Feline Playful

One of the blogsites I regularly visit is Feline Playful. Not only is it a great site for cards etc but daily she puts up a list of blog challenges and what is required and you can link straight to the sites which is excellent. Through the site I have hopped to some fantastic work etc. A few weeks ago she put up some blog candy if she reached 200 followers, this soon went to more candy if she got 300. She has managed to exceed both those numbers before the blog candy date expired. AT the moment she is at 500 followers. Well the candy she is offering is absolulely amazing. The photograph at the top of this post is for the 200 followers and the next is for the 300 followers

The link is

http://felineplayful.blogspot.com/

Another Thank You Card

Spent the day taking our guest round Newcastle before being totally depressed by going to the match one of her aims for her trip was to see a football match. We decided not to go to the Boro as we thought she needed to see good football. ( I feel qualified to make a statement like that about the Boro having had a season ticket since the age of 12 and relinquishing it this year after they sacked Garteh Southgate. how can any team who are 4th in the league and on their way back into the Premiership sack their manager???????!!!!!!!!! We have been in free fall ever since!)

Rant over.

She has however learnt a new word today off my Husband- Rubbish!!!! She does it with a great accent trying to copying his Geordie accent!!!

It is great having a foreign guest as it makes you look at everyday sights you see in a new way. So it has been interesting to say the least.

My new card was for a friend who invited us all round for dinner. I am the kind of person who only has a kitchen because it came with the house so I really appreciate it when someone cooks and cooks well for me.

The card is would you believe on LOTV image coloured using Promarkers!!!!. I used my new Nellie Snellen die for the matting ( The new spellbinders I am getting early for my birthday have still not arrived) I tried a ribbon and bow. Must get the hang of making them so they lie flat. The backing paper is iced blue glitter card but the light was not good so its a little hard to make that out.

Thank You Cards

What a busy week. We have a Swiss German teacher on exchange at our school this week. She is great fun. At the moment she is staying in a B&B in the town so we are taking it in turns to entertain her as it must be lonely and expensive to be away from home for three weeks with only B&B. Its a gorgeous place she is staying in. Friends of ours own it and they are great with these teachers, often inviting them to have dinner with them etc.

Yesterday I took her off to York. Our last Swiss teacher was male and when he went to York He wanted to do the Minister, walls and Museums luckily Ursula just wanted to shop!!!! We did walk round the exterior of the Minister etc but there were sooooooooooo many tourists and it was cold yesterday.

I haven't been clothes or shoe shopping since about Christmas -spent all my money on rubber stamps!!!!!- and I hadn't realised what rubbish there is in the shops at the moment. needing an outfit for the Grand daughters christening not one thing jumped out and said 'Buy me'!! If I hadn't wanted anything or hadn't had any money I would have seen loads!! Sods Law really.
Anyway cards. My father despite his suspected heart attack made it to Westminster to the Pope's Mass. Its was by invitation so he asked for some Thank You cards for the Bishop and for the person who put his name forward. Now my LOTV images are gorgeous and there are a few that would make great thank you cards i didn't think they would be appropriate for this occasion. So I scanned the Internet for digi religious stamps and coupled with a prayer card made the following.

The paper was a beautiful digi-paper printed on to pearlescent paper. Using the spellbinders I cut out shapes to mount eh prayer card and verse on. The cross was printed out and added to give a little balance.

My second card was simply a verse from Psalms giving thanks.

I used eyelets and threaded a white ribbon through both tying a second piece on as a bow. Haven't quite got the hang of the bows lying flat yet!!!
The bp was another digi-paper that looks beautiful on pearlescent paper.

LOTV Challenge

I thought this week I would have a try at the LOTV challenge. it is extremely popular and can sometimes be a little overwhelming when you see the fantastic cards that are on there.

This was a new stamp I have. Yes Harrogate was a financial nightmare especially that stand!!! I have once again tried with me promarkers. This sketch had a lot of embellishments and layers of different shaped papers which made it challenging. My main colour theme was blue so having no blue flowers in my stash I had to colour these with the good ole promarkers. Boy how i wish I had invented them. Instead I have to buy lottery tickets!!!!!

The papers were from Art & Craft packs from Tesco.

Pink and Black Explosion

I was trying out my Eloise - Sugar Nellie Stamp and thought perhaps I would go for the Pink and Black combination that has appeared on a number of challenges over the past few weeks.

Well all I can say is that it has come out as an explosion of colour and shape not a nice sight. Normally I go for pretty simply cards - purely because it is taking so long to colour in using the promarkers that i have lost the will to live when it comes to adding flowers, bows and embellishments. Having looked at so many sites and noticed that a large percentage of the cards have lots on them I decided to try. You know I really am a Yorkshire girl and a spade is a shovel kinda gal and I couldn't do this.

I used the

I Love Promarkers Sketch and the theme of Pink and Black from the Creative Inspirations Blog.

The papers were from the Internet and entitled a Hint of Pink.

I stamped a flourish around the edge of the card using Pink Versa Chalk ink and Memento Black.

The image is Eloise from Sugar Nellie coloured using Promarkers.

I have thought of putting it in for the two challenges anyway.

Words

Good Morning. It looks cold outside but there is the most amazing mist hanging very low at the bottom of the valley at the back of our house. Whilst autumn is always a time of memories - the long past summer and of the winter last year that may return this year there are some beautiful sights on a morning.

I have done a lot of cards with images etc on and on the Docrafts site was a challenge in which the words/ greeting had to be the focus - no images or pics.

I thought this should be good!!! The ones that seem the easiest are a nightmare. I printed the words 6 times but I'm not sure if it was the ink I was using or what but it was horrendous. Could not get a complete image that was not smudged!!

Finally resorted to changing the ink from clear with red embossing powder to red ink with clear embossing powder!!!!!!!

Used a plain white card.

Embossed red card with the Papermania snowflake folder and matted.

Using Nellie Snellen die cut a red circle and matted this onto of a white circle.

The words are from a See Dos magical Christmas set.

I am also entering it in the DCD Christmas challenge -Words Only

Autumn Colours

The weather has definitely turned autumnal this weekend. The temp has dropped below ten a number of times and My OH has actually put the heating on after saying we wouldn't put it on until the end of October.

There quite a number of Autumn Colour Challenges around this weekend so inspired by the drop in temp and the strong winds I thought I would have a go.

I took a peach coloured card and stamped so leaves around the edge using Whispers Archival inks.

The image is a Sugar Nellie Stamp that i fell in love with. I stamped it with memento ink and then used Promarkers to colour it in. I used the Autumn pack.

The ribbon is from the Papermania Yellow/ Orange kit as are the buttons.

The bp is from a pack I bought in America for scrapbooking years ago.

The circle and image have been cut with spellbinders.

I tried to colour round the edge of the image but picked a colour that was too dark - Antique Mahogany Distress Ink so added the leaves to detract from the intense colour.

So i am entering this for the following challenges:

Clare's Challenge - Docrafts - Autumnal Photo

Creative Inspirations- cinspirations.blogspot.com

Sugar Nellie Challenge Sketch.

Stamping Sisters in Christ autumn season

Craftyourdaysaway - Fall

Alternative Santa

The ABC Christmas challenge this time is for a S -Santa not Green!! This gave me a chance to use the digi-stamps from Clipartfairy and the OpenOffice programme to see if I could get a different coloured santa in a size and colour i could make a card with.

I am still 'playing' with the OpenOffice but as a Dizzy Blonde get it to do something and I get so excited I forget to write down how I did it and then have to keep retrying to do it again!!!!!!!

I managed the purple Santa in a size I wanted. The original I printed out is just under A4 size so one thinks a little too big.

Once I had the image then I needed the papers etc. So I married this with Lorreta's Monday Challenge on DOcrafts which was a sketch with a stamped/printed sentiment direct onto the paper. The sketch she provided looked like the bp had been ripped so I gave it a try!!!! Let's just say there is a lot of waste paper lying on the floor next to me.

Originally I stamped the greeting from an old See-Dos set i had using clearing embossing ink and holographic powder but for some reason it looked even just than the greeting on there now. So before heating I scrapped it off and used a quickie pen and glamour dust to write my own greeting.

Monochromatic - Recycling

Today I have spent a great day with my husband. This morning we managed to catch up with each other as the weeks events had meant we literally said 'hello' and 'goodbye' on a morning as at night at least one of us was a sleep by the time the other got in from the hospital or meetings about school closure. It was so nice just to spend time with each other. Sounds soppy I know - hopeless romantic. Then this afternoon as he and a friend dug out part of our garden to put in a new gas tank I hid away and made cards for a Christmas stall to raise money for the children's trip to London. I had bought the Across the Miles Hunkydory kit as I thought it would make quite a few really sparkly cards we could sell easily. Some have bookmarks in them so are quite nice if you like that kind of thing.





Next I came across a bag of last years Christmas cards. Excited to try my new Nellie Snellen Circley die out I picked a pure white card with a small silver image on it and tried it out. It was brilliant and for the price a great buy. I can see me getting a lot of use out of it. There are a number of challenges at the moment that are for clean and simple or monochromatic. So using the sketch from Cupcakecrafters challenge I made the following card.- Its the first one my husband has actually commented on without me standing in front of him asking if the card I have just made is Hand-made or Homemade.

I cut the largest circle spellbinder die I have out of black card that was an insert in a packet!!! This was mounted onto a white card . The white paper was from stash as is embossed with snowflakes but from this angle you can't really tell. The image went through the Nellie Snellen. I used a piece of black ribbon from stash. In the corners I put outline stickers that I had coloured black with promarkers as I don;t have any black.

As a result the card can be entered for a number of challenges.

cupcakecrafters - sketch

winter wonderland - monochromatic

craftycardmakers - clean and simple

Good Luck Card for a friend starting college

One of my friends has just embarked on a Beauty Therapy Course and I thought this image would be excellent to make a card for her. She never ceases to amaze me. She has 4 children ranging from 2 - 8 years in age, a farm and a preserve business and yet she still manages to find time to do the school gardens which this year have been out of this world and now she has signed up for this course 2 nights a week!!!! I think her days have more hours than mine and she definitely runs on duracell and not a supermarkets own cheap brand like myself!!!!!

The outlay is from the sketch on Sketch& Stash.

My stash on this card was the die cut sentiment 'beauty' I have no idea where its from or how long I have had it. Also the card was from stash. It is believe it or not metallic purple but you can't actually tell from the David Bailey quality photo I have uploaded but imagine! This rest is a faint browny/ purple colour It seems to work or I need glasses I hear you shout.

She loved it and I am going to enter it for the Sketch and Stash Challenge!!!

Get Well

My dad collapsed earlier this week with what was thought to be a heart attack. At the moment they think it may have been severe angina. My mother freaked as no-one had to this point mentioned angina to her. Having watched his heart rate on a monitor for an hour whilst visiting i am not surprised he has angina his heart must be absolutely wore out. He has an irregular heart beat that ranges from 74 - 155 beats. it was all over the place. Anyway being even at my age a bit of a Daddy's Girl I made him a card using the adorable image from - oh let me guess couldn't possibly be----- LOTV. Oh what a surprise it is!!!!

The image was stamped with memento ink and coloured using promarkers. I followed the sketch from stampacularsundaychallenge

Guardian Angel

I made this card using the sketch from the Sugar Nellie Sweetie Search.





What I hadn't realised was you could only do one entry. When this stamp first arrived from the picture on the front of the packet it had a rather evil/ sinister look about it however when it is stamped and coloured it is cute. it would make a lovely image for a christening card. It is named Guardian Angel.

I coloured the image using promarkers and then glittered the wings using Glamour Dust. For added sparkle I ran lines through her hair using a Sakura 700 Clear Star pen. I have no idea what made me add the sentiment Believe but I thought it apt at the time. No idea what I was on must have been away with the fairies!!!! Don't worry I'm not giving up my day job yet for a life in comedy!!!

the brads I bought last week at the Harrogate show.

Faux Christmas

Hi



Actually been really busy this week making cards etc but haven't had time or the light to get my cards posted. I thought I would multi-task today and get a card that hits three things. I signed up for the Christmas Swap on Docrafters but have not been Christmas orientated this week. As the month is fast running out I thought I had better get a grip.

I found a fantastic sketch to follow on Thesecretcraftsaturdaychallenge and married this with the faux/real stitching challenge on the Stamping Sisters in Christ Challenge.



So here is the outcome.
As usual at the moment it has a LOTV image on it and I went for the green and red theme taken from the dress.
The poinsettias were punched from an old punch I had and added some holly leaves from the Docrafters stash.

The biggest challenge for me now is to make up a pack of all the bits I used and send them to my swap buddy and see what she does with the materials. We also send our card in a sealed envelope so they can compare when they have finished. I always find it fascinating what people do with the same materials.

Corrosive Challenge

This is a challenge I just fell across, but the sketch was quite nice. I had an image from the Pink Gem Collection that i had stamped so i decided to use that one.

I tried hard to dye the flowers using promarkers. Found I have the touch of a baby elephant. As a result the ink bled in every direction. Realised after I had made the card that i am obviously feeling rather blue. This is the fourth blue card!!!!

I also tried to stamp the blue sheet that I matted the image on. The ink was white but it didn't come out as white just wet!!!!!!!

Sugar Nellie DT Challenge

Over at The Sugar Bowl they are looking for new Sugar Sweeties - DT members. Working on the principle nothing ventured nothing gained and not necessarily on talent I thought I would have a go to take my mind off things at the moment.

You are provided with a sketch and a stipulation that it must have a Sugar Nellie image and you are able to make a new card a week uploading it on to an up to date blog.

So I have tried.

I don't have many Sugar Nellie stamps but the one I have and love is the Wish stamp.

I made a square card from red card.

This was matted with ivory pearlescent / sparkly card.

On top of this I matted two pieces of red velvet patterned paper i got from a paper of scrap papers you can often buy from shops. I thought the pattern and colour would give the fell of Christmas.

The image was stamped using memento ink and coloured using Promarkers.
Though you can't really see I did the background using the Straw yellow Aquamarker.

I double matted it first on silver card then gold.

To make the wings and the 'wish' to stand out I highlighted them with a Sakura 700 Clear star pen ( fast becoming a favourite of mine)

the three stars proved most challenging as i don't have a big star punch. So I punched 3 'star-like' shapes from the pearlescent card mounted them on gold mirri card that had been cut and embossed from the 'Blossom' spellbinders. They are attached using red star brads.

The sentiment seem apt. I stamped it with clear ink and embossed in gold. It was first matted on red card and then onto another 'blossom' die cut shape that had been cut and embossed in a cuttlebug.

I am really disappointed with the light as it is difficult to see the colours properly.

Is it only Tuesday?

What a day!!!

Happy at work, went out on duty sun was shining children were having a great time then dinner time arrived.

My Mother turned up at work, you know that can be a bad sign. From her face i could tell it was. My father had been rushed into hospital with a suspected heart attack. The hospital is about 18 miles away so I drove. Where he is they have been fantastic but it is a lot of sitting around imagining whilst they do the tests. So from arriving to leaving him was 7 hours. They are still not too sure and will be doing more tests at 10.00pm they think now that it may have been a serious Angina attack. During all of the wires and machines and testing and an irregular heartbeat that was all over the place he was worried they were going to keep him in for too long!!!!

So my mother has been asked to be dropped off at her house so she can phone people and try and get some rest. She is not too well and was absolutely shattered emotionally and physically but refused to have me stay over!!!!

The machines they hook them up to are amazing as well as mesmerizing. I also realised how old I am getting as the Dr only looked in his late 20's!!! Great staff though. They were patient ( what a pun) and explained everything thoroughly so you immediately feel better about leaving them there.

Clare's Sketch

This card was done using the sketch from Clare's Sketch Challenge over at Do - Crafters. I am also using it as my Friendship Swap card for this month. I loved the image of the two little girls having a tea party. Its my favourite drink. Above my desk at work is a card stating 'Nothing is impossible with a cup of tea in your hand' Could challenge it put when things are getting to me I have a cuppa ( and half a packet of biscuits though!)

Image LOTV
Floral Paper from Henbury - Do-crafts
Stamps from stash. i think they were on a magazine
Navy paper from stash.

I stamped the image with blue Whispers Archival ink
The images are raised slightly using Pinflair Glue as a 3d glue.

Crafter's Companion Challenge

Today has been a right off in terms of getting things I wanted to do done. When I finally got into my craft room I thought I would enter two challenges. Made the cards etc went to upload only to find I had missed the deadline!!!! Spent 4 hours doing something on the computer for my Parents which had eaten into my day. AT least they are happy.

The following card was for the Cupcakecraft challenge on Books and Stories, but missed the link by 2 hours. I used the sketch from the Crafter's Companion Challenge and one of my favourite images from LOTV!!.

I went to the Harrogate Papercraft Show yesterday and spent a fortune. I had 26 pence in my purse when I left and not even enough for a cup of tea. It was the LOTV stall. OMG I only I had won the lottery!!!

Was with a friend and we bought the new packs of images between us. It was 6 packs for £10 and there are 20 images in each pack, so we got 10 of each image. I also bought 4 new stamps!!

Anyway back to my card.

Just realised the middle strip is so thick it looks more like 3 equal panels when its is supposed to be a strip.

I didn't want to add flowers to this as they had nothing to do with the image and as I didn't have any book brads I punch 6 swirls from the paper I matted the image on and I added a button to the central one in each set. The centres of the other flowers are simply pearl stick-ons.

Grand- daughter/ God daughter Christening Card

My husband has two children and now three grandchildren. The latest was born just before Christmas and is to be christened next month as her other grandparents live in Spain so it was difficult getting a date everyone could make.

I have been married for just over 18 months and my OH's daughter has asked me to be Scarlett's Godmother. I am so chuffed for all sorts of reasons my OH can't work out. he thinks its about having a new outfit, not about how much it means to by completely accepted into his family. Am I being sentimental?

So I set about making a Book A Easel Christening Card.

As with my other Book A Easel cards I printed this out on Linen card and pearlescent paper.

I hummed and arghed about putting her name on but opted for the most delightful topper I found in a shop called Boyes. It was a packet of baby girl toppers that were so cheap.

I added a small heart charm onto the opposite side. This proved a challenge!! In the end I used Pinflair glue!!!!

LOTV Challenge and Stamping Sister Challenge

Saw this week's challenge on LOTV and it gave me a chance to try my new 'Boy Oh Boy' stamps.

The challenge is called 'One for the Boys' no sketch simply use one of their stamps. Having done so many of the sketch cards lately it was a little difficult to come up with a layout!!!

Whilst I enjoyed doing it I am still finding it hard to do the colouring with the Promarkers. i keep getting the shadow in the wrong place or its different on the base to the top. Mind today what a nightmare I had again with my Rocker Blockers from Crafters Companion. The advert guarantees a perfect stamped image everytime. Well I am definitely doing something wrong!!! I stamped 6 images before I got a complete image. There was always a section missing!! Has anyone got any tips on how to get the perfect image?

The image is lovely and reminds me some much of my Godson who is still so innocent and unaffected by Playstations and Nintendos and just loves exploring. I coloured with promarkers. The water is Aquamarine Aquamarker.

Both the image and the matt were cut using Spellbinders and then embossed. I used small brads but the backs were too long to go under the image so I made them part of the design.

I embossed the backing paper to give the impression of water.

Busy Busy Busy

Been a busy and an emotional week. The school I work at is up for closure next summer so we weren't sure how many children would return after the summer. Not many!!! We are down to 15. Hopefully the hemorrhaging has stopped and we will close with these children in the school. The worst was having only one child turn up in the old 'infant' department. After a long and really difficult chat with the parents the child has moved to another school. She and I spent a very long day on Monday in a huge classroom on our own as she had no peers to play with and didn't really know me. It took her until 10.00am to speak to me!!! Poor thing.

So I have spent my evenings getting rid of my anger and upset by making some cards.

My parents have a number of friends who have a big anniversary coming up so I have been asked to make two of the Book A Easel cards for them.

This is for a Ruby Wedding

Materials

Snow White Linen Card

Pearlescent white paper

Red gem embellishments

Silver gems

White ribbon

Pinflair glue

Mulberry Red Flowers

Corner Edger

I printed on Snow White Linen Card and pearlescent paper.

After cutting out the template pieces I 'frosted' them with Glamour Dust applied with a quickie pen.

I used (for the first time) Pinflair Glue to stick the parts together.

Whilst these were drying I made an easel card from plain A4 card that I cut down to just under the width of the 'book.'

The pearlescent paper was used to back a piece of card and then stuck onto the bottom of the easel. As a stopper I used the mulberry flowers on the base and attached another at the bottom of the book a to cover the end of the ribbon and b to added to the stopper effect.

It looks from the photo as if the flowers and the gems clash but they don't.

I have all the pieces for a Silver Wedding Card ready to construct the card this evening.

TPE Back to School

I have decided to enter the card I made on Friday for my Grandson for the TPE challenge this week. As it is only just been made I hope it still qualifies.

Anniversary Card

My Mother spoke to me this evening and during the conversation remembered it was her best friends wedding anniversary so she asked if I could make a card. I showed her the wedding card I had made and she wanted something like that. Well I took a bit of poetic licence as you do!

Using the materials from TheClipartFairy - Modern Heritage CD I thought I would make a card from there. unfortunately not having time to read the tutorial I had to make my own up. This is the result.

I couldn't work out how big the card on the CD was so I cut to pieces of linen paper I had printed the design on and stuck them together using a 'flap' for want of a bit word.

I hadn't really thought that through as it then made the card too heavy to stand up so i flipped it to landscape. Need to work on adding text. But it will come.

I am disappointed that in the picture the ribbon looks the wrong colour. It is in fact white and looks lovely, the lighting in the bathroom is wrong, being such a great student of David Bailey!!!!!

Grandson's 1st day at School Card inspired by Clare's Challenge & TPE

Ever left like you must be the worst - in my case- Grandma on earth. I forgot to check exactly which day was our Grandson's first day at school. When I rang my husband's daughter so I could send the card she said tearfully I have just dropped him off!! I thought it was next Monday like the children round here!! So we had a long conversation on the phone with him at the end of the day. It transpired that he had done nothing - but Grandma we played outside 3 times!!!!!!

I have made just finished his card and he will have it for his first week at school!!!!!!!!

I had popped over to Clare's Challenge on Do-crafts. This week it was a photograph of a row of brightly coloured beach huts all in a row. It made me think of coloured pencils.

I took a piece of card and concertina-ed it and cut points to look like pencil tips. They were coloured in with promarkers then embossed with clear ink and clear powder. This gave them that shiny look of new pencils.

The image is one of the LOTV stamps that I coloured using 'Aquamarkers' It is the first time I have tried water colouring of any kind. the colours are those of his new school. Unfortunately I had already coloured the book bag before he told me it was blue!!!

The ABC is done using Penny Black Zoophabet stamps.

The push pin embellishments were from my stash I have had them so long I can't remember where they are from.

Candy

Have you been over to Pink Gem's lately she has a fantastic candy to offer. It contains promarkers and flowers

Promarkers Sketching Kit ( Not got these am coveting them from a distance with green eyes!!)

2 Pink Gem Stamps ( I know there are at least 2 I don't have so fingers crossed)

Mulberry Flowers ( Fantastic addition to my Book A Easel Cards)

Tibetan charms ( Never used these but already thinking of a million and one things I could do with them)

Now here comes the science bit trying to link to the post.

You should ( hear me laugh hysterically at the thought of this working) be able to click on the title of this post to get straight there if not try

http://pinkgem-janet.blogspot.com/

Got some advice yesterday about linking my posts to challenge blogs am trying to apply it to this!! Let me know if it works please.

Red waterfalls

Hi

Found a set of images from Fairy Doodles and made them up into a waterfall card. This time I got a little carried away and embossed white card for the background. Jury's is still out as to whether its a bit over the top!

Monday Challenge 100 - Docrafts

Hi



I completely forgot that i had enjoyed the Monday Challenge 100 advertised on the Docrafters Challenge forum. When late last night I got an email asking if I was still entering and that it had to be in by today. Nothing like pressure. Actually in this instance it worked as I wasn't able to faff around and had to focus.



There was a sketch and an added twist of using Brown, Beige and cream in the papers and embellishments.

Luckily today my order form LOTV arrived and in it was the above image which is mainly beige and cream. I love these images.

I found a huge pad of 12 x 12 page from Papermania called Temptations which had a great selection of believe it or not brown, beige and cream papers. So i had fun mounting them on dark brown/ chocolate card and used pearlescent paper I had misprinted there to add a little calm to the patterned background. The flowers were from my stash.

How do you Link to your Post and not just your blog?

Hi

I have entered a number of challenges where the Challenge setter has commented about me not linking back to my post but just my blog. Does anyone know how you link to your post? I put the title of the Challenge in the post heading and the challenge blogspot address within the post and usually have a link on my sidebar. What am I missing out or doing wrong? Its moments like this when I wish i was 5 as most 5yrs are more proficient on a computer than I am these days!!!