CCM 97 1, 2, 3

Our challenge at Crafty Cardmakers for the next three weeks is a Recipe Challenge, 1 Image, 2 Patterned Papers, 3 Embellishments, and we are sponsored by The Paper Shelter with a $20 prize for their store and Woodware Craft Collection with a £12 voucher to be spent in one of their retailers.

I used an image from Mayz Art and printed her onto watercolour paper. I then coloured her in with promarkers and copics. I did think that the watercolour paper would just suck the ink clean out of the pen, but apparently promarkers, and copics, work well on watercolour paper.

My papers are from K & Co and MME. I created the fancy edged mat with a MS PATP punch set called Layered Arches and the plain paper mat I punched with another MS punch, fancy edge bracket, I think it’s called

The leaves are from Marianne and Whimsey and the sentiment I created on my pc.

I am entering this into the following:-

613 Avenue Create - #30 Friendship Day

A Little Bit Crafty - Die-ing For It

Challenges 4 Everybody - #25 Anything Goes

C.R.A.F.T. - #217 For the Girls

Crafts4Eternity - #134 Anything Goes

Lacy Sunshine - #13 Anything Goes

My Craft Creations - Die Cut Shapes

Paper Crafting Journey - Punches/Die Cuts

Robyn’s Fetish - #170 Friendship Card with a Sentiment on Front

That Craft Place - It’s A Girl Thing

Lexi’s Creations 95 Christmas In July

Our challenge at Lexi’s Creations this time around is Christmas in July and we are sponsored by Fairy Dust Crafts with 5 digi images from their store.

I never thought I would say this, particularly when we were in the midst of that long, long, cold winter, but boy I could do with some Christmassy weather right now. We are sweltering here and the humidity is killing me.

Anyhow, my project is not a card, but a Christmas Wreath. The main part of it comes from a kit from Craftwork Cards, but I have added my own centres, sparkly ribbon, red glittery balls, flower centres and glitter fibres.

There are lots of paper flowers in the kit and you can make them up anyway you fancy. Despite the searing heat here the light indoors was really bad so I had to take the wreath out and hang it on the back wall, so now it looks a bit like a card with brick backing paper! But it is just a wreath.

After I took the top picture I decided to spray the whole thing with spray and sparkle and cover that with glamour dust. I think I may have gone a little too far and it might now be too glittery. I think perhaps spray glue and glamour dust or just the spray and sparkle on it’s own would have looked better.

What do you think, better with the glitter finish, or without? Personally I think the bottom pic has too much glitter.

anyhow I am entering this into the following:-

Anything But a Card - #24 Christmas In July

Clearly iStamp - #3 Christmas in July

Creative Belli Blog - #174 Christmas

Digi Darla’s Challenge - #72 Christmas In July

Fairytale Challenge - #72 Christmas in July

Imagination Crafts - #1 Anything Goes

Papercrafting Journey - Christmas in July

Stamp and Create - July : Christmas in July

Stamps and Fun = Creativity - #161 Christmas in Summer

The Stamp Spot - July : Christmas In July

Through the Purple Haze - Anything with Flowers

CCM 96 Birthday

It’s my turn to host again on Crafty Cardmakers and I have chosen a lovely easy one, Birthday. So any birthday project at all, cards, scrap LOs, a birthday gift, whatever you like.

We are sponsored by Di’s Digistamps with a $10 gift voucher and also by Hobby Art with a fabulous stamp set

I have used an image from one of our Sponsors, Di’s Digistamps called Izzy’s Birdhouse, and I have coloured her in with my copics and promarkers. I added some frantage around the edge of the image.

The papers are from various scraps I found laying in my bit box, so no idea where they came from originally, sorry.

The mat behind Izzy is a Marianne Die and the doily came from my stash. I wanted something flat that I can post for the lowest postal rate as I am sick of paying Royal Mail extra for lumpy bumpy envelopes. So there are no embellishments on this one apart from the Happy Birthday Peeloffs surrounding the whole of the matted image.

I am entering this into the following:-

365 Cards - Day 193 Centred

Can You Digi It - #39 Summer Smiles

Clearly iStamp - #2 Summertime (My Image is a Summer’s Day)

Crafts and Me - #138 Anything Goes

Oldie But Goodie - In The Garden (My doily is almost older than time!)

One Stop Craft Challenge - #234 Summer Colours

Pan Pastel UK - #28 Birds and Butterflies

Party Time Tuesday - #128 Wing It

Robyn’s Fetish - #168 Things With Wings

Totally Papercrafts - #175 All of A Flutter, Things With Wings

ABC R for Roses are Red

Our challenge to you this time at ABC is R for Roses and/or Red. We are sponsored by Bugaboo with 7 free digis!

I have used an image from our Sponsor called Kidz Girl Roses. My papers are from various My Mind’s Eye packs. The ribbon in the centre was a self adhesive one I have had in my stash for a very, very long time! The sentiment is peel offs coloured to match the card, and the diecuts are spellbinders. I coloured her with my copics and promarkers.

I followed the sketch at Sketch Saturday but flipped it one quarter to the right.

I am entering this into the following:-

Card Makin Mamas - #CMM 72 Monochromatic

Creative Corner - #27 Anything Goes

Creative Fingers - #2 Anything Goes

Die Cuttin’ Divas - #123 Ruby Red

Digitally Sweet - #44 Anything Goes With Bright Colours

Lacy Sunshine - #12 Anything Goes

One Stitch At A Time - #172 Use A Digi

Paper Pretties - #266 Monochromatic

Pattie’s Creations - #71 Monochromatic

Sketch Saturday - #267 See Sketch above

Dream Valley #61 Fancy Folds

Our challenge to you at Dream Valley for the next two weeks is ‘fancy folds’ and we are sponsored by Whimsy Farm Twine with three spools of their fabulous twine.

I started with some Hunkydory Adorable Scorable (jeez that phrase irritates me!) but it does what it says on the tin and scores beautifully with no cracking. I cut it to size and shape and then scored it to create a spring card.

I then cut a couple of layers of card with some Marianne dies and also cut two lengths of a fancy lace die from Magnolia’s Doohickey range called Coffee Lacing and overlaid them one on top of the others. I also used a Joy die which is a butterfly edge die. The lighter shade of card in both butterflies and lace is from a HUGE set of foiled diecut shapes from Kanban. If I live to be twice Rip Van Winkle’s age, I will never get through it all, and certainly not in the way it was intended so I have started diecutting the diecuts to make different shapes that I can use. The small corner diecuts are the waste from a Cuttlebug corner die, as I only wanted a small accent on the corner and not the original corner it cut.

My image was coloured with copics and promarkers. You can’t see it too well here, but there is diamond glaze on her glasses, her flower in the centre of her top (which I then sprinkled glamour dust over) and her hair bobbles.

I am entering this into:-

Card Crafters’ Circle - #83 Lilac & Lavender - Purple

Card Makin Mamas - #CMM 72 Monochromatic

Charisma Cardz - #27 No Designer Papers

Crafting With Dragonflies - #6 Unusual Fold Card

Little Red Wagon - #193 Monochrome

Paper Pretties - #266 Monochromatic

Pattie’s Creations - #71 Monochromatic

Robyn’s Fetish - #168 Things With Wings

The House That Stamps Built - DCC73 Monochrome

Totally Papercrafts - #175 All of A Flutter, Things With Wings

Lexi’s Creations 94 For a Friend

Our challenge this fortnight at Lexi’s Creations is ‘for a friend’ and we are sponsored by My Heart Pieces.

My ‘friend’ creation is a Get Well Card. A friend of mine had been feeling really unwell and after several fruitless trips to the doctor she finally persuaded one of them that there was something seriously wrong and after a few more tests, MRI etc. it was discovered that her thyroid gland had grown and wrapped itself around her windpipe! Scarey stuff, no wonder she couldn’t breathe. She finally had surgery last week to remove it.

My image is a House Mouse stamp, and I do seem to have made a lot of House Mouse cards lately. Like a number nine bus, don’t see one for ages and then three come along at once! I coloured the stamp in with my copics.

The papers are various freebies from magazines along with some stardream lemon paper and a sheet I printed from Nitwit Designs’ Lifes Little Lemons digipack. The sentiment I created on my pc.

I followed a sketch from  The Sweet Stop, which I first flipped to the right  

I am entering this into the following:-

Addicted to Stamps - #60 Lots of Layers

CMC Copic Challenge - #72 Anything Goes with Animal Twist

Crafty Calendar - July : Colour Challenge

Love To Scrap Challenge - #9 Anything Goes

Tammy’s Scrappin’ Corner - #70 Animals

The Craft Garden - July : Train or Bird

The Crafter’s Cafe - #18 Anything Goes

The Sweet Stop - SSS218 (sketch as above)

There She Goes - #215 Animals

TokBobok - #2 Animal Friends

CCM 95 Holiday

Our challenge to you at Crafty Cardmakers for the next two weeks is Holiday. It is hosted by Josephine and she would like to see projects that depict or are inspired by a holiday. Any holiday themed creation will qualify, but you might want to really inspire us, like a few of the team have and create something to depict a holiday you would like to have, but have not gotten around to yet.

We are sponsored by Sir Stampalot with a fabulous prize of stamps and matching embossing folder. See the Crafty Cardmakers blog for more details.

My ideal holiday would be relaxing by the sea. I love the sound the waves make when they crash against the shore, and the sound of the seagulls. It brings back memories of childhood. I would love to try surfing, so I created a card along those lines. Oh yes, and I would love to look like Gloria in the image too!!!!!

So the image is called Gloria and is from Mo Manning. I coloured her with copics. the background paper was from a magazine freebie, and the surf board was cut from another of the sheets in the pack. the little sunglasses in Gloria’s hair and the flip flops are from Prima. The waves is a die from Memory Box.

I am entering this into the following:-

Aud Sentiments - #83 Summer

CMC Copic Challenge - Colours of Summer

Di’s Digi Designs - Show Us Summer Fun

Jellypark Friends - Celebrate Summer

Mo’s Digital Challenge - #191 Fun In The Sun

My Creative Moments Wordplay Saturday - June : Summertime

Pattie’s Creations - #70 Summertime Fun

Robyn’s Fetish - #166 At The Beach

The Corrosive Challenge - #177 Summertime

The Hybrid Chick Card Caravan - #45 Sunshine

Dream Valley 60 Make Your Own Flowers or Embellishments

Our challenge to you this fortnight is to make your own flowers or embellishments. We are sponsored by Mulberry Crafts with a fabulous goody bag.

I printed some paper from Bearly Mine Designs as my main backing paper and also for the mat behind the image. The Mermaid stamp is from Lili Of The Valley. I coloured it with prisma pencils. I made my own flowers with a couple of Marianne dies and the leaves/seaweed is also a Marianne die, as is the mat behind the image. The birthday greeting was created on my pc and printed onto Safmat. I used a tombow glue pen on the flowers and the mermaids and then glittered over the top, and the starfish have been covered with a sakura clear glaze pen.

I am entering this into the following:-

Drunken Stampers - #134 Enchanted

Happy Campers - #19 Bling

Hobbycutz Challenges - #9 Anything with H - Happy Birthday Sentiment

Lili’s Little Fairies - Easy As 1,2,3

My Sheri Crafts - #113 Birthday

That Craft Place - Flowers

The Outlaw PAM - Mythical Characters

The Paper Players - #152 Tic, Tac, Toe Diagonal Bottom Left to Top Right - Embossing, Bling, Birthday

Timeless Tuesday - #226 Make a Splash

Tuesday Throwdown - #153 Glitz and Glimmer

ABC Q for ….. Quite A Few

Our challenge today at ABC is Q for Quite a few, or lots of layers. We are sponsored by Bunny Zoe with a £10 gift voucher for her store and Stamp and Create with a $25 gift voucher for their store.

I printed lots of sheets of Nitwit Designs’ Life’s Little Lemons, and then layered them all up. Between one of the layers I edged with lemon lace ribbon. The flowers are from my stash and the butterfly is a DooHickey die.

The image was one of a set of three free from Quick Cards Made Easy and is by Elisabeth Bell, and I coloured her with copics and promarkers.

I am entering this into the following:-

Card Crafters Circle - #81 Happy Birthday

Craft-Room Challenge - Yellow and Blue Make Green

Crafting For All Seasons - #55 Make It Girly

Crafty Catz - #189 Say It With Flowers

Creative Moments - #20 Flowers

Die Cutting Divas - #121 Birthday with Three Embellishments

Fairy Tale Challenge - #70 Happy Birthday

Penny’s Paper-Crafty Challenge - #133 Girl Power

Scrapper’s Delight - #2 Die Cuts or Punches

That Craft Place - Flowers

Goodbye Google Reader, Hello Bloglovin’!

A few months ago, I read that Google Reader would be no more as of this year.  I have to admit I was irritated, after all, it wasn’t broke, so why dump it! Anyhow I had a read around and finally I have settled on

So if you have been using Google Reader to keep up with your favourite blogs, you may have received a notice a LONG time ago that it was going away. You probably thought, “Oh, I have plenty of time.” Or like a lot of folks, you may not even have noticed the intention to dump it.

From today 1st July, Google Reader is no more. If you’ve been using it to read my blog posts, start following me by email, link over there >>> or  Bloglovin’.

Bloglovin’ is a fun, new way to keep up with your favourite blogs. Here’s what you need to know about switching:

1. It’s easy. If I can do, you can too. The process to set up your account is quick and simple. Check out my detailed instructions below to guide you through the process step-by-step!

2. You can import your blogs from Google Reader with the click of a button.

Yup, no manual adding blogs for you! Bloglovin’ will take care of it for you, easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

3. Prefer to read blogs on your mobile device? No problem – Bloglovin’ has you covered! Download the free app for access to your favorite blogs when you’re on the go.

4. You can sort your blogs into different categories, which you can create yourself - Hey maybe Google did us a favour there then.

 5. If you’re a blogger – claim your blog easily. You can claim your blog by adding in a verifying link to the top of a post. From there, customize your profile and more!

For setting up an account with Bloglovin’ (detailed, step-by-step, no fail instructions!) go to www.bloglovin.com.

If you have a few minutes today (or as soon as it’s convenient) make sure you make the switch to Bloglovin! 

And do it fast before you lose me and I cry!!  NO seriously, I will cry…… I cry at everything these days, lol

And the cherry on the cake…. no more having to use a blog reader from a company that wilfully avoids it’s tax duties, so yah booh sucks to you Google, shove your reader, we don’t need ya!

Maybe I should consider shifting off of blogger too!