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Wednesday 30 May 2012

Daisy's Image Inspirations


Over at 


our challenges run fortnightly so on the off Wednesday the Designers will be creating with a specially selected digi from the Daisy Doodles Store.


The image we are working with today is Lily of The Valley. It is one of the newer images and it is available from the store for only $2. You get the image in TIFF, PNG & JPG formats. The DT have made some smashing cards using these images.

I coloured the image with Promarkers & Flexmarkers using a very pale grey to create a background to make the white in the flowers pop out better. This is matted onto dark green cardstock and mounted with 3d foam for dimension.

The dark green card base is coverd with a muted paidly patterned paper. I have used a couple of different shades of green for the layers, used a Nellie Snellen die for the doily and wrapped lace and ribbon around the long piece of card. I added 3 sequin flowers and pearl centres and the butterfly and pearl heart was recycled from a store bought birthday card.

I hope you will pop over to the blog to see the lovely creations on there and please remember that you have until Sunday night to get your entries in for our Beary Cute challenge

I'll see you again next week with another lovely Daisy Doodles design.


Materials Used in this card are as follows:-
Card Size – A5
Patterned Paper – First Edition pad by Dovecraft
Embellishments – Ribbon & lace, sequin flowers, pearls, recycled butterfly and heart
Tools – Promarkers, Flexmarkers, Nellie Snellen die
Techniques – Die Cutting & recycling

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order):-

Sunday 27 May 2012

OSAAT #115 Red White & Blue



There's a new challenge today at One Stitch At  A Time and the theme is

Red White & Blue

Our sponsor this week is Joanna Sheen and the prize is £10 voucher for their store



Please head on over to the Stitchy Bear Store to check out all the lovely digis on offer from our great designers. There are some freebies available and there is a selection of cut price Monthly Specials that change often, there really is so much to choose from thanks to our very talented designers.



Also, to keep ahead of all the latest news you can become a follower at the



Don’t forget that we have changed the prize structure. You must use a store image to win the main prizes and all other entries will be in a draw to win $3 to spend in the store


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I have used a fun image called Cordy by Beary Dust Stamps for this challenge. For the Red White & Blue challenge I didn’t want to use a Union Jack image as I thought that would be a bit too obvious but when I saw the ruffles on the dress I thought it would be fun to mix the red and blue together on this image and using papers from the Portobello Road collection by Papermania it enabled me to pick the colours out and use white as my neutral colour.

The image is coloured with  Promarkers & Flexmarkers and I have cut it out mounted on 3d foam squares. I used a sketch for the layout from Craft Your Passion. The red paper has been cut using a Nestabilities die and distressed with a small ink pad around the edges. I added some flowers punched from the papers withsome Cani centres. Stickles glitter glue has been added to them, the shoes and to the trim on the hat. The sentiment is a freebie rubber stamp from the latest issue of Docrafts Creativity magazine.

It is a great year to be British with the Queen’s Jubilee and all the sporting events so I am sure it will be a popular theme for this challenge.

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Please pop over to OSAAT to see the fab cards from my colleagues on the DT. I look forward to seeing your entries for this challenge

Materials Used in this Project are as follows:-
Card Size – 6” Square
Image Cordy by Beary Dust Stamps
Paper – Portobello Road by Papermania
Sentiment – Portobello Road Rubber Stamp freebie
Embellishments – Craftwork Cards Candi, Stickles Glitter Glue, Papermania self adhesive ribbon
Tools – Promarkers & Flexmarkers, Nestabilities Die, flower punch, Versamark ink pad
Techniques – Diecutting, rubber stamping, distressing

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order):-

Saturday 26 May 2012

Flashback Friday 24.0



This month's prompt at Flashback Friday is to post your first masculine card.

This was made for Paul's Grandad in August 2003.

He sadly passed away on the 30th May last year and loved my cards so this is quite a fitting tribute to him as we approach the 1st anniversary of this sad event. 

He was renowned for loving a real ale so for the 1st handmade card I gave him I wanted it to be personal for him. I had cut a template out of card to make a 'pint' glass and cut a piece of shiny acetate and placed some textured brown paper behind to emulate a glass of beer. I used some cotton wool for the frothy head at the top of the glass and handwrote cheers in permanent marker on the acetate.

The base of the card was a sheet of bronze pearlescent card and I used some gold paper for the matted layer and trimmed the edges with patterned scissors.

The sentiment was written on the computer and matted and layered on more of the paper.

When I look back at this card it seems so bare... perhaps because there were no patterned papers around at that time in the UK. Cardmaking was just starting to create a buzz and materials were not so readily available. You really had to think outside the box and be creative with other materials. I remember being so proud of this card and waiting frantically for the reaction when Grandad opened it. I have to say that I am still as excited now to see people open their cards and I hope that my joy in this never goes away.

It probably sounds corny but a little bit of me goes into everything I make. I love cardmaking in general but especially love it when I am making something that is quite personal for a particular person. The day I don't enjoy that is the day I should pack up cardmaking for good. I for one hope that never happens J

Thursday 24 May 2012

Daisy Doodles #60 Beary Cute



 Over at Daisy Doodles Creative Challenges we have a new challenge today


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For my card I have used one of the newer Daisy Doodles images Droppn’ In which comes in 3 formats for only $2. Head over to the Daisy Doodles Store to check these out and all the other great digi’s that are available !



I’ve delayed displaying this card on my blog as it was for my Sister In Law’s Birthday. She was supposed to be doing a tandem parachute jump on Saturday but unfortunately the weather scuppered things and after many hours of waiting for the clouds to clear she finally went up I the plane only to be brought back down as the visibility was so poor. For someone who is petrified of flying and heights it was all a bit stressful for her L It has been re-scheduled for 3rd June though so keeping fingers crossed weather is better as we are scheduled for a hot air balloon trip on the 4th too. Of course it is a Bank Holiday weekend so goodness only knows how the weather will be…..

Anyhoo, back to my card….. I coloured the cute image with Promarkers & Flexmarkers and added decoupage layers for the ‘front’ of the balloon and the darling little bear. I used Bakers Twine on some of the ropes as I really wanted to highlight a foreground and background with the parachute. The red white and blue is a fun touch too match the papers colours.

The papers are all from a Dovecraft First Edition pad called Family Ties and I have inked the edges to grunge them up a bit. The ribbon is one of my fave lace edged ones and the sentiment is from my stash. The layout is from Sketch for You To Try
                                                                                               
I hope you will pop over to the blog to see the lovely creations on there from the rest of the DT and we look forward to seeing your entries in for our Beary Cute Challenge

I'll see you again next week with another lovely Daisy Doodles design.


Materials Used in this card are as follows:-
Card Size – A5
Image – Droppin’ In by Daisy’s Digi Doodles
Papers –  Family Ties First Edition pad by Dovecraft
Sentiment – From Stash
Tools - 3d Foam pads, Promarkers, Flexmarkers, Ink pad,
Embellishments – Bakers Twine, Lace edged ribbon
Techniques – Distressing, Decoupage

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order):-


Sunday 20 May 2012

OSAAT #114 Anything Goes


There's a new challenge today at One Stitch At  A Time and the theme is

Anything Goes

We are sponsored this week by Stitchy Bear Digital Stamps and one lucky winner will receive the Full Mini Collaboration pack the DT have used



The DT are all using products from the new Mini Collaboration pack. There will be a new one available every Fortnight for 1 week only. The Mini Collab is free with a purchase from the store of only $7

Please head on over to the Stitchy Bear Store to check out all the lovely digis on offer from our great designers. There are always some freebies available and there is a selection of cut price Monthly Specials that change often, there really is so much to choose from thanks to our very talented designers.




Also, to keep ahead of all the latest news you can become a follower at the



Don’t forget that we have changed the prize structure. You must use a store image to win the main prizes and all other entries will be in a draw to win $3 to spend in the store

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It was Choccy’s turn to choose an image for us to work with and it is a stamp pack called Fun In The Rain by Lil Diva Stamps. You get the image of the little boy in his wellies and a rainbow too. I chose to use the boy as it is raining so much in the UK at the moment it seemed very appropriate. We had the wettest April on record, then a drought in a lot of the country and then so much rain the drought was lifted….crazy crazy weather!

Anyhoo the image was of course coloured in with Promarkers and Flexmarkers and I used a Nestabilities die to cut the image and a red mat from scrap cardstock. I added a second layer for the cloud mounted on 3d foam.

Using a sketch from Crafting Life’s Pieces for the layout I added some lovely new papers from the Family Ties First Edition pad by Dovecraft. It has lots of fairly bright primary colours to match my image. Just because the weather is dreary it doesn’t mean my card has to be J

I added one of my most favourite ribbons with the lace trim to it and my absolute new favourite Cheery Lynn die. I snipped it to fit the card better and added some Prima flowers and small buttons. Finally I added some bunting cut from scraps and hanging from some Baker’s Twine with a handwritten message ‘Rain Rain Go Away’ a sentiment I am sure many of you will agree with.

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Please pop over to OSAAT to see the fab cards from my colleagues on the DT. I look forward to seeing your entries for this challenge

Materials Used in this card are as follows:-
Card Size – 8” Square
Paper – Family Ties First Edition pad by Dovecraft
Embellishments – Buttons, ribbon, Bakers Twine, Prima flowers
Tools – Promarkers, Flexmarkers, Cheery Lynn & Nestabilities dies,
Techniques – Die cutting, Decoupage

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order):-

Wednesday 16 May 2012

CDAC PC #18 Ice Cream Cone


It’s Round 18 of the Progressive Challenge at CDAC  and for this final round and it is all about

Summer Sizzle

We have some lovely mages from some fabulous creators. Team A have the pleasure in bringing you some gorgeous samples for the images for this round



My card is using a fab image called Ice Cream Cone from Pattie’s Creations
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Well in the UK our weather has been so up and down lately it doesn’t feel like we will have a Summer but the images we have for this, the final round of challenges at CDAC will help to bring a bit of Summer to your lives. I’m sure you will have as much fun with them as we the DT have.

I decided to go quite bold and bright with this card. I have this brilliant set of 3 craft drawers by DCWV that I got from QVC some years ago and I knew the Summer one had some ice cream themed items so this was where I started. I printed the design so that I could decoupage the layers and picked the colours of blue and pink from the main patterned paper. The textured cardstock is colour co-ordinated from the same drawer set and the patterned brad is also from there.

I used a Nestabilities die to cut the image and mounted the layers with 3d foam. The final layer has had a coat of Glossy Accents applied and I have added some beads that have been recycled from an old t-shirt.

The layout has been inspired by a sketch from Clean & Simple Stamping, however I am not convinced they will accept my entry as my card is probably not CAS enough for them, mind you it is quite CAS for me…..

The sentiment if a freebie from Wink Wink Ink and is again cut with a nestie die and inked around the edges.

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If you have taken part in the last challenge you will be receiving your images to work with for this part. If however you didn't enter all is not lost. For the paltry sum of only $1 you can buy back into the challenge and you will receive the images.

The deadline to enter your cards is 30th May. For all details on this challenge, the rules and how it works please pop over to this thread at the CDAC


Materials Used in this card are as follows:-
Card Size – A5
Sentiment – Wink Wink Ink
Paper – DCWV Summer Drawer set
Embellishments – beds, DCWV brad
Tools – Promarkers, Flexmarkers, 3d foam, Nestabilies Die, Fiskars punch, small ink pad, Glossy Accents
Techniques – Distressing, Die Cutting, Punching, Decoupage

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order):-