Sketch This Cards #24

Well, I wanted to make a thank you card for Karen (for my new, funky blog banner) and I also wanted to have a go at the 'Sketch This Cards' sketch, so i'm afraid the two birds have been stoned again!(I do feel sorry for them)

I used hearts instead of flowers because I like to be different! The doodling inside is supposed to compliment the BG Infuse paper on the front (I've sneaked Karen's name in there too).

Di Hickman - Card Sketch #5

This is my first time using one of Di Hickman's sketches, and i'm quite pleased with the result. At first I thought it was way too busy but it's really starting to grow on me now. I had to miss out the sentement (shown on the sketch) because I didn't think it would go well on this card (I hope that's OK Di).
Materials
Dovecraft designer paper
Dovecraft charm brad.

DCM- Take a letter Mrs Jones

The little extra challenge from DCM was a little more challenging this week here's what we had to do.....This time the challenge is to pick one letter and see how many things you can use on your card that begin with that letter.
Now then, you can't choose "P" and just have pink paper, pink brads, pink ink, pink ribbon - oh no no no, that's not the way it works!
You could however, use
A pink card blank, paper, petals, plasma, a monogram P, something Purple, a Flower Pot...
Or how about B?
brads, buttons, birthday, banana (well, you never know..) blue, black, brown, blooms, buckles, bows
Or Sspots, stripes, string, sandals, Stickles, sunshine, stars, snowGot the idea? We're hoping this one will be great fun as well as maybe making you think really hard, the Design Team have come up with some cards as a starting point - see if you can work out which letter they've all chosen before you seek enlightenment on their blogs!

I decided on the letter T. I've used: a tree, a topper, a tag, some black tape and some torn, textured paper.

My Scrummy New Blog Banner!

So here it is!!!!!!!! I love my new blog banner so, so much. What I love most about it is actually the sentement that is attached to it. It's not every day that someone comes along and offers to do something so kind and thoughtful and to be honest I'm still a bit stunned. Thank you so much Karen, to me this is everything.

UKS -DCWV Challenge

Here's my take on the DCWV challenge over at UKS. It was an easy one the week because I have sooooo much DCWV papers. I think this stripey paper is really fresh looking.

So Touched

You know how every now and then somebody does something for you that really touches your heart? well that has just happened to me and it's really made my day! My wonderful cyber friend and top craft retailer Karen has offered to create me a new blog banner! I was admiring hers and saying how fab it was, I never dreamed i'd be having one too!
Thank you Karen you are one in a million.

CPS - Sketch #28

Well this is my first ever attempt at a CPS sketch challenge, when I saw the sketch it screamed 'house on a hill!!! at me so there I was at midnight making this house on a hill. I think it looks kind of spooky (it wasn't my intention!). I used my new BG Mellow papers for this one, well I can't just stroke them forever! Can I?

I have music!!!!!!

I've wanted music on my blog for ages but I never knew how to do it. Thanks to Samm we now have lift off! thanks Samm you're an angel, now I can boogie while I blog and I've discovered that my parrot likes Norah Jones!

DCM- Who's pushing your buttons?

Wow! i'm on a roll! this is the first time for ages that i've got Friday's dare done on the Friday. Here's what we had to do..............I know you've all got buttons stashed away somewhere, whether they've been purchased at a cardmaking store or you thriftily snipped them off DH's old shirt. I'd like you to find those buttons and use them somewhere on a card. They can be real buttons, craft shop buttons, die cut buttons, faux buttons or another type of button, surprise us all.

I used the opportunity to make a card for my children to give to my mother-in-law on her birthday next week. She's doing well out of the dares, the card from me was the 'Photo Finish' dare!

Thanks DCM for giving me a reason to get all my litle jobs done.

Crafty Templates Competition

ONLY 5 DAYS LEFT of the Crafty Templates competition!!!!!!!!!!! Leo is offering a fabulous prize for her card making competition plus a guest spot on her design team! what more could you want? Pop over for details then get crafting, you don't want to miss out. I wish I was allowed to enter (I know what the surprise prize is!)

DCM- Spots and Stripes

Blimey! I sure am playing catch up this week. Ive been so so busy with my design team work that i've seriously neglected my blog (not to mention the house work!). So here we are with Tuesdays little extra.......We'd like you to make a card featuring dots and dashes, spots and stripes - that's it, a nice easy and fun little theme for you to play with - just make sure you get both spots AND stripes on your card. We'd love to see your dotty, spotty, stripey creations so please come back and leave a message when you're ready to share.....

Well I need to make some cards to advertise some of the new products to be stocked at the soon-t0-be relaunched 'Craft Magic' so I've killed two birds with one stone (I hate that phrase but it's handy lol). I like the funky shape of this card I think I might do some more.

To create the 'shaker window' I used a 'Pop up Window' by Imagination Project.

Caardvarks/UKS- Basic Grey Challenge

This is the first time i've ever combined two challenges. I made this card for the Basic Grey Challenge over on UKS and the 'fibre' challenge at Caardvarks but TBH I don't think I like it much, but I guess we learn from our mistakes. The paper is BG -Oh Baby Girl- Natalie.

The Basic Grey Fibres (which I love) were very kindly given to me by Karen over at Charmed Cards and Crafts. Bless you Karen you are such an angel.

CU Challenge - Seaside

Yes! the time has finally arrived! 'Cardmakers United' have just announced their first challenge- I'm on the design team there- and I've been asked to set the first one.

I never realised just how difficult it would be to think of a theme but in the end I decided on 'Seaside' and i'm offering a smallish RAK for the design team's favourite. So if you fancy joining in with the fun pop over to CU.

For my example I discovered a new embossing technique (new for me anyway) to use for the sky- I triple embossed the background with white and two shades of blue, then I heated it all up and made lots of swirls in it with my pricking tool (you could use a cocktail stick) you can't see the effect very well in my picture but I was quite pleased with the results. I then made my funky foam beach huts (they are so much fun!). The waves are made using a Sizzix die then snipped and mounted behind the frame.

DCM - Frilly Bits

I can't believe how fast Fridays come around when you're on holiday! It just aint fair. One consolation at least is that there's a new fabby dare to play with. Here's this Fridays DCM dare..... You must make a card with a frill - it could be some lace, frilly ribbon, a hand cut or decorative scissor edge or a folded paper frill - or what ever you choose to make.... you decide! My frills are on the girl's dress and the circular, frilly background (which I cut on my Silhouette.). It's nice to have an excuse to make a frilly card every now and then.

Brain Jelly- Tuesday Challenge

Okay so i'm a bit late but I found this fab challenge on Brain Jelly and just had to have a go. ........This Tuesday the challenge is to spread some sunshine!Use something weather related as a theme or inspiration for your work. There is just one more ickle rule for this challenge, you do have to include something ORANGE.You can make a card or layout or bag or jewellery or anything else you wish to create. I have as usual done a layout and card sketch to use if you want to. I used a rainbow as inspiration for the layout sketch and a sun for the card.......

I got the idea for the flip over circle when I was blog hopping, it was used in a scrap book layout with journaling on the back. The only problem is, I can't remember whos blog it was, if anybody can tell me, I would be so grateful. I don't like to take inspiration from people without being able to mention them. Thanks for dropping by.

DCM- It's a Wiggly One

It's Little Extra day today and this week we've another sketch for you to play with, we hope you'll have some fun with this one. Remember that you can twist it, stretch it or even shrink it -just as long as the basic sketch is still there to see you can get as creative as you like.

This was another fun dare, and as you can see, I twisted the sketch on it's side for mine, it took flipping ages though. Why oh why can I never keep things simple?

Quick & Crafty Papers

When my August edition of Quick and Crafty dropped through my letter box I was pleasantly surprised to see the lovely free paper and rub-on selection that came with it. It didn't look like there was very much there but just take a look at how much I managed to make with them! I decorated the box with them too and there were still two sheets left. Not bad for free ay?

Caardvarks- 1 2 3 Challenge

I've been having a look around for new challenges to keep me busy while i'm on my hols and this Caardvark one definately seemed challenging with only 1 embellishment allowed! Keeping it simple, minimizing... For some of us, that's hard to accomplish. We want to cover every inch with embellies and make it busy-beautiful. Well, let's take a stab at using just a few items - we'll limit ourselves and see what develops. Sound fun?
Create a card using 1 embellishment (Nathalia's screaming, "NO!!!!!!" Can you hear her?), 2 patterned papers, and 3 flowers. Show us what you can do! (Oh, and do it by August 16th - post a link to your card(s) in the comments section of this post - we'll add them to the 1-2-3 Gallery.)

The flower slides out of this card to become a bookmark, I know loads of avid readers so my book mark cards are always snapped up.

I used Basic Grey 'infuse papers for this one.

Silk Cushion

I made this cushion ages ago and gave it to my mother in law because she took a shine to it, the problem is that I never took a photograph of it.
So today I pinched it back while she wasn't looking so that I could take some pics (i'm sure she won't mind!). I was really proud of myself when I made this because I designed it, silk painted it, embroidered it then put it together without a single instruction! yes, I know, i'm blowing my own trumpet but if you can't blow your own trumpet now and again why have a trumpet? lol

DCM- Photo Finish

I can't believe how fast time travels when you're on holiday! Fridays dare again and it seems like i've only just finished last weeks dare. It' is nice though, to have time to do both dares each week. Here's what Tracie at DCM has got for us this week;

This week I want you to make a card for any occasion but it must include a photograph somewhere! The photo subject can be people, items, locations, flowers, absolutely anything so get snapping. Dont forget to check copyright if you are using someone elses photographs in your art work.

This is a photo of my mother in law who will be seventy four at the end of the month. I love this photo and was glad to be able to make use of it. I have to say, I never use photos on cards but after this I might have to do it more often. I think it's the quickest card I have ever made.

Thanks Samm

The wonderful and talented Samm has nominated me for the ''Nice Matters Award'. So now I have to pick five other people who haven't been tagged. This may take some time because I seem to have tagged everyone to death just recently so I need to choose carefully and update it when I can.

Juliet (she's a new blogger and oh so talented)

Corie (She is just niceness itself, and of course a fab artist too)

Emilia I've tagged her so many times but if you've seen her work you'll know why.

Kimmie she's such a sweetie

If i've tagged you all you have to do is choose five other bloggers that you love to visit, name them on your blog (linking thier names to there blogs) then let them know you've tagged them. Oh yes, you also need to copy the picture and proudly display it on your blog.

Spread the Niceness!

DCM- Better Late than Never

Well the DCM dare was a little bit late this week and so am I, there'll be a new dare tomorrow and i've only just got the mid week dare in! hey ho better late than never ay......

It's one of our recipes this time, all you need to do is include all the ingredients on your card - remember, you can always add more things if you want to.
Here are your ingredients for this week:3 arrows3 circles1 squareThat's it!As usual we have cards from the DT to help you get your creative juices flowing, and don't forget, we love to see your work so share your cards with everyone by leaving a message with your link.Are you ready to cook up some tasty card treats? We hope so.....

I know they're ovals not circles but all recipes need a pinch of something extra (that's my excuse anyway!) the eyelets are round though so I suppose they count as three circles.

My Prize Came Today!!!!!

Cor! i'm so excited, my prize from Charmed Cards And Crafts came today and I just can't wait to have a play with it.......can you blame me??? I had heard good reviews about the Crop-A-Dile but when you hold it and feel the quality you realise it's even better than you thought! no more banging in eyelets for me!
Thank you Karen for such a fabby prize.
If any of you fellow crafty bloggers enjoy entering competitions too pop along to Charmed cards and crafts, they've got some fab competitions this month and while you're there look in the shop, it's my favourite place on the net to get my crafty products from because you get such great service, great prices and prompt delivery.

UKS August Challenge

The theme over at UK Scrappers this month is Polka Dots, this theme coincided perfectly with me receiving the free papers in Crafts Beautiful, yes, you guessed it.......Polka Dots! they really are scrummy papers this month and I just could'nt wait to use them.

BTW I won the July challenge YEY HEY!!!!!

DCM - It's About Time

Here's Fridays Fab DCM dare; Hi there, It's me, Kathy, here to dare you this week;
OK, Absolutely anything goes this week as long as it's on the theme of TIME."It's About Time" So you can use clocks, calendars, quotes, sayings, pictures, nursery rhymes, or altered art-type stuff, whatever takes your fancy - just take some time out to play and have some fun; remember, time flies when you're having fun!

I got my new toy this week, a Quickutz Silhouette so I just had to use it for this weeks DCM dare. So here it is, the black doodling is cut out of black cardstock on my Silhouette, cool ay?

Crafty Templates Designs

This month the design team got a package from Altered Treasures to use with our templates from Leo (Crafty Templates). Here's what I made with the paper from Altered Treasures and Leo's templates. The boot and the bag were extras because I thought the hat looked a bit lonely.

The Well Done card is from another template from the August pack. It was such fun to make. I like adding the bits on springs it makes the card really bouncy looking.

I Won

I have had such a Fab day today. Firstly I found out that I've won the Wings and Flowers competition over at Charmed (my fave place to shop). I won a lime green Cropodile (I've wanted one for ages!), the Wings and Flowers CD and some other bits and bobs to bring the value up to £50. I'm soooooo thrilled!!!!!!!!!

This is my winning card.

Then In my excitment I ordered a Quickutz Silhouette (i've been after one for a while). Then, this evening my DH took me out for a drink by the marina.

So it's been a ME ME ME day!

Oh and by the way Charmed Cards and Crafts are having more competitions throughout the month of August so pop by and have a look.