Forever Friends Christmas

I bought these two Christmas stamps at the end of last year in a sale and with a recent re-organisation of my stash I found them unused so I couldn't wait to get them inky and make some cards with them.

The backing papers are all Papermania except for the pink which is Brenda Pinnick.  The backing mats have all been embossed with Cuttlebug folders and the sentiments are Personal Impressions.  The holly was punched with a Woodware punch and the snowflakes are a cuttlebug die.

I think these will feature on quite a few of my Christmas cards this year.

M is for Masks - Scrapology July challenge

The challenge this month on Scrapology  was truly challenging for me - firstly I don't own any masks and secondly I am not a big fan of any form of crafting that means getting messy and inky LOL!!  But I gritted my teeth and got on with it.

This is the sketch -

As I had no masks I punched out lots of butterflies from scrap cardstock and scattered those over my page.  I didn't have a photograph that would have looked right split up so left my photograph intact.

I used Sarah's Cards May kit - My Mind's Eye 'Stella & Rose (Mabel)', the ribbon that was included was perfect for the page and so was the chipboard flower which I sprayed with the teal wash shimmer mist and further embellished with a mixture of prima e-bling and Sarah's cards gemstones.   The two shimmer mists I used were Cosmic Shimmer Mist - Bronze Blush and Teal Wash - you can find them both at Cardinal Colours.

A close up of the chipboard flower -

The butterflies that I had punched out with a Martha Stewart monarch butterfly punch were carefully lifted off the cardstock with tweezers and I will use them later as embellishments on cards and tags.  I did add two to my layout to make a double butterfly embellishment.

There is still time to have a go at this month's challenge as it does not close until 5th August.  Thankyou Scrapology for another great sketch and challenge!!

Knoydart Peninsula

Whilst on our Scottish cruise of the Caledonian Canal and some of the small western isles we made an overnight visit to the Knoydart Peninsula.  This beautiful area can really only be reached by boat as there is no road access to the peninsula - to reach it on foot would be a 20 mile walk over quite rough terrain.  The Old Forge pub according to the Guinness Book of Records is the most remote pub on Mainland Britain.  The easiest way to get to the peninsula is by boat from Mallaig.

I used this month's sketch from Sarah's Cards to do a layout using two photographs from our visit to the peninsula.  The lovely ship that you can see moored on the jetty is the Lord of the Glens - a beautiful mini cruise ship - it only carries 55 passengers.  We had a wonderful 11 day cruise on her and enjoyed some fantastic weather even though it was early May.  The downside was that the famous Scottish midges were out in force and poor Mum and Richard got eaten alive - fortunately they don't like my blood and leave me alone.

I used Sarah's Cards June kit Cosmo Cricket 'Social Club'.  The title was cut on the Bigkick using Sizzlet alphabet 'Naturally Serif'

Winter Starburst

The challenge this week on the Penny Black Saturday Challenge blog is Starburst.  I decided to combine this challenge with the current colour challenge on The Ribbon Girl Blog which is shades of aqua.

I made a couple of Christmas cards using this jolly snowman from T for transparent set 'Jolly Friends'

 

I used two Cuttlebug embossing folders for the background and the mat behind the snowman.  I then punched using a small Creative Memories star punch some of the stars from the star embossing folder.  The snow beneath the snowman is made using Woodware Fluffy stuff.  The sentiments are HOTP and Personal Impressions.

A close up of the snowman -

Flower Power Part Two

This is the second card that I made for this month's challenge on Penny Black at Allsorts

Supplies used -

Penny Black stamp 'Buzz in the Air'
K&Co patterned paper
Woodware scalloped punch
Stampin' Up label punches
Paper flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts
Organza ribbon from stash

A close up of the stamped image -

Flower Power Part One

This month's challenge at Penny Black at Allsorts is Flower Power.

The first card I made was this one -

Supplies used -

Penny Black T for Transparent 'Garden Friends'
K&Co patterned paper
Personal Impressions sentiment
Paper flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts
Marianne D die
Stampin' Up label punches
Satin ribbon from stash

A close up of the stamped image

Christmas Stockings - Shimelle's June 6x4 class

As it is June we are now up to 6 photographs and another double page layout.  I was amazed to find that I had 6 portrait orientated photographs as I take virtually all my photographs in landscape mode.  I did have to trim them down slightly as one of the photographs would only print with a large white line down one side so I had to trim that off and then trim the others to match.

The PDF and video for the class can be found here

My photographs are from last Christmas and from our morning ritual of opening our stockings once we have had breakfast -

I used Basic Grey Jovial and Bazill cardstock.  The title is American Crafts Thickers and I cut some of the flowers and baubles from one of the Jovial papers for my embellishments, these were glittered with Eucalyptus and Crystal Stickles.

The left hand side of the layout

And the right hand side

And some close ups of the hand cut embellishments

There is still time to join in with this class as the deadline is 29th July.

Hang out the Bunting - PBSC Week 160

The challenge this week on Penny Black Saturday Challenge is to use bunting on your card.  I just love the trend for bunting at the moment, it always makes me smile.

This is the card that I made

All of the patterned papers came from my scraps bag so I am not sure who they are by, but think the main backing paper is Echo Park.  The sentiment is from Cuddly Buddly and the sweet mice are from T for Transparent set 'Critter Party'.   I used a bunting sticker to make a chipboard template for my bunting and the aqua bakers twine is from Sarah's Cards.  The pink gemstones are Papermania Shimmer dots

A close up of the stamped image which I watercoloured with Derwent watercolour pencils and lightly glittered with stardust stickles

Thankyou PBSC for another lovely challenge!!

The dreaded male cards

I have always found male cards very difficult to make, I suppose it is because you are much more restricted with the embellishments that you can use.

But every now and then I do have to make a batch for the men in our family.  These are from a recent cardmaking session -

The stamped images are Penny Black and the patterned papers are a mixture of Creative Memories and DCWV.    The sentiments are Personal impressions and the stars were punched with a CM double star punch.

Happy Wedding Anniversary

Today it is our 16th wedding anniversary and as usual I have made a card for my beloved.  A little bit of a change from my usual style.  I have used some lovely Kanban stamps.  I stamped the image of the couple inside a three fold aperture card and after watercolouring assembled the card using foam pads so that the aperture part of the card was raised up.  I then separately stamped the rose image and after watercolouring and glittering lightly with fruit punch stickles, I hand cut part of the design so that I could shape it around the bottom part of the aperture.  The roses and leaves are stuck down with pinflair gel to give them some dimension.  The stamped sentiment reads - 'If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I would walk through my garden forever' Tennyson.

And a close up of the roses -

Sadly we aren't doing anything special for our anniversary as R is working nights as usual, but hopefully next week we might go out for a meal.

Three for the price of one - PBSC Week 159

This week at Penny Black Saturday Challenge the theme is Christmas in July..  As you may have noticed I have been blogging Christmas cards all year round so this challenge suited me right down to the ground. 

I made one card and then had two images left as I frequently will stamp and watercolour a pile of images in one go, so I got straight on and made two more cards.

 

I used Hot off the Press Christmas papers and a Stampin' Up sentiment and scalloped circle punch.  The stamp was from T for Transparent set - Jolly Friends.  I glittered the holly with Eucalyptus stickles and used Frosted Lace stickles for furry bits on the stocking. I further embellished each card with ribbon and gemstones from my stash.

These cards now bring my total to 56 - only another 94 to make!!!!!!

Spots before my eyes

This is a layout that I did for a weekly challenge on UKS the other week.  You had to use the sketch provided, use the colour theme of pink, green and white and feature rik rak and stitching on your layout.

I used these lovely papers from the Porcelain collection by Basic Grey and a photo of me taken in January at a post Christmas family party.  My sister's children always buy presents for the adults but their budget is a £1 per person and they try to get really silly and useless things.  One of my presents was a set of dalmatian ears with a matching bow tie.  To show them that their present wasn't totally useless, I wore them for the rest of the party - I think I look quite cute in them LOL!!!

This is the sketch that we had to use -

2 Crazy Birds - Anita's May class

This is the class that we did in May with Anita.  The class involved some handcutting, stamping directly on the page and layering up embellishments.  I chose this photograph of Sy and I which was taken in the gardens of Debden House back on our weekend retreat there in 2009.  You can blame the title on Scrappy Sarah - I didn't want to call yet another layout 'Friends' so she came up with '2 crazy birds' LOL!!

I'm afraid that I cannot remember what paper range that we used for this class - I do know that the alphabet stickers are Doodlebug.  Thankyou Anita for another lovely class.

Penny Black Saturday Challenge Week 158

Another great challenge this week over at PBSC, this week's theme is Desert Island Stamps - to pick the one stamp that you could not do without.  A tough one for me to decide on as I love all my Penny Black stamps but there is one Christmas stamp that I simply adore and I love using it on my cards.

I made an easel card with it -

 

Supplies used

Penny Black T for Transparent set - The Wonder

Bazill cardstock

Stampin' Up polka dot paper

Go Kreate scalloped circle and plain circle dies

Marianne D doily circle die

Stampin' Up oval punches

HOTP sentiment

Martha Stewart snowflake punches
Frosted Lace and Eucalyptus stickles

And a close up of the stamped image which was watercoloured with Derwent watercolour pencils

I am also entering this card into this week's challenge on Penny Black Inc Blog to make a card using circles.

Scrapology June card challenge

The June card challenge on Scrapology features a sketch which you can find here.  There is still time to enter as the challenge doesn't close until 15th July.

This is the card that I made for the challenge -

I used a Sugar Nellie snowman stamp and embossed the background panels with a cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder.  The sentiment is by Cuddly Buddly.

Let it snow

This is my most recent batch of mass produced cards all using the same Penny Black snowman image, except for the last card which is a Sugar Nellie stamp.

Anita's June Class

I always love Anita's classes but I especially loved the class that we did this month.  We used GCD studio papers, learnt how to make spiral roses and had a refresher in how to make concertina flowers.

I just love the papers that Anita chose for this class - they were double sided and both sides were so pretty it was hard to choose which side to use.

I used an old photograph of me with my two younger siblings.  The flourishes were cut using a Sizzix die and the flowers were sprayed with glimmer mist to make them a better match to the layout.  Anita had pre-printed the butterflies for us to cut out and I lightly glittered them with Crystal Stickles.

A close up of the butterfly and flowers -

Thankyou Anita for another fabulous class.