A two Challenge kinda day!

I am constantly in awe of you girls that can effortlessly combine multiple challenges to create beautiful cards!
Two challenges in one card is my limit... any more than that and I have to move Custard the cat along the sofa so that I can lie down for a while.


Card Patterns Challenge #33 features this lovely little sketch, so I decided to combine it with Challenge 50# over at The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge: 'One for the Girls'.

I first spotted this beautiful stamp several weeks ago over at Beth's blog Inkyfingersrule. As you know I am a big fan of Beth's cards. I was blown blown away by this fabulous card that she made for a Sketch Challenge.

I hope that Beth doesn't mind that I have taken inspiration from her use of black as a background to create my card. I wanted something dramatic for this image, which is one of the stamps from the beautiful Grace Girls collection from Doodlefactory/Starvingartistamps.

I coloured the image using the wonderful Mr Holtz's Distress Inks and my trusty watercolour pencils. A little clear embossing powder and my heatgun worked a little magic and made the image beautifully glossy!

The sentiment stamps are from Hero Arts and the circles are from my much loved Kelly Pannaci set. I am pleased to say that the paper (Black tie) is from some scraps left over from a previous project - so guess who feels ever so slightly pleased with herself right now!

The other stamps in the Grace Girls collection are equally beautiful, so don't be surprised to see them all appearing over the next few weeks.

Happy crafting everyone!

It's the weekend at last!

It might be the weekend but I haven't had time for cardmaking today as there have been lots of chores to do and birthday gifts to buy. However, I thought I'd just take time to share a little card I made last week.

I know that I should stop making Maisy cards, but she is so very cute and slightly addictive!

Once again I made myself use my scraps to make this card and I have to say that I am quite pleased with the result. I thought that the little Hero Arts sentiment looked a bit lost on it's own, so I added four little kisses to balance things up a bit. The little stamped circles come from that lovely Kelly Pannaci clear set again. I just love how they echo Maisy's little flower! I am sorry that this picture looks so dark, it is much brighter in the flesh!

I also want to share some photographs of Custard that I'd sent by email to Elise. She is the guest designer over at Card Patterns this week so I decided to have a bit of fun!

They do say never work with children and animals...

At first Custard was a little grumpy because I was bothering him during nap time. He had been resting for about 3 hours by this time so I didn't feel too guilty. I also didn't feel too guilty because he had already woken me at 3am that morning!

Custard is a wonderfully good natured cat and so, after a few minutes, he was delighted that I had given him a piece of paper to play with. It is a shame that I couldn't make a video of me trying to stop him eating the paper!

Here he is channelling his inner Fonz...

....and here he is after he decided to do 'super cute!'

I am glad to say that the Sonoma County contingent of Custard's International Fan club seems to have enjoyed the pictures!

I'd also like to congratulate the wonderful Beth as she has been featured as a Trend Alert 'trendsetter' over at a brand new site called Torendi (apparently that's Japanese for trendy!)

You might like to take a look at Beth's blog Inkyfingersrule. If you aren't familiar with her work you are in for a treat. She is super talented and creates fantastic and totally unique cards.
I especially like the way she uses black card, with white stamping, to create really stylish backgrounds.

Torendi looks as if it will be a really exciting online shop, and a great source of inspiration. The girls plan to showcase materials from around the world and to push the paper crafting boundaries a little, so it should be lots of fun!

Well, I must go and feed my lovely husband now so happy crafting everyone, and I hope that you all enjoy the weekend!