Dare U 2 Digi Stamp Challenge 9 - Sketch

Hi everyone and here we are at Challenge 9 on Dare U 2 Digistamp, I can't believe how quickly the weeks are going by! We have a lovely sketch to follow this week which was designed by our lovely and talented Donna and I really enjoyed working with it, definitely one to use again in the future. There's wonderful inspiration from the Design Team so I hope you can join us this week.

I've used my Anemone digi stamp which will in the digi shop very shortly and I've coloured it with pencils and then cut out. All the layers are bazzil and canson card, they've been distressed and pierced and faux stitched with a white gel pen on the edges and all the centres have been stamped with a PI swirl stamp with the sparkly version of Versamark. There's also a grid of scoring on the white panel, but it's not showing up at all in the photo. Added the ribbon, some pearls and the die cut sentiment to finish.

Cute Card Thursday - bit 'o bling

Hi everyone, I've made a card for Cute Card Thursday where this week the challenge is to use some bling on your card. I've got lots of gems on mine and I notice now that a rogue pinky coloured one has managed to get on there :D, dodgy stamped sentiment too which I may try to desguise later :)! I used this gorgeous Miss. Anya and coloured her with markers then cut her out and mounted with gel glue. All the layers are cut on the Cricut and attached to the front of a plain square card. The patterned paper is Bloom and Grow, (I love the colours in this paper), also some bazzil bling and plain turquoise card. Flowers are prima and gems are papermania. See you tomorrow with my DU card. Chris x

Just Magnolia Challenge 6 - Lets get in shape

Hi everyone, a card today for Just Magnolia Challenge where this week the theme is 'Lets Get in Shape' for a shaped card. There's fantastic inspiration as always from the DT, thank you ladies, I loved all your great ideas for shaped cards. My shape is I think called a tri shut card or something like that, there's a resource on how to make it on SplitCoast Stampers. The sweet Tilda with her huge bunch of roses was watercoloured with distress inks then cut out and she's been attached to the card front piece with dimension pads. I've made a punched border top and bottom from K&Co paper and done some stamping and sponging around the endges. The inside is stamped with a papermania flower border and lightly coloured and I've stamped on some flowers and added pearls then arranged them around the flower trail and sentiment die cut. Added the ribbons and some stickles to finish. Hope you all enjoyed your bank holiday weekend. Chris x

Colour Create Challenge 17

Morning everyone, hope you're all enjoying the weekend so far. Time for another Colour Create Challenge where this week the colours are Lemon, Pink Sorbet and Chocolate with an option of Shabby Chic picked by Katy, thanks Katy, loved this one. There's so much inspiration and interpretations of the option from my DT friends this week, hope you can pop over for a look and join us for this one. 

THIS IS THE LAST COLOUR CREATE CHALLENGE TO TAKE PLACE ON A SUNDAY. WE ARE MOVING TO A THURSDAY SLOT FROM 4TH OF JUNE, so you will have a little bit longer to come up with your entries for this week. In order to mark the change we will be giving away some candy for the first Thursday challenge, so don't forget to tune in!

Also some sad news this week, my lovely blog buddy Kim is leaving the team due to her family and work commitments. I'll miss her very much on the team, she's a huge inspiration to us all and will be missed by us all. Good luck with everything at Magnolia Kim and I hope you have lots more cuddling time for your gorgeous Grandchildren :)

I've used a lovely Sugar Nellie image which I've water coloured with distress inks, my pink colour is in the background but it isn't showing up too will in the photo. The background card is embossed with a cb folder then sanded and distressed around the edges. I did some sponging with vintage photo ink and added the lace, pearls and torn sentiment panel. All the layers are mounted with dimension tape. Have a lovely Sunday. TFL. Chris x

BasicGrey Challenge 36 - Doodling

Hi everyone, Saturday and time for another BasicGrey challenge. 

From the blog:

"This week we would love to see some doodling on your creations, this can be any type of doodling you can think of so let your imaginations run wild :), but please remember to use at least 1 item from BasicGrey somewhere on your creations :)

Now please remember that we will be closing the blog down next week to completely update and re - vamp it, so this will be the last challenge here on BasicGrey challenges as you know it :), we wont be able to announce here when we will be re - opening so keep an eye on the DT blogs for the news :)"

Hope you can join us this week, my DT friends have come up with some fabulous inspiration as always for doodling ideas, they're all so creative.

I've doodled dots all around the scalloped edges of my card, added a layer of BG Ambrosia paper where I've distressed all the edges, a scalloped circle die cut nestie frame and the image which is by Penny Black from the clear stamp teddy set and is watercoloured with distress inks. The image is also cut out with the plain circle nestie, doodled on the edges and I've drawn in some birds too. The sentiment is from a Papermania sentiment set, also cut out with nestie circles and then tucked beneath the horizontal panel. Added some stardust stickles and pretty buttons to finish. Enjoy your Saturday and see you tomorrow with my Colour Create card. Chris x

Dare U 2 Digi Stamp Challenge 8 - One for the boys

Hi everyone, Friday and time for another DU2DS challenge where this week the Dare is 'One for the boys'. Hope you can join us this week and put some of your digi images to good use for those Father's day cards that will be needed shortly :D. There's some great inspiration from the Design Team, hope you can pop over and have a peek. 

I've used Sandra's :D fantastic Simples meerkat for my card which is a birthday card for my hubby on Tuesday, hopefully he isn't going to read this post! The image is marker coloured, cut out and mounted over the background layers of bazzil card and a copyright free web image that I've resized and printed. I added a couple of tabs at the top which are corner rounded then added some BG Ambrosia brads. Doodled in white, trying to create a kind of leather look luggage effect, not sure if I've achieved it but I love doodling with white pen. Added my sentiment down the blank book spines and a bit of stickles to Simples cravat to finish it off. Hope you have a great weekend and for those in the UK a great bank holiday weekend, lets hope the nice weather continues. See you tomorrow with my BG card. Chris x

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #32 - Glitter

Hi everyone, hope you're having a good week so far. I've made a card for the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge where this week the theme chosen by Jane is glitter so I had to do it as glitter seems to have to be on all my cards just about! The image is 'The Handbag' soon to be in the digi shop and it's marker coloured and then stickled in gold and copper. I've cut the image and mat out with nesties labels dies and then sponged the edges with vintage photo ink. There's a little slit at the top and bottom made with a craft knife to thread the ribbon through. Background papers are BG Wisteria paper for the green and BG Bitter Sweet for the chocolate. Added an embossed diamond punched edge and it (looks like I've mis-aligned it now that I see the photo uploaded, oh well!) on the Wisteria and scored a criss cross grid on the chocolate paper. The card blank is pale green pearlescent card which has a lovely shimmer to it and I also doodled some dots around the choc paper with a clear sparkle gel pen just for good measure! I'll add a sentiment later on the right side under the ribbon, not sure who this one is going to yet. Well TFL and have a good day whatever you're doing. Chris x

Colour Create Challenge 16

Hi everyone, hope your weekend is going well. Time for another Colour Create Challenge where this week we have a gorgeous combo of Sky Blue, Tan and Ecru with an option of glitter/gloss/glaze chosen by our lovely Kim. Thanks Kim, I really enjoyed this one, I think these are my new fave colours even though it was touch and go if I had any paper that matched the colours but the lovely BG Wisteria came to the rescue. I love glitter, can't seem to make a card without it so this one was perfect for me. Hope you can join us this week and there's some fantastic inspiration from the girls to get you going with these lovely colours.

For my project this week I've decorated a ring bound canvas covered sketch book. I tore a piece of BG Wisteria paper and glued it bottom left and top right of the cover, sanded it around the edges and then painted around and over it in places with Antique Linen crackle distress paint. When the paint was dry and cracked I sponged over with distress inks in tea dye and vintage photo stain and rubbed off again with kitchen paper to bring the linen colour back again. The letters were cut on the cricut, glued to the book and stamped over the top with a text stamp and the same inks, also stamped the text over the rest of the book at an angle. All the letters are outlined with a blue sparkle gel pan and then I've dabbed Distress Stickles glue in vintage photo randomly over everything and dabbed off more in some places than others. To finish off I added some gems and pearls and all the ribbons to the ring binder with some bead trim and paper roses. TFL and enjoy your Sunday. Chris x

BasicGrey Challenge 34

Hi everyone, Saturday and time for another BasicGrey Challenge where this week we have a lovely theme to make your project inspired by your favourite icecream flavour, yummy! The girls have come up with some fantastic cards with all their favourite combinations so I hope you can join us this week. The challenge prize is sponsored by the Glitter Garden with some lovely goodies for the lucky winner.

I've used Bittersweet papers as they included all my favourites of choc, coffee, raspberry ripple and cornish clotted cream (I do like icecream :D) and I've used the papers to make ice cream scoops by cutting our some circles with nesties and then reshaping a bit with scissors. The cone is cut from kraft card and embossed with a cb folder as is the background. Did some sponging with walnut stain ink around the ice cream scoops, I'm very greedy with three of them! Added stickles in pink and stardust for sprinkles too. The card blank is cut into a tag shape with added ribbon, an eyelet and gems to finish.

I've received this lovely award from my blog buddy June and it's a very sweet one so thank you very much June for thinking of me. If you haven't already received this one and I'm sure you probably have by now, please take it for your own blog. TFL and see you tomorrow with my CC card. Have a good Saturday. Chris x

Dare U 2 Digi Stamp Challenge 7

Hi everyone and a card today for Dare U 2 Digi Stamp Challenge where this week the challenge is a lovely colour theme of Lilac and Lemon. Lots of inspiration from the design team so I hope you can join us.

I've used my Pansy image this week which will be available soon in the digi shop, the colouring is a combinatin of markers and pencils and I've matted it on lilac bazzil card. The card blank is made from lemon Core-dinations card which I've distressed on the edges, embossed with CB textile embossing folder. More distressing with some sanding over the embossing and round the edges and then sponging with dusty concord distress ink. The bottom edge of the card is punched with a ribbon border punch and threaded with lilac gingham ribbon to finish off. TFL and see you tomorrow with my BG card. Chris x

Friday Sketchers - Sketch 51

Hi everyone a card today for Friday Sketchers who this week are celebrating their first anniversary. Congratulations! I haven't entered for a while but this challenge was one of the first challenges I found when I started blogging so I wanted to enter this week. I've followed the sketch but used ribbon instead of paper or card for the panels. My image is 'Poppies' soon to be available in the digi-shop. This drawing was inspired by my blogging buddy Tara G who very kindly sent me some beautiful red poppy paper a while ago which I loved and I mentioned at the time that I liked it so much I should draw some poppies, so now I have. I've watercoloured them with distress inks and added some stardust stickles here and there then torn the paper and sponged the edges with black and around the flowers with old paper. The gingham paper is digital and the beautiful crochet flower was from the lovely Bev (thank you Sweetie), everything else from stash. See you tomorrow with my DU2DS card. Chris x

Just Magnolia Challenge 4

Hi everyone, hope your week is going well. My card today is for Just Magnolia where this week the challenge is stitching and again the DT have come up with some fabulous inspiration for us all. I've used this cute Tilda from the Spring Kit and watercoloured her with distress inks, I cut her out and then added some stardust stickles. The background paper was a scrap so I don't know the company, it's very pretty icecream colours with a shimmer. Added some layers of white card with a punched edge, flowers, Elzybells sentiment, bow and faux stitching with a pink sparkle gel pen to finish. I think it looks a bit as if Tilda is running in through the lace curtains :) TFL. Chris x

Colour Create Challenge 15

Hi everyone my card today for the Colour Create Challenge where this week we have a lovely combination of Blue and Green with an option of paper piecing chosen by our lovely Heather, thanks Heather, I really enjoyed this one, favourite colours of mine and the paper piecing well, I got really carried away and pieced the whole stamp apart from the face, hair and teddy! The girls have come up with some amazing cards again this week and some wonderful tones of the colours in their papers for inspiration so I hope you can join in. We also have Juliet joining the DT from this week, I've admired her cards for a long time so a big welcome to you Juliet.

I've used a Penny Black stamp and as I said I've paper pieced just about everything with BG Lime Rickey and Sugared papers and shaded with distress inks, a bit of stickles on there too, can't seem to make a card without it! I used the same papers for the background panels as in the piecing and I distressed all the edges and sponged them too. Added some gingham ribbon which I'm not too sure about now that I've uploaded the card :( and a little button that was part of a pressie from Martine (thank you sweetie). Hoping your weekend is good and that you've had some craft time. Chris x

BasicGrey Challenge 34

Hi everyone, Saturday again already and time for the BasicGrey Challenge. This week there's a wonderful sketch to follow by our lovely Anthea which can be flipped, stretched etc., as long as the sketch is still visible and at least one BasicGrey product must be used. Fantastic inspiration on the blog, the girls have done wonders with this sketch, all so different and inspiring, we all loved it and I enjoyed making a long card for a change. Hope you can join us this week.

I finally got to use this lovely SN stamp that I've had for a while and I've coloured her with distress inks and sponged and painted the background then added some Stickles. The patterned background paper I've made by stamping BasicGrey Pom Bitsy stamps in various colours of distress inks all over the white paper and then sponging with Antique Linen over the top, unfortunately not too much of it is showing due to the humungous ribbon and bow! The other layers are BG Wisteria and some vellum. See you tomorrow with CC card and enjoy your Saturday. Chris x

Dare U 2 Digi Stamp Challenge 6 : 2 Sketches 4 You

Hi everyone and welcome to another Dare U 2 Digi Stamp Challenge where this week we have a special challenge sponsored by the fantastic Children's Charity Post Pals. Our Dare this week is

Gingham and Stitching

but also we would like you to give a sick child a smile by sending your card on to a deserving child through the Post Pals website. We really hope you can join us and help the children too. There's a fantastic prize on offer for encouragement which is sponsored half and half by Post Pals and DU2DS with a value of £20 and includes a Martha Stewart Punch, some pretty flowers and two digi stamps. We're delaying the drawing of the winner of this challenge to give everyone a chance to get their cards sent and we realise that many of our entrants are often outside the UK therefore the winner will be chosen randomly in two weeks time. As always there's some great inspiration from the delicious design team to get the mojo going and as usual your project needs to include a digital image.

I'm sending my card to Gaby, I hope she likes it although I've now read that her favourite colour is pink, the next one I send will be pink!

For my card this week I've followed the sketch on 2 Sketches for You which I thought was a gorgeous one and I've used my butterfly digi stamp soon to be available in the digi shop. I've water coloured the image with distress inks, cut out and applied stardust stickles and added some dimension by curling the wings and applying with some gel glue. The background paper is digi gingham that I printed out and I've cut and embossed a circle scalloped frame with nesties. TFL. Chris x

Just Magnolia Challenge 3

Hi everyone, hope you all enjoyed the long weekend. A card today for Just Magnolia Challenge 3 where this week there's a lovely sketch to follow and some fantastic inspiration from the design team girls. I've used the sunflower Tilda which I've water coloured with distress inks, cut out and mounted over the nestie cut ovals. Background card is Bazzil Bling and Canson Kraft card and I've used some white raffia ribbon for the centre panel element tied with thin brown ribbon.  I added a flowery swirl stamp by Personal Impressions and a Woodware sentiment then finished off with some Stickles and tiny half pearls. TFL. Chris x

Colour Create Challenge Fourteen

Hi everyone and welcome to another Colour Create Challenge. This week the colours Chocolate, Red and Cream, a very yummy combo chosen by our lovely Mina and the option this week is ribbons, lots of my favourite things here, thanks Mina, I really enjoyed this one. Hope you can join us this week and if you need some inspiration pop over to the blog because the girls creations are amazing! A big welcome also to our guest designer Juliet who's cards are wonderful. 

I've used a sweet Penny Black image which has been watercoloured with distress inks. The cream background card is stamped with a Personal Impressions corner flourish stamp in chocolate ink. The red panel is punched with an MS scalloped border and wrapped with some lace. Added the flowers with chocolate coloured brads, ribbons and gems to finish. 

Enjoy your Sunday. TFL. Chris x

BasicGrey Challenge 33

For this weeks challenge we would like you to use this colour combo :)

Black + Grey + 1

Now you may be asking what does the +1 mean, well this means that you can choose the third colour for your creation :), sounds like fun doesn't it :), now don't forget that you must also use at least 1 item from basicgrey somewhere on your creation, so have fun and we can wait to see your wonderful creations and what third colour you have chosen :) Now to make this challenge that much sweeter, we have a fabulous prize to give away to one lucky winner. I just wanted to share this wonderful news with you all, for the entire month of May we have a new fabulous and extremely talented Guest Designer joining us, Her name is June Houck and i am sure you will all make her feel right at home, be sure to stop by June's blog and say hello , and while you are there you will see for yourself just how talented she really is :)"

I hope you can join us this week at BasicGrey Challenges and that you'll pop over to the blog to see all the wonderful inspiration from my DT friends. Those girls are so good and I love their choices of  the third colour!  I've gone for cream for my card. A huge welcome to our guest designer for May, June is a lovely lady who I've met by being on the BasicGrey DT, she's a very sweet person and makes beautiful cards, I'm so pleased that she's agreed to join us this month. 

I've used my 'sleeping dog' digi stamp for this card, I seem to be on a male card theme this week as I need  men's cards for family birthdays this month! There's a minimal amount of water colouring again as the shading is mostly in the sketch style image. Used my lovely new nestabilities dies to cut out the image and the grey mat that I received in my gorgeous blog candy parcel this week from Bev (thank you Bev for all the gorgeous goodies ;) . The papers are BasicGrey Granola which I love to use for men's cards and I've layered them up with grey bazzil card and a black papermania card blank. I added some doodling and piercing, some distressing on the paper edges and black gems, the sentiment is from a Woodware set.

Hope you have a great bank holiday weekend and hopefully some nice weather where you are. See you tomorrow with my Colour Create card. TFL. Chris x