Some Baby Cards.

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

This is the one I made for the proud grandparents.

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

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

I'm entering this card in some challenges :-

Cupcake :- Sketch.

Stamp Something :- Use a digi.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

P

Blog Candy Winner.

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

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

Hero Arts Candy.

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

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

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

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

Totally Gorjuss 48 Wild Thing.

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

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

I used :-

Image :- Penny Black.

DP :- Dovecraft -  Let it Snow.

Sentiment :- Craftwork Cards.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Stickles, ribbon, MS punch and jewels.

I'm entering the following challenges :-

Friday Sketchers :- Sketch.

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

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

Thanks for visiting and enjoy your weekend.

Just Cute Bears#34 Photo Inspiration.

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

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

I used :-

Image :- LOTV.

DP :- MME.

Sentiment and card candy :- Craftwork Cards.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Ribbon and stickles.

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

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

Enjoy what's left of the weekend.

One for the Boys.

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

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

I used :-

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

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Card Candy :- Craftwork Cards.

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

Lili of the Valley :- One for the boys.

Cards for Men :- Long Summer Days.

Hope you're having a lovely weekend.

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

Penny Black 117

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

I used :-

Image, sentiment and background :- Penny Black.

DP :- just a scrap.

Stickles, ribbon from stash and Martha Stewart punch.

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

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

Christmas Tilda in Pink.

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

I used:-

Image :- Tilda.

DP :- Forever Friends.

Sentiment and card candy :- Craftwork Cards.

Colouring :- Promarkers and Sakura clear glitter gel pen.

Snowflake :- Sizzix.

Jewels :- Hobby House.

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

Cards for Simply Create DT Call.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Crafty Cardmakers 29 - Clean and Simple.

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

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

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

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

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

Just Cute Bears #33 Let's go Dotty.

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

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

I used :-

Image and DP :- Forever Friends.

Colouring :- Promarkers, Versacolor ink pad for edges.

Sentiment :- Craftwork Cards.

Pearls :- Hobby House.

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

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

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

Enjoy your day.

Totally Gorjuss 46 - Sketch.

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

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

I used :-

Image :- Tilda.

DP :- MME.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Sentiment and Card Candy :- Craftwork Cards.

Sakura clear gel pen and glitter gel pen, Nesties.

I'd like to enter the following challenges:-

Just Magnolia :- Anything goes.

Stamp Something :- Something cute.

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

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

Exciting news!

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

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

Simply Create DT Call.

This post will stay at the top until 31st August so please scroll down to find this week's DT cards.

Jacqui at Simply Create is having a DT call. The call is open till 31st August at 5pm and if you pop over to her blog you can find out how to take part. The call is open to crafters worldwide and all crafters are welcome to enter whether they are cardmakers or scrapbookers or whatever. I'd like to try but I'm not sure if my work is good enough lol!

Simply Create is one of my favourite craft shops. Jacqui keeps lots of great goodies and my friend and I can always find lots of things we "need" to buy.

Please check out the details for yourselves. I have made some cards to let Jacqui see if I'm brave enough. I'm looking forward to her first challenge I'm sure I'll want to enter.

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?

Another Lovely Award.

I have just been making my daily visit to Fiona and discovered that she has passed on this lovely award to me. Thank you very much Fiona I'm delighted to have been included with the rest of the people you've passed this award on to.

There are so many lovely blogs that I like to visit that it's quite difficult to decide who to pass this on to but I've decided to pass it on to my talented teamies at Just Cute Bears.

Ali who started the challenge blog, Annie, Cathy, Helen, Jenny, San, Sarah and Sonia who has just left us. Actually I've cheated and passed on the award to 8 people instead of 7 so I hope this is ok lol!

Thanks girls for all your inspiration and support as part of the Just Cute Bears DT. I love working with you all past and present members.

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.

Just Cute Bears #31 Pink & Brown

It's Sunday already girls and normally I would be wondering how it could be Sunday already and I'd have to go to work tomorrow. But this week I'm having Monday and Tuesday off as my daughter and 2 gorgeous grandchildren are coming to stay tomorrow for a few days. My son-in-law has to go away for a few days for work so it'll just be the 3 of them. I'm so looking forward to them coming! I'm also taking the day off next Saturday as we're having a special crop to celebrate the first birthday of the craft shop. We're all going to take along something to eat. I'm taking carrot cake and rocky road traybake. Maybe Poppy will help me with my baking!

But I'm sure you'd rather hear about our challenge at Just Cute Bears! This week we are being sponsored by Wild Rose Studio and we'd like you to use the colours pink and brown on your project. Unfortunately I don't have any of their lovely stamps but I do have some of their gorgeous papers so I've used them.

I used :-

Image :- Die cut from LOTV.

DP :- Wild Rose Studio.

Butterflies and bow on image covered with Sakura glitter gel pen.

Corners cut with EK Success punch.

Nesties, pearls and ribbon.

I'd like to enter the Lili of the Valley challenge as I used their sketch.

The Pink Elephant :- Ribbon and Sparkles.

Craft Your Days Away :- Things with Wings.

Crafty Creations :- Butterflies.

Creative Card Crew :- Sparkles and Shine.

If you've got time do please tell me what you think of my little card and I'm sure my talented teamies would like to hear from you too.

Enjoy what's left of your weekend.

Totally Gorjuss 44 - You're a Star.

Good morning everyone and it's the start of the weekend so it's time for another challenge from Totally Gorjuss. This week our challenge is "You're a Star." We would like to see stars on your card or layout. I'm afraid my stars aren't very big but they are there lol! I coloured the star she's holding and the ones in her hair with a Spica glitter gel pen and I used another one to make sparkly spots on her dress.

This week we are lucky to be sponsored by Crafter's Companion. They have some fantastic products on their website. They sell their own products but also lots of other brands so it's always worthwhile checking out their online shop.

I used:-

Image :- Gorjuss Girl from Sugar Nellies.

DP :- MME.

Colouring :- Promarkers and Spica glitter gel pens.

Flowers :- Prima and stripey ones cut out with EK Success punches.

Faux stitching :- Precision Pen.

Stampin' Up! punch for scalloped edge.

Ribbon and pearls from stash.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges :-

Mojo Monday :- Sketch.

Cupcake :- 2 papers, 2 ribbons and 2 flowers.

Pollycraft :- Stitches.

Easy Craft Projects :- Girly.

Paperplay :- Pink to make the boys wink.

Hopefully I'll get round to entering these challenges before it's too late lol!

I hope you'll pop over to the Totally Gorjuss blog to see what my talented teamies have made this week if you haven't already been there. I know you won't be disappointed. If you have time I'd love to hear what you think of my card and I know my teamies would too.

What a Lovely Surprise.

I had a lovely surprise today when I was checking out some of my favourite blogs. I found out that the lovely, talented Janiel had given me this award. Thank you so much Janiel for thinking of me. I can't believe that someone as talented as Janiel has given me this award! I love to visit Janiel's blog as she does amazing work. She often visits my blog and always leaves lovely kind comments about my work.

Now I have to tag 5 other people that I'd like to give this award to. That's really difficult as there are so many lovely bloggy friends that I want to give this to!

1 Angela - a long term bloggy buddy who never fails to leave lovely comments. She's really talented and I love to see what she's been doing especially with her Stampin' Up! products.

2 Annie - my very talented teamie on Just Cute Bears. Annie is very talented and generous and does amazing colouring with her Copics.

3 Delphine - I haven't "known" Delphine very long but she is also one of my lovely followers who always leaves lovely kind comments on my work. I love to visit her too to catch up with her amazing work.

4 Melly - Melly is one of my teamies on Crafty Cardmakers. I came across her lovely work before we were teamies and noticed that she lives in Lanark. I used to live there and my children were born there. So we started to follow each other. You should pop over to her blog and see her work. She makes some amazing boxes and specialises in weddings.

5 Vicky - Vicky is a long standing bloggy buddy. I've admired her work since I first found her blog. She makes the most stunning creations. I love how she can use eg a stamp or a die cut to make something really unique. She really thinks "outside the box" and always inspires me.

I hope you'll want to visit these talented ladies and see why I admire them all. The trouble is that I know so many other bloggers that I'd like to give this award, I really hate leaving out so many people.

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.

Just Cute Bears #30 Buttons and Blooms.

Well girls, where does the weekend go. How did it get to Sunday so quickly? Time for another challenge at Just Cute Bears. This week our challenge is very simple.....we'd like to see buttons and blooms on your card or layout.

This week we are sponsored by Lili of the Valley. This gave me the perfect opportunity to use one of their gorgeous bear stamps. Isn't that a sweet image. I just hope I've done it justice lol!

I used :-

Image :- LOTV.

DP :- Papermania Rose Garden.

Colouring :- Promarkers andSakura clear glitter gel pen.

Sentiment :- Craftwork Cards.

Pearls :- Hobby House.

Buttons :- MME.

Ribbon from stash and Martha Stewart punch.

I'd like to enter some challenges too :-

Mojo Monday :- Sketch.

One Stitch at a Time :- Use a punch or punches.

Craft Your Days Away :- Favourite things - I love this Martha Stewart edge punch, those lovely pearls and Promarkers.

Totally Gorjuss 43 Lovely Aqua.

Good morning everyone and time for another challenge over at Totally Gorjuss. This week we would like you to use aqua shades in your card or layout. Unfortunately you'll have to take my word for it that I've used aqua in my card lol! Every picture I took seemed to look blue, but it is aqua....honest!! I was all over the house and even outside as Thursday when I made it was quite nice. But wherever I tried I couldn't get the colour to look right.

This week we are sponsored by Lili of the Valley so that gave me a chance to check out my LOTV images and I decided to use this cute bear.

I used :-

Image :- LOTV.

Sentiment and card candy :- Craftwork Cards.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Flowers :- EK Success retro punch.

Martha Stewart punch, nesties and pearls.

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

Lili of the Valley :- Summer.....check out the sunglasses!

A Spoon Full of Sugar :- Sketch.

The Pink Elephant :- Summer Fun.

My teamies have made some beautiful cards this week so I hope you can find time to pop over to their blogs and encourage them with a comment. If you have a minute to let me know what you think of mine I'd really value your opinion too.

As I've had terrible broadband connection problems I'll stop now and hope I can get this post scheduled!!