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.

Simply Stampin Challenge week 41

The challenge at Simply Stampin is another colour one and although I don't have all the colours I do have some Pool Party and white so decided to give it a go. It is pure coincidence that this card seems similar in colour to yesterday's one and I don't think I'm going into a blue mood!!

Background paper is from my stash and has been sponged around the edges with Pool Party ink and overstamped with an image from Nature Walk which also includes the bird cage and bee stamps. A border of embossed white card was added along with a punched strip and greeting using SU punches.

Funky Hand Challenge - Thank You

The challenge this month at Funky Hand is a project to say 'Thank You' - quite appropriate for this time of year when we have people we need to thank.  The only rule is that you must use a Funky Hand product and if you have nothing from them there is a brilliant freebie which you can find on their sidebar to download.  I've used various papers from Craft The Year Away in the Marching On range with the background printed full size and some other patterns reduced in size for the layers.  The stamp used is from Papermania and has been stamped onto card printed from the same collection cut out with a Nestability label die. The flowers were punched with X-cut punches and leaves with a Stampin Up bird punch.

Make My Monday Week 30

The theme for January on Make My Monday is NATURE and this particular week it is BIRDS - do take a look at the lovely cards made by the Design Team for inspiration. For this card I used some  Tim Holtz Shabby background paper, sponged with Distress ink.  The bird image is by Papermania from one of their Urban stamp sets and the bird nest is from stampin Up nature set, both cut out using Nestability dies.

Forgotten Friday 43

Well I have managed a minimal tidy up in the craft room - at least now I've put away all the things which were cluttering my working space but in reality the whole stash needs a serious sort out but that can be done gradually and hopefully during the process I'll find lots of items to use for the Forgotten Friday challenges this year.  Who am I kidding?? Of course I'll come across tons of 'stuff' which hasn't seen the light of day for ages!!

Another crafty area which needs re-organising is my computer as, like many of you I imagine, I download things all the time as and when they take my fancy but quite often I don't actually use them.  It is one such image which I've used this week for Judith's challenge - it is one of the Pretty Birds digital downloads from Chocolate Baroque which I have used as a background.  The text is from one of their bird stamp sets and the feather is a Stampin Up stamp from a nature set.  The digital image has been sitting on my hard drive for ages, the bird stamps have been resting in their storage box for even longer and I used a Spellbinder die (never been used before) to make a buckle for the ribbon.  Do take a look at Judith's blog to see what others have been using from their 'forgotten' stash.

Happy New Year

Just a quick message to say Happy New Year to everyone.

I'm trying to get back into the swing of making cards but really I should put away all the christmassy bits and pieces which are littering my work space - maybe tomorrow ...  The background paper on this card is from Chocolate Baroque Essence of Nature CD and the image used their teeny tiny tree stamps.  The embossed panel using a Cuttlebug folder was sponged with matching ink to show up the texture.  I added a flower made using matching papers,  the word and brackets were  cut out using a Slice machine.