Girl with flower

I'm back in purple mode today and have used this image of a cute girl with a flower.


I have used a 6" x 6" card blank and covered it with some paper I found hiding in my stash. The card used for the large mat was something I saved from an old birthday card I received, it was so pretty I just couldn't throw it away! The smaller rectangle going across the card is Core'dinations Whitewash which has been Cuttlebugged with Swiss Dots. The image has been coloured using ProMarkers and matted onto some purple card, same for the computer printed sentiment. The flowers are Papermania Capsule Collection, as are the spotty buttons.

I followed the sketch on Moving Along with the Times latest challenge and I'd like to enter it in the following challenges:
Moving Along with the Times Challenge #44 - Heidi's Sketch
Charisma Cards Challenge #17 - Girly card with flowers
The Pixie Cottage Challenge #16 - Lots of Flowers
Crafty Catz Challenge #30 - Spots (on buttons, girl's bloomers and on mat behind flowers)
Your Next Stamp Challenge #15 - Going Dotty (buttons, bloomers, mat behind flowers)
Digi Doodles Challenge #5 - Anything Goes

April Swap Card

The April swap theme over at Crafty Place was green and/or lilac. My swap partner was Alison (Alijj, or cjcockroft on MSE) and today I have received this lovely card from her.


How cute is that bunny in his green jumper and lilac scarf! There's green gems and gorgeous pale lilac organza ribbon by the spine and the most gorgeous green/lilac/cream spotty paper. Perfect - spotty is my thing! Everything is beautifully co-ordinated. Thank you so much Alison.

Milly and Lily

Here is a card I made today with the lovely digi freebie Milly and Lily from Pink Gem Janet's blog. Janet's also doing Promarker tutorials on her blog which are really useful for me as a newcomer to PMs.


The image is coloured with Promarkers. The papers I have used are from Monti's Pixel Playground Dragonfly Scrapkit. The pink scalloped circle was cut with Nellie Snellen's Multiframe round die, and I've used Martha Stewart lace doily edge punch for the two layers below the pink spotty ribbon (Papermania Red Hot Capsule Collection). The flowers are a mixture of Prima and Papermania, and the spotty button is again from the Red Hot Capsule Collection.

I'd like to enter this card in the following:
One Stitch At A Time Challenge #10 - Flowers
Aly's Sunday Challenge #16 - Animal Hugs
Sew Many Challenges #12 - Anything Goes
Our Creative Corner - Blooming Blossoms
Dare you to digi stamp #36 - Flowers
A Spoon Full of Sugar Challenge #101 - 3D (the flower plus the image is raised on foam pads)
Sophisticat Challenge #30 - Card for a child
Incy Wincy Designs - One Of My Favourites (as pink and spotty are my all time favourites, it has to be the pink spotty ribbon!)

My crafty bargain!

We went to Wrexham yesterday to stock up with food and see if we could find some bedside rugs for the loft bedroom (no luck there!), and as we were walking down the high street I noticed a new shop had opened. It's called Jotters and is basically a stationery type shop but I noticed a few craft items in the window so just had to go and check it out - as you do!

For a small shop there was a fair sized craft section, a few bargain rubber stamps, some 12 x 12 papers sold singly, some K & Co stuff, stickers, peel offs, etc. There was also a revolving stand with a sign "Build your own card" and everything on it was just 99p. Here's what I brought home:


From the 99p stand I got four packs of daisy type flowers on stems (12 in each), two packs of roses (heads only, 28 in each), three packs of ribbon - each pack has 5 x 1 metre of different ribbons in similar colours. These ribbons are almost the same as the Papermania ones in the Capsule Collection. There are also two packs of buttons - one pink/lilac and one red/pink. Each pack had four small boxes, one heart shapes, one flower shapes and two round shapes. I also bought a divided box for £1.99 as my Card Candy collection is growing and it's perfect for separating the colours.

We didn't get everything we wanted but it was nice to go home with some craft stash I wasn't even contemplating buying!

Sheltering from the rain

In anticipation of some April showers this little bear is sheltering from the rain. I expect we'll all be doing that soon after two weeks of sunshine here, but let's hope we're in for a good summer this year.

Truly Scrumtious has a challenge with the following sketch:


and here is my entry:

Truly Scrumtious Challenge #30 - April Showers which requires the card to follow the sketch provided and the theme of showers was optional.


I would also like to enter it into the following:
The Creative Cottage Challenge #7 - "Going Green" which can be the colour green or recycling something. I have gone for the colour green.
Fab 'n' Funky Challenge #20 "Get it all out" which requires the use of neglected stash.
Creative Inspirations Challenge #31 - Recipe Challenge: 3 Flowers, 2 Design Papers, 1 Ribbon

The striped and spotty papers have been languishing in my stash for far too long (scrapbook papers from QVC a few years ago) plus the blue pearlescent card for the mats were also from old stash. The ribbon is from QVC and is laid onto Core'dinations Whitewash card in green. The flowers were from my stash (some were coloured with ProMarkers) and in the middle of the flowers are Card Candy from Craftwork Cards. The digi image was coloured with ProMarkers.

Two new cards

I have a couple of new cards to blog today.

This first one is the one I sent to Alijj (cjcockroft on MSE) for the April card swap on Crafty Place, the theme of which was "green". Hopefully I haven't spoiled the surprise as she should have received it by now. I have covered the card blank with Core'dinations Whitewash card in yellow, cuttlebugged with Swiss Dots and sanded. A mat of green pearlescent card, overlaid with more Whitewash card but green this time, which I punched with my Fiskars leaf edge punch then put some ribbon on. The digi image is a freebie which I coloured with watercolour pencils but didn't use water, just coloured with the pencils, then chalked around the edges and matted on the same pearlescent green card. Finished off with green card candy.


This next card I made today and was inspired by a sketch I saw while browsing through a sketch challenge blog, it was an old challenge so I couldn't enter the card as it was some time ago. The papers are Zoe Pearn freebies "So Sweet". This is the first time I've printed off this paper and the colours are lovely. I've coloured the image with Promarkers, chalked the edge and matted onto blue Core'dinations Gemstones card. I've used my Martha Stewart Doily Lace edge punch and some blue spotty ribbon.

Hello Cupcake

I have followed the recipe on There's Magic In The Air with Paper Cupcakes for this card and I would like to enter it into their Magical Monday - Recipe Challenge.


The recipe is:
- any Paper Cupcake image
- a 4x4 size card base
- 1 ribbon
- 1 single type of embellishment (e.g., brads, buttons, clips, etc.) in ANY quantity (but only 1 type!)
- 1 stamped/printed sentiment
- NO patterned papers

I have used:
Free digi image "Hello Cupcake" from There's Magic In The Air, coloured with Promarkers.
A pale creamy pearlescent 4" x 4" card embossed with Cuttlebug folders Daisy Pattern and Swiss Dots.
Ribbon from QVC.
6 green self adhesive gems.
Sentiment printed on my computer.
Circles and scalloped circles were cut with Nesties.

I would also like to enter it into the following:
The Crazy Challenge Cupcake Challenge
Stamp with Fun Challenge #55 - Animals
Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge Anything goes
Paper Sundae 14th Challenge - No people
Create4fun Challenge 16 - Circles

Childhood memories

Spotty and pink, two of my favourite things.


I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Cupcake Craft Challenges #86 - Childhood Memories
Magical Crafts Fortnightly Challenges #13 - Something for the Girls
Charisma Cardz Challenges Week 15 - Monochromatic cards
Cute Card Thursday Challenge 108 - Touchy Feely
Stampin' for the weekend Challenge 36 - Ribbons and Bows
The Crazy Challenge Don't call me flat
Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge - Anything goes

(This image brings back memories of my beloved teddy bear which my mother threw in the dustbin whilst I was on honeymoon, yes he was old and tatty but he didn't deserve that!)

All card stock from stash
Martha Stewart punch
Digi image from Marjies Malarkies and coloured with Promarkers
Flowers and spotty button from Papermania
Card Candy from Craftwork Cards and coloured with Promarkers
Ribbon from stash

Molly's card

Yay ... I can get back to my desk now Paul has finished laying the carpet tiles in the loft bedroom!

Molly is 7 years old soon and she is passionate about pigs at the moment. I had a set of pig themed papers and this digi image so here's hoping she's still into pigs by the time her birthday comes round!


I'd like to enter this card into the Pollycraft Monday Challenge #39, the theme of which is "Pink and Brown plus choose Yellow or Green".

6" x 6" card blank and brown card mats from stash
All papers from the pig scrap kit at Monti's Pixel Playground
Digi image is Hamilton from Digi Stamp Boutique
and coloured with Promarkers

I'd also like to enter it into:
Creative Card Crew - Challenge #48 - Happy Birthday
Stamp Something - Something Layered
Papertake Weekly - Cutie Pie
Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge - Anything goes
Polka Doodles Week 15 - Animal Magic

Dog and bone

I'm very frustrated at the moment, I can't get to my craft desk as carpet tiles are being laid in that room and I really want to go and play as I've got some images and papers printed off ready to make a couple of cards.

Instead I thought I'd blog this card, made with no-one in particular in mind but it's another dog image I found when I was looking for a labradoodle and I couldn't resist it.


I used the same papers that I printed off for Neil's card as there were some left over. I used my new Martha Stewart Scallop Dot edge punch I bought from Craftology and the ribbon slider label is the smallest of the Nellie Snellen multiframe rectangle dies which I've threaded with black ribbon and just put a peel off sentiment on. I've glittered the centre bone on the circle in the top right hand corner of the card.

It's not really skewiff, I don't always take the best photos!!!

I would like to enter this card into the following challenge:

Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge - Anything goes

Neil's birthday card

It's son Neil's birthday on 16 April and I rarely make adult male cards. He has a labradoodle and I saw this picture which is the image of her so I decided this year he could have one of mom's creations!



All the papers I have used were downloaded from Monti's Pixel Playground Cat & Dog scrap kit.
Nesties were used for all the circles and ovals including the bone "buttons".
Image was found on Google images.
Cardstock, buttons and fibres from stash.

I would like to enter this card in my first ever challenge, Moving Along With The Times Challenge #41 - Easel card.

I would also like to enter it in the following challenges
C.R.A.F.T. - Buttons challenge
Pile It On - Easel card
One Stitch at a Time - Challenge #7 - Anything Goes
Cute Card Thursday - Challenge #107 - Mono Mania
Pollycraft - Challenge #38 - Anything Goes
Paper Cutz - Challenge 36 - 3 patterned papers
Stamp Scrap and Doodle Saturdays - Week 35 - Birthdays

MSE challenge

The lovely OAP set us a challenge to make a card using 3 papers - 1 x plain, 1 x patterned and 1 x textured, plus either 3 buttons or 3 bows. A bit last minute but I've just about made it!


The plain and patterned papers were FSS and MMC freebies which I printed off, the textured is Core'dinations Whitewash Cuttlebugged with Swiss Dots. This is my first attempt with my new ProMarkers and also my first time embellishing with buttons.

Ruby Wedding Anniversary

With Jean & Brian's 40th wedding anniversary fast approaching and a card partly made and abandoned because I changed my mind, I had a rethink as this card needed to be special. Jean's a very special friend I've known for almost 50 years (ooh, that makes us sound old!) and here is what I eventually came up with:


The backing paper is from a pack of wedding/romance scrapbook papers bought at the $2 store when we were in Oz a few years ago. The stamp is an old Anita's one bought a long time ago. I stamped with grey pigment ink and embossed with clear powder. The man's suit has been chalked with grey and the bride's veil has been chalked with an ivory pearlised eye shadow. I went round the swirls with a Quickie glue pen and glittered with an ultra fine crystal glitter which is quite hard to see on this picture.

The image has been matted onto some Gemstones Core'dinations cardstock and the mat behind is the co-ordinating Gemstones Whitewash cardstock run through the Cuttlebug with Divine Swirls folder and sanded.

The lace has been threaded with a ruby coloured organza ribbon and the circle behind the sentiment has been chalked. The flowers and leaf are old stash.