Baby love

Typing that title has got Diana Ross in my head now...baby love, my baby love... I wont go on!

I was feeling in an easel card mood last night, you know how it is. I hadn't made one for ages and also wanted to try out one of the photo insipration challenges I've heard a lot about but haven't attempted yet. So off I popped to Feline Playful to check out what challenges I could combine (thanks Robin for pointing the site out to me).

A few hours and a lot of silicone glue later, here's my creation.

Digi stamp - Bows and Berries 'baby hammock'
Papers - My Minds Eye, Quite Contrary
Sentiment - Papermania Honey and Hugs in pink petunia
Embossing - Birds and swirls Cuttlebug folder

And a close up of the 'front'

I shall enter this into:

Paper Romance - baby easel card

Cupcake inspirations - photo inspiration

Little Claire - green and pink

Fairy tale - green and pink

C.R.A.F.T - new baby

Claudia and co - 3 colours from: Butter/Yellow, Rose/Pale Red, Pale Green, Lavender. 

House of Gilli - ribbons and pearls

There's Magic in the Air - yellow, pink and green

I'm on the Bows and Berries DT!

Morning all. I've been sitting on this exciting news for a few weeks now, but I can tell you all today... I made it onto the Bows and Berries blog design team. YAY! 

Bows and Berries is a fab new digi shop by the lovely Jenny and Robin. They've set us a great first challenge - INSPIRED BY NATURE - and I've used the Owl Love stamp, printed it out twice in different sizes and watercoloured. My Mum lives about 200 miles away so the sentiment was just perfect. The team have created a real variety for the first challenge so do pop over.
Stamp - Owl love digi from Bows and Berries
Paper - from Bird Song paperstack by Papermania
Sentiment - rub on from My Sentiments Exactly
Embellies - stash

I shall also enter this into:

OSAAT – Mother’s Day
Digi Doodle Shop’s Best – ribbons and bows
Dream Valley Challenges – Mother’s Day
Papertake Weekly – It’s a Mum thing
Simon Says Stamp – Mother’s Day
Paper Crafting Journey – Up in the air
Crafty Purple Frog Challenge – Going green
Phindy’s Place – Animals
Alphabet Challenge – U for Up in the air
Craft Your Days Away – For Mum
Creative Inspirations – Mother’s Day
Pear Tree Designs - Mother's Day

Sail away...

I had a real "I was just thinking about that" moment on Saturday. Purple Princess Kathy K set the CMLI sketch challenge with a seaside theme... and there was me planning on doing my uncle's birthday card using the beach hut stamp set that very day!!

Well, of course I haven't ACTUALLY ended up using the beach hut stamp. But the boat is from the same set - honest :)  It also fits a few other challenges, including OSAAT who were lovely last week and had me as GDT. Thanks gals.

Stamps - Little Claire. Red BP is textured and embossed with Swiss Dots (though you can't see it - I promise it is). Blue panel cut using shaped scissors and again, is a textured Bazzil, it just doesn't show up. Apologies, photo taken at night, will try again in daylight tomorrow.

I shall enter this into:
OSAAT - something for the boys
Pear tree designs - Happy Birthday
Meljens designs - dots (embossed on red circle)
Less is more - masculine

Lavendar and lace

Lavendar on a Christmas card? I know, not one I'd have immediately thought of, but that's the challenge on DCD this week. And why not try it for a change, especially when it was set by the lovely Karen!

There was a sketch too which I enjoyed working with. It gave me a chance to use my new Penny Black stamp (a sale bargain). It hasn't turned out quite like I hoped and the photo doesn't help much, but it does have quite a nice shabby chic feel in real life.

Edging done using 'Victorian' on the Woodware paperguard trimmer. BP is a lavendar with embossed-style texture. Inking done in Pretty Petunia and crochet lace from my stash.

As I said, entering this into Diecut Christmas Dreams - lavendar and lace.

Christmas Gingerbread

Don't you just love it when new stash arrives?! I certainly do, and was quick to get to work when my Christmas stuff came through from Crafts U Love (a few sale bargains you see).

I combined a few challenges and went for a blue and pink theme with a silver metallic circle that has photographed very brightly. This chipboard really helped me out as I was really rather stuck on Rosie's "sticky gingerbread with icing" Christmas challenge over on CMLI.

The papers and chipboard are from the Dovecraft 'Christmas Fancy' range.

I shall enter this into:
Jingle Belles - sketch
Bah humbug! - metallics
Winter wonderland - embossing (snowflake punch and emboss stamp used on left)
Papertake weekly - 3 of something
CHNC - seasonal silver

Spring Has Sprung!

This is going to be super short as I'm expecting my daughter to be dropped off any minute (she's been at grandparents today).

The sketch challenge on CMLI has a mini-beast twist - such fun. The DT have done some great entries and I've had a stab with a bee theme.

Thanks to Netty for the great digi ticket.

Here it is:

I shall also enter this into Gingerloft's 'use those flowers' challenge.

OSAAT - challenge #53 is my first GDT spot!

Today is very exciting for me - my first ever Guest Designer card is on the One Stitch At A Time challenge blog. I'm so chuffed to have a GDT spot!

The challenge is a great one - Glitter and Gems - now, who can't do something fab with those two crafting staples. I chose the sophisticated and nostalgic 'Sunday Morning' digi from Stitchy Bear Digital Stamps which I coloured with watercolour pencils and a waterbrush.

The paper has lovely glitter accents in the circles and flowers. The flower shaped gems and brad are from my stash and it's all edged in Brillance ink in Starlite Silver. I'm really happy with the overall effect and can't wait to see what everyone comes up with.


Why not join us all over at the OSAAT challenge this week? We'd love to see you!

Sketch with stripes and pearl sheen

Morning all. I've finally got round to doing last Saturday's sketch challenge for CMLI which has a twist of 'stripes'. I also went for a few pearls and and embossed die cut with a pearly sheen as that seems to be quite popular at the moment.

I think you can get away with a plain and fairly exposed base card if you use shimmer materials on it somewhere. What do you reckon?

I shall also enter this into:
Digi Doodle Shop's Best - pearls
The ABC Challenge - P is for Pearls
Anything Goes - die cuts

Birthday commission

A friend of mine at work saw a card I did for another of our colleagues and asked if I'd do both her Mum's 60th card and grandma's 90th - how flattering. Here's my creation for her Mum. She didn't want '60' on the front so I think I'll do it on the inside if she's happy with the overall design.

I've used my new Little Claire digi stamp - flower pitcher painted with watercolours and glossy accents on the heart, a Kate Knight BP, Martha Stewert doliy lace punch, Nellie Snellen die, embossed panel from craft pal Clare and gems/pearls/flower/ribbon from my stash. I created the ticket myself in MS Word though took about 3 attempts to print it out the right size!

I'll also enter this into:
One Stitch At A Time - card for Mum
I did it creations - die cuts or punches
Pear Tree Designs - ribbon
The ABC Challenge - P is for pink

Simple shimmer

As a fan of clean and simple cards, I've been meaning to take part in the highly recommended (by Kathy) One Layer Wednesday challenge over on Simplicity.

Well, today I took the plunge. The challenge is shimmer, but not glitter or bling. Here's my card, photo deliberately taken at an angle. You can see one of the embossed flowers, there are 3 in total overlaying the silver and lilac stamp scene.

Stamp - from an Anna Griffin set, in Dew Drop starlite silver 'brilliance' and versamagic pretty petunia
Embossing - same stamp with personal impressions 'violet shimmer'
Sentiment - papermania