Etsy Inspired Challenge #137– Imagine Studio

Hi again everyone.  It's time for our Etsy Inspired Challenge.

This week we are playing along with Imagine Studio.  The winner will get a prize of any 5 x 7 print of their choice, and you will be spoilt for choice!  This is the picture that inspired me.  The dress reminded me of the wings of a butterfly so I chose to use some stamps from Hero Arts, Antique Engravings and an old text stamp, a few copics, B91, B93, B95, E25, E27, R81, R83, R85, some Stickles and finally a piece of pink ribbon to finish it off.

 

I just LOVE the images in this shop, absolutely gorgeous.  I found so so many that I could use to inspire me, it took ages to dwindle my list down to this image.  Here are some that I love too..



We are being sponsored by EAD Designs but unfortunately my Stickerz didn’t arrive in time, I will have to use them when they get here.   The winner prize is a $25 Gift Certificate.  Some of EAD’s design team will also be playing along, so check out more on their blog here.

Don’t forget to pop on by to our DT too to see some more projects inspired by this fab shop.

Angi Barrs
Carole Chesser
De Swanick
Emily Branch
Jackie Bowman
Joy Stagg
Kerry Angeles
Kimme Leach (April Guest Designer)
Ruby McGuire (that's me!)
Savannah O'Gwynn
Sherry Campbell
Virginia Lu
 
Deadline for entries is Friday 6th May at noon PST. If posting to an online gallery please use EIC#137.

So join in the fun for a chance to win a fun prize.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Today was a special day in England, it was the Royal Wedding of William and Kate and what a fairytale wedding it was, absolutely beautiful.  I hope you manage/managed to watch some/all of it.  Truly a moment in history, Cinderella like!  My poor little girl on my card is more Cinders than Cinderella!

She was created for the latest WEE Memories challenge, ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’



When I saw this challenge I couldn’t get the song by Cyndi Lauper out of my head!  I had been looking to colour one of my new Greeting Farm stamps (Laundry) and thought this would be perfect for the title of the challenge.  This poor little sweetie looks worn out from doing her washing and I thought it would be a bit of fun to add a little thought bubble as if she was wishing she could go out and have a bit of fun instead of doing the chores!

I used Stella & Rose papers for the entire card, a Prima flower, Fancy Square and Square Nesties and the sentiment/thought bubble were printed on my computer using MS Word.

Copics: Y11, Y13, Y15, B24, B26, B29, YR21, YR24, R21, R22, R24, R27, R29, V20, V25E00, E11, E23

Hope you likey!

Back tomorrow with a card for the latest Color Me Creative and Etsy Inspired Challenges.

PDCC 79 & Hero Arts

Hi there everyone.

How are you all? Did you have a good Easter weekend break?  It was lovely to take some time out and to relax.

Today it's Play Date Cafe day!  I'm really excited this week because Hero Arts are sponsoring us. I am in love with their gorgeous new flowers and the fabby office-y sets (I know office-y isn't a word but just stay with me ;o)

I had great fun playing with this card, it was a challenge trying to work out which one of the little stamps to use, they are all so fab!

Here is my card..

and the FAB-U-LOUS colours for this week's challenge...

The colours this week were chosen by Sarah, I have to say these are my new faves of hers.  They are SO my colours!  I said to Ian I choose bright and loud colours and he kindly said, 'vibrant darling, vibrant' lol. 

We have none other than Hero Arts sponsoring us this week!  I was so excited when I heard!  They are offering up a fab shopping spree prize...

We were all really fortunate to be given some stamps of our choice to play with.  I chose this fun 'My Type' set and got a few other gorgeous goodies too that I will share with you another time :o)

1. Cut a rectangle in grey cardstock, mat with a smaller rectangle in lime green cardstock stamped with 'Envelope' background stamp and Ranger 'Peeled' Paint distress ink
2. Die cut PTI 'spiral notebook' on Cosmo Cricket check paper, distress the edges with scissors and age with 'Tea Dye' distress ink
3. Stamp typewriter onto notebook, cut a slit for the typewriter and add a little sheet that has been stamped with the heart.  Age sheet prior to pushing through the slit that you cut, attach with pop dot for dimension
4. Wrap around red ribbon before attaching panel to the card and tie in a bow to the side
5. Stamp 'hello' sentiment to finish

Pop by each of the girls' blogs to see their take on these gorgeous colours.  I do hope you join in with us, I'd love to see what you come up with


Andrea Ewen 
Colleen Dietrich 
Fiona Shultz 
Jaclyn Miller
Jinny Newlin 
Julie Ranae
Libby Hickson 
Michele Gross 
Ruby McGuire (that's me!)
Sarah Anderson
Savannah O'Gwynn 
Tracey Kuzniak 
We are really lucky to have Kelly Rasmussen playing along with us as our Guest Designer, so pop by her blog and leave her a comment.  You will love her creations.
For your chance to win pop on over to the Cafe and link your post.  If you use an online gallery, please use the keyword PDCC79, and remember to use our inspirational colours to be eligible to win this week's prizes!

Finally my happy news for the day... I'm really excited because today (well yesterday because it's today as I'm typing it... confused?! lol)) my Marmie bought me an early (very early in fact) birthday present of a little netbook (my birthday isn't until September) I'm sitting here typing this post, trying to work out some of the differences in the symbol keys and deleting text as I type (unintentionally!!).  I'm sure it will all be really easy to use soon, just takes time.  I wanted something little that I can carry around with me and use for social networking/blogging.  I love it!!  Thank you Marmie!

Etsy Inspired Challenge #136 - Bearly Art

Happy Saturday!  Isn’t it lovely having a long weekend?  Our weather was gorgeous yesterday but it’s not supposed to be that great for the next couple of days apparently, thundery showers .  Oh well, that means we will have to stay indoors and I can get creative! Every cloud has a silver lining lol

Today it’s time for an Etsy Inspired Challenge and this week we have a shop called Bearly Art who have really unusual clocks for sale, all with different images.  I’ve been in a bit of a cutesy and CAS mood the last few days so I chose the clock with a little crab on and made a card with the phrase ‘We’ve Moved’ on it.  I like mixing up different styles, it's fun.

This little crab from Lawn Fawn’s ‘Critters in the Sea’ set looks like he’s got his home on his back.  I paired it up with the sentiment from a PTI set called ‘Wonderfully Whimsical’, and cut out a few papers from Stella & Rose for the sea and sand.  The twine is from The Twinery and also from Ribbon Girl.  Here’s some more fun clocks… The winner will get a clock of their choice of any of the in stock clocks.



I'm going to enter this little card into the Lawnscaping Challenge to use critters.

Our sponsors this week are Sassy Cheryl’s who are giving the winner a $5 gift certificate.  Pop on over to each of the girls to see what they’ve created..

Angi Barrs (not playing this week but pop by and leave some love!)
Carole Chesser
De Swanick
Emily Branch
Jackie Bowman
Joy Stagg
Kerry Angeles
Kimme Leach (April Guest Designer)
Ruby McGuire (that's me!)
Savannah O'Gwynn
Sherry Campbell
Virginia Lu

Deadline for entries is Friday 29th April at noon PST. If posting to an online gallery please use EIC#136.
So join in the fun for a chance to win a fun prize.

Have a great weekend!

Hello Foxy!

Hey there everyone.

Today I have a quick card to share with you using a fun little fox stamp from Hero Arts.

I got this over at the Stamp Attic, it is just SO cute!!!  I’ve had him for a few weeks now but I needed to practice colouring him, he’s quite tricky actually.  He could still do with some more work but after about colouring 30 foxes I’m going to let him pass through lol


I made this card for the latest WEE Memories challenge, ‘all things adorable’.



Well, this fox definitely works for adorable, I think he’s FAB!  I used a sketch from Go-To-Sketches by Papercrafts Magazine, I’m just LOVIN’ these sketches!  SO much inspiration all in one place!  I used Stella & Rose papers, the sentiment is from Lawn Fawn’s new ‘Critters in the Forest’ set, a corner puncher and that’s it!  A quick card (if you don’t count how many foxes you had to colour lol)

That’s it from me today.  I’m off to bed now, I’m going girly shopping with Tinks and my friend tomorrow. It won’t be shop until you drop because my poor little back doesn’t hold out for that anymore, but it will be more my usual coffee, two shops, lunch, two shops, coffee…  you get the drift!   Ian always says he wonders how people can breathe when we go out shopping, because we talk so much we use up all of the oxygen, cheek of it lol

Back with another Etsy Inspired Challenge post tomorrow morning, night night!

PDCC 78 & Some News

Phew, what a week!! I haven't known whether I'm coming or going half the time!  It’s been SO full on!  I hate that, it feels like you’re either going to mess something up or you’re going to forget something!
 
I have a quick card to share with you today for the Play Date Cafe challenge this week but before I do I just want to tell you some fun news about what's been happening in my little world!

I've been asked to join The Stamp Attic design team!  For those of you that live near Oxfordshire you will know that The Stamp Attic is a fantastic shop in Wantage for crafting supplies.  I've been going there ever since I met Sarah from Play Date Cafe, she was the one who told me about it :o)  I am SO excited because not only will I be on their DT I am also going to try out a few workshops there too, a first time venture for me, but I can't wait to get started!  So if you live near Wantage and want somewhere to buy all of those yummy crafty goodies you just have to pop in, or if you want to come along to my first workshop (eek!) for a giggle and some crafting then check out more information on their website here.   Just as important is that there is also a Costa nearby where you can pop in for a lovely Cappuccino to make a little outing of it all!  My kinda perfect shopping trip lol.

The colours Julie picked are just gorgeous, and my new PTI stamps arrived just in time for me to play, but I have to say the mojo just wasn't happening for me. I can't make up my mind if I like this one or not, I kind of do, but kind of don't!!

Here's Julie's yummy pic..

What I do know though is that I just LOVED playing with those itsy bitsty stamps, how much fun are they?!!!!  All of the stamps are from the Papertrey Ink 'Postmarks' set, with the exception of the text stamped on the pink polka dot paper which is a text background from Hero Arts, very VERY old!  I'm not even sure of the name of it now.

I dry embossed the polka dots with a Cuttlebug folder, added a Martha Stewart die cut and tied on some East to West polka dot ribbon.  I used Tea Dye distressing ink around the edges to give it a bit of an aged look.

So pop by and see what the rest of the team have concocted with this fab colour combo, I know you won't be disappointed, they are all fab!


Andrea Ewen 
Colleen Dietrich 
Fiona Shultz 
Jaclyn Miller 
Jinny Newlin 
Julie Ranae
Libby Hickson 
Michele Gross 
Ruby McGuire (that's me!)
Savannah O'Gwynn 
Tracey Kuzniak 
Sarah Anderson
 
Hannah Craner is our Guest Designer, her work is lovely. Pop on over to her blog to see her lovely interpretation of the colours.

Our sponsor this week is Market Street Stamps who have a generous prize to be won, so pop on over to the main blog for more information.

For your chance to win pop on over to the Cafe and link your post.  If you use an online gallery, please use the keyword PDCC78, and remember to use our inspirational colours to be eligible to win this week's prizes!

Etsy Inspired Challenge #135 –Creating is Fun

Happy Weekend dearies!  I hope you’ve all had a lovely week and have a great weekend planned!

If you're looking for my Color Me Creative challenge card please scroll down.

I get to play along with my teamies over at the Etsy Inspired Challenge today, I really missed not being able to play along last week, it’s good to be back.  I have a quick and simple card to share.

This week our shop is Creating is Fun, they sell lots of lovely buttons and ribbons and have offered up a prize of any ONE item of the winner’s choice.



I was inspired by the deep red ribbon in the shop which I used as my frame and the turquoise flower was inspired by these turquoise centred metal buttons and turquoise ribbon.


I just LoVe the new papers by Basic Grey.  This pad is called ‘Hello Luscious’.  If you look carefully you will see that the veins on the flowers match the Hero Arts stamp really well.  I used two Hero Arts stamps, Blossom Art and Yummy Treats.  The flowers are so versatile in the ways in which you can use them, you can layer them up or just add little pearls, buttons etc.  I have some more ideas to share with you soon.   

Robyn's Fetish Digital Stamps And More is proud to sponsor our challenge. A division of I Did It Creations, was created and is owned by Robyn Weinrib. Robyn offers a wonderful variety of digital stamps and digital papers, designed to meet the needs of all digital paper crafting addicts for every occasion.

Robyn's Fetish Digital Stamps And More will award either 5 digital stamps or 4 digital stamps and 1 paper set of the winner's choice to the winner of this challenge.

Angi Barrs
Carole Chesser
De Swanick
Emily Branch
Jackie Bowman
Joy Stagg
Kerry Angeles
Kimme Leach (April Guest Designer)
Ruby McGuire (that's me!)
Savannah O'Gwynn
Sherry Campbell
Virginia Lu

Deadline for entries is Friday 22nd April at noon PST. If posting to an online gallery please use EIC#135.

Have fun and don't forget there are some fab prizes to be won!!

Color Me Creative Easter/Spring Card

Happy Friday!  Well to all of you over in the US, it's actually Saturday here now but because of the time difference this post is going live now!

Today it's time for the latest Color Me Creative challenge, this time it's to make an Easter/Spring card using just pastel colours. Phew, pastels?!! Me? Use pastels?!! What about my wonderful bright colours?! Well actually this challenge was much less scary than I thought!

Stamps - check, colours - check, design - yikes, NO idea whatsoever! Well, thanks to my wonderful friend, Savannah, who sent me over a copy of the Go-to-Sketches Papercrafts Magazine I managed to get past that hurdle. I just LOVE my sketches, as I'm sure you all know and this magazine couldn't have arrived at a better time :)  I sat with a cup of coffee (in bed this morning.. I know.. pure bliss!) and looked through all of the wonderful sketches and inspiration pictures.  Oh now, that's my kind of happy!  I then got out my little notepad and scribbled out lots of different ideas for this challenge and other DT commitments.  I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE sketches.  If ever I'm stuck they are my immediate go-to item.  Funnily enough I find my best cards are the ones where the sketch is very simple and quite open to interpretation.  What sparks your creativity when you're a bit stuck, is it patterned papers, embellishments, stamps, sketches??  I'd love to hear what gets your mojo back.

This is the card that I made.  I used my little flowers from this Hero Arts set called 'Stamp a Garden'.  It's really good fun to colour in, choosing colours was the hardest part!

I used this sketch and just coloured the edges of my little squares with Spun Sugar distress ink.  A piece of ribbon across the top and voila, card finished.

I'm slowly building my Copic collection.  I'm hoping to get a few Copics instead of chocolate eggs for Easter. Well a girl can wish, can't she?!!

Supplies:

Stamps: Hero Arts 'Stamp a Garden', DeNami Design 'Best Wishes'
Papers: Unknown, just leftovers (sorry!)
Copics: BV000, BV00, BV01, R81, R83, R85,B00, B02, Y15, Y13, Y11YR00, YR02, YR04G20, G24, YG03,

Back tomorrow with my card for the Etsy Inspired Challenge!

Cafe and Ian - what a perfect combination!

Hello everyone, time for a neutral colour palette from me for a change over at the Play Date Cafe!

Here are this week's colours...

My green on my card is looking more like khaki than the colours shown here, but it is right in real life, honest!!


Today we are being sponsored by The Greeting Farm, as you will see over time I really love these stamps, they are particularly great for colouring in with Copics, fun!  We each got to play with a different Greeting Farm stamp, mine was 'Cafe Ian'.  VERY appropriate for me seeing as I'm a caffeine addict and Ian is my other half!!

The Greeting Farm are kindly sponsoring this week's challenge with a $25 gift certificate!  Ooh, can I win?!!! 
So what stamps did the other DT girls get?  Well pop by and see for yourselves, lots of beautiful inspiration, each totally unique ...

Andrea Ewen

Colleen Dietrich

Fiona Shultz
Jaclyn Miller

Jinny Newlin
Julie Ranae 
Libby Hickson
Michele Gross  
Ruby McGuire (that's me!) 
Savannah O'Gwynn
Tracey Kuzniak
Sarah Anderson

and we also have the lovely Jessica Deidrich as our Guest Designer!  .Pop by and leave her some love too.

What will you create for this week's challenge?

For your chance to win pop on over to the Cafe and link your post.  If you use an online gallery, please use the keyword PDCC77, and remember to use our inspirational colours to be eligible to win this week's prizes!

Supplies:

Stamps: The Greeting Farm 'Cafe Ian', PTI Banner Builder (& die), PTI Springtime Doodles
Dies: Nesties circles
Papers: Scraps from stash, GCD Studios 'Chic Bebe'
Accessories: SU! button, brown twine, Martha Stewart punch,

Back with more soon for the Color Me Creative challenge!

Lawnscaping Challenge - Create your Own Background

Hi there

I feel like I'm finally getting back into the land of the living, phew we've all been so rough on and off.  It's just left us all really shattered.  I've been working but it's been so tiring.  I only work a few hours a week, well out of the house that is, there's always a million and one bits of paperwork to sort, so it's been good that I've been able to catch up on a bit of sleep in between :o)  Makes me sound old lol

Anyway, enough of that, here is a little card I would love to say I'd whipped up, but the reality is it took FOREVER to make! 

The idea has been brewing for a while, then I spent an evening trying to colour in the little racoon, (still learning how to blend my copics and working with greys to make it look a bit black lol!) then another evening messing around with masking, (Thanks Britta for your fab tutorial!), then more time finishing it all off, but I'm really pleased with the end result, it was worth it! This is for my little princess, she's been feeling so poorly lately I thought it would cheer her up! 

The challenge over at Lawnscaping was to make your own patterned paper using stamps, I used little mushrooms on mine with some versamark.  I was going to colour them in but it took away from the picture so decided against it.  I loved playing with my Lawn Fawn stamps though and you may notice a few Hero Arts ones in there too!

Today has been a FAB day, I won a $20 DeNami gift certificate, got happy mail sponsor stamps in the post, more of that in a later Play Date Cafe post ;o) a crafty parcel from my wonderful friend Savannah and a couple of other exciting but can't share yet things!  Such a great day!  Here's to many more of them lol

Back tomorrow with my Play Date Cafe card!  Until then, happy stamping!

Supplies:

Stamps: Lawn Fawn 'Critters in the Forest', 'Say Cheese', Hero Arts 'Sky's the Limit'
Papers: Handmade lol!!  (SO funny saying that!), Kraft cardstock
Accessories: Ribbon Girl bakers' twine

DeNami Blog Hop - Monochromatic

Hi everybody





Welcome to the DeNami Blog Hop, today it's all about monochromatic!  I have really enjoyed making a card for this because I rarely do monochromatic cards, I always tend to add in lots of different colour, although if you look very carefully you will see I did have to add in a teeny weeny bit of green on my middle robot just so that my sentiment would work!  Cheating?  Probably, but I'm hoping I won't be in too much trouble ;o)  I didn't quite plan my card well enough before I started!

Here is my card..

I used the little 'Friendly Robot' for my card, he's just SO adorable and great fun to colour too!  I often go for elegant on these hops but this time I thought I'd just go for something fun.  I think the card is pretty self explanatory so other than using my Copic markers to colour them in I just used up a scrap of polka dot paper, twine from The Twinery and Lawn Fawn 'Harold's ABC' for the sentiment, plus a little MME button to finish.  (If anyone can tell me how best to photograph Cryogen cardstock I would be really grateful.  I found it quite difficult with the shimmer!)

Here are  the details of the hop..

When: The blog hop starts on April 10 at 6 AM,PST. However, you have until April 11, 2011, 11:59pm PST, to leave comments on all the blogs (to be eligible for a prize).

Why: To be inspired by beautiful creations featuring DeNami Design stamps and also the chance to win mini shopping sprees on the DeNami Design website!

Prizes: We are giving away THREE $20 gift certificates to our website! We'll be giving away one gift certificate to a random participant (DT members not eligible) and then we'll also be giving away TWO gift certificates to TWO people who comment along the hop!

If you've come from the lovely Debbie Marcinkiewicz's blog then you're in the right place, if not pop over to the DeNami blog and start at the beginning.

Your next stop is the super talented Julie Ranae who's put together a wonderful project for you! 

Happy Hopping! 

Etsy Inspired Challenge #135

Hi there

Unfortunately I won't be playing along with this week's Etsy Inspired challenge, but do pop on over to the main blog for all of the details and to check out our fab DT's creations.

I will be back tomorrow with my DeNami blog hop post providing I've set it up right!!

Have a great day!

Play Date Cafe & The Crop Stop

Hello everyone!  Today we had a beautiful sunny day, it's been lovely and warm, what's your weather like?

It's Thursday, which means it's time for another Play Date Cafe challenge.  My card is very simple this week because I've not been very well, both Natasha and I still have this virus and Ian has now caught it too!  Cardmaking is great therapy though, right?!  and I got to play with some yummy stamps from The Stamp Attic!  I am smothered in blue ink from this card that I made and life is good despite silly viruses trying to take over lol
 

These are the challenge colours from Sarah, isn't that bright blue gorgeous?!

My card uses Hero Arts stamps (Blossom Art for both flowers, Layered Flowers for the leaf, Envelope Pattern and Congrats for the sentiment.  All I did was add a pearl and voila, card made!

Our sponsor this week are Crop Stop who are new to us.  They are offering up a $10 gift certificate, so make sure you join in the fun for a chance to win their fab prize!





Don't forget to pop on over to the rest of the PDCC team to see what they've come up with. 

in Alphabetical Order..

Andrea Ewen

Colleen Dietrich

Fiona Shultz
Jaclyn Miller

Jinny Newlin
Julie Ranae 
Libby Hickson
Michele Gross  
Ruby McGuire (that's me!) 
Sarah Anderson
Savannah O'Gwynn
Tracey Kuzniak

and we have the lovely Tracy Evans as our Guest Designer!  Tracy plays along with us regularly and comes up with one creative idea after another!  Pop on over and leave her some love.

I'd love to see what you come up with for this week's challenge.

For your chance to win pop on over to the Cafe and link your post.  If you use an online gallery, please use the keyword PDCC76, and remember to use our inspirational colours to be eligible to win this week's prizes!