Easter Wishes

The colours for ColourQ Challenge #78 are very sweet and girlie - ie not me!!  I was going to give this week a miss but I've missed their last 2 challenges so I thought I'd suck it up and go girlie!  :)  I went for an Easter theme after finding these wooden rabbits in the Craft Cave.  They came from the UK (I think my mom bought them for me when she was over there a couple of years ago) but I'm not sure who makes them.  They're cute and surprisingly light and I have some flower shapes as well.  You may see some more of them in the near future! 

Supplies:  CS: SU Early Espresso & Pink Pirouette, PTI Kraft; Stamps: Hero Arts & Elzybells;  Thread: Making Memories; Unknown:  Bunny & buttons

Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger: A Citrus Celebration

The Tuesday Trigger this week at Moxie Fab is a gorgeous, bright picture.  I was inspired by the polka dots and the bright colours.    

My card came out looking a bit red looking in this photo - it's actually a nice bold orange in real life.   

Supplies: CB: The Stamp Pad Co; PP: Scenic Route; Stamp: Elzybells: Inks: Palette Jardin Moss & Orangerie; Punches: Woodware; Twine: Ikandee; Copics: r05 & YG23

 Luis and I are off to our favourite pub for lunch with some friends today.  It's gorgeous and sunny and the pub has just reopened after 4 months so we're going to go welcome it back!  :)  Hope you're all having a lovely day!

Easter Eggs

Another multi-challenge card today.  The colour palette at Just Us Girls this week is perfect for Easter - lovely soft, spring colours.  I paired the colours with this week's sketch from Waltzingmouse.  I also used PTI's Make It Monday technique of adding colour to non-neutral cardstock.  

Supplies: CS: SU Baja Breeze, So Saffron, Soft Sky, Pink Pirouette, white; Stamps: Elzybells; Ink: SU  Baja Breeze, Memento Tuxedo Black;  Other: PTI die, Making Memories string, Basic Grey & Doodlebug bling, Copics

I stamped the eggs on to SU cardstock and coloured them with Copics.  (Not sure where that egg stamp is from.  Perhaps Doodlebug?).  You can't really see it in the picture but I twisted together pink, blue and yellow embroidery thread for the banner string.

I'm sitting here second guessing myself now and thinking that maybe I should have used coloured card instead of a white card.  Or maybe not.  The white space just doesn't look quite right somehow.  Not quite balanced maybe...  Thoughts?  

Mother's Day Mouse

Surprise, surprise.  Guess who missed another challenge?  I really thought I was on the ball this week but I guess the whole Monday thing really threw me off.  *Sigh*  I had intended to enter the 4 Crafty Chicks sketch challenge but it's already closed.  Doh!  However, I also used the colour combo from Inkspirations Challenge #62 and I think I still have a few hours to spare before that one closes on me too!  :)   

Supplies: CS: SU Daffodil Delight, Early Espresso, Whisper White; Stamps: Papercraft Essentials Magazine, Elzybells, Hero Arts; Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Regal Rose; Other: Nesties Labels Four, Copics

This cute mouse stamp was a freebie with Papercraft Essentials magazine.  I love his big nose - it was calling out to be coloured pink!  I can't remember where those white flowers came from - WalMart maybe?  I found them in one of my ribbon containers.  Love finding little surprises in the Craft Cave!    

Tea Pot or Magic Lamp?

Jay Gee's Nook's current challenge is to create a card inspired by the above pictures.  I love that tea pot clock and I'm really digging yellow & turquoise these days.  I pulled out a couple of Stampendous stamps and used one to make my own background design and the other to paper piece the tea pot. 

Supplies: Card Blank: Handy Hippo; Cardstock: Bazzil, Paperbilities; Stamps: Stampendous, Elzybells, PTI; Inks: VersaFine Onyx Black, VersaMark; Die: PTI, Nestabilities

When I put this card together and sat back and looked at it I thought, "Huh.  That tea pot kind of looks like a magic lamp."  Then I told myself I was being silly - magic lamps are longer and sleeker and only my silly brain would see this as a magic lamp.  It's quite an obvious card - when you're sick you have a nice cup of tea!  Skip ahead to later in the day and I'm showing the card to my mom.  She looks perplexed for a moment then says, "Oh I get it.  The genie in the lamp will make you feel better right?"  Guess where I inherited that silly brain from??

Three Valentine's and a Baby

Hello hello!  Hope all is well with everyone today.  I've just come back from a nice long walk with the hounds - well, 2 walks actually.  First I take Jem and Atticus, the crazy boys.  Once I've (somewhat) tired them out I take Scout for her walk.  She's the oldest of the bunch and has terribly arthritic elbows so she can't quite keep up with the other two these days.  It's quite nice to have a leisurely stroll with her after bouncing all over the place with the boys!


I had a busy morning carding and ended up with 3 Valentine's cards and one for a baby shower.  The mum-to-be doesn't know what she's having yet so I couldn't go for the usual pink or blue.  Here's what I came up with instead:

Supplies: Card Blank: Handy Hippo; Cardstock: Paperbilities; Patterned Paper: HOTP; Stamp: Hero Arts stork & Elzybells sentiment; Ink: Memento black & Palette purple; Other: Nestabilities Labels Fifteen, Copics, Making Memories thread, misc buttons


And finally some sunshine without gale force winds so I could take some pictures outside.  Whoo hoo!


The first Valentine card is a quickie using Cosmo Cricket paper and chipboard stickers.  Love this stuff - simple but effective!

Next is a simple one layer card.  The backgrounds are SU ink but at this moment I cannot remember the name - Melon Mambo maybe?  I have no idea who makes the little hearts and sentiment stamps.  They have no labels on them and someone gave them to me several years ago from their stash.  At the time I thought they were kind of cheesy and that I'd never use them but never say never I guess!  The first one I made I very meticulously lined up all the squares and had the hearts perfectly centered but it looked "too" perfect.  So I did the same design but this time free hand.  Lots of crookedness but I kind of like it...

The third Valentine's card was super simple.  I've had this roll of velvet ribbon sitting around for ages and today it was screaming at me to be stamped on.  So I obliged:

Now I'm off to plug in some heaters.  I may be in Bermuda and it may be 60 degrees but it's damp here and we live in a stone house with no central heating.  Thank goodness for space heaters and warm doggies!  Have a lovely evening!

Challenges - JUGS #65 &TSG #87

I planned to enter this card in the Just Us Girls #65 and There She Goes #87 challenges but I've just realised I'm way too late for the TSG challenge!  LOL! The JUGS challenge is a sketch challenge and the TSG challenge was "to recycle something from Christmas to create a non-Christmas card."  I used a wrapper from a Quality Street candy (which only ever seem to appear at Christmas time) as my recycled item.  I'm pretty pleased with how this one came out.  I love the paper (DCWV Green Stack) and I seem to be using a lot of Ikandee twine these days.  Good for bows and for twisty flower stems!        

Supplies: Card Blank: Handy Hippo; Paper: DCWV Green Stack; Stamps: Hero Arts flower, Elzybells sentiment; Ink: Vintage Photo Distress Ink, VersaMark; Other: Ranger clear embossing powder. Ikandee twine, Woodware punch 

Moxie Fab World - Glitter Is Glam!

Moxie Fab World has a Glitter Is Glam challenge which I've really left until the last minute even though it's been going on for ages.  I absolutely love Stickles glitter glue so I knew I'd be using it for this card.  Just took me a while to come up with the master plan!  Here it is:

Supplies: Card Blank: Hero Arts; Stamps: Hero Arts swirl & sentiment, Elzybells sentiment, Autumn Leaves swirl; Ink: ColorBox Orange, Versafine Black; Other: Die cut star, Copic Y08, Stickles Orange Peel

As well as Stickles I also love stars.  I'm a sucker for anything with a star on it.  I coloured this star with a Copic and stamped it with a swirly cling from Hero Arts.  Then I went over all the dots in the swirl (not that you can see it in this pic) and the stardust trail with Orange Peel Stickles.  I had to do the star twice as after Stickling the first one I then put an acrylic block on top of it!  Doh!!!  Note to Self: Must keep desk more uncluttered while working...  

Sweet Stop Challenge 88 & My Learning Curve

My first entry for a Sweet Stop challenge.  I've been checking the sketches out each week for a couple of months now but this is my first attempt:

Supplies:  Card blank:  Handy Hippo;  Card Stock:  Paperbilities;  Patterned Paper: No clue!;  Stamps:  Hero Arts bird, Elzybells sentiment; Ink:  Versafine black & Vintage Photo Distress ink;  Die:  Woodware; Other:  Ikandee twine

I don't love it but I decided to post it anyway and here's why:  
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I often get overwhelmed by too much craft stash to choose from and end up freezing up and not making anything.  My other problem, or maybe it's really part of the same thing, is my fear of screwing up.  I know that there's no right and wrong when it comes to art and creativity but I  have spent my life being crippled by a fear of imperfection.  School was torture for me - the specter of failure was always looming over me.  I was a top student but I certainly never felt like one.  I was always waiting to be "found out" - not as good as people thought.  I haven't done a lot of things in my life because I didn't think I'd "do it right".  I've never been any good at practicing or training at things to improve - if I couldn't do it right the first time I didn't want to do it.  
Recently, I've been working hard to overcome this.  Back in June a friend started dragging me to her rugby club's pre-season fitness sessions.  I have never been fit or sporty - rather I have always been on the chubby side.  I've joined gyms and tried other activities occasionally but never stuck with anything.  I don't know what made me hang in there this time but I did.  At that first session I couldn't run once around the track at the stadium.  When I stopped training in November (due to injury) I could run 2 1/2 miles - on a hilly route no less!  The first time I completed it I was ecstatic.  I had finally set myself a goal, worked towards it and reached it and it felt great.
I am now turning that goal setting to card making.  Instead of not making a card because I don't think I'll be able to execute my vision I am going to just do it.  If it doesn't come out as I had hoped then I'll use it as a learning experience and hopefully the next one will be a little closer to what is in my head.  As with the running I will only get better if I just keep making more cards.  I would love to feel that all my cards are perfect but they won't be no matter what. So I'm going to continue to post cards that I love and also those that I don't love so much.  If nothing else, I want to be able to look back in a few months and see some general improvement in my skills and hopefully that will continue to spur me on to keep learning and experimenting.   

Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger: Strictly Stripes

I love the bright colours of the striped gloves in this picture for Moxie Fab World's Tuesday Trigger.  It has been cold, windy and rainy here for the last few days so this cheery picture was a welcome sight.  The colours made me think of birthday parties so I went with that idea and came up with this birthday card using the colours from the gloves:

Supplies:  Card blank:  The Stamp Pad Co.; Card stock:  Paperbilities; Stamp: Elzybells sentiment; Ink: Vintage Photo Distress Ink; Other: CPE letter stickers, Copics, brads 
Looking at it now I'd like to retake the picture with the card sitting on a different coloured surface so it doesn't blend into it quite so much.  I still have a lot to learn in terms of presenting and photographing my cards.  I didn't realise how different the card can look depending on the display.  I'm constantly looking at other crafter's presentation styles and am trying to adapt mine to be more effective.  Watch this space!