New baby card

This card is for my friend Katie, who had a little girl, Isla Rose, almost two weeks ago. We met at antenatal classes, so her little boy, Jacob, is three weeks older than Amelie. The thought of having an 18 month old and a newborn to look after is more than I could cope with, but Katie's doing amazingly! I saw Isla today and she's still so tiny - she weighed 7lb 2oz when born on Monday 1st December, so is probably still smaller than Amelie was at birth, as she was 8lb 15oz!

As well as being a card for Katie, this also ticks off two challenges for the week. I love this week's sketch for Sketch Saturday and think I'll be using it a lot. The Penny Black challenge this week was a recipe - the card had to include three flowers, two papers and one ribbon, as well as a PB image. I adore this hedgehog and making the card brought back memories as I used this image for Amelie's birth announcement/thank you cards. The papers are from the Papermania "Raspberry Champagne" pack, as are the three flowers - I punched them from the pink paper I've used in the card.

Thanks for looking,

Same stamp, different card!

I've used the same snow couple stamp here, but with a very different colour scheme. In what I think is a record for me, I've managed to combine four challenges into one card!! I'd love to have the time to make individual cards for all the challenges, but I'm just too busy at the moment, so have to combine if I want to enter more than one! Anyway, the challenges are: Penny Black (funky Christmas - an xmas card using a non-traditional, modern colour scheme), Secret Crafter (decoupage - although the photo doesn't show it that well, the stamped image has three decoupage layers), Cute Card Thursday (snowflakes) and Sketch Saturday (the layout sketch).

Thanks for looking,

Triple Challenge Christmas Card!

Wow, I think I managed to combine three challenges in one card! The theme is "Let it snow" for Papertake, the layout follows the sketch for Saturday Sketchers and the colour scheme is monochromatic (well, almost, as the papers have a touch of yellow and the snow couple's noses are orange!) for the Penny Black challenge. The snow couple stamp is PB and coloured with watercolour pencils and a touch of pearlescent chalk to give the snow some sparkle and the papers are from Dovecraft's Winter Wonderland pack. I've used the wording on the paper in place of an extra sentiment as I don't think I need to add anything else.

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!

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,

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,

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!!).

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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,

Penny Black Saturday Challenge

Well, I've taken the plunge and entered my first blog challenge! This card is for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge, which was a sketch this week. I've rotated the sketch as it works better for this stamp, which I think is so cute. I'll use the card for a male friend's birthday. The papers are from a DCWV Paper Stack. I doubt I'll win, as so many of the other cards are gorgeous and very detailed, but it was fun having a go!