2 Sketches 4 You - Laura # 5

I have been on holiday this week and have had a lot more time to blog hop and stumbled across a fairly new sketch site at 2 Sketches 4 You

This is my interpretation of the most recent sketch - Laura#5. I used a rubber stamp from Paper Artsy with Tim Holtz ink pad, some lace and ribbon and the patterned paper is wallpaper. I decided to cut the cream panel down as I wanted more of the background paper to show as it is so nice. It is such a shame that the scanner doesn't pick up the slight metallic sheen this paper has. It's far too nice to be wallpaper!

This card also doubles up as entry to a challenge at Just Bex to use lace on a project.

I am really pleased with how this card turned out. It is totally not my normal style and I think my recent blog hopping has encouraged me to try something new.

Double Challenge Card

Now, I'm not usually too good at this sort of thing but I have made a card that satisfies 2 different challenges !

Over on Just Bex there is a Challenge Week and so far there have been loads of lovely challenges to get our mojo's stimulated. This is the card I have made for the Zest Appeal challenge which asked for a flower, ribbon, scallop and bling in zesty colours.

Another forum I visit has also got some challenges and this is in the Bright & Beautiful category.

The card is a Let's Make Cards one, paper is a freebie from a magazine, ribbon is Anita's, flower is HOTP, bling is freebies. Glitter butterflies and leaf sequin from stash. The tag is a printable scrapbook freebie, I have no idea who the author is as I printed it out last year and didn't use them !!

Love this brighter weather, it makes it so much easier to make brighter projects as your state of mind is sunnier in general.

Pwetty Butterfly & Just Bex Challenge

This card was made for a challenge on Just Bex where you had to pick a letter and use 3 things starting with it.

I chose B and the components were butterfly, brad and buckle. The colours blue and black would have also counted at a push!

The butterfly is a stamped image coloured in using Marvy Le Plume pens and Sakura Glaze pens for the little flowers. The flower in the centre is tiny brad from a pack I got at Lakeland. The ribbon is Papermania and the buckle was bought from Ebay a while ago. The card blank is from Let's Make Cards.

Not put a sentiment on the card yet, I need to start making more cards for my own stash as I only seem to make them for commissions at the moment. My box at work badly needs sorting out and some new vibrant stock filling it up.

Rob's Birthday + Just Bex Challenge

Our next door neighbour and very good friend Rob has just recently celebrated his birthday and this is the card I made him using this sketch from a Just Bex challenge.

The patterned papers on the card were from a Dovecraft men's pack and the blue and letters are by HOTP.

The sentiment banner is from my stash, no clue who made it !

We took him out for a meal to our favourite Indian Restaurant. We have all been there many times and the food is sublime.

Folding Book For Colleague

Our work colleague Sam (the gorgeous blonde on the 3rd picture) is leaving Amtrak and my hubby has worked with her for over 6 years and asked me if I could make something special for her as a leaving card.

I wanted to do something different, but didn't know what. I was browsing through the Docrafts gallery and found a folding book that Joanna Wolska had uploaded and she said she had instructions on her blog . A couple of clicks away and I knew exactly what I was going to do.

Joanna is Polish but her instructions are in English too and were very easy to follow. I had a practice with paper first. I am glad I decided to do that as I felt it needed to be larger and opted to make one with a finished size of 12.5 cm square. I am delighted with how the book came out, it took a lot of putting together (getting suitable photos and even having to take some to get the workmates together) but I felt it was worth it. They are presenting it to her on Tuesday when she leaves.

The papers used in the book have been an assortment from my stash from K & Co, Papermania and Dovecraft. I have embellished pages using ribbons, Papermania peeloffs, fabric sticker, metallic stickers cardstock stickers and silk flowers. I have also used Prima flowers and the centres are 3d metallic squashy dots that I got from Paperchase yesterday. They are ideal for when you need detail without adding bulk like brads or gems do. The triangular sections each house a tag which has been embellished with ribbons and eyelets. These have given an a lots of individual, double sided areas for people to write messages. When I made it I thought there might be too many but in the end some people had to 'overflow' onto the pages.


The box was embellished with a die cut K & Co Frame, Primas, Paperchase gems and Chipboards letters with Liquid Pearls dots.

I have also entered this into 2 challenges on Just Bex for a project using lots of ribbons and also one where an element is painted in some way.

Below is a slideshow of all the pages.

Just Bex November # 2

A recent challenge on Just Bex was to make a card following a template and for an extra point you needed to use something starting with D.

This card was again made from raiding my scraps, a touch of ribbon, a rub on sentiment from Let's Make Cards, a die cut flower from Papermania and a diamante gem.

Really like this sketch, nice and simple but well balanced.

Happy 40th Birthday Tina

It was my next door neighbour and very good friend Tina's 40th Birthday last Sunday and I made a folding card for her.

I had never seen this type of card before until I joined the Just Bex forum and it was one of the challenges for September.

Unfortunately I was unable to complete the challenge in time to get some points but it goes to show that some ideas do stick in there !


The card was made using papers and embellishments from the recent Crafty Bitz TSV from QVC. In fact it has to be a world record for me as it was delivered on the Friday and I started using it the following day.

The birthday sentiment on the front is a Cuttlebug embossing folder, the number stickers are Papermania and the present die cut is from a Let's Make Cards kit.
Inside the rub on quotes are from DCWV and the Birthday Rules sentiment is from a HOTP book and I chalked it to add colour.

I really enjoyed making this card and think it is a style I will be making more of in the future.

It amazed me how quick it was to put together once you had chosen all the elements.

Christmas Gift Tags

Another challenge on Just Bex is to make 3 gift tags, and you could do it 3 times to get a maximum of 3 points.

This first batch are from some Margaret Sherry decoupage that came free with one of the magazines last year. I have recently gone through all my free papers to pull out the Christmas ones to try and start using them so this was a good place to start.

I may use these on Christmas cards yet, I haven't decided.

These ones are simple Christmas Tree die cuts wrapped with tinsel.

The irridescent tinsel is from Boots, the red and green was from hair scrunchies that I took apart.
I spent 50p and got yards and yards of the stuff.

These ones were made from a pack of cheap Christmas cards I got in the January sales. The images were chunky and bold and I thought they would be nice to decoupage. I have added a bit of bling to the holly for berries.

The girls on the forum have made some lovely ones so far which are great for special people. The ones I have made are quite basic, but suitable for the bunch of people who don't even bother looking at them and certainly wouldn't realise they have been hand made !

Swing Card

Another Just Bex challenge to make a 'swing' card. One of the members Sadie had uploaded drawings and instructions of how to make this style of card and it was really easy to make as long as your measurements are accurate.

I have often admired this style of card thinking it would be difficult, but it isn't at all, and it looks fantastic. I think I may be making more of these.....

The paper is DCWV 2006 stack, more red from my scraps and Papermania stickers for the sentiment and snowflakes.

The snowman is another freebie scrapbooking printable.

Friday Night Challenge - Santa Baby

Friday Night Challenge for the 19th October on Just Bex was to make 5 cards with Santa on them.

This card was made using DCWV paper from 2006 stack. The image was from an old Christmas Card and the red paper was from my scraps box, which I am desparately trying to use some of.

This card was made using a Cuttlebug embossing folder which I inked in red to highlight the embossing. I coloured in his hat with a glitter gel pen. The white trim is applique embossing fluid which is raised and has a nice shine to it. The beard is a glitter snow writer pen, but I didn't think it was glitter enough so added more ! Santa is layered onto one of those Kanban pop out frames.

The paper is from a scrap paper kit from Home Bargains last year and is holographic.

The top and bottom edge of the card have a dotted line using the gel pen but it hasn't scanned in as shimmery as it is in real life.


This card was made using DCWV 2006 pad again, Papermania ribbon. The santa image is cut from a magazine advert.





This card was made using another Cuttlebug image, a large embossing folder for the background paper highlighted with silver ink. The sentiment is a recycled Christmas card matted onto a silver scrap of card.


Cuttlebug embossing folder has made an outing on this one as well, highlgted with a blue ink. Santa is a layered Sizzlits diecut, the sentiment is an old card and the patterned paper is from some gift bags I spotted in Asda yesterday. I have lots of little pieces so you will see it popping up regularly.

Loving doing these challenges, getting my Christmas cards made early for a change.

Big Challenge Polka Dot Spots

It's Big Challenge weekend on Just Bex and there are oodles & oodles of challenges. I don't think I will have time to be able to do them all, but I am having fun just the same and getting some more Christmas Cards made.

This challenge was to make a card with polka dots or spots on.

The paper is DCWV 2006 stack, the letters were cut from a magazine article and the snowflake is from an old Christmas card.

Old & New Challenge

Recent challenge on Just Bex is to make 2 projects, one using old paper that you don't like and don't want to use - the other using new paper (that you probably don't want to use either !lol)

Now I ABSOLUTELY HATE pointsettias, I honestly don't know why but I cannot stand them. Last years Christmas DCWV stack had this image x loads of sheets. I had managed to get rid of some of them in a paper swap, but was still haunted by the remaining 2 every time I dipped into this pad.

I therefore decided that I would make a card with them for this challenge and ged rid once and for all. I used one as the base and the other I painstakingly cut out and decoupaged with the leaves at different heights to show better dimension. At one point I actually wished I'd got another sheet as it felt a bit stingy with 2 layers, but I think it has worked really well and you can see so much depth to it.

I accented the veins in the leaves with my Sakura fine tipped glue pen and glitter.

I'm in 2 minds whether to put a sentiment on it or not as I think it might spoil it if I do.

For the new one I have used a lovely design from the new DCWV Christmas stack, it's a totally different kind of paper for me but I really like it.

The sentiment is a freebie scrapbooking printable I've collected from goodness knows where. It is printed on photo paper so looks a bit shiny. The flowers are more of those lovely Primas, with glitterglue and gold glass beads in the centre.

I really like how fresh this design looks and very modern.

I am enjoying doing these challenges as it really makes me think about different styles and designs and I am sure some of it must sink in somewhere :)

Another Just Bex challenge

A very good friend of ours has just left where we work to make a huge lifestyle change, part of which is to spend more time sailing which is one of his passions.

This card was made to tie in with the tearing challenge on Just Bex.

I used a Sizzix die to cut out the boat and embellished with DCWV paper for the sail. The anchor, sunshine and sentiment are from Let's Make Cards stash.

The 'waves' were formed from papers torn on a Fiskars edge tearer, a free gift from subscribing to a magazine years ago and never before used !

The patterned paper is from a Papermania inspirations pack, and the other papers are vellum from Paperchase who do big sheets of vellum wrapping paper and I bought loads of colours from them.

The likkle man is Sizzix bity shapes which I bought from Ebay some time ago. I don't use them very often and as there are so many dies you would need to buy I felt this was the most economical way of buying them.

6th Wedding Anniversary

Friday was our 6th Wedding Anniversary.

Basically I was dreading turning 30 and we were going on holiday to America, one of those 3 centre holidays New York, Las Vegas & Los Angeles. It had been booked for ages and 6 weeks before we were due to go he announces that we are getting married in Vegas on my 30th Birthday.

After picking up jaw from floor my task was to get it booked and it was to cost less that getting married at the Stratosphere hotel where we were staying.



All told our wedding cost £500, photos, outfits, ceremony etc all in and it was the most wonderful and romantic day and passed without a hitch.

This is the card I made to celebrate our anniversary which tied in with a challenge on the Just Bex forum. I love it when I can do a 2 in 1 card !

I made it as a 3 layer card so the hearts were cut like windows getting ever smaller.

Layer one at the top the stamped image is a Penny Black from a forum swap.


The hearts were cut using a Fiskars template. The top layer is a vellum paper that I bought at the NEC. The other gems were used to hold the paper down at the corners and hid a bit of adhesive.

The second layer is a card insert with another heart cut out and the sentiments are DCWV rub ons.

The third layer is the inside of the insert with another rub-on and the domed sticker is Papermania to add texture and make it really stand out.

Di Hickman Sketch September # 2

Needed to make a birthday card for the 10 year old girl next door so used Di Hickman's September # 2 sketch as inspiration and it also ties in nicely with a older Just Bex challenge.

The backing paper and brown flower paper is HOTP from the most recent QVC TSV cardmakers pack. The other 2 papers are Making Memories Cosmopolitan. The ribbon is Papermania layered on some metallic paper from the HOTP kit. The flowers are Sizzix die cut at the top and Prima'a at the bottom. Gems are from Poundland and the sentiment is a rub-on from Lets Make Cards

Just Bex Challenge Trimming the Tree 5

This card is a mixture of the old and the new.

The sentiment and the image are from old Christmas cards. The backing paper is from DCWV and the embossed snowflakes are a sizzlits embosslits die which cuts and impresses at the same time. These are highlighted with a little silver ink to make the pattern a bit more defined.

When I was off work with my back I plonked myself in front of the TV and cut loads of shapes and embossed loads of Cuttlebug folders ready for Chrismas cards si it was nice to have them to hand.

Just Bex Challenge Trimming the Tree 3

This is a less is more card, something very unusual for me ! I don't tend to do classy and sophisticated and great admire people who do it so effortlessly.

There is a lot of blank space that is just screaming for something to be stuck on it !

This card is a mini DL size with a Magic Motif Tree, green embossing powder and gold 3D paint for the baubles.

The sentiment is a Letraset rub-on

Just Bex Challenge Trimming the Tree 2

Card 2 uses a Dovecraft backing paper overlaid with a Craftwork cards printed vellum.

The tree is a 3D embellishment recycled from an old Christmas card.

I am lucky that I work with some great people who give me their cards after the event and I get some great bits and pieces to use on my cards.

I like to do my bit for the environment where I can, and free crafty stuff can't be too bad either :)

Just Bex Challenge Trimming the Tree 1

This challenge was to make 5 christmas cards, but they all had to have a tree on them.

Card 1 uses DCWV backing paper, the sentiment is from an old Christmas card and it is embellished with brads from the Lakeland January sale

These are the first Christmas cards I have made. usually I am starting making them at the end of November so this is all a bit strange for me !

A Double Challenge Card

This card fulfils a challenge from Just Bex and also Di Hickman. The layout is Di's and Bex's was to use Spots, Stripes and Waves

The background paper and card are from a freebie with Crafts Beautiful magazine. The flowers are Prima's, the brads are HOTP and the chipboard shape was from Poundland. The rub on sentiment is a Rotal & Langnickel one that was a bugger to release off the backing sheet.