Baby Love, Baby Girl

I'd like to remind everyone about Emma's Crafty Challenge #19 where the theme this this month is "Floral"

We have had lots of fabulous entries so far, but we want more. This challenge is being sponsored by Crafty Queens and they are offering a crafty bag stuffed with approximately £30 worth of gorgeous goodies. Do pay the shop a visit, they have a wide product range, big brands and great prices.

There seems to be a lot of babies being born at the moment and plenty of lovely inspiration from wonderful crafters. I was asked to make a baby girl card for one of my husband's work colleagues and went straight to one of my all time favourite images for baby girl cards.

I used Kraftyhands striped paper matted onto silver mirri. The butterfly paper is from Josephine Wall's Enchanted Dreams CD and the adorable image is from the now retired Joanna Sheen Baby Love CD. I printed the image twice and decoupaged the baby and the bowl. I cut the doily with a Cheery Lynn die from textured card. The sentiments were made on the computer.

I wrapped lace around a panel made from a Kraftyhands polka dot paper and silver mirri. The "Baby" die is from Marianne and I cut it from textured card.

I made the three pearl stick pins and added them to roses from Wild Orchid Crafts. I finished the card with pearls in the corners and more roses at the top.

For a full set of rules at Emma's crafty Challenge please check the Challenge blog While you're there have a look at the wonderful, inspirational projects from the other design team members. We'd love to see your "Floral" creations but hurry up. You only have until the end of the month to enter.
I'd like to enter this card in the challenge at The Crafting Cafe - A baby is Born.

Lacy Sunshine Challenge # 15

Welcome to a new challenge on the Lacy Sunshine Challenge Blog. Thank you to all those who took part in our last challenge. The lucky winners have been announced on the challenge blog.
The theme this time is "Girls, Girls, Girls". Quite simply, you must have a girl on your card. All entries must have a hand coloured image, either stamped or a digi. There is a top prize five digis of your choice from the Lacy Sunshine Store The "Top Three" will each get to choose one digi from the store. There is also a GDT post up for grabs each challenge. There is now a loyalty program for the challenge digi. A discounted digi is available from the Lacy Sunshine shop for each challenge which will entitle you to a future challenge image for free if you've used the discounted one to enter this challenge. The instructions are on the challenge blog.

All the DT have been given brand new digis from the City Girls range to work with for this challenge. I was given Nicolosia - Venice City Girl.

I matted and layered a blue textured card and a paper from Bearly Mine. I had a line drawing of Venice (I can't remember where I got it from) which I printed in blue and matted that onto blue card.

I coloured the lovely image of Nicolosia with Promarkers and cut round her. I added a few pearl embellishments to her outfit.

The sentiment was created on the computer and hand cut to resemble a banner. I used foam pads to give it some shape.

I drew and hand cut a mask from blue mirri card and added pearl gems and a feather.

Now head on over to the Lacy Sunshine Challenge blog to see the new City Girls digi images the other Sunshine Girls have used and the fabulous creations  they've made for your inspiration. 

Enchanted Dreams Embossed Card

Well, another week managed to pass me by. I shan't be around much from this weekend until the end of the month, so, I've been very busy trying to get ahead with my DT  and commission work.
I did find time to make a birthday card for a female relative which happily ties in with the current challenge on Joanna Sheen's challenge blog.

I used Joanna Sheen's Enchanted Dreams CD which features the beautiful artwork of Josephine Wall. There is so much to see in every one of her images and I never tire of looking at them. 

I used a Papermania textured card for the mats. The white embossed layer is Centura pearl and a Sizzix embossing folder. The dark blue panel was created with Core'dination card and a Cuttlebug folder.

This wonderful image is from the Dragons and Unicorns section of the CD. I matted it and mounted it on foam pads for dimension. 

The sentiment was created on the computer and I finished off the card with a small Cheery Lynn leaf flourish and three sapphire coloured gems.

I'd like to enter this card in the Joanna Sheen Challenge "Embossing"

Hopefully I'll be back in a couple of days with another card to show you.

Birthday Boy

I have fallen seriously behind with my blogging and I have a backlog of cards to show. I wanted to post this one as I'm going to take advantage of a challenge that finishes in a few days.

I have made a birthday card for a young boy. He is at that awkward age between teddies and teens and he's not into football. I decided on this lovely digi image from the Joanna Sheen CD Daisy and Friends.

I started with an 8"x 8" card blank. All the backing papers are from the CD and the mats are Kraft card. I wrapped coloured twine around the die-cut panels before fixing to the card. The bunting is cut from another backing paper on the CD and attached with foam pads.

I coloured the image with Promarkers to match the papers and mounted it on foam pads. The sentiment was created on the computer and I finished the card with three small buttons.

I would like to enter this card in:
 Joanna Sheen Challenge "Boys will be Boys"
Creative Crew - Challenge 42 "Banner/Pennant"

The 12 Days of Christmas at Kraftyhands

Today sees the launch of another fantastic CD by Kraftyhands. There are shows on Create & Craft at 1pm and 6pm where the boys will be demonstrating The 12 Days of Christmas for you.
The artwork on this new CD is refreshingly different yet timeless. Everyone knows the 12 Days of Christmas song, now you can make fabulously original cards and projects with the theme.

There are 6"x 6" Card Making Sets and Stepper Card Making Sets all ready to print out. You will have gorgeous cards in no time at all.

You will find a wealth of backing papers, sentiments, decoupage and inserts on the CD. There are also Alpha Banners, Gift Boxes and Festive Plaques.

There are pages of Round Toppers, Square Toppers and some Mini Stamps. Everything is colour coordinated and perfect to mix and match to your own individual taste.

Don't forget to watch C&C at 1pm and 6pm to see more of the fabulous artwork.

Once you start playing with this wonderful CD you won't want to stop and I bet you start singing the song while you're crafting. Which will be your favourite day?

Emma's Crafty Challenge #19

Welcome to Emma's Crafty Challenge #19. Thank you for all the fabulous entries for the previous challenge. The winner and Top Three will be announced in the next few days.
This challenge is being sponsored by Crafty Queens and they are offering a crafty bag stuffed with approximately £30 worth of gorgeous goodies. Do pay the shop a visit, they have a wide product range, big brands and great prices.

Our theme this month is "Floral"

I have made a card for your inspiration but you do not have to enter a card. Any new crafty project can be entered as long as it follows the theme.

I used a 6"x 6" card base and covered the front with pink card. The embossed layer was made with a Cuttlebug folder and pearlised card and the doily was cut with a Cheery Lynn die. 

The Happy Birthday was made with Britannia dies and I added three faux pearls.

The roses are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the gold mirri leaf flourishes are from a Cheery Lynn die.

I finished the card with a triple bow tied with skinny ribbon.

 For a full set of rules please check the Challenge blog While you're there have a look at the wonderful, inspirational projects from the other design team members.

Lacy Sunshine Challenge #14

Today sees the start of a new challenge on the Lacy Sunshine Challenge Blog. Our theme for this challenge is "Favourite Things". So use your favourite things and tell us what they are. All entries must still have a hand coloured image, either stamped or a digi. There is a top prize of $30 to spend on digis in the Lacy Sunshine Store if you've used a Lacy Sunshine image. The "Top Three" will each get to choose 2 digis from the store. There is also a GDT post up for grabs each challenge. There is now a loyalty program for the challenge digi. A discounted digi is available from the Lacy Sunshine shop for each challenge which will entitle you to a future challenge image for free if you've used the discounted one to enter this challenge. The instructions are on the challenge blog.

The DT have used their favourite Lacy Sunshine digis for this challenge and, after much umming and ahhing, and trying to pick just one favourite, I chose the Melancholy Moppet Anastasia - Field of Flowers.

I used a paper from MCS Quintessential Country Garden (a favourite thing) and digitally altered the colour and gave it a brown border. After printing, I used the Grunge Flourish stamp from Visible Image and copper gilding flakes (a favourite thing).

I decided to colour the image in sepia tones with my Promarkers (a favourite thing).  I then cut round the image and mounted it on foam pads. The flowers were white and I coloured them with Promarkers too. I tied a bow with silk ribbon (a favourite thing). 

I hand cut a tag shape and used Distress Inks and Cast Bronze gilding wax to colour it (another favourite thing). I added some frayed silk ribbon and a sentiment. The Art Nouveau shapes are a Crafts-Too die which I cut from brown textured card and rubbed with the gilding wax. I managed to include lots of my favourite things on this card as you can see.

Head on over to the Lacy Sunshine Challenge blog to see which favourite digi images the other Sunshine Girls chose and the fabulous creations  they've made for your inspiration. Then choose your own favourite things and tell us what they are. We can't wait to see.

Kraftyhands August Challenge

As it's the first Saturday of August, it's the start of a new challenge on the  Kraftyhands Challenge Blog. Thank you for all the lovely entries into our last challenge. The lucky winners have been announced on the challenge blog.
This month the theme is:

"Anything Goes"

If you use a Kraftyhands product on your entry you could win a £20 voucher to spend in the Kraftyhands webshop. 

Just  to show you that Kraftyhands don't only do fabulous CDs, I've a used a beautiful topper from the die cut set called Love and Hope. At just £1.80 for two A4 sheets it's fantastic value.

I used a purple Core'dinations card and matted it with a Vintage Treasures paper. I wrapped a wide lace around the layers before covering a 6"x 6" card blank and rounding the corners. 

I matted the topper onto more of the purple Core'dinations card and added an amethyst brad and a couple of roses before mounting onto the card with foam pads. The purple roses were coloured with Promarkers, as was the seam binding ribbon bow.

Please visit the  Kraftyhands Challenge Blog for a full set of rules - you have to be a follower to qualify for entry in the challenge - and to view the fabulous creations from the talented DT. You can also keep up to date with all the latest Kraftyhands news and see sneak peeks on the Kraftyhands Facebook page and the Kraftyhands Blog.