I am Woman

I made this card for the latest challenge over at DCM, and since I have not got any images or stamps of women, I decided to make a card featuring little girls. Let's face it, with three girls in the house, there will surely be another birthday party at some point for which this card might come in handy!


I've used one of my kiddie design papers from Dovecraft from which I trimmed the square images. The pp below is actually a pretty pale yellow, but it doesn't really show in the picture. Can't remember where I got this paper, I've had it a while now... The greeting was cut with my trusty QK Revolution die, the -i is dotted with a little pink crystal, and I added some pink gingham ribbon from stash. Nice, quick card which should appeal to little girlies (I hope!) :)

This is the first challenge I've entered in a while - lack of mojo first, then my mum was here for a visit. Had a lovely time with my mum - went shopping, had coffees and cakes, chatted endlessly (to the annoyance of the rest of my family, they always complain they can't get a word in when my family visit... ) and played card games at night, leading to very little sleep... My girls were delighted to see their "Oma", too, and rather sad to see her go. It's nice that they've always treated my family exactly the same as my husband's family, even though they only see mine 3 or 4 times a year. Looking forward to our visit to Germany in the summer :)

Now I'm back at my (messy) craft table and loving it, so I shall see what other challenges tickle my fancy, and I'll get on with a couple of commissioned cards as well. Thanks for stopping by!

Green card

The Arty Girlz challenge is to make something using the colour GREEN, so I made a card using my favourite shade of green mixed with white and pink.

Supplies: spotty paper: SEI taster pack with a mag, gingham paper from Costco pack, chipboard flower free with a mag, punched scallop circle, QK Revolution die cut sentiment, pink DB paper frill, inking and doodling.

Thanks for stopping by!

String-Aling with Tilda

I'm feeling brave: I have entered the next challenge on Tilda & Co! This time, we were challenged to use string on our creations - I like string, it gives a lovely rustic feel! I was very impressed by all the beautiful things the design team had made, and my first thought after seeing Deb's white board was to finally go and make a memo board with strings across it where I would peg up notes, reminders etc. However, mojo didn't return sufficiently to tackle this project, so it's been put on the back burner once again... I ended up thinking much smaller and made a door hanger (something else I've been wanting to make for eldest daughter's bedroom for a long time!).

It's hung from string, and it's got a little bit of string wrapped round the bottom as well. I used pale blue Bazzill cardstock, some brick red pp from a mag, stamped words with brown ink and MM magnetic letter stamps, and of course, added Tilda who is coloured in with watercolour pencils. I left it very plain, but I really like it that way, and DD likes it, too! It's already been hung on her door and pointed out to middle daughter - can you guess which way it was hung? Lol!

Anyone seen my mojo?

Yup, I've lost it! Can't find my mojo anywhere. I've been trying to make cards and stuff for challenges, but nothing is coming together, and when I've finally finished something, I don't like it. I'll post a wee picture of a card, though, that I made for my friend's little boy's birthday last week - Hamish in his kilt always makes me smile, and I hope he'll do the same for you!

Hopefully will be back soon with something more to post - thanks for stopping by!

My First Tilda Challenge!

Well, since I recently treated myself to a few Magnolia stamps and gave the whole stamping thing another go, I thought that maybe I could now enter the challenges over on the Tilda & Co challenge blog. Their theme this week is "Recycling Mothers", meaning: make a card for Mother's Day and use something recycled on it. I recently came across some purple ribbon that I saved off something ages ago - so long that I'm not really sure off what... I think it was a gift box set of candle holders I got for Christmas one year... So here's my rather purple card (which means it's got to be for my MIL, since my mum vehemently dislikes purple):

I coloured Tilda with brushmarkers + blenderpen, cut her out to sit her on top of the (recycled) ribbon and added a Doodlebug paper frill along the bottom. The dotty paper is "homemade" - I used an old round rubber and stamped the dots with pink chalk ink - does that count as recycling, too? Had fun with this and quite like the result :)

I'm not the only one in the family who likes Magnolia (and Sugar Nellies) stamps - my girls are rather taken with them as well :) After a few not so successful attempts at stamping on their own, they now keep asking me to stamp the images for them, so they can colour them in. And they colour them in rather nicely, I was quite surprised! So for your enjoyment, here are:

1. Sugar Nellies coloured in by eldest daughter, age 9 (like her shading!)

2. Sugar Nellies, coloured in by middle daughter, age 6 (like the doggy added on to Hamish's jumper!)

Thank you for bearing with me!

Daring Cardmakers Sketch

This week, the Daring Cardmakers challenged us with a sketch, and a very nice sketch it was, too! I ended up making two cards again: first, a birthday card for my brother-in-law, and second, a pink concoction, just because. I had fun with both of them :)


Supplies used: white and brown card stock, pale blue paper from BG figgy pudding stack, PM swirly foam stamp and brown ink, Sizzix die-cut stars, unknown dark blue patterned paper, some corrugated card and a Dymo-printed greeting. All edges were inked in brown for good measure.

On the second card, I turned the sketch 90 degrees:

Supplies used: pink paper embossed with Cuttlebug folder, Doodlebug patterned paper striped inked in pink, Prima flowers and assorted brads, Bazzill bling flower and ribbon from Ribbon Oasis. Greeting is stamped with MM magnetic stamps (which will feature more and more often on my cards now, until we've got ourselves a new printer - the old one is on its last legs and will not deliver clear colour printouts, despite cleaning printheads etc.)

It seems the weather is pretending that it's getting better - we've had a couple of lovely, mild days with lots of sunshine, and it's lulling me into a false sense of security that spring is actually on its way. It did feel nice, though, and it just made me feel happier somehow, seeing blue skies and sunshine. Regular soakings on the way to and from school just aren't conducive to a happy, joyful state of mind... On this note, I hope that you will all have a lovely, sunny Sunday, and thanks for stopping by!

Two-in-one!

I've just noticed that the card I'm uploading qualifies for two challenges - I don't usually manage that! I made it initially for the Little Extra over at Daring Cardmakers, where Jo posted a great tutorial on doodling. I've always wanted to try this, especially Jo-style, because I think her cards are really cool and funky, so this was the perfect opportunity. And it was fun, too! A bit nerve-wracking for somebody like me who's not so good with freestyle elements - I was constantly worrying I would end up with two white bits or two black bits next to each other... But it worked out, and I really like the effect. I kept the rest simple, but decided on strong colours for extra impact. Quite pleased with how the whole thing turned out:

I started off with doodling round the greeting, then got the bigger piece of white card and doodled round the edge. And then, for good measure, I doodled dashes and dots round the flower and flower centre. Buttons were added for extra interest and colour, plus the ricrac flower stem. All mounted on bright orange card, and hey, presto!

This card is also for the "Blooming Gorgeous" challenge over at Papertake Weekly, which asked for flowers to be included on our cards. It may not be the most traditional floral arrangement, but it's got the big die-cut and also the little flower buttons.

Thanks for looking, got to dash now and finish today's housework before the little monsters - ahem, darlings - come back from school.

Just another card...

Thought I'd post the card I made for my in-laws' wedding anniversary today - 52 years! Not bad, eh?

I still love this colour combination and the spotty papers, it's all so nice and fresh. Seen some nice cushions with those colours at IKEA, but unfortunately, hubby isnt' keen... So I'll just have to stick to using them on my cards :)

(used some flowers from stash, cut "happy" with a QK Revolution die, stamped "anniversary" with my MM magnetic stamps and chalk ink, and the lace trim was left over after the DCM charity shop challenge)

Had a lovely but tiring weekend, visiting with one set of friends Saturday afternoon, and then going to a party at another set of friends' house in the evening. The party was quite fancy, with waiters serving drinks and buffet food, and I had my glass topped up so often, I lost count and in the end abandoned it on a table somewhere, so that hubby wouldn't have to carry me home, lol! I am forever grateful after parties like that that our children aren't early risers and they let us sleep till 8am. Sunday was nice, but quiet, until the Rugby result put a slight dampener on things... Hubby was not pleased. Oh well...

Red and White

Quick post before we're dashing off for a day of visiting various friends: the challenge over at DCM was to make a card using only red and white. At first I thought, yay, I like that combination, it's really bright and fresh, but when I got round to making my card, it wasn't all that easy.

I started out following sketch #3 at My Paper World, but it didn't quite work, so after the semicircle under the flower at the top of the panel, I also added one at the bottom, and it's much more balanced. The centre panel uses red card stock embossed with a Cuttlebug folder, a gingham ribbon from stash across it and some of my new white blooms (edges chalked with red chalk, even though it looks pink...). The greeting at the bottom was cut with a QK Revolution die.

I also made another Tilda card, this is for middle daughter's friends birthday today, and I quite like the way it turned out. Again, the central panel was embossed with the Cuttlebug folder, ribbon is from Ribbon Oasis.

Thanks for stopping by, gotta dash now!