A Spoonful of Sugar ~ Boo!

There is a great challenge over on A Spoonful of Sugar this week, it is to have a secret message on your card.

Do check out the challenge, there is fabulous blog candy on offer and the rest of the design team have come up with some fantastic ideas!

I thought my Halloween stamps would be good for the challenge this week and used this fabulous Sugar Nellie spooky character!

And so onto my secret message.....
Just look at this fab wood look paper, I only had to add score lines and some ink! I have had it ages but think it came from the Paper Mill Shop.
Supplies~ Tools ~ Scorpal

DP ~ Laura Ashley

Stamp ~ Sugar Nellie 'Halloween'

Embellishments ~ Prima flower and leaf, spacers from Jeneca Beads, Dovecraft brads, Kaiser Rub-on.

gift bags

Not quite a tutorial but a few peeps asked me to show how the gift bags were made a while back, I know, I am very late at putting these up!

Anyway, here is the brown bag I used, once you have one of themes it is very simple!

You simply cut your card to fit the size of your bag!

Here are the the two pieces of card stuck onto the bag, complete with handles cut out.
Then the bag is ready to decorate any way you would like, here are the other 2 teacher pressies I made for the end of term. Many thanks once again to Camilla for the inspiration!

saturday workout ~ handcutting

This is my entry into the Saturday's workout challenge which is to use hand cutting!

I had to hand cute the cover as it was too large to put in my guillotine, also I hand cut the little handle at the top with a craft knife and of course I cut around my figures, so this is so well qualified for this challenge!

I hoped to post this last night but unfortunately my computer froze again, it is being such a pain!

Anyway, this is my version of the beautiful gift bag that Camilla sent to me, see the post beneath for hers!

I had some brown paper bags that I wanted to decorate for the teacher's end of year presents so was delighted to not only receive such a fab gift but also the inspiration I needed to make my presents.

I did get Camilla's permission to use her bag as a template before casing it! I also used some of the gorgeous flowers and charms she sent me!

Supplies: Tools ~ Cricut,

Cardstock ~ burgundy, cream, white creative smooth

DP ~ Laura Ashley, Basic Grey 'Dasher' and 'Mellow'

Embellishments ~ assortment from Camilla

Cute card thursday~birthday

A nice easy challenge over on Cute Card Thursday this week,

simply make a birthday card!

Of course that was going to be too easy so I decided to try a new fold, unfortunately my computer froze while I was browsing for instructions so I did it from memory, it didn't quite come out the way it was meant to.

I call this the Kimono card as I don't think I have seen it anywhere before!

We have another fantastic prize again this week, donated by the lovely Korin from

Sweet n Sassy stamps

do pop on over to the challenge to see the rest of the design team's fabulous creations with more details on how they made them on their blogs!

Supplies: tools ~ nestabilities

cardstock~ white, olive

DP ~ Laura Ashley

Penny Black Saturday ~ First Stamp

I really wanted to play along with the new challenge at Penny Black Saturday but I don't have many stamps, mostly just my newest ones which are a christmas set. It was only when I saw the challenge was to use the very first Penny Black stamp you bought that I went rooting around in my older stamp box and discovered this was a Penny Black! I never knew or at least if I did I forgot!

I still love this stamp, it comes out every now and again and I think this card may end up going to my eldest daughter as she and I go for a Starbucks every time we go shopping. That is the most pleasant time we spend together because the shopping is a nightmare, imagine standing holding lots of heavy bags, in hot shops with loud music blaring while daughter browses and tries on numerous outfits!

I loved the cut off card I made last week so I based this one on that design with the addition of the bow to keep it closed.

Supplies: Tools ~ cuttlebug, nestabilities,

Cardstock ~ white and olive

DP ~ Laura Ashley 'contemporary'

Stamp ~ Penny Black 'Shop til drop'

Embellishments~ Flora Doodle flower, Laura Ashley brad, ribbon from Ribbon Oasis

A Spoon Full of Sugar -picking apples

A Spoon Full of Sugar Challenge this week is a recipe!

You have to use 3 brads, 2 papers and 1 flower.

Easy eh? I found the hard bit was keeping to just the recipe and had to stop myself a few times from adding just a little bit more!

I used my new favourite stamp, picking apples designed by Elisabeth Bell for Sugar Nellie. Check out the challenge as we have a brand new stamp of this image to give away as blog candy for one lucky person chosen at random next week!

I used a very new style of card for me, I got the inspiration from Claudia of Pretty Pressings who made this fabulous card! Congratulations to Claudia too as she has just joined the DT at Stampavie!

Do pop over and check out the fabulous DT work on A Spoon Full of Sugar, they have all made fantastic cards!

Supplies: Cardstock ~ cream textured, brown plain and white creative smooth

DP ~ Laura Ashley 'contemporary''traditional'

Stamp ~ Sugar Nellie 'picking apples'

Embellishments ~ flower by 'flora doodles', rub-on, wire, beads, brads all from stash

Sweet Sugar Challenges ~ something different

This week on Sweet Sugar Challenges the brief was to make something different, other than the usual card! I had this old jar kicking around and decided to 'pimp' it.

I love the saving for a rainy day expression and how appropriate I had just bought this fabulous new Maggie stamp!

I may have gone overboard with the ribbons etc, I just didn't know where to stop!

Supplies: Tools ~ Cuttlebug, nestabilities

DP ~ Laura Ashley

Stamp ~ Sugar Nellie 'Splashing Maggie'

Embellishments from stash

CCT Girls just wanna have fun

This week the challenge over on Cute Card Thursday is

Girls just wanna have fun!

Well, it was only fair to have girly cards this week after cards for the boys last week!

We are lucky enough to have some blog candy on offer again this week, very kindly donated by a member of the design team! Go on and check out their blogs, they have produced fabulous cards again this week!

I used my new Sugar Nellie stamp 'Lola's tea party', it is sooooo sweet! I can't wait for them to release the new Maggie and Hamish stamps, especially the little lamb one! You can see them over on the Sugar Nellie site, so cute!

Supplies: Tools ~ cuttlebug, nestabilities

Cardstock ~ White textured, green and white creative smooth

Stamp ~ Sugar Nellie 'Lola's tea party'

DP ~ Laura Ashley 'comtemporary'

Embellishments ~ Cricut cut flowers (thanks Debbie), Papermania adhesive stones, Provocraft Memory rub-on, ribbon from Ribbon Oasis, button and eyelets from collection.

Cute Card Thursday ~ things with wings

The theme on the Cute card thursday challenge this week is 'things with wings'

I found this lovely cute butterfly stamp in my collection which has never found its way onto a card until now. Pop on over to see the fabulous DT cards and for more information on the challenge, I hope you get time to play!

Supplies: Cardstock ~ white and olive

DP ~ Laura Ashley ~ 'contemporary'

Stamp ~ Inca 'heart butterfly'

Embellishments ~ ribbon from Ribbon Oasis

Tilda and friends ATC cooking it up

Tilda and friends ATC challenge this week is a cook up!

the recipe is 1. Bow, 2. flowers, 3. colours (excl. flesh tones)4. brads or gems

I made this very quickly this afternoon using Dala Tilda and Goblin stump. I love how quickly these ATC's come together!

Annie is offering more blog candy for this week's challenge and the DT cards are fabulous, do pop over to get the details!

Supplies: Cardstock ~ pink and white creative smooth

DP ~ Laura Ashley 'traditional'

Stamps ~ Magnolia 'Dala Tilda', 'goblin stump'

Embellishments ~ cricut flowers, Papermania adhesive stones, ribbon from Papermill

Beates sketch #42

I used Beate's weekend sketch #42 for the layout for this card. I love her sketches but don't seem to have had time to fit them in recently. Hopefully, I am getting a bit more organised again so hope to play more often!

I was so lucky this week to receive this gorgeous image from a friend, thank you so much! I really enjoyed painting it!

I used more of my delicious papers from Laura Ashley, there are so many great designs I always seem to find exactly what I want in the packs.

Supplies:Tools ~ Cuttlebug, nestabilities

Cardstock ~ white and olive

DP ~ Laura Ashley 'contemporary'

Stamp ~ Hanglar

Embellishments ~ ribbon from Ribbon Oasis

Magnolia scene

Katharina has a new challenge on her blog, this time she asked us to create a 'scene' card!

She is very generously offering a gorgeous High Hopes stamp which you can see in her post here

I used this very cute Martha sitting, an image sent by a friend. Thank you so much!

All the stamps I used in this scene are from Magnolia. I masked the flowers and painted the grass in then chalked the sky around a cloud stencil. All the other stamped images were cut out and added afterwards.

I am so glad Katharina set this challenge as I have been meaning to do a scene for a while but never quite got around to it. I love the effect! My youngest daughter has requested this card for her birthday!

Supplies: Cardstock ~ White, olive, white creative smooth

DP ~ Laura Ashley 'contemporary'

Stamps ~ Magnolia ' Martha', 'Goblin stump', 'Goblin fungi', 'signpost', 'birdhouse', 'leaves', don't know the name of the pretty flowers as I think they were sent by mistake, I ordered some different flowers and got these! Love them so not complaining!

Embellishments ~ Flower ~ Flora Doodles

Ismaki sketch #13 and awards

This card is made using the Ismaki sketch #13 set by Kianel.

It is such a fantastic sketch, I can see me using it again lots of times. I even managed to do the 2 options this time, 1. to use 3 flowers and 2. to use at least 5 words!

I used this pretty image sent to me by my SBS sister Sparkle, I love it, might have to get this one! Sparkle has some great blog candy just now!

Supplies: Cardstock ~ cream and olive, white creative smooth

DP ~ Laura Ashley 'contemporary' and 'traditional'

Stamp ~ Bella 'Eloise'

Embellishments ~ flowers by Scissor Sisters, buttons and brad from stash

I received this very cute award from my good friend Debbie thanks so much Deb, and I award it right back to you and all my lovely blogging pals because you all make my day! I also received this award from Vicki May ,Seleise and Bernie thank you all so much.
I am supposed to pick another 5 people to award this to but I am running short on time.
There are 5 rules attached to this and they are -1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogging community, no matter what language.2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her/him the award itself.4. Award winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte Y Pico" blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.5. To show these rules

I will award it to Debbie as she has only been blogging for a couple of weeks but her blog is already so inspiring! Also to thank her for introducing me to stamping in the first place, after all I may not be here now otherwise!