Daring Card Maker's - Animalia

DCM challenge this week was to use and animal on your card. I have used one of my new Beatrix Potter stamps, Jemima Puddleduck. She has been stamped in black archival ink and coloured with pencils and Zest-it blending solution. I matted the image onto some DCWV paper from Pocketful Of Posies. The took an A6 blank and matted some dusky pink Bazzill onto it. The Bazzill was then attached to the card using foam pads. An organza flower finished the card.

Mini- Scrapbook contents.

Especially for those kind enough to say they wanted to see the rest of the pages, here they are :0)Some Scottish Dancing and men in kilts for you. You will probably have to click on the pics for a better look.
thanks for looking and for your lovely comments.

My first mini-scrapbook

I am trying to get more into scrapbooking this year. My boss is leaving at the end of this month. Our area manager is moving her to control other branches. I will miss her as her predecessor made my life a misery in work. She restored my sanity and made me enjoy my job again. I wanted to make something for her and decided that a scrapbook showing pics of our Christmas Dance would be appropriate. I have used a ribbon bound mini album from a Brenda Pinnick kit I got from QVC. All of the embellishments, ribbons and stickers are included so it is easy for a novice like me.
I haven't photographed all the pages as you would no doubt be bored to tears but thought I would let you see the front page to get the general idea. I really enjoyed doing this and hope to attempt another mini book soon. Hope you like it.

Sunday Stampers- Lil' Old Wine Drinker Me

That was the challenge from a guest setter this week so thanks to Rainbow Lady as this is a song that has great memories from my childhood- not the wine drinking part of course, it was a party piece of my family.
I don't really have a large stamp that is suitable so I hop the one I have used is acceptable. I have made this for my cousin who is 21 soon. The champagne and glasses have been stamped in Sepia Versafine, as has the Birthday definition. I matted both onto brown Bazzill and placed them on an A6 card blank.I coloured the bottle with sakura glitter pens and used a clear glaze pen over the glasses. As he gets the "key to the door" on his birthday, I stamped a key image in embossing ink onto brown Bazzill and covered it with silver embossing powder. I finished with a silver Happy Birthday peel-off and hope that you will allow this card entry into this week's challenge.:0)

Tagged again!!!!!!!!!

Yes, many thanks (!) to Hels for tagging me :0)
I have to think up 6 facts to tell you all and leave you a link to Pinkle's blog. Well, I don't know how to link to it here but the link is in my fave blogs below.
Here goes
1.I used to do Irish Dancing when I was very young and living in Glasgow. If I hadn't moved to Inverness who knows, I may have been jigging with Michael Flatley!
2.I just love babies. I cannot pass one by without going all gooey-eyed and wanting a cuddle.
3.I have only been to England a handful of times- such a well travelled person....
4.Being born and brought up in Glasgow we were not very well off. When I look at photos of me I always have to slag my mother off for the way she dressed us. She had no fashion sense at all!!!!!!!!LOL!Will never scrapbook them as I wouldn't get over the embarrassment.
5. Worked with and was mates with my hubby for 6 years before we became romantically involved. He is the last person I would have pictured myself with. Just shows you, you never know what is round the corner.
6.For any of you still paying attention then my last fact would be that I joined the Halifax as a 16 year old on a YTS scheme(remember them?). 10 months later they offered me a full-time job and I am now about to celebrate 21 years of employment with HBOS. Tragic I know, but true.

I am now supposed to tag others but think most of my buddies have already been got so I am not going to. Hope you don't mind!

Sunday Stampers - Cool for Cats

Thought I would struggle with the challenge for SS this week as I had no cat stamps at all. Lo and behold, a parcel arrived from QVC this morning which had two cat stamps by Beatrix Potter inside. There were another two as well, a fabby bargain at £10.00 plus p&p :0)
I stamped Moppet & Mouse in black staz-on and then coloured using colouring pencils and Zest-it blending solution. The paper I have used is by Heidi Grace and I love the colours in it- think I need to buy more sheets!
The image was mounted on foam pads and attached to the card and then a Happy Birthday peel-off was attached on some pink Bazzill.
Really pleased with this card and my new stamps. Hope the recipient likes it too.

Couple of birthday cards

My stepdad asked me to make him two cards for his grandaughter's birthdays. The very cute little kittens are from Joanna Sheen's Animal Antics disc as is the backing paper. I matted the image on some dark pink Bazzill and attached it to the card with foam pads.The greeting was also attached to the Bazzill. The other card blank has been covered in Pinkie Pops paper from Funky Fairy. I then stamped a Sugar Nellie image and coloured her with Sakura glitter pens. She was then matted onto black cardstock and attached to the card with foam pads, as was the peel-off greeting.

An Oriental tag

I had to make some tags with an Oriental theme for a tag swap I am involved in. I managed to acquire some background stamps last weekend after my friend Andra gave me some excellent tutoring in the art of stamping. I had not a single background stamp and decided that is why my tags were lacking a certain something. I have made all 3 tags the same so have taken pics of the front and back. The front was coloured with Peeled Paint Distress Ink(another recent purchase.I stamped the lady in black staz-on then masked her. This is another technique that I learned last weekend from my good friend Andrea and the class at Scrapbook Sisters. I then stamped the messy background in Peeled Paint with my new Stampendous background cube stamp.
I water coloured the lady's lips, flower and top using Fired brick Distress Ink. Glossy accents were then used to highlight the flower and lips. For the other side of the tag I stamped a Geisha in black staz-on. I masked her and then used Distress Ink in Tattered Rose and blended Shabby Shutters round the edge.I then stamped a crackle background in Shabby Shutters over the tag.
An oriental charm and a red ribbon completed the tag. Hope you like it :0)

My Paper World sketch #9

This is the only other challenge I managed to get done this week. If you click on the link in my fave blogs below you will see the sketch that I had to follow. I have used my new Penny Black stamp that fell into my basket in Puffin Crafts last week. I stamped her in black staz-on and used my colouring pens and blending solution to colour her in.I inked around the image for definition. If you click on the pic you will be able to see her better. I used paper from DCWV Pocketful Of Posies and some orange Bazzill. The flowers are by Prima and I stuck little gems in the centres for some sparkle. Finally I added a peel-off birthday greeting. I love doing these sketch challenges:0)

Sunday Stampers

Finally managed to fit in a challenge this week.Sunday Stampers theme for this week is "boys".
I used a Cuddly Buddly stamp that I got a month or two ago. He has been stamped and then water coloured. I took some Heidi Grace paper and covered an A^ blank then mounted the stamped image on foam pads. Finally a Best Wishes greeting to complete the card.
Thanks to Hels for the challenge :0)

Tagged again!!!!

Thank to Dan for tagging me....I think? I have to give you another 7 random facts about me.

1.I was born in Glasgow and moved to Inverness when I was 8.

2.I got my tonsils removed when I was 21. Unlike my friend Andrea, I have not kept mine in a little container since then LOL!- mine were never seen again.

3. I got my wisdom teeth removed when I was 21 as well. They let me out of hospital on Christmas Eve, looking like the Elephant Man. I had a mushed up boiled egg for my Christmas Dinner:0(

4. I am rather partial to a cup of tea. My gran used to always moan that I used up all her teabags when I visited.

5.I was one of the top 5 hockey players in school. Used to love playing but goodness knows I wouldn't manage now.

6. I was a door steward in a nightclub for a few years until I fell pregnant with my first child.

7.I was in London for the first time on Sunday. Not your usual tourist attractions for visitors to London but much better in my opinion-Puffin Crafts in Peckham followed by Frankie & Benny's. Looking forward to my next visit already :0)


Hope you haven't fallen asleep reading these. I am not going to tag anyone else as most of those I know have already been caught and bared their souls :0)

Gruffies are great!/Arty Girlz

I got a couple of the new Gruffies stamps from House Mouse so thought I would use it on a birthday card I needed to make.The Arty Girlz challenge this week was open so you could do whatever you wanted. I think I will enter this card.
The image has been stamped in black staz-on and coloured with watercolour pencils. I have used papers which were free from Crafts Beautiful a couple of months ago. The papers were attached to and A5 blank and the image matted onto some brown Bazzill cardstock. I cut a smaller piece of the Bazzill for the greeting and attached both the image and the greeting with foam pads. These new Gruffies are so cute.

Sunday Stampers- Words

This weeks challenge was to use "words" in your project. I have used a Paper Bag Studios stamp and stamped the image in black archival ink onto a background made with alcohol inks. The image was then matted onto some K & Co paper. I matted some black cardstock onto an A6 card black then mounted the image on foam pads before attaching it to the card.

Some Fat pages

Here are some pages I made for a Flowers Fat Book list I am on at Craft Swap Forum. I have used clear stamps by Dawn Bibby and stamped them with an Adirondack ink pad in Denim. They have then been coloured with Marvy le Plume pens. I smudged ink pads in Lettuce and Denim around the edges and blended them with a wet baby wipe. The recipients should have them now, hope they liked them :0)

Babies, babies everywhere

My Time to Craft challenge this week was "Babies".The Scrummy Stash Cafe one was "Hey Baby" I had to make a card for a work colleague who had a little boy last week. I used some stamps I got the other month and hadn't used yet. The image is stamped in Ultramarine Staz-on and I then coloured the cardstock with Distress Ink in Broken China. I matted these squares onto navy Bazzill and the greeting and little cubes are all rub-ons.I am putting this card forward for both challenges :0)

I've been scrapping!

Well, I have made two scrapbook pages! One of them was for the Scrapbook Challenge on Craft Swap Forum. It was 1,2,3. You had to use 1 title, 2 photos and 3 embellishments the same. I used Seaside as the title,some photos from a caravan break with my boys and decided to make a double layout. The kit I used was a Brenda Pinnick one I got last summer from QVC. Struggled with finding three embellishments the same, so opted for three label stickers the same shape and added little word stickers to each of them. Hope this is okay Lesley :0)

Sunday Stampers/Arty Girlz challenges

This card has been made to incorporate both the Sunday Stampers "Faces" challenge and the Arty Girls "Handmade Background" challenge. I have used glossy card and alcohol inks to create the background paper. The stamp is from Paper Bag Studios and I have stamped this in black archival ink. I took a cream A5 blank and matted some Rustic Gems paper onto it. The image was then matted onto some rose coloured Bazzill cardstock which was then attached to the card using foam pads. I cut another mat of Bazzill and mounted this on foam pads below the image. I then added a peel-off greeting.I love messing about with alcohol inks and these PBS stamps are just fab! Need to make some more cards in this style I think.

Tutti Frutti/Funkykits Sketch Challenge

The My Time To Craft challenge this week is Tutti Frutti. I don't own any fruit related stamps so I used Tutti Frutti colours instead. I got a new Penelope Stamp and some Heidi Grace papers from Funkykits last week. You can see the three sketch challenges from Funkykits on the Sugar Nellie blog.Don't know how to do the link but I think it is in my fave blogs below.
I stamped the image in black staz-on and coloured it with my pencils and Zest-it blending solution. I matted the image on orange Bazzill cardstock. The square card blank was covered with one of the Heidi Grace papers. I then cut a strip of one of the other papers and laid it across the card. Three co-ordinating ribbons were cut to different lengths and attached them to the strip of paper. The image was then laid over these with foam pads. Finally some Primas were glued at the corners according to the sketch. I love this stamp and the papers are so lovely and bright.

My first canvas

I bought some blank canvases after seeing some of my talented friends making some fab projects with them. I decided to use my Paper Artsy stamps from the new Squiggly Ink range. I covered the entire canvas with Distress Ink in Shabby Shutters and then blended around the edges with Pine Needles. I then stamped the main image in Pine needles in the centre of the canvas. The writing could be a bit clearer but I couldn't go over it again, I would have made a mess. I then stamped the swirl random around the canvas followed by a couple of the hearts from the same plate. Next I took some Cosmic Shimmer Sparkle Paint in Lime Twist and painted the dots of each swirl, the arrow of the heart and sections of the door with it. I used Gold Krylon on sections of the other heart and parts of the door then dabbed it around the edges of the canvas. Finally I took a bottle top, drew around it then stamped the heart. I cute this out and placed it inside the bottle top, which I filled with Glossy Accents. I attached the bottle top, once dry, with silicone glue then spritzed the whole canvas lightly with Perfect Pearls mixed with water.
I will definitely be trying this again.

Arty Girlz challenge

I got two sheets of stamps from Paper Bag Studios recently and have been itching to make something with them.The challenge from Arty Girlz this week was to use ribbons, which I have just a few of :0). I have stamped one of the images from the Home sheet onto an alcohol inked glossy paper that I made the other week. I punched two holes in the right hand side of the image and threaded through some green ribbon. I love this stamps, it is one of my faves.I have taken a close up of it to let you see it in more detail. I have matted the image on foam pads and placed it on Basic Grey Lilykate paper and cut another piece of this for the greeting, which is a peel-off that I have coloured black. Both pieces of the Lilykate paper were then attached to the A5 card blank.Hope you like it.