Stripes and Gorillas

A wierd combination, I know........

Just a quick post today to enter this week's ute Card Thursday challenge, which happens to be stripes.

For this double easel card I have used one of the new sets of stamps which you can now buy from Stamp Addicts, and as you can see, they are quite comical. The leaves and the bananas all come separeately s, there are lots of intertesting combinations that you can make.

I'm off now, as still have some cardmaking to do before Santa arrives!

Bye for now.

Sharon x

A labour of love.....

A friend of mine at work asked if I would make a special Christmas card for her Grand Daughter and of course, I was very flattered and said yes of course!

Trouble is, then my brain started churning, and I'm thinking, opening draws, chocolate and 3d decoupage. Many hours later.......here's the result.

I made the draw and everything from scratch, using my ultimate pro, so it took quite a bit of time! I also mafe the 3d frame, using a BCE template which, I have to say is absolutely brilliant!

The stamp is of course Humprhrey which I stamped and coloured four times to get a bit of dimension. It came out really great in real life, but doesn't show so well on the picture.

I brought some chocolate coins to go in the drawer and job done......well almost! I then had the problem of what to put it in.....and there was no other option but ot make a box.

Out with the ultimate pro again, and once again I got a little carried away with the punched snow flakes and the glitter. Here's the result......



I have to admit, I couldn't wait to give this to my friend at work, and luckily she was delighted with it. It makes all the effort worthwhile when you can put a smile on someone's face.

Un beknown to me though, she had been showing the card to other people at work to, and, it wasn't much later before I had another collegue asking me if I could do the same for their Grandson. Well how could I refuse!!

So, I have had to reschedule my card making this week to fit in another box card session, and I have now just about finished the second one, which is more boy orientated. I will have to show that one on my blog another day I think!

In the meantime I would like to enter this card for the One Stop Craft Challenge, which is 'Sparkles'

Thanks for looking , and reading my waffle.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Sharon x

Still can't get enough of those Christmas Challenges....

Hello everyone.....well it's a very cold, frosty and seasonal Saturday morining where I am, but lovely and sunny which is really nice. That said, I have yet to venture outside, as I am enjoying my nicewarm living room at the moment!

I am still enjoying making my Christmas cards (but really need to stop making them and start writing and sending them!!)

Here's another card that I have made, which I thought I would enter in to a few of the Christmassy challenges that are out there this week.

You might be familiar with these charactrs by now, as I have used them on a few other cards recently. I think they work really well with the pastel colour range, and I also love the bench and tree background which you can sit them on.

I'm afraid I don't do digital layering, so I have simpley printed all the elements, coloured and then cut out the children, and decoupages them on to the bench.

I am going to enter this one on to the following challenges:

Cute Card Thursday - Anything Goes
Card Makin Mamas - Christmas
Stampin for the Weekend - Christmas

Thanks very much for looking and for your comments - I love to read them!

Sharon x

The boy that goes with the girl....

A few posts back, I showed you a pink caard with a girl sitting in a nestie.......well here is the boy version that went with it.

Once again a nice simple card to make, and this time I have used some glove stubbies, rather than snowflakes to stamp the background.

I would like to enter this for the following challenges:

Cupcake Craft Challenge - Make your own background paper
Papertake - Anything goes.

Hope you like this one!

Sharon x

A little bit of DT stuff

A quick showcase of a Stamp Addicts DT card that I made today, using their lovely elephant set. Within the set there is a large and a small elephant, plus some handy sentiments, including one that we all need sometimes.....'sorry I forgot'.

I have used the smaller ellie here, along with my nesties and my one and only edgeability die, with a bit of distressing for good measure.

Thanks for popping by.

Sharon x

A Bit of Photo Inspiration....

Over at Secret Crafter Saturday they are having a photo inspiration challenge, and I have never tried one of these before, so I thought I would give it a go.

The phot o is a close up of a decorated Christmas tree with loads of reds and greens, so I have focussed on these aspects for the card that I have made, using a lovely image that I picked up from the Digi Stamp Boutique.

I have paired this up with some goreous NitWits papers (the tree one is form Simple Joys, I think, and the stripes are from Merry Christmouse)

Another sprinkling of glitter, which you canactually see once again (must have got lucky with the camera today!), plus a punched out snowflakes and a litle Candy Dot and the card is complete.

Hope you like this one - I'm entering it for the Secret Saturday Crafter photo inspiration challenge.

FINALLY - my two 'telly addict' comments for today.

Celeb - Glad that Dougie won, but my secret confession is that I would have been happy for Mark to win too.....never thought I would say that about a TOWIE person!

X Factor.......Misha's gotta go!!! Lurve Marcus and Amelia!

Sharon x

Snowmen and Snowflakes

Well I guess there's not going to be much more time to enjoy Christmassy challenges now, as the big day is fast approaching (my son give's me the count down on a daily basis!)

So, I've been making a few more Christmas cards this weekend in the hope's of joining a few of those challenges, and here's the first one.

For this card I have used the adorable Humphrey once again and picked off a matching paper from the matching CD.

Rather than using different papers, I have used the same one for both layers. I forgot how much I liked this effect, so I am going to start using it a bit more often I think!

I have used a fair amount of glitter, whilst the Christmas spirit still allows it and, for once you can actually see it in this photo.

Finally I have used some Craftwork Cards Candy dots to embellish. These started out as pearly white, but I coloured them with promarkers to maktch the snowman's scarf......

I am going to enter this card for the following challenges.......

I love Promarkers - Snowmen and Snowflakes
One Stop Craft  - Let it Snow.

Thanks for looking.

Back with post number two in a minute......

Sharon x

Going Round in Circles.

This is the subject of the Allsorts challenge this week, and I have got just the right card for this challenge!

Here's a card that I have made for my Mother In Law's birthday, using the lovely House Mouse range from Joanna Sheen. The backing paper also comes from the House Mouse backing paper CD Rom.

I have also done a bit of embellishing for a change on this card. The lovely swirls are from a Marianne's Creatables die and the flowers are from Wild Orchid, plus a few punched leaves for effect.

Hope you like the card.

I'm entering it for:

Allsorts - Going Round in Circles
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

Thanks for looking.

Sharon x

It's that Mischevious Cat Again.....

Today it's time to show another card made using the Cats set from Stamp Addicts......

This time he's been having a good old rummage in the bins, but it looks like he has been caught in the act!

For this card I have stamped and coloured three bins, plus lids and decoupaged the lids so that they are slightly raised.

The pawprints on the base card also come as part of the stamp set......very handy.....

Finally I have broken up the white background by using the dotting technique with a few different promarkers.

No challenges for me to enter today, but I hope you have enjoyed looking at this card.

Sharon x

Snowflakes are Falling

Here comes the second post of the day and this time it's Humphrey!

I really love these cute images and they are a real joy to colour as they are not too fiddly.....perfect for an evening after work when you want to do some colouring but you still have double vision from looking at a computer screen all day!

I tried to keep this card clean and simple so that the focus would remain on the beautiful image, which I have coloured with my Promarkers.

Do you like the wool at the top? It is a lovely soft wool called snuggly and, believe it or not, we bought it last year to drape around our black Christmas Tree. Once the tree came down though, I nabbed that ball of wool as I knew I would be having fun with it in a diferent way, the next Christmas.

Plus I have added a little silver charm, which is a first for me. I have bought charms before, but I can never bear to part with them. Never mind - I have bitten the bullet this time and that charm is now firmly attached......I will have to think carefully about who I give this card to, so that the charm will go to a good home!

I am entering this card for two challenges:

Crafters Companion - Let it Snow
I Love Promarkers - Anything Goes.

That's all for today folks. Thanks for dropping by.

Sharon x

A Little Lili of the Valley Lovelyness

Here's the first of two posts today - a card I made using a gorgeous LOTV image.

I chose this particular image to follow the theme of Friends, over at the Stampin' for the Weekend challenge, and hopefully you can see why.

I had real fun colouring in this image and managed to use a selection of my Promarkers, Flexmarkers AND Trias.....quite an adventure for me as I have a tendency to stick to one thing or the other.

I'm going to enter this card for the following challenges:

LOTV - Anything Goes
Stampin for the Weekend - Friends
I love Promarkers - Anything Goes

Thanks for looking.

Sharon x

Angels on my Shoulder.......

Well these Angels aren't actually on my shoulder - they're standing on a bench!

These little lovelies are from a stamp that I bought about a year ago from Sir Stampalot and are part of a lovely range that includes some really nice traditional images with a cute touch. I also have some shepherds from this range which are equally gorgeous.

So fir this card, you can see that I have been playing with my Grand Calibur once again for all the matting and layering, plus the flowers which were bust from one of the Spellbinders flower die sets. I always used to leave the flowers flat, but recently I saw a Tonic Studios programme where the presenter put he flower in the palm of her hand and rubbed it with the embossing tool in a circular motion. I tried it myself and it gave a lovely curl to the petals.

The image is, of course, coloured with my lovely promarkers..... I think I will have to ask Father Chrtstmas for some new ones as I am sure my set will start to run out soon!!

I'm going to enter this card in to the following challenges:

Stampin for the Weekend - Friends

I love Pormarkers - Anything Goes

Ribbon Girl Challenge - Pink and White.

Ribbon Girl - Jingle all the Way

Thanks for visiting on this sunny Sunday morning and I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Sharon x

I'm dreaming of a Pink Christmas

Well I decided it was time to indulge myself in a bit of  'Pink' time again - especailly as the Ribbon Girl is having a Pink and White challenge this week......perfect!

Here's the card that I made:

  As you can see, I have stamped some snow flakes on to some white card, using distress inks and mounted it on to the base card. I have used one of my lovely nesties for the mount, and embossed the center area (getting a little bit carried away withthe old Cuttlebug today!)

The lovely image is a digi stamp from Cuddly Buddly, which I have coloured with my faithful promarkers.

And finally - I have used the all important bit of Pink Ribbon for a bit of embellishment.

I am going to enter this card for the following challenges:

I love Promarkers - Anything Goes
The Ribbon Girl - Pink and White
CES Challenge - Snowflakes

That's all from me today.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sharon x

Gnome Place Like Home

Good morning everyone. I thought I would try my hand at scheduling a post today, so fingers crossed it has worked and that it has appeared on my blog as planned!

Today I thought I would show you a card which I have made with the Gnome Place Like Home stamp set from Stamp Addicts. It turned out to be bit of a labour of love but I quite like how it turned out.....I hope you all like it too.

So here's the card........

And here's what I did......

• I started with a piece of white card and rubbed Distress Inks in greens and browns on it to create the mottled effect.
• I creased the card to create the two front steps which you can see in the picture.
• I stamped and coloured the main image and the mushrooms, using my Promarkers.
• After mounting the gnome in position I cut a piece of acetate and looped in over the back of the card, before attaching to the bottom step.
• The greeting and the mushrooms were positioned on the front step so that the line where the acetate is joined is covered.
• The variety of leaves that you can see have been printed from the Polka Doodles Sundae of Seasons CD. You can print a whole page of lovey autumn leaves, and then it is simply a case of cutting the all out and arranging them around the edge of the acetate. This took a little bit of time, but I think it was well worth it!

Here's a shot from a different angle....

I was really pleased how this card turned out, as it certainly had some dodgy moments along the way!

Hope you like it too, and thanks very much for looking.

Sharon x

Mice and Cosy

Today I thought I'd post a picture of my first attempt at a box card, which I made for someone who did something nice for my family. The recipient happens to like knitting and buttons so, I bought some buttons during my recent visit to Hobbycraft at the NEC and I thought it might be nice to make something to put them in.

I had to photograph this one in a bit of a hurry, so apologies for the poor quality, but, as you can see, I have used a gorgeous House Mouse set which came from Joanna Sheen.

I thought that the wool balls may present some problems, colouring wise, but I was surprised at how easy these were to colour and shade as you can do it quite randomly and it still comes out looking pretty good. I simply used two shades of colour; coloured the lightest shade all over the ball first, and then added low lights by following the lines of the wool at the base of the ball and also on the stands which are'inside' the ball.

For the lovely little mice, I used the tried and tested Joanna Sheen recomended combination of Sandstone and Blush.

I think this is such a cute image - that little mouse trying on the hat really puts a smile on my face!

Thanks for dropping by.

Sharon x

A Pile of Trouble.....

Here's one of the cards that I made with the Elephant and Rhino set from Stamp Addicts, which appeared on their afternoon show yesterday.

I have to admit that this was not my favourite card but the Presenter seemed to quite like it, so that was something.

Rather than using a masking technique, I simply stamped the elephant out 5 times and the rhino once, and coloured them in. I then glued them together in a pyramid shape and then placed in on to my base card and drew around  the right hand edge. This gave me a cutting edge to get the right shape for the 'cut away' effect on the front of the card.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sharon x

I Love Promarkers Christmas Trees Challenge

Well it's been a liitle while since I've had the time to enter any challenge, so I am really pleased that I managed to get this card all coloured in for the Trees challenge over at I love Promarkers.

This stamp is from the Popcorn Christmas range and, as you can see, it's quite large and fills up most of a 6 by 6 card. So other than colouring the image itself, there wasn't really much else to do, other than to mat and layer some backing paper from the matching CD and add some lovely blue ribbon. I also coloured the baubles with a Sakura glitter pen, which adds some lovely sparkle - such a shame that it  doesn't pick up in this picture.

It's a simple 'no frills' card, but I hope you like it!

Here's the challenge I'm entering.....

http://ilovepromarkers.blogspot.com/2011/11/challenge-92-christmas-trees.html

I am hoping to get a few more Christmas cards finished this weekend ......I am starting to feel a bit more festive now, after my Bah Humbug moment in M&S last week

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Sharon x

More 'Ant'ics.......

Hi all,

A quick post today to show another card made with the Ants stamp set from Stamp Addicts, which you can also see  on their Blog - The Purple Zone.

I have gone for a fresh and bright colour pallette here and I have also distressed the edges of the paper - especially the blue as I thought this gives an impression of sea spray.

Stamp Addicts have tow shows on Create and Craft this Saturday, and I'm pretty sure that this set will be on there, as well as some of the other new additions - well worth a look if you get the chance!

That's all for me today. Thanks for stopping by.

Sharon x

Something's buggin' me!!!!

TGIF.......or thank goodness it's Friday, for those of you who don't do abbreviations!

I am very glad it's Friday....work has been mental, life has been busy and, for some reason, I feel like I am getting ready to hibernate as dragging myself out of bed is just getting harder and harder!!

So I'm quite glad right now to be sitting down with a cuppa and doing a little surfing to catch up with my favourite blogs.

And on the subject of surfing........here's a card that I have made using a soon to be released stamp set from Stamp Addicts. I consists of a variety of surfing ants and two 'Surfy' sentiments.

This is a really fun set and I had great fun playing around with it - particularly as there is also a girl surfer which means that this set can cater for everyone who's a bit of a 'Surf Dude'!!

As you can see I've gone for some nice bright colours here and I've created an octaganol stepper card. The image itself is quite big, so it really fills the space on your card and it's also nice and easy to colour too.

To get away from the plain white card I've 'dotted' with my promarkers in the hopes that it will look like the spray from the sea - not sure if that has worked or not. I think I need a bit more practice!!

Well that's my card for today folks. I'm going to be busy making some more DT cards this weekend so lots of fun ahead - rain or shine!!

Have a great weekend all, and thanks for popping by to visit.

PS - Can't leave without a little X Factor comment.......thank goodness Frankie's gone at last.....and how silly he is to throw away what could have been a great opportunity for him. I hope he manages to sort himself out and come out of this with a bit of maturity. Getting off my soap box now......

Bye!

Sharon xx

An elepant for Christmas???

Not exactly your traditional Christmas image, but what can I say except that I was having a festive moment whilst creating some of my Stamp Addicts DT cards!

This little cutie comes as part of a lovely two part set which also contains a rhino. Both of them are really lovely to colour in and shade if you happen to have some pros or speccy's as there are lots of open spaces which leaves rooms to scribble and shade till your heart's content.

Now this little Ellie didn't come with a Christmas hat, but I found that the hat from Stamps by Judith fits perfectly so I just stamped, coloured, cut out and stuck it on. Also, I'm not sure if you can see but I stippled the red with a blender pen to try to created a bit of a fluffy appearance, and of course it was the perfect opportunity to add a bit of glitter to an elephant.

By the way, the lovely papers came free with a magazine but you can find them at Wild Rose Studios.

Well I hope you like this card, and thanks for coming to visit me once again, today.

Sharon x

What a Cat - astrophe!!!

Last weekend I dropped off a bunch of DT cards to Stamp Addicts, using the new releases that they will shortly be bringing out. There were eleven cards, all in all, made using 3 different stamp sets so I guess you will now know why you haven't been hearing from me lately.

Well a few of my cards have appeared on the Purple Zone blog over the last week and also the Stamp Addicts mailers so I guess it's OK to start showing them on my blog now.

With that said, here is the first one using the Cats and Dustbins set.

Within the set you get a dustbin, a separate dustbin lid, a small cat, a large cat, a tree bough and a fish bone, so it is really good value and there is plenty to get your imagination going. Also, these kind of images are great for those times when you want to make something a little on the humorous side.

So for  this sample a stamped coloured and cut out the three dustbins, plus two lids and the large cat. The cat is in fact 'whole' but you can only see his top half of him in this example. I had to cut his feel off to fit him in the bin - it felt very wrong to do that....even though he is not real!!

For the background I used distress inks to  smudge green and blue around the edges of the card stock and I used my Stamps by Judith grass stubbie for........you guessed it......the grass!!

I stamped the fish in the top right hand corner, and used a fine black pen to draw the string that it is tied too.

Then it's just a case of stacking the bins so that the cat is in the right place to look like he can reach the fish.

Quite simple really, but a great card for a cat lover - particularly if these antics remind them of their own little bundle of fluff!!

Well I hope you enjoyed this card, and thanks very much for coming to visit me today.

Sharon x

Something Seasonal (but not Christmas!)

As promised, here is something 'non Christmassy', and yet spookily seasonal!

This is a quick little gift that I threw together yesterday afternoon  as my son was going to a Halloween party and, although it wasn't a 'present giving' party, I didn't want him to turn up empty handed.

So I made this little goodie bag in super quick time, using my Sundae of Seasons CD from Polkadoodles and some lovely scrap book paper that I bought from Stamp Addicts last year.

My son had a great time at the party, but unfortunately I was then up with him till 2am as he was too scared to sleep. Not due to the spooky antics and stories that went on at the Halloween party, but because he was freaked out by the make up and the robotic moves that Little Mix were doing on the X Factor!!! Strange the things that get to people isn't it??

Anyway, I ended up sleeping on the floor in his room till I woke up at 6am and crawled back in to my own bed feeling very stiff!

As for my little angel - still asleep......kids!!!

Bye for now.

The very tired and slightly zombiefied Sharon xx

Ho Ho Ho!!

As you will have noticed, I have not been blogging much lately, as I have been very busy creating cards for the shortly to be released stamp sets from Stamp Addicts. I dropped my samples off today and I'm allowed to show you some sneak peaks so watch out for those, appearing soon!

In the mean time, here is a little Christmas card for you, using a lovely stamp from the Christmas Goirdano's at Joanna Sheen. As well as the main image, the little bear and the holly sprigs also come with the stamp set, so this is very versatile. Also, I have given my alcohol pens a little rest, and gone for my Whispers water colour pens instead.

I hope you like it, and I promise to come back tomorrow with something 'non Christmassy'!

Thanks

Sharon

Baby stuff

I have been busy, busy, busy this weekend, getting crafty with some lovely new stamps from the Stamp Addicts team - trying to catch up on my deadlines after being out of action last weekend!

Unfortunately that means I haven't had time to enter any challenges this week but I have got one card offering along the rheme of babies. My next door neighbour just gave birth to her second child, and so I couldn't resist inking up one of my lovely baby type stamps as I don't oftern get the chance to use them!

So this very simple card is made using one of the lovely Humphrey's corner stamps, coloured very simply with my Pro Markers.

Hope you like it. I am going to enter it for the following challenges:

CES Challenge  - New Beginnings
Cute Card Thursday - Something Cute
One Stop Craft - No designer paper.

Thanks for looking!!

Sharon x

Lovely Autumn Colours

Me and my Lemsip were watching a bit of Joanna Sheen on TV yesterday and I suddenly had the urge to colour a few House Mice (guess the Lemsip must have kicked in for a couple of hours!)

So here is the result.......

The cute backgound paper comes from the Giordano Christmas CD and I thought it went perfectly with this image, plus I had the right colour Promarkers to tone in with it perfectly.

As you can see, I have stamped out the main image, which was a bit daunting in appearance, but was actually remarkably easy to colour in. I also stamped out the leaf from the same set, four times and decoupaged this randomly on to the card.

I am quite pleased with how this card turned out, particularly as I was fuzzy headed at the time!

PS - I am feeling a lot better today (although still reliant on the cold and flu remedies!) No doublt I will be fighting fit in time to go back to work tomorrow! Thanks you to those of you who left me get well wishes on my blog. You are such lovely folk and it really cheered me up. I just can't imagine life without all my blog land buddies these days!!

I'm going to enter this card in to a few challenges too, so here goes.....

http://ilovepromarkers.blogspot.com/2011/10/challenge-87-autumnal-colours.html

http://ceschallenges.blogspot.com/2011/10/challenge-58forever-autumn.html

Thanks for looking once again, and reading my endless waffle!

Sharon x

Halloween is Coming!

I can't believe that Halloween is just around the corner already, and we have got through half a term of school in what seems like the blink of an eye!!

I love Halloween from a crafty point of view as I love all the cute little images that you can get, plus the lovely colours associated with this time of year.

I don't have much reason to make Halloween cards, but this year I have made one for my son, as he is still young enough to love dressing up and going out Trick or Treating so I thought that this digi image from Squiggle Stamps would be just perfect for the job.

I have coloured this image using my lovely Promarkers and the papers are from my scrapbooking stash. I am ashamed to say that I give in to the urge to buy a few Halloweeen papers every year, but never get round to scrapping the pictures if my son and his friends.....so this year I decided to dust of a couple of sheets and this is the result.

As there are plenty of autumn / halloween challenges at the moment, I am going to enter this card for the following:

http://cupcakecraftchallenges.blogspot.com/2011/10/cupcake-163-halloween.html
http://craftycalendarchallenge.blogspot.com/2011/10/spooky-birthday.html
http://ilovepromarkers.blogspot.com/2011/10/challenge-87-autumnal-colours.html
http://onestopcraftchallenge.blogspot.com/2011/10/week-153-halloween.html
http://ceschallenges.blogspot.com/2011/10/challenge-58forever-autumn.html

Thanks for looking everyone - back in a moment with another Autumn themed post.

Sharon x

Feeling a bit sorry for myself.....

Hello everyone - it's a lovely bright autumn day outside and I am stuck in side the house, nursing a box of tissues and a mug of Lemsip! I can't believe that I am missing out on what may be the last of the sunshine, but I came down with a horrible head cold yesterday, and today I am hot/ cold aching and all of that other lovely stuff. Fingers crossed I will be over the worst by tomorrow - lol !!

Anyway, I thought I would post a quick card that I made when I first became a  Stamp Addicts DT member, as I hadn't got round to showing yet, although it did appear on the C&C show last month (yay!!!).

The theme over at Cute Card Thursday this week is Tree-mendous, so I thought I would enter this card. It's a bit of a loose interpretation, but there are definitely trees, and I think the snowman is cute anyway!

I have also cheered myself up a bit this morning by ordering the complete SWALK Winter Cheer set from Crafters Companion....and even better, it didn't cost me a penny as I had a loyalty voucher to use up! I have been recording all the shows since yesterday on Create and Craft so no doubt me and my Lemsip will have a lovely time watching some of the shows later......aaahh life's not so bad after all!!

Bye for now.....

Sharon x

Blog Candy from my SIL

My Sister in Law has some lovely blog candy up for grabs in the shape of a great digital scrapbooking kit from My Memories, and you can see it right here.......

http://thekraftycupcake.blogspot.com/2011/10/my-memories-giveaway.html

Why not pop over to her blog and have a look.

She tells me it is a really great package......and you have to be in it to win it!

Good luck everyone!

Sharon

Christmas Critters

The Promarker challenge has a lovely theme this week, entitled Christmas Critters.

This gave me the perfect excuse to crack out y Humphrey Christmas Stamps.

I don't know about you, but I think that these stamps are so gorgeous that they need very little to go with them, so they look lovely on a very simple layout.

Here I have used some freebie paper that I got with a magazine, a bit of grosgrain ribbon and some candy dots....couldn't be easier.

I am a big fan of the lovely detailed cards, full of embellies, that other people make, but I'm just not very good at it myself, soI'm really glad to have a stamp that can be the focal point of the card, without too much fuss!!

So, I'm going to enter this card for the following challenges:

http://onestopcraftchallenge.blogspot.com/2011/10/week-152-anything-goes.html

http://promarkerchallenge.blogspot.com/2011/10/week-121-theme.html

Thank you once again for looking, and a pleasant evening to you all.

Sharon x

Hand Made Flowers

The  theme over at Polka Doodles this week is to use hand made flowers, and I quite fancied having a go at this as I haven't made all that many before.

So, as you can see, I went a liitle bit mad with my grand calibur and cut out lots of scalloped circles to create this card, along with some die cut flowers, which I edged and curled before adding the to the card.

I think a bit more practivce is required though.

I'm going to enter this card for the following challenges:

http://polkadoodle.blogspot.com/2011/10/week-40-challenge-handmade-flowers-blog.html

http://onestopcraftchallenge.blogspot.com/2011/10/week-152-anything-goes.html

Thanks for looking - back with another quick post in a minute!

Sharon x

Lots of Little Penguins

Well it's a grey and gloomy Sunday morning here in MK but I don't care as, after a busy old day yesterday, I don't have to feeling guilty about sitting here blogging in my PJ's! (Yes it's 10am, and I still have my PJ's on......how lazy am I!!!)

Yesterday I received a bunch of dtamps from Stamp Addicts, which will form part of their new range in November. There are are really nice ones in there, so I can't wait to get started with them, but of course I won't be able to show them for a while.

In the mean time though, I thought I would go back to something I made with the lovely Penguins set that they sent me last time round. As you can see, I made a hanging chain using a variety of the stamps and of course my lovely nesties.

Here are a few close ups:

So we have the cute little fishing penguins - easy to stamp and mega quick to colour as all of the black comes out as part of the stamp.

Next we have the penguin buddies. As you can see I have also punched a few snowflakes from pearlescent paper and added some blue pearl gems that I found in my stash for the centres. (I have a feeling that these were from Do Crafts)

Lastly we have the snow ball penguin, and of course, on all three I just had to add a bit of doodle stitching  around the edges.

The hardest part of this was getting tje decorative ribbon to sick to the disks, but, since then I have got some of the super sticky tape..... wouldn't be without it now!!!

Well thanks for looking and I hope you all have a lovely relaxing Sunday.

Sharon x

Something Girly

Here's a card that I made over the weekend, specifically to fit in with the sketch over on the Saturday sketch challenge. I had big plans for some card making over the weekend but, with one thing and another, this was the only one that I managed to get finished, so I have a nice pack of half finished cards to play around with if I can keep my eyes open over the next couple of evenings!

So - back to today's card. The stamped image is from the Crafter's Companion Popcorn's Pals range. I don't know if this range is particularly well known but I think that this little rag doll is so cute, and she's really fun to colour  too. All of the papers have also come from the matching CD from the range. A handy little tip - rather than ruining a whole sheet of backing paper for my punched borders, I printed a sheet of borders , cut a couple of strips off, and the punched on to the edges of those. Easy! Plus it saves on precious printer ink too.

I have coloured the imafe using my Spectrums - I am really starting to enjoy these pens and they have some really lovely colours - I will definitely try to collect the whole range over time.

So - on to the challenges. I'm going to enter this card for the following.......

Sketch Saturday.
ABC - Anything goes
CES challenge - Totally Gorgeous / Pretty Girls

I'm looking out of the window now, and the wind is blowing and the sky is grey. Looks like our bonus summertime could now be over, so I guess my Christmas mojo will soon be returning!

Thanks for looking.

Sharon x

Pretty Little Girls

Morning all. I can't believe that we are just entering October and it feels like a hot summer's day abroad. I for one am not complaining as I am loving the sunshine and I could take a little more of this before we start to see those temperatures drop. The only trouble is, that it's put me right off doing my Christmas cards for now, but I am sure my Christmas mojo will soon return!

So today, I have a card using a gorgeous LOTV stamp coupled with some lovely NitWits papers. A nice simple layout this time so that the focus is on that gorgeous little image.

I'm going to enter this for a couple of nice 'girly 'challenges this week.

CES Challenge - Totally Gorgeous / Pretty Girls
Allsorts Challenge - Flowers.

On another note, I seem to be having trouble commenting today. I type my comment and then when I submit it, it just disappears completely. Is anyone else having the same trouble and if anyone has found a solution, please can you send me a comment and let me know how you did it? It's so frustrating when you take the time to type something nice for someone and then it disappears in to oblivion!!!!

Anyway, time for me to go now - ironically I need to go to the shops and pick up some winter boots that I have ordered!

Enjoy the Indian Summer everyone!

Sharon x

The 'Bear' Minimum

Just a very quick post today as the internet is painfully slow and I am very close to throwing my laptop across the room!!! (I pay for 10 meg of speed and get 1.5 if I'm lucky - but best not to get me started on that one!)

Anyway, back to the card. There are  quite a few bear related challenges, plus Christmas, plus simple layouts so I thought that I would combine them all, and came up with this, using a LOTV stamp. I have stamped and coloured with Promarkers, as per usual, and I have used mu nesties and Martha Stewart snowflake border punch for the gold  bits. A little bit of doodling and a lovely sentiment stamp from Stamps By Judith, and Bob's your uncle!

So I'm going to enter this one for the following challenges:

• Crafty Calendar - Let Sleeping Bears Lie
• Southern Girls - Anything Goes
• Allsorts - Keep it Simple
• Magical Monday - Christmas in September
• Crafters Companion - Christmas Wishes
• Cupcake Crafts - If you go down to the woods.....

Thanks for looking !

Sharon x

Quick and simple - easel card

Today it's a very quick and simple offering with no stamping (shock horror!).....bu at least I have managed to move away from the Christmas theme for a day.

everything on this card has come from the lovely Humphrey's Corner CD, using the decoupage, backing papers and borders section.

Other than that, there's really not too much to say about this one, other than I am going to enter it for the following challenge....

One Stop Craft Challenge

Thanks for looking.

Sharon

Aqua, white and a bit of Glitter....

This lovely colour scheme is the subject of this week's challenge at LOTV. I love aqua and white, particularly for snowy christmas cards so I thought I would go with something clean and simple.

So for this card I have picked one of the beautiful LOTV images and used some of the lovely blues from my Spectrums to colour her in. I cut her out with a circle nestie and the mounted the circle on to the white card, which gave me a guideline for where to stick my little punched snowflakes to make the wreath.

I am going to enter this card in to the following challenges:

Crafty Calendar
Lili of the Valley
Southern Girls

Thanks for looking!

Sharon

Challenge Time!

Today I thought I would show a card that I have made for a few of the lovely challenges that are going on this week.

As you can see, it Christmas again, using one of the lovely LOTV Christmas Bear stamps. I thought that this stamp would match really well with the lovely My Minds Eye papers that came free with one of my magazines (Card Making and Papercraft I think!) as I thought the Christmas tree theme followed through nicely.

As luck would have it, I have some lovely promarker colours which matched perfectly with the paper and the layout is from Passion for Promarkers so this card was relatively easy to put together.

I am going to enter this card for the following challenges:

Crafty Calendar - Let Sleeping Bears Lies
Papertake - Creature Comforts
Passion for Promarkers - Sketch

Thanks for looking.

Sharon

Card Maker of the Year - my entry

As promised....finally a 'non Christmassy' card!

Here is my one and only entry for the C Mand P magazine card maker of the year competition. At first I wasn't going to bother entering as the competition will be foierce and there are so many talented cardmakers out there! But then I thought I would give it a go, and had plans to make a few entries for the different categories, but,in the end I only managed one card and here it is.

This is my entry for the Lily of the Valley category (as you know, I am a big fan!) and I have to admit that this was rather a labour of love!

I started out with a plain piece of card and created the archway and stepper base for the card. The background papers are from some of my staple NitWits collections and I selected three of the beautiful LOTV girls for the images.

Each image was coloured with promarkers and cut out and decoupaged on to one of the layers of the base card.

Finally, I punched branches to frame the card and added individually hand stamped and coloured leaves for a little extra dimension.

This turned out to be quite a big card - approx 8'' by 8'' and it took quite some time to make. I was quite sad to let it go, but at least I have a nice photo of it.

In the meantime, I will keep my fingers crossed and dream that one day I may get to see it again, but this time in print in the C M and P magazine. Like I said though, I can only dream.........

By for now and thanks for reading my ramblings!

Sharon xx

Red, White and Green, plus a Sketch

Another quick post to show another Christmas Card (sorry!) that I have madeto enter a couple of challenges this week.

For this card I have used one of the wonderful new Sugar Nellie stamps and water coloured her with my Whispers pens (I am geting right back in to the water colouring at the moment!). I coloured her on water colour paper but then cut her out and mounted her on to some embossed spotty white paper and a nestie.

The beautiful papers that you can see are from the NitWits Joyful Hearts collection - you can't see  it too well from the picture but they are lovely and textured - almost like material.

My one regret on this card is that I didn't edge the holly paper in green. I think it would have looked a lot better, but hindsight is a wonderful thing!

I am going to enter this card for the Sugar Nellie Sketch Challenge , the LOTV Red, white and green challenge, plus Cute Card Thursday - Anything Goes.

Thanks for looking once again!

Sharon xx

My cards on Telly!!

Stamp Addicts have had 2 shows on Create and Craft TV today. The first one was at 10am (probably repeated later tonight) and there is another show at 3pm.

The shows feature the lovely Christmas stamp stes that we have been working on lately and I was so pleased to see one of my cards there on the screen when I flicked on the TV this morning!

To top it all, the thre cards of mine that were shown were all praised by the lovely Nigel, and I was so chuffed to hear that my Christmas scene card was Sarah's favourite example from the set.

This is the card that was showcased as a favourite.......I can't tell you how chuffed I am!

It's also so lovely to see what amazing cards therest of the DT have come up with too.....I feel quite in awe of their artistic talents!

I will be recording the 3pm show to have a look at later, and get a bit more insipiration from the ideas that the other girls have come up with.

PS- I know I promised a 'non christmas' post, but I promise to come back with one later!!

Sharon xx

Polkadoodles meets LOTV

Today I thought I would show you a card using items by two of my favourite companies - in this case Polka Doodles and Lily of the Valley..

The Christmas scene has come from the Polka Doodles Magical Winter CD Rom and the image is one of the lovely LOTV christmas releases.

Actually I should really throw in a mention for another favourite company of mine as the snowy background paper is from 'The Snowman' CD Rom by Crafters Companion, and the image has been coloured in using my Spectrums - so all in all quite a combination.

As you can see, I have decoupaged my stamped image and offset it so it actually goes outside of the framed scene.........I think this looks quite nice , so I will probably do it again!

Over at Cute Card Thursday they have an 'Anything Goes' challenge, so I thought I would enter this card.

In the meantime, I am sure you are already getting fed up with my Christmas cards. Brace yourself...there are still more to come (especially as the lovely Humphrey's Corner Xmas stamps and CD are winging their way to me as we speak!), but perhaps I will post something 'non Christmas' tomorrow!

Thanks for looking.

Sharon x

My First Octaganol Stepper!

Here it is - my first attempt at an octaganol stepper card, and I am quite pleased how it came out if I say so myself.

I wanted to have a go at one of these cards, but there was no way I was going to be able to do it by measuring and drawing line with a ruler and pencil so I got myself a template from BCE. I was really impressed as it was so easy to use - I was expecting my first attempt to land up in the bin, but there was no need!

So, having got my card base sorted out I have used some lovely backing paper from one of my NitWit downloads (either Simple Joys or Merry Christmouse - can't remember which!) and I have edged them all with hand drawn faux stitching.

The lovely image in the middle is from Sugar Nellie - and how cute are these little penguins. Again , I was duly impressed with this stamp as it is quite a sizeable stamp so it makes a really good focal point. I have gone for a water colouring option this time round, using my Whispers Pens - as you can see, I am need of a little more practice with these!

Anyway - thanks for looking, and hope you are not getting bored with the Christmas stuff.....I seem to be on a Christmas roll at the moment!

Bye for now.

Sharon xx

Christmas Card Challenge - Something Vintage

The Christmas Card challenge this week is something vintage and although I am often more of a contemporary girl when it comes to Christmas, for some reason this year I am really being drawn back to the lovely Greens and Reds and lovely Christmassy scenes. That said I think I am veering more towards traditional than 'hardcore vintage' if there is such a thing!!

So here is my card using the lovely Cute Companions Christmas set and the matching CD. The scenes and characters are so lovely that you really don't need to do much else with these cards....

For this card I have coloured the characters with water colour pencils and mounted them on to the backgound scene, finishing off with a generous sprinkling of glitter.

So I'm entering this card in to the vintage challenge as mentioned:

Christmas Card Challenge

Thanks for looking!

Have a happy Sunday everyone.

Sharon xx

Wish I was there.........

After the week I've had at work, I have decided that I would quite like to live inside this little snow globe!

As you may have guessed I am particularly glad to have made it to Friday this week, and I'm looking forward to a couple of days off!

In the meantime, here's another one of the cards I made using the Stamp Addicts Mini Village kit. This time I have stamped out a Judikins snow globe (also from Stamp Addicts) and have created my snow scene by decoupaging various bits of the mini kit within it.

Everything is coloured with Promarkers and, I am not sure if you can see but there are little snowflakes in the sky. These have been created using Nicky Hall's '1,2,3' technique where you hold the tip of a blender pen on the sky for the count of three to fade the ink and create a little snow flake. Very effective in real life, although you can't see it so well on my photo.

Well I am hoping to make some time for a little craft this weekend (fingers crossed), but in the mean time, I'm going to enter this card for the Papertake Allsorts challenge.

Thanks for looking!

Sharon