Totally Gorjuss121 - Sketch.

Good morning everyone, can't believe it's the beginning of March already. But here we are at the 3rd and it's time for another sketch challenge at Totally Gorjuss, sponsored as usual by the ever generous Joanna Sheen. I love a good sketch to work from and Net has given us some great sketches including this one.

And here's my take on it.

I used :-
Image :- Elzybells.
DP :- First Edition.
Colouring :- Promarkers.
Glamour Dust and pearls.

I stamped the eggs a few times so that I could pop them all up on sticky pads. I don't like orange (not even orange sweeties) but it seems to work here.

I hope you can join us this week, a sketch is a great start when you're making a card and you can't think where to start.

I'm entering the following challenges :-
Creative Inspirations :- Anything Goes.
Simon Says Stamp :- Anything Goes.
Cute Card Thursday :- Signs of Spring.

By the way my talented teamie Sarah has started a new challenge blog and a shop with some gorgeous goodies. She has also got a DT call so if you pop over to her blog or her challenge blog you could add your name.

Enjoy your weekend whatever you've got planned. I'm going to be a bit busy as I've got a WRI show next weekend and I've still got a few things to finish. As usual!! Last minute Aggie, that's me lol!

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

Christmas With no Red or Green.

Good morning everyone and here we are at the start of another week. I'm almost there with my Christmas cards which is lucky as I've achieved nothing yesterday. The card I have today is one that I finished at the crop on Saturday.

I used :-

Image :- Penny Black.

Sentiment and Card Candi :- Craftwork Cards.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Sizzix and Cuttlebug embossing folders.

Glamour Dust and ribbon.

I'm entering the following challenges :-
Oldie But a Goodie :- Christmas Card, no red or green.
Simon Says Challenge :- Anything Goes.

I'll probably have another busy day at work so I'll try to do some visiting tonight. Have a good day everyone and fingers crossed for not too much snow!

Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments.

Totally Gorjuss 98 - Nothing Square About Me.

Good morning everyone. At least I hope Mr Blogger has been kind and posted this for me on Saturday morning. I'm going to a wedding today so I won't be able to check until Sunday! So fingers crossed lol.

This week at Totally Gorjuss our theme is "nothing square about me." Yes that's right we'd like to see you making some differently shaped cards. It's nice to have a change instead of automatically making a square card. I know I rarely make anything other than a square card so I enjoyed making this little card. I made a "New Home" card for a lovely blogging friend so I hope she's received it before she sees it here lol!

I used :-

Image :- Hero Arts.

Sentiment :- Inca stamps.

DP :- First Edition - Hideaway.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Nesties, ribbon & tag punch.

I'm hoping to enter the following challenges :-

One Stitch at a Time :- Punch it.
Creative Inspirations Wednesday Challenge Blog :- Anything Goes.
Pile it On :- layer it.
Cute Card Thursday :- Anything Goes.
Paperplay :- Punches & Dies.

A couple of these challenges are Sunday ones so I hope I can enter them before I leave for the wedding. We're sponsored by Simon Says Stamp this week so I hope you can join us for this nice easy challenge. My lovely teamies have some gorgeous cards to inspire you so don't forget to pop over to Totally Gorjuss to see their lovely work.

I'm babysitting on Sunday but I hope I can find some time to catch up with your entries as well as my favourite blogs.

Enjoy your weekend whatever you're doing and please cross your fingers for good weather where I'm going today. Thanks for looking.

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.

New Beginnings.

Hi everyone, I think I'm getting back to crafting again!

Today I've got a quick baby card I made to add to my box.

I've just made it very plain and simple. Aren't these Penny Black hedgies so cute?

I used :-

Image and sentiment :- Penny Black from a lovely new set of clear stamps.

DP :- Craft Creations.

Flower :- Prima edged with Promarker.

Gems :- Hobby House.

Card Candy :- Craftwork Cards.

Ribbon from stash.

I'm going to enter the following challenges :-

Simon Says Stamp :- New Beginnings.
Sketch and Stash :- Sketch. New stamps and everything else is old stash.
Penny Black :- New Beginnings.
Stampin' for the Weekend :- New and Blue.
Pollycraft :- Use something new. New stamps.
Cupcake :- Something New.
Craft Your Days Away :- Anything goes.
Passion for Promarkers :- Baby Cards.

Hope you like and I'll try to catch up with you all later.

Thanks for looking and if you've got time to tell me what you think I'd love to hear from you.

Christmas Kisses.

Good evening girls I've made another quick Christmas card that I hope fits some challenges.

I used this lovely sketch from Creative Inspirations Wednesday challenge blog. This sketch is really easy to use and I can see me using it again. It also fits the Simon Says Stamp challenge which is winter love. Aren't they cute. This lovely image is from Funky Kits.

I used Promarkers, nesties and stickles. Card candy and sentiment from Craftwork Cards.

Since this is now card no. 45 and I still need a lot more than that I am off to see if I can make a quick card. Sorry to be such a bad blogger recently but as soon as I get my Christmas cards done I will have more time to go round my favourite blogs commenting again.

Kat xx

Poppy's Birthday Card.

Hi everyone, it looks as if I haven't been doing very much this week but I have been quite busy! I've managed to make my DT card for Totally Gorjuss and today I made this card for Poppy's 2nd birthday on Monday.

I followed the fabby sketch from Sketch Saturday. The cute image is from Whiff of Joy - aren't these kangaroos cute?
The other challenges I am entering are:-

Quixotic challenge :- Kraft and red.
Allsorts challenge :- For a child.
Simon Says Stamp challenge :- animal antics.

This is a very cute image but I think I need a bit of practice colouring animals with Promarkers LOL!

Materials used:-
Kraft paper from jillibean.
DP - American Crafts.
Colouring - Promarkers.
Flowers - Martha Stewart punch and other daisy punch.
Card candy - Craftwork cards.
Ribbon and peeloff "2" from stash.

Hope Poppy likes her card. My other daughter is just back from visiting Catriona for a few days and she says Poppy loves her "big sister" card!

If you like this card please feel free to let me know. I should be back later to let you see my DT card for Totally Gorjuss.

Kat xx

Favourite Colour.

Good evening girls I have a card to show you that I made using my favourite colour - lilac. I hoped to enter several challenges with this one but I may be too late. Never mind here it is anyway!

I followed the lovely sketch from Stamp Something. I cut round the image from Hero Arts, coloured the flowers and edged it all with Promarkers. I popped the "thinking of you up on sticky pads to give a bit of dimension. I've added lots of faux stitching for the Quixotic Paperie challenge. It is a "thinking of you" card to fit the Simon Says Stamp challenge. I have used my new "thinking of you" stamp for the Creative Inspirations Wednesday challenge.

Hope I can be in time for some of these challenges. By for now and I'd love to hear what you think.

Kat xx

Get Well Wishes.

I've managed to sneak a little time this morning to make a quick little...really little card. This is for the Paper Blooms challenge and the Simon Says Stamp challenge.

I used my nesties (of course) to make the card and of course the layers. I've always meant to try a circle card but this is the first one I've ever done. It's quite diddy and cute and there's not a lot you can do with it but it's nice and quick. I coloured the Stampin up image with Promarkers. Not sure if it was wise to layer it cos it tends to overshadow the sentiment. The check paper is a little scrap I found in my pink scraps and I added two Prima flowers and some spotty brads. A little bit of bling on the flowers just brightens it up!

It's a horrible rainy day here again so I'm lucky to get a photo at all. My friend just sent a text a little while ago to say that 2 stamps she ordered yesterday (one for me) had arrived already. We saw a sample card done with this stamp at the SECC on Sunday and needless to say the stamp was sold out. I think it was coming from Dimension Fourth so great customer service and it also shows how good Royal Mail can be.

I read Kath's blog earlier this morning and I think I may have caught her dopey mare virus lol!! I lost my mobile. At the moment because Catriona's baby could arrive any time the phone is always with me! Well I had it when my friend sent a text about the stamp. A wee while later no phone. I was everywhere in a panic...even places I hadn't been earlier. I even looked out the little piece of paper that has all the family mobile numbers and phoned it. I tried downstairs and then upstairs. Just the message that says "the person is unavailable....." Then reason set in and I realised that since there was no ringing sound on the phone and just the message straight away it must not be getting a proper signal. I have a "Really Useful Box" like a hanging file that has 12x12 papers in it and it sits next to me and the Eeyore cover for my phone was on top of the box......yes you guessed it...the phone had slipped down among the papers. Panic over but I felt like such an idiot - so much paper in it I didn't think the phone could slip down among them. Now reason tells me that I should have looked there first but since I was in a panic I didn't!!!

I should post this now and get off to work before I do anything else daft.

Kat xx

Baby Cards.

Good morning girls. I thought I was going to be out of luck with the weather today because it was very dull and dark earlier. But I have managed to get a couple of photos taken while the sun was out. Might just be a little blink but I've got my photos and I'm happy lol!

First of all I have a card I've made for Poppy when she becomes a big sister. (Just a week till Catriona's due date!) The little girl is a bit bright for the rest of the card but her top has been coloured in "Poppy" Promarker lol! I've used the same gorgeous papers as the previous baby card I made. I either keep using a favourite paper....or I don't! I couldn't find buttons that fitted in so I thought I would use the clear buttons I bought the other week, cut round them on some patterned paper, stick them through the Xyron and stick on the card. Well I couldn't find the buttons could I? OK I'll use my new Martha Stewart embossed button punch....no the button would be too big. So not one to be stuck I punched out two little circles and made a couple of holes in them. I would have glazed them but this paper is so gorgeous and glittery that I just left them alone. I'm quite pleased with it so I hope Poppy likes it.

The second card is one I made quickly this morning just because I need a few baby boy cards. It was really quick to make once I decided to stop faffing around trying to choose different papers and just use the same papers again. I think I might just go ahead and make a baby girl one to the same basic design. Isn't this a gorgeous image from Pink Gem Designs. I'm going to enter it in Janet's prize draw to win six of her stamps and also a chance to be a guest designer. That would be awesome!

I'm entering the Simon Says Stamp Challenge with the first card and the Carol's Sketch Fun with the second one.

I've used:-
Sketches:- first - Simon Says Stamp Challenge.
Second:- Carol's Sketch Fun.
DP:- DCWV nana's nursery
Also - Promarkers, nesties, EK Success punches, and circle punch. And ribbon and pearls from stash.

Hope you like. And please remember my mini candy ends at 8pm tonight.

Kat xx

Edited to add - thanks to Kath for posting about new Hero Arts stamps over at The Glitter Pot. Yes I know I didn't have to go over there and have a look but like Kath when I saw them I couldn't help buying some. Oh dear and I'm trying to save my pennies for the SECC on Sunday lol!!!

Halloween!!!

Yes I know I promised that I was finished posting for today but this is just a little fun card I made this evening. I really have to post a better photo in the morning...but can I please assure you that the colours are black, orange, purple and white. No matter what I try the purple is determined to look blue!

I've used the sketch from Aly's Sunday Challenge. Aly is a very talented stamper and she is only 10 years old. Pop over to her blog and you will see her amazing work.
The challenge over at Pile it on is to use Aly's sketch so I can enter it too.
There are some Halloween challenges around so I am entering them too. They are:-
Simon Says Stamp Challenge.
Allsorts challenge.
A Spoon Full of Sugar challenge
The Pink Elephant challenge. Halloween using the colours black, orange purple and white.

The DP is MME and I've coloured this lovely Tilda with Pumpkin with Promarkers. Nesties were used to cut the shapes and the flowers were cut using a Martha Stewart punch. I finished off with ribbon, jewels and brads from my stash.

I am off to iron now as it is Sunday night again already and I work all day tomorrow - yuk. I have had two Saturdays and Mondays off in a row so now I need to work two Mondays before I have the Monday off after the craft show in Glasgow. Hope the time passes quickly - think I will take the Sunday paper with me.

Not sure what use a Halloween card is to me but I can't resist a challenge lol!

Kat xx

Another Christmas Card.

Well after wasting the entire morning, well not an entire waste. I went to Tesco briefly since my son is going to be staying for a couple of days this week again. I also went to the vet's and got worming tablets for the dogs - treat for them in a few minutes lol !! And of course I had to do the washing and get it outside.

Isn't this a great sketch from Truly Scrumptious and I even managed to do some doodling on it. I coloured the lovely winter Anya from the Greetings Farm with Promarkers. Isn't she lovely? I used some gorgeous Christmas DP from Bo Bunny - I love this paper. I decoupaged Anya's muff, earmuffs, pompoms of scarf, hem of coat and top of her boots and stickled them all too. I added some strips of ribbon and topped them with some buttons from my stash. Nearly forgot to mention that I had doodled round the image for the Truly Scrumptious challenge.

I hope you like this card and I have a few challenges to enter with it.

Truly Scrumptious:- Sketch and doodling.

A Spoon Full of Sugar:- Christmas.

Pile it on:- 3d.

Creative Card Crew:- Sparkle.

Charisma Cardz:- Decoupage.

Simon Says Stamp Challenge:- Red and green.

Anyone for Anya:- You're Anya.

I'm off to make tea now and sort out my washing to iron later (or maybe tomorrow!). See you all later if I can get time to check out some blogs.

Kat xx

Soon be the Weekend!

I've been naughty again! After I fed and walked the dogs and hung out my washing I've been making this card. My excuse is that I'm working this afternoon and when I come home from work it will be too late and this card fits 4 Saturday challenges.

I used this great sketch from Sketch Saturday. It was really easy to use - even for me! I've used the lovely lemonade papers from Basic Grey and for the other part of their challenge I put some of the dark pink through the bug in the divine swirls folder. I used nesties to cut out the ovals, coloured one of my new Penny Black stamps with Promarkers and used a Sakura clear gel glitter pen on the hearts. The Pile it on challenge wants flowers so I punched out some with my EK Success punches and finished them off with stick on pearls. To complete the Penny Black challenge I add a piece of paper lace and buttons from my stash for the Whimsy challenge. The edges of the background paper have been distressed with Distress Inks for the http://cupcakecraftchallenges.blogspot.com/. I added faux stitching for the Simon Says Stamp challenge. And it looks like a girl's card so I can enter the Secret Crafter Saturday challenge. If I can get round to decorating the inside I could also enter the Creative Card Crew challenge too.

Just another view of the card to show that I put the image up on sticky pads to give a bit of dimension.

Not sure what work will be like this afternoon.....! My colleague just phoned to say that the printer wasn't working and the engineer had until Monday to come out to fix it!!! There are so many things you can't do in the Post Office if you don't have a printer. I guess I could have a quiet afternoon if the engineer doesn't appear lol!! I should be so lucky. Good thing it's Friday and not Monday or we would be really popular. On the bright side I am off tomorrow and I'm going to a crop at my local craft shop and I'm also off on Monday - just because I want a day off.

So I'm off to post this now and see if I can do some housework before I leave for work.

Hope you like and please let me know what you think if you have a minute to spare.

Kat x

It is now Sunday and guess who forgot to post a photo of the inside of the card!!! I'm probably too late now but here it is anyway. I'm never sure what to do with insides. Some are easier than others - can be difficult if you have a 6x6 pad and only two sheets of each paper. Never mind her it is.

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

Pile it On etc and Sugar Bowl 18.

Good morning everyone. What a miserable day it is here after a lovely day yesterday. Great for crafting but not so great for taking photos!! The first card is one I made yesterday for a few challenges. I used the lovely sketch from Simon Says Stamp and used Promarkers to colour this lugubrious looking dog from Funstamps. Isn't he cute? The papers are from Prima and I think they are just right for a male card. I sewed around all the edges again - really getting into this sewing on cards lol. I cut ovals with my nesties and embossed the one behind the image with a Cuttlebug Script folder. The square metal brads, buttons and ribbon are from my stash.

The challenges I hope to enter are:-

Pile it on:- Birthday.
Allsorts 17:- Something for the boys.
Busy Becs Creatalicious Challenges:- For Dad plus brown and metal.
Simon Says Stamp:- Sketch.
Paper Maniac Challenges:- Embossing.
Creative Inspirations Wednesday Challenge:- Blue and brown.
Whimsy 18:- Sewing.


Then this morning I realised that I had to do the Sugar Bowl challenge now or I would not have time to do it at all lol. I was dying to use my new MME Colourful Christmas papers. They are gorgeous, lovely and bright. I'm not sure if this card's too busy lol!! I coloured the lovely Honey with Gifts from Sugar Nellies with Distress inks and also used them to ink all the edges. I got a parcel of goodies I had ordered from Elaine at Quixotic yesterday so I decided to use my new jute ribbon. I also got a parcel from Crafts U Love so I had to use my new Martha Stewart punches to make the flowers. The blue ribbon and buttons are from my stash.

Please tell me what you think girls - is it too busy? I was going to use the other side of the stripey paper which is blue with swirly doodley lines but it just didn't work the stripey side seemed to work better. (To me) In the same way the other side of the orange with coloured dots is much quieter and it didn't seem to work either!!

Well I should have my lunch now and get ready for work. tomorrow is balance day in the Post Office and I like to get organised for it on a Tuesday afternoon. Maybe I'll have time to check out some blogs this evening - hope so!

Kat xx

Back to School!

Good evening everyone, hasn't it been a lovely day. Hope it has been nice for the Bank Holiday weekend in England. Here in Scotland the Bank Holiday was at the beginning of August. Somehow working in the Post Office I get neither of these holidays. I think the only Bank Holiday we get is May Day the other holidays we get are just local holidays. I haven't had many holidays yet so I have arranged with my colleague to have some days off at the end of September and some in October. I especially need the weekend of 24th-26th October as it is the big craft show at the SECC in Glasgow. I have been saving up for it since the last one in March. The only thing that bothers me is that my daughter's second baby is due on the 27th!! I hope she is about a week before that or after. She was late last time but that was a bit nerve wracking as you can imagine. Anyway enough waffling I need to tell you what I've made this card for.

The challenge over at the House Mouse Monday challenge blog is Back to School. At first I thought I didn't have anything suitable as I have a lot of House Mouse Christmas stamps but didn't remember this one!! When I realised I did have a suitable stamp I knew that I had papers which would be ideal. How lucky is that. I discovered that this card would also fit another four challenges. I love to combine if I can!
Here's another view of the card showing how the letters and the image are 3d'd on foam pads. I used Promarkers to colour the image and also the letters which were initially white. I found some little gems in my stash and thought using 4 different colours would be nice. I thought the letters would fit the style of the card better than flowers. I thought about buttons but I think the letters work better. I did some faux stitching round the papers - it took me so long I would have been better doing real stitching lol. I thought I would struggle for a sentiment but I think this one from a set of Clearly Defined stamps works quite well. I added an s to it as it only said "happy day". I used the lovely sketch from Sketch and Stash and rotated it to fit the shape of the image better.
I'm quite pleased with the way this card turned out - for once!! But I think it will be a while before I use it as Poppy is not 2 yet.

Challenges I'm going to enter:-

Sketch and Stash:- House Mouse stamp, Sandylion papers and chipboard letters are all neglected stash.
House Mouse Monday Challenge:- Back to School.
Paperplay:- Back to School.
Simon says Stamp:- Back to school.
Stamp Something:- Animals.

Sunday evening now so after I link this post to the challenges I want to enter I best do my ironing. Sometimes I read the Sunday Herald at work on a Monday - well you can't do your ironing in the Post Office, can you?

Enjoy your Bank Holiday girls, those of you who have a holiday, hope you have a lovely day. If you want to tell me what you think of this card or any other one I would love to read your comments. It makes my day to read your kind words. Makes you feel as if you are part of a lovely friendly family of bloggers with the same love of crafting. I love to have time to visit other people's blogs and see what beautiful things they have made.

Kat xx