Easter Blog Fun...

Don't forget this starts on the 20th March - I'm busy getting things ready for this and other things I've volunteered for so won't be around until Monday!

Take card everyone and have a brilliant weekend.

Ann xxx

If your balloon flies away...

I'm not anywhere near 100% happy with this card - think I needed a little something less or more - I'm not sure!

The mouse, tufts of grass and balloon are from a set of stamps by Jane Nesterenko. I stamped these directly on to the shaded blue card. The grass and small areas were painted directly on to the card but the mouse was stamped and painted on white card and then attached to the picture.

The small butterfly is a Studio G stamp.

The sentiment reads 'If your balloon flies away...' and was computered generated. The inside of the card reads 'I'll catch it for you'. My intentions were to make a card suitable to send to a friend needing a bit of support.

The card is also for this week's Tanda Teaser, which themed 'Up in the air'.

Cold Winter Winds...

After all those Spring colours it seems a shame to go back to that cold winter feeling, but just like the weather forecast that is exactly what is happening at the Stamp Something Challenge where we were asked to 'create a sample that reminds you of the cold, winter winds that will soon be leaving us!!'

I sincerely hope they will soon be leaving us as the few days of sunshine we have had recently just make everyone feel so much better.

Anyway for my card I decided to use my trees stamp by Art Impressions stamped in black versefine and then embellished with snow and frost (Sakura White Glaze pen with added fine glitter).

The 'Winter' embossing was created using a Sizzix Simple Impressions folder. Everything is matted on to silver to give a 'cold' feel to the card. The white organza ribbon is also layed over silver ribbon to echo this effect.

Only one challenge covered by this card!!! ~That's blown my week off!!!

Messy Rabbit Easter Card...

Well I don't know whether it was the Joanna Sheen special programme last Sunday with all the new Messy Rabbit products or it was thinking about the Pink Elephant Easter Blog Hop, but something made me go all Eastery!!!

I really enjoyed making this card using the sketch at the Sketch and Stash Challenge blog. Due to my main image being quite large I decided to use the sketch to create a large size (8" x 8" ) card. In this challenge the idea is that you use the sketch and a new craft item - my new items are the cute little basket which is from the Whiff of Joy Spring stamp set and the lovely yellow patterned paper by Kanban.

I particularly chose these papers to fit in with the inspirational photo on the Cupcake Challenge this week where we were given a photo of a vase of yellow flowers and asked to create something using that as our inspiration.

One of my aims this year is to do something for the complete alphabet at the ABC challenge site. Well as their challenge is to make a card for a child I think the inclusion of Messy Rabbit (although he's not just for children - he's for big kids like me too!) makes this card fit the bill.

Cute Card Thursday have the theme of Animal Magic and I think Messy is definitely magic. I just love that look on his face saying 'Hmmm are all these eggs for me? I'd actually rather have carrots!'

Another Animal challenge is at Charisma Cards where you can feature any animal including dinosaurs.

On the Joanna Sheen forum we have a monthly challenge and this month the theme is handmade paper flowers.

My flowers are made using my Wizard flower die and then to give them texture I use the good old Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and then fastened the two flowers together using a white brad.

At No Time To Stamp they are fed up of the cold and asked crafters to enter cards that would remind them that Spring was on the way. To me yellow flowers are so evocative of Spring so I'm pretty sure my card will help with their 'cabin fever'.

At the Cuttlebug Spot Nilda asks everyone to put bows on their creations - my ribbon is threaded through the lattice border made using a Cuttlebug border die and finished with bow.

Wow eight challenges in one card - mind you it is a big card - think that puts me right up there in the record book with Ann Whitfield! Hmmmmmmm would it be cheating to enter it for the Pink Elephant challenge of using a die cut and ribbon? I think it might be so I'll stick at eight and take the rest of the week off!!!

Exciting News...

Mark this weekend on your calender!

This is going to be so much fun...

We are having an Easter Blog Hop Weekend at the Pink Elephant!!

There will games, prizes, tutorials, mini challenges and of course...blog hopping FUN!!!

So, mark your calendars and prepare to spend a full weekend with Ella and the design team!

We hope to see you there!!!

Pink Elephant Day...

I love Mondays especially when the sun is shining like today and maybe Spring is not really that far away, but one of my favourite things about Mondays is that it's time for a new challenge at the Pink Elephant.

This week sees our very first 'RECIPE' challenge where we give you ingredients to use on your card from our very own Ella's kitchen.

This week the ingredients are ...

Diecuts and Ribbon

As you can see on my card I've used square die cut charms and ribbon threaded and tied through the button embellishment. I've also used ribbon to embellish the stamped sentiment on the front of my card.

The stamped flower and small flower pots are from a set of 12 really cute stamps by Personal Impressions called Hearts and Flowers.

This is the inside of my card showing the decorated panel and the panel to write a message to the recipient.

The front of my card is cut short to reaveal the decorated panel.

The square die cut charms are from a set of 4 called charms by Cuttlebug.

I stamped the images on to white and then coloured them using Derwent Inktense watercolour crayons.

On the front of the card I have used a wonderful sentiment from a Hero Arts stamp, matted this on to silver and then embellished with white organza ribbon.

All the papers used are by Making Memories and the border was created using the Martha Stewart Lace Doily punch.

I do hope you will have chance to join in our challenge at the Pink Elephant this week. It's sponsored by yours truly and I will be sending my Ribbon Holder (from last week's tutorial) and an organza bag full of organza ribbons to the winner.

Awesome storage...

For ages I have been wanting to buy some magnetic sheets to store my nestabilities on, but they are quite expensive and something else always seemed to tempt me more (usually rubber stamps).

Then I found an amazing bargain at our local Klick photo shop. Magnetic photo frames that had not proved very popular and had been reduced from £1.49 to 17p.


AWESOME!!!

At first I was going to stick them on card and use them as they were, but then I saw someone saying on one of the forums I visit that she had cut A4 magnetic sheets and popped them into CD cases.

A brilliant idea that led to me cutting my frames into stripes and sticking them to the inside of a CD case. It also meant that I could use the word 'awesome' on the front of the case.

Even better is the fact that because I used a double CD case the matching sets can be stored in the same container.

No more counting the dies to make sure they are all stored safely - it's so easy to see that they are all there.

This is the back view of the case.

One frame is enough to do the two sides and leave some scraps that could be made into fridge magnets.

If you like the idea I do hope you can find a Klick photo shop that has some of the frames left.