Blooming great day

This evening I dug out one of my never inked before LOTV images and coloured it up, I sure do enjoy these ones :-)

Challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything goes

Crafts and me challenge - Anything goes

Precious Christmas

Another Christmas in July card, before the calendar turns in to August.  

Image is Precious Moments - God's Love

Challenge:

Christmas Stamping all year long - inspiration challenge

ABC Christmas Challenge - O Christmas Tree

Crafty Catz Challenge - Christmas in July
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Crisp Christmas

I liked my earlier white on white card, so I thought I'd do another, this one dressed up with a lace border around the image.

The image is an older one by Elisabeth Bell.  All paper is Staples and colouring is with Copics.

Challenges: 

Elphine House - Christmas in July

Elisabeth Bells World - Christmas

Summer sun

I experimented today with my air gun and yellow topic, to get a hot sun effect.  

This is an Elisabeth Bell image and the colouring is with Copics.

Challenges:

Simon Says Monday Challenge Ode to Sunshine

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 

CAS joy

The Christmas theme in my craft area is still warming up, with this clean and simple card  featuring an image from Flourishes.

I  was happy to have a chance to dig out and use for the first time an embossing folder I got a number of months ago, which I have to say may become a new favourite.

All colouring is with Copics, and all paper is Staples 110 lb.

Challenges: Flourishes B'day celebration - Christmas in July

Vintage Santa

Christmas in July has finally hit my craft area, starting off with a vintage style Santa card.

This card features an image from Flourishes, and sentiment from Cornish Heritage Farms.  

Challenges:

Flourishes 6th Birthday Celebration:  Christmas in July

DL Art: Christmas in July

Pucker up

I do love House Mouse stamps, they always make me smile.  When I first got them I found them so hard to colour and it took a long time to do it, but now I know the colours I like for the mousies and how to accent them, and I find these are now some of my quickest and easiest ones to colour.

I didn't put a sentiment on this yet, I figure it could be used for a few different things, and it's always good to have cards that are "flexible" in the stash.

Challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Summer food and drink

Paper Crafting Journey - Punches and die cuts

Teddy bear picnic

Well, it's been a busy few days at my craft station (aka kitchen table) and I've got another creation to share.

This one was all about fixing an oopsie.  After hours colouring this very detailed Elisabeth Bell image (called Teddy Bear Picnic), I then went to trim the edges around the image and accidentally cut the girls head off.  Guess I'm still learning how to use a paper cutter LOL!  After mulling it over, I decided if I cut up the rest of the image I could do a mosaic. 

Challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Summer food and drink

Paper Crafting Journey - Punches and die cuts

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)

Birthday fun

And here's a quick one before dinner.  I used the A2 Spellbinder dies to cut the layers, and then quickly brushed colour on this Lily of the Valley image.  No bling or dressing it up, but quick and easy and I'm sure it will make someone smile when they get it.

I'm entering this in to the following challenges:

Simon Monday Challenge - celebrate (birthday)

Flourishes 10 minute birthday card - 6th b'day celebration.

Background Technique

Still playing along with Flourishes celebration for it's 6th birthday, there is a challenge called Colour Your World, where a neat background technique is demonstrated.  It inspired me to create the below, using a Flourishes image from my stash.

All colouring is with Copics, coloured paper is SU and white papers is the cheap Staples stuff :-)  I am glad I played along and did up the background on this as I find it really dresses up the image.

Happy Sunday!

Six for six

I had fun playing along with Flourishes again today working on a recipe of 6 ingredients, for their "Six for Six challenge".

I'm really happy with the result, such a beautiful card could be used for so many purposes.  Another great card for the stash :-)

You can see a bit of my weedy garden here too.  I guess I should be weeding, but really, there are so many cards that need to be made!

Another Thank You Card

Keeping up with the theme of Thank you cards, I've got a nice clean cut card that will be great to say thank you for baking gifts (SIL :-) ), or for when a friend has had us over for dinner (we are always open to invites!).

I made this card using a set from Flourishes , and I'm entering it in their Black and White 6th b'day celebration challenge.

In the background you can see my herb garden baskets where the sage and thyme are flourishing in this fabulous summer weather...I hope you too are enjoying good weather :-)

Chickadee thanks

Another lovely thank you card to add to the stash!  I wanted to make sure to have one that would be ok for a man or woman, and this chickadee image from Marks Finest Papers is one of my all time favourites for unisex cards.

Playing along with another challenge at Marks Finest Papers, this one is the Sketch with a Twist -- the twist being to add buttons.  

Floral thank you

Here's another creation from this morning.  

Despite having a huge stash of cards, over the past few months I've managed to use up every single Thank You card as well as most of my blank cards.  On my birthday recently a bunch of gals at the office spoiled me with gifties, so I wanted to give them each a little thank you card.  I dug and dug through the stash.  There were retirement cards, get well cards, sympathy cards, and even bereavement cards on the death of a pet cards, but could I find a decent thank you card?  Finally I found some one layer cards from when I first started making cards, that were not fabulous, but were shareable with kind people.  At least those are out of my cupboard now.  Guess what you will see me creating now, over and over and over again, till the stash is refilled......?

This card is to play along with Marks Finest on their FOSTV challenge this week, the challenge being not to use DP.  The image is one of theirs, a lovely spring set that I love, and the sentiment from SU.

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.

Where did half a year go??

I see it's been over 6 months since I posted on my blog, and scarily enough, it's been almost that long since I last made a card!  At least the last posting featured a fabulous card, LOL! 

Anyway, I am back!!!  After a harrowing six months involving long work hours and also too many hours playing Candy Crush while commuting, it is time to come back to blogland and card making.  Though probably not posting as frequently as before, I've decided to make this blog a bit more varied and interesting by include an occasional post about a recipe, book review, travel, or other item. 

I'm excited to be home on the first day of a 2 week vacation break from the office--yay!  The plan for the afternoon is to unearth my craft room, and over the course of this week make and post some cards for you.  Over 6 months I'm guessing there have been lots of stamp releases and new styles emerging, and it's going to be fun to visit blogland and so many of your blogs as I can to see what's fresh and new :-) 

So stay tuned here for some posts in the next week with new card creations, as well as a post to tell you about my adventures with fake nails, gel polish, and nail stamps (did you know there are STAMPS for nails???!  now there are both card stamps AND nail stamps to shop for, oh my!), and maybe I'll give you a glimpse in to some books I've been reading lately on the long, long daily commute (apart from the Harlequin romances that I would never confess to owning), so stay tuned!