Simply Stampin' Challenge

It's been a while since I've entered a blogland challenge but yesterday I was in the mood and found this sketch on http://simplystampinchallenge.blogspot.com/ which seemed like a lovely way to try to get back into things.

Here's the card I came up with which is for my niece's birthday at the end of the month.

I used a stamp from the Stampin' Up set Summer by the Sea and stamped it simply in sepia ink (Versafine) onto white card. I used my nesties to mat the image and used paper from the Hanoverian collection by Papermania (which is one of my paper collections) for the background. I think the brown card was part of a Stampin' Up set but I can't be sure! I found flowers, card candy, button and some ribbon in my stash and used a Stampin' Up scalloped oval punch to layer a Craftwork Card sentiment oval on.

As it's been a long time since I've used a sketch for a card design I've followed the sketch just about to the letter - experimentation will come in time!

Happy Valentines Day!

Long time (again) without any updates. Lots of reasons and excuses but here I am posting once again. I don't really 'celebrate' Valentines Day - I find it strange that there should be one particular day a year that my DH should buy me flowers or chocolates. I think it means more when it happens on a completely random day because he thought of it and not becuase some supermarket is trying to flog roses and meals for 2! However, I did buy my children a bar of chocolate each and made them a card and, for once, I even remembered to take a picture! It's taken me ages to get the photos edited as I've bought a new laptop since I last posted with updated software and my old brain just doesn't cotton on to these things as quickly as it once did. Got there in the end though so....drumroll please....here's my first post for 2012 and my first in over 6 months. Hopefully it will be the start of many and not the end of it for the year.

Just a brief note of how the cards were made - Me To You decoupage. The pink one has some glitter stuff on the heart (magazine freebie) and I've used Glossy Accents on the nose of the blue one. The paper is from a Me To You 12x12 pack. The mat was cut with a nestie and embossed using Crafts Too Daisy and Swirl embossing folder.

Retirement Card

More apologies for a poor quality photo - I made it the same time as the last card and again forgot the photo until it was all bagged up and ready to go. This one uses a Kanban kit (Sepia Patchwork Pals).

Tulip Birthday Card

This card was made from a kit for a friends birthday - the girl on the card looks just like her! Apologies for the photo, I'd already bagged it up before I thought to take the picture but at least it shows I'm still crafting away!

Disney Card

I'm a bit of Disney nut and this year we'll be making our 4th trip to Orlando just so I can get my fix (also have to love, love, love the craft shopping there)! I recently found a forum just for people like me and took part in a Summer present exchange and naturally it was a good excuse for a card! I even managed to find a musical insert thingy so that when opened the card plays It's a Small World - anyone who has been will understand how that tune just gets into your head and stays there!

Wedding Card

I made this card for my hairdresser who tied the knot in April. She's been doing my hair for about 9 years now. The card was made using a Kanban kit and I added the beautiful pink roses - I'm still in love with those flowers!

Feeling Floral!

I made this card for a Forum friend. The image is by Pink Petticoat and was free in a magzine recently - I copied it onto some card so that I could use my Promarkers to colour it. The shape of the card is from template included in the same magazine. I used a strip of torn pink paper to add some detail to the background and punched a border (Martha Stewart) on the light pink mat just to add some interest. I recently bought loads of paper roses from QVC and you will find these appearing on quite a few cards over the next few weeks. I love the dimensionn of them.