today's challenge cards

Had another quiet day here kidwise so was able to fit in some crafting :)

Two more challenges completed today, both are sketch cards. The left hand card is for the Spoonfull of Sugar challenge #19, a sketch by Camilla. I enjoyed making this one, I used lots of scraps of paper and card and a couple of flowers and butterflies that came in card making kits from the £ shop, I buy these then split them up to make other cards lol

The card on the right is for the Papertake Weekly challenge and I'm not too sure of it yet! The celtic stamp was one I found in a shop in a 99p bin and this is the first time I have used it, it kind of screamed "mans card" to me hence the green and blue (well oviously it didn't actually scream at me, it was a bit more polite than that lol)

Between these two cards and packing it has been a busy day. We are leaving early in the morning to drive the long, long drive to Essex, my lovely mother in law sadly passed away and her funeral will be on Thursday.

busy afternoon!!

Had a quiet day today as some of the kids I look after were away, then the one I had to look after at lunchtime fell asleep so I headed to the craft table to have some fun :)

First up is the card I have made for the "sparkle" challenge on Cute Card Thursday the backing card is sparkly holographic card, the blue paper has glitter on and the star on the tree is glittered as well. A real sparkler lol

This card I made for the Daring Cardmakers Challenge. The theme was to use a crown on tiara. I found this image in the Christmas bits and bobs box from a card Lily received last year. made a quick border on parchment and a few holly punchouts et voila!!!

Then last but not least is a card I made for Sketch Saturday Again the image is from an old card, I am saving the planet lol

I certainly squeezed a lot into a couple of hours lmao

more blog candy!!

More blog candy on offer by Jeanette, click here Jeanette is a hugely talented crafter I love her cards!

blog candy

Vikkie is having a blog candy giveaway here. Pop over and have a look, gorgeous papers up for grabs. :) fab blog too!

stamped poinsettia

I thought that this poinsettia stamp would look good on parchment so stamped it and embossed with white powder (bit if a cheat hehehe) then did the border with the fine diagonal grid. Once I had sewn it to the card I discovered I hadn't centered the image as well as I had thought when I did the border!! Grrr. Anyway a friend suggested turning the card round and putting a peel off on. I found a stray rub on in the box so used that and I am quite pleased with how it has come out. It is painted with watercolour pencils. I think I will do a few more of these with different borders I do like how it looks :)

AMAZING heart to heart blog candy!

I am in awe of the amount of blog candy that Cammie is giving away here Cammie's grandmother died this year and had suffered with Alzheimers, so Cammie is doing this amazing giveaway to raise awareness of Alzheimers and to say thankyou to the Alzheimers nurses who work so hard to care for the sufferers.

To be in with a chance to win, make a card and send it to either someone you know who is a caregiver for Alzheimers or there is an address of the home her grandmother stayed in to send it to.

I will be sending this card to the nurses who cared for Cammie's grandmother over in the US.

another challenge card made last night

After posting the two cards I had made in the afternoon I ended up back at the craft table, I was supposed to be clearing it away (I use the dining table) but ended up finding time to make two more cards lol.

First card is for the sketch challenge at Card Positioning Systems this is another new challenge blog to me, I don't even know how I came to be there lmao!! The image on this card is one that has been hanging around the bottom of my scraps box for over a year.

more challenges!

I am having sooo much fun with the challenges just now......in fact I think I may be addicted lol. The first card is for the "Autumn" theme over at Arty Girlz and also for the challenge on 2 sketches 4 u Laura's Sketch #9.

I have used a parchment layer over the patterned paper, then a glittered sticker, loved the colours of the flowers. The wooden bead used to be an earring, I found them in a charity shop and bought them to break up :)

I came accross a new challenge blog yesterday (well new to me lol) called Carol's Paperplayce The sketch is a lovely one by carol and I did enjoy putting this card together. The bodice of the dress is a peel off with a bit of glitter and the skirt is gold tissue paper. Paper and chipboard embellies are from the Retro Floral set I bought a few weeks ago. It is going to be used for one of hubby's granddaughters birthday in February, she will be 15.

Daring Cardmakers All Mixed Up

The challenge set over at Daring Cardmakers is "All Mixed Up" This week's theme is All Mixed Up. How come the majority of girls' cards are pink and flowery and the boys are blue and have absolutely no flowers at all?What about cars for girls??? hmmm?This week Tracie wants you to mix up those genders and create cards with a little bit of something not normally found for that sex.

I had this monster image left over from an earlier card I made, the image is from Fred She Said it was drawn by her son Nolan :) His name is Greggrrry lol. He is coloured with my newly purchased Whispers pens (loving them lol). My card is "mixed up"with the monster on a girls card ;)

Ribbons and Lace for Funky Fairy

The theme at Funky Fairy this week is "Ribbons and Lace". Looked everywhere to find some lace and I have not one bit!!! Short of actually stealing a bit off of Lily's lace ankle socks I thought I was going to have to miss out on this weeks challenge then I thought of making a lacy edge with my parchment tools! The tree and the spotty paper behind it are a free download from the funky fairy inspiration blog. The greeting is traced in white ink. You can see the detail on the lace if you click on the pic!

Spoonfull of Sugar challenge card

The theme for this week is "Christmas is coming" at Spoonfull of Sugar. I kept the image of the girl from a card I received last year and I just love it, isn't she just adorable? The card has a parchment wrap stamped with stars and embossed with opaque white powder. The ribbon is wired ribbon which I saved from something last Christmas as well! It has silver snowflakes on it but I son't think it comes out so well on the piccie. Much recycling on this card :)

Sketch Saturday #17

I really like this weeks sketch over at sketch saturday and just for once I am doing it as it comes out lol, usually I am making it on a Friday night! the papers are the gorgeous Minty Madness set from funky hand I LOVE these papers they are so funky.

funky fairys challenge

Over at Funky Fairys Challenge Blog the challenge this week is a sketch. The papers are a free download on the Funky Fairys Inspiration Blog What a gorgeous set of papers they are too, lovely colours :) (To see the papers better click on the piccie)

Lily has been crafting

One of Lily's friends has her 5th birthday today and this is the card she made her. All I did was cut the piece of stripy paper for her, she punched it and then I stuck it on for her. She picked the embellishment herself out of her own stash and then she glued some of the punch outs on the card (her idea) and asked me to tie a ribbon on it for her. I am so proud of her for this card, normally she puts loads and loads of stickers on and I have to physically drag her away from the card lol. Bless her she is off school today with a bit of a tummy bug and she was worried that her friend woulsn't gt her card so she made her daddy take it to school when he dropped off the 2 minded boys :)

2 more challenges

Used kazan's sketch #9 from 2 Sketches 4 You and the theme from Arty Girlz challenge #52 "Birthdays" (It's the Arty Girlz first birthday this week) to make this card. The sheep stamp was one that was given to Lily for Christmas last week and I thought it would be good to use. It is heat embossed with pink powder. Some jewels recycled from a pair of jeans and a bit of ribbon from my stash and bit of doodling!! I quite like how it has turned out (makes a change lol)

first parch card for a while

I haven't made a parchy card for quite some time, I think I sickened myself doing it all the time. I have been having lots of fun with my new stamps and papers etc (as can be seen below lol) but I thought it was time to do some parching today as I have a card to make for an MSN friend who is 60 this month. I have wanted to do this pattern for a while so decided to make it at last :)

The backing paper is a burgandy rose print and originally I wasn't sure about it because you can't see the whitework so clearly as if it was backed by a plain dark card, but it has grown on me and I think it looks ok now. Each rose has a gold bead in the centre.

a new challenge card

I am really getting into doing these blog challenges!! I am so enjoying myself playing with paper and jewels and bits and pieces lol. This card is for the Cute Card Thursday challenge. The theme this week is "cats and dogs"

xmas (groan) blog candy

Jak at Crafters Kitchen is giving away a superb Xmas blog candy here Lots of fantastic things to be sent to a lucky winner, but you have to do it quick as she is drawing it on the 15th!! Jak has some really gorgeous cards on her blog, watch out you will be there for ages :)

found a new challenge blog!!

Came accross another challenge blog called A Spoon Full of Sugar I have no idea how I got there lol but I liked it so have added it to my list of challenges to drool over and take part in when I get the chance! Made this card today as the sketch was fresh in my mind :)

baby card for a challenge

A baby boy card for the Sketch Saturday challenge. I like this sketch, I can see me using it a lot :) The baby stamps are new ones that arrived today, I ordered them two days ago from Bubbly Funk and I was so pleased that they arrived so quickly!! I am very impressed!! The stamps are Studio G and even though they were cheap they stamped ok. The circle stamped "joy" is raised ob foam pads.

As a canny (aka stingy) Scots Lassie I hate to see waste so used the leftover navy card to make a Xmas card with a recycled card from last year :)

blog candy from Alison

Another of the Funky Hand design team, Alison, has got blog candy to give away as she has got to 5000 hits :) her blog is here.

recycling last year xmas cards

every year I save my cards so I can recycle them for some of this years cards. Here are a couple I did last night just to start me off. What I have left I let the kids use for their cards nearer the time.

2 challenges in one lol

I had such fun with the sketch I tried the other day that I decided to have a go at another sketch challenge. The sketch is from Daring Cardmakers the sponsor for this challenge is Anice at Funky Hand I do like Anice's designs, they are FAB!!

The challenge on Cute Card Thursday is "Hint of Pink" so decided to combine the sketch with pink papers.

I had great fun making this card, all in all last night was a great night, up until 1.30am crafting......haven't done that for ages....what bliss lol

marathon cardmaking sesh

Last night I started making a couple of cards for challenges and ended up finding some beaded toppers that I had made ages ago for Xmas cards, so while I was in the mood I made them up into cards! They are mounted onto 12x12cm cards (they were left over from the wedding invitations I made so were ready scored and cut.) I think I might do some more of the beaded snowflakes I like how they have come out :) There are 3 beaded and 2 stitched snowflakes, will show one of each here, the rest are on my photobucket here.

The next cards were again made using the 12x12cm card blanks. The papers are from my new Dovecraft retro floral pack, the papers came with a tub of chipboard embellishments which I am having fun using lol

I am really pleased with the left hand one, I stitched a few bits and did a bit of doodling to highlight certain areas plus a couple of gems. It was great fun using all my stash stuff :)

stitched roses

Stitching cards have brought out a set of patterns inspired by Charles Rennie Mackintosh's rose. I absolutely LOVE the rose image, always have especially after living in Glasgow for a year while I was at uni. So when I saw this set I HAD to make them lol. The smaller cards are just general note cards, but the tall cream one is a possible designn for wedding invitations I have to make next year (only 20 this time thankfully!!), it will probably have "wedding invitation" in the botton right corner, or possibly the word LOVE or something, I think it looks better simple. They were lovely to stitch too, I really enjoyed making them. :) There are a couple more small cards, have put them on my photobucket rather than show them all here.

papertake challenge

This is the first time I have used a sketch and I did enjoy it :) After doing virtually nothing but parchment craft for so long I had been having trouble getting back into the swing of starting with a pile of stuff and making a card without any kind of pattern! Using the sketch is a bit in the middle I suppose lol. The sketch is from papertake weekly. I had great fun with my new Retro floral papers.

I also made this card for my mum's birthday later this month, the paper, brad and chipboard flowers are also retro floral. My mum is a real fan of lime green hence the choice of paper!! Sadly with my rubbish photography the chipboard flowers haven't come out well in the pic but they are the same flowers that are on the paper.

amazing blog candy!!

One of the funky hand design team, Chris, has an amazing blog candy on offer here There are a couple of instructions but all in a worthy cause :)

Chris (as do many of us) has a pet peeve of word verification, here's what she says:

Everyone will have their own view, but in my case, I regard the removal of word verification as a basic courtesy to my visitors who are kind enough to take the time to leave comments. Being aware of their comments through comment moderation, but not hindering them with word verification is the very least I can do to reciprocate their courtesy to me.

Personally I can't stand word verification and didn't enable it when I started my blog, but I do understand why others feel the need to have it.

Good luck to anyone who enters the draw :)

playing with papers

Found some papers that were in a printed in a magazine, they are all matching so thought I would make a couple of simple cards to put it the card box :)