It's a kind of magic

Hello blogworld

Well how we all doing then?  Looking at a lovely Monday morning I hope and to make it even lovelier we have a new challenge over at The Cutie Pies.  The theme this fortnight is 'Magical' - so any magic related projects please.  I think you'll find that us Cuties went with magicians and fairies but there are so many magical things out there that I think this could be a great fortnight!

We are sponsored by:

And onto my magical card - it's for SHMbO's best friend who will be six this week but so far hasn't met with the stamp of approval.  In fact, she told me she could do better!  Ho hum, this is life as a female persons' mother is it?  Being told that you aren't good enough?  Is it any better with boys I have to wonder.

I actually quite liked this one - can I hear a good deal of blogworld falling over in surprise there?  Yes, I did just say I liked a card I made, well apart from the teddy, it seems to sink into the book from what I can see, should've done him a different colour.

Now that I've got you completely dying to see what my sub-standard card looks like - I will reveal (the card, not me - now that would give you nightmares!!).

Front shot:

Detail of image:

The arty farty:

I used:

Stamps:

Lili of the Valley - Abracadabra + sentiment

image coloured with me Pros and background chalked.

Dies:

Memory Box - swirly corner thingy (I really will have to remember the name of that one day, I use it enough!)

Papers:

Oh My Word - now whose are these?  No idea, they've been around that long!

Anything else?

Bit of ribbon and some Stickles (that smudged, begger it!)

So you'll have to let me know what the verdict is - are you Team SHMbO or Team Sarah then???

See's ya

Sarah

Oh, sugar (and not in a nice way!)

'morning blogworld,

Before I forget again - I wanted to say hello to my new followers.  What a way to start following someone, eh - with them moaning their heads off!!!!  Hope you don't pack up and leave - bear with me, I don't moan that much I think anyway ;-)

I would say good morning but I fear it is not a 'good' morning - to begin with I needed a card for tomorrow.  It's now done but it's been a terrible faff to get there and I don't like it!  I know I say that quite a lot with my cards, but this one I mean it.  I will be glad when it's gone!

I decided to try bright colours again, but I don't think they work with the image I picked, I don't know that you can see the sketch I tried to follow and, to top it all off, I went and dropped an ink pad on the the card (hence the cover up part that doesn't follow the sketch).

So apart from the good weather - I'm a moaning minney today.

Oh and Miss Miss Tinker - well s/he is a mouser!  So far, after being let out for a decent time on her own yesterday and today she's rewarded us with 4 mice - two expired, two alive!!

Here's hoping this has not set the tone for the weekend, as it's my great spend up on Sunday!!  I can't say that I've rigidly stuck to my budget - I haven't! - but I've been better.  Checking the money programme that hubby has on his 'puter, I have roughly spent half the amount of money on craft stuff at this point in the year that I had last year.  Hmmm, does that make sense to anyone?  Basically I've spent less this year than I had this time last year.  So not bad - let's hope I can carry on like this the whole year.

So onto my card - urgh, I'm not one of those who only shows their successes that you can say for sure with this one!!!

Front shot: I tried colouring my backing paper with the same Promarkers that I used and it's gone blotchy.  I don't think the little boy whose card it is will care - hope his parents think it's intentional!!

Detail of image:

I used:

Stamp:

Lili of the Valley - By the River : coloured with my Promarkers

Dies / punches

Nestie circle

Martha Stewart border punch

Papers:

echo park - Splash

Everything else:

twine, button, die-cut sentiments - from my stuff

There I'm glad that's over with, I'll still link up with the sketch but I think I will quickly forget about this card!!

Hope you are all enjoying the good weather and see's ya later,

Sarah

A challenge, or two:

Sketch n Stash: Challenge 88 - Jen's sketch.  I do hope you can still see the original sketch, if you want you can read the waffle above about why it isn't exact!!

and for fun:

Lisa's - Waste not Wednesdays, back to stamps this time Lisa.  Can't remember when I brought this one, but I know I've not used it as I had to cut the excess rubber off.

It's challenge time!

Hello blogworld

Well the last two weeks have rushed by and now it's time for a new challenge over at Dream Valley Challenges - isn't time just flying by!  Am finding it difficult to believe we are in May already and June is rushing up on us.

So what is the new challenge over at Dream Valley, I can hear you asking and my reply is: it is to CASE a member of the Design Teams' project.

So to make things very clear - for anyone out there like me (oh my goodness, poor world if there are two of me in it!!) to CASE something means to Copy And Selectively Edit. So you pick something from one of the Design Teams' projects that you like and use that on your creation.

What you pick can be anything that appeals to you - colours, shape, layout, image - whatever, but you must say in your entry what it is that you are CASEing.

This fortnight we are sponsored by One Stop Card Crafts who are offering a £10 voucher and Crafty Ribbons who are offering as the prize the new Bev bag selection.

Right then, explanations over - here's what I made:

Front shot of card:

Detail shot of stamp:

I used:

Stamps

Lili of the Valley - Astronaut: coloured with my Promarkers and Flexmarkers

Blonde Moments - Sweet Celebrations: sentiment

Dies

Nestie square

Die-namics for the greetings tab

Papers and embellishments

We Are Memory Keepers - White Out

Do you know it's just occurred to me that, apart from the stamp which is only about 6 mths old, everything on this card is at least two years old (if not older) I'm such a bad hoarder!!

So I hope you will pop over to the Dream Valley and look at all the wonderful projects that have been created - get inspired - then have a go!!

See you soon,

Sarah

A challenge, or two:

Totally Paper Crafts: 116 - No pesky girls allowed!

allsorts challenge: Week 254 - card for a man or boy

Lili's Little Fairies: Your Favourite craft tool - cuttlebug / dies, promarkers

and just for fun:

Lisa's - Waste not Wednesdays, still using up the old stuff! Though I have been a bit naughty and brought meself some new things at the beginning of the month!! 

We've gone all boy-ey!!

As my Emily would say!

It's Saturday and that means a new challenge over at Sweet Stampin' and this week we're looking for your masculine cards.

Our regular monthly sponsor is:

with the prize being a £10 voucher for one lucky person.

The weekly sponsor this time is:

who are also offering one lucky person a £10 voucher.

So masculine cards, eh!  Not really my strong point, cards for men / boys.  I struggled along making one card - wonderful image, terrible colouring - couldn't decide how to lay it out - did something very boring!  This is the result:

 No close up on image as I hated the way the cushions came out!  And, Abi, I really couldn't do paper piecing - I can't cut out detail, really I can't I'm just rubbish at it.  Depend completely on my nesties!!!

I used:

TeddyBo & Co digi stamp: Teddybo_053 - Just resting my eyes; coloured with my Promarkers
Papers are all from a Papermania pad - Henbury Lane
Sentiment from Craftwork Cards

So I had another go and this I prefer - it's still not brilliant, but I am happier with it:

I used:

Lili of the Valley stamp: Lazy Afternoon; coloured with my Promarkers and cut / mounted with nesties.  Date stamp is also from Lili of the Valley and, again, cut out with a circular nestie.
The papers are all Basic Grey: Archaic pad (one of my fav masculine paper pads and I'm running out them - arrrggghhh!!).
The brads are from Basic Grey.
Paper string from my stuff.

So there you go - this one was really a challenge for me!  Not for my team-mates though, you should pop over to the blog and see the wonderful cards they came up with.

Am sure it won't be a struggle for you either - looking forward to seeing all your wonderful masculine cards.

See you again soon,
Sarah

PS - The deliberate mistake on my card in the previous post?  The only people who got it were Anita and Helen - I accidentally put the patterned paper on upside down!  Hopefully if you didn't notice my friend and her daughter won't either!!!

A challenge, or two:

Hotshot Craft blog: Challenge #4 one for the boys

Moving Along with the Times: Lots of layers - my second card

Truly Scrumptious: Challenge 74 - All creatures great and small - my 1st card

Here come the Boys: #21 Vintage feel - hope my 2nd card is OK for the theme!

First card of 2012

Happy New Year blogworld

I know, I know, I'm a bit late - but better late than never, eh!  Hope you all had a happy New Year - whatever you did!  We were a couple of boring old farts and were in bed and asleep by 11, the joys of having a small person who wakes at 6 has long ago meant that we don't get late nights now.   Not that I would change a bit of it, I'd much rather have the small person than the biggest New Year celebrations!

So this is my first card of 2012 - it was a for little boy whose 4th birthday party we went to today.  Met him and his mum when he was 6 weeks old.  He is just that big younger than Emily so will be in the year below when he starts school this September and we don't get to see as much of him (or his mum!) as we used to but we do try and stay in contact and see as much of them as we can.

Waffle over here is the card:

Front shot:

Detail shot:

I used:

Lili of the Valley stamp - Sailing Boat, coloured with my Promarkers

All the papers are an Echo Park pad - Splash

The sentiment is from Craftwork Cards and cut out with Die-namics die

Scallop border is also a Die-namics die (one of my Christmas presents)

Do you ever have one of those days where nothing goes right?  Well this is a card made on one of those days, the backing card ripped, after I'd stuck the paper to it; the sentiment didn't cut straight and the scallop tore as I was trimming it so had to go dig through my stuff to find something to put over it.

I think about the only thing I'm happy with is the colouring on the image!!

Hopefully, as Emily goes back to school on Weds, I'll have some time to tidy my house and get back into routines next week.  Which is going to include some exercise for yours truly - have put on 1/2 a stone over the break and that's not good!!!

See's ya soon,

Sarah

A challenge, or two:

Papertake Weekly - Fab sketch

Paper Sundaes - #101; Something Old - Something New (my old is the stamp and new the die-namics scallop die)

The Squirrel and The Fox - Challenge #8 - Something New - the die

All about a boy

Hi there blogland

Well here is an unusual card for me, it's for a boy!  I'm not very good with boys cards, I've only ever had to make very few male cards - don't have that many male relatives or male friends if it comes to it (I'm much more a girly girl!).

However since having my daughter I've made more friends who have little boys and therefore my cardmaking has had to improve on the boys cards.  I am also hosting the Lili of the Valley challenge on Docrafts this time round so thought why not be adventurous and set a boys theme - thus killing two birds with one stone.  A challenge and a birthday card.

So here is my card - a Lili of the Valley image coloured with promarkers and die-cut onto a nestie shape.  Backing paper is Die Cuts with a View and sayings paper is from Dovecraft, I punched the stars and they are meant to be at an angle!

A friend on Docrafts (Teresa - you should check out her blog here she makes the most amazing cards) is also one of the Design Team on a challenge blog called Here Come the Boys and has been saying how this challenge is for purely male cards.  So I thought why not pop in an entry.

Hope you are all having a lovely day - we've been threatened with rain here but none so far.  The three of us have had a lovely day just pottering around and I'm off soon to call hubby and daughter in for their dinner so that Emily can watch Don't Scare the Hare, a gameshow on telly.

Best wishes all

Sarah