Bag of chips

Friday morning, the end of week 10 in self isolation.  It’s been a tough week.  Businesses are trying to open up and restart operations but logistics are challenging and many of us don’t want to risk it and leave out home.

At my workplace we had large layoffs this week, and due to that and other factors had to put a one year suspension on my golf membership.  Will find a more economical option for the next few months and look forward to next year.  I think a lot of people right now are dealing with similar challenges.

On a happier note, here is a card I made up last weekend, using a digi from StampAnniething.  I love this card, it makes me think of being at an actual birthday party where we mingle and laugh and eat chips.

Bridge Card with Graphic45 - Round 2

Another bridge card with the same Graphic45 Blooming papers and stickers as my last post

My prior post includes a link to tutorial if you haven't made one of these bridge cards before. Try it out—super easy!! And mailable in a standard A4 envelope.

Sentiment is from SU, accessorized with some lace from the fabric store and some nail head stickers. All in all a super quick card to make, I'm quite happy with this one!

Cupcakes!

I've been dieting so of course this sweet image caught my attention!

Delightful image by mo manning, and better yet, found in my stash already precoloured and ready to go, lol! Likely coloured circa 2012 using copic markers and airbrush. Paper is all Su except for image which would be my standard Neenah solar crest 110.

I've used some rhinestones to embellish —expect to see a lot of these as i found them at the dollar store—the same brand and items as at the local craft store but less than half the price—bought about 10 large sheets. Then I did the math. I have enough rhinestones to last at least 10 years now!!!!! Have you done something like that recently?

I've been working on adding more latera amd dimension, so had fun playing with the banners, i really like how it turned out. A simple card but one That makes me smile.

Ten minute birthday card

Here's a quick and fun birthday card using a cheery Flourishes image.

Challenge:  Flourishes B'day celebration:  10 minute birthday card 

Birthday love

Another quick Birthday card, this one also featuring a sweet LOTV image.

Colouring is as usual with Copics and once again I've been using my A2 Spellbinder dies (LOVE those!)

Challenges:  Simon Says Monday Challenge:  Celebration (Birthday)

Celebration with Simon Says

Well, yesterday and the day before I cleaned and organized my craft room.  Finally, I did manage to find all the plates for my cuttlebug, the cutter bee scissors, acrylic stamping block and adhesive.  This all sounds pretty standard, but really, this was a large task as there were HEAPS of stuff layers on top of each other to dig through.  Who knows why, but I naively assumed that all the plates for the Cuttlebug and its tan embossing mat would all be with each other.  Silly me.  And really, how far can a little pair of scissors get?? Gah!!!!!

Then my mother decided to start a blog.  I hope you will give her some support and visit it, she has never had one and is also somewhat new to card making, but a very creative person who would love your feedback on her creations.  Her blog is http://quirkycreations.blogspot.ca/

So this morning, with basic supplies now at hand, a day of card making is on the way!  After 6 months out of my craft room, it was hard to know where to start, but a bit of searching online and sure enough there were some challenges to play along with.

This first card is to play along with Simon Says (we all love to shop there, right?!), for their birthday celebration challenge.

She's all that - Birthdays

Happy Monday!  I hope you all had a fabulous weekend, and for those of you in Canada  great Thanksgiving.

I've updated my blogger background, what do you think?  Have any of you changed your blogger templates lately and have suggestions?  Also, if any of you have trouble leaving comments or viewing my blog, please send me an email, which is available in my blogger profile.

Below I've got some cards and entering them in some challenges, one more complicated than the rest,
here are the first couple, going with a simple colour scheme of just the black, white and cameo coral.  The fancy edges are made using the A2 Card Creator dies and the one uses an old cuttlebug embossing folder that I thought tied in well.  The cake is coloured brown and the candle has a yellow flame and there are a few bit of other coloured items too.

The one on the right I am entering in Flourishes challenge for World Card Making day to focus on the 5 senses.  For me, the sight of the girl carrying the cake makes me think of our family birthday parties, and as soon as the person walks out of the kitchen carrying the lighted cake, we all start singing happy birthday (hearing), it always smells sweet (here chocolaty) and then we get to eat it--yum! (smell and taste), I used a textured embossing folder for the candles, which make me think of heat (feel), and my eye is drawn by the little bit of colour incorporated in to the image (sight).

The next couple are more colourful, one of them using some very busy DP that has been collecting dust, combined with an embossing folder again, and the other uses an old background stamp.

I am entering the following challenges with these cards:

Flourishes, World Card Making Day 5 senses (see explanation above, after the first photo)

By the Cute and Girly - Birthday

Fab & Funky - No DP (all of these would qualify except for the second to last one)

Sentimental Sundays - Anything goes

De Creative Zebra - Anything goes

Golf guy birthday

Here's another golf card, this one birthday themed.  The image is a Mo Manning one, and I've used a cuttlebug embossing folder in the background instead of adding a birthday tag.  It's pretty plain, but the plan is for it to be a card my hubby will give to a guy friend, so I had to avoid any thing "fru-fru"....sigh....

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

By the Cute and Girly - boys/men

Celebrate the Occasion - Sports
Simon Says Stamps - Anything Goes
Charisma Cards - For the guys
Cards und More - Sports

Peace Tag

Today I've had Christmas music playing in the background, and felt like making something festive, so decided to make a tag to use on a gift.  Last year I really enjoyed seeing all the Tim Holtz 12 tags of Christmas, and this is inspired by some of those cards I had seen here in blogland.

The card features a lovely Christmas tree from a set by Marks Finest Papers, I'm not sure of the brand of the music in the background (if you know, please drop me a note), and the swirl is an old SU one.

The tree is covered in sparkly stickles (though it doesn't show clearly in this pic).

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

FOSTV - Tags or Tickets
Shopping our stash - Feathers of Fur
Simon Says Stamp & Show - For the love of sparkle
Simon Says - Anything goes
Stamping Dragon - music themed
http://stampingwithdragon.blogspot.co.uk/

Mark's finest - Simple Salutation

Evening folks!

Tonight after work I wipped up a quick card since I wanted to play along with Mark's Finest Papers - Simple Salutations challenge.  It was fun seeing what I could create within about a one hour time frame!

The card features an older Mark's Finest (retired?) set  for the butterflies, and the sentiment comes from another, more recent set.  I stamped the butterflies twice and then cut out one set and overlaid.  All colouring is with Copics.  

Summer crafting

Happy Friday!
We are at the last day of August and the Labour Day weekend, and I always think of this as the last weekend of the summer.  I hope you all have fabulous plans for the weekend!  We had planned to go camping, but hubby had to work, so I will spend some time in the garden and work on cards.

Here is another Mo Manning card I made recently for a swap, once again, I didn't make any for me, but think I'll remedy that this weekend!



The image is a Mo Manning digi, the paper and DP are all SU and the lace comes from the fabric store.  The colouring is all with Copics and I airbrushed the blue in the background.

I've also made some updates to my blog, rearranging it and also adding a translate button for other languages.  Also, did you see my card counter??  I'm going to have to be pretty crafty to get to the 400!  Since I'll be home this weekend I plan to put a dent in that :-)

The bad thing about counting my cards is that we (hubby) can now quantify how much I spend on a per card basis in a year....not the greatest statistic LOL!

So, I do have a question for you, my fellow bloggers:  How do you get the HOME button on the top of your blog page?

Birthday fun

Another swap card to share, a birthday/celebration card.

This fun card features "Veronica" by Mo Manning.  I used the digi so it could be sized perfectly.  Making 6 of these felt like a lot of coloring, but my mom was visiting and helped out these together, and the end result was worth it--except we didn't make any for us to keep.   Hmm.  May have to make a couple more...

Hedgies challenge

Busy with making cards for challenges, and trying to combine them (which I'm not so good at), here is another fun card I made this weekend, which will also be very useful to restore my depleted box of birthday cards ready to go. 

These little hedgies are so cute, I just adore them!  This card is for the Simon Says Animal Antics challenge, as well as the Penny Black Double the Trouble challenge.  The colouring is with Copics.

House mouse - double trouble

Happy Sunday!  This has been a productive craft weekend, and I've cleaned my craft room and also made a few cards for challenges.  The first one I have to share with you is a cute birthday card featuring House Mousies :-)  The popcorn was hubby's idea, and they've been adhered using glue dots.  The sentiment is an SU one, and the colouring is with Copics.  I hope this gives you some inspiration.

I'm entering this card in two challenges - one  for Simon Says - Animal Antics challenge, and also for the House Mouse - Double Trouble challenge.

Birthday Swap

Happy Sunday!

The weather has been fabulous here and we've been spending lots of time in the garden, and also in the kitchen canning all of our plums (almost done!).  So far we've made 3 types of chutney, 6 types of plum jam and also pickled whole plums.....I'm thinking it will soon be time to turn the kitchen back in to a craft room LOL!

Anyway, before we started the canning operating, I completed 3 sets of cards for a birthday swap--two sets for male birthday cards and one for female birthday cards.  Since I'm mailing to the states I wanted to make sure that the cards, while still beautiful and trade worthy, were also light and not bulky so it didn't cost too much to post, very challenging!

Sorry for the poor pictures, it's a new camera, and time is short and no time for photo editing.....

Back from a long break

I am finally back to blogland after a long break!  Not that there has not been creative output coming out of my craft room, but I have not been interested in fussing with photographing, editing, and posting photos, preferring to spend my time creating.  However, I miss the fun of sharing, and hearing all your comments and ideas, so back I am :-)

Today I felt like working on cards using my fabulous Thomas Kinkaid stamps.  I was inspired when looking online and seeing that Cornish Heritage Farms had finally re-released some of them, and seeing samples by their design team, so made a bunch of quick cards using them today.  I love it when the artwork lets me create a beautiful card in a quick and easy way!!

This first bundle are birthday themed, and involved no colouring:

These next few had minor colouring in the image, generally I picked one colour and item to focus on and give colour to, such as the flowers or water or a tree:

I see that CHF blog has a challenge to do cards this week in black, white and one other colour, so I am playing along with that challenge.  If I win a prize I already have a wish list for new TK images :-)

All the images were stamped using black Versafine on glossy card stock.  The colouring, where I did it was very carefully done with SU markers or else SU pastels.  My Copics make the Verfsafine on glossy card stock run, so I'm glad to dust these other colouring tools off and get a change to use them.

Vacation crafting

Hi folks!
You have probably noticed my blog's been quiet for a couple of months, I have been taking a little break to get re-inspired and also to go on vacation.  That doesn't mean I haven't been crafting though!
While we were vacationing in the sunny Caribbean I made a few cards--I had brought a craft kit, and it seemed we kept running in to people celebrating birthdays and other celebrations, so I was happy to be able to make up cards for them.

What better crafting environment could there be??

Happy Wednesday with Heartfelt Creations

I always find Wednesday a busy day, right in the middle of the week, and it is such a treat each week on this busiest of days to take a break and check out the Heartfelt Creations blog and all the lovely card and project ideas there.  This week there is a bunch of Christmas cards and projects and a few others there, which you too may enjoy.  Here are a couple I contributed this week:

First of all, a sweet birthday card featuring a teddy bear---doesn't matter what time of year it is, there is always a need for birthday cards!

Second of all, a standard postage size and mailable Christmas card, that still has a lot of Wow power, especially "in real life" when you can get the effect of the gold highlights:

Instructions and list of products used for both of these cards can be found on this weeks Heartfelt Creations Blog post.

I hope you are all having a fabulous week!

Playing with flowers

Hi folks!  I hope you are all enjoying a nice weekend!

I've been enjoying my three day weekend and doing lots of creating...there is a new Heartfelt Creations release coming up that I've been creating with, but I won't be sharing those with you unit the release....and I've also been working on some other cards using flowers as embellishments, which I'll share with you today.

To start with, I remembered a tutorial I'd seen online at Lisa's website to make fabulous looking prima type flowers using ordinary flower punches.

Here was my first attempt:

After that I played some more to try and get it right and managed to make some more used here, on this card featuring a free digi from TLC:

And then in a rush to finish off the third card (dinner plans tonight...) I grabbed a flower I'd snagged from a friend of mine that she had in her sewing kit (for costumes):

Tomorrow I think we have to do yard work, so probably no crafting, sigh, but I'll be back again on Wednesday with something else christmassy to share again :-)  Happy crafting to you!