My Favourite Stamp.

Good afternoon everyone, I hope it's as lovely a day where you are as it is here in Aberdeenshire. I've got the day off as it is a local holiday here and the sun has shone all day. Fantastic! I haven't achieved a lot but it's been lovely and relaxing.

I noticed that the As You Like It challenge want you to use your favourite stamp and say why. Well I just love this image and if you visit me occasionally I'm sure you'll have seen a version of it at least once before. There are two images in this set, the other one is narrower and the flowers are not as open. I love them both. They're easy to colour. You can use Promarkers, Distress Markers, watercolour pencils, colour the stamp directly with markers, the choice is yours. They're also great to paper piece. So what stamp is it?................

Here it is! Do you love it too?

I used :- Hero Arts - Delicate Blossoms.
Sentiment :- SU Wacky Wishes.
Colouring :- Promarkers.
Ribbon from stash, Stickles.

Other challenges :-
Stamping Sensations :- Summer Blooms.
ABC :- O for Open ie anything goes.
Gem of a Challenge :- Summertime.
Created with Love :- Anything Goes.
Totally Papercrafts :- Anything Goes.

Well I'm off to walk my dogs now and make tea.

Thanks for looking and catch you all later.

Kat xx

Simply Poppies.

Hi everyone. Well I'm feeling quite pleased today as I managed to achieve a couple of things yesterday lol! At my crop I picked up the stitches round a v-neck slipover and finished the neck and then picked up stitches round one armhole and knitted a couple of rows. I've had this ready to finish for weeks now but the two things I hate doing are picking up stitches to do a neck and sewing up knitting so I've kept finding other things to do! I need the slipover in 2 weeks so I'd best get it finished. It's for a WRI show and I'm bad for being at the last minute so if I get it finished soon I'll be doing well!

Then in the evening after visiting my favourite blogs and catching up on what challenges are around I made a quick card. This is a similar idea to yesterday's DT card and was very quick to make. Regular readers may notice that this is one of my favourite images.

I used :-

Image :- Penny Black Poppies cut out with Nesties.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Sentiment :- Hero Arts.

Pearls from stash.

Challenges :-

Freshly Made Sketches :- Sketch.
Cute Card Thursday :- Simplify.
Crafty Cardmakers :- Blooming Images.

This afternoon I'm going to attempt to make a cushion, also for the show. This is one of 6 items for our co-operative table. I have no idea what possessed me to offer to make a cushion. I've never made a cushion in my life! I bought a pattern and I've cut it out. I had to go and buy some tartan to put round the edge so that's my excuse for not having any more done! I have a few other things to get done so I might show them on here when they're finished.................if they're fit to be seen that is!

Anyway thanks for looking and I love to read your comments. Means I'm not talking to myself if you tell me what you think lol! It also means I can visit you and see your lovely work.

Enjoy what's left of your weekend.

Kat xx

Love This Poppy!

Good morning everyone. It's really unusual for me to post on a Monday morning unless I've scheduled a post but today I have a day off. Fantastic!
Since I had that lovely Penny Black stamp out I thought I'd use it to make a card for the Penny Black challenge. I love poppies anyway so any excuse to use a poppy image and this one is really gorgeous, isn't it, very elegant.

I used :-

Image :- Penny Black.

Sentiment & Card Candy :- Craftwork Cards.

DP :- Craftshouse.

Colouring :- Promarkers..

Inkssentials pen for faux stitching.

Velvet ric rac, flowers and pearls from stash.

This card also fits the challenge at Penny Black at Allsorts which is black and white plus one other colour.

Well I'd best go and check on these naughty pups as they're outside in the garden and probably eating plants and digging up the grass! Hope you like.

Thanks for looking, time for a coffee now!

Less is More # 9 A Touch of Red.

Hello everyone hope you've all had a lovely Mother's Day whether you are Mums or not. Pets count too lol! I'm Mum to my two Labrador pups as well as my kids.

I'm a bit earlier this week with my card for Less is More. I love this challenge and like a lot of the others I think I'm becoming addicted to it. It certainly makes you think. It's great to get such good feedback and advice from Chrissie and Mandi. Thanks girls for taking the trouble to check out all the entries and if necessary tell us how we can improve our cards. It's also really good to see how others have tackled the challenge.

I'm not sure my card's very good this week. Is there too much red round the image? I would probably have had a smaller border but I've lost one of my nesties. I'm sure it's in the house somewhere it just isn't shouting loud enough for me to find it.

Anyway here's my effort.

I'd also like to enter the Allsorts challenge which is "Blooming Blossoms."

I think I'll go and check out the entries for Totally Gorjuss. This week we have one of Net's lovely sketches for you to follow. I hope you'll want to join us, I know it can make it easier to make a start to a card if you have a sketch to follow.

Tomorrow I have the day off as it's a local holiday. I'm really looking forward to doing what I like all day. I'm also off next Saturday and the following Monday as we're babysitting and it's nice to have a Monday to catch up. I hope the pups behave as even though Poppy and Oliver are used to their own Labrador, who can be quite rough, the pups are maybe a wee bit friendly for 2 little people lol!

Thanks for looking and please leave me a comment if you've got time and then I can pop over and visit you too.

Just Cute Bears & Friends#38 Sketch.

Good morning girls and time for another challenge over at Just Cute Bears. First of all I should tell you that we have changed the format (and the name) and we are now Just Cute Bears and Friends. This means that as well as bears we are happy to see any cute animals on your cards and projects.

Thanks to everyone who joined us this last fortnight for our baby card challenge. I enjoyed seeing all your lovely baby cards. This week we have a lovely sketch to follow from our talented teamie Helen.

This is my take on Helen's sketch.

I used :-

Image :- LOTV.

Sentiment and card candy :- Craftwork Cards.

DP :- Dovecraft and Craftwork Cards.

Stickles, Martha Steward punch & ribbon.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Since I've use the lovely James bear from LOTV I'm going to enter their challenge this week which is Winter Fun. Other challenges I'm entering are :-
Teddy Stampers :- Anything Goes.
Charmed Cards and Crafts :- A Christmas card.

Another Christmas card but I think I still have a long way to go lol! So if you want to take the chance to make a Christmas card too, or any other card of course, using Helen's great sketch why don't you join us. Remember you can now use any cute animal as well as bears and you have two weeks to enter.

Looking forward to seeing your take on our sketch this week. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Thanks for looking and if you like to leave me a comment I'll come and visit you too.

Totally Gorjuss 53 - Sparkle.

Good morning everyone. Hope the weather is better now than it has been for the past few days. But never mind it's the weekend and after a morning's work I'm going to a crop at my local craft shop.

Time for another challenge at Totally Gorjuss. Thanks to everyone who joined us last week for our pink challenge. I really enjoyed looking at all your cards and I hope you can join us this week for our Sparkle challenge. We all love sparkle so I'm sure you'll want to join us especially as we are sponsored by Crafter's Companion,

Here's my card, hope you like it.

 

I used :-

Image :- LOTV square,

Sentiment :- Craftwork Cards.

DP :- MME.

Stickles, pearls, Martha Stewart punch and card candy.

I used the sketch from Cute Card Thursday  so I'll enter that challenge.

If you need more inspiration why don't you visit my talented teamies to see what they've made this week. You won't be disappointed. And if you have time to leave a comment I'd love to hear what you think and so would the rest of the girls.

Enjoy your weekend.

Totally Gorjuss 51 Anything but a square.

Good morning girls, I hope you are all well. I'm fine if a bit scunnered (translation :- pretty fed up) as I've been working full-time all week and had hardly any time to craft. To crown it all it was my WRI meeting this week and my turn for the teas with another member. We had visitors from another WRI entertaining us so I wanted my baking to be as good as possible so I didn't get a showing up lol! I always get carried away when I start baking and end up making far too much. Just when I thought I'd lost a pound or too as well. Oh well somebody's got to eat it.

So I'll apologise in advance for a very simple quick card. I meant to make something a bit more complicated but time was against me. So here's my anything but a square card.

I used :-

Image :- House Mouse.

DP :- MME.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Sentiment :- Craftwork Cards.

Snowflake :- Martha Stewart punch

Label One Nesties.

I noticed that the challenge over at Stamp Something is Something Punchy and since I've used 2 different nesties plus a snowflake punch I'm going to enter this card.

Hope you like! My teamies have made some lovely cards this week so please pop over and see what they have made to inspire you. Thanks to everyone who joined us last week. I enjoyed seeing how you interpreted Net's sketch. This week we are sponsored by  

Enjoy your weekend.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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?

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.

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.

Crafty Cardmakers 25 - Easel Card.

Is the weekend really over already? It always seems to pass so quickly doesn't it? Still if it's Monday it must be time for my first DT card for the Crafty Cardmakers challenge. This is challenge 25 part 2. This week is spotlight week and this time it is easel cards in the spotlight.

I wanted to make a different shape from the usual square. Nothing wrong with a square because a square easel card looks quite impressive. I just wanted to make something different. Silly me! I've made an easel card using nesties but even the biggest nestie doesn't make a very big card. So I decided to make a hexagonal card. But this is not as easy as it sounds!! I won't bore you by telling you how long it took me to draw a "perfect" hexagon. I'll only say that I'm very picky about thinks looking right lol! Those of you who remember doing maths at school will know that you can easily draw a hexagon by drawing a circle first and then using your compass to mark six point on the circle etc. I would have got on better if my compass had not been rubbish and kept moving. Eventually I managed to draw a template for the card and another slightly smaller for the DP.

I used the template to cut out the card by placing it against a fold and drawing round it and cutting it out. I made/a> another hexagon for the front of the card. Then I used the sketch from Crafty Creations to decorate the card.

I used:-

Image :- Forever Friends.

DP :- Basic Grey Kioshi.

Colouring :- Promarkers for image and Distress Inks for edges, card candy and large heart on base.

Sentiment and card candy :- Craftwork Cards.

Lace :- Quixotic Paperie.

Stickles, buttons and string.

All the edges are inked with Bundled Sage Distress Ink plus the large punched heart on the base and the card candy. The edge of the heart is also stickled.

I hope you like my card and please let me know what you think of it if you have time. Please also pop over to my talented teamies blogs and see what gorgeous easel cards they have made. Easel cards are really easy to make and they always look impressive. If you're not sure how to make one pop over to the Crafty Cardmakers blog where there is a very clear tutorial on how to make an easel card.

Looking forward to seeing all your easel cards. I've enjoyed looking at the cards you've made for the first challenge using the photo for inspiration.

Just Cute Bears #26 Christmas in July.

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend wherever you are and whatever the weather has been like! It has been a bit mixed here. Saturday was fine, but.......there were some little showers. Quite a fine evening here as I write on Saturday evening. A bit windy but at least I am indoors not trying to play golf like the guys taking part in the Open golf at St Andrews!!

Thanks to everyone who took part in our last challenge over at Just Cute Bears, as usual there were some gorgeous cards. This week our challenge is "Christmas in July." This should give you a wee start with your Christmas cards, unless of course you have been very good and been making one every week. No I haven't either! I made two at a crop yesterday but they're not for me to keep unfortunately. Anyway here's my card and I hope you like it. My talented teamies have made some gorgeous cards and they'd be delighted if you popped over to their blogs and left them a comment.

I used :-

DP :- Bo Bunny.

Image :- LOTV.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Sentiment and card candy :- Craftwork Cards.

Viva Decor gloss pen for snowflakes, Stickles, jewels and ribbon.

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

Lili of the Valley :- Sketch and image.

Cute Card Thursday :- Get a head start - Christmas card.

Passion for Promarkers :- Animals.

Pollycraft :- Bold and bright.

Teddy Stampers :- Whatever you like plus 2 of something (or multiplesof 2) - 2 presents, 4 card candies, 2 DPs.

Magical Crafts :- Christmas in July.

I think that's it then girls. I hope our challenge helps you to start your Christmas cards and I'm looking forward to seeing what you've made. There are so many talented people in blogland and it's a privilege to visit your blogs.

Enjoy what's left of your weekend.