Crafty Cardmakers 36 Then & Now.

Hello everyone and thanks to everyone who joined us at Crafty Cardmakers for our White n' Splash challenge. I enjoyed looking at your entries and it was really difficult to choose my favourites.

This time our challenge is "First & Last". We'd like to see the first card you made and your latest or favourite card. I think you'll find, like me, a big difference lol!

The Rules:

You can enter up to 3 times but each must contain a picture of one of your first designs and must be different techniques or items e.g. first card, first stamped card, first scrapbook page, first tag etc.  They must also be separate posts.


You can enter your latest creations or your favourites previously published alongside your old design.  You can enter in as many other challenges as you wish but many challenges do not accept older creations so just be mindful of that.


Please link back to this blog and mention Crafty Cardmakers in your post.

The challenge runs for 4 weeks from 13th Dec and closes at 9am GMT on Monday 10th January


We are very proud to be sponsored by a number of very kind stores for this challenge with lots of winners for this one and the prizes on offer are...

£10 voucher from Joanna Sheen

£10 voucher from The Stampman

$10 voucher for Stitchy Bear Stamps

Pack of 5 promarkers from Letraset

£10 voucher for Crafts & Me

£10 worth of stamps of your choice from Stamping all day

 

I've always made things since I learned to knit and sew at primary school. Then I learned to crochet and do more advanced knitting. I used to love doing Aran knitting and when the kids were little picture patterns like Postman Pat and My Little Pony! I even had a knitting machine at one time. My first cards were, like a lot of people, cross stitch.

In 2006 I went to visit a papermill at Dyce near Aberdeen. They sold beautiful card and other goodies and we were fascinated to look in on a cardmaking class. The lady in charge said a couple of us could make a card so here it is.

This year I've made lots of cards for various challenges and DTs. At the moment I'm up to my ears in Christmas cards but I managed to make cards for my boss and her Mum who had become a Gran and Great-gran in September so wanted something special for baby Logan. The one I made for the proud Great-grandparents is this one.

Bit of a difference isn't there?

I used :-

Image :- Pink Gem.

Background :- Sizzix embossing folders - plaid and snowflakes.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Card candy :- Craftwork Cards.

Snowflake :- Martha Stewart punch.

Glitter.

If you can find time to join us we'd love to see your "first and last" cards. Do pop over to Crafty Cardmakers and see what my talented teamies have to show you. I'm sure you'll be impressed.

Please feel free to tell me what you think of my cards. Do you think I've improved at all? I think I've learned a lot since I started blogging in June 2009. I still love to enter challenges when I have time. Time is really short just now, I've still quite a few cards to make for Christmas!

Thanks for looking.

Crafty Cardmakers 35 White and a Splash.

Hello everyone I hope you are all well and not up to your ears in snow. Up here in NE Scotland it has been very snowy. It started on Wednesday and seems to have just kept on snowing. We were brave and went away on Saturday afternoon to visit my daughter and family in Crieff in Perthshire. They have not had nearly as much snow as us. I'm writing this on Saturday evening so things may have changed drastically by Monday lol. The snow wouldn't matter so much to us as the main roads are ok just the back roads where we live are not too good. But we have the pups with us as no-one wanted to look after 2 ten week old puppies. Well my younger daughter had to work and I thought it was a lot to ask my son. They are pretty smart and usually good but accidents do happen!

I hope you enjoyed our last challenge at Crafty Cardmakers and thanks to everyone who joined us. I enjoyed visiting your blogs. Last week's challenge is still open for another week so you still have time to enter if you want.

This week we would like to see white with a splash of colour. As I'm even more short of time just now here's the quick card I made.

I used :-

Image :- LOTV quick squares cut out with a circle nestie.

Sentiment :- Hero Arts.

Card Candy :- Craftwork cards.

Martha Stewart punch, other punch, glitter, 2 Cuttlebug embossing folders.

Promarker on snowflakes.



Hope you like it. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out and I may make some more of them. I love these cute squares they're great for making a quick card and as you can see you don't have to leave them as squares. It's also easy to personalise them with a touch of glitter.

I'm entering the following challenges :-
A Spoon Full of Sugar :- Anything Goes.
Simon Says Stamp :- Let it Snow.
Crafty Creations :- Christmas is coming.
Fussy and Fancy :- no red or green.
Pile it On :- Feather n' Fur.
One Stitch at a Time :- Bling it Up.

I'm looking forward to visiting your blogs to see what you come up with for this challenge. Please pop over to Crafty Cardmakers to see what my teamies have made to inspire you. I'm sure you won't be disappointed. If you have time to leave me a comment I'd love to hear what you think and I'm sure my teamies would love to hear from you too.

Thanks for looking.

Crafty Cardmakers 34 Card and Matching Gift.

Doesn't Monday come round quickly? I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. Now it's time for another challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers. Thank you to everyone who joined in our last challenge, I enjoyed popping past your blogs and seeing your lovely creations and I hope you'll join us again this time. Our embossing challenge from last week is still open so you've still got time to enter it too.

Our challenge this fortnight is to make a card and matching gift. I found a tutorial for a simple box with a lovely scalloped lid over at Splitcoast Stampers. When I say simple I really mean that. If I can make it anyone can lol! I used the lovely sketch at Papertake Weekly for my card. I think the card might also fit the "Holiday" challenge at ABC.

Don't you just love this little cutie, he's so happy!!

And here he is again on my box.

I used :-

Image :- Penny Black.

DP :- Dovecraft.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Sentiment :- Craftwork Cards.

Snowflakes :- Martha Stewart punch.

Jewels :- Hobby House.

Glitter.

Hope you like and please let me know what you think If you've got a minute to spare. I'm sure my teamies would also love to hear from you, I know they've made some beautiful cards and gifts this week.

I have to work full time this week as my colleague is on holiday so I'm hoping to catch up with your blogs in the evening. Perhaps during my lunch hour at work I'll get on with a jumper I'm knitting for Oliver. He was a year old last week - I can't believe how quickly the last year has gone! Poppy will be three next week and it seems like no time since she was born too. I must be getting old lol!

Crafty Cardmakers 33 - Stitching.

Good afternoon girls and I hope it is a lovely day where you are. It's beautiful here today again. Yesterday was lovely too and as we went down to Glasgow to the SECC for the craft show it was so nice to be in the sun when the sun came up. My friend and I got the bus at 6.30am but some of the ladies on our bus left a lot earlier! I was glad to leave my jacket in the bus as it always gets warm as you go round the hall. I have some lovely new stash to play with but first I had to get this card done. Yes of course it should have been done and scheduled a few days ago but between problems finding some of my Halloween stuff to make cards for the grandkids, another DT card to make and no Internet on Friday evening it didn't get done!!

But here it is now. I have to admit it was a very quick card so I hope you like it. Over at Crafty Cardmakers we'd like to see some stitching on your card or project. We don't mind if it's real or faux stitching. I didn't really have a choice, for speed it had to be faux!

I used :-

Image :- Cute square (trimmed to rectangle shape) from LOTV.

DP :- MME Wonderful Winter.

Sentiment :- Craftwork Cards.

Snowflakes :- Martha Stewart punch.

Swirls :- Cottage Cutz.

Faux stitching with American Crafts precision pen.

Glamour Dust, Sakura glitter gel pen, Poppy Promarker, glue pen.

As I said this was a really quick card. It had to be and it's surprising how quick you can be when you have to be. I just hope Vix isn't too mad with me! I used a red base card to give a nice border round my first layer of DP. I love these cute images from LOTV and being pre-coloured they save a lot of time. I added some glitter to the image and round the sentiment for a bit of glitz. Some glue on the swirls and snowflakes, some Glamour Dust and you're sorted.

I'm going to enter some challenges with this card :-
Sketch and Stash :- Sketch.
Totally Papercrafts :- Bling it On.
ABC :-G is for Glitter.
A Spoon Full of Sugar :- Let's get Punchy.
Papertake Weekly :- Sparkly and Bright.
Creative Card Crew :- Let's Punch It.
Simon Says Stamp challenge :- Punch Em.
Pile it On :- Beary Good Friends.

Well that's me girls, just in time to schedule this post. Hope you can join us in our stitching challenge. If you haven't been over to Crafty Cardmakers challenge blog do take a minute to pop over and see what my talented teamies have made to inspire you, you won't be disappointed. While you're there check out last weeks challenge, you still have till Sunday to enter and if you like using digis it's ideal for you.

If you have time to tell me what you think of my card I'd love to read what you think. Feedback is always good. Now I'm off to have my lunch and check out my new stash.

Thanks for looking.

Crafty Cardmakers 32 - Use a Freebie.

Hello everyone. I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I have been away babysitting at my daughter's since Wednesday evening. We only actually had to babysit all day Thursday and Friday afternoon but since she lives about 2 and a half hours drive away we had to go on Wednesday. Yesterday we just spent some time with them although my hubby was roped into some gardening with Catriona while I stayed indoors with the kids. Today we stayed until Poppy came back from Sunday School and then gathered up our bags and the dog and came home. The dog is very quiet tonight! You can tell I'm writing this on Sunday evening and scheduling my post for Monday!!  She is used to Catriona's dog but had never met Catriona's in-laws Weimaraner before. She was only there till Friday afternoon so Maddy and Missy had the kids to themselves again. Oliver is only 11 months old but he loves dogs.

Anyway enough waffle, here is the card I made for Crafty Cardmakers latest challenge which is to use a freebie. I have used a stamp I got with Craft Stamper but you could also use freebie papers if you have any you got with a magazine. And of course you could use a free digi image.

I stamped my free flower stamp randomly on Kraft paper with Versamark and embossed with bright white embossing powder. I edged the Kraft paper with Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink. The blue DP is from Tim Holtz. I stamped again with Memento ink, coloured with Promarkers and cut out with a nestie. I added some blue organza ribbon across the middle and popped the image on top of it with sticky pads. The sentiment is from Craftwork Cards as is the card candy. I also added some jewels from Hobby House and finished off with some blue flowers from my stash. I added some glitter with a Sakura clear glitter gel pen.

I followed the sketch over at Creative Inspirations Wednesday Challenge Blog so I'll enter that challenge this week.

Since I have a day off today to catch up with some washing and ironing I'm also hoping to be able to get some crafting done too. Hope you can join us this fortnight, I'm sure lots of you can find a freebie of some description. Looking forward to visiting your blogs and seeing what you've done with your freebies. If you need some inspiration pop over to the challenge blog at Crafty Cardmakers and see what my talented teamies have done with their freebies.

Crafty Cardmakers 31 Anything But a Square.

Doesn't time fly. Monday already and time for another challenge at Crafty Cardmakers. This time we would like your card to be anything but a square.

I decided to use my larges nesties to make a circular card. I'm still keen on making Christmas cards so here's another one. I work in the Post Office inside the village shop and there are about five teenagers who work after school and at the weekend so a little card like this is ideal for them

These little diddy cards are not actually any quicker to make than a normal size card as they can be quite fiddly and you have to make sure you use patterns  and images that are not too big!

I used :-

Image :- Penny Black.

DP :- Basic Grey.

Sentiment :- Craftwork Cards.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Nesties, stickles, Glamour Dust and ribbon.

I followed the sketch from Mojo Monday so I will be entering that challenge. And I see that the challenge over at Penny Black is "don't be square" so I'll enter there too.

I'm working full time all this week as my colleague is on holiday so I hope I can keep up with visiting your blogs to see what you've been making. My teamies have lovely cards on their blogs so please try to pop over and see what they've made to inspire you.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

NEWS!!!

Hi everyone, well I said yesterday that I had some news. Vix asked me to join the DT over at Crafty Cardmakers. I had to think carefully......for about 2 seconds before saying "yes please". I'm looking forward to working with the very talented girls on the present team and also the other new girls. I think it will be fun. I'll be joining in with the next challenge which starts on 12th July so I'll be quite busy by then.

Kat xx

Lazy Hedgie!

Well girls I've been a bit more productive today. Here I am with another card! I love Penny Black stamps but I don't always manage to enter the Penny Black Saturday challenge. This week I have made it!!

Ive never used this stamp before but I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. I found some papers that I had got in a TSV from QVC some time ago and the one with writing is just perfect for a Spring card. The check one is from the same set and has the same colours. I edged the Prima flowers with Promarker to match the flower in the image and added card candy from Craftwork Cards also coloured with Promarker. The sentiment is also from Craftwork Cards and the ribbon from my stash.

I'm also entering the following challenges :-

Charisma :- Spring.

Crafty Cardmakers :- Spring into Spring.

Passion for Promarkers :- Spring plus an animal.

Susie's Sassy Challenge :- Spring garden.

By the Cute and Girly :- Spring.

For some reason I'm quite pleased with this card lol!!! I love the image and I think the papers fit quite well. But let me know what you think, I'd be interested to hear what you think. I really like to know what you think so if you've got a minute to spare please leave me a little comment. It really makes my day to read what you think.

Kat xx

Sweet and Gorjuss.

Hello everyone and it's time for another challenge at Totally Gorjuss. This week our theme is "Sweet."

I have chosen sweet as in yummy although I think this Tilda is pretty sweet as in cute too!


I have been very short of time this week as I was at the craft show at the SECC on Sunday, a WRI quiz on Tuesday evening and a meeting about our co-operative entry for our local show on Wednesday evening. Then this morning I had to make the scones I promised for the teas, finish off a Get Well card as an entry for the show and start this one. After work I finished sewing up a hat, another entry, delivered the stuff to a friend to take in for me as I will be at work in the morning and finished this card.

DP:- Basic Grey - cupcake.

Colouring :- Promarkers and a touch of Spica glitter gel pen on the ice cream.

Buttons :- MME.

Flowers :- MS punch plus card candy.

Sentiment :- Whiff of Joy.

I am going to enter a few challenges with this card too :-

Truly Scrumptious :- Sketch plus good enough to eat.
Magnolia Down Under :- 3 papers, 3 flowers, 2 buttond and 1 bow.
Crafty Cardmakers :- Feminine celebration.
Crafty Creations :- Make your own flowers.
Cute Card Thursday :- Celebrations.
Cupcake :- Flowers.

If Mr Blogger is being a good boy this post will appear in the morning. Looking forward to seeing how you interpret our theme this week. I have not been good at commenting this week due to shortage of time so I can only apologise and promise to do better this week.

Kat xx

First card in 2010.

At Totally Gorjuss we thought that a "Thank You" card would be a good challenge for this time of year. At this time of year we all get lovely presents for Christmas and we all need to thank people for them. And of course we need to thank our lovely sponsor Joanna Sheen who has given us a £10 voucher for our winner. Joanna has lots of goodies in her online store and the service is great and there is no p&p.

I've used this sweet Gorjuss Girl holding an envelope which seems appropriate for a thank you card. I coloured her with Promarkers as usual. The DP is the gorgeous Laundry Line from MME. I love this paper. There are lovely patterns and glitter and they all fit together so well. I added some lace from Quixotic Paperie. Elaine has lots of lovely lace and a whole lot of other embellishments. I can not have a look at her online shop without buying lol! I finished off with some Prima flowers, brads and glittery jewels.

It's still very icy and snowy here and if you look closely at the sides of the photo you might see some snow out of my conservatory window lol. We went out to a local Indian restaurant for a meal this evening and even the main road was not good. The back road over to us is very icy and rutted now and the hill down to the main road is very slippy. It's a case of 1st gear and hope that you stop at the bottom!! When we got to Ellon (our nearest town) the roads were a disgrace and the pavements were pretty dangerous. Not sure how it can save money to not clear roads and pavements and then a lot of people end up at A&E! Anyway enough complaining about the road conditions I'm sure a lot of people are in the same boat.

I'm also going to enter some challenges with this card.

Quixotic :- Lace.
Magical Crafts :- Thank You.
Creative Inspirations Wednesday challenge :- Thank You.
Crafty Cardmakers :- Favourite things - my gorgeous DP and this lovely lace.
Papertake Weekly :- Sketch.
Winter Wonderland :- Thank You.
My Time to Craft :- Anything goes.
Crafty Creations :- Glitter and bling.

I think that is all the challenges that this card fits so I will finish off now and see what else I can make. I have missed making cards for the last wee while but I have caught up with a few blogs over the last few days.

Hope some of you can find time to pop over to Totally Gorjuss and join in with us this week. As you can see from my list of challenges a Thank You card would fit the bill on a lot of challenges. The rest of the DT have made some lovely cards and we are all looking forward to seeing what you make too. We would all appreciate if you could find time to leave us a comment telling us what you think of our Thank You cards.

Kat xx

Totally Gorjuss 8 Net's Sketch.

Here it is then girls - my card for this week's Totally Gorjuss DT card. Net has given us a fabulous sketch to follow. You can rotate it if you want and add your own bits and pieces to glam it up as long as we can see the original sketch.

I used the wonderful MME signature Christmas DP. I coloured the lovely Gorjuss Girl with Promarkers. I added a sentiment and card candy from Craftwork Cards and finished off with some flowers and some glittery ribbon. And I think that's it. Nice and simple and if I use different images and papers I could make some more Christmas cards reasonably quickly.

Silly me I nearly forgot to say that this week we are sponsored by the lovely Joanna Sheen who has donated a £10 voucher for the lucky winner to spend on her fabulous website. Joanna has lots of gorgeous goodies in her web shop at great prices and there is no p&p to pay. Added to that her customer service is fantastic, you often get your order by the next day - even up here in Aberdeenshire. So why not enter this week's challenge you could have £10 to spend on goodies next week.

I'm hoping to enter some challenges with this card too.

Crafty Cardmakers :- No red or green.
A Spoon Full of Sugar :- No red or green.
Cute Card Thursday :- Swirly Girly.
Paperplay :- No red or green.

Hope this is ok. I'm off now to try and prepare some things to take to a crop tomorrow.

Kat x

Red and Green Christmas.

Isn't this a great sketch from Papertake Weekly. This was such a quick card to make...just what I need just now!!
I'm meaning to enter a few other challenges with this card.

Basic Grey :- Basic Grey paper plus glitz and bling.
Penny Black :- Christmas for the guys.
Colour Create :- Green, red and white.
Passion for Promarkers :- Umber and Marsh Green.
Crafty Cardmakers :- Something clear - clear jewels for snowflakes.

Creative Inspirations Wednesday Challenge Blog :- Sparkle.

Hope I've got all these right! Need to go off now and enter the challenges and come back and post my Totally Gorjuss DT card.

Materials used:-

DP - Basic Grey Figgy Pudding - both sides of one paper.
Colouring - Promarkers including Marsh Green, Umber and my old favourite - Poppy!
Card candy - Craftwork cards.
Clear jewels and stickles from my stash.

See you soon with my DT card.

Kat xx

Autumn Breeze.

I'm a bit surprised at how quickly this card came together. I spent ages looking at the Basic Grey Indian Summer papers because I wanted to do a couple of Fall/Autumn challenges but somehow I couldn't find the effect I wanted! Then I settled on some MME bloom and grow papers. Not sure if they are right for autumn but they fit with what I had in mind lol! I edged the papers in frayed burlap and antique linen Ditress Inks and also added faux stitching. I used Promarkers to colour this sweet image from the Whiff of Joy Fall set. As embellishments I added a flower, a leaf and a button. The leaf was cut out using a Martha Stewart punch.



I am planning to enter a few challenges with this card:-

Crafty Cardmakers:- Sketch
Whimsy:- Autumn (Fall) colours.
A Spoon Full of Sugar:- Autumn.
http://lalalandcrafts.blogspot.com/:- 3 different embellishments - a flower, a leaf and a button.
Simon Says Challenge:- 3 embellishments, 2 papers and 1 image.
Stamp Something:- Favourite colours or papers - favourite papers - MME bloom and grow.

It's a beautiful morning here in Aberdeenshire. The kind of morning that makes you glad to have dogs to walk and washing to hang out lol! I seem to have a small problem uploading images this morning so I am going to leave this just now and come back to it later.

Everything seems fine now so I have uploaded my photo and now I need to go off and enter the challenges before I forget!! My daughter has been brushing one very hairy chocolate Labrador and now she (the dog) is lying down tired -poor thing - because she had a daft turn and started running about as only a Lab can. You know how they do it back legs in front of the front legs they are going so fast.

Hope you are all having this gorgeous sunny weather today, for September it is really fantastic. And what am I going to do now - well carry on crafting of course cos tomorrow is a full day at work and then I am out in the evening for a couple of hours at the Guild. I might manage another post later if I can get another card done before the light goes.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Kat x

Some More Challenges.

Good afternoon girls, I have been very naughty this morning. I only meant to sit down for a wee while and think about what I was going to do for this week's Whiff of Joy challenge and look at the time now!! I had a few ideas about what other challenges I could fit in. But it kind of snowballed. Now I have no housework done and I need to go to work at 1.45.


Well as I said this is for the Whiff of Joy challenge and I used the lovely sketch from Friday Sketchers and their optional colours blue and orange. Now orange is definitely not my colour but I thought I would give it a go anyway and see what happened! The sweet image is coloured with Promarkers and i went over the flowers in her hand and hair with a Sakura glitter gel pen. Probably not obvious. Not obvious either but the pale blue ribbon is very shimmery and gorgeous. Nesties were used as usual and the jewels, ribbon and buttons are from my stash. The plain blue
Not sure that the next piccie adds anything but it does show you my wonky sewing. I added stitching for the La La Lands Wednesday blog which I discovered has already closed - on Sunday 30th!! Guess I missed it then. Never mind I think the card still fits a few challenges lol.

So I think this card fits the following challenges:-

Friday Sketchers:- sketch plus blue and orange.

Whiff of Joy:- bling.

Crafty Cardmakers:- complementary colours - blue and orange.
Passion for Promarkers:- any colours and girly and glittery.

Cupcake Craft:- 3 buttons, 2 papers and 1 ribbon.

Whimsy:- touchy feely - bling, buttons and ribbon.

Pile it on:- round -buttons, DP and swiss dots.

365 cards:- 3 shades of blue.

I'm just about breathless after listin all those challenges!!!

Best go and post this now and see if I can have some lunch before I go to work. Hope you enjoy the rest of what is a lovely day here. Much nicer than yesterday when some people round here had a day off for the Bank Holiday.

Maybe see you later and please let me know what you think of this card or any other one that you may like (or otherwise).

Kat x

Truly Scrumptious 13

This was a really easy sketch to use from Truly Scrumptious. Not sure if I've done it justice though! I used wild asparagus from MME which is quite muted anyway so doesn't look very clear in the photos. I coloured, with Promarkers, the little girl with her cat by Diane Duda for Sugar Nellies. I think she is very cute! I layered both of the crowns and the heart on the cat's tummy. I used a glitter gel pen on their wings and stickled the flowers for a bit of bling. I don't like the way the larger of the flowers has turned out, the stickles has made it look a funny goldy colour round the edges. As usual Nesties were used and flowers and brads from my stash.

I really ought to get some housework done now. I was just about to start hoovering when a courier brought a mini sewing machine I had bought on ebay. So of course I had to unpack it and bring it up to my craft area. Then I just sat down to do a bit more of this card, which I started last night. So I finished it! Then I had to take photos and put them on my laptop. Then obviously I'd best write this post as the cut off for Truly Scrumptious is 5pm. Now where has the morning gone.....? I really am away to hoover and dust now. Honest!!

Thanks for looking,

Kat xx

P.S. I just found a message from Vicky about a new challenge blog called Crafty Cardmakers and their first challenge is flowers so I think I could enter this card for that too!