PDCC 59

Happy Thursday!

As you have probably noticed I am in a quick and simple card mood at the minute!  This week's colours over at the Play Date Cafe were put together by Sarah, and this is what I came up with...

It doesn't show very clearly here but the background colour is actually a dark purple, then the royal blue is on the patterned paper and the blue for the birds and banner.  I'm finding it quite difficult to photograph cards here at the minute, the natural daylight has a blue-y hue to it. 

Here's Sarah's pic..

I love the artwork by BonnieRose too!

Here's what I did..

1. Mat cardbase with purple cardstock
2. Cut a piece of patterned paper, tie around some bakers' twine
3. Stamp a banner and add the sentiment, then paper piece
4. Stamp birds onto patterned paper and then again twice onto pale blue paper, and fussy cut.  Attach one of each bird directly onto the stamped images, and then attach the second ones using pop dots to add dimension
5. Pop dot the finished panel onto the card
6. Smile at the cute stamps, don't you just love 'em!

I couldn't just stop at that one colour combo, so made a couple more..

Mini cards are so much fun to make.  I love being able to fussy cut little stamped images while I'm watching tv!  Sarah was the one who inspired me to paper piece many months ago, now there is no stopping me.  Thanks Sarah! ;o)

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

Julie Ranae (Senior DT)

Sarah Anderson (Senior DT)

Savannah O'Gwynn

Andrea Ewen

Pop on over to the Cafe and link your post. If you use an online gallery, please use the keyword PDCC59, and remember to use our inspirational colours to be eligible to win!

As you may have seen we are in the final stages of selection for our additions to the design team, so keep a look out, who knows it could be you!

Stamps: Lawn Fawn, 'Fly Free', 'Sophie's Sentiments', 'Bannerific'
Paper: Leftovers from Stash, possibly K & Co??, Bazzill cardstock (purple)
Accessories: Baker's twine from Ribbon Girl

Create: challenge

Hi guys

I wanted to play along with Create: Challenge again today.  This week's theme is Quick & Easy Christmas Cards and I made this little card using Lawn Fawn ''Cozy Christmas' stamps.  Aren't those little lights the cutest?!

I had seen Kelly Marie over at Lawn Fawn colour the little mini lights and then add glossy accents, which I thought looked adorable, so I thought I'd have a play. The little bulbs go so well with this Cosmo Cricket paper, don't you think?  If you look close enough you will see they are really glossy.  They feel like light bulbs too :o)

I also have a little Noel card to share with you today.  My Mum needed a batch of Christmas cards made up, so I went into production (that's what it felt like!) and made these.  I'm not sure they would quite fit into the category of quick and easy because of the colouring, but it is something you can do while watching tv so they actually don't take very long at all once you get into a routine! They were really therapeutic to make as I got to play with my Copics too.

Did I tell you I recently got Copic Certified? 

It doesn't mean I'm any good at it, but at least I now know the techniques to try and learn!!!  Seeing as I've collected a set of them I really ought to try and put them to good use now, huh?! 

Secret Crafter Challenge

Happy Tuesday everyone! I hope the start of your week is going well.  Things have definitely calmed down here, finally.  It's nice to be able to breathe again!  Lots of school activities are coming up between now and Christmas, but I have reduced my hours working so that's definitely helped.  A carol service is the first social event on the list this year.  I just love this time of year, do you?  There is such an air of expectancy everywhere you go, love it!

I have a Christmas card to share with you today, for the Secret Crafter challenge. The theme is Christmas so it was a good excuse to make another much needed card for my never ending list!

I seem to be in a bit of a strange mood at the minute, one day I like traditional and the next cutesy, so I guess you will be seeing both styles on here for a while!  Maybe that will be my kind of style going forward, who knows!  Today it's more traditional. Do you switch styles like that?

I loved the background paper and knew I wanted to dig out my Waltzingmouse stamps for the label, and this is what I came up with.

Stamps: Holiday Labels 14 by Waltzingmouse Stamps
Dies: Nesties Labels 14, Victorian border die by Papertrey Ink, Sizzix 3d flower
Papers: Cosmo Cricket
Accessories: Felt from stash, distress inks

If you haven't done so already there is still time to enter the Play Date Cafe Challenge!

Brrr.. It's cold outside...

So this snowman is perfect for the day. We have just got over our first bit of snow, but it was fun playing around with my new stamps from Papertrey Ink. I think we may be due more snow soon, but for now it's just very cold.

 This card is for the latest Etsy Inspired Challenge.  The challenge is to look through the Etsy Shop and find something to inspire you to make a card. 

This heart is so much fun, and the little flowers remind me of snowflakes and the colours of this patterned paper by Cosmo Cricket.  I could make quite a few cards using this picture as inspiration, I love it!

So how is your weekend going? We had fun putting up our Christmas decorations last night while listening to some Christmas music, drinking mulled wine (well actually it wasn't wine, it was a cordial type drink) Not that we don't drink wine on occasion, just that we were trying something a bit different for a change :o) Once the decorations were up we decided to sit down together and watch 'Elf'. Such a funny film.

It is quite an old film now, but silly and still very funny!  It always makes Tink belly laugh so it's totally worth watching! 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.  I am back into the swing of blogging again now, finally!!  It's so nice to have time to pop by and comment, and get inspiration from others.  Love it! 

Back soon :o)

PDCC 58

Hi there everyone

Life is starting to finally slow down so I will be back blogging properly again. It should have happened last week but I wasn't so well and our heating went too!  It never rains but it pours!  Well actually, we have a little bit of snow here, plus more expected so it looks really pretty :)

Today for my Play Date Cafe Challenge contribution I decided to make a tag instead of a card. The colours are gorgeous, and I could do with some tags for Christmas so thought this was the perfect excuse!

Here's the gorgeous inspiration pic...

Yum-mee!!!

Here are the details of how I made the tag;

1. Die cut and stamp a little jar, stamp again using polka dot stamp to fill jar
2. Die cut label, stamp in black for the outline and then stamp the sentiment in red
3. Stamp snowflake in red, cut out
4. Add glitter glue to snowflake, attach to tag
5. Cancel step 4 and start again because by now you will be covered in stickles glitter glue where you were trying to stick the snowflake to the tag before the glue has dried!! 
6. Sooo... attach snowflake to tag using 3d pop dots, then... add stickles glitter glue to snowflake for a bit of bling and finish off with a gem
7. Tie around some baker's twine
8. Add hole to top of tag and thread through some more bakers' twine to finish

Don't you just love these little jars? They are SO much fun to make!  It's like being a kid all over again! :o)

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

Julie Ranae (Senior DT)

Sarah Anderson (Senior DT)

Savannah O'Gwynn

Andrea Ewen

Pop on over to the Cafe and link your post. If you use an online gallery, please use the keyword PDCC58, and remember to use our inspirational colours to be eligible to win!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink 'Friendship Jars', Lawn Fawn 'Frosties'
Accessories: Bakers' Twine, gem from stash

Back soon with another card, ciao for now!

PDCC 57

Hi there everyone and Happy Thanksgiving to those that are celebrating it! I'd love to hear how you all celebrate. I just have a normal Thursday today, doing the usual, but I'm hoping to get a bit of cardmaking in too. Sorry I haven't been around this past week, things are starting to slow up now so life should be a bit easier. 

Today I have a card to share with you for this week's Play Date Cafe Challenge, but first I want to say thank you again to all of our players, for without you we wouldn't have a challenge blog.  We love the creations you all submit, and I know I love to look to the submissions for inspiration too!

For once I'm actually quite pleased with how my card turned out!  Here it is..

Our sponsor this week is Stamp Attack who are giving away two free plates, with a $40 dollar value.  For more information check out our main blog.

We were sent some stamps of our choice and I chose 'Flourishes'.  I LOVE flourishes!  I needed to make a baby card, but not in the traditional baby colours so I rummaged through all of my papers to see what would match Sarah's inspiration picture for the week.  I had been mulling different ideas over, but it was really last minute that this came together.

I used the flourish stamps as my inspiration and then worked on from there.  I usually start by looking at my papers for inspiration, or various sketches, but occasionally it's the image that I start from, as in this case. I really liked the length of the larger flourish so tried to match the nestie up alongside of it.

Here's what I did...

1. Rummage through papers to find a selection of ones to match the colour combination, try not to get too distracted (easier said than done when I see pretty papers!!)
2. Cut grey patterned paper and mat to card base after distressing edges (2/3 across card)
3. Stamp flourish onto brown patterned paper in coffee ink and emboss with clear powder, make slightly shorter than the grey to add a bit of layering, distress edges
4. Die cut label in brown and grey papers, distress all edges
5. Stamp smaller flourish onto grey paper, adhere to bottom section of label
6. Wrap big bow around the label, attach to card using pop dots
7. Stamp and cut out teddy bear, distress edges (It seems like I'm doing a lot of distressing!)
8. Attach a silver button to teddy's tummy, with some twine tied to the centre beforehand, attach to label using pop dots
9. Stamp the sentiment, distress edges and attach with pop dots to finish

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

It's Sue and Lisa's final week with us this week, so do pop over and leave them some comments.  I was saying to them yesterday that I can't believe where the time has gone.  It seems only five minutes ago since we all joined as a team.  They have both created some lovely pieces during their time with us and I know I will miss their inspiration.  Lisa's favourite project for me had to be the snowflake collection she made (see here), stunning!  Sue's favourite of mine was the pail she decorated here - wow, that must have taken forever to make!!  I look forward to seeing more of their creations as I hop around in blogland!

Pop on over to the Cafe and link your post. If you use an online gallery, please use the keyword PDCC57, and remember to use our inspirational colours to be eligible to win!

Have a special Thursday, whatever it is you are doing in your part of the world!

PDCC 56

Happy Thursday everyone!  Yay, it's nearly the weekend!  I am nearly in panic mode, I have a fete on Saturday next week and have about 100+ cards to make, uh oh, running out of time!!  Work has been taking over the last few weeks, but hopefully there will be a better balance soon.

This week is Player Appreciation Week over at the Play Date Cafe.  We really do appreciate our players, and love that we have so many regular contributors too.  As a design team we all try to pop by and comment when we can, although I have to say my commenting has been a bit difficult this past couple of weeks.  I will be popping by more regularly soon, as my work commitments ease up.

As part of our special week we also have extra sponsors, so pop on over to our main blog for more information!  There are some super prizes to win.

First up are EAD who gave us some fun stickers to play with  for this week's challenge.  Amy Castellano is joining us from EAD as our guest designer too.

Now I really don't like using peel offs and things like that so was a bit dubious when I heard we were being mailed some stickers, but I LOVE them.  I 'need' more!!  Thank you EAD for the fab stickers, I had great fun using them.  How fab are they when you need to make a quick card?!! 

This card was SO simple to make.

1. I used my new Cosmo Cricket papers, and cut them to various sizes to cover the front of my card base.  
2. I added an extra red strip across the stripey band to give it a bit of a lift.  I then added three tree stickers.  I love how the stripes show through the trees :)  
3. I added another sticker at the bottom for the sentiment, and topped it off with a prima flower to finish.  

This was a 5 minutes start to finish card!  Now that's the kind of cards I need to make between now and next week!  Look at these great rub-ons you can win...





This card makes me happy.  The colours are very me, and now just look at this GORGEOUS inspiration pic by Julie.

I absolutely love this picture.  It sums up everything card-making to me!

Our second sponsor is Discount Cardstock, with guest designer, Tami Mayberry joining us.  Discount Cardstock are providing us with this prize..

Last, but definitely not least are our final sponsors, Wilson Designs, with guest designer, Kim Wilson

 and this cutie of a prize! ...

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

Julie Ranae (Senior DT)

Sarah Anderson (Senior DT)

Lisa Somerville

Savannah O'Gwynn

Suzanne Czosek

Andrea Ewen

Pop on over to the Cafe and link your post. If you use an online gallery, please use the keyword PDCC56, and remember to use our inspirational colours to be eligible to win!

Have a great Thursday!

Wedding Card

Hi everyone

Life is still manic in Ruby world so fingers crossed my posts are still going live, unlike my one the other day where I must have messed it up! 

I have this quick wedding card to share with you today. I love it when you get a patterned paper and it needs very little done to it to make it into a card!

I hope you've all had a good weekend, and a great week ahead too!

I hope to be back joining in challenges again soon.  Have fun!

PDCC 55

I've just checked my blog and my card was saved as a draft and not uploaded.  I am not doing very well with these scheduled posts, am I?!  Sorry!!!

Hello everyone

Today I'd like to share a card with you that I've made for some rather challenging colours that Sarah set! Sarah does like to challenge us with her colours as you may know, but I usually like what I make. I have mixed feelings about this card though. I love the butterflies, I think they look great but I wish I hadn't cut the edges around the bark, it looks silly! Anyway, as you know it's been busy around here so I didn't have the time to redo it. I was brave and just 'let it go'!!!

;

Our sponsors this week are Innovative Stamp Creations

ISC gave us some stamps to work with and I chose to use a butterfly one, well you could have guessed that, couldn't you?!  You know how I like my butterflies!  These ones are really pretty too, especially that top one, it's fab!  Thank you ISC
When Sarah sets the colours I really like to try and get as close to them as possible and challenge myself.  Here's how I did it..

1. Stamp butterfly image onto pink cardstock
2. Stamp again onto various different coloured papers
3. Stamp different butterflies in various colours (do 2 of each) using dotty background stamp (the red one is paper, not stamped!)
4. Fussy cut butterflies, stick one of each directly onto the card
5. Use the second set of butterflies to stick to card using 3d foam pads to add some dimension
6. Layer the bark onto cardstock
7. Don't copy me where I went around the edges, but just cut straight around all edges, my version looks silly!!!!
8. Stamp sentiment onto red polka dot paper to finish

I am really pleased with the blue butterflies that I stamped, I love the red polka dot stamped over the blue butterfly image, the colours are great together.  Thanks for the colour inspiration Sarah! I will definitely be making those butterflies again in the polka dot!

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 this 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 PDCC55, and remember to use our inspirational colours to be eligible to win!

A happy little card!

Hi everyone

Phew, WHAT a week! I am wrecked!

I want to share a little card with you tonight that makes me really happy. You may remember a few weeks back Natasha had to go away on a school trip. We weren't allowed any contact, but could send one card. This is the card that I sent her.  Inside it said 'have a whale of a time'.  I wanted to send her something to make her smile and think of us, but not to make her cry.   This card makes me happy because it's now sitting here at home, along with my little princess that I missed SO very much!

As you can see the card is all crumpled up where she had it in her suitcase!  It was actually uncrumpled when it was sent!

Stamps: Lawn Fawn 'Critters in the Sea'
Papers: Cosmo Cricket 'DeLovely'
Ribbon: local haberdashery

I'll be back tomorrow with a card for PDCC.  Until then have fun!

Tiffany Doodles 6

Hi everyone

It's time for another fun challenge over at Tiffany Doodles!  Sorry for the slightly overdue post.  I thought I had set this to schedule, but had actually set it as a draft.  Oops, sorry!!

Today it's time for Tiffany Doodles' 6th challenge. How quick have those 6 challenges gone?!!

Our theme for this challenge is anything but a card! A challenge indeed for me!

I used one of Tiffany's fairly new critters, see info below.  This little fellow is so cute.  I got the idea of the gift bags from Papertrey Ink, but couldn't get the bags as they had run out, so I had to improvise.  I thought the little squirrel would look adorable as the main image.

Here's a step by step guide;

1. Resize and print squirrel onto copic cardstock, colour with copics
2. Cut out image using a circular hole punch, distress edges
3. Mat circle onto scalloped chocolate cardstock
4. Double mat circle onto label nestie
5. Cut out gift bag and assemble (or better still get your other half to assemble as I did, he does a much better job!)
6. Pop dot completed label onto bag
7. Stamp label tag and sentiment, attach to bag with a pop dot
8. Tie on big stripey ribbon to finish

So if you like what you see pop on over to Tiffany's blog and pick yourself up this FAB little set.  

It is just SO much fun.  You may recall I made this card with the little owl for last month's challenge.  I have had so many comments from friends about this little owl, he's adorable.

Don't forget to check out the rest of the DT's blogs, they've done some great projects!

• 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!

PDCC 54

Happy Thursday!

* For CARDS challenge card please scroll down *

Today over at Play Date Cafe we have a really fun colour challenge for you put together by Julie.   I LOVE these colours together, they make me happy!

The Artistic Stamper gave us some lovely stamps to play with.

I chose this set of flourishes, they are so pretty, don't you think?  I love stamps that look gorgeous without too much effort on my part, and these fit that exactly!!

It was tricky to know which one to use, but I do just love all the detail on the largest one, it's fab!

Pop on over to their blog to see what other delights they have in store for you!

Here are the details of how I made it...

1. Matt card base with green polka dot paper
2. Stamp orange paper with a flourish, decorate with punched butterflies made with brown cardstock
3. Tie on some orange ribbon
4. Attach a flower to the ribbon knot
5. Punch and add a white swirly border before attaching orange base to card with pop dots
6. Stamp sentiment to finish
7. Add gems to butterflies, it needed a bit of bling!
8. Step back and think wow I managed to make that card in record time, usually I take forever!

Stamps: The Artistic Stamper, PTI 'Damask Designs'
Papers: Cosmo Cricket 'Pixie-Licious'
Accessories: Martha Stewart border punch, Bo Bunny ribbon, Prima flower, Tim Holtz distress ink, swarowski gems

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. 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 PDCC54, and remember to use our inspirational colours to be eligible to win!

CARDS challenge

I made this quick fun card for the CARDS challenge this week, which was to use ruffles.  I made this little bird card using Cosmo Cricket papers.  I drew out the bird and cut it out, running a black copic marker around the edge for definition.  I used Just My Type stamp from Lawn Fawn for the sentiment.  

The birds on the paper don't have eyelashes, and Olivia (as I'm calling her) really needed some so I drew them in.  Don't you just love those long eyelashes, funny!!

I have a pretty hectic schedule the next couple of weeks so I may not get time to pop around to your blogs to comment when you play along, but that doesn't mean to say I'm not looking, and I will still be doing a list of my top fave cards.  I just love to see what you've created. Those that leave me a comment know that I do get around to your blogs, albeit not always immediately.  I appreciate each and every comment left, they always make my day!

I will be doing some scheduled posts though so you will still have something to look at :o)