Coming soon...

Now here's a little bit of fun for you!
Its nearly time for the April Card Chain Challenge reveal over at Deborah's Blog and she has created this fun graphic (impressive, huh!). If you can correctly identify the sneak peek of the card I sent to my CCC recipient I'll enter you into a draw for a small but perfectly formed selection of card making goodies.
Please leave your comment before Midnight British Summer Time on Thursday 30th April. International entries are welcome.


Come back for my April Card Chain Challenge reveal post to find out the lucky winner!

Simon Says Make Your Own Background...

So I did!

I used my favourite The Crafter's Workshop stencil and Distress Inks to create my background. Then I stamped the sentiments from Mama Elephant's Make a Wish set (so useful!) and added the cat in the hat. This brilliantly funny cat image is a digi stamp from Janet Klein's Vera Lane Studio Etsy Shop. I think he's wonderful, don't you? Finally, I added some stars and swirls from the Make a Wish set and doodled a skinny border.

In addition to playing along with the Wednesday crew at Simon Says Stamp I'm also linking-up with those lovely ladies at Seize the Birthday: its way too long since I last joined them in their birthday-themed fun.

I have to say I had loads of fun making this card. Isn't it great when you create something that just makes you happy!

Happy crafting everyone.

Make a wish... Splatters take #2

The cue at CASology for this week is: Sweet!

And what could be sweeter than a pretty little LOTV ballerina?

Isn't she adorable? It turns out that you can also buy her as a cross stitch kit.

As you can see I've continued to experiment with the splatter technique and am liking the results more on this card than my previous attempt.

Have a happy day everyone!

Less is More - Splatters!

Now here's a technique I wouldn't have tried without a push from the lovely ladies over at Less is More!

For my simple, one layer card I stamped and coloured a LOTV image. Then I created a rough mask and covered the little girl before splattering matching Distress Inks across the whole card to create a 'background'. I used a small paint brush as I wanted to keep the splatters small and dainty to match the image.

I quite like the effect but will probably do less splattering or limit the effect to a specific area if I try it again. Mmmm, or perhaps I'll mask around the card to create a border... 

However, all-in-all a simple and fun technique!

Before I go I'll just remind you that the current Naughty Or Nice Challenge is still open. The theme is 'In Bloom' so any cards with flowers and floral designs are eligible to enter this month. Hope to see you there!

Monika's birthday linky party!

Happy Saturday, cardmakers!

Today I'm linking-up with the lovely Monika who celebrated her birthday yesterday. Monika is a long-term blogging friend who I may have originally 'met' through following the Hero Arts gang on their creative travels. I'm glad to know Monika, who is a real sweetheart (as well as a talented crafter) and I enjoy her blog posts and frequent, friendly emails very much.

To celebrate her birthday Monika has arranged a 'linky party' over at her blog Creative with Monika. She is inviting us to CASE one of her cards and then link-up with the chance to win a $25 gift voucher to the store of our choice! I know: how generous is that??!! Her party continues until 30th April when she will pick a lucky winner.

To give us a helping hand Monika has chosen some of her favourite creations to CASE. I chose this stunning card:

and used the sketch and some of the elements to create my own super-girly version.

I'd already decided to send Monika a card way before her 'party' was planned. I knew I wanted to use a shoe image as Monika is a girl who loves her shoe stamps! Monika rarely uses patterned papers for her backgrounds, preferring instead to create her own, so I did the same for my CASE. The central image was originally left in black and white, as per Monika's design, but it just looked unfinished so I inked up with Distress Ink and felt happier with the end result. The shoes and the sentiment are embossed and look really shiny. I've failed to take a good photograph of this card, which looks much prettier IRL, so thank goodness Monika now has the original!
The shoe image is an oldie from Dawn Houser at Inkadinkadoo. Its a gorgeous image but not one I've ever found easy to use... until now!

So happy birthday for yesterday sweet Monika, I hope you had a wonderful day and that your celebrations continue across the weekend!

A Passion for... Snark!

I'm back again and this time I've got my 'snark' on!

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers are having a laugh with 'J is for Just Kidding' as they are still in the mood for an April Fool or two.

I couldn't resist using this fun AI stamp, which I think is called 'Celeste' but I'm not sure. I wanted the wording to be appropriate for a 50th birthday and after much thought came up with this:

The card is for a friend I've known since we were three years old. Its been a while since we last saw one another. Our friendship is more Facebook than face-to-face these days but I'm hoping her sense of humour hasn't healed over and that she'll enjoy this card. Actually, I could be leaving myself wide open to some serious retribution as I'll be hitting 50 in two months time!

I'm also linking up with the Passion for Promarker Challenge for Week #291 which is 'All About Birthdays'. I had loads of colouring fun with my Promarkers on this card!

And now I'm going to grab a cuppa and sit in the sunshine so catcha laters all you good, crafty people!

Predominantly Pandas!

It's colour challenge week over at Less is More and although you may have been expecting yellows, mauves and soft greens befitting the season the LIM girls are looking for Predominantly Black. 

Here's the advice we were given:
Your whole card doesn't have to be all black and you may use a little of another colour, but whatever you add to your design, even if it's minimal, should be mainly black.
So think silhouettes, monochrome, ombre, chalkboard technique... there doesn't have to be a lot of black... if your design is minimal, it just needs to be the predominant colour.


For me, for some reason, that means PANDAS!

And partying pandas at that!

I thought it would be fun to have a line of pandas doing the conga. Just thinking about the conga takes me back to my childhood: no family party was complete without a line of tipsy adults and overexcited children weaving their way around the furniture then out into the street and back.

I carefully stamped the line of little Mama Elephant pandas and added some pops of colour with party hats, blowers and a balloon from From the Herd by Stampin' Up. The words are also from this set.

I'm also linking-up over at Addicted to CAS as their current code word is CUTE and I think you'll agree that a line of dancing pandas is very cute!

Such a fun, quick and simple card to make, and one that I might tuck away to give to my hubby later in the year.

Happy crafting everyone!

March Card Chain Challenge Reveal

This month's Card Chain Challenge reveal is running a few days late... And with very good reason as Deborah (AKA The Card Chain Challenge Queen) has put her back out. I hope she gets better soon as bad backs can seriously hamper a girl's ability to craft!

Here's the sweet and simple card I sent to Emily in Iowa:

I followed Deborah's sketch almost to the letter and had a ball stenciling in a variety of Distress Inks. Now feast your eyes on the brilliantly clever card I received from Mrs A. in England, who I think may be called Valerie Anne.

You can take a peek at this blog post  to find out how Mrs A. created this little masterpiece.

Want to join in the April Card Chain Challenge? You'll have to be super speedy as the sign-up closes in less that 12 hours from now!

Happy crafting everyone!

Gorjuss 2000 Party - Sugar Nellie

Ok, so it turns out I have twenty Gorjuss Girl stamps! 

Until this morning they were stored in different boxes so I thought it would make more sense to keep them together rather than split them by company. Then I decided to count them.

I was a little bit surprised to discover just how many I'd got... And then, when I thought about it, I was surprised that I didn't have more!

I've been loving Gorjuss Girls since Sugar Nellie/Funky Kits produced the first stamps way back when. In actual fact I may have been a fan of Suzanne's Woolcott's artwork before I stumbled across the stamps; its a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation!

So here is my offering for the Gorjuss 2000 Party!

This sweet little Gorjuss Girl is one of the new release which I bagged earlier in the week. She is called Hush Little Bunny and I coloured her in similar colours to those featured on the packaging. I die-cut the word happy and used some of my favourite Stella and Rose papers (Hattie). The second picture is a little over-exposed so the top picture gives a truer representation of the colours.

The Gorjuss Party 2000 Challenge is open until the last week of April and the DT girls have set the bar very high with some glorious inspiration pieces. I wonder how many Gorjuss Girl stamps they have... And more to the question; how many do YOU have?

Happy Easter everyone!

In Bloom: Naughty Or Nice Challenge #14.

For our new Challenge the Naughty Or Nice team are paying our own little homage to the blooms and blossoms of April.

I don't know about you but I love this time of year with it's gentle sunlight, delicate raindrops and tiny, new beginnings. It's a beautiful time as the garden wakes up from its Winter slumbers to delight us with a gorgeous display of unfurling buds, green shoots and dainty little flowers.

My choice of image for this challenge was a total no-brainer as I love, love, love this sweet little lass from LOTV with her bunch of beautiful blooms. She's been waiting to be re-inked for far too long.
My colour palette has been influenced by the miniature daffodils and primulas that are currently in my garden and looking lovely.

The NON girls have really created some total gorgeousness this month so head on over to the Blog and enjoy our feast of floral fun!