Joanna Sheen blog candy

Joanna Sheen is giving away some gorgeous housemouse stamps as blog candy this week....

Why not go and comment on her blog, and you may be the lucky winner of these stamps!!

I can see the table...!

I have had a go at clearing my craft room of all the christmas card detrius.  I have put equipment back where it is supposed to be.

 And I have come to the conclusion I have far too much stash...

But right now, I can see the wood of the table.  Woo hoo.

Of course, it won't last long.  I have cards to make for friends, and challenge cards for crafty cardmakers to start on.  But right now it looks quite orderly...

Challenge 81 - inspired by a song

The Crafty Cardmakers challenge to you for the next month is to take inspiration from the song lyrics of  'Time In A Bottle' written and performed by Jim Croce.

As this is a month long challenge the whole team will be voting on whose entries they want to win or take out top spots, if there are enough entrants we may have a Top Ten instead of a Top Five.



When we first discussed the challenge I was a bit stumped, but then decided to just take it literally - and for my card, I chose to take the title, Time in a bottle.


I used a plain white 5" x 7" card base, and layered it with some backing paper from my stash.  I then printed off a white wine bottle from the wine buffs cd, and stamped it with a fob watch and chain stamp (sorry - no idea whose it is).

I used some leftover ribbon folded in half to make the backing for my image, which, as this card is for a Senor Simone loving Strictly fan, is of Flavia and Vincent.


The word sentiment is a Barbara Gray clarity stamp and all was distressed at the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink.  The swirly die was a die lite, Fantastic Flourish 3.

It was quite nice to do something other than  a Christmas card for a change (I am still behind with those - eep!!) and I hope everyone else enjoys the challenge too.

And if you want to know the lyrics....

If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I'd like to do
Is to save every day
Till Eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you

If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I'd save every day like a treasure and then,
Again, I would spend them with you

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go
Through time with

If I had a box just for wishes
And dreams that had never come true
The box would be empty
Except for the memory
Of how they were answered by you

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go
Through time with

Challenge 80 *Christmas Photo Inspiration*

Our Challenge this week at Crafty Cardmakers, which is hosted by Fiona, is a photo inspiration challenge.  She has asked us to make a card or project  that is inspired by the photo that is shown here - either image or colours.

For my card, I used a textured white card base that was 6" x 6" and folded the front  back in half again. I used some printed paper from my stash (I can't remember which CD I got it from - sorry!) to layer on the base of the card, and on the front flap.  I then cut a layer from the same white card as the base (it was actually the piece I cut off to make the card 6" x 6") and stuck to it using foam pads a stamped Christmas tree from a Hot off the press Enchanted Christmas stamp set that had been heat embossed using turquoise embossing powder.   I decorated my tree with faux pearls and  I then added some die cuts - the Memory Box frostyville border and Spellbinders Make a flake 4 as embellishments.

Finally, I stamped the sentiment onto some turquoise card which was in my scrap box and attached that to the card base.

 We are sponsored again by

DI'S DIGI DOWNLOADS

$10 GIFT VOUCHER

I have been drawing since a child and studied graphics at College many years ago, I now work as a Medical photographer part time but my love was always drawing. I started cardmaking about 4yrs ago when I bought my daughter a cardmaking kit which we did together, but I’m afraid I got the bug! My daughter preferred scrapbooking. I then started looking online at other blogs and this then became my passion and I loved sharing my cards with likeminded people. 
I love stamping and loved finding images, but sometimes I could not find what I wanted so I started to draw myself. 
This then has become my second addiction and I have never looked back, I love thinking of new images, and its just fabulous to see others take them and make them into beautiful works of art. Long may it continue!

CROP STOP

$15 Gift Certificate to the Crop Stop Store 
If you’re passionate about paper-crafting whether it be scrapbooking your memories, making cards or altered art, CropStop is your one-stop solution. We offer an extensive selection of dies, embossing folders, inks, stamps and punches by all the popular manufacturers and the CropStop die and embossing folder storage solutions Pocketz Pages™ to keep everything organized. Our selection of embellishments and adhesives is continually expanding and we are excited to be the home of the colorful Ribbon Candy™. 
In need of inspiration? Visit the CropStop Gallery, Blog or Message Board and participate in a competition or class. If you have questions concerning your machine, we have a team of experts waiting to help you. 

Message Board - come and meet like minded paper-crafters.
Blog - we have prizes and giveaways every week.
Gallery - lots of inspiration from all over the world.
YouTube - demonstrations, how-to’s, projects and much more.
FaceBook page - be the first to know of new arrivals in the store.
Twitter - we always find something worth Twittering! 
CropStop ships internationally as well as domestic. Our personalized customer service is only one of our strengths. Call or come visit us atwww.CropStop.com and see what’s new in the world of paper-crafting.

Challenge 79 - More than 1 punch or die

For this week's challenge at Crafty Cardmakers, Betty C would like to see More Than 1 Punch or die Cut, and you can use any combination as long as you have more than 1. For example, 1 die cut, 1 punch, 2 die cuts, 2 punches.  Obviously you can use more than 2, but you must use at least 2.

SPONSORS HOBBY ART and MILK COFFEE STAMPS - see the challenge blog for details of prizes.

My friend J asked me to make a christening card for her friend who had twin boys, and I thought this one would fit this challenge perfectly.

She wanted to incorporate their pictures, so I used the picture background to set the colour scheme.

For the base mat I used a mica mask (fretwork) which I used as a stencil after running it through the grand calibre and coloured with the butterscotch ink pad.

So that I got the colour I wanted, I used the same ink pad to colour the edges of my  base layers.
The wooden flower and ladybirds embellishment came from my stash and I finished the card off with some faux stitching around the edge.

What I used

• A4 folded to A5 pearlescent card
• embellishment wooden flower and ladybirds from stash
• white ribbon
• D-lite medallion 4 base die
• D-lite fantastic flourish 1
• A2 matting basics dies
• Back to basics tags
• Creative Expressions fretwork mica mask
• yellow promarker
• Butterscotch Adirondack inkpad
• peel off letters

Sponsors are

Hobby Art 

As a family business we're a friendly, helpful, bunch at Hobby Art.  All our stamps are designed by us and manufactured in Britain. 
Look at the gallery on my blog - jennymayes.com - for lots of card ideas using the Hobby Art range.  
We're pleased to sponsor the Crafty Cardmakers Challenge and look forward to seeing the entries.   Good luck everyone.  Jenny and all. X

Milk coffee Digital Stamps
Cute digis for cute creations 

MilkCoffee Stamps is a digital image shop specializing in cute and girly images. We provide high quality digital images with high resolution so you could resize it at big enough size. We have many different image styles, sophisticated lady, cute girl, whimsical image, cute stuff, fairytale creature, and many various themes so it could fit any crafter with different style.

Birthday cards

 Two birthday cards today...

The first was for my friend C's little boy to give to his Daddy.  I used a white base card with some nestie shapes to mat and layer onto red card with the corners cut inwards using a punch.

The image was a lili of the valley stamp, coloured with promarkers, and the sentiments were peel offs.

The second card was for C herself to give to her husband.  She had taken this photograph when they were on holiday, and I used it as the focal point of the card. 

I coloured some white ribbon with blue promarker to blend and used that over the base mat.  Further simple mat and layering in shades of blue and some silver photo corner peeloffs were used to frame the main image. 

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 78 Shaped card with Reindeers

This week's challenge at Crafty  Cardmakers is hosted By Tracey


She said that as Christmas will be here before we know it, she would like to see a   shaped card featuring a reindeer or two. No square or rectangle cards please.

Now, I have been on a bit of a mission recently, to use up some of that stash that I have bought over the years and just squirrel away.  So when I saw the theme was reindeer, I immediately thought of the very large Kanban collection I bought last year and which I still had the majority of left!  

There was a sheet of very nice reindeer just begging to be chosen, so I used the theatre style card base card in the kit and simply stuck the reindeer onto the front flaps using foam tape.  

Inside the card, I used one of the sentiments from the kit, and two small christmas trees, which I coloured to match the sentiment using an Hazelnut adirondack ink pad.

Even though it isn't a DL shaped card, it fits very nicely into a DL envelope.

This is not a card which really inspired my creative juices, but it really took no time to make (and at this time of the year, with the number of christmas cards I still need to make, that is a BIG plus point) and the extra bonus is that my stash has been very slightly depleted.

This time:

We're sponsored by

THE STAMPMAN

 We are kindly sponsored for this challenge by The Stampman (and Lady of course!) who are ofering the winner a £10 voucher for their store, you can spend this online, in the shop or if you're lucky enough to see them at a show!  They have a ton of items in store, enough to tickle any crafty taste bud. 

and

DI'S DIGI DOWNLOADS

$10 GIFT VOUCHER

I have been drawing since a child and studied graphics at College many years ago, I now work as a Medical photographer part time but my love was always drawing. I started cardmaking about 4yrs ago when I bought my daughter a cardmaking kit which we did together, but I’m afraid I got the bug! My daughter preferred scrapbooking. I then started looking online at other blogs and this then became my passion and I loved sharing my cards with likeminded people.
I love stamping and loved finding images, but sometimes I could not find what I wanted so I started to draw myself.
This then has become my second addiction and I have never looked back, I love thinking of new images, and its just fabulous to see others take them and make them into beautiful works of art. Long may it continue!

Someone still loves Robbie...

Everyone wants photos on their cards lately!  This one was made for a friend whose daughter (in her thirties) still loves Robbie Williams...

I simply matted the photograph onto some lavender papermania textured cardstock.   Then, I used my cheery lynn swirl die and a papermania paper flower, coloured using a big and juicy ink pad to add interest.

Final touches were the squared gems, the small tag sentiment and the faux stitching around the edge of the base card.

Spiderman, Spiderman....

It's my friend C's sons birthday this week and she asked me to make her a card for him.  His current love is the Hulk and Spiderman, so I thought I would incorporate both into his card.

The picture of the Avengers was simply matted onto the base card, but Spiderman was cut out and "hinged"  so that he could come out from the main part of the card front.

I was quite pleased with this one...

Autumn colours

I've been collecting the Making Cards magazine for some time now, and some of the papers inside are just lovely.  Usually, I put them carefully in the magazine holders and just pet the papers, but this time I thought I've got to get over this and actually used some!

My card was a birthday card for an ex colleague and I used a plain heavy white base card (6" x 6").  I used the patterned owl backing paper from the magazine (September 12 edition - cute creatures by Nancy Watt) for the base layer, and distressed the edges using an adirondack (woodlands) ink pad. The green coloured card I used for the topper bases was textured cardstock from paper mania.  The toppers were also from the magazine,

As a finishing touch, I went round the base card and the green backing card with an orange promarker (using a fine tip) to make a faux stitching effect.

 I coloured some clear gems with the same colour pen, and used them on the main topper base. Finally, I went over the owls and the bird on the sentiment with some pinflair glaze to make them "pop" out from the background.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Challenge 42 - Use orange over at Use it Tuesday
Week 77 - Autumn Colours at Allsorts Challenge blog

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 77 Autumn or Autumn festivals

Our challenge to you today from Crafty Cardmakers is 'Autumn or Autumn Festivals - NOT Hallowe'en' and is hosted by Josephine, who says 'There are always so many Hallowe'en challenges around! So instead of creating a Hallowe'en card I would like to see something that depicts the Season of Autumn, or maybe Harvest Festival, Guy Fawkes, Diwali or some other festival that happens in the Autumn. If your theme is a lesser-known festival, please tell us about it in your post! But remember, this is not a Hallowe'en challenge!'

I like to think of autumn as a time when everything slows down ready to sleep through winter, and I thought this cute image of a sleepy fairy  from this week's sponsors,  Milk coffee Digital Stamps absolutely fitted the bill.

I used a sheet of orange 6 x 6 colourcore cardstock from core'dinations for my base card, and around the edge I paper pricked and went over with a white pen for a faux stitched effect.  I used some hunkydory foiled leaf card for my bottom and side contrast strips.  I used the ironwork accents border strip to make the embellishment for the bottom.  
Because I didn't have the right colour ribbon, I coloured some white organza ribbon with a terracotta promarker, and put a strip across the bottom and made a double bow.

I used labels 5 to cut round the image, and to make the sentiment.  I tinted the background of both with a woodlands Adirondack stamp pad.  

The image was coloured in with promarkers (Lots of colours!) and the final touches were the leaves from another sheet of the coredinations card (in yellow) and two tiny butterflies were punched from the piece of scrap I had after cutting down the backing sheet.

We are sponsored by

Milk coffee Digital StampsCute digis for cute creations 

MilkCoffee Stamps is a digital image shop specializing in cute and girly images. We provide high quality digital images with high resolution so you could resize it at big enough size. We have many different image styles, sophisticated lady, cute girl, whimsical image, cute stuff, fairytale creature, and many various themes so it could fit any crafter with different style.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 76 Indian Summer

Our challenge today at Crafty Cardmakers is called Indian Summer and is hosted by Mynnette.

Mynnette would like to see a created scene using any nature themed stamps you have, digis welcome. Examples of nature themed stamps are leaves, grasses, wildflowers, etc.  Anything nature and autumn! Plus use only oranges, yellows, and reds for colors (black/brown and white/cream are allowed as well).  Perhaps a sentiment of gratitude or autumn would also be appropriate!

For some reason, I struggled a bit with this challenge.  I think it is partly that scenes were my mum's thing - she loved to create her pictures with stamps and at the moment I am out of my comfort zone with doing it. 

Very fortunately, though, my new spellbinder D Lites dies turned up in the nick of time, and I was able to use the Cattails die and the swirl as the basis of my "toppers".  

I used a plain but textured card for the base, and coloured it with aged mahogany and dried marigold distress inks.  To give it a bit of "bling", I used some Persimmon Radiant Rain shimmering mist.  Over the top of the background, I stamped my sentiment randomly.  I mounted a piece of red textured card across the centre of the card and arranged the swirl first, then used a doily coloured with aged mahogany distress in as the base for my topper.  I used the Medallion 5 background die to layer on top of the doily, again, tinted on the edge with the aged mahogany inkpad.  Finally, I put the cattails die in the centre, using pinflair gel.  The die was coloured with the same distress inks previously used.

Around the edge of the card, and the red layer I did faux stitching to make a boundary - the stitching on the card was done with a dark brown pen, and on the red card was a clear glitter gelly roll pen.

I used some self adhesive pearls from my stash to brighten up the swirl and printed out the sentiment onto a yellow diecut.  Lastly, I attached a ribbon down the left side of the card, and made a simple knot bow.

This week we are sponsored by

DI'S DIGI DOWNLOADS 

  

$10 GIFT VOUCHER

I have been drawing since a child and studied graphics at College many years ago, I now work as a Medical photographer part time but my love was always drawing. I started cardmaking about 4yrs ago when I bought my daughter a cardmaking kit which we did together, but I’m afraid I got the bug! My daughter preferred scrapbooking. I then started looking online at other blogs and this then became my passion and I loved sharing my cards with likeminded people. I love stamping and loved finding images, but sometimes I could not find what I wanted so I started to draw myself. This then has become my second addiction and I have never looked back, I love thinking of new images, and its just fabulous to see others take them and make them into beautiful works of art. Long may it continue!

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 75 Stitching and Lace

Our Challenge this fortnight, hosted by Lin, is Stitching and Lace.
 
She would like to see some stitching, either hand, machine or faux on your project as WELL as some lace, real not faux. There is an added twist of using a sewing related image or stamp, if you have one, but it is not a requirement.

I had to make a 70th birthday card for a friend of mine, and I thought this was the ideal theme for that card.

So, for my card, I used a square card base, with the edges distressed with a Frayed Burlap distress ink pad. For the base layer, I used some backing paper from the Debbi Moore Haberdashery cd and  I distressed the edges of it with a Dried Marigold distress ink pad.  I used some lace from my stash to layer across the top of the base layer, and then overlaid that with my toppers - a dress stamp from Joanna Sheen, which was stamped onto cream card with versamark and embossed in fine gold, and tinted with the Dried Apricot distress ink.  The final touch was some quicky glue pen on the flower embroidery on the dress and some clear glamour dust.  
The locket was another Joanna Sheen stamp, embossed in gold on cream card and then inlaid with gold card cut to fit.  The "70" and the shamrock were peel offs, and I finished it with a pearl to go in the centre of the shamrock.

I used a nestie fancy label cut out in gold for my sentiment, and the Happy Birthday was a peeloff.

Finally, I stuck a pearl in the centre of the orange daisy, and added some faux stitching around the edge of the card, just outside the base layer. 

This week we are sponsored again by 

HOBBY ART

As a family business we're a friendly, helpful, bunch at Hobby Art.  All our stamps are designed by us and manufactured in Britain.
Look at the gallery on my blog - jennymayes.com - for lots of card ideas using the Hobby Art range. 
We're pleased to sponsor the Crafty Cardmakers Challenge and look forward to seeing the entries.   Good luck everyone.  Jenny and all. X

with this fabulous prize

Crafty Cardmakers challenge 74 - Winged things

This week our challenge at Crafty Cardmakers is hosted by Marie

She asked that our card should include something with wings. Let your imagination run wild, it could be a bird, an angel an insect , you can use stamps, die cuts, digital images in fact anything as long as it has wings.

I had to make a birthday card for a friend, so I chose to include butterflies.

The base card was ivory textured card on which I stamped some butterflies using a stamp from my stash and scattered straw distress ink.  

The base image came from a Debbi Moore Shabby Chic CD that was given away in a magazine - Crafts Beautiful.  I cut around the ivy, leaving a shallow border.  I distressed the edge with the scattered straw distress ink to take the stark whiteness away. 

The bluey coloured butterflies were already printed, so I just decorated them with some wink of stella clear pen, and stamped the other butterfly image onto the base using flitterglu.  I then layered up with some gilding flakes.  Onto this base image, I layered another of the butterfly images, stamped onto plain ivory card in the same way.  I distressed the background with the scattered straw ink pad and applied it on top of the base image using pinflair glue.

The sentiment strips were produced on my computer, and were cut down to size and distressed before putting in place using pinflair glue gel.  The final touch was two small diamante stones in the top right and bottom left corners.

For this challenge, we are sponsored by:

The Stampman (and Lady of course!) who are offering the winner a £10 voucher for their store, you can spend this online, in the shop or if you're lucky enough to see them at a show! They have a ton of items in store, enough to tickle any crafty taste bud.

We are also sponsored by 

Blog Candy from Joanna Sheen...

Joanna Sheen has some blog candy available on her challenge blog this week.  All you have to do to win is go over and leave a comment on the post in question - winners are chosen at random. 

Why not have a go?  It looks like a great cd...

Another wedding card

Wedding Card

I mentioned before that one of my former trainees is getting married this weekend and I posted a card I had made for my friend C to give to him.  This is the card I am sending myself.

I used pearlescent white card to make a 7 x 5 inch base, and then embossed a panel using my Creative Expressions Flourish embossing folder in the same cardstock.

From some silver card, I cut out a horseshoe shape, and embossed the "nail marks" using a ball tool from the back.  To provide some definition to the edge, I used some flexible silver peel off strips and finally  I stuck some organza ribbon to each end of the horseshoe, to make a loop.

Bride and Groom

The characters came from a Forever friends stamp set, and were coloured in using promarkers.  I used the clear #700 gelly roll pen to make the veil sparkle.

Sentiment on Fancy Tag

Using the same white pearlescent cardstock and the Spellbinders Fancy Tags Two set, I cut a tag to use for my sentiment.  I attached this to the top of the card using foam pads and then attached the horseshoe to hang over the top of it using a decorative crystal brad.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Divas by Design - Challenge 50 Lets Celebrate
I love Promarkers - Anything Goes

A King for the day...

 I had an unusual project to make this weekend - my friend S asked for a gift box in the shape of a crown. 

This was for one of her friends who always jokingly says "if I were King for a day I would......(whatever it was)".

To begin with I was stumped as to what to do - the box needed shape, but also needed to hold the small gift.

Eventually, I came up with a hexagonal box, and I used my nestabilities to make the decorative elements (Ironwork Accents and Parisian Motifs).

I began with some textured gold cardstock, and cut out the hexagonal shape for the lid and the base.  I then added the sides, edged with a narrow peeloff to add definition and  joined together with a paper pocket hinge. 

This enables the box to be opened out fully when the lid is removed.

I used the smaller dies in the set to make the embellishments to go in the centre of the sides and used gems from my stash.

The inside of the box was lined with some decorative paper and a clarity stamp sentiment.

I then began to embellish the "crown" lid.


First I used some thin decorative braid to put around the base of the  lid. 

I used the waste from the ironworks border to make the part that went across the top and stuck the ironworks border around the top

On the top of the lid, I used a smaller hexagon, run through the bug with a lattice embossing folder.  This was stuck in place with a foam pad.

The final touch was the cross embellishment on the centre front of the box lid.

I made another box for the gift box to be given in - but this one was just plain card!!

I am entering my gift box into the following challenge:

Allsorts Week 169 - It's a gift

Wedding Bells

How time flies! One of my former trainees at work is getting married shortly and it seems no time since he was that harem scarem 18 year old...

Anyway, my friend C is going to the wedding and has asked for a card that will double up as a gift card holder.

For the base card, I used some cream hunkydory swirl card, which I cut down as if it were going to be a 15 cm square card.  I then folded it so that there was a flap on the left hand side, and the right flap was folded so it butted up to it.  (folds at 10 and 25 cm).

Then, using a 15cm length of the piece I cut off when I made the base card, I cut first one border (with the holes) and then the second (lace) from it.

I used a piece of textured gold card to make a base for the border strips, and stuck the lacy border slightly apart from the other piece of the card so that the gold showed through. The whole thing was then stuck to the base card, so that it overlapped the second fold.

Using the same gold card, I cut out the swirl (Memory Box Elegant Scrollwork), the heart borders (Memory Box twirled heart border) and a mat from nestie large labels.

I stamped the sentiment onto plain cream card, and then cut it out with the slightly smaller large label and matted that onto the gold mat.

I used two hearts from the offcuts of the heart border to decorate the sentiment panel.   

I put some organza ribbon through a pearl heart buckle I had in my stash and used that a an embellishment on the swirl.

Finally, I stamped congratulations on the same cream card and cut round it so it would fit onto the bottom corner.

Inside the card, I decorated the inner flaps with the twisted card diecut, and used the last of the embossed cream card to make a "giftcard" pocket.

I will print out an insert to go inside to finish it off.

I am entering this card into the Joanna Sheen Totally Sentimental Challenge

First Christmas card of the year...

It's leading up to a typical English Bank holiday today - in other words, it's raining.

I was going to do the garden, but that got washed out.  Then I thought I should do housework, but my craft room was calling to me instead. Today, I thought I would go through my stash and make a card with what was already available without too much effort.

And what was available was the remnants of a Kanban christmas kit, some toppers that I printed off  last year from the Create and Craft Triple treasures cds I bought some time ago, and some snowflakes that were the bits left over from a memory box border die.

I used the card blank from the Kanban kit and stuck the snowflakes down the panel with pinflair gel.  In the inside, I distressed an embossed piece of card from the Kanban kit with tumbled glass distress ink around the edges and mounted it onto some blue shiny card to leave a very thin border.  I then ran the topper though the 'Bug using the biggest of the large labels die and mounted that in the centre of the panel using pinflair glue. Lastly, the Merry Christmas sentiment also came from the Kanban kit, but I used the tumbled glass distress inks to take the stark "whiteness" off of it.

One card done - many more to go... Especially since this is the first year that my mum won't be helping me make them.  I suspect it is going to take me a long while to do them all... :(

I was going to enter this card into the CD Sunday challenge this week - Cute Christmas but like a twit I didn't realise that the deadline was 1pm on Saturday..  *sigh*  let that be a lesson to everyone - when you enter a challenge, READ THE RULES!!!!

Crafty Cardmakers Design Team Call

Crafty Cardmakers are still having a DT call and if you think you could create up to two projects per month (although there is no pressure to come up with something for every challenge as we are a VERY laid back team), and comment on a percentage of the entries per challenge then why not apply?

All you have to do is go over to the Crafty Cardmakers blog and enter our latest challenge, and add DT after your name in the linky box.    Lin is holding this open until we have enough new members to boost the team, so at this present time there is no closing date for the call. 

Please read the challenge criteria carefully as we had a few DT applicants last time around who had not really understood that we wanted a sport themed creation and they entered something that didn’t have such a theme to it. 

If you would like to apply for the team, but do not wish to enter our current challenge, then please drop Lin a line at ccmchallenges@gmail.com with a link to 3 of your favourite posts.

Go on.... have a go.  What have you got to lose?

 

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 73 I do like to be beside the seaside...

This weeks challenge at Crafty Cardmakers is hosted by Yvonne.  

She says:

I would like a post card [6x4inches approx], showing a beach scene, and would like it to include some beach and the sea, for the background to the focal image. 

 ***

I knew that this week was going to be out of my comfort zone because I don't usually do scenes - this was something my mum loved to do - but also I don't have any beach stamps.  So, because I also love the fact that in crafting you can mix and match skills, techniques and styles, I decided to use a photograph for the base. 

I printed the photograph out onto matte card, and then using walnut distress ink, stamped out the boats (from the Sheena Douglass on the water range) in the foreground onto the beach.  I used a small amount of water and a fine brush to colour the images.  I then took some essential grasses stamps from Inkylicious and stamped them in the foreground.

Finally, I stamped the sentiment (also from Sheena Douglass) in the sky.  

We are being sponsored this week by

DIGI DOODLE SHOP

$10 Gift Certificate for the Store

Digi Doodle Shop is the results of a mother and daughter’s love for the arts and crafts. It was started a little over 3 years ago with a little more than 100 stamps, and has since then grown to almost 500 stamps. Joy (the mother of this team) designs realistic images, while Judy (aka/daughter) loves the “fun side of life”, and create images with a cartoon flair. Having these two complimenting styles have enabledDigi Doodle Shop to offer a wide variety of stamps.

It is a real honor and pleasure to sponsor this challenge, and we look forward to seeing all the amazing creations. We thank the design team for their incredible creations, and wish all the participants the very best of luck in this challenge.

Thank you so much for having us, and again the very best of luck to all of you.

Sincerely,

Judy and Joy

and also

ONE STOP CARD CRAFTS

We are sponsored today by ONE STOP CARD CRAFTS who are offering a £10 voucher for their store as a prize.

At One Stop Card Crafts we have a big range of ever changing discount making and card making craft supplies.

We are always adding to our range of craft supplies which are ideal for making handmade greeting cards, do-it-yourself invitations scrapbook pages, altered items and much more.

Our card making craft supplies include free UK postage, our popular discount scheme and quick service means our customers keep coming back for more.

Our prices are very competitive and this & makes us an ideal place to buy your card making supplies online. Some of our new products include Petaloo flower layers, Ranger Glitter Glue and Martha Stewart Punches. We also host a regular challenge at http://onestopcraftchallenge.blogspot.com/