Feeling Blue...

It's not just the awful cold that I came down with the other day that's causing the blues.  This week sees our very last challenge at Bah! Humbug! till the New Year.  Yep, we Bah! Humbuggers! are taking a break and as it is our last challenge it seemed appropriate to have the theme of 'Feeling Blue'.

Even though I was so snuffly I wanted to just curl up under the duvet I really, really couldn't miss the last challenge so out came my favourite glitter card and a gorgeous snowflake die from a set by Marianne.  The snowflake is set behind the circular aperture cut into embossed white card.  A really simple card to make, but a useful one to send out.

My card is for the challenges at...

• Cute Card Thursday - Blast from the Past (Week 91 aperture's)
• Crafts and Me - cards with snowflakes on
• Pollycraft - anything blue
• Incy Wincy Designs - blue and white. 
• Fussy and Fancy - Christmas with no red or green

While I was in my blue phase I had a little play using a Kaleidoscope ink pad I have that has loads of shades of blue in it. Using art card and ink dusters I shaded the whole of the card with the lightest blue in the middle and getting darker and darker towards the edge.

Then using a Hero Arts sentiment stamp that I've had for years I stamped the word 'Joy' in the bottom corner.  I must admit that I was intending to add white embossed snowflakes to the tag at this stage, but while I was searching for snowflake stamps I found this wonderful Stampendous branch that hasn't seen the light of day for years.  Eeek too many stamps - NO never!  Having stamped the branches I felt the need to add a bauble and decided to use my Sizzix die again.  This die cuts the circle and tag part separately so I cut the outer tag ring in blue and the inner circle in white art card.  Then using the Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder I put the circle over one of the snowflakes and embossed.  To make the bauble match the rest of the tag I dusted it with ink and for a bit of glitz added a gem stone to the centre and a touch of glitter to the branches.

As well as some of the challenges listed above my tag is also perfect for the challenge at...

• Oldie but Goldie - glitter (really must enter this challenge more often and get some of my old stamps used.  The Stampendous branch is a design from 1992 and there was I swooning over the new Waltzing Mouse stamps when I had this in my collection already.)

I hope you will have chance to pop over to Bah! Humbug! to see the work of the rest of the team and maybe join in.  Next week, although there will be no challenge, we will be announcing the winner and runner up in our loyalty club so that's something exciting enough to banish the blues for quite a while.

Have a great day everyone.

Ann xxx

Party at Which Craft in Doncaster...

Had a lovely couple of hours today helping Paula and her team celebrate at Which Craft in Doncaster.  She is celebrating being established for 10 years and to mark the event there were all kinds of 'make and take' activities, glasses of champagne and a tombola too.  I actually won some fabbie Christmas bauble buttons and of course I had to try the champagne.

The money raised by the 'make and takes' is going to be donated to local charities such as Bluebell Wood so it was all in a very good cause as well as a celebration.

I did the make and take with Sandy, who always seems to have some real cool gadget type cards to make.  She had chocolates too just incase our energy levels were running low.

As you can see I made a cool stand up/fold up card.  The penguins are from a clear set by Stampendous - I was tempted, but resisted as I already have some cute penguins.  I think the instructions for this type of card are probably on Split Coast Stampers somewhere.  It's a card style that would make great table setting place cards.  I can't wait to try out some more versions.

This photo shows the stand up mechanism slightly better.

Think my 'make and take' card fits the bill for the challenges at...

•  Die Cut Dreams Christmas Challenge - furry things (ouch - think baby penguins are more downy than furry, but I might get away with it!)
• One Stop Craft Challenge - Snowflakes (check out the stamped background and gem embellished peel off)
• Raise the Bar - Bundle up (my penguins are bundled up in their scarves and hats.)
• Pollycraft - Cute and Cuddly
• Crafty Emma - Animal Antics

Got to go to work tomorrow till Monday so unfortunately more versions of this type of card will have to be put on hold.

Take care everyone.

Love and hugs 

Ann xxx

Bah! Humbug! Challenge 5...

Five weeks - five challenges - five Christmas cards already done for next year - wow I can't believe I am going to be so organised come Christmas time.  I may even get chance to do one of those fabulous Advent Calendars using match boxes.  I wanted to do one last year, but was so busy trying to get my cards done that I only got as far as buying the match boxes.
This week at Bah! Humbug! we are featuring ...

HOLLY

and quite a few people who took a look at my Sneak Peek photo yesterday guessed correctly.  Up to writing this post Jose, Ann (again! has she got a crystal ball?) and Beryl had all guessed the challenge may be holly.  Well done you three.

For my holly card I decided to use the fabulous Holly Fairy digi image by Mo Manning and after toying with the idea of doing a side step card I had a complete change of heart and decided to do my very first easel card.  Very brave of me really, especially as I couldn't be bothered to look at any of the online instructions and just made it up as I went along.  There was a stage when I thought it was going to end up in the bin, but eventually my card survived for the challenge.

This the card closed up showing the Holly Fairy matted on red, gold and green card.  The holly paper is one from my stash that I've had quite a while so I'm not sure of the make.  I put a couple of gold border peel offs around the edge of the red card to draw the eyes into the image.  I used Promarkers, Sakura stardust and a touch of ultrafine glitter to colour Holly.

The sentiment is from a clear stamp set by Stampendous.  One that I've had for quite some time and suddenly realised how lovely and useful it is.  The scrolls were cut using a cuttlebug die and both the sentiment and scrolls were attached to the card using foam tape to ensure they make a secure holder for the easel part of the card.
Do pop over to Bah! Humbug! to check out Max and Irene's designs too and hopefully you'll find time to join us again this week.  Don't forget it's the first challenge of the month so we have a lovely paper collection of offer to one lucky person.
Whoops forgot to say my card is also for the challenges at...

• Pollycraft - Things with wings
• My Time to Craft - Fairy Folk
• Digital Tuesday - Try a Different Fold
• Crafty Creations - Wings

Good Luck everyone and have a fantastic weekend.

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!!!

Let it snow sketch...

This week the challenge at http://stampchallenges.blogspot.com/ was a really interesting sketch. I'm afraid I failed to get it exactly like the sketch as I misjudged the size of the space for the squares, but it's not too different I hope.

The stamp I used is one by Stampendous and is a square stamp made up of 9 different squares. I thought it was ideal for cutting up to use on this challenge and made one card using the snowmen squares and card number two using the rabbit squares.

I must be on a roll (or sickening for something), because I also decided to use the whole stamp to create this square card.

All the cards are on a snowy theme and are suitable for the challenge of 'Let it Snow' at http://papertakeweekly.blogspot.com/ and 'Snow or snowflakes' at http://cutecardthursday.blogspot.com/.

The last card is also my entry for the Joanna Sheen forum challenge where members have been asked to make a card to illustrate their favourite Christmas song. I don't say this is my favourite, but everytime I use this cuttlebug embossing folder that song comes into my head. Infact alongside 'It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas' it's beginning to drive me mad!

Materials used:

• white card
• silver mirri card
• pink card
• Stampendous stamp
• snowflakes cuttlebug embossing folder
• pearleslent watercolour paints
• pink gem stones from stash
• silver die cut sentiments from stash

Penny Black - my first stamp

The challenge on the new Penny Black challenge site at http://pennybfriendssaturdaychallenge.blogspot.com/ is to make a card using your very first Penny Black stamp.

I bought my first one earlier this year - two bunnies in plant pots. I started out to make this card for the birth of twins but ended up making it as a very early Easter card for next year. Organised or what??

The bunnies are coloured using Lyra water colour crayons and some water colour pencils. The flowers are die cuts and the paper is by DCWV. The small message stamp is a Stampendous one and was in one of my lovely 'thank you' bags after buying goodies from Bargain Garden.