Good News and Bad News...

Well the GOOD news is that not only is it Bah! Humbug! day, but it's also the start of a new challenge at Crafty Ann's.
At Bah! Humbug! we're encouraging everyone to be reckless and rip that paper.  Ohhhhhhh I find that hard!  It's tough to cut into special paper never mind rip so in total coward mode I tore plain white card, edged it with glitter and then built up the layers to create a backdrop for this cute stamp by Pollycraft. 
I just love this cutie and it was really weird how a little packet of precut coloured dogs suddenly came to light.  I'm not sure what they were part of originally but they fell out of one of my craft boxes and I just thought this guy was perfect to sit patiently waiting for the cutie to throw that snowball.

My card is another of the acetate style cards I did a tutorial HERE for last week.  I really love doing these and there are just so many possibilities.  There may be more variations in the weeks to come!

Now for the BAD news!  Due to work, etc, etc I left doing my Guest Design Team Member card for Crafty Ann's challenge until the very last minute (hmmmmmmmm at this very moment Irene will be reading this and saying 'well what's new).  Then I had a crafting disaster.  I had almost finished a card that was looking like it was going to be fine when...

I decided to use Glossy Accents.  Now I should know better, because I've ruined things with this lethal product before, but no I had to to add that extra bit of something didn't I?  Yep we've all been there and know that sinking feeling of 'Oh no I've ruined my card!!!'

Anyway enough rambling I will eventually recover from the way the stuff changed the colour of my flowers completely so they no longer matched the backing paper, ran where it shouldn't have run and shrunk away from the edges in other parts.  Grrr!

Good job Crafty Ann is also Lovely Kind Ann and because the challenge this week is 'Summer' she is going to put my Beach Beauties card on her blog.  Thank goodness for good buddies eh?  So I know you've seen it before, but just pretend it's new in the interests of keeping my sanity.

 

.

Of course there are challenges to be entered too and my Christmas card is also for the following challenges...

• Die Cut Dreams Christmas Club - Sweet Christmas Wishes
• Sentimental Sundays - Playful Card  - throwing snowballs for the puppy
• Stamptacular - Christmas in July
• Tuesday Taggers - Christmas in July
• Winter Wonderland - No Designer Paper 
• Stamp Something - Christmas in July

Have a fab weekend everyone and do take a look at both Crafty Ann's challenge and Bah! Humbug! if you have time.

Friday fun at Bah! Humbug! ...

Yeah this week at Bah! Humbug! our theme is 'border punches' which means everyone will have the chance to bring out their favourite punches and show some stunning borders on their cards.  I'm guessing we'll see a lot of Martha Stewart this week, but on my card I've dug out my old (very old) back of the deepest drawer Fiskars snowflake border punch.

I deserve a medal for using this as each time I punched I had to give it a thump to get it back into action for the next one. Sheesh wonder if this means treating myself to one of the new 'punch through anything' models you can get now?  Any excuse!

To create my card I used the fabulous sketch from the Pollycraft Monday challenge and of course the super cute image is one of the Pollycraft Christmas Pixies that are on sale at the moment.  The scrummy 'Winter Wonderland' DP was in my stash and I'm not sure of the maker. 

  Other challenges...

• Creative Inspirations - Fairies (hope Pixies count!)
• The ABC challenge - Unused stash (my snowflake punch and after this it's going to the back of the drawer again)
• Winter Wonderland - See amid the winter's snow (what a great title and seeing as my DP actually has Winter Wonderland written on it I just had to enter)

Do pop over to Bah! Humbug! to see the samples by the rest of the team and hopefully join in too.  Irene, Max and I love to see everyone's amazing work.  At the moment I'm busy scrapbooking - not too sure whether my efforts are worthy of blog land, but we'll see.

Have a great day everyone no matter what you are doing.

Thank you Teddy...

A card for my box, but one that I really ought to send to Paula at Pollycraft who is sooooooooooo very generous and each Friday gives a free digi to her followers. This week sees us all treated to Cuthbert who is one of the bears in a new range being released on Monday.  I've got my eyes on quite a few of these as they are just so cute.

Materials used...

• Cuthbert image from Pollycraft
• Swirl stamp by Autumn Leaves (stamped using Versemark and then embossed with fine clear embossing powder)
• Thankyou sentement stamp from stash
• Swiss Dots cuttlebug folder
• Two shades of pink card
• Ribbon and buttons from stash
• Promarkers for colouring

Challenges I had in mind when creating this card...

• Magical Crafts - the sketch
• Just Cute Bears - buttons and bows
• ABC Challenge - Thank you
• Rainbow Lady - Create your own backing paper - hope my swirls count
• Crafty Ann's Challenges - Anything goes

Have a brilliant weekend everyone and if you like the image do pop straight over to Pollycraft as this week the image is only free for one day.  Sheeeeeeeeeesh thank goodness I got my mitts on it!  Will be buying the others on Monday.

For Dad...

How brilliant is this digi image by Paula at Pollycraft?  It has to be the perfect pictorial representation of so many dads all over England - well everywhere really!  I love it to pieces and another brilliant thing about it is that all the money raised from the digi sales are going to support The Yorkshire Air Ambulance, who do an amazing job and have saved so many lives over the years.

How brilliant is that?

My own father died when I was small and sadly my two girls have done the last ten years without their father who died in 2000, which may be why I really wanted to support Crafty Emma's fundraising.  She is doing a wonderful job raising funds in memory of her father. Do visit Emma's blog to find out how you can help and maybe join in her challenge.  Be quick though as it ends tomorrow.
Over the coming weeks, I'm hoping to do more Father's Day cards and sell them for charity providing I have enough time.  Hmmmmmmm famous last words, but at least I have made a start.

Materials used on this card...

• Pollycraft digi
• Dovecraft Papers
• Sentiment stamps from stash
• suede strip from old belt
• brad and bottletop from stash
• Promarkers and brown base card

Other challenges...

• The Sweet Stop - the sketch
• Tuesday Taggers - Let's recycle - brown suede from belt 
• A Spoonful of Sugar - Furry Friends
• Tanda Teaser - Paws for thought

Well two posts in one day - incredible - I'd better have a rest now.  Back at work tomorrow and doing the really long shift so I won't be around while Friday.  Take care everyone and do make sure you pop over to Emma's blog or Pollycraft to find out more about the fundraising that's going on.
 

Bah! Humbug! Day... Santa Paws...

Yeah Friday and time for another challenge at Bah! Humbug!  This week we're going for the cute and cuddly and our challenge is entitled 'Santa Paws'.

My card was a super quick and easy to make card using a fantastic decoupage download from Pollycraft.  I'm not sure whether this is still available as I have had it on my computer for some time and can't believe it's taken me all this time to get round to using it. The 'Have a purrfect Christmas' sentiment was part of the download too.

My 'winter wishes' paper is another sheet from that amazing magazine I bought at the NEC and I've teamed it with some core'rdinations cardstock and two large white snowflake brads. 

Can't wait to do some blog hopping this week and check out all the furry friends on everyone's cards.  Think it definitely going to be a week with the 'ahhhhhhhh' factor.

Other challenges...

• Fab's Big Christmas Card Challenge - Big brads (last week but inspired the use of the snowflake brads) and 3D cards from a kit (mine was a digi kit - sort of)
• Simon Says Challenge - The Movies and dry embossing - 'Santa Paws - the movie'
• Alphabet Challenge - Xmas
• Winter Wonderland - Embossing

Have a fabulous weekend everyone.

PS- Max commented about the fabulous freebies at Pollycraft so thought I would mention that the one this week is totally gorgeous Lillybean Fairy and can be found HERE!

Ann xxx

Another Easter Card...

Another Easter card using one of the fabulous Pollycraft images I won recently.  How lucky was I?  Just love them.  As well as the cat and the duck being super cute I love the tree on this image, because it lends itself to adding paper flowers or gemstones as I have done on this card.   The image was coloured with Promarkers and the designer paper is from the DCWV Spring stack again.

Challenges...

• Simon Says Stamp - Easter with some glimmer (hope my gemstones have enough glimmer)
• The Sweet Stop Sketch - sketch and something fuzzy (hmmm well cats have fuzzy fur and I go fuzzy when I see a cute image like this one - hope that counts.)
• Incy Wincy Designs - Spring

Short post today as busy getting house ready for very important guest...

Irene from All Occasions Cards, Papers and More  She's staying here and we're visiting the N.E.C. together tomorrow.  Only to look round you understand - we're not buying - lol!!!

Hoppy Easter...

Another Easter card and this time it's for my daughter Shelley, who like me is a real softie when it comes to rabbits.  The image is one of the amazing collection of digi images I was lucky enough to win from Pollycraft.  Oh such a cute collection.  My friends will be seeing a lot of these this Easter.  Love the rabbit and the duck (although not on this card) is just adorable.

The daisy border was punched using another of  the new punches Laura bought me for Mother's Day.  The sentiment is from a collection by Making Memories and the bunny paper is another design from the DCWV Spring stack.

Challenges...

• Pollycraft Monday Challenge - sparkles
• Pile it on - Furry friends
• Promarker Passion - Springtime with an animal
• Digital Tuesday - Springtime
• Sketch Saturday - sketch

Melody Springtime Retro...

Last week I had a fantastic surprise when I discovered I was one of the five winners of a digi set of stamps from Paula at Pollycraft. I love Pollycraft stamps and digis so it was just fantastic to win the whole Sweet Dreams Springtime Retro Set.  This card features Melody - isn't she just gorgeous?  There are two other girls in the set and some sentiments and accessories so it's a brilliant buy.

I think I'm going to invest in the Easter Chicks set especially as at Totally Papercrafts you can pick up a 10% off coupon this week as Paula is sponsoring their challenge.

Materials used on my card...

• Pollycraft Sweet Dreams Springtime Retro Set digi stamps
• Kanban papers - paper piecing on image
• Promarkers
• ribbon, pearls, sentiment sticker and tag from stash

Challenges...

• Sketch Saturday - great sketch this week
• ABC Challenge - Paper piecing
• Dare you to digi - Pearls
• Stamp Something - Something girly
• Crazy4Challenges - Paper Piecing

Pink Elephant Day...

Yeah especially for all those crafters out there like me who are way behind in their Christmas preparations The Pink Elephant theme this week is CHRISTMAS!

It might be Christmas gifts or maybe a last minute card (or in my case batch of cards) you choose - we'd love to see what you come up with.

After doing my Snowman poop gifts I realised that I was left with all the chocolate marshmallows in the bag and if I didn't do something with them fast I was gonna end up eating them myself. Not good as I have just lost so much weight and I really don't want to put any on again.

So I decided to do a reindeer version - the stamp is a digi image by Pollycraft and the verse was computer generated. The 'Happy Holidays' sentiment is from a sheet of clear stamps by My Sentiments Exactly.

Very easy to make - must remember these for next year as I think they would great fund raisers at Christmas fairs etc.


My Reindeer Poop bag is also for the challenges at:

• Caardvaarks - go digital
• Passion for Promarkers - anything but a card
• Digital Tuesday - a Christmas Song - Rudolf (after recovering from his cold)
• Bubbly Scrumptious - food

Have a fun day and do pop over to The Pink Elephant to check out the work of my friends on the DT.

Important Update...

Thanks to a great friend pointing me in the right direction I've just discovered some fantastic FREE digi images and verses to make both Snowman Poop and Reindeer Poop bags. Roberta at the Prairie Fairy has given me permission to put a link to them and her blog on here. Thank you so much Roberta.

Snowman Poop Bags

Reindeer Poop Bags

Aren't they just fabulous? Roberta also has some blog candy on offer and a range of digi images coming out soon. Judging by the sneak peeks they look like they are going to be rather nice.

Ann xxx

Another blue Christmas...

I seem to be using blue a lot this week - Laura will not be happy!

Talking of Laura she has ordered a House Mouse stamp for me that she wants me to make her Christmas cards with. I've no idea which stamp she has chosen, but a package arrived today that looks the right shape and squeeks when shaken so I can't wait to see what it is. She has said it's a tricky one to use so it's to be hope my mojo comes back!

My card for today has one of my all time favourite Pollycraft images on. It's the one I saw being used on friend's blogs last year and first led me to Pollycraft. Even though I have loads of Pollycraft images now I still love this one.

Additional materials:

• DCWV snowflake paper
• dark pearlescent card and plain blue paper
• silver peel offs for sentiment, borders, corner and trims on clothes
• gems and glitter from stash
• Promarkers for colouring + Sakura stardust pen to get spikes on hair and clear stardust for detail on branch

Challenges:

• Pollycraft - Wonderful Christmas Time
• Creative Inspirations - the sketch (which I had to tweak slightly due to size of image and size of snowflake paper)
• SophistiCat Challenges - Snowflakes and Sparkle
• Stamp with fun - Christmas
• A Spoonful of Sugar - Non Traditional Christmas Colours
• Creative Card Crew - Christmas
• Two Red Bananas - Christmas

Thank you for looking and taking the time to leave such great comments.

Sheesh done it again - clicked post before scheduling - oh just pretend it's Wednesday!!

Ann xxx

Present box...

I really, really wanted to join in the Pollycraft challenge this fortnight, but seem to have spent most of the two weeks trying to decide what to do.

Then some paints arrived that I had ordered from ebay and as soon as I saw the packaging I realised it was just too good to throw in the bin.


My first thought was to use the acetate box and just put a decorated image on the front, but on closer inspection I found the acetate was a bit scratched and marked. Then it struck me - why not use the box as a template?!

I carefully cut down one side to open the box out flat. Then I layed it on a piece of 12" x 12" card. It just fit - wow - how lucky was that? It would have been more sensible to have drawn round the template on the wrong side, but by this time I was so taken up with trying it out that I never thought!

To be able to mark the flap parts I cut one from the main template and used it to mark my card - by now I had realised it would make more sense to mark the back rather than the patterned side of the card.
I carefully scored along the line and then turned the card over to fold in the flap. I used a circle punch to cut the semi circle.


As the template only just fit on the 12" x 12"card there was no space to add a tab to fasten the box closed. To solve this I cut a 1" wide strip the same length as the long edge of my box and folded this in half lengthways to make a hinge to fasten both long sides of the box together. As soon as this is done the box is rounded and the flaps at each end can be closed shut.

Then comes the fun decorating part - I used my new Pollycraft stamp Grace - I think she's getting used a lot because she's so much fun to add glitter and gems to.

I intend to put a couple of pairs of fancy socks in this box and even if you missed the name on the tag you probably guessed by the colour - PINK - that this is going to be a gift for Laura.

Of course my project is mainly for the challenge at Pollycraft where the theme is 'no cards allowed', but it also fits the challenges at...

• Creative Inspirations - 'sparkle'
• No time to stamp - 'All wrapped up'
• Cardvaarks - 'Colour a stamped image'

Thank you everyone for looking and leaving such fantastic comments. Everyone of them makes me smile.

Christmas Pixie...

How gorgeous is this Pollycraft Christmas Pixie called Grace? I love her to bits - she is just so cute. I was very lucky to win the last fortnightly challenge at Pollycraft and this stamp was my prize - thank you Paula - if you haven't already guessed I do rather like her!

My card follows the sketch at Friday Sketchers - this was a great fun sketch to do and definitely one I will try again in a different colour way.

Additional materials:

• snowflake backing paper and white textured card
• Promarkers
• Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder
• silver mirri card
• quickcutz snowflake die
  
• diamond dust on acetate snowflakes
• gem brads, gems and ultrafine glitter from stash

Additional challenges:

• Creatalicious Challenges - make something for Christmas with snowflakes glitter and lots of sparkle
• Creative Inspirations - Sparkle
• Papercutz - hand stamped image
• The Corrosive Challenge - embossing (my diagonal panels are embossed)
• Three Clovers Challenge - no red or green
  

Pink Elephant Day...

Can't believe Monday has come round again and it's time for a new challenge at the Pink Elephant.

This week is a colour challenge and our colours are Brown (yes that is brown in the photo), Yellow, Neutral and one colour of your choice. I chose to use a sheet of 12" x 12" card that was part of the stash in a Docraft's goody bag. It made the whole card so easy to create as all the essential colours were there and waiting for me. An added bonus was that the card was reversable making it easy to create contrasting cuttlebug panels using the plain distressed side.

I decided to combine our challenge with the sketch challenge at Pollycraft. I just love Pollycraft stamps and Paula's sketch is so cute and easy to use (which is how I like them). Thank you so much Paula.

Materials used:

• Stamp Winter Reflection by Pollycraft
• reversable patterned card by Docrafts
• brown card,gems and organza ribbon from stash
• snowflake cut using Quickcutz die
• Promarkers
  
• scalloped edge and plain circular nesties
• sentiment stamp from stash
  

Challenges :

• The Pink Elephant - colour challenge - brown, yellow, neutral and one to choose.
• Pollycraft - sketch

• Creative Card Crew - snowflakes

Have a great day everyone - only 4 more sleeps till the NEC - not that I'm excited or anything!!!

Five S Words...

SNOWFLAKES

SPARKLE

SPOTS

STRIPES

SWIRLS

This was the challenge theme at Pollycraft's fortnightly challenge and I really wanted to take Paula up on on this - okay the thought of a free digi image for anyone who included all five in their card might have influenced me slightly!

I'm late posting this morning because I had to wake up, get up and make the card all in my jamas - what a scruff! At one stage I panicked thinking I had forgot the stripes, but no check out the bobble hat!

Another challenge I really didn't want to miss out on was Fab's Big Christmas Card Challenge so I made sure I sneaked in some paper tearing (the snowy background for the cute girl) on my card.

The fabulous background with the swirls, snowflakes and dots (that made it so much easier to complete the challenge) is by Kanban. The image, Cherry Kisses Snowball, is one of the fantastic images that Paula at Tales from Pollycraft gives away each Friday. Wonder what today's treat will be?

My card is also for the challenge of Christmas at Creative Inspirations and at Pile it on where the theme is 3D (the layers of torn snow paper are raised).

Pink Elephant Day...

Yeah it's Pink Elephant day and this week we are cooking with a recipe from Ella's kitchen using these ingredients...

two squares
one ribbon (mine is very subtle and has a heart shaped button stitched on to it)
and something sparkly (the star on teddy's T-shirt is a sparkly gemstone).

Fantastic set of ingredients - can't wait to see what the rest of the team have come up with!

To create my card I used the brill sketch at Papertake Weekly, which proved just perfect for combining with the Pink Elephant's ingredients. The image is one from a collection of number digis by Pollycraft. There is a set suitable for girls and one for boys - both really useful. Love them.

As my card is for a friend's little boy's first birthday it also fits the challenge at Stampin' for the Weekend where the challenge is baby themed including baby's first birthday.

Thanks for looking and don't forget to check out the Pink Elephant to see what my teamies have come up with. Hope you'll have chance to play along too.

A Birthday for you...

A birthday card for my box and for quite a few challenges. I actually coloured this image the other week, but put it to one side because I wasn't happy with the hair. I thought I'd got it way too dark, but having bought a white inkssentials pen this week I used it to add a couple of highlights. I'm much happier with the effect now.

Challenges:

• Pollycraft Challenge - 3 embellishments (the buttons), two papers (green and check) and one image.
• Everybody's Art - Birthdays
• Simon Says - Celebrations - Birthdays
• One Stop Craft Challenge - add some sparkle (added sparkle on the wings and gems)
• Sketch and Stash - sketch and new item (inkssentials white opaque pen)

Materials used:

• Pollycraft stamp
• Paper by DCWV
• Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder
• Cricut - flowers
• Green card, buttons, gems and peel offs from stash

With love...

This is one of my favourite Pollycraft stamps (although I actually love all their designs) mainly because the little sign is blank and you get three different messages in the set to use - 'with love', 'for you' and 'thank you'. All really useful and the girl is so cute too.

Hopefully my card fits quite a few challenges as my main challenge this week has been to try and transform my jungle back into a garden! Why do shrubs take absolutely no notice of their own labels? You know the ones attached to the pots that say things like 'minature plant' '2ft x 3ft' and then a couple of years later you wonder who planted that 7 foot monstrousity in the border.

Anyway on to the challenges...

• Cute Card Thursday - Nip and punch - my hearts are punched.
• Passion for Promarkers - use apple green and pastel pink
• Cupcake Craft Challenge - fairies

Materials used:

• Promarkers
• Cuttlebug border die
• Pollycraft stamp set
• small heart punch
• green and pink card and gems from stash
  

Pink Elephant Day...

Yeah it's Pink Elephant Day and this week we have a sketch for everyone to try out by the incredibly talented Robin Willis. I had such fun playing with this semi-circle design and I'm sure we will see some stunning creations by everyone this week.

To take a look at the sketch and see what the rest of the design have done with it pop over to the Pink Elephant and check it out.

Materials used to create my card:

• Cricut - used to cut 5" inch circle and flowers in two sizes (Schoolbook cartridge)
• Pollycraft stamp - coloured with Derwent Aquatone crayons
• DCWV paper from Spring Stack
• plain card and organza ribbon from stash
• sentiment stamp from set by Making Memories

Pastel Pink Pollycraft...

A thank you card using one of my new Pollycraft stamps - my extra Mother's Day gift from Shelley. Sometimes having kids turns out well!!

The sketch is from CPS - love their sketches. This is number 111 and all the past sketches can still be accessed on the blog - so useful.

The papers I've used are from my favourite craft shop - the man at Wath Market, who is on holiday in Turkey this week and is saving me a fortune!!

My card is also for the challenge at Papertake Weekly, where the challenge is to use pastel colours.

Another Easter Card...

Yet another Easter card! I seem to be sending more out this year than usual.

This card is for the challenge at Pollycraft, where the fortnightly challenge at the moment is to use one of their fabulous downloads. I used a gorgeous image from the Phoebe and Maude Spring kit and combined it with some stamped Easter chicks from a Woodware stamp set and a small sentiment stamp by Stampendous.

Lazy daisy that I am I used the precoloured image, but I did colour the chicks myself!!! I love the pink and green combination on the download so tend to print it out ready coloured - how lazy am I? Don't answer that one!!!