I’m A Sunshine Girl!!!!

Ok, here is my second post today. I don’t know about you, but the majority of my emails are bills, advertising or spam (if I have any more emails about PPI, I think I’ll go mad!). So you can imagine my surprise and delight, when I received one entitled ‘DT invite’. The email was from the fantastically talented Heather Valentin of Lacy Sunshine Stamps asking me if I would consider joining her Design Team. Well, of course I had to think long and hard about it – NOT! I’ve been a fan of Heather’s gorgeous digi images for a while and there was no way I would give up the chance to join her DT! There was a small nagging voice inside my head warning me about over-committing myself, but I figured the only thing that might suffer would be the housework, so, hey-ho, lol!

So, it’s official, I’m a ‘Sunshine Girl’ and my first DT card is for this fortnight’s challenge at the Lacy Sunshine Challenge Blog where the theme is ALWAYS ‘Anything Goes’ – what could be easier?  Only entries using a Lacy Sunshine image will be eligible for the random prize which is $30 worth of digis to spend in the Lacy Sunshine Store, although other entries will qualify for the Top Three prizes of their choice of 2 digis.

I was sent the cutest ever little fairy from Heather’s Sticky Wings range– meet Coco, she’s just adorable. I intended to go with traditional Christmas colours for my card, but ended up with non-contemporary purple and turquoise!

Image – Lacy Sunshine Stamps coloured with Promarkers
Card – Coredinations – J & C Creations
Papers – free with a magazine
Gems - ‘Back To Basics IV' - Dovecraft
Snow made with an ‘Ice White’ Viva pearl pen
Dies used: Memory Box - ‘Frostyville Border’ & ‘Precious Stars. Marianne Designs - ‘Christmas Tree’ & ‘Snowflake 1’
Cuttlebug embossing folder

Challenges:
’Anything Goes’ – Inky Chicks
’Anything Goes’ – Pollycraft
'Cute & Cuddly' - non traditional colours - Christmas at Sweet Stampin

Thanks for looking!
Natx

Don’t Be Square!

It’s a busy Sunday for me today, with 2 new challenges starting today and then I have 3 card requests including one that needs to cover several themes – bell ringing, real ale, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and/or Priscilla Queen of the Desert, anti-aircraft gun forts/platforms and lots of pink!!! Yes, well I’ll let you know how that goes, lol.

My first DT card today is for the challenge at Joanna Sheen where we would like to see your shaped cards – NO SQUARES ALLOWED! This is one of my least favourite themes, let’s face it, square is easy, but the idea is to challenge you! I was sent the beautiful Shirley Barber CD and project book. As with the last CD sent from Joanna Sheen, I couldn’t make up my mind which image to use and printed several off before settling on this rather striking one of kingfishers, not my usual style, but very, very pretty. My shape is a rocker card – I love the movement you get with them.

As usual there is a fantastic £15 voucher up for grabs to spend in the Joanna Sheen online shop.

Image & papers – Shirley Barber CD – Joanna Sheen
Gems – Anitas
Ribbon – J & C Creations
Hunkydory Angel Whispers ‘Diamond Sparkles’ glitter
Flower punches - Hobbycraft
Die used: SB ‘Decorative Labels 8’

Challenges:
’Shaped Cards – Whimsy Stamps Inspirations
’Fly Like A Bird’ – Cute Card Thursday
’Flowers’ – That Craft Place

Thanks for looking!
Natx

Easy As 1,2,3 at LLF

We have another fantastic challenge for you today at Lili’s Little Fairies - ‘Easy As 1,2,3’. We want to see 1 image, 2 papers and 3 embellishments (3 in total or 3 types) on your projects. We are being sponsored by Dreamees who are giving away a fab £10 voucher to the winner.

When I joined the LLF team, I thought it would be easy to make a card each fortnight using a LOTV image, but I like all their images so much, it takes me ages each time to decide which one to use, lol! This image was actually part of a set of stamped images free in one of the craft magazines ages ago which I had forgotten I had! I put some glossy accents on the balloon, but the picture doesn’t show it off very well. I have restrained myself from buying any more dies for a while, so the clouds were made using a wooden embellishment as a template! I won the pearls recently – they are so pretty, they are glassy like gems, but smooth and round like pearls.

Image - ‘Balloon Bunny’ – LOTV coloured with Promarkers
Papers ('Perfect Pair') & sentiment – LOTV
Card – Coredinations
Ribbon and pearls from stash
Dies used: SB ‘Circles’ & ‘Scalloped Circles’ & Memory Box ‘Faux Crochet Border’

Challenges:
’Use A Sentiment’ – LOTV Ideas To Inspire 
‘Cute And Cuddly’ – Sweet Stampin
’3,2,1’ – Come & Get It
’3D’ – Whoopsi Daisy
’Anything Goes’ – Inky Chicks
’Pretty Pearls’ – Divas By Design
'Fly Like A Bird' - Cute Card Thursday

Thanks for looking!
Natx

Kiss That Frog!

This is my second post today and I have my DT card for Passion For Promarkers to show you. This week the theme is ‘Name That Tune’ and we are being sponsored by Bugaboo Stamps who are giving the winner their choice of 7 fab digis.

When I first saw the theme I had a bit of a wobble, but when I sat down and started to think of song titles, suddenly I had loads of ideas! I picked ‘Kiss That Frog’ by Peter Gabriel as I wanted to make a card for my husband’s birthday using a Pollycraft image and I thought he’d appreciate the sentiment! So pop over to the PFP blog and get some inspiration from the fab DT and get crafting – don’t forget to tell us in your post which song has inspired you!

Image from Pollycraft coloured with Promarkers
Papers - ‘Back To Basics II’ – Dovecraft
Kraft card, card candi (coloured to match with Promarkers) and twine from stash
Crown charm – part of a prize from Here Come The Boys
Dies used: SB ‘Labels 25’ & ‘A2 Scalloped Borders One’

Challenges:
’Father’s Day/Male Theme’ – Dream Valley
’Let’s Go Dotty’ – Here Come The Boys
’3,2,1’ – Come & Get It 
‘Anything Goes’ – I ♥ Promarkers
’Anything Goes’- Pollycraft
’Anything Goes’ – Stampin For The Weekend
'Anything Goes' - The Hobby House
'3D' - Whoopsi Daisy
'Colour Inspiration' - Love To Create

Thanks for looking!
Natx

Pretty in Purple

Hi everyone, wow, Tuesday’s come round so fast! This is the first of 2 posts today and my second post for the J & C Creations Blog. I have a card to share which – apart from the card blank – is made entirely of products from the J & C Creations shop. This is ‘Dawn’ by Nellie Snellen, isn’t she sweet!? Not all the products are on the website, but if you give the girls a ring, they will be able to help you. If, however you are lucky like me to live close by, why not pop into the warehouse and have a nose?

All from J & C Creations shop

Image - ‘Dawn 02’ – Nellie Snellen coloured with Promarkers
Card – Coredinations
Pearls paper & ribbon
Dies used: SB ‘Leafy Squares’

Challenges:
’Anything Goes’ – I ♥ Promarkers
'Anything Goes' - The Hobby House

Thanks for looking
Natx

Whatever!

I have no DT card today, so I thought I’d share a card that I made for my teenage niece last week. I absolutely adore Heather Valentin’s fabulous digis available at Lacy Sunshine Stamps and when I saw this one I knew it would be perfect for my niece who has attitude with a capital A, lol!

Image - ‘Bugz Graffitti’ – Lacy Sunshine Stamps coloured with Promarkers
Blue card started off white and was colour matched with Promarkers as I didn’t have any blue card!
Papers were free with a magazine
Twine & brads from stash
Gems - ‘Tea Party’ – Dovecraft

Dies used: SB 'Labels 25'

Challenges:
’Anything Goes’ – I ♥ Promarkers
’Anything Goes’ – Pollycraft
'Teen Cards' - The Crazy Challenge
'Anything Goes' - The Hobby House

Thanks for looking
Natx

Bildmalarna Bargain

Morning everyone! 

I had some sad news recently - the J & C Creations challenge has closed. It's not all bad news for me though as I will continue to make cards for the warehouse and have been asked to post them on the J & C Creations Blog once a week. So, today I would like to share a card I made recently using a Bildmalarna stamp. These stamps are so sweet and are a dream to colour. J & C have absolutely loads to choose from and at half price you can afford to bag a bargain (or 2, or 3, lol!) I have used one of my favourite Spellbinder dies to make a gatefold card with a difference using a fab tutorial from Beccy's Place which I used a while ago and just absolutely love!

Products from J & C Creations
’Bildmalarna ‘Sitting Mimosa’ stamp coloured with Promarkers
Double-sided paper
Pearls

Other products
Chalks (around image)
Ribbon - Joanna Sheen
Dies used: SB 'Labels 25' & 'Tags'

Challenges:
'Shaped Cards' - Whimsy Stamps Inspirations
'Happy Birthday' - Divas By Design
'Cute' - Stampin For The Weekend 

Thanks for looking
Natx

Under The Weather

Morning everyone, I’d like to say hello to my new followers and to say thank you to everyone that takes the time to drop by and comment on my posts – it means a lot!

Today’s card is my DT card for Lili's Little Fairies where the theme this week is ‘Get Well Soon’. We don’t have a sponsor prize this week, but something even better – a 2 week stint as a GDT!! Why not pop over to the Lili's Little Fairies blog for some inspiration from the other DT members and get crafting!

Believe it or not, I do not own any of the LOTV images specifically for ‘Get Well Soon’, so I had a rummage and came up with one of the stamps that I won from LOTV a little while ago. The papers were also a candy win from the lovely Di of Di’s Digi Designs and they are absolutely gorgeous. I had a little splurge (well, little and often is apparently healthy!!!) and bought some Memory Box dies last week. I actually ordered the ‘Precious Stars’, but was sent the ‘Precious Hearts’ by mistake, of course it was a lot easier to keep them and re-order the stars than to send them back, lol!

Image - ‘Summer Lovely Lilis’ – LOTV coloured with promarkers
Papers & pearls - ‘Tea House’ – Dovecraft
Brad, ribbon & flowers from stash
Dies used: SB ‘Floral Ovals’ & ‘Tags’, Memory Box ‘Precious Hearts’ & Cheery Lynn ‘Fanciful Flourish’

Challenges:
’Bright & Breezy’ – Crafty Bloggers Network
’In The Garden’ – Allsorts

Thanks for looking!
Natx

Believe

It’s time for a new challenge at Passion For Promarkers and this week the theme is ‘Inspired By A Fairytale’. We are being sponsored by Bearly Mine and the challenge winner will receive a fantastic £10 voucher to spend in the online store.

I have to admit, I panicked a bit when I saw the theme for this challenge as I do not own any images that I thought would fit the bill, so I set off on a search for something suitable. I discovered several fabulous images at Mo’s Digital Pencil, but couldn’t make up my mind! In the end I decided against the obvious more girly characters and chose this image that is called ‘They Grow So Fast’ who has to be based on Jack from Jack & The Beanstalk. I went for CAS, not quite sure if I pulled it off, the papers are a bit busy!

The cute charm with the snail on was part of a fantastic bag full of charms which I won at Here Come The Boys.

Image - ‘They Grow So Fast’ – Mo’s Digital Pencil coloured with Promarkers
Double-sided paper, green card (Coredinations) & ribbon - J & C Creations
Dies used: SB ‘Labels 2’

Challenges:
’Children Of All Ages’ – Mo's Digital Challenge
’In The Garden’ – Allsorts
’Use Ribbon’ – Here Come The Boys
’June Bug’ – Cupcake Craft
'Metal' - Creative Card Crew

Thanks for looking
Natx

Wellington Take 2!

Ok, here’s my second post of the evening featuring Wellington again. The orange seemed a good choice when I started the card, now I’m not so sure! I recently reset my camera (my son got fed up with me keep on asking to borrow his phone to take pictures!). The photos do seem to be coming out clearer and truer in colour to the real thing. The only trouble is that the best ones seem to be the ones taken on my carpet in front of my lounge patio door (so much for my photo tent and tripod!) This means that I can only take them ‘flat’, so you can’t see the layers of decoupage, but as I said, the colour’s much better, so I suppose it’s a case of give and take!

Image – decoupage & papers – Docrafts 

Orange card – Coredinations – J & C Creations
Button brads from stash
Ribbon & brass leaf charm – Joanna Sheen

Challenges:
’Who’s The Daddy’ – Ready-Teddy-Go
’Anything Goes + Texture’ – Tammys Scrapin Corner
’Father’s Day’ – Love To Create
’Father’s Day’ – Anything Goes
’Anything Goes’ – Papertake Weekly
’In The Garden’ – Allsorts
’Use Ribbon’ – Here Come The Boys

Thanks for looking!

Natx

Wellington

Oh my goodness, I haven’t posted for a week, that hasn’t happened in months and is very naughty of me! On the up side, however, time not spent blogging has been spent making cards, so it’s not all bad.

 To make up for my absence I’m posting twice tonight. Both my cards feature Wellington Bear from Docrafts. I wasn’t too sure about him when I first saw him, his feet are so big, lol, but he has grown on me a lot, so I had a splurge on some decoupage. Unfortunately I realised that my bargain buy of 18 decoupage designs was cheap because it wasn’t die-cut! I almost took it back to change it for the more expensive die-cut set, but remembered that once upon a time I had moaned about die-cut decoupage making us crafters so lazy! I don’t like to be hypocritical, so I sat down one evening in front of the tv armed with my scissors and cut out all 18 designs. Surprisingly I really enjoyed it, it’s so therapeutic!

Image – decoupage (NOT DIE-CUT!) & matching papers – Docrafts
Red card – Coredinations – J & C Creations
Twine – The Ribbon Girl
Large card candi from stash coloured with a promarker to match, small candi made using a hole punch

Challenges:
’Who’s The Daddy’ – Ready-Teddy-Go
’Anything Goes + Texture’ – Tammys Scrapin Corner
’Father’s Day’ – Love To Create
’Father’s Day’ – Anything Goes
’Anything Goes’ – Papertake Weekly

Thanks for looking!

Natx

Spots & Stripes at Joanna Sheen

We have a fab challenge at Joanna Sheen starting today - ‘Spots & Stripes’. As usual there is a £15 voucher up for grabs to spend in the online shop.

The DT have been hard at work, so please pop over to Joanna Sheen and give them some love!

I was sent the fab Tom Mielko Project Book & CD Rom for this challenge and I had a real job to choose from all the wonderful toppers and decoupage. In the end I had to do ‘eeny meeny miney mo’ lol! I kept it fairly CAS so as not to detract from the image, unfortunately my printer had a funny five and there is a faint line on the image, but after printing it out 3 times, I decided that enough was enough if wanted any ink left!

 

Image and papers from the Tom Mielko Project Book & CD – Joanna Sheen
Ribbon – J & C Creations
Bone charm – Won at Here Come The Boys
Clear Dew Drops – The Ribbon Girl
Kraft card from stash
Dies used: Spellbinders ‘A2 Scalloped Borders One’

Challenges:
’Anything Goes’ – Catch The Bug
'Spots & Stripes' - My Craft Creations

Thanks for looking!
Natx

Something Sweet

Can it really be June already!?! So, apparently it is, which means it’s the start of a new challenge at A Little Bit Crafty and this month the theme is ‘Something Sweet’. We have some fantastic sponsors lined up!

Wild Rose Studio are offering 2 stamps of the winner's choice.

Bugaboo Stamps  are giving away 7 of their fabulous digis.

Dawn Til Dusk are offering a fantastic £15 voucher.

Wow, we really are spoiling you all! The DT have been working hard, so please pop over to A Little Bit Crafty and see what we have all been doing.

When I saw the title for this challenge I immediately thought of this stamp as it is sweet as in ahhh and sweet as in chocolate, yumm! and even the sentiment matched as well!

Image & sentiment – House Mouse ‘Love Chocolate Heart’ – Joanna Sheen
Papers – ‘Summer Breeze’ – Dovecraft
Ribbon, DMC thread (banner), flowers and brown card from stash
Pearls – J & C Creations
Dies used: SB ‘Labels 25’, Marianne Designs ‘Layered Flowers’ LR0106 (leaves) and Cheery Lynn’s ‘Tags 4’

Challenges:
’Dies & Punches’ – That Craft Place
’Punches And/Or dies’ – Creative Card Crew
’Tie A Ribbon – Divas By Design
'Use Dies (But No Punches) - I ♥ Promarkers

Thanks for looking!
Natx