Graduation

After several weeks...if not months of card block, I have eventually managed to start colouring and make cards using stamps not kits!  Not sure if this was simply due to necessity or if I'm actually getting back into my card making...we can but hope!

Today's card is for our son Alan, who heard last week that he will be graduating in Masters Chemical Engineering with First Class Honours!!! Can't get better than that so I thought I'd best make him a card to celebrate!  His graduation is on Thurs so I dare say you'll see a photo or two!

My card uses a sweet Penny Black stamp and a selection of old papers - I am trying to use what I have...for now!

Challenges;
Brown Sugar - Anything Goes
Crafty Catz - Anything Goes with spots & stripes
PBSC - Masculine
Cheerful Sketches - Use Sketch Jx

Music

It's Thursday again which means it's time for a new challenge over at MAWTT and this time Wendy has chosen

Music

as our theme, so hopefully by the end of the fortnight we will just about have a full orchestra!

For my card I went with this sweet Penny Black dog playing his trombone - not sure who I got this image from but its one I've had for ever from the good old Docraft Days when "swappsies" were the name of the game!  I'm thinking it probably came from Miss PB herself, Sam, but it might have been Sharron...who knows! Thanks anyway ?

Back to the card, coloured with Promarkers then set on MME papers I think, but I can't find the pad as I had a tidy!  The music notes and treble clefs are cut from new little dies.

Challenges;
Stamping Sensations - Feature a creature
I Love Promarkers - Inspired by a song - Michael Buble - Feeling Good
Simon Says Stamp - Fathers Day - For a Guy
PBSC - Birthdays
Sweet Stampin - Fathers Day/Special Man Jx

Totally Fabulous

I'm back again today cause I just had to make a card using the fantastic, or should I say "Totally Fabulous" stamp I won over at PB and more Challenge.

Obviously it's a PB, a slapstick to be precise and it's quite a big stamp, so I kept my card nice and simple, coloured the image the same as the example on the pack, and this is what I made...

Sentiment from a Taylored Expressions set.

Challenges;
PBand More - birthdays
Stamping Sensations - One for the girls
AAA - Challenge 62 - Anything Goes
Come and Get It - Bright Colours
Robyns Fetish - Add a sentiment
The Corrosive Challenge - Girls/Ladies
Lemon Shortbread - Anything Goes
Jx

Delights

Delights is the name of the Penny Black stamp I'm using today, and it was a delightful find when I unearthed it from under clutter mountain on my desk!

I think this is the first time I've used this stamp which is a poor show cause it's so sweet!  I've combined it with really old K & Co papers, which we all had back in my Docrafts days!

The card follows the current sketch over at Sweet Sketch Wednesday - and it made me realise I'm really not a side ways oval girl, by that I mean most of my stamps fit an upright oval - hence the stamp search!

Anyway I really like this sketch and will use it again most certainly!

Challenges;
SSW2 - 84

Crafty Catz - Use 3 papers - 2 backing and 1 for flowers
The Ribbon Girl - Spring/Easter Anything goes - my ribbon is from Ribbon Girls
Stamping Sensations - Flower Power
Penny Black & More - Feature a creature - hedgehog!
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - 29 - Anything goes
A Gem of A Challenge - Spring
Crafty Friends - Floral
Jx

Beautiful Baby Boy

Not a usual time for me to post a card, but needs must! I needed to make a baby card for a little boy, born last week on 18/2 - still not named so no birth details on my card!

My card uses a favourite PB stamp and my Craft Creations baby blue sheets.

Challenges;
Stamping Sensations - Anything Goes
Penny Black Sat Challenge- Red or with a heart
PB@Allsorts - Anything goes with a die - flower, circles & hearts
Tues Morning Sketch - 339
Cutie Pies - All you need is cutie love!
Chocolate Coffee & Cards - Anything goes
ABC Challenge - B you pick - Baby/Blue Jx

Tuesday Morning Sketches Winner - Thank you and thanks Sami Stamps for my great prize. Jx

Embossing

Welcome everyone to another MAWTT challenge - my first one for 2016, and the first one hosted by Diane, our latest, lovely DT member.

Well today, Diane has picked one of my favourites

Embossing

So me thinks there will be lots of lovely cards this time around.

For my card, I went with New Baby, cause I needed one, CARD NOT BABY!!! (Sorry Ang and Christine, didn't mean to confuse.)  So I made a baby girl easel using a sweet Penny Black stamp and some lovely Craft Creation baby sheets.  My embossing is of baby feet but its slightly hidden under my scrummy ribbon from The Ribbon Girls - so love it, the middle section of it has a lovely velvet feel.  Oh yeah, and the doily, recognise it Sue?  It's from the pack you sent me for my Birthday, it's so sweet - sorry it took me so long to open the pack!

So here's my card, now over to you!

Challenges;
Penny Black @Allsorts - One for the girls
Stamping Senstations - Anything Goes with a die
PBSC - Anything Goes
Hiding in my Craftroom - Embossing
Crafting with Friends - Anything Goes
Lemon Shortbread - Anything Goes
Crafting for All Seasons - Ribbon & Pearls Jx

To The Happy Couple

Challenge time once more at MAWTT, and today Gail has chosen

To The Happy Couple

So that could be an engagement, a wedding or an anniversary card - it's up to you.

I went with anniversary, as my husband and I celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary last month.  I looked it up and apparently the appropriate gift for said occasion is a sculpture, so I'll keep you posted if one appears!  (Perhaps not!!!)

Anyway, back to my card and the stamp used, it's a Penny Black showing a lovely sun set, and it just reminded me of our honeymoon in St Lucia and the sun sets there.  I had never seen a sun set so quickly and was amazed that you could be on the beach sun bathing then about half an hour later the sky was black and it was night!

Challenges;
Sweet Stampin - Something Old  - PB Stamp, Something New - Tattered Lace borders from a die
Stamping Sensations - Dies & Punches - Corner & border dies
Without Words - Summer holidays
Addicted To Stamps - Summer Colours
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anything goes
C4C289 - Sunshine  Jx

Show Us A Bunny

It's challenge day again over at MAWTT as well as my birthday and with team A at the helm, Judith has chosen

Show Us A Bunny

So it was a tough call between a PB or an LOTV stamp this week - both do delightful bunnies, but in the end I went with PB for the stamp as I've not coloured this one up before - and LOTV for papers, from the Nit-Wits, Country Meadow pad. Also in action were my lovely Simon Says Stamp stitched dies again and an old favourite, my Magnolia flower dies.

Challenges;
Artistic Inspirations - Anything Goes with a twist of green - Ivy!
Sentimental Sunday - Anything Goes

Bee Happy!

Well it's Sunday morning and I'm first up, crafting away!  My card is all planned out but not stuck together, but I'm that pleased with it I thought I'd type up my post first!

So, it's a delightful PB cat - from my even more delightful friend Sam/Whisper!  I know how mad she is on PB and she knows how mad I am on cats - so we feed each others addictions! (Thanks Sam for another super cat to colour!)

My card is made using a rather lovely sketch from SSW2 - I do so love working from sketches!  Papers are Bo Bunny, Avenues Collection and colouring by Promarker.

& here is my little card!

Challenges;
SSW2 - Sketch 34 - a beauty to work with!

Papertake - 2/4 legged friends
PB@Allsorts - November - Anything Goes
Glitter n Sparkle - Cute
Robyn's Fetish - Anything with wings
Brown Sugar - Anything Goes
Crafting For All Seasons - Birthdays

Butterfly Catcher

I'm on a roll this week, I've managed to make a few cards!  This one was quite quick though as the PB image was coloured a couple of weeks back when I was in my hedgehog phase.  I coupled it with an old Papertake sketch and gorgeous Bo Bunny papers and the result is below!

Challenges;
Papertake - Old sketch - Sketch 80
Crafty Catz - Anything Goes
Diva's by Design - Anything Goes
Penny's Paper Crafty - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

Delighted to see I won the Papertake Challenge this week and will pick up a $25 prize from Simon Says Stamp! Yipee!!!

Hey Pumpkin!

I guess you guys can see why I chose hedgehogs as my challenge theme over at MAWTT - as I said, there are just so many hedgies out there, I wanted to dig them all out!  This is my penultimate hedgehog, for the time being...but I still have more that I could use!

Today it's a Halloween card, again with a PB and this time the glossy accents were out as was a fab seasonal ribbon.

Challenges;
Come & Get It - Halloween
One Stitch At A Time - Orange
The Corrosive Challenge - Halloween Colours
Sketch Saturday - Sketch 330
PBSC- Halloween
Papertake - Anything Goes

Merlot
Today is a big day for my little cat, as this posts, I'll be heading back from the vet without him as he goes into surgery to have his eye removed and hopefully his jaw set today.  It's 3 weeks since his injury and he's a mush happier catty again, just hope I'm doing the right thing putting him through all this.  6 weeks to recover is a long spell inside. Jx

3pm Update
Merlot is now through surgery and is recovering well.  They removed his left eye and a left upper tooth.  His mouth now shuts and the vet thinks he will now be a lot more comfortable as both the eye and the jaw would have given him pain.  He comes home tomorrow to be nursed better...can't wait!

The Pitter Patter of Tiny Feet

... or more appropriately the pitter patter of the rain on the Velux window this morning - it's pouring!

Anyway, I'm working later, and I got loads of my gardening jobs done last week so if it decides to rain all day, so be it!

Onto my card, obviously with a hedgie and this time with embossed little feet cause it's a baby card using another fab PB stamp. The flower is made using a new Memory Box die set and the ribbon I bought in Berlin in the summer.

Challenges;
SSW2 - Great sketch - 29

Dragonfly Dreams - Mainly Pink
Fussy & Fancy - Lots of Pink
Just Add Ink - Just Add Baby
613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes

Bored of Hedgehogs Yet?

When I started this little hedgehog run, I didn't quite realise how many I had!  Last weekend I coloured up a heap and this week you have been shown one daily!

Today it's back to Penny Black, this time in Shades of Autumn for this little male baseball fella.  Sam, I think this is one of yours?

Anyway I think he's another cutie to add to my ever growing collection!

Challenges;
OLLCB - Use a bow
Sweet Stampin - Just for Men
We Do DooBadoo - Something masculine
Sentimental Sunday - Use kraft
Sketch n Stash - Sketch 44 - Challenge 148 using old image and papers - so old I don't know who's!

Merlot
Last night he got his second opinion so the Aberdeen vet suggests dentistry to fix Merlot's jaw, (he says its fractured.) Then 6 weeks post op with a frame to set his jaw in the correct position with assisted feeding but hopefully not tube.

Sadly however he said Merlot was now completely blind in his left eye and sight will never return :(
The difficult decision is whether on not to remove said eye? Jx

Hedgehogs

Today it's my turn to host the challenge over at Moving Along With The Times and I've chosen the theme of

"Hedgehogs"

Hope you all approve? I just thought there were so many lovely hedgehogs out there that they deserved to be grouped together in a challenge all of there own.  It also gives you scope to go Birthday or Christmas, or what ever you fancy.  So this should make it easy to join in... you'd think so!

My dilemma then became which to use!  Given a narrow theme, the decision is clear cut, give me choice and I stick!  In the end I made more than one card, and that's why my blog has been full of hedgehogs this week - and there's still more to come!

Today however, I've played it safe and gone PB.  Not the most seasonal of stamps I know but I bought it this year intending to use it over the Summer - I've only just got to it now.

I then decided not to use DP's, just card, embossing, punches and dies, the end result being;

Challenges;
Crafting When We Can - No Design Papers
7 Kids College Fund - Anything goes with ribbon or lace
Crafters Cafe - Punches & die cuts - Ms Border punch & sun die
Crafting by Designs - Anything Goes
Crafting With Dragonflies - Anything Goes
Creative Moments - 3 Layers
Hobbybook Design Challenge - Include an Animal
Sisterhood of Crafters - Lots of Layers

Christmas is a Coming!

Think I read on Facebook the other night that Christmas was only 12 weeks away - it's probably less now so I must get a wriggle on with those cards!

This one uses a PB Hedgie from a few years back along with LOTV papers.  And talking of hedgies... guess what?  The mammoth task of cutting back our hedge is over for another year.  Colin was home last weekend and made a start on the side, and during the week I finished off the rest.  Hubs did the last bit as it was too high for me even with the platform, and surprisingly he said he had " the toughest thickest bit to do!"  goes without saying doesn't it!

Challenges;
PBSC - Blue/Brown & White
Winter Wonderland - Layer It Up
Christmas @ Sweet Stampin - Christmas Critters
CHCC - Make it Colourful
SSW2 - Sketch & Coffee Twist - (Latte coloured, mmm!)

Ryder Cup

With the Ryder Cup coming to a close this weekend, I thought a golf themed card would be appropriate,

It's made following the lovely sketch by Sketch n Stash, using old Basic Grey papers, an old PB stamp and a newer La La Land die.

Challenges;
Sketch n Stash - Sketch 147
Sweet Stampin - Just For Men
Brown Sugar - Anything Goes

Baby in Blue

No cards then 2 cards on consecutive days! What am I like?

Yup, another request, so it had to be made quickly - this time for a new baby.

Challenges;
PBSC- Buttons & Bows
Sketch Saturday - Sketch

Baby

Today the challenge at An Oldie but A Goodie has been set by my blog buddy Alison and she's asking for

Baby

(Remember to use an iten older than 6 months on your project and to tell us what it is)

For my card I used a lovely old PB image combined with Craft Creations baby paper.  The card is then completed with a ribbon, doily and button.

The prize this challenge is a fabulous set of stamps Alison has donated, so our lucky winner will be getting these posted through their door at the end of the challenge.

Challenges;
A Gem of a Challenge - For a child/baby
Suzi Bee's Bloomin Challenge - Anything goes
We Do Doobadoo - Ribbon
Card Mania - Baby
PB@Allsorts - favourite stamp

What Was Your Holiday Job?

So, today Colin starts his new holiday job...which is in an Ice-Cream Factory - how good is that!  Yup, for the whole of the summer, Colin will be working at Mackie's Ice-Cream plant in Rothienorman, doing...I'm not quite sure what, but I'm sure over the coming weeks I'll be able to tell you more.

So with his new job in mind, I thought an ice-cream themed card would be appropriate and luckily enough I have the PB stamp Hedgy Flavour and MME papers with cones, perfect for the occasion!

I then got to thinking, what did everyone else do for holiday jobs, anything exciting?  Mine was pretty good too, I worked as a beach lifeguard for several summers, but before you think Baywatch, just remember I live in the North East of Scotland and the North Sea is a tad colder than the Pacific Ocean!  Anyway I'd love to hear what you all did so please let me know.

Challenges;
Papertake - Sketch
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes
Glitter n Sparkle - Cute
Chocolate Coffee & Cards - Embossing
Crafty Catz - Anything Goes
Creative Knockouts - Summer's coming

Training Update
Feeling heaps better again now so training has resumed, still rubbish at running though so it will be intensive training from now on - the race is in 3 weeks, YIKES! Jx

No Images

So, Colin has finished his exams, leavers form not signed yet but he's now taken up residence in my car- driving test soon so he's getting as much practice in as he can before the actual test.  Before I head out on yet another lesson with him I want to tell you about today's challenge...

Today it's the turn of Carole to pick our theme at Moving Along With The Times and she has gone with;

No Image 
- Just a sentiment as the focal point.

Now I have a few sentiment stamps - quite a few digi ones, but in the end I went with this Penny Black rubber stamp.  It's a while since I've used it so I thought it deserved an airing!

Paper this time is Basic Grey - Little Black Dress, a lovely pad and despite the feminine name I think I've used it on more male cards than female!

So that's it for today folks, as always there are loads of super cards on the challenge blog so check them out and leave the rest of the DT some love and check back next week to hear what Colin has got planned for his super long Summer Holidays! Jx

Challenges;
Di's digi's - Make it Masculine
Suzy Bee's - One for the guys
Wags n Whiskers - One for the boys