Catch Up

Well, I've been a bad blogger - not posting anything for a while & I've ended up not entering challenges because I've finished cards too late to enter, but I have at least been making some cards, so I thought I'd upload the last batch so you can at least see what I've been up to.

Happy stamping!

Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge No. 6

Yay, back for another go, now I know the sketch had a decidedly summery sunshine feel to it, but I was just looking at the peace and plenty stamp set and this idea just took me (I also used some Hero Arts stamps that just happened to match the ones on the peace & plenty set). I really love the warm autumnal colours of this card, and the weather here of the past few days has definitely matched the autumnal feel!

I used a versamark inkpad with the leaves drifting around the background of the orange. I love Waltzingmouse sentiment stamps, they always come out so clear - I never worry that they are going to smudge around the edges like some. The leaves were stamped onto scraps of paper using gold, copper and starlite black brilliance inks, hopefully you can see the shimmer in the photo.

Hope you like.

Just Playing

Supposed to be ironing, but wanted to have a play and ink up this Smookie stamp that I bought a while back (I'm trying to use all my new stamps at least once before putting them away). I'm also still trying to find ways of using up the Claire Curd paper pad that I've got - moral of the story, no matter how nice and strokable the papers, don't ever consider buying them in a pack of 200!

Anyway, all the papers for this are from the Claire Curd range (haven't made a dent - each sheet is 12 x 12), smookie image, the distressing is Tim Holtz Pine Needle - I've put glossy accents over the champagne bottle and used a gold Sakura pen to do the top of the bottle so it looks like the foil wrapping you would get on a real bottle of champagne (don't know why I was aiming for realism when you consider there's a dragon on the side of the bottle!)

Well, hope you've all been having a wonderful Sunday - back to the daily grind tomorrow, still it pays for all my lovely craft stash!

Waltzingmouse July Blog Waltz

Okay, hopefully if this works, you will only be able to see this post after 8 a.m. on Saturday 17th July - if not, I'm just babbling to myself again!

Well the theme for this month's Waltz is blue & green, I've had these multicolour stamp pads from Versacolour for years, I bought them because I liked the colours but had no idea what to do with them - boy do I wish I'd played with them properly long ago!. I used Rainforest and Icicle for this and stamped along the lovely zig zag pattern from offbeat backgrounds to get the beautiful watery background (though the lime green at the end certainly heats it up a bit!). I stamped the sentiment from Afternoon Tea Sentiments using the dark blue end of the Icicle ink pad and then clear embossed - I wanted to shape the sentiment so that it looks like the tag you get on the end of fancy flavoured tea bags (hope it worked).

Definitely think this card carries on the simple theme that seems to be developing - hope it's not too simple?

Anyway, looking forward to Waltzing tomorrow, though by the time I've seen everyone elses lovely creations, my credit card may not be so happy, but we 'must have' our stamps.

Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge No. 5

Well after a weeks sabatical the Waltzingmouse Sketch challenges are back - unlike my mojo which decided to take a vacation! (hence posting this right at the last minute).

"All you need in life is a friend who has Chocolate", well in my case the friend works for Nestle! (Happy Birthday Laura) - great sentiment, but again I have stuck to a monochrome scheme for this, not sure whether I'm becoming boring or not? The sentiment is from a set from Inkadinkado and that lovely stitching is from a fab Waltzingmouse set (well, actually they're all lovely!), the button is my gorgeous Martha Stewart punch and the card came from the Papermill.

Nice, clean, simple, really starting to like this style of card & the sketch really lent itself to this.

Creative Inspirations Challenge No. 67

Wow, I'm really on a roll at the moment & the sketch over on the Creative Inspirations Challenge blog was fab this week & just fell together into this card - this is much more masculine than the flowery girly cards I have been doing, though with all the gold and sparkle, it could easily be for a lady.

I've had this image for a while - the stamp is a friend of mines and I borrowed it for 10 mins!, the papers are papermania, trimcraft and gold mirri from Create & Craft - the cord I've had for years.

Hope you like (I'm quite chuffed with this!)

Hugs to You

I was playing with a sketch yesterday from Cardmaking & Papercraft, and trying to make use of my Claire Curd signature range papers - they are absolutely gorgeous, but I would never buy a pack of 200 sheets again, I've had it for two years & haven't even made a dent in it! (though it makes a very effective weight to press things under).

Anyway, I decided to use a Greetings Farm stamp that I haven't made use of yet called 'Snuggle', which I managed to get cheap from someone having a crafty clearout (what's that - not sure I could part with anything of mine!). The sentiment is from a Waltzingmouse set called 'sweethearts', which is available here.

Well, hope you like this new creation as much as I do.

First Ever Scrapbooking attempt

Well, I've never done any real scrapbooking before, but one of the girls I work with is leaving, not just for another job, but for another country and I wanted to make sure that she would always be able to remember us, so I thought what better way than to create an album with pictures of each of us & some sort of embellishments to remind her about each of us.

waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge No. 4

Wow, really on a roll now, I love these challenges & I'm trying to make myself do more of them, just to stretch me a bit and get the creative juices flowing! I've found that the more cards I make, the easier it is to make cards - weird!

Anyway, wasn't sure I was going to enter this week as I could not think of anything to do with the sketch, but then I started to have a play (really started to enjoy doing that, just playing, not sure where I'm going) with some papers I got free with a magazine (My Minds Eye, Pretty Please) and they seemed to lend themselves perfectly to creating the square background. Then I used some offcuts to make the roses (love these, got the idea from a tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers), and punched some butterflies and flowers with my Martha Stewart punches. The sentiment is from an Inkadinkado set, which I stamped on to plain white card which I cut out with my blossom nesties and then distress inked with worn lipstick - in the words of a very famous Meerkat, 'Simples!'

Well, I love it anyway & it really does make me smile to look at - lovely summery colours. Thanks for looking.

Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge No. 3

Wow, three weeks in a row, that must be some kind of record for me!

Now I know that this is not a Waltzingmouse stamp, but when I saw this sentiment, it just spoke to me and the card kind of fell together around the image. The sentiment is from an inkadinkado set I got recently from Hobbycraft and I do love inkadinkado stamps - have you seen some of their Christmas images?!!! (sorry Claire, love all of yours too & would dearly love to get hold of that lovely secret Christmas set you did).

I could not tell you who the paper is by as I've had it for ages - I spend a lot of time stroking papers and refusing to use them, but this was one 12x12 sheet that was used on a scrapbooking project years ago and I've used it on several cards since, and I still have enough left for some more, just goes to show how far one sheet can go.

The ribbon is from a QVC set my mum bought me for Christmas 2 years ago (again I've been stroking & refusing to use!). I decided not to put the button on from the Sketch as the card just looked finished to me - hope you agree?

Anyway, see you all again next week for another one!

June Waltzingmouse Blog Waltz

Yeah, second post today & having made my quiche I had time for a quick card & boy do I mean quick!

I was playing with one of my new sets of stamps - Offbeat backgrounds, and a chocolate coloured dye based ink pad & just loved the effect. the ink from dye based pads tends to pool on large areas of acrylic stamps and so you get a mottled effect, which is just beautiful if you want a slightly more 'used' look. Anyway, I stamped on a spare bit of paper to see how it came out, loved what it looked like & this card idea popped into my head straight away - 10 minutes later and the idea in my head was on a card. Yes I know its a very basic card, but I just love the way it looks and even though it's a romantic sentiment, I don't think any man would think it was too 'girly'. Oh, and I did cut away the bottom of the card so it zig zags (just for a little bit of detail).

Well, I only have 4 sets of Claire's stamps, but I sooo need more - will have to wait for the end of the month again though (sigh!)

Happy Waltzing all!!!!

Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge No. 2

Good grief, a week has gone by already - did I blink? time seems to be going so fast at the moment, another week and we will already be past the longest day & it's downhill to Christmas (little yay from me - love all the glitter and sparkle of Christmas!).

Anyway, the week has also gone quickly in the challenge world - I missed Saturday's Saturday Sketch Challenge deadline (made the card, just didn't get it online in time), so I was determined not to miss the Waltzingmouse one! So here is my card, I used the pansies from the Afternoon Tea Sentiments set - so love that set! some Papermania backing papers and one of my (many) Martha stewart punches. The buttons are from my stash and it feels good to finally start using up some of my old stock (got to make room for new stuff sometime!).

Well hope you like & perhaps, if I get a chance I may even enter the blog Waltz as well - got to make a quiche first though.

See you later

Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge No. 1

Yay, well my two new stamp sets arrived from Waltzingmouse last Friday (just in time for the weekend!!) and just in time for the new Sketch Challenge, which started on Saturday, so perfect excuse to have a play (as if any was needed). I just love the Afternoon Tea Sentiments, well I love all of the sets, but I cannot bankrupt myself by buying them all at once (just keep playing the lottery).

I paper pieced the teacup as it just needed a little something extra, and I curved the sentiment so that it fitted the banner perfectly - love the way you can do that with clear stamp sets and Waltzingmouse Stamps, stamp sooo clearly.

Anyway, hope you like my simple little card - hopefully back soon

Waltzingmouse Blog Hop

Well, we're hopping again, the theme this month is birthdays, which presents a slight problem as I only possess two sets of Waltzingmouse stamps (I will be rectifying this at the end of the month on payday!), but I'm really pleased with this simple card, which would be beatiful for an Autumn birthday (it'll be here before you know it!).

Anyway, hope you like, I'm off to have a look at all the other hoppers.

Sketch Saturday No. 101 & Just Tracy's colour challenge

Well I went to Hobbycraft in Bristol on Saturday (sorry Tracy, I'm not a traitor really - nice to check out the competition sometimes!), anyway, they didn't have an awful lot that I can't get more cheaply locally, but they did have lots of stuff so it was lovely to have a leisurely browse! anyway I bought some My Minds Eye papers, an Inkadinkado stamp set (I love Inkadinkado!) and some A5 Papermania capsule collection papers - I thought I was very restrained! Mind you, to be fair they were not that cheap.

Anyway, Tracy has a lovely challenge going on in her shop, you have to use the following colours:

which ordinarily would have been a problem, but having just bought the My Minds Eye papers I had the perfect set!

Over on Sketch Saturday, the current sketch is

Which when combined with the colour challenge and my new sentiment stamps from Inkadinkado produced this lovely card (well I think it's lovely anyway).

The circle was cut using my Cricut - I don't get that out often enough & really must start to make use of it!

Waltzingmouse

Just a quick post - this card was created from a sketch on Waltzingmouse for a challenge, which I've got to get online for tomorrow. I know that this stamp is not one of Claire's, but if I win the Challenge, I'll have another 8 sets to choose from, so here goes!

Smookie again

I took this card over to Just Tracy's today to enter it into her first challenge - this little dragon is one of my favourites! If you've not been to the shop yet, you really must, fabulous atmosphere, great tea and lots of lovely craft stuff! Everything for this card came from Tracy's (well except the base card, but you can buy that there too).

Hope my card wins, as it will give me a bit more money to spend in the shop!

Elzybells Challenge 41

Wow, real challenge this one! single layer cards are just, well, so flat, but I've had a go & hope that this is okay. Have to say it's not my favourite card, I can see every little thing that's wrong from the dodgy colouring to the wonky dots - hey ho.

Anyway, hope you like it more than I do!

Couple of challenges in one

Okay, too much to do & too little time - maybe I'm just setting myself too many things to do. Anyway the challenge over on Creative Inspirations this week is an altered CD (check), and on Crafts and Me the challenge is a colour challenge of Brown, Pink and Yellow (check), and if that wasn't enough, this is my first ever altered CD!

The stamps are from Elzybells (I do so love them!) and I just had to make use of my new Martha Stewart button punch & emboss that I bought at Just Tracy's a couple of weekends ago on opening day. The background paper is from the Claire Curd Signature Range (I'm still trying to get through the 200 sheets - what was I thinking!), and instead of cutting the paper, once I glued it to the CD, I used my Basic Grey file set to file away the excess, it left a lovely smooth edge.

Well, hope you like - I'm quite pleased with it for a first attempt!

Waltzingmouse Blog Hop

Okay, so I know this was supposed to be yesterday, but I was composing the card in my head - I only have two of Claire's stamp sets (at the moment) so did not have a massive amount of choice - especially with the theme of Mother's Day. I decided on a simple sentiment 'with gratitude' and love the apples from the Peace and Plenty set. I had a great deal of trouble colouring the background, it should have been a lot smoother than this, but I don't think that chalk inks are the best ones for doing a soft blended background - will have to try chalks next time.

Anyway, hope you like, and I'm off to hop (boing! boing!)

Just Magnolia Challenge

Okay, so I'm cutting it fine getting this one entered for the challenge blog, but it's taken me a while to finish. I cannot take all of the credit for this card either, I got the idea for the lattice cut out from Jane's lovely cards, and thought that instead of the flowers and butterflies, it would work really well with snowflakes.

The icicles at the top are not really meant to be icicles, but is the Martha Stewart Drippy goo punch - think it works quite well as icicles!

Anyway, I really enjoyed making this - even if it did take forever to glue the snowflakes together & I hope Jane doesn't mind too much that I've used her idea (but it was such a fabulous one!). Thanks for looking!

Just for Fun

Well this card was just for fun, I picked out an old Sketch Saturday layout as it seemed to fit the image, and then just went to town.

The image was part of my FREE goodie bag from Just Tracy's opening day yesterday, and I was determined to make use of the wonderful set of stamps that I got. The backing paper was a Papermania double sided foam printed paper (I hate using double sided paper as it always seems such a waste that you can only see one side when its stuck down. The flowers were a new experiment from me, and a tutorial for them can be found on another Rachel's blog. The brown dots above the sentiment are made with Adirondack Acrylic in Expresso - I think they are too close together, but too late now.

I love how this card has turned out & if you like the stamps, just go to Just Tracy's website, and you can order them with FREE postage and packing!

Till later....

Just Tracy's

Well today was finally the day & Tracy has opened her bricks and mortar shop AND ITS FABULOUS!!!! A huge well done to Tracy, Karen and all of their very understanding and hard working families - all of the effort was well worth it and there is some lovely stock there (and plenty more to come).

I spent way more than the £30 I originally intended to, but I've got some lovely new papers, a couple of new stamps, a Martha Stewart punch (yes another one!), a beautiful dreamweaver stencil and some embossing paste.

Anyway, I found another challenge blog to have a go at (Crafty Catz), and wanted to make use of one of my new stamps, so here it is (apologies for the colouring - not my best, and neither is the photography).