Sarah's Cards January Challenge

The challenge this month on Sarah's Cards Ltd blog was to document the highlights of 2010.

This is what I did for the challenge

I used Sarah's Cards monthly kit - May 2010 Fancy Pants 'Road Show'.  The flowers were punched from scraps of patterned paper in my scraps bag (mainly Basic Grey) using EK Success flower punches and Martha Stewart Frond punch.  The pearls in the flower centres are Sarah's Cards own brand ones.   I rubbed creamy brown chalk ink over the pink foam alphas (American Crafts Dear Lizzie) as they were too bright for the layout.

A close up of the photographs

And a close up of the key

Penny Black Saturday Challenge Week 135

The challenge this week at Penny Black Saturday Challenge was to use something purchased in the sales or your last craft purchase.  I always buy some new Christmas stamps in the sales ready for the next year and this year I purchased t for transparent set Best Day Ever, so this challenge was a great excuse to get this cute hedgie stamp all inky.

I watercoloured the image with Derwent watercolour pencils and double mounted onto SU cardstock.  The background is stamped in SU Cherry Cobbler with Hero Arts Musical background stamp.  The ribbon is from my stash and the sentiment is SU.

A close up of the image

Penny Black at Allsorts January Challenge

The theme for this month's challenge at Allsorts is All You Need is Love, so I have made a wedding card using one of my favourite and frequently used stamps - it is from the T for transparent 'Hugs!' set

I made a scalloped circle easel card using Go Kreate large scallop dies and then used scraps of pink cardstock for the mats.  The blossoms are Prima and the pink pearls are Papermania shimmer dots.  I used SU oval punches for the sentiments.  The top sentiment is a Wild Rose Studio stamp and the bottom sentiment is Personal Impressions, organza ribbon is from my stash. 

The Ribbon Girl Colour Challenge #4

The colour challenge this month set on The Ribbon Girl Blog is pink and green.

I made a couple of cards using a pad of free papers that I got with Cardmaking & Papercraft. 

A close up of the stamped image

And the second card

Supplies used

My Mind's Eye 'Quite Contrary'
Penny Black stamp from T for Transparent 'Bubbly'
Glossy accents on ladybirds
Stamped sentiments - Cuddly Buddly and Wild Rose Studio
Punches - Martha Stewart - doily lace, deep lace and frond.  Woodware scallop punches and  EK Success retro flowers.
Organza ribbons and gemstones from stash

Scrapology January Challenge

Another lovely sketch this month on the Scrapology blog, this time a double page layout

This is my interpretation of the sketch

The photos are from the seaside retreat that I went on in Eastbourne last September.

Supplies used

October Afternoon Seaside Papers
October Afternoon alphabet stickers
Bazill cardstock
Sizzlet alphabet - Santa's Workshop
Martha Stewart large butterfly punch
Kaiser self adhesive gemstones
Stampin' Up border punch

The tag with the journalling was made in a make and take during the weekend.

Close up of the LHS

And a close up of the RHS

I love the last photo on the right handside, Anita's expression is priceless when she realises that she has just been caught in a group shot ROFL!!

It was a fabulous weekend and Jill from Cardinal Colours is organising another one for this September.  I have already booked my place!

Penny Black Saturday Challenge Week 134

The challenge this week on PBSC was to select four items from the card buffet below

I chose patterned paper, 3 gems, 3 buttons and twine.  I will give this card to my Dad for his birthday next month as he is a great lover of crosswords.  I can see me using this stamp which is a recent purchase a lot this year for male birthdays.

If you are wondering where the 3rd gem is, I have used a tiny crystal for the dot of the i in the Happy Birthday sentiment.

A close up of the image

Supplies used

Stamp - Penny Black Hedge-word
Patterned paper - Doodlebug, MAMBI
Stamped sentiments - Personal impressions, Hero Arts
Buttons and twine from stash
Black self adhesive pearls
Clear self adhesive gemstone - Papermania
Large and small labels nesties
Stampin' Up punches

Cardinal Colours - new Bricks &Mortar shop opened today.

I have just got back from a little shopping trip with Lynne and Carol to the new Cardinal Colours shop that has opened in the high street of the small town where I live.

Cardinal Colours can be found at:
42 High Street,
Polegate,
East Sussex,
BN26 6AG.

Tel: 01323 488718 and at http://www.cardinalcolours.co.uk/

There is a large free car park (for up to 2 1/2 hrs) next door to the railway car park which is less than 2 minutes away.   Jill has a comfy sofa, and tea and coffee etc. is available so if you bring your hubby he can sit and read his paper with a cuppa whilst you browse.

Opening hours are:
Wednesday - Saturday
9.30 am - 4.30 pm

(Jill is happy to open other times by arrangement - just give her a call).

I know it is going to be fatal for me having a scrapbooking shop that close to home LOL!!!

Good luck Jill with your new venture!!!

Here are a few snaps that I took of the lovely Jill once I had done my shopping -

And Lynne and Carol

Going Buggy Blog Party

Enfys at Going Buggy has been having a week long blog party and the challenge on the first day was to make a card with a bug on it. 

This is what I did using one of my favourite Penny Black hedgie stamps from T for transparent set 'Bubbly'.  (This was my first ever Penny Black purchase and the start of the addiction that I am now struck with LOL!)

As I am on a mission to use up leftovers from kits and classes, I used these papers from a class from Sarah's Card's retreat last year - I think they are Bella Boulevard.  The sentiment stamp is Stampin' Up and the cardstock came from my scraps bag.  The flower punch is Stampin' Up and the foliage is a Nellie Snellen punch.

I had enough of the blue paper left over to cover a small square card so whilst I was at it I did this card at the same time

The sentiment stamps are Personnel Impressions and I used a Stampin Up label punch and a Martha Stewart butterfly punch.

Silly Christmas Presents

For a few years now my sister's children have been given a budget of a £1 per adult to spend on a Christmas present for the grown ups.  Of course the best place to spend that money is the pound shop and this tradition has now become known as the silly presents.  Each year they try to get us things that are totally stupid and useless.  I also buy presents and so does my mum but we do try to get things that are of some use.  This year we didn't get a chance to all get together until January and the highlight was the opening of the presents.

This is what Uncle Richard got -

For the eagle eyed amongst you yes he did get a pregnancy testing kit and a power ranger cutlery set.  The shower gel and screen wipes are useful (yes I bought those), I will probably use the cookie cutter.  Not sure what we are going to do with the solar powered floating globe light especially as we don't have a pond!!!

And this is what I got -

I will donate the book to a friend's little girl and the gardening gloves are very useful.  I loved my glamour puss washing up gloves and dalmatian set so much that I modelled them straight away.

And here is Dad modelling his Disney Princess hat - he reckons he will wear it on our canal trip in September

And Mum modelling her army hat

She isn't sure yet what occasion she will wear it for but she did get a plastic hand grenade and gun with it too, useful accessories to carry around in your handbag LOL!!!

An oldie but a goodie

Yikes I just realised that I have no more blog posts scheduled at the moment - I have been crafting (promise!) but the light is so dire at the moment I just cannot get any decent photographs of it.  I am not going to grumble about the wet, dreary, windy weather as I will take this any day rather than the snow - at least I can leave the house in this weather.

So as I lack any new stuff to blog I will share a fave layout that I did for Shimelle's Scrap Like You Mean It challenge back in 2009.

This was taken when R sneaked out for a ciggie between courses during the evening meal - see your sins will find you out LOL!!!  It just happened to be the night that there was a photo op to have your piccie taken with the showgirls from the Black Watch Theatre Company so R got grabbed for a piccie.

Supplies

Patterned paper - Basic Grey Euphoria range
Bazill cardstock
Swirls cut on Big Kick with Sizzix dies, then painted and glittered
Foam thickers
Primas and bling from my stash
Feathers - kindly donated by Lyn

Penny Black Saturday Challenge Week 133

The challenge this week at Penny Black Saturday Challenge was New Beginnings.  I need to top up my box of cards especially with Thankyou cards, anniversaries and new home so went for a new home card.  I actually made two whilst I was at it.  I kept them fairly plain and simple as I do have to post a lot of cards so try to keep cards for posting as flat as possible.

  

I am trying this year to reduce the size of my scraps stash - I have so many leftovers from monthly kits and class kits which I save for cardmaking.  The pile of 12x12 baggies is getting to silly proportions so I am going to try as much as possible to always reach for the leftovers when cardmaking rather than using new stash.

Supplies

Top card - Bo Bunny papers (not a clue of the range as just scraps left), Woodware scallop punches, EK Success butterfly, Martha Stewart lace punch, Stampin' Up Label, oval and scallop oval punches.  Stamps are Penny Black Garden Buggy, SU Perfect punches and HobbyArt New Home sentiment.

Bottom card - the same as above but using American Crafts Letter Box double sided papers and EK Success flower punch, Martha Stewart frond punch.

Thanks for taking a look - I must apologise that the card pictures aren't the greatest, the light is awful here today so I resorted to scanning them to get them uploaded in time.

Blog hops and blog parties

A busy day today in blogland!!

Enfys at Going Buggy has started a week long blog party on her blog with daily competitions to enter, so do take a look there each day.  I will have a go at some of the challenges so will be blogging what I get up to.

And Bo Bunny start their second January blog hop today so have a look at some of the lovely work on display from their design team.  Today my friend Carin who is on their design team is featured.

Bergen Highlights

I have mountains of photographs to scrap especially from holidays and space is at a premium for storing albums so I am trying to do more multi photo layouts at the moment.

This is a layout that I did at the December crop at Cardinal Colours

I didn't actually go into Bergen that day as I have been there before and we only had a half day stop but these are some of the photographs that my Dad took on the walk from the cruise terminal to the market.

Supplies

Sarah's Cards kit (June 2010) - Pebbles 'Treehouse'
Punches - EK Success 6 petal flower in 2 sizes, EK Success butterfly
My Little Shoebox alphabet stickers
Sarah's Cards self adhesive pearls

Quick and easy cards

I needed to make some quick and easy cards to include in a friend's Christmas stocking who was staying with us over Christmas.  I used some printed diecuts and papers that came free with Creative Cardmaking magazine and Stampin' Up cardstock to make the card blanks.

I added extra embellishments of punched butterflies, flowers and self adhesive pearls.

Supplies

Printed diecuts and patterned papers - December issue Creative Cardmaking magazine
Stampin' Up cardstock
The Hobby House self adhesive pearls
EK Success butterfly and six petal flower punches

Anita's December Class

As always Anita did an extra special class for December.  This month we could do either a layout or a canvas based on this layout by Anita.

I chose to do a canvas to give to my parents for Christmas and I scanned and converted to black & white one of their cruise photographs from the Round the UK cruise that they did in August with my dear niece Milly.

There was a lot of handcutting to this class which I didn't mind, I find it quite therapeutic.  Sorry that the photograph is not the greatest, I had to quickly get it photographed before wrapping and delivering it and the light conditions even during the day were dreadful.

Some close ups of the handcutting which was raised up on foam pads

Supplies

Pink Paislee 'Queen Bee'
Bazill cardstock - Auckland and Bitter Chocolate
Crystal and Icicle Stickles
Martha Stewart butterfly punch

Thank you Anita for another lovely class - my parents loved the canvas.

Penny Black Saturday Challenge Week 132

The challenge set just before Christmas on PBSC was a recipe to use three patterned papers, one ribbon and one charm on the card.

This is what I came up with using one of the leftover images from my Christmas cardmaking- LOL this is the first one in the box for Christmas 2011!!!

And a close up of the stamped image

The snowman was coloured with derwent watercolour pencils and the snow was made using Woodware fluffy stuff.  The three patterned papers are all Hot Off the Press - leftovers from a Christmas kit.  The punched border is Martha Stewart and the glitter is Ice Stickles.  The stamped greeting and words at the bottom of the card are from Crystalline 'T for transparent' set.

Sarah's Cards December Sketch Challenge

There is still time to enter this month's sketch challenge on Sarah's Cards' blog.

This was the sketch

And this is the layout that I did, I decided to use one large photograph instead of three smaller ones

The photograph is from the weekend away that I had at Debden House back in October 2010 with friends from our monthly crop at Cardinal Colours and some of my UKS team mates.

Supplies

Sarah's Cards kit (March 2010) - Prima 'Blooming Retro'.
Punches - EK Success Butterfly, Woodware tab punch
Pearls - prima e.bling
Creative Memories alphabet stickers

Journal Your Christmas Day 34 - 2009

Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas did continue until 6th January but I decided to finish my journal on 3rd January.

It did make me laugh to read this again as I was still behind this year with all my preparations - you never know maybe next year I will do better.  Having rested doing JYC this year I would really like to do it again next year.

Thankyou for hanging on in there and following my JYC updates and thank you for all the lovely comments that you have left on my JYC blog posts.

Karen xx

Journal Your Christmas Day 33 - 2009

Christmas 2009 was my sister's dog Toby's  first Christmas so I gave him a page of his own in my journal. 

We always use to buy our cat Bimbo presents each year for Christmas so he wasn't left out and it is now nice to be able to do presents for Toby.

Favourite Layouts from 2010

It was a hard job choosing some of my favourite layouts from the year, especially as I had 99 to choose from.

So in no particular order I have managed to narrow it down to 8 faves -

This layout was done for a competition set by Cardinal Colours

This was for a challenge set on UKS and I used a photograph of my mum that had been restored beautifully by  Sarah.  I was inspired by the beautiful distressed layouts that are done by Rachael Elliott.

As soon as I saw this photograph of my god-daughter and her sister the title came straight to me and I knew I had to put it on a layout.  She has seen the layout and would love a copy to go on her wall so that will be a job for the new year.

I just love this photograph of my Dad on the Mon' & Brec' canal - it was a rare photo opportunity as DH is usually on the helm and not on the towpath whilst the boat is on the move.

Of course my faves must include a layout of my favourite band Marillion

Throughout the year I have done some fabulous classes at Cardinal Colours with the lovely Anita aka the Inky Blossom, it has been hard to choose which layout to include as my favourite but I settled for this one as it includes my lovely sister on her 40th Birthday.

Last year saw the addition of a new baby to the family - one of the four legged variety.  My sister is now mummy to the gorgeous Toby - I have never been a huge lover of dogs but this little bundle of joy has certainly won me over - of course it is helped by the fact that he is as nutty as a fruitcake so fits in very well with our family LOL!!

And my final favourite of the year - the layout that took me over into the darkside of distressing and inking.  I have never been a fan of lots of inking and distressed edges on layouts but this class by Louise Stevenson at Sarah's Cards retreat took me miles out of my comfort zone.  You know what -  I kind of enjoyed it and since then have ripped the odd edge, crumpled the odd bit of paper and smudged ink everywhere LOL.  This is the page that we did in class.

Thank you for taking a look at my favourites - I am looking forward to another year of creating and sharing my stuff here.

Karen xx