I’VE MOVED!

I’ve decided to move back to my original blog at blogger:

http://craftblogspiritofcreativity.blogspot.com/

I’d like to thank you for your support while I’ve been here and hope you’ll come and visit me there instead

Gold and Green for Christmas

Goodness! It’s our last Cute Daisy May Challenge of the year already!! We have a lovely one for you this week – Gold and Green for Christmas and I really enjoyed making this card although I can’t say that I enjoyed trying – and failing miserably – to get a half decent photo of it! In real life the greens go together much better than they look to in the pic. I’ve used an Artylicious bp and the image (from sheet 23) has been coloured using sakura pens and a little crystal glitter – weeeeell, it is Christmas! I’ve used a punch down both sides of the gold mat and threaded parcel ribbon through the holes.

I’m also entering my card into these challenges:

Stamp Something – Winter Wonderland

Die Cut Dreams – Glitter Me Silly

OCC – Holiday Theme (Christmas or Hanuka)

Saturday Challenge – Snow

Wednesday Stamper – Winter

I hope that you’ll pop over to see the glorious inspiration from the rest of the CDM DT and join us for this last challenge of the year.

Twinkle into Christmas

It’s Cute Daisy May Challenge time again already!! Before we get onto this week’s challenge there is the little matter of last week’s Blog Hop prize to sort out. Thank you all who entered, we were thrilled. For my prize I cranked up the random number generator and it picked out………….(drumroll please!)………

number 18 and that is HAZEL!

Congratulations Hazel, go to the Backing Paper Collections page at the top of the blog and choose the 3 collections you’d like then send me an email to: craftyannhotmail.co.uk with your choices.

Now onto this week’s challenge.

Net’s gone all starry eyed this week and wants our offerings to twinkle. Come Christmas, I don’t need any excuse to break out the glitter so twinkle is what she got!!

The image is one I’ve used before from sheet 15 and is a real favourite. Apart from her hair and skin tones, she has been coloured entirely with Fool’s gold, silver, white and crystal glitters and boy does she twinkle! I’ve used the sketch from Friday Sketchers, which I’ve put together with silver holographic card and two of my own backing papers – having worked out the size I needed the 9 squares to be, I printed them off that exact size so which means that I don’t waste ink and haven’t added to my already overflowing scraps boxes (note the plural!) The sentiment stamp is from funstamps and has been embossed with silver detail ep. The snowflake c/bug folder and a couple of snowflake buttons add the finishing touches.

I’m also entering this card into the following challenges:

Stamp Something – are looking for ‘Glitzy’

Allsorts – are asking for the colour purple

Pile it on – Tinsel Town, lots of glitter

Lots to Do – Snow

The Pink Elephant - Favourite Christmas colours – have to be silver and gold.

Incy Wincy Designs – Snowflakes

Thank you for your visit today and I do hope you’ll join us for this week’s challenge.

Crafty Ann’s Challenge #3

Good Friday morning everyone – a whole fortnight has gone by since the last Crafty Ann’s Challenge and it’s already time for a new one! This week, we’d like to see TEXTURE on your work. As usual, you can make any project you like, using anything you like. I’m having a very difficult time with my back and sciatic nerve at the moment which severely limits my crafting so am still in Christmas mode – although that’s not the case for all the DT so do check out what they’ve come up with (they manage to blow me away every time!)

I’ve gone for both real and faux texture on mine and have finally attempted my first easel card! I’ve used the red  embossed stars paper from the brights collectionwhich is the faux part of the texture and edged it with Fool’s Gold glitter on narrow dst. I’ve embossed the Holly Frame digi stamp using gold super sparkle ep and decoupaged the holly and berries. Both the holly and the bear have been painted using a mixture of Twinkling H2Os and Distress inks. The BP behind the bear is one I’ve just been working on and will find it’s way onto the website as soon as I’m up to sitting to do it. The one I’ve used here is stone from the earth tones collection but it doesn’t show too well in the artificial light. I’ve added texture to this too by putting it through the c/bug swiss dots folder.

As my crafting is so limited at the moment, I had a look to see how many other challenges I can support with this card and am entering it into the following:

Crafty Calendar – Winter Sparkle

Stamp with Fun – Christmas

DU2DS – Red, Green and Neutral of your choice

Saturday Spotlight – Hats On

Digital Tuesday – Christmas Sparkle

Thank you for your visit today and I really hope you’ll join us at Crafty Ann’s this fortnight – once again there is a prize of two digi stamps and one backing paper collection (which is 6 sheets of paper) of your choice. If you entered the last one, don’t forget to pop over and see if you won it – also there is the GD announcement for January and we’re looking now for February.

A Gem Of A Blog Hop!

It’s Monday and that means Cute Daisy May Challenge time again! This week though, it’s rather different because we have a blog hop for you – if you haven’t been there already, you need to go to Beccy first. As you travel around the blogs, remember to make a note of all the letters you find and when you have them all, the word they spell out is the answer you need – return to the Cute Daisy May Challenge blog, leave a comment there and e-mail your answer to Linnie to be in with a chance of winning the main prize. Please do not leave your answer in the comment. The email link is on the challenge blog

As you travel around the blogs, you’ll see blog candy from each DT member and to be in with a chance of winning all you have to do is leave a comment. My blog candy is 3 of my Backing Paper Collections of your choice.

This is an example of one of the backing paper collections you will abe to choose from if you win – to see them all, click here and to be in with a chance, don’t forget to leave a comment on this post and don’t forget to check back next Monday to see if you are the lucky winner.

On to this week’s card, apart from Linnie’s wonderful image and the challenge which is to use gems, I’ve taken my inspiration from a couple of other challenges, Friday Sketchers and their lovely sketch and Daring Cardmakers who are dreaming of a white christmas! The image is from sheet 66 and she’s so adorable I just couldn’t resist her. I’ve set her in one of my Crafty Ann’s digi stamp frames and used a Sheena Douglass swirl corner stamp with silver detail ep. After cutting the frame out, I covered it with versamark and silver ep to two layers. The bow has been decoupaged on top. Apart from our lovely little angel’s hair and skin tones, the only colour used comes from sakura stardust pens and glitter.

All you need to do now is collect your letter from me which is………R……..and then pop over and visit Katie to see her stunning card and collect the next letter. Good luck!

Red Christmas

It’s Monday and that means Cute Daisy May time! This is the other card that distracted me over the last few days (see previous post). Our theme this week is Red Christmas and I love red at Christmas so really looked forward to this one. I’d like to thank Friday Sketchers for the sketch  here, I moved it around a bit but really enjoyed working with it. The large bp is an artylicious one and the rather nice piece of gold card is quite unusual in that it’s kind of ‘shot through’ with gold rather than a uniform colour so the different facets the embossing gives it look really effective. Unfortunately, I have no idea where I got it and used it from my scraps box anyway so only have a wee piece left. I edged this piece with Anita’s glitterations peel offs to make it ‘pop’ a bit. Daisy May is from sheet 101 and this is such a lovely image to work with, she’s a real cutie! I’ve coloured her with Whispers strokes pens and added Crystal glitter to the ‘furry’ bits.

I’m also entering my card into the Lots To Do challenge which is a free theme this week. I do hope you’ll join us at CDM this week, remember you don’t need to use CDM images but you will be in with a chance of winning a sheet of your choice if you enter,

Let It Snow…Maybe!!

…or then again, maybe not!! Those of you living in the UK are no doubt very familiar by now with the small market town of Cockermouth (hitherto best known for being the birth place of the poet William Wordsworth) because of the unprecedented floods seen here and in other parts of Cumbria. Although I moved 25 miles away from there 2 years ago, it’s my home town and I still have family and friends there so have been spending most of my time over the last few days either glued to sky news or on the phone to my sister. Everyone is safe but it’s been a real shock.

Last night I decided to make a couple of cards to distract myself and I’m showing you one today and one tomorrow. This one is for 5 challenges. The Sketch is from Stampin’ for the Weekend (I hope I’ll be forgiven for moving the sentiment) and the colour scheme comes from Digital Tuesday Challenge which is purple and white + sliver or gold.

I’ve used purple pearlescent paper and silver mirri card both of which have been put through cuttlebug folders. the sentiment is a See D’s stamp embossed with silver detail powder and the snowman is a Crafty Ann’s digi stamp coloured with whispers strokes pens and crystal glitter. Anita’s silver glitterations peel offs add the finishing touch. I’m also entering this card into these three challenges:

Allsorts – A Christmas Carol or song title…..Frosty the Snowman!

One Stop Crafts – Snowflakes

Crafty Creations – Metal or Metallic finishes.

Thank you for dropping by today and for all the lovely comments you leave me and if you enjoy challenges do pop by my new one at Crafty Ann’s Challenge Blog

Black and white + 1

We’re already onto our 2nd challenge at Crafty Ann’s and this fortnight our theme is Black and White + 1. If you pop over to the Challenge to check out the fabulous DT cards, you’ll see that most of us have made Christmas cards so that probably tells you how far behind we are! You can make a project for any occasion you like though.

For my card, I have taken myself totally out of my Christmas card comfort zone – but it’s growing on me. I’ve used one of my new Christmas digi stamps, the Blank Hanging Ornament, with a stamp I’ve had in my stash for about 7 years that was part of a set I got from QVC. I’ve had a whale of a time with the glitter, using black, red and crystal. The bp is from the embossed stars brights collection that I’ve added glitter highlights to. The sketch is the current Sketch and Stash Challenge and my new item is the digi stamp and neglected stash is the santa head rubber stamp.

I’m also entering my card into the following challenges:

Lots to Do – Embossing (the white panel has been put through the swiss dots folder)

Saturday Challenge – Four Seasons

Creative Inspirations – Sparkle

DU2DS – Glitter

Thank you for your visit today and I do hope you’ll pop over and join in – you don’t have to use Crafty Ann products to take part.

18 Again!

No, not me (not for the first time anyway!!) It was our Grandson’s 18th earlier in the month and on wednesday our nephew is 18. I have to admit to being a bit of a coward and feeling that something to do with music is reasonably safe ground for this age group! On this occasion, I’ve used electric guitar 2 from my own digi stamp collection and coloured it with coloursoft pencils and sakura pens. The bps are: the red one from the Polished Stone Brights Collection and the grey one is from the Embossed Dots Brights Collection which I lightened a little in my graphics program. All the papers have been edged with Anita’s glitterations borders in black which helps to both define it and give it a lift. I’m entering this card into this week’s Stampin’ For the Weekend Challenge who want a card for a ‘big’ occasion.

Thank you for your visit today and don’t forget you still have until 8pm on thursday to enter the first Crafty Ann’s Challenge and be in the draw for the prize.

Christmas Garland

I have another Christmas card to share with you today and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed  making it. I started with the lovely sketch at Sketch Saturday which I turned round. The image is the Christmas Garland and is just new on the website and has been coloured with coloursoft pencils and sakura pens then highighted with crystal glitter. It’s much more glittery in real life than the photo shows. The bp one of my own. A scalloped mat cut on the robo, ribbon and a few gems finish it off and make it suitable for these 5 challenges too:

By The Cute and Girly – Winter Wonderland

Penny’s Challenges – A Winter Theme that must include glitter or sparkles and ribbon

Digital Tuesday – Holiday Wishes

Papertake Weekly – Digi Sparkle – use a digi image and something sparkly

Creative Card Crew – Ribbon and Gems

Thank you for your visit today and don’t forget that you still have plenty of time to enter the new challenge at Crafty Ann’s Challenge Blog - you don’t have to use Crafty Ann’s products to enter and there’s a lovely prize to be won.

Wild Thing!

Well okay, I’ll concede that she doesn’t look very wild now – but I bet she’d turn into a tigress if she had to defend the goodies I’ll be putting in here for Christmas! lol!

It’s Cute Daisy May Challenge time again and this week Net has asked for animal images in our projects. (It was Net that called it Wild Thing – honest!) Linnie has some really cute little animals to choose from and I love this one and as you’ll know if you’ve read the previous post, I’m in Christmas mode just now so it’s perfect!

I’ve decided that we won’t have crackers this year, I’m going to make some small boxes to put goodies in for us to enjoy over the festive period and they’ll look nice under the tree – because of ongoing renovations, we haven’t room for the big tree but these will look perfect under the smaller one we have that sits on a table in the living room. I’ve used the instructions from a project in the november issue of Craft Stamper magazine to create the box and the beauty of it is that it will hold together without being stuck so if I want to keep them to use again next year, they’ll flat pack for storage.

The image is from sheet 17 and I’ve coloured it using a coloursoft pencils and sakura pens having printed it onto linen effect card. The box itself uses the sky blue paper from the embossed stars pastel collection printed onto light card stock. I’ve used silver mirri card which has been put through the snowflakes cuttlebug folder to back the image and edged the lid with sparkly peel offs – gotta have glitter at Christmas!

I’m entering my goody box into these two challenges too:

Stampin’ for the Weekend – ‘Festive Goody Box’

Colour Create – ‘Blue, Silver & White’

Thank you for popping by today and I hope to be returning the favour – remember that you can use any animal image on your project this week for Cute Dasiy May and we would love to see it so please come and join in the fun.

Christmas Glitz

I’m in Christmas mode at the moment as I seem to have got a bit behind so went looking for some appropriate challenges to inspire me and found quite a few. Some I’m entering today and some I have another card in mind for.

The first challenge to inspire me was DU2DS with this fabulous sketch and because I’d just finished these bauble digi stamps it seemed to be tailor made for them – thank you Larissa . It all came together with help from Allsorts Challenge wanting bling, Saturday Surprise with ‘in the round’, MTTC who want ‘so many scallops and Cooking It Up With Katie who has come up with a yummy recipe – ‘start with a Christmas theme, add some sparkle and finish with a border’.

The bp is from my Polished stone brights collection and I’ve used sakura stardust pens and twinkling H2Os to colour the small baubles and Art institute glitters for the larger one.

Thank you for visiting today and I’d also like to thank you for the lovely and much appreciated comments you leave.

WOO-HOO!!

 

At long last, the day of the first  CACB challenge is here and I’m so nervous, it’s untrue! I have a fantastic DT so do check all their samples out. I’ve wanted to do this for ages and really hope you’ll pop over and play along with us.

Because I’ve been wanting to do this for so long, CELEBRATE seemed to be the perfect choice for the first challenge and you can celebrate anything you like . I’m a bit behind on Christmas projects so had planned something Christmassy and then I realised that I had scheduled the first challenge for the day before our eldest GS turns 18 so really there couldn’t have been any other choice for my project could there? He’s just coming to the end of the second week of basic training with the Royal Engineers though so whether he’ll have the energy to celebrate tomorrow night could be a moot point!!

On to the card, it’s 20cm x 20cm so it’s quite large. The black and silver cards are from my stash and the blue embossed stars BP is one of my own and will be up on the website today. The image is Electric Guitar 1 and has been coloured using coloursoft pencils and a silver sakura stardust pen then mounted onto an old CD.

I’m also entering my card into the Theme Thursday Challenge which is to add borders to your project – I’ve used the silver card and peel offs to create mine, and the Tanda Teaser Challenge which is to use metal and I’m hoping the foil on my CD will count here.

I hope you will pop over to CACB and join in with our first challenge – it runs for two weeks and you don’t have to use Crafty Ann’s products to enter but you could win some if you join in!

A Little Witch for Four Challenges

Now before you say anything, I know Halloween is over, but in my own defence, there are still four current challenges that this card fits! It’s actually a swap card for a forum buddy and is the first halloween card I’ve ever made so I had to share it with you.

I must admit that I did enjoy making it and also using these colours which I don’t tend to do very often. My image is a Cute Dasiy May from sheet 7 and isn’t she just the cutest little witch you ever saw? She’s been coloured with coloursoft pencils. The sketch is from Sketch and Stash which I liked as soon as I saw it – the stash part of this challenge is the Dasiy May image and the corrugated orange card which I’ve had in my stash since Adam was a lad and just cried out to the used on this card.

The other challenges that this is for are:

TGIF – Little Witches

Saturday Challenge - Halloween

C.R.A.F.T – also Halloween.

Thank you for popping by today, your visits and comments are always appreciated.

Don’t forget the new challenge starting on Friday at Crafty Ann’s Challenge Blog – hope to see you there!

Brand New Challenge

This post will remain at the top of the blog for a couple of weeks, please scroll down for new posts

I’ve been champing at the bit for ages to get this new challenge started but have had to wait for various things to be in place first and at last they are!!

The new challenge will start on the 6th of November and to find out about the prize on offer and how you can have three chances to win it, either click on the picture above, or click here.

Hop on over to the challenge blog to get acquainted with the Design Team too.

I do hope to see you there.

Love is…….

Monday again already!! Still, at least that means Cute Daisy May time and this week the challenge is to make a card to express love for any occasion. I loved doing this because it gave me the excuse to use this fabulous image from sheet 8 and one of my absolute favourite sentiment stamps. I hope you can read it ok but in case you can’t, it says “Love is the shortest distance between two hearts”. I think this is a wonderful sentiment and if only we could live by it  from the pettiest sqabbles to negotiations between those in positions of power, I’m sure the world would be a better place.

Ok, I’ll get down off my soap box now and on to the card details. Once I had decided what I wanted to do, it came together quickly and easily. The bp’s are from my polished stone brights and pastels collections and the top two thirds of the large piece were put through the c/bug texture folder which gave it rather a nice distressed effect. The two hearts behind the fairy are from an elusive images set and the image has been coloured with whispers strokes pens and sakura stardust pens. The only embellishments are the grossgrain ribbon – which incidentally is purple and not blue as it looks in the pic – and the three baby’s breath flowers. I like the multi tone effect with these but once again have more purple in them than the pic shows.

I’m also entering this card into these challenges (thank you all for the inspiration)

Saturday Challenge – Dig Deep, use an old stamp. My sentiment stamp is one I’ve had for ages

Charisma Cardz – It’s so Distressing!

PaperPlay - Favourite Embellishment – ribbon and flowers

MTTC – Quick & Cute

ABC Challenge - F is for flying

Thank you for stopping by today and I hope that you’ll pop over and join us this week for the Cute Daisy May challenge.

As for me, well I’m disappearing to take my hubby to an emergency dental appointment – the poor soul’s got terrible toothache.

Fairy-nuff!

Good Monday morning to you all. It’s Cute Daisy May Challenge time again and this week it’s simply entitled ‘Fairy-nuff’ – this is because Linnie is really quite partial to fairies and I must say that I totally agree and she’s drawn some beauties for us to play with too. Once again, I’ve taken my inspiration from several challenges and I’ll share which ones with you as I go along.

The sketch from the card is from the current Friday Sketchers although I have changed it slightly from oval to round so I hope that’ll be ok. It’s a lovely sketch though. My CDM fairy (from sheet no:8) has been coloured with coloursoft pencils which have a lovely sheen, it’s such a pity that it doesn’t show too well on photos – and she’s sitting on the edge of a circular frame that comes complete with bow that I’ve coloured using inktense pencils and then added twinkling H2os to when the inktense was dry. The frame will be available from Crafty Ann’s – hopefully either today or tomorrow. Daisy and the frame were mounted onto a piece of white card that was put through the c’bug d’vine swirls folder. The colour way for this card came from DU2DS where we have been challenged to use ‘Yellow, Orange and Black or White’ ….erm I seem to have managed to use all four! My two bps are from K&CO and Crafty Ann’s. I’m also entering into Lots to Do who want us to use ‘Bright Colours’ and Ooh-la-la-Creations who ask us to use shapes this fortnight.

I hope you’ll come and join us at CDM this week – the other DT cards are definitely worth checking out. Don’t forget that you can use any image you like, it doesn’t have to be a Cute Daisy May – but you would be in with a chance of winning a sheet of images if you enter.

Pink Christmas

It’s monday again already! I don’t know where these weeks are going to, I really don’t. Never mind, I’ve had a lovely time making this card for no less than nine challenges.  I’d love to make a separate card for each one but it just isn’t possible at present so I like to have a good look around current challenges and let as many as possible inspire me. This week at Cute Daisy May Challenge the theme is “Pink Christmas” and the Cuttlebug Spot have “Pretty in Pink”. Now, despite being blonde, I don’t really ‘do’ pink – do you think I’ve used enough???? DU2DS have “Punched shapes or die cuts” as their theme and my die cuts are my two mats, each of which have been put through cuttlebug folders. Creative Inspirations want “Christmas in October”, Creative Card Crew want “All that sparkles”, Theme Thursday want “Wings” and ABC Challenge have “E is for embossing” this week. My final two challenges are Cooking it up with Katie whose recipe this week is to “use metal, a border punch and the image must be of something that would breathe”. Okay Katie, I might be pushing the boundaries a bit but my border punch is one that you thread things through and my metal part is the foil ribbon threaded through the punched border and the foil card I’ve used for the silver mat (hope this is ok Katie). My final challenge is Pile it on who ask for “3D and combining with at least one other challenge” You can’t see it too well in the photo, but I’ve added the image with silicone glue which makes it stand out nicely in real life and I think the second part of the challenge has been covered!

The image is from sheet 15 and I’ve coloured it with whispers strokes pens and sakura stardust pens and added some crystal glitter to the wings and the top of the stocking. The bp’s are my own.

I must confess that I tend to avoid challenges that won’t allow you to combine with others, like I said earlier I’d love to make something separate for each one but my opportunity to craft is limited and as each entry helps to keep a challenge going, I’d rather enter into as many as I can for each card I post.

I hope you will come and join us at Cute Daisy May this week, we love to see your creations and you can combine our challenge with others and use any image not just Daisy May.

Diva Daisy!

Good Monday morning visitors.  It’s Cute Daisy May Challenge time again and this week’s challenge is As Easy As 1,2,3! It’s a simple recipe of : 1 ribbon, 2 buttons and 3 flowers. Now ribbons and flowers are a doddle – use them constantly but I obviously don’t use buttons as often as I used to because I really had to search for some to go with this colour way. I finally found these and might as well ‘fess up now that they’re really supposed to be snowflakes – but if you squint a bit they could almost pass as stars lol!

The bp’s are from my stash and the grey piece has been put through the c/bug music folder and edged with silver glitterations peel offs.  If you add the peel offs before you put the card through the ‘bug, it helps to really stick them down well!

The image is from sheet 49 and I couldn’t wait to use it! I coloured it with a mixture of coloursoft pencils and sakura stardust pens. I used silver and purple on her clothes and created the ‘spotlight’ with the clear one applied with a waterbrush.  For once, I’m actually quite pleased with the picture – I took it near a window with the sun coming through it to try to highlight the sparkle and it worked!!

I don’t watch the X Factor, but personally I think that all the other contestants may as well go home now – our Daisy looks like a runaway winner to me

I hope you’ll come and join us in this week’s challenge, we love to visit your blogs and you don’t have to use a Cute Daisy May image to enter but you would be in the running to win a sheet of your choice.

Autumn Birthday

Wow – two cards in one week!!!!! This one is for our daughter-in-law’s birthday next month. It’s 21cm square and has been inspired by these challenges:

The Pink Elephant for the lovely sketch which I can see me using again.

Ooh-la-la Creations, Creative Inspirations and Stamp with fun all have an Autumn/Fall theme

Digital Tuesday is falling leaves – my fallen leaves are on the main image.

The bps are all my own and the glittery ‘mats’ have been created with a very narrow DST and glitter. The burnt orange bp has been put through the cuttlebug birds and swirls folder.

The image is one of my own and is available as a digi stamp from Crafty Ann’s and has been coloured using coloursoft pencils and inktense pencils.

Thank you to all the above challenge setters for the inspiration and thank you for your visit today.

Catch A Falling Star….

I think Daisy might have trouble  putting this one in her pocket!! This week’s challenge at Cute Daisy May is texture and I thought I’d add another one to the christmas box. I’ve loved this image ever since I first saw it and it just seemed ideal for this challenge. Unfortunately, because I used a glittery ep it’s been difficult to get a photo that picks it all up. The 2 bps are my own and are actually purple and lilac but they have a but of a bluey tinge in the photo that isn’t there in real life. I’ve stamped and embossed snowflakes all over the paler bp and also the greeting at the bottom of the darker panel – which it is possible to read, honestly! lol!! It’s one of my all time favourite christmas stamps and says “May the spirit of Christmas last all year.”  Every time I use it I live in hope…….

The image is from sheet 92 and has been coloured with inktense pencils and sakura pens. I’ve used white glitter on Daisy’s clothes and  crystal glitter on the star. The cuttlebug swiss dots folder and a piece of grossgrain ribbon finish it off.

I’m also entering my card into these challenges:

Stamp Something – favourite colours or papers……purple and lilac certainly fit that bill!

Allsorts – snowflakes in september

Alphabet Challenge Blog – x is for……….Xmas in my case.

I hope you’ll all come and join us at CDM this week – we do look forward to visiting your blogs and seeing your lovely creations.

Baby – aaaahhhh!!

It’s monday and that means that it’s Cute Dasiy May Challenge time again and Net has given me the push to get ahead of myself this week.   The theme is ‘baby’ and as we don’t seem to have any new ones in the offing in the near future I decided to make our youngest Granddaughter’s first birthday card ready for next May!!

I have to say that this photo is the best of a bad bunch, this card looks much better IRL – but I suppose that’s what you get when you use white pearlescent card, guilded ivory emossing powder and white sparkly peel offs!  I decided to use a spring card and then took it a stage further and added two tiny ones for the animals. If you’d like the instructions for this type of card, along with an oval shaped variation, you’ll find them here. You  get the best results if you use a good card weight – in this case the card I used is 300 gsm. I made it from a sheet of A4 and the two small ones came from the piece I cut off so it was all from the one sheet. The measurements for the two small cards are 3cm x 6cm and I made them so that I could have the stuffed toys sitting upright. I love how it looks like Daisy is playing that game so beloved of babies of throwing her toys from the high chair for Mum or Dad to pick up lol! Daisy is from sheet 90 and the animals are from sheet 40.

I’ve coloured the images with Derwent coloursoft pencils and a sakura clear stardust pen. The diamond and base of the card have been stamped with a creative expressions corner flourish stamp and embossed with guilded ivory sparkle and sprinke embossing powder. The only other embellishments are the ribbon and the pink pearls. (I’d be lost if someone took my ribbons and pearls away!!)

I’m also entering my card into these challenges:

Digital Tuesday - It’s all about the kids

Stamp Something – Favourite embellishment (I’ve used two so I hope that’s ok)

Wednesday Stamper – open theme

I hope you’ll pop over to the Cute Daisy May Challenge blog and join in with us this week, we do enjoy visiting your blogs and don’t forget that you don’t have to use a Cute Dasiy May image to join in.

Pink and ?

Good monday morning everyone – I love mondays because it means that it’s Cute Daisy May Challenge time again…….I think this little lady keeps me sane!

This week our brief is to put pink with our own choice of colour. This was a great challenge and the hardest part for me was choosing which colour to team the pink with – I hadn’t realised just how many colours I like with pink and I’m not really a ‘pink’ person. Maybe I should duck at this point because I know many of you are lol! I finally settled on grey and the two bps are: the grey one from my stash and the pink one is one of my own. The image is from sheet no 83 and I’ve been wanting to use it ever since Linnie produced it. I’ve coloured the image using Whispers stroke pens and got the shimmery effect by going over the clothing area with a thin wash of Twinkling H2Os. I’ve used this technique before and it gives rather a good fabric effect – in this case I think it looks quite chiffony but I’ve also used it over a deeper colour where it gave a velvety effect.

I’ve kept it pretty simple and just added a cuttlebug corner, some pink pearls, silver ribbon and glittery peel offs to finish it. Hmmmmm – having read that list, it sounds less simple doesn’t it??

I’m also entering this into a new (to me) challenge that I have just found, Penny’s Challenges where this week we’re asked to use pearls.

I hope you’ll come and join us at Cute Daisy May this week. Remember that you don’t need to use a Daisy May image to enter and you could win a sheet of Daisy May images. If you need any more inspiration just check out the cards from the rest of the fabulous DT.

Thank You!

I’ll start this post with an apology because I think it’ll be quite brief. My back is playing up really badly and I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to sit here – so if I don’t get round your blogs as quickly as usual, that’s why and I’ll apologise now.

Anyway, enough of that, on to today’s card. It’s my DT card for this week’s Cute Dasiy May Challenge and we are saying thank you. I have gone for a 6″ square card and cut in top right hand corner off in a curve. The brown bp used on the front and the inside is one of my own and I was able to use up some pieces left over from another project. I’ve edged these with glitter peel offs from Anitas. I used them for the first time on a commissioned card last week and really like the effect. The image is from sheet 39 and has been coloured with Twinkling H2Os and Whispers stroke pens. The matt gold card has been put through the c/bug stylized flowers folder. I always enjoy creating anything but this particular card just seemed to come together with ease so particularly enjoyed it.

It’s also suitable for the following challenges:

Allsorts – no rubber stamping. My image is a digi image and the greeting is a peel off.

C.R.A.F.T. – embossing

ABC Challenge – C is for circles

Tanda Teaser – Floral Fantasy

Wednesday Stamper – Dogs

Stamp Something – Animals

Thank you for your visit today and I hope to visit you in turn as soon as I can (gotta have my fix!!). I hope you’ll come and join us for the Cute Daisy May Challenge and give us all lots of lovely blogs to visit – don’t forget that you can use any image to join in.

The Secret Guest

Good monday morning everyone! It’s Cute Daisy May Challenge time again and this week the theme is blue and green. My DT sample this week is the promised ‘sequel’ to the Day Trip wall hanging that I posted on Saturday (see post below) and it looks as though I wasn’t the only one keeping an eye on our Daisies as they enjoyed their trip to the countryside! I’m just pleased that none of them stood on her by accident lol!

I’ve coloured the image using coloursoft pencils and a mixture of media to get the tones I wanted for the grass – namely, distress ink, brilliance ink and twinkling H2Os and I must say that I was very pleased with the result and that the green in the image goes better in real life with the green bp than the photo makes it look. We had horrendous rain here yesterday and the lighting I had to use to take the photo seems to have changed the shade of the green on my painted image slightly. The fairy is from sheet 87 and the background is the same as on Day Trip but enlarged and only a part of it used.

Both bps are my own and the double baby’s breath flowers are from a stem I bought from my local garden centre.

I’m also entering my card into these challenges:

Friday Sketchers – thank you for another lovely sketch

Lots to do – paper craze

One Stop Craft Challenge – I believe in Angels/Fairies (of course!!)

I hope you like my slightly off the wall take on these challenges and that you’ll come an join us for the Cute Daisy May Challenge this week and help us to welcome our new Guest Designer Gez for her first challenge in this role.