Spring is in the air!

Hello bloggers,


have you missed me?? *lol* I have been away to visit my parents and an aunt who celebrated her 80th birthday last week. It was a very busy week for me with lots of travelling, organising etc. but fun, too!  I got to see my parents which was lovely and my mum spoilt me rotten. She cooked my favourite foods, took me shopping and eating ice cream! 
But now it's time to go back to "work" and show you a couple of cards I did. Spring has come to this part of England, everywhere there are flowers and colours and lovely smells so I couldn't resist to use these images from Ruth's new release of digis.
Tulips being my favourite flower it was easy to decide to go for that one and I love the look of the Hyacinth as well so had to make a card with that one, too.

The paper I used is by Papermania, as is the ribbon. I paperpieced the blossoms witha  Basic Grey paper (Eva collection) and shaded with Copics. The rest is coloured with Copics as well. Pearls are by SU and I used a Fiskars punch on the tulip card and a MS punch (butterfly) on the Hyacinth card as well as a scalloped border die by PTI. Sentiments are both by PTI.


I am entering into these challenges:
Totally Gorjuss - Challenge 73: Spring has sprung
Prairie Fairy Friday - Oh so spring
Sew many challenges - Challenge 48: Spring fling
Stamp Something - Spring
Creative Stamp Friends - Spring
Stamps R Us - Celebrate spring
Creative Inspirations Paint - Inspired by Flowers

2nd Mo Manning card for teenager

Back again... ;-)

For this card I matted the image (Copics again) onto dark blue cardstock and added the rounded tap punch out (SU) which was stamped with a star and sentiment by PTI. The light blue card was embossed with a Fiskars embossing plate (music notes) and edged with Faded Jeans Distress Ink. The base of the card was stamped with a music note stamp from Impression Obsession in Not quite Navy ink by SU and edged with Faded Jeans again. I wrapped a bit of twine around a corner to finish.

I am entering this into these challenges:

Bearly Mine - #3 - For Men or Boys

Delightful Challenges - Get Punchy

Samuel Taylors - Copic Chic/Promarker Gal

Craft Your Passion - #44 - Anything Goes

One Stitch At A Time - #48 - Do It With A Digi

Catch The Bug - Anything Goes

Copic Creations - #43 - We're Cool

Little Claire's Designs - #1 - Anything Goes

Stampin' With The Dragon - #19 - Anything Goes

Fuzzy Wuzzy - #6 - Birthday Wishes

Hope you like them and as always, thank you if you choose to leave a comment!

Just noticed I didn't keep it that brief actually... sorry ;-)


Edit: Oops, didn't realise you had to use animals as the subject for Fuzzy Wuzzy... it would help to read those posts properly, wouldn't it? 

Teenage Boys Cards curtsey of Mo Manning

Hi bloggers,


my little one has been very poorly yesterday and gave his bug to me, so I keep this brief as I have a blazing headache...
I had to make 2 birthday cards for teenage boys, one a keen gamer and the other for a music lover, Mo's digital pencil had the perfect images and as I had them coloured ages ago (I mean months, not weeks!) it was very quick work as well! 

I used a Basic Grey paper for the background and mounted the cut out image (which was coloured with Copics) with foam pads to give a bit of depth. The sentiment is by PTI and stamped onto white card that I distressed with Antique Linen Distress Inks. The border on the side was cut by hand with a homemade template. I pricked holes and added faux stitching as well as distressing again with Distress Inks in Antique Linen.

I am entering this in these challenges:

Bearly Mine - #3 - For Men or Boys

Samuel Taylors - Copic Chic/Promarker Gal

Craft Your Passion - #44 - Anything Goes

One Stitch At A Time - #48 - Do It With A Digi

Catch The Bug - Anything Goes

Little Claire's Designs - #1 - Anything Goes

Stampin' With The Dragon - #19 - Anything Goes

Fuzzy Wuzzy - #6 - Birthday Wishes

As I can't post both cards into the same challenge if it's in the same post, I'll repost the second card in a minute....

And another one...

Hello, can you believe it, it's me again. Hehe, I've been a bad blogger for so long and now I can't seem to stop posting!

Well, let's see if I can keep this up!

I had a browse around and found some challenges I liked but didn't want to worry too much about fitting loads in one card. So I decided I'd pick one for my card that fitted with the image I wanted to use and the Colour Create Challenge no. 62 of pink, blue, grey and white sounded great.

Apologies for the picture quality, I had really bad light today...

I started with a square card base cut from grey cardstock

The image is called "Star flower girl" and is part of the timeless beauties series by Tammy from A Day for Daisies. I am a big fan of Tammy's work and it's such a pleasure to colour them. I coloured with Copics and embossed a Spellbinders Nestabilities long rectangle underneath to frame my sentiment. I used leftover paper from Basic Grey to mat the image, although you can't see much of it but the colour was just perfect.

To finish I punched some fern leaf shapes with a Woodware punch and used Prima and Papermania flowers and tiny poundshop roses to embellish the left hand upper corner. I am not quite sure if it needs anything else but decided I wouldn't try my luck too much. All those flowers are out of my comfort zone anyway but lately I seem to try out more new things for me *lol*

Hope you like my card and thanks for any comments you want to leave, I love hearing from you!

A Mo Card for the DT challenge Blog

Hello Bloggers,

I have had this cool "Big Guy grilling" image for a while and wanted to colour him with a summery feel for a card but after doing this I kind of lost my Mojo for it and didn't know what to do with him. Mo's DT challenge to the rescue! They simply asked for an Easel card with a Mo image and I don't know why but it suddenly all fell into place.

I used some free digi papers I found ages ago (sorry, can't remember when or where) to paper piece his shirt and trousers and added shading with my copic pens which I also used for the rest of the image.

The card base is orange cardstock from SU that I partly stamped in white with PTI "Star Prints" set, the sentiment on the outside is from the same set. It was stamped onto SU wide Twill tape that I wrapped around the card. I cut out different sized stars from blue and light blue card stock that I also used to mat and layer the image. Buttons are Basic Grey and PTI and I used Linen thread to tie knots in them and to wrap around the matting. Sentiment on the inside is from a Hero Arts set.

Hope you like it and I hope the DT on Mo's Blog likes it, too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Some flowers...

Hello bloggers,

I haven't been able to blog as often (or blog hop!) as I like in the past weeks. Life is seriously busy my end but in a good way. The weather being so nice didn't help my online withdrawal either *lol*

Anyway, down to business, I have two cards to share with you today and they both use the lovely new images from Ruth at A Passion for Stamps. I love her flower images, they are just so wonderful to use on classy (at least I think so) cards.

For the first one I used the "Columbine" image and I coloured it with Copics and added a bit of a background with airbrushing. The sentiment is stamped onto the cardstock and is by Papertreyink. Paper is Basic Grey, cardstock is Bazzil and I added a few gems to the bottom corner. Fairly simple, but I like how it turned out!

This next one I really like. The image is called "Anthurium" and I coloured again with Copics. This time I cut the image out and lifted it a bit with foam pads to give dimension. A little cute bow to the stems for a playful touch and the rest is simple again, matting and layering with deep red cardstock and some score lines to give the card definition. The sentiment is again by Papertreyink.

Many thanks for stopping by today and I hope you liked my offerings. I'd be delighted if you chose to leave me a comment!

Quick cards...

Hello fellow bloggers,

I am a little miserable old mum at the moment because I don't get enough crafty time at all lately. I have had the odd half an hour here and there, but nothing "proper" for about two weeks now! Scandal, don't you think?

Well, as I still had to do some swaps and a birthday card to make, they all had to be quickies. I am usually rather not that fond of my quick cards, but some of these turned out better than I expected, considering none of these cards took longer than 45 minutes to make. I hope you agree ;-)

This first card is a birthday card for a friend of my husband. I've met him and he's a very nice guy, so I made him this. It only took 20 minutes, which I'm rather pleased with. I forgot to take a picture of the inside, where I stamped another sentiment in, but it's gone now...

Papers are Basic Grey Archaic, SU linen thread and star punch, Fiskars medium star punch, metal button from stash and sentiment(s) are PTI - Signature Greetings.

This next one is for a very nice lady in Germany that I "met" on a cricut yahoo group. Unfortunately the picture isn't that great, it doesn't show the glaze on parts of the focal image nor the pearlised cardstock or glitterpaper. Hope you still like it and that Ingrid does, too!

Not much I can say about supplies on this as image was donated and I haven't got a make, glitterpaper and pearlised cardstock are from PDA cards and crafts (I think...), I used a Martha Stewart punch set for the rings, Copics for colouring and Diamond Glaze on top, sentiment is from Whiff of Joy and Ribbon I found in the Range, no brand that I can detect, sorry!

This card didn't photograph too well, the base card is actually a leather textured black card with red/pinkish (Mica?) shimmer on it. It was made entirely from scraps and I am rather pleased with the outcome, although it looks better in real life.

The paper I used is Papermania Chatsworth Collection, Ribbon is very old stash, I used a MS border punch and Butterfly punch and a butterfly cutout made with my cricut that I glittered with Stickles. Sentiment is again from PTI - Signature Greetings and I added a couple of heart shaped gems for interest.

This next card was made to fit with the floral challenge on DoCrafts at the moment, which said to focus on a sentiment and put flowers on opposite corners of it. I think this fits the bill.

Paper is Papermania Chatsworth Collection, sentiment from My Sentiments exactly, placed on a cricut cut out. Flowers are from stash and I added some ivory and cappuccino coloured half pearls in the flower centers and around the card. The ribbon is recycled from a T-Shirt...

I liked the feel of those colours and made another card in a similar style but still different.

No flowers this time but some nice little birdies.

Papers are again Papermania Chatsworth Collection, sentiment is from PTI set "Out on a Limb Sentiments" on a cricut cutout that I threaded some more recycled ribbon through. The birds on branches are from an SU punch.

Mother-to-be card and gift

Hello again,

wow, 2 posts on the same day... must be on a roll!

I have a very dear friend who I met when I first moved to England and we have kept in touch ever since. She is now pregnant with her second and very much wanted child. She's over the moon as they've been trying for a long time. I am thrilled for her and when I saw this image it so reminded me of her!! She has hair a bit like the lady, the dress would be something she'd wear and she loves purple, so I had to colour her in purple!

And to make her smile I also made a little suitcase to match and added a pack of Thorntons chocolate "Moments" in - a perfect fit!

Here's the card on it's own, Basic Grey Wisteria again, love those papers! I used a Martha Steward punch on the lower part, SU sentiment stamp and paper roses from the Poundstore again. Image is coloured with Copics as usual... *lol*

And this is the little suitcase on its own...isn't it sweet? I used a template from Lauren Meader as I was too buried in work to make the template up myself (although it's not that difficult, I am lazy! *ggg*).

Hope you like my creations and thanks if you decide to leave a comment!

*** UPDATE: I am so silly, it took a comment from my sweet friend Julie to realise I completely forgot to tell who the gorgeous image is from!! It's another beauty from Tammy at Adayfordaisies and you can find her images on etsy.com and some on her website www.adayfordaisies.com which hopefully will be updated soon to include all of her lovely digi stamps! Sorry for forgetting to put the name on!***

Mothers day...

Hello bloggers,

in Germany Mothers day is tomorrow so I had a little bit longer than the others here in the UK to make mine. Funny, how almost everywhere apart from the UK has it in May?!

As I was doing it a bit last minute again, I made both the card for my mum and my mother-in-law to the same layout, just changed the colours a bit.

First, the purple one: I used Basic Grey Wisteria papers, SU twine, stamps are my own makes, apart from the focal image which is Magenta, pearlescent lilac card, white square card to form the easel, Nestabilites Labels Three and roses from Poundstore.

The other one is mostly the same, apart from the papers which are from MME Bloom & Grow.

Both times the image is coloured with Copics.

Sorry about the fuzzy pics, wasn't in the best mood when taking them and just wanted to get them done, so forgot to check back... oops! Now they are gone and I can't take new pictures.

Mojo Monday/DC Digi and ABC Challenge Card

Hello Bloggers!

Here I am again with one of the lovely bird digi stamps from Ruth. This time the wonderful parrot which I coloured in blue and yellow - that fits in nicely with the Digi Challenge over on DC - make a card in blue and yellow! The ABC challenge blog is asking for a thank you card, which is easy enough and as this is a thanks for a very lovely lady for helping me out big time, I think that fits the bill. And last but not least I followed the Sketch over on Mojo Monday to make this a three challenge card!

The deeds: Parrot from A Passion for Stamps, Coredinations Cardstock, Basic Grey Urban Prairie papers, ribbon from stash, Sentiment by Hero Arts and image coloured with Copics. Let me know what you think of this and stay tuned for more cards and there may even be some candy in the pipeline somewhere...

Baby season is truly upon us!

Hello bloggers!

I can't believe how many baby cards I had to make in the last few weeks! It has been totally crazy. I didn't have time to snap pics of all of them, but here are a few. Hope you like them!

This one is for my yet to be born niece! Her due date has passed and we are all waiting with baited breath. As we were there a few days before the due date I had it all ready to give then but so far it's still here with me...

I used the gorgeous future rock star image from Mos digital pencil and coloured it with Copics. I also used the sketch on Mos DT challenge blog but haven't had a chance to upload in time for the challenge end... oh, well, I'll try next time again.

Papers are Basic Grey, star punches are Fiskars and SU, Ribbon Anita's and sentiment is hand written.

This one is winging it's way to South Afrika at the moment, a friend of my hubs has given birth to a little girl. Image is again a Mo and coloured with Copics. I cut it with a circle Nestie, leving the foot/dummy and the guitar handle sticking out.

The little banner with the computer generated sentiment is cut by hand and all is layered, in parts on dimensionals onto cuttlebug embossed cardstock. The lovely twill ribbon is PTI and I love it!

It's a fairly simple card but I like it!

This one was for friends of ours who just had their second daughter. I didn't have a name yet then, so it is a bit generic... I love the image which is from adayfordaisies, I found it on etsy.com and purchased a couple of others as well. Watch out for them if you like the look of this!

For a change I coloured with Copics AND Prisma pencils and also added some spica glitter pens in the mix but they are hard to see on the pictures. Papers are Basic Grey again, so are the Rub-ons (baby), Ribbon is from stash but not sure what make... I used some Coredinations cardstock as well as a PTI alphabet set to stamp the sentiment.

This one I just LUUUURVE! It was fairly easy to put together, pink cardstock base, embossed with Scor pal and Scor bug to get the little dotted frame, layered dark pink cardstock and again Basic Grey paper (isn't their paper just perfect for baby girl cards???). Sentimemt stamped with PTI sets "Simple alphabet" and "Bitty Baby Blessings". Rub-on in the upper right corner is by Basic Grey.

Well, and that butterfly? Isn't it pretty? I can't get enough of it! It's quite heavy due to the chunky glitter on it but it still looks so delicate. It is inspired by one of those dies that I can never remember the name of, was it Marianne or Nellie Snellen??? No idea, but I guess you probably know what I mean anyway. I cut it on my Cricut though and it was actually a trial to test how well it would cut intricate bits. And I think it worked well. But when I covered it in glossy accents and tipped the chunky glitter on it it just became something else. Sorry, about the gushing, but it was very hard for me to let this one go. *lol*

Last but not least, a boy card! The only boy to be born lately *lol*

The cute onsie template was downloaded from the very talented Cathy on Mos Digital Pencil PCP site. I just placed a Mo image and sentiment on it on the computer, printed and cut it out. Coloured the image with pencils and added chalk ink to the edges, added a little bow to the top and stamped an coloured the circles for pop buttons.

Hope you like what I had to show you today and see you soon again!

Mo's DT spot Challenge - Sketch

Hello fellow bloggers,

before I will post my entry for the challenge on Mos DT blog, where I am sooo hoping to win a guest DT spot, I want to tell you how much I love her images and how much fun I had to colour them. I did the tantrum one on Saturday sitting next to my dear friends Lesley and Julie while chatting, laughing and generally having a great time! I'll tell you more about that in the next post where you'll also be able to see the lovely gift Julie made for me.

Now on to my challenge cards. I actually made two as the sketch is a really good one and there is an abundance of gorgeous images to choose from. I used Tabitha fairy for the one and "Two Tasha" for the other one. Love them to bits.

First off Tasha and her Tantrum:

Isn't she cute even with that tantrum? I used a Hero Arts sentiment, Papermania papers from the red hot capsule collection, pink and white cardstock and some scrap papers from Lesleys stash for the leaves. Tools I used were a flower punch (sorry, don't know the brand) to make the roses, leaves punch by McGill I think (Lesleys stash again...) and a Martha Stewart border punch. I added some pearls for added bling and edged all my papers with Distress Ink by Tim Holtz in Victorian Velvet. The image is coloured with Copic Markers and I added a bit of sparkle on her Tiara with a Sakura Stardust pen in clear.

Hope you like her as much as I do!

Right, next up is Tabitha, the bubble blowing fairy. I have to admit I struggeled a bit with her skin colour as I never done such a dark skin tone before, but it's not too bad I hope.

The sentiment is from Papertreyink, butterfly s a MS punch again, I also used the MS border punch again. Papers on this are Basic Grey Wisteria range (love them!) and I used some organza ribbon with added gemstones, also some gems on the butterfly body. I used my trusty copics for colouring and also added some depth to the butterfly punch-out with markers.

I know it doesn't show but the veins of Tabithas wings are glittered with copic spica pens in clear and I added glossy accents to the bubbles and her little bottle.

That's it from me for now, I will be back later tonight though with more from my meet with Lesley and Julie and also the start of my big craft clear out sale!

Copics Colour challenge/ Floral challenge on DC and my first DT spot!

Hello lovely bloggers!

I haven't got much time as I have a Stampin up party in my house this afternoon and need to tidy a bit. But can't wait to tell you that the lovely Ruth from A passion for stamps asked little old me to join her Design Team! I was so chuffed! And of course I said yes. And here is my first card with one of her lovely images. I used to for a floral challenge on DoCrafts which asked for floral image - check, some kind of stitching - check and an optional handmade flower - check! I made the flower with punched flowers from Basic Grey Porcelain papers which I also used for the backing paper. The lace is from my late grandmother and a soft pink which isn't too visible on the picture.

I also combined it with challenge 52 on the Copic Colour Challenge blog which asked for G21 (Lime Green), R11 (Pale Cherry Pink) and C3 (Cool Grey) to colour the image. I have all of those and used some similar ones as well to add depth. Some dew drops in the corner to embellish and leaves and alphabet stickers from the BG Porcelain pack as well.

Hope you like it, I do! And watch out for a few more cards with Ruth's images...