My First DT Makes for Simply Create.

Hi everyone I thought I'd share with you my first DT makes for Simply Create. Half of us got some goodies from Echo Park and the other half from MME I Believe. I got some of the lovely MME DP, a gorgeous "Wreath of Leaves" Hero Arts stamp, plain card in red and green, buttons, ric rac and lace.

Now to be absolutely honest I would never have chosen that stamp in a hundred years! It's a beautiful stamp but I would have wondered what to do with it. Which I did. I panicked about what to do with it for a full week lol! I had ideas and discarded them without even taking the stamp out of the packaging. But I knew I had to make a start because the other girls were producing lots of gorgeous projects. So since I didn't want to waste any of the lovely DP I made a prototype with my own card to see how it would turn out.

When I was happy with it I made one using my DT kit and the first card is the result. How do you like my "berries?" Yes they are the waste punched out with the edge and corner punches. I added a touch of glitter to the centres with a glitter gel pen. I wasn't being grippy(translation - mean), I just thought it would be different lol! The sentiment is Hero Arts stamped with Distress Ink and embossed like the wreath.

For my second card I got brave and just made it using the lovely DP. This time I added some jewels for berries, a glittery MS snowflake in the centre, some buttons, string, lace and finished off with a Hero Arts sentiment.

One of my first ideas was to do a Christmas hanging. I used some beer mats but you could use some thick card. As you can see from the next two pictures I covered each side with different papers and went round the edges with a cranberry Dabber. The letters were cut out with my Cricut. I had a bit of an issue with my Cricut which was actually my own fault. Luckily I was only using plain paper to see if the font I had chosen was ok for size. Lets just say a certain cutting mat now has a very fetching black overcoat! I added some more of the little snowflakes plus some larger snowflakes, card candy, jewels and stickles. The pieces are joined together using green ric rac.

Lastly I made a little decoration using the plain green card. I stamped both sides and cut out the centre with a nestie. I added Glamour Dust to the scalloped edge and the inner edge. Again I added some red jewels and a piece of green ric rac for a hanger. Then I finished off with a lace bow.

I still have lots of paper left and I was going to do a layout. I've never done one before but one of the papers is just ideal for a layout. But I hit a snag, I couldn't find one of the photos I wanted to use of two of my kids. I wasted the entire morning last Thursday looking for it and a bit of the afternoon. Pity there weren't digital cameras in those days. So I decided to print some more recent photos. Mistake! my photo printer needed an ink cartridge. By that time I wasn't in the mood to find photos to print using my ordinary printer so I gave up. If I can find some photos to use tomorrow I'm still going to have a go at a layout.

If you check out the Simply Create blog you can see samples of some of the other DT member's work that Jacqui has been posting. If you live anywhere near Alford everyone's work can be seen in the shop.

I had a lovely time crafting with my friend this afternoon and now I've got my DT card made ready to write a scheduled post for Totally Gorjuss this Saturday. This is handy because I'm off to Alford on Saturday after work to take this stuff to Jacqui and catch Kath's demo day.

I might even manage to make and post something tomorrow as long as I don't waste my time like last week!

Enjoy Your Birthday.

Surprise, surprise girls it's me again! Just a quick post with a quick card I made last night. I love House Mouse and I couldn't resist making a card to celebrate the House Mouse Challenge to celebrate their 2nd birthday with a blog hop. I had to turn the sketch round so I hope they don't mind!

I used :-

Image :- House Mouse Poppin Good Birthday.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

DP :- MME quite contrary.

Sentiment and Card Candy :- Craftwork cards.

Pearls :- The Hobby House.

Ribbon and flowers from stash.

I'd also like to enter the challenge at Oldie but a Goodie where the challenge is Pink and Girly and One Stitch at a Time where the challenge is Anything Goes.

Best nip off now and enter these challenges and get some DT work done.

Thanks for looking.



Just Cute Bears#36 Swirls and Bling.

Good morning everyone and I hope you're having a nice weekend in spite of the weather! At least the weather here hasn't been very nice here in the Aberdeenshire. After 2 horrendous days I was very surprised to come home from a crop yesterday afternoon and find two of our neighbours combining barley. It must have been pretty wet so the drying costs will be horrendous. I suppose they must be getting desperate now. I know what it's like as we used to have a farm until my husband eventually saw sense  and sold the farm six years ago. He works just as hard now but at least it's not for the bank!!

But enough waffling. This week at Just Cute Bears we would like to see swirls and bling as well as a bear on your creations. We are sponsored by Paula at Pollycraft this week so I'm sure the winner will have a treat in store.

Thanks to everyone who joined us last week. I enjoyed visiting your blogs and seeing how you interpreted our "Punch it" challenge. I'm hoping many of you will join us again this week. I'm still firmly in Christmas card mode and I thought the theme of swirls and bling was perfect for another Christmas card. So here it is.

I used :-

Image :- Forever Friends.

DP :- MME.

Colouring :- Promarkers, Sakura clear glitter gel pen.

Swirl and snowflake :- Sizzix.

Card Candy :- Craftwork Cards.

Ribbon, gems, button, string and Stickles.



I followed the sketch over at Friday Sketchers so I'll be entering this card in their challenge. I'd also like to enter the challenge at Charisma Cardz where the challenge is Anything Goes.

Thanks for looking and hope you like. If you have time to leave a comment I'd be really pleased. Please pop over to Just Cute Bears if you haven't already done so and see what my talented teamies have made this week. I'm sure they'd be pleased if you left them a comment too.

Oops I forgot to say that our challenge is moving to fortnightly so you have until 9th of  October to enter and our next challenge will be on the 10th of October.

Enjoy what's left of the weekend.

Totally Gorjuss 49 Christmas in September.

Good morning girls and time for another challenge over at Totally Gorjuss. This week our theme is Christmas in September and we are sponsored this week by Cupid Clear Stamps. Thanks to everyone who joined us last week you seemed to enjoy our "Wild Thing" challenge so I hope you will like this challenge and join us and make a start on your Christmas cards if you haven't done so already.

This is my card and this week I've chosen non-traditional colours.

I used :-

Image :- Penny Black.

DP :- MME.

Colouring :- Promarkers

Sentiment and Card Candy :- Craftwork Cards.

Jewels :- Hobby House.

Stickles, MS punch and ribbon.

I'm going to enter a few challenges with this card :-

Papertake Weekly :- Animal Magic.

A Spoon Full of Sugar :- Anything Goes.

Simon Says Stamp :- Sketch.

Pollycraft :- Cute and Cuddly.

The Pink Elephant :- Aqua, DP and own choice of embellishment.

I think that's all. Looking forward to seeing your Christmas cards this week.

Enjoy your weekend.

Crafty Cardmakers 30 Around the World.

This time at Crafty Cardmakersour theme is "Around the World." We'd like you to make something depicting a particular country or area. You could make something typical of a country you like or perhaps something typical of your own country. I've maybe been a bit cheeky with my take on the theme lol! I am Scottish and I think you can see this from my card. And after all it is a unique country although part of the UK.

So here's my card.

I used :-

Image :- Hamish in Kilt from Sugar Nellies.

Sentiment :- Craftwork Cards.

DP - Tartan from Kanban.

Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Buttons from stash.

I added a panel of tartan to the base card. Hamish's kilt is paper-pieced using the same DP and I also paper-pieced his jumper and sporran from scraps of card. I cut out the image with an oval nestie and edged it with Pine Promarker. The blue circle was cut with a nestie and embossed with the Swiss Dots folder. Since it's really a male card I've kept it very simple and just added some buttons to finish.

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

The Sugar Bowl :- Sketch plus use buttons.
One Stitch at a Time :- Happy Birthday.

Hope you like and if you have time to leave me a comment that would be great. For more inspiration you should pop over to the Crafty Cardmakers blog and see what my teamies have made this week. You definitely won't be disappointed.

Just Cute Bears #35 Punch It.

Good morning everyone and time for another challenge from Just Cute Bears. This week our theme is "Punch It", we'd like you to use a punch or punches on your card or layout. This week we are sponsored by Wild Rose Studio who are giving 2 stamps to the lucky winner.

Here's my card and I hope you like it. You can also find more inspiration over at Just Cute Bears where you can see what my talented teamies have made this week.

I used :-

Image :- Wild Rose Studio.

DP :- Cosmo Cricket.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Sentiment :- Craftwork Cards.

Edges inked with Distress Ink in Antique Linen.

Punched snowflakes, Stickles, Ribbon, jewels.

I'd like to enter the following challenges :-

Sketch and Stash :- Sketch and I've had the DP in my stash since last year.

ABC :- D for Distressing.

Secret Crafter :- Anything Goes.
Sir Stampalot :- All distressed.
Crafty Creations :- Music and/or dance. Does this music paper qualify?

Hope you like it. Please feel free to leave me a comment if you have a minute to spare. My teamies would also love to hear what you think of their work too. They've all worked really hard and made gorgeous cards to inspire you this week.

Enjoy what's left of the weekend.

Some Baby Cards.

I made some baby cards the other day. I have pink ones and blue ones and even lilac ones but my boss and her husband became grandparents last week and I've known their son, the proud Dad, since he was a little boy. So I wanted 2 special cards. I don't know if it happened as planned but here they are anyway.

This is the one I made for the proud grandparents.

I used a digi stamp from Pink Gem Designs, isn't he cute? I used some lovely blue gingham from Craft Creations and coloured with Promarkers.

And this is the inside. I stamped this lovely text from Paper Makeup Stamps on the left and the congrats message was done on the computer.

I'm entering this card in some challenges :-

Cupcake :- Sketch.

Stamp Something :- Use a digi.

This is the card I made for the proud parents. The photo doesn't show up very well but I used some more lovely DP from Craft Creations. The image is from Forever Friends and I've had it for ages and I've used it lots of times, I love it. The sentiment is from Craftwork Cards and the pearls are from the Hobby House. And of course the gorgeous flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and I've edged them with Promarker to match.

Inside I've used another lovely sentiment from Paper Makeup Stamps and just a stamped congratulations for the message on the other side.

I also made a tag to match for the baby's present. I love both of these sentiment stamps, they're just perfect for new babies.

I'm entering the second card in the following challenges :-

Truly Scrumptious :- Sketch. I've managed to use blue but no green!

Oldie But a Goodie :-  New Beginnings plus a stamp I've had for more than a year.

I think that's me up to date with posting now! Now I need to get some DT work done and try to visit some blogs. I only have one DT card to make and then I can try to get something done with the gorgeous DT kit Jacqui has sent from  Simply Create. This is my first kit from Simply Create and I'm quite nervous cos all the other girls on the DT are really talented.

P

Blog Candy Winner.

Hi girls, I've just made the draw for the Hero Arts Christmas sentiment stamps and the winner is number 15 Annelies from Belgium. If you email me with your details Annelies I will post the candy to you ASAP.

Thanks to everyone who entered and I will have more candy soon.

Hero Arts Candy.

This post is a sticky and will stay at the top of my blog until Saturday 18th September at 7pm(GMT). Please scroll down to see my DT posts and any others I manage to write.

So girls who'd like to win some candy to help make your Christmas cards? I'd like to offer this candy as a prize to one of my Followers. If you'd like to mention this in your blogs or post a pic in your sidebar that would be lovely. I'm happy to post this anywhere so everyone's welcome to enter. Just leave me a little comment.

The stamps are completely new and unused. I thought it would be nice to share a little candy as I've been very lucky and won a few prizes and candies. I'm planning a bigger candy to celebrate my birthday (ages ago), my blogaversary (ages ago too) and my new DT positions at Crafty Cardmakers and Simply Create.

So if you like Hero Arts stamps leave me a comment and spread the word.

Totally Gorjuss 48 Wild Thing.

Hi everyone, seems like I made a boo boo with my post this week. I obviously scheduled it for 8am Saturday morning but forgot to add the photo and writing. Sorry girls lol!! Think I must have been working too hard this week.

Thanks to everyone who joined us last week for our flowers challenge. There were an amazing number of entries so you must have liked it. Pop over to Totally Gorjuss to find out who won. And of course while you're there you can check out the gorgeous creations my talented teamies have made for this week's challenge which is "Wild Thing." This week we would like to see an animal on your card or project. Easy isn't it? So I'm sure we're going to have lots of entries again this week. An added incentive is that we are sponsored by Crafter's Companion this week.

I used :-

Image :- Penny Black.

DP :- Dovecraft -  Let it Snow.

Sentiment :- Craftwork Cards.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Stickles, ribbon, MS punch and jewels.

I'm entering the following challenges :-

Friday Sketchers :- Sketch.

Fussy and Fancy :- Use Christmas colours.
Cards for Men :- Transport - do skis count?
Simon Says Stamp :- Move it - the hedgie is ski-ing!

Hope you like my card and if you like to leave me a comment I'll be able to come and visit you too. Looking forward to visit and see how you interpret our challenge this week.

Thanks for visiting and enjoy your weekend.

Just Cute Bears#34 Photo Inspiration.

Good morning girls. This week at Just Cute Bears our challenge is "Photo Inspiration," and this is the photo. Very kindly chosen by Cathy's daughter Beth. Thanks Beth it's a lovely photo.

I've been inspired by the beautiful colour of the peacock's body and the "eyes" on it's feathers.

I used :-

Image :- LOTV.

DP :- MME.

Sentiment and card candy :- Craftwork Cards.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Ribbon and stickles.

Thanks to everyone who joined us last week for our "Dotty" challenge. I enjoyed seeing your interpretations of our challenge. I hope you can join us this week and I'm looking forward to visiting you and seeing how you interpret our challenge. Perhaps you'll be inspired by the main colour as I was or maybe you'll decide to go dotty again. Whatever you decide I hope you'll pop over to the challenge blog and see what the rest of the DT have come up with. You won't be disappointed.

I've followed the sketch at the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge so I'll be entering my card over there. And I think it might be dotty enough for the challenge at Totally Papercrafts :- Let's go Dotty.

Enjoy what's left of the weekend.

One for the Boys.

This is unusual for me! Two posts on a Saturday. I made this card on Wednesday but this is the first chance I've had to post it. Wednesday was the first of our meetings at the WRI for this session. I was really late home because we were discussing what items we'd like for our mini show next March. We usually have bulbs, handcrafts, baking and produce. To crown it all we had to discuss the co-operative entry for another show involving the 9 WRIs in our area. Plus I've been trying to catch up with DT cards and commenting and visiting my favourite blogs. Not sure that I've been very successful with my visiting though lol!

This is just a simple card I made with my friend. She's been asked by the rest of the staff in the chemist's where she works to make a card for one of the local doctors who's retiring soon. I thought this image and sentiment would be suitable. What do you think?

I used :-

Image and sentiment :- LOTV.
DP :- Wild Rose Studio.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Card Candy :- Craftwork Cards.

I've kept it fairly simple. I think men prefer simple lol! And I'm going to enter the following challenges :-

Lili of the Valley :- One for the boys.

Cards for Men :- Long Summer Days.

Hope you're having a lovely weekend.

Thanks for any kind comments you might have time to leave.

Penny Black 117

Just a quick post with a card for the Penny Black Saturday challenge. Knowing my luck I'm probably too late to enter now. I had a bit of bother cropping the photo as it wasn't my usual programme.

I used :-

Image, sentiment and background :- Penny Black.

DP :- just a scrap.

Stickles, ribbon from stash and Martha Stewart punch.

I liked the sound of the challenge this week especially since I love all shades of purple. It also gave me a chance to use the new Kraft paper I bought last week.

I was inspired to make this "scrapling" after doing some makes and takes with Kath. It's not nearly as nice as the ones we made with Kath but it's beginning to grow on me!

Christmas Tilda in Pink.

Hi everyone. I've made another Christmas card! Not happy with this one though. I found a great sketch at Sketch and Stash but I don't think I've done it justice.I wanted to enter the Christmas Tilda in pink challenge over at Die Cut Dreams Christmas Club so I made this card in a bit of a hurry this morning after I'd been very good and done my housework lol! That was a mistake because I was an hour too late! It also fits the challenge at Pollycraft which is Christmas with no red or green.

I used:-

Image :- Tilda.

DP :- Forever Friends.

Sentiment and card candy :- Craftwork Cards.

Colouring :- Promarkers and Sakura clear glitter gel pen.

Snowflake :- Sizzix.

Jewels :- Hobby House.

I hope this makes sense because I haven't got my glasses on and I really should have them to read what I'm typing lol!! I have other cards to post that I made yesterday but I'll need to shoot now if I want to have some lunch before I go to work.

Cards for Simply Create DT Call.

I thought I'd show you the cards I made for Jacqui's DT call. They're nothing fancy and I wasn't even going to send them to her but in the end I decided to be brave - nothing to lose and all that. The DT call ended at 5pm on the 31st August and I managed to get my email sent at 1.20pm lol! Glad I did though since I'm on the team.

I've been in Christmas card mode hence this one with the cute PB hedgie.

This one is a combination of some favourite brands. The image is a Penny Black one and the background is Hero Arts. I 3D'd the flower and buds for a bit of dimension.

This time the background is MME DP and the image and sentiment are both from Hero Arts.

On Tuesday morning I decided to alter a box. That's not as last minute as it sounds lol! I had been racking my brains for a few days about what to do with the box. I toyed with the idea of a crayon box for Poppy but decided against it. I used a lovely music background stamp from Penny Black, stamped with Versamark and embossed with white. I used 2 different types of Tim Holtz tissue tape round the sides. I love this it's so easy to use. I thought it would be difficult to use but if you get it slightly off line it easily lifts and you can try placing it again where you want it. By pure coincidence I had bought some music ribbon from my local shop on the previous Saturday. The flower is cut out using 3 sizes of daisy punches. The black layers were stamped and embossed with the music stamp. The letters were cut out using my Cricut. And that's it.

Hope you like. I must have done something right since I was lucky enough to be chosen to join the DT lol!!

Crafty Cardmakers 29 - Clean and Simple.

Hello everyone and here we are at the start of another week already. Today I thought I'd show you the card I made for the new challenge at Crafty Cardmakers. Our new challenge this week is Clean and Simple. I hope this looks clean and simple to you! I donated this to Jacqui at Simply Create for her fundraising event for Save the Children yesterday.

This card was inspired by some cards that Clare had on her blog a few weeks ago. I didn't realise till I checked tonight that one of her cards was made with spotty DP too. Her's was a different image too so I hope she doesn't mind me using her idea. I saw her cards at the end of June and was very impressed by them at the time. I haven't looked at them since then so I was quite surprised to find one was spotty too.

I stamped this lovely image from Hero Arts straight onto a C6 card. I also stamped it onto some lovely spotty paper from Wild Rose Studios, cut out the flowers and 3D'd them. I added a piece of the same DP edged with a piece of matching card that had been edged with a Martha Stewart punch and finished off with a piece of ribbon tied with a simple knot. And that's my card, very quick and simple. Hope you like it and have a minute to tell me what you think. My talented teamies have made some gorgeous cards this week and they'd love to hear from you too.

I'd like to enter the challenge at Secret Crafter which is also clean and simple.

I'm looking forward to seeing all your clean and simple cards over the next 2 weeks.

Just Cute Bears #33 Let's go Dotty.

Good morning everyone. Hope you are all enjoying your weekend. I am! Yesterday my friend and I went to an event day at Simply Create at Alford. Not our nearest craft shop but only an hour's drive away so close enough as it's a fabby shop. Jacqui was trying to raise money for Save the Children and had a "sales table" for them. Kath was doing make and takes and had some lovely "scraplings" for us to make. So now I feel quite inspired lol! To complete my happiness Monday is a local holiday here so I have a day off work. I'm trying not to think that it's the last public holiday before Christmas though. But since I take my holidays in 1, 2 or 3 days at a time I still have some days left to break the monotony of work!!

But on to our challenge over at Just Cute Bears. This week we are "going dotty" so we'd like to see lots of dots and spots on your cards. As you can see I'm still firmly in Christmas mode and I've made another Christmas card.

I used :-

Image and DP :- Forever Friends.

Colouring :- Promarkers, Versacolor ink pad for edges.

Sentiment :- Craftwork Cards.

Pearls :- Hobby House.

Nesties, Martha Stewart corner punch, Stickles and ribbon from stash.

My teamies have made some lovely cards and we'd all love to hear what you think. Thanks to everyone who joined us last week and I hope we can inspire you to "Go dotty" this week.

Oops I nearly forgot I used the lovely sketch over at A Spoon Full of Sugar so I'd like to enter their challenge this week. Passion for Promarkers would like to see a teddy image this week so I think this card fits there too. And thanks to Lols for pointing out that my card would fit the challenge at Papertake Weekly where the challenge is Just the One. I have 1 image, 1 colour and 1 ribbon so I guess my card does qualify.

Enjoy your day.

Totally Gorjuss 46 - Sketch.

Good morning everyone, I hope you're all having a lovely weekend. For our challenge over at Totally Gorjuss this week we have a lovely sketch drawn by our own lovely Net. I love using a sketch and this is a really good one.

This week we are sponsored by Joanna Sheen. Joanna has a lovely webshop with lots of lovely goodies, good prices and great service and best of all no p&p.

I used :-

Image :- Tilda.

DP :- MME.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Sentiment and Card Candy :- Craftwork Cards.

Sakura clear gel pen and glitter gel pen, Nesties.

I'd like to enter the following challenges:-

Just Magnolia :- Anything goes.

Stamp Something :- Something cute.

Thanks to everyone who entered our Christmas in August challenge last week. I had a lovely time visiting your blogs and looking at your lovely creations. I'd really appreciate it if you have time to leave me a little comment and if you have time to visit my teamies and see their gorgeous creations they would be delighted too.

If you're reading this on Saturday morning that means Mr Blogger has been kind and posted this for me. My friend and I are off to Alford to visitSimply Create where Jacqui is having an event day to raise money for Save the Children. Kath is doing make and takes and there's going to be a sales table and challenges. We've made some cards to take with us for Save the Children to sell. I think it's going to be a fun day. I'm hoping to meet some more of the new DT who love near enough to go tomorrow. I still can't believe I've been chosen and I can't wait to hear what the first challenge is going to be. I'll let you all know the date of the first challenge as soon as I know it.

Exciting news!

I'm so excited I can hardly type. I emailed Jacqui at Simply Create with my entry for her DT call yesterday. I made some cards at the weekend that I was reasonably happy with but I also wanted to make an altered box. I thought for ages about what I could do with it and it was only Tuesday morning that I had a chance to get it made. So no housework on Tuesday morning for me lol! By the time I finished the box and sorted my pics and wrote the tutorial it was about 20 past 1 before I got my email off to Jacqui. I'm not always as late as this but between one thing and another I haven't had much time recently. I think I also thought there wasn't much chance of making the DT anyway! I can't tell you how surprised and delighted I was when I got Jacqui's email that night telling me I'd made the team. Can't wait to get started and get to know the rest of the team. Thank you so much for choosing me Jacqui, I promise I'll try not to be at the coo's tail with my DT work!

I'm really looking forward to going to Jacqui's event day on Saturday. My friend and I have been making some cards this afternoon for her to sell for Save the Children. Kath's doing a make and take so that should be fun. And of course there'll be lots of lovely goodies to buy.