Forever Friends, Papertake Weekly and Inspirational Card Sketches Challenges

My first card today covers 2 challenges- Forever Friends and Papertake Weekly. The challenge at Forever Friends is a sketch (above). I'm glad as I usually prefer to do sketches rather than themes in challenges. The challenge over at Papertake Weekly is spots and stripes which is a great combo.

So here is my entry. I'm busy making cards for my craft show as I'm up to date on my own personal card-giving and family orders and I needed a congrats card so thought this would be perfect. I coloured the FF bear with watercolour pencils and added Stickles to highlight the champagne. The paper is all by Making Memories from a set I love. I used a corner rounder punch so soften off the image and the sentiment is recycled off a card I'd received.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Forever Friends); Watercolour pencils; Crystal Stickles; Paper (Making Memories); Rounder punch (Woodware); Sentiment (recycled)

The second card I've made is for the Inspirational Card Sketches Challenge and surprise, surprise is a sketch!

Here is my interpretation of the sketch. As you can see I made a bit of a boo boo with the sentiment. I'd already cut round the image and then realised the sentiment was meant to be at the base so I put it underneath instead! The image is one I had, I think maybe it's Hero Arts, I'm not sure. I coloured it with copics to make it look like an England strip. As it's a card for my craft show stock, I thought every kid loves England rather than making a Man Utd card or something and limiting my audience!! The papers are Making Memories, the sentiments are both rub ons and the little circles were created using nesties.

Crafty stash used: Image (Hero Arts?), Copics; Paper (Making Memories); Corner round punch (Woodware); Nesties; Rub ons; Photo turns (Poppicrafts); Assorted cardstock; Brads (Woodware)

This last card is just a simple one I knocked up for stock. Stamp is Penny Black coloured with copics and Stickles and cut out using Nesties. Papers are all by Papermania. Sentiment is recycled and flowers are from Ebay and tiny pink gems from KookyKards.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Penny Black); Copics; Stickles; Paper (Papermania); Assorted cardstock; Sentiment (recycled); Flowers (Ebay); Gems (KookyKards); Nesties

One Stop Craft Challenge

Hi. I hope you're all enjoying the gorgeous weather today. I haven't had much time for crafting this week as I've been doing lots of work for my Dad's business and started a manual bookkeeping course on Friday to help do the company books. I also returned to my watercolour painting class on Wednesday. I've missed all but 5 weeks of the painting course but at least it's something else to help keep my mind off things.

Anyway, the challenge over at One Stop Craft Challenge is a great one. It's called "Something New". You can try a new technique or simply just use a new bit of crafty stash. I've been itching to use my Hero Arts cupcake stamps which I got for Christmas and haven't got round to using yet and also this gorgeous Doodlebug paper I got at the Glitter Pot the other weekend.

So I coloured the cupcake with watercolour pencils and added highlights with Stickles. These cards are again stock for my craft show so I wanted to keep them fairly simple but also because I love polka dots and think this paper is gorgeous, I wanted to show it off! The frame is a gorgeous Making Memories tag maker set which I bought in Florida last year very cheaply. I hadn't seen it in the UK and it looked so effective. I've only used it once before on a altered chipboard folder I did at Christmas so it reminded me to get it out and use it again.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Hero Arts); Paper (Doodlebug); Watercolour pencils; Frame (Making Memories); Stickles; Nesties

This is also for stock, I thought it'd make a great Valentine's or anniversary card. Sometimes it's great to make really simple cards! Hope you agree!

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Hero Arts); Watercolour pencils; Frame (Making Memories); Stickles; Nesties; Paper (Doodlebug)

Colour Create Challenge

One last quick post for today. Colour Create's challenge today is black, white and pink. I LOVE this colour combination and have made a card using Cupcakeabella. (I hope the blue ribbon doesn't matter as I wanted it to match with the shading). I've coloured her with watercolour pencils (click on photo to see in detail) and cut out with nesties. Paper is DCWV All Dressed Up stack and sentiment is Craftwork Cards.

ps my Audrey card below also qualifies. I'm really into this colour scheme at the moment!

Have a great Sunday!

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Stamping Bella); Watercolour pencils; Assorted cardstock; Paper (DCWV); Sentiment (Craftwork Cards); Ribbon (Poppicrafts)

Theme Thursday and Sketch Saturday Challenges

Hi! Hope you've all been enjoying the good weather over the weekend so far. It was a lovely sunny day in Essex yesterday which makes a nice change! My first card today is for Theme Thursday and the challenge is "glamorous girls". I had this gorgeous Audrey stamp which I got free when I ordered some stuff from The Stampsmith! She definately is glamorous!!

So I stamped her on some paper by DCWV - I think it's from the Love stack- and cut and mounted her up on using nesties. I really like the off-set circles, I think they look really cool. I added some gorgeous pink hot fix crystals to the pink card square. The rest of the papers including the stripey bit) are also DCWV but from the All Glittered Up stack. The sentiment is from Hero Arts and the chipboard flowers were free in a competition I won. Hope you like glamorous Audrey!

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Stampsmith & Hero Arts); Paper (DCWV); Assorted cardstock; Nesties; Hot fix crystals; Chipboard (free)

The second challenge for today is Sketch Saturday. I love Sketch Saturday!

So here is my take on the sketch. I love this cat in bra stamp, it's so fun to colour in! Papers are all by Making Memories. Sentiment is Craftwork Cards.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Penny Black); Watercolour pencils; Papers (Making Memories); Nesties; Daisy flower punch (Woodware); Sentiment (Craftwork Cards); Gem (Lakeland)

Truly Scrumptious & My Time to Craft Challenges

Hi! Hope you're all well. Another 2 challenges today and I've made cards for my stock for my craft fair. The first is a sketch for the Truly Scrumptious challenge. I've decided to rotate it as I wanted to use this horizontal image.

So here is Ipodabella- I just love her funky jeans and boots! Click on the photo to see the colouring in detail. I coloured her with watercolour pencils. All the papers are from a Papermania kit, as is the sentiment. I just did some layering with assorted cardstock. Apologies for the photo, I've just realised there's a big sun spot on it!

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Stamping Bella); Watercolour pencils; Paper (Papermania); Assorted cardstock; Sentiment (Papermania)

My second challenge is at My Time to Craft which is another sketch. I was making cards for teenage girls so I decided to go for this cute Penny Black stamp.

So here she is! I coloured her with a mixture of copics and brush markers and highlighted areas of her with Stickles and a white gel pen. I also drew a sparkly frame around her using Stickles (click on photo to see detail). The paper is actually one sheet from DCWV All Dressed Up stack which I've cut down to make the 2 horizontal strips across the card. I added a sentiment layered up on black card and some more of the paper and finished with a flower.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Penny Black); Copics; Brush markers; Paper (DCWV); Assorted cardstock; Sentiment (Pink Petticoat); Nesties; Flowers (Poppicrafts & Lakeland); Button (recycled)

Hope you like them! Hope you have a nice day, thanks for stopping by x

Sketch and Stash Challenge and Stamptacular Sunday Challenge

I hope you've all been enjoying your Bank Holiday weekend. Here are today's cards. I used the Sketch and Stash Challenge's sketch to make 3 easy cards as stock for the craft show I'm doing in July. I really like this sketch.

So my first card is Clickabella. I got this stamp for Christmas but this is my first time of using her. I think she should be called Blogabella- my husband calls me Blogaboo (Boo is his nickname for me - hence Honey Bootique!!) I coloured her in with watercolour pencils and highlighted with Crystal Stickles. Layered on rounded cardstock and nestied (a new verb!) cardstock. The paper is all from Making Memories and sentiment from Craftwork Cards (also new!)

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Stamping Bella); Paper (Making Memories); Assorted cardstock; Nesties; Stickles (Ranger); Rounder punch (Woodware); Sentiment (Craftwork Cards)

My second card based on this sketch is a Penny Black stamp. I coloured her with a mixture of copics, watercolour pencils and brush markers. Cut out with nesties and doodled around the edge. Again all papers are from Making Memories.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Penny Black); Watercolour pencils; Copics; Brush markers; Crystal Stickles; Nesties; Fine Black liner; Assorted cardstock; Sentiment (Craftwork Cards)

And my final card on this sketch is another Penny Black one. I bought this stamp the other week from The Glitter Pot and thought how useful it'd be because you could just stamp any sentiment you liked on the paper so it could be used for any occasion- here I used a Hero Arts stamp "Many Thanks". Anyway, the image is coloured in with watercolour pencils- if you click on the image, you can see the detail alot better. Paper is all from Papermania.

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Penny Black & Hero Arts); Watercolour pencils; Paper (Papermania); Assorted cardstock; Flower (Poppicrafts); Daisy Punch (Woodware); Tiny brad (Woodware)

And my final card of the day is for the Stamptacular Sunday Challenge who's theme is Birds. I've had this stamp set which came in a tin (bought as a present) since Christmas. I don't even know who makes it, it doesn't seem to say! Anyway, thought I'd do a non-cute card- so here it is! Paper is all by Laura Ashley, as is the ribbon.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (?); Paper (Laura Ashley); Assorted cardstock; Ribbon (Laura Ashley); Lace (Haberdashery shop); Brad (Poppicrafts); Chipboard embellies (Laura Ashley)

Sketch Saturday & Mojo Monday

Hi. I hope you're all enjoying your Easter weekend. I'm starting off with a card I made which wasn't for any challenge or occasion, I just wanted to experiment with doing a card other than in the "cute" style. I didn't really know where it was going, I just had fun with it but I'm really pleased with the result and I definately want to do a bit more non-cute stuff. Whatdya think?

So all the paper is from Papermania. The main butterfly stamp is from Crafty Individuals (won free from Craft Stamper) which I layered on assorted cardstock. The smaller butterflies are from a transparent set by Stampington. I stamped them on the same paper and cut out and gently folded to give a 3-D effect. The 3 flowers are all stamped on assorted Papermania paper using part of a stamp called "Life in Bloom" from Stamp Addicts. Again I cut these out and added to the paper so that they look like they're on the end of the stalks on the paper. The sentiment is by Hero Arts from a giant transparent set I got when I went to the Glitter Pot recently. Finally I added some champagne hot fix crystals.

Do you like the new style?

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Crafty Individuals, Stampington, Stamp Addicts, Hero Arts); Paper (Papermania); Assorted cardstock; Hot fix crystals (London Bead Co.)

So onto my first challenge- Sketch Saturday. Oops, I rotated this sketch for my design but have just realised I've posted the sketch rotated, not the original sketch. So the original sketch is with the text "image" horizontally. Anyway, check it out!
So here is my entry. I got carried away with the papers I used on the previous card so decided to go for the same look on this one! This totally beautiful stamp is by The Stampsmith stamped on pink patterned paper. Again just layered on Papermania paper and assorted cardstock. Hero Arts sentiment again.

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Stampsmith, Hero Arts); Paper (Papermania); Assorted cardstock; Hot fix crystals (London Bead Co)
And now for my last challenge- Mojo Monday's sketch and back to cute!

I'm afraid I did leave out the ribbony bit of the sketch as I didn't have room cos the image I used was quite large! Anyway, here's Billboardabella using one of her sentiments. I coloured her with watercolour pencils and added a highlight with Crystal Stickles on her skinny rib. The paper was from Banana Frog layered on assorted cardstock. The sentiment is Stamping Bella cut out with nesties. I also used Cuttlebug Spots and Dots folder to add texture to the square on the right hand side.

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Stamping Bella); Paper (Banana Frog); Assorted cardstock; Nesties; Spots and Dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug); Flower & button (Poppicrafts); Daisy flower punch (Woodware); Gems (Woodware)

My Time to Craft, Cute Card Thursday & Spoon Full of Sugar Challenges

3 challenges today! I'm intending on doing lots more cards today as the weather is awful here and I'm feeling pretty low so mass distraction is needed! Here is my first challenge design for My Time to Craft. The challenge is "jeans". My Bookwormabella is wearing her pedal pusher jeans so I thought she'd be great for this challenge. She's coloured in with watercolour pencils and cut out with oval scalloped nesties. The papers are all from a Papermania pad and the sentiment is from Craftwork Cards. The sketch is kind of based on one from Cupcake Craft Challenges from ages ago.

I'm going to start making cards for the craft show I'm doing in July as I'm up to date on all my card orders and my personal cards so I've got a chance to get going on some others.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Stamping Bella); Watercolour pencils; Papers (Papermania); Assorted cardstock; Nesties; Sentiment (Craftwork Cards)

This second card is for Cute Card Thursday who's challenge is pink and brown- one of my fav colour combinations. This card uses a stamp from the Penny Black T for Transparent sets and is coloured with watercolour pencils and Crystal Stickles. Cut out with my newest nesties. The papers are from Papermania I think. Most other embellies are Poppicrafts but big ribbon was recycled off an old chocolate box.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Penny Black); Watercolour pencils; Crystal Stickles; Paper (Papermania); Assorted cardstock; Nesties; Ribbons (Poppicrafts & recycled); Flowers & brads (Poppicrafts)

Finally card for today is A Spoon Full of Sugar Challenge - the theme being "How Old!" ie to make a card with a number on it. I had to make a card for my friend's nephew so here it is! I used a High Hopes stamp coloured with copics. I cut round the image leaving the circle in the hoop to provide a background for the number. Number and lettering are a Sizzix strip alphabet. The paper I think I got from Banana Frog.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (High Hopes); Copics; Assorted cardstock; Paper (Banana Frog); Sizzix alphabet; Gems (Lakeland)

Lili of the Valley Challenge & Truly Scrumptious Challenge

The challenge over at Lili of the Valley this week is Easter. I had a couple more Easter cards to make so I just thought I'd include them both under this challenge. This card is from the cutie Elzybells sheep set. I coloured with watercolour pencils, cut out with scalloped rectangle nesties, added some doodling and mounted on pink card. I can't remember where the paper is from. Ribbons are from Joanna Sheen and Laura Ashley.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Elzybells); Watercolour pencils; Assorted cardstock; Paper (?); Black fine liner; Nesties; Flower & brad (Poppicrafts); Ribbons (Joanna Sheen & Laura Ashley)

This is my other card for the LOTV challenge. I used this gorgeous Penny Black stamp again coloured with watercolour pencils, cut out with nesties, doodled and doubled mounted on cardstock. Papers are from Papermania. Sentiment is Pink Petticoat.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Penny Black); Watercolour pencils; Assorted cardstock; Paper (Papermania); Black fine liner; Nesties; Sentiment (Pink Petticoat); Flowers (Ebay & Poppicrafts); Brad (Woodware)

My final Easter card is for the Truly Scrumptious Challenge. It's very late, I did it in plenty of time and then forgot to post it! Anyway here is the sketch.

And here's my take on it. I used these lovely Art Impression watercolour stamps again with a mixture of watercolour pencils, ink pads and brush markers. Image and background shapes cut out with nesties. All papers are by Laura Ashley as are the ribbons. The sentiment is Pink Petticoat.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Art Impressions); Watercolour pencils; Ink pads; Brush markers; Assorted cardstock; Papers (Laura Ashley); Nesties; Ribbons (Laura Ashley); Sentiment (Pink Petticoat)

Sketch Saturday and Penny Black Saturday Challenges

Here is another Easter card, a card for my sister's friend which I've based around Sketch Saturdays sketch for this week. I really enjoyed doing this sketch as it was quite simple but really effective.

So here is my card. I used a stamp from the Elzybells sheep clear set, coloured in with watercolour pencils and mounted on assorted cardstock. All the paper is from Making Memories. I really like these colours together.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Elzybells); Watercolour pencils; Paper (Making Memories); Sentiment (Pink Petticoat); Ribbon (won, think it's Making Memories); Flower & brad (Poppicrafts); Assorted cardstock, Gems (Lakeland)

Hi everyone, I hope you're having a lovely weekend. Today's theme across at Penny Black is "Easter". As you know, I'm still desperately trying to get my Easter cards finished so I thought I'd do fairly simple designs for the remainder. As you can see I'm getting the most out of this gorgeous PB flower stamp I bought last weekend!!! I coloured in with watercolour pencils and cut out with rectangle scalloped nesties and mounted on assorted cardstock. The papers are from a Papermania kit. I added a Sizzix swirl cut in half and a flower with a sentiment from Pink Petticoat.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Penny Black); Watercolour pencils; Paper (Papermania); Assorted cardstock; Flower (Poppicrafts); Sentiment (Pink Petticoat); Nesties; Swirl (Sizzix)

3 Challenges!

Hi. I've been really busy trying to do my card orders this week which has been good as it's kept my mind occupied though I have had to rush them a little bit which I hate doing. As I've had so many orders to do I thought I might as well try and enter some challenges at the same time so here we go. This first sketch is by Dawn over at Inspirational Sketches Challenge.

I made this card as an order for my Mum's hairdresser who's birthday it is. I thought it looked quite hairdressery so was quite apt! The image is Stamping Bella Ohsoprettyabella and is coloured in with watercolour pencils. I paper pieced her trousers. I added some doodling around the edge and then cut out with nesties. The paper is all Basic Grey layered on assorted cardstock. Finally I added some hot fix crystals, a giant brad and sentiment.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Stamping Bella); Watercolour pencils; Black fine liner; Nesties; Paper (Basic Grey); Assorted cardstock; Hot fix crystals (London Bead Co); Brad (Poppicrafts); Sentiment (Craftwork Cards)

The second challenge is over at A Spoon Full of Sugar and this wonderful sketch by Lim, I really enjoyed doing it! I'm still trying to get through all my Easter card orders so this is another one using that gorgeous Penny Black stamp I bought at the weekend.

So here is my entry. The stamp is Penny Black coloured with watercolour pencils and highlights added with Crystal Stickles and cut out with nesties. The papers are all Cosmo Cricket bought at the weekend and mounted on assorted cardstock. I punched out flowers using a medium flower punch and added little gems. The sentiment is Pink Petticoat.

The 3rd challenge for today is a sketch over at Sketch and Stash Challenge where you can add sentiments and embellishments where you like. I thought I'd go for a different kind of look and experiment with my new stamps.

So here is my take on the sketch. I'm using my new watercolour stamps I bought at the weekend where you create your own image basically. The stamps are meant to be accompanied by a DVD but I thought "I don't need that!" Turns out it does need a bit of practice and I think there's alot of room for improvement!!! I tried a couple of techniques but ended up using brush markers on the stamp and then spritzed with water and watercolour pencils. I think it turned out OKish. Papers are by Laura Ashley and Papermania, cut out with nesties and mounted on assorted cardstock. Sentiment is Pink Petticoat.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Art Impressions); Brush markers; Watercolour pencils; Ink pads; Paper (Laura Ashley & Papermania); Nesties; Assorted cardstock; Sentiment (Pink Petticoat); Ribbons (Laura Ashley); Flowers (Ebay); Tiny gems (Joanna Sheen)

Have a great weekend. My sis and I are taking my Mum to see Lionel Richie on Sunday so we hope we'll be able to enjoy ourselves though suspect there will be alot of tears as his songs always tug at the heart a bit x