C.R.A.F.T. and Sketch Challenge Cards

Had a little time to myself last night, once the boys were safely tucked up in bed (one of them was my bed, however!!!!). I've got lots to do later this week, so took the opportunity to make a couple of challenge cards.

Sketch Challenge 17 - Trimcraft

Following Tracey's sketch, I decided to make a Hallowe'en card. Have been dying to use some of my new stash. Love these cute little die-cuts and you get so many on a 12x12 sheet!

Recipe:

Die-cuts and DP: Boo! to You! by My Mind's Eye.

Sentiment: Frightful Collection by Little Yellow Bicycle.

C.R.A.F.T. Challenge 18

Just one rule of no backing paper! I thought I'd break out another recent purchase and try them out. Love Kraft cardstock.

Recipe:

Stamps: 59004 Sentiments LG by American Crafts.

Ribbon: Local Haberdashery section of Dept. Store.

Diamond Stickles to give a little glisten.

That's probably my whack for this week, roll on the weekend and International Card Making Day on 3rd Oct. (Any excuse to sit on my botty and make a mess....) :)

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Week 68

I've been neglecting the old rubber this past week, so I thought I'd try to be organised enough to make even one card for a challenge. I had planned to make one last week for the PBSC Lace & Pearl challenge, but just ran out of time. So, I've picked up on this week's challenge, which is a colour combo of Chocolate, Pink and Lemon. It's only my second blog-based challenge, but I'll get there eventually.

I've chosen my all-time favourite animal, I'm a pig-lover and proud! This image makes me smile from ear to ear.

Here's the recipe:

Stamped image: 2614H Pinky Package by Penny Black, coloured with Promarkers.

Sentiment: 2912D Happy Birthday by Penny Black.

DP: The Glitter Stack by DCWV.

Ribbon: Hobbycraft's finest (lol).

Punch: Mini flower by X-Cut.

Gems: Cheapy pack of gems, (meant to bling up yer phone) bought from a market stall.

Hope it fits the bill. :)

Anyone for Edward...................?

As a responsible parent, I know I shouldn't be lusting after younger men but I do have a bit of a thing for Robert Pattinson, aka Edward Cullen. All other lusters, form an orderly queue behind me (lol)! My 10 year old rolls his eyes with disdain when I seek out new trailers on our weekly movie web-hunt. Can't wait for the new movie, shall be going several times whilst the kids are at school.

So, I jumped at the chance of buying the gorgeous Wide-Eyed Sprout Edward stamp from The Greeting Farm. I've not had an opportunity to make a card with him until now, as my friend's son's birthday is approaching (and he's becoming even more of a brooding teenager). I've also tied this card up with Funkymotha's Sketch Challenge #16 on the Trimcraft forum.

Image: Edward by The Greeting Farm.

Papers: Lime Rickey by BasicGrey.

Buttons: Boxer by BasicGrey.

I just hope Connor likes the card, then again, he is a teenager so I suppose a grunt will have to suffice! :)

My First Blog Challenge......

Well, I thought, I've been here nearly two weeks and haven't entered a blog-based challenge yet. Been quite scared and intimidated to be perfectly honest, as there are some incredible crafters out there. *sighs heavily*

However, I'm never going to learn if I don't try. So here goes....

I've chosen The Sugar Bowl Challenge 19 to start off with, as I saw Marlene's sketch on someone's blog this morning and thought it looked interesting.

The image is Manga Girl #1 by Sugar Nellie coloured with Promarkers, papers are Earth Love by Cosmo Cricket, flowers are from the new E-line at Prima (cheap as chips!) and the sentiment is by Hero Arts.

The brief was to follow the sketch and include pink and brown. Even though it doesn't really look it, thanks to my marvellously pitiful photography skills, the almost orangey colour is actually Coral Pink....honest!

Hope it's okay, looks a little busy to me (almost in a 70's kind of way) but what the hey! Thanks for looking. :)

P.S. - Ooh, just realised the C.R.A.F.T. Challenge this week is Pink and Brown too - yaay, two challenges in one go!!! :D

Spooktacular Stamps!!!!

I'm not a huge fan of Christmas, although since having the boys I have to admit, it's a whole lot more interesting. However, my all-time favourite celebration has always been Hallowe'en. I've always been a sucker for all things spooky and I'm really getting into the "spirit" of things this year. Although, I'm technically starting my stash diet, I've been tempted to buy some super-cute spooky stamps and am awaiting their delivery so that I can play with them.

Tracy over at Dies to Die For has an offer on every day this week, as she's celebrating her birthday. Today's special offer is for the fab new spooky Pink Cat Studio stamps, Itty Bitty Halloween along with your choice of two 12x12 papers from My Mind's Eye's Boo To You! range. Needless to say, I bought them and am looking forward to making some cards with them.

I've already bought the gorgeous Spooktacular stamp set from The Greeting Farm at the fab Quixotic Paperie and am eagerly awaiting their delivery....if the peeps at Royal Mail will kindly stop striking!

In the meantime, I've saddled myself with a pretty large task. I'm a keen fab of Youtube tutorials and one in particular caught my attention. It's posted by ChicnScratch and demonstrates how to make Frankenstein favour boxes, which I thought would be fab to make up for Alex's classmates. He goes to a Special Needs school, so only has 6 children in his class. Ideal. However, Lou came home from school and saw the boxes I was making. He wanted some for his school, initially for a handful of friends but as he's now told everyone about them, his whole class want them. So, that's just 30 more boxes plus the additional ones I was originally going to make for my nieces and nephews and friends' children. I think we're looking at at least 55!!!!

The Frankie one is as per the video, the other two are just trying out different stamps. I've used the Frightful Collection by Little Yellow Bicycle and embossed them. The Spooky Skull is really difficult to capture, as it's on pearlescent card and is embossed with Cosmic Shimmer Lustre Embossing Powder in Arctic Frost. I'll try to get a better photo later! :)

Get Well Soon, Angela!

My best mate injured her back last week and has a slipped disc, which is causing her no end of pain and very limited mobility. To cheer her up a little, I decided to make her a card or two.

First card: I bought this stamp on ebay in a bundle and I can't say who made it or what the image is called, as there's absolutely nothing on the stamp - just a plain wooden block. If anyone knows, please tell me as I like to know who to credit for their lovely designs. I've coloured the image with Promarkers and mounted it onto Core'dinations Whitewash cardstock and embossed it with the new Cuttlebug folder, Daisy Pattern. Papers are LilyKate by BasicGrey and the sentiment is from HOTP.

Second card: The image is Snuggle by The Greeting Farm, coloured with Promarkers and Copics. I've mounted the image onto Core'dinations Gemstone cardstock, embossed with the same Cuttlebug folder. I haven't bothered with a sentiment, as it's a hug-in-a-card.

I haven't had a chance to play with my new Promarkers yet, so I'm looking forward to a crafting session later in the week. Before I do that, I've got to get stuck into tidying up my crafty stash and sorting out stamps, papers and embellies to get rid of. My hubby shakes his head every time he walks by my boxes of stash, bless him! I've decided to give the stash diet another go, as I have spent a lot lately and need to save up for Santa coming. It begins just as soon as I take delivery of the stamps and papers I've just ordered......hmmmm. ;)

Santa's been early........ :)

Oh, my, I'm soooo excited today! Got a Parcelforce delivery this afternoon and didn't even look at the box, as they're usually for hubby. It wasn't until I was about to make tea that I realised it was addressed to me and was my new Promarker colours. Had forgotten all about them (how could I??), so I let out such a squeal of delight. Now, I just have to find somewhere to stash them. I still haven't told hubby that I've bought them......oops!

Rambling.....not just verbally for a change!

After a busy couple of days, including taking Kitty for her first booster jab and feeling sooo guilty afterwards when she gazed at me with those sad eyes, I thought we could all do with a nice day out.

Lou went on a trip with my mum to Holy Island this morning, so hubby and I decided to take Alex out for the day. We've walked for miles up and down hill and eventually ended up in a fab Adventure Playground, where I had to physically wrench Alex from the wooden beams!!

Fabulous weather, I thought it was Autumn but have a cherry-red nose to prove otherwise. I managed to complete the above card for Lee-Anne's Sketch Challenge 14 on Trimmie, but only just.

The image is Little Star by Suzanne Woolcott for Sugar Nellie, coloured with Promarkers. The papers are Eva collection by BasicGrey. I have decided that I've fallen in love with my Martha Stewart punches but with Doily Lace particularly lately! Still haven't gotten my head around the other Trimmie Challenge yet. I really must get more organised!

School's Back In........Hooray!!!

I'm an avid (nay, obsessive) member of the Trimcraft forum, joining way back in April this year and have been toying with the idea of starting a blog, if only to try to get my hands on some of the scrummy Blog Candy that I see all of the time!

Well, I did say that once my boys had returned to school, I'd try my hand at blogging. Haven't a clue what I'm doing, so please bear with me!!

I went into hibernation on Tuesday after I dropped off Lou at school, just me and Kitty (our gorgeous new kitten) and good old peace and quiet. As I needed to make a couple of cards this week for family and friends' birthdays, etc., I decided to take advantage of the free time and got stuck in.

Firstly, I needed to make a card for my fishing-mad brother. The photo is pants, but the fisherman's hat, fish and hands are decoupaged. I used the Gone Fishing stamp set by Woodware and coloured with Promarkers.

Next, I needed to make one for my mate, Elaine. I used the Bloom and Grow papers from My Mind's Eye and my stamped image is Loves Me Tilda by Magnolia, coloured with Promarkers and a blob of Stickles. The glittery flower is by Prima and had a beige brad in the centre, which I "stickled" over with Eucalyptus. The sentiment is by American Crafts, embossed with their Zing Embossing Powder in Vanilla.

Finally, I've had this image coloured and in my "To Do" shoebox (how glam am I???) for absolutely ages. I've set myself the challenge of making cards with all of the images that I've pre-coloured. Again, the photo is pants, as you can't really see the design on the papers. It's fab clouds and is called Chicken Little by Cosmo Cricket. I sort of wish I'd done this differently, as it didn't quite turn out how I'd have liked. Anyway, the image is from Rain, Snow, Shine by The Greeting Farm, coloured with Promarkers.

Got a busy schedule for the rest of the week, although I'm hoping to have time to make a card for Lee-Anne's (funkymotha) Sketch Challenge on Trimmie before Saturday and have a stab at the new Trimmie Challenge 34, with it's Autumnal theme. Fingers crossed........

BTW, the photos are coming out in the wrong order and at the top of the post....HEEEEYYYLLLPP!!!