More for the Men!

I've been playing with some blokey papers from Creative Cardmaking Magazine to make these cards - one for a Son, Dad, Grandad and Brother!

Funky Pussy Cat!

These Pink Petticoat papers came free with Quick Cards magazine so I hunted in my stash for something a bit different to use with them - instead of a cute or girly image, I decided to use this funky cat sticker for a change!

Yummy Cupcakes

Not real ones, I'm afraid - I'm a rubbish cook! But a couple of birthday cards featuring a pink cupcake with a cherry on the top and a sprinkle of glitter.

I'm entering these into Little Claires Pink & Brown challenge.

Owls Rock!

Yesterday hubby kindly took the kids swimming so I had the whole afternoon for a bit of 'me time,' which just has to be spent making cards! I managed to make 8, including these 3 blokes cards above. I had bought a copy of Creative Cardmaking Magazine in the morning so I had lots of new papers to play with.

Summer Days

I made this card after looking at the layout at Inspirational Card Sketches. I've had these lovely brown paper roses for a while and glammed them up with a bit stickles glitter glue. I've made this for my niece - hope she likes it!

My First Play with Appley Dapply!

Well, I could not resist playing with my Beatrix Potter prize ( see yesterdays posting) so produced this Thank You card to send to Crafters Companion to thank them for all the goodies!

I also had a play with the CD rom and found some papers for ATC's as well!

Lucky, Lucky Me!

I had a parcel waiting for me today when I got home from work- I have won the Crafters Companion Beatrix Potter competition from Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine!!!

In this pile of goodies I received 12 Appley Dapply Nursery stamps and a matching crafting CD-Rom plus a set of 2 large Rock-a-blocks, a can of stick & spay and 20 sheets of card - what a fabulous prize. I can't wait to try them out!!!

Having a bit of an OwlFest!

I don't know why, but I seem to be producing a lot cards and ATC's that feature different owls at the moment!

A couple of these are from this months Papercraft Essentials magazine and recently I bought 2 sets of stamps that feature owls as well.

As its chucking it down with rain today I feel a crafting session coming on - mowing the lawn will just have to wait a bit longer.

A Birdie with Black Lace

I haven't had much chance to craft this week as we have been re-decorating our bedroom. This has meant I have had to let go of some of the card making magazines I have been hoarding at the bottom of the wardrobe.

Flicking through those mags from 2008, it seems that things have changed so much in 3 years. Cards now look much more sophisticated and complex!

Anyway I just had the crafting itch and so used this cute little birdie stamp from Inkadinkado patterned birds & bugs set for the first time.

What A Hoot!

I picked up a set of cute Owl stamps made by Personal Impressions for a bargain price of only £2.23 including postage from eBay - Well Chuffed!

So of course, I had to try them out straight away and also use up a bit more of my stash at the same time. I had no idea how the flapping owl was going to turn out when I started, and the red colour was a bit of an afterthought. The ribbon was from a bundle of towels I have just bought and the background papers I have had for absolutely ages

Are Big Stamps On Trend???

....well according to this months Cardmaking & Papercraft mag they are! So I dug out this stamp of a sunflower that has been sitting unloved and unused at the bottom of my stamp drawer for several years!

It was lightly stamped in brown as the background and then the central image coloured with promarkers with a bit of distressing around the edges. I quite like the effect and might try it again with a couple of other jumbo sized stamps I have.

Watching the World Go by!

I downloaded this lovely image from Digital Two for Tuesday ages ago but have only just got around to using it.

They have loads of free vintage images on their blog and at the moment have lots of ladies with 1920's cloche hats!

A Pink Castle for a Little Princess!

A very pink and girly card for one of my daughters friends! The paper is from the 'In Love with Japan' stack from the Wild Rose Studio with a few jewels as flower centres for bling. The image was coloured with my good ol' trusty Promarkers!

Spots Before the Eyes!

A while ago I was lucky enough to win a large box of Craftwork Card Candi from a magazine. They come in loads of different colours and they are one of my most used embellishments! I now see they come in a spotted design, so think I will have to add to my collection as I love the effect. The Craftworks blog has some great ideas for using them on your cards.

This card was made with Kaisercrafts Nans Favourites papers and loads of candy spots - the sentiment is a Craftworks one too - they are printed on lovely quality card with a slight sheen to it and always look great. As you can see I'm a bit of a Craftworks fan!!

Gorjuss Girl Birthday Card

Another attempt at using up my stash - I almost feel a halo over my head. Plus I sold 5 cards at the car boot sale this morning!

But I am likely to be visiting a nearby craft shop next week, so really I'm just making space for any new goodies that will fall into my basket!

a Bit of Baroque

Still trying to use up a bit of stash! The background paper is from the Gypsy Sister collection by Kaisercraft. This is a yummy set where the papers are almost too nice to use, some even have flocking to add texture!

The silk flowers were coloured by promarkers to match the card candi dots. I'm doing a car boot sale this weekend and will take a few cards along to see if they sell and will add this one into the pile.

Girls, Swirls & Butterflies

Another attempt to use up my stash - thats 2 sheets of paper down, only another 498 to go! I popped over to ICS blog to get an idea for a sketch and came up with this take on it. It also used up a Gorjuss topper, Tim Holtz flourish and some prima flowers as well!

A box of old photos.....

I bought a box of oddments at a local auction that contained loads of old black & white family photos.

I have used a few to make some ATC's for

vintage swaps but still have lots left - so decided to make some Thank You RAKS to send to the hosts of the atc swaps that I join. Seems a great way to use up some of my stash too!

Hanglar Skater Boy Birthday Card

I'm on a bit of a roll with masculine cards at the moment!

This cute Hanglar skater boy was teamed up with starry paper from the Forever friends range and a star shaped charm with brown voile ribbon. He is coloured with promarkers and highlighted with white gel pen.

I'm desparetely trying not to buy any more crafting stuff until payday - avoiding visiting any craft shops or even the Range until the end of the month. I have so much papers to use up I cannot justify buying any more!!!

Zooming off into the distance!

This card started off as a way of using up some of the card in my stash - the orange layer just matched the car sticker that was free with this months Papercraft Inspirations magazine. I then popped over to ICS blog for a sketch idea to put this card together and voila! a great card in time for my Uncles birthday!

A Couple More Nitwits!

I've made a couple more cards today using Nitwit downloads - It's not often you see an ostrich on a birthday card is it!

He is from the Hulabazoo collection whilst the cat is from the Me-Wow one . I was lucky enough to win a can of 'spray and sparkle' today - shall I wait and use it for christmas? Unlikely!!

Here Come the Boys

This card was made to enter a new challenge site called Here Come the Boys - for those hard to make masculine cards! The first challenge is anything goes! This card uses an image from a free Docrafts cd-rom that came with Creativity Magazine and the blue swirls are from a pack of bazzil die cuts.

I thought this would make a great card for my 12-year old nephews birthday.

Watch out for Tatty Teddys!

I made these 2 cards with the free Tatty Teddy stamp in the current Docrafts Creativity magazine and I really like them, but I am worried that I cannot use them on any cards that I make for charity.

Sarpreets blog explains that Docrafts have not yet negotiated an angel policy over their use and so at the moment the images cannot be sold! I hope this can be sorted out soon as there is a whole range of cute Tatty Teddy card making stuff just been released!

Pixie Dust Tag

This parcel tag was stamped with a one of my favourite freebie stamps from Craft Stamper Magazine. The bird is in a heart and is surrounded by scroll stamps.

It was then sprayed with gold and bilberry crush cosmic shimmer mists and highlighted with white gel pen.

I'm entering this in the Pixie Dust Paperie April Challenge which ends on the 5th May

I'm a bit of a Nitwit!

In fact I'm a big NitWit fan and as they have a bit of a sale on their collections at the moment, I couldn't resist downloading the Me-Wow, Farley & Friends and Hullabazoo collections.

There is also some free Nitwit papers with Simply cards Magazine this month so I have plenty to play with!