Challenges Galore!

I've been a busy little cardmaking bee lately, playing with some fab images and making cards for blog challenges. :)

Rather than spamming people's reading lists with multiple blog posts, I thought I'd combine them all into one post....

The first card uses a cute Sugar Nellie image and I'm entering it into The Sugar Bowl challenge (sketch challenge plus optional theme of Shades of Violet):

She's coloured with my Promarkers to match these pretty papers (Freebie Kate Knight ones that came with a magazine) and I added some lace, Stampin' Up! pleated ribbon, flowers and a butterfly brad to finish.

Next up, more playing with my new Dilly Bean digi stamps, this time a card to enter into the Dilly Bean Designers and Friday Challenges blog challenge (current theme: stripes):

When I saw this image, I just had to have it... not least because it's called Mia and that's my DD2's name. :) I coloured the image with my Promarkers and then masked the image and the border with masking fluid and blended Tumbled Glass Distress Ink over it and flicked water onto it to make a speckled, distressed background. The papers are more freebies (I wish craft magazines would stop giving away such pretty papers, I'll never use up any of my stockpiled stash at this rate! :lol:) and I cut a border strip using a Martha Stewart punch and added some seam binding ribbon that I'd coloured with Distress Stains. A few pearls finished it off.

And finally, a card for the One Stitch at a Time challenge (theme: Use a Digi), using this lovely Stitchy Bear digi stamp:

I've kept this card really simple because the image just went SO well this gorgeous paper (another freebie!) and I felt too much embellishment would detract from the "garden scene" look of the fairy (coloured with my Promarkers) layered through the paper. So I just stamped a TH sentiment and heat embossed with pale pink powder and finished with a couple of butterly stickers.

WOYWW 157

Alas, alack, the celebrations are over. No, no, no, not the jubilee, the WOYWW anniversary! :D And what a swell party it was, with hundreds of desks to nosey at and ATCs in their hundreds, if not thousands, being made and swapped! I did my darnedest to make it round all 180+ desks before midnight Tuesday but I didn't quite make it so apologies to the last few dozen that I didn't get to.

So here we are again beginning a fourth year of the biggest blog hop in the world. So what's on my desk today?

The usual mess and chaos including Distress Stains and inks from recent ATC sessions (WOYWW ones and others) and the Promarkers are out and about today as I've been playing with colouring some images. There's a Sugar Nellie image in progress and there's also a whole sheet of gorgeous Dilly Bean digi stamps with one already coloured in and ready for making into a card. I only came across these fabulous images this week, by following a link from Sue's blog, and I'm just a little bit in love with them!

There's a couple of other items of interest in the room today, out of shot of the main picture. There's a CJ page in progress:

And there's a random addition... two of DD1's toy knights.

They sustained injuries in a fall from her castle playset (their shields snapped off - lord knows why the manufacturer didn't build them to withstand such a fall given that the castle includes a trap door for the specific purpose of dropping the knights from a great height! :lol:) and are awaiting the tender restorative mercies of mummy's hot glue gun! :lol:

That's it from me this week. Thanks for stopping by, would love it if you'd leave a comment. :)

Happy Birthday Passion for Promarkers! - Part 2

My second card for Passion for Promarkers' birthday challenge uses a Sugar Nellie stamp and I'm also entering it into the current "free for all" challenge at The Sugar Bowl blog.

The papers and the chipboard greeting are all Kate Crane freebies that came with a magazine a while back and I've coloured the cute Sugar Nellie image to match the papers for a pretty, summery card. :)

Why Thankee, Pardner!

Hee. Dontcha just love this little cowgirl stamp?

She's from Sugar Nellie and I'm entering this card into the current challenge over at The Sugar Bowl challenge blog. The challenge is to use the sketch provided with an optional theme of paper piecing.

Paper piecing is such a fun - if fiddly - effect and it works fantastically with an image like this. I really must do this more often! :) I've had the denim patterned paper sitting around in my stash for at least 5 years and I immediately thought of it for the paper piecing of the cowgirl's jeans, and of course she needed a gingham-style check paper for her shirt.

I have a bunch of thank you cards to send to friends and rellies for their christmas gifts to the girls so I figured (oops, I've gone proper Western now!) I'd make this card into a thank you card to get the ball rolling. :)

Happy (gothy) Birthday!

With any luck, this card will now have reached its recipient so I am safe to share it (Helen, if you're reading this and Nor's card hasn't arrived yet, then hit the back button now! :lol:).

It was my neice's birthday earlier this week (yes, the card is late - sorry, Nor!!) and she's a little bit goth and a lot into manga, so I thought Sugar Nellie's Manga Girl stamp was the perfect image to use for a birthday card! :)

I went with a goth-y colour scheme of black and purple and added in some funky black and silver holographic card for a bit of bling! The image was coloured in with ProMarkers and cut out and layered onto a square of card that I'd stamped and heat embossed with a funky text stamp.

I followed the sketch for the current challenge over at the Sugar Bowl challenge blog and I'm entering this card into the challenge.

It was a fun card to make so I hope Nor likes it! :)

And a couple more cards!

Phew! Sorry for the spamming of posts but I've had quite a bit to catch up on! :)

These are a couple of quick cards I made recently for sending out with some swaps:

This little notecard is simple but really pretty. I love this stamp from Sugar Nellie... I inked it with my Spice Bing n Juicy pad and I love the effect of the graduated colours. I spritzed the card blank with a bit of mica spray made from water with a bit of copper Perfect Pearls and then stamped the image over it. I stamped the sentiment in Sepia Versafine.

This was another quick card - I'd already coloured this image with my ProMarkers a few weeks ago, just to try it out after buying the stamp. I decided it was perfect for this card so I trimmed it down and matted it onto some lovely orangey card I found in my scraps box and added a piece of patterned paper, aslo from the scraps box, and punched a pretty floral border with a couple of Martha Stewart edge punches. A flower with a gemstone centre finished things off.

A birthday card...

Happy Birthday Auntie June! :)

It's my auntie's birthday on 3 September and I decided to combine her birthday card with the current challenge over at the Sugar Bowl challenge blog. :) This is the result:

I love this stamp (and if you buy it the money goes to a good cause too!) and she looked so cute coloured in in red and white that I decided to go with red and white papers to match. :) I also had a play with my Enamel Accents on this card to echo the circle element of the sketch. Overall, this turned out as a lovely, bright, cheerful card that I hope my Auntie will enjoy.

Dentists, cards and broken bones!

Thanks to those who wished me well for my dentists appointment on Wednesday. It went about as well as expected... I need two fillings. I knew I needed one at least as a) a tooth was niggling a bit and b) I never *ever* go to the dentists and not need work doing!

However, needing fillings is the least of my health worries today. I've done something astoundingly stupid this morning... I managed to stub my little toe on the bedroom door with such force that I've gone and broken it! After the initial pain it wasn't too bad for most of the morning but as the day wore on it got more and more painful - and stiff and swollen - and began turning a nice shade of purple. I bought some micropore tape so I could strap it up and it was doing okay... until on the way out of DD1's room after putting her to bed tonight, I only went and stubbed the same darn toe in the exact same way on the doorframe of her room! Talk about painful! I can't believe I have been so flipping clumsy, twice!!

Anyway, aside from injuring myself in new and stupid ways, I have also been doing a bit more crafting lately. As mentioned in my WOYWW post on Wednesday, my yummy new Sugar Nellie stamps arrived this week and I've been having a play:

This card is my entry for the current challenge over at the Sugar Bowl so it follows the sketch for the challenge and also uses the optional challenge theme of blue. :) Loved this Goldielocks stamp (the name also makes me giggle cos Goldilocks and the Three Bears is currently DD1's absolute favourite bedtime story!) and she looks so pretty when coloured in! I used my Nesties to frame her, with her legs dangling over the edge. To go with the blue theme I used some scrummy Blue Awning papers from K&Co and also added some matching 3D flower stickers. These papers and matching goodies have been sitting around in my stash for aaaaages, held hostage to my "too pretty to use" hoarding instinct... so as part of my attempt to *stop* hoarding and use all the pretty papers instead of just stroking them, I gritted my teeth and cut into them for this card. :) Glad I did cos they look lovely!  To finished off I added green velvet ribbon and a ruffle of cream lace behind the image.

I've just found out that the annual agricultural show in my town, happening this Sunday, has a greeting card category in the "domestic and crafts" section of the competitions and am thinking I might just enter this card - the contest might take my mind off the pain of my broken toe as I hobble around the showground!

WOYWW - 17 August 2011

Welcome one and all to What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday, wherein willing souls worldwide welcome you to wander from workdesk to workdesk, wondering at the wealth of workmanship wevealed... ooops, revealed!

Sorry, about that... maybe it's the late hour but I got a bit carried away with the W's there! :D

But yes, it is indeed Wednesday once again and time for a peek at the desks of WOYWWers the world over, as hosted by the ever lovely and inspiring Julia over at her Stamping Ground blog. This week's post from me is being scheduled... although it is already Wednesday as I write this. By the time this post goes live in the morning (proper morning, not "Oh my, I've stayed up past midnight again!" morning) I will be in the midst of trying to get myself and two small children up and dressed and fed and out the door in an effort to be on time for dentists appointments for all of us! (On the one hand - yay, I finally got us registered with an NHS dentist! - on the other hand - boo, dentists appointment!).

So think of me, opening wide for the dentist's unforgiving scrutiny, as you take a peek at my desk...

Today's photo finds me mid-creating, once again playing with yummy Sweet Pea stamps images. You will however also notice a bit of a change on the desk this week... a distinct lack of usual clutter... and even bits of desk visible between the crafting goodies and gadgets! Yes, I have had at least a partial tidy... it involved sorting through the piled up debris covering the entire desk, sorting  the "to keep" stuff into piles on one side (to be put away somewhere - in theory!) and chucking the rest - mostly paper scraps - in the bin!

Other highlights of the desk today include my scrummy new Sugar Nellie stamps which arrived today and have already been mounted and await playing with:

Some completed ATCs for a swap:

And some rather yummy push molds which arrived today all the way from the US of A!

So that's it for my desk this week. Thanks for stopping by and please do leave a comment to say hi. Hope you have a lovely Wednesday (let's face it, unless you've got a dentists appointment too, it's gonna be better than mine!) and an entertaining WOYWW! :)

On a Sugar rush!

Okay, I am blaming this one squarely on Sarah! :D

Knowing full well what a stamp addict I am, she callously pointed me in the direction of Sugar Nellie's blog. And of course I had to go have a look at the shop, and that was it... what little willpower I have (i.e. next to none!) went out the window and I ended up buying yet *more* stamps! :lol: And I really didn't need to buy any more stamps this month!

But I couldn't resist cos the designs were just so yummy. And because I am an impatient little crafter, I had to include a couple of the pretty digital images in my order, so that I had something to play with while waiting for my stamps to arrive. :)

And play I have (not the best photos - apols for that - the light in my conservatory seems particularly grey and gloomy today):

I don't know about you, but when I printed out these lovely shaded images, they just cried out to be coloured with pretty, soft watercolours. So I abandoned my beloved ProMarkers and dug out my watercolour pencils. I think the results are just so pretty and delicate.

I used the finished images to make a couple of quick cards. I kept the first one really simple because the image was just so striking, and somehow, melancholy. It made me think of the seaside, for some reason, so I inked the edges of the image with Weathered Wood Distress Ink and on a white card base I used Stampin' Up!'s Sandy Speckles Stampin' Wheel with Crumb Cake ink to make a sandy border and added a simple sentiment in blue ink.

For the second card I went with pretty, pastel pinks and blues (from a Papermania stack I've had lying around for ages) to coordinate with the colours in the image. I matted the image onto pretty pastel pink sparkly card and added pink velvet ribbon and a big layered flower in pastel colours. I haven't added a sentiment as yet.

I love playing with these images. Now I just can't wait for my stamps to arrive so I can play even more! :D In the words of the classic Def Leppard song, "Pour some sugar on me"! :lol: