Dare U 2 Digi Stamp Challenge 18 - Distressing

Hi everyone, happy Friday and here's my card for this week's Dare U 2 Digi Stamp challenge. This week we have a dare of distressing and some great inspiration from the design team so we hope you can join us. We also have a guest designer this week and for the month of August, the lovely Jen has agreed to join us and has made a beautiful card, so welcome Jen and we hope you enjoy your stint on the team.

I've used my garden anemone image which will be available soon in the digi shop for this card and coloured it with markers and added some stickles to the centres of the flowers. I've distressed the edges with scissors and sponged all over with distress ink in old paper and a little touch of dried marigold then the edges with vintage photo. The card blank and matting layer is Apricot Bazzil card and the background paper I made by typing up the definition of anemone and printing out. I inked it all over with the same inks as before, screwed up into a ball, flattened out and then inked the surface lightly with vintage photo. The piece was then ironed flat again (seem to use my iron for craft more than for clothes, whoops!!) and distressed all the edges with scissors. I've finished off with a half pearl, lace edging tied in a bow and a yellow button sewn on with embroidery floss. Hope you all have a lovely weekend. TFL. Chris x

Colour Create Challenge 24 - Pink, Orange, Green

Hi everyone, my card for Colour Create Challenge today where this time there's a lovely colour combo of pink, orange and green with an option of hearts picked by my DT friend Dena, a lovely choice I think so thanks Dena, I enjoyed doing this one. There's gorgeous inspiration from everyone on the team so I hope you'll pop over there, have a look and join us for the challenge, there's a lovely prize on offer this week from our sponsor Crafty Ribbons so even more reason to join in.

I've made a little flower pot pocket card, I really love these, they're so cheerful, I got the instructions to make it from Split Coast Stampers and they're very easy to make. I forgot to take a photo showing the greeting tag part of the card outside of the pocket, will try and get another photo for that. I found some pretty paper with orange, pink and green which is Sonomo by Scenic Route, I used this for the bottom of the flower pot and I also cut out some of the flowers from the paper and used these for the decoration at the top. The base card is green bazzil and I've punched a border on the pot rim with a Fiskers apron lace punch. The sentiment on the tag is by Penny Black and I added some orange BG Tulle to keep the card closed, some buttons, embroidery floss and a little silver heart charm to finish off. TFL. Chris x

BasicGrey Challenges back in August!

Hi everyone, I'm very excited to tell you that the BasicGrey Challenges will be re-launching in August with a fantastic new look blog, courtesy of my very talented blog friend Martine and with a HUGE BLOG CANDY to celebrate! There are lots of changes to make the challenges even more fun to enter so I hope you'll go over there and have a look, enter the blog candy draw and join us for our first challenge of the re-launch very soon. Chris x

A spoon full of sugar #62 - Sketch by Caryn

Hi everyone, hope you're all having a good start to the week and not too much rain if you're here in the UK! I have a card today for A spoon full of sugar which is my guest design team card made to a gorgeous sketch by Caryn, thanks Caryn, I loved your sketch and will be using this one again. Thanks very much to Karen for asking me to be her guest designer for this week, it's a real honour and I very much enjoyed myself. I've used the gorgeous lion stamp from High Hopes and coloured him with markers, cut out with a nestie circle and then doodled and sponged around the edges. The background paper is Imaginisce and the brown embossed panel is Core'dinations card that I put through the Cuttlebug with branches folder and then sanded. I added the leaf ribbon, PM sentiment and more doodling and sponging with some card candy to finish off. The card was sent to a very special little boy who was 10 last week and I heard that he liked it so I'm very pleased.

Papertake Weekly - Colour combi

Hi everyone, hope you're weekend is off to a good start. I'm entering my wallet card into this week's Papertake Weekly where they have a colour combi challenge and you can pick from a list of colours. As the wallet is promdoninently black white and green I've gone with that choice from the list although there are one or two other colours in the image, hoping to get away with that :). The photo's are courtesy of Tara and Georgia as I'd already sent this and forgot to take some pics, so thanks girls for helping me out, much appreciated. The image and sentiment are Elzybells, very cute and the sentiment always makes me laugh. I got the instructions for the wallet from Sue (thanks Sue x) who did a great tutorial and I was so pleased with how it came out, it's the perfect size for sending bits and pieces to friends. Not much else to say really, image is coloured with markers, background paper is by BasicGrey and the black card is Core'dinations. Enjoy your Saturday. Chris x

Dare U 2 Digi Stamp Challenge 17 - Sketch by Larissa, Copic Create - Botanicals

Hi everyone, my card for Dare U 2 Digi Stamp where this week we have a great sketch by my talented DT friend Larissa, thanks Larissa, I really enjoyed working with it and I hope you like my interpretation of it :D. I'm also entering this card into the Copic Creations Challenge where the theme is botanicals so I've used my new fuschia digi image (soon in the digi shop) and coloured with Copic markers. To make the card I used a Papermania scalloped card blank and sponged all over it randomly with distress inks in peeled paint and scattered straw. I scored double lines top and near to the bottom on my scoreboard to interpret the green shapes on the sketch and then added a piece of Making Memories Fa la la paper in between them. I tore the card for my image and sentiment into rough circles and also sponged these all over and mounted on dimension tape with some satin edged burgundy ribbon. Added some stickles and a pearl to finish. TFL. Chris x

Just Magnolia 14, Sketch Saturday 60, A spoon full of sugar 61

Hi everyone, a card today for three challenges where there's great inspiration from the DT's, Just Magnolia 14 - Buttons, I have three, Sketch Saturday 60 a lovely sketch which I've flipped and A spoon full of sugar - Swirls, I've embossed my card blank with the swirly flowers folder and there are some swirls in the K&Co PP. I've watercolured my image with distress inks and then cut her out and mounted her over the Nestie Labels die cuts. The cream bazzil card blank has been sponged with peeled paint as have all the papers and die cuts. Added some pink ribbon, buttons [thank you Martine :)], a doodlebug rub on and stardust stickles to finish. TFL. Chris x

Our Creative Corner - Triple Play

Hi everyone, I hope you had a good weekend. A card today for Our Creative Corner where the challenge this week is 'Triple Play'. There's a list of embellishments and you have to pick three from the list to use on your card. I've used bling, ribbon and lacquer (glossy crackle accents in this case on the big flower. Just about everything on this card came from my lovely blog buddy Tara in a gorgeous RAK she sent me, thank you Tara, it's all beautiful! I coloured this little Ketto image with markers, cut out with square nesties and mounted on pink core'dinations scalloped nestie cut out and I've added a little half pearl to the flower centre and Papermania sentiment. The card blank is cut from aqua bazzil layered with more pink card and then the very pretty paper from Tara (don't know the brand but it's really gorgeous) I added a big bow and ribbon band across the centre which is very sheer and wide and it's dotted with little sparkly gems. The die cut flower at the bottom was also from Tara :) and was white so that I could colour it which is great. I coloured with markers then added the crackle accents, a punched stamen and pearl. Everything is mounted with 1mm and 2mm dimension tape. TFL. Chris x

Dare U 2 Digi Stamp Challenge 16 - Anything but a card

Hi everyone, heres my creation for our latest challenge on Dare U 2 Digi Stamp where this week the dare is to make anything but a card. My DT friends came up with some wonderful ideas and creations for this so I hope you can join us this week.

I've made a tag and wrapping paper by blowing up my bluebell image to A4 for the paper and by about 25% for the tag and then cut out the tag shape. Both are coloured by blending with alcohol inks in several shades with silver mixed in and are in fact the same colour IRL but the silver in the tag is catching more light I think because of the angle. With the tag I also over stamped the image with a text stamp in black stazon ink as I used shiny white paper to print my images. Finished off with a sentiment stamp, an eyelet set into the tag and pink ribbons. Amazingly no Star Dust stickles was used in the making of this set :D. TFL. Chris x

Colour Create Challenge 23 - Blue and White

Hi everyone, a card today for Colour Create where this week our colours are chosen by Mina, thanks Mina, I loved them and really enjoyed working with the theme choice of Vintage too. We've also been joined this week by our new team member Janniel, who's an extremely talented lady, it's good to have you on the team Janny! We also have sponsors from this fortnight onwards which is good with some great prizes to be won, so even more reason to join in the challenge. This week our sponsor is Simon Says Stamp who are offering a $25 gift voucher and free shipping to the prize winner!! I hope you can join us and there's great inspiration from my DT friends.

I've used a Penny Black stamp for this card, one of their Victorian style stamps that seemed to go with the vintage theme and it's water coloured with distress inks. The background paper might be BasicGrey, I threw away the bottom strip before I read what it was :D. I added a square doily for a bit more of a vintage look, roses, prima flowers and the leaves and flower centre stamens were a pressie from my friend Tara (x), these have been sponged around the edges. I finished off with a bit of Star Dust stickles for some sparkle. TFL. Chris x

Just Magnolia challenge 13

Hi everyone, hope you're having a good week and a bit of sun here and there. This card is for the Just Magnolia challenge where this week there's a great sketch from Mina which I loved working with, thanks Mina, it's a goodie :). I've used a sweet Tilda from last summer, coloured with markers and then cut out, I could have arranged the cut out a bit better, it looks a bit like she's floating in space, I attached the horizontal strip a bit too far up. The papers are all imaginisce and they've all been sponged around the edges, also the cut out flowers. The card blank is embosed with the Moroccan screen embossing folder and I've added a doodlebug rub on sentiment and stickles here and there which is just about showing up in the photo. See you tomorrow with my colour create card. TFL.

Note: Pop over to Hero Arts new website, they're celebrating their launch with some fantastic prizes!

Chris x

Dare U 2 Digi Stamp Challenge 15 - Pink, Black, White

Hi everyone, time for this week's Dare U 2 Digi Stamp challenge and this week we have a colour combo of pink, black and white as our theme. Hope you can join us and there's some great inspiration on the blog from the DT, I loved all the shades of pink everyone came up with.

I used a new Fairy image for this card and she's going to be available later today with three others. I've coloured with pencils, sponged the edges with black distress ink, smothered with stickles and added pink gems. The card blank has been stamped around the edges with a long border stamp by Stempelglede and sponged with black distress ink. I added some pink tulle at the side and as a bow at the top. Have a good Friday. TFL. Chris x

All Sorts Challenge

Hi everyone, a card today for the All Sorts Challenge where this week they're asking for a shaped card. I have no idea if there is a name for the card I've made but I know it's been around for quite a long time, I think I got the dimensions from Splitcoast stampers originally but never got around to making one. It's a easy to make up, just cut a piece of card 12 inches wide by 4 inches deep, score at 4 inches and eight inches and then score the two outside squares in the middle on the diagonal left to right. I coloured a sweet Sugar Nellie image with pencils, used some BasicGrey Lemonade paper, added some stickles, some distressing and sponging around the image edges, a prima flower and BG button tied with embroidery cotton. My camera seems to have really picked up on the lime, it seems a lot softer IRL, hope I haven't burned anyone's eyes :D. Hope you're all having a good week. Chris x

Alota Bugs Post

Hi everyone, a card today for Pile it on Challenge where this week three different kinds of embellishment must be used plus combining the card with at least one other challenge, Daring Cardmakers where the challenge is 'blue and green must never be seen' and the predominant colours of the card must be blue and green. I've used an Alota Rubber Stamps image and coloured with markers. The background paper is June Bug by BasicGrey with green Bazzil and blue Canson card. My three embellishements are the ribbon, gems and stickles glitter glue. TFL. Chris x

Just Magnolia #12 - Copic Creations #7

Hi everyone, hope you're having a good weekend so far. I've made a card for Just Magnolia challenge 12 where this week the theme is 'so charming' and a charm must be used and also for Copic Creations no. 7 where the challenge is 'brunette hair'. Thank you ladies for all the gorgeous inspiration which certainly boosted me to make a card. I've stamped my sweet umbrella Tilda and coloured her with copic markers then given her some glitter with star dust stickles. I've mounted her over a layer of pale pink Core'dination card one of which has been punched with an MS lace doily punch and they're attached with dimension foam over the card blank made from Scenic Route cardstock. Added some flowers, ribbon, a little silver doll charm, Doodlebug candy dots and some sponging with vintage photo distress ink to finish. TFL. Chris x

Dare U 2 Digi Stamp Challenge 14 - Embossing

Hi everyone, a card today for Dare U 2 Digi Stamp Challenge 14 and this week the dare is to use embossing on your project. Hope you can join us this week.

I've used my new Butterfly Catcher image, hopefully available next week and I've coloured her with pencils and added some Star Dust Stickles. I've dry embossed some lines on the edges of the image and then inked around with a blue chalk ink pad before mounting with dimension tape on another piece of white card. The background piece is dry embossed again in a criss cross grid and I've also stamped and embossed down the right side of the panel using versamark ink and holographic embossing powder. It has a lovely shimmer but I wasn't able to catch it in this photo. TFL. Chris x

Colour Create Challenge 22

Hi everyone, hope you're all well, I haven't quite melted yet but I'm close, hope you're all surviving! Time for another Colour Create challenge and this week the colours are Grass Green, Apple Green, Sunflower Yellow, Lemon and White with the option of decorating your card inside and out plus the envelope. I hope you can join us this week for this lovely summery combination and when you visit the blog you'll see some fabulous cards from all my DT friends, they're all so beautiful. You'll also see when you visit there are going to be some changes but I'll leave you to read about that yourselves when you pop over.

I've used some absolutely adorable little Elzybells bears and this set comes with the bears, the present and sentiments too. I've coloured with markers and pencils and the unopened present has been cut out and mounted on dimension tape. The colourful backgrounds (hope you've got your shades on) were created with distress inks sponged onto white card, spritzed with water from a mister and then dried with a heat gun which gives the mottled effect. All the edges have been sponged with walnut stain ink. There's a bit of light sponging with all the colours around the bear with the balloons and around the sentiment on the front of the card too. I added a thin ribbon, some stickles and stamped the envelope with the present stamp in the ink colours used for the background.

I just wanted to mention that I still haven't been able to resolve the problems I've been having with blogger but thank you to everyone for their suggestions when I asked a question about it a few posts back. My problem isn't Internet Explorer as I don't use it but I've now had to take away my followers box as someone suggested that this might be a cause. Apologies for this, I really didn't want to do it but I've been having so much hassle when I try to add anything to my sidebar and this is the answer for that. It's also been mentioned that my blog doesn't load properly for some people and I still can't moderate my comments individually, I've still to track down why that's happening. TFL. Chris x