Less is More #8 Sketch

I've been really enjoying the Less is More challenge over the past few weeks. I love the sketch this week. In fact I found myself making 2 cards. It's really good to get feedback from Chrissie and Mandi. I don't usually make cards with no embellishments but I'm loving the CAS look. I'm enjoying having to think about how to set out the cards. The layout here is defined but I still had to think about where to put the sentiment.

Here's my first card.

I used :-

Flower :- Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die

Sentiment :- Hero Arts.

Card Candy :- Craftwork Cards.

Ribbon from stash.

It's a bit late now so I'll go now and hope to catch up with you tomorrow.

Simply Create March Challenge.

Good evening everyone. I'm a bit late posting today but I was faffing about trying to choose an image and DP before I could even start making this card. I wanted to make an anniversary card for one of my crafting friends. I also wanted to make a card for Jacqui's challenge over at Simply Create. So here's my card for both.

Have you seen the challenge? You'll need to hurry because the winner will be announced on the 30th of March. If you check out my sidebar you'll see the mood board for the challenge. Isn't it lovely. I love the colours and it suggests wedding to me.....so I've gone for an anniversary card instead. I've tried to use the colours shown and added flowers as there are lots on the mood board. I've echoed the spotty cushions in the ribbon and the scalloped ornament with my punched edge. You also need to add a flower and a button so I've done that. And I added some bakers' twine to the button in case Kath sees it since she doesn't like naked buttons!

I used :-

Image :- Penny Black.

Sentiment :- LOTV.I

Colouring :- Promarkers and Sakura clear glitter gel pen.

Flowers :- Prima.

Twine :- Ribbon Girl.

Pearls :- pink - Prima e line, white - Hobby House.

I'm hoping to enter the following challenges :-

A Spoon Full of Sugar :- Ribbon, pearls/rhinestones and flowers.

Friday Sketchers :- Sketch.

Totally Papercrafts :- Cuddly and Cute.
Pile it on :- Cutie Patootie.

I hope my friend likes it and I hope you do too. If you do please take a minute to leave me a comment if you can. It's nice to hear what other people think. Do you think my card fits the mood board?

Thanks for looking.

Kat xx

Totally Gorjuss 73 Spring.

Morning everyone. Is it just me or was last Saturday about 2 days ago?

In common with a lot of other challenge blogs we have decided to have "Spring" as our theme this week at Totally Gorjuss. It was nice to see so many entries last week for our "buttons" theme so I hope you're all feeling Springlike this week and you'll want to enter again. This week we're sponsored by Handy Hippo.

Here's my Spring card.

I used :-

Image :- House Mouse.

Sentiment and card candy :- Craftwork Cards.

DP :- Basic Grey.

Flowers :- EK Success retro flower punch.

Challenges I'm entering :-

House Mouse :-Spring.
Sketch and Stash :- Sketch. I've used some of my precious Basic Grey DP that I've been saving.
Stamp Something :- Spring.

Hope you like. I'm off to a crop after work this afternoon. Since I'm writing this in advance I haven't much idea what I'm doing at the crop but I'll come up with something!

Enjoy your weekend and I'll catch up with you all later.

Less is More #7.

Good morning everyone and I'm pleased to be in time for the Less is More challenge this week. I'm also going to enter the One Stitch at a Time challenge :- something for the boys.

I meant to stamp directly onto the card but after messing up twice I decided to stamp onto an oval instead and raise it on 1mm pads. I stamped this lovely Hero Arts car, masked it and then stamped the background with the Hero Arts envelope pattern. The sentiment is also from Hero Arts.

I'm really enjoying this challenge, it makes you think, and I really appreciate the feedback from Chrissie and Mandi. Thanks girls.

Thanks for looking.

It's Spring!

Good morning everyone. Fingers crossed my heading is not too far out! We've had some lovely days recently and it really makes people more cheerful doesn't it? So I hope it really is Spring. I've made what I hope is a Springlike card.

I used :-

Image :- Penny Black.

Sentiment and card candy :- Craftwork Cards.

DP :- Wild Rose Studio.

Colouring :- Promarkers, Spica black glitter gel pen, Sakura clear glitter gel pen.

I'm hoping to enter the following challenges :-

Penny Black:- Spring is Sprung.
Passion for Promarkers :- In the garden.
Sir Stampalot :- Spring is in the air plus yellow, green and/or blossom pink.
The Pink Elephant :- Sketch.

I hope I've got these right! I entered the Sir Stampalot challenge a while ago and was really embarassed because my card was ineligible. I had completely forgotten that there is a limit to the number of other challenges you can enter along with Sir Stampalot. That's what you get for posting and entering in a hurry lol! I don't usually enter lots of challenges with one card as I only enter certain challenges and don't go out looking for extra ones. I'll be more careful to read any rules before I jump in and enter. From the point of view of being a DT member I know what it's like to get entries from people who enter loads of challenges with one card. Too much work for me typing out loads of challenges and going round entering them!

Anyway hope you like and if you can spare a minute to leave me a comment I'd love that. It's nice to know if you're doing anything half decent. It's my day off today so hopefully I can get lots done. I should probably go and look for more dog leads and collars. The other night the pups ate the fastenings from Blue's collar. Never found even a bit of plastic. This morning I found Max's collar almost chewed right through. That's bad enough but one of the fields right outside our house is almost always full of in-lamb ewes!

Thanks for looking and I'll catch up with you all later.

The last of my leafy cards.

Well this is the last of my cards using the Hero Arts "Delicate Leaf Clusters" stamps for Simply Create.

This one is stamped with Bundled Sage Distress Inks and edged with Antique Linen. The sentiment and the "thank" panel are also Hero Arts stamps. I finished with a flower and a pearl.

My favourite colour. The image is stamped in Dusty Concord Distress Ink. I added some Distress Stickles in Clear Rock Candy and finished with some gems and ribbon.

Not at all sure about this one. I made a nice background with alcohol inks on glossy card but the centre of the image didn't stamp. It didn't stamp on ordinary card with a Distress Ink background either. Eventually got it to stamp by putting the card on top of the stamp. But then of course I got 2 black smudges on it, hence the ribbon across the bottom lol!  The background is Spun Sugar, Victorian Velvet and Tumbled Glass and the leafy image is stamped on Spun Sugar and Victorian Velvet. Maybe I should have followed my first instinct and binned it!!

Well I'm at work this morning and my friend comes to craft with me in the afternoon so I'll catch up with you all later. Thanks for looking.

More Leafy Cards for Simply Create.

Morning everyone, hope you are all having a lovely weekend. Yesterday was a lovely day here and I hope today is going to be nice too. I managed to make a couple of DT cards last night for Simply Create. Maybe they're a bit samey but I was quite pleased to get something made. I've got some more ideas so maybe I'll get some more made today. Unless I do my ironing of course lol!

I used :-

Image :- Hero Arts - Delicate Leaf Clusters.

Sentiments :- Hero Arts.

Distress Ink - Stormy Sky.

Martha Stewart punch, ribbons, lace and Hobby House pearls.

Not a lot to them but I did have a bit of a think and a practise on copier paper first. I inked the whole set of stamps and stamped directly onto the card and luckily for me it worked ok lol!

If you have time to leave me a comment I'd love to hear what you think. The rest of the DT have been posting their cards on their blogs too and they've all made some lovely cards. I'm sure they'd love to hear from you too if you have a few minutes to spare.

Thanks for looking and enjoy what's left of your weekend. BTW don't forget that Jacqui has a challenge just now over at Simply Create with a great prize of £100 to spend in her shop. You can see the mood board in my side bar and we'd like you to add a flower and a button. So why don't you give it a go? Jacqui has some great products in her shop. I could easily spend £100 there lol!!

Totally Gorjuss 72 Buttons.

Good morning everyone and I hope you are all well at the start of the weekend. I'm hoping to have more time to craft this weekend. It's time for another challenge at Totally Gorjuss. Thank you to everyone who joined us last week. I saw some gorgeous cards using pearls and lace so I hope you'll join us again this week for another easy challenge. This week we would like you to add buttons to your card or layout. We're sponsored by Simon Says Stamp and I'm sure you all know how well stocked with goodies they are.

So here's my card.

I used :-

Image :- LOTV cute square.

Sentiment :- Hero Arts.

DP :- Wild Rose Studio.

Card Candy :- Craftwork Cards.

Cuttlebug, buttons, string and Promarkers.

I'm hoping to enter the following challenges :-
Cards For Men :- Sketch.
Papertake Weekly :- 3 of anything. 3 buttons, 3 card candy.
ABC :- Q is for quote.
Truly Scrumptious :-Tag it.
Paperplay :- Embossing.
Charisma :- To die for.
Totally Papercrafts :- Add Buttons.
Teddy Stampers :- Embossing.

I think that's all I need to say. I hope you've got time to leave me a wee comment to let me know what you think. And please pop over to Totally Gorjuss to see the lovely cards my teamies have made this week.

Thanks for looking, I'll catch up with you all later. Enjoy your weekend. 

Too late for Less is More.

I made this card last night for the Less is More challenge. But.....I didn't take a photo and blog it and since I did housework all morning and went to work in the afternoon I missed the deadline!

The card is actually one of my DT cards for Simply Create. Jacqui sent all the DT some lovely Hero Arts stamps. I got the Delicate Leaf Clusters. I've been a bit slow getting anything done. First of all my stamps didn't reach me and Jacqui had to send me some more. Then I was busy with my WRI work. But no more excuses I need to get some more work done.

I used :-

Image :- Hero Arts stamped with Bundled Sage Distress Ink.

Sentiment :- Hero Arts.

That's it then, I'd best go off and get my Totally Gorjuss card made. Should have been done yesterday but somehow I spent over 2 hours going to get worming tablets for the dogs. I also looked at dog beds in  a store that sells everything but the reasonably priced ones looked as if the dogs would rip them to bits in five minutes. And of course you know what it's like if you nip into a supermarket for a couple of things, you stagger out half an hour later with a pile of stuff.

Thanks for looking and I'll catch up with you all tomorrow with my TG card.

WRI Show Stuff!

Hi everyone. I don't know what's been happening this week but yet again I've hardly achieved anything. As promised I've got a few pics of my entries for last Saturday's WRI group show. First of all is my baking. The cranberry cookies on the left were 4th on Saturday and 2nd last night at our own little show. The cherry scones were unplaced last Saturday but 2nd last night. For our own show we take 3 items from each category - bulbs, handcrafts, baking and produce. I don't do bulbs -ever. Tried once and never again. I usually do handcrafts but didn't fancy any of them this year and the produce items were not for me either. So I had to bake!! These are not the originals btw as my husband ate some of them when I came home last night.

Sorry this is such a bad photo but I think this bracelet is a bit sparkly to photograph. It was highly commended on Saturday so I was quite pleased as it was a bit of a last minute effort and I haven't done much jewellery making.

This one's a bit cheeky.  The category was a crochet article in 20 cotton. The flower is from a pattern for a table centre. Probably no-one uses these nowadays except older people. I stuck a brooch back on it and transformed it into a brooch! I felt a bit bad about being placed third for it on Saturday.

These are my 3 bookmarks using different crafts. The crochet one is completely my invention! I used a different kind of crochet cotton from my usual and its a bit floppy. You might be able to see that it says "My Book" on it. The beaded one is a kit I bought and I'm quite pleased I managed to add the beads without too much hassle. The third is made using one of my favourite Hero Arts stamps. I stamped again on patterned paper and stuck the patterned flowers on flat. Since it's a bookmark I didn't think 3d flowers would be a good idea. I noticed at the show that some people had decoupage etc on their bookmarks but I thought that would be a waste of time as it would only get flattened or knocked off. I was also 3rd for the bookmarks!

This card has already been shown on my blog but I didn't have time to make one specially for the show. It was unplaced. The judges seemed to prefer cards with die cut decoupage or peeloffs! Or both.

We also had a category where each WRI has to make 6 articles following a set theme. This year it was "A Masked Ball". I can honestly say it was the worst theme we have ever had. I hadn't the faintest idea where to start. One of the others made a mask so I tried to copy the shape for my card. I had to draw it freehand as I couldn't find any stamps. Well I could but I didn't want to spend a lot of money buying stamps that would be no use to me lol! The mask was stripey and trimmed with red with added sequins. And feathers! I achieved the stripey effect by drawing black lines and adding glittery lines and then outlining in red glitter. I also added clear jewels at each side. I wish I had taken a photo of the table. We were unplaced but we think we might have been quite close to a place. Our colour co-ordination was really good and our flowers were really good this year. The ladies who judged our mini show last night thought our co-operative table was very good!!

Now I have a card that I've made for some challenges. It's quite plain so I think it would even do for a male card.

I used :-

Image :- Penny Black.

DP :- Wild Rose Studio.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Sentiment & card candy :- Craftwork Cards.

Ribbon from stash.

I'd like to enter the following challenges :-

Penny Black :- Green.

Creative Card Crew :- Green.

Simon Says Stamp:-Happy Birthday.

I think I'd best go and see about my DT commenting not to mention this week's card for Totally Gorjuss.

Thanks for looking and I'll try to be a better blogger next week and visit my favourite blogs.

Totally Gorjuss 71 Pearls and Lace.

Good morning everyone. I can't believe it's Saturday already. It seems to have been a very quick week. Maybe it's because I've had a busy week!

Last Sunday a few of us went to the craft show at the SECC. Maybe it's just me but I'd been looking forward to it for ages and I found it a bit disappointing this time. Some of my friends felt the same. A few of our favourite stands were there but quite a few we'd have liked to see were not. We even managed to go into the other hall for the first time. There were a few companies selling beads and they were all busy so maybe beadwork is becoming more popular. We both bought a few things! My friend only wants to do some stringing but I bought some seed beads too. I went to a couple of classes through the WRI a few years ago. When I found my stuff from then there were a couple of magazines - dated 2004!

Now on to this week's challenge at Totally Gorjuss. This week we'd like you to use pearls and lace on your card or project. I had to make a very quick card this week because as usual I was running late with my entries for the WRI show! I only have 6 entries but they were mostly made this week. This morning I did some baking as I had volunteered to make scones for the teas. I also made some scones and biscuits for the competitions. I don't usually show my baking but I thought I'd make an effort this time so I made cranberry cookies and cherry scones. The cookies were made using a recipe that everyone has to use so it'll be interesting to see how different everyone's biscuits are.

So here's my card. I hope you like! If you pop over to Totally Gorjuss you'll see the lovely cards my teamies have made. Oops nearly forgot we've got a DT call out just now for GDTs.Iit closes on 21st March so if you nip over to the blog you can find out how to apply.

I used :-

Image :- LOTV cute square.

DP :- First Edition - Love letters.

Cuttlebug embossing folder - Divine swirls.

Pearls :- Hobby House.

Ribbon :- Ribbon Girl.

Lace and glitter.

It's quite late now so I'd better finish off and hope that Mr Blogger posts this for me on Saturday morning.

I saw some lovely cards last week using Net's sketch and I hope to see lots this week using pearls and lace. We are sponsored by Crafters Companionthis week and I'm sure they'll have lots to tempt you.

I'd like to enter the following challenges :-
ABC :- P is for Pearls.
Simon Says Stamp :- Anything Goes.

Thanks for looking. I'm sorry I've been such a bad blogger this past couple of weeks.  I'll try to do better this week. I haven't got any pictures of my show entries so I'll try to remember to take some when I bring them home from the show in the afternoon to let you see that I have done something this week.

Catch up with you all later.

Less is More #4

Hi everyone, I'll need to be really quick here as I'm on my lunch hour!

I'm a bit of a last minute Aggie with this card but I really wanted to enter the Less is More challenge. I'm really enjoying these challenges, they're fun to do but you have to do a bit of thinking and planning too.

Not sure this is what I set out to do but here it is anyway. The sentiment looks a bit weird but no matter what I did it didn't look straight!

I used :-
Image :- Hobby Arts.
Sentiment :- Hero Arts.
Colouring :- Promarkers, Sakura clear glitter gel pen.
Nesties and Cuttlebug embossing folder.

 I think I should round up the dogs now and get back to work. Catch up with you all later.

Pretty in Pink.

Hi everyone. As an escape after the boredom of work I couldn't resist making a card to enter some challenges.

I used :-

Image :- Penny Black.

DP :- Basic Grey.

Colouring :- Distress Inks.

Sentiment :- Craftwork Cards.

Flowers :- Prima.

Pearls :- Hobby House.

Lace :- Ribbon Girl.

The challenges I'd like to enter are :-

Penny Black :- Lace and Pearls.

Basic Grey :- Sketch and DP.

Ribbon Girls :- Cream, pink and brown.

ABC :- P is for Pink.
Penny Black at Allsorts :- Welcome Spring. (Thanks Brenda)

It's a gorgeous image isn't it but I haven't done much colouring with Distress Inks so I don't think I've done it justice. I think I need more practice.

Tomorrow I have to work a full day and next week things will be back to normal. We've had a week of lovely weather. Some days warmer than others! I've got my fingers crossed that tomorrow is nice as that's the day my colleagues daughter gets married. I'm looking forward to seeing their photos! The only snag is that I'm off to the craft show at the SECC on Sunday and as we leave about 6.30am and get home about 9pm it's a long day. I usually look forward to a day off on the Monday but this time I'll be working. Poor me!! Roll on my day off next Thursday.

And just a wee update about Oliver - he's got the chickenpox now! Catriona sent me a text at work this morning so I posted his Get Well card and chocolate buttons this afternoon.

Apologies for being a bad blogger and not managing to visit many of you this week. I'll try harder next week!

Thanks for looking and hope you like. If you've got time to leave a comment I'd love to hear what you think.

New Challenge at Simply Create.

Hi there everyone. Anyone in the mood for a challenge? Jacqui at Simply Create has a new challenge with a great prize. How does £100 of stash sound to you? Sounds good doesn't it? All you have to do is make a card or layout inspired by the mood board. Use the colours and add a button and a flower. You need to leave a comment, become a member of the blog and link to the challenge in your sidebar. Now that's not too difficult, is it?

Jacqui will announce the winner on the 30th of March. As well as the main prize there will be other little prizes too.

Hope you can join us and I'm looking forward to seeing how you interpret this lovely mood board.