Pink Elephant Day... Nature...

Blue skies - green grass and flowers - well that's what was running through my mind for our theme of 'nature' at The Pink Elephant this week.  Our featured company are All That Scraps which meant using the absolutely gorgeous images from the Spring Swiss Pixie Stamp set that I have been drooling over for ages.  

The stamp I've used today is Hansel, but I was so lucky to also receive Nora and her butterfly to play with too and my card using Nora should be finished by tomorrow so watch this space.  

Papers and card are by Kanban and DCWV (Spring Paper Stack again - my favourite ever!)

As well as being my DT sample for The Pink Elephant my card is also for the following challenges...

• Sweet Sketch Wednesday - oooooooops I haven't got an oval nestie and I was thinking one of the DT used a label nestie - must have been another site - sorry but it's very near the sketch!!
• Fab'n'Funky Challenge - Spring is in the air - gosh my Studio G sentiment stamp matches this challenge spot on!

Let's hope we all have a fabulous start to the week and the sun shines plenty so that we see some real spring flowers and no more of that dreaded white stuff.

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'.

Something for a friend...

I couldn't sleep last night cause I wanted to make a start on this folder card. How sad is that? I even thought about getting up, but one foot out of the bed told me that it was too cold!!! So I set my alarm and got up really early to make a start.

I wanted to make a folder to hold stamped images for a very dear friend who has suddenly decided that she really likes the Penny Black animal stamps. I feel responsible - so the least I can do is send her some images to start her off. I know she doesn't look on my blog often so I'm hoping to get away with posting this today as the project fits the bill for the challenge at http://stampchallenges.blogspot.com/

Joyce I'm so sorry if the surprise is spoilt for you!

This is the first page of the folder (photo taken before I decided that stitching lines were needed down the diagonal too).

Here is page two with added embellishments.

Finally a picture of the folder showing the pages open.

I know the bow on the front is rather large but I wanted to make sure there was plenty left to tie it all up once the images were placed inside. It has now been trimmed.

Materials used:

• lilac pearlescent flap cards by Kanban (two are fastened together to complete this folder)


• silver mirri card


• Penny Black stamps


• Great Impressions mouse stamp


• Stamps Away dot alphabet set


• Stampin up bear print stamp


• cuttlebug swiss dots folder


• white organza ribbon


• embellishments from stash

Just beecause...

The challenge at http://pinkleart.blogspot.com/ is to design a card with bees on it. I bought this teddy bear stampin up set of stamps from ebay (just love ebay) a couple of weeks ago and this challenge seemed an ideal time to use it. The bear is stamped and coloured using inktense colour pencils as is the honey pot which I decoupaged on to the scene. I used Sakura stardust pens to add an extra twinkle.

As I've added a touch of cream lace the card also fits the challenge at http://thankgoditsfriday.wordpress.com/ and there may be only one jewel but it is a very beautiful coloured one so the card also fits the challenge at http://abc-challenge.blogspot.com/.

Yeah a triple whammy - I will catch up after my holiday.

Materials used:

• Pink base card
• Striped paper by Making Memories
• Stampin up Teddy stamp set
• Studio G sentiment stamp
• Cream broderie anglais lace
• pink jewel

Inside the card is stamped with a heart shape which has the sentiment 'I love you beary much'.

Beach Babes from a sketch by Katharina...

At http://papertakeweekly.blogspot.com/ Katharina has created this 'stripey' sketch to challenge crafters.

I tried really hard to follow the map carefully but somehow my card ended up 'landscape' rather than 'portrait'. Same sketch though - just from a different angle!

I am going on holiday soon with a really good friend and am going to send her this card just to say 'Are you excited?'. There will also be a little note inside to say that I'm the sexy one in the chair on the left. LOL!

Materials used:

• Papers by English Paper Company
• Pink Cat Studio Rubber Stamp Set
• Studio G Clear sentiment
• white base card
• Lyra aqua crayons

A gift for a friend...

The challenge this week at http://pennybfriendssaturdaychallenge.blogspot.com/ was to make a gift for a friend. A little while back I bought some vellum envelopes containing rose petals to put in the bath - I had the idea that I could remove the shop label and make one of my own to personalise the gift.

Like lots of thing I didn't get round to doing it till now. Love the way 'challenges' spur you on to do things that you intended to but never got round to. I used a cute Penny Black stamp for the central image and some lovely clear border stamps to create the borders. All the images were coloured using water colour pencils. I added some orange stickles to the flower centres and the bee. The tag is stamped using a Studio G stamp.

To die for...

Seem to have had so little time or inspiration over the last few days and there are such really good challenges around too. This card is for the challenge on http://papertakeweekly.blogspot.com/ which was to use die cuts or punched shapes on your card. I have used a punched scalloped circle, die cut circle and die cut flowers to show off this cute Penny Black hedgehog which is another one from the sheet of stickers I was treated to recently.

I love Penny Black images and this one is really cute. The stamped greeting is a Studio G stamp from one of their brilliant mini sets.

Tilda in the long grass...

This is my card for the challenge on http://magnoliachallengeblog.blogspot.com/ which is 'That torn it'!

The grass in my Tilda picture is torn from two different shades of green to create Tilda's garden. The flower face and the 'just because' are from a set of Studio G stamps.

The blue sky backing paper is from the DCWV Spring Pack.

Sorry about the little scrap of red on the leaves - it shouldn't be there! Don't know how it balanced there for the photo but I didn't notice it until I uploaded it. It has now been removed but I'm just tooooooooooo lazy to take another photo.