Stash Team have created some brilliant 'Odes' to Jessi. I don't doubt that they'll be plenty of entries for this challenge as we all come together and pay tribute to this lovely lady.