Forty winks...

...on cloud nine.

This is a second image used for the Progressive challenge "cdacpc5" over on the CDAC site.
A sheet of A4 smooth white CS folded in half creates the card blank - then a matt of holographic CS that almost covers the front of the card was attached using DST (I'm not a huge fan of holographic card of this kind but from time to time it fits the bill). A smaller matt of white CS with holographic snowflakes was attached to this and then the image was mounted on 3D foam pads.
I've used a limited range of Copic colours on this image but have blinged-up the wings with Crystal Ice Stickles.
I showed this image to my Mum and the first thing she said was that it reminded her of my Dad LOL. I can see her point and can imagine my Dad snoozing up on his cloud with a slightly wonky halo.

This was a fun image to work with.......................

Another sketch...

...this time from "LOTV".

I wanted to keep this fairly simple and try to make it more appropriate for a boy. Like many folk, I don't find it easy doing 'male' cards but thought I'd give it a go with this LOTV image that I received as a printed freebie from Papercraft Inspirations.
The card is a white 6x6 inch CS blank and the PPs are a mixture of freebies from magazines. The buttons were some that I bought in HobbyCraft that came in a variety of Halloween colours.
The image has been coloured using Copic pens. Hope you like.........................

We are getting underway...

...with our collections for the Children in Need events.

Every year at work we hold a week of events for Children in Need. We usually have a quiz, a bonus ball sale, a tombola and a guessing event of some kind (how many sweets in the jar - type of thing). Everything is donated by the staff and then they pay to participate in the various events.

This year we are going to have a book sale, a quiz, the bonus ball sale, guess the number of 1p pieces in the jar and the tombola. Folk have already started to bring in contributions.
These are some scarves that Mum knitted...
...and this is how they look now they have been packaged for the event.
Our collection boxes are fairly basic as we have to use items that are to hand in the office. However, it is surprising what you can do with some printer paper, marker pens and some highlighters.

I'll take more photos as things progress..........................

Keep it cool...

...colourwise.

The image on this card was a freebie that came as part of cdacpc5 - the latest stage of the 6-part Progressive challenge over at "CDAC". The turkey is a digi image from 'Sew Many Cards Digi Stamps' which is handy as it means I can also enter it into their latest challenge over at "Sew Many Challenges".
The 'progressive challenge' asked that the images be coloured using cooler shades from the colour wheel so I went for mainly blues, greys and mauves. The theme over at 'SMC' was background paper and they asked that two different PPs be used on the project. I have used two different striped PPs that came free with magazines.
The image has been coloured using Copic pens. I'm not sure you would ever find a turkey in these colours but I think I can get away with a bit of artistic license LOL................

Going dotty...

...for a CAS Chrimbo card.

Challenge #66 over at "KKKG" asked us to 'get dotty' whilst over at "Winter Wonderland" they want to see a CAS Christmas card.

Here's my entry to both challenges...
A 6x6 inch white CS card blank was the starting point for this card. The 'dotty' PPs were from stash and a variety of sources - can't remember what brands; sorry. The base card and the image panel were inked round the edges with an old-gold marker.
The sentiment was from a sheet that came free with a magazine. It was trimed and attached using 3D foam pads.
This cute little fella is the October Freebie over at the Kenny K website...it looks like he is saying "I love you this much" or "Your present is this big" LOL He has been coloured with Copic pens.

As you can see - there are certainly plenty of dots.........................

Glitz & Sparkle...

...is the requirement over at "The Paperlane Challenge".

From TPLC04 they have decided to extend the images that can be used in their challenges - folk now have the choice to use Molly Bloom and/or Magnolia stamps.

This challenge wants to see 'glitz & sparkle'
I just had to use a couple of my new Molly Bloom stamps as I've had them for a few weeks now and hadn't even shown them an ink pad LOL
The sentiment and the 'Molly' are both from the 2011 Christmas collection. I think you can see from this photo that there is plenty of glitzy sparkly stuff.
Molly has been coloured with Copic pens and then mounted on a background of Kanban CS showing a winter scene. The snow has been glistened with a mix of 'Glistening Snow Writer' (snow, rooftop, fir trees) and Ice Stickles (bare trees, hedge).

I really must ink-up some of my other Molly Bloom stamps so that I can sit and have a colouring session...................

Think Pink...

...for Breast Cancer Awareness.

October has become the month when we highlight this cause and folk hold events to raise awareness and cash for the various charities linked to this. Over at "Just Magnolia and hAnglar & sTanglar" they set the challenge as Pink for this very reason.

Here is my 'pink' card...
I've used the Birthday cake Tilda as my image. The PPs are a mix of Papermania from different collections.
Pink is not a colour that I use a great deal for my images but this time I went very pink so as to keep in with the theme.

Hope you like..............................

Please don't think...

...I'm ignoring you - I'm not, honest.

I think the problem stems from an automatic Windows update that has reconfigured my PC and now I'm really having problems.

I was getting around this by saving posts to draft & then up loading at work but yesterday this wouldn't work either (I think they tinkered with the security settings and access over the weekend grrrrrrrrrrrr).

I have managed to get in this afternoon - not sure how but I'm making the most of it by trying to catch up with things. I will try and save some stuff to draft this evening and hope I can get back in from work tomorrow to post the stuff.

Everything crossed and here's hoping...........................

Sporty...

...with a sketch.

Challenge #20 over on the "TOMIC" site is the first one in a few weeks that I've been able to enter as I actually have a Magnolia stamp that meets the challenge criteria - Sport - my Tilda is a surfer.
I struggled a bit with the sketch because I didn't feel a surfer would have much on the way of 'frills & flounces' so I kept it fairly basic with colours that reflect sun/sea/sand.
The image was coloured using Copic pens and some of the new pale Flexmarkers.

Off to Mum's today for Lamb stew (yummy) - perfect for the chilly weather that has suddenly hit. Have a great Sunday............................

Create a scene...

...for Christmas.

Hazel over at "CHNC" would like to see a scene for the latest challenge - this is mine...
An A5 size card (A4 folded in half). Some silver miri-board as a matt and a digital snow scene printed from the PC.
Over the top of the scene is a white matt mounted on more silver miri-board. The word 'Peace' is a Clarity stamp that has been embosed in silver and the 'C' cut out to act as a window through to the scene behind. The trees were cut on the Cricut and sprayed with Spray & sparkle.
I love blue, white & silver together - especially for wintery images. I think the silver and white make the blue of the sky stand out even more than it would anyway.

Hope you like..........................

"An Old Fashioned"...

...the gentleman's cocktail.

The folk at "Less is More" set the week 37 challenge theme as 'cocktail' - their brief said it could be interpreted literally or by some other means i.e. a cocktail of colours.

I don't have any images of glasses with umbrellas and cherries so I went looking on t'net for ideas. I thought this image from an old drinks recipe book was perfect for the theme and would also make an idea card for a male.
The base case is smooth white CS - a sheet of A4 folded in half and inked around the edge with black.
I wanted to keep the image very simple so I only used a minimum of colour just to give a hint of a colour-washed plate. The image is cut as a separate panel that also has been inked in black around the edge. This panel was then mounted on 3D foam.
What I really liked about the image that was shown in the book was the fact that it also came with an image of the ingredients - these were also only lightly coloured. I used this panel inside the card.
This image also lists the ingredients and the quantities needed to make the drink - something a little different to send a fella................................

Baubles...

...or Christmas things that hang.

Challenge 42 over at "CHNC" asked for baubles or things that hang. This is the card I came up with...
The base card was a 6x6 inch smooth white CS card blank. The front was completely covered with PP and a topper attached in the lower right-hand corner.
The background PP is from one of this year's paper packs from DoCrafts - Enchanted Christmas. It is like a close-up of a Christmas tree with baubles and lights.
The topper is from last year's DoCrafts range - Henbury Lane. It is a foiled decoupage topper of baubles and it has the sentiment 'On the 12th day of Christmas'.

I was in two minds as to whether I should glitz-up the background paper or not...especially as the topper is foiled - I'm still undecided. I might add some Stardust gel pen to the twinkling lights; I'm not sure. What do you think?......................

It's likely to be quiet around here...

...over the next few days unless I can get Blogger sorted.

I seem to be able to save stuff to draft but I can't actually post it (the previous post was made from work as is this one). This will mean that unless I get things sorted I won't be entering any challenges over the weekend because I won't be at work to make the posts.

I just don't know what is going on so am getting rather frustrated by it all.

I even had a problem accessing some of my favourite blogs this morning so you will appreciate that I'm not a very happy bunny at the moment.

I'll try and catch up with you all as soon as possible........................

Little Robin Redbreast...

...was the latest requirement over at "Winter Wonderland".

You wouldn't believe how much trouble I've had just getting this far on my PC tonight and I've still got to be able to get over to the Winter Wonderland site to link everything up...fingers crossed.
The card is made from a 5.25inch sq Kraft card blank. The background PP is from the Papermania pack "at Christmas time" - fabulous quality papers. The robins were from the same pack.
I decided to create a wreath effect around the image and this was done using my Martha Stewart frond punch and two shades of green CS.

Fingers crossed I manage to get this posted................................(nope had to do it at work - would only save as a draft)

Excuse me whilst I...

...SCREAM!!!

My internet service and Blogger must have had a fight, spat, whatever and they are not playing nice. Everything is running very slowly and whenever I try to do anything it seems to trigger 'hissy-fit' time and I get that silly rotating circle and a 'not responding' message. It is making it very hard to do anything on Blogger.

I didn't have time this morning to post a card that I made for the Paper Shelter challenge 'We love animals' but didn't think it would be a problem as I would have more than an hour when I got home from work to do it before the deadline...think again. I finally got onto the Paper Shelter site 4 mins after the close of the challenge grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I'm not having this kind of problem accessing anything else via t'net so it has got to be something to do with Blogger. Anyway, rant over and here is the card I made...
The base card was made some time ago to try out the mechanism (I had attended a card workshop and we had made this style of card and I was trying to remember how...) but I never decorated it. If you are wondering what kind of mechanism...
...it's one of those magic slider thingies.
The panels have been decorated with stamped images that have been 'water-coloured' using a variety of Marvy & Zig pens.
Isn't this just the cutest image.
The main panel on the front of the card was also decoupaged (just the 3 mice and only one layer).

There are a few of my favourite challenge sites that I will be giving a miss this week as I do not have suitable images for the themes set (LOTV is one) but I have a few cards on the go and plenty of digi images that I need to get coloured so I think I've got plenty to keep me occupied.

Thank you for dropping by...........................

Delicious Doodles...

...provided this lovely Imp as part of CDACPC4.

When the batch of digi images arrived on 1st October for the 4th section of the CDAC Progressive Challenge, I fell in love with this image straight away. I knew the sort of colours I wanted to use but I didn't have anything suitable to actually make an appropriate card. I coloured the image anyway but never managed to make it up into a card for the challenge.

I took the coloured image with me today when I popped over to Pinnacles at Barleylands in the hope I would find something. I found some fabulous background card from Kanban - "Gilded Silhouette" (in green)...and this was the result...
I wanted the image to be the main focus of the card but I didn't want the background to get lost either.
The card has a shadowy lace effect on the green part and a black silhouette of foliage which created the perfect setting for this little imp - she looks as if she is sitting amongst the shrubbery with her three little chums.
The imp was coloured using Copic pens and then cut out & mounted using 3D foam. I put a thicker layer of foam down the centre of her wings to give a bit more dimension.

The 6x6 inch card blank is created from Core-dinations Black cat CS. The first matt is a piece of pale green Bazzill Bling cut to 5.75x5.75 inches. The next matt is the black CS again cut to 5.5x5.5 inches. The Kanban matt is cut to 4.25x4.25 inches which leaves a wide border around the image.

There is no embellishment on this card and I don't think it needs any - what do you think?...........................

I'd like to enter this in the current Delicious Doodles challenge #4 - the theme being 'Halloween but NO orange' (thanks Ruthie for pointing it out).

Surprise revealed...

...A Guest Design Team spot for "Creative Craft World".

I have been rather lucky with my entries to the challenges over at CCW but it still came as a surprise when the lovely Choccy (Oona Saunders) contacted me to sort out about my prize and asked if I would be interested in doing a GDT spot. I read the email several times and my thoughts chopped & changed so many times..."Yippee, Wow, Yep do it!" - to - "No way, couldn't possibly"...I think it took me a couple of days to pluck-up the courage to say yes (and then was so scared stiff about it I nearly emailed back to change my mind LOL).

Well I've done it and this is my card...
The theme for the challenge this time is NUMBERS and the sponsor for the challenge is "GLITTERBABE"

I have a lot of friends and colleagues who hit the big 4-0 this year (there must have been something about 1971...LOL) so I used that as the basis for the 'numbers' bit of the challenge.
This is 'Twinkletoes' she is a digi image from Glitterbabe - isn't she super. I have coloured her using my Copic pens.
As the card has a floral PP I decided to use just a few flowers along the bottom.

Materials used: -
A5 stepper card created from red embossed metallic card (PayPer Box)
PP is Je t'adore (Making Memories)
Flowers are a mix of Papermania and WOC

So that's my surprise let out of the bag...why don't you hop over to Creative Craft World and join in the fun too...............................

A photo card...

...with Hearts.

Let me explain..."Less is More" set their current challenge as a one layer card with hearts. To be honest, I couldn't think of anything to do and was going to give this week a miss. Then a friend asked me if I could make a card that could take a photo inside but wanted the outside very plain. This is what I came up with...
The PP is on the inside of the card to act as a matt for the photo and I've just used the Martha Stewart Hearts punch around the page set on the front edge of the card and the back edge corners.
As requested, the only thing on the front (apart from the hearts) is a simple 'For You'.

My friend was happy with it and I'm hoping this meets the requirements of the challenge.....................................

I'm so excited...

...I just had to share the news.

The lovely Kerryanne English over at the "Shabby Art Boutique" has decided to run her Simply Homemade Christmas event again this year...YIPEE!!!
Last year Kerryanne organised what was supposed to be a 'one-off' event that ran from the beginning of October through to 24th December. For this event Kerryanne and her crafting friends came together to share some wonderful Christmas crafts/recipes/decor ideas.

Many folk have asked if another event would run this year and Kerryanne has decided to organise another one - not such a long one this time.

So make a note in your diaries and bookmark or become a follower of Kerryanne's blog because I'm sure you won't want to miss any of the fabulous ideas that you will find there...
...what date do you need to make a note of ??? - 1st November is when the excitement kicks-off.

Oh...I do have another reason for being excited but I can't share it with you at the moment. All I can say is - watch this space.........................

Let it Snow...

...but only on the Christmas cards LOL

Don't get me wrong...I love the look of snow - everywhere looking clean & fresh & bright - I just don't like travelling to & from work in the stuff and the thought that it will arrive sooner rather than later this year does not bode well in my book.

Anyhoo...back to business, the folk over at "LOTV" set for their challenge 115 the theme of 'Let it Snow' so here's my effort...
To me snow means clean/crisp/sparkly so that was the look I went for.
The sentiment is fairly simple and says it like it is.
I don't have many LOTV images but I do love this little fairy as she lends herself to most seasons and occasions just by a change of colourway. As you can see, there is plenty of sparkle. Hope you like...................................