Teen Spirit and other bits and bobs

I've finally joined in another DCM challenge, and this week we were dared to make a card for a teenager.

I used Christina Cole stripey paper, letters and arrow cut out with Sizzlits dies, and stars with a Sizzix die. Added a torn paper strip and a couple of brads, and also doodled round the letters. The colours are a lot brighter and richer in real life. It's quite funky, but somehow missing something, I think...

Yesterday, I took delivery of my first ever Stampin' Up order - I'm fascinated by their stuff, how everything coordinates so beautifully. The colours are just beautiful (got myself some Earth tones cardstock and ink pads), but I did find the stamps a little tricky to assemble. I can just hope that the labels and stamps match up - hard to tell (I found, unless I'm doing something wrong..) when they're on opposite sides of a wooden block. I don't think, however, that that's going to stop me from buying more - I'm smitten, and I'm already thinking about the next order. Big thanks to Elaine, for great service and speedy delivery! And here's my first SU card. using stamps from Seeing Spots and Be Happy, plus my old punches and some Ribbon Oasis ribbon.

And last but not least, this lovely creation from Helen popped through my door, a very pretty little Bind-It-All notebook. I might take it on holiday and use it as a little travel diary :)


Speaking of holidays, I won't be posting from now until about the first weekend in April, as we are off to the US on Friday, and I've still got lots of things to do. I'd love to do a few more challenges, but I'm going to be sensible and concentrate on packing and getting organised. I'm so looking forward to hitting the craft shops over there!!! So thanks, everybody, for stopping by and have yourselves a lovely Easter!

Cute and Pink

Not been the world's most prolific blogger lately, haven't really had much energy to bend my brain to the various challenges out there. Youngest daughter has been a little poorly on and off, enough to have to keep her home from nursery for a couple of days, and I've been feeling kind of run down, sniffling and tired as well. Plus I'm desperately trying to get all our stuff organised for next Friday, when we will be off to the US for our two weeks Easter break! Can't wait!!! We're away to see two sets of friends, one of whom I've not seen for 15 years, so that will be nice. Lots of catching up to do. Hope the weather will be kind to us, it has been snowing there very heavily very recently...

So, here are my efforts for today. Number one is an ATC for Tilda and Friends, and it was to feature the colour pink.

Well, it's pink alright! Tilda has been coloured with watercolour pencils, background paper is Doodlebug and I've added some Primas and some Papermania flower brads, plus a little MM clip. Also inked around the card for good measure.

Number two is for the new challenge blog Cute Card Thursday, where the theme was new beginnings and firsts. Seeing my stamp collection is still very limited and I just couldn't make the ones I have work for this challenge, I got out my teddy die and made a card for a baby girl. I do think this teddy is rather cute :)

I've used gingham paper of unknown origin, ribbon from stash, Sizzix and Sizzlits die cuts (flower, circle, teddy), a Doodlebug button, some Doodlebug paper frill, computer-printed sentiment and lots of doodling and inking around the edges.

Hoping to be back later with another post, until then, thanks for looking :)

A Spring Card

Better late than never, I finally got round to making my card for the Tilda & Co challenge and also for the Arty Girlz, both of which had spring as their theme this week. This card is for my gran's birthday - she is going to be 95 (!) a week on Tuesday! Unfortunately, I won't make it over to Germany this time, as we're going away to the US just a few days later. I hope she'll like her card, and I hope she'll have a lovely day with her family and friends :)

I based this on Nicola's sketch #5 again and used DCWV Pocket full of Posies paper for the background, some pale yellow cardstock, embossed with a Cuttlebug folder, a couple of flowers from stash, and of course, Tilda, coloured with watercolour pencils. The colours are nice and spring-like, and I hope we'll be seeing some more of that outside soon. Thanks for stopping by!

My First Tilda ATC

A lot of you probably know there's a new challenge blog out there called Tilda and Friends ATC Challenges, and it does exactly what it says in the title: they post weekly challenges to make ATC's with Tilda stamps. For their first challenge, and to celebrate the new blog, the theme is "Sparkle". Well, I really like my Tildas (limited though they might be at the moment), and I'd like another go at making ATC's, too, so this blog seems ideal. The only problem I had was that Tildas can be quite large, and that doesn't leave much space for anything else on the ATC... Anyway, here is my effort:

I have to admit, I feel like a bit of a cheat, because all I did was stamp, colour, add glitter to wings, ink round the edges and mount the whole thing at a jaunty angle. But I do really like the simplicity of it, and I love the colours. I tried adding stuff, but it never looked right, and when I made this ATC, which is attempt #2, I came back to exactly the same colours and look as the first time, just without the extra bits. So there you go.

Happy first challenge, Tilda and Friends, hope there'll be many more!

I'm on a roll!

It seems mojo has returned, not least thanks to some fab sketches and challenges out there. A friend commissioned a card for her father-in-law's 70th birthday, and I used Beate's latest sketch for this:

Papers and cardstock used are from a DCWV stack, sentiment is cut with QK Revolution die, numbers with Sizzlits round-a-bout dies and circles with Sizzix die. I also added a few Dovecraft brads for a little bit of extra interest. Hope the recipient likes it, I'm not a 100% sure about it...

Edited to add: This card is also for the Papertake Weekly challenge of "Blue and Green" - last minute or what!

Well, and middle daughter had, of course, been badgering me for a doorhanger of her own, after I made the Tilda one for her older sister. She chose Maggie for hers, I added scraps of DB flowery paper, computer-printed wording, a little stamped butterfly and purple ribbon for hanging. She was delighted and immediately put it on her door, denying access to all who might seek it :)


Thanks for stopping by, now let's see what other challenges there are - might as well keep going :)

Dino-Mite for Nicola's Sketch #5

Two posts in two days - haven't done that for a while! Made a card for Nicola's latest sketch challenge with this cute, bargain dino stamp - I could get used to this stamping lark :) Coloured the stamp in with my brush markers and blender pen, inked round all edges and embossed the green panel with my Cuttlebug folder. Spotty paper is BG, eyelets are Provocraft and the string is from the garden shed, lol! Oh and the little paper clip is Making Memories. Had lots of fun making it, and my husband was very impressed - you can always tell when he says, incredulously: "Did YOU colour that?" Well, I take it as a compliment, anyway :) I guess he also likes to see more masculine colours once in a while, which doesn't happen very often in a household with four females and only one man...

Right, must make use of the sunshine while it lasts. Thanks for looking!