Card Chain Challenge Reveal - September 2022

It's time for another fabulous Card Chain Challenge Reveal!

This month, Gail and I, were thrilled to see 26 participants exchange cards across the globe. Which, somewhat crazily, brings our total number of cards exchanged thus far by Card Chain Challenge participants to a truly impressive 3,766. I know!

 

All the cards exchanged this month used at least one of the following options:

 

Colour Palette Option

or

Sketch Option

or 

Theme Options: Music/Things beginning with or including the letter Z/Friendship

or 

Product / Technique Options: Burlap or Gauze/Iris Folding

My recipient this month was Suze in New Zealand, and this is what I sent:

I used the colour combo and played around a little with the sketch. The background was created with Distress Inks and my little Kirtsie Allsop Cuttlebug border folder called Swiggles. This is such an oldie that I doubt it's available to purchase from anywhere except as a lucky find on eBay - which is how I came by it. The sentiment is from a great little set produced by Hero Arts called Zen Messages and the little jar of Mojito is from Happy Hour by Jane's Doodles.

My sender was the lovely Kath in UK and just look what she created! Kath makes such good cards.

If you've never played CCC before why not take a look at some past Reveals to get an idea of how things work. I always think of CCC as a little like being on a DT, but without having to apply to join and minus the monthly commitment: some of our participants come and go after playing for a month or two, while others stay and become regulars. Everyone is just so friendly and it's a real joy to be part of 

Here's hoping I'll see you in the next sign-up, which is open until October 6th. Take care and happy crafting! 

Let's Squash It! Challenge #24 - Inspiration

Hi folks, I'm over on the blog today at Let's Squash It! to share some inspiration to get Mr Mojo engaged for our current challenge...

We have a lovely guest with us for September: Jenny M from My Paper Epiphany and I know you'll love the adorable Holiday card she made for our launch post. You can see it by clicking here. 

I don't know about you, but I always like to keep a small stock of thank you cards and so made this simple little card to add to the numbers.

I think this is the first card where I've used Saltwater Taffy Distress Ink and I quite like the colour. The embossing was created by alternating two Cuttlebug border folders on the central portion of the card. I had to be quite careful with how I positioned the folders, but I think it worked out ok. The sentiment comes from a SSS set called Thanks.

This was such a quick and easy card to make with the border folders, yet I hope you'll agree the end result is very pretty and effective. I really enjoyed the challenge of finding a way to emboss just a portion of my card and I was so pleased to find yet another way of stretching my existing embossing folders rather than just rushing to buy more.

This fun challenge runs until the end of September and Gail, Jenny and I all hope that you'll come and play along! 

Using your twinchies

Twinchies make great toppers!

Here's my second entry for the current Twinchies Challenge, which morphed effortlessly into my entry for the current 'Less is More' colour challenge below.

The flowers were cut using a scrap of gold card (thanks Mom) and my new Memory Box Die - so pretty. A sentiment stamped in gold versacolour, the addition of some gems, a little scoring and my twinchie card was good to go.

Happy crafting everyone!

Sweet simplicity

As you can see I'm still keeping it clean and simple... and am surprised by how much I am loving it!

I spent a few hours last weekend stamping several variations on the same basic idea. I wanted to make some cards to sell or give as gifts. Keeping to a very basic design helped me create a large quantity of cards very quickly.
I used my Cuttlebug to make a template and then used different shades of Distress Ink for the circle effect. I used the Penny Black's 'Hello Gorgeous' and stamped the background with some of the smaller stamps from the set, while the template was still in place. Finally, I stamped the main image in Versafine, removed the template and added the sentiment. I added some scoring for balance and interest.
I'll be back throughout the week to share some of the other cards that I made in this batch. Happy crafting everyone, and I hope you all have a relaxing and fun weekend.

Fairies, banana bread and bunny ears!

Ok, so I've used a Lilli of the Valley image again.... but what's a girl to do when they are just sooooo lovely!

I hope that everyone is enjoying their Easter break.

Hubby is at the football, so I'm indulging in a little bank holiday crafting. I also found time to try out a new banana bread recipe this afternoon and I have to say that it smells fabulous! I'm looking forward to tucking into it later with a big cup of hot chocolate... yum!

This simple little Nestie card was so quick and easy to make. I coloured the image earlier in the week and just added the finishing touches today. I think that Nestie cards make a fabulous 'fallback' when you need a cute card in a hurry! I swooshed a little silver Versacolour over some D'vine Swirls embossing for a quick and simple background.

It's 'Blue and silver' for week #50 over at the Lili of the Valley Challenge Blog and the Flutterby Wednesday Challenge is for 'Blue, white and green'.

I'm also linking this card to the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Open week.

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge #53 - 'Sugar and spice and everything nice'

Crafty Creations girls - 'Anything goes'

One stitch at a Time Challenge #7 - 'Anything goes'

'Shapes Galore' at A Spoonful of Sugar.

One small card... so many challenges!

Just before I sign off I hope you don't mind if I share these latest pictures of my niece.

Guess who didn't really want Auntie to photograph her wearing bunny ears!!!

She'll love these pictures when she's 21!

Happy crafting everyone!

One fairy, and a bear with a blanket!

Unusually, I have two cards to share today...

The first one is a sweet Lilli of the Valley Fairy that I coloured with Promarkers. I added lots of Stickles and Diamond Glaze, but neither is showing up that well on this picture. I brushed a little gold Veracolour over those lovely Cuttlebugged swirls, but again while it looks lovely in real life it hasn't photographed well.

I just love colouring these images as they are so easy and you can get great effects with very little effort. This is all down to how beautifully they are drawn by those very talented LOTV artists and owes nothing to my colouring skills!

Now just to prove that I am not completely addicted to LOTV, my second card features a Popcorn the Bear image that I stamped on a visit to my friend Vicky a few weeks ago. While on the subject of the lovely Vicky, please drop by her blog to see the fabulous card that she posted yesterday as her DT card for the Crafty Cardmakers Challenge. It's a stunner, and one which just took my breath away when I saw it!

I made this second card for a friend who is retiring tomorrow. She collects and makes bears, so hopefully she will appreciate little Popcorn, his blanket, and his sparkly daisy. My mojo was lacking 'oomph' this morning so I decided to use this inspirational little sketch from Sketch Saturday to help things along... thank you so much girls, it did the job nicely!

Happy crafting everyone!

Roll up, roll up... there's Blog Candy on offer!

This card is a bit of a prototype. I plan to make more cards using this gorgeous little stamp from Lilli of the Valley, but today I wanted to play around and experiment a little.

The wonderful thing about these lovely LOTV stamps is that they are so beautifully drawn. This means that you can get away with very simple, almost watercolour style colouring. This is a huge bonus for someone like me who isn't really that great at wielding her Promarkers!

The large 'Celebrate' sentiment is from an Ali Edwards/Technique Tuesday set that hasn't seen the light of day for far too long. The roses in the bride's bouquet are accented with Diamond Glaze and her dress has some added sparkle from Diamond Stickles. If I make this card again in landscape format I'll make it much longer, and 'slimmer', so that the balance is better around the sentiment.
Anyhooo, about that candy....

I want to say a big thank you to all you lovely people who either follow my blog or are regular visitors.

I have chosen three lovely Lilli of the Valley stamps as candy. I'll be giving them away to one lucky person who leaves a comment on this post by close of play on Friday 19th March.

I plan to announce the winner over the weekend.

I'm entering this little card in the following challenges:

Lucy's Challenge #7 - Keep it Simple!

Sophisticat #26 - New Beginnings

and Cute Card Thursday Challenge #103 - Celebrations

Happy crafting everyone, and don't forget to leave a comment to have a chance to win!

Edited to add:

Mr Blogger seems to be acting up and I have noticed that some comments haven't moderated properly. I have them all stored in my email folder so hopefully won't miss anyone - however, feel free to comment again as I will be doing the draw by name rather than using a Random number thingy as I am aware of this problem.

Randon acts of kindness!

Yet again I am thrilled to have been the lucky recipient of not one but two random acts of kindness or RAKs!

The adorable Jane Beljo emailed me her sweet digi-stamp of Mia and Bosko. How kind!

I especially wanted to post this little card today as Jane has just launched her new digital stamp set called Jane's Bakery over at Squigglefly! The set is a real bargain at $3.00 as there are lots of different images to play with!

The second RAK comes in the form of the cute gingham ribbon on this card. This pretty ribbon, and other goodies, arrived with an eBay purchase from someone who trades as 'Mindysmummy'. How kind is that!!!!

I printed Mia and Bosko onto some plain white card and coloured them with Promarkers. I added some Diamond Glaze to accentuate the little heart on Mia's jersey. This was my first attempt with Diamond Glaze and I was a bit shocked at how quickly it oooooozed from the bottle! The background is the Hero Arts digital friendship stamp, printed on some textured blue card. I layered the image and embossed half the base card with my Cuttlebug.

I wanted to leave the card very simple to showcase Mia and Bosko, so just added the ribbon and those little red punched hearts.

I am going to enter this card for Raise the Bar Challenge #2 as the theme is the 'Gift that keeps on giving' otherwise known as 'RAK'!

As a final little RAK I'd like to send this card to someone who is sweet enough to leave a comment on this post. Please make sure that I can back track to your blog to contact you. I will be using the very technical 'names in a hat' method to make the draw!

Happy crafting everyone!

And the rain, rain, rain...

It is raining so heavily, and is so dark as a result, that I just can't get a good photograph of the card I made this morning. Luckily I have something up my sleeve, so to speak!

This little chap is from the set 'Eeeeek! A Monster', by My Cute Stamps.

To say that this set 'called to me' is a huge understatement: it positively jumped up and down and waved a very big flag!

The image is coloured with Promarkers and the sentiment is from Hero Arts. I used my new D'Vine Swirl Cuttlebug folder for the background and distressed with some green and gold Versacolour inks. It looks really pretty in real life. I originally tied a big bow, but as this card is for my friend Rob I swapped it for a knot instead!

Happy crafting everyone!

She's just Gorjuss!

I don't know how I managed to leave this image in my stash for so long without using her! I am so glad that I have had a tidy up and re-found this sweet Gorjuss girl!

I made this little card for my lovely cousin Janis who was 60 on Saturday. I didn't have to walk too far to deliver it as she is my next door neighbour but one! Janis looks amazing and is one heck of a good advert for yoga and healthy eating. She is still as slim as she was as a teenager. Janis has inherited Nanny Kath's genes... not sure where the small, fat genes that I've inherited came from!

I coloured the image with my Pro-markers. I wanted an exact colour match for the scallop so coloured some Bazzils card with the chisel end of my marker and then ran it through my cuttlebug to cut the shape and then emboss it. The sentiment is a Hero Arts Clear design stamp that I attached to my block in a semi-circle. It moved very slightly on the one side but otherwise it worked ok!

Must dash, I have a cut and colour booked for 9.30am!

Happy Crafting everyone!

New, blue beginnings!

Just before Christmas I was lucky enough to win a free Hero Arts digital kit from Caardvarks. I have always really enjoyed making baby cards so decided to pick 'Special Delivery' as my prize.

The current challenge over at The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge is 'New beginnings' and Cupcake Challenge #72 is to make a baby card, so this was my chance to get downloading!

I haven't made a little boy baby card for a very long time as most of my friends have daughters. I thought it would make a nice change to create a card to welcome a little boy. The lovely Lucy has just posted Challenge #3 over at her blog. Her challenge theme is to make a 'Monochromatic' card, so I thought that I would work in the gorgeous shades of blue from the Bazzil basics range.

The digital kit has a selection of cute images that will be familiar to Hero Arts fans as most have already been available in rubber. I have the woodblock version of this little onesie, but was really excited to be able to enlarge it to fill the centre of a Nesties circle. The flowers are punched with a very old daisy punch. This little punch was one of the very first tools that I ever bought, and it was fun to use it once again! The sentiment was printed on my PC, and the little heart coloured with a mixture of Diamond Stickles and Distress ink. A little work with my white gel pen pulled everything together.

I promise not to make too many Nesties cards, but they really are so much fun!

Saying 'thank you' with a big green button!

I'm not sure if this button is a bit OTT, but paired with that oversized sentiment I think it's ok!

I really love this Diana Duda image, and was delighted to find a similar one in the sale over at Funky Kits.

They currently have ten Sugar Nellie stamps in their January sale at 50% off, plus savings on Christmas and Halloween stamps too!

The paper is from my stash. I was amazed to find two whole sheets of it. I must have bought it along with the green Bazzils card as it is such a good match. I ran the pink card through the Cuttlebug and then distressed it with some Versacolour ink.

Hope everyone is keeping warm today. We have had about an inch of snow since I switched the computer on and it doesn't look like stopping any time soon!

Happy crafting everyone!

Keeping it simple!

I hope that everyone had a fabulous Halloween last night!

We had such a great time at the library yesterday. I only hope that the children enjoyed themselves as much as the staff and the parents!

The Hero Arts challenge this week is to make a very simple Christmas/Holiday card.

I think that this little card qualifies as simple as it took me just a few minutes to make!

That little clear design stamp is perfect as a topper and it fits so nicely into the punched circles. My cute snowflake embossing folder got it's first outing today... I am sure it won't be it's last either! I embossed the lighter card stock with the swiss dots folder and then jumped in with my white gel pen. A little versacolour ink in lime and purple gave the little centre a cute lift!

Today, I am busy making Christmas gift tags from my huge stock of scraps. The friendship group that meets at the library is holding a craft fayre to raise funds for the Christmas party. I like to do my bit and hope that my packs of pretty gift tags might buy a few festive goodies for them...

Happy crafting everyone!

One of a kind!

Isn't this little lass amazing?
Drawn by the fabulous Annie Rodrigue, she is called Charlotte and comes courtesy of Kraftin' Kimmie!
If you are not yet acquainted with Kraftin' Kimmie I highly recommend a visit to her shop and to her inspirational blog, which is called Kraftin' Kimmie's Korner. Sweet Ms K. also has a challenge site which is currently running the theme 'Shades of Autumn'.
If you go to Kimmie's shop you will find a helpful list of worldwide stockists.
I purchased Charlotte, and her friend Francesca, from the lovely Elaine at Quixotic Paperie.

This is a two challenge card as I am also entering Charlotte and her little friends for The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #55. This week DT girl Cathy has chosen 'Orange + one other colour' as the challenge theme. I was a bit concerned about whether I had enough orange in my stash, but I need not have worried as I re-discovered a whole load of yummy orange, rust and apricot card stock that I had forgotten!

I dusted off that sweet Cuttlebug folder, added a little Fiskars punched edge and sprinkled some Diamond Stickles to work it's sparkly magic yet again!

Happy crafting everyone!

Hello friend!

Each year I am delighted to see a family of robins visiting our garden. Towards the end of the summer they drift away, but one or two usually reappear as the weather gets cooler. This morning I was pleased to see a little robin friend watching me as I topped up the bird table with kitchen scraps!

I had my little visitor on my mind as I headed for the craftroom, but I have to admit that the old mojo was at a low ebb this morning. I decided to go sketch hunting for a little inspirational boost. I came across this sweet and simple sketch from the lovely girls over at Limelight Papercrafts.

I am not quite sure how that cute sketch turned into this little tribute to my little feathered friend, but then isn't that just the magic of card making?


I thought that my little autumn visitor could play along with The Pink Elephant Challenge this week as their theme is 'Fall'.

I broke out some of my favourite Hero Arts stamps to use with my little Cuttlebug cut robin, and just had to give him some of the little goggley eyes that I usually reserve for my little Christmas Rudolphs! The Limelight team challenge also required the addition of ribbon, so I added some lace to look like clouds in a bright autumn sky!
Happy crafting everyone!