Old bird...

This card was made for yet another Trimcraft challenge, to make something to mark a milestone birthday, and since I am the only person I know who has one coming up (next week), I made this card for MEEEEEE!!! lol ;o)


Number templates: Produced using Wordart

Papers: 'The Funky One' CD-rom from Funky Hand

Butterfly: Made from stamping two butterflies onto acetate with black Stazon, and colouring with Sakura Stardust pens and pink glitter, then layered ontop of each other, with some bend in the wings.
Antennae are silver wire and beads.

Pin: Glass-headed dressmaker's pin with two Swarovski crystal beads glued on to cover the sharp end

Blossoms, brads and ric-rac from stash

Attack of the Blues...

The first card is for my aunt's birthday. Guess what? She has a gorgeous Westie, called Gemma.


Stamp: 'Bonnie Westies' from Little Claire. (Have only used four of the squares.)
Colouring medium: Prismacolor pencils + Zest-It blending solution + blending stumps
Sentiment: Computer-generated, glazed with Glossy Accents and raised on foam pads.
Ric-rac, spiral clip & mini brads from stash.
....................................................................................

SAFE HARBOUR
This next card serves two purposes... I bumped into an old friend of mine on Saturday, a lady pastor who leads a small Christian fellowship near Ramsey in Cambridgeshire. She told me she will be having a stall for an eight week period in Ramsey's Summer Fair, and asked me to make some Christian-themed cards with scripture to sell on the stall. We agreed what prices she'd like to sell for, and this is the first... Made to a Trimcraft Sketch Challenge layout.

On the inside of the boat panel, I have used the following scripture from Psalm 18:2:

"The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. "
Stamps: The yacht is an old PSX stamp, and the swirls are from the 'Elegant Flourishes' set by Rhonna Farrer. (Yacht image coloured with watercolour pencils, and decorated with silver glitter glue for the bow wave, and Glossy Accents to highlight the boat.)
Paper: Basic Grey Blitzen Collection, BLI-348 Polar Blue (but heavily sponged with shades of ink from a Kaleidocolor pad, Blue Breeze, which is also used for the flourish on the inside of the card)
Rub-ons: Making memories 'Heidi' alphabet

Gems, navy & embossed silver cardstock and brads from stash

Lilac ATC

Made for another Trimcraft challenge to produce an ATC either with shrink plastic, OR faux stitching. Well, you can see my choice! :o)

Everything is from stash. The lilac blossom is K & Co., highlighted with Sakura Stardust pen, and the 'lilac' is my hand-writing.

RAF Officer...

This is a 6 x 6" scrapbook layout for another Trimcraft sketch challenge. The photo is my dad (before he was promoted to Group Captain and got 'scrambled egg' on the peak of his hat). It was taken at Buckingham Palace, after the investiture where the Queen awarded his OBE.

Not sure he would have approved of this layout and using uniform buttons, but he's not around any more to argue with me! ;o) RIP, dad.


Paper: Computer-generated using a shape in Word and the formatting menu to fill it in.
Cardstock: Leaf-embossed gold card
Rub-ons: Making Memories 'Heidi' alphabet
Buttons: Old RAF uniform brass buttons
Other: Gold peel-off lines

Today's creation...

This card is made almost entirely from the Trimcraft prize stash I received yesterday. (Scroll down a post for a pic of the prize.) Isn't it pretty? The agonies I had to go through before cutting that stunning embossed and glittered butterfly mat down, honestly!! I think it is so beautiful, it stands on its own without the need for further embellishment.

I distressed and inked the edges of the lower panel. It was far tooooo 'clean' for me! lol ;o)

The layout is based on the sketch from the Trimcraft sketch challenge No. 2, and will be my birthday card for my lovely Auntie Pauline. Well, either mine or my mum's! She commissioned me to make a card, so I will make another and let mum choose her favourite.

Card blank: Cut down from A4 silky smooth white card from http://www.madaboutcards.com/
Sentiment: Handstamped using Versacolour inkpads
Everything else: DCWV Blossoms & Butterflies Mat stack & stickers + Dovecraft ribbon

Trimcraft Challenge Prize

My goodies arrived today from Trimcraft for winning their Summer Florals challenge! A very pretty collection of DCWV Butterflies & Blossoms bits and pieces, and a paper piercer.

Thank you, Trimcraft! And thanks again, Trimcraft members, for voting for my project.

Here is a pic of my prize...

Ooh-La-La's Ribbon Challenge

This is my entry for the Ribbon Blog Candy challenge on the new Ooh-La-La-Creations Challenge blog. (This challenge expires at the end of this week, but there will be more!)

The challenge was - you guessed it! - to use some ribbon in your project!


Papers: Beautiful free papers from an old Simply Cards & Papercraft issue, yonks ago!
Stamps: Fontwerks (stamped in clear ink and chalked to co-ordinate with paper)
Eyelets: Making Memories
Keys & Chalks: From stash
Sentiment: Computer-generated

I won! I won!! I won!!!

Firstly, need to mention that I have been working on two new cards which I can't post yet! Watch this space.

Secondly... Yayyy.. I won the vote on the Trimcraft Summer Florals Challenge! No idea what the prize is, but I'm sure it will be lovely!

Want to thank everyone who voted for my tag book. How humble it makes you feel to be counted equal to some really lovely creations in the final five. It's done my ego no end of good!! lol

I am finding that I love doing challenges and competitions, as they really force you to try and think outside the box and stretch your usual boundaries, so it's really good for developing your skills. It really isn't all about winning prizes (although, I have to admit, that's very nice, too!! ;o)

Here, again, is the winning tag book...

Karma Chameleon..

Red, gold and green.... for the Trimcraft forum's Tuesday Challenge #4. The challenge was to produce something in red, gold and green, but NOT Christmas-themed! :o)

Embellishments: From stash

Peel-off greeting: Anita's

Embossing: Cuttlebug 'Swiss Dots' embossing folder

Siren

This was made for the second official Trimcraft challenge... stamping. It uses four different stamps, plus resist technique, triple-embossing, watercolouring, doodling, glittering, thread-wrapping, acetate, you name it! Oh, and the white flourish at the bottom was hand-drawn & cut.

Funky Hand CDs

Just had to share this with you.. When I joined the Funky hand design team, Anice sent me the three current CDs, but - having seen how great they were - I also wanted the three earlier CDs that Funky Hand had produced, and they arrived today.. have just finished checking them out. Well.. all I can say is "WOW!!!" there are some seriously, gob-smackingly breath-taking papers on those CDs!! I feel my mojo stirring right now! lol

You would be doing yourselves a huge favour by checking them out, but the pictures on the web-site do NOT do them justice, believe me!

Would I lie to you? ;o)

Simply Cards & Papercraft #46 ~ Free Papers

Was challenged by Jules* to create something using the free papers from SC&P #46, and here it is. These papers were printed on the diagonal, but I wanted them straight. I have also used a Cuttlebug 'Happy Birthday' embossing folder and a Penny Black stamped image from an old forum swap. It had 'Sweet Slumber' written on the back.

* Check out Jules' blog.. She is another of my crafting heroines! Truly inspirational!

Can't believe it!!

Votes on my Trimcraft project are running at 32% at the moment! Woohoo! One of the other projects that I love is coming up fast on the rails, though!! The race is on! (I think she should win, though.. her project is lovely!!)

To check out the five finalists, go HERE.

And to have your vote, register on the Trimcraft site by clicking on the banner. (Highly recommended.. it's a very active, fast-growing yet still warm and chilled out forum. Err.. warm AND chilled out? Now, that's quite an achievement! lol) ;o)

Hedgehog Mama...

This card was made for Carol, Funky Hand design team mate, who discovered a nest of baby hedgehogs in the tortoise house in her garden a few days ago. (See her blog for pics of the hoglets, and some awesome cards, to boot!)

The card uses papers from the Shabby Saturday download, available on the Funky Hand web-site, HERE.

Heartfelt Blessings...

Two firsts in this one for me. It was made for another Trimcraft challenge... gatefold, which is not a shape I have ever made before. I stick to single fold portrait cards. Square cards are adventurous for me!! lol, so this was a stretch.

It is also my first card with my one and only Tilda stamp! Somewhat customised with some doodling.

Please note that the red heart on the right IS made of felt!! ;o)

Mr & Mrs Hiss...

This simple card was made for my Funky Hand design team-mate, Enfys (you should check out her blog.. she's sooooo talented!!). She lives in Florida, and was recently plagued with a family of black racer snakes (non-venomous, but nerve-wracking all the same, if you feel about snakes the way I do about spiders!! Yuck!). She managed to get rid of them by using a product available in them there parts called 'Snake Away'. The unfolding story on her blog was hilarious, so thought the departure of the snakes warranted a card.. which she has now received, so I am safe to post the pic!! :o)

I used a flamingo stamp to create the background, a Cuttlekids snake double die-cut and the 'Miss You' sentiment is from the 'Now That's Funky' CD from - you guessed it! - Funky Hand. And, of course, the ever-present doodling and inked edges! If my new flourish stamps had arrived on time, it probably would have had some of them, too!! Everything else is getting the flourish treatment! lol ;o)

Omigosh, don't think my heart can take it!

Hello, bloggy-pals! :o)

Forgive my crowing, but I'm excited! I have been selected as a finalist in the Trimcraft 'Summer Florals' Challenge, and the members of the forum are voting on the five shortlisted entries. As I write, mine has 26% of the vote.. the biggest share!!! The winner will be announced on Monday, and get some stash for their efforts. Not sure how MUCH stash, but it's all good, right? :o) Not sure I'll be able to contain my excitement!

Of course, the status quo could change, and to be honest, I think it should, as there are some much better entries than mine.

Anyway, check out the entries HERE.

Mermaid ATC

For another challenge on the Trimcraft site calling for ATCs using eyelets.


The stamped image used in the background is a cropped section from one of my favourites, but I rarely get to use it... It's from Stampland Chicago. Anyone into stamping would do well to invest some time in browsing their catalogue of amazing stamps! Follow the link HERE.

The stamp is called 'Swept Away' 4142-39 and can currently be found on P.41 of their catalogue, HERE.

BLOG CANDY WINNER!!

Thank you to all those who entered the draw for my blog candy, and especially to those who linked to me from their blogs, even when not asked to. Bless you!

Thank you also for the giggle! Some hilarious comments... You know who you are!! lol ;o)

Right.. OK.. I suppose you'd like to know who's won then? hehe

Well, I decided to use the Random Generator website to produce a random sequence from the number of entries, having first given a numerical label to everyone who entered (stripping out duplicated messages, and my responses to some of them).

The Random Generator came up with the following number at the top: 11

And the numerical label that corresponds with No. 11 is ............. (drumroll please) ..........

Cazzy!

Congratulations! I'll leave a message on your blog.

Trimcraft 'Summer Blooms' Challenge Entry ~ Scrap Layout

Hey, Karen!! You're famous, honey!! Well... OK... even MORE famous... as opposed to infamous! lol ;o)

This scrap page was a last minute attempt to produce something else for the Trimcraft Summer Florals Challenge, but I'm not very pleased with it. Fortunately, the paper carries it, I think, but the turquoise ribbon was a mistake. Still, not bad for saying I was in a hurry, I s'pose.

The photo is of my beatiful daughter, Karen (if you hadn't gathered! lol ;o), taken at Ascot in the summer of 2004.



The page uses Dovecraft paper (for the brownie points!! lol ;o), but I couldn't tell you which pack (because I'm too gosh-darned lazy to go downstairs and look. Ask me if you would like to know and I will move my derrière to go and find out). The flourishes are Rhonna Farrer's 'Elegant Flourish' stamps. The page title is computer-generated, and the flowers were découpaged using blossoms from another page of the same paper.

If I'd had more time, I would have finished it off with some lovely buttery yellow gold accent beads in the flower centres, some buttons or brads, possibly some doodling... maybe some faux stitches, but then, you can fuss with things too much and push it too far the other way.