It's been a long time!!

Thought it was about time that I uploaded some cards, inspired by the lovely Dee Paramour.

Sugar Nellie Challenge

Hi, not sure why this is called a "challenge" as when using Sugar Nellie stamps it is anything but!! I Just adore Sugar Nellie stamps and find that it some cases (as this card shows) that it isn't always necessary to use a lot of colouring as the images are so perfect in themselves.

I used the gorgeous Manga Boy and Girl and colouring them with a combination of Silver Gel pen and Marva La plume pens. I used some adhesive lace from Lakeland as I have rather a lot and want to use it up wherever possible as it has been in my craft stash for far too long now. The black(it may look brown on the photo so sorry about that) floral and swirl paper with diasies is from Papermania Ivory Black collection. The white daisy flower and brad are from my stash as is the sentiment stamp the two small daisies along side it are peg stamps which I have recently got into using.

I really enjoyed making this card and also accidentally stumbled across a "top tip" when clearing up. I usually use liquid soap and water to clean my stamps but used liquid handwash by mistake - oh so much better than liquid soap as it also brought off dried on black in from the acrylic block.

Basic Grey Challenge - Animals

Wow, Animals? now there was a challenge in itself as I had very little in the way of animals. Anyway I stamped, coloured, cut out and then glazed this cheeky little monkey from Pink Gems stamps about a week ago and then selected my Basic Grey porcelain papers. Had this wonderful idea of making him swing from branch to branch. Then spent several nights wondering how I could achieve this before deciding to forget this idea and attach him with a brad to give him some movement. For the large embelishment , I used a sizzix die and then embossed it and then touched it over with a sandstone ink pad to lift the dark green. The sentiment was cut using my "Slice" as I haven't really had a really good play with it to date. I then embossed it using the same cuttlebug folder that I had used for the large embelishment and again inked it with the sandstone ink pad to tone it down. The rest is from my stash. Can't really say a lot more as the "deadline" is fast approaching. I really must get myself together a bit better for the next challenge. I've attached two images so that it is clear that the monkey does move (not sure if this is allowed) but please excuse me as I haven't really got my head around blogging yet. Please feel free to leave comments.

Cuttlebug Challenge

Hello again, I really wanted to try the Cuttlebug Challenge for my second one and as it was to create a pocket card with RED as the main colour, I figured that it was something that perhaps I should have a go at even though my spare time was practically nil due to starting to de-clutter. This meant spending a lot of time on Ebay. Eventually, I listed the items I had selected but it is such hard work, not to mention time consuming. Then, just when I thought that I could sit back and wait, I suddenly started getting emails from people asking me questions!! Anyway I digress.

When I thought about this challenge, I didn't want to make a Valentine's Day card as I thought that it would be a bit obvious and also if I was to make one I wanted to put a lot more into it and as time was of the essence, went for an easier option. The base red card is from my stash but as this was my first Cuttlebug Challenge I just had to use my all time favourite Divine Swirl embossing folder. I find this folder to be exceptionally versatile as it suits every occasion. I also used the corset die. I found the white adhesive lace in my stash and used a Versafine ink pad to colour it (and myself) black. In hindsight (I do hindsight quite a lot), I should have put the corset through the Cuttlebug again using another embossing folder and perhaps layered the bottom of it with a contrasting colour but hey nevermind at least I got there in the end. I hope that I am still in time for the Challenge - not even sure about that now but I'll give it whirl if I can remember how to submit it as I am very new to blogging and still finding my way around.

I decided to scan this into my photo folder as the light was really too bad to risk it with my digi camera, so I apologise in advance for the poor quality. You really wouldn't believe that state of my craftroom since I made this card!! Will have to spend yet another evening sorting it out again!!

My first challenge EVER

This is my first attempt at a challenge and as I loved the colours I decided to give it a go. I started with the dark turquoise card from my stash, grabbed a corner punch (which coincidentally turned out to be Dovecraft corner punch Daisy) - a good omen methinks! I then went to my Basic Grey Offbeat pad and thought that this paper matched the carpet/rug on the illustration. It seemed too dark against the deep turquoise so I found the pale turquoise and trimmed this with my EK success scalloped edger punch (not very clear on the photo sorry - especially as I covered most of it up with the daisy trim which I found nestling in my ribbon box. This still didn't look right so I added a white background which seemed to set it all off a bit better. Finally I used Sugar Nellie Daisy stamp which I coloured using Le Plume pens. The final touches were flowers and brads from my stash. I really enjoyed this challenge and look forward to more in the future.

I am so glad that the snow was so bad this weekend that I didn't want to go out at all and it enabled me to find the time to create this card which although is far from perfect, it has put me on the first rung of the ladder. After all, practice makes perfect and over time I'm hopefully going to improve on my techniques. Any constructive criticism would be most useful. Thanks.

5th January 2010

This is my first attempt at a blog. I have been meaning to start one for some time but just never got around to it. I live in Manchester and when we got up this morning it was impossible to get to work due to the snow and ice on the roads, in fact it was impossible to get the car off the drive!! I spend as much time as I can crafting i.e. card making and scrapbooking and absolutely love it! I am debating whether to attempt a card challenge but again I haven't got a clue where to start. I will just take my time before committing myself I think. Perhaps start with something simple - if anyone could point me in the right direction I would be really grateful.