Forever Blowing Bubbles...

This card was made using a Penny Black stamp that I have had quite a while. I was lacking inspiration so I consulted my 'inspiration jar' and selected the following challenges for myself:

1. Use a Penny Black stamp that you haven't used in a while.
2. Do not add any colour to the main image.
3. Apart from Black or White only add one additional colour.

The only addition to the main image that I used was a little Stardust Stickles on the bubbles (although I don't think that shows up very well on the photograph).

I then added a simple 'Hero Arts' sentiment, a couple of corner pieces and some plain white Card Candi from Craftwork Cards that I added the same Stardust Stickles to.

Hope you like it and thank you very much for stopping by.

Clean and Simple Pussy Cat

Hi Girls and fellas
What a fabulously sunny (but chilly) day we have here in Hertfordshire, England.  Hope the weather is being as nice to you wherever you may be in the world?

I have another card to share with you all today. You may remember me saying that I challenged myself to make some more 'male' cards... well that's exactly what I have been doing since our last little chat. They're still a little on the young side for my liking, but I think you could still get away with giving them to older men.



Anyway, here is my first card (and a close up of the colouring technique I used with my Promarkers and my colouring pencils).

I really love Penny Black stamps and have to confess that I have been so blinkered by my digi stamps that I'd almost forgotten how much fun it could be inking up a stamp and stamping out an image on crisp, smooth, white card and colouring it in.  Makes such a difference to not have to switch on the printer and then select and size a digi stamp and sometimes print it a couple of times before I get it to just the right size. I still like both ways though so I'm not complaining.

Anyway, a really simple, 'male' card. Loving the colours and the background paper on this one. Was really pleased with how this one turned out even though there aren't any 'pretty' embellishments etc. Just a plain and simple card that hopefully any man would be happy to receive.

Thanks for taking the time to visit me today.
Hugs,

Brick Work Card

Hi fellow crafters, just wanted to share a little something that I created yesterday with you. It's a Penny Black stamp that I have stamped and coloured with my promarker pens and then I drew 'brickwork' shapes on it and cut out the individual pieces and put it back together again, mounting each piece with a foam pad and leaving a small gap between them.

I really liked the finished effect and it's perfect if you want something eye catching and unique. I think this card would also be really good for a male recipient.

Here is a smaller, more close up view of the brickwork. I lined up the bottom pieces first in a straight line so that I could then get the rest of the pieces in a straight line too. Then I simply cut the black background card around it and then I mounted the greeting onto black card and added some Card Candi.

Hope you like it?? Thanks for visiting, hugs

PB Easel Spinner Card

Hello fellow crafters

Just a quickie that I thought I would like to share with you. I made it a little while ago but have had a few problems with my internet connection and therefore have been unable to upload anything for a while. Anyway, here is a card I made using my new 'spinner card' template.

The template was a present for my birthday, which I believe was purchased from QVC, but I cannot tell you currently what brand it is. As soon as I locate the packaging I will add the information to this post.

I decided to use a Penny Black image as I have not used one for a while and I coloured it in to co-ordinate with my My Minds Eye background paper.

I then simply added some gemstones to finished the card off.  Behind the cat in the inner circle of the spinner are some Anita's stickers that simply say Happy Birthday. Then I added the Craftwork Cards greeting to the bottom left of the card and coloured that with the same promarker that I used to colour the image.

Here is a proper view of the whole card, which as you can see, is an Easel Card.  I think the whole spinner thing looks great on an easel but works just as well, I have discovered, on a regular 15cm x 15cm card.

Hope you like my first attempt at a spinner card (using a template) and thanks
for stopping by. Hugs xxx

Pink and Black Valentine

Hi Girls (and fellow crafters)

Just a little something I thought I would share with you that I put together for St Valentine. I decided to make a card for the Penny Black challenge 'January Sales'.

I bought the Spellbinders Nestabilities (Beaded Circles) and the Martha Stewart heart punch in Watford Market, from my friend Sue, and also the new Card Candy by Craftwork Cards (so glad that Sue has started selling these there too...yipppeeeee!). The Penny Black stamp 'Aren't you lovely?' I have had for a while but haven't used for a long time. Oh, and the ribbon was bought in the January Sales at Hobbycraft too. The lovely cherub charm, was a prezzie from Mum, who got them in Tesco.

So, I stamped the image onto plain white card and then cut it out with the largest of the Beaded Circles Nesties. I then coloured him in with my ProMarkers: Blossom, Rose Pink, Black, Ice Grey 3, Cool Grey 3 and Cool Grey 5. I then got a red coloured pencil and shaded certain parts of the hearts on the bow tie. I then put the three colours Card Candy around the scalloped edges of the die cut image.

Next, I cut a strip of Pink Petticoat white and pink polka dot paper and used my MS heart border punch to cut the top and the bottom of the strip. I did the same with the black mirri card, making sure that the mirri card was slightly thicker than the pink so that both strips of hearts would be seen. Once that was mounted I attached my long piece of 'kisses' ribbon which I wound around the card twice and tied in a knot, once I had attached the silver cherub. I then mounted the die cut image to the whole thing to another piece of the white and pink polka dot paper and mounted that again onto a piece of card.

I then made the easel base. I mounted some more white and pink paper onto some black mirri card and left a thin border around the edge. I then cut a thin strip of black mirri card and border punched it as before. I printed out my 'sentiment of the month' 'If I tell you I love you... can I keep you forever?' from Create with TLC and mounted that with foam pads. Finally, I cut out a white heart by hand and ran that through my Big Shot using the Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder and stuck it to the top right hand corner of the sentiment. Et voila! Job done!

I am really pleased with how this card came out and hope you will like it too.
Thanks for stopping by

Hugs, Fae xxx

Swirls and Curls

Here's a little something I made today to while away the hours between Lewis' Sports Day and picking the children up from school.

The image is Penny Black (cling-on stamps) which I coloured with coloured pencils and 'smudged' with Sansodor and a few blenders. I just love this technique!  The 'frame' around the image has been cut with my Big Shot and my new Nellie Snellen Multi Frames. The ribbon was purchased from Watford Indoor Market, the gemstones came from PoundLand and the 'swirl's' were created, also on my Big Shot, with my Marianne Creatables. The red card was border punched with my Martha Stewart Doily Punch.

Hope you like it?

Thank you very much for stopping by and hope to see you here again soon.
Hugs, Fae xxx

Summer Lovin'

Right... this card represents THREE blog challenges as follows:

Penny Black Challenge

To create a card with a PB image and SWIRLS

Daring Card Makers Challenge

To create a card with PEARLS (Friendship and Loyalty)

Creative Card Crew Challenge

To create a card with Pink and Green as the predominate colours (even my cart is a greeny brown)

So here is the card in all it's glory, I was really pleased with the finished result but really wanted to put a different sentiment on it, unfortunately I couldn't make my mind up but I really wanted to finish the card tonight.

Pearls are the birthstone for June and they represent friendship and loyalty (amongst other things) and I thought this PB stamp indicated both of those qualities.

I hope you enjoyed visiting my blog, please drop by again soon. 
Thanks for stopping by, Fae xxx

Sansodor Too

I haven’t used Sansodor for a while so I thought I would get it out and have a little play this evening. I am also sending this blog message via Windows Live Writer, so it’s a little experiment really (to see if it will work).  I love this little Penny Black cat called ‘Fragile!’ by Margaret Sherry 2000 Collection so it’s quite an old stamp but I love it. 

Thanks for stopping by, Fae xxx

Life of the Party

This card is one I made for the Penny Black Challenge, the Allsorts Challenge and the Create 4 Fun Challenge.

The Penny Black challenge was to create a card using a Penny Black stamped image and 'flowers'.  The Allsorts challenge was to make a birthday card to celebrate their blog's birthday and the Create 4 Fun Challenge was to make a card using the following sketch.

I made my card by starting with a plain white base card, I then took some Paper mania green card stock and ran it through my Big Shot with the Cuttlebug Dots Embossing Folder.  I added a red strip of card and used the same card to create the large scalloped circle. I then stamped the Penny Black image 'Life of the Party' onto white card and circle cut it with my circle nesties. I coloured the image using ProMarkers Ice Grey 1, Forest Green, Canary, Orange and Poppy. Finally, I added a Hero Arts sentiment and some flowers with centered adhesive pearls. Job done!

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Hugs, wishes and faerie kisses, Fae xxx

Gardening Goddess

Here's another of my favourite Penny Black stamps.  I stamped the background with a Banana Frog stamp in Black and then the Stampendous butterfly stamp in Magenta.  I then stamped the PB image and coloured it with my Promarkers: Blossom, Lime Green, Forest Green, Ice Grey 1 and Cool Grey 2. I then added a simple greeting with foam pads to finish.

Thanks for stopping by, Fae xxx

Two-Tone Putty Tat

Looking through my Inspiration Jar this week, I picked out the following inspirational messages, make a card using a Penny Black image, and embossed background, a charm or embellishment and only two colours.  This is what I came up with...  I used a blue and sandstone striped background paper and decided to use those two colours as my two tone colour combo.  I then took some beige cardstock and ran it through the Big Shot with a Cuttlebug embossing folder to create the dotted effect.  I then coloured in the image with Promarkers Sandstone and Sky Blue.  I know I have added a little black onto the card as well, but as the image was stamped with black ink, I thought it would be okay to use a little bit more, and after all, the challenge was only set by myself, so I could afford to bend the rules just a little.  So, I mounted the image onto black mirri card and then added the large eyelet embellishment onto black mirri cardwith a scalloped edge also.

Hope you like it? Thanks for stopping by,
Fae xxx

Penny Black Bathtime

This card was made using a Kanban printed cardstock and a Penny Black stamped image.  I love this cat in the bath, but the little mouse gets me every time, he looks really cute.  I matched the colours as best I could with my Promarkers, and I used maroon for the bath and for the sentiment (which was originally a white colour).  I added some mini gemstones and some glitter to finish the image off and the sentiment was mounted onto white card stock which I also coloured with the maroon Promarker and then mounted it again onto black mirri card, which I also used to mount the stamped image.

Multi Challenge Card

Well, I sat down last night to make a card and realised that I didn't have a huge amount of time left in the evening to make all of the cards I wanted to make, so I decided to combine a few blog challenges into one card!  And here is the finished result.  I apologise for the not-so-great quality of the photograph, unfortunately the light was either too dim or too bright for my camera last night.

One of the rules on the Daring Cardmakers challenge was to make a card with 'flap(s)' and to prove that my little Penny Black hedgehog is sitting on a flap... here is a photograph with the flap open.  The main rule for the Penny Black challenge was obviously to use a Penny Black image but also to only use monochromatic brown(s), so I stamped the image with brown Brilliance ink and then coloured the image in with the same ink and a little water.  I also stamped the sentiment under the flap with the same ink to tie it all in together neatly.

I hope you liked my card, but if you want to have a go yourself, there's still some time remaining to enter the challenges, just click on the link to the right of the screen in 'Other blogs I like to visit' and it'll take you right there. Good luck!

This card has been included in the following Blog Challenges:
Monochromatic Brown, Penny Black Saturday Challenge
Getting in a Flap!, Daring Cardmakers
Weekly Sketch (OCCSC11), Our Creative Corner

Spring is in the Air

This is the card I made last night for the Saturday Sketch Challenge and the Penny Black Saturday Challenge. The Penny Black challenge involved making an Easel Card (my favourite, so no hardship there) and the Sketch Saturday Challenge involved using the sketch (layout) which I have copied to the latter.

I decided that my theme would be Mother's day as I still had yet to get around to making mum's card, and her favourite colours are spring colours, yellow, cream and lime tones of green.

I stamped the image onto plain white card which I then ran through my BigShot with my circle nestabilities. I then coloured it and restamped it onto another sheet of plain white thin card. Where the flowers overlap the circle die, I then cut out the individual flowers and mounted them with foam pads.

I then made my base card for the easel and added the green cardstock at the bottom, which I used my faithful Martha Stewart punch to edge and then proceeded to use different coloured card to make up the sketch design. I then simply added the Penny Black image so that I could add the card to their Challenge for this week too. Mum loves my Penny Black stamps so I knew she would love the image on this particular card and the colour scheme really works well with the colours on the image too. Hope the challenge blogs like my design this week.

Fingers crossed x

Sketch Challenge C4C25

This is the card I have created using the sketch over on Crazy for Challenges Blog (C4C25) and the pink, yellow, green scheme over on Penny Black Saturday Challenge Blog.

The Sketch, as I said, was challenge C4C25 and the main image used is obviously Penny Black. The Penny Black Saturday Challenge Blog set the colour scheme and I think I have done pretty well considering I didn't think I would like using all of those colours on one card (too sickly) but nevertheless, I think with the promarker colouring, the added flowers, gems and the Hero Arts sentiment, it all came together fairly well. I wouldn't say I was thrilled with it, but it's alright!

Teal Treat

A different card again, with a Penny black twist. Note I haven't coloured the image at all. Well that's the way i wanted it to be. Just the teal colour and the blue gems and no other colours on the card at all. I stamped the background myself onto plain coloured card using 'samey' colours and then mounted the image using my scalloped circle Nestabilities and then cut along the left edge with my Martha Stewart Doily punch (best thing I have bought recently - I love it, well worth the money!)

Hope you guys don't think it's too plain without other colours but I love it and it actually looks ten times better in real life (the photo is definitely not doing it mjuch justice in comparison).

Grandma's Treat

This is the card I made using the C4FC sketch Challenge.

I decided to make it 'Grandma' themed as it is my nanna's 82nd birthday on the 22nd of this month. Hope nanna likes it and I hope I have some luck with the challenges too.

P.S. Does this satisfy your inspiration Claire? (My friend Claire was on the phone to me moaning earlier that I hadn't updated my blog recently - so here it is, the first of a few to upload tonight)...

Wish me luck?

Lazy Sundays

I was asked to make a card for my friend Sharon's husband John. He was celebrating his birthday on 10th February. I've had these images for a while so I decided to use one of them to make the card as it was perfect for what she wanted. I added the name using letters cut on my BigShot from black mirri card and added the 'Penny Black' sentiment. I coloured in the image using my ProMarkers and coloured his shirt in Watford FC colours.

Pins and Pearls Challenge

Every year at work, on the last week before half term, we have 'Feel Good Week' where you complete a questionnaire about all things that make you feel good / happy i.e. chocolate, the smell of vanilla, the colour red etc etc and in exchange you get someone else's personal details and you make them feel good all week (Monday to Friday).... You know who you have to make feel good for the week, but you don't know WHO HAS YOU???

On Monday I decided to give this easel card I made to my feel good buddy to make her feel valued and special for the day. It was the first time I had made an easel card and I hope she liked it as she has it on her desk.

Hope all the Penny Black Challengees like it too as I have entered it into this week's challenge 'Pins and Pearls'.

Here's another view of it (slightly more closer up).

Flowers 4 U

Another great image from Penny Black. Coloured with my copics and promarker pens. Added some My Minds Eye designer papers onto the base card and the three circle embellishments were from Tesco's.