Its been ages....

.....since I managed to post something I've made but I have been getting crafty making stuff to sell in the charity shop where I volunteer a couple of days a week. Anyway - I thought I should post something so here is the birthday pressie I sent my brother in law this week. He's a very keen cyclist and this digi-stamp (coloured with Copics) from Pink Cat Studio is just right! I'm not too keen on cutesy but the designs at Pink Cat have the right combination of cute and simple for me when I want to make something for a child or, as here, where the subject is perfect for an adult I know!

The altered "Pringles" tub (filled with some home baking) has been decorated with my new Teeny Trees stamp set from Waltzing Mouse Stamps. I've been looking for the perfect tree stamp set for ages - and this is it! Love it! I've used the teeny leaves on the card too. The tag on top is from Papertrey's 2009 Autumn Tags - another favourite of mine.

Papertrey to die for!

Blimey! I'm actually early for a change - the A Passion for Papertrey current challenge doesn't finish until tomorrow morning and I've made my card already! Its for my sister who will be having yet more surgery on her leg next week!

The Delightful Dahlia set is a favourite of mine and I have the dies to match too. So as the challenge is to make a card using die cuts this was a good chance to get them out. I've cut and stamped the images on orange and kraft card and used my copics to colour them in. I really love using copics on coloured card - a technique I picked up on the fabulous Nichole Heady's blog a while ago.

Here in the UK we associate Dahlia's with late summer and the beginning of Autumn - but I refuse to believe we're there yet! So here are some photos I took a week or so ago of the old rose in the garden. It only blooms once a season in mid-summer so I can't resist trying to capture its ephemeral beauty. It was already an old rose bush when we moved into the house 35 years ago and I'd love to know its name. The blooms are huge, about 5" across and the palest creamy yellow. So if anyone recognises it ........!

Papertrey Blog Hop - March

PTI's blog hop for March is tonight and the challenge is to incorporate buttons into a project - easy uh! These up-cycled cardboard tubs for storing my copics were very easy - I haven't wanted to throw away the pretty card bands that package brand new stamp sets and I had the idea to use them to decorate the tubs (which originally contained dried milk powder). Two narrow bands are almost the right size - adding some ribbon or tape easily fills in the small gap. The brown tub uses one large band that packaged the 2009 anniversary set "Everyday Classics" (a very kind lady sold me her extra set last year). I wanted to cover the vertical join on the tub as it wasn't very neat so added the row of buttons. A storage idea that costs almost nothing and utilises something that would normally be thrown away.

Apple Pie - Copic Colour Challenge 37

The colours to use this week are Blush, Yellowish Green and Sand.

I've had an idea that I wanted to put together a few recipe cards in some sort of pretty album as a gift for one of my sisters who says she wants to cook more instead of buying convenience food. So here's card number one - Apple Pie, one of my son's favourites!

This sweet image is from one of my copyright-free books and the pie stamps are from Papertrey's My Punny Valentine set.

The garden has some ancient apple trees which almost always fruit profusely even though I'm guilty of doing nothing to look after them. I collect as much fruit as possible for storing and give away as many as I can get family and friends to accept, but there's always lots of apples that end up damaged and bruised on the ground as windfalls, which can't be stored. I just have to console myself with the thought that they provide a good food source for the birds and other garden creatures which have to face the cold months ahead on short ration.

Mo's Challenge 2 - Autumn colours + 2

Hmm - don't think I've got enough autumn colour here but this is how I would like to spend an autumn afternoon, with a good book, watching the mists and mellow fruitfulness of the landscape from a warm spot. And here's my proof that red and green are also the colours of the season - this lovely strand of black bryony berries I saw in the hedge.
Mo's challenge is to use an autumn theme plus no more than two embellishments. I've no problem with that as I find it quite difficult to add anything to my cards other than stamps and a ribbon or two. Again I couldn't resist using Papertrey's Text Style borders, plus twill tape and Nestabilities Label One cut in half. Oh, and does anyone have a cure for an addiction to kraft cardstock? I've hardly made a card without it for weeks now!

A Passion for Papertrey - Challenge 15 Autumn Colours

Here's my entry for Challenge No 15 - a card using autumn colours. This stamp from the Autumn Abundance set is just right and I've also used Vintage Labels and Text Style. Coloured with Copics and cut with Nestabilities Labels One.

Love Autumn - its my season..... as the garden winds down just a bit I usually have more time to enjoy the countryside and it looks so beautiful at this time of year. There's only one drawback and that's the falling leaves in the garden. Yes - I know if I was a real gardener I would love them as a free resource that should be collected, rotted down and used as a mulch. But there are so many large beech trees and a 100 year+ oak tree in the front garden and we get absolutely buried in them every year. So I'm afraid we usually dispose of them on the bonfire if they are dry enough. Don't you just love the smell of a garden bonfire!

Mo's First (Perple) Challenge

I'm such a Mo fan at the moment - I so admire her style of illustration. I always had a secret hankering to try book illustration myself in my younger days. But now I can indulge that wish by using Mo's excellent designs in papercrafting.

So I was very happy when I found out she was starting a challenge blog and here's my entry for the first challenge, which is to use the colour purple! And it certainly suits this gorgeous Goth Girl. The sentiment is from PTI's Green Thumb set.

Thanks Mo!

Copic Colour Challenge 31 - Kate to a Tee

This digital stamp from Mo's Digital Pencil just reminds me so much of my neice Kate that I couldn't resist colouring her up for this challenge. Hope she doesn't see it though as I know she won't be amused! I'm a real fan of digital stamps as they are so reasonably priced and, even better, don't take up any storage space! And you can resize them to suit your project. Perfect.

As well as my Copics I've used Papertrey's Tea Dye Duo ink for the background stamps and to age the edge of the Nestabilities scallop circle. Stamps are Polka Dot Basics and the text background stamp - can't remember what its called.

Copic Colour Challenge 30 - Digital Pencil Too!

I discovered this lovely image by Mo Manning in her digital stamp shop this week. I suspect I will be spending quite a bit of time there in the future as lots of her illustrations appeal. I especially like Mummu, a rather mature lady - there's a lovely one of her teaching her ?granddaughter to knit. Definitely on my wishlist! But this card is for my sister who has been undergoing torture this week - no, not really! She's been having intensive physiotherapy in hospital to start her leg bending again and I know the physios working with her couldn't have been bettered anywhere.

I have to admit that I really need to practice my copic techniques and I haven't found a decent white card locally that doesn't make the ink bleed a bit. I've used Memento ink on this one as it seems to be recommended by a lot of people but again there was a bit of bleeding over the lines. I've had a birthday this week and the scalloped circle Nestabilities is something I've been wanting for ages - a gift from my son, although I had to purchase it myself! The sentiment is from PTI's Tea for Two set and the background stamp from Hero Arts.

Let's Do Lunch

I met with two of my special friend ex-colleagues today at our favourite cafe, Maria's. She does a yummy egg & chips and I always order that when we meet up there.

Here's a little gift I made for my friends as I hadn't seen them for a while. Chocolate chip cookies in a glassine bag and decorated with my favourite Papertrey Vintage Picnic stamps. The baskets are cut from Stampin Up paper and I coloured with Copics and added a touch of Sakura glitter pens.

Passion for Papertrey Challenge 12 - Clean & Simple

Here's a card I made for my niece who has just had her GCSE results. She did great and even got her name in the local paper as one of the school's star pupils!

Leanne Ellis' Annie stamps (from Sugar Nellie) are some of my favourite images, especially as she has my name! However as the star stamp and sentiment are PTI I hope I can squeeze it into the Passion for Papertrey challenge this week.

Copic Colour Challenge 27

Phew! I'm really pleased to squeeze in another challenge this week after not managing to enter anything over the past few weeks.

And here's a good excuse to use my new Earth Angel set from the very clever Claire at Waltzingmouse Stamps . Isn't this little girl sweet - as well as an angel she can transform into lots of other characters and has lots of accessories. I love her. She so reminds me of someone from a Jane Austin or Charles Dickens story. And cleverest of all she can also metamorphosize into a butterfly - can you guess how!

Something for Aunty Jan

I'm away from home at the moment - my sister has had surgery on her leg and I'm helping out. I'm really feeling deprived of all my crafty supplies but have brought my crocheting with me to keep my hands busy when we have a break to watch daytime TV - we're addicted to 'Escape to the Country' for some reason!! Can't miss it.

So nothing much so show I'm afraid, but before I left my great-niece visited to make something for Aunty Jan. Here she is at my craft desk busy with my Copics. I must say I was a bit nervous as kids have a habit of pressing hard when colouring but she did just fine. We scanned a picture from a colouring book and printed it out on cardstock and here's the card we made. We also made a tissue paper flower like the one Lauren Meader made here to decorate some sweeties we bought as a gift. I really like this idea - that girl's so clever!

Two Challenges to cheer up a miserable day!

After a beautiful, sunny and warm day yesterday, today is wet and miserable - though the wind forecast has not arrived (yet!). So instead of cutting the grass as planned I thought I would post a couple of challenge projects.

The first is the A Passion for Papertrey template challenge - a little gift to go with the gingerbread man card I have already posted. Its Lauren's small Milk Made template and the little cartons contain a hot chocolate sachet and some marshmallows and sprinkles.

The second challenge is a sketch for the Copic Colour Challenge. As you can tell I'm absolutely in love with Kraft cardstock and seem to be using it for everything!

And there's more...... I must join in the current passion for Lauren's little picnic basket template. I made this to match the button card made the other day and I filled it with fruity boiled sweets. I've given both card and basket to my sister who had major surgery last week and needed something to lubricate her throat after the anaesthetic. Hope you're feeling better today Jan!

Copic Colour Challenge 21 & some teeny tiny toys

These little toys are what made us happy when we were young. I think children still love tiny toys, toys like Polly Pocket and those little pets. I've been collecting them for some years, along with my other favourite thing, cut out books and paper dolls. Its amazing that such things have survived 50-60 years and still turn up fairly regularly. Anyway - this is my entry for the current Copic Colour Challenge. These colours are not quite right but at least the blue is the correct shade. Another of my copyright-free images - isn't it lovely! I've used kraft cardstock (I love it!), a Cuttlebug embossing folder, my pinking sheers and Stampin Up's sentiment and green striped paper.

Three Challenges!!!

The only way I can keep up with challenges is to combine them - I do hope its not frowned upon by those lovely people that set them. Anyway I've just managed to finish this card in time for The Next Level's sketch challenge this week and I'm also going to put it up for the Copic Colour Challenge (Rose Red, Holiday Blue and Cadmium Yellow - my nearest matches) and the A Passion for Papertrey Challenge (use at least two flowers).

I've used the small flower from the Everyday Classics PTI set to make the patterned paper and and small flowers are cut out from the centre of the same stamp. The image is yet again from my copyright free books and the sentiment stamp on the tag is Stampin' Up.

2 Challenges - The Next Level & Copic Colour Challenge

Here's another double challenge card! The Next Level challenge is to use this ribbon technique created by Claire Brennan (a very talented lady). I haven't seen it before and really like the pretty frame effect. I'll be using it again. The Copic colours are Yellowish Beige, Pink and Blue Berry - I don't have the exact colours but I think these are a fairly good match. This is another vintage image from my Dover copyright-free books. I've added the Papertrey sentiment.

Isn't this crochet flower great. Its from a brilliant post on Nichole Heady's blog here. Honestly, I could spend the whole day on her blog. There's so much inspiration there from Nichole herself and all her wonderful design team.

I hope you like my card. I have to admit my style is much simpler than the current trend so it always looks like I haven't put so much work into my projects as other crafters. But I feel much happier with "less is more" - my excuse anyway :-).

Next Level Challenge 1, Copic Colour Challenge - OH! and My Mum's Birthday!

I thought I would try to 'kill three birds with one stone' here and as well as making a card for my Mum's birthday on Sunday I've entered it for two challenges as well. Rather pleased with myself for that! The Copics for the challenge were Yellow, Pink and a colour called Leather - a browny shade and I wouldn't have thought to use them together but I really like Leanne Ellis's stamp in these colours. The Next Level challenge - their first one - was to make a card with an aperture and also make and decorate it with a Lollipop Flower - never made one before and I'm happy with the way it turned out. The sentiments are Papertrey and the papers Stampin Up.

And here is Mum's very unglamorous birthday present - a peg bag and pegs! As I've said before, she doesn't need anything and doesn't want anything but her pegs have seen better days and she uses the little washing line outside the back door often. So I thought I'd get her some of these colourful pegs from the wonderful Lakeland store in Chester and they match the colour of the fabric I used for the bag. I made the pattern up myself from a photo I saw in a magazine. I hope she'll like it.

Copic Colour Challenge 14

I've been playing around with images from some copyright-free books I bought many years ago from the Dover bookshop. There are lots of lovely depictions of children and this is one of my favourites. I'm not very fond of the cutesy style but this isn't too sugary for me.

The challenge this week is to use Bright Blue (B14), Cadmium Red (R27) and Acid Yellow (Y08).
Mine aren't the exact colours but the nearest I've got in my little collection. The sentiment and little flower stamp are from Papertrey and I made the flower by die cutting felt in my Cuttlebug.

Copic Colour Challenge 12

Unfortunately I seem to have picked up a nasty Copic habit - its your fault Steph (you know who you are!). I've only a few pens but was excited to see I had the three colours for the challenge this week - Light Walnut, Sand & Flesh.

These colours shout chocolate cupcakes at me, which gave me an excuse to use a favourite Hero Arts stamp set for this card. The papers and ribbon are Stampin Up.