Better late than never

I don't know where the time has gone recently - I've been super busy and hardly had any time to craft at all! I had a fabby weekend last week and went to a nice hotel with four of my school friends - yes school friends - I have known them for well over 30 years. OMG.  We all had a hot stone massage (not together I hasten to add), lunch, sauna, swim, then off to dinner - very nice.  I had a really nice time and still managed to lose a pound at my weight watchers weigh in on Monday - that's me reach the magical 9 stone something (only just) - and 39 1/2 pounds off - I am so pleased.

Anyways, the challenge this week on Penny Black Saturday Challenge was a Christmas one - Winter Wonderland.  Here's mine:

I only just decided tonight to do it and saw a nice folded card on telly which I thought I'd try. It's made from one A4 card and I used this year's colours (for me) from DCWV Rose Tinted Christmas.  Circle nesties in white glitter board to mat the hedgehog images onto - these are from Holly Day Critters coloured with copics and sakura glitter pens.  It was a nice easy folded card and was fun to do - think I'll be doing a few more.

Thanks for looking and take care.

Laurane x

Create a Scene

As if I would ever do that.............!

Challenge 77 on Spoon Full of Sugar was to 'create a scene'.  Here's mine:

The little angel is from Judikins (it was one of the first stamps I ever bought and I never stop loving it).  This was a pretty simple card - paper was Papermania contemporary Christmas pack and I stamped and embossed the snowflakes at the top.  The 'scene' was a clipart picture of snowy hills and santa and his sleigh in front of the moon.

Laurane x

Merry Little Christmas

This week's challenge at Penny Black Saturday Challenge is Song Title/Lyric.  I only seem to be doing Christmas cards at the moment (funny that innit) and this challenge fitted nicely.  My song would either be Blue Christmas, or Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas.  Not sure I would say either were my favourite  songs but they are up there in terms of Christmas songs.  I'm sure 'Have yourself a merry little Christmas' was from Meet me in St Louis which I just love - nothing better on a rainy Saturday to sit down and watch an old musical, especially ones with Judy Garland.

This also fits the challenge at Colour Create is Blue, Silver, White with Winter and Glitter as optional extras and Charisma Cards which are looking for Merry and Bright.

Here's my card

Papers are from ProvoCraft Christmas Cheer, images are PB Holly Day Critters, coloured with copics and sakura glitter.  I paper pieced and glossed the wee hedgie's bauble and embossed the silver mirror board with swiss dots.  The stars were punched, coloured and attached to thread which I sewed onto the ribbon so that they will dangle (hee hee, won't do a hem but will sew for a card!)

Take care

Laurane x

The White Challenge

Well this really was a huge challenge for me, and way out of my comfort zone.  This week's challenge on Penny Black Saturday Challenge is White on White.  The only colour allowed is on the image itself. 

The image is from Holly Day Critters which I coloured with copics, glittered and glossed.  The background was made with my trusty Cuttlebug and the swiss dots and snowflakes(?) folders.

Won't have any crafty time until Monday night at least - I'm off to Manchester to spend the weekend with my lovely bruvver Alan and leaving my hubbie with the girls.  They will eat rubbish all weekend and he will let them stay up way too late - who knows what they will be wearing!  Iain doesn't 'do' clothes so they will get to wear whatever they want.  Hey, I won't be here to see it - thank goodness.

Laurane x

Mousey Cupcake

Papertake Weekly Challenge this week was a sketch and I made a fairly quick and simple card with it.

As I said, pretty simple.........  I tried a whole load of embellishments but nothing seemed to fit so left it plain.  I will perhaps add a name or something if I use it for anyone's birthday.  Papers are Papermania 'Sweet Nothings' and the image was from Dimension Fourth which I picked up at the SECC Craft Show. 

Laurane x

Winter Wonderland

Challenge 19 on Die Cut Dreams is winter wonderland.  Funnily enough, one of the new stamps I got from FunkyKits the other day was called ...... 'Winter Wonderland' - so this must fit the challenge. 

I saw a fantabulous easel card a few weeks ago on Scrapbitz from Suzanne Dean and have been dying to try it out.  If you've not checked out her blog it is truly amazing - I'm sure the woman doesn't sleep.

Here's a close-up

Continuing my pink christmas theme, I have used the DCWV Rose Tinted Christmas papers and coloured my image with copics.  I used Fluffy Stuff for the snowflakes.

I spent the day today at the Craft for Christmas show and had a fabby time - spent too much money as always on stuff I didn't need - but I think everyone who goes does the same.  As someone said to me today, 'it's not a question of need!'  Anyway, I need a cup of tea now before I come back to play with my new stuff from today.

Take care

Laurane x

Manga Christmas Fairy

I got this fabby Sugar Nellie Manga Fairy from FunkyKits and the sketch on  Friday Sketchers was just perfect for this - helping me get on with my Christmas cards for this year.  It is a really good layout and fairly quick to make.

I think I'm going to go for a pink theme for Christmas cards this year.  The papers I used for this were from DCWV Rose Tinted Christmas and they are really lovely - I always find Christmas cards using the traditional reds and greens hard but I don't think I'll have any probs with these papers.

Off to the SECC in Glasgow tomorrow for the Crafts for Christmas show - always fab demonstrations and always spend too much!  Can't wait.

Laurane x

Spooky but Cute

This is the second halloween card I have made now - still don't know what I'm going to do with them - but I've had a ball making them.

The challenge at Cute Card Thursday is spooky and here's mine:

This lovely ghost was an image from Nina May on There's Magic in the Air - I'm so annoyed cause I keep missing her challenges by something like a day - I must get more organised.

The pumpkin heads are clip art, the image is Nina May's and I printed off some bats on yellow card for the moon.  I glittered up the ghost's hat and glossed his hat, eyes and mouth.

Must start buying in the sweets and stuff for halloween - only problem is, if it's in the house I eat it - and that's not on the weightwatchers programe!  Don't think the kids would like a bag full of carrot sticks - hee hee.

Laurane x

Blue Christmas

The challenge over at Stamp Something is 'bling'.  As you might be able to tell 'bling' in the form of glitter and gloss is one of my favourite things - I'm a bit of a sucker for sequinny clothes although I don't get much of a chance to wear them.  I think I must be a frustrated ballroom dancer ..... and don't get me started on fringes!

Anyway, I made this Christmas card :

The papers are Provo Craft Christmas Cheer and the images are Penny Black 'Critters Holiday'.  I coloured the images with copics and highlighted with sakura glitter pens.  The baubles were also covered in glossy accents.  I tried loads of photos to get the glitter and gloss but it wasn't really happening although if you click on the images you can see the 'bling' much more clearly.  Here's a close-up

Karen's Challenge 41 at Charisma Cards is 'distressing'.  She reckoned it would be good therapy to get tearing and ripping - I have to say I think she was right - this was fun.

I have to say I just love, love love this Daisy image which is an Elisabeth Bell Sugar Nellie one - I can't help smiling when I see her.  The papers are K & Co Classic Bailey and I thought they tied in pretty well with the distressing theme - I just set to with a pair of scissors.  I spent ages trying out different embellishments but nothing seemed to work so I've just left it plain for now.

I just got a couple of new stamps delivered today from Funky Kits and I'm off to play.

Thanks for looking

Laurane x

Digital Doings - and a good weigh in!!!

I've not mentioned on my blog as yet but I've been 'weight watching' since last August and I've now lost 38 pounds.  It's taken quite a long time but being over 2 1/2 stone lighter feels fab.  Weigh in is on Monday night and after staying the same last week (despite a huge effort on my part) I was near to tears - how stupid is that?   Anyway, I persevered and lost 3 lbs tonight - woohoo.  So motivated I came home and made fabby zero point soup and did a pilates dvd.  My halo is shining.

Anyway ..... onto the crafty stuff.

I made my first ever halloween card which I was pretty chuffed with.  Don't know who I'm going to send it to though.

I did it for Die Cut Challenge which provided the sketch and colour combo of black, purple, orange and green - but I missed posting.  Hey ho.

The image is a digital image and came from Nina May and I really loved it - a wee bit different.  I paper pieced the pumpkins on the main image and the pumpkin heads down the side were clip art and treated with glossy accents.

Here's a close up of the wee mousy image:

I'm going to enter into the challenge over at A Spoonful of Sugar which is looking for Halloween or other spooky projects as well as Cuttlebug Challenge blogspot which is challenging us to create a Halloween or Fall card.

Going from spooky to cute, I used another (free) digital image from Digital Delights to create this little card:

I used the sketch from week 73 challenge over at Friday Sketchers which I think fits.  October is Wear It Pink month and at work we do various fund raising events to raise money for Breast Cancer Awareness and I thought I would make a few cards to sell.  I might even donate the box of cards I just keep in a box and look at!

Take care

Laurane x

Friday Sketchers and Colour Create

Hi

There's a lovely sketch over at Friday Sketchers which was really sweet.  I combined it with the challenge on Colour Create Challenge blog which set the challenge of using hot pink, dusky pink and ice chocolate (!) with the optional extras of pearls and swirls.  I managed the pearls but didn't have anything swirly to use. 

I thought the colour options mixed with the sketch turned out pretty well

The colour combination was lovely and I used K&Co Classic Bailley, swiss dots cuttlebug embossing folder and my wee sugar nellie Manga Girl was coloured using copics

I also thought I would post a card I did a few weeks ago which used a free download image from the fabulously talented Nina May on There's Magic in the Air.  I loved this artwork and tried my hand at watercolouring - I added in the sky and the sea and thought it came out not too bad for a first attempt at anything like this.

Can't believe it's Wednesday already - apparently it's only 12 weeks to Christmas - aarghh

Laurane x

Sugar Bowl

The latest challenge over on The Sugar Bowl is a sketch by Gayle which was a nice simple layout but had to include paper piecing.  Now I've never tried this before but I really enjoyed doing it and will definately be using it more often. 

I used papers from K & Co Classic K Bailey and paper pieced the dress and shoes of the gorguss girl - Little Miss Attitude - she so reminds me of my lovely daughter Caitlin.  The charm is from Quixotic Paperie and I used my cuttlebug and paper punch for the flowers.

Night

Laurane x

Charisma Cardz and Stamp Something

I checked out the Charisma Cards Challenge blog and this week the challenge is Getting Sporty.  I don't use peel offs too often cos I prefer stamping but I needed to make a card for my brother-in-laws birthday which is coming up and he loves his golf so I thought this would fit the bill - hope he doesn't take the sentiment the wrong way though!

The papers are pretty old ones and I can't remember where from and I used the Fiskar shape cutter for the frame.  I coloured the peel off using crystal laquer pens.

I think this next card fits the new challenge on Stamp Something which is about your favourite layout.  I saw a fabby card on Cass's blog Pour Some Sugar on Me which I absolutely loved and she very helpfully posted the link for instructions to make it - it was really fun to make and I'm sure I'll be doing some more. 

I borrowed the stamp from my mum so not sure where its from but I used copics to colour.  The Noel was from Sizzix Chocolately Goodness alphabet die set - what a cool name.

Have a fabby weekend

Laurane x

Stamp Something

The latest challenge over at Stamp Something is to use your favourite colour or papers.  Now I'm normally a pink kind of gal but I've come over all autumnal just now and I made this card using reds - it's for my sister's 40th - I can't believe it!

The paper is from K & Co Classic K Bailey which is gorgeous.  The image is Gorjuss Sitting from Sugar Nellie which I've coloured with copics (I was quite pleased with her hair - I'm pretty new to this copic larky).  The flowers, in my new favourite red, are from Petaloo.  The text is printed from the computer and layered up with nestabilities.

Laurane x

Challenges

I've not had much of a chance to do much crafting this week - it's been so busy - what with work, sick children, life........  It was my birthday last week and I eventually got a Cuttlebug and I've not even had a chance to use it.  Roll on the weekend!

I did get time to make this card and I think it fits two challenges;

The card uses a lovely sketch over on Penny Black Saturday Challenge and was good fun to do.  The papers are MME and the images are from the Critters set (must keep a note of these things).  I coloured the image with watercolours and highlighted with sakura glitter pens.  Flowers are Hero Arts Summer flowers and the gorgeous pearls are from Quixotic Paperie who do fab embellishments. 

Over on Stamp Something the challenge was to create a card using your favourite embellishment and I think this card fits that bill.

Off to bed now - hope to get some crafty time over the next few days.

Take care

Laurane x

Thinking of you

I just heard that my cousin Fiona is in hospital and not very well.  I made her this card to let her know that I'm thinking of her - hope she's better soon.

The image is Sweet & Sassy by Elisabeth Bell from the fabulous Funky Kits which I coloured with copics (I'm only just starting).  The rest of the card was made from my stash.

Laurane x

Well - here goes..........

This is my very first post.  Never been into this sort of thing - never been on Facebook, Twitter or even Friends Reunited but I've recently ventured into Blog Land and found a world of fantastic blogs on crafty stuff and amazing inspiration.

Wanted to do some challenges and this has got to the easiest way of doing it.  I recently entered a Penny Black Saturday Challenge with this card but had to do it by email which was such a footer......

The Angel stamps are from Judikins coloured in with watercolours and sakura glitter pens.

The wee hedgehogs are Holly Day Critters from Penny Black and the background was a free clipart download.  Must get better with the camera though.................

I was on a roll and made this card the same week with another Penny Black Holly Day Critters image and papers from Papermania Contemporary Christmas pack.

Laurane x