a couple of challenge cards (2nd post of the day)

The sewing theme at Crazy Amigos couldn't have come at a better time as I have just received some fabulous sewing theme stamps from Crafty Individuals.


. I adore the thread cards and thought they'd look sweet with real thread around them.
The quote is from a different crafty individuals set.

The second card is for the less is more "seeing double" challenge. I have used some more stamps from Crafty Individuals, I've had these ones for ages but they are really useful as there are both open images and silhouette images of flowers.

I stamped the open flower in black and then the coordinating image in green and pink (chewing gum and stick candy jenni bowlin inks). the two matching stamps are my "double". (the words are not from Crafty Individuals)

cupcake

The challenge at Crazy Amigos this week is "cupcakes" very handily I recently made this very simple cupcake card for one of my son's friends, so now is the perfect time to blog it.


The cupcake is coloure d with pencils, I've added glossy accents to the cherry, and stickles to the frosting.

Crazy Amigos- insects and my first ever art jounalling

I have been thoroughly inspired by the very talented Kate Crane to try my hand at art journalling. This is something that so "isn't me" but I wondered if I could make it so.

So I've journalled within a card that is very much me. I'm so into using the torn sticky edge of post-it notes at the moment, to create a random edge frame on a one-layer card.

I stamped medium bee from Jo's range at Stampotique, then masked the bee and the background.
I then inked with the Jenny Bowlin Malted milk ink (it's on special offer at the moment) which I was ispired to use after seeing Jo use it at The Happy Stampers Show. What a lovely colour, like a light honey. I applied this with blending foam and also stamped Hexagons (although these don't really show)
I then left the masks in place and drew random lines. I'm not yet ready to jounal my own thoughts so I used those of another

When the first summer bee
Thomas Moore

When the first summer bee
O'er the young rose shall hover,
Then, like that gay rover,
I'll come to thee.
He to flowers, I to lips, full of sweets to the brim--
What a meeting, what a meeting for me and for him!

Then, to every bright tree
In the garden he'll wander;
While I, oh, much fonder,
Will stay with thee.
In search of new sweetness thro' thousands he'll run,
While I find the sweetness of thousands in one.

I wrote the words in my normal handwriting, allowing them to go over the edge, so you only get a snippet.

Finally I removed the masks, stamped Daisy Daisy, coloured the flowers and bee body with markers and added stickles to the wings. as a bee is an insect I am entering this for Crazy amigos' insect theme.



Stamps are available from Stampotique and all products are available from Happy Daze,

chocolate heart card

My book group meets on the second Monday of each month and of course that means that it falls on valentine's day this month. We considered moving it, but then decided that really we might as well be with friends than forcing our husbands to treat us to overpriced meals full of loved up youngies.
I decided though that I wanted to mark the date with a little valentine something for the members of the group. I found these little chocolate hearts, and then decided to make them into cards. I used a book page for the heart, and used this fabulous Mark Twain quote, which could have been made for book groups! both the floral heart and quote are from Scrolls Work Stamps.


These cards were so quick to make, I'm thinking they would make the coolest wedding invitations.

I decided not to put these cards in envelopes, as they are so bulky, but make little brown paper bags


After they were all finished I closed the bags with a presonalised embellishment stapled to the bag

This fits many challenges this week, including
Papertake weekly - have a heart
Crazy Amigo - valentine
Created by hand - queen of hearts (As I'm "in charge" of the reading group lol)
wednesday Stamper - expressions of love
theme thursday - words


it also fits the stampotique challenge, so don't forget to check that out, you could win $30 of stamps!! I haven't shown my piece for this yet as the stampotique team is so big at the moment, the designers' pieces are being staggered on the blog, so keep checking back for inspiration.

crazy amigos: Cars

Here's a quick "clean collage" for the crazy amigos challenge All of the products used are by PaperArtsy, all of the stamps the die to cut the flower, the papers and even the ribbon.

sympathy card

We never want to make them, but know that they are appreciated. This is a card I made for a friend who has lost a relative. The card uses stamps from PaperArtsy.

Coincidentally the theme are Crazy Amigos is black, white and green, so I am adding this to that challenge

c'mon England!

I actually have very little interest in football, but I get that the world cup is important, so this is my one and only piece of world cup themed crafting.

The stamps are from Lofty's world tour from Joanna Sheen,

who are sponsoring this week's forever friends challenge where we want you to show us your favourite cute stamps that are not forever friends, so this is a rare opportunity for everyone to take part in our challenge, and there is a £10 voucher for Joanna Sheen up for grabs for one lucky random winner, and considering Joanna sheen have free p&p on everything to anywhere in the world, that will go a long way...

so what are you waiting for?

I am also entering thid for Crazy Amigos' world cup soccer theme

crazy amigos beach and sea

The theme at Crazy Amigos is beach and sea so I thought I would play with these shell stamps I recently got from Scrolls work stamps, the quote and wave are also from Scrolls work. The shells are individual stamps and I have grouped them using masking techniques. I have coloured the shells with pencils and the background with distress inks

Steampunk??

This is the first time I've attemped anything remotely "steampunky". The birds challenge at Crazy Amigos made me want to play with this cool "tweet tock" stamp from Scrolls work stamps. All of the other stamps are from Scrolls work too.

Eggs

A popular theme this week,Wednesday stamper, Crazy amigos and mixed media monday have it as their theme. I have made this using all stamps from Scrolls work. I love this little girl, Emma, she's so elegant.

easel card for 40th birthday

I made this as a commission for a fortieth birthday. I used an image from The Stampsmith and made yet another easel card. This time I added a tab, which tucks behing the words, this holds it really well.

The papers are yet more from the huge K&co pad I got from QVC (I've hardly made a dent in it yet)

The quote says "Don't see yourself as 40, but 18 with 22 years experience"

As the crazy amigos challenge is happy birthday, I will enter this card.

man card

I'm sure I saw a challenge this week for "moustaches" but now I can't remember for the life of me where it was, so I have gone with Crazy Amigo's "Men" Challenge instead.

(EDIT: it turns out the Moustache challenge is Mixed Media Monday, Thanks Jo!)

All stamps are by PaperArtsy.
The background is done with distress inks and perfect pearls.

brads and royalty

The challenge at gingersnap creations this week is to use brads. The challenge is sponsored by Cornish Heritage Farms, and I have used the swirling snowflakes stamp due for release this friday to make my card. I stamped this large stamp onto white card with clear sparkle embossing powder, then coloured with distress inks. I then cut this piece into 6 small pieces to make quick and simple cards for christmas.
Cornish Heritage Farms are generously offering a prize of the "Royal Birthday" stamp set to one lucky participant.
I'm lucky enough to be able to show you a sneak preview of this set on this card which I have made for the Crazy Amigos challenge, knots and buttons

PaperArtsy birdhouse

This is made with one of the new PaperArtsy minis. I thought the image called for something bright and funky.
I am entering this for Crazy Amigo's free theme, there's a prize to win!!

Crazy Amigos, forever friends and my messy desk!

The theme at Crazy Amigos is "colourful vintage" so I thought I would enter this Card I made for Jo's birthday. It's an Acetate card so of course it's near impossible to get a good photo, lol. Don't you just love this Image? isn't she just the cutest? The Image and stamps are all by Inka.


We have a sketch challenge, set by Emma, at the forever friends challenge this week, so this is my piece (I just realised, I used the same papers for both of these cards, just goes to show you, if it's on your desk you will use it.)

Talking of my desk, after I took the photo of the forever friends card, I realised that you would never guess the mess surrounding that picture, so I thought I would show that as well.

Birthday card for my son

Tricky age, eleven, don't you think? Thank goodness for these skateboarder stamps from "I Brake For Stamps". I've also used stamps from Banana Frog (letters), Cherry pie (splatter) and Inka (star). The rather funky strip of punched black card was to cover up that painful incident of catching the edge of the rubber on the stamp. But I wasn't going to waste good Basic Grey Paper, so I came up with this instead!!

I am entering this for the Crazy Amigo stripe challenge

crazy amigos/ craft stamper

The theme at Crazy amigos is to work with your favourite materials. I love stamping onto fabric, and in this months craft stamper magazine I have two pieces in the stamping contrast section. One of which is a shopping bag I have stamped onto. This is not the bag that is in the mag, but is along the same lines (I don't want to spoil the mag for you, because by all accounts, this one is really worth getting a copy of)

stamps are by stampington and Anita's

happy new year, and two challenges

The theme at Crazy amigios is "leaving the year with a splash" and at TMTA is "countdown", so I have made this ATC for both themes. I have used the spritz and flick technique with a distress ink background, I have also flicked some black paint on the corner.Tthose are the "splash" bits of the challenge.
The stamps are mostly by Paperartsy, although I'm not sure who the watch is by.

hearts

The theme at Crazy Amigos is Hearts. I recently took part in a collaborative project as a gift for my friend Audrey's wedding present which was organised by Carrie and can be seen completed here. Each contributor made four squares on a love theme in Jade and cream.
These four squares are my contribution to the project. They are are each 2.5" square. all images and stamps by Inka.

I am also entering this for Arty girlz, small art challenge

crazy amigos - keeping warm

A slightly unconventional entry to crazy amigos, but the theme is keeping warm, and what better way of keeping warm than curling up with a good book (in this case, Chocolat)and a scarf book mark. I got this brilliant idea from Marie Greene's amazing blog, and I decided to knit one for each member of my bookclub as a little christmas present. What could be more appropriate!