New Baby Card

Hello everyone. I'm back again  because today is the day for the Papertrey Ink Blog Hop.

The challenge this time is

I had some good news a couple of days ago when the daughter of some old friends had her first baby. This is a much waited for baby and so is especially welcome, and I wanted to get a card and gift sent off quickly. I came up with this card

I used spring rain and blueberry sky card along with some DP from my stash. The cute baby stamp is from Lily of the Valley and I coloured it with Copics and added Glossy Accents to the polka dots. The sentiment banner and die is Boutique Borders: Baby, and I finished it off with some little stars that I painted with some glossy accents, although the shine isn't showing on the photo (grrr)!

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the Hop!

I'd like to enter this card into Perfectly Rustics Challenge - baby 

and

Challenge 2 at Scrapping Every Day Miracles

Hugs

Carol x

Holly Jolly Christmas Card Challenge # 12

Hello everyone, and welcome to another Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge. Our sponsors this time are Oak Pond Creations, and Lacy Sunshine, and our Hostess is Cindy who has a Bingo game for us. I chose to do the left hand column of pearls/gems, red and Santa, and came up with this card

I used an edger die to create a shaped card, and simply stamped and matted the Santa stamp. I added some glitter to the snowflakes but it isn't showing in the photo. A sentiment from Wplus 9 and a couple of pearls that I coloured with Copics, finished it off.

Why not pop over to the HJCC blog to see what line you can play along with.

I'd like to enter this into the
Christmas Card Challenge - anything goes.
and
Completely Christmas - anything goes

Thanks for stopping by

Hugs
Carol x

Paper Smooches Miss You card

Hello everyone,

Yay it's Friday and the start of another lovely weekend. I have a busy one planned with friends coming for dinner tomorrow and then on Sunday, my sons are coming to move furniture and take up carpet, ready for us having the hall, stairs and landing decorated next week. Do you find that the smell of paint gives you headaches? It always does for me, so this is a job that has been put off too long and I'll be glad when it is finished.

I wanted to play along again with the Paper Smooches anything goes challenge

I am new to Paper Smooches stamps and only have a few sets, but I love the quality and how well they stamp.

I came up with this card

I cut a panel with a MFT window die and used it upside down for a change. I took the little dotted heart from the Lawn Fawn Bee Mine set and stamped a row of them across the panel. I added some little hearts on the centres and put glossy accents over them to give some shine. I then stamped the Miss You sentiment from Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler, and added a little tab with a sentiment embossed in white to extend the thought. I cut a border strip with a Lawn Fawn die and stitched it to the card using a PTI Stitching die and white crochet thread. The stitching die produced lots of tiny waste dots that I couldn't put in the bin, so I dotted them around the panel to add some texture.

I used lots of little snippets on this card, so I'm going over to play at Pixie's Snippets Playground, and I'd also like to play for the first time over at the Sisterhood of Crafters challenge which is make the sentiment a focal point.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.

Hugs

Carol x

Holly Jolly Christmas challenge 'winter scene'

Hello everyone, and welcome to another challenge over at Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge. This time the theme is Winter Scene and I came up with this card using my new Winter Wonderland stamp set from Mama Elephant.

I stamped and embossed the trees in white and then masked off a snow bank using an In the Meadow die from PTI,  and a circle punch for the moon before blending Peacock Feather and Chipped Sapphire distress inks to create the sky. It is a bit difficult to see, but I also spattered some tiny dots of white ink on the sky to give the impression of stars. After removing the masks, I stamped the small deer and then masked off the right hand tree trunk and stamped the large deer so that he would appear to be behind the tree. I added some pale blue shadow to the moon and at the deer's feet to ground them, before stamping a couple of birds on one of the trees. A little glitter and some matting finished it off.

Why not pop over to the Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge Blog, see the inspiration from my talented team mates, and join us by making a Christmas card to add to your stash before the rush in November and December. I've now got 11 cards made ready for next Christmas, and I wouldn't have done it without this challenge. On another note, you may remember that the Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge Blog was hacked into some weeks ago and a new site had to be built. We are afraid that some of our friends have not been able to find the new site so it would be wonderful if you could help spread the word about us!

I'd also like to enter this card into the Die Cut Divas challenge which is to use embossing, Completely Christmas Challenge, which is anything goes, and Crafty Hazelnuts Challenge which is also anything goes.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs
Carol x

Good Luck card

Hello everyone,

I hope you are enjoying your weekend and finding some time to craft a card or two. I just had time to make a card before my daughter comes round for dinner and I'd like to share it with you. I wanted to play along with the current Addicted to CAS challenge because the code word this time is Luck and I needed to make a good luck card.

You may remember that I made a green card recently for a good friends' birthday, and this friend has a lovely husband who is about to run in a marathon for charity. He has had some health problems of late, but has trained hard, and feels able to step up for the challenge. I do admire sporty people but I have to confess to not being one and I don't suppose I ever will be. I used to play a little tennis and badminton in my younger days but now I prefer to watch tennis and cheer on those who are willing to put in the hard work!

I used one of the Border1 dies from Paper Smooches to go across the card on top of a panel cut with a Stitched Rectangle die from Lil'Inker Designs. The running man is a stamp from Personal Impressions, and after stamping him, I cut him out. I raised most of him on pop dots so he would have a shadow around him but I stuck his foot down onto the panel, and I think it helps to create the illusion of him actually running off the page. I also cut a little panel and stamped his running number on to stick to his chest.

A sentiment, a mat and a bit of grounding finished it off.

As I've used a Paper Smooches die, and Shadows oval stamp, I'd like to play along for the first time with the
                                                   

Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge which is anything goes.

I'd also like to enter this into the Addicted to Stamps

                                              

challenge which is anything goes this week.

Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge Christmas card

Hello everyone,

It's time for another challenge over at the Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge, and this time we are sponsored by Limited Runs Digital Stamps

The theme this week is Sweet Treats, and I used a cute cupcake from Limited Runs for my card.

I cut out the cupcake and coloured it with Copics before using liquid applique for the frosting. I heated the liquid applique with my heat gun to get the bubbly effect and then mounted it onto a cream panel that had been embossed with dots after I stamped the sentiment. I wanted to use scarlet jewel ink for the sentiment and SJ card for matting, but the striped paper I wanted to use along the side was a bright red colour that was too much, so I went over part of the red stripes with a Copic marker to tone it down a little. I die cut a bow from the cream card, stamped it with polka dots and added a glittered circle for the centre.

Can you spot the difference with this photo?

I thought the bow on the first one faded into the background, so I removed it and went round the edge with a Copic marker and I think it helped it to stand out a little. There is some glitter on the cupcake case and trees but I'm afraid I couldn't get it to show in the photo.

Why not pop over to the Holly Jolly Christmas blog to see what my talented Teamies have come up with, and join us to get some Christmas cards completed before the rush in November and December.

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:-

Crtafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge  anything goes.
52 Christmas card throwdown colour challenge. I used the 2 shades of green and red
My Perfect Life - anything goes Christmas.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs
Carol x

Papertrey Ink friend card

Hello everyone,

I'm a day late but Happy International Women's Day. Isn't it great to have a day set aside to celebrate women in all our varieties? Much attention is given to women leaders but I like to think of the amazing things that women in my own life do, day in and day out, for their families, friends and communities. They manage to combine strength with softness, courage with humour and kindness with good old fashioned hard work!

I was pleased to see that Addicted to Stamps

are having a challenge for IWD and that my lovely blogging friend Darnell is guest designing for them this time. I certainly wanted to join in this challenge, and as I have a birthday card to make for a special friend who has been there for me since our children were in nursery together, it seemed a match made in heaven. Now this friend's favourite colour is green, and it just so happens that Colour Me

has green as it's colour this time, so that is a match made in heaven.

Now my friend likes reading, and the silhouette in the first challenge, inspired me to pull out my Papertrey Ink 'All Booked UP' stamps and I came up with this card

Clean and straightforward, just like my friend.

I'd also like to enter this into the Path of Positivity challenge


                                                

which this time is 'thoughtfulness', and that fits my friend to a t.


Thanks for stopping by

Hugs
Carol x

Car birthday cards

Hello everyone,

Yea, the weekend is almost upon us and I'm so pleased to be guest designing over at the Catered Crop. I was lucky enough to have my entry for their last challenge - Good Birthdays - chosen as a winner, and the prize is to be a guest designer for their current challenge. This time Linda has asked us to have a travel theme:-

"Whether you like to travel on a bicycle, motorcycle, car, plane, train, boat, or camper . . . across the world or in your back yard, this challenge is wide open to anything related to travel. Show us where you’ve been or where you hope to go. However you want to travel, where ever you wander, add us as your escort."

Well I looked through my stash and was startled to find that I only have one travel style stamp set and that is 'Enjoy the Ride' from Papertrey Ink, which has the most lovely car that I die cut and stamped with little flowers that reminded me of the flower power retro VW cars from years ago. I actually made two versions of the card. The first one has a road that I cut on my SilhouetteCameo,

and I placed it on a shaped panel of pink card that was embossed with the Sunshine impression plate and matted onto blue card. I did 2 layers of the car to give it some dimension, put some acetate into the window and used glossy accents for the headlights. The sentiment was embossed in white.

The second card has a white panel that I stamped with polka dots before over-stamping with the sentiments

I first stamped the 'happy birthday and wanted to put enjoy the ride underneath, but it went over the tail of the y and looked messy, so I took my courage in my hands and (gasp) cut my stamp apart! The panel was embossed with the canvas impression plate and I cut one corner with a corner chomper before raising it on the base card with foam dots.You can see a bit of reflection in the acetate window and this time the headlights were enamel dots from My Minds Eye. I think I prefer this one, but I enjoyed trying different colours with almost the same layout.

Thank you to Linda and the team for letting me play with you this week!

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs
Carol x

Papertrey Ink Get well card

Hello everyone,

I hope you are all enjoying your week and starting to look forward to the weekend. I've just popped on to share a get well card I made for my crafty buddy, Anne, who is a bit under the weather at the moment. I used the colours from this week's Dynamic Duos challenge and it's my first time playing there although I have often visited to see all the wonderful inspiration.

I used PTI Simple Stripes and Comfort Food for this and popped the bowl of soup onto foam dots to give a bit of dimension. I know chicken soup is the traditional soup for poorly people, but my Mum used to always give me cream of tomato soup, so that's remained my favourite. The panel was embossed with the Canvas Impression Plate. I can't seem to stop using that one! 

The border was some waste I had from using the Heart Border Die on another project. I love it when I can use snippets rather than put them in the bin, so I'm going off to play 

 in the Playground at Pixies Crafty Workshop today where Di has been busy mending the fence! I'd also like to play with the Creative Card Crew who are making Get Well cards this time.


Thanks for stopping by

Hugs
Carol x

PS Oh poops - I was too late for Dynamic Duos - That will teach me not to go out for afternoon tea with friends when I should be industrious and do my posting before I go out!!!

Bugaboo Christmas card

Hello everyone, and a very warm welcome to Shirley who is joining us as a new follower this week.

It's time for another challenge over at the Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge and this time our sponsor is Bugaboo

and the challenge is to use fairies or angels. I used one of their cute images - 'Ava Mistletoe Fairy'.

I used a background stamp to make the paper for paper piecing her dress, and used alcohol markers for colouring her in before I embossed the panel with a canvas impression plate to add a little texture. Now I don't know about you, but I think she looks like she has been caught red handed doing something she shouldn't, so I found a sentiment that suits her in the 'Naughty or Nice' stamps from Cas-ual Fridays, and I embossed it in white onto a banner. I added Wink of Stella glitter to her wings which you can see better in this photo, 

and some glossy accents to the berries. Some patterned paper and card candy finished her off.

I'm going to enter this into the Keep it Simple challenge 'things with wings' 
The Crafting Cafe ' clean and simple'
and Always Something Creative 'bright colours'

Thanks for stopping by

Hugs
Carol x