Card Patterns Sketch Challenge

Hey everyone

Phew it's been a LONG week. So glad it's the weekend, time to recharge :o)

I made this card for the Card Patterns Sketch Challenge. I wanted something quite simple yet elegant.  I used Amy Butler papers, Sizzix Bigz Flower Die (thanks for the fab instructions Sue!!), nesties and PTI Big & Bold Wishes.  To finish off ribbon from my stash and a Prima pearl.

By the way I keep meaning to say, I haven't forgotten about my mini giveaway a while back, but nobody entered so I never did a drawing for it!  If you fancy posting the prize is still up for giveaway, you will find the link here.

Have a great weekend, we have Tink's best friend coming for a sleepover on Sunday night, but other than that I'm hoping to get lots of crafting done with her.  I think she's finally getting the bug!  I found her out in my studio earlier trying out a tag she'd seen on a Lawn Fawn video!!  She's really very good at this cardmaking thing!!

PDCC 53

* Edited to add a card for Get Sketchy challenge, please scroll down to see it *

Happy Thursday everyone! It's Play Date Cafe challenge day! I hope you managed to pop by the main blog to see all of the anniversary celebrations we've been having with the fab guest designers from Unity!  If not, don't worry, pop over there now and have a look at all of the loveliness! :o)

This week we have a challenge that's been offered up by Sarah. It's one of our fun colour splashes.  This time it's black and white, with a splash of burgundy.

And here's the inspiration pic..

We are being sponsored by Mark's Finest Papers this week and were sent some lovely stamps to play with.  I chose to use the decorative circle and the Happy Birthday sentiment.  It makes a nice quick but elegant card.  Here's what I did...

1. Make flower (see tutorial here), leaving enough time for it to dry out and harden.  This is a smaller version of the large black flower I made here. I just scrunched it up more when I made it, and let it dry out initially in the bottom of a little pot to stop it growing too big, then I put it on the radiator which worked a treat!
2. Punch two decorative borders in black using border punch
3. Cut a strip of card to cover most of the card base, leaving white space top and bottom
4. Attach to card
5. Die cut burgundy blossom circle
   
6. Die cut white circle using circle nesties, stamp circular image onto white circle, adhere to burgundy blossom shape
7. Stamp sentiment onto white card, ink edges with black Copic marker to give definition, attach to centre of decorative circle
8. Attach 3d flower to finish
9. Upload card to DT gallery only to see another card by Lisa which mine looks like!  Think to yourself, 'Oh no, it looks like I copied Lisa'!  Great card Lisa, I didn't copy you, honestly, I'd had my little flower idea for a while!  Great minds must think alike! 

Stamps: Mark's Finest Papers
Papers: Basic Grey Scarlett's Letter, Bazzill cardstock
Accessories: Martha Stewart Border Punch, Circle & Blossom Nesties

Don't forget to check out the rest of the DT's inspirational pieces.

Julie Ranae (Senior DT)

Sarah Anderson (Senior DT)

Lisa Somerville

Savannah O'Gwynn

Suzanne Czosek

Andrea Ewen

and of course our guest designer, Faith Hofrichter, owner of Mark's Finest Papers.

So come and join in on the fun!  You could win a fab prize. See more information on the PDCC blog.
Pop on over to the Cafe and link your post. If you use an online gallery, please use the keyword PDCC53, and remember to use our inspirational colours to be eligible to win!

GET SKETCHY CHALLENGE

I made a little card for our friends who recently got a new dog that they've called Beryl! She is a Newfoundland and is BEAUTIFUL! They already have another Newfoundland called Ruby - cool name, don't ya think?!! ;o) This card is well overdue and I'm hoping my friend isn't going to see it before I give it to her at the weekend.

This is the sketch over at Get Sketchy. 

The supplies are Basic Grey for the papers (Max & Whiskers), Lawn Fawn stamps (Critters in the 'burbs), ribbon from The Ribbon Girl and the brad was from a set from my friend.

Just in case you haven't seen one.. This is a Newfoundland, or Newfie as they're also known.  How adorable are they?!  And MASSIVE!  My little Lulu looks like one of their toys when we go round to visit lol

Hope you likey!

A Quick Thanksgiving Card

Hi there everyone!

Today I have a little 3 x 3 card to share with you.  I just LOVE this size of card.  I've been making loads of them lately.

I'd planned to spend a lot of time in my studio but had forgotten it's half term over here this week so Tink is off school, which means I don't have as much time as I'd thought I would have.  I love having her home though.  This morning my friend and I surprised her and her best friend by getting them together.  They had no idea they were seeing each other, and Tink was SOOOOOOOO excited when they arrived this morning.  She was fit to burst!!  The number of times I nearly let it slip though, ummm naughty Mummy! 

I can't really take credit for my little card because the idea came from Kelly Marie, over at the Lawn Fawn blog.  As soon as I'd seen her pumpkins paper pieced and piled together I knew I had to play.  I just love them done in patterned papers, they look so cute!

Don't forget to pop over to the PDCC for some more Unity yumminess for our anniversary week and the chance to win a fab prize! (see my original post here..)  I've got another card started, just need the time to play now to get it finished!

Simple Flower & Day 2 PDCC fun!

Yay, it's Friday! I've been doing a bit of work today, but I couldn't resist finishing off a little card I'd started, so will have to get back to it soon.

As you know it's our anniversary over at the Play Date Cafe this week, our first!  All very exciting!  You can read all of the details in my post here. 

I'm really hoping to join in the fun this week and get a few {ippity} cards made, so this is my first one...

I just LoVe this paper, it's fAb!  It's by My Mind's Eye - 'Fresh Beauty'.  The flower stamp I've used is from this Faith Blooms set.  Such a simple, yet gorgeous set.  I used a small SU! stamp for the sentiment, and SU! grosgrain ribbon.  Unfortunately you can't see the detail very well on this picture, but I have used a metallic Sakura pen to add detail to the flower, it's really pretty close up, but you will have to take my word on that ;o)

If you'd like this stamp set for yourself then just hit my Ippity link at the top of the page and you can buy one there. 

In the meantime don't forget to pop on over to the Play Date Cafe for some more fun!

So what are your plans for the weekend?  I have a school fete coming up at the end of November, so have a LOT of cards to make, plus I also have a few orders to get finalised.  Lots of fun crafting for me, hopefully I can get Tink (my daughter) to join me in the studio too, and I'm sure a sneaky bar of chocolate or two will get in there somewhere!

I also want to play with this label over at Tiffany Doodles.

It takes me a bit longer to work on digital, I'm still a novice, but this one will be nice and simple to work with, isn't it gorgeous?!  I will show you what I have made once I get it finished!  You still have time to enter our challenge over at Tiffany Doodles this month too, it's a fall theme.

Happy First Anniversary PDCC!!!!!!!

Hi everyone!!  Warning, long but OH SO WORTH READING post!!!! :o)

It's PDCC's first anniversary today!!! 

I hope you're sitting down because oh boy, do we have treats in store for you for the whole week!!! We have the fantabulous stamp sponsor, Unity Stamp Company.  The winner gets a set of 15 Itty Bitty Stamps!!!

As if that's not enough there will also be a giveaway from none other than Cosmo Cricket.  Yumm-eee!!!

The Unity DT will be joining us each day too!  How amazing is that?!  So... make sure you pop back every day to see new creations by Unity DT members! 

For this week's challenge we were sent some 'Itty Bitty' stamps. I just ADORE mine.

This is what I made...

How funny are those little characters?  You can't see in the pic but I painted their little teeth white with a glaze pen, they really stand out.  They just make me smile, they're so funny!  The sentiment says, 'Together is the perfect place to be'. 

A bit of nostalgia for you.. Do any of you UK girls/guys remember an old advert where they used to say, 'We wanna be togever'.  (I'm going back a few years now ;o) Well this is what they remind me of! 

It's quite straightforward, so probably doesn't need a step by step, but for supplies I used this little cutie stamp shown, with some Basic Grey Sugar Rush paper, some Girl's Paperie 'Vintage Patchwork' papers, SU! raspberry cardstock (raspberry is not its official name by the way, but I have no idea what it is really called, sorry!!)  and some orange and white twine from Ribbon girl, finished off with a rose from Prima. I coloured the sentiment in with my Copics and added in a bit of colour after paper piecing on her bow, and the little heart they are holding together, they are sooo sweet!

Our colours this week are perfect to brighten up our dull autumn weather we are having here at the minute.  It was fun using such cheery colours.  This is Julie's gorgeous inspiration pic..

Are you excited?!!!  Well, as well as our usual fantastic DT here...

Julie Ranae (Senior DT)

Sarah Anderson (Senior DT)

Lisa Somerville

Savannah O'Gwynn

Suzanne Czosek

Andrea Ewen

we also have the return of PDCC DT alumni for our celebrations too!

Julie Campbell
Mona Pendleton
Sandi Kelly
Stephanie Kraft

So to win this..

or this...

pop on over to the Cafe and link your post. If you use an online gallery, please use the keyword PDCC52, and don't forget to use our inspirational colours to be eligible to win!

But.. don't keep it to yourself tell all your friends to join in too, the bigger the party the better!

Make sure you pop by every day for all that Unity yumminess!

Cupcake Card

Hi there

I just wanted to share a card with you that I made a while ago. I've had this cutter for so long, but never really known what to do with it. Do you ever buy things and then wonder how to use them?!!

On the subject of cupcakes I linked some very lovely people yesterday for this blog award

and then messed up on my linking so sorry Em for getting it wrong!  Hope I've done it right this time!

Have a great day/evening and come back tomorrow for some Play Date Cafe fun!  It's a really exciting week this week for us so you won't want to miss out on all of the fun!

A Couple of Challenge Cards & My Seriously Overdue Blog Awards!

Hello there

Firstly I'd like to share a couple of cards I've made for challenges.  First up was one for Caardvarks, but I didn't get it finished in time as I only came across it last minute.  This month you had to use one of the DT cards as inspiration, so I picked one of my favourite designers, Heidi Van Laar, I love her sunny, happy cards so thought I would use bright colours for this one.

For this I used Cosmo Cricket DeLovely papers, my new doiley nesties, and some ribbon from Ribbon Girl.

This is Heidi's card...

Next up is one I made for Waltzingmouse's Sketch Challenge #19.  I'm not sure about this one.  I like the papers etc, but I don't think I like the way I've done the stamp, but I am doing as I'm told by Ian and Tinks and posting it!  Talk about nag!  They get an idea in their mind and then gang up on me!!  

This card is a bit of Basic Grey and a bit of SU!!  The papers and stamp are BG, the mini sentiment, bow and tab punch are all SU!

I finally had time to load my overdue blog awards. I really do apologise to you Janet and Sue for me not having posted them sooner. Life has been very full on. I really appreciate you thinking of me, I REALLY do, it makes me feel it's worthwhile blogging!

My first award is from Janet over at her blog, Sonnet Designs.

I have to pass the award on to 10 other people and say why I started my blog.  I started my blog at the beginning of last year, to try and kick start my motivation to keep making cards.  I had no idea I would learn so much when I started, and how much I would enjoy it.  It's so much fun!  I've met lots of really interesting people, and made some good friends along the way too.

I would struggle at 10 people as I follow a few too many blogs, but to be honest the people I would like to pass my award to are those followers that always leave me a comment, without fail, when at times I'm sure they probably shouldn't ;o)  You know who you are!  Without your comments I'd probably give up so thank you SO SO much!

Thanks Janet, I really appreciate you nominating me!  Pop over and see some of Janet's work.  I especially love her Santa here.

My second award is from the lovely Sue Lelli. I love her work and regularly look at her blog for inspiration. 

So apparently I'm supposed to tell you something about myself.  Hmmm, what can I share... I love everything French, I have tried many times to learn it, got to an ok level and then something has come up that has stopped me, or is it me that stops me?!  I am a perfectionist and everyone would say I'm too hard on myself.  I don't need anyone else to criticise me, I can do a much better job of it myself!!

I would like to pass this award onto the following people...

Joanna K

Jaclyn Miller

Donna Mikasa

Lindsay Amrhein

Em

Tracy Evans

Now pop over to Sue's blog and check out these to die for flowers.  Aren't they FABULOUS!  I 'need' that flower die cutter!!!

Keep up the great work girls, you inspire me on a daily basis!

2 Sketches 4 U 63

Hi everyone, thanks for popping by.

I have a quick card to share with you today that I made for the 2 Sketches 4 You challenge this week. This is my card...

and this is their fab sketch...

I love simple sketches like this, they really spark off SO many ideas, sometimes it's hard to know where to start!  I really enjoyed making this, I think this butterfly by Tim Holtz really lends itself to that paper line.

I did a simple 'happy birthday' sentiment inside, I thought the front might be a bit too busy otherwise.

Hope you like it.  Have a great weekend!  I'm off to watch 'X Factor' on TV, and snuggle up on the sofa with my man and princess, oh yes and I'm sure Lulu (our little dog) will be snuggled up with us too!   

Dies: Tim Holtz 'Fanciful Flight'
Paper: Basic Grey 'Origins' 6 x 6 pad

Accessories: Prima pearls, SU! black and white grossgrain ribbon, circle and blossom nesties

Cozy Socks!

Hi there

* Edited to add a tag for Cards and Color Q challenges - Please scroll down *

I could do with some cozy socks on right now, it's really been cold here today, and a bit grey.

It's time for the newest Play Date Cafe challenge!  This week we are being sponsored by Creative Cuts and More, who specialise in die cut templates, bags, labels, shapes etc.

We were sent some shapes and some cards to play with.  I decided to use a window card, shown here, combined with a scalloped border card, to get a duo coloured card.

The colours were chosen by Sarah this week, and they are beige, pale blue and pale mint-ish green.  I hope you can see them on this card.  As you may remember from my studio pics some time ago I have a raspberry pink wall in my studio and it seems to have reflected off my white paper this week, with the angle of the sun.  The beige is looking a bit green but it is the right colours in real life, honest!

My card was very simple to make.

1. Cut the scalloped border from one of the blank card templates and attach to a blue window card base
2. Cut a beige nestie shaped square and attach to inside of card
3. Stamp and cut out 3 stockings in different styles
4. Using foam pop dots attach stockings using some baker's twine and add buttons to either end
5. Stamp the sentiment to finish

These Lawn Fawn stamps are SOOO cute to play around with.  Have I told you I love Lawn Fawn stamps before?! lol ;o)

Stamps: Lawn Fawn 'Cozy Christmas'
Accessories: Card templates by Creative Cuts and More, baker's twine by Ribbon Girl, buttons from stash

Don't forget to check out the rest of the DT's inspirational pieces.

Julie Ranae (Senior DT)

Sarah Anderson (Senior DT)

Lisa Somerville

Savannah O'Gwynn

Suzanne Czosek

Andrea Ewen

So come and join in on the fun!  You could win a fab prize of a Holiday Treats Apron Recipe Kit!  See more information on the PDCC blog.

Pop on over to the Cafe and link your post. If you use an online gallery, please use the keyword PDCC51, and don't forget to use our inspirational colours to be eligible to win!

Halloween Challenges...

I saw a couple of challenges that I thought I would join in on.  I don't often make things for Halloween, but always LOVE the colours and little spiders/bats etc so thought I would give it a go, it was fun to play for no reason.

Here is what I made..

The little orange and white behind the bow is the baker's twine to hang the tag from the pressie, it just kept flopping over lol

This is a detail shot showing you the 'boo'.  It looks so sparkly in real life.  The letters are Thickers by American Crafts - lovely :o)  The stamps are by Lawn Fawn 'heebie jeebies', the ribbon some from stash, not sure which company, the other black and white stripe is by SU! and the paper is by Imaginisce, an old one from last year or possibly even the year before.

These are the challenges that I'm entering...

Cards (to make a Halloween tag) and Color Q Challenges using these colours... 

What fun to just play for the sake of it.  Love it!  Now that's my kind of Thursday!  Hope you get to play today too!

Courage and some awards

Hi everyone

I just want to share a card with you that I haven't shared yet. This was the second card I mentioned last week, that I had made using this week's PDCC 50 colours..

I used Elusive Images stamps for the flourishes and Verve's 'Blue Skies' set for the rest of the card.  I really LOVE the sentiment.  If you can't read it, it says 'Courage doesn't always roar, sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow'.  Isn't that beautiful?

I have been very kindly given a couple of awards which I need to share with you, so if you're reading this and you have given me an award please forgive me for not having posted it yet.  I'm playing catch up, but I will get there, and I do TOTALLY appreciate you thinking of me!

For now though I will have to bid you all goodnight as I am falling asleep over my computer, where it's nearly 12.30pm!  Sleep well, I know I will!

Happy Friday!

Hi everyone, it's the weekend, yay!!

Please scroll down for Card Patterns and Everything But The Kitchen Sink challenge card..

Today I'd like to share a couple of quick cards I've made for some challenges. The first one up is for Rae Barthel's challenge.

So, I thought I was doing really well,  I pretty much stuck to the sketch which I don't always do, but there were 3 different elements to the challenge, you could do 1, 2 or all 3 which I'd forgotten about, it is only now that I'm uploading that I re-read the post and realised I could have made a non-Christmas coloured card.!!  Hey ho, I'm still pleased with how it came out.  I love the dramatic text of those stamps by Papertrey Ink.

I suppose with that phrase I could get away with saying you're wishing big for Christmas, that would work right???!   Ok, maybe not, but worth a go!!

Do you recognise the black flower?  I used it my PDCC challenge here, and as I'd managed to damage my little cake box I thought I would recycle the flower for use on my card. 

I used some patterned papers from my stash, the rectangle and scalloped rectangle Spellbinder Nesties, Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die for the flower (see other entry for more info) and the big scallops are also by Spellbinders.  To finish I used pink Prima pearls.

Ok, so hopefully I did better with my next sketch and colour inspiration.

I used this Card Patterns sketch...

and this colour inspiration from Everything But The Kitchen Sink's challenge

The colours aren't an exact match or anything, obviously, you can see that here, but the picture inspired me to pull out these papers again because of the busyness of the paper (is busyness a word?!!) Anyway, I covered my card base with two different Basic Grey June Bug papers, wonkily stitched around the edge, and added a ribbon that I had coloured using a Copic yellow marker.  I wanted to have two different coloured ribbons so tied the white one on afterwards to give the card a bit of a lift.  I then die cut my rectangle and scallop nesties and using Polka Dot Basics II by Papertrey Ink I stamped some Mustard Seed distress ink spots, and then distressed the edges with Tea Dye distress ink.  To finish I coloured some mini Making Memories paper flowers with Copics that the lovely Sav sent to me and attached them with a pop dot.

What are your plans for the weekend?  Natasha and I are meeting up with our friends for a bit of shopping in the morning, and a spot of lunch, then home to play with cards!  Ian has already been given a list of man jobs that need doing around the house, so no slacking for him lol.  Whatever you're doing have fun!

Play Date Cafe & Tiffany Doodles Challenges

Hi everyone

I have two cards to share with you for different challenges, both very different in style.  One is traditional, the other whimsical.  

If you're looking for the Tiffany Doodles challenge card then please scroll down.

Before I share my cards with you I owe you apologies about yesterday!  I'd done an advance posting that should have gone live today but must have set it wrong, so wished you all a Happy Wednesday when it was actually Tuesday!  You must have all thought I'd lost the plot!!

Play Date Cafe Challenge

My first card is what I would call traditional in style, quite different to what I would normally do.  Elusive Images very kindly sponsored PDCC for this week's challenge and sent the designers some Christmas stamps to work with.  (Woohoo, more Christmas cards ticked off my to do list!!)

These are our inspiration colours this week;

 and here is my card...

I decided to let the stamp do most of the talking for this card, so left it quite simple, but added in some cosmic shimmer paint in reds and golds.  (I've never used them before, I've only had them about 5 or 6 years lol) For the tag (Nesties Fancy Tags) I distressed the centre with Fired Brick distress ink before stamping on the Christmas sentiment from Waltzingmouse Stamps (Seasons of Love).   I haven't done a step by step because it's all quite straightforward but if you'd like any specific information just drop me a comment and I will get back to you.

I tried quite a few different variations before settling on this final design.  I kept on overcomplicating it which just didn't work with the stamp at all.  In the end a simple piece of ribbon to finish it off was just what it needed.  Simple, but elegant. The finished card looks much prettier in real life, where there is shimmer on the red and golds, and even on the wings too.  Unfortunately, my camera isn't picking it up that well. 

This is my stamp set which is also one of the sponsor prizes!!  I've made another non-Christmassy card using the decorative corners that I will share with you another time.  It's great when you can use stamps for more than one occasion.

 

These are some of the goodies you can win!  Don't you just LOVE those crystals hanging from the holly. They are GORGEOUS!

Don't forget to pop on over to the rest of the DT's blogs for more inspiration and check out the great prizes!

We are excited to announce that Elusive Images will also be giving a prize of all four sets to the winner and one of their fabulous sets to each of our Fab 4!  So there are extra chances to win this week, come and play along!!

Julie Ranae (Senior DT)

Sarah Anderson (Senior DT)

Lisa Somerville

Savannah O'Gwynn

Suzanne Czosek
Andrea Ewen

Glenda Waterworth, owner of Elusive Images, is also our guest designer this week, so do pop over to her blog too.

Pop on over to the Cafe and link your post. If you use an online gallery, please use the keyword PDCC50, and don't forget to use our inspirational colours to be eligible to win!

Tiffany Doodles Challenge

Tiffany Doodles challenge theme this month is all about 'fall'.  I used one of Tiffany's latest fall digi images to create my card.  I loved paper piecing that little owl, he looks so happy in those leaves!!

For this card I printed the owl in various colours and paper pieced him, adding Stickles to his wings for a bit of glitz!  I matted the card base with brown stock, and Dotty Biscotti papers from Papertrey Ink.  I then used the 'eyelet circles' nesties to cut out an orange circle, and then also cut a plain circle using the circle dies.  I distressed the white circle with 'tea dye' by Tim Holtz, cut a brown strip for the width of the card and then tied on my lime ribbon.  Once I'd assembled the pieces I pop dotted the whole circle.  I then stamped the sentiment, and inked the edges to finish.

Hop on over to my fellow team members' blogs...

• Tiffany Richards Tiffany's Garden
• Cammy Wall Pink Room Therapy
• Cindy Lee My Lil Crafty Corner
• Deirdre Horgan Colour and Ink
• Donna Mikasa 3 Umbrellas
• Julie Masse Stampin' with Julie
• Kathy Racoosin The Daily Marker
• Kim Schofield Paperie Petals
• Lindsay Amrhein Note to Self
• Peet Roeven Scrap Album
• Ruby McGuire (that's me!)
• Shannon Neparko Desert Design Studios
• Sunghee Chon Creativity in Progress
• Virginia Lu Yes, Virginia

You have until the end of the month to enter for a chance to win some fab prizes! More details can be found on the main Tiffany Doodles site, just pop on over there to enter. Don't forget to grab our blinkies for your blog too!