Dies to Die For card swap

The lovely Tracy at Dies to Die For (along with Sue Hastead) recently ran a card swap on the Dies to Die For and Friends Facebook page and I took the plunge and joined in.  As the brief was 'brighten someone's day' I made this colourful and cheerful card for my swap buddy Kim.

here's a closer look:

I started by ink blending the background with Distress Oxide ink pads using the amazing Taylored Expressions blender brushes and added some water droplets for a blotchy effect.  I stamped the Taylored Expressions 'grid background' with versamark and heat embossed with white embossing powder over the top of the ink blended background.  I die cut the MFT 'big hello' out of black card stock and stamped the cute bear from the MFT 'bitty bears' stamp set and coloured him with my promarkers.  The smaller sentiment is from the same stamp set which I also white heat embossed onto black card stock.  I finished my card with some 'crystal collection - over the rainbow' embellishments from Little Things from Lucy's Cards which are beautiful in real life. 

I can't believe it is Friday again tomorrow; this week has flown by.

Thanks for looking and take care. 

Hugs, 

Anniversary card

Hello friends; I thought I would try to get back into blogging again as although I love Instagram and Facebook for showing my cards you can't really give too much detail about what products you've used etc.

I have a quick anniversary card I made for my sister-in-law & brother-in-law.  I used My Favorite Things stamps called 'Raving Raccoons' that I bought from Dies to Die For.  I coloured the cute images with my promarkers and used the matching dies to cut them out.  I also used an older MFT die called 'insert it - instaframe' which appears to be discontinued as I can't find it in the MFT store and ink blended the small square behind the raccoons with my distress oxide inks with my awesome Taylored Expressions blending brushes.  The scalloped panel is W Plus 9 from the 'sunshine layers' die set and the happy anniversary sentiment is Taylored Expressions from the 'simple strips background' stamp and die set.  The main sentiment was created with Clearly Besotted 'happy birthday all' which is perfect for all your family members.

Here is a close up of the images:

Let me know if you have any questions or if you feel there is a way to make my posts more interesting or informative.  I am very rusty after being away from blogging for so long so any advice would be appreciated. 

I hope you're having a great week so far.  Hopefully I can blog more regularly from now on, even if it's only once or twice a week.

Enjoy the rest of your week and until next time, take care and lots of love.

Cupcake craft challenge #189–DT card

Oh dear, I’m a little later than normal sharing my card for this week’s cupcake craft challenge, I just don’t know where the week has gone!!  Our theme this week has been set by the lovely Maarit and she has chosen “material girl” (I bet you’re all singing Madonna’s song now lol!)  Maarit wants you to use some form of material on your creations week so let’s see how adventurous you can be!  I decided to be quite reserved (‘cos I couldn’t think of anything else) and I used felt!  Here is my card:

I’m sorry my pictures are so bad, but I really struggled to get a decent one!  I decided to go CAS on the layout and didn’t use any patterned paper at all – I know shock horror!  The image is a super cute penny black stamp called ‘ladybug & hedgehog’ and I coloured it with promarkers.  I used kraft card from dies to die for and two different embossing folders.  The flower and chevrons were both cut out of felt, also from dies to die for.  I didn’t add a sentiment as I thought it could be suitable for lots of different occasions. 

We have two sponsors this week, first we have Digi Doodle Shop and they are offering one lucky winner a $10.00 gift certificate to spend in their online store.  Our second sponsor is Quixotic Paperie and they are offering one lucky winner a £10.00 voucher to spend in their online store.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

Addicted to stamps challenge – cakes and/or stitching

Paper sundaes challenge – let’s get cute

Kaboodle challenge – emboss it

The pink elephant challenge – hello sunshine (use yellow)

Deep ocean challenge – use punches/dies

Crafts and me challenge – embossing

Fab n funky challenge – no D.P.

My mum’s craft shop challenge – the great outdoors

Penny black Saturday challenge – no patterned paper

Crafter’s companion challenge – four legged friends

The challenge ends on Sunday at 8pm so you still have plenty of time to get your entries in.  I’m sure you can come up with something much more exciting and imaginative than I did and I really look forward to seeing what material you have used on your creations.  I’m off to do the boys packed lunch ready for school and then will be hitting the sack!!  Thanks so much for stopping by.

Card ingredients:

Image: penny black rubber stamp – ‘ladybug & hedgehog’

Papers: none, kraft card from dies to die for, white digi stamping card from craftwork cards

Tools: promarkers, die-namics chevron die and butterflies die, magnolia doohickeys flower die, yellow felt from dies to die for, gems from stash, cuttlebug swiss dots embossing folder and daisy pattern embossing folder, letraset black fine liner pen for faux stitching

Stamp with fun #157–DT card

Good morning dear friends.  Another Monday has rolled around too quickly for my liking lol!  I wish we could work 2 days and have a 5 day weekend haha!  I don’t think the government or my bank manager would be very happy with that idea lol!

I’m here this morning to share my DT card for this week’s stamp with fun challenge.  Our theme this week is a really easy one and we expect lots of gorgeous entries – “favourite colours” – just let us know in your post what your favourite colours are!  Now I know some of you have an aversion to pink but I really like using it so my favourite colours are pink and kraft and here is my card:

I have also used one of my all time favourite sugar nellie stamps image called ‘just a girl’ and I’ve coloured her with promarkers.  I also decided to paper piece her dress for a change.  The pretty papers are from the forever friends ‘new arrival’ 6x6 designstax and the kraft card is from dies to die for.  The lace is from eBay and the butterflies were cut out with a die-namics die. 

The rest of the design team have created amazing cards as always, so please pop over to the challenge blog and check them out.  We really appreciate the lovely comments you leave for us. 

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

The sugar bowl challenge – sketch and option stripes/plaid

Joanna sheen challenge – for someone special (card is for a friend who is going through a tough time at the moment)

Crafts and me challenge – 3d embellishments

The pixie cottage challenge – sketch and/or paper piecing

CES challenge – paper piece it

Drunken stampers challenge – you’re a krafty one

Totally gorjuss challenge – bling

Penny black and more challenge – oh so cute

 Pretty little ribbon shop challenge – to die for

Stamptacular challenge – freebie week

I hope you can join in with our challenge this week and I cannot wait to see what you create.  I’ll be back later with the details of the brand new challenge over at cupcake craft challenge, although I don’t have a card to share this week as it’s the turn of Team B to showcase their work.  Whatever you’re up to today have a wonderful time and thanks for stopping by.

Card ingredients:

Image: sugar nellie stamps – ‘just a girl’ rubber stamp

Papers: forever friends – ‘new arrival’ 6x6 designstax, kraft card from dies to die for

Tools: promarkers, lace from eBay, die-namics butterfly die, circle nesties, sentiment created on the pc, adhesive gems from MeiFlower, chalk for clouds, SU scalloped border punch

Winter wonderland challenge–DT card

Good morning dear friends.  I hope you have all had a great week and are looking forward to the weekend.  Today is the final day of my week off from work so I’m taking my mother out for some lunch and a look around the shops, although she is suffering with her arthritis in her knee at the moment so we’ll probably be having lots of coffee breaks in between (but I’m not complaining as it will be more time to chat and people watch lol!)

I’m here this morning with my card for the new challenge over at winter wonderland challenge.  This week the lovely Marianne has set the theme and she has chosen “it takes two” so she would like to see 2 people/snowmen etc in one image – fairly simple I thought until I couldn’t find any image I had with only two characters!  I had lots with 1 and equally lots with 3 but none with 2 – typical!  So after a quick nip to Pollycraft and I found a super cute image to use and here is my card:

As I said the image is from pollycraft and is called ‘snow buds’ and I coloured it with promarkers and flex markers.  The papers are my mind’s eye from the ‘be merry’ paper pad and the kraft card is from dies to die for.  I punched the snowflakes with a MS punch and added cute little heart buttons from my stash.

Our sponsor this week is Simon Says Stamp and one lucky winner will receive a £15.00 voucher to spend in their online store.

The rest of the design team have created amazing samples as always, so please pop over to the challenge blog and check them out.  We really appreciate the lovely comments you leave for us.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

The crazy challenge – add a sentiment

Bearly mine challenge – 3-2-1 (3 snowflakes, 2 papers, 1 image)

Crafty creations challenge – fun and games (playing in the snow)

Creative craft world challenge – blue theme

Digistamps4joy challenge – predominantly blue & include water (hope snow is ok!)

Divas by design challenge – stamp something

For fun challenge – buttons galore (3 tiny heart buttons)

Little darlings challenge – outside

The lollipop ladies challenge – fruit loops and glitter

Simon says stamp challenge – anything goes

I hope you will be able to join in with our challenge this week and I cannot wait to see what you create.  Have a wonderful day and thanks so much for stopping by today.

Card ingredients:

Image: pollycraft – ‘snow buds’

Papers: my mind’s eye – ‘be merry’ paper pad, kraft card from dies to die for

Tools: promarkers, flex markers, MS snowflake punch, buttons from stash, personal impressions sentiment stamp, stickles, SU scallop border punch, nesties label 1 small

Charisma cardz #12–DT card

Good morning dear friends.  I’m back in the land of the living at long last!!  I am really sorry for my long absence but I haven’t been feeling very good over the last 2 weeks or so – nothing serious, just a virus I think, but I felt really rough.  In fact I didn’t actually craft at all during that time so I must have been ill.  I even bought a card for my in-laws anniversary – awful I know!!  Anyway hopefully things will slowly get back to “normal” now, although I think my mojo has taken the break badly and is refusing to come back to normal duties lol!

Enough of my waffling!  I’m here to share my card for this week’s charisma cardz challenge and this week the lovely Gemma has set the theme and she has chosen “Easter” which I’m sure will prove very popular!  Here is my card:

I have used a super cute image from DigiStamp Boutique called “Easter Dan” and coloured him with promarkers.  At the moment this image is on offer so why not pop over to the shop and grab him at a very special price of just £1.00 (but only until end of March) – he will come in so useful for all your Easter creations.  The lovely papers are my mind’s eye from the ‘dwell’ paper pad and the kraft card is from dies to die for.  I created my little Easter egg embellishments by die-cutting the smallest oval nestie and drawing some lines with a Letraset fine liner pen and then colouring with promarkers – quite effective I think!

We have two sponsors this week, firstly we have DigiStamp Boutique and Sally-Ann is offering one lucky winner 6 digi images of their choice – and as you can see her images are so adorable you will be spoilt for choice!

Our second sponsor is Joanna Sheen and she is offering one lucky winner a £10.00 gift voucher to spend in her online store.  She has lots of gorgeous crafty goodies plus free shipping on all orders!

The rest of the design team have made gorgeous creations as always so please pop over to the challenge blog and check them out.  We really appreciate all the lovely comments you leave for us. 

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

Dream valley challenge – Easter

A gem of a challenge – sketch

Crafty boots challenge – Easter

Sentimental Sunday challenge – Easter or spring

Pollycraft challenge – choklit

Crafty sentiments challenge – Easter

Simon says stamp challenge – anything goes

Sweet stampin’ challenge – anything goes

Ladybug crafts ink challenge – spots and stripes

Scrap creations challenge – Easter

I hope you can enter our challenge this week and I look forward to seeing what you create. 

Card ingredients:

Image: DigiStamp Boutique – “Easter Dan”

Papers: my mind’s eye – ‘dwell’ paper pad, kraft cardstock from dies to die for

Tools: promarkers, oval and circle nesties, SU scallop border punch, pearls from the hobby house, ribbon from stash, tonic (Tim Holtz) distressing tool, sentiment from Netty’s cards

Passion for Promarkers #140–DT card

Hello again dear friends.  I’m sorry I’m behind the times with my posts again this week, there just don’t seem to be enough hours in the day at the moment.  Anyway enough waffling from me and let’s get on with showing you my card.  The challenge this week over at passion for promarkers challenge has been set by Gro and she has chosen “yellow and pearls” and here is my card:

I have used a brand new and gorgeous image from DigiStamp Boutique from the “Rosie collection 1” which is one of the offers of the month for March and the set contains 3 super cute images for the amazing prize of just £2.25!!  I coloured the image with promarkers and the papers are from the dovecraft ‘back to basics’ paper pack.  The kraft card is from dies to die for and the pearls are from the hobby house.  I kept the layout really simple as I wanted the image to stand out and I have to say I really love this card!

Our sponsor this week is crafts and me and one lucky winner will receive 3 digi images of their choice.

The rest of the design team have created amazing samples as always, so please pop over to the challenge blog and check them out.  We really appreciate the lovely comments you leave for us. 

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

Friday sketch challenge – gorgeous sketch

Totally stampalicious challenge – flowers

Ladybug crafts ink challenge – anything goes

Papertake challenge – one for the girls or mum

I love promarkers challenge – anything goes

Frosted designs challenge – use kraft

Allsorts challenge – say it with flowers

OSAAT challenge – use a digi

Stampavie & more challenge – spring/Easter

I hope you will be able to join in with our challenge and I look forward to seeing your gorgeous creations.  I would like to welcome my newest followers – Carol and Lisa *waves hello*, thanks for joining my little bit of blogland ladies and I hope you will visit me often.  I’ll be back tomorrow with my DT card for this week’s charisma cardz challenge (but it will be after work I’m afraid lol!).  Until then have a wonderful day and thanks so much for stopping by.

Card ingredients:

Image: DigiStamp Boutique – ‘Rosie collection 1’

Papers: dovecraft – ‘back to basics’ paper pad, kraft card from dies to die for

Tools: promarkers, circle nesties, ek success retro flower punch, pearls from the hobby house, SU oval all punches, personal impressions clear sentiment stamp

Stamp with Fun #152–DT card

Good morning dear friends.  I hope you had a great weekend, the weather here was really pleasant and I even dried some washing on the line (sad I know to be excited about that lol!)  I cannot believe that my week off work went so fast and I’m back in work again today – I really need to win the lottery I think haha!

I’m here this morning to share my card for this week’s Stamp with Fun challenge and this week we have a lovely sketch to use designed by Andrea-Emmi41.  It has nice clean lines and layers which is my favourite type of sketch.  Here is my card:

I rotated the sketch as it worked better with my image that way.  I was asked by a friend at work to make a baby congrats card for a grandmother so I used a super cute image by Mo Manning called ‘baby and bunny’ and coloured it with promarkers and flex markers.  The papers are from the docrafts forever friends ‘new arrival’ designstax and the kraft card is from dies to die for. 

We have a prize up for grabs this week which is kindly offered by Tina and one lucky winner will receive this stamp:

The design team have created amazing samples as always, so please pop over to the challenge blog and check them out.  We really appreciate the lovely comments you leave for us. 

Crafty purple frog challenge – pink and girly

Frosted designs challenge – use kraft

A gem of a challenge – perfect pastels

Sweet stampin’ challenge – let’s see those layers

Totally gorjuss challenge – anything goes with a  button

Chocolate, coffee and cards challenge – feathers and fur

Totally papercrafts challenge – my favourite things (digis, patterned paper, pearls, layers)

I hope you will be able to join in with our challenge this week and I cannot wait to see what you create.  I will be back later with my DT card for this week’s cupcake craft challenge but until then thanks so much for stopping by.

Card ingredients:

Image: Mo’s digital pencil – ‘baby and bunny’

Papers: docrafts – forever friends ‘new arrival’ designstax, kraft card from dies to die for

Tools: promarkers, flex markers, lace and button from fantastic ribbons, pearls from the hobby house, sentiment created on the pc, SU oval all punches, cats eye chalk ink pad (for inking edges of card/paper)

Sweet Stampin’ Guest DT card

This is going to be a super quick post from me tonight as it’s way past my bedtime!!  However I’m late posting my Guest DT card for this week’s Sweet Stampin’ challenge and wanted to get it done before the week ran ahead of me again lol!  I cannot believe that it is already the last week of being a guest but I’ve had a brilliant time and hopefully they’ve been happy with my cards!  The theme this week is “masculine” and here is my card:

I’ve used an image from Tickled Pink stamps called ‘Lil Lad Eric’ and I coloured him with promarkers and flex markers and I have to say I’m really pleased with his shabby/distressed looking jeans haha!  The papers are wild rose studio from the ‘for men’ paper stack and the plain kraft card is from dies to die for.  I distressed all the edges with my new tonic (Tim Holtz) tool which is much easier and quicker than using than my scissors.  I added my usual go-to male card embellishments of stars and buttons and added some faux stitching and my card was done!

The design team have created amazing samples so please pop over to the challenge blog and check them out. 

There are two sponsors this week – Quixotic Paperie are offering a £10.00 voucher and Joanna Sheen is also offering a £10.00 voucher, so definitely two good reasons to join in with the fun!

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

Corrosive challenge – another dimension (2nd entry)

Freshly brewed challenge – double it (2 papers, 2 stars, 2 layers)

Paper pretties challenge – punches or die cuts

Crafty sentiments challenge – use only 2 papers

Do you stack up? challenge – distress

Southern girls challenge – so distressed

2 sisters challenge – anything goes

Allsorts challenge – anything goes

Delightful challenge – use patterned papers

Little darlings challenge – pearls

I hope you will be able to join in with the challenge this week.  I cannot wait to see what you create.  Have a wonderful Monday and thanks for stopping by.

Card ingredients:

Image: Tickled Pink stamps – ‘Lil Lad Eric’

Papers: wild rose studio – ‘for men’ paper stack, kraft card from dies to die for

Tools: promarkers, flex markers, quickutz cookie cutter star die, buttons from fantastic ribbons, pearls from the hobby house, sentiment created on the pc, nesties labels 3 (which I cut in half), tonic distressing tool, letraset fine liner pen

 

 

Bee Crafty challenge–DT card

** This is my second post for today **

Please scroll down to see my Stamp with Fun DT project

Hello again dear friends.  As promised I’m back with my last catch up post for this week – thank goodness!  Over at the Bee Crafty challenge our monthly challenge is “goodbye/thinking of you”.  Unfortunately this will be our last challenge for a while as Merrigan is due to have her second baby any day now and she will have her hands full so she is putting the challenges on hold for the foreseeable future, but rest assured she will be back.  Here is my card:

I have used a super image called ‘fluffy bunny pair’ as I thought they looked like they were waving goodbye lol!  You can purchase the image in the store here.   The image is coloured with promarkers and flex markers.  I was delighted when I “discovered” this sentiment in my stamp drawer as it fit perfectly with the theme – it is a clear stamp from elzybells.  The papers are my mind’s eye from the ‘true blue’ paper pad and I used a cuttlebug embossing folder on the background.  The fancy border was a freebie in a parcel I received from the lovely Tracey at Dies to Die For and i was chuffed when it matched my card perfectly – love it when that happens lol!

The prize as always is 2 digi images of the winner’s choice.  Please pop over to the challenge blog and check out Deanne’s gorgeous card too. 

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

Karen’s doodles challenge – cute & cuddly

Moving along with the times challenge – cute critters

Alphabet challenge – animal antics

Chocolate, coffee and cards challenge – orange, brown and teal

The poodles parlour challenge – anything goes

Totally papercrafts challenge – rainbow

Allsorts challenge – free and easy

Catch the bug challenge – anything goes

Stamp, scrap and doodle challenge – punches or die cuts

City crafter challenge – use at least 3 colours from choice (orange, yellow and green (mine is teal)

I hope you can join in with our challenge.  You have plenty of time as it lasts until the end of February.  I look forward to visiting your blogs and seeing what you create.  I’ll hopefully be back a little later as I have some candy to offer but until then thanks so much for stopping by.

Card ingredients:

Image: Bee Crafty – ‘fluffy bunny pair’

Papers: my mind’s eye – ‘true blue’ paper pad, brown card from the papermill shop, white digi stamping card from craftwork cards

Tools: promarkers, flex markers, punched border strip from Tracey, elzybells clear sentiment stamp, pearls from the hobby house, cuttlebug swiss dots embossing folder

Passion for Promarkers #46 – DT card

Hi and welcome to a new challenge over at passion for promarkers challenge.  This week’s challenge has been chosen by one of our newest DT members Emma and her theme is ‘the young ones’ i.e. cards for kids/babies.  You can use any colour promarkers as long as you follow the theme.  For my card I used a cool image by Gillian Roberts called ‘skateboard dude’ which was kindly sent to me by Tracy at Dies to Die For and I coloured it with the following promarkers:

Hat,t-shirt and shoes – sky blue and mustard

Trousers - khaki

skateboard – sky blue, ice grey 2 and 4

Hair – tan and caramel

Skin – ivory, blush and pastel pink

Shading – cool grey 1

The papers are by BG from the cupcake paper pad and the plain card is from the papermill shop.  I cut the stars using my quickutz nesting stars in the CB and the buttons and ric-rac ribbon are from my stash.  The sentiment is by elzybells from the everyday greetings set.  I used my oval nesties to cut out the image. 

Our sponsor this week is sugar nellie stamps and one lucky winner will receive two stamps – ‘purrfect playmates’ and ‘come fly with me’. 

The rest of the DT have created some amazing samples for your inspiration so please pop over and take a look.  I can’t wait to see what you create this week and look forward to visiting your blogs. 

My card also fits in with the following challenges:

Created 4 fun challenge – sketch (which I rotated)

One stitch at a time challenge – anything goes

Crafty creations challenge – anything goes

Polka doodles challenge – birthday

Simple doodles challenge – add some layers

Our creative corner challenge – break out the buttons

Sweet stampin’ challenge – it’s a man’s world

A spoonfull of sugar challenge – one for the boys

I can’t believe how quickly the Easter weekend has gone – it’s back to work for me today (groan) but on the bright side only 4 days this week (yay).  I hope you have a good day.  Thanks for stopping by.

A card for a few challenges

This is my very late (and probably too late) entry for the Anyone for Anya challenge, which is a lovely sketch by Dawny P.  I used a TGF image kindly sent to me by Tracy (Dies to Die For) and I coloured it with my promarkers.  The gorgeous papers are BG from the marrakesh paper pad and the plain card is from the papermill shop.  The ribbon is from my stash and the adhesive stones are from Joanna Sheen.  The sentiment was created on the pc and cut out with my SU oval all punches.

I can also enter this card into the following challenges:

Roses on paper challenge – punch it

Papertake challenge – open theme

Crafty creations challenge – anything goes

Polka doodles challenge – birthday

Simple doodles challenge – add some layers

Stamping for the weekend challenge – ribbons and bows

Anya Ink challenge – anything goes

I hope you are all having a wonderful Easter weekend.  We are planning on taking the boys to the cinema today, so even if the weather is horrible we’ll be ok :)  Don’t eat too much chocolate (yeah right!!).  Thanks for stopping by.