Card share and some free digi images!

This is a card I made with Gerry Giraffe - one of Jane's wonderful digital images available here.  I used recycling packaging for the background.  It is from a Chatterbox canvas album I bought before Christmas.  I used a wooden star and handwrote the sentiment.  Blue grid pp from Making Memories.  Also added some glitter on his "spots" so I am entering it into Lucy's glitter challenge here.  I coloured him with copics .. of course!!!

The Greeting Farm ran a relay this week that I didn't spot until Wed. so I was too late to participate.  You can pick up a freebie over there by clicking here for Prince Ian and here for Mer Ian.

They are doing sneak peeks going on over on Club Anya - be sure to check them out before release date on the 1st Feb.

The above card is using the digital image - "bug in a jar" from Bugaboo Stamps.  Jodie very kindly sent it to me as I was in the first 25 to submit cards to the Bugaboo Gallery. Thank you Jodie. 

Paula over on Tales of Pollycraft is launching a new range of images - Lilybean Fairies on the 4th February and is giving away the previewed image to a random commenter each day until then.  Her image today is Clover ~ butterfly wishes and it is just stunning.  I used Paula's freebie from last Friday - SENTIMENTS to add the sentiment oval on the above card.

Don't forget that Jodie, Bugaboo Stamps does free images on Fridays too.  The card above is using the freebie from last week.  She kindly has TWO images on the site today - go check them out here.  I matted  MME Spring papers using Spellbinders Labels 1 and some embroidery floss.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Paperplay Challenge - pink, green & white

It's Thursday... so it must be Paperplay Challenge day..... this week's challenge is a colour combination.  The colours to use are Pink, Green and White.

I stepped outside my comfort zone this week and decided to do a 12 x 12 digital scrapbook layout.  I used Hero Arts paper - dill from the HA Digital kit - Freeby Flower available here (as the name suggests it is a free kit!! woohoo, thanks Hero Arts).  The flowers and pale green accent pearls were also from this kit.  I also used the Hero Arts Friendship Definition digital kit, again another freebie (so if you would like to dip your toe into the digital world... you should definitely check these kits out over on 2peas). 

The font I used was a freebie from Creating Keepsakes called CK Newsclips.

The photos are of toadstools/mushrooms that sprouted overnight in the garden one wet, damp winter's day.  They grew in the shape of a circle and the myth is that these are fairy toadstool circles and are full of fairy magic!

Wishing you a magical day, hope you will play along with Paperplay's colour challenge this week.  Thanks so much for stopping by.

Welcome to a new Baby Girl - Mealla Jane

This card is for a very special addition to a very special family. Our very good friends celebrated the arrival of their second daughter recently and I made this card to mark the occasion.  Her name Mealla means "Lightening" in the old Irish language.

Supplies: Jane's jerry - giraffe, Kraft cardstock, Computer generated sentiment - Kristen ITC font,

copics, crochet thread, MME Spring Papers, Labels 8 and pop dots.

Thanks so much for stopping by and hope you are all having a good week.

Quick share - Celebrate!

Made this card using a digital kit by Tia Bennett called Indie Pops: Celebrate - available over on 2peas.  I think it was a freebie that I picked up a while ago - still available here.  It has these vintage style cards which I printed and distressing using Tim Holtz's distressing tool.... really saves your finger nails and scissors - thanks Tim! (photo below). 

Did you see what else Tim has "invented" - check it out here... I bet it is the talk of CHA.  What an amazing design - a little suitcase no less...

Added some ribbon in a pale gold/yellow colour, stitched on some buttons and hey presto..... distressed / worn / old looking celebrate card.  I think I got the buttons from Lucy - thanks Lucy... will have to label in future!  I also received some goodies this morning from Rae Anne in the post, following the recent Bugaboo Blog Hop - thanks so much Rae Anne.  Such a lovely start to the day. 

Off out to meet very good friends for a cuppa and a catch up.  Thanks so much for stopping by and hope you are having a great day.

Lucy's Challenge #4 - glitter

My HA Flickr friend Lucy is holding a challenge at the moment and it involves "glitter".  So I made a card, using her method for stitching, (see video here) her style of card and design.  Just wanted to practice! so entering it into her challenge.

Supplies Hero Arts Anytime Messages CL129, Hero Arts Digital kits Winged Friends and Flutterbies,

MME Wild asparagus 6x6 cardstock, Kraft cardstock, machine stitching, copics, pop dots and stickles.

I made a batch of these butterflies and winged friends a little while ago and added Ranger Industry Stickles for the glittery goodness. 

I also used the tip that Kathy Racoosin gave in her blog on the 3 November last year (Tuesday Tipster) which was to run a black marker down the edge of the cut image to get rid of the white.  It really does work a treat (see top photo) and I do it on all the cut out digital images that I use.. Thanks Kathy!.

Lucy - thanks for the amazing daily inspiration.  Thanks everyone for stopping by.  Hope you all have a great week.

Giveaway over on I Spy Craftiness!

There is a giveaway over on I Spy Craftiness.  The prize is sponsored by the very talented Malinda Andrew who's card features on the front of the UK/European edition of CARDS this month.  Sorry for the poor photo...we have been having a lot of poor weather here.... with appalling light conditions!  Be sure to check out the blog here and Malinda's own blog here.

And a card share.... made this card with last week's freebie digital image from Tales from Pollycraft.  I think it is just beautiful.  You can check out the blog and freebies here.  This week the freebie is sentiments which are great for adding the finishing touch to a card.

Supplies: Pale Blue pearlescent cardstock, gisela graham ribbon,

copics, pop dots, crochet thread and papermania button

So after photographing and posting this I was putting the card away when I spotted that I had forgotten to colour one of the Mom's arms!!!! LOL!!!!  Feel like I should post it with "spot the missing...." Also coloured the baby's onesie in a pale blue to finish it off.  Still smiling here at how tired I must have been when I coloured it not to spot the missing arm!.

BTW... twopeasinabucket.com have a CHA Winter 2010 Message Board - with all the latest news from Anaheim, CA.  They also have a number of fun challenges running until the 27th where you can win goodies... be sure to check out the challenges here.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Happy Friday

Hope your week went well and you are looking forward to the weekend.  This is a card I made with the adorable Greeting Farm digital image - available here.  This was coloured about 2 weeks ago so to all you who are masters of copics.... apologies for my abuse of the wonderful medium that is copics!! ... still practicing!

Supplies - Image from Greeting Farm, Labels 8, purple textured cardstock from Papermania,

HA smooth gemstones, HA sentiment, ribbon from Papermania, pop dots and copics.

Thanks so much for stopping by and please feel free to leave me a comment.  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Paperplay Challenge - Week 3 - use your handwriting!

This week's Paperplay Challenge is set by Kate.  Like most of us Kate isn't a fan of using her own handwriting in her projects  so that's her challenge - use your handwriting on your project/card.

Here is my DT card.  I know I used this digital image of "Mia and Bosko" last week - but I absolutely love it - thanks to Jane for sending it to me.  It is available here at Squigglefly if you are interested.

Supplies

Mia & Bosko digital image, Martha stewart loop border punch, pink textured cardstock from papermania,

Staedtler triplus fineliners in pink and blue, ribbon from packaging, pop dots and copics

So after I made the first card above I knew there were elements about it that I wasn't happy with.... so I started again on the challenge and came up with this one.  Again I used an image by Jane called "spike" and hand wrote the greeting.  I added a tiny little googly eye on the dot on the "i" - so it really is a fun kid's card.

I made this for the Card Drive for Kids that Jennifer McGuire is currently running and if you don't know anything about it check out Jennifer's blog here.

Thanks so much for dropping by and hope you will play along with Paperplay this week and maybe even participate in the Card Drive too.

Another card for your Special Day

Made this very simple card with the new Papermania Linen Papers on cream cardstock base.  Stamped the frame and sentiment on cream cardstock, added the Papermania ribbon then cut out the frame and adhered using pop dots.  Added a few gems for the "sparkle"!

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Hero Arts Friendship & Valentine's Challenge

Made this card for this month's Hero Arts Friendship and Valentine's Theme Challenge - further information is available here. I made the butterflies a while ago and hadn't used them, you can read about them here. I did some masking and stamping with the sentiment as it is a really old Hero Arts stamp with flowers around it.

Supplies Hero Arts sentiment H704, Hero Arts digital flutterbies and winged friends kits,

Anita's large card blank and envelope, Papermania pp and textured cardstock,

Martha Stewart pansy border punch, Papermania pearls,

ranger industry stickles, pop dots, stazon ink and copics.

I used my new Martha Stewart Pansy punch for the border on textured Papermania cardstock in grey. 

Imagine my delight this morning when I logged on and found two, yes 2! messages telling me that I had won candy over on the Bugaboo Blog Hop last weekend...woohoo!!!  I just adore the Bugaboo images and Jodie Mackrell does freebies on a Friday and her next challenge is 30th January - so be sure to check it out here.  Thanks to Melissa and Rae Anne for the blog candy.. still doing the happy dance!

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Hope you all have a great Tuesday.

Happy Monday

Hey Everyone, hard to believe it is Monday again.  I have been missing for a few days - I have been busy making up my Basic Grey 2010 Calendars before January is over! and had some errands to run that I had put on the long finger during the cold snap last week.  So I am back!!!

Made this card using the Papermania linen papers and the new stamp range with Chocolate Roan coloured ink.  Added the gem on the "dot" of the "i".  The knot looks a bit "dishevelled" on this card, the ribbon is so sheer it is quite difficult to work with.

I also forgot to share Jacqueline's magnificent card and tag which she sent to me with the goodies last week. 

I just adore her style, use of colour, stamping, layers ... in fact everything.  I have them both sitting on my desk for inspiration.  Thanks so much Jacqueline.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Card using Mo's Digital Pencil image

Happy Saturday.  Just sharing a card I made last night and took a photo of at night (sorry folks!).  It is an image from Mo's Digital Pencil shop by the ultra talented Maurie J Manning.   I used copics to colour, matted on pp from K&Co and Papermania.  Velvet ribbon from Papermania, Martha Stewart punch and Scalloped Circles Large.

I am entering this card into the allsorts Challenge this week - which is to use pink and brown on your card.  The little girls cardi and skirt are actually very pale pink.. just photographed badly.  Will take another shot of it tomorrow and post the comparison so you can see.

Bugaboo Stamps are doing their first ever blog hop - drop by here to start and to check out their cards/projects and possibly win some digital images.

I spotted that my local Art Store got a delivery of Martha Stewart Punches yesterday (after I had visited them yesterday morning!!) so I dashed in this morning and picked up these.

and I picked up pansy punch around the page and an edge punch too.... off to create and will hopefully upload a card in a while. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you are having a great weekend.

Paperplay Challenge - our Furry Friends!

This week's Paperplay Challenge is set by Elisa and it is a tribute to our Furry Friends.  The Challenge is to make something dedicated to our friends that bark, meow, roar, moo or neigh.

I made my card using one of Jane's new digital images called "Mia and Bosko" available over on Squigglefly.  I love that you can resize digital images to fit the card you are making or do a mirror image/swop over so that Bosko is under Mia's under hand... so cute.  I am still practising with the copics I got for Christmas so apologies for the colouring!!  I added some red stickles to the heart on her top (Valentines is fast approaching!) and to one of the stripes on her tights.  I also added one of the fimo buttons I made in the shape of a heart and used my Labels 8 nesties - Love them!!!

Supplies: PP Cosmo Cricket - the boyfriend range, Image by Jane "Mia & Bosko" available at Squigglefly, Spellbinders Labels Eight, Copics, Stickles by Ranger Industries, handmade Fimo button (tutorial here by Jane), embroidery floss and pop dots.

I hope you will play along with the Paperplay Challenge this week.

I am entering it into these challenges too
My Time to Craft Challenge - Cool Cats
Charisma Cardz Challenge - anything new (Jane's new digital image "Mia & Bosko")

Thanks so much for stopping by.

My thanks to Jacqueline and sharing photos of France

My HA Flickr Friend - Jacqueline recently had a giveaway on her blog - "my scrap basket".  I so enjoy visiting her blog as she is so inspirational - her style is just amazing - be sure to go check it out.  She did a post about her visit to a little French village and took some amazing photos - click here to view the post. 

It reminded me of the wonderful holidays we have taken in France in recent years.  The beautiful winding streets covered with cobbles, shuttered windows and of course sunshine! and it was so lovely to see photos taken in the Wintertime with holiday wreaths on the doors.

Well, guess what... I won!!! Thank you so much Jacqueline - I am so looking forward to creating with the AMAZING stamp and I can smell the lavender already - beautiful.  Heartfelt thanks.

I would like to share some photos I have taken in France in recent years - and to have some sunny shots on my blog as there has been a lot of ice, snow and frost in recent times.

Mont Saint-Michel

View looking upwards at Mont Saint-Michel

La Tour Eiffel - The Eiffel Tower

Ornate Gargoyles under le pont Neuf, Paris

St Émilion

Stone pillar at foot of the famous vineyard Château Ausone, St Émilion

Château Lascombes, Margaux

Thanks for taking this little trip with me and thanks again to Jacqueline.  Thanks too for stopping by.

Rain, rain and a little Hello!

So it has rained here for a lot of last night and all during the morning.  I took this photo yesterday of the snow that had fallen on the beech tree which had frozen in place.  This snow is now well and truly gone but has been replaced with gale force winds, rain and threatened flooding!  Oh... and there is a water shortage with possible restrictions going in place!!!! Can you just imagine... water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink!!!

I made this card but hadn't posted it.  I used one of Jane's digital images - isn't he cute.  The background paper is actually recycled packaging from my December Daily album!. 

Supplies - Jane's digital image available here, Sentiment from Hero Arts, X-cut L corner punch, recycled packaging,

kraft cardstock, prima flower, copics and pop dots.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

More cards with Bugaboo Images and some snowballs!

Just sharing a few cards I made with Bugaboo Stamps - Butterfly Bear 2. Just adore him. Still lots of practicing to do with my copics.... but I am having fun!

The next card is with a Bugaboo Image - Monkey Love (was a freebie last week from Bugaboo Stamps).  Used my new Labels 8 and patterned paper from K&Co.  I added leftover ribbon from the holidays and coloured him with copics.

Off now to give some snowball making instructions .... look what it is I have to work with!!? LOL!!!

It snowed much of yesterday afternoon and evening and we had a fantastic walk in the snow about 8pm last night before the boys went to bed.  It was magical... lots of white fluffy snowflakes and snow.  This morning the top layer had become ice so it was very crunchy under foot but thankfully still on the ground.  The Government has closed all the schools in the country for 3 days until the "cold spell" passes.  Off to play some more!!  Stay warm where ever you are.... I am jealous of Dawn in NZ in the middle of her Summer!.

Thanks so much for stopping by and thanks for all your lovely comments over the past few days about my cards - I really do appreciate them.

Happy Sunday - another freebie from an amazing site!

I just love it when I come across a site that has amazing digital images and does a freebie day too!!! Well I stumbled upon one yesterday - a very talented lady - Paula of Pollycraft Designs and her blog is Tales from Pollycraft - the freebie for this week is here it is called Cherry Kisses Frame ~ Adore.  Paula does freebies every FRIDAY - be sure to check it out. 

I just had to make a card with it right away.  I used an embossed square card blank from DCWV and added the frame to an orange mat and handdrew the line to match the frame.  Coloured with copics, added a gem and hey presto! another Valentine's Card.

Then I found another freebie image called lovebirds on the site- so I made this card which could also be an Engagement Card - I left it free of a sentiment for the moment.

Supplies - Freebie images from Pollycraft, Copics, Labels One, Trinket Pins by Maya Road,

Brown Ribbon from Morex Corp, pp from Jane, (thanks Jane), Papermania Gem used in the card above and foam dots.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Hope you are having a good weekend.

Ice, Frost, Snow and a Valentine's Card!

Another Bugaboo Stamps digital image - Butterfly Bear 2... just LOVE him.  Coloured with copics.  Patterned Paper from Papermania - Jesse Edwards Collection and misc ribbon.  Sentiment from Hero Arts CL129 and Papermania pearl.  Not a great photo - taken at dusk.. just don't seem to have enough time in the day to get the photos taken.... apologies!

Hope everyone is staying warm and safe this Saturday as the cold snap that has engulfed the country continues.  I took some photos yesterday while the sun was up but didn't stay out for long given the cold.  The first one is of the ice on the hibernating beech tree and the second is ice on an evergreen bush.

Despite the cold there are still signs of growth with the daffodils starting to push through the frozen soil and the Hellebores still flowering despite the cold.  Hope you have a lovely weekend.  Thanks for stopping by.