Penny Black Challenge - Round ~ Secret Crafter - At the Zoo ~ Stamp Something -Summer in Winter

Once more I have combined several challenges into one.

This is a sweet bear, but whether or not we'd see him in the zoo in his hammock is debatable!

Penny Black image, Nestabilities dies and Cuttlebug flowers from the Hippie Chick Alphabet set. The sentiment reads 'Smile'!

"Multi Challenge! Cute Card Thursday & SBS22 Valentine ~ Tag You're it ~ Daring Cardmakers 3 papers~ One Stop Crafts Charmed~

The old adage "Killing more than one bird with one stone" comes to mind with this card. It is a challenge entry for Daring Cardmakers to use 3 patterned papers; One Stop Crafts, 'Charmed', to use a charm; Cute Card Thursday, a Valentine... also for SBS22 Valentine Challenge where no red or pink could be used. This came in handy for the Tag You're It challenge which stipulated the use of purple. SO there you have it.
I made the little envelope from a scrap of vellum that I had lurking in the drawer, the main purple paper is Anita's and all the rest is odds and ends.
The idea of the vellum envelope was pinched from my SBS22 sister Denise, sadly I didn't have a punch to make it, but I think that it works OK!
The picture makes it look a little pale and interesting, but I hope you get the idea.

A Hug from Ikki

It has taken me an age to get around to posting this wonderful award from my Bloggging Buddy Ikki.
This is a way to give a hug to someone that you've never met, but who means something special to you. Although we have never met, Ikki feels like a real friend to me, so thank you so much for thinking of me Eileen.
I now have to pass it on to 10 Blogging buddies, and so I have chosen Norma, Gwen, Cindy, Megan (it's her birthday very soon) Marge, Amy (she's due to have a baby tomorrow, so definitely needs a hug!) Jhet, Stephenie, Sarah and Denise. All these lovely ladies are members of my Sisters of the Blogging Stampers group #22. Hugs all round girls! With many apologies for not visiting your Blogs as often as I would like.

Experimenting with Cuttlebug!

I don't know if the picture shows up the details very well, but I've been having an experiment with my Cuttlebug folders!
I put a piece of waxed paper through my textile (I think that is what it's called) embossing folder and then ironed it onto a piece of green card, protecting the iron with another sheet of paper. I then spritzed it with 2 colours of Perfect Pearls, gold and antique blue. I really rather like the effect and had fun doing it, although I feel that the card lacks something in the composition.
The flower was made with a Woodware embossing punch from some old photocopied manuscript and distressed with Tim Holz Old Paper distressing ink. The stamens are from a Splat punch. The leaves are Cuttlebug and the swirls, Quickutz.
Maybe if you click on the image and zoom in you may see some of the detail!
I would be interested to hear what you think!

Penny Black Challenge Week 32 - Dotty ~ and Tag You're it - Week 41 ~Sugar Candy Kisses

I had fun with this one this week. Again I have made the tag like a little card so that it is multipurpose.. and I can make an envelope with my Enveloper Pro to fit it!
The theme for the Penny Black Challenge this week is 'Dotty'... there are quite a few here, and for the Tag You're it Challenge, the theme is 'Sugar Candy Kisses'
These bits of my equipment came to mind when I heard the themes. I hope you like it, I'm still a novice when it comes to tag-making!

Triple Challenge ~ Cuttlebug Spot #14 ~ Sketch Saturday #34 Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #15

Wow what a heading!

This card uses the basic sketch from Sketch Saturday, which I think is a great one this week.

The subject of the card is for the Valentine colour challenge from the Cuttlebug Spot Blog, where no pink or red could be used, and I have included it for the Secret Crafters Saturday Challenge on the theme of 'Hearts'... there are certainly plenty of those!

I think that omitting red or pink from a Valentine is no bad thing...what think you?

Cute Card Thursday ~ Have a giggle

I've always loved this little piggy image, and now I've found a great sentiment to go with it, which reads "Heard you were poorly, so I've sent a little 'oinkment' "!
I thought it would do for the Cute Card Thursday Challenge ~Have a giggle!
Who wouldn't be cheered by him?
The papers are free downloads from the Canon site and the flowers, Prima.

Cuttlebug & Caardvark Challenges

I decided to combine two Challenges into one with this card.
I loved the sketch from Caardvarks and decided that it was the perfect vehicle to display several of my favourite Cuttlebug embossing folders for their challenge this week.
I am particularly fond of the Swiss dots folder as it can easily be used to extend coverage over larger areas. This is also true with the Hearts from the cut and emboss combo. As for the Divine Swirls... well they're just divine!

Two awards from the terrifically talented Tara!

I was so delighted and "Encouraged" to see that Tara had given me this award. Her blog is inspirational and I find it flattering that she should honour me in this way. Thank you Tara.

The rules are:

1) Post a link of the person who gave you this award.

2) Nominate 5 other people and give a link to their sites.

3) Let your nominees know that they have an award from you.

4) Put a logo of the award on the blog.

So here goes, I would like to nominate Norma, my SBS22 sister, Ikki, a crafting buddy I met on the Docraft site, Barbara, an awesome crafter, Gwen, another SBS22 sister and Zoe, who was the one who first started me thinking about Blogging!

DO check out their Blogs, you'll be glad you did!

The second award came more by accident, rather than design, as Tara offered it to the first 7 people to leave a comment on her Blog listing. As I'm frequently popping by her Blog I was lucky enough to receive this award too.

This should be passed on to 7 people, so I would like to do as Tara did and offer it to the first 7 commentors on this posting!

I really like the sketch from Papertake Weekly Challenge this week and have used it in various forms for cards this week. This is for a friend to give to her husband for his birthday... he likes birds!

Papertake Weekly Challenge Dawny's sketch #6

Don't you just love this duck!
This is a fairly literal take on this week's sketch from Papertake, and the colours just kinda leapt out at me when I looked at the rubber stamp from PennyBlack. I think that anyone would be forgiven for whatever misdemeanour with just one look at this little chap... hence my choice of sentiment!
The embossing is Cuttlebug...what else!

PS I've just had a delivery of some new Nesties so I'm off for a play!

Penny Black Weekly Challenge ~ Pink & Brown & Friday Sketchers #34

The Challenge from Penny Black this week is to use pink & brown. I just love this colour combo and so couldn't resist having a go. The sketch is from Friday Sketchers, which also appealed to me.
I have used a Penny Black stamp, with a hint of Glamour Dust over the flower, Cuttlebug butterflies, with their wing design a print from the flower, (although sadly the photo doesn't show this too well) Quickutz swirls and a Stampin Up sentiment mounted on Nesties.
I fiddled around with this for ages, but was quite pleased in the end.

OCC Colour Challenge ~ Blue

A simple card in shades of blue.
The additional colour is just a touch of pink (it sounds like an advert for Lacoste). For the challenge it was supposed to be a neutral colour, so I hope this is OK.
The papers are hand brayered mesh (Fiskars) and Papermania, with a Papermania birds stamp. The sentiment is by Stampin Up.

Tag you're it... first contribution!

I have never attempted a tag before, but inspired by the fab ones produced so beautifully by Ikki, I thought that I would have a go.
I decided to make one that could be used as a tag, card or notelet. I found out what would be the most appropriate size of envelope that I could make ( I always make all my own envelopes) and made the card/tag to fit the envelope!
I had great difficulty in finding any paper or card to match the ribbon and so ended up chalking some pink card in an attempt to make it tone in a little more.
The theme for Tag You're It, is stripy! SO, stripy card, embossed stripes on the butterfly's wings and the ribbon arranged in stripes... I tried!

A Challenge or two at last!

It seems that I have been rushing around for weeks, with no time for card-making or blogging, but here is my first contribution for several weeks.
Three challenges in one:-
Stamp Something (New) some organza from my new batch of ribbons, Daring Cardmakers (Thanks) and the sketch from Our Creative Corner. Such a useful thing to have at this time of year, as I have many thank yous to write!