Simply Create DT Call.

This post will stay at the top until 31st August so please scroll down to find this week's DT cards.

Jacqui at Simply Create is having a DT call. The call is open till 31st August at 5pm and if you pop over to her blog you can find out how to take part. The call is open to crafters worldwide and all crafters are welcome to enter whether they are cardmakers or scrapbookers or whatever. I'd like to try but I'm not sure if my work is good enough lol!

Simply Create is one of my favourite craft shops. Jacqui keeps lots of great goodies and my friend and I can always find lots of things we "need" to buy.

Please check out the details for yourselves. I have made some cards to let Jacqui see if I'm brave enough. I'm looking forward to her first challenge I'm sure I'll want to enter.

Just Cute Bears # 32 Embossing.

Good morning everyone and it's time for another challenge over at Just Cute Bears. This week we'd like to see some embossing on your card. You could do heat embossing or dry embossing, either with embossing folders or a light box. It's up to you, whatever you prefer. I have to admit to loving my embossing folders.

Thanks to everyone who joined us last week for our colour challenge. I love pink and brown together and you seemed to like that colour combo too. There were some beautiful cards.

This week I was in Christmas mode so I thought I'd make a Christmas card for Just Cute Bears too. Don't you just love the new Christmas images from Lili of the Valley?

I used :-

Image :- LOTV diecut.

DP :- Memory Box - Mistletoe.

Card Candy and Sentiment :- Craftwork Cards.

Snowflake :- Martha Stewart punch

Card candy and edges of snowflakes coloured with Promarker.

Swiss dots embossing folder.

Stickles, Sakura glitter gel pen and Ice White Pearl Pen.

I quite like this card so when I was at a crop at my local craft shop yesterday I made another 5. All slightly different. I also coloured in 6 images so at least I'm making a start on my Christmas cards. We had a lovely time at the crop. We've been meeting about every 4 weeks since last September and we always have fun. Everyone took something - sweet, savoury, paper plates sweets and crisps. We had sandwiches, quiche, sausage rolls etc; trifle, cake, meringues plus traybakes and tablet. Yummy. I took carrot cake and rocky road. It's a surprise we got any work done with all the eating and chatting.

I'm also entering the following challenges :-

Sketch and Stash :-Sketch and new stash - DP.

Stampin for the Weekend :- Anything goes.

The Secret Crafter :- Make a Start on Christmas.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and if you have a holiday tomorrow hope the weather is fine.

Totally Gorjuss 45 Christmas in August.

Good morning everyone. If you're reading this on Saturday morning Mr Blogger has kindly published this post for me. I am off to an all day crop to celebrate my local craft shop being open for a year. Can't believe this year has passed so quickly!

But as the title suggests over at Totally Gorjuss our challenge this week is Christmas in August. So dust off your Christmas stamps and DP and take the chance to make a start to your Christmas cards.

This week we are being sponsored by Cupid Stamps.

I used :-

Image :- LOTV.

DP :- MME.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Card Candy and Poinsettia :- Craftwork Cards.

Other flowers :- EK Success retro punch.

Stickles, ribbon, buttons and string from stash.

I'm also entering some challenges :-

Papertake Weekly :- 3,2,1 - 3 flowers, 2 DP and 1 ribbon.

Creative Inspirations Challenge Blog :- Christmas in August.

A Spoon Full of Sugar :- 3 flowers, 2 buttons and 1 ribbon.

The Pink Elephant :- Sketch.

Thanks to everyone who joined us last week. It was lovely to see all your "Star"cards. I hope you can join us this week andmake a start to your Christmas cards at the same time.

Enjoy your weekend, especially if you have an extra day because of the Bank Holiday. Needless to say we don't have a day off up here in Aberdeenshire but I'm looking forward to next Monday as we have a local holiday then.

Edited to add :- guess who messed up the scheduled post?

Another Lovely Award.

I have just been making my daily visit to Fiona and discovered that she has passed on this lovely award to me. Thank you very much Fiona I'm delighted to have been included with the rest of the people you've passed this award on to.

There are so many lovely blogs that I like to visit that it's quite difficult to decide who to pass this on to but I've decided to pass it on to my talented teamies at Just Cute Bears.

Ali who started the challenge blog, Annie, Cathy, Helen, Jenny, San, Sarah and Sonia who has just left us. Actually I've cheated and passed on the award to 8 people instead of 7 so I hope this is ok lol!

Thanks girls for all your inspiration and support as part of the Just Cute Bears DT. I love working with you all past and present members.

I Love Poppies!

This year we have lots of poppies in our garden. The sort of poppies that just appear from nowhere! But hey we're not proud, they fill a space and are very welcome for that. Some of the plants are very tall and we have red ones and pink ones. I don't like that they don't last very long but there are lots of flowers on each plant and it's very exposed and often windy here. We're not really that far from the North Sea so we can't really expect anything else.

But on to my card! When I saw the sketch over at Penny Black I knew this beautiful image would be just perfect to fit the challenge.

I used :-

Image :- Penny Black flowers and wishes.

DP :- g.c.d. Ella Blue.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Flowers :- Prima.

Twisted paper string :- East India. (from John Lewis)

Pearls :- Hobby House.

Stickle, nesties.

Ribbon and black gems from stash.

I haven't added a sentiment as I think it would suit different occasions.

I'd like to enter some other challenges with this card too :-

Penny Black at Allsorts :- Glitter and Glitz. You might also want to know that they're looking for DT members. That would be an amazing DT to be on. Penny Black have so many fantastic images from ones like this gorgeous poppy to their cute hedgies.

Sir Stampalot :- Bring on the Bling.

Secret Crafter :- Blue and cream.

ABC challenge :- B for Blue.

One Stitch at a Time :- Say it in shapes - oval, scalloped oval and circles.

I've scheduled this post for this morning as I'm going to get some last minute groceries before my daughter and grandchildren arrive this afternoon. My younger daughter hopes to get a lift from Aberdeen with them.....even if it means having a large yellow Labrador sitting on her knee lol!

Catch you all later.

Just Cute Bears #31 Pink & Brown

It's Sunday already girls and normally I would be wondering how it could be Sunday already and I'd have to go to work tomorrow. But this week I'm having Monday and Tuesday off as my daughter and 2 gorgeous grandchildren are coming to stay tomorrow for a few days. My son-in-law has to go away for a few days for work so it'll just be the 3 of them. I'm so looking forward to them coming! I'm also taking the day off next Saturday as we're having a special crop to celebrate the first birthday of the craft shop. We're all going to take along something to eat. I'm taking carrot cake and rocky road traybake. Maybe Poppy will help me with my baking!

But I'm sure you'd rather hear about our challenge at Just Cute Bears! This week we are being sponsored by Wild Rose Studio and we'd like you to use the colours pink and brown on your project. Unfortunately I don't have any of their lovely stamps but I do have some of their gorgeous papers so I've used them.

I used :-

Image :- Die cut from LOTV.

DP :- Wild Rose Studio.

Butterflies and bow on image covered with Sakura glitter gel pen.

Corners cut with EK Success punch.

Nesties, pearls and ribbon.

I'd like to enter the Lili of the Valley challenge as I used their sketch.

The Pink Elephant :- Ribbon and Sparkles.

Craft Your Days Away :- Things with Wings.

Crafty Creations :- Butterflies.

Creative Card Crew :- Sparkles and Shine.

If you've got time do please tell me what you think of my little card and I'm sure my talented teamies would like to hear from you too.

Enjoy what's left of your weekend.

Totally Gorjuss 44 - You're a Star.

Good morning everyone and it's the start of the weekend so it's time for another challenge from Totally Gorjuss. This week our challenge is "You're a Star." We would like to see stars on your card or layout. I'm afraid my stars aren't very big but they are there lol! I coloured the star she's holding and the ones in her hair with a Spica glitter gel pen and I used another one to make sparkly spots on her dress.

This week we are lucky to be sponsored by Crafter's Companion. They have some fantastic products on their website. They sell their own products but also lots of other brands so it's always worthwhile checking out their online shop.

I used:-

Image :- Gorjuss Girl from Sugar Nellies.

DP :- MME.

Colouring :- Promarkers and Spica glitter gel pens.

Flowers :- Prima and stripey ones cut out with EK Success punches.

Faux stitching :- Precision Pen.

Stampin' Up! punch for scalloped edge.

Ribbon and pearls from stash.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges :-

Mojo Monday :- Sketch.

Cupcake :- 2 papers, 2 ribbons and 2 flowers.

Pollycraft :- Stitches.

Easy Craft Projects :- Girly.

Paperplay :- Pink to make the boys wink.

Hopefully I'll get round to entering these challenges before it's too late lol!

I hope you'll pop over to the Totally Gorjuss blog to see what my talented teamies have made this week if you haven't already been there. I know you won't be disappointed. If you have time I'd love to hear what you think of my card and I know my teamies would too.

What a Lovely Surprise.

I had a lovely surprise today when I was checking out some of my favourite blogs. I found out that the lovely, talented Janiel had given me this award. Thank you so much Janiel for thinking of me. I can't believe that someone as talented as Janiel has given me this award! I love to visit Janiel's blog as she does amazing work. She often visits my blog and always leaves lovely kind comments about my work.

Now I have to tag 5 other people that I'd like to give this award to. That's really difficult as there are so many lovely bloggy friends that I want to give this to!

1 Angela - a long term bloggy buddy who never fails to leave lovely comments. She's really talented and I love to see what she's been doing especially with her Stampin' Up! products.

2 Annie - my very talented teamie on Just Cute Bears. Annie is very talented and generous and does amazing colouring with her Copics.

3 Delphine - I haven't "known" Delphine very long but she is also one of my lovely followers who always leaves lovely kind comments on my work. I love to visit her too to catch up with her amazing work.

4 Melly - Melly is one of my teamies on Crafty Cardmakers. I came across her lovely work before we were teamies and noticed that she lives in Lanark. I used to live there and my children were born there. So we started to follow each other. You should pop over to her blog and see her work. She makes some amazing boxes and specialises in weddings.

5 Vicky - Vicky is a long standing bloggy buddy. I've admired her work since I first found her blog. She makes the most stunning creations. I love how she can use eg a stamp or a die cut to make something really unique. She really thinks "outside the box" and always inspires me.

I hope you'll want to visit these talented ladies and see why I admire them all. The trouble is that I know so many other bloggers that I'd like to give this award, I really hate leaving out so many people.

Spotlight on Spotlights!

Hello everyone and if you're reading this on Monday afternoon that means that Mr Blogger has been kind and posted this for me as I'm at work all day on a Monday.

This week at Crafty Cardmakers our spotlight challenge is "spotlights." We would like you to spotlight one or more parts of your card. I've chosen to colour only one part of my card but you could also colour your image leaving part of it uncoloured. If you check out the challenge blog you'll find that the DT have used both methods. If you have time to pop over there I think you'll find lots to inspire you.

Last week's challenge was "birthdays" so if you make a birthday spotlight card you could enter it in both challenges as the birthday challenge doesn't finish till next week!

To make my card I used a black deckle edged card covered with lovely spotty paper from DCWV. The gorgeous Penny Black image and the script paper from MME are edged with Black Soot Distress Ink and so is the sentiment from Craftwork cards. The image was stamped twice with Memento ink in Tuxedo Black. One flower and a black circle was cut out with Nesties and the single flower was coloured with Promarkers and black Stickles added to the centre. The flower was mounted on the black card circle and stuck onto the main image to give a spotlight effect. The card was finished with card candy from Craftwork Cards and some ribbon and jewels.

This card is quite simple and was really quick to make. I like this technique and I'll certainly use it again. I think it's quite effective! If you have time to leave me a comment I'd be really pleased as I'm always encouraged by your feedback. I'm sure my talented teamies would like to hear what you think too.

I've used the sketch from Friday Sketchers so I'd like to enter their challenge with this card. And Pile it On want to see at least three different shapes on your card.

I think that's it then. Thanks to everyone who's entered our challenges in the last couple of weeks and I'm looking forward to seeing how you interpret our "spotlight" challenge.

Just Cute Bears #30 Buttons and Blooms.

Well girls, where does the weekend go. How did it get to Sunday so quickly? Time for another challenge at Just Cute Bears. This week our challenge is very simple.....we'd like to see buttons and blooms on your card or layout.

This week we are sponsored by Lili of the Valley. This gave me the perfect opportunity to use one of their gorgeous bear stamps. Isn't that a sweet image. I just hope I've done it justice lol!

I used :-

Image :- LOTV.

DP :- Papermania Rose Garden.

Colouring :- Promarkers andSakura clear glitter gel pen.

Sentiment :- Craftwork Cards.

Pearls :- Hobby House.

Buttons :- MME.

Ribbon from stash and Martha Stewart punch.

I'd like to enter some challenges too :-

Mojo Monday :- Sketch.

One Stitch at a Time :- Use a punch or punches.

Craft Your Days Away :- Favourite things - I love this Martha Stewart edge punch, those lovely pearls and Promarkers.

Totally Gorjuss 43 Lovely Aqua.

Good morning everyone and time for another challenge over at Totally Gorjuss. This week we would like you to use aqua shades in your card or layout. Unfortunately you'll have to take my word for it that I've used aqua in my card lol! Every picture I took seemed to look blue, but it is aqua....honest!! I was all over the house and even outside as Thursday when I made it was quite nice. But wherever I tried I couldn't get the colour to look right.

This week we are sponsored by Lili of the Valley so that gave me a chance to check out my LOTV images and I decided to use this cute bear.

I used :-

Image :- LOTV.

Sentiment and card candy :- Craftwork Cards.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Flowers :- EK Success retro punch.

Martha Stewart punch, nesties and pearls.

I'd like to enter some challenges with this card :-

Lili of the Valley :- Summer.....check out the sunglasses!

A Spoon Full of Sugar :- Sketch.

The Pink Elephant :- Summer Fun.

My teamies have made some beautiful cards this week so I hope you can find time to pop over to their blogs and encourage them with a comment. If you have a minute to let me know what you think of mine I'd really value your opinion too.

As I've had terrible broadband connection problems I'll stop now and hope I can get this post scheduled!!

Adventure Time!

At last I've managed to make a card that's just for some challenges! I thought it would be nice to make a simple male card for a change. So this is what I ended up with.

I used :-

Image :- LOTV.

DP :- Wild Rose Studios.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Card Candy :- Craftwork Cards.

Button, string and tag from stash.

I am entering the following challenges :-

Friday Sketchers :- Sketch.

Secret Crafter :- Man's World.

Allsorts :- Use primary colours - I used red and blue.

Cards for men :- Off on an adventure.

Papertake Weekly :- Old, new, borrowed, blue - new stamp and blue.

Simon Says Stamp challenge :-Summertime blues.

Everybody Art challenge :- Check it out.

I really enjoyed making this card. It's nice to make a simple card for a change. I really should make the effort to make more male cards but sometimes you get bogged down trying to get your DT work done and nothing else. Tomorrow is my day off and I'm meaning to get my DT cards made then.

Today was the day when the post office I work in was starting the process of going online. All seems to have gone well so far and tomorrow morning we will be working online with a totally new screen layout and way of working. I only have to go in for a short time to finish the lottery figures and then my colleague will get first shot of the new system. The chap who came to help us to "migrate" as it is called will stay with her for an hour or so and we have a sign to put up so that people will understand why we might be a bit slower than normal for a day or two. I'm quite glad that when I go in on Friday I'll be working on my own.

I hope you can find time to leave me a wee comment about my card so I know if I'm doing the right thing.

Just Cute Bears 29 Bear and Me.

Hello everyone, today is a very special day for me. It's my elder daughter's birthday today. I won't say what age she is because that would make me look bad lol!!

It's also time for another challenge over at Just Cute Bears. This week our theme is "Bear and Me." We'd like to see someone else as well as a bear. We are lucky to be sponsored by Whiff of Joy. and the prize this week is Bruno with Cupcake. Isn't he cute?

And here's my card. I've had this stamp for ages and I've been dying to use it. Usually the bear is the main focus of our challenge so I've never used it for our challenges but I thought it would be perfect for this week's theme.

I used :-

Image :- Beary Big Hugs from Belles 'n Whistles.

DP :- Basic Grey and Craft Creations.

Doily from Joanna Sheen.

Sentiment :- Craftwork Cards.

Pearls :- Hobby House.

Flowers :- EK Success punches.

Colouring:- Promarkers and Distress Ink.

I'm also hoping to enter a few challenges :-

Teddy Stampers :- Use different shapes.

Cute Card Thursday :- Whateva.

Sketch Saturday :- Sketch.

Die Cut Dreams :- Use gingham.

That's it then girls. Thanks to everyone who joined us last week and I enjoyed visiting your blogs and looking at your lovely projects. I hope you can join us again this week, I'm looking forward to popping over to your blogs to see your new cards.

Enjoy what's left of the weekend.

Totally Gorjuss 42 Sketch.

Hello everyone and thanks for dropping in. Thanks also to everyone who entered the challenge at Totally Gorjuss last week. It was lovely to see your baby cards. This week we have a sketch from our own Net. I enjoyed using the sketch, thanks Net, and I think you will too.

This is what I made and I hope you'll excuse the dodgy photo. Working full time doesn't leave much time to get a photo in daylight, in fact it doesn't leave any time. Add to that the fact that I'm still having internet problems. When I phoned the helpline on Wednesday night they recommended switching off the broadband for 10-15 minutes. They said the problem was widespread so no wonder I waited 35 minutes to speak to someone.

Not sure I actually like this card but that's not unusual, sometimes they grow on me lol!

I used:-

Image :- LOTV die cut.

DP :- MME.

Colouring :- Distress inks on all edges.

Sentiment and card candy :- Craftwork Cards.

Jewels and Prima flower from stash.

I think I can enter this card in some challenges :-

Charisma Cardz :- Teddy Bears.

ABC challenge :- A is for August.

Hope you can find time to join us this week. I like having a sketch to use, it gives you a good starting point for your card. If you have time try to visit my talented teamies to see their gorgeous cards this week. If you have a minute I'd love to hear what you think of my card.

Thanks for looking and enjoy your weekend.

Something yummy!

Hi everyone, first of all I need to apologise if I haven't managed to visit you recently. I've had a real problem with my broadband recently. It's been really slow, somtimes just cuts out and on Monday I couldn't get online at all! Last night I got on eventually and this afternoon when I wanted to show my friend some stuff I couldn't get on at all. Tried the helpline but had to give up when my husband came home for his tea. Tried again later and spoke to someone after about 35 minutes - good thing the Post Office phone and broadband helpline is free. The guy tested and said there was a widespread problem all over the country. Solution was to switch broadband off for 10-15 minutes and try again. Seems to have worked. Fingers crossed!

I had to make this card without a sketch so I can't enter any sketch challenges but I think it fits one or two anyway.

I used :-

Image :- Magnolia.

DP :- MME.

Sentiment and card candy :- Craftwork Cards.

Colouring :- Promarkers and Sakura clear glitter gel pen.

Flowers :- Prima.

Ribbon from stash and Martha Stewart punch.

One Stitch at a Time :- use a little pink.

Creative Inspirations challenge blog :-Anything goes.

The Pink Elephant :- something yummy.

Creative Card Crew :- Cute and girly.

Magnolia Down Under :- Birthdays.

I think that's all for now. I did this first while I could get online but now I'd like to check out my favourite blogs and do my DT work.

Thanks for looking and if you have a minute to leave me a comment I'd love to hear what you think of my card.

Crafty Cardmakers 26 - Spotlight punches.

Last week on the Crafty Cardmakers challenge we had a recipe from Joy :-

1 Use stickers or punches.

2 Use the colour orange or yellow.

3 Include an animal or fish.

This week our "spotlight" is on punches.

Following the recipe I've used punches, the colour orange and included an animal - a cute Penny Black teddy.

And this is the result!

I didn't mean to use orange as I don't like orange in any form lol! Not even orange sweeties and I have a really sweet tooth. If there are any orange sweeties in a packet I eat the orange ones first to get rid of them. How daft is that? I meant to use yellow and looked out a really nice sheet of DP from Basic Grey but I couldn't find a second one I was happy with so it was back to my old favourite MME bloom and grow. Using an animal was not a problem, I've got lots of animal stamps! And of course using punches is easy and gives lovely effects.

I punched the corners of the DPs with a Martha Stewart corner punch and then used the corresponding edge punch to punch a strip of DP to make a nice lacy effect. The flowers were made using 2 sizes of EK Success retro flower punches to puch out 6 of the larger size and 3 of the smaller size. I edged them with Dried Marigold Distress Ink, layered them up and finished with a self adhesive pearl on each. The DP and the sentiment are also edged with DI. I added lots of self adhesive pearls to emphasise the lacy pattern on the corners and lacy strip. The sweet Penny Black image was coloured with Promarkers, cut out with a round nestie and edged with DI. The sentiment is from Craftwork Cards and again edged with DI and finished with pearls. The little flowers on the image are coloured with Spica glitter gel pens.

I hope this gives you some inspiration about how you can enter the challenge. You don't have to use the recipe, you could just use a punch or punches, but if you do follow the recipe you could enter your card in both challenges as the recipe challenge runs for another week.

I'm also hoping to enter this card in some challenges :-

The Pink Elephant :- Sketch.
Penny Black :- 1 circle, 2 papers and 3 flowers.

Edited to add :- how stupid am I? Of course I couldn't enter the pink elephant challenge as the deadline was before I posted this!!

Thanks to everyone who entered our last challenge using the photo inspiration and/or an easel card. We had lots of lovely entries and I enjoyed visiting your blogs. I hope you can find time to pop over to the Crafty Cardmakers to see how my talented teamies have used their punches. It's also worthwhile checking out last weeks challenge to see how they've used the recipe.

By the time I see what you've been making I will have another day ticked off before my colleague comes back from her holidays and back to work. Roll on Saturday - it will be the end of a very long fortnight. On the bright side I have the day off next Monday as it is our WRI (like the WI in England) outing to Crathes Castle on Royal Deeside.

A Little Round Bear!

Good morning girls, I can't believe it's the 1st of August already! The schools up here in Aberdeenshire have been on holiday for 4 weeks already so just another couple of weeks and the kids will be back at school again. The time seems to have flown. Maybe I wouldn't be saying that if my kids were little lol! But then again on a farm kids are rarely ever inside to hassle you, at least mine weren't!!

Thanks to everyone who entered our clean and simple challenge last week. As usual it was great to see what lovely cards you made. My card this week is quite simple.....and small. The base card is made with my biggest scalloped nestie so it's barely 4" across. I had terrible problems with internet access on Friday night. Even when I seemed to have a reasonable signal I couldn't get onto my blog or several other sites. So as far as i know the only challenge this fits is the Simon Says Stamp challenge which is Dotty with the added option of using Prima flowers. I was just glad to be able to make a card. Eventually after 10pm I managed to schedule my Totally Gorjuss post for Saturday, which was a bit of a relief.

I used:-

Image :- Winnie the Pooh from a clear set by Studio Light.

Colouring :- Promarkers, Sakura clear glitter gel pen for flowers in basket.

Flowers :- Prima.

Sentiment :- Heritage rubber stamp company.

DP :- Wild Rose Studio.

Tag punch and brads.

I've found some other challenges which this card fits :-

Creative Inspirations Wednesday challenge :- Animals.

Charisma Cardz :- Something with a tail.

I'm embarassed to admit that I've had these Winnie the Pooh stamps for quite a while now and this is only the 2nd one I've used!

I hope you can spare a minute to tell me what you think of my little card. It would also be nice if you had time to check out the Just Cute Bears challenge to see what my talented teamies have made this week.

Enjoy what's left of the weekend.