Sketch Saturday DT Double

I was blog hopping this morning looking for inspiration and found that the challenge blog Sketch Saturday http://sketchsaturday.blogspot.com/ is looking for design team members. I thought seen as I loved the sketch this week that I would make 2 cards instead of the usual one and see if I'm lucky. You never get anywhere if you don't try right. Here's a pic of the sketch. If you fancy your luck too or just want to try the sketch anyway follow the link and go have a look see at her lovely example cards.



And here are my cards:



The first one was asked to be a Christmas card. Since getting my whiff of joy stamps I have been itching for the opportunity to use them all, so this time I chose Charlotte and her cat. I colored her in using my watercolor pencils and aqua painter. Her hat and muff have fun flock on them. First time I have ever used it. It was a lot of fun but a little messy.LOL. The cardstock is Soft Sky, Black and Whisper white. The DP is called figgy pudding from Basic grey. It is 2 sided I used the other side for my middle panel. The sentiment is from SU warmest regards. The card was finished with a flower punch and a snowflake brad.



For the second card I flipped the sketch over and made this birthday card. I need some masculine cards desperately as I have a few male birthdays coming up and did not want to have to resort to hallmark at short notice. For this card I used the same SU set for the sentiment but pulled out my awesome TAC set called take pride for the image. First time to ink for this baby. I have been neglecting a lot of my stamps lately. I seem to buy them and then I forget I have them. So I intend to try and work though my sets TAC, SU and others and see if I can make at least one card per set. The DP is HOTP and the middle strip is some awesome cardstock that my friend Sonya sent me ages ago from the Netherlands. "Look Sonya I finally got around to using it. Thanks again" It is textured and looks just like elephant skin. Other cardstock used is creamy caramel, black and very vanilla. I used my large star punch, spiral binding punch, and 2 circle punches. I also used a large brad and my crop-a-dile.

Trina's Blog Candy Sketch

I couldn't wait any longer. I finally inked up one of my Whiff of Joy stamps. I am so excited. I just love these images they are so darn cute. I followed Trina's sketch from her blog candy on her blog. She has some great things up for grabs. If you would like the chance to enter go take a look at her awesome blog http://trinastreasures.blogspot.com/

Cardstock - Blue Bayou, Wild Wasabi and Soft Sky

DP - Heidi Grace
Stamp - Whiff of Joy (Charlotte)
Colored using watercolor pencils
some glitter added to image and sentiment using glitter pen
Scallop and circle punches,
Snowflakes Cuttlebug folder,
Blue Bayou Ribbon
snowflake brad

Same Day Another Celebration

So I told you about my Dad and my Daughter sharing the same birthday. Well the same day also brings with it my Sister and BIL's anniversary. Yes, I kid you not they are all on the same day. In fact my own wedding anniversary comes just 2 days before their's too. So I am in for a busy time in the next couple of weeks. Not to mention the kids go back to school next week. I will apologise now if I am not posting regularly as I have alot on my plate. Anyways onto the card. I used Friday Sketchers #15 challenge for this card. Again I made the card not square but 5.5 x 4.2 inches to allow me to mail it to the UK.



Cardstock - chocolate chip and rose red
Stamp Set - Essence of Love
Ink - chocolate chip and rose red
Image clear embossed.
Cuttle bug folder for background.
Ribbon to finish.

My Whiff Of Joy stamps have arrived! I am so excited. I am gonna have to squeeze in some time for them no matter what.

A Horse for Dad

My dad's birthday is fast approaching. Main reason I know this is because so is my Daughter's and they share the same birthday date. Even though we are so far away from him she shares a special bond with her Bampy. With this in mind today I decided to work on making a card for him. He loves horses. Mainly Clydesdale (Shire) horses. You know the one's that pull the Budweiser cart. Anyway I don't have a stamp of those but what I do have is some magnolia images that Renee sent me and it just so happens that among them was some horse images so I decided to use one of those. I also had some left over paper from a couple of scrapbook pages that I wanted to use with it.

Cardstock: Old Olive and Real Rust

DP: Unknown

Image: Magnolia
Embellishments: Buttons, hemp cord and Dimensionals

The card seems to work well for a couple of challenges this week so I am going to enter it on Cute Card Thursday and Papertake Weekly. It was a simple card but took a while due to my mojo being a little on the fritz. Still I think it came out well in the end.

Two Swaps - One Card

Over on Joani's MSN group she had some cool swaps going on and as usual I was having a really hard time choosing which of her great ideas to choose. In the end I chose to do 2 swaps. One was a color swap for Pink and Brown and the other was a scallops and circles swap. I hoped I would get different partners in each of the swaps so I could make just one type of card to suit both swaps. Luckily I did end up with all different partners so I was able to make all the cards the same. Hopefully my partners will like the card I made. I used Sketch Challenge 187 on Splitcoast Stampers to inspire this card.



Cardstock - Pixie Pink, Espresso and White
Misc Designer Paper
Ink - Chocolate chip
Pink water color pencil and aqua painter
Scallop edge, mega and giga scallop circle punches
Stamp set - SU Blooming With Happiness
Embellishments - White ribbon, glue dots, Flowers, white metal dots

I Got An Award...

From my lovely blogging buddy Renee - http://angelrenees.blogspot.com/. She's also in the same MSN Group (Cards Made By Hand) too. She makes some really nice cards. Pop on over and take a look.



The rules are:

1. The winner can put the logo on her blog.

2. Link the person you received your award from.

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4. Put links of those blogs on yours.

5. Leave a message on the blogs of the girls you’ve nominated


I'd like to nominate the following people:

1. Lucy - http://midnightmaddness.blogspot.com/

2. Katharina - http://katharina1704.blogspot.com/

3. Kim - http://kraftinkimmieskorner.blogspot.com/

4. Libby - http://stampinlibby.blogspot.com/

5. Emily - http://emilygiovanni.com/

6. Jenny - http://stampingmoments.blogspot.com/

7. Laurie - http://justgivemestamps.typepad.com/

New SU Catty

Ok I know this is a stupid post but I just got mine on Tuesday and have already got so many things flagged in it that it looks like it's exploding. Just wanted to see if you had one and if you had any favorite products that you really really want. What's on your Wish List?



Hugs
Nic

Archiver's Make And Take Weekend

I got to have some fun at the weekend and go to this. They were demo-ing the quickutz system. it was pretty cool but they did not seem to think it was compatible with the cuttlebug folders. I may have to see if it works the other way round as the cuttlebug claims to be able to utilize most other brands. I also got to make 2 really cute cards. One I intend to save for my son's 10th birthday as it is all his favorite colors. The other one allowed me to play with acetate and staz-on opaques which was very fun. I got a couple of free gifts too so went home very happy.



So happy I decided to go back the next day to make a 2 page scrapbook spread that was available just for the weekend. It was really nice and the more I looked at the flyer the more I wanted to make it. It was just as well I did too as I managed to get one of the last ones they had. They were such a hit they ran out before midday on Sunday. I am planning to put some of our road trip pictures in it as the theme is Explore. also I bought a pack of American crafts paper. It has the paper from the spread in it and a bunch more that I really liked. I really do need to be more productive in my craft room as I have a lot of projects building up now.



Blogger seems to have flipped my picture onto it's side and won't upload it properly. Oh well If I don't manage to fix the porblem you may just have to turn your head to one side to see it properly.

Playing Catch Up

I have not had time to sit here and keep you guys up to date with all that's been going on in my craft room lately so you may find that the next few installments come along very quickly and are backdated to the date I should have posted it.

First off I caught a bargain at Hobby Lobby last week and got some more material for Jake and Megan's quilts. I now feel I have everything I need and hope to start cutting my blocks of fabric out soon. That is as soon as I clear some space for my sewing machine yet again. Every time I make some space something invades it before I can get to it. But I am now a woman with a mission. Stay Tuned for more installments on my first ever attempt at quilting.



OH and I also wanted to show you this scrap page make and take I made at my friend Sarah's Scrapbook weekend. I actually cut all the pieces ready and took them home and only found them again the other day which is why it has taken so long for me to show it to you. I still have to do a title for it once I decide on a picture. But I love the colors and papers she picked. Plus my first kit arrived recently from The Scraproom and I am feeling the scrapbooking vibe very strongly. Something tells me that between card making, quilting and scrapbooking I may be spreading myself a little thin. We'll have to see if I can make this work some how.



Thanks for stopping by

Hugs
Nic

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Katharina Sketch #8

I have a mountain of cards to make for one occasion or another and for the last few days little to no incentive to make anything. Anyway I had a sudden brainwave of inspiration in the shower and am back with a bang. At least I hope. My lovely friend Renee http://angelrenees.blogspot.com/ has recently bought some Magnolia stamps and was kind enough to stamp me some images. I am so in love with these images they are the best and I so have to get me some of these stamps. Anyway the first thing I wanted to do with my new found inspiration was make a card using one of Renee's images so I decided to use one to make a thinking of you card for my Auntie who recently had an accident involving her big toe and a large cupboard. I chose to do a challenge using a Katharina sketch over on Papertake Weekly http://papertakeweekly.blogspot.com/. The original sketch was square so as in recent Nic fashion I made a 4.2 X 5.5 card instead. But I am really happy with the outcome. I almost didn't want to mail it but I am happy to say it is safely in the mailbox and on it's way to Wales.

The cardstock is river rock, groovy guava, wild wasabi, soft sky and white. The DP is from a little 6 x 6 stack from K & Company. I've had it for ages and was only brave enough to use it for the first time today. I used a new cuttlebug folder (bought Monday) on the large piece of groovy guava. I got to play with the new scallop punch on the wild wasabi too (it's very cool). The scallop circle punch was also used and the sentiment came from a little dollar set I got from Michael's. The ribbon is double stitched soft sky. I also used a couple of flower punches to make the little flower in the corner, finished with a white metal dot from Colorbok. The image is mounted on dimensionals to make her stand out a little although the picture does not show it so well. I think I will also enter it under splitcoast stampers color challenge 178 as it has the In colors that are retiring in it.

Thanks for looking.


Hugs
Nic

Thankyou Resize

Just like the Anniversary card in a previous post I also decided to make this one again using 4.2 x 5.5 inch dimensions. It turned out pretty well as it turns out. I showed both to my hubby and he actually preferred the smaller one. I made him a couple for work as he has been bugging me for some cards.

Here's the new card size and a pic below of the 2 sizes together.

Katharina's Unbelievable Blog Candy

You just have to go check out Katharina's Blog. http://katharina1704.blogspot.com/ She has hit 100,000 on her visitor counter and is celebrating in style. The winner gets a full set of stamps from her Elisabeth Bell - Guardian Angel Collection before they go on sale on Whiff of Joy. The images are awesome. Don't just take my word for it, click the link and go take a look. And even better the winner also gets to host a blog candy of their own with a second set of stamps as the candy. Thanks to Katharina. This is just an awesome opportunity. Go on check it out...you know you want to.

Also the days are counting down on the Free Shipping pre-order offer on her new website Whiff Of Joy. These are a Christmas collection of the cutest images ever. Store goes live in 6 days. Catch this awesome deal while you can. http://www.whiffofjoy.com/

Cats, Cat's, Cat's

Sitting at my craft desk is getting very difficult for me lately. I have been unable to craft due to the fact that my craft chair has been claimed by others. Namely Cali and Tex who have decided my craft chair is the best place in the house to take an afternoon siesta. What a predicament.

Since we are on the theme of cats with this entry I thought I would show you the birthday card I made for our other cats, Poppet and Bodie. We had them in England and decided the trip over here would be too stressful for them and so my lovely mother-in-law has taken them in and they in turn have taken her heart. This year they turn the grand age of 12 which is pretty good going. I think you times by 7 for cat years. I send them a card to show them I have not forgotten them. I know, I know they probably have no clue. But it makes me feel better and my MIL spoils them in this day for us too. This pic is pretty old but these days it's very hard to get one of them together.

The cardstock is Real Rust, Garden Green and More Mustard. I put the green through my cuttlebug. The images are from High Hopes. The jungle is stamped on vanilla as is the tiger but on another sheet and then cut out. I water colored both and distressed the edge of the jungle piece. The tiger is on dimensionals. Add ribbon and brads. Not forgetting the sentiment which is from SU So Many Scallops.



The making of this card also times nicely with a challenge on A Spoon Full Of Sugar which asks for a card with an animal on it so here is my entry for that also. I have just found these challenge sites and they are quite fun. I must post some links for you guys over on the side bar. In the meantime you can find this one here http://aspoonfullofsugarchallenge.blogspot.com/

Thanks for looking

Hugs
Nic

I got an award

My dear friend Joani has given me an award. It is a BFF Gold card!!
To pass on this award, these are the rules that must be followed:

1. Only five people allowed.
2. Four have to be dedicated followers of your blog
3. One has to be someone new or recently new to your blog and live in another part of the world.
4. You must link back to whoever gave you the award.

Joani of http://joaniscardsmadebyhand.blogspot.com/ gave me this award and I am glad. She has an awesome blog and is a constant inspiration to me not to mention group boss of her awesome MSN group Cards Made By Hand. You must go take a look! So here goes, I pass this award on to:


1 Gabby - http://confessionsofastamper.blogspot.com/
2 Renee - http://angelrenees.blogspot.com/
3 Barb - http://wwwcatscraftingblog.blogspot.com/
4 Betty - http://ladybugscraps.blogspot.com/
5 Sonya - http://sonyaslilypad.blogspot.com/ She is not new to my blog but she lives in another part of the world and has been my biggest supporter since I started my craft blog.

These are very talented ladies! I hope that you all have time to go check them out ~ you won't be disappointed!! I would love to give this to all the blogs I visit but there are so many I don't even have them all on my blog roll. Yet, but the rules say 5. I haven't really had anybody new post so I did cheat a little. If you visit regularly and have a blog but are not in my blog roll then please post a link on this thread so we can see your awesome crafts. You all are great!!!

Hugs
Nic