One card a week ....

.... oh, this is just too bad. I'm so thankful for my DT position, it makes me make time to craft once a week even when things are crazy busy. I'm about to off-load a voluntary secretary job that I've been doing for the past 5 years, it takes up a lot of my time on a sporadic basis, especially at this time of year. It's the AGM at the weekend, so all I have left to do is take the minutes, transcribe them and then hand over to my "lucky" successor. That will surely leave more time for crafting!!!

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Anyhoo, this week's challenge on PaperPlay Challenges is called "Love Notes", given the time of year and all that!!!

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Here's my DT sample, it's my card for my husband, who would recoil in horror if I made something pink and frilly with hearts on, so I made black (and red and green and gold) with hearts on!!!

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I'm also entering this card in Fussy and Fancy Friday, their challenge this fortnight is "Hearts" and Simon Says Stamp,who this week have a photo challenge of red roses on a green background (I've taken the colour scheme and shabbied it up a lot) and Double Dutch, their challenge is "Be my Valentine".

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I used the divine BG Scarlet's Letter papers, they are the first BG I saw and I still love them. Great for manly Valentines cards!!! And I've put a little joke on DH on the card - he is NOT a fan of MS punches, I won't tell what he says about them, it's not repeatable. See those little black hearts, they are the throwaway bits from the middle when you punch using the Valentine's Lace punch. I got them out of the bin and put Crackle Accents on them. He'll never know there's MS punchwork on his card!!!

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Here's a little close-up:

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Recipe:

Papers: BG Scarlet's Letter

Stamps: Hero Arts stamped in Gold with Gold E.P.

Inks: Tim Holtz Distress Inks - Old Paper, Fired Brick, Black Soot

Other: MS Valentine Lace Punch, Crackle Accents, needle and thread

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Thanks for looking!!

Pink, White ....

.... and Green. That's the colour combination on this week's PaperPlay Challenges. It's a very popular combination for many people, but not one of my usuals!!

I had a card to make for a friend's daughter who will be 8 soon, so I decided to go for full on girlie and dig out some Doodlebug papers. I bought these a few years ago at my first crop, they were the very first scrapbook papers I had seen and I was overcome with the gorgeousness of everything!! Of course, shortly afterwards I discovered Basic Grey and the poor Doodlebugs were pushed to the back of the pile, where they've been languishing ever since!!!


And Totally Gorjuss are looking for "Dimension" in projects this week. There is certainly a lot of that on this card. I've stamped the image twice and popped the second one up for added dimension. I also popped up the circle sentiment and number. The flowers on the image are highlighted with Glossy Accents. The number 8, made from Doodlebug Sugar cardstock, is also covered with Glossy Accents (mainly to keep the glitter under control!!!).

Here's a close-up of the layering. The background card and punched border are actually hot pink, although they look red in the pics.
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Recipe:

Papers: Doodlebug

Image: Gorjuss Girl from Sugar Nellie

Colouring Medium: Prismas and Promarkers

Other: Doodlebug brads, MS punch, Stardust Stickles, Glossy Accents, needle & thread

I'm hoping to do more crafting this week, I've been too too busy the past month, not nearly enough time for fun stuff!!! I've received two lovely blog awards from Sandie and Carol, will upload and pass on in the next day or so - thank you ladies!!!

And thanks for looking!!

P.S. "Chloe's" card from last week is still on my desk - I haven't heard yet if they've picked a name - well, they are not getting the card until they do!!!

Baby ....

.... Who?

I've been waiting to make my DT entry for this week's PaperPlay Challenges all week. Elisa set the challenge, it's called "Furry Friends" - make something dedicated to our friends that bark, squeak, meow, roar, moo or neigh.

I knew I was going to make a baby card, and I knew I would be using a PB cat stamp, but the parents of the baby (who was born on New Year's Day), have not given her a name yet. So far, in the fortnight since she was born, she has been temporarily called Sammie, Maisie, Tara and Chloe, and now .... who knows? So yesterday afternoon, I gave up waiting, made the card and used temporary adhesive on the nameplate!!!!

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I've used a sketch from this week's Totally Gorjuss challenge, and am also entering it on Simon Says Stamp, whose challenge this week is "Shabby Chic" - ooh I love to distress!!! - and SFTW (just in time) and Fussy and Fancy Friday (even more just in time), who both wanted projects with the theme of "new". Baby!

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Here's a wee side view of the card.

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Recipe:

Papers: BG Sugared

Stamp: Penny Black Cat & Moon (I think that's what it's called)

Colouring Medium: Prismas

Other: Nesties, Ribbon from Stash, needle and thread, Stardust stickles

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Thanks for looking!!

Snow Days ....

.... I love 'em. Off again today, and the forecast is really bad for Sunday and into next week. We could be stuck here for days!!!! Yippee!!!

Thankfully, we got to the dentist on Tuesday and DS's bad tooth was extracted. Our dentist is so wonderful, he ensured the whole procedure was as untraumatic as possible, and DS was very, very good (I had had my doubts about that!!!). I was very good too!!! (Well, I was dentist-phobic for years!).

I've made another card - the productivity is great with all this enforced house-dom!! Our friend is turning 50 shortly and is having a huge party, yet she doesn't want anybody to shout about her age - we think this is very funny!!! I thought she'd kill me if I made a card emblazoned with big 5s and 0s, but yet I feel I have to mention the age achievement, so I tried to think of a sneaky way to do it!!

And when I saw Dena's lovely card, I had my answer. Here's my card:


Notice the "Sshhhhh" printed on the left hand side - and when you pull the tag, it reveals this:

I'm entering this in three challenges:

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Quixotic Challenges and Simon Says Stamps Challenges both have "Hot Chocolate" as their challenge this week - I've used lovely pink and chocolately colours.

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And Crafty Angels are looking for something recycled. See the hairy string on the tag - I got that from the postman - he had tied a load of post together with it and was going to dump it - so I rescued it!!!!

Recipe:

Papers: Basic Grey Bittersweet

Colouring Medium: Promarkers and Prismas

Inks: Chestnut Roan and Dark Brown Colorbox Chalks

Font: Excellentia in excelsis

Other: Hairy String and Eyelet from stash

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Thanks for looking! And thanks for taking time to leave a comment - I love to read them!

All that glitters ....

.... is not gold!!

It's pretty glittery outside today, we had lots of snow yesterday (well, comparatively speaking. Anyone in Scandinavia or parts of the US would fall about laughing at the piddly amount on the ground here!). But the entire country ground to a halt yesterday!!! And we were supposed to go back to school today after the Christmas hols. I checked the school's website this morning, it said we would open as normal. DS and I started walking to school in the snow - very pretty and crunchy - half way there the principal rang to say we would be closed 'till Monday - YAHOO!!!!!!

It was my turn to set the challenge on PaperPlay Challenges and it's called "Precious Metals" - I've asked entrants to feature metal, or metallic elements, on their work - could be embossing, inks, charms, findings, anything as long as it's gold, silver, bronze, copper.

Here's my card:


The number charms are faux metal - I made them from numbers I printed from the computer, traced onto cardstock, cut out and then embossed with silver e.p. and versamark several times until I had achieved the metallic look I wanted. Then I layered a load of silver Stickles on top. I also Stickled the centres of each dandelion "petal" (or whatever they're called!). Here's a close-up of all the glittery bits.

Recipe
Papers: Silver and White cardstock from stash

Stamp: Hero Arts
Colouring Media: Silver ink
Other: MS punch, pin and ribbon from stash

Thanks for looking.

Hooray - a card ....

.... at last. And it's actually the second of the year. The first can't be shown until Thursday, as it's my PaperPlay DT sample for next week's challenge.

I've just re-taken and posted the photo - the light was terrible last night. Not too much better today - but the colours are reasonably true!!

This one covers three challenges:- Firstly, Basic Grey Challenges - it's a colour combo of cream, pink and blue. I've used Eskimo Kisses and Bittersweet papers from BG.

Next, Quixotic Challenges - the challenge is to use lace. I've used my Martha Stewart "Valentine Lace" punch to make "lace" for this card.

And finally, Kraftin Kimmie Stamps Challenge - paper piercing. I've done a lot of that on this card, and also used one of Kimmie's Moonlight Whispers stamps, "Francesca".

Recipe

Papers: BG Eskimo Kisses and Bittersweet

Stamp: Kraftin Kimmie Moonlight Whispers "Francesca"

Colouring Media: Prismas and Pro-markers

Other: Hero Arts flowers, Ranger Glossy Accents, MS punch

Layout: A sketch of Sandie's that was a PaperPlay challenge in Nov. Great sketch, Sandie!

Here's a little close-up of the image and cupcake flowers:

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Thanks for looking!

Happy New Year ....

.... everyone! Hope 2010 is a good year for you all.

We have SNOW!!!! Went to a party at a friend's house last night, and when we went outside at midnight, everywhere was white and beautiful. Not such a beautiful drive home, the roads were treacherous, and I was designated driver (eek!). Barring one scary moment at a traffic light when I had to steer into a kerb rather than into the car in front, we made it home safely. Phew.