One For The Boys

June at last - hopefully some Summer sun to follow - we can but hope!

Today is the start of a new challenge once more at Ooh La La, and it's the turn of Jen to pick the theme.   This time she's chosen

One For The Boys

Not everyone's favourite I know, but we all have men in our lives and they deserve cards too!

For my card, I reached for my Boys to Men CD and used a lovely harbour image.  This time I went all cream and neutral with it, as the last time I used the image I went all blue and nautical!  Just shows you how a change of paper really affects the end result. My initial card can be seen here.

Jx

Angry Birds

Just a quick post today as I needed a birthday card for my brother.  Thought he might like an angry bird!

This is my first time using these stamps and matching dies along with distress inks to colour - hence I kept it simple!  Hopefully my inky skills will increase over the summer, Jx

Challenges;
The Male Room - Critters/Bugs - not sure if an angry bird fits?
City Crafters - Feathers
Deep Ocean - Furry or Feathered friends
Aurora Wings - CAS
Di's Digi's - For the boys
Jx

4 Legs not 2!

Morning all, the latest challenge over at Ooh La La is hosted by me so I'm excited to announce that I've choosen

4 Legs not 2

Then proceeded to make a card with cats on 2 legs...I'm mad!!! (But you all know that!)

So my challenge is looking for animal projects basically cause you all know I love animals...and if that animal happens to be a cat, all the better!

Anyway, back to my card which uses an Ooh La La FREEBIE available here.  Papers are off the Shawn Jenkins CD also by Ooh La La and the lace is from my favourite city, Berlin!  The main image is decoupaged and the card completed with die cut hearts pearls and flowers.

The card was for my husband on our 28th wedding anniversary, which we celebrated earlier in the month.

Challenges;
Ribbon Girl - Any Image
In The Pink - Happy anything
City Crafters - Pretty Pinks & Pastels
Everybody Art Challenge - Lace & Pearls
Paper Minutes - Hearts
Show Us Your Pussies - Furry Friends
Zoe Bunny Crafts - Layers
Glitter n Sparkle - Anything Goes
Crafting With Dragonflies - Congratulations/Wedding Anniversary
Jx

Kits & Toppers

I'm not normally a one for toppers and card kits, but decided to give the Pink Gem ones a try after winning a recent challenge there!  I guessed there was nothing to loose as they were a prize and that if they made quick cards, all the better for my charity box.

So first off, thank you to Pink Gem for my lovely prize - and I now have to say, I adore these topper sets!  Lots of cutting out and layering required, but it's so worth it when you see the end results!

Here is just one of my Pink Gem Topper makes - hopefully it fits the current theme of flowers.

This set is called "A Little Bird Told Me." and it all fits together perfectly on a 8x8 card blank - in my case with scalloped edges!

As I was saying, I have majorly fallen in love with these toppers, and I keep buying more and more - so be prepared for a Pink Gem showcase in the coming weeks!

For now however I must sign off, I'll be back Mon with my OLL DT card but I'm going to be a bit less active on here for a while as we have family coming to stay and a few appointments pending. Hopefully blogger will manage to keep the show on the road in my absence! Jx

Challenges;
Pink Gem - Flowers
Brown Sugar - Anything Goes
Crafty Catz - Anything Goes
Crafty Sentiments Designs - Things with wings
Allsorts - Happy Birthday-

Man or Boy

It's Team A challenge time back at MAWTT, so I'm back with a male card today as Wendy has set the theme as

Man or Boy

Not everybody's favourite theme I know, but I for one couldn't wait to make up my card for this challenge as I treated myself to some of the new LOTV teen stamps.  I knew I wanted some but I was resisting the temptation till the Queen's 90th Birthday sale, then I caved! (I lasted several weeks longer than some I know...didn't I Sarah!)

Anyway back to the card, we've established it's an LOTV stamp but as I was in an LOTV phase I used their papers along with a lovely ribbon bought in Berlin - am I the only person who shops craft whilst abroad?

Challenges;
Little Red Wagon - Let's Hear it for the Boys
I Love Promarkers - Ribbon or Lace - Ribbon
Colour Throwdown - CTD392 - Blue/White/Brown
Cards und More - Masculine
Paper Minutes - Soccer/Football Championships
Stamps and Fun = Creativity - Male

Flowers Every Where

Today's card features another gorgeous pre-coloured Di's Digi - won a few weeks back, and it was perfect for the current challenge of flowers every where!

Challenges;
Di's Digis - flowers everywhere
Crafting When We Can - Add Flowers
Deep Ocean - Flowers Everywhere
Everybody Art Challenge - Flowers
Shopping Our Stash - April Showers Bring May Flowers
Eureka Stamps - April showers bring May flowers  Jx

Happy Birthday Christy

Second card post of the day, and it's to wish Colin's girlfriend Christy a Happy Birthday.  She turns 19 today but poor thing has an exam this morning so I think Birthday celebrations will have been put on hold till later in the week.

My card for her uses one of the great new LOTV teen stamps, along with kraft card & LOTV papers.

Challenges;
Cre8tive Hands Friends - Anything Goes
Digichoosday - Kraft & Die cuts - flower
Lil Patch of Crafting Friends - Anything Goes
Stamping Sensations - Anything Goes
PB@Allsorts - Anything Goes

Happy Birthday Christy and good luck with your exams, Jx

Mythical

New week, new challenge!

Yup it's challenge time at Ooh La La, and today Susan has got us all thinking

Mythical

Not that hard a theme really, we're talking fairies and elfs, dragons and monsters etc - but boy oh boy did this theme cause a stir over at HQ!!!  All of the most recent CD's over at Ooh La La have covered a wide range in topics - but nothing mythical!  So we had to go back to older CD's, ones I've never worked with to find suitable material for this challenge.

So I worked from the Teentastique CD, still available online to buy here.

I went with a gorgeous baby dragon image in lovely neon shades.  And in my mythical world, I decided that dragons hatch, (they do don't they?), hence the egg border!

Well I certainly had great fun with this challenge, and I so love what my teamies came up with - isn't it nice to revisit your old crafty stuff!  Hope you can join us too, Jx

Challenges;
Through the Purple Haze - Anything Goes
Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes
Fussy and Fancy - Birthdays
Jx

Boing

A quick post this morning as I'm hoping to head out for a run in a few minutes, but first, a fun card...

This image is by Little Claire Designs - love it and I think these little guys love that trampoline!

Challenges;
City Crafter - Feeling Prickly - and we all know... as the song goes, " A hedgehog is very prickly, it couldn't be anything else!"

Love

I LOVE this Ooh La La file off the Shawn Jenkins CD, now that I've discovered it I just keep using it!  This time though, I've pulled a different selection of papers off the CD and come up with this,

Challenges;


Sketch Saturday - Old favourite - 226

The Paper Shelter - Love is in the air

Ice-Cream

Today's card features a gorgeous sweet image from Di's Digi's of three mice assembling an ice-cream sundae, and doing a rather splendid job of it I might add!

... And as the image is so sweet, I just made it nice and big to fill the front of my card, coloured it with Promarkers and accented a few bits.  Then the card was finished off with a spoon, some pearls and a tag sentiment.

Challenges;
Di's Digi's - Pastel Colours
SSW2 - Sketch 2-88

Dragonfly Dreams - Summertime
Allsorts - Cherry on Top ...almost!
Crafty Friends - All things cute

Cocktail Emma

Happy May Day everyone, anyone got anything nice planned?  Nothing much on the cards here, I was hoping to go for a run, but yet again I have woken to rain.  Think it's set to improve though so hopefully this afternoon I'll get out.

A new stamp purchase for me today after I was requested to make a cocktail themed card for a friend. Honest, I did check through all my stamps before I headed online and found this super digi from Pink Gem.

So said image was partially coloured with Promarkers, paper pieced and then given a good dose of glossy accents, which resulted in...

Think I'll do more like this for my card box as I have a feeling an image like this could sell quite well after all who doesn't like cocktails and this is a great party/celebration style image.

Challenges;
Pink Gem - Favourite colour combo - Black/white/grey
Allsorts - With a cherry on top!
Fussy and Fancy - Female Birthdays
Through The Purple Haze - Add a number
Crafty Creations - White, Black & a pop of colour
Paper Shelter - Pearls
Passion for Promarkers - Make it digital
Ribbon Girls - Anything Goes - May
Stamping Sensation - Anything Goes
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anything Goes
Sketch Saturday - 191 - Moved things a bit but the sketch was my starting point

Cats R Best

The latest challenge over at As You Like It is pick your favourite animal and say why - clearly I couldn't sit this one out and clearly there is one obvious choice - well in my case anyway!

Cats win hands down, they are loving and cuddly, cute and funny, loyal when they want to be and easy to look after/co-exist with!

Currently I have two cats, Femo a 6 year old female and Merlot a 2 year old male.  Love them to bits and could never be without a feline companion...or two!

Anyway back to the challenge and my card,

It uses a Sami stamp, two sided papers and some die cuts.

Challenges;
As You Like It - Favourite animal - CATS - see above!
City Crafters - Balloons
Crafty Sentiments - Birthdays
Lemon Shortbread - Anything goes
Passion for Prpmarkers - Digital
ShowUsYour Pussies - Furrything goes
Sami Stamps - Add pearls or beads - pearls on hearts
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes
Jx

And finally just so there is no doubt, this is why I like cats best...

 Meet Merlot

 My one eyed cat!

 Here as a kitten before his op!

& my senior lady, Femo

Love ya lots Merlot & Femo xxx

Photo Inspiration

Hi everyone, it's time for a new challenge again over at Ooh La La, and Allison has chosen a photo as our inspiration for this one.  The photo is shown at the end of this post and on the main blog

There were lots of elements in the picture that could be drawn upon, the colours, the images or even the age! I chose to go with a combination of the grey colour from the car, and flowers from the bonnet. Granted my flowers are probably more Spring than Summer, but you get the idea. (Put that down to the current weather conditions...Summer still feels like a long way off!)

The files used on this one are called "Jonquil and Violets" off the Yesterday's Memories CD and the card is finished with candi, a lovely ribbon and a butterfly.

Challenges;
Fussy & Fancy - Female Birthdays
Simon Says Stamp - Make it girly
Clear It Out - Nature - Flowers, old ribbon & candi
Creative Craft Cottage - Feminine
Crafty Calendar - Anything Goes

"The Inspirational Photo"

Doodledallion

I love that name - "a Doodledallion" and that apparently is what is featured on the front of todays cards!  To be more specific, they are Fred She Said Dragonfly Doodledallions and they were part of a fantastic Fred She Said prize I won the other week at Holly Jolly - Thanks guys!

So it's pre-coloured images again for quick cards all to put in my charity box for CRUK.

Challenges;
Fab n Funky - Winged Things
Digi Chooseday - Tic-Tac-Toe - Wings/Nature/Sentiment
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anything Goes
Come & Get It - Things with Wings
Crafting When We Can - Birthdays

And...as well as making cards I have actually started running again!  Yup training has commenced for my 5k in June.  Not the biggest distance I know, but Paula Radcliffe I ain't.  Currently I am running about 2 miles, don't know what that is in km's but I know it's no where near...yet!  Jx

Baby Gems

...no not lettuces, Pink Gem teddies as baby cards!

Today's post features another couple of pre-coloured images made up into baby cards...you guessed it...to sell in my card box for Cancer Research UK.  Over the last couple of weeks my card box has being doing the rounds, and to date it has raises £29, but it's still nice and full, (cause I keep topping it up) so hopefully it will raise far more in the weeks to come.

Sorry, picture quality isn't great - can't seem to get the right amount of light onto my cards despite them being in the window!

Papers this time are old favourite 12 x 12 Craft Creation sheets and the sentiments LOTV and computer generated.

Challenges;
A Gem of A Challenge - Teddy Bears
SSW2 - Sketch 87

The Ribbon Girl - Any Image
Crafty Catz - Monochrome

Grown With Hedgehog Love

It's a long time since I've posted a card daily, but I've managed this week cause the weather was so rubbish at the weekend.  Instead of being out in the garden as I had hoped I was stuck in doors, so what else was there to do but craft!

So, another card using a pre-coloured Di's digi today - this time it's "Grown With Hedgehog Love", a sweet image which I've added to a kraft card base.  Now this time, I'm using papers which were sent to me by my lovely friend Sue, I've had them over a year now, and never quite got round to using them.  Obviously I was keeping them for best, and I'm glad I did cause I think the colour fits perfectly with this image and my kraft card - hope you agree!

Challenges;
Di's Digi Challenge - Embossing
Cutie Pies - Woodland Friends
Clear It Out - Springtime Stash - (papers in my case) & Flowers
Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes
Lil Patch of Crafting Friends - Anything Goes
Digi Chooseday Challenge - Embossing
Paper Shelter - Flowers everywhere
Cardz for Galz - Use an embossing folder.
Jx

Spring Flowers

Hi folks, I'm back again today with another DT make as it's challenge day again over at MAWTT and Gail has picked

Spring Flowers

as today's theme.

Now I swithered on this one, I have loads of daffodil stamps and to be fair, they only see light of day this time of year so I was going to use one of them, but in the end, a last minute switch and this little beauty from All Dressed Up landed on my craft table!  The image is called Springtime and is available here.(I guess the rabbit makes it Spring!)

So papers today are LOTV, as are the tags.  The pearls are from Hobby House (Still the ones from you Pami, ta!) and the colouring by Promarkers.

Challenges;
All Dressed Up - Anything Goes
Scrappers Delight's - Anything Goes
Fab n Funky - Girly & Pretty
Chocolate Coffee & Cards - Spring is in the air
Creative Corner - Flower Power
Jx

Totally Fabulous

I'm back again today cause I just had to make a card using the fantastic, or should I say "Totally Fabulous" stamp I won over at PB and more Challenge.

Obviously it's a PB, a slapstick to be precise and it's quite a big stamp, so I kept my card nice and simple, coloured the image the same as the example on the pack, and this is what I made...

Sentiment from a Taylored Expressions set.

Challenges;
PBand More - birthdays
Stamping Sensations - One for the girls
AAA - Challenge 62 - Anything Goes
Come and Get It - Bright Colours
Robyns Fetish - Add a sentiment
The Corrosive Challenge - Girls/Ladies
Lemon Shortbread - Anything Goes
Jx

Tiles

Card production is still on high as I'm managing to sell them for CRUK.  So to add variety to my sales box I decided to follow the slightly more unusual sketch over at Sketch Saturday.

I used some Hero Arts flower heads, mounted on stitched border tiles (cut using SSS dies), then set these tiles onto a tiled paper by Doodlebug, the result being...

Challenges;
Sketch Saturday
PB@Allsorts - Birthdays
Stamping Sensations - One for the girls
Dragonfly Dreams - Spring is in the air
Jx

...and thank you so much for my wonderful $25 Simon Says Stamp prize, Jx