Last day of ....

.... freedom - oh, I'm so not ready to go back to school, but alas, I have no choice.  I practised getting up early today (8 o'clock!!) and I did not like it, what'll I be like tomorrow when the waking hour is SEVEN!! I think the kids will be prising MY fingers from the doorframe and pulling ME out the door by my ankles!!

In keeping with the week that's in it, the theme on Creative Card Crew this fortnight is "Back to School".  We are sponsored by Simon Says Stamp and the winner will receive a $15 store credit.  Check out what my talented teamies have made.

I had no school themed stuff, so I decided to buy one of Mo Manning's beautiful images, it's my first one of hers.  Here's the card I made:

Update 3rd Sep: This card was picked as a Top 5 on Stamp Something - thank you, ladies - another blinkie - yayyyy!
Update 4th Sep: This card was picked as Winner on Sketch Saturday - thanks so much!

I've used the sketch from this week's Sketch Saturday.  I'm also entering it into the following challenges: Fussy & Fancy Friday ("Back to School"), Stamp Something (another "Back to School"), Cute Card Thursday ("Dieing for a Punch" - no punches or dies), Shabby Tea Room ("Old/New" - my old is the papers, new is the image) and a new challenge blog, CES Challenges ("Anything Goes").

I think I may have finally beaten my digi troubles.  I printed the image in "everyday" setting rather than "normal", and heat set it with my heat gun a few times and left it overnight before I coloured (with distress inks of course!) and I am pretty happy with the result.  Thanks to Mina for the printing hints, and also to Deirdre and Sandie for the "Adjust contrast" photoshopping hints (what a difference it makes!)!!  Here's a close-up of my image:

Recipe:

Papers: Fancy Pants "The Daily Grind"

Stamps: Hero Arts "Apple" and Mo Manning "Erasmus"

Colouring Medium: Tim Holtz Distress Inks

Other: Fancy Pants ribbon, scallop edge scissors, needle + thread

Thanks for looking! 

What day is it....

.... anyway?!!!   I am hopelessly disorganised this week - the house is a tip, mountains of laundry everywhere (thank goodness the weather has been better than forecast, at least I'm getting stuff dried outside!), camping gear waiting to be put away, we're going back to school next week and, whilst I have bought the schoolbooks, they aren't covered yet and I still haven't got shoes for my daughter.  Hellllllllpp!

I was happily convinced that yesterday was only Tuesday until about 9 o'clock, when my daughter said something that made me realise with a sinking heart that it was Wednesday night and I hadn't even started my PaperPlay DT entry.  So I galloped off to the computer to check out my image from this week's sponsor, Wink Wink Ink, and to my utter utter joy, discovered that I had been sent both a b/w and ready-coloured version of my image.  Guess which one I used?!!!  Here's my card:

Our challenge this week is called "Sketch and Stash". Sandie produced a lovely sketch to use, and the added option is to use new stash.  I couldn't do the added bit, as I haven't gotten any new stash in ages, sniff sniff (although things are looking up, I'm in the process of deciding what to order for my Christmas cards, hint - BG!!!)

I'm also entering this card in the following challenges: Totally Gorjuss ("Star"), Stampin for the Weekend ("Anything Goes" - bless their poor DT!), and Papertake Weekly ("3-2-1" - 3 buttons, 2 papers, 1 image).

For once I didn't ink any edges (no time), although I had to stitch, it would have looked naked otherwise!!Here's a close-up of the cute image I used - super colouring, eh? ;-)!!!!

Recipe:

Image: "Moon Baby" by Wink Wink Ink

Papers: Crate Paper "Lemongrass"

Font: Ballpark from dafont.com

Other: BG buttons, hairy string, needle + thread

Thanks for looking!

P.S. Just marking this week as the week my son learned to swim!!  He has taken two intensive swimming class sessions this summer and has made amazing progress.  In the first week, at the beginning of the summer, he went from using a board to kick swimming across front and back with hands by his side.  This week, he has learned to use his arms too.  Hooray!!

A mixed bag ....

.... today, I've got all sorts of pictures to show and things to tell.

I'm back from a weekend away camping, it took a few days beforehand to organise the gear, and will take a few more to get it all packed away in the attic again.  I haven't crafted in a week and a half, must get back at it before we, sob sob, go back to school next week.

I was very happy to find out that my "Bon Voyage" Tilda card from a few weeks ago made the Top 5 on ABC Challenge - I got a blinkie for my sidebar (dances about a bit!).  I know I'm a saddo, but I really am happier to get a blinkie than a prize!!!

On my last post, I showed pictures of my desk after a book text flower-making session.  Inspired by my crafty friend Alicia, I decided to make a set of quite simple cards, and use the flowers on the front.  I wasn't going to ink and stitch, but it just didn't look right, so out came the applicator and needle, up went the timescale and here's what I ended up with:

I used some very old paper from a kit, cut the shapes using Nestabilities, the first time I've made shaped cards like this, great fun!!!  I made the leaves from my trusty Hero Arts set that I use all the time, and added some October Afternoon letters.  Here's a little close-up of one card:

We "harvested" our potatoes before we went away, one black plastic container yielded 25 spuds of varying sizes.  Haven't eaten them yet, maybe tomorrow.  Here they are:

And finally, here are a few pics from our camping weekend - we were away with the Mini Club, went for a drive up the mountains on Saturday, here are some of the cars just before a rainstorm hit:

And here's our little corner of the campsite, the Mini at the front is my baby!!

Now, enough dilly-dallying, back to the washing machine I go!!

Thanks for looking!

Wednesday again ....

.... Happy WOYWW, WOYWWers!!!  The picture of my desk is a bit contrived today, 'cos I had more or less finished my experimenting, so I just put the elements I had been working with on the mat and photographed that!

I had been wanting to make some flowers with booktext for ages, but I didn't have any flower punches, then I had a flash of inspiration and used my scalloped circle nestabilities.  Worked a treat.  I made a series of cards but I can't show yet as one is going to a friend who reads this blog!!

And here's another pic, just because!!  We went to the beach on Monday - wasn't a sunny day but it was mild, so we packed up a picnic (including flask of boiling water - Irish picnics on the beach include HOT beverages!!), buckets and spades and met up with my stepmother and her nephews.  Here are the lads hard at work on what became an engineering masterpiece (they said!):

I have to go out now so I can't comment on all your lovely workspaces right now, but I'll be back later.

Thanks for looking!

Had the best idea ....

.... but it was too late, I'd already finished the card!!  It's Tuesday again, and time for another fortnightly challenge from Creative Card Crew.  The challenge this time is called "Sparkle and Shine" and we are sponsored by The Digi Shack.  The DT were offered our choice of digi images so I very carefully chose one that I hoped would colour OK after printing from my printer. I immediately thought of a Beatles-loving friend of ours when I saw the submarine image and so I decided to make his birthday card (some months early!).  Here's my card:

I used the sketch from this week's Create 4 Fun.  I'm also entering it into Totally Papercrafts (rainbow - I think the stripy paper contains (nearly) all the colours!).

As it's a card for a man, I've used more shine than sparkle.  The shine is the windows in the sub (glossy accents) and also the metal, both real in the brads and faux in the heat embossed port-hole.  I've added sparkle to the water and the bubbles with stickles.  I changed my mind about things quite a lot - the background cardstock went from green to blue to black during the making of the card.  I coloured the water with distress inks, but chickened out and coloured the sub with prismas 'cos I was afraid that the inks would smear the image. Here's a close-up:

Recipe:

Image: The Digi Shack

Papers: Fancy Pants "About a Boy"

Colouring Media: Distress Inks and Prisma pencils

Other: Silver e.p., Eucalyptus and Stardust Stickles, Doodlebug brads, black mesh from stash, needle + thread

And what was my great idea - I was just sticking the last piece down when I realised that the sub was very "steam-punk" looking, and that it would look fab on a card made in that style.  Gaaaaah!!!

Thanks for looking!

Can't . stop . using ....

.... Tilda stamps!!  This addiction is taking hold of me (eek!), but looking at the other DT entries on this week's PaperPlay, I'm far from alone in this - 5 of us used Magnolia stamps on our cards!!!

We're sponsored by Simon Stays Stamp again this week, and our challenge is called "Bon Voyage".

I was scratching my head for a bit trying to work out what to make, and then I remembered I had a Tim Holtz stamp with the Eiffel Tower on it.  Yahoo, foreign travel, a starting point!!  I had laid out some old spotty Rusty Pickle papers to use, see my post yesterday, but when I looked at them in good light, I realised that what I thought was navy was actually black, so a change of papers was required, because I wanted to have a French flag colour scheme of red, white and blue.  Here's what I ended up with:

Update 18th Aug: This card was picked as a Top 5 by Sue on ABC Challenge - thank you, Sue - I love the blinkie!

I used the sketch from this fortnight's Sunday Sketch and Stamp, I rotated it 90 degrees 'cos it worked better. 

I'm also entering this into Papertake Weekly (something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue - old = Tim Holz stamp and BG Boxer papers, new = BG Oliver papers, borrowed = "love" ticket, from my friend Pam - ta!, blue = BG Boxer papers + Tilda's shoes), Simon Says Stamp (summertime blues) and ABC Challenge (A is for August - my husband is going to Paris this weekend!).  While blog-hopping this week, I came across the Etsy Inspired Challenge - they pick an Etsy store for inspiration.  This week's featured store is Cathy Walters, she makes gorgeous pendants, and I was very happy when the first one I saw was this - bingo!!

I used three stamps on my card, the background script behind the Eiffel Tower, the tower itself, which I heat embossed with clear e.p. to make it stand out.  I also inked the stamped piece with a few colours of distress ink to make it match better and look a bit grungy.  I had to re-paint Tilda's dress three or four times, my first wash of Barn Door looked pink, the second was better, eventually I mixed in a bit of Dark Soot to get the darker red I wanted.  Here's a close-up:

Recipe:

Stamps: Magnolia "Old Valentine Letter" + "Princess Tilda", Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous "Eiffel Sketch"

Papers: Basic Grey "Boxer" and "Oliver"

Colouring Medium: Distress Inks

Other: Gingham ribbon, heart crystal pin from stash, Tim Holtz Adage ticket, needle + thread

Thanks for looking!

Not confused at all ....

.... I am on the ball this week, I know it's Wednesday today!!  So time for another WOYWW:

It's a beautiful sunny morning here in Dublin, and the sun is shining straight in through the window onto my desk.  So although I have a card to do, I can't make a start 'till the sun moves around a bit, it would be too hot sitting there.  Here's the stuff laid out ready to go:

See the big splodge of sunshine on the bottom left - here's more:

And I thought you'd like to see the view out the window.  See that palm tree, it's in the neighbour's garden - I hate it, it drops at least 58 dead leaves over the wall into our garden every day.  Grrrr!!

Now I'm off to wake the kids, the lazy lollops are still in bed. Then I'm going to meet a pal for coffee at 11o'c, daughter to orthodontist at 2pm and somehow have to make that card in between times!!  Happy Wednesday, all!!

Winner of ....

.... blog candy.  Thank you so much to those who entered, a real international bunch you are!!!  Welcome to all new followers, I hope you like my work and I'm delighted to see you all here.  I haven't had a chance to go round all your blogs yet, but I will!!  And thanks also to my old chums who were already following!!

I've spent the past hour or so faffing about with random org and all I've managed is to create a widget that can generate new numbers on a blog - that's not much good, I want a fixed number picture.  So I've resorted to the old-fashioned way - and courtesy of my son (and his filthy fingernails), here's the sequence of events leading to the picking of the winning number:

 

So, the winner is: LILY!!!   Congrats, hun, email me your postal details using the link in my sidebar and I'll get your goodies in the post asap.  But first, I have to go and "persuade" my mucky son to get in the bath!!

Bow-challenged ....

.... not me!!  I've always been rubbish at tying bows, I generally just tie a knot with two tails and leave it at that.  But no longer - now I have my .... da da DAH .... Bow-Easy!!!  Look at this little beauty:

Mind you, I did have to watch several tutorials and then go on utube before I finally got the hang of it!!

Here's the card with the wonder-bow on it:

I'm entering this in the following challenges: Friday Sketchers (I had to leave out the tag, 'cos my card has too many scallops and it kept getting stuck on them), Basic Grey Challenges (pearls), 7 Kids Challenge (brand new challenge blog - "pink + dots"), Just Magnolia ("acetate" - my disused tag was acetate, so the compromise is a scalloped acetate circle behind the image!), Bunny Zoes Crafts (vintage - yayyyy!) and Wild Orchid Challenge ("one for the girls"). 

I used my all-time favourite BG Phresh & Phunky papers, how I love them - I stamped polka dots on the pink background and heat embossed with white.  Here's a close-up of the image, you can see the little acetate bit and the spots more clearly:

Recipe:

Stamps: Magnolia "Summertime Tilda with Bow", Hero Arts DesignBlock "raindrop background"

Papers: BG "Phresh + Phunky"

Colouring Medium: Distress Inks

Other: Hero Arts Pearls, acetate, ribbon from stash, needle + thread

Thanks for looking - I will post the winner of my candy later today (once I figure out how to use random picker thingy!)

Blog Candy and Exciting News!!

I found out on 26th July that I've been chosen to be on the Creative Card Crew design team.  Woohoo - I'm delighted - it's a great challenge blog and I'm looking forward to working with a super team!!  

Soooooooo, since I was putting together a blog candy anyway (about bloomin' time too!), I thought why not make today the day?!!.

CANDY NOW CLOSED - WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED TUE 10TH!

Candy consists of:

• Basic Grey "Kioshi" 6" x 6" paper pad.
• Prima flowers
• Prima pearls and gems
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink reinker in "Stormy Sky"
• Sugar Nellie Gorjuss Girl "Foxy" stamp
• Stampavie "Lily & Milo" stamp
• pack of handbag charms
• 5 promarkers (pinks and skin tones)

If you would like to try and win this candy (I will post worldwide), all you have to do is the usual!!:

1. Become a follower of my blog (if you're not already!).
2. Put a link to this candy on your blog.
3. Leave a comment for me on this post. Closing date is Monday 9th August and I will post the winners details on Tuesday 10th.

This post will remain at the top until 9th August - scroll down for other posts.

Thanks and good luck to all!!

Hang on ....

.... Snoopy!  Things went an unexpected direction this week with my DT entry for PaperPlay.  We are sponsored by Stitchy Bears Stamps and our challenge is a recipe:- 2 DPs, 3 flowers, 1 ribbon and 1 charm.

The latter presented a problem for me, I don't have any charms.  Then I remembered my daughter had a clearout some time back and I had "rescued" quite a few things from the bin, including a little Snoopy mobile phone charm.  When I first started card-making, I was ecstatic to discover that Stampabilities make Peanuts stamps, I bought quite a few at the time, and although I haven't used them much (some not at all), I will never get rid of them because I'm so happy that they exist!!  So now that I had my Snoopy charm, out came one of the stamps, I blew the dust off it, and here's my card:

I'm also entering this into Crafty Angels (Something old, something new), Simon Says Stamp (Sing it Baby - the song that is stuck in my head now "Hang on Snoopy", such a stupid song!), Cute Card Thursday ("whateva" - bless their DT, we had 444 entries for anything goes last week on PaperPlay - so much commenting!) and Totally Papercrafts (going to the movies).

Here's a little close-up of my image - I coloured with distress inks and highlighted the balloons with glossy accents:

Recipe:

Papers: Cosmo Cricket "Lil' Man"

Stamp: Stampabilities "Snoopy Happy Birthday"

Colouring Medium: Distress Inks

Other: Blue flower handmade, other flowers, gems, ribbon, BG button, charm from stash, needle + thread

Thanks for looking - and don't forget to enter my blog candy (click here) - only 4 days left!!!

My first challenge ....

.... for Creative Card Crew!!   This week, the theme is "cute and girlie" and we're sponsored by the wonderful MelJen's Designs - I think everyone in blogland must now be aware of her lovely digi stamps, with their distinctive swirls.  Check out what the other CCC girls have made - all gorgeous stuff!

I have tried and tried to use digis, but no matter what I do, my printer is not complying and when I try to colour, I am not happy with the results no matter what medium I use.  I found a site last night that recommends washing the printed image under the tap to remove some of the excess ink, has anyone tried that?  I'd love to know if it is worth a shot.

Anyway, moan over, back to my card:

I've also entered this in this week's Sugar Bowl (DIY - participants can use whatever past sketch they wish - I've gone for No. 30), Daring Cardmakers (It's a Girl Thing), Paper Sundaes (stitching) and Basic Grey Challenges (stitching).

I used this beautiful Sugar Nellie girl by Leanne Ellis and coloured with distress inks - love the soft pinks and greeny/blues of the BG Olivia papers, my favourites at the moment, I think.  I stickled bits of the image and used glossy accents on the leaves, particularly on the ones I cut out, to strengthen them.  Here's a close-up:

Recipe:

Stamp: Leanne Ellis "Belle Flower" for Sugar Nellie

Papers: Basic Grey "Olivia"

Colouring Medium: Distress Inks

Other: Doily and ribbon from stash, stickles, glossy accents, needle + thread

Thanks for looking - and don't forget to enter my blog candy (click here) - only 6 days left!!!