Sketch Saturday No 22

A quick card to scrape into this week's Sketch Saturday challenge - I love this sketch and really wanted to do a card for it, but time ran away from me until today. This card uses Forever Friends stickers that arrived yesterday - I adore FF and I'm so glad they have a craft range now! As promised, now with better photo that actually reflects the colours used a bit better :)

Thanks for looking,

This week's Christmas card!

I've managed to use the last of the three Penny Black cat in a wreath images that I stamped and coloured in last month for this week's Secret Crafter challenge. This week's challenge is a sketch, which I've rotated to suit the shape of the stamp. The little wreath embellishment I made myself, using two Nestability dies (a scalloped circle and plain circle) inside each other - I put them both on the cutting plate together to make lining it up easier. I then embossed the cut-out wreath with a section of the cuttlebug Lacy Tree folder. The greeting is hand-written with a brush marker, and is the one bit of the card I'm not happy with, but I didn't have a stamp small enough to fit inside the wreath!

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Ellie the Elephant for Friday Sketchers

I've been waiting for an opportunity to use this stamp, part of a set I bought from Stamposaurus at Ally Pally last month. They're absolutely adorable :) The layout is for Friday Sketchers - in addition to following the sketch, the challenge was to use a horizontal image and not take it outside the horizontal backing paper (see the sketch for a better explanation!!). Ellie herself is coloured with fun flock, so she feels all velvety. It's the first time I've used flock but don't think it will be the last, as I love the effect. I just need to expand my colour collection beyond grey ;)

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Another digital scrapbook page!

Wow, Amelie's been asleep for 2 hours and 20 minutes so far - something of a miracle!! It means I've had more time to play around with the Shabby Princess stuff I downloaded :) This page is using their "Harvest Spice" kit, which comprises of digital papers, elements and an alphabet, so the layout is my own design this time. This picture of Amelie in her wellies and waterproof was also taken last month, out for a walk on our local common.

Thanks for looking,

Digital scrapbook page - Amelie at Wisley Gardens

I found a lovely site called Shabby Princess at the weekend that has some wonderful free digital downloads, including a "piece of cake" album with pages that you just need to add photos and journalling to (my kind of scrapbooking - can be done in 15 minutes while Amelie is asleep!!). So I decided to have a play this morning during Amelie's nap time and this is what I came up with - the two photos are from a trip to RHS Wisley Gardens last month, on the one Sunday of September when the sun shone!

Thanks for looking,

My first ATC!

The Penny Black Saturday Challenge this week was to create an ATC (Artist Trading Card). It's something I'd never attempted before but have fancied trying for a while, so I thought I'd give it a go for the challenge. The biggest challenge was finding a Penny Black stamp or sticker in my collection that was small enough! I ended up using this bear stamp, one I've had for ages and love but have always struggled with using on cards as it's so small. The background is a flower stamp, stamped in Versamark and chalked. The bear is coloured with watercolour pencils and the sentiment added with the fine-tip end of a brushmarker, which I've also used to ink the edges of the ATC.

I'm fairly pleased with the result, but I think I need to play around with this format more before I really get to grips with it!

Thanks for looking,

Simple Christmas Card for Two Challenges!

Something a bit different to what I've been doing recently - a simple card with a heat embossed image. I made the card for two challenges - the layout is for Sketch Saturday's Sketch 21, and the theme is for Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge 3, which is "blue, white and a touch of snowflake". It was so quick and easy to do that I think I'm going to make half a dozen or so for sending out, maybe altering the colour scheme. I played around with the image in Photoshop (trying to get rid of some of the glare from the pearl card) and decided it looked quite nice in lilac or pink, so I might try that for real!

The stamp is an Anita's one I've had for a couple of years and the embossing is a Cuttlebug folder.

Thanks for looking,

I've found a new challenge blog!

I found a new challenge blog, Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge, while blurfing at the weekend and loved the sketch. I actually made the card on Monday evening but it's taken until now to get a decent photo in daylight - every photo I've taken with the flash has either darkened the red mirri card to almost black or the flash has bounced off the twinkling H2Os and lost the detail. Even this photo isn't great, but it's the best of a bad bunch! I love this cat image from Penny Black - I stamped and coloured it three times as soon as I got it, so one more still to use up :) The backing paper is from a DCVW Xmas stack.

Thanks for looking,

Blog candy

Scrapmumur, whose lovely blog that serves both as card inspiration and a chance to use my French, is giving away one of the gorgeous Whiff of Joy stamps, plus a card she's made with it, here.

Three challenges in one card (just!)

I've actually managed to combine three challenges in this card, which I'm pretty chuffed with! The layout is for the fab sketch from Friday Sketchers, the theme is for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge, whose theme this week is "Thanks a Bunch" and I just about manage the Cute Card Thursday challenge, which is "Buttons and Bows" - ok, so just one bow, but hopefully it'll be enough to count! The patterned paper is from the DCVW floral stack, which I love, and the main image is coloured with twinkling H2Os as usual! The card blank is chalked to match the lilac colour scheme.

Thanks for looking,

Another Christmas Challenge Card!

This card is for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge - I've figured that if I make a Christmas card every week then I may just have enough by 24th December!! The challenge this week was a sketch - I like these as it means I don't have to struggle with layout inspiration! The snowman and snowflakes are PB stickers, so this was quite a quick card too (well, it's actually been in progress for two days, but that's because Amelie woke up when I was halfway through it on Monday morning!!).

Thanks for looking,

A card I wish I hadn't had to make

This is the hardest card I've ever had to make, for a friend who lost her husband just over a week ago. He was 33 years old and they have two small children. My heart goes out to her - the funeral is today and I can't imagine what she's going through. I wish I could have been there, but it's up in Worcester and Darren's mum wasn't able to get the time off at short notice to look after Amelie. They're in my thoughts though.

I went through so many possibilities with this card, including decoupage sheets kindly offered by friends on the Imag-e-nation forum, but in the end decided that simplicity was best. The main image is a Penny Black sticker, mounted on silver then lilac card and the main card is chalked to match. The sentiment is a peel-off sticker - it's not really what I wanted, but it was the only thing I had that matched, as I'm currently printer-less.

Thanks for looking,

Cute Card Thursday Challenge 30

My first Christmas card of the year! The stamp is a Penny Black one I got at Ally Pally last weekend, and it's coloured in with Twinkling H2Os as usual! It was supposed to be for two challenges - Penny Black Saturday (theme - Seasons) and Cute Card Thursday (theme - Christmas Creatures). However, I haven't been organised enough to get it finished in time for the PB challenge, so it's just for Cute Card Thursday!

Thanks for looking,