Boys Will Be Boys with the Cutie Pies

Hi there,

At last I'm back to share my DT card for the Cutie Pies Boys Will be Boys challenge.  It's been a bit of a mad week since I went back to work after my holidays and our daughter started secondary school.  All her clubs have started up again so I'm back to chasing my tail and trying to keep up with everything!

So back to the challenge and we are sponsored this time round by Pink Gem Designs

who gave us some fab digi designs to work with.  Here's my take on the challenge:

Materials used:

Digi stamp - Pink Gem Designs

Promarkers

Paper - Forever Friends A Christmas Tale

Tim Holtz On The Edge Die - Townscape

Cardstock, button & twine from stash

Hope you will come and join in with our challenge!

Hugs,

Shona xx

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges:

CHN Patterned Paper Challenge - August
Crafty Creations - #348 Anything Goes
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - #64 Anything Goes

DT Card for Holly & Ivy Christmas Challenge #12

Good morning,

I'm still enjoying my summer holidays although now I'm well into my second full week they will soon be coming to an end (boo).  On the plus side it won't be too long now until the October break and I'm hoping I'll be able to take a few days off then too, fingers crossed!  One good thing about being on holiday (and not being away) is that there's more time to craft - yay!  and I don't feel so guilty about staying up late to colour or more likely for me spending valuable potential crafting time mooching around Pinterest looking for ideas and inspiration lol!

So today I'm sharing my DT card for our latest Holly & Ivy Christmas Challenge, as usual it's a just for fun anything goes challenge - as long as it is Christmas themed.  Why not join us and get ahead for Christmas?  I actually spent a couple of hours the other day putting inserts into and bagging up my recent cards and I was amazed at how many I've accumulated already!

Anyway, back to my card...  My card for the challenge features a new Magnolia stamp, well new to me but secondhand, I bought it recently off a local buy, swap, sell Facebook page!  I got this one and two LOTV stamps for a bargain price and I don't think any of them were ever inked up!  I on the other hand couldn't wait to get stamping and colouring with them!

The papers are old magazine freebies and I've used my new X-cut border punch for the first time so I've used both old and new supplies!

Materials used:

The Day Before Christmas - Noel Tilda rubber stamp

LOTV Sentiment Stamp

Promarkers

Holly Hobbie papers (magazine freebie)

X-cut Oval, Scalloped Oval & Label dies

X-cut Dotted Scallop Border Punch

Kraft cardstock, buttons, twine and pearls from
stash

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Hugs, Shona xx

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges:

CHN Patterned Paper Challenge - August
CHN Christmas Challenge Extra - August
CHN Christmas Challenge - #345, 3 of something (3 papers)
Crafting From The Heart - #171 Anything Goes
ABC Christmas Challenge - P/Q/R - P for People & R for Red
Crafty Creations - #347 Anything Goes
Crafty Sentiments - Use pearls or strass
Pattie's Creations - #137 Anything Goes
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - #63 Anything Goes
Crafty Friends Challenge - #63 Christmas in July

Some Word Art...

Hi there,

A bit of a late night post from me tonight but it's allowed as I'm on holiday and don't have any reason to get up early (although I most probably will anyway as hubby will be up for work).  It's been quite a leisurely Sunday.  My daughter was away at dancing for a few hours and I had hoped to get on with a few chores but I went through to the office/crafting bat cave to look for something and I kinda caused an avalanche of cards I've made.  So there was nothing else for it I decided there was no time like the present and spent a couple of hours putting inserts in them and bagging them in cello bags and putting them in their correct storage space.  Not at all what I'd planned but it needed done all the same.  Every time I spend ages doing this I vow that I will do it as I go but I never do!  Is anyone else guilty of this or is it just me?  I know I'm a serial procraftinator so it's maybe just me!

Anyway I've just hopped on to share some Word Art cards I've made recently. I sometimes find the occasion or person I need to make a card for doesn't suit my style of crafting and that's where Word Art can come into it's own.  I use a website called WordArt.com and with a bit of trial and error can usually come up with something I can use as a backing paper.  Here are some recent examples:

I quite like how they've turned out and I think it's great how you can personalise them as much or as little as you like.

Additional materials used:
Trimcraft number dies
X-cut Doorplate dies
Creative Expressions Pierced Flags Dies
Scalloped Circle Die
Coloured cardstock, buttons, ribbon & twine from stash

So that's it from me tonight.  Now do I, A. do the sensible thing and go to bed, B. do a bit more crafting or C. stay up way too late after getting distracted by Pinterest?  Answers on a postcard!

Hugs,
Shona xx

Holly & Ivy Christmas Challenge #11

Hello again,

This evening I'm sharing my DT card for the latest Holly & Ivy Christmas Challenge.  As always it's an anything goes challenge (as long as it's Christmas!)

Apologies for the briefness of my post I'm having a bit of a busy week but the good news is when I finish work on Friday I'm off on holiday for a fortnight.  We're not going away but we have plenty to keep us busy at home!

The image I've used for this fortnight's card is a digi from All Dressed Up which was a freebie ages ago.  I misplaced it on my pc for long enough and luckily found it again recently!

Materials used:

Digi - All Dressed Up

Promarkers

Stardust Stickles glitter glue

Trimcraft Dear Santa papers

Indigo Blu sentiment stamp

Marianne Creatables Heart Die

X-cut scalloped circle dies

Cardstock, ribbon and gems from stash

Thanks for stopping by and also for any comments you leave for me, they are much appreciated.

Hugs,

Shona xx

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges:

CHN Patterned Paper Challenge - July

CHN Christmas Challenge Extra - July

Crafty Cardmakers - #193 Lots of Layers

CHN Christmas Challenge - #343 Anything Goes

All Dressed Up - #71 July

Passion for Promarkers - #405 Use at least 3 patterned papers

Retirement Card for a Forestry Worker

Hi there,

Tonight I'm sharing a card a work colleague asked me to make to mark her husband's retirement from his job with the Forestry Commission.  She wanted something that reflected his work so I had to get my thinking cap on.  I had rediscovered these Craft Asylum papers not long before and made them my starting point, I then remembered about these die cut trees a friend had given me ages ago that I knew would come in useful at some point then all I needed to think about was the personalisation and as it was a male card just a wee bit of embellishment but nothing over the top.

I've been wanting to make a chalkboard effect card for some time.  Well I have made some before but using black card and rubber stamps with versamark ink and matte white embossing powder but this time I had to go for a different tactic as it had to be personalised.  I searched good old Google for ideas and eventually found a good tutorial which you can find here.  It did take a fair amount of time but I think once you have a better idea what you're doing you could speed things up a bit.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out but I think with a bit more time I could have prabably improved on it.  By the way I also downloaded a couple of new fonts from Dafont to use for the chalkboard.

Materials used:

Papers - Craft Asylum, Into The Woods

Xcut Square Parenthesis nesting dies

Tree die - from stash unknown brand

Button & twine from stash

Thanks for stopping by.  That's about all from me tonight, bed is calling!

Hugs,

Shona xx

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges:

CHN Patterned Paper Challenge - July

Crafting From The Heart - #168 Anything Goes

Crafty Cardmakers - #193 Lots of Layers

Glitter n Sparkle - #248 Anything Goes

Holly & Ivy Challenge #10

Good morning,

My blog posts are a bit like waiting for a bus... nothing for ages then two come at once lol!  Today I'm sharing my DT card for our new challenge starting over at The Holly & Ivy Christmas Challenge.  As always it's a just for fun anything goes Christmas themed challenge and we'd love you to join in and get a head start on your Christmas crafting!

My card for the challenge features a cute wee digi image of a mouse which I've coloured with Promarkers.  I won the image as part of a challenge prize but I'm not 100% sure where it's from I suspect it's from Robyn's Fetish.  I'm back using some more of my very ancient Papermania Noel papers, I think I'm down to just 2 whole sheets and just some scraps left now.  I will reduce my paper stash one day (if I don't keep buying) sigh...

   

Materials used:

Digi image - Robyn's Fetish?

Promarkers

Sentiment stamp- Indigo Blu

Crafters Companion Neenah Solar White Card

Colour Vision Black Card

Papers - Papermania Noel

X-cut scalloped circle dies

Creative Expressions Pierced Flags Dies

Pearls from stash

Thank you for stopping by.  Hope you have a fantastic day.

Hugs,

Shona xx

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges:
CHN Patterned Paper Challenge - July
CHN Christmas Challenge Extra - July
ABC Christmas Challenge - N for New/O for Old (Old Papers)
Crafty Creations - #345 Anything Goes
Crafting from the Heart - #167 Anything Goes
Crafty Cardmakers - #192 Tic Tac Toe (Diagonal - Pearls/Digi/Die-cuts)

Here Come The Girls with the Cutie Pies

Good morning,

I'm afraid blog posts have been a bit of a hit and a miss with me recently and will probably remain that way for the next few weeks until I'm on holiday from work.  This is our busiest time of the year with deadlines looming at the end of this month but then at least I get a well earned fortnight off.  We don't have any plans but it will be nice just not to have to set the alarm and potter about doing whatever we want to - hopefully some crafting and blogging!

In my last post I mentioned we were heading off to Liverpool for a cheerleading competition well my daughter's team won their age and ability category and became Jamfest Europe champions!  We are all delighted and extremely proud of their success.  We absolutely loved Liverpool too what a fantastic friendly city and we also happened to be there when there were lots of events taking place to commemorate forces day which made it even more busy and vibrant.  We can't wait to go back again next year but we're going to get saving as the shops are amazing too!!

Ok back to my card.  Today we have a fantastic new challenge starting over at the Cutie Pie Challenge.  Our theme this month is 'Here Come The Girls' and we'd love you to join in.

We are sponsored by Crafty Sentiments who have some of their fab digis up for grabs for our lucky winner.

I've used one of their images for my DT card and coloured it with Promarkers.

The layout for the background is from a sketch I found on Pinterest and I've added some faux stitching to the papers to tie it all together.

Materials used:

Image - Crafty Sentiments

Promarkers

Crafters Companion Neenah Solar White Card

Colour Vision Black Card

Papers - My Minds Eye - Happy Day

Sentiment Stamp - Personal Impressions

Button & Twine from stash

Thank you for stopping by, have a great week whatever you have planned.

Hugs,

Shona xx

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges:
CHN Patterned Paper Challenge - July
Crafty Creations - #345 Anything Goes
Crafty Cardmakers - #192 Tic Tac Toe (Middle line horizontal and/or vertical)
Crafting from the Heart - #167 Anything Goes