Get Well Soon

So, there's been a bit of a demand on cards of late, first graduation, then my neighbour going in to hospital for a hip replacement, hence the need for get well and thank you cards, all mixed in with the usual birthday requests!

So this demand has spurred me on and today I'm sharing my get well card with you, as my neighbour comes home today and it will be so good having her next door again so I can pop in and out as I please!

I'm not even going to begin naming the papers - they are old, but colouring is by Promarker and the stamp by LOTV.

Challenges;
Creative Knockouts - For the girls
Sketch Tanten - Sketch 33
Pink Gem - Summer Colours

Finally, I promised I'd share some graduation pics with you...so here they are.  So proud of Alan, five years of study and he graduated with First Class Honours in Master of Chemical Engineering.

New Home

Today's card is a bit late in the making but hopefully it will now have been received.  It's for my dear crafty friend Susan and her family who moved north at Christmas.  Hopefully soon we'll be able to meet up and share some crafty time together. (x)

So. my card uses an image and papers are from one of Susan's favourites - Lili of The Valley.  It's one of their digi stamps and shows a lovely country cottage.  I've coloured it with my usual Promarkers, then added little wooden hearts.

Challenges;
Sweet Stampin - Something New
A Gem of a Challenge - Something New
Come and Get It - Anything New
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anything Goes

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

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

Time Flies

Time most certainly does fly, my niece is ten this year and growing up fast!

Here is the card I made for her using a super LOTV little fairy and some Bo Bunny papers.  The image is coloured with Promarkers, glamour dust added in a few places and the card finished with a PB sentiment and a die cut flower border.

Challenges;
Cutie Pies - Fairies
Craft Rocket - Anything Goes
Creative Knockouts - Spring is on its way
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends -Anything Goes
Glitter n Sparkle - Anything Goes
Crafty Friends - Anything Goes
Krafty Hands - Green Lilac & Yellow
Brown Sugar - Spring
Wags n Whiskers - Wings
Jx

Krafty Christmas

I've already entered this weeks Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2 challenge with a birthday card, but I wanted to continue with my art pad Christmas cards using their challenges also...problem was, all the art pad images were too big for my selection of oval dies!

Not to be deterred I used my rectangular image with the corners rounded...almost an oval???

I then followed the sketch as best I could and came up with this...

Challenges;
SSW2 - Sketch 84 - 2nd entry - checked rules and it didn't say if you could enter more than once - delete if not allowed!

Winter Wonderland - Add some lace
CHCC - Vintage/ Anything Christmas
Holly Jolly - Lace
Sparkles Christmas Challenge - Old fashioned Christmas
Jx

Oh Christmas Tree

I'm still doing well with my Christmas card makes this year - just going at it slow and steady, and I have set my own challenge within a challenge and am trying to complete a set of Christmas cards using a LOTV art pad and a pack of their papers.

So far I've done 3 cards all with the help of sketches from SSW2!

So here is my card, this time following sketch 83.

Challenges;
SSW2 - 83

CHCC - Anything Christmas
ABC Christmas - D - Don't over do it - keep it simple
Winter Wonderland - CAS
Lemon Shortbread - Anything Goes
Jx

Holly Tree - or is that Bush?

There's a question - will have to look that up, does holly grow on a bush or a tree.  The holly on my card looks very tree like but in my garden it's a holly bush...I'll google it!

Anyway, back to my card, another quick make using my lovely LOTV art pad.

Again I've followed a SSW2 sketch and kept my card simple and thin for postal purposes.

Challenges;
SSW2 - Sketch - 82

I've flipped the sentiment location due to the tag sitting better on the right!

CHCC - Anything Goes/Vintage

CHPP - Anything goes with patterned paper

A Snowflakes Promise - Christmas

Jx

Just looked up my question...

Lots of places refer to holly as a shrub, and depending on the variety it can either be a bush or a tree - so both are correct! 

Toppers!

Last year I bought an LOTV coloured art pad and papers to help me with Christmas card production, sadly they never saw the light of day and worse, I didn't make anything like the number of Christmas cards I needed.

So, this year, I'm back to plan "B" - make Christmas ones all year round - and cheat by using art pads!

So, for the very first time I give you a card using an art pad image.

To help me on my way, I followed the Sweet Stetch Wednesday stetch, then kept adding bits till I thought the card looked complete!

So, the image, sentiment tag and papers are from LOTV, the Bakers Twine from The Ribbon Girls, and the flower off a cracker!

Challenges;
ABC Christmas - B for Baubles
SSW2 - Stkech 2-81

CHCC - Use a sentiment
Holly Jolly - Use designer papers
Crimbo Crackers -Anything Goes

Inspirational Challenge

So, it's back to the "A" Team over at MAWTT and Carole is hosting this week with a lovely inspirational photo for us and here it is,

It's up to you whether you use the colours or image as your inspiration... or both!

I went with the colours, and picked the following Promarkers as my starting point ;

Soft Green/Ivory/Baby Pink/Salmon Pink and Warm Grey 4/5 - not sure how helpful that was though as once the image was coloured, finding papers to match was a bit tricky!

Got there in the end though with a double sided sheet from MME - The Sweetest Thing and a sheet from my MME Lost & Found pad.  The image is a gorgeous kitty one from LOTV.

Challenges;

Glitter n Sparkle - Anything Goes
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anything Goes
Stamping Sensations - Dies & Punches - Filigree and fishtail dies
Creative Card Crew - For a child
Papertake - Anything goes  Jx

Father's Day/Masculine

Today's challenge at an Oldie But a Goodie has been set by Helen and she has chosen

Masculine/Father's Day

(Remember also to use an item older than 6 months on your project and to tell us what it is)

As the theme.

In my case, both the LOTV stamp and the Forever Friends papers are 6m+.

Not much news for you today other that my eldest son Alan is now home from Uni for the summer - assuming he can find a job.  Failing that he may have to move back to Aberdeen and look there. In the mean time, it's nice to have him around and to catch up on things.

Challenges;
Fussy & Fancy - Outdoors
Jellypark Challenges - All things sporty
Jo's Scrap Shack - 53 - Anything Goes
Stampin For The Weekend - Anything Goes
CRAFT - Fathers Day/ Male
Simon Says Stamp - Fathers Day/ Masculine
Passion for Promarkers - One for the Boys/men

The prize this time around is this lovely background stamp from Helen.

Purple Rain

Hasn't the weather turned cold...and wet ...and miserable?

It certainly has with us, so no outdoor projects will be undertaken today.  It's also an exam day for Colin again so I'm not wanting to be too noisy about the house...

So what does that leave me able to do?  Why make cards obviously!

So today's offering uses one of the gorgeous new Lili fairies - Fluttering, available here.  Just love these new releases, so had to use one on todays card.

I followed the SSW2 sketch, used Doodlebug papers, coloured by Promarker then finished the card with Pippa butterflies, glossy accents, ribbons and a sprinkle of Glamour dust.

Challenges;
PB@Allsorts - Anything Goes
Stamping Sensations - Anything Goes
Ribbon Girls - Lilac & Purple (Daisy charm from my Ribbon Girl Prize)
Papertake - Oh so cute
I Love Promarkers - Anything Goes
Passion for Promarkers - Use Die Cuts - Pippa Butterfly
Allsorts - Purple Passion
Cutie Pies - Cute, bring on the bling - glamour dust, glossy accents & a charm
LOTV - Fairies
SSW2 - Super sketch

Finally, I'd just like to thank The Ribbon Girl for giving me a £10 prize in their yellow challenge a month or so back, below are my goodies I selected for my prize,

and with the LOTV voucher I got the sentiment tags I've been wanting for ages.

Thanks to both companies, Jx

Pets

There are a lot of animal challenges around at the moment and for some reason it's doggy images that I have been colouring of late - must dig out the cats at the weekend!

Today's offering uses a lovely Lili of the Valley image and Papermania papers.  Colouring by Promarker.

Challenges;
Sketch Sat - 305 by Jen
Passion for Promarkers - All Creatures Great and Small
I Love Promarkers- Cats & Dogs
Crafting When We Can - Ribbon/Twine/Washi - Twine
Fantastic Tuesday - Pastel colours

Easter

A break from Bugaboo today as I move back to DT work and a new challenge over at An Oldie But A Goodie.  This time we are looking for

Easter

(Remember also to use an item of older than 6 months on your project and to tell us what it is.)

So my card uses a fab Lili of The Valley image which is my oldie and more of my favourite Bo Bunny Papers - Primrose Collection.  The dies were then out in force to make my flowers and bow to finish off my card.

Challenges;
Milk Coffee - Easter
Alphabet Challenge - E for Easter
Crafty Catz - Animals - rabbits
Delicious Doodles - Easter
Digitally Sweet - 83 - Easter
Polkadoodles - Animal Magic
Totally Papercrafts - Easter
Stamping Sensation - Dies & Punches
Simon Says - Easter
OLL - Easter

Quieter week for us this week, boys are hopefully revising for more exams and I'll be pottering about the house and garden.  May even start running - if it's warm! Jx

Spring/Easter

Welcome to this weeks challenge over at Diva's By Design.  This week we are looking for;

Easter/Spring Projects

And the sponsor this time is Hobbycutz.

For my card I went with a super LOTV image, and my current favourite, Bo Bunny - Primrose Collection papers.

Challenges;
Crafty Catz - Spring Time
Brown Sugar - Easter
Sweet Stampin - Easter
Artistic Inspiration - Easter Animal/Anything Goes - Bunny
Avenue 613 - Anything goes
Crafty Sentiments - Easter
Card Mania - Easter
Make My Monday - Easter

Make it Sparkle

Morning all and welcome to the latest challenge over at Diva's by Design.  today we'd like to see you,

Make it Sparkle

So any sparkly project will do, and sponsoring us this time are Craft Bag - a new company to me but one that looks well worth a visit!

For my project, I went with a girly card using a gorgeous LOTV image and some rather old Doodlebug Papers.  The sketch I followed was one I used a couple of weeks back off a Christmas Sketch challenge - told you I'd use it again!

Anyway, that's my take on things.  For more inspiration check out what the rest of the DT did, Jx

Challenges;
PB@Allsorts - A bit more sparkle
Artistic Inspirations - For the kids
Craft It Up - Glitter
Digi Sketch Challenge - Glitter
I Love Promarkers - Dies not punches - balloon die

Christmas Card No 10

Yeah...double figures and I'm ahead of the calendar!

Challenges;
CCWS - Super simple one Samantha - love it!
CHCC - Use a Sentiment
Chocolate Coffee & Cards - Teddy Bears
Holly Jolly Xmas - Ribbon or lace

Christmas Card No 9

This is a scheduled post this morning as I better keep off the computer today.  Rather a lot of time was spent crafting yesaterday so I best get on with jobs today.

So, another nice and flat, cheaper to post card again using vellum - thanks Wendy for booting me in the direction of it as I do love the finished cards.  Very simple but rather elegant I think!

Sorry the pic is a bit dark - night photos are never the best.

*New Day Light Photo Added!

Challenges;
ABC Xmas - D - Diecuts - the circles
CHCC - Use a sentiment
Winter Wonderland - The most wonderful time of the year - Create a Christmas card

Lovely Lili of The Valley

I really should use these stamps more as the are just gorgeous!

Another sketch - another card! Christmas one next so I don't fall behind!

Challenges;
I Love Promarkers - A super sketch,
Cutie Pie Challenge - Spots & dots  Jx

Skipping Along

Well card production has certainly been skipping along this week - you may have noticed - lots of postings and a bit thin on comments.  Well there is a reason... my card box has been a bit busy of late, firstly there were several family & friends birthdays, and secondly - I'm fund raising again.

This year my chosen charity is not a health one but a country...I raising funds for

North East Scotland Support For Romania

A smallish local charity which supports families in Romania - more details here.

Anyway, my neighbour volunteers for them on a regular basis and has been out with aid on several trips - her next one is scheduled for Easter.  She and the team are currenlty fund raising to buy an adult push-chair for a young Romanian mad with major mobility problems as a result of having cerebral palsy.  So for the next few months I'll be selling my cards to raise funds for them.

I'll also be helping out at their bigger fund-raiser in March - an Intoxicating Tea Party.  Any of you heard of them?  Its a tea party served with a lovely china tea-set only it ain't tea in the pot...it's cocktails! How fantastic is that???

So pictures of that event to follow, but for now a card to join the box!

Challenges;
Ideas to Inspire - Name that Tune -Danni Minogue - Jump To The Beat