March Card Chain Challenge

This month I again took part in the Card Chain Challenge organised by the lovely Deborah,
Each month she sets a challenge from which you can choose a sketch ,or a colour swatch or lastly a theme to follow, after making your card you send it to the next person in the chain. Its all great fun, I love attempting the challenge and sending my card somewhere in the world, its also great fun receiving a handmade card.
This month I was lucky enough to receive my card from Deirdre in Ireland. If you have ever visited her blog you will know that she makes the most beautiful cards and I was the lucky person to receive this beauty! (Deirdre followed the sketch part of the challenge ). She also sent me a selection of lovely embellishments including some of her fabulous handmade buttons.



This is the card I sent to Arlene in America, I followed the colour swatch part of the challenge, its based on a card I have made before and really liked the design of.

There is still time to sign up for the April card chain on Deborahs blog, its really fun waiting for the postman to bring your special card, the funny thing is I am probably sending my card to Deirdre this time, how exciting!!

Cards Pattern Challenge

I am a big fan of Hero Arts stamps and when I saw they were sponsoring a challenge over at the Cards Patterns blog I had to have a go. This is the sketch and I decided to follow the pattern closely.



This is the card I have made, I really like the vintage look at the moment, I found this old lace at a car boot sale last summer and think it goes well with this chintzy paper from K and Co. The bird image is from a Hero Arts digital kit called Skyland Birds and I lightly coloured it with coloured pencils.
Only two more days and school breaks for Easter, I am looking forward to lots of crafting time!

Two cards and two challenges

I really love this new stamp from Hero Arts and have been trying to think of different ways to use it. For a few weeks now I have been hunting round all the charity shops in the UK looking for some old sheet music and yesterday I was lucky enough to find some. I wanted the card to look vintage so I distressed the music paper before I resist embossed it. I think I slightly overheated the embossing powder and the image is not very clear, even so I am happy with the finished result. I also added some seed beads to the poppy centres (these beads are my favourite at the moment) . Added the lace and a prima flower for texture. This is another card for the current Caardvarks challenge.

Supplies: Stamps Hero Arts.

This my entry for this week challenge over at the Daring Cardmakers Blog, I found an Easter Egg shape wooden blank at my local craft shop and used it as a template. Dry embossed the background shape. The Daffodils, background paper and butterfly are digital images.

Supplies: Daffodils from Squigglefly. Butterfly is Hero Arts. Paper is Vinnie Pearce

Here are a couple more photos of Rome, look at this lovely display of flowers, my photograph does not really do it justice as the colours were really beautiful.


Look at this fun shot, they were working on a building in the city and I noticed this through the archway, looks like the van is going to be squashed at any minute!!!

Wedding

I am going to a wedding at the beginning of April so the perfect opportunity to make a card for the Caardvarks challenge, I always think of weddings with lace! The light isn't good today and this is the best photo I can get, the card has been partially dry embossed with hearts and the paper panel is embossed in gold.

Hope you are having a good weekend, it feels good to be back crafting!!

The Play Date Cafe and Cafe Culture!!

These are the colours for this weeks challenge over at The Play Date Cafe and after lots of serious withdrawal symptoms I have made my first card in over a week!!

I found this gorgeous Movie Star stamp at a craft fair recently and had to ink it up, after distressing it lightly with Ranger Distress inks I also applied some Rock Candy crackle paint ( this doesn't really show in the photograph) The background of the card is stamped with Hero Arts "Old Letter Writing" I wanted to achieve a Vintage looking card.

Thought I would add a couple more photos of my trip to Rome, I love the way the Italians enjoy Cafe Culture even on a chilly day. Here I am sitting in a stunning Piazza with a delicious Cappuccino.

There is a bridge in Rome called Ponte Sant'Angelo ( Bridge of Angels) leading to Castel Sant'Angelo the local youth regard it as a very romantic place and the custom is to attach a padlock with you and your partners name on. This will ensure that as long as the padlock is there your love will last. I forgot my padlock but as we have been together for 28 years I think we will be OK. lol!!!

Roman Holiday

I have just spend the most amazing time in the spectacular city of Rome, my DH has a special birthday this year and we decided to celebrate it in this historical city. Although it looks a bit grey the weather stayed dry and spring like and we were able to see all the usual tourist sites. This is the road leading up to the Vatican City, the architecture is stunning and it seems that in every street of the city there is an building to wonder at.



This guard stands on duty at the entrance to the Vatican apartments, I think his costume is fantastic, so bright and cheerful!




Its unbelievable to think that some of these ruins are nearly 2000 years old. There is one stunning building in the city called the Pantheon that is virtually complete and is still being used today.

We were really lucky as at this time of year there arn't too many tourists, so no queuing for the attractions!!

I had to take this picture of a little restaurant near the Trevi Fountain, the food display was really enticing, I love the Italian food and have eaten far too much pasta, pizza and delicious ice cream.

Oh well back to work now and also lots of catching up to do, looking at all your blogs, I will try and visit them all by the weekend!

Birds

Made this quick card tonight for the birthday of a male friend, I am not keen on making male cards I prefer girly colours but this has turned out OK. The Digital Kit is from Hero Arts and is called Vintage Skyland Birds. The larger version of the branch of birds is pop dotted to give it dimension. I am afraid the photo is a little dark as I have had to take it at night.

This will be my last post for a few days as we are off to Rome. My DH has a special birthday this year and this trip is his present, we have been to Italy lots of times but never visited the capital. I will post a few photos when we get back!

Have realised that as this card has birds on it, it qualifies for this weeks Daring cardmakers challenge.

Daffodils

The challenge over at The Daring Cardmakers blog this week is called a "Host of Golden Daffodils" Not having any daffodil stamps proved a bit of a problem so I downloaded an image from google to make my card. I made this card on Friday and then on Saturday Jane released her new images over at Squigglefly and one of these was of daffodils. Alice is on her Design Team and was able to give one image away as a small prize and I was the lucky winner!

So this week I have made two cards for the challenge. I have also entered this second card in the Squigglefly challenge, I hope my butterfly counts as being shiny!

Stamps and Butterfly: Hero Arts. Papers: Vinnie Pearce. Daffodils: Squigglefly

Another Challenge

This weeks challenge at The Play Date Cafe is to use the colours Pea Green, Lavender and White, I have enjoyed making this card, the colours are lovely together and it was easy to think of a design.

The Butterflies are from the Hero Arts Digital set called Flutterbies, a great set to use and as with all digital images they can be resized to fit your design. I have coloured them with copic markers and followed Kathys technique of adding white dots to them.

Stamps and Digital images: Hero Arts Papers: Making memories.

This is a mini card (only 3 inches square) I made this for last weeks CARDS blog challenge and was lucky enough to have it chosen for this weeks showcase. Such fun to make mini cards and great for using up scraps. I have used another digital butterfly and this time have added Glossy Accents to give it a shine.

Digital Image: Hero Arts. Papers:Vinnie Pearce and BoBunny

Caardvarks challenge

The current challenge over at the Caardvarks Blog is to make a card inspired by this photograph, I recently saw this digital kit by Vinnie Pearce and decided that it would fit the challenge perfectly. Love all the new digital stuff by this designer, it has a very vintage feel to it and I shall definately be buying more!



I have also dry embossed the base card a little although it doesn't show well in the photograph. The text paper is from an old book I found in a Charity Shop. Perfect for cards!

Digital Image: Vinnie Pearce. Paper: Making Memories Pearls: Hero Arts

Summer Wheat

I recently found loads of seed beads while sorting through a cupboard in my daughters room and have started to add them to my cards, I love the sparkle they create and they are so easy to attach with Glossy Accents. These gold beads look great added to the Wheat Grass stamp as they look like rippened wheat in the summer sun. Love this effect althought found it very hard to photograph as you can see in the complete images.



It was probably too dark today to get a good image. The butterfly is a prima flower folded in half, I just added some copic coloured pearls.

I haven't added sentiments yet as I am not sure what event I will use these for.

Supplies: Stamp and Digital Butterfly: Hero Arts Papers: BoBunny and Crate Paper.

Sunshine Challenge

The challenge at The Play Date Cafe this week is to use these colours, so inspiring as I just think of spring and lots of lovely spring flowers.



This is my bright flowery card, I loved using these colours. ( The photograph is a little dark , the background is a lemony yellow not beige as it looks) The shape was cut using my new square nesties, they make such a sweet little card, Love them!
Have a great weekend, looks like the sun is going to shine here Yipee!

Papers: Bo Bunny. Script Stamp and pearls: Hero Arts. Raffia, brads and flowers from my stash.

Fabric Challenge

After watching a tutorial on Agatas' blog about making ribbon flowers, I made a couple, one of deep red organza and the other of a piece of gingham fabric( its great for using up all those odd scraps of fabric and ribbon). I was pleased with the result so attached them both to a card. I have stitched small beads to the red flower and pearls to the gingham one.
As this card has fabric on I will enter it into this weeks EBTKS challenge.
Just a short post today as I have a busy week on. Hope things will calm down soon.

February Card Change Challenge

I took part in the Card Chain Challenge organised by Deborah again this month, this is a real fun challenge, Deborah sets the rules and this month we could choose from a colour combination, a sketch or a theme. The theme was St Patricks day, a subject I have never made a card for so this was quite a challenge!
Agnieszka from Manchester sent this lovely card to me, which was a funny coincidence as in January I sent my card to her! Its a really pretty card in a lovely shade of green, thank you Agnieszka.


This is the card I made and sent to Sue in Canada, I managed to find the backing papers at 2peas and the shamrocks were a free download pattern. I ran the shamrocks through my cuttlebug to give them texture.
I have signed up again for this months challenge as well, its such fun to make and receive a handmade card.