Dare U 2 Digi Stamp - Challenge 16 - anything but a card

This week our Dare is: Anything but a card.
It can be anything you like such as a gift bag, gift box, ATC, or a bookmark. We're sure you'll come up with many more gorgeous creations which of course must include a digi image. We hope you can join us.

We are offering a prize this week of two single digi images from Sketching Stamper and two single digi images from Sandra Dry Designs, you can get more information and check out the fabulous creations from the rest of the DT here

For my project this week I have covered a little notebook. This cute little image is a new one from Sally-Ann at Digi Stamp Boutique, her name is Sophie and she is a real cutie.
We have out grandaughter, also named Sophie coming to stay at the weekend and this will be a nice little gift for her. The papers are by Making Memories and the flowers by prima. I have used a quickutz alphabet to cut out the Sophie letters and given them a bit of bling with stickles. The image has been coloured with copics and I have paper pieced the dress with some of the Making Memories paper.



On the back of the book I have used another of Sally-Ann's stamps and this one is called Sidney.


Have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing what ideas you come up with for the challenge this week.
Karen x

More Gingerbread

Here is the card that I was making as my DT card for Copics Colour Challenge this week. It was only after I had finished the front and I was feeling really smug that I had got it done in plenty of time for the challege that I discovered that I had used the wrong sketch. I had printed off the one for Sketch Saturday as well as the Copics one and had by mistake used the wrong one. I then left this card and made the correct one before coming back to finish off this one.


I so love these gingerbread people and these Heidi Grace papers are just pefect with these images. As I already said, the sketch is this week's one at Sketch Saturday and what a great sketch it is. The big brads are by Imaginsce and ribbons from my stash.


I have carried the same papers through to the inside and the little recipie was printed straight onto the DP on the computer.


This picture shows the normal sized card that I had made along with the mini one that I had posted earlier for Copics Colour Challenge.
I hope you like them both as much as I do.
Karen x

Copics Colour Challenge # 22

Over at Copics Colour Challenge this week is a little different. We decided that we would have a week off the colour challenges and so Maddy kindly produced one of her marvelous sketches for us. I'm sure you will agree, it is a stunner!


This week, we have yet another wonderful sponsor for you..... Peachy Keen stamps. For those of you who have not yet visited Peachy Keen, you are in for a treat. Super cute! The DT had real problems in choosing images for their cards as they wanted them all! However, the lucky winner of this weeks challenge could seriously add to their rubbah stash with the $40 voucher that Peachy Keen are offering as a prize!

I just love these little gingerbread people. I have made a really tiny card for the challenge this week - long story, but to cut it short I used the wrong sketch and then ran the risk of running out of these fab papers, so decided to use a Stampin Up 7.5cm square card as my base. I had orignally intended making a gift tag, but decided that it looked really cute as a mini-card. I will post the original one with the wrong sketch later and take a photo of the two of them together to show the difference in size.
Papers are all by Heidi Grace and brads are by imaginsce.


I have used the same papers on the inside and the little gingerbread house is cut from one of the papers.


Same theme continued to the back.


I just love this mini-card and think there may be a few more of these in the pipeline. I have even thought that they could be used as small photo frame cards as you could substitute the gingerbread man in the frame inside of the card with a photo - baby, wedding etc. - now that has got me thinking....
Have a great week and sorry for the length of this post.
Karen x

ICS #25

Here is Dawn's fab sketch at ICS this week.
This week Squigglefly is sponsoring the challenge and they have a prize of 3 images of the winners choice to offer one lucky person. Please do take a look at what my fellow DT's have made here and I hope you can join us this week.


I have used another of the fabulous Nutshells stamps from Nutcrafters and this one is called Summer Mac. I could so do with that cocktail at the moment!
The DP is by daisy bucket and the swirl is from quickutz. Sorry no inside to this card yet - another one to add to the pile to be finished off!!



Well the sun has come out here again and it is another lovely day - hope the sun is shining wherever you are.

Have a great week

Karen x

A Spoon Full of Sugar - Challenge 60 -Sketch by Debbie

This week at A Spoon Full of Sugar we have a fun sketch designed by our own Debbie for you to follow.


We have a cute Space Ian stamp which has been kindly donated by Bryony from Silly Monkey Crafts as a prize this week. Thank you Bryony!
This sketch was a delight to work with and was just perfect for this cute little Pixie from CC Designs. You will notice that I have rotated the sketch. The DP are a mixture of Craft House and Doodlebug and I have framed the image with some gorgeous Doodlebug glitter card which I had been saving as it was too yummy to cut up. Flowers are by prima and the sentiment from Stampin Up.


I have used another couple of these cute pixies in the inside and carried through the same colours from the front.


I hope you get a chance to join in with the challenge this week and I am sure that you will enjoy working with this sketch.
Karen x

How exciting is this - I have been published!!!

Some weeks ago Karen at Sugar Nellie asked me if I would make a card for her with the Daisy stamp. This is one of my favourite stamps so certainly was not a problem at all for me. The only instructions were that it needed to be a summer themes card and it was for submission to a magazine.

I had completely forgotten about it until Friday when I was in WH Smith and went to look at the craft magazines. I could hardly believe my eyes, not only was there a whole page for my card, but it also was on the front cover of the Stamping Essentials magazine which comes free with Papercraft Essentials this month and my card also appears on the back page of the give away papers booklet.

I have only jsut noticed that on the Sugar Nellie advert at the bottom of the page there is another of my cards - the one with Hamish the Rugby Player.

I have checked my camera and have found some pictures that I had taken of the card before handing it over.
Front

Inside

Back

Well I suppose I had better try and come back down to earth now and get some tidying up done in my craft room as my daughter is coming to stay tonight and I need to hide away the bits and pieces that I don't want her to be tempted to help herself to!!!
Have a great weekend.
Karen x

Dare U 2 Digi Stamp Challenge 15 - Pink, Black and White

At Dare U 2 Digi Stamp we have a colour challenge for you this week. The colours are Pink, Black and White and I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did. I just love this colour scheme.

I have used another of my downloaded images from CC Designs this week - can you tell that I love these!!!. The papers are by Dovecraft and the flowers by Prima. The Brads are ones that I bought on one of my shopping sprees in Michaels in the US a couple of years ago and I think this may even be the first time that they have seen the light of day. I am off to Boston 3 weeks tomorrow and can't wait to stock up with embelishments from Michaels - ribbons, ribbons, ribbons - I think I can already imagine them all...... The sentiment on the front is from Hampton Art and the inside one from CC Designs.

The last 3 weekends for me have been really hectic and I am looking forward to a quiet one this week, catching up with some girlfriends and trying to get a bit ahead with some cards - so looking forward to it.
Have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing your pink, black and white cards.
Karen x

A Spoon Full of Sugar - Hearts with ICS Sketch #24

I have combined 2 challenges with this card. I have used Dawn's sketch from ICS and this week's challenge at A Spoon Full of Sugar is to have hearts somewhere on your card. Well worth checking out both these challenges this week to see some beautiful cards from the DTs and also to read about the prizes on offer.

I have used one of these really cute fairies from CC Designs which has been sitting waiting to be inked up for ages. The papers are by Papermania - I have used these lots of time and they really are all my favourite colours combined in one great little collection. Flowers are also by papermania and the sentiments are from Claire Curds Signature Range. The little cat on the inside is one half of a Sugar Nellie Duda Daze stamp

For the first time in ages I have managed to get the inside of this card done and have carried the same paper range through from the outside. The little fairland stamp was one that came free with a magazine some time ago - craft stamper I think.

Have a great week and happy crafting.

Karen x

It's a Boy Thing at Nutshells

Yipee, it is release day for the Nutshells Boys which are now available here.

To celebrate this launch were are having a challenge and we would like for you to create a card for a man or boy using the colours Blue and Green. You can use any stamp and the prize for one lucky winner will be the choice of any 3 Nutshells stamps from the webshop.


The stamp that I have used on this card is Cash and the DP is by doodlebug, buttons by stampin up and I used my crop-o-dile to attach the eyelets.

The DT have made some stunning cards which hopefully will inspire you and can check them out here along with all the details about the challenge.

I hope you will join us with this challenge and I look forward to seeing your cards.

Karen x

Dare U 2 Digi Stamp Challenge 14 - Embossing

At Dare U2 Digi Stamp this week we have a great challenge for you which is embossing. It can ve wet or dry embossing or both if you like and if you check out the blog you will see the fabulous ideas that the DT have come up with this week.

I have used one of the digi images that I got from Nikki's online store which you can find Here this cute little girl with her bunny is one of a set of 3 from Scrapmagasinet. I also had the excuse this week to bring out my cuttlebug embossing folders which I really do not use enough. For the first time I have used one of these folders on some DP as I usually only use them with cardstock and I am really impressed with the subtle results that I got from this. The DP is K&C Sparkly Sweet and the flowers are by prima. I have used this week's fab sketch at Our Creative Corner and this card also fits the challenge at ScrapMagasinet which is to use flowers on your card.

We had horrendous thunder and rain as I left the office last night to catch my usual train that takes 40 minutes and gets me home at 6pm. I was drenched by the time I reached the station, lightening had hit the signals and the trains were all stuck in the station. To cut a long story short, I eventually got home at 9.40pm. - not a happy bunny!!!

On a happier note, I am heading off to Glasgow tomorrow to see The Eagles in concert tomorrow night - can't wait.
Have a lovely weekend.
Karen x

Copics Colour Challenge #20

Here are the colours for this week's challenge at Copics Colour Challenge .

This week, we have a real treat for you. Our sponsor this week is a new company called Squiggle Stamps. Just take a peek in their shop - we promise you will LOVE their designs! We're also sure you will all love the very generous goodies they have donated to us for this week's prize! Not only does the package include 3 of their fabulous new range of stamps, the winner will also received some rather delicious papers, ribbon and flowers.

I have used this cute little Walter Owl image from Willow designs this week. DP is by K&Co and flowers by Petaloo. I have used the sketch from Papertake Weekly. There are another 2 cute little owls in this collection so I will hopefully get a chance this evening to decorate the inside of this card and use these other two providing that Andy Murray does not take another 4 hours at the tennis tonight.

Still really hot here, suppose we shouldn't complain, but at least when you are on holiday in these kinds of temperatures there is usually a pool to dive into to cool off - perhaps I should ask my boss if we need a pool!!
Have a great week.
Karen x

Inspirational Card Sketches #23

Tuesday is here again so it is time for another fab sketch from Dawn at ICS.

Our amazing sponsor this week is Squiggle Stamps! Tracy has
sponsored us with this amazing prize package which you can check out Here

Meet Fishing Wallie the Walnut. Wallie is one of the new collection of boy stamps by Nutshells by Nutcrafters which is due to be launched on Monday 6th July. To celebrate the launch of these new stamps there will also be a "boys only" challenge on the Nutshells blog, so well worth checking it out on Monday.
I have used DP from Dovecraft and the sentiment is by CC Designs.

Sorry, no inside of this card as I have been at a Hen Party all weekend and am playing catch-up yet again.
I look forward to visiting your blogs to see your take on this wonderful sketch.
Have a great week.
Karen x

A Spoon Full of Sugar - Summer card

Our challenge this week at A Spoon Full of Sugar is to make a card with a summer theme.
We have a great prize this week which has been kindly donated by Regina Easter from The Cutting Cafe. The lucky winner can choose any 3 sets from the cafe site. If you have never visited The Cutting Cafe before please make sure you click on the link to pop on over and take a peep. Regina has some amazing downloads to purchase.

This is Beach Tash from Nutshells by Nutcrafters and she is just perfect for a summer card as she is all ready to head off to the beach. DP is by K&Co and the little flowers are from a pack from Accessorize. Ribbon and adhesive glitter dots from my stash.
It has been really hot here the past few days and I am really quite envious of Tash with her towel and bag ready to head for the beach. I have used this weeks sketch over at Sketch Saturday so will enter this card in this week's challenge.
Have a great week and I look forward to catching up with your summer cards.
Karen x

Dare U 2 Digi Stamp - challenge 12 - sketch by Kim

We have a fabulous sketch by our own Kim to follow this week - thanks Kim this one was a pleasure to use. Check out the blog Here to see Kim's sketch and also the beautiful cards that the DT have made this week following the sketch.

I have used Gretel who is one of the new Swiss Pixies Downloaded images from CC Designs this week along with the lovely summery papers from Making Memories. Ribbon and flowers from stash.

I have also coloured in another of these cute pixies for the inside of the card, but infortunately have run out of time. I am in the middle of a really busy social spell and will be away all weekend to my soon to be daughter-in-law's hen party. We are heading off to Aviemore for the weekend for a bit of pampering, adventure activities (not me!!) and plenty to eat and drink I hope.

Have a great weekend.
Karen x

Copics Colour Challenge #19

This week on CCC, the colour combo is BV00, G00 and RV02. It was my turn to pick the colours and I just love these 3 colours together, remember, you don't have to use all the colours and if you do not have the exact colours just use the nearest ones that you have - as long as you use copics we are happy.

This little cutie is called Hazel with Apples as is one of the stamps that I received in my DT pack from Nutshells by Nutcrafters and she is one of the summer range available at Nutcrafters now. Nutcrafters also have some blog candy up for grabs at the moment, so well worthwhile checking out their website. The papers are DCWV and flowers ane a mixture of prima and ones from Hobbycraft, ribbon from stash and Adhesive glitter dots are by Papermania. Not too sure that is shows well on the photo, but I have used glossy accents on the apples to make them shiney. The layout is this weeks sketch over at Friday Sketchers and I just loved this one and will certainly be using it again.

Have a good week and I look forward to seeing what you come up with using these favourite colours of mine.
Karen x