Childhood Memories

This is the theme for the week on Make My Monday challenge and I'm reminded of many trips into town with my mother where we would visit the library or some of the many small shops in the town for supplies - no supermarkets in those days!  Each shop had a counter and one or more assistants who would serve us with items specific to their particular trade.  The buses were double deckers and of course we just had to climb the stairs to ride 'on top' and a conductor used to toil up the stairs to collect our fares. A double decker is a rare sight these days - around this neck of the woods anyway.  The stamp used is a Papermania one from the Forever Friends Nostalgia collection, coloured with Coloursoft pencils and I used papers from my stash to complete the card.

 

Addicted to Stamps

As the theme this time on Addicted to Stamps is 'anything goes' I decided to show this card which should fit the bill.  The image from Polkadoodle is one I'd stamped a while ago which came to the surface during my tidy up and hadn't been coloured. I used Coloursoft pencils and then added a bit of glitter to her glasses and the spots on the toadstool.  Various oddments of paper were gathered together and combined along with some paper clay roses (coloured with Distress marker to match) and a couple of stamped and cut out butterflies.  These had been made ages ago when I acquired the stamp set from Clearly Besotted and were lurking in a little plastic box just waiting to be rediscovered!

MMM Challenge - Again!!

Well I felt I should try again to get it right for the Make My Monday challenge this week.After yesterday's carelessness in not reading the challenge guidelines properly I set to and looked for a stamp which I'd had for simply ages and not used and believe me the most difficult part was deciding which one to choose!!   I needed to make a card for my great nephew so chose this stamp from a set of Suzy's Zoo stamps which I bought from Joanna Sheen many moons ago - to date only one of the characters in the set had been used and the remainder stored away and neglected. Image was coloured using Coloursoft pencils; backing paper printed from a CD (Docrafts I think).  The text to personalise the card was produced on the computer and punched out using Stampin' Up punches;  the decorative border was die cut with Spellbinders dies.

Do follow the link, take a look at the cards made by the design team and maybe have a go yourselves if you happen to have any neglected stamps (or decoupage).

Time for Quintiles Again

Well the months certainly seem to come around really quickly and this month the theme for the Chocolate Baroque Quintiles swap is 'June Brides' which had me somewhat stumped but eventually by giving it some thought I've come up with two this months loosely based on the theme and of course using products and/or stamps from CB. For this one I used a stamp from Floral Bouquet  set, stamped onto kraft card.  with white and embossed using fine detail powder. The small amount of colouring was done using Coloursoft pencils. Background is a piece of Tim Holtz kraft resist card, sponged with Distress Ink to show up the resist pattern. A piece of watercolour paper was spritzed with Glimmer mist and embossed with Cuttlebug hearts embossing folder and finally the word is from CB Artistic Expressions stamp plate. The second one is quite different and I will share that another time.

Steampunk Rose

When I saw these  Steampunk Butterfly stamps from Chocolate Baroque I just knew that a set had my name on it!  This card is made using the unusual rose which I love, a corner stamp and also another one which has been used on the background (a fragment reminscent of a rose window).  The main image coloured with Coloursoft pencils was stamped twice so that I could layer up the flowers and leaf; the background was a piece of watercolour paper inked with Distress stains and Adirondack ink, overstamped with the fragment and silver mica powder brushed on before the ink dried.  Pewter WOW embossing powder was used on the rose and on the corners. The main image and the metallic effect piece were cut using  Stampin' Up framelits dies (Sizzix).  A Tim Holtz embossing folder was used to produce the metallic piece which was a scrap of card with aluminium adhesive tape applied (bought from the DIY store).

It has been raining relentlessly here all day - and probably most of last night too, so I made the weather an excuse not to go out but stayed in to play with my new stamps.  Much more fun!!

Make My Monday

This is the final challenge for this year at Make My Monday because they are having a couple of weeks off - well deserved because they have worked hard to bring us some very interesting challenges.  This time they've given us a bingo card choice and I went with the diagonal line of  PATTERNED PAPER, FLOWERS AND WORDS.

The background paper is from a Prima script pad and the die cut piece of patterned paper is a scrap using the Top Note die from Stampin' Up.  The main image is a stampe I've had for a long time but which remains a firm favourite - from Elusive Images (now of course Chocolate Baroque).  It was stamped twice and the daisies were cut out and layered for dimension, colouring done with Distress Inks and Coloursoft pencils.  It is nice to be making something non seasonal for a change and once past the longest day on Friday, hopefully we can start to look forward to the Spring.

P is for Poppies

This is the second of my tags for this month and predictably it is poppies - well there was a new stamp plate with them on from Chocolate Baroque which was irresistible!!  This one reminded me of the explosion of poppies which arrived uninvited all over my garden (including paths and the gravelled area as well) and they are various shades of pink and red.  Stamped onto watercolour paper and coloured with Coloursoft pencils, the seed head in the background is also a CB stamp which I've had for many years.  Quite a simple tag but then it is nice to have some less elaborate ones amongst the collection which is growing as the year progresses.

Sunday Stamper 213

The days keep on rushing by and it is time again for the Sunday Stamper challenge which this week is DREAMER - Hels would like us to use the word DREAM on the project.   I was mulling this over whilst drinking one of my many cups of coffee and I thought of a set of Wonderland Stamps from Polkadoodle which seem to fit the bill - in my mind anyway.  Background paper was printed from a Polkadoodle CD and the image was stamped onto watercolour paper and coloured with Coloursoft pencils, as was the hat.  The word came from Artistic Affirmations stamps by Chocolate Baroque and the frame was one left over when I cut out some large tags using a Sizzix die which also has two book plates as an extra. Do pop over and see the beautiful flowery creation made by Hels.

L is for Love - and Lace

Well it's time to post off my Alphatags for the swap this month and this is one of the months when we need to do three so as to fit all 26 into the year.  L for Love isn't the most original theme but I've used a stamp from the Chocolate Baroque Harlequin Rose set and coloured it red using Coloursoft pencils. The tag was cut using a Sizzix die from a sheet card which I printed with a love letters download (also from Chocolate Baroque).  The word was a CB stamp as was the strip of lace stamped onto vellum and white embossed before cutting out. Again apart from the printed A4 sheet, the rest of the elements on this tag started from my scraps boxes - of course I also now have a partial sheet of printed love letter to use up sometime!!

Make My Monday week 52

The main topic this month at Make My Monday is EVENTS associated with JUNE and as the birth stone for the month is PEARL they are asking for a birthday card with pearls.  I'm afraid I just had to break into a new sheet of paper for the background on this one but the rest of it all came from my scrap boxes.  The flower is a stamp from Imagination Crafts and has been coloured using Coloursoft pencils, background paper is from Prima  with added strips of card embossed or punched.  The border strip was punched with a Martha Stewart punch and Stampin' Up punches were used for the sentiment and the piece with pearls at the top. If you follow the link you will see  some great ideas from the Design Team.

Forgotten Friday challenge

I've used up more of the pieces of left over Funky Hand papers  for this card and it will also qualify for Judith's Forgotten Friday challenge because the stamps used are from a Nit Wits set which came free with a magazine a few months ago and although I really liked them at the time they'd not even been out of the packet until now. They were coloured using Coloursoft pencils and cut out with Nestabilities - the flower and cotton reel were cut with scissors and a bit of faux stitching has been added in places for added interest.

The weather has gone suddenly from shivering to sweltering and takes a bit of getting used to but I hope it is nice where you are and that you enjoy the weekend.

Forgotten Friday 55

During the week I was trawling through my many A4 boxes of bits and pieces of paper and card searching for a particular colour when I came across a partial sheet of  uncoloured digital images.  I usually print several to fill a page when I want just one and this sheet had been put away and forgotten so it fits in well with Judith's Forgotten Friday challenge.  The image has been coloured with Promarkers and Coloursoft pencils, then cut out with a Nestabilities die.  Background paper is from a K & Co pad which has been lying around for a long time together with a scrap from one of the bits boxes.  The die cut border, corner and backing for the greeting were cut from scraps of blue card and a matching ribbon bow has been added. The curly strip and corner were cut using a die set from Lea'bilities, the greeting was produced on the computer, punched out and popped onto Cuttlebug die shapes.  Three more images left to colour in now and that will be one less piece in my 'bits' collection.

Make My Monday week 45

We are still on a male theme at Make My Monday and this week they specifically want to see male sports or hobbies which made me wonder just what I had which might fit the bill.  I went through quite a lot of my stamps with no succes so turned to the many files of digital stamps stored on the computer some of which I've had for ages and I'm afraid in the early days I wasn't good at recording the source.  Eventually I've ended up making two cards and I can't really decide which I prefer or if in fact if I really like either of them - mojo seems to be off on a holiday again!! The first one is from some images called George at Work (source unknown) and I've chosen this happy gardener.  Backing paper is from My Mind's Eye with some die cut Nestabilities and embossed card using a Sizzix folder.

The second one is a cute image of Magnum and Lily by Ladybug Crafts Ink coloured with Coloursoft pencils. Backing paper was printed from Polkadoodles Definitely for Men CD with the addition of some Coredinations card embossed with a Cuttlebug folder and sanded to show the kraft core. I'm beginning to wish I'd not added the raffia bow but it is well and truly stuck with glue gel and I really thought it needed something in that corner.

Yet again I seem to have managed to come up with cards suitable for Judith's Forgotten Friday challenge - the Magnum image I've had for quite a while and not actually printed before and theGgeorge images go back several years and the file hasn't been opened for absolutely ages but now I've remembered them there are several others in the set which are good for male-orientated cards so I will be using them as well.

Make My Monday challenge 36

We are still on a general theme of romance for February on Make My Monday but this week the 'added extra' is die cut hearts/flowers.  I'm a bit disappointed with the scan of this card because for some reason (and it often happens) the toning green card I used for some of the components has come out looking very pale turquoise blue - grrr!  Background paper was printed from Chocolate Baroque Essence of Nature CD and the main image is from Fragrant Honeysuckle which one of their new stamp sets - image was coloured using Coloursoft Pencils. The Top Note die was cut from pearlescent GREEN card and embossed with flowers.  The GOLD hearts were cut using Marianne dies and the sentiment was produced on the computer, punched out and layerd up on matching punched shapes.  The little butterflies were cut  from the left over scraps using a Sizzix embosslits die from Stampin Up.

Make My Monday challenge week 31

We are still on a NATURE theme this week at Make My Monday (and yes I do realise it is Friday already!!) I've had an eventful week.  This time they are asking for ANIMALS and after some thought I decided to use this cute image of Mangum which has been stamped and coloured using Coloursoft pencils - Ladybug Crafts stamp.  Background papers were from one of my many boxes of bits and pieces and I added a ribbon and some Card Candy backed with the smallest diecut from Spellbinders postage set.  With all of these dies I so often use the two or three largest ones but rarely the smallest so thought I'd rectify that today.

Honey Bee

The weather today is pleasant with some blue sky and a little sunshine which is certainly helping the winter along and certainly makes the days look a bit lighter.  Today's card was made using stamps from the Honey Bee set by Chocolate Baroque, colouring done with Coloursoft pencils. Background paper which seems to be just the right colour was from my oddments box and has been overstamped. I decided to leave this card without a greeting so that it could be used for any occasion.

Bah Humbug Challenge 44

We are on week 44 at Bah Humbug which means I must have at least 44 cards ready for the festive season so that's good news.  This week they are asking for a Baby's First Christmas card which had me thinking a bit for ideas I must say until I remembered this lovely baby stamp from Lili of the Valley.  I coloured him with Coloursoft pencils so that he looks like a mini Santa and I added a bobble on his little hat.  The 'fur' around his hat and the bobble have been covered with textured glitter snow but it doesn't look too glittery on the scan.  The sentiment was produced on the computer.  While I was waiting for the snow to dry I went for a walk and that's when I do a lot of my thinking - I realised it would be a first Christmas for my great nephew so used a Stampin Up pennant punch and X-cut letter dies to add his name.  The image was popped onto a Marianne die cut to which I added some narrow ribbon.  It is thanks to Jenny (Stamping Moments) for that idea as yesterday I went to a brilliant SU Extravaganza day where we made some lovely projects - do take a look at her blog and you will see some of the things we made.