Happy Bea-irthday Megan

Good Morning

Today is my niece's birthday and I wanted to make her more of a keepsake than a card this year.  With the help of Teddy Bea here is what I made:

I'm sorry about the quality of the photos, the light is very poor here this morning.

Using my new MCS cd-rom, I imported the lettering from a Crafters Companion cd.  I then selected the images I wanted to use and cut round them all using the new scissors tool. I then re-sized the letters and images to suit and added an image to each letter. I printed them all out on Neenah cardstock and then coloured all the images using coloursoft pencils, blended, as usual, with baby oil.

I added a small dimensional butterfly to the letter M.

I added ultra fine glitter to the moon on this image, but I didn't spread the glue evenly as I wanted to try and create the surface of the moon. 

This is one of the first digi stamps I purchased and still one of my favourites.  I added a balloon embellishment from my stash to this one, threaded through her hand to secure in place.

I added eyelets to each of the letters for extra strength, and then attached them to each other using bakers twine.

My creation is for the following challenges:

Teddy Bo Challenge - Anything Goes

Flutterby Wednesdays - Bright Colours

My Mum's Craft Shop - Here Come The Girls

Moving Along With The Times - Spots and/or stripes (All the letters are spotty)

Chocolate, Coffee and Cards - Add Glitter

Alphabet Challenge Blog - Y for You Can Choose

ABC Challenge - Happy Birthday

I'm sorry for the long post today, I hope you stuck with me!  Enjoy your Sunday.

Jo x

Taking A Nap

Good Morning

Another calendar today, this time made using the fabulous Furry Friends cd-rom from Joanna Sheen:

The adorable image is printed onto glossy photo paper and cut with a Spellbinders die.  The backing paper is from the cd-rom, matted onto some co-ordinating cardstock.  The strip across the middle is made using a Martha Stewart punch, and the mat the calendar is sat on is silver linen card cut with a Marianne die.

My calendar is for the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly - Die Cute Special

Moving Along With The Times - Spots and/or stripes

Have a great day.

Jo x

Rose and Sparkle

Good Evening

I'm back with another calendar today.

I used some of my new Christmas goodies to make this one - the Spellbinders die and the embossing folder.  As soon as I saw this embossing folder on Joanna Sheen's website, I knew this is how I would first use it.  The gems are also from Joanna's shop.  I made the roses using Marianne dies, the leaves are punched using a X-cut punch and some gold embossing powder added to the edges.  The tiny butterflies are made using a EK Success border punch.  I added some beads to a hat pin as an extra embellishment.

My calendar is for the following challenges:

Joanna Sheen forum challenge - Bejewelled.

One Stop Craft Challenge - Bingo - I chose Flowers, Die-cuts/Punches and embossing

Cupcake Craft Challenge - Something new (Spellbinders die and embossing folder)

Pollycraft Challenge - Anything but a card

Shopping Our Stash - All that glitters, sparkles or shines

Craft Your Days Away - New beginnings - I've used my new goodies and it's for a new year.

Anything Goes Challenge - Anything Goes

Crafty Creations Challenge - Something New

Divas by Design - New Beginnings

Thanks for stopping by.

Jo x

Relax

Hello

A warm welcome to my new followers.

My card for today follows the current sketch at Willow Sketchie Challenge:

The image is from Crafty Sentiments coloured using coloursoft pencils. I added glossy accents to the bubbles although you can't really see it in the photo. This is layered onto a mat cut from core'dinations cardstock using a Nellie Snellen die.  The backing papers are printed from Joanna Sheen's house mouse cd-rom and the ribbon is from my stash.

My card is for the following challenges:

Willow Sketchie Challenge - Sketch

Crafty Sentiments Design - Water Themed

Crafty Cardmakers - No Floral Embellishments

An Elegant Lady

Good Afternoon

I thought I'd share another calendar with you today, I hope you're not fed up of seeing them!

This is made using Joanna Sheen's ATC cd-rom, this was one of the first craft cd's I ever bought.  The backing papers are also printed from the cd-rom.  I decided on an easel style again as I think they display really nicely.  I used brown and gold cardstock for the matting and layering.  The calendar is sat on a mat cut using a Marianne die.  The butterfly is also a Marianne die with some pearls in the centre.  The roses and leaves are once again a Marianne die.

My calendar is for the following challenges:

Flutterby Wednesday's - Open plus fairy, butterfly or angel.

Dream Valley Challenges - Anything Goes

One Stitch At A Time - Use 3 embellishments

Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Photo Inspiration

Top Tip Tuesday - Anything Goes

Have a lovely evening.

Jo x

Teddy Bea Sitting Pretty

Good Evening

The current challenge over at Teddy Bo and Co is to use your birthstone.  My birthday is in February, therefore my birthstone is Amethyst which could perhaps explain my liking of purples.  I have been busy making calendars, and I have made this one to tie-in with the challenge:

Teddy Bea is coloured with Coloursoft pencils, blended using baby oil. The mat she is sat on is cut using a Spellbinders die, matted onto core'dinations cardstock which I have distressed with a sanding block.  Distress Inks in Milled Lavender and Dusty Concorde are used round the edge of the image to take away the starkness.

The gorgeous papers are printed from one of the SWALK cd-roms (sorry I can't remember which one), I printed them onto Crafters Companion satin paper, as recommended by my lovely blogging friend Edna, you get such fantastic results with this paper.

The calendar tab is sat on a mat cut with a Mariannes die from core'dinations card, again I distressed this with a sanding block.  The flourishes are also a Marianne die from silver mirror card.  The flowers are Nellie Snellen punches, with a co-ordinating pearl in the centre.

I would like to also enter my calendar in the following challenges:

Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes plus distressing

Shopping Our Stash - Revisit an old challenge - November, use a digi

Thanks for having a look.

Jo xx

January Crafty Calendar Challenge - New News

Good Morning

There is a fabulous new challenge over at Crafty Calendar Challenge and this month our theme is 'New News! with the optional extra of buttons and bows'.

Here is my card:

This adorable image is available from Crafty Sentiment Designs who are our fab sponsors for this challenge.  This months lucky winner will get to chose 4 digital images from the store.

I coloured the image using Coloursoft pencils, blended with baby oil.  The image is sat on a mat cut using a spellbinders die.  The lovely papers were free with Simply Cards and Papercraft.  The little teddy bears have been in my stash for ages, and the red fibre band was included in a prize I won recently.

Please do pop across to the challenge blog and see the super cards my fellow DT members have created.  I do hope you'll join in with our challenge.

I would like to enter my card in the following challenges:

Di's Digi Challenge - Something New

ABC Challenge - G is for Green

One Stitch At A Time- Use a digi

My Mum's Craft Shop - Something New

Cute Card Thursday - Something New

CES Challenges - Anything Goes

Craft Your Days Away - New Beginnings

The Poodles Parlour - Use Buttons

Jo x

Olympic Cyclist

Good Evening

When I saw the theme for this weeks challenge over at CD Sunday Challenge - O for Olympics - I didn't think I'd be taking part this week!!!  I'm not in the least bit sporty, but not wanting to miss the challenge googled olympic sports to see if I could get any flashes of inspiration.  Well fortunately, when I saw cycling on the list I remembered an image on one of my cd's that was suitable for the challenge.

This is Jack Jones, a decoupage image from a Do-crafts cd-rom that came with a magazine ages ago.  The backing paper and sentiment are also from the same cd.  I die-cut five circles in the appropriate colours to further tie-in with the theme of Olympics.

My card is for the following challenges:

CD Sunday Challenge - O for Olympics

Sentimental Sundays - Anything goes

Rainbow Lady's Challenge - Travel

Thanks for visiting my blog.  Have a great weekend.

Jo x

Just To Say ..... Thanks

Hello

I'm busy making lots of thank you cards at the moment.  This is one I sent to a friend a little while ago:

The is made using a set of stamps from Inkylicious.  I stamped the main image in Versamark and the heat embossed with white detail embossing powder.  I then applied colour from a big and juicy ink pad (hydrangea)using ink duster.  It is sat on a mat cut using a Nellie Snellen die.

I then stamped other flowers and grasses from the set using the same ink pad.  I love the colours in this ink pad.  I added the sentiment using satin ribbon and then matted this onto some silver mirror card.

My card is for the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Crafty Creations Challenge - Use heat embossing

Creative Inspirations - With thanks

Clear it out Challenge - Thank you

Craft Challenge - Thank you

Thanks for having a look.

Jo x

Leann's Giveaway

Good Evening

If you pop over to Leann's Blog she has a fab giveaway.

Jo x

Time To Relax

Good Morning

Today is my brother-in-laws birthday.  I couldn't decide what theme to use for his card so had a look through my Nostalgia cd-rom from Joanna Sheen.  This is the card I came up with:

I'm really pleased with how this came out.  I always seem to struggle with stepper cards and had to work out my own dimensions for this one.  I printed a backing paper from the cd-rom onto card stock to produce my base card.  The images are all printed onto glossy photo paper and matted onto gold linen card.  The sentiments are Lili of the Valley using versafine ink.  All the sentiments are matted onto gold linen card too, the circular sentiment mats cut using a Nellie Snellen Lily die which I got for Christmas.

My card is for the following challenges:

Joanna Sheen Challenge - Celebrations

Bunny Zoe Crafts - Fancy Folds

Rainbow Lady's Challenge - Anything Goes

Top Tip Tuesday - Anything Goes

Pile it on challenge - Anything Goes

Paper Sundaes Challenge - Something Old (Stamps) Something New (Dies)

Ladybug Crafts Ink - Use new stash (Dies)

Thanks for visiting my blog today.

Jo x

A Look Back At 2011

Hello

Happy New Year to you all and a big welcome to my new followers.

One of the reasons I started a blog was to keep a record of cards I have made. I noticed a lot of my fellow bloggers have chosen their favourite cards from 2011 and decided it would be nice to have a look back at my blog for the last year and pick my favourites too.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Thanks for journeying back through the year with me.

Jo x