The Library Challenge #72 - Christmas Shopaholic

 Hi there, I hope that everyone is keeping safe and well out there in Blogland.

I'm delighted to have made time to play along in Marina's latest Challenge which is inspired by the cover of Sophie Kinsella's book Christmas Shopaholic. 

I was lucky enough to be gifted these two shoppers by a blogging buddy (thank you!) and knew they'd be perfect for this card. I Googled and then printed a London skyline, and the card came together very quickly and easily.

There are already some fun cards in the gallery over at The Library Challenge, so why not drop by and take a look!

The Library Challenge

A little while back I was delighted to have Marina from My Perfect Life and The Library Challenge guesting as the elf over at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge. I was completely bowled over when she asked me to reciprocate and be her Visiting Librarian over at The Library Challenge!

I love the whole concept of The Library Challenge; there are just so many fabulously inspiring book covers out there! As I am a real life librarian (I work in a primary school) I spend a lot of my time looking at and talking about book covers. Marina's challenge combines my two great passions.

Isn't this cover a beauty? The book itself is a very lovely story which has been made into some gorgeous films. If my memory serves me, the first version of the film was shot in black and white with the garden scenes being shot in glorious technicolour!

For my card I've picked up on the colours and also those gorgeous swirly flowers that straight away reminded me of the larger stamps in the Altenew Simple Flowers set.

I've really enjoyed being Marina's visiting librarian and can't wait to see what appears in the gallery over at The Library Challenge inspired by this cover!

The Library Challenge #31 - Chocolat

I'm loving the last few days of the Easter break as I'm spending my time in my craft room.This means extra time playing in some of my favourite challenges. Today, I'm sharing a card made for Marina's The Library Challenge. 

This is a bit of a bus-man's holiday for me as I'm a real life librarian!

I can remember when this book came out and how we very quickly had long waiting lists for it in the library where I worked. The waiting lists grew again when the Juliet Binoche and Johnny Depp movie came out a little later.

Here's my card for this challenge: I knew I wanted to use this cutie from Personal Impressions.

I stenciled that gorgeous Tim Holtz rose stencil again after stamping and masking. I decided it would be fun to paper piece the chocolate box and the bow. I also had to stamp and colour a second head and a second arm so that the layers 'looked right'. What appear to be dirty marks on the card are actually raindrops on the window as we're 'enjoying' sunshine and showers today here in the UK.

Thanks to Marina for this fun theme. There are some lovely cards in the linky gallery, plus Marina's gorgeous inspiration cards, and the challenge continues until May 4th.

Playing The Library Challenge #25 - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

The only good thing to come out of hurting my back at work last week is that I currently have a bit of time for crafting. Thankfully, I can sit at my desk for short periods and pass the time that way. Ironically, my DH hurt his back the same day and so we are hobbling around the house together and trying to look after each other.

Sadly, I almost never seem to find time to play in Marina's The Library Challenge, so decided to make the most of my enforced rest and break out some very cute dragon stamps!

Her book for Challenge #25 is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larson.

I read this a few years ago and seem to remember that it was quite a gripping read.

My card is very simple and makes use of a cute dragon and his cake from the set Dragon Wishes by Mama Elephant. The design paper is from a pack I won a few years ago from crafting buddy Rebecca, so I don't know the brand. Rebecca sent me so many sheets of DP that I'll be dipping into this stash forever! Thanks, hun!

I'm also linking my card to Seize the Birthday Challenge #157 as this is another favourite challenge that I wished I could play along with more often.

Happy Tuesday, Crafters!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

I've very much enjoyed making Christmas cards this year, especially after inking-up the gorgeous MFT Polar Bear Pals set. What a lovely set this is to use, but I can't help but wonder why there are no festive sentiments included.

I got busy with some distress inking and then stamped the sentiment (oldie from Stampendous, I think) and the polar bear using my Misti. I stamped, coloured, cut and stuck a second bear into place on the bacground. The cards look very cute in real life.

I'm linking my card to the current CASology Challenge: North.

and to Marina's The Librarian's Challenge, inspired by perennial Christmas favourite The Snowman. The bear's smile really reminds me of the Snowman's smile and I used the layout of the cover as my inspiration for the layout of the card..

I'm also linking to The Lost Coast Portal to Creativity Challenge #66 - Cold and Frosty because that cute little Polar Bear must be feeling very cold and frosty indeed.  Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Have a happy Sunday, peeps!

The Library Challenge #4 - Memoirs of a Geisha

What a fabulous book cover (and what a fabulous book!) - Marina has done us proud again with great inspiration for her fourth Library Challenge.

It's quite a long time since I read this book, but I do seem to remember that I enjoyed it very much. I purposefully avoided the film in 2005 as I wanted the pictures in my head to be the images from the book and not the movie. Anyone else do that when they love a book?

Here's my take on the inspiration. I used this beautiful Donna Downey image (Colliope) from Unity Stamps and limited the palette to the colours of the book cover. The actual image is huge, so I just used a portion of it.

The other entries in this challenge are gorgeous and well worth a look if you haven't already seen them. Marina is dropping hints about Challenge #5 and she says:

 "Challenge 5 starts on Sunday April 15th and we'll be heading back to the children's section for a book with a number in the title." 

How very intriguing! 

The Library Challenge #1

There are some fun, new challenges popping up at the moment. I've not had chance to join Darnell and friends at the Two-fer challenge yet, but today I managed to find time to play in the library with Head Librarian Marina.

In these challenges we can take our inspiration from the cover, the title or the story itself. 

Challenge #1 is a well-loved classic : Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I seem to remember reading this book in my late teens and loving it. Later, I swooned with 50% of the nation when the lovely Colin Firth went for a swim wearing that big, white shirt in a TV adaptation of the novel.

My card uses one of my most favourite AI gals; if I want someone pontificating then this is always my go-to stamp!

Marina has already posted Challenge #2 and the inspiration comes from another favourite of mine: The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. Always loved that cover and I found the story far more appealing than The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Happy crafting, everyone!