BasicGrey Challenge #20

This week over at the BasicGrey Challenge Blog.......

"This week we have another sketch for you to follow, you can resize and even flip the sketch but please make sure that the original sketch can be recognized easily in your creations, feel free to also add any other embellishments etc to your creations and of course not forgetting to use at least one item from BasicGrey"

This is the card that I made for this week's challenge :

The base card is brown Bazzill.

The pattered papers are BasicGrey Urban Prairie.

The aqua coloured card is Core'dinations.

The image and sentiment are free stamps with Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine. I coloured the image with distress inks and stamped the image and sentiment with Rich Cocoa Memento ink.

The flowers are American Crafts with Papermania pearl brads. The leaves were made with my Leone Em punch.

The rest of the DT's creations are stunning again this week and its a fabby sketch to follow. I look forwarding to visiting your blogs and seeing your creations.

Have a great weekend and wrap up warm !

Friday Sketchers - Sketch 37

Well, what a week ! Full of ups and downs but here we are again, Friday ! Where on earth does the time fly to ?

I have been able to join in with another challenge - I'm beginning to enjoy this ! This time it is with Friday Sketchers and Carole has designed the sketch this week. Also this week, Simonsaysstamp are sponsoring this week's challenge and the prize is a $50 voucher to spend at Simonsaysstamp's store ! Just how wonderful is that ? They sell everything crafty on the Planet so what are you waiting for ?!!

This is the card I made :

The patterned papers are Cosmo Cricket "Honey Pie" which is a yummy 8x8 pad.

The image is by Sarah Kay "My Sweet Lily" which was very kindly given to me by Martine. I have coloured this cutie with ProMarkers. The colours were : cocoa, burnt sienna and pastel beige (hair), ivory and blush (skin), pastel pink (dress and bow), cinnamon and henna (teddy), lemon (teddy's dress and bow), satin (lacy edges), pastel blue, pastel green, pastel pink and lavender (ball), cool grey 1 (edges).

The ribbon, buttons and pearls are from my stash.

Flowers are American Crafts Greenhouse paper flowers.

I also decorated the inside :

I used the leftover papers from the front of the card, (sshhhh another Martha Stewart punch - floral scallop which I bought from Dies to Die For !), and label nesties !

I hope you are ready for the big weekend ahead ? First of all on Saturday (tomorrow) we have the next challenge on the BasicGrey Challenge Blog - you will like this one !

On Sunday we have the launch of the brand new look Kaboodle Doodle Challenge Blog where not only will there be a new challenge, a brand new kit just out but also TWO chances to win blog candy !

Last, but not least, we have on Sunday morning the ribbon cutting of the brand new challenge blog Colour Create ! Our first challenge will be set on Sunday and there will also be a chance to win candy too !

I look forward to seeing you on all three !

Take care and have a great weekend.

Sketch Saturday - Sketch #35

I enjoyed playing along with Sketch Saturday so much last week, I just had to do it all over again this week (and there is a fabby prize up for grabs too ;o) )

Here is my entry ....

The base card is brown Bazzill.

The patterned paper is Making Memories Chloe's Closet which my very good friend and fellow BasicGrey DT buddy, Tara, sent me all the way from Canada (I gave her a shopping list for her lunch hour !!). This paper is soooo scrummy, fresh, bright and different and I couldn't wait to use it (after a good stroke of course !!). I also distressed the edges with old paper distress ink.

I also used my new toy which Tara also sent me from Canada - a brand new Martha Stewart punch - just how cool is that ?!! If you look closely the little "dots" are actually teeny, sweet hearts !

The image is Sugar Nellie "Kitty" which I have coloured with ProMarkers. The colours I used are : cinnamon and henna (hair), marsh green (hat), apricot and spice (bow on hat), pastel pink (hearts on hat), pastel yellow (flowers on hat), ivory and blush (skin), marsh green (blouse), apricot and spice (apron), cornflower and warm grey 2 (trousers), pastel yellow and apricot (patches on trousers), satin and cornflower (bowl), cinnamon and henna (cat), cool grey 2 for outlines. I also distressed the edges of the image with old paper and spiced marmalade.

The sentiment is a rub-on by October Afternoon.

The flowers were cream Hero Arts flowers which I coloured with my spice ProMarker.

The copper coloured brads and spacers are from my stash.

I also decorated the inside (very simply) but its decorated.....

I used the same patterned paper as on the front (Making Memories Chloe's Closet), my new Martha Stewart punch and a sentiment by DoCrafts.

To Tara - I hope I made your shopping trip in the thick snow and minus 14 degrees worth while !!! LOL - thank you hunny - you are a diamond !

It's getting exciting over at Kaboodle Doodles !

On Sunday 1st February we will be launching the New Kaboodle Doodles Challenge blog with a fab new challenge and great prize. But that is not your only chance to win some candy. As well as our challenge prize we have some blog candy to give away to one lucky follower. So sign-up now as a follower and spread the news on your blog - feel free to take a blinkie. That is TWO chances to win more crafty stash! BUT, it doesn't stop there - we have more exciting news. What is it? I hear you cry - well you will just have to come back on the 1st February to find out.

Join us on Sunday at the all new Kaboodle Doodles Challenge Blog !

I've been tagged !

I have been tagged by both Zoe and Dawn - thank's girls !!

In the 6th folder, take the 6th picture and post it on your blog. Write something about the picture.




Well, this is our gorgeous little darlin' Fizzy (nicknamed "Fizzy" because she is so full of life, all the time !). She is 18 months in this picture. A friend of ours had sent the girls some halloween bits and pieces and one was a set of brightly coloured halloween headbands. Well, Fizzy took an instant liking to the purple headband and wore it whenever she could, breakfast time and all ! Isn't she just the cutest ?

I shall have to have a think about who to tag next because you all seem to have been tagged !!

I hope to be back with a card soon !

Awards

I have been such a lucky laydee recently and received these lovely awards from these lovely people. Thank you sooo much !

From Georgia




From Jackie




From TaraG

BasicGrey Challenge #19

This week over at the BasicGrey Challenge Blog......

"For this weeks challenge we would like you to follow a recipe, you can of course add more embellishments etc to your creations but please make sure to use all of the ingredients in the recipe on your creations, and of course not forgetting to use at least one item from BasicGrey"

Ingredients

2 Patterned papers

1 Button

1 Ribbon and Bow

3 Brads

This is what I managed to "cook" up this week !

The two patterned papers are BasicGrey Euphoria, one of which I edged with my Martha Stewart punch (as you do !).

The button is a BasicGrey button but I am not sure which collection this is from.

The two ribbons are from my stash. I think the blue one came from Cleo Crafts.

The three little button brads I think maybe Dovecraft ones (sorry to be so vague !).

The image is House Mouse, Happy Hoppers "Balloon Journey" which I coloured with my ProMarkers. I used some glossy accents on the balloons.

The blue and yellow card are from the new Papermania stack (this is great and so handy and the colours are gorgeous). I added some doodled stitching which is just as bad as me being let loose on a sewing machine !!

I also decorated the inside of the card too with some more Euphoria paper and that pesky punch again !

Yellow card from the Papermania stack and a sentiment from DoCrafts.

I'm looking forward to visiting you to sample your creations this week. At least it won't be fattening !!

Please also pop into the blogs of my fellow team mates. It always amazes me how different our creations can be to one another and what a talented bunch of lovely ladies I am working with.

On that note I would like to say huge congratulations to my team mate Anthea who has also had her work published in the BasicGrey gallery. Well done that girl !! You can see her cards here and here.

Hope you all have a great weekend and find some time for some crafting !

Exciting News !

Well, to say I had an email that knocked me backwards the other day is an understatement ! I did actually fall off my chair !!

What sent me into a dithering wreck who was dancing around the house like a loony was an email from my lovely friend Tara who we all know and love of Happily Ever Crafting. She has set up a very, very exciting new challenge blog which is called "Colour Create". The other part of the exciting news is that she has asked me to be on her DT along with 7 other extremely talented ladies !! I am so pleased, proud and excited.

The purpose of this challenge blog is to give everyone a different colour palette to work with each week along with an optional theme and the news you will all like is that you will be able to combine this challenge with all the others that you take part in so if you are short of inspiration, visit us !!

Colour Create's ribbon will be cut on 1st February and challenges will take place every week on a Sunday. There will be blog candy to celebrate our launch together with our first ever challenge so please come over and have a look at our new challenge blog and the wonderful and talented DT and their creations. Why not even take the plunge and follow us ?!!

We look forward to seeing you and playing along with you !

Fill your pockets !

Now I don't know about you, but I love looking at the Hero Arts Blog. I just adore their stamps and their blog and they show the most amazing work on there. I was looking at it the other day in total wonder and they were having a "pocket week" and were showing all these amazing pockets that had been made. I thought to myself "I could do that" so I did !!

My lovely friend Tara and I were nattering about swapping images the other day so I knew just the person I could make a pocket for and here it is :

I used a piece of "Sea Salt" Bazzill card and made a 6x6 card and then cut about 2" off the top on one side and then bonded all the edges together to make a pocket. I added the border at the top of the card to add a bit of height in the end as the images were quite large and it also adds some "prettiness" to it too.

The papers are BasicGrey Euphoria papers (I adore these, they are so pretty) and I used my new Martha Stewart punch which I bought from Dies to Die For. I can highly recommend this online store and Tracy who owns it is just fantastic and really puts herself out for you - she is truly amazing and I cannot recommend her enough.

I added some pearls from my stash to the papers.

The pink and purple ribbons are from my stash too.

The flowers are Prima Hydrangeas with spacers and brads from my stash.

To make the tag I used the same Bazzill and cut the pattered paper with my nesties.

The gorgeous Tilda is coloured with my ProMarkers and I used :

Mustard and sandstone (hair), cornflower and pastel pink (dress), ice grey 4 & 5 (socks), satin and warm grey 2 (tag), sandstone (bow on tag), ivory and blush (skin) and I edged the whole image with a Copic Ciao cool grey number 1 (c-1).

The ribbons are the same as on the pocket.

NOW while I was making this for Tara, she introduced me/us to her daughter's blog and my goodness, is this little lady talented ! You must go over and have a look and leave her a comment. Well, talent like this cannot go unrecognised so I made her one too and filled it with some of images she can use for herself instead of raiding her Mum's stash !

This time I used some dark pink Bazzill (sorry, the colour was not on the back) and I used some DCWV patterned paper from the Spring Glitter Stack. The yellow card is from the new Papermania card stack.

The dew drops are from simonsaysstamp and come in a little jar with a mix of blue, hot pink and clear.

The flowers and gems are from my stash.

The ribbon is from Poppicrafts.

For the tag I used the same papers and cut an oval from my nesties.

The image is a download from All That Scraps and I coloured this little cutie with my ProMarkers. I used cinnamon and blender (hair), coral (dress, shoes and bows), ivory and blush (skin), pastel yellow (dress).

Again I used the same ribbon and dew drops.

The butterfly charm was purchased from e-bay.

I know that both Tara and her daughter have received these safely so it is safe to post !

Wow, that was a long post for me today ! Its been nice being able to post something. I've been really busy making lots of things but can't show them yet !

Hope you are all having a good and productive week. See you again soon and thanks so much for taking the time to look at my bog and read this very long post !! I do appreciate it and all the lovely comments I receive from you all. With hugs,

New Award

What a lovely award to receive ! I have been given this award by the very talented, "Inspirational" and lovely lady, Rica.

I have so many lovely friends I would like to pass this onto and it would seem so unfair just to pick one or two of them so I will pass this award onto all my friends - with love from me !

Sketch Saturday

I'm enjoying being able to enter a few challenges and I especially like the sketch ones. This is my card for Sketch Saturday This sketch is a great one to follow and you must see the creations by the DT, they are fabulous.

The papers I used are BasicGrey Cupcake. The orange card is some Core'dinations, the green is from the Papermania stack and the red is from my stash.

The image is House Mouse "Make a Wish" which I have coloured with ProMarkers.

The little footprints are an Elzybells stamp.

The sentiment is a free stamp from Craft Stamper magazine last year. I coloured the cake with ProMarkers.

I wasn't sure about the colours on the card but its bright and cheerful, just what you need on your birthday !

Penny Black Saturday Challenge

This week the challenge over at Penny Black Saturday Challenge is "Let's get dotty" ! I am so pleased I was able to join in with a challenge this week. Here is my card ....

The pink card is from The Papermillshop.

The dotty paper is Papermania Retro Floral. This is a lovely pack of papers and I used it a lot last year. I managed to find another pack in the sales recently so I'm well chuffed !

The green card is a new pack by Papermania of just coloured card, smooth on one side and textured on the other. There are some fabulous colours in this pack. I used my new SU spiral punch on this card.

I am not sure what this Penny Black image is called because someone gave it to me in a swap - sorry. I coloured the image with my ProMarkers and distressed the edges with old paper and walnut stain distress ink.

The greeting is a stamp by Whispers Words (DoCrafts) which is on sale at The Glitterpot for 99p along with some others (I think they may be new ones out). The stamp is actually quite large and has "birthday surprise !" on it but I masked all the other words so I could pick out "Surprise !". It has been stamped in Brilliance Coffee Bean ink.

The button is a Basic Grey button with some pink cord and a charm from e-bay. It's a shame you can't see it but on the reverse of the butterfly it says "created for you"

I have added some bling to the corners. These are some Papermania gems I found in my stash.

You must pop over there and see the DT's creations - they are fabulous and so dotty !

Hope you are all having a good weekend and not too windswept ?!

BasicGrey Challenge #18

First of all - check this out ! Large drum roll please..........

Not only has our very own talented Kim been on the shortlist for Card of the Year with Craft Stamper magazine, got engaged, been featured on Inspirational but has just had her card from the BasicGrey Challenge Blog (challenge 16 - sketch) featured in none other than the BasicGrey Gallery ! Way to go girl ! Isn't that just fantastic news ? Many congratulations Kim !

Well, after that exciting news time to tell you about this week's challenge.

"We have a special challenge for you this week :). We would like to see you use one (or all even if you want to) of these fabulous illustrations which have been designed by our own fabulously talented Kim , (Only people taking part in this challenge are allowed to use these images (for now anyway) and of course when the challenge is over you can continue to use them if you wish but please remember that these images are copyright to Kim and should only be used according to her terms of use), oh and of course not forgetting to use at least one item from BasicGrey somewhere on your creation :)" You will be able to find these illustrations on the BasicGrey Challenge Blog


This is the card I made for the challenge this week.

I used two of Kim's illustrations and coloured them with ProMarkers. I cut the image out with my oval nesties.

The red card is some Bazzill and the patterned papers are BasicGrey Sugared. I loved the little heart detail in this paper. I used my Fiskars water threading punch on the paper.

The hearts I cut out on my Cricut and used the same Bazzill card and Sugared paper and put a button in the centre with some lovely red and gold shimmery ribbon.

The flowers are Hero Arts flowers and both started out as being white as I didn't have any red flowers. I coloured the smaller flowers with my ruby ProMarker and then I had a couple of red ones !! The brads are BasicGrey brads although I'm not sure which ones.

The corner flourishes are those fab little Studio G ones you can buy for 99p and the greeting is by Hero Arts from one of their clear sets.

You must go and see what the rest of the DT have created - they are amazing.

I'm looking forward to visiting your blogs to see what you have made !

Hope you all have a great weekend !

Thank you soooo much everyone !

As my good blogging buddy, Tara, announced on my blog last night, its my birthday today !!

I have had the most wonderful day and my feet haven't touched the ground.

I just wanted to say a huge thank you to all those wonderful people who sent me cards and pressies. The postman has struggled for the past couple of days to hold the pile while he rang the doorbell and this morning I had to help him pick them up off the floor because he dropped them !!! I have never received so many wonderful cards and pressies before and I shall treasure each and every one of them.

I will say a personal thank you to you all and will take some piccies for the blog but just wanted to say thank you now.

A nice cuppa, cuddle with DH and early night should finish my wonderful day off nicely.

With love and hugs to you all,

New Toodles

I just love this image and I just love making cards for boys at the moment (I must be going mad !!). I have made this card for one of Ski's friends at school.

I have used the same layout as the previous one as I thought it worked so well.

I used some lovely brown bazzill for the card itself.

The pattered papers are BasicGrey Mellow - oh these are sooo scrummy !

The green and red card are from a new pack Papermania have brought out and its just textured coloured card 6x6. The colours in this pack are fantastic and I think also coordinate with the Papermania patterned papers.

The image is Matthieu and Arthur from Toodles and Binks and I have used my ProMarkers for colouring it. The colours I used were : ruby and sandstone (shirt), shale and henna (hair), petrol blue (trousers), umber (shoes), canary and pumpkin (lolly), cinnamon (Arthur), marsh green (leaves). I hope this helps you ?! I cut this out with my new nesties which finally arrived today. For some reason I thought they were going to be bigger than they are so I could only use the largest one for the image.

Again the lolly has been covered in glossy accents and Twinklets to give it a "yummy" look !

The number is from The Papermillshop and covered in Mellow paper and crackle glaze and walnut stain distress ink.

The sentiment is KandCompany in Brilliance coffee bean ink.

The ribbons, button and brads are from my stash.

I also want to say a huge, huge thank you for all the lovely comments you left me about my "toot" ! You brought a tear to my eye and I can't believe how kind people who you don't even know can be. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart and love you all (tissue please !). Thank you.

May I toot ?

I would like to share with you the fantastic news that I have been chosen to be on the Design Team for the fabulous online store in the USA called "Simonsaysstamp" I can't tell you how excited I am to be working with them. Not only do they sell every single crafty thing you could ever dream about but they have 41 sets of their own exclusive stamps which I shall be helping to promote with the other DT members who come from all over the World !

My goodies are on their way over the pond so keep your eye open for some new creations !

Simonsaysstamp also has their own blog which can be found here and this is great for seeing new products and lots of inspiration and they also love the man himself "Tim Holtz" whooo hoooo !

Did I say how thrilled I am ? big grin, big grin !!

Wishing

I made this card for a friend and I am hoping that it is now safe to show it !



I love the blue and brown colour combo at the moment. It is one of my favourites alongside pink and brown.

I used some cream card from The Papermillshop and some brown Bazzill card.

The patterned paper is Paper Salon, enamored : heart filagree which I bought from Craft Central. This is such gorgeous paper and double sided too and I really had to talk to myself hard in order to cut it !! I am sure you have been there ?!

The image is of course Leanne Ellis from Funky Kits which I painted with distress inks and I put some crackle glaze on the letters. I really must learn to let the distress inks dry over night or speed them up a bit because as you can see, the glazes make the ink run and I am assuming it is because the ink isn't fully dry. I suppose it adds to the aged look ?

The flowers are a mixture of Hero Arts and ones from my stash and I have added BasicGrey brads and spacers from my stash.

The blue and brown ribbons are from my stash.

The florishes are the Studio G ones. Both the image and florishes were stamped using Brilliance Coffee Bean ink.

The dew drops are from Lakeland (well, when they used to sell craft items).

I had to laugh this morning. I popped into town and everywhere I went, people were moaning about how wet and windy it was and how hot it was in all the shops ! Us Brits are never happy are we ? Bring back the frosts is what I say, it was so bright and beautiful. This morning is so dark, dismal and wet and definately not a good day to take photos of cards !

Take care and keep dry !!! hehehehe

Some more yummy awards !

My wonderful blogging buddies have been sending me some awards again and I can't say enough how much I appreciate it. Here they are :

This one from the lovely Kim-Paperbabe

This one from the lovely Rica

This one from the lovely Tara

Now I know you are supposed to pass them onto lots and lots of different people and so I would like to pass them onto all those people who support me and my work by taking the time and trouble to look at my blog. It is so much appreciated and I receive some lovely comments. I love visiting your blogs too and so I pass these awards to all of you - with heartfelt thanks.

BasicGrey Challenge #17

This week on the BasicGrey Challenge Blog ......

"For this weeks challenge we would like to see you use some chipboard in your creations, fear not if you don't have any chipboard though, a good alternative is to recycle think cardboard that is usually found in boxes, simply cut some shapes from it, decorate it how you please and your good to go :), and of course not to forget to use at least one item from BasicGrey somewhere on your creation"

This is the card that I made for this week's challenge :

I used the fantastic BasicGrey Archaic papers for this card and picked out that fabby dark orange colour with some Core'dinations card (if you haven't got any of this, it should go on your "must have" list !).

The image is Matthieu and Arthur from Toodles and Binks (they can be found on sale at Stamp Galaxy) and I have coloured these cute little chaps with my ProMarkers and used the label nesties. Matthieu's lolly has been covered in glossy accents and diamond dust to give it that "sugar crusted" look - yum, yum !!

The ribbon is from Cards and Craft and I used a BasicGrey button and some cord.

The number 5 is a chipboard number I have used. I bought a box from The Papermillshop. I covered it in brown Core'dinations card and sanded the edges and then covered it in crackle glaze.

I made the sentiment on my PC.

What a great challenge this week and the DT have made some amazing projects this week and they are all so different. Take a peek, you can see them on the blog

I'm looking forward to seeing your fabby creations too.

Have a great weekend !

ATC

I sent some BasicGrey goodies to a lovely lady, Jackie, who has supported me right from the beginning of my card making as she said she didn't have any and would like to join in with the challenges sometime. I took the opportunity to help her out. I also sent her this ATC which I haven't made for a long, long time and I had forgotten just how pleasureable it is especially with these new Leanne Ellis stamps, they are the perfect size.



I had some scraps of BasicGrey Euphoria left over from a card I made earlier in the week so I used the pink to cover the ATC card.

I paper pieced her jumper with purple Euphoria paper and paper pieced the roses with the pink.

I coloured the image with ProMarkers

The ribbon was from my stash and I made the pin.

I shall have to go through my box of scraps and make some more of these. If anyone fancies doing a swap, let me know. I think it could be fun !

Take care and again keep warm. It's -4 here (right now !) and thick fog. It is beautiful out as everything is white but I thought it was supposed to get warmer near the end of the week ?

New Challenge Blog - Sketch and Stash Challenge Blog

The ribbon has been cut on a new challenge blog - Sketch and Stash Challenge Blog and this is definitely a challenge blog for us all because it requires you to use new or never used stash. Now I know if you are anything like me, you will have a stash spending bug that can't be controlled so now you definitely have the opportunity to show off your new purchases (or those that have been lurking in the cupboard unopened) ! There will be a sketch to follow every 2 weeks.

This is the card I have made for this challenge



I have used some pink and brown Bazzill card.

The patterned papers are BasicGrey Sugared which I adore.

The new items on my card are the Magnolia stamps, the love letter, Tilda with the envelope and the sentiment. The love letter has been distressed with distress inks and I then cut it out on my new oval nesties which my DH very kindly gave me for Christmas. Tilda has been coloured with ProMarkers.

The flowers and heart brad are from my stash and the charm and chain are new from e-bay.

I also used a heart punch which is my never used item on the brown flowered paper but you can't see it very well.

Wishing everyone at Sketch and Stash the best of luck in your new venture and I hope you become very popular with us crafters.