Hug A Friend Day – 26th April

Today's card is another one for the J & C Creations calendar. 

26th of April is celebrated each year to cherish the feelings of love and understanding among friends. 

Hug a friend day is rejoiced with enthusiasm and affection, especially among the youth. For those people who are in struggling phases of their lives, having piles of official work and other businesses, this day provides an excuse to let their old pals know that you still love and care for them. Think about the difference that a single hug would make to your friend’s day or even life, and go on to spend this commendable day with your friends. You don’t have to think hard to do something special to celebrate, just hug your friends.

When I saw this Penny Black stamp I knew it would be perfect for this card!

Items from J & C Creations

Stamp – ‘Squeeze Til I Squeak’ – Penny Black coloured with Promarkers
Double sided paper – Best Creations
Ribbon & pearl
Dies used: SB ‘Heart Circles’, ‘Classic Circles’ ‘Tags’ & ‘Floral Doily Accent’ & Heartfelt Creations ‘Daisy Patch’

Other Items

Cream card & brad from stash

Challenges:
‘Blossoms & Bows’ – Penny Black & More @ Allsorts
’Bingo’ – Catch The Bug (ribbon/glitter/pearl)
’Use Circles’ – Whoopsi Daisy
'A Square Card With Something Round On It' - I ♥ Promarkers
'Die-cuts And/Or Punches' - Stampin For The Weekend
'Bingo' - Love To Create (flowers/die-cuts/ribbon)

Thanks for looking!
Natx

Fairy News!

Morning everyone, I’d like to say hi to my new followers and to say thank you to my existing ones, your comments mean a lot and I’m thrilled that you take the time to visit. I have a quick card to share today which features a LOTV topper. This was part of a fantabulous goody bag which I won recently from the LOTV 3000+ followers candy draw. As well as several gorgeous stamps I received a few sheets of these delightful toppers, perfect for quick cards. 

You will be seeing more of the same in the weeks to come as I am going to be a FAIRY! No, I’m not going to grow wings and start using a magic wand – it’s much better than that – I have been asked to join the DT at Lili’s Little Fairies!!!! I had decided that I was on more than my fair share of DTs, but when I saw the DT call at LLF I couldn’t resist and as I didn’t think I’d get picked I didn’t see the harm in applying. But they did pick me and I am so thrilled, thank you girls! I adore the LOTV range and can’t wait to start.
Squirrel and the team have been working hard to get everything back to full capacity after some changes, so please pop over to the challenge blog here to meet the new DT members and to join in this week's challenge which is a gorgeous 'Inspiration Picture'. I’ll be posting my first card as a DT member on 2nd May. In the meantime I have made this one in celebration!

Image - ‘Milly’ – LOTV topper
Papers - ‘Bonnets & Bowties’ – LOTV & Nitwits
Sentiment – LOTV
Card - Coredinations - Crafter’s Companion 
Heart pin – The Pretty Little Ribbon Shop
Ribbon & flowers – J & C Creations
Gems – Anitas
Beads from stash
Large gem – Dovecraft (part of Kim’s fab candy)
Diamond Sparkles ‘Angel Whispers’ glitter – Hunkydory
Dies used: SB ‘Leafy Squares’, ‘Circles’ & ‘Scalloped Circles’, Cheery Lynn ‘Exotic Butterflies’

Challenges:
'Bingo' - Love To Create (sentiment/ribbon/gems or bling)
'Happy Birthday Girl' - Inky Chicks
'Bling It Up' - CRAFT

Thanks for looking!
Natx

Make A Wish

It’s a brand new challenge at Passion For Promarkers today and it was my turn to pick to pick the theme. I have chosen ‘Animals’ a nice easy peasy one, so no excuses! We are being sponsored by Bearly Mine Designs.

The prize is a fabulous £10 voucher for the online shop, so pop over to PFP to see what the DT have been up to and get crafting.

My card features one of the newer images from LOTV. I have been trying to be good and have not bought anything for a while, but I have had my eye on the scrumptious LOTV paper pads for a while now and then when I saw these cute little fellas, well I caved! I didn’t go mad, however, as the new stamps are available as a sketch pad of black and white images – at 30 images (3 x 10 designs) for only £6, I thought they were an absolute bargain and a lot cheaper than buying 10 stamps. My only worry was how they would colour up with my Promarkers, but as you can see, they are great! I even had a go at some free-hand drawing and was quite pleased with how my candles came out on the sentiment.

As usual, I wasn’t overly happy with the photo, but after reading up on some photography pointers I have come to realise that the problem may be with the camera after all – yes I know a bad workman blames his tools, but it seems that the problem may be damage to the lens inside which may have occurred when I dropped the camera a while ago (don’t tell my husband!), so now I’m on a mission to try my sons’ cameras to see if it makes a difference! Watch this space!

Image – ‘It Takes Two’ – LOTV sketch pad coloured with Promarkers
Papers – ‘Perfect Pair’ – LOTV
Pearls & ribbon – J & C Creations
Kraft card from stash
Glitter – ‘Diamond Sparkles Angel Whispers’ – Hunkydory
Dies/tools used: SB ‘Classic Circles’ & ‘Scalloped Circles’ and the border was cut with scalloped scissors

Challenges:
‘Cakewalk’ – Cute Card Thursday
‘Food Glorious Food’ – Little Miss Muffet
‘For A Child’ – That Craft Place
‘Use Circles’ – Whoopsi Daisy
‘Bling It Up’ – Tammys Scrapin Corner
'Bingo' - Love To Create (sentiment/ribbon/bling)

Thanks for looking!
Natx

Humorous Day - 19th April

Today's card is another one for the J & C Calendar and is for 'Humorous Day'. Founded in 1976 by Larry Wilde the intent of the ‘Humorous Day’ is to focus on how  the "therapeutic value of laughter can improve health, boost morale, increase communication skills and enrich the quality of one's life."
I decided to make something other than a card this time and made a bookmark, the tutorial for which originally came from Lena Katrine's Blog. I believe that laughter is very therapeutic and have chosen to use this Penny Black stamp as it always makes me want to laugh when I look at it!

As the theme was humour I opted to pop some silly, but somehow funny (well, to me anyway!) jokes on the back of my bookmark.

Available from J & C Creations shop

Stamp – ‘The Sensations’ – Penny Black, coloured with Promarkers
Papers (double sided)
Flowers
Pearls

Other items
Pink card from stash
XCut Daisy border punch
Anita's Glossy Accents (on the pig's pearl necklace)

Challenges:
'Not A Square' - Whoopsi Daisy

'One Paper Taker' - Papertake Weekly
'Anything But A Card' - Dutch Dare
'Friendship' - Stampin For The Weekend

Thanks for looking!

Natx

Minding Shelty

The months seem to be flying past at such a rate of knots at the moment, here we are again on the 13th for a another challenge at J & C Creations. This month the theme is ‘Nurturing’ and we have a fab £20 voucher from the J & C Creations shop up for grabs.

When I first saw the theme I was a bit flummoxed as nurturing usually is from a parent to their child and I didn’t have anything suitable, so I have cheated a little as my image is a hedgehog looking after a pony!

Items available from J & C Creations shop

Stamp - ‘Minding Shelty’ – Penny Black coloured with Promarkers
Pink card – Coredinations
Double sided paper – Best Creations
White flower – Prima
Ribbon
Dies used: Spellbinders ‘Labels 2’ & Tim Holtz/Sizzix Alterations On The Edge ‘Brackets’

Other items

Brads from stash

Challenges:
’Friendship’ – Stampin For The Weekend
’Blossoms & Bows’ – Penny Black & More @ Allsorts
’Pretty In Pink’ – Whimsy Stamps Inspirations

Thanks for looking!
Natx

Sisterhood!

Wow, 4 cards in 4 days, I need a lie down, lol! Today’s card is for J & C Creations monthly calendar and I have chosen April 10th as it  is ‘National Siblings Day’. National Siblings Day is the brainchild of  Claudia Evart, who thought up the day as a way for siblings to honor, recognize and celebrate each other.
I knew I just had to use this fab stamp from Penny Black, not only do I love the characters, but the stamp is called ‘Sisterhood’ – perfect! I have been admiring the different card shapes I have seen on other Blogs and wondering where they can be bought and then whilst rummaging through my dies I had a light bulb moment and realised that I could re-produce one of the shapes using a Sizzix/Tim Holtz die and here is the result. Makes a nice change from my usual square scalloped cards!

Image - ‘Sisterhood’ – J & C Creations shop coloured with Promarkers

Sentiments printed on my pc
Green card – Coredinations – Crafter’s Companion
Double sided paper & flower – J & C Creations shop
Ribbon – The Pretty Little Ribbon Shop
Brad from stash
Dies used: SB ‘Classic Ovals’ & ‘Floral Ovals’

Challenges:
’Anything Goes’ – Crafty Bloggers Network
’Blossoms & Bows’ – Penny Black & More @ Allsorts
’Birthday Fun’ – Dutch Dare
’Happy Birthday – Dream Valley

Thanks for looking!
Natx

Flying High

Morning everyone, please forgive me, but I am in major waffle mode today! It’s time for another challenge at Passion For Promarkers and this week we want to see ‘Cut Out Images’. We are being sponsored by Pink Gem Designs who are offering a fab prize of 4 digis of the winner’s choice.

As soon as I saw Pink Gem’s ‘Skateboard Andy’ I knew he would be perfect for this challenge, soaring through the air on his skateboard. However, I didn’t want him suspended in mid air against a blank background, so today is a first for me as I have created my own background! I was quite pleased with it until my husband pointed out that it’s very difficult to skateboard down a grassy slope, arghh! Now grass and clouds are about my limit, there’s no way I could attempt a tarmac road or concrete skateboard ramp! So peeps, you’ll have to use your imagination for this one, Andy is at the skateboard park, he has just skateboarded up a high ramp and is at the pinnacle of his jump with the grassy hills in the background, lol!!

I have followed this fab sketch from Here Come The Boys, I absolutely love it - all the lovely layers fill up all the spaces which is perfect for a male card as I struggle for embellishments, with this sketch you don't really need any! The perfectly matching buttons were part of some lovely Blog Candy from Kim and the fab wooden cloud was part of a challenge win from Crafty Emblies.



Image - 'Skateboard Andy' - Pink Gem Designs coloured with Promarkers
Kraft card from stash
Sentiment, buttons & papers - 'Back To Basics II' - Dovecraft

Challenges:
’Anything Goes’ – Crafty Bloggers Network
’Anything Goes’ – Lacy Sunshine
‘Use A Background’ – Inky Chicks
’Clouds’ – Creative Card Crew
’Birthday Fun’ – Dutch Dare
’Anything Goes’ – Catch The Bug
’Happy Birthday’ – Dream Valley
Sketch – Here Come The Boys

Thanks for looking!
Natx

Sweet Baby!

I have a card to share with you that was a request from my mum to give to her hairdresser who is expecting. She doesn’t know if it’s going to be a girl or boy so I opted for pastel green and beige/yellow, I think they go quite well together. I had a go at a pennant which I cut free-hand as I haven’t got any of the lovely dies that I keep seeing!

Image - ‘Koetie With Bird’ by Nellie Snellen from J & C Creations shop coloured with Promarkers
Card, charm, sentiment & alphabet rub-ons & ribbon from stash
Paper – Me To You ‘Spring Chic’ – Docrafts
Pearls – J & C Creations shop
Dies used:
’Faux Crochet Border’ – Memory Box, ‘Circles’ & ‘Scalloped Circles’ – Spellbinders

Challenges:
’Anything Goes’ – Crafty Bloggers Network
’Anything Goes’ – Lacy Sunshine 
’Spring Colours’ – Divas By Design
’Something Borrowed’ – Cute Card Thursday (idea to use the Memory Box die around the image was Debby’s)
’Anything Goes’ – Little Miss Muffet
’Scallops’ – Sweet Stampin
’Spring Has Sprung’ – Allsorts
’Anything Goes’ – Catch The Bug
’Animals’ – That Craft Place

Thanks for looking!

Natx

Spring Into Spring!

It’s the start of a new challenge at Joanna Sheen today and as I sit here with the sun pouring (yes pouring!!!) through the window it is very aptly named ‘Spring Into Spring’! Spring is the time when all the animals start their families and so my card has some decoupaged spring chicks on it.

Image & pearlescent green card –  Joanna Sheen shop 

Gingham paper & pearls – J & C Creations shop
Lace – The Ribbon Girl
Dies/punches used: SB ‘Circles’ & X-Cut ‘Flower Doily’ border punch

Challenges:
’Spring Is In The Air’ – The Pretty Little Ribbon Shop
’Anything Goes’ – Papertake Weekly
’Spring Has Sprung’ – Allsorts
’Animals’ – That Craft Place

Thanks for looking!
Natx

A Little Bit Crafty 1st Challenge!

I’m very excited about my card today as it’s my first DT card for A Little Bit Crafty. We are kicking off with a nice easy theme of ‘Anything Goes’ so no excuses not to join in! We have not 1 but 3 fantastic sponsors.

My Mum’s Craft Shop who are offering a £10 voucher

Lacy Sunshine Stamps who are offering a $20 voucher

and Creepy Cutie Stamps who are offering 3 free digis

Wow, fantastic prizes as I’m sure you’ll agree, so pop over to A Little Bit Crafty for all the info and to see what all the DT members have been up to !

I decided to use an image from Lacy Sunshine Stamps, she is so sweet and a dream to colour.

Image - ‘Maddie n Clover Groovy Music’ – Lacy Sunshine Stamps coloured with Promarkers
Card - Coredinations - Crafter’s Companion
Papers – Dovecrafts ‘Back to Basics II’
Flowers – J & C Creations shop
Brads, card candi (coloured with Promarkers to match) & ribbon from stash
Dies used: SB ‘Leafy Squares’

Challenges:
Mother’s Day/Female – C.R.A.F.T
’Oh So Girly' – Sweet Stampin
'Anything Goes' - Lacy Sunshine

Thanks for looking!
Natx